The Earth Federation’s standard Ultra-Light 50mm Mortar weighs a mere 11 pounds. In the field, a mortar-man simply thrusts the bracketless barrel into the ground, gripping it with one hand while holding a round ready with the other. The camera mounted on the soldier's helmet overlays the target with a projected point of impact inside the visor’s HUD. The mortar-man then adjusts the barrel’s angle based on these visuals; once the two points align, he’s ready to fire.

　　Before launching, the soldier swipes the shell against his helmet in a quick, clockwise circular motion. This serves a dual purpose: it disarms the shell’s safety and syncs the round with the helmet’s ballistic computer. Even after the shell leaves the tube, the soldier keeps his eyes locked on the target. This allows the projectile to receive terminal guidance corrections during its two-second descent, steered by the data from the helmet’s camera.

　　In terms of combat efficacy, this dual-precision system is over five times more effective than traditional mortars. A single soldier equipped with this gear carries more firepower than an entire conventional mortar crew. Precision makes raw power secondary—a direct hit to a target’s skull is far more reliable than a near-miss relying on shrapnel.

　　Every pirate standing near the turret dove for cover the moment they heard the "thump" of the mortar fire, instinctively hitting the dirt and crawling away from the gun nest. To their utter shock, however, the shells weren't even aimed at the heart of their defense—the 11-barrel Gatling turret.

　　Four dull thuds echoed as the ultra-light mortar shells slammed precisely into the pirate base’s power station. Another volley followed immediately—four more direct hits. This double-tap was the death knell for the facility; the power station suffered catastrophic damage, and the electricity-hungry 11-barrel Gatling turret ground to a halt. Along with it, the anti-stealth radar went dark.

　　Only then did Saburo Tanaka realize their defensive line had been flawed from the start. True, the position held the high ground; any enemy attempting a frontal assault up the slope would have been shredded by the Gatling fire. Their numbers were more than sufficient, and a small scouting force shouldn't have been a threat. But the power plant was a glaring liability—it was positioned far too close to the edge of the plateau.

　　The 11-barrel Gatling turret was military-grade hardware, built to withstand a beating; its durability was on par with, if not superior to, an interstellar tank. Conversely, the shells from an ultra-light mortar—small enough for a single man to carry over mountains—carried the destructive payload of a mere grenade. With only four tubes firing, they could barely outpace the self-repair rate of the turret’s memory-metal hull.

　　The power station, however, was civilian-grade equipment, lacking the protection of high-end memory metals. Its design was simple: the nearby mines diverted Combustible Ice, separating it into water and high-pressure natural gas, which was then piped underground to the station. The station burned the gas to generate electricity for the base—including the turret. Once the power supply dropped below the turret's consumption threshold, it was "lights out" for the defense.

　　With the core of their defense disabled, holding the line became meaningless. Tanaka decisively ordered a counter-charge. Judging by the number of enemy drop pods, his side still held the numerical advantage. If they charged bravely, they could still win. He figured the cloaked spec-ops soldier would be low on juice by now; cloaking tech is a power hog. Once the battery hit zero, it would take time to recharge—and that’s when they’d put a bullet in him.

　　Tanaka ordered his engineers to rush repairs on the plant while he led the charge to steamroll the mortar squad with sheer numbers.

　　But he overlooked one thing: his opponent wasn't just some grunt. Li Ling was a veteran of the United Earth Federation, and he knew how to fight with his head. When the pirates swarmed out like a disturbed nest of hornets, they found... nothing. The enemy mortar-men were nowhere to be found.

　　What the hell was going on?

　　The answer came when a bewildered Tanaka led his men back to base. To his horror, the engineers who were supposed to be fixing the power station were all dead on the floor.

　　It was a total blackout for Tanaka. This was the real objective. While the pirates were busy charging down the hill to play hero, Li Ling had used his remaining battery to slip past them, cloaked, into a base that could no longer see him. While the pirates were blindly searching the perimeter, Li Ling had snuffed out their only hope for a comeback: the engineers.

　　Ever since humanity mastered molecular restructuring, the world had become a surreal place. If you needed a building or a unit, all it took was one engineer and enough energy; in mere seconds, you could restructure the molecules of a boulder into whatever you desired. But that process required massive amounts of power. This is why Combustible Ice, found across the galaxy, is the ultimate energy source. In this age, energy is power, energy is wealth—energy is everything. That is why everyone fights for it.

　　Fixing a broken plant takes half the time and energy of building a new one, but it still requires one thing: a living engineer. Li Ling had just eliminated that possibility.

　　At that moment, Saburo Tanaka made the smartest decision of his life: he abandoned the base. Even if the cloaked enemy was currently hiding in a corner waiting for his batteries to charge, any attempt to flush him out would end in a bloodbath. The moment they got close, the commando would use his last bit of power to vanish and start slaughtering. Tanaka wasn't about to gamble his life on being the last person the sniper killed before running out of power.

　　The money belonged to the gang, but his life belonged to him. Dying in a fair fight on an open field was one thing; being butchered like prey by an invisible ghost was not in today’s plan. He chose the "thirty-sixth stratagem": retreat.

　　"To subvert the enemy's city is inferior; to subvert the enemy's mind is superior." In this psychological war, Li Ling won. Despite being vastly outnumbered, he used technology to bridge the gap and psychological pressure to avoid a bloodbath. He had proven his worth.

　　And so, the Clark Mercenary Group secured the mine without losing a single man. Through pure tactical micro, they had chased off a superior force. They took over a Combustible Ice mine that the Purplebeard Raiders had already been operating for a while—though, in truth, the pirates had just stolen it from someone else to begin with.