Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition-Chapter 141: Strike and Cleaning Out the Colony (4)
"Indeed... in the end, you are a lady who obtained more than anticipated for us. It seemed that the Empire was more desperate for the body of the Pseudo Bug Queen than initially anticipated."
Arcturus said that he was surprised rather too much by the sudden development and the negotiations.
While the success was guaranteed, the extent of the success remained relatively unknown, so when all things were considered, Arcutures was somewhat surprised by how much the Empire was giving them in exchange for the Pseudo Bug Queen.
The economic demands that Zehal negotiated were from the stagnant Imperial traditions, somewhat heretical at some point. Most of the conservatives within the Imperial Government of the Imperium would rather die than to give such benefit to anyone, much less being said about some startup.
He knew that a significant factor in this was their own background... especially his own as his backer was the national pillar of the Eternal Empire of the Asurya, Arist Byrmellir so they needed to take the situation rather differently.
Giving not even an established corporation the classification of "Strategic National Interest Corporation", while also giving them a much higher stake in the company, even the possibility of buyout, and the third, the set of privileges and priority treatment.
So, yeah it was a lot.
Zehal knew that this was a lot, especially in the long run, as she was from the Alvix Clan, which was the largest Mercantile Clan in the Eternal Empire of Asurya. Throw a stone and you will find something that was either owned, invested in, or otherwise related to someone from the Alvix Mercantile Clan.
"Well... everyone with even half of a brain could see that within a few years, the all-out war with the Veren Republic is rather inevitable and even though the Empire would win, the losses..."
Hearing what Zehal said made Arctrurus agree with the statement. For all observers, it was clear that if the two High-Level Factions went to war, the Empire would undoubtedly emerge as the winner due to its overwhelming military power.
Though...
It wasn’t that easy, because the Republic had something that the Empire didn’t, and it was something that was bringing headaches to many people sitting on important positions within the Eternal Empire of the Asurya.
Numbers.
The Veren Republic had the numbers and far, far higher population than the Empire.
Neither Asuryani nor Votanns were species that could reproduce fast or in higher numbers.
In the case of the Votanns, it was the nature of their species, as their birthrate was naturally low. In the case of the Asuryani, it was the price for being a genetically engineered race where birthrates depended on the genetic compatibility between the two people attempting to have a child.
Due to the fact that Eugenics was widely practised and accepted within the Empire, as a result of Eugenics, the Imperial population didn’t collapse yet. With this, they could bypass the tipios bingo and search for the right partner, as they could already see it based on the person’s genetics and ensure a steady birthrate.
Yet, it wasn’t enough as even then, the Asuryani had low birthrates and there were rarely more than one or two children for one couple. This was the price that the Asuryani needed to pay for their power, but in fact, their case was rather common among many branches of the Humanity.
Among countless branches of Humanity, there were many sub-species that went through the same journey like the ancestors of the Asuryani that left plant Earth and carried countless genetic modifications and practiced Gene Engineering to the extreme to make themselves the most perfect envisioned image.
The price for the war would be losses among the Asuryani and Votanns, which would be very hard to recover.
"Then we should probably hurry... There are many ways to profit on the war."
Arctuus grinned from ear to ear because the total war between the Empire and Republic would provide countless opportunities to make even more money, which would mean more expansion and more resources for cultivation.
Not to mention, if he remained as a student of the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy, he could get additional rewards from the Academy, though that was only during the time if the war erupted when he was still a student.
Which he didn’t think it would because both factions were bidding their time and preparing for the war.
They would start only when one party was confident in achieving its goals.
For the Empire, it was to win and sustain the least losses possible because they needed to protect their already pretty small population.
For the Veren Republic, it was to defend against the forces of the Empire, cause them as high losses as possible, and bring them into some sort of peace.
The Republic knew very well that they couldn’t win over the Empire, as they were not a militaristic powerhouse and didn’t have everything that the Empire possessed.
But the fun fact was that they didn’t really need to win at all.
They just needed to kill as many of the Asuryani and Votanns as possible to the point where the Empire would stop the war from their own volition. It would be a very hard task, almost bordering the mission impossible, because the Imperial were war-crazed fanatics, but there was a slim chance for that.
Nevertheless, we should now wait for the signal from the Directorate to join the strike teams to take care of the infected. The Imperial Colonial Defense Forces are lacking in the aspect of powerful Psioncis and Psykers, so be ready..."
Arcturus told Zehal and Jenaiel that their last part in this mission would be taking out a few infected people. He already received a list from the Agnet Mercury during the time he was talking with Zehal and Jeniael about their gains from the negotiations and other things.
The list itself wasn’t much to worry about and there were not even a single Gamma-Grade Professional on the list, aside from the Colonel-Bashar Harzan who was Gamma-Grade Psionics, but that wasn’t something that couldn’t be handled in one or two hits.
Though they were still cautious about the infected, if the bugs had not inserted them with something that would be able to increase their power in the short term, even such things were not without consideration.
Though with Jenaiel’s very much Anti-Psion entity, they felt more at peace because the white haired girl was anti-thesis to anything related to the Psionic Energy.
"Have you submitted the report to the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy? I wanna my Points already."
Right now, they had several hours of free time, before they would be called to action once more, so during that time it was decided that they would rest and also contact the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy and submit the report about the state of things.
Though, they already agreed on the sum of 100,000 Academy Points for everyone, this was rather too low, as they wanted more from the Academy due to the results that they achieved as they orchestrated the destruction of the Arachnid Nest.
For the destruction of the Arachnid Nest, they would also receive a separate reward from the office of the System Governor-General of the Ziras Star System, Governor-General Thefas Farax, at a later date, when everything is solved.
Though the rewards would mainly consist of the Universal Credits and perhaps some rare and precious ores that were mined in the Ziras IV or something like that. However, any kind of reward was welcomed as everything that made one richer was good.
"Yes. They are re-evaluating the agreed rewards and everything, but it is almost guaranteed that we would get even more than Agent Mercury has promised us. This mission was far above the standards and considering our own Grades, it would be classified as one of the almost impossible tasks, so I guess that for this we would get a lot of Credit and Academy Points."
Zehal said as she personally submitted the report about everything that had happened on the Ziras IV, including the situation with the Cosmic Shroud Storm and the Archnid Nest, its destruction and even the number of the Arachnids that were killed.
In fact, with the agreement of the Agent Mercury, she even submitted the part about the captured Brain Bug and even the Pseudo Bug Queen as the report was already classified as confidential and would be seen only by a few of the most senior staff at the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy.
So it was safe from a certain point of view to include it in the report to the Academy so they could have the most comprehensive evaluation about the rewards.
"Well that is certainly a good thing to hear."
Architects stated that because the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy was the easiest way to obtain cultivation resources for his Paths, without really spending any Universal Credits on them, which was in his case something very important.
People like him, those who were born with the Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Abilities needed far more resources than one could imagine. Not to mention he possessed a very special Psionic Energy that needed more to advance through the Grades.
Fortunately enough, he was walking on the Path for the Body Refining in the Genetic Strengthening through the Serums, which, while being weaker than the old methods of the Body Tempering, for him it was more than enough.
"Do you want to go eat?"
Arcturus asked as he was rather hungry and he was sure that his two female companions were too. They needed to be ready tomorrow, as the bugs would be fighting to their death, because they already didn’t have anything to lose.
The infected sometimes were problematic to deal with.
In many cases, Arachnids also used some failsafes, in the case when the infected person was discovered. It usually consisted of an explosive rise in power, like a really explosive rise in power, when they could fight above their Grades rather easily.
It was really hard to handle and contain them safely, and this was just basic fail-safe methods that the laziest of the bugs would do.
Much less being said about more cautious and powerful Arachnids that would come up with even more creative methods.
"You two should also then register within the Bounty Hunter Guild and Star Mercenary Association so we can create an official company and take Missions together."
Arcturus said that two women needed to register as the Bounty Hunters of the Bounty Hunter Guild and the Star Mercenary of the Star Mercenary Association so they could formally establish a group for better and larger business.
"For that we would need to go into one of the places where they have branches... there are not many of them within the Imperium." Find exclusive stories on novelbuddy
Zehal said because there were not many branches of the Bounty Hunter Guild and the Star Mercenary Association in the Imperial Space. Mainly due to the relationship between the Empire and these organizations, though, after his longer stay in the Empire, Arcuturus learned that it wasn’t something that rare.
Many of the High-Level Star Nations and High-Level Civilizations were barring the Bounty Hunter Guild and Star Mercenary Association from activities in their Imperial Space.
The Eternal Empire of the Asurya wasn’t the only one cautious about letting Bounty Hunters and Star Mercenaries enter its territories. Even among the border controllers, the system wasn’t bulletproof.
Not everyone in the High-Level Star Nations and High-Level Civilizations was so rigid and strict in their isolationist policies. However, there were many, like really many, that were very cautious about the Star Mercenaries and Bounty Hunters.
In the end, the percentage of them who were respectable members of society could be counted on one hand. Such was an ironclad rule of the Cosmos, and thus, everyone with some brain was keeping an eye on such elements.
***
Next Day, Ziria, Capital City of the Ziras IV, Headquarters of the Imperial Colonial Defense Forces
When the sun was rising, there was a certain tension in the Headquarters of the Imperial Colonial Defense Forces, because it was clear that they would be conducting the cleaning operation in the entire Colony.
During the night, Agent Mercury took several tens of soldiers from he elite unit of the Imperial Colonial Defense Forces and started checking out and vetting hundreds of soldiers that would be participating in the entire operation.
It took the entire night to properly check around five thousand people, all soldiers of the Imperial Colonial Defense Forces. Everyone was now being gathered in the Headquarters under the direct command of Agent Mercury, as the Directorate had been officially placed in charge of the clean-up operation.
Though he shared the responsibility together with General Rathari Velot and General-Governor Theras Farax, the ground operation and the arrests would be done by the Agent Mercury.
Governor-General Theras Farax didn’t really care about that and General Rathari Velot cared more about the experimental subjects that they would obtain from the entire clean-up operation of the Ziras IV.
Arcturus, Jenaiel and Zehal were called to meet with Agent Mercury as they would receive orders where they would be placed. The one that was most eager about it was Arcturus, as he wanted to have peace from it, and they were finally approaching the end.
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Jenaiel looked rather bored because she didn’t really think that this would be challenging enough, and Zehal was pondering how she could weasel into the research facility that would be cutting apart these people that were infected by the Arachnids in this new way.
"You three would be going with the main strike team to apprehend Colonel-Bashar Harzan and the names on the list. All of them are Professionals, for some, there are predictions that they may be powerful, especially when using the last resort."
Agent Mercury directly assigned all three of them to the most dangerous arrests of the most powerful infected in the entire colony. They were directly put in the leadership of the strike team, as Arcturus would be commanding around one hundred soldiers from the Imperial Colonial Defense Forces.
It would be the first time that he would be commanding anyone else, as he was used just to issuing orders to the bots and Red Queen and nothing else.
This time it would be the trial of fire.
