Thule, a moon of Jupiter. A food storage warehouse for slave laborers.
Kion, Fifth Company Captain of the Fourth Legion of the Shadow of Order, opened his eyes.
His brain raced as his thoughts rapidly took shape.
Where am I?
Five seconds later, he recovered his memories from before the freezing.
I have successfully infiltrated Thule.
Kion and the Shadow Guards had previously "died." They had swallowed a thick broth blended from organic components and chemical substances, allowing their bodies to merge with the environment.
Afterward, they took a drug prepared by the Chief Apothecary.
Relying on the twelfth augmentation surgery—a flat organ implanted atop the cerebral cortex, along with meninges that had grown into and fused with the brain—they entered a state of suspended death.
The slave laborer families contracted by the Haysen Trade House on Thule held low status, so a covert method had to be used to bring them inside.
Kion looked at the inner wall of the metal container. It was made of Ceramite and hermetically sealed.
The container was filled with viscous fluid.
The liquid enveloping him was residue from a biological processing procedure, originating from the nutrient factory in Ganymede Orbital Tremor City:
The Haysen Trade House held a 58.19 percent stake in that factory.
Thule's million slave laborers needed food to survive.
The thick broth left behind by the breakdown of organic matter departed from the orbital docks, flowing down the transport chain and passing through layer after layer of security systems.
When the bio-information scanning field swept across the container, it could detect only clumps of inorganic matter.
There were no signs of life whatsoever: no bioelectricity, no pulse, no temperature.
In the end, one hundred veteran Corpse Collectors lay within metal "coffins" and were delivered into the warehouse for storage.
Until