Perfectly Coordinated

The mobilization meeting quickly set the time to act: three days later, at the first bell of the morning shift change.

Immediately afterward, the leaders who had rushed in from every camp returned to their own territories without pause.

"Boss, nothing should go wrong, right?" Korax asked as he watched everyone hurry back.

"Don't worry. I sent a squad of Shadow Kills to secretly protect every camp. Nothing will happen." Sandman wanted to pat Korax, only to awkwardly realize that their height difference was too great and give up.

Korax was good in every way, except that he sometimes fell into this habit—a common flaw among idealists. He often got trapped in repeated flights of fancy.

"Was Yellow Skin's genetic technology not mature enough, or was this one of Yellow Skin's personality defects?" Thinking of Unhappy's Twistiness and Mei Feng's pursuit of perfection, Sandman felt it was probably the latter.

Each of the twenty-one Primarchs had inherited certain traits from the Emperor. The most obvious were the Great Angel Sanguinius, who had inherited the Emperor's divinity, and the Lord of the Fire Dragons Vulkan, who had inherited the Emperor's humanity.

If Sanguinius were still alive ten thousand years later, he would not need to do anything. He would only need to stand before the Ecclesiarchy, and it would begin praying fervently to the Great Angel.

Likewise, if Vulkan had not disappeared ten thousand years later, merely speaking his name would bring a sliver of comfort to the toiling masses of the Imperium in an increasingly despairing Milky Way.

Without question, besides inheriting the Emperor's talent for stealth, Korax had also inherited the Emperor's idealism.

"Idealism is only powerful when it does not deny reality." For no apparent reason, that sentence suddenly surfaced in Sandman's mind.

"Don't worry about all that. Everyone has their own destiny. We just need to do everything we can. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Let's go." Sandman turned back and glanced at the ever-growing Primarch before inviting him along.

Now that the time for the mission had been set, they needed to get moving as well.

"Destiny?" Korax kept turning those two words over in his mind. Ever since he had come to Lycaeus, Sandman had emphasized them to him more than once. As intelligent as a Primarch was, how could he fail to notice the implications?

Yet no matter what, the Raven King could not grasp the deeper meaning behind them.

"If you can't figure it out, stop thinking about it. Once you've experienced certain things, you'll naturally understand." Sandman looked at Korax beside him.

As the group gradually left the camp, the atmosphere across Lycaeus shifted from its usual aimless bustle into something grim and murderous.

The bottom level of the Tower.

"My lord, everything is ready. The weapons for the garrison rotation have been inspected and placed in storage. At your command, we can completely eradicate those lowly slaves." Budelin reported to Agamemnon with utmost respect.

"There is an old saying in the ancient texts: a chance encounter is better than choosing a day. Let this be a congratulatory gift for the Second Dome tomorrow." Agamemnon lifted a cup of Ceylon black tea. Its rich fragrance filled his nostrils before he drained it in one gulp.

"As you will." Having received Agamemnon's authorization, Budelin smiled and gave a bow, then strode elegantly toward the door.

On this trip, he would deliver the ultimate punishment of death to the culprits who had defied his master and caused his salary and bonuses to be cut in half.

For that, the cheers in his heart rang louder than anyone else's.

"Kill them. Kill every last one of those lowly slaves." Budelin was filled with fury so intense it seemed ready to burst his chest.

Cutting off someone's livelihood was like murdering their parents!

With the Heavy Howitzer, they would not need much time at all to destroy that damned camp.

The overseers only needed to load the Heavy Howitzer onto a freight train, then stop at the point closest to Saviors Camp.

The Heavy Howitzer's range could perfectly cover the enemy camp.

"They would never imagine that every camp lies within the firing range of the Tower's heavy weapons." A cruel smile appeared on Budelin's face.

The Tower managed them loosely, but that did not mean it had taken no measures. The camps of various sizes that the miners had set up along the railway transport routes for convenience could be bombarded by a rain of death shells at any time.

For the miners, being able to walk a few steps less in their struggle against hunger was already a tremendous luxury. No one would be foolish enough to establish a camp too far from a transport route.

"Move it! Didn't you eat enough?" Budelin's anger flared as he watched the sluggish overseers. If he did not still need them to operate the Heavy Howitzer shortly, he would have lashed them with his whip already.

Just as Budelin urged the overseers to speed up, Korax, who had infiltrated the Tower, suddenly halted.

"What is it, Korax?" Sandman, likewise concealed in the darkness, asked in sign language.

"The Psychic Power formation I set up was triggered. The enemy is making their move." In the darkness, Korax replied in sign language.

"Looks like the enemy had the same idea as us. In that case, we move early. Have Nekser deal with the Heavy Howitzer." After thinking for a moment, Sandman made his decision. The arrow was already on the string; they had no choice but to fire.

Both the Tower and the miners had reached the point of drawn swords and bent bows.

"It's a little rushed, but it probably won't make much difference." Korax roughly calculated the time needed for the other camp leaders to return and assign their tasks.

"Beep... beep... beep-beep..." Sandman immediately pressed the communicator on his body. Four clearly rhythmic signals—one long, one short, and two rapid—were instantly transmitted to the communicators of the Raven Guard, which were being formally activated on a large scale for the first time.

This was the agreed signal to act. The original plan had been to begin at the second bell the next day; the other signal was this one. Once this signal sounded, it meant the situation had become critically urgent.

"Move!" Sandman and Korax ordered the remaining personnel to begin clearing out the Tower's lower level.

The two of them exchanged a look, then headed upward through the Tower.

Their mission was to eliminate the garrison stationed on the Tower's middle levels and above, and kill the Lord of the High Tower.

At the same time, Sandman changed Sharojin's assignment, ordering him to join the assault on the Tower directly. With things having escalated like this, there was no need to keep the Tower's influential figures alive until the Second Dome officially began production.