"Are you crazy? You let Martha go? She's bound to cause trouble when she gets back. We should've put a bullet in her just now and saved ourselves the hassle before things got worse!" Yuri grumbled incessantly, a litless cigar dangling from his mouth.
"What do you think allowed Martha to control ninety percent of the promethium industry?" Fu Haoran suddenly asked.
Yuri answered as if it were obvious. "Her husband died. The industry should've gone to her, right?"
Fu Haoran shook his head. "You're only half right. She controls the industry because she's of the Haig bloodline."
"She's been married seven times. Every one of her husbands died, and she inherited all their assets without a hitch."
"She's just not very bright. A while ago, she personally shot her own deputy, and her private troops have long since lost their loyalty."
"She only knows how to squeeze the Iron Hand Gang on prices. Those scumbags have been itching to turn on her."
"Letting her go is more worthwhile than killing her."
"So she only brought two bodyguards today not because she underestimated me, but because she truly believes that nobles enjoy extraterritorial rights in the Hive City."
"No one dared lay a finger on her as she was growing up—not because she was powerful, but because anyone who did would be invited for tea by the Adeptus Arbites the next day."
Yuri got it. "So she's not stupid, she's... dumb?"
"Stupid and dumb." Fu Haoran turned around. "But she's useful alive."
"If we kill her, her family will immediately send someone truly capable to take over. It might be her cousin, the chief of staff in the Navy, or her uncle might step in personally."
"Then we'd be facing the full force of an entire family's retaliation, not one self-important countess."
Yuri immediately understood. In a Hive World, someone who was good at turning subordinates into enemies and had survived this long was a miracle in itself.
Martha could act so recklessly only because she had a powerful family backing her.
Looking at the holographic map, Fu Haoran said, "She lost face today. The first thing she'll do when she gets back won't be to form an alliance—it'll be to retaliate."
"She'll use her own resources to mobilize troops and cut off supplies. She might even contact the Iron Hand Gang in secret and promise them benefits to get them to act."
"Wouldn't that make things worse?"
"No." Fu Haoran smiled. "The other nobles don't see it that way."
"After all, why go to war over someone who's sure to die in three years?"
"So there's bound to be conflict between them. The more desperate Martha gets, the more the noble alliance will fall apart."
At the same time, at Martha's mansion.
Seven people sat in the hall. Every one of them was a prominent noble of the Hive City.
Martha sat at the head of the table. Her face was deathly pale, but her back was straight.
She had changed out of her bloodstained gown and into a deep black formal dress, as if she were attending a funeral.
Her uncle, Count Victor, sat to her left.
The old man was seventy, but life-extension technology made him look barely thirty. He was handsome yet sinister, and he kept rubbing the three gemstone rings on his fingers—the spoils he had taken from three minor nobles.
He set down his teacup with a heavy thump. The faint clink of porcelain against the bone saucer rang especially loudly in the silent hall, and the contempt in his eyes was unmistakable.
"Martha, I'm very disappointed in you!"
"You disgraced the family today."
"Is this what the inheritance from your seven husbands and the confidence you gained from the Silverthorn House name have come to? Taking two bodyguards to force your way into the Governor's Office?"
"Victor! What right do you have to lecture me?" Martha demanded angrily.
"Because I'm a cadet, I'm sitting here wasting my breath on you!" Victor's voice was even, but his eyes had turned colder.
"You barged into the Governor's Office with two bodyguards, got your escort killed, extorted five hundred thousand Throne Coins, and came crawling back in disgrace. Now you want us to restore your honor?!"
The other nobles whispered among themselves. Some nodded, others sneered. No one truly took Martha's side.
Victor shook his head. "No matter how little you think of him, he's still the Planetary Governor in name."
"So what?" Martha shrieked. "If one governor dies, we can just find another!"
"Start a war over a man who's about to die?" Victor looked up, his disdain deepening. "How do you expect to win? He has troops and canned food. Word is spreading through the Lower Hive that he's recruiting with real meat."
"If he rallies the people, he can raise hundreds of thousands of starving mobs."
"They're just mobs!" Martha roared. "A pack of dregs! Kill as many as come. They won't even make it through the gates of the Mid-Hive!"
"Foolish!" Victor clenched his ring so hard that the gemstone whitened his knuckles.
"What we need to do is cut off the Governor's Office's promethium supply immediately and blockade the inter-hive transport routes. In less than a month, the Lower Hive will riot. He'll either kneel and beg us, or be torn to pieces by the mob."
"When that happens, the canned food and promethium will all be ours."
"What if he decides to attack the Promethium Factory in the Lower Hive?" Martha asked, still unconvinced.
"What's so difficult about that?" Victor gave a scornful smile. "Tell the Iron Hand Gang that if they withstand the Governor's Office's first assault, we'll immediately have the other gangs send them reinforcements."
"Caught between two forces, the governor won't stand a chance!"
"What if they take the Promethium Factory before the other gangs arrive?" Martha pressed, refusing to give up.
Victor looked at his niece with contempt, resenting even more the fact that he came from a cadet branch.
But on the surface, he patiently explained, "Impossible. The Promethium Factory is the most heavily defended place in the Lower Hive. Even a pack of pigs couldn't lose it in a single day!"
Watching her uncle Victor act as if victory were already assured, Martha suddenly felt that she hated him even more than Fu Haoran.
The meeting broke up, and Martha was the first to slam the door on her way out.
Victor calmly straightened his cuff and murmured to an elder beside him, "That's what you get when you raise someone from the main bloodline."
"No matter which governor takes office, our real opponent... has always been in this room."
The elder understood and raised his glass with a smile.
Back at home, Victor summoned his trusted aide and said coldly, "Keep an eye on her. The next time she does something stupid... I want the old men in the council to say it with their own mouths: the Silverthorn House representative on St-Sai IV needs to be replaced."
Meanwhile, in the tactical room at the Governor's Office.
Wade stood before the holographic battlefield display and briefed them:
"My lord, there are twelve exposed gun towers along the Promethium Factory's outer wall, all completely unprotected. Two modified las-cannons are mounted directly on the rooftop's concrete platform, with no cover whatsoever. They're old, but a single shot could vaporize one of our Bison Armored Vehicles."
"Heavy machine guns guard the underground passage entrances, with the firing positions mounted directly against the outer walls."
"As for manpower, the Iron Hand Gang has fifty thousand core members and, conservatively, can muster over a hundred thousand thugs."
"Our only chance is to catch them off guard, rush our armored forces across the bridge, and blast open the main gate before they can react."
"But those gun towers... They'll turn the bridge into a steel graveyard in three minutes. Our armored vehicles can't withstand that volume of fire."
Fu Haoran stared at the projection. "If we launch a frontal assault, how many casualties should we expect?"
Wade fell silent for a few seconds.
"If everything goes well, half of us will die. If it doesn't... we could be wiped out completely."
Yuri couldn't help complaining, "How is that any different from marching to our deaths?!"
"Fu, if you've got no ideas, listen to me. Let's just run. I don't want to die alongside you!"
Fu Haoran glanced at him. "You think you can get away?"
Yuri was stumped and couldn't answer.
The tactical room fell quiet.
"Is the main gate our only way in?" Fu Haoran asked, his expression grave.
"Yes. If we want to make the most of our greatest advantage, we have to rely on our armored forces. That leaves the main gate as our only option."
"Any other approach would only mean more casualties. The Promethium Factory is too important. From the outset, it was designed to be easy to defend and hard to attack. The bridge at the main gate is the only way in."
Fu Haoran looked at the Promethium Factory, which resembled a fortress, and knew he had to find a different approach.
Fu Haoran stared at the exposed gun towers slowly rotating in the projection and suddenly asked, "Wade, are the towers fully automated, or do they acquire targets semi-automatically?"
Wade was taken aback. "They're semi-automatic. A gunner has to operate the fire control system inside each tower, but servos assist with aiming and corrections. My lord, are you thinking..."
Fu Haoran shut off the holographic projection. "Continue preparing the assault plan. I'll find a way to deal with the defensive towers on the factory wall."
"I'm going to find us some... air support."
Wade tried to dissuade him. "My lord, the factory's air defenses may be weak, but the Iron Hand Gang must have plenty of portable anti-air weapons."
"Also, we got word today that the nobles have announced they'll cut off all our promethium within a month. We don't have much time."
As Wade spoke, the system chimed in:
[Quest triggered: Air Support] [Quest requirements: Acquire an aerial combat force within 30 days and complete an attack on the Promethium Factory] [Quest rewards: Universal Points +666, Free Attribute Point +1, Sky-Claw Valkyrie Gunships x3] [Peasants without even an air force will always be fourth-class citizens. But even paupers should be allowed to dream of the skies, shouldn't they?]
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