Kent Hive City, the Governor's Palace, three in the morning.
Fine rain drifted through the midnight darkness, dense as mist, pattering against the marble exterior of the palatial building.
A fire burned in the fireplace of the third-floor master suite, flames licking at the logs.
Oil-Guy sat in an armchair beside the fire, the connection to his mechanical right arm growing slightly hot.
He wore his dark gray suit that day, though he had already undone the collar.
Files from the hive city's various departments, mineral production reports, and Planetary Defence Force personnel rosters lay scattered across the table—
Along with three empty soft packs of Zhonghua Cigarettes.
Tax Brother sat cross-legged on the carpet, using a whetstone to polish the firing pin of his modified shotgun.
Xue Brother stood at the window with his back to the room, gazing through the curtain of rain at the scattered lights flickering deep within the hive city.
He held a cigarette in his right hand and a list in his left, seventeen names circled in red.
Holy Blood sat behind the desk, writing in a leather-bound notebook.
His pen scratched across the paper. Occasionally, he paused and looked up at the fireplace, its dancing flames reflected in his eyes.
"The Planetary Defence Force roster lists sixty-two thousand men. After subtracting the forty-five thousand transferred out earlier, fewer than three thousand can actually be mustered now."
Oil-Guy broke the silence.
"The weapons inventory is even more outrageous."
"On paper, there should be sixty thousand Lasguns. Our count found only three thousand usable ones. The rest are either scrap metal or—"
He paused. "Or they never existed at all."
"Corruption. They've gone absolutely mad with it."
Tax Brother kept polishing his firing pin without looking up. "These parasites really will steal anything."
"It isn't