Magistrate Mar Sara

Echo Town is about fourteen miles from the Revolutionary Army camp, and its main population consists of farmers and skilled workers such as welders. These workers mainly work in factories in Rotten Rock Fortress, the only city in the Hilo Autonomous State, and travel between their homes and the city by air-cushioned buses that run twice a day.

It was early morning, and a thin layer of mist shrouded the entrance to the highway leading to Echo Town. Augustus, Raynor, and Tychus sped along the old road in their Vulture, moving like phantoms, followed by Faraday and more than twenty Vulture driven by the guards, resembling a local gang fighting on the road.

Augustus gripped the Vulture's control lever, intently watching the road flash past the windshield. Wearing grey goggles, he leaned forward, legs straddling the seat, enjoying the exhilarating speed. This Swann- modified Vulture could reach speeds of 220 miles per hour and accelerate to heart-pounding peaks in a very short time, making the journey from the Revolutionary Army camp to Echo Town less than ten minutes.

Of course, Swann also upgraded the fixed computer and sensors of this little monster that can even run on diesel fuel. The idea is similar to the computer-aided balance stabilization device and sensor automatic calibration system of the CMC Power Armor, which can assist the driver and improve his reaction speed when driving at high speed. This design can be seen on all Vulture, but Swann's improvement makes this system more reliable.

Even so, probably only the wildest and bravest cowboys in Mar-a- Sara would dare to attempt the fastest and most ferocious modified Vulture, because even with insurance, doing so would still involve many risks, as evidenced by the cowboys who are missing limbs.

However, it must be said that the Vulture is the most perfect single-person mode of transportation in Mar-a- Sara. This wedge-shaped single-person motorcycle is one of the masterpieces of humankind's pursuit of speed. The Vulture can hover a few tens of centimeters above the ground using magnetic levitation technology, avoiding the small, scattered rocks cut by the wind and sand erosion in Mar-a- Sara and the wildly growing shrubs and thorns, and will not sink into the desert. The vast and unobstructed desert of Mar-a- Sara also provides the best Vulture with ample space to maneuver.

"Why didn't you bring that redhead with you? Mengsk, I heard she's always by your side," Tychus yelled.

"I can't hear what you're saying." Augustus's car was in the lead, and only Raynor could barely keep up with him.

"I said—" Tychus was speaking when he saw a red-haired ghost with her arms wrapped around Augustus's waist appear in the back seat of the Vulture. Her long, fiery red hair, tied up, looked like a swaying, flowing ponytail. Kerrigan's beautiful figure in her black bodysuit appeared for only a moment before disappearing, as if it had just been Tychus's hallucination.

"It's a ghost." Tychus shook his head.

"What the hell are you talking about Tychus?" Augustus still hadn't heard Tychus's words. The Vulture was moving very fast, and the airflow gathered into a gust of wind around his ears.

"Damn Mengsk!"

The convoy drove across the stretch of road in the wilderness in just a few minutes, kicking up long trails of dust.

A Koprulu glider with grey feathers hovered above dozens of Vulture parked at the entrance of the town, its dim yellow eyes fixed on the humans below, occasionally letting out a short cry.

The temperature was still very cold before the sun had fully risen. Augustus put on a crimson cloak and walked to a wooden sign at the entrance to the town, looking at the sign that read "Welcome to Ma Sara".

Apart from one paved road, most of the roads in Echo Town are paved with slate. The houses here were mainly built by the local residents themselves, and their styles and designs vary, ranging from towers that are more than ten stories high to low two-story domed houses. The only thing they have in common is that these buildings are all covered with a layer of rust-colored sand, and their doors and windows are small.

Echo Town lacks tall trees, only dark red thorns grow there. In the morning mist, colorful lights hang between the buildings, shimmering with a dreamlike glow, giving one the illusion of being in a bustling city. Meanwhile, the dilapidated buildings around them, which have nothing to do with beauty, constantly remind visitors that this is just a remote border town.

The town's streets are bustling with workers waiting for the early morning bus and farmers setting up water-drawing robots to head to the fields. The rumbling of machinery keeps Echo Town lively and vibrant.

Outside the town lies a vast expanse of farmland spanning several dozen hectares. Because much of Mar Sara's land is extremely dry and barren, the farmers here must draw groundwater to irrigate their sparse crops. This is similar to Raynor's homeland, Shiloh, but Mar Sara's land at least allows the locals to be self-sufficient in food, and in years of good harvest, some can even be exported to other planets.

All the townspeople noticed Augustus and his "cowboys," but they didn't seem to care much. People from other regions often came to Hilo to do "business," and while these people were perhaps used to a nomadic lifestyle, fierce and unruly, almost every resident of Mar Sara carried a long-barreled automatic rifle and two pistols when they went out. Regardless of age or gender, everyone could transform from a civilian into a warrior in a very short time.

In a turbulent era marked by rebellions following the end of the Guild Wars, anyone who underestimated a Mar- Sara Cha- Sara hippie would pay a price for the rest of his life.

Walking through the densely populated streets of the town center, just like on all the planets within the territory of the Terran Confederacy, Echo Town, a small town with a population of less than five thousand, also had sex workers. Women with hair dyed in various colors frequently flirted with the young but shy Revolutionary Army soldiers, but the burly and loyal old Tychus immediately and resolutely kept the dangerous women who might be assassins away.

Whenever a prostitute lunged at Augustus, Tychus would say, "Hey, Daddy's here!" and then he would stuff a few small-denomination Confederacy Credit bills into the woman's cleavage before slapping her buttocks and herding her away like sheep. Before Augustus, Raynor, and the others could react, Tychus had already disappeared from their sight along with the women.

"Keep up with him, don't let him forget who he is when he gets all cocky!" Augustus ordered Faraday to lead his men to follow Tychus closely, "Given Tychus's nature—I'm not surprised at all that he's capable of doing something like this."

"This is not a good thing," Raynor pointed out seriously. "The discipline of the Revolutionary Army must never be broken, even by Tychus —revolutionaries are not allowed to patronize prostitutes, at least not."

"Yes, this is not a good example. Officers should set a good example." Thanks to Tychus, Augustus quickly emerged from the group of women reeking of strong perfume and headed towards the center of town. By this time, Augustus was very close to his destination Echo Town Secondary Courthouse.

"Jimmy, let Tychus be. It's better for him to seduce those poor women who rely on him for money than to ruin the female warriors in the Revolutionary Army." Augustus chuckled. He saw the desire for women in Raynor's young and restless heart. Augustus wasn't surprised by this; after all, everyone has a youthful phase.

"Let's go to the bar for a drink after I become Magistrate."

Although it may seem unbelievable, Augustus of history's most famous rebel leaders, really did apply for the position of Magistrate. To prepare for the possible tests, he even spent a lot of time practicing handgun target shooting without Power Armor and memorizing the laws of the Confederacy.

Now, members of the Terran Confederacy Confederate Congress, the government cabinet, the Confederacy Department, the Security Department, the Navy Command, and even officials and senior officers in the Army are racking their brains to figure out where the rebel Fleets is hiding. But they never expected that Augustus planning to infiltrate Mar- Sara's police system and even planned to buy a new cowboy hat with the salary issued by the Confederacy.

"Okay, I'll have Number Eight Whiskey, you know my taste." Raynor clearly didn't intend to embarrass Tychus.

"You really like this whisky. Back in Turaxis, you initially avoided it like the plague." Augustus laughed heartily. "Now you practically can't live without Number Eight Whiskey. Everyone knows your safe's combination is OLD. NO. 8 (an abbreviation for Number Eight Whiskey)."

"I'm sorry you guessed wrong, it's actually my mother's birthday—damn it." Raynor could only grumble as he followed Augustus, and together they knocked on the doors of the colonial courthouse.

The colonial courthouse is a white marble columned building with simple yet imposing lines. The stone was all sourced from the local quarries in Echo Town, and the glass for the doors and windows was also purchased from local factories. Because the funding received was only one-twelfth of the approved amount, Echo Town Judge Eda Rio had to apply for a loan from the Confederacy Bank when he began constructing the courthouse, and this debt was only recently paid off.

When Augustus knocked on the door of Judge Eda's office, the respected judge was handling a civil suit stemming from a family dispute. The small office contained only two cabinets for storing files, a mechanical clock, and a Mark I magnetic railgun.

The man with a tuft of beard and short, golden hair was making hasty drafts on paper with a pen in hand. His bare forearms showed muscles honed through years of training, and his muscular back resembled that of a lion. The men of Ma Sara are like the sand and stones that make up this orange-gray planet; they are strong, resilient, and unyielding.

As he was writing, Judge Eda put down her pen and said, "Come in," before looking at the slowly opening office door. Augustus's eagle-like sharp eyes were immediately and deeply imprinted in her mind.

"Your Honor, Judge Eda, I am Caesar of Agria. I previously served as Magistrate in Agria, Hermes, and Tarsonis, as well as the Victoria District Sheriff and the Head of the Major Crimes Unit in Tarsonis Police Force. This is my detailed resume." Augustus handed Judge Ada a printed flyer recruiting Magistrate for Eda Echo Town, along with an application form containing his falsified personal information.

The photo above matches the face revealed by the nanomask he used to disguise himself. In Edge World like Ma Sara, where the local government's database of personal information is only updated once every ten years, falsifying information is a piece of cake for Augustus's Umojan agents and the Ogrub agents they trained.

The personal information IDs were registered in a distant world hundreds of light-years away from Mar- Sara, and these people were indeed real. Long before the Confederate Security Forces of the Terran Confederacy knew about it, Umojan's agents had infiltrated the local society under various identities.

Once Umojan agent kills a Confederacy of similar build and uses chemicals to destroy the body, their nano-disguise masks will impersonate the deceased's face until the Umojan agent finds the next target, at which point the previously killed person will be confirmed as missing.

By posing as colonists, over two hundred agents and astute Revolutionary Army soldiers have successfully settled in Echo Town and two other nearby towns, secretly spreading their ideology and recruiting new members for the Pan-Terran Revolutionary Party through various means. Augustus believes that in time, as more and more townspeople join the revolutionaries and are infected by revolutionary ideas, this place will become a solid stronghold for the Revolutionary Army.

With Umojan's help, Augustus also obtained an identity that was almost flawless. Even if someone went to the registration point of this identity to investigate, the life trajectory they found would be consistent with Augustus's description. And if someone wanted to confirm Augustus's identity through retinal, fingerprint, or more advanced genetic identification methods, Augustus had many ways to deal with it.

"Your resume is excellent." Judge Eda picked up a terminal computer from the side and looked up Augustus's information in the Confederacy citizen database. "However, I'm puzzled. The Tarsonis Police Force's compensation is much better than that of Outer Colonies like Mar- Sara. Even local Magistrate and capable police chiefs will immediately apply for transfers to Tarsonis or other prime planets once they achieve some success."

"Why would you give up a better job to become a lowly Magistrate in Mar- Sara?" He stared intently into Augustus's eyes, trying to find any sign of panic.

"It may be impolite, but I must say this: I have met many people from the Core World, including Sara. Most of them are very capable, but in reality, they are either villains who had to flee here because of crimes or anti-government activists who were escaping political persecution."

So, what kind of person are you?

Thank you for voting!

I was locked out all afternoon today because I forgot my keys, so I'm writing this in a bit of a rush now.

It's so funny.