The Red Planet
Moria is a giant red planet with a diameter of over 44 million feet (about 13,500 kilometers) and a gravity 1.16 times that of standard Earth.
For a long time, Moria has been the planet with the largest mineral and gas resources in the entire Koprulu world, its vast red lands covered with wastelands and boundless dust oceans.
Magnificent mining facilities, factories, and gas refineries are scattered across the plains and mountains of its main continent. Vast stretches of barren land, stripped of their mineral veins, bear scars like those on Moria's rough, red skin, constantly testifying to the Kel-Morian Combine's willingness to pay any price and exhaust all means for profit.
Nestled among the deep-mined pits are the Moria's colossal underground cities, while between the howling winds and rocky ridges lie the Kel-Morian's expansive mining shafts, towers, and large cities built upon them.
Highly developed industry and sparse green vegetation have turned Moria into a monotonous industrial world. Brown and black metal cities and factories that work day and night have reshaped Moria's surface, eroding and changing this ancient planet that nurtured the original Moria people along with gales and floods.
The APOD-33 transport plane carrying Augustus was flying over the vast red plains of Jacob District, flanked by sixteen Kel-Morian Hellhound fighters with blood-red Cerberus designs painted on their fuselages. Any civilian vessel in the path of this mixed formation would receive a stern warning from the Hellhound pilots.
Through the observation window, Augustus could see canyons stretching for thousands of miles and abandoned mining areas stripped bare of their surface, with thousands of semi-abandoned mining settlements standing amidst the wind and sand.
"I never dreamed I'd have the chance to come to Moria, the lair of the Kel-Morian bastards, the stinking ditch within a stinking ditch, the garbage heap within a garbage heap." Tychus sat to Augustus's right, holding a Kel-Morian- made pornographic magazine.
The modified APOD transport plane had forty-eight comfortable and spacious seats, which were now filled with men and women dressed in dark gray military uniforms, as Augustus, his generals, and guards admired the vast and magnificent scenery of Moria.
"Just you wait, I'll curse those Kel-Morian bastards so badly they can't even take care of themselves." Tychus was a Federal Marine Corps veteran with over ten years of service, having experienced all four years of the Guild Wars, and his hatred for the Kel-Morian people was deeply ingrained.
Even Augustus and Raynor still harbor resentment over the deaths of Omo and Benjamin a year ago. They only smile at those Kel-Morian people who can earn their respect, such as Rory Swann.
"You'll only turn this into a diplomatic disaster." Augustus's thick eyebrows furrowed. "If you hadn't begged me to take you, I wouldn't have taken you even if I'd taken a pig. Don't cause me any trouble, or I'll have already kicked you into the Hyperion's service compartment to wash dishes, you know that?"
"I was just saying," Tychus immediately deflated.
Augustus was usually not one to lose his temper, but he could be very stubborn on matters of principle. If someone angered Augustus, Augustus would at most punish them by making them wash all the dishes and bowls in the crew cabin by hand, and they were not allowed to use the sonic dishwasher.
"Haha, I've rarely seen the famous Tychus Finley back down like this." Warfield, sitting next to him, laughed heartily. "I've heard that our enemies call Finley Augustus's vicious dog, a lion in a cage, who only turns into a lion-dog when he encounters Augustus."
"Tychus is like a cat; he's always puffed up. You have to pet him to get his way, but we never indulge him," Harnack said, chewing on a peanut.
"Hank, I knew you wouldn't say anything nice." Tychus didn't dare to vent his anger on Augustus, and he was also wary of Warfield, so he could only vent his anger on Harnack.
Among the senior officers of the Revolutionary Army, Augustus and Warfield were undoubtedly the most authoritative figures. The former was the absolute marshal, whose prestige had reached its peak in the various battles. The latter, on the other hand, was senior and experienced in leading troops in battle. He was considered a senior figure to the marshal and was respected by everyone. Moreover, it was said that he had a lot of dark history about Augustus's childhood.
As for Tychus and Harnack, both of them were not very popular, and their relationship didn't seem to be very good. Josephine and Harnack used to bicker often, but now it was Tychus who did.
Aside from Raynor, Londerstein, and Duke, almost all the high-ranking officers of the Revolutionary Army were present today. Augustus couldn't bring everyone to Moria; after all, the Fleets needed someone to oversee it, and Duke, who had just joined the Revolutionary Army, and his tens of thousands of Resocialized Soldier also needed a capable general to look after them.
Duke's dominance in Alpha Squadron had long been usurped by Augustus, and he would need a considerable amount of time to prove his loyalty; otherwise, Augustus's two ghostly hands, each carrying a long sword, would always be following him like a shadow.
While Tychus was still arguing with Harnack, the APOD transport ship finally arrived at their destination: Jacob City, the largest industrial city in Moria, the center of the Kel-Morian Combine's commercial empire, a bronze-colored, unparalleled megacity.
The Jacob City is situated in a wide, flood-eroded canyon, said to be the landing site of the colonial Mothership Jacob. The lower level of Jacob City's main buildings occupies most of the canyon, while the upper level, exposed to the sunlight, boasts countless towering spires and spaceship launch ports, with transport barges thousands of feet long shuttling between giant trading posts in geosynchronous orbit.
Of all the planets Augustus had visited, this massive red planet left a deep impression on him with its highly developed industrial cities and massive underground mines. Many planets in the Terran Confederacy were comparable in desolation to Moria, but none were nearly as prosperous.
Umojan is known to the Koprulu people for its cutting-edge technology and intelligent machinery, while Moria, the homeworld of the Kel-Morian Combine, far surpasses its two brothers in the Koprulu Sector with its highly prosperous mining, processing, and manufacturing industries.
Everyone who comes to this red planet marvels at the colossal cities built by the Moria, the super foundries that use volcanoes as furnaces, and the spectacular industrial plains. But Augustus's first thought upon arriving here is how many troops to station and how many fortresses to build.
"Moria is a fertile ground for industry. I wonder how many warships, vehicles, and tanks its foundries and heavy factories could have produced at their peak. Even so, they were still defeated."