The Kel-Morian Combine Board of Directors

As Augustus strode toward the high-end hovercar prepared for him by the Kel-Morian people, he could feel Moria's gravity was significantly stronger than that of other planets. He felt resistance when taking a step or swinging his arms. This was also the reason why Moria people were generally shorter than Terrans and Umojan, whose home planets had only 0.96 times the standard gravity.

Augustus stepped into the back seat of the limousine, with Kerrigan and Faraday on either side of him. Raynor, Warfield, and others, along with Augustus's guards, boarded the other cars. As the convoy started and descended a downward circular road, towering bronze spires and countless winding roads of varying heights came into view.

"Kerrigan is modeled after the hovercars of the Federal Terra. The engine and intelligent navigation system are imported from Yumoyan. The driver used to drive for the chairman of the Kelanis Transportation Guild. Everyone here, including the guards, has received professional agent training." Kerrigan leaned closer to Augustus after sitting down and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"The Kel-Morian Combine's board of directors attaches great importance to you this time. They are willing to provide some assistance to you—this major threat to the Terran Confederacy —but at the same time, they are also wary of the rise of the Mengsk Family."

"Let's listen carefully to the board's demands." Augustus sat down and methodically straightened the hem of his military overcoat.

Augustus did not have much contact with the de facto independent government of the Kel-Morian Combine during his trip. In fact, everyone knew who was the real power holder in the Kel-Morian Combine.

The unified government and the unions that fight for workers' rights are nothing more than puppets and tricks used by the capitalists who actually control the Kel-Morian Combine to deceive the people. The capitalists, who hold wealth, technology and knowledge, and who have a clear understanding of the history of their ancestors struggling on Earth, the home planet of mankind, knew that unions would eventually emerge. So they created Moria's only union.

The Combine Board of Directors is the de facto power holder of the entire Kel-Morian Combine, equivalent to the Confederate Congress and the Elected Parliament of Umojan in the Terran Confederacy. The board members come from dozens of the largest family-owned guild enterprises and the CEOs of the consortium. Among these board members, the representatives of the two giants of the Moria mining and transportation industry, the Moria Mining Association and the Kalanis Transport Guild, have absolute say.

The Kel-Morian Combine is not, as they claim, a worker-led republic; it is essentially a super-corporation comprised of numerous guild enterprises. The Kel-Morian Combine a political and economic entity, disguised as a union and an independent government, primarily composed of Moria people.

After traversing a undulating ring road, the Hover Car carrying Augustus slowly deployed its retractable roof wings. As the engine roared to life, the car ascended into the air amidst the spreading shockwave, merging into the torrent of flying cars and spaceships in the sky.

The ring road, which was getting farther and farther away from them, was thousands of feet in the air, strung between towering buildings. There was a lack of greenery, not even a speck of green. Even the wedge-shaped windows on the bronze-colored buildings were brown.

In Moria, people's tastes, philosophies, and aesthetics remain two centuries in the past; their simple, unpretentious architecture is almost devoid of any superfluous or ornate decorations.

For a long time, the buildings in Moria have been striving to break free from the shackles of gravity and grow upwards. The early colonial architectural styles of vaulted and geometric shapes were gradually abandoned, and the buildings in Jacob City, with their spires composed of four arcs, grew taller and taller, continuously developing towards greater heights and grandeur.

To outsiders like Augustus, the spires of Moria's skyscrapers resembled sharp swords or overlapping sails. The exhaust fumes and dust from the massive industrial production shrouded the entire city in a white haze, and residents of the upper floors generally had to wear respirators to prevent inhaling the dust into their lungs.

"Welcome to Moria, Marshal Mengsk. I'm sure you'll soon like it here," said Diplomat Kel-Morian, sitting in the passenger seat of the car. "Jacob City may not be as bustling as Tarsonis, but it has its own merits."

"This is the very heart of the entire Kel-Morian Combine's industry, where the blood of metal and refined gas flows underground, and those skyscrapers and factories are its heart and blood vessels."

Finally, the car, its engine humming softly like a buzzer, hovered above the top of a black main tower even more magnificent than the Tagore Sky Tower in the main city of Tarsonis, before driving into the parking platform through an energy shield that resembled an open curtain of light.

As soon as the car came to a stop, guards wearing berets and the guild manager of the board rushed to greet Augustus. Hundreds of people surrounded Augustus, but there were no journalists among them.

Just as Augustus predicted, although he didn't mind making a public appearance in Moria to turn the talks into a formal diplomatic event and a meeting between the leaders of the two regimes, it was clear that the rulers of the Kel-Morian Combine did not intend to rashly provoke the Terran Confederacy, which was already overwhelmed by the rebellions that had broken out just a year after the end of the Guild Wars.

Although rational political analysts generally believe that the Terran Confederacy will not launch a second Guild Wars, no one dares to guarantee that the Confederate Congress, which dares to destroy Korhal IV regardless of public opinion, will tolerate the Kel-Morian Combine's involvement with the Revolutionary Army. Even the Umojan Republic, which has been strongly supporting the Korhal rebellion, would not dare to do so.

Ironically, the petite Sarah Kerrigan stood tall in front of Augustus, while Faraday, wearing a peaked cap, stood beside the Revolutionary Army Marshal, one hand resting on the holster of his pistol.

As Augustus's men were led into the top-floor conference room by a manager in a suit and armed guards, they were asked to hand over their weapons for safekeeping, but the generals were allowed to carry their sidearms.

Augustus and his many guides entered the massive spire known as the Combine's Pinnacle via a lift on the mooring platform. Upon entering the hall with its bas-relief dome, they were immediately struck by its opulent decorations and exquisite carvings—gold and silver vessels and luxury goods from Umojan adorned this extravagantly luxurious hall.

The entire hall was magnificent and splendid, with polished marble walls and square stone pillars hundreds of feet high inlaid with rose and azure gems mined from the depths of Moria. Twelve colossal statues of the ancestors of the Kel-Morian people stood immovably. These towering statues were clad in armor and helmets, their hands resting on massive cross-shaped swords, and they had pure white wings on their backs.

On the dome of the hall hangs a huge scroll depicting scenes from biblical mythology, featuring both white angels and black demons. These must be the work of a master artist, whose name remains unknown.

The magnificent sight almost made Augustus think he was in a church, but he had never heard that the Kel-Morian people had a steadfast Christian faith.

"It is said that after the end of the Four Year War, the economic collapse of the Kel-Morian Combine Kel-Morian Combine imminent. The lower classes were starving, and Moria's food supply had long relied on imports from several nearby colonies. More workers were starving to death than the sand and gravel from the Jacob Canyon." Kerrigan murmured as she walked through the hall, "But here..."

"Moria doesn't produce bread; it only has endless sand and an inexhaustible supply of ore. The food shortage is entirely due to the Terran Confederacy's monopolization of our few remaining agricultural worlds," said the diplomat Kel-Morian, who had been accompanying Augustus. "We will deplete Moria's mines within centuries, but that won't buy us food."

"The deaths of those who starved to death because of this should all be blamed on the Terran Confederacy; the Terrans stole the food," he explained.

"Then why don't you use the food reserves to help those who are about to starve to death?" Since joining the Revolutionary Army, Kerrigan, influenced by revolutionary ideas, has begun to examine the Kel-Morian system from an almost noble standpoint.

"After the war, the government was unable to repay the national debts issued to wage the war, and the rampant printing of money led to terrifying inflation and soaring prices. While people lined up to buy rationed bread, food factories were destroying meat and milk on a massive scale."

"Those are all rumors," the diplomat said, adjusting his glasses.

"The guild members wouldn't want you discussing these non-existent things in Moria. The Kel-Morian Combine's economy can never collapse, not even if the Terran Confederacy is destroyed."

As the diplomat spoke, Augustus, accompanied by his entourage, walked through the hall into the corridor leading to the conference room. It turned out that a large number of people surrounded Augustus, leading the way for Augustus, as if to sweep away the dust from his path.

But gradually, Augustus had moved ahead of everyone else, and the others unknowingly followed behind him.

The conference room doors were tall and heavy, and more than a dozen different identity verification and early warning systems showed how heavily guarded it was. Before entering, the accompanying personnel repeatedly used fingerprint and genetic testing to confirm whether Augustus was indeed the person in question.

When the heavy door opened, the luxurious layout inside did not surprise Augustus. Around the long oval conference table sat a dozen or so CEOs of various guilds in Moria, dressed in black and blue suits—these executives might be mere figureheads or just one of the few elites who ruled over four billion Moria people.

Jacob City and Moria are cities seemingly cast in bronze, devoid of Watering Hole and greenery. Yet, on the walls of this conference hall stand enormous glass tanks, teeming with exotic aquatic plants, corals, and ornamental fish that could never exist in Moria. The scales of these strange fish display rainbow colors, shimmering beautifully under the soft yellow light that permeates the conference hall.

Exquisite handicrafts and exotic treasures from other worlds were displayed on the conference table, while finely prepared snacks and tea were thoughtfully placed within easy reach of the attendees.

Regardless of the enormous aquarium-like tank, these luxury items alone are worth millions of Kel-Morian banknotes.

Augustus believed that the elites within the Kel-Morian Guild were living no worse lives than the nobles of the Terran Confederacy.

These CEOs, dressed in bespoke suits, were either looking at documents or impatiently checking their watches, but regardless, they all wore a formulaic smile when Augustus appeared.

"Augustus Mengsk, the people of the Terran Confederacy call you a filthy, matted-furred wretch." The CEO of the Kalanis Transport Guild stood up and shook hands with Augustus.

"But if you ask me, the Mengsk wolves are still the majestic lords of the wolf family."

"You have accomplished what our Guild Guardians could not. In Moria, countless people grit their teeth at the mere mention of the name of the Terran Confederacy Alpha Squadron. If you knew the nature of their commander Edmond Duke, you would know he was a complete butcher, a ruthless genocide. The number of Kel-Morian people who have died at Duke's hands is innumerable."

"What a nightmare." Augustus stared into the brown eyes of the Kel-Morian, recalling the Kel-Morian who had died at his hands during the Guild Wars.

"I have always believed that humanity in the Koprulu Sector should not continue this endless infighting. We should conclude a peace treaty and achieve mutual benefit through trade." Augustus clasped hands tightly with the other man.

"When it comes to trade, things get much more complicated, and one wrong move can turn it into a terrible disaster." The CEO of the Kalanis Transport Guild gave a meaningful smile. "None of us want that to happen, but the Terran Confederacy is going too far."

"At least on the point of hating the Terran Confederacy and wanting to destroy it, we are on the same side," Augustus.

"I am deeply saddened by the destruction of Korhal IV," said the CEO of the Kalanis Transport Guild. "I visited there when I was young, as an international student at Korhal University. Who could have imagined that that beautiful, lush world would become a desolate, Radiated Wastes?"

"The Confederacy Navy has also dropped nuclear bombs on our planet, but they were all small to medium-sized tactical nuclear bombs." The CEO's voice was full of regret and sorrow, and Augustus hoped that half of it was true.

"Because they know that using nuclear weapons to destroy a densely populated core world would provoke our retaliation at all costs. More often than not, you need to have a fearsome sword in your hand, even if you don't wield it."

"Please sit down, Mr. Mengsk. I believe you are as great as Angus Mengsk, both being pioneers of the revolution," the CEO said as he invited Augustus to sit down.

"I am not great, not even a thousandth as great as my noble father," Augustus. "To be more precise, I am much more realistic."

"I heard you need help?" the CEO of the Kalanis Transport Guild asked as he sat down with Augustus. He already knew Augustus coming to Moria, and it was clearly a rhetorical question, intended to gain the upper hand at the negotiating table.

"If you can sell your Ripper Power Armor and heavy tanks at market price, then that would indeed be a help." Augustus what these shrewd businessmen were up to.

"The Revolutionary Army comes seeking cooperation; what we want to achieve is a cooperation that satisfies both sides."

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