Bad Guys In, Good Guys Out

Noris VI, Terran Confederacy Resocialization Center.

"Burn it! Burn it all! Burn it all!"

Dr. Stanley Burgess roared, his prominent cheekbones and short, thick neck flushed red with extreme anger, his beard bristling.

Beside him was a heart rate monitor that was burning fiercely. Many researchers wearing surgical masks and headscarves were frantically throwing priceless precision equipment into the fire, and large amounts of paper containing experimental data were curling up in the flames.

The cost the Confederacy has paid for these sophisticated devices is unimaginable. The invaluable data they contain forms the foundation of the resocialization project. Every second that fire burned was pure cash, which is now being discarded like trash.

Rows of operating tables lined both sides of the room, surrounded by tables and chairs piled high with scalpels and gauze, stained with blood that had not yet dried. On some of these operating tables lay almost naked people, shackled and chained. All the shackles were electrified, so even if the people on them awoke after being given anesthesia, they could quickly regain their composure.

It's important to understand that most of those who come here are murderers, rapists, or traitors, including criminals addicted to drugs and abusing enhancement agents. Many conventional medications have little effect on their bodies.

This is the resocialization center of the Terran Confederacy located on Noris VI. It is built on a sea cliff adjacent to the Noris Black Ocean and is unusually large, far beyond the size of an ordinary starport, almost equivalent to a city.

One-third of its main structure is built into solid granite rock, resembling an upside-down wide-brimmed hat. The outer edge is a circular landing pad, and the protruding part is an electromagnetic acceleration track for launching interstellar transport ships. Signal towers and numerous missile launch pads are scattered across its constricted titanium alloy steel walls.

Although its history doesn't compare to New Folsom Prison, the Noris Resocialization Center is one of the most heavily guarded areas in the Terran Confederacy, far surpassing any criminal prison. It only grants passage to authorized Confederacy military vessels, and any unknown vessel entering its airspace is shot down.

Even during the Guild Wars and the First Total War, this place was considered the most secluded and safest region, and it never fell.

"These are things we've spent years completing. The minimally invasive resocialization surgery has been achieved in your hands, and that will create one invincible resocialized legion after another. That is humanity's hope in resisting the Protoss and the Zerg!" A researcher wearing glasses was trying to salvage equipment and data in the fire and was almost pushed in by his colleague.

"You will be regarded as a hero and go down in history." He stood before the furious chief scientist, wiping away tears. "Resocialization can create an experienced, fearless soldier in minutes; mass production means thousands upon thousands of soldiers."

"Think about it, the Terran Confederacy is surrounded by powerful enemies in the Koprulu Sector. Resocialization is humanity's only hope for survival in this cruel universe. If Augustus Mengsk clearly understood this reality, he certainly wouldn't have given up on this plan."

"Shut up, you idiot!"

In an instant, Dr. Boggs transformed into a raging bear, grabbed the researcher, and threw him away.

"How dare you tell me what to do or how to do it? If it were in the past, I would have already ripped your skull open."

"He'll throw us in jail, sentence us to death, all for some stupid, ridiculous sense of justice?" the doctor roared at the researcher.

"We can't leave these to the rebels and Earthlings."

"The rebels have landed in the Metis Mountains." A guard in Power Armor rushed into the modification center, his voice as clear as a machine, enunciating clearly but without much emotion.

One of Dr. Boggs' masterpieces, a loyal and courageous Resocialized Soldier. He would never yield to the enemies of the Terran Confederacy or stop killing until he bled his last drop of blood and breathed his last.

Resocialized Soldier are almost perfect, but their lack of independent thinking ability is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

"Quickly, you all stay here and destroy everything. I'm going to activate the defense system." Dr. Boggs looked at the equipment in the operating room and realized he didn't have much time left to destroy and modify the facilities at the socialization center.

"We still have time. Noris has several resocialized legions, with over 100,000 perfect soldiers."

Noris will never fall!

In reality, unless the self-destruct program of the Resocialization Center is activated, destroying all the equipment and data is nothing but wishful thinking. Dr. Boggs was well aware of this, but he had no intention of destroying the Resocialization Center along with it.

Boggs left the terrified researchers behind and, with a few guards who obeyed his orders, walked out of the operating room and down a dark corridor.

"Is my lifeboat ready?" After walking a short distance, Boggs began to run faster, asking the soldiers following him as he ran.

Under the dim, white light, Dr. Boggs's high, thin, hooked nose appeared even more somber.

Boggs was a burly man, by no means weak. For a long time, his subordinates regarded him as a eccentric butcher, a dark and evil wizard who liked to tinker with scalpels and human bodies.

"Ready, sir." A Resocialized Soldier saluted as he ran.

"At gate 44, pilot Mr. George said the fuel tank was full and the plane was ready to take off at any time."

"Hopefully that bastard won't sail away before me. Not performing brain surgery on him was the only mistake I've ever made in my life." Boggs was even faster than the generally robust, Power Armor Resocialized Soldier, and the chief scientist didn't mind using a small dose of enhancers when necessary.

Of course, as a genius scientist, Dr. Boggs would never die in such a small place before saving all mankind and making a name for himself.

Noris has several legions composed entirely of Resocialized Soldier, totaling over 100,000 men, but they are no match for Augustus Mengsk. Over the years, few in the Terran Confederacy have been able to gain any advantage over that legendary rebel leader, and even the Terran Confederacy naval generals, who had been renowned for over a decade, have been humiliated by Augustus.

Alpha Squadron, Nova Squadron, Delta Squadron —these renowned Confederacy naval Fleets all fell before Augustus. As long as Augustus lives, the Koprulu Sector is bound to remain in turmoil for many more years.

Augustus's rebels were certainly no match for the Terran Confederacy, but a bunch of mindless modified soldiers were not qualified to defeat the rebels.

"Wait, is the cage renovation area closed?" Boggs stopped at an L-shaped intersection.

Jones?

"Hmm? What's that?" The Resocialized Soldier gave a gentle smile, a smile that could be described as innocent.

"Keep up with me." Borgs realized he shouldn't have asked such a difficult question to a Resocialized Soldier, but by then he had already left his assistant behind.

For a neuromodified socialized soldier, their mind is filled with selflessness, loyalty, and responsibility. Resocialized Soldier, only process the things implanted in their memories, like old, worn-out computers.

Resocialization techniques are now far more advanced than they were during the Guild Wars eight years ago, and the surgery is much less harmful than before, at least it doesn't leave a noticeable scar on the back of the head.

Recently, Stanislav Boggs and his team, along with other top scientists in the Confederacy's resocialization program, have been working to perfect the modification technology. Their goal is to preserve the original personality and thinking ability of the Resocialized Soldier while modifying them, and to ensure that they never betray the cause.

The Psionics suppressor used by Ghost operative is a good example. This external implant, placed in the brain of Ghost operative, can both preserve the recipient's original thinking ability and ensure their loyalty, preventing them from having thoughts of betrayal.

Ultimately, erasing a person's memories and forcing them to be loyal to an ideology, turning them into fearless and ruthless individuals, is tantamount to killing them.

Clearly, Resocialized Soldier like Jones still have significant shortcomings.

Boggs turned the corner of the corridor and came to a heavy door. On the wall near the door was a simple admonition, the gist of which was:

Bad people go in, good people come out.

Considering that everyone who goes in undergoes a transformative change, Dr. Boggs actually prefers to call it:

The man went in, the woman came out.

After unlocking the retina and genes, the door opened with a bang.

This is a spacious area with a towering dome, densely packed with cryogenic tubes several meters tall. Their alloy bases are connected to pipes as thick as a person's arm, and the tubes are filled with a viscous green liquid, with a constant stream of bubbles rising to the top of the tubes.

Each cryogenic tube contains a completely naked person with their eyes closed, their hair flowing like seaweed in a river. The tubes are labeled with numbers, along with the names, genders, and hometowns of the people inside, but that's all.

These cryogenic tubes are called resocialization cages, and the people inside are merely fish being raised in these cages to be slaughtered. Modern resocialization technology no longer requires doctors to manually remove a piece of the brain; simply pushing them into these cages completes the process quickly, as efficiently as a factory production line.

For the Terran Confederacy, Resocialized Soldier are indeed just numbers, numbers of weapons built with credits and crystals; their value is not even as much as the armor they wear.

At the resocialization center, reservists who have undergone rehabilitation are labeled with barcodes and QR codes, just like livestock in a pen.

In the past, Resocialized Soldier had not yet entered the public eye. The only thing the nobles knew about them was that these people with modified brains were the most suitable candidates for servants. Purchasing a servant robot was just the beginning of the expenses. The cost of maintaining the robot and repairing it was no less than hiring a living human.

Resocialized servants are absolutely loyal, and their lifespan is very long before they grow old. The same is true for Resocialized Soldier; the Confederacy does not need to pay these soldiers' salaries or funeral expenses, and once they die, they are gone without even needing a coffin.

As one of the largest resocialization factories in the Terran Confederacy, Noris's transformation center produces a large number of soldiers every day. Here, there are far more people whose brains have been modified than those with normal minds.

"Hopefully Rosen has completely deleted the database containing information about these people's backgrounds, in case the rebels get their hands on it." Borg stood at the door but didn't go in.

Those originally sent to the resocialization center would have been death row inmates and irredeemable social scum, but these people wouldn't be enough to sustain a war.

More than half of the people in this modified cage room are not criminals. These include ordinary soldiers who volunteered to enlist and knew nothing about the truth, refugees who were forcibly brought to Noris, active-duty Confederacy soldiers who volunteered to be modified to prove their loyalty and worth, gamblers who were driven to desperation by debt, and other lucky but unlucky people who came to Noris VI for their own reasons.

Regardless of whether reforming these Confederacy citizens with their own will is morally wrong, the leak of such information would be extremely detrimental to the Confederacy —despite the sheer volume of their misdeeds.

Boggs didn't care about the Confederacy's reputation at all. As a senior member of the resocialization program, the Doctor had long since abandoned morality, something that was of no benefit to scientific research, or rather, he never had any moral values to begin with.

But if Augustus knew that Boggs was conducting inhumane human experiments and transforming living humans into Resocialized Soldier, he would most likely shoot him immediately.

However, Bogues had already prepared an escape route.

"The Eighth District is under attack! There are rebels! They're... Ah!"

"Advance! Take them down!"

"They're rebels! Led by Tychus Finley Fiend!"

"Sector 8?" Dr. Boggs' heart skipped a beat. These sounds weren't coming from the communications or laboratory broadcasting facilities, but from the fact that the rebel invasion was taking place nearby.

Judging from the sound, it was on the route that Boggs would take to the lifeboats heading to the harbor. This group of rebels likely invaded from the tarmac.

Just as Dr. Boggs was about to escape into another corridor, a flashbang wrapped in white paper was thrown in. On it was a red heart pierced by an arrow, and it read: Tychus loves you.

After a blinding flash, Dr. Boggs was nearly blinded. A few seconds later, he heard a roar and the roar of gunfire. Several Resocialized Soldier around him fell to the ground, their blood splattering everywhere.

A man as tall as a mountain stood before Boggs, his rusty power boots stained with blood. Revolutionary Army soldiers with jetpacks kept brushing past Boggs, creating gusts of air in the corridor.

"I am Tychus Finley, the hero of the people!" Tychus opened his helmet, which was adorned with the skull of the Heaven's Devils, while the cigarette in his mouth was still burning. Ashes scattered across the servo systems of Tychus's Power Armor, but he paid no heed.

Borgs was so terrified that his legs went weak and he knelt on the ground, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

He had heard of Tychus Finley's infamous reputation; he was the most ruthless of Augustus Mengsk's generals, a man said to be able to tear a person in half with his bare hands.

"Don't get excited, bro. That's how it is when you meet a big star. If you want an autograph, I'd be happy to leave a mark on your butt." Tychus chewed on his cigarette, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "That's the downside of being too popular. Look how excited he is."

"Pray while I fire, you scum."

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