Today, You Are All Imperial Citizens

Gohbus, the colonists' landing point.

Three billion years ago, Gohbus had vast bodies of water, a dense atmosphere, and a moderate climate. It also had a satellite that could provide stable tidal forces. Fossils collected by colonists suggest that fantastical extraterrestrial life forms once existed there.

In the most recent geological period, Gohbus underwent dramatic changes. Its magnetic field began to weaken and eventually disappeared, and its frequent volcanic eruptions plummeted. This had catastrophic consequences: Gohbus's atmosphere began to escape in large quantities, its oceans were rapidly evaporated, and life on it was exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation, making it as fragile as a sheet of paper in the face of nature's power.

Even though the environment of Gohbus is now too harsh for humans and their crops and livestock, colonization of the planet has been put on the agenda. It is a huge, Earth-like planet, rich in resources, and located at the hub of an important interstellar shipping route.

By triggering volcanic activity to release carbon dioxide and water vapor, rebuilding the planet's magnetic field, and replenishing the atmosphere, a series of terrestrial transformation processes will allow Gohbus to once again become a beautiful world suitable for human habitation.

The terraforming of Gohbus is showing initial success, with colonists beginning to settle on the planet's surface. This is an adventure fraught with both risks and rewards, as Gohbus ' surface remains extremely dangerous.

New Columbia is the largest settlement in Gohbus, built primarily around the massive Ardien Crystal Mine. The crystals here are of such high purity that they can be directly smelted into metals without refining, and it even contains reserves of dark gold that have not yet been fully explored.

The people living here are miners and technicians. Due to its proximity to several of the most prosperous interstellar shipping routes, such as Tarsonis to Korhal to Taradorn, New Columbia's tertiary industry is also very developed. It has a large number of interstellar ports, commercial centers, bars, and underground black markets, greedily earning credits from ocean-going sailors, interstellar travelers, mercenaries, and even pirates.

Meanwhile, New Columbia maintains a highly skilled and well-equipped militia force, which has absorbed many veterans and local youths. Apart from the largest pirate groups, the people of New Columbia fear no one.

But this time, it was the Protoss who came.

"Throw those damned kids away, they're not worth the price of escaping this hellhole." A group of men in gray windbreakers or jackets were driving Vulture through the streets of New Columbia City, as if they were really trying to escape something extremely terrifying.

There were about seven or eight people in the group, all armed and capable men and women, some of whom were wearing hoods. Only in a world like Gohbus, where the legal system is not perfect, could these wanted criminals be allowed to slip through the cracks. None of these people were without criminal records, and it was perfectly normal for them to be wanted by multiple colonies at the same time.

New Columbia is built high on a mine, with an uneven terrain where the height difference between different blocks can reach up to 450 feet. The buildings here are modular alloy structures, and other building materials are sourced locally.

Due to the local climate, the streets are always filled with a persistent gray-red sandstorm, and the sunlight is hazy in the dust, with the streetlights on both sides flickering on and off.

Besides this group, there were many panicked New Columbia City on the streets, either hiding in their homes waiting for disaster to strike, or simply thinking about indulging themselves as much as possible before they died.

The Protoss had just destroyed Braxis and Attica, and along with the space stations in those star systems, they hadn't even spared them. And the closest person to these butchers was Gohbus.

The entire New Columbia is home to approximately 100,000 people, and this only represents the number of permanent residents.

At this moment, not only New Columbia, but all the people of Gohbus are frantically trying to escape this planet. Hundreds of thousands of people are scrambling for tickets to other worlds, which are extremely rare and expensive.

Poor people simply can't buy tickets.

"What's there to be afraid of? There are plenty of people who want to buy them, and many are willing to pay high prices. As long as they're taken out, there's no worry about sales." Among this group, a tall man wearing a gray cloak was their leader.

"Even if we lose these three children, we can't fit any more people in the car. It's not worth wasting a month's work just to earn a few tickets. Speaking of money, robbing a bank during this chaos would be a much faster way to make money."

These pirates engage in dirty work like child trafficking, but they have a clear purpose. This small gang mainly collects children with Psionics for the Terran Confederacy's Ghost Program in places like refugee camps in the Edge World. Sometimes these criminals also buy children cheaply from other traffickers and resell them at higher prices. If the profits far outweigh the risks, they even forcibly break into other people's homes and snatch the children directly.

Not all parents—in fact, a significant portion—believed the Confederacy's nonsense that handing their children over to the Confederacy would guarantee them a better life, and that's when someone had to do it.

"Besides the lunatics of the Ghost Program, who the hell wants these ghost kids?" another woman, also wearing a cloak, retorted.

"The Terran Confederacy collapsed a month ago, and now the Earthlings control Tarsonis. They won't pay a high price for these children."

This is a woman dressed in a black leather jacket and pants, with an unbelievably good figure, clearly the result of plastic surgery. She wears earrings and a nose ring, and her bare chest, neck, and thighs are covered with tattoos of some kind of beast—a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a snake's tail, the infamous symbol of the Chimera Pirates.

In terms of notoriety, only the New Trinidad pirates can rival the Chimera, though the former's misdeeds were more about disrupting interstellar shipping.

The Vulture on the woman's back carried a bald, muscular man who was at least eight feet tall and strong enough to punch a chieftain of a bear-toothed beast. His tattered jacket was stuffed with small packets of drugs and syringes, clearly indicating that he couldn't live without them.

Each of the Vulture vans behind had a child aged four to ten strapped to the back seat; they were all asleep due to the effects of the drug.

"I told you, there's no shortage of buyers—if all else fails, we'll sell to the Umojans," the tall man said, suddenly stopping his Vulture. The vehicles behind him followed suit.

"Joe, you idiot, where exactly is the ship docked? If she were nearby, the sensor in my pocket would be beeping by now."

"Boss, I don't know anything about this. We've always stopped here."

"Damn it, if you don't find that ship before the Protoss burn this place to ashes, I'll make you wish you were dead!" the tall man roared.

The people of the Koprulu Sector all know how brutal the Protoss are; they can burn a planet into glass crystals with the flick of their fingers, and the people on it will be reduced to ashes.

The Protoss are a group of warlike aliens, crazed space gladiators, and the largest group of arsonists in history. To all known information about humanity, the Protoss bring only destruction.

"Want a ride, bro? Price's negotiable, totally fair." Just then, several long shadows appeared on the streets of New Columbia.

They wore blue or blue-gray Power Armor, all of which were old-fashioned CMC-200s, but had been modified beyond recognition by various additional weapon units and crudely embedded batteries. The mercenaries carried a variety of weapons, but none of them were anything less than large-caliber weapons capable of blowing a human head off.

"I'm Graven Hill, an easy-going mercenary," the leader quickly introduced himself to the pirates. "Here's my business card; there'll definitely be plenty of business to discuss in the future."

"As long as the price is right."

"Thanks, brother, but no need for that today. We're in a hurry to go for a drive." The tall man had one hand on the electromagnetic pistol under his trench coat, knowing that these mercenaries in Power Armor were far beyond what his small group could handle.

He started the Vulture, ready to leave, but more mercenaries emerged, almost occupying the entire street and blocking the pirates' path.

Even those living on the Edge World have their own food chain. Mercenaries and pirates typically operate in various gray areas, sometimes cooperating and sometimes clashing. But when the stakes are high, neither of them hesitates to eliminate the other.

"Are you blocking our way to cause trouble?" the tall man said, glancing around as if preparing to flee if things went wrong.

"Someone paid me to come here and clean up the mess, or more accurately, to save lives. To be honest, I don't really care about the role mercenaries play in various incidents; mercenaries have always been used to letting money dictate their actions," said Hill, the mercenary leader, slowly and deliberately.

"Simply put, someone hired me to maintain order in Gohbus and, incidentally, to evacuate as many refugees as possible. They might be short-handed right now, with war raging all over the galaxy, which is perfect—but if the money's right, I'd even kill everyone here."

"So, you were hired by the Confederacy of Gohbus?" The tall man wanted to say that he was also a refugee, not because he was too ashamed, but because they looked exactly like human traffickers.

"Times have changed, man. It's the era of the Terran Empire now. Oh, this is the latest news: Earthlings have been defeated by Augustus Mengsk, and the Emperor of the Terran Empire is the one who holds the most power in the Koprulu Sector."

"We are Chimera Pirates, this is not over—" the pirate captain said urgently, "Listen, buddy, I don't have time to waste with you. Either let us out of here, or we'll fight to the death."

They're mercenaries after all; they'll go wherever the money is. But the Protoss are coming soon. You're risking your life, but I am!

"I want you to guess." Hill drew his pistol faster than he could hear. He and the pirate captain looked up at the same time, and with one shot, he blew the other's head off, a cloud of blood mist instantly dispersing into the air.

In an instant, Hill's mercenaries and the Chimera Pirates opened fire simultaneously. The mercenaries' marksmanship was incredibly accurate, and they quickly blew the pirates' heads off.

"These Chimera Pirates, chased all over the star region by the Revolutionary Army peasant uprising army and not daring to utter a sound, dare to mess with us?" Remy Harris, Hill's second-in-command, spat.

"Pah! Disgraceful thing."

"Look at those children!" Hill shouted, and several mercenaries immediately went to rescue the children who had been kidnapped by the pirates.

Then, Hill nodded in one direction, towards a former Confederacy Ghost operative who had become a mercenary.

It is said that this taciturn Ghost operative was rescued by Augustus Mengsk's Revolutionary Army, but he did not join the Revolutionary Army afterward, instead choosing to live a different life.

This Ghost operative Hill Hill's mercenary group with only one condition: she must save any children she encountered who had suffered the same ordeal as her.

"What are we going to do with these children?" Harris took a small, blonde girl from a mercenary's arms; the adorable child was fast asleep in his arms.

There was a note in her pocket— Delta Squadron. Delta Squadron Emblock. New Sydney resident.

"It doesn't matter if there are a few more mouths to feed in the group. The employers in the Terran Empire might be able to take them in." Hill didn't like children and wasn't interested in rescuing people, but his rare redeeming quality was that he kept his promises.

"Citizens of New Columbia, the Emperor of the Terran Empire has hired me to rescue you. He has dispatched many transport ships, and you can come with us now," Hill said loudly through a megaphone, glancing at the child.

Mercenaries typically do not reveal their employer's name unless required by contract.

"We have spaceships, and Emperor Augustus Mengsk the Great has already paid for your tickets," he shouted. "Take nothing with you, and get going. The Emperor asked me to pass on a few words to you—regardless of your birth, religion, beliefs, or political leanings, today you are all citizens of the Empire."

"Only by surviving can I repay this debt!"

As if to confirm Hill's words, several transport planes appeared from the hazy clouds, and people immediately erupted in jubilant shouts and cheers.

Upon hearing Hill's words, the citizens hiding in their homes hesitated greatly. Those who had heard of Augustus and his coronation speech almost immediately packed their things and left, while the rest, seeing that some had rushed ahead of them, also hurriedly ran out, fearing they would not have a seat.

As long as they can escape this world on the verge of destruction, nothing else matters.

Suddenly, the streets were filled with families.

As they approached the mercenaries, whether intentionally or not, they all shouted the names of the Terran Empire and the Emperor; some were moved to tears, while others jumped and cheered with joy.

"I suddenly feel that doing good deeds isn't so bad." Seeing this, Hill opened his armored helmet, revealing his face behind sunglasses, and said to his good friend Harris beside him.

"This isn't like you, you tightwad," Harris said sarcastically.

Although the matte visor of the Power Armor could completely replace sunglasses, he insisted on wearing them, even in complete darkness.

"Signals from the Tal'darim Fleets have been detected in the Hill, Gebus System," a mercenary reported to his commander.

"They're here."

Hill hummed in agreement and glanced at the ecstatic crowd around him:

"It's time to raise the price."

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