Not One Will Escape

Morgan, Roderick, Dhupal, and the others then followed Major Carter out of Mine No. 3. They had almost no luggage, and their entourage consisted mainly of servants and mercenaries.

The miners continued working as usual; even if the sky fell, they wouldn't get paid if they didn't work. Even though they knew these pampered young masters and ladies were leaving in a sorry state, they would only watch coldly and make sarcastic remarks, but that was all.

Although Tarsonis has fallen and the Old Families is in decline, the entire planet still belongs to the Calabas family, including its mountains, rivers, and every blade of grass.

Everyone here is an employee of Morgan's father, Arturo Calabas. Their purpose in life is to work hard and accumulate wealth for the Calabas Family. Even if only one ten-millionth of Arturo's wealth were given away, it would be enough to make an ordinary worker rich for life.

However, even though the leaders of these Old Families wore suits costing at least two thousand credits and traveled in luxury cars and yachts, they would not give a single penny to the starving poor. Their wealth was built on generations of capital accumulation and layers of exploitation, and the slave owners would never allow slaves to be on equal footing with them.

Since the outbreak of the war, working hours have been increasing day by day, while wages have not increased in five years. The workers of the Calabas Family are not exactly sympathetic to the young masters and ladies who are displaced.

Colonial and mining worlds in the early days of development had relatively closed and singular economic systems, far less prosperous than the core worlds. However, they were still affected by economic fluctuations and soaring prices. The workers here were not permanent residents of the planet; their wages had to be sent back to their wives, children, and elderly parents.

Eight years have passed since the Guild Wars began, yet the flames of war have never subsided. The war has made the Old Families of Tarsonis incredibly wealthy, and in their constant pursuit of wealth and power, they have become increasingly greedy and corrupt.

In Tarsonis, the power center of the Terran Confederacy, politics is money, and money is politics. The relationship between the Old Families and the Confederacy is intricate and difficult to define.

The oligarchic groups under the Old Families need the Confederacy to formulate preferential trade and tax policies, while politicians must rely on the power and money behind these families to continue to gain a foothold, and even go further, in the dirty, sordid, corrupt and dangerous Confederacy political arena.

The widening gap between the rich and the poor, coupled with deeply entrenched class divisions, has further fueled discontent among the people of various planets, leading to numerous rebellions. Meanwhile, the ancient hereditary families have long lost the noble qualities of their ancestors who led the Terrans through countless hardships, and their methods of suppressing dissent have become increasingly cruel.

The lives of the lower classes are becoming increasingly difficult, and their tolerance for declining living standards has reached its limit. Most importantly, people living under Confederacy rule see no hope for the future.

However, in those enterprises that originally belonged to the Old Families but are now state-owned by the Terran Empire, the improvement in workers' wages and quality of life is immediate.

Meanwhile, Morgan, who had just left Mine No. 3 and entered the surface canyon, only wanted to escape this place of trouble as soon as possible. Even the workers who worked for his family here filled Morgan with fear.

Morgan never cared about or was interested in the lives of these people. He felt pity for those struggling to survive, but never thought of changing the system that allowed the Old Families to rule everything.

Children born in the Sky Tower can see Tarsonis under the clouds as soon as they open their eyes, while children in the slums can only live in artificial light sources and sewage, and rarely see the sun in their entire lives.

The Terran Empire, Zerg, and Protoss Fleets are locked in a fierce battle in outer space orbit around Shi, and Shi is poised for destruction. However, the arriving Confederacy Fleets offers no assistance to the planet's workers.

In the past, the Confederacy Fleets would always send troops to protect the property of the Calabas Family, because the private property of the Old Families was inviolable.

As soon as Morgan reached the ground, he smelled the burning ozone. This was a dry basin in the middle of a canyon, the ground covered with deep pits, wells, shafts, cranes, slopes, and ravines. A giant laser drilling rig's launch shaft stood like a towering sword in the center, and whenever it was activated, the entire earth would tremble violently in a dazzling red light.

A thousand yards away were three Confederacy Navy APOD-33 transport ships, their Confederacy markings undisguised, and the air filled with a deep blue crystalline dust.

The workers on the ground had already been evacuated; otherwise, they would have seen the haggard-looking young master and young lady fleeing in panic with dozens of servants and mercenaries dressed in black.

Surrounded by his butler and Confederacy soldiers, Morgan ran the distance to the transport ship, keeping a close eye on the sky as he ran, fearing that enemies might descend from the heavens.

In her panic, a noblewoman broke her high heel and, without waiting for anyone to help her, began to run barefoot through the rocky mine. For the Heir of the family, they must be resolute and courageous; mastering etiquette and being proficient in using shotguns are also compulsory courses.

"Carter, where is my father now?" Morgan boarded one of the transport ships, and, surprisingly calm, quickly asked his cousin, Major Slade Carter.

"Like you, he travels all over the sector, never staying in one place for too long," Carter said to Morgan as he ordered the pilot to take off.

"Nowhere is safe now, whether it's a peaceful pastoral world or a barren rocky planet, people are restless and yearning for change," he said.

"Even in the worlds still under our control, mobs attacking Confederacy officials and burning down family properties are growing in number, and the number of beheaded governors is countless. Augustus Mengsk has proven that the Confederacy's authority is not unshakeable, and that is the most terrifying thing."

The authority of the Terran Confederacy was built on the intimidation of its massive Fleets and its brutal suppression. Once its dynasty collapsed, the world, already dissatisfied with the Confederacy, immediately switched sides.

Two centuries ago, the colonies closely connected with Tarsonis would have certainly raised their banners in support, but now the entire Confederacy is alienated and falling apart.

"When will this end?" Morgan felt like a stray dog, his family honor and noble dignity now a joke. Unless he restored the Terran Confederacy, he might spend the rest of his life in constant fear and on the run.

"Faster!" he urged the men following behind, standing by the gangway of the transport ship.

"Don't let the rebels catch up with us."

In the distance, beyond rift valleys and mountains, a tropical storm is approaching, with clouds swirling and billowing in the sky like white foam in the ocean. Storms are common on planets with dense atmospheres, but those in Shi are particularly intense.

Morgan seemed to see an endless Swarm rushing in after the storm, but he suspected it was just a hallucination caused by his exhaustion.

He realized he knew absolutely nothing about the Zerg that were tracking them; he had simply been running blindly. The Confederacy soldiers must know more, but they always avoided mentioning the Zerg and Protoss.

Fear made Morgan grip the pistol at his waist, hoping it would protect him.

It was a P220 pistol, never jammed, always reliable. More advanced, high-powered weapons kept emerging, but Marines never trusted them as much as they trusted the P220.

Morgan knew this pistol as well as he knew himself; he never missed a shot in target practice, yet he had never used it to kill anyone.

But this gun couldn't protect Morgan; its purpose was to kill.

Suddenly, a massive explosion rang in Morgan's ears, accompanied by the deafening screams of people. A Confederacy military transport ship was tumbling in billowing flames, its molten metal shattering and engulfing those who were about to board.

Multiple Terran Empire Wraith, in stealth mode, approached the Confederacy transport ship parked on the ground and bombarded it with laser cannons. They were indeed terrifying ghosts; an unseen enemy can awaken the fear in the human heart even more.

A running Confederate Marine Corps was hit by a red laser beam and instantly burned to ashes.

Morgan held his breath, and the other members of the Old Families beside him turned pale with fright.

Several tall figures appeared on the ground, their red armor and gold insignia clearly indicating their identities. These warriors clad in red armor represented the most representative armed force of the Terran Empire: the Imperial Marine Corps.

The Terran Empire had already discovered the three Confederacy transport ships and immediately mobilized its troops. They may have already arrived, and the reason they hadn't shot down the transport ships beforehand was simply to lure Morgan out of the mining site.

"Retract the gangway, Captain!" Major Carter shouted. "Take off immediately!"

Forcing a takeoff might turn into a disaster, but staying on the ground was tantamount to waiting to die. Fortunately, about a squadron of more than ten Confederacy Wraith arrived to provide support, which was better than nothing and drew a lot of fire away from the transport ship that was taking off.

Military transport ships are far less comfortable than the Old Families's private yachts, and are extremely crowded and stuffy because they carry too many people. The military has never considered the comfort of the crew; otherwise, they wouldn't be so stingy about a few temperature control devices.

The APOD-33 transport ship proved to all Confederacy soldiers that anything with a large engine can fly—regardless of what it actually is.

Amidst the deafening roar of its engines, the transport ship miraculously evaded the missiles and machine guns of the Imperial fighters, finally managing to take off and begin its ascent. Morgan, however, believed that this was merely because the Empire wanted to capture him alive to blackmail his parents.

Morgan and his cousin Carter squeezed near the cockpit, followed closely by Roderick, Dhupal, and others.

This transport ship is quite old; even the partition between the cockpit and the crew quarters is missing. It's possible that sometime after the fall of Tarsonis, it was dismantled by a lazy Confederacy officer and pawned to buy alcohol.

"Sir, at least five Imperial Wraith are closely following us," the pilot told Major Carter. "And most of our fighters have already been shot down."

"Activate the warp drive and jump immediately. This is your last chance." Major Carter had experienced countless wars, and even though he had faced more critical situations than this, he couldn't help but gasp for breath from the violent shaking of the transport ship as it flew at high speed.

"The instruments are working properly; they are calibrating the transition coordinates," the driver said.

In interstellar travel, the most crucial common sense is that the coordinates must be precisely calculated and repeatedly confirmed before a jump, otherwise it will lead to extremely terrible consequences, either death or being thrown to the other side of the universe, or both of these.

"Confederacy spaceship, make an immediate forced landing at the designated location, or we will open fire immediately," came the intermittent warning from the Imperial fighter pilot over the communication channel.

"Ignore them." Carter knew the Empire's intentions perfectly well. "Jump!"

In fact, when Marshal Gathe of the Confederacy Fleets learned that a Protoss Fleets far larger than their own had appeared in the Shi system, he did not intend to wait until he rescued Morgan and the others before retreating. However, he could not do without the support of the Calabas and other Old Families.

At the very least, he must prove that he has done his best.

"Unable to jump, sir." The pilot's voice trembled.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" the major roared.

"I knew this wrecked ship was unreliable!" Young Master Dhupal cried out in despair.

"Unable to jump," the pilot replied. "I think the trajectory is locked. Sir, the spacecraft cannot enter the hyperspace passage."

"This has never happened before." Carter seemed to have lost all his strength.

"But it has happened now, when we least expected it to," Roderick pointed out incisively. "That's a bolt from the blue."

Just as Morgan realized they were doomed, a battlecruiser belonging to the Terran Empire appeared on the radar scan. More Wraith approached from all directions, while Gathe Duke's Fleets had vanished without a trace.

"This is a death trap," Roderick said as Major Carter ordered the surrender. "We were fish in the net from the very beginning."

The transport ship was required to land in the dock of one of the Imperial battlecruisers, and Morgan and his men were disarmed as soon as they stepped off the gangway.

The empty deck was filled with Imperial soldiers in red Power Armor, some of whom wore even larger suits of armor, resembling Giant.

Those are Marauder, the Empire's elite heavy infantry, humanoid tanks and mobile turrets. It is said that Marauder armor uses a high-strength steel frame and exoskeleton nervous system, and may also be equipped with personal shield force fields. Confederacy soldiers must pay many times the price to have any chance of wounding or even killing a Marauder.

Each Marauder was an elite member of the Imperial Army, having experienced countless battles and killed countless enemies.

"Confess your crimes honestly and try to get a lighter sentence." After passing through several checkpoints, Morgan finally met a high-ranking Imperial officer who called himself Matt Horner Matt Horner.

"It won't be long before your family is reunited in Korhal."

"I have never committed any crime," Morgan said.

"No one is born guilty, but this is especially true for those who are exploited, oppressed, and enslaved like livestock. Morgan Calabas, the vast wealth your greedy and despicable Calabas Family business has amassed over two centuries is as abundant as the waters of the ocean and the sands of the desert, and none of it is unstained with the blood of the people," Matt Horner said.

"Your trial will certainly be fair. The laws of the Terran Empire will not wrong any good person, nor will they let any bad person go unpunished."

"No matter how you torture me, I will not confess," Morgan said.

"Augustus became emperor as soon as he ascended the throne, and he was a benevolent ruler. Sometimes, people would speak the truth without resorting to torture." Matt Horner pointed out that Emperor Augustus was not cruel.

"The Confederacy won't let you get away with this." Morgan thankfully didn't say anything like, "I'm going to find my father."

But Morgan trembled at the thought of what he was about to face: being taken to the prison world of New Folsom, followed by a brain removal, memory alteration, and organ transplant surgery. Then, memories of absolute loyalty would be implanted, and they would have toiled for the Terran Empire for the rest of their lives until they died.

"When we joined the revolution with our leader, we never expected the Confederacy to let us go." Matt Horner nodded.

"But the reverse is also true."

I feel okay now that I have a set schedule and go to bed and wake up on time. It's just that my sleep schedule was too messed up before, and I often stayed up late. It'll be fine if I spend some time getting it right. Thank you all for your concern and suggestions. Well, that's all for now, I'll just keep updating.

The official Tarsonis's description of the Confederacy in the first generation is already very clear:

The Tarsonis hereditary ruling family grew increasingly greedy and corrupt through constant accumulation of wealth and power struggles. As the gap between rich and poor widened, discontent and even open rebellions became commonplace on the planets under Confederacy rule. The ruling family maintained their control over the colonies through increasingly brutal violence. When Korhal IV attempted to break away from Confederacy rule, the Confederacy even used nuclear weapons to carry out a massacre, marking the pinnacle of Confederacy tyranny.