From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man - Chapter 432

c421 “Long-term stay”

On November 15th, the “Starship Fleet” universe numbered “One Four”;

The expedition fleet was sent to the New Hope Galaxy by the federal leadership and was responsible for clearing out the human empire. The current situation was already “precarious”.

There are only twelve escort transport ships left, and one Paris frigate that was “captured” by luck. The size of the entire fleet is really “not even one out of ten”.

Leaving aside the Paris class, the firepower of twelve escort transport ships alone is simply not enough to support the original goals of the expedition fleet.

What’s more, all members of the expedition fleet have long been demoralized by the Blood Angels’ tyrannical firepower. Capture, escape, and the Zerg attack have greatly reduced their combat effectiveness. How can they still engage in a head-on confrontation?

To make matters worse, these thirteen frigates were packed with more than 30,000 mobile infantry, making the already tight supply situation even more severe.

Against this background, the mobile infantry led by Leon, Maggie and others, according to the “script” provided by the Investigation Department, successfully seized the ship and escaped from the surface of the New Hope Galaxy.

The remaining personnel also officially launched an urgent “escape operation”, aiming to preserve a glimmer of hope and “fire” for the expedition fleet.

If you use the wormholes scattered throughout the galaxy in the “Star Fleet” universe for navigation, the efficiency is even much higher than the jump engine.

In fact, the total time it took for the expedition fleet to depart from Earth “14” and arrive at the New Hope Galaxy was only about one Earth day.

But Leon, Maggie, and the others do not want to easily return the more than 30,000 mobile infantry soldiers they “bluffed” to the federal civil government.

After all, this is an important “prop” used by the empire to disintegrate the Federation, and it is also the key to reducing the casualties of compatriots.

Therefore, on the pretext of “getting rid of the fleet of the Human Empire as soon as possible”, they asked the fleet to directly start the warp engine and rush to the nearest frontier colony.

The efficiency of warp navigation is indeed much lower than that of wormhole and jump navigation.

After an arduous voyage of half an Earth month, the remaining fleet finally broke away from the warp state and arrived at the frontier colony named “Campbell”.

This colony is located in the third orbit of the star system. Its size and mass are similar to those of the Earth, and its environmental conditions are better than desertification. This new hope makes the remaining personnel and mobile infantry very happy.

When the fleet entered Campbell’s gravitational range, what everyone saw was a habitable planet with an atmosphere reflecting blue light.

Its land is covered with dense forests and open grasslands, and its ocean is clear and green, like a “perfect” natural picture.

Half a month of warp speed sailing, coupled with the fact that the number of people carried by the ship had already exceeded the normal specifications, caused the daily necessities to be almost exhausted.

Under this situation, Lyon decisively gave the order, instructing the fleet to immediately enter Campbell’s atmosphere and sail to the capital city to anchor for necessary rest and supplies.

The ship slowly passed through the atmosphere, and with the roar of its engines, it gradually landed at the star port of the capital city.

At this moment, inside the Paris-class bridge;

Lyon could see the entire capital city and star port through the porthole.

Compared with the desolate scene of New Hope, Campbell indeed showed “unparalleled” prosperity.

According to data, Campbell’s total population exceeds two million, which is more than ten times that of New Hope.

The colony’s main economic pillars include providing food supplies to surrounding systems and exporting large quantities of civilian electronic products.

This capital city is the core of Campbell, with one-third of the colony’s population.

More than a dozen giant buildings towering into the sky, developed transportation networks, modern infrastructure, as well as merchant ships, cargo ships and luxury cruise ships berthed in the star port, show a prosperous scene.

However, behind the surface prosperity, the situation in Campbell is not all peaceful.

Clever AI secretly further reported Campbell’s management trends to Lyon.

After investigation, it was found that Governor Campbell and his federal officials had already become seriously dissatisfied with the top federal officials.

These officials believe that even as the threat from the Araki Zerg gradually intensifies, the Federation still spends huge amounts of tax money and resources to maintain a large fleet to deal with the so-called “rebels” instead of maintaining the tranquility of the border colonies.

This not only caused Campbell’s relatively comfortable quality of life to rapidly decline, but also brought the colony’s economic structure to stagnation.

Campbell, who was previously self-sufficient and able to make profits by exporting food and electronic products, is now forced to get involved in the “waves” and lose the opportunity for stable development.

As the federal government fought on multiple fronts and continued to fight with numerous rebels, Campbell’s situation worsened.

The Araki Zerg will also use wormholes from time to time to launch meteorites containing insect eggs at them, and low- and medium-scale insect plagues will break out.

Fortunately, Campbell also had “a small amount of savings” and was able to hire retired infantrymen, organize militia, and deal with the eggs and adults in a timely manner, so that the insect plague did not completely break out.

Therefore, the smart AI pointed out that this dissatisfaction with the Federation was the best entry point for the Empire to instigate rebellion against Campbell.

Campbell’s management, especially those officials who only care about Campbell’s interests, may be the most easily attracted to the empire’s governance environment, and then hope to promote Campbell to become the empire’s strategic stronghold in this sector.

This is one of the reasons why the smart AI proactively recommended Campbell as a target to Lyon before the fleet fled——

There are cracks and potential opportunities in the political environment here.

At this time;

“Sergeant.” A communications officer reported to Lyon:

“Campbell Governor Johnson Hallhold has fully approved our stay here and expressed his willingness to provide us with ground bases and supplies.

At the same time, the other party also invited our command to go to the Governor’s Mansion to hold talks with Campbell’s senior management.”

“Very good.”

Hearing this, Lyon turned to the communications officer and ordered:

“Use Campbell’s communication base station to continue trying to restore contact with the Earth headquarters.

If the communication is restored, immediately submit our application for temporary stationing here to the headquarters. After all, the defense here is really weak. As a frontier colony, they need our protection.

It just so happens that we also need to rest here and wait for the opportunity to counterattack.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Yeah.”

After giving the order, Lyon left the bridge with Ace and prepared to take the Viking to the Governor’s Mansion.

For now, Lyon and Maggie are the highest commanders of the more than 30,000 mobile infantry.

However, according to reason, the Federation should promote their military ranks according to their performance in the expedition, at least to the rank of captain or major, so as to better manage this remnant army.

However, since the communication had been interrupted by the intelligent AI, the expeditionary fleet could not contact the headquarters for the time being, and Leon, Maggie and others could not get formal promotion appointments.

But this did not affect their authority.

In fact, Leon had already selected more than 2,000 elite troops with NCOs such as Rico, Tiz and Ace as the core, and formed a reinforced assault battalion equipped with mechanical skeletons and cloned individual equipment.

This force not only has the most sophisticated weapons and equipment in the expeditionary fleet, but also occupies the Paris-class frigate with the strongest firepower.

More importantly, the intelligent AI has always been secretly assisting Leon, monitoring the situation of each escort transport ship, ensuring that it can be discovered and suppressed in the first time those NCOs who attempt to launch a mutiny again and seize command.

Therefore, even without the official appointment of the Federation, Leon and Maggie have become the real controllers of the expeditionary fleet.

Now that he has come to Campbell, Lyon has no intention of leaving.

Because if he obeys the order of the Federation headquarters and immediately returns to Earth 14, the Federation’s top brass will forcibly sentence him to death by hanging for “disobeying orders” and “inciting mutiny”.

Even before entering the military court, he may be secretly assassinated by the family of Honnold Thompson.

As for Colonel Honnold Thompson, who has repeatedly made incompetent decisions but still serves as the commander of the expeditionary fleet, and his trusted lieutenants, they are still imprisoned in the Paris-class detention cabin.

In fact, if Honnold Thompson had made any “mistakes”, he would not have been “overthrown by the inferior” by Lyon and Maggie.

Lyon does not intend to execute them immediately, but plans to hand them over to the Empire’s military court for trial after weakening the Federation’s rule over the major colonies, and let the Empire’s laws decide their fate.

At present, Lyon’s top priority is to reach an agreement with Campbell’s top brass to ensure that the remnants of the expeditionary fleet can be stationed here for a long time.

Campbell is a strategic location in a frontier galaxy. It is not only rich in resources, but also has an extremely advantageous geographical location.

If this place can be brought under the control of the Empire, it can greatly weaken the Federation’s ruling power in the frontier and provide a new support point for the expansion of the Empire.

At the same time, Lyon also knew that in order to achieve such a goal, he must act carefully.

Although Campbell’s senior officials are dissatisfied with the Federation, this does not mean that the other party will directly stand on their side.

Therefore, in the next negotiations, he must show enough patience.

It is necessary to make the governor and officials of Campbell realize the benefits of cooperation, and to use appropriate force to deter them.

Soon.

Lyon and Ace led 20 assault soldiers wearing mechanical skeletons, boarded a Viking landing craft, and flew away from the hangar of the Paris-class frigate.

During the flight, they hovered in the air along the northern part of the starport for a while, and then met with three other Viking landing craft.

These Vikings carried Rico, Tiz, Maggie, and several non-commissioned officers who had a good relationship with Lyon and others.

After the reunion, the four Viking aircrafts formed a neat formation and headed for the center of Campbell City, aiming directly at the Governor’s Mansion that stood outside the bustling streets.

——

Soon after, at the main entrance square of the Governor’s Mansion;

A middle-aged man in his early forties stood in front of the officials. He was the Governor of Campbell, Johnson Hallhold.

Johnson and the local officials beside him looked serious, looking at the approaching Viking landing craft.

The armed security forces of the Governor’s Mansion seemed particularly tense, with cordons around the square.

The armed personnel responsible for the security of the Governor’s Mansion were mainly composed of local police officers and militia.

Although these people had never seen a real battlefield, they had all participated in the pest control operation. In terms of combat experience against the Arach Zerg, they were much richer than the federal recruits.

The militia were equipped with old-fashioned military equipment and tactical equipment, ready to deal with possible emergencies.

Compared with the equipment and weapons of police stations on Earth, the police officers appear to be even more backward, and are almost the same as the American police in the main universe at the end of the 20th century.

Even so, the militia, police officers, special police, and mercenaries hired by the Governor’s Office still repelled several invasions of the Arach Zerg.

When the engine sound of the landing craft became clearer, almost everyone in the square held their breath, waiting for the arrival of the “high-level” of the expeditionary fleet.

Four Vikings released their landing gear and, under the control of the pilots, parked not far in front of Johnson and others.

As the landing craft landed, a strong air wave blew up, messing up the hairstyle of Johnson and others, forcing them to close their eyes slightly to avoid the wind and sand.

Wait for the engine to shut down.

When the hatch opened, they saw Leon, Maggie and others wearing federal army uniforms, as well as dozens of commandos equipped with clone equipment.

Sergeant? ?

Seeing the scene in front of them, Campbell’s senior executives, including Johnson, showed confused expressions on their faces.

Especially when they found that the people who came were actually a group of non-commissioned officers, Johnson felt even more indignant and dissatisfied in his heart.

Even though Campbell is not as big as the near-earth colonies, has a small population, and is not even a name in the entire federation, they are still the top leaders of the entire colony, and the expeditionary fleet only sent non-commissioned officers to negotiate with them?

They have already lost the war, so are they still looking down on others? !

Johnson was furious when he guessed that he and his colleagues were looked down upon.

“Governor, look at the equipment of those mobile infantrymen! It seems to be much more advanced than the elite on Earth!”

However, with the reminder of the secretary beside him, Johnson also focused his attention on the commandos.

Although he did not know the research and development of the latest equipment of the federation, and did not know the existence of the mobile infantry power armor and predator mecha projects, the commandos’ fully enclosed combat uniforms and mechanical skeletons immediately aroused his vigilance.

The equipment of these commandos was obviously far superior to any federal army he had seen.

While Johnson was still looking at them, Lyon took the lead and stretched out his right hand, saying with a smile:

“Sergeant Lyon Kennedy, I am honored to be received by Governor Hallhold.”

Although he still had doubts and dissatisfaction in his heart, Johnson still maintained diplomatic etiquette, suppressed his emotions, smiled and stretched out his hand to shake hands with Lyon:

“It is our honor to receive you, Campbell.”

When the two men let go of each other’s hands, Johnson immediately asked:

“Sergeant Kennedy, I wonder who your commander is?”

When Lyon heard this, he showed a helpless smile on his face and explained:

“The situation is rather special, and it’s a long story. At present, the remnants of the expeditionary force are jointly commanded by me and several non-commissioned officers. Let’s go in and talk about the specific situation.”