novelTo Kill with Another's Hand
| ← Ch.1341 | Ch.1343 → |
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
Pontin was a simple, boorish man. Although he had somehow assumed command of the whole base by now, his respect for Sheyan had not diminished in the slightest.
Furthermore, he was also currently facing a tough problem. When he saw Sheyan, he looked like someone who had found a lifeline in a desperate situation. He first asked his short-skirt-wearing secretary to serve Sheyan a cup of coffee, then hastily shooed her away.
"Something has been troubling me lately, sir. I don't know what to do." After Sheyan was seated, Pontin instantly complained with a deep frown on his face.
"Tell me, " Sheyan urged with a smile.
Pontin sighed."Although the pandora crystal resources found by our base hasn't quite reached that level yet, the base is already beyond the allowed limit in terms of size."
Sheyan raised his eyebrows."What do you mean? Be more specific."
It turned out that, in view of the severe war situation (the humans needed to cooperate with the Protoss to stand their ground against the Zerg), an Exploration Protection Ordinance had been enacted among the people.
The ordinance stipulated that even civilians could employ most of the military forces and military weapons of the army for exploration and war purposes in the vast universe as long as they could afford the crystals. The General Staff would not impose any restrictions on them or take a cut out of their profit.
Pontin was a beneficiary of this ordinance. Although he was a soldier in active service, the army he had currently established was not actually established through the General Staff Department. Instead, he had used the abundance of crystals in his hands to purchase soldiers directly from the one-way teleportation device through the privileges granted by the ordinance.
To give an example, he could purchase a Marine with 50 units of Pandora crystal. The Marine would a brain-washed prisoner on death row who would obey any order he gave without question. A brand-new Siege Tank required only 150 units of Pandora crystal and 100 units of rare Vespene gas, a kind of associated gas.
According to the ordinance, Pontin was recognised as the leader of the base due to his status as a hero. The troops he bought were completely under his command. However, these troops were expensive, and they could only display 80% of their combat effectiveness because they lacked the command of a good military officer.
The problem troubling Pontin was that he had been told his forces had exceeded the limit, be it in the size of the base or the number of troops he had.
And if he wished to possess advanced technologies such as the nuclear missile, the Battlecruiser, or the powerful anti-fighter Valkyrie frigate, he must undergo the examination and evaluation of the General Staff. Pontin had been informed in no uncertain terms that, due to his violations, the General Staff would be sending an investigation team over, and everything that he had built may be confiscated by the government.
The difference between the present situation and being under government rule was that, in the case of the latter, if the General Staff felt that this place possessed a strategic significance, they would send in a large number of troops and officers, and all authority would go under the General Staff. Of course, Pontin would be reimbursed with ample amount of wealth and honour. He could even go back home and enjoy retirement if he wished to. The Pandora crystals collected by the base after that would all go directly to the State Treasury. The troops would be teleported directly by the General Staff, so they naturally did not require any fee.
Sheyan, of course, was unwilling to see someone like Pontin who obeyed his orders being deprived of power.
"When will the investigation team arrive?"
"They've made it clear that I have to reply within three hours, or the investigation team will be dispatched here three hours later through the one-way teleportation device. I have a feeling that the General Staff is very interested in this place, so the investigation team may very well be the people that will take over my authority right away. I will lose all the powers in my hand."
"I can't believe the General Staff would notice and investigate me just because I have over 30 Wraiths!" Pontin slammed into his desk in anger."It's completely unreasonable. I know the owner of an interstellar farm who has more than 100 Wraiths, but he's left alone."
"This shows that the General Staff have their eyes on this interstellar region, so they'll notice any minor changes...." explained Sheyan.
"But I didn't know that, " replied Pontin in chagrin.
"Perhaps the investigators could meet with some accidents?" Sheyan suddenly narrowed his eyes and said.
"Those f*ckers from the General Staff have quietly sent some military police over before they even sent me the notification. Anything I do now is monitored by those troops. The soldiers I've employed won't obey any orders to attack the members of their own army either, " Pontin complained gloomily.
Sheyan's first suggestion to Pontin was to stop expanding, but Pontin said it was useless because the General Staff had already noticed this place. Like a dog that had smelled the bone in your hands, no matter how well you hide the bone afterwards, the dog would still come and take a sniff.
Sheyan thought about it for a while and asked for some information regarding the results of the base's investigation so far. These information fully reflected the human's advantage in investigative ability. They would first scan with the radar, then take aerial footage with the Wraiths that could turn invisible and move at very high speed. The investigation that the human base had made on the fight between the Protoss and the Zerg was very thorough.
After a long while, Sheyan turned to Pontin and told him, "If that's the case, then you'll have to leave a large mess for the General Staff to deal with, a situation so messy that they wouldn't be willing to take over. They'll naturally lose interest after that."
"What kind of mess?" asked Pontin.
"The humans have a great advantage – our constructions can fly. Moreover, you've instructed the base to focus on developing air forces, which are highly mobile..."
Sheyan smiled and continued, "I notice that the Zerg have abandoned their air forces after their Mutalisks have been severely depleted, because gas resources are simply too rare. They're mainly developing their ground forces now, supported by air drops. We can use of this...."
***
Two hours later.
A Queen came over to the Queen of Blades who was recovering by soaking in nutrient solution in a spawning pool.
The Queen placed one of its tentacles on the Queen of Blades' forehead.
The Queen of Blades immediately acquired a vision from another place. It was a vision from the perspective of a human Wraith pilot who was observing the terrain outside the spacecraft. This was made possible because the unlucky fellow had been infected with a parasite the Queen had secretly ejected.
The parasite would not harm its host. In fact, it even had the benefit of strengthening the host's immune system. It was also very covert and would not be detected easily. Its only purpose was to feed everything the infected person saw back to the Queen.
The Queen of Blades saw a human base that was average in size, but more importantly, she saw two crystal veins that had not been mined to exhaustion yet! The mineral deposits in the possession of both the Zerg and the Protoss were about to run dry. These two seemingly poor mineral veins may very well become the deciding factor in their war!
The Queen of Blades immediately assessed the defensive strength of this human base. She decided to personally lead a small elite team to raze it. This way, they would not make a huge commotion during deployment, thus reducing the chances of the Protoss discovering their actions and launching an attack on the Zerg base during her absence. Kerrigan and her group of elites would move in silence and obtain the decisive factor before the Protoss even realised it.
The Queen of Blades did not even consider the fact that this might be a trap, because if it was, it meant that the humans were laying down the trap at the risk of having their base sustaining heavy losses, or even being razed to the ground.
To put it bluntly, without the pressure from the Zerg, the humans would still be at war with the Protoss. Thus, the human commander would never make this kind of sacrifice for the sake of the Protoss, unless his head had been kicked by a donkey.
Three hours later, the Queen of Blades stormed into the human base leading a team of tough-looking underlings. The human forces showed no fighting spirit at all, and only resisted dispassionately (those who resisted were all military police sent by the General Staff). The whole base then rose into the air and pathetically ran away. The Queen of Blades was only after the mineral veins and wanted a quick resolution to the battle, so she did not spend too much effort chasing after them. However, at that moment, a group of belated reinforcements suddenly came out of the seemingly abandoned human base.
These seemingly panic-stricken humans actually killed about seventeen or eighteen of the Drones Kerrigan dispatched to occupy the mineral veins. The furious Queen, despite her mental exhaustion, threw at them a signature skill of hers – the red Psionic Storm. It burned those people, whose real identities were members of the General Staff investigation team, into charcoal.
***
The Queen of Blades did not know that this scene of her showcasing her amazing power had been filmed and sent to Sheyan.
Sheyan was currently outside Uraki's Protoss base. Right after he received the video, he rushed into the base to meet with Uraki. Although Uraki was not that fond of Sheyan, he did not hesitate to attack the Zerg base when presented with such a good opportunity.
The Queen of Blades was indeed an outstanding legendary-level leader. Even in such a situation, she had planned for any unforeseen circumstances. Yes, the troops she left behind kept being pushed back by the Protoss' strong attack, but they seemed to have no problem dragging the fight on until the return of the Queen of Blades!
But in that instant, a human army suddenly joined the battle, becoming the straw that broke the camel's back. The human army consisted almost exclusively of air forces. 30 Wraiths and 6 anti-air Valkyries destroyed the Zerg's pitiful air force in no time at all, then massacred every Zerg Overlord on the battlefield!!
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