Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1069, page 09.1068: 'Accomplices in a Conspiracy for Shared Interests'

"He just wants to starve us all to death!"

When those words were shouted out in an almost screaming tone of grief and indignation, Horatio's hand, holding the coffee cup, froze in mid-air.

"Captain, she is absolutely right."

Just then, Horatio heard a communication through his bone conduction headset. Captain Valina's icy voice came through, and simultaneously, a high-definition video feed from a Hellslinger sniper in the attic, captured by his shoulder-strap camera, was transmitted to his data tablet.

"Our snipers have discovered civilians who have been dead for several days in the back alleys of your neighborhood and in several abandoned houses. By the Divine Emperor, look at these emaciated corpses. They are all natives of Polaberia, and it seems they did not survive the last winter. We have not yet smelled a strong stench of decay, mainly thanks to... the weather here has not yet started to warm up."

"..." Horatio's face was ashen. He glanced again at the photo Yoyo had taken from the governor's office—the header of the contract clearly stated: Governor's Office of the Polyberia Colony and the Twin Terra Group.

At the bottom, among the numerous signatures representing various trading entities, he noticed a small line of text signed in a different handwriting—Kingston.

Kingston...
Horatio's pupils contracted sharply. He immediately recalled the name he had overheard from the conversation between two Sintira officers plotting to leak information when They and Farida infiltrated the Sintira flintlock regiment's headquarters—"Mr. Kingston."

Although he wasn't sure if the two "Kingstons" were the same person, in the current turbulent and chaotic situation, he would never ignore the possibility that they were the same person.

Upon seeing the name, Horatio immediately swiped open the data panel and accessed the encrypted 'investigation data' that Thee had prepared for him before leaving.

He typed in "Twin Terra Group," and soon, several pages of top-secret information extracted by They from the Tribunal's internal database appeared.

The Twin Terra Group was originally established to help traveling merchants and wanderers cope with all possible unknown plagues, slow colonization due to unfamiliar environments, and large-scale deaths from disease in newly developed colonial territories, which could affect the progress of colonial construction.

It has achieved great success in the fields of bioengineering, gene editing, anti-psychic pollution, and even genetically modified crops, and has indeed helped wandering merchants and rogues all over the galaxy, making an indelible and outstanding contribution to the expansion of the human empire.

As a result, its importance is increasing day by day.

Today, it has evolved into a colossal, world-class biotechnology conglomerate whose size is immeasurable and inseparable from its imperial expansion. Meanwhile, its business also extends to highly profitable sectors such as private security, high-end medical care, and military supply transportation.

On the surface, the group's shareholding structure is not publicly disclosed, its management system is unknown, and no individual with a clear identity has been found serving as its CEO. No one knows who the hidden masters are controlling and leading this massive group.

However, They had already discovered that several top-tier merchant ronin factions had invested heavily in the group and transferred assets. These included the renowned merchant ronin dynasties that Horatio had already dealt with in the Colonus expansion—both the Wintersco family and the von Valancius dynasty—all of which had injected enormous amounts of capital into the group to varying degrees and reaped staggering profits.

Besides its core business of bioengineering, the Colonial Security Company (CSEC), controlled by the Gemini Terra Group, has become the preferred mercenary security force for many newly developed worlds in multiple sectors such as Calicsis, Colonus, and Scalus.

In this way, the traveling merchants no longer needed to go through the trouble of building up costly but often unreliable local militia forces, but could simply hand over all security and defense tasks to the "colonial security company".

As this business model grows larger, the resulting ripple effects are also extremely significant—they can quickly mobilize their professional mercenaries from nearby, contracted worlds to travel to any planet where there is risk.

For example, if a major upheaval occurs in one of the colonies under Merchant A's control, which is contracted with CSEC, the colony security company can immediately mobilize CSEC personnel from the nearest planet contracted with Merchant B for security, to conduct armed stabilization operations in Merchant A's world—even if Merchant A and Merchant B are mortal enemies who would rather die than see each other in business, it still doesn't affect the fact that this is a normal personnel mobilization within CSEC.

After all, CSEC's sole mission is to efficiently fulfill contracts with its employers. No traveling merchant cares how or by what means it fulfills the contracts, as long as its assets are safe.

Horatio murmured the name, and instantly a memory flashed through his mind—the well-equipped, mysterious unit he had seen at the Imperial Navy training base, sent by the colonial governor for training. On their black and red armbands, beneath the double-headed eagle emblem, the words "CSEC" were clearly written in high Gothic letters.

In other words, the actual defense of this planet is currently contracted out to a massive private armed group...
Originally, a colonial governor commanding a large number of professional mercenaries was already intimidating enough. But now, the truth has been revealed: these mercenaries actually belong to a massive mercenary group spanning several star sectors with unfathomable backing.

While the group's loyalty to the human empire cannot be denied lightly, being in this place, one must be on guard, lest the worst-case scenario occur and it be too late—he has already survived one assassination attempt, and he must consider all possible worst-case scenarios.

"Why?" Yadwiga's voice pulled him from his reverie. She still couldn't understand what was happening before her eyes, her face filled with confusion and anxiety. "I can't understand what the benefit is in doing this? Does the governor benefit from the death of all the labor force?"

In the traditional chivalric education that Jadwiga received, population determined the quality of economic development.

Without people, there is no development, and the world will eventually decline.

And this is precisely what she has always believed to be the root cause of the eventual decline of the Wadsław royal court, leading to the tragic end of Polaberia.

“Perhaps, for some groups that ‘want the land but not the people,’” Horatio’s voice was cold as he slowly closed the data panel, “it would be better if there were no people.”

He raised his head and looked directly into Jadvig's eyes, which were trembling slightly with shock.

"The current governor of Polaberia is selling off hundreds of millions of tons of food from this planet at extremely low, almost free prices, causing terrible famine and massive population deaths under his rule."

Meanwhile, the Twin Terra Group took advantage of the plummeting land prices and the mass deaths of native inhabitants to cheaply purchase many of the most fertile lands on the planet.

As long as the Twin Terra Corporation can bring him enough personal gains far exceeding the normal tithe, then for an appointed colonial governor who only pursues profit maximization,” Horatio uttered the cruel truth, “the lives of the natives of this planet are utterly insignificant. Even the appointment on this planet is merely a trivial stroke on his resume.”

Just as Jadwiga was shocked by the naked malice revealed in these words and fell into a chilling anxiety, a melodious and fervent hymn, accompanied by the sound of orderly footsteps, drifted from the inner city not far away.

Horatio turned his head slightly and looked towards the inner city through the restaurant's glass window.

A grand procession of the state religion is slowly making its way through the streets.

Judging from the flag, it seems to be the mission aboard the pilgrimage ship in orbit, which has already arrived on this planet.

Horatio turned his gaze away.

He saw the "Oath-Taking" priests of St. Drusus, dressed in simple gray robes, holding up icons and loudly proclaiming their theories and beliefs to the numb and hungry crowds on both sides of the street. They shared simple but clean food and water with the people, urging them to join their ranks and demand that all the "Refusal-Oath-Taking" priests on the planet immediately compromise with them and re-swear their oaths.

(End of this chapter)