231: "Humans living in harmony"

(Received another mass update shower from Olga Chair-ka, 32 chapters of bonus updates owed now)

(Thank you, big boss—and thanks to all the readers who followed the story here)

(But I really don't have time for bonus updates, and final exams are coming up soon)

(I only ask for some comments to keep me going; there's no need to send such expensive gifts)

...In the beginning, everyone thought Lagrange was just launching a small "negotiation-style coup."

They thought that once he gave the Military Alliance high-ranking officials a "lesson," he would stop on his own and return to his proper place.

As a result, most high-ranking officials of the Military Alliance's local Legions maintained an attitude of tacit consent or even approval—

After all, in their eyes, the Military Alliance's fleet should not hand over the star sectors they had already occupied to aliens, only to turn around and fight a civil war where neither side was any good.

It wasn't until the news of Cassius's death and the destruction of the Tower of Mourners spread,

That they realized this conflict was not so simple—

Almost in an instant, the entire Military Alliance was in an uproar.

All rank-and-file soldiers of the Military Alliance had three major spiritual pillars.

One was their souls returning to the Tower of Mourners, one was the thousand-year veteran Commander Cassius, and one was the pride and dignity of humanity.

After Lagrange's coup, two of the three were gone.

To use a vivid analogy, the impact of this event on the Military Alliance soldiers,

Was no less than the impact on 40K humanity if the Golden Throne collapsed and the psionic dried meat was blown to bits.

As the victor, Lagrange held the power to "state the facts" to the outside world.

In his version of the propaganda, all mistakes belonged to the high-ranking officials who "betrayed the Military Alliance and humanity"—

Obviously, this statement might be slightly biased, but not everyone would believe whatever they were told.

Especially after the Tower of Mourners was blown up, Lagrange directly broadcasted to the entire Military Alliance on the public channel, forcing all Legions to choose a side.

This impulsive move, born of extreme anger, caused the pressure he faced to double instantly:

A large number of Legions that had originally remained neutral chose to stand against Lagrange after some thought.

But at the very least, Lagrange's surname was "Koradilon"—

This family was currently the most powerful family with real authority in the Military Alliance. Descendants of the Old Empire's Praetorian Marshal and the founders of the Military Alliance, they were giants who could occupy a seat in the Military Alliance's decision-making meetings alone... The Military Alliance's system was similar to the "Military Merit Nobility System," where frontline generals were promoted or demoted based on military merit.

This system was indeed relatively fair and gave talented commoner officers a chance to prove themselves.

But those scions supported by families could enjoy better military education resources, have more opportunities to gain merit, and have a large number of "Senior Staff" supporting them—

They could even seal away all those defeats where troops were lost and generals were killed, leaving them unrecorded.

This led to the fact that even after so many years of dilution, the military power held by the Koradilon Family in the Military Alliance still accounted for about forty percent.

That forty-plus percent of the Legions quickly stood on Lagrange's side, becoming his strong support.

Thus, in less than half a day, the massive Military Alliance split into two.

On one side were the Legions that did not recognize Lagrange. They declared to the outside world that Lagrange's actions were a complete and total rebellion.

They believed the ambitious Koradilon Family had planned this for a long time to usurp the supreme power of the Military Alliance, and that both Cassius's death and the Tower of Mourners were just a play they directed and acted out themselves.

Most of these people were Legion Commanders of commoner origin who had been suppressed by the Koradilon Family, or Legion Commanders who had connections with the core high-ranking officials of the Military Alliance and knew that participating in the civil war was a way to lead them to prosperity.

They called themselves the "Loyalist Faction" and gathered all reserve forces outside the defense lines, preparing to fight to the death with Lagrange.

On the other side were those Legions primarily under the Koradilon Family's banner.

Facing the accusations of the so-called "Loyalist Faction," they refused to acknowledge any of them and threw all the mud slung at them back, even labeling the opposition as "colluding with aliens."

Furthermore, they repeatedly emphasized that they were the "Orthodoxy" of the Military Alliance, while those calling themselves "Loyalist Faction" were the true Traitors and liars.

As for the aliens who always played the role of villains, they even played a positive role in this conflict—

If not for the border defense pressure brought by the aliens, it's estimated that the two sides would have beaten each other senseless by now.

Even those megastructure units that always remained on alert and hidden had quietly turned their muzzles, changing their hypothetical strike targets from aliens to their former comrades.

So, while the two "Military Alliance fragments" were at each other's throats, what were other places in the universe doing?

Let's first turn our gaze to the pair of ill-fated lovers, The Consortium and the Empire—

Oh, wait, The Consortium has already been officially buried in the long river of history; it shattered even more thoroughly than the Military Alliance.

The Empire, on the other hand, was delighted. To use a less-than-vivid analogy, it was constantly annexing those fragments produced by The Consortium with the efficiency of Agario.

The residents under The Consortium's rule experienced three regime changes in just one month.

This meant they were fleeced three times—especially those planets near the frontline.

First, under The Consortium's "Scorched Earth" tactics, all second-class citizens and above were evacuated, and the rest were directly used as cannon fodder, slaves, and military rations.

The second time was when those independent regimes, in order to prove their break with Ursa Major V01.01, shot a group of Consortium soldiers—

Of course, elite veterans wouldn't be killed, so those commoners who had just been press-ganged a few days ago were unlucky once again.

The third time was after the Empire arrived.

After the first two rounds of stripping the land, those peripheral star systems had successfully achieved the miracle of a family planning plan that reduced the population to one-tenth.

Just when they thought they could live in peace now that the Empire had arrived,

Reality gave them another hard slap, indicating that you guys were still too naive—

The Empire also used slave soldiers and wetware.

What's more, the Imperial Religion, which believes in the lord of ten thousand changes, also has the habit of sacrificing prisoners of war to the gods.

And those captured surviving commoners were precisely the best human resources.

Thus, the commoners who survived the combination punch of The Consortium and the separatist forces experienced the feeling of land-stripping once again.

Finally, through the joint efforts of the three parties, these border star systems also successfully experienced the treatment of true "Scorched Earth"—

Almost no one survived.

Of course, while the Empire was feasting greedily, the other four big players besides the Military Alliance weren't idle either.

First, the Democratic Alliance and the Xila Republic, which bordered The Consortium, reacted the fastest. In the name of "human rights and freedom," they directly responded to the Empire's call and joined the ranks of those carving up the meat.

As for the Haivier Federation, which had a closer relationship with The Consortium, they were a bit more bashful. On the grounds of "not recognizing the legitimacy of The Consortium's current regime," they also joined the scope of the attack.

Only, in a corner that no one noticed—Cetus V66.66,

Certain things were frantically accumulating through a process from quantitative change to qualitative change.

That's right, after the joint task force of The Consortium and the Empire fought a fierce battle there, they stopped caring about that former trade center.

Those bugs were ranked very, very low in the Empire's priority—in the original operation plan, they were to serve as a training ground for the Empire to train new recruits, with no intention of solving them later.

To the point that... (Hive Mind: Wonderful...)

(I have emerged once again...)

(I feel—I have never been as strong as I am now!)

The things it learned at Ursa Major V12.22 made it incomparably satisfied and incomparably powerful at this moment—

A certain terrifying natural disaster that had once stirred the Second Empire for decades was slowly brewing in the shadows...