65: Chapter 65 Choice
In the secret war room of the Governors Mansion, the military clock on the wall steadily pointed to eight in the morning.
Only four hours had passed since their return.
There were still 16 hours left before the showdown with the nobles.
In the center of the conference table lay an encrypted impeachment document.
Brigadier General Valerius Costa, in league with seventeen noble families of the Hive City, had framed Fu Haoran for three capital crimes: consorting with xenos, hoarding prohibited armaments, and colluding with cults. The Council of Nobles had passed it unanimously; once sent to the Inquisition, it was unlikely anyone present would survive.
You say this evidence is fake?
Who can guarantee that the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs hasn't been bribed?
No one dared to claim they could escape unscathed, let alone clear their names.
...
Sitting around the table were all people Fu Haoran had personally promoted.
Wade, Ronan, Kaimei, and Hawk were all young officers who had crawled out of the mud pits of the Underhive; none were of noble birth.
Before them was a holographic projection of the Hive City.
"What? You want to kidnap the Upper Nest nobles?! You're insane!"
Yuri, the former lackey of the nobles, now only wanted to pry open his new boss's head to see if it was filled with shit!
He zoomed in on the projected map and pointed at the Upper Nest, saying, "Look closely! There are only eight bridges leading to the Upper Nest, and every single one is guarded by legions controlled by the nobles!"
"The bridgeheads are packed with anti-tank Macro Cannons and Laser Cannons. Charging in would just be throwing away lives."
"Even if we break through, do you know how many defenders are there? Counting their direct units and private armies, their numbers exceed 500,000!"
"How many men do you have? At most, you can only control 200,000!"
"Once you move on a large scale, you'll definitely be discovered! How many people do you plan to send to surround them?"
Yuri had spent half his life smuggling and knew every checkpoint and hidden bunker in the Hive City like the back of his hand.
Thus, he felt this plan was nothing more than a suicidal farce.
"Furthermore, as soon as a shot rings out in the banquet hall, ten full divisions nearby can complete an encirclement within half an hour. Your men will be trapped like rats with no way to retreat."
"Not to mention, once you clash with the defenders, the noble navy in orbit will open fire immediately."
"Those lords won't care about the lives of the civilians below. A single salvo of Macro Cannons would level half of the Upper Nest."
A dead silence fell over the meeting room.
Yuri didn't seem satisfied and intended to extinguish the last glimmer of hope.
"You hillbillies don't actually think that nobles attend banquets without bodyguards, do you?"
"None of the bodyguards serving nobles are useless; taking on ten men at once is the baseline. There are even Drukhari / Dark Aeldari mercenaries from Commorragh among them. Killing you Underhivers would be like carving through melons and vegetables!"
"Besides, you can't hide too many people in the banquet hall; too many and they'll be noticed instantly."
"The only chance is an inside-outside job. Planted agents must secure the gates first, and then the assault team rushes in to seize all key noble figures before reinforcements arrive."
His tone was full of frustration at their incompetence, mixed with a trace of helpless resignation.
"Even if we take the banquet hall, there's one last hurdle."
"Knowing that old man Valerius, he won't risk attending the banquet at all. He'll just hide in his ship and wait for the results."
Just then, Lucifer, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly spoke: "There's good news and bad news."
"The good news is that Valerius's fleet has been redeployed."
Before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Lucifer added:
"The bad news is that Valerius just leased a moon-class cruiser from a Rogue Trader, and it has already arrived in synchronous orbit."
Boom.
Yuri slumped into his chair. After a moment, he burst out cursing: "I knew that grandson of a bitch wouldn't take a single risk!"
"A moon-class cruiser! This is a capital ship of the Imperial Navy! How are we supposed to fight this?!"
The faces of the others were also grim, for the name of the moon-class cruiser was known to everyone.
It was a mainstay of the Imperial Navy, known as the 'Bane of the Imperium's Enemies'!
Fu Haoran knew even better that the moon-class cruiser had been a backbone of the Navy since the era of the Great Crusade.
During the twelve Black Crusades, even Abaddon The Despoiler's fleet had to respect it.
Yuri said despondently, "A five-kilometer-long hull, a ventral fin eight hundred meters wide, and broadsides filled with Macro Cannon arrays and Lance Turrets!"
"That cobra-class destroyer of yours—the only thing you have worth mentioning—is just a tin can floating in space compared to it. It's not even a quarter of its length. How the hell can we fight?!"
"The only way to delude ourselves is that this is a Rogue Trader's modified ship; they surely removed the Torpedo Tubes to make room for cargo. Otherwise, you wouldn't even survive one salvo of torpedoes!" By the end, his voice was cracking.
Everyone felt a chill in their hearts; that was a moon-class cruiser.
Its Void Shields and armor weren't something a single destroyer could penetrate.
Even if they wanted to board for a decapitation strike, there were nearly 100,000 Naval Armsmen on board, and wolf spider sentry turrets covered every corridor. Boarding was practically a suicide mission.
The morale in the meeting room instantly plummeted to rock bottom.
In the fixed perception of everyone in the Hive City, the lords of the Imperial Navy were invincible.
The desperate reality threw the meeting room into chaos.
The veteran Hawk slammed his hand on the table and roared, "At worst, it's just death! Even dying is better than going back to the Underhive to be ants crushed by the nobles!"
"You're crazy! This is just throwing your life away!"
"What else can we do? Surrender and crawl back to the Underhive? Back to the sewers, back to the days where children just starve to death?!"
Amidst the noisy arguments, a system panel suddenly popped up on Fu Haoran's retina.
[Desperate Choice Mission Triggered!]
[Option 1: Kneel and surrender, hand over all military power and territory. Reward: Survival, but stripped of all Reincarnator privileges and demoted to a low-level slave of the Hive City.]
[Option 2: Lead a boarding party to decapitate Valerius Costa. Reward: moon-class cruiser technical blueprints x1, Free Attribute Points +3, complete control over the Hive World!]
[PS: Host, this time it's either a leap to the heavens or an immediate GG!]
Lucifer crossed her arms and looked at Fu Haoran with interest, her eyes full of amusement.
She wanted to see how this mortal would be crushed.
Fu Haoran suddenly stood up, and the meeting room fell silent instantly. Everyone's gaze snapped to him.
Fu Haoran didn't speak; he just scanned every face around the conference table.
These people were all those he had personally promoted, brothers-in-arms who had faced death together.
Ronan had just moved his family to the Mid-Hive; his two children were combined not even ten years old.
Kaimei's mother had just been admitted to the hospital, and his younger siblings could finally eat their fill.
Hawk was in his sixties and still fighting hard just so his grandson could live like a human being.
These were the brothers who had fought alongside him all the way from the Underhive.
After watching for a long time, Fu Haoran finally spoke. His voice was calm, yet it drowned out everyone's breathing.
"I know this is a near-certain death. I know the opponent is an Imperial capital ship. I know our chances of winning are slim!"
The meeting room was deathly silent; even the sound of breathing had stopped.
Fu Haoran's gaze fell upon Yuri, upon Ronan, and upon every single person.
"But fate is fair. To gain something, there must be a price paid."
"But I, Fu Haoran, will never let you charge at the very front in my place!"
"Therefore, for this decapitation strike, I will personally lead the boarding party." He raised his hand and slammed the Bolter at his waist onto the conference table. The gun hit the desk with a heavy thud.
"If I die, I'll take the responsibility."
"If I come back alive, we shall all share in this glory."