Once Hye erged from the deep mines, he didn't linger. He gave the command for an imdiate evacuation of the city. His warriors surged toward the fleet in a grand, disciplined gathering, abandoning the mountain and moving toward the next target on his map.
Watching this sudden movent from the Council hall, Moth realised the mont of truth had arrived.
[It's the right ti to speak with Hye!] Moth signalled the Grand Elder.
The old leader didn't respond for several minutes, his eyes fixed on the screen as if calculating the reasons behind Hye's sudden, abrupt moves. Finally, he replied:
[Five minutes and you'll be able to bypass the lockout. Make sure to learn as much as you can. The window will be only twenty minutes! And be warned: the next ti we do this, the window will shrink even shorter. Don't waste a single second.]
[Got it!] Moth understood the gravity of the Grand Elder's warning. The clock was ticking, and with every subsequent contact, the window would shrink, becoming a narrow needle's eye through which they had to thread the survival of the empire. He couldn't afford a single wasted second.
His mind raced, thinking of critical intelligence: What was the true purpose of the mountain city? Had Hye extracted the nas of the high-level traitors? How many other parasitic colonies were in the Hescos holand?
[Any minute now!] The Grand Elder's warning flashed like a pulse of lightning on Moth's interface. Moth had already drafted a long, dense list of queries, his fingers hovering over the transmit command. The mont the global blackout flickered green, he sent the ssage.
High above the plains, tucked within the armoured cocoon of his flagship, Hye was plotting his next move toward the nearest Hescos city when the ssage from Moth slamd into his eyes. As he skimd the contents, his jaw tightened, and he couldn't help but inwardly curse the political theatre he had been dragged into.
"That damn Grand Elder! This is exactly why I never trust old n!" Hye fud, his eyes flashing with rage. "They always have their own layers of conspiracies and sches playing out behind the shadows, using everyone else as pawns on a board they don't even show us."
He couldn't simply ignore the ssage or send back fluff. The Grand Elder wasn't just looking for the nas of the rats in his cellar; he was testing Hye's utility. He was weighing whether the human was a reliable asset for the future big plans.
Moth's ssage had been explicit: the Grand Elder was sitting back, purposefully withholding his own investigators to see how Hye and Moth would handle the crisis. It was a trial of character as much as it was a trial of strength.
"If you want the traitors, then I'll give you exactly what you're looking for," Hye muttered.
He paused, calculating the risks. He decided to bundle the raw interrogation recordings his warriors had ticulously captured after segregating the high-value targets. He hadn't initially intended to hand over his leverage so soon, but he knew he had to play the ga to win the board.
Luck was on his side; he had anticipated that the communications might be restored montarily, and he had prepared the evidence. Better yet, the narrowness of the window provided him with a perfect excuse to be brief and selective.
"I'll tell them about the city's nature, the God Ore being bled from their own soil, and the nas of the traitors," Hye decided, recalling Moth's warning that every twitch of his finger was being monitored by the Council's prying eyes.
"And I'll add that I'm currently following several high-priority leads from my captives. I'll tell them I'm not a hundred percent certain yet, so I'll send the full proof once I've confird anything."
He drafted a response that was a masterpiece of strategic transparency. It was a long, shocking docunt filled with the kind of facts that would make the Council's blood run cold.
He detailed the monthly arrival of the Toranks smuggling vessels, and he drew a direct, terrifying line between the ore mined from the Hescos mountains and the God weapon the Toranks were using to reshape the balance of power in the galaxy.
He knew this information, especially when paired with the specific nas of the traitorous Elders, would keep the Grand Elder and the loyalist factions busy for weeks.
Even if they tortured the nas of other cities out of the traitors, Hye would still have a significant head start. He would be the first on the scene, the first to harvest the ore, and the first to claim the spoils of war.
He attached hundreds of high-definition video files of the special captives and hit send.
"I have no more ti to waste," Hye muttered, the weight of his recent delay strolling the city pressing on him. "From now on, the tactic changes. No more delegations. No more introductions. No more complex manoeuvres."
He stared at the map, his eyes fixed on the next red mark. "I will simply roof the sky with my other-universe ships, create an unbreakable do of iron, and unleash my technique until every soul in the city belongs to . Efficiency over diplomacy."
The leisurely attitude of his first encounter was gone, replaced by a cold, ruthless pragmatism. He would move with a speed that would leave the traitors—and perhaps even the Grand Elder—breathless.
Little did Hye know, the information he had just transmitted wasn't rely going to keep the Grand Elder busy; it was the spark that would ignite a hastily prepared rebellion, a firestorm that would rip through the very core of the Hescos Empire.
Despite his best efforts to remain a distant observer, a re harvester of bones and ore, he was being pulled into the gravity well of a mighty race's struggle and civil war. He would be forced into the heart of the chaos, regardless of his own sches.
[What is that?!!]
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