Rahish’s expression remained bitter and resentful, his hatred for Chen Feng and his group undiminished. He tilted his head in a curt gesture for the three to follow, then led them into an area resembling a construction site dormitory. He led them into the largest structure, a house of corrugated iron, obviously built from scuttled standard shipping containers.

  Inside, a simple long table and several chairs stood under a map hung on the wall, the space arranged like a makeshift war room. He took a seat at the head of the table without ceremony and gestured for Alina and Chen to gather before him—the three couldn't sit in their powered armor. "Our enemies are close," he said without preamble. "You need to move quickly."

  "I know the area is swarming with enemies," Alina said. "Now, brief us on the local situation."

  "Let's be frank. Your strategic position is untenable. Frankly, worse than my own." Rahish stated. "Your objective is the East-Delhi Theater. That means crossing the Saint Aurora urban zone—population 22,000. It's a company asset now, managed by a local franchisee, a warlord named Teodulo, who has pledged allegiance to the Delhi Syndicate corporate group. He receives equipment and technical support from their industrial hub in Central Delhi."

  He continued, "Before your 'Sirius Vanguard' was ordered to retreat, I had already performed initial due diligence skirmishes with Teodulo's forces. They're mainly stationed in the suburban residential areas on the town's outskirts. He commands about two hundred men, equipped with individual exoskeletons and motorized transport, but no heavy armor."

  Chen immediately started to translate the misaligned military terminologies in his mind. meant infantry power armor. covered cars, trucks, any non-armored vehicle… anything that carried troops. meant tanks, IFVs, and armored personnel carriers.

  "Show us on a map," Chen Feng cut in. "It'll be more intuitive.”

  Rahish sat up, his expression grim. Instead of using the wall map as Chen expected, he rummaged under the table. A moment later, a glowing holographic map flickered to life above the simple table—displaying rainforests, roads, and towns, all annotated with floating frames of data. He pointed to a red-marked, 3D projection of a town at the map's center. "Saint Aurora. We're 40 kilometers from here, straight line. Corporate reconnaissance drones have full coverage of these trade routes. Your only viable route is direct traversal of the rainforest. The board- I mean I would call it an 'unacceptable risk.' I now call it your only option"

  Rahish seemed to be stammered in the middle of his words.

  "I see that," Alina said. "Can Saint Aurora be bypassed?"

  Rahish shook his head. "Not possible. The alternative is the Death Sea. A 110-kilometer-long irradiated exclusion zone. Zero cover and ample Syndicate drone surveillance. Or you could try skirting the western flank of the syndicate-controlled megacity, but given your... affiliation, that would be suicide."

  "Conclusion: Saint Aurora is a necessary passage," Flora stated, her synthesized voice flat.

  "Rahish, I need more details on the enemy's battle strength," Alina said. "The equipment is similar to our Light Infantry's, but its effectiveness depends entirely on the user."

  Rahish’s expression darkening: "I you: two hundred men in armored powered-exoskeletons—Ah, I see. That's 'Light Infantry' gear to you, is it?" He let out a short, dry laugh. “Remarkable. The overhead on your supply chain must be a nightmare. That's some nerve, New Terran."

  Chen Feng, tired of Rahish’ cynic sarcasm: "Stop fucking with us. Tell me something I know, or I'll incinerate you and use your ashes for lunch curry!"

  A palpable silence fell over the room.

  Flora Rosenkrantz broke the silence: "Query: Chen Feng, is this a savage culinary practice from your native culture?"

  Rahish replied slowly: "That won't be necessary. If you insist on eating my ashes after killing me, I'll be reincarnated as maggots for my next many lives. I rather enjoy being human, please and thank you."

  Alina tried to mediate. "Chen, stand down. Mr. Dine... my Tactical Officer is... overstressed. My apologies."

  Chen Feng felt a pang of awkwardness. In his 21st-century China, that threat would have been elementary-school bullying. Here, it was taken as a literal, horrifying statement. They had no context for his archaic brand of hyperbole and the three of them clearly took his words at face value.

  he thought,

  "Regardless," Rahish said, steering back to the topic, "those corporate dogs are tenacious. Your weapons can pierce their armors, yes, but—look here."

  He pointed toward the outskirts of Saint Aurora's suburban residential areas: "Teodulo’s forces deployed here in these suburban residential sectors, controlling key heights and all ingress and egress. But the real danger is here, the Saint Aurora proper." he point at a line on the map, a thick line drawn in yellow and black, representing fortifications. "Inside this line is the Saint Aurora proper, prime real estate, from a military defense standpoint. These houses were built decades ago as a model project by a company; they're high-strength precast concrete structures with a mixed-use design—half-residential, half-commercial. They're very sturdy. We lack the necessary assault weapons to take this town."

  Rahish was not using standard military jargons the squad was trained for. Flora attempted to translate: “You are stating that you lack the heavy guns or artillery to engage them effectively.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Rahish gave a single, grim nod.

  Alina asked: "Does that mean their control is confined within the town limits?"

  "Not entirely," Rahish said. "Your partisan weapons are effective. The hostiles have decent rural combat capability, but we still hold the competitive advantage the town. Give me another hundred K-16 'Liberators' combat guns and I could achieve the effect you're describing."

  Flora: "What of locally produced civilian firearms? Are they ineffective?"

  Rahish: "They're non-starters. That armor's core sell-point competency is civilian pacification. Marketed as 'public safety assurance platforms.' Translation to layman’s term: they are specifically designed to crush uprisings. We need SW-3 grade high-hardness rounds or better to penetrate. Before you arrived, we could only wound them with homemade explosives"

  Flora recited from memory, the weapon's specs as familiar to her as her own name. "The K-16 'Liberator' precision marksman rifle family uses 5.8x72mm Adamantine-cored kinetic kill munition. That explains its efficacy."

  Chen Feng shifted the subject. "This Teodulo. What's his business?"

  Rahish glanced at Chen. "Human dealership."

  Chen and Alina's faces hardened. Flora looked at him, her brow furrowing slightly as she processed the concept. It was a social illogic her education had not prepared her for. "Are you stating that human beings are a tradable commodity in this system? That they can be bought and sold?"

  "Yes, under certain legal frameworks," Rahish replied, his voice dripping with cynicism. "On this planet, life-term indentured contracts are globally legal. Basic human rights are priced, marketed, and sold freely. That is our version of 'Liberty.' Surprise, little princess.”

  Flora fell silent for a moment, then replied, her voice low with a rare, personal distaste that cut through her usual analytical tone: "That... is not the Liberty taught in the Republican Academies."

  Chen Feng's voice was low. "Continue."

  Rahish continued: "Teodulo Leir Cade IV. His family office manages a Brazilian-based human capital conglomerate. They began in private security in the middle 24th century, then transitioned to hostile acquisition of human capitals in the early 25th. Their first markets were human product manufacturers in North America and West Africa. Later, they shifted to high-end markets, even patenting cloning templates.

  Now, most of their revenues come from centralized cloning and wholesale, but they've never abandoned the... original trades."

  "Wait." Flora's voice lost its measured cadence, a spike of raw, horrified confusion breaking through. "What are 'human product manufacturers'?"

  Rahish’s eyes grew cold. “Some supply chains are best left un-audited. It’s not relevant to crossing the town, New Terran.”

  "Human trafficking. Kidnapping. Forced labor?" Chen Feng distilled it into ancient, brutal terms of his era.

  Rahish contemplated the words for a moment.

  "...Archaic terminology, but accurate. Yes. For vanity's sake, many clients prefer 'naturally grown' individuals from society over clones. It's a matter of quantified emotional value as marketable commodities."

  "How can such methods be legal?!" Chen Feng demanded.

  "He leverages policy. Lobbying, post-law market barriers, judicial flexibility. He purchases the accesses," Rahish listed, his voice thick with a cold, business cynicism. "Teodulo buys access. So, a normal individual can't liquidate their own rights, but his corporate entity can perform a hostile acquisition of a person, complete with asset stripping. The local government acts as the approving board, seizing the physical assets. It's a very efficient vertical integration model."

  "Speak a language I can understand."

  Chen was struggling with the business jargons of this era. Rahish sighed.

  “Very well. Let me lay the terminology plain first: There is ‘lobbying,’ a very old political-business practice that we can trace back to the 20th

  century, involving people paying politicians to influence certain policy changes into their favor. Then there are 'post-law market entry barriers,' which means one can be exempted from certain laws and policies once certain wealth conditions are met. Then there are 'flexible judiciary & law enforcement frameworks,’ which means, our legal system treats you differently based on your net worth, income level, and annual spending.”

  He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a grim, visceral tone. “In practice, here: an ordinary person can't sell their own freedom, but Teodulo's goons can enter a home, shackle a man's wife and children, and execute compulsory purchase of their basic human rights at 40% of market value as 'indentured employees.' And since those 'employees' forfeit all property rights—under Teodulo’s company policy—Teodulo brings a government official to seize the family's assets at a price point of zero. The court auctions it off, and the profit goes to the government. That is why Lord Leir Cade is so welcome here."

  "How does a system like this retain any legitimacy?" Chen Feng asked, the core of his beliefs revolted.

  Chen Feng, by belief, is a Chinese republican that believe sovereignty and legitimacy, by their original source, from the educated and informed people. He doesn’t believe a system like this can exist in the first place, let alone thrive for hundreds of years.

  "Legitimacy?" Rahish barked a bitter laugh. "It's simple. They have a monopoly on force and the technology to apply it indiscriminately. A protest gets a drone strike. A village that isn’t owned by a company gets a bombing run, and an uprising city gets a nuclear bomb. The logic is pristine: it's cheaper to obliterate a non-compliant asset than to let it set a precedent of independence. And the aftermath? The survivors are new customers for the corporate health and prison complexes. It's not just efficient profit, it's exploitation. A perfect, self-justifying cycle."

  “It is not a sustainable societal model.” Alina stated.

  "Sustainability is not a KPI they track," Rahish shot back. "When an asset—like this population—is fully depreciated, the capital is reallocated to more promising markets; and while this happens, the depleted labor market is replenished with human capitals sourced from elsewhere, often came here at their own expense. It's not personal. It's portfolio management. Welcome to the world of terminal capitalism, you Communist ideologues."

  Flora listened, her silence detached. The concept seemed to evade her processing, a fundamental paradox her Republican education hadn't prepared her for.

  “I understand the theory," Chen said, steering the conversation back to the tactical. "How do we to Saint Aurora? And how do we get it?"

  "Now you're asking useful questions," Rahish said.

  Rahish pulled a small storage card from his pocket and tossed it onto the table. "See for yourselves. My people prepared this while we talked. Plug it in. It's a presentation—corporate style. It explains everything that gets you to Saint Aurora and through it."

  The three squad members exchanged a glance.

  Flora interjected, her voice sharp with professional caution. "I must object. This is a hybrid micro-disc requiring a 4th-level neural slot adapter. If it contains malware, it could infiltrate our shared infrastructure layer. A direct connection is an unacceptable cyber-defense risk.""

  Alina: "Can you sanitize it?"

  Flora: "Affirmative. But I cannot guarantee complete success. There is a... non-zero risk of data loss, and sophisticated malware can bypass our standard detectors. I am not a dedicated cyber-warfare specialist."

  Chen Feng: "… To translate, my knowledge of modern network security is basic. Just assume I know nothing."

  Their conversation was conducted over the internal comm. Rahish, hearing none of it, stared at their silent helmets. "What's the hold-up? The hard drive, plug it in! You don’t have it on New Terra or something?"