Cogboy's icy voice slowly rang out. To Adela's ears, it sounded like a whisper straight from hell.
"According to the stipulations of Chapter Three, Article Seven; Chapter Nine, Article Twelve; and Chapter Eleven, Article Three of the Imperial Frontier World Governance Act..." He paused, his voice echoing loudly in the dead-silent hall. "...You are sentenced to death, to be executed immediately."
"You!!"
Adela violently vaulted out of his chair. His impeccably maintained, aristocratic face was now twisted into something resembling a crushed worm.
"Cage Lawrence! This is tyranny! Absolute, naked tyranny!! I am the officially appointed Hive Lord, sanctioned by the Departmento Munitorum! Even if I step down, I still retain the legal status of a former Imperial official! According to the Terran Codex of Administrative Procedures, any trial against me must be strictly overseen by the Sector Arbitrator Tribunal and fully approved by the Planetary Governor's Office!" He roared, flecks of spit flying across the astronomically expensive cherrywood table. He grew increasingly hysterical, his trembling finger pointing directly at Cogboy. "You are just some wasteland bumpkin who took office three days ago! Who gave you the supreme authority to unilaterally sentence me to death?! This is a gross violation of the Imperial Truth! It is total insubordination! This is outright treason!!"
The other senior officials in the grand hall sat completely paralyzed with fear, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
They rapidly exchanged horrified glances, internally screaming their lungs out. Who the hell does things like this?!
The Imperial bureaucracy had functioned for eight hundred years, and even during the most blood-soaked transfers of power, everyone still maintained the absolute bare minimum of superficial political theater. There wasn't a single world in the galaxy where politics worked like this. Even hardcore visual novel games didn't have plotlines this deranged!
Weren't you supposed to completely strip him of his authority first, secretly launch an investigation, slowly compile undeniable evidence, and finally have the former Hive Lord suffer a "sudden fatal illness" or an "accidental fall" from a balcony in the dead of night? Who the hell hosts a massive general assembly on their literal first day in office, reads out a grocery list of capital charges in front of everyone, and immediately issues a public death sentence?! Exactly what kind of violently psychotic Hive Lord just crawled out of the barbaric wastelands?!
"Guards! Guards!!"
Seeing that Cogboy remained completely unfazed, Adela violently yanked a gold-plated vox-transmitter from his inner coat pocket. This was a highly encrypted device exclusively forged for the Hysman family, allowing him direct communication with the massive trump card he had stationed outside.
He viciously slammed the emergency channel button and shrieked into the transmitter. "Kaland! Breach the doors and—"
His voice abruptly cut off.
Because at that exact second, the heavy side doors of the grand hall were violently pushed open.
Six heavily augmented players casually strolled in, dragging five humanoid creatures whose faces had been beaten so badly they resembled swollen pigs. The man being dragged at the very front was wearing the crisp uniform of a PDF Supreme Commander, but his face was so catastrophically swollen that his own mother wouldn't be able to identify him. His left eye socket was bruised completely black, his right cheek was grotesquely swollen, his nose was violently shattered and pushed to one side, and bloody foam constantly leaked from the corner of his mouth.
It was exactly the PDF Commander Adela had staked his life on: Kaland.
"Lord Former Hive Lord!" One of the players flashed a bright, sunny grin and heavily patted Kaland on the shoulder—a casual gesture that caused the Commander to violently gasp in sheer agony. "We've officially invited the Lord Kaland you were looking for. He wasn't very cooperative at first. Kept screaming about how he was Governor Adela's closest confidant and had highly important official business to attend to..."
Another player casually chimed in, his tone light and breezy. "So we tried to be extremely reasonable with him. We politely explained that the new Hive Lord was holding a general assembly and all senior officials were strictly required to attend. But he just wouldn't listen. The bastard even ordered his men to draw their weapons."
The player gave a helpless shrug. "So, we had no choice but to forcefully engage in some physical persuasion. Oh, and he pointed casually at the five paralyzed, mud-like officers currently bleeding out on the floor—these guys over here are his most loyal squad captains. We went ahead and invited them along too."
Adela's hand froze completely stiff in mid-air.
Only the faint, scratching static of dead air echoed from his vox-transmitter. The one thousand heavily armed PDF troopers he had meticulously positioned right outside the Governor's Estate were obviously completely wiped out.
He slowly, mechanically turned his head, his wide eyes scanning the perimeter of the grand hall.
Over a hundred players clad in dark gray combat uniforms had silently, invisibly occupied every single tactical vantage point in the room. The muzzles of their lasguns were casually lowered, but the energy indicator runes on every single weapon were glowing with a sickening pale green light—they were completely hot and ready to fire. The invisible targeting trajectories of every single gun were casually, yet perfectly, locked onto the vital organs of the one hundred and seventy-plus officials present in the hall.
Adela's legs turned to absolute jelly.
With a heavy thud, he slid right out of his chair and collapsed hard onto the marble floor.
A player standing directly behind him instantly slung his lasgun over his shoulder, stepped forward, and viciously clocked him right in the right eye socket.
Adela let out an agonizing screech as his eye instantly swelled and bruised completely black.
"Lord Adela," the player sneered, reaching down to grab the back of his expensive collar. He effortlessly hoisted the former Hive Lord up like a pathetic, wet chicken and slammed him back into his chair.
The player leaned in, whispering softly into Adela's ear. The volume was low, but more than loud enough for the first few rows of officials to hear crystal clear. "Sit nicely like a good boy. Because if I have to throw another punch..." He flashed a terrifyingly bright smile, casually feinting a closed fist directly toward Adela's crotch. "...It'll be aimed right at that third leg of yours."
Adela convulsed violently, a dark, wet stain instantly blooming across his crotch.
The sharp, unmistakable stench of urine rapidly permeated the immediate air.
Cogboy didn't even bat an eyelid, looking as if he couldn't smell a damn thing. He just calmly continued to scroll through the holographic files in his hand, the blue light of his cybernetic eye flashing with cold, robotic stability.
"Next on the docket: Kroger Erland, Hive Security Prefect."
The exact second he read that name out loud, the scarred, middle-aged man sitting directly next to Adela violently flinched.
"You have held your office for exactly fourteen years. During that time, you have personally overseen five thousand, seven hundred and forty-two criminal cases. Exactly four thousand, one hundred and three of those cases were hastily closed, with the official ledgers marking them as either lacking sufficient evidence, or stating the suspect simply 'disappeared.'" Cogboy effortlessly swiped his hand, projecting several heavily scanned case files into the air. "However, according to the highly confidential syndicate transaction ledgers we recently acquired, exactly three thousand, eight hundred and forty-four of those exact suspects miraculously appeared on black-market human trafficking manifests shortly after their 'disappearances.'"
He slowly raised his head, his gaze locking onto Kroger like a targeting laser. "Every single one of these individuals was officially detained within your Precinct Fortress right before they were violently sold off. Would you care to explain?"
Kroger's lips trembled violently. He desperately wanted to say something to save his own life, but after glancing at Adela—who was literally pissing his pants beside him—and then looking at the hundreds of lethal lasgun muzzles pointed in his general direction, he couldn't squeeze out a single syllable.
"Silence is an admission of guilt." Cogboy casually checked off a digital box on the holographic file. "Charges: Conspiring with Underhive syndicates, mass human trafficking, extreme dereliction of duty, premeditated murder, and torture... totaling nineteen absolute capital offenses. You are sentenced to death, to be executed immediately."
Kroger utterly collapsed into his chair, his eyes completely hollow and dead.
The trial continued.
Cogboy's voice remained flat and utterly devoid of emotion.
"Finance Minister Jeremy. Embezzlement of Hive taxation funds totaling eighty-four million Imperial Coins. This directly caused three primary water purification plants to shut down due to lack of operational funding, triggering a mass cholera outbreak in the Underhive that resulted in forty-seven thousand civilian deaths. Death sentence."
"Civil Affairs Minister Rodriguez. Gross misappropriation of disaster relief grain. Diverted high-nutrient paste meant for starving refugees and illegally sold it to black-market merchants in neighboring Hive Cities for a personal profit of thirty-two million. Death sentence."
"Education Minister Sarah. Total monopolization of the Hive educational system, illegally pricing academy enrollment quotas. Over a period of twenty-five years, accepted bribes totaling fifty million Imperial Coins. Death sentence."
...
Name after name was read out.
Crime after crime was publicly declared.
Evidence after undeniable evidence was openly projected.
After every single name, Cogboy would calmly deliver the exact same two words:
"Death sentence."
The atmosphere in the grand hall gradually morphed from terrified shock into an absolute, suffocating silence. The last traces of color completely drained from the officials' faces.
They finally realized the horrifying truth. This wasn't a standard political power struggle. This wasn't a bureaucratic reshuffle. This wasn't even the classic case of a new official ruthlessly asserting his dominance.
This was a total, unmitigated extermination.
This was a literal firing-squad purge, reading straight down a hit-list.
When Cogboy finally read the name Kannis Brown, a violent commotion erupted in the grand hall once again.
The three Munitorum officials seated in the VIP section had originally been watching the proceedings with the detached amusement of theater-goers. They fundamentally believed that as high-level inspectors directly dispatched by a superior administrative body, this supposedly insane Lord Governor Cage wouldn't dare touch a single hair on their heads.
But now, Kannis's name had just been called.
"Cage!! Are you completely out of your mind?!!" Kannis violently vaulted to his feet, his slightly balding, round face flushing bright red with a mixture of absolute rage and terror. "I am a Senior Inspector of the Departmento Munitorum from the City of the Holy Anthem! I am an official of the Imperium directly subordinate to the Sector Munitorum Command!!"
He pointed a violently trembling finger at Cogboy. "Do you have any idea where I come from?! I hail directly from the Coryphen Sector! My official writ of appointment bears the personal signature of the Sector Governor! It possesses a highly classified registration designation from the Secretariat of the Senatorum Imperialis on Holy Terra itself!!"
As he grew increasingly hysterical, his hand instinctively snapped down toward the gold-plated laspistol holstered at his waist. Although the weapon was purely decorative, in that terrifying moment, he desperately needed anything that could provide him with a shred of security.
Click, click, click!!
Ten lasguns were simultaneously raised in perfect synchronization. The energy indicator runes on the weapons violently flashed from pale green to blinding, lethal red. Ten perfectly steady targeting lasers instantly locked onto Kannis's chest, forehead, and throat.
Kannis froze completely solid.
Moving with excruciating slowness, he carefully released his grip on his pistol and slowly sat back down.
"Lord Governor Cage..." His tone instantly softened, dropping into a desperate, pathetic plea. "We... didn't we have a wonderful conversation just a few days ago? I even explicitly promised to personally resolve all the political troubles plaguing your Hive City... Did you forget?"
Cogboy looked at him, his gaze entirely devoid of emotion. "Kannis Brown, Senior Inspector of the Coryphen Sector Departmento Munitorum. Term of office: twenty-three years."
He smoothly swiped his hand, projecting a new set of highly classified files into the air.
"Total personally embezzled funds convert to roughly four hundred and eighty million Imperial Coins, of which three hundred and forty million were directly extorted from the native aristocratic houses of Aurelian IV."
"Deputy Mason. Illicit smuggling and black-market distribution of highly restricted military supplies. His actions directly caused a fully equipped PDF regiment from the City of the Holy Anthem to be entirely wiped out during a mutant suppression campaign due to severe equipment shortages, resulting in thirty-two thousand military casualties."
"Todd. Active, long-term collusion with major human trafficking syndicates across multiple Hive Cities. Over the past fifteen years, you personally facilitated the disappearance of exactly fifty thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven innocent civilians. Their final destinations were either brutal slave-labor mines on frontier fringe worlds or the private gladiatorial arenas of twisted noble houses."
Cogboy finished reading and slowly raised his head. "Do the three of you possess any formal objections to these charges?"
Kannis opened his mouth, desperately wanting to scream that it was all a complete fabrication. But staring into Cogboy's freezing cybernetic eye, and then glancing nervously at the ten lethal lasguns still aimed directly at his head, he couldn't force a single syllable past his lips.
Mason had completely collapsed into his chair, his naturally sour face now as pale as a sheet of paper.
Todd's hands were trembling so violently that the light reflecting off his three massive gemstone rings danced erratically across the vaulted ceiling.
"Excellent." Cogboy snapped the heavy holographic ledger shut, the sharp clack echoing deafeningly in the dead-silent hall. He slowly swept his gaze across the room, taking in the sea of terrifyingly pale faces, a cold, mocking smile slowly curving his lips. "Does anyone present... have any formal objections to the horrific crimes I have just read?"
"I am completely innocent!!"
"Lord Governor! I was forced to do it! Adela forced me to do all of it!!"
"Those ledgers were left behind by the previous Finance Minister! I only just took over the position! I had absolutely no idea there were massive deficits!!"
"Human trafficking?! I swear to the Emperor I knew absolutely nothing about it! It must have been my subordinates operating entirely behind my back!!"
A massive, chaotic explosion of weeping, desperate pleading, and frantic justifications instantly erupted throughout the hall.
These one hundred-plus individuals, who just moments ago had maintained the dignified, arrogant facade of untouchable Imperial elites, were now displaying absolute, pathetic ugliness.
Some violently threw themselves to the marble floor, kowtowing and begging for mercy. Some clung desperately to the thick wooden legs of the conference table, sobbing uncontrollably. Others wildly pointed fingers at their own colleagues, screaming, "It was him!! He orchestrated the whole thing!!"
The grand hall instantly devolved into a chaotic mess that rivaled the absolute worst of the Underhive meat markets.
That was the exact moment Paul, who had been standing silently behind Cogboy, finally spoke.
He quietly uttered a single word. "Quiet."
The volume wasn't loud. But the absolute second that word left his lips...
BOOM!!!!
A Storm-tier psychic shockwave violently detonated from Paul's body like a physical tsunami!
Blinding, pale golden psychic ripples violently swept across the entire grand hall, compressing the air with such terrifying force that the massive armaglass windows groaned agonizingly!
With the sole exception of the players, every single person in the room—Adela, Kannis, Kroger, Jeremy, the nobles, the merchants, the Mechanicus Magos—was violently slammed down into their seats by the sheer, crushing weight of the psychic pressure!
Their bodies were forcibly pinned flat against their chairs, their limbs locked perfectly in place as if gripped by invisible, unyielding iron vises. They couldn't move a single finger. Breathing became incredibly difficult, their eyes violently bloodshot, their eardrums stinging with agonizing pressure.
The terrifying psychic suppression lasted for exactly three seconds.
During those three seconds, Paul slowly stepped forward, stopping right beside Cogboy. His dark golden pupils—burning like twin miniature suns—stared coldly down at the suffocating, paralyzed sinners.
"Tell me," Paul's voice was incredibly soft, yet it seemed to echo directly within the deepest recesses of their souls. "These horrific sins... did you commit them?"
He fully unleashed his Wisdom trait.
Faint, invisible threads of pale golden psychic energy extended silently from Paul's eyes, violently piercing directly into the deepest subconscious depths of every single person present.
This wasn't torture. It wasn't an interrogation. It was the absolute, undeniable manifestation of pure truth.
Before the absolute power of the Wisdom trait, lies were completely meaningless, and sophistry was utterly void.
Their souls would confess the truth themselves.
"Yes..." Adela's lips moved completely out of his control, painfully squeezing out that single, damning word.
"Yes..." Tears streamed violently down Kroger's scarred face, but his mouth remained terrifyingly honest.
"Yes..." Kannis, Mason, Todd... one by one, like perfectly manipulated marionettes, they confessed their horrific crimes in painfully dry, robotic voices.
One hundred and seventy individuals. Not a single exception.
The crushing psychic pressure instantly vanished.
The officials completely collapsed in their chairs, violently gasping for air as if they had just been dragged out of the ocean after nearly drowning.
Paul slowly withdrew his gaze, turning to look at Cogboy with a faint, chilling smile. "It appears... what these gentlemen say and what they truly hold in their hearts are slightly misaligned."
It was a gentle smile. But to the utterly terrified officials, it was infinitely more horrifying than the deafening roar of a Khornate Bloodthirster.
"Lord Governor Cage!" Tax Bro suddenly stepped forward, his face plastered with an expression that screamed, I have an absolutely brilliant idea. "My Lords, considering the sheer, unfathomable severity of their crimes, wouldn't a standard firing squad be letting them off far too easily?"
Cogboy raised a perfectly synchronized eyebrow, seamlessly playing along. "Oh? And what do you propose?"
"I've been researching the Imperium's penal codex recently," Tax Bro said, aggressively rubbing his hands together, a terrifyingly sadistic grin spreading across his face. "And I discovered a highly specific form of execution that is absolutely perfect for irredeemable, unpardonable degenerate scum like them."
He slowly enunciated his final words. "Execution by cannon fire."
--
TL/N: Usually 2 chapters are of 2500 words combined but since this single chapter is of 3000 words, I will upload only 1 chapter today only.
Goal = 500 Powerstones.
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