Bab 23: The Power Corrupts

They said that the human hearts are often prone to the corruption.

Especially when they were given tremendous power and greed was clouding their judgment.

"Fire."

In the end, the choice was easy... in the end human life was fragile and Universal Credits were Universal Credits. While the worshippers of the Solar Cult were members of the organizations that he was tasked to destroy, they were unfortunate side casualties of the fight.

In the end, it was their own free choice to join a para-military fanatic zealous cult that was worshipping the sun and was zealous towards really, really stupid ideals. Arcturus didn't really care much, in fact, or he just thought that the deaths that he caused were inconsequential in the great scheme of all things.

He knew that it didn't really matter because within this new life, it was kill or to be killed.

Only the powerful had the right to decide what was right and what was wrong. Not to mention, he always hated religious fanatics, so killing a few thousand for them wasn't something that he regretted.

'It seems that I don't indeed feel anything... should I be worried? Or something at least?'

He watched how Obsucurs fired several tens shots from the cannon, decimating all of the spacecraft, aircraft, and landcraft of the Solar Cult in a mere moment, while at the same time, Alice teleported down the Battle Droids.

The Spider Bastion Battle Droids and fifty ABD-Spectre MK Battle Droids were teleported down to the entrance of the Valley of the Converging Sun, as Alice controlled all Battle Droids to block the entrance and shoot everything that would attempt to escape.

At the same time, they started slowly advancing toward the inner area of the Valley, as Arcturus could see on the holographic projection on the command deck of the Obscurus.

***

On the surface of Helios IV, Valley of the Converging Sun

The Helios IV was a rather ordinary planet, albeit a bit smaller than the average planet, though the entire Valley of the Converging Sun looked like one huge desert; it was full of sand, sandy rocks, scorching hot and sunlight.

Basically, it was a place that Arcturus would avoid at any cost if he could. He hated being in such environments; he preferred colder climates and didn't very much like hot environments; it wasn't just for him.

Though the job was a job, with his simplistic approach, he knew that he would be soon away once he claimed the Bounties.

"Master, I got the transmission from the Solar Cult Headquarters; they have attempted to call for reinforcements from the local defense forces. I have managed to intercept the distress call with my jamming."

Almost, immediately after Arcturus was teleported down on the Helios IV from the Obscurus, his A.I. sent him a message as he visibly cringed that the Solar Cult still had some cards in their sleeve, but in front of the advanced A.I. as Red Queen, it was futile.

Even though he didn't care very much about their defense forces, because Obscurus was a vastly superior naval vessel and with enough tactics, it could overcome even some numerical odds; if they were too huge, they would pose a serious threat.

Not to mention it was a pain in the ass to deal with the military forces that would come to defend these fanatics.

"Splendid, anything else?"

He asked as he started advancing toward the inner areas of the Solar Cult.

Already, some of their buildings were visible as he was teleported to one of their landing docks. The place looked like a warzone, with everything being destroyed by the preemptive orbital strike conducted by Red Queen.

"You have received a private request through your Star Mercenary Association account from the Coalition of the Helian Mercantile Corporations. They are willing to double the payment if there are no survivors of the Solar Cult, as it seemed that only two days ago, they conducted a raid on several trade ships, and the corporations lost a lot of money due to them."

Arcturus grinned as his eyes suddenly shone with revelation because this meant that he would get much more money from this mission. He naturally accepted the private request because that would mean an additional 50,000 Universal Credits.

Not to mention, most of the people were already killed in the initial orbital bombardment from the Obscurus. Though, together with the jamming that was conducted by Alice, he knew that they had maximally one hour before the local planetary defense force would for sure decide to invade.

Fortunately enough, the Valley of the Converging Sun was in a very desolate area of the Helios IV, and there were no settlements, cities, or any points of interest in a diameter of several hundred kilometers.

"Trace to whom they were planning to send the request for help, hack their databases and get names of their accomplices and everything. We are going to sell it to their enemies; even if we destroy their headquarters, a lot of their believers will remain through Helios IV."

This would naturally fetch him another few thousand Universal Credits because even after the entire Solar Cult was exterminated, a lot of their sympathizers would remain within the society of the Helias Society, and the senders of the requests and bounties would surely want their heads as well.

And there was the constant lingering threat that someone, especially among the survivors of their people who weren't present in the Headquarters, would be fanatical enough to revive the Solar Cult in the future after some time passed.

So, they would need to address this concern as well because it was a pretty severe one, as the religions and cults were often the hardest to deal with. One wasn't fighting against people but against the idea, which made the thing mission impossible.

"It is being done as we are speaking; the cybernetic defenses are non-existent... it is nice to be this free within their network."

Arcuturs heard Alice happily chirping because during the time they were at the Lycurgos and she was connected to the Extranet or Imperial NetSphere, she always needed to act with utmost caution and was very constrained.

The most advanced factions within the galaxy knew how to secure their systems properly, so Alice couldn't do what she wished.

Though now?

She was like a fish in the water.

"Excellent... it is time to finish it..."

He said as he arrived in front of the entrance to the underground base, which was surrounded by wrecks of aircraft and landcraft, together with several tens of soldiers of the Solar Cult that were attempting to scavage the situation to something managable.