Hianyan had a speech to give. As the circular metal platform rose, lightly brushing against the wall, he knew his fate hung on this address. Before him would be six greedy, skeptical, and most importantly, ignorant managers. And then there was Labiba... Every person he spoke to would question him to the core. They would pick apart every word, looking for an advantage for their own factories. Interest, rights, and most importantly, money would be the topics of discussion. Everything else was a mere detail.
War had been declared before. Wars between factories, between managers, wars that laid cities to waste. Usually, these wars were won by those who didn't participate in them. That's why everyone would initially stay away from the conflict. Later, the promised profits at the end of the war would manipulate them, making them eager to join with heart and soul. Therefore, the promise was the greatest trump card. Hianyan's biggest promise was the profit that would overflow from the factory of Labiba, who needed to be taken down.
When the platform reached the room, it locked into place with a slight click. In the dead center of the pitch-black room was a bright white circle on the floor. When he stepped on it, the circle turned yellow. Later, when it turned green, the sounds of individual lamps being switched on began to echo in the dark room. As each of these lamps, starting from the far left and spreading in a semi-circle, turned on, hologram images reflected by them appeared on the floor. The people in the holograms were lined up from left to right according to their connection order.
That was why Martin, the manager of TESO4 from Gondo city—which had the strongest internet—had connected first and taken the leftmost spot. Martin had an absurdly bushy, swept-back hairstyle that looked like a wig. He was dressed elegantly, like a lover of old-age classical music, and wore a red rose in his jacket pocket. Of course, due to the hologram, everything appeared in shades of light blue, but Hianyan knew that rose was red. It never changed. While the tips of his mustache curled slightly upward, he was stroking that carefully groomed mustache the moment his hologram appeared. For a cybernetic, growing a natural beard—especially when the face itself was mechanical—was quite expensive. That was why his mustache was the most important thing to Martin.
The second to connect was Nandu, the manager of TESO5 from Lapik city. She was a woman exiled from the planet Justan because of her sharp political tongue. On her dark body, traditional symbols of her planet were tattooed in white. These tattoos carried spiritualist symbols like butterflies and birds, rather than the harsh lines of ancient primitive tribes. It was quite normal for a pro-liberty woman to carry such symbolic carvings on her body.
Nandu was an extremely thin woman. According to some, the reason she was so thin was the stressful life she lived while practicing politics in Justan. Before being exiled, she had been subjected to three knife attacks, her car had been blown up once, and she had been shot in the shoulder. All of these could have been fatal if Nandu hadn't been a cybernetic. After the exile, despite being a brilliant woman, no company fearing Justan politicians had hired her. Since TESO was the only firm that gave her a job, Nandu felt a great debt of gratitude toward them. That was why she would never accept anything detrimental to TESO and usually stayed away from things like war that had no positive outcomes. Hianyan knew that if the rights of the Supreme World Republic (SWR) weren't being protected, Nandu wouldn't enter a war. Especially if Martin was in it, she would stay out of it under any circumstances.
Martin was a witty personality. For a woman like Nandu, who had seen and lived through so much, being made to laugh was a blessing. Nandu would never fight against Martin, who had been her companion since the exile and throughout her time as manager. If Hianyan wanted to pull Nandu into the war on his side, he had to try something different.
Martin was a former comedian. During his time living on the Supreme World, he used to travel from colony to colony performing shows. Then one day, it was discovered that he wasn't just performing; he was also smuggling illegal goods. His comedy career was terminated, and he spent 44 years in prison. The illegal goods he smuggled were chemical weapons produced in TESO factories. TESO had hired Martin just because they didn't want to pay the heavy taxes of those weapons to the SWR; Martin had been the intermediary. But as a reward for Martin's silence after being caught, they had offered him a managership. That was why Martin was an SWR manager.
As soon as Nandu connected to the hologram, she looked at Martin, who was stroking his mustache. She probably hadn't expected a meeting where everyone was called. The deep V-neck dress she wore didn't bother to hide her thin frame; on the contrary, it displayed it deliberately and defiantly. As the neckline widened from her collarbones toward her shoulders, the white tattoos became more prominent under the light, inevitably drawing gazes. The lower half was as sharp as the upper; the high-waisted cut made her body look upright and controlled, and with every step she took, the long-slit fabric waved with a threatening elegance. She wore almost no accessories; nothing distracted except for a thin metal piece. At that moment, it was clear that for Nandu, clothing was not an ornament but a way of silently declaring her identity forged by exile.
Brezya city, TESO6, was the next to connect, and with it, Tallus joined the system. Tallus was a cybernetic who had left many of his human traces behind; what remained of his flesh had long been suppressed by the cold precision of metal. He had once worked within Evoke Systems. According to his story, back then he served as an energy efficiency engineer at one of the solar energy bases. During that period, the only things occupying his mind weren't efficiency charts or system balances, but the potential within his own body.
Tallus's greatest passion was acquiring cybernetic modules and constantly improving himself. Every new piece was not just an upgrade to him, but a way to escape the limits of being human. This pursuit eventually turned into a habit, and then an obsession. When legal channels proved insufficient, he didn't hesitate to resort to illegal ones. Some modules were unregistered, while others came from dark workshops whose manufacturers were unknown.
The final breaking point came with a component originating from CLAUDIS II. This piece didn't just cause malfunctions in Tallus's circuits; it also infected his mind with an insidious disease. The circuits broke down, the neural networks became unstable, and his systems entered an irreversible process.
This ailment was known as Grafted Cybernetic Disease. It could be triggered by chemicals in some modules leaking directly into the brain, but the disease also had a psychological dimension. Its effect was slow but ruthless: it created an urge forcing the individual to add more cybernetics to themselves. The line between need and addiction blurred; the person now believed they had to be upgraded.
Because of this disease, Tallus, who lost his mind and became an addict, was fired from Evoke Systems with his work-related memories erased, despite being a successful engineer. TESO loved collecting the scraps of Evoke Systems. That was why they had snatched Tallus up instantly, and as if that wasn't enough, they made him the manager of TESO6 by Ashengine's order. Tallus was a manager with great knowledge and high engineering skills. That was why no one wanted to get into a "pissing contest" with him on any subject. It wasn't just respect for his wisdom that kept people away from him. Some were also afraid of him.
He was two meters tall and had a pale blue body. He had stiff shoulders and a straight, simple torso that almost resembled an industrial robot. At first glance, it had a design that could be called overly simple, even primitive. However, this simplicity was an illusion. Because what broke that simplicity were the cybernetic limbs that made him look more like a rooted tree than a bush.
These limbs, grafted onto many points of his body, emerged from his shoulders, back, and below his ribs; sometimes they remained fixed, and sometimes they moved as if they were alive. Each carried a different function: calculation antennas, energy collector arms, micro-repair tentacles... Tallus's body was no longer a body; it was a growing infrastructure. Because of all these limbs, many parts of his body were barely visible. But the most terrifying part was not his body.
Right on top of his head, two hands were tilted back like horns. From the edges of his lips, two metal teeth rose upward like wild boar tusks. The interesting part was that Tallus wore a mask on his face. One of the ancient shaman masks... Why Tallus hid his face was truly a secret. While Tallus stood upright like a tree, he looked at Hianyan, who had summoned them, from the corner of his eye. Since the eyes behind his dark mask couldn't be seen, Hianyan looked away.
Ormene was a relative of Ashengine, though of what degree, nobody knew. The blood tie had thinned so much that he could technically be considered a stranger; but for TESO, this was always enough. He was a young boy—at most a hundred and twenty years old. He was a novice by TESO standards, and in Ashengine's eyes, he was still a moldable piece of dough.
He liked to dress stylishly. At least, he wanted to look that way. But this style was limited by loyalty to the budget. He was stingy, just like Ashengine; he respected discount aisles and knew the price tags by heart. Because of this, the clothes he bought often didn't fit his body perfectly. The shoulders were narrow, the pant legs remained longer than necessary, the jackets either stood too loose or created an odd tension in the chest area. Every piece he wore silently exposed the distance between the "person he wanted to be" and the "person he was."
As soon as he connected, he looked around, and upon realizing he was next to the man who looked like a human scrap named Tallus, he returned to his shy silence with a nervous expression.
And here was the headliner... Finally, he too was able to connect. Jijige City, TESO3, Capazo... The walking fortress of TESO factories. That man who was an expert in business, finance, and countless strategic fields. Or rather, the most "Koran" person you could ever meet. A figure who carried the poverty, anger, and survival reflex of Kora in his very marrow.
It was almost impossible not to know the Kora Colony. Most people knew Kora for political reasons. This small colony, with a population of only five hundred and fifty thousand, had fought a struggle for independence against the SWR during the Interstellar War; then, with a speed that still hasn't been fully explained, they were persuaded and re-entered the service of the SWR. This sudden turn was just one of the contradictions frequently encountered in Kora's fate.
Kora was a poor colony. But this poverty couldn't be measured only in money. Its underground resources were insufficient, its soil was stingy; the number of fruits and plants that could grow was limited. Its atmosphere was inefficient in terms of oxygen, and its water had to go through purification processes many times to become drinkable. Living on such a planet would not even be an option for most people.
However, a long time ago, during the infancy of colonization, many colonists had ended up on Kora due to technological inadequacies. Moreover, the planet was relatively close to the Solar System in terms of location. This made Kora an attractive stop for adventurous colonists who didn't want to wait for technological developments. Back then, colonization was more of an adventure than a necessity; it was a journey made for pleasure. Therefore, settling in Kora hadn't felt heavy to anyone initially.
Then everything changed. The population began to increase. Other colonists, seeing the primitive but clinging civilization in Kora, flocked there. But the biggest break occurred with the enactment of inter-colony transport laws and the establishment of the citizenship system. Many Kora citizens wanted to change their citizenship in hopes of better living conditions. However, they were rejected one by one by other colonies that "didn't want excess population."
Everyone knew: Kora was poor. And poor colonies were unwanted colonies.
Poverty, over time, turned into a mindset. As the people of Kora were treated as second-class humans, they became withdrawn, hardened, and barbaric. Kora had, in fact, been silently and collectively betrayed. No one had said it openly, but everyone had acted that way.
This accumulated anger exploded during the Interstellar War. The people of Kora had had enough; this was why they stood against the SWR. This colony, which had almost no economic power, was being taxed continuously by countless SWR-affiliated institutions. As if that wasn't enough, these institutions were constantly descending upon the planet, listing endless demands.
For example, the Kora Colony had received exactly 182 separate fines because its waters were undrinkably bad. There was more. When some officials' fine quotas weren't filled, they would write additional fines with justifications like lack of purification or failure to meet colony conditions, saying, "their water is already dirty anyway." The number, not the rule, was what mattered.
None of these fines were paid. They didn't have the money to pay them anyway.
But the people of Kora knew very well: even if they had five cents, the SWR had the power and the law to seize that money. Therefore, their options were limited. Submit or fight. And if you have nothing to lose, standing tall becomes the most logical option.
And so it was. They decided to resist for their rights until the very last thing they could obtain. It was even rumored that some colonies had offered serious money in exchange for Kora declaring war on the SWR. Kora's anger had turned into a bargaining chip in the galaxy.
No one knew what had happened during the war that made this bloodthirsty Koran crowd agree with the SWR and change sides. The reason for this was kept as a secret by the Koran Colony Representative of that time, Nmoe Kora, and she passed away during the war without being able to tell this secret to anyone.
After the war ended, most people said they changed sides to win the war. Yet, while nothing was clear in this war that lasted for centuries, they had changed sides in its very second year. Therefore, logical theories were different.
According to the first theory, the Koran Colony had changed sides because the reason it declared war on the SWR in the first place was to put on a big show, take the money of other colonies, and thus contribute to its own economy. They did this because they must have thought the SWR wouldn't take them seriously and actually fight. This could also be a theory invented by other colonies to mock the Korans.
According to the second theory, the SWR, in order to show other colonies how peaceful and reconciliatory a power it was while also exalting its own authority, had consciously declared the Koran Colony a "redeemed enemy." It was clear early in the war that Kora could not hold out for long militarily; however, instead of showing this by crushing their weakness, the SWR preferred to take a controlled step back.
According to this theory, instead of making Kora kneel directly, the SWR offered them a seemingly honorable way out. Presenting a colony that was "persuaded" and "won over to peace" to the public meant giving a clear message to other colonies: if you resist, you will be destroyed, but if you use your head, you will live. Kora had become the decor of this grand stage. By showing that it added a colony to its side not by force but through so-called diplomacy, the SWR both strengthened its own image and created a deterrent example against potential rebellions. Also, Kora was a small colony in terms of population; even if the SWR said it pardoned an entire colony, the number pardoned was limited. It was a perfect fit for the SWR.
The third theory was the Director of the Interstellar Law Audit Institution, Judge Elara Justitia. Perhaps more accurately, the Neo-Christian Union...
It was a known fact how poor the Koran Colony was. It was so poor that it was poorer than Uruzen City, and even poorer than the total of the entire END99141 planet. This planet had plenty of mines. Iron, silver, gold, and aluminum veins almost reached the surface; metals of vital importance for industry could be extracted at low costs. But the real issue was the high-purity uranium reserves detected in the deep layers of the planet.
Most of the uranium deposits in END99141 were unusual in terms of isotope ratios. The distribution of U-235 and U-238 was unstable compared to natural processes; this meant that the ore could be converted into reactor-grade fuel even with minimum enrichment. Its value was priceless...
After all, this was what establishing a colony meant. The characteristic of colonies was that they carried wealth to the extent that they could provide prosperity for humanity. Well, if even END99141 could be a colonial settlement despite such wealth, Kora had not been.
This was Kora's hallmark.
From the very first day, Kora had given importance to justice. Realizing that her people would constantly fall into debt because they were a poor planet, the great woman Nmoe Kora thought that if the justice system wasn't strong, her colony could collapse quickly.
Therefore, in Kora, during the early years of the colony, the legal infrastructure was built before economic development. Borrowing limits, property rights, mining and water use protocols were determined by strict rules. No person or institution could have sole authority over the colony's vital resources. Especially energy production and mining were tied to the joint approval of the people's assembly and independent auditors. Kora's poverty could be a fate; but lawlessness was never acceptable.
Law had become so important that it had taken root in the character of the Koran people. Honor, dignity, and honesty ceased to be virtues for the Koran people and became the very act of living itself. Just like that scarce water and food they found...
Of course, a very good education system was needed to persuade the people and transform them into individuals with such a character. In Kora, education was not designed as a tool for vocational training, but as a construction of conscience. Children were not taught numbers first and then letters; they were taught responsibility first and then knowledge. Law lessons did not consist of just memorizing texts; why justice was necessary and how injustice decayed a society were explained with examples.
The Koran people knew not only their own legal system but almost the legal systems of other colonies by heart. Why? Because they had to find the most suitable bargain for the trade they would do with their limited resources.
If your resource was limited, you couldn't just look at the resource. You also had to look at the reliability of the other party in the trade. You had to know how to defend your rights in trade legally, stay away from taxes as much as possible, but while doing these, you also had to follow the laws enough not to give trumps to your enemies.
So, when they were so loyal to the legal system and when the colony was a factory that didn't allow marginal thoughts like anarchism and produced almost a single type of human, what would the people in such a colony do? Of course, they would turn to religion. They had to... If their world was spent in poverty and oppression, they had to be heavenly in their other world. Already, the people going through the education system with a thought close to this would, of course, find religion as a blessing too.
That was why, while switching to the SWR side, Nmoe Kora had made it a condition that the Neo-Christian union build a temple on their planet. In fact, the Kora colony later became one of the pilgrimage points of the NCU—the Neo-Christian Union.
Even though it was poor, the Kora Colony was a very powerful colony. They were quite dominant in the legal systems of other planets, most of their Totalitarian structures, and especially in the demagogic structures of those planets to control people. It was even said that they bribed many politicians, fixed sports competitions, and even influenced elections in some colonies. All of these had to remain as rumors because the Koran People always knew how to hide themselves; even if they didn't hide, they knew how to navigate through the loopholes of legal systems. In fact, the following sentence was said about them:
"Kora was known as the only colony that could bring worlds to their knees without going outside the laws."
It was truly something out of the ordinary for a planet's people to have almost exceptionally the same character. In this respect, the Korans were found as dangerous as the Jolkien-descended Weisshafens. The only difference was that these two were incomparable. The Weisshafens also had a power given by the Hyperion ship. They had not only political power but also firepower. Additionally, the Weisshafens progressed through bloodlines.
The Korans, on the other hand, were the people of a planet and had only political power arising from their wisdom. But the Korans said this about the Weisshafens:
"The thing a Weisshafen can hate the most is a Koran with a document in hand. Because they are the only powerful 'commoners' in the galaxy who can file a lawsuit against the Weisshafens. The thing a Koran can hate the most is definitely not a Weisshafen. Because in law, spoiled behavior is not considered a crime..."
The Weisshafens, on the other hand, said this about the Korans: "The Korans talk and talk about laws. Yet, the Weisshafens don't even need to talk."
This situation was a perfect example to understand how powerful political power the Korans had. So what does the third theory say?
According to the third theory, Nmoe Kora had changed sides in the war to add the power of the Neo-Christian Union to such a legally superior society. In fact, that was why Judge Elara Justitia was able to become the director of the Interstellar Law Audit Institution as a Koran woman. Both the support of the Korans and the support of the Neo-Christian Union certainly gave a woman such authority.
So why had the SWR accepted peace? Because according to the third theory, Nmoe Kora had powerful information. This information was a secret of the SWR. To show that she had the courage to reveal this secret, she first declared war. Then, after getting what she wanted, she went over to the SWR's side. What was this information? It's unknown... But according to the third theory, the reason for Nmoe Kora's death was also this information.
Thus, the solid man of such a people had connected just like the headliner, one before Labiba. Such a man would only listen to meetings with half an ear. He would understand what would happen from the very first second of the meetings. Capazo, the man even the one called Ashengine was afraid of, saw TESO meetings only as a disturbing dogfight.
That was why, when Capazo's hologram opened, Capazo was not standing. He was even sitting in his leather-embossed study chair with his back turned. He had a cigarette in his hand. He was wearing a black suit. It had a simple but authoritative cut. Perhaps the most formal clothing here was on him.
His black hair was swept back with a slight puff. In a controlled and disciplined manner... There was no one like him in looking simple and stylish. In fact, he looked overly human despite being a cybernetic. Most spoiled cybernetics with money would risk looking robotic to show how expensive their cybernetic additions were. But people who were sure of themselves like Capazo preferred their additions to look human, like real skin.
Capazo was probably examining economic tables from the screen in front of him. Capazo, unlike the others, didn't trust computers; he preferred to trust people. That's why he didn't apply the blind oppression seen in other factories to his workers in Jijige City; he allowed them a relative space of freedom. But this freedom never meant a state of comfort. Laxity couldn't reside where Capazo was. Because no matter how much he talked to people, no matter how reconciliatory a language he used, the demand within him was a man whose satiety never reached fulfillment. He wanted everyone to be responsible. Everyone to be able to give an account of the work they did...
For Capazo, trust was not a blessing, but a constantly tested debt. Being trustworthy once wasn't enough; it had to be proven again every day. That was why no one was shouted at in Jijige City, but everyone was on alert; no one was chained, but no one was adrift either. This was Capazo's silent order: consciousness instead of fear, account instead of pressure. And maybe that's why there was only one sentence said behind his back:
It was hard to work in front of Capazo... but it was impossible to escape him. No one wanted to escape anyway. Capazo was a man who worked very hard himself; therefore, he was respected. He didn't lie, he didn't put on unnecessary arrogance, and most importantly, he gave fear to the enemy and trust to the friend.
Capazo had once explained to Hianyan why he didn't trust robots as follows: "Hianyan, technology is a constantly evolving thing..." he had said. "...and no matter how cautious you act, eventually someone technologically superior to you suddenly pops up. This is not a situation within your hands... This is a result brought about by capitalism, colonialism, and many other economic policies... Therefore, someone always comes along who will make your robots talk. As long as there's a chip in your robots' heads... I can't persuade robots not to talk, but I can persuade people not to talk. In fact, more accurately, I can even persuade people to die."
These words of Capazo were words showing how authorized and powerful he was over people. While Capazo took a puff from his cigarette, one more person connected.
Ravnez City, TESO7, Veltin... She was one of the oldest women of the TESO factory. She was one of the first cybernetics in history and had undergone too many technical developments. That was why sometimes her modules and software could intermingle; she could act unstable.
Veltin had joined with an angel halo on her head and giant angel wings. But since she was someone who loved to draw attention, she had chosen an enticingly attractive body for herself. The mechanical breasts of her cybernetic body were large and covered with a small cloth just enough to hide the tips. What wrapped her lower waist, her private area, was a crown full of leaves... But she had strange makeup on her face... Tears made with red lipsticks and lipstick kiss marks on her neck... Veltin even had a necklace full of gold and pearls that turned around her neck several times. In fact, somewhere on her belly, "A very sweet woman" was even written with red lipsticks.
Yes, Veltin had been living for so long that she had known almost every kind of strange ideology in existence; she had tasted most pleasures and had finally entered such a strange state of mind. Even Tallus found Veltin strange at times. As soon as she entered, Veltin blew kisses around. She was one of the oldest TESO employees after Labiba.
"Oh... How everyone has come... Oh... Where is Labiba?" Veltin was saying just as Labiba connected too.
Uruzen City, TESO1, the semi-circle was completed with Labiba's connection. While that mutant full of lumps sat in the chair that was larger than himself, he was looking at Hianyan with gazes as if vomiting anger. All hell was about to break loose shortly; therefore, these gazes would even remain mild.