The meeting, according to Hianyan, had gone quite productively. Although he hadn't been able to convince Martin and the others due to the lack of evidence in his hand, they had surprisingly managed to pull Veltin over to their side.
As for the war, it broke out as soon as the meeting ended. The factories began firing simultaneously, as if they had long since agreed among themselves. Each was trying to bomb targets they had designated; heavy bombs launched into the sky collided in mid-air with air defense flares rising from the opposite side. Explosions tore the sky apart before they even reached the ground.
There was no order in the heavens. Countless aircraft descended and ascended, dropping the robots from their bellies; the metal bodies either sprang to their feet the moment they hit the ground or exploded, dragging everything around them with them. Some were hit before they even touched the ground, falling from the sky like flaming wreckage.
The open areas between the factories were no longer empty. At every intersection, at every crossroads, at the base of every elevation, there was another conflict. Robot armies had clashed. At close range, mechanical arms tore each other apart, and heavy weapons mowed down the surroundings without distinguishing between friend and foe. A robot would fall, and two more would advance, jumping over it. The smell of smoke, dust, and burnt metal had reduced visibility almost to zero.
The war had not spread to a single front. The war was scattered everywhere. For now, the only things the war damaged were the economy and the native people living outside the factory borders. But whichever factory made a mistake first, the scale of the war would grow and continue until one side surrendered. Usually, that's how it happened... One side had to surrender.
Ashengine was sitting at the end of the massive table in the meeting hall, listening to a session when one of his employees came to his ear and spoke of the ongoing war. He, with a slightly mocking smile, whispered this into his employee's ear:
"If the war lasts more than a week... and the SWR still hasn't stepped in, then we will intervene." There was a brief pause. Ashengine moved his fingers across the cold surface of the table. "For now, leave them," he said. "Let them fight."
There was a pleasure in his voice that he couldn't hide as he spoke the last word. For him, war was not just a conflict; it was a process of elimination. "That way, we weed out the weak."
The employee swallowed. It was clear he didn't want to speak after these words, but his sense of duty prevailed.
"But... the cost, sir?" he said hesitantly. "A prolonged war could strain resources. Production, logistics, and..."
Ashengine turned his head toward him for the first time. His gaze was calm, but beneath it was a certainty that left no room for debate. "Cost..." He said slowly. "...is only a problem for the losers."
END99141 had turned into a battlefield many times before. Before TESO established its dominance on that planet, it had entered into wars with other companies many times. In fact, it had earned the right to buy that planet as a result of the victories it gained over Quartez. That was why Ashengine saw war as a litmus test for his employees. Labiba had won many wars under the name of TESO.
War meant being able to manage logistics well. It meant being able to understand strategies thoroughly, explain them to people, and implement them. War meant being able to win great victories with limited resources. War was a test that did not forgive mistakes and questioned leadership under pressure.
Labiba had passed that exam in his time. But most of the general managers had not even been subjected to this test. In fact, for Ashengine, Capazo was nothing more than a dreamer and a spoiled child. They had to taste war and return to reality.
Hianyan, on the other hand, was Ashengine's new favorite. He thought he could be a manager at least as successful as Labiba, but Hianyan never pushed his own limits; he acted timidly.
Moreover, this war could also accelerate the process of Ashengine's relative, Ormene, getting used to the planet. In times of war, a stressed constitution would tear apart the child inside the man and bring out the man.
Nandu... Seeing that Nandu had not entered the war had broken Ashengine's heart. He would have loved for that woman to exceed her limits as well. He reached out his hand to the woman's photo and moved it around a bit. Otherwise, he might have to remove that woman from her directorship. And when it was difficult to fire a manager through legal means due to the cost of compensation, unpleasant ways usually had to be resorted to when parting ways with a manager. Ashengine didn't want Nandu to disappear suddenly because the woman was smart and could be useful in the future.
"We needed this war," Ashengine whispered.
"Wouldn't you like the meeting notes?" the man asked.
"No need. I don't care why the war started," the man whispered. "Notify me of the winner. Until then, I don't want to hear anything else about the war."
Capazo was about to finish explaining the bureaucratic part of the war to Hianyan in the hologram room. Veltin, located on the proxy server, was swaying in the hologram chair where he sat half-asleep.