Chapter 233: Preparations for War! Galactic Governor! The Spartan Program!
At this moment, Li Ang stood silently atop the upper levels of the Base Headquarters, watching as the high-ranking executives of the Megacorp boarded orbital trains and departed the scene one by one.
Jack Wells and V's unusually close conversation didn't escape his notice either.
He didn't need to eavesdrop to guess what they were discussing—it was fairly obvious.
However, Li Ang's focus wasn't entirely on the internal power dynamics within the Megacorp or even the imminent journey to the Halo universe.
His attention was on the broader governance of the multiverse.
Just recently, Li Ang had convened a multiversal summit in Ideal City, summoning all the alien powers from across the various universes under his control.
The agenda had two main points:
First, everyone needed to stay committed to developing the interstellar trade network. He promised wealth and luxury to those who played nice. But if anyone tried to stir up trouble, he wouldn't hesitate to rain down hell on them using the Moon of War.
Second, he offered generous rewards and support to alien factions aligned with the Megacorp, while ruthlessly suppressing and punishing those who opposed them.
It was the classic "carrot and stick" approach: play the obedient grandson and reap the benefits, rebel like an ungrateful brat and face the consequences. The choice was clear.
As Li Ang crushed resistance and made examples out of enemy civilizations, he also had the Reaper Queen establish defensive lines throughout Megacorp territories and resource zones.
This was a precaution against any backstabbing attempts while his main focus shifted to the Halo universe.
Over the past five years of rapid expansion and reproduction, the Reaper civilization's worker and soldier ant populations had exploded from an initial 80 billion to 350 billion strong.
With such an enormous swarm, deploying them as watchdogs and sentries across Megacorp territories was more than sufficient.
In fact, in recent years, the bulk of the Megacorp's expeditionary forces had consisted of these soldier ants from the Reaper civilization.
Since these mercenaries didn't require salaries and could multiply rapidly, it allowed the Megacorp to drastically cut down military spending.
And for the Reapers, whose hive-mind nature naturally suited swarm tactics, such throwaway warfare was just another day on the battlefield. Sacrificing lives for victory was routine.
Armed with Megacorp-supplied advanced weaponry, these outsourced mercenaries became a devastating, unstoppable force.
Of course, aside from these military and defensive measures, Li Ang also appointed trusted personnel as governors and senior officials across various universes.
For example, Mann was placed in charge of Universe 001 Ghost, Johnny oversaw Universe 002 Pacific Rim, and As for the highly complex and politically volatile Universe 003 Edge of Tomorrow, Li Ang appointed the dependable V as Galactic Governor.
Young David Martinez, meanwhile, was being promoted to the front lines of multiversal combat!
With all these defensive preparations in place, Li Ang finally felt ready to launch his campaign into Universe 004—Halo.
Pacifying internal threats before tackling external conquests—this wave of micro-management earned him a mental thumbs-up from himself.
With that, he reopened the holographic interface of the headquarters' central database to review current troop deployments across the Megacorp.
"Just as I thought. Pretty much the same numbers as before—not much change."
Seeing that the Megacorp's core combat strength hadn't increased significantly over the past few years, Li Ang simply nodded in understanding.
It was within expectations—it was his own intentional decision, after all.
As of now, the Megacorp's formal armed forces numbered around 150 million. One-third of them were stationed in Universe 003.
Another third was tied up guarding resource and core industrial zones in the main universe, Universe 001, and Universe 002.
Only the remaining third could be mobilized for the upcoming multiversal war—but even that was more than sufficient.
After all, if the war ever reached the point where tens of millions of lives had to be thrown into the grinder, it was as good as a loss anyway.
While 150 million might seem like a small number for a force spanning three universes, once you included clone soldiers and artificial humans, the total reached 500 million.
Even then, it still wasn't quite enough.
But if you factored in external forces—like the Reaper civilization and the various allied alien civilizations in the trade network—the numbers became staggering.
Altogether, the deployable manpower of the Megacorp Alliance had reached an astonishing five trillion. That was the true scale beneath the tip of the iceberg.
Li Ang deliberately capped his direct forces at a manageable level to avoid excessive expenditure.
The Megacorp's military offered elite-tier salaries and benefits, which had drawn countless young humans to enlist.
Especially the elite [Iron Hands] Astartes regiments, whose pay ranged from five to thirty times that of regular soldiers.
Veterans with over three years of service enjoyed full medical coverage.
And in the event of death in the line of duty, Megacorp's oversight department would assess the family's situation and provide a comprehensive support package to ensure their survival and healthcare needs.
But if it was discovered that the family was involved in criminal activity or reckless waste, all benefits would be revoked immediately.
As a shrewd executive, Li Ang's goal was efficiency and profit maximization. An oversized human army would only lead to unnecessary waste.
That's why he did what most companies would do: outsource.
By sending in Reaper bugs and allied alien soldiers to serve as cannon fodder and watchmen, Megacorp could conserve a massive amount of resources.
"Outsourcing really is the way to go. No benefits, no pensions, and all that saved funding can be reallocated elsewhere."
Li Ang looked at the perfectly optimized personnel structure and nodded in satisfaction. When the time came to throw bodies at the front lines, it'd be the alien heretics doing the dying.
For their "heroic sacrifices," a simple monument would do. Megacorp was always so generous and gracious in honoring the fallen.
Aside from massively restructuring his forces through outsourcing, Li Ang also planted spies among the alien powers of Universe 003.
Most of these spies were high-ranking alien elites who had been successfully bribed. He let these alien "bros" fight among themselves.
Thing is, in alien civilizations that resembled human structures, the elite and the oppressed classes were always at each other's throats.
"Every dog has its day"—they all dreamed of becoming the next ruler, and their conflicts were irreconcilable.
So, with Li Ang pulling strings behind the scenes, the Megacorp propped up local elites to suppress uprisings while also secretly supporting rebel leaders to overthrow those same elites.
The goal was simple: balanced manipulation.
This interstellar version of "pit two grasshoppers against each other" ensured that Megacorp maintained an iron grip on Universe 003.
Only after confirming that no detail had been overlooked did Li Ang shift his full attention to Universe 004—Halo.
Not long ago, the vanguard squad led by David Martinez had begun transmitting intel back to Headquarters.
Li Ang could now confirm that the planet on the other side of the Stargate was Harvest from the Halo universe.
Which meant that the first civilization he'd be contacting was, in all likelihood, humanity.
And when it came to humanity in Halo, you couldn't ignore the Spartans—especially Master Chief—and the human military organization known as the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC.
"UNSC… Spartan warriors…"
Li Ang murmured to himself, his mind pulling up everything he knew about the human civilization and the UNSC in Halo.
He remembered that humanity in Halo was very different from the corporate-ruled humans under Megacorp. Rebellions and uprisings were rampant in their colonies.
Why? Because their government treated colonists like disposable cattle, offering little to no support or welfare.
To quell the ever-growing tide of rebellion, the UNSC's upper brass came up with a "brilliant" solution:
If you can't solve the problem, eliminate the people causing it!
And thus, the original Orion Spartan Program was launched, intended specifically to suppress human colonial uprisings.
The so-called Spartan Program involved selecting young children and subjecting them to genetic modifications, training them from a young age to become superhuman warriors.
That's right—these overpowered soldiers weren't originally meant to fight aliens. They were created to beat down fellow humans and restore order.
Very much in line with human nature.
If you dare challenge authority with some "Why not me?" nonsense, be prepared to taste the iron fist of the system and learn your place.
The program's lead, Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, orchestrated the secret kidnapping of children who met genetic criteria and began the modification experiments.
Yep… totally inhumane.
The selected children underwent brutal military training and genetic enhancement procedures with over 50% mortality rates.
In the end, only 33 survived to become Spartan-II super soldiers—the strongest human warriors in history.
Among them was the iconic Master Chief, John-117.
Ironically, though they were built to suppress humanity, these Spartans proved just as effective against alien threats.
Despite their small numbers, they repeatedly handed the Covenant—those cosmic street thugs—their asses on a platter.
Still, neither the Covenant nor humanity were what concerned Li Ang the most.
The Flood—that was the real nightmare.
A grotesque creation born from the genes of the Precursors, the Flood was capable of infecting and devouring all intelligent life, absorbing their bodies, knowledge, and memories to fuel its own rapid evolution.
The Flood's infection process generally unfolded in several stages:
First, it arrived on a planet with intelligent life and entered its wild, uncontrolled proliferation phase. At this point, the virus was relatively easy to contain and eliminate.
Second, after infecting enough intelligent hosts, the Flood would begin collaborating internally, masking its presence, and launching ambushes to expand rapidly.
Once the infection reached this stage, it became nearly impossible to stop—unless the native civilization was advanced enough to mount an effective counteroffensive.
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Otherwise, they'd have no choice but to abandon their claim over this planet.
Phase Three: The Flood successfully used a massive number of sentient lifeforms to cultivate the Gravemind Beasts!
At this point, the entire star system that this planet belonged to was essentially considered the Flood's home turf. Under the influence of the Gravemind Beasts, the Flood would rapidly seize control over the entire system.
Their rate of consumption across the star system was in no way slower than the Mimics—if anything, they were even faster.
At the core of the Gravemind Beasts' programming was a single directive: "Vengeance."
As a result, they would reproduce and assimilate all sentient lifeforms at any cost, with the sole purpose of wiping out every species in the Halo universe. That way, the Precursors, those old-timers, could hit the reset button on civilization.
Even for a mega-corporation, if they wanted to take on the Flood, their first step would be to capture a specimen and extract a genetic sample. Ideally, they'd get a sample containing Forerunner DNA.
Only then could they use the Scorpion-Tail Lion Virus to effectively fight back against the Flood.
The problem was, Forerunners were basically all dead. Even if Li Ang wanted to look for them, his only option would be to dig up some graves and search Forerunner ruins.
Alternatively, he could try to capture a Flood specimen and forcibly extract its genetic material—but that was easier said than done. The Flood wasn't something you could just contain. Mess it up, and you might end up infecting your own people.
At this moment, Li Ang shook his head. After sorting through the clues in his mind, he finally turned to the newly received intel from the Multiverse Vanguard Team.
According to the data, Li Ang concluded that the current timeline in the Halo universe was set before the Covenant reached Harvest.
In other words, the events were taking place during the storyline of Halo: Combat Evolved.
"…Something's not right. If the debris in low orbit wasn't the work of those Covenant thugs, then it must've been done by human rebels."
Li Ang clearly remembered that Harvest had been colonized by humans in the year 2468.
The conflict between the local humans and the alien Covenant alliance began in 2525, and back then, Harvest had a population of around 300,000.
Given all this, it was highly likely that the wreckage in low orbit was caused by rebel forces.
And since Harvest was located on the outer rim—and because of strong anti-government sentiment among the locals—the UNSC didn't deploy a large military force to defend it.
That's also why Sergeant Johnson, once a Spartan-I, had been sent under orders to Harvest to rapidly train a batch of local defense forces.
His mission also included doing whatever he could to ease the hostility of the local population.
All things considered, the timeline here was likely around the year 2500.
With that in mind, Li Ang compiled all the information he had into a clear and structured report.
He then sent it directly—via the headquarters' faster-than-light subnet—to David, the Multiverse Vanguard Team's field captain.
This key intel would help David and his squad better carry out their next missions.
Since humanity in the Halo universe hadn't officially gone to war with the Covenant yet, the interstellar conflict hadn't escalated into the brutal, full-scale phase.
That meant LA Megacorp still had the chance to clear the Halo universe with minimal cost and maximum speed!
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