stonecrandall Chapter 81: A Glimpse into the Lives of People, A Major Heretical Incident
Chapter 81: A Glimpse into the Lives of People, A Major Heretical Incident
Chapter 81: A Glimpse into the Lives of People, A Major Heretical Incident
Zhongchao District 12, "Iron Bone" Prosthetics Factory.
It was 3 a.m., the busiest time of the night shift.
Three hundred emaciated workers stood in front of the assembly line, numbly assembling unpolished metal joints together, while above them, drive shafts that had been in use for over fifty years creaked and groaned.
There was no warning whatsoever.
"Boom!"
A deep, muffled thud came from deep beneath our feet, so loud it drowned out all the mechanical noise.
Immediately afterwards, the factory's concrete floor suddenly bulged upwards and then instantly cracked.
A massive crack pierced through the entire factory in a fraction of a second.
The lathe and stamping machine, weighing several tons, along with the semi-finished products fixed to them, lost their support and plummeted directly into the darkness below the crack.
The workers didn't even have time to scream.
The ground tilted, and gravity pulled them off the workbench, sliding them into the ever-expanding abyss.
Someone grabbed onto the broken steel bar and tried to climb up.
But then, the ceiling above their heads collapsed.
A concrete beam weighing hundreds of tons, along with the remains of several floors above it, crashed vertically down.
All life responses cease to exist in that instant.
There are no survivors here.
When millions of tons of geological structures shift, the human body is more fragile than a wet sheet of toilet paper.
The architectural structures of the Nest City are undoubtedly resilient, yet also fragile; they are like a tower of building blocks made of waste and garbage.
The load-bearing columns at the bottom have often been in use for thousands of years and are already covered with cracks and metal fatigue.
Andy's impact not only created a hole, but also removed a crucial part of the tower, causing a chain reaction of irreversible structural collapse.
The disaster was not limited to District 12.
With the original D area as the center, the ground within a radius of 30 kilometers is sinking.
Districts 11 and 13 are the most densely populated slums in Zhongchao.
This place is densely packed with those "coffin rooms" that can only accommodate one person to lie down in (yet workers often bring their families to squeeze into these rooms), with buildings reaching hundreds of stories high, teetering on the verge of collapse. When the ground begins to subside, these illegal buildings have absolutely no earthquake resistance.
They began to tilt and squeeze against each other.
The steel frame twisted and emitted a piercing shriek, and the glass curtain wall shattered in large areas, with fragments falling like rain.
Then, the first tall building collapsed.
It crashed heavily onto the building next to it, triggering a domino effect.
One after another, rows of high-rise buildings collapsed in the smoke and dust.
Countless people were crushed in their sleep or trapped in twisted ruins.
"Sizzle—Boom!!!"
Secondary disasters followed.
A main natural gas pipeline buried underground was torn apart by violent crustal movements.
High-pressure gas gushed out and encountered sparks from the broken cable.
A massive fireball rose into the air from the ruins, instantly engulfing several city blocks.
Flames spread wildly along the ventilation ducts and elevator shafts, turning the entire collapsed area into a giant incinerator.
The cries, explosions, and the roar of collapsing buildings mingled together, creating a symphony of hell.
But looking down from high above, all you can see are billowing smoke and towering flames; you can't hear the faint howls of Yuan.
The death toll from this collapse is conservatively estimated to be over 300,000.
This doesn't even include those trapped deep within the ruins, who will slowly suffocate, die of thirst, or be eaten by mutated creatures in the coming days.
Upper Nest, the administrative spire, the Governor's Office emergency command center.
The holographic sand table that was originally used to showcase the city's prosperity has now turned into a shocking blood red.
Countless red pop-up windows representing "structural damage" and "fire alarm" are refreshing frantically until they fill up the processor's memory.
"Report! The main load-bearing structure in Zone 11 has fractured!"
"Report! Explosion at substation in Zone 13, fire is out of control!"
"Report! The seismic waves have reached the upper base of the nest; cracks have appeared between the 45th and 50th floors!"
Administrator Perrin slumped in his leather command chair, his expensive silk uniform soaked with cold sweat.
He was trembling all over: "Orcs—have the orcs returned?"
Peren asked the adjutant beside him, trembling.
"Still the Tyranids? Have they emerged from underground?"
The adjutant stared at the ever-expanding crater on the screen, swallowed hard, and said, "No—sir, it's not an intrusion."
"Yes—it exploded from the inside."
"Monitoring data shows that an ultra-high energy reaction source erupted from several thousand meters underground and directly pierced through the Earth's crust."
"What could possibly go through the earth's crust?!" Perrin screamed. "It's the earth's crust! Not cheese!"
"Bang!"
The doors to the command center were violently pushed open.
A group of nobles and representatives of wealthy families, dressed in gorgeous clothes and with angry expressions, rushed in.
They were followed by fully armed private soldiers, looking menacing.
"Peren! What are you doing?!"
A bloated mining tycoon rushed up, grabbed Peren by the collar, and spat in his face.
"My refinery collapsed; all three plant areas fell into the crater!"
"Do you know how much that costs? That's my lifeline!"
"Where are my private security detail? Why haven't they sent anyone to put out the fire? Why haven't they come to salvage my equipment?!"
Another arms dealer squeezed in and threw a list of losses at Perrin's face.
"My armory was right below District 12, and now it's all blown up!"
"Peren, you must give me an explanation! The administration must compensate me for my losses!"
These people don't care how many civilians died, nor do they care about the hundreds of thousands of families that were broken.
They only care about their own balance sheet, and only about the machines and raw materials that have fallen into the pit.
In their eyes, the deaths of the lowly people of the bottom nest were nothing, but if this damned tremor reached the upper nest and cracked their mansions built in the clouds, it would be the end of the world.
"I—I don't know—"
Peren was so dizzy from being shaken that he looked miserable.
"The defense forces have been dispatched, but the roads are all blocked, and vehicles can't get in!"
"Then send airships! Send shuttles!"
The tycoon roared, "Even if we have to use people to fill it, we have to fill that damn hole! Don't let the fire spread!"
The entire command center was in complete chaos, filled with greedy roars and incompetent shirking of responsibility.
No one organized rescue efforts, and no one cared about the disaster victims.
All orders were issued in order to "stop losses" and "maintain stability".
The so-called "stability maintenance" simply means sending troops to block the passage to Shangchao, setting up machine guns, and preventing refugees crawling out of the ruins from rushing up and "polluting" the air in Shangchao.
It was like a scene from yesterday. In the era of apostasy, there were countless cases that were even more outrageous than this, and this was the daily life of the empire.
The corruption and greed of those at the top are ingrained in their very bones.
When disaster strikes, their first thought is always to cut off supplies and protect themselves.
Extreme class divisions are the perfect breeding ground for chaotic heresies and gene-stealing cults.
To be honest, sometimes it's really hard to tell whether heretics destroyed the world or the world forced heretics to emerge.
Meanwhile, on a high-rise terrace in Shangchao.
Judge Orion stood there alone, his black trench coat billowing in the wind.
He didn't look at the chaotic nobles, but instead looked up, staring intently at the sky.
The contrail left by the Xinbang, a huge black column of smoke that stretched straight into the sky, still lingered in the air for a long time.
For the first time, an expression appeared on Orion's pale, stiff face, a mixture of shock, anger, and a hint of fear.
As a member of the court, he had witnessed far too much destruction.
He had seen planets burned into glass spheres by extinction orders, and cities torn apart by demonic engines.
But he had never seen such a sight before.
A starship several kilometers long just crawled out from underground, right under his nose!
What does this mean?
This means that an extremely powerful force, or an individual with extraordinary abilities, has completed an impossible super project in this hive city, amidst the chaos of the Helios Group, the Mechanicus, and gang warfare!
Repair the starship, start the engines, and break through the blockade.
The human, material, technical, strategic decision-making, and overall planning capabilities required are beyond Orion's imagination.
He recalled the previous report about the "Bottom Nest Mystic Technology Organization".
He didn't pay much attention at the time, thinking it was just a slightly technically sophisticated heretical workshop.
In hindsight, he was wrong.
That's completely wrong!
This organization not only has technology, but also a leader with extraordinary personal abilities!
"I actually misjudged it."
Orion's fingers gripped the balcony railing so tightly that they left fingerprints on the metal.
This is not just dereliction of duty, it is a disgrace.
Someone repaired a warship on the planet he was monitoring and then drove it away!
Orion took a deep breath and pulled out the communicator with the rose knot emblem from his pocket.
Without further hesitation or concern for the consequences, he pressed the red emergency button.
"This is Orion, the Resident Planetary Inquisitor, reporting to the Inquisition Sector Headquarters."
"A major heretical event has occurred at Forge 7 in the Scarles Sector."
"An unknown force, suspected of possessing extremely high technological capabilities, hijacked and activated a merchant-class armed transport ship."
"The target has forcibly broken through the Earth's surface and is currently in low Earth orbit."
"Request—Request naval fleet interception."
"Repeated, requesting interception."
Orion put down the communicator and looked at the huge, still-burning void.
He knew that the navy's interception was most likely too late.
Since that ship could fly, it must have been prepared to jump long ago.
But he had to do something.
This is not over.
Anyone who dares to cause such a commotion on his turf, no matter who they are or where they flee to.
The courts will find him.
Even if we chase them to the ends of the Milky Way!
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