Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 21: The Truth Investigation Committee

With that in mind, Zhang Qiming didn't delay any longer and directly delivered the message to Saint Sophia through the previously established secret channel.

The conversation was brief. First, the speaker thanked the other party for the advanced knowledge they had provided, and then quickly moved on to the main topic—now that both parties had connected and exchanged their resources, the next step was to discuss the extent of their cooperation.

Saint Sophia responded quickly; this time, she again replied via the Ares encrypted relay link.

"SkyDrive solved a huge problem for me, and I appreciate that favor."

"As for cooperation, since we've already come this far, there's no need to keep going around in circles. You helped me remove the obstacles, and I gave you advanced knowledge. We do indeed have common interests... or even common goals."

"However, I still want to ask one question—what exactly does Skydrive want to do?"

Zhang Qiming looked at the line of text, tapped his fingertip lightly on the table, and then had Zhi Shilang send the message back.

"What we want to do is actually the same as you: overthrow the rule of the Holy Cardinals, promote change on Mars, end the mess of the four factions hindering and dragging each other down, and truly integrate Mars."

"Furthermore, we will use the power of Mars to unify Terra and pull the entire human civilization out of stagnation and internal strife."

After the message was sent, Hagia Sophia's reply immediately appeared.

"...You guys really have big appetites. Overthrowing the Holy Cardinals, transforming Mars, and integrating Terra—any one of these is such a fantasy."

"Moreover, Skyward is too aggressive in its actions. It seems that you and your men have never considered what the consequences would be if things got out of control."

After reading it, Zhang Qiming simply smiled faintly and replied with the following, like a riddle solver:

"We have some information. Once you see it, you'll understand that there's no room for taking things slowly anymore. Time waits for no one, and we don't have time to achieve our goals through gentle means."

"And then you will know why we did this, and you will know that our hearts and actions are as clear as a mirror, and all our deeds are just."

This time, Hagia Sophia responded almost immediately.

"What information are you referring to...?"

Zhang Qiming stared at that line of text for two seconds before instructing Zhi Shilang to continue transmitting the message.

"When the time is right, I will meet with you in person, and at that time I will tell you everything. Until then, Skyward has only one thing to do."

"—I'll make you the Pope of the Mechanical Church."

There was silence on the other end of the link, and after a long while, Saint Sophia finally sent back a message.

"...You have quite the nerve, and quite the ambition."

She was clearly starting to get tired of Skydrive's half-truths and also began to show some undisguised impatience with Zhang Qiming's riddle-solving approach.

Riddler, get out of Mars!!!

Zhang Qiming actually disliked riddle tellers, but if it were his turn to be the riddle teller, he would be very happy to do so.

Actually, the information he just mentioned was intelligence on the other five major civilizations in the border star system. When the time is right, and when the situation on Mars truly progresses to the next stage, he will naturally lay everything out and let her know why he was in such a hurry from the very beginning.

But right now, they still need to solve the church's problems. With that in mind, Zhang Qiming quickly sent another message.

"Let's talk about the current situation first. You need to find a way to take control of the General Affairs Department's military power, and at least ensure that the command chain of the three major military branches on Mars has its own people."

Saint Sofia replied: "If we're only talking about the local SA armed forces, I do have a lot of men under my command."

"Aside from that traitor Gregory, the leaders of the remaining twelve secret units are basically all from the SA system. This is the area I've truly infiltrated the most over the years."

"If it really comes to a coup, I am confident that I can control most of the SA armed forces on the mainland."

These few sentences were a very concise reply.

Then she added another paragraph.

"But the ground forces are different."

"I've been hanging high in the sky all these years. I can see them all, but I can't reach them. They rely too much on the local network of personal connections. I've been in the sky for so long that I can't reach out to them at all."

"As for the orbital ship force, that's even more difficult."

"That area has always been an impenetrable fortress. The church leadership has long been wary of me reaching out. They have established a special wetware network there that is independent of Ares, and many core command chains are even physically isolated."

"In other words, I can control the vast majority of the SA forces, but I can't reach the ground forces for the time being, and the orbital ship forces are completely beyond my control."

After reading this, Zhang Qiming tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table.

This is much better than he expected.

The local SA armed forces can hold the majority of the positions; the remaining issues are the ground forces and the orbital naval forces.

As for the ground forces, he already had some ideas in mind, and it was time for him to continue to find things to do for the players.

As for the orbital naval force...

Zhang Qiming rubbed his chin, then suddenly smiled and quickly sent the new message.

"You could set up a truth investigation committee."

Saint Sophia quickly responded with a series of question marks:

"???"

Zhang Qiming didn't keep them in suspense and replied directly:

"Your reason for establishing the Truth Investigation Committee is simple. On the surface, you are extremely angry about Makarov's death and the Skydrive's terrorist attack, so you are determined to investigate the assassination of the Holy Cardinal. On the one hand, you want to appease the public and respond to the questions raised by various Martian districts about security and the truth in order to gain the trust of the church's leadership."

"On the other hand, you can also use the investigation of the Skywards as a pretext—you can say that you suspect there are bad people in the church leadership and the military—to infiltrate the Martian military system."

"You're the most suitable person to do this."

"As a saintess, you have just returned from the high heavens, and the people and the reformists all hope that you will make a difference; at the same time, you are in the midst of grief over the loss of an important trump card. The trump card that you have worked so hard to build up has been destroyed by the Sky Drive. Naturally, you will hate the Sky Drive to the bone and wish you could tear anyone related to the Sky Drive apart immediately."

"Therefore, the cardinals will lower their guard against you and appoint you to investigate the Skyward Movement."

"Once the committee is established, you can legitimately intervene in some affairs of the SA forces, ground forces, the Guards Fleet, and even the court within the General Affairs Department—you only need to say that you suspect there are Skywarp terrorists within them, and you can legitimately extend your reach."

He paused, then added another sentence.

"Skyward will also cooperate with your actions."

"We can create more commotion later. It doesn't have to be a big deal. As long as we can keep everyone on Mars feeling that the assassination is far from over and that everyone could be a Skyward terrorist, then your committee's power will expand indefinitely in the process."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the link. Zhang Qiming knew that Saint Sophia was considering the feasibility of this matter, so he continued:

"What you need to do next is to use this committee to legally intervene in military affairs, focusing on winning over the reformists and swing voters in the military, especially mid-level officers, who are the backbone that can be won over and united."

"At the same time, during this process, you can also use the committee's authority to gradually replace some key positions with your own people. If conditions permit, you can also insert Skywards personnel into these positions."