Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1358: Senior Colonel Harius

After leaving Featheris II, and at Sein’s urging, the group continued on toward their next target.

In truth, they were already getting very close to Sein’s final destination.

According to the original plan, they would visit two more locations before arriving at the Mayhach-F Logistics Base, located on the outskirts of the Nexon Star Domain.

That base was also the designated rendezvous point for the Titanfangs to meet with Sein.

But the lingering sense of unease pushed him to alter the plan.

He manually adjusted the spaceship’s flight path, setting their next destination as the Mayhach-F Logistics Base instead.

Jeremy looked a bit confused, so he explained, “I suddenly realized this route would save us a lot of time. Besides, I’m quite interested in the damaged military-grade robots they sell at that logistics base.”

“Is that so? I suppose it does shave off some time,” Jeremy replied.

“But didn’t you tell me before that you wanted to explore a lot more of the federation?” he added, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve already explored plenty of star domains. At this point, I’d rather focus on what really matters,” Sein said.

Jeremy did not press the issue further. He knew that Sein had always been especially interested in the Federation’s robotic tech.

Nearly every project Sein had taken part in over the years was robotics-related. He never touched anything involving warships, airships, or weapons manufacturing.

***

The chief of the Mayhach-F Logistics Base was a federal senior colonel named Harius.

However, the person handling business negotiations with Sein and Jeremy was a young lieutenant colonel from the supply department.

The military was no doubt a massive force within the Gallant Federation. It had its own footprint in the commercial world and its own representatives in politics.

When war broke out between the Magus Civilization and the federation, it would be the federal military that stood on the front lines.

But in any system, some rose while others were left behind.

Take Colonel Harius, for example. His situation was far from ideal.

Ever since he lost out on a promotion to major general seven hundred years ago, things had been going downhill for him.

In any career path, progress felt like rowing upstream. Without continuous effort, it was easy to fall behind. And a single setback could make it harder to stay on track!

The person who had beaten Harius to the promotion back then had been thriving in recent years.

Not only had he successfully undergone genetic enhancement and elevated his life level to the coveted Rank Four, but he had also become a rising star in the military district of this star domain, earning the favor of high-ranking officials.

In stark contrast, Harius had been shuffled through several positions before ending up here, overseeing a hardly important logistics base.

The allocated budget was always tight, and he often had to figure things out on his own just to keep things running.

Meanwhile, his former rival was probably commanding a fleet somewhere, sailing across the starry void.

Harius felt bitter every time he thought about it, but time had a way of dulling even the sharpest edges.

He was no longer young.

Thanks to genetic serums issued by the military, he could theoretically live another thousand years. But still, he should start thinking about retirement.

He also had to look after the well-being of the soldiers under his command.

The Mayhach-F Logistics Base had no military enterprises of its own, and no politician was going to waste time throwing money their way.

If Harius wanted a more comfortable future and hoped to earn the loyalty of his subordinates, he would need to consider starting a few “side businesses” instead of relying solely on standard military funding.

Fortunately, the Mayhach-F Logistics Base was located closest to the federation’s largest militarized robot production star domain.

Every few months, a massive shipment of newly manufactured robots passed through the base as a transit point before being distributed to other regions across the federation.

During the transit process, it was inevitable that some robots would be damaged or fail to meet quality standards.

Harius did not dare act openly, but a few discreet tricks here and there could quietly boost those numbers.

Every few months, hundreds of thousands of robots passed through the logistics base.

The base itself was small and unremarkable. As long as Harius and his subordinates did not push things too far, the federation’s inspectors would turn a blind eye.

This kind of thing was hardly unique to Mayhach-F. Similar practices happened all over the federation’s military network.

Harius had served the military since graduating from the federal military academy nearly two thousand years ago. He had been here long enough to know how these things worked.

One of the people visiting the base for this business deal was reportedly connected to the Doeschers.

Although Harius did not get directly involved, he kept a close eye on the matter.

The Doeschers were a powerful family, well beyond anything Harius could hope to match.

Even if the guest was just a regular member of the family, closing the deal would still bring in a substantial income.

Harius still held onto some ambition, or perhaps it was just a refusal to accept his current reality.

In the Gallant Federation, reaching general rank marked a turning point. It meant stepping into the true upper echelon of the military.

The rank of colonel was already far from ordinary; most federal soldiers never made it past the lower ranks.

Major generals and above received free genetic enhancements from the military, allowing them to reach Rank Four and enjoy lifespans of over ten thousand years.

On top of that, the fleets and interstellar fortresses under a major general’s command could easily rival Rank Four or higher beings when measured by the Astral Realm’s power scale!

In fact, with proper coordination and tactics between different classes of ships, their combined firepower often surpassed that of a single high-ranking entity.

To Harius, his military career felt like it had hit a wall, or at least, that was how he saw it.

Although the federal military did offer genetic enhancement benefits to certain highly promising colonels, those opportunities were strictly reserved for members of the special operations forces.

Harius knew full well that, as the chief of a logistics base, he was not on that list.

With his path to advancement in the military effectively cut off, Harius had no choice but to look elsewhere.

The cost of Rank Four genetic modification was one hundred billion Federal dollars... Every time Harius thought about that number, his face twitched involuntarily.

Could he really save up that much?

After the lieutenant colonel from the supply department and the representatives from the Doeschers finally wrapped up their negotiations, Harius immediately summoned his subordinates to find out how it had gone.

The report was less than ideal. The other party had deemed the robot models offered by Harius and his team too outdated and the asking price far too high.

“That young man from the Doeschers was probably just here to look around. He didn’t give any clear indication that he was interested in working with us. Still, I gave them my contact details and hinted that the price was open to further negotiation,” the lieutenant colonel said, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.