Just as she began to wonder if her life would simply pass by on Fetches II, no different from any other ordinary member of the family, an opportunity presented itself to her: the family was recruiting someone to head Blackbird Heavy Industries at Rage Owl Star.
The previous manager had retired, and the family needed a direct descendant to take over the operations there.
What was Rage Owl Star like three years ago? It was a barren planet, a backwater that repeatedly failed to meet the Imperial Tax, a place shunned by the direct descendants of the family as if it were a snake or scorpion, and no ambitious person with prospects would willingly suffer there.
To put it plainly, it was just an idle piece in the family’s game on Rage Owl Star—to establish some industries, make some money, relying on the fact that the previous Planetary Governors couldn’t collect the taxes to score some extra income.
Of course, it wasn’t that the family didn’t harbor thoughts of expansion. They planned to use Blackbird Heavy Industries to continually extend their influence on Rage Owl Star, to secure the position of Planetary Governor at the least cost, and ultimately bring this insignificant planet into the Fatches Family’s territory.
Irong signed up.
Initially, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go. People around her said it was too harsh there, the family had plans but didn’t value it highly, going there would be a waste of her youth, and she felt apprehensive about it.
But on one hand, she didn’t want to live the rest of her life in comfort but predictability; on the other hand, she just wanted to try, not truly believing that someone as ordinary as herself would be selected.
And then she was indeed chosen.
Perhaps it was because the capable and esteemed members of the family looked down on this destination, yet she was a Fatches by blood, and her past record was one of honest and obedient service…
In any case, whatever the reason, she became the Fatches Family’s choice to oversee the operations of Blackbird Heavy Industries.
With a nervous heart, she arrived here and began her work.
The business didn’t require too much of her attention; her predecessor, an elder from the family, had left a solid foundation, and it wasn’t a total mess. Everything operated smoothly according to the arrangements he had left in place.
However, she still encountered problems later.
She wasn’t truly incompetent; within the internal management, she gradually discovered something amiss: the production capacity of Blackbird Heavy Industries was much larger than expected.
The start-up capital given by the family was minimal; the support they provided was sparse. The production conditions here were poor. According to her understanding, Blackbird Heavy Industries should not have the production capacity she was witnessing.
And she quickly understood why: Under her watch, the automated production lines were operating day and night. Many of the industrial workers had long been transformed into tireless, food-and-drink-free mechanical augmentees, who only needed to be charged, supplied with energy, and they could operate according to commands.
Without a doubt, this had crossed the line of the Imperial edict against smart mechanisms.
She solemnly summoned the relevant overseers and discussed this issue seriously, but she found that they didn’t consider it a big deal.
What’s the harm in it?
The Imperial edict is one thing, but who cares about it on Rage Owl Star? The Planetary Governors, who in principle should monitor all anomalies within their territories, are each unsure if they can survive another two years, sitting like clay statues in Revival City to the east, unable to even control their own governments, let alone handle matters on the continent’s far west.
Here the emperor’s writ runs thin; anything goes.
Moreover, as for the so-called ban on smart mechanisms, that’s making a mountain out of a molehill. They’re just simple automated machines, just bumping up the degree of human modification a bit further, especially modifying the brain—how is that any different from a servitor? Where could that possibly lead to a serious issue, a crisis with smart mechanisms?
They truly didn’t believe that those augmented humans, those automated machines, would suddenly revolt one day.
They had been doing this for a long time, ever since the previous president of Blackbird Heavy Industries was in charge.
And nothing had gone wrong.
Even, those in charge had told her that it wasn’t just at Blackbird Heavy Industries; on the Fatches family’s home turf, the Fatches 1/2/3 Planets, there were also automated machines in operation. However, on those three traditional planets of the Fatches family, there would always be Imperial officials inspecting, and the situation on the planets was more complex.
They dared not be too blatant, so they could only operate on a small scale and in a very covert manner.
After all, the impact of automation on increasing productivity and reducing production costs was too immediate and evident.
Initially, Irong was panicked. Even after listening to the explanations from the supervisors, she felt something was off. She was afraid that the events she’d read about in history books and some legendary tales would befall her one day.
Imperial wrath descending from the heavens, burning away all traitors, and she, herself, would be that Imperial traitor.
But she dared not put a stop to it all.
She could see that the specific officers in charge would not agree easily; she felt that if the violations were reported to the family, she, as the person in charge, would be the one to ultimately take the blame and be ostracized by the family; the production quotas set by the family, the expansion targets, they couldn’t possibly be met without strong production capabilities behind them, even the control over the entire Western Continent might not be maintained…
She consented to it all, only asking that they not delve deeper; then, during an inspection, she accidentally fell from a height of two stories, sustaining a comminuted fracture of her left foot, making recovery difficult, so she accepted the mechanical augmentation of her left foot.
This was a common occurrence; in many parts of the Empire, similar mechanical augmentations took place, and as long as the brain wasn’t altered, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
After the augmentation was completed, her mechanical left foot, although very useful, sometimes gave her the vague feeling that it had its own consciousness.
In the time that followed, she began to see some cold illusions before her eyes; she found her logical thinking ability had become extremely strong, but as a consequence, she began to feel she was slowly losing some human emotions, becoming more and more indifferent.
One day, a year ago, she felt that she was about to be driven mad, yet her emotions remained strangely calm.
She picked up a knife and cut open the flesh at the juncture where her left calf connected to the machine, only to see the upper part of her limb that should have been her own, that should not have been altered, and, beneath the flesh where there should have been white bone, there was a dark grey metallic substance!
She should have been shocked, terrified, but she wasn’t. She just calmly cut open the flesh on her arms, which, by all accounts, should show no trace of modification, to see that inside were still metallic bones.
Then she broke her left hand, and inside the skeleton, there were mechanical structures, cables. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire
In her mind, knowledge that shouldn’t have belonged to her surfaced, giving her a clear understanding that these cables and mechanical structures were what supported her body’s operation. The modifications to her body had not stopped for a moment over the past two years, starting with her left foot, gradually replacing her bones, the structure of her blood…
Now, she might still appear outwardly indistinguishable from a normal human, but in essence, she had become another species.
But Irong Fatches wasn’t panicked; she just calmly repaired her broken arm, watched as the falsely fleshy exterior regenerated completely, and went back to whatever she was doing.
She had heard that a new Planetary Governor had arrived from the east, who had even sent envoys. After learning about the various deeds he had done on the planet, she began to make some additional preparations silently.
Building intercontinental missile silos, constructing Shield Generators, adjusting the production capacity of Blackbird Heavy Industries from producing products required by the Fatches family to producing military goods, increasing the number of augmented humans.
She was preparing for a future that her logical mind deemed inevitable, and now, that future had arrived.