I, Superman, the Supreme Commander

Chapter 186 Cooperation to Clear the Nest

"No, my good brother Nerva. You may have made a mistake. I am not here to take advantage of your baby, but to prevent the Empire from taking advantage of your baby."

"After all, you don't want the Empire to know that you have such a treasure, right?"

"...Come to my flagship and we'll talk face to face."

Three hours later.

Chapter Captain Nerva of the Ash Claws and Chapter Captain Tiberius of the Carcharodon walked out of the conference room with smiles on their faces, talking and laughing.

"Hahaha, that's settled then, brother Nerva. Our two families must cooperate more in the future."

"Of course. As for the Empire, please take good care of it, Brother Tiberius."

"Don't worry, I'll leave it to you, brother."

The two three-meter-tall guys had a sincere and frank communication without smiling. A conflict over a treasure ended with compromise on both sides and everyone was happy.

Of course, Nerva was not so happy. After all, no one would be happy if he had to share the meat with others.

However, he did not suffer any loss. Tiberius was willing to pay some price, and the deal reached by both parties was fair.

The sharks left, and the claws didn't give them a very good look.

Although the two regiments had cooperated before, it was not a pleasant experience. The White Shark "borrowed" a lot of good equipment from the Ash Claws and has not returned it yet. These bandits are very shameless.

The Carcharodon is a loyal chapter that operates outside the Empire. Unlike traitors like the Ember Claws, the Carcharodon can obtain supplies from the Empire in a legitimate manner.

Of course, the Man-Eating Shark, who had been wandering around without a fixed home world, also lived a poor life, even worse than the Ash Claw, relying on looting everywhere for a living - mainly relying on the sponsorship of the empire's enemies and traitors, collecting various [Gray Taxes] and [Blood Taxes] to obtain supplies.

The Sharks usually use their spoils to exchange for good things with the Mechanicus, such as advanced power armor and new weapons. They also use some second-hand weapons and equipment, second-hand warships, and exchange for population, potions and other supplies with the Ash Claws.

Although it is second-hand goods, it is better than nothing. The Ash Claws lack channels to replenish Astartes equipment, so they can only refurbish second-hand goods and use them as a makeshift.

As part of the collaboration, the Carcharodon Chapter left three companies behind to assist the Ember Claws in clearing the Hades system of the alien threat.

The leader was none other than the third captain of the company, Bel Shar.

This is a shameless and cunning guy. He is good at taking advantage of others and has a foul mouth. None of the claws like him.

But he is good at doing things, very efficient. In a fight, he often rushes to the front without saying a word, very green-skinned.

With the assistance of the sharks, especially the powerful firepower support of the three cruisers brought by the sharks, the aliens in the Hades galaxy were quickly wiped out.

During this period, the sharks also clearly realized the power of the "holy object" that Ash Claw had newly acquired, and they worked even more enthusiastically.

"Nerva, what favors did you promise the sharks?"

Chief Librarian Alatar couldn't help but ask the Chapter Master.

Nerva said calmly, "It's nothing. It's just that when Shark is in danger in the future, Gray Claw will carry the holy relic to help."

"Of course, the same is true in reverse."

"I see... So, our two families have formed an offensive and defensive alliance?"

"I guess so. But it's only a verbal agreement. After all, if the Empire, especially the Inquisition, knew about this, it would be very troublesome..."

"Understood. I will remind the other brothers."

Two years later.

The alien disaster in the Hades galaxy has been completely quelled, and even the thieves in the Hive World have been basically wiped out.

As for the few remaining insects and greenskins hiding on the desolate planets, the Space Marines were too lazy to take action themselves, so they left it to the mortal troops to slowly encircle and eliminate them, just as a training exercise.

The capital of Persephone, the Supreme Hive.

(Note: Usually the largest and oldest hive in the hive world is used as the capital of the ruler, also known as the Supreme Hive.)

Somewhere in the towering spire area, the tightly closed armored door was suddenly blown open, and Hades Lord Ivan Lermontov broke in with a team of space marines.

Ivan stared at the stunned nobles in the room with a deadly gaze and said coldly: "Traitors, the time for trial has come!"

"Master Ivan, listen to me..."

"what!"

The sound of gunfire was accompanied by screams. This group of nobles who had originally planned to take advantage of the chaos to usurp the throne were ruthlessly liquidated and fell in a pool of blood.

Some nobles tried to resist, but faced with the powerful Astartes monks, they were slaughtered like chickens.

At the same time, Ivan's lord's guards were also clearing out the nobles' private soldiers in other areas of the spire. The entire spire area was filled with deafening gunfire, explosions, killing and screams.

Half an hour later, the traitors were wiped out, and Ivan ordered people to clean up the battlefield and count the heads, but found that several bodies were missing.

"Report, several descendants of the Vincent and Hal families have not been found. They are suspected to have escaped to the lower levels."

"Hmph. A few small fish that slipped through the net are nothing to worry about. Issue a wanted order and let those stinky dogs in the cesspool deal with it."

"Yes!"

Soon, a wanted list was secretly distributed to the various families and gang leaders in the lower levels of the hive.

Ivan held a grand celebration at the top of the tower, inviting Astartes warriors from the Ash Claws and other dignitaries loyal to the Lermontov family, and rewarded and won over everyone with fine wine, delicious food and beautiful women.

And at the bottom of the hive city, more than ten kilometers below the banquet - an existence known as the bottom nest or the hell zone, hundreds of millions of humans live a completely different life.

They don't even know that the planet they live on has just experienced a life-and-death alien war. The extravagant power struggles of the upper class have nothing to do with them, because except for a few lucky ones, the residents of the bottom nest cannot leave the dark and dirty bottom nest area for their entire lives.

A hive city is a huge city, or even a giant kingdom, capable of accommodating hundreds of millions to billions of people.

From top to bottom, it is divided into four areas: the spire, the upper nest, the lower nest, and the bottom nest. The spire is the territory of the nobility, where they can enjoy plenty of sunshine and fresh air, and have a wide view. The upper nest is the residence of white-collar workers and elites, and the living conditions are second only to the spire.

The Lower Nest is the residence of workers working for the major forces in the Hive City - the Flame Guild (fuel), the Water Guild (water), the Air Guild (air), the Electricity Guild (electricity generation), the Slave Guild (trading in people), the Coin Guild (minting coins), the Iron and Steel Guild (recycling materials), and the Corpse Guild (recycling corpses to make corpse starch, the most common food in the Hive City).

The workers live a tight life, working 996 all year round to barely make ends meet. But at least the living environment is safe and secure, and there is no need to worry about being murdered while walking.

The bottom nest is the slums of the hive city, a lawless area. Various gangs cooperate with the unions and families of the upper nest to maintain the basic order of the bottom nest.

——In fact, there is only one rule. People from the bottom nest cannot come up, and people from the top nest need to be inspected before going down.

As for how the various gangs and residents of the bottom nest fight and kill each other in the bottom nest, the masters of the upper nest do not care and let the people of the bottom nest fend for themselves.

In a sense, the Bottom Nest is like a huge prison.

Wanted criminals, mutants, psykers, heretics, mutated beast monsters, plague zombies, and even gene stealers all hide in the abandoned and decaying structures that are like a huge maze of underground nests.

Except for some daring adventurers, fanatical Mechanicus priests who are keen on digging up ancient technological artifacts, idle "Hunter Lords" who pursue lesser positions, and inquisitors of the Inquisition, no one would enter this chaotic, dirty, violence and murderous area.