Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 938

Chapter 938: Chapter 503, Zhuge-class Star Mothership_2 Chapter 938: Chapter 503, Zhuge-class Star Mothership_2 To maintain the current state, the Alliance must ensure two things: first, economic development must continue without regression; second, the benefits of development that should be enjoyed by Union Citizens cannot be too little.

These two points impose stringent demands on the Alliance’s vast bureaucratic system.

The first demands the capability of the bureaucrats; the second demands their integrity.

Currently, the issue of economic development appears very promising. Through the education system, which the Alliance values highly, and Gu Hang’s use of Grace Points to enlighten and cultivate key personnel, it is ensured that the capabilities of Alliance officials are generally on par, at least far exceeding the average level across the Empire.

However, Gu Hang always has doubts regarding integrity.

The Alliance has many institutions in place to ensure this, but Gu Hang remains suspicious.

He cannot deny that, after the establishment of the Alliance, a massive bureaucratic class has indeed formed.

Even more, this bureaucratic class plus the class of military merit now constitutes the ruling class of the Alliance.

Governments, state-owned capital, and civil service units, all members within these systems are viewed as a unified class, broadly defined as the bureaucratic group, holding the greatest power and interests in the Alliance.

Though they factually control the vast majority of the Alliance’s assets, under the Alliance’s system, these assets are publicly owned, constituting national capital. This system prevents them from truly possessing this wealth.

While the bureaucratic class certainly possesses a much higher status than the general populace and enjoys enriched material conditions, like the ever-growing demands of the populace, these bureaucrats have their own.

Would they pursue more benefits? The positions they hold already fail to satisfy their appetites, would they start to tamper with state-owned capital? The bother of climbing ranks for a minuscule increase in earnings pales in comparison to engaging in more embezzlement and corruption.

Strong anti-corruption agencies vigorously crack down, reinforced ideological education prevents issues from the outset, and the establishment of a public oversight system… Of course, all these conventional preventive measures must exist.

Besides crackdown and prevention, some sweeteners are also necessary.

‘Eden’ seems like a fairly good method.

Establish high-end communities, allow outstanding, loyal, and honest persons to have better living conditions;
Even those who can’t quite live there, those working at grassroots level, they also have the right to vacation, seeing this can also give them something to strive for;
Eden’s superior, high-quality goods, from delicately crafted food to luxury leather goods and artisanal wines, can serve as shopping benefits for high-ranking officials. This allows them to spend their allowances in a way that genuinely improves their quality of life.

And then some high-end products can be branded and placed on Alliance-wide store shelves, allowing the ordinary populace to occasionally purchase them to somewhat improve their living conditions.

To expect these to bring in heavy profits is unrealistic. However, it can maintain stability and improve the satisfaction of residents, especially the ruling class.

Since Gu Hang can see, and also admits, that a massive bureaucratic class exists within the Alliance and has indeed become the ruling class, Gu Hang indeed needs this class to manifest his will. If this class revolts, at the least development would stall and societal corruption ensue, at worst, local rebellions might even lead to the disintegration of the Alliance.

That seemingly unbreakable Alliance which Gu Hang remembers ultimately moved towards disintegration; factors related to this likely played a significant role.

Thus, Gu Hang, in terms of internal governance, cannot solely rely on oppression, and must genuinely consider the interests of this ruling class.

Eden is a new experiment.

Gu Hang will build these high-energy-consuming ecosystems on many planets. He defines the value of ‘Eden’ as fulfilling the pursuit of a higher quality of life by Union Citizens, especially high-ranking citizens (the ruling class).

…

Valkyrie Mech is another matter altogether.

This device, essentially, is a type of power armor similar to a Terminator, akin to how the Servant God and Commander types of Feedback-Type Power Armor differ from real Interstellar Warrior Powered Armor; Valkyrie also is a Terminator that isn’t necessarily exclusive to Interstellar Warriors.

But, the distinction lies in some… structures on the Valkyrie that Gu Hang cannot quite understand.

Those elaborate patterns need to be crafted from gold.

But why? Merely for decoration?

If it’s just for decoration, why is it then marked as essential in the construction process?

Placing the Energy Crystal Block as the power source in the back, along with the prayer process.

From these perspectives, Gu Hang immediately associated it with Spiritual Energy.

Moreover, it was not just normal Spiritual Energy, but a kind specifically related to a religious attribute.

Just like Galaraldo back in the day, who after being ‘trapped’ in Subspace by him, managed to survive for a prolonged period without perishing. He wasn’t even a high-grade psychic, nor did he possess the power of Spiritual Energy. He was merely an Apostle of War, a messenger of the Sun Lord. After the Sun Lord’s death, Galaraldo’s power rapidly declined, and he would have been done for had Gu Hang not rescued him.

Where did the power of the Sun Lord originate?

Undoubtedly, it came from the Emperor.

With the Emperor’s favor, the priests, nuns of the Sisterhood, and figures like the Sun Lord, who were dubbed as ‘Divine Chosen’, could obtain powers akin to Spiritual Energy solely through blessings—regardless of how these blessings came about, once they had them, they could harness them.

And the ‘Valkyrie Armor’ had a bit of that implication.

He recalled that within the normal Imperial System, the ‘Valkyrie Mech’ was seemingly only used by the Sisterhood.

Logically speaking, the Battle Nuns are also mortals.

Initially, Gu Hang thought it was because the Sisterhood was wealthy, and the regular Star Realm Army couldn’t afford such high-end equipment. However, he later discovered that was not the case.

They could use it, but the regular soldiers probably could not.

Valkyrie Armor required some theological power to operate.

Gu Hang felt a bit helpless but also somewhat fortunate.

Helpless because the technology had a limited scope of use; fortunate because, after all, he had an organization under him that could utilize it.

Sainte-Lys Nun Association.

Strictly speaking, they are not technically members of the Alliance.

But… at this juncture, the Sisterhood being situated in the core territories of the Alliance, their economic, political, and self-development all relied on the Alliance, which had become an objective reality. In practice, they were no longer involved in anti-heretic activities like they were decades ago when they had to collaborate with Korolya.

Currently, the work of the Sainte-Lys mainly involves serving as enforcers for the Alliance’s spy agencies and judicial institutions, and they often liaised with the Alliance’s legal center. When there were problems or a lack of high-end military force, Demon Hunters would often call upon a few nuns to cooperate and handle the situation.

Also, there was the war.

During the Iron Teeth War, the Sainte-Lys Nun Association consecutively deployed over a thousand Battle Nuns to cooperate with the Alliance Army and many were sacrificed.

Their relationship with the Alliance had grown significantly close, especially during the recent confrontation with the Silver Tribunal, where Sainte-Lys provided substantial military support and many of Silver Tribunal’s covert agents were eliminated by the nuns.

This clearly indicated their stance. Having tested them through this ordeal, Gu Hang indeed felt they could be considered as one of their own.

Valkyrie Armor was best utilized by these Battle Nuns; naturally, it was equipped for them as compensation for their dedicated service to the Alliance.

…

As for the last and most crucial technology that Gu Hang cared about, it was the Apocalypse-level Technology.

[Zhuge-class, Heavy Space Aircraft Carrier]
This is a Battleship-class vessel, exceedingly rare within the Imperial Navy.

Partly because the construction cost is high, approximately double that of a Retribution-class Battleship; additionally, within the internal circles of the Imperial Navy, there is a disliking for using Aircraft Carriers.

Or rather, the Carrier Faction is not the mainstream within the Imperial Navy.

Big ships and heavy guns remain the mainstream, followed by the Battlecruiser Faction; the Carrier Faction has the least influence.