" Hey Donny, are you reading this? " Ratty asked baffled at what the fuck was going on
" Exterminated the bandit camp plaquing the area in full on the first day of his work, now wants permission to exterminate the rebel stronghold.
I don't have the balls to attack the rebel stronghold but he thinks he can do it with a small Garrison?
Where exactly did we pick this kid off again? " Ratty complained as he could not believe his eyes.
" I think you promoted him to Garrison Commander for having a strong handshake, good foresight sir ". Donny the assistant complimented Ratty being the bootlicker that he was
" Yeah, but now he's behaving psychotic. What should I do? " Ratty asked as he panicked thinking that all the reports submitted to him will go onto lieutenant commander at the end of the month.
" Give him permission sir, that's what you should do.
If he gets his Garrison killed, pin all blame on him, if he pulls off an unlikely miracle then it was your operation from the get-go.
You can be promoted by taking the credit " Donny replied as Ratty's eyes brightened at the proposition.
Giving Max approval to perform ' special military operations ' in the rebel area, Ratty decided to take the wait and watch approach. While he was sure that Max would fail, he could not wait to hog the credit should he succeed.
************
( Meanwhile Max )
Max partied hard with his troops, although staying mostly at his own private table with his 3 friends, Max did visit the other captains table once and fulfilled his social duties.
It was a good atmosphere overall in the camp, but his mind was preoccupied with something else.
Not 15 minutes ago, he tested his newly gained skill the [ Death Plague ] as he realised that if he wanted to perform silent warfare, he could make the life of the rebels a lot more difficult should he unleash the plaque behind their city walls.
In 15-30 days time he could get the infection rate as high as 40% and farm tremendous amounts of exp while forcing an internal rebellion from the people to open up the city gates and forcing the rebels to seek external aid.
However, this method would cost the lives of innocent civilians and Max had reservations about using innocent lives for his victory.
While his ambitions were paramount for him, he did not want to become morally lawless if he could help it and hence he decided to wait until Severus came back with solid news and he got a letter from major Ratty before deciding future course of actions.
*********
( Meanwhile Severus The Sweeper )
Severus was sweeping the streets of the rebel city while collecting information about the surroundings constantly through his superior hearing.
If there was one thing that the Saint Maximus Clan was best at doing, it was collecting information through their bloodline ability.
The sweeping made Severus invisible to common folks and rebel officials even though he was very much physically present and visible to the naked eye.
Nobody seemed to mind his presence or watch their conversation while he was sweeping nearby.
It was like people actively tried not to make an awkward eye contact with Severus and hence played beautifully into his plan as Severus stayed out of ear-shot distance of normal vampires and made people think he could not hear jackshit, while he heard everything everyone said.
The rebel city was primarily made up of two concentric walls.
The outer wall was lower and the inner wall was higher, and the gates connecting these two walls were not aligned but rather places in a zig-zag manner which made it nearly impossible for invading forces to enter the city through the walls, as they would face unbelievable losses at the hands of the higher positioned troops hurling arrows and javelins at them.
The security of the city was so good that the Titus clan grew complacent and stationed minimal troops in the place, thinking it was impregnable, but an internal rebellion saw the city forces being defeated overnight and the territory becoming a rebel zone.
The rebels made some popular economic reforms, making the area tax free and dealing with space pirates and the like to trade for food and essentials in-exchange for services.
This made the city grow economically and reduced the burden of not being able to integrate with the rest of the planet.
While it was a good arrangement, it was not perfect and many commoners did not support the rebels at heart.
According to Severus's survey, should Max try and dethrone the rebel forces there would be minor riots but nothing major and civil order could be restored quickly should the rebels fall.
This only left the question of how to defeat the rebels, as Severus tried to assess their strengths and the overall weakness of the territory.
While a solo tier4 warrior like Severus could easily scale the walls undetected and infiltrate the city, it would be impossible for tier 1 and 2 troops to do the same and hence Max could not sneak the Garrison inside like he entered the city.
Severus hence needed to figure out an entry route and get a confirmation on the enemy strength before he could go back and report his findings to Max, and maybe clean a bit of trash in the process as the city was extremely dirty as well.
" Fucking rebels, don't even have proper sanitation workers. This place stinks worse than Max and Asiva's apartment and those kids trained for 16 hours a day and slept without showering, all slimy and bloody.
I cleaned that place 3 times a week, but this city will take my entire clan a week to clean completely.
It is personal now, I must make the rebels pay for this hygiene mismanagement, this crime cannot go unpunished " Severus mumbled as he got distracted from his scouting work and seriously began focusing on his sweeping work.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the grow a tree target on discord! Good job guys ///