Chapter 282: Strategic Counsel! The Bizarre Navigator! The Voice of Public Opinion!
"Do you know the Atreides family?"
At that moment, Reed—stationed far away at the headquarters of the Myriad Worlds Base—asked this question through a communication terminal to the captain of the Spacing Guild on the Star Alliance's end.
The Spacing Guild captain was visibly startled by the question. With a suspicious tone, he shot back, "Don't tell me... you're with House Atreides?!"
In the power hierarchy of the Dune universe, House Atreides was a top-tier noble house—both a moral paragon among the nobility and a political heavyweight.
If one were to compare House Atreides to a faction in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, they'd be akin to the Yuan family, which boasted a legacy of four generations of high-ranking officials.
Moreover, as a core member of the Landsraad Council, House Atreides often acted in the interests of other noble houses, earning widespread support and admiration among Dune's aristocracy.
So when the captain heard Reed mention House Atreides by name, he couldn't help showing a look of bewildered disbelief.
After all, it seemed highly unlikely that such a distinguished noble family would bother hijacking a Spacing Guild vessel.
"I'm the one asking questions right now. Answer me immediately!" Reed barked.
Frightened by his tone, the captain nodded repeatedly and confirmed that he was indeed familiar with House Atreides.
Reed continued, "Then what about House Harkonnen and the Corrino royal family—do you know them?"
This time, the Spacing Guild captain had learned his lesson. He admitted to knowing all of them and truthfully answered each of Reed's follow-up questions.
Much like House Atreides, House Harkonnen had supported Butler in quelling rebellions during the holy war between humans and AI.
As one of Butler's founding allies, House Harkonnen naturally became a core shareholder when the Imperial Company went public, thus earning the right to dividends and privileges.
However, during crucial profit-sharing negotiations, a major rift developed between House Harkonnen and House Atreides, turning them into bitter rivals.
As Emperor, Butler was more than happy to see such conflict flourish between powerful noble families. In fact, he often encouraged it.
The tactic of "sacrificing two peaches to get rid of three warriors" became a classic maneuver of the Corrino royal house, as infighting among their subordinates only helped stabilize their own throne.
Despite being a major power among the noble factions, the Harkonnens were known for their greed and brutality.
To put it bluntly, they still carried the stink of banditry—unrefined and unscrupulous. When it came to profit, they behaved like starving ghouls, gorging themselves shamelessly and refusing to share even the tiniest bit of wealth with other families.
Because of this, their reputation and prestige paled in comparison to House Atreides.
After confirming from the captain that these powers—House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Corrino royal family—were all present, Reed was certain: this was the Dune universe.
"What's the exact date right now? I need the specific year, month, and day."
Reed pressed on with another key question.
Now that he had confirmed they were in the Dune universe, it was crucial to pinpoint the exact timeline to determine how far the story had progressed.
The timing of events was critical to Li Ang's plans as well.
If they had arrived at a point where Paul Atreides was already leading an army to crush the Corrino family, then things might get tricky.
Because at that stage, they'd have to engage Paul's forces in a full-blown war to take the throne and ascend as the God-Emperor.
Granted, with Universal Megacorp's current technological might, defeating the human civilization of the Dune universe and forcefully completing their unification mission wouldn't be all that difficult.
But brute-forcing it wasn't efficient, and the cost of war would be massive—something Li Ang had no interest in paying.
Hence, identifying the timeline would help him formulate a more precise strategic plan.
Faced with Reed's question, the captain didn't attempt to hide anything. He promptly replied, "It's April 26th, 10,190 AD."
When Li Ang—operating from behind the scenes—heard that date, he became pensive. It looked like they had arrived just in time.
The events of Dune: Part One begin in 10,191 AD. At this point, the Corrino royal family hadn't yet struck against House Atreides.
Paul, the protagonist, was still living a leisurely life as a noble heir, although the conspiracy targeting House Atreides was already brewing.
The royal family and House Harkonnen were sharpening their knives in secret.
With all this information now confirmed, Reed gave orders to the Spartan warriors aboard the dreadnought: escort the captured personnel away for further interrogation later.
In truth, the Spacing Guild wasn't really a "good or bad" organization in the Dune universe.
As a purely profit-driven capitalist alliance, their sole objective was making money. At best, they were a commercial guild; at worst, glorified henchmen who handled logistics for the royal family and noble houses.
Given that they were only interested in business and not zealotry or ideals, Universal Megacorp had no intention of targeting them.
Such organizations, after all, were the easiest to negotiate with.
"I'll warn you now—we're Spacing Guild crew members, and we're on a mission to pick up an imperial envoy! You're delaying an official royal assignment! Be careful—the Emperor might hold you accountable!" the captain shouted as the Spartan warriors moved to detain them.
Notably, he didn't lean on the authority of the Spacing Guild itself—he knew full well that, among noble houses, the Guild's name held little weight.
Even minor noble families bullied Guild personnel on a regular basis, let alone the big houses.
In moments like this, only invoking the Emperor's name could keep aristocratic soldiers in check.
Clearly, this captain still didn't realize what kind of force Universal Megacorp truly was. He mistakenly assumed they were just another private enterprise under a noble house.
That's why he dared to obstruct the seizure of a Spacing Guild ship.
However, faced with his warning, a Spartan warrior simply stepped forward and grabbed the captain by the shoulder. With a light squeeze, the captain winced in agony and began howling in pain.
"Please cooperate with our operation."
Then, the Spartan let go. The captain immediately quieted down and followed them meekly.
Watching this unfold, Reed chuckled to himself. This guy thinks he can threaten Universal Megacorp?
With the corporation's current technological prowess, the combined forces of the entire Dune Galactic Empire wouldn't stand a chance.
Even though the Dune Empire's troops possessed Holtzman shield technology that could resist laser weaponry, those shields weren't invincible.
Just like the energy shields of the Reaper civilization, they had limitations—unable to sustain long-term protection and susceptible to energy depletion and failure.
Universal Megacorp's fleet could easily shatter those shields with concentrated barrages from their hard-light main cannons.
More importantly, they now wielded strategic weapons like the Neutron Annihilator.
A single blast could cleanse an entire planet of life in under three minutes. If Li Ang had no moral compass, he could unify the Dune universe in the blink of an eye.
But such savage, brute-force tactics had never been his style. He preferred elegant strategies—feasts, executions, and loyal subjugation.
"Take them all down. Keep them under strict watch—don't let any of them escape," Reed ordered the frontline troops.
"Yes, sir!"
With that, the Spartan warriors escorted all the Spacing Guild crew members away.
Meanwhile, research personnel began entering the Spacing Guild's Highliner, combing through every device and system onboard.
Soon enough, they discovered a "person" bound to a life-support apparatus in the cockpit.
But calling it a person was generous—it was more like a grotesque creature with severely atrophied limbs and an oversized head.
This bizarre figure was none other than a human Navigator—a staple of the Dune universe.
Upon seeing it, the executives gathered in the Megacorp's command center all instinctively frowned with disgust.
"So this is what a Navigator looks like in the Dune universe? Damn, that's… abstract. Looks more like a brain in a jar."
"…"
Li Ang, however, remained unfazed, as if he had already expected this.
In truth, Navigators originally looked like ordinary humans. But to maximize their potential, they consumed massive amounts of spice.
This allowed them to enhance their cognitive and computational abilities to extraordinary levels.
While consuming large amounts of spice, even these professionally trained Navigators gradually mutate into monstrous forms.
Generally speaking, the more abstract and grotesque a Navigator appears, the more powerful their computational and prescient abilities tend to be.
There's no way around it—since the human brain is the organ with the highest energy consumption, excessive development inevitably leads to compensatory effects.
And the consequence of an enlarged and overdeveloped brain is atrophy of the limbs, to the point where mobility is almost completely lost.
Still, while the Navigators in the Dune universe may look unsightly, these humanoid AIs are exceptionally skilled at their jobs.
The Navigator aboard this ship was a high-level Navigator—an elite specialist belonging to the upper echelons of the Spacing Guild.
In the Dune universe, having a Navigator of this caliber as your guide means there's virtually no need to worry about the dangers of space travel.
At this moment, after observing the situation on the other side, the executives at the Base Headquarters began detailed discussions about the Dune universe.
This time, the Stargate had opened onto a universe that wasn't particularly dangerous, and the rare, mystical substance known as spice was unparalleled.
Low difficulty, high reward—clearly, the Universal Megacorp needed to seize control of this universe as soon as possible.
Seeing that all the top executives were leaning toward the same conclusion, Song Zhaomei, Director of Strategic Operations, voiced her opinion.
"We should immediately deploy a fleet legion to the Dune universe and secure it as quickly as possible!"
The integration of the Dune universe had been personally designated as a key project by CEO Li Ang, so the megacorp executives were essentially just going through the motions at this point.
Opposition to the plan was out of the question.
And so, the next moment, the various executives all voiced their support for Song Zhaomei's proposal.
"I agree with Director Song. The Dune universe is very well-suited for integration into Universal Megacorp's domain."
The speaker was Alt Cunningham, Director of the Research Division.
Due to the Dune universe's complete abandonment of computer technology, its humans were nearly primitive in terms of information systems!
Their version of a USB drive was a specially bred biological organism, and their ornithopters ran on scallop-like bio-engines.
Clearly, technological advancement in the Dune universe had focused on genetic modification, shield technology, and interstellar travel.
Even if some individuals gained special abilities through spice and genetic engineering, they wouldn't be able to shift the outcome of a full-scale interstellar war—especially against a civilization as vast and powerful as Universal Megacorp, with its industrial might and legionary forces.
In fact, the corporation probably didn't even need to dispatch a large fleet. A single, standard expeditionary battle group would be enough to take control of this universe.
On the matter of integrating the Dune universe, all of the company's upper management were in unanimous agreement.
The real issue now was: how should they proceed?
"Let's hear your thoughts."
Reed, standing at the main podium, looked out over the group. Previously, all decisions in the Multiverse Operations Initiative had been made solely by Li Ang.
But today, in an unprecedented move, the upper management was being invited to offer their input.
Some of the executives, caught off guard, fell into silent contemplation, wary of speaking up.
It wasn't that they lacked knowledge of the Dune universe or feared saying something incorrect—rather, they worried about making a wrong suggestion and being held accountable.
In bureaucracies, after all, avoiding mistakes is often more important than achieving merits.
"Heh! If you ask me, just give me two fleet legions, and I'll lead the navy straight to the Corrino Royal House. I'll wipe out that emperor and put the boss on the throne!"
This bold statement came from Jack Wills, the newly appointed commander of the Iron Hand Battle Group. Deep-voiced and straightforward, he had no hesitation in speaking plainly—voicing what was likely Li Ang's true intention.
With two legions' worth of fleet power, Universal Megacorp's forces could easily steamroll the Dune universe's royal household.
After all, their military forces couldn't possibly stand up to the likes of neutron annihilators, Scorpiotail viruses, wanderer-class dreadnoughts, or planet-busting nukes.
Jack Wills' opening remarks gave the others permission to speak freely, and soon, one executive after another began offering suggestions.
Based on Universal Megacorp's previous experience integrating universes, there were essentially three strategic approaches.
The first—and most direct—was brute-force takeover: use overwhelming power to seize control of the local ruling force and bend it to the corporation's will.
For instance, this was the method used with Pandora's planetary consciousness, Eywa.
However, this tactic was more effective with non-human civilizations. It didn't work as well with humans, since it was hard to win their loyalty through pure force.
The second method was to play the savior: present the megacorp as the benevolent force rescuing the local civilization, thereby securing a smooth and willing integration.
This approach was the ideal scenario—minimal management costs, maximum compliance.
Universes like 001 Pitch Black, 002 Pacific Rim, and 003 Edge of Tomorrow were all successfully integrated through the savior strategy.
The third method required careful maneuvering by decision-makers.
For example, universe 004 Halo took six years to fully integrate, with the Covenant War alone dragging on for nearly five.
During that time, every trick in the megacorp's arsenal was used.
But the core tactic still boiled down to three steps:
Wining and dining. Assassination. Submission.
As for the Dune universe, the local human civilization had neither been attacked by external threats like the Covenant, nor did they have a divine being like Eywa to dominate the natives with a single decisive blow.
Starting a war with the Corrino Royal House and killing the Emperor wouldn't accomplish much either.
The feudal aristocracy in the Dune universe ran deep—kill one leader, and another would just rise to take their place.
If the Corrino Royal House fell, the next most powerful family would inherit the throne and lead the others in resistance against the megacorp.
In fact, the Harkonnen and Atreides families might even cheer from the sidelines if the Corrinos were attacked, waiting to see how the battle played out.
Unless Universal Megacorp was prepared to wipe out every noble house in the Dune universe, rushing into a war would do more harm than good.
To everyone's surprise, this seemingly minor universe was proving to be unusually difficult to subdue. The room filled with competing proposals and mounting debate.
Just then, Song Zhaomei—who had already received hints from Li Ang—seized the moment and presented the idea of merging church and state under a divine emperor model.
By assuming the roles of High Priest and God-Emperor, they could unify the local human civilization with minimal cost—and possibly without any warfare at all.
At that moment, all the megacorp executives fell silent and turned to look at Song Zhaomei.
She lifted her chin slightly and addressed them with a solemn tone:
"Everyone, the people of the Dune universe hold deep faith in the legend of a messianic savior. And as we all know, every legend and prophecy throughout history has simply been a tool of political propaganda."
"If they're willing to buy into this little trick, then we should absolutely use it to our advantage—package the boss as a messiah from beyond the stars, the divine emperor who will unify the multiverse."
"Only by doing this can we minimize the local humans' hostility toward Universal Megacorp, and make future governance of the Dune universe far more manageable."
"…"
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