Chapter 304 Taking Over Arrakis! Return to Caladan! Leto’s Plan!

Boom——!
Here, with the start of all engines, dozens of dazzling blue and white light beams burst out instantly.

They pushed the mountain-like Mantle slowly towards the star gate ahead. The violent vibrations from the engine made all the staff present feel dizzy and uncomfortable.

Several minutes later, this much-anticipated shuttle was finally completed, and the area near the star gate returned to normal.

After the Mantle was safely moored at the other end of the stargate, the various departments of the Universal Corporation became busy again, and the engineers quickly checked the operation of various parts of the Mantle.

This ancient super battleship, which has been silent for many years, even if it has powerful strength, still needs to be preheated and allowed to move for a period of time in order to be fully started and put into normal use.

At this moment, the crew members on the Yi Bo began to receive data statistics from various departments to find out whether there were any unusual situations or injuries.

At the headquarters of the Myriad Worlds Base, after seeing that the Mantle had successfully reached the other end of the star gate and arrived in the Dune universe, Leon no longer paid attention to the situation here.

As for the next important task, he will give it to Song Zhaomei to handle. Li Ang only wants the result of the integration task, and he doesn’t care about the process.

After all, the difficulty of integrating the 005 “Dune” universe is basically given. Unless you force it to happen mindlessly, there won’t be much resistance.

After getting Song Zhaomei’s promise, Leon and Secretary-General Lucy temporarily left the Wanjie Base and took a shuttle back to the headquarters in Night City.

At the same time, the Second Expeditionary Corps of the giant enterprise, with the Mantle as its core flagship, also followed closely behind through the star gate and arrived in the “Dune” universe.

The arrival of the second fleet of the Universal Corporation brought great shock to all members of the Atreides family from the bottom of their hearts.

After seeing the star gate open, they originally thought that there would only be a fleet of similar size to the previous one, but the size of this fleet was obviously “slightly” larger!
The leading flagship, the Yi Bo, took nearly ten minutes to complete the star gate shuttle. This giant steel dragon that seemed to have no end was actually hundreds of kilometers long!
At this moment, everyone in the Atreides family, including Duke Leto, was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say.

At this time, Hawat kept wiping the sweat from his forehead and tried to calm his inner restlessness. He couldn’t hide his nervousness and said:

“No wonder they dared to negotiate with us directly from the beginning and even wanted to redistribute and divide the political power and structure of the empire. It turns out that they really have the power to unify the empire!”

“Your Excellency the Duke, it’s a good thing that we agreed to cooperate with them, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.”

“…”

In order to facilitate the subsequent troop mobilization and save energy, the star gate of the Universal Corporation was established on Arrakis, which will also become the first frontline base of the Corporation.

It won’t be long before Arrakis will be the core base deployed by the giant corporation in the 005 “Dune” universe. Even the interstellar governor’s office will most likely be set up here.

When the Mantle appeared out of nowhere in the sky above Arrakis, the local native Fremen were all so scared that they knelt on the ground and prayed.

They had never seen such a grand scene of mechanical deification.

The sandworms lurking deep in the dunes also became restless, as if they sensed that something extremely threatening was approaching Arrakis.

As for the guards of the Atreides family, they looked at each other in panic. Although they had received notice in advance, they were still a little frightened and confused when they saw this scene.

After all, they thought that the other party was just sending an ordinary fleet, but they didn’t expect that the expeditionary force sent by the giant global enterprise would be so exaggerated.

Who can withstand a giant ship that stretches for hundreds of kilometers?
“What do you think of their strength?”

At this moment, Duke Leto said something inexplicably, which made Hawat feel a little confused. Could it be that Leto was scared silly and asked such a nonsensical question?

Anyone who is not blind can see that no one in the entire Galactic Empire can be a match for the Universal Corporation, not even all the families combined!
But in reality, the question Leto really wanted to ask was how many years it would take for the Atreides to catch up with such a world-beating enterprise.

It was just because he was too shocked that he asked this question by mistake.

Seeing this, Hawat, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, shook his head, but still silently calculated in his mind. However, soon his brain began to sweat profusely due to overload.

After a long while, Hawat, whose mind was a little confused, gave his answer to Duke Thunder solemnly:
“My Lord Duke, please don’t even think about comparing us to the giant companies. They have at least tens of thousands of expeditionary forces like this one, which can be spread across the entire star system!”

“Let alone our Atreides family, even if we start up all the shipyards in the empire and work day and night for another 100,000 years, we still can’t catch up.”

According to the reliable information Hawat had obtained during this period, he knew that the Universal Corporation spanned as many as five parallel universes, from the main universe to the 004 “Halo” universe, all of which were the territory of the corporation.

They have conquered countless powerful alien civilizations, controlled megastructures of celestial bodies, and can even build planet-class warships!

With the productivity and resource areas demonstrated by the Universal Corporation, the Galactic Empire is a piece of cake for the Corporation. As long as they want, they can devour and drain the entire empire at any time.

After listening to Hawat’s explanation, Leto suddenly realized how unrealistic his previous idea was. He actually wanted to surpass the world giant.

You know, the expeditionary force he has seen now is just an ordinary one.

If an elite army with planetary-class ships were sent here, wouldn’t it be even more despairing?

Thinking of this, Duke Leto couldn’t help but shake his head repeatedly. With so many legion warships, he didn’t know how much resources would be burned and how much financial and material resources would be exhausted.

Prior to this, Leto had his men calculate how much it would take to build a normal fleet for a world giant, even if all technical difficulties were overcome and material costs were minimized.

That would at least require draining out all of the Atreides family’s assets, from the inheritance left by the ancestors to the industries developed by successive patriarchs, to barely be able to build such a fleet.

This is only the most basic construction cost, not including subsequent maintenance and personnel supply. To fully support such a fleet, at least the property of five Atreides families would have to be burned!
For a gold-devouring behemoth like this, the wealthy and powerful giant corporations in the universe can maintain tens of thousands of legions. It is no wonder that the giant corporations are so confident that they dare to walk around in multiple parallel universes.

For the Galactic Empire in the Dune universe, their productivity is destined not to be very strong under the premise of restricting the development of AI artificial intelligence.

The world’s giant companies rely on the development of AI and the rapid rise of various transcendental AIs to expand productivity. Building, maintaining, and supporting such a huge army is nothing for the giant companies.

In fact, this is the size of the army after Leon deliberately restrained himself. If the production area of ​​the giant enterprise is fully operational, the current number of armies can even be multiplied several times!
But it’s not necessary.

In fact, if the Galactic Empire also opened up its research on AI technology and used ancient AI to improve productivity, their military expansion speed would also be quite amazing.

However, they lack core technology like “Matrix” that can control AI, so they are so cautious and dare not completely relax the constraints on AI.

Of course, even if the Galactic Empire has also developed AI artificial intelligence, their production speed and ability to produce troops cannot possibly compare to that of the Universal Corporation.

After all, the world’s giant companies are backed by scientific hubs and various resource areas, and have sufficient technical reserves and a large amount of basic materials.

When it comes to technological research and development, giant companies sit on scientific hubs and think tanks of pioneer civilizations. Relying on a semi-self-research and semi-free development approach, the technology tree of giant companies is completely based on what lights up!

Highlight a willful, unrestrained and free character.

As for basic materials, use mass decompressors to evacuate black holes, rely on giant ships to explode stars, and let clones mine. There is nothing that giant companies cannot do, as long as others cannot think of it.

A super civilization spanning five universes is operated by five “cores”. As long as they don’t fight a high-end game of world-destroying level, the giant corporations in the world don’t have to worry about running out of resources.

“Now I really believe that they have integrated multiple parallel universes. I can’t help but accept it!”

Duke Leto couldn’t help but sigh, his expression was full of envy, jealousy and hatred, but more of what was in his heart was a deep sense of powerlessness.

Before the advent of the Cosmos Corporation, Leto was an ambitious politician.

He tried to rely on the Lansgard Federation to win over several families and slowly seize power from the royal family until he was on equal footing with Emperor Saddam.

This is his ultimate goal.

The political ecological environment that Leto wants is similar to that of the Yuan family, which had three generations of officials in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

After the arrival of the Megacorp, Leto still thought that he would renegotiate terms with the Megacorp once the situation was settled, so as to gain more say for the Atreides.

However, the “tip of the iceberg” strength inadvertently displayed by the Universal Corporation made Leto fully realize that the reason why the Universal Corporation chose the Atreides family was purely for the sake of convenience.

If I get too carried away and bring trouble to the giant company, there’s no guarantee that they won’t replace Atreides with another family.

At this moment, Leto sighed helplessly. When people face the predetermined destiny, no matter how surging their ambitions are, they will be extinguished by the icy water of reality.

Since no matter how hard I try, it’s useless, I might as well just lie down.

Anyway, the Atreides family has already cashed out at a high price and can leave the market at any time. Now they just have to wait for the giant companies to reopen.

“It seems that our Atreides family will have to continue working honestly for the Universal Corporation.”

Duke Leto jokingly said that the best situation for the Atreides family in the future would be to keep a low profile as much as possible, just like the other families.

The executives of the Universal Corporation want to be their God-Emperor. Anyone who dares to use a political organization like the Lansgard Federation to plot a secret seizure of power is simply courting his own death.

People’s ambitions often change with changes in environment and situation.

Even when the Overlord Xiang Yu met Emperor Zulong and the First Emperor, who was driving a luxury car, throwing parties and touring the country, he only dared to say a few words and shout that he could replace him.

But he didn’t dare to really run out and fight with Qin’s army.

After all, if the Qin army ruled by the First Emperor wants to fight, they will really beat their opponents to death. No matter how many ideas Xiang Yu has, he can only suppress them temporarily and continue to grow.

As for Duke Leto, who has the appearance of an emperor, he is indeed an excellent politician and worthy of the position of emperor, but the overall situation is that Leon wants to be the God-Emperor, and everyone has to make way!

It is important to see the situation clearly. Besides, there is nothing wrong with being a dog for a global giant, and the Atreides family will not suffer any loss.

“Your Majesty the Duke is wise!!”

Hawat’s compliments came from the bottom of his heart.

Sometimes, as a subordinate, I am still worried that my boss will take risks and make reckless bets, because the high risk of failure will often result in losses for everyone.

Especially for those in their line of work, they might even lose their lives at the hands of their boss.

There will definitely be no good outcome if you go against a super civilization like the Global Corporation, which supports its agents from the very beginning to facilitate its plundering of resources.

Just based on the size of the Atreides family, they are able to maintain their contribution in helping the world giant corporation to unify the Galactic Empire. This is enough for the Atreides family to live off for generations!
In fact, in many cases, the revival of a family only requires the efforts of one or two generations, and at most it may take the efforts of three generations.

As for the successors, they only need to firmly inherit the blessings left by their ancestors to be qualified patriarchs.

The fear is that starting a business recklessly and taking sides blindly will lead to the dissipation of all the achievements and blessings passed down by the ancestors, and ultimately end up with a tragic ending of the family being broken up.

For the Atreides family, the most difficult period was the AI ​​Holy War ten thousand years ago. At that time, the Atreides patriarch worked hard and finally succeeded in starting a business and was allocated original shares.

The time for Atreides to make a fortune and take off is now. All you need to do is stand in line, cast your crucial vote for the global giant, and then you can sit back and wait for the giant to take you to victory.

It seemed like it took tens of thousands of years for the Atreides family to rise to prominence, but in fact it only took the efforts of two generations.

No matter how bad the patriarch is during this period, as long as he does not lose his basic base, he will always have a chance to take off.

Now, as a pig standing on the wind, Leto only needs to lie down with his wife and son and enjoy the second half of his life. As long as he does not make any trouble, the Atreides family will become more and more prosperous.

As the family’s Mentat, Hawat saw the situation clearly, so he complimented Duke Leto for not making any rash moves.

“Since the Second Expeditionary Corps of the Universal Corporation has arrived, let’s set off as soon as possible and return to Caladan to hand over Arrakis to them.”

Leto instructed Hawat.

Anyway, if he stayed here, he would just be guarding the gate for the giant company. It would be better for him to go back home early to be with his wife and children, and have two more babies with Jessica.

Besides, Arrakis is a barren planet except for the spices. Such a barren place is not as good as Caladan.

Caladan not only has a pleasant climate and abundant resources, it is also the base camp of the Atreides family. Staying in their own territory is definitely much safer than here.

The current situation has reached the most critical moment. There is no guarantee that the sisterhood will not go all out and suddenly launch an assassination or something.

“As you command, Your Excellency the Duke, I will go back and arrange matters for our return to Caladan!”

Hawat nodded solemnly. He also agreed with Leto’s suggestion. They should not stay in this troubled place for long. It would be better to leave as soon as possible.

After confirming the return voyage, Duke Leto finally felt somewhat relaxed and at ease. Looking at the Mantle in mid-air, he knew that there would be no more things to do with the Atreides next.

With these two powerful expeditionary forces of the Universal Corporation, they can completely chase after the army of the Colino royal family and kill them wherever they go.

No force can be a match for the giant corporations.

The empire of that dog Emperor Saddam has come to an end, and the Colino family, which has been arrogant and free for thousands of years, should also be completely finished.

By then, Leto would immediately use his reputation and prestige to take the lead in supporting Leon and make all the major families submit to the God-Emperor.

As an executive of a giant corporation, Leon only needed to come over in person to sign and meet with the patriarchs of the major families, and he could easily sign and take over this huge Galactic Empire.

The entire process of power transition went smoothly without any surprises!
Leto also had some plans in mind for the future of the Atreides.

That is to wait until the Galactic Empire changes its dynasty, then establish a Galactic Chamber of Commerce, learn from the people of the Space Guild, let people from major families participate, and focus on the transportation of goods in the universal trade circle.

Since there is no way to run the previous Lansgard Federation and become the head of each major family, then becoming the boss of a chamber of commerce and making money is also a good way.

“By the way, when you go back, ask Director Song Zhaomei for me if they can leave a group of Fremen for our Atreides family when they take over Arrakis.”

At this time, Duke Leto hesitated for a moment, and after thinking for a moment, he spoke to Hawat with a little trepidation.

“The Fremen are brave by nature, and their fighting ability is not inferior to that of the Sardaukans. I want to use them to form a family guard to defend the honor of Atreides.”

Leto knew that it was a bit sensitive for him to make this request to the giant company at this juncture, but if he didn’t mention it now, he would have no chance in the future.

The reason why the Colino royal family was able to rule the Galactic Empire for tens of thousands of years was that they could arbitrarily stir up conflicts between the major families and play the game of sitting on the mountain and watching the fight between tigers.

It is because their troops are good at fighting, and the powerful Sadoka Legion is always victorious in every battle. This is their greatest confidence in being so unscrupulous.

Now that Emperor Shaddam is about to fall and the Corino royal family is about to be destroyed, it doesn’t matter whether the Atreides family will use their power to stir up trouble and oppress other families.

The political ecological status of the Atreides family will inevitably undergo tremendous changes. From the former dragon-slaying warriors, they will become the new “dragon”. This is an established reality that cannot be changed by human will.

Leto would need stronger forces to consolidate his family’s revolutionary success and to guard against other families challenging the Atreides.

What’s more, the Fremen are of little use to the Universal Corporation, and it should not be too much to ask to just leave a group of them as family guards.

(End of this chapter)