Chapter 2550: Abnormal Star Sector (1/2)

Ves awkwardly scratched his smooth-shaven cheek.

The footage that Major Verle displayed had given him a great shock!

The dwarves not only succeeded in conquering the Paramount Kingdom, but also went on to defeat every other state in the star sector!

While it was true that the states in the Smiling Samuel Star Sector were more impoverished and decadent than others, they were still formidable institutions. How could the dwarves possibly overcome all of their disadvantages and win against the established powers in so little time?

”While it sounds like a fairy tale, the Vulcan Empire truly succeeded.” Major Verle said. ”Oday, the Vulcan Empire is the only dominant power of its star sector. While it is not that strong compared to other dominant states, it is highly entrenched in Smiling Samuel, thereby making it difficult for its neighbors to dislodge the dwarven state.”

The Dwarven Justice Movement rose up rapidly from its humble beginnings. It remained quiet while it began to accumulate followers. Once its numbers and strength grew formidable enough, the dwarves launched their attacks with great force.

The Paramount Kingdom did not account well for itself. Its rotten nobles and corrupted officials responded very poorly to the dwarven incursion.

In fact, the human rulers actually looked down on the dwarves! It took many painful defeats for the ruling houses to recognize that the dwarves actually had the power to depose them. By that time, it was too late, and the Paramount Kingdom eventually made way for the Vulcan Empire.

Even then, the rest of the Smiling Samuel Star Sector still did not recognize the threat posed by the dwarves.

It was normal for individual states to rise and fall. Despite its domineering name, the Vulcan Empire was actually in a pretty bad shape upon its founding. The Paramount Kingdom's industries had suffered a lot of damage due to all of the fighting and a huge brain drain took place as many humans who were able to afford passage on a starship had fled the conquered state!

Yet despite all of these problems, the Vulcan Empire grew incredibly fast. The moment the dwarven rebellion succeeded in founding a state dedicated to heavy gravity variant humans, the amount of dwarves pouring in from outside multiplied by ten!

Even the more skeptical and cowardly dwarves became swayed by the dwarven dream. Short-statured humans throughout the surrounding regions emigrated to the Vulcan Empire with much greater urgency.

The Vulcan Empire rapidly grew in strength. As it carefully picked its battles and continually accomplished victory after victory, the dwarven state's momentum rose.

As the momentum of the Vulcan Empire rose, even more dwarves abandoned their old lives. They traveled to the Vulcan Empire no matter the cost and integrated in the rising state remarkably quickly.

”The Vulcan Faith contributed a lot in uniting all of these foreign dwarves.” Major Verle noted.

Ves couldn't help but grimace even further. This faith was based on a sham!

Yet no matter how stupid it was for the dwarves to believe in one of his disguises, he had to admit that religion was one of the strongest ways to bind different people together.

No dwarf was the same. Their origin largely defined their norms and values. Different dwarves embodied different cultures depending on the planet, state or star sector they came from. Randomly mashing them together in a single state shouldn't have worked if not for their belief in Vulcan glueing them together!

”These dwarven believers certainly look.. enthusiastic.”

”That's an understatement.” Major Verle shook his head. ”All of the records state the Vulcan people are highly xenophobic towards other human variants. The majority of the 'tall folk' who used to reside in Smiling Samuel were either wiped out or transferred elsewhere. The immigrating dwarves all took over the lands, jobs and possessions of the original citizens. Nowadays, only a handful of planets still host a majority of baseline humans, and they are usually closed off and inaccessible.”

This sounded quite cruel to Ves! The dwarves must have displaced trillions of normal human citizens over the years. The sheer amount of tragedy that took place in Smiling Samuel likely exceeded that of the recent Sand War!

At the very least, humanity managed to stop the sandman race a relatively short time after the invasion started.

Yet no one managed to stop the tide of dwarves. How could these vertically-challenged humans possibly get away with their excessive actions?

It was one thing to conquer a state and oppress the conquered locals.

It was another thing to drive those locals from their homes!

The sheer amount of people the dwarves kicked from the star sector must have come to the attention of the MTA.

While the Association normally did not pay attention to local conflicts, there was no way the mechers remained ignorant of the brutality the dwarves engaged in. It was as if Smiling Samuel went back to the days of the Age of Conquest!

Strangely enough, the galactic net did not provide any solid answers. Ves only encountered lots of speculation, guesses and analyses.

Yet not once had the MTA issued any official statement. The Big Two remained completely impassive throughout the rapid takeover.

Major Verle voiced his opinion.

”The most accepted explanation is that the MTA is secretly supportive of the formation of a dwarven star sector. The more radical theories even state that the MTA has actually been supporting the Vulcan Empire from the dark, but only crackpots believe in them. If you ask me, the fact that the MTA did nothing to stop the rise of dwarves means the Big Two tacitly consented to this development. Maybe they're tired that dwarves are constantly being oppressed throughout the galaxy. Letting them take over one of the poorest star sectors might be a way to compensate these variant humans for their suffering.”

Ves had a different perspective on the matter. From his understanding of the MTA, the high-level leaders liked to see some variety. By allowing the dwarves to take over a star sector, the Association's research groups could probably engage in all kinds of comparative studies between societies.

This was what scientists desired the most! Some studies simply couldn't be performed if the samples were too homogeneous.

Dwarves were still humans in some aspects but very different in other aspects. Their distinctive identity, different physique and other traits turned them into very useful test subjects!