Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 20: Situation Analysis of the Martian Revolution

Zhang Qiming looked at the large amount of experience points and immediately gave the rest to the beginner in psionic skills.

Gaia, add some points!

The panel lit up almost instantly, and upgrade prompts scrolled up the light screen. The novice psionicist jumped from LV5 all the way up, as if riding a rocket, and was upgraded all the way to the maximum level.

[[Psionic Novice] Upgraded to LV6...]

[[Psionic Novice] upgraded to LV10 (MAX), Mysticism +1, Intelligence +1, gained 2 free attribute points, gained 1 skill point!]

[Remaining Experience: 68932]

Without hesitation, Zhang Qiming added all three free attribute points he gained from the Myriad Machine Mechanic job change to Intelligence; and all ten free attribute points he gained from the Psionic Novice job change to Mysticism.

【属性栏：力量24、敏捷31、耐力30、智力50、神秘41、魅力9、幸运10。】

As the last bit of attribute dropped, the entire panel seemed to tremble slightly, and his total level now became 31.

Only he himself knows the hard work and sweat he put in.

Zhang Qiming was satisfied with the rewards he received for his hard work.

Moreover, with his total level breaking through to 31 and the reputation of Skyward, his current daily personal task system has reached a total experience amount of 35000.

This means he has more bait to throw out and more players to influence, which means his macro-control over the Fourth Calamity has been raised to a new level.

And this is exactly what he needs most right now.

Zhang Qiming leaned back in his chair, his mind starting to formulate his next course of action.

In addition to having a general outline, the Martian Revolution also requires an understanding of the current organizational structure of the Martian Mechanical Church. Only in this way can a situational analysis be conducted.

The current church governance structure on Mars is complex in some ways, but simple in others. He has a clear organizational chart of Mars in his mind.

At the very top is the Martian Mechanical Church, but the true mastermind is the Holy Cardinal Order; and under the Holy Cardinal Order, there are five major power departments, through which the Holy Cardinals hold absolute power over the entire planet Mars.

The Martian Joint Council is in charge of Martian government affairs and local coordination. It is essentially the administrative center of Mars, and it includes three of the most important local governments: the Tharsis Plateau Governing Council, the Mariner Valley Coordinating Council, and the Polar Ice Sheet Development Administration.

The General Administration of the Covenant Army, which controls the ground forces, SA armed aerospace forces, and orbital ship forces (Gyeonggi Naval Forces) on Mars, is also the foundation for the College of Cardinals' rule; whoever has the guns and the machinery has the power.

The Covenant Naval Command is another, higher-level armed force. The four Martian fleets are stationed at the four Lagrange points on Mars. They are the near-Earth orbit forces of Mars, that is, the naval forces of Mars.

The Sacred Inquiry Office is a pathological organizational structure. It not only manages the entire Martian judicial system but also controls the entire Martian economic lifeline, firmly holding the reins of Martian tax administration and capital operations.

The Tribunal is the most ridiculous entity. Although it appears to be independent, its judges, budget, and operational space still depend on the Cardinal Order, the four major factions, and the Covenant Army for nomination and support. Its essence is a secret police and intelligence agency, responsible for maintaining the authoritarian rule of the Cardinals.

The reason why the College of Cardinals can remain in a position of power is not because they are truly holy, but because they have all five swords in their own hands.

Military, political, judicial, economic, and secret police—these are the fundamental elements that allow the College of Cardinals to maintain its rule.

As Zhang Qiming thought about this, his eyes slowly darkened. His revolutionary plan was never simply about killing a few old men to vent his anger.

If we really want to pull Mars out of this rotten theocratic oligarchy, killing a few old Dengs won't do any good. Even if we kill them, new people will always come up to take their place.

Assassination alone cannot change this corrupt system!

The Mechanical Church had to change; someone had to break the monopoly of the College of Cardinals, and the person he chose was Saint Sophia.

He wanted to support Saint Sophia to become the Pope of the Mechanical Church, and he also had some preliminary ideas about what would happen next.

In Zhang Qiming's vision, once the Holy Terra is established in the future, the church should no longer extend its reach into politics, and should no longer ride roughshod over the military, government, and judicial systems as it does now.

At that time, true administrative, military, and judicial power, and even the overall command during the interstellar expansion, must be gradually returned to the Holy Terran government. The Church must return to its rightful place—let what belongs to the Church belong to the Church, and what belongs to Holy Terran belong to Holy Terran.

Of course, these are all things to be discussed later.

He has only just completed the first three steps: opening up the situation → positioning players → contacting Saint Sophia.

He has already placed these three pieces, the game has begun, and there is no turning back now. He can only proceed cautiously, step by step.

But what comes next is the real trouble. He has to face the most difficult problem. In the end, all the problems come down to one very real thing—the gun barrel.

Whoever has a gun has the confidence to speak.

Now, the Martian Ground Forces, SA Aerospace Armed Forces, and Orbital Ship Forces are all in the hands of the Covenant Army General Affairs Department. They were originally military forces that protected the Church, the College of Cardinals, and the entire Martian theocratic order.

The total population of Mars is 2.1 million, with approximately 46 active ground troops and around 260 million local garrison and reserve personnel.

The Mars Covenant Forces (SA) are based in the aerospace bases, underground hangars, spaceport launch silos, and electromagnetic catapult ranges in the three major blocks of Mars. They are responsible for homeland air defense, near-orbit interception, urban suppression, ground support, and martial law at spaceports.

They are monsters that combine land-based air force and heavy mobile weaponry. Currently, there are approximately 1569 active-duty SAs on Mars, of which about 211 are second-generation aircraft.

Next are the Martian fleet, which is the Guard Fleet drawn from the navy. It is responsible for protecting the Martian homeland and is usually stationed at the Martian spaceport, near-Mars orbit, the key points of Phobos and Deimos, and the core area of ​​the Holy Cardinals. They are the orbital guards of Mars.

The flagship of the Guardian Fleet is the Guardian flagship "Crimson Corona", a heavy SA aircraft carrier and close orbit command mothership.

Surrounding this flagship is a complete fleet skeleton protecting the homeland—one heavy SA aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, four destroyers, eight escorts, sixteen patrol gunboats, four landing transport ships, three supply and repair ships, and two electronic reconnaissance ships, totaling a full forty ships.

These numbers are indeed frightening, but the Skywards only launched a coup, not a war of civilization, so they did not need to confront the entire army head-on.

Whether or not you can fight is never the primary concern; taking sides is the essence of politics.

This is precisely why he must unite with Saint Sophia. If Saint Sophia becomes Pope and the Church recognizes the legitimacy and orthodoxy of papal rule, then they can seize military power from the College of Cardinals.

Therefore, what Sky Drive and Saint Sophia need to do now is to gain military command over the Martian mainland as quickly as possible, and then find a way to control the four naval forces in the direction of the Lagrange point.

Even if we can't take them all, we must at least stabilize the majority and prevent them from siding with the Holy Cardinals at crucial moments.