Just as that pair of rough, large hands reached out towards her like eagle talons.
Thump!
Louise, quick as a flash, twisted her wrist around the Overseer's, using his momentum to make him stumble forward and fall head over heels with a loud thud.
Then, with a swift curl of her arm, a kick of her leg, and a downward press, she executed a grappling technique as fluid as flowing clouds and water, slamming that pockmarked, ugly face onto the ground.
His thick lips were instantly scraped raw and bloody by the cold, dirty, rough concrete, and a row of yellow-stained teeth on either side of his front teeth shattered and scattered across the floor.
"Argh! Argh! Argh! You little bitch! Is this an uprising?"
The Overseer let out a pained shriek, his heart filled with terror and fear, his mouth spewing bloody foam mixed with broken teeth, still cursing and struggling incoherently.
Who would have thought that this somewhat skilled, greenhorn female worker would dare to lay a hand on him?
He cursed, trying to resist.
Louise was equally unceremonious, immediately slamming a knee into the most vulnerable spot on a male.
Crack!—
The sound of a fractured pelvis instantly rang out.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!"
The Overseer, his crotch crushed, instantly collapsed to the ground, curled into a ball, writhing like a maggot, letting out screams like a slaughtered pig.
"Damn it, who's the blind one trying to rebel?!" A few thugs inside heard the commotion and rushed out, one of them even holding a short assault automatic pistol, looking quite menacing.
Whoosh!—
Suddenly, the roar of an engine and the broadcast of a loudspeaker came from above the doorway.
"We are the Imperial Navy Garrison Law Enforcement Team! Everyone below, do not move! Any resistance will be treated as rebellion, and you will be killed without mercy!"
The automatic sentry guns on the Avila landing craft, controlled by the thinker array, aimed their dark muzzles at the criminals below.
The sound of dense leather shoes running suddenly erupted.
The orderly production line was instantly disrupted, and chaotic running and shouting spread, mixed with a few sudden screams, terrifying the ordinary workers inside who looked at each other in horror, falling into a state of immense confusion and helplessness.
The Overseers who could look outside discovered in terror that a large group of Soldiers, dressed in scarlet military uniforms, holding rifles, and adorned with sashes and golden shoulder boards, had surrounded the building, making it impenetrable.
Even if they tried to escape by running from the stairs, from the windows, to other factories, or by seizing shuttlecraft, the Navy's gunboats would surround them in mid-air.
What was even more terrifying was that these Soldiers had set up heavy weapons not far away. This momentum, how was it law enforcement? It was clearly an act of suppressing a rebellion.
Wearing a deep, dignified indigo-blue uniform, Horatio held a saber-type power sword in one hand and a gleaming silver Officer's Navy Blast Pistol in the other, leading the Soldiers to storm the gate.
"Imperial Navy search, immediately drop your weapons and surrender!" he roared.
But the Overseer holding the short assault automatic pistol, whether he was too scared or wanted to try to resist, remained frozen.
He still held the gun tremblingly, looking around, his expression wavering.
"I said! Drop the gun!" Horatio pointed his sword at his face and shouted.
Just as the man was still hesitating, Horatio unceremoniously fired.
With a bang, the upper half of the man's body was blown into bloody chunks by the Navy Blast Pistol, splattering onto the wall, blood and tissue fragments sticking to the thugs next to him.
"Sir, sir, don't kill me... don't shoot..."
Seeing this horrific sight, the lower-ranking thugs holding clubs let out hen-like shrieks, recovering from their stunned state, and knelt on the ground one after another, dropping their spiked clubs and raising their hands in surrender.
Under Horatio's leadership, the Navy Guards quickly secured the gate. The Guards used bayonets to drive the surrendering thugs against the wall, ordering them to place their hands on the wall, turn their backs to everyone, and began to search their bodies.
"Horatio, the situation inside the factory has been brought under control." Archie poked his head out from inside the factory and called out to him.
When Horatio entered the printing factory, Archie, who had infiltrated earlier, had already brought people to control the situation inside.
The boxes carried by these infiltrators were all filled with firearms.
At this moment, these plainclothes special forces were pointing their guns at the unruly individuals, ordering everyone to kneel.
Red-clad Soldiers poured in from all directions.
They kicked open the doors of room after room, arresting everyone they saw, and conducting thorough searches.
People were constantly being pushed into the hall at bayonet point, and occasionally, the sound of laser fire could be heard—they had been granted permission to shoot and kill resistors in this operation.
Horatio walked over with Louise.
He looked at the printing presses emitting an unpleasant odor all around, and couldn't help but frown.
Walking to the paper exit of a machine, a thick stack of finished newspapers had already accumulated there.
With his white-gloved hand, he laboriously picked up a warm, sticky, low-quality newspaper, examining its content.
The material costs for these illegal newspaper printing factories were far cheaper than those of legitimate manufacturers.
The ink used emitted a pungent odor, and even by intuition, it was clear that it was obviously harmful to human health.
The paper was also recycled waste pulp, feeling both rough and thin, easily torn.
Despite such low-quality newspapers, relying on eye-catching rumors and scandals, sales were still very good, so much so that the number of privately established illegal printing factories was increasing.
Elphinstone Leadership Academy would send people to investigate one batch, and soon another large batch would sprout up like mushrooms after rain.
It was a typical case of 'wildfire cannot burn them all, they grow again with the spring breeze.'
He concentrated on the content of the newspaper, and Louise, who was about his height, also curiously leaned in from behind him.
But the moment her clear, sharp, beautiful purple eyes scanned the headline, they widened significantly.
It read, 'Vice Admiral Alexander Hood, head of Military Intelligence, assassinated and killed! Power struggles within the Gothic Fleet surface! Is this a decline of morality, or a distortion of human nature?!'
'Gothic Fleet openly infights, a dignified Vice Admiral becomes a victim of private interests?'
'In-depth exposé! A shadow of gloom hangs over the Gothic Fleet, did power struggles lead to yesterday's tragedy? What is the meaning of the Fleet's existence?'
A string of large characters slandered the Gothic Fleet beyond recognition.
It was as if all of yesterday's events were due to the Gothic Fleet's dereliction of duty and internal strife.
Even the Vice Admiral himself was said to be the leader of a certain faction and was assassinated.
The content was distorted, exaggerated, and shocking, with an odor of conspiracy theory permeating every line.
What was terrifying was that such content was written convincingly, with a dramatic and exciting plot, full of suspense.
It also included rich and varied scandalous stories of captains and secretaries, directors and assistants, staff and officers, etc., vividly depicted, making it impossible to look away.
If Horatio had not known the inside story, an outsider who knew nothing about the Fleet, if their judgment and discernment were slightly poor, would immediately be drawn into the narrative and fall into deep disappointment and anger at the Fleet's corrupt and dark 'current state.'
Anyone with a hint of patriotism would inevitably begin a verbal and written crusade, and if the scale reached a certain level, it would naturally cause a huge uproar against the Fleet.
It was even highly possible that a planet-level pilgrimage movement would erupt.
Enough to destroy all of the Imperial Navy's public relations efforts.
He was filled with indignation, but still suppressed his anger and flipped the newspaper over.
He didn't know until he flipped it, but it was even more outrageous on the other side.
The content divided Naval Officers into several extremely opposing major factions, like the Roman Civil War, with numerous small factions intertwined and infiltrating each other.
To increase credibility, it even added some private information of newly enlisted Naval Officers.
Using a first-person perspective interview and tone that Naval personnel would immediately recognize as fake, it described how they became involuntary participants after joining the Navy as Officers, forced to take sides in military conflicts under coercion and temptation.
It vividly described the fierce factional struggles within the Gothic Fleet in a convincing manner.
In other words, these guys were audacious enough to expose the private information of dignified Imperial Naval Officers.
If a small illegal printing factory today had the ability to expose the private information of junior Imperial Naval Officers, then wouldn't the actions and movements of the Navy's mid-to-high-level personnel during Vice Admiral Hood's assassination be completely transparent to the enemy?
Those who could know such information about the Navy were either Imperial Navy personnel themselves, or personnel from superior departments, namely the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as parts of the Ecclesiarchy associated with the Fleet.
But Horatio knew that Naval Officers were generally not short of money, and their professional quality was extremely high; they were all individuals who had passed the Star Realm Navy Department's assessment.
They had no reason to ruin their bright future for petty gains and jump into an abyss of eternal damnation.
While he couldn't guarantee there were none, after all, Chaos had many ways to infiltrate and control people's wills.
But the problem was most likely either from the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Ecclesiarchy. Especially the latter, which had already shown certain signs during the investigation.
"This is outrageous! Bring their boss to me!" Horatio was furious, slamming the newspaper full of rumors, his tone as if he wanted to flay someone alive.