"I salute you for your hard work, Controller."
Ten minutes later, Ustad turned his attention to the bald middle-aged man in front of him.
"But the progress has fallen behind the scheduled timetable. Can you catch up?"
"Is this...is this your request?"
"No."
Ustad shook his head.
"This request comes from the Chapter Master. The external situation is currently unclear. The Eldar pirates destroyed Nessen-6 a few days ago. He is under some pressure."
The dock manager smiled awkwardly and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
"The fact is, your lords, we are all under pressure, the workers have never dealt with a workload of this scale... The scheduled timetable can only be as accurate as possible, but it is still a prediction, and we are seriously short of staff at the moment. and skilled craftsmen, so we experienced unexpected delays.”
"What's the manpower difference?"
"About 200,000 to 500,000... This is not the point. The point is that the workers' working hours have been increased again and again, and their bodies have been pushed to the limit. Last month alone, there were 5,432 workers. They suffered from various diseases and accidental deaths due to fatigue. They worked too hard, but the rations and remuneration barely increased, and everyone complained."
"Let those mortals complain less."
Mosenli on the side turned his head and scolded sternly.
"Give them a little encouragement, give them some spurs, let them know that they are serving the empire, not playing house, and there is no time to complain to them."
"S-Sir..."
The anger of the Astartes was not something that a mere mortal could bear, and the Dockyard Master was immediately frightened to the point of being reduced to chaff.
"Mosenli, don't get angry at him, we are here to solve the problem."
Ustad waved his hand, and the deputy company commander immediately turned back.
Then the second company commander calmly said to the dock manager:
"I don't want to sound rude, Seneschal, but this is the most important thing for the Chapter at the moment."
"I'll talk to the foremen..."
Ustad's gentle attitude gradually calmed down the dockmaster.
"Let's see if they can adjust the shifts again, but in terms of treatment-"
"I know."
Ustad nodded.
"I will feed this information back to the Chapter Leader. Give me the amount of worker losses and material consumption this year. By the way, call a few foremen over. I want to talk to them in person."
While waiting, Ustad and Mosenli walked to an observation tower in the construction area.
In front of them, a heavy landing ship as huge as a rock wall was slowly dumping into the warehouse, leaving behind puddles of shiny oil stains on the metal floor.
"I don't know what's so hard about this."
Mosenli said.
"Ask them to try harder, and they will try harder. We have the power."
"It's a little more complicated."
Ustad shook.
He knew that the reason why Mosenli had this idea was not because he was naturally mean, but because the Soul Drinkers, as a ship-based battle group, spent most of their time floating in the void and rarely in a fixed place with a fixed group of people. Mortals coexist.
Their attitude towards mortals is too rigid and too tough, which is a common problem among most ship-based battle groups.
The cold and cruel void forged their perseverance and also shaped their indifference.
This is exactly what Soshyan is changing.
"Really, Captain? They have been dilly-dallying for long enough. In my opinion, the key point is the length and frequency of rest periods. They are too lazy...5 hours of sleep is enough for a man." , women only need to sleep for 6 hours, only idiots sleep for 7 hours!"
"Fatigue is only part of the problem."
Ustad could only remind his deputy tactfully.
"There are many other problems. What we need is cooperation, not slavery. We have to recognize and accept their qualities."
"Company Commander, you mean weakness?"
"quality."
"Then I am very glad that I am not a mortal now."
Mossenli shrugged, but Ustad laughed.
"No matter what, if the construction progress continues to lag behind, the chapter leader will be very distressed. We have lost a frigate in the previous battle with the Eldar. Although it seems that the loss is not big, I know that he is worried about this. I sighed for three days."
"Believe me, company commander, as long as our attitude is tougher, all progress will not fall behind. Nothing is more convincing than a whip."
"I think the main reason workers are slowing things down is to ask for extra pay."
"Do you think they're slowing things down on purpose?"
Molsonli asked in surprise. This view made no sense to him. He had never thought that mortals could work under the hands of Space Marines.
"I guess... it should be so. They complain about overwork and hope to get a large extra payment by working hard, and then they look like they are working hard."
"Then kill them to serve as a warning to others and find out a few who are lazy."
"Actually, their demands are not excessive."
Ustad shook his head and looked at the iron-gray dome above the star port, which reflected the light of distant stars and made the transport ship about to arrive at the port appear particularly bright.
While the two were waiting, the representative of the worker foreman could not be found for a while.
The reason is simple. Once they heard that they were going to see the Space Marines, no one wanted to go.
This is so scary. If you say it's not good, you may lose your life. We are just ordinary people and have no glory.
In the end, everyone recommended a person simply because he had had experience meeting Space Marines-at a distance of about two hundred meters.
At first, the unlucky guy just cried and refused to die, but they couldn't help but surrounded him and accused him of being righteous, saying that he didn't care about everyone's interests and was a self-interested individualist.
Under various threats, the man could only agree.
After a while, the impatient steward took him to a high tower.
When we set off, the foreman, a welder in his thirties, had trembling legs, swollen eye sockets, and sweating profusely. He felt as if his feet were not touching the ground and he was floating in the air.
The guards on the road did not stop him and let him into the tower. He followed him up almost out of his mind.
"Ahem."
Along the way, his head was almost buried in his chest. It wasn't until the steward coughed loudly a few times that he raised his head as if he had just woken up from a dream.
At this time, standing opposite him were two majestic armored giants, which almost made him dizzy. As for their appearance, he did not dare to see clearly.
“Are you a representative of the workers?”
one of the giants asked softly, in a soothing tone.
"Yes, they asked me to come up."
The foreman looked at the texture of the metal floor and answered in a soft voice, which did not sound like a strong man at all.
"How are your lives lately?"
"Thanks to you, everything is fine..."
The foreman thought for a moment and then said in a low voice.
"It's time to work, it's time to eat."
"How was the food?"
"Yes, ration bars, protein fast, corpse starch..."
"Are they all synthetic foods?"
"We are all used to it. We can eat it... The adults have said that it is only safe for everyone to eat things that are produced in the empire's sacred factories. Those things that grow in the ground contain all kinds of toxins. .”
The other giant laughed and said:
"This guy is quite honest."
When the foreman heard the compliment, he was very happy and emboldened, and began to talk eloquently.
"In addition to these, everyone will also mix some alcohol from antifreeze and other places, and mix it with protein cubes to drink. The taste is really exciting——"
The person who spoke before suddenly interrupted his speech.
"I hear you have some questions about hours and pay."
Upon hearing this, the foreman's expression immediately changed.
"Sir, we..."
He shrank his head anxiously.
The giant took a step forward and said gently:
"Don't be afraid. If you have any problems, just ask them. I'm here to solve them for you, not to punish anyone."
Perhaps the other party's attitude gave the foreman some information. After swallowing his throat, he said in a low voice:
"Sir, the construction schedule is too tight. Everyone keeps working overtime, overtime, and overtime. You can't even count them. Our younger and stronger laborers are okay, but the women and children can hardly stand it. Many of them are exhausted. But we don’t even have time to see a doctor... Everyone, everyone says, they are treating us like servants."
The giant nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly he frowned.
"Wait a minute, you just said women and children?"
The giant turned his head towards the steward.
"What's going on? Why are there women and children among the workers!?"
