Buck chatted a lot; many times Lucif didn’t even need to ask a question to get the answer he was searching for. Without being too obvious he had learned a lot from Buckaroo Arlo.

The guards of Planet Almega were split into four divisions.

There was the United Colonies Punishment Squad that numbered around one million. They were considered the dogs of UCA. They stood guard for the nobles and dignitaries. They did random missions assigned to them such as cargo delivery, executions and arrest. They were the guards that roamed the streets and harassed people incessantly during their downtime.

A lot of them were reformed criminals that weren’t so reformed. They were the lowest ranking order, with low quality weapons and armor. Despite this, any gun could overpower unarmed peasants. They knew this and they freely abused their power, they were basically the scum of all scum.

The UCA didn’t bother monitoring them because they were easily replaceable.

Give a criminal a weapon, power, a good pay check and free reign then see what happens. They will run rampant on a power trip, taking what they want when they want it. They lived the good life and the UCA didn’t interfere in their personal business. As long as they jumped when they wanted them to jump then everything was fine.

This was also a message to the people, as long as you obey the UCA then you can do whatever you want and be handsomely compensated for it.

The second order were the space cadets, they were in control of the space armada that patrolled the air space above and between the 32 planets of Parafire. There were only a few thousand of them, they were highly skilled, knowledgeable and valued by the UCA. Their job was to identify any threats and obliterate any resistance from space. Unlike the UCPS, in-fighting was strictly prohibited amongst their ships because space cadets weren’t easily replaced.

The third and fourth orders were the secret jail guards and controllers. They were the largest group of all numbering over 5 million strong. Of all the 32 planets there was only one with a slave mine and it was here on Planet Almega. The guards were permanently stationed, and even if there was an emergency, even if a civil war broke out, even if they were being invaded by enemy forces they were ordered to never leave their post. It was one of the most important strongholds in the entire galaxy and it had great reason to be.

It was called a slave mine but that was just a pretense, it was really just a prison that centered around a mine. Each prisoner had elite jail guards monitoring them 24/7. They were elite soldiers with liquefiers and state of the art armor. Their job was to monitor the prisoners while the controllers maneuvered gigantic machines.

Not many people knew about the existence of this stronghold, it was top secret information kept hidden from even high ranking UCA leaders. The reason Lucif found out was due to Bucks insider information. How did he get this information? It was because Buck was once a prisoner there.

The captains, majors, colonels, brigadiers and generals were all imprisoned there at one point and they were forced to mine as slaves. That was when it was considered a real slave mine and not just a pretense. But riots would often start with them at the center. Elite guards were being killed and slaughtered on a weekly basis.

It took a lot of effort to subdue the rebellions; they suffered heavy causalities every time. Eventually the UCA had enough and decided to take action.

They took their families from other prisons and threw them into the slave mines. Then they transferred Buck and the rest out and threw them into a normal mine. If they showed any signs of rebellion their families would be instantly killed. If they came within 10,000 kilometers of the slave mine then they would be instantly vaporized from space.

This is what kept Buck docile. If he attempted a rescue, his daughters would be executed before he got there. The main reason for rebellion was that they lacked any and all hope. But the UCA extended an olive branch after the switch. They gave them a ransom and if they could pay it off then they could buy their families freedom. Not only that but they promised not to harm their family members, as long they didn’t rebel they would be safe. On top of this, they allowed them one visit a year.

This hope was what kept him going. Whether they would keep their word? He didn’t know, but it was all he could do.

Hearing that they had a 5,000,000 strong army guarding the slave mine was like dropping a bucket of cold water over him. This information had upheaved his understanding of what the slave mines really were. He still didn’t understand it, only superhumans relatives were shoved into the slave mines prison. Could they have found out that his father was a superhuman?

That didn’t make sense because he was already dead. Did they know that Aruna and he were scions of this long dead super human? Were they using her as leverage against them in case they grew into a future threat? It was possible but something didn’t feel right.

He wanted to scope the area but finding out that the entire 10,000 kilometer radius surrounding the slave mine was being monitored from space was terrifying. Finding out that anything that entered that zone was instantly vaporized sent shivers up his spine.

Frustration and defeat were the two greatest emotions he had been feeling over these last few months. He had never faced a challenge this great in his past life and he was hoping he never would have to face such a challenge again.

But slowly, he was forming a plan. As his knowledge grew, his machinations grew with it. His mother could be suffering right now but there was nothing he could do. He wouldn’t let himself be humiliated and defeated. He knew that only he could solve this problem and bring her freedom.

But first he needed money, he needed power and he needed an army. It was time to reform the Pivac Mafia and build up his forces.