Right now, Arcturus has almost one million Universal Credits on his account within the Cosmic Vaultbank. However, the moment the reward for the mission from the Star Mercenary Association arrived, he would have crossed the balance of over one million.
Still, he was lucky in this aspect because the mission to destroy the Solar Cult was a rather difficult one, and he was lucky in another aspect that there were not many Star Mercenaries with such huge firepower as him.
Not many people from the Type 3 or very powerful Type 2 Civilizations would do this kind of work, and those who did wouldn't lower themselves for a meager 50,000 Universal Credits. Not to mention, without advanced means, it would be impossible to take control over the funds of the Solar Cult.
'Is it everything?'
Arctururs asked in his mind, and when he heard that Red Queen affirmed, he severed the head of the High Prophet of the Solar Cult, as another ten thousand Universal Credits landed on his account within the Cosmic Vaultbank.
[Yes. The Battle Droids have broken down the resistance of the soldiers and the militias; all of their defenses are down and destroyed... one good orbital bombardment would finish them for all, and the Mission from the Star Mercenary Association would be completed.]
Arcturus nodded, preparing to leave, though not before he searched through this luxurious panic room of the Solar Cult, but he was pretty unfortunate in this regard because there was nothing worthwhile to take even with him.
Most of the things that were present were, technically speaking, totally useless. Most of the things that were present were trinkets, religious texts and other totally garbage-like items, so he decided to cut the search and just leave.
'Order droids to leave and beam them back to the Obscurus, prepare the ship for the Orbital Bombardment, raze it to the ground.'
Arcturus knew that they actually didn't have much time, because the reinforcements from the allies of the Solar Cult could arrive at any given moment. Considering the degree to which they managed to infiltrate the Helian society, it was only expected that sooner or later, they would arrive in waves.
Nobody, actually knew, who from the government of the Helios was their member and who was not, so when it came to the worst, Arcturus could be attacked by a large part of the military forces of the Helios.
Despite the technological superiority of the Obscurus, he would stand no chance against a numerically superior foe. While Obscurus was a fairly advanced spacecraft, it wasn't a proper Type 3 civilization spaceship as he wished...
[On your command. The Battle Droids are withdrawing from the surface. I secured important files with the names of important members of the Solar Cult; some were hidden pretty well on their separate servers.]
Hearing that, Arcturus nodded as he then started running towards the exit from the underground headquarters of the Solar Cult at his top speed, practically as fast as he could, because Red Queen was also monitoring the entire Solar System.
And it seemed that the Solar Cult's reinforcements were indeed coming up.
[You have approximately five minutes until the reinforcements of these fantasies arrive.]
He frowned, but nonetheless, he continued running towards the surface of the Helios IV.
***
Command Deck of the Obscurus
Approximately 3 minutes later, Arcturus arrived at the surface of the Helios IV. and was instantly teleported to the command deck of the Obscurus. The very second he appeared on the command deck of his spaceship, he immediately ordered the orbital bombardment of the highest degree on the headquarters of the Solar Cult.
Red Queen like the faithful servant she was, controlled the spaceship and instantly unleashed hell onto the headquarters of the Solar Cult, when tens of the Laser Batteries stared non-stop firing and shooting, together with the Primary Cannons.
Within one minute everything was obliterated and the only things that remained on the surface were the remains of the builds, flaming hell, molten rocks and metal. The laser weaponry of the Obscurus was one of the most advanced one among the Type 2 technology, almost reaching the lowest threshold for the Type 3.
"This should count as complete, right?"
Arcturus said almost jokingly, when he observed the sheer and utter destruction that was unleashed onto the former headquarters of the Solar Cult, while Red Queen Alice sent the recording of the entire thing to the Star Mercenary Association.
[I sent the recording. The request is pending. The request has been accepted. The mission is considered done.]
At the same time, he also got the notification from the Extranet through his Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants.
"Activate the hyperdrive, head back to the Starfort Lycurgos in Rylon Star System."
In a split of a second, Obscurus disappeared from the realspace and jumped into the hyperspace.
Not even a moment later, several tens vessels bearing the sigils of the Helian Navy appeared and started circling around the Helios IV. with a great fervor. It was clear that at least one of the Admirals of the Helian Navy was a zealous believer in the Solar Cult, or he was a collaborator for some different reasons.
Alas, they came too late because the entire Solar Cult had already long ago razed to the ground until nothing, aside from a flaming hell, remained from the entire area.
The spaceships of the Helian Navy then descended down onto the place where the headquarters of the Solar Cult was previously located underneath the Valley of the Converging Sun to start search for the survivors while the rest of the started scouting the entire Star System.