From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 444 Winner Takes All
As night falls and the lights come on, the Economic Security Committee building located in the core administrative district of the federal capital looks a little different than usual.

A large number of employees who should have "left work on time" are still busy. From time to time, these employees can be seen running around in the hall, followed by several administrative robots responsible for assisting them.

At the same time, waves of drones descended from the sky, delivering orders from the Economic Security Committee to a special window.

Since few people order food in this area and the control over drones in the core area is extremely strict, the capital's largest food delivery platform has not deployed too many food delivery drones in this area.

So when the takeout orders suddenly surged, the automatic food delivery system in the area was overwhelmed. When a standing member of the Economic and Safety Committee learned that the meal ordered by his assistant would not be delivered until 2 hours later, he went directly to the owner of the food delivery platform.

Ten minutes later, many citizens of the capital saw a large number of food delivery drones flying overhead and gathering in the same area.
While this small incident was happening and quickly became a hot topic among the citizens of the capital, an emergency meeting that had already lasted for a day was still going on in an underground meeting room of the Federal Economic Security Committee.

The layout of the conference room is solemn and elegant, with rows of vintage oak chairs placed around the huge round conference table in the center. However, the chairs were arranged according to the number of standing committee members and were not fully occupied during this meeting.

The holographic projection platform in the center of the huge round table was broadcasting the latest developments of today's fierce battle between Atlas Group and Boqi Heavy Industries. The virtual screens in front of some participants displayed information and data from other sources, as well as the live broadcast of the "Eye of Truth".

Angelo, the chairman of the Economic and Security Commission, and several of its most important members, along with several senior analysts from the Commission, watched almost the entire offensive and defensive battle between Atlas and Boqi Heavy Industries here.

None of the 'advisors' from various giant companies who would normally attend all meetings, big or small, showed up at this meeting, and some committee members who were somewhat close to the companies were not invited to attend the meeting.

In other words, this was a closed-door meeting open only to federal government officials, and it also excluded the participation of the military-industrial complex as much as possible. In order to achieve this goal, the Economic and Security Council did not even notify President Brandon to attend.

After all, the fact that this president is close to the military-industrial complex is no longer an unspeakable secret.

"In one day, Boqi Heavy Industry was destroyed halfway into the ground. It seems that Atlas is planning to go to war with these old giants."

Chairman Angelo was looking at a report in front of him as he spoke. This was a report quickly calculated by analysts from the Economic and Safety Committee after the market closed, about the losses of Boqi Heavy Industries in this incident.

"This also proves that the strength of Atlas Group is even higher than we expected before. It is not only their hard power in capital, but also their soft power in technology, personnel and strategy. I believe everyone here has read a previous report, which mentioned that the financial business department of Atlas Group has gathered a lot of 'talents'."

Vice Chairman Garrison took over Angelo's words and continued:
"I recommend that the Atlas Group's rating be upgraded to 'Threat Level'."

"'Threat level'. Doesn't that mean it's on the same level as the Nutao Group?" another committee member asked with some confusion.

"From the current situation, the losses of those giant companies in the armed actions are not small, and this kind of loss will bring about a chain reaction. So my personal opinion is that Atlas may really be on par with the Raging Wave Group."

"I agree with Garrison's point of view." Angelo, chairman of the Economic and Security Committee, closed the virtual screen in front of him and looked up and said:
“Although we have raised Atlas’ ratings several times before, it turns out that we still underestimated this ‘new star’, and the group led by Mrs. Paris also underestimated Atlas, so now they have paid the price.”

Angelo showed a playful smile on his face. "Speaking of which, we really have to thank these people for helping us find out the truth about Atlas. Even if what we found out this time may not be the real truth, it at least made us alert." The other committee members around him nodded slightly after listening to his words, and Vice Chairman Garrison asked again, "Who do you think will have the last laugh in this conflict?"

“It’s still hard to say”

Angelo shook his head. He couldn't give a definite answer to Garrison's question, but he still expressed his thoughts for reference by everyone in the meeting.

"From the current situation, Atlas Group does have a certain upper hand, but let me be frank. The military-industrial complex is not something that can be easily brought down. After all, they have been operating for so long and their size is there. In addition, many members of the government will try to get the government to help, not to mention our dear President Brandon, who is the biggest spokesperson for the military-industrial complex."

"So you think the president will officially take sides?"

"It's not impossible."

Everyone in the conference room fell silent. If President Brandon really wanted to intervene in this conflict in an "official" capacity, the position of the Economic and Security Council would become somewhat awkward.

"Are you discouraged now?" Angelo suddenly said, his tone becoming noticeably harsher.

"Or has your edge been blunted, so you have forgotten the significance of the 'Economic Security Committee'?"

Angelo's words made everyone in the conference room look up again. They all looked at the old man who had worked in the Economic and Security Commission for more than 30 years. Although he was much older than everyone present, the aura of this old man completely suppressed everyone here at this moment.

“We are committed to building a more secure, prosperous, and fair economic system, working tirelessly to defend against various economic threats and protect the well-being of every citizen of the Commonwealth.”

The chairman recited the Federal Economic Security Committee's declaration word for word, then looked around at everyone in the conference room and said in a decisive tone:
"We serve not the president or the military-industrial complex, but the Federation and every citizen under its rule, so we must do our best to safeguard the interests of the Federation. Although the Economic and Security Council has been marginalized before, today's conflict made me realize that the only opportunity may be in front of us."

"Then what should we do?"

“The specific method of intervention still needs to be discussed, but what we need to do is to prevent either Atlas or the military-industrial complex from becoming the only dominant party after the conflict ends.

Because I concluded that if we do not take measures to intervene, there is only one possible outcome of this conflict. That is, 'winner takes all'.

The winner of this conflict will completely devour the loser and grow into an unprecedented behemoth, and may even directly threaten the Federation."

(End of this chapter)