Every year, a lucky ship Captain from my clan gets the honor of discovering another flotilla of abandoned destroyers, mostly intact if in bad repair.
It seems the systems around our core worlds are littered with pirate ships, the crew vanished and ship logs showing no clue.
Then again, there are strange Warp things like the Maelstrom and the Hadex Anomaly which often cause the sa results to unwary explorers.
Soon enough, the eager Navigators and my officers get to fly their new ship to a Forge World like talica or Tigrus, to get it upgraded for Fringe operations, in exchange for xeno artifacts or even a rare STC pattern of lesser value.
Then a heavy cruiser gets found, and sent to Triplex Phall to receive a Nova Cannon, right as Primarch Guilliman begins his own enormous Crusade, creating a hundred new Fortress Worlds in the path of the Tyranid Fleets, and mustering a million Guard regints all over the Ultima Segntum.
That's the real power of a Primarch, and there are few who dare say no to the Son of the Emperor.
Primarch Khan is doing sothing else around the Solar Segntum, cleaning up corruption on the larger Hive Worlds, with an ever-increasing horde of Astartes and a few chanicus Legions. Hive World Necromunda gets ntioned a few tis by the astropaths, which doesn't surprise at all. Khan really is a pointed sword, and I did point him at Necromunda.
A dozen Astartes Chapters get founded at his demand, to safeguard those Hive Worlds, after the tech-priests have scoured the under-hives for extra servitors and hidden STCs. Cults get investigated and butchered, corrupt Governors burned alive, just business as usual in the Imperium. No ntion of Reality Cages being installed anywhere, which is troubling.
The Siege of Forge Hypnoth ends in a Pyrrhic victory for Cult chanicus, as the Necrons unleashed a few advanced infocyte viruses on that Forge, destroying many of the defenses and the robotic defenders.
But it is still a victory, as Hypnoth is not conquered, while the attacking Necrons lose two Tomb Ships and a dozen Harvest Ships to the combined might of the defenders. Massed torpedo volleys and archeotech weapons from the Ark chanicus cruiser are the principal thods that worked, plus Nova Cannon cruisers supporting the fleet from afar. Knights and Baneblades with Ion Shields prove devastating on the ground, just like Fury Interceptors in void combat.
Soon after, a certain Warp Rift in the vicinity, called the , and gets promised another fleet carrier filled with torpedo corvettes, and a dozen more Catachan regints, provisioned to our own specifications. The STC dataslates and warning about Necron and Tyranid invasions spur the Fabricator into a massive defensive buildup, which will be constructed from the recovered adamantium and blackstone from the burned world.
It will take a few decades for a solid result of this trip, but Andrea did tow a large Dark Eldar cruiser after her, which is filled with advanced xeno tech. Our Favor is guaranteed now.
Forge Antax gets the sa and more, as I donate to them the old Grand Cruiser I confiscated in the Magog Crusade, and they imdiately begin repairs and refit to create a true Ark chanicus from the casino ship.
My ntor Gyron is away though, and it wouldn't surprise if Forge World Palomar simply gets expunged from all records.
Finding an intact STC is the Holy Grail of Cult chanicus, and the culmination of any Magos Explorer's life. Sadly, I can't really help my ntor directly, but I did point him at the right path.
I also whisper a rumour to Forge Ryza, via my daughter Ginea. She went there with another Dark Eldar cruiser in tow, and more blackstone and adamantium, to propose the Macharius-Oga tank pattern, based around an atomantic reactor and a simplified Plasma blastgun, covered by an Ion and a Flare shield.
There was also a Sentinel variant with an Ion Shield and a lta gun, for anti-necron work, but we didn't have miniaturized plasma reactors and plasma weaponry. Only Ryza or Mars could make these, and we only wanted a thousand Macharius tanks and ten thousand Sentinels.
She ca back with our second fleet carrier called Daedalus and ten Catachan infantry regints, plus a small Explorer expedition to be based at Forge Retribution. And by small expedition, I an five cruisers and 20 destroyers, plus a few million tech-priests and enginseers on a Mobile Forge ship containing most of their advanced technology.
The Ork Invasion on Ryza was still going on, although a single continent remained infested with greenskins, and the Ironclad battleship on the moon had been breached and raised, to be converted in a powerful Ark chanicus, ard with the best technology of the Cult. That would take perhaps a century, so it was a long project. Still much faster than building an adamantium hull from zero.
The colonization into the second wave of expansion continues with this influx of hardy pioneers, and also immigrants from nearby Hive Worlds.
It will take a decade to produce the first Reality Cage at Forge Retribution, because we do have too many projects going on. Like repairing and upgrading the Vitrix battleship, which takes gatonnes of plasteel, adamantium and blackstone for example.
But the Fabricator Dominus is also training millions of new acolytes which will take over the job of servicing tanks and fighters and Sentinels, as well as mining machinery and colonial infrastructure.
Slowly, the more experienced tech-priests will return to the Forge and be replaced, increasing the manufacture output a dozen tis.
And they do manufacture, by hand and tentacle.
The only concession I could receive was for wood processing and furniture factories, which are being organized on every jungle or forest planet with fewer restrictions and religious protocol. I think the chanicus just doesn't see organic processing to have the sa value as tal and forging, which kinda makes sense.
Exporting furniture and paper is a good business though, as the huge masses of humanity in the Imperium need as many gatonnes of it as they can find.
Of course, we never sell directly to a Hive World, which would be stupid and costly. We donate our wares to a nearby Forge World, and they sell it, using the cash to recover the cost for the machinery they gift to us. It's a simple but effective tax evasion thod, as no money changes hands, thus no value can be asserted to our trade.
The Imperium might catch on in a few hundred years, but by then the infrastructure would be built, and dozens of generations would have used these machines and electronics to create new towns, railways, roads, power grids and many other projects of planetary importance. Even then, there is little the Imperium can do, to a Trader dynasty based beyond the borders.
Well there is, the Administratum can expand the Imperial borders to include my holdings or withdraw my Warrant of Trade, but I also have friends in high places.
And while the first Company of Lanters slowly gets trained and implanted with their special organs, the next company of Blank recruits is reaching the cutoff age for safe implantation. So they spread their gene-seed into as many won as humanly possible, about 600 every year. It is hard work, as I can attest personally.
I had to stop accepting new daughters and their sisters from the local nobility into my bed, just because my body was still flesh and thus weak. Plus Blank concubines were a lot more effective at producing Blank babies.
One new planet usable mostly for agriculture was consecrated as a Cardinal world though, at the request of my saintly nurses, and then a miracle occurred, as thousands of Sisters of Battle kidnapped by the savage Dark Eldar appeared on the surface, followed by millions of forr slaves and captured people.
There were even Order Familious sister among them, and let tell you those won were not saintly at all. They rapidly took charge of my eugenics project, mixing and matching genetic attributes for extra reliability and durability, first among the new immigrants, then my Catachan regints, and lastly my own clan.
Even their own Sisters of Battle were kinda harshly ordered to start pumping babies to increase the next generations of female warrior by ten tis.
Sadly, no Imperial Cult priests or Administrators were found among the saved, and thus they had to improvise and select leaders from their own ranks. Female Bishops worked side by side with a self-elected Cannoness and her retinue, while my clan and tech-priests provided housing and infrastructure.
And of course, every visit by or Victor and any of my sons was seen as so sort of day of celebration which ended with a dozen Sisters getting impregnated while singing glory hymns to the God Emperor.
It is a crazy galaxy, but I have learned not to examine the underlying substrates too deeply. Take whatever joy from life you can, because the Tyranids were coming, and the horrors were endless.
The only problem is my slightly overpraised legend, and over-analyzed life, which leads to Lady Justine being declared a Saint for fighting beside the Angel of the Emperor to defeat Fulgrim the Serpent, and myself for killing Lorgar the Traitor.
Well, they surely don't know everything I did, because I would get burned alive as well.
Anyway, this effervescence of religion sentint spreads among all the worlds and colonies, which increases productivity and reduces dissent, especially in the Hive Cities.
There is even a proposal to begin construction of new Hive City on Salvation, the new Cardinal world. I delay that for a few decades, because manpower and resources are not sufficient. Plus I want that world to produce food, both cereals and at.
Fisheries are being set up, and millions of
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