By the ti I return triumphant to Illevar, my uncle Wentian has arrived at Forge Triplex Phall, the largest ship-building Forge in the Ultima Segntum.
I dare say he was well-received, as a representative of the Lancefire Rogue Trader House. The Fabricator knew he had rely repaid one Favor, with the light cruiser given to Veryon, but by now he had a received a few adamantium transports, and even more STC templates found by in the Fringe.
I won't get a battleship, which are all reserved for the Navy for the foreseeable future, nor Titans.
But Wentian wants his own capital ship, and thus he barters for a nearly finished ?" the Necron collector mused in a wary voice.
Not exactly close by, but it should work.
"Doable, with so effort. By the way, I located that Tau sword I heard about. So person nad Commander Farsight has it. A Fire caste leader in the Tau Enclaves." I added for a better future barter.
Again a long silence followed. "This can be confird...with so effort. And what do you need in exchange, mysterious voice in my head?"
Now it was my turn to think it over. "A very simply and rudintary spaceship drive. Speed of travel and size of the engine are not really important. Only the ease of manufacture." I asked after considering other outrageous proposals. Advanced weapons or systems of Necron design might be potent, but not reproducible.
Trazyn cursed a few tis, as he knew this wasn't such a simple deal. "How...exactly easy to build, do you need it?"
I smiled inward and thought how to articulate it. "Imagine for example, a chanicus Forge World, that can only produce a design using a simple but detailed schematic for every part. Then make it even easier, if possible. Also accessible materials, like iridium or adamantium, nothing exotic."
The Necron Lord cursed again. "I begin to see the problem. Sothing akin to those Tau engines, but even simpler. This will take a few years to construct and test. At least you didn't ask for a teleporter made from steel."
"I have a teleporter, just like you do, Lord Trazyn. But these allies of mine are less advanced. They did manage to cripple that Tomb Ship at Atraccan, so I should consider that another gift. One less enemy, right?" I asked in faint amusent.
"...Atraccan. A Forge World. Those are your allies?" he asked with suspicion.
"They make lasguns and Sentinels...so you may imagine how simple the ship engine must be. Although of course, there is no way to build those engines in the Imperium of Man. Xenos technology and all that discrimination." I complained a bit.
A minute later, the Necron Lord replied with more confidence. "Upon the destruction of the Bone Kingdom, you will have your cheap engine, stranger with a puppy. Be warned, it will need to be large, to make it easy to construct by those primitive tech-priests. You'd need at least a 10 kiloter long ship to fit it into. And you will need three tis as much reactor power than a regular Warp drive. Easy build reactor is not included in this trade."
I sighed and closed the ntal link.
Then, reverted the stasis field and took the elevator to the bridge, finding only the ergency crew at their stations. Couldn't actually leave a battlecruiser like the Canticle unmanned, because reasons.
Soone might steal it, for example.
So I sat in my command chair and opened the Lancefire Empire map, tracing routes and output yields from my planets and mining systems.
Liberation, the first system I grabbed from the pirates 3 decades ago was now a productive and highly profitable enterprise, with 23 million servitors working as miners and slters, and over 1 million other people, like five guard regints on the outposts and orbital forts, plus engineers, tech-priests, scribes and various rchants, servants and a dozen clansn to oversee our wealth.
The local Forge was principally making iron, steel, plasteel and titanium bars and ingots for my own industries. Other valuable minerals like iridium, tungsten and osmium were sent directly to Antax.
Iron and copper were being mined planetside on Illevar and Retribution, while Natale was proving to beco important for producing coal and prothium as well as food and textiles.
The locals already used so early type of steam engines for locomotives and mining equipnt, and also for sea-going vessels and toxic electric powerplants based on fossil fuels.
This will have to change, and already did with the tech-priests brought by Finona. Fusion powerplants were a thousand tis more efficient, and the precious coal and prothium could be better used to make carbon steel and heavy flars, or combustion engines and jet fuel.
Those millions of ground attack and interceptor airplanes will need a lot of cheap fuel, as will the Weasels and most light tanks.
We still needed a good source of radioactive minerals for the fusion generators, and growing our population a dozen tis, via emigration to the feral planets.
But for all that, I would have to take a fast trip to Sotha, and change the beacon to illuminate the next target, the Necron Bone Kingdom from the Ghoul Stars.
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