章 99: Chapter Ninety-Nine
His Glorious Aspirations. Star Port.
As expected news that I had the ability to reach a world that appeared to be a younger version of Holy Terra had spread quickly across this sector of space despite the limits of FTL communication in this galaxy and while weeks had passed with me having little to other than to met with high ranking magos in order to discuss how the technology I'd recovered from the Fallout world would distributed and how the different departments of the Ad-Mech would reward me, now that I was finally preparing to return I found myself buried in reports and requests.
Thanks to the Emperor, I had a good XO who could handle the day to day affairs involved in running a cruiser because I was having a hard enough time dealing with the different Imperial factions who all had an interest in Fallout Earth. At least the Ad-Mech were more interested in that universe's version of Mars since they already had a foothold on Fallout Earth.
To express their thanks for me bringing them so much ancient technology the cogboys in charge had offered me the services of Magos Explorator XXP-164895D who would be working for me directly unlike Archmagos Del Arx who answered to the Forge-World.
XXP-164895D uncomfortably reminded me of the bad guy from the second Robocop film and so I'd sent XXP-164895D off to take charge of the cyborgs on this ship while Del Arx went to oversee his new command. Hopefully this would bring the cogboys serving on my vessel more firmly under my control.
The Ad-Mech were bringing their own ship. A Firestorm frigate which was a variant of the Sword Class Frigate, designed to link the speed and manoeuvrability of an escort, with the brute force of a larger vessel.
It was not uncommon to see a squadron of Firestorms supporting independent squadrons of Swords and Cobra Class Destroyers. In situations like these, it falls to the Firestorms to deal damage to capital ships, and rival escorts once the other two classes have lowered the enemy's shields.
Firestorm Class Frigates are often seen fighting alongside Space Marine formations. Even pirate fleets are known to operate Firestorm Frigates as well, but the one that would be returning to the Fallout Universe with us was under Ad-Mech control, the ship having been liberated from a pirate fleet some years ago after a fierce battle.
It wasn't just the Ad-Mech that wanted to take their own ride into another universe. A small fleet of ramshackle Squat vessels had turned up at the Forge-World and before long they'd sent a leader and spokesperson over to my ship to barter with me for passage to a new universe.
This greatly mattered to them now that most of their race had been eaten by the Nids. Which was something I could do for them since my cruiser could drag other ships through the warp in its wake and all the way into another universe.
As for the Squats they were an interesting group of people. When the worlds around the galactic core were first colonized by humans in the far distant past they discovered vast, almost limitless mineral deposits. These resources included compounds that had been smelted in the furnaces of dying stars and also strange substances that had been formed when the galaxy was born and before the laws of physics had stabilized.
The discovery of these materials was very auspicious as the resources of Earth had been long exhausted and as a consequence the exploration and exploitation of the galactic core had been deemed imperative for the survival of humanity. At least according to the Ad-Mech report I'd been sent about the space dwarfs. The actual reasoning could be something different.
An unknown number of miners, engineers and explorers who crewed specially adapted spacecraft were sent to exploit the newfound wealth of the core which quickly turned into one of the most densely populated parts of the galaxy. Due to the inhospitable physical characteristics of the worlds in the galactic core those worlds were generally considered to be quite unlikely places for human colonies to prosper and they were rather lacking in life. As such the original colonists coming to these worlds were hardy frontier folk. These tough miners and explorers dreamt of reaping fantastic riches, before returning to Earth.
Over time the colonists settled down and created self-contained communities by digging and drilling underground homes into the rocky surface of their new worlds To feed the increasing population, as it was not possible to rely only on the food brought in huge cargo ships, it was necessary to construct artificially lit hydroponic tanks in the depths of the planets and to cultivate nutritive algae there. These algae were then dried and processed and served as the base material for all kinds of food such as flour, coarse synthetic food and even crude but very potent forms of ale. I should really ask about that technology and try to get it for my ship if possible so as to help extend our rations. I assumed that the Ad-Mech already used this tech to feed those on their forge-world who needed food.
Due to the Age of Strife and the warp storms called by creation of fourth chaos god by the foolish Eldar the Squat worlds were isolated from the rest of humanity. This isolation lasted for thousands of years and during this time the universe became more and more hostile. Cut off from human fleets the Squats resorted to building their own spaceships and weapons to fend off Orks and Chaos warbands.
Not all Squat worlds survived this time of turmoil, some were invaded and lost, others were destroyed by environmental instability and some were ravaged by infighting. Those worlds who did manage to come through on the other hand prospered and did so by becoming fortified Strongholds
Relations between the Squat Home Worlds and the Imperium were for the most part of a peaceful and cooperative nature, especially considering the many common enemies such as the much hated Orks who were a big problem for everyone in this galaxy. There is also trading for the mutual benefit of both sides as the Squats were very good at mining and building stuff with the metals they mined; they still wanted stuff from the rest of the galaxy.
Sadly there have been instances of not so peaceful relations going as far as to turn into frequent bouts of war and ill-feeling as the Squat character does make them prone to take offence at any slight to their honour, especially in trade matters. Squats are a stubborn lot and quite probable to pursue retribution in such cases. As a consequence the relationship between the Squats and the Imperium of Man has always been strained one even when things are going well.
Now that the Nids had eaten most of the squats leaving those behind as little more than vagabonds and some wandering fleets, the Imperium had annexed what Squats worlds that were suitable for human life and hadn't been consumed. As such it was no wonder that the leader of one of those fleets had come to me and requested that I transport them all to the Fallout universe so that they could start again elsewhere.
Not unlike the Eldar really, only the Squat leader had just come and asked me directly for help while finding a way to make it profitable for me rather than mess about behind the scenes and talk to me in my dreams like Farseer Galadeer. As such I already liked them much more than the space elves.
They had no interest in any version of Earth and their ships weren't up for a long trip so they'd settle somewhere with the Sol System and then dig in underground. They could feed and protect their own people with little help from me.
In return for dragging their ships along with mine and housing some civilians on board my cruiser for the trip the Squats would pay me in with some of the ores they dug up whenever I made a trip to whatever planet or moon they settled. I would also have the chance to trade for more so it should be a profitable arrangement.
"Did you find out anything about our new Inquisitional babysitter?" I asked.
My senseasaul opened up a report and began to read it. Again I was glad that I'd had a clone of Littlefinger made, one with some enhancements and implants so that he had more than enough brainpower to keep things organised for me. Better him than me as I did not like the idea of the Ad-Mech replacing parts of my body with their tech.
"We will be playing host to Lord Gideon Sevomordnen" Peter told me "A known hunter of cults and traitors across the galaxy".
So he'd be a member of The Ordo Hereticus (more known colloquially as the Witch-hunters) which is one of the three major orders of the Inquisition. Their specific role is protecting mankind from itself, by combating such internal threats as treason, mutation, heresy and witches. He might be coming to keep an eye on me or he might be more concerned about the sheer amount of mutants on the Fallout Earth. I was somewhat concerned that the Inquisitor might try to supplant my place as leader, but I was no longer a noob at this whole Rogue Trader business and I would be keeping an eye on this Gideon person.
"We're expecting over a hundred sisters of battle within the next couple of weeks depending on the warp tides" I was informed.
They were worth waiting for as cleansing the mutant population of Fallout Earth wasn't going to be easy and the few squads of battle sisters currently under the command of the Palatine simply weren't enough and the Imperial Guard would have its hands full dealing with all the raider gangs and different creatures.
I did concern myself with the idea that the Inquisitor might take command of the Sisters of Battle as they often worked with members of the Ordo Hereticus so I was glad that I had my own order of Power Armour wearing warrior women who had some good guns. It should maintain a balance of power.
"At least we won't have to worry about feeding everyone" I said.
With my increasing wealth I'd been able to purchase a vast amount of food in the form of ration packs that could last for decades and since I currently had no Imperial Guard regiment onboard, there was than enough room for the supplies. This was good because I needed to be able to support the work forces required to rebuild whole cities and to set up farms on the parts of Fallout Earth where you could grow food.
Looking over everything it seemed clear that we wouldn't be leaving this system for another month and while this rate of progress was impressive by Imperial standards the lack of activity annoyed me. I longed to go back to the Fallout world or even to somewhere else where my actions would actually make a difference.
The Imperials were slow to react and loath to change, and while introducing new technologies might win the Imperials a few more battles I knew that it wouldn't be enough to stem the tide. Frankly I didn't think that the Imperium was worth saving and that was partly why I spent so much time outside of it.
I needed them IOM until I had my own fleet and the means to support it which I wasn't going to have for a few more years so until then I had to remain strong and ignore any demonic whispers I heard, not that I had so far.
At least I would be getting my Lunar-Class when I next returned the Ad-Mech were more than happy to reassign a yet incomplete Luna-Class and to bring it here for a refitting once it was ready to sail. I was really looking forward to that.
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