Chương 187: Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Seven

Several days go by as the kids try to solve Geliran Phingh's encryption in their brief moments of free time. They don't get much as they're pulled into putting down the riots. Eire is dragged into many meetings with the syndicates and gangs. No one has been able to identify whom the cultists worship, or where they suddenly crawled out from. The sensor coverage in the Receiving Yards is far too spotty and adulterated.

'Miss Vanus', whom I now know goes by Killovie Signi has been hard at work with Raphael to uncover the misdeeds of everyone in the station and there is a lot of panic going on with all the sudden disappearances. Eire tells the gangs that the disappearances are the work of the cultists, not us or our disguised inquisitor and assassin, and the gangs and syndicates just don't have the tech support to prove otherwise.

Killovie is remarkably effective when working in systems she's actually trained in and she is the one that uncovers that cultists have something to do with the missing cruiser, as it appeared in some of their messages that she recovered. Killovie identifies the vessel as the Dominator-Class Cruiser, Dying Light. It went missing during its first tour and was built for Battlefleet Ultima at Kar Duniash over a millenia ago.

The link to the cultists meant that I can no longer leave the puzzle in the hands of my kids, so I decrypted Geliran Phingh's data, and sent the knowledge of how to do so in a delayed message to the Tech-Apprentice at the Last Post bar. It wouldn't do for him to get the encryption tutorial before we can recover the vessel. Before the next crisis can start, I sit on the prow of Iron Crane, wailing into the void about the unfairness of the universe and questioning my choices.

If I was being less dramatic, I'd say I'm lying on my back in my pyjamas, dressing gown, and fluffy slippers staring at the stars, feeling incredibly strange about the sense of nothingness against my Voidskin and the warm glow of intense radiation from SR-651. It's not like I need a space suit anymore and I thought I would give it a try. I'm not sure I will do so again though; Brigid told me she won't sleep with me afterwards until the stink of the decontamination shower I'll need has faded.

I might have to burn the slippers too, which is the real tragedy here. I feel the vibrations of a vehicle through the roughly textured hull, but don't look up as I can see everything in a sphere around me anyway. A Tauros pulls up nearby and Eire disembarks. She's wearing one of the new exploration power armours that we've started calling the Rogue Pattern. Eire voxes me, "Hi Aldrich." I lift a hand and wave, "Yo!"

"You look ridiculous."

"Mission accomplished." Eire chuckles then sits next to me.

"Why did you seek me out?"

"To spend time with a friend, before we have to say goodbye," says Eire.

"Thank you. That's lovely to hear." We sit in silence for a few minutes. Eire says, "You kept your promise. I'm finally going to be a proper High Factotum of the Stellar Fleet. I'm not quite sure what to make of it really."

"Well, you'll be in charge of Stellar Fleet Mani and our operations here. I'll be leading Stellar Fleet Sol around the Imperium."

"I know, it just seems strange that you're leaving the Iron Crane here. You do like to play with fire though, naming the split fleets after old gods."

"It both amuses and saddens me that I can name things after ancient gods and no one will notice. We have lost so much, yet that leaves us with no end of thrills to discover." Eire folds her arms and sighs, "That's one way of putting it." I say, "Until I can sell the Origami Pattern Mobile Shipyard STC to every Forge World, they're all going to try and steal Iron Crane.

I'd love the support Iron Crane would offer, but there will be plenty of shipyards in the Imperium if I need one, even if they will over charge me for them. The same issues apply to the Moth Class."

"No one in Fleet Command disagrees with your reasoning about splitting the Fleet, but you want to bring the Charon, the Macro-Ferry here as well. The Tau are on that thing you know. Raphael is going to throw a fit when he finds out. Fortunately he's too busy hunting cultists right now and he'll be leaving with you."

"Ah, well. You know how all our ship production times are based on the capabilities of the Origami Class?" Eire nods.

"Brigid pointed out that, based on that measurement, it would take almost eight point seven thousand years to build the Macro-Ferry. That's not a helpful timeframe and we really need to cut that down. What's worse is that I originally wanted to build a shipyard here based off Goibniu Yards, the same design that the Macro-Ferry is copied from."

"Don't the yards and Macro-Ferry build themselves, getting exponentially faster as more capacity comes online? We projected two hundred years for initial functionality, and eight hundred for completion."

"Yes, they do. Either way, do we really need two massive mobile shipyards in this sector? The Macro-Ferry would be criminally underutilised where it was. How many vessels are realistically going to want to travel to Marwolv, even if it does eventually grow to be a Forge World?" I continue, "It will be one of, if not the most remote Forge World in the entire galaxy. It's better to have the Macro-Ferry here, where it will function more like a shipyard, than a ferry.

We can still use it as a Ferry if we want to and there's always a chance that we'll find a new route and then that would be a massive investment that suddenly needs to be repurposed. No, better to sort out all that possible fuss now, before it begins."

"I suppose we don't need two do we?"

"We're effectively trying to build the equivalent of the Phalanx, a feat that hasn't been repeated since the Dark Age of Technology. If it wasn't for the simulation technology and the engineering grade STCs we have, we'd have no chance, but we do, so there's no reason not to try and the SR-651 is the best system to try it in." Eire nods, "I know that Róisín is thrilled to be overseeing the project and she will appreciate you giving her so much freedom.

It is easy to hide stuff here and we have an incredible source of replenishing raw resources. Having it be mobile means we can move it if we have too, like escaping from an Ork Waaagh! or moving to the other Forge World, Raakata, that you were thinking of claiming. It's not like a shipyard only has to make ships too. The micro-factories are incredibly flexible."

"True, but I'm hoping to specialise the shipyards this time and have them produce a few models at a rapid pace with only a limited selection of customisation. The end goal is to get an escort down from two years to six months and produce only three or four models."

"A seventy five percent reduction in production times is rather ambitious."

"It is! I am hoping that examining the best shipyards in the galaxy will help me with that. Mars churns out multiple ships every day. Sure they have a planetary ring with a circumference of over twenty two thousand kilometres, compared to the one-hundred kilometre long vessel that we're aiming for, but we have to start somewhere."

"When you put it like that, it doesn't sound quite so ridiculous. Do you still plan to purchase the Barghest's two light cruisers and eight escorts?"

"I do, probably from the Lathe Worlds. Speaking of Forge Worlds," I say, "I asked Raphael to look into Raakata as our records are rather out of date. Apparently it's been claimed by Lord Captain Lethe, of the Lethe Rogue Trader Dynasty. Magos Gogins is in charge of the reclamation. They're shifting production from Hive World Calibash that's also owned by Captain Lethe. No one has seen Lethe for decades though since he got into a scuffle with the Olivares over Dolorium, so there is likely room for negotiation.

It's better than getting into conflict with House Winterscale who are much more dominant." Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Eire says, "I know that we've been tasked with supplying Imperial forces in the Koronus Expanse and that you want to keep them from travelling to Marwolv, which I fully support, but do you think the Charon will be enough? Do we really need a Forge World? Void stations don't pay Tithes."

"I honestly have no idea. We just don't have the data to calculate it. No one knows yet that we can't refuse to trade with any of the Adeptes and must supply whatever they ask for at a reasonable price. I expect that it will get out eventually, and then we're going to need a titanic manufacturing capability."

"I see. That's why you've ordered five more Origami. Once they're up and running, we should be able to complete Charon in under two hundred years, not just get it functional."

"That's what the numbers say. Hopefully it will be functional enough to fully support us when the Cicatrix Maledictum comes back."

"Ah, risking the detection of the Tau is small potatoes compared to having a mobile void station. It will have a decent population base if we have to run away to another galaxy!" Eire says. I laugh, "Now there's an idea. If only there weren't rumours that the War in Heaven spread to multiple galaxies, so there's likely Necrons, Eldar, and Orks in those places too. There might even be Tyranids and who knows what other xenos have evolved there since.

Anything that can survive those four will be tough opponents and probably rather unfriendly."

"What about Humans?"

"I don't actually know. All our records of galactic travel are missing. We certainly had the technology. We could even go today if we really wanted to, though it would be rather risky."

"Hmmm, not enough fuel and reaction mass."

"Indeed. We would also need to discover the STC for the aethyric generator, that can simultaneously create both pentagrammic and hexagrammic wards of immense strength and scale, before we could risk venturing so far beyond the light of the Emperor. A new method of energy generation and storage, material reserves, perhaps even energy to matter conversion as well."

"Everything that the Necrons already have then."

"Exactly! Though finding a galaxy hopping warp gate would probably be easier than trying to steal their technology."

"These are fun dreams," says Eire, "but I want to talk about something a bit more grounded. You have a couple of other objectives I'd like to confirm: picking up the seed vault from Dolorium and finding another route to Marwolv. The first isn't a problem as I'll have a light cruiser task group and the Ardent Bane available, but they aren't appropriate for long term exploration as I need those vessels to guard Charon.

I know Maeve is staying to deal with any infantry scale tasks but I don't have confidence that they could fend off a significant fleet based threat with a D-POT assault."

"Are you asking how secretive I want to be about pathfinding?"

"Yes. Ideally, we would rebuild some of the Viper Class Sloops floating around the breaking yards, but we'd need dozens of them as well as the navigators pilot them. While you could send navigators from House Ortellius, we won't have the production capacity to put together so many sloops and crew loyalty could be a problem."

"I'll buy them and send them your way," I say.

"I was going to leave all of the Iron Foundation here as I don't want to bring a new cult into the Imperium and having them around will help boost loyalty while the fleet is split, but you make a good point. I'll take a portion of the Foundation with me so they can be part of the hired Imperial crews to get the sloops to you. A few Battle Smiths and Warforged among the Heralds for security will also push loyalty in our favour.

They're loyal to their craft and know that the best source of knowledge is me, so I doubt any ships with them present will need to worry about mutiny." Eire nods, "I'll try and free up some production capacity so that we can at least refit the ships you send with proper shields, warpsbane hulls, mechanical gellar fields, and decent accommodations. Loyalty is one thing, shitty food is quite another. The Barghest Chapter paid for upgrades too." I laugh, "That's true.

I don't want crews to have any excuses to half-arse their jobs. You'll need to make more than just components for the ships I send your way as we'll need something to pay the Breaking Yards for scrapped hulls."

"I'll do that. The more you add the bigger our delays though. What about Torchbearer? You suspended the work on Ardent Bane to work on kitting it out."

"We're not on a tight schedule and I'm not leaving until Torchbearer is up to Stellar Fleet standards, with the exception of the engines; I'm not hanging around for a third of the vessel to be rebuilt. It can wait until we get back. As can Ardent Bane, even though it will remain with you.

"I know the original plan was to get it fixed up as soon as possible, but I think it would be better to retrieve Charon and have Charon and Iron Crane focus on churning out Origami until there are six of them. Then task four Origami with assisting Charon with its construction and set two aside. One can work on getting Ardent Bane up to snuff and the other can start building vessels on commission, getting us properly established as a local power."

"Ease up there Aldrich! An Origami takes about forty-five years to complete in full with a single cruiser shipyard and the Origami being built working on itself. With two cruiser shipyards working on one Origami it will take about thirty two years. It would probably be faster to build two at a time actually. How long are you planning on travelling for? You could be gone for half a century and we would have barely started on your plan."

"Ah, we're not going to make it before the galaxy is split are we? Damn. I'll send some Goliaths too. At least a dozen!"

"There's only so much that we can speed up production, you know. There's a limit to how many machines and people can work simultaneously on a single project. We'll need a creche vessel of some kind and an agri-vessel too. Integrating and educating Imperials is such a pain."

"We are Imperials!"

"If you say so, Aldrich. I've seen enough to know that just isn't true, no matter how hard you push that agenda for our own safety. We do have strong elements of Imperial and Mechanicus culture, especially worship, but we don't practise slavery, cannibalism, or willful ignorance. Our education and technology levels are significantly higher in almost all areas.

I understand why you've no intention of cutting ties, but mark my words, the first time the Imperials come knocking for their due, it will be an incredible test of everyone's loyalty to you." I say, "I won't hand anyone over to the black ships. We won't need to as I can claim all our psykers are for producing and testing the arcano-tech that the Imperium relies on.

Forge Worlds don't provide troops as Tithes either, just ships and materiél, as their troops quota goes towards Mechanicus objectives and any spares left over are 'vital labour that can't be reassigned if you want that shiny new ship anytime soon'." Eire laughs. I continue, "We're actually shielded from the worst abuses by the Treaty of Mars. We have our own set of laws. That doesn't mean they won't try to grasp everything we have, but we can legally resist with force when they get greedy.

We're actually more under threat from Arch-magi, Ruinous Powers, and the suicidally curious. Both the Fabricator-General, the leader of the Mechanicus, and the Pater Nova, the head of all the Navigator Houses, have legitimate claims on my authority via their Emperor signed treaties.

"I can argue that my Warrant of Trade supersedes them both, but then I'd have to show I have a Warrant signed by the Emperor himself, which would reveal that everyone can call on my resources, even if they can't order me. If they catch on that it breaks the Treaty of Mars that could cause a civil war. The Warrant is obviously empowered too and that will give the Ecclesiarchy an opening to claim I am a blessed individual and should be under their guidance."

"I do hope you don't expect me to deal with all of that!"

"No, those are my responsibilities, so you can direct any such queries like that to me, but don't offer any hints that such troubles exist. Please!"

"I won't," says Eire.

"What about Haddon's Throne?"

"Haddon's Throne could be a problem, but it will be an unfortunate miracle if the Adeptus Administratum ever notices it exists. I've spent some more time thinking about it since I last panicked and even if the Admistratum does come knocking, I can just bribe the agent they send to classify it as a fuel processing facility, or a research centre, rather than a colony. At worst, they'd ask for a cut of the fuel instead of people, and that just isn't a problem."

Eire leans back and looks up, "So what you're saying is that, as High Factotum, I can be as difficult and slow as I like depending on the manner in which we are approached and who approaches us."

"Yes. That's one of the reasons I kept tweaking Inquisitor Hamiz. I didn't just do that to be annoying and because I found it funny. I did it to set the tone of all future interactions with the Imperium and its Adeptes. Just don't overdo it and always be certain of the backing of who you're talking to. Don't be afraid to delay a bit if that means you can send messages and get confirmation."

"I honestly thought you were being foolhardy and being difficult because you just can't help yourself," Eire says.

"And doesn't that just make the deception the perfect disguise."

"Are you sure you didn't just think of that? You're rarely this sneaky." I chuckle, "Maybe a little, but I did approach my interactions with the Inquisition and Space Marines with the intent to demonstrate we are a significant power and cannot be pushed around as they please. I think it turned out rather well."

"Alright. I believe you."

"Your faith in me is appreciated."