Chapter 19: Forging a Hot Commodity

Chapter 19: Forging a Hot Commodity

"The Rogue Trader's position? How dare they!" Verre exclaimed sharply.

"Tantos, what else do you know?" Lucan was also very curious; it was impossible for them to know about Ludwig's death.

"You may not be aware, having just exited the Warp, but you and your fleet are overdue on your estimated return time by a full five standard years."

Hearing Tantos's reply, everyone finally understood what was happening.

Warp travel was fraught with uncertainty, and the flow of time between the Warp and realspace differed greatly. Normally, this wouldn't happen on relatively safe routes, but encountering Warp turbulence could cause discrepancies in your return time to the material universe.

This was why, from time to time, warships that had been missing for a century, presumed destroyed or lost, would return from the Warp. For the ship in the Warp, perhaps only a few years or even months had passed.

"Tantos, gather more intelligence for me. You will be duly rewarded," Lucan said.

"I am already on it. It is my honor to serve you! I have arranged accommodations for you in the Court of the Hierarch. Please follow my attendants and rest first. I imagine your journey was not very pleasant!"

News of the change in the Mongorte family's Rogue Trader and their return spread rapidly through Footfall with Lucan's arrival.

Although the Mongorte Dynasty was not the most powerful in the Expanse, it was far from comparable to other minor dynasties.

Lucan's succession and arrival at Footfall affected almost everyone here.

Walking towards the Court of the Hierarch, surrounded by his soldiers in combat suits, Lucan immediately attracted the attention of discerning individuals.

Looking at the bustling Footfall, Lucan even saw some xenos – a sight almost impossible within the Imperium's borders.

After a night's rest, Tantos had various reports sent over.

The situation on the capital world made Verre anxious to return. Lucan hadn't even fully woken up when Verre had the attendants wake him.

Lucan reluctantly removed the pale arms and legs draped over him, then dressed and went to the reception room.

"My Lord, I apologize for disturbing your rest, but I believe we should return to the capital world as soon as possible."

"Did Tantos mention any specific intelligence?"

"Agathos has ceased all external trade. Those short-sighted fools are cutting off the Dynasty's lifeline! Fleets attempting to trade there have even reported seeing fires on the planet, and Agathos is refusing docking permission to all ships."

"Civil war?"

"Although I am reluctant to say it, it is indeed possible that a civil war has broken out on Agathos."

"How much longer will the Golden Ram need for repairs?"

"That is precisely the most serious issue I wished to discuss. It's impossible for our shipboard Tech-Priests and artisans to repair the entire vessel. Therefore, we invited Footfall's Tech-Priests to conduct an assessment. However, their evaluation concludes that it will take at least four months for the ship to be repaired to a safe operational level.

I have already asked them if the process can be expedited, but you know how hidebound those Tech-Priests can be. Under normal circumstances, during repairs, they insist on appeasing every machine spirit. These appeasement rituals take time, which is a major reason for the slow repair pace."

Lucan wasn't very worried about the ship's problems; these were issues money could solve. However, this "money" wasn't Thrones or other currencies circulating in Footfall, but the Psy-crystals in Lucan's own possession.

Given the powerful performance of the SCVs, Lucan believed that with enough of them, he wouldn't even need the Adeptus Mechanicus's help to complete the ship's repairs.

After all, even when the Warp Engine was damaged, the repair speed had been extremely fast.

Lucan even thought he could make money through the SCVs' repair capabilities. The Knights of Knightly Houses, the God-Machines of the Titan Legions, or the damaged power armor, Terminator suits, and Dreadnoughts of Space Marine Chapters… not every Chapter was wealthy. Chapters so poor they had to scrounge parts or resort to plunder were commonplace. "I fix your things, you lend me some muscle" – seemed perfectly reasonable, didn't it?

Of course, this all had to be based on having sufficient strength himself.

Looking at his Psy-crystal balance, Lucan directly warped in 100 SCVs, consuming 5,000 Psy-crystals.

"Have Pavian find Damon to receive 100 SCVs. We'll handle the ship repairs ourselves!"

"I will inform Pavian immediately."

"Besides the ship repairs, there is another very tricky problem."

"Tricky?"

"Almost all of our trade goods for this voyage were lost. Most were destroyed during the riot, and the small remaining portion, tainted by the Warp, cannot be traded. Selling them secretly would easily attract the Inquisition's attention, which isn't worth the risk. So, we had no choice but to jettison all these goods into the void.

And the situation on the capital has caused a sharp decline in many people's confidence in our Dynasty.

Normally, these wouldn't be major issues; similar situations have occurred before. However, I contacted the Void Consortium that the Dynasty usually cooperates with, but they tactfully refused us!

Damn them! How dare they refuse the Dynasty's request!

We… we currently lack sufficient funds to recruit enough personnel! If a civil war has truly broken out on the capital world, our current numbers are far from adequate. Unskilled laborers are easy enough to find; plenty of people are willing to join us for a meal. But what we lack most are technicians and soldiers! And, most importantly, Astropaths!"

Hearing Verre's words, Lucan knew that many people still lacked the necessary trust in him as a Rogue Trader.

No… it would be more accurate to say some questioned the legitimacy of his claim to the Rogue Trader title. Perhaps some suspected Lucan had killed Ludwig to usurp the position.

Some might even believe the Mongorte Dynasty was heading towards ruin in this internal conflict.

Lucan had thought of many difficulties, but the one thing he hadn't anticipated was a lack of money!

Currency in the Warhammer world was also based on credit. Almost every sector had its own currency, and such individual currencies often lost all value when taken to other sectors.

Though it seemed like a spacefaring age, the most effective method of exchange was still barter.

Minerals, weapons, technology, and population were the most valuable hard currencies.

Lucan fell silent. Make money? How to make money? Should he sell the art objects in his room? Or the fixed assets in Footfall? That would be too demeaning, wouldn't it?

Wouldn't he become a laughingstock among other Rogue Traders if word got out?

"Do we have any other potential trading partners in Footfall?"

"Yes, almost all reputable factions have cooperated with the Dynasty before. If we can offer suitable goods, no one will refuse us. It's just that in the past, we always chose fixed trading partners to maximize profits."

"What if we offer CMC combat suits for trade?"

"Are you certain you want to sell such precious equipment, my Lord?"

"No. To others, it's precious, but to us, it's not…"

The CMC series combat suit provided a very significant enhancement to ordinary combat personnel. For any mortal, it was a force multiplier.

Lucan believed that if he offered such items for sale, there would be plenty of buyers, either to use themselves or to try and reverse-engineer the technology.

But he wasn't worried about that.

He already had his own plan.

He intended to sell the combat suits externally, setting a price attractive enough to entice everyone.

Of course, the combat suits sold would be made from ordinary metallic materials. For the suits he would subsequently produce to arm his own soldiers, he planned to use much sturdier materials.

The armor strength of combat suits produced by the Barracks increased based on the input materials.

This would also create a generational difference with the sold equipment, preventing those who bought his gear from turning around and overpowering him.

And even if others did manage to crack the combat suit technology and attempt production, they would discover that even producing at cost price, their production expenses would be significantly higher than Lucan's selling price – and that was without even considering yield rates.

If that was the case, what was the point of producing it themselves? They would need to build production lines, train personnel, incur labor costs, time costs, and initial investments. It would be better to just buy directly from Lucan!

The Barracks only required metal input and produced consistently without manual operation, with a one hundred percent success rate! This was something others could never hope to match.

Lucan planned to make the combat suit a flagship product for the Mongorte Dynasty!

(End of Chapter)