Chapter 350: The Knight World
Over the following days, the Inquisitor's fleet finished resupplying at the asteroid, and the two new Sword-class Escorts joining the fleet completed coordination checks. They were ready to depart.
Before leaving, Kian sought out the Governor one more time.
"Governor, tell me, what does this place need most? And in exchange, what could you offer me?"
He wanted to get a read on local prices. This asteroid was known as something of a crossroads, its sixteen-plus million residents all working in port services, with a constant flow of warships passing through. A trade hub like this was somewhere Kian fully intended to come back to. Better to learn the local economics now, while he was already here, for when he started running trade routes of his own down the line.
"My lord, what our world needs most is population. Water comes second. Our world is small, the environment is harsh, and growing up under long-term low gravity weakens people. Very few outsiders ever choose to stay. Our own birth rate is far too slow, so whenever disaster strikes and we lose a large number of people, we simply can't replace them in time. If you're ever able to bring us population, we could absorb up to twenty million more without any strain.
As for what we can offer in return, ours is a trade world. You can buy almost anything here. We're also a waystation for warships, and can supply whatever a fleet needs, including ammunition for large ship-mounted weapons, reactor fuel, and mid-to-low-tier repair work."
Kian noted all of it. He'd look for a chance to bring some population back this way if the opportunity arose.
As for how he'd actually get people, well, he'd be drifting from world to world regardless, and there were always convicts to be bought or pirates to be captured along the way.
The Governor's asteroid had too small an ecosystem and too harsh a void environment for ordinary people to want to settle there voluntarily, which left them relying on hardened criminals as their only real labor pool.
Afterward, Kian recruited a hundred fighter pilots from among the locals.
When it came time to pay for them, the Governor waved it off, telling him it was fine, all he wanted was for Kian to bring some population by whenever he next passed through the crossroads world.
With that done, it was time to leave.
The Inquisitor's fleet pulled out of orbit and slipped into the Warp, bound for the next objective.
After several days of Warp transit, the fleet dropped back into realspace, and Inquisitor Trasolh called everyone together for a briefing.
"My lords, we've emerged from the Warp earlier than planned this time. We're still at least a month's travel from our target world. Frequent Warp jumps carry real risk, so we'll be covering this last stretch under conventional drive."
After laying out the current situation, he moved on to the target world itself.
"As you all know, our purpose in circuiting this region has been to build up fleet strength before we head to Forge World Primo-496a to deal with the Ork infestation there.
At present, we have six capital ships, fifteen Warp-capable cargo haulers, and one Mechanicus industrial vessel. Our fleet strength is more than sufficient.
As for ground forces, between the agri-world and Planet 495 we've raised a million troops, which brings us right up to our fleet's full transport capacity.
Now, we head to one final world, to secure precious ground-combat war engines and the backing of a Knight House."
Kian raised an eyebrow. Their last recruitment stop was a Knight world?
The Knight Houses were the pioneers of humanity's golden age, the ones responsible for settling the million-plus worlds the Imperium now claimed.
Those old pioneer fleets had carried enormous numbers of multi-purpose machines, humanoid in shape, ten-odd meters tall, capable of general construction and terraforming in peacetime, and rearmed for war, they became ground-combat war engines.
Over thousands, tens of thousands of years, those pioneer societies had regressed technologically and slid into rigid autocracy, history running in reverse until they'd landed somewhere resembling feudal medieval society.
The ground-combat war engines came to be called Knight suits, the pilots who rode them called Knights, and groups of Knights banding together formed Knight Houses. The rulers presiding over several Knight Houses at once bore the title of High King.
Yes, exactly. Space knights. Except instead of riding horses, they rode ten-meter war machines.
Inquisitor Trasolh, moved by the severity of the Ork threat on the Forge World and the need for serious ground-combat assets, had decided to make for a Knight world.
Kian felt his pulse quicken. War machines! Every man's dream!
Was there any chance he could get his hands on one of those Knight suits?
Inquisitor Trasolh continued. "The world's name is Glory. I visited it two years ago. The current ruler is High King Budas. He commands twenty-five Knight Houses, two hundred and eleven large Knight war engines in total, plus four hundred fifty-two smaller squire-class suits.
This time, we'll need to secure the support of at least one full Knight House, upward of ten Knight suits, to gain a real strategic edge on the Forge World."
Finally, he got to the point.
"I need one of you to travel ahead of the fleet aboard a photon-lance skiff, reach Glory before we arrive, and open negotiations with the High King over the terms of support. Would anyone care to volunteer?"
A photon-lance skiff was an absurdly effective single-occupant spacecraft, essentially a long cylinder shaped like a torpedo. Its internal systems were bare-bones, just a life-support rig and a monster of an engine underneath. Climb in, and you were more or less fired out of the fleet like a bullet.
Where the fleet needed thirty days to reach the destination, the skiff could make the trip in three.
Baron Pallid spoke up. "I'll go. I know this kind of work."
Baron Pallid served as Trasolh's eyes and ears, frequently detached from the main force to run reconnaissance.
But Kian saw an opportunity here, a shot at a Knight suit of his own.
"I'll go! I've been curious what a Knight world actually looks like."
Baron Pallid hadn't expected Kian to try and steal the assignment out from under him, and looked distinctly unimpressed.
"Count Voss, don't tell me you're angling for another side job."
Laughter broke out around the briefing room. The two Ratlings tittered away, and the Ogryn drooled happily, grinning like an idiot.
Inquisitor Trasolh thought it over.
"As I understand it, the High King of Glory personally took part in the Great Crusade back in the Emperor's own era. That's where the world's name came from, a gift bestowed by the Emperor himself. Count Voss, given the Emperor's favor upon you, your presence there might carry unusual weight."
Kian grinned. "Then it's settled. Once the real business is handled, I'm running my own side job."
Trasolh sighed, resigned. "Fine, fine. As long as the actual mission gets done, you're free to spend your own time however you like."
Truthfully, he didn't mind Kian's side jobs at all. If anything, they kept strengthening the fleet. That Fury Interceptor sitting in the flagship's hangar, for instance, had padded out their fighter wing nicely.
And if Kian managed to bring back an actual Knight suit from one of his little side ventures this time, his own combat strength would spike dramatically. Why on earth would Trasolh object to that?
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you