noffsinger #2189 - A little money is enough to gather people
#2189 - A little money is enough to gather people
In return for fulfilling the contract with Soshjan, a large number of weapons and equipment from the Leagues of Votann entered the Expeditionary Force's armory. Soshjan distributed some of these to friendly chapters such as the Dark Angels, Flesh Tearers, Lamenters, and Penitents, all of whom had positive reviews of the Squat equipment.
Moreover, Third Company Captain Farzad of the chapter seemed to have established a friendship with Clan Chieftain Graham, the Deepkin Berserker. Graham gifted him a plasma battleaxe, and Farzad reciprocated with a power axe. Grand Sorcerer was very satisfied with this transaction, and there was much room for future cooperation between the two sides.
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After briefly dealing with the matters of the mortals, Soshjan convened a simple meeting with the representatives of all participating chapters.
First was the distribution of spoils. From the Second Angstrom to the final battle of the Kara System, the Expeditionary Force had also captured a large amount of Astartes equipment, including power armor, bolters, and even some vehicles. During the scouring of the Maghre System, an entire super-heavy armor squadron was discovered locked in a warehouse, totaling twelve super-heavy vehicles from the Great Crusade era. Clearly, Huron was unwilling to deploy these armors on the battlefield, ultimately benefiting others.
And all of this, except for those super-heavy vehicles, Soshjan announced that the Astral Knights would not take any, and would distribute them all to the participating chapters.
Not only that, but the Astral Knights would also not take any of the warships captured in the Kara decisive battle, which would be distributed by each chapter according to their actual needs.
If the former surprised everyone, the latter was shocking, even including the chapter master of the Minotaurs.
Soshjan's explanation was also very simple.
"In this expedition, the Astral Knights have already reaped the highest honor. We have gained too much. I am truly ashamed. If it were not for everyone's support, let alone victory, even launching the expedition would have been difficult. And this expedition was originally unrelated to everyone, yet all of you brothers spilled blood for it. How dare the Astral Knights take even a fraction more?"
Everyone then declined for a while. Lysander also persuaded Soshjan that the Astral Knights were also the main force in combat and had made sacrifices, and that everyone was the same.
However, Soshjan still insisted. After going back and forth three times, everyone finally accepted the proposal.
Of course, the Silver Redemption, which had been repaired earlier, was not included in this distribution because it had already joined the Astral Knights' order of battle.
Although this move had the suspicion of currying favor, the tangible benefits undoubtedly made all the chapters feel respect for Soshjan, and even Asterion Moloc, who had previously been tricked by him, praised it as a "righteous act"—the Minotaurs, who contributed greatly in the final battle, were allocated two cruisers and several smaller ships, and they returned fully loaded with the warships they had captured themselves. Soshjan also showed unexpected fairness in this matter, completely disregarding the previous relationship between the two.
It wasn't that Soshjan didn't want to expand his armaments and fleet, but he had better ways. In addition, there were also unexpected gains from the decomposed wreckage of the wrecked ships. All of the daemonsteel nerve clusters had been collected and were waiting to be sent back to Ulan Huda for research, and some of the more complete wreckage could be cut and processed in Angstrom. Although they could not be repaired into warships, they could be smelted and re-forged, and the key parts of the engines could be reused. The shipwrecks salvaged from the battlefield could also be re-forged and utilized. Using these materials, Angstrom promised to build 2 Tyrant-class cruisers and 3 destroyer squadrons, totaling 12 destroyers, and 6 frigate squadrons, including 18 frigates for the Astral Knights in the next five years.
The Tyrant cruiser is also the largest class of warship that Angstrom can manufacture. One characteristic of this warship is that it uses ancient overcharged plasma weapons recovered from Chaos warships.
In addition, the "Iron Corridor" built by Ryza has been completed. A safe route consisting of outposts and large detection stations has reached the Cleft of Kalaman, which means that Ryza has a direct route to the Maelstrom, thus breaking free from the restrictions of Mars. As early as two years ago, with the establishment of military scrip, products from Ryza have been continuously entering the Maelstrom market, and in exchange for a large number of rare minerals urgently needed by the forge world, especially heavy metals and crystals related to plasma.
The Forge Master of Automok of Ryza was very satisfied with this, and the warships that Soshjan had ordered from Ryza five years ago also began to be built at an accelerated pace in the docks. These warships also have an almost forgotten name—
Ryza-class Battle Barges.
Only six of this type were ever built, one of which had a name that Soshjan would never forget.
Storm's Wrath
Of course, the original Ryza-class Battle Barge technology had long been lost. The Ryza's Magi only retained some of the original design. The current Ryza-class Battle Barge was redesigned and constructed by them over two thousand years. It seemed to be an arrangement of fate that the design of this ship was basically finalized until Soshjan arrived at Ryza, so the Forge Master of Automok even gave Soshjan the honor of naming the model. After thinking for a long time, Soshjan gave the answer of Sacrificer-class.
The Sacrificer-class inherited the Ryza-class's hull known for its sturdiness. In order to restore the past design, the Magi even personally went to the wreckage of Storm's Wrath to refer to its almost deformed keel design, and found the secret of the layered keel, and then made some "modern" modifications to it, mainly replacing ordinary macro cannons with plasma macro cannons, and laying experimental energy regulating coils and other equipment inside the ship. Coupled with Ryza's powerful plasma reactor, the Sacrificer-class Battle Barge not only had extremely fierce close-range plasma macro cannon attacks, but also had long-range lance firing capabilities, with a power comparable to that of a battleship, and could even maintain a high speed. The entire design was very compact, without wasting space on huge aircraft carriers or unreliable nova cannons.
Similarly, the bow of the Sacrificer-class has also been specially reinforced, just like the ancient Ryza-class, it can easily pass through cosmic environments such as asteroid belts, and can cause devastating damage to enemies in close-range collisions.
Whether it was out of satisfaction with its performance or special feelings, Soshjan had no reason to refuse such a warship, so he ordered three at once!
And the payment was his disregard for Ryza's penetration into the Maelstrom during this time.
As for the Mechanicus forces in the Maelstrom, the two smaller forge worlds were powerless to do anything about it, and the largest one, Angstrom, was now deeply mired in internal strife. The representative of Mars had arrived, and he was dissatisfied with Soshjan's unauthorized arrangement of the forge world's power, but he had no choice but to accept the management council created by Soshjan and firmly stood against the Ryza faction. Now the atmosphere inside Angstrom was very tense. Ryza was also trying to support the Fire Blood Sect, but for the time being, the Expeditionary Force and Soshjan were suppressing it, so there would be no major chaos. Angstrom was still producing armaments for the Expeditionary Force and the Astral Knights.
This is also why Soshjan distributed all the battlefield spoils, because Angstrom had several production lines dedicated to serving the Astral Knights, but they did not lack power armor or bolters. They were more focused on producing equipment for Soshjan's mortal forces and various equipment needed for the development of the new colonies.
However, Angstrom will definitely not be peaceful in the future. Soshjan himself is not sure where the power struggle between the various forces will lead this forge world.
As for the food, supplies, and other necessities needed for the new colonies in the Brakato System, Zorg can basically handle it. Now he is a leading underworld tycoon in the Maelstrom. His name has been marked on the Department of Justice, and even some Inquisitors have noticed him. However, Zorg is cautious and has never been caught with any major flaws. Moreover, with his current power, as long as he doesn't cause any major troubles, he can still protect himself.