Warhammer 40k: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 103: Breakthrough in Quantum Communication Technology

"You directly assaulted an entire Kabal? How many of you were there originally?"

"Thirty. All of them the finest wolf pups. Rogue Trader, do not think we are unplanned barbarians. To find our great Gene-father, a small sacrifice is worthwhile!"

Harald also saw the look in Lucan's eyes.

Indeed, for half of them to have escaped was already quite an achievement. A Kabal was no mere roadside bandit.

As an important part of Dark Eldar society, even some of the less powerful Kabals had a large number of warriors; otherwise, it would be impossible for them to gain a foothold in Commorragh.

"Where do you plan to go next?"

"We must hurry to the Calixis Sector to rendezvous with the Great Companies. Rogue Trader, I hope you can repair the Howl of the Frost Wolf for us and provide us with crew and necessary supplies!"

"Of course. But repairing your cruiser will take time. I believe you can stay on Agathos for now. Like you, I have also been summoned by the Departmento Munitorum. Perhaps we can travel to Footfall together, since all ships need to pass through the Maw."

Hearing Lucan's words, Harald didn't feel there was any problem. He certainly knew the time required for warship repairs, but he didn't know that Lucan possessed things like SCVs.

As long as enough SCVs were deployed, a single day was enough to repair this one warship.

And in the following days, these dozen or so Space Wolf Astartes temporarily stayed on Agathos.

And Lucan did not let them remain idle.

If he were just an ordinary planetary governor, an Astartes Chapter might be able to compel the governor to hand over the personnel and various supplies they needed.

But Lucan was a Rogue Trader, and a powerful one at that.

At times, the administrative rank of a powerful Rogue Trader was even on par with that of a Chapter Master.

Besides repairing their warship, Lucan also repaired their personal power armor and weapons.

And the crew and various supplies also amounted to a considerable sum.

The Space Wolves, however, clearly had no habit of paying. They also had no resources to compensate Lucan for his contributions.

However, Lucan had no intention of asking for anything from them. Establishing a degree of friendship with a First Founding Chapter was no bad thing for him.

But while he didn't ask for material compensation, Lucan did express his hope that they could lend a hand.

"I've already given you so much for free; it's only reasonable for you to help train my soldiers, right?"

And Harald did not refuse. Lucan had saved the members of his Chapter and repaired their warship; whether from a standpoint of sentiment or reason, they had no grounds to refuse.

When training ordinary mortal soldiers, they could still achieve complete dominance.

But when they trained those special soldiers called the Night Sentinels, they discovered that these soldiers were abnormally strong.

In terms of technique, they could suppress these soldiers, but in terms of physical attributes, they themselves were actually no match for these individuals?

What kind of gene-enhancement technology was this? There wasn't even a trace of mechanical implants on their bodies.

And it was precisely these Astartes' combat techniques that the Night Sentinels lacked.

The accumulation of combat techniques and tactics within the Dynasty could never compare to a First Founding Chapter like the Space Wolves. The combat skills they displayed had been exchanged for with the lives of countless individuals over countless years.

Under the training of these Space Wolves, the strength of the Night Sentinels visibly increased once again.

And at this time, Pavian, with the help of the intelligent systems on the Stellar Pioneer, had also made progress in his reverse-engineering.

The technology of regenerative bio-steel was successfully cracked. This meant that many future heavy vehicles would have the ability to self-repair.

Although there was still no breakthrough with the jump drive, quantum communication technology had achieved a breakthrough. Relying on the crucial information from the maintenance and upkeep manuals stored in the Gorgon's warship systems, coupled with the computational power of the Stellar Pioneer, Lucan finally had the ability to manufacture communication base stations.

With the establishment of communication base stations, Lucan would finally no longer need to use the Gorgons as relays for long-range communication.

And this represented Lucan's abandonment of backward and inferior communication methods.

He no longer needed to worry about entities in the Warp intercepting his messages, nor did he need to worry about Astropaths being driven mad by the whispers of the Warp and becoming a potential hidden danger. The risks of promoting this technology externally were much smaller than promoting the jump drive.

After all, it was primarily the forces of the Imperium that were most severely hampered by their reliance on the Warp for long-range communication.

The forces of Chaos had no such concerns, and other factions also had their own methods of long-range communication.

And the Scholastia Psykana that trained Astropaths was an institution completely subordinate to the Imperium. They not only trained Astropaths but their subordinate psychic academies also cultivated most of the sanctioned psykers in the Imperium, and also screened for the "firewood" to be burned for the God-Emperor.

Unlike the independence of the Navigator Houses, Lucan now clearly possessed warships capable of jumping, but if he were to bring this matter into the open, not only would Chaos come looking for trouble, but even those Navigator Houses would probably think of killing him first.

The Navigator Houses existed solely due to the Imperium's dependence on them. Once the Imperium no longer needed them, they would no longer be the noble Navigators, but would instead become lowly mutants! They would become targets for the Imperium's purges and destabilizing factors.

All dangers did not necessarily come from the outside; sometimes, the internal threats were even more terrifying than the external ones.

These problems would cease to be problems once Lucan had the ability to manufacture jump drives himself and was strong enough in his own right. And Lucan was rapidly advancing on this path.

Three more months passed. Almost every month, urgent astropathic messages from the Departmento Munitorum and the Inquisition would arrive at Agathos.

And Harald and his men were also becoming extremely impatient.

Lucan began to take stock of the forces he could deploy. He asked Pavian about the repair status of the Stellar Pioneer.

The missing shipboard weapons had all been installed. However, they were all energy weapons; no solid projectile macro-cannons had been installed. Macro-cannons were too different from the structure of the Stellar Pioneer. And with that immensely powerful main cannon, there was no need for macro-cannons to overload enemy void shields.

And besides the Stellar Pioneer, there were also the two cruisers, the Golden Ram and the Tyrant.

There were 20 Imperial Cobra-class destroyers and Sword-class frigates.

And the number of Gorgons had reached 30.

A fleet of this size was almost unmatched by any Rogue Trader Dynasty in the entire Expanse.

Some less powerful Rogue Trader Dynasties would be crushed by the astronomical maintenance costs of these warships alone.

These Gorgons would not sail everywhere with Lucan's fleet. They would be loaded with a large number of soldiers and equipment and would jump directly into the battlefield when Lucan needed them.

Having accumulated sufficient strength, Lucan knew it was probably time to set out.

The fleet was ready, and Lucan's massive land army also began to mobilize.

The young soldiers were eager to achieve merit and establish their careers.

After Lucan opened up the channels for advancement for the soldiers and the common people, people were eager to improve their own status. While such opportunities were rare in peacetime, once war began, military merit was the fastest way to cross class divides.

The mobilization of a large number of personnel took time.

And an advance force composed of thirty thousand Raiders had already set out, heading towards Footfall.

(End of Chapter)

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