Author Note
I have to say that I did not enjoy writing this chapter. Hopefully the story will be more fun to write once the MC gets back to making profit and exploring.
Reviews
Alan
The members of the battle harem will become more like people over time, but since there are twenty of them, don't expect me to devote space in the story to all of them.
frankieu
I'm sure he'll get around to finding a garden of eden creation kit. There's bound to be a few stored away in some unopened vaults.
edboy4926
I'm given some thought to branching out to other countries in the Fallout world when Thrax returns. I can't help wondering what my homeland would be like in the Fallout universe.
Since I don't want to add more CYOAs to this story as it has a lot going on I decided to use the Immortality Insurance Meta in a story I'm posting up on Questionable Questing so thank you for suggesting it.
Rogue Trader CYOA Story 2
Part 9
"On one side of me stand my Homeworld, Stronghold and on the other, my ancestors. I cannot behave otherwise than honourably" - Warlord Kettri son of Egil, Grindel Stronghold
Tops Casino. New Vegas.
"This does seem to be a favourable time to return, my lord" stated Archmagos Del Arx.
With the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas secured for the time being, as it would take months or even years for the NCR military to grow in strength enough to threaten Mr House's robot army even without our aid, and with the East Coast Brotherhood having stopped expanding so that it could fortify its gains, along with support of those who joined the House Thrax as as allies, and by extension the Imperium. This did seem like the best time to return to the Forge-World so as to gather more support and resources for the expedition. With those supplies and reinforcements we could bring some sort of order to this entire world.
The holographic image of the Archmagos, who was currently on Mars, showed me a cyborg who had been working tirelessly to set up a base on Mars that could not only extract vital resources but should also be able defend the red planet from the aliens should they sent more Motherships to this system. Earth required those defences as well or those xenos could return and do the Emperor only knows what to this world and its people.
As for the projector it had been set up in the room Benny would have stored the Yes Men robot. The computers here had repurposed for my needs so as to set up an information and communication centre from where I could direct the efforts of those who served me.
While we'd acquired more than enough technology to make it worth the Ad-Mech coming here to install those defences and since I had the only ship that could make the trip I had to be the one who brought the defences here.
As such I'd have to hang around and wait for the Ad-Mech, and for anyone else who wanted to come along, to get organised before we could return to this universe. This was something that could take months and I'd be forced to spend time in a very dangerous universe.
"Captain, we need more support from my brethren," said the Archmage "Any expenses involved in transporting materials will be more than covered by your share of the minerals recovered".
This was true as while keeping my ship and crew in full working order did cost me a lot the metals on Mars were valuable enough to more than it worthwhile to make a journey back to the Imperium. That wasn't even taking into account the technology we would be returning with.
"It isn't the trip back to the Forge-World or returning to this world that concerns me it's what will happen while we are away that does" I admitted to the high ranking cogboy "I don't trust the NCR to behave itself while we are going and you've mentioned a Commonwealth and its possible use of abominable intelligences".
I had to feign ignorance about the Commonwealth as not only would it look odd to the Ad-Mech if I expressed too much knowledge about such technologies I didn't want them realising that I'd known about this world before we arrived. It was a commonly accepted fact that I'd brought us here because it was the will of the Emperor/machine god, and not because I'd wanted to sell Fallout Tech to the Ad-Mech.
"All the more reason to return with more of my brethren" pointed out Del Arx, who was keeping a tight leash on information about the Commonwealth "Those who are dabbling in forbidden sciences are best dealt with by those who know the correct way of handling technology. As I'm sure you are aware, aiding us in this matter would only increase your standing with the priesthood. You would find the Fabricator-General to be most grateful".
Since I planned to put in a request for a Lunar-class cruiser upon my return to the Forge-World it wouldn't hurt for the Fabricator-General to need my support in dealing with the Commonwealth.
I'd have to leave the regiment behind and while this wasn't such a big deal in terms of my own personal security and the welfare of my ship, and our business here on Earth didn't involve conquest. I'd have to leave Sarah in charge as while she was part of a military group she at least was native to this world, and she wouldn't let anyone start invading parts of it.
Leaving Sarah behind would be wise even if I liked having her at my side. Veronica would have to stay too as Sarah might need someone to watch her back and to advise on how best to help the people of New Vegas. I imagined that when I returned they'd have done something about the terrible living conditions over in Freeside if nothing else.
At least I would be able to spend some time with Dany and the mothers of my bastard children who'd either given birth by now or soon would. I'd been too busy to give them any attention that they might desire which made me glad that they got along with each other so well.
"There is logic in your words" I told the red robed cyborg.
While we were gone New Vegas would be brought fully under Mr House's control and its infrastructure greatly restored as a lot of this land's pre-war installations were repairable by the Ad-Mech people who would be leaving behind. When I returned I could turn my attention to other parts of this world in the hopes of finding even more of value.
"We should depart as soon as possible" advised Del Arx.
Now did seem like the best time.
"What of the operation to cleanse The Pitt?" I asked.
The Pitt is a raider-dominated city built in the ruins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established in the aftermath of the Great War by local gangs, its inhabitants were nearly wiped out by the Brotherhood of Steel in 2255, only to be revitalized by former Brotherhood Initiate Ishmael Ashur who got left behind. The city was a centre of industry but also ripe with mutation due to all the radiation and chemicals people were exposed to. It needed to be properly cleansed and the city flattened so that no one would have any reason to go there.
"I know that the Palatine has been eager to purge The Pitt" I mentioned "We'd have to put that operation on hold".
While the power armoured Sisters of Battle could kill everything that moved in The Pitt it would be the Ad-Mech who actually destroyed the city.
"Hopefully I'll be able to request the aid of more battle-sisters" I said, now more talking to myself than the hologram.
The Sisterhood of Steel weren't prepared for such a mission and it wasn't really their area of expertise given they had been created to recover technology for me when they fought it was to remove barriers to their goals not to cleanse in the name of the Emperor.
"You may have some success in such an endeavour" was all Del Arx had to say on the matter.
Since I was close to a living saint in the eyes of the Imperial Church I should be able to handle it myself. I'd just been thinking out loud.
"Very well we'll begin preparations to depart" I decided.
I'd just have to do my best to deal with the other Imperial organisations when I had to. At least I'd have some time to prepare.
For now I had to make sure that my absence didn't cause a lot of problems. Since I was the overall leader of the Imperial expedition everyone had been forced to work within my guidelines and if I just left the different factions, such as the Sisters of Battle, Imperial Guard and the Ad-Mech might start trying to do things their way, and this could lead to them butting heads with each other as well as the natives. I would have to make it clear to the leaders that they were just holding the fort while I was gone.
(Line Break)
His Glorious Aspirations. Star Port.
As expected news that I had the ability to reach a world that appeared to be a younger version of Holy Terra had spread quickly across this sector of space despite the limits of FTL communication in this galaxy and while weeks had passed with me having little to other than to met with high ranking magos in order to discuss how the technology I'd recovered from the Fallout world would distributed and how the different departments of the Ad-Mech would reward me, now that I was finally preparing to return I found myself buried in reports and requests.
Thanks to the Emperor, I had a good XO who could handle the day to day affairs involved in running a cruiser because I was having a hard enough time dealing with the different Imperial factions who all had an interest in Fallout Earth. At least the Ad-Mech were more interested in that universe's version of Mars since they already had a foothold on Fallout Earth.
To express their thanks for me bringing them so much ancient technology the cogboys in charge had offered me the services of Magos Explorator XXP-164895D who would be working for me directly unlike Archmagos Del Arx who answered to the Forge-World.
XXP-164895D uncomfortably reminded me of the bad guy from the second Robocop film and so I'd sent XXP-164895D off to take charge of the cyborgs on this ship while Del Arx went to oversee his new command. Hopefully this would bring the cogboys serving on my vessel more firmly under my control.
The Ad-Mech were bringing their own ship. A Firestorm frigate which was a variant of the Sword Class Frigate, designed to link the speed and manoeuvrability of an escort, with the brute force of a larger vessel.
It was not uncommon to see a squadron of Firestorms supporting independent squadrons of Swords and Cobra Class Destroyers. In situations like these, it falls to the Firestorms to deal damage to capital ships, and rival escorts once the other two classes have lowered the enemy's shields.
Firestorm Class Frigates are often seen fighting alongside Space Marine formations. Even pirate fleets are known to operate Firestorm Frigates as well, but the one that would be returning to the Fallout Universe with us was under Ad-Mech control, the ship having been liberated from a pirate fleet some years ago after a fierce battle.
It wasn't just the Ad-Mech that wanted to take their own ride into another universe. A small fleet of ramshackle Squat vessels had turned up at the Forge-World and before long they'd sent a leader and spokesperson over to my ship to barter with me for passage to a new universe.
This greatly mattered to them now that most of their race had been eaten by the Nids. Which was something I could do for them since my cruiser could drag other ships through the warp in its wake and all the way into another universe.
As for the Squats they were an interesting group of people. When the worlds around the galactic core were first colonized by humans in the far distant past they discovered vast, almost limitless mineral deposits. These resources included compounds that had been smelted in the furnaces of dying stars and also strange substances that had been formed when the galaxy was born and before the laws of physics had stabilized.
The discovery of these materials was very auspicious as the resources of Earth had been long exhausted and as a consequence the exploration and exploitation of the galactic core had been deemed imperative for the survival of humanity. At least according to the Ad-Mech report I'd been sent about the space dwarfs. The actual reasoning could be something different.
An unknown number of miners, engineers and explorers who crewed specially adapted spacecraft were sent to exploit the newfound wealth of the core which quickly turned into one of the most densely populated parts of the galaxy. Due to the inhospitable physical characteristics of the worlds in the galactic core those worlds were generally considered to be quite unlikely places for human colonies to prosper and they were rather lacking in life. As such the original colonists coming to these worlds were hardy frontier folk. These tough miners and explorers dreamt of reaping fantastic riches, before returning to Earth.
Over time the colonists settled down and created self-contained communities by digging and drilling underground homes into the rocky surface of their new worlds To feed the increasing population, as it was not possible to rely only on the food brought in huge cargo ships, it was necessary to construct artificially lit hydroponic tanks in the depths of the planets and to cultivate nutritive algae there. These algae were then dried and processed and served as the base material for all kinds of food such as flour, coarse synthetic food and even crude but very potent forms of ale. I should really ask about that technology and try to get it for my ship if possible so as to help extend our rations. I assumed that the Ad-Mech already used this tech to feed those on their forge-world who needed food.
Due to the Age of Strife and the warp storms called by creation of fourth chaos god by the foolish Eldar the Squat worlds were isolated from the rest of humanity. This isolation lasted for thousands of years and during this time the universe became more and more hostile. Cut off from human fleets the Squats resorted to building their own spaceships and weapons to fend off Orks and Chaos warbands.
Not all Squat worlds survived this time of turmoil, some were invaded and lost, others were destroyed by environmental instability and some were ravaged by infighting. Those worlds who did manage to come through on the other hand prospered and did so by becoming fortified Strongholds
Relations between the Squat Home Worlds and the Imperium were for the most part of a peaceful and cooperative nature, especially considering the many common enemies such as the much hated Orks who were a big problem for everyone in this galaxy. There is also trading for the mutual benefit of both sides as the Squats were very good at mining and building stuff with the metals they mined; they still wanted stuff from the rest of the galaxy.
Sadly there have been instances of not so peaceful relations going as far as to turn into frequent bouts of war and ill-feeling as the Squat character does make them prone to take offence at any slight to their honour, especially in trade matters. Squats are a stubborn lot and quite probable to pursue retribution in such cases. As a consequence the relationship between the Squats and the Imperium of Man has always been strained one even when things are going well.
Now that the Nids had eaten most of the squats leaving those behind as little more than vagabonds and some wandering fleets, the Imperium had annexed what Squats worlds that were suitable for human life and hadn't been consumed. As such it was no wonder that the leader of one of those fleets had come to me and requested that I transport them all to the Fallout universe so that they could start again elsewhere.
Not unlike the Eldar really, only the Squat leader had just come and asked me directly for help while finding a way to make it profitable for me rather than mess about behind the scenes and talk to me in my dreams like Farseer Galadeer. As such I already liked them much more than the space elves.
They had no interest in any version of Earth and their ships weren't up for a long trip so they'd settle somewhere with the Sol System and then dig in underground. They could feed and protect their own people with little help from me.
In return for dragging their ships along with mine and housing some civilians on board my cruiser for the trip the Squats would pay me in with some of the ores they dug up whenever I made a trip to whatever planet or moon they settled. I would also have the chance to trade for more so it should be a profitable arrangement.
"Did you find out anything about our new Inquisitional babysitter?" I asked.
My senseasaul opened up a report and began to read it. Again I was glad that I'd had a clone of Littlefinger made, one with some enhancements and implants so that he had more than enough brainpower to keep things organised for me. Better him than me as I did not like the idea of the Ad-Mech replacing parts of my body with their tech.
"We will be playing host to Lord Gideon Sevomordnen" Peter told me "A known hunter of cults and traitors across the galaxy".
So he'd be a member of The Ordo Hereticus (more known colloquially as the Witch-hunters) which is one of the three major orders of the Inquisition. Their specific role is protecting mankind from itself, by combating such internal threats as treason, mutation, heresy and witches. He might be coming to keep an eye on me or he might be more concerned about the sheer amount of mutants on the Fallout Earth. I was somewhat concerned that the Inquisitor might try to supplant my place as leader, but I was no longer a noob at this whole Rogue Trader business and I would be keeping an eye on this Gideon person.
"We're expecting over a hundred sisters of battle within the next couple of weeks depending on the warp tides" I was informed.
They were worth waiting for as cleansing the mutant population of Fallout Earth wasn't going to be easy and the few squads of battle sisters currently under the command of the Palatine simply weren't enough and the Imperial Guard would have its hands full dealing with all the raider gangs and different creatures.
I did concern myself with the idea that the Inquisitor might take command of the Sisters of Battle as they often worked with members of the Ordo Hereticus so I was glad that I had my own order of Power Armour wearing warrior women who had some good guns. It should maintain a balance of power.
"At least we won't have to worry about feeding everyone" I said.
With my increasing wealth I'd been able to purchase a vast amount of food in the form of ration packs that could last for decades and since I currently had no Imperial Guard regiment onboard, there was than enough room for the supplies. This was good because I needed to be able to support the work forces required to rebuild whole cities and to set up farms on the parts of Fallout Earth where you could grow food.
Looking over everything it seemed clear that we wouldn't be leaving this system for another month and while this rate of progress was impressive by Imperial standards the lack of activity annoyed me. I longed to go back to the Fallout world or even to somewhere else where my actions would actually make a difference.
The Imperials were slow to react and loath to change, and while introducing new technologies might win the Imperials a few more battles I knew that it wouldn't be enough to stem the tide. Frankly I didn't think that the Imperium was worth saving and that was partly why I spent so much time outside of it.
I needed them IOM until I had my own fleet and the means to support it which I wasn't going to have for a few more years so until then I had to remain strong and ignore any demonic whispers I heard, not that I had so far.
At least I would be getting my Lunar-Class when I next returned the Ad-Mech were more than happy to reassign a yet incomplete Luna-Class and to bring it here for a refitting once it was ready to sail. I was really looking forward to that.
(Line Break)
Freeside. New Vegas.
For Veronica Santangelo, former scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel, things had been rather dull since Thrax went off somewhere in a flying machine. Ever since Veronica had parted ways with the Rogue Trader her life had been boring and while interesting things were still happening she wasn't really involved in any of it.
The Imperials and their allies had spent the last few months securing what lands they had taken and then improving on them. This process could be seen to be working here in Freeside as one by one the ruins and partly ruined buildings were torn down to be recycled. This required a large labour force to work long hours and many machines.
The materials that had made up the buildings were fed into machines that produce what was needed to build new homes and businesses all of which had a rather drab similarity to each other. These new buildings had light, heat, running water and little else, but they were far more comfortable than what had been here before and the Imperials didn't try to separate families.
If people wanted more than just shelter and clean water they had to work for it, and thankfully for them there was plenty of work. People from all over were coming to New Vegas for a roof over their head, some sort of safety and to make enough money to eat. Some went to the farms or the cattle ranches, most worked on buildings.
While the Imperials didn't care much for spoiling the average citizen with luxuries they did keep order and that meant people not getting killed on the streets. Not only did Mr House have his robot army, the Imperials had put up street lights which made it harder to hide any crimes. They'd cleared up the rubbish and gotten rid of the drug dealers.
Yet Veronica couldn't help feeling that while the Imperials had overall been good for New Vegas they'd replaced anarchy with a rigid order which felt oppressive. What had been and what they had now seemed two extremes and she couldn't help wondering if some sort of middle ground couldn't have been found between order and chaos.
At least the Imperials weren't yet enforcing their religion upon the people. That didn't stop the preachers and there was a new temple here in Freeside that was doing its best to convert people through non-violent methods something that involved a lot of singing, but at the same time they the Imperial preachers were helping people they had some healers and shelters for those who hadn't been assigned one of the new houses.
"Something on your mind" asked Sarah.
Veronica had found a friend in Sarah and was well aware of her friend's loyalties, yet she couldn't help wondering what opinion the leader of the Sisterhood of Steel had about all of this.
"Do you think the Imperials coming here is a good thing?" she asked.
Sarah took a moment to really think about her answer.
"They're far from perfect" she admitted "But overall yeah, I think it was a good thing that they came. Things were pretty bad in DC until recently the Brotherhood was the only thing stopping the super mutants from killing or converting every human they could find. Between them, the raiders and the other nasty things the DC wasteland was turning into hell on Earth. Now we've cleared out most of DC and are building a new city even bigger than Vegas. People can sleep at night and now worry about getting eaten by something, and there's no slavery anymore".
Veronica couldn't help thinking that there wasn't a lot of difference between being a worker for the Imperials or a slave, but at least no one beat the workers here.
"The lack of homeless and starving children is nice"" commented Sarah.
Those children who had been left to fend for themselves had been taken in by the Imperial Faith and were being educated to serve in some future role. They'd lost their freedom, but at least they would live to become adults.
"I guess that this is the lesser of two evils" commented Veronica.
Which did rather sum up the Imperium rather nicely.
(Line Break)
His Glorious Aspirations. Imperial Space.
As I sat on my command throne within the bridge of my cruiser I could feel the level of excitement around me as the skilled crew prepared for this mighty vessel to enter the warp. I wasn't the only one who was eager to get underway.
It had taken four months to get everything organised before the fleet, if a cruiser, a frigate and some refugee ships could be called a fleet, was ready to set sail into the tides of the warp and return to the Fallout universe. I'd been so bored during this time even with the birth of my children, something I found that I cared far less about than I'd imagined, and so I was very glad to finally be getting underway.
Due to the unstable nature of time while in the warp we couldn't be sure that we'd be gone for four months from the perspective of those in the Fallout Universe, and it was possible that years would have passed for them when we got back or mere weeks, but somehow I doubted it as the warp drive on this ship didn't work like lesser models.
Another reason for the delay was waiting for enough Squat vessels to turn up to make it worthwhile transporting them. To ensure that this species of abhuman would be able to thrive in a new universe there needed to be tens of thousands of them, between the refugee fleet and those on board my cruiser there were more than enough, assuming that we didn't lose too many on the way. It would also help that we had a heck of a lot of supplies.
I did wonder if having Squats in the same star system as a version of Earth would cause problems for everyone in the far future, but that wasn't really something for me to worry about and the space dwarves could care of themselves. They'd survived everything short of a massive Nid Hive fleet so they could handle the Fallout Universe.
They might simply pack up and leave one day, however I'd advised their leader and spokesperson not to do that because of the hostile aliens in that galaxy, and Squats had agreed to create a new Stronghold while they would somewhat be protected by the big guns of my ship.
No the Squats didn't worry me and neither did the Imperials as I'd seen no signs that anyone had any doubts about my leadership, even the Inquisitor seemed to be minding his own business, no what worried me was the Eldar because they had a habit of screwing everything up and since they were interfering with my life they could screw it up as well.
When I tried to reach out with my growing warp powers I sensed nothing other than the fleet. The Squats were close enough to humans that any aliens should have stood out, but the Eldar could easily be hiding themselves from my senses as I was a novice compared to their Farseers and Warlocks. Plus I was loathed to use my warp based powers when there was an Inquisitor around.
It had been explained to me that I could only drag so much mass with me through the warp and the ratio of that mass to my cruiser had to remain within certain tolerances or the following ships could be lost in the warp. My ship should be fine since my will would guide it as cruisers are tough, but we could lose the other vessels if something went wrong.
My attempts to see into the future, which was never a precise thing since the future was always in motion, showed no disaster, but I still couldn't help worrying. Yet I worked to put those feelings aside as I prepared to guide this little fleet through the warp much like how the Emperor provided guidance for the navigators via his fancy space lighthouse only on a much smaller scale. This would take much in the way of focus from me so I had to put my concerns aside and pay all my attention to the important task ahead.
