Chapter 9: Let the empire building begin

In an office in the largest tower in the center of quintis, konrad could be seen signing paperwork and forms of new polices sweeping across all of nostramo. As he was about to sign into law, an anti worker abuse and some minor human rights to keep all factories at a highest output without risk to innocents, when he office door is thrown open with a loud *Bang* by his secretary.

"Sir, we have found something extremely important in the latest ruins, and the egineers think it best to show it to you as soon as possible." reported the secretary sound out of breath.

Stand immediately from his desk he only has one thing to say in response with the seriousness of death itself

"Let's go now,"

A konrad and his cadre of bodyguards named the shade , for while his shadow is his eyes into the places criminals and enemies hide the shade shall protect him from dangers that may attack from the light. Once at the gates of quintis, they boarded two modified tauroxs setting off for this ruin.

"Tell me everything we currently have on this hive," konrad demanded being given a recently made data pad with said info while a member of the shadow recounts said data.

"According to recovered data from the ruins we can gather, it was a centered around ship building by prefabing it section by section before being sent into the atmosphere by what we guess to be welding drones"

"Anything else about its manufacturing ability?"

"Yes, but it's mostly speculation. the hives' factories not set for voidcraft building is a set up for marketing more drone and what looks to be mechanical arms."

With his answers received, the ride continued in silence. Eventually, the ruins of a once huge hive came into view with it mostly buried under rubble and the only entrance being covered by a quickly made FOB with soldiers patrolling the perimeter.

After entering the base and providing proper identification and wearing proper hazard equipment, the group began their descent into the hive finding it bustling with engineers writing down every possible thing about the technology and how to possibly recreate them. Along their way, each engineer would nod or bow towards konrad as he made his way to the head engineers. Coming to a stop after reaching the leading engineers' infornt of what can only be described as a bulkhead door electronic sealed with the only access point being a terminal on the right wall.

"Do you know what's beyond this door?" questioned konrad.

"From what I and my fellows could gleam from the ancient terminal is that this is a data storage for the hives main factories. It may hold anything from quota records to even STC fragments and a bit of a educated guess that what can most be guaranteed is voidcraft blueprints and possible prototype ones due to how they are locked up in such a way."

"Well then, open it."

"Right away, sir."

With a nod, the engineer flips a switch on a motor, turning on a generator mounted to the terminal as it lights slowly comes to life with a green glow. With the click of a few keys, a loud hiss is released from the door as the door locks release. With a wave of a hand, soldiers move to open the door as the security team moves in to clear the vault of any possible hostile.

When the all clear was given, the rest of the group moved into the now lit room. What they find can only be described as a library of sealed tubes and old age terminals all covered in dust so thick the mere breathing in proximity to it causes visibility to be reduced to nothing.

"Put on your face protection and someone get the decontamination started," ordered one of the engineers

While the sorting began with each sealed tube taken out and gently placed into secure and sealed crates to be taken back to quintis for examination.

With the engineers busy, konrad simply walks over to one of the now ancient computers and begins to look it over for any ports or a clue to how it functions and while running his hand over the dark screen to clear some of the dust when it lights up with the words. [loading...95%]

Konrad, being curious about the information this computer may hold, simply pulls over a large crate and begins to wait about two minutes for it to load and when it does it reveals that it's a data library to help sort this library showing everything under category of its purpose. Looking over the list, a section catches his eye above all else

[Artifical Intelligence blueprints]

Selecting on this section while holding his breath only to be met by disappointment but not a complete failure.

[men of stone - blueprints fuctional]

[men of glass - blueprints functional]

[men of iron - blueprints deleted]

[men of gold - blueprints deleted]

Tapping on the men of the glass section brings up the section it could be found at in row 23 shelf 4 section A. With a target in mind, konrad proceeds past the engineers coming to a stop at the correct section and noticing to missing tubes that based on the dust were removed long ago.

Taking out the tube for the men of glass blueprints , he hands it to the shadow member that was following him this entire time, giving only one warning.

"Get this to quintis now, and should any damage come to it, I will flay you alive for denying humanity such a tool,"

With a simple nod, the shadow leaves with haste. Turning back to the terminal konrads search begins calling for the engineers to help search the computer for other high importance sections that would benefit nostramo most being given priority to be re-engineered first.

"I want this entire facility to be scoured for all functioning technology. This place may very well propell us to even greater heights into the stars well before schedule." spoke konrad with a grand determination for every bit of useful information to be put to use.

Within a year, using the found blueprints, a wave of improvements sweep across all of nostramo with simple automatons working the more dangerous parts of the factories and dangerous mines, dropping accidental deaths to near zero and increasing production tenfold. With such progress being made every expectation of when space travel would be possible was changed from something that would take years now can be done in only a single year and with the people replaced by the simple robots now being selected for colonies to be made in new planets found in the future to secure the resources of the stars. With the new exploratory fleet now operating enough to scout out planets and with konrads orders to follow the dimm sun's, which shall provide a similar environment for the nostramans to thrive.

In his office, konrad receives reports after the report of the dead world's being found. (Well, this proves the theory that the ghoul stars were dead long before the imperium arrived, and with my involvement, it shall never become a haven of xenos that it would become in the dark future.) With a single sigh, he signs another acceptance of the building of another colony before looking out onto quintis.

"Already we have found 200 worlds containing ruins of human hives, and every single one was a dead world ranging from mountainous worlds to snowy hellscapes. It's rather depressing how far humanity has fallen from its peak. Hopefully, I can prevent the worst of my visions coming to be."

With another sigh, he returns to his paperwork as the building of the nox empire continues. In time, these worlds would slowly populate back to stable levels. All such thoughts of the future would be interrupted for a plannet that was found carrying ancient xeno markings on slick black obelisk, glowing a faint green glow, and upon looking at such photos konrad would be taken by shock before a plan comes together (Necrons? No, this lacks its usual immortal flare. Could it be something left by the necrontyr. This can prove to be a boon or a curse depending on if this is a tomb world or not)

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Hello, Author here

thank you for reading

What shall konrad find on said planet so close to his home planet, and would it prove a boon or future threat that may bring all his efforts to destruction and what shall they gain from finding it should they choose to harness this xeno tech for the betterment of humanity.