Chapter One Hundred And Sixty-Five

Space Port. Forge-World.

So far the expedition had been going well enough with me visiting my holdings in different universes to ensure that all was going well before returning to the forge-world. I'd felt no desire to interfere with those worlds as they had their own leaders who ensured that tribute to me was paid, as such my visits to those worlds had been short with little in the way of interaction with the locals. At least when compared to my other visits.

My allies on Planetos, such as the Targaryens, Tyrells, Starks and so on were doing well enough. We'd found that Dany had a nephew and niece to fuss over while I'd been forced to sit through feasts between a few short meetings with the Imperial governor who had matters well in hand. There had been no evidence of White Walkers or anything else supernatural to worry about. The spreading faith of the God-Emperor was causing some friction, but the Imperial Church knew what it was doing and would work slowly to convert the heathens.

The world of Fallout was coming along nicely with civilization being restored slowly. The ambitions of the NCR were kept in check by other growing factions. New Vegas was making its elites, which included me, plenty of profit and the east coast had become a much more civilized place. The mutants, ghouls and raiders were getting hunted down as the world was made safe for mankind.

Thrax II was doing well enough. Few worlds in the Mass Effect galaxy hadn't been directly affected by the war with the Reapers and while galactic civilization in that part of the multiverse had certainly seen better days, the colony I'd set up was self-sufficient, as such it would endure and the governor would make sure that I got my tribute. Part of which I would give the Imperium as a tithe as the elites of the empire loved getting their tribute.

I'd returned to the forge-world so not only could the tithes could be paid off, it was also so that the Ad-Mech could see that the incorporated technology from some of the universes that I'd visited worked well enough with Imperial tech. We'd had no real problems so far despite the concerns of some of the higher ranking cogboys.

One of the more important tech-priests in the sector, who was called Lukas Chrom had travelled to this system to talk to me about a special protect he had in mind that involved better incorporating both Fallout and Mass Effect technology into an Imperial design and to get the most out of the tech a new ship would have to built using my Lunar-class cruiser.

The Armageddon-class is a relatively recent innovation within the Imperial Navy. They are normally constructed from the hulks of ruined Lunar-class cruisers, and during this refit they are given more guns, other upgrades and then are recommissioned before being sent into battle as new warships. Given their extensively redesigned power relays and enhanced weapon systems, they are more demanding in terms of manpower and resources than the Lunar-class, and so are rarely constructed from scratch, but hard-pressed battle fleets are quick to utilise them where they are available.

Since the Lunar-class is a common sight among war fleets within Imperial space, and frequently get involved in conflicts that see them taking a lot of damage, the opportunity to construct Armageddon-class battlecruisers from their wrecks happens often enough that the Ad-Mech had been given the chance to perfect the process, and they didn't need a wreck this time.

Chrom explained to me in some detail that when converting a Lunar-class Cruiser into an Armageddon-class battlecruiser, power relays are re-routed from the starship's main plasma reactors to provide significantly increased range to its existing weapons batteries and Lances, and additional long-range Lance turret arrays are added to a reinforced dorsal spine.

The result of this transformation is a warship with a powerful medium-and-long-range punch, though at the cost of adding over three thousand more crewmen to man the new Lances and maintain the short-lived relays that power them. However I had robots that should be able do a lot of this extra work and I could afford a lot of spare power relays.

Given their large crews and the fact that Lunar-class hulls were never really designed to carry such heavy weaponry, Armageddons are surprisingly cramped and uncomfortable vessels for their size, making them poorly suited for long-term exploration, but even as a Rogue Traders I could see it being worthwhile due to the extra firepower. Magos Lukas Chrom was giving me the chance to get my hands on such a vessel by repurposing my Lunar-Class and since Mass Effect computers took up less space and I could replace organics with robots the crew would not feel as cramped as those who served on other battle cruisers.

Further space for cargo and people could be created by removing some of the Macrocannons. They'd served me well in the past, but the shells were hard to replace outside of the Imperium and during the war with the geth I'd discovered that their smaller and more agile ships of the Mass Effect universe were much harder to aim at. Granted installing more mass effect weapons would lessen my fire power, but the introduction of long range Lance weapons should offset that nicely while freeing still up some internal space.

"Do you wish to undergo the refit?" asked Lukas Chrom "It would take less than half a Terran year if we begin now".

Six months was a long time to spend in this galaxy. On the other hand if I ran into a Wraith Hive Ship during the next expedition I'd be very grateful for the extra fire power afforded by the Lances. Plus I'd found ways to use my time wisely when setting up the colony on Thrax II.

I could get a lot of combat training done. I'd have time to mess with the heads of some important people who served the expedition, making them more loyal to me. The second company of household guards would be ready by then and I could oversee their training. Also this would give any more squat refugees around the time to be contacted by my agents and directed here.

"Let's do it" I decided.

I could afford to pay the crews of the ships that made up the fleet just to hang around for half a year and Vail had been given the chance to collect some artefacts when we visited my holdings so no one had reason to complain about hanging around here.