02.431.M39

Our trip to Forge Accatran to have the ships refit to my desired specifications was fun. No sarcasm, it was actually fun. How could it not be? It’s akin to walking into the most high end yet reverent car dealership ever.

The Accatran representatives were quite nice and accommodating. As much as you’d think a representative of the forge would be all borged out. They are representatives. They’re the face sent to interact with meatbags. While I have no doubt they have a large amount of cybernetics. They stick quite closely to the human form and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and ear.

I made sure to bring up the clerical error that seemed to have been ongoing between our Dynasty and the Cult these last few millennia. Everyone was a bit confused until I pointed out that all of our tax exempt ‘donations’ to the Cult Mechanicus and theirs to our Dynasty had been accidentally labeled as ‘trades’.

Can you imagine the fallout if the Adeptus Ministorum were to find out the Adeptus Administratum was trying to tax religious donations? The horror.

I could tell father was quite proud by the distinct twinkle of mischief in his eye. Our Representative also found it funny..maybe? They laughed. Who knows if it’s real or fake? Don’t care! It counts! The error was quickly corrected.

Getting the 3 ships refit wasn’t overly difficult. Father did the ‘haggling’. I watched and learned. What did I learn? You don’t haggle much with the Cult. Duh.

I presented a dataslate with the 3 ships with their current configuration and a list of what I wanted done. Confirmation that it was doable which father then provided a dataslate of what he had for offer. A few items slide to different columns on the slate and that’s it really.

Father traded in 3 extremely damaged raiders as well as the components being pulled to cover the cost of refit. I don’t know of many that would find this a good trade. Yet I know Father and Magos Delta are smiling on the inside. I know I am!

1 Orion-Star Clipper and 2 Tempest Class Frigates. You know those car guys that everyone makes fun of for spending more on modifications than the car itself? Yep, that’s what we did. I’ll try to convert the terminology to game speak as it would be hard to convey otherwise.

All of the components put into the Clipper are “good” or “best” quality for space savings or increased weapon performance. A very small part of the cargo hold was also converted into crew quarters. I say converted it’s more apt to think of it as “permanent cargo” bolted into part of the hold.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The Tempests are similarly fitted with “good” or “best” quality for space savings and increased weapon performance. Not quite as high of a requirement as the Orion due to them innately having more component space.

The general theme is, Starvar lasers +range +strength, sprint/escort drives +speed, aux plasma banks, conversion matrix +speed, empyrean mantles, castellan shields, turbo weapon batteries, star charts, overload shield capacitors, etc, etc.. You get the idea.

I remembered lore saying some of this stuff was ‘rare’ and difficult to find. I couldn’t let the opportunity to get a better connection between my lore knowledge and reality. A lot of it really isn’t. It seems if you know what to ask for and are willing to pay for it. They're more than happy to sell you just about anything. It’s more so that it’s expensive and the forge doesn’t advertise.

I guess it all does make sense in a way. Why should they freely give away or advertise the higher class stuff they know won’t be taken care of? Heck with the rate most of the Imperial factions go it’s a coin toss if what they sold them will end up being used against the Imperium in a few centuries. Be it losses to orks, forces of chaos or the forces themselves turning traitor.

They can also fulfill their obligations to the Administratum by providing ‘lesser’ machines? Follow that logic long enough and indeed a lot of tech does become ‘rare’.

So long as it isn’t on the prohibited list they’re more than willing to trade us just about anything. If anything they seem pleased we’re ordering higher quality machines. With the caveat that they’re convinced you will show the machines the care they deserve.

I get from them a similar vibe to a wine snob or some similarly high class connoisseur.

“Ah, le peasents are haire again to buy zeir cheap ships and chéapair componénts.”

“Zesé nu tradairs mai bé poair but at least zey 'avé décent tas”

They did express their interest in data we collected with ships in these configurations. I’m going out on a thruster here but I think they’re hoping that if it’s successful that they may be able to get other customers to buy better or different things.

Of particular interest to them was the Clipper. They’re used as fast couriers for high value cargo and passengers. Ours is set up as a gunboat. If it works the flexibility of having a single low cost hull that can perform multiple roles could potentially simplify production lines.

The clipper is set up as my ship. Having a ship with a cargo hold able to keep up with the frigates opens up a lot of options. For short missions it can be used to carry actual cargo for trade.

On longer missions it can be used to carry additional supplies for the frigates negating their inherent drawback. The clipper is also uniquely suited to keep up with the frigates in terms of speed and combat capability. Slotting in nicely as an additional member of the ‘wolfpack’.

I’m quite confident in the ability of this setup and can’t wait to finally start trying to make a difference. I’ve been here for so long and all I’ve done is training, training, more training, making babies, training, making babies.

The make babies part is fun. The training and sims get boring after a while if it never gets put into practice. Also if I’m going to make a long term difference I need to hit a few target objectives while they’re still available.

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