《Aegis》Chapter 82: Ice Chips
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You write a memo to Zheeves, telling him to go ahead and start finding crews for the Imperial ships. And also to leave the chaos ships well enough alone, and that the Warsphere is still flagged for the Ordo Xenos. This of course tears a huge hunk out of your profit margin, before you have even spent anything on the colony itself.
Jace has requested additional manpower to excavate the entire imperial shuttle out of the ice, tentatively identifying it as a Sokar-Pattern Stormbird Assault Transport. The excavation is ongoing, but you appear to have found your Combat transport of choice, if Jace can get it operational again. And the Deathwatch don't claim it on their arrival. Kudo has messaged you with the response from Inquisitor Ironsides. He's on his way, and bringing an entire Deathwatch Strike Force, under the command of a Watch Commander, to deal with the space hulk, tentatively identified as the Malignus Maximus. Upon hearing the name, and seeing the size of the response force, you are quite glad that you didn't poke it.
One of Jace's many underlings has also turned in a report indicating that the Terra Incarnadine's weapons batteries should be installed inside of a week, and that the strike craft salvage operations have netted enough strike craft to replenish your current squadrons and in fact double their effective strength. All well and good, but you can't shake the feeling that this is the end-game, and that something is going to go wrong somewhere. So you start reviewing the situation in your head.
Tactical:
The Aegis is fully armed and operational. The Terra Incarnadine will be in about a week. The Riptide System is dangerous, but predictably so. The Malignus Maximus is undoubtedly full of Bad Things, but you have no intention of waking them.
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Strategic:
Short term, House Von Sebastion is going to have somewhat of a financial crunch. Between what you just committed to investing in crews, and what you will have to spend on the establishment of the Oasis colony, you could be right back where you started financially at least.
Long term, House Von Sebastion lacks an heir. This isn't something you need to deal with right this moment; Zheeves is a fully capable administrator, and has layers upon layers of capable administrators under him. Mu'randa is a fully capable deputy for him. But neither of them are Von Sebastions. And Yasha Dannan can't produce an heir of her own body in her current state. And even if she could, would such a child be a Dannan Navigator or a Von Sebastion Rogue Trader?
Such questions are rendered irrelevant to the moment by the arrival of an Imperial Navy Squadron, and their consternation at finding your ships in the system.
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