"Anything else, Lady Donna?"
"No, that will be all."
Donna bowed respectfully, turned, and exited the room, closing the door behind her.
Moments later, the door parted once more, allowing the next visitor to step inside.
"Lady Donna is… quite different from the other nobles," Klein remarked as he took a seat across from Qin Mo.
He had originally planned to complain about Donna cutting ahead of him, but upon seeing the Governor engrossed in his work, he decided against it.
Instead, he reached into his uniform's inner pocket and silently placed a parchment-sealed document onto the desk.
Qin Mo picked it up, expecting a request for promotion or a petition for a noble title.
What he saw caught him off guard.
A letter of resignation.
"You want to abandon your post?" Qin Mo tossed the document back to him, leaning back in his chair.
"Creed's military reform plan includes a program for training strategic officers. I had intended to send you to the war academy for a year, after which you'd serve as a senior advisor."
The Talon System's Planetary Defense Force had no formal strategic command.
But Creed had argued that inexperienced officers needed seasoned tacticians to guide their decision-making.
Had Klein remained, he would have been groomed for a position rivaling the authority of a regimental lord-commander.
"But the war is over." Klein smiled, his expression genuinely lighthearted. "If this were still wartime, I would never resign. But the few stragglers left on Talon II won't last much longer."
Qin Mo fell silent, his eyes narrowing slightly as he weighed the man's words.
He did not believe Klein's departure was a good thing.
Sensing his hesitation, Klein continued.
"I've always wanted to be a merchant. Honestly, I was never suited to be a commander… My family still has a hidden fortune stashed in the Flower Street District of the Upper Hive of Tyrone. I plan to use it to buy a trade ship."
There was no bitterness in his tone, only the quiet determination of a man who had endured too much war and longed for something simpler, freer.
His plan was simple, obtain a vessel. Become an unofficial Rogue Trader. Leave the Talon System. See the wider galaxy.
Without a Warrant of Trade, he would never be a true Rogue Trader, but there were other ways to forge his own path in the void. The Imperium was vast, and opportunities awaited those bold enough to seize them.
Though the Hive World was secure, it was a place of loss for him.
His entire family had been slaughtered during the invasion.
Qin Mo could hear the weariness in his words.
He could tell, Klein was done with the military.
"Keep your fortune. I'll build you a ship."
Klein's eyes widened in shock.
"A ship? You mean… you're just giving me a ship?"
"Not just any ship," Qin Mo smirked, a flicker of amusement breaking through his otherwise calm expression. "A heavily armed, FTL-capable merchant vessel."
Klein hesitated.
"A trade ship… with heavy firepower? That's a bit excessive, isn't it?"
He had planned to buy a salvaged vessel, perhaps a decommissioned freighter.
Even a barely functional hulk would have sufficed.
Yet Qin Mo was offering him a new, custom-designed ship.
"Take it," Qin Mo said, waving a hand dismissively. "Consider it a reward, you were the first regimental commander to support me back in the underhive."
Klein hesitated.
His loyalty had been unwavering, but he had never expected such a grand reward.
"Accept it," Qin Mo continued, his tone softening slightly, "and in return, do something for me. When you leave the Talon System, keep an eye out for people like Yaon." Qin Mo's voice dipped into a cryptic murmur. "And… discreetly bring them to me."
Klein frowned.
"Yaon? You mean… pariahs?"
Qin Mo nodded.
Pariahs. Blanks. Untouchables.
Humans who lacked a warp presence, feared and reviled by the masses, yet indispensable as shields against the Immaterium and its horrors.
Klein's frown deepened, puzzled.
"Why do you need more…?"
"That's for me to know," Qin Mo replied. "But that's not your only task. Gather intel on the surrounding sectors. I don't even know where the Talon System is located within the Imperium."
Klein exhaled, nodding.
"Understood."
He stood, fist to chest, offering the Aquila salute.
"Thank you my lord. Truly."
Qin Mo smiled.
"Then it's settled. Go make your preparations, Rogue Trader Klein."
A moment of silence passed before Klein inclined his head.
"Yes, my lord."
And with that, he turned and left.
As the door closed, Qin Mo pondered the design of Klein's ship.
First, it needed a Dimensional Engine.
Second, it required formidable defenses. A merchant ship, no matter how unassuming, could easily draw the wrong kind of attention: Chaos reavers, alien corsairs, Dark Eldar raiders, even the predatory Rogue Traders who prowled the void.
Finally, it had to be versatile, capable of independent operations beyond the Talon System.
This would be a singular honor.
No other merchant in the system would receive a ship personally designed by the Lord of Talon.
But it was deserved.
Klein and the 47th Regiment had been among Qin Mo's earliest supporters.
From the underhive wars against the Genestealer cultists, to the sieges of the Lower-hive, to the final campaign on Talon II, they had never failed in battle.
Even when not deployed, the 47th Regiment had been entrusted with fortress security and vital garrison duties.
Klein would receive his ship.
And the 47th Regiment had already been integrated into Creed's military reform program, its veterans undergoing officer training, ready to command the next generation of recruits.
Other regiments in the First Army were receiving the same treatment.
Qin Mo had not forgotten their sacrifices.
....
With the last of his obligations concluded, Qin Mo could finally turn his attention to what truly mattered, creation.
The first priority, Klein's vessel.
It would be based on an escort-class warship, with the following modifications:
- Halved point-defense armaments (to save space).
- Twin-linked particle beam turrets affixed to the dorsal and ventral hull, granting omnidirectional precision firepower.
- A reinforced fusion reactor, its yield directed almost exclusively to shield emitters, prioritizing endurance and survivability over raw propulsion.
- A shield array capable of withstanding firepower from four Lunar-class cruisers, allowing it to hold out until the Dimensional Engine charged.
Satisfied, Qin Mo uploaded the blueprint to the orbital shipyard, his command codes instantly unlocking high-priority construction queues.
With Klein's ship under construction, Qin Mo turned his attention to another critical project.
A new power source, one capable of sustaining planetary-scale teleportation
Currently, the teleporters relied on his direct energy input.
The issue? The sheer magnitude of power required.
The Master Control AI had to precisely lock onto the targets. The device then opened a dimensional corridor and expended power to transport the subject.
Even a small-scale teleportation (such as deploying ground troops) required ten times the energy of a starship jump.
And that didn't even account for civilian applications.
The solution?
A device capable of harvesting stellar energy.
Qin Mo began designing a structure that could draw power directly from the Talon System's sun, then integrate this energy supply into the teleportation network.
Would it shorten the sun's lifespan by a few million years?
Perhaps. But Talon's star had billions of years left, more than enough.
He could feel its lifespan.
A C'tan's instinct, buried deep in his core.
After all, Star Gods did not merely consume mortal souls.
They also devoured suns.
Though Qin Mo was not yet hungry, he knew that one day… He might be.
But he would never consume Talon's star.
Instead, his fleets would sweep outward into the void, harvesting alien suns from hostile systems, bringing their energy home.
And in time, a new warning would spread across the galaxy.
"The Talon Fleet is coming, hide your stars."
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