Herald of the Stars: Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Six

Brigid checks everyone in the room to see if they’re still listening. For someone who isn’t planning on investing, Abbisine is enjoying herself and recording the meeting through an ocular implant. Chaplin Riordan’s apprentice, Tech-Marine Ottavio, is taking notes on a data pad with a stylus, though he looks a bit lost. 

Calligos has a manic grin on his face and his mind is filled with greed. Tanthus has returned to munching on snacks in an obnoxious manner, and slurping his drink. His mind and thoughts are now well hidden behind meditative chants. He didn’t bother with such exercises before, so he’s obviously plotting something. I doubt his schemes will come to much though.

Fleet Command and the other guests look a little impatient. Some have datapads out and are going through personnel lists, choosing who they can spare.

“The Liege of Footfall,” says Brigid, eyeing Tanthus as he chomps on a sesame seed snack, “will rebuild its peacekeeping forces. The restored Customs Security Force will secure the docks and the transport links, and no more. The Stellar Fleet will provide the gear, the Barghests will train them, and Trader Calligos, as the self-proclaimed richest Rogue Trader, will pay their wages. It will be his price for owning a part of the station.”

Calligos raises an eyebrow but does not interrupt. I understand that Brigid is intending to, by splitting up responsibilities, splitting authority too, ensuring that the Customs Security Force does not have a sole owner who could use them as they please.

Brigid continues, “District security will be in the hands of Rogue Trader who owns the district. A new Arbites fortress and its personnel, based at the Liege’s Court, will oversee district security and be responsible for investigative work. The Shield Stations, new Macro-Batteries, and Aeronautica will be controlled by the Stellar Fleet. Footfall will be paying for this service.”

“You are going to force me to pay for security from you and the Arbites?” says Tanthus. “That’s outrageous!”

“Liege Moross,” says Brigid, “you paid off the other factions just fine, even if it was through the first pick of incoming goods, diverting docking fees, infrastructure control, and other methods. With us, you won’t have to bother with any of that. You’ll get an itemised bill and the cost will be automatically deducted from Footfall’s accounts with the Stellar Fleet. There will be transparency and regular audits. You won’t need to worry about your lieutenants taking a cut, or any other nonsense. Between the Arbites and the Customs Security Force, you will have far more control and soft power than ever before.”

Raphael says, “Competence is the bane of self-enrichment, wouldn’t you agree?”

Tanthus tuts, but doesn’t contradict Raphael.

Brigid continues, “That leaves the Barghest’s four captured vessels. Once those vessels are restored via their trade school, the Barghests will patrol the system and see off raiders with the help of the Stellar Fleet Aeronautica. This will be the Barghest’s primary contribution to Footfall. Do you have anything to add, Chaplain Riordan?”

“The Barghests will require a more substantial private dock compared to the Rogue Traders,” says Riordan. “We wish to set up at the Pit of Voices and secure the Astropathic Relay and would like to keep the docks there, rather than have a manufactorum replace most of the berths.”

“That would not be politically expedient,” says Brigid. “You can have a dock for one vessel, like everyone else. We can set aside berths at the planned dockyards for your other vessels to give you the security a military installation requires. The Stellar Fleet would be delighted and relieved to have its allies secure our communication line to the Imperium proper. I am sure that this would please the Inquisition as well.”

Everyone looks at Raphael, but he doesn’t reply immediately. No doubt he is considering the Barghest’s records with the Inquisition and trying to balance the impact of their influence and how it relates to the Stellar Fleet.

“I will call for a small enclave to share the Pit of Voices with the Barghests,” says Raphael. “An official point of contact could save us all a lot of trouble. Any objections, Chaplin, Magos?”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” I say.

The Stellar Fleet’s private communication network will be based in the Red Schola anyway, so the Inquisition’s open presence shouldn’t cause too much trouble for me.

Riordan says, “That is not something I can authorise myself. Sharing the burden and responsibility of securing communications with the Inquisition is acceptable in my mind, however.”

In other words, Riordan is sure that the Barghests will accept, so long as the Inquisition will put forward a full proposal with a sufficient offering of resources and personnel. Given that the Inquisition were unlikely to openly commit resources without a little incentive, I am pleased with the Barghest’s well timed offer.

“I will call upon mine and Inquisitor Hamiz’s connections to ensure the Inquisition’s presence is felt,” says Raphael.

Brigid lightly claps her hands once and says, “Wonderful. That leads me to the last part. How is Footfall’s new governing body going to pay for all of this? Liege Moross has already proposed a volume tax and renting warehouses. There are a few other small things we can do, like having everyone pay a small fee for public transport, creating a limited leisure district in the docks and renting out space to local businesses, or running a broker service. Docking fees are also expected. The real money, however, lies in port services. Repair, resupply, and relaxation. The three Rs if you will.”

Brigid’s words get a series of nods and thoughtful expressions around the table.

“Before the invasion,” says Brigid, “port services, such as the provision to fuel, water, and rations, were controlled by the gangs, with the Tutors and Drusian’s playing the largest role. Their competing services were no doubt the origin of their conflict, despite it being presented as Imperial Faithful vs Slavers. Only the Drusian’s remain.

“Several guilds ran the shipyards. There were multiple traders who could provide ship components and exotic goods. Only the two largest traders survived Karad Vall, Obsidian Emporial and Kasabalica Mission, and no guilds. Footfall’s governing body will be entering all these domains in a limited fashion.

“Taking advantage of the Stellar Fleet’s superior recycling technologies, Footfall will offer to exchange polluted waters, toxic air, and other junk, offering a discount on fresh supplies when provided with refuse that most voidships hoard in the hope of it becoming useful, or are uncertain of its value.

“Footfall will be the sole provider of fresh water, universal ration bars, clean air, reaction mass, and energy, such as hydrogen pellets, promethium, and exotic Warpdrive fuels. It will also sell basic repair, medicine, hygiene, and protective clothing kits for menials, serfs, and voidsmen. Footfall won’t sell narcotics, alcohol of any kind, any food better than a ration bar, weapons, ammo, and so on. If it isn’t absolutely essential for survival, it won’t be a Footfall government product. This will leave room for private enterprise.

“There will be a similar approach for repair services. Footfall will be the sole provider of ceramite, plasteel, and adamantium; if its voidship armour or a hull material, Footfall will sell it. Anything else, like plasma conduits, macro-battery parts, and so on, will be open for bidding.

“Footfall will rent out shipyard space to guilds and voidship crews with all the tools they could possibly need. If a captain or an enginseer wants a consultation, a repair crew, or anything else, they can go through Footfall’s brokers and find a reliable supplier with Footfall’s assistance.

“The technology and tools to provide these services will be provided by the Stellar Fleet. Depending on how much a ruling seat for Footfall actually goes for, the Stellar Fleet might end up paying for these tools, or providing services at cost, likely the latter, as part of our ongoing investment in Footfall. The Stellar Fleet will also be one of the sellers of advanced technologies, repair crews, and so on.

“Making the most of the minimal historical data available, I am confident that these port services and taxes will fund Footfall in its entirety, and even make a small profit, without squeezing the remaining businesses to the point of intolerance or destruction.

“The Stellar Fleet will have a new avenue for profit, shipping its manufactured goods and fuels from Cobalt and SR-651.

“Through recycling, Footfall will accumulate resources without having to pay for them to be shipped in.

“Chartist Captains, Rogue Traders, and other fleets who stop at Footfall will no longer be feeding and replenishing their crews with supplies from Chaos Cultists like the Tutors, spreading corruption through the Imperium’s Merchant Navy.

“Footfall shall be a beacon of prosperity, shared by its inhabitants and those who dare invest in it. Thank you for listening. Any queries or amendments before I turn the discussion back to Magos Issengrund for the final decision?”

“I have a petition,” says Calligos.

“Go ahead,” I say.

“Magos Issengrund, I want your help tracking down and defeating Karad Vall. You have plenty of spare ships at SR-651 and I need them to help me find Vall’s rumoured Forge World. I will likely need your help, and many others, to destroy it. The conclave you are set on forming at Footfall would be far more unified if we can make hunting Vall a primary focus of their efforts. We could even direct Footfall’s profits into it. There is nothing quite like revenge to unite a scattered people.”

I hum, “Inquisitor Horthstein, when we first met, you mentioned that Karrad Vall was within the same sub-sector, The Cauldron, as Footfall and positioned ‘trailing’ of our current location. Has this changed? Have the Inquisition managed to get a more accurate estimate beyond somewhere between the Dead World, False Hope, and Footfall?”

“The Inquisition,” says Raphael, “is more certain than ever that Karrad Vall’s Homeworld is in The Cauldron, with far more corroborating accounts than before. We have not been able to get a more accurate position, however.”

“Better than nothing,” I say. “I happen to have a near complete, yet out of date survey of the Koronus Expanse that I bullied from an Eldar Warlock from the Yme-Loc Craftworld. Trader Winterscale, I will give you a partial copy of the map, one that covers The Cauldron and highlights all the worlds trailward of Footfall that have sufficient mineral reserves to support a Forge World. I’ll even assign two Adder-Class escort carriers from Stellar Fleet MANI to help you pathfind these worlds. 

“Given the value of the data, we’ll make a little race of it. If you beat one of my pathfinders to a world, I won’t contest your claim over its resources, should you ever settle the system. Footfall will be the finish line for handing in the navigation data and I will ask the Barghests to officiate. The Barghests will get a one time cut of 5% of the first shipment of minerals from a mining expedition in a claimed system for this service. Regardless of who wins our competition, I will want a favour of similar magnitude to this map in the future.”

Calligos turns absolutely still, then narrows his eyes at me. After a brief moment, his face splits into a deranged smile.

“How many worlds, Magos Issengrund?”

“Give me a minute.” I access the map remotely and set my many minds to the task. My crews have spent a long time properly categorising the Aeldari map so it doesn’t take long to enter the required parameters, then play around with options a bit. There are some 400,000 stars in the Koronus Expanse, so even a subsector has a lot of  potential planets.

I clear my throat, “This will be a rather daunting task. There are approximately 2,700 systems that contain worlds suitable for heavy industry. Assuming four weeks to find each world and survey it, a single vessel would take over 207 years to check each world. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took twice that long. There’s also no guarantee Karrad Vall will be found in one of the selected systems either. If that happens, we’ll be searching the remaining 50,000 systems or so in the subsector for the faceless berk. How many vessels can you spare, Trader Calligos?”

“I could task the five escorts I have with me now, a Turbulent, Claymore, two Falchions, and a Tempest, though it would be more sensible to limit that to three, rather than leave Emperor’s Vow, my Exorcist-Class grand cruiser, vulnerable to hit and run attacks. I am not willing to assign my Lunar-Class cruiser to scouting duty either.”

I say, “That would give us five vessels total with a minimum search time of approximately 41 years, unless we get lucky. We will have to recruit other Rogue Traders if we want to catch Vall while he is weakened. As per your suggestion, I can only hope that Footfall will be the rallying cry we need it to be.”

“Agreed. I will consent to the competition, the Barghests payment, and a favour owed as well,” says Calligos. “Perhaps we could set the favour at four SRC?”

“You want me to hand over the location of 2,700 mineral rich systems for four Sword-Class frigates? Not a chance. While I will benefit from the destruction of Karrad Vall too, that’s an entirely different thing to providing access to more minerals than Mars has used in the past ten thousand years.”

“I understand that Magos, but unless I stumble across something particularly rare, all that wealth is rather pointless. I can’t develop it. You can’t develop it. Neither of us really needs it.”

Calligos and I bicker for a while and I eventually bargain him up to 20 SRC, 2.2 SRC under a Lunar-Class cruiser, pointing out that half a century of build time from a single slip from one of his shipyards is a reasonable equivalent for a map that could provide more wealth than the Fabricator-General of the Lathe Worlds has. I have to promise not to sell the map for less than 20 SRC to anyone else who joins the search, even if they join later. I also offer to provide the rest of The Cauldron’s Aeldari survey data for free should Karrad Vall not be present in the worlds I have selected.

“Thank you all for attending today,” I say. “We will execute High Purser Issengrund’s plan as presented. I’ll assign tasks to you all and consult you on our departure date, then we’ll all be free to go. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, Liege Moross, so stop chewing with your mouth open, like some grotty urchin, and listen with utmost care.”