Chapter 3

The night's festivities had given Riser some much needed downtime to relax and enjoy himself and free him of the mounting work fatigue that had been building up after three weeks of mind numbing work.

Work which now seem insignificant as he realised just how massive his job as a Rogue Trader was going to be, the scale between the two was incomparable and Riser had a mounting headache just thinking about it.

'Still it might become easier once I get the hang of things and start doing real actual business but before that I really have to make sure that I am not overwhelmed by it all.'Riser thought as he lay in his bed, looking at the clock that read 3: 41 AM.

'I think I should head back to the Imperium and start preparing for my first voyage as a Rogue Trader.' Riser thought as he wondered about just where he was going to go for his first trip across the multiverse.

Riser thus got out of his bed and freshen himself up, then after getting dressed he looked at the clock that read 4:11 AM. After noting the time Riser closed his eyes and willed himselfback to the imperium, where he opened his eyes and saw that he was back in his small office in the imperiumand looking at a clock he saw that that read 2:21 PM.

"Hmmn, now that I think about it I think I left at this time that means the time dilation effect is greater than I thought." Riser mused as he looked at the clock. "Next time I better make sure that I note the date, time down to the very last second, so that I can calculate the exact time dilation ratio, knowing that would really help me a lot."

It was then Galius entered the room and Riser saw that Galius was oddly distressed judging by his body language and wanted to know what was the matter.

"Hello Galius, is something the matter?" Riser asked shaking Galius out of his thoughts.

"Yes, it is about your request to commission the Oberon Class Battleship as your first ship." Galius said his shoulders drooping in quite resignation, "…It has been approved."

Hearing that Riser could not help but smile knowing how extremely lucky he was to have his request approve, after all he was now going to command a Battleship, a freaking Battleship and not just any battleship, oh no, but a fully functional Space Battleship. It was like a dream come true and almost made him want to let loose a squeal but refrain from doing so seeing how Galius was acting all depressed and dishearten.

"This is great news Galius." Riser replied "But what is really eating you?"

"Riser" Galius sighed as he began to explain the circumstances, "no sane man or administrator would assign a powerful battleship to a newly minted Rogue Trader just like that. The fact that the high command and the others have approved your request means that they have ulterior motives one that they blatantly told me and even outright ordered me to share them with you, knowing that there was little you could do about it."

"And what that might be, Galius." Riser asked now intrigued as to what inevitable fate these people had seen for him.

Galius sighed again and continued on with his explanation. "It is simple really, the ship you commissioned is an Oberon-Class Battleship and like any other battleship it requires an obscene amount of wealth and resources to maintain which would easily sap any profit you make and more as you are still not well established yet and thus would need help in maintaining the battleship and paying the crew members to avoid mutiny.

The High Lords as such time would be willing to aid you in maintaining the ship but in return would bind you to so many favours and debts that they would own you in all but name. They as such would not only gain a battleship but also gain a Saint in their employ in the process which is a big coup in every possible way both militarily, politically and spiritually too.

The incredible amount of influence they could gain would easily make them one of the most powerful people in the Imperium and very few could stop them in the long run.

The battleship is nothing but a poisoned gift Riser and I urge you to reconsider another ship class." Galius said laying out the facts.

Riser while he could not see the full picture did understand some gist of the scheme that the High Lords were playing. But there were some few things that did not add up.

"Wait shouldn't my status as a Saint prevented them from moving against me?"

"Normally that would be the case." Galius agreed, "But not all the higher ups are truly convinced of your status as a Saint but are not going to go out their way to deprive you of your Sainthood and are instead scheming to bring you into their fold and have a Saint in their employ.

The very notion of trying to control a Saint of the Emperor should be Heresy of the Highest Order and the men should shoot themselves for even thinking about it but since they didn't that is just an indication of how precarious your position as a Saint truly is."

"So how do I convince them of my Sainthood?" Riser asked fully aware of the irony of his question.

"You have to perform great miracles, start a Holy Crusade and preach about the God Emperor and his ways and show the people that you are a Saint that The Emperor has chosen and imparted an essence of his power. Only then will you be able to convince the higher ups of your Sainthood." Galius said before shrugging, "Or at least garner enough influence to keep them off your back."

"Sounds easy enough." Riser said thinking that it was not that big of a matter or at least for now.

"Easy?!" Galius shouted, "Riser we are talking about the High Lords, men and women who have spent centuries building up a power base that only few polities in the galaxy could rival. We are talking about starting crusades whose success or failure would affect the entirety of the Imperium for years to come whose logistical planning could take decades to centuries and that is after centuries of riling up the population and garnering support of the masses to even get the permission from the High Lords to start the crusade. It is not easy Riser, nothing you say is easy."

"That I would agree." Riser nodded. "But this is easily remedied with some few trips to some planets and showcasing my powers to the masses after which I would easily garner support of the people and be on my merry way to starting a crusade."

"That is true and with your powers people would hardly be able to deny it even though many High Lords would still remain sceptical about it." Galius added.

"But the main objective would be to gather the support of the masses not of the High Lords and if I am able to convince enough people about my Sainthood the High Lords would be leery to make any moves against me." Riser concluded, now that he knew that his title as a Saint would not help much, Riser would have to focus on building up a political powerbase as soon as possible.

"Yes." Galius agreed but reminded Riser of the true problem at hand. "That still would not help you run the cost of maintaining a Battleship and in fact would affect your trading efforts and you would then have to ask some of the High Lords for help and you would be still caught in their trap. Either way both your Sainthood and your fledgling business are in danger and losing either one would leave you vulnerable to the mechanisms and plots of the High Lords."

"I know. Which is why I have to secure my business first and only then can I start worrying about my Sainthood." It was going to be a difficult task for sure but Riser found it less daunting than trying to start a Holy Crusade, especially when he thought about the logistics that were going to be involved in the crusade.

Yeah, he was better off sticking to building his trade empire for now.

Speaking of which, "Galius I have some questions regarding the technology I am allowed to manufacture." Riser said surprising the Artisan with the sudden change in topic.

"What questions?"

"I just wanted to know whether or not I am allowed to make some modifications to the designs and manufacture the modified items." Riser knew that the list of items he got was vast and could allow him to build a good trade empire but keeping in mind his parents lessons about business, manufacturing processes and the motto of the Phenex family, Riser wanted to make some few modifications to some of the items on the list to not only reduce their overall manufacturing costs but also increase their overall performance.

"That would depend on the type of modifications you want to make but even then you would have to get the permission of a Forge Master and get a Magos to create a prototype first. After which an Artisan would have to go over the design and give his final say on the matter." Galius replied intrigued at the possible modifications that Riser might be planning.

The Techpriest knew that Riser had a knack for science and technology and wanted to know what possible ideas were floating in his mind.

"What modifications do you have in mind Riser?" Galius asked unable to control his curiosity and as an Artisan he had to make sure that Riser's modifications were up to par and valid in the eyes of the Adeptus Mechnicus.

"Currently nothing concrete as I want to see what materials and resources I can use and easily obtain and go over the list once more to see which ones I should concentrate upon first. By doing so I would be able to plan out my budget and the cost and expenditure and see which ones would get me the most profits and allow me to maintain my Battleship."

That was the most logical choice; one which Galius approved but hoped that Riser did not make too much drastic unsanctioned modifications, the forces of Chaos could easily corrupt the technology if the modifications were too drastic and lowered the purity and warp resistance of the technology.

"I suppose that would mean that you are going to be spending time studying again." Galius said in a humorous tone.

"Yep and on top of my studies, I have to sign recruitment papers, order materials and items to fill up my inventory, meet up with my officers, meet up with the local merchants and sign trade deals and go out and mingle with the nobility least they get uppity and somehow come to the conclusion that I am offending them in some way using some bizarre logic." Riser sighed as his shoulders sagged under a brutal realisation of just how much work he had. "I am not going to get any rest anytime soon."

"True." Galius admitted and seeing how busy Riser was going to be he had to wonder if the tales of the Rogue Traders living the life of luxury were but mere tales meant to lure naive aspirants into joining their almost mind-numbing busy lifestyle. Galius really could not see them not being busy all the time after getting a glimpse of how a Rogue Trader should operate as he kept on helping Riser.

The poor boy had a large work load on his shoulders and Galius knew that it was just going to keep on growing in the near future and his new officers would have to have excellent organisation and administrative capabilities to handle the immense amount of workload Riser would have to entrust them with so that he is not overworked to death.

It was only after seeing Riser working so much that Galius began to appreciate the work done but the Administratum that allowed the Imperium to keep running like it did, ensuring that the supplies were delivered on time, the supply convoys given adequate protection, recruiting personnel on time to replace those that retired or were killed in an unfortunate manner and more. It was really a humbling thing experience especially when Galius considered the scale of the Imperium and the level of numbers that were in play, which was why he had been devoting his spare time to smoothen the overall administrative process of his Forges which he admitted had increased the overall production efficiency by over 50% and there were still many places that Galius knew that could be improved upon. Galius then wondered just what else he could improve to make his forges more efficient.

Before the mind of the Artisan could stray any further Riser spoke and brought the man's mind back to the current topic at hand.

"Galius, I am going to need lots and lots of Enginseers and Tech Priests to man my Manufactorums and see to the maintenance of my ship. How many Engiseers would I exactly need and how am I going to get them?" Riser asked and Galius quietly approved his question as having the Mechanicus personnel on his ship would greatly reduce the overall maintenance costs and ensure that the ship ran at optimum capacity.

"You would need about 300,000-650,000 Engiseers and some 100,000 Techpriests who would bring their own Servitor work force numbering in a million plus with them to run an Oberon class Battleship at the least while the optimum numbers would be 1.4 million plus Engiseers and 300,000 Techpriests with 5million Servitors." Galius said and he was not surprised when Riser's eyes shot up in astonishment. People really do underestimate the number of personnel needed to run a ship no matter how automated they may be. "As for how much it would cost well that depends on the Forge World you would be recruiting from and the Tech Priest in charge. Currently though I am willing to send you some personnel from my own Temple but they won't be anywhere near the numbers you would need."

"Thank you Galius, I'll take you up on your offer and see to it if I can find some non-mechanicus personnel to fill in the gaps." Riser said feeling grateful that the Tech Priest was willing to help him on the matter. 'Come to think of it, he has been helping me a lot hasn't he? I must really do something for him.'

"In return I am offering you 10% of my total manufactured goods for the next seven decades." Yes that sounded like a good offer.

"Riser!" Galius shouted as he heard the boy's offer. "You are already giving up 60% of your manufactured goods to the mechanicus, offering another 10% of your goods would almost see to it that you don't get any profit at all!"

"I know that but you have already done so much that it would be ungrateful of me not to at least offer you that much." Riser told the tech priest and Galius could hear the sincerity in his words and the Artisan knew that Riser would not let the matter drop so easily.

"Keep your 10% and just allow me the first Magos to examine all technologies and artefacts you find and give me the rights to manufacture them and we can call it even."

"I was going to do that even if you didn't ask for it." Riser said a miffed at being refused.

"Putting it down as an official deal would be better, as it would both allow me to keep supplying you with personnel and spare materials but also keep the other Tech Priests from interfering too much due to it being an official deal and all."

Riser reluctantly agreed but still felt that he should give Galius something more but the Tech Priest would not budge on the subject.

'Well at least he did agree to something, that was start.' Riser thought, though he was keen on doing something else for Galius.

"Well, I leave you to examine the blueprints of your ship Riser and see if you need any more modifications or not." with that Galius left Riser with a dataslate containing the blueprints of the ship which Riser opened and began pouring over it and began browsing through the books and databases to see what modifications he could add and how he was much would the maintenance costs would be and from there set a profit goal and margin to keep maintaining the ship at full functionality.

"I am going to have to keep the ship at least 30% functionality for some time and be really be conservative in any fight I engage. Heck, it would be in my best interest to forgo battles altogether to conserve the ammo and barrel life of the cannons." Yeah, despite the fact that Riser was going to own a battleship, he was not going to be able to bring its full might to bear for some time.

That was quite the major downside but one that Riser had to bear until he was able to establish an economy that was able to handle the strain without collapsing on itself.

It also meant that Riser was going to have to quickly find a suitable system and start building his Empire fast, which brought its own set of problems like having a start-up population, laying down the infrastructure, selecting a suitable government type, setting up its own economic system and building up its defences. Those were but some few things Riser had to do and that was even before getting into things like recruiting and planning out proper training regimes for all administrative personnel and military forces.

For this Riser needed a base, a world to call his own where he was free to do as he like and implement all his plans with impunity. This would mean that he would have to ignore technological searches for now but that did not mean that Riser was going to ignore any technological findings and add them to his arsenal.

Seeing this Riser had to change the composition of his crew and add in more personnel that had really good construction knowledge and some agricultural knowledge to jumpstart the colony world and from there Riser had to see about establishing a proper government which while could function is his absence was still beholden to him and by extension the Imperium.

It was going to be hard work but that was a given as Riser was certain he was up to the challenge. He had to be, he had to be at least be capable of this much if he wanted to complete his contract with the Emperor.

'It is going to be a really tough contract.' Riser mused as he thought of challenges he had to face in order to complete the contract and just how he was going to do so. It was really going to be the contact of a lifetime and could literally span thousands of years and who knew what kind of future he would be creating by fulfilling this contract.

'Baby steps first Riser, baby steps.' Riser clamed himself down reining in his mind from wandering off and delve deep into plotting the distant plans for the future.

'Yes, baby steps first, then, the universe.'