Chapter 5: Chapter Five
His Glorious Aspirations. In Orbit of Planetos.
Less than three days later, which was rather speedy for the way the IOM tended to handle matters, we were all back in the meeting room and looking at a much more detailed map of the world of Fire and Ice. The system had been named the Maximinus Thrax System after me with the world that Game of Thrones was on being called Maximinus Thrax Primus or simply Thrax Primus. Apparently, the only other claim to fame found in the records for the original Rogue Trader family called Thrax was a lost STC of some kind.
"As you can see by the hologlobe" said the Archmagos "There are six continents, however, those we have questioned, which includes a Maester of the Citadel, which is a centre of education according to the native human population, to them the known world consists of four discovered continents: Westeros, Essos, and Sothoryos. Of these only Westeros and Essos are well known. There are also numerous islands and archipelagos, including the Stepstones, the Summer Islands, and Ib".
So far this fitted in with what I knew.
"The two unnamed continents are highlighted," said the Ad-Mech leaders "One is to the far west and the other in the far south. There are no signs of any habitation according to our orbital scans".
Given that the scans hadn't picked up the Children of The Forest, and thus we had no one screaming about foul Xenos, some sort of intelligent life might have existed in parts of the world unknown to the local humans or still could it was well hidden.
"Call the westernmost landmass Ameros and the southern one Austraos" I decided.
Archmagos Del Arx understood my naming.
"You have combined the names of two landmasses from ancient Terra with native use of os," he said "I approve".
Since no one else around here had seen maps of old Earth then didn't understand and soon enough the discussion moved on.
"The landmass we know most about is Westeros," said the Archmagos "It is located in the far west of the known world. Westeros extends southwards from the northern polar icecap for approximately 3,000 miles. Most of the continent is unified as part of a political entity called the Seven Kingdoms, and it is ruled by King Robert who sits on the Iron Throne in the city of King's Landing".
This was discussed for a few moments.
"When it comes time to conquer these Seven Kingdoms it will be important to quickly capture this King's Landing," said the Lord-General "Seizing the city could throw the entire of this Westeros into anarchy".
It wasn't hard to see the wisdom in this. By the time any of the High Lords got an army together with the intent of retaking the city the Lord-General's soilders would have had plenty of time to dig in.
"The northern border of the Seven Kingdoms is marked by The Wall, beyond which lies mountainous tundra inhabited by the Free Folk" we were told, "If the Sanctioned Psyker is correct...".
"Death marches on The Wall!" she yelled.
"Then this part of Seven Kingdoms should be investigated" finished the Lord-Inquisitor "As will the site which is known as the Doom as also this Asshai that I have already been informed about thanks to my own investigation. By my authority as Inquisitor, no Imperial citizen no matter his or her rank may venture to these locations without my blessing. I will personally execute anyone who disobeys this command".
Since I knew that north of The Wall lies the Land of Always Winter which is assumed to be governed by White Walkers under the authority of the Night King, it made sense not to go there. The Doom was where Valyeria used to be and no one should go there either. As for Asshai, it was supposed to be home to magic users so again it made sense to let the Inquisition handle this matter. Now that they were out in the open I knew that the Inquisitor had an entire squad of his own personal guard on my ship and he would be able to call upon the Stormtroopers that would normally be under the command of the Lord-General. These were Cadian Stormtroopers so they'd be better prepared for weird magic shit than other soilders do to having fought Chaos.
As for the White Walkers, assuming that the Inquisitor didn't simply kill them all, which was possible given that compared to the threats faced in 40k the White Walkers weren't that impressive, we'd have to seize and further fortify The Wall. I figured that our laser weapons should prove quite effective against wights.
Given that most of the action in Game of Thrones occurs in Westeros, I'd have to go there if I was to have much impact on future events. While the regiment would be busy doing whatever it was the Lord-General wanted them to do I had my battle-harem as well as any Navy Armsmen that could be spared. Given the tens of thousands of crew members I had on board, who would be far more disciplined than the crews of other ships due to their training, I should be able to put together a small army of my own if needs be.
It might also be a good idea to set up a base of operations of my own somewhere on the planet and request that the Ad-Mech build me a nice fortress to call home while I was planetside. That would be something to discuss later once I knew where the Lord-General would focus his efforts as I'd be more focused on trade than conquest unless I could take easy targets.
"As for Essos" the Ad-mech leader was now saying "It is separated from Westeros by the Narrow Sea, Essos extends eastwards for many thousands of miles and its far reaches are unknown to anyone we questioned, whereas we have a much better idea of what is out there. We did learn of names such as Asshai and the forbidding Shadow Lands, as well as rumours of sorcery".
Inquisitor Allectus Jacobus assured that he would look into this and requested from Lord-General Segean Holam the aid of his best troopers, something he consented to quickly since he wouldn't want what he would think of as rouge psykers on the world he would soon govern as a military commander. His regiment would stay behind to keep this world secure in the name of the God-Emperor, and this meant that I'd need to acquire a new regiment, and that wouldn't be cheap so while Holam would rule the world I would be permitted to exploit it to make the conquest profitable for me. If nothing else the world had people I could ship back to the forge world to serve as a labour force, an idea that didn't bother me anywhere near as much as it should. I would need a lot of people to make it worthwhile, as in tens of thousands, but that was managable.
Looking at the hologlobe I saw that Essos not was linked to Westeros in any way even via the poles, and this suggested the forts that had been set up in Esso along with a wall of sorts in the far east were not meant to keep out the White Walkers. Perhaps there was some other threat out there that the Inquisition would need to look into sooner or later.
"Essos is larger than Westeros but less densely populated" The Archmage let us all know "The western edge of the continent is controlled by the nine Free Cities, while the city-states of Slaver's Bay are located in the south-central region. Further east is Qarth and the fabled Jade Sea, which Essos partially encloses".
This news was also discussed for a time.
"These city-states aren't unified in any way I'm guessing," I said.
It wasn't a guess since I knew this to be the truth.
"Correct" stated the Archmagus.
Lord-General Segean Holam caught on quickly.
"Given their divided nature and the distances between them it should be simple to take them one at a time" realised the old veteran "We won't need to leave a large occupying force if these city-states make heavy use of slavery".
I knew what he was thinking. If we took a city we could liberate the slaves and with some effort, we could get them to form a new regiment that was gifted with weapons and training by us. Even a few months of training with what people from the 40k universe called autoguns and with some decent body armour along with some veteran guardsmen to lead them, and then the locals could fight for us as a sort of PDF. We'd just have introduced proper Imperial Faith to the downtrodden masses, something the priesthood would be good for, and Imperial Guard would suffer few losses taking all of Slaver's Bay due to their massive firepower advantage, their thanks and flying support craft.
"Much of the continental interior west of the Jade Sea is ruled by the tribal warriors known as the Dothraki who are in large part responsible for the lack of any proper civilization in Esso" he Archmagos let us all know "They will not bow to Imperial authority, and will need to be destroyed. While they are nomadic they do have a central authority of sorts, a city called Vaes Dothrak".
Since I didn't have a hanger bay full of fighter and bombers I couldn't just blast the nomads out of existence. Orbital bombardment of a city was one thing, trying to wipe out nomadic clans that way could work, but it would destroy a lot of land that could be used for farming in the future.
"If Vaes Dothrak were taken then the nomad raiders would return to it in force" I mentioned.
I'd made that sound like a possibility rather than a statement of fact. Something for the Lord-General to keep in mind during his conquests.
"Of Sothoryos: Relatively little known, Sothoryos is located south of Essos, on the far side of the Summer Sea. It is a large continent consisting of deserts and jungles" we were now hearing "It is said to be a haven for plagues and dangerous animals as such it has not been explored much beyond the northern coastal regions. Like Uthlos is it very sparsely populated, but Ulthos has no real contact with the rest of the world".
While it was good that we would be able to conquer the planet in the name of God-Emperor, because you didn't need to be Big E to know that this world needed a firm hand to sort it out, it would cost me quite a bit in terms of resources to fund this conquest. As such, I needed to quickly make a profit. Prisoners of war could be used as slave labour, but since I didn't intend to return to the IOM for a couple of years at least, because by then I'd have to. I would need to feed and house all the slaves until I could dump them off somewhere else, and that would increase my expenses.
"Are there any material benefits to conquering this world?" I asked.
With the manufactorum we had onboard we'd be able to produce a wide range of goods as long as we had enough raw materials to feed the machines. That would give me easy access to manufactured goods that we could sell to the locals in exchange for gold, but we needed the materials first.
"The auguries have shown us that this world has vast deposits of useful minerals" the Archmagos let me know "including large amounts of gold, far more than would be expected for a habitable world of this kind. The mass of this planet is slightly greater than that of most worlds suitable for human habitation, but the difference is not great enough to cause any problems".
That made sense given that the Lannisters had been digging up gold for thousands of years in just the Westerlands and gold did have value to the Ad-Mech for more than decoration. As the locals used it for money I could have some of the gold we minded converted into coinage that those on shore leave could use as money. Rogue Traders could mint their own coins as the money would serve as tokens for the goods a trader had on his ship. This made it easier to deal with a planetary governor since it meant you wouldn't need to transport tons of materials when you were still at the bartering stage for the services of a world. As for the people of the soon to be conquered world they used gold coins so they should be accepting of any currency we introduced.
"Ulthos is a landmass in the far east, it is very sparsely populated," said the Archmagos "Upon your command the Magos under my command will begin recovery of the mineral bounty of that landmass. It is doubtful that any of the political groups on the other landmasses would even be aware of our actives in Ulthos. The jungles biomass can be converted into sustenance for the crew and the Imperial Guard".
That made sense so I authorised it. Not that the Ad-Mech really needed my permission to do anything. This was a curiosity more than anything else.
"Lord-General if you are going to focus your efforts on Essos then I plan to make diplomatic contact with kingdoms in Westeros and maybe one or two of the Free Cities near the Narrow Sea" I mentioned, "We might be able to bring them into the Imperium without conflict, or at the very least I can gather information for you before an invasion".
The Guard would need a year, maybe more, to secure just the known parts of Essos and to train enough men for a proper invasion of Westeros, which was much more unified than the Free-Cites, at least when they weren't at war, due to having a central authority. I might need to weaken Westeros before an invasion or just let them have the civil war that I knew was coming.
"If I may Lord-Captain," said the Archmagos "You might consider using your own forces to conquer one of the island chains before you make contact. Given their feudal nature it is likely that the leadership of the Seven Kingdoms, this King Robert would accept your authority as long as you demonstrate your power".
That could work since the culture of Westeros was built around military might so if I came along and smashed the Ironborn or the pirates of the Stepstones it might worry the other kingdoms, but they wouldn't be outraged and since the Iron Islands were the weakest kingdom the others wouldn't be so sure that I could steamroll over them as well. The Stepstones would be better since I knew the Iron Islands to be rather worthless.
This would involve a lot of planning so I figured that this meeting would drag on for many hours.
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