The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Besides unifying the economy and logistics systems, the Orpheus Expeditionary Force's Department of Armaments also had an important function: to take key facilities and factories from the nobles. Of course, this wasn't outright seizure. On one hand, it was merely a "temporary loan," to be returned after the sector was liberated. On the other hand, it was the same old exchange of benefits. The Orpheus Expeditionary Bank would periodically provide them with a portion of the profits in the form of dividends to maintain their luxurious lifestyles. In addition, the Expeditionary Force would "bestow" planets in the conquered territories to them in a pie-in-the-sky manner as compensation for their support of the expedition. Furthermore, their family members were allowed to serve as officers in the Orpheus Death Corps to gain honor.

Sosyoshyan had never been a ruler who relied solely on iron fists. Forcing people too hard, even if they couldn't do anything significant, was ultimately unnecessary. The nobles were indeed not good people, but the Imperium lacked grassroots governance capabilities—that was the reality. It was either the nobles or the priests. He couldn't very well expect the Department of Internal Affairs bureaucrats to go down to the ground, could he?

Compared to the clergy, who had no interest in industry and trade, Sosyoshyan would rather have the nobles in charge. At least they could occasionally get something done. The difference between the Ecclesiarchy Diocese and Orpheus demonstrated the merits and demerits of the two classes. And when it came to corruption and depravity, neither could claim moral superiority.

The Orpheus Death Corps needed to be rebuilt, and so did the Orpheus Fleet.

However, compared to the army, the navy was indeed much more difficult and costly to rebuild, especially since the Orpheus Fleet had suffered such devastating losses in the Amara naval battle. Under normal circumstances, it would take several millennia to recover.

Of course, Sosyoshyan couldn't accept the concept of "normal," because his opponents were anything but normal.

However, he didn't have many cards to play. First of all, Orpheus didn't have many shipyards. The largest, the Amara Shipyards, had been devastated. Although the Decapolis Shipyards in the rear were large enough, they couldn't build enough ships to fill the gap of hundreds of vessels, even if they built for ten thousand years. And expanding shipyards wasn't as simple as expanding the army. A standard large shipyard capable of producing battleships would take two to three centuries to build, and then building the ships would take decades or centuries more. That would drag on until the 42nd millennium.

As for support from the Legion's ships, that was out of the question. The Legion was already short of ships. Sosyoshyan didn't even know what he would do if he needed the fleet for something.

Therefore, some unconventional tactics were needed to restore the Orpheus Fleet.

Such as the Gellan Star-Entity.

The original plan was to transfer it to High Valoria, but they weren't ready in the short term. Ditrian was still working in Orpheus, so there was no rush.

In comparison, Orpheus had a more pressing need, and its remote location was more concealed. Gellan also needed resources to recover, and its power could solve many problems. At the same time, Ditrian could establish an early connection with Gellan to see if they were compatible.

Thus, humanity's problems came full circle and could only be solved by the Eldar. Sosyoshyan sometimes couldn't help but sigh at the invisible hand of fate.

The fleet's problems couldn't be solved immediately, but the Defender fighter network and Guerilla gunboats could be deployed in the early stages. At least they could provide a basic void defense network during the sector's weakest period.

In addition, the problem of the Orpheus Fleet's ships being too old had to be solved. Many ships were no longer suitable for intense naval warfare. Sosyoshyan planned to relegate all the Orpheus Fleet's ships that were difficult to maintain to the second line, as escort ships. This would further reduce the number of ships available to him, but frankly, those old ships were unlikely to be of much use. Forcing them onto the battlefield would only be a waste of lives.

In addition to these important matters, Sosyoshyan also had to coordinate the distribution of Necron relics between the Mechanicum sects. Before the Grey Knights Legion left Grea, Sosyoshyan even gave them a portion of the Necron wreckage and relics to take back, partly as a gift and partly to whet the appetite of Grea, the large forge world. Only by giving can one receive. Sosyoshyan understood this principle, so he was never stingy.

The reconstruction of the Amara system was also a priority. Sosyoshyan's plan for it was a forward fortress area and logistics hub. In the future, the entire system would be fortified. All of Amara's habitable planets would become purely military bases, with hundreds of large underground warehouses. Many large armories and synthetic food factories would also be built. The Expeditionary Force would use Amara as a base to slowly and cautiously recover the conquered territories.

This placed high demands on the supply lines, as most of the Amara system's resources would be supplied from outside. The main population here would be full-time soldiers, officials, and a portion of workers. In addition, the logistics of each expeditionary force would be paid from here, meaning that a large number of warehouses needed to be filled, all of which had to be transferred from the production planets in the rear.

So, in addition to warships, Sosyoshyan also needed a large number of civilian ships and large merchant ships to support his plan.

Orpheus originally had many merchant fleets and transport fleets, but during the Bloody Hundred Days, many captains risked entering the orbits of attacked worlds to save more lives from the Tyranid blades, but most never returned. In addition, as the situation in Orpheus continued to deteriorate, many merchant fleets chose to avoid disaster and flee far away, resulting in the number of civilian ships and merchant ships available in the Orpheus sector being less than half of what it used to be.

Building them was definitely too late, and the forge worlds couldn't "mass-produce freighters." At this time, he could only seek external help. Because of its remote location, Orpheus didn't have a very powerful Rogue Trader dynasty, but the adjacent Hackson and Yuldis sectors had many Rogue Trader dynasties. Most of their family histories could be traced back to the M36 era, when the Dark Fringe was reopened. As Rogue Trader dynasties spanning the sector, they naturally had offices in Orpheus to communicate and coordinate various trade activities. However, after the Bloody Hundred Days, most of these offices were withdrawn from Amara, either to safer areas further back or directly canceled.

Obviously, the fastest way to restore or even strengthen Orpheus's transport lines was to get the assistance of those Rogue Trader dynasties. But for merchants, preaching great principles was useless. The only thing that could drive them was profit.

Of course, Sosyoshyan had also considered the Leagues of Void-Farers, but they demanded too much, so much that Sosyoshyan thought these greedy dwarfs were completely treating him like a fat pig to be slaughtered. Perhaps they thought he could only rely on them?