In terms of scale, a sub-sector might not sound particularly large. After all, the Imperium had over a hundred named sectors alone, with countless more that had never appeared in official records.
But in reality, a sub-sector's territory was far from small.
Generally speaking, a sector was a vast cubic expanse two hundred light-years on each side, divided into several secondary units such as port districts and sub-sectors.
A sub-sector usually encompassed several stars, along with the planets and other celestial bodies orbiting them.
Before Guilliman's return, even the Ultramarines, who controlled the largest territory of any Space Marine Chapter in the Imperium, held only eight star systems—roughly the size of a single sub-sector combined.
Although Macragge had once ruled five hundred worlds, it had already been broken apart by the time Guilliman wrote that famous piece of toilet paper.
Even so, the Inquisition kept a close eye on the Ultramarines, suspecting them of possible rebellion.
If Chen Xi truly managed to bring the entire sub-sector containing Rostov II under his control and develop it well, he would count as a significant figure within the Imperium.
Yet for the Imperium, properly developing a region like this could take centuries, or even millennia.
Whether it was planetary development or the construction of Hive Cities, such colossal projects required time measured in centuries, sometimes even thousands of years.
At the same time, they required immense resources and astronomical sums of Throne Gelt.
And developing an entire sub-sector within thirty years? Without cheats, that was nearly impossible.
Unless the Emperor manifested in person and the Departmento Munitorum poured money into the place without regard for cost.
But in Chen Xi's eyes, it was not entirely impossible.
First of all, the population needed to develop and open up a sub-sector was not much of an obstacle.
Pilgrims of the Ecclesiarchy, surplus populations from various Hive Worlds, even convicts from penal worlds and clones from the Adeptus Mechanicus—there would always be a way to obtain enough people to fill an entire sub-sector.
As long as he was willing to pay, or trade benefits, obtaining enough people to develop a sub-sector would not be difficult.
Transporting tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of people might be troublesome, but transporting tens of millions was probably just a matter of hiring a Rogue Trader Dynasty to make a trip.
Never underestimate just how much Imperial ships could carry. They had no concept of overloading.
As for building factories on planets, extracting resources, and so on, those matters required specialized technology and equipment, but the same rule applied: as long as one had money, the Adeptus Mechanicus sold everything.
As long as one could pay, even a voidship yard capable of building voidships was merely a delivery-to-your-doorstep business for the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Terraforming, weapons and equipment procurement, Hive City construction, and all sorts of related matters could likewise be handed over to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
As long as one could pay.
Yes, as long as one could pay.
What, no money? Then sorry, having no money was not the Adeptus Mechanicus's fault. It was yours.
For Chen Xi at present, money was the greatest constraint on his development.
If he were willing, he could turn this planet into a mining world and squeeze dry its resources for a considerable fortune. He could even build a Hive City on the planet, turn Rostov II into a Hive World, and develop all the surrounding star systems alongside its construction to supply it with resources. But doing so would be far too much like draining the pond to catch the fish.
Of course, if he were willing to thoroughly dig up that Necron tomb underground and trade its contents with the Adeptus Mechanicus, he could obtain at least enough resources to develop Rostov II.
That was assuming it was merely an ordinary Necron tomb, and that halfway through excavation, an even larger tomb did not suddenly appear on a neighboring planet—only for him to discover that it was actually a Necron Dynasty occupying several star systems.
Such things were not uncommon. Some powerful Necron Dynasties might even span several Imperial sectors.
Therefore, for the sake of safety, cooperating with the Adeptus Mechanicus and securing investment from the Forge Master was inevitable.
This was currently Chen Xi's primary development plan. As for growing grapes and making wine, that merely counted as developing a planetary specialty, ensuring that the planet retained a stable source of income after its development rather than being forced to drain itself dry for later plans.
After all, when the Imperium developed a planet still suitable for agriculture, it would generally first turn it into an agri-world and exhaust all fertility from its soil, then hollow out all its mineral deposits for industrial production.
The scarred and ravaged planet left afterward would not be wasted either. Hive Cities reaching into the clouds could be built atop the massive remnants of its former agricultural and industrial facilities, allowing the planet to provide the Imperium with another kind of resource—population.
The entire development plan might last thousands of years. Every step was carefully designed. As long as a planet met the requirements, the Imperium could make use of it to the absolute limit.
But Chen Xi did not want his planet developed according to that model.
After all, someone from the 3K Era and someone from the 40K era naturally thought differently.
And the development methods of traditional Terrans and Anglo-Saxon brigands differed even more dramatically.
Chen Xi hoped the planet could maintain a relatively decent natural environment. At the very least, local residents should not have to wear respirators whenever they went outside, nor should the rain falling across the planet be highly corrosive acid rain.
At the same time, the planet's industrial development and agricultural production should remain relatively sustainable, allowing it to produce resources over a longer period.
After all, not every planet could flatten every mountain and plateau, fill in every sea and lake, scatter fertilizer throughout the atmosphere, then cultivate plains the size of Eurasia with farm machinery as large as Warlord Titans.
In Chen Xi's view, the most suitable option was to construct a ring around the planet and build spaceborne hydroponic farms on it, supplying food for the population on the planetary surface.
Do not find that strange. The Imperium possessed such technology, and the Adeptus Mechanicus could accomplish it as well. It was simply that neither the Imperium nor the Adeptus Mechanicus usually had the motivation or necessity to do so.
After all, the Imperium had a million worlds. It truly had no need to scrape together that tiny amount of resources, insignificant compared to the Imperium as a whole.
On the contrary, how to extract the greatest amount of resources in the shortest possible time was what the Departmento Munitorum concerned itself with.
And this sort of drain-the-pond development model was something Chen Xi could never accept.
Before you continue