Rostov II

Stepping off the warship, Chen Xi led his two fully armed squads of attendants onto a docking platform in the starport.

The people who had come to receive him had been waiting for quite some time. At their head stood a woman who looked highly capable.

Chen Xi approached her and greeted her. "I am Chen Xi, an Inquisitor of The Inquisition. By the command of the God-Emperor, I have come to this planet to serve as its Planetary Governor. Please state your identity, madam."

The woman wore a dark blue overcoat. Though the outfit was somewhat masculine for a woman, it also displayed her capable nature well.

However, the way she greeted Chen Xi made his eyelid twitch.

She gave Chen Xi an Astra Militarum salute rather than the Imperial Aquila Salute commonly used on such occasions.

"Greetings, Inquisitor. I am Rachel Olivia, Chancellor appointed by the previous governor. I once served as Commissar of the Rostov II Planetary Defense Force. I will assist you in governing this planet in the work ahead. All for the God-Emperor!" Rachel introduced herself while maintaining a rigid stance, allowing Chen Xi to see at a glance that she had received strict military training.

A former Planetary Defense Force Commissar serving as chancellor was rather absurd.

But considering that the planet's administrators were primarily an entire retired Astra Militarum Regiment, Chen Xi did not find it too problematic.

It was perfectly normal for an Astra Militarum Regiment to retain a certain degree of military discipline, and that made Chen Xi more expectant of this planet's Planetary Defense Force.

After all, anyone who could join the Astra Militarum was among the elite of humanity. If the Planetary Defense Force they trained could inherit even part of their combat strength, it could be offered to the Imperium as Tithes and become a new Astra Militarum force.

And paying Tithes with the Planetary Defense Force meant the planet would not need to provide other Tithes.

This was extremely important. After all, in the Imperium, only death and taxes were inevitable. Death could even be avoided in this world by certain means, but paying Tithes could not.

"For the Emperor!" Chen Xi gave the standard response before offering an Aquila Salute.

It was both a gesture of courtesy and the completion of their initial pleasantries.

Afterward, under Rachel's guidance, Chen Xi headed deeper into the starport, while the Planetary Defense Force she had brought followed behind him.

"Tell me about the planet beneath our feet. I do not know much about it yet. I heard it is a newly developed Imperial World?" Chen Xi asked Rachel, hoping to obtain more information and gain a better understanding of the world he was about to rule.

At the same time, this was also a test of Rachel's competence and attitude—whether she could offer anything of substance, and what sort of attitude she and the forces she represented held toward him as their governor.

"Rostov II is a Desert World. There are only a small number of oases and water sources on the planet, but according to Adeptus Mechanicus surveys, its groundwater reserves are fairly considerable. With planned extraction, they can meet the planet's most basic water needs." Rachel briefed Chen Xi before continuing, "There are currently two cities on the planet. One is the planetary capital, the city you will be heading to next. It shares the planet's name—Rostov City. It was founded by the Astra Militarum soldiers who first settled this planet and their families.

The other city belongs to the Ecclesiarchy. One of its Pilgrimage Groups chose this planet as the destination of its pilgrimage and believed that the mission bestowed upon them by the God-Emperor was to build this city.

Under the previous governor's administration, both cities are currently developing quite well, and their relationship is also fairly good."

"That sounds acceptable. Then what are the main sources of income for these two cities? What is the planet's food self-sufficiency rate? Did the previous governor have any development plans?" Chen Xi was satisfied with the planet's current state. At the very least, it was not one of those nightmarish places where tangled interests ran deep, every sort of monster ran rampant, and the planet itself faced countless crises.

Among the Imperium's million worlds, there truly were places the Departmento Munitorum could not be bothered to manage, so long as you paid your taxes.

There were even more extreme worlds that had existed before the Imperium was founded. Take the famous Necromunda, for instance. That place alone had a thousand Hive Cities, each with populations ranging from five hundred million to one billion. It had already stood in the galaxy for eight thousand years before the Emperor began the Great Crusade.

One could imagine just how troublesome that place was, and how demanding it was for a Planetary Governor to govern such a planet properly.

Fortunately, Big E had not given Chen Xi a hell-difficulty start like that. Instead, he had chosen a world that was relatively easy and well suited as a starting point.

"Rostov II currently has no stable source of income. The expenses for planetary development and construction come from a special allocation approved by the Departmento Munitorum. After the Ecclesiarchy's pilgrims built their city here, some pilgrims began arriving to pay their respects, bringing in a certain amount of revenue. However, Rostov II is remotely located, and the entire sector is a newly opened region developed only within the last two hundred years, so there are not many pilgrims." Clearly, Rachel—or rather, this planet's rulers—also found this issue troubling.

"So it seems the first problem I need to solve is finding this planet a stable source of income?" Chen Xi said, half joking and half serious.

"If you can find a stable source of funding for Rostov II, that would truly be wonderful!" Rachel clearly did not think much of the possibility, though she did not show it too openly.

Chen Xi was not surprised. After all, finding a source of income for an entire planet was not an easy task.

Setting that matter aside, however, Chen Xi was more concerned about the planet's food self-sufficiency rate.

Though Imperial citizens were generally not treated as people, and even feeding them Corpse Starch made from their own bodies—or Corpse Starch refined from promethium derivatives—was acceptable, food self-sufficiency was still an issue that needed attention.

Otherwise, if the food supply were cut off for some reason one day, there would truly be a major problem.

It was not that he feared people starving to death. He feared that people on the verge of starvation would summon Nurgle.

"As for food self-sufficiency, with the assistance of a Bio-Sage from the Adeptus Mechanicus, it is currently around forty percent. The shortfall is transported by the Imperial Merchant Fleet from agricultural worlds in another Sub-sector. The Departmento Munitorum has already paid Rostov II's food costs for one hundred years. There are roughly thirty years remaining, so you do not need to worry about food for the time being." Rachel gave Chen Xi news that was neither good nor bad.