Noble Conspiracy

"By the way, is there any trouble we can't solve right now?"

Odinson thought for a moment and pulled out a spreadsheet. "There are no major problems at the moment, but the issue of manpower shortages still hasn't been resolved."

As Huron flipped through the data, Odinson continued to explain, "Although we already have over ten million basic administrative personnel, we have too many things going on simultaneously. Just the construction teams scaled up to a size of five billion are showing a tendency to get out of hand, and engineering efficiency is far worse than before."

Huron understood what Odinson's problem was. There were now five billion people in the construction teams, but the freshly minted Auxilia personnel totaled only fourteen million.

Even if everyone was crammed in, a single person had to manage three or four hundred people. Coupled with the fact that he had invested in far fewer civilian factories than during the starch factory era, overall efficiency naturally dropped drastically.

Even two hundred million skilled workers who had been working for over half a year could not help. More importantly, a large amount of manpower had to be diverted to conduct the first population census, making the already insufficient labor force appear even more stretched.

But Huron could do nothing to help with this problem either. "Then we can only wait. The Emperor's blessings increase gradually. Wait another month or so, and the new batch of sixteen million Auxilia personnel will be able to take office, and the situation will gradually improve by then."

Odinson nodded and raised another issue. "Chapter Master, there's one more thing. The nobles have begun to obstruct our construction projects and census work. It looks like they are gradually realizing something is wrong and intend to use some petty tricks."

Huron smacked his lips. First the Ecclesiarchy, and now the nobles. Damn it, how could anyone run the Imperium well when paired with this bunch of vermin!

"Just stall and appease them for now without delaying the projects. Wait another half a year, and we can start turning on them."

He glanced at the ten ten-thousand-man Boarding Assault Divisions training in his system interface.

In another half a year, once he finished these projects, trained hundreds of millions of Auxilia personnel and millions of assault divisions, and completed the New Homeland National Policy, he intended to send the nobles to heaven one by one.

The moment he thought of the various high-tech equipment possessed by the nobles over there, especially fully controlled artificial intelligence and a large number of automated machines, his anger flared up.

It was bad enough that they sat on so much high-tech and didn't engage in construction and production, but now they were coming to make trouble. They deserved to die!

As for the nobles muttered about by Huron, they gathered at the Spire Fortress of planetary governor Valen Watt.

They had just received intelligence that the Astral Claws and the Ecclesiarchy had many conflicts in the underhive, resulting in many deaths, and were currently discussing how to use this matter to instigate friction between the two sides.

Marcus Salome, the patriarch of the Salome Family, said with some irritation, "If you ask me, we should lobby the high-ranking members of the Ecclesiarchy, tell them that the Astral Claws are blaspheming the God-Emperor's faith and are suspected of planning to rebel against the Imperium, and get them to contact other factions to audit the Astral Claws. It's best if we drag the Inquisition into it as well."

Valen Watt cast a contemptuous glance at him. "And then wait for the Astral Claws to be driven to desperation and kill all of us? Or wait for an Inquisitor to come and execute us all? I know your family's Starch Guild suffered heavy losses, but don't let anger cloud your judgment, or you won't even save your own life."

The Salome Family's core industry was starch factories, nearly monopolizing the entire sector. As a result, the Astral Claws built ultra-large starch factories and were now dumping starch at extremely low prices or even distributing it for free, causing heavy losses to the Salome Family.

Klaus Vella, the patriarch of the Vella Family, seized the opportunity to propose, "Why not take this opportunity to curry favor with the Astral Claws' Chapter Master? Valen, doesn't your family cultivate quite a few pious and pure monks and nuns? Take a few to make dishes to entertain Lufgt Huron and satisfy his anger over the Ecclesiarchy's humiliation."

As an old-school noble of Badab, Klaus still had quite a bit of understanding of the Astral Claws, or rather the Astartes. These guys were all paranoid, stubborn, and valued honor more than life.

If the Ecclesiarchy dared to disrespect them openly, Chapter Master Lufgt Huron would definitely not let the matter rest and would certainly retaliate with crackdowns.

Since that was the case, turning some pure, pious believers who worshipped the Badab Ecclesiarchy into dishes to treat Huron, and then heavily humiliating the local Ecclesiarchy at the banquet, wouldn't relations ease up then?

Make a fortune together; what was the point of fighting to the death?

"Indeed, I think Klaus makes a lot of sense." Silas Mercer also spoke up in support.

Valen looked at these two men. The Vella Family's industry was armed security, and the quality of their security personnel was higher than that of PDF members. The Mercer Family's industry was transportation and logistics, controlling a massive amount of vehicles and personnel.

To secure project progress, the Astral Claws had signed a large number of contracts with these two families and granted them massive benefits. Naturally, these two families tended toward appeasement and compromise.

Yet Valen showed them zero respect. "Idiots, do you really think the two of you can sit back and relax? They can inexplicably pull out so many administrators and registrars—do you think they can't pull out an army? Furthermore, they are discussing with the Adeptus Mechanicus to build factories for various types of vehicles and rebuild the roads of the hive city. You don't actually think you'll still be able to cooperate with them then, do you?"

Klaus sneered. "Aren't you noble? Then figure out a solution yourself; I couldn't care less about this damn mess."

With that, showing Valen no respect, he took the Vella Family members and left directly.

Silas also took the Mercer Family members right behind him, disappearing out the fortress doors.

Only after the great nobles had their say did the middle and lower nobles begin to chatter. They all controlled some small industry, such as mechanical processing, energy equipment, high-interest loans, and so on, and their demands naturally varied. The conference hall quickly grew noisy and clamorous.

If not for the Watt Family's formidable and long-standing prestige, quite a few people would actually have liked to leave with Klaus and Silas.

Go against an Astartes Chapter? Were they tired of living?

It had only been over half a year since the Astral Claws suppressed the rebellious nobles, and they still remembered it vividly, knowing that killing them was as easy for the Astral Claws as pinching chicks.

Doing business like this now was pretty good anyway. Plotting against the Astral Claws? Let's just hope the blood didn't splatter on them.

After a day of hustle and bustle, this meeting came to nothing.

As soon as Valen announced the end of the meeting, he immediately arranged for family members to select a beautiful, pure, and pious young maiden believer, process her as an ingredient, and use her for the banquet reception.

Did he really think he wanted to court death? He merely wanted to bluff the other nobles and sell them out for a good price.

Once he invited Huron over as a guest, first building favor with the Ecclesiarchy, then building favor with the other nobles, wouldn't their family's position be solidified by then?

It wasn't like Huron intended to exterminate all the nobles, right? Impossible. Such a thing hadn't happened in the Imperium for thousands of years.

Processing a believer would take another two or three months. During this time, they would just hold daily meetings like this to bluff the other nobles and keep them from selling him out first.

At the mere thought of the scene where the Watt Family stood alone at the top for hundreds or thousands of years to come, the corners of Valen's mouth couldn't stop turning upward.

Although being a planetary governor was already vast and boundless, a family's grand legacy wasn't bad either.