When Titus heard that Li Qinwu had a Shipboard Factory, his thick fingers kept tapping against the table.
He was tempted.
Over this period, Titus had mobilized roughly a million mortal troops. They had undergone intensive training and become a force fit for battle, but they lacked weapons.
The Five Hundred Worlds had plenty of factories. Logically, Titus should not have been short on weapons and equipment for his mortal troops.
The problem was that Guilliman was conducting the Indomitus Crusade. All newly produced weapons and equipment had to be prioritized for Guilliman.
Many Lasguns, Flak Armour suits, and tanks had barely left the Factory, still warm from production. Titus had not even touched them before they were loaded directly onto ships and sent off to Guilliman.
Nor did Titus dare to tamper with the process and divert some weapons for his own use.
Titus and Guilliman's relationship was like that public-service advertisement about Mother washing her feet.
Guilliman was the Mother waiting to have her feet washed. You might think Titus was the child carrying the basin. No, he was the basin.
So Titus was in a very uncomfortable position. The industrial capacity of several planets near Macragge was abundant, but all their products went to Guilliman. He had little production capacity at his disposal.
He had finally assembled a million-man mortal force, yet even for light weapons such as Lasrifles and Flak Armour, the shortfall was around five hundred thousand.
After hesitating for a moment, Titus asked,
"Lord Inquisitor, how long would your Shipboard Factory need to produce five hundred thousand Lasrifles and suits of Flak Armour?"
This was it. Li Qinwu thought. If Titus needed something from me, he would have to be constrained by me.
"If the production lines run at full capacity, less than a