Neophyte selection ended, and Situval found suitable candidates. The unlucky champion he chose was named Ralph.
Iron Warriors gene-seed would be implanted into his body. As a Son of Dorn, Situval was now going to create an Iron Warrior with his own hands. It was simply... glorious.
Ten years passed in a flash.
It felt like it had been ages since we last said that. Constant warfare was the norm for the Astartes, but not for this impoverished backwater.
During that time, the Crimson Tide Chapter's warships traveled between numerous Forge Worlds, trading intensively.
Apart from the Dark Lance weapons we kept for ourselves, everything else was traded for supplies.
Every Forge World was working overtime. After the Warp Rift ended, their workload was so immense that their production schedules stretched a century into the future.
Our way of trading for supplies was unique, too. Aeldari items were the main merchandise, with T'au technology thrown in as secondary "free gifts."
We traded not only for supplies, but for heretical gadgets as well.
Say you acquired a few pieces of alien technology. You certainly wouldn't advertise it. You'd shut your doors and study them in secret. But once you finished studying them? You'd have to dispose of them, wouldn't you?
You couldn't sell these things openly. If the Imperium found out, an Inquisitor would come knocking. That was where the Crimson Tide came in.
Trade an alien gadget you'd already studied for one you hadn't.
Reasonable, right?
Space Marine Chapters fought aliens, so naturally they had alien war trophies.
Perfectly reasonable, right?
Like a fleet of profiteers, the Crimson Tide's trading fleet sold vast quantities of T'au technology-the T'au were on the fringes of Ultima Segmentum-to Forge Worlds in Segmentum Obscurus and Segmentum Pacificus. They also bartered and sold Aeldari technology,