Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 42: Controlling Kiviole-9 Sages

At his signal, Szczesny took the lead in giving the briefing.

"My Lord, I have already conducted a carpet sweep of all decks. Soldiers from the Fourth Regiment are working in small teams to clean outlying areas."

"The 4th Regiment suffered a total of 184 casualties in this battle, including 50 deaths in boarding accidents and 134 deaths in combat."

Nimrod was not surprised. The Flao people had considerable combat power. If they had not fled in all directions, the casualties would have been even greater.

A trapped beast will still fight, but without a commander, it will lose coordination and organization.

"King Nimrod, Sage Kivio-9 has replied that the alien artillery is of extremely high research value. He will arrive after the battle."

"Wojciech and I inspected the alien warship. Although we couldn't figure out all the controls, we can confirm that the warship is still in good condition."

After listening to the briefing, Ningluo gave orders.

"Send a message to the ships of the Finder and Kournikova families, attach an encrypted identification rune, and order them to find a way to control Boleslaw and capture Robert."

"If they need assistance, you will be responsible for leading the team to resolve it."

Before the fleet set sail, he obtained encrypted runes from Howard and Yelena. After receiving them, the two family members would follow his orders.

After everyone left, Nimrod came to the dormitory of the governor of the Phrygians.

He had previously discovered that the Governor's bed was three and a half meters long and made of purple alloy, barely enough for him to curl up and sleep.

After Ningluo had a good sleep and regained his spirit, the communicator happened to ring.

"King Nimrod, Sage Kiviole-9 has arrived. Please proceed to the bridge to discuss the details of the transaction."

"it is good."

Nimrod strode back to the bridge and saw Kivio-9 in a red robe.

Like other members of the Mechanicus, the Sage was also unable to restrain his curiosity about his body. However, through logical calculations, he quickly realized that he was incapable of analyzing the mystery of the giant's body.

"The alien's artillery is worth developing. On behalf of the Martian Mechanicus, I would like to discuss cooperative development with you."

"Tell me, what do you want?"

"In addition to collaborative development and sharing of research results, I also want star maps of all the altars in the Vostronia system."

If you want to navigate the vast universe without feeling like a blind man swimming naked, star maps are an important reference.

Although the star map cannot be relied upon 100% due to interference from various factors such as the subspace, having a reference is often better than having nothing.

"Your request is denied. The Vostroyan Star Map is the result of thousands of years of exploration by countless servants of Om Messiah."

"Based on the principle of transaction reciprocity, you can only obtain star maps of two nearby galaxies."

"No," Nimrod flatly rejected the offer. He said confidently, "This trade isn't equal. The alien's artillery is more valuable."

"It can emit a beam of pulsed energy. The aether field in the beam can ignore the ship's void shield and directly erode its hull. As a side effect, it can also overload the ship's shield."

"Such advanced artillery technology is unavailable in the entire Adeptus Mechanicus. By studying it, the servants of Om Messiah will achieve a theoretical breakthrough due to their new understanding."

Nimrod said with certainty that he remembered that the future Tech-Priest Hieronymus Tezla had boldly analyzed a Frao spacecraft that crashed in the Tamar sector and subsequently proposed his "ether-plasma" theory, which earned him great reputation.

It was just a crashed spaceship, but the battlecruiser he captured had a hull integrity of over 95%, especially the ether cannon had not suffered any damage.

Kivio-9 was silent for nine seconds before speaking.

"This unit requires an inspection of the artillery first to determine its specific transaction value."

"please."

Nimrod said nonchalantly that the biggest advantage of the Flao people over other races was their ether technology, which was not only insurmountable by humans' void shields, but even the Eldar's holographic field was insurmountable.

It would be unwise to engage in a naval battle with the Flao people. He remembered that not long after, during the Great Crusade, Kren Ophion of the Night Lords Legion bravely commanded his ships to fight the Flao people when the fleet retreated.

Finally, his ship, the Murderous Whisper, was destroyed, and his captain forged the hull's fragments into a battle shield known as the Blood Shield, covered in malicious ceramite barbs. The Blood Shield served as both a mocking mark of his bravery and a cruel joke from Ophion.

The more you study Kivio-9, the more you realize its value.

"Wojciech, you must immediately draft the transaction documents as I just said."

"Four documents, two for each party, written in Vostroyan Low Gothic and Technolanguage."

"Yes, my king."

Wojciech immediately moved, but Rosicky frowned.

As far as he knew, Nimrod hadn't even gone to the two wings to check, but he was so sure that the sage would accept the deal.

This was even more incredible than his previous judgment before the space battle. At least he had data as a reference at that time.

An hour later, Ninglu got Wojciech's contract. He used his "lawyer's" ability to find three loopholes and pointed out a key modification for further negotiations.

"The transaction is only for the Ether Cannon, not this ship."

Rosicky and Wojciech were stunned, then reacted.

"My king, this cannot be hidden from the wise, what do you think?"

"It's okay, just do as I say."

Wojciech is a technical talent and does not understand negotiation skills.

If you start to put forward all the conditions, the negotiations will probably break down. Once the other party realizes the value of the transaction target and is determined to obtain it, they will be willing to pay a higher price.

The agreement was revised and finalized ten minutes later, and just as it was ready, Kivio-9 rushed back with his men.

"I agree to your terms, let's discuss the details now."

"I have prepared the agreement. You can review it. If there are no problems, we will sign it immediately."

At Nimrod's signal, Wojciech handed the data pad to the sage.

Kivio-9 took it with its mechanical tentacles and quickly flipped through it.

"This clause needs to be revised. The subject of the transaction is the entire alien warship."

No artillery exists alone, especially the ether cannon, which involves a whole set of complex systems, and other modules of the alien battleship also have certain research value.

After realizing its value, Kivio-9 and the Mechanicus became determined to obtain the entire battleship.

Rosicky and Wojciech showed expressions of "as expected". A logician would not ignore such an obvious logical flaw.

"If you want the whole ship, you can. Just meet my requirements."

"what do you want?"

"I give a battlecruiser and get one in return. That's fair, isn't it?"

Rosicky and Wojciech couldn't help but think at the same time: "A one-for-one trade is certainly fair, and the Mechanicus even made a profit, but Nimrod also asked for the star map."
Nimrod saw Kivio-9 hesitate and said with a smile.

"The star map can be copied. The servants of Om Messiah have nothing to lose. Exchanging a ship that can be repeatedly manufactured for an alien warship and gaining new technology is worth it."

Nimrod's "extraordinary eloquence" led the sage into another logical chain.

After three seconds of silence, he spoke.

"I agree to your terms, but I also have one condition."

"You must eliminate the alien marauders left behind by the Symphony of the Sea within ten sidereal days."

"I accept this condition."

(End of this chapter)