After inspecting all the facilities, Alex quickly departed from this hidden Chapter Monastery.
Alex naturally had high hopes for this force, but for now, they remained merely an ambush force. Their primary goal was to actively expand their military in preparation for the crisis that would unfold when the Great Rift opened thirty years in the future.
Although the Mariupol Sector is located in the Solar System, and even if the Great Rift opens, it will still be within the Empire Holy Land, unlike the Imperium Nihilus.
However, this does not mean that Rostov's situation will be particularly good when the Great Rift unfolds.
During this time, Alex, upon returning to the 3k era, had also been consulting a large number of official novels, many of which described Imperial Worlds after the Great Rift opened.
One of the biggest problems faced was that with the unfolding of the Great Rift, the Astronomican's light would be affected. The Imperium Nihilus would be completely unable to see the Astronomican's light, and only the Empire Holy Land would still be able to traverse the Warp under the Astronomican's guidance.
This would undoubtedly have a significant impact on the Rostov Sub-Sector. After all, Rostov II still relies on other agricultural worlds in the Sector for food imports, and the transport of both incoming and outgoing materials requires Warp travel.
And once the Astronomican's navigation is lost or affected, Rostov's external communication will inevitably be greatly impacted.
Besides these, with the Great Rift unfolding, Psyker awakenings will surge. A large number of Psykers will be born due to the Great Rift's unfolding, and at the same time, they will fall into madness or succumb to Chaos by directly looking at the Great Rift.
The reason the Imperium has always strictly managed Psykers is to guard against the destruction that these Psykers might bring if they fall into madness, and the evil consequences caused by their corruption.
If a Psyker only falls on their own, at most, it might open a small Warp rift, allowing some Chaos Demons to briefly enter the real world.
This is actually a relatively minor problem for the Imperium, which is still quite manageable.
The real trouble is that Psykers can hear voices from the Warp and gain knowledge related to Chaos Demons.
Once this knowledge spreads, it will cause severe Chaos corruption. At best, it will lead to a rebellion with countless casualties; at worst, an entire planet will fall and be dragged into the Warp, or suffer an Exterminatus.
In the past, thanks to the efforts of Imperial departments such as the Department of Justice, the Inquisition, and the Ecclesiarchy, Warp knowledge was not widespread in normal Imperial Worlds, and Imperial citizens had always been relatively well protected.
As long as one did not actively delve into Warp knowledge, even cultists would not cause much trouble.
But with the opening of the Great Rift, even ordinary Psykers might dream of a few demon names at night, and by chanting them, they could make sacrifices to them...
It is imaginable how serious the problem could be for the Imperium.
Especially since the Great Rift is not visible from just one or two worlds, but from every single one of the Imperium's million worlds, all of them can look up and see it.
This is also why Guilliman immediately launched the Indomitus Crusade upon his return to the Imperium.
It wasn't that this Primarch was addicted to war and wanted to replicate the Great Crusade.
Rather, for the Imperium, if another crusade wasn't launched to reclaim these planets, the Imperium would shatter into pieces like the former Human Federation, with only Holy Terra remaining.
Therefore, for Alex, thirty years is actually a very tight timeframe.
He must do everything possible to expand his military and prepare for war within these thirty years. Otherwise, when the Great Rift opens, he might be fine, but the other Imperial Worlds in the Sector might not be.
At that time, if other worlds fall, leading to Chaos invasions across the entire Sector, no egg will remain unbroken when the nest is overturned. He clearly cannot rely on one planet with a population of over a billion to resist the invasion of Chaos armies.
In other words, what Alex needs is to build the entire Sub-Sector into a force capable of at least resisting Sector-level Chaos invasions.
Whether it's naval fleets, the Astra Militarum, or Space Marines and Battle Sisters, Alex needs to stockpile sufficient quantities.
And this cannot be achieved without the support of a massive industrial system.
—
"32, how is the factory construction on Rostov III coming along?" Back in the 3k era, Alex inquired about the situation from 32.
The two were half a galaxy apart in the 40k era, and although they could communicate, it was clearly not as convenient as talking face-to-face now.
"The foundations are already being laid and the continental shelf is being reinforced," 32 stretched, casually stroking the cat that crawled past her, and then continued, "The minerals extracted from Hot Dog Star are basically sufficient for now. The factory construction will probably take about three years to start initial operations.
The subsequent construction will still require about ten years to complete the intercontinental forge factory.
And after it's built, a large amount of resources will still need to be continuously invested to maintain its operation.
From the current situation, the output of the entire Rostov System is probably enough to run this factory at about 15-20% capacity.
But this level of output is not enough to meet your military expansion requirements, unless you are willing to spend several hundred years accumulating military equipment."
Alex nodded, not surprised by this situation.
He had instructed 32 to build a super intercontinental factory on Rostov III, covering an area as large as an entire Eurasia.
Once operational, a super factory of this scale could produce a massive amount of materials and equipment, even things like warship keels and Titan skeletons.
But similarly, maintaining the operation of such a super factory required astronomical amounts of mineral resources.
If there was only the output of one or two planets, it would absolutely not be enough to feed a super factory of this scale.
However, this was within Alex's expectations. He simply nodded and then looked at Mai Mai and Twilight, asking them, "By the way, where are you two? You're not still drifting in the Warp, are you? Are you really just squeezing succubi all day?"
"We're here, we're here! We've already reached Griya, and are currently making contact with the Sage responsible for receiving guests," Mai Mai quickly replied. While squeezing succubi in the Warp was indeed interesting, it wouldn't be good to be misunderstood as dabbling in Slaanesh's affairs.
"You two should be careful. While squeezing succubi to make demon hosts is relatively less dangerous than other methods, it's still very risky," Alex reminded the two, then continued to ask, "What's Griya's attitude? Are they interested in this order?"
"We're still in contact. Overall, they are interested, but they don't seem very interested in the remuneration we're offering. We'll have to continue negotiating," Mai Mai explained the situation to Alex, also highlighting the biggest problem they were currently facing.
Alex was not surprised by the lack of smooth progress. He nodded and said, "Then keep negotiating with them. The Ecclesiarchy should agree to help us pay for the star-ring, so you don't need to rush to reach an agreement with them."
"Star-ring?" 32's eyes lit up at the mention of the ring.
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