In the following days, Alexei waited patiently for Armand to vacate his cruiser. A Conquest-class Cruiser was, for all intents and purposes, a small floating city.
As a signature armed merchant vessel for many Rogue Traders, its 5.1-kilometer-long hull was sufficient to house over 65,000 crew members and a vast amount of cargo. Furthermore, its weapon hardpoints were extremely flexible, allowing Rogue Traders to customize the armament to their specific needs.
The Capet Dynasty's vessel, which was a size larger than a typical Conquest-class Cruiser, was armed to the teeth. Looking at the dense arrays of macro-cannons and laser batteries lining its flanks, Alexei was confident it could easily tear apart any enemy in its path.
During the deck-clearing process, an incident occurred that caught Alexei's attention. While clearing the lower decks, the teams encountered numerous mummified corpses of unknown age. After disposing of these bodies, members of the cleaning crew—despite wearing power armor with full NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) protection—somehow became infected with a mysterious disease.
The infected first developed red rashes all over their bodies, followed by unbearable itching and an increasingly manic mental state. Eventually, their ulcerated bodies had to be restrained to prevent them from lunging at others. Even the Medics' treatments were futile; instead, anyone who came into contact with the patients became infected themselves.
The moment Alexei heard the news, he realized this was likely the handiwork of Nurgle. He immediately ordered the Ghosts and Diana to lead a team to quarantine the entire starport.
After learning from Armand that a rebellion by Nurgle cultists had indeed occurred on this cruiser several years ago, Alexei cursed the "fat merchant" a thousand times in his heart.
Just as he resigned himself to his luck and prepared to inspect the patients personally, Alexei was surprised to find that as soon as he approached the victims, their manic spirits calmed down. They began to whisper for help, and at that point, the Medics were able to treat them with ease.
Alexei immediately sensed something was amiss. These diseases definitely had Warp components within them. Why was it that as soon as he arrived, they could be easily cured? Do I have some kind of passive buff aura that suppresses Warp energy now? Have I become a Sister of Silence?
No, this definitely wasn't the case before; otherwise, he would have noticed it during his confrontation with Tzeentch. Could it be... Alexei thought of the new ability he gained after absorbing the Emperor's blessing. He suspected this was the most likely source of his new power, though a single incident wasn't enough to determine the full extent of it. He would need another brush with Chaos to be certain.
The subsequent clearing went much smoother. With the help of Armand's departing crew and a large number of PDF soldiers, it took less than two months to completely purge the Conquest-class Cruiser.
Armand stood beside Alexei, looking wistfully at his former flagship. "Take good care of the Red Romance. It was the ship that started my family's fortune."
"...Why is it called that?"
"I don't know, and it doesn't matter," Armand replied, looking at his Master of the Household, who reported that everything was ready for departure. "Lord Alexei, we part ways here. I have a feeling we will meet again somewhere else."
"...Safe travels. I won't see you out," Alexei replied flatly. He just wanted the man to leave quickly so he could stop wasting time.
As he watched the Rogue Trader's fleet slowly leave his starport and vanish from his vision, Alexei silently wished them "good luck," hoping Lord Armand could escape with his life when he eventually encountered the "oil-heads" of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Immediately afterward, he ordered the cruiser to be moved to his automated shipyard. He had already reserved enough space for it. It would take a long time to refit this behemoth into the state he desired, and he hoped to complete it within the next few months.
After a short period, Alexei returned to the orbital shipyard.
Looking at the notification on the interface indicating the scan was complete, Alexei knew he was about to obtain the most "broken" piece of technology on this ship: the ship-borne Void Shield.
As the premier defensive field in Warhammer 40K, a Void Shield isn't exactly a shield in the traditional sense. It doesn't block or deflect attacks; instead, it uses specialized Warp technology to absorb the energy of incoming strikes and shunt them into the Immaterium.
Furthermore, even if a ship's Void Shields are overloaded and collapse during battle, they can be raised again after a short cooldown.
Seeing the prompt on his control panel that he could now refit the Battlecruisers in the dock with Void Shields, Alexei could no longer suppress his grin.
This would drastically increase the survival rate of his Battlecruisers. Standard attacks would find it difficult to penetrate or overload them. Even during the brief periods when the Void Shields were down, the Battlecruisers could use their secondary defense—the built-in Defense Matrix—to temporarily withstand enemy fire, coupled with the Regenerative Bio-Steel technology...
At least within a planetary atmosphere, these Battlecruisers would be nearly peerless. He might even have the chance to engage in a "beam struggle" with a Tyranid ground Titan.
Next, Alexei planned to perform extensive modifications on the Red Romance. At the very least, he would automate the macro-cannon loading process, remove various redundant and cluttered spaces to increase crew living quarters and vehicle transport capacity, and finally, install the most crucial component: the Warp Drive (Tactical Jump).
Alexei also packed the interior with a large number of massive Cold Fusion Reactors to provide sufficient energy for the behemoth. He had modified the prow, equipping the massive ship with high-caliber energy weapons befitting its status: two sets of triple-barreled Yamato Cannons stacked vertically. With an energy supply far exceeding that of a standard Battlecruiser, it could perform continuous overloaded firing—a level of firepower capable of annihilating any foe.
However, due to its sheer size, both its jump initiation speed and cruising speed were slower than those of a Battlecruiser. Therefore, Alexei wanted to maximize its firepower and armor, turning it into the ultimate rearguard unit to buy time for the rest of the fleet's jumps.
Alexei calculated the time. The next three months would be enough to finish the refit of all vessels. By then, a fleet consisting of one Conquest-class Cruiser, three Minotaur-class Battlecruisers, and two Gorgon-class Battlecruisers would blink directly onto Sotha's doorstep, bringing new hope to that darkening world.
"Now, it's time for a wave of upgrades for the ground units," Alexei said, turning to leave the automated shipyard.