Shipping goods from the game to the World of Warhammer

The final ruling of the Foundry Director of Herek was announced that evening in the form of a binary notice throughout the entire city of Mordax: the maintenance procedures of the STC engineering vehicles provided by the traveling merchant ronin were deemed to be "in accordance with the spirit of the doctrine of the God of Machines" after being reviewed by the Foundry Director and twelve mechanical priests present.

The wording was very deliberate; it was not "fully in accordance with doctrinal norms" but "in accordance with the doctrinal spirit." This gave priests who had reservations about the SCV's operational procedures a way out, while also granting the SCV the right to operate legally in Mordax.

For Rhodes, the result was even better than he had expected.

SCV has been granted the right to legally repair Mechanicus creations in the Forge world, meaning his Terran units can legitimately participate in Mordax's daily operations instead of being relegated to tinkering in the shadows.

Of course, the cost was also obvious. Herek added a supplementary clause at the end of the ruling: In view of the maintenance capabilities demonstrated by the STC engineering vehicles, the Director of Foundry had the right to deploy these engineering vehicles to participate in the on-site maintenance of front-line machinery during wartime and emergency situations, including but not limited to automatons, combat cybernetic bodies of mechanical priests, and various war machines.

To put it simply, SCV pilots will not only have to repair things in the rear, but also go to the front line with the Domita fighter soldiers and skitarii to patch up the beaten oil guys and iron bumps under the fire.

Rhodes silently mourned for the group of human melee units for a few seconds.

Okay, strictly speaking, SCVs are not suitable for the battlefield, but in StarCraft, SCVs that are dragged to the front lines to repair tanks are not much different from meat shield units.

Moreover, Mordax is a forging world, where "normal working hours" are already terrifying enough for ordinary people. It's from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., not 9 p.m., but from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., at least sixteen hours of continuous work every day, with the assembly line never stopping. During peak production periods or wartime conditions, it's 24/7, with meals eaten standing next to the workstation, stuffing nutritional paste into their mouths.

What? You're saying you have a problem with your leg? You can't stand up anymore?

It's simple. The Mechanicus will remove your legs and install you directly on the assembly line to continue working for the Om Messiah. That's how most of the Forging Worlds are handled.

Of course, in the eyes of the mechanical priests, this is not exploitation, but "praising the god of all machines through labor".

Fortunately, given Rhodes's status as a merchant ronin and his contribution in providing the STC, these oily guys probably wouldn't really overwork the SCV pilots; at most, they'd be doing the same kind of work as ordinary laborers in Mordax.

……probably.

In any case, Rhodes has finally gained a foothold in this world of forging.

Although the Terran base he has built in Mordax is still small—a few command centers disguised as standard STC buildings, and similarly repackaged barracks, totaling less than a dozen buildings, are situated in an abandoned factory area specially approved by the Foundry Director—the barracks are already producing a steady stream of Marines and Marauders. Combined with the Zerg hatcheries that have been operating in the Esperan Agricultural World for some time, Rhodes's available forces are steadily increasing.

Moreover, judging from the current system side quests and the speed at which universal energy is gained by increasing the dynasty's influence, it shouldn't take too long to upgrade the system shop's technology tree to level two.

Rhodes roughly estimated that, barring any major unforeseen circumstances, the accumulated energy should be sufficient in at least one or two months.

It's time to go.

Rhodes officially bid farewell to Herlek, citing the reason that he would "continue to explore star systems where new STC relics might exist," so that when unlocking the Heavy Factory and Starport later, he wouldn't have to waste any more words.

The casting director didn't ask any further questions, but simply expressed a sentence in binary language, which roughly translates to "The God of Machines will guide your course," and then presented Rhodes with a batch of standard ammunition and maintenance supplies produced by Mordax as a return gift.

To be honest, Rhodes himself would have liked to stay a few more days.

Mordax's military production capacity was truly formidable. Before leaving, he glanced at the heavy assembly workshop deep within the Forging Sanctuary, where three automated machine knights were being assembled simultaneously. Just watching the skeletons of those giant machines slowly close under the pull of the cranes was enough to captivate anyone with even a slight interest in mechanics. Not to mention the shipyard area on the outskirts of the Forging City. Although Mordax's shipbuilding capabilities couldn't compare to those of the top Forging Worlds, it could still build conventional-class warships.

Rhodes was also very interested in the research of those geneticists. If it could be used on the Zerg in Espera to create mechanical Zerg that could only be used by commander units, that would be great.

Unfortunately, just as he finished dealing with the demon engine, the system inopportunely popped up a new task panel.

[System tasks have been updated]

[Task Name: Unknown Signal Source Tracing]

[Mission Objective: Travel to coordinates ██-██-████ and bring this planet under Imperial influence]

[Mission Rewards: General Energy, and unknown rewards depending on mission completion]

[Note: This planet is not within the regular marking range of the Empire's known star maps. The Thinker's database contains only a vague route record, which appears to be an early exploration marking from the Great Crusade, with no updates since.]

Universal energy, plus unknown rewards based on mission completion, seems like a good idea.

However, Rhodes has now figured out the system's strategy: the better he completes his mission, the more beneficial it will be to the entire human empire, and the greater his own gains will be.

For example, if you completely control the resources and situation on this planet, you can not only gain a planet under Van der Rake's management, but also get a lot of benefits from the system.

However, the fact that "there are almost no records in the Imperial database" on the system made Rhodes frown. In the universe where humans were once scattered throughout the entire galaxy, if a planet could not be found on the Imperial star map, it was either too remote and too worthless for anyone to waste resources on recording, or the people who went to record it never returned.

Neither of these situations is good news.

Rhodes entered the mission coordinates into the flagship's Thinker system. The ancient computing device, whose efficiency had been greatly improved after being repaired by the SCV, took about twenty minutes to retrieve a result from the depths of the database: there was indeed a route record on the planet corresponding to the coordinates, with the timestamp showing that it was from the Great Expedition period, the recorder was unknown, and the route was marked as "passable but unverified". For nearly ten thousand years after that, this record was never updated or referenced by anyone.

A place no one has been to in ten thousand years.

"It seems I'll have to come back to see Mordax's fleet another time."

Rhodes sighed and skillfully hid in the initiation hall before the flagship entered the warp channel. Although he had adapted to it, it didn't mean that Rhodes would foolishly endure the discomfort brought by the warp energy.

The flagship's navigator sent out a final confirmation signal, the engine roar suddenly rose, the ship shuddered slightly, and the surrounding light distorted.