Chapter 117: Discovery and Prospects
Everyone in the Veren Republic and the Eternal Empire of the Asurya was aware that the all-out war between the two factions was inevitable. Both of them were High-Level factions within the Andromeda Galaxy, and sooner or later, with the Republic or the Empire would want to unfit the entire galaxy under their banner.
So, this conflict was already set in stone.
As Arcturus thought over the war... he was filled with excitement.
It was a really weird feeling, truth to be told, but at the same time, the thought of the full-scale war between the Veren Republic and the Eternal Empire of Asurya was filling him with glee and anticipation.
So many powerful foes to fight and most importantly...
The war meant money.
When the all-out war started between the two high-level Factions, Arcturus was sure that the Imperial Eceonmy would totally adjust to the military economy and that he would have a lot of opportunities to make some money.
As a rather skilled philologist in his past life, even in this new life, he learned that the politics were the same, and within a few upcoming decades or two, the conflict between the Veren Republic and the Eternal Empire of the Asurya was inevitable.
Due to the several centuries of border conflicts and several minor wars, it was clear that all the tension would be erupting once at all. And he knew that the moment when the Empire secured the Nihilus Star Region by completing the defensive wall that would hold the Arachnids at bay, it would turn its attention to the Veren Republic.
He also knew that even though he was a Star Mercenary and Bounty Hunter, he was still a citizen of the Empire, and due to many factors, it was also guaranteed that he would receive the Military Conscription Order the moment the war started.
Arcturus knew that the Imperial Law was especially strict with the Military Conscription Orders because if the person who received the Military Conscription Order refused to heed it or ignored it, they would automatically lose the citizenship of the Empire.
Depending on the severity of the situation due to which the Military Conscription Orders were sent out, the person who didn't heed the Order could also be declared a criminal of the highest rank with the Kill On The Sight Order or have a huge bounty written on his head.
And the Directorate would make a short process with the people like that because every single one of them was hunted down and killed without any mercy. There were even cases that Arcturus has seen even some members of the Bloodline Lineage Aristocratic Houses of the Highborne were executed for failing to respond to the Military Conscription Order.
However, such cases were really rare because, for the members of the Nobility of the Empire, there was nothing more humiliating than not fulfilling the service to the country as nationalism and patriotism were huge things in the Empire.
Just as he was relaxing on the couch and drinking a good drink and observing the fireplace, which was always one of his most treasured hobbies, and there was even a beautiful woman next to him as a nice bonus, he got an urgent message from Zehal.
He was rather curious about what she wanted because she wasn't the type that would talk about useless things, though that was one they had in common with Jeniael because neither of the two was built for small talk or even socializing in general.
While Jenaiel was always training, Zehal preferred to be locked with her machinery and other things and tinkering with who knows what. This was rather good because it fit his personality, as he, too, preferred to be left to his own devices if possible.
As he was rather curious, he opened the message that arrived through the Extranet rather than the Imperial NetSphere, and the more he read about it, the more excited he became. Seeing this, most probably, though, annoyed Jeniael, judging based on her expression that she wasn't too pleased about the development of this.
"I must go to the Engineering Room... it seems that Zehal has made some progress on the upgrades for the Engines, among other things."
Arcturus stated as he stood up from the couch and said to Jenaiel, who was heavily frowning as she heard that. She wasn't really pleased by the outcome of this, and she was pretty pissed off at Zehal for interrupting their nice moment.
While Jeniael would never really sound it out of loud, Arcturus was the first man who wasn't part of her family and was normally talking with her. Usually, everyone was too scared to speak with her, either due to her background or her own personality.
Not to mention, most of the men didn't really like the fact that women were categorically stronger than them. So, when she saw that Zehal was getting too chummy-yummy with Arcturus, it wasn't something that was sitting very well with her.
"Then I will go with you."
As she said that, Arcturus was left rather surprised, though saying that he was surprised would be a severe underestimation of the situation of how he felt. It was already very surprising that she wanted to go and listen to the scientific talk that she called boring and useless many times...
But the most shocking thing was the revelation that she was to meet with Zehal out of her own free will. This was really suspicious on its own, but he didn't really bother to delve into this matter any longer as he took Jenaiel with him to the Engineering Room.
Hopefully, the two of them would remain as civil with each other as possible, which wasn't really possible, but miracles happened from time to time. It didn't take them long to arrive at the Engineering Room, where Zehal was working on something with the Red Queen, who was projecting her holo projection and talking with the Heiress Apparent of the House Alvix.
They were rather a dynamic duo when they were working together, and during the short time on the deck of the Obscurus, Zehal has already contributed a lot to the development of the spaceship, which saved him a lot of money.
Due to the more unfortunate state of the Obscurus, for the starship to achieve its full potential, it would require many millions of Universal Credits, so even with Red Queen's adjustments, which were greatly welcomed as they were too saving huge amounts of money, it alone wasn't really enough.
"So, what have the two of you created this time?"
In fact, he was rather curious because Zehal wrote him that it was a breaking achievement.
'I have shown Miss Zehal the project of the Dark Matter Power Generator taken from the Space Hulks and several problems that I have encountered while attempting to redesign the engines to better suit the ones in the Desolate Territory in our part of the Cosmos. Surprisingly enough, Miss Zehal here solved two of the biggest problems, and with this, we can start constructing the prototype once we solve the last huge problem in the power circuit overheating and super-cooling and gather materials for the job.'
The holographic projection of the Red Queen started something that one would call "happiness", as Arcturus almost froze in his tracks when he heard that. Previously, when he spoke with the Red Queen about the schematics that he obtained from Space Hulk, the results were not that good.
There were several design problems that were basically preventing Red Queen from making a working prototype, and it was very hard to tell if these problems were stemming either from the design itself as they were based on some form of unknown Xenotechnology or they were purposely put in the schematics, so the people that obtained the blueprints won't be able to build the thing.
Arcturus didn't really know, and in fact, he didn't even care about that because the only thing that he cared about in this regard were the results, and those were not really that good.
At least until now.
Now, the results appeared to be splendid.
He didn't even know how to express his happiness because the sooner they obtained the functioning prototype, the sooner it could be introduced onto the market. With some capital, he could be spamming inferior Dark Matter Power Generators that were meant to be sold to the Mid-Level Civilizations and Mid-Level Star Nations for the exorbitant amount of money.
And he knew that no matter what he asked for the Dark Matter Power Generators, they would pay because it would still be far superior to anything that they could construct by themselves, and with several fail safes installed in them, any possible reverse-engineering would end up in failure.
Not only that but also in a pretty violent explosion because he wasn't going to let just anyone attempt to reverse-engineer his most prized possession.
"And the versions for the High-Level Star Nation and High-Level Civilizations?"
Even though extorting large amounts of money from the Mid-Level Civilizations and Mid-Level Star Nations sounded pretty good, the real money lay with the big players on the Cosmic scale and not with the small fries.
In the end, the ones that controlled entire galleries or multiple galaxies could pay him much more, even though the competition there was much fiercer. From what he knew about the Desolate Cosmic Region, the Dark Matter wasn't really a mastered technological tree at the ends of the Cosmos.
"They are not really far from realizing either, but they are more problematic to construct. If we compare the standard Dark Matter Power Generator with the more advanced version, one meant to power up most of the Type 3 Technologies; then we are facing several problems on many fronts that could be solved only by using some very durable and rare materials in the construction of the High-Level Dark Matter Power Generator. But that's not the biggest problem... right now, according to the simulations that we have conducted, while the normal Dark Matter Power Generators work rather well, the problem with the ones meant to power up the Type 3 Technologies is that, they tend of overload and explode from too much energy, sometimes the simulations are showing self-collapse of the Dark Matter and creation of the miniature black holes..."
As he listened to Zehal's explanation about the development of the more advanced Dark Matter Power Generators that were meant to be used to power up the Type 3 Technologies, he understood only some parts of it, but seeing that she wasn't really stressed as she was telling him that, he knew that it was only a matter of time until it was resolved.
"So... theoretically speaking, we now only need a factory and materials, and we can start the manufacturing process of the Dark Matter Power Generators for the Mid-Level Civilizationsna and Mid-Level Star Nations?"
He asked as he looked at the Zehal and Red Queen, and both the Highborne Asuryani and Hyper Advanced Super Artificial Intelligence nodded in agreement.
"Procuring the materials would be a bit costly because even the costs of the basic version of the Dark Matter Power Generators could be rather steep... but the price that they could sell for would make you a billionaire after a few deals... A Universal Credit Billionaire."
Zehal stated that she realized the true value of the Dark Matter Power Generators and how much money they could make. Even Starlight Drive Yard Industries would pay an extraordinarily high sum just for the licensing fees...
Even though her family was one of the main shareholders in Starlight Drive Yard Industries, with her uncle Kaelor Alvix being one of the corporation's Senior Executives, she decided to keep it a secret.
On the other hand, Zehal saw an opportunity in this for herself and to achieve something by her own hands and effort, not being bound to the House Alvix and, at the same, establishing a deeper connection with Arctrusus Crawford.
She knew that someone like him was bound to reach the Beyonder Realm sooner or later.
Jenaiel who was listening from the back was surprisingly silent for the entire time as she was just listening to the discussion between them.
It was rather surprising how much money they were talking about, even to her, who was from the most prominent Bloodline Lineage Aristocratic House within the Empire, it was astronomical amount of money.
House Luxford was not a Mercantile Clan, so while they were not poor by any means, and, in fact, they were very, very rich... it was still far from the level of the Mercantile Clans that had an almost endless stream of Universal Credits.
For some members of the House Luxford, it wasn't really a topic, but for Jeniael, who was obtaining all of her resources through her own hands, the topic of making money was always pretty appealing.
"So, that was your reason for choosing to be the Star Mercenary and Bounty Hunter? Collecting the exotic technologies, reverse-engineering them, and then selling them to the different markets..."
Jeniael muttered as she now understood why someone like Arcturus chose such an unsavory profession. Indeed, if he was doing it like this, then he would be able to utilize the most basic features of the Star Mercenary and Bounty Hunter Professions as he would be able to collect technologies all across space.
"Basically, yes... I need a lot of cultivation resources to support me in my cultivation due to having a rather problematic Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Ability, even if it is compared to the others of its kind. And I don't really want to be tied down by many rules in the Military or similar organzitiosn of the Empire and as Highborne Asuryani there are not really many places where I can go... especially not to the south. And most obviously... I want to be rich."
Arcturus stated as he looked at Jeniael and let her process everything that he had said till now. Find adventures at empire
"Zehal, can you prepare some prototype blueprints for the Dark Matter Power Generators? I think that after we return from this mission, if we survive it in one piece, the first payment from the Starlight Drive Yard Industries for the licensing fees will arrive, and I will start the entire process."
The Heiress Apparent of the House Alvix, nodded as she made a mental note to do something about this at a later date.