Warhammer 40: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 349 The Navigator's Problem
Gao Yi did not refuse Trajan's offer; wasn't this just free security? He couldn't find a reason to refuse.

Gao Yi also brought Guilliman and Trajan to the factory that produced the warp drive.

At this moment, Kaul was adjusting the warp drive so that it could be properly installed on the Warhammer warship.

Once it is created, humanity, representing the Warhammer, will be truly transformed.

Humanity will no longer be subject to the subspace.

After confirming its authenticity with Kaul.

Trajan then led the Imperial Guard to take over the internal defenses of the entire factory, receiving direct orders from the Emperor to raise its security level to the same level as the Royal Palace.

Trajan even summoned another 1000 guards from Terra to come here.

Although invading Argasus was an incredibly difficult task, the addition of these imperial guards greatly increased Argasus's defensive capabilities.

Especially in dealing with clandestine infiltrations, every member of the Royal Guard has undergone a bloody trial in the Terra Palace, making them experts in how to deal with infiltrators and assassins.

However, there are quite a few people who manage to infiltrate the palace.
Gao Yi knew that as these warp drives became more widespread in the Empire, no power in the entire galaxy would want humanity to possess this ability.

Chaos doesn't want to see this, the Eldar don't want to see this, and the Necromancers of the cosmos don't want to see this either.

Although the empire is always being attacked, it is still the largest existing empire in the world.

All the alien races will try their best to destroy Gao Yi and his forces, who created all of this.

None of them want Gao Yi to produce more good stuff, as Agathos and the entire expansion zone might really become the target of everyone's criticism later on.

What Gao Yi needs to do is to develop his own strength as much as possible before that happens.

Meanwhile, the Ultramarines' warships and the Glory of Macragge were immediately moved into Agathos's shipyard for modification.

Guilliman also prioritized his own people.

At the same time, he was also gathering other elite fleets to head to Agathos.

"Lord Gao Yi, the warp drive production lines are still too few. They are completely insufficient to meet the current needs of my fleet. Could you hand over the manufacturing method of this technology to me? In that case, I can arrange for other forging worlds to produce it together to ensure that a sufficient quantity can be produced in a short period of time."

However, Gao Yi chose to refuse Guilliman's request.

“Guilliman, it’s possible in the future, but definitely not now. With Chaos’s infiltration capabilities, I’m really not comfortable letting other forging worlds produce it. If those evil gods corrupt and infiltrate it at any cost, can you guarantee that this technology won’t be leaked?”

Gao Yi's words left Guilliman speechless for a moment. After all, there were cultists on Terra, and he had no way to refute them.

The existence of the Heavenly Secrets Project ensures that the manufacturing technology is solely controlled by Gao Yi, making it absolutely impossible for Chaos to crack. However, the Heavenly Secrets Project only prevents cracking.

If it directly learned the entire production process from other casting worlds, the Celestial Engineering project would not be able to play its due role.

If all factions in the Warhammer universe had warp technology, then there would be no advantage to speak of.

Empires with larger territories will only face more trouble; even with a larger fleet, they can only play hide-and-seek with Chaos.

After all, Chaos Traitors rarely have a fixed territory in the real universe; if you can't defeat them, you can always retreat back to the warp.

"I understand what you mean. But what about the future? Won't we still have to face this problem in the future?!"

"I said 'later' because I will be able to have technology that restricts jumps in the future."

"Restricted jumps?!"

Guilliman really wanted to know just how many good things Gao Yi still had.
"That's right, it's something called a hyperspace suppressor. It requires a lot of energy and space to operate continuously, so it can't be carried on a spaceship, but it can be built on a star or a sufficiently large void base."

It can amplify the gravity in a region to its limit, making it impossible for any warship attempting to travel faster than light or through hyperspace to travel safely and quickly. It's like creating an impenetrable barrier in front of it. Once we have this, even if Chaos captures some warships or obtains warp drive technology in some way that we don't know about, we can deal with it with ease.

But as I said, this thing is a fixed facility and is difficult to move. If we want all the star systems within the Empire to be free from threats, we need to build faster-than-light suppressors and their supporting measures in every star system.

"This project is enormous in scale and scope, Guilliman. After all, your expedition isn't even fully complete yet. Even if I gave you this technology, you wouldn't have enough manpower and resources to build it, would you?"

After listening to Gao Yi's words, Guilliman temporarily put aside his idea of ​​having Gao Yi provide him with warp drive manufacturing technology. Just as Gao Yi said, the resources consumed by the expedition were already a headache for Guilliman.

With millions of imperial worlds, and even after removing some unimportant ones, there are still hundreds of thousands of important worlds. This is indeed a massive undertaking. Perhaps only when his unification expedition is nearly complete will he have the resources to do these things.

With this in mind, Guilliman figured that having his own fleet modified by Gao Yi for the time being should be enough.

With their superior mobility, the Ultramarines, skilled in mass production, were able to solve many problems for Guilliman.

However, Gao Yi then looked at Guilliman. Compared to these future troubles, there was an even more serious, or rather urgent, matter that Guilliman needed to solve for Gao Yi.

"Guilliman, have you figured out how to solve the problem of those navigators?"

The advantages of the jump engine definitely outweigh the disadvantages, but the accompanying troubles it causes are also a headache, and if not handled carefully, they can also cause big problems.

Guilliman also realized what Gao Yi meant by those words.

"I understand what you mean, Lord Gao Yi! But I haven't come up with a smooth transition plan yet. Although the High Lord representative of the Navigator families has now been replaced by a Navigator family protected by Ultramarines for generations, allowing me to have complete control, the downside is that this person doesn't have enough prestige among the other Navigator families. I even think that if this family under my protection knew about the existence of the warp drive, they might no longer choose to obey me."

Upon hearing Gao Yi's words, Guilliman's joy turned to worry.

The gap between reality and games is once again highlighted. In games, you can suppress opposing political ideas with a single button, or even ignore the voices of dissidents, but you can't do that here.

The entire empire is so deeply intertwined with the Navigator family.

The fact that even the Highlords have their place shows their importance in the entire empire. Even on Terra, there is a large area dedicated to these large navigator families, and every palace and building there can be described as magnificent on Terra.

In the Empire, apart from Gao Yi's fleet, no human fleet can escape these navigators, not even the former Empire or the more technologically advanced Golden Age of humanity.

The Navigators have existed for far longer than the current human empire, which shows just how deeply entrenched they are.

It can be said that once the empire is separated from these navigators, it will be completely ruined.

These navigators from various navigator families can be said to be found on almost every planet and in every corner of the Empire.

Once they realize that the Empire no longer needs them for interstellar travel, they will certainly try to retaliate in order to maintain their own position and everything they have.

They were well aware that their value to the Empire lay in maintaining the warships' warp navigation; once the Empire no longer needed them, they would lose their purpose.

Value is created by demand. If the Empire no longer needs them, then they are just ordinary mutants to the Empire.
It's not just a threat to their own status, but also to their interests. The Navigator families live incredibly luxurious lives. Leveraging their importance to the empire, each large Navigator family's businesses are spread across all sectors of the empire. Without the convenience of this status, the Navigator families simply couldn't do all of this.

Even if Guilliman told them that the Empire would still provide them with a lot of wealth after they no longer needed to navigate the warships, Guilliman would believe it, but they wouldn't be so naive as to believe it.

If they were just mutants without psychic powers, it would be one thing, but they happen to possess powerful psychic abilities.

In Gao Yi and Guilliman's eyes, if these navigators become destabilizing factors, given the methods of the Chaos God and their rebellious desires, it's practically certain that they will defect to the Chaos.

And this situation is practically imminent.

Guilliman has now placed all the Ultramarines' navigators who have come to the Agathos fleet under house arrest, even though they are very loyal.

Although they are unaware of the warp drive, once the warship completes its intergalactic journey without their assistance, they will become aware of its existence, and once they do, they will inevitably pass on this information.

Guilliman cannot allow the problems caused by the Navigators to erupt immediately. Producing warp engines takes time, and modifying warships also takes time. If the major Navigator families really recall all the Navigators distributed throughout the Empire to strike, the existing warships modified with warp engines will not be able to cover the entire Empire.

Most warships will be trapped within their own star systems, and some resource-poor planets will even fall into unprecedented chaos because they obtain food from agricultural worlds in surrounding star systems or star sectors.

“You and I are both well aware of the consequences of this situation, Guilliman. If it comes to pass, it could trigger a disaster comparable to the Great Rebellion. I can increase the production line of warp engines as much as possible, but this will ultimately take time.”

"I know what you mean. But this problem is almost unsolvable. However, at least we have mastered this technology. If they really dare to betray the Empire, then kill them!"

When Guilliman finished speaking, Gao Yi could feel the killing intent emanating from him. For Guilliman, replacing the warp drive was inevitable, something that humanity and the Emperor had always pursued. If the Navigator really chose to rebel, then war would be the only option.

"The cost of war in this situation would be too high. Chaos and the other Xenomorphs wouldn't let this opportunity pass. The favorable situation would definitely collapse completely because of this, and perhaps it's not unsolvable?"

Guilliman suddenly turned around and looked at Gao Yi.

"Lord Gao Yi, do you have a solution?"

Guilliman paused when he said this, and looked at Gao Yi with a genuine sense of anticipation, as if no problem was serious in front of Gao Yi.

"Guilliman, do you have a way to gather the leaders or key members of the Empire's largest navigator families?"

"Sure. In my name and in the name of the Navigator High Lord, they should choose to obey. But what's the point? Do you want to kill them all? If we use such violence, rebellion is still inevitable, and it might even force those Navigators who are unwilling to join us to turn to our enemies."

These navigators will not submit simply because their leader has been killed; new people will quickly rise to power.

"No, no, no, if it were murder, I wouldn't say it like that. But my method might be a bit unorthodox, and I'm afraid you might not be able to accept it."

"Heretical?! Is it related to an evil god?!"

Guilliman said, frowning.

"No, it has nothing to do with evil gods, but it is related to aliens."

Guilliman did not relax upon hearing this; the Xenomorphs and Chaos were equally dangerous.

"You know about gene stealers, right? And their related characteristics."

"Terran?! What do you mean by that? Does that mean the technology you're talking about comes from them?!"

"That's about right. You must know about the race I have called Zerg, right? After the battle in the Hades system, my Zerg have also mastered similar abilities. If you can gather them together and control them, perhaps I can use the special units created by the Zerg to control them as well."

Once these navigator family leaders are under our control and support us, even if unrest does occur, the impact will be much smaller. If all goes well, we might even have the opportunity to smoothly take over these families!

We can slowly and secretly take control of all their key members!

After hearing Gao Yi finish speaking, Guilliman's eyes widened in surprise.
Guilliman had considered the heresy Gao Yi had mentioned, but he hadn't expected it to be this extreme.
To be honest, even Guilliman was a little hesitant to cooperate with Gao Yi in doing this. If the Zerg in Gao Yi's hands could parasitize the Navigator, could it also parasitize other people?
Guilliman even wanted to return to the palace now and ask his father again: could this human being still be trusted?!
He immediately decided to conduct a thorough investigation of all the important people around him in secret to ensure that such an individual did not exist.

(End of this chapter)