The Emperor’s Angel of Death

It was precisely Nasu Mastenbrook's outstanding achievements and his exceptional talent in robotics and Necron technology that made Soya increasingly reliant on him. Not only did he become the second Dominus of the Astral Knights' Battle Automata Cohort, but he also became the second Mechanicus individual after Dietrian to be allowed access to the Astral Knights' most secret armories, effectively beginning to rival Dietrian's influence.

Nasu came to see Soya mainly because Soya, while handling matters on Natesan V, had sent him ahead to Natesan VI to investigate the mineral resources there. After analyzing various raw ores extracted from Natesan VI, and dispatching his own survey teams to conduct in-depth underground excavations, as well as utilizing instruments for several rounds of probing, Nasu roughly arrived at a conclusion.

According to the data submitted by Nasu, Natesan VI can be considered a planet with relatively abundant mineral resources. The types of minerals are not significantly different from those on Natesan V. Due to the short exploration time, accurate information on specific reserves could not be obtained, but the reserves of heavy metal raw ores should be at a medium-high level.

However, Natesan VI has a very special feature that the Administratum had not noticed—

Natesan VI possesses an extremely large and rich gold vein. This was discovered by Nasu's survey team by chance near an active volcano in the planet's Antarctic region. According to their measurements, there is a gold vein that almost spans the continent. It is likely that in the early stages of the planet's formation, a massive meteorite or even a small asteroid carrying a large amount of gold elements directly impacted the planet's surface, permanently altering Natesan VI's orbit. The remaining debris, along with crustal movement, formed a vast gold vein around the impact zone.

This also explains why the Administratum's raw ore list includes some gold. However, the Administratum clearly wasn't very focused on this prison world and didn't hire very professional Mechanicus to conduct surveys, so they were guarding a gold mine without even realizing it.

This brought good news to Soya.

Gold is also a rare mineral in the Imperium. After all, the conditions for the formation of this metallic element are too harsh. Whether it's a supernova explosion or a neutron star collision, these are extremely low-probability events in the vast galaxy. So, even in the 41st millennium, gold remains a high-value precious metal.

In addition, gold occupies an important position in the industrial system of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Many cutting-edge products and weapons require this metal. For example, the famous Banelord Titan contains at least 4 tons of gold in its internal facilities and instruments. The Banelord's expense is not only due to its complex structure, but also the various expensive and rare metals it uses determine that its cost cannot be low.

But why can't gold be used as the Imperium's universal currency?

A very important reason is that the scarcity of gold makes it difficult to meet the commercial needs of all worlds in the incredibly vast Imperium. Another reason is that the Imperium established a law since its inception that prohibits private trading and storage of gold. Although the initial enforcement was not strict, small-scale private trading and possession of gold were considered a default unspoken rule. However, as time went on, and with the widespread impoverishment of the Imperial population, the gold ban became stricter, because it gave the upper echelons a good excuse to plunder the wealth of the people. → (I made this up myself, don't take it seriously, but I'm sometimes quite puzzled why gold seems to have a high and low presence in the Imperium. It's used everywhere in ship buildings, but it's not very common as currency. Of course, some worlds use gold coins, but it's not universal.)

This is why gold can be seen in the Imperium's palaces, warships, cathedrals, and even equipment, but it is rarely seen in areas below the mid-hive.

But gold is, after all, a rare precious metal, and it is naturally a common equivalent used by Rogue Traders or large-scale interstellar trade, with the same status as palladium in the Maelstrom area. However, it will be more valuable in some areas, such as the Sol system, where the population is highly dense and the number of dignitaries is large. In some frontier areas, the value will be relatively low. In general, it can be called a very "valuable" mineral.

Like Natesan V, although it also produces gold, most of it is associated minerals, and the few deep gold mines have long been emptied. After all, most of the planet's gold elements exist in the core.

The large gold vein on Natesan VI can be said to be a windfall. According to Nasu's measurements, its potential reserves should be around five billion tons.

So, Soya instructed Nasu not to rush, to prepare the necessary equipment and personnel, and to go to the vein area for mining after the Administratum's relocation is completed. After all, that area is located in the planet's Antarctic region, where the average daily ground temperature is as low as -80 degrees Celsius, and in extreme cases can reach -120 degrees Celsius. It would definitely be difficult to rely on manual mining, so it is best to use mechanical mining. As for the use of the mined gold, Soya plans to use some of it to pay for the construction costs of Ulan Huda. Natesan VI needs to build many new facilities to become a new colony, and these all rely on Ulan Huda's mechanical construction teams. Although they are loyal to him, Soya can't really let them work for free, even if Bangula has no complaints, it is not fair to Ulan Huda.

The other part will be used to purchase large-scale civilian equipment from Zhao-Arcadia, as well as the cost of ordering new warships. The rest will go into the Chapter's treasury as reserve administrative expenses. After all, Soya has added so many subordinate organizations and institutions, and those new personnel also need remuneration, especially scholars and technical personnel, they can't just be given food and sent away.

After basically understanding the situation on Natesan VI, Soya immediately set off for Natesan VII, the outermost planet in the Natesan system.

Natesan VII is similar to Neptune in the Sol system. It is also a gas giant and the largest of the Natesan planets, so it has as many as 10 satellites of varying sizes. From a distance, it looks like a giant blue sphere.

This type of planet is almost meaningless for colonization, because the surface temperature is often as low as -200 degrees Celsius and is filled with large amounts of methane, ethane, and acetylene. But for the Adeptus Mechanicus, such planets are of great significance, because they often represent a source of mechanization—

Promethium!

That's right, a considerable portion of the promethium used by the Imperium of Man is mined from these gas giants. Other sources, such as under the ice layers of ice-covered worlds or in the promethium seas of death worlds, can also be mined for raw promethium. For example, Saphinious, a relatively famous world in the Storm Wardens region, is known for its vast promethium seas.

Obtaining promethium first requires mining raw ore. Raw promethium in gas giants is often located at a mantle depth of 7,000 meters, associated with vast diamond mountains. Although the reserves are not small, the mining difficulty is relatively high, far from being as easy as simply breaking through the ice layer in ice-covered worlds, let alone comparing with the promethium seas, where large amounts of raw promethium can be easily obtained using drilling platforms. But after all, the reserves are there, and promethium seas are not easily found. For this reason, the Adeptus Mechanicus has also developed technology for obtaining promethium from gas giants.