"Master, I would recommend ordering a few cheaper Droids from the Starlight Drive Yard Industries. While the four Spider Bastion Combat Droids are top-notch in terms of destructive prowess, especially under my command, there are only four of them; more Droids would always be welcomed for me. Additionally to that, I already have a model that I could even reproduce if given enough time as the construction of the facility within the Obscurus is already in progress."
As soon as the droids were delivered to the Obscurus, Red Queen started modifying the bits of the ship because the ship had enormous empty space. A lot of it was entirely unused, and thus, she decided to construct a small line for repairing and constructing new droids.
With the evolution and growth she was undergoing, Alice was confident that she could reproduce any of the weaker and older models of the Droids, but that was something that her master didn't really wish to do.
Right now, he was too small of a fish, so he wanted to lay low.
If anyone knew that he had super-advanced, hyper-intelligent sentient Artificial Intelligence with him, then probably even a few of the big shots of the Andromeda Galaxy would invest a lot of resources to obtain Alice.
As he learned during the past days, Artificial Intelligences like Red Queen Alice were rare even within the Eternal Imperium of Asurya.
"So, what have you chosen already?... and should I tell you that I already don't have any UCs?"
The last of the Universal Credits that Arcturus had fell to the Votann Force Forger for the scraps of the battle armor; he wanted something that could defend him against most advanced projectile-based weapons and withstand at least some shots from the blasters or primitive lasguns if possible.
"That is not a problem. I already looked through the Starlight Drive Yard Industries, and you can take it on loan; if you are able to pay it back within one month, then you won't need to pay interest. This is one of the privileges that members of the Asuryani Highborne or those strong enough within their society enjoy."
Arcturus, hearing that, nodded his head as he saw that she had already thought it over.
"So, what is the model you wish to order?"
He was curious about the droids, but most importantly, he was curious about the cost.
"ABD-Spectre MK I. they are a reliable model of the combat droids that were used by even the military of the Imperium around one hundred years ago, but right now, they are going obsolete, and the Starlight Drive Yard Industries are getting rid of the MK I. Model, so they are selling them far cheaper. Around 100 Universal Credits per Unit."
Autonomous Battle Droid of Spectre Series, Model MK I. was a reliable model that was in the service within the Imperial Armed Forces for a long time already. Now that a new model has come, the Imperium was replacing them en masse and the need for them was getting lower and lower.
Indeed, 100 Universal Credit for one battle droid was a lot of money, realistically speaking, but if it was coming from the Type 3 civilizations, then it was understandable. Especially, it seemed that a few decades ago, the price was around 350 Universal Credits per unit.
The Imperium has been using the BRD
"How many do you want to buy?"
While the price was good, if they were going to buy more of them, then it would still hurt his wallet a lot.
Another 5,000 Universal Credits flew out of the way, on the debt to the Starlight Drive Yard Industries, but Arcutrrus didn't really care. He knew that he would be able to pay it in time, immediately after he completed the missions and submitted the bounties.
"Then buy it... on our way to the Helios IV. We will be on the lookout for the materials needed to upgrade the ship and manufacture a few more droids."
More droids meant more manpower, which in turn meant wider possibilities in regard to the bounties and missions of the Star Mercenary Association. Obscurus was a huge ship that had space to house thousands upon thousands of droids.
'If I had enormous manpower, then probably venturing into the Unknown Regions and preying on the undeveloped planets for their resources won't be out of the question.'
Arcturus thought, because that was certainly an interesting course of action and, in fact, one of the fastest ways how to get rich very fast.
The Unknown Regions were the ones that were not scouted, mostly the ones that were on the galactic edges, protected by Cosmic Storms or newly created from the expansion of the galaxy.
Having control over even a single planet that was rich in minerals and ores would bring Arcturus tremendous wealth. And yet not many dared to enter the Unknown Regions, because those places were swarming with the dangers on every single step.
He even saw that within this new reality there were even corporations that were buying and selling entire worlds. For... absolutely staggering prices of course, even small world was worth of tens of billions of Universal Credits, naturally the price was overall depending on other factors.
He knew that it was still in the far future; only then would he have sufficient military power to carry out something like that.
After the matters with the additional droids were finished, Arcturus decided to go to the local dojo and to train a bit.
As the Eternal Imperium of Asurya was highly militaristic and had a very strong warrior-based culture, there were people practicing various martial arts practically everywhere.
So, finding some dojo was as easy as throwing a stone. Even on the Starfort, like Lycurgos, there was one of them, so naturally, Arcturus planned to use this opportunity to get more combat experiences during his stay.
And he needed to practice against some really experienced warriors; fighting against pirates was worth of shit, and he didn't really want to buy a training droid because those were even more expensive than the Spider Bastion Battle Droid.