Pentos. Esso.
While my intention was still to invade the Stepstones and to take the islands one at a time until I was the prince of them, it would be best to avoid using the title of king if I wished to open diplomatic talks with people from Westeros, that sort of thing takes time to prepare for. It wouldn't take long to actually conquer the islands, relatively speaking, once the invasion started, as I could land troops directly on the island and maintain the supply lines for the invasion using those same landing crafts, but it was still going to take time to organise such the forces required for such a conquest.
Killing all the slavers and pirates would be the easy part as while I lacked the fighters and bombers carried by other IOM warships, and I didn't wish to destroy the islands with orbital bombardment, some of the landing craft used by the Guard and by my own forces did have laser cannons and they would be more than enough to destroy slow-moving wooden sailing vessels that depended on the wind and to wipe pirates fortresses off the map.
The hard part would be holding the islands with only naval armsmen as they were not Imperial Guard. So I would need to convince the Lord-General to send troops to garrison the islands and that would be a lot easier if I got the Ad-Mech to convert capture pirates bases into something close to proper fortresses. I could simply order these things done as I the authority, at least on paper, but politics plays a big role in gettings thing done even for a Rogue Trader so I would need to offer something in return.
If I could acquire more manpower of my own along with other resources, such as gold, I would have a much easier time convincing my allies to give me more support. My thinking was that if I could buy healthy enough slaves, offer them better conditions and even pay, they would serve me faithfully and if I had them then I would only need enough of the Imperial Guard regiment to train my own forces.
To appease the Lord-General I could offer him wealth to help fund his wars and I could give him healthy young men and women that he could use for labour or begin training to become part of the PDF (the planetary defence force) which could be used to support his guardsmen and women. The Ad-Mech would likely turn anyone I gave them in servitors so I would give them any prisoners I took from the Stepstones and in exchange, they should be able to share some of their efforts with me.
Gold has uses for the Ad-Mech for more than decorative purposes and it was used in some of the technology they produce I didn't understand the details as the cogboys, to use some Imperial Guard slang, kept their secrets and what really mattered was that back at the forge-world, the people who I would need to bargain with to be resupplied for my next expedition would accept gold and labourers in person.
I also needed workers to send to Ameros and well as supplies for the holy city the Emperor bothers wanted to build there. If that project worked out the clergy would be very pleased with me even if they wouldn't directly profit from what happened here in Westeros directly since I'd be spreading the God-Emperor's light to the heathen masses.
Since my personal ship wasn't suitable for the landing operations going on all over this planet, a slow process that would take weeks to finish since everyone important wanted to get down to the surface to stake some sort of claim, I needed something to do so I'd decided to take advantage of the fact that the former captain of my cruiser had left all his stuff lying around.
Given my intention to get rid of it all my thinking had been to come here and sell what to me was junk, and to exchange it for the two things this world had to offer that my allies cared about, gold and people. Now that I'd signed all the paperwork other people had taken over the preparation work leaving me free to go do what Rogue Trader's did best. Which was to make a profit.
With all that in mind, I'd come to one of the Free Cities that was located on the western coastline of Essos, across the Narrow Sea from Westeros. To Pentos, which is a large, rich city-state of merchant lords, who practised slavery and had plenty of gold.
I knew that Pentos' economy was based mostly on trade and commerce of products such as cheese. As a result, Pentoshi traders like Illyrio Mopatis are often referred to derogatorily as "cheese-mongers". They conduct some trade with the Seven Kingdoms across the Narrow Sea and use their wealth to pay tribute to the Dothraki to avoid being sacked by the nomadic people.
Pentos is nominally ruled by a Prince, a man who is chosen by the city's Magisters from among the Pentoshi noble families. The Prince supposedly holds the powers of trade, justice, and war, and on every new year, he must deflower the Maid of the Field and the Maid of the Seas to bring good fortune to the city. However, should a crop fail or a war be lost, the Magisters slit the Prince's throat and choose another. In truth, the Prince's power is only nominal, and the true rulers of the city are the council of Magisters, the wealthy merchant-princes. They were who I needed to deal with.
I also knew that this city was the home of Magister Illyrio Mopatis. Another interesting fact was that Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen temporarily reside in Pentos for about one year before Daenerys's marriage to Khal Drogo. I hadn't seen them yet, but given a large number of horse riders camped out not that far from the city it seemed likely that the Targaryens were here. The exiled royals did not matter when it came to my plans for this world, but I thought it might be interesting to meet them, and my plans could change should I have some chance to acquire them.
To not freak out the locals too much I'd had my pilot land outside of the city but on the far side from where the Dothraki were camping out as I didn't wish to cause any conflict with them when I only had my battle-harem and two squads of naval armsmen with me. My battle-harem and armsmen could easily cover my escape, but if I ran I'd lose face before the natives, that simply couldn't be allowed.
Aside from carrying a lot of the former captain's junk, which was being sold for whatever was offered to anyone willing to come out to the campsite I'd thrown up outside the city, I was here to sell guns to the locals. That might seem counterproductive since the Lord-General was working to conquer Essos, but I would not be selling anyone the kinds of weapon that would be able to harm his tanks and the locals didn't have anything like artillery, nor could they quickly move troops around on flying transports, so giving them guns wouldn't make much of a difference. Since I would be the only source of bullets (it would take years for the locals to set up the kind of infrastructure required to supply even a single garrison with enough ammo) I could cut off anyone who didn't do as I wished for them too. At least within reason as I did need their gold and people.
As for where I'd gotten the guns from, I had impressive manufacturing machines onboard my vessel and plenty of junk metal left lying around from the refurbishment. The guns were while crude was also simple and dependable. The Ad-Mech built weapons meant to last for centuries as long as they had regular maintenance, and that could be performed by even simple-minded people as most of it was needless mysticism that got mixed in with the cleaning and maintenance.
Magister Illyrio watched as some of my navy armsmen demonstrated the crude rifles that I was willing to sell. While primitive to even someone from my time they were clearly superior to crossbows in every way, they had better range, a faster firing rate even if they were single-shot as loading the rifles was easy, the weapons did more damage and the weapons were more durable.
"The real danger is not a single rifle, but rather it comes from entire lines armed with these weapons," I said to Magister Illyrio "Imagine if the walls of your city were projected by hundreds of men with these weapons. Any Dothraki horde or sellsword army who dared to attack you would be slaughtered even before they made it to the walls. Even the Dothraki can be made to flee in the face of such losses and the khals who lead their armies would be the first to fall".
While arming their slaves soilders with such weapons did come with risks I had ways to assure the merchant lord that he would remain in control.
"These guns of your seem like formidable weapons" stated Magister Illyrio Mopatis, the merchant lord who had been sent to treat me with "With a supply of these weapons and the bullets required to make use of them we'd need never again payoff the Dothraki".
Bribing the horse riders so that they wouldn't attack this city wouldn't remain an issue for much longer if the Lord-General has his way, but there was no need to tell the Magister that when the threat of a Dothraki attack only made him more eager to buy guns from me.
"I will sell the weapons to anyone willing to pay," I told Illyrio "I am after all a trader and I would supply some ammunition to those buyers, but simply training with the guns will require many bullets. As such anyone who brought up my supply would have control over all of the guns as without the bullets they are worth less than clubs. I also have people who can train others to use these weapons. The teachers would need to be provided for and whoever did would be able to decide who got trained in the use of the guns".
Illyrio Mopatis hadn't become one of the leaders of this city by failing to sense opportunity when it came knocking.
"You'd give me sole right to buy these bullets and to decide who is allowed to purchase them?" he asked.
I saw no problem with this so I confirmed that this was what I'd been getting at. I didn't care who sold the bullets since I was the only source of the guns and more bullets. All of which were made with recycled metals and next to no cost to me.
"The other Free Cities will make their own arrangments, but I would sell ammo to no one else in Pentos or any lands that part of the Free-City, and you will receive the guns before anyone else" I informed the overweight man "And before you say anything I realise that the other Free Cities have not always been friends to Pentos so perhaps you seek some advantage. Something I would not sell to the other cities".
Of course, he expressed interest and added in some flattery before I showed him the design for what on my world would be called a pillbox, which was a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard post, normally equipped with loopholes through which to fire weapons. Unless you have tanks, which the Imperial Guard had plenty of, getting an army past these would be a nightmare.
"These small fortifications might not look like much" I was now saying "But if you station a couple of our more rapid-firing weapons inside the pillboxes... well perhaps you better see for yourself".
I took the Magister over to where a couple of what I would call Maxim machine guns had been set up and when the armsmen began their demonstration they pulverised the targets.
"Imagine one of those in a hundred pillboxes surrounding your city," I said to the Magister "Now they would use up a lot of ammo, but you can't put a price on the safety of your city, and with these defences, no army from this world could take Pentos".
Very true, but the Imperial Guard wasn't from this world and no amount of pillboxes would stop the Lemen Russ battle tanks that the Lord-General had under his command. The single Baneblade the regiment had access to, the machine that acted as the Lord-General's fist, to the people in that destroyer, all this machine gun fire would be no more dangerous than rain. And if Pentos caused too much trouble, that was what orbital bombardment was for. Although I'd like to avoid that if possible as I'd rather not kill millions and there was no profit in it.
"You'd trade all this for gold and slaves?" the Magister asked.
I would, however I didn't intend to keep them as slaves, rather they would become serfs in the service of the Ad-Mech, the Imperial Guard, the Church or myself since it made sense to offer the slaves a slightly better life as that would earn some loyalty from them. Unlike slaves, serfs could not be bought, sold, or traded individually though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land. Slaves, in contrast, could be traded like goods, could be abused with no rights over their own bodies, could not leave the land they were bound to and could marry only with their lord's permission.
Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned that land. In return, they were entitled to protection, justice, and the right to cultivate certain fields within the manor to maintain their own subsistence. Serfs were often required not only to work on the lord's fields, but also in his mines and forests, and even work to maintain roads, but in theory, they could just leave.
The Imperium of Man worked much like this only on a much larger scale and while being a serf might not sound like any sort of improvement over slavery there were some benefits as long as the local didn't abuse his power too much.
"Ah, Lord-Captain let me introduce Princess Daenerys Stormborn and King Viserys Targaryen" introduce the Magister as the exiled royals came over to where we were standing "They have been guests of mine for the past year".
I gave them a short bow as while it paid to be polite they weren't ruling monarchs and even if they had been this was just a backwater planet in the middle of unknown space.
"Greetings your highnesses," I said, "I am Rogue Trader Maximinus Thrax, Lord-Captain of the His Glorious Aspirations and ambassador of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Mankind".
Viserys gestured to my luxury craft.
"His Glorious Aspirations, is it the name of that flying machine?" he asked, not waiting for an answer "If I had one of those I could land at the false king's doorstep and kill him in person".
His ignorance amused me.
"No your Grace that is just my personal transport His Glorious Aspirations is a warship that flies among the stars," I told him "Although my transport could take you to the Red Keep in a matter of hours, the Usper's guards would cut you down long before you reached the Iron Throne".
Viserys didn't take that as an insult in any way, if only because he was barely stopping himself from drooling over the guns on display. It didn't take someone with my intelligence and imagination to figure out what he was picturing in his mind.
"Even a small army of sellswords armed with these weapons could see me on the throne," the beggar king said to his host "We wouldn't need the Khal or his savages".
Putting Viserys on the throne wasn't impossible. As long as he or she who sat on the Iron Throne paid lip service to the faith of the God-Emperor followed certain laws and paid their taxes no one really cared who ruled a single world or part of it.
"In time all of this world will be ruled by the Imperium of Man," I told the beggar king "and while the Imperial Governor would have overall command, one man can not rule an entire world. Someone will have to administrate the daily affairs of the Seven Kingdoms and ensure that the laws of the Imperium are followed. They would have my support in exchange for a reasonable tribute. It would take a year or two at the most since we would need to train a large enough army in the use of the guns I wish to sell, and we would need to make allies, but I have the ear of those who could help make it possible to put you on the Iron Throne".
Viserys might already be mad, and he couldn't really understand just how much I'd already changed this world by introducing firearms and letting them know that flying machines were possible, but he wasn't a total idiot. He'd already realised that I could do far more for him than Khal Drogo and he only had one thing worth anything in trade, his sister.
"Perhaps we should talk Lord-Captain" the exiled royal suggested while glancing at his only living sibling "An alliance between House Thrax and House Targaryen could be profitable for the both of us".
Princess Daenerys Stormborn was a little too young for me, but I didn't mind waiting if a long term engagement could be set up. I could have the Targaryens as guests aboard my cruiser and ensure that they were both educated. Daenerys as the wife of Rogue Trader and her brother would need to learn about warfare and rulership. I had more than enough luxuries and entertainments on board to keep them amused. I could also take them sightseeing sometimes. I could even assign one of my battle-harem as a guard for Viserys in case he got of hand. The beggar king would be appeased if I gave him a few girls to fuck and his own weapons to train with.
Yes, this could work out nicely. I'd like to have my own puppet king and a princess who would give children who could perhaps command ships of their own one day.
"Your Grace," said the Magister "It would be unwise to upset Khal Drogo".
That was no concern of mine since I could leave if things got out of hand, but I did understand his worry.
"With these weapons, you need not worry about any Khal" I assured Illyrio "I can start shipping them down the right way and begin training your guards in their use this very day".
I would need to keep Illyrio on my side for as long as it was profitable. Once I had his gold and slaves it wouldn't matter much what Drogo did as his days were numbered.