Alex had naturally considered hiring a mechanical priest.
Since its inception, the Empire has been affected by the Olympia Agreement signed between the Emperor and Mars, and technological research has been greatly restricted.
During the Great Crusade, there might still be various technical talents left over from humanity's past who could independently develop various technologies and reproduce the lost technologies of the Dark Age of Technology.
However, with the chaos in the Empire after the Great Heresy, especially the decline of the entire Empire after the Beast War, the Mechanicus completely monopolized the Empire's industry and technology.
In a sense, the other head of the empire's double-headed eagle has become the largest monopoly giant within the empire.
The Mechanicus monopolizes not only technology, but also almost all technical talents.
Throughout the empire, from the most basic safety maintenance of corpse starch production equipment to the production of large warships, all work related to technology and machinery is undertaken by the Mechanicus, and all technical personnel are trained by the Mechanicus.
Why would an Imperial soldier kowtow to a laser gun to please the Machine Spirit? It's because the Mechanicus turned the laser gun maintenance manual into a religious ritual.
Although this makes it easier for the uneducated Big Head to understand how to maintain and correctly use the weapons in his hands, the Mechanicus's monopoly on technology is still evident.
At the same time, it is precisely because of this technological monopoly that if the Empire wants to do something related to technology, it must obtain the consent of the Mechanicus and hire personnel from the Mechanicus.
There are naturally also low-level priests of the Mechanicum on the Rostov II. They are mainly responsible for the maintenance of various mechanical equipment and defense force equipment.
Alex originally thought that they all obeyed the orders and management of the sage Olivia, but later he found out that this was not the case.
Despite being a sage, Olivia was unable to command any of the Mechanicum's personnel aboard the Rostov II.
Moreover, she could not teach apprentices or train technicians. The dissemination of all knowledge was restricted, and she could only do everything by herself.
It was precisely because of this that it took her ten years to build a protein factory, even though Rostov II was constrained by lack of funds.
......
"Olivia suggested that we hire her sister's men. What do you think?" Alex looked at his three companions and asked for their opinions.
At this time, they had returned to the 3k era and were discussing the next development plan in front of the Emperor's military box at Alex's house.
"Not really. Sage Tonya is certainly easy to talk to and willing to help, but if we continue to work with the Mechanicus through her, there might be some problems." Guterres spoke first, offering his opinion. "It's well known that the Mechanicus is more of a religious organization with numerous cliques, and there are fierce internal power struggles and factionalism. We don't need to support Olivia and Tonya. If we cooperate too closely with them, we will be dragged into it."
"That being said, we don't have any other way to cooperate with the Mechanicus right now!" Mai Mai expressed a different opinion.
He had dealt with the Mechanicus of the Forge World of Mariupol before, and had personally experienced what it meant to be hard to hear words, eat shit, and get things done.
"Unless you, Alex, have the authority to deploy Mechanicus pieces now, then we can consider deploying a sage or something to neutralize the situation. But now I think we should focus on Olivia first! After all, she's a sage, right?" Although the character played by Dusk had little presence in this small group, he still expressed his views and opinions.
"It would be great if the great technician could come and let him drive the oil man's account." Guterres sighed.
"Forget about recruiting reinforcements for now. It's not appropriate to expand the number of people going to the Warhammer world right now." Alex seemed to have some concerns and did not agree to continue recruiting people. "Besides, Ah Jian has a big project recently, he probably won't be able to spare the time. We are not like some of the Cursed High Lords who were drafted by the old emperor and can still receive wages from the emperor."
"Thinking about it, we should be treated better, right? They have nothing but chess pieces!" Mai Mai joked, touching the Rogue Merchant ring on his hand.
"Our treatment is indeed better, but we also have to do more. Now that development funds are no longer a problem, let's consider how to develop!" Alex seemed not to want to discuss this issue too much and brought the topic to the key points they needed to pay attention to at the moment.
The other three people each had different opinions on this issue.
"Strengthen the planet's air defense. Now this planet only has one almost undefended starport. If a space fleet attacks, we can only passively withstand the bombing." Guterres said.
No matter what, Warhammer 40k is a space opera story, and space battles are always an indispensable and important part.
It would have been fine if Rostov II didn't have that capability before, but now that it has money, it naturally has to consider building up its defenses.
Otherwise, let alone a Chaos invasion or the Greenskins waaaaaagh coming, just ordinary space pirates would be enough to give Rostov II a hard time.
"I've reached an agreement with Head Deacon Pavel. The State Church will sponsor three Moon-class ships, so the fleet isn't a problem at the moment." Alex explained what they could use right now, then added, "My plan is to build an orbital ring around the planet. This will be used for defense, and we can also place factories and other things in orbit to avoid polluting the planet's environment."
"Repairing the ring? If 32 knew about this, he would probably be envious to death." Dusk couldn't help but complain.
"I have no objection to repairing the ring road, but do we have the technical strength and funds to do so?" Guterres is relatively more pragmatic, and his focus is on whether the repair can be done, not whether it should be done.
"There is a huge gap in funding at the moment, but we will not finish it all at once. Instead, we will build it in sections according to the plan. The income from selling wine should be enough to support us to complete it." Alex consulted Olivia about this issue and the answer he got was acceptable.
The Mechanicus's technology in repairing star rings is not bad. Many times it is just that they don't want to repair it, not that they can't.
Again, as long as you pay, there is nothing the Mechanicus can't do, even if you want a Dyson sphere.
"Sounds good, let's do it! Build an orbital defense ring and then industrialize it! Maybe we can even build our own void ships!" Since it can be built, others will naturally not object to Alex's plan.
After everyone finished talking about this topic, they discussed some things about the development of galaxy resources and the development of surrounding galaxies. It was not until Alex received a call from the courier saying that there was a package for him to pick up that they stopped chatting and said goodbye and left.