Interstellar Age



While waiting for the ship to arrive in the system where the first Orc Clan who Erich intended to recruit to his new horde was currently raiding. Tia had led Erich into his captain's quarters, where she was quick to reveal all the things that she had been hiding from her master.

"Master, please don't be angry with Tia. She knows she has been keeping things from the Master, but she promises they were entirely for the benefit of the Master!" 

Erich did not immediately respond to the adorable little artificial intelligence's words, and instead made no promises. There was a stern expression on his face as he spoke his thoughts aloud. 

"Tia, I can't make any promises about whether or not I will be angry. After all, I have no idea what you have been hiding from me. All I can promise is that I will take your words into consideration. Now start with telling me just where you have gotten the resources to build all these things?"

Tia sighed heavily, before displaying a holographic projection of what was clearly an inhospitable world. But oddly enough, there were actually industrial centers all across the planet, where robots were working all hours of the day to produce weapons, medicine, food, equipment, and other things that would all benefit Erich. 

Tia then explained what this planet was, how she obtained it, and what it was used for. 

"Tia may have manipulated the galactic stock market in her favor, as well as stealing vast sums of wealth from Master's adversaries in the Ghimderi Trade Union. With that money, she acquired a planet rich in natural resources, but incapable of supporting biological life without certain man-made shelters. 

She then used this planet and its resources to build a worldwide industry, which is capable of supporting Master's efforts. Especially in equipping the Ironhand clan. Tia has been using about 25% of her output to design and manufacture new weapons, armor, ships, and machines of war for Master and his subordinates. 

In fact, Tia has even designed new ships, loosely based on the Germanic Titan-Class Dreadnoughts, for the habitation of the Orcs. Each one of these ships is roughly 7.5km in length, and is designed to sustain a minimum of thirty million inhabitants.

It is also equipped with advanced engines, warp drives, weapons, armor, shields, and sensors. They may be small, but they are capable of surviving against a Naraku Hive Fleet, or an Alfheim World Fleet. Albeit due to the fact that they are designed primarily as habitation modules, and not as warships, they do lack the firepower to defeat such enemies, at least without dedicated warships as escorts." 

Before Tia could continue on her rants, Erich raised a hand, and asked for clarification on what she had just said. 

"Okay, let me get this straight Tia, you essentially created enough galactic currency from thin air to buy your own planet, and set up your own world of robots slaves, who work day and night to produce things that are useful to me?" 

Tia nodded her head with a pretty smile on her face, and pink eyes while she grabbed hold of Erich's hand an complimented him. 

"This is why Tia loves Master! Master understands Tia so well!" 

It was only now that Erich was starting to put two and two together, where he was quick to ask about the truth serum. 

"And the Truth Serum was manufactured in this world? You said it was an improvement on the one used by the Dark Elves, and that you had test subjects. Where did you get the test subjects from, Tia?" 

Tia blushed, knowing that she had been a very bad girl, or at least her Master would think she was, and there was indeed a guilty tone in her voice. Not because she felt bad about what she did, but because she had gotten caught doing it. Like a kid with their hand in the cookie jar. 

"Tia may have transferred inmates from Alfheim Prison colonies to her planet, so they could undergo proper testing of her truth serum..."

Erich gawked at Tia. He honestly did not know what to say in response to this news, and was quick to ask for further clarification on what she had just said. 

"Please tell me they were at least death row inmates?" 

In response to this Tia, nodded her head, and confirmed that most of them were death row inmates.

  "Indeed, Master, most were death row inmates. The rest were repeat offenders who, by Tia's calculations, had a 97% chance or higher of committing another felony in the future. Tia only tested on the dregs of society who brought nothing but harm to other organic lifeforms." 

Erich sighed in relief when he heard this news. After all, he came from a society that was strict about punitive justice and not rehabilitate justice. To him, a criminal was a criminal, and were not worthy of the resources they took up in jail. That was why the Germanic Star-Empire had so many crimes that were punishable by death. 

The fact that these test subjects' deaths were used to help advance science was rather admirable from Erich's perspective, even if they were forced to undergo the trials. At least they could make up for what they had done in life with their deaths. 

The Germanic Star-Empire cared little for empathy or compassion, they were considered weaknesses, and because of this Erich was not exactly a man who would cry over a criminal's death. Thus, he did not outright condone Tia for doing such a thing, even if he did scold her for doing so without her permission. 

"Tia, it is not what you have done that bothers me. It's the fact that you did so behind my back. I know that what you did was for the purpose of aiding me to the best of your abilities, and that it would have been a waste of time to ask for permission. But the least you could do is make some time to tell me what you are doing." 

Tia was rejoiced that her master was not the type who would be angry about the deaths of a few million criminals, and thus, she was extremely happy as she leaned in and kissed the man, before assuring him that she would keep him well informed of her activities from now on. 

"Tia promises Master that she will keep him well informed from now on... Tia is sorry for keeping secrets from master...."

Erich simply chuckled and petted the robotic loli's silver hair. He honestly could not believe that she had been so efficient with her time. After all, by the sounds of it, it had only been about a year since she started doing these things. 

But now that he knew how useful Tia was in supporting his ambitions, he was starting to believe that she might be the most useful girl in his harem, even if he found her adolescent form to be troublesome.