Editing Setting:Tri-Sector (section)

=====Mercantile Noble House Zhong, Thimble=====
The building of ships in the Imperium is an undertaking like few others, with the costs rising far above what any one non-governmental force could afford in most cases. House Zhong is a rare exception. It is the only entity outside the Mechanicus and Navy authorized to manufacture Warpcraft in the entire Cloudburst region.

Zhong holds one other distinction of note: it is the oldest surviving House in the Sector. It can accurately trace the core of its gene-line back to the original Levitna Colony Group, well over twenty thousand years before, and its origin to a long-dead Terran noble family from the age of the Terran Federation. Zhong survived the Age of Strife and the long darkness between the Heresy and the coming of the Imperium to the region by essentially claiming the least desirable hive on Levitna’s radiation-scarred surface for itself and killing all comers. It wisely bowed to the Imperium when it arrived, and was rewarded with the honor of being the only noble house elevated in its native hive. They were passed over for the privilege of becoming the Planetary Ruling Clan, but has prospered anyway, thanks to being able to do something no other hive can: total industrial devotion.

In the other hives of Thimble, the hives are all fairly inter- and intra-dependent in their manufacturing needs, as could be expected from the great vertical cities. The Zhong hive, however, which they named after themselves, is not. It is a resource hog in every way, being unable to even develop most household goods. The Zhong hive is dedicated solely to the manufacture of starship components, and to their elevation to space for use in the great orbiting shipyards. Lacking an Orbital Spire, they make do with very high-elevation launch pads.

As most shipbuilding concerns do, the House yards began as simply making the components of naval ships, and not performing any assembly. Gradually, however, economies of scale allowed Zhong to do more and more of the preparatory steps, including some circuit fabrication and assembly. The Navy was pleased by this since they had to do less work and didn’t have to rely on the Adeptus Mechanicus as much. Over time, Zhong shipbuilding took over more of the House’s time, until they became less a noble family and more a corporate Board of Directors, although they are still accorded a title in the Thimblan peerage. The components they made were initially no different than those of any other shipbuilding corporation, but over time, Zhong made more of a conscious effort to diversify their offerings to lure in the cheaper Chartist Captains and Rogue Traders. Eventually, the inevitable shift occurred, and Zhong bought their own shipyard in orbit over the Mining World of Delving.

The Delving yard was a metaphorical goldmine for the House Zhong. Here, with direct access to the refined minerals from the planet below, the House was able to produce ships of nearly Navy quality without any interference from the Thimble authorities, and to meet contracts from Rogue Traders. Unlike some of their Great House contemporaries, however, Zhong never compromises on quality. A shoddy toaster or clock may be a minor inconvenience, but a shoddy starship engine can kill hundreds of thousands of people. Thus, and to the Mechanicus’s approval, the breakaway from the stifling leadership of the Thimble government did not yield a reduction in appreciable quality from the Zhong industrial output.

Zhong yards today work around the clock in the great orbitals of Delving and Thimble, manufacturing vessels for Rogue Trader and Departmento Astrocartigraphicae mapping voyages. They have patronized the Grand Anchor yards more than once, buying shipwrecks and scrapping them for parts, and have even played a role in the disassembly of Space Hulks that managed to achieve stable orbits in Cloudburst systems. Zhong merchants ply their wares of spare parts and upgrade kits at every private shipyard in the Sector and even some in the Naxos Sector beyond.

However, the House Zhong does have its limits. They know better than to try to break into the territories of the far older and wealthier merchant combines in the Drumnos and Naxos Sectors. Drumnos has far busier space lanes, but has its own Houses to supply it, and the Naxos Sector is a crumbling warzone, too dangerous to insure properly thanks to the Nurglite pirates ripping it apart.

Likewise, the House subcontracts uncomplainingly to the Mechanicus in two critical ways. The psionic Thrones Navis used by Navigators to pilot ships through the Warp, and the actual Warp Drive Cores used to propel them, are the exclusive remit of the Cognomen Orbital Yards, and the House Zhong has no intention to try to break into that market. Only Adeptus Mechanicus Techpriests of Forge World certification are permitted anywhere near the blessed components when they are purchased in bulk from the forges of Cognomen and Solstice, and the House pays their prices without complaint. The Warp is simply too dangerous to risk tampering with.