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i think i have an idea as to how one might both strip mine, AND do the badab sector some good.
essentially, now that we've defeated the eldar, we can begin actually going into talks with Huron and the Badab sector, so...how about a under the table trade deal?
the astral claws are the ones who control all civilian and military matters inside the Badab sector, right? well if we were to...talk to the leadership about stuff like the surveillance networks around the sector, we might also add into the deal, that some designated solar systems might be claimed as "off limits due to hazards" as have been discovered by our surveillance. meanwhile these systems are essentially just the areas where we are allowed to crack the planets and devour the suns through stuff like star lifting.
to sweeten the deal, we could even say that a part of the resources gathered by us goes back into the Badab economy either through military aid, or as a form of "tribute" this could be like...5%, which doesn't seem like alot when said in this way, but 5% of a entire planets resources is still A LOT relatively to human resource extraction efforts.
this way, the leaders of the badab sector can keep the systems a secret from the larger Imperium, we get the necessary resources for the forges, the badab sector gains value from said secrecy, and on top of that they also get fewer systems they need to patrol, since we would be using our own fleets to keep watch of our own resource extraction. and the only thing the astral claws would need to do, is find a few shitty systems with no humans in them, with nearly no habitability and say "yeah, these systems are off limits now, even for military vessels, why, you ask imperial clerk? well they are shitty and hazardous, so we won't go in there anymore, end of story" and they wouldn't even need to worry about heretical shit since the Mechanicus as a whole does these kinds of deals with other imperial organizations many a times.
thoughts?