Old John, naturally, wouldn’t refuse the chance to become a big shot.
Once the first batch of two million reservists arrived, Huron would cram them into super infantry divisions composed entirely of infantry battalions for training.
In just two months, this army would reach Level 2 training and then be assigned to lower-level administrative positions, replacing the former Chapter serfs.
Then Huron could organize and train the real standing forces — boarding and counter-boarding squads.
While Astral Claws might not have a need for large-scale ground warfare in the foreseeable future, the demand for elite boarding and counter-boarding forces would never be lacking.
He planned to emulate the original Huron, strengthening his fleet by hunting and capturing warships from human pirates.
Although it would take a year to repair a lightly damaged frigate with three docks, these docks represented classic void production capacity; real shipyards could also repair other warships.
Moreover, the speed of one year to repair is actually quite alarming, because the dockyard maintenance also cleanses accumulated warp contamination, a fact that Huron only discovered recently after thoroughly understanding the system.
As the second largest warp rift in the galaxy, the Maelstrom region is filled with warp torrents, and diffuse psychic contamination permeates the entire star system.
In reality, navigation might even encounter warp creatures like void leviathans or warp entities.
In this environment, warships naturally accumulate warp contamination, and if it’s not cleaned up, they might start growing flesh one day.
This is also a major dilemma for the Astral Claws Chapter, because Huron has declared himself king, and the Ecclesiarchy of Badab dislikes the Astral Claws, or rather, all the Imperial forces of Badab are actually hostile to Huron.
Naturally, the Astral Claws cannot rely on borrowing Ecclesiarchy priests to purify their warships.
If the system didn’t have this function, Huron would have to find a way to win over the Ecclesiarchy, or see if there were any decisions that would allow the Emperor to bless the warships.
But as a university student from a major power in his past life, he deeply abhorred religion and naturally avoided it if possible.
As for decision points, he only had a little over 150 political power, enough for just a few, and the majority needed to be reserved for the coring of Badab, leaving him stretched thin.
Currently, he only gained 0.5 political power per day; it would take him a hundred days to improve the success rate of a single recruit implantation surgery, let alone other decisions.
Without this function, he would either have to spend over a decade in Badab, waging a battle of wits against the Ecclesiarchy, or risk his warships mutating by launching attacks.
But with this function, he was confident he could organize a strike fleet within a few years and start snowballing his power.
And the boarding and counter-boarding squads on a single escort ship numbered nearly ten thousand, and given the various monsters they faced, they naturally needed to be elite.
However, it’s too early to say anything now, because Huron hasn’t even prepared their equipment yet, let alone their personnel.
But the two Astartes companies are almost fully trained.
After more than a month of production, the military factory has produced over four hundred sets of power armour and bolters, equipping the combat personnel of both companies with basic gear.
Because the Apothecarion, Armoury, Reclusiam, and Librarius are theoretically “non-combat units,” both companies are understrength with only 2048 combat brothers, averaging only 800 men each.
Furthermore, according to the plan, each company needs an additional 10 Techmarines, 10 Librarians, 10 Chaplains, and 10 Apothecaries, bringing a full-strength company to around 1400 men.
However, this is not a problem; in five years, over 2,000 gene-seed will mature, allowing for full-strength formation.
The two fully equipped companies were nicknamed “Airborne Company” and “Second Airborne Company” by Huron, a nickname that left the combat brothers, unaware of its implications, somewhat bewildered.
They weren’t organized as an air assault team, so why such nicknames?
To enhance the Astartes’ combat experience, Huron had the two companies take turns on missions to eliminate various monsters in the lower hive.
Thanks to over a month of construction, the 200 million laborers and even more Underhivers had greater trust in the “Astral Claws” name, and proactively reported numerous strange forces to the Chapter.
These included mutant tribes, mutated biomes, cultists, remnants of rebel forces, and remnants of xenos species…
The Underhive’s ecological environment was exceptionally “excellent,” breeding countless enemies of humanity.
Normally, as long as no major chaos occurred, the nobles would turn a blind eye, choosing to ignore it rather than cause trouble.
But Huron simply couldn’t tolerate these vile things, especially after some workers were attacked and went missing.
“They dare to attack my people; these are no ordinary enemies.
We must strike hard!
First Company, move out!”
Uncertain reports were investigated by the Chapter’s serfs; confirmed reports were sent directly to Astartes.
With ample logistical support, the Astartes unleashed their full firepower, using bolters and chainswords to their heart’s content, relentlessly attacking the monsters.
Down in the abandoned tunnels.
“Bang…” Corian shot and killed a mutant attempting to retaliate.
“First Company, follow me!
Kill them all!”
He had already assessed the situation; the enemy lacked heavy firepower, possessing only some crudely made autoguns and a few lasguns.
Grabbing his chainsword, Corian leaped from cover and charged towards the mutant position, the veterans of the First Company excitedly following.
The mutants’ faces were almost entirely covered by a gigantic eye, their mouths squeezed to their chins.
The enormous mutated eye gave them exceptional vision, but it also instilled in them a morbid sense of responsibility for protecting their eyes, ultimately evolving into the perverse habit of eating human eyes to nourish them.
“Fire!
Stop them from getting closer!” the mutant chieftain screamed desperately.
He had witnessed these people’s close-combat abilities and knew that once they were caught in close combat, they were doomed.
“Bang bang bang…”
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”
Autoguns and lasguns opened fire simultaneously, the attack filling the narrow passageway.
Many las-beams and bullets struck Corian, who was charging at the forefront.
“Clang clang clang…” A series of impacts rang out, scratching the paint on Corian’s breastplate.
Corian, undeterred, leaped into cover, crushing two mutants to death.
Then, with a sweeping motion of his chainsword, he cleaved all the surrounding mutants in two.
Splattered blood stained his entire body, but he didn’t stop, continuing his charge towards the rear cover, intending to wipe out the remaining mutants.
Before the surviving mutants could even catch their breath, the excited veterans of the First Company stormed into the position, clearing out the enemy.
Because Terminator armour was difficult to manufacture, the veterans of the First Company didn’t use it like a sledgehammer to crack a nut; they were all wearing Aquila power armour.
But for the mutants, it made little difference, as it was all the same — death.
Some mutants tried to penetrate the power armour at close range with autoguns, but the bullets only scratched the paint, and then they were torn to shreds by the enraged veterans of the First Company.
In the blink of an eye, the veterans who had cleared the position followed their Company Captain and continued to charge forward, wiping out the mutant tribe as quickly as possible.
Old John, naturally, wouldn’t refuse the chance to become a big shot.
Once the first batch of two million reservists arrived, Huron would cram them into super infantry divisions composed entirely of infantry battalions for training.
In just two months, this army would reach Level 2 training and then be assigned to lower-level administrative positions, replacing the former Chapter serfs.
Then Huron could organize and train the real standing forces — boarding and counter-boarding squads.
While Astral Claws might not have a need for large-scale ground warfare in the foreseeable future, the demand for elite boarding and counter-boarding forces would never be lacking.
He planned to emulate the original Huron, strengthening his fleet by hunting and capturing warships from human pirates.
Although it would take a year to repair a lightly damaged frigate with three docks, these docks represented classic void production capacity; real shipyards could also repair other warships.
Moreover, the speed of one year to repair is actually quite alarming, because the dockyard maintenance also cleanses accumulated warp contamination, a fact that Huron only discovered recently after thoroughly understanding the system.
As the second largest warp rift in the galaxy, the Maelstrom region is filled with warp torrents, and diffuse psychic contamination permeates the entire star system.
In reality, navigation might even encounter warp creatures like void leviathans or warp entities.
In this environment, warships naturally accumulate warp contamination, and if it’s not cleaned up, they might start growing flesh one day.
This is also a major dilemma for the Astral Claws Chapter, because Huron has declared himself king, and the Ecclesiarchy of Badab dislikes the Astral Claws, or rather, all the Imperial forces of Badab are actually hostile to Huron.
Naturally, the Astral Claws cannot rely on borrowing Ecclesiarchy priests to purify their warships.
If the system didn’t have this function, Huron would have to find a way to win over the Ecclesiarchy, or see if there were any decisions that would allow the Emperor to bless the warships.
But as a university student from a major power in his past life, he deeply abhorred religion and naturally avoided it if possible.
As for decision points, he only had a little over 150 political power, enough for just a few, and the majority needed to be reserved for the coring of Badab, leaving him stretched thin.
Currently, he only gained 0.5 political power per day; it would take him a hundred days to improve the success rate of a single recruit implantation surgery, let alone other decisions.
Without this function, he would either have to spend over a decade in Badab, waging a battle of wits against the Ecclesiarchy, or risk his warships mutating by launching attacks.
But with this function, he was confident he could organize a strike fleet within a few years and start snowballing his power.
And the boarding and counter-boarding squads on a single escort ship numbered nearly ten thousand, and given the various monsters they faced, they naturally needed to be elite.
However, it’s too early to say anything now, because Huron hasn’t even prepared their equipment yet, let alone their personnel.
But the two Astartes companies are almost fully trained.
After more than a month of production, the military factory has produced over four hundred sets of power armour and bolters, equipping the combat personnel of both companies with basic gear.
Because the Apothecarion, Armoury, Reclusiam, and Librarius are theoretically “non-combat units,” both companies are understrength with only 2048 combat brothers, averaging only 800 men each.
Furthermore, according to the plan, each company needs an additional 10 Techmarines, 10 Librarians, 10 Chaplains, and 10 Apothecaries, bringing a full-strength company to around 1400 men.
However, this is not a problem; in five years, over 2,000 gene-seed will mature, allowing for full-strength formation.
The two fully equipped companies were nicknamed “Airborne Company” and “Second Airborne Company” by Huron, a nickname that left the combat brothers, unaware of its implications, somewhat bewildered.
They weren’t organized as an air assault team, so why such nicknames?
To enhance the Astartes’ combat experience, Huron had the two companies take turns on missions to eliminate various monsters in the lower hive.
Thanks to over a month of construction, the 200 million laborers and even more Underhivers had greater trust in the “Astral Claws” name, and proactively reported numerous strange forces to the Chapter.
These included mutant tribes, mutated biomes, cultists, remnants of rebel forces, and remnants of xenos species…
The Underhive’s ecological environment was exceptionally “excellent,” breeding countless enemies of humanity.
Normally, as long as no major chaos occurred, the nobles would turn a blind eye, choosing to ignore it rather than cause trouble.
But Huron simply couldn’t tolerate these vile things, especially after some workers were attacked and went missing.
“They dare to attack my people; these are no ordinary enemies.
We must strike hard!
First Company, move out!”
Uncertain reports were investigated by the Chapter’s serfs; confirmed reports were sent directly to Astartes.
With ample logistical support, the Astartes unleashed their full firepower, using bolters and chainswords to their heart’s content, relentlessly attacking the monsters.
Down in the abandoned tunnels.
“Bang…” Corian shot and killed a mutant attempting to retaliate.
“First Company, follow me!
Kill them all!”
He had already assessed the situation; the enemy lacked heavy firepower, possessing only some crudely made autoguns and a few lasguns.
Grabbing his chainsword, Corian leaped from cover and charged towards the mutant position, the veterans of the First Company excitedly following.
The mutants’ faces were almost entirely covered by a gigantic eye, their mouths squeezed to their chins.
The enormous mutated eye gave them exceptional vision, but it also instilled in them a morbid sense of responsibility for protecting their eyes, ultimately evolving into the perverse habit of eating human eyes to nourish them.
“Fire!
Stop them from getting closer!” the mutant chieftain screamed desperately.
He had witnessed these people’s close-combat abilities and knew that once they were caught in close combat, they were doomed.
“Bang bang bang…”
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”
Autoguns and lasguns opened fire simultaneously, the attack filling the narrow passageway.
Many las-beams and bullets struck Corian, who was charging at the forefront.
“Clang clang clang…” A series of impacts rang out, scratching the paint on Corian’s breastplate.
Corian, undeterred, leaped into cover, crushing two mutants to death.
Then, with a sweeping motion of his chainsword, he cleaved all the surrounding mutants in two.
Splattered blood stained his entire body, but he didn’t stop, continuing his charge towards the rear cover, intending to wipe out the remaining mutants.
Before the surviving mutants could even catch their breath, the excited veterans of the First Company stormed into the position, clearing out the enemy.
Because Terminator armour was difficult to manufacture, the veterans of the First Company didn’t use it like a sledgehammer to crack a nut; they were all wearing Aquila power armour.
But for the mutants, it made little difference, as it was all the same death.
Some mutants tried to penetrate the power armour at close range with autoguns, but the bullets only scratched the paint, and then they were torn to shreds by the enraged veterans of the First Company.
In the blink of an eye, the veterans who had cleared the position followed their Company Captain and continued to charge forward, wiping out the mutant tribe as quickly as possible.