Meeting

While the death of the psyker in the upper levels caused a few minor repercussions.

The Art Student in the Underhive also received news from Gaia. Those sent out to recruit people were now frequently falling into danger, often coming under attack from all kinds of terrifying aliens.

The Underhive had now descended into utter chaos, and the Genestealer population had fallen into disarray.

Those Genestealers who had lost their leaders had begun to stop concealing their movements. They slaughtered freely throughout the Underhive, killing humans while continuously murdering one another.

Amid the chaos caused by the Genestealers, the Underhive's various bloody and brutal gangs and raiders were also constantly fighting each other. Large numbers of Chaos cultists had joined this bloody carnival as well.

The moment the Art Student received this news, he understood what had happened. His Psychic Null Field now covered an enormous area; practically the entire planet lay within its range.

Any psyker within his domain who tried to use psychic power would have their head burst apart and die. Nothing had changed for those without psychic power, but for anyone who wished to wield it, their power was restricted. If they forcibly used it, they would die.

In a chaotic place like the Underhive, once the leader of a faction died and the mountain over everyone's heads vanished, with no one left to keep them in check, everyone would do whatever they wanted. That would only bring about even greater chaos.

The Art Student looked over the information Gaia had sent on the bridge and fell silent. The base now had a total population of one million. There were 178 qualified Space Marines, while more than 800 were still training. Of those eight hundred-plus trainees, 375 met the standards for wearing armour, while over four hundred still did not.

The navy had more than twenty thousand personnel in total. Aside from command specialists and the personnel responsible for maintaining weapons and equipment, only a little over seventeen thousand were capable of combat.

On every warship in the navy, personnel were divided into captains, commanders, weapons and equipment maintenance personnel, logistics personnel, and the largest group: combat personnel.

In the world of Warhammer, where idealism and materialism coexisted, technology and psychic power existed side by side. Technology could affect the use of psychic power, while psykers could also affect the operation of technology. Neither was absolute.

Thus, even warships built by the Art Student would have their weapons and equipment severely affected if they encountered powerful psykers without anti-psychic measures in place.

That was why every warship had a large number of New Humans aboard, who could effectively resist the effects of psychic power on the vessel.

Combat personnel existed to prevent enemy boarding actions. Whether Void Shields or plasma energy shields, their defensive capabilities were stronger against faster weapons, but only average against slower ones.

When the enemy launched a boarding action, combat personnel could suppress them within the boarding area and prevent them from causing widespread damage to the warship.

Every combatant had been injected with a diluted version of the genetic enhancement serum, greatly improving their physical strength. Each of them wore white Force-Feedback Power Armour, granting them formidable combat capabilities.

The Galactic Defense Force had the largest number of personnel, more than a hundred thousand in total. However, most of them were recruits still undergoing basic training.

Of course, if they wanted to wage a major war, anyone in the Underhive could be recruited as fearless cannon fodder as long as they were given weapons and food.

The people of the Underhive were better fighters than those of the Lower Hive and Middle Hive. In the Underhive, anyone even slightly weak died quickly; every survivor had some real skill.

Yet when Underhive rebels faced the Middle and Lower Hives, they held no advantage at all. Their weapons simply could not compare, so they were basically blown apart by the armies of the Middle and Lower Hives.

"Gaia, notify the administrators to gather in the conference room."

After considering the situation, the Art Student spoke to his assistant, Gaia.

"The notification has already been delivered to all administrators," Gaia replied calmly.

The Art Student also left the bridge and went to the conference room next door to await everyone's arrival.

Now that large-scale chaos had erupted in the Underhive, continuing to recruit people slowly as before was no longer feasible. They could only recruit while fighting. It would not be impossible to take the Underhive in one stroke.

The nobles in the Spire had never cared about the chaos in the Underhive. As long as the people below did not think of leaving the Underhive, they could cause as much trouble as they pleased.

Getting into the Underhive was easy, but leaving it was extremely difficult. All entrances and exits between the Underhive and Lower Hive were guarded by large numbers of Planetary Defence Force soldiers.

Without a governor's pass, anyone trying to leave the Underhive would be shot dead on the spot by the Planetary Defence Force.

Ten minutes later, people began filing in through the door.

The first to arrive were Space Marine company commander Gray and his assistant, Mo Tuo.

Five men formed a squad, twenty-five formed a platoon, and 150 formed a company. A regiment had one thousand men. Soldiers wore standard Star Power Armor, which weighed two tonnes. Officers wore Assault Terminator Power Armor, which weighed four tonnes.

Assault Power Armour was not as clumsy as the Imperium's Terminator Armour. It was even faster than standard Power Armour and possessed fiercer strength. It also had two small shield generators: a Void Shield and a plasma energy shield.

Those two small shield generators could protect the wearer very well. When someone thought Assault Terminators were slow and tried to defeat them through entangling close combat, they would discover how foolish that idea was. An Assault Terminator might even be faster than an attacker.

After Gray and Mo Tuo entered, they raised their hands in salute to the Art Student and said, "My lord."

The Art Student waved his hand. "Take a seat first. We'll wait until everyone is here."

"Yes." The two walked to the first row on the Art Student's left and sat down.

No sooner had they taken their seats than more people entered one after another: Mendeleev, the navy's first captain, and his deputy captain, Latus.

Anrida, commander of the Galactic Defense Force's First Regiment.

Anglie, Minister of Logistics.

Hogood, Minister of Administration.

All the capable administrators in the base had now arrived. They sat quietly in the lower seats, awaiting the Art Student's orders.

These seven were the finest talents in the entire base. After all, they had once merely been ordinary people struggling to survive in the Underhive. Over ten years of education, they had risen above the million others.

"Everyone is here. First, let me show you some information."

A large screen appeared on the wall behind the Art Student, displaying the reports submitted by personnel who had gone out during this period.