第1章 巴达布暴君和他忠诚的金手指

718.M41, Maelstrom region, Badab Primus, Astral Claws Chapter Master's lounge.

Huron looked at the two-headed eagle and skull decorations on the wall, sincerely hoping he was dreaming.

A second ago, he was still at home playing Hearts of Iron IV, typing every cheat code into the console, then drawing battle lines to steamroll the entire world and enjoying the paint-the-map game.

As a result, the moment he closed and opened his eyes, he transmigrated into Lufgt Huron.

Astral Claws Chapter Master, Tyrant of Badab, Red Corsairs Chaos warband lord.

An ambitious fool who wanted to carve up territory, declare himself king, and then get beaten down by more than a dozen chapters in less than two hundred years before fleeing pathetically into the depths of the Maelstrom.

To make matters worse, this bastard had already suppressed the rebellion on Badab Primus, seizing the opportunity to declare himself Governor of the Badab Sector. He was just a step away from outright rebellion by withholding tithes and building a private army.

At the mere thought of the original owner's memories and his own knowledge of the future, Huron felt his prospects were entirely bleak.

Even if he decided to turn over a new leaf and avoid the Badab War, the Great Rift would still open in less than three hundred years.

By then, as the second-largest warp rift, the Maelstrom would still spawn a horde of Chaos warbands, and he would still get beaten down all over again.

Not to mention the other two chapters of the Maelstrom Wardens, the Lamenters and the Mantis Warriors, both of which were dirt poor.

I'm afraid the Imperium's reinforcements wouldn't arrive before the three of them went under.

Facing a situation with wolves ahead, tigers behind, and unluckily even tyrannosaurus rex figures like the Black Legion, Huron could do nothing but sigh.

God-Emperor, are you really so desperate for recruits? You're expecting someone who has to use console commands in Hearts of Iron IV to handle pressure like this?

"Give me a cheat, give me a cheat..." Huron sat in the metal chair as if corrupted by Chaos, muttering incessantly.

He was out of options. No matter how ambitious the original Huron was, he was at least a military prodigy, beating the various heretics and xenos of the Maelstrom region to a pulp.

Now, replaced by a noob who only knew how to F2-A and draw battle lines, he'd be better off committing suicide early to avoid dragging others down if he didn't get a cheat.

Suddenly, Huron's vision flickered a few times, and a translucent panel immediately appeared.

Political Power: 200
National Focus Slot: 1
Decisions: None
Civilian Factories: 13
Military Factories: 12
Dockyards: 3

Below that was a long string of data, such as stability, war support, manpower reserves, army size... Huron glanced over them quickly and roughly understood.

This was a system largely similar to Hearts of Iron IV, with the biggest difference being the removal of the research system, making steady tech-rushing impossible. Production blueprints could only be acquired through self-development and design or by purchasing them from other factions.

Meanwhile, the factories and dockyards were an abstraction of the productivity of the faction under Huron's command, functioning as genuine void factories that occupied no space and consumed no resources.

Aside from that, functions like taking national focuses, enacting decisions, and rapidly training troops remained largely unchanged.

"Not bad, at least it's not a blank slate transmigration."

Huron heaved a sigh of relief and immediately opened the military factory production line.

Everything else could wait, but military industry was the foundation of his survival.

Fortunately, as an old-line chapter with a long heritage and wealthy enough to spin off three successor chapters, the Astral Claws possessed a vast array of production blueprints.

Power armor alone came in four variants: Mk5 Heresy, Mk6 Corvus, Mk7 Aquila, and Mk8 Errant. Basically, all the reliable and easy-to-produce power armor models were complete.

As for weaponry, there were production blueprints for various types of boltguns and bolts, meltaguns, as well as multiple chain weapons and power swords.

There were even production blueprints for Cataphractii Terminator armor!

Unfortunately, despite having the blueprints, the Astral Claws had lacked a homeworld previously, using an orbital space station above Badab Primus as their monastery instead, which left them poor.

Especially since the Astral Claws suffered a crushing defeat in their 715 campaign to hunt down an ork warlord, with even the Chapter Master being killed by the warlord Waka Barbeque, dealing a devastating blow to an already impoverished chapter.

Even after three years of recovery, the chapter only had about 700 battle-brothers, and that included non-combat personnel like apothecaries and techmarines.

Looking at the abundant blueprints, Huron didn't hesitate and directly allocated 10 military factories to the Mk7 Aquila.

A single military factory could produce 1 set of Aquila armor per day, instantly boosting production capacity to 10 sets of power armor daily.

Huron allocated the remaining two military factories to Mk3 boltguns and bolt ammunition respectively, pushing their output to 10 guns and 3,000 bolts per day.

Looking at the production rates on the panel, Huron couldn't help but smile. Not only would basic equipment no longer be in short supply, but there would even be surpluses to use for bribing the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors.

Especially the Mantis Warriors; according to Huron's memories, they were so poor that everyone wore mismatched armor cobbled together, old enough to be considered holy relics. Even basic supplies like boltguns and bolts had to be rationed down to the last bullet.

Still, seeing the Mk3 boltgun, Huron couldn't quite keep a straight face.

This was the mainstream boltgun designed and manufactured by the Astral Claws themselves during the later Badab War. Yet now, just a few years into his tenure as Chapter Master, it was already fully researched.

One could only say that the ambition of Huron and the Astral Claws Chapter was truly not to be underestimated.

However, this was a good thing for Huron right now, because it meant the Astral Claws had their own internal research institution capable of developing and designing some basic equipment, rather than relying solely on trading with others to acquire production blueprints.

Having settled the military industry, Huron opened the national focus interface to inspect its contents.

He then discovered that the interface lacked the national focus tree he expected, featuring only a lonely national focus slot instead, with specific national focuses being generated based on his "needs."

For instance, when he hoped to strengthen the chapter's power while leaning in certain directions, focuses such as "Ease Relations with the Council of High Lords," "Deepen Cooperation with the Adeptus Mechanicus," "Reaffirm Leadership of the Maelstrom Wardens," and "Seek Cooperation with the Eldar" appeared in the focus slot.

The first focus was a free gift from the system, requiring no progress bar waiting time, so Huron carefully pondered his specific needs.

Although the primary goal was undoubtedly to strengthen the chapter's power, those previous focuses couldn't satisfy his requirements.

Compared to cooperating or acting as someone else's lapdog, Huron felt that strengthening himself was the most cost-effective path.

Thus, after some thought, Huron selected the national focus: "Strengthen Chapter Power."

Strengthen Chapter Power (450/450)
Description: The failure of the war against the ork warlord proved that the Codex Astartes is no longer suited to our current circumstances. To better combat the enemies of humanity, we require a more potent combat model.
Effect: Grants 100 political power, unlocks a series of related decisions.