1st Airborne Transport, Move Out!

Old John naturally had no reason to refuse the chance to become an important figure.

Once the first batch of two million reservists had arrived, Huron placed them in super infantry divisions composed entirely of infantry battalions for training.

In just two months, these troops would reach the initial stage of Level 2 training, then serve as junior administrative personnel, freeing up the Chapter Serfs.

Huron could then organize and train a real standing force: Breacher Teams and anti-breacher teams.

For the foreseeable future, the Astral Claws Chapter might not need large-scale ground warfare, but there would never be too little demand for elite boarding and counter-boarding forces.

Because he intended to follow the original Huron's example and strengthen his fleet by striking at and plundering the warships of other Human Pirates.

Although it took three Shipyards a full year to repair even a lightly damaged frigate, these Shipyards represented the standard industrial capacity of the void. Real-world Shipyards could also repair other Warships.

And a year was actually a rather shocking speed, because Shipyard repairs also removed accumulated Warp corruption. Huron had only discovered this after recently studying the system in detail.

As the galaxy's second-largest Warp Rift, the Maelstrom Zone was filled with Warp currents, and diffuse Psyker Power contamination permeated the entire region. Even traveling through realspace could bring encounters with Warp-specific creatures such as Ship Souls and Warp Daemons.

In such an environment, Warships naturally accumulated Warp corruption. If it was not removed, the ship might start growing flesh one day.

This was also one of the Astral Claws Chapter's greatest dilemmas. Since Huron had declared himself king, the Ecclesiarchy forces on Badab disliked the Astral Claws—or rather, every Imperial Faction on Badab was unhappy with Huron.

Naturally, the Astral Claws could not rely on borrowed Ecclesiarchy Priests and Battle Sisters to purify their Warships.

If the system did not have this function, Huron would have needed to find a way to win over the Ecclesiarchy, or see whether there was a Decision that could have the Emperor bless his Warships.

But as a university student from a major country, he loathed religion, so naturally he avoided touching it whenever possible.

As for unlocking Decisions, he only had a little over 150 Political Points. That was enough for only a few Decisions, and most of them had to be saved for Coreization of Badab. His resources were stretched thin.

He only gained 0.5 Political Points per day now. It would take him a hundred days to improve the success rate of the neophyte implantation surgery once, let alone unlock other Decisions.

Without this function, he would either have to stay on Badab and battle wits with the Ecclesiarchy for over a decade, or risk setting out with Warships that might grow flesh.

But with this function, he was confident that he could assemble a strike fleet within a few years and begin snowballing.

A frigate's boarding and counter-boarding teams alone totaled nearly ten thousand people. Since they would face all sorts of monsters and madmen, they naturally needed to be elite.

But it was still too early to talk about that, because Huron had not even prepared their equipment yet, let alone their personnel.

The two Astartes Great Companies, however, were nearly done with training.

After more than a month of production, the Military Factory had produced over four hundred sets of Power Armour and Bolters, equipping the combat personnel of the two Great Companies with basic gear.

Because the Apothecarion, Armoury, Reclusiam, and Librarium were theoretically "non-combat units," the two Great Companies were understrength with only 2,048 Battle-Brothers, averaging just eight hundred men each.

According to the plan, each company would also receive ten Techmarines, ten Librarians, ten Chaplains, and ten Apothecaries. A fully staffed Great Company should have around fourteen hundred men.

But that was not a problem. In another five years, more than two thousand Gene-seeds would mature, and they would be able to reach full strength then.

Huron mischievously gave the two fully equipped Great Companies the nicknames "1st Airborne Transport" and "2nd Airborne Transport," leaving the Battle-Brothers who did not understand the reference rather confused.

They were not organized as airborne assault troops, so why had they been given such names?

To strengthen the Astartes' combat experience, Huron had the two Great Companies take turns deploying to wipe out the various demons and monsters in the Underhive.

Thanks to over a month of construction, two hundred million laborers and even more Underhivers had grown more trusting of the name "Astral Claws" and voluntarily reported many strange factions to the Chapter.

Mutant tribes, Mutated Creature colonies, Cultists, remnants of rebel forces, remnants of Xenos... The Underhive's ecosystem was exceptionally "healthy," breeding countless Enemies of Humanity.

So long as nothing major happened, the nobles usually turned a blind eye, pretending not to see what annoyed them.

But Huron could not tolerate such filth at all, especially after some workers were attacked and disappeared.

They dared lay hands on my people. They are no ordinary enemies anymore. We must hit them hard. 1st Airborne Transport, move out!

Uncertain reports were investigated by Chapter Serfs, while confirmed reports were handled directly by the Astartes.

With ample logistical support, the Bolters and Chainswords were used without restraint. The Astartes naturally unleashed their full firepower and struck the demons and monsters with brutal force.

Underhive, abandoned pipelines.

"Bang..." Corian blew apart a Mutant trying to fight back with a single shot. "First Company, charge with me! Kill them all!"

He had already tested them. The enemy had no Heavy Firepower capable of threatening him, only crudely made Autoguns and a few Lasguns.

Gripping his Chainsword, Corian vaulted out of cover and charged toward the Mutants' position. The First Company veterans eagerly followed in a fierce rush.

Ninety-nine percent of the Mutants' faces were covered by a single enormous eye, their mouths squeezed down beneath their chins.

Their massive mutated eyes gave them excellent vision, but also filled them with a pathological sense of duty to protect their eyes. Eventually, this had developed into the vile habit of eating human eyes alive to nourish them.

"Fire! Stop them from getting closer!" the Mutant chieftain shrieked. He had seen these people's close-combat abilities and knew that once they got close, his men were dead.

"Bang bang bang..."

"Pew pew pew..."

Autoguns and Lasguns opened fire together, their attacks filling the narrow passageway. Quite a few beams and bullets struck Corian at the front of the charge.

"Clang, clang, clang..." A series of impacts rang out, scratching the paint on Corian's breastplate.

But Corian did not slow in the slightest. He leaped into the barricade, crushing two Mutants beneath his feet, then swept his Chainsword in a wide arc and sliced every Mutant around him in half.

Spattered blood dyed his entire body red, but he did not stop. He continued charging toward the barricades farther back, intending to wipe out these Mutants in one stroke.

Before the Mutants lucky enough to survive could even breathe a sigh of relief, the excited First Company veterans stormed into the position and began clearing out the enemy.

Because Terminator Armor was difficult to manufacture, the First Company veterans did not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. They were all wearing Aquila-pattern Power Armour.

But to the Mutants, there was little difference. Either way, they were dead.

Some Mutants tried to break through the Power Armour with Autoguns at close range, but the bullets could only scratch the paint. Then the enraged First Company veterans tore them apart with their bare hands, scattering fragments everywhere.

Having cleared the position in an instant, the veterans followed their company commander and continued charging forward, slaughtering the entire Mutant tribe as quickly as possible.