"Company, assemble!" After the battle ended, Corian shouted, and the First Company, which had seemed manic moments ago, immediately formed up.
Corian swept his gaze over the ranks. There were no casualties, but the scratches on a few people were unexpectedly numerous.
"Andy, Tommy, Smith." He pointed at the three unlucky bastards with the most paint scuffs. "You three are barred from the next battle. Stay here and continue clearing out any Mutants that might be hiding. Any objections?"
"No!" the three shouted.
"Good." Corian nodded in satisfaction.
Although he had acted like a battle-crazed madman and bared his teeth at Huron during the earlier meeting, as the Chapter Master of the Tiger Claws Chapter and now the commander of the Second Company, he demanded strict discipline from the entire company.
"First Captain, what's the next target?" He stretched, visibly impatient.
"The next target is an aberrant cult. Chapter Serfs discovered that it performed rituals involving the blood sacrifice of living people and launched an attack on it." The First Captain had already memorized the combat intelligence and arranged the order of operations according to distance.
"Good. Another Enemy of Humanity that doesn't know its place. Kill them! 2nd Airborne Transport, move out!" Picking up his Chainsword, Corian led the First Company aboard the transport and headed for the next target.
Due to insufficient equipment, specialized Astartes Vehicles such as Rhino Transports naturally would not be assigned to such ordinary missions, so the Astartes could only ride in conventional transport vehicles.
Besides the First Company, which Corian led personally, the Second Company's remaining nine Companies had also been mixed together, each led by veterans as they slaughtered their way through the Underhive.
Most of the scum had never imagined they would be fortunate enough to face Astartes, so they generally collapsed at once and were wiped out completely.
The occasional tough opponent would also receive a baptism from the Terminator Company.
For example, one already-cleared Genestealer Cult had been exterminated by forty veteran Terminators leading twelve Companies. Its Genestealer Patriarch had been chopped into fine mince.
After the two Great Companies maintained their relentless, high-intensity sweeps, security throughout the Underhive improved somewhat.
Since several particularly depraved gangs had also been wiped out along the way, the Underhive's bosses became much more cautious, and for a time, everyone was on edge.
With the system's support, the recruits accumulated practical combat experience at an astonishing rate. Some Talented recruits had already reached Level 2, having completed their initial training.
This made Huron even more enthusiastic about such low-intensity combat. It cleared out enemies, improved security, and earned experience for recruits—three birds with one stone!
They had to step up the effort!
Huron had even begun planning to include the Deep Hive in the sweep, compressing the living space of these Enemies of Humanity and strengthening control over Palatos Hive.
Deep Hives generally fell into two categories. One had even harsher environments, unsuitable for long-term human habitation, places where only criminals, refugees, bounty hunters, and the like risked their lives. In such Deep Hives, Mutants ran rampant and Mutated Creatures were everywhere.
The other consisted of Underhive districts that the nobles had lost control over. To collect taxes from those places, the nobles had to dispatch massive armies, and the costs were entirely disproportionate to the gains. Therefore, as long as nothing happened, the nobles simply pretended those districts did not exist.
Palatos Hive's Deep Hive belonged to the second category. It had already become a state within a state, concealing a considerable population.
Naturally, this was intolerable to Huron. Not to mention that such districts were generally crawling with Cultists; if nothing happened, fine, but when something did happen, it would be a major disaster.
But to truly control such places, simply having the Astartes kill, kill, kill would not solve the problem. They needed enough troops and administrators to establish actual control, along with large-scale infrastructure construction to fully incorporate such places into the Astral Claws' system.
Otherwise, it would just be the warlord cycle of chaotic times: kill one old ruler, and another ruler would immediately emerge.
If Huron were more ruthless, he could simply farm the population of these districts for experience without caring whether they lived or died.
But the moral values he had developed in his previous life would not let him accept such a thing.
As for enduring moral pressure and enjoying a life without scruples? He was someone who only dared walk a tightrope by using cheats. Did anyone expect him to withstand moral pressure? What a joke.
So he could only wait until he had trained enough Chapter Auxiliary troops before thoroughly clearing the Deep Hive.
Still, it would not take long—one year at most would be enough.
The one-time training limit for the Chapter Auxiliary was determined by the current military size. Once the first batch of two million auxilia completed training, the next batch could train four million at once, then eight million, then sixteen million.
By then, they would basically no longer lack manpower, and they could properly deal with the nobles as well.
And the first batch of Chapter Auxiliary had already completed their training.
To improve their quality, Huron had specifically assigned two workers to provide supplies for these two million people.
One produced Gene-seed, and each person consumed an average of two doses. Combined with the High-Energy Nutrient produced by the other worker, as well as a continuous supply of Vitamin Pills, their physical capabilities had all been raised to the average level of Storm Troopers.
As for tactics and education, ground-combat personnel among the Chapter Serfs provided instruction.
Every auxiliary received a Personal Terminal. With its assistance, everyone could understand what the instructors were saying, greatly accelerating language learning until a common language was quickly established.
Then came uninterrupted daily high-intensity physical training, cramming-style lessons, and examinations.
Huron had previously ordered changes to the Chapter's recruitment rituals. After discussion, the torturous portions had been replaced with the above methods.
Even with Vitamin Pills rapidly repairing their bodies, six hours of high-intensity physical training every day, six hours of cramming-style instruction, and the examinations that followed still left most auxilia utterly exhausted.
Most of them were Underhivers. If they were told to hold their breath and work, they were used to risking their lives.
But when that stretch was extended to twelve hours, then extended for two months, they could no longer endure it.
This was also one of the Chapter's objectives. Without the requirement for genetic compatibility, the Chapter naturally placed greater importance on the willpower of its recruit reserves.
This was not a matter of gritting one's teeth and somehow getting through it. A brief burst of foolhardy courage was not favored by the Chapter. As Astartes expected to serve the Emperor diligently for decades or even centuries, they preferred those who could persevere over the long term and surpass themselves.
Besides teaching knowledge, the instructors' other task was to evaluate these people's performance and find those with great perseverance.
At the recruits' graduation ceremony, Old John, standing in the front row, was one such person.
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