第13章 辅助军训练事宜

"Company, fall in!" After ending the battle, Corian shouted, and the 1st Company, which had seemed manic just a moment ago, immediately fell into formation.

Corian scanned the squad. There were no casualties, but a few of them had surprisingly many scratches on their armor.

"Andy, Tommy, Smith." He pointed to the three unluckiest ones covered in paint. "The three of you are barred from the next battle, and you will stay here to mop up any mutants that might be hiding. Any objections?"

"None!" The three of them shouted.

"Good." Corian nodded in satisfaction.

Although he had acted like a combat maniac, hissing at Huron during the previous briefing, as the Chapter Master of the Tiger Claws Chapter and now the Master of the 2nd Grand Company, he held the entire company to a strict standard of discipline.

"1st Company Commander, what is our next target?" He stretched his body, feeling somewhat impatient.

"The next target is an anomalous cult. Chapter Serfs discovered that this cult has rituals involving blood sacrifices of the living, and they initiated an attack on them." The 1st Company Commander had already memorized the operational intelligence and arranged the combat sequence according to distance.

"Good, yet another unworthy enemy of mankind, time to die! 2nd Airborne Transport, deploy!" Lifting his Chainsword, Corian led the 1st Company onto the transport vehicle and drove toward the next target.

Because equipment was scarce, specialized Astartes vehicles such as Rhino Transports naturally would not be used for such ordinary missions, so the Astartes had to make do with conventional transport vehicles.

Except for the 1st Company, which was directly led by Corian, the remaining nine companies of the 2nd Grand Company were mixed together, each led by veterans as they went about slaughtering everywhere in the Underhive.

Most of the scum never expected they would have the fortune of encountering Astartes to deal with them, so they basically collapsed in disarray and were simply wiped out cleanly.

The occasional hard nut would be greeted by the baptism of a Terminator company.

For example, a Genestealer Cult that had already been purged was exterminated by 40 veteran Terminators alongside 12 companies. The Genestealer Patriarch within it was directly minced finely into paste.

Following two grand companies' continuous, high-intensity cleansing, public security throughout the entire Underhive improved.

Because some perverted gangs were also casually wiped out in passing, the big bosses of the Underhive became even more cautious, reaching a point of extreme paranoia for a time.

Under the system's empowerment, the speed at which the new recruits accumulated practical combat experience was astonishingly fast. Some naturally gifted new recruits had already reached the level of 2nd-tier initial training completion.

This made Huron even more enthusiastic about such low-intensity practical combat. It could cleanse enemies, strengthen public security, and grant experience to new recruits—three birds with one stone!

He had to step up the effort!

Huron even planned to incorporate the Deep Hive into the cleansing scope as well, compressing the living space of these enemies of mankind and strengthening control over Palatos Hive.

The Deep Hive generally fell into two categories. One was where the environment was harsher, unsuitable for long-term human habitation, and where only criminals, refugees, and bounty hunters went to risk their lives. In these Deep Hives, mutants ran rampant and mutated creatures were everywhere.

The other was Underhive areas where nobles had lost control. In these places, nobles had to dispatch massive armies just to collect taxes, and expenditures completely outmatched revenues. Therefore, as long as trouble wasn't stirred up, the nobles simply pretended these areas did not exist.

The Deep Hive of Palatos Hive was the second situation; it had already become a state within a state, hiding quite a bit of population.

For Huron, this was naturally intolerable, not to mention that such areas were generally overrun by cultists—trouble didn't brew until it did, and when it did, it was major trouble.

However, truly controlling such a place could not be solved merely by Astartes killing and killing. It required a sufficient number of troops and administrative personnel for actual control, along with large-scale infrastructure construction to thoroughly integrate this place into the Astral Claws' system.

Otherwise, it would just be a cycle of shifting warlords; kill one old ruler and another ruler would immediately pop up.

If Huron were more ruthless and directly treated the population of these areas as experience to farm, disregarding whether these people lived or died, he could indeed do so.

Yet the moral concepts cultivated in his past life made him unable to accept such things.

As for enduring moral pressure and enjoying an unscrupulous life? He was just someone playing on a tightrope who only knew how to use cheats; did you expect him to withstand moral pressure? Stop joking.

Thus, he could only wait until enough Chapter Auxiliaries were trained before thoroughly clearing out the Deep Hive.

However, this would not take too long either; a maximum of one year would be enough.

The one-time training limit for Chapter Auxiliaries was determined by the current army size. Once the first batch of two million auxiliaries finished training, the next time could train four million at once, followed by eight million, then sixteen million.

By that time, there would basically be no shortage of manpower, and he could properly handle the nobles.

As for the first batch of Chapter Auxiliaries, they had already completed their training.

To improve quality, Huron specially used two coolies to provide supplies for these two million people.

One produced Gene-seed, with each person consuming an average of two portions, which, paired with the "High-Energy Nutrient" produced by another coolie and a continuous supply of Vitamin Pills, brought their physical fitness up to the average standard of Storm Troops.

As for tactics and culture, combat personnel among the Chapter Serfs carried out guidance and teaching.

Each auxiliary was assigned a Personal Terminal, and with the assistance of this thing, everyone could understand what the instructor was saying, greatly accelerating the speed of language learning and quickly unifying the language.

Then came the continuous, high-intensity physical training every day, cram-style knowledge teaching, and examination sessions.

Huron had previously issued an order to change the Chapter's conscription ritual. After discussion, the torturous segments were transformed into the aforementioned methods.

Even with Vitamin Pills rapidly repairing their bodies, six hours of continuous high-intensity physical training every day, six hours of cram-style teaching, and the examinations that immediately followed still left most auxiliaries exhausted.

Most of them were Underhivers. If you asked them to grit their teeth and push through work, risking their lives was something they were already accustomed to.

Yet when the duration of that grit-your-teeth endurance was extended to 12 hours, and then extended to two months, they simply could not hold on.

This was also one of the Chapter's goals. Without the requirement of genetic compatibility, the Chapter naturally placed greater importance on the willpower of the recruit reserves.

This was not a standard of how one could manage by just gritting one's teeth; temporary bravado was not favored by the Chapter. As Astartes who were to dutifully serve the Emperor for decades or even centuries, they favored those who could persevere for a long time and break through their own limits.

Aside from imparting knowledge, another task for the instructors was to evaluate the performance of these individuals and find those among them with great perseverance.

At the new recruit graduation ceremony, Old John, standing in the front row, was just such a person.