Palatos Hive Reconstruction Project

At the center of the Conference Room was a virtual projection of Badab Primus. Fourteen deliberately marked locations divided the entire planet into eight sections along diagonal lines.

Odinson introduced the matter to the attendees. "Based on the information we have gathered so far, the Hive Cities on Badab Primus were built by colonists during the Dark Age of Technology. Like fortresses and command centers, they divided the planet's surface into multiple combat zones."

He enlarged Palatos Hive, revealing its overall shape and rough internal structure before the participants.

"Palatos Hive stands nearly twenty kilometers tall, with a maximum footprint of over six million square kilometers. It has more than fifty separated levels, each averaging around four hundred meters in height. Ignoring its height, its actual usable area is roughly equivalent to the surface area of Badab Primus."

"Accounting for the floor structures on every level, its actual usable volume at the same height even exceeds the volume of utilizing the entire planet."

"Forget Palatos's nominal population of twenty-six billion. Even if all fifty billion-plus people on Badab Primus were crammed inside, the Hive City would still have a great deal of room left."

The attendees, especially the representatives from the various government departments who were ordinary people, were awed by the grandeur of the Hive City. Then doubts arose in their minds.

The deputy director of the Industrial Planning Department under the Economic Development Bureau voiced his confusion. "If the Hive City has so much space, and Palatos's population can even be considered sparse, why are so many people still concentrated in the Underhive and even the Deep Hive?"

Odinson pressed a button, marking the blocked and dysfunctional areas of the Hive City in red.

As everyone watched the vast red glow occupying two-thirds of the projection's volume, the room fell silent.

Odinson explained, "Because of the shortsightedness and stupidity of the Empire's nobles, a large number of the Hive City's areas and functions have been damaged. Less than one percent of it remains truly usable."

Some found it difficult to understand. "Doesn't the Hive City belong to the nobles? Why would they watch it fall to ruin?"

Odinson shook his head. "As I said earlier, the Hive Cities on Badab Primus were left behind by earlier colonists. The current nobles merely picked them up and used them. Maintaining an entire Hive City requires vast resources, and nobles who constantly fight among themselves could never unite to provide those resources. Over time, aside from the few functions and areas vital to the entire Hive City, everything else gradually deteriorated from neglect."

Huron suddenly understood. "So what you mean, Odinson, is that compared to expansion, what we need now is to restore its original functions?"

Odinson nodded. "That's right. Thanks to the nobles tormenting it for centuries, even millennia, the entire Hive City is barely any different from an abandoned one. As a Hive City left over from the Dark Age of Technology, it has self-maintenance and self-sustaining functions. As long as we repair it to a basic degree, the pace of recovery will only grow faster."

He added, "The entire process will not take long. In roughly five years, we will begin seeing results, and the Hive City's overall environment will improve dramatically. Within ten years at most, the entire Hive City will be completely renewed. Both its productive capacity and living environment will undergo a qualitative leap."

Everyone began discussing it at once, but Old John had some concerns. "If we shift our focus to restoring the Hive City as a whole, does that mean we will reduce the manpower and resources devoted to restoring and developing people's livelihoods?"

He feared that the Underhive would return to the previous state of lawlessness and disorganized chaos. If that happened, then wouldn't all his efforts have been in vain?

Odinson reassured him. "Not at all. The main force behind the Hive City's restoration will be the Chapter's Techmarines, senior engineers, and the nobles' Automated Robots. Most workers will still be tasked with improving the Underhive's environment and expanding all kinds of Factory facilities."

Old John breathed a sigh of relief and voiced no further objections.

Seeing that the discussion had more or less concluded, Huron said, "Let's begin the vote."

Aside from a small number of abstentions, most people voted in favor.

A new project also appeared on Huron's "Construction" interface: "Palatos Hive Reconstruction Project (0/20), estimated five years."

Perhaps because this project was larger in scale, or perhaps because he now had actual control over all of Palatos Hive, unlike the previous small project that could only take ten Civilian Factories, this project could take a full twenty Civilian Factories.

Unfortunately, even after gaining actual control of Palatos, his number of Civilian Factories had only increased by five, bringing the total to just eighteen. After excluding those needed to produce supplies and therefore unavailable for use, only fifteen could be assigned.

Still, that was not a small number. Huron assigned all fifteen Civilian Factories to the reconstruction project, curious to see how effective they would be.

"Palatos Hive Reconstruction Project (15/20), estimated three years."

With the broad direction settled in the Conference Room, everyone began discussing the finer details.

Old John said, "We have now recruited five billion workers, drawing away nearly half of Palatos's able-bodied adults. Furthermore, most Auxilia personnel must now serve as government employees, leaving fewer than ten million available to act as project supervisors."

"Therefore, I propose that until the next batch of Auxilia personnel graduates, we temporarily halt the recruitment of new workers. Instead, we should refine the existing workforce and improve its organization and efficiency."

Armenius said, "Most workers currently rely entirely on manual labor, which is far too inefficient. Some of the nobles' Automated Engineering Equipment is of no use to us, but it can be put to work on Underhive construction. In addition, worker education and training must be strengthened. Right now, we even have to hire servants from the Adeptus Mechanicus just to transport goods by truck. The risk is too great."

Old John was somewhat worried. "Most workers are illiterate. Can they really operate those machines correctly? It would be bad if a large-scale engineering accident occurred."

"Don't worry. The Adeptus Mechanicus does not place much value on operational knowledge for ordinary machinery, so it sells for very little. The nobles' estates happen to contain large quantities of intricate but functionally useless luxury technological items. We can use them to trade with the Adeptus Mechanicus and hire Tech-Priests and Magi in relevant fields to teach and work."

Armenius continued, "Besides, Sapper Exoskeletons are easy to operate. Those workers were able to organize themselves into teams from nothing. There is no reason they cannot handle something as simple as a Worker Bee."

Sapper Exoskeletons had virtually no barriers in terms of design technology, material costs, or production difficulty. As long as one could manufacture Lasguns—or even merely Autoguns—one could basically manufacture Sapper Exoskeletons.

As for why no one used such a simple technology, the Adeptus Mechanicus's "review" was one reason. Another was that people were worth less than supplies.

In the eyes of tax officials, one Lasgun was worth ten Underhive residents. Why would anyone specifically design an Exoskeleton for ordinary people? Wouldn't simple manpower do?

Now that they had seized the estates of so many nobles, a little integration and modification of the existing production lines would allow them to manufacture hundreds of thousands of Sapper Exoskeletons every month.