After arranging everything for Odinson, Galien left the augmentation chamber feeling both satisfied and stunned.
As Huron watched Odinson's steady breathing, he recalled the information in his memories about gene-seed progenoid glands.
Whether it was the neck gland that matured in five years or the chest gland that matured in ten, both could be removed and implanted immediately once mature!
They did not have to be recovered from the chest only after a person died, as he had previously believed.
This meant that every five years, the Astral Claws Chapter could gain a large batch of recruits, and the annual growth rate would only become faster and faster!
As for why most Chapters always looked so miserable, as though they could never have enough gene-seed, that was the result of many factors.
On one hand, the Codex Astartes restricted Chapter size. Chapters without the capability did not dare overbreed. Look at the Black Templars if you wanted an example of those who could—they took part in major campaigns every day, losing Space Marines in heaps, yet their numbers never seemed to decrease.
On the other hand, there were the Adeptus Mechanicus's gene-seed tithes, low success rates for recruit augmentation, weak Chapter logistics, and many other factors working together.
Rather than removing it the moment it matured to create a nearly blank-slate recruit who might not even deserve Power Armour, it was better to let the gene-seed remain in a veteran's body and absorb more of his experience and inheritance. The recruits created that way would be stronger in battle as well.
After all, most Chapters were poor. Though the three unfortunate brothers of the Maelstrom Wardens were poor enough already, there were plenty in the galaxy worse off than them.
Furthermore, most Chapters positioned themselves as small-scale elite forces, mainly carrying out decapitation strikes and assault missions. Naturally, quality mattered more than quantity.
But in Huron's vision, the Astartes were not some small-scale elite force. They were to gradually replace Mortel Forces and become the line-holding backbone of the battlefield.
If the opportunity arose in the future, Huron even intended to gradually make Astartes augmentation more universal, transforming it from a specialized modification that created pure war machines into a conventional genetic enhancement procedure.
After all, there were far too many demons and monsters in this galaxy. How could ordinary people survive in this damned world without becoming stronger?
The terrifying output of the Military Factories could support his ambitions as well. Twelve factories could now produce ten sets of basic Astartes equipment a day. Not to mention that Huron planned to establish Astartes equipment production lines in Badab later, further increasing output.
As real production capacity increased, it would in turn increase the number of system factories. With that self-reinforcing cycle, making the Astartes a basic troop type would be more than achievable.
"Give me a hundred years—no, fifty—and I can churn out tens or even hundreds of thousands of Astartes!"
His previous talk of boarding the Blackstone Fortress had merely been meant to encourage himself. But now that he had seen how powerful the system was, Huron genuinely felt that boarding the Blackstone Fortress was not impossible.
By the Battle of Cadia, he might be able to field hundreds of millions, or even more, Astartes. He could bury Abaddon beneath sheer numbers!
But fantasies were only fantasies. To achieve that future, he first had to solve the problems before him with his feet firmly on the ground.
The most important of those was further strengthening his authority within the Astral Claws Chapter.
Huron had only been Chapter Master for a few years. Though he had earned considerable military merit, he had previously only been the captain of the 3rd Company, and his prestige within the Chapter was not the highest. Whether it was the First Captain or those venerable Dreadnoughts, all had greater standing than he did.
That was also why he had used the Emperor's blessing as a pretext to have Galien perform the surgery. Only in this way could he strengthen his authority and better reform the Chapter's traditions and customs.
Though the Astral Claws' traditions and customs were not excessively twisted, they still did not treat Mortel lives as lives.
Aside from people like Odinson, who had rendered great service and possessed outstanding ability, everyone else was cannon fodder in the eyes of the Astral Claws' Astartes. If they died, they could simply seize another batch.
The Chapter's recruitment process was likewise filled with all sorts of pointless torturous trials, designed entirely to kill people.
That naturally conflicted with Huron's plans. He intended to follow the Ultramarines' model and select reserves and Auxilia in batches. Otherwise, it would be a joke if they had gene-seed but no qualified candidates.
The next day, Galien informed Huron that Odinson had regained consciousness, could move freely, and displayed no adverse reactions.
Huron immediately convened a high-level Chapter meeting.
In the Chapter Conference Room, the captains of every company, the Chief Librarian, the Chief Apothecary, the Chief Techmarine, and the Master of Sanctity—all of the Chapter's senior personnel—had gathered, looking at Odinson in his robe.
Huron did not beat around the bush and said directly, "I have received the Emperor's revelation and blessing. To better fight the Enemy of Humanity, we need to alter certain recruitment rites and rapidly expand our Battle-Brothers."
Chief Apothecary Galien immediately nodded in support. "That's right. Brother Odinson is the finest proof of the Emperor's blessing."
The others looked at Galien's surgical report, then at Odinson, who had already begun growing taller, and grew somewhat excited. They all understood the difficulty of augmentation surgery. Odinson was indeed the best proof of a miracle.
None of them lacked ambition. Now that their Chapter Master had the Emperor's endorsement and a genuine miracle to support him, making some minor changes to the recruitment rites did not seem impossible.
However, Chief Techmarine Armenius still raised his concern. "Chapter Master, we currently have more than a thousand gene-seeds, but our equipment shortage is rather severe. If all the procedures succeed, I'm afraid we will not even have enough Power Armour for the recruits."
Although the Maelstrom Zone had Angstrom, a Forge World, the Maelstrom Wardens' relationship with the Council of High Lords was extremely tense. As a result, the Empire provided them with very few supplies.
Without orders from the Empire's upper ranks, Angstrom—a highly independent Forge World backed by an old-established Forge World such as Ryza—simply did not give the Astral Claws Chapter the time of day.
The Chapter currently only had around four hundred spare suits of Power Armour. If every recruit augmentation succeeded, then the six hundred or so without Power Armour could only serve as clever Ogryns.
And beyond Power Armour, the Chapter did not have an extra thousand basic weapons such as Bolters and Chainswords prepared either.
Thus, Armenius was curious how the Chapter Master intended to solve the problem. After all, a Space Marine without equipment would be severely crippled even if he survived a Lasgun shot.
Huron looked at the equipment that had already been produced in the warehouse and waved his hand. Ten suits of Power Armour, ten Bolters, and ten crates of bolts appeared in the Conference Room.
Seeing those brand-new, unpainted suits of Power Armour, as though they had just come out of the furnace, everyone froze. Some even hoped Huron would wave his hand a few more times and produce more equipment.
Huron continued his bluff. "Besides recruit augmentation surgery, the Emperor's blessing will provide me with this much equipment every day."
He paused, then continued, "And as long as we follow the Emperor's path and destroy the Enemy of Humanity, the Emperor's blessing will grow stronger and provide even more equipment. Therefore, we must reform some of the Chapter's customs and rites to serve the Emperor better."
"I've said my piece. Who agrees? Who objects?"
Before you continue