Odinson's plan was sound in every respect. The only problem was that it required an enormous expenditure of resources.
According to his plan, each worker would need an average of 10 to 20 kilograms of starch and 3 units of Vitamin Pills per day. Since the project mainly involved relocating existing Factories and installing existing equipment, the overall construction period would be relatively short—roughly one year.
In other words, the Astral Claws Chapter would need to spend one to two million tons of Corpse Starch and 300 million units of Vitamin Pills every day, for an entire year.
Starch was manageable; they had seized plenty of it during the confiscations. But as a luxury good, the entire Chapter did not even possess 100 million units of Vitamin Pills, let alone 300 million units per day.
The product occupied an awkward niche. Nobles only used it as a reward for their servants, and even after ransacking their estates, they had only acquired a little over a billion units. That was a drop in the bucket for the whole project.
Without the system, Huron would have had no solution. He could only find excuses to shake down the nobles, or simply cut this portion of the bonuses.
But with the system, there was no need for such trouble. The Civilian Factory's ability to produce consumer goods solved the problem directly. A single civilian worker could produce one billion units of Vitamin Pills per day.
Once the plan was completed, a project appeared on the previously bare "Construction" interface of the System Panel.
Starch Factory Expansion. Estimated completion time: one year. Civilian Factories available for investment (0/10). Maximum estimated acceleration: six months.
Huron did not hesitate. He immediately assigned all ten civilian workers, cutting the project time in half.
Including the one civilian worker scheduled to produce Vitamin Pills, Huron still had two idle civilian workers left.
He intended to use those two Civilian Factories to provide supplies for the Chapter Auxiliary.
That was because he had found universal body-enhancing medicines in the "Civilian Consumer Goods" catalogue, such as "Astra Militarum Gene-seed" and "Human Enhancement Serum."
Even though the first few batches of Auxilia were intended to serve as administrative personnel, Huron did not mind giving their bodies a little enhancement. After all, future Astartes Reserve candidates would also be selected from among them.
With the plan settled, Huron had Odinson take the government staff and begin assuming their posts to prepare for work. He himself began tinkering with military organization.
The army training interface was largely the same as the original version. It had everything it should have, except the units carried Warhammer-flavored features, including special formations such as "Astartes company."
That was right—Huron could directly train Astartes through the system, rapidly increasing their proficiency.
That was also why Huron dared to extract and implant the Gene-seed as soon as it matured, without needing to accumulate the experience absorbed from veteran soldiers.
Although these special troops could not reach Level 2, "Basic Training Complete," in just two to four months like ordinary forces, it only took them a few additional months.
The formation used to train administrative personnel was much simpler. He merely had to stuff people into whichever unit held the most, and thus an enormous all-infantry super infantry division was born.
Now all they needed was to confirm the troop source. Once they had enough people, training could begin immediately. In just two months, they would reach "Basic Training Complete," which, disregarding weaponry, was equivalent to the average Astra Militarum standard.
Some might wonder whether that level was enough to serve as low-ranking administrative personnel.
The answer was unquestionably yes.
Because of the Imperium of Man's miserable administrative capacity, 99 percent of its population had effectively dropped out during prenatal education. They were only slightly better than illiterate.
As a permanent force that fought across planets, the Astra Militarum's education level was several tiers above that of ordinary Hive City residents, barring special cases.
General knowledge of the galaxy, weapon maintenance and operating regulations, training manuals, fleet transport protocols... These training subjects gave Astra Militarum soldiers not only basic reading and writing skills, but also substantial vocabularies and broad knowledge.
Though their education was basically at the level of elementary school students in some major country during the second millennium, that was already sufficient for low-ranking administrators.
Huron was not looking for capable people who could govern a nation. They only needed to listen, speak, read, and write, understand most common knowledge, and continue learning through practice.
Besides the all-infantry miracle division formation used to train administrators, Huron also began adjusting the organization of the "Astartes company."
After the recruits' augmentation was complete, Huron held another small meeting with the Chapter's senior officers and finalized the Chapter's new organization.
Following the Codex Astartes, the entire Chapter was divided into two Great Companies of one thousand men each. Their internal structure was largely similar to that of Codex Chapters, except the Scout Companies and training Companies were removed, leaving only combat Companies.
The 1st company would serve as the veteran company, and would also become the future Terminator company.
Companies 2 through 6 would be tactical Companies, containing line squads, fire support squads, and close-combat/assault squads.
Companies 7 through 8 would be fire support Companies, specializing in tanks, artillery, and anti-armor forces.
Companies 9 through 10 would be assault Companies, concentrating most Astartes Vehicles for pursuit, breakthrough operations, and flanking raids.
The venerable Dreadnoughts would be directly under Chapter command and would join the Great Companies in battle when necessary.
Once the Great Company structure had been laid out, Huron directly assigned the designated personnel to their formations and began drills.
Drills could reach a maximum of Level 3, "Well-Trained." Among Astartes, that was roughly the level of those who had just left the recruit stage but had not yet become veterans.
It looked like an awkward middle ground, but this level was actually already the average for Astartes. After all, most Astartes did not live long enough to become veterans—otherwise, why would they be called veterans?
Huron checked the training progress of the two Great Companies. Without any other bonuses and relying solely on hard training, it would take roughly five years to reach the Well-Trained level.
That pace seemed somewhat slow, but it was actually astonishing. These recruits had been ordinary people only days ago, and their bodies had not even fully matured. They were blank-slate recruits with absolutely no experience.
What other Chapter did not spend several years on adaptive training during augmentation, then another decade or even several decades after augmentation was complete before reaching this level?
With this alone, Huron was confident he could trade blows with Abaddon.
Your ancient veterans are constantly being worn down, while my proficient recruits are endless.jpg
With another task settled, Huron turned his attention to the fleet.
There was not much to say about that for now. After the Chapter lost its pursuit of the Orks in 715.M41, its fleet had been reduced to a pitiful state. Every ship was battered, and they did not even have a place to repair them.
In the original timeline, by the time of the Badab War in 908.M41, Huron had monopolized the Maelstrom Zone's Tithe for over a century, yet the fleet he fielded was not even larger than that of the famously impoverished Lamenters Chapter.
At the time, the Lamenters possessed one repair Shipyard that served as a mobile monastery, two Forge Ships, twelve support vessels, two Battle Barges, six Strike Cruisers, three Vanguard-class Light Cruisers, and twenty-two other Warships.
And the Astral Claws? Two Battle Barges, one Cardinal-class Heavy Cruiser, seven Strike Cruisers, thirty other Warships, and one repair Shipyard.
That was the result of Huron looting the Maelstrom Tithe for over a century. The Lamenters were probably close to laughing themselves sick.
And now, the Chapter fleet was even more pitiful: two Battle Barges, four Strike Cruisers, six Sword-class Frigates. That was all.
Every vessel was damaged, and two of the Sword-class Frigates even had holes punched through their keels.
But because of their tense relationship with the Council of High Lords, the Astral Claws could not even find anywhere to repair those Warships. They could only figure out how to do it themselves.
He assigned the only three Shipyards to repair the least damaged Sword-class Frigates. Looking at the one year and three months displayed on the Panel, Huron finally relaxed and let out a breath.
Everything that needed doing had been done. Now all that remained was to wait for time to pass and see what the system's divine power could accomplish.
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