Ever since the recruits could be modified in one batch and immediately followed by the next, beginning Situval's endless torment, the Chief Apothecary had rarely appeared in public. The Apothecary Aspirants studying under him had become equally scarce.
All forty-seven Third Batch Recruits led by William had returned to the warships. Next, Evan planned to visit an Agri World of the Imperium. That world might not have had much else, but it had plenty of food.
Before the Warp Storm arrived, they had supplied over a hundred planets with food. Now they only had to supply these few, leaving every warehouse overflowing and forcing them to cut production.
When the planet's ruler heard that Chapter Master Evan wanted to haul away a vast quantity of food, he happily agreed. He even filled the holds of their Battle Barges.
Evan planned to give this food to the recruits, then find some unlucky rebel planet for them to practice on.
The rebel worlds had made no moves lately. After losing Olaye, their food supplies had completely failed to keep up. Widespread famine swept through the entire Hive City, and even the Mid Hive could no longer guarantee food supplies.
Seeing their chance, unscrupulous merchants banded together to drive up food prices, causing countless deaths from starvation.
The planet's abandoned food-production facilities were quickly reactivated, including factories making corpse starch blocks and food cultivation centers, but their output was only a drop in the bucket compared with the shortage.
Once even the military's food supplies could no longer be guaranteed, riots broke out. Over the years, the populations of these five rebel planets, which had ranged from three to eight billion, had each fallen to around one billion. Only then was there enough food for people to barely fill their stomachs.
The recruits'