The mont the planetary leadership made its decision, all five hundred PDF regints in the Hive received mobilisation orders simultaneously.
The generals conducted their morale briefings with the particular bluntness that the situation warranted. They told their soldiers the truth: the synthetic starch facility would take eighteen months to repair. Eighteen months with no guaranteed food supply.
The planetary governnt had done everything possible — sixteen rounds of negotiation, significant concessions offered — to reach a peaceful arrangent. The rebels had rejected every proposal, and were now mobilising their forces with the evident intention of destroying everyone inside the Hive.
The PDF was going out to take the food by force. Whatever was seized would go directly to the soldiers, to be distributed to their own families by their own hands.
The effect was imdiate. These were n whose families were already missing als. Abstract patriotism had never moved them. The prospect of personally carrying food ho to their children was a different kind of motivation entirely. The killing intent in the assembled regints was visible before a single shot had been fired.
Kian read the situation and set everything else aside. This was the mont to be fully present — to develop his command capabilities, to put his private soldiers through actual combat, and to see what he and his unit could accomplish together.
Noble lords were entitled to bring personal household troops into the field alongside PDF forces. Kian had two hundred household slots filled. He went to his Underhive soldiers and offered a straightforward arrangent: anyone who wanted to co out and fight could earn officer rank in the household force and improved terms when they returned.
Two hundred volunteers materialised without difficulty.
He equipped them with the four powered exo-fras the Sanctum's operations had produced, and ard the rest with autoguns. They would experience real combat. He would learn how to lead them.
For the battalion proper, the approach was simpler and more direct. In a Hive suffering from food shortage, food was the most valuable thing he possessed. Kian sent one month's worth of real food — not processed ration pellets, but actual potatoes, maize, and grain — to the household of every soldier in his unit.
Over a thousand families received food they hadn't been sure was coming.
In a single gesture, Battalion Commander Voss beca the only officer in the regint whose orders his soldiers actually wanted to follow.
The operational tasking ca through almost imdiately. Colonel Leo summoned the battalion commanders to regintal headquarters. He stood before the tactical map with his baton and laid it out.
"Orders from high command. The 109th Regint will serve as the advance elent for the northern axis. Our mission: clear a hundred-kilotre corridor running north from the Hive periter, and establish a forward operating base at the hundred-kilotre mark.
In plain terms — we're building and holding a supply route. Three thousand personnel, one hundred kilotres of road. Keep it clear of rebel interference. That's the complete objective.
Watch for improvised mines. Watch for snipers. Beyond that, the threat assessnt is low."
Looking at the map, the threat assessnt made sense. The northern corridor had minimal rebel infrastructure. The only significant settlent in the zone was Whitepaper City — and its lord was sitting in the room.
Kian had already been in contact with Marshal Dillar before the orders ca through. The Marshal was pulling his outer farming population back within the baronial fief boundaries, suspending all military activity, and adopting a posture of complete silence. Every approach to Whitepaper City had wooden boards driven into the ground reading: This territory is the domain of Baron Voss. PDF forces are directed to use alternative routes.
The 109th had drawn a comfortable assignnt. Hold a corridor. Build a base. Stay out of the real fighting.
Leo continued: "The hundred-kilotre route divides into three sectors. One per battalion. You have the vehicles and the manpower — daily patrols along your assigned stretch, respond to any interference. Simple enough?"
Universal agreent from the assembled officers.
Leo allocated the sectors. The furthest from the Hive went to Second Battalion. The middle sector went to Kian. The nearest sector, closest to the Hive periter, went to Third Battalion — Rudolphson's unit.
No objections to the distribution. But a different concern surfaced.
Rudolphson stood.
"Colonel — holding a road isn't complicated, and we'll do it properly. But our soldiers can't go out to find food while they're tied to a fixed route. What happens to their families?"
The officers around the table were nodding before he finished. The worry was written on every face.
The whole point of this campaign was food acquisition. Other regints were driving deep into rebel territory, assaulting held cities — high risk, high reward. The 109th had been handed the safe assignnt, which also ant the assignnt with the least opportunity for taking anything ho.
These were n who weren't afraid of dying. They were afraid their families would starve while they were out here holding a road.
Leo smiled.
"Not your concern. Standard distribution protocol: half of everything seized in forward operations goes to the soldiers who took it. The other half enters the common pool for redistribution — which includes rear-area and support units like us.
You won't go ho empty-handed.
And besides —" he looked toward the end of the table — "this regint has an asset that other regints don't. Isn't that right, my lord Baron?"
Every officer in the room turned to look at Kian.
Kian put a lho-stick between his lips, reached for his lighter, and found a large hand already offering a fla. He glanced up — blond hair, blue eyes, the angular features of a man whose ancestors had been sowhere northern and cold. Second Battalion Commander Hans.
Kian nodded his thanks and addressed the room.
"Colleagues — relax. I have a food processing facility operating in the Hive right now. Have your family mbers bring a 109th Regint dependent's certificate to the facility. They'll receive food at no charge.
We're all brothers here. I'm not about to let anyone's family starve."
The worry in the room broke apart visibly. Around the table, voices began calling out the traditional blessing.
Leo grinned.
"Exactly. We're not like other regints. Other regints are genuinely desperate — we have a Baron covering the tab.
Everyone return to your units. We move at first light tomorrow. Hold the line, hold the road, and hold it well."
[End of Chapter 210]
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