Chapter 352 - 349 — Land?

Chapter 352: Chapter 349 — Land?

Chapter 349 — Land?

The next few days passed quietly.

For the first time since Gaius returned to Varrak Prime, the planet was beginning to settle.

The Warp scars were still visible across the sky.

They had not disappeared.

But they were weakening.

The remaining ritual sites were being monitored, and the destruction of the first had already proven that the corruption could be pushed back.

There had been no new daemon incursions.

No fresh Chaos attacks.

Varrak was safe.

For now.

And that gave everyone time to recover.

The Ultramarines had quickly organized the recovery effort.

The PDF remained responsible for local security, while the Ultramarines coordinated the larger operations.

Orders moved quickly through the chain of command.

Gaius gave the orders.

Titus and Metaurus handled the military side.

The PDF and civilian authorities carried out the work.

There was little wasted motion.

Repair crews knew where they needed to go.

Supply vehicles had assigned routes.

Medical facilities received priority.

Power, water, communications, and transportation were restored one system at a time.

The civilians had also returned to work.

There was no mass panic.

The people of Varrak had already been through the worst of it.

Now they were rebuilding.

And the Ultramarines were right there with them.

Some helped move heavy equipment.

Others cleared damaged roads.

Others guarded work crews and supply convoys.

Whenever they were not needed for recovery work, they returned to training and maintaining their equipment.

Tony had spent enough time around them to notice the routine.

He watched a squad of Ultramarines carrying a damaged machine through the street.

"They really don’t stop, do they?"

Diana glanced at the Marines.

"They’re not fighting."

Tony watched them disappear into a building.

"They’re carrying a huge machine weighing tons."

Diana smiled.

"Still not fighting."

Tony nodded.

"Fair."

Gaius’s own days were filled with reports.

Every morning, Titus brought him updates from the settlements.

Power.

Water.

Medical facilities.

Construction.

Industrial production.

Food.

Military readiness.

Most of the numbers were improving.

One morning, Titus entered the command center carrying several data slates.

"Praetor."

Gaius looked up.

"Report."

"Power has been restored to two more districts."

"Good."

"Water systems are fully operational in the major settlements."

Gaius nodded.

"The wounded?"

"Most are recovering. The medical facilities are no longer overloaded."

Titus set another slate down.

"Food production is the remaining concern."

Gaius looked through the figures.

"The agricultural facilities?"

"Still being repaired."

"And processing?"

"Several lines are operating, but we’re not back to full production."

Gaius nodded.

"Then use the Oath."

Titus understood immediately.

"The Sea King production."

"Yes."

"The Oath is already producing."

"Increase the shipments to maximum."

Titus nodded.

"We can do that."

"Do so."

Titus left.

Tony looked over from where he had been sitting.

"So that’s the problem?"

"The local food production was damaged."

Tony nodded.

"Yeah, but people have still been eating Sea King meat this whole time."

Gaius looked at him.

"Yes."

Tony smiled.

"Good. Just checking."

Diana looked between them.

"You’ve been selling it here for quite some time."

Gaius nodded.

"At a low price."

"Very low," Tony added.

Gaius ignored the comment.

"The supply was limited."

Diana nodded.

"Enough for most people to buy it, though."

"Yes."

Tony leaned back.

"Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has tried it."

Diana smiled.

"For many of them, it was the best meat they had ever tasted."

Tony laughed.

"Probably the first real meat some of them had ever eaten."

Gaius returned to the reports.

"That was the purpose."

The Oath of Rectitude remained in orbit above Varrak Prime.

Its production facilities were still operating.

The cloning vats continued producing Sea King meat.

This wasn’t a new emergency measure.

Gaius had brought the system to Varrak long before the Chaos assault.

The meat had already become part of the planet’s food supply.

It was simply sold extremely cheaply.

The supply had never been large enough to make it the only source of food, but it had been enough for most civilians to buy it occasionally.

For many people, that had been their first chance to eat meat of that quality.

Now that local production had been damaged, Gaius simply increased the amount coming from orbit.

The Oath produced more.

The containers were sent down.

The food was distributed through the existing supply network.

There was no need to create a new system.

The infrastructure was already there.

The Ultramarines simply increased the flow.

Tony watched one of the shipments being unloaded.

"See?"

He pointed at the containers.

"Problem solved."

Gaius nodded.

"Temporarily."

Diana looked at the containers.

"The local farms still need to recover."

"They will."

Tony looked toward the shipment.

"So the expensive part isn’t the meat."

Gaius looked at him.

"No."

"It’s keeping the supply high enough."

"Correct."

Tony nodded.

"Got it."

The difference became noticeable within days.

Markets that had been selling Sea King meat before the attack received larger shipments.

Restaurants reopened their grills.

Cooking stalls started serving it again.

Families who had already bought it before the war now had more opportunities to purchase it.

The meat was still cheap.

Gaius had no reason to turn it into an expensive luxury.

For many civilians, it had become one of the few things they associated with the changes brought to Varrak before the war.

A family could buy enough for dinner without spending a fortune.

A worker could afford a portion after a shift.

Children had grown up knowing that, occasionally, their family could bring home meat far better than anything they had eaten before.

Now the supply was simply more reliable.

Tony noticed people lining up at one of the markets.

A vendor was cutting portions from a large piece of Sea King meat.

Tony watched for a moment.

"They really like this stuff."

Diana looked at the line.

"They did before the war."

Tony nodded.

"Yeah."

He watched a family leave with their food.

"Can’t blame them."

Diana smiled.

"You’ve eaten it too."

Tony looked at her.

"Yeah."

"And?"

Tony thought for a second.

"Still one of the best things I’ve eaten."

Diana laughed.

"I knew you’d say that."

The civilians were recovering in other ways as well.

Markets were reopening.

Workshops were returning to operation.

Schools had reopened where the buildings were still usable.

Food-processing facilities were coming back online, while workers resumed sorting and distributing the supplies arriving from outside the hive.

Construction crews were rebuilding damaged hab-blocks.

Transport vehicles moved through the cleared streets once again.

Cargo haulers resumed their routes between districts, carrying food, medicine, and other essential supplies.

Children had started playing outside again.

The Ultramarines remained a familiar sight throughout the settlements.

They guarded important facilities.

Helped move machinery.

Protected supply routes.

And continued training whenever their duties allowed it.

The people were gradually becoming used to them.

At first, children had been hesitant around the giant warriors.

Now some simply watched them with curiosity.

A few even waved.

The Ultramarines usually answered with a simple nod.

It was enough.

Diana had started spending more time walking through the settlements.

She liked seeing the difference.

The day they had arrived, the streets had been full of smoke and gunfire.

Now there were workers repairing storefronts.

People carrying groceries.

Vehicles moving between districts.

It looked like a city again.

One afternoon, she walked beside Gaius.

Tony followed a few steps behind.

Diana looked around.

"Things are going smoothly."

Gaius nodded.

"The systems are recovering."

"The people seem fine."

"They are resilient."

Tony caught up with them.

"They’re also getting fed."

Gaius looked at him.

Tony gestured toward a nearby market.

"Sea King meat seems to be doing its job."

Diana laughed.

Gaius continued walking.

"It is food."

Tony shook his head.

"That’s probably the most Ultramarine way you could’ve answered that."

Gaius glanced at him.

"What else should I say?"

Tony smiled.

"I don’t know."

He looked around.

"Maybe, ’You’re welcome, Varrak.’"

Gaius ignored him.

Diana laughed again.

The Ultramarines were recovering at the same time.

Those with repaired armor returned to training.

Others remained with the Techmarines until their equipment was fully restored.

The Bladeguard Veterans had their shields repaired and returned to their duties.

Titus and Metaurus had resumed drilling the 11th Company, spending much of their time teaching the younger Marines.

They corrected their formations, demonstrated combat techniques, and pushed them through drills designed to build discipline and battlefield coordination.

The Dreadnought had already completed his maintenance cycle.

With his systems checked and repairs finished, he had been returned to his chamber.

There, the ancient warrior once again rested within his sarcophagus, awaiting the day he would be needed.

The company continued its training without him.

Bolters cracked across the training grounds.

Chainswords and combat blades struck practice targets.

Titus moved between the squads, correcting mistakes and demonstrating techniques when needed.

Metaurus did the same from another section of the training grounds, giving the younger Marines direct instruction and pushing them to improve.

The Ultramarines had fought together for centuries.

Even after the battle, they trained as though another one could begin at any moment.

The search for the remaining rituals continued.

Tony’s drones swept across the major settlements and surrounding regions, searching for traces that matched the energy signature recorded at the destroyed ritual site.

JARVIS compared every unusual reading against the data they had collected.

Whenever a potential site was identified, its location was marked for investigation.

Gaius personally inspected the stronger readings.

His Observation Haki allowed him to cover vast areas quickly, searching for anything out of place.

Several potential locations had been identified.

Some proved to be nothing more than damaged infrastructure or lingering traces of Warp energy from the battle.

Others showed enough evidence to warrant investigation.

When a genuine ritual site was found, Gaius and the others moved to destroy it.

One by one, the remaining sites were cleansed.

No new ritual had appeared since the last confirmed destruction.

That was what mattered.

The Warp scars above Varrak continued to weaken.

Slowly.

But consistently.

One evening, Tony checked the latest readings.

"Still going down."

Diana looked toward the sky.

"How much?"

Tony shook his head.

"Not enough for an ordinary human to see."

Gaius looked upward.

He could still see them clearly with his transhuman eyes.

"But enough to measure."

Tony nodded.

"Yeah."

The days continued like that.

The Ultramarines trained.

The Techmarines repaired.

The PDF maintained security.

Factories came back online.

Food production slowly recovered.

The Oath continued sending Sea King meat down from orbit.

The civilians returned to work.

Markets reopened.

Buildings rose from the rubble.

More lights appeared across the settlements each night.

The planet wasn’t healed yet.

But it was functioning again.

One evening, Gaius, Tony, and Diana walked through one of the restored districts.

The street lights were working again.

A market was still open.

People were talking outside their homes.

A nearby restaurant had reopened.

Tony could smell food from across the street.

He looked toward Gaius.

"You know, this place is starting to look normal."

Gaius looked around.

"That is the goal."

Diana smiled.

"It’s getting there."

Tony nodded.

He looked up at the sky.

The massive Warp scars were still there.

But they were thinner than before.

Less violent.

Less bright.

Tony looked back toward the street.

"Not bad."

Gaius continued walking.

"There is still work to do."

Tony followed.

"Of course there is."

Diana walked beside them.

"But at least now we’re actually getting somewhere."

Gaius nodded.

Tony looked at him.

"And Gaius, I think I’d like a bit of land again. Somewhere to build a workshop."

Gaius looked at him and nodded.

"That will be done."

Tony grinned.

"Perfect."

~~~

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