The Thunderhawk Transporter plunged into the gas giant's atmosphere, weaving through dense ammonia clouds, constantly dodging unstable cyclones, storms, and lightning.
After a turbulent journey, the Thunderhawk Transporter finally landed at an outpost located in a relatively stable stratosphere beneath the ammonia cloud layer.
This was a standard gas planet mining outpost. Its installed mining arrays would extract promethium and other rare gases from the gas giant's atmosphere.
Then, shuttles would transport them to refining stations in synchronous orbit for refinement and storage, before transport ships carried them back to the factories on Rostov II Starport for further processing.
Connected closely to this mining outpost was a Space Marine Chapter Monastery.
However, this was not a standard Chapter Monastery, but merely a small monastery converted from a gas giant habitation platform.
After all, a standard Chapter Fortress Monastery, designed to accommodate training facilities, various armaments, and planetary-level defenses, would be comparable in size to a small space outpost.
Even for Macragge and Fenris, the Chapter Fortress Monasteries of the Ultramarines and Space Wolves could even be observed directly from space with the naked eye.
"Welcome, Your Excellency, Governor." A Captain in MK10 Power Armor appeared before Alex, greeting him.
Alex looked up at the towering man, nearly 2.8 meters tall, and felt a significant strain on his neck.
"I never thought I'd have to look up at a Primaris Astartes at such an angle," Alex mused.
When he met Sergeant Aarn previously, although he was also tall, Alex didn't have to crane his neck to meet his gaze.
After all, an old Astartes stands between 2.1 and 2.4 meters tall; while very tall, an ordinary person can generally look up and meet their gaze.
But a Primaris Astartes reaches 2.8 meters, requiring one to tilt their head back to meet their gaze.
To put it into perspective, in the 3k era, residential building floor heights were typically 2.8 meters, and door frame heights ranged from 2 to 2.4 meters.
Normally, we don't need to make much effort to see the top of a door frame, but we usually have to look up to see the ceiling.
"The Primaris Astartes are significantly larger than the old Astartes, which gives us greater strength and allows us to better confront the enemies of the Imperium," the Captain replied to Alex, removing his helmet to reveal three golden service studs on his forehead.
"Hello, Captain Shi Dong, or should I call you Chapter Master?" Alex greeted the giant before him.
Although this was his pawn, once deployed into this world, he became a living person, a feeling Alex found very strange.
Despite not being the first time conversing with his pawns, for Alex, Astartes were special, and Captain Shi Dong was a special pawn.
"You may call me as you please. Whether as a Space Marine or your pawn, your dominion over me is absolute," Shi Dong simply replied to Alex, answering his question while also explaining the role of pawns like himself.
Alex nodded, then said, "Then I'll call you Chapter Master. Please show me around."
"Certainly, please follow me," Shi Dong nodded, then gestured for Alex to proceed.
Alex followed behind the massive Shi Dong, deeply feeling the exaggerated size of the giant. Often, Alex would take three steps to Shi Dong's one, highlighting the disparity between them.
"In this monastery, Olegana the Sage has prepared a set of cultivation chambers for us, capable of cultivating 300 base bodies per year," the first facility Shi Dong showed Alex was the cultivation chamber used for mass-producing 'pure humans' on an assembly line.
Although this device was designed to use natural embryos, any Tech-Priest knew that with slight adjustments, it could be transformed into a clone production line.
While 300 people a year might not sound like much, if all 300 could be converted into Primaris Space Marines, that would be truly terrifying.
"Three hundred per year? What is the quality of the base bodies?" Alex looked at the 'base bodies' submerged in nutrient solution in the cultivation tanks, each over a meter tall and already developed to adult human size, and asked Shi Dong beside him.
"Their physical qualities meet the recruitment standards for new recruits and satisfy the requirements for the modification surgery," Shi Dong handed Alex a data-slate, which clearly listed the various physical attributes of this base body.
Alex nodded with satisfaction.
This was the advantage of advanced technology. If recruiting on a planet, various trials would be needed to select the new recruits with the best physical qualities.
However, using cultivation chambers directly produced base bodies whose physical qualities met the modification requirements.
Of course, there was still a huge difference between the two: individual will.
Generally speaking, new recruits selected through new recruit trials possessed excellent physical and mental fortitude, far superior to these base bodies who only received hypnotic indoctrination in cultivation chambers.
This was also why various Chapters went to great lengths to conduct new recruit trials and specifically preserved feral worlds as recruitment worlds.
However, this problem was not insurmountable through acquired means, so Alex was not concerned about it.
He and Shi Dong continued walking, soon arriving at another facility.
Here were dozens of sarcophagus-like devices, most of them empty, with only a few closed and currently operating.
"Are these the Blood Angels' Blood Sarcophagi?" Alex guessed what they were with just a glance.
"These were set up by Olegana the Sage. She found traditional modification surgeries too slow and their success rates too low," Shi Dong answered Alex's question and explained, "These are sarcophagi created by Olegana the Sage after modifying the Blood Sarcophagus STC. After the Gene-Seed is implanted, the base body will sleep in the sarcophagus for one year.
One year is enough time for the Gene-Seed to mature and transform them into qualified Space Marines."
This was the Blood Angels Chapter's new recruit cultivation technology, which allowed the Ninth Legion during the Great Crusade Era to not meticulously select new recruits; even severely deformed Mutants could develop into qualified Space Marines with this Blood Angels technology.
This also meant that the Blood Angels had abundant troops in the early stages, not needing to meticulously select new recruits' genes like other Legions.
And for Alex, this meant only one thing: he could expand his army without restraint.
However, there was still one problem limiting his expansion: "Is there enough Gene-Seed?"
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