When reaching a million-strong Legion, further growth would be needed. Humanity controlled a million worlds, with trillions of people.
This much military might was nowhere near enough!
"Next, we need to upgrade the Primaris Space Marines. I can recall about 150,000 of my sons for now.
The rest, I'll summon after returning to Terra; they're scattered across the galaxy."
"Biomuscle and bone-strengthening serum—don't worry, I have enough stockpiled to upgrade tens of thousands."
His giant factories could produce huge amounts of Zetton biomuscle every month, and his supply of super-beast bone serum was also considerable.
The only real limit was the superhuman organ upgrades, which were time-consuming.
They needed precision medical pods for recasting.
"Rhodes, I've thought about it. The 19 earlier superhuman organ upgrades can be skipped for now—they take too long.
Instead, just add the four new enhancements—Cawl's Furnace, the Hymn Gland, Biomuscle, and Bone Serum.
This will greatly boost their combat power, even if they're not quite as strong as our Legionaries.
We can refine the process and share it with the new founding Chapters."
He had studied the new Primaris surgery, which combined Cawl's techniques and Rhodes' upgrades.
Cawl's enhancements had limits, but Rhodes' biomuscle, bone serum, and the 19 organ upgrades were the real sources of power.
However, the 19 organ upgrades took too much time and required special medical pods.
Without these, removing and re-implanting all organs had a near-zero success rate.
So Guilliman decided to simplify the process: skip the 19 organ upgrades, just add the four new organs.
They wouldn't match the Custodes, but would far surpass standard Astartes.
Once the Imperium's resources were pooled, the 19 organ upgrades could be added later.
"Skipping the 19 organ upgrades is fine, and other new Chapters can learn too.
But we don't have enough medical pods to share with them.
Without the pods, you know the fatality rate for upgrading standard Astartes to Primaris is over 60%.
For new recruits, the rate is over 90%!"
Just removing all muscle and replacing it with Zetton biomuscle was practically suicide.
And the bone upgrade was also critical.
"Can you boost medical pod production?"
Rhodes' medical pod output was terrifyingly low—Guilliman only got 200 per month.
If Rhodes hadn't gifted him 1,000 as a meeting present, his upgrades wouldn't have been enough for his Legion.
"Can't be helped. The Golden Age carrier can only make a few hundred per month. Mass distribution is impossible."
All the free pods were used up. Four small carriers, one medium, one large—the total medical pods was under 10,000.
Rhodes gave 1,000 to Guilliman—very generous.
Upgrading another carrier would bring monthly output to 1,000 pods. With free upgrades, maybe 7,000 more.
But even so, that's not enough for the whole galaxy.
"Can Cawl copy them? Without relying on the Golden Age carrier?"
"I already had Cawl try, but his conclusion is:
Humanity can't make these. Our tech base isn't good enough."
Cawl couldn't replicate the pods. Rhodes' scientists could, but humanity's tech wasn't up to par.
A full tech upgrade was needed before mass production was possible.
"Then we'll have to ration them. I'll try to equip each new founding Chapter with 100 pods.
Each successor Chapter gets 10 pods, just enough for recruit upgrades."
He'd reserve 800 pods for the new founding Chapters, and 3,000 for 300 successor Chapters—asking Rhodes for 4,000 pods in total.
That way, the galaxy's Astartes wouldn't publicly complain about Rhodes and Guilliman.
"That's doable. My production should increase soon; 4,000 pods is no problem."
With another carrier upgraded, he could provide 10 pods per Chapter within a few months.
"Good. Reduce my monthly share by 100, and we'll pool them for this."
"Your 200 per month stays; the rest go to me. After all, you gave me three-star systems—it's the least I can do."
Rhodes said, patting Guilliman's shoulder.
No way could he provide tens of thousands per Legion, but 4,000 wasn't too hard.
Clearing the Chaos fleet from Macragge's Five Hundred Worlds had netted him 2.4 million system coins.
Rhodes planned to spend a million on 100 random draws for mid-grade monsters, and another million to upgrade Mefilas' psychic powers.
After Guilliman launched the Terra Crusade, Mefilas would accompany him, since their next opponent was psychic master Magnus, second only to the Emperor.
A powerful psyker was needed to counter Magnus, and Mefilas was perfect for the job.
For the monster ranch defense, Rhodes would send new monsters after his draws, or redeploy Mecha Seven and Mecha Ace.
The remaining 400,000 coins would upgrade a carrier to mid-grade for 3,000 more medical pods.
"Alright. According to my calculations, it'll take another two and a half months for all my sons to finish their Primaris upgrades.
In three months, the fleet will be ready at Macragge. Then we'll travel the Webway to Holy Terra together."
"No problem, we'll launch the Terra Crusade together in three months."
Three months meant another 1,500 pods, 600 for Guilliman, and with the new carrier, 4,000 total was doable.
"Once we reach Terra, your and Sister Elena's identities must be revealed. Two new Primarchs returning—this will be huge for the Imperium."
"Announce our identities after we take control of Terra."
Babaryu impersonation event would be scheduled—Rhodes didn't plan to tell Guilliman; this would be Horus's job.
With the Emperor's backing, there'd be no problem. When the erased Legion returned, Babaryu could perfectly mimic the erased Primarch.
Guilliman chatted with Rhodes and Elena, then departed.
Rhodes had planned to teach Guilliman some cosmic beast martial arts, but he was always busy in his office.
Guilliman did want to improve his combat power but had no time to train.
With three months left, Rhodes considered sending his 100 King Joes and monster army to take on a tough Tyranid fleet!