Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1051 09.1050: 'The Past of Polyberia'

Polaria, a verdant planet bathed in golden sunlight, where the wind rustles through the wheat fields, releasing a refreshing fragrance.

It consists of three main continents, with a huge bay in the south that fostered a hot and humid climate similar to the ancient Mediterranean Sea of ​​Terra.

The warm, moist trade winds blowing from the ocean, carrying abundant clouds and rain, have nourished this land for millennia, laying the foundation for Polyberia as an important agricultural world.

The hovercar swept across an endless grassland stretching for hundreds of kilometers, the grass like the finest velvet carpet, undulating in the wind and shimmering with golden-green light. Upon reaching the central part of the continent, the terrain began to rise, the gentle hills gradually being replaced by majestic and rugged mountains.

In Horatio's opinion, the continuous snow-capped peaks and steep cliffs resembled the Alps of ancient Terra legends—beautiful and magnificent, yet with a touch of aloofness that kept people at a distance.

The major cities on this planet are cleverly situated at the intersection of the central hills and mountains.

This layout is the wisdom forged from lessons learned through blood and fire—everything is designed to seize every geographical advantage in advance when war comes.

Jadwiga had explained the harsh reality behind this to him.

The route where Polaberia is located appears to have several unstable, random Mandeville points nearby that are not fully marked on the Imperial star map.

These deadly "backdoors" open whenever the entire Calissis sector is ravaged by a massive warp storm.

Traitors and aliens are everywhere in the vast universe, especially the green-skinned garbage fleet, which will swarm in like sharks attracted by the smell of blood.

Their goal is always Sintira, the capital of the sector, and Polaberia is the first and most stubborn stumbling block on their path to conquest.

Because of this ever-present threat of invasion hanging over their heads, the ancient Polaberia knights had to ride their steel steeds across their territory day after day.

If a knight fails to protect the territory he has been granted and the people within it, he will be mercilessly stripped of his knighthood by the High King, and his glory and land will be inherited by the next more capable hero.

However, everything changed after the devastating "Great Tooth Disaster" thirty-five years ago.

The vast majority of this land became a colony of Sintila.

Besides those remote, rugged, and undeveloped deep mountains, there are also some vague legends circulating there—it is said that the last remnants of the royal court's squires still remain there.

They refused to be naturalized by the Sintila colonial regime and also refused to relinquish the lands passed down from their ancestors.

The arrogant colonial regime drove them into those desolate, godforsaken places and left them to fend for themselves.

Whether they still exist today has become a legend.

The training base for the Imperial Navy's orbital landing force was chosen to be located north of a small town called Stutzionchi in central Polaberia.

This tranquil town is built around a huge lake called "Mirror Lake".

The lake water is crystal clear, like a huge sapphire inlaid on the earth.

This area is not too far from the hilly region where the capital, Volksharl, is located. Transportation is convenient, and agriculture and animal husbandry are highly developed. A river called Vitevals, like a mother's umbilical cord, tightly connects Volksharl to this area from upstream.

The town has a large freight train station that transports bulk goods such as food, alcohol, and textiles to cities all over the planet every day.

This place was the duchy of the Hunyati family, Poniatovsky's private fiefdom.

Legally speaking, everything the Imperial Navy did here had no direct legal connection with the Sintira colonial government.

Of course, the reason why the Hunyati family was able to maintain such an independent fiefdom and enormous influence amidst the wave of colonization was not because of that old, yellowed, and ephemeral parchment land deed.

Rather, it was because in the era of Poniatowski's elders, they had the foresight to sign an exclusive agreement with a massive commercial empire in the Calesis sector.

Most of the high-value cash crops produced on this land are acquired by the group and distributed to various planets that can generate the greatest profits through its vast business network.

Today, Stutzionchi has become a renowned geographical brand – just as high society banquets are invariably graced with top-tier fruit wines from the Garden World of Quartis, Stutzionchi's fruit wines are becoming the best alternative to the precious Quartis wines, serving as a second-tier luxury brand in Calicus and selling well in the upper echelons of the entire Far Western Galaxy.

When the interests of this land are monopolized by a larger and more complex interest group, the local strongmen naturally find it difficult to swallow up the Hunyati family's fiefdom.

From a political and economic perspective, this was an extremely shrewd investment—compared to the already extinct Wadsław royal family, the Hunyati family better preserved their land and assets from the encroachment and takeover by the Sintira nobles and the Universal Group.

"May the God Emperor bless you, my good brother. To be honest, during the time you were unconscious, we were all lost. We trained day after day according to the previous plan, but we didn't know what to do next."

Poniatovsky, the semi-brigadier in charge of managing the newly built base, was accompanying Horatio, who was recovering from a serious illness, as they inspected the bustling training grounds.

At a glance, thousands of soldiers are training hard under the urging of their sergeants. The bright red one on the field is Valina's beret. She is moving through the crowd, checking and supervising the sergeants' training results.

"Although we didn't know what to do in the future, we still built the training base here step by step and trained the first batch of recruits here."

Currently, 56,000 soldiers are training here, a number large enough to form a new brigade.

Sergeant Major Valina is the chief instructor, but we need more experienced veterans to provide effective mentorship to such a large number of new recruits.

However, according to the training plan manual you left behind, we will strictly sort these recruits and assign them to different specialized camps based on their training results and personal strengths.

This means there won't be enough soldiers.

We need at least three full-strength brigades—that is, 150,000 men.

“I want to recruit soldiers locally in Polaberia.”

Horatio looked at the figures sweating profusely on the training field and asked bluntly, "What do I need to pay attention to?"

Upon hearing this question, Poniatowski's characteristic cynical and optimistic smile turned serious as the question arose.

(End of this chapter)