To maintain a Rank 9 planetary containment shell against a pre-civilizational entity, Zephyr required exactly fifty thousand Faith Points per second. To generate fifty thousand Faith Points per second, the Sovereign Imperium required twenty-seven million mortals praying three times a day. To ensure they prayed, Zephyr required total martial and industrial stability. To enforce that stability in a closed economy, Zephyr required six hundred thousand tons of refined iron every month.
And to get the iron, Harsk Fenward had to deal with the mud.
The Macro scale of divine logistics abruptly shattered into the Micro reality of the frontier.
Oakhaven Ridge was a brutal, dust-choked mining settlement clinging to the edge of the western mountains. The air smelled of sulfur and unwashed bodies. A rusted, heavy-gauge rail line ran through the center of the town, terminating at a loading dock piled high with crude iron ore.
