The aftermath of the war is something that Comptroller Bellormus has considered. One of the war aims of the Devos IV Campaign is to preserve, as far as reasonably practicable, the food producing capability of the planet.
The loyalist continent of Acer had seen some pro separatist riots before hostilities broke out, but the agitators have all been interred by the secret police. There were a few sporadic air raids, but these amounted to little more than harassment. There were a series of localised fights and interventions at the North Eastern seaport of Bruboxvillie, which whilst serious in themselves, posed no real threat to the success of the campaign.
The population of Acer remains largely intact, indeed, has raised three regiments for the Imperial Guard. The Imperial census for Devos IV estimated a population of approaching twenty millions. Comptroller Bellormus’ reckoning made it more like eight millions.
Food production in the seas around Acer continues largely unaffected by the war, manufacturing and processing on Acer remains the focus of the remaining population. What has suffered is the herding culture and cattle towns (abattoirs and freeze drying plants) as the Imperial Guard pursues a scorched earth policy in its advance across the rebellious continent of Benq. Along with the stated aim of destruction of the historical planetary capital, this has caused Comptroller Bellormus to exclude what survivors there might possibly be from his calculations.
With the sanction, endorsement, backing and instruction of the Ordo Hereticus, upon whose behalf this war of liberation was launched, Comptroller Bellormus has suggested that in answer to overcrowding on a hive world, a number of persons be displaced in order to ease the congestion; these people could be sent to Devos IV to assist re-building the population with Emperor fearing loyal citizens, perhaps even with a long term view to restoring the population to its census level.
He briefly flirted with the idea of suggesting that the lift fleet might do some of the fetching and carrying, but in truth, the military capability was already committed.
The Governor of Palladia immediately saw an opportunity. He might not be able to export any of the population of Edethor – doubtless they were too well known as a rebellious, fractious mob. But he could make some space; financial incentives to all parties, some bigger than others, would, in the medium and long term, be compensated for through taxation. And a social restructure in a Hive Cluster would be an excuse a reason to restructure the tax system. And so the Danter Hive cluster lost fourteen and a half million souls[1] in the space of a fortnight. These people were loaded up into the fleet of a rogue trader consortium, contractually arranged for the very purpose.
Effectively then refugees within their own Imperium, these fourteen and a half million hive worlders would be delivered in just eighteen months to a world that needed them, but was in no way ready for them. And quite frankly, they were in no way ready for it. There would be a programme of training and indoctrination during the voyage, but being part financed by the Ecclesiasty, it was devotional in tone and content, not of practical value.
Such are the vagaries of the Warp that Comptroller Bellormus would never receive the astropathic message informing him of these events. The message was eventually received by the Devos XII astropath station six standard years after Comptroller Bellormus' death many light years away on Hydraphur; but that would be decades into the future. When the immigrants arrived, it was a bit of surprise. The Imperial Navy intercepted the fleet at the edge of the system and signalled Imperial High Command. Effectively, there were then two weeks, whilst the fleet transited real space, to prepare for their arrival.
Fortunately by that time, the war was all but over. And as a food producer with established supply routes and good space faring connections, the resulting humanitarian plight was a shadow of what it could have been; The departmento had already created infrastructure and supply chains dirtside that would cope with the influx and by keeping control of how many were migrated, at what rate and to which locations, the first migrants were already net contributors before half of them had set foot on their new world. It took three years before the last of the consortium fleet left the Devos system.
[1]Out of 2.1 Billion across six hives. It might not seem much, but would allow the Hive rulers enough wriggle room in terms of socio-economic policy changes to stave off a major block war for another decade and a half.