Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"Connect all geothermal overload valves and antimatter engineering explosive detonators in parallel to the individual soldier terminals at each fortress."

"If the position is completely breached, if the last soldier of the Hess Guard falls in a pool of blood, detonate the Earth's core immediately."

The old dwarf gazed into the distance at the fiery sea of ​​stars gradually being swallowed by the shadow of the insect swarm.

"We can turn to dust along with this nebula at the heart of the Milky Way, but before we turn to ashes, we must use our hardest bones to shatter all the teeth of these beasts."

…………

Terra, the highest strategic hall of the Sealholder's Palace.

The massive holographic projection at the core of the galaxy is being refreshed in real time with millimeter-level precision.

At the rendezvous coordinates on the outskirts of the galactic core, tens of thousands of cursors representing the Imperial Expeditionary Forces are converging from various star sectors.

Lord Leontus, holding his command scepter, reported:

"My Lord, the reports from all war zones have been compiled. 327 expeditionary battle groups from the five star systems have entered the designated jump points. The twelve heavy-armored forging fleets of the Mechanicus, jointly dispatched by Mars and Agrippina, have now entered the second gravitational transition layer."

He turned to a page of the document and continued his report:

"The second echelon of allied warships, provided by the Tau Clan, is expected to arrive at the assembly airspace in seventeen standard hours. In addition, 300,000 combat personnel, 80,000 Flying Bear heavy assault motorcycles, and a full set of heavy ground mechs have all completed the loading of large transport ship sections."

Leontus paused slightly when his gaze fell on the line of dark black encrypted data at the very bottom of the terminal.

That was a string of codes completely out of touch with the Imperial Navy's current operational structure.

It has no star sector fleet number, and even the tonnage and model of the warship are under the highest level of physical obfuscation.

Only a brief three-line system annotation:

[Special Strategic Order Directly Under the Seal Keeper's Office]

[Undisclosed type of engineering vessel]

[Initial Real-World Deployment Verification]

Lawson leaned back in the conductor's seat, his knuckles tapping rhythmically on the dark gold patterns of the armrest.

"Release the permissions and let them join the queue."

"It took more than ten years of production capacity from sixty casting worlds, plus the compressed star core of Comoros, to build it up. It's not meant to be placed in a hangar as a decoration."

As the highest command was entered into the console, a low buzzing sound filled the entire strategic hall.

The holographic star map in mid-air suddenly expanded into a completely new tactical layer.

The first thing to appear was a full three hundred warships, each four kilometers long.

Several senior naval admirals in the hall subconsciously moved closer to the projection screen.

The appearance of these warships completely overturned their preconceived notions about interstellar ships.

The hull presents an extremely pure streamlined polyhedral outline, and the dark gray high-density composite shell is as smooth as a mirror.

The entire warship resembled a dark, short blade forged through countless trials, with only a few hidden, dark golden energy circuits running through its central axis, emitting a faint, eerie glow in the void.

The ship's class insignia appeared next to the projection: [Light-Sweeping Class Light Strike Ship]

The standard length of the ship is 4.1 kilometers.

Powered by the surging energy from the miniature compressed star core, its maximum sublight speed reached 3.2 times that of an Imperial cruiser of the same tonnage.

Main weapon system: Continuous band energy spear.

The most remarkable feature of this thing isn't its exaggerated firepower, but its accuracy.

In its original design during the Golden Age, it was specifically designed for high-speed hunting and precise cutting of the vulnerable areas of large targets.

Immediately afterwards, the massive outlines of the second batch of sixty warships unfolded in the light screen.

These warships doubled in size, reaching a length of 8.3 kilometers.

The ship's hull presents a stable and heavy black wedge-shaped structure, with multi-layered gravity deflection shield generators deeply embedded in composite armor layers several meters thick, and the entire bow section is replaced by a huge ring-shaped gravity confinement coil.

Ship class designation: [Zhenyue-class heavy capital ship]

Main weapon: Pulse-type gravity collapse cannon.

This is the core of the design breakthrough for UR-025.

Its attack mechanism completely ignores the thickness of conventional physical armor, and does not care whether the target has evolved energy resistance against lasers or plasma.

Once the main gun is charged and fired, it will create a local gravitational distortion in the space where the target is located for a very short time, and use the mass of the matter itself to forcibly crush the enemy ship inward within microseconds.

Faced with the massive Terran mothership, whose interior is filled with complex biochemical organs, this gravitational crushing force, which ignores the biological outer shell, is enough to directly destroy its deep cellular structure.

Just as everyone was marveling at the design of the Zhenyue-class heavy armor, the hall suddenly shone brightly.

Thirty golden beacons, representing immense mass, simultaneously appeared.

The 15.2-kilometer-long projection of the ship stretched across the sky, its size and imposing presence causing all the senior naval officers present to gasp for breath.

The warship's main structure is entirely supported by a super-heavy energy spine that runs from bow to stern.

The entire warship's energy transmission main line, micro black hole confinement ring, propulsion matrix, and heavy anti-gravity force field all depend on both sides of this indestructible skeleton.

From a distance, the giant ship itself looks like a super-large stellar orbital cannon wrapped in layers of armor plating.

Ship class designation: [Burning Star Super Battleship]

Main weapon: Stellar Spine Cannon.

A single theoretical output is enough to leave a large-scale, penetrating high-energy wound in the photosphere of a star.

Of course, no one is planning to test the sun.

Because there are better targets in the core of the Milky Way.

Lawson gazed at the array of thirty Burning Star ships and casually asked:

"Has the data from the live-fire test been calibrated?"

UR-025 replied: "The low-power ignition test was completed 1762 times. All heat dissipation circuits operated smoothly and the output power was maintained at more than 50% of the actual firing rate. It was carried out thirteen times."

How many times have you performed a full-power test?

"Zero times."

The optical lens of the UR-025 is slightly retracted.

"Because every time I submitted a request to the Executive Yuan to fire at full power, Chief Steward Qingshan would ask me to provide a list of uninhabited stars that did not involve any imperial colony stars or shipping routes. I submitted a total of seventy-six requests, and he returned them seventy-six times."

Lawson chuckled and shook his head: "Qingshan is used to managing accounts, and he always calculates costs first. But this time, when we get to the core of the galaxy, you don't need to submit any more application reports."

He pointed to the densely writhing tentacles of the Tyrannosaurus on the star map.

"Are those Norn Queen Nest Ships, which are responsible for coordinating hundreds of thousands of bio-ships, big enough for you to calibrate their main guns?"

"In terms of quality and size, it is more than enough."

UR-025 quickly typed a set of code on the console.

"However, as the chief technical advisor, I suggest that in the first actual combat engagement, the output threshold of the spine cannon be locked at 60%."

Why not just fill it up completely?

"Full-power firing will directly disintegrate and vaporize all organic molecules in the target area."

UR-025 explained in a serious tone: "If the first shot completely vaporizes the prey into nothingness particles, our tactical sensors will be unable to collect data on the structural decay of biomass when subjected to stellar-level high-energy penetration. From an engineering perspective, this is an extremely unprofessional waste of resources."

Admiral Phelps, standing to the side, stared at the data of the warships that were completely different from the traditional style of the Empire. Finally, unable to suppress his doubts, he stepped forward and saluted.

"Your Excellency, I dare to ask why these new warships with such destructive power have never had official files established in the Navy Department in past battles against the Eye of Fear and the Border Aliens?"

Lawson glanced at him.

"Because of the past battlefield environment, it was not worth revealing this trump card in advance."

"But Tyronn is just the right fit as the starter."

"I'd like to see if the Hive's gene pool has prepared any resistance sequences for the Golden Age capital ships."

The hall was silent for a few seconds.

Many naval commanders suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for the main force of Leviathan.

They already knew that the Wotan Alliance was driven to the brink of destruction at the heart of the galaxy.

After consuming large amounts of high-density ore and cloned genes, Leviathan's evolutionary speed has reached an alarming level.

However, the technological gap of this fleet, which the human empire had kept hidden for more than a decade, was entirely built on another dimension.

Lawson stood up from his command chair and straightened the Marksman's battle robe on his shoulders.

When will the first echelon of the expeditionary force be able to complete its preparations for a full-scale jump?

Leontus straightened up and replied in a deep voice: "The conventional fleet and logistics support platform have been assembled in Pluto's orbit, and the cornerstone navigation network has locked onto the seven gravity corridors on the periphery of the galactic core, ready to set sail at any time."

"What about the new fleet?"

"Three hundred Light-class, sixty Mountain-class, and thirty Burning-class ships, all with their cores compressed and operating normally, are ready to leave their berths at any time."

"Then let's go."

Lawson strode toward the passageway leading to the elevator platform.

Leontus followed beside him.

"My Lord, the gravitational environment at the core of the galaxy is extremely chaotic, and the main tentacles of Leviathan are of unprecedented size. Do you intend to personally oversee the front-line flagship?"

"The old fogies of Wotan are very stubborn, but they are tough as nails. The entire star system has almost been turned into a dead furnace."

Lawson laughed and said, "The Empire's new army is making its first appearance on a large-scale void battlefield. It's an occasion that is reshaping the galactic order, so I naturally have to be there in person."

"Notify the entire army: target the edge of the Galactic Core battlefield. Also, have the forward reconnaissance ships lock onto Leviathan's largest Mother Queen node. We've waited more than a decade; we have to see if the design blueprints we traded three months' leave for can actually make the necessary impact."

As the final authorization order was issued from the main control console in the strategic hall, loud departure whistles sounded simultaneously from the Terra orbital dock and various deep-space anchorages in the solar system.

The massive imperial expeditionary force, with thousands of warships, tore through the void of the solar system like a dazzling torrent of metal.

The fleet began to leave port.

…………

Deep within the gravitational storm at the galactic core, the lamentations of iron and fire have been completely drowned out.

Nine days after Karak-Zorn Fortress was gnawed into a Death Star, bad news came from the front lines.