Warhammer: Empire Reboot

They rolled over and tumbled down, dragging the explosive charge between their legs, letting the leaking plasma heat burn through their coats without letting go.

When the battlefield quieted down again, the area between the starting point of the charge and the enemy lines was littered with the corpses of Krieg cavalry and their horses.

Destroy one Chaos Dreadnought Mech

[Slay four Chaos Space Marines]

[The 3rd Death Cavalry Regiment of Krieg was completely wiped out.]

The image went dark.

The emperor stared at the gas mask totem floating in the center of the light screen, remaining silent for a long time.

The planet Krieg has raised the banner of rebellion in the past.

Colonel Yulten, who claimed to be a loyalist, resolutely pressed the nuclear destruction button to prevent his home planet from falling into the hands of rebels.

Five hundred years of atomic civil war turned the entire planet's surface into a scorched wasteland filled with poisonous gas.

When final victory came, the Kreigs, who had returned to the Empire, saw themselves as sinners born with unforgivable sins.

To atone for their ancestors' betrayal of the Emperor, this planet established an industrialized breeding and military production line.

Artificial embryos are bred in batches in underground nests, and they are trained in nuclear wasteland and simulated poison gas trenches during their adolescence.

Names were replaced by code names, and childhood was filled with training.

Generation after generation of Krieg people are instilled with the same dogma from birth.

Their lives were indebted to the Golden Throne; only by shedding their last drop of blood on the battlefield could they earn the Emperor's forgiveness.

Lawson closed the light screen and turned to look at the Emperor.

"The Kriegs' atonement must end."

“Unless you, the creditor, personally declare that the accounts are settled, no one in the entire galaxy can grant them a pardon.”

……

Krieg.

A static light curtain was set up in the underground general parade hall of the First Military District of Krieg.

Three hundred thousand members of the Krieg Death Legion stood in neat rows.

Around the hall and above the dome, tens of thousands of holographic light screens unfolded layer by layer, connecting signals to the Krieg underground city, the fortresses in various defense zones, and the Krieg assault troops in various star sectors.

The 300,000 delegates present, as well as the hundreds of millions of Kreig soldiers and civilians watching on screen, were all dressed in gray coats with breathing tubes fastened to their chests and their faces hidden behind standard binocular gas masks.

The Lucius-type laser rifle was pressed tightly against his chest, its bayonet tilted downwards at a thirty-degree angle, resembling a square formation cast from terracotta and wool.

The Emperor and Guilliman stepped out from the light curtain.

Three hundred thousand rifles were simultaneously stowed away in the hall, and three hundred thousand delegates knelt on one knee on the cold floor tiles in wartime salute.

At the very front of the parade hall, Commander-in-Chief of the Supreme Command, Krieg, lowered his head.

"The entire Krieg Death Legion in active service..."

"I beg forgiveness from the Lord of mankind."

The Emperor descended the steps and stopped in front of the kneeling Commander-in-Chief, reaching out to grab the metal buckles on both sides of the other's gas mask.

Click.

Beneath the mask was the face of a prematurely aged officer.

He has lived in underground bunkers and gas masks for many years, his skin is pale from lack of sunlight, his cheekbones are high, there is a purplish-red scar on his left cheek from a plasma burn, and there are deep marks from rubber seals around his nose and eyes.

The emperor stared at that face.

"What's your name?"

The veteran officer replied in a tone as if reciting shooting data: "My subordinate is Adler, batch number K-117 of the First Military District, currently the Commander-in-Chief of the Ninth Army under Krieg."

The emperor straightened up, his gaze sweeping across the underground parade hall and over the faces scattered across the entire planet on the holographic screen.

Beneath countless gas masks are eyes awaiting judgment.

At this moment, the Emperor finally understood why Lawson insisted on returning the power to dispose of Krieg to him.

“Krieg, lift your head.”

All the Kreig soldiers and civilians connected to the communication line looked up at the figure clad in golden armor.

“Your ancestors were deceived by rebels and brought war to this land.”

"In the years that followed, you used victory after victory, built on piles of bones, to re-engrave the word 'loyalty' on the Imperial banner."

"In the name of the Supreme Commander of the Human Empire, the Emperor of Mankind, I hereby declare to the entire galaxy today beneath the Mother Rock of Krieg..."

"The old sins of the Krieg family have now been paid for."

"The Empire acknowledges your loyalty without question."

The verdict echoed repeatedly across the hall and the planet's communication network.

However, no cheers erupted inside or outside the hall.

A sense of bewilderment appeared in the eyes hidden behind the gas mask.

Commander-in-Chief Adler knelt on the ground, looking up at the Emperor:

"If Krieg's sins have been atoned for..."

"So what should we do from now on?"

As soon as the question was asked, several senior officers and veteran sergeants in the front row of the hall subconsciously raised their heads.

yes……

There's no need to die for the emperor's sins anymore?

What is the meaning of their lives?

After taking off my coat, where should I go?

Without a mission that guarantees their death, how will they face the day they wake up tomorrow morning?

Guilliman's heart sank.

This is precisely Krieg's tragedy.

He took half a step forward and said to the Emperor, “Father, this matter cannot be resolved by theological pardons and military sentences alone. We must involve the secular methods of the Seal Keeper’s Office.”

"What the Krieg people need most now is not grand speeches, but private property, fixed residences, the expenses of daily necessities, and even more so, normal families and marriages."

Guilliman pointed to the rows of Krieg soldiers in front of him.

“Krieg men are trained in obedience and responsibility from a young age, are highly disciplined, and have an almost pathological adherence to the duties assigned to them. As long as they are pulled out of the vicious cycle of wanting to die in battle, they will become very stable pillars of the family.”

The emperor asked, "How exactly will this be carried out?"

“Assign them houses, make them take out 30-year low-interest renovation loans, make them cultivate farmland, make them worry about their children’s mechanical engineering grades, and make them argue with their wives about the family’s income and expenditure.”

"As long as they are busy enough, they don't have much time to think about how to detonate grenades in the trenches every day."

The emperor stared at his thirteenth son.

"Robert, who taught you this scheme to transform soldiers into mortgage bearers and husbands?"

Guilliman answered readily, "Lossen."

Undeniably, this may be the only cure for Krieg's woes.

……

Several days later.

Krieg is the first deep-space orbital port on Earth.

Several transport ships from the Wotan Alliance landed smoothly on the tarmac.

With the air pressure valve opened, the first batch of over three thousand Wotan female technicians and craftswomen, who volunteered to participate in the Krieg reconstruction project, carried their alloy toolboxes and walked down the gangway.

However, when this group of stocky, feisty dwarf girls stepped onto the tarmac, the scene of their welcome froze the air.

Around the tarmac were two regiments of Krieg Guards infantry.

They clearly misinterpreted the government directive from the Sealholder's Office to welcome the immigrant cooperation representatives as some kind of wartime ritual that needed to be guarded to the death.

Every soldier's boots were gleaming, bayonets were cocked, and gas masks were fastened tightly.

The leading Wotan structural engineer stood in the middle of the gangway, one hand on his hip, surveying the thousands of young men standing ramrod straight below.

The port's loudspeaker broadcasted the voice of the civil affairs liaison officer: "All welcoming personnel of the 1st Garrison Regiment and the 3rd Engineer Battalion of Krieg, in accordance with Article 7 of the Internal Affairs Regulations, immediately remove your gas masks."

Swish!

Thousands of Krieg soldiers removed their half-worn gas masks and held them under their left ribs.

The Wotan girls descended the gangway and began moving through the ranks, selecting their respective engineering team's docking guides.

A young Krieg soldier in his early twenties, his muscles taut like a fully drawn bowstring.

Step, step.

The lead female engineer from Wotan stopped in front of him.

The other person was only up to his chest, with broad shoulders. She tilted her round face up and looked him over.

What's your name?

The young soldier stood at attention: "Reporting, sir! First Military Region Assault Engineer, Batch Number K-88-441! Ready to carry out a suicide assault at any time!"

The female engineer from Wotan rubbed her ears, which were still numb from the shock: "I asked for your name."

The young soldier got stuck; he had no name.

The Imperial Community Coordinator, who was standing nearby, quickly checked his identity terminal and stepped in to smooth things over: "Madam, his alternate name in the civil registration is Erich."

"Erich, right?"

The female engineer from Wotan nodded.

"This box of pneumatic rivet guns and hydraulic jacks is too heavy. Can you help me carry it back to the technicians' dormitory in the third block? Is that okay?"

Upon hearing the clear and specific mission instructions, the young soldier Krieg breathed a sigh of relief.