Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Power cut off.

The halogen searchlights, assembly line indicator lights, and the roar of the high-pressure pump station surrounding M-4417 disappeared within the same second.

In that instant.

M-4417's right hemisphere received abnormally high peaks in environmental data.

It wasn't just him.

Among the 80,000 non-combatant assassins distributed across the three main hive cities and various regions of the middle hive.

More than 70,000 people simultaneously captured the extremely drastic environmental changes in their right hemisphere within the same second.

Seventy thousand multi-dimensional data points are fed into the swarm intelligence processing matrix within 0.1 seconds via bioelectrical signals.

[Report: The grid we are in experienced a systemic power outage.]

[Report: Environmental carbon dioxide concentration has risen exponentially over the past 3 minutes, and airflow circulation has stagnated.]

[Report: The emergency isolation gate was activated and closed without official warning.]

[Report: Analysis of oral mucosal contact revealed abnormal fluctuations in trace mineral content in drinking water pipe networks, on a scale of hundreds of times.]

[Report: Hundreds of frequently repeated words were extracted from the dark and chaotic dense crowd: "plague," "breakthrough," and "poison gas is coming."]

A super biological computer composed of 110,000 brains connected in parallel, whose computing power surpasses that of the Mechanicus's Array of Thinkers.

Cross-association analysis time: 0.08 seconds.

The underlying logic chain and tactical decision-making have been generated:

[Final conclusion: A systematic and coordinated attack occurred.]

[Attack Vectors: Water poisoning + Atmospheric system sabotage + Deliberate power grid disruption + Communication interference + Channel blockade + Spread of tactical rumors.]

[Determination of nature: The six vectors were activated precisely and synchronously on the same timeline. This completely eliminates the possibility of random system failures and natural disasters. The probability is 99.97% that it was a premeditated, internally coordinated sabotage.]

A red alert, the highest priority, has been issued.

Main Nest City #1, Spire District, Governor's Temporary Command Center.

The majority of Lawson's consciousness was monitoring the brutal extermination of the Underhive.

Suddenly, a red alert, the highest level, popped up on my retina, indicating swarm intelligence.

[WARNING: All three nests in Zhongchao have been simultaneously attacked in a coordinated manner. Five major systems—water, atmosphere, power, communications, and blockade—have been destroyed at the same time.]

[Estimated impact on population base: The total population of Zhongchao is approximately 7.6 million.]

[Real-time situation assessment: A large-scale stampede in an enclosed space has been detected, and the civilian death toll is rising at a rate of thousands per minute.]

[Time elapsed since the attack began: approximately 4 minutes.]

Lawson instantly completed the logical tracing.

The ability to simultaneously utilize water supply systems, possess infrastructure and networks across multiple cities, and coordinate such precise timelines is remarkable.

With the military and legal surveillance networks of this planet now under his control,

Only one behemoth that still operates independently remains.

"Clean Water Guild".

Lawson's jaw made an extremely faint popping sound.

"By flooding the bottom nest, we can lure the enemy away from the mountain, pinning my main force firmly in the sewers, and then attack the most vulnerable civilian area in the middle nest."

"They acted swiftly and used ruthless methods."

But now is not the time to follow the clues and arrest the mastermind.

Inside those hundreds of giant workshops, which were sealed off by gates and cut off from power and oxygen supplies.

Every second that passes means the meaningless loss of thousands of ordinary lives. Saving lives must come first!

Lawson immediately changed the overall tactical deployment:

"Withdraw 45 White Tiger Armored vehicles and all 1000 company commander-level suicide soldiers from the bottom nest front line and immediately deploy them to the key nodes in the middle nest."

"The bottom nest advance is maintained by the remaining 19000 people."

"The 8 non-combat suicide soldiers in Zhongchao will immediately switch to emergency mode and carry out three tasks: break through the gates, maintain order, and mark and control rumor spreaders."

Upon receiving the order, Lawson's men responded collectively and executed it swiftly.

Vespera's Plan B did indeed cause extremely terrible and irreversible damage during that brief four-minute information vacuum.

After the atmospheric processor malfunctioned, the oxygen content in the sealed space decreased linearly at a rate of approximately 0.8% per minute.

Four minutes means that the absolute oxygen content decreased by 3.2%.

For the workers in Chaohu who have been working in mildly toxic fumes for years and whose lung function has been damaged, this level of oxygen deprivation in the extremely crowded and panicked workshops is fatal.

The oxygen saturation in the blood plummeted.

In individuals with weak constitutions, the cerebral cortex directly enters a state of hypoxic shock, causing them to collapse and limp to the ground.

Falling to the ground in an area with a population density exceeding six people per square meter is equivalent to death.

The deadliest harvesting machine is trampling.

In Zhongchao, hundreds of sealed areas experienced large-scale crowd crushing and stampedes almost simultaneously.

……

Nest No. 3, the highest level secret chamber in the Spire District.

The values ​​on the Soul Dashboard jumped significantly.

Countless fine rays of light, representing pulses of the soul, intertwined and exploded wildly inside the crystal ball.

Vespera looked at the rapidly rising numbers and nodded slightly.

This number of souls is far from enough to repay the contract she signed with the Great Demon "Fate Weaver".

But at least it was an extremely good start.

In her tactical simulations, the gears of the imperial bureaucracy appeared extremely heavy and rusty.

From discovering the power outage in Zhongchao to confirming the underlying disaster and then organizing manpower for rescue, it was an extremely long process.

"At this rate of death and the spread of panic, in four hours..."

Vespera picked up his glass and swirled it gently.

She could almost see the grand spectacle of tens of millions of souls being deposited into the account.

She was about to start drinking to celebrate.

then.

The swarm mentality has begun its counterattack.

Eighty thousand non-combat suicide soldiers acted within the same microsecond of receiving the emergency mode command.

Their cerebral cortex cut off all the patterns of feigned behavior.

Just a second ago, they were the most inconspicuous porters in the factory, tired assembly line operators, uncles serving food in the canteen, or scavengers searching for metal in the scrap metal recycling station.

The next second, the disguise was gone.

They transformed into 80,000 emergency response combat units with no unnecessary actions.

Nest No. 1, F-12 ammunition packaging plant.

In absolute darkness, there were screams of despair.

The non-combatant suicide soldier, number M-2209, stood up in the darkness of the power outage.

The swarm intelligence system had already pushed the three-dimensional location of the nearest isolation gate, C, the optimal movement path, and the gate's mechanical structure diagram to his central nervous system through the legal department's drawing database.

M-2209 began to move.

Navigating the darkness with the faint light provided by the swarm of bees on his retina, he precisely avoided the fallen bodies and jumbled piles of machinery on the ground.

He moved like a fish, weaving through the gaps in the extremely panicked crowd.

It took him forty-two seconds to reach the isolation gate number C.

This is an alloy door.

Driven by an internal heavy-duty hydraulic system.

After the power is cut off, the hydraulic valves automatically lock, pressing the door panel firmly to the ground.

According to standard maintenance procedures, a gate in this condition requires at least four professionally trained maintenance technicians and takes twenty minutes to manually release the pressure and lift it.

But M-2209 is not a normal human being.

He was a system-generated assassin, and although he was not in the combat sequence, he was still far stronger than ordinary hive laborers.

M-2209 took out a standard multi-functional folding tactical tool from the large pocket of his work clothes.

He crouched down and, with remarkable precision, found the maintenance panel at the bottom of the gate in the darkness.

The wrench was inserted into the gap, and the panel was forcibly pried open.

He located the manual pressure relief valve on the hydraulic line.

Insert the wrench and apply force to twist it.

"hiss……"

High-pressure hydraulic oil gushed out like black blood, splashing all over him.

Hydraulic lock released.

The door panel lost the additional downward pressure and was left with only its own weight.

M-2209 dropped the wrench.

He gripped the emergency lifting handle at the bottom of the gate tightly with both hands.

Take a deep breath, separate your legs to shoulder width, lower your waist, and instantly contract your back muscles.

The system's power is unleashed.

"Squeak!"