Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The total amount of organic matter consumed by thousands of Squigs in a breeding pool in 14 days is equivalent to hundreds of years of natural sedimentation in the area.

When the scale of the culture pools expands to tens of thousands, the rate of consumption will be terrifying.

Swarm intelligence provides a stark figure: at full capacity, with approximately 90,000 breeding ponds, the existing organic matter reserves in the bottom hives will be completely depleted within six to eight months.

It sounds like a long time, but there's a fatal pitfall in it: the consumption of organic matter is not linear, it grows exponentially.

In the first two months, only a few thousand pools were in operation, and the consumption was slow.

However, starting from the third month, as the number of culture tanks explodes, the organic matter reserves will collapse at an accelerated rate, like an iceberg melting.

By the time you realize the problem, the remaining reserves may only last another month.

Moreover, the depletion of organic matter not only means there's nothing to feed Squiger, it means the entire perpetual motion machine stops.

Back to before liberation overnight.

Squig needs to eat to grow.

The organic matter at the bottom of the nest is dead stock. For this perpetual motion machine to truly become a perpetual motion machine, it needs a renewable source of organic matter.

A supply line that continuously feeds fresh biomass into the culture tank.

It's not just a problem with the culture medium.

Swarm intelligence also highlighted another warning, from a nutritional perspective.

While Squig meat does indeed have a protein density far exceeding that of cadaver starch, it is ultimately the meat of a fungal-animal complex.

Consuming these products for more than four to five months can lead to a severe deficiency of essential micronutrients in the human body: several key components of B vitamins, trace minerals other than iron, and dietary fiber from plant sources.

Without these things, a person won't die immediately.

However, after three months, massive scurvy, night blindness, and immune system collapse will occur.

For a nest-city world, global malnutrition and famine are not fundamentally different; both result in hundreds of millions of deaths and the ensuing social collapse.

Squiger rations are a life-saving tourniquet.

But you can't live with a tourniquet on forever.

There is only one solution.

Lawson's gaze fell on the Obrolus-II on the holographic star map.

The agricultural world.

The granary of the entire Tri-Star System.

Its annual agricultural output is enough to feed three hive worlds, which is the reason for its existence.

Now, Lawson needs it to do two things.

Ideally, traditional agricultural foods and Squiger rations would be mixed and distributed in proportion. The swarm intelligence has calculated the optimal formula that could provide 118 billion people with comprehensive, balanced, and even better nutrition than before the war.

The amount of agricultural waste generated annually in the agricultural world—including straw, rice husks, algae residue, and processing waste—is staggering.

In the past, most of these wastes were either incinerated or landfilled on-site.

But for Lawson's breeding pool, these things are gold.

Agricultural waste has a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio that is close to the optimal differentiation range for Squiger spores, making it even more efficient as a culture medium than organic sludge from the bottom nest.

If a transportation route from the agricultural world to the nest city is established, with the cargo holds of every grain-carrying ship filled with grain and the hold and deck compartments filled with compressed agricultural waste, the cultivation pools will have an inexhaustible supply of fuel.

Only then will a perpetual motion machine truly become a perpetual motion machine.

Furthermore, simulations using swarm intelligence show that when agricultural waste and orc meat are mixed as a culture medium, the growth cycle of Squigs can be reduced from 14 days to 11 days, increasing the yield per unit of meat by about 15%. It's easy to understand why fresh agricultural waste, rich in active organic matter, is more nutritious than dead organic matter that has accumulated in the bottom hive for tens of thousands of years.

In other words, taking over the agricultural world will not only fix the weaknesses of Project Ironbone, but also make it stronger.

Lawson closed the data panel.

The agricultural world is not something you can take; it's something you must take.

And it has to be fast.

In four to five months, he must accomplish three things: expand his legion, traverse 1.8 million kilometers of interstellar space, and conquer agricultural planets.

Lawson's lips curved slightly into a smile.

Twelve hours later, the roar of industrial drilling rigs and welding guns rang out simultaneously from the bottom nests of the three nest cities.

The renovation project for 900 culture tanks has officially commenced.

Meanwhile, on the wasteland surrounding the hive city, non-combatant assassins were packaging dried orc spore powder into sealed containers. Each container weighed 15 kilograms, for a total of 900 containers.

The first round of harvesting will begin in 14 days.

Chapter 110 The Unexpected Surprise from the Fat Governor

The following day, in the central council chamber of the Governor's Palace in the Pinnacle district.

This council chamber was originally the venue where the governor held administrative meetings, and it was decorated with magnificent murals and gilded reliefs.

At the far end of the hall stands a two-meter-tall golden statue of an emperor, cast in pure gold by the governor.

It came in handy at that moment.

Lawson stood in front of the Emperor statue, fully clad in his Tiger King armor.

There was no one else in the hall; Lawson had intentionally cleared the council chamber. This was not a public ceremony, but a private agreement.

The door opened.

Four nuns filed in.

Katarina walked at the front.

Her armor had been thoroughly cleaned last night, and the imperial double-headed eagle relief on her breastplate was shining with golden light again. Her red hair was braided into a neat battle braid and hung down on her left shoulder.

Sera and Sena walked side by side.

The twins' short blonde hair was meticulously styled, and paired with the white shoulder ornaments unique to nuns' nails, they looked like two reflections in a mirror.

Vera walked last.

She wasn't wearing armor, and after being unconscious for three days, her strength wasn't enough to support the weight of the power armor.

She was wearing the black nun's robe that she had carefully mended, and her hair was tied up with a white cloth strip.

He doesn't look like a soldier; he looks more like a student in a monastery.

The four men stood three meters in front of Lawson.

Katarina stepped forward.

Then, she knelt down on one knee, placed her right fist on her left breastplate, and lowered her head slightly.

"Lord Astartes."

“I, Catherine von Avignon, Vice-Commander of the Third Regiment of the Rose of the Martyrs, on behalf of my sisters,”

She tilted her head slightly, gesturing to the three people behind her. Sera, Sena, and Vera simultaneously knelt down on one knee.

"I request to join your ranks."

Lawson did not speak.

Katarina continued, "I don't know your name, your unit number, your chapter. None of that matters."

"In this dark corner where the Emperor's light cannot reach, you are the only one who can bring the Emperor's fire to the world. The Holy Light of the Valar is the proof given by the Emperor, and you are worthy to be followed."

“From this day forward, the four of us no longer belong to the Rose Monastery of Martyrs; we belong to you.”

"Wherever you point, our swords will point."

"Whoever you call the enemy, we'll kill."

"Whatever the Emperor's decree you say, we will carry it out."

"Until death do us part."

Lawson remained silent for three seconds.

Four battle nuns, the purest armed force of the Imperial State Church.

In the political landscape of the empire, their allegiance meant that Lawson had gained legitimacy from the state church, and anyone who questioned his authority had to first ask these four chainsaw swords.

But Lawson accepted their allegiance not only for political reasons.

Of all the battles he has fought since arriving in the Warhammer universe, these four women were among the first to choose to follow him not because of swarm mind control or fear, but out of genuine compassion.

Lawson spoke up.

"stand up."

“From today onward, you will report directly to me. You will retain your identity as nuns, your faith, and your fighting style.”

“Katrina, you continue as squad leader. Sera, Sena, you are her right and left hands. Vera…”

He looked at the young girl in the patched-up nun's robe: "Your body still needs to recover. You are not allowed to go to the battlefield until you recover."

Vera opened her mouth as if to say something, but Katarina spoke first: "Yes, ma'am."

The head nun stood up.

The oath-taking ceremony has ended.

In this dark corner where the emperor's light cannot reach, a contract is signed with iron and fire.

As Katarina left the hall with the three nuns, she turned and looked at Lawson one last time.

"grown ups."

"what's up?"

"Last time you said you were preparing for a war. When will it begin?"

"soon."

Temporary command center of the Governor's Office.

The holographic star map has been reactivated.

The relative positions of the three planets were calculated by Swarm Intelligence based on the orbital data of the star system: