Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Lawson noticed the color of the tear.

"Let's go," he said. "Let's see one last place."

He led the nuns onto the control platform, where the entire dome unfolded beneath their feet.

From this vantage point, you can see the entire operation of the farm. The nine hundred cultivation ponds are like squares on a chessboard, with green life wriggling, growing, and then being harvested in each square.

"What was your purpose in eliminating the aliens before?"

“For the Emperor,” Katarina replied reflexively, “For humanity.”

Yes. For humanity.

Lawson said, "Eliminating the aliens is the means, protecting humanity is the goal. I just used this means to the extreme."

He walked to the edge of the control platform and braced his hands on the railing. Steam rose from the dome, blurring his silhouette.

"In this cruel galaxy, the Garden of Eden of Holy Terra was not built through prayer."

His voice echoed through the dome.

"It was built up layer by layer with the bones of aliens as its foundation and the flesh and blood of its enemies as its mortar. Mercy is a luxury reserved for mankind, and violence is the only currency to maintain this luxury."

"Today, I will kill them all. I will also make the alien genes dissolve and wail in the stomach acid of humans for generations to come."

He looked at the four nuns and said, "This is the mercy that the Lord of Mankind has bestowed upon me."

"Without the wrath of burning stars, how could there be the sorrow of protecting the world?"

Only the low rumble of machinery could be heard inside the dome.

The four battle nuns straightened up at the same time.

They crossed their arms in front of their chests, making the gesture of the Imperial Eagle.

"Your will is sacred!"

Four sounds resonated in the dome, their echoes bouncing repeatedly between the metal walls before finally dissipating into the steam.

Lawson left.

His figure disappeared into the shadows at the entrance of the ramp, followed by two platoon-level assassins, as the isolation door slowly closed behind them.

Inside the dome, four nuns stood on the control platform, motionless for a long time.

Sera was the first to break the silence.

"Damn it." She cursed under her breath, her hands gripping the railing. She looked down at the neatly arranged culture tanks below, her chest heaving violently.

"Sera." Sena's voice came from behind.

"Let me swear," Sera said without turning around. "Let me process this."

Katarina crossed her arms and leaned against the metal casing of the control panel.

Her expression was calm, but her right eyelid was twitching slightly, a subtle reaction that only occurs when she is extremely nervous.

“Do you remember the stories that Godmother Morian told?” Katarina suddenly asked.

Sera and Sena both looked at her. Vera also looked up.

"Which one?" Sera asked.

"The Story of Saint Tilia"

Katrina said, "During the Third War of Amagdon, the Sisters of Tilia were trapped in a hive besieged by orcs. They were cut off from supplies for forty days. The nuns began to eat their belts, boot soles, and the propellant from bullet casings. Finally, someone suggested that there were tens of thousands of orc corpses piled up outside the city walls."

Sera's expression changed.

"Godmother Morian said that Saint Tilia made a decision. She personally dragged an orc's corpse back from outside the city walls, skinned and boned it herself, and cooked it over a fire. Then she put the first piece of meat into her own mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. She said to her nuns..."

Katerina paused, recalling the phrase she had recited hundreds of times in the monastery:

“If I am heretic for devouring the flesh of the alien, then let the Emperor judge me. But my nuns will not starve to death on this wall before His judgment comes.”

Sera opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“The godmother didn’t finish telling the story,” Sena suddenly said. “After the war, Saint Tilia was tried by the church court, stripped of her sainthood, and imprisoned for life in the Tower of Penitence. She lived to be seventy-three and died in prison.”

silence……

“But her nuns survived,” Katerina said. “All two hundred and seventeen of them survived.”

She straightened up from the control panel, walked to the railing, and stood side by side with Sera.

“What you did was the same as what Saintess Tilia did.”

"He swallowed the dirtiest things and left the clean things for 118 billion people," Katerina said.

She turned to look at the still-operating slaughter line in the distance.

The assassin's blade flashed under the light, once per second, without interruption.

"Have you ever thought about this?"

Katarina's voice lowered: "The lord could have chosen not to build this farm. He has an elite army and powered armor; if he wanted to leave, he could take all his elites and leave this planet at any time to find a safer place to start over. What do the lives of 118 billion civilians have to do with him?"

Sera frowned.

“But he didn’t leave,” Katrina said. “Not only did he not leave, he also built this farm himself. He took on the responsibility of those lives he could have ignored, those nameless people in the dirtiest corners of the nest.”

“Because he is the Emperor’s angel,” Vera said.

The three nuns turned to look at her at the same time.

Vera stood at the other end of the control platform, her expression calm.

"I felt the soul of the sage the moment I became a living saint. The Emperor's light passed through his body and was transmitted to me. When that light passed through him..."

"That light was not tainted by any impurities. His soul was pure. Purer than anyone I have ever seen."

Sera and Sena exchanged a glance.

"But he chose to do these things."

Vera walked to the railing and looked down at the culture tank.

A Squirrel just poked its head out of the culture medium; it was round and chubby, with a mouth full of serrated teeth, and so ugly it was nauseating.

"Raise aliens, slaughter aliens, and turn alien meat into food."

Vera's voice was soft: "According to the doctrine, these are all sins. Each one is enough to have him burned at the stake."

She turned away, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Those teardrops refracted a faint golden light in the air, like shattered stardust.

"But he was willing to bear these sins. He locked all the darkness around himself, just so that the children could have enough to eat and the mothers wouldn't have to count their food at night."

Her voice echoed through the dome.

"This is the true form of imperial love. Imperial love is never clean, beautiful, or written in golden words in scriptures. Imperial love is bloody, squeezed out from the bones of aliens, and has the courage to stand there and say 'Follow me' after one's soul has borne the sins of everyone else."

Katarina had never heard Vera say so much before.

The youngest novice nun usually followed quietly at the back of the group, speaking in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

But as she stood there, golden tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

Living saint...

Katarina suddenly realized that it was no accident that the Emperor had chosen Vera to be the living saint.

“Praise be to the Emperor,” Katerina said.

“Praise be to you, sir,” Vera said.

Katarina glanced at her, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

“Praise the Emperor, praise the Lord,” she repeated, this time in a much louder voice.

“This is the right attitude to deal with aliens.” Sera slammed her fist on the railing, making a dull thud.

Something was burning in her eyes.

"Death is too merciful to these scum. To be chewed up and swallowed by humans, becoming nourishment for the empire's operation, is their eternal atonement!"

“From now on, every time I eat a piece of rations,” Sera grinned, “I will silently say: Alien, your only purpose in existence is to fatten up the Empire’s soldiers. And then these soldiers will go and kill more of your kind.”

Sena sighed softly.

“Let’s go.” Katarina stretched her shoulders and cracked her neck. Her joints popped. “Standing here and smelling the stench of those green-skinned creatures isn’t good for our training. Besides…”

She glanced at the slaughter line still operating in the distance.

“We have more important things to do now. The adults showed us this so that we would stand on his side. From today onward, we are not only his nun protectors, but also his accomplices.”

“The word ‘accomplice’ doesn’t sound good,” Sera said.

“Then let’s call him a comrade,” Katarina said. “Whatever path he chooses, we will follow. The Emperor used him to ignite the Vera, and that is enough.”

Four nuns walked up the slope.

Vera walked at the very back, glancing back at the view deep within the dome.

Steam, lights, metal pools, assassins on assembly lines, and food blocks sliding on conveyor belts.

She etched these images into her memory.

Then she turned around and followed her sisters.

Chapter 116 I Know Who Killed Your Demon Army

Lawson returned to the top of the tower.

On the highest level of City Three, a huge holographic projection table occupies most of the terrace. A three-dimensional model of the entire Obolus system floats on the table, with three planets slowly rotating around a dark red star.

Lawson walked to the projection table, and the holographic image automatically magnified the details of Planet Three.

The outlines of the three hive cities were clearly visible in the blue light, and data streams within each hive city pulsed densely like blood vessels.

The information flow of swarm thinking flooded into his consciousness.

All the dynamics of the entire planet over the past twelve hours are compressed into a high-density briefing.