Warhammer: Empire Reboot

To be precise, he lit up on his own.

Lawson borrowed the perspective of a non-combatant assassin stationed at the bottom of the third hive through swarm intelligence.

In the assassin's perception, a soft yet extremely conspicuous light appeared in the direction of Lawson, like a small sun hanging in the direction of the haunted city's spire.

He switched to a non-combatant assassin in the second hive.

The same light, the same direction, the same striking appearance.

He then switched to the perspective of Jiaqi, who was based in the agricultural world.

The light is still there.

Even across 1.8 million kilometers, the golden beacon remains clearly visible in the sensing network, with no noticeable decrease in brightness.

Lawson suddenly opened his eyes.

"Beacon".

He suddenly realized the significance of those two words.

There are no beacons on the dark side of the empire.

After the Great Rift tore the galaxy apart, the starlight of the Imperium's dark side was weakened to an almost imperceptible degree by the warp storms.

The Imperial fleet navigated the dark side of the warp, relying entirely on the navigator's experience to make short blind jumps. Every jump was a gamble with life; a slight deviation could result in a deviation of hundreds of light-years, or even a plunge into a warp storm and be reduced to dust.

This is a nightmare faced by all forces in the dark side of the empire.

Now, Lawson has a little sun in his hand.

This little sun hung in his black hole projection, emitting a steady golden light.

Its brightness in the subspace is far less than that of a real starlight, but for his assassins, those who are all connected to him by a soul resonance, it is an inextinguishable beacon.

"In the future, as long as there is one suicide soldier on board, we will not get lost during subspace travel."

Lawson strolled slowly on the terrace.

Having what others don't has is a huge advantage in the dark side of the empire.

“The navigators rely on sensing the starlight to locate themselves, but what they sense is the projection of a massive fireball spanning half the galaxy in the subspace. The signal is weakened layer by layer by the storm, and only a faint glimmer remains in the dark side. My assassins, on the other hand, sense this small star in the projection of my black hole. The signal is point-to-point, without passing through the common frequency band of the subspace. The four Chaos Gods cannot intercept it, and the storms cannot obscure it.”

"This means that my fleet's maneuverability in the dark will crush any opponent. Others need three days to calibrate in real space after a blind jump, but my ships can lock onto my coordinates immediately after a blind jump, with an error of no more than one astronomical unit."

In the Dark Side of the Empire, a universe where everyone walks in the dark, this is equivalent to having night vision goggles.

Lawson took a deep breath and looked up at the starry sky beyond the Nest City, which was obscured by artificial light pollution.

At the edge of the star system, six faint points of light are slowly moving within the sensory network of swarm intelligence.

Those were the six Ministry of Justice patrol ships that had previously carried out interstellar underwater missions.

It's almost drifted out of the gravitational boundary of this small star system.

The bodies of the 2400 legal department crew members on board remain at their posts; they sacrificed their lives to send their fallen comrades to the agricultural world.

But the ship is still there, and the propulsion system is still intact.

Lawson issued the order using swarm intelligence.

There are also assassins on standby on the six patrol ships.

"Activate the power system and fully restore the ship's condition."

Lawson's gaze swept over the various readings on the control panel.

"Each ship carries 380 suicide soldiers."

On the six patrol ships, assassins poured out of the teleportation anchor point at a rate of two per second.

They moved swiftly and efficiently to their respective posts.

It took seven minutes for the engines of all six patrol ships to start simultaneously.

The plasma tails lit up in the void at the edge of the star system, like six blue and white torches.

The patrol ship began to slow down and change course to return to Planet Three.

In the perception network, 2280 suicide soldiers on six patrol ships simultaneously saw that small sun.

With this beacon, even if these ships jump into subspace, they can find their way home as precisely as migratory birds chasing the North Star.

"Returning to Hong Kong in twelve days."

Lawson withdrew his hand and returned to the terrace atop the Nest Tower.

In the projection of the black hole, the small golden star is slowly rotating.

Lawson focused his attention inward, carefully sensing its operating principles.

This energy is not a one-time event.

Around his black hole projection, the subspace was filled with extremely thin, scattered golden particles, which were the energy fragments constantly dissipated from the star torches as the emperor sat on his golden throne enduring millennia of torment.

Under normal circumstances, these debris would be scattered by warp storms, devoured by the servants of the Chaos Four, or simply dissolved into nothingness.

But the small star in the projection of the Rosen black hole is different.

It rotates slowly, generating a very weak gravitational field during the rotation, which is a kind of psionic adsorption effect.

The fragments of imperial energy that would otherwise dissipate are being absorbed and gathered by this small star, bit by bit.

The speed is so slow that it is almost negligible.

But it is growing.

Swarm Intelligence spent four hours continuously monitoring the process and ultimately gave a rough estimate that, at the current absorption rate, the energy reserves of this small golden star are increasing by about 0.02% per day.

It may sound insignificant, but it's a continuous source of free energy.

"The emperor is constantly dissipating energy, and I am constantly recycling his scraps."

Lawson's lips curled up slightly.

He then spent some time exploring other uses for the golden energy.

At least for now, there are only three practical uses he can identify: amplifying weapons, acting as a beacon, and slowly self-charging.

He rose from the terrace, his living metal body unfurling behind him into four-meter-wide silver wings.

The wind from the spire howled at that height, whipping against his armor.

Lawson leaped down.

The vertical distance from the spire to the middle of the hamlet is about three thousand meters.

Lawson folded his wings and dove down, breaking the speed of sound in ten seconds, before suddenly spreading his wings to decelerate at an altitude of 300 meters above the ground.

He saw them.

Swarm intelligence had already located the coordinates of the four combat nuns before he even jumped.

They are currently located in sector 47 of the second nest city.

In a densely populated residential area, the main road was crowded with civilians queuing to receive their food rations.

Katarina walked at the front, carrying a box on her shoulder that was larger than her upper body.

Behind her, the twins Sera and Sena each pushed a floating cargo pallet, piled high with Spark-1 integrated rations compressed into brick shapes.

Vera stood beside a makeshift distribution station, holding a ration in both hands, showing it to the long line of civilians in front of her.

"This is a new blessing bestowed by the Emperor!"

"It was Lord Astartes who secured this sacred food for us!"

She took a bite in front of everyone.

It was a block made of 70% purified Squiger jerky and 30% seaweed powder, pressed together. It had a rough texture and a faint salty and savory smell.

Vera chewed a few times, swallowed, and then gave a genuine smile.

"It's delicious."

The living saint ate it.

This is more effective than any propaganda.

"May the Emperor protect me... May the Emperor protect me..."

An old woman knelt down.

Behind her, more civilians knelt down.

Katarina put down the box and stood aside watching this scene.

"This is the Emperor's arrangement."

"It is a gift from Lord Astartes; you must remember this grace."

Lawson hovered in the shadow of the dome, observing everything from the perspective of a non-combatant assassin mingling in the crowd.

He smiled.

The nuns are standing up for him with their actions.

They were not asked to do so, and Lawson did not issue any orders regarding propaganda about the distribution of rations.

This was entirely Katarina's own decision. She attributed the credit for the food rations to the Emperor and Lawson, had the nuns personally demonstrate how to eat them, and used the halo of a living saint to give final endorsement to this heretical practice of raising aliens as food.

He was even smarter than Lawson had anticipated.

Katarina is not simply a faith machine.

She received a full education in politics and propaganda at the convent and knew how to package a miracle in front of the common people.

Her initiative in undertaking this task demonstrates that she has completely completed the psychological transformation from the supremacy of doctrine to the supremacy of imperial will.

In her cognitive system, Lawson is the embodiment of the Emperor's will.

Lawson had a sudden thought.

Four strands of golden energy detached from his black hole projection and were precisely projected onto the positions of the four battle nuns.

The energy was extremely weak, but for these four nuns who had been immersed in faith for many years, this imperial aura was like strong liquor going down their throats.

Katarina was bending down to carry a box of rations onto the distribution table.