Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Norber's two halves of his body fell in opposite directions, splattering large patches of green blood and mud on the ground.

The eldest brother is dead.

The Waaagh potential energy of the seven thousand orcs collapsed in an instant.

The green mist dissipated like smoke blown away by the wind.

The orcs' roars went from fervor to confusion, and from confusion to chaos.

They started colliding, pushing, and trampling each other.

The orcs who lost their leader are like a pot of water that was boiling and then suddenly lost power; it's still churning, but the direction is completely messed up.

Lawson looked down at the scene from eighty meters above.

"Storm Mode".

Thirty-six shadow wheels converged from all parts of the battlefield directly beneath him.

Its orbital radius is 15 meters, and its rotation speed is 12 revolutions per second.

Thirty-six silver trails wove together in the air to form a rotating death sphere with a diameter of thirty meters, and then the death sphere began to descend.

Lawson, accompanied by Shadow Wheel Storm, landed vertically in the very center of the orc horde.

The moment he landed, the Shadow Wheel Storm swept across everything within a fifteen-meter radius.

The rotating molecular-level blades cut through the air, flesh, bones, crudely made armor, and rusty weapons.

The blood mist was flung into a thin layer of red and green fog during the storm, covering an area of ​​thirty meters in radius.

three seconds.

When the storm subsided, Lawson stood in the center of a circular open space with a diameter of thirty meters.

The edges of the open space were neat and tidy.

There wasn't a single orc standing in the circular clearing. The ground was littered with severed limbs, broken bones, and patches of green, bloody mud.

Outside the open space, the remaining orcs finally made a move rarely made by this species: they fled.

They howled and scattered in all directions. But could they escape?

"Group control mode, full-area pursuit."

Thirty-six shadow wheels shot out from around Lawson, like thirty-six silver meteors hurtling towards the scattered beastmen.

Each Shadow Wheel can lock onto, pursue, and kill autonomously.

Their flight speed far exceeds the running speed of orcs; the orcs can run five steps before Shadow Wheels catch up.

Silver arcs of light weaved through the ruins of the abandoned ammunition depot.

Wherever the arc of light swept, one or more orc bodies were sliced ​​into pieces.

Lawson crossed his arms and looked up at the gray sky.

The swarm intelligence system was continuously broadcasting the battle results in the background, but he was too lazy to look at it.

Shadow Wheel's sub-consciousness threads are functioning well and do not require his intervention.

Sixty-seven seconds later, the last Shadow Wheel severed the head of the last orc boy trying to crawl into the sewers.

Thirty-six shadow wheels flew back from all parts of the battlefield and rearranged into a circular formation around Lawson.

Each flywheel was spotless; the self-cleaning function of the living metal had already shed all the attached flesh and debris during flight.

"Combat test complete." The swarm intelligence gave its final report: "7,123 orcs, annihilated. Time taken: 81 seconds. Shadow Wheel damage: zero. Psionic energy consumption: approximately 12% of the main body's total psionic energy."

Lawson nodded.

The twelve percent of psionic energy consumption resulted in the complete annihilation of seven thousand orcs within eighty-one seconds.

This deal is a great bargain.

If traditional combat suicide soldiers were used to clear out these 7,000 orcs, at least 200 platoon-level suicide soldiers would be needed, taking 30 to 40 minutes, with an estimated 3 to 7 casualties.

Now, Lawson stands there alone, finishes the job in 81 seconds, with zero casualties.

Of course, this efficiency comes with a prerequisite: the opponent is an orc.

Orcs are the most suitable targets for Shadow Wheel in the Warhammer universe, due to their large size, poor protection, zero tactical skills, and penchant for dense charges.

The molecular-level blade of the shadow wheel cuts through the muscles and bones of green skin as easily as cutting tofu.

If you replace them with Chaos Space Marines wearing power armor, the effect will be less pronounced.

The ceramic composite armor of the power armor can withstand the first cut from the Shadow Wheel, but it requires the Shadow Wheel to cut the same spot two or three times to penetrate the armor.

In high-speed combat, this means that Shadow Wheel requires more precise control and more psionic energy input.

The swarm intelligence has already generated a Shadow Wheel tactics manual in the background, targeting different enemy types.

Use mass fire to deal with orcs, use single-target precision cutting to cut joints and seals to deal with power armor, and use the Fusion Blade to deal with large targets...

Lawson stored the Shadow Wheel in the Armory Space and unfurled the Silver Wings to take off.

The corpses of seven thousand orcs covered the entire open space of the ammunition factory, and green blood pooled in the low-lying areas.

Scattered along the industrial corridor outside the hive city are massive amounts of steel scrap left behind from the orc invasion two years ago: collapsed factories, scrapped machinery, destroyed transport vehicles, and even crudely built strongholds by the orcs themselves.

Although the quality of these scrap irons varies, they can be completely recycled into refined steel.

Lawson issued a global command using swarm intelligence.

"While carrying out routine patrols and decapitation missions, all frontline combat suicide squads systematically collect scrap metal along their advance routes. Non-combat suicide squads form ten collection teams to operate behind the combat squads."

The frontline detachments immediately began adjusting their operational procedures.

Combat warriors cleared out the remaining orcs and checked dangerous areas, while non-combat warriors followed behind, cutting scrap metal into recyclable sizes like ants carrying food.

Swarm intelligence estimates the total amount of recyclable steel scrap along industrial corridors.

Once all the steel has been recovered, Lawson's steel reserves will exceed 300 million cubic meters.

It'll last a long time.

41 days later, the swarm intelligence suddenly issued a highest priority interruption.

"Planet One infiltrates the network."

The content unfolded in Lawson's consciousness.

Planet One, Blood Anchor Starport.

In the past six hours, activity on the Star Harbor supply dispatch system has surged by 300%. Orders for the release of fuel, ammunition, food, spare parts, and medical supplies are pouring into Star Harbor's warehouse management terminals at a rate of hundreds per hour from the Governor's Quartermaster Command.

An assassin disguised as a warehouse manager intercepted a poorly encrypted internal memo and sent it to all personnel at Starport as an emergency mobilization order.

The core message can be summarized in a single sentence: "All berths will be emptied of non-essential vessels within seven days to prepare for the return of the main fleet."

Lawson's pupils contracted by one millimeter.

Main fleet.

Tyrant-class cruisers, plus four Sword-class corvettes.

They're coming back.

The swarm intelligence was running wildly in the background, retrieving all relevant intelligence fragments accumulated by the infiltration network on Planet One over the past forty-eight hours.

"I heard the main fleet is coming back after the battle, and the higher-ups are urging us to clear the berths."

"The governor said that the whole city will be given a holiday to watch gladiatorial combat on the day the fleet docks, so that the brothers can celebrate their victory in advance."

A piece of equipment allocation order from the Zhuotie Forging Regiment: three heavy plasma welding machines and twelve sets of cannon barrel sealing assemblies were taken from the warehouse, marked as spare parts for fleet return-to-port maintenance.

All the fragments of information point to the same conclusion:

The Tyrant-class fleet will arrive at Planet One's orbit in about seven days for resupply and repairs.

The timeframe was about two weeks ahead of what Rossen had previously estimated.

But Lawson was not surprised.

The return time of a warship is an estimate. The time required for subspace travel depends on storm conditions and the navigator's judgment. A return time of two weeks earlier or later is within the normal range.

The real question is, is he ready?

Ship-seizing battle group: Ready. All 50,000 combat troops have been organized. All White Tiger armors are at full power and ready for deployment. The ship-seizing tactic has been optimized to a 94.2% success rate through 73 full-process exercises.

Warship operational capability: Ready. Four thousand warship apprentices have completed all training courses across the five major modules: engine, weapons, navigation, damage control, and bridge coordination. The swarm intelligence system has compiled a complete warship operational knowledge base and synchronized it with the entire military. Any soldier can now take over any position on the warship within ten seconds.

Planet One Infiltration Force: Ready. 190,000 non-combatant suicide soldiers are spread across the five hive cities, with over 8,000 located in Blood Anchor Starport. 1,000 platoon-level combat suicide soldiers and 30 company-level suicide soldiers are dispersed and infiltrated in safe houses around the starport as advance combat force.

Teleportation Anchor Points: Ready. Forty-seven teleportation anchor points have been established on Planet One, covering all key targets including the Starport, Governor's Mansion, Arena, Military Camp, and the Scorched Iron Forging Company branch.

Rear Security: Ready. The situation on Planet Three and the agricultural world is completely stable. The six patrol ships returned a week ago and are docked at the No. 3 hive shipyard, all operated by assassins.

Star Navigation: Ready. Star-001 has passed all tests and is ready to be deployed for subspace navigation.

Lawson scanned the evaluation list item by item.

All green.

He stood up and walked to the holographic star map.

The star map lit up.

The orbits of three planets and a star slowly rotated in the pale blue light.

On the icon for Planet One, a red countdown timer began to tick.

The helmet of the Tiger King Armor rose from the collar, and living metal flowed across his face, sealing his expression behind the black mask.

Inside the mask, Lawson's lips curled into a smile.

We've waited so long.

The most crucial battle is about to begin.

P.S.: Guys, let's update at 6 PM for now. We'll schedule it for morning once we have a backlog of chapters. I'm finding it hard to keep up with the schedule and my energy levels are too low. Sorry for the delays!

Chapter 122 Operation Decapitation Squad!

Outside the atmosphere of the primary star, the embers of war in the Klein system finally descended upon this airspace as five massive starships leaped out.