Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The suicide squad used the same tactics to bury them all in the red soil of the Klein-IV.

The demon engine was blasted into a pile of smoking scrap metal by the concentrated fire of the four rail-deployed heavy macro cannons.

The third wave of counterattack occurred on the nineteenth day.

Only about fifty Death Guards came this time.

They didn't even make it out of the landing zone before they were torn to pieces by pre-arranged minefields and crossfire positions.

Then there is no more.

News of the deaths of more than three hundred Deathguards reached the main force of the Nurgle Legion.

They're not coming.

Lawson was quite satisfied with the result.

Besides strategically depleting the enemy's manpower, these three counterattacks also brought him unexpected joy.

Thirty sets of repairable power armor, including two Terminator armor sets.

Including the spoils captured from Klein-IX and Klein-IV, as well as the fifty MK X-type armored vehicles gifted by Ultramarines Quintus, the White Tiger Squad's arsenal has expanded to a considerable size.

Three hundred and ninety power armors of various models. Six Terminator armors.

A total of 396 bodies.

The repair work was carried out jointly by the T-series mechanical assassins and the Dark Mechanic Cult's Grand Sage.

Lawson felt a pang of heartache when he saw the repair report.

The damage to these power armors was far more severe than anticipated. Reconstructing neural circuits and injecting living metal for seamless reconnection consumed over four hundred liters of living metal.

Lawson's reserves of living metals were not abundant to begin with.

It really hurts to spend the money.

But the results of the repair improved his mood considerably.

The adaptive properties of living metal perfectly fill all the microcracks and material fatigue points inside the power armor caused by corrosion.

Kosas even attempted partial skeleton replacement on some of the most severely damaged armors.

The results showed that the replaced area actually outperformed the original ceramic steel in terms of impact resistance and energy absorption.

The repaired power armor's overall performance exceeds that of its original factory condition.

Lawson ordered a uniform modification to the appearance and paint scheme of all power armor.

He had been thinking about this decision for a while.

As the scale of his operations in the Klein system grew, his forces began to frequently encounter Imperial regular forces, the 5th Ultramarines, remnants of the Astragalactic Army on various planets, and other chapters that would be encountered in subsequent operations.

An armed force without any designation or insignia is a dangerous presence in the empire's political landscape.

The lack of legitimacy means that any Imperial officer with sufficient rank can declare you a rebel.

Lawson didn't want to waste his energy on such a stupid thing.

He gave two symbols: the Imperial Double-Headed Eagle and the White Tiger Mark.

The double-headed eagle was the common emblem of the empire, printed in the center of the breastplate.

Even if the person standing opposite you is a Space Marine who has never heard of the "White Tiger Squadron," they will instinctively categorize you as "one of their own" when they see the Double-Headed Eagle.

At least they'll ask a question before firing.

The white tiger mark is engraved on the right shoulder armor.

A white tiger with its back arched and roaring, its lines simple and its outline distinct.

This is also the spiritual totem of the entire Nameless Legion.

Lawson glanced around from the observation platform in the armory, a slight smile playing on his lips.

It has grown to a considerable size.

The 28-day period of calm is not just about defense and repair.

The size of the combat-type suicide squad has always been maintained at a full strength of 80,000.

The suicide soldiers who died in the three counterattacks were replaced by newly acquired suicide soldiers within a few hours after the battle ended.

When a node is destroyed, a new node immediately connects to the network, inheriting the tactical memory and job responsibilities of its predecessor.

The number of non-combat suicide soldiers increased by two million in these twenty-eight days.

They were transported in batches to the two planets, Klein-IX and Klein-IV.

In addition to the million people already deployed.

The presence of Lawson in the Klein system has expanded from a commando force to an occupying force.

His four warships completed the most crucial mission in those twenty-eight days.

Fifteen planets, and in the near-Earth orbit of each planet, a landing module re-enters the atmosphere.

They established anchor points, transported follow-up troops, and then silently infiltrated towns and wilderness.

All advance teams received the same order: reconnaissance. They were only allowed to observe, not to engage.

Lock onto the precise coordinates of the altar.

Mark the location and activity patterns of the Demon Prince. Draw a map of the Plague Legion's troop deployment.

Lawson's original plan was to start with the easy tasks and then move on to the more difficult ones.

First, eliminate the weak points in the defense, and then concentrate all efforts on dealing with the most troublesome target.

But intelligence from Klein-I changed his priorities.

Klein-I.

The capital world of the Klein Galaxy.

The largest urban cluster, the most densely populated industrial area, and the largest population in the entire galaxy are all concentrated on this planet.

It was once the most prosperous trading hub in the Agrippina Sector, where hundreds of billions of people lived, worked, paid taxes, and died.

Now, it is the most brutal hell in the entire Klein system.

The main force of the Plague Legion is here.

The combined forces of the Demon Prince and the Death Guard Company scattered across the other sixteen planets don't even equal the strength of this force.

Klein-I concentrated the core strength of the entire Nurgle Expeditionary Force: several large companies of elite Deathguards, countless demon engines, an overwhelming horde of Plaguewalkers, and swarms of low-ranking demons pouring out from the warp.

The main altar is located in the central square of "Primas," the giant equatorial city of this planet.

The supreme commander of the Nurgle Legion, a massive eighteen-meter-tall unclean being, sat beside the altar.

The Great Impure One is the top demon among the seventy-two defiled demons.

Unlike the Demon Prince, who is a "half-finished product" ascended from a mortal or a Space Marine, the Great Impure One is a pure demonic entity directly formed in the Warp.

Their bodies are formed from tens of thousands of years of decaying energy, and every layer of fat and pus contains a terrifying power that can plunge an entire nest into plague.

Before this great impure being, the demon prince is not even worthy to carry its shoes.

Lawson's advance guerrillas transmitted battlefield footage from Planet Klein-I.

Swarm intelligence projects these images synchronously onto Lawson's visual cortex.

He saw hell.

Planet Klein-I, Northern Continent, Iron Oath Fortress.

This imperial fortress, built at the confluence of two mountain ranges, has been under siege for seventy-four days.

The first two of the three lines of defense surrounding the fortress have already fallen.

The third and final line consisted of a 12-meter-high reinforced concrete wall and eight heavy gun turrets.

The wall surface was covered with a thick layer of grayish-green mucus, which was the residue left by the flesh and blood of hundreds of thousands of plague walkers in the continuous impact.

In some places, the mucus has begun to seep into the cracks in the concrete, like some kind of living fungus slowly devouring the skeleton of the fortress.

The turret is still firing.

The intervals are getting longer and longer.

We're almost out of ammunition.

The fortress is guarded by one of the empire's most ferocious bloodlines.

The Holy Blood Angels Sub-Band, the Flesh-Tearers Warband.

Five companies. Plus the 200,000 Star Guardians belonging to the Klein-I Planet Defense Force.

The Flesh Tearers are the most bloodthirsty and violent of all the successor chapters of the Blood Angels.

They inherited the perfect genes of the Blood Angel Primarch, Saint Gilles, but also the curse etched deep into their genes: Black Fury.

During the battle, the warriors of the Flesh Ripper will gradually be consumed by an illusion originating from the Primarch's death memories.

When Astartes is engulfed in black rage, it loses all reason and becomes a pure killing machine, tireless, fearless, and indiscriminate in its killing.

The other subgroups of the Holy Blood Angels viewed Black Fury as a disgrace and desperately tried to suppress it.

Those who tear the flesh do not.

The butcher embraces it.

In this chapter's philosophy, Black Fury is not a flaw, but a weapon.

It is the last legacy left by the original to future generations.

When a member of the Flesh-Tearers feels the uncontrollable killing intent surging in his blood on the battlefield, he will not desperately suppress it like his brothers in other sub-groups. Instead, he will loosen his shackles and release the beast from its cage.

The price is that you can never come back.

But before he can return, he will kill everything that is alive in front of him.

The 74-day siege had decimated five companies.

The organization should have had an expeditionary force of 500 Astartes chapters, but now less than 200 are still standing.

More than three hundred scarlet power armor suits remained forever in the ruins of the first two lines of defense.