Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Communication and navigation are like the nervous system of the entire empire's dark side.

From this day forward, the brain of this body will be called the Dark Regent;

The nerve is called Lawson.

It doesn't matter who's the brain. Whoever controls the nerves controls the empire.

This is the sovereignty of the dark side of the empire.

Lawson looked at Dante kneeling before him.

If it were any other high-ranking official in the empire, he would instinctively be wary, for politicians stepping down is never a true relinquishment, but rather a trap.

The more crucial the position, the more important it is to observe the perspective of the person who is stepping down.

But in Dante's eyes, there was only one thing: expectation.

Lawson recalled the old man's life story.

Dante, from the planet Balts, was born into a desert tribe. At the age of fifteen, he was chosen by the Blood Angels and fought countless battles over a thousand years. After the Horus Rebellion, he inherited the position of Chapter Master, a position he held for a thousand years.

How many times in those thousand years did he want to retire? How many times did he kneel before the tomb of Saint Gillespie, praying to return to the Primarch and end this long responsibility that no mortal could bear?

He was seriously injured and fell into a coma once. He thought he had finally finished his shift. In his coma, he saw Saint Gilles. He knelt before the Primarch and said, "Father, I have come."

The Primarch kicked him back.

The Primarch said, "Go back. The Empire still needs you."

After he awoke, he continued to fight for hundreds of years.

Then Guilliman awoke. The entire empire was in an uproar. Dante genuinely believed that Guilliman would allow him to retire.

As a result, Guilliman promoted him and personally appointed him as the regent of the empire's shadow side, leaving him to shoulder half the empire on his own.

Then he took on the responsibility of half the empire.

He is too tired.

The way he looked at Lawson at that moment was like that of a 1,500-year-old man who had finally seen the hope of being able to go home.

Lawson reached out and helped Dante up from the ground.

She resolutely refused: "No."

The dark side of the empire is now a boiling pot of poison. War rages everywhere, and factions are rampant.

Dante, as a living legend, whose fame, seniority, and the sanctity bestowed by the mask of death of Saint Gillespie are the only stimulant to keep this disorganized group together.

The old man wants to leave work? No way!

Lawson still has a lot to do.

He wants to maintain mobility and freedom.

He wanted to be like Cao Cao, who held the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords, rather than Zhuge Liang, who was worn out by paperwork and died.

"Please continue sitting in this chair."

Lawson pressed Dante back into his chair: "But I promise to cooperate fully. Communications, navigation, and logistics."

The regret on Dante's face was as if he had seen his resignation letter torn up in front of him, and his shoulders slumped.

But his military intuition instantly picked up on the key words in Lawson's words.

"logistics?"

Dante's eyes widened: "You have a solution for logistics too?"

Before Lawson could speak, Seth got excited again.

“I know that, Your Grace. I was besieged by the Great Impure Ones, and Iron Oath Fortress was about to fall. I was about to hug Blackfury and jump off the wall to my death. At the most critical moment, the Lawson brothers descended from the sky.”

Seth mimicked Lawson's movements, forcefully waving his arm: "'Out of ammunition?' With that wave of his hand, crates of heavy explosives appeared! Crates of plasma charging packs! Crates of medkits! Crates of premium canned goods!"

"They piled up into two small mountains and just suddenly appeared at my feet!"

"Let me tell you, Your Regent, I thought I had gone completely mad! I thought I had fallen into the clutches of Dark Wrath, I thought I was seeing things!"

Dante looked at Lawson as if he were a monster.

Lawson gestured with his hands to indicate that the two commanders should take their seats.

"Brother Seth is exaggerating."

He offered a pre-prepared explanation, half-truthfully concealing the existence of the armory: "There are limitations to this logistical capability."

"My logistics team can resupply ammunition and food directly into the trenches, regardless of distance. The prerequisite is that my soldiers must serve as the transmission anchor."

Lawson carried a perfectly measured sense of regret.

"In addition, this technology has a fatal bottleneck: living metal."

"My spatial transmission channel currently has a volume of only twenty-seven cubic meters. It's barely enough to deal with local attacks. If we want to support the logistics of hundreds or thousands of warbands on the dark side of the entire empire, the demand will increase dramatically, and the channel will inevitably become congested or even completely shut down. Unless we have a massive amount of living metal to widen the spatial barrier."

Dante, seemingly lost in thought, quickly used his knowledge to help Lawson rationalize this ability.

"This principle is extremely similar to the dimensional pocket technology of the space necromancers. It consumes living metal as a medium to maintain spatial stability. It makes perfect sense."

Lawson went along with it: "I wonder if His Majesty the Regent has any reserves of living metal?"

Dante shook his head in frustration.

“When we fought the Necromancers before, once those iron-skinned skeletons were destroyed, their remains would instantly teleport back to the main tomb. We rarely managed to intercept any spoils. I don’t even have a single gram of reserves left.”

A hint of disappointment appeared on Lawson's face.

This hint of disappointment struck Dante precisely at his nerves.

The regent in the shadows slammed his fist on the metal table, issuing a kill order.

"From today onward, the primary strategic priority for all combat legions of the Empire's Dark Side will be expanded to include one more item!"

"While wiping out the chaos, search the entire universe for necromantic graveyards! Collect as much living metal as possible! Whoever digs up the most graves will have their logistics guaranteed first!"

Lawson couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

He was worried that digging graves by himself was too inefficient, but now with the administrative order of the Dark Regent, the entire empire's war machine will become his laborers collecting living metal.

"The Regent's decision is extremely wise."

Lawson clapped his hands and laughed: "In that case, I'll add to the mix. I'll plant communications officers within each battle group. If any unit encounters a space necromancer and crushes its beacon, my White Tiger Battle Group will instantly tear through the void and join the brothers in dismembering them."

The atmosphere in the command room reached its peak.

Dante and Lawson gathered in front of the holographic star map and began to discuss the follow-up plans in earnest.

The two reached an agreement.

Dante's expedition this time does not require him to take away the massive base of five million people at once.

He only needs to take a group of seed communicators and navigators with him.

These suicide soldiers will be like dandelion seeds.

As the Regent's fleet cruised, jumped, and rescued in the Dark Side, communications officers and navigators took up positions at each planet in dire need of saving and each lost Imperial chapter they encountered.

An unbreakable, absolute communication network will spread wildly across the entire dark side of the galaxy, with Dante's fleet at its core.

The discussion lasted for more than an hour.

Dante's smile never faded.

He couldn't remember how many centuries it had been since he had experienced such a blissful state of mind.

The three most fatal diseases of the Empire's dark side are communication disruption, navigation failure, and logistical collapse.

With a few words and a laugh, Lawson eradicated these three incurable diseases completely.

Dante picked up the remaining blood wine on the table, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

He gazed at Lawson, who was outlining anchor points on the star map, and felt an indescribable shock welling up inside him.

This kind of miraculous turn of events is even more surprising than the Emperor suddenly rising from his golden throne and performing a set of military boxing moves.

The holographic star map's deep blue light shone on Dante's aged face.

He had just relinquished the supreme power of the empire's dark side, only to have it pushed back by the man before him without hesitation.

Dante wasn't about to let it go.

He carefully considered his words and advised Lawson: "Brother Lawson, if you don't want to be a regent in the shadows, I won't force you."

"But since you are the emperor's sword."

"If you want to walk freely in this quagmire of the dark side, and also mobilize resources for the entire imperial army, then your words will not be proper without proper justification."

"The title of White Tiger Commander cannot suppress those sector governors who hold heavy troops, let alone command those rigid Mechanicus Grand Sages."

Dante raised his right hand and made the sacred Falcon Salutation on his chest.

"In the name of the Dark Regent of the Empire, I hereby formally grant you the position of Dark Seal Master."

"Brother, you can't refuse this time!"

A hidden palm print?

Lawson's mind was flooded with memories of the deep history of the Warhammer universe.

During the golden age of the Great Expedition, the emperor's most trusted confidant was an old mortal named Macado.

He is not the Primarch; he is just an old man.

The one who holds the seal of the empire.

This title represents the emperor's absolute trust and the highest level of authority over domestic affairs, intelligence, and logistics within the empire.

In that era of war and chaos, the Seal of the Emperor, Macardo, held the seal of the Emperor and had the authority to bypass any Primarch and directly mobilize the fleets, resources, and manpower of the entire galaxy.

Now, Dante has bestowed the title of "Palms of the Dark Side" upon Lawson.

This means that Lawson will have the absolute power to allocate resources in a legal and compliant manner.

As long as the credentials representing the seal are presented, any agricultural world on the dark side of the empire must unconditionally hand over its grain, and any forging world must halt its current orders and prioritize the production of weapons for him.

This is a true example of using the emperor to command the feudal lords.

He has real power, but is not burdened by empty fame.