Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Their eyes held only deep shock and scrutiny.

Seth turned his head slightly and met Dante's gaze.

If they weren't mistaken, there were no visible signs of implanted black armor on the man in the arena, below his neck and in his chest.

Although his bone structure was large, it did not exhibit the wide and deformed chest characteristic of Astartes, which resulted from multiple genetic modification surgeries.

This indicates that this is not an Astartes that has been modified using standard genetically modified seeds.

These are ordinary soldiers under Lawson's command.

In the recently concluded fortress defense battle, Lawson deployed a full 30,000 of these soldiers.

Thirty thousand monsters possess such individual physical attributes that they can even form an impenetrable wall of heavy firepower.

Seth twitched the corner of his mouth and looked away.

Dante also lowered his eyelids slightly.

The two Space Marine commanders, who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years, tacitly chose to remain silent, not asking a single question.

In the brutal politics and survival rules of the Warhammer universe, some secrets are best left unexplored.

Since Lawson is the Dark Handler who wields the Emperor's Pure Golden Flame, representing the absolute extension of the Emperor's will, then the soldiers under his command, whose unit numbers are blank, whose gene pool has no record, and whose physical qualities defy biological norms, can be understood.

Or rather, it must be understood.

The dark side of the empire has bled to death. Any blade that can kill demons is a good blade as long as it is not tainted by the stench of chaos.

As for what materials the sword was made of, Dante didn't care, and Seth cared even less.

"Your Excellency, the Seth brothers."

Lawson turned to look at the two of them.

"How is the combat ability of this soldier under my command?"

Dante was neither stingy with his evaluation nor did he exaggerate in the slightest:

“Your warrior is handling this with ease; he’s clearly not going all out. To be precise, he’s just playing around with that Oglin and using up his excess energy.”

"As an auxiliary unit of the Astral Army, the Oglins' individual combat strength is roughly equivalent to that of a mid-level Astartes recruit."

“If you, soldier, go all out, I estimate you can kill this big guy with your bare hands within three minutes.”

Seth added from the side, "Among the Astartes veterans I know who aren't wearing armor, you can count the number on one hand of those who can tear a three-meter-tall Ogren with their bare hands in three minutes."

A satisfied smile curved the corners of Lawson's lips.

He enjoyed dealing with intelligent people, especially someone like Dante who had a keen eye and knew how to strike the right balance.

"Thank you for your assessment, Your Excellency."

With his hands behind his back, Lawson glanced at the endless Astartes temporary camps in the distance. "Since you approve, I will send three thousand of these soldiers to accompany your fleet."

Dante turned slightly to face Lawson, awaiting what was to come.

Lawson continued:

“For every Astartes company stationed or roaming the dark side of the Empire, three of my warriors can be assigned to join. There are two core purposes in assigning them to these positions.”

Lawson held up one finger.

"First. Most of the Astartes on the dark side of the Empire are engaged in long-term guerrilla and infiltration warfare behind enemy lines. Your supply lines have long been shattered by warp storms. How many of your brothers died because they were forced to fight hand-to-hand after their bombs ran out? How many were hacked to death because their power armor ran out of energy and they became sitting ducks? The number of Astartes on the dark side who died from logistical disruptions is no less than the number who died by the demonic blade."

"With my soldiers here, once your company runs out of ammunition and food, they can call on my logistics network at any time to replenish standard explosives, plasma charging packs, and even food and medical supplies on the spot."

Dante's mask trembled almost imperceptibly.

From the day Guilliman was resurrected and took over the Dark Side of the War, he was constantly preoccupied with the word "supply." He even personally issued countless final orders: "When ammunition runs out, destroy your power armor and charge into enemy lines." Countless Astartes companies, each with a full complement of a hundred men, were wiped out in this way.

Lawson raised his second finger.

"Secondly, when a company encounters a Chaos main force several times or even dozens of times larger than itself, and faces the dead end of being surrounded and annihilated, these three warriors can serve as tactical anchors. They can call upon my White Tiger army for hyperspace fire support, or open a passage to allow valuable Space Marine veterans to retreat to the absolute safety of the rear."

Dante and Seth frantically pondered the weight of those two sentences in their minds.

They knew all too well what this meant.

Astartes was the empire’s sharpest spear, but spears often break because they lack the strength to be replaced.

A full-strength 100-man Space Marine company, with unlimited ammunition, could wear down millions of rebels on a single planet.

If this company can open a portal to retreat at any time when surrounded by several great demons...

This tactical redundancy will completely change the way Space Marines wage war.

From a desperate, one-time expenditure to an endless, guerrilla-style strategy with unlimited endurance and the ability to advance or retreat at will.

Seth's breathing became heavy.

"The Lawson brothers..."

Dante became agitated again:

"If you can truly achieve this level of immediate replenishment and tactical retreat, the casualty rate of the Astartes on the Dark Side of the Empire can be reduced by at least 78%! We will no longer be expendable; we can wear down the Chaos Warbands on the Dark Side!"

This 78% survival rate is not a figure drawn on mere speculation. During his long campaign in the shadows, Dante had already developed a sophisticated model of Astartes attrition in his mind.

Of the causes of death, direct combat deaths accounted for about 22%, while "passive attrition" caused by logistical disruptions, equipment shutdowns, and inability to retreat accounted for the remaining 78%.

Lawson's solution perfectly eliminated that 78%.

This 78% survival rate means that the countless sub-units of the Holy Blood Angels can preserve those veterans who have accumulated a century of combat experience.

This means that the rate at which the death chain increases will be significantly slowed down.

It signifies hope.

Lawson sighed:

"Your Excellency, this is only an ideal situation. As I told you before, it is limited by the lack of living metal."

"Replenishing ammunition immediately, or even opening hyperspace evacuation channels, is fine if the channels are empty. But if multiple star sectors in the Dark Side are simultaneously in crisis and multiple channels are overwhelmed by high-priority requests, it means delays and queues. I can't guarantee that I can get people out every time."

But Ding nodded emphatically in agreement.

"I see."

"The known coordinates of ancient tomb worlds in the entire Dark Side of the Empire are no more than fifty. Finding ancient tomb worlds of space undead and excavating living metal is the absolute top priority of the Dark Side at present. I will personally issue this priority order to all chapters that are still in contact."

Dante added, "Including those heretical search teams that cooperate with the Inquisition and conduct secret archaeological missions in the shadows. I will authorize them to excavate living metal first and hand it over to you."

"Of course, finding materials is a long-term solution."

Lawson smiled, then suddenly changed the subject:

"But right now, my three thousand warriors have joined various companies, and their power armor has to be provided by those companies, right? I can't let my warriors wear these tattered vests and fight Chaos Space Marines with bayonets."

Dante paused for a moment.

Then, he burst into a hearty laugh.

"Of course! With such elite soldiers who are strong in individual combat, don't hold us back, and can replenish scarce resources at any time, I bet the company commanders in the shadows will fight tooth and nail for a spot!"

Seth grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth: "Company commander? Even the battle group commander personally went down to snatch people! These bastards are incredibly shrewd."

"Don't even mention equipping them with standard Space Marine power armor,"

Dante shook his head with a smile, "Even if you asked them to equip each person with two power armors, they would still be fighting over them!"

Lawson nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled. Each person will be given two sets of power armor."

Seth quickly ducked down and reached for a loose bolt that wasn't actually there, as if the whole world was irrelevant to him.

Dante turned his head very stiffly, pretending that the wind was too strong and he hadn't understood anything.

Lawson looked at the two veterans pretending to be stupid, and didn't care:

"Let's get the ugly truths out upfront."

"Now, although I'm wearing the hat of the Dark Side Master, I'm still penniless underneath."

His gaze swept over Dante's mask.

“As I just said, the communications and navigation networks provided to the dark side of the Empire are for the survival of humanity. I can provide them for free without asking for a single penny, and even risk my life to get in.”

"However, the supplies are insufficient."

“My bombs, plasma, and food don’t just grow out of thin air. Your company ran out of ammunition outside and had to call for airdrops through my soldiers. We need to settle this score.”

Lawson spoke at a measured pace:

"Supplies are welcome. Bring something in exchange. Ore, adamantite, refined promethium, living metal; the still-usable power reactor cores from the rebel bases you breached, the chassis wreckage of chimeras, the axial lance mirror sets from the Gothic cruisers, the brass furnaces of the Demon Weapon Forge, the ceramic steel scraps left over from the Hellblade Legion that you destroyed; even the ancient technological relics you found on the battlefield, fragments of the STC from the Great Crusade era."

"Even if you defeat the Chaos Warband, I want all the spoils that you can't take with you because they're too big, the wrecked engines of the Chaos Starships, the brass armor forged in Hell, the resonant crystals of the Noyce Obelisk, the main components of the defensive turrets left by the Iron Warriors, and the tens of tons of skulls used by the Khorne cultists for sacrifice, no matter how dirty they are."

"Just one sentence: Don't ask for supplies empty-handed!"

This is Lawson's true ultimate goal.

What Lawson wants to do is to use his monopolistic real-time logistics and information network to bind all the Astartes Chapters and Astral Legions in the dark side of the Empire, which are fighting independently, to his own interests.

He wanted to turn the entire Dark Side Imperial army into laborers and scavengers for his rampant resource plundering throughout the galaxy.

Dante's eyelids twitched violently.

This is a profound bondage worthy of being recorded in the history of imperial politics.

Once the warbands got used to this readily available supply, they could no longer live without Lawson's logistics network.

In their first logistics class after enlisting, recruits are taught: If you run out of ammunition, don't panic, call "Nail." If your power armor stalls, don't panic, call "Nail." If you're surrounded by a Doom, don't panic, call "Nail."

Three generations later, the entire dark military system of the empire will be subtly rewritten into a closed loop with Lawson at its heart and the network of assassins as its veins.

Lawson will effectively control the material lifeline of the Empire's dark side.

He is no longer an "ally that provides scarce services".

He will become air, water, the default infrastructure upon which the Dark Empire's military machine operates.

Even though he saw through all of this, Dante still sighed inwardly.

This is reasonable and understandable.

This is an extremely fair and ingenious trading model.