Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Ella turned and walked out of the data center.

She took the train back to the third logistics transfer station.

Seventeenth loading deck.

This is an extremely large underground space. Huge lights hang from the arched ceiling.

Hundreds of heavy ammunition transport vehicles and Leman Rustam were parked on the deck.

Ella walked onto the deck.

She saw them in the central area of ​​the deck.

Thousands of figures stood in neat rows beside the transport vehicles.

They are machine servants.

The Mechanic Order created semi-mechanical slaves using human bodies.

Ella walked towards the formation.

Her gaze swept over the first row of servants.

These servants were stripped of their hair and excess skin tissue.

The skull was cut open, and a crude metal receiver and data cable were implanted.

Both eyes were removed and replaced with a single-lens optical sensor that emits red light.

Their lower bodies were severed and welded to the tracked chassis or mechanical supports.

Their hands were sawed off and replaced with hydraulic shears, heavy-duty bomb guns, or ammunition handling robotic arms.

Their frontal lobes were removed.

The logical core is covered by the code of Mechanicus.

They have no thoughts. No pain. No memory.

It's just a machine made up of biological components.

Ella walked through the formation.

She saw countless features of the Kadians.

The purple eye—that was the one that was preserved.

Cardian is characterized by his high cheekbones and square jaw.

Even some old scars that haven't been completely removed, left by Chaos Warriors on the Fungal Plains of Cadian.

The scars on these servants were originally Cadian's medals.

She walked to the seventh row of the formation.

She stopped in her tracks.

She saw a loader servant.

This servant is very small.

His legs were replaced with quadruped treads. His upper body was encased in heavy lead plates. His left arm was modified into a giant ammunition delivery tube, and his right arm was a plasma torch for welding.

His head was only half there, the other half being exposed gears and heat sinks.

But on his only remaining left side of his neck, a thin metal necklace hung.

That was an identification tag belonging to the Cardian Internal Defense Forces.

That was the one that Ella personally hung around her younger brother Thomas's neck at the end of basic training.

Ella walked up to the loader.

The loader's optical sensors flashed, scanning Ella's outline.

The system determined that she was not an obstacle, and the sensor then returned to its standby dark red state.

He didn't recognize her.

He no longer has even the neural circuits needed to "recognize" the action.

Ella turned her head.

Next to his younger brother stood two artillery aiming machines.

Their bodies were embedded in the back of heavy shields.

The limbs were completely removed, leaving only the torso and head.

Their brains were directly connected to the fire control computer of heavy artillery, used as biological computing nodes.

One of the servants had a hole in its right chest—

There is a brown birthmark about the size of a coin.

That was her father, Colin.

The jawline of another machine servant—

Ella has been watching for twenty years.

That was her mother, Martha.

They were made into machine parts.

Ella stood still.

The gunfire of the battlefield did not break her spirit.

The mud in the trenches did not break her.

The death of her comrade did not break her.

At this moment, the tactical backpack she was carrying contained five cans of minced meat and a cold-weather blanket.

She looked at her parents' mutilated bodies, which had been transformed into fire control nodes, and at her younger brother's half-body welded to the tracks.

A mechanical priest glides past in the formation of servants.

The priest waved his mechanical tentacles and sent a loading command to the servant's receiver.

The formation began to move.

Ella's brother, the four-legged tracked loader, its tracks turning.

He did not avoid Ella.

There is no detour logic in the mechanical instructions.

The track hit Ella's leg.

"Physical obstruction detected. Requesting clearance." A distorted, synthesized electronic voice came from the servant's throat-puffing microphone.

Ella looked at the face that was only half there, expressionless.

Twelve years old.

Thirty days ago, he was still holding her leg in the container in the quarantine area, saying he would wait for her to come back after she won the battle.

He said he wanted to eat canned minced meat.

Ella felt something shatter inside her chest.

She drew the laser pistol from her waist.

He pointed the gun at the mechanical priest who was giving orders.

She released the safety on the pistol.

The energy tank emits a soft beep as it charges.

A hand wearing a black leather glove precisely sliced ​​into her wrist joint from the side.

A powerful force instantly locked her movements in place.

With his other hand, he snatched her laser pistol.

Ella turned her head.

It was her company commander, Kane.

Company Commander Kane was wearing heavy Astrakhan officer's bulletproof armor and a dusty black overcoat.

He had an old scar on his face that ran from his forehead to his chin.

"What do you want to do, soldier?"

“They are my family,” Ella said, pointing to the three servants.

"I placed them in the quarantine zone. I killed countless mutants on the front lines. I survived."

"But they turned my family into machine servants."

Ella's body began to tremble.

"I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill that tin monster."

Company Commander Kane did not follow Ella's finger to look at the three machine guns.

He stood in front of Ella, blocking her view.

"If you fire, you will be riddled with bullets by the surrounding clergy in a fraction of a second."

"I'm not afraid to die!" Ella roared.

"But your death is meaningless."

Kane turned around and looked at the massive loading deck and the thousands of machine guns carrying ammunition.

"This is Agrippina. This is the world of casting."

"Three hundred thousand refugees. They need to consume three thousand tons of corpse starch, one million gallons of clean water, and a huge quota for air circulation systems every day."

Kane turned his head and looked into Ella's eyes.

What can they offer?

“They can provide nothing but consume the Empire’s resources in the quarantine zone.”