Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"We have completely abandoned the mechanical dogma of Mars. During the production line setup, your technicians eliminated all redundant steps such as 'applying holy oil,' 'reciting machine soul soothing scriptures,' and 'burning binary incense.' We only focus on the absolute closed loop of physical tolerances, material strength, and logical code."

"After eliminating the red tape of praying to the machine spirit, the production line is 7.5 times more efficient than a standard Imperial Armory, with a scrap rate that is almost zero."

As Lawson listened to the report, a slight smile appeared on his lips.

The essence of the Industrial Revolution was to separate theology from industry and return to pure physics and mathematics.

The T-series assassins perfectly executor this pure industrial logic.

“You’re a smart man, Xavier. You know how to distinguish between false dogma and true efficiency.”

Lawson didn't deny the Great Sage's contribution: "Your coordination was indispensable in enabling this production line to produce samples so quickly. Tell me, what reward do you want?"

Krus found himself momentarily at a loss as to what reward he should ask for.

As a dark sage who betrayed the orthodoxy of Mars, his former pursuit was to break taboo knowledge and to conduct unbridled biomechanical experiments.

But now, he finds that what Lawson is offering him is far beyond his comprehension.

Complete STC blueprints, a perfect human-computer interaction neural network, and even the advanced micro-operation technology displayed by those T-series suicide soldiers.

Standing before Lawson's arsenal, Xerath felt that the "forbidden knowledge" he had once craved was like a primitive man's desire for a sharper stone axe.

"grown ups."

Krusa finally gave up on the calculation: "Your knowledge base has already filled all the desires of my logical memory. I cannot make any specific material demands for the time being. Serving you and deciphering these hyperdimensional technologies is the greatest reward for me."

Lawson returned to the command seat and sat down.

"Kexas, as a Dark Sage wanted by the Empire, what are your views on the Mechanicus and the orthodoxy of Mars?"

Upon hearing this question, the cooling fan on the back of the X-Trail suddenly increased its speed.

“Disdain. Contempt. And… an incomprehensible sorrow.”

The synthesized sounds of the Kreas have a rare touch of sarcasm.

“My lord, I was once a member of the Martian orthodoxy. I was the chief technical priest of a secondary forging world. I oversaw research into the miniaturization of plasma reactors. It was a monumental project that could revolutionize the firepower of individual Space Marines.”

The Great Sage's mechanical arm waved in the air, as if recreating the scene from years past.

"But my research was terminated. Not because of a failure in physics. It was because I changed a parameter in an old blueprint when reconstructing the plasma magnetic confinement field. Just one parameter. It reduced the reactor's volume by twelve percent."

"What are they accusing me of? They accuse me of blaspheming the perfect design of the God of Machines! They accuse me of altering the doctrines of the STC fragments without the approval of the Council of the Church of Mechanisms! They believe that the ancient designs are sacred and inviolable, and any modification is heresy."

The red light from the Xenoscans flashed even more intensely.

"They're a bunch of idiots whose brains are stuck in rusty gears! They've turned 'exploring knowledge' into 'hoarding ignorance.' They cling to broken blueprints like misers, preferring to let technology be lost rather than allow any form of innovation. The time they spend on prayer and rituals to manufacture a weapon is ten times the actual assembly time!"

"Because I refused to destroy my research data, I was jointly arbitrated as a 'heretical technologist' by the Inquisition and the Mechanicus. I was forced to flee and wander into the dark side of the Empire, becoming what they called the Dark Sage."

"Sir, the so-called 'Dark Mechanicus' is nothing more than a unilateral political definition by those utterly corrupt mechanical dogmatists against anyone who dares to think, innovate, or cross the red lines they have drawn. We pursue truth, while they only pursue monopoly."

Lawson listened quietly to Kxus's outburst.

"The Agrippina system. There is a vast forging world there."

The topic of conversation shifted abruptly without warning.

The processing center of the Xenosaurus instantly locked onto this term.

"Do you know anything about the Forging General of the Agrippina Forging World?" Lawson asked.

Krus's mechanical prosthetic eye suddenly contracted.

"Not only do I understand, sir. Between us, there is an unresolved bad debt of computing power."

“Agrippina’s current casting general is named Belissa Kur. He was my colleague before I was convicted of heresy. To be precise, he was my academic rival.”

"Back then, it was he who submitted the whistleblower code to the bishops' council about my tampering with the blueprints. He stole some of my magnetic confinement field data, disguised it in an extremely conservative and cumbersome manner, and then published it as his own research results, thereby gaining political leverage for promotion to Casting General."

"Putting aside personal grudges, Kur is an ultimate political machine. Ninety percent of his brain is devoted to logistical coordination and power balancing. He is not a good engineer, but he is an extremely meticulous manager. He has made Agrippina impregnable, maintaining six layers of Void Shield around it year-round, and stationing it with three full-strength Guardian Legions and a Titan Order detachment."

"He is cautious, suspicious, and never leaves his core database. In the current Agrippina meat grinder battlefield, he can maintain a fragile balance of power between the Chaos Warband, the Orcs, and the Imperial Astral Army through cold calculations."

Lawson stopped tapping his fingers.

He scrutinized Krusas and asked, "If I were to make you the Forging General of Agrippina's Forging World, would you be willing?"

The cooling fan on the back of the X-Trail stopped spinning instantly, and the logic center almost crashed.

Then, the gears meshed again, and the fan roared loudly.

Krus's first reaction was to deny it.

"Impossible, sir. This is absolutely impossible in terms of logical reasoning."

All eight robotic arms of the Xerox drooped down simultaneously.

“My lord, I am well aware of your incredible strength and divine abilities. You are the Dark Lord of the Empire, and you have the authority to appoint planetary governors. But the Mechanicus will not listen to such nonsense.”

Texas began to list the insurmountable objective obstacles.

"According to the Treaty of Olympus signed between the Emperor and Mars ten thousand years ago, the Mechanicus is an equal ally of the Imperial Empire, not a subordinate vassal. The Adeptus Mechanicus possesses absolute internal autonomy. Your title of Dark Side Master allows you to command the Astral Army and mobilize the Astartes, but those bastards in the Mechanicus may not recognize your appointment documents."

"They only recognize the will of the gears and the logic of the god of machines."

"Even if you were to destroy Kur by force and forcibly put me in that position, I still wouldn't be able to control that world."

Krus pointed to his head.

“I am the Dark Sage. My underlying code has been marked as ‘rubbish’ and heresy by Mars. Agrippina’s Thinker array, the global coverage network, and all weapon fire control centers are equipped with a rigorous and comprehensive identification system.”

“The moment I try to access Agrippina’s data network, the entire planet’s machine spirits will have a violent rejection reaction. The Guardians will automatically lock onto me as their primary target for elimination, and the Titan armor’s defense programs will automatically activate. I will be unable to command any of the servants, unable to turn on any of the forges. Sitting in that position, I will just be a living target rejected by the entire planet’s system.”

Krus's analysis is extremely objective.

Political isolation and technological exclusion constitute two insurmountable walls.

"Therefore, sir, this is an impossible proposition."

After listening to these lengthy explanations of the difficulties, Lawson looked at Kxus and smiled.

"My question wasn't about whether this plan is feasible in the face of the Empire's existing laws and the Mechanicus's firewall. I don't need you to list those lousy defense mechanisms for me."

"I'm only asking you, are you willing or not?"

"Leave the question of whether you can or not to me. You just need to answer me whether you want to sit on Agrippina's throne of casting."

The electronic processors in the Kreiss were running at full speed.

Within the logic loop of Texas, a high-dimensional virus called "Ambition" rapidly infects the system.

Great Sage Xerath raised his head again.

Krus immediately expressed his willingness, very much so, but he still felt the possibility was zero.

"grown ups."

“I have removed the frontal cortex of the biological brain that produces dreams. But in the underlying logic loop of my past few centuries, I have been constantly simulating the image of Belissa Kuhl being trampled under the treads. I have calculated fourteen thousand ways to dismember him.”

"But as I just reported, Agrippina's Thinker Array and Global Coverage Network, at the level of conventional data, cannot be forcibly breached by external forces due to their computing power barriers and authentication mechanisms."

Lawson burst into laughter.

"Agrippina's Thinker array is indeed powerful; it's the culmination of tens of thousands of years of Martian technology. But have you forgotten how, just a few months ago, I forcibly took over the entire Thinker array and fire control center of this No. 1 industrial planet in half an hour?"

The processing core of the Xenoscan flashed back to the scene from that time.

That unreasonable, full-band, all-dimensional computing power coverage instantly shattered the seven-hundred-year-old firewall of the Iron Forging Guild.

“My computing network has a completely different underlying logic from the Thinker Array of your Mechanicus.”

Lawson did not delve further into this topic.

When they reach Agrippina, Xerath will naturally witness it.

The holographic projector was activated between the two people.

The beams of light intertwined, outlining a tall, humanoid mechanical silhouette in mid-air.

It is equipped with eight multi-functional servo robotic arms on its back. There are no exposed hydraulic lines at the joints of its limbs. Instead, it adopts a more advanced built-in drive structure.

This is the standard template for the T-series mechanical assassins.

Lawson pointed at the holographic projection and looked at Xerath.

"I promised to give you a perfect mechanical body."

"Now, the time has come. You will need this body to take over Agrippina's throne of forging."

As Krus looked at the holographic projection, his robotic arm unconsciously traced the parameters of its outline in the air.

This body fit his ultimate vision of "mechanical ascension" perfectly.

There are no cumbersome life support tanks, no easily infected biological neural interfaces, and no heavy, slow-moving tracks.

This is a perfect creation that combines absolute power, micron-level operational precision, and ultimate mobility.

Replacing his body with a real mechanical one, without any biological compromises, has been one of his few long-standing obsessions.

Martian dogma holds that retaining part of the body is the final proof of human identity, but in the eyes of extreme pure technologists like Xander, the body is nothing but weakness, decay, and unreliability.

"I accept." Krusk had waited too long for this moment.

"Don't rush to agree."

Lawson interrupted Kexas: "As part of a deal, I must make the drawbacks and costs of doing this clear to you."

"The transfer process is thorough. Your entire consciousness, all your memory data, and your personality matrix can be uploaded to this new body. It is a molecular-level reconstruction, a perfect transfer, without any loss of computing power or memory."

Lawson approached Kexas and stared at the remaining brain tissue submerged in nutrient solution.

"There is only one flaw."

"During the consciousness upload process, you will be directly connected to my core network."

"When your logic code is refactored online, your useless, redundant code and obsolete code defined by Mars will be deleted and improved. You will lose the absolute right to modify your own underlying code."

"The most important point."

Lawson's voice turned cold: "You will be unable to generate any logical deductions to betray me. Once the computational impulse to betray arises, your motherboard will melt down within microseconds. You will become an absolute extension of my will."

Lawson laid out the most demanding conditions in the open.

Accept it, and you will gain new life and power; refuse it, and you will continue to be a dark sage who can be replaced at any time.

The electronic voice of the Xerox emitted a noise similar to short, human laughter.