Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Kuer cut off the civilian energy output connecting the three secondary forging furnaces and forcibly injected a massive amount of electricity into the computing center of the core array.

A pure data-driven massacre has begun.

Kur activated the highest level of access to the Agrippina mainframe. The immense computing power, like a heavy steamroller, poured forth in reverse along the network nodes. This deluge of Mechanicus data forcibly overwrote, deleted, and formatted the chaotic, useless code residing in the relay stations and the Guardians' chips.

Ten seconds later, the coverage network of Zone One was back online, and data transmission returned to normal.

Kuer saw the current state of the battlefield through real-time optical images transmitted back from the front-line servo skull.

Too late.

The three knight mechs of the Krastu family had been reduced to burning wreckage. Their armor, now disabled by shield damage, offered no protection against the heavy volcanic cannons. The defensive line had completely collapsed, and most of the 100,000 mortal auxiliary troops had been transformed into organic fertilizer on the ground.

The optical image is zoomed in.

Two hundred Space Marines from the Lamenters Chapter, clad in yellow armor, drew their chainswords and launched a counter-charge against the armored array of five Chaos Knight mechs and Iron Warriors.

"madness."

General Kur, the forging general, offered a chilling assessment: Infantry, stripped of heavy firepower and anti-tank weapons, had zero chance of survival against knight-level Titans. This charge, driven by honor and sentimentality, was a grave waste of the Empire's valuable military assets.

However, Kur's secondary processor quickly generated another tactical benefit model. The Lamenters' suicide charge could tie down the Chaos Knight mechs' firepower and slow the Iron Warriors' advance for approximately 270 seconds.

That's enough for him to complete a round of firepower coverage.

Kur issued the order. Four hundred heavy ground-shaking guns located behind the Second Theater began firing data calibration.

Target coordinates: Theater One, Center of Combat.

Kuhl did not intend to distinguish between friend and foe. In his calculations, the mutual destruction of two hundred Space Marines and tens of thousands of enemy troops would be enough to save the power lines of the Master Forge.

In the final microseconds before the fire control program was about to execute its countdown, Agrippina's orbital defense array received a strong physical signal. A fleet was approaching and was demanding orbital landing clearance.

Kuhl aborted the shelling. His logical processing system quickly analyzed the signal.

The identification code matched successfully. Imperial faction, highest-level encryption. The attached digital signature contains the personal mark of the Dark Regent Dante, and harmless passage permission from the Imperial Inquisition.

Kuhl approved the fleet's entry into near-Earth orbit. He retrieved from the underlying database a celestial bulletin sent by Dante to the entire Dark Side thirty standard Terra days ago. The bulletin mentioned a newly appointed "Palm of the Dark Side."

Kur couldn't understand why the Ministry of the Interior would revive such an ancient title from the Great Expedition era in this time of impending collapse.

But he doesn't care about politics; he only cares about production capacity and defense.

"Landing approved." Kur left a low-level note in the encrypted channel: "Do not interfere with the defensive fire network. Any tactical conflict will be considered hostile behavior."

Above Zone One.

The thick, dark gray volcanic ash cloud was torn apart. The air was ionized by the intense friction, bursting out with a blinding red light.

Hundreds of heavy landing pods, trailing long plasma plumes, crashed into the combat zone.

"boom!"

The violent impact was like triggering an earthquake.

The landing pod slammed directly into the buffer zone between the Weeping Legion and the Chaos Legion. The immense kinetic energy sent up hundreds of meters of mud and metal debris.

The hatch exploded open, and the suicide squad filed out.

First to appear were a thousand White Tiger Legion suicide soldiers. Divided into two hundred tactical squads, they quickly established perfect crossfire lines among the wreckage of the landing craft after landing. The Suppressor Storm Bomb Guns, which had just been deployed on Planet Obolos I, saw their first combat use.

The gun muzzle spat out flames.

The adaptive rifling system locked onto the charging Iron Warriors and Chaos Cultists, and the two-stage delayed-detonation warhead demonstrated terrifying lethality.

The Chaos Space Marines charging at the forefront had their heavy Mark III armor pierced by the shaped-charge jet the instant they came into contact with the bomb. The bomb detonated inside their chests, instantly blowing the upper bodies of dozens of Iron Warriors into splattering fragments of flesh and blood.

The Chaos Legion's charge was abruptly halted by this suddenly appearing wall of steel firepower.

Company Commander Kyle and Company Commander Tecon halted their charge. They stared in astonishment at the nameless fighting force that had suddenly appeared ahead, its firepower exceptionally fierce.

Beside the two company commanders, Lawson, wearing the Tiger King armor, descended from the sky.

His gaze passed over the two company commanders and landed on the five massive Chaos Knight mechs in the distance.

"Brothers, your days are not today."

"Now, follow behind my mech and begin the counterattack."

As soon as Lawson finished speaking.

Two bear guard units crossed the wreckage and entered the battlefield.

They wore centurion-level heavy armor with anti-gravity modules, carried a 3.5-meter-high force field shield on their left arm, a heavy power axe or thunder hammer on their right arm, and had twin-barreled rapid-fire cannons or plasma incinerators mounted on their backs.

The appearance of six thousand giant beasts brought the sense of oppression on the entire battlefield to its peak.

Their objective was crystal clear. The tactical network of swarm intelligence completed the task allocation in an instant.

Ignoring the low-level Chaos infantry, the two Bear Guards quickly locked onto the five rampaging Chaos Knight mechs with their optical sensors.

Thirty Bear Guards would take on one standard-level Chaos Knight mech. As for the Tyrant-class Chaos Knight equipped with a heavy volcano cannon, it would be hunted down by a hundred elite Bear Guards led by Jorah Mormont and Jason Mormont.

Tactical orders were issued, and the wolf pack tactics were activated.

The closest Chaos Knight to the left flank is a Marauder-class unit, ten meters tall, equipped with a Melt Cannon and a Reaper Chainsaw.

Thirty bear guards spread out in formation. According to data analysis from the swarm intelligence, the Knight mech's ion shield is a directional energy field. The pilot must manually adjust the shield's deflection angle to defend against attacks from the front or side, failing to provide 360-degree all-around protection. This is a fatal weakness in the Knight mech's design.

Ten Bear Guards appeared in the Marauder Knight's line of sight as decoys. They slammed their 3.5-meter-high force field shields into the ground, the refracted force fields forming a pale blue energy wall. At the same time, the twin rapid-fire cannons and heavy automatic cannons on their backs opened fire at full power, large-caliber depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds raining down on the mech's frontal armor.

Enraged by the fire control alarm, the pilot of the Knight mech maneuvered the mech to position the ion shield directly in front, blocking the live ammunition fire. At the same time, the mech's right arm's molten cannon began charging, and a jet of high-temperature plasma bombarded the shield wall of the ten Bear Guards.

The refractive field emitted an overloaded shriek under the absolute energy level difference. The heavy shields of the two bear guards melted, and their bodies were grazed by the molten rays, instantly carbonizing half of their bodies. But they still maintained suppressive fire, firmly locking onto the knight mech's frontal attention.

In the ten seconds that the Knight mech focused on its frontal assault, the other twenty Bear Guards had already completed their flanking maneuver. Using the ruins of buildings and tank wreckage on the battlefield as cover, they quickly closed in on both sides of the Knight mech.

The distance is fifty meters.

Twenty bear guards leaped out simultaneously.

Live-fire weapons could not penetrate the Knight's thick side armor in a short time. The five-ton behemoth of flesh and blood, powered to its limit by its two hearts and three lungs, unleashed terrifying acceleration.

The Knight Mech's soul issued a flanking warning.

The driver attempted to turn the machine around and swing the harvester chainsaw to the side.

However, the ten Bear Guards immediately closed in and fired, some even pressing their heavy molten lances against the knight's ion shield. The pilot was forced to maintain fire from the frontal shield, causing a fatal lag in the mech's turning maneuver.

Twenty bear guards approached the lower body of the mecha, precisely targeting the hydraulic bearings and transmission servo units behind the knight mecha's knee joints.

The decomposition force field of the heavy power axe is activated, and the oscillation generator of the thunder hammer is charged to its maximum value.

"boom!"

Twenty heavy melee weapons slammed into the weak points of the mech's two knee joints.

Basic physics: A mech that is ten meters tall and weighs hundreds of tons has its entire weight supported by the mechanical joints of its two legs.

When a destructive force of two hundred tons is applied instantaneously to these precision hydraulic drive shafts, the metal breaks instantly, and high-pressure hydraulic oil gushes out of the pipelines like a fountain.

Losing support on one side, the Marauder Knight mech instantly lost its balance. The ten-meter-tall metal body let out a sickening twisting sound as it crashed to its right into the muddy ground. The earth trembled violently.

The moment the mech fell to the ground, the wolf pack delivered its fatal blow.

Two bear guards, stepping on the damaged thigh armor of the mech, leaped directly onto the back of the knight mech. They removed the heavy plasma incineration cannon mounted on the back and pressed the muzzle against the heat dissipation grille of the reactor shell on the back.

Zero-distance infusion.

The ultra-high temperature plasma instantly burned through the reactor's isolation layer and was injected into the core circulation system. The two bear guards leaped dozens of meters backward the instant the fire was released.

"boom!"

The Knight Mech's reactor detonated. The violent nuclear fusion fireball blasted the war machine into countless burning fragments.

The same tactics were being used simultaneously on the other three sides of the battlefield.

Thirty Bear Guards form a hunting unit: frontal firepower to contain and lock onto the ion shield; rapid flanking maneuvers to destroy the knee hydraulic joints; and upon being knocked down, detonating the reactor or cockpit at point-blank range.

It was swift and decisive, without the back-and-forth fighting of positional warfare.

Just seven minutes later, all four standard-level Chaos Knight mechs were dismantled and exploded.

In the battlefield, only the largest Tyrant-class Chaos Knight remained.

This behemoth's firepower is extremely ferocious. Its heavy volcanic cannon has already vaporized more than thirty Bear Guards who were trying to hold them off head-on, and the deflection power of its ion shield far exceeds that of conventional models.

Big Bear and Little Bear gathered a hundred bear guards and surrounded the Tyrant Knight.

"Abandon firearms."

One hundred bear guards simultaneously drew their heavy power axes and giant chainsaw swords. Instead of encircling from three sides, they formed a constantly rotating concentric circle.

The Tyrant Knight's Reaper Chainsaw swept across, cleaving five Bear Guards in two at the waist. The Volcanic Cannon roared, blasting a ten-meter-deep vitrified crater into the ground. But the Bear Guards were too numerous and too fast. They used the remains of their fallen comrades as cover, relentlessly closing the distance.

When the number of casualties reached forty-five, Xiong Da found a weakness.

After the Tyrant Knight fired the Volcano Cannon repeatedly, the energy transmission line in his right arm experienced a forced power outage due to a 0.5-second cooling period.

"on!"

Fifty bear guards leaped simultaneously from the ruins on the right, targeting the stabilizing fin on the Tyrant Knight's right ankle. Power axes swung down at the same time, severing the fin. The Tyrant Knight missed a step as he turned, his massive body tilting fifteen degrees to the right.

This 15-degree tilt is fatal.

Led by Xiong Er, the remaining five elite Xiong Guards charged upwards on the tilted right leg of their mechs. They dodged the swinging mechanical arms and leaped directly onto the Tyrant Knight's broad shoulder armor.

The Tyrant Knight's cockpit is located at the junction of the head and chest, and its armor is extremely thick.

Xiong Er raised the 3.5-meter force field heavy shield on his left arm, aiming the armor-piercing spike at the bottom at the top hatch of the cockpit. The other four Xiong Guards simultaneously raised their Thunder Hammers high above their heads. The four Thunder Hammers slammed into Xiong Er's shield at the same time, and the enormous kinetic energy and shockwave were concentrated on the spikes of the shield.

The armor-piercing cone instantly pierced through the half-meter-thick adamantite hatch and plunged deep into the cockpit. The pilot's body was instantly crushed into a bloody pulp by this terrifying compression.

The Tyrant Knight, now without its pilot, has ceased all movement, and its fire control system is completely paralyzed.

Less than fifteen minutes had passed since Lawson entered the fray. The five most threatening Chaos Knight mechs were all wiped out by the Bear Guard's wolf pack tactics, instantly reversing the entire battlefield situation.

The Iron Warriors' artillery array lost the cover of the knights' armor in front and was directly exposed to the White Tiger Legion's barrage of shells.

"All troops, launch a counterattack!" Lawson ordered.

The remaining five thousand-plus Bear Guards pieced together their force field shields, forming a steel wall several kilometers long. Under the cover of fire from the White Tiger Legion, they advanced towards the Chaos Legion's position.

No trench could stop a five-ton charge of flesh and blood, no armored vehicle could withstand the blows of a power axe. The remaining Chaos Auxiliary Army and Iron Warriors were crushed into mincemeat.

Company Commander Kyle and Company Commander Tecon stood at the edge of the trench, staring in disbelief at the scene.

As battle-hardened Space Marines, they had witnessed Titan clashes and the descent of demons, but they had never seen a group of purely physical infantrymen dismantle a Knight's armor as cleanly and efficiently as if it were a mechanical toy, with such high tactical skill and strength.