Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Lawson was unusually silent for a few seconds.

"The Lamenters' Chapter has no cowards. You are all outstanding and worthy of the Emperor."

Kyle suddenly raised his head, about to speak again, but his expression changed abruptly: "Lord Master, you must not let the brothers continue their advance!"

"Ok?"

"Five and a half kilometers ahead lies a second-line artillery barrage from the Chaos Iron Warriors. They have deployed two full heavy petrified lizard artillery batteries, plus at least six Hellhammer-class mega-cannons. Our scouts risked their lives to send back the coordinates two weeks ago, but the chapter was simply unable to eliminate them at the time. If you advance another kilometer, your forces will be completely exposed to the enemy's devastating firepower! The Iron Warriors' creeping barrage will absolutely..."

"I know what I'm doing."

Lawson calmly raised his right hand.

The next second, a picture that defies military common sense slowly unfolds.

On the entire boiling battle line, six thousand berserk bear guards, one thousand flanking white tiger warriors, and fifty thousand charging suicide soldiers all uniformly and simultaneously ceased all tactical movements within the same millisecond.

They began to retreat like a receding tide.

The force field tower shields of the front-line bear guards instantly reassembled into an indestructible rear guard.

The White Tiger Squad constructed a layered cover network like butterflies flitting among flowers, while the 50,000 elite soldiers were precisely divided into three tiered formations. Each time they retreated to a predetermined coordinate, they would instantly unleash crossfire, providing smooth and continuous cover for the front lines to withdraw in turn.

Kyle and Tecon stood rooted to the spot like two statues, staring in disbelief at this incredible miracle.

The two company commanders looked at each other through their face shields.

Kyle was a veteran even among the long-lived Astartes, and he knew that even the most rigid Ultramarines had to issue orders through shortwave frequencies by the commander to carry out a retreat of this scale, which would then be relayed through the company commander, sergeant, and squad leader.

From the highest-ranking officer giving the order to the grassroots teams thoroughly implementing the retreat, even in the most perfect situation, there is still a reaction window of twelve to fifteen seconds.

This is already the pinnacle of human military command art.

And this moment.

From the moment Lawson casually raised his right arm to the moment when more than 60,000 soldiers along the entire front line switched from offense to defense in perfect unison, there was zero delay.

As the retreating Bear Guard passed by the pile of scrap metal from the Chaos Knight mechs, Xiong Da waved his hand, and twenty towering beasts immediately emerged from the formation.

They forcefully gripped the servo joints and metal tracks of the mech wreckage, and some even wrapped their arms around the broken, heavy-duty waist support shaft.

Five enormous remains, along with the tyrant-class knight's main body, which was as big as a small mountain, were dragged and pulled by this group of mad beasts, and they plowed five shocking deep trenches in the muddy plain.

In the distance, within the chaotic defensive line, a steel warrior soldier who had miraculously survived huddled in a trench, staring intently at the strange phenomenon in the distance.

His scarred face contorted violently inside the helmet, his withered lips opening and closing several times, but no sound came out.

He just watched helplessly.

Watching those prehistoric beasts appear out of nowhere, like scavengers picking up scrap metal, they dragged the five mech wrecks, symbols of fear and destruction, back to their own territory.

At the stasis portal.

A formation of non-combatant assassins, dressed in dark gray uniforms, emerged from the azure light screen with mechanically precise steps.

The first batch consisted of 500,000 people.

Even though they are classified as non-combatants, their military skills and muscle density far surpass those of the most elite Astraklan veterans.

Looking out over the devastated battlefield, only 32,400 civilians remained in Kadian, scattered like frightened birds in the ruins and scorched craters covering about five square kilometers to the west.

Of the 100,000 ordinary people who served as human mine sweepers, only a pitiful fraction remain today.

The logistics personnel formed three-person teams and dispersed into the smoke-filled ruins.

They found the civilians huddled in the corner, shivering, gave them a brief explanation, and then carefully led them to the assembly point at the rear.

For ordinary people who were too badly injured to walk, the assassins would simply lift them up.

With the terrifying strength of a single arm, they could hold a grown man firmly in mid-air.

Just then, a piercing hum of an anti-gravity engine suddenly approached from the inside of the battle line.

The mechanical priest Viktor, surrounded by twelve heavily armored guards, is approaching from the main battle line.

"Stop your interference."

Vikrie's cyborg body, mounted on an anti-gravity chassis, hovered in front of a suicide soldier distributing clean water to civilians.

"This batch of biological resources belongs to the registered assets of Production Order XIV of the Agrippina Foundry World, batch numbers AGR-14-E-33-017 to AGR-14-E-33-126. According to logical calculations, they were redeployed from the D-7 supply hub to War Zone One this morning for the purpose of: consumable forward mine-clearing units for the next assault. In accordance with Article 9, Section 3 of the resource allocation agreement signed between the Holy Mechanicus and the Sector Council..."

"They must be returned to the Mechanicus immediately."

The surrounding assassins ignored his long speech.

Like tireless precision machine tools, they continued to register the wounded, bandage wounds, and transport them on stretchers in an orderly manner.

Clearly enraged by being ignored, Viktor emitted a disgruntled hum from its chassis and lunged forward two meters while hovering.

"I'll say it again..."

"Shut your mother's scrap metal!"

A massive arm, as thick as a steel pillar, suddenly shot out from the side.

Five thick iron fingers, accompanied by servo electronic music, gripped Viktor's bionic cervical spine like a bear trap, forcibly pulling him off the anti-gravity chassis!

Vikley's modified body, which was 1.75 meters tall, covered with various heavy mechanical prosthetics, and weighed nearly 180 kilograms, was as light as a feather in the hands of Er Gou, who was wearing the Iron Rider Terminator armor.

With a sudden, powerful throw, Er Gou sent the high priest flying three meters away, slamming him into a pile of sharp concrete rubble.

The anti-gravity chassis, now without a driver, emits a confused electronic hum, and automatically floats back to its original position and hovers after the connection is lost.

Before Viktor could restart the gyroscope, Er Gou had already loomed over him like an iron tower, his large hand covering his metal head, which was covered with probes.

"Hey tech enthusiast, did your logic board get soaked in sewage?"

Er Gou grinned condescendingly, "The orphans of Kadian are the legitimate citizens of Holy Terra. When did they become the private property of you bunch of metal lumps?"

The moment the attack occurred, the six servo mechanical arms implanted in Viktor's back, driven by the underlying defense protocol, instinctively lashed out at Er Gou like a scorpion's tail, with two of them flashing with the high-temperature blue light of plasma cutters.

Er Gou didn't even lift his eyelids, casually slapping his left arm, which was covered in thick refined gold, in mid-air.

With a sickening metallic crack, the two servo arms, equipped with deadly weaponry, were smashed into twisted scrap metal, sending blinding sparks flying everywhere.

Vikley's bionic prosthetic eye instantly turned red.

The twelve heavily armored guards following behind him acted like killing machines on command, uniformly raising their heavy laser rifles and locking onto the gaps between Er Gou's helmet visor and chest core armor.

The Mechanic Church's elite friars were far from being a mere figurehead.

The heavy laser weapons they possess are capable of melting through the frontal protection of Astartes power armor within twenty meters.

With twelve high-energy gun barrels focused on the same target, even the Iron Cavalry Terminator armor with its abnormally strong defense might not be able to withstand it.

However, at the very moment they raised their guns—

A towering figure, 4.2 meters tall, strode out from beside Er Gou like a mountain.

With a dull, earth-shattering roar, the rubble within a five-meter radius was violently thrown into the air by the massive shockwave.

Jason Mormont held a terrifying force field tower shield, thirty-eight centimeters thick, aloft on his left arm, and gripped a menacing twin-barreled heavy automatic cannon in his right hand.

The thick, six-barreled Gatling gun began to emit a deadly, soul-stirring spinning sound.

“Raising a gun to aim at the guards of the Lord of the Seal is tantamount to treason.”

Jason's deep, booming voice echoed across the assembly area: "You bunch of scrap metal, are you sure you want to betray the Empire?!"

The tactical situation within a local battlefield can be completely overturned in a fraction of a second.

Among the Xiongwei army arrayed on the outer perimeter, the dark muzzles of six thousand heavy weapons were raised in unison.

Among the 50,000 platoon-level suicide soldiers, the nearest full-strength company of 100 men had already deployed a crossfire network with no blind spots, as if by a precise instrument.

The entire noisy gathering point instantly fell into an extremely quiet and suffocating stalemate.

It was Lawson who broke the deadlock.

He casually grabbed a mechanical servo skull that was scanning around from mid-air and forcibly twisted the bionic sensors flashing red on the pale skull face in front of him.

“Listen, General Kur.”

“I am Lawson, the Dark Side Master of the Empire.”

"From this moment forward, in accordance with the Seventh Amendment to the Special Wartime Laws of the Great Expedition Era, and the power of the seal of office personally granted by His Excellency Dante, the Dark Regent, I hereby declare that I have taken full control of all military and administrative jurisdiction over the Agrippina No. 1 position."

"If the Agrippina system still considers itself to be part of the Empire, immediately send a top-of-the-line transport plane to pick me up."

"I want to have a proper talk with you face to face."

The servo skull fell into a brief, eerie silence, clearly because the massive logic tree behind it was performing extremely complex trade-off calculations.

A moment later, a cold male voice, filtered to remove all emotional fluctuations by an advanced speech synthesizer, drifted out from a miniature speaker at the base of the skull.

"Your Excellency, Belissa Kur offers you the highest logical praise."

"Data entry complete. Thank you for the critical military support provided from Position One. Agrippina, the world-forging woman, is eternally and unconditionally loyal to Holy Terra and the Golden Throne. I have issued the highest order: a Pantheon-class heavy armed transport aircraft is entering the atmosphere to guide you. Expected arrival countdown: 27 standard minutes."

"As for Father Viktor, he is merely a mid-level redundant node within our local computing unit. Any actions by him that violate the protocol will be immediately subject to the highest level of internal review. Please physically detain him temporarily while awaiting the arrival of our formal heresy investigation team for handover."

"In addition, regarding the allocation of the aforementioned civilian biological resources, we fully comply with your wartime legal decisions."

With a soft crackling sound, the communication was cut off.

In the mud, Viktor's head was still firmly welded to Er Gou's palm.

"Er Gou." Lawson didn't even turn his head.

"Your subordinate is here."

"This metal lump has inexplicably harmed tens of thousands of citizens of the Empire. Logically speaking, for a high priest to make such a poor decision, either his logic board is so rusted that it should be scrapped, or... he has long been silently implanted with a logic virus by the Chaos faction."

“Take a close look at his underlying data and find out whether he has defected to the enemy.”

Er Gou grinned maliciously, roughly grabbed the cable by the back of Viktor's neck, and dragged him towards the command tent like a bag of dripping scrap metal, sparks flying.

Along the way, the terrified Viktor began frantically activating the built-in communication matrix, sending anti-heretic hostage distress calls using advanced binary ciphertext from the Mechanics Church to a wide area.

This is the standard defense mechanism for motorists when they encounter illegal physical confinement. Their broadcasts will ignore physical barriers and reach the array of the Master Thinkers deep within Agrippina, requesting the Forging General to personally intervene.

However, his distress broadcast encountered a small logical paradox on the cloud node.

The physical detention of a local mid-level priest who had overstepped his authority was a legitimate order recently issued by the high-ranking forging general.

All of his distress signals were deemed invalid and spam by the main server!

In this pathetic, impotent rage, Viktor, flailing his limbs, was forcibly dragged into the military tent.