Warhammer: Empire Reboot

This is not an excuse. Agrippina's system is too old. Forcing it into the system would be like asking a normal person to control three hundred arms at the same time, which would burn out their brain.

But Trajan swallowed the rest of his sentence.

Because he saw a three-meter-tall black crystal helmet-equipped mechanical body, T-001, emerge from behind Lawson.

Standing next to T-001 is Agrippina, the newly appointed Casting General, who has just seized power.

Even a high-ranking figure like Xusas, who controls STC, stood silently with his cold, mechanical head bowed, half a step behind Lawson.

Lawson did not debate with Trajan.

He simply tilted his head slightly at T-001.

T-001 strides confidently onto the fire control console.

Eight servo robotic arms popped out from behind simultaneously, extending micron-sized data pins that directly cut into the core slots of the Thinker main array.

At this moment, the Temple of Control together constitutes a "wartime hub for the Seal Bearers".

Tula's bionic eye pupils contract dramatically to the size of a pinhead.

He saw an unprecedented phenomenon on the 30-meter-diameter planetary hologram in the center of the Fire Control Temple, a phenomenon that had never occurred in the 10,000 years since Agrippina was founded.

The gun array icons, which originally flashed with dozens of authority colors such as red for direct command of the main ship, blue for the defense force, and gold for direct command of the temple, began to undergo a waterfall-like color assimilation after the T-001 was connected.

One icon turns white.

Ten icons turned white.

Ten thousand icons turned white.

In less than two seconds, all the weapon nodes on the hologram—rail guns, surface rail guns, anti-aircraft laser silos, rail torpedo launch silos, the secondary gun groups of the three main ships, underground ammunition transport rails, and even the infantry observation towers at the front line—were forcibly washed into pure white, representing absolute control.

They were abruptly dragged into the same tactical interface.

Trajan stared at the waterfall of data, at the railgun arrays that he used to need to stamp thirty-seven electronic seals, submit to three levels of bishops for approval, and then enter three different gear-like prayers to activate. Now, all it took was for a single red dot representing a target to be confirmed, and the status bar below the artillery array would jump to [Ready to Fire] without any delay.

He saw twelve heavy railguns in the Eastern Hemisphere.

In the past, they would always compete for targets, causing fire control deadlock. Now, grid-based allocation is completed within milliseconds of capturing the chaotic armor cluster.

The six railguns proactively abandoned repetitive, low-quality targets, raised their barrel elevation by seven degrees, and silently locked onto the chaotic heavy artillery position behind the blind spot.

He noticed that the laser wells in the D-4 defense zone were no longer in a hurry to perform the seven-second self-check and blind firing.

The deflector lens of the laser well remained silently powered, and the muzzle moved slowly according to the trajectory prediction model given by the Thinker.

It's like an extremely patient hunter, waiting for the swarm of corrupted drones to slide into that perfect, inescapable burning corner.

This was the first time Trajan, and all the old-fashioned technical priests on this planet, had truly seen—

All the weapons on a warplanet with a diameter of 20,000 kilometers moved in perfect unison, like the ten fingers of a single soldier.

“Find a target.” Lawson looked at the hologram and sneered.

Krus pulled up a magnified view of a portion of the outer ring star system.

That was the abandoned fortress No. 7, located on the edge of the Agrippina geosynchronous orbit.

For four years, the fortress has been occupied by the remnants of the Iron Warriors, and its perimeter is filled with Void Shield nodes and heavy plastic steel bunkers.

In the past, when Agrippina's defense forces tried to destroy it, they either wasted firepower on the impenetrable Void Shield, or the shells deviated by tens of kilometers from their landing point, or they were tricked by the decoys released by Chaos and lost the entire ammunition supply of the air defense array.

Lawson stared at the red fortress model and gave the order:

"Destroy."

next second.

The Earth's surface near the equator cracked open.

A massive railgun with a 12-meter caliber protrudes from below the horizon.

Six super-large fusion reactors were connected in parallel to provide power, and a blinding blue electromagnetic acceleration trajectory tore through the atmosphere, precisely penetrating the weakest shield generator node of Fortress No. 7 at a horizontal angle that defied conventional air defense principles.

The void shield surrounding the fortress flickered for half a second before shattering with a deafening roar.

On the synchronous track, one of the main ships, the cruiser, did not even deflect its bow; it merely opened the six secondary guns on its port side and conducted a short burst of fire lasting two seconds.

Six cannon shells, trailing plumes of flame, crashed into the fortress in perfect parabolic arcs.

The impact struck the same outer armor plate with perfect precision, tearing the 30-meter-thick layer of adamantite armor off like opening a can, exposing the fragile internal structure beneath.

As the armor was blown off, the orbital torpedo launch silos spewed out high-temperature steam.

A 400-ton bunker-buster torpedo made no unnecessary maneuvers; it plunged straight into the fortress's underground ammunition depot through the crack torn open by the main ship's secondary guns.

From the moment Lawson uttered "take it down" to the moment the holographic model of Fortress 7 exploded into a massive orange-red fireball and was completely erased from the data link, the entire process took less than ten seconds.

The fortress was not subjected to meaningless bombardment; it was dismantled layer by layer with precision by a scalpel.

The Fire Control Temple was deathly silent.

Only the hydraulic hum of the Thinker Array's coolant circulating echoed.

The technical priest Trajan was completely stiff.

One rail-guided solid shot, six secondary gun shells, and one torpedo.

Ammunition consumption is 85 percent lower than the minimum limit set by Imperial standard tactical doctrine.

Krus's metal helmet turned to Trajan, and he said sneered, "See that, Sage Trajan? The machine spirit isn't disobedient. It's just that it has waited ten thousand years and finally met someone who can give orders."

Lawson turned and walked towards the temple gate: "Fire control handover complete. Xerath, maintain grid surveillance. I'm going to deal with the Cardinals."

……

Agrippina War Zone 1, Refugee Resettlement Camp 4.

Acid rain was falling from the sky, pattering on the muddy, reddish-brown earth.

The statistical work on the 8.74 million Qadian refugees has been completed.

The remnants of the 114th Infantry Regiment of Kadian gathered in the mud and water.

Colonel Steker sat on the tracks of a wrecked Chimera armored vehicle, mechanically wiping a laser rifle that had been fired 40,000 times.

They originally thought they would be taken away by the Mechanicus.

However, the Mechanicus priest who flayed the skin did not come.

The camp was taken over by a group of power armor warriors and a large number of heavily armored infantry.

Colonel Stark looked up and stared at the suicide soldiers who were building a defensive line around the camp.

As a veteran who has fought in positional warfare for forty years, Steker's understanding of infantry tactics is ingrained in his bones.

He watched as the two platoon-level suicide soldiers set up the heavy explosive grenade position. The moment one of them set up the tripod, the other's ammunition belt was already inserted into the ammunition feed slot.

The firing angle they chose perfectly avoided crosswind interference and left 32 centimeters of space for a retreat slide on the left.

Even more terrifying were those giant beasts.

Stark had seen the Orglins of the Star Guardians; those brainless fat bastards would fight even while queuing for rations.

But these four-meter-tall monsters were using heavy tower shields for millimeter-level cover and movement. The gaps between the shields were always kept just wide enough for the heavy machine gun barrels to protrude, with even the lateral tolerance not exceeding one millimeter.

Strick slowly loosened his grip on the laser rifle.

He felt a sense of loss.

What is the pride of the Kadians?

It's being able to disassemble and assemble a laser rifle with your eyes closed at the age of ten, being able to recite the Astrail Infantry Tactics Manual in your dreams, and the iron-fisted discipline of the Cadian.

But now, faced with this army whose tactical maneuvers are breathtakingly perfect, Kadian's proud military skills seem to have become worthless.

This silent army has no need for these veterans to teach them.

Just then, the mud and water in front of the camp were broken by the armored combat boots.

Lawson entered the camp.

The Kadian refugees stood up, their eyes filled with awe and fear of their unknown fate.

Colonel Steker gave Lawson a standard Eagle Salute with his remaining left hand: "Sir, Marker of the Dark Side. The remnants of the 114th Regiment of Cadian and the representatives of the refugees await your orders. Our wills are written; please instruct us on our line-filling zones."

Lawson stopped, his gaze sweeping over Steker's severed right arm before turning to the millions of elderly people and children huddled together in the mud.

"Fill-in defense zone? You?"

"Throw a senior staff officer who can judge the landing point of heavy artillery by hearing into a minefield to step on landmines; turn an engineer who can repair plasma coils with his eyes closed into a machine servant who can only move boxes."

"That's Belissa Kur's algorithm. It's not mine."

Steker was stunned.

Lawson pulled out a placement list instantly generated by the swarm's computing power from the data panel and projected it into the air.

"The 114th Regiment of the Kadian Army, and all veterans who survived the four-year Meat Grinder Campaign, step forward."

Thousands of men and women soldiers, covered in scars, stepped out of the ranks.

"From today onwards, you are no longer expendable."

Lawson pointed to the holographic list, "All officers and non-commissioned officers, immediately leave the refugee ranks. Go to the rear and serve as tactical staff officers and refugee order officers in the civilian auxiliary defense zone. The engineers of Kadian, go to Blast Furnace No. 3 to rebuild the bomb production line. All the medics of Kadian, go to the field hospital. My army will provide you with the highest-level medical equipment."

Lawson's gaze passed over the veterans and fell upon the emaciated children and elderly people of Kadian, who were suffering from long-term malnutrition.

"All children under the age of twelve and elderly people who are unable to work should be transferred to the third underground safe bunker. Disabled veterans who cannot go to the front line should go to the underground safe zone to be in charge of the children's military training camp."

Colonel Stark's single eye trembled violently.

He stared at the job assignment sheet, which detailed every single person, and opened his mouth in disbelief.

In this cold, forging world, they have always been seen by the imperial high command as a "negative asset" of refugees.

But the jobs that Lawson assigned them were not to be cannon fodder or to be sent to their deaths.

Rather, it is about rebuilding the dignity of the Kadians themselves.

Lawson did not do this out of pity.

A living, proactive veteran of Kadian is more valuable in military terms than a thousand brainless sergeants.

In his system, valuable people should not be wasted by being thrown into the trash.

Colonel Stark took a deep breath, and his eyes blazed with renewed fire.