Warhammer: Empire Reboot

His expression changed when the alarm popped up from the depths of the swarm's mind.

"Gene thieves?"

Andrei stood aside and immediately pulled up the data on Castor-7.

"Edge Nest World. Population approximately 11 billion. Orbital defense network of moderate strength. Nominal loyalty. Governor's Office has a stable tax record over the past century, Ministry of Justice reports a low number of cases, and Star Speaker Hall is in normal condition."

Lawson looked at the planetary projection, his eyes turning cold.

"That's perfectly normal."

Andrei understood what he meant.

Given the current state of the Empire's dark side, it would be normal for a planet to be ablaze with fire.

Something's not right about a marginal planet that has remained stable for over a hundred years after the Great Rift, with low crime rates, timely tax payments, cooperative unions, and a stable aristocratic council.

Either the manager is a rare talent.

Or perhaps something has eliminated all the discordant voices.

Swarm intelligence continues to upload cross-referenced data.

The distribution map of abnormal individuals unfolds, extending from the lower nest all the way to the top of the tower.

The most glaring feature was the area surrounding the Governor's Mansion.

Three secretaries of the Governor's Office were tagged by genetic sniffing.

Two private doctors were flagged.

A deputy captain of the governor's personal guard was marked.

There's someone even more troublesome.

Eldest daughter of the governor, Elena Castor.

She is responsible for planetary charitable relief, nest-dwelling comfort, and state religion liaison.

His public image is excellent.

Beautiful, gentle, and devout, she frequented middle-class orphanages and relief homes year-round. Many residents called her "Mother of the Nest City."

Gene sniffing nodes detected her scent from a distance during a public porridge distribution event.

The concentration is higher than that of ordinary abnormal individuals.

After calculating using swarm intelligence, a judgment is made.

[Highly suspected to be a high-generation hybrid of a gene-stealing cult.]

Andrei looked at the star map.

"If even the governor's eldest daughter has been infiltrated, the governor himself will probably be implicated as well."

Lawson did not answer immediately.

His first reaction was danger.

The Genestealers Cult is no ordinary rebellion.

It's not a chaotic cult either.

No matter how well a chaotic cult hides itself, it will eventually reveal traces of worship, sacrifice, bloody rituals, and spiritual pollution.

The Gene Stealers cult is more like a parasite.

They infiltrate mines, nests, slums, unions, homes, religious groups, factories, and the military.

First, establish bloodlines through infection.

Then expand the network using family connections.

They then disguise themselves as the oppressed, reformers, charitable organizations, labor union factions, local traditions, or even loyal imperial institutions.

Once the planet's interior is hollowed out, they will ignite an uprising, overthrow local rule, shut down orbital defenses, and welcome the arrival of the so-called "Star Children."

Those Starchildren are the Tyranid fleet.

Lawson stared at the orbital diagram of Castor VII.

If the infiltration has already reached the Governor's House, it means the sect has been lurking for at least a century.

Even longer.

The planet's coordinates were most likely transmitted long ago through psionic beacons, genetic resonance, or some other covert channel.

Perhaps the Zerg fleet is already on its way.

Perhaps it's still a long way off.

Perhaps there is only one harbinger signal.

But once the coordinates are sent out, Castor-7 will no longer be just an internal purge issue.

It will become an external threat gateway for the entire Agrippina Sector.

The Tyranids won't retreat like the Red Pirates when things turn bad.

They will come and eat.

eat human.

Eat air.

Eat the ocean.

Eat biomass.

They devoured the entire planet, leaving only bones, and then moved on to the next planet.

Lawson's second reaction, however, was something else entirely.

Source of chitin.

The system is strange.

Lawson can extract resources from many things.

Demons can provide energy to the warp.

Green skin can provide biomass and life points for recycling.

The Chaos Battleship can be disassembled into materials.

However, chitinous inner armor, a special enhancement resource, can only be obtained by defeating units related to gene stealers.

Back when he was struggling to survive in a wrecked spaceship, the gene stealers left a deep impression on him.

That thing is fast, strong, has a hard shell, and has amazing stealth capabilities.

It was precisely because he had killed a group of people that Lawson obtained chitin resources.

After leaving that abandoned ship, he never encountered another group of petty thieves.

Without a source of chitin, many of his combat units have yet to be fitted with chitinous inner armor.

This is a pity.

Now, within the territory he has designated in the Agrippina sector, there exists a hive world that has been infiltrated by the Genestealer cult for over a century.

It is extremely dangerous, but the rewards are also considerable.

Lawson slowly leaned back in his chair.

According to the Imperial standard procedure, the safest course of action in the face of such a deep level of infiltration is indeed an extermination order.

Orbital bombardment.

Virus torpedo.

Atmospheric combustion.

Burn a planet to ashes, and incidentally turn all the gene stealers, hybrid offspring, ordinary civilians, loyal soldiers, children, and the elderly to ash.

The court would say: This was a necessary sacrifice to prevent the insect hive from descending.

The Mechanical Church stated that biological contamination was thoroughly removed with acceptable efficiency.

The Ministry of the Interior will discover the tax system disruption on this planet several hundred years later and then send a clerk to investigate.

Lawson won't do that.

Castor-7 has a population of 10 billion.

A population of 10 billion means labor force, military personnel, life point circulation, nest city production capacity, factories, pipelines, maintenance workers, starport workers, and available population for the lower nest.

He has just included 318 planets in his takeover plan and is calculating how many green-skinned cultivation pools each planet can accommodate, how many cornerstone units it can deploy, how much food it can produce, and how many troops it can support.

Now, let him issue an extermination order and burn billions of people to ashes?

impossible.

Moreover, no matter how deep the Genestealer cult is, it doesn't mean that everyone on the entire planet is contaminated.

What we really need to do is cut things apart.

Cut out the civilians.

Cut out the contaminated blood vessels.

Cut out the sect node.

Switch out the psionic beacon that might summon a Zerg hive.

Not a single one is allowed to run away.

Lawson's finger touched the star map.

"Strengthen infiltration."

"Transfer more foundational sequences. Prioritize gene sniffing, civil affairs-affinity, latent peripheral nodes, and the T-series biological detection team. Deploy the stasis field in batches, without alerting the local governor's office."

"The Bi'an Battle Group?"

"Don't move for now."

"If Bi'an makes a move, these cunning scoundrels will retreat to their lair or launch an uprising prematurely," said Lawson. "I want the complete net."