Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Andrei nodded.

"Is the goal to mark all contaminated nodes?"

"All."

Lawson looked at Castor-7.

Andrei's expression darkened slightly.

"What if they've already realized they're being watched?"

"Then let's seal the star immediately."

Lawson's voice was filled with murderous intent.

"Take over the orbital defense network, blockade the starport, cut off communications, and eliminate all those involved in the cunning scheme on the spot. But as long as they haven't been discovered yet, keep sneaking around."

He paused for a moment, a chilling smile appearing on his lips.

"A sect that has been lying dormant for over a century is quite lucrative."

Swarm intelligence swiftly executes commands.

Dozens of stasis field micro-anchors were activated around Castor-7.

The first batch of cornerstone sequences appeared in the abandoned maintenance well of Lower Nest, the old warehouse of the Corpse Union, the underground cold storage of the Grain Bureau, the maintenance floor of the water purification pipeline, the abandoned cable well of the rail elevator, the abandoned building next to the National Education Relief Home, and the garbage recycling area on the outskirts of Star Harbor.

The worker in gray.

Nest carriers.

Pipeline repairman.

Body registrar.

Grain audit assistant.

Cleaning machine maintenance worker.

Low-ranking secretary of the national education system.

Temporary workers in Singapore.

Everyone carried a new identity file, old scars, a voice template that matched the local accent, and union records that could withstand routine questioning.

The infiltrators then ventured deeper into the outer nodes.

They disguised themselves as members of the underworld gang, smuggled pharmaceutical dealers, low-level brokers at the governor's office, volunteers at the almshouse, and smugglers for the Corpse Workers' Union.

These identities are dirty.

But a dirty person can get close to dirty things.

Gene sniffing-type cornerstone sequences are distributed to various key nodes.

One person forms a group.

A maximum of two people can cross paths.

To prevent the sect from detecting anything unusual through bloodline networks.

Each sniffing result will not immediately trigger an arrest.

Record only. Tag. Upload. Compare.

When the cornerstone sequence discovered the twenty-seventh anomalous individual in the water purification workshop, it still continued to repair the pipes as usual.

Even when the grain bureau found that an auditor and three warehouse guards had similar odors, they still stamped the documents according to procedure.

When a group of orphans at the National Religious Home were found to have a slight non-human odor, the suicide soldiers who were maintaining their volunteer status simply handed them food and noted their numbers.

At the Lower Nest gang's trading point, the infiltrators purchased a batch of gene-inducing drugs.

In the outer garden of the Governor's Palace, the Keystone Sequence cleaners spotted the Governor's eldest daughter, Elena Castor, talking with several lower-nest representatives.

She was dressed in a simple white dress and had few guards around her.

She bent down to talk to a child and reached out to pat the child's head.

The surrounding residents looked at her with trust.

The gene sniffing node stood 27 meters away, bowing its head to wipe the stone railing.

In the swarm intelligence model, the mark on Elena changes from orange to red.

The concentration is extremely high.

Suspected to be of mixed race.

It could even be the upper echelons of a religious sect.

The cornerstone sequence continues to wipe the railing.

The surface of Castor-7 remained calm.

The Governor's Office continued to issue loyalty announcements on time.

The National Church continues to distribute porridge at the almshouse.

The water purifier will still charge a fee.

The grain bureau still stamped the document.

The gangs in the lower lair continued their armed conflicts.

The Star Harbour is still handling cargo loading and unloading.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a web woven from swarm intelligence is rapidly spreading throughout the hive.

The governor's mansion of Castor-VII is located on the highest level of the Third Main City.

This building was called the "Crown of Stars" by the local nobles.

Its base is embedded in the spire of the Nest City, and its top pierces through polluted clouds, revealing the true light of the star Castor.

The exterior walls of the Governor's Palace are covered with white terracotta steel plates, engraved with the Imperial double-headed eagle, the Castor family crest, and victory inscriptions of successive governors.

From a distance, it looks like a loyal fortress.

From the inside, it looks more like a petri dish.

Governor Augustus Castor stood in the observatory, gazing down at the city below.

He is already fifty-seven years old.

Among the imperial nobility, this age is not considered old. With sufficiently expensive longevity potions, organ conditioning, and gene repair, many nobles can maintain a respectable appearance until they are over one hundred years old.

But Augustus has recently felt that he has become younger.

In the past, he would always check his wine glass three times before going to bed to prevent his cousin from adding slow-acting poison. After each council of nobles, he would have his private physician scan the fibers of his clothing to check for contact toxins. He even required all the maids in his bedroom to be replaced every seven days to prevent any from being bribed by other families.

This is how life is for the nobility.

They sit high up, drinking the cleanest water, eating the safest food, enjoying the fruits of the entire colony's labor, and also guarding against their own kind from behind every day.

Augustus once believed that this was the fate of rulers.

Until he met his "benevolent father".

The initial contact occurred thirty-nine years ago.

At that time, he was only the second heir of the Castor family.

He went to inspect an old water purification station in Xiachao when his team was attacked by a gang, and half of his guards were killed. In the chaos, he fell into an abandoned pipe, his communicator malfunctioned, and he broke his right leg.

He should have died there.

But something was approaching in the darkness.

He still remembers that feeling.

A pair of hands helped him up.

She was a priestess from the lower nest.

She wore an old cloak, her face hidden in shadow, but her voice was very gentle.

She said, "My lord, don't be afraid. You have been chosen."

Augustus, thinking she was some kind of cultist, immediately drew his gun.

The gun failed to fire.

Something emerged from the darkness and pressed down on his wrist.

That thing had four arms.

The tongue, covered in fine barbs, pierced his neck, causing only a brief moment of pain.

It was so short it felt like an illusion.

Later, he was found by the family search and rescue team with only a small wound on his body. His private doctor said it was probably a bite mark left by a nesting parasite.

Augustus believed this at the time as well.

Several months later, he started having dreams.

In my dream, there was a four-armed god, seated at the edge of starlight. He lacked the distant, cold majesty of a golden throne, which required the flesh and blood of mortals to sustain it. He was closer, warmer. He never demanded repentance, nor did He ask for tithes or soldiers.

He only said one sentence.

"Child, come home."

Augustus had never heard of such an oracle.

The gods of the empire are far away.

The state priest would tell him that the Emperor watches over every loyal subject. But he knew very well that the Golden Throne would not remember who within the Castor family poisoned whom, who pushed a bastard into a ventilation shaft at a banquet, or who diverted the rations of 100,000 descented laborers to build a private garden.

The four-armed deities are different.

He saw him.

He understands him.

For the first time, He made him feel that he was no longer sitting alone on the edge of power.

Later, his first mistress became pregnant.