Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"The star-guarding area is sufficient. However, outward expansion is inadequate."

"Defend for now."

"Reconnect the blood vessels, harden the bones, and then talk about reaching out."

Another key focus of the fleet reorganization was the starport.

Now that we have the ships, the port needs to cooperate.

Each key planet must have three tiers.

Civil port.

Military port.

Quarantine port.

Civilian ports handle grain, minerals, people, trade union goods, and ordinary merchant ships.

Military port patrol vessels, frigates, ammunition ships, and combat transport ships.

The quarantine port handles contaminated ships, suspicious ships, ships with unusual samples, refugee ships whose screening for thieves has not been completed, and ships that have been in contact with the contaminated objects.

In the past, many imperial worlds mixed these together.

The result can be imagined.

A polluted ship docked, and maggots spewed out from half the pier.

A pirate ship disguised as a merchant ship entered the port and released slaves that night.

A cunning refugee ship infected with the virus docked in a civilian port, and thirty years later, the governor's wife grew a barbed tongue.

Lawson will not let this happen again.

Gene-sniffing cornerstone sequences have entered all starports.

The sector is just beginning to recover; it's better to have slower shipments than to let bugs, plague, and pirates get into the bloodstream.

"Once these fleets are up and running, Agrippina will no longer be like it was in the past, with each planet living its own life."

"When connected, it becomes a star sector."

In the past, the Agrippina sector was nominally a single entity.

In reality, many planets only remember each other when it comes to paying taxes, recruiting soldiers, or calling for help.

The agricultural world has no idea how hungry the nests are.

Nest has no idea how many people have died on the mining planet.

The mining planet doesn't know which type of ore the Agrippina Furnace is lacking.

The Governor's Office had no idea how many smuggling ships were operating from the lower-level starports.

Lawson needs to make these connections work.

Every ship, every route, every shipment enters the swarm intelligence framework.

Each patrol group has a clearly defined mission, supply port, withdrawal port, anchorage point, emergency call level, and combat group support list.

That's what you call rule.

It's not about sitting on the top of a tower waiting for taxes.

Not long after, T-001 called Lawson in the Agrippina Forge World.

"Boss, we seem to have come up with something rather strange. You should come and take a look."

Out of curiosity, Lawson stepped into the static field and appeared in the Forging World.

No. 3 experimental dock.

T-001 had been waiting here for a long time before Lawson arrived.

Its eight servo arms are connected to different ports in the test field, with half of its body suspended between data cables.

He was surrounded by a group of T-series tech assassins, and behind him were several mechanical priests who had been temporarily transferred.

When Lawson stepped out of the static force field, the first thing he saw was not T-001.

It was not the massive object suspended in the center of the test site.

He paused for a moment.

Then, I looked up.

That thing really does look like a motorcycle.

It has main propulsion structures at the front and rear, a central axis for riding posture, a ram at the front, weapon racks on both sides, and a thruster trailing at the rear.

But it's just too big.

It is over fifteen meters long, nearly five meters wide at its widest point, and about four meters high. The overall structure resembles a small assault boat that has been flattened, shortened, and forcibly fitted with a riding saddle. The outer armor is a composite plate of dark gray ceramic steel and refined gold, with a huge refined gold ram extending forward from the front, and large guide grooves engraved on both sides of the ram.

There are no traditional wheels under the vehicle body.

There are four sets of suspended anti-gravity stabilizing rings and two retractable landing supports.

The main propulsion unit at the stern is as thick as the nozzle of a light gunboat, and there are six attitude correction nozzles on the side.

Each side of the vehicle is equipped with a heavy explosive cannon, with a short-range plasma melt jet mounted below the muzzle. Two short-range missiles are also mounted on the rear weapon rack.

Even more outrageous is that three layers of force field structure are faintly floating around the vehicle body.

The first layer of close-fitting armor is used to protect against shrapnel and small-caliber fire.

The second layer wraps around the vehicle's exterior, forming a protective shield during high-speed flight.

The third layer is an impact field that can be temporarily enhanced, clearly designed for head-on collisions.

Lawson looked at it for a few seconds, then turned to look at T-001.

"You called me here just to see this?"

The data display on the T-001 lit up.

"Yes, boss."

Lawson pointed to the center of the test field.

"what is this?"

T-001 answered very seriously.

"Heavy assault motorcycle".

Lawson remained silent.

The mechanical eyes of a nearby Mechanic priest flickered, as if he wanted to correct the way he was addressed, but then held back.

Lawson's lips twitched.

You're calling this a motorcycle?

"According to its design classification, it retains the characteristics of motorized warfare such as individual riding, low-altitude high-speed assault, frontal attack, and flanking fire suppression."

"It is fifteen meters long."

"It's heavy."

Sixty tons.

"Assault type".

"It has three layers of force fields, two heavy gun emplacements, two missiles, a fine metal ram, and a tail thruster that looks like a small landing craft."

T-001 paused for a moment.

"So it's a heavy assault motorcycle."

Lawson clicked his tongue.

Who's riding?

The T-001's servo arm rose and pointed to a set of data next to it.

"The initial design considered the White Tiger Heavy Assassin, but simulations showed that the White Tiger Assassin's size and inertia tolerance were insufficient. Conventional Astartes-sized units would experience too much stress during high-speed maneuvers, making it impossible to utilize the vehicle's performance. The final design was the Bear Guard."

Lawson looked at the "motorcycle".

If it's a bear guard cavalry unit, the size does explain part of the reason.

Standing nearly five meters tall, Xiong Wei, clad in anti-gravity heavy armor, resembled an armored siege beast. For them, riding an ordinary motorcycle was like a dog riding a rabbit.

Fifteen meters long and sixty tons in weight is still outrageous.

"Explain how you made it."

T-001 immediately unfolded the design drawings.

"The basic inspiration comes from three types of vehicles."

"First, Eldar flight vehicles. Through multiple battlefield captures and wreckage analysis, we have obtained some data on anti-gravity fields, streamlined deflection, and low-altitude attitude control. Eldar technology cannot be completely replicated, nor is it suitable for direct integration into swarm thinking, but it has reference value in terms of high-speed low-altitude maneuverability."

"Secondly, the Imperial White Scars Chapter and the data on Astartes assault motorcycles. In the Imperial system, motorcycles are used for rapid flanking attacks, anti-armor hunting, communications relay, and pursuit. The White Scars' tactical records on high-speed mounted combat are of reference value."

"Third, our system currently includes anti-gravity modules, short-range static hysteresis stabilizers, Xiongwei heavy armor force field technology, and small marine auxiliary engines."

Lawson looked at the structural diagram.

"So you crammed the Eldar's anti-gravity strategy, the White Scar motorcycle tactics, the small spaceship's auxiliary engine, and the Bear Guard force field shield technology all into a single motorcycle?"

"Not all."

T-001 answered.

"We removed the Eldar's overly fragile lightweight structure and the Imperial motorcycle's reliance on ground-friction wheels, retaining the riding-style charging posture. The propulsion system uses a scaled-down version of a small spaceship's secondary engine, with a miniature plasma reactor as the energy core and an external emergency capacitor bank."

"Sixty tons, is that considered light or heavy?" Lawson asked.

"By flight vehicle standards, it's not heavy. By massage chair standards, it's extremely heavy. By bear-guard vehicle standards, it's acceptable."

"speed?"

T-001 retrieves the test parameters.

"Safe cruising speed, subsonic to Mach 1.2."