Warhammer: Empire Reboot

This time, he may have been tricked by Lawson.

But that's not important.

From this day forward, Lawson's name has been added to the list of the most dangerous members of the Great Vortex.

After the Destroyer Ghost began loading the vault, the Great Vortex became even more chaotic than before.

Huron's order itself was not problematic.

Lock down the core area.

Re-register all small pirate groups.

Screening for new faces who have entered the vortex in the last three months.

Killing without a guarantor.

Those who provide no clear explanation of their background are also killed.

Gather all the ancient weapons, Black Stone Fragments, Mechanicus Caskets, star maps, ransom ledgers, STC-related clues, dark technology relics, alien power cores, and high-value hostages on the Destroyer Ghost.

Hamadreya was stationed at the flagship, monitoring psionic fluctuations.

From the perspective of a pirate king, this set of orders is sufficiently cautious.

But the whirlpool is too complex.

Unlike an imperial capital where every district can be numbered and the legal department can investigate layer by layer, here are graveyards of wrecked ships dragged into storms, black markets hidden in asteroid shells, privateer captains who fly the Red Pirates' flag but only care about money, makeshift workshops of the Dark Mechanicus, slave traders, alien smugglers, and countless small gangs that have pledged allegiance to Huron but are not entirely part of it.

Huron was able to keep them in check with three things.

Fleet. Fear. Interest.

Pirates are certainly not truly loyal.

As long as they know that the cost of betrayal outweighs the benefits, and that Huron controls the anchorage, docks, and channels for selling stolen goods in the Whirlpool, they will kneel down, call him Overlord, and continue to rob, transport goods, trade slaves, and gather intelligence for the Red Pirates.

However, this system of order has a problem.

It is not an imperial order.

No matter how corrupt the empire is, it still has a nominal institutional framework, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Star Force, the State Religion, and the Cult of Mechanics.

There is no giant whirlpool.

Huron's words, when passed down to the lower classes, become something else entirely.

The core officers of the Red Pirates knew how to carry out the orders.

Valk Bloodhook knew which gangs to investigate, which gangs to keep in check for now, and which dark guilds to avoid being pushed too hard.

But further down the line, the petty officials in charge of "re-registration"—the slave overseers, privateer captains, and Star City tax collectors—were less likely to be so discreet.

All they know is the wrath of the overlord.

The overlord suspected that someone had done the eye surgery for Lawson.

The overlord wants to investigate unfamiliar faces.

And so, the knife fell.

It landed very wide.

It was also very dirty.

The outer layer of the Great Whirlpool, Rusty Star Wharf.

This is a black market space station welded together from three abandoned mining ships, two old Imperial supply depots, and a section of broken rail elevator wreckage.

In the past, this was a place where small pirate gangs resupplyed, sold stolen goods, and recruited slave crew members.

After Huron's blockade order was issued, the Red Pirate tax collectors stationed at Rusty Star Wharf immediately tripled the berthing tax.

The reason is simple.

"Wartime screening costs."

A small pirate group that had just fled from the border of the empire was unable to pay the additional fees.

The tax officials impounded their boat, claiming that their identities needed to be re-verified.

The pirate captain tried to argue that he had just robbed a transport ship for the Red Pirates two months ago and had even delivered the goods.

The tax official asked, "Who is the guarantor?"

The pirate captain announced the name of a red pirate squad leader.

The squad leader was transferred to investigate another star city three days ago and cannot be contacted.

So the tax official ordered the entire pirate crew to be dragged away for questioning.

The interrogation lasted six hours.

Finally, the ship was confiscated.

Half of the crew were sold into slavery.

The remaining half was suspended from the outer shell of the dock as a "suspected sample of the Lawson infiltrator".

Similar incidents have occurred on more than one occasion.

In the abandoned Star City, several black market merchant fleets specializing in smuggling medical organs and stimulants were forcibly requisitioned.

In the Red Bone Market, slave traders were required to return 30% of their stock as "proof of loyalty."

In the Black Tooth Lake district, a Red Pirate officer, under the guise of screening, seized the cargo holds of two small gangs and then reported their leader as a spy for Agrippina.

This is how the piracy law is enforced.

Huron wants to investigate Losen's people.

The people below wanted to take advantage of the situation to make a fortune.

Many people truly deserve to die.

But they may not be Lawson's people.

As a result, the Great Whirlpool began to complain.

But in the corners of taverns, on slave decks, in black market repair bays, and in the dark rooms of smuggled ships, complaints began to grow like mold.

"Has the overlord gone mad?"

"Lorsen didn't even get close to the whirlpool before we were skinned alive by our own people."

"The Red Pirates want to investigate spies? They're investigating our goods."

"I paid the parking tax twice, and the third time they said my identity was unclear."

"The Bloodhook people at least have rules, but those dogs down there only know how to steal."

Complaining is useless.

Complaining can create gaps.

What Lawson is best at is reaching his hand into the gap.

There were already lurking assassins inside the vortex.

In the past, they disguised themselves as black market bookkeepers, low-ranking machine servants and repairmen, slave traders' henchmen, smuggling ship sailors, assistants of the Dark Mechanics, and members of shipwreck salvage teams.

Their original mission was simply to observe the structure of the Great Vortex, record the outer routes of the Red Pirates, mark the location of Star City, and find out which gangs were trading with the Red Pirates.

The lockdown order in Huron, ironically, gave them an opportunity.

Some of the ringleaders who carried out the "screening" were themselves infiltrators in Lawson.

They abused the law, deliberately pushing certain neutral black market merchants into discontent.

Some of the junior clerks in charge of registration were actually undercover agents in disguise.

They deliberately wrote vague records of the identities of the various small gangs to make the Red Pirates suspicious of each other.

Some dock tax collectors, having been secretly given "evidence" by the undercover agents, began to suspect their rivals.

Some smaller pirate crews, oppressed by the Red Pirates, received a secret message after being driven to the brink of despair.

"If you want to live, change your identity."

"If you want to keep the ship, transport some cargo for someone else."

"If you want to enter the core area, accept the Red Pirates' treasure vault transfer order."

The chaos of the vortex conveniently concealed the entry of even more new faces.

Because the transfer of the treasure vault requires people.

A large amount of treasure was moved from the outer star city, the ship graveyard, the Dark Mechanicus warehouse, and the secret anchorage onto the Ghost of Destruction.

The Red Pirates' core legion will naturally be responsible for the most important part.

However, it was impossible for Huron's guards to complete all the tasks, including outer handling, barge scheduling, temporary cargo hold inventory, driving away slave teams, maintenance of the sealed outer layer of the crates, and barge maintenance.

There are never enough people.

Especially when countless amounts of wealth are transferred at the same time.

Small groups that had been "re-registered" were temporarily requisitioned.

Teams of slave porters were carried into the outer deck of the Ghost of Destruction.

Among these people, some were genuine smugglers, some were genuine black market dealers, and some were truly unlucky souls captured by the Red Pirates.

Some of them were from Lawson.

The Ghost of Destruction is too big.

A ten-kilometer-class flagship is like a navigable city.

The interior includes a bridge, main reactor area, macro gun deck, slave quarters, Red Pirate barracks, Dark Machine Training Workshop, armory, treasury, prison, sacrificial hall, trophy gallery, dock access, damaged old cabins, and sealed ancient corridors.

In many places, even the Red Pirates themselves are not entirely clear about the situation.

A flagship that has lived too long, undergone too many modifications, and consumed too many scrap ships and spoils of war will always have shadows inside.

The Lurkers of Lawson do not need to find the core in one go.

All they need to do is add a few more eyes to the shadows.