Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The technician dared not disobey. He desperately pulled out the thick neural data cable from the bottom of the control panel and inserted it directly into the interface at the back of his head, attempting to force open the back door of the Ghost of Destruction using the forbidden code of the Mechanicus.

Ten seconds later.

The technician's body suddenly stiffened.

His prosthetic eye in his left eye socket lit up with an extremely bright red light, and then exploded.

The swarm intelligence, located deep inside the Ghost of Destruction, detected this faint data stream attempting to connect.

Instead of defending itself, it retaliated along the data cable. The massive flow of information created a physical feedback shock, directly burning through the technician's brain-computer interface and cerebellar cortex.

The technician collapsed on the deck, his limbs convulsing uncontrollably, spitting out charred blood mixed with engine oil from his mouth.

Huron stomped on his head and crushed it.

"waste."

Inside the Ghost of Destruction.

The massacre continues.

The constant bombardment from the Huron Fleet caused the ship to vibrate continuously, and metal debris fell from the roof.

However, the physical resistance inside the ship was coming to an end.

The Red Pirates' remaining forces' once-proud urban warfare defenses were completely torn apart, and the remaining resistance was divided into isolated islands.

The White Tiger battle group advanced through the wide main passage.

The tower shields came together, forming a flawless wall of adamantite.

The Red Pirate mortal support troops desperately fired their automatic guns, sparks futilely illuminating the shield surfaces. From the gaps in the shield wall, large-caliber explosive shells spewed out, blasting enemy torsos into pieces, blood splattering through the gravity system.

The Red Dragon Chapter took over the upper mezzanine.

The blue light of plasma overload illuminated the dim passageway. Several Red Pirates attempted to block them with heavy bunkers, but the Crimson Dragon Death Soldier raised his molten lava gun and continued heating. The adamantite bunkers melted into bright orange molten iron, flowing down the deck and burning the enemies hiding behind them to a crisp, before they could even scream.

Outside the engine control room, heavy defensive gates were tightly shut. Several Chaos Space Marines clad in Terminator armor leaned against the gates, gripping their power axes tightly, ready to hold out to the death.

The Xiongwei Brigade rushed around the corner.

The five-meter-tall, heavily armored behemoth, supported by the force field tower shield, rammed straight into the target with tens of tons of kinetic energy.

The Terminator veteran fired, and the bomb exploded on the surface of the tower shield, creating energy ripples.

Xiong Da crashed into the leader of the Chaos Veterans.

The edge of the tower shield jammed the opponent's neck armor, slamming it against the gate. The bones and armor cracked simultaneously. Then, Xiong Da swung his adamantite-powered giant hammer with his right arm.

The warhammer crashed down.

The force field decomposition network tore apart the molecular structure of the gate.

The gold gate collapsed inward, bursting open a large hole.

The remains of a Red Pirate veteran, mixed with metal fragments, were smashed into the control room, covering the floor.

The Yazi Warband's assassins hunt in the shadows.

The warband commander, Blood Repayment, stared at the thermal markers in his eyepiece as he fell through the ventilation duct, his power sword piercing the spine of a high-ranking Red Pirate officer who was preparing to destroy a data disk.

The Bi'an battle group methodically took over the various nodes. The 44th Division Commander directed the assassins to seal the vault doors of Huron, entering the physical lock code.

In the midsection of the ship, Lawson's Shadow Blade darted about.

One thousand and eighty-one silver-black frisbees, infused with imperial gold fire, resembled scattered pointers of death, responding to the micro-management of swarm intelligence.

Wherever there is resistance, fine silver-black lines will seep in.

A veteran of the Red Pirates had both legs blown off by an explosive bomb, leaving a long trail of blood in his wake. He desperately reached out, trying to press the manual detonator on the wall.

Two shadow blades bounced up from the ground.

One severed his finger, which fell in front of the control panel. Another ricocheted mid-air, pierced the back of his head, shredded his brain nerves, and exited through his forehead.

The veteran's movements came to an abrupt halt.

A dark cyborg lurked in a blind spot in the reactor's secondary control room, his fingers flying across the control panel, trying to modify the safety threshold to overload the local cooling system and trigger an explosion.

A dark gold thread seeped into the gaps of the exhaust fan.

Hearing the unusual whistling sound, the cultist looked up, only to have the Shadow Blade precisely slice into his mechanical prosthetic eye, penetrating deep into his skull and severing the connection between his biological brain and mechanical nerves. The cultist convulsed and collapsed.

Externally, Huron's attacks are becoming increasingly frantic.

The vibrations from the cannon traveled through the deck to Lawson's feet.

The first layer of the Void Shield is finally approaching its physical limit.

T-001 reports in the neural network.

"External firepower increased. Star City turret main gun array joins the firing sequence. The first layer of void shield will collapse within ninety seconds."

Lawson stared at the machine soul control panel in front of him and asked, "Warp preparation?"

"The closure degree of the Geller force field is 96 percent."

"The subspace engine plasma chamber has reached the critical point."

"The underlying logic of the machine soul is still resisting, but the suppression of computing power has taken effect, and a jump can be forcibly executed."

"Route," said Lawson.

"Returning directly to the Agrippina defense line is too risky. The Destroyer Ghost is ten kilometers in size, its current machine spirit state is unstable, and the storm interference in the core area of ​​the vortex is strong. It is recommended to jump into the pre-set Okavis transfer point first, stabilize the force field, and then be guided by the starship suicide soldiers at the Candle Dragon node."

"implement."

The core anchorage of the vortex.

The energy spectrum on Huron's tactics panel was jumping wildly.

He detected unusual subspace engine fluctuations emanating from the tail of the Ghost of Destruction.

Huron's expression changed drastically.

"It's going to run away."

The officers on the bridge held their breath, not daring to speak, and even their movements of adjusting the tactical board became stiff.

Huron stared intently at the flagship in the distance.

Anger and reason were tearing each other apart in his eyes.

It's too late to take it back.

The boarding force was completely wiped out. The external void shield could not be breached in a short time. All-band communications failed. The internal machine spirit no longer recognized him as its master.

Lawson had truly gained control of the warp engine. Any further hesitation would mean the Ghost of Destruction vanishing into the warp, becoming a laughingstock of the entire Imperium. Huron finally issued the most ruthless order of his pirate career.

"All main guns, recalibrate. Aim at the Ghost of Destruction's main thrusters and subspace engine area." The bridge fell silent.

A fire control officer looked up, cold sweat dripping down his back, thinking he had received the wrong information.

"Destroy it."

After Huron's words were spoken, the core anchorage of the Great Vortex seemed to fall silent for a moment.

Destroy your own flagship. Destroy the most important symbol of the Red Pirates' massive fleet.

But from Huron's perspective, this was the last resort.

He would rather destroy it himself than let Lawson take it away unharmed.

Even if he were to be crushed into the vortex by the wreckage of the Destroyer Ghost, he could still tell his outlaws that it was to prevent the flagship from falling into the hands of the Empire.

He can also use hatred to maintain the cohesion of the Red Pirates.

He could even seize a new flagship. If the ship is lost, his throne will truly be shattered.

The Star City fortresses and the Red Pirate fleet began to re-aim.

The objective shifted from the outer Void Shield node to destroying the Ghost's vulnerable tail thrusters and warp engine area.

At that moment, many of the Red Pirate gunners' hands were trembling.

They were firing at their own sacred relic. The first salvo of heavy firepower rained down. Dozens of light spears and a massive volley of cannonballs struck the stern of the ship.

The first layer of the outer void shield of the Ghost of Destruction completely collapsed, and the purple energy net shattered and dissipated in space.

The second layer of the Void Shield went online, causing a violent tremor.

Several heavy light spears grazed the gaps in the void shield, struck the outer adamantine deck, and burned long, bright orange molten marks.

The warning sounded from T-001.

"The second layer of the void shield is under pressure."

"The outer armor was partially damaged."

"Jump window opening countdown: 27 seconds."

Lawson stood in front of the Machine Soul Shrine, looking up at the direction of the outer armor of the ship's exterior.

He could feel the fear of the Ghost Ship's destruction. This giant ship, which had served for ten thousand years, was terrified.

It was just now executing its underlying defense protocols to resist Lawson, trying to retain control.

But now, its former owner is unleashing his fury, personally ordering its destruction.

Lawson smiled.

He placed his hand on the machine soul control terminal and transmitted information through the living metal circuit.

"Did you see that?"

“You must stay by his side, but he will kill you.”

The machine soul's data stream struggled, experiencing a very brief pause. This was a conflict between the collapse of its underlying logic and its survival instinct.

The swarm intelligence seized this momentary opening and poured its massive computing power into the core.

"Open the door," Lawson ordered. "I'll take you away."

The Ghost of Destruction's machine spirit surrendered. All defense protocols were deactivated.

The subspace engine permissions have been completely opened up.

The plasma reactor emitted an extremely exciting roar.