Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Thermometallurgical mines were buried on both sides of the main road.

The temporary void shield generator was mounted behind the outer wall of the reservoir.

Several heavy ground-shaking cannons, pulled out of the static force field, have begun to have their muzzles calibrated.

Armand glanced back.

The Seventh Hill no longer resembled a dying grave; it had become a defensive line.

Ten kilometers ahead, Xiong Wei was still holding back the remaining orc troops, preventing them from regrouping for another charge.

The cannons began to roar.

The cornerstone fire control node reports firing data.

"Target: Orc vehicle swarm."

"Distance, 7,400 meters."

"Wind deflection correction complete."

"Fire."

The earth-shaking cannons fired in unison.

The shells flew over the seventh hill and crashed into the orcish encampment.

The explosion sent up a cloud of green blood and scrap metal.

The automatic turrets destroyed the orc motorcycles that tried to bypass them one by one.

The remaining orc troops in front of the Seventh Highland were pinned down and unable to raise their heads under the newly established network of firepower.

Aurelia sat in the evacuation vehicle, looking at the battlefield behind her.

"Miss Van En."

Armand sat opposite her.

"Ok?"

"Will the Lord of the Seal truly protect the Vigilant Star?"

Aurelia looked into the distance.

The foundational sequence is pulling more heavy weapons out of the stasis field.

Xiong Wei's figure continued to press forward.

In the sky, several new dark blue light curtains are unfolding.

If it were a day earlier, she would have said that the Vigilant Star could only rely on the Emperor's protection.

A few hours earlier, she would have said that the water storage nests could no longer be defended.

Now, she says, "He's already here."

Armand understood.

This is the answer.

As Lawson headed toward the parliament center, real-time data from the Vigilant Star was constantly projected onto his retina.

The swarm intelligence system broke down the intelligence gathered during this period of time by the infiltrated foundational sequence into layers of data maps, based on war zones, factions, population, industrial capacity, shield status, enemy distribution, and internal infiltration level.

[Warning Star.]

Planet Type: Nest City Industrial World.

Total population: 1670 billion.

Lawson watched it a second time.

167 billion?

He then used swarm intelligence to retrieve latent nodes for cross-verification of the population structure.

The final error is not significant.

The planet Vigilant does indeed have a population of nearly 167 billion.

"That's a bit outrageous."

Andrei didn't come along, and Er Gou wouldn't comment on such data.

Swarm intelligence unfolds a map of the Earth's surface structure.

Vigilant Star is unlike the conventional hive worlds in the Agrippina Sector.

It's not a few isolated nests planted in the wasteland.

It's more like an industrial monster covered by a continental cluster of cities.

The planet's surface is dotted with clusters of cities and towns the size of continents.

Each hive is composed of thousands upon thousands of towers, transport layers, factory layers, slums, underground mines, data hives, barracks, storage areas, and noble spires stacked together.

Between the city and the desert lies a vast, dry sea of ​​sand filled with chemical waste.

These deserts are not truly empty.

Buried underground are old mines, abandoned pipelines, wartime ammunition depots, exile settlements, smuggling routes, and the hidden lair of the Poor Princes sect.

From the star map, the Vigilant Star resembles a battlefield puzzle pieced together by countless steel continents and toxic sand seas.

This explains why the population has reached 167 billion.

The nests here are not cities.

Instead, it was a vast, continental-sized area of ​​human settlements.

There are also hundreds of underground structures running vertically.

Each level could accommodate hundreds of millions of workers, slave laborers, artisans, soldiers, refugees, pilgrims, exiles, and imperial subjects driven in by war.

More importantly, the Vigilant Star has served as a major hub for refugees in the Nakmonde Corridor in recent years.

After the Great Rift tore the galaxy apart, many human worlds lost communication with the Imperial backbone.

Batch after batch of refugee ships, remnant fleets, merchant ships, and church pilgrimage groups flocked to the Nachmond Corridor, hoping to reach a safer area through it.

The warning star is a major node on this channel.

As a result, people flocked here like quicksand.

The nests are already overloaded. The water purification system is overloaded. Food rations are overloaded. The incineration system is overloaded.

The security system had long since collapsed, but the nobles and the council had been using fortress-level void shields and a large number of gun barrels to suppress the collapse at the lower levels.

Lawson glanced over this item and then his gaze settled on another set of data.

[Vigilant Star's core strategic asset: a fortress-level void shield manufacturing and maintenance system.]

The most famous product of Vigilant Star is its defense technology.

The Mechanics once discovered here the standard STC construction technology capable of creating fortress-level void shields.

This shield is neither a typical shipborne void shield nor a small fortress protective shield.

It can cover the entire nest.

Once fully activated, it is sufficient to withstand continuous bombardment from orbital bombardment, alien plundering ship cannons, the long-range firepower of giant war machines, and heavy firepower clusters within the conventional atmosphere.

For this reason, all the hives on Vigilant Star are protected by fortress-level Void Shields.

This technology was also exported to other parts of the Empire.

Within the Imperial defense system, the Vigilant Star holds a special position.

Upon seeing this, Lawson's eyes flickered slightly.

Fortress-level Void Shield.

If this technology is integrated into the Agrippina Sector, key hive cities, forging worlds, green-skinned farms, starports, and battle moon refurbished docks on all 318 planets will receive enhanced protection.

This is not simply a legacy of war; it is a strategic asset.

This is also one of the true values ​​of the warning star.

But that's where the problem lies.

The more important technology is, the worse the politics become.

Swarm intelligence projects the internal power structure of the warning star.

At the very top is the Agammonus family, the nominal rulers of the Vigilant Star.

This ancient noble family has ruled the planet for thousands of years atop the towering spire of Nest City.

They possessed governorship lineage, held partial command of the PDF (Power of the Government), seats in the noble council, tax laws, and a large number of family private armies.

But their power was never truly secure.

To maintain the fortress-level Void Shield, the Agammenus family must rely on the Mechanicus.

The technical priest from Foundry World Underworld 8 possesses knowledge of shield maintenance and the operation of numerous industrial facilities.

Cooperation comes at a high cost.

The Agamemnos family ceded a large continental industrial zone on the planet, known as the North Pole, to the Mechanicus.

From then on, the mineral deposits, factories, underground structures, and even the imperial subjects living in the Hongbei region gradually became assets and labor force of the Mechanicus.

The swarming nodes provide the current status of the Hongbei section.

It was practically a semi-independent mechanical kingdom.

Tech priests have their own apologetics.

The factory regards Huangquan No. 8 Casting World as its superior.

A large number of workers are registered as production dependents from birth.

Their marriages, jobs, prosthetic body replacements, and death recovery were all managed by the Hongbei District Mechanical Repair Association, not by the Vigilant Star Governor's Office.

The Agammenus family still appears to be the rulers of the planet, but in reality, they have little influence there.

Besides the Mechanical Order, there was also the State Church.