Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The real intelligence is hidden very well.

Harken himself knew that if he were ever arrested, the most dangerous thing would not be physical interrogation, but that his soul would be pried open by some high-level witchcraft.

Therefore, he encapsulated the core information within a multi-layered structure.

On the surface, there are memories of fear.

Further down is the route for a decoy campaign.

Further down are several edited fragments of Abaddon's commands.

At its core lies the Black Legion's true strategic intent.

Lawson sat high in the wartime command of Saint Harbor, with a star chart of vigilance hanging in front of him.

Swarm intelligence projects the core intelligence that Harken is protecting.

Abaddon has arrived.

The main force of the Chaos Warlords is not still assembled outside the distant sea route.

The Black Legion has entered the vigilant star system, but has not yet deployed its full force to the Imperial defenses.

The Chaos Warbands, traitor fleets, demon engine transports, and Hellfire support fleets that appear at the edge of the galaxy are merely the outer tide.

The hand that truly holds the direction of the tide is the Soul of Vengeance.

Abaddon personally oversaw the watchful star.

The reason is finally clear.

The warning star is important not only because it is anchored in a key position at the Nakmund Pass.

It's not simply because of the large population, strong industry, or unique fortress-level void shield technology here.

These are all important.

But that wasn't enough for Abaddon to bite him so hard.

The real core is Blackstone.

Lawson retrieved the stratigraphic structure diagram of the warning star.

In the past, the wartime ruling court had information that Vigilant Star possessed a large amount of black stone deposits.

This is no secret.

The mechanical repair team will know.

The Agammenus family knew this.

The technical priest who was assigned to the vigilant star on Huangquan 8 knew this.

Some high-ranking nobles also knew about it.

They viewed these black stones as rare minerals, anti-psychic materials, objects of study for the Mechanicus, and strategic reserves.

But their knowledge is very limited.

In Harken's memory, the Black Legion and the Word Bearers had pieced together a deeper answer.

The Nakmonde Pass, which connects the two sides of the galaxy, is not simply maintained by real-world shipping lanes, stable subspace tides, and Imperial navigation experience.

It is a singularity.

An anti-subspace structure maintained by the Vigilant Star and the Holy Blood Star on the other side.

Both planets contain massive deposits of black rock.

Deeper still, there are many ancient, non-natural black stone formations.

The long, spiky black rock formations are buried deep in the earth's strata, as if they were growing out of the planet's skeleton, or like nails driven into reality by some ancient civilization.

These long, spiky black stone structures on Vigilant Star and Holy Blood Star point to each other from afar.

They correspond to each other and echo each other, maintaining an anti-subspace field between the two worlds.

It is this repulsion that prevents the chaotic storm of the Great Rift from completely closing, forcibly squeezing out a stable channel of reality amidst the darkness and storm.

Nakmond Pass.

The ordinary blackstone deposits on both planets further expanded the scale of the anti-repulsion field.

If it only has a deep black rock spike structure, the Nakmunde Pass may be just a very small, narrow, and extremely unstable point.

The massive black stone deposits stretched this point to a width equivalent to that of a star system.

This allowed the fleet to pass.

To preserve a fragile lifeline between the Holy Side and the Dark Side of the Empire.

Lawson looked at the star map and tapped the armrest lightly with his fingers.

"I see."

Now everything makes sense.

Why did the Black Legion continue to escalate their efforts even though they knew that Lawson had already intervened here?

Why was Jueling Star transformed into a hellish furnace?

Why did Haken's vanguard not rush to capture the territory, but instead create panic and disrupt the command system?

Why did the philanthropist also get involved?

Abaddon's sole strategic objective on this mission was not to kill everyone on Vigilant Star.

He doesn't need to gradually conquer the entire city.

There's no need to wear down the last traitor on every street with Lawson, Calgar, and the various warbands.

What he wants is Nakmund Pass.

If he can destroy as many anti-subspace black stone structures as possible on the Vigilant Star, and then use the bidirectional properties of the black stone to change its polarity, turning these mineral deposits from "anti-repulsive subspace" into "guiding subspace", then the Great Rift will close in on this place.

The Nakmund Pass will be closed.

Worse still, Abaddon didn't just want to close the door.

He wanted to get the latch.

The Soul of Vengeance is carrying a large number of Black Stone Crowns.

Those things were created by the Word Bearers and blessed by the Dark Apostles; they have been imbued with the power of chaos.

Blackstone itself has a dual nature.

Under the correct conditions, it can suppress subspace.

In its torsional state, it can amplify and guide subspace forces.

These black stone crowns are the keys prepared to reverse the polarity of the Vigilant Star's strata.

Once the Black Legion destroys enough Blackrock nodes and places these crowns in key locations within the local ley lines, Vigilance will transform from a stable anchor at Nak'mond Pass into a focal point of chaotic forces.

At that point, Abaddon will have complete control over this corridor.

He can open it whenever he wants.

Turn it off whenever you want.

To prevent reinforcements from the Imperial Holy Face from reaching us, we must close the Great Rift.

To allow the Black Legion fleet to pass through, briefly tear open a passage with Chaos Stone.

Lawson's eyes turned cold.

Abaddon truly lives up to his name.

This step was very accurate.

As long as he controls Nachmond Pass, the dark side of the Empire will be further isolated.

Chaos, however, can open a door of its own control when needed.

What annoyed Lawson even more was that the Mechanics had already done some of the preliminary work for Abaddon.

The technical priest of Huangquan 8 has excavated a large amount of black stone deposits over the past few centuries in order to study the secrets of the black stone.

They stored these black stones on the surface of the earth.

Some are in the Hongbei District.

Some are in the mechanical repair shop warehouse.

Some are in older research facilities.

Some were classified as "dangerous anti-psychic materials" and sealed near the shield nodes.

These mining activities were originally considered scientific research achievements by the Mechanical Repair Society.

But for Abaddon, it was like the Empire itself digging the ore out of the ground, cleaning it, numbering it, classifying it, and piling it up in warehouses, waiting for the Black Legion to come and plunder it.

Lawson sneered.

"That's what Gearhead did."

This cannot be entirely blamed on the Mechanical Repair Society.

They don't know the full truth.

They only saw the research value of the Blackrock deposits, the anti-psychic materials, and the shields, barriers, technology, and the mysteries of Om Messiah.

Just because you don't know doesn't mean there won't be consequences.

The Word Bearers have already located these storage locations.

The Black Legion doesn't need to spend a lot of time digging.

All they need to do is attack these storage points, seize them, and contaminate them.

The process has been greatly shortened.

In other words, the truly dangerous targets on Vigilant Star now are not just water sources, food warehouses, shields, starports, and hive command centers.

There's also the Blackstone Reserve.

If these places are destroyed or contaminated by the Blackrock Crown, the strategic value of the entire planet will be exploited in reverse.