Warhammer: Empire Reboot

One of them is deep underground in the Autec Nest City complex.

This is one of the oldest water sources and underground pipeline intersections on Vigilant Star.

The upper level is where space wolves and battle nuns are clearing out the remnants of the civilian prince, while the exterior continues to endure long-range artillery fire from the Greenskins. The underground is littered with old-time repair wells, broken magnetic rails, dried-up water tanks, abandoned monitoring stations, and sealed compartments not belonging to the current archives of the Vigilant Planet.

The forging chief officer stationed on the Vigilant Star by the Yellow Springs 8th Division, the sage Omniklas, was well aware that his every move was being watched by Lawson's subordinates.

Therefore, the team that entered the deep underground of Aotek was a "water source stability inspection team" that was supposedly clean.

Their public mission is to inspect the groundwater pressure anomalies in the Autec hive complex, pipeline subsidence, old nodes of the Bastion-class Void Shield cooling pumps, and ground disturbances caused by large-scale battles.

In reality, the group consisted of three data priests, two members of the Archaeological Order, twelve apologists, forty-seven machine servants, and a small data shrine.

They discovered several unusual data cavities deep underground in Orteke decades ago through remote sensing.

To the average person, those cavities are just old facilities.

For the Mechanical Repairers, however, it may be an ancient data hub.

An ancient data hub implies the possible existence of data constructed using standard templates.

Even a single fragment would be enough to make a priest willingly give up half of his prosthetic body.

They continued their descent.

The old elevator shaft was stuck, so it was cut open with thermal melting.

When the ground door lock refused to recognize it, it began to violently pray in the name of Om Messiah.

An archaeological priest stood for a long time in front of the third sealed door.

There are no current Imperial Mechanicus markings on the door.

There was also no Governor's Seal of the Warning Star.

That was a set of older symbols.

With clean lines, strong functionality, and almost no superfluous decorations, it possesses the cold, hard aesthetic common to facilities left over from the dark ages of technology.

The archaeologist's data cable trembled slightly.

"Non-standard industrial markings".

"Material scanning reveals trace doping in the black stone alloy."

"The estimated age predates the modern colonial system of the Warning Star."

The other priest immediately emitted a low binary hum.

"This may involve STC caching."

"Continue connecting."

The robotic arm drills into the interface.

The long-dormant data hub lit up in the darkness.

Countless obsolete circuits were reawakened, and data flowed like an underground river being dug out, surging through the priests' brain-computer interfaces.

Initially, they did believe they had found an industrial template.

But as the document layer was opened, all the priests' prosthetic eyes paused briefly.

What's stored inside isn't the manufacturing blueprint they imagined.

It is not a fortress-level Void Shield improvement plan.

Instead, it contains a large amount of ancient archived information.

Geological record.

Energy anomaly monitoring.

Early colonial catastrophe reports.

Images of a damaged drone at the edge of a sandstorm vortex.

Schematic diagram of the outer structure of the guard bunker.

There is also a device file that is repeatedly encrypted and labeled "Void Claw".

The archaeology priests remained silent for a long time.

They then continued deciphering the code.

The further down you look, the quieter the area around the shrine becomes.

Even the captain of the guard of the church sensed something was wrong. He gripped his arc rifle and scanned the old pipes covered in dust through his goggles.

Until an ancient image was projected.

In the image, the desert of Vigilant Planet has not yet been polluted by the current war.

In the distance, a black fortress stands in the eye of the storm.

The sky twisted, and dust swirled around the fortress in unnatural orbits.

Above the fortress, there is a colossal weapon that cannot be measured by conventional artillery.

The archives refer to it as the Void Claw.

The synthesized voice of a data priest had noticeable noise.

"This weapon can create a gravitational singularity."

"Highest power rating: Risk of galactic-level astronomical disaster."

"Even when powered off, it can still disturb the atmosphere and the Earth's surface."

"The source of the sandstorm vortex has been confirmed."

The priests exchanged glances.

They unearthed something that shouldn't have been unearthed so easily.

The sandstorm vortex on the warning planet that has never dissipated since the colonial era is not a natural disaster at all.

That was the aftershock of a doomsday weapon from a technologically dark age.

A dormant gravitational singularity generator, fueled by its residual energy, created a storm that has lasted for countless generations.

At the heart of the sandstorm vortex lies an ancient fortress.

The Void Claw is hidden atop the fortress.

More complicated details then surfaced.

The data center recorded several fragments of unfamiliar communications.

These fragments, having been damaged multiple times, are now reduced to only some identification codes, encrypted pieces, and echoes of battle records.

However, the archaeological priests still managed to identify a few words that were enough to prompt someone to shut down the external circuitry.

The Great Expedition Period.

Astartes Legion code.

First Army Corps

Dark Angel.

An archaeological priest's robotic arm is suspended in mid-air.

The other priest immediately cut off the external transmission.

The captain of the guards instinctively looked around, lowered his gun barrel, but did not release the trigger guard.

Information about the First Legion is never simple.

In particular, it involves sandstorm vortexes, watchtowers, ancient doomsday weapons, and the recent unusual behavior of the Dark Angels who suddenly broke away from their allies and headed straight for the sandstorm vortex on the Motwald wasteland battlefield.

These clues, when put together, have a very strong flavor.

The situation of Huangquan 8 on the warning planet is very delicate at this moment.

Lawson has taken control of water sources, shields, blackstone, supply lines, and most wartime authority. The Gear Council is gone, and the old Mechanicus's independent decision-making power has been reduced to the technical section.

If they conceal this information and it is discovered by Lawson later, the consequences will be dire.

That ruler of the seal can kill nobles and dismantle parliament.

The priests of the Eighth Underworld fully believed that he could also dismantle an entire branch of mechanical monastic technology into parts and then reassemble them using the foundation sequence.

But if they report it directly, they will face another problem.

Dark Angel.

The secrets of the First Legion are never easy to uncover.

The Mechanical Order has seen firsthand how the unforgivable treat certain people who "shouldn't know too much."

After receiving the encrypted digest from the underground group, Omniklas did not issue any instructions for a long time.

His data cable hung in front of the shrine, and his four robotic arms remained motionless.

Thirty-seven logical deductions unfolded within his brain-computer interface.

Option 1: Conceal the information and continue your independent research.

Risk: The Wartime Overlords of Lawson have tracked down underground operations and determined that the Mechanicus is hoarding strategic intelligence. The potential consequence could be the purge of the Technical Staff and a deeper takeover of the North Central District.

Option 2: Submit the report with full signature.

Risk: The Dark Angels learn that Underworld 8 possesses relevant information, potentially triggering uncontrollable consequences. The Mechanicus' long-term interests in Vigilant Star and Nakdomonde Corridor are jeopardized.

The third option is to send only technical information anonymously, remove all traceable information from Huangquan No. 8, and retain only the minimum usable information.

Benefits: During wartime, the Dominion gains access to traverse sandstorms and close the Void Claws. The Mechanicus fulfills a minimum duty of loyalty to the Imperial cause while minimizing their own exposure.

Omniklas chose the third option.

He knew very well that taking the lead on both Lawson and the Dark Angels at the same time would be an inefficient and self-destructive act.

Soon, an anonymous document bypassed multiple layers of disguise nodes and was sent to the Nakmonde Vigilant Wartime Command.

The source of the transmission was hopped twenty-one times, disguised as a remnant echo from an old communications tower destroyed in war.

Ordinary systems simply cannot trace it.