Warhammer: Empire Reboot

So small that it's impossible to fake it for her to see.

Lawson can arrange the army, can arrange reports, can make the Nest on the Vigilant Star show order, and can also take her to see the downfall of a noble family.

But he couldn't possibly arrange for a child to put a bug in the teacher's water cup at that moment, nor could he arrange for everyone on the farm to laugh in that relaxed manner at the same time.

This kind of thing doesn't feel scripted.

It also lacked the rigid tone of loyalty found in imperial propaganda.

this is life.

And it's the life of ordinary humans.

Ilancia looked at the field.

After the farmers finished laughing, they went back to work.

A young mother carried her son toward school.

The boy sniffled as he quietly bargained with his mother, asking if he could write two fewer pages of a self-criticism after apologizing. The woman scolded him for dreaming, but then picked up his shoe that he had left on the edge of the field and stuffed it into his arms.

The school bell rang in the distance.

Ilancia's feelings began to become complicated.

She was unwilling to admit that she was moved, and even less willing to admit that she envied him.

The Eldar in the Ark also have children.

But from the moment they are born, Eldar children bear the weight of the continuation of their race.

They will learn the path, learn restraint, learn history, learn to fear Slaanesh, and learn how to put their emotions on the right track.

Even so, they knew that beyond the ark lay death, at the end of their souls lay a thirsty god, and the future of their race was like a taut string that could snap at any moment.

The human boy in front of him was only worried about a sore bottom, an apology, and a written explanation.

Ilancia suddenly felt it was absurd.

At this moment, a child whom she regarded as a short-lived monkey seemed more like a real child than many of the Ark's young.

Ilancia recalled what she had said.

She said the alert star was just a pilot program.

She said those scenes might have been arranged by Lawson for her to see.

She said that human empires have always been like this.

But now, she has been taken to the earliest agricultural star system in the Agrippina sector.

It has been operating here for much longer.

It also feels more natural.

It was so natural that she couldn't find anything to criticize it.

In the distance, the young mother had already brought her son to the school gate.

The teacher stood there, holding the water cup in her hand, her face looking very unpleasant.

The boy lowered his head and apologized, his voice barely audible.

Several children around covered their mouths and laughed.

The teacher pointed to the classroom, then to the wooden barrels in the yard.

Clearly, in addition to apologizing, he should also be punished by having to fetch water.

After letting go of her son, the young mother stood at the school gate, spoke a few words to the teacher, and then bent down to straighten her son's collar. The woman who had been angrily chasing after him and hitting him was now moving very gently.

Before carrying the bucket into the yard, the boy glanced back at his mother.

The woman glared at him.

He immediately shrank back and ran into the school.

The wind blows across the farmland, and the grass blades along the irrigation ditches sway gently.

…………

When the static force field unfolded again, Ilancia had already learned to close her eyes in the first instant.

This mode of transportation still made her uncomfortable.

One moment it was the sunshine, the fields, the school, and the boy being dragged away by his mother to apologize on Klein Agricultural Star; the next moment, the deafening roar of hammers, conveyor belts, hydraulic presses, and the shouts of thousands of people filled the air.

It was dusk.

A crimson star was sinking toward the horizon, its afterglow cut into dark bands by towering chimneys and orbital cranes.

This is clearly another planet.

The industrial world.

But it is different from Damocles V.

This industrial world before me is noisy, hot, and filled with the smells of steel, sparks, engine oil, and combustion.

But Ilancia noticed the difference at first glance.

The lights here are not dim.

The factory area has wide roads, clearly defined transport zones, and prominent safety signs on the ground. Heavy tracked vehicles travel along designated routes, with suspended booms rotating in the air, emitting three low whistles before each descent.

The workers wore heavy protective suits, with their work section, skill level, and team number marked on their chests.

Lawson stood with Ilancia on an elevated maintenance platform.

Below the platform is a huge arms factory.

Ilancia quickly realized that the factory was rushing to meet a deadline that night.

One of the cornerstone sequence members raised his hand, and the projection screen above the factory immediately updated.

[Seventh Artillery Group Core Ring Welding Completion Rate: 91%]

[Distance to delivery: 2 hours and 17 minutes.]

Current delay: four minutes.

As soon as the text appeared, someone from the third work section below immediately cursed.

"Damn it! Which son of a bitch in the production team was four minutes late?! My welds just passed inspection on the first try!"

"Don't fucking look at me!" another foreman wearing goggles yelled back, "Everyone on the second line meets the standards!"

"Heat treatment team! Did the pressure in your No. 2 furnace drop just now?!"

"Fuck your mother's head!" The heat treatment team leader jumped onto a cooling tower, pointed at the distant pipes, and cursed, "It's the number two cooling water pipe that's blocked! It's the maintenance team's fault! What are you bunch of useless repairmen doing!"

The cornerstone sequence re-marked the process responsibilities of the heat treatment group and the maintenance team in red.

"The second cooling branch pipe will be temporarily replaced. The maintenance team will be compensated with three minutes. The heat treatment team will forgo their next break. The overall delay will be reduced to within one and a half minutes."

The burly man from the repair team immediately raised his hand.

"Row!"

The head of the heat treatment group also shouted.

"We give up! Brothers, let's get those three minutes back!"

A chorus of responses erupted from the workshop.

"Take it back!"

"Don't let those bastards on Line 7 laugh at us!"

Ilancia stood on the high place, her eyebrows twitching slightly.

This was a human factory she had never seen before.

The core ring of the sixth assembly line was lifted by four giant robotic arms.

High-temperature welding begins.

A bright light shone.

The workers put on goggles.

Sparks rained down on the isolation panel.

Several young workers were pushing a cart of materials and running from the side path. One of them slipped and almost fell. An older worker next to him grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"Screw you! Are the materials more valuable than your life? Are you blind to see the lane markings painted there?"

The young man blushed with embarrassment after being scolded and immediately steadied the material truck.

The material truck arrives at the designated point, the crane arm descends, the mechanical claw locks, the foundation stone sequence number is confirmed, the experienced worker taps the metal casing to listen to the sound, and the young worker immediately records it.

After watching for a while, Yilancia finally understood what overtime work meant here.

This was a wartime order.

The orbital defense cannon is to be sent to the outer fortress of the newly taken-over star system.

If delivered as planned, the entire low-orbit defense line can form a firepower loop seven days ahead of schedule.

These seven days could mean that a Dark Eldar raid has been thwarted.

This could mean that a chaotic pirate ship cannot get close to the shipping route.

It could also mean that a grain fleet from an agricultural world could arrive safely.

The workers knew what they were doing.

That's the difference.

Their labor was connected to the distant battlefield, to their own food rations, their family's living quarters, their children's schools, and the safety of their star sector.

The giant projection screen refreshed once again.

[Core ring welding: Complete.]

[Error: Within acceptable limits.]

[Delay: 1 minute and 9 seconds.]