Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"The cultivation and preparation of the spirit bone core requires your raw materials and craftsmanship experience. Finished spirit bones or semi-finished products are also acceptable. For the first batch, I need enough to equip 80,000 motorcycles."

Salosin's staff slammed heavily on the ground.

Spirit bones are the most essential material of the Eldar civilization. They are formed from the void by Eldar psionic beings through a long process of psionic cultivation, which takes decades or even centuries. To the Eldar, spirit bones are equivalent to adamantite and terracotta steel in the Empire, but adamantite and terracotta steel can be mined and smelted, while spirit bones can only be "grown" little by little.

Handing over the remains is tantamount to handing over Saim-Han's strategic reserves.

But the gray dot on the detector is still there.

Horace spoke up for Sarosin: "Eighty thousand vehicles would probably take half a year's output from our Seventh Spirit Bone Cultivation Garden."

"Sure, we can deliver in batches, no rush."

Lawson became reasonable, like a creditor confirming a repayment plan.

Salosin was too exhausted to argue about each condition any further.

The motorcycle technology has been handed over, and the bone material has been agreed upon. At this stage, adding or subtracting one item makes no essential difference.

Lawson raised his second finger.

"A copy of the network route within the Dark Side of the Empire."

Tensions rose again within the Starfire Royal Court.

This condition was just rejected by all the clan leaders.

Salosin looked up at Lawson. The old chieftain's eyes held weariness, but even more so, a clear-headed acceptance that there was no escaping it.

“My Lord. The Webpaths involve more than just the Saim-Han Ark. If other Arks learn that we have handed over Webpath information to humans, we will be considered traitors to the Eldar.”

Lawson looked at him.

"Your fellow Eldar are now under siege by six Ominous Arks, torn apart by the undead, Chaos, Slaanesh, and Dark Eldar. Has Uthwijk come? Has Iyanden come? Has Aletok come?"

No one answered in the Starfire Royal Court.

“No,” Lawson answered himself. “The Dark Eldar have come, though.”

He spread his hands: "You were left to die by your own kin. You were taken advantage of by your distant relatives. You were dragged out of the fire by the humans you despise the most. Now you are worried about being seen as traitors by your Eldar—but what were those kin doing when you were about to die? Were they waiting for you to die so they could reap the spoils?"

“What’s the difference between being considered family and being considered a traitor? At least when I, Lawson, am holding you by the throat, I’m standing right in front of you.”

Salosin found himself unable to find a rebuttal.

The other clan leaders also fell silent.

Each of them had asked themselves the same question over the past dozen hours.

Why didn't Uswi come? Why didn't Iyanden come? Shouldn't the prophets have foreseen the crisis in Saim-Han?

Perhaps after assessment, the risk is deemed too high.

Perhaps in some ossuary on some ark, a prophet is using phrases like "there is still hope on the path of destiny" to appease his conscience.

Horace glanced at the battle moon marker on the probe, then at Salosin. The Crimson Moon Chieftain nodded slightly.

The old clan chief understood.

Horace was telling him: Give it to us. We have no way out. And what Lawson said was indeed true.

"Giving you information from the web requires the authorization of the Lord's prophet."

He turned to the side: "Ilanser."

The Prophet stood beside the pillar of bones, and had remained silent ever since Lawson revealed the card of the Battle Moon.

Her soulstone glowed dimly on her chest as she tried to use the Path of Destiny to observe what would happen next, but the gray mist still obscured everything.

She couldn't see the future.

She hasn't seen it even once since the start of the battle.

“Ilanser,” Salosin repeated.

The prophet walked before the star map.

Her staff touched the spirit bone ground, and a new set of runes lit up.

Deep within the spiritual veins, Saim-Han retrieved network route data stored for tens of thousands of years.

This data includes the coordinates of all known network entrances to Saim-Han within the Dark Side of the Empire, stability ratings, seasonal opening and closing patterns, confirmed traces of Dark Eldar modifications, and some branching structures within the network.

Ilanser condensed the data into a second spirit bone crystal and handed it out.

Lawson took it and, just like before, tossed it into the armory transfer port.

T-001 receives the data at the other end and begins parsing.

Then he laughed.

Network road routes.

The complete network of roads within the dark side of the empire.

Combined with his existing ability to instantly teleport using a static force field.

The entire dark side of the empire became his backyard.

The Flying Bear motorcycle solved the problems of heavy firepower and assault, while the Spirit Clan motorcycle will fill the gap in high-speed reconnaissance and precision maneuverability.

With the two motorcycles combined, his ground reaction speed will be taken to another level.

The craftsmanship of the Eldar jet motorcycles is indeed exquisite.

The psychic resonance system between the Spirit Bone Core and the rider, the fine-tuning precision of the anti-gravity module, and the lightweight design of the overall structure—each of these components alone could have kept the Empire's mechanical sages studying for a century.

But Lawson's focus is different from that of T-001.

T-001 focuses on craftsmanship, while Lawson focuses on quantity.

Flying Bear Motorcycle is very good.

Weighing sixty tons, with three layers of shields, and adamantite ramming horns, it's a heavy bulldozer on the battlefield.

The Flying Bear motorcycle has a natural bottleneck: it is designed for combat units and bear guards, and its production capacity is limited by the total number of units in the combat units.

Eldar motorcycles are different.

Lightweight, fast, with a simple psionic circuit and low barrier to entry, it is fully compatible with the neural interfaces of the foundational sequences.

Cornerstone sequence.

Lawson has as many soldiers as he wants.

If the supply of bone materials can keep up, and if mass production lines can be set up.

He could command an army of high-speed motorcycles of unlimited size.

It consists of hundreds of thousands, even tens of millions of light assault motorcycles driven by the Cornerstone Sequence, covering every front of the Empire's dark side.

The Flying Bear was responsible for assault and crushing, while the Eldar-style motorcycles were responsible for high-speed reconnaissance and precise maneuvering.

With a heavy hammer and a sharp blade, the ground rapid response system is complete.

However, mass production will take time.

Cultivating spiritual bones is not something that can be done in a day or two, and setting up a production line for T-001 also requires a period of time.

Lawson wants the motorcycle now.

He looked at Salosin.

“I’ve acquired the technology and secured the materials. But mass production and going live will take several months, and I can’t wait that long.”

Salosin leaned on his staff, his expression mostly numb.

"Is there anything else you need?"

“Your Saim-Han boasts a fleet of 45 million riders and motorcycles,” Lawson said, holding up three fingers. “Give me three million of them first.”

There was a moment of silence in the Starfire Royal Court.

Then Kelach let out a short, almost out-of-control laugh.

That kind of laughter isn't because I find it funny; it's a neurological reaction after I've been pushed to a certain breaking point.

Three million Eldar jet motorcycles, one-fifteenth of the total number of Saim-Han riders, each a culmination of decades of hard work by clan artisans, with ancestral blessings engraved on their spirit cores and anti-gravity modules calibrated hundreds of times.

Even spark mushrooms aren't that worthless.

Horace's reaction was calmer than Kelach's, but his facial muscles tensed slightly.

Three million.

The Crimson Moon Clan Chief repeated the number, as if to confirm that he hadn't misheard. "Lord Master, that's equivalent to the combined motorcycle reserves of the Crimson Moon, White Mane, and Flame Spear clans."

“I know,” Lawson said casually. “I’ll write you an IOU and pay you back when I’m done.”

"Your warriors are not Eldar."

A female clan leader spoke up, "The spirit core of a Spirit Race motorcycle needs to resonate with the rider's psionic energy to unleash its full potential. Humans, with all due respect, do not possess this capability. Even if three million motorcycles were in your hands, the performance they would achieve would likely be less than sixty percent."

"I can modify it."

"After modification, it will no longer be a Spirit Race motorcycle."

“That’s my business,” Lawson said, looking at her. “You just need to answer whether you’ll give it to me or not.”

The female clan chief shut her mouth.

Salosin raised his hand, silencing several tribal chiefs who were about to speak.

"Three million aircraft is impossible."

The old patriarch knew that Lawson was asking for an exorbitant price, so he chose to directly counter-offer instead of continuing to express his shock.

“This number will directly weaken Saim-Han’s defense capabilities. Our Ark has just gone through a major battle, with over 10,000 riders killed or wounded and nearly a million motorcycles lost. Now, removing another three million is like cutting off a leg of our rapid reaction force.”

Lawson looked at him for two seconds.

"Then three hundred thousand."

He withdrew very decisively.

The price dropped from three million to three hundred thousand, a 90% reduction in one fell swoop.

The clan leaders exchanged glances.