Warhammer: Empire Reboot

An unprecedented administrative reform is underway at the Imperial Palace.

The Regent's iron fist is shattering millennia of accumulated problems, which means that sooner or later, Terra's commands will once again cross the Great Rift and reach the Dark Side.

Lawson doesn't intend to wait until that day to react passively.

With Lawson's current strength, no force in the Empire can take these warehouse worlds back from him.

What he needs is Dante's identity.

If Dante signed the requisition order in the name of the Regent, then the takeover of these three hundred warehouse worlds would not be "Lossen's private act," but rather "a legitimate decision made by the Supreme Administrator of the Dark Side of the Empire in a state of wartime emergency."

Any investigation from Terra must first get past Dante.

Dante would sign it.

Lawson had no doubt about this.

The old man had endured hardship in the shadows of the empire for over a thousand years; he had seen all sorts of storms and waves.

Dante was even angrier about these things than Lord Lawson, after all, before Lawson appeared, Dante was the one carrying the burden of the Empire's dark side all by himself.

He knew all too well what this meant.

The cornerstone sequence completed the transmission of the remote communication request.

Dante agreed to come in for a face-to-face meeting.

Lawson walked to a small reception room on the side of the Royal Court.

The room was small and simply furnished.

A long table, a few chairs, and a tea set on the table, which was found in a high-rise private storage room in some warehouse world.

The planetary deputy general manager of that storage world used imperial military funds to hoard over ten tons of luxury goods for himself, including a batch of top-grade tea with the imperial eagle emblem embossed in pure gold on the packaging.

While Lawson was boiling water, the static field was activated.

Dante's figure steps out from it.

The old man looked around the room, then looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

“Brother Lawson.”

Dante remarked with some emotion, "Your portal is even more unsettling than the Eldar's web portal. I was just monitoring the movements of a group of orcs' WAAAGH in the Kora-Synn sector, and now I'm standing in your office."

Lawson poured the boiled water into the teapot. The tea leaves unfurled in the boiling water, releasing a rich aroma. He asked, "Are the orcs causing a ruckus over there?"

"Fortunately."

Dante walked to the table and sat down: "The Greer warlord has about forty million men under his command, and they're currently nibbling away at a mining world. I've ordered the Scarlet Blade Chapter to hold them off for now and take them down before WAAAGH takes shape. If it's delayed by two weeks, the orc population will double, and it won't be a problem for just one chapter."

"Should I send troops over?" Lawson poured two cups of tea and pushed one over.

Dante picked up his teacup, sniffed it, and said, "No need, I can handle it. Good tea."

After the old man finished his evaluation, he took a sip: "I haven't drunk anything like this in two hundred years. The last time I drank it was a gift from a governor of a certain administrative region. That man was later found by the court to have tampered with taxes and was beheaded."

"Found in the warehouse world."

Lawson sat down opposite him: "It's a private collection of a certain planetary deputy governor, bought with military funds."

Dante put down his teacup and glanced at Lawson.

"You called me here for more than just tea, didn't you?"

Lawson didn't beat around the bush and explained the whole story, including the background and the inner workings of the warehouse world.

Dante suddenly realized.

"I was wondering why supplies on all fronts had suddenly become plentiful recently."

"I initially thought it was because Agrippina's arsenal had increased its production capacity, but it turns out that's the reason."

“Agrippina’s production capacity is indeed increasing.”

Lawson laughed and said, "But the most direct improvement in the short term is this batch of stockpiled supplies. Three hundred units of the Warehouse World's essence are enough to feed all fronts of the Empire's dark side for decades."

Dante sighed, "What do you need me to do, you maggots in the Ministry of the Interior?"

"Issuing an emergency wartime requisition order in the name of the Regent of the Dark Side of the Empire, bringing all the stockpiles of the 303 Warehouse Worlds under the unified wartime control of the Dark Side of the Empire," said Lawson.

Dante asked, "Are you thinking of a way out for me?"

"It's also for my own sake."

Lawson was frank and made no attempt to hide anything: "I've taken control of these three hundred planets, and supplies are already being sent to the front lines. But my title is the Dark Side Ruler, not Regent. The Dark Side Ruler doesn't have independent jurisdiction over the Ministry of the Interior. If Guilliman sends someone to audit the accounts someday, there will inevitably be disputes, but if you signed the requisition order..."

"That is the highest administrative official of the empire's dark side exercising emergency powers during wartime."

Dante laughed: "Brother Lawson, you don't need to try to convince me this way."

“Even without legal considerations, I would still sign this document. Those supplies were originally collected from the dark side of the Empire, and they should be used on the battlefields of the dark side of the Empire. The Ministry of the Interior has no right to lock them up.”

Dante stood up and walked to the window.

The horizon of the Vigilant Star unfolded before my eyes.

The outlines of the nest city clusters are arranged on the horizon, interspersed with scaffolding for restoration work and logistics cranes for the foundation sequence.

In the distance, on the orbit, the lights of the Imperial warship fleet could be seen conducting routine patrols.

That was Lawson's fleet, a mix of original Imperial warships and captured and modified warships of various types.

The meat grinder plains surrounding the city have been leveled and rebuilt, becoming an extension of the industrial zone.

Dante saw all of this.

"When Vigilant Star called for help last time, I was frantic on the other end and couldn't get away. In the end, you not only drove Abaddon away, but also stole his flagship."

"It's not a matter of driving them away."

Lawson corrected, "It was four Chaos Gods who dragged him away together. If it weren't for those four old geezers protecting their own, Abaddon's head would be hanging at the gates of my Dominion right now."

"Haha, that's really encouraging! Your reputation in the dark side of the Empire is even greater than mine!"

Dante let out a heavy sigh: "I will sign the requisition order and issue it when I get back. At the same time, I will write a report for Guilliman, detailing the Ministry of the Interior's dereliction of duty in the shadows, the specific figures for stockpiled supplies, and the absurd act of destroying excess stockpiles. All of this must be included. The supplies in the shadows of the Empire can only be used in the shadows of the Empire."

"Oh, right."

Dante seemed to suddenly remember something: "I heard you recently formed an alliance with the Eldar of the Ark?"

"To be precise, it's Saim-Han."

Lawson refilled the old man's tea: "The other four Arks are still playing dead."

"Saim-Han? The Cavalry Ark?"

Dante didn't have in-depth knowledge of the Eldar, but he did have some basic information: "How did you manage to make those arrogant, pointy-eared people bow down? Did you gain anything?"

"A roadmap of the dark side of the empire."

Dante sat there for about three seconds, then he stood up.

Somewhat flustered, he asked, "Network route map?"

"The entirety of the Empire's dark side."

Lawson nodded: "We've got it, but it will take time to re-survey, inspect, label the security level, and eliminate chaos contamination and dark Eldar traps. My T-series and Eldar advisors are working on it."

Dante took two steps in the room.

"Losen, do you know why the Emperor built the Golden Throne?"

"In order to open up a path for humanity to access the Internet."

"Correct."

Dante stopped and turned to face Lawson: "The Emperor knew the significance of the Web to humanity. It does not rely on warp travel, and it does not require psionic navigators to risk being devoured to cross the Aether. It provides safe, fast, and stable interstellar transportation, which is the foundation for the survival of human civilization. The Emperor spent thousands of years researching the Web project, but in the end, it failed. The Golden Throne was destroyed by an accident, and the Emperor was nailed to it for ten thousand years."

Dante looked into Lawson's eyes, somewhat agitated.

"If you can really make use of the network, even just some of the lines, the situation on the dark side of the Empire will be completely different."

"That's why I brought you here to say this in person."

Dante picked up the data tablet and looked through it.

The meeting room fell silent.

The water in the teapot was still hot, and steam rose slowly from the spout.

“Lossen,” Dante said.

"I was already thinking about retiring before you came along."

Lawson did not interrupt him.

Dante seemed to be talking to himself: "I have seen the Empire at its most glorious moment, and I have also seen the deepest despair. On the day the Great Rift tore the galaxy apart, I felt that everything was over. The light of the Star Torches could not reach the dark side, the warp routes were cut off, communications were cut off, and supplies were cut off. For every planet we saved, three more fell in another direction."

"I am prepared to die on the battlefield one day. I know that with my strength, I will most likely die from attrition warfare. When my ammunition runs out and reinforcements don't arrive, the orcs or chaos will surge in like a tide. I will stand at the back of the shield wall until the very last moment. I have thought about this ending countless times, and I accept it."

Dante stood up again and walked to the window.

His silhouette appeared somewhat frail in the light and shadow of the Chaodu cluster.

Then you appeared.

The old man turned around and looked at Lawson.

"Logistics is up and running, navigation is up and running, communications are up and running. The frontline battle groups no longer have to fight in the dark. Ammunition is plentiful, the wounded can be evacuated, and reinforcements can arrive. My officers told me, with all this, what's the difference between the Dark Side and the Holy Side of the Empire? It's just that you can't see Terra."

Dante walked back to the table, placed one hand on the surface, and leaned down to look at Lawson.

"All those things I worried about, which star sector's shipping routes were cut off, which warband's ammunition was running out, which world's food supply wouldn't last more than three months, you solved them all in a few months. Those problems that used to keep me up at night are not even problems in your hands."

"You've given me renewed motivation."

“In the past, I was dragged forward by a sense of powerlessness. I couldn’t stop, because if I stopped, billions of people would be buried with me. Now it’s different. I’m starting to feel that the dark side of the empire isn’t just waiting to die, but that it really has a chance to turn things around. I haven’t felt this way in about five hundred years.”

Lawson poured the old man a third cup of tea.

"Old man, sit down and have some tea. Don't stand there talking; you're not giving a pre-battle pep talk."

Dante was momentarily speechless at those words, then sat down, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

"It is indeed good tea. You should keep some on hand from now on. I might come to see you more often."

"You are welcome anytime."