Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Depriving them of their senses, making them temporarily "non-existent," is more terrifying to them than destroying their souls.

Because destruction is at least an ultimate experience.

And nothingness isn't even the ultimate thing.

Driven by these two forces, Ash and Qianxian performed even more diligently than Lawson's most loyal subordinates.

At that moment, the two great demons were squatting next to Lawson's command chair.

Ash huddled to the left of the chair, her long hair falling over Lawson's boots.

Her posture was like that of a lazy cat, with her eyes half-closed, occasionally rubbing her cheek against Lawson's calf.

Qianxian squatted on the right, her bright purple eyes looking up at Lawson, her hands on the ground, her posture as obedient as a puppy waiting for its owner to throw it a bone.

“Well done.” Lawson flipped through the cleanup report of Calandra-III and reached out to pat Qianxian on the head.

Qianxian's eyes lit up instantly.

She nestled her head into Lawson's palm, her long purple hair flowing between his fingers.

“Master…” Qianxian’s voice was so sweet it could melt your heart, “We’ve caught 147 Slaanesh followers and 14 Tzeentch followers this time, shouldn’t we give them a reward?”

What do you want?

Qianxian's expression changed from that of an obedient puppy to that of a fox trying to steal a chicken.

"I want to watch the sunrise with you!"

His tone was very sincere, and his eyes were very innocent.

If we ignore the fact that her fingers had already quietly climbed onto Lawson's thigh when she said this.

Lawson didn't even look up.

"I'm not interested in you."

“But I’m interested in you.” Qianxian’s lips pouted slightly. “And I have a way to make you interested.”

"for example?"

Qianxian's body suddenly began to change.

Slaanesh's shapeshifting ability was innate; within seconds, her features rearranged, her face elongated, her chin sharpened, and her ears stretched upwards into the shape characteristic of the Eldar. Her pupils changed from purple to emerald green, and her skin became almost transparently white.

A few seconds later, a Spirit Race face that looked exactly like Ilancia's appeared in front of Lawson.

"Two little bean sprouts will serve you together."

Qianxian spoke in Yilancia's voice, even imitating the unique Ling Clan accent perfectly, "A different experience, how is it?"

Lawson finally raised his head.

Qianxian felt the pressure in that gaze, and his smile froze on his face.

"I think you want to die."

Qianxian transformed back into his original form at the fastest speed in thousands of years that the Great Demon Slaanesh had ever achieved, a hint of guilt flashing in his purple eyes.

"Just kidding, just kidding..."

Qianxian shrank his neck and subconsciously touched the collar.

Ash, on the other side of the chair, raised her eyelids and glanced at Qianxian, her eyes filled with the words "serves him right".

"If you don't want to, then forget it."

Qianxian pouted, shrank back to Lawson's feet, and muttered under her breath, "Stingy..."

Lawson continued to review the purge report.

The two Slaanesh demons curled up quietly at his feet, like two domesticated pets that had just been trained.

As Lawson was reviewing the purge report, a high-priority message suddenly popped up from the swarm intelligence.

He glanced at it and froze for half a second.

Then he laughed.

Ash and Qianxian, who were standing at their feet, both looked up at the same time.

They are extremely sensitive to Lawson's emotional changes; the Slaanesh's senses can detect even the slightest increase in the host's heart rate and the release of endorphins.

“There’s a mission.” Lawson looked down at the two great demons.

Both pairs of eyes lit up at the same time.

"Whoever completes this task will be rewarded with a thousand Dark Elf souls."

Ash instantly transformed from a lazy cat into a hound with its ears perked up: "What mission?"

Lawson grabbed the two great demons by the back of their collars, one in each hand, and stepped into the static field.

The three figures disappeared into Agrippina's court.

This feedback from the bee swarm comes from the other side of the Milky Way.

Imperial Holy Face.

Let's rewind to four years ago.

After the Battle of Vigilant Star, Space Marine chapter commanders such as Calgar, Haldor, and Stronos led their troops back to the Imperial Sanctuary.

As per the agreement reached with Lawson, each chapter was equipped with three combat suicide soldiers responsible for navigation, communications, and emergency support.

These combat warriors followed the various warbands through the Nakmunde Corridor and arrived at the other side of the Great Rift.

They were the first tentacles of Lawson to reach into the face of the Empire.

Externally, they are merely "direct liaisons of the seal holder," undertaking auxiliary functions within each battle group.

Internally, they are the anchor.

With these combat suicide soldiers distributed across various star sectors of the Imperial Holy Surface as spatial coordinates, Lawson was able to project more foundational sequences into the Holy Surface via the stasis field.

They operate in small, dispersed, and secretive groups of dozens, infiltrating the lower classes of various planets and establishing themselves as refugees, workers, or mercenaries.

The swarm intelligence approach assigned this group of suicide bombers a long list of tasks.

Intelligence gathering, flight path mapping, resource exploration, and potential threat assessment are all routine tasks.

The seventh item on the list reads: Search for the planet Katachon.

Report the coordinates immediately after confirmation.

Katachon.

The source of the Rosen gene template.

That jungle death world, known as "Hell" in imperial legends.

The entire planet is covered by a primeval rainforest more terrifying than any nightmare. Every tree could be a disguised predator, and every inch of soil hides a trap creature capable of swallowing an adult whole.

The Katachans thrived in this hellish land, evolving the strongest physical attributes and the most acute survival instincts among the mortals of the Empire.

But Lawson's search for Katachon has nothing to do with returning to one's roots.

He had no sense of belonging to that planet; the genes of the Katachon jungle warriors were merely his initial template.

His feelings for Katachon were roughly equivalent to a gamer's feelings for the starting location of their chosen character—he knew the place existed, and that was it.

He sought out Katachon for a local specialty.

Katachon barking toad.

One of the most absurd, illogical, and bug-like creatures in the Warhammer universe.

Its appearance is unremarkable.

A giant toad crouching deep in the swamp, its grayish-green skin covered with wart-like protrusions, looked like a lump of mud with legs.

It is not very big, with adults measuring about half a meter to a meter. Compared to the giant predators in the Katachan jungle that are often tens of meters long, the barking toad is tiny.

But the most ferocious predators in the Katachan jungle—giant lizards that can swallow tanks whole and plant hunters that can strangle an entire patrol with their vines—will choose to go around the Barking Toad.

Because the barking toad only has one defense mechanism: self-destruction.

Once the barking toad senses a threat, any threat, even the vibration from a fallen leaf hitting its back, will trigger the release of all the biological toxins accumulated within its body within a fraction of a second.

Explosion radius: one kilometer.

Within one kilometer, all organic matter is dissolved instantly.

Trees, grass, insects, wild beasts, humans, space warriors—all carbon-based life forms are equal in this poisonous fog, all turning into a bubbling pool of slime.

Poison gas can penetrate any known protective mechanism, including the internal circulation system of Space Marine power armor and the sealing gaskets of Terminator armor.

Areas shrouded in barking toad gas will become barren wastelands.

The barking toad itself will also turn into a puddle of water in this self-destruction.

Pure mutual destruction.

This poison gas is essentially an extreme biological solvent, targeting all carbon-based and silicon-based organic cellular tissues.

In other words, as long as you have cellular structures in your body, the barking toad can turn you into soup.

The only exception is the space necromancer.

If a barking toad explodes in front of a necromancer, the damage to the necromancer would be roughly equivalent to the optical monitor being obscured by the poisonous mist for a few seconds, and the luster of its body surface decreasing slightly.

Living metals contain no organic matter, so toxic gases are completely ineffective against them.

But the orcs and the insectoids, those two races composed entirely of biological matter, have only one fate when they encounter the Barking Toad.

It turned into a pot of soup.

The empire certainly considered using such a thing.

The problem is that we can't catch it.

The barking toad's alertness mechanism is so acute it's almost unreasonable.

The Empire attempted to capture it using a stasis field. Theoretically, as long as a stasis field generator is activated near the Barking Toad, the time-freezing effect can lock it in place before it self-destructs.

In practice, all attempts failed.

When the static field generator is activated by power, it will produce extremely slight energy fluctuations, such as the humming of the capacitor, the fluctuation of the magnetic field of the coil, and the air flow caused by the thermal expansion of the device casing.