Warhammer: Empire Reboot

These minute disturbances, completely imperceptible to humans, are like a bomb to the barking toad.

In the fraction of a second of delay before the generator's force field had fully converged, the barking toad had already completed its self-destruction.

The result was that the biological sage who pressed the switch, the servo skull responsible for monitoring, the priceless stasis field generator itself, and everything within a one-kilometer radius, all turned into a puddle of slime.

The Imperial Assassins' Court once dispatched its top agents, the kind of super assassins who could carry out assassinations in the blink of an eye, to capture the Barking Toad in a static field with absolute silence while it slept.

It has been successful several times.

However, the success rate was extremely low, and every success was accompanied by the loss of a large number of agents.

The cost of training these agents far exceeds the tactical value of a toad, making the return on investment completely unprofitable.

The toad-catching project was ultimately shelved.

Lawson has his eye on the Barking Toad because he is preparing for a war that is yet to come.

The Terran Zerg.

The ultimate threat to the Milky Way.

The Terran fleet has invaded the edge of the galaxy.

Given Lawson's current rate of expansion, it's only a matter of time before he and the Zerg clash on a large scale.

What makes the Zerg so terrifying is their sheer numbers—truly endless.

Every planet devoured by the Zerg becomes biomass for incubating new Zerg swarms, and the Zerg's size will only grow larger with each battle.

Using conventional weapons to kill the Zerg is like scooping seawater with a cup.

But the barking toad is different.

Indiscriminate biolysis within a one-kilometer radius.

Throwing a barking toad into a swarm of insectoids creates a vacuum zone with a diameter of one kilometer.

Detonating hundreds of them simultaneously creates a dead zone spanning tens of kilometers. If they could be delivered in large quantities with precision—

The Zerg's numerical advantage will no longer be an advantage.

Of course, after encountering this toxin, the Zerg mothership may attempt to modify the swarm's genes to generate resistance during subsequent hatching.

The Zerg have the strongest adaptive and evolutionary capabilities in the entire Warhammer universe. Given enough time and samples, they could theoretically become immune to any toxins over time.

But this process takes time, a very long time.

Moreover, Lawson had no intention of wasting his barking toads on ordinary swarms.

The core of the Zerg is the Queen Norn.

Those giant biological motherships floating in space are the brain and womb of the entire Zerg fleet.

Killing a Norn Queen is equivalent to eliminating the command center and reproductive capacity of an entire Zerg squadron.

Send the Barking Toad into Queen Norn's body and detonate it...

Every time Lawson thinks of this scene, the corners of his mouth turn up slightly.

And now, the swarm node has sent back the message he has been waiting for for four years.

Planet Katachon, coordinates confirmed.

The cornerstone assassins who infiltrated the Imperial Holy Land found this legendary jungle hell on the edge of the Ultimar sector.

The static force field was activated at a border outpost on the planet Katachon.

Lordson led two Slaanesh archdemons out of the light barrier.

Five combat heroes awaited at the sentry post.

Lawson looked around.

The outpost was a simple metal shed, outside of which lay the jungle of Katachan, where dense, dark green vegetation stretched towards the sky, blocking out even the light. The air was thick with a damp, decaying, and strangely sweet scent of danger.

A deep roar came from afar, mixed with the crisp sound of tree branches being crushed by a giant creature.

This is Katachon.

Qianxian curiously craned his neck to peek outside the shed, then withdrew.

"This place smells worse than Nurgle's Garden."

Ash, on the other hand, was much calmer, her eyes gleaming slightly in the dim light.

She took a deep breath, savoring the complex aroma molecules in the air.

“Interesting. Every creature on this planet is trying to eat everything else.” The Keeper commented, “Pure, primal, unadulterated competition for survival—it’s beautiful.”

Lawson looked at the five combat suicide soldiers.

Has the distribution area of ​​the barking toad been confirmed?

The leader of the assassins reported: "It's confirmed. The 'Silent Swamp' area, 3,000 kilometers south of the equator in Katachon, is the habitat with the highest density of barking toads."

Lawson walked to the door of the shed and looked out at the dark jungle.

A huge flying creature, with a wingspan of at least twenty meters, swept through the canopy and let out a sharp roar as it passed over the sentry post.

Lawson watched it fly away expressionlessly.

Then he turned and glanced at the two Slaanesh demons behind him, who were so excited they were about to jump up on the spot.

“The task,” Lawson said, “is to catch me frogs, alive.”

The jungle landscape of Katachon is a three-dimensional labyrinth of death.

Dozens of layers of vegetation intertwine, each layer harboring different kinds of predators.

From the ground to the Silent Swamp, one must contend with venomous snakes, acid vines, mimicry trees, burrowing spiders, and at least seventeen known apex predators along the way.

Lawson chose the simplest way.

fly.

The two Slaanesh demons were enveloped by the same force field, hovering on his left and right sides.

Three figures swept across the top of the Katachan jungle at supersonic speeds, leaving three blurry afterimages above the sea of ​​emerald green canopies.

Three thousand living metal shadow blades shot out from around Lawson, forming a fan-shaped defensive net in front of him and on both sides of his flight path.

The skies over Qatar are just as dangerous as the ground.

The first uninvited guests appeared ten seconds after takeoff.

Three Katachan lizards with wingspans exceeding twenty meters swooped down from the clouds, their horny beaks wide open and their throat pouches filled with corrosive mucus, charging straight toward Lawson.

The Shadow Blade Array rotated slightly.

Three silver arcs flashed by, too fast for the naked eye to follow.

The three winged lizards were simultaneously sliced ​​into six pieces in mid-air, their severed limbs and internal organs falling into the canopy amidst a mist of blood, where they were instantly devoured by the waiting jungle ecosystem below.

Qianxian let out an excited scream: "Master is so fast!"

The second wave came even more fiercely.

A small but numerous group of pintails, gregarious flying predators unique to Katachán, surged in from the flanks like a dark cloud.

Each pintail has a hollow, horny stinger at the end of its tail, capable of firing paralyzing toxins at bullet speed. Hundreds of them firing simultaneously create a density comparable to a barrage of bullets.

The Shadow Blade Array unfolds into a double-layer rotating structure.

In two seconds, hundreds of pintails were wiped out.

Ash's eyes shone like two stars: "The ecology of Katachon is really interesting."

Qianxian had completely switched into spectator mode, her purple eyes fixed on the scene of the Shadow Blade cutting through its prey, constantly exclaiming "Wow..." "Ah!" "Master is so amazing!"

Lawson ignored them.

Seventeen minutes later, the Silent Swamp came into view.

From above, the Silent Swamp is a distinctly dark area in the Katachan jungle.

The surrounding jungle was a distinct blend of emerald green and dark green, while the vegetation of the Silent Swamp presented a lifeless gray-green.

The trees have thinned out considerably, replaced by large areas of exposed mud and low-lying moss.

The most striking feature is the dozen or so circular spots of light scattered throughout the swamp, ranging in diameter from several hundred meters to over a thousand meters.

Those areas were barren, and the ground had an unnatural grayish-white color, as if it had been thoroughly scorched by something.

The permanent dead zone left behind after the barking toad exploded.

Lawson lowered his altitude and activated his psionic senses to their fullest extent.

On the edge of the Silent Swamp, next to a mud pit, a grayish-green thing crouched between two pieces of rotten wood.

It is about half a meter tall and its shape resembles a flattened ball of flesh.

Its grayish-green skin was covered with wart-like protrusions, and two cloudy yellow eyes bulged on the top of its head, staring motionlessly at the muddy water in front of it.

Its mouth is an almost invisible slit, and the expression on its face can be summed up in two words: blank.

It looks incredibly stupid.

But within a radius of five kilometers, not a single mosquito could be seen.

Ash and Qianxian hovered beside Lawson, following his gaze to the grayish-green ball of flesh.

"Who do you want us to arrest?"

"Correct."

"The Katachang barking toad? The kind of Katachang barking toad that turns everything within a kilometer into soup when it gets startled?"

"Correct."

Both demons simultaneously floated back half a meter.

"no!"

Qianxian shook her head frantically, her long hair whipping around like a windmill: "Absolutely not! We're all about enjoyment and excitement, but dying in an explosion from a toad is neither enjoyable nor exciting at all. Even Khorne's bloodthirsty demons would avoid that thing..."

"Aren't you Slaanesh capable of bewitching all living beings?" Lawson interrupted her.

Qianxian's mouth opened and closed again.