Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Given time, a grid-by-grid search will eventually lead to the target.

…………

The outline of the ancient temple was faintly visible in the dust and haze.

The three-way battle over Assamolo has been going on for nearly two months.

The three space fleets were entangled in low orbit, and debris formed a thin metallic cloud around the planet.

Then the subspace cracked open on the outer edge of the Viola galaxy.

The crack was large enough to trigger simultaneous alarms from all three sensors.

A sphere emerged from the crack.

Its surface is covered with several kilometers of thick adamantite composite armor, which reflects a cold metallic luster under the starlight.

Thousands of gun muzzles, launch silos, and sensor arrays are densely distributed on the surface of the sphere, resembling a hedgehog covered in thorns.

The moon has arrived in Lawson's battle.

Behind it, an Imperial mixed fleet emerged in succession: two Luna-class cruisers, four Sword-class frigates, and a transport ship fully loaded with combat units.

All three parties were stunned.

On low orbit around Arthasmore, the fleet commanders of the Orcs, Chaos, and Tau reacted almost simultaneously, turning to their telescopes to confirm the target.

The orcs reacted the most directly.

Several orc leaders were peering out of the observation windows on the flagship's bridge, staring at the giant silver sphere.

Although they are not very bright, some things are ingrained in their green genes, such as the ability to recognize larger animals.

The Battle Moon's exterior was covered in adamantite armor, the paint job was changed, the turrets were modified, and the thrusters were rearranged.

But its basic outline couldn't fool the orcs' eyes.

"That's the orcs' moon!"

A leader smashed the railing of the observation window with his fist, spitting furious spittle all over the bridge. "Painted silver, fitted with human dreadlocks, but the skeleton is made by us orcs!"

"Humans stole our orc moon!"

Another leader roared, waving his thick arms like a windmill, "Take it back! We'll repaint it red!"

The third leader lunged at the command console and slammed the "Full Speed ​​Forward" button down with his fist. To be precise, he smashed the button and half of the control panel below it.

The orcs don't care which tribe or empire this moon originally belonged to.

In the Greenskins' worldview, anything created by Orcs is considered Orcish.

If humans take it, that's theft.

They stole our stuff and dare to drive up to us and show off?

This angered them more than killing their entire family.

The reaction to chaos is much more severe.

Inside the tactical center of the Ominous Ark "Soul-Devouring Coffin," Ugalax's Black Legion adjutant identified the fleet's paint scheme and organizational characteristics from sensor data.

"Your Highness, it's the Empire's dark side fleet. The paint scheme has been confirmed; it bears the Agrippina forging mark. It's that damned butcher, Lawson."

Ugalax's demonic greatsword spun halfway in his hand.

Legends about this human being circulate in every corner of the chaos.

The legend became increasingly outlandish as it was passed down, eventually turning into a chaotic version of a ghost story.

Ugalax never believed these stories.

In his view, Angron lost to a mortal because he was driven mad by Butcher's Nail, and the Soul of Vengeance was lost because Abaddon was careless.

Even the strongest mortal has their limits.

The Demon Prince's power comes from the blessing of Khorne himself, an existence that transcends the laws of the material world.

But he really didn't want to have another powerful enemy at this crucial moment in the search for the fragments.

Commander Oshova, with foresight, narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the slowly advancing silver sphere in the tactical holographic projection.

"Sensor analysis complete, Commander."

The flagship AI reported, "This celestial body is approximately 1,200 kilometers in diameter and has a mass comparable to a medium-sized planet. Its surface is covered with high-density metallic armor, and energy signatures of numerous weapon systems and propulsion devices were detected, leading to its identification as an artificially modified planetary war platform."

O'Showa was silent for two seconds.

The Tau Empire also possesses large war vehicles, such as the Locke-class warships, which can reach lengths of up to five kilometers and are the largest space warfare platforms of the Tau race.

But a planetary fortress spanning 1,200 kilometers is beyond the military imagination of the Tau people.

The Dark Side Master of the Empire!

His intelligence network had scattered records of this name: a human warlord who rose to power in the shadows of the Empire, reportedly controlling vast star systems and employing extremely ruthless methods.

However, detailed intelligence is almost nonexistent, as there are too many star sectors separating the Visionary Enclave from the Dark Side of the Empire.

What is he doing here?

While the three parties were dealing with this unexpected situation, everyone's communication systems were simultaneously hacked.

The Chaos Fleet's encrypted communication frequency band was brute-forced open within a second, forcing it to connect to an external signal source.

The green-skinned communication equipment was essentially a pile of metal scraps welded together, with virtually no encryption capabilities.

External signals poured in directly, and the speaker emitted a piercing howl.

The titanium group reacts the most strongly.

Vision Enclave's communication system employs Titanium Empire's most advanced quantum encryption protocol and multi-layered AI firewall.

O'Shova had absolute confidence in the security of this system; the Tau people's information technology was among the best of all known civilizations in the galaxy, far surpassing the outdated systems of the Imperials.

However, at that moment, the communications officer on the bridge was sweating profusely as he pounded on the control panel.

"Commander! External signals are forcibly penetrating the firewall! The first layer has been breached! The second layer... the second layer has also been breached! The intrusion speed exceeds the AI's blocking capabilities; the opponent's computing power is at least several times that of our defense system."

O'Showa gripped the hilt of the Dawnblade tightly: "Block all ports, physically disconnect the network."

"It's too late, Commander. The enemy has already obtained broadcasting privileges."

The communicators of all three parties rang simultaneously, and a human male voice came through.

"Two of my soldiers went missing here. Has any of you seen them?"

A brief silence fell over the tracks of Assamolo.

The orc chieftain tilted his head and listened three times before he understood the sentence. Then, he scratched his head in confusion: "What soldier? Human brat? There are human brats with rotten cans of food all over the place. How am I supposed to know which one it is?"

On the Ark of Ominous Signs, Ugalax's adjutant quickly reviewed the recent battlefield records and confirmed that the Cataclysm Fleet had indeed captured some humans in the past two months, most of whom were human auxiliary troops vassals of the Tau, who were taken in as laborers.

But prisoner-of-war operations specifically targeting Imperial soldiers? No.

"Your Highness, we have no records of Imperial soldiers being captured."

Ugalax snorted coldly.

A mortal warlord carrying a moon to an alien star system to find two soldiers? He's either insane or it's just an excuse.

Commander Oshova made a judgment in seconds: there were occasional skirmishes between the Foresight Enclave and the Empire, but no Imperial soldiers had ever been captured.

If this Marker is truly looking for someone, leading him to the orcs and chaos is the best option.

O'Shovar opened the reply channel: "The Vision Enclave has never made contact with Imperial soldiers. If your people have gone missing in this system, perhaps you should inquire with the Orcs and Chaos forces."

After the reply was sent, Lawson's voice rang out again.

"I'll give you ten minutes. If none of you take the initiative to admit it and hand over our soldiers, I will put you all on the list of suspects."

"Countdown begins."

The orc leaders had absolutely no interest in the concept of a "countdown".

Their attention was entirely focused on that silver battle moon. It was ours; who cares about the countdown? We had to take it back first.

"Charge! Take back the moon!"

The three orc warlords gave the order almost simultaneously.

More than forty orc warships changed course and rushed towards the Battle Moon at full speed.

The green-skinned engines roared, billowing black smoke, as hundreds of assault boats poured out of the mothership, swarming like green locusts towards their prey.

The giant sphere, spanning 1,200 kilometers, slowly rotated, pointing a hemisphere covered in cannon barrels at the oncoming orc fleet.

Fire.

Hundreds of beams of light and plasma beams shot out simultaneously from the surface of the moon.

The main guns of a fortress-level vessel possessed enough firepower to penetrate the armor of an Imperial battleship in a single shot.

The effect of this firepower on the orc's garbage ship can only be described in one word.

The orc warship in the front row was pierced from bow to stern the moment the beam of light hit it, causing the reactor to explode and the entire ship to turn into an expanding fireball and fragments in space.

The warships in the rear row didn't have time to turn around and crashed directly into the wreckage of the ships in front.

The fate of the hundreds of assault boats was even worse.

The numerous point defense turrets covering the surface of the battle moon fired with microsecond-level precision, each shot hitting an assault boat.

The green-skinned pilot didn't even have time to scream before he and his dilapidated vehicle became a fleeting spark in space.

The vanguard of the orc fleet, consisting of twelve warships and over three hundred assault boats, disappeared from the sensors.

Driven by inertia, the remaining orc fleet continued charging for a few more seconds before beginning to disperse.

Their instincts told them that a direct confrontation with the large silver sphere would be tantamount to suicide.

Several leaders yelled and ordered their troops to spread out and encircle the moon, trying to find blind spots in its firepower from different angles.

The moon has no blind spots in its firepower.

An omnidirectional turret means that it can fire from any point on a 1,200-kilometer sphere.

A deadly beam of light will illuminate the direction from which the orcs approach.

Before the ten-minute countdown had even ended, the orc fleet had already lost a third of its members.