Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"Are you a mechanical cultist?"

"No."

"A fully automatic smartphone?"

"Not at all."

T-007's answer was swift: "I am a mechatronic T sequence."

O. Vesa's eyes changed.

Titanium drones rely on artificial intelligence, semi-autonomous decision-making, and Tuscan-supervised algorithms, but they are still machines, intelligent tools within an engineering system.

This T-007 is different.

"Can you replicate yourself?" O. Vesa asked.

"This issue involves the industrial authority of the seal holder."

T-007 replied quickly: "Not open at the moment."

O. Vesa immediately understood the boundary.

This problem gets to the heart of the matter.

The human ruler possesses some technologies that seem to be even more advanced than those of the Tau Empire.

At least the Titanium group cannot create such mechanical beings.

But the problem came again.

If Lawson can manufacture this T-series, instantly transport them from the Farseeing Enclave to Agrippina using a stasis field, and also control the Battle Moon and those strange heavy infantry, then why does he value the Tau drones, combat suits, and materials science so much?

This does not align with O.Visa's understanding of the civilization's technology tree.

A civilization may excel at interstellar travel but be weak in materials science.

It may have strong energy but weak automation.

They may be strong in weaponry but weak in civilian engineering.

The things in Klossen's hands were too fragmented.

Some technologies seem like futuristic creations beyond the comprehension of the TIA group, while other areas do indeed need to be filled by visionary enclaves.

O. Vesa kept these questions to himself.

Now is not the time to study Lawson.

He's here to set up a drone production line.

“We need to review the existing workshops, material inventory, precision machining capabilities, micro-actuator production lines, sensor assembly conditions, and the command protocols you are preparing to integrate into the construction matrix.”

T-007 turned around: "Come with me."

The portal to the main star Agrippina opened before them.

The engineers followed the T-007 into the main casting area.

They had heard of the forging world of the human empire.

In the Tau records, the Forgeworld is the industrial heart of the Imperial Mechanicus, a colossal monster built from pollution, religion, machine servants, heavy manufacturing, and ancient STC fragments.

Seeing it with your own eyes is still a different matter.

There are no truly natural zones on the surface of Agrippina.

The casting tower pierces the clouds from the horizon, its body covered with exhaust vents, transport tracks, external elevators, and weapon platforms.

High above are dense cargo barges and rail-mounted elevators, while on the ground are furnaces, assembly plants, tracked transport lines, arsenals, and a large-scale artillery testing range.

Deeper still, the earth's surface cracks open into massive industrial wells.

O. Vesa stood on the transparent armored observation deck, looking down.

The underground space has also been hollowed out.

Factory after factory extends downwards along the planet's crust, with giant elevators carrying tank chassis, gun barrels, power armor parts, and rows of ammunition boxes sinking down.

The deep furnace feeds the metal river into the mold, and the robotic arms swing like a forest in the heat.

Titanium-based cities emphasize efficiency and cleanliness.

Agrippina was also effective.

But its efficiency comes on a different scale.

Compress the entire planet into an industrial organ, making it endlessly devour ores, people, scrap metal, spoils of war, and energy, and then spit out war machines.

The engineers remained silent throughout.

They saw the Mechanic Sages inspecting the reactor amidst prayers, and they also saw the T-Series taking over more complex scheduling tasks from the sidelines.

The foundation sequence travels between the factory and the console.

Rows of robotic servants perform repetitive tasks beside the conveyor belt, their head interfaces connected to the production line, with robotic arms extending from behind their spines.

This is not advanced in the sense of the titanium group.

But it is vast, persistent, and terrifying.

O. Vesa noticed that Agrippina was not as completely chaotic as the Tau intelligence had suggested.

The mechanical sages remain, but actual production scheduling is clearly being hampered by another, more efficient system.

The T-series and cornerstone sequences were inserted into the old mechanical education system like a skeleton, reducing disputes and forcibly unifying the flow of materials.

This led him to revise his assessment of Lawson once again.

A young Tuo engineer couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Sir, how many factories are there here?"

O. Vesa did not answer, because he did not know either.

T-007 seemed to have heard.

"The main planet Agrippina currently has 976 large foundries, over 34,000 medium-sized production nests, and millions of small parts workshops. The underground industrial layer is still under expansion."

O. Visayas looked at it.

"How much labor do you use to maintain this planet?"

T-007 replied: "If only computer servants are considered, the Agrippina main planet currently has approximately 200 billion computer servants available for use."

O. Visayas stopped in his tracks.

The Tu family engineer behind him also stopped.

An engineer thought there was an error in the translation protocol and checked it again.

"How many?"

"Two hundred billion."

This time, all the Tau members heard it clearly.

The total population of all the Tau people in the Visionary Enclave is approximately nine billion.

The nine billion population also includes infants, civilians, the wounded, non-industrial workers, and people from all walks of life.

Lawson controls a casting world with a fleet of two hundred billion machine servants alone.

T-007 did not shy away from its source.

"The Empire's dark side has too many ruthless bandits, rebels, corrupted gene stealers, Chaos cultists, alien collaborators, and unmodifiable criminals. We have no shortage of servitude material."

The expressions on the faces of the several Tu engineers changed.

The Tau also deal with criminals, carry out labor reform, and use punitive measures in war, but turning two hundred billion lives into machine servants to power an industrial planet is still too much for them.

O. Visa saw reality in this number.

The far-sighted enclave's surrender was absolutely the right thing to do.

If they surrender too late, Lawson will have another nine billion servants.

Don't even mention visionary enclaves.

Even the Tau Empire itself would have to pay a very high price to face such a well-integrated underground force.

O. Visayas felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of Anwa.

The Ether Council is accustomed to underestimating all variables that are out of control. If they continue to use old intelligence to assess Lawson, they will drag the entire Tau Empire into a war that is difficult to end.

He even had some hope that the Ethers might become machine servants.

T-007 continued its journey.

"The first phase of the Nest Building Project is located on the 37th underground industrial floor."

A lift platform carried them down.

The platform is surrounded by transparent armor, allowing Turk engineers to see different industrial layers passing by.

The lower you go, the hotter the air gets, and the louder the mechanical noise becomes.

When they arrived at the 37th underground industrial level, they found a drone production workshop in the making.

O. Visa originally thought he would see the empty factory first, and then bring people to plan the layout.

But Agrippina didn't wait for him.

Inside the giant foundry, hundreds of temporary tracks have already been laid out.

Rows of robotic arms are installing assembly tables, the cornerstone sequence is sorting materials by area, the T-series stands in front of the main control platform to rewrite the interface protocol, and the mechanical sage is using a servo skull to confirm energy, heat dissipation and safety thresholds for the new production line.

At the very front of the workshop, several Tu-style construction drones were disassembled into parts and suspended in transparent magnetic lock frames.

Next to it are the original blueprints of the Titanium Clan, the disassembly diagram of the Lawson system, the Imperial material replacement plan, and a new control structure.

When O. Vesa approached, he discovered that they had already completed a great deal of groundwork.

The outer casing stamping line is being tested.

The first prototype of the miniature robotic arm joint has been produced.

The tracked chassis of the material sorting drone was modified into two versions: one retaining the titanium suspension structure, and the other changing to a rougher but easier-to-maintain Imperial track structure.

The maintenance nest shell is also being assembled.