Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Poverty, heaviness, numbness.

After the galactic rift was torn open, the starlight intermittently went out along this route.

Tax ships no longer arrive, the Star Speakers' echoes turn into screams, and the Navigator Family refuses to enter the nearby subspace tides.

The governor initially issued a decree to reassure the people, proclaiming that the emperor's glory would eventually return, and that mining quotas, grain requisitions, and conscription of the defense forces would continue as before.

Six months later, the first Chaos warship appeared in outer orbit of Kamas.

The ship resembled a bloody iron coffin unearthed from the history of the old empire, its hull covered with carved eyes and its prow hung with skinned corpses.

Then came the second and the third, and then the entire fleet emerged from the shadows of the warp.

The flagship is named Blade of Truth, an Astartes battle barge.

Its outer shell once belonged to the Emperor's angels; the old emblems were scraped off, and the scars were filled with black iron and eye-shaped runes.

The strike cruisers followed on both flanks, the Fury-class heavy cruisers were responsible for blocking the course, and the three Pluto-class heavy cruisers locked down Kamas's orbital exits one by one.

The Thousand Eyes Battle Group has arrived.

The Chaos Wizard Byler Seraphax dislikes waste.

He first had the cult's agents cut off the Star Tower, then had the orbital strike cruisers target and destroy the defense force's artillery emplacements.

Governor Camas ordered a counterattack, and just as the three large artillery positions completed their first salvo, a rebellion broke out within the control of the government.

The officer in charge of calibrating the ballistics had his throat slit by his adjutant, the gun emplacement door opened from the inside, and the chaotic airdrop pod crashed into the position while the defenders were still confirming the authenticity of the orders with each other.

The governor's mansion held out for four days.

On the fourth day at dusk, the Mourning Guard entered the Governor's Palace.

They used to be called the Ash Blades.

A loyal Space Marine chapter, trapped by a warp storm, collectively corrupted during a long voyage.

Traces of past loyalty still linger on the gray-black power armor, and the chapter insignia on the shoulder armor has been scraped off, leaving only rough wounds.

The area outside the governor's palace was crowded with commoners.

Some people knelt down and cried out that the Emperor Angel had finally descended.

The Mourning Guard did not tell them that they had mistaken someone for someone else.

The explosive guns opened fire, shattering the crowd in the front. Before those in the back could escape, they were driven back to the square by the cult's armed men with bayonets.

The governor was dragged out, his legs cut off below the knees, and Seraphax personally drove a metal nail with an eyeball into his forehead.

That night, the windows of the Governor's Palace were lit all night long.

The next day, all cities in Kamas simultaneously received the new order.

Mines continued operating, and grain depots continued to be requisitioned.

One laborer for every ten households, and one offering for every hundred households.

Those who disobey the order will be punished along with the entire district.

In the past, when empires exploited miners, they would at least leave behind a tax form.

The Thousand Eyes Squad doesn't need to pretend to be bureaucrats; they directly organize people into batches, put iron rings around their necks, and engrave numbers into their skin.

The laborers were driven into the mine, with cult overseers and mutated orcs behind them, and collapsed tunnels, toxic dust, and hot ore veins in front of them.

Miners work eighteen hours a day.

The person who falls down is checked first for their hands and feet.

If they can still climb, inject them with stimulants and throw them back next to the mine cart.

If they can't climb it, they'll be sent to the sacrificial tower.

The original church in Kamas was not completely demolished.

Seraphex gouged out the eyes of the Imperial Statue and stuffed black crystals into their sockets.

The crystals would slowly rotate, as if watching each person kneeling on the bench.

The pastor was forced to stand on the pulpit and read the rewritten prayers. If he mispronounced a single word, a line of believers would be dragged away by the cultists.

The Thousand Eyes Warband built sacrificial towers between major cities, the towers being pieced together from scrap iron, skeletons, fragments of holy icons, and mine shaft supports.

Every evening, the labor team would be driven to the foot of the tower, where cult priests would select people from a list.

Those whose names were chosen were led up the steps, their blood flowing into a groove engraved with runes, and then being transported through pipes to the underground ritual chamber.

Sometimes, the entire neighborhood can hear the same sound at night.

The voice mimicked the tone of a deceased relative, calling for them to open the door through the door.

The person who opened the door will never come back.

Those who didn't open the door still had to go to the mine the next day, pushing their carts with pale faces and bleeding ears.

The places Seraphal are really interested in are in the north of the city.

It was originally an abandoned smelting area, but it has now been transformed into a mutation testing ground.

The Broken Horned Beastman is imprisoned there.

This massive army of orc mutants is the most brutal tool in the hands of the Thousand-Eyes Warband.

They were originally just orcs, but were repeatedly tormented by chaotic magic, potions, and biochemical cutting. Curved bone horns grew on their skulls, nail-like bone spurs drilled out of their backs, reddish copper rings were embedded in their eyes, and blackish-green pus seeped from the cracks in their skin.

They also possess the strength and reproductive speed of orcs.

Seraphox used incantations and potions to suppress some of their instincts, making them obey the warbands and turn them into a siege beast horde that could be deployed.

Kamas civilians were frequently sent to the experimental field.

Some were pushed into iron cages to test the starvation response of the Broken Horned Beastmen.

Some people were strapped to operating tables and injected with a mixture of orc spores, chaos venom, and alien tissue.

Some people were sewn into mining equipment to observe how long their bodies could withstand subspace pollution and industrial loads.

The Seraphic recorder will carefully write down the results.

Kamas is not simply a slaughterhouse.

It is a continuously operating laboratory.

It is also a warehouse for the Thousand Eyes Warband to expand outwards.

This warband has already controlled several star systems and more than a dozen imperial worlds.

Kamas is just one of them, yet it is responsible for supplying ores, slaves, sacrifices, and mutated armies.

As long as it can still produce resources, Sierra Fax will keep it "alive".

The sky is gray year-round.

The chaotic fleet on orbit blocked out some of the sunlight, while the smoke columns from the Industrial City stained the remaining light a dirty yellow.

Iron cages hung in the alley, containing people trying to escape. The area under the cages was deliberately left uncleaned, so that later arrivals would step on the blood of the previous group.

The lower-class residents learned to keep their voices down.

Children are taught not to cry when they go to sleep, because crying will attract the patrol.

The old man sewed the small eagle emblem into the inner layer of his clothes, and touching it was his way of praying.

The workers would exchange information amidst the noise of passing minecarts: which water pipes were still drinkable, which foreman had a recent penchant for whipping whom, which abandoned building was a good hiding place at night, and which priest would miss someone with an ambiguous number during roll call.

Hope becomes very small here.

It could be as small as having only a sip of clean water, a piece of unmolded grain cake, or not having your number on the tonight's list.

The remnants of the planetary defense forces are still there, but their weapons are outdated, ammunition is scarce, and most of their communication equipment is broken.

Several officers attempted to organize a resistance, first by blowing up a cult checkpoint, then by ambushing a slave wagon, and finally by having their stronghold located by the Mourning Guard.

After the gray-black Astartes entered the tunnel, the battle lasted only nine minutes.

The survivors were hung at the mine entrance, with the words "The Emperor did not come" carved on their chests.

This phrase was later painted on many walls by cult members.

When the Kamas people passed by this statement, they often lowered their heads, not daring to look or refute it.

As the mine elevator descends, beside the drainage ditch in the ruins, beyond the shadow of the sacrificial tower, and after the children have fallen asleep, people will still draw a double-headed eagle in the dust with their fingers.

He erased it immediately after finishing the drawing, as if it had never happened.

A chaotic haze hangs over the planet, and subspace pollution seeps into wells, dreams, and the bones of newborns.

Some people are born with a row of small eyes under their eyelids, some people's fingers turn into long claws during puberty, and some people just have many dreams, in which they see a giant door every day, and something behind the door calls their name.

Mutants typically do not live more than three days.

Some parents would end their child's suffering at night and then go to the mine as usual the next day.

This is Kamas.

A mining world that is gradually losing contact on the old star map of the empire.

A purgatory transformed by the Thousand Eyes Warband into a sacrificial ground, a mutation laboratory, and a slave factory.

But even under these circumstances, the planet Kamas still possesses the power to resist.

The Thousand Eyes Corps seized the tracks, the governor's mansion, the mines and the church, and the names of most people.

Yet, deep in the wilderness and in polluted forests, some people still carry guns in their pockets, engrave the Imperial double-headed eagle on the bottom of their magazines, and wait for the Chaos patrols to pass by at night.

These resistances are minimal.

Seraphox is too small to bother with personally.

A mine was destroyed, a slave train van went missing, several cult overseers were hung from trees, and several boxes of moldy rations and old-fashioned laser ammunition were stolen.

For the Thousand Eyes Chapter, these are merely losses in the process of planetary domination.

For those survivors hiding in the mountains, this is why they are still able to live.

Kamas, Northern Hemisphere, Grey Ridge Mountains.

Zabril crouched behind a cracked rock, peering through the worn-out helmet visor at the Chaos patrol below the mountain path.