Warhammer: Empire Reboot

We need to see more with our own eyes, hear more with our own ears, and verify more with our own hands.

If Lawson is indeed the Emperor's choice, then the First Legion will serve him!

The Lion King did not say anything to Lawson about trust, cooperation, or commitment.

He walked toward Zabril.

Zabril immediately stood up again, his back straight, his injured right knee trembling slightly.

"Come with me."

The Lion King walked to a door on the side of the command room, pushed it open, and went inside.

Before following, Zabril glanced back at Lawson.

Lawson gestured for him to go.

The door closed.

Lawson looked at the closed door and shook his head.

The First Legion always keeps secrets.

Fallen Angels, Caliban, Luther, the Dragon Forest—these things are encrypted layer by layer in the internal archives of the Dark Angels of the Empire, so much so that even the Inquisition cannot access their true core.

The first thing the Lion King did after waking up was to conduct the interrogation of the fallen angels behind closed doors.

A stubborn old man.

However, Lawson really had little interest in the First Legion's internal affairs.

Whether Zabril is a fallen angel or a loyalist, whether he should be killed or pardoned, is the Lion King's own business.

What Lawson cared about was never whether someone's genes or bloodline were clean or not, but whether someone could be used by him.

He turned back to the projection screen.

The reconstruction of the eleven planets is progressing steadily.

This is the domain of the nesting system and the foundation sequence; he doesn't need to concern himself with each one.

Swarm intelligence collects all data: combat efficiency, logistics deployment speed, local resource utilization efficiency in building matrices, order restoration time after civilian takeover, and drone failure rate under different planetary geological conditions.

Lawson leaned back in his chair; the door next door was still closed.

A lion that has awakened is far more useful than a lion that is asleep.

If this lion stood beside him, he would have a righteous name.

In some ways, the old lion is more appealing than Guilliman, after all, the old lion is the embodiment of martial virtue.

……

The door opened.

The Lion King stepped forward first, his greatsword still slung over his back, his expression unchanged.

Zabril followed behind him, his eyes red-rimmed.

A man sentenced to ten thousand years in prison has just been told he is innocent.

The Lion King walked up to Lawson and told him.

"I forgave him."

"You should have information about the Caliban in your files."

The Lion King said, “Ten thousand years ago, Luther betrayed me. He gathered his remaining legion brothers in Caliban and opened fire on my fleet.”

"But those brothers who stayed behind didn't know the truth. Luther told them that I abandoned Caliban, that I took the best warriors on the expedition, leaving them to rot on the home planet. Some believed it, some were just following orders, and some only realized they were on the wrong side after the battle began, but by then it was too late."

The Lion King glanced at Zabril behind him.

"He belongs to the last category."

The Lion King continued, “When Caliban shattered, the warp storms scattered these brothers across the galaxy, at different times and in different places. Some landed ten thousand years ago, some five thousand years ago, and some, like him, were spat out just a few years ago.”

"The Dark Angels spent ten thousand years hunting them down. Anyone who was a member of the Legion that stayed behind in Caliban back then, whether or not they had truly betrayed the cause, whether or not they had sided with Chaos, was put on the kill list."

The Dark Angels turned the pursuit of fallen angels into an obsession, a collective compulsion that spanned millennia.

In order to keep the First Legion's secrets, the secret itself became a bigger problem than the secret itself.

The Lion King clearly had his own judgment on this.

"Zabriel protected many Imperial civilians on Kamas, fought against Chaos for two years, and taught mortals how to set traps, disarm ammunition, and survive in desperate situations."

"After being hunted for so long, he still chose to stand on the side of the imperial civilians."

"People like that shouldn't die."

Zabril's eyes were still red, but his back was straighter than before.

From the moment the Caliban shattered, Zabril lived with the label of traitor.

No matter what he does—killing aliens, saving civilians, fighting Chaos—he can't change that name on the Dark Angels' kill list.

Every day he lived was stolen, every battle could be his last, and every Imperial warrior he encountered could be his judge sent to kill him.

Now, his genetic father, the Primarch of the First Legion, has personally said "forgive."

Zabril took a deep breath.

“I will follow my Lord.”

The Lion King nodded and turned to Lawson.

“He will come with me; I’m going to find other people.”

Lawson understood what he meant by "others".

"If you need it, I can help you find it."

The Lion King shook his head and refused: "No need, I want to go and see for myself."

This answer was exactly what Lawson had expected.

The Lion King had just woken up, and his understanding of the current galaxy came entirely from Lawson's one-sided account and a projection wall.

He needed to see for himself what the world had become, the state of the Imperial Face, who was now leading the Dark Angels, what decisions Guilliman had made on Terra, the distribution of power among the four Chaos Gods, and the status of the Star Torch.

These things cannot be relayed by others; he must experience them himself.

Lawson didn't press the issue: "You're welcome to come back anytime. You can contact me on any planet in the Dark Side of the Empire, as long as there's a Cornerstone Sequence."

The shadow split open like the surface of water, swallowing the figures of the Lion King and his companion.

The corners of the cloak finally disappeared.

The lights in the command room were restored to their original state.

Lawson handed over the follow-up work on these planets to the swarm for coordination, and then returned to the warning planet using the stasis field.

On my first day back on Vigilant Planet, I received some good news.

Source of report: Katachon Observatory.

Lawson immediately pulled up the detailed records.

Several months ago, he established thirty observation stations on the planet Katachon and stationed nine hundred assassins there permanently.

The sole purpose was to completely assimilate these assassins' body odor, sweat composition, and environmental traces into the Catalan culture, eliminating all non-native chemical odors.

After six months of immersion, the cornerstone assassin of the animal affinity system finally completed its scent assimilation.

The report records that early this morning, a friendly assassin spotted a target within the observation range of the southern swamp of Katachan.

According to the contact protocol established by the bee swarm, he slowly approached from downwind at a speed of no more than two meters per minute.

A half-meter-tall amphibian crouched on a moss-covered rock, its two enormous eyes bulging as it stared at the approaching assassin.

When the assassin was three meters away, the barking toad tightened its hind legs.

The assassins stopped.

I waited for four minutes.

The barking toad's hind legs loosened, and the assassin continued to approach.

The barking toad puffed out its cheeks, showing no hostility.

The scent on this assassin had completely blended into the ecology of Katachon. His sweat contained alkaline substances from local plants, his skin was covered with metabolic products from swamp microorganisms, and his exhaled breath carried traces of sulfides unique to Katachon.

In the barking toad's senses, this was not an outsider.

The moment the assassin's hand reached out and touched the barking toad's back, the static force field was activated.

A silver-gray light curtain unfolded from the fingertips, completely enveloping the barking toad.

Lawson looked at the giant toad floating silently in the projection and smiled.

It was round and bulging, with protruding eyes, a slightly open mouth, and its hind legs sticking out in mid-air. Its posture was so comical that it didn't look like a weapon of mass destruction.

But Lawson was well aware of its power.

It is the most perfect biological weapon on the planet Katachon.

He carved out a separate, isolated area within the armory's folding space specifically to store these toads.

Lawson had no curiosity about taking it out to admire it.

Given its temperament, it will explode if you take it out.

He looked at the floating green sphere, and a thought arose in his mind.

Who knows which unlucky soul will become the first official victim of this giant toad?

……

Tarsus is an ocean world on the edge of the Empire’s dark side.

Ninety-seven percent of the land is covered by deep blue seawater, and the only land consists of hundreds of volcanic islands scattered near the equator.

The islanders make a living by fishing, salt mining, and repairing fishing boats, generation after generation, unaware that a war is raging in the Milky Way.

After the Great Rift tore open, Tarsus lost all contact with the Empire.

The last transport ship never returned after leaping into subspace seventeen years ago.