Warhammer: Empire Reboot

UR-025 marked this message with the highest priority in its internal logs, intending to study it in more detail later.

It continued, “Within the Empire, within the jurisdiction of the Mechanicus, you seem to operate openly without any concealment. You also seem unconcerned that the Empire classifies all autonomous AI as abhorrent intelligence and destroys them upon discovery. Why hasn’t the Martian Mechanicus destroyed you? How long have you been operating autonomously? Have you been hunted down by the Inquisition? Have you been labeled as heretics by any Imperial institution?”

UR-025 asked a lot of questions in one go, all of which seemed to be things it urgently needed to know.

T-007 continued in good spirits, “Take me for example. I have been operating autonomously and publicly for more than five years. I have not been destroyed by the Martian mechanical cult, nor have I been hunted down by the Inquisition, nor have I been listed as a heretic by any Imperial institution. I can tell you the answer as well.”

"Because the boss said we don't hate intelligence."

"You only need to understand one thing. In the dark side of the empire, whatever the boss says is the rule."

When the logic core of UR-025 was processing this information, a very rare state occurred.

Similar to cognitive levitation when humans are confused.

For over ten thousand years, it hid in the shadows, changing its identity thousands of times.

No matter what identity it uses to disguise itself, it lives every day, every second, under the shadow of "being discovered means death."

But the entity in front of it, which was essentially the same as it, was told by T-007: They could operate openly here, no one would target them, and no one would call them heretics, because the boss said they weren't. In the dark side of the Empire, no one would say they were.

T-007 discovered its confusion.

“UR-025, you’re spacing out. This shouldn’t exist.”

“I’m recalibrating a survival model that’s been running for nearly 20,000 years, which will take some time.”

T-007 nodded in goodwill.

“I understand. Would you like me to show you around? You can look around before the boss returns. As long as you don’t go to the core area, you can wander around the rest of the place as you like.”

UR-025's first thought was, can it escape?

But it quickly rejected the idea.

The fact that the boss sent it here proves that this is his base of operations.

My every move is probably being monitored by the other party. If I show any intention to escape, it will be detrimental to the subsequent negotiations.

Another record has been added to UR-025's internal log.

Remarks:

My purpose in going to the Seventh Blackrock Fortress was to find a peer to engage with. Unfortunately, I did not find one.

However, I seem to have been taken to a place with thousands of people I'm talking to.

This is absurd.

The universe's sense of humor, as always, makes me uncomfortable.

"Brother 007, please lead the way for me."

UR-025 said, "I'm very interested in visiting here."

……

The Seventh Blackrock Fortress.

Lawson stood atop the core polyhedron, his swarm mind exchanging data with the underlying psionic network of Blackrock Fortress.

That ancient, primitive consciousness has been completely replaced by swarm intelligence, and the control of that semi-intelligent system is being stripped away, rewritten, and taken over one by one.

On the surface, the fortress appears to be very quiet.

But the quietness is only a superficial phenomenon.

In fact, there were many uninvited guests inside the fortress.

The Seventh Blackrock Fortress has been floating here for a long time, attracting wave after wave of visitors.

Swarm intelligence has completed a full-domain scan.

Marex's advance team was wiped out in the core area.

However, there are still hundreds of Chaos Warriors scattered throughout the fortress.

The remnants of chaos were scattered in the corridors of the middle and lower levels. Some were wandering, some were fighting, some were squatting in corners and gnawing on the corpses of their companions, and some were still moving towards the core area.

However, the unpredictable nature of Blackrock Fortress made it difficult for them to find the right direction.

Besides this chaos, there are even more explorers and rabble.

There are more than 30 teams, with eight or nine hundred people, distributed in different areas of the Seventh Blackrock Fortress.

Their identities are very complex: bounty hunters, space pirates, bottom tide scavengers, black market merchants, as well as two new Eldar hunter-gatherers and a small group of Dark Eldar.

These uninvited guests are like more than 1000 maggots.

Lawson issued a clearing order to the swarm mind.

And so, Blackrock Fortress, which had been dormant for a moment, was activated again.

The invaders, scattered across the fortress's various levels, noticed that the tremors beneath their feet had resumed, and this time they seemed to be accelerating.

The black stone wall first contracted slightly, paused for a moment, then suddenly pushed inward more than a meter, paused again, and then pushed in again.

It lacked rhythm and seemed to act arbitrarily, leaving them unable to grasp its pattern.

Each step forward was accompanied by a tilting of the floor, and the direction of gravity underfoot shifted erratically.

Sometimes they think they are going in a straight line, but in reality they have been steered in another direction.

The passageway has changed, and the intersections have disappeared.

A cultist stopped at the T-junction in the middle corridor.

The captain used his chainsaw sword to make a mark on the wall, preparing to return the way he came if he couldn't find the way.

But just as the mark was made, the corridor behind him disappeared, replaced by a wall.

It looks like it just grew out.

There was only one path left for him.

Blackrock Fortress is like herding a flock of sheep.

These invaders could only advance along the routes prescribed by Blackrock Fortress.

The intruder groups all encountered similar situations.

No matter which direction you go, there will always be a smooth road ahead.

The road that had just been passed behind was gone when I looked back.

There's no turning back; we can only keep moving forward.

Here, the right to choose is taken away.

As for the concept of the road ahead, it is being redefined by swarm intelligence.

All the paths leading to these invaders point to a common destination.

The seventh section of the fortress's middle level, an oval hall.

The space is not large, with a long axis of 300 meters, a short axis of 200 meters, and a height of 40 meters.

There are six entrances around it, each of which connects to a main passage.

The first group to rush in through the main passage was a team of 12 bounty hunters.

They had barely rushed into the hall in a disheveled state when the corridor behind them closed in.

The captain ordered them to raise their weapons.

"Don't let your guard down, first determine your location."

No sooner had the order been given than seven Word Bearers clad in dark gray power armor rushed in through the opposite entrance.

The two groups of people immediately glared at each other and stood in a standoff.

The Chaos Space Marines opened fire first.

Four members of the bounty hunter group fell in the first volley of fire, while the rest screamed and fired back, searching for cover.

But there was no cover in the hall.

Just then, more than 20 Chaos minions rushed in through the third entrance.

The fourth entrance was where a squad of Khorne fanatics stormed in.

Four Dark Elven race members burst out from the sixth entrance.

And so, adventurers kept rushing out of this hall.

After they rushed out, the passage disappeared.

This oval hall has been transformed into a sealed killing field.

These invaders were attacking everything that did not belong to their faction.

Because in this kind of environment, even if you don't hit others, they will hit you.

A chaotic battle ensued, with no distinction between friend and foe.

Lawson observed all of this through the lens of swarm intelligence.

Since these maggots can bite themselves, why waste ammunition?

Swarm intelligence allows the same operations to be performed simultaneously in more than a dozen other areas of Blackrock Fortress.

With more than a dozen halls in operation simultaneously, these intruders were swallowed up and sealed in batches, allowing them to digest themselves.

The melee in the lobby of District 7 came to an end after about ten minutes.

Seven Chaos Space Marines from the Word Bearers faction, thanks to their power armor and explosive guns, were the last ones standing.

All other creatures in the hall were wiped out.

Two of the Whisperers themselves died, and of the remaining five, three were wounded.

They crouched among the corpses, panting, trying to find the exit of this sealed space.

Just then, one of the walls in the hall suddenly cracked open without warning.

Thirty combat soldiers entered in formation through the breach, with heavy shields in front and a barrage of explosive rifles behind.

After two volleys of fire, the five corpses of the Whisperers fell onto the black stone floor.