Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"Grandpa, you didn't lie to me! The Emperor heard my prayers! He sent angels to save us!"

The little girl's screams echoed through the silent ruins.

Her grandfather was already in tears. He knelt down and pounded his forehead against the glass-sharded ground, sobbing uncontrollably as he kissed the earth.

Inside the church at this moment.

Several cult leaders hiding in the distance.

When they saw the figures of these four steel giants clearly, especially their iconic Astartes power armor that looked like walking tanks.

They also regained consciousness!

"Star... Space Marine! The Emperor's Death Angel!"

"Run! Run!"

These madmen, who claimed they would sacrifice everything for the evil god, let out screams even more piercing than women when they actually faced the legendary humanoid weapon used to eradicate heretics.

Without hesitation, they dropped their weapons, even shoving and rolling among themselves, fleeing desperately through the sewer entrance and the complex network of dark alleyways behind the church, like a swarm of cockroaches seeing the sunlight.

"Sir, should we pursue them?"

"Don't worry about those rats in the sewers, there's plenty of time to deal with them."

Lawson waved his hand dismissively.

He turned to the four terrified battle nuns standing before the altar.

At this moment, the dust gradually settled.

The four trapped nuns finally caught their breath.

They helped each other to their feet, but when they saw their four saviors, their eyes did not show the ecstatic joy of being rescued. Instead, they felt an extremely strong sense of vigilance.

In the rigorous monastic education they received throughout their lives, and in the Imperial Chapter Emblem Identification Manual they knew by heart, there was never any record of such a power armor paint job!

White background with black stripes?

No Imperial double-headed eagle emblem? No wax seal symbolizing purity? No sashes and skull decorations to attest to the Chapter's honor?

What's even more terrifying is that the designs of these four power suits, especially the MK IV Conqueror power suit worn by Lawson, which has undergone extreme modifications using living metal, exude an extremely ancient, even somewhat alien-tech-like, eerie style.

For a battle nun who constantly talks about heresy, anything unknown or contrary to the Imperial's standards and doctrines could mean the most terrible depravity!

Are these Astartes loyalists or corrupt, traitorous legions from the Warp? This terrible thought arose simultaneously in the minds of the four nuns.

Sister Katarina was the quickest and most decisive in her reaction.

She endured the excruciating pain in her left arm and stealthily reached for the last molten grenade at her waist.

She stepped forward, blocking the box containing the sacred relics:

"Halt! Unknown As..."

However, before he could finish saying the name Astartes...

Lawson moved.

Its massive body instantly covered a distance of over ten meters and appeared in front of Katarina!

Before Katarina could react...

An oversized, high-caliber explosive pistol was pressed directly against Katarina's towering black power armor chest!

The cold muzzle of the gun was less than three centimeters from her heart!

Almost simultaneously, the three steel demons behind Lawson—A2, A3, and A4—raised their heavy bomb guns in unison, their dark muzzles locking onto Sera, Sena, and Vera respectively!

In an instant, the offensive and defensive positions were reversed!

The savior has turned into a killer!

The nuns were all stunned into stiffness by this sudden turn of events.

Battle Nun, the armed blade of the Imperial State Church, and a loyal lackey of the Inquisition.

They've spent their whole lives pointing explosives at other people's heads and denouncing them as heretics. When have they ever been so berated and have a gun pointed at them in such a condescending manner?

The one pointing the gun at them was a Space Marine, who was suspected to be one of the highest-ranking creations of the Emperor!

And this is the beginning of Lawson's psychological tactics!

To deal with these dogmatically brainwashed women, reasoning with them is useless. You must be more arrogant, more fanatical, and more indescribable than them in order to completely overwhelm them with your presence!

Chapter 94 Angels and Saintesses Walk Together

"Shut up, mortal!"

A ferocious roar suddenly erupted from the loudspeaker of Lawson's helmet!

"Who gave you permission to speak to us in such a questioning tone?"

Lawson leaned down slightly, his crimson-glowing visors on the tiger-striped helmet staring intently at Katarina's stubborn face.

"Look around you. This is the dark side of the Empire! The light of the Star Torch has long been extinguished. Aliens swarm above you, and demons roam beneath your feet. Thousands upon thousands of Imperial Guards have been slaughtered, and the entire planet is wailing in flames."

"And you..."

Lawson pressed the muzzle of his gun hard against Katarina's breastplate, producing a muffled clang.

"You four weak and vulnerable mortal nuns, trapped alone in this filthy ruin, having endured such a brutal siege, how come the sacred relic of the state religion behind you is still intact?"

"Does this make sense in the context of war?!"

"Tell me, nuns! What sordid deal did you make to earn this wretched existence? Did you compromise with those green-skinned beasts? Or did you offer your souls to the shadows of the Warp?"

"Prove your absolute purity before the Holy Emperor immediately! Immediately! Otherwise, I, representing the supreme will of the Golden Throne, hereby order your immediate extermination! I will burn you and this defiled relic to ashes!"

These words were like a massive mental nuclear bomb, detonating directly in the minds of the four nuns!

In the Warhammer universe, the Inquisition and certain extreme Astartes Chapters often ruthlessly annihilate allies simply because they suspect a unit has been corrupted by Chaos.

This kind of thing happens all the time.

For the fighting nuns who value purity and loyalty a thousand times more than life itself, being labeled as compromising with heretics and selling their souls was more terrifying and humiliating than being torn to pieces!

This is an extremely terrifying psychological attack!

If a greenskin or a cultist said that, they would simply cut off the other person's head without batting an eye.

But now, faced with four angels whose individual combat power far surpassed theirs and who were suspected of carrying a secret mission from the Empire's high command, the nuns, under the overwhelming and terrifying aura and threat of death, instinctively abandoned their investigation into Lawson's identity and instead fell into an extremely intense panic, desperately trying to prove their innocence.

"No! This is impossible! This is slander!"

The youngest novice nun, Vera, was so terrified by the oppressive aura that she dropped her dagger, tears streaming down her face: "We didn't! We absolutely did not betray the Emperor! My lord, please see the truth!"

The twin sisters, Sera and Sena, were also deathly pale.

They threw their weapons at their feet, crossed their arms in front of their chests, and assumed the most standard oath-taking posture of the state religion:

"We swear to Holy Terra! We swear to the Golden Throne! Our souls are absolutely pure!"

Even with a gun pointed at her chest by Lawson, Katarina, the captain, now had her usually wary and cold eyes filled with immense humiliation.

She suddenly straightened her chest, fearlessly facing the cold muzzle of the gun, and roared with all her might:

“Go ahead and shoot! You can kill our bodies, but you can never insult our faith! We would rather die than let those heretics defile the sacred relics in the slightest before we shed our last drop of blood! Our scars, our dead sisters, are the irrefutable proof of our loyalty!”

"We are absolutely pure!"

Looking at the four fanatical nuns before him, their faces flushed and even their eyes filled with tears as they desperately tried to prove their innocence, Lawson, beneath his helmet, curled a barely concealed sneer at the corner of his mouth.

Hooked.

He understands the psychological mechanisms of religious fanatics all too well.

When you suppress them with more extreme and fanatical skepticism, they subconsciously accept your position as judge in order to prove themselves. In this process, your false identity is unconsciously legitimized by them.

However, this is not enough.

After the nuns hurriedly swore oaths and proved their innocence, their hard-trained minds, once they calmed down a bit, would surely realize what was going on and continue to question his flawed identity.

as predicted.

After taking the oath and seeing that Lawson did not fire immediately, Katarina took a few quick breaths.

Her red hair, soaked with sweat and blood, clung to her cheeks, rekindling a hint of the shrewdness she possessed as the head nun.

"We have proven our loyalty with our souls and our actions."

Katarina stared intently at Lawson's helmet visor: "Now, mighty Astartes. State your chapter number. If you are a loyal son, why did you land in such a filthy alien warship? Why is there no Imperial Order markings or identification on your power armor?"

This is a very pointed question, directly addressing Lawson's biggest weakness.

He didn't have a number at all, and the ship was indeed a dilapidated green-skinned vessel.

If any ordinary Imperial officer were present, faced with such questioning, he might try to fabricate lies or come up with some vague excuse.

But Lawson did not.

To deal with a stubborn nun like this, explaining is just a cover-up, and a cover-up is a sign of a guilty conscience.

Lawson made an extremely contemptuous gesture.

He slowly withdrew the explosive pistol that was pressed against Katarina's chest and inserted it into the holster on his waist.

Then, he slightly raised his chin and looked down at Katarina with the kind of gaze one would give a low-level subordinate with extremely low confidentiality, or even a bit stupid.

"Number?"

A sneer came from inside Lawson's helmet: "That's something for those fools who need fame and the songs of mortal bards."

He strode around the four nuns once.

"If you had sufficient authority to know who we are, you wouldn't need to ask at all. The fact that you asked shows that your level in this cruel galaxy is as low as dust in a nest; you have no right to know of our existence!"

These words were extremely unreasonable and domineering, but they perfectly matched the secrecy style of the Imperial Inquisition or certain top-secret organizations, such as the Grey Knights and the Imperial Guard Whisperers, who regarded ordinary people as ants.

Within the Imperial hierarchy, secrecy levels are an absolutely paramount and sacred concept.

"As for why we're traveling on an alien warship?"

"When the empire's borders are torn apart, when loyal warships are destroyed, the true blade will ruthlessly plunge into the enemy's heart! Even if it's driving a green garbage truck full of excrement, as long as the emperor's judgment can be poured over the enemy's head, that is the most sacred means!"

"You don't even understand this basic tactical flexibility and adaptability. That's why you're trapped here waiting to die, mortals!"