Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"Anyone who acts rashly because they think the defenses here are lax will be left on Planet Three by me. It's better to die by my hand than by Rosen."

The young soldier lowered his head: "Understood, Commander."

The team moved forward again, and the tense atmosphere returned.

Blood Gate Master Urkasi chuckled softly: "Commander-in-Chief, you overestimate Lawson. He is skilled in war, but his understanding of gods is still stuck in the foolish worship of humans. In Lawson's eyes, Isha is, after all, a complete deity."

"He probably thought that no one, except the Lady of Thirst and the Lord of Plague, could take Isa away from him."

"So he would protect her from the evil god's corruption, but he might not have thought that someone would come to steal her with a scalpel and a cryo-chamber."

Several of Blood Gate Master's assistants nearby also laughed.

The mere thought of a god being stuffed into a box and transported back to Comoros was enough to bring them pleasure.

The goddess of life, as seen by Lawson, posed no threat to them.

If Star III were to contain Kane, the Eldar's former God of War, even if it were just a relatively complete fragment, the Thief God Squad would never approach it.

Kane was born for war; even when severely injured and weakened, he could still kill tens of thousands of Dark Eldar with a single slap.

Isa is different.

According to Comoros's assessment, she has almost no offensive capabilities, but possesses near-infinite regenerative abilities.

She can save others' lives, and she can also heal herself time and time again.

For the Blood Gate Master, this did not represent danger, but rather meant more durable experimental materials.

The faster the recovery, the more dissections it can withstand.

Isa was imprisoned by Nurgle for over ten thousand years, repeatedly cycling between illness and healing, her divine body and soul constantly on the verge of collapse.

Although Lawson helped her rebuild her physical body, it was impossible for her to immediately return to her peak condition.

Once the Shadow Lord finds her, the intact cryogenic chamber will sever her life connection with the outside world, freeze her divine body activity, and then transport her back to Comoros intact.

Salkahn snorted coldly: "It's never a bad thing to be careful. Don't forget, this is Lawson's stronghold!"

More than 900 members of the operation re-examined the soul-breaking devices inside their bodies.

If anyone is captured, the fuse will burn their soul before their memories can be read, leaving Lawson with no clues to track down the Comoros.

The group continued along the drainage ditches surrounding the city.

We're now close to the life sciences research area, and the patrol frequency has noticeably increased.

Reconnaissance planes occasionally flew overhead, their blue-white scanning beams sweeping across the trees and roads, but never stopping at the location where the Dark Eldar were hiding.

One of the conspiracy members suddenly remembered something.

"Commander-in-Chief, I've heard that Lawson keeps two great demons from the Temple of Pleasure by his side."

The team slowed down for a moment.

The soldier lowered his voice: "One is the Keeper of Secrets, and the other is called Salassian Thousand Strings. They specialize in interrogating traitors for Lawson and can penetrate consciousness. We won't run into them here, will we?"

Salkahn's face darkened.

These two names do indeed exist in Comoros intelligence.

But he wouldn't allow such demoralizing behavior, so he sternly reprimanded, "Shut up! Don't say such unlucky things!"

"Before the operation began, the intelligence department had already checked their whereabouts. The two great demons were still working in other star systems a few months ago, and there was no evidence that they were on Star Three."

The others also secretly breathed a sigh of relief; it was good that they weren't here.

……

There is no real night on the top floor of the Nest City.

Although the city's exterior was already bathed in the light of the three satellites, the uppermost palace complex was still illuminated by soft LED strips.

The lights of a distant palace are reflected on an inconspicuous steel armor plate.

Suddenly, the darkness in the reflection was only slightly denser than the surrounding shadows.

Then the reflection seemed to be stretched open from the inside by some invisible force.

Shadow Lord Karamok emerged from within.

Karamok looked up and surveyed his surroundings.

Heavy armor, dense scanners, high-altitude patrol ships, and fire control nodes set up every tens of meters.

In the eyes of ordinary soldiers, this place could already be described as heavily guarded.

Karamok's lips slowly curled into a smile.

The so-called core world of the empire's dark side is ultimately just a human creation, nothing more.

Clumsy and sluggish, they always liked to thicken their armor, make their cannons bigger, and fill every wall with detectors, as if as long as there was enough steel, they could stop all invaders.

But for Mandela, these physical defenses were no different from the eyes of a blind man.

Perhaps this is an easy task.

Karamok slid forward, hugging the shadows cast by the armor plates.

His body disappeared time and again, only to reappear from another shadow a few hundred meters away.

In less than three minutes, he passed through six layers of defense and entered the core palace complex on the top floor of the Nest City.

The buildings here are completely different from those on the lower floors.

Real trees are planted on both sides of the road, and clear water flows through the garden along white stone channels. There is no metallic or fuel smell common in industrial areas, only the scent of plants and soil in the air.

Karamok found this environment disgusting.

It's too clean and too quiet.

Screams are never lacking in the palaces of the Comoros.

The absence of ostentatious luxury only proves that the owner has not yet learned how to enjoy power.

Karamok followed the shadows of the trees into a palace.

The palace's exterior walls are made of reinforced transparent material, and the interior has several layers of high-strength steel structure. At the entrance, there are guards from the foundation sequence, and on a distant platform stand two three-meter-tall combat mechs.

Karamok sank directly into the ground.

The palace lights inside the palace turned into floating spots of light before his eyes, rendering the guards meaningless.

He continued deeper into the palace, following the shadow cast by the building itself, until he saw the crystal greenhouse in the center of the palace.

The greenhouse is very large, with plants from different worlds growing under its transparent dome.

Silver-white vines twine around the crystal supports, with pale golden flowers blooming among the leaves. Water flows down from the central stone platform and encircles the entire greenhouse along several narrow channels.

All the plants were more lush than outside.

This vitality is not maintained by artificial lighting and nutrient solution; the plants seem to instinctively approach something.

Karamok stopped in the shadow cast by the dome.

He smiled silently; the target was right there!

In the center of the greenhouse was a soft couch carved from white spirit wood.

A blonde woman sat on it, wearing a long dress that was a mix of pure white and emerald green, the hem of which was spread out on the side of the couch. Her long golden hair fell to her waist, and her fair skin emitted a very faint glow.

Just seeing her triggered an uncontrollable hunger in the gash in Karamok's chest.

Isa, the goddess of creation and life in the mythology of the Spirit Race.

Her appearance was not exactly the same as the ancient portraits preserved in Comoros, yet no Dark Eldar would mistake this divinity.

Beside her, a young, silver-haired spirit woman knelt.

She was slender and dressed in the style of Saim-Han. She was holding a white comb and tidying up Isa's long hair.

That was indeed Ilancia Moonblade; her identity perfectly matched the intelligence.

Karamok stared at the two of them for a moment.

After observing the surroundings again, everything seemed normal; there weren't even any Ark Eldar warriors around the greenhouse.

This went even more smoothly than expected. Perhaps Lawson was really careless and didn't think anyone could steal the gods.

He took out a dark matter beacon no bigger than a fingernail and crushed it.

Soon, several shadows around the palace changed simultaneously.

The first to appear was Salkahn.

The Heart of Night folded several layers of misaligned space around him, making his figure look like a constantly overlapping black afterimage.

Urkashi followed closely behind. The six surgical arms behind the Blood Gate Master had already been extended, each holding a different instrument. The divine restraint device was compressed and placed in a silver-black metal box, which was carried behind him by two assistants.

Twelve Nightmare Warriors emerged from another shadow.

Upon seeing Isha, Salkahn felt reassured and ordered the surrounding shadows to be sealed off.

The Nightmare Warriors dispersed in different directions to prevent the target from escaping.

Urkasi then began adjusting the restraints, inputting the pre-recorded parameters of Isa's divine fluctuations into the device.

Everything is going according to plan, and so far, it's going very smoothly.

The target is right in front of us. All we have to do is rush into the greenhouse and use the restraints to cut off Isha's connection with the outside world. The whole operation will take no more than twenty seconds.

Just as Salkahn was about to issue the order, voices came from inside the greenhouse.

The comb in Ilancia's hand slid slowly down Isa's long hair.

"Your Highness, it's been a few days since Lord Lawson rescued you. What kind of person do you think he is?"

Isa lowered her eyes.

The soft light from the greenhouse fell on her face.

A faint blush appeared on that dignified yet compassionate face.

"He was certainly a true hero. On that day, he stood before me with a burning sword in hand and with one stroke severed the chains that had bound me for over ten thousand years."

At this point, Isa raised her hand and pressed it to her chest.

The blush on her face became even more pronounced.