Warhammer: Empire Reboot

And the capital they chose was still Ulanno.

This planet seems to be the very embodiment of the orc race's destiny, the source of Waaagh! energy.

When the War of the Beasts ended at a terrible cost, the Mechanicus declared that they had used weapons powerful enough to tear apart galaxies to completely destroy Uranor and erase the cursed planet from the physical universe.

"Lies, a bunch of self-destructive mechanical charlatans."

Lawson looked at the covered-up history in the classified files and made a mocking comment.

The Mechanicus did not destroy Ulanno.

Driven by greed for the orcs' teleportation technology and gravity weapons, they used ancient alien technology that they had reverse-engineered from the orcs.

Through the mad manipulation of the Great Sage of the Mechanicus, they transported an entire planet across the sea of ​​stars to the edge of the current solar system!

To cover up this audacious secret, the Empire subsequently recolonized and reshaped the planet, giving it a new name—Armageddon.

This is why orcs are forever drawn to Armageddon like moths to a flame, with an almost instinctive obsession!

They didn't just come here to fight.

Guided by the Waaagh! energy deeply ingrained in their green genes, they are subconsciously responding to the call of the ancient capital.

It was a journey to find their roots spanning ten thousand years. They were using blood and scrap metal to try and reclaim their once most glorious sacred land!

The ghost of Ulano still lingers deep beneath this planet.

This is no longer just a war for factories and population, but a war between humans and orcs for the fate of their race.

Armageddon must not fall.

If the orcs were to reclaim Ulanor and activate the ancient Waaagh! Resonance residing deep within the planet's core, the entire galaxy of greenskins might undergo an evolution, and the tidal wave of the Fourth War of the Beasts would engulf Holy Terra.

Lawson continued reading.

The data compiled by the swarm network has removed the embellished language of the Imperial State Religion, leaving only the most direct battle damage.

The war Calgar is currently facing is officially recorded in the Imperial Military Affairs Department as the Fourth Armageddon War.

It belongs to the deteriorating phase after the long stalemate of the Third War, and is the second general offensive launched by the orc warlords with a brand-new fleet.

Lawson turned the timeline back to the beginning.

The archives show that the planet’s suffering began in the 444th year of M41.

In the First War of Armageddon, the invaders were Chaos.

Primarch Angron crashed into the galaxy in a wrecked spaceship.

He brought with him 50,000 World Eater berserkers, Blood Guardians composed of twelve bloodthirsty madmen, and millions of Khorne demons and cultists.

Nearly half of Armageddon's planetary defense forces defected on the spot. In the first few weeks of the invasion, millions of civilians were slaughtered in blood sacrifices.

Logan Grimner, the chapter commander of the Space Wolves, organized a defensive line in the ruins.

The cost of turning the tide of battle was extremely high; 109 Grey Knight Terminators were teleported directly to Angron to carry out a decapitation strike.

When the battle ended, only thirteen members of this unit, representing the empire's top combat power, survived.

Ninety-six Terminators were killed, resulting in a casualty rate of 88%.

Angron was banished back to the Warp, and the Imperium achieved a tactical victory.

However, even greater casualties occurred after the war.

In order to keep the existence of the Primarch a secret from the general public, the Inquisition initiated the highest-level purge procedure.

Millions of Astragalus soldiers who survived the battlefield were executed en masse, and civilians who had come into contact with frontline troops were all slaughtered.

The court even destroyed other parts of the world that had come into contact with the survivors.

The number of deaths on the front lines was in the millions, but the purges by the inquiries after the war resulted in the deaths of billions!

To cover up a secret, the Empire squandered billions of workers and soldiers from a super-industrial world.

Lawson turned the page expressionlessly.

He had grown accustomed to the bureaucratic system of the Highlords' Council and the Inquisition, and the astonishing wastefulness in the use of resources.

The timeline jumps to M41, year 941, the Second Armageddon War.

This time, the invaders were green-skinned orcs.

Orc warlords arrived with hundreds of millions of greenskin tribes.

The defending team initially had the home-field advantage.

Armageddon possesses a massive planetary defense force, an Iron Legion, and a Titan Legion.

However, the planetary governor at the time, Hermann von Strab, made a foolish command error.

His arrogance and incompetence led to the complete collapse of the northern defense line of the main continent within days.

Commissar Arek organized resistance in Hades's hive, effectively holding back Gazkur's main force.

The main phase of the war lasted two years, while the remaining mopping-up operations continued for nearly twenty years.

Multiple nests were captured, and large parts of the planet suffered permanent damage.

The death toll in the Second War fluctuated between tens of millions and hundreds of millions, and the orcs were eventually temporarily repelled.

Fifty-seven years later, in the 998th year of M41.

The Third War broke out.

The orc warlords have returned with the largest single-planet invasion fleet in the history of the Empire.

The orc fleet once numbered six times the size of the Imperial garrison.

In the early stages of the war, the orc warlords directly hurled a giant celestial object at Hades's stronghold.

A single impact could instantly vaporize millions of people.

The hive cities of Helsridge, Akron, Tartarus, and others were all transformed into burning anvils.

Approximately 50,000 Space Marines were deployed throughout the secondary sector, spanning more than twenty chapters.

Large numbers of Astronauts and Titan Legions were deployed to the battlefield.

The cumulative death toll over the years has begun to climb toward the billion mark.

The war eventually devolved into a strategic stalemate.

The Empire held onto some key hive cities, while the Orcs controlled parts of the industrial zone, equatorial jungle, and wilderness.

The orc warlords left some troops behind to continue holding the Empire back, while they left the planet to launch a larger-scale Waaagh attack!

The orcs who remained in Armageddon relied on spores to reproduce, continuing their endless war of attrition against the Empire.

Lawson zoomed in on the latest progress data on the screen.

The M42 era, which is the present, is the Fourth Armageddon War.

Just as the Imperial Military Affairs Department was preparing to mobilize incendiary weapons to burn down the equatorial jungle and eliminate orc spores, the orc warlord returned and activated the "Giant Teleport Shockwave Device".

Thousands of orc warships appeared without warning inside the star system.

Millions of new berserk orcs landed directly on the Ansland Plains.

Another orc warlord named Vazdaka led his High Speed ​​Riders army, launching simultaneous attacks on various hives.

Attracted by the war energy here, the Orc fleet is continuously pouring into the Armageddon system.

Commissar Arek broke through the encirclement in a desperate situation and reached the nest of death in the swamp, where he desperately sent out a distress signal.

Marius Calgary then organized a rescue operation called "Operation Emperor," assembling the forces of the Indomitable Expeditionary Sixth Fleet to rush to the battlefield.

There are currently 24 Space Marine Chapters listed in Armageddon's combat roster, but there are actually 31 Chapters in the actual combat sequence.

However, these 31 chapters were not present at full strength, nor were they 30,000 Space Marines.

The number of troops sent by each chapter varied greatly: Ultramarines sent only two and a half companies, Black Templars sent three combat companies, Crimson Fists sent four companies, Salamanders sent six companies, Blackguards sent six companies, Lord Protrus sent seven companies, Space Wolves sent five large companies, and other chapters sent only one strike detachment or a few squads.

Faced with the pressure of fighting on multiple fronts and with limited manpower, the Holy Empire could only rely on this piecemeal tactic to barely maintain the defenses of Armageddon.

Lawson closed the detailed files on the previous three wars and focused his attention on the current battle damage estimates.

In the current fourth war, the death toll from the first landing has already exceeded ten million, and with the continued influx of orc fleets, this number is increasing by hundreds of thousands every day.

The 20 million Titanium Allied Forces, placed in Armageddon, a meat grinder that has been running for over a century, would only be enough to fill the trenches of a few main combat zones.

Lawson's finger swept across the tactics board, bringing up real-time footage of Hades' hive and Helsrich's hive.

Hades was once where Arrek made his name, but now it has become a vast workshop for orc technicians.

Let's take back Hades first!

…………

Deep underground in the secondary hive of Armageddon, the roof of the theater command headquarters trembled continuously with the surface explosions.

Fine ceramic dust mixed with industrial ash fell from the gaps in the ventilation ducts.

Ultramarines Chapter Leader Calgar braced himself against the edge of a metal pillar, his gaze fixed on the area in the holographic projection that had turned red—Hades's Nest City.

Two hours ago, the 7th and 11th Armored Regiments of the Astragalus Army, together with two assault teams from the Salamanders Chapter, launched a counterattack codenamed "Broken Furnace" against the lower industrial area of ​​Hades' hive.

The tactical objective is to recapture a core ammunition production line that has been seized by the orcs.

Now, the organizational identification codes representing those two armored regiments have been removed from the star map.

Standing opposite the projection table was Arrek, the legendary commissar of Armageddon.

This veteran, who had experienced countless bloody battles, was now using his massive orcish power claw to press a confirmation stamp onto a newly delivered casualty report.

"The counterattack has completely failed, Lord Calgary."

Arek's voice was weary. "We dumped 120,000 corpses and 170 Lemanrus main battle tanks into the lower pipes of Hades. The greenskin technicians turned the entire lower level of the hive into a trap, and they welded the main passage shut with parts from our discarded heavy artillery. The heart of Hades hive has been completely devoured by the orcs."

Calga had anticipated this outcome.

In the absence of large-scale orbital bombardment and heavy siege vehicles, attacking an orc-held industrial stronghold with infantry and light armor is tantamount to filling a bottomless pit with human lives.

"Hades' fall is inevitable, and our front there must be withdrawn to re-establish a buffer zone."

Calgara zoomed out the holographic projection, and the image quickly switched to a narrow strip of land near the planet's equator. "The main threat has shifted, and the situation at Mannheim Pass is extremely dangerous."

Mannheim Pass is a vital transportation hub connecting Tartarus, the city-state, with the Firelands.