Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"The Black Templars will not bow to the aliens, nor will they become anyone's slaves."

The commander looked directly at Lawson. “But you are the Sealholder of the Empire, representing the supreme will of Holy Terra. As long as your orders are aimed at destroying the Emperor’s enemies, my sword will fall where you designate.”

Several Salamander officers clad in green armor followed closely behind, striking the breastplate heavily with their fists encased in metal gauntlets.

"The Salamander Chapter accepts the deployment of the war zone and is willing to serve as a shield for the Marker."

Representatives from other factions also responded.

Some performed the Eagle Salute, some raised their weapons, and others simply bowed to Lawson. Different chapters retained their own etiquette and pride, but no one refused to obey.

Calgary stepped down from the command platform, giving up the position that originally belonged to the supreme commander.

Lawson walked up to the platform and inserted the access chip into the main control panel.

Once identity verification was complete, the golden double-headed eagle emblem lit up again, before being replaced by a dark gold seal.

All Imperial military channels in Armageddon simultaneously received a new supreme authority notification.

The Emperor of the Empire has taken control of the war zone.

The existing command structure will be immediately transferred to the next lower level.

All legions, chapters, fleets, and planetary armaments await redeployment.

Hundreds of millions of Imperial soldiers saw this order on different battlefields.

No one knows how the war will turn out.

Lawson reached out and cast the markers representing 20 million Titanium Allies, 1 million Cornerstone Sequences, and 5,000 Bear Guards into the star map.

Dense, dark golden specks of light quickly covered all the main battle zones of Armageddon.

"From this moment forward, the Empire will no longer fight this war the way the orcs do."

"I want to rearrange the entire planet."

No one questioned the order.

Because the moment Lawson stepped into the command hall, Armageddon no longer belonged to any general, political commissar, or battle group commander.

The war here is fought by only one supreme will.

This is not a war that can be ended by beheading a warlord.

The orcs have come to regard Armageddon as the greatest Waaagh! holy site in the galaxy.

Even if these greenskins are wiped out, the news will still spread along the orc merchant ships, raiders, and warp routes.

New war clans will continue to arrive until this place is once again overwhelmed by greenery.

Since the enemy is endless, we cannot continue to fill the battle lines with the flesh and blood of the Star Guardians.

Lawson issued the first order.

All Star Guardians gradually withdrew from the front lines.

Veterans who had experienced years of war went to the rear to rest and recuperate, while the wounded were sent to the medical area where Isa was located. Fully organized units were transferred to artillery positions, transport hubs, and ammunition factories, where they were responsible for logistics, security, and serving as the theater reserve.

The Astral Army of Armageddon has held out for far too long.

Many regiments are left with only their unit designation and a few hundred veterans. Keeping them on the front lines would only mean they would be wiped out in the next beast tide.

The front lines were taken over by 20 million Titanium Allied Forces.

The combat sequence is incorporated into each platoon-level combat unit, which acts as the command node of the swarm network.

The Titans were responsible for capturing positions, the Wolverine combat suit provided close-range fire support, and the Saber-toothed Tiger heavy-duty hunting platform was deployed in the directions where the Orc Titans and Skullgren might appear.

Although Lawson viewed the Titanium Allies as expendable resources, he was not prepared to make them engage in meaningless exchanges.

The advantage of the Titans has never been in close combat.

As long as the defensive line is strong enough, reconnaissance is timely, and firepower is accurately distributed, it will be difficult for the orcs to reach the Tau Alliance alive.

Thus, a large-scale rotation of defenders began.

As the Titanium Allied Forces entered their positions, a swarm of drones was also released from the transport ship.

The exploration drones scanned the Hades Nest City, Helsrich Nest City, Mannheim Pass, and the Death Wasteland, marking all the underground pipe networks, rock structures, and abandoned mining areas.

Next to land were mining and engineering drones.

Armageddon has no shortage of steel. Cutting drones climbed up the orc battle fortress and cut the armor plates into sizes that were easy to transport.

Magnetic trailers transport the wreckage to a mobile furnace, where different metals are separated.

Unmeltable concrete is crushed, mixed with volcanic ash, slag, and ceramic steel fibers, and pressed into a composite material for building fortresses.

From dismantling the ruins to printing the walls, the entire process was completed on the front lines.

The orcs destroyed a fortress during the day, and drones retrieved the wreckage at night. By sunrise the next day, two new fortified positions had appeared in the same location.

Swarm intelligence has transformed the defense systems inherited from the past of the Empire.

The original trenches at Armageddon were too wide and had too many entrances, so many positions still relied on infantry to hold off the enemy at close range.

Once the orcs charge into the trenches, the battle will turn into melee combat, which is the Tau Alliance's least forte.

Lawson redesigned the defense.

At the very front is a no-man's land.

Engineer drones leveled the ruins, cleared buildings that could provide cover for the Orcs, and transformed the area surrounding the hive into a firing range tens of kilometers wide. Anti-armor mines, vibration sensors, and reusable directional explosive devices were laid underground.

Next is the decoy zone, where many seemingly weak passages have been deliberately left open. Orcs can easily rush in, but they will be squeezed into dense formations by the building ruins and isolation walls.

Railguns, smart missiles, and heavy pulse weapons have already been calibrated.

Once the orcs enter the designated area, the entrance will be blocked by explosives, and crossfire will simultaneously cover the kill zone from several directions.

Finally, there was the Titanium Allied Forces' position.

The fortress has no fixed entrance exposed on the surface.

Soldiers move in and out through an underground transportation network. The turrets are usually hidden under the armor layer, but they are raised when a target is spotted, and then retracted after firing.

Wolverine was stationed behind each node.

If the orcs break through the outer defenses, they will move into short-range fire suppression positions and use large-caliber weapons to seal the gap.

The Sabertooth platform is even more deeply hidden.

They won't waste their firepower on ordinary orcs; their targets are war bosses, giant Skullg, Skullg behemoths, gargoyle mechs, and orc titans.

The defense line also includes underground independent energy pipelines, ammunition delivery tracks, and sealable compartments.

Even if a section of the position is lost, swarm intelligence can sever the passage, detonate the connecting area, and bury the orcs who have broken in along with the fortress.

The drone swarm operates day and night.

Every twenty-four hours, a new defensive zone will appear on Armageddon.

Those imperial fortresses, built over decades and maintained manually, were gradually connected by modular fortresses.

A closed transportation line was established between Helsridge and the surrounding industrial area, a multi-layered ring of positions was formed around Hades, and the Mannheim Pass was transformed into an anti-armor corridor with a depth of more than 200 kilometers.

Arek stood in front of the holographic star map, watching the number of light spots representing the defensive fortifications increase.

This is different from the battles he fought before.

It seems the entire planet is turning into a fortress.

But Lawson was still not satisfied.

The skies over Armageddon are perpetually covered by industrial emissions, volcanic ash, and war dust.

Poisonous clouds obscure the stars, acid rain corrodes armor, and also limits aerial reconnaissance and long-range optical equipment.

This pollution has existed for thousands of years.

For the Empire, it's better to equip soldiers with filter masks than to expend resources purifying an industrial world.

Lawson looked up at the dusky sky: "Three hundred should be enough."

In Armageddon's near-Earth orbit, space is repeatedly warped.

Three hundred black hole projections unfold sequentially along trajectories calculated using swarm intelligence.

If gravity were completely released, Armageddon's orbit would be disturbed, and the ocean and the Earth's crust would be torn apart by tidal forces.

Therefore, the diameter of each projection is limited to a safe range, and it is also surrounded by several layers of gravitational confinement fields.

Three hundred projections are evenly distributed on different orbits, canceling out each other's gravitational pull on the planet as a whole, and only exerting gravity on designated atmospheric regions.

The black ring began to rotate around Armageddon.

Initially, it was just a shift in the high-altitude cloud layer.

Soon, streaks of grayish-yellow air rose from the atmosphere.

Volcanic ash, metal dust, acidic aerosols, and industrial toxins are captured by gravity, forming three hundred upward-reaching columns of wind in the sky.

The wind column spun faster and faster, tearing apart the pollution cloud covering the continent and merging it into a vortex that connected heaven and earth.

Lightning danced within the clouds, and the acid rain was swept back into the sky before it even hit the ground.

The separation force field deployed around the projection is responsible for filtering atmospheric components.

Oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor are guided back into the atmosphere, while heavy metal dust and toxic particles exceeding safe concentrations are sent into the event horizon of the black hole.

The entire cleanup process lasted three days.

On the morning of the third day, the pollution cloud that had shrouded Armageddon for thousands of years finally broke apart.

The starlight pierced through the atmosphere, illuminating the hive cities, the wastelands, and the fortresses that stretched to the horizon.

Many Astronaut soldiers came out of their barracks, took off their goggles, and saw the true color of the sky over Armageddon for the first time.

Sunlight did not make this planet beautiful.

The earth is still riddled with craters, the ruins of the hive city are still burning, and deep within the earth, pollution remains that cannot be removed in a short time.

However, orbital reconnaissance can directly observe the ground, and air force personnel no longer need to fly blindly in toxic clouds, increasing the observation range of long-range magnetic railguns several times over.

The newly built fortress complex appeared in the sunlight, like steel scales covering the earth.

On the other side of the hive, the orc army also witnessed this scene.