Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Unidentified vines climbed up the broken trenches and the ruins of the destroyed orcish ancient giants, blooming with vibrant flowers.

The changes also occurred among the Imperial commoners in the various hives and factories of Armageddon.

In the depths of the Tempestora hive, billions of laborers spend their entire lives in dark, sunless pipes.

In the past few days, large patches of moss, emitting a soft glow, have begun to grow in the gaps of ventilation ducts that have been abandoned for hundreds of years.

These mosses seem to possess a powerful respiratory function, absorbing sulfur, dust, and carbon monoxide from the air and then releasing pure oxygen.

For the first time, the dimly lit lower levels of the hive were illuminated by a soft, cold light, and the abandoned steel jungle was draped in a layer of fluorescence.

Several babies in the nest with congenital genetic defects began to grow normally, and their weak cries soon became loud and powerful.

The survival rate of newborns increased from single digits to nearly 100% in just a few days.

The Church priests initially tried to attribute all of this to the blessings of the Golden Throne. They held aloft the eagle emblem and shouted in the streets, attempting to guide the people in prayer.

A sheriff captain coldly shoved aside the priest blocking his way.

Ordinary people at the bottom of society always have their own information networks.

These miracles of life were not brought about by the state bishops sitting high in their towers.

All sources point to Isa, the goddess of life, on the balcony of the highest command tower.

She simply stood there quietly, nestled beside Lawson, the Sealholder of the Empire.

As a conceptual life form, she was imprisoned by Nurgle for ten thousand years, and now she has finally gained her freedom. The aura emanating naturally from her life authority is enough to pull this dead planet back into spring.

Outside the command tower, 118 slender Ark-shaped Eldar Titans stood silently, guarding the goddess's safety.

Large numbers of Iron Legion soldiers and hive militiamen, who had just been pulled back from the brink of death, fell into religious fanaticism.

They dropped their tools, faced the command tower, and knelt down, facing the high place guarded by the Eldar Titans.

"It's a miracle! A miracle descended from the Golden Throne!"

"She has healed us! Praise be to the goddess, Armageddon has sprouted anew!"

Countless civilians and soldiers wept, raised their arms, and kowtowed repeatedly in the mud.

Several state priests accompanying the army even began drawing totems symbolizing life on the ground, attempting to incorporate this unknown goddess into the empire's belief system and lead a million-strong army to offer thanks to her.

"No kneeling allowed!"

An old sergeant major from the Steel Legion, whose left leg had been replaced with a crude mechanical prosthesis, strode into the kneeling crowd.

"Stand up, all of you! Straighten your spineless knees!"

The old sergeant kicked a recruit who was kissing the dirt to the ground, roaring, "Who are you thanking? The woman standing in the tower? That alien goddess?!"

New recruit Karl collapsed to the ground, his face full of confusion: "But sir... she healed us. Look, everyone has stopped coughing up blood, and our wounds have healed. Isn't this a blessing from her?"

The old sergeant sneered, "You bunch of idiots, do you even know what she is? She's an alien! One of those pointy-eared gods!"

A commotion broke out in the crowd.

The old sergeant turned around abruptly, pointing to the top of the command tower, to the tall figure standing beside the goddess of life.

"Why would a foreign god pity you rats who eat corpse starch at the bottom of the hive and whose names don't even deserve to be on the list of the dead? Do you think she would be kind enough to cure your lung disease?"

"Open your eyes and look carefully! There is only one person you should thank, and that is the Emperor who holds the seal of the Empire!"

The old sergeant's voice echoed through the camp.

"If it weren't for the Lord of the Seals standing here, that Elven goddess wouldn't even glance at Armageddon. She healed you not because of her mercy, but because she was by the Lord of the Seals' side!"

The camp of hundreds of thousands of people fell silent, with only the faint sound of distant artillery fire.

The veteran sergeant used the most straightforward, fundamental logic to make everyone understand one thing.

If the gods can perform miracles, it is because of their greatness.

However, what if a man could bring the goddess who controls the laws of life to his side, making her willingly provide healing and protection for his army—

So what kind of person is this man?

New recruit Carl stared blankly at the command tower.

He suddenly felt that the beautiful alien goddess was no longer as unattainable as before.

Conversely, the Imperial Ruler standing beside the goddess, his face hidden in the shadows, seemed to grow incredibly tall.

He can tame alien gods and turn incomprehensible powers into medical tools for the Astral Army.

The old sergeant pulled Karl up from the ground and raised his explosive rifle, pointing it straight at the sky.

"Kneel before the Golden Throne, and offer your lives and loyalty to the Lord Seal-Bearer!"

"For the Emperor! For the One Who Holds the Seal!"

The roar swept across the entire plain.

Top of the command tower.

From his vantage point, Lawson could hear everything clearly from afar.

Isa stood beside him, a smile in her eyes.

She gently tugged at the edge of Lawson's armor and whispered, "Did you hear that? Your soldiers say I'm just your spoils of war, a giant medical kit you use to treat your army. They even think I'm trying to curry favor with you."

Lawson put his arm around Isa's waist and pulled her into his embrace.

Under the watchful eyes of the million-strong army and 118 Eldar Titans below, Lawson responded, "Are they wrong?"

Isa obediently buried her head in Lawson's chest: "That's right, everything I have is yours..."

An ordinary commander taking over a catastrophic battlefield like Armageddon would inevitably need to devote all his energy to it.

They had to be welded to the command post, relying on stimulants and life-sustaining drugs to stay awake and watch the battle damage data of each defensive line.

Just like Arek, who fought his whole life on this planet, he kept the front line running by overdrawing his life force.

But Lawson doesn't need this kind of command; he doesn't even need to be here all the time.

When he inserted the seal into the highest authority slot and took over the war zone, swarm intelligence completed its coverage of the Armageddon battlefield.

Inside the command center, a cornerstone staff composed of 800 people was thus formed.

Data such as troop deployment, logistics allocation, and firepower coordinate conversion—enough to overwhelm a team of 10,000 staff officers—flows at high speed through the swarm network.

Eight hundred operational staff officers managed to organize tens of millions of troops in an orderly manner.

Arek stood at the edge of the holographic star map, his single eye flashing with shock.

This is a war that has spread across the entire planet, with hundreds of millions of troops on both sides.

Under such intensity, the conventional Star Force command system would inevitably experience delays in orders, friendly fire incidents, and logistical disruptions.

But this staff of only 800 people did not fall into chaos.

The data flow on the holographic star map was clear and distinct. The movement of the Tau Allied forces, the fire axes of the Eldar Titans, and the supply status of the Cornerstone infantry were all clearly visible.

Arek even had the illusion that any one of the eight hundred staff officers sitting in the hall possessed tactical coordination abilities comparable to those of renowned generals in the Imperial Military Affairs Department.

The old political commissar focused his attention on the local war zone in the southeast quadrant of the star map.

That was the ruins of heavy industry on the outskirts of Tartarus's hive city.

More than 10,000 Gough clan orcs, under the cover of four ancient giants, tore open a gap in the defensive line.

Arreek instinctively wanted to order an orbital bombardment, but he held back and quietly observed the operations staff's response.

The instructions on the star chart change rapidly.

The Titanium Allied Forces on both sides of the gap did not hold out, but instead retreated in an orderly fashion to the high ground behind them.

The main orc force, believing the enemy had been routed, roared and surged into the depths of the ruins.

Just as the Greenskins had fully entered the industrial zone, two Cornerstone heavy armor squads, which were originally deployed ten kilometers away, were delivered through underground pipelines, cutting off the Orcs' retreat.

Lure the enemy deep into our territory, then trap and beat them.

Immediately afterwards, the retreating Titanium Allied Forces completed a formation reversal within two seconds.

Pulse fire poured down from the high ground, burning the orcs at the forefront to ashes.

The orcs tried to spread out to the side bunkers, but the Ark Eldar undead Titans had already preheated their weapons on the flanks.

The beam swept across the battlefield, vaporizing the bunker along with the orcs behind it.

Before the Orks, trapped in the core area, could mount a counterattack, the Keystone Sequence's melee units had already stormed in from the rear, and their Power Tomahawks swiftly dismembered the beasts that had lost their mobility.

The strategy involved luring the enemy into a retreat, blocking their escape route, suppressing them with firepower, and then annihilating them completely.

The entire tactical maneuver proceeded smoothly without any disjointed movements.

The coordination between the 20,000 alien soldiers and the human assassins was as if the same person were waving his left and right hands.

Arek quickly deduced the scenario in his mind.

If he were to personally command the operation on-site, it would be difficult to reduce casualties even further when facing an orc raid of the same scale.

"What did I tell you? You still didn't believe me."

Calgary was sitting in a large metal chair, holding a steaming cup of black coffee.

That relaxed demeanor made it seem like he was on vacation in the backyard of Altramer.

Calgar glanced at Arek's tense face and said with emotion, "Now you understand why I said before that as long as the Marksman arrives, Armageddon will be saved, right?"

"That's his fighting style. I'm completely out of ideas now! The Ultramarines' tactical advisor has been here for ages and can't even find a single coordinate that needs fixing."

Calga leaned back in his chair and let out a satisfied sigh.

"I've made up my mind. In a few days, I will resign from my post as the Master and take the Ultra Warriors to the next war zone. I have no value here."

Arek ignored Calgar's teasing and refocused his attention on the war zone data summary panel.

The more he looked, the more alarmed he became.

The strength, reaction speed, and resilience these infantrymen displayed in hand-to-hand combat with the orc leader were beyond the realm of ordinary humans.

What, Cornerstone Warriors! These are a million Astartes Space Marines!

This is a number that would make any high-ranking official in the empire tremble with fear.

After ten thousand years of internal strife and war, the total number of cultivators in all the warbands of the entire human empire is now no more than one million.