This is the bonus chapter for reaching 250 Powerstones.
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Inside the lavish mansions of the upper-spire noble district, some elites were partying through the night, some were desperately plotting how to curry favor with the new Hive Lord, and others were frantically liquidating their assets to flee. Deep in the suffocating depths of the Underhive, the staccato cracks of gang warfare occasionally echoed, only to be swallowed by the howling rain. Lurking in the absolute darkness were violent mutants and irradiated beasts.
This was the Kent Hive, a perfect microcosm of the twisted, grimdark reality unique to the Warhammer universe.
Ninety-eight million, seven hundred and forty thousand human beings were crammed together like a swarm of insects inside this inverted steel mountain. Some lived their entire lives in the upper spires, drowning in absolute luxury and generational wealth; some struggled desperately to survive in the mid-hive, constantly oppressed and exploited; and others were reduced to rotting bones in the absolute depths, dying without even a grave.
But very soon... a total, sweeping revolution was about to begin.
Paul slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his dark golden pupils, the gradually lightening horizon outside the window was perfectly reflected.
The rain was still falling. But the dawn was inevitably coming.
At 6:10 AM, the rain had not stopped; if anything, it had grown significantly heavier.
The dreary, ashen morning light filtered through the thick clouds and torrential rain, shrouding the entire Hive City in an incredibly oppressive, freezing dampness.
Outside the massive main gates of the Governor's Estate, exactly one hundred players had completely assembled into perfectly disciplined ranks. They wore standardized dark gray combat fatigues with heavy waterproof cloaks draped over them, their lasguns slung across their backs, and their tactical belts loaded with stun grenades and close-combat monomolecular knives.
The squad leader was a player with the ID [Heresy Faces the Inquisition].
"Does everyone remember the plan?" [Heresy Faces the Inquisition] asked, his gaze sweeping over his team. "There are one hundred and seventy-three names on this list. We are splitting into six detachments, each responsible for a specific sector. Keep your tone impeccably polite, but keep your attitude absolutely uncompromising. Just tell them that the new Hive Lord, Lord Cage, is urgently convening a general assembly regarding the future governance of the Hive, and all senior officials are strictly mandated to attend."
"And what if someone tries to make an excuse?" one of the players asked.
"Then we assist them with their attendance by delivering seven strikes a second," the squad leader replied, flashing a vicious grin as he patted the [Compliance Enforcer Baton] hanging from his belt, a premium item he had just exchanged from the Sanctuary store. "We'll let them personally experience what it means to be beaten so hard the heresy leaves their bodies and they start screaming, 'Sir, I am a loyal!'"
This particular baton wasn't just incredibly durable; upon activation, it discharged a massive burst of high-voltage electricity capable of instantly paralyzing a fully grown man with Tier III genetic enhancements.
"Move out!!"
The ten detachments rapidly dispersed into the freezing rain.
–
Upper Hive, Noble District, the Hysman family estate.
Adela Hysman had just gotten out of bed and was enjoying a lavish breakfast: pan-seared rock-sheep chops, baked escargot, a platter of exotic fruits imported from an Agri-World, and a steaming cup of stimulant-laced recaf.
His head butler hurriedly rushed into the dining hall, his face completely pale. "My Lord, people from the Governor's Estate are here."
"Who?" Adela asked sharply.
"The new Hive Lord's men. They said... they are here to invite you to a meeting."
Adela's silver steak knife froze in mid-air. He looked up at the butler. "How many?"
"Ten. They are wearing gray combat uniforms and carrying heavy weaponry."
"...Let them in."
A few moments later, [Heresy Faces the Inquisition] led four of his heavily armed squad members directly into the opulent dining hall. Freezing rainwater dripped steadily from their heavy cloaks, forming dark, wet puddles on the pristine marble floor.
"Lord Adela," the Crimson Dawn messenger said, executing an absolutely flawless, textbook salute of the Imperial Aquila. "The new Hive Lord, Lord Cage, will be convening a general assembly of all senior Kent Hive officials in the main hall of the Governor's Estate at precisely 8:00 AM. This is your official invitation."
He pulled a heavy, gold-embossed parchment envelope from his inner coat and offered it forward with both hands.
Adela didn't take it. He simply continued to slowly and methodically slice his lamb chop, the silver knife scraping sharply against the fine porcelain plate. "In such a rush?"
"The future of the Hive City is at stake. The Lord Governor hopes to discuss his grand strategy with everyone as soon as possible," the player replied smoothly.
"And what if I say I am feeling severely unwell?"
The player's polite smile didn't waver in the slightest. "Then we would be incredibly regretful. However, the Lord Governor explicitly stated that this assembly is of the utmost importance. Anyone who is absent without a highly justifiable cause... will be officially deemed as displaying extreme contempt toward the Imperium's newly appointed official, and actively refusing to cooperate with the governance of this Hive City. When that happens, the Lord Governor will be forced to submit a formal incident report directly to the Departmento Munitorum in the City of the Holy Anthem, and perfectly duplicate that exact report for the Iron Hands Legion..."
It was a soft, incredibly venomous threat.
Adela's knife dug violently into his lamb chop, leaving a deep, vicious gouge in the meat. He slowly raised his eyes to look at the young messenger standing before him. There was absolutely zero fear or reverence in this subordinate's eyes—only a cold, incredibly terrifying, and perfectly calm scrutiny.
"I understand," Adela said, finally putting down his silverware and picking up a silk napkin to wipe his mouth. "Tell Hive Lord Cage that I will attend on time."
"An incredibly wise decision." [Heresy Faces the Inquisition] bowed slightly before turning and marching out of the dining hall.
The absolute second the heavy oak doors clicked shut, Adela's face violently contorted with pure, unfiltered rage.
"Go get Kroger. Tell him to instantly contact PDF Commander Kaland. I want one thousand fully armed PDF troopers stationed immediately outside the Governor's Estate," he snarled at his trembling butler. "And quietly contact our people in the Underhive... Tell them to prepare for absolute war."
At that exact same moment, highly similar scenes were violently playing out across the entire Hive City.
Inside Finance Minister Jeremy's opulent mansion, the grossly obese official desperately tried to feign a sudden, agonizing stomachache to avoid the summons. In response, two heavily augmented players incredibly thoughtfully offered to physically carry him all the way to the assembly. Staring at the massive, terrifyingly bulging muscles on their cybernetic arms, Jeremy very wisely announced that his stomachache had miraculously cured itself.
At the central PDF garrison, when Commander Kaland and a handful of his senior officers were aggressively "invited" out of their barracks, over a dozen of his die-hard loyalist soldiers violently attempted to intervene. The players instantly drew their compliance batons and unleashed a blinding flurry of seven strikes a second, effortlessly beating the resisting soldiers until they collapsed to the floor, violently twitching and screaming for mercy.
The entire brutal suppression lasted less than ten seconds, completely over before the rest of the garrison even realized what was happening.
–
Deep inside the Mechanicus enclave, Magos Arkhan Land stared silently at the heavily armed players standing before him. His single mechanical eye violently flickered and whirred for several seconds.
Then, he gave a sharp, jerky nod. "I will attend."
He didn't speak a single unnecessary word. However, the exact second the players stepped outside to wait for him, Arkhan Land immediately turned and marched deep into the heavily restricted heart of the Mechanicus enclave.
Hidden within a highly secured sanctum lay three massive, completely dormant combat servitors. These were heavy Mechanicus war-machines, each one heavily armed with twin-linked lascannons and massive hydraulic power fists.
Arkhan Land rapidly initiated their awakening protocols.
"Just in case," he whispered to the empty sanctum.
–
7:30 AM. The freezing rain was still falling.
The grand hall of the Governor's Estate was fully prepared. It was a magnificent space with vaulted ceilings over ten meters high. The walls were heavily draped with ancient tapestries and murals dating back to the Blaec House era, depicting forgotten, esoteric religious rituals.
A massive, elongated conference table sat directly in the center of the hall, large enough to comfortably seat two hundred people.
Each of the four main exits was heavily guarded by four players. Wearing pristine dark gray combat uniforms, their lasguns were slung firmly across their chests with their hands resting casually on the grips. Their eyes calmly swept over the senior officials as they continuously filed into the room.
The atmosphere was incredibly eerie.
The senior officials entered the hall in twos and threes, exchanging hushed whispers and nervous glances. Some were visibly sweating, some looked deeply confused, and others desperately feigned perfect composure.
Kannis, Mason, and Todd—the three Munitorum officials dispatched from the City of the Holy Anthem—were seated to the immediate right of the primary seat, the designated VIP section. Their faces were noticeably grim, clearly deeply unsettled by this sudden, mandatory general assembly.
Adela Hysman sat to the immediate left of the primary seat, heavily surrounded by his die-hard cronies. His expression remained totally calm, but beneath the heavy oak table, his hands were clenched into iron-tight fists.
7:50 AM.
Over a hundred and sixty people were already seated in the grand hall. A dozen more were still on their way.
8:00 AM sharp.
A heavy side door pushed open. Cogboy strode into the grand hall.
He was wearing his immaculate dark gray formal suit, the blazing sun insignia of Crimson Dawn pinned proudly to his left breast. He walked directly to the primary seat but didn't immediately sit down. Instead, he leaned forward, planting both hands firmly on the tabletop, and let his gaze slowly sweep across the entire room.
Over a hundred pairs of eyes stared back at him.
"Gentlemen," Cogboy spoke, his voice projecting through the hall's vox-amplification system, clear and absolutely calm. "I thank you all for braving the storm to attend this emergency assembly. I am Cage Lawrence, the new Hive Lord of the Kent Hive, officially appointed by the Departmento Munitorum. I have summoned you all here today because the current state of the Kent Hive has reached a critical juncture where absolute, sweeping change is mandatory. For the past twenty-five years, the administration of this Hive City has suffered from catastrophic failures. The PDF deployment rosters are completely fabricated, the armory inventories are a chaotic mess, the fundamental infrastructure has fallen into severe disrepair, the citizens are entirely destitute, and the Underhive gangs are allowed to run rampant..."
With every single sentence he spoke, the faces of certain individuals in the audience grew a fraction paler. Adela remained entirely expressionless, but his fists clenched even tighter beneath the table.
"But that ends now," Cogboy continued, his voice echoing powerfully. "Crimson Dawn has arrived, and we are going to rectify these issues. Only then can we truly live up to the expectations of Lord Primarch Ferrus Manus." He stood up perfectly straight, his tone suddenly dropping into a terrifyingly sharp bark. "Therefore, starting exactly today, the Kent Hive will undergo an absolute, uncompromising purge! Every single departmental ledger will be strictly audited! Every single official's assets will be forcefully re-declared! And all criminal activities, no matter who is involved, will be punished with extreme prejudice!"
A deathly silence suffocated the grand hall. The only sound was the howling rain faintly echoing from beyond the armaglass windows.
Then, Adela slowly rose to his feet.
"Lord Governor Cage," his voice was painfully dry, but he desperately struggled to maintain his composure. "Reformation is an honorable pursuit, but... is this not far too hasty? The administrative affairs of a Hive City are incredibly complex. If we act too rashly, I fear it will trigger massive societal unrest and severely impact our mineral production quotas. And when that happens, the Legion..."
He was deliberately using the crushing pressure of the Legion as a political shield. But Cogboy just laughed, a smile completely devoid of warmth.
"An excellent reminder, Lord Adela," Cogboy said, locking eyes with him as the blue light of his cybernetic eye violently flickered. "Which is exactly why our very first item on the agenda today... is to clearly establish accountability."
The exact second the words left his mouth, every single set of doors to the grand hall slammed violently shut with a deafening bang.
A heavy side door slowly creaked open.
Paul strode into the room.
Three meters of towering, Astartes-tier muscle clad in dark gray power armor. The Crimson Dawn insignia on his massive ceramite chestplate seemed to literally burn under the harsh chandelier lights.
Every single official in the room stared at this colossal, power-armored giant in absolute, unfiltered shock. The heraldry on his armor didn't match a single known Space Marine Legion. He was actually bearing the insignia of Crimson Dawn? How was that even possible?! How could a frontier organization like Crimson Dawn possibly possess the technological capability to forge their own pattern of power armor?!
Arkhan Land, the resident Magos of the Mechanicus, looked visibly shaken. Just a few days prior to Crimson Dawn's arrival, the Cult Mechanicus had transmitted a comprehensive intelligence dossier on the organization directly to his databanks. Nowhere in that file did it state that the Crimson Dawn Sanctuary possessed the capability to independently manufacture Astartes-grade power armor.
As a Magos of the Cult Mechanicus, his internal vigilance instantly spiked to maximum levels. They rejected any advanced technology not strictly ordained by the Priesthood of Mars.
Could the Crimson Dawn Sanctuary have unearthed a complete STC template? Arkhan Land thought to himself. It seems I must urgently establish a secure vox-link with the regional headquarters the moment this assembly concludes.
Paul paid absolutely no attention to their horror. He marched directly up to the primary seat and stood like an immovable mountain right behind Cogboy. The pneumatic seals of his helmet hissed as his visor slid up, exposing his face. His dark golden pupils swept coldly over the entire room.
He fully unleashed his Wisdom trait.
Faint, invisible ripples of dark golden psychic energy expanded outwards in absolute silence, completely blanketing the entire grand hall. In that exact moment, Paul saw their sins.
He saw the bottomless, terrifying black hole of pure greed lurking deep within Adela Hysman's soul. He saw the thousands of innocent lives permanently stained onto Security Prefect Kroger's hands. He saw the horrific, staggering deficits deliberately hidden within Finance Minister Jeremy's ledgers. He saw the vile human trafficking transactions orchestrated between upper-spire elites and Underhive syndicates. He saw Magos Arkhan Land's fanatical hatred for all non-standard cybernetic enhancements, along with the utterly inhumane, agonizing processes he inflicted upon innocent victims to lobotomize them into servitors. And he saw... the equally deep, suffocating sins festering within the souls of Kannis, Mason, and Todd. The horrific crimes of every single administrative official and noble representative present were laid completely bare before him.
Excellent.
Paul slowly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, he looked directly down at Cogboy and gave a single, definitive nod.
Cogboy understood instantly. He turned his attention back to the hundred-plus terrified, outraged faces staring up at him from the audience. His voice echoed with absolute clarity into every single corner of the grand hall.
"I now formally announce—the grand Inquisition Tribunal of the Kent Hive has officially begun," Cogboy declared. "First on the docket: Adela Hysman. Charges: Embezzlement of Imperial tithes, illicit trafficking of military munitions, conspiring with Underhive syndicates, and the premeditated murder of key witnesses... totaling twenty-seven absolute capital offenses. The evidence is undeniably conclusive. I sentence you!"
Adela's face instantly drained of all color, turning a horrifying, deathly white.
Outside the armaglass windows, the freezing storm violently escalated.
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Next Goal = 500 Powerstones.
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