Warhammer: Don't Call Me the God of All Machines

Chapter 962 The Star God Fragments Are Here
Upon hearing Tarasin's arrogant words, Claudius's metal jaw seemed to tighten slightly, and his complex transmission system paused.

He responded in a deep voice, his tone as serious and rigid as ever, but a closer listen revealed a hint of suppressed dissatisfaction.

"Lord Tarachin, I have received a personal order from the French Emperor to cooperate with your actions."

But I must remind you that such a large-scale military operation requires rigorous planning and careful consideration, and must not be influenced by subjective factors.

“Subjective factors?” Tarasin’s tone became subtle.

"You might as well put it more clearly."

Claudius did not hesitate and followed Tarasin's lead, expressing his own thoughts.

"As everyone knows, you are the most famous collector in our Nihirak dynasty, and your collecting obsession is simply incomprehensible."

“I suspect you want to use Nishirak’s military power to satisfy your collecting obsession, since the Cadia star system is now full of the collectibles you crave,” General Dai Guan said bluntly.

"Satisfy your collecting obsession? No, no, no, my dear general, you still don't understand me at all."

Tarasin waved his hand dramatically and walked around Claudius like a child showing off a new toy.

"You should have faith in me. Everything I do is for Nishirak's benefit. Don't worry, even the Hierophant trusts me. You just need to follow me and do as I say."

"As a soldier, your duty is to obey, and since the French Emperor has handed power over to me, you naturally only need to obey me."

"If you still have objections, go and talk to the Emperor yourself. Tell him that you have chosen to abandon your duty to obey orders because of your personal prejudice against me."

After saying this, Tarasin ignored Claudius's silent, aggrieved aura and directly accessed the command system, pulling up the equipment inventory list of the Nihilak dynasty in Gordon and the surrounding star system.

The list, shimmering with an eerie green light, displayed powerful technological creations that would make any interstellar civilization drool.

The vast majority of the wealth of the Nihirak dynasty was not created by them, but rather derived from the plunder of more than a thousand vanished civilizations.

After plundering the wealth of these civilizations, the Nihirak dynasty transformed into an extremely conservative isolationist regime, wholeheartedly guarding their "treasures."

Tarasin's finger slid rapidly across the holographic screen, first tapping the entry labeled "World Engine - Gordon's Shield".

“First, we need some visible persuasion,” Tarachin said casually. “Move half of the six World Engines guarding Gordon to join our peacekeeping fleet.”

"What?! Half of the world engine?!"

Claudius's voice suddenly rose, and his eye sensors emitted a blinding light.

"Tarasin! Are you insane? The World Engine is the strategic pillar of the dynasty, the ultimate bulwark of the Tomb World!"
Relocating half of him would drop Gordon's defense level by 47.3%! That's too risky!

"Adventure? No, no, no, this is called investment!" Tarasin retorted nonchalantly, even with a hint of lecturing.

"The greatest waste is to lock powerful weapons away in a vault and let them rust. Who has the capability to attack our Crown World? The presence of three World Engines in Cardia is more effective than a thousand diplomatic rhetoric."

It tells everyone, especially the chaotic rabble, that Nissilach is serious, that this is His Majesty the Emperor's authorization, and that General Claudius is to carry out the order.

"What's more, the Adarin race deployed six Blackrock fortresses that they dug out from who-knows-where, while we only deployed three World Engines, which already makes me feel quite embarrassed."

Claudius's metallic body trembled slightly with extreme reluctance, but he could not disobey Tarasin, who had the authority granted by the French Emperor.

He could only watch helplessly as Taracin confirmed the transfer order in the system, removing the three planet-sized war fortresses from Gordon's fixed defense sequence and incorporating them into the assembling fleet.

Seeing this scene before him, General Dai Guan felt as if the very core of his logic was bleeding.

But this was just the beginning. If anyone knew more about Nissilach's collection than King Christophe, it was Tarasin.

Tarachin had already figured everything out and was just waiting for the right moment to steal... and appreciate it.

Tarasin continued to slide his finger, quickly locking onto an area that was heavily encrypted and had a security level even higher than the World Engine—the [Star God Fragment Containment Vault].

"Next, it's time to bring some Nishirak specialties, after all, we have a lot of Star God fragments in our collection."

Tarachin's tone carried a peculiar excitement, like a wealthy second-generation heir who had finally had the opportunity to realize his ambitions.

“Fragments of the Overlord Zahurash, fragments of the Burner Niadrazasa, and… fragments of the Rising Ogri'ada. Hmm, these are quite important; they can greatly enhance the strength of the real universe rules of Kadia.”

"As for the other Star God fragments, they don't seem to be of much use..."

"Taracin!" Claudius finally couldn't hold back any longer; his voice trembled with barely suppressed rage.

"You're not only going to move the World Engine, but also use so many Star God fragments?! Do you know how dangerous these things are?! They're not your collection, they're extremely unstable cosmic disasters!"

"Do you think I don't know that damned human named Danteok is the first person to control a fragment of the Overlord with a mortal body? What exactly are you planning to do with these fragments of the Overlord there?"

"Are you going to tell me later that our ruler fragments were accidentally lost and ended up in that human's body?"

"Not to mention the Star God riot that broke out in the Sotek Dynasty before, where many Star God fragments of the Golden Mandela escaped, and some of them have not yet been found. If you take the Burner fragments away, aren't you just attracting that escaped Burner?"

"Moreover, compared to the Star God Fragment, I think you pose a greater danger. Endless One, whose side are you really on?!"

Faced with Claudius's fierce opposition, Tarasin merely picked at his ear lazily, as if flicking off a speck of dust.

“Claudius, my old-fashioned general, squandering wealth is also a profound skill,” Tarasin said in a tone that could infuriate anyone. “The key is not what you have, but how you use it.”

"You say I'm wasting money, you say I'm causing trouble, I admit it all, but why don't you consider that what you know, His Majesty the Emperor doesn't know?"

"Do you think you are more wise and powerful than the French Emperor? Why don't you take over?"

Tarasin's answer surprised the crowned general. Yes, he understood it, so how could the French emperor not know it?
Granting Tarasim the power to manage the treasury is like putting rats in a granary.
General Dai Guan's logical thinking, capable of instantly calculating complex war situations, finally began to spread and expand, allowing him to fathom the true intentions of the French Emperor.

Could it be that the French king was attracted to Tarachin's "reckless" spirit?

"General Dai Guan, open your eyes and look at the world. Now is a time of dramatic change in the galactic situation. If you don't keep up with the times, the times will abandon you."

“Our King Nihirak was the first wise ruler to oppose isolationism. He was different from all previous leaders. I have said enough. Do you understand, General?” Tarasin concluded.

“In this respect, you are far inferior to your old classmate Zahdek, who is much smarter than you in politics.”

"If you were with Storm King, you would probably have fallen to the Death Seal assassins' guns long ago."

Claudius fell silent after being given some pointers by Tarasin, who then completed the formation and equipment allocation of the expeditionary fleet with astonishing efficiency.

In addition to the World Engine and the Star God Fragment, he also took with him an elite peacekeeping fleet consisting of dozens of Tombships, Tribulation-class cruisers, and a large number of Elegy-class raiders, a force large enough to launch a medium-sized interstellar conquest war.

Tarazin nodded in satisfaction as he watched the massive undead fleet gradually gathering outside Gordon Starport, radiating a cold and murderous aura.

He patted Claudius's metal shoulder, who had suddenly fallen silent.

"Alright, my general, stop with that long face. As a soldier, you should enjoy making achievements and establishing merits."

"Let's prepare to set off for Kadia, and bring a touch of Nihilak's awe to those noisy demons and our future partners."

General Dai Guan also figured out something: His Majesty the Emperor was likely using this war to send a political signal to the other Necromancer dynasties in space.

The Nihirak dynasty will break free from its long-standing isolationism.

With a command from Tarasin, the World Engine slowly adjusted its direction like a moving planet. The specially made tomb ship carrying the fragments of the Star God was surrounded by a tight escort of warships, and countless undead warships drew cold trails in the void with their eerie green tail flames.

Instead of opting for the conventional faster-than-light speed without inertial engines, the Necromancer fleet activated the more efficient Tombstone Gate.

This technology, taught by the Burners, allows them to directly hack into the vast network of intergalactic tunnels, indirectly hitching a ride on faster-than-light speeds.

While the Necromancer's inertial-free engine can also exceed the speed of light, it is still far inferior to the Web created by the Ancients when the journey is too long.

However, as they prepared to open the Tombstone Gate and access the intricate network of pathways, Tarachin keenly sensed a stagnation that was unlike anything he had experienced before.

"interesting……"

Tarasin receives real-time data streams from the Tombstone Gate, and its internal logic loops rapidly analyze anomalies.

"The basic structural strength of the network has increased by nearly 18.5%, and its stability has been significantly enhanced. Humans are mastering the network faster than we imagined," General Dai Guan said in a deep voice.

Tarachin knew that the changes in the Web were closely related to Loshi's regaining control of the Web tunnel boring machine, as well as the unprecedented Web repair project carried out by the Human Empire under the leadership of the Emperor and Loshi in the solar system and key nodes.

The fleet moved silently through the bizarre, distorted dimensions of the network.

Just as the fleet passed a relatively wide, seemingly natural crossroads-like node in the network of paths, the high-precision scanning array detected several structures emitting unique Mechanicus signals. These were automated exploration outposts established there by the Martian Mechanicus.

These outposts, shaped like steel-cast sea urchins, extend countless fine sensing tentacles and scanning antennas, diligently drawing more detailed network maps and monitoring any abnormal energy fluctuations.

Almost the instant the massive shadow of the Necromancer fleet loomed over them, the Mechanicus's outpost system immediately switched from silent observation mode to the highest level of combat alert!

[WARNING! WARNING! Unknown colossal entity has entered detection range! Mass reading exceeds calibration limit!]

[Energy signature feature analysis... matching database... match failed! Feature orientation highly consistent: Space Necromancer! Duplicate, confirmed as Space Necromancer fleet!]

"Ohm Messiah above! How did the Necromancer break through the network barrier?! Why didn't the network monitoring network give an early warning?!" A mechanical priest screamed as he looked at the hideous crimson on the Thinker's screen.

But before he could be in shock for long, he remembered his duty and had to finish his work before the space undead arrived.

"All units, immediately execute the final security protocol! Prioritize ensuring the upload of core detection data! Even at the cost of our lives, we must transmit information about the alien invasion back to Mars! For the God of Machines!"

Blinding red warning lights flashed wildly across the surface of all the outposts, like startled sea creatures, and all the probe tentacles and antennas were instantly retracted.

The heavy composite armor plates closed rapidly, layer upon layer, protecting the delicate internal components.

Lightweight ion turrets and laser arrays, concealed beneath the outpost's outer shell, rise from a dedicated compartment, emitting the unsettling high-frequency hum characteristic of energy charging.

Each outpost is like a spiky ball about to explode, ready to use a self-destructive attack to buy even a microsecond of time for data transmission.

At this critical moment of life and death, a specially encoded data packet, which could be directly read by humans, was proactively sent by Tarasin to the core processor of every mechanical outpost.

[This is the Nissilak Dynasty peacekeeping fleet. In accordance with the Pan-Galactic Crisis Response Interim Act, we are using this legitimate historical passage to travel to the Cardia sector to carry out a stability maintenance mission against the invading warp entities.]

To reiterate: We have no intention of provoking any form of conflict. Please remain calm and logical, and avoid unnecessary waste of energy and hardware damage.

May your logical circuits remain forever clear, and your data flow never cease. —Sender: Tarasim, ruler of the Nihilak dynasty, directly authorized by His Majesty King Christophe of France.

This sudden, information-rich, and formally formatted communication plunged the Mechanicus outpost, which was originally preparing to execute a self-destruct sequence, into a deeper level of logical confusion.

Support? Peacekeeping? Space Necromancers? Heading to Cardia to fight Chaos?
This completely overturned all the behavioral patterns recorded in their database regarding space necromancy.

After a brief but extremely intense internal deliberation, the outpost’s top leader finally made a decision.

In cases where a decisive victory is not possible, prioritize preserving valuable network data that has already been collected, but cancel the self-destruct process.

Under immense psychological pressure, the mechanical outposts silently watched as the massive, terrifying alien fleet slowly passed by them, eventually disappearing behind the ever-changing curtain of light and shadow ahead of the network.

"Oh Messiah above, those space undead really did go to provide support to Cardia!" the mechanical priest exclaimed in disbelief.

"Based solely on this experience, I could write dozens of formal papers on the behavioral logic of space necromantics, which would certainly earn me a high score in the advanced technological community."

"Hopefully, the situation in Cardia will improve with the support of these space undead..."

Tarachin didn't take this little incident to heart.

He even meticulously documented the complete transformation of the mechanical outposts when they discovered them, from panic to confusion to forced composure, and archived it in his private collection folder.

However, the situation on the internet was far more turbulent than expected.

Shortly after the fleet left the mechanical training outpost, Crowned General Claudius, who had been diligently monitoring the fleet's overall status, suddenly received an urgent warning from the accompanying team of tomb engineers, with the signal priority immediately highlighted in red.

"Lord Tarachin, our high-sensitivity scanning array has detected an unusually high-intensity fluctuation of astral energy."

The source coordinates are located approximately 0.3 light-seconds ahead of us in the network region. Wave spectrum analysis confirms the characteristics of burner debris, and it is a debris with an energy level far exceeding that of ordinary fragments.

The tomb engineer's voice carried a barely perceptible electrical crackling, revealing his inner tension.

"Fragments of the Star God? Deep within the Web Path?"

Taracin also showed a hint of surprise. The Web was created by the Ancients, a special dimension that is relatively independent of reality and the subspace.

Fragments of the Star Gods that move freely here are extremely rare; they usually prefer to draw power from stars or high-energy regions in the material universe.

"All fleets, raise to Level 1 combat alert. All weapon systems online, Hypercube Maze ready for containment. It seems our trip to Cardia might bring some unexpected surprises."

Claudius's logic circuits were once again violently disturbed when he heard Tarasina's tone, which was not tense at all but rather excited with a hint of curiosity.

He suppressed the urge to lodge another strong protest, and instead strictly followed orders, silently directing the fleet to change formation through the tactical network, shifting from a sailing posture to a standard encirclement and suppression array.

The weapon array specifically designed to combat the Star God began to flash with a dangerous pre-activation light. Countless cannons, like awakened venomous snakes, were all aimed at the direction from which the energy fluctuations were coming from. The net space began to be visually distorted due to the high temperature.

Soon, at a node ahead of the network, the fleet encountered the uninvited roadblock.

It was an existence that could not be described by conventional concepts, as if the core of a star had been forcibly torn out and given a fluid form.

It flowed, burned, and tumbled in the void like a liquid waterfall of flames, constantly radiating terrifying heat and dazzling light that could cause ripples in the space itself.

Its very existence caused the surrounding network wall repair structure to groan under its strain.

Taracin recognized it almost instantly: it was the large Burner fragment that he and Orikan had sent to the Crown World of the Sothek Dynasty!
This guy was used to exchange for Void Dragon fragments, and after triggering a large-scale Star God fragment riot, he escaped and disappeared from the Golden Mandela containment facility.

"Maintain the array, but suspend the attack command!" Tarasin suddenly ordered again.

"Taracin!" Claudius could no longer remain silent; his voice was filled with barely suppressed rage and disbelief.

"What dangerous tricks are you playing now?! Facing an extremely unstable and hostile Star God fragment, especially a Burner, any hesitation is tantamount to burying the entire fleet!"
Allowing it to get so close, potentially even breaching our defenses, is an outright and unforgivable dereliction of duty!
I now seriously doubt whether appointing you as the supreme commander of the fleet is the worst decision His Majesty the French Emperor, and indeed the entire dynasty, has made in recent times!

“Keep the channel clean, General, and trust your superior.” Tarasin’s tone carried an unusual calmness.

“A careful scan of its energy output pattern reveals that it is not a typical precursor to an attack; it is… trying to communicate with us.”

The fragments of the Star Gods, especially those representing the cosmic rage of the Burners, do not exhibit entirely unpredictable behavior.

Contrary to Claudius's and most of the necromancer commanders' expectations, the massive fragment of the Burner did not immediately unleash a devastating attack upon sensing the presence of the space necromancers, as recorded in the database.

It simply floated in the energy vortex of the network, its blazing core light rising and falling rhythmically like breathing, and countless tiny flame tentacles swaying slowly.

After a moment of silence, a signal that directly affects the thermal motion of atoms crossed the void and was transmitted over.

[Necromancer, I sense the presence of fragments belonging to me, as well as fragments of other Star Gods, inside your warship.]

Its perception penetrated the ship's heavy shielding and clearly pointed to the Star God fragments that were tightly contained within the fleet.

【I am Nyadrazasa the Burner. I have been observing you for a long time and have noticed the signals you are sending to humanity.】

Tell me, are you also heading to the battlefield in Cardia to confront a powerful enemy from the warp?

Tarasin was startled. He suddenly realized that the fragment of the Burner had been deliberately discovered by them and had been secretly observing them all along.

As for why the Burners didn't launch a direct attack, according to Tarachin's speculation, it was largely because the Burners intercepted the security declarations they sent to the Mechanicus outposts, thus learning the purpose of this space necromancer fleet.

Furthermore, Tarachin was certain that the Burner fragment recognized him, but it did not want the other Necrons of the cosmos to know that this was not the first time it had met Tarachin.

Taracin quickly analyzed the situation of the Burner fragments in his logic matrix.

It mentions "Cardia," "a powerful enemy in the subspace," and even notes the "peacekeeping" signals they send to humanity...

In an instant, Tarachin seemed to sense the Burner's attitude and thoughts.

“Burning One, your perception is correct. Our Nishirak Dynasty’s fleet has decided to head to the Cardia Starfield to assist humanity in fighting against the demons that came from the warp, precisely to deal with the crisis in the pangalactic galaxy.”

"As for the Star God fragments on our ship, they are for reinforcing the real universe rules of the Cardia star system."

"Since we both want to go to Cardia, we don't have any fundamental conflict at the moment. I wonder if you have any intention of cooperating?"

Tarasim's proposal immediately caused an uproar within the Necromancers.

Not only Claudius, but the entire fleet command channel experienced a momentary data freeze.

Cooperating with the Star God Fragment? That's more absurd than believing the Ork would suddenly become peace-loving.

What exactly is Tarachin doing?
(End of this chapter)