Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 282 Strange Symbols (Fourth Update)
Mowell moved silently through the intricate steel jungle and crowded streets of the factory, like a true ghost.

Her optical sensors and auditory enhancers were fully activated, capturing every conversation, every expression, and every sigh.

The massive data streams are rapidly categorized, analyzed, and recorded in her deeply modified neural system.

The initial intelligence she gathered made her feel uneasy.

The situation was more complicated than she had anticipated.

She noticed that a significant number of the people gathered on the production line and in the main workshop had expressions of bewilderment and fear on their faces.

They gripped their rudimentary tools tightly, their eyes darting around nervously, glancing nervously at the closed factory gate every now and then.

From their fragmented, hushed conversation, Mowell gleaned key information:

"Outside...there are so many soldiers outside..."

"It's a bailiff! I heard the voice!"

"There's even bigger machinery making noise... Have we gotten ourselves into big trouble?"

"I should have known better than to rush in..."

These people were more like swept up by the chaotic torrent, joining the riot out of herd mentality or the fantasy of gaining some benefits from the chaos.

At this moment, realizing the seriousness of the situation and that they were surrounded by a large force, their courage was quickly being devoured by fear, and they only wanted to escape as soon as possible.

The other two-thirds of the workers constituted the main force that sustained the riot.

They mostly gathered near key passages and damaged production lines, and their weapons were relatively "sophisticated," mainly large industrial laser welding guns and hydraulic clamps for cutting, with a few carrying crude firearms of unknown origin.

They shouted slogans, focusing on demands for reduced working hours, less labor intensity, improved food rations, and higher meager wages.

They appeared agitated, even somewhat excited, and vehemently denounced the factory's exploitation.

On the surface, this appears to be a spontaneous worker resistance movement triggered by pent-up resentment under extremely oppressive conditions.

The demands were clear, the participants' emotions were genuine, and logically there seemed to be nothing wrong with it.

However, when Mowell tried to trace the source of the riot and find the initiators and organizers, she encountered obstacles.

She moved quickly through the crowd, listening to conversations in the core area and analyzing the behavioral patterns of the most active individuals, only to discover a perplexing fact: there was no clear leader.

The workers were indeed linked together.

They can say things like, "Someone told us to stand up today," or "Everyone says we can't take it anymore."

However, their descriptions of who this "someone" or "everyone" is are vague, pointing to multiple different and even contradictory figures, or simply stating, "I don't know him, but he's right."

Those maintaining order, distributing "weapons," and shouting slogans were all ordinary workers. They were simply carrying out what they were "told" to do, but they couldn't say who was giving the orders.

It was as if an invisible hand was orchestrating all of this behind the scenes, yet it disappeared at the crucial moment.

Mowell compiled all the information he had detected—fearful conformists, angry protesters lacking a clear leader, and the unidentifiable organizer hiding behind the scenes—into a structured data package.

Based on the available intelligence, she judged that there were obvious signs of manipulation in the situation, but the motives and the mastermind's purpose were still unclear, and she needed to meet with Mann for further analysis.

Her figure flickered a few times amidst the vast shadows of the factory and the dense machinery, silently arriving at the designated evacuation point—a ventilation duct entrance located high up. Just as she was about to blend in, her enhanced vision caught an unusual detail.

Beside an auxiliary production line piled with scrapped parts and rarely visited by people, at the base of a metal wall covered in thick grease, a symbol drawn with a dark red, seemingly not yet fully solidified, viscous liquid stands out abruptly.

The pattern was simple yet strange: a complete circle with eight sharp arrows spaced at equal intervals, all pointing outwards from the circle.

Mowell's internal database conducted a quick comparison, and the symbol was neither a production line identifier nor a mark of any known gang or organization in the intelligence.

The material depicted appears to be blood, and the location is chosen to be hidden. The graphic itself carries a primal and unsettling tension, which is out of place with the surrounding industrial environment and exudes an irrational sense of the sinister.

Without the slightest hesitation, the optical lens quickly focused and scanned, integrating the high-resolution image of the symbol with the previously collected worker intelligence, marking it as the highest priority data.

After completing all this, she seemed to be swallowed by the shadows, disappearing completely into the deep darkness of the ventilation duct without leaving any trace.

A moment later, in a relatively secluded equipment maintenance passage on the outskirts of the factory, Mower's figure reappeared.

She contacted Mann via an encrypted link.

Mowell's voice came through the communication channel, still steady, but with a hint of gravity that was less noticeable than usual: "The situation inside is more complicated than expected. The workers are roughly divided into two types: about a third of them were caught up in the situation, and now that they've heard the outside is surrounded by the army, they're scared and just want to leave."

The rest were the main troublemakers; their demands were clear, but... their emotions were off; they were too agitated.

She paused briefly, as if organizing her next findings: "The strangest thing is that I can't find the ringleader. They all say they were instigated, but when asked who it was, no one can say for sure."

Also, I found this in a corner—”

She transmitted the image of the symbol with the circle containing eight arrows to the tactical eyepieces or cockpit displays of each member of the squad.

"What kind of weird talisman is this?" Rebecca was the first to speak, her tone full of disgust and confusion.

Pila stared at the image, instinctively shrinking her neck: "It looks unsettling...like some kind of bad omen."

Dorio frowned: "We can't find the leader? How did they coordinate their actions and sabotage the production line? That doesn't make sense."

Falco's voice came through, carrying the weight of his analysis: "The symbolic structure has a strong directional and expansive nature. Combined with the missing leader, there is reason to suspect the existence of external guidance or... abnormal factors."

Valerie's voice came through the Iron Guard's communication system, even calmer: "The motive is unclear. If they just wanted to incite the workers to riot, why would they hide themselves? This doesn't make sense."

Unless… incitement itself is not the ultimate goal, or the instigator is afraid of being exposed.

As Mann looked at the strange symbol on his tactical visor and recalled Mowell's report about "not being able to find a leader," a strong sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

The matter is far more complex than just worker protests.

The court's sudden intervention may not be entirely unfounded.

Even so, the potentially cruel solution that could lead to the "purification" of tens of thousands of people was still unacceptable to him.

“Mowell, well done,” Mann said in a deep voice. “This symbol is key. We have to figure out what it represents.”

The situation became even more complicated by the new discoveries brought back by Mowell, which also gave Mann more reason to delay the court's actions.

However, the truth hidden in the shadows may be more dangerous than they imagine.

(End of this chapter)