[Fugitive Cogboy of the Mechanicus]: "Analysis: Verbal emphasis on 'knowledge' and 'change' strongly indicates characteristics of Tzeentchian Chaos cultists."
"If the opposing party consists of Chaos worshippers, their plan definitely harbors a deeper objective. It is absolutely not simply to liberate the workers."
[Eternally Loyal to the Emperor]: "Who cares what their objective is! Our objective remains the same: we rob!"
"But if they dare treat us like pawns in their little scheme... Hmph!"
Zeke quickly relayed a brief summary of the situation to the regional channel, emphasizing the anomalies with Rayne's group. He ordered all squads to heighten their vigilance, to avoid the warehouse sector as much as possible during the operation, and to be prepared for a potential betrayal from their "allies."
"Slight change of plans! Squad 1 and Squad 2: stick to the original plan. The moment the explosion goes off, rush your designated targets! Dismantle and recycle as fast as possible!"
"Squad 3: You are on guerrilla duty. Clear out the overseers along the routes, create maximum chaos, and cover Squads 1 and 2!"
"Squad 4 (Tech Team): Mobile support. Keep a close watch on the direction of the warehouse!"
"Direct Strike Team: You're with me. We're going to see exactly what kind of 'allies' are attacking, and while we're at it... we'll find a chance to see what the hell Rayne and his people are plotting!"
Time ticked away, second by agonizing second, in the oppressive wait.
Inside the refinery, the overseers and guards left on duty seemed to sense the unusual atmosphere. The frequency of patrols increased, and their curses grew more violent.
The players lurked in the shadows, their fingers resting against the trigger guards, their breathing slowed.
The agreed-upon two-hour mark was imminent.
Suddenly—
BOOM!!!!!!!
It wasn't just one explosion, but a chained series!
Dull, massive explosions that sounded like the earth's innards being torn apart echoed simultaneously from multiple directions on the refinery's perimeter!
This was immediately followed by the piercing shriek of alarms and the sudden, dense crackle of gunfire—gunfire far too rapid and heavy to be coming from the overseers' antiquated firearms!
A firefight! A fierce firefight! Coming from beyond the factory walls, and from other factory sectors further away!
"Enemy attack!! Enemy attack!!"
"Hold the gates! Call for backup! What the hell is going on over in Aru City?!"
The roars of the remaining overseers and the chaotic thud of footsteps instantly filled the space.
"Now!!!" Zeke roared in the regional channel.
"Buy your gear!!!"
In the next instant, across thousands of corners within the refinery, a dense cluster of white light flashed simultaneously!
As if by magic, the thousands of miners dressed in tattered jumpsuits—who had looked completely harmless just a minute prior—transformed.
Cold, gleaming autoguns and machetes appeared in their hands out of thin air, and crude armor materialized over their bodies.
Their eyes switched instantly from numbness and feigned terror to the feral, hyperactive viciousness of starving wolves!
"Brothers! Start robbing!!!"
"For the Imperial Coins!!!"
"For mechas!!!"
"Dismantle that fucking smelter!!!"
The ghost-wailing, wolf-howling battle cries instantly drowned out the echoes of the explosions.
Over 4,900 players, like a collapsed dam or a school of piranhas smelling blood, lunged toward their respective targets according to their pre-assigned squads!
In the northwest corner, [Soul of Cadia] led the charge. A short burst from his autogun blew a bloody hole in the chest of a dumbfounded overseer a short distance away.
"Cadia stands! For the Smelter! Charge!!"
The players behind him surged like a tidal wave toward the massive Promethium Smelter worth 80,000 coins. One group quickly established a defensive perimeter, guns pointed outward.
The other group pulled out metal cutters and crowbars, beginning to search for structural weak points under the remote guidance of [Fugitive Cogboy of the Mechanicus].
At the conveyor control tower on the east side, [T'au-Kun, You're Right, But the Bolter is Righter] had already engaged a small squad of guards with his team.
"T'au-Kun is right! But my bolter is righter! Dakka dakka dakka!"
He screamed his nonsensical catchphrase, suppressing the enemy with precise burst fire.
Meanwhile, players from the tech squad braved stray bullets to begin dismantling the console's core modules.
The entire refinery was instantly transformed into a chaotic battlefield.
The bizarre screams of players. The crack of gunfire. The screech of clashing metal.
The angry curses and agonizing screams of overseers and guards. The brutal sound of machinery being violently dismantled.
–
Zeke led his direct strike team and a hundred drafted elites. They didn't participate in the looting. Instead, like a sharpened blade, they thrust toward Rayne's warehouse—the direction where the explosions and perimeter firefight were fiercest!
The scattered overseers they encountered along the way posed absolutely no obstacle.
The players were currently well-equipped, held the numerical advantage, and possessed the suicidal aura of outlaws who believed "dying only costs 5 coins, but looting means massive profit." They usually drowned the enemy in concentrated fire the moment they made eye contact.
"Something's not right..."
The closer they got to the outer factory zone, the deeper Zeke's frown grew.
The blast marks, the bullet holes, the dead bodies...
The intensity and equipment level of this "outside assault" far exceeded his expectations.
This was absolutely not the kind of firepower an ordinary worker uprising could muster!
When they were finally able to peer through the thick smoke and firelight at the area near Rayne's warehouse, the scene before them made everyone's scalp tingle!
In the open space surrounding the warehouse, a massive, complex geometric pattern had been drawn with an unknown dark red pigment—a pattern so convoluted that just looking at it induced vertigo.
In the center of the pattern stood Rayne and the workers. They held hands, murmuring a chant with eerie tones and twisted syllables.
The sweet, bloody stench in the air was so thick it was nauseating, and the very fabric of space seemed to be shimmering and warping slightly!
Even more terrifying, things were piled upon several key nodes of the pattern.
There were the still-twitching corpses of overseers. There were precision mechanical parts acquired from Emperor-knows-where. And there were... the bodies of some workers!
[System Warning: High-intensity Warp fluctuation detected! Chaos ritual field detected! Faint gaze of the God of Knowledge detected?!]
To Zeke, the cold System prompt sounded like a death knell!
"Holy shit!!! Tzeentch, you sneaky bastard!!!" Zeke finally couldn't hold it back and cursed out loud, "You put a Chaos ritual in the beginner village?!"
"I'll @#￥%...!"
As if in response to his roar, Rayne, standing in the center of the ritual, abruptly lifted his head!
His eyes no longer had whites or pupils; they were replaced by two swirling orbs of spectral blue flames flickering with eerie knowledge!
His voice had become neither male nor female, carrying a multi-layered echo that resonated across the sector:
"Praise the Lord of Change! Praise the Great Architect! Knowledge and Change are infinite!"
"Your chaos, your desires, your schemes... are all within the calculation!"
"On this night of revolution, with disorder as kindling and souls as ink, we write a new chapter leading to Truth!"
Weng!
A massive, teeth-grinding hum erupted as the blood-red pattern burst with blinding blue light!
Space violently twisted like a crumpled rag!
Faintly, it seemed as if some colossal, distorted shadow—brimming with malice and boundless knowledge—was about to cross some threshold and descend upon this place!
"Bastards!!"
Tax Bro raised his shotgun, ready to blast. "Heretics!!"
"Hold your fire! Shoot the center of the ritual!"
Schrödinger Bro remained relatively calm, the crosshairs of his lasgun already locked onto the core of the pattern.
Zeke's mind raced. Amidst his burning rage, an even more terrifying thought surfaced:
Tzeentchian cultists... they wouldn't put on a show this big just to help a worker uprising, or simply to summon a daemon to chop some people up.
Their plan... their 'knowledge'... what exactly is their objective?
Is it this refinery? Aurelian IV? Or...
He glanced at the System map, looking at the dots representing the other player squads frantically looting, then looked back at the gradually forming Warp rift.
"Motherfuckers..." Zeke gritted his teeth. "Everyone! Focus fire on that ritual pattern! Disrupt it! We cannot let them complete the summon!"
"I don't care what these blue bastards are trying to do!"
"We're going to fucking ruin it first!!!"
The muzzles of the direct strike team erupted in unison, spewing angry fire into the blasphemous blue light and twisted space.
–
The night of Purge Day was destined to be anything but peaceful.
Looting, rioting, a Chaos ritual... On their twelfth day in the Warhammer universe, the Fourth Scourge miners had truly touched the most maddening core of this dark galaxy in a way they never expected.
And deep within the Warp, a certain newborn Chaos God was slurping up an exceptionally lavish feast of emotional energy while scratching his head:
"Uh... how did Tzeentch's cultists get over here??"
"But man... the quality of today's energy is incredibly high..."
"Whatever. Good luck, players! I'm rooting for you!"
"Oh, by the way... System, record the energy frequency and structure of that Tzeentchian ritual. Who knows... maybe we can use it later?"
"Knowledge is power, after all."
--
Goal = 400 Powerstones.