The Bizarre Adventures of the Oil Man, but Starting with Warhammer 32K

He connected to the command network of the intelligent control corps and injected killing commands into thousands of intelligent control robots.

"You rebels, stay still! I'll use my cybernetic corps to send you all to the skies!"

PS1: Today is April Fools' Day. Can you lie to me and tell me that my novel is good?

PS2: I'm quite busy this month, so I won't be offering the previous bounty for extra chapters. I'll try to write one more chapter and release it for free tonight or tomorrow.

Chapter 175: Vashtor's Attack.

In order to avoid being discovered by Mars, the quality and quantity of Augustus's corrupted Crusaders were not high.

Augustus had intended to infiltrate the Skitarii into the Martian forces facing the Final Wall, secretly firing the first shot and turning this confrontation into a real conflict.

Unfortunately, the Fabricator General didn't fall for it and replaced the Skitarii with the Iron Hands, hindering the realization of Augustus's plan. These overwritten Skitarii had no choice but to retreat back to the Lava City, becoming part of Augustus's open rebellion.

But without the advantage of firing the first shot, these tens of thousands of Crusaders were no match for the Forging General brought by his own intelligent control corps.

Kubik ascended his own throne of data. The immense computing power coursing through his mind brought him peace of mind.

Even with the Data Throne's blessing, he still couldn't seize command of these Skitarii. He knew there must be a demon behind this. The truth finally became clear to him.

Archmagos Augus had long since become a minion of the devil, and his experiment of using Warp psychic energy to replace the orc Waaaagh's position was an outright lie.

Whatever Augustus wanted to do with the teleporter, the corrupted device could no longer meet the needs of Martian teleportation.

Endless rage flowed through the Forge General's veins. He didn't understand why he had only just noticed Augustus's abnormality, but what he had to do now was self-evident.

"Augustus, you must pay for your betrayal of Mars!"

Under Kubik's command, the Vulture-type mecha quickly climbed up and took the actual situation of the Lava City into its scan.

He opened his hands, and the computing power provided by the countless wetware in the Data Throne was woven into a logic network covering the entire Lava City. The entire intelligent control corps was connected to the operation matrix of the logic network.

Every enemy action, even predictions of their next move, was fed into the logic circuits of the Cybernetic Corps. Following the guidance of Om Messiah's sacred data, they bared their fangs at the besieging Skitarii.

The combat effectiveness of ordinary Skitarii is more than three times that of the Astra Militarum, but even so, they still appear vulnerable to the impact of the Cybernetic Corps.

Their galvanic and laser fire was completely intercepted by the atomic shields projected by the Fort-class cybernetic mecha formations. Under Augustus's guidance, some Skitarii attempted to circumvent the curved surface of these shields, but their pre-conceived actions were ineffective.

Before they could enter a suitable shooting range, the Intelligent Control Corps, which had already determined their intentions with the help of the Data Throne, had already arrived and covered them with firepower.

"Behold, the Cybernetic Corps' artillery shells are directed by the Om Messiah himself!"

After the first wave of surprise attacks by the Corrupted Skitarii failed to yield any results, the situation gradually shifted to the Cybernetic Corps. Under the sweep of their heavy-handed bolters, the melee-specialized Fort-class warriors were already wielding their gear-shaped power blades.

The decomposition stance, which was directly powered by the small nuclear fusion reactor of the intelligent control robot, was unstoppable. The sturdy heavy-duty robot servants on the front line were instantly chopped into fragments mixed with oil and blood foam by the power blade.

When there were no more extra Skitarii in Lava City able to launch a charge against the Cybernetic Corps, Kubik reviewed his own battle results.

Nearly a quarter of the rebellious Crusaders were destroyed in the recent conflict, and only a few hundred of his 1,200 cybernetic robots were paralyzed.

The rebellion led by Augustus was weaker than he had hoped, but he was not satisfied with the result.

These intelligent robot soldiers are his personal soldiers, and losing any one of them will make him feel heartbroken.

When General Forging thought about how Augustus didn't give him the chance to mobilize other armies to encircle Lava City, leaving him with only his own intelligent control corps to fight, he wanted to kill this great sage as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the Chaos Cultists' true killer move is always demons. Since a conflict has already broken out, Augustus, still within the testing grounds, must be performing some ritual to summon demons.

Kubik knew he had to do something decisive.

There was no room for weakness in the Mechanicum, a society where the strong preyed on the weak. To secure his position as the Forge General, he would now slaughter all these traitors.

"Intelligent Control Corps, advance!"

The Vulture-type mechas were the first to enter the test site. At Kubik's request to disregard losses, these flying units relied on their flexibility and used automatic cannons and rocket launchers to first wipe out the mechanical priests who attempted to resist in the test site.

The Casting General, escorted by the Castle-class mechas, strode back to the location of the teleporter. No one around him could match him.

He wants to witness the demise of Augustus with his own eyes!

It didn't take much time to return to the Ork's teleportation device, but the overflowing Warp fel energy here made Kubik, who no longer needed to breathe, feel suffocated.

In the center of the venue, he saw the teleportation device that no longer concealed its true nature - it was no longer the mechanical structure that the orcs had imagined, but a distorted product that had been completely eroded by the power of chaos.

The Casting General was furious: "August!"

There was no need for a special psychic auspicious device. He could already use his optical eyes to see the vague shadow of the demon in the black mist emitted by the device.

These subspace entities, which made no secret of their hunger and seemed ready to break free from the transporter at any moment, made Kubik realize that this device was no longer the hope for Martians to travel around the world, but a hotbed of chaos.

According to the Martian agreement, he should completely destroy the device.

But there was still hesitation in his logic: this was the only Ork teleportation device Mars had. If it was destroyed, not even Mars would be able to get another one.

Could he still snatch one from Terra's battle moon now that he had fallen out with the Final Wall?

Consideration directed his behavior in another direction.

Kubik connected to the test site's sound array system, his cold voice echoing like thunder throughout the test site: "Augus! Your betrayal has come to an end! I will personally end your madness and then purify this device!"

Augustus didn't care about Kubik's words. At this moment, he was in the secret room below the teleportation device, leading a group of priests to prepare a ceremony to summon a great being.

His hiding place could not escape Kubik's scanning, and after the automatic robots smashed the entire test site to pieces, he found the entrance to the secret room.

With the help of remote access to the Vulture-type robot, Kubik was able to get a glimpse of August's condition.

In just a few hours, his mechanical body had been corroded by the power of Chaos. However, unlike other Chaos followers whose faces were distorted or whose limbs had been augmented, his corruption was quite subtle, with the original bionic limbs, while embroidered with the Chaos Eight-pointed Star, becoming even colder and harder.

The same was true of the mechanical priests around Augustus. These priests who embraced the power of chaos fell into a frenzy, their mechanical arms raised high, chanting blasphemous prayers that Kubik could not understand.

This lack of understanding was something Kubik had never been able to figure out - how could he allow a Chaos believer to lurk beside him from beginning to end without him noticing at all?

The Mechanicus's understanding of the Warp far exceeds that of ordinary Imperial institutions. The top leaders of the Forge World know about the four beings in the Supreme Heaven, and the Mechanicus also has means to detect and purify the corrosion of those four beings.

Based on these methods, although there are countless sub-faiths and independent academic groups on Mars that have emerged from the teachings of Om Messiah, there has never been a chaotic belief as popular as Augustus since the Great Rebellion.

Kubik attached great importance to this project. After approving the use of Warp psychic energy for experiments, his people would come every day to check for signs of Chaos corruption - this even included Khorne!

But chaos still appeared, appeared right under his nose, appeared in a place he could not understand!

"Augustus, give me your secrets."

Kubik commanded the Fort-class mecha forward. These peak combat forces, below the Titan level, used their power blades to demonstrate the Cast General's unreserved threat: "Tell me how you secretly accomplished this corruption, and I will make your departure a little easier."

"Corruption? No, I just let everyone see the truth."

Augustus laughed sinisterly. "I need not conduct this in secret, for any priest who witnesses the ceremony will realize that Om Messiah is a complete lie! I bring not corruption, but a rebirth of the Mechanicus. We will no longer need prayers and incense burners—the true God of the Machines requires only endless sacrifices and innovation!"

Kubik concluded from these lies that the Great Sage had lost his basic logic. Realizing that it was impossible to extract any useful information from Augustus, he commanded his automated soldiers, intending to exterminate these traitors.

The automatons began firing at the final energy barrier. The heavy-handed bolter fire seemed to sober Augustus up considerably. He calmed down from his frenzy and looked at Kubik calmly, as if he were looking at a dying flea.

"Your greed gave me the opportunity, Kubik. Your failure was already inevitable when you failed to destroy the teleporter from the outset."

"fail?"

Kubik couldn't understand. He had almost destroyed the barrier, and the opponent was only one step away from death. "You are only asking for trouble."

"Then witness the might of the true God of All Things!"

Augustus did not answer, but turned to face the teleporter, raised his hands, and began to chant a prayer.

"Great Vashtor, lord of iron and fire, true god of all things!"

He called out loudly: "We offer the flesh and blood of machines, the souls of gears and pipelines! May your power descend upon us, may your will rule over our ignorant and rotten steel!"

His fellow mechanical priests joined in the chanting. Their voices mingled, forming an eerie resonance. As the prayers directed toward a specific being, the psychic energy gathered here gradually took shape.

Kubik quickly searched for the characteristics of these psychic energies, and found that the fluctuation characteristics of these energies did not match those of the four gods.

His logic was disturbed by the unknown, but the detected psychic energy concentration told him that the fel energy of the warp here was not enough to summon a demonic army.

No matter what that never-before-seen Vashtor is, as long as there are no demons, his cybernetic corps is enough to solve all problems!

Kubik signaled the Cybernetic Corps to advance, ready to put an end to this farce. As the automatons approached Vashtor's altar, his vision, connected to the automatons, suddenly became blurry.

Is it electromagnetic interference?

Kubik instinctively tried to troubleshoot the problem, but the mecha's logic and wiring were flawless. He scanned again, finally catching sight of a massive figure amidst the disturbed ripples.

It's not a malfunction.

It was a tangible being, emerging from the transporter.

It was a colossal being composed of countless gears, machinery, and furnace fire. Its dark purple body was clad in brass armor that looked as if it were pieced together from countless broken mechanical parts. It wielded a twisted forge hammer, and its face was a bull's head inlaid with a gigantic electronic eye.

He never knew the name of this demon, but the moment he saw Him, an inexplicable understanding emerged in his mind.

"Vashtor..."

Kubik sensed a chilling beauty in the other party's mechanical coldness and chaotic distortion, a feeling that involuntarily intoxicated him.

He had a strange understanding of why Augustus called this demon the God of All Machines, but just as he wanted to further understand and accept it, the firewall in the Data Throne woke him up.

Kubik realized that he had just been nearly captured by this demon.

"It's just a demon...!"

Unable to understand why the other party was so attractive to him, the Casting General forced himself to calm down. He re-examined the battlefield and found that Vashtor who emerged from the teleporter was just a phantom.

What Augustus summoned was not his true self, and there was no materialized demon at the scene.

"It's just a bluff!"

Kubik made his judgment. But Vashtor chuckled, his shadow transforming into a stream of data, pouring into the automaton Kubik had taken over.

Kubik's firewall automatically triggered its defenses, but was easily penetrated by Vashtor. Realizing he was being invaded, he quickly mobilized the computing power of all the wetware on the Data Throne, but still couldn't defeat this terrifying demon.

"No...impossible!"

Kubik's consciousness trembled violently in the Data Throne. He saw with his own eyes that the logical network, encryption protocol and defense matrix that he had carefully woven collapsed under Vashtol's invasion and turned into meaningless code fragments.

The demons in the past simply didn't have such strong data invasion capabilities!

Even Tzeentch's electronic demons, their greatest role is to release garbage code to cause interference!

"who are you!"

The Casting General asked in a hissing voice.

"I am the new Lord of Mars, Kubik."

The shadowy figure named Vashtor responded.

"I am your God of All Things!"

Vashtor's data stream, like a giant python, entwined itself around Kubik's logic, tightening its grip. Kubik could feel his mind being stripped away bit by bit, his memory, his logic, even his faith in the Om Messiah, being eroded by this force.

Fear spread in Kubik's heart.

Since he took the Data Throne, no one on Mars could rival him in data and computing power. He touted himself as the Martian god on earth, the incarnation of the Om Messiah, the unifier of all Martian thought. But now, everything he had bowed before this demon.

Is He really the God of All Things?

Such a blasphemous thought frightened Kubik. He did not dare to think about it too deeply. The thought alone was enough to make him lose all will to fight.

He severed the connection with the automated machine soldier and retracted his consciousness back to his main body.

There was no more interference from Vashtor, but Kubik was still in shock.

"There's no safe place in Lava City anymore. I must escape!"

He abandoned control of all the automated robots in the testing area, relying only on the remaining robots to break out of the lava city.

He relied on the Data Throne to send out signals to assemble troops, striving to completely destroy the entire Lava City with weapons of mass destruction and never meet this strange demon again.

But Augustus' voice inexplicably appeared in the communication channel where he was assembling his troops.

"Do you think you can still control everything, General Forge?"

Kubik was horrified to discover that the Data Throne had, against his will, proactively connected to Augustus. He tried to terminate the call, but the wetware connected to the Data Throne began to stir, rejecting his command.

Even the signals that were supposed to be sent to external forces were actively intercepted.

The wetware's computing power no longer served Kubik, but instead worked against him. Kubik's memory quickly traced back to the source, revealing that the source of this restless wetware was the Maxim Sages who had just arrived on Mars and refused to obey Martian orders.

The Sage's brain, originally made into wetware to establish his authority, now exudes the same aura as Vashtor. They corrode Kubik's logical circuits and compete with him for control of the throne.

Kubik finally understood why he, who had previously relied on the throne of data, had such logical irrationalities in his thinking.

Chaos had long been lurking beside him, and he, and even the entire Mars...

They are all falling into this carefully woven conspiracy!

PS: GW's official description of Vashtor is as follows.