Chapter Summaries

Ron visited Bayev at the overworked Palatine District Administratum and brought him nutritional supplements, then went to see Moss’s completed preliminary Internet. The first computer test ended with a pixelated Daemon Hound lewdly humping the God-Emperor Statue on the screen.

• Ron brought nutritional supplements to Bayev, who passed some to his overworked son Baruk and urged him back to work.
• Ron decided to wait to bless Bayev until the Internet could improve the Administratum’s efficiency.
• Ron visited Moss’s underground laboratory, where Moss reported that the Internet’s preliminary construction was complete.
• Moss activated the Pixelated Machine Screen, which played Ron’s custom startup animation before freezing on the God-Emperor Statue.
• A pixelated Daemon Hound emerged on the screen and began thrusting against the statue’s calf.

Ron’s attempt to build an Internet system was corrupted by Chaos energy, forcing him to destroy and seal the laboratory. As he worried that his experiment might have exposed Earth Planet, an explosion and Warp energy came from Sali Cawl’s new Mechanicus Workshop.

• A Chaos-tainted image appeared on the Pixelated Machine Screen, and Ron fired at it when Moss could not shut it down.
• Ron saw Chaos energy spreading through the cables to the laboratory’s mechanical mainframe and ordered Carter and the other Custodes to destroy it.
• Ron evacuated the laboratory and had the Cleaning Squad incinerate and seal it, abandoning his Internet experiment.
• An explosion shook the Palatine District, and Ron sensed leaking Warp energy coming from Sali Cawl’s Mechanicus Workshop.

Ron purifies the Warp-tainted wreckage left by Cawl’s experiment, then learns that Cawl was testing a prototype of Machine Spirit Link Technology powered by extracted Warp energy. Although Cawl promises to stop experimenting, Ron orders him to continue.

• Ron uses his Warp Essence to seal the spatial rifts and cleanse the Warp energy, spending 500,000 points of Power of Hope.
• The rescue team pulls the badly injured Cawl from the ruins and revives him, and Ron demands an explanation for the explosion.
• Cawl retrieves his damaged Servo-skull father from the rubble and explains that his Machine Spirit Link Technology prototype exploded when he connected it to a machine extracting Warp energy.
• Cawl promises not to resume the experiment until he perfects the energy supply, but Ron insists that he continue.

Ron approved Cawl’s Machine Spirit Link Technology research and promised the Palatine District’s support, while requiring usable results within half a year. That night, Ron blessed Cawl with the Little Sun’s Psyker Power, and Cawl received a vision of the Omnissiah as he studied.

• Ron told Cawl to resume his Machine Spirit Link Technology experiments and promised unconditional support from the Palatine District.
• Cawl reminded Ron that he had once called the research heretical, but accepted Ron’s explanation and celebrated the technology’s recognition.
• Ron offered to power the Machine Spirit Host with Psyker Power from the Little Sun, and Cawl admitted he could not predict how long development would take.
• Ron warned Cawl to deliver research results within half a year or lose permission to experiment.
• Ron spent one million points of Power of Hope to bless Cawl, who later saw the Omnissiah in a vision while studying his technical tome.

Cawl completed the Machine Spirit Host after receiving the Machine God’s favor, and Ron arrived at the Mechanicus Workshop to ignite it. Ron also reflected on the Administratum’s disastrous inefficiency, while Cawl’s increasingly sinister appearance left him wondering whether Cawl was becoming a Dark Tech-priest.

• Cawl felt his inspiration surge, woke his father’s Servo-skull, and announced that he knew how to create a Machine Spirit Host.
• Ron reviewed Devere’s successful Inquisition work and ordered that Cawl’s Machine Spirit be ignited that day.
• Ron recalled finding pointless Administratum departments and forgotten officials who had worked until they starved or died after the rebellion.
• Ron reached the Mechanicus Workshop and saw the enormous skull-shaped Machine Spirit Host Cawl had built.
• Cawl greeted Ron in heavily modified armor and robes, and Ron worried that Cawl looked like a Dark Tech-priest.

Ron oversaw Cawl’s ritual to awaken the Machine Spirit Host, powering it through a conduit to the Warp and the Little Sun. The Machine Spirit awakened but ignored Cawl and called Ron “Father.”

• Ron learned that Cawl had diverted resources to build a separate Mechanicus Workshop and warned him to make the ritual succeed.
• Cawl and the mechanical acolytes prepared the Machine Spirit Host with incense, oil, hymns, and entered the activation codes.
• The Warp Energy Extraction Device connected its Mechanical Conduit to the passage Ron had made, and Ron supplied the host with the Little Sun’s energy.
• The Machine Spirit Host powered up and awakened as Cawl tried to communicate with it.
• The Machine Spirit ignored Cawl and greeted Ron as “Father.”

Ron oversaw the rollout of the Spirit Net across the Palatine District, transforming its administration and earning two million points of Power of Hope. After learning that every scout sent through a pipeline to the Lower Hive had vanished, he rejected a ninth expedition and decided to take charge himself using a more reliable method.

• Ron named the newborn Machine Spirit Spirit Net, nicknamed Xiao Ling, and ordered Cawl to connect it throughout the territory.
• Cawl laid the pipelines and developed Spirit Net equipment with Ron’s guidance, and Ron decreed that every institution and factory must use the network.
• Over three months, the Spirit Net helped Ron reform the Palatine District’s administration, and he used two million points of Power of Hope to bless Bayev.
• Ron received a report that Ari had expanded the Defense Force to 510,300 personnel, with its equipment expected to be issued within the month.
• Ron learned that eight scout batches had vanished while trying to reach the Lower Hive through a narrow pipeline, so he rejected a ninth expedition and took personal charge of the mission.

Ron visited the secret biological laboratory beneath Spire Mansion, where Moss reported that the third batch of clone bodies had been successfully cultivated. The chapter ended with Ron seeing rows of clones that all looked exactly like him.

• Ron entered the hidden laboratory and found Moss arguing with Cawl on the Mechanicus Forum instead of working.
• Ron scolded Moss for browsing the forum, then asked whether he had completed the requested clone bodies.
• Moss confirmed that the experiment had succeeded and the third batch of clone bodies was ready.
• Ron followed Moss into the cultivation room and saw tanks filled with bodies identical to himself.

Ron inspected Moss’s Clone Body research and took control of a radiation-resistant Psyker body designed for entering the Lower Hive. He passed through the Pipeline District’s iron gate, beginning his dangerous journey into the passage that had swallowed nearly a thousand people.

• Ron found Moss’s experimental Clone Bodies, approved most of them, and ordered the gender-swapped body destroyed.
• Moss presented Ron with a customized, radiation-resistant Psyker Clone Body built for the Lower Hive.
• Ron transferred part of his consciousness into the new body, tested its Psyker Power, and praised Moss’s work.
• Ron credited Moss’s Mechanical Fuel Drink formula, prompting Cawl to find his Mechanicus Forum accounts muted by Xiao Ling.
• Ron entered the Pipeline District in his Psyker guise and faced the pitch-black passage ahead.

Ron crawled through Hive City's pipes, fought mutated creatures, and found a dormant Daemonhost blocking his route. As he cautiously tried to pass it, a mutated creature spotted him and charged, putting him at risk of waking the Daemonhost.

• Ron crawled through the pipes and killed an anglerfish-like mutated creature that had tried to ambush him.
• Ron found scout skeletons and fought off a creature that had risen after he passed its corpse.
• Ron continued through the pipes, saw more scout corpses, and detected a Daemonhost surrounded by strange mist.
• Ron carefully edged past the dormant Daemonhost while avoiding its mist.
• A four-legged mutated creature spotted Ron and charged toward him.

Ron escaped a Daemonhost in the Pipeline District, rested, and negotiated with Cawl to produce two hundred Sentinel Mechs in exchange for restored Spirit Net access. After surviving a mutant rat tide, Ron reached the Lower Hive and found its streets surprisingly orderly.

• Ron fled after a mutant creature awakened the Daemonhost, then hid in a pipe chamber to recover from overusing Psyker Power.
• Ron agreed to restore Cawl's Spirit Net access once Cawl promised to manufacture two hundred Sentinel Mechs before the Lower Hive operation.
• Cawl accepted Ron's condition, regained access, and hurried back to the Mechanicus Workshop on his Anti-Gravity Skimmer.
• Ron's clone woke among mutant rats, fought the Rat King’s horde with Psyker Power lightning, and slaughtered its way through them.
• After several days of travel, Ron reached the Lower Hive and was surprised by the orderly people on its streets.

Ron entered a relatively orderly Lower Hive neighborhood, where heretic cultists launched a sudden attack. After helping the soldiers stop a bomb-bearing cultist, Ron passed out and awoke under the care of a veiled woman, with an officer watching him.

• Ron entered the Lower Hive and judged that the neighborhood was probably controlled by the Lower Hive Defense Force.
• Ron sensed heretic cultists hiding in a pipe and warned the civilians as dozens of them attacked.
• Ron shot several cultists before patrolling soldiers arrived and joined the fight.
• A bomb-laden heretic cultist charged toward the crowd, and soldiers rushed forward to stop him despite heavy fire.
• Ron used his Psyker Power to burst the cultist's head, causing the bomb to explode among the heretics.
• Ron woke up in the care of a veiled woman, and an officer approached him with a sharp gaze.

Ron joined Eve and Galia’s household in the Lower Hive and secretly used Psyker Power to learn about the Defense Force’s fight against the heretic cults. He learned that the Defense Force held most of the Lower Hive, but the cults were growing more active; as Eve brought out the family’s crying child, Ron noticed something about Little Gali that troubled him.

• Galia thanked Ron for warning them about the heretics, and Eve and Galia invited him to live with their family.
• Eve introduced Ron to their neighbors, who welcomed him and shared food despite their own losses and hardship.
• Ron hypnotized Galia and learned that the Defense Force controlled roughly two-thirds of the Lower Hive, while heretic cults occupied the rest and had become increasingly active.
• Ron learned that Galia was a regiment commander serving the Emperor and considered how he could use Little Sun to guide the Defense Force.
• Eve served mushroom soup and Corpse Starch, then brought out her crying child, Little Gali, whom Ron immediately recognized as troubling.

Ron lived with the Galia family, whose affection and care made him feel increasingly happy and at home despite his growing confusion and forgetfulness. On Prayer Day, he saw the enormous four-armed God-Emperor Statue and wondered whether it was authentic.

• Eve and Galia welcomed Ron into their family, introduced him to Little Gali, and shared dinner with him.
• Eve revealed that she was pregnant again, and Galia celebrated the news with his family.
• Little Gali climbed into Ron’s bed and asked him to hug him as they fell asleep together.
• Ron woke after sleeping deeply and followed the Galia family to the church for Prayer Day.
• Ron saw the nearly fifty-meter-tall four-armed God-Emperor Statue and asked whether it was authentic.

Ron escaped the Genestealer Cult’s Psyker Network and discovered that he had been parasitized and that the Lower Hive was largely infected. As he resolved to find the Genestealer Patriarch and destroy the cult before it summoned the Tyranids, the Patriarch’s psychic beacon activated.

• During the prayer ceremony, Ron broke through the Psyker Network barrier and vanished from the square.
• Ron realized the worshippers were Genestealer Cultists, then vomited up infected tissue and discovered that his clone body had been parasitized.
• Ron concluded that a Genestealer Patriarch could summon the Tyranids and resolved to find it, using Cawl’s war machines to fight through the Lower Hive if necessary.
• The Genestealer Bishop announced that the Emperor was about to descend, and Ron sensed the Patriarch’s Psyker Power send a beacon into space.

Ron used his Psyker Power to connect to the Genestealer Hive Network and track the Genestealer Patriarch, but his Psionic Clone was destroyed before reaching the lair. The clone’s final image revealed the Patriarch’s location, leaving Ron ready to act against it.

• Ron realized the Genestealer Psychic Beacon had summoned the Tyranids and used his new Hive Network authority to sense the Patriarch’s location.
• The Genestealer Bishop ordered guards to capture Ron, who escaped into the underground pipes and evaded his pursuers using the Hive Network.
• Ron fought through increasingly mutated Genestealers and continued toward the Patriarch’s lair to scout its surroundings.
• Four Aberrant Overlords trapped Ron and smashed his Psionic Clone to pulp.
• Back aboard the Space Hulk, Ron received the clone’s final image of the Patriarch on a Rust-Iron Throne and realized he had found his target.

Ron went to recruit the Void Remnants for a strike against the Genestealer Patriarch, but the starving settlement mistook him for the god in their prophecy. After winning their faith with food, he faced their hopeful pleas to take them to Paradise World, though he intended to lead them into battle.

• Ron concluded that the Palatine District lacked enough elite troops for a raid on the Genestealer lair and decided to recruit the Void Remnants living in the Space Hulk.
• Tia waited anxiously for her father’s gathering team while the settlement suffered from dwindling fungi and famine.
• Ron approached Tia with wheat bread and asked her to tell the adults he wanted to trade, but she mistook his golden armor for the god from the settlement’s prophecy.
• Tia announced the god’s arrival, and the settlement’s old priest led the people to welcome Ron and worship him.
• Ron showed the Void Remnants wheat-based food, convincing them he was their prophesied god, and they begged him to take them to Paradise World.
• Ron learned what the Void-Born prophecy promised and felt awkward because he planned to lead the Void Remnants against a Genestealer nest.

Ron persuaded the Void Remnants to join the fight against the Genestealers, brought more than twenty thousand of them to Earth Planet, and launched a five-thousand-warrior strike force toward the Lower Hive. The attack began as Galia’s family and the Genestealer Cult celebrated the expected Day of Ascension, unaware that Ron’s force was approaching.

• Duke returned without finding the Fungus Grove, and Ron told the Void Remnants that the Paradise World was threatened by evil forces and that many warriors might die fighting them.
• The Void Remnants volunteered to fight, and Ron spent Power of Hope to transport more than twenty thousand of them to the Sacred Plaza on Earth Planet.
• Xiao Ling calculated a concealed pipeline route, and Ron’s war council approved a decapitation operation against the Genestealer Patriarch with two thousand elite troops and three thousand Void-Born warriors.
• Ron led the force into the pipeline toward the Lower Hive to kill the Patriarch and shut down the Psychic Beacon before the Tyranid fleet arrived.
• Galia, Eve, and Little Gali celebrated with their district as the Genestealer Cult’s followers awaited the Emperor’s arrival and the Day of Ascension.

The Genestealer Patriarch tormented and devoured its cultists while awaiting the Devouring Angels, then ordered its forces to repel a human invasion. Cawl, Ari, Kais, and Duke led defenders against the advancing Genestealers as the invaders closed in on the Patriarch’s palace.

• The Genestealer Patriarch frightened its cultists, forced them to fight one another, and devoured the last survivor despite promising to let him go.
• The Genestealer Patriarch sensed that the Hive Mind had received a signal and ordered nearby Genestealers to kill the invaders when explosions and gunfire erupted.
• Cawl, Ari, and Kais led nearly two thousand warriors in a surface defense, while Cawl and his Servo-skulls destroyed Genestealer reinforcements and artillery.
• Ari rallied the Defense Force soldiers to hold their position for at least fifteen minutes as enemy forces arrived from nearby sectors.
• Duke led the Void-Born warriors in defending the sewer entrances, discovering that their armor and weapons let them slaughter the Genestealers more easily than expected.
• The Genestealer Patriarch sensed its defenders were blocked and the invaders were nearing its palace.

Ron led his team through the conduits to confront the Genestealer Patriarch, while Custodes fought off the growing horde. After Ron killed the Genestealer Bishop with Psyker Power, the Patriarch defeated Carter and Dony and claimed it was the most powerful being on the planet.

• Ron and Carter killed the Genestealer attackers, then the team blasted through a pipe wall and continued toward the Patriarch’s lair.
• Dony killed an Aberrant Overlord at the breach, while Custodes left the group to defend their assigned sectors.
• Ron reached the Rust-Iron Throne and fired his Golden Bolt Pistol at the Genestealer Patriarch, provoking it to order an attack.
• Carter and the Custodes used Specialized Rockets to kill many attackers, but the Genestealer Bishop crushed several Custodes with Psyker Power.
• Ron overwhelmed the Genestealer Bishop with Psyker Power and made its head explode, leaving the Patriarch as the only enemy in the shaft.
• The Genestealer Patriarch hurled Carter and Dony into the wall, then approached Ron and declared itself unstoppable and the most powerful being on the planet.