Chapter Summaries

Ping Jie and the Death Seekers let the Tyranids attack so they could test weapons and capture specimens, despite heavy casualties. The chapter ended with Wick realizing the Death Seekers obeyed suicidal orders because they were treated as cheap, disposable soldiers.

• The Tyranids withdrew their forces and biomass pools while the defenders waited for their next attack.
• Boni proposed bombing the Tyranid pools with tactical nukes, but Ping Jie ordered everyone to wait.
• Gargoyles attacked from the sky as mucus-coated Hormagaunts crossed the Promethium fire, and Ping Jie ordered the defenders to keep collecting combat data.
• Joker ordered Position Three to let Hormagaunts through so the Death Seekers could test melee weapons and capture specimens; the soldiers killed several bugs at heavy cost.
• The Death Seekers captured a Hormagaunt and a smaller creature it spat out, but both captures caused further casualties.
• Wick watched the Death Seekers obey suicidal orders without hesitation and concluded that they were treated as disposable soldiers.

The Tyranids breached the fortress and overwhelmed its defenses, prompting Ping Jie to use poison gas and acid to halt their advance. Wick proposed turning the acid against the battlefield’s corpses, and artillery began dissolving the remains to deny the swarm biomass and impede its reinforcements.

• The Tyranids broke through the fortress’s eastern wall and poured into the defenses as Gargoyles attacked from above.
• Ping Jie released poison gas, which devastated the Tyranids but also damaged the Death Seekers and corroded the fortress; the Death Seekers countercharged to stabilize the line.
• Ping Jie ordered acid artillery to strike the combat zone, but the acid killed Death Seekers more effectively than the acid-resistant Tyranids.
• Boni criticized the acid attack, while Leonid argued it prevented the Tyranids from recycling human biomass; Ping Jie concluded the acid needed a different use.
• Wick suggested using acid to dissolve corpses in lost positions and turn the ground into a hazard, and Joker ordered artillery to carry out the plan.

The Hive Mind intensified its assault on the fortress, and Ping Jie detected Tyranids tunneling beneath it. Ping Jie’s group prepared an ambush, but a Hive Tyrant broke through their defenses, and they fled toward the nuclear reactor with the wounded monster pursuing them.

• The Hive Mind committed more Tyranids after the Death Seekers’ tactics prevented the swarm from recovering biomass.
• Joker gave Ping Jie seismic data showing that something was tunneling underground, and Ping Jie gathered a hundred Death Seekers and Wick’s Skitarii to investigate.
• Ping Jie organized the defenders in the fortress’s lower support level, where Burrowing Pythons and a Hive Tyrant burst through the floor.
• The Hive Tyrant killed a Death Seeker squad, survived the defenders’ fire, and lost much of its right side when Leonid struck it with a melta beam.
• The Hive Tyrant’s psychic shockwave disabled Leonid, and Ping Jie pulled Wick away while ordering Boni to reach the nuclear reactor.
• The Hive Tyrant tore through the remaining defenders and pursued Ping Jie, Wick, and Boni deeper into the fortress.

As the Tyranids overran the fortress, Ping Jie gave Taren Wick the Legendary Sink and forced him to escape aboard a pod. The escort ship’s reactor exploded, engulfing Ping Jie and the Hive Tyrant while Wick fled with the Relic.

• The Hive Tyrant smashed through the fortress defenses as Gargoyles and Tyranids flooded the battlefield, and Wick, Ping Jie, and Boni reached the escort ship.
• Ping Jie showed Wick that a Legendary Sink supplied the escort ship with limitless clean water and insisted Wick take it away from the Tyranids.
• Wick refused to accept the Sink or leave Ping Jie, but Ping Jie argued that Wick had no duty to fight the Tyranids and needed to escape with the Relic.
• The Hive Tyrant broke into the chamber, and Boni attacked it with explosives before the creature swallowed him.
• Ping Jie shoved the Sink and Wick into an escape pod and sealed it as the reactor exploded, consuming Ping Jie and the Hive Tyrant.

After surviving the destruction of the planet, Taren Wick resolved to avenge Ping Jie, Boni, and Leonid and to pursue their wish of helping the Imperium’s citizens. Trazyn the Infinite offered him knowledge in exchange for the tank, leaving Wick to weigh his friends’ relic against the chance to fulfill their ideals.

• Taren Wick awakened aboard a small ship and reflected on Ping Jie, Boni, and Leonid’s sacrifice and final wishes.
• Wick decided to warn the Ultramarines about the Tyranids, embellishing his account by claiming they were targeting Guilliman so the Ultramarines would muster against them.
• Wick resolved to rise through the ranks and gain knowledge so he could eventually improve life for the Imperium’s citizens.
• Trazyn the Infinite appeared aboard the ship and offered Wick vast knowledge in exchange for the tank.
• Wick refused to hand over the tank immediately and asked to inspect Trazyn’s offer before deciding.

Robert discovered that Genestealers disguised as nobles and servants had infiltrated Shirok Starport on Macragge. Sicarius and Calgar began mobilizing forces as Robert called for the port and the planet to be screened.

• At Shirok Starport, a Death Seeker alerted Robert to nobles and servants marked as enemies in his vision.
• Robert ordered the Death Seekers to seize the group, and they exposed their purple-scalped disguises.
• The Genestealers attacked Robert, but the Death Seekers killed them with Lasgun fire.
• A gene scan confirmed the creatures carried Xenos genetic sequences, and Robert ordered a lockdown and widespread screening.
• Sicarius called Apothecary Meric and prepared to mobilize the Ultramar Auxilia as Calgar received the emergency report.
• Calgar recognized the danger to Macragge's strategic hub and summoned the First Company.

Ultramarines and Auxilia forces locked down Shirok Starport and hunted Genestealer spies with help from Robert’s Death Seekers. After Marneus Calgar arrived and learned Robert had uncovered the infiltration, Robert asked Calgar for signatures from him and Titus.

• Ultramar Auxilia troops secured Shirok Starport, and Cato Sicarius reassured the civilians before ordering inspections.
• The Auxilia detained bald civilians for further checks, while those with violet scalps were shot as Genestealers.
• Robert’s Death Seekers identified suspected spies with uncanny accuracy, prompting Sicarius to use them to direct the Auxilia’s arrests.
• Marneus Calgar arrived with the First Company’s Terminator Guard and praised Robert for discovering the infiltration.
• Robert asked Calgar for a signed Adeptus Astartes Codex and Titus’s signature, and Calgar agreed.

Robert and Calgar stopped a Genestealer uprising at Shirok Starport, then traveled to Fortress of Hera as Macragge prepared for war. Calgar left Sicarius to show Robert around before they would meet at the Polar Fortress to discuss the Tyranid threat.

• More than a hundred Genestealers attacked civilians and soldiers, but Calgar and the First Company Terminators killed them without harming anyone.
• Robert explained that the slain Cult Sorcerer was not a Genestealer Patriarch and recounted how the Death Seekers had sacrificed themselves to kill one.
• Calgar arranged further screenings across Macragge and invited Robert to Fortress of Hera, while Robert's Death Seekers stayed behind to assist.
• On the way, Calgar told Robert that Macragge had mobilized for war, with workers scheduled for eight-hour days and only two days off each week.
• Robert arrived at Fortress of Hera, and Calgar sent Sicarius to guide him before directing him to meet at the Polar Fortress to discuss the Tyranids.

Robert toured the ancient halls of Fortress of Hera with Sicarius and found a memorial to Ionid Hill, whose name seemed to awaken an unfamiliar feeling in Sicarius. They left to visit the sleeping Primarch, while Sicarius suggested Robert would not get the Primarch’s autograph or photo either.

• Sicarius guided Robert through the Hall of Heroes and described the deeds of Ultramarines commemorated by its statues.
• As they ventured into the oldest halls, Sicarius knew less about the forgotten warriors, but Robert insisted they continue.
• Robert stopped at a plaque commemorating Brother Ionid Hill, who had fought for the Imperium for five hundred years after the Primarch entered slumber.
• Sicarius said Hill’s name stirred a strange feeling in him and considered that his Gene-seed might have inherited traits from Hill.
• Robert suggested they go see the sleeping Primarch, and Sicarius joked that Robert would not get the Primarch’s autograph or photo.

Robert visited the hall where Guilliman lay in stasis, declined to worship him, and went with Sicarius to the Polar Fortress. There, he joined Calgar and other leaders to review the Tyranid advance and its threat to Ultramar.

• Robert admired the hall and Guilliman, while Sicarius corrected his references to the Primarchs and the God-Emperor.
• Robert declined Sicarius's suggestion to pray and chose to head directly to the Polar Fortress.
• Sicarius escorted Robert to the tactical conference room, where Calgar and several Imperial officials awaited him.
• Calgar displayed a star map of worlds already devoured by the Tyranid, and Kryptman and Sage Wick confirmed that their intelligence was current.
• Kryptman questioned Robert's knowledge of the Tyranid, while Sage Wick asked whether he was the Planetary Governor of Pedetia.
• Calgar redirected the gathering to the tactical table, and the leaders turned their attention to the Tyranid threat.

Robert predicted that the Tyranids would attack Plantem first and urged Calgar to prepare its defenses, despite doubts from the Imperial Navy's admiral. The meeting ended with Ultramarines and Star Claws reinforcements assigned to Plantem, while Robert realized a Player may have saved Rugert Huron.

• Robert identified Plantem as the Tyranids' likely first target and urged the evacuation of civilians and a major buildup of defenses.
• Admiral Dean argued that the fleet could match the Tyranids, but Robert dismissed the armed merchant ships as unfit for void combat, prompting Dean to leave in anger.
• Calgar agreed to send the Ultramarines' Second Company, including Sergeant Sicarius, to Plantem alongside Robert's Death Seekers Legion.
• Calgar revealed that Rugert Huron and a thousand Star Claws had arrived to reinforce Ultramar, and Robert was shocked that Huron was alive and serving alongside the parent Chapter.
• Robert suspected that a Player had saved Huron and concealed his knowledge when Calgar noticed his reaction.

The Death Seekers supervised Plantem’s evacuation and burned its wheat fields to deny the Tyranids biomass and prepare defensive positions. As the flames spread, Severus Agman pledged to support the Death Seekers’ decisions at Valo Digris’s request, while Rugert Huron questioned putting the war in mortal hands.

• Bug and the other Players surveyed Plantem and decided to burn the wheat fields because they could obstruct defenses and feed the Tyranids.
• Assimilation Complete persuaded the Players to notify villagers through the local administrator, and the residents evacuated in orderly lines, afraid of the Death Seekers after hearing about their violence in the Jersey Sector.
• The Players drove through the fields and burned the crops, filling Plantem’s sky with smoke as they carried out their mission in silence.
• Severus Agman watched the burning fields with compassion, while Rugert Huron argued that securing victory had to come before mourning the losses.
• Agman told Ego that Valo Digris had instructed him to respect the Death Seekers’ judgment, and Huron questioned whether a prophecy justified entrusting them with command.

[EGO] took command of Plantem’s defense and proposed turning the planet into a lethal battlefield to drain the Tyranid hive fleet’s biomass. Agman approved the plan and ordered all auxiliary forces to evacuate, leaving the planet’s defenses to the Death Seekers Legion.

• [EGO] accepted command and ordered every mortal on Plantem except the Death Seekers to evacuate.
• [EGO] presented a plan to spread explosive corrosive gas, irradiate major cities, and use acid to deny the Tyranid fallen biomass.
• Hurun questioned the devastation the plan would cause, while Agman chose to trust Chief Librarian Valo Digris’s judgment.
• [EGO] explained that combining lethal conditions would force the Tyranid to spend more biomass adapting and make the invasion a losing war of attrition.
• Hurun approved of the strategy, and Agman ordered auxiliary forces to assemble at the starport for evacuation and transferred Plantem’s defenses to the Death Seekers Legion.

The Ultramarines withdrew from Plantem after the Death Seekers took over their command post and began burying a tactical nuclear bomb there. At the front, the Squad Leader returned to find his rookies had mistaken a Tyranid infiltrator for a civilian and killed him while he was logged out.

• A Death Seeker told the Ultramarines commander that Plantem would become a death world amid the Tyranid invasion and that the Ultramarines were not suited to stay.
• The commander saw Death Seekers bring a tactical nuclear bomb into the command post and ordered his staff to finish packing so they could withdraw.
• The Death Seekers began preparing to bury the nuclear bomb as a last resort against a Tyranid decapitation attack.
• The Squad Leader returned to the trench and demanded to know why he had respawned at company headquarters after logging out.
• [Feitian De] explained that the squad had let a supposed civilian approach, only for a Tyranid to burst from his stomach and kill the logged-out Squad Leader.
• The Squad Leader scolded the rookies for failing to shoot an approaching threat, but one Player objected that the civilian had lacked a white outline.

The Squad Leader’s recruits learned the forum’s tactical guidelines, then received plasma weapons from a Ryza Adeptus Mechanicus Player. After discovering they had left corpses unburied, the Squad Leader sent them to dispose of the bodies in the acid pit and promised to teach them how to open Ant-ox cans.

• The Squad Leader trained the newbie Players until they handled themselves more competently.
• Xiong Da and Xiong Er brought a Ryza Adeptus Mechanicus Player to the trench, where he offered the squad an arsenal of plasma weapons.
• The Ryza Player explained that he advanced his research by repeatedly dying and retaking his Priest qualification examinations.
• The Squad Leader and the other Players chose plasma weapons from the Ryza Player’s collection.
• The Ryza Player noticed a smell, and the Squad Leader realized the newbies had failed to dump earlier corpses into the acid pit.
• The Squad Leader ordered the Players to dispose of the corpses, and they eagerly set off after he promised to teach them how to open Ant-ox cans.

The Tyranids launched a surprise attack on Plantem, and Robert recognized that they had deliberately let the planet’s distress signal through to lure Imperial relief fleets into a trap. He persuaded Calgar to recall the fleets to Macragge and prepare a united counterattack, leaving Plantem’s defenders to hold out for reinforcements.

• The Squad Leader ate an Ant-ox can without neutralizing its eggs and told the astonished Players that the dangerous food was delicious.
• The Tyranids emerged from the Warp Shadow and attacked Plantem, while the distress signal reached Macragge.
• Admiral Dylan apologized to Robert, who accepted and then asked which fleet was closest to Plantem.
• Robert concluded that the Tyranids had allowed Plantem’s signal through to bait the relief fleets and ordered them to withdraw to Macragge.
• Calgar ordered all fleets to assemble at Macragge and told Plantem’s defenders to hold their ground until reinforcements arrived.

New Players in an outer trench faced a Tyranid assault, using plasma weapons to tear into the swarm while Gargoyles attacked from above. The Squad Leader recognized the trench as bait for a buried fuel-air explosive trap and ordered the Players to hold their ground despite repeated deaths.

• The newbies tasted canned meat, then spotted black dots falling from the sky as the Squad Leader identified them as the incoming Tyranids.
• The Squad Leader ordered the Players to seal their equipment and inject combat stimulants before gas shells filled the trench with poisonous fog.
• The Squad Leader held the Players' fire until the Tyranid swarm emerged, then commanded them to unleash their plasma weapons.
• An Adeptus Mechanicus Player from Ryza recorded the battle in a notebook while the Squad Leader noticed Gargoyle acid falling from the sky and losing his right arm.
• The Squad Leader ordered [Xiong Da] and [Xiong Er] to protect him and told the others to ignore the Gargoyles and keep attacking the Tyranids, while the Players repeatedly respawned and returned to the fight.

Players held an outer position against the Tyranids with plasma weapons, but the Tyranids bypassed them and destroyed the squad with long-range bio-artillery. At Plantem headquarters, Ego reviewed the losses and concluded that the Tyranids would still have to face the defenders’ ground forces.

• After the Tyranid swarm thinned, Xiong Da persuaded the Squad Leader and the Players to capture the remaining bugs alive so he could try raising one.
• The Squad Leader noticed that the Adeptus Mechanicus Player had fled, and a barrage of bone spines struck the position, killing the Players.
• At Plantem Strategic Command Headquarters, a staff officer reported that the first defensive perimeter had lost contact and that most squads had self-destructed after engaging the Tyranids.
• Ego learned that Outpost 117 had lasted nearly an hour because its squad carried plasma weapons, but the Tyranids had bypassed it and eliminated it with long-range fire.
• Ego judged that self-destruction would have little effect and vowed to meet a large-scale Tyranid artillery push with Astartes, Ogryns, and elite veterans.

Name and his squad defended position C-3 against a Tyranid attack, using prepared defenses and crossfire to destroy waves of Hormagaunts. When a Lictor broke through, a Ratling player blinded it and an Ogryn Player smashed it into a wall, leaving the squad victorious.

• Name led his squad to position C-3 and ordered them to hold fire until the Hormagaunts entered the minefield.
• The squad used mines, obstacles, and machine-gun crossfire to kill the Hormagaunts that reached the trench.
• A Lictor leaped into the position and overwhelmed the squad’s attempts to hit it as it attacked the Ogryn Player.
• Name’s squad prepared to use grenades against the Lictor, but the Ratling player stopped them and took aim with his sniper Lasgun.
• The Ratling player shot the Lictor in the left eye, giving the Ogryn Player an opening to smash it into a concrete wall with his power club.

Name and the Death Seekers ran out of ammunition and fought the Tyranids in the trenches until the Company Commander unleashed uncontrolled psychic flames that destroyed the fortress and everyone in it. A demon emerged from the resulting Warp rift but was immediately overwhelmed and devoured by the enraged Tyranids.

• Name and the Death Seekers discovered that their guns had run out of ammunition, so they fixed bayonets and fought the Tyranids in the trenches.
• The Death Seekers and Tyranids clogged the narrow passages with corpses, creating a brutal stalemate as the players repeatedly filled gaps in the line.
• The Company Commander warned Name about a Burrowing Python approaching from behind and unleashed psychic flames that incinerated the Tyranids and Death Seekers alike.
• A Warp rift opened where Hedgehog Fortress had stood, and a demon emerged, intending to claim the planet's souls.
• The Tyranids swarmed the demon, whose Warp powers were weakened by the Warp Shadow, and a Tyranid Warrior bit off its head before it retreated into the Warp.