Chapter Summaries

Ruthless Assassin's suicide attack killed Elias and shattered the Cultists' morale, sending them fleeing as Players gave chase. The fleeing mob crashed into the Cultists attacking the Astra Militarum's main position, spreading panic and disorder through their ranks.

• Ruthless Assassin's explosion killed him and Elias, devastated the battlefield, and ended Elias's psychic pressure.
• The Cultists realized their commander was dead, broke ranks, and fled; the scar-faced Warlord and his disciplinary squad joined them.
• More than a dozen Players pursued the Cultists for battle merits, while Robert kept the others at the position to fulfill the mission.
• The fleeing Cultists charged into the flank of the Cultist army attacking the Astra Militarum's main position, and panic spread through the attackers.

Commissar Walter witnessed the Sector 7 recruits break the Cultists’ attack and ordered a countercharge, but the pursuing players were annihilated by a psychic force in an abandoned plaza. After visiting their position and congratulating Ruan, Walter saw the players celebrate their completed mission and wondered at their startling optimism.

• Commissar Walter identified the flank attack as coming from Sector 7 Waste Processing and ordered mortars and a full-line countercharge against the disorganized Cultists.
• Walter halted the Astra Militarum’s pursuit, but the players chased fleeing Cultists into an industrial plaza, where a sickly green psychic wave killed them and hundreds of their pursuers.
• Walter ordered Ruan to report, then changed his mind and visited Sector 7 Waste Processing himself.
• Robert received the system notice that the position-holding quest was complete with an outstanding rating and 1,500 merit points, then announced the victory to the players.
• The players celebrated and browsed their system shops, while Walter restrained himself from reprimanding them and reflected on their unusual cheerfulness.

Commissar Walter explained to Robert that Sector 7 was an isolated pocket with no supplies or reinforcements, and that the company’s victory had only delayed its eventual defeat. Robert proposed attacking the nearby No. 9 Chemical Refinery, arguing that the company had little to lose by taking a chance.

• Commissar Walter inspected Sector 7 and questioned how the undisciplined company had defeated the Cultists.
• Robert told Walter that the company had suffered heavy casualties and urgently needed equipment, but Walter limited the resupply to two hundred frag grenades.
• Walter showed Robert a map and revealed that their position was the main force’s entire remaining territory.
• Walter warned Robert that the Cultists would eventually wear them down and that a Genestealer attack could finish them.
• Robert studied the map, pointed to No. 9 Chemical Refinery, and proposed attacking it despite Walter’s concerns about the risks.

Robert accepted his appointment as the 13th Company commander and let the Players choose the company’s designation. They named themselves the Death Seekers and received orders to capture No. 9 Chemical Refinery the next day.

• Commissar Walter promoted Robert from acting company commander to 13th Company commander and asked him to choose a company designation.
• Robert consulted the Players, who debated possible names and voted for Death Seekers over Undying.
• Robert told Commissar Walter the chosen designation, and Walter announced that the Players would prepare for the next day’s operation.
• The system renamed the company 13th Company · Death Seekers and assigned the mission to capture No. 9 Chemical Refinery.
• While Players lamented having to wait for battle, one used triple-speed thought acceleration to work on a client proposal.

The 13th Company received grenades and Grenade Launchers from the quartermaster before setting out for the Chemical Refinery, planning to attack while the heretics assaulted the Main Defense Line. During the grim march, the Players sang together and joked about the song’s anti-fascist lyrics.

• A quartermaster delivered grenades and Grenade Launchers to the 13th Company and told them the heretics would soon assault the Main Defense Line, creating an opportunity to attack the Chemical Refinery.
• Robert distributed the supplies, and Seventh Squad drew the extra Grenade Launchers.
• Nearly a hundred Players marched toward the Chemical Refinery through the foul Underhive, complaining about the conditions and their equipment.
• A Player sang “Unity is Strength,” and the company joined in as they marched.
• After the song, a Player joked that its lyrics made him want to fight the Imperium, and the Players laughed.

Robert’s company halted outside the Chemical Refinery and sent scouts to assess its defenses. The scouts found the factory almost entirely unguarded, leaving the Players uncertain whether the Cultists were careless or hiding a trap.

• Robert stopped the company near the refinery and ordered Assassin to recruit scouts rather than rush inside.
• Assassin split ten volunteers into five pairs and sent them to reconnoiter the factory’s outer defenses.
• Name and his partner found only a few drowsy sentries and no patrols or guard reliefs as they circled the refinery.
• The scouting teams regrouped and confirmed that the refinery’s entrances were barely guarded.
• A Player sketched the factory layout while the scouts questioned why the one-life Cultists had such lax defenses.

Robert led Death Seekers Company into the Chemical Refinery despite its suspiciously lax defenses. They caught the Cultists gathered for a ritual by surprise, but the Cultists’ panicked flight left the battle unresolved.

• Scouting teams reported that the Chemical Refinery had almost no guards, and Robert ordered the Players to proceed with the attack.
• Assassin silently killed the sentry at the main gate, allowing Death Seekers Company to infiltrate the refinery without raising an alarm.
• The Players reached a reaction workshop where Cultists were gathered and chanting around a wizard.
• Robert ordered three Players to blast open the doors with their shoulders and fire grenades into the crowd.
• The Players charged into the workshop and threw more grenades, sending the Cultists into chaos as some fled and others crowded around the wizard.

Robert’s Players routed the Cultists at the Chemical Refinery, but a hidden Genestealer ambushed and killed a pursuing squad before they resurrected and identified it as Ghost Claw Liam Bright. Liam escaped into the factory, still intent on its mission for the Star God.

• The sorcerer tried to rally the fleeing Cultists, but Robert ordered Seventh Squad to charge before they could form up.
• Led by Big Eagle Cop, Seventh Squad broke through the Cultists, scattering them and driving the battle into a pursuit.
• Players chasing a group of Cultists spotted a hidden enemy on the ceiling, killed the Cultists, and opened fire on it.
• The creature dodged the attack and killed the pursuing Players with its claw-blades before leaving the corridor.
• The Players resurrected, checked the system log, and identified their killer as a pure-blood Genestealer named Ghost Claw Liam Bright.

Players swarmed to the C-3 Catalyst Synthesis Zone after learning a pure-blood Genestealer had appeared there. Liam, the Fifth Generation Genestealer, killed Big Eagle Cop and shrugged off the Players’ attacks, leaving them facing an enemy they could not harm.

• A Player spotted a forum post reporting a pure-blood Genestealer in C-3, and the news spread throughout the refinery as Players rushed to the zone.
• Seventh Squad, led by Big Eagle Cop, entered C-3, where Liam waited in hiding and wondered how the Players had detected it.
• Seventh Squad ambushed Liam, but Liam evaded their attack and realized the soldiers could reliably locate it.
• Big Eagle Cop charged Liam, but Liam cut him and his iron club into pieces with a single claw strike.
• A Player charged Liam with explosives and detonated them, but Liam leaped clear and blocked the fragments with its carapace without injury.

Liam slaughtered wave after wave of Players in the refinery but could not keep them dead, and Big Eagle Cop’s surprise tackle created an opening for the Assassin’s Meltabomb attack. The explosion melted Liam, leaving the Players victorious through their relentless attacks and willingness to sacrifice themselves.

• Liam killed the last surviving Player of Seventh Squad, then charged into the waves of Players assembling under Robert’s command.
• The Players repeatedly resurrected and kept Liam occupied, while Liam realized it could not permanently kill them and prepared to escape over the pipes.
• Big Eagle Cop surprised Liam from behind and grabbed it, allowing the Players to wound and briefly pin it down.
• The Assassin rushed in with several bound Meltabombs and detonated them, melting Liam in the explosion.

The Players killed the hidden enemy Ghost Claw · Liam Bright with Ruthless Assassin’s self-destruct attack and received a random draw chance. Their first gacha prize was a complete Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e core rulebook set, giving them a new way to spend downtime.

• Ruthless Assassin and the other Players crawled out of the molten wreckage after repeatedly dying and reviving in the blast zone.
• The Players praised Assassin’s self-destruct build, and he agreed to share tips on using it.
• The system announced Ghost Claw · Liam Bright’s death and awarded the Players one random draw chance, unveiling a new gacha page.
• One Player used the draw and received the Complete Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook Set 3.5e.
• The Players joked about the prize’s effect making them want to start a DND group.

Assassin drew and learned [Hell Fire], a devastating skill that consumed everything he had, then demonstrated it by vaporizing a trench and destroying a chemical storage tank. After the blast, Assassin crumbled into ash, while Bit silently recorded the successful attempt to bestow a concept on a living being.

• Assassin drew [Hell Fire], and the other Players crowded around to inspect the skill’s power and its cost of everything he had.
• Assassin activated [Hell Fire], and a dark-red beam tore through the factory grounds and destroyed a chemical storage tank.
• Commissar Walter saw the beam from the main position and wondered whether something had happened to the Death Seekers company at the Chemical Refinery.
• The Players stared at the destruction in amazement, and Robert approached Assassin to praise him.
• Robert touched Assassin’s shoulder, and Assassin crumbled into grayish-white ash that the wind scattered away.
• Bit silently recorded the successful attempt to bestow a concept on a living being.

After using [Hell Fire], Liu Yubin discovered that his character’s Core Information had been consumed, preventing him from logging in. Developer [Bit] began reconstructing it and estimated he would be offline for eight to twelve hours, leaving Liu Yubin to pass the time by writing a guide to the “self-destruct truck.”

• Liu Yubin found he could not log in after [Hell Fire] consumed his character’s Core Information.
• Liu Yubin posted about the login problem on the official forum, where Players mocked his spectacular death.
• Developer [Bit] told Liu Yubin the skill had consumed his Core Information and said he was reconstructing it, which would take eight to twelve hours.
• Liu Yubin got [Bit]’s permission to post their conversation, and the forum erupted over the account-deleting skill.
• Liu Yubin decided to write the promised guide, titled “On the Art of ‘Self-Destruction’—From Beginner to Burial.”

After the Players repelled a Cultist probe at the Chemical Refinery, Commissar Walter saluted them as heroes and assigned them to help civilian workers take over the facility. Joker and two other Players discovered that a four-year-old boy was working as a veteran pipe unclogger, leaving them angry at Pedetia’s brutal conditions as they returned to the DND game.

• The Players easily defeated a small Cultist attack on the Chemical Refinery, and Commissar Walter led Astra Militarum soldiers in saluting them as heroes.
• Walter asked Robert to have the Players help the workers learn the refinery, and Robert noticed that most of the workers were women and children because able-bodied men were building the defense lines.
• Joker and two Players escorted workers to Area C-1 and discovered that a four-year-old boy had already worked for a year as a pipe unclogger.
• One Player angrily demanded to know where the boy’s parents were, but Joker stopped him from frightening the boy and led the Players away.
• The Players condemned the workers’ conditions, and Joker said winning the war was all they could do before heading toward the DND game.

Robert and Joker discussed the hardships of civilians in Zone C-1 before turning to how to spend the Company’s accumulated merits. Robert decided that buying tanks was impractical without ammunition production or trained crews, leaving him to seek more affordable ways to strengthen the Players.

• Joker told Robert about the suffering he had witnessed in Zone C-1, and Robert said winning the war was their immediate priority.
• Robert explained that his achievements had effectively earned him equal standing with an officer, but the Death Seekers could not be expanded into a regiment until more troops became available.
• Joker suggested buying a Leman Russ tank, but Robert pointed out that the Chemical Refinery could not manufacture the precision-made shells it needed.
• Robert warned that the Players lacked tank-operating experience and would lose many vehicles while learning, making tanks and their merit-bought ammunition too costly.

Robert used the Death Seekers’ merits to buy a backpack radio, giving the company a reliable way to communicate. While testing it, he reached a besieged Skitarii task force in the Mid-hive and decided to lead a rescue mission.

• Robert decided against buying a Leman Russ and chose a company-level radio instead.
• Robert and Joker tested the radio and heard a call for help from Skitarii Alpha-7 Task Force on Channel 37.
• The task force reported that heretics had trapped them in the Holy Trinity Forge Workshop while they protected an important Relic.
• Robert promised to organize a rescue, then ordered the Death Seekers to prepare to move to the Mid-hive.

Robert gathered the Death Seekers Company to rescue an Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii squad trapped in the Mid-hive, while Commissar Walter agreed to hold the Chemical Refinery. As the company marched out, Robert considered buying a mobile heavy weapons platform to help them break through the enemy defenses.

• Robert told Commissar Walter that he had contacted a besieged Skitarii squad in the Mid-hive and intended to rescue them.
• Walter warned Robert about the dangerous journey but promised to defend the Chemical Refinery while the company was away.
• Robert ordered the Death Seekers Company to march toward the Mid-hive, and nearly a hundred players departed amid cheers.
• Astra Militarum soldiers watched the seemingly tireless players leave and wondered at their courage and lack of need for rest.
• Robert searched the system shop for an armored vehicle, ruled out buying a Leman Russ tank, and considered other mobile heavy weapons.

Robert chose a Chimera Wyvern Suppressor to give the Death Seekers Company mobile fire support and experience with armored vehicles. Third Squad won first use in a dice roll-off, but the scouts then reported an enemy ahead.

• Robert ruled out tanks and towed artillery before purchasing a Chimera Wyvern Suppressor for two thousand merit points.
• Robert offered the vehicle to the squads through a roll-off, and Seventh Squad declined because its members preferred melee combat.
• Assimilation Complete lent Robert his legendary God's Dice, and the squads selected representatives to roll for the vehicle.
• Third Squad rolled the highest number, a nine, and claimed the first chance to use the Wyvern Suppressor.
• Robert noticed the dice had produced no duplicate numbers, then heard a scout report that an enemy was ahead.

Third Squad tried to use the Wyvern’s mortars without firing tables and accidentally annihilated Seventh Squad along with the Cultist position. Robert realized that training and ammunition costs could quickly consume his remaining Merit as he still needed to bring the Tech-Priest and Skitarii unit over.

• Third Squad’s Squad Leader and gunner struggled to aim the Wyvern’s mortars because the vehicle provided no trajectory display or firing tables.
• The gunner fired a four-shell ranging salvo, costing 120 Merit, at the Cultists’ position.
• The shells struck both the Cultists and Seventh Squad, killing the Players and destroying the position.
• [Big Eagle Cop] revived at the Chemical Refinery and angrily confronted Third Squad’s Squad Leader, who apologized and offered to replace the squad’s equipment.
• Robert accepted the friendly-fire incident with resignation and worried that training and replenishing shells would drain his Merit before he could bring over the Tech-Priest and Skitarii unit.

The Death Seekers advanced through a pitch-black Underhive tunnel, where Cultists ambushed them but could not slow the Players’ progress. The Players eliminated a hidden heavy-weapon team and continued toward the elevator to the Mid-hive.

• The Players entered the tunnel after clearing the surface, leaving the Wyvern’s firepower behind because it could not safely shoot in the cramped passage.
• Cultists ambushed the squad and killed a Player in Carapace Armor, but he revived after the others shot down his attackers.
• The revived Player inspected his armor and discussed its cost and possible future repairs with a teammate.
• A Cultist hid around a bend with a twin-linked heavy laser cannon, but a Player used a laser sniper rifle to kill him before the squad advanced.
• The Players found the cannon and discussed how the lack of an inventory made hauling equipment difficult, then continued through the tunnel.