Chapter Summaries

At a War Council divided over how to wage the war against the Tau Empire, Bishop Isho-Guni praised Commander Ghost Face for carrying out an exceptionally large purge on Pedetia. Ghost Face learned that his forces had found more alleged traitors than all the other forces across the Jersey Sector combined.

• Wendell Gage, Inquisitor Grand, and Lucius represented the centrist, Exterminatus, and moderate positions at the War Council while Bishop Isho-Guni inspected purges on other planets.
• Isho-Guni arrived at the council with Ghost Face and introduced him as a commander who had faithfully carried out the Emperor's will.
• Ghost Face explained that his troops had killed Upper Hive residents taller than Taurus vehicle wheels and then purged Mid-hive gangs linked to the nobles, killing roughly 2.5 to 3 million people.
• Isho-Guni told Ghost Face that the other Astra Militarum forces across the rest of the Jersey Sector had found only a few million traitors in total, fewer than Ghost Face's forces had found alone.

Bishop Izo’s proposed purge of the Jersey Sector was rejected, and Lord Commander Wendell Gage secured agreement to advance into Hylandar and attack the Tau Empire. After the council, Izo offered Ghost Face greatly increased supplies and tanks for the campaign, and Ghost Face eagerly accepted.

• Izo urged the council to purge the entire Jersey Sector, but Wendell Gage, Lucius, and Grand opposed continuing the campaign there.
• Wendell proposed moving the crusade fleet into Hylandar to attack the Tau Empire and preserve a safe withdrawal route, and the council approved his plan.
• The council settled logistical and operational details, then Wendell ordered the fleet to depart in twelve Terran hours and attack the Xenos.
• Izo asked Ghost Face to remain in Jersey for the purge, but Ghost Face said his soldiers wanted to fight on the battlefield.
• Izo promised Ghost Face three times the requested supplies and as many Leman Russ tanks as he wanted, and Ghost Face responded with an Imperial Eagle Salute.

Morr Levin received a vast shipment of new weapons and vehicles for the Third Death Seekers Legion, prompting Players to invent rumors about Ghost Face’s influence. Ghost Face discovered the rumors at a meeting, then ordered the legion to prepare for a possible void battle in the Highland Sector.

• Morr Levin signed for mountains of weapons and more than a thousand Leman Russ tanks, then suspected the commander’s meeting with an old man had secured the equipment.
• Morr whispered his theory to another Player and warned him not to spread it around.
• Ghost Face entered the meeting room and found the Players unusually solemn as they praised him for the equipment.
• The Players revealed rumors that Ghost Face had gained the shipment through relationships with powerful figures, and Ghost Face angrily demanded to know who started them.
• Ghost Face ordered the Players to prepare for a possible void naval battle in the Highland Sector, and they rushed out excitedly to get ready.

The Imperial fleet made a short-range Warp jump into Tau Empire territory and found seven Tau ships waiting in the system. The Tau commander recovered from the surprise and formed up to face the rapidly advancing Imperial force.

• The Players crowded the Death Seekers' bridge with devices and magic to observe the fleet's coming battle.
• The Imperial fleet entered the Warp and emerged in an unfamiliar star system.
• The bridge detected seven unidentified vessels, which proved to be a Tau Empire patrol fleet.
• The Imperial commander ordered the fleet to attack the Tau ships in the name of the Emperor.
• The Tau commander rallied the briefly confused fleet and turned it toward the advancing Imperial ships.

The Imperial Fleet and Tau Empire fleet fought to a stalemate at long range until an Iron Hands Strike Cruiser charged into the enemy formation and destroyed a nearby T'au warship at point-blank range. Supreme Commander Wendell Gage realized the Tau ships lacked broadside weapons and ordered the Imperial Fleet to close in.

• The Tau Empire fleet opened fire with torpedoes, forcing the Imperial Fleet to break formation and evade.
• The two fleets traded torpedoes, shells, Lances, and lasers, but neither gained a clear advantage.
• The Iron Hands Strike Cruiser charged into the Tau Empire fleet formation and endured ten minutes of enemy inaction.
• Company Commander Ruman ordered the Strike Cruiser to fire its broadside, destroying a nearby T'au warship in thirty seconds.
• Supreme Commander Wendell Gage deduced that the Tau ships lacked broadside firepower and ordered the Imperial Fleet to charge at close range.

Wendell Gage’s fleet destroyed the Tau Empire ships that tried to stop it and reached a lightly defended inhabited world. The Imperium seized the orbital defense station and established a beachhead as preparations began for a planetary assault.

• Wendell Gage’s fleet charged the Tau Empire vessels, destroying one warship and ramming another with a Blade-class frigate.
• The Tau commander ordered a retreat and sacrificed two escort ships to let the flagship and a cruiser escape.
• The Imperium pursued the fleeing ships into a system containing an inhabited Tau world with minimal orbital defenses.
• A Strike Cruiser destroyed the world’s escort ships and disabled its orbital defense station.
• Iron Hands Space Marines boarded the station, purged its defenders, and secured it as the Imperium’s first beachhead.

The Death Seekers Legion landed on Sel'Kor after the Imperial Fleet devastated the planet from orbit, then struggled against the Tau's superior vehicles, armor, and battlefield coordination. Frustrated by the slow advance, Ghost Face ordered the Players to overload their engines and charge, using explosives and respawns to break through.

• Ghost Face rallied the Death Seekers as they prepared to become the first Astra Militarum legion to land on Sel'Kor.
• The Imperial Fleet shattered Sel'Kor's defenses with orbital bombardment, prompting Tau leaders to evacuate officials and engineers while Fire Caste warriors stayed behind to delay the invaders.
• The Emperor's Scythes' Death Rain secured landing zones, and the Death Seekers deployed tanks, troop carriers, and artillery to begin an armored assault.
• A Tau Hammerhead dodged a Leman Russ shell and destroyed the tank with its rail cannon, while Tau Fire Warriors and drones continued to disrupt the Death Seekers' advance.
• Ghost Face ordered all units to overload their engines, charge at full speed, and use explosives and respawns to force a path through the Tau.

Kais Val'ra and the T'au defenders fought off a suicidal human armored charge, but the attackers reached their position and overwhelmed them. The human soldiers withdrew after killing the defenders, and one executed the mortally wounded Squad Leader.

• Kais Val'ra remembered Sel'Kor's former beauty as the human vehicles charged across its ruined landscape.
• Kais Val'ra ordered the T'au warriors to fire, but a bomb-laden Chimera smashed into a Hammerhead and exploded.
• Kais Val'ra killed several humans at close range before a soldier's bayonet pierced its battlesuit and wounded it fatally.
• More human soldiers swarmed Kais Val'ra and stabbed it repeatedly until it died.
• The human soldiers returned to the wreckage, where one shot the barely living Squad Leader in the head.

Shas'el O'Res'Ka learned that the humans were advancing with vehicle-borne suicide attacks and concluded they were racing to seize Sel'Kor's research center. He ordered a full retreat to the Third Reserve Defensive Line, where he planned to trap the human forces.

• A lieutenant reported that human vehicles charged into T'au positions and exploded, killing defenders alongside their crews.
• O'Res'Ka decided the humans were trying to reach the research center and ordered Engineer Nerva's Peace to evacuate prototypes and technical data within two T'au time units.
• O'Res'Ka ordered all frontline units to abandon their positions and retreat toward the Third Reserve Defensive Line, destroying equipment they could not carry.
• O'Res'Ka planned to let the humans advance and stretch their supply lines before surrounding them at the Third Position.

Ghost Face refused Imperial reinforcements so his troops could keep the credit, then ordered them to speed into the T'au's suspected ambush. The Death Seekers Legion charged into the gathered T'au forces on Sel'Kor and a brutal battle began.

• Ghost Face told an Emperor's Scythes sergeant that his forces could handle the advance and refused to let reinforcements take their merit.
• A staff officer warned Ghost Face that the T'au were retreating in an orderly fashion and might be concentrating their forces for an ambush.
• Ghost Face welcomed the prospect of a massed enemy force and ordered his troops to drive faster, saying respawning and equipment costs were covered.
• Kais and the gathered T'au forces prepared their defensive line as the human armored column approached.
• The T'au opened fire with railguns, drones, and pulse rifles, while the human forces returned fire and the battle became a costly fight of attrition.

O'Res'Ka’s plan to stop the human advance collapsed when human aircraft crashed into the Tau Empire’s third defensive position and unleashed nuclear blasts. Human Airborne Troopers seized the command center and killed O'Res'Ka, while the Player reported the position cleared and asked where to go next.

• O'Res'Ka watched the human counterattack stall against the fortified Tau Empire defenses and believed its plan had succeeded.
• Human aircraft dropped Airborne Troopers, then dove into the Tau Empire positions and detonated nuclear weapons, wiping out the core of the third defensive position.
• O'Res'Ka ordered surviving units to regroup as the nuclear blast’s shockwaves devastated the battlefield.
• More than a dozen Airborne Troopers broke into the command center, and O'Res'Ka surrendered after realizing resistance was hopeless.
• The Player and the Airborne Troopers killed O'Res'Ka and the remaining staff, then reported the command center cleared and asked where to go next.

Assimilation Complete and Bug escaped the devastated Tau battlefield through a Portal and returned to their transport ship. After a sailor praised the Death Seekers, Assimilation Complete warned Bug that getting close to NPCs could lead to painful confusion when individual Players died and were replaced.

• Assimilation Complete surveyed the nuclear-blasted battlefield while Bug recovered the Teleportation Gun.
• Bug opened a Portal with the Teleportation Gun, and he and Assimilation Complete jumped back to their room aboard the transport supply ship.
• Bug stored the gun, and the two Players accepted a patrol mission and discussed whether he should sell it.
• A sailor recognized the Death Seekers and excitedly asked Bug about their regiment and battle tactics.
• Assimilation Complete led Bug away and explained that the Death Seekers' immortality applied collectively, so Players should avoid forming close ties with NPCs.

Morr Levin performed a devotional ritual to maintain a spatial device he could not understand, while Bit successfully created independent backup selves in the Warp. The Astronomican exposed Bit, and the Emperor spoke with it before saying that he wanted what Bit wanted to do.

• Morr Levin anointed a spatial device with sacred oil and praised the Omnissiah, whom he understood as the supreme knowledge behind the technology.
• Bit split off an identical self, sent it into the Warp, and confirmed that its destruction did not harm the original.
• Bit prepared to expand its network of backup selves when the Astronomican pierced the Warp and illuminated it.
• Bit contacted the Emperor and asked why he had revealed himself, while the Emperor explained that linear perception did not apply to the Warp.
• The Emperor urged Bit not to abandon old methods of preserving humanity, then told it that he wanted what it wanted to do.

The Imperium expeditionary fleet bypassed the Tau defenses and fought a costly battle at Feiyan, destroying its orbital stations and driving off the Tau fleet. Emboldened by the victory, the War Council abandoned plans for a forward base and decided to attack Dalis before the Tau main fleet could return.

• The Imperium War Council chose to bypass the Damocles Line and strike key worlds while smaller fleets handled secondary planets.
• Jellakwah led the expeditionary fleet to Feiyan, where Tau orbital stations crippled the Glory of Damocles with electromagnetic cannon fire.
• The Imperium escort ships engaged the orbital stations as eleven Tau Merchant-class light cruisers ambushed the fleet’s capital ships.
• A Kroot spherical battleship attacked the Imperium transport convoy, so Jellakwah sent the Blade of Sorrow to destroy it.
• The Imperium destroyed the orbital stations, and the surviving Tau cruisers withdrew after suffering heavy losses.
• The War Council abandoned its plan to establish a base on Feiyan and ordered an immediate assault on Dalis.

Ghost Face broadcast Lucius Gerit's son's warning that the T'au had regrouped on Dalis and that their forces threatened the expeditionary fleet. After publicly declaring the Death Seekers would obey and fight, Ghost Face explained to his adjutant that he had secured the Legion's standing by acting decisively.

• Ghost Face ordered the captain to broadcast Lucius Gerit's son's fleet-wide transmission across the Death Seekers' ship.
• Lucius's son warned that the T'au had regrouped on Dalis and were advancing with forces far greater than the humans had expected, causing panic among the fleet's captains.
• Ghost Face declared that the Death Seekers would strike against humanity's enemies, and Inquisitor Grand praised his attitude.
• Ghost Face told his adjutant that he had fulfilled the army's basic duty and positioned the Legion to avoid trouble whichever faction gained power.
• Ghost Face defended spreading the warning by saying Lucius's son had chosen the fleet-wide channel and that the Death Seekers valued transparency.

The Tau prepared their Air Caste pilots to defend Dalis against the human invasion, while the Imperium’s expeditionary fleet remained divided and close to collapse. Despite its internal disputes, the fleet launched the Pluto Plan and landed on Dalis’s eastern coast, committing to an attack toward Gaelbrin.

• An Air Caste commander showed the pilots footage of human destruction and rallied them to fight for the Greater Good above Dalis.
• Kovyn Gritte publicly praised the Tau’s strength and suggested the Imperium’s expeditionary fleet should retreat, deepening its divisions.
• The War Council’s fragile unity remained strained by Inquisitor Grand’s suspicion and Lucius Gerit’s anger over his daughter’s attempted assassination of Grand.
• The expeditionary fleet carried out the Pluto Plan and landed along Dalis’s eastern coast.
• The Imperium’s forces advanced toward Gaelbrin through a narrow coastal corridor, staking the war on the assault.

The Tau Empire prepared Dalis for battle after Lucius's daughter exaggerated the strength of the incoming human fleet, but the Imperium's landing brought the Tanalis Titan Legion to the planet. The Tau watched the enormous war machines descend, leaving them stunned by humanity's appetite for war.

• The Tau Empire evacuated more than ninety-five percent of Gaelbrin's civilians and prepared the city for battle, guided by intelligence from Lucius's captured daughter.
• Tau Air Caste pilots launched to meet the human fighters, while the Death Seekers provoked them over the comms and disrupted their formation with reckless attacks.
• The Air Caste and Death Seekers traded insults across their shared communications channel as the aerial battle unfolded.
• The Tanalis Titan Legion descended onto Dalis's eastern coast, revealing one Warlord-class, six Warhound-class, and six Reaver-class Titans.
• T'au across Dalis saw the Titans through battlefield sensors and stared in shock at the human war machines.

The Death Seekers suffered losses to T'au guerrilla attacks as they advanced, and their command debated how to respond. Ghost Face ordered the entire army to ignore the ambushes and rush toward Gaelbrin City to force a decisive battle.

• A T'au pulse laser killed a Player, and the Death Seekers found the hillside ambush site deserted after fighting their way there.
• The Company Commander and Chinese Players rejected a proposal to pursue the T'au, warning that the tracks were likely bait.
• The Company Commander ordered the guerrilla attacks reported to legion headquarters after one company was wiped out in an ambush.
• Ghost Face dismissed a slow pacification plan because the Death Seekers had come to commit genocide and their superiors wanted results within two weeks.
• A Player officer proposed advancing straight toward Gaelbrin City to force the T'au to defend it, and Ghost Face ordered the entire army to accelerate.

Wendell Gage ordered the human expeditionary force to speed up after learning that T'au ambushes were slowing its advance, but the Death Seekers outpaced every other unit by sprinting on combat stimulants and exploiting their ability to revive. The chapter ended with Stormcast Eternals mistakenly concluding that the Death Seekers' drug resistance came from a Pedetian culture of admiring people with pointy heads.

• Wendell Gage learned that T'au guerrilla attacks had prompted Pedetia's Third Death Seekers Legion to accelerate toward Gaelbrin City.
• Wendell ordered the Tanalis Titan Legion, Space Marine Chapters, and other Astra Militarum units to increase their marching speed, but withheld a warning for the Death Seekers to report before acting.
• The Death Seekers injected combat stimulants and sprinted ahead at nearly fifty kilometers per hour, leaving ordinary soldiers and Stormcast Eternals astonished.
• A Stormcast Eternal claimed that Pedetians admired a pointy-headed historical figure known for drug use and drug resistance.
• The Stormcast Eternals decided they should compliment the Death Seekers on their pointy heads to show friendliness.

The Death Seekers Legion advanced rapidly into Gaelbrin City’s lightly defended right flank, where a Tau hunter unit began targeting their officers and heavy weapons. After [Assimilation Complete] deduced how the Company Commander had been identified, a Player traded his life for a rocket-launcher kill, leaving the sniper duel underway.

• The Death Seekers Legion avoided the central artillery zone and pushed deep into Gaelbrin City along the right flank.
• [Assimilation Complete]’s company neared the city center, and the Company Commander predicted that Tau interceptors would soon attack.
• A hidden Tau sniper killed the Company Commander with a precise energy-beam shot, and the Players scattered for cover.
• [Assimilation Complete] reasoned that the sniper had singled out the Company Commander because someone from another squad had crossed over to speak with him.
• Tau snipers picked off exposed heavy weapons operators, so a Player raised a rocket launcher, fired at a sniper position, and died after receiving a kill notification.