Chapter Summaries

The Death Seekers traded enormous numbers of lives for casualties among the hidden Kroot, then faced a mass Kroot charge that overwhelmed them in close combat. As the last Kroot attacked the surviving Squad Leader, he pressed his detonator.

• The Death Seekers kept firing through two hours of fighting, trading their casualties for Kroot marksmen despite the enemy's superior combat skills.
• The Kroot attacks stopped, and the Players wondered why the battle had ended after their company confirmed only a little over three hundred kills.
• The Kroot emerged from the ruins in a vast charge and broke through the Death Seekers' firing line.
• The Kroot overwhelmed the Death Seekers in melee and began devouring their fallen comrades.
• The surviving Squad Leader waited for a Kroot to approach, then pressed his detonator.

The Death Seekers repelled a Kroot raid, but the Kroot Chieftain abandoned direct attacks after learning that the humans' drug-filled flesh was almost inedible and their tactics were brutal. A Death Seeker scouting platoon was wiped out, so the First Platoon Leader requested artillery to suppress the ruins where the Kroot were hiding.

• The Squad Leader detonated explosives while the Players bombarded the captured positions with guns and flamers, killing many Kroot.
• The Kroot Chieftain learned that Death Seeker flesh contained combat drugs, made its kin vomit, and chose to defend using the terrain instead of attacking.
• The First Platoon Leader sent First Platoon to scout, but Kroot ambushed and killed all fifty Death Seekers, who revived at the rear position after killing only one enemy.
• The First Platoon Leader asked for nuclear bombers, but another Platoon Leader said the Tau and human air forces were still fighting for air superiority.
• The First Platoon Leader ordered an artillery strike on the ruins, and Black Dragon confirmed that high-explosive fire would arrive in five minutes.

The Death Seekers’ artillery barrage failed to dislodge the Kroot, so Seventh Company adopted a poison-gas charge that turned the battle across Gaelbrin City. The tactic spread throughout the Legion, forcing the Kroot to retreat and leaving them terrified of the Death Seekers.

• The Death Seekers bombarded the Kroot-held ruins, but the Kroot survived and continued attacking from the rubble.
• The Company Commander returned after reviving and suggested that the Death Seekers charge while throwing poison gas canisters.
• Seventh Company flooded the ruins with corrosive green gas and fought the Kroot inside it, eventually forcing them to retreat after hours of combat.
• The Death Seekers Legion adopted the poison-gas tactic across the right-flank front, and green fog submerged a third of Gaelbrin City.
• The Kroot suffered rapidly increasing casualties and came to view the Death Seekers moving through the gas as inhuman nightmares.

Wendell Gage learned that Pedetia's Third Death Seekers Legion had driven deep into Tau lines while spreading corrosive poison gas across the right flank. Seeing a chance to break the stalemate, he coordinated with Marneus Calgar on a Hammer and Anvil attack, and Calgar agreed to deploy the Adeptus Astartes behind the enemy.

• Wendell Gage learned that the Rakashan forces had withdrawn from the right flank because the Death Seekers' poison gas had spread across the battlefield.
• Wendell saw that the Death Seekers had advanced far into the Tau lines and asked whether the Krieg Death Korps could cover their exposed rear, but they warned that the gas would corrode their armor.
• Wendell decided the Death Seekers' breakthrough could end the stalemate and requested a highest-priority call with Marneus Calgar.
• Wendell proposed sending Adeptus Astartes tactical units behind the Tau by Thunderhawk Gunships and drop pods while the Death Seekers pressed forward.
• Marneus Calgar agreed that the Hammer and Anvil attack was already his intention.

Ghost Face learned that Cato Sicarius would deploy alongside the Death Seekers and ordered his legion to prepare for battle, while secretly wishing he could get Sicarius’s autograph. Aboard a descending Thunderhawk, Sicarius and Numin discussed Pedetia’s history as the Ultramarines prepared to drop into combat.

• Freddy warned Ghost Face that Cato Sicarius was among the Ultramarines deploying to the front.
• Ghost Face sprang into action, ordered his guards to seek Sicarius’s autograph, and kept his eager subordinates at headquarters.
• Sicarius asked Numin about the Death Seekers and learned how Pedetia’s prolonged isolation shaped its workers-and-soldiers culture.
• The Thunderhawk began its descent, and Sicarius put on his helmet and checked his equipment for the coming drop.

Sicarius and the Ultramarines survived a Thunderhawk crash amid a Tau air attack, then received orders to regroup and reinforce the Death Seekers Legion. At the Tau command center, Commander Vision chose to continue targeting the isolated Death Seekers rather than turn back against the Ultramarines’ raid.

• Tau Barracuda fighters shot down Thunderhawks, and Sicarius’s gunship crash-landed in the ruins.
• Sicarius killed a Fire Warrior at the hatch, and Numin shot another attacker that had nearly hit Sicarius.
• Ledo Asius ordered the 2nd Company squads to assemble and move toward the Death Seekers Legion, which faced a powerful Xenos unit.
• Tau commanders dispatched Commander Vision and an elite Crisis Battlesuit squad to destroy the isolated Death Seekers.
• After learning that Ultramarines were raiding the Tau rear, Vision judged their smaller force less urgent and kept his mission unchanged.

Commander Vision’s XV-8 Crisis Battlesuits ambushed the Death Seekers in Gaelbrin City, but Meltabomb-wearing companies inflicted costly losses when attacked at close range. Vision realized the tactic threatened his plan to stop the advancing humans before Sicarius arrived and struggled to find an effective response.

• Vision’s Fire Warriors ambushed a Death Seekers Company, but he ordered them to retreat when the humans revealed Meltabombs and detonated them, vaporizing one Fire Warrior.
• Vision switched to long-range weapons and destroyed the company, then wondered whether its suicide tactic was unique.
• After learning that Death Seekers companies knew Tau elites were intercepting them but still wanted to see Sicarius, Vision destroyed a second company with long-range fire and saw no Meltabomb detonations.
• Vision tested close combat against a third company, whose Death Seekers detonated their Meltabombs and vaporized two more Fire Warriors despite his warning.
• Vision concluded that every Death Seeker might carry a Meltabomb and worried that long-range attacks were too inefficient to stop the advancing force.

Vision reported that Tau forces could not stop the human advance, then watched Cato Sicarius destroy a Tiger Shark bomber in midair. With the Tau air threat removed, the Ultramarines sped up their assault while Asius learned that the Death Seekers Legion was advancing even faster than before.

• Vision told the emergency council that his plan had failed and asked for fire support to hold back the human forces.
• A video showed Cato Sicarius using a second Jump Pack to reach a Tau bomber and cleave it in two with his Power Sword.
• Vision ordered the Air Caste to join him and vowed to deal with the genetically modified warriors.
• After Cato Sicarius's interception, Tau aircraft stopped harassing the Ultramarines, and their advance accelerated.
• Asius learned that the Death Seekers Legion was advancing faster despite facing Xenos troops and bombing raids, then urged his company to advance at full speed.

New T'au recruit Evans Kais watched the Death Seekers overwhelm his position with reckless charges, mines, grenades, and artillery. After they defeated him, they ignored him and ran toward the rear, leaving him confused as one shouted that he had no time to kill him because he wanted Sicarius's autograph.

• Evans Kais hid behind a makeshift position as the Death Seekers advanced through dark-green fog.
• Kais shot a Death Seeker, but the humans charged through gunfire and deliberately triggered mines to clear a path.
• The Death Seekers threw grenades into the position before artillery struck and the attackers surged into close combat.
• Three Death Seekers overwhelmed Kais, knocked him down, and left him expecting to die.
• The Death Seekers rushed past Kais toward the rear of the position, and one shoved him aside while shouting that he wanted Sicarius's autograph.

Commander Vision outmaneuvered the Ultramarines of the 8th Company, but learned that human forces had breached central command where the Aether remained. Refusing to abandon his position, he ordered an EMP pulse to disable the enemy, accepting responsibility despite the risk to his own forces.

• Vision led his Fire Warriors in a flexible defense that exploited the Ultramarines' rigid tactics and inflicted losses.
• Vision recalled Commander Yonglan's report about a six-thousand-year-old human warrior encased in a massive machine.
• A Water Caste liaison officer told Vision that suicidal human forces had broken through the minefields and were attacking central command, where the Aether remained.
• Vision refused to withdraw, arguing that the Ultramarines could join the attackers and doom Gaelbrin and Dalis.
• Vision ordered the Earth Caste to initiate a large-scale EMP pulse, taking responsibility for the consequences.

Aether was captured by the Death Seekers as Inquisitor Grand blamed Imperial forces for treachery and tried to launch Exterminatus against them. Ghost Face confronted Grand aboard the Blade of Sorrow, and their forces opened fire in the corridor.

• The Death Seekers found Aether hiding in the command headquarters and took him under guard.
• Grand learned that an EMP pulse had disrupted the Imperial offensive and accused the Astra Militarum, Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Death Seekers of treachery.
• Grand headed for the Blade of Sorrow’s bridge to force the captain to launch Cyclonic Torpedoes.
• Ghost Face blocked Grand’s path and challenged him over his Exterminatus order against Imperial forces on Dalis.
• Grand shot at Ghost Face, and the Death Seekers and Grand’s guards began fighting in the corridor.

Ghost Face’s Death Seekers captured Inquisitor Grand after stopping his attempt to launch Cyclonic Torpedoes, while the Expeditionary Force’s leaders debated withdrawing from the Dalis system. Ghost Face arrived with Grand and vowed to punish him, leaving the negotiations overshadowed by his plan to publicly disgrace the Inquisitor.

• Ghost Face’s forces hurled Freddy, carrying an explosive charge, into Grand’s guards and detonated it, then captured the wounded Inquisitor from the wreckage.
• Lucius proposed that the Expeditionary Force negotiate peace with the xenos and withdraw from the Dalis system.
• Wendell Gage warned that the xenos had over a hundred warships, superior technology in many fields, and reinforcements approaching while the Expeditionary Force faced supply problems.
• Calgar questioned Ghost Face’s absence from the meeting, and Ghost Face entered with Grand unconscious and blood-soaked after stopping him from launching Cyclonic Torpedoes.
• Ghost Face declared that he would take Grand to Dalis and then nail him to a building in Gaelbrin as punishment for betraying the soldiers.

Ghost Face let the leaders decide whether to continue the campaign, but Calgar abruptly ordered a withdrawal after learning Macragge faced a new Xenos threat. The Death Seekers pledged to help defend Ultramar, while Cato Sicarius was swept up in their admiration and assigned to work with them.

• Ghost Face said the Death Seekers would fight on or withdraw according to the leaders’ decision, leaving Lucius frustrated by the deadlock.
• Calgar reversed his position, ordered negotiations with the T'au, and explained that a dangerous Xenos species was heading for Macragge.
• Ghost Face offered the Death Seekers’ help defending Macragge and said the forces from Pedetia would gather in Ultramar to take part in history.
• At the prisoner exchange above Gaelbrin City, Death Seekers surrounded Sicarius and demanded autographs, leaving him bewildered.
• Calgar told Sicarius that the Death Seekers admired him and assigned him to handle them; Sicarius accepted the responsibility and called for the crowd to form a line.

Ghost Face spoke with Vision after the fighting in Gaelbrin, and Vision interpreted the Death Seekers’ apparent fearlessness as an enduring spirit embodied by many banners. Vision left believing another war would come, while Ghost Face celebrated the signed Adeptus Astartes Codexes he had acquired.

• The Death Seekers paraded the dying Inquisitor Grand through Gaelbrin, while Vision landed beside Ghost Face.
• Ghost Face and Vision debated the meaning of names, and Vision concluded that the Death Seekers’ identity could survive through countless people carrying their banner.
• Vision declared that the truce would eventually end and promised to use everything he had to defeat the Army of a Thousand Banners in the next campaign.
• Ghost Face rejected glory as his reward and showed Vision signed Adeptus Astartes Codexes from Marius Calgar and Cato Sicarius.
• The Players jeered at Ghost Face’s boasting, and Vision silently departed.

A clerk in the Imperium’s endless archives burned Rugert Huron’s tax-evasion report before killing himself, leaving Huron free from Imperial scrutiny. The chapter explained how Earth’s unemployed Players worked through the Imperium’s paperwork for pay and intelligence, and suggested Huron might remain undisturbed until Roboute Guilliman awakened.

• Clerk 734 found a report accusing Rugert Huron of evading taxes for over one hundred and fifty years and realized it could let him leave his shift early.
• Clerk 734 burned the archive records, watched Huron’s report disappear, and killed himself; the Imperium replaced him and continued processing documents.
• Earth’s technological advances caused widespread structural unemployment, while governments delayed mass space colonization and tightly restricted Warp Drive technology.
• People on Earth entered the game to process Imperial paperwork, earning wages and government bonuses for uncovering valuable information.
• A Player burned Huron’s tax-evasion report, allowing him to remain a local tyrant in the Maelstrom without Imperial harassment.
• Huron might remain free of scrutiny for decades or centuries, possibly until Roboute Guilliman awakened.

Tech-Priest Taren Wick’s survey team on Tyrus Primus received an unexpected arrival: an Astra Militarum force led by Joker and three eccentric Tech-Priests. The newcomers began building a permanent fortress, leaving Wick uneasy about their purpose and the unusual arrangement of Guard soldiers protecting Tech-Priests.

• Taren Wick received a message announcing that a support vessel would soon land on Tyrus Primus.
• A huge frigate landed on the island near Wick’s camp, and Imperial Guard soldiers in black Carapace Armor disembarked.
• Joker introduced himself to Wick and requested the survey data about the surrounding terrain.
• Three Tech-Priests, including Ping and Professor Boni, left the ship despite Joker’s warning to confirm the environment was safe.
• Joker discussed defensive construction with Lang and Gregory after they admitted they could not restrain the Tech-Priests.
• Wick watched the newcomers build permanent fortifications and wondered why Astra Militarum soldiers, rather than Skitarii, guarded the Tech-Priests.

Taren Wick met Ping Jie, Boni, and Leonid, who eagerly listened to his planetary survey expertise and made him feel valued. Afterward, Wick saw Death Seekers burning the bodies of Astra Militarum soldiers, and Ping Jie told him to treat it as a special combat method.

• Ping Jie introduced himself to Wick and explained that the Death Seekers had several reasons for choosing the remote planet, but Wick stopped him from revealing more.
• After learning that Wick specialized in surveying planets, Boni and Leonid eagerly brought him into his room to hear about his work.
• Wick described his planetary survey process in detail, and the three Priests praised his experience as invaluable.
• Wick left with the three Priests and saw Death Seekers burning the bodies of Astra Militarum soldiers.
• When Wick asked how so many soldiers had died, Ping Jie vaguely called it a special combat method and told him to maintain respect.

Wick watched the Death Seekers fortify the island and learned that their preparations were aimed at Pedetia, whose scouts could sever the connection between reality and the Warp. As construction revealed the scale of their automated defenses and the frigate’s unusual cargo capacity, Wick quietly returned to his geological survey.

• Wick saw the Death Seekers’ red-and-black spheres build fortifications and display emotions, but decided to treat them as highly authorized Cybernetica Datasmiths.
• Boni told Wick that the bound, drugged people were wild psykers being prepared to test the effects of Pedetia’s Warp-severing ability.
• Wick assumed the force had gathered accurate intelligence from enemy scouts, while Ping Jie declined to explain what awaited them.
• The Death Seekers rapidly rebuilt the island with automated machinery and established extensive, self-operating anti-aircraft defenses.
• Wick realized the frigate’s cargo and the spheres’ role in its operation defied ordinary Imperial ship specifications, then resumed his geological survey.

Wick learned that the camp’s people might not defeat the arriving Xenos, yet chose to stay and fight alongside them. As the wild psykers writhed in agony, the group prepared to face the approaching enemy.

• Wick worried that the others would discard him once his surveying advice was no longer useful, but Ping Jie and Boni called him their friend.
• A scream interrupted their conversation, and the group found the wild psykers howling and writhing in pain.
• Joker reported that neither the radar array nor the bird-servitors had detected anything, and Ping Jie concluded that the Xenos were coming.
• Wick realized the group was unsure they could win and asked why they had come if the mission might be suicide; Joker said they had come to gather intelligence.
• Boni offered to send Wick away, but Wick refused to leave and said he would rather die alongside them.
• Ping Jie agreed to fight side by side with Wick, while the others privately discussed forcing him to safety if they could.

Taren Wick and the Death Seekers defended their island fortress against a Tyranid invasion, repelling the first attack while the aliens spread across the planet. Afterward, Boni decided to keep the species’ name as Tyranid, and the Death Seekers remained ready for the war to come.

• Mycetic Spores darkened the sky and descended on the planet, but the fortress’s automated guns destroyed those approaching its defenses.
• The Tyranids landed beyond the fortress and rapidly drained the oceans, transforming the planet into biomass.
• The Death Seekers burned exposed biomass pools with Promethium, prompting the Tyranids to send Hormagaunts and Termagants toward the fortress.
• The fortress’s autocannons destroyed the Tyranid executioner and cut down the swarm’s frontal assault.
• The Death Seekers burned the fallen Tyranids to prevent the invaders from reclaiming their biomass, forcing the survivors to retreat.
• Boni rejected Ping Jie’s proposed name, Pink Fluffy Bunny, and settled on Tyranid while Wick realized the war had only begun.