Chapter Summaries

Lin Fan explained the history behind Malcador’s bargains and the Imperium’s founding to Oedmeir, then told her about the Imperium’s present condition. Oedmeir accepted that humanity had survived, though she remained devastated, as they traveled toward the Last City in Rebecca’s new Valkyrie form.

• Lin Fan pieced together how Malcador’s deals with the Void Dragon and Tzeentch helped humanity survive, and how he later founded the Imperium with The Emperor.
• Oedmeir asked about Earth and her friends, and Lin Fan explained that Earth had become Holy Terra and described the Imperium’s terrible state.
• Oedmeir suppressed her anger, said the Imperium was still better than the Finalizers’ territory, and told Rebecca to drive.
• Rebecca revealed her new transformation ability and changed into a Valkyrie Transport with a duplicate of herself in the cockpit.
• Rebecca carried Lin Fan and Oedmeir toward the Last City past ground cracks, collapsed buildings, and Imperium soldiers aiding disaster victims.

Lin Fan and his forces rescued survivors after an earthquake, then began planning a new city and rebuilding the planet’s industry. The meeting ended with Delia and Oedmeir concealing their connection from Commissar Cain, who fell asleep before he could question them further.

• Lin Fan helped Krieg soldiers clear rubble and rescue residents while Oedmeir used a cube to make debris float and open air gaps around those trapped.
• The Imperium’s forces suppressed looters and rioters as the city was cleared over the following week.
• At a meeting with the planet’s administrators, Lin Fan announced plans to build a new city and said Oedmeir would create new production lines.
• Owen agreed to cooperate with the rebuilding, and the administrators left with their assignments.
• Commissar Cain questioned Delia about Oedmeir, but Delia knocked him unconscious and thanked her sister for drawing attention away from her.
• Delia and Oedmeir went to the industrial district to dismantle useful components.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir clashed over the Imperium’s use of servitors, so he brought her into the Warp to meet The Emperor. There, Oedmeir faced the God-Emperor amid a tense pause in his battle with Khorne.

• Lin Fan oversaw construction of a new city, while Delia introduced crude construction machines and Oedmeir helped improve Rebecca’s research efficiency.
• Oedmeir confronted Lin Fan over servitors, accusing the Imperium of acting like the criminal enterprises and demanding to know why he expected her help.
• Lin Fan admitted that they had already created a god and called The Emperor so Oedmeir could meet him.
• The Emperor brought Lin Fan and Oedmeir into the Warp, where Khorne’s attempted ambush was stopped by a shield and Slaanesh rebuked him.
• Khorne halted his attack, and the God-Emperor ordered the Legion of the Damned to prepare while Oedmeir stared at him.

The Emperor spoke with Oedmeir, who recognized him as a former student of her father, Professor Ers, and questioned his history and nature. Oedmeir began to reveal what her father had written about Sheldon, leaving The Emperor waiting to hear the rest.

• The God-Emperor focused on the name written on Oedmeir’s pen, and Oedmeir mocked his greeting as the Legion of the Damned reacted angrily.
• The Emperor took control and asked Oedmeir whether she was related to Ers, then recalled studying under her father at Federal Truth University.
• Oedmeir questioned why the Immortal Order had no record of The Emperor, and he explained that he had kept a low profile and might have disappeared before the Order formed.
• Lin Fan snickered at The Emperor’s claim of keeping a low profile, prompting The Emperor to threaten him with Tzeentch’s muttering.
• Oedmeir said her father’s diary had recorded one student by name, Sheldon, and The Emperor eagerly asked what her father had written about him.

Lin Fan explained the Emperor’s limited technological education to Oedmeir while the Emperor and Slaanesh fought Khorne. Tzeentch’s intervention awakened a message from Kadur in Oedmeir, directing her to seek the Golden Ark, and Khorne left to attack Tzeentch’s Crystal Labyrinth.

• Lin Fan explained that the Emperor had received only an early Human Federation education and could not reproduce the later era’s advanced technology.
• The Emperor told Oedmeir that Slaanesh had been born from devouring the Aeldari Empire and that Khorne came from ancient wars.
• Khorne charged the group, and Slaanesh fought him until the Emperor joined the battle with his Golden Fire Sword.
• Tzeentch appeared and directed his many eyes at Oedmeir, causing Kadur’s voice to tell her to honor the contract and seek the Golden Ark.
• Lin Fan shook and slapped Oedmeir until she awoke, and she concealed Kadur’s message while agreeing to accept their current path.
• Khorne threw an axe at Tzeentch’s domain, then left with his army to attack the Crystal Labyrinth.

Lin Fan learned that Oedmeir’s personal Gellar Field could shield her from the Warp, but it depended on scarce Blackstone and could harm ordinary humans at full power. He considered testing whether Gellar Fields could support more efficient Imperial production, and asked Oedmeir how long people could endure them.

• After Khorne departed, the God-Emperor returned to his throne, and Lin Fan and Oedmeir were sent back to the office.
• Lin Fan offered Oedmeir a holy relic, but she demonstrated that her personal Gellar Field could protect her from Warp interference.
• Oedmeir explained that Gellar Fields and Warp engines were developed using Blackstone, whose vibrations could either strengthen the barrier between reality and the Warp or open a breach.
• Lin Fan realized that activating Blackstone’s Spirit-Repelling Death Domain across the Imperium would cripple souls, psykers, communications, and Warp travel, leaving humanity vulnerable to other threats.
• Lin Fan considered improving Imperial production and administration with more efficient technology, then asked Oedmeir how long ordinary people could withstand a personal Gellar Field.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir tested how different people endured the output of Oedmeir’s personal Gellar Field, finding that a former Battle Sister resisted it better than the others. Lin Fan planned to use the field to protect production sites, then began investigating the Battle Sisters’ resistance and the Gellar Iron Plague.

• Oedmeir tested volunteers at 55% Gellar Field output, and the ordinary resident, Astra Militarum soldier, and servitor collapsed while the former Battle Sister remained conscious.
• At 75% output, the volunteers lost consciousness within three or four hours, while the former Battle Sister began showing discomfort.
• Oedmeir raised the field to maximum for fifteen seconds, leaving nearly everyone in the testing area incapacitated and the former Battle Sister barely able to remain conscious.
• Lin Fan concluded that Gellar Fields could protect rear-line factories, with Battle Sisters serving as security, but noted that full output could also kill workers who failed to evacuate.
• Lin Fan began explaining his theory about the Battle Sisters’ resistance to Oedmeir and raised the Imperium’s Gellar Iron Plague, which was controlled by Nurgle.

Lin Fan explained his theories about the Veil and faith to Oedmeir, who tested the Emperor’s protection and inspected the Imperium’s Warp engine. After altering the Mechanicus priests’ implants and erasing their memories of her work, Oedmeir left with Delia, though one priest noticed he could no longer hear the engine.

• Lin Fan explained that Gellar Fields and Blackstone obelisks repaired the Veil and suggested that faith could shield believers from the Warp.
• Oedmeir tested Battle Sisters and devout Astra Militarum troops, finding that the sisters endured Warp exposure longer.
• Delia brought Oedmeir to inspect the Warp engine aboard the Flame, where Oedmeir immobilized the Mechanicus priests and opened the engine’s casing.
• Oedmeir rearranged the engine’s cables, then used nanobots to replace the priests’ crude implants and erase their memories of the past hour.
• Oedmeir and Delia departed after the priests awoke, but one priest realized he could no longer hear the sacred engine’s voice.

Oedmeir repaired the Warp engine and inspected the ship’s Gellar Field, discovering that its unreliable design made Blackstone ore essential. She returned to Lin Fan and asked for help finding Blackstone and redesigning warships, while Lin Fan contacted Trazyn.

• Oedmeir secretly repaired the Warp engine with nanites, and the Adeptus Mechanicus priests celebrated its familiar hum as the machine spirit’s approval.
• Oedmeir asked Priest Delia to show her the Gellar Field and observed the sailors and religious halls aboard the ship.
• Oedmeir inspected the simplified Gellar Field and concluded that its unstable design could let demons infiltrate the new industrial zone unless they found Blackstone ore.
• Oedmeir told Lin Fan they needed Blackstone ore and redesigned warships, and he agreed to ask old friends for help while she sought Rebecca and Delia.
• Lin Fan contacted Trazyn using the metal disk around his neck.

Lin Fan asked Trazyn for Blackstone to build a Gellar Field for an advanced production line, and Trazyn arranged access to an Enko Dynasty mining site in exchange for three favors. Before Trazyn could leave, Lin Fan stopped him to ask about Doctor Odessus and two of his colleagues, Oedmeir and Ers.

• Lin Fan asked Trazyn to recommend a source of Blackstone, and Trazyn appeared beside him and explained that the barrier around the system likely came from a containment object on Terra.
• Trazyn grew tense when Lin Fan asked why he needed Blackstone, but learned that Lin Fan wanted to build a Gellar Field around a production line.
• The Silent King directed Trazyn to give Lin Fan coordinates to the Enko Dynasty's Blackstone mining site, and Trazyn required Lin Fan to help him find collectibles three times in return.
• Trazyn entered the mining site's coordinates into Lin Fan's Blackstone disk and prepared to leave through a hyperdimensional portal.
• Lin Fan closed Trazyn's portal, pressed him back into his chair, and asked whether he knew Oedmeir and Ers from his time as Doctor Odessus.

Trazyn recalled his past as Dr. Odessus and explained Oedmeir’s connection to Ers, while Lin Fan considered the dangers facing his territory and the Imperium. They agreed to seek the Storm King’s support and to call on Trazyn if uncontrolled Necron dynasties became a threat.

• Trazyn remembered Ers, Oedmeir’s father, and the Human Federation as he recovered memories of his life as Dr. Odessus.
• Trazyn told Lin Fan that Oedmeir had once been a child studying under Ers and explained that the fountain pen she carried was suited to her work.
• Lin Fan considered the Void Dragon’s threat and the risks posed by the Imperium’s reliance on the Adeptus Mechanicus, then decided to focus on developing his territory.
• Lin Fan asked how Trazyn would feel if he killed the Necrons, then explained that he wanted an introduction to the Storm King so they could extort him for protection.
• Trazyn promised to explain the situation to the Storm King and told Lin Fan to call him if uncontrolled Necron dynasties threatened him.
• Trazyn recalled signs of madness among the Necrons, including Zahndrekh the Crowned’s delusions and the Executioner Dynasty’s erratic law emperor.

Trazyn recalled the Necrons’ war against the swarms beyond the galaxy and the Silent King’s warning not to let the Subjective One awaken. Lin Fan then reported the Blackstone deposit to Oedmeir, who used Rebecca as the core of a rocket-powered device and launched her skyward.

• Trazyn recalled how the Silent King’s forces fought the swarms beyond the galaxy and ordered the dynasties not to let the Subjective One awaken.
• Trazyn ate fruit Lin Fan offered, then opened a transdimensional portal and left.
• Lin Fan contacted Oedmeir and told her he had found the Blackstone deposit, while Rebecca cried out in pain in the background.
• Oedmeir showed Lin Fan a device built around Rebecca’s floating core and explained it would spare Rebecca from sacrificing herself in the future.
• Oedmeir started the rocket engines and launched Rebecca into the sky.

Oedmeir turned metal wreckage into a massive warship in just over twenty hours while Rebecca controlled its construction and flight. Lin Fan learned that building more ships would require enormous amounts of raw materials, and Oedmeir said they could make a second after gathering Blackstone and mining a nearby planet.

• Oedmeir had Rebecca fly into the ruins while she shaped a ship design using blue light and drew surrounding metal scraps into a molten mass.
• The Flame's captain fired a macro-cannon shell and a lance at the mass, but the attacks failed to stop it from growing.
• Oedmeir split the molten mass into three constructs: a ring around a gas giant, a drill-bearing structure on a barren planet, and a warship bearing a statue of The Emperor.
• Oedmeir finished the warship, and Rebecca took control and sailed it toward the planet while the Flame's crew and tech-priests watched in amazement.
• Lin Fan asked Oedmeir to make more warships, but she explained the immense material costs and said a second ship could be built after they obtained Blackstone and mined a neighboring planet.

Lin Fan named the newly settled system Grand Hotel and its planets after food, then reflected on the poor quality and production of Astra Militarum rations. The chapter ended with an explanation of the artificial microbial colony added to Imperial military supplies to protect soldiers from germs.

• Lin Fan struggled to find unused names for the system and planet, then misunderstood Commissar Cain’s suggestion and chose food-themed names.
• Lin Fan named the system Grand Hotel, its habitable planet Big Canteen, its star Stove, its gas giant Dough-Drop Soup, and its barren planets Blanch, Spicy, and Thirteen-Spice.
• Lin Fan recalled how soldiers of the 37th Regiment received meals ranging from stewed meat slabs and starch mash to trench rations and canned vegetables.
• Lin Fan described how livestock was processed into meat slabs and how military cooks prepared them in huge vats.
• Lin Fan explained that Imperial military supplies contained an artificial microbial colony intended to protect soldiers from germs.

Lin Fan confronted the Imperium’s economic stagnation and worried about how to develop the Big Canteen, while Oedmeir offered to build useful equipment from Blackstone ore. Oedmeir revealed that her enormous warship was still unfinished, though its hull and propulsion system were ready for a first mining trip.

• Lin Fan considered how the Imperium’s lack of a unified currency and its crushing tithes would complicate economic reform if he established the Webway.
• Lin Fan worried that the Big Canteen’s residents and economy were poorly developed, and Oedmeir reassured him that she could make useful equipment if they found enough Blackstone ore.
• Rebecca piloted her shuttle excitedly toward the laboratory, prompting Lin Fan to question whether she should control the warship.
• Oedmeir explained that Lin Fan, Delia, and she could handle the first ore-mining trip without outside help, despite the vessel being 150 kilometers long.
• Oedmeir showed Lin Fan that the warship remained unfinished, with only its hull, propulsion system, and an activatable shuttle cannon completed.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir surveyed the construction of a new city on Big Canteen, where factories and workers rapidly built fortress-like housing as the planet became a fortress world. The work continued through meal breaks, with workers taking turns to keep the furnaces supplied.

• Oedmeir explained that Rebecca was not seriously hurt and would need compatible servo systems produced on Spicy Planet.
• Lin Fan showed Oedmeir the construction site, where mobile furnaces and engineering vehicles turned ore and concrete into buildings.
• Lin Fan saw workers with different tools and learned that better equipment was reserved for those who performed well in their studies.
• Lin Fan reassured the supervising soldier that he was not dissatisfied with the work.
• A food vehicle arrived, and the soldier ordered the workers to eat in shifts while others kept feeding ore into the furnaces.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir enjoyed a meal of giant beans before heading out to gather ore and discuss building a Webway gate. They could build one in principle, but lacked the enormous amount of materials it would require.

• Lin Fan and Oedmeir ate giant beans seasoned with pepper and chili at the mess hall.
• Oedmeir suggested making synthetic meat to improve the soldiers’ meals and planned to test Delia’s progress on a blueprint.
• Lin Fan and Oedmeir left Delia to gather ore, while the Flame departed to rejoin its naval patrol duties.
• Oedmeir altered the ship’s personnel’s memories so they would regard the system as a newly discovered colony.
• Lin Fan asked whether they could build a Webway gate, and Oedmeir said the technology was possible but required immense resources.

Oedmeir explained the immense scale of the Aeldari Webway and why the Human Federation had never tried to build or seize one. She and Rebecca then launched the warship into the Warp on a mission to retrieve Blackstone ore.

• Rebecca described the Webway beneath Terra and explained that forcing open a passage from outside required enormous resources and energy.
• Oedmeir told Lin Fan that even the entire Human Federation could build only a tiny fraction of the Webway, and that the Federation had once fought the Aeldari to a draw.
• Oedmeir connected herself to the warship's data network while Lin Fan examined the piece of wraithbone Many-Faced had given him.
• Oedmeir and Rebecca activated the Warp engines at the Mandeville Point beyond the Big Hotel Galaxy.
• Oedmeir overloaded the Warp engines and sent the colossal warship plunging into the Warp for an ultra-long-range journey to obtain Blackstone ore.

Lin Fan fought off unaligned demons aboard Oedmeir’s ship as she steered it through the raging Warp. After Lin Fan called Khorne for help, the furious war god opened a rift and sent his forces to attack the demons surrounding him.

• Oedmeir steered the ship into the fiercest Warp waves and told Lin Fan to protect the spherical cockpit as the Gellar Field weakened around the bridge.
• Lin Fan used War Sight and his strength from Khorne to kill demons that invaded the cockpit, but the endless horde kept attacking.
• Lin Fan called Khorne, who was repairing his armor and forging a new World-Ending Blade after battling the other gods.
• Khorne located Lin Fan, saw unaligned demons attacking his prey, and tore open space to reach him.
• Khorne sent his army through the rift to slaughter the demons surrounding Lin Fan.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir escaped Khorne’s attack and returned to the material universe aboard the colossal warship. They emerged into a battle between Orks and Iron Warriors, whose fleets both turned their attention to the ship.

• Lin Fan held back the masterless demons while Khorne’s forces overwhelmed them and cleared a path around the warship.
• At Oedmeir’s urging, Lin Fan placed the holy icon into the pillar, strengthening the Gellar Field and burning away demons as Oedmeir drove the ship out of the Warp.
• Khorne tried to seize the warship, but its golden shield held long enough for it to escape; his blade broke as the rift closed.
• Oedmeir discussed the journey with Lin Fan, then steered the warship toward its coordinates, where it arrived amid a battle between Orks and Iron Warriors.
• The Orks and Iron Warriors spotted the colossal warship and redirected their fleets toward it; the Iron Warriors commander prepared an emergency escape while the Orks aimed their weapons at the vessel.