Recaps

Li Qinwu accepted Father Anthony’s dangerous escort mission to recover a Tunnel Boring Machine and claim the weapons and vehicles in an underground military base. He assembled a heavily armed force and set out with the Tech-Priests, framing their expedition as a Flavor Astartes Great Crusade.

• Li Qinwu weighed the risks of crossing a 500-kilometer war zone against the prospect of claiming twelve Leman Russ tanks and the underground base’s equipment, then agreed to the mission.
• Li Qinwu recruited a thousand elite private soldiers, equipped them with vehicles and Power Armor, and obtained a pass and deployment orders from Regimental Commander Leo.
• Li Qinwu gathered his force near the Hive City’s ventilation outlet and waited for Father Anthony and the Tech-Priests to arrive in maintenance vehicles.
• Li Qinwu jokingly declared his troops the Flavor Astartes Chapter, named Father Anthony the Flavor Techmarine, and prepared to depart on the Great Crusade.

Li Qinwu led his convoy toward an underground military base, taking cautious routes and refusing to let Father Anthony dictate the march. After Big Kai detected thousands of people ahead, the convoy stopped three kilometers short of the threat.

• Li Qinwu chose a roundabout route through marked transport tracks and rebuked Father Anthony for questioning his command.
• At a PDF checkpoint, Li Qinwu offered five bags of food instead of the ten demanded and ordered the convoy to fight if the soldiers refused passage; the checkpoint let them through.
• Li Qinwu camped at the front line overnight, refusing Father Anthony's demand to march through rebel territory in the dark.
• The next day, Li Qinwu sent Big Kai ahead to scan for bombs and ambushes, and the convoy slowly advanced after Heavy Assault Power Armor troops detonated several roadside bombs.
• Big Kai detected ground vibrations from more than four thousand people three kilometers ahead and reported them to Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu’s convoy encountered the rebel main force and unleashed overwhelming firepower, routing the rebels before they could fight back. As the battle continued, Tech-Priest Anthony finally answered Li Qinwu’s light-bulb joke over the radio.

• Li Qinwu detected more than four thousand people approaching through a cornfield and ordered his convoy into combat formation.
• While the troops waited for the rebels to emerge, Li Qinwu told several jokes over the radio, but nobody laughed.
• When rebel infantry appeared, Li Qinwu ordered the troops to fire, and their weapons killed more than half of the rebels in the first exchange.
• Li Qinwu directed Old Kai and Little Kai to bombard the rebels behind the cornfield with hundreds of grenades from their Heavy Assault Power Armor.
• After the rebels collapsed under the attack, Tech-Priest Anthony answered Li Qinwu’s light-bulb joke by saying the Adeptus Mechanicus would seal the bulb away and work in darkness.

Li Qinwu’s force fought through rebel ambushes and reached the rebel stronghold beside the underground military base. The rebels mobilized in their trenches as Li Qinwu ordered his troops to establish firing positions and attack from a distance.

• Li Qinwu advanced across the farmland, where his troops scattered fleeing rebels and destroyed a cavalry charge with Heavy-Barrel Lasguns.
• Li Qinwu used the Bird Spectrometer and Big Kai’s mechanical legs to counter guerrilla ambushes and roadside bombs along the road to the military base.
• Father Anthony explained that rebels had built a camp beside the base, while Little Joel warned Li Qinwu that the rebels had rocket launchers capable of penetrating Chimera armor.
• Li Qinwu’s troops cleared dozens of guerrilla squads and recovered more than ten rocket launchers as they approached the marble hill.
• Father Anthony identified the rebel stronghold covering the entrance to the underground military base, and Li Qinwu ordered his infantry to establish firing positions and bombard the camp from beyond enemy range.

Li Qinwu’s forces overwhelmed the rebels until a powerful rebel Psyker emerged and destroyed a Chimera Transport with Warp energy. The Silent One intervened, and the Psyker recognized him as a fellow Psyker as they faced each other.

• Li Qinwu’s soldiers suppressed the rebel trenches with sustained fire and precisely targeted grenades until a rebel officer called for the Marshal.
• The Silent One sensed intense Psychic Power among the rebels and warned Li Qinwu that a powerful Psyker was present.
• The rebel Psyker stopped thousands of bullets and shells with a Stasis Field, then charged Li Qinwu’s forces while deflecting their attacks.
• The rebel Psyker destroyed a Chimera Transport with a Warp-energy sphere, but the Silent One stopped his next attack.
• The Silent One glided forward to confront the rebel Psyker, who recognized him as one of his kind.

The rebel Psyker tried to recruit the Silent One by appealing to their shared powers and loneliness, but Li Qinwu intervened over the radio and promised to let him conduct supervised Warp research. The Silent One attacked the rebel Psyker, and their fight continued as he broke free of a gravity attack and launched another Psychic Blast.

• The rebel Psyker approached the Silent One and urged him to join their kindred.
• Little Joel warned Li Qinwu that the Silent One seemed tempted to defect, while Li Qinwu monitored his readings from the Command Chimera.
• Li Qinwu sang to the Silent One over his helmet channel, then urged him to attack the rebel Psyker.
• The Silent One demanded permission to conduct Warp research, and Li Qinwu agreed to allow it under supervision in designated locations.
• The Silent One blasted the rebel Psyker, who recovered and used Gravity Control to try to pin him down.
• The Silent One broke free of the gravity field and fired another Psychic Blast at the rebel Psyker.

The Silent One fought a rebel Psyker in a series of Psychic clashes while Li Qinwu’s troops battled the rebels around them. After losing a beam struggle, the Silent One followed Li Qinwu’s advice to switch sides and blasted the rebel Psyker into the field.

• The rebel Psyker’s sustained Lightning Sword broke through the Silent One’s shield and sent him tumbling across the field.
• The Silent One refused Li Qinwu’s offer to retreat, saying Holy Wine let him use Psychic Power without attracting Daemons.
• The Silent One copied the rebel Psyker’s Lightning Sword, and their weapons locked in a beam struggle as Li Qinwu ordered his troops to suppress the rebels.
• A Psychic Explosion threw the Silent One backward, and he complained that he could not beat the rebel Psyker.
• Li Qinwu told the Silent One to switch sides before trying again, and the Silent One’s Lightning Sword overpowered the rebel Psyker and blasted open his chest.

Li Qinwu’s forces defeated the rebels and captured their wounded Psyker, whom Silent One wanted to study for his knowledge of Psychic Power. After entering the abandoned camp, Li Qinwu and Father Anthony examined a battered iron gate that had resisted the rebel Psyker’s attacks.

• Li Qinwu’s forces killed or routed the rebels after Silent One defeated their marshal, and Li Qinwu ordered his troops to enter the outpost after half an hour.
• Silent One stopped Li Qinwu from killing the wounded rebel Psyker and asked to keep him to learn his psychic techniques.
• Li Qinwu agreed but cut off the Psyker’s arms and legs, injected him with a Green Needle, and handed him to Silent One.
• Little Joel reported the captured weapons, and Li Qinwu ordered the useful rocket launchers and guns taken while the junk guns were burned.
• Li Qinwu’s convoy entered the evacuated rebel camp and drove to a large iron gate beside the small marble mountain.
• Li Qinwu and Father Anthony inspected the gate’s damage and saw that the rebel Psyker’s Lightning Bolt had barely penetrated it.

Li Qinwu bargained with Father Anthony over keeping the presence of a Psyker secret, then pressured the Tech-Priests to open the great iron gate quickly. When the gate opened, they found thousands of gnawed PDF skeletons inside the underground fortress.

• Father Anthony threatened to report Li Qinwu for harboring a Psyker, but agreed to keep quiet for twenty bottles of 101 Lubricant.
• Li Qinwu demanded that the Tech-Priests open the gate immediately, and Father Anthony first claimed the prayers would take four days.
• Father Anthony bargained the required prayer time down to four minutes, and Li Qinwu stayed to supervise the ritual.
• The Tech-Priests prayed while applying 101 Lubricant, then Father Anthony connected to the gate and activated its unlocking protocol.
• The great iron gate opened, revealing thousands of PDF corpses reduced mostly to bones, many marked by gnawing.

Li Qinwu and Father Anthony found the Tunnel Boring Machine in an underground military base where a PDF regiment and workers had starved after being trapped for years. Li Qinwu discovered a Necron skull among the remains, accused Father Anthony of hiding the discovery, and kicked him into a pile of skeletons.

• Li Qinwu examined the corpses and learned from Father Anthony that the gates had been sealed during the rebel uprising to keep the Tunnel Boring Machine from enemy hands.
• Father Anthony led Li Qinwu and the others through the base, past the remains of people who had resorted to cannibalism, to the Tunnel Boring Machine.
• Father Anthony explained that rebel forces included defecting PDF regiments and posed a threat to the Hive City's foundations if they captured the machine.
• Father Anthony prayed over the dead while his colleagues prepared to restart the Tunnel Boring Machine.
• Li Qinwu found a metal skull resembling a Necron, picked it up, accused Father Anthony of concealing the discovery, and kicked him into a pile of skeletons.

Li Qinwu learned that the Adeptus Mechanicus planned to use the Tunnel Boring Machine to excavate a Necron dynasty and threatened them at gunpoint. Father Anthony revealed that the Relic Fleet would arrive in twenty years, but the broken drill bit left the priests unable to begin digging for now.

• Li Qinwu attacked Father Anthony and demanded to know whether the Tunnel Boring Machine was meant to uncover Necrons.
• Father Anthony told the Tech-Priests not to kill Li Qinwu and revealed that they had alerted a Relic Fleet, which was due to arrive in twenty years.
• Li Qinwu aimed his Lascarbine at the Tech-Priests and accused them of planning to excavate the Necron tomb ahead of the fleet.
• Father Anthony admitted that the Adeptus Mechanicus had come to excavate the Necrons but pointed out that the Tunnel Boring Machine's drill bit was broken.
• Li Qinwu lowered his weapon slightly, and Father Anthony explained that the maintenance temple had no spare Adamantium drill bit or means to manufacture one.

Li Qinwu bargained with Father Anthony to keep the Adeptus Mechanicus’ Necron excavation secret in exchange for Power Armor and future favors. He stripped a military base of equipment and used Holy Oil to start many of its long-abandoned vehicles, leaving the Tech-Priests convinced that the Omnissiah had intervened.

• Li Qinwu demanded compensation for keeping the Necron excavation secret, and he and Father Anthony settled on one hundred suits of Power Armor and a discount on future purchases in exchange for his cooperation and help when requested.
• Li Qinwu sent his men to collect supplies from the military base, including Leman Russ tanks, Chimera Transports, weapons, armor, and other vehicles.
• Li Qinwu inspected a Leman Russ tank and concluded that its bulky design housed life-support systems for operating on hostile worlds.
• Li Qinwu gave Holy Oil to the drivers, who mixed it with fuel and started about eighty percent of the vehicles after quick maintenance.
• The Tech-Priests saw the vehicles running and knelt before Li Qinwu and his men, believing the Machine Spirits had awakened and the Omnissiah had shown himself.

Li Qinwu led a convoy out of the military bunker with a newly awakened Tunnel Boring Machine, only to face a growing rebel encirclement. The rebels charged to seize the machine, while PDF forces moved to intercept rebel reinforcements, plunging the Northern Theater into a wider battle.

• Li Qinwu ordered his soldiers to prepare the convoy and drive off the approaching rebels while Father Anthony worked to awaken the Tunnel Boring Machine.
• Li Qinwu smashed holy oil onto the machine's exposed components, waking its machine spirit and bringing it fully online.
• Li Qinwu arranged the convoy around the Tunnel Boring Machine and set out toward PDF-controlled territory as rebels gathered around them.
• A rebel sentry spotted the Tunnel Boring Machine, and a rebel marshal ordered every available unit to capture it and called for reinforcements.
• Rebels charged the convoy as Li Qinwu's soldiers fired back, while PDF intelligence detected rebel movements and PDF forces clashed with the reinforcements across the Northern Theater.

Li Qinwu led an armored force out to repel repeated rebel attacks while Father Anthony directed the convoy’s defenses. The convoy survived and continued toward PDF-controlled territory, with Tech-Priests operating its Leman Russ tanks to keep the rebels at bay.

• Li Qinwu sent Father Anthony to operate the Command Chimera’s Bird Spectrometer, then led nearly forty soldiers in Power Armor to destroy rebels planting roadside bombs and cavalry carrying suicide bombs.
• Following Father Anthony’s alerts, Li Qinwu’s squad fought off an infantry force armed with rocket launchers, but one rebel rocket damaged the Tunnel Boring Machine.
• Li Qinwu battled a force of nearly a thousand rebels while another group attacked the convoy, whose weapons drove the attackers back despite several more rocket strikes.
• Li Qinwu and his armored soldiers routed the rebels and returned to find the convoy intact, with Father Anthony’s Tech-Priest colleagues operating the Leman Russ tanks.
• Father Anthony used the Bird Spectrometer to locate approaching rebel forces, and the Leman Russ tanks destroyed them with High-Explosive Rounds as the convoy advanced toward PDF-controlled territory.

After the convoy reached the Hive City, Li Qinwu secured the Adeptus Mechanicus’s approval and favorable terms for buying weapons, then reviewed the spoils and reorganized his army. He rewarded his commanders and troops and announced plans to seize the Strategic Reserve Warehouse to expand his territory.

• The convoy reached the Hive City, where Sage Trelton approved Li Qinwu’s agreement and praised his work.
• Father Anthony offered Li Qinwu ten sets of Power Armor immediately, ninety more at half price, and a 20 percent discount on future purchases.
• Li Qinwu returned to his Hideout, slept for sixteen hours, and assessed his increased stamina, weapons, vehicles, troops, and territory.
• Li Qinwu appointed Little Joel, Big Kai, and Little Knife to command three battalions and promised 10,000 Fertilizer Coupons to each soldier who joined the campaign.
• Li Qinwu gave Little Knife 20 million to repair and fuel the captured vehicles, then announced his plan to seize the Strategic Reserve Warehouse.

Li Qinwu planned to turn the Strategic Reserve Warehouse into a fortified base and addressed his forces’ lack of skilled personnel by arranging training and recruitment. With only 40 million Fertilizer Vouchers remaining, he prepared to visit the Spire to sell wine and meet the owner of a spacecraft that might help him escape the planet’s looming danger.

• Li Qinwu assigned Little Knife to use money and food to recruit workers and convert the Strategic Reserve Warehouse into a defensible base, while Little Joel’s battalion prepared to move there.
• Li Qinwu acknowledged that his troops lacked technical skills, and Little Joel proposed recruiting educated graduates from the Middle Hive’s technical academies through notices printed on food packaging.
• Li Qinwu put Little Joel in charge of recruitment and sent him to the Middle Hive to visit his parents.
• Li Qinwu arranged the Hideout’s production, put on formalwear, and set out for the Spire to meet Miss Nightingale and discuss selling wine.
• Li Qinwu planned to meet the captain Reno had mentioned, hoping to secure access to a spacecraft as the planet faced destruction after the Necron secret was exposed.

Li Qinwu visited Miss Nightingale, arranged to sell his next batch of liquor through her, and left without getting the money he needed for Power Armor. Miss Nightingale, trapped in her Atmosphere Garden and cut off from her sick father, placed her hopes in Li Qinwu as her stepmother tightened control over her life.

• Li Qinwu admired the view from Miss Nightingale's Atmosphere Garden and joked that he wanted to own a spire and poop on its glass dome.
• Miss Nightingale offered to marry Li Qinwu if he helped her get rid of her stepmother and younger brother, but he asked her for money to buy Power Armor instead.
• Li Qinwu asked Miss Nightingale to sell his next batch of at least three thousand liquor bottles, and she agreed to transfer the proceeds to his gold card after each monthly settlement.
• After Li Qinwu left, Miss Nightingale called to ask to see her seriously ill father, but his aide refused and ended the call.
• Miss Nightingale smashed her personal terminal and reflected that her stepmother had cut off her money, freedom, and communications, leaving her dependent on Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu met Reno and taught him a series of ridiculous pickup lines while heading to a bar to find the spaceship captain. Reno tried the lines on five wealthy widows and failed, but his final line worked on Mrs. Bobo, who immediately wanted to see him.

• Li Qinwu met Reno, criticized his flashy outfit, and learned Reno had bought it to attract a wealthy widow.
• Li Qinwu taught Reno several pickup lines and claimed they had helped him win Miss Nightingale's affection.
• Reno dropped Li Qinwu at a bar and began calling wealthy widows to test the lines.
• Five widows rejected Reno's attempts, leaving him humiliated and doubtful of Li Qinwu's advice.
• Reno told Mrs. Bobo there were stars in her eyes, and she said his sweet words had made her fall in love and asked to meet him immediately.

Li Qinwu met the captain of the Big Ivan and learned that the freighter carried valuable industrial equipment, including Avirlus Shuttles. The captain offered to hand over all his cargo if Li Qinwu could fill the ship with premium agricultural goods, leaving Li Qinwu considering how to meet the demand.

• Li Qinwu found the captain drinking alone in a bar and bought him vodka in exchange for stories.
• The captain explained that his freighter, Big Ivan, had been stranded in orbit for ten years because rebellion prevented the planet from supplying the agreed premium food.
• The captain listed the ship’s cargo, including fusion reactors, Avirlus Shuttles, Chimera Transports, and Leman Russ tanks.
• The captain offered all the industrial cargo in exchange for filling Big Ivan with premium canned meat that met strict nutritional and shelf-life requirements.
• Li Qinwu considered raising Guga Beasts and using his food factory to produce enough canned meat to complete the trade.

Li Qinwu discussed a massive food-for-industrial-goods trade with the captain, then learned why owning a warship was beyond his reach and asked about interplanetary trade warrants. The captain described several ways to obtain a ship and explained the different levels of authorization, leaving Li Qinwu with a clearer picture of the challenges ahead.

• The captain offered industrial machine tools and Reactors in exchange for filling Big Ivan’s cargo hold with four million cubic meters of qualified high-grade food, and Li Qinwu realized he would need roughly four hundred million Guga Beasts.
• Li Qinwu asked whether he could travel among the stars, and the captain explained that warships required vast resources and could take centuries or millennia to build.
• The captain suggested buying an abandoned, nearly completed warship, seizing one, or salvaging a wreck, while warning Li Qinwu about the dangers of each approach.
• Li Qinwu asked how interplanetary trade authorization worked, and the captain explained Dual-Star, Sector, Multi-Sector, and Golden Warrants.

Li Qinwu rushed to Silent One’s room and found a Tzeentch Daemon possessing the rebel Psyker. He burned the Daemon with Holy Wine, but Silent One tried to save his hanging toy by throwing water on it.

• Li Qinwu exchanged contact information with the drunken captain, then wandered through the Spire as it recovered from Nurgle’s invasion.
• Little Knife warned Li Qinwu that Silent One had requested living creatures for a sacrifice and that his room had become freezing cold.
• Li Qinwu gathered Holy Wine and weapons, then entered Silent One’s room and found runes surrounding the possessed rebel Psyker.
• Silent One explained that a Daemon had devoured the rebel Psyker’s soul, and Li Qinwu identified it as a servant of Tzeentch.
• Li Qinwu mocked the Daemon and sprayed it with Holy Wine, setting it ablaze with Psychic flames.
• Silent One hurriedly splashed water on the burning Daemon to protect his life-sized toy.

Li Qinwu tried to convince the Silent One that the Tzeentch Daemon had to be killed, but the Daemon’s promises of truth kept tempting him. The chapter ended with Li Qinwu’s nonsensical logic questions leaving the Daemon so furious that he passed out.

• The Silent One tried to save the badly burned Tzeentch Daemon with Li Qinwu’s Green Needle, but it did not work.
• The Tzeentch Daemon used his words to bewitch the Silent One, and Li Qinwu slapped him out of his trance.
• The Daemon tempted the Silent One again with the Warp knowledge he had shared, making him hesitate over killing it.
• Li Qinwu challenged the Tzeentch Daemon to answer three nonsensical questions, and the Daemon became so enraged that he passed out.

Li Qinwu used the Emperor Shrine to destroy the Tzeentch Daemon, earning the God-Emperor’s attention and a mission to kill ten daemons. With no more daemons in sight, he asked the Silent One to summon some so he could complete the task.

• The Tzeentch Daemon recovered and boasted that it would return from the Empyrean to take vengeance.
• Li Qinwu brought in the Emperor Shrine and struck the daemon with it, burning away its body and soul.
• The Silent One lamented the loss of his life-sized toy, while Li Qinwu received a mission from the God-Emperor to completely kill ten daemons.
• Li Qinwu realized his peaceful planet offered few daemons to hunt and decided to have the Silent One summon them.
• Li Qinwu encouraged the Silent One to pursue his interest in the Warp by summoning a few daemons.

Li Qinwu and the Silent One summoned a daemon in a geothermal observation station far beneath the Hive City, where they could contain it if things went wrong. After Li Qinwu burned the possessed sacrifice with Holy Oil, the God-Emperor’s mission progress reached 1/10.

• The Silent One explained that daemon summoning required a living sacrifice, and Li Qinwu sent Little Knife to find ten irredeemably evil people.
• Li Qinwu and the Silent One brought their ten sleeping, mutilated sacrifices to a geothermal observation station one hundred kilometers beneath the Hive City.
• The Silent One enchanted a sacrifice to attract a daemon, and a daemon eventually possessed the victim.
• The daemon tried to attack Li Qinwu and the Silent One but discovered it could not move because the sacrifice had no limbs.
• Li Qinwu identified the daemon as a servant of the God of Hypermasculinity and burned it with a flamethrower fueled by Holy Oil.
• The daemon died, and Li Qinwu saw the God-Emperor’s mission progress rise to 1/10.

Li Qinwu and the Silent One summoned Daemons one by one, identified their Warp connections, and burned them with Psychic Flame. The chapter ended with Li Qinwu recognizing the latest Daemon’s grotesque transformation and preparing to roast it over a low flame for 180 days.

• Li Qinwu urged the Silent One to summon another Daemon, and the Daemon tried to charm the Silent One before turning Li Qinwu’s desire against it; Li Qinwu burned it after identifying it as a servant of Slaanesh.
• Li Qinwu burned a second Daemon after it threatened to sell their souls to the Soul Forge, identifying it as a Warp entrepreneur serving 0.5 Chaos Gods.
• Li Qinwu and the Silent One summoned another Daemon, which transformed its host into a gorilla-like monster and asked why humans were the only creatures it could not kill and eat.
• Li Qinwu set his flamethrower to its smallest setting and vowed to roast the Daemon over a low flame for 180 days.