Recaps

Li Qinwu woke in the Astartes bunker, learned that Desai planned to enter a Dreadnought, and received the Black Needle formula after rescuing the Astartes. Chaplain Leisase confronted him about Chaos corruption, and Li Qinwu’s golden psychic flame revealed hints of red and green.

• Li Qinwu woke beside the grievously wounded Desai, ordered Medical Servitors to clean his wound, and gave him Divine Cooling Balm and a Green Needle.
• Desai said radiation and contamination had left him unable to heal, accepted that he might enter a Dreadnought, and gave Li Qinwu the Black Needle formula.
• Chaplain Leisase led the Astartes in a farewell ceremony for three fallen battle-brothers before they returned to the battlefield.
• Norn told Li Qinwu that Black Iron had ambushed the Astartes in the Death Vein and that two nuclear missiles had ignited the Hell Vein’s fuel reserves.
• Chaplain Leisase questioned Li Qinwu’s loyalty after detecting Chaos corruption, and Li Qinwu realized Khorne’s completed quest had increased his corruption.
• Li Qinwu summoned a golden psychic flame to prove his loyalty, but Chaplain Leisase noticed red and green flickers in it.

Li Qinwu persuaded Chaplain Leisase to inscribe sacred scripture beneath his skin instead of tattooing it on the surface. He discovered that channeling Psychic Power into the scripture purged his Chaos God Corruption, though the effect faded when he stopped recharging it.

• Li Qinwu talked Chaplain Leisase out of killing him, and Leisase decided to protect him from the evil targeting him.
• Li Qinwu refused a visible tattoo, so Chaplain Leisase offered to brand the scripture onto his muscles beneath his skin.
• Li Qinwu used Xiangxiang for pain relief while Medical Servitors peeled back his skin and Leisase inscribed the scripture over three days.
• Li Qinwu channeled Psychic Power into the hidden scripture, making it glow gold and reducing his Chaos God Corruption to zero.
• Li Qinwu found that the corruption returned when the scripture stopped glowing, so he would need to recharge it periodically.

After repeatedly dying from Black Needle injections, Li Qinwu discovered a new revival option and awakened inside a scrap-built puppet before thousands of praying Gretchin. The Gretchin worshiped him as Gretchin Majek and asked him to give them horses and monkeys.

• Chaplain Leisase finished tattooing scriptures onto Li Qinwu, and the Astartes left to fight the Ork Green Disaster.
• Li Qinwu used Desai’s USB drive to unlock the Black Needle formula and began producing the injections in the Hideout.
• Li Qinwu injected Black Needles several times, but each use killed him before he revived in the Hideout.
• During his next hazy death state, Li Qinwu chose a green sphere of faith instead of one of his usual revival options.
• Li Qinwu awakened inside a crude scrap puppet surrounded by tens of thousands of praying Gretchin, who called him Gretchin Majek and asked him for horses and monkeys.

Li Qinwu’s soul was pulled into a junk doll by the Gretchin’s Waaagh! Field, and he discovered he could speak to the thousands praying to Gretchin Majek. He left the frightened Gretchin convinced that Old Fart Li was too righteous and powerful to confront, while the Ork Boys were the real danger.

• The Gretchin’s prayers drew Li Qinwu’s soul into their junk doll before the Hideout had finished shaping his body.
• Li Qinwu found he could barely move the doll, but learned that his voice reached the praying Gretchin.
• The Gretchin asked Gretchin Majek to kill Old Fart Li because his Plasma Cannon had roasted thousands of them, prompting Ork Boys to hunt Gretchin for food.
• Li Qinwu claimed Old Fart Li was terrifyingly righteous and warned the Gretchin to avoid him and his Diamond Butt.
• Li Qinwu told the Gretchin that Ork Boys would drag them from their nests and roast them, and they begged him for protection.

Li Qinwu stirred the Gretchins into rebellion by preaching Big Gretchinism and urging them to grow their strength in secret. After he named an inquisitive Gretchin the Great Revolutionary, the gathered Waaagh Energy flooded into him and transformed his body, while Li Qinwu’s hold on his puppet body weakened.

• Li Qinwu told the Gretchins that Orks exploited them and depended on their labor, convincing them that their treatment was unjust.
• Li Qinwu announced Big Gretchinism, a future society where Gretchins came first and everyone could fight and Waaagh.
• Li Qinwu urged the Gretchins to hide scavenged parts, secretly learn the Big Mek’s building skills, recruit Gretchins and Squigs, and stop Ork Boys from growing.
• Li Qinwu appointed the question-asking Gretchin Horse Monkey and Great Revolutionary, charging him with leading a Gretchin uprising.
• The gathered Waaagh Energy rushed into Horse Monkey and began transforming him, while Li Qinwu’s mental hold on his puppet body weakened.

Li Qinwu used the remaining Waaagh Energy in his puppet to bless a Gretchin, turning him into a Big Gretchin, and explained his supposed relationship with Gork and Mork. After Li Qinwu's consciousness left the puppet, the Gretchin named their newly powerful fellow Leather Old Fart.

• A Gretchin absorbed Li Qinwu's Waaagh Energy and grew from 1.2 meters to 1.6 meters tall.
• Li Qinwu promised the Gretchin that Big Gretchinism would make them all powerful and claimed he secretly stirred up Gork and Mork's fighting.
• Li Qinwu learned that Black Iron had survived, and that Three Hands planned to build a huge mech for him.
• Li Qinwu ran out of Waaagh Energy and left the puppet, whose rice-cooker head clattered to the ground.
• The Gretchin hailed their newly blessed Big Gretchin as Leather Old Fart.

Leather Old Fart organized the Gretchin into a movement to build their own workshops while secretly learning mech construction from Three Hands. He won Three Hands’s protection and a false promise of a Killa Kan, positioning himself to study the Big Mek’s work.

• Leather Old Fart assigned the Gretchin to collect scrap, learn in the War Workshop, and tend the Mushroom Field as part of Big Gretchinism.
• Leather Old Fart brought parts to Three Hands’s War Workshop, where Three Hands was building two Gorkanauts and carrying the mutilated Black Iron on his back.
• Three Hands praised Leather Old Fart for bringing valuable parts, declared him under his protection, and ordered him to collect parts in exchange for a promised Killa Kan.
• Leather Old Fart pretended to believe Three Hands would build him a Killa Kan, while planning to stay close and learn how to build mechs.

G Old Fart learned how Ork Big Meks used precision and Waaagh Energy from Three Hands while secretly building up Gretchin and Squig forces. He inspected the Mushroom Field and ordered that one out of every ten newly born Ork Boys be allowed to live so the mass killing would not arouse suspicion.

• Three Hands explained that imagination, precise construction, and efficient use of Waaagh Energy distinguished Big Meks from ordinary Mek Boys, then sent G Old Fart to find more parts.
• G Old Fart left Three Hands's workshop and inspected the Mushroom Field, where farming Gretchins reported that their ranks had grown to more than two hundred thousand Gretchins and over a million Squigs.
• G Old Fart watched the Gretchins kill a newly emerged Ork Boy and plant his remains back into the soil.
• G Old Fart ordered the Gretchins to plant nine out of every ten newly born Ork Boys and let one live to avoid suspicion.

Leather Old Fart organized Gretchin workshops to build weapons after Ork Boys hunted Gretchin for food, and the first Gretchin Big Guns were completed. As he returned to inspect the Gretchin Committee, the grand marshal warned him that more Ork Boys had come to catch and roast Gretchin.

• The Gretchin showed Leather Old Fart their secret stockpiles, and he told them to keep gathering parts while giving half to the Big Meks to avoid suspicion.
• Leather Old Fart saw Ork Boys shoot and abduct scavenging Gretchin, and he called for the Gretchin to make weapons to protect themselves.
• Leather Old Fart ordered the Gretchin to sort parts and standardize weapons production, making tools themselves or stealing them from the Big Meks.
• Leather Old Fart established thousands of scattered workshops with divided tasks, and the Gretchin produced their first weapon, the ten-Gretchin-operated Gretchin Big Gun.
• The Gretchin grand marshal told Leather Old Fart that more hungry Ork Boys had arrived to catch and roast Gretchin.

An Ork Nobz and his Boys chased a Gretchin into a Garbage Mountain trap set by Ge Laopi’s forces. The Gretchin ambushed them with hundreds of Big Shootas, and Ge Laopi ordered a second volley as the Orks remained alive.

• An Ork Nobz led a dozen Ork Boys into Garbage Mountain to capture Gretchin for food because the Orks had been ordered to preserve Squigs for fuel.
• The Orks chased a Gretchin through the junk until the Nobz charged into a secluded Mushroom Field.
• Explosions collapsed the garbage heaps behind the Orks, trapping them in the clearing.
• Ge Laopi and his Gretchin fighters revealed their banners and more than three hundred Gretchin Big Shootas, then opened fire on the Orks.
• The volley wounded or felled the Ork Boys but broke the shooters’ breastbones from recoil, and Ge Laopi ordered them to reload and fire again.

After defeating the Ork Nobz, Ge Laopi led the Gretchin in salvaging Power Armor and building their own mechs. He organized plans to expand their forces by recovering armor from battlefields and brewing liquor to capture Ork Boyz, while construction and preparations continued on Garbage Mountain.

• Ge Laopi stopped the Gretchin Big Shootaz after they killed the Ork Nobz and urged the Gretchin to strengthen their forces before challenging the Big Mek.
• The Gretchin stripped the Ork Mechs for parts, buried the corpses in their fields, and modified Ork Power Armor into fifteen Twin-Gretchin Mechs and one Four-Gretchin Mech.
• Ge Laopi told the Gretchin to build tow trucks to salvage Power Armor from battlefields and to give it up if the Big Mek demanded it.
• Ge Laopi asked for a brewer, and Booze Nose volunteered to make liquor that could get Ork Boyz drunk so the Gretchin could capture them and take their intact armor.
• The Gretchin began growing mushrooms, brewing liquor, making guns, and building mechs, while portraits of Gretchin Majek and Ge Laopi were raised atop Garbage Mountain.

Li Qinwu visited the Titan Temple to inspect his repaired Monarch Knight, which had been fitted with formidable weapons and defenses. After learning that its new Machine Spirit would test his will, he climbed into the cockpit to begin taming it.

• Tech-Priest Busi told Li Qinwu that his two Knight Mechs had been repaired, and Li Qinwu hurried to the Titan Temple.
• Li Qinwu inspected the restored, gold-painted Monarch Knight as Tech-Priest Busi explained its weapons, armor, and Ion Shield.
• Tech-Priest Busi warned Li Qinwu that piloting the Monarch Knight would pit his will against its Machine Spirit and could overwhelm his brain.
• Li Qinwu learned that prayers had nurtured a new Machine Spirit in the repaired mech, then climbed into its cockpit to face the trial.

Li Qinwu entered the Monarch Knight Mech’s Throne Mechanicum and fought its newborn machine spirit in the mental world as it violently rejected him. As the ascension ritual pushed him toward a lethal overload, he turned the fight around and shocked the Throne Mechanicum back with his own bioelectricity.

• Li Qinwu formed a neural link with the Monarch Knight Mech and met its wary, brutal newborn machine spirit in the mental world.
• The machine spirit attacked Li Qinwu, while Busi ordered the Tech-Priests to continue the Requiem rather than end the dangerous ascension ritual.
• Li Qinwu fought the spirit in the form of Round-Headed Old Cat, but it wounded him and drove the Throne Mechanicum toward a deadly overload.
• After the spirit bit him, Li Qinwu entered brutality mode and savagely injured it with bites, eye jabs, and punches.
• A Tech-Priest revealed that Li Qinwu was using his own bioelectricity to shock the Throne Mechanicum back.

Li Qinwu completed the Ascension Ritual and became one with the Monarch Knight Mech, then tested its powerful weapons at a firing range. He left the trials feeling the mech’s intoxicating might but kept himself from being consumed by it.

• Li Qinwu overwhelmed Round-Headed Old Cat with a brutal beating until it stopped resisting and meowed.
• The Tech-Priests confirmed that the resistance in the data streams had stopped, and Li Qinwu announced that he was alive as the Ascension Ritual completed.
• Li Qinwu took control of the Monarch Knight Mech, walked out of the assembly building, and asked Tech-Priest Busi to take him to the firing range.
• Tech-Priest Busi explained the Annihilation Ion Cannon’s range and safety lock, and Li Qinwu fired it at a tank graveyard, melting wreckage within its blast zone.
• Li Qinwu tested the four Cutting Laser Cannons, the Quad-Mounted Heavy Bolter, and the Ion Shield.

Li Qinwu recruited five hundred Tech-Priests to maintain his Monarch Knight Mech, then tried and failed to connect with an ancient Lancer Knight Mech. The chapter ended with a Titan Adjutant arriving at the outfitting hall.

• Li Qinwu accepted five hundred Tech-Priests into his forces to care for the Monarch Knight Mech.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that the repaired Lancer Knight Mech had belonged to Luca and carried a Machine Spirit with a history dating back to the Great Crusade.
• Li Qinwu entered the Lancer Knight Mech and recited its prayers for more than two hours, but could not connect to it.
• Busi explained that the ancient Machine Spirit was ignoring Li Qinwu because it was proud and unwilling to accept a stranger.
• A mysterious hairless man arrived, and Busi identified him as a Titan Adjutant.

Li Qinwu awakened Luca's spirit inside the Lancer Knight Mech with Luca's sanctified whistle, and the Tech-Priests witnessed the pilotless machine move and speak. Luca chose to sleep until war called, while the Titan Adjutant left the fitting factory.

• The Titan Adjutant explained that the Lancer Knight held an exhausted soul and said it needed battle, loyalty, and a token to awaken.
• Li Qinwu realized the token was Luca's whistle, retrieved it from the Emperor Shrine, and returned to the Titan Temple's fitting factory.
• Li Qinwu played Luca's tune, and the Lancer Knight Mech powered up and focused its red eye on him.
• Luca spoke through the Mech's loudspeakers, recalled dying peacefully, and said he wanted to fight for the God-Emperor when war came.
• Li Qinwu told Luca to rest until the whistle called him, and the Mech shut down as the Tech-Priests celebrated and prayed.
• Li Qinwu went to find the Titan Adjutant but discovered that he had already left.

The Titan Adjutant returned to the Reaver Titan while the Iron Skull Archmagos pleaded in vain for instructions from the Divine Machine. Li Qinwu organized Knight Mech logistics, began preparing two Knight Bastions and a Knight Guard, as the Orks suddenly attacked a city built around an Intercontinental Substation.

• The Titan Adjutant told the Iron Skull Archmagos that he was only a component, then returned to his place inside the Titan.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos went back to his room and watched the Titan through a one-way glass wall, obsessively recording its features.
• Li Qinwu assembled five hundred Tech-Priests for each Knight Mech, and the two chief maintenance engineers proposed building two Knight Bastions.
• Li Qinwu approved the plan and asked Les to select a thousand people from the private troops aboard Inquisitor Thraxol's flagship to form the Knight Guard.
• Li Qinwu stayed at the Titan Temple as the Bastions were built and the Knight Guard trained.
• A powerful Ork force launched a sudden attack on the lightly defended city surrounding the Intercontinental Substation.

Three Hands led an Ork assault on the Intercontinental Substation, where the Orks overwhelmed the garrison and stole transformers. As human tanks arrived, he ordered his forces to fight while quietly escaping in a massive vehicle.

• Three Hands sent Ork armor into the substation, and the Orks overwhelmed the weak Astra Militarum garrison.
• Three Hands launched hundreds of Dakka Dakka Fighters against the human aircraft; all the Ork fighters were destroyed, but only five human fighters survived.
• Three Hands sent Mighty Pushcarts into the substation to take transformers, and a Mek Boy's attempt to cut a live cable caused an explosion that vaporized hundreds of Mek Boys.
• Three Hands shut down the substation's power and had the Orks load four transformers and other equipment into their vehicles.
• A Gretchin rallied several thousand Gretchin to chip away at remote transformers while the Orks prepared to leave.
• Human tanks blocked the Orks' retreat, so Three Hands ordered his forces to attack and quietly drove away in one of the massive vehicles.

After the Astra Militarum abandoned the Intercontinental Substation, Li Qinwu prepared a Search-Fight-Extract operation to defeat the Orks and recover valuable tank wrecks. He landed with his forces after an orbital fighter destroyed the visible Ork units, and ordered his troops to assess the salvage.

• The Orks defeated the human tank regiments, captured Substation City, and set ambushes among the battlefield wrecks.
• Li Qinwu learned from Major Noah that the Astra Militarum would not retake the Intercontinental Substation because its Ork raiders were crippled and the station had lost strategic value.
• Li Qinwu sent a Fury Interceptor to reconnoiter the area and gathered troops, tanks, engineers, and Tech-Priests aboard four Camel-type Shuttles.
• The Fury Interceptor destroyed every visible Ork unit near the planned landing zone with laser-guided rockets.
• Li Qinwu landed with his forces and ordered them to recover only the most valuable tank wrecks.

Li Qinwu inspected the battlefield wrecks, ordered spall liners for his tanks, and recovered dog tags for Major Noah. After finding four Rogal Dorn Heavy Tanks, he heard that Ork Tanks were attacking and connected to his neural-controlled Leman Russ to join the fight.

• Li Qinwu collected five dog tags from a destroyed Leman Russ and ordered Rudosen to pass them quietly to Major Noah.
• Li Qinwu ordered the Tech-Priests to install spall liners in all his tanks and watched them salvage usable parts from battlefield wrecks.
• Li Qinwu found a damaged Hydra Flak Tank and ordered its turret and Cogitator Array recovered.
• Li Qinwu discovered a destroyed Rogal Dorn Heavy Tank, ordered the Tech-Priests to search for more, and had them tow away four Rogal Dorn Tanks.
• When twelve Ork Tanks attacked from the west, Li Qinwu climbed into a modified Leman Russ and connected his Neural Interface to control it alone.

Li Qinwu fought Ork forces from his Chimera, using cover and precise fire to destroy their tanks and infantry. When Ork artillery threatened the battlefield, he guided rockets from Fury Interceptors to destroy all three artillery vehicles.

• Li Qinwu used his Chimera to destroy two Ork Tanks before a Killa Kan and Ork infantry attacked his flank, and he stopped them with the roof-mounted gun and a close-range blast.
• Li Qinwu baited two Ork Tanks into firing, then destroyed them one at a time using cover and smoke.
• Ork artillery vehicles opened fire from a distant hill, and Li Qinwu told the other crews to engage nearby enemies while he handled the threat.
• When smog prevented the Fury Interceptors from seeing the ground, their crew offered Li Qinwu control of rockets fired in low-speed mode.
• Li Qinwu guided the rockets to the hill and destroyed all three Ork Artillery Vehicles, setting off their stored ammunition.

Li Qinwu's forces salvaged a tank regiment's worth of equipment after defeating the Orks, then discovered the Orks had been stealing transformers, possibly for a Big Mech. In Substation City, Li Qinwu let a Gretchin Tow Truck escape with another transformer because he had other plans for it.

• Li Qinwu's forces cleared the Ork trenches and salvaged tanks, armored vehicles, weapons, and parts, enough to assemble a heavy tank regiment.
• Rudosen showed Li Qinwu a transformer found inside a destroyed Ork Gargant and reported that at least three other Gargants had escaped with transformers.
• Li Qinwu recalled hearing that Big Mek Three Hands was building a Big Mech and suspected the stolen transformers were intended for it.
• Li Qinwu reinforced Little Joel's troops in Substation City, where they had already killed thousands of Gretchin and Squigs.
• Li Qinwu's forces wiped out Gretchin attacking them but let a Gretchin Tow Truck carrying a transformer escape because Li Qinwu had other plans for it.

Li Qinwu guided a lost Gretchin convoy carrying a stolen transformer and learned that Three Hands was building a Gorkanaut beneath the ruins of a human Hive City. He left without an exact location and planned to search the Hive Cities by firing nuclear bombs at them.

• A group of Gretchin drove their junk-built truck through the desert with a transformer, arguing over whether they were lost as the transformer crushed several Gretchin in the cargo bed.
• Li Qinwu appeared as Gretchin Majek, pointed the Gretchin toward home, and stopped their argument over the driver’s direction.
• The Gretchin told Li Qinwu that Three Hands was stealing transformers to complete his Gorkanaut and was building it beneath the ruins of a human Hive City.
• Unable to get a precise location, Li Qinwu sent the Gretchin on their way and planned to search the Hive Cities by using nuclear bombs.

Three Hands installed a transformer in the nearly finished Gorkanaut and connected Black Iron to its controls, electrocuting him during the test. At Garbage Mountain, Ge Laopi used another transformer to rally the Gretchin around building their own Bootlicker Gorkanaut before they revolted.

• Three Hands installed a transformer in the Gorkanaut and connected Black Iron to its neural controls, causing him to suffer an electric shock when the mech started.
• Three Hands ignored Black Iron's cries and checked his own Morkanaut for electrical leaks.
• Ge Laopi led Gretchin in stealing tools and parts from the workshop while the Mek Boyz watched the Gorkanaut test.
• At Garbage Mountain, Ge Laopi delayed the Gretchin's planned uprising by saying they should first build a Gorkanaut of their own.
• A returning Gretchin driver brought back a transformer and said Gretchin Majek had shown them the way home.
• Ge Laopi named their planned mech the Bootlicker Gorkanaut, and the Gretchin cheered and set to work.

Li Qinwu persuaded the Planetary Governor to launch a desperate counteroffensive against the Ork leaders building two Totem Mechas, securing support by offering his Knights and negotiating help for his mother's Agri-World. The missiles revealed the War Workshop was only fifty kilometers from the human lines, and Li Qinwu prepared to join the attack as the battle began.

• Gretchin across the Industrial World built a sixteen-meter Bootlicker Gorkanaut while Big Gretchinism spread and reduced the Ork Boy population.
• Li Qinwu gained Captain Dolong's support and persuaded the Planetary Governor to target Black Iron and Three Hands with nuclear strikes and a ground assault, offering two Knight Mechs and four Squire Mechs in exchange for aid to his Agri-World.
• The Planetary Governor approved the all-out counteroffensive, and Li Qinwu prepared a Knight Bastion to deploy his forces from Inquisitor Thraxol's flagship.
• Five nuclear missiles struck ruined Hive Cities, and the humans detected a Void Shield at the site fifty kilometers from their lines, identifying Three Hands's War Workshop.
• The Planetary Governor launched six thousand aircraft and twenty-five thousand tanks and armored vehicles toward the target, while Li Qinwu and Lieutenant Colonel Noah prepared to march with the spearhead.
• Li Qinwu entered the Monarch Knight Mech as Tech-Priests placed the whistle flute shrine inside the Lancer Knight Mech, whose eyes lit red when the flute sounded.