Recaps

Humanity launched a full-scale offensive against the Orks, driving into a ruined Hive City despite catastrophic casualties. The Astra Militarum reached its target and prepared to use Melta Bunker-Buster Rockets to destroy two Ork Totem Mechas hidden underground.

• Humanity's aircraft and tanks clashed with vastly more numerous Ork forces, while Mek Boys rebuilt wreckage into replacement fighters and tanks.
• The Orks' Waaagh Energy surged as battle spread across the planet, but their population began declining because dead Orks no longer returned.
• Humanity's spearhead reached the Hive City ruins where Three Hands was located three hours after the battle began.
• The Astra Militarum fought Orks through the ruins under a Void Shield, suffering more than four million casualties by afternoon.
• The Astra Militarum prepared Melta Bunker-Buster Rockets to drill underground and deliver nuclear payloads against the two Ork Totem Mechas.

The Astra Militarum’s assault in the Hive City ruins nearly collapsed after Three Hands completed the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut, whose arrival strengthened Orks across the planet. Two Knight Bastions then landed on Ork supply routes, and Li Qinwu and Luca deployed with their forces to destroy the Ork war totems.

• The Astra Militarum fired Bunker-Buster Rockets into the Hive City underground, killing hundreds of thousands of Orks but failing to locate Three Hands’s War Workshop.
• Three Hands completed the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut, and Black Iron and Three Hands led the mechs and Mek Boys into the battle.
• The two war totems boosted Ork Waaagh Energy across the planet, forcing human forces back and pushing the Astra Militarum assault inside the Hive City toward collapse.
• As the planetary governor prepared to launch the nuclear weapons, a sergeant reported that two Knight Bastions were entering the atmosphere.
• After their flagship evaded Ork Big Rokkits, Inquisitor Thraxol’s forces dropped the Knight Bastions onto Ork transport routes, where their guns cut through the surrounding hordes.
• Li Qinwu and Luca emerged with their Knight forces, and Li Qinwu set out to rendezvous with Luca before confronting the Ork totems.

Li Qinwu’s Knight Guard fought off waves of Orks before Gork and Mork arrived in their Gorkanauts and Morkanaut. The Ork machines deflected the army’s attacks with a shield powered by the global Waaagh!, leaving Li Qinwu and Luca to face them as the four colossal machines began battling.

• Black Iron sent the Ork Mechs charging toward Li Qinwu’s forces, and Li Qinwu’s first plasma shot wiped out dozens but advanced his Khorne mission.
• Li Qinwu discovered that killing Ork Mechs increased his Khorne mission counter, while killing Killa Kans and Ork infantry did not; his Knight Guard repelled the Ork attack.
• Gork and Mork emerged in their giant machines, and their totems deflected the Knight Guard’s concentrated fire with a shield drawing on the global Waaagh!.
• Li Qinwu ordered his Knight Guard to retreat and hold the rear line, leaving the four colossal machines to fight.
• Luca charged Gork’s Gorkanaut while Li Qinwu and Mork’s Morkanaut exchanged fire, ending with Mork firing thousands of shells and a rocket at Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu drew Three Hands’s Morkanaut away while Luca fought Black Iron’s Gorkanaut and slaughtered the Ork reinforcements. Black Iron’s hesitation weakened the Orks’ planet-wide Waaagh Energy, but Three Hands ordered him to fight, and Black Iron charged Luca.

• Li Qinwu raised his Ion Shield against Three Hands’s Morkanaut, then fled after green lightning broke the shield and the Rotary Shootas damaged his Monarch Knight.
• Li Qinwu lured Three Hands through the city streets, using ruined buildings for cover as his Annihilation Plasma blasts continued to be deflected by the Waaagh! Field.
• Luca outmaneuvered Black Iron, damaged the Gorkanaut’s Power Fist, and charged into the Ork mechs that Black Iron summoned for backup.
• Luca destroyed more than a hundred Ork mechs, then challenged Black Iron, who feared losing his chance to take revenge on Old Fart Li.
• Black Iron’s hesitation and the Orks’ jeering weakened their morale and planet-wide Waaagh Energy, prompting Three Hands to order Black Iron to attack.
• Black Iron raised Gork’s Claw and charged Luca, shouting that he would smash him to death.

Li Qinwu used the God-Emperor Statue to pin Three Hands's Morkanaut, then attacked it while its Waaagh! field held up the rubble. As Li Qinwu's cannon finished cooling, Three Hands escaped by rocket seat, but both Ork machines were destroyed and their pilots were launched into the air.

• Three Hands pursued Li Qinwu, who drew him beneath a damaged God-Emperor Statue and fired at its supports until it began to fall onto the Morkanaut.
• Three Hands blasted apart part of the falling statue with green lightning, but his Morkanaut had to hold up the remaining rubble with its psychic power.
• Li Qinwu bombarded the Morkanaut with laser cannons and bolt rounds while its totem was occupied, and waited for the Annihilation Ion Cannon to cool down.
• Black Iron failed to help Three Hands because Luca pierced the Gorkanaut with his lance and continued attacking it.
• Three Hands launched his rocket-seat escape device as Li Qinwu fired two Annihilation Ion Cannon shots, destroying the Morkanaut beneath the falling rubble.
• Luca destroyed the unattended Gorkanaut with a thrust through its mechanical head, while Black Iron escaped in his rocket seat.

After destroying the Ork Gorkanaut, Li Qinwu helped humanity reclaim territory and returned to the Titan Temple to repair and resupply. He spent his accumulated Value on advanced weapons and 200 suits of Jetpack Power Armor.

• Li Qinwu failed to shoot down the fleeing Three Hands and ordered the planetary governor to launch a full offensive and destroy Ork strongholds.
• The Astra Militarum and Adeptus Mechanicus reclaimed territory, slaughtered fleeing Orks, and burned Mushroom Fields and removed scrap from Garbage Mountains.
• Li Qinwu returned to the Titan Temple, had his victory over an Ork Totem Mecha recorded, and ordered the shrine holding Luca’s heroic spirit to be tended.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that he had 220 million Value remaining after expenses.
• Li Qinwu ordered 1,000 Arc Rifles, 500 Melta Rifles, 500 Plasma Rifles, and 100 Radium Rifles for 25 million Value.
• Li Qinwu spent his remaining 200 million Value on 200 suits of Jetpack Power Armor.

Three Hands rescued Black Iron and gathered a growing force of fleeing Orks, but the Astra Militarum destroyed their second stronghold and drove them away. When they reached the Mushroom Field Junkyard to regroup, they found a Bootlicker Gorkanaut and Gretchin Mechs slaughtering Ork Boyz, leaving Three Hands to collapse in despair.

• Three Hands found Black Iron stranded in the desert, revived him with engine oil, and carried him north on a motorcycle as they vowed to build stronger mechs and seek revenge.
• Three Hands attracted thousands of Ork followers, but Black Iron led them to a Hive City ruin where the Astra Militarum was burning the Ork stronghold and killing its defenders.
• Three Hands fled the human tanks with his force, then killed a rebellious Ork Nobz and shared the roasted brains with Black Iron.
• Three Hands told Black Iron they would retreat to the Mushroom Field Junkyard, where he could add psychic amplification devices and build larger mechs.
• Three Hands arrived at the junkyard and saw a Bootlicker Gorkanaut and Gretchin Mechs slaughtering Ork Boyz, so he collapsed and declared it was over.

The Gretchin rebellion overwhelmed the Orks at Mushroom Field Junkyard, while Black Iron restored Three Hands’s confidence and led him to a northern wreck where he began gathering parts and Mek Boys to build a gigantic Big Mech. Meanwhile, Li Qinwu visited an Adeptus Mechanicus warehouse packed with tanks awaiting months of prayer and proposed using machines to pray for them.

• The Gretchin used the Bootlicker Gorkanaut and other vehicles to slaughter Ork Boys in the Mushroom Field Junkyard Uprising.
• Black Iron urged the depressed Three Hands to believe in his skill, restoring his confidence and strengthening the Waaagh Energy around him.
• Black Iron guided Three Hands north, where Mek Boys across the planet joined his force until it numbered more than four hundred thousand.
• Three Hands led the Mek Boys to a crashed Greenskin battleship at the Death North Pole and ordered them to salvage parts for a mountain-sized Big Mech.
• Li Qinwu toured an Adeptus Mechanicus factory and learned that its enormous stock of Leman Russ tanks had to undergo six months of prayer before deployment.
• Li Qinwu suggested building machines to recite prayers, and he and Busi questioned who would pray for each successive prayer machine.

Li Qinwu learned that the Orks had weakened after the Gretchin rebellion and used the Black Needle to respawn into the Bootlicker Gorkanaut, where hundreds of thousands of Gretchin hailed him as Gretchin Majek. He urged them to advance Big Gretchinism by taking over Ork bodies, leaving the Gretchin eager to try his grotesque plan.

• Colonel Noah reported that the Astra Militarum had retaken 60% of the planet and that the Ork forces had grown weak and dwindled.
• Li Qinwu sensed the Gretchin summoning Gretchin Majek, died using the Black Needle, and chose their prayer-made respawn point.
• Li Qinwu awakened inside the Bootlicker Gorkanaut and learned from Ge Laopi that the Gretchin had overthrown and enslaved the Ork Boys.
• Li Qinwu declared the second stage of Big Gretchinism would improve Gretchin quality and ordered them to build more mechs.
• Li Qinwu proposed sewing Gretchin heads onto Ork Boys' bodies, and the Gretchin realized the plan could work because Orks survived head transplants.

Li Qinwu used Waaagh Energy to graft nearly ten thousand Gretchin heads onto Ork Boy bodies, then left Ge Laopi to continue the experiments. Ge Laopi's Gretchin successfully swapped heads and bodies in further surgeries, creating Big-Head Freaks and Little-Head Freaks in his organization.

• Ge Laopi ordered the Gretchin to cut off their own heads, and tens of thousands obeyed.
• Li Qinwu used Horse Monkey's power and Waaagh Energy to graft nearly ten thousand Gretchin heads onto Ork Boy bodies.
• Before logging off, Li Qinwu told Ge Laopi to study and perform the grafting himself.
• Ge Laopi ordered the Gretchin to experiment with connecting Ork Boy heads to Gretchin bodies, and most of the operations succeeded.
• Ge Laopi declared that Ork Boys with Gretchin bodies were Big-Head Gretchin and ordered newly hatched boys kept for future body-swapping surgeries.

Li Qinwu accepted Busi’s mission to recover an STC Template containing the Sentinel Walker’s manufacturing process from an Ork-controlled Hive City, hoping to copy it for himself. After learning the punishment for unauthorized copying, he remained confident that Inquisitor Thraxol could protect him, but the maintenance engineers warned that he lacked the expertise to decrypt the template.

• Busi offered Li Qinwu 100 million Value Points to retrieve an STC Template from a factory beneath an Ork-controlled Hive City.
• Li Qinwu learned that the steel cube contained the manufacturing process for the fast, heavily armed Sentinel Walker and decided he wanted to copy it.
• As his troops prepared to enter the map, Li Qinwu asked two chief maintenance engineers what would happen if someone copied an STC Template without permission.
• The engineers warned that unauthorized copying carried severe punishment, including a machine that could inflict over a hundred million cuts while keeping its victim alive.
• Li Qinwu believed Inquisitor Thraxol’s military power would protect him, but the engineers explained that decrypting the template required a sage-ranked priest and considerable time.

Li Qinwu assembled a force to retrieve an STC Template from a Hive City in Ork-controlled territory and secured Sage Rob's help in cracking it. After Rudosen led the surface defenses, Li Qinwu and five hundred elite troops descended into the dark Hive City and began following Sage Rob's route toward the Temple of the Machine God.

• Rudosen briefed Li Qinwu's officers on the mission and took command of the surface force, piloting Li Qinwu's retired golden Squire Mech.
• Li Qinwu asked Sage Rob to crack the STC Template, and Sage Rob agreed in exchange for help capturing suitable live biological specimens.
• Li Qinwu's troops landed at the Hive City ruins, repelled an Ork attack, and established a defensive perimeter under Rudosen's command.
• Li Qinwu led five hundred elite troops underground after combat Tech-Priests blasted an entrance through the plaza.
• Sage Rob projected a route to the Temple of the Machine God, and Li Qinwu ordered the troops to advance toward a nearby rail station.

Li Qinwu’s force fought through a massive Ork assault at the station and escaped aboard a repaired mining train. As the train descended toward the Temple of the Machine God, captured Walking Mechs attacked, and Li Qinwu’s soldiers used Arc Rifles to disable many of them.

• Li Qinwu’s soldiers reached the station and helped Sage Rob install batteries in a mining cart, whose alarm drew a huge Ork horde.
• Li Qinwu fought an Ork Weirdboy in a psychic beam clash, then had Little Joel move to his other side; the Weirdboy lost control, exploded, and killed thousands of linked Orks through psychic backlash.
• Sage Rob finished preparing the mining carts, and Li Qinwu led his five hundred Power Armor guards underground toward the Temple of the Machine God.
• Sage Rob detected Walking Mechs approaching the train, and more than thirty Ork-piloted machines attacked, inflicting casualties among Li Qinwu’s troops.
• Li Qinwu and his soldiers fired Arc Rifles at the Walking Mechs, disabling about half by destroying their gyroscopes and electronic components.

Li Qinwu and Sage Rob reached the deepest chamber of the Temple of the Machine God and recovered the STC Template, a physical record containing the designs needed to produce Walking Mechs. Rob began preparing to scan and decipher it, while he sent Li Qinwu to inspect any surviving factories.

• Sage Rob breached the Temple of the Machine God's Cogitator Array and led Li Qinwu and the soldiers through the abandoned complex.
• Rob explained that the Orks had occupied the Armament Temple twenty years earlier and that its self-destruct sequence had destroyed most of its factories and products.
• Li Qinwu and Rob found the armored sphere holding the STC Template, and Rob opened it to reveal a golden cube.
• Rob's Tech-Priests dismantled the cube into Adamantium plates, and Rob explained that they needed to scan and decipher the microscopic records to produce Walking Mechs.
• Rob revived a Servo-skull and asked Li Qinwu to leave half his guards behind while the Servo-skull guided him to inspect surviving Walking Mech factories.

Li Qinwu searched the ruined Prayer Workshops for Walking Mechs and found Workshop No. 103 intact behind a collapsed passage, then discovered even more machines in Workshop No. 104. He ordered the team to retrieve the surviving machines, including a cache of advanced Heavy Walking Mechs.

• Li Qinwu led his team through the Prayer Workshops, but the Orks had emptied most of them and collapses had buried the others.
• Little Joel noticed that Workshop No. 102 was intact and suggested blasting through its wall into Workshop No. 103.
• Li Qinwu’s team blasted through and found more than four hundred Walking Mechs in the surviving part of Workshop No. 103.
• Little Joel suggested opening the wall into Workshop No. 104, and Li Qinwu’s team found more than eighty advanced Heavy Walking Mechs there.
• Li Qinwu ordered the team to retrieve the Walking Mechs from both workshops.

After returning the restored STC Template to Tech-Priest Busi, Li Qinwu learned that Colonel Noah and more than six hundred soldiers had been arrested by the Imperial Cult over the destruction of a God-Emperor statue. He vowed to save them and prepared to use Inquisitor Thraxol’s authority in the escalating political conflict.

• Li Qinwu’s forces transported the Walking Mechs to the orbital fleet while repelling scattered Ork attacks, and Sage Rob finished copying and restoring the STC Template.
• Li Qinwu delivered the STC Template to Tech-Priest Busi, who confirmed its recovery and credited Li Qinwu with 100 million Value Points; Li Qinwu exchanged them for Jetpack Power Armor.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that the Imperial Cult had arrested his sister, Colonel Noah, along with more than six hundred soldiers who had witnessed the God-Emperor statue fall during the battle against the Gorkanaut.
• Busi explained that the planetary governor had allowed the arrests to avoid antagonizing the Imperial Cult while the planet’s forces focused on the Ork offensive.
• Li Qinwu promised to prevent Noah from being burned at the stake and decided that he would need an Inquisitor’s help to confront the Imperial Cult.

Li Qinwu enlisted Inquisitor Thraxol to confront the planetary bishop over Lieutenant Colonel Noah’s threatened execution, and the two used the Inquisition’s tactics to intimidate him. The bishop collapsed under their accusations, while Thraxol taught Li Qinwu how to turn any action into evidence of heresy.

• Li Qinwu told Inquisitor Thraxol about the plan to burn Lieutenant Colonel Noah, and Thraxol promised to speak with the planetary governor.
• Inquisitor Thraxol and Li Qinwu arrived at the Imperial Cult’s Spire, frightening Hive City’s elites and drawing a nervous welcome from the planetary bishop.
• Inquisitor Thraxol accused the bishop of disrespecting the soldiers by serving them plain food, then interrogated him over the Scripture.
• Li Qinwu joined in by treating every way the bishop handled the Scripture as evidence of heresy, until the bishop collapsed.
• Inquisitor Thraxol praised Li Qinwu and showed him how even the bishop’s unconscious posture could be twisted into further accusations.

After Li Qinwu freed Lieutenant Colonel Noah and more than six hundred Astra Militarum soldiers, the disillusioned troops chose to join him. Meanwhile, Three Hands completed a fifty-meter Stompa and prepared Black Iron to pilot it against Li Qinwu.

• Inquisitor Thraxol’s intervention secured Lieutenant Colonel Noah’s and more than six hundred soldiers’ release from the Imperial Cult Spire.
• Lieutenant Colonel Noah told Li Qinwu she did not hate the Imperial Cult, while he learned that the planetary governor’s people had handed the soldiers over to it.
• The rescued Astra Militarum elites rejected their homeworld and asked to leave with Li Qinwu, who accepted them and planned to equip them with jetpacks.
• Human forces reclaimed eighty percent of the planet as the Greenskin Orks grew listless, and the Astartes prepared to move on.
• At the north pole, Three Hands celebrated the completion of a fifty-meter Stompa built from a wrecked warship.
• Black Iron agreed to undergo surgery to install neural amplifiers so he could pilot the Stompa and crush Old Fart Li.

Three Hands activated his Stompa with Black Iron wired in as its pilot, triggering a planet-wide WAAAGH! that transformed the Orks’ morale and drove human forces into retreat. The chapter ended with the planetary command watching footage of the Stompa and a vast Ork army advancing toward the human front lines.

• Mad Doks implanted neural enhancement devices in Black Iron, who bit off one Dok’s finger, and Three Hands assigned him to pilot the Stompa.
• Three Hands’s Mek Boys started the Stompa’s plasma engine, and Black Iron endured its neural feedback until the machine began to move.
• Black Iron roared through the Stompa’s speakers, declaring his power and calling a WAAAGH! that spread across 496a Industrial World.
• Orks across the planet surged into battle, overwhelming human troops and mechs as humanity’s reclaimed territory dwindled.
• A junior officer showed the planetary governor and marshals satellite footage of the Stompa and a massive Ork force approaching the human front lines.

Black Iron led the Stompa battlegroup as it destroyed Astra Militarum regiments, intercepted nuclear missiles, and survived orbital bombardment behind its Void Shield. Three Hands ordered the battlegroup to retaliate against Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet, launching dozens of massive missiles into the sky.

• Black Iron advanced toward the Astra Militarum’s mountain base with the Stompa battlegroup.
• Black Iron fired the Stompa’s cannons and rockets, destroying the mountain defenses and three infantry regiments.
• The planetary governor ordered a nuclear strike, but the Stompa shot down all thirty missiles with its laser.
• Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet bombarded the Stompa battlegroup, but its Void Shield absorbed the attacks.
• Three Hands ordered the battlegroup to attack the fleet, and its launchers fired dozens of massive missiles.

Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet failed to stop the Ork battlegroup, and the planetary governor concentrated fifty million Astra Militarum soldiers at Oil Refinery City to defend the planet’s core. When the Orks attacked, a commissar led a suicide charge that inspired the terrified troops to rush from their trenches.

• Inquisitor Thraxol withdrew his fleet after it failed to penetrate the Stompa’s Void Shield, and Iron Skull Archmagos advised the governor to kill the Orks sustaining it with Psychic Power.
• The governor sent an extermination force against the Orks, but Black Iron used the Void Shield to control the artillery battle, and the Orks nearly destroyed the humans’ armored vehicles before salvaging them for their own forces.
• An infantry marshal warned that the Orks were advancing toward Oil Refinery City and demanded fifty million soldiers; the governor ordered the Astra Militarum to abandon other territory and fortify the city with explosives.
• The Ork battlegroup reached Oil Refinery City after half a month and began bombarding its defenses before launching an assault with armored vehicles and walkers.
• A commissar charged the Orks with a Melta Bomb, detonated it beside a Mek Boy, and his example drove the Astra Militarum soldiers from their trenches into battle.

The infantry marshal ordered the defense of Oil Refinery City as the Stompa survived repeated nuclear attacks and destroyed the human forces. With all fifty million soldiers dead, he led the officer corps out of the bunker and sacrificed himself beneath an Ork artillery vehicle.

• The infantry marshal ordered regiments into battle as Xenos forces overwhelmed positions across Oil Refinery City.
• The Stompa survived nuclear blasts, including an eighty-million-ton explosion, and continued attacking the city.
• A general reported that all fifty million soldiers had died, leaving the infantry marshal with no regiments.
• The infantry marshal ordered the bunker’s officers to strap on bombs and prepare to charge.
• The infantry marshal led the officers outside, climbed beneath a passing Ork artillery vehicle, and detonated his Melta Bomb.

After the Orks destroyed the Astra Militarum, Stompa's crew sought fuel for their next attack and began rendering human dead and civilians at Oil Refinery City. Horrified by the atrocity, Industrial World 496A's governor armed the population and prepared the planet's nuclear weapons for detonation if its population fell to five percent.

• The Orks defeated fifty million Astra Militarum troops, and Black Iron demanded that Three Hands prepare Stompa's forces to attack again.
• Three Hands told Black Iron that the humans had removed the refinery's fuel and asked for three days to find another source.
• The Orks rendered corpses, food, and nearly a million civilians from underground bunkers to produce grease for their vehicles.
• Surviving cameras transmitted the atrocities to the Main Hive City, and the planetary governor ordered the footage broadcast, weapons distributed, and nuclear weapons and reactors readied for detonation if the population fell to five percent.
• Civilians across the Hive Cities took up Lasguns, stun weapons, pipe spears, and improvised arms as all twelve billion people prepared to fight the Orks.

Black Iron led nearly ten million Orks toward the Main Hive City, drawn by the humans' preparations for war. Inquisitor Thraxol told Li Qinwu that he planned to evacuate three hundred thousand people and then destroy the planet with Exterminatus, leaving him to choose between that judgment and letting the Orks seize an Industrial World.

• Black Iron chose the Main Hive City over the Temple of the Machine God, and his Orks roared as they set out for battle.
• The people of the Main Hive City fortified their defenses and prepared to fight the approaching Orks.
• Inquisitor Thraxol told Li Qinwu that evacuation was underway and that he would use one hundred nuclear bombs to trigger eruptions and blanket the planet in ash and nuclear dust.
• Thraxol explained that the Xenos Titan had survived nuclear attacks and devastated the Knight forces, while the Astartes could not approach the battlefield.
• Thraxol said he would face a severe investigation for Exterminatus, but feared the consequences of allowing the Orks to capture the planet and build a fleet.

Li Qinwu decided that piloting the Reaver Titan might be the only way to stop the Orks and prevent Exterminatus, and asked Busi to let him enter the chief princeps selection. Busi led him to the Ascension Throne, where Li Qinwu learned that half a million candidates had died or been left mentally damaged; the chapter ended before he took the test.

• After reading comments urging him to pilot the Titan, Li Qinwu realized the Reaver Titan might be able to fight the Ork Stompa.
• Busi called Li Qinwu to the Fitting Workshop as Iron Skull Archmagos fortified the Titan Temple against the approaching Orks.
• Li Qinwu told Busi he wanted to enter the selection process for the Titan's chief princeps and argued that his success with the Monarch Knight Mech gave him a chance.
• Busi warned Li Qinwu that the Titan's data could destroy his mind, but Li Qinwu urged him to help save their homeworld from the Orks and Exterminatus.
• Busi led Li Qinwu to the Cogitator Array chamber and explained that candidates had to survive the Ascension Throne's data overflow before they could face the Titan's Machine Spirit.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that none of the five hundred thousand candidates tested in the Ascension Throne had survived intact.