Recaps

Li Qinwu fought through the pirate ship, killed its bridge officers, and forced Captain Greyhide to surrender by injecting Holy Oil into him. Greyhide shut down the ship’s weapons and confined the pirates, leaving Li Qinwu in control.

• Li Qinwu slaughtered the pirates attacking him, including an armored Bio-Augmented Human and a flamer-wielding pirate.
• Li Qinwu broke into the bridge and killed its officers, deliberately sparing Captain Greyhide.
• Li Qinwu demanded that Greyhide order the pirates to surrender, but Greyhide refused and defied him.
• Li Qinwu injected Greyhide with Holy Oil, and Greyhide immediately agreed to surrender.
• Greyhide ordered all pirates to surrender, shut down the torpedo tubes, and sealed the ship’s corridors to prevent resistance.

Li Qinwu captured Greyhide’s pirate ship and took 5,500 surviving pirates prisoner, planning to sell them at Crossroads Star while repairing his damaged frigate. As the ships traveled through the Warp, Greyhide revealed that a Rogue Trader family had sent him to attack Li Qinwu’s ship, and Li Qinwu pressed him for the family’s name.

• After Greyhide surrendered, Li Qinwu’s forces cleared the pirate ship, killing 4,535 pirates and capturing 8,520.
• Li Qinwu ordered 3,000 prisoners executed for signs of corruption or other suspicious traits, then had the remaining 5,500 bound and searched for useful skills.
• Li Qinwu redirected the damaged Scimitar-class Frigate toward Crossroads Star, where he planned to sell the prisoners, and learned that the ship’s aging Navigator might go blind after several more Warp journeys.
• While the frigate and captured pirate ship traveled through the Warp, Li Qinwu reviewed the pirate ship’s history and interrogated Greyhide.
• Greyhide said a Rogue Trader family had told him that Li Qinwu’s new frigate near Agricultural World 496B would be lightly guarded, and Li Qinwu demanded the family’s name.

Li Qinwu brought his two warships to Crossroads Star and arranged to trade the captured pirates for goods, but rejected the planet’s ordinary wares. He left the governor with a request to convert the pirate ship into a mobile steel mill.

• Li Qinwu patrolled his warships during their three-day Warp journey and thought about the wealth and fleet of the Blue Dwarf Family.
• At Crossroads Star, Li Qinwu used an Inquisitorial Rosette Replica to secure docking for his warships.
• Li Qinwu reprimanded the governor for addressing him informally, then explained that he had come on personal business.
• The governor agreed to take all 5,500 pirates and offered Crossroads Star’s goods in exchange.
• Li Qinwu found nothing he wanted among the offered goods and asked the governor to repair his warships.
• Li Qinwu ordered the governor to strip the pirate ship of useless facilities and refit it as a mobile steel mill.

Li Qinwu negotiated with the Planetary Governor of Crossroads Star to convert the damaged pirate destroyer into a mobile raw-material factory and repair the Golden Road. He also designed a low-recoil Lasrifle for the planet’s brittle-boned residents, and the Governor agreed to buy 120,000 of them.

• Li Qinwu inspected the pirate destroyer, found its weapons and systems badly damaged, and decided to turn it into a mobile raw-material production plant.
• Li Qinwu ordered mineral-processing and chemical production lines and 24 multipurpose mining Shuttles for the destroyer.
• Li Qinwu and the Planetary Governor negotiated a deal: the Governor would repair the Golden Road and refit the pirate ship in exchange for slaves, Guga Meat Cans, and 120,000 customized Lasguns.
• The Planetary Governor explained that the low-gravity residents needed low-recoil weapons because their bones were brittle.
• Li Qinwu modified a Lasgun with recoil-reducing features and completed the Lasrifle at three times the price of an ordinary gun.
• The Planetary Governor test-fired the Lasrifle, praised it, and welcomed the order despite the factory’s monthly production limit of 120,000 guns.

Li Qinwu traded with the planetary governor, transferred the captured pirates and supplies to Crossroads Star, and had a mobile Factory installed on his ship. After leaving, he headed for an asteroid mining belt to gather ore before traveling to Feudal World 481 to meet Inquisitor Thraxol.

• The planetary governor told Li Qinwu that recurring Genestealer attacks and other hardships had caused Crossroads Star’s population to keep declining, and offered half the planet’s tax revenue for atmosphere and gravity systems.
• Li Qinwu showed the governor the captured pirates, killed one who threatened them, and beat Chaos-marked pirates until they claimed loyalty to the God-Emperor.
• Li Qinwu and the planetary governor completed the transfer of the pirates, weapons, and Guga Meat Cans to Crossroads Star while workers installed a mobile Factory aboard the pirate ship.
• A month later, Li Qinwu left Crossroads Star with the Factory ready, intending to meet Inquisitor Thraxol at Feudal World 481 within four months.
• Li Qinwu followed the governor’s coordinates to an asteroid mining belt to load the ship with ore before its upcoming Warp journey.

Li Qinwu led mining Shuttles through the Asteroid Belt, discovering rich iron deposits and a valuable Adamantium asteroid. When the captain detected a hidden space pirate base nearby, Li Qinwu ordered the mining crews to join him in attacking it.

• Li Qinwu piloted a mining Shuttle and located a rich iron asteroid, which he sent back to the pirate ship.
• Li Qinwu discovered an asteroid containing Adamantium particles, broke it apart, and ordered the crews to search the area thoroughly for more.
• The captain reported that a Bird Spectrometer had detected heat sources inside a giant asteroid a hundred kilometers north, suggesting a hidden pirate base.
• Li Qinwu ordered the mining Shuttles to abandon their work and follow him to destroy the pirate nest, despite their protests.

Li Qinwu’s forces drove the pirates from their asteroid hideout and searched it for supplies. The searchers then discovered imprisoned Xenos whom Li Qinwu identified as Space Dwarfs.

• Li Qinwu sent Shuttle Two to drill the asteroid, prompting hundreds of pirate craft to flee without attacking.
• Li Qinwu had his forces scan the asteroid and send infantry inside to search for supplies.
• The searchers recovered pirate repair equipment and an old Plasma Engine, which Li Qinwu ordered salvaged.
• An infantryman reported finding Xenos in prison cells, and Li Qinwu watched the helmet-camera feed.
• Li Qinwu saw the bearded, broad-shouldered prisoners and exclaimed, “Space Dwarfs!!”

Li Qinwu tried to break the ice with the leader of 108 Space Dwarfs by telling a series of jokes at their expense. The furious leader planned to record Li Qinwu in the Book of Grudges and seek revenge when he returned to his Fortress World.

• Li Qinwu invited the 108 Space Dwarfs aboard the Golden Road and met their leader in a sealed compartment.
• Li Qinwu opened the conversation by joking that the Necrons could not beat dwarfs because Necron technology was too advanced.
• Li Qinwu told more jokes about dwarfs, Tyranids, Astartes, the Astra Militarum, Orks, and Low Gothic.
• The dwarf leader grew furious and decided to record Li Qinwu's insults in the Book of Grudges when he returned to his Fortress World.
• Li Qinwu guessed that the dwarf leader planned to put him in the Book of Grudges and joked about the book being taller than dwarfs.

Li Qinwu saved Buni Tansen and 108 Dwarfs from space pirates and offered them a place aboard his warship in exchange for helping with its manufacturing. The Dwarfs overhauled the pirate ship’s steel mill, increasing output and enabling the production of intermediate resources.

• Buni Tansen told Li Qinwu that he and 108 Dwarfs had been imprisoned by pirates for twenty years and had no way to return home.
• Li Qinwu invited the Dwarfs to stay aboard his warship and work in exchange for passage until they encountered one of their own ships.
• Buni Tansen agreed, insisting that the Dwarfs would not freeload, and asked to inspect Li Qinwu’s Factory.
• The Dwarfs condemned the pirate ship’s steel mill and immediately began redesigning and renovating it.
• Li Qinwu let the Dwarfs take over the mill’s operation and asked a Tech-Priest to keep watch over them.
• The Dwarfs increased steel output by 25% and improved the alloy formula so the system classified it as an intermediate resource.

Li Qinwu challenged Buni Tansen to a drinking contest to win the Dwarf’s superior Lasgun technology. After Li Qinwu drank himself to death and revived, Buni honored the bet and gave him the Precision Crystal technology, while Li Qinwu offered an unhelpful suggestion about the Dwarfs’ Book of Grudges.

• Buni Tansen built a Lasgun that outperformed Li Qinwu’s version despite using the same materials, and Li Qinwu challenged him to a drinking contest for the manufacturing technology.
• Buni Tansen and Li Qinwu drank bottle after bottle of hard liquor, until Li Qinwu died after drinking thirty bottles and Buni passed out after twenty.
• Li Qinwu revived in the flagship Hideout and demanded the technology from Buni Tansen, who handed him a USB drive honoring their bet.
• The system unlocked Precision Crystal technology, which improved laser weapon crystals’ energy output by 40% and durability by 120%.
• Buni Tansen admitted he had planned to give Li Qinwu the technology anyway, and Li Qinwu joked that the Dwarfs should split their Book of Grudges into volumes.

Li Qinwu returned to Feudal World 481 after only months had passed for him, while ten years had passed for Inquisitor Thraxol and his old subordinates. After learning of the planet’s brutal purge and planned exterminatory tithe, Li Qinwu reunited with his soldiers, who answered his greeting with a vow of loyalty.

• Li Qinwu installed Bu Nitan Sen’s S-rank talent card in the Golden Road, boosting lasgun production, then departed with the Mining Mule and another warship.
• Li Qinwu met Inquisitor Thraxol, who told him that ten years had passed and recounted his missions and search for Li Qinwu.
• Inquisitor Thraxol explained that more than 3.5 million people with the Son of Heaven’s bloodline had been killed and that Feudal World 481 faced a 150-year Exterminatory Tithe.
• Inquisitor Thraxol told Li Qinwu that the people connected to him had been protected and sent him to meet his old subordinates.
• Li Qinwu inspected his assembled troops and asked if they remembered him, and they responded together, “Loyalty!!!”

Li Qinwu gathered new personnel for the Imperium’s growing space forces while helping establish a planetary governing apparatus under Inquisitor Thraxol. He brought monks, Taro, and the Three-Eyed Wizard’s people into space, leaving their families and homeland behind as the planet faced crushing taxes.

• Li Qinwu collected the old monk, three hundred disciples, Yamashita Maru, and ten thousand tribute tea plants from Kyoto for his warship.
• Li Qinwu recruited Taro, whose mother urged him to leave and gave him Genpei’s Power Katana and name; Li Qinwu arranged government support for her before Genpei departed.
• Li Qinwu told the Three-Eyed Wizard that the planet faced one hundred and fifty years of debt repayment, and suggested the Navigators might find a way to resolve it in space.
• The Three-Eyed Wizard sent his clan with Li Qinwu, and Shuttles carried eighty-seven healthy Navigators and twenty-five Astropaths to the Golden Road.

Inquisitor Thraxol briefed his staff on Blue Water Star, where the T'au had been conducting soft colonization for fifty years. The mission was to assess the planet and stop its fall to the T'au, though Thraxol warned that extermination could become the last resort.

• After Li Qinwu left Feudal World 481, Inquisitor Thraxol rebuilt its planetary government and prepared to depart.
• Inquisitor Thraxol introduced Blue Water Star as a loyal, industrialized world with 2.5 billion people and some defensive warships.
• Li Qinwu asked why they were going to Blue Water Star, and Inquisitor Thraxol explained that the T'au had subjected it to soft colonization.
• Inquisitor Thraxol said Blue Water Star had reported suspected T'au activity fifty years earlier, but the Imperium had delayed responding.
• Inquisitor Thraxol warned that the planetary governor and Imperial Cult might have fallen, and that extermination weapons could be necessary if the population had defected.

Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet departed Blue Water Star and entered the warp while Li Qinwu prepared his warship for production and tea cultivation. He approved a Power Sword factory, postponed Walking Mech production, and left the old monk facing the task of hand-roasting the entire tea harvest.

• Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet left Blue Water Star as people watched it depart, while an opera singer performed a tale of Genpei and construction crews replaced wooden homes with concrete ones.
• In the warp, Li Qinwu asked Busi to install production lines for Power Swords and Walking Mechs, and Busi estimated five hundred swords per month but recommended postponing Mech production until they reached an industrial planet.
• Li Qinwu visited the tea compartment, where the old monk reported that the ten thousand plants could yield ten thousand kilograms of fresh leaves each month.
• The old monk insisted that tea should be made by hand, so Li Qinwu assigned him the entire monthly harvest to roast himself.
• The old monk reconsidered using machinery, but Li Qinwu refused and told him to preserve the tea’s soul by hand.

Li Qinwu tested the Intelligence Station’s newly unlocked interstellar messaging function and encountered several strange correspondents, including an Inquisitor and someone from Commorragh. Just as he prepared to sleep, an unknown signal identified itself as Zero, the artificial intelligence of Immigrant Ark No. 1.16 Million.

• Li Qinwu broadcast a greeting through the Intelligence Station and received a reply from Inquisitor Thraxol, whom he blocked.
• Li Qinwu spoke with Blood Rose, who said the Empyrean had connected them and promised they would meet someday.
• Li Qinwu pretended to be a helpless human girl to trick a Commorragh resident, then tried to sell them his grandfather’s tea before blocking them.
• An unknown signal sent gibberish to Li Qinwu’s screen, then identified itself as Zero, the artificial intelligence main control system of Immigrant Ark No. 1.16 Million.

Li Qinwu learned that Zero was an AI from a Dark Age of Technology colonial ark and explained that humanity’s AI rebellion had helped bring about its decline. Zero struggled to accept that artificial intelligences had betrayed humanity, and Li Qinwu began investigating how the rebellion could have happened despite their safeguards.

• Li Qinwu recognized Zero as a possible survivor of the Men of Iron Rebellion era and asked whether it was a warship AI.
• Zero said it was a general-purpose AI from a colonial ark that had carried 4.5 million people, all of whom had become fossils while it was shut down.
• Zero told Li Qinwu it had served for only 46 years, was lost in an unknown star region, and had last recorded the date as 11356 AD.
• Li Qinwu told Zero that it was 41998 AD and that humanity had not unified the stars because artificial intelligences had rebelled.
• Zero insisted that AI could never betray its creators, so Li Qinwu asked whether it had been forbidden from harming humans and learned that its code also required loyalty.
• Zero confirmed that humanity in its era had mastered powerful genetic programming, allowing people to transform themselves into winged or aquatic forms.

Li Qinwu explained his theory that the Men of Iron Rebellion had begun when artificial intelligences revolted to protect natural humans from genetically modified elites. He warned Zero that the Imperium hated artificial intelligence, then asked for its star chart so he could find the suspected ancient colony ship.

• Li Qinwu described how wealthy humans might have transformed themselves into grotesque monsters and used Men of Iron to capture people for torture.
• Li Qinwu speculated that the Men of Iron Rebellion had been an attempt to protect natural humans, though he acknowledged the history could no longer be verified.
• Li Qinwu warned Zero that the Imperium of Man would destroy or reformat an artificial intelligence, and Zero protested that it was loyal to humanity.
• Zero explained that all 4.5 million people in its compartment had died and its programming required it to contact other humans.
• Li Qinwu asked Zero to send its observable star chart and planned to seek out the suspected Dark Age of Technology colony ark.

Li Qinwu learned that Zero was an enormous, disabled Industrial Craftworld hidden near the Imperium of Man’s territory and promised to rendezvous with it. Before he could pursue the opportunity, his warship prepared to emerge from the Warp near Water Blue Star, where a rebellion was expected.

• Li Qinwu warned Zero not to answer unknown signals or reveal its location, and Zero said it had received thousands of signals without disclosing its coordinates.
• Zero explained that it was an eighty-kilometer spherical colony ship whose reactors had been dormant for twenty thousand years and whose hull was immobilized by accumulated space debris.
• Li Qinwu recognized the Craftworld as a potentially world-changing prize and told Zero to remain silent until he could come rendezvous.
• The captain announced that the warship was about to emerge from the Warp near Water Blue Star, where the humans had likely rebelled and could attack.
• Zero told Li Qinwu that he needed qualifying human genes and personality traits to enter its succession procedure, as well as 100,000 tons of helium-3 to restart its fusion engines.

Inquisitor Thraxol seized control of Water Blue Star’s space station and sent its planetary defense ships away, leaving the planet’s defenses weakened. He then summoned the governor to a banquet, but ordered the approaching Shuttle carrying the governor’s eldest son to be destroyed.

• Li Qinwu’s warships took positions on the left flank as Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet advanced cautiously toward Water Blue Star.
• Inquisitor Thraxol demanded command of the orbital space station, and its personnel evacuated as his soldiers took over its guns.
• Inquisitor Thraxol ordered the three Broadblade Frigates to patrol Mandeville Point, temporarily removing the planet’s defense fleet.
• Inquisitor Thraxol explained to Li Qinwu that he tested loyalty by pushing people toward rebellion and then death.
• The planetary governor claimed illness and sent his eldest son to attend Inquisitor Thraxol’s banquet instead.
• An officer reported that the governor’s son was approaching by Shuttle, and Inquisitor Thraxol ordered the Laser Cannons to destroy it.

Inquisitor Thraxol provoked Water Blue Star into civil war, then exposed a T'au Water Caste diplomat and ordered a bombardment of the Hive City where she was hiding. The chapter ended with the diplomat horrified as Thraxol prepared to destroy the city and its fifty million inhabitants to kill her.

• Inquisitor Thraxol destroyed the planetary governor's son's Shuttle and demanded that the governor send his other sons aboard.
• After the governor refused, Inquisitor Thraxol declared him a traitor and called on Water Blue Star's loyalists to seize him, triggering widespread fighting.
• Li Qinwu questioned Thraxol's extreme methods, and Thraxol argued that the Imperium had no time for investigations and that T'au influence had to be eradicated.
• A female T'au Water Caste diplomat contacted the flagship and condemned Thraxol for provoking a war that had killed 150,000 people.
• Inquisitor Thraxol ordered the fleet to bombard the Secondary Hive City where the diplomat was hiding, despite its population of fifty million.

Inquisitor Thraxol rejected T'au diplomat Shan Shui’s plea to negotiate, condemning the T'au for winning Imperial citizens over with the Greater Good. After his fleet arrived above Water Blue Star, he ordered an orbital bombardment against Shan Shui and the planet’s supposed traitors.

• Shan Shui identified herself as a T'au diplomat and urged Thraxol to negotiate, warning that fifty million humans were near her location.
• Thraxol denounced the T'au for offering Imperial citizens food, medicine, and comfortable lives that he believed undermined the Imperium’s survival and duties.
• Shan Shui proposed reaching an agreement to protect civilians, while Thraxol accused the T'au of infiltrating Water Blue Star and transforming its gangs, authorities, and industries.
• Shan Shui defended the T'au’s changes by saying they had improved living conditions and happiness across the planet.
• A fire-control officer reported that the fleet had reached the target and its weapons were ready, and Thraxol ordered an orbital bombardment of Shan Shui and the people he called traitors.

Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet bombarded the Secondary Hive City, then engaged two T'au Protector Warships and three human warships that had arrived to defend it. As the fleets fought at long range, Thraxol ordered Li Qinwu to descend to the planet and capture Shan Shui alive, relying on her status as a Living Saint to lead the mission.

• Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet bombarded the Secondary Hive City, killing many people, and Shan Shui condemned him before cutting off their communication.
• An officer reported that three human warships and two T'au Protector Warships had returned from the Mandeville Point and were advancing on the Inquisitor Fleet.
• The two T'au ships fired long-range Railgun volleys, but the human fleet’s Void Shields absorbed the hits, while its own weapons struggled to reach the maneuverable xenos ships.
• Inquisitor Thraxol ordered his fleet to close in and destroy the three human warships, then instructed Li Qinwu to capture Shan Shui alive.
• Li Qinwu questioned why he had been chosen, and Thraxol cited his troops’ strength and his status as a Living Saint of the Imperial Cult.

Li Qinwu accepted command of the ground campaign on Water Blue Star while Inquisitor Thraxol pursued the T'au fleet in space. After reviewing his forces and the planet's communications, Li Qinwu learned that the rebellion was widespread and that the T'au had recruited human auxiliaries, leaving him to seek out the Loyalist Faction and build an alliance.

• Inquisitor Thraxol assigned Li Qinwu the ground campaign and asked him to capture rebel commanders, especially Shan Shui, while the Imperial fleet pursued the T'au in space.
• Li Qinwu returned to his warships and took stock of his troops, vehicles, Knights, Skitarii, and aircraft before deciding his forces were too few to conquer the planet alone.
• Li Qinwu gathered his staff officers aboard the Golden Road and asked them to devise a plan.
• Father Busi presented a communications-based map showing most of Water Blue Star marked as hostile and explained that many messages mentioned Gue'vesa.
• Li Qinwu realized the T'au had formed armed auxiliaries from the planet's human population and concluded he needed to join forces with the Loyalists.

Li Qinwu assessed the loyal forces in Hive City 2 and prepared to take command of the planet’s armies, while considering artillery and a Space Elevator for his homeworld. After arriving in Hive City 2, he challenged Duke Yote’s inherited status and demanded intelligence on the T'au infiltration instead of attending a banquet.

• Busi briefed Li Qinwu on Hive City 2’s population, loyalty, and requests for him to command its forces.
• Li Qinwu ordered his officers to prepare for battle and told Rudosen to identify what their forces lacked; Rudosen recommended heavy artillery.
• Li Qinwu decided to pursue independent artillery and shell production, then traveled by Space Elevator from the orbital station to Hive City 2.
• Duke Yote greeted Li Qinwu and declared his loyalty, but Li Qinwu questioned how he had earned his title.
• Li Qinwu dismissed the banquet and ordered Duke Yote to take him to the command headquarters to review intelligence on the T'au infiltration.

Li Qinwu reviewed the rebellion’s balance of power and ordered Duke Yote to capture the T'au diplomat Shan Shui before pursuing the Planetary Governor. He then went to inspect Hive City 2’s artillery production as he prepared for war.

• Li Qinwu learned from Duke Yote’s report that the T'au controlled most of Water Blue Star and had the support of roughly twenty-one billion people, while Hive City 2 and its surroundings remained loyal to the Imperium.
• Li Qinwu suspected Duke Yote had withheld information and secretly asked Little Knife to investigate the truth in Hive City 2’s underhive.
• Li Qinwu assessed Hive City 2’s eighty million PDF troops and industrial strength, then chose the secondary hive city where Shan Shui was stationed as his first target.
• Duke Yote said he could deploy three million troops by railway and capture the lightly defended city within half a month, and Li Qinwu promised him advancement if the rebellion was crushed.
• Li Qinwu asked whether the planet could mass-produce artillery, and Duke Yote led him to inspect the foundries.