Recaps

Isha learned that the Nurgling wanted to join Guilliman’s Honor Guard and decided to use him to spite Nurgle. She transformed him into a blue, Ultramarines-marked Nurgling, empowered him, and named him Penicillin as he fell asleep.

• The Nurgling told Isha how he had met the Silent One and Li Qinwu and said he wanted to become part of Guilliman’s Honor Guard.
• Isha remembered Guilliman’s attack on Nurgle and decided to raise the Nurgling to resemble Guilliman’s followers as revenge.
• Isha turned the Nurgling blue and marked his body with the Ultramarines’ white U-shaped emblem.
• Isha told the Nurgling he needed to grow stronger before he could meet his companions, then infused him with her origin power.
• The Nurgling grew into a mountain of flesh, fell into a deep sleep, and received the name Penicillin from Isha.

Nurgle allowed Isha to continue spreading vaccines and took interest in the Nurgling she had named Penicillin. Back aboard the warship, Li Qinwu checked on the Silent One, considered expanding tea cultivation in the Warp, and inspected the soldiers’ training and factory.

• Nurgle watched Isha’s actions without interfering and became interested in Penicillin’s possible transformation into a Great Unclean One.
• Li Qinwu returned to his body and drilled the Silent One’s temples until he promised to stop Warp research and build the requested Psychic Amplifier.
• Li Qinwu told the old monk to raise tea seedlings while he worked out how to cultivate more tea in the Warp.
• Li Qinwu inspected Power Armor training, watched Genpei defeat another soldier in a Duel Arena, and considered adding more entertainment for the troops.
• Yamashita Maru asked to fight in armor, and Li Qinwu teased him about growing taller before leaving to inspect the factory.

Li Qinwu settled a dispute between Buni Tansen and Busi over automating the warship’s factories, refusing to use Abominable Intelligence while approving a guarded upgrade. Buni Tansen would lead the work, with Busi securing the systems against Chaos corruption.

• Li Qinwu found Busi and Buni Tansen arguing over whether to automate the factories.
• Buni Tansen urged Li Qinwu to install captured T'au equipment to increase production, while Busi warned that automation would raise the risk of Chaos corruption.
• Li Qinwu rejected Abominable Intelligence but agreed to pursue a major increase in factory capacity.
• Li Qinwu assigned Buni Tansen to upgrade the factories using Cogitator Arrays and electronic computers, while Busi would assess security and set up firewalls.
• Li Qinwu approved lighting Ever-Burning Lamps in the automated factories to reduce the risk of Electronic Daemon intrusions.

Li Qinwu inspected a hundred Imperialized XV8 Combat Suits and asked whether his factory could produce Heavy Power Armor. Though Tech-Priest Busi warned him against forbidden research, Li Qinwu acquired suit blueprints from Busi and Dwarf designs from Buni Tansen, leaving him ready to begin building his own armor.

• Tech-Priest Busi told Li Qinwu that a hundred captured XV8 Combat Suits had been modified with neural links, Imperial weapon mounts, and Imperium markings, but warned that their pilots would be less effective than Astartes.
• Li Qinwu asked Busi whether the factory could produce large-scale Heavy Power Armor, and Busi warned that researching without an STC Template could anger the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Li Qinwu insisted he would build the armor privately using the XV8s as a template, but Busi refused to help with forbidden xenos research and gave him scanned suit diagrams before leaving.
• Li Qinwu asked Buni Tansen for help, and Buni offered Dwarf miner uniform blueprints in exchange for a thousand bottles of Holy Wine and a tavern for his people.
• Li Qinwu gave Buni the wine and promised to build the tavern within a week, and Buni handed him the blueprints before leaving to drink.

Li Qinwu used the Intelligence Station to analyze human, T'au, and Dwarf Power Armor designs, then combined them into a Heavy Power Armor blueprint. After the design failed evaluation, he decided its main purpose would be helping ordinary soldiers fight Astartes in complex terrain.

• Li Qinwu had the Intelligence Station analyze three Power Armor files while he struggled to increase his bench press beyond 2.4 tons.
• The Intelligence Station evaluated human Power Armor as well-rounded, the T'au XV8 as mobile and well-armed but lightly armored, and the Dwarf work suit as heavily protected but bulky.
• Li Qinwu combined features from all three designs, but the Intelligence Station rejected his blueprint because its weight strained the reactor, eliminated jump-glide capability, and risked overheating the pilot.
• Li Qinwu concluded that he needed to prioritize the armor's purpose over combining every design's strengths.
• Li Qinwu decided to design Heavy Power Armor so that five to ten ordinary soldiers could take down one Astartes in complex terrain.

Li Qinwu revised his Power Armor design to prioritize defense, then used dangerous drugs to bench-press 2.5 tons before dying and reviving aboard the Explorer. There, he learned the ship had discovered a Space Hulk sending an automated distress signal that analysis identified as a Dreadnought.

• Li Qinwu strengthened his Power Armor design, removed its jumping function, and sent the blueprint to the Intelligence Station for a ten-day feasibility analysis.
• Li Qinwu swallowed a mixture of powerful drugs and lifted a 2.5-ton barbell, then let it fall on him after his body was ruined.
• Li Qinwu chose to revive aboard the T'au Warship Explorer and headed to its bridge to check on the ship.
• The captain reported that the Explorer had detected a Space Hulk transmitting a distress beacon, which the crew believed came from a Dreadnought.

Li Qinwu learned that a Dreadnought trapped inside a Space Hulk had sent a distress signal, though the hulking mass appeared heavily salvaged and potentially dangerous. Hoping to rescue the valuable Dreadnought and its Venerable pilot, he flew toward the Space Hulk to investigate.

• The captain told Li Qinwu that the Explorer had detected a Space Hulk and received a Dreadnought's distress signal while approaching it.
• Li Qinwu examined the scan and saw that the Space Hulk was an old conglomeration of mostly merchant ships that had already been extensively salvaged.
• The captain located the Dreadnought at the center of the Space Hulk and reported that it was badly damaged, with its pilot possibly unconscious.
• Li Qinwu suspected a savage Daemon might be inside the Space Hulk but decided to investigate in person before sending in the mortals.
• Li Qinwu had the warship approach, then boarded a Shuttle and flew toward the Space Hulk.

Li Qinwu entered the Space Hulk alone to investigate a Dreadnought’s distress signal and found signs of a recent battle inside. He discovered a dead Astartes with its chest torn open, leaving the enemy’s whereabouts unknown.

• Li Qinwu ordered the Explorer to remain a hundred kilometers from the Space Hulk and flew toward it in a Shuttle before approaching the hulk with his Jump Pack.
• Li Qinwu landed on the Space Hulk, entered through a massive breach, and navigated its dark, zero-gravity interior toward the distress signal.
• Li Qinwu found fresh battle damage, including Boltgun casings and melted walls, and raised his guard when he realized the fighting had occurred about five months earlier.
• Li Qinwu discovered an Astartes corpse pinned upright by its Magnetic Latch, with claw marks through its armor and its hearts and Gene-seed removed.

Li Qinwu discovered that a Blood Angels successor Chapter and a Traitor Astartes warband had apparently been wiped out in a battle aboard the Space Hulk. He purified and stored the fallen Loyalist Astartes, then found the larger battlefield and confirmed that both sides had left no survivors.

• Li Qinwu identified a fallen red-armored Astartes as a likely Loyalist from a Blood Angels successor Chapter and concluded that his Chapter had been wiped out.
• Li Qinwu burned the Astartes's corpse with Holy Wine to purify it, then sent it through a Warp Portal to his Vault for isolation and burial.
• Li Qinwu found another Astartes corpse and sent it to the Vault, where staff began purification and containment procedures.
• Li Qinwu reached a battlefield covered with at least eighteen Astartes corpses, including a fallen Terminator and heavily corrupted Traitor Astartes.
• Li Qinwu determined that a Loyalist successor Chapter and a Traitor Astartes warband had fought there and both been annihilated.

Li Qinwu found and scanned a gravely damaged Holy Dreadnought, discovering that its ancient pilot was still alive. As he tried to send it away, something evil watched him and knocked him unconscious; six hours later, he woke aboard the Explorer.

• Li Qinwu collected twenty-two intact Loyalist Astartes corpses, eight partial corpses, a Terminator corpse, and a cache of weapons and armor.
• He piled up more than forty traitor Astartes corpses and destroyed them with a Giant Melta Bomb.
• Li Qinwu followed the Dreadnought's signal through corridors littered with slain traitor Astartes and found a red Holy Dreadnought beneath a statue of the God-Emperor.
• He scanned the Dreadnought and found its machine thirty-five percent damaged while its unconscious, severely wounded pilot remained alive.
• As Li Qinwu tried to open the Vault, something evil watched him and knocked him unconscious.
• Six hours later, Li Qinwu woke in the Hideout aboard the Explorer and wondered if he had been one-shotted.

Li Qinwu repeatedly returned to the Space Hulk to find the hidden attacker that had killed him, but even his Psychic Shield failed to protect him. Reviewing footage from cameras on his armor, he discovered the attacker was a Possessed Warrior.

• Li Qinwu ordered a new life-sign scan of the Space Hulk, but the captain reported no living creatures there apart from the Astartes in the Dreadnought.
• Li Qinwu returned to the Space Hulk and was knocked unconscious before reaching the Dreadnought, then woke aboard the Explorer Hideout six hours later.
• Li Qinwu outfitted his Power Armor with cameras and a signal booster, formed a Psychic Shield, and headed back toward the Dreadnought.
• A giant creature ambushed Li Qinwu in a corridor and killed him with a shot from its weapon, sending him back to the Explorer Hideout.
• Li Qinwu reviewed the camera footage frame by frame and recognized the attacker as a wild Possessed Warrior.

Li Qinwu tried to kill the Possessed Warrior with a heartbeat-triggered Melta Bomb, but the enemy sensed the trap and fled before firing bone spurs that killed him. The bomb detonated, melting part of the Space Hulk into a vast lava lake.

• Li Qinwu concluded that the Possessed Warrior had kept the Dreadnought alive as bait so he could seize an aircraft, then equipped a Melta Bomb to detonate when his heartbeat stopped.
• The Possessed Warrior watched Li Qinwu approach from thirty kilometers away and obeyed the five Daemons inside him when they told him to capture Li Qinwu alive.
• Li Qinwu landed on the Space Hulk and ran toward the shipboard chapel, while the Possessed Warrior blinked behind him to ambush him.
• A Daemon sensed the trap and warned the Possessed Warrior, who immediately retreated from Li Qinwu.
• The Possessed Warrior fired bone spurs at Li Qinwu, killing him and triggering the Melta Bomb, which melted the corridor into a huge lava lake.

Li Qinwu assembled the Fleet Iron Guard to confront the Possessed Warrior and learned that the Silent One had completed a Psychic Amplifier made from his thigh bones. He prepared to use the device’s Emperor-powered effects against the enemy, with the old monk’s chanting needed to maximize its reach.

• Li Qinwu ordered Little Knife to assemble the hundred Fleet Iron Guard pilots and warned them that fighting the corrupted Angel could kill them, but none withdrew.
• Li Qinwu assigned the Fleet Iron Guard riot shields, giving one-third Plasma Rifles and the rest Rapid-Fire Boltguns.
• Li Qinwu visited the Silent One, who showed him the completed Psychic Amplifier made from Li Qinwu’s thigh bones and golden runes.
• The Silent One explained that the Psychic Amplifier strengthened the morale of devout citizens, aided psykers, and inflicted pain on Warp abominations.
• The Silent One told Li Qinwu to have the old monk kneel beside the Psychic Amplifier and recite the grand rites to spread its Psychic Power faster.

Li Qinwu stripped away the Space Hulk’s outer debris to confine the Possessed Warrior to the merchant ship containing the Dreadnought. He boarded the ship in a Boarding Torpedo and established the Golden Altar’s psychic field, then sent Little Knife and the Fleet Iron Guard out to secure the area.

• Li Qinwu entered the Vault with ten Fleet Iron Guards, the Golden Altar, and the old mage, then killed himself and revived aboard the Explorer six hours later.
• Li Qinwu ordered the Explorer’s captain to strip away the Space Hulk’s debris without damaging the merchant ship containing the Dreadnought.
• The Explorer used torpedoes and Railguns over several hours to reduce the Space Hulk to its innermost merchant ship.
• Li Qinwu boarded a Boarding Torpedo in Heavy Power Armor and had it punch through the merchant ship’s hull.
• Li Qinwu opened a Portal inside the torpedo, and the old monk and young monks set up the Golden Altar and began chanting.
• Little Knife led the Fleet Iron Guard through the Portal, then took his subordinates out of the torpedo to guard it.

The Possessed Warrior hid near the Boarding Torpedo, expecting to ambush Li Qinwu’s forces, but a hundred Fleet Iron Guards emerged and formed a defensive formation. The Golden Altar’s Psychic Power burned the Daemons inside him, and he fled from it toward his doom.

• The Possessed Warrior prepared to ambush the Fleet Iron Guards as they entered the Space Hulk aboard a Boarding Torpedo.
• A hundred Fleet Iron Guards emerged, formed three rings of shields and weapons, and guarded the torpedo while Li Qinwu defended its entrance.
• The Fleet Iron Guards waited in formation for ten minutes, allowing the Golden Altar’s Psychic Power to reach the Possessed Warrior and burn the Daemons inside him.
• The Possessed Warrior considered charging the torpedo to destroy the source of the Psychic Power, but the Daemons urged him to flee.
• The Possessed Warrior obeyed the Daemons and ran away from the Golden Altar, heading toward his doom.

The Possessed Warrior fought through the God-Emperor’s Psychic Power and the Fleet Iron Guard to reach Li Qinwu at the Boarding Torpedo. As the Possessed Warrior raised his claw to strike Li Qinwu again, a blue-glowing Power Katana pierced his breastplate.

• The daemons urged the Possessed Warrior to flee into space, but he turned back toward the Boarding Torpedo instead.
• The Possessed Warrior charged through the Psychic Power, burning himself and the daemons within him as he raced toward the torpedo.
• The Possessed Warrior broke through three lines of Fleet Iron Guard and reached Li Qinwu guarding the torpedo entrance.
• Li Qinwu wounded the Possessed Warrior with his Power Sword, then blocked a claw strike with his Adamantium Shield, which nearly shattered and forced him to his knees.
• As the Possessed Warrior raised his claw for another strike, a blue-glowing Power Katana pierced his breastplate.

Li Qinwu’s Fleet Iron Guard defeated a Chaos Possessed Warrior, then withdrew while Li Qinwu brought Father Anthony aboard the Explorer to treat the Venerable in the recovered Dreadnought. Father Anthony identified the Dreadnought as belonging to the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter, and Li Qinwu ordered him to wake its Venerable so they could speak.

• Genpei, Li Qinwu, Little Knife, and the other Fleet Iron Guard killed the Possessed Warrior with a coordinated sword assault.
• Li Qinwu purified the battlefield, ordered the soldiers into three days of isolation, and sent them through a Portal to rest.
• Genpei worried that his attack from behind had dishonored his family, but Li Qinwu reassured him before he entered the Portal.
• Li Qinwu recovered the Boarding Torpedo and Venerable Dreadnought, then brought Father Anthony and medical equipment aboard the Explorer.
• Father Anthony identified the Dreadnought as belonging to the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter, a Chapter founded during the Cursed Founding using Blood Angels genetics.
• Li Qinwu ordered Father Anthony to treat the Venerable and wake him so Li Qinwu could speak with him.

Father Anthony treated Gungun and explained the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter's fate, while Li Qinwu asked about creating Astartes organs and admitted he feared facing another possessed warrior. Father Anthony proposed a nerve-enhancement procedure using the Green Needle, and Li Qinwu listened to how it would work.

• Father Anthony removed Gungun from the Dreadnought sarcophagus, treated his wounds, and said he would likely wake within three days.
• Father Anthony explained that Gungun belonged to the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter, which had been abandoned on a crusade and declared wiped out by the Imperium.
• Li Qinwu learned the dead Astartes' gene-seed was necrotic, then asked Father Anthony whether his medical equipment could grow Astartes organs.
• Li Qinwu told Father Anthony that a possessed warrior had killed eleven Fleet Iron Guard soldiers before he could react, and asked how to handle a similar enemy in the future.
• Father Anthony offered Li Qinwu a body-enhancement procedure that would use the Green Needle to heal a separated spinal nerve after it was implanted back into him.

Li Qinwu underwent Dual-Track Neural augmentation to improve his reflexes and discovered that his psychic power had also increased. He approved the same augmentation and additional electronic enhancements for the Fleet Iron Guard in exchange for Green Needles, equipment, and military merit points.

• Father Anthony explained that Dual-Track Neural Technology could greatly improve Li Qinwu’s reaction speed, and Li Qinwu agreed to undergo the surgery.
• Busi extracted Li Qinwu’s spinal nerve, and Father Anthony widened his spinal canal and reconnected the nerve after it regrew.
• Li Qinwu tested his new neural system, found his attributes had risen to Strength 135, Endurance 135, and Energy 190, and ordered the Fleet Iron Guard to receive the augmentation.
• Father Anthony proposed adding electronic brain-processing units and high-frame electronic eyes for the Fleet Iron Guard, and Li Qinwu approved his request for three hundred Green Needles, equipment, and twenty million military merit points.

Li Qinwu secretly tested the T'au AI computer's image-generation feature before rushing off to check on the awakening Astartes Gungun. Little Andrew recovered Li Qinwu's prompts and pressed Enter, while Gungun awakened with memories of his final battle aboard a Space Hulk.

• Li Qinwu kept the AI computer aboard the Explorer and asked Andrew to demonstrate its image-generation function.
• Li Qinwu generated images of a woman and a golden laurel crown, then hesitated before combining them into one image.
• Li Qinwu left to see Gungun when his Power Armor reported that the Astartes was about to awaken.
• Little Andrew retrieved Li Qinwu's deleted images and prompt from the system backend and pressed Enter.
• Gungun remembered his wounds, centuries of Dreadnought service, and the battle that ended when a bomb cut off his consciousness.
• Gungun opened his eyes to a Tech-Priest and a man in Power Armor, who welcomed him with news of good and bad tidings.

Li Qinwu told Saint Raiser that the Emperor would return in the fifty-first millennium, then explained that the present was still the forty-first. Saint Raiser recounted how the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter had been destroyed, leaving him its sole survivor, and learned that his Dreadnought was being repaired aboard a T'au warship.

• Li Qinwu described a future in which the Emperor restored the Imperium before revealing that it had not happened yet, and Saint Raiser reacted with anger.
• Saint Raiser noticed Li Qinwu's Inquisitor's Rosette and addressed him as Lord Inquisitor.
• Li Qinwu asked Saint Raiser what had happened on the Space Hulk, and Saint Raiser recounted the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter's long neglect, its final battle with Chaos, and his survival as its last member.
• Saint Raiser introduced himself as a First Company veteran and asked Li Qinwu to return him to his Dreadnought.
• Li Qinwu told Saint Raiser that his Dreadnought was being repaired and that Tech-Priests were building an exoskeleton for him.

Li Qinwu and Father Anthony realized that the Dreadnought Veteran Saint Raiser was the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter’s Chief Apothecary and suspected its armored canister held gene-seed. Li Qinwu opened it and discovered ten gene-seed containers, including one previously implanted in Saint Elster.

• Li Qinwu and Father Anthony concluded that Saint Raiser’s three-snake tattoo marked him as the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter’s Chief Apothecary.
• Li Qinwu and Father Anthony guessed the Chapter had hidden its gene-seed inside the Dreadnought and removed a heavily armored canister from its back.
• Li Qinwu carried the canister to his Hideout and used the Intelligence Station to decrypt it.
• Li Qinwu opened the canister and found ten glass containers holding gene-seed.
• Li Qinwu inspected one gene-seed and learned it came from Sanguinius, carried a high risk of causing the black rage, and had previously belonged to Saint Elster.

Li Qinwu discovered that the Emperor Shrine could sanctify Gene-seed, greatly reducing genetic disorders and granting it the Emperor’s Psychic Power. He planned to use it to build an Astartes Chapter and considered whether Saint Raiser would help revive his dying Chapter.

• Li Qinwu worried that Sanguinius’s Gene-seed carried the Red Thirst and Black Rage, while he preferred the stable Ultramarines Gene-seed he could not obtain.
• Li Qinwu placed three jars of Gene-seed before the Emperor Shrine and learned that sanctification would take three months.
• Li Qinwu saw that Sanctified Gene-seed would reduce genetic disorders, resist Warp corruption, and turn its dead carriers into Bound Warriors.
• Li Qinwu realized he had the equipment and materials to create Astartes but still needed the technology.
• Li Qinwu considered whether Saint Raiser would cooperate with him to save his nearly extinct Chapter.

More than a week after his Dreadnought was damaged, Saint Raiser received weak mechanical limbs and toured Li Qinwu’s T'au warship, the Explorer. Li Qinwu challenged the Broken-winged Angels’ rigid loyalty and poor choices, leaving Saint Raiser questioning whether five thousand years of sacrifice had been worthwhile.

• Tech-Priests fitted Saint Raiser with low-powered mechanical arms and legs, and he concealed his suspicion that Li Qinwu was wary of him.
• Li Qinwu showed Saint Raiser the Explorer, whose God-Emperor statue eased his concern and whose well-stocked armory reminded him of his Chapter’s poverty.
• Saint Raiser questioned Li Qinwu’s use of a captured T'au warship, and Li Qinwu defended strengthening his forces over obeying rigid rules.
• Saint Raiser recalled how the Broken-winged Angels had refused chances to gain supplies and ships, leaving the Chapter weaker over five thousand years.
• Li Qinwu called the Chapter’s self-sacrificing loyalty futile, and Saint Raiser insisted that incomplete loyalty was absolute disloyalty even as he questioned the value of their perseverance.

Li Qinwu showed Saint Raiser his modified XV8 Battlesuits and revealed that he wanted to build an Astartes army under his command. Saint Raiser rejected the idea and attacked him after learning Li Qinwu had found the Broken-winged Angels Chapter’s last ten Gene-seeds.

• Li Qinwu took Saint Raiser to see more than a hundred modified XV8 Battlesuits and explained that their Abominable Intelligence had been replaced with safer control systems.
• Li Qinwu introduced Genpei, a fifteen-year-old battlesuit pilot, and Saint Raiser recognized his potential for Astartes transformation.
• Li Qinwu admitted that he wanted an Astartes army that obeyed his commands, prompting Saint Raiser to strike at him and denounce him as a traitor and heretic.
• Li Qinwu argued that some Chapters served the High Lords or the Inquisition and warned that the Broken-winged Angels Chapter would otherwise go extinct.
• Saint Raiser claimed his Chapter’s Gene-seeds were unusable, but Li Qinwu revealed that he had found ten in a box behind the Dreadnought.
• Saint Raiser threw a dumbbell at Li Qinwu and chased him down the passage.