Recaps

You He questioned a boatman about the attackers and learned that locals called the mountain-dwelling beggars “Emperor’s Warriors.” As his force approached the nature reserve through an approaching storm, the forest ambushed them with a fierce laser barrage, leaving You He’s mission under fire.

• You He questioned the boatman, who said the supposed attackers were old beggars living in the mountains and that they had killed T'au officials with red-beam weapons, but no humans.
• The boatman recalled his grandfather calling the beggars “Emperor’s Warriors,” though he did not know what the phrase meant.
• As dark storm clouds gathered, the boatman warned You He that the storm would isolate the landing zone, but You He ordered the mission to continue.
• A sudden laser barrage erupted from the forest and struck the speedboats, killing You He’s adjutant and injuring or killing human auxiliaries.
• You He shouted for his troops to return fire against enemy positions to the north.

You He led the Human Auxiliary Army survivors from a disastrous river landing into the forest to pursue their attackers. Rain and hidden mines left them exposed to a deadly ambush, and the chapter ended with You He firing back as the forest filled with gunfire.

• You He forced the frightened boatman to steer toward shore, but a rocket overturned their boat before it could land.
• You He reached shore with Little Good’s help and found that barely over a hundred of the more than three hundred soldiers had survived.
• You He rallied the survivors and led them into the forest after the withdrawing enemy, leaving the boatman behind.
• A thunderstorm obscured their view and threatened to erase the enemy’s tracks as You He’s troops searched without proper scanning equipment.
• A soldier triggered a landmine, and the enemy opened fire with precise lasers and a heavy machine gun.
• You He ordered his soldiers to get down and fired his Pulse Rifle into the forest as the battle intensified.

You He’s troops killed two elderly fighters and discovered that one carried a well-maintained, standardized Lasrifle, raising questions about the supposed terrorists. After Squad Two engaged the enemy’s main force, You He ordered his squads to surround them and rushed to attack from behind.

• You He pursued retreating fighters through the forest, but they vanished into the rain and darkness.
• You He’s soldiers found two dead elderly men wearing deteriorated armor and carrying a Lasrifle.
• You He recognized the weapon as a standardized military rifle and wondered why the old men had fought the T'au in the wilderness.
• Squad Two reported that it was under attack by heavy enemy fire, and You He realized it had blocked the fighters’ escape route.
• You He ordered Squad Two to hold the enemy while Squad Three joined him and Squad One to surround them.
• You He led Squad One through the muddy forest toward the gunfire and ordered his troops to attack the fighters from behind.

You He’s First Squad joined Second Squad in fighting the terrorists, but the enemy launched a suicidal charge after Third Squad’s reinforcements helped surround them. The chapter left You He and nearby soldiers facing an old terrorist detonating a bomb beside them.

• You He ambushed the terrorists from behind, and they turned their heavy weapons on First Squad.
• Third Squad arrived from the northwest, forcing the terrorists to divide their fire; You He called on them to surrender when their shooting stopped.
• A thunderclap blinded You He’s visor, allowing elderly terrorists to approach before launching a charge for the God-Emperor.
• The old men kept charging despite their wounds, and one detonated a bomb that destroyed several soldiers and the surrounding trees.
• Another bomb-carrying old man charged into the mud beside You He and four or five soldiers, shouted for the God-Emperor, and triggered an explosion.

You He survived a near-fatal attack by a mad old man after Little Good shot the attacker, but the old man’s final reaction to seeing You He’s face left him with unanswered questions. You He secretly took the dead man’s Bolt Pistol.

• You He woke beside the crater left by a Melta Bomb and found the fighting had stopped, with charred soldiers scattered nearby.
• A mad old man in a peaked cap killed a soldier and attacked You He with a Chainsword, pinning him down after destroying his Pulse Rifle.
• Little Good and the Bee Drones shot the old man with a Twin-linked Pulse Gun, splitting his body in half and saving You He.
• The old man survived long enough to aim an empty Bolt Pistol at You He, then froze when he saw You’s face and died after a final sigh.
• You He picked up the Bolt Pistol, noticed its Imperial Aquila and unfamiliar writing, and hid it in his personal storage compartment.

You He received a promotion and command of 10,000 upgraded soldiers after losing nearly 200 troops to 50 elderly opponents, leaving him questioning what mattered to the T'au. Meanwhile, Li Qinwu arrived at Sweet Star and learned that the T'au had spent decades taking over the planet, prompting resistance from the local PDF.

• You He discovered that the force he had fought consisted of only 50 elderly men, who had killed nearly 200 of his troops.
• Flameburst Commander praised You He, promoted him, and expanded his command to 10,000 soldiers with T'au-equivalent equipment and Bee Drones.
• You He questioned why his costly operation had been rewarded, but Flameburst Commander told him to prepare for a promotion ceremony.
• Li Qinwu arrived at Sweet Star and reviewed intelligence describing the planet's decades-long Tau-ification.
• Li Qinwu learned that local officials had enabled the T'au takeover while military leaders disarmed the traditional PDF and cultivated pro-T'au forces.
• Some PDF troops recognized the infiltration and began an armed resistance.

Li Qinwu learned that the T'au had crushed Sweet Star’s resistance, killed millions, and reshaped the planet over generations, leaving him unsure how to save it. With four T'au Protector-class Battleships watching his fleet, he ordered his ships into a hidden asteroid belt and commanded that the Eldar Solar Sail be installed on the Fortune.

• The T'au massacred Sweet Star’s planetwide resistance, killed nearly fifty million Imperial citizens, and imprisoned over a hundred million in concentration camps.
• Sixty years after colonization, Li Qinwu read the Intelligence Station’s report and realized that generations of Sweet Star’s people had grown up under T'au rule.
• Li Qinwu considered Exterminatus and condemned the T'au for leaving the Imperium to deal with planets they had transformed and could not hold.
• The captain warned Li Qinwu that four T'au Protector-class Battleships had detected his fleet and were watching its movements.
• Li Qinwu ordered the fleet to hide in a dense asteroid belt and instructed the crew to install the Eldar Solar Sail on the Fortune.

Li Qinwu hid his fleet in the Asteroid Belt and began refitting the Fortune with Solar Sails to pursue the T'au. After promising the grieving captain command of a battleship, Li Qinwu agreed to take a call from Sweet Star's Planetary Governor.

• Li Qinwu ordered the fleet into the Asteroid Belt, then told the Mine Snail to smelt a massive steel block for a possible makeshift exterminatus weapon.
• Li Qinwu began refitting the Fortune to mount four Solar Sails and give the warship dual propulsion.
• Tech-Priests and tens of thousands of workers cut large openings through both sides of the Fortune's aft section, using Melta Bombs and the Golden Road's Lance to speed the work.
• The Fortune's captain wailed over the damage and tried to stop construction, so Li Qinwu promised him command of a battleship and made a pinky swear.
• The captain told Li Qinwu that Sweet Star's Planetary Governor was still trying to contact them, and Li Qinwu ordered him to put the call through.

Li Qinwu accepted Sweet Star's governor's invitation to visit the planet, while the T'au leaders debated why his fleet had arrived and whether to purge the planet's human remnants. The meeting ended with Flameburst Commander proposing to replace Shui Rou.

• The Planetary Governor invited Li Qinwu to inspect Sweet Star and offered him sugar as a gift.
• Li Qinwu agreed to visit the planet and warned the governor to take very good care of him.
• Flameburst Commander questioned why an Inquisitor's fleet had arrived and proposed purging supposed Imperial remnants.
• Shui Rou objected that the proposed purge would massacre their Vespid partners.
• Flameburst Commander mocked Shui Rou and proposed a vote to replace her as Water Caste representative.

The four councilors debated how to respond to an approaching Imperial fleet that could overwhelm their defenses. Shui Rou and Leitu opposed evacuating only a fraction of the population, leaving the council divided over the fate of eight million T'au.

• Shui Rou angrily challenged the Flameburst Commander for calling the Vespid tools, and Leitu defended the Vespid’s loyalty to her.
• Fengxi warned that the Inquisitor’s enormous fleet and super-battleship could easily defeat their four Protector Warships, which could evacuate only about two hundred thousand people.
• The Flameburst Commander proposed selecting two hundred thousand people for evacuation before the Inquisitor Fleet arrived and called for a vote.
• Shui Rou voted against abandoning the other eight million people, and Leitu immediately joined her objection.
• The Flameburst Commander resented Leitu’s automatic support for Shui Rou, which gave her an effective veto on the council.

Shui Rou persuaded the council to seek friendly contact with the Inquisitor rather than risk a war, and arranged for him to visit Sweet Star. Li Qinwu arrived and began inspecting the planet’s work.

• Shui Rou learned that the Inquisitor Fleet was hiding in the Asteroid Belt and argued that the T'au had time to negotiate before it could attack.
• The Flameburst Commander and Leitu objected to Shui Rou’s proposal, but she insisted that the Greater Good could win the humans over.
• The Flameburst Commander mocked Shui Rou about how she would invite the Inquisitor, then realized she intended to do it for real.
• Several days later, Sweet Star’s orbital gravity installations captured Li Qinwu’s Photon Dart and brought his passenger capsule to the space station.
• The Planetary Governor and local officials welcomed Li Qinwu, who dismissed their pleasantries and demanded to see their work.
• The Planetary Governor escorted Li Qinwu into the Space Elevator for his inspection of Sweet Star.

Li Qinwu toured the planet’s sugarcane fields and automated Factory while the council members watched, hoping to win his approval and preserve their rule. After Li Qinwu challenged the governor’s claims about the Factory’s wastewater, Shui Rou ordered the governor to show him the treatment plant.

• The planetary governor showed Li Qinwu sugarcane fields where drones sprayed crops while farmers still harvested by hand, explaining that manual work preserved jobs for uneducated farmers.
• Shui Rou took Li Qinwu’s nod as approval, while Commander Fireburst suspected a trap and proposed taking Li Qinwu hostage; Leitu’s analysis said Li Qinwu genuinely approved of their treatment of farmers.
• Shui Rou ordered the planetary governor to take Li Qinwu to the automated Factory, where he showed him human engineers working in a T’au-style facility.
• The governor claimed the Factory reused its exhaust, heat, and wastewater, but Li Qinwu doubted that its treatment system could make industrial wastewater drinkable.
• Shui Rou ordered the governor to take Li Qinwu to the wastewater treatment plant and demonstrate its equipment.

Li Qinwu inspected the T'au wastewater treatment system and asked for a report on whether its environmental success could be replicated across human planets. Shui Rou decided to seek negotiations with him in person, and the council's vote remained divided.

• The Planetary Governor showed Li Qinwu the factory's wastewater treatment unit and drank a cup of its clear discharge water.
• Li Qinwu asked whether the treatment system could be replicated and whether it could restore heavily polluted planets, then requested a feasibility report.
• Shui Rou interpreted Li Qinwu's interest as an opportunity to spread the Greater Good and decided to negotiate with him herself.
• Leitu agreed with Shui Rou, while Commander Fengxi objected to her meeting the Inquisitor and urged her to send another diplomat.
• Shui Rou asked the Flameburst Commander for his vote.

Shui Rou met with Inquisitor Li Qinwu after the Planetary Governor introduced him to local foods and the T'au’s seaweed ramen. She argued that T'au cooperation and environmental technology could benefit polluted Imperial worlds, leaving Li Qinwu to consider her proposal.

• Flameburst Commander agreed that Shui Rou should try to win over Li Qinwu, hoping her efforts would restore the council’s balance of power.
• The Planetary Governor took Li Qinwu to a restaurant and served him local desserts and T'au seaweed ramen.
• Li Qinwu enjoyed the ramen and ordered the cultivation and production techniques copied for him.
• The Planetary Governor brought Shui Rou to Li Qinwu, who accused her of deceiving him and threatened to destroy Sweet Star.
• Shui Rou cited the planet’s increased sugar production and clean environment as evidence of T'au cooperation, then explained their factories and purification equipment.

Shui Rou tried to persuade Inquisitor Li Qinwu to cooperate by offering T'au industrial technology, and Li Qinwu made several demands, including a warship. The Four Councils reacted with alarm as Shui Rou explained that refusing could trigger an immediate attack.

• Shui Rou spent five hours explaining T'au pollution-control technology and offered Iron Lung manufacturing technology and technical staff to Li Qinwu.
• Li Qinwu rejected the idea that the T'au were simply helping humanity, then listened to Shui Rou argue that they could be allies against greater threats.
• Li Qinwu demanded one billion tons of refined white sugar and Iron Lung technology with replicable Factory blueprints, which Shui Rou agreed to provide.
• Li Qinwu’s third demand was a Protector-class Battleship, which Shui Rou disclosed to the Four Councils in a secret meeting.
• Fengxi and Fireburst opposed giving up a warship, while Leitu questioned Li Qinwu’s intentions.
• Shui Rou told the Four Councils that Li Qinwu would attack unless they showed sufficient sincerity by handing over one of their four warships.

Shui Rou urged the council to give the Inquisitor a Protector-class Battleship to prove the T'au were controllable and save the planet’s eight million people. Fengxi held the deciding vote, but feared both surrendering a battleship and facing defeat.

• Shui Rou argued that the Inquisitor’s demand for a battleship was a test of obedience and that compliance might persuade him to leave for more urgent conflicts.
• Fengxi refused to give up a battleship, while the Flameburst Commander threatened Shui Rou for proposing to surrender one of the fleet’s vital assets.
• Shui Rou said compliance could spare eight million people from abandonment, whereas evacuation could save only two hundred thousand, and Leitu voted in favor of her plan.
• The Flameburst Commander objected and prepared to arrest Li Qinwu and evacuate two hundred thousand people if Fengxi rejected the proposal.
• The council looked to Fengxi for the deciding vote as he struggled between protecting the fleet and fearing defeat.

Shui Rou persuaded Commander Fengxi to support surrendering one of the T'au warships by appealing to his fear of spending decades in space and to the duty of protecting the people on Sweet Star. Fengxi agreed, and the group began discussing how to hand a ship over to Li Qinwu.

• Fengxi weighed the prospect of fleeing aboard a warship for decades while Shui Rou reminded him that their ancestors had endured a seventy-year voyage.
• Shui Rou argued that they could not abandon Sweet Star's eight million residents when only two hundred thousand could escape, while Flameburst Commander mocked her proposal.
• Shui Rou presented Li Qinwu's diary as reassurance that he valued the people and government of Sweet Star.
• Fengxi agreed to surrender a warship, and Shui Rou declared the motion passed by three votes to one.
• Flameburst Commander protested that no respectable person kept a diary as the others discussed how to transfer a warship to Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu and the T'au arranged a cautious month-long exchange of white sugar, technology, and a disarmed Protector Warship, with Li Qinwu remaining on Sweet Star as a hostage. While touring Hive City, he accused the T'au of commemorating their conquest with Peace Square’s monument, prompting the Flameburst Commander to suspect he was hiding something and order him watched closely.

• Li Qinwu and the T'au agreed that his small Armed Merchant Ships would collect white sugar one at a time while a disarmed, uncrewed Protector Warship was prepared for delivery over the course of a month.
• Li Qinwu agreed to remain on Sweet Star as a hostage during the exchange and leave aboard the final sugar-carrying ship once the deal was complete.
• A human official showed Li Qinwu Peace Square, where Li Qinwu recognized the Peace Monument as a replacement for a statue of the God-Emperor and denounced it as a memorial to the T'au victory and invasion.
• The Flameburst Commander monitored Li Qinwu and wondered whether he was concealing a threat, then ordered the hidden XV25 Stealthsuit team to keep watch and restrain him if necessary.

Genpei, Yamashita Maru, and Little Andrew infiltrated the T'au-held planet to locate Imperium resistance forces and prepare to sabotage the Planetary Computer. They set out to hack a high-authority T'au enforcement bureau while Li Qinwu secretly prepared to overthrow the T'au in a month.

• Li Qinwu sent Genpei, Yamashita Maru, and Little Andrew on their first mission as an Astartes squad, tasking them with finding Imperium resistance forces and attempting to reach the Planetary Computer.
• The three recruits landed their stealth Shuttle in a primeval forest and began their infiltration in modified stealth armor.
• Genpei proposed that the squad find and hack a T'au enforcement bureau to uncover records of operations against suspected terrorists.
• Little Andrew used T'au communication signals to locate a first-level enforcement bureau and explained that its data could help them find the resistance.
• Li Qinwu planned to begin the campaign against the T'au after the Eldar Solar Sail was installed on the Fortune in one month.

Genpei and his companions infiltrated a T'au law enforcement bureau and discovered that the Imperium's resistance had been wiped out decades earlier. Little Andrew found a possible way to pursue both missions through You He, a powerful human auxiliary commander, and vowed he could turn him against the T'au.

• Genpei, Yamashita Maru, and Little Andrew killed a T'au officer, copied his identifying details, and used his clearance to enter the bureau's archive repository.
• Genpei killed the elderly archivist while Little Andrew connected to the archive computer and searched its records.
• Little Andrew learned that the T'au had destroyed the Imperium resistance and massacred nearly 50 million people, leaving surviving former loyalists under close monitoring and restrictions.
• Genpei abandoned the search for resistance organizations and ordered the team to focus on contacting the Planetary Computer.
• Little Andrew presented You He's file, explaining that he commanded 10,000 human soldiers and influenced the planet's 20 million Human Auxiliary Army personnel.
• Little Andrew rejected a report that You He had post-traumatic stress disorder and insisted he could turn him against the T'au.

Li Qinwu praised Sweet Star in his notebook while Little Andrew’s group hid a dead T'au archivist and took a mysterious tool. You He remained troubled by his past, spent his leave alone, and found a huge-caliber bullet beneath his foot at Peace Square.

• Li Qinwu ate T'au-style takoyaki and wrote that Sweet Star was peaceful, its people were genuinely happy, and its food was delicious.
• Little Andrew led Genpei and the others to hide the dead T'au archivist in a ventilation duct inside the evidence room.
• Little Andrew took an item he said could stir up the restless hearts of an entire planet.
• You He patrolled the Planetary Computer, contacted Shui Rou, and was turned down when he asked her on a date.
• You He spent his leave wandering the Hive City and found a huge-caliber bullet beneath his foot at Peace Square.

You He investigated the strange Bolt Round that fit his Bolt Pistol and returned to the nature reserve seeking answers. He reached the boatman's home to question the bedridden old man who had helped the terrorists.

• You He found a huge bullet at Peace Square, recognized its resemblance to his Bolt Pistol's ammunition, and confirmed that it fit the weapon.
• You He returned to the nature reserve, where he encountered again the boatman who had ferried him there before.
• The boatman explained that the company had replaced his boat after the previous one was destroyed, and You He asked to visit the battlefield again.
• You He remembered the boatman's old relative who had spoken an unfamiliar language and helped the terrorists, then followed the boatman to his home.
• The boatman said the old man was bedridden and barely able to communicate, and invited You He to ask him whatever he could.

You He discovered that the boatman’s family had lived in poverty for generations, then used his Bolt Pistol to briefly restore the boatman’s grandfather’s lucidity. The old man’s words were translated by Old Lu, who revealed that he recognized the weapon as a commissar’s gun and asked whether the commissar was dead.

• You He questioned the boatman about the town’s poverty, and the boatman said conditions had not changed in over sixty years.
• You He paid the boatman to take him to a nature reserve and asked to speak with his bedridden grandfather alone.
• You He placed his Bolt Pistol in the old man’s hand, and the old man suddenly became lucid and spoke in an unfamiliar dialect.
• The boatman called Old Lu, who recognized the dialect and conversed with the old man.
• Old Lu translated the old man’s question: how had the commissar’s gun come to be there, and was the commissar dead?

You He learned from the boatman's grandfather that Sweet Star had once belonged to the Imperium and that the T'au had gradually taken control of the planet. The grandfather recounted how the resistance uprising failed, leaving him alive because he had been away at sea.

• You He asked what political commissars and Xenos were, and the boatman's grandfather explained that the commissars had continued fighting the invaders.
• The grandfather described the Imperium and told You He that Sweet Star had once been loyal to the God-Emperor, shocking him because T'au textbooks gave a different account of the planet's history.
• The grandfather recalled serving in the PDF and said the T'au had killed loyal officials, replaced them with puppets, and weakened the planet's armed forces through the New Army Policy.
• The grandfather said he joined the resistance after the T'au began ruling openly, but a traitor exposed their planned uprising and the group was captured.
• The grandfather explained that he survived because his ship-piloting and intelligence duties had kept him at sea when the others were arrested.

Grandpa Boatman told You He that the T'au had massacred the resistance on Sweet Star and revealed that the commissar You He killed had fought for the Imperium for sixty years. You He rejected the revelation, but Grandpa Boatman accepted the blame for his generation's failure and left You He shaken.

• Grandpa Boatman told You He that the T'au had killed more than fifty million resistance members in concentration camps.
• You He denied the massacre and defended the T'au, so Grandpa Boatman asked whether he had killed the commissar who resisted for sixty years.
• You He remembered fighting the elderly soldiers in Thunderstorm Forest and realized the commissar had seen his human face before dying.
• You He accused Grandpa Boatman of lying and threatened to arrest him, prompting the boatman to plead for his grandfather.
• Grandpa Boatman calmly told You He that his generation had failed to protect the planet and give the next generation an Imperial education, leaving You He chilled and shaken.