Recaps

After his grandfather urged him to investigate the nature reserve, You He uncovered evidence that the T'au had massacred fifty million human resisters and buried them there. As he grieved over his role in killing the resisters’ descendants, three figures bearing the Imperial Aquila appeared before him.

• You He challenged his grandfather’s claims by defending T'au rule, but accepted the old man’s Bolt Pistol and rusty shovel after hearing his explanation.
• You He traveled with the boatman to the nature reserve and entered the forest alone to investigate the former terrorists’ camp.
• You He found a statue of the God-Emperor and dug around its tree until he unearthed more than a hundred decayed polymer garments, including children’s and infant clothes.
• You He realized the reserve was a mass grave where the T'au had massacred fifty million resistance fighters, and that he had killed the resisters’ descendants under Commander Fireburst’s orders.
• You He cried out in despair, then spotted three laser dots on his chest as three towering figures bearing the Imperial Aquila appeared before him.

You He learned that the Imperium had returned and planned to destroy Sweet Star because its population had been corrupted by the T'au. The chapter ended with Genpei revealing that You He had personally destroyed the planet’s last chance of being saved.

• You He asked the three giants who they were, and Little Andrew said they were the God-Emperor’s Angels and that the Imperium had returned.
• Genpei and Yamashita Maru explained that Imperial warships were heading for Sweet Star and that their vanguard had assessed the planet as nearly impossible to save.
• Little Andrew and Yamashita Maru said the Imperium would likely exterminate the planet’s 1.2 billion inhabitants to avoid losses against the T'au.
• Little Andrew reminded You He that he had been raised by the T'au and explained why the Imperium would reclaim its territory and punish those serving the Xenos.
• The three giants removed their helmets, and Genpei told You He that the vanguard had hoped to work with loyal resistance forces, but You He had led the army that wiped out Sweet Star’s last such force.
• You He asked whether he had personally destroyed the planet’s future.

Genpei and the others pressured You He to sabotage the Planetary Computer so the Imperium could reclaim Sweet Star without destroying it. Little Andrew described how the Imperium had restored his homeworld while leaving most of its daily life unchanged, giving You He some hope as he weighed the choice.

• Genpei told You He that a compassionate Inquisitor could decide Sweet Star's fate, and said You He had earned their trust by responding to the Bolt Pistol and Aquila Insignia.
• Genpei asked You He to insert a USB drive into the Planetary Computer, warning that failure could lead harsher Inquisitors to exterminate everyone on Sweet Star.
• You He accepted the drive but struggled between his loyalty to the T'au and the threat to the planet's twelve billion inhabitants.
• Yamashita Maru revealed that the Inquisitor Fleet was already heading for Sweet Star and that the T'au had detected it.
• Little Andrew told You He that he came from Water Blue Star, where his father had helped the Imperium reclaim the world, and said most things had remained as they were.

You He left with the USB drive while the others began their mission to assassinate T'au officials. As panic spread over the approaching Imperial battleship, the Four Councils argued over their failed dealings with the Inquisitor and learned that he had escaped and unleashed radiation soldiers in the Spire.

• You He departed with the USB drive, and Yamashita Maru questioned whether he would betray the T'au while Little Andrew said the Inquisitor's plans were already underway.
• Genpei and Little Andrew prepared to assassinate T'au officials, splitting up to target Shui Rou, Leitu, and Fengxi while leaving the guarded Fireburst alone.
• Little Andrew explained that Fireburst had secretly gathered 150,000 T'au elites near the space elevator to evacuate them when the Inquisitor attacked.
• A stealth Shuttle carried the team toward the Hive City as the T'au in the Upper Court panicked over a human super battleship expected to arrive within two days.
• During an emergency call, Fengxi blamed Shui Rou for giving the Imperium a battleship, while Shui Rou insisted the Inquisitor's apparent approval meant the attack was a misunderstanding.
• Fireburst revealed that the Inquisitor had smashed his way past T'au forces, opened a teleportation gate, and sent radiation soldiers into the Spire.

Flameburst Commander seized wartime control and ordered the evacuation as the Inquisitor's forces attacked the T'au. Cloaked assassins killed Shui Rou, Leitu, and Commander Fengxi, while the T'au evacuation and its research were devastated.

• Flameburst Commander showed the council the radiation attack, won approval for wartime command, and ordered the evacuation of 150,000 elites and the transfer of research and the Planetary Computer.
• Shui Rou mourned her belief that the Inquisitor had respected the Greater Good, then Genpei killed her with a Power Sword.
• Leitu boarded a Shuttle with more than a hundred scientists and research data, but Yamashita Maru's Eldar Nuclear Grenade destroyed the Shuttle and everyone aboard.
• Commander Fengxi rode the Space Elevator toward his warship, but Little Andrew shot and killed him with a sniper rifle.

Li Qinwu suddenly attacked the Space Elevator to prevent the T'au leaders from escaping before his warships arrived. As T'au Stealth Battlesuits moved to capture him, he used his psychic sight and Lightning Swords to kill two of their pilots.

• Li Qinwu entered the T'au-ruled Upper Court after Shui Rou agreed to let him visit.
• Li Qinwu spotted the Space Elevator and rushed toward it to block the T'au's escape route.
• The Flameburst Commander ordered XV25 Stealthsuits to capture Li Qinwu alive.
• Li Qinwu detected the approaching suits with psychic sight and struck two of them with Lightning Bolts, killing their pilots.

Li Qinwu used Psychic Power to conceal himself and destroy the XV25 Battlesuits attacking him in the T'au Spire district. After killing most of them with lightning, he pursued the survivors on the ground and crushed two pilots in their suits.

• Li Qinwu pierced two XV25 Battlesuits with Lightning Bolts, and the T'au pilots realized he was a Psyker and opened fire.
• Li Qinwu blocked the energy rounds with a Psychic Shield, concealed himself with Warp mist and a mirage, and attacked the Battlesuits with lightning.
• His Lightning Bolts destroyed Battlesuits whose reactor explosions killed and injured T'au civilians in the Spire district.
• Unable to detect Li Qinwu, the remaining XV25 pilots panicked and tried to escape, but he blew up two suits in midair with Lightning Swords.
• Li Qinwu landed on a fleeing XV25 Battlesuit and crushed its metal head with a Psychic Power-enhanced punch, killing the pilot.
• Li Qinwu repeated the attack on another XV25 Battlesuit, landing on its shoulder and crushing its head.

Li Qinwu stopped an XV25 Battlesuit pilot’s attempt to kill them both with a nuclear explosion, then redirected the detonation into a crowded T'au residential building. After surviving the blast, he flew toward the Space Elevator and attacked the T'au forces guarding it.

• The Flameburst Commander remotely activated the XV25 Battlesuit’s self-destruct sequence and ordered its pilot to charge Li Qinwu.
• Li Qinwu used Gravity Control to immobilize and crush the XV25 Battlesuit, then hurled it into a building housing nearly 150,000 T'au.
• The Battlesuit’s reactor exploded, destroying the building and causing widespread devastation in the Spire district while Li Qinwu sheltered behind another building.
• Li Qinwu flew toward the Space Elevator, where more than a hundred T'au infantry fired Rail Rifles at him.
• Li Qinwu scattered Psychic Blasts into the T'au forces, killing many and blasting others away.

Li Qinwu attacked the Space Elevator cargo terminal, then deployed Radiation Sappers to make it unusable and poison the surrounding area. As the T'au elite arrived to retake it, their commander detected lethal radiation and ordered his troops to fall back.

• Li Qinwu blasted through the cargo terminal wall and killed nearly a thousand T'au soldiers and civilians with Psychic Blasts.
• Li Qinwu opened a Portal and sent one hundred Radiation Sappers into the terminal to irradiate the Space Elevator and the nearby civilian districts.
• Li Qinwu used Soul Projection to sever his connection to his body and trigger the resurrection process.
• The Radiation Sappers spread around the cargo terminal and raised radiation levels to thousands of times normal, turning the Space Elevator into a Radiation Deadland.
• The Flameburst Commander's fifty thousand T'au troops arrived, but their frontline commander detected the radiation and ordered everyone to retreat.

The T'au forces were driven back by the Radiation Sappers as Flameburst Commander ordered a planetary last stand and arranged an evacuation. After an armored convoy carrying a decoy was destroyed by Yamashita Maru, Flameburst Commander headed for the Planetary Computer alone in a civilian car.

• The Radiation Sappers expanded the Radiation Zone, forcing T'au troops to retreat, and their radiation destroyed hundreds of drones.
• Flameburst Commander declared a planetary last-stand posture and ordered the T'au armed forces, auxiliaries, and militia to fight the invaders to the death.
• Flameburst Commander gave the warships one day to evacuate as many elites as possible, then ordered the Planetary Computer's combat AI caching protocol and evacuation.
• Flameburst Commander sent an elite guard wearing his battlesuit with an armored convoy toward the Planetary Computer facility.
• Yamashita Maru destroyed the convoy with five Nuclear Grenades, while Flameburst Commander escaped in civilian clothes.
• Flameburst Commander unlocked a T'au civilian's car and drove toward the Planetary Computer facility.

Flameburst Commander returned to the Planetary Computer storage site to activate the Ultimate Protocol and destroy Sweet Star rather than let it fall into enemy hands. He caught You He hesitating with a USB drive that could kill millions of T'au, cut him down, and took the drive as You He asked whether the T'au were truly invaders.

• Flameburst Commander traveled alone to the Planetary Computer facility and ordered the scientists to execute the Ultimate Protocol.
• Flameburst Commander entered the Planetary Computer operations area and found You He standing beside the computer with a USB drive.
• You He hesitated to insert the drive, weighing the lives of the T'au who had raised him against his uncertain loyalty to the Imperium.
• Flameburst Commander attacked You He by surprise and cut him in half with his Power Sword.
• Flameburst Commander took the USB drive from You He's severed hand and accused humans of betraying their allies.
• You He asked his teacher whether the T'au were really invaders, as the Angels had claimed.

As Flameburst Commander tortured the dying You He, he revealed that he had preserved Imperium resistance fighters in the nature reserves for his own amusement and planned to destroy the planet if the Imperium returned. You He drew a concealed Bolt Pistol and fired at the Planetary Computer.

• Flameburst Commander mocked You He and admitted he had sent him to kill the Imperium resistance fighters because he found it entertaining.
• Flameburst Commander explained that he had driven the resistance fighters into nature reserves to create a way for people to discover the planet’s hidden history.
• Flameburst Commander ordered the scientists to launch every nuclear warhead at population centers if the defending forces fell to eighty percent after the Inquisitor Fleet arrived.
• Flameburst Commander told You He that he had taken his Power Sword from a human officer and removed its markings.
• You He drew a concealed Bolt Pistol and fired at the Planetary Computer.

You He destroyed the T'au Planetary Computer before dying, while Li Qinwu used his psychic power to drive the Fortune toward Sweet Star at extreme speed. The ship was set to arrive in one day, leaving the T'au elite little time to evacuate before the coming battle.

• You He fired a bolt round into the Planetary Computer, destroying its central circuit board, and died murmuring, "For... the God-Emperor..."
• Li Qinwu resurrected aboard the Fortune and found that Eldar Solar Sails had been fitted to the warship, greatly increasing its speed.
• Li Qinwu entered the Solar Sail control room and used the Psychic Throne to power the sails beyond their normal limits.
• The Fortune's speed doubled again, and its captain ordered the crew to prepare for battle upon reaching Sweet Star in twenty-four hours.
• On Sweet Star, the destroyed Planetary Computer and radioactive Space Elevator disrupted the T'au evacuation, while the Fortune's faster arrival left their Shuttles too little time to escape.

As the human super-battleship closed in on Sweet Star, a T'au researcher refused evacuation so he could spend his final moments with his family. He kept the T'au Government’s population-reduction plan secret and shared a final drink with his family and the cloned squad officer.

• A T'au squad ordered the researcher to board the final evacuation Shuttle after learning the human super-battleship would arrive in one day.
• The researcher concluded that the T'au warships could not escape and chose to stay with his family, prompting the soldiers to abandon their mission and return to their own families.
• The squad officer stayed with the researcher because he had been grown in a test tube and had no family to return to.
• The researcher recalled the T'au Government’s secret plan to reduce the human population and increase the T'au population, but decided to take the secret to his grave.
• The researcher poured Sweet Star liquor for everyone, and his daughter complained that it tasted bitter rather than sweet.

As the T'au fleet abandoned the planet, panic and despair consumed the eight million T'au left behind. Aboard the Fortune, the captain used its extraordinary speed to ram and destroy one fleeing Protector-class Battleship, then ordered the pursuit of the other two.

• T'au civilians fought over Shuttles as armed soldiers evacuated their passengers, and the three warships eventually fled the system, leaving eight million T'au behind.
• The stranded T'au abandoned Flameburst Commander's call for total mobilization and descended into a self-destructive frenzy.
• The Fortune caught a fleeing Protector-class Battleship and split it in half with its Adamantium Ram.
• The Fortune's officers reported that the enemy ship was destroyed and that the Solar Sail had suffered at least 20% damage.
• The captain ordered the crew to ignore the Solar Sail damage, lock onto the next T'au warship, and continue the pursuit.

Fortune destroyed a second fleeing T'au warship with its adamantium ram, then pursued the last one while Li Qinwu used his flute to repair the badly damaged Solar Sails. The final T'au ship remained ahead, and Fortune was expected to catch it after three more days of pursuit.

• Fortune caught the second T'au warship, ignored its captain's plea to surrender, and rammed it in half, destroying it and its crew.
• Fortune's officers reported that debris had damaged the Solar Sail by more than 50%, and the captain ordered the ship to pursue the final T'au warship without ramming it.
• Fortune began a three-day pursuit of the last fleeing T'au warship, which was nearing Mandeville Point.
• Li Qinwu played the Master Bonesinger Flute for three days, raising the Solar Sails' repair progress from 50% to 53%.

The Fortune caught the last T'au Warship before it could reach the Mandeville Point and destroyed it with repeated broadsides and torpedoes. The T'au vessel was left in flames after its engines and defenses were wrecked.

• After three days of pursuit, the Fortune caught the last T'au Warship a day and a half from the Mandeville Point.
• The Fortune fired its forward Lance Cannon, but the T'au Warship's energy shield blocked the attacks.
• The Fortune slowed to match the T'au Warship's speed and brought its broadside guns to bear at close range.
• The Fortune overloaded the T'au Warship's shield, then blasted its hull with a second volley of Lances and Macro Cannons.
• The T'au captain tried to contact the Fortune, but the Fortune's captain cut him off and ordered more guns to fire.
• The Fortune launched ten torpedoes at the crippled T'au Warship, and they struck and exploded against its hull.

After the T'au fleet fled Sweet Star and the Planetary Computer was destroyed, Li Qinwu learned that Genpei and two other Astartes had rallied human forces and seized a southern Secondary Hive City. He sent officials and troops to establish Imperial rule, leaving them to prepare an advance on the T'au-held Main Hive City.

• Li Qinwu returned to Sweet Star and learned that T'au morale had collapsed, the Planetary Computer was destroyed, and human auxiliaries were beginning to turn against their rulers.
• The captain reported that Genpei and two other Astartes had seized a southern Secondary Hive City, rallied one million Human Auxiliary Army troops, and killed more than fifty thousand T'au officials.
• Genpei told Li Qinwu that the Astartes planned to infiltrate other Secondary Hive Cities and asked him to send Imperial officials to govern the city they had taken.
• Li Qinwu ordered officials to establish an Imperial Government in the southern city and sent three hundred thousand armed personnel to the planet.
• Within half a month, the officials had built a mature Imperial Government and begun recruiting ten million soldiers to take the Main Hive City within half a year.

The Imperium and the T'au divided Sweet Star between them before their armies clashed along the equator. Li Qinwu agreed to supply the planetary governor with basic weapons and armor while the planet's people fought to reclaim the north within six months.

• The T'au secured the northern hemisphere and thirty Secondary Hive Cities, while the Imperium took the south and thirty cities, then raised ten million PDF troops.
• Imperial PDF troops advanced north and fought the T'au-loyal Human Auxiliary Army, turning Sweet Star into a costly battlefield stalemate.
• Li Qinwu contacted the planetary governor and questioned why the war had stalled, offering to bombard the T'au or send in his own troops.
• The planetary governor insisted Sweet Star's people had to reclaim their homeland themselves and requested only Lasguns and Flak Armour.
• Li Qinwu promised to provide one million Lasrifles and one million sets of Flak Armour monthly, giving the governor six months to liberate the planet.

Li Qinwu’s Golden Road produced Lasguns and Flak Armour to equip the Imperium’s rapidly expanding PDF forces, which overwhelmed the T’au with human-wave tactics and pushed the battle line north. The chapter left both armies facing each other in trenches, while the former human auxiliaries and the PDF soldiers alike endured the psychological toll of the war.

• Li Qinwu’s Golden Road expanded its factories and produced up to forty thousand Lasguns and sets of Flak Armour each day.
• Shuttles delivered weapons and armour to the southern hemisphere, where the Imperium organized newly equipped PDF soldiers into light infantry regiments and sent them north.
• Across four months, the Imperium mobilized ten million men each month while the T’au’s monthly reinforcements dwindled, allowing the human forces to push north of the Equator.
• The T’au built trenches and fortifications five hundred li north of the Equator, and nearly fifty million PDF soldiers dug in opposite them.
• Human auxiliaries serving with the T’au and PDF soldiers in the Imperium’s trenches trembled with fear, while months of war changed the PDF soldiers’ faces into square shapes.

The planetary governor urged Sweet Star’s PDF to atone for surrendering the Imperium to the T’au, calling on them to fight for the humanity embodied by the God-Emperor. After six months of war, the Imperium’s human forces had become a grim army equipped mainly with Imperial weapons and armor.

• The planetary governor addressed hundreds of thousands of PDF soldiers, condemning officers who dismissed the Imperium’s devotion to the God-Emperor as superstition.
• He described the Imperium as a decaying corpse that humanity had fought to preserve for ten thousand years and demanded that the soldiers atone for abandoning it.
• PDF officers blew their whistles and ordered their troops to fix bayonets and charge the T’au positions across the equator.
• The war continued for six months as T’au weapons and uniforms dwindled and Lasrifles and Imperial Flak Armour became standard among the PDF.
• The PDF soldiers lost their easy smiles and grew grim-faced under the weight of the war and their species’ fate.

Li Qinwu returned to the Eldar Armory with Bruce Crocodile and searched its newly cleared ruins for the treasure hidden beneath the vegetation. They uncovered an ancient magic circle that explained how to summon a brother and sister entwined in love, leaving Li Qinwu with a way to awaken them if a crisis demanded it.

• Li Qinwu brought the enormous Bruce Crocodile back to the Crone World Factory, where Bruce explained that his body would reset after death while his soul and growth limit became stronger.
• Li Qinwu rode Bruce Crocodile over the ash-covered Eldar Armory, searching from the air for the items missing from its exploration progress.
• Li Qinwu spotted something beneath the ash at the Armory’s center and asked Bruce Crocodile to blow the debris away with his wings.
• Li Qinwu discovered a giant magic circle and read its Aeldari inscriptions, which described a brother and sister who could be summoned by singing their favorite song, Nightmoon Color Song.

Li Qinwu discovered that the Armory's remaining treasure was a Nether Knight and prepared to capture it for a Psychic Knight House for Troy. After laying mines, setting up a Plasma Cannon, and positioning Bruce Crocodile, he began singing to activate the array.

• Li Qinwu recognized the magic array's treasure as a Nether Knight and realized that singing its pilots' favorite song, "Nightmoon Color Song," would release it.
• Li Qinwu decided he could capture the Nether Knight and adapt it for his adopted son Troy, who had powerful Psychic Power.
• Li Qinwu opened a Portal, retrieved Melta Mines and a Plasma Cannon, then placed five mines around the array and positioned the cannon three hundred meters away.
• Li Qinwu told Bruce Crocodile to retreat and pin down the Nether Knight after it was injured, and Bruce Crocodile moved away and crouched in the dust.
• Li Qinwu stood outside the magic array and began singing to summon the Nether Knight.

Li Qinwu summoned a Nether Knight and crippled it with Melta Bombs, but the one-legged machine rebooted and attacked him. Bruce Crocodile intervened just as the Knight was about to crush Li Qinwu.

• Li Qinwu summoned the Nether Knight by singing “Nightmoon Color Song,” and it appeared atop the Melta Bombs.
• The five Melta Bombs exploded, melting away one of the Nether Knight’s legs while leaving the rest of its body intact.
• Li Qinwu fired a Plasma Cannon at the Knight, but it dodged the shot with a one-legged backflip that overturned the cannon emplacement.
• The Nether Knight’s sister’s soul awakened in the machine and charged after Li Qinwu as he ran toward the Plasma Cannon.
• Bruce Crocodile struck the Nether Knight in the waist and knocked it into the ash-covered vegetation before it could crush Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu and Bruce Crocodile fought the Nether Knight, sacrificing Bruce’s body to cripple the mech. The Nether Knight still stood with one leg and one arm missing, and Li Qinwu decided to call for backup.

• Bruce Crocodile tackled the Nether Knight, but its Wraith Sword cut him in half and then carved away more of his body.
• Li Qinwu fired a Plasma Cannon at the Nether Knight, but its Scatter Shield deflected the shot.
• Li Qinwu threw a Melta Bomb at the Scatter Shield, damaging the Nether Knight’s armor without disabling its left arm.
• The Nether Knight killed Bruce Crocodile’s body and attacked Li Qinwu, who narrowly dodged its Wraith Sword.
• Bruce Crocodile’s severed head bit the damaged gauntlet and detonated, blowing off the Nether Knight’s left arm.
• Li Qinwu saw the badly damaged Nether Knight still standing and decided to call for backup.