Recaps

After the war, Li Qinwu advised Sweet Star’s new government to keep useful T'au technology while gradually replacing T'au cultural influence, and his fleet departed once the planet was restored to local rule. The chapter ends with Sweet Star’s people rebuilding their Imperial identity and commemorating the liberation with an annual festival.

• Li Qinwu told the planetary governor to keep existing T'au buildings and technology, replace them gradually with Imperial styles, and mark the machines as inventions of the Iron Skull Archmagos.
• Li Qinwu’s fleet completed its resupply, offered generous discharge payments to crew members who settled on Sweet Star, and departed the system.
• Sweet Star’s military government restored order, promoted vigilance, and taught the history of the T'au’s fifty-year rule as the Lost Fifty Years.
• Over the following fifty years, Sweet Star’s people adopted Imperial clothing and buildings and shifted from speaking T'au to speaking Gothic.
• Sweet Star established Restoration Festival, when households ate fish and caviar and blew apart crocodile-shaped dolls stuffed with firecrackers.

Li Qinwu sent the newly crewed T'au Warship Mario into the Eldar Webway to chart a route to Macragge, hoping to support Titus's campaign and win Guilliman's favor. Sigurd confirmed that Li Qinwu had completed his three heresy investigations and unlocked the special mission Way of the Inquisitor, while a team was dispatched to retrieve Lucius.

• Li Qinwu converted the T'au Warship to manual control, named it Mario, and sent it with ten Navigators into the Eldar Webway to find a route to Macragge.
• Li Qinwu planned to use the route to bring troops and supplies to Titus's campaign to reclaim the Five Hundred Worlds and gain Guilliman's backing.
• Sigurd replied that a professional team would retrieve Lucius and told Li Qinwu to keep his warship in one place for at least half a year.
• Sigurd praised Li Qinwu's work on Savage World, Sweet Star, and Lucius, and said the retrieval team would bring him another mission.
• An Astropath delivered confirmation that Li Qinwu had completed all three heresy investigations, raised Sigurd's favorability to level one, and unlocked the special mission Way of the Inquisitor.

Li Qinwu gained the Noble Stud Group’s warship and fifteen thousand educated recruits, then turned his attention to Iron Shield Star, where a succession crisis had caused a devastating civil war. The rival princes and their leading nobles were killed at a banquet, leaving the factions blaming each other and the fighting unresolved.

• The Noble Stud Group rendezvoused with Li Qinwu and swore loyalty, adding a warship and fifteen thousand senior officers to his fleet.
• Li Qinwu considered how to conquer Iron Shield Star, a Knight World divided between two princes after the High King died without naming an heir.
• The elder prince received support from the Imperium, while the younger prince received support from the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their forces fought a prolonged war that destroyed hundreds of Knight Mechs and hundreds of thousands of tanks.
• Exhausted by the conflict, the princes and their leading nobles met for a banquet to seek a peaceful settlement.
• The elder prince, younger prince, and all the leading nobles at the banquet died, and both factions accused the other of starting the slaughter before continuing the war.

Li Qinwu tried to profit from Iron Shield Star’s civil war by disguising his ships as a merchant caravan and selling weapons to both factions. The Silver Shield Council sent an envoy to inspect the caravan’s factories, beginning with its Lasgun production plant.

• After discovering that he had no legal grounds to intervene in Iron Shield Star’s civil war, Li Qinwu decided to profit by offering weapons to both factions.
• Li Qinwu hid the Fortune and sent two groups of ships to separately offer mercenary services to the Silver Shield Council and the Flower Shield Council.
• When both factions refused outside mercenaries but offered to buy weapons with local goods, Li Qinwu ordered his subordinates to negotiate weapon sales.
• The Silver Shield Family sent an envoy to inspect the ships’ factories, so Li Qinwu disguised the Golden Road and the Mine Snail as a caravan and waited in orbit.
• Little Knife welcomed the envoy aboard the Golden Land and, following Li Qinwu’s directions, agreed to show him the Lasgun production plant.

Little Knife showed the Silver Shield Noble the Golden Road's Shipboard Factory, where the noble requested a shorter Lasrifle for his mechanized infantry. Li Qinwu quickly designed a Bullpup Short Rifle, and after testing its powerful shots, the noble asked about production and price.

• Little Knife took the Silver Shield Noble through the factory and showed him a Lasrifle, but the noble said it was too long for infantry riding in Chimera Transports.
• Li Qinwu recognized that the noble wanted a Bullpup Rifle and designed a compact 72-centimeter model with a 200-shot battery.
• Li Qinwu sent the blueprints to Busi, who machined a prototype in less than ten minutes.
• Little Knife brought the Silver Shield Noble to the firing range, where he tested the prototype and found that its shots pierced 20-millimeter steel plates.
• The Silver Shield Noble asked how many Bullpup Short Rifles the factory could produce and what they would cost.

Li Qinwu’s merchant caravan traded Bullpup Rifles to the Silver Shield Family for Pepper-Salt Fruit, and the weapons helped its forces battle the Flower Shield Family. A Flower Shield representative then arrived seeking tanks and armored vehicles, and Little Knife prepared to show him the caravan’s heavy equipment.

• Li Qinwu offered the Silver Shield Family 2,000 rifles per day in exchange for Pepper-Salt Fruit, and the Silver Shield Noble ordered two million rifles for a coordinate-based exchange.
• Busi modified the production line, and the Factory began producing and shipping Bullpup Rifles and other goods to the planet.
• The Silver Shield Family issued the rifles to its troops, who joined a mechanized assault against the Flower Shield Family’s forces.
• Li Qinwu’s caravan accumulated over fifty tons of Pepper-Salt Fruit as shipments continued during the fighting.
• A Flower Shield representative complained that the Silver Shield forces had gained an advantage from the rifles and asked to see the caravan’s tanks and armored vehicles.
• Little Knife recognized the Flower Shield representative as a major customer and invited him to inspect the available heavy equipment.

Little Knife showed a Flower Shield noble the Money-Only Caravan’s vehicle options, and the noble ordered weapons with council funds before negotiating a private commission. The noble left with ten Leman Russ tanks for his family army and promised to recommend the caravan to his friends.

• Little Knife showed the Flower Shield noble the Chimera Transport and Leman Russ configurations, and the noble placed a large order totaling 180 tonnes of Pepper-Salt Fruit.
• Little Knife and the Flower Shield noble signed a contract for the Money-Only Caravan to deliver the vehicles within two months.
• Li Qinwu told Little Knife to offer the noble a ten-percent commission, so Little Knife invited him to dinner and raised the subject over drinks.
• The Flower Shield noble asked for ten Leman Russ tanks bearing his family’s white lotus crest instead of the council insignia.
• Little Knife offered ten customized Standard Leman Russ tanks and gave the noble two bottles of Terra liquor.
• The noble praised Little Knife, urged him to start production, and promised to recommend the caravan to his friends.

Li Qinwu’s air-conditioned tanks delighted Iron Cavalry crews, prompting the Flower Shield Council to order five hundred thousand vehicle air conditioners. He agreed to make them and let Catwoman Nova organize the fleet’s crews to install them, sharing the Pepper-Salt Fruit earnings.

• Li Qinwu’s workers delivered tanks and armored vehicles whose improved interiors, transmissions, and air conditioning won over the Iron Cavalry.
• Iron Cavalry soldiers demanded air conditioning after desert heat killed crews in other tanks, and the Flower Shield Council ordered five hundred thousand units.
• Li Qinwu hesitated because installation across the planet would require skilled workers and extensive retrofitting.
• Catwoman Nova offered to handle installation with her people and the fleet’s Shuttles, splitting the payment with Li Qinwu and the technicians.
• Li Qinwu accepted Nova’s proposal and invited others in the fleet to join the installation work.

Catwoman Nova oversaw her technicians installing air conditioners in the Flower Shield Council’s tanks and armored vehicles while looking for more work. After learning the Council abandoned its destroyed vehicles because it lacked industry, she asked whether she could salvage the wrecks.

• Catwoman Nova organized the fleet’s technicians and Shuttles to distribute and install 100,000 air conditioners, with the profits divided among Li Qinwu, Nova, and the workers.
• Nova took 100 technicians and 1,000 air conditioners to a Flower Shield Council military base in the Great Desert, where she began installing units in its vehicles.
• A noble officer explained that Council crews demanded air conditioners after seeing them fitted to more than a hundred vehicles, and Nova ordered her team to equip every tank and armored vehicle.
• The officer showed Nova tanks bought from Li Qinwu’s operation and described how radiation from Adeptus Mechanicus equipment had harmed the crews.
• Nova learned that the Council abandoned destroyed vehicles outside its walls because it could not repair them, then offered to salvage and process the wrecks.

Catwoman Nova negotiated access to the battlefield wrecks by offering to repair the Duke’s damaged King Knight. After Li Qinwu’s team built and installed a replacement leg, the Duke welcomed Nova as a friend and gave her permission to salvage every tank and armored vehicle wreck in his military district.

• Nova asked the noble officer to let her salvage the wrecks, and he took her to seek the Duke’s approval.
• At the Knight Bastion, Nova saw the Duke’s King Knight, which had been trapped for ten years with a melted leg.
• Nova offered to repair the King Knight, and the Duke agreed to let her salvage the wrecks if she succeeded.
• Li Qinwu examined the damage and said his team would build a replacement leg within half a month.
• Busi measured the King Knight, produced its replacement parts, assembled the leg, and installed it.
• The Duke piloted the repaired King Knight and promised Nova all the wrecks in his military district.

Nova established the Money-First Caravan by refurbishing battlefield wrecks into tanks and transports for Duke’s military district, while Li Qinwu’s Money-Only Caravan lost Flower Shield Council business. Li Qinwu then sold the Silver Shield Council a thousand deliberately stripped-down Desk Tanks, which the buyer kept in rear-area warehouses.

• With Duke’s permission, Nova gathered mechanics, salvaged wrecked vehicles, and opened a repair yard in the military district.
• Nova’s team restored tanks and Chimera Transports at increasing rates, sold them to Duke’s military district, and established the Money-First Caravan.
• The Money-First Caravan’s competition cut into Li Qinwu’s Flower Shield Council trade, but orders from the White Shield Council arrived in response to the arms race.
• A Silver Shield nobleman ordered a thousand Standard Leman Russ tanks and pushed for cuts to their armor, engines, weapons, and equipment.
• Li Qinwu instructed Little Knife to offer the nobleman an extremely simplified design, and the nobleman accepted the thousand-tank order.
• Li Qinwu delivered the stripped-down Desk Tanks to the Silver Shield Council, whose buyer stored them away from the front and used them for inspections.

Li Qinwu had accumulated 5,000 tons of Pepper-Salt Fruit while caring for Troy. Nova proposed raiding the ancestral tombs of the Silver Shield Council and Flower Shield Council, where a hundred repaired Knight Mechs were buried, and Li Qinwu asked her to send the locations.

• Li Qinwu inspected his Pepper-Salt Fruit stock while Troy playfully stole several fruits and asked for milk.
• Nova contacted Li Qinwu, spoke with Troy, and then proposed digging up noble lords’ ancestral graves.
• Nova explained that the battlefield ruins contained powerful weapons, including Emperor's Poison Blade Tanks and Knight Tombs.
• Nova said the Silver Shield Council and Flower Shield Council had ancestral tombs holding a hundred repaired Knight Mechs in total.
• Li Qinwu excitedly asked Nova to send him the Knight Tombs’ locations.

Li Qinwu followed Nova’s coordinates to recover Emperor's Poison Blade Tank wrecks and found the first buried beneath the desert. He summoned Bruce Crocodile to excavate it, leaving the massive tank exposed at the bottom of a pit.

• Nova gave Li Qinwu coordinates for six Emperor's Poison Blade Tank wrecks and warned him about dangerous combat zones and guarded Knight Mech tombs.
• Li Qinwu used optical camouflage to enter a desert military base, then traveled to the first wreck’s location.
• Li Qinwu found only sand at the coordinates and used Gravity Control to dig until he discovered the tank’s armor buried below.
• Li Qinwu summoned Bruce Crocodile and ordered him to clear the sand.
• Bruce Crocodile used Psychic Power to suck away the sand, uncovering the Emperor's Poison Blade Tank.

Li Qinwu discovered that an apparently destroyed Baneblade Tank had been abandoned because of poor maintenance, not enemy fire, and arranged to bring it back for repairs. After heading north to search for another tank, he unknowingly left two Silver Shield Council scouts convinced they had witnessed a Demon Dragon.

• Li Qinwu examined the heavily scarred Stormblade Tank and found that none of its armor had been penetrated.
• The Vault supervisor sensed the tank’s enraged Machine Spirit, and Li Qinwu realized that its crew had abandoned it after poor maintenance led to a malfunction.
• Li Qinwu reassured the tank, and his Tech-Priests used Adamantium chains and a powered winch to haul it through the Warp Portal.
• Li Qinwu sent Bruce back through the Portal, then activated his Power Armor’s optical camouflage and headed north toward another Baneblade Tank.
• Two Silver Shield Council scouts saw Bruce Crocodile suck up and spit out sand, mistook him for a Demon Dragon, and prepared to report the sighting.

Li Qinwu found a shepherd boy badly injured by a landmine and used a Green Needle to regrow his legs. While returning the boy to his flock, Li Qinwu discovered the goats had gathered around the wreckage of an Emperor's Poison Blade Tank.

• Li Qinwu traveled north through the rocky mountains in a Gravity Diced Pepper Fish Head while searching for the second Stormblade Tank wreck.
• A shepherd boy and several goats stepped on landmines, and the explosion blew off the boy's legs.
• Li Qinwu injected the boy with a Green Needle, bandaged his wounds, and gave him an energy drink until his legs had regrown and he woke.
• The boy mourned his dead sheep, and Li Qinwu used Gravity Control to keep him from running through the minefield and carried him to the rest of the flock.
• Li Qinwu found the goats gathered at the wreckage of an Emperor's Poison Blade Tank, which had been damaged by a Melta Mine, and reunited them with the boy.

Li Qinwu rescued Little Sheep from a minefield and brought him home, where he learned how mines were secretly scattered across civilian areas. The old man explained that locals called the sound of a mine-laying rocket the Death Whistle.

• Li Qinwu carried the injured Little Sheep home after saving him from a minefield and helped him return his sheep to their pen.
• Li Qinwu met Little Sheep's legless grandfather and learned that the boy's parents had both died in mine accidents.
• The old man guessed that Little Sheep had stepped on a mine and thanked Li Qinwu for saving him.
• Li Qinwu asked how civilians were caught in minefields, and the old man explained that armies had stopped warning them as the war intensified.
• The old man described Mine-Laying Rockets that scattered mines from the sky, and said locals called their nighttime whoosh the Death Whistle.

Li Qinwu bought Little Sheep’s flock, fed it to Bruce Crocodile, and recovered the damaged Baneblade Tank. He then scouted a Flower Shield Nobles military zone and saw how rockets scattered mines across the countryside.

• Li Qinwu ate the three sheep Little Sheep had cooked, then paid the boy’s grandfather for the flock and told Little Sheep to keep the lead ram.
• Li Qinwu gave the grandfather a Green Needle and had Little Sheep bring the sheep to the Baneblade Tank wreckage.
• After Little Sheep left, Li Qinwu opened a Portal, and Bruce Crocodile devoured all thirty sheep before returning through it.
• The Vault supervisor and his people chained the Baneblade Tank to a towing hook and recovered it into the Vault.
• Li Qinwu flew invisibly to a town and then to a Flower Shield Nobles military zone, where he watched rockets scatter mines over the surrounding land.

Li Qinwu recovered the third Baneblade Tank from a swamp and discovered that leaking ammunition had poisoned the surrounding ecosystem. After learning the contamination had devastated the area, he left and continued north.

• Li Qinwu found the third Baneblade Tank half-submerged in a swamp and had the Vault supervisor’s group tow it out.
• While they worked, Li Qinwu explored the surrounding area and found stagnant water, dying vegetation, deformed fish, and abandoned villages.
• Li Qinwu returned to find the tank removed and asked the Vault supervisor what had caused the pollution.
• The Vault supervisor explained that the tank’s leaking propellant had contaminated the water across a 120-kilometer radius and posed severe health risks.
• Li Qinwu closed the Portal, boarded the Gravity Car, activated Optical Camouflage, and continued north.

On the Agricultural Plains, both sides fought a brutal tank battle to seize the indestructible Baneblade Tank wreck known as the Grave. As a new assault reached the wreck, Chimera transports were shredded by enemy autocannon fire, trapping and killing their infantry inside.

• The two sides fought for three years over the Baneblade Tank wreck, losing thousands of tanks and more than a million infantry in the struggle to claim its shelter.
• Both sides launched another assault with Leman Russ tanks and Chimera Transports to capture the wreck and establish a bridgehead.
• The opposing Leman Russ forces exchanged fire at long range and destroyed most of each other's tanks within seconds.
• The surviving Chimera Transports advanced and exchanged 40mm autocannon fire as their infantry waited inside.
• A Chimera squad received orders to disembark, but Armor-Piercing Rounds tore through its side armor and killed the waiting infantry.

The Flower Shield Council and Silver Shield Council forces fought a devastating mechanized battle before the Flower Shield artillery obliterated the battlefield with a prolonged bombardment. Afterward, a Flower Shield soldier crawled beneath a Baneblade wreck for safety and discovered a Silver Shield soldier hiding there too.

• Chimeras and infantry from both sides exchanged heavy fire across the battlefield, destroying vehicles and killing large numbers of soldiers.
• A wounded mechanized infantryman planted a Silver Shield Council flag atop a Baneblade wreck, and a Flower Shield noble officer ordered the artillery to fire.
• Over a hundred guns bombarded the battlefield for more than ten minutes, leaving wreckage and corpses scattered across the ground.
• A Flower Shield soldier survived beneath loose soil, then crawled across the shell-cratered battlefield to hide under the Baneblade wreck.
• The Flower Shield soldier saw another soldier beneath the wreck and recognized him as a Silver Shield soldier, but had no weapon to reach for.

A Flower Shield soldier sought military merit by planting his faction’s flag atop a Baneblade Tank, while a dying Silver Shield soldier warned him that the battlefield was a grave. After securing the flag from inside the tank, the Flower Shield soldier leaned out of the hatch, risking sniper fire so his achievement would be seen.

• The Flower Shield soldier threatened the wounded Silver Shield soldier with a grenade beneath the Baneblade Tank, but lowered it after seeing how badly he was hurt.
• The Flower Shield soldier crawled toward the tank’s exterior to plant his flag, and the Silver Shield soldier opened a hidden entrance and warned him to stay inside the turret.
• The Flower Shield soldier climbed through the Baneblade Tank and tied the Flower Shield Council’s flag to the open turret hatch.
• Realizing no one would witness his deed unless he showed himself, the Flower Shield soldier thought of his wife and child and leaned his upper body out of the hatch.

A Flower Shield soldier tried to claim flag-planting merit for his son by raising the council flag atop a Baneblade Tank, provoking a deadly battle over the wrecks. As night fell, he and a wounded Silver Shield soldier crawled from beneath the tank, using the flag to bind the Silver Shield soldier’s injuries.

• A Flower Shield soldier shouted that his flag-planting merit should go to his son, Little John, while waving the council flag from the Baneblade Tank.
• A Silver Shield sniper shot the soldier in the chest, but the wounded man climbed back up and tied the flag to the tank.
• A Silver Shield noble officer ordered artillery and armored forces to attack, and both sides fought for more than twenty minutes, leaving over two thousand armored vehicles wrecked.
• After night fell, the badly wounded Flower Shield and Silver Shield soldiers lay beneath the still-standing Baneblade Tank and spoke about their injuries and fear of dying inside it.
• The Silver Shield soldier tried to drag the Flower Shield soldier outside, then used the council flag to bind his abdomen before continuing to pull him toward the open air.

Two dying soldiers watched a driverless Chimera Transport circle the battlefield before they died atop the Baneblade Tank wreckage. Li Qinwu and the Vault supervisor secretly removed the wreckage through a portal, freeing both armies to prepare for a broader assault.

• The Flower Shield soldier and the Silver Shield soldier climbed onto the Baneblade Tank and watched the ruined battlefield.
• The Silver Shield soldier explained that the circling Chimera Transport was caught in a Death Spiral, and the Flower Shield soldier died while wondering when it would stop.
• The Silver Shield soldier saw the Chimera Transport hit an invisible barrier and stop, then died as Li Qinwu opened a Large Portal nearby.
• Li Qinwu maintained a Holographic Field while the Vault supervisor and others used Adamantium chains to drag the Baneblade Tank wreckage through the Portal unseen.
• The next day, a soldier told the noble officer that the Baneblade Tank wreckage had vanished, and the officer ordered a full assault on the enemy positions in one hour.

The Flower Shield Council and Silver Shield Council sent all-noble mechanized armies across Iron Shield Star’s Arctic icefield, where their plans to raid each other led to a devastating month-long battle. With both forces frozen and nearly all their soldiers dead, the surviving Baneblade commanders agreed to a final duel.

• A Flower Shield Council noble proposed sending an elite all-noble force across the Arctic icefield to raid the enemy’s northern territory.
• The Silver Shield Council learned of the plan and sent its own all-noble army across the icefield to intercept the Flower Shield Council troops and launch a raid of its own.
• The two armies met in the center of the icefield and fought for a month, until their supplies ran out and the troops perished in the cold.
• The two commanders survived in Baneblade Tanks powered by Plasma Reactors, but felt unable to return home after losing their soldiers.
• The commanders arranged to fight a life-and-death duel at the center of the icefield.

Two noble commanders fought a devastating Baneblade duel on the ice plains, then killed each other in a final struggle. Ten years later, Li Qinwu arrived at the wreckage and found them still frozen together.

• The Silver Shield Noble and the Flower Shield Nobles ordered their Baneblade Tanks to attack each other, driven by hatred over the deaths of one hundred thousand noble descendants.
• The two tanks advanced under heavy fire, suffering crew casualties as their commanders continued the fight.
• At point-blank range, both commanders ordered their 400mm mortars to fire, wrecking the tanks and killing nearly every crew member.
• The surviving commanders climbed from their tanks and charged one another; the Silver Shield Noble pierced the Flower Shield Nobles with his Power Sword, while the Flower Shield Nobles stabbed him in the neck with an ice pick.
• The wounded nobles grappled in the snow and froze solid in the sudden cold, remaining locked together for ten years.
• Li Qinwu arrived at the ice plains ten years later and looked down at the frozen nobles beside the tank wreckage.