Chapter Summaries

Ricardo explained that Grand Inquisitor Oluka’s arrest could damage Grand Master Pep’s campaign for the Inquisition’s seat on the High Lords Council, while Grand Master Sigurd hoped to recruit Li Qinwu as his political successor. Li Qinwu refused to settle on Terra, and as Ricardo prepared to take Oluka away, Catwoman Nova appeared with Troy and blocked the Shuttle.

• Ricardo told Li Qinwu that Oluka’s arrest could ruin Grand Master Pep’s election campaign and benefit Grand Master Sigurd.
• Li Qinwu realized Oluka had risked himself and his mentor’s faction to save the Fortress World from the Tyranids.
• Ricardo asked about Oluka’s Rosette, and Li Qinwu said Oluka had probably destroyed it before his capture.
• Ricardo offered to take Oluka to Terra and sounded out Li Qinwu about settling there as Sigurd’s disciple, but Li Qinwu declined.
• Ricardo’s armed personnel escorted Oluka toward the landing deck, where Catwoman Nova appeared beside the Shuttle holding the six-year-old Troy.

Nova revealed that her six-year-old son Troy was a Beta-level Psyker, prompting Ricardo to seek his return to the Golden Lion Family. Nova recalled the family’s past mistreatment and rejected Ricardo’s offer, leaving Troy’s future with the family unresolved.

• Nova told Ricardo that Troy was a Beta-level Psyker, and Li Qinwu confirmed it.
• Ricardo reacted with excitement when he learned Troy could become one of the Imperium’s most powerful Psykers.
• Nova refused to let Ricardo claim Troy and reminded him how Old Lion and the family had insulted and turned her away.
• Troy comforted Nova and threatened to crush Terra when he became an Alpha-level Psyker, while Li Qinwu redirected his threat toward Old Lion’s home.
• Ricardo acknowledged the family’s wrongdoing but argued that Troy’s power gave him value and offered Nova a place on his warship and a privileged future for Troy on Terra.

Nova rejected Ricardo’s offer to take Troy back to the Golden Lion Family, choosing to keep her son with Li Qinwu because the family cared only about his value. Li Qinwu then began the fleet’s journey home, intending to deal with the Pale Baron while waiting for his appointment as Grand Inquisitor.

• Ricardo offered to welcome Nova and Troy back to Terra and make Troy the head of a branch family, but Nova chose to stay with Li Qinwu.
• Troy ran to Li Qinwu asking for big fruit, and Bruce Crocodile swallowed him before bounding away.
• Nova told Ricardo she would not let the Golden Lion Family take Troy, and Ricardo left with Grand Inquisitor Oluka aboard the Shuttle.
• Nova explained that the family’s cold, profit-driven attitude made her reject its offer, and Li Qinwu realized her choice had been influenced by his human touch.
• After three days of rest and refitting at the Fortress World, Li Qinwu recalled the surface personnel and led the fleet through the Eldar Webway toward Agricultural World 496B.
• Li Qinwu planned to deal with the Pale Baron, who had taken Rogue Trader Warrant Inquisitor Thraxol had prepared for him, while waiting for his appointment decree from Terra.

Li Qinwu’s fleet traveled through the Eldar Webway toward Agricultural World 496B while he collected Astartes gene-seed and learned that Swift Shadow’s gene-seed was marked 000. Father Anthony warned that it might be an original First-Generation Gene-seed created from Fulgrim’s blood.

• Li Qinwu’s fleet entered the Eldar Webway and began a six-month journey back to Agricultural World 496B.
• Father Anthony removed gene-seed from Yellow Sand and Swift Shadow, and Li Qinwu said he planned to collect every kind and create a full set of Astartes Chapters.
• Father Anthony told Li Qinwu that Swift Shadow’s gene-seed had no replication marks and was labeled 000.
• Father Anthony proposed that the Dark Eldar Lady had created a First-Generation Gene-seed from Fulgrim’s blood.

Li Qinwu learned that Swift Shadow’s unusual strength and origins might be connected to Gene-Primarch Fulgrim, then returned two Gene-seeds to his shrine for sanctification. His fleet encountered a Dark Eldar pirate ship in the Webway, and both sides immediately opened fire.

• Father Anthony said Swift Shadow’s neural reactions and muscle density exceeded those of ordinary Astartes, prompting Li Qinwu to wonder if Swift Shadow was a clone of Fulgrim.
• Li Qinwu took the Ultramarines and Imperial Fists Gene-seeds to his Hideout and enshrined them beside the Emperor’s Children Gene-seed.
• Li Qinwu planned to give the sanctified Gene-seeds to the Thunder Saint Alliance for suitable personnel to undergo modification.
• The captain warned Li Qinwu that a Corsair-class Frigate had appeared on the fleet’s left flank in the Webway.
• Li Qinwu’s fleet and the Dark Eldar ship opened fire, and the pirate ship raised its shields before accelerating ahead of the fleet.

Li Qinwu pursued a Dark Eldar pirate ship through the Webway and helped the Fortune disable it. He ordered the crew to spare the hull, leaving the ship adrift so they could rescue its human captives.

• Li Qinwu used the Psychic Throne to unfurl the Fortune's Solar Sails and chased the faster Dark Eldar pirate ship.
• The Fortune caught up and battered the pirate ship's Psychic Shield with a Macro Cannon barrage.
• The Dark Eldar used a Shadowfield to hide their ship, but Li Qinwu summoned a Warp Storm that scattered the concealing black mist.
• The Fortune's Macro Cannons destroyed the pirate ship's Psychic Shield, and Li Qinwu ordered the crew not to destroy its hull because humans might be aboard.
• The Fortune's Lances cut apart the pirate ship's Solar Sails, leaving it powerless and drifting through the Webway.

Li Qinwu's fleet disabled the Dark Eldar pirate ship, discovered thousands of captives aboard, and prepared to rescue them by boarding through breaches blasted into its hull. The first Fleet Iron Guard team secured a passage, but purplish-red shots struck them from the darkness.

• Li Qinwu's fleet destroyed the pirate ship's weapons and scanned 14,372 biological signals aboard, including 10,000 human captives and two signals resembling Astartes.
• Li Qinwu ordered the Fleet Iron Guard to board through forty breaches, and the fleet blasted holes in the pirate ship's hull before sending in Shuttles.
• Three Fleet Iron Guard members entered a dark passage, secured the entrance, and reported that their boarding was complete.
• Purplish-red shots burst against the three Fleet Iron Guard as they aimed into the pitch-black passage.

Three Fleet Iron Guards ambushed Dark Eldar Halfborn in a lightless corridor and killed more than twenty with overwhelming firepower. As they advanced, a faster Dark Eldar warrior attacked and split the heavy trooper’s shield and hand with a pain-inflicting blade, leaving him screaming on the floor.

• The squad leader ordered the Fleet Iron Guards to fire into the dark corridor, where their weapons overwhelmed the Halfborn ambushers.
• The three Fleet Iron Guards advanced behind the heavy trooper’s shield and found more than twenty dead Halfborn, cloned Dark Eldar infantry.
• The heavy trooper mocked the fallen Halfborn, then a Dark Eldar warrior charged from the darkness and cut through his shield and hand.
• The heavy trooper’s armor injected anesthetic and sealed the wound, but the Dark Eldar’s blade inflicted unbearable pain that made him drop his weapon and writhe on the floor.

Fleet Iron Guard troops fought Dark Eldar aboard the Aeldari Corsair Ship, suffering heavy casualties even as they killed many of their attackers. Li Qinwu refused to recall them and ordered the 400,000-strong force to capture the ship, threatening to disband it if they failed.

• A Dark Eldar squad leader killed three Fleet Iron Guards with a poisoned Power Sword and tortured them to feed on their pain.
• Three newly arrived Fleet Iron Guards shot the Dark Eldar squad leader to death while boarding fights spread across the pirate ship.
• Fleet Iron Guard casualties climbed to 300 as thousands of troops poured through more than thirty breaches.
• The captain urged Li Qinwu to recall the Fleet Iron Guard, but Li Qinwu ordered them to keep fighting.
• Li Qinwu broadcast a demand that the Fleet Iron Guard capture the ship and threatened to disband the force and revoke its families' benefits if it failed.

Li Qinwu decided to test the Fleet Iron Guard against the Dark Eldar aboard a pirate ship so his forces could develop combat power without relying on him. The Fleet Iron Guard fought through the vessel at heavy cost, while the Dark Eldar Archon and her warriors held the bridge.

• Li Qinwu recognized that his forces lacked high-end fighters and resolved to let the Fleet Iron Guard face a difficult battle without his intervention.
• Li Qinwu chose the Dark Eldar pirate ship as a test, and the Fleet Iron Guard entered the fight determined to defeat its crew or die trying.
• Fleet Iron Guard teams cleared the ship’s compartments, overwhelming Half-born clones but suffering severe losses against Dark Eldar squad leaders who exploited the narrow, light-absorbing passages.
• The Fleet Iron Guard occupied forty percent of the pirate ship, and the Fortune’s captain reported that four hundred had died; Li Qinwu ordered the assault to continue.
• The pirate ship’s bridge contained more than thirty Astartes-level Dark Eldar warriors and an Archon, the leader of a Dark Eldar Kabal.

Fleet Iron Guards overwhelmed Archon Amanra’s pirate ship and captured her after a fierce battle. Li Qinwu ordered her execution, but Amanra revealed she knew a way into Commorragh to save herself.

• Archon Amanra ordered her Dark Eldar warriors to fight back as Fleet Iron Guards broke onto her ship’s bridge.
• Amanra and her elite warriors killed the first Fleet Iron Guards, but the attackers blasted the bridge with heavy weapons and stormed it again.
• Two hours later, Fleet Iron Guards brought the captured Amanra before Li Qinwu, who ordered her beheaded despite her beauty.
• Li Qinwu told his men to launch Amanra from a Macro Cannon, and she shouted that she knew a way into Commorragh.

Li Qinwu learned that Amanla could provide access to Commorragh and valuable knowledge, then considered how to keep her useful without trusting her. He accepted her pledge but ended the chapter demanding another reason to spare her from being mutilated and imprisoned.

• Amanla told Li Qinwu that her pirate ship carried a Dimensional Engine capable of opening a stable gateway to Commorragh.
• Li Qinwu ordered Busi and his people to scan and dismantle the engine, then demanded that Amanla prove her value.
• Amanla offered her knowledge of Commorragh’s Archons, merchants, terrain, and customs, and promised to guide Li Qinwu there.
• Li Qinwu threatened to extract Amanla’s memories with Psychic Power, but she warned that the process would damage them and explained that her territory and wealth were accessible only through her soul’s resonance.
• Li Qinwu agreed to keep Amanla alive but threatened to mutilate and confine her, then demanded that she convince him not to do so.

Li Qinwu spared Archon Amanra from being mutilated and ordered her held in a heavily secured prison after she offered to help him understand Commorragh. After the Fleet Iron Guards finished clearing the Dark Eldar ship, Li Qinwu assessed the battle’s losses and spoils and discovered two Astartes prisoners.

• Archon Amanra persuaded Li Qinwu to preserve her body by arguing that she needed her dignity and physical integrity to think clearly and serve as his guide.
• Li Qinwu ordered Busi to prepare a secure prison for Amanra and warned her not to mistake his restraint for weakness.
• As the Fleet Iron Guards salvaged the Dark Eldar ship, Li Qinwu judged most of their weapons and armor worthless but allowed the soldiers to keep the Monomolecular Blades and other captured gear as trophies.
• Li Qinwu learned that the Fleet Iron Guards had lost 1,461 men while killing 411 Dark Eldar, and he planned to promote the strongest fighters to squad leaders.
• Li Qinwu discovered two Astartes among the prisoners aboard the Pirate Ship.

Li Qinwu learned that Gretchin rebels had conquered a Greenskin planet and were spreading Big Gretchinism while searching the stars for material to build shells capable of blasting his backside. He left the imprisoned Greenskin Warboss worried about what the growing Gretchin movement might make of him.

• Li Qinwu inspected the pirate ship’s prisoners and discovered a skeletal Greenskin Warboss who recognized him as Old Fart Li.
• The Warboss told Li Qinwu that Gretchin rebels had risen up across his planet, built tens of thousands of Gargants, and defeated the Greenskin clans.
• The Warboss explained that Archon Amanra had captured him after he destroyed a Gretchin Gargant, intending to send him to an arena in Commorragh.
• The Warboss revealed that the Gretchin used Li Qinwu’s backside as a fear totem and pursued Big Gretchinism by seeking materials for powerful shells.
• Li Qinwu left the prison uneasy after learning that dozens of Gretchin Battleships had already departed to search the Sea of Stars for ass-wrecking material.

Li Qinwu discovered that Archon Amanra had imprisoned more than five hundred T'au scientists and demanded to know what made them worth keeping alive. After threatening the scientists, he spared them when they described advanced T'au technologies, including precise teleportation and miniaturized shields.

• Li Qinwu found a prison holding several hundred T'au and questioned Archon Amanra about why she had captured them.
• Amanra explained that the prisoners were leading T'au scientists whose research could be sold to other species, while Li Qinwu reprimanded her for indulging herself.
• Li Qinwu asked the scientists to prove why he should not kill them, and ordered the Fleet Iron Guards to drag away the first one who tried to reason with him.
• A T'au scientist described teleportation technology with an error rate of only one in 1.5 million, prompting Li Qinwu to stop his timer and listen.
• The scientist also described wristwatch-sized shield generators, physical enhancement and life-extension modifications, and plans for fingernail-sized AI chips.

Li Qinwu assigned the captured T'au scientists to Imperial researchers and discovered several kinds of alien captives, including a baby Atmospheric Dragon he planned to keep as Li Danü's pet. He then reached the human captives, who recognized his Inquisition Rosette and hailed him as their savior.

• Li Qinwu learned about the T'au's five research projects and assigned the scientists from four technological fields to Imperial researchers.
• Li Qinwu ordered the other Xenos fired from Macro Cannons and had the baby Atmospheric Dragon transferred to the Fortune for safekeeping.
• Li Qinwu inspected the human captives and realized that more than ten thousand people had been taken from one planet.
• The human captives saw Li Qinwu's Inquisition Rosette, knelt together, and shouted, "Lord Inquisitor!"

Li Qinwu recruited human captives from Carl Agri World, then killed Anna when she blamed him for her lover’s death. He opened two sealed cells aboard the pirate ship and found two Primaris Astartes trapped in unpowered Power Armor.

• A PDF major told Li Qinwu that Dark Eldar had captured him and thousands of others from Carl Agri World three years earlier, and he chose to join Li Qinwu’s forces.
• Li Qinwu arranged medical examinations for the captives, but Anna blamed him for the death of her lover, Louis.
• Li Qinwu seized Anna and killed her, declaring that he would not let women’s fiction invade men’s fiction.
• Li Qinwu used Laser Drills to open two heavily fortified cells in the pirate ship’s deepest deck.
• Two Primaris Astartes emerged from the cells, struggling to move in their unpowered Power Armor.

Li Qinwu rescued a Space Wolf and a White Scar from a Dark Eldar pirate ship and brought them aboard the Fortune. He gathered them for a feast, hoping to hear how they had been captured.

• Li Qinwu identified the two Astartes as a Space Wolf and a White Scar, then told them his fleet had sunk the Dark Eldar pirate ship.
• The White Scar removed his powerless armor and asked Li Qinwu to find a power pack, while the Space Wolf refused to remove his armor in front of an enemy.
• Li Qinwu and the Fleet Iron Guard walked away, forcing the exhausted Space Wolf to take off his armor and follow.
• Li Qinwu brought the two Astartes aboard the Fortune by Shuttle, where they confirmed they had reached an Imperial warship.
• Li Qinwu prepared a feast and invited Yellow Sand and Swift Shadow, then asked the Astartes to tell their story over drinks.

Hulitai recounted how Amanra captured him during a bike chase and explained why he could not return to the White Scars from Agricultural World 496B. He asked to remain with Li Qinwu and serve him, hoping to earn honors and eventually return home with a warship of his own.

• Hulitai described his White Scars squad and how its twenty-one bikers fought the Dark Eldar after answering a planet's plea for help.
• Hulitai pursued Amanra away from the battlefield, but she trapped him in a net and captured him.
• Li Qinwu explained that his fleet could not take Hulitai back to White Scars territory, which lay an immense distance away.
• Hulitai asked to stay with Li Qinwu and repay him for saving his life.
• Hulitai decided that serving Li Qinwu might let him gain honors, obtain a warship, and return home as a khan.

Li Qinwu welcomed Hulitai to his team, then heard Ragnar explain how Primaris surgery had made him an outcast among the Space Wolves and how Dark Eldar captured him after twenty years of solitary duty. Ragnar refused both to return to Fenris and to join Li Qinwu, but agreed to remain aboard the warship for now as the gathering continued.

• Li Qinwu promised to contact Hulitai's Chapter, provide equipment, record his merits, and honor him if he died in battle.
• Ragnar introduced himself and explained that the Space Wolves distrusted Primaris surgery because of the Chapter's dangerous Canis Helix mutations and werewolf curse.
• Ragnar said his Chapter had discriminated against him for becoming Primaris and assigned him to guard a moon alone for more than twenty years.
• Ragnar recounted killing three Dark Eldar who tried to capture him before the others overwhelmed him and took him prisoner.
• Ragnar rejected returning to Fenris and joining Li Qinwu, saying he would leave on his own when the time was right.
• Li Qinwu said Ragnar could leave whenever he wished and invited him and the others to eat and drink aboard the warship.