Chapter Summaries

Valerius’s Imperial fleet launched a surprise assault on Hope Star while Liu Zhipeng began a mass evacuation and sent Gretchin cruisers on a suicidal attack to delay the invaders. The Imperial forces started landing near the City of Hope as the evacuation continued.

• Liu Zhipeng ordered maximum combat readiness, sent the fleet to engage, and began evacuating noncombatants under the Ark plan.
• Valerius ordered his ships to bombard Hope Star without offering surrender or warning.
• Twenty Ember-class cruisers charged through the barrage; fifteen reached the Imperial escort formation, where they rammed and attacked enemy ships before all were destroyed.
• The Gretchin attack destroyed two Imperial frigates and a destroyer, damaged other ships, disrupted the fleet, and bought the evacuation ten minutes.
• Valerius ordered landing forces to target the industrial core and command center, and Imperial transports, attack aircraft, and Iron Fist Space Marine Drop Pods descended toward the City of Hope.

The Imperium launched a three-pronged assault on the City of Hope, only to meet a massive Gretchin counterattack that turned the battle into a bloody war of attrition. Aboard the Silver Damnation, Valerius realized the Gretchin army was learning from the fighting and growing stronger as its recruits became veterans.

• Iron Fist Space Marines, the 88th Cadian Regiment, and the Sisters of Battle attacked the City of Hope from separate fronts, initially overwhelming its scattered defenders.
• Gretchin commanders unleashed a massive Katyusha Squig rocket barrage on the Cadians, then sent more than thirty thousand Vanguard mechs against the Imperial landing forces.
• Liu Zhipeng directed four Liberator Gundams to strike the Sisters of Battle, with Red Comet leading the assault and White Devil targeting their heavy weapons and relic bearers.
• The Imperial forces fought fierce battles across the city as Gretchin numbers and concentrated fire inflicted mounting casualties.
• Valerius watched the casualty reports and tactical feeds reveal that the Gretchin were adapting their tactics and producing experienced veterans as the battle continued.

Valerius ordered Exterminatus on Hope Star, accidentally awakening a Necron tomb that turned on his fleet. Liu Zhipeng evacuated with the Gretchin and departed for another Ork planet, leaving Valerius trapped in battle.

• Valerius ordered his ground forces to evacuate and fired the Silver Damnation’s Lance batteries at Hope Star to destroy the planet.
• Liu Zhipeng recognized the Imperial withdrawal as a prelude to Exterminatus and ordered the Gretchin army to retreat to its ships.
• A Lance strike hit the forbidden zone and awakened the Necron tomb beneath Deep Shaft Number 7.
• The awakened tomb unleashed gauss beams that damaged the Imperial fleet and disintegrated the frigate Loyalty.
• Liu Zhipeng taunted Valerius over a transmission, then ordered the Gretchin fleet to enter the Warp and head for an Ork planet.
• Valerius remained amid red alarms as Necron forces encircled his fleet.

The T'au fleet struggled against Warlord Skal Skullsplitter's Orks as an unexpected Gretchin fleet emerged from the Warp. Liu Zhipeng's out-of-control ship saved the Steadfast Heart from a boarding craft by accidentally ramming it, leaving both sides stunned.

• Commander Suisxing and Qingliu assessed the T'au fleet's worsening battle against Skal Skullsplitter's forces and the threat to Jade VII.
• An Ork landing craft broke through toward the Steadfast Heart while the T'au Crisis battlesuit teams were pinned down.
• Liu Zhipeng's Gretchin fleet tumbled from a Warp fissure into the battle, and pilot Ghazghk could not stop the Lighthouse because its brake lever was jammed.
• The Lighthouse accidentally rammed and destroyed the Ork landing craft before it could board the Steadfast Heart.
• The Lighthouse scraped the Steadfast Heart's hull as it spun past, while Suisxing and Qingliu watched in astonishment.

Liu Zhipeng used the Gretchin ship’s collision with the T'au fleet to pose his crew as oppressed freedom fighters seeking the Greater Good. Diplomat Qingliu offered them refuge and support at Jade VII, while Commander Suisxing remained suspicious.

• Diplomat Qingliu hailed the Gretchin warship’s intervention as an answer to the Greater Good, though Commander Suisxing suspected the collision had been accidental and chaotic.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered a broadcast to the T'au fleet and presented his crew as Gretchin who had escaped Ork oppression to seek the Greater Good.
• Liu Zhipeng claimed that an excited young pilot had caused the collision, and Diplomat Qingliu welcomed the Gretchin as victims and seekers of truth.
• Commander Suisxing questioned whether the Gretchin’s polished story and organized voyage were credible, but Qingliu focused on their value as allies and laborers.
• Diplomat Qingliu offered the damaged Gretchin fleet repairs, supplies, and technical support at Jade VII’s orbital starport, and Liu Zhipeng accepted on behalf of his crew.

Liu Zhipeng and the Gretchin tricked the T'au Empire into supplying their fleet, then used the aid to strip, study, and modify T'au technology. The chapter left Liu inspecting Ghazghk’s grotesque conversion of a T'au Riptide into the Big Boss’s Justice Enforcer.

• Qingliu defended accepting the Gretchin fleet, while Suisxing conceded that it had strategic value.
• After communications with the T'au ended, Liu Zhipeng and the Gretchin celebrated their successful deception and prepared to receive supplies.
• Qingliu watched the T'au deliver parts, coolant, and repair drones to the Gretchin ships, while Suisxing worried about their disorderly behavior.
• The Gretchin stripped and modified their ship, and Ghazghk dismantled a T'au repair robot to study its technology.
• Liu visited the workshop, where Ghazghk showed him a heavily armed, red-and-yellow Riptide conversion called the Big Boss’s Justice Enforcer.

Liu Zhipeng prepared the Justice Enforcer and launched a propaganda campaign to recruit oppressed Gretchin from Skullkrak’s forces. The broadcast stirred hope among the Gretchin and provoked Skullkrak into ordering an attack, while the T’au watched the Orks mobilize.

• Liu Zhipeng praised Ghazghk for completing most of the Justice Enforcer and ordered preparations for an operation on Jade VII.
• Ghazghk’s Gospel Propagation Squad broadcast promises of food, beds, and freedom to Gretchin in the Ork positions.
• The propaganda gave some Gretchin hope and prompted them to consider escaping toward the T’au forces.
• Skullkrak noticed his Gretchin acting differently and ordered his forces to attack the Gretchin and T’au.
• Qingliu praised Liu Zhipeng’s strategy as Ork forces grew agitated, while Commander Suisxing watched the tactical map with concern.

Liu Zhipeng rallied the Gretchin to attack the Orks' flank as the T'au defensive line struggled against the overwhelming Waaagh!-fueled assault. The chapter ended with Liu ordering Sharpfang to wait for his signal and fight in deliberate chaos.

• Qingliu and Starshatter put the T'au forces on combat readiness and asked Liu Zhipeng to launch a flanking attack.
• Liu Zhipeng rallied the Gretchin fleet with promises of freedom, roast meat, and dental insurance, then sent its troops into battle.
• The Orks surged against the T'au defenses, and Starshatter issued orders as the line began to buckle under their numbers.
• Qingliu worried about the weakening flank while Starshatter watched the Gretchin forces approach the Ork main force.
• Liu Zhipeng urged his commanders to make the attack look chaotic and ordered Sharpfang to hold his infantry until the signal.

Liu Zhipeng ordered millions of Katyusha Squigs to blanket the Orks’ flank with indiscriminate rocket fire. The barrage annihilated the flanking force, leaving the survivors stunned amid a wasteland of craters and wreckage.

• Liu Zhipeng ordered Ghazghk to launch indiscriminate saturation fire at the enemy flank.
• Ghazghk relayed the order, and millions of Gretchin Gunners fired their Katyusha Squigs at once.
• Commander Suisxing and Diplomat Qingliu watched the chaotic rocket barrage overwhelm the Tau’s battle systems.
• The rockets flattened hills and destroyed the Ork flanking force, including its Warboss and command vehicle.
• The bombardment ended, leaving scorched earth, burning wreckage, and stunned surviving Orks.

Liu Zhipeng's Gretchin forces swept through the shattered Ork positions and freed the enslaved Gretchin, whose numbers rapidly overwhelmed the battlefield. As Qingliu celebrated their uprising, Commander Suisxing wondered what kind of monster they had unleashed.

• Skullkrak demanded to know what had happened to his flank and hundreds of thousands of Boyz, but received no answer.
• Qingliu celebrated the devastating bombardment, and Liu Zhipeng's Gretchin charged into the broken Ork lines.
• The Gretchin swarmed Ork Boyz and dismantled a Killa Kan, while Suisxing ordered an analysis of their weapons' energy signatures.
• Liu Zhipeng's Gretchin offered Nutrient Paste and freedom to enslaved Gretchin in the Ork camps.
• The enslaved Gretchin joined the uprising, rapidly swelling the Gretchin force beyond the Orks and Tau in the region.
• Qingliu called it a war of liberation, while Suisxing feared the uncontrolled force they had unleashed.

After the battle, Qingliu praised Liu Zhipeng’s Gretchin while Suisxing questioned their inexplicable weapons and artillery. Suisxing proposed using the Gretchin as the anvil in an assault on Warboss Skullkrak, leaving the T'au to strike his flagship, and Qingliu was about to persuade Liu Zhipeng to agree.

• A technician reported that the Gretchin weapons erased matter and that reconnaissance drones could not find the artillery positions.
• Liu Zhipeng joined the T'au officers by hologram and celebrated the Gretchin victory in the name of the Greater Good.
• Suisxing questioned Liu Zhipeng about the weapons and artillery, and Liu claimed the artillery was stolen Ork rockets while the rifles used parts from an ancient crashed spaceship.
• Qingliu reassured Liu Zhipeng that the weapons were acceptable, and Suisxing proposed a frontal Gretchin assault to pin Skullkrak’s forces while T'au Fire Warriors flanked toward his flagship.
• Qingliu prepared to persuade Liu Zhipeng to take on the frontal assault.

Liu Zhipeng accepted Suisxing’s plan to make the Gretchin forces the anvil against the Orks, while secretly intending to turn the battle to his advantage. He ordered his troops to fake heavy losses, protect their veterans, and hide an elite force as his real hammer.

• Liu Zhipeng convinced Suisxing that the Gretchin would loyally follow the T'au commander’s orders and take the Ork Warboss’s main force head-on.
• After the transmission ended, the Gretchin crew celebrated fooling the T'au, and Liu Zhipeng explained that playing the anvil would earn them trust, credit, and loot.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered Sharpfang to send untrained recruits into the front line to create chaos and convincing casualties.
• Liu Zhipeng instructed veterans to blend in with the recruits, hold the line, and protect special assets.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered the finest troops and Vanguard Mech Forces to hide from T'au scanners as his secret hammer.

Liu Zhipeng staged the Justice Enforcer’s suicidal charge as a spectacular sacrifice to win the T’au Empire’s trust and secure more aid. As Madeye’s mech tore into the Ork assault beneath a blaring Gretchin battle song, Qingliu ordered the scene recorded.

• Liu Zhipeng ordered Ghazghk to pack the Justice Enforcer with explosives and send Madeye on a flashy charge, while Snot prepared loudspeakers to play “The Burning Wrench.”
• Liu Zhipeng planned to use the staged sacrifice to win T’au sympathy, claim victory, and demand more resources.
• Warboss Skullkrak led the Orks in a fierce assault, and their charge began mowing down the Gretchin defenders.
• The Justice Enforcer charged into the Ork ranks as Madeye shouted for the greater good and the Gretchin broadcast their battle song.
• Madeye’s mech cut through Orks and endured their fire, moving toward Skullkrak’s flagship as Qingliu ordered the T’au to record the charge.

A lost Tyranid splinter fleet descended on Jade VII, raining spore sacs onto the battlefield and unleashing a swarm that overwhelmed the Orks, Gretchin, and T'au. The fighting collapsed into a chaotic struggle for survival as the Tyranids consumed everything around them.

• T'au observers detected massive Warp activity in orbit, and Suisxing saw a Tyranid swarm blotting out the stars above Jade VII.
• The Tyranids blanketed the battlefield with spore sacs, which burst open and released swarms of monsters.
• Hormagaunts attacked Orks and Gretchin, while the Tyranids' regeneration blunted the effects of the Gretchin's Zzap Guns.
• An Ork Warboss charged the Tyranids, turning the Ork civil war into a bloody clash between the two swarms.
• Genestealers and other Tyranids struck the T'au from all sides, scattering Suisxing's elite troops and collapsing their battle lines.
• The Orks, Gretchin, Tyranids, and T'au became trapped in a sprawling melee with no coherent tactics or front lines.

As the Tyranids overwhelmed Jade VII, Liu Zhipeng pretended to sacrifice his forces to help Suisxing's T'au break out while secretly preparing a devastating trap. Madeye detonated the Justice Enforcer, raising a small golden sun from the planet's surface.

• Suisxing ordered a retreat as Tyranids and Orks tore through the T'au forces, while Madeye rampaged indiscriminately in the Justice Enforcer.
• Liu Zhipeng weighed escape against fighting the Hive Fleet and ordered his core troops to protect recruits and artillery while the fleet targeted falling spore sacs.
• Liu Zhipeng told Suisxing that the Justice Enforcer would carve a path for the T'au, persuading him to order a breakout toward the mech.
• After ending the transmission, Liu Zhipeng told Madeye to give the Tyranids a grand welcome, and Madeye detonated the Justice Enforcer.
• A small golden sun rose from the surface of Jade VII.

A Gretchin warrior’s golden explosion destroyed the surrounding Tyranids and T’au, leaving Qingliu and Suisxing shaken by the sacrifice. Suisxing rallied the surviving T’au to fight toward the crater as Skullkrak renewed the Orks’ assault, while the Hive Mind redirected its swarms toward both Orks and retreating Gretchin.

• The Justice Enforcer’s explosion erased the mech, nearby enemies, and hundreds of T’au, leaving a vast crater and cutting off the Dawn Messenger’s battlefield feeds.
• Qingliu wept for the Gretchin sacrifice, while Suisxing recognized the allies’ courage and ordered the surviving T’au to advance toward the crater.
• Suisxing rallied the Fire Caste, and surviving T’au charged through the Tyranid swarm, sacrificing themselves to clear a path.
• Skullkrak emerged from his wrecked flagship, praised the Gretchin warrior, and sent the Orks back into battle against the Tyranids.
• The Hive Mind redirected its swarms toward the Orks and the retreating Gretchin after the explosion disrupted its control of the battlefield.

The Gretchin appeared to rout before the Tyranid swarm, but Sharpfang secretly led the veteran forces in an orderly withdrawal while sacrificing millions of recruits to cover the T'au retreat. At the fortress, Qingliu and Suisxing believed the Gretchin had nearly perished for them and vowed repayment, while Liu Zhipeng appeared overcome by grief and fury.

• Millions of Gretchin recruits fled from the swarm, and Qingliu watched their apparent defeat with sorrow while Suisxing recognized that their chaos was buying the T'au time to withdraw.
• Sharpfang directed disguised veterans through a staged rout, using the fleeing recruits as cover while the veterans fell back with few casualties.
• Gretchin pilots guarded the artillery positions as the remaining T'au forces reached the fortress on a plateau.
• After the swarm devoured the recruits, fewer than two million battered Gretchin veterans arrived at the fortress, where T'au medics and engineers received them.
• Qingliu and Suisxing believed the Gretchin had nearly been wiped out for the T'au and resolved to repay their sacrifice.
• Qingliu offered Liu Zhipeng condolences and respect, and Liu struck the metal wall in grief and fury.

After the Gretchin reported catastrophic losses against the Tyranids, Suisxing and Qingliu pledged T'au support and supplied them with weapons, supplies, and XV15 Stealth battlesuit blueprints. Liu Zhipeng privately revealed that the losses were part of a successful deception, while the Tyranid invasion of Jade VII continued to worsen.

• Liu Zhipeng told Suisxing and Qingliu that eighty million Gretchin, including Madeye, had died, and begged the T'au to equip the survivors for revenge.
• Suisxing promised to fight beside the Gretchin and ordered the T'au to send thirty percent of their stockpiled supplies, including Pulse Rifles, drone combat systems, and XV15 Stealth battlesuit blueprints.
• Qingliu insisted that the Gretchin were allies and urged the T'au to provide immediate aid, which Suisxing approved despite an officer's objection to sharing core technology.
• After the meeting, Sharpfang told Liu Zhipeng that the T'au had given them extensive aid, and Liu ordered his crew to study the new technology while keeping up the act.
• Liu Zhipeng watched the Tyranid swarm continue to cover Jade VII as Orks and Tyranids clashed across the planet.

As the Tyranids closed in on Shield Bastion, Liu Zhipeng persuaded Suisxing to let the Gretchin sacrifice themselves to distract the swarm while the T'au launched a decapitation strike. Suisxing accepted, and Liu urged him to evacuate without looking back when the charge began.

• T'au reports revealed that Tyranid forces were surrounding Shield Bastion and preparing a final assault.
• Liu Zhipeng reported that the hive was preparing to overwhelm the fortress in one attack.
• Suisxing proposed leading the remaining elite T'au units on a suicide strike against the Hive Mind's node to open a path for the fleet to escape.
• Liu offered the surviving Gretchin and their obsolete rockets as a diversion, asking Suisxing to let them die buying the T'au a chance.
• Suisxing accepted Liu's request and promised to return for the Gretchin or their Battle Banner after the strike.
• Liu told Suisxing to evacuate when the Gretchin charged and not to look back.

Suisxing led the T'au strike team through the opening created by the Gretchin’s final charge and destroyed the Broodlord, throwing the Tyranids into chaos. The surviving T'au withdrew by transport, while Sharpfang’s battle banner fell on the battlefield.

• Sharpfang led nearly two million battered Gretchin in a final charge that drew the Broodlord’s guards away from Suisxing’s attack.
• Suisxing led the T'au decapitation force through the swarm while the T'au transports descended toward Shield Bastion.
• The Riptides blasted a gap in the Tyrant Guard’s defenses, and Suisxing’s Ghost Squad reached the Broodlord.
• Suisxing’s Psychic Dampener resisted the Broodlord’s psychic assault, and his Twin Fusion Blaster destroyed its core.
• The Tyranids lost their unified will, and Suisxing ordered the Stormtroopers to retreat to the transports.
• Suisxing boarded last and saw Sharpfang’s tattered Battle Banner fall amid the smoke.