"I looked around, and it was nothing but enemies. There were at least four or five hundred of them, armed with guns and artillery, charging right at us. We were running on fumes—out of ammo, out of rations, and even our exoskeleton armor was dead."
"At that moment, it boiled down to one thing: I was working for the Emperor, and I had to be loyal."
"So, I immediately ordered my guys to pop the charges and take those creeps with us."
On the Warhammer Discord, Mordecai gave a blow-by-blow account of his heroic sacrifice in the Battle of the Stonehive. He didn't treat dying as a big deal at all.
Daniel, taking a quick break from his busy schedule, uploaded a batch of pictures and videos from the Stonehive battle to the group chat. The 'cloud players' in the group absolutely lost their minds.
GuillimanRules: Please, stop talking. My withdrawal is kicking in hard. When will you let me serve the Emperor?!
IloveNurgle: Welcome to the daily whine-fest from Old Thirteen.
LakeLochness: Forget the closed beta. Even if it's full of bugs, I'm willing to sign up.
HenryCavil is the coolest: When is the Group Owner going to drop more reservation spots?
Sukha: Group leader, where's your company? I want to send you a letter in blood begging for the public beta.
OriginGod: +1
"+1"
"+1"
"..."
SpaceKing: Easy, everyone. After a lot of hard work, the company decided to release 600 new spots for the closed beta the day after tomorrow.
Fulgrimnation: Good news: Reservations are about to drop. Bad news: There are only 600.
Worse news: The three original Warhammer Veterans groups are full, and groups 4 and 5 are already more than half full.
GuillimanRules: Kill them all.jpg
"..."
Director: The Warband system has been out for days. Why is no one signing up?
Daigo: What's the deal? You want to square up against the OG Gang?
Director: ...
IloveNurgle: Registering a Warband requires Contribution Points and at least ten core members. I've been grinding for Contribution Points after the reset and looking for members to form the Hammer and Sickle Regiment.
Director: That name sounds seriously sketchy. What are you planning?
LoneWanderer: Are you planning to overthrow the three mountains of evil gods, xenos, and corrupt bureaucrats and build a new world for mankind?
IloveNurgle: I suggest you stop with the wild guesses. Forget it, let's change the subject. Let's talk about the Stonehive. A Great Unclean One showed up. That kind of battle is definitely going to get the attention of the Chaos Gods and Abaddon.
Lost Krieg: To be honest, Ku'gath was a tough nut to crack. He caused half the casualties all by himself and almost wiped the floor with the Guide.
SeriousSam: The Great Rift has changed a lot of things. It was nearly impossible to summon a daemon of that level before.
Bluejay: Things are about to get real! You know we're the Emperor's Saints in the game. The Chaos Gods are definitely coming for us.
SlaneeshFollower: Will a Daemon of Lust morph into Android 18 to seduce me?
The Midnight Lord: She's is not my type. I want Kamado Nezuko, the kind who goes into battle commando.
LobsterSauce: Have you guys watched the new video?
Lost Krieg: Who's got the goods? Share the wealth.
Kabanha: Get lost, you lolita fan. Take my explosive bullet!
Garry: Why are you all limiting yourselves to humans? I think Cthulhu is a feast for the eyes—soft body, slimy tentacles. If she stayed around 1.3 meters tall, she'd be the perfect love partner.
"????"
The group chat went dead silent for a few seconds.
Lost Krieg: Slaanesh says: "My bad, I think this job is better suited for you."
Director: Chaos Daemons are thinking: "We occasionally find a talented player, but we can't beat him no matter what we try."
GodWillsIT: Jesus : Open up I just wanna talk to you! ForgivessStops.gif
ILoveNurgle: The Great Daemon of Slaanesh is a total amateur next to you.
GuillimanRules: Heretic, prepare for trial.
Fulgrimnation: You having a crush on Khorne I could almost understand, you might be a city boy. But you have the hots for Cthulhu and want a sweet romance? You're more chaotic than Chaos itself!
"..."
SpaceKing: Hahahaha, hahahaha, I'm dying laughing! That twisted guy really is a stinky can. After he promoted, he threw a massive fit in the temple!
Yuji's sudden message immediately diverted the group's attention away from Garry's outrageous remarks.
The most charismatic guy in Warhammer: What in the heck is a Stinky Can?
SpaceKing: WrongHammer promoted, but the genetic sequence he redeemed was for the Death Guard. He was so bummed out he almost quit the game.
Lobstersauce: Promoted? How did he promote?
SpaceKing: Hit Level 10 and you can redeem gene-seeds to upgrade.
GODWillsIt: So what are you?
Fulgrimnation: Thousand Sons.
Magosbro: Uh, that's not exactly an upgrade! Aren't you a psyker? Why didn't you get a Grey Knight seed?
Lobstersauce: The Grey Knights were forged during the Heresy by selecting and fusing the gene-seed of staunch loyalists from across the Legions.
They're immune to Warp corruption, and like the Custodes, incapable of rebelling against the Imperium.
Players should only be able to choose from the twenty original Legions. You probably need insane luck to adapt to the Grey Knights.
In the Imperial Glory's strategy room, Daniel was reading the players' conversations. After defeating the rebels, he had left the heavy lifting of reconstruction, restoring order, and comforting refugees to the bureaucrats.
He had returned to the Imperial Glory to push Magos Theresa to produce power armor and bolters suitable for the Astartes, getting the gear ready for promoted players to boost their combat effectiveness.
Daniel was glued to the group chat when a message suddenly popped up. It was from Warmaster, who was serving as a diplomatic envoy.
"Sir Guide, I've collected all the information about the C'tan fragments and pinpointed the location of the Genestealer leader."
Daniel closed the group chat interface and opened the data packet. The console's tactical projection automatically refreshed, showing the Tyrian Hive with a blinking red dot.
"Some players have promoted to Astartes. It's time to deal with these guys."
Daniel looked at the projection, planning how to eradicate the Genestealers. The C'tan were the oldest life forms in the Warhammer universe and incredibly powerful. Even a fragment of one had power beyond imagination.
Daniel was hesitant to move on the fragments first, fearing they might trigger some strange event. It would be smarter to take out the Genestealer leader, eliminate the hidden threat, and then go for the C'tan fragments.
Genestealers communicate and share information using a psyker network, similar to the Aeldari Webway. Once the Genestealer leader is attacked, the gang of thieves led by Colonel Griffin would definitely get wind of it and launch a rebellion. To eliminate the Genestealers completely, they needed a two-pronged assault.
"It looks like we'll need a little strategy."
Daniel left the strategy room and headed to find Fred, Wu Mou (UwU), and the other veteran players to hash things out.
At that moment, Fred was glued to the maintenance console on the bridge. While monitoring the system's operating status, he was secretly running a nuclear fusion simulation program through the cogitator system.
This lightning bolt of an idea originated from a sudden moment of inspiration he'd had earlier. At first, he just wanted to see how real Warhammer Online actually was. So, he copied the program his institute used to simulate nuclear fusion and ran it in the game. It turned out that it ran like a dream compared to his institute's supercomputer!
The veteran's comment on this was: "This game developer is simply insane!" He even wondered if aliens designed this game to invade Earth. Of course, Fred wasn't the kind of person to dwell on the details. Before understanding the whole thing, he decided to take advantage of the game's computing power.
Daniel, who possessed the passive skill Curse of Knowledge, walked up behind Fred and instantly saw that the other party was using the Imperial Glory's computing power to run a personal model deduction.
Daniel's pupils slightly dilated. "Good guy. I told you to play a game, not run a side hustle!"
"Cough! Cough!"
Daniel cleared his throat a few times. Fred realized he'd been caught and quickly minimized the projection, letting it run in the background.
"Call UwU and BaldCustodian. We've got some things to discuss," Daniel commanded and left.
Seeing the Guide walk away, Fred nervously wiped the sweat he didn't have. "Did the Guide catch me ripping off his computing power?" He scratched his head.
"But slacking off in a game... does that even count as slacking off?"
Colonel Griffin wore a smile as he patrolled the streets of the Stonehive. His eyes, however, revealed pure fanaticism as he looked at the ignorant refugees.
With the Stonehive reclaimed, the Cult would soon be able to exert its full influence over the hive. Everything that group of God's Saints did was ultimately just to pave the way for the sect.
At that moment, a soldier ran up, saluted Griffin, and reported. "Colonel, the Guide plans to hold a celebration and commendation meeting in three days and requires all troops to attend.
He also specifically instructed that the troops should not carry weapons or wear armor. To avoid startling the people who came to watch the ceremony, the tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other assets must be left in the camp, and he will assign someone to guard them."
"A celebration and commendation meeting?" Griffin nodded. "Please report this to the leader and tell him to relax. I will carry out this mission to the letter."
The chapter now has a much snappier feel, especially in the Discord chat sections. Let me know what you'd like to do next—perhaps continue the strategy meeting, or get back into the Discord banter!