This is the bonus chapter for reaching 550 Powerstones.
--
Gentle waves lapped lazily against a stretch of powdery white sand. Sunlight filtered down through the swaying fronds of towering palm trees, casting a dappled, golden mosaic across the pristine beach.
Nearly a thousand people were scattered across the private shoreline. They were entirely men and women in their twenties and thirties, their complexions universally pale—the unmistakable, pasty hallmark of a lifetime spent locked indoors.
They lounged about in beach chairs and on oversized towels, nursing ice-cold drinks while the heavy, comforting scent of coconut sunscreen and roasting barbecue drifted through the salty ocean breeze.
"Paul's out there all by himself. I wonder how he's holding up."
Schrödinger Bro lay back in his beach chair, staring up at the azure sky from behind his sunglasses. He had a well-proportioned, athletic build, but right now, he was radiating a rare sense of total relaxation.
Beside him, Blood Angel rolled over. His slightly sunburned face carried a helpless expression. "Ever since we logged out, that trash client has been dead in the water. It's a 17KB software, and they don't even have an official website for announcements. I've been idle for a week, and I'm crawling out of my skin."
Cogboy's voice drifted over from another lounger. He was on the skinnier side, but his arms sported lean, corded muscle that didn't quite match his frame. He was currently scrolling through a research paper on neural interface technology on his tablet, his brow furrowed. "I spent every day in-game handling hive city administrative affairs. Now that I haven't touched a logistics spreadsheet in days, my hands are actually itching for one."
Tax Bro took a massive gulp of iced cola and let out a satisfied burp. "Give it a rest, Cogboy. Those last seven days almost killed me. Just tallying up the resource inventories and population distribution for twenty-seven hive cities forced me into a hundred and eight hours of overtime—in-game time!"
He threw his arms up. "I like it just fine right now. Catching some rays, drinking a cold one. I don't have to worry about which hive is going to starve tomorrow, and I don't have to calculate how to restructure the PDF regiments."
"Paul definitely can't sit still." White Scars waded out of the ocean, water beading and sliding down his chiseled musculature. He was easily the most jacked out of all of them, having competed in multiple marathons and cross-country races in real life. "He's got all fourteen billion of our Imperial Coins sitting in his account right now. Knowing him, he's probably already drawing up blueprints to turn Aurelian IV into a second Ultramar. By the time we get back, we might actually own a few sectors."
"Please, no..." Tax Bro immediately waved his hands, a look of lingering trauma washing over his face. "Managing one planet almost put me in an early grave. If you add a few more sectors, we're literally going to die of overwork in a video game. I stand by it: things are great right now. At least when you die out here, you don't have to pay to respawn."
"Once the update finishes, they'll probably roll out a ton of new content," Cogboy mused. "Like expanding the player cap? The initial five thousand was nowhere near enough. You guys with your superhuman augmentations basically treated the rest of us unaugmented folks like pack mules. We had less than four hundred people managing a population of over ninety million. Plus, they need a complete quest system, Chapter upgrade mechanics... our Chapters have been hard-stuck at the 1,000 experience cap for ages."
Tax Bro flashed a grin. "Pretty much. Honestly, I just hope they drop some different vehicles. The Thunderhawk is a blast to fly, sure, but it'd be sick if they added some real-world-style rides. It'd really boost the immersion."
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple." Blood Angel sat up, the easygoing relaxation fading from his face. He grabbed a bottle of mineral water, took a swig, and his tone grew deadly serious. "Did you guys notice what happened at the very end? Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Ferrus Manus all showed up at the same time. And..." He looked directly at Schrödinger Bro. "An Iron Warrior showed up too. Dantioch. If I'm remembering my Warhammer lore right, that's a Loyalist Warsmith from the Iron Warriors."
Schrödinger Bro pulled down his sunglasses, his eyes narrowing. "What are you getting at?"
"I feel like this update is actually a timeline acceleration." Blood Angel dragged a finger through the sand, tracing out invisible lines. "Based on the overarching timeline we pieced together, the current in-game year is 977.M30. Horus gets wounded on Davin in 005.M31... which means we're less than thirty years away from it. The Exterminatus on Isstvan III, the Great Purge, the Warmaster's Rebellion... the countdown to all these events has already started. And then there's us. Crimson Dawn. We currently control a fully intact planet, field over four thousand superhuman units, and have Paul, a literal Champion, holding the reins."
The casual banter on the beach had quietly died out.
Everyone was staring at Blood Angel.
"Our current situation," Blood Angel continued slowly, "is like a bunch of level 10 players who just stepped out of the beginner village, and we're about to face the first massive, server-wide world event... except this event... is the one that sets the entire galaxy on fire... The Horus Heresy."
Nobody said a word.
The rhythmic crash of the waves, the sea breeze, and the distant sizzle of the barbecue suddenly seemed deafeningly loud.
Tax Bro set his can down, the metal clinking softly against the table. "If that's true... whose side do we take?"
"The Emperor?" White Scars offered tentatively.
"And what about Horus?" [Have You Been Loyal Today?] countered. "The Warmaster commands more than half the Space Marine Legions. Emperor's Children, Iron Warriors, Death Guard, World Eaters, Word Bearers, Night Lords... not to mention Alpharius, that two-faced snake. If we meet them head-on, our little setup won't even make a splash."
"But the Emperor has Guilliman, Sanguinius..." Tax Bro counted on his fingers. "...Dorn, Jaghatai, Corax..."
Schrödinger Bro shook his head. "Because of the Emperor's inaction, the Imperium fell right into Chaos's trap. The Warmaster's betrayal is inevitable, and we don't have the strength to stop the Four Gods. Besides, the Imperium is never going to treat us like their own. What Crimson Dawn is doing is fundamentally different from Macragge... The second the Emperor ascends the Golden Throne... we could be branded as heretics at a moment's notice, especially once the Ecclesiarchy takes root."
The group plunged back into a heavy silence.
"What if..." [Have You Been Loyal Today?] started. Everyone turned to look at him. "We just do it ourselves? I mean, if neither side considers us one of them, we just become the third faction. Aurelian IV is only the starting point. Didn't Paul say it? Use the towns to encircle the hives, and the hives to encircle the sector. We have the game system. There's bound to be a massive influx of new players, we have a cross-universal tech tree... and we have time."
[I'm Not the Regent I'm Just Passing By Guilliman] chimed in. "There's still plenty of time before the Siege of Terra."
Cogboy spoke up slowly. "If we can use this time to build Aurelian IV into a true Fortress World. Buy a powerful tech tree from the store that's entirely independent of both the Imperium and Chaos, build our own fleet..."
"And then what?" Tax Bro asked. "Swoop in and pick up the pieces after the Imperium and the Traitors bleed each other dry?"
"Or preserve a single sanctuary when the galaxy burns," Blood Angel said softly, staring out at the ocean. "When Paul became a Champion, one of his five traits was Hope. He said it himself: in a universe like Warhammer, holding onto hope is the only way to bring everyone a true dawn."
Schrödinger Bro slipped his sunglasses back on and leaned back in his chair. "Then we wait for the update," he said. "Let's see what new toys, new mechanics, and new... challenges the game throws our way."
The gathering broke up.
The players returned to their daily lives, heading back to school or handling real-world business. Days bled into one another.
Some locked themselves in libraries, digging through every scrap of 30K lore they could find, even if it was mostly fragmented lore and contradictory timelines.
Others hit the gym, sweating bullets, swearing they'd carry their bolters a little longer next time they logged in—and if their real-world bodies couldn't handle it, they'd just yell, "Then let me ask you!!"
Someone else, like Cogboy, tried to reverse-engineer the technical knowledge they'd picked up in-game through real-world experiments.
--
Three in the morning, exactly one month later.
[Have You Been Loyal Today?], whose real name was Liam, couldn't sleep.
He booted up his PC, about to open the familiar Steam client to click on that certain galgame and take off, when suddenly, the pitch-black icon sitting dead center on his desktop seemed to flicker.
Liam fiercely rubbed his eyes.
The icon flashed again, this time holding for half a second. The borders of the once-dormant mech icon glowed with a familiar, crimson radiance.
With a trembling hand, he clicked it. It didn't throw a server connection error. Against a pure black background, crisp white text began to scroll:
[System Announcement]
Epoch 40K: Mecha Version 2.0 Update Notes.
The servers will officially open tomorrow at 09:00:00.
The Second Closed Beta features the following new content:
The player cap has been expanded to one hundred thousand users, with slots distributed randomly; lucky players can dive into the Mecha Universe to pilot mechs and soar freely through the sea of stars.
The Chapter system has received a comprehensive overhaul, unlocking all auxiliary functions.
Various leaderboards are now live, including the Reputation Board, Imperial Coin Board, and Merit Board.
A brand-new multi-faction reputation system has been introduced.
Players can now access personal vehicle customization and the personal homestead construction feature.
Finally, several in-game bugs have been squashed... To be continued... Please note that all character data from the first closed beta has been fully preserved. Newly created characters must complete a prerequisite orientation questionnaire. May the Dawn be with you.
Liam held his breath, took a screenshot, and opened the group chat that had been dead silent for a month. He fired the image off.
Three seconds later.
[Holy shit!!!!!!]
[It updated! It finally updated!]
[Tomorrow at nine! Whoever is late is buying the whole Chapter vodka!]
[My Dreadnought! My power armor! I missed you guys so much!]
[A hundred thousand people! Crimson Dawn is about to expand the army!]
[A multi-faction reputation system? Now that is interesting...]
Messages spammed the screen at warp speed. At three in the morning, the entire group chat was like a drop of water thrown into a boiling vat of oil.
Liam stared at his monitor, a massive grin plastered across his face.
He turned off his phone and lay back down, but sleep was completely off the table. When he closed his eyes, he didn't see the sunny beach; he saw the steel domes of the Kent Hive. He saw the synchronized marching of the PDF regiments, and the silhouette of Paul in his golden power armor standing on the bridge of the Light of Dawn.
And Blood Angel's words echoed endlessly in his mind:
He said it himself: in a universe like Warhammer, holding onto hope is the only way to bring everyone a true dawn.
In the past, whenever he met a heretic who was disloyal to the Imperium or the great Emperor, he would interrogate them: Have you been loyal today?
But now, he chose to be loyal to Crimson Dawn, loyal to the countless, rotting citizens of the Imperium trapped in the underbellies of a million worlds. He didn't need some impassioned, grandiose justification. He just needed a group of like-minded brothers and sisters, ready to do what they dared to dream, dared to act on, and dared to execute.
The hands of the clock quietly clicked past four in the morning.
Five hours remained until the second beta began.
--
Next Bonus chapter at 900 Powerstones.
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