This is the bonus chapter for reaching 300 Powerstones.
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The moment [The Imperium's Purest Inquisitor] message was sent, the Loyalist channel exploded with spam.
[You're Not Loyal]: "Holy shit! Vance, what rank are you right now? How did you get into the Heliopolis council?!"
[The Imperium's Purest Inquisitor]: "The fleet's strategic advisor, Stanton, picked me to be his personal escort. I just had to stand there for two hours straight, my legs are completely numb."
[For the Regent Yellow Guilliman]: "That's not the point! The point is we have a timeline! The final week, the main temple!"
[The Emperor's Most Loyal Soldier]: "So... during the last week, we need to beat Fulgrim to the punch, sneak into the deep-sea altar, and destroy that sword? Or... steal it?"
[Love Eating Grox Cans]: "Is that even possible? The temple is definitely going to be the most heavily fortified location the Laer have. We have to survive fighting a war for a month, then infiltrate the core of the enemy's territory, and steal something right from under the noses of both the Laer and the Emperor's Children?"
[You're Not Loyal]: "And don't forget about the Chaos players. They definitely know the lore, too. Not only will they not try to stop it, but they'll actively figure out a way to ensure Fulgrim gets the sword!"
[I'd Even Be the Emperor's Dog]: "Wait, how are you so sure there are Chaos players here?"
[The Imperium's Purest Inquisitor]: "I saw four players in Heliopolis with black ID bars. Their names were all Chaos memes, and they've never once spoken in our regional chat. So it's safe to assume they have their own isolated Chaos channel. There are probably way more Chaos players scattered throughout the rest of the fleet."
The chat fell into a dead lull. A profound sense of dread washed over the players. They found themselves reminiscing about how simple playing Warhammer on a PC used to be—you just hacked and slashed, and you never had to deal with anything this insanely complicated.
After a long while, Vance sent another message: "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. First, we need to survive this month. Second, we need to get stronger. Third, we need to locate every single Loyalist player and establish contact. Only by uniting all Loyalist players can we actually change the ten thousand years of darkness that awaits the Imperium. Do you remember the words that appeared after we chose the Sacred Door? 'May the glory of the Holy Emperor be with you.' Since we chose loyalty, let's use our loyalty to illuminate the entire Imperium of Man. Let the radiance of the aquila crush the evils of Chaos. Fourth..."
He paused.
"We have to figure out a way to sabotage his plans without Fulgrim noticing. But not right now. Right now, everyone needs to scramble to scrap materials, hoard Imperial Coins, upgrade yourselves, and stockpile enough capital for respawns. The orbital drop begins in seven days. Only if we have enough Imperial Coins to actually survive will we earn the right to talk about the future."
Seeing these words in the chat, the frantic anxiety gripping the Loyalist players began to settle. He was right! What was there to be afraid of? Even though they were stuck in the Imperium faction, they were still gamers—they still had the Respawn function. And even during the Horus Heresy, as crumbling and broken as the Imperium was, it had never completely fallen.
[The Imperium's Purest Inquisitor] silently typed out one final message.
"The Imperium they speak of will endure millennium after millennium. Even if the Emperor is to become nothing but a rotting corpse, He can still illuminate the entire galaxy. Their gods are nothing more than a pack of begging cowards, and the atrocities they bring are nothing but a passing frost! My battlefield is here, my end is here, and my brothers are here!!! And traitors, their only fate is to burn in hell! For The Emperor!!!"
After reading these words, [You're Not Loyal] immediately spoke up in the regional chat: "The Inquisitor is right, brothers! It's just Fulgrim. So what if we fail to stop him from falling and ascending to daemonhood? The worst that happens is we die and respawn. The Imperium faction has too many opportunities; one Fulgrim doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. We just need to give it our all. Even though the Imperium of Man is a decaying, dogmatic nightmare, countless heroes have been born over its endless eons, forging countless epics. To the Imperium, sacrifice is the ultimate loyalty. Let's channel that Space Marine 2 energy when we were slaughtering daemons. We just need to go down there and fuck 'em up. And when we deploy, we focus the guys with the black IDs first."
Spurred on by their encouragement, a player with the ID [Worthy of the Blood of Sanguinius] silently sent out a message: "To the Imperium of Man, the Emperor, Guilliman, Sanguinius, Loyalty, and Unspeakable Glory."
The essence of humanity was to echo; the Loyalist channel instantly spammed a wall of identical text: "To the Imperium of Man, the Emperor, Guilliman, Sanguinius, Loyalty, and Unspeakable Glory."
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The Pride of the Emperor, in a different compartment.
This was the armory of the 447th Regiment, 3rd Battalion of the Solar Auxilia.
[Are You Sure This Melon Is Ripe]... real name Harry... had his portable reclamation tool pressed flush against a Chimera armored transport currently undergoing maintenance.
The screen on the device displayed:
[Reclaiming: Promethium Fuel (12 Liters)]
[Estimated Conversion: 8 Imperial Coins]
"Hell yeah." Harry grinned. Honestly, the only reason he couldn't reclaim the whole vehicle was because it was locked; he needed the keys to scrap the entire thing, otherwise he wouldn't just be siphoning gas.
He was a Chaos player. He picked the Door of Chaos purely because he thought freedom and a lack of restrictions sounded cool. Upon logging into the game and discovering it was the Warhammer universe, he got even more hyped. As a lore-hound, he knew that late-game Chaos was incredibly overpowered, the four Chaos Gods had insane swagger, and the Traitor Legions looked badass.
Especially when he opened the shop and saw the upgrade options.
[Basic Physique Enhancement (100 Imperial Coins)]
[Basic Neural Reflex Enhancement (100 Imperial Coins)]
[Basic Psychic Awakening Guidance (500 Imperial Coins, chance to activate a psychic talent) Note: Upon activating a psychic talent, Chaos faction players will automatically establish a link to the Chaos domains in the Warp, granting a chance to receive a Chaos Blessing.]
A Chaos Blessing!
Harry's eyes had lit up right then and there. Over the past seven days, he and three other Chaos players assigned to the same Auxilia company had formed a squad, frantically scavenging abandoned or unguarded supplies. Now, his stash of Imperial Coins had reached 310, and he had already purchased his first Basic Physique Enhancement. The sheer physical power he gained after the successful modification was intoxicating.
Beep.
Reclamation complete. 8 Imperial Coins deposited.
Harry put away the device and opened the regional chat—the exclusive channel for Chaos players, [Wings of Freedom].
[Wanna Exchange Pleasantries with Slaanesh]: "Here we go, here we go! The Prince of Pleasure is making a move! That's my boy right there. I came here to play a game, so bring on the freedom and chaos!"
[Please Enslave Me Megatron]: "Looking at it this way, we definitely picked the right faction. Even if this isn't some mecha universe and we're stuck in the shithole that is Warhammer, our faction is a guaranteed free win! Especially since we're in the Horus Heresy era, where Chaos dominates the early game."
[Blue Pigeon Knows Nothing]: "Should we keep an eye out for those Loyalist players? They know the lore too, what if they try to sabotage the plot?"
[Wanna Help Nurgle Brew Soup]: "Sabotage? With what? Unless they all miraculously turn into a Grey Knight kill-team, there's zero chance they can stop Fulgrim's corruption this time. The Prince of Pleasure is personally intervening. But your point stands. To secure our faction's victory, we should definitely teach those False Emperor simps a little lesson."
[Konnichiwa Slaanesh-chan]: "Say less, brothers. I've been sick of those Loyalists on the forums for ages. 'For the Emperor' this, 'For the Emperor' that—he's literally just a corpse. We need to make these braindead Loyalists understand that freedom is everything. The universe is massive, and pleasure reigns supreme. Let them drown in ultimate excess and sensory overload. Let's turn them into Chaos Spawn."
[I Just Like Sleeping In]: "Agreed! Agreed! I hate Guilliman the most, the guy is completely brainless anyway! Those Loyalists are always hyping him up. We need to let them taste the iron fist of the Grandfather. Let's use rot spores so they can feel their bodies decaying while they're still alive, turning them into incubators for even more spores. Now that is the true mercy of Grandfather Nurgle."
[All According to Plan]: "You guys are boring me to death talking about Slaaneshi and Nurgle pleasure methods. Stop roleplaying for a second. We need to focus on the Blade of the Laer. In the original timeline, after Fulgrim takes the sword, the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh inside begins corrupting him. We need to ensure that process goes smoothly."
[Are You Sure This Melon Is Ripe]: "How exactly do we ensure that? We're just a bunch of grunts. A single Emperor's Children marine could slaughter an entire squad of us."
[All According to Plan]: "That is exactly why we need a detailed plan. First, we need to survive the brutal planetary assault. Second, we need to offer Fulgrim a little... push... at the right time and in the right way."
[Konnichiwa Slaanesh-chan]: "A push? Like what?"
[All According to Plan]: "For example, when Fulgrim hesitates after being dissuaded by Lord Commander Vespasian. Some 'loyal' soldier suddenly screams 'For the Emperor!' only to be fatally ambushed by the Laer's green plasma-bomb gauntlets. Seeing a loyalist's sacrifice will harden Fulgrim's resolve to enter the temple and take the Blade of the Laer, believing it to be the Emperor's guidance. As for the ambusher and the victim, they can both be our guys; we'll just compensate them with some Imperial Coins afterward. Fulgrim can't see the IDs above our heads; he'll just think a loyal Imperial soldier was sneak-attacked and killed by the damn Laer."
[Are You Sure This Melon Is Ripe]: "Holy shit, this plan... is sinister."
[All According to Plan]: "It's called intelligence. Remember, we are Chaos players, but we aren't braindead lunatics. We have to win with our brains."
[I Just Like Sleeping In]: "The problem is, how do we know exactly when Fulgrim will reach the temple? And how do we arrange for that 'loyal' soldier to follow him there?"
[All According to Plan]: "That's why we need intel. I need at least five people to figure out a way to infiltrate the communications and intelligence departments during the orbital drop in seven days. That 50 Imperial Coin Body-Sculpting Package in the shop would be perfect for this. If anyone's short on cash, we can loan them the Imperial Coins for now and they can pay it back after the quest rewards come in. Aside from that, everyone else needs to stick as close to the Emperor's Children forces as possible during the campaign and observe their movements."
[Konnichiwa Slaanesh-chan]: "Understood. For the Prince of Pleasure!"
[Are You Sure This Melon Is Ripe]: "For the Blood God!"
[I Just Like Sleeping In]: "For the Grandfather!"
[All According to Plan]: "For... the Blue Pigeon."
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Next Goal = 600 powerstones.
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