When Jiang Chen awoke, he found himself lying in a pile of corpses.
One moment, he’d been working overtime. The next, he was an “enemy remnant” beneath the blades of the Imperial militia. By the time Alicia pulled him out of the corpse pile, he was barely alive.
Three months later, the Imperium’s second attempt to “persuade them to surrender” failed, and it issued an extermination order. Billions were reduced to ashes in orbital bombardments.
He looked at the scorched earth and said, “If they won’t let us live, we’ll survive on our own.”
From one person, to a dozen, to hundreds, to an entire star system.
From lasguns, to a space fleet, to making the Space Marines pay.
He never thought of himself as a hero. He just wanted those who wanted to live to be able to live like human beings.
When the Emperor’s armies descended once more, and the shadows of the Primarchs fell across the stars, he stood at the newly built spaceport and watched the first warship built in the Free Sector slowly take off.
Inscribed on its hull were the words:
“Born in fear, die in freedom.”
