The screen in front of Scorchwind froze on crimson text: [Mission Failed - Altar Not Purified Before Demon Tide].
His Ultramarine (that fearless giant clad in deep blue and gold) had been swallowed by an endless tide of crimson and purple-black: Bloodletters with their lava greatswords, Pink Horrors wielding twisted psychic powers, and Daemonettes striking with phantom blades.
He never even got to see what the Greater Daemon looked like. Under the demon horde's third wave, his shields shattered, his armor tore apart, and he fell just meters from the Khornate altar's core.
"Damn it!"
Scorchwind slammed his fist against the immersion pod's padded edge. The hit wasn't hard, but the frustration was clear.
He backed out to the matchmaking screen and stared at the "Adeptus Astartes" faction icon, still fuming.
"This is... isn't this completely broken design?" He spoke into his mic, trying to process what just happened, frustration dripping from every word.
"Those Bloodletters? I can drop one in three shots, even take them in melee. Pink Horrors are annoying but nothing I can't handle. Daemonettes are fast and like to ambush, but they're still manageable... but here's the problem: they spawn five per minute! Coming from every direction! How is anyone supposed to deal with that?
I don't care how good Ultramarines are at fighting. Bullets aren't infinite! Chainswords overheat! This is just a straight numbers game!"
The angrier he got, the louder he became. "And that altar? Tanky as hell! Takes forever to bring down! You're supposed to hold off a demon swarm and destroy that thing at the same time? Is this mission even possible?"
The chat, however, wasn't having any of his excuses:
"C'mon, Scorchwind, quit whining!"
"Check your AI teammates' combat stats before you talk!"
"Those AIs racked up nearly 300 kills between them, cleared a path straight to the altar. Just needed one final push."
"Meanwhile you were out farming trash mobs and got swarmed."
"Skill issue. Git gud. Don't blame the faction."
"Classic case of playing too many power-fantasy games. Can't handle actual difficulty."
"Medici: Surprise! Even the Imperium takes Ls sometimes!"
Scorchwind went silent, instinctively pulling up the post-match stats.
Sure enough, his two AI teammates crushed him in every metric: kill efficiency, altar damage, survival time. They fought like precision war machines. During the early waves, they carved through demons efficiently and nearly secured the final blow on the altar.
Meanwhile, he'd gone in guns blazing early on, burning through ammo and armor durability. When the real pressure hit, he became the weak link.
"I..." Scorchwind opened his mouth, then sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Alright, yeah. My bad. Underestimated them. These Chaos daemons... they're no joke. Gotta switch up my tactics."
---
While Scorchwind was dissecting his failure and queuing up for redemption, a new trend was exploding across social media.
Leading the charge? A streamer previously known for being "hilariously bad": I Will Carry You.
She'd just posted a new clip, the title pure clickbait energy:
[Guys! Chaos side is INSANE! I found the scummiest strat ever and it's SO satisfying!]
In the video, her voice was crackling with excitement:
"Have you guys tried playing Astartes yet? Don't they feel crazy strong? Super satisfying? Well guess what. Playing Chaos and defending altars by dragging out the clock? That's the real big-brain play!"
The footage showed one of her matches. She'd picked the Scout class from the Chaos mortal auxiliaries.
Instead of rushing the frontline as cannon fodder like most players, she snuck to the top of a towering comms tower covered in blasphemous runes and set up a Chaos-blessed long rifle: extreme range, but damage that could only be described as a love tap.
"Watch this!" Her scope zeroed in on a three-man Astartes squad rapidly advancing to search for altars. "We're not trying to kill them (though stealing kills is a bonus). We're here to harass. To delay!"
She fired. The shot traveled across the map and pinged off the lead Astartes' shoulder guard, barely scratching his shields.
But that Astartes immediately stopped, raised his bolter, and started scanning for threats in the direction of the shot. Their advance halted.
"See that? One shot and he stops! Has to look for me!" I Will Carry You grinned and ducked behind cover, already relocating.
"They can't find me, but I can keep peppering them! Shoot and scoot! By the time they climb up here, I'm long gone! And the clock? Keeps. On. Ticking."
The recording fast-forwarded to the one-hour mark. She'd dealt almost no real damage, but her obnoxious potshots had delayed that Astartes squad by at least ten minutes.
The instant the timer hit exactly one hour, the video cut to a wide shot. Space around the Tzeentch altar she was defending began warping violently, crackling with blue psychic lightning.
Then several portals rimmed in eerie purple light tore open around the altar. Pink Horrors (waving tentacles and cackling with malicious glee) poured out in waves, rushing straight at the Astartes squad that had just shaken off her harassment.
"Here they come! Our babies are here!" I Will Carry You was practically jumping on top of her tower.
"See?! We don't have to suicide rush them! The altar spawns troops automatically! Daemon troops! Sure, Pink Horrors can't beat Space Marines one-on-one, but they've got psychic harassment! They block vision! Interrupt actions! Get enough of them and they'll drive the Marines crazy!"
She repositioned her character and, while the daemons soaked up all the Astartes' fire, peeked out to take potshots at the Space Marines tangled up with Pink Horrors: specifically targeting joints or trying to mess up their daemon-clearing.
"This is what I call the Infinite Summoning Strat!" I Will Carry You announced, voice dripping with the thrill of discovery.
"Early game? Stay hidden. Scouts stall like your life depends on it. Make it to one hour and the daemon flood does the work! We just lurk on the sidelines, pick off stragglers, snipe kills, or... keep being annoying so they can't peacefully wreck the altar! Scummy? Exactly! That's the whole point! It's about playing smart!"
---
The video spread like wildfire through the Chaos player base and new player communities.
Turns out, you didn't need to go toe-to-toe with the terrifying Astartes. Hide, delay, exploit the altar's summoning mechanics... this "scummy-but-effective" playstyle opened up a whole new world for countless players who'd been intimidated by the Space Marines' overwhelming power.