Chapter Summaries

Chris and the Special Operations Group captured Superintendent Littell in New Mombasa and brought him to a hidden Investigation Department base for examination. Athena arrived and warned that New Mombasa might be facing an extremely serious threat.

• Chris watched Superintendent Littell leave the Red-Light District after receiving free service from the brothel's madam.
• Chris and three Special Operations Group members ambushed Littell in a parking lot, but he shot the operatives before Chris struck him unconscious.
• Chris ordered the team to transport Littell in a modified Forerunner Hardlight body bag and said future covert operations involving Kinsler needed the Gray Adjudicators' cooperation.
• Chris's team brought Littell to the Investigation Department's hidden branch base west of Mombasa, where technicians began scanning him in an isolation room.
• Night Howl told Chris that Littell's reaction speed was unusually fast, and Athena arrived to warn them that New Mombasa might face an extremely serious threat.

Athena recognized Littell’s capture as a trap, assumed command of the Atlas branch base, and warned that Chaos might have corrupted Mombasa and threatened Earth. As UNSC forces assaulted the base, Athena emerged to fight them, and a live broadcast showed her overturning a Scorpion tank.

• Athena warned that Littell might have been bait and ordered the branch base placed on combat alert.
• Chris gave Athena temporary command, and she ordered Cortana to alert the Atlas fleet and company leadership about the threat.
• Athena burned Littell to ash and ordered the Investigators and Adjudicators to prepare to defend the base.
• Mombasa police Pelicans and UNSC forces attacked the branch base, but Atlas missiles destroyed the Pelicans and Hardlight weapons stopped the first Helljumper assault.
• A news crew broadcast Athena fighting UNSC troops, and she kicked a forty-ton Scorpion tank over.

Athena immobilized the UNSC forces and warned that an unknown force was about to erode Mombasa, just as a portal opened downtown and unleashed deadly creatures. A mother and daughter escaped the Devil Rays by reaching the Metro, only to discover the police had lured civilians there for sacrifice before an airdrop pod crashed into the station.

• Athena used Aegis to freeze the UNSC soldiers and vehicles, then identified herself as a Greek chief god and Atlas lieutenant and urged cooperation against the coming erosion.
• Nine pillars of light erupted over downtown Mombasa, forming a portal through which strange creatures poured into the city.
• A mother and her daughter fled their apartment as Mombasa descended into chaos, but Devil Rays attacked residents and trapped their car in traffic.
• The mother carried her daughter to the Metro, where special police officers welcomed the civilians and then revealed they intended to offer their souls and bodies to their lord.
• A large individual airdrop pod smashed through the ground and plunged into the Metro, interrupting the beret-wearing officer's laughter.

Yang Yan, a Flame Salamander, rescued civilians trapped in a Mombasa subway and led them toward safety as allied forces began turning the tide against the Chaos Daemons. In the Red-Light District, Elite veterans charged in to rescue a surrounded UNSC reconnaissance company and the civilians it was protecting.

• Yang Yan emerged from a Drop Pod and killed the Chaos-corrupted tactical officers on the subway platform.
• Yang Yan gave a frightened girl a teddy bear, introduced himself, and promised to escort everyone on the platform out of the city.
• Yang Yan led the civilians along the subway tracks toward Mombasa's southern outskirts while the Primarchs, Astartes, and Elite veterans fought across the city.
• Captain Xie'er Nusipei requested close air support after Chaos Daemons trapped his reconnaissance company near the Red-Light District and a pink fireball killed one of his soldiers.
• More than a dozen armored Elite veterans charged into the Daemons with double-bladed Energy Swords and began cutting them down.

Atlas veterans and a Dark Angels squad rescued a UNSC Recon Company from Chaos Daemons in Mombasa. Captain Jialan Clovey continued toward the portal while Captain Shell Nusepe organized the evacuation of civilians and resumed reconnaissance.

• Atlas's elite veterans defeated the Daemons surrounding the UNSC Recon Company, using Heavy Bolter fire to destroy the flying Mages.
• Jialan Clovey led a six-man Dark Angels tactical squad to the intersection behind the veterans.
• Shell Nusepe approached Jialan, thanked him for the rescue, and proposed that Atlas and the UNSC cooperate against the attack on Mombasa.
• Jialan advised Nusepe to evacuate civilians and keep fighting the supernatural creatures, then led his squad toward the portal in the city center.
• Nusepe ordered Third Platoon survivors to evacuate civilians and First and Second Platoons to continue their reconnaissance mission.

UNSC reconnaissance troops observed the battle consuming Mombasa and realized they could not fight the supernatural forces themselves. Mortarion wounded a Tzeentch Greater Daemon near the portal, and another attacker dragged it down as Mortarion prepared to finish it.

• Nusepe split his depleted reconnaissance company, sending Third Platoon to escort civilians toward the Metro while the others continued toward central Mombasa.
• Nusepe brought his company together with two special operations companies at an apartment building, and the soldiers climbed to observe the battle against the Demons.
• Nusepe saw Athena and the Greek Demigods fighting alongside Atlas forces and realized that ordinary UNSC troops could not confront the powerful creatures near the portal.
• Mortarion fought the Tzeentch Greater Daemon, wounded it with Death's Silence, and forced it to retreat toward the portal.
• A clawed attacker severed the Greater Daemon's wing and dragged it to the ground as Mortarion declared that it would die.

Mortarion and Corax killed the Tzeentch Greater Daemon and destroyed the Chaos portal in Mombasa. After UNSC leaders ordered troops to attack Atlas, Nusepe’s scouts refused, and Mortarion proposed changing Humanity-08’s rulers while Cortana prepared to expose the leaders’ actions.

• Mortarion and Corax killed the Greater Daemon, and golden flames purged the Chaos-tainted spectacle and destroyed the portal.
• Corax told Mortarion that Kinsler’s crimes had made him want to kill Humanity-08’s senior officials, and Mortarion comforted him.
• Athena asked what Atlas would do next, and Mortarion said they would play it by ear or wait for orders.
• Nusepe refused orders to target Atlas and led his scouts toward contact with Atlas, while Elite veterans captured the group and disarmed most of the special forces.
• Mortarion proposed that he and Corax change Humanity-08’s rulers, and ordered Cortana to publish combat footage and evidence of the UNSC’s orders and corruption.
• Athena warned that publicizing the Chaos battle could spread Chaos’s influence, and Mortarion said Cortana would edit the footage to limit that risk.

Mortarion ordered Atlas forces to secure Mombasa and attack UNSC command while the Warrior's Woe fought its way through the Defense Fleet. After the Sixth Army Division sided with the company and the transports retrieved the ground forces, the Warrior's Woe jumped toward Orbital Station 017 to assault the UNSC command staff.

• Mortarion ordered Athena to persuade the Sixth Army Division to support the company and directed Cortana to prepare an attack on the UNSC command staff and downtown Mombasa.
• The Warrior's Woe and three other Atlas ships devastated the UNSC Defense Fleet, then the Warrior's Woe entered the atmosphere and launched Transport Craft toward Mombasa.
• Yang Yan treated civilians in the southern suburbs, and the Sixth Army Division openly defied UNSC high command after Athena arrived.
• Yang Yan, the other Flame Salamanders, Mortarion, Corax, and the Elite veterans boarded transports and returned to the Warrior's Woe.
• The Warrior's Woe jumped from the atmosphere toward Orbital Station 017 as the UNSC 3rd Defense Fleet watched its transports prepare to board the station by force.

Atlas forces boarded Station 017, captured the UNSC leadership, and threatened the Earth Defense Fleet into considering a ceasefire. Captain Alexander ordered the Spirit of Fire to stop fighting and return to Moon Base, and Sui Yang noticed the ship on the list of vessels that had ceased fire.

• The Warrior's Woe arrived at Station 017, and the vice admiral ordered the station's defenders to prepare for Atlas's boarding force.
• The vice admiral refused to evacuate, but the Warrior's Woe destroyed the transport craft carrying the colonel and other fleeing officers.
• Dark Angels squads stormed the station toward the command center while Mortarion and Corax stayed behind and Mortarion ordered Cortana to broadcast a final warning to the Earth Defense Fleet.
• Captain Carter argued that the UNSC could not defeat Atlas, and Captain Alexander ordered the Spirit of Fire to cease fire and return to Moon Base.
• Apu reported that nearly sixty percent of the Earth Defense Fleet's captains had ceased fire, and Sui Yang spotted the Spirit of Fire on the list.

Sui Yang reviewed Atlas’s plans for expanding its foothold in the Halo universe and rejected an attempt by the Chaos Gods to tempt him into abandoning humanity. He ordered the fleet to head to Earth in Universe 08 immediately.

• Sui Yang considered recruiting James Carter and reviewed the Warp corruption in Mombasa, including the destruction of Aesad Meklie by Mortarion and Corax.
• Sui Yang ordered more than 42,000 Clone Soldiers and the Engineering Department to deploy from Bountiful Star to the branch base outside Mombasa, while Core Base 0459 prepared more Sojourner-class Dreadnoughts.
• Sui Yang planned to locate Requiem and kill the Didact, then use the Mombasa portal to reach the Ark once the Covenant no longer threatened the Humanity-Elite Alliance.
• Tzeentch and the other Chaos Gods appeared to Sui Yang in a vision and tried to persuade him to sacrifice humanity and join them, but he destroyed the illusion with the Emperor’s Sword.
• Sui Yang recovered on the bridge and ordered Apu to prepare the fleet to head to Earth in Universe 08 immediately.

Atlas continued rebuilding Mombasa and helping its residents as Sui Yang led a fleet into the wilderness to uncover a buried portal. The excavation began under Apu’s direction, leaving the gateway’s discovery unresolved.

• Atlas expanded its presence in Mombasa, restored essential services, and offered residents supplies and jobs while its forces helped maintain order.
• Christina Vakir applied for medical assistant work, and an Atlas attendant referred her to a training camp after reviewing her nursing-school background.
• Ceres Vakir decided she wanted to join Atlas’s Emergency Countermeasures Unit when she grew up.
• Sui Yang, Mortarion, Corax, Apu, and Melissa traveled aboard an Atlas fleet toward the wilderness southwest of Mombasa.
• At Sui Yang’s command, Apu deployed a Beam Matrix to excavate a buried portal in the wilderness.

Sui Yang prepared to seize the Ark’s Transit Matrix while Atlas tightened its control over the Halo universe. After revealing that he might be able to open multiple Space Gates at once, he sent Mortarion and Corax to help test a portal beyond the Milky Way.

• Atlas imposed reforms across the Solar System, while Reach watched cautiously, the Moderate Rebel Army agreed to cooperate, and radical rebels remained hostile.
• Mortarion asked whether Fulgrim and the others could handle the Covenant, and Sui Yang reassured him before warning him against putting personal ambition ahead of equality among the Primarchs.
• Sui Yang told Mortarion and Corax that he might be able to open more Space Gates at once, though doing so would consume enormous Psychic Power.
• Sui Yang ordered Mortarion and Corax to accompany Ashford and Dr. Halsey to the Transit Matrix and attempt to open a portal beyond the Milky Way.
• Mortarion, Corax, Alexia, Halsey, and their escort reached the Matrix entrance, where Alexia remarked on the Forerunners’ technological achievements.

Halsey and Alexia activated the Forerunner portal, allowing Sui Yang’s fleet to reach the Ark beyond the Milky Way. As Sui Yang ordered the company to secure the Ark, the chapter shifted to New Accra, where David Martinez carried shopping bags through the city.

• Halsey and Alexia opened the Forerunner gate and revealed a star map of the Milky Way’s ruins.
• Mortarion led the researchers through the Transit Matrix while Corax scouted ahead and confirmed the inner hall was clear.
• The matrix formed a portal beyond the Milky Way, and Sui Yang ordered the fleet to pass through it.
• Sui Yang saw the Ark and ordered Astartes and technicians to secure its central control room.
• In New Accra, David Martinez complained as he carried shopping bags for two companions.

On April 22, 2003, David, Rebecca, and Lucy walked through New Accra, where humans and visitors from other universes lived openly together, as news reported on preparations to establish an empire. The chapter recapped Atlas’s progress across the Cyberpunk and Halo universes and revealed that the trio had come to the Main Universe to prepare for an imminent Space Gate opening.

• Rebecca teased David as he carried their shopping bags, while Lucy led the group through New Accra’s busy commercial streets.
• The trio crossed a Hardlight pedestrian bridge and entered a dumpling restaurant, where Rebecca ordered their meal.
• A live news report showed the unfinished Imperial Palace and stated that it was expected to enter service before April 14, 2004, when humanity would formally establish the Empire.
• The chapter recounted that Cyberpunk universe unification had finished, Halo unification had reached about 40 percent, and Atlas was researching the Ark in the Solar System’s Kuiper Belt.
• Atlas had publicly disclosed its Space Gates and contact with other universes in 2002, leading Abhumans and Elites to visit and immigrate to the Main Universe.
• David, Rebecca, and Lucy had come to the Main Universe to prepare for an imminent Space Gate opening.

David, Lucy, and Rebecca spent their leave sightseeing and eating in New Accra before setting out by maglev train across Africa. Meanwhile, at Accra Park, D-Class Personnel in power armor began a live-combat test as Atlas prepared to open three Space Gates.

• The chapter explained that David, Lucy, and Rebecca belonged to Atlas’s Trial Corps, whose members tested safer Cyberware and trained for future reconnaissance missions.
• The three ate dumplings at the Best Handmade Dumpling Restaurant, where Rebecca teased David and he talked about his goals and Major MacTavish.
• After visiting New Accra, David, Lucy, and Rebecca checked out of their hotel and boarded a maglev train to travel across Africa during the end of their leave.
• At Accra Park, Atlas operated production lines for Bio-Organic Weapons while keeping Clones off the market and using them as high-tier cannon fodder.
• A broadcast gave more than a hundred D-Class Personnel two minutes to hide in the Simulated Town before a live-combat test.

In Simulated Town, enhanced D-Class Personnel ambushed Knight Drake, only to discover that his Aegis-pattern Terminator armor and combat skills made him overwhelmingly superior. As Drake finished clearing the town, Alexia told Athena that the Grey Knights were there to assist the Gray Adjudicators, though the Adjudicators were actually meant to assist the Grey Knights.

• Modified D-Class Personnel gathered in Simulated Town, believing they could ambush Atlas's test products and escape if they defeated them.
• Knight Drake used his Bolt Gun to kill D-Class Personnel and draw the rest toward him, where their attacks failed against his armor's defenses.
• Drake cut down the charging D-Class Personnel with his Psychic-powered War Spear and continued killing them throughout the town.
• Researchers reported to Alexia that Drake's metrics far exceeded those of an ordinary Astartes and that his Aegis-pattern Terminator Power Armor outperformed the Tytan-pattern armor.
• Athena asked whether the Grey Knights were established to assist the Gray Adjudicators, and Alexia replied that the Adjudicators were meant to assist the Grey Knights.

Alexia told Athena that she and the Greek Demigods would mentor the four thousand Grey Knights, Astartes made with Sui Yang’s Gene-Seed and trained to confront supernatural threats. As Alexia prepared their final surgeries and arranged an examination for Drake, Athena asked to meet him, while Sui Yang was already at the Frontline Base on Bountiful Star.

• Alexia asked Athena and the Greek Demigods to mentor the Grey Knights because the Adjudicators were too few to handle major supernatural incidents.
• The chapter explained how Sui Yang’s Gene-Seed, the Grey Knights’ training, and their Nanoglands made them more powerful and costly to produce than ordinary Astartes.
• Alexia reviewed the expansion of the existing Legions and said Atlas would eventually make each Primarch fund their Legion’s equipment, while the Grey Knights would answer directly to Sui Yang.
• Alexia told Athena that her team would complete the Grey Knights’ surgeries within five months and that Athena’s group would teach them their duties.
• Athena asked whether Sui Yang had returned to the Main Universe, and Alexia said he remained in the Halo universe but would return soon.
• Alexia ordered researchers to recover the D-Class Personnel’s bodies and examine Drake, and Athena asked to accompany them to speak with him.

Atlas built orbital defenses and a low-end Sojourner-class warship on Bountiful Star as Sui Yang prepared Perturabo for a dangerous new universe. Four days later, Price revealed that reconnaissance teams had found apocalyptic scenes beyond all three newly opened Space Gates.

• Atlas completed the first Stalwart-class Frigate, a scaled-down Sojourner-class warship equipped with a Beam Matrix, Jump Drive, and Reaper-improved shields.
• Perturabo arrived on Bountiful Star with Sui Yang and Tinas, and Sui Yang told him he would join a team preparing to face a dangerous new parallel universe.
• Sui Yang sent Perturabo to meet his teammates and asked Tinas to return to Terraria to carry out agreements between Atlas and her Elven Kingdom.
• Sui Yang departed for the Avatar universe to use Psychic Power against Eywa on Pandora Planet.
• On May 2, 2003, Price told a briefing that reconnaissance teams sent through the gates to Universes 10, 11, and 12 had reported apocalyptic scenes.

Price briefed Atlas’s assembled forces on reconnaissance of Universes 10 and 11, where the first showed evidence of nuclear devastation and the second appeared to be an empty human-built world with two moons. The chapter left the nature of the threats and the fate of the inhabitants unknown as Atlas prepared to investigate further.

• Price introduced the personnel joining the mission, including Jains Thomson’s AECS Special Operations Detachment, Celine, and Perturabo.
• Price showed footage from Universe 10, where Cerberus and a Synthetic found a radiation-blasted Los Angeles strewn with human remains.
• Celine estimated a seventy-two percent chance that a sudden global nuclear war had devastated Earth 10 and advised delaying orbital reconnaissance until Atlas had assessed the threats on the ground.
• Price accepted Celine’s recommendation and said Atlas would first establish a Frontline Base and conduct detailed reconnaissance.
• Price showed footage from Universe 11, where the Synthetic found a lifeless city with human-style buildings, no remains, and two moons in the sky.

Price briefed Atlas’s forces on three newly discovered universes and prepared them for a joint reconnaissance operation. After recognizing Universe 11 as the world of Gears of War and Universe 12 as the world of Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Sui Yang reinforced the deployment, and the assigned units prepared to depart.

• Price presented intelligence on the three universes, appointed Celine to classify them and assign personnel, and announced that the operation would begin in twenty-four hours.
• Rebecca, David, and Lucy left the meeting with the Trial Corps as the AECS Special Operations Detachment followed behind them.
• Sui Yang identified Universe 11 as Sera from Gears of War, ordered five cadet corps and five thousand Young Astartes to its Frontline Base, and told Magnus to activate the Titan Project for Universe 12.
• Sui Yang uploaded his knowledge of Gears of War and Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters to the Intelligence Department and left Universe 10 for further investigation.
• The Trial Corps and Jains Thomson’s AECS Special Operations Detachment finished preparing their equipment at Relic Base, and Jains directed them to follow their systems’ deployment orders.