Chapter Summaries

Yao En returned to the Tyran System with Heat Death and reported Belona’s death to Qin Mo. Qin Mo praised Heat Death as his own creation and took him for an examination.

• The Soul Black Hole docked at the Tyran starport, where Belante saw the crew face discrimination against Soulless Ones.
• Yao En sent the communications officer to take Belante to Sector 13 and teleported with Heat Death to the Talon Prime research facility.
• Yao En told Qin Mo that Belona was dead and that Heat Death had been with her.
• Qin Mo dismissed the rest of Yao En’s report and sent him to rest before helping Anreda.
• Qin Mo told Heat Death that he had designed his system, then invited him to undergo an examination.

Qin Mo explained that Heat Death’s self-awareness came from a Personality Matrix he had created while trying to reproduce the abilities of Soulless Ones. He assigned Heat Death to investigate a newly appeared Blackstone Fortress, then returned to researching how to merge the Star God fragments.

• Qin Mo showed Heat Death its Personality Matrix and explained that it gave the iron man self-awareness.
• Qin Mo revealed that the matrix was an early byproduct of his effort to replicate Soulless Ones and their resistance to Psychic Power.
• Qin Mo promised Heat Death an upgrade that could help it withstand Tyranid Brain Bugs, and Heat Death accepted that its personality was an incidental result.
• Qin Mo ordered Heat Death to investigate a Blackstone Fortress that had appeared in the eastern galaxy and retrieve it if it could be controlled.
• Qin Mo saw Heat Death off and resumed researching how to merge the Star God fragments.

Yao En traveled to Beisu Prime at Anreda’s request and learned that the system was negotiating integration into the Tyran Sector with the White Scars, who wanted to keep recruiting there. In the Underhive, Yao En met Chen Ye, the Space Marine who had fought beside him on Agrippina.

• Anreda brought Yao En to Beisu Prime, a vast hive world and the capital of its system.
• Anreda explained that Chen Ye had been recruited from Beisu two hundred years earlier and had returned to negotiate the system’s integration into the Tyran Sector.
• Anreda met with Beisu Prime’s Governors while Yao En went to the Underhive to meet Chen Ye.
• Yao En waited through acid rain and watched a local advertisement for Sol before Chen Ye appeared behind him.
• Yao En and Chen Ye silently recognized their bond from fighting together on Agrippina.

Chen Ye and Yao En crossed the Underhive, where Chen Ye repeatedly intervened to save people from gang violence. As they continued toward a bar, Yao En explained why he did not sympathize with ordinary Underhive residents, leaving Chen Ye to reconsider the Soulless Ones’ suffering.

• Yao En compared Chen Ye’s homemade poncho to the clothes worn by Underhive boxers as they walked through the acid rain.
• A little girl fled gang members and begged Chen Ye for help, so he killed one attacker, pinned the other in the acid rain, and gave the girl a gold coin.
• Chen Ye armed himself with the gang members’ autoguns and fought attackers across the district until the streets fell silent.
• Chen Ye told Yao En that he felt the Underhive residents’ suffering as if it were his own and that he wanted to save everyone he could.
• Yao En said he sympathized only with the Soulless Ones, explaining that ordinary people had bullied him and once tried to kill his daughter.

Chen Ye asked Yao En to guarantee that the Beisu System’s people would live secure, orderly lives, then took him into the hive depths. There, they arrived at a battle against five hundred bald-headed Gene Stealers.

• Chen Ye met Yao En at a tavern in the Underhive and explained that he wanted the people of the Beisu System to eat well and live in order.
• Yao En agreed to guarantee Chen Ye’s request, and Chen Ye said his real purpose was to ensure evildoers received the punishment they deserved.
• Chen Ye armed himself, said farewell to the proprietress, and took Yao En away on his motorcycle.
• Chen Ye drove Yao En through the hive depths toward a destination as gunfire sounded nearby.
• Chen Ye and Yao En reached a battlefield where more than two thousand people were fighting five hundred bald-headed Gene Stealers.

Chen Ye and Yao En helped District 100’s militia purge Gene Stealers across the Underhive of Beisu Prime. Before heading to the final, fiercest battle, Chen Ye explained District 100’s unity and hinted that its young leader could become Beisu Prime’s Governor.

• Chen Ye herded Gene Stealers together, and Yao En killed them with his Shoulder Cannon while the militia secured the battlefield.
• Yao En repaired a broken pistol and gave it to a young soldier, then Chen Ye gathered coordinates and took him to other battles.
• After more than a dozen fights, Chen Ye prepared for the last battlefield and explained that District 100’s residents organized themselves to fight Gene Stealers.
• Yao En suspected District 100 was full of Gene Stealers, but Chen Ye pointed to a young leader whose influence could explain the district’s order and unity.

Yao En refused Chen Ye’s request to help replace Beisu Prime’s Governor, but Anreda’s research into the city’s history revealed a suspicious assassination that could link the ruling family to Gene Stealers. Yao En agreed to investigate before the Hive City became a danger to the Tyran Gate defensive zone.

• Yao En told Chen Ye he could not interfere with the Governor’s position because the succession was legal and the Governor had committed no known unforgivable crimes.
• Chen Ye took Yao En back to the Underhive, where Yao En noticed an advertisement and wondered how District 100 residents knew about the Gene Stealers.
• Anreda told Yao En that the former Governor family had reclaimed power after the competent Governor Taan’s successor was mysteriously assassinated despite having a future-seeing Psyker and elite guards.
• Yao En suggested Gene Stealers could have carried out the assassination, and Anreda suspected the current Governor family might have ties to them.
• Yao En agreed to investigate the old assassination because any link between the Governor family and Gene Stealers could threaten the Tyran Gate defensive zone.

Anreda learned that Anton did not know how his father had killed Taan, then heard that Anton planned a military operation against District 100 and warned Yao En. In District 100, Chen Ye and a blind Psyker prepared the locals for the anticipated assault, until Chen Ye spotted an old friend arriving in black Power Armor.

• Yao En went to District 100 to question Chen Ye about Taan's death while Anreda searched the Library for information about the Hive City's history.
• Anton told Anreda that he knew Taan as He Zheng but did not know how his father had killed him, then announced a planned operation against the World-Saving Insect God in District 100.
• Anreda urged Anton to postpone the operation, then warned Yao En that he doubted it would really be delayed and told him to show the attackers what would happen.
• Chen Ye and the blind Psyker inspected the walls that prophecy said would be breached, and the militia and residents reinforced them.
• Chen Ye headed to the northern wall, where he saw someone in black Power Armor approaching and recognized an old friend.

Yao En questioned He Qizheng and a blind Psyker about the former Governor’s death, while learning why District 100 had fought the Gene Stealers and how He Qizheng’s grandfather rose to power. He Qizheng began describing the assassination and revealed that he had seen a long, slender tail near the scene.

• Yao En entered District 100 and met the Psyker and the injured He Qizheng, the former Governor’s grandson.
• Yao En injected He Qizheng with nanomachines that repaired his wounds.
• He Qizheng said District 100 had entered the Underhive to avenge the abduction of dozens of its children by Gene Stealers.
• He Qizheng recounted how his grandfather and the Psyker rebelled against an abusive Governor, killed him, and later improved life in the Hive City.
• He Qizheng described how the former Governor was assassinated despite heavy security and said he had heard movement in a ventilation duct before seeing a long, slender tail.

Yao En learned that He Qizheng’s grandfather had used ancient relics to guide District 100, including tablets that purified its water and a device containing a colony-management lesson. The lesson explained how He Qizheng’s family had preserved the knowledge that shaped their community.

• Yao En questioned how He Qizheng’s grandfather had learned to manage a Hive City despite his Underhive origins.
• He Qizheng led Yao En to a hidden basement room where District 100’s children were sheltered behind an ancient, self-destructing security door.
• He Qizheng showed Yao En family relics, and Yao En identified the remaining pills as emergency water-purification tablets.
• He Qizheng activated a book-shaped device that projected a classroom and connected their Brain-Computer Interfaces to its instructors.
• Yao En and He Qizheng watched an old course on colony management, which explained the knowledge behind He Qizheng’s family legacy.

Yao En learned that He Qizheng wanted to leave District 100 a lasting source of clean water, then discovered the Psyker’s warning of a catastrophe in the Tyran Sector in seventy-one years. At the spire, Anreda confronted Gene Stealer nobles after the Governor learned that his investigation had exposed them.

• Yao En gave He Qizheng a blueprint for a water-purifying machine, and He Qizheng explained that he would keep it from other districts to prevent gangs and speculators from sabotaging it.
• Yao En returned He Qizheng’s ancient book and told him to preserve the knowledge inside it.
• Anreda confirmed He Qizheng’s account, then vowed to find and eliminate the nobles cooperating with Gene Stealers.
• The Psyker told Yao En that her master had predicted a great catastrophe in the Tyran Sector in seventy-one years, and Yao En sent the warning to the Lord of Tyran.
• Anreda entered the Governor’s Audience Hall and found Gene Stealer genes among the Noble Guards, whose officer revealed that the Governor had learned of the investigation through the Psyker.

Anton confronted the purple-skinned cult leader beneath the Governor’s residence, while Anreda and the Custodians prepared to purge Beisu Hive City. The remaining Noble Guard surrounded the Audience Hall, and Grey arrived to join the fight.

• Anton told his attendant how the Mechanical Hound had saved him and his father in the Underhive, then brought the attendant to the cult leader.
• The cult leader blamed Anton for exposing the cult, but Anton argued that hiding would not save them from the Tyranids.
• Anreda defeated the Noble Guard in the Audience Hall, burned their bodies, recorded the traitorous families, and recommended purging Beisu Hive City to Qin Mo.
• Qin Mo ordered Anreda, Yao En, Grey, and the Space Marine to eliminate rebellious families in the Tower Spire before the Imperial Army cleared the lower hives.
• The remaining Noble Guard and Tower Spire forces surrounded the Audience Hall, while Yao En and Chen Ye arrived and Grey descended from orbit into the ruins.

Anreda, Chen Ye, Grey, and Yao En defeated the forces guarding the Audience Hall and exposed the Gene Stealer families through targeted bombardments. They planned to capture and kill the Governor while sparing innocents, leaving the assault on the tower's summit still to come.

• The Custodians and Chen Ye survived the defenders' heavy fire while a weapon-detection pulse revealed the melta and plasma weapons hidden among the troops.
• Grey used Bullet Time, his Shoulder Cannon, and his Chainsword to kill the hidden weapon bearers, after which Anreda and Chen Ye attacked officers while Grey and Yao En cleared soldiers and vehicles.
• Anreda shared information about the families linked to the Gene Stealers, and Grey's ship bombarded estates and districts identified as belonging to those families.
• Grey's Chainsword caused the Gene Stealers to experience visions of propaganda depicting Qin Mo slaying their Patriarch, and the Gene Stealers broke before the human soldiers did.
• After the battle, Anreda burned corpses and collected family crests as evidence while Grey, Chen Ye, Yao En, and Anreda agreed to capture the Governor without killing innocents.

Grey and his companions searched for the Governor and found a castle occupied by a small force led by a former Planetary Defense Force Marshal. The former Marshal prepared his makeshift army to liberate the Spire, while his son revealed that the force existed to indulge his fantasies.

• Anreda concluded that nearly all Spire families had likely collaborated with the Gene Stealers, and Grey led the group toward the Governor.
• Grey’s team approached a castle and nearly bombarded it before they noticed two slaves burning the bodies of Noble Guard members.
• Grey entered the castle and returned with an elderly Marshal who claimed to know the Governor’s location.
• The Marshal assembled two thousand soldiers, a few failing APCs, and a group of maids to prepare for an attack.
• The Marshal’s son told Chen Ye that the supposed Planetary Defense Force was made up of family guards, servants, and slaves, assembled to satisfy his father’s fantasies.

Chen Ye, Grey, Yao En, and Anreda joined the former Marshal’s force to attack the Governor’s hiding place in Shelter Number Eighty-Eight. The former Marshal died in the assault, but the four fighters broke through the shelter’s defenses and found the Governor on its lowest level.

• Chen Ye learned that the former Marshal had built a makeshift Planetary Defense Force and that two other Spire families had joined him.
• After hearing that his younger brother had guided two hundred people seeking Anreda, the former Marshal’s son accepted that his brother might be dead and joined the expedition.
• The former Marshal led his force to Shelter Number Eighty-Eight, convinced the Governor was hiding there, and Grey’s group entered the shelter.
• Chen Ye shot the four gunners operating the heavy Stubbers, and the former Marshal charged forward before an enemy shot killed him.
• Yao En shielded the others as Grey, Yao En, Anreda, and Chen Ye fought through the shelter’s defenders and reached the lowest level, where they found the Governor seated on a Throne with his family and confidants.

Anreda exposed Anton’s collaboration with the Gene Stealers, and the Custodians left the Army to suppress the Underhive as Beisu Prime began its reconstruction. He Qizheng was appointed Governor, while Chen Ye resolved to return to his Chapter after saying goodbye to Yao En.

• Anreda stopped Anton from killing himself, read his memories, and confirmed that pureblood Gene Stealers had assassinated the Usurper.
• The Custodians decided to leave the Gene Stealer patriarch in the Underhive for the Army and insecticide to handle, while Yao En agreed to guide the Army.
• Five hundred thousand Tyran Army troops arrived on Beisu Prime, and insecticide rained over the planet as drones and soldiers advanced into the Underhive.
• Chen Ye asked Yao En about rebuilding the districts, gave him a fragment of his shattered shoulder plate, and said he was ready to return to his Chapter.
• The Lord of Tyran appointed He Qizheng the new Governor, and Yao En offered Chen Ye an advanced flying bike before he left.

Qin Mo entered Burner's hidden Webway refuge and used the Forge to fuse three of Burner's fragments after obtaining Burner's Webway-entry technology. The restored Burner emerged stronger and more balanced, though his largest fragment remained on the Silent King's Throne.

• Qin Mo followed Burner into a private Webway section that Burner said he had secretly arranged during the War in Heaven.
• Burner revealed two more of his fragments, and Qin Mo demanded the technology Burner used to enter the Webway before agreeing to fuse them.
• Burner shared memories of how he had studied Aeldari Webway gates and developed an unstable method for forcing entry into the Webway.
• Qin Mo activated the Forge and fused all three Burner fragments, using the device's dimensional fluctuations to reassemble them.
• Burner emerged stronger with traits from all three fragments, and Qin Mo reminded him that his largest fragment was still on the Silent King's Throne.

Qin Mo and Burner discussed the Necrons’ history and concluded that the Webway could not fully shield humanity from the Warp. A week later, Greyfax boarded the Ark Mechanicus King of Explorers and confronted Belisarius Khor beside Celestine, just as two Eldar entered the bridge.

• Burner blamed Szarekh for the Necrons’ fate, and Qin Mo reflected on the C’tan’s role in their transformation.
• Qin Mo asked whether humanity could use the Webway to isolate itself from the Warp, but Burner explained that its breaches made that impossible.
• Qin Mo spent the following week researching a Personality Matrix while the Tyran Sector built defenses and Burner conducted experiments.
• Greyfax received word that the King of Explorers had emerged from the Warp and went to meet its master, Belisarius Khor.
• Greyfax boarded the Ark Mechanicus and found Celestine with Khor, then two Eldar entered the bridge as she began to accuse him.

Belisarius Khor took the King of Explorers to Macragge with Greyfax under house arrest and gifts for the Ultramarines. Chapter Master Caldor agreed to welcome him and let him enter the Sepulchre Hall to visit the Primarch’s resting place.

• Cawl hid memories of Celestine and the Eldar in an encrypted compartment, then ordered the King of Explorers to use its Dimension Engine while the storm continued.
• The Eldar said Greyfax could not leave before they reached their destination, and Cawl had Guardian Vanguard Alphas place her under house arrest.
• The King of Explorers arrived at Macragge two days later, and Tigurius told Caldor that Cawl had brought gifts and needed promethium and repairs.
• Caldor agreed to provide supplies and allow Cawl to visit the Sepulchre Hall after Tigurius proposed a welcoming ceremony.

Belisarius Khor brought his companions to Macragge Fortress, where he revealed to Chapter Master Caldor that he had made armor to let Roboute Guilliman leave his Stasis Field. Caldor remained wary of the risks, and Cawl presented records to support his claim.

• Chief Librarian Tigurius privately warned Cawl that helping him might prove troublesome, then promised to assist him.
• Cawl and his companions entered the Sepulchre Hall and saw Roboute Guilliman preserved on his Throne.
• Cawl inspected the Stasis Field and told Caldor he had come to fulfill an agreement with the Primarch.
• Cawl revealed a reliquary holding armor he had prepared to preserve Guilliman's life outside the Stasis Field.
• Caldor questioned the armor's reliability and refused to accept the risk without further proof, while Tigurius urged him to trust Cawl.
• Cawl gave Caldor documents and records about the armor and his agreement with Guilliman.