Chapter Summaries

Kelbo negotiated his release from Nu Star and left after agreeing to publicly admit his failed operation and renounce similar attempts. Before departing, he gave Quadrant a terminal linked to a fleet of warships, strengthening his place in the 12th Legion while Kelbo considered how the gesture might build ties with the Legion.

• Kelbo offered to write a public admission of fault and asked Qin Xa to sign his release order, while Qin Xa considered the risks of killing him.
• Qin Xa decided not to kill Kelbo, and Kelbo asked that Ilka see him off when he was permitted to leave.
• Quadrant returned with the release order as Zeth and Kane reinstalled Kelbo’s augmentation components, then Kelbo left the interrogation room with his entourage.
• In the elevator, Kelbo criticized Quadrant for remaining with the 12th Legion but praised his mechanical talents.
• Kelbo gave Quadrant a terminal connected to twenty-three Cruisers, forty escort ships, and ten heavily armed warships, intending them to support Quadrant as the Mechanicus representative in the 12th Legion.
• At the surface, Kelbo mistook Quadrant’s direction to the landing pad for a farewell and waved before Quadrant pointed him toward the pad.

Angron and Qin Xa were summoned into a dreamscape by The Emperor, who warned them not to kill Kelbo Hal and explained that Kelbo’s survival served his plans for Mars. Qin Xa released Kelbo after reaching a solution, but learned that Kelbo had secretly come to discuss opposition to The Emperor.

• Angron dreamed that The Emperor confronted him about capturing Kelbo Hal and ordered him and Qin Xa not to kill the Fabricator-General.
• The Emperor drew Qin Xa and Angron into a shared dream and argued that Kelbo had to live because his future was uncertain and his role on Mars served the Emperor’s interests.
• Qin Xa told The Emperor that he had foreseen Kelbo sparking a Martian rebellion, while The Emperor revealed he had deduced Qin Xa came from the future.
• The Emperor urged Qin Xa to see the bigger picture and said the Great Crusade remained his priority.
• After waking, Qin Xa told Angron that Kelbo had secretly come to discuss opposing The Emperor and that he had released Kelbo after they reached a solution.

Quadrant learned that Kelbo Hal’s apparent gift had been arranged by the Emperor, then delivered the Emperor’s order for the 12th Legion to rescue the Order of the Red Robes near the Maelstrom. Qin Xa decided to lead the mission with the Librarians and Angron’s Blood Drinker Guard while Angron continued reorganizing the Legion.

• Qin Xa and Angron explained that Kelbo Hal had brought warships at the Emperor’s request, and Quadrant cursed his mentor after realizing the gift had not been sincere.
• Angron offered Quadrant the position of Director of Logistics, but Quadrant declined and thanked Qin Xa for defending him during interrogation.
• Qin Xa read the Emperor’s order and recognized the endangered Mechanicus organization near the Maelstrom as the Order of the Red Robes, which could become affiliated with the World Eaters.
• Qin Xa arranged to split from Angron, who said Guilliman had returned to Ultramar to prepare for war.
• Kiel explained that Legionnaires were reluctant to leave during the reorganization, so Qin Xa chose to take the Librarian forces and the Blood Drinker Guard to the Maelstrom.

The White Knight traveled alone through the Immaterium toward the Maelstrom, where Qin Xa planned to save a world. As the Librarians studied their destination, Qin Xa watched Kleist and Yochula grow closer and warned Yochuka about his psychic potential.

• Qin Xa took the White Knight into the Immaterium alone, and he reassured the Captain that he could handle the dangers near the Maelstrom.
• The Captain's wife told Qin Xa that she had arranged accommodations and daily assistance for the Primarch's guards.
• Qin Xa overheard Kleist and Yochula talking together and was surprised that their relationship seemed to be progressing.
• Yochuka's mother caught him spying on Kleist and Yochula, and Qin Xa took him to the library to keep him from interfering.
• Qin Xa ordered the twenty-eight Librarians to use his psychic power to observe their destination, then told Yochuka about Caesar and cautioned him to remain calm if his psychic abilities awakened.

The Librarians reported that the Brotherhood of Destruction was attacking the Forge World Salum, while Qin Xa and Yochuka discussed old relationships and secrets. After the White Knight emerged from the Immaterium into a bizarre star system, Yochuka encountered apparitions and found a violent incident aboard the ship before Yochula urgently summoned him to the Command Deck.

• The Librarians described Salum’s evacuation and occupation by the Brotherhood of Destruction’s machines and Greenskin mercenaries, and Qin Xa confirmed the attackers’ identities.
• Yochuka asked Qin Xa whether Angron had revealed anything about his brother and Kleist, then heard a story about two Gladiators resolving a romantic rivalry by choosing to live together with the women they loved.
• Qin Xa left the library, and Yochuka waited anxiously until the White Knight emerged from the Immaterium into a grotesque star system.
• Yochuka saw an apparition of his birth mother, who warned him not to believe what he saw, and then heard Qin Xa’s voice calling him to awaken.
• Yochuka reached the dining hall, knocked out an officer who had been threatening a woman and her daughter, and learned the officer was the woman’s husband.
• Yochula urgently ordered Yochuka to come to the Command Deck, assuring him that Kleist’s people would lock down the ship afterward.

Near the Maelstrom, hallucinations caused Void-born crew members to attack themselves and others, so Qin Xa imposed shipwide martial law while refusing to imprison them. As the White Knight prepared to travel to its destination system, Qin Xa ordered the Imperial Truth broadcast to help resist the Maelstrom’s influence.

• Yochuka learned that a crisis of hallucinations had affected Void-born crew members, and Yochula said an engineering sailor carrying a melta bomb had attacked him and Kleist.
• The gun deck officer and other senior officers called for the Void-born to be confined, but Qin Xa silenced them and rejected imprisoning the group.
• Qin Xa and Kleist arranged shipwide martial law, with armed personnel using nonlethal weapons to respond to further hallucinations, and Qin Xa assumed command while the Captain was in the medical bay.
• Qin Xa ordered the crew to inspect the ship, prepare for battle, and proceed to their destination system one light-year away.
• After officers were unsettled by the strange planets outside, Qin Xa urged them to uphold the Imperial Truth and ordered its most devoted officer to broadcast it across the ship, especially to the Void-born.

Qin Xa brought the White Knight to Salum and used a psychic spell to pull the enemy fleet into the Immaterium before beginning a landing operation. His reinforcements saved Red Jack and the Crimson Robe Order’s last fortress, but Qin Xa ended by warning Red Jack that their cooperation depended on accepting change.

• Qin Xa used the sealed Changer of Ways and a Psychic Spell to drag the Brotherhood of Destruction and Greenskin fleet into the Immaterium.
• Red Jack led the Crimson Priests out of their secret chamber to defend Salum’s final fortress as the enemy assault overwhelmed its defenders.
• A Greenskin suicide squad disguised itself with Priest images, destroyed part of the inner wall, and opened a breach for the attackers.
• Qin Xa and the Gladiators arrived with Librarians, killed a Warboss, repaired the breach, and shielded the inner wall.
• Red Jack identified himself to Qin Xa, who warned him that the Crimson Robe Order would have to accept changes if they wanted to get along.

Qin Xa took control of the battle in Salum’s underground fortress, helped the defenders defeat the invaders, and ordered the Red Robe Order to assemble for a meeting. He left the surviving members of the Order to consider his knowledge of their past and future.

• Qin Xa held Red Jack at spearpoint, ordered the Crimson Priests to follow his deployment, and made Red Jack comply.
• Qin Xa’s reinforcements joined the battle, while Quadrant recorded the Red Robe Order and Brown disrupted the Brotherhood of Destruction’s communications.
• The Crimson Priests regrouped their troops and helped reclaim the underground fortress as the enemy forces fell into chaos.
• Qin Xa told the White Knight’s Captain to prepare an open area aboard the ship and summon the two Olenas and Quadrant.
• Red Jack and the Crimson Priests approached Qin Xa, who ordered them to organize a meeting that every living person must attend.

Qin Xa offered the divided Red Robe Order a week to evacuate Salum and join the 12th Legion before he attacked the Brotherhood of Destruction. As he departed, he revealed that Salum’s ultimate secret was a daemon named Salum buried at the planet’s center.

• Qin Xa secretly instructed the Olena Sisters to help him persuade the Red Robe Order to leave Salum and uncover the world’s secrets, while Quadrant advised him to avoid dealings with the order.
• Red Jack asked to join the 12th Legion and offered the Red Robe Order’s manufacturing capabilities and assets in exchange for support.
• Qin Xa ordered the Red Robe Order to evacuate Salum, promising to attack the Brotherhood of Destruction, reclaim what it had taken, and depart in one week.
• The Olena Sisters used their psychic powers to silence the divided assembly, and Qin Xa told the members they could leave with him or stay and face death.
• Red Jack refused to leave, but another member defended the 12th Legion, confirming that the order was splitting over the choice.
• Qin Xa told Quadrant and the Olena Sisters that a daemon named Salum lay at the planet’s center and that Red Jack’s group knew the secret.

Qin Xa followed Roger and a group of Crimson Priests beneath Salum to uncover the Red Robe Order’s greatest secret: a vast Bloodthirster named Salum imprisoned near the planet’s core. Salum recognized Qin Xa from an earlier failed attempt to kill him, and their conversation ended with Qin Xa joking about the daemon’s accent.

• Qin Xa met Roger, who said many members of the Red Robe Order wanted to leave Salum despite Red Jack’s decision to stay.
• Roger led Qin Xa to the underground fortress, where twenty Crimson Priests prepared to reveal the Order’s secret.
• Soldiers killed eighty-seven malformed clones made from Red Jack’s genetic samples to open the enormous stone gate.
• Roger brought Qin Xa and the Priests near Salum’s planetary core, where they found a Bloodthirster sitting amid lava.
• Salum told Qin Xa that he had once been assigned to kill him, and Qin Xa interrupted to joke about Salum’s pronunciation of “Ruinous Powers.”

Qin Xa confronted Salum, a Greater Daemon of Khorne who believed himself free while imprisoned on his forge world, and threatened to destroy the planet with a vortex bomb. Salum stopped attacking when Qin Xa revealed the bomb was ready, leaving their conflict unresolved.

• Qin Xa questioned Salum and concluded that his desire for freedom was shaped by the Warp concept of rebellion, but warned that Salum's presence would influence future humans.
• Salum attacked Qin Xa, splitting the planet's surface with an axe strike, while Qin Xa teleported the crimson priests away and escaped the blow.
• On the White Knight, Olena and Olya witnessed the devastation from the dining hall, and Quadrant ordered Olena to the port-side gun deck to help prepare the Nuceria bomb.
• Qin Xa explained that Salum's control over his forge world amplified his strength, then revealed that a vortex bomb was ready to tear reality apart in ten minutes.
• Salum halted the violence and restored the planet when Qin Xa prepared to activate the bomb.

Qin Xa negotiated with Salum, a powerful Greater Daemon who feared enslavement and distrusted Qin Xa’s motives. After Qin Xa agreed to a binding contract offering Salum protection and a hidden refuge in exchange for aid and a weapon, the two entered an uneasy partnership.

• Qin Xa questioned Salum about his origin and concluded that the daemon’s nature was tied more to weapons than to rebellion, making him capable of calm negotiation.
• Salum accused Qin Xa of intending to enslave him and demanded that Qin Xa send him back to the Warp rather than offer false freedom.
• Qin Xa explained that he wanted either to banish Salum or arrange cooperation, but Salum initially refused and Qin Xa launched a vortex bomb at him.
• Salum stopped the attack and asked how he could trust Qin Xa, so Qin Xa proposed a binding psychic contract that would protect Salum from enslavement and the Gods’ gaze in exchange for assistance and a weapon.
• Salum replaced his name on the contract with his true name, and both he and Qin Xa fulfilled the agreement.

Qin Xa waited aboard the White Knight as Salum vanished into the Immaterium, then took possession of the Sword of Salum and discovered its ability to locate weapons and weapon-making facilities. Salum asked how long the sword’s help would buy him peace from Qin Xa, who promised only a short vacation.

• The Captain told Qin Xa that the Red Robed Order members willing to leave Salum had boarded the White Knight, while the rest chose to stay.
• Salum’s forge world disintegrated into dust, and Qin Xa saw Salum retreat into a domain created by their contract.
• Qin Xa witnessed the history of the first mortal weapon and learned how its projection in the Immaterium had become the Sword of Salum.
• Qin Xa drew the sword aboard the White Knight and found that it revealed the location of the Brotherhood of Destruction’s industrial ship.
• Salum asked how long the sword’s help would keep Qin Xa from interfering, and Qin Xa answered that it would earn him a short vacation.

Brown infiltrated the industrial ship to find and destroy whatever blocked psychic power, while Qin Xa ordered him to survive and help capture the vessel. Brown killed a Warlord and began accessing its head and the ship’s control console.

• Qin Xa ordered Brown to board the industrial ship, locate what blocked psychic power, and help capture the vessel, but told him to prioritize survival.
• Brown launched in a survey torpedo, infiltrated the ship’s armor, and cut through the mechanical men of the Brotherhood of Destruction as alarms sounded.
• Brown found a Warlord, cracked its firewall, and moved through the ship’s walls toward its sealed chamber.
• The Warlord attacked Brown with an EMP, but Brown split apart and pretended to be disabled before striking from behind and destroying its core.
• Brown reassembled beside the control console and began reading information from both the Warlord’s head and the console.

Brown discovered that the enormous ship was a Colony Ship from humanity’s greatest age and wondered whether its original crew was still alive. After a failed attempt to access its database, he decided to hunt more Brotherhood of Destruction warlords for information about the ship’s defenses.

• Brown learned from the Brotherhood of Destruction’s records that the 2,900-kilometer vessel was a Colony Ship, and that most of it remained unexplored.
• Brown searched the secret chamber for a maintenance port and connected to the ship, where an AI avatar named His Majesty Caudico denied him access and ejected his cable.
• Brown concluded that discovering whether ancient crew members survived could help him take control of the ship and remove its defenses.
• Brown decided to hunt more warlords for information about the psychic barrier, then left the secret chamber with his copies.

With Brown missing inside the colossal industrial ship, Qin Xa ordered the White Knight to launch a boarding force and withdraw, leaving him and the Librarians to search for Brown and a way to control the vessel. As they prepared to enter, Qin Xa awakened more than a hundred Men of Iron to serve as security guards.

• Qin Xa and the Olenas worried that Brown had encountered trouble, while Quadrant admitted he had not found a way into the industrial ship.
• Qin Xa ordered the White Knight to approach the ship’s entrances and exits and prepare boarding Torpedoes, then told the Captain to withdraw after launching them and return to the Legion for reinforcements.
• Qin Xa led the Librarians toward the boarding Torpedoes, setting finding Brown as their first priority and locating the ship’s control room or core as their second.
• Qin Xa warned the Librarians that powerful enemies might be inside the vessel, and they linked their psychic power to resist interception.
• As the boarding Torpedo reached the ship’s light-curtained entrance, Qin Xa activated more than a hundred Men of Iron and told Kamas to keep their existence secret, calling them security guards.

Qin Xa and the Librarians infiltrated the colossal ship aboard boarding torpedoes, using psychic power to bypass its entrance defenses and Security Iron Men to defeat the waiting machines. The Gladiators joined Qin Xa’s group, which continued deeper into the ship as the Iron Men and Gladiators fought off successive attacks.

• The White Knight escaped into the Immaterium after the colossal ship’s automated defenses crippled its Void Shield, while Qin Xa sent two boarding torpedoes through the entrance light curtain with a psychic leap.
• Qin Xa’s torpedo crashed into a spaceport control tower, where Security Iron Men emerged and destroyed the thousands of machine guards assembled to stop them.
• Qin Xa learned that Psychic Sight could not perceive anything inside the ship and ordered the Librarians to advance under the Iron Men’s protection.
• Yochula, Kleist, and the Gladiators arrived in a second torpedo, insisting on fighting alongside Qin Xa, and joined his group.
• The group advanced deeper into the colossal ship as the Security Iron Men eliminated machine attackers and the Gladiators destroyed cloaked machines that bypassed the guards.

Qin Xa and his allies advanced through the massive ship and reunited with Brown, who revealed it was a Colony Ship filled with malformed clones of the Golden Age human Caudico. After Qin Xa destroyed the sleeping clones, Brown explained that the Brotherhood of Destruction used them to create an effectively endless supply of mechanical warriors.

• The Gladiators chatted about two men sharing a wife and their five-year-old son as they fought through the ship, while Qin Xa recalled Lori's bravery in battle.
• After a full solar day of advancing, Qin Xa encountered Brown and learned that a virus had prevented him from contacting the others; Brown removed it with the master control device.
• Brown led the group deeper into the ship and revealed tanks full of identical, malformed sleeping humans, explaining that they were clones of the Golden Age man Caudico.
• Brown explained that Caudico had bought a Colony Ship to create an empire populated by his clones, and that the Brotherhood of Destruction turned maintenance clones into mechanical warriors.
• When a projection demanded that they release the sleeping Caudicos and kneel, Qin Xa burned every clone in the tanks, and Brown explained how the Brotherhood could keep producing machines from the remaining clones.

Qin Xa and Brown found that the Colony Ship was filled with Caudico clones and decided to reach its shifting core to take control of the vessel. As the group approached the core chamber, Brown considered how he should respond if they ever encountered true Golden Age humans, and Qin Xa argued that humanity had to survive before future generations could judge their actions.

• Qin Xa confirmed that Caudico’s clones had been destroyed, while Brown said they could not locate Caudico’s original body and described his severe psychological problems.
• Qin Xa and Brown concluded that the ship’s core was their only way to take control of the Colony Ship, then set out with the others to find it.
• Brown guided the group through the ship with a locator that tracked the core’s predicted shifts, while he and Qin Xa discussed the morality of taking the vessel and humanity’s need to survive.
• Brown asked whose side he should take if Golden Age humans ever clashed with Qin Xa, and suggested awakening one of them to talk before letting them sleep again if their beliefs risked civil war.
• Qin Xa and the others reached the predicted location, where the core chamber flickered into existence.

Qin Xa touched the Colony Ship’s core and discovered its Immaterium projection could repel and destroy Warp Creatures while revealing the ship’s internal map. The chamber vanished after the core detected his intrusion, but Qin Xa emerged with the map and decided that controlling the ship’s movement and separated factories would be enough.

• Brown led Qin Xa, the Librarians, and the Gladiators into the core chamber and explained that the tiny core used Immaterium technology for its processing power.
• Qin Xa touched the core and entered the Immaterium, where he saw its radiant projection destroy approaching Warp Creatures and realized it created a protected, time-flowing area around itself.
• Qin Xa touched the projection and received information about the Colony Ship, including a map of its control hubs, triggering the core’s intrusion defense.
• The core’s projection and the chamber vanished, and Qin Xa awoke in the passageway as Brown and the others checked on him.
• Qin Xa projected the Colony Ship’s map onto the passageway wall, then said he could not control the core but could control the ship’s movement and its separated factories.