Chapter Summaries

Angron and Qin Xa reviewed preparations for the Ullanor counteroffensive and learned that the Blood Axe Orks, led by Gusa, had become a force fighting the Ullanor Empire. Qin Xa set out with Kharn and the 1st Company to persuade Gusa to attack Ullanor, while introducing the company to psychic Silver Vine equipment for the coming operation.

• Angron and Qin Xa returned to Nuceria Secundus, where Kiel and a scholar explained how the Blood Axe Orks had seized Ullanor territory and traded with humans.
• Qin Xa recognized the Blood Axe emblem as the axe he had wielded against Orks and identified Gusa as the force's leader.
• Qin Xa decided to find Gusa and encourage him to attack Ullanor, and Angron approved the secret operation with Kharn and the 1st Company.
• After the fleet entered the Immaterium, Qin Xa demonstrated psychic Silver Vine that could cast psychic lightning and barriers without requiring its users to be Psykers.
• Kharn and the Champion Company accepted the new equipment, and Qin Xa ordered them to train with it during the voyage and prepare for immediate battle.

Qin Xa’s White Knights fleet intervened in a battle between the Blood Axe and Ullanor Greenskins, then boarded the Ullanor flagship and found Gusa fighting for the Blood Axe clan. Qin Xa persuaded Gusa to keep attacking Ullanor, and the two fleets departed in different directions.

• The White Knights fleet emerged from the Immaterium and destroyed Greenskin warships while pressing through the battle.
• Qin Xa teleported Quadrant’s synthetic humans into two enemy engine rooms, where they overloaded the engines and blew up the warships.
• Wilson ordered the fleet to disable the Ullanor flagship and isolate it, allowing Qin Xa to teleport Kharn, the Champion Company, and Librarians aboard.
• Kharn and the Champion Company used Psychic Silver Vine to clear corridors and secure the route to the flagship’s deck.
• Qin Xa entered the deck and found Gusa and Sissy P defeating the Ullanor Warlord and his forces.
• Qin Xa told Gusa to push deeper into Ullanor, and Gusa accepted before leading the Blood Axe fleet away from the human fleet.

Qin Xa and Kharn discussed the growing threat posed by Gusa’s Blood Axes, prompting Qin Xa to investigate how the Greenskins had developed. Through their psychic connection, Qin Xa and his team observed the Blood Axes’ organized fleet and watched Gusa prepare to attack an Ullanor outpost, leaving the outcome of the assault unknown.

• Kharn warned Qin Xa that the Blood Axes might become a greater threat than the Ullanor Imperium, and Qin Xa agreed to assess them carefully.
• Qin Xa gathered the laboratory team and used his connection to Gusa to show them the Blood Axe flagship and its operations.
• Olya concluded that the Greenskin Butcher had become a shared identity that united the Blood Axes, and Qin Xa praised her analysis.
• The team observed Gusa’s organized fleet, standardized officers, and Gretchin senior officer, while Lookin' Nob reported that their force field was functioning.
• Gusa ordered his commanders to attack an Ullanor enclave world, and Qin Xa and the team watched to learn how the Blood Axes fought.

Qin Xa and the others watched Gusa’s Blood Axe forces invade Gusa’s target world, where organized assault teams defeated the Ullanor Greenskins through coordinated tactics and Gusa killed their commander. Qin Xa concluded that the Blood Axe Clan’s limited size was its main weakness and ordered a report for the coming strategic conference.

• Gusa’s fleet crippled the planet’s defenses with meteor bombardments, then deployed three elite assault teams in a mechanized landing craft.
• The Blood Axe assault teams advanced in disciplined formations, using Gretchin partners to reload weapons, provide medical aid, and throw grenades.
• A surrounded assault team held its ground until its resistance drew out the enemy commander, whom Gusa killed, breaking the enemy army’s morale.
• Qin Xa and the others discussed the Blood Axes’ tactics as the clan’s regular army began clearing the planet’s important facilities.
• Qin Xa dismissed the vision, assessed the Blood Axe Clan’s organization and limited scale, and ordered Brown to prepare a report for the strategic conference.

Gusa oversaw the Blood Axe Clan’s brutal recruitment and prepared to lead a Great WAAAGH Expedition against the Ullanor Imperium, choosing Gorgon as its next target. At the Imperium’s border, Angron, Perturabo, and Qin Xa gathered to attack Gorgon, while Perturabo hoped to mend his strained relationship with Angron.

• Gusa’s forces slaughtered most Ullanor Greenskin prisoners, while selected survivors were indoctrinated into the Blood Axe Clan and ordered to execute the next prisoners.
• Sissy P presented Gusa with a plan to relocate the Blood Axe Clan and launch a Great WAAAGH Expedition against the Ullanor Imperium.
• When an assault team commander questioned the plan, Gusa punched him, and Sissy P explained that the Blood Axes would fight the Ullanor Imperium before taking on the stronger Shrimp Imperium.
• Gusa declared that the Blood Axe Clan would attack Gorgon, and the assault team commander remembered Gusa telling stories on the Super WAAAGH Planet.
• Perturabo and Qin Xa joined Angron at the Forge Engine, where they learned the target was Gorgon; Qin Xa warned that its Warlord could choke the Emperor.
• Angron offered Perturabo a chance to fight alongside him and reconcile, then brushed past him, leaving Perturabo to blame Qin Xa for Angron’s pettiness.

Angron’s fleets attacked the Gorgon Warlord’s systems, but three Chapters found only wreckage while the Blood Axe Clan fought at Gorgon. Angron considered an alliance with the Blood Axes, and their diplomatic Nob invited him to help kill the Gorgon Warlord and asked whether the Greenskin Butcher would join the war.

• Angron ordered the World Eaters’ four Chapters to attack the Gorgon Warlord’s systems, and the First Chapter began fighting Greenskins with its Titans and other forces.
• Perturabo questioned Angron’s Titan Legion, and Angron explained that the Red Robe Order maintained the Ashen Wolf Pack using captured blueprints.
• Qin Xa reported that the Second, Third, and Fourth Chapters had found only wreckage, while Angron learned that the Blood Axe Clan was attacking Gorgon.
• Angron decided to hear a Blood Axe representative despite Perturabo’s objections, arguing that cooperation could reduce World Eaters casualties.
• A diplomatic Nob invited Angron to help the Blood Axe Lord kill the Gorgon Warlord, offered to abandon Gorgon afterward, and asked whether the Greenskin Butcher would fight alongside them.
• Angron and Qin Xa returned to the Resolute Determination, and the passage to the Greenskin ship was cast into the Immaterium.

Angron, Perturabo, and Qin Xa accompanied Gusa to Goron, where the Blood Axe Clan and the Goron warlord turned their supposed negotiations into a battle. Qin Xa discovered that the Blood Axe Clan’s discipline and belief amplified the Greenskin Butcher’s power, while a Blood Axe pilot’s attempt to destroy the shield generator ended in an explosion.

• Kova flew Angron, Perturabo, and Qin Xa behind the Blood Axe transports to Goron, where Gusa and the Goron warlord agreed to fight instead of negotiate.
• Qin Xa descended in the Greenskin Butcher’s armor and stood beside Gusa, prompting the Blood Axe Clan to recognize him as their ally.
• Gusa and the Goron warlord charged, while their forces clashed and the Goron Warlords attacked Qin Xa.
• Qin Xa blocked the Goron warlord’s mechanical arm with the Butcher Battle Axe, then killed a Warlord as he realized the Blood Axe Clan’s WAAAGH! had strengthened him and his weapons.
• A Blood Axe pilot tried to ram the shield generator with a transport, but its explosives detonated before it reached the tower.

Sissy P and Gusa abandoned their failed scheme and launched a direct assault on Gorgon, while Perturabo used a powerful weapon to wound the Gorgon Warlord. With Qin Xa, Gusa, and the Kommandos gaining the upper hand, a newly teleported behemoth appeared between them and their foe.

• Sissy P ate mushrooms and devised Plan B, prompting Gusa to order the fleet to drop landing forces, Titans, and a drilling spire onto Gorgon.
• Perturabo fired a tiny accelerated round through the Gorgon Warlord’s chest, then kept Angron aboard the Gunship as it bombarded the battlefield.
• The landing forces amplified the WAAAGH, allowing Qin Xa and Gusa to fight the Gorgon Warlord while Kommandos distracted and killed enemy Warlords.
• Gusa and Qin Xa wounded the Gorgon Warlord, and the Kommandos concentrated fire on his injuries as they prepared to finish him.
• A shell blasted Gusa and Qin Xa away, and a teleporting behemoth appeared as it killed more than twenty Kommandos.

Qin Xa fought the Emperor of Ullanor’s gigantic Custodes and fell into Gorgon Star’s depths, where he worked with Blood Axe technicians to destabilize the planet’s magnetic core. As Gusa battled the Custodes and the Primarchs searched for the lost Gorgon Warlord, Qin Xa began to suspect teleportation had scattered them.

• The Emperor of Ullanor’s Custodes sent Gusa flying, but Qin Xa used the Portable Blank to pin the giant down before the Gorgon Warlord split open the battlefield and sent everyone falling into the depths.
• Qin Xa identified the Gorgon Warlord as Lelouch, spotted Gusa fighting the Custodes, and chose to search for Gorgon Star’s magnetic core while the Blood Axe assault team secured the cavern.
• Qin Xa ordered the Blood Axe commander to find a technician who could dismantle the core, and the chief technician had him chop and strike devices to trigger explosions and destabilize the planet’s magnetic field.
• Qin Xa observed that Gusa was still fighting the Custodes, the Gorgon Warlord was lost, and the two Primarchs were preparing to kill it before the Greenskins could escape.
• Qin Xa wondered why Gusa and the others had landed so far away and considered whether teleportation technology had scattered them.

Perturabo and Angron defeated the Gorgon Warlord and helped kill the Ullanor Custodes, while Qin Xa arranged for Gorgon Prime’s magnetic core to be cast into the Immaterium when it exploded. Gusa and Sissy P escaped after Gusa reflected on defying Gork and Mork, and the chapter ended with the Primarchs teleported away amid the Greenskins’ escape.

• Perturabo concealed himself and Angron in a cave, where his traps used electromagnetic pulses and Blank ashes to kill the Gorgon Warlord.
• Angron and Perturabo joined Qin Xa and Gusa against the behemoth; Perturabo’s Blank-ash rounds weakened it, and Qin Xa crushed its head as Angron damaged its teleporting armor.
• The Ullanor Custodes died, and Salum captured its soul for a weapon; Angron was dazed by the teleportation energy, while Qin Xa said the White Knights’ ritual would cast the exploding magnetic core into the Immaterium.
• Perturabo aimed at the wounded Gusa, but Gusa spoke of Gork and Mork rejecting order and recalled visions of an orderly Greenskin civilization.
• Sissy P teleported himself and Big Boss away, while Gusa embraced Sissy P and chose to continue down its path of defying Gork and Mork; the Primarchs were also teleported away.

Perturabo and Angron were stranded on a Greenskin desert planet after a teleportation accident, where Perturabo carried his injured brother through danger and apologized for leaving him without saying goodbye. As Greenskins closed in, Space Marines arrived and offered to take the primarchs aboard their warship.

• Perturabo examined a squig and realized he and Angron had been teleported to a desert planet in Greenskin territory.
• Angron collapsed from his injuries and a WAAAGH energy concussion, so Perturabo searched for transport and defended him from a Greenskin convoy.
• Perturabo's attempt to drive a captured war vehicle ended in an explosion that nearly sent Angron over a cliff into quicksand.
• While carrying Angron across the wasteland, Perturabo explained why he had left Olympia without saying goodbye and admitted he had chosen to remain human rather than become like steel.
• Perturabo spotted a Greenskin tribe and prepared to hide Angron, but a warship and a group of gray-armored Space Marines arrived to retrieve them.
• The Space Marines teleported Perturabo and Angron away from the planet toward their warship, which was heading for the Ullanor front.

Angron and Perturabo joined the Word Bearers aboard their flagship, where Angron encountered Erebus and saw how the Legion’s religious culture treated mortals and Astartes as equals. They met Lorgar and his adoptive father, Kor Phaeron, before setting out toward the Ullanor front lines.

• Perturabo rescued Angron from the burning desert world, and Angron recognized Erebus from Qin Xa’s warning but found no trace of evil in him.
• Erebus confessed that he believed strangling a peer in self-defense remained an unforgivable sin, and Angron gave the Word Bearers two days before their rendezvous.
• Angron and Perturabo boarded the Word Bearers’ flagship, the Creed of Faith, and saw mortals and Space Marines worship alongside one another in the Pilgrim’s Chapel.
• Perturabo confronted Lorgar, who said they could reach Gorgon the next day and that the Emperor had ordered him to the front lines.
• Kor Phaeron arrived, and Angron sensed his desire for control and Lorgar’s complicated feelings before greeting them and leaving with Perturabo.

Brown infiltrated the Word Bearers’ flagship and killed Erebus as a test, but Qin Xa restored him after confirming he released no Chaos energy. Angron then joined Perturabo and Lorgar to plan an attack on the technologically advanced Greenskin-held world Khar Drag, with Lorgar’s Legion taking the main assault.

• Brown used camouflage and Quadrant’s psychic auspex to board the Law of Faith and locate Erebus.
• Brown killed Erebus in the chapel, and Qin Xa revealed that the killing was a test to check for Chaos energy.
• Brown used the Ring of the Mad King to reverse Erebus’s recent death, and Erebus followed Angron from the prayer room.
• Perturabo identified Khar Drag as the next target, while Lorgar proposed a broad-front advance and Angron explained the vanguard’s limited mission.
• Lorgar asked to lead the main assault on Khar Drag, and Angron approved.

The engineer used the Forge Engine’s gravity to tear apart the Greenskin planet while preserving it as a transit station. Lorgar’s Word Bearers launched a coordinated ground assault across the shattered world, and Angron studied their tactics as their attack advanced.

• The engineer shut down the Forge Engine’s gravity balancer, ripping the planet’s surface and exposing its underground Greenskin facilities, then restored the balancer to keep the world intact for use as a transit station.
• Lorgar ordered the Word Bearers’ attack to begin, and Kor Phaeron requested help from Angron’s father; Qin Xa agreed to assist.
• The Serrated Sun and Bone Throne Chapters coordinated Drop Pod assaults and frontal attacks, prompting Angron to consider how the Word Bearers could have crushed the World Eaters before their reorganization.
• Angron explained to Lorgar that Nuceria Prime’s alliance with Nuceria and its efficient production system distinguished it from Mars.
• The Word Bearers secured Quadrant One and began clearing it for a supply-route outpost, then the Triple Crown Chapter led the assault on Quadrant Four.

Qin Xa led the Word Bearers’ assassination squad against a heavily augmented Greenskin Warlord, killing him and breaking the enemy force. Kor Phaeron survived a near-fatal attack and thanked Qin Xa, who remained silent as the squad returned to the flagship.

• Kor Phaeron briefed the Word Bearers on their plan to assassinate the Greenskin Warlord, and Qin Xa told the Terminators to follow him.
• Qin Xa and the Terminators joined the battle, where the Warlord’s energy blast disabled Kor Phaeron’s armor.
• Qin Xa pierced the Warlord with his spear and channeled psychic energy through it, killing the Warlord and scattering the Greenskins’ resolve.
• Erebus and Qin Xa tried to protect Kor Phaeron from a charging Warboss, and Kor Phaeron was teleported away after its tusk pierced his armor.
• The squad returned to the World Eaters’ flagship, where Kor Phaeron thanked Qin Xa for saving him and Qin Xa remained silent.

After Qin Xa challenged Kor Phaeron over his conduct in battle, Kor Phaeron defended his duty and won the Word Bearers’ admiration. Qin Xa and Angron then questioned why Kor Phaeron and Erebus seemed unlike their expected selves, and sought a way to examine their true pasts in the Immaterium.

• Qin Xa accused Kor Phaeron of being useless in battle, but Kor Phaeron explained that he had to fight alongside his men, and the Word Bearers saluted him.
• Qin Xa told Angron that Kor Phaeron and Erebus seemed suspiciously normal, and they considered whether the Gods had altered or concealed their pasts.
• Qin Xa and Angron entered the Immaterium with Kang and asked Salum to forge a tool for observing Destiny.
• Salum warned that the Gods could manipulate apparent history and explained that Khorne had once influenced the War Hounds’ slaughter of the Cerberus region.
• Salum finished the observer, and Kang approved it as a means for Angron to embrace his essence and seek the truth of the past.

Angron, Qin Xa, and Watcher Kang used the Observer to uncover how Tzeentch had altered the fates of Erebus and Kor Phaeron, then explained the limits of Chaos’s interference. After returning to the material universe, Angron spoke with Qin Xa about Lorgar and worried that The Emperor might order the destruction of the Perfect City.

• Qin Xa and Angron saw an alternate past in which Tzeentch’s power let the kind Erebus survive an attacker who meant to replace him, and they concluded that Erebus was currently innocent.
• The Observer revealed that Kor Phaeron was a deceitful but presently ordinary person, while Kang and Qin Xa explained how Colchis’s weakened reality and hidden Chaos rituals had enabled Tzeentch to alter both men’s fates.
• Angron questioned whether resistance mattered if Chaos could rewrite history, and Kang explained that the Gods could not easily penetrate The Veil or manipulate the past at will.
• Kang described the Old Ones’ journey to another universe, where humans and Greenskins played rugby, and insisted that the material universe was their only home and had to be defended from Chaos.
• Angron and Qin Xa returned from the Immaterium and found Lorgar waiting to discuss supply stations before he left for the Command Deck.
• Angron told Qin Xa he thought Lorgar was a good person and asked whether The Emperor would make them destroy the Perfect City; Qin Xa assured him it would not happen.

Angron reflected on the darker threats awaiting humanity while Qin Xa shaved his beard and explained how bodily changes revealed the cruelty of different eras. Qin Xa reassured Angron that he would not retreat and foresaw the Ullanor Imperium’s defeat and the rise of Armageddon.

• Lorgar reported that Konrad Curze and Mortarion would join the campaign, and Angron agreed to establish a logistics committee with the Word Bearers and Iron Warriors.
• Qin Xa met Angron outside the Command Deck and reminded him to shave his beard.
• As Qin Xa shaved Angron, Angron explained that his journey through the Immaterium had made him think more deeply about the universe’s terrifying threats.
• Qin Xa used the history of the body to explain how physical changes reflected oppression and corruption, discussing Nucerians, Space Marines, Servitors, Chaos, and Number Eleven.
• Qin Xa told Angron that he had foreseen the primarchs destroying the Ullanor Imperium and the sector of Armageddon rising from its ruins.

Angron’s brothers gathered aboard the Resolute Determination to formalize command and plan an advance toward Krako, where the Blood Axe Clan and Ullanor Imperium would fight a decisive battle. Angron was confirmed as operation commander, and the meeting ended with the Legions preparing their forces while Konrad Curze remained absent.

• Number Eleven asked Lorgar to send priests to preach faith in the God-Emperor, arguing that it was a useful spiritual weapon.
• Mortarion questioned Angron’s authority, and the primarchs voted to confirm Angron as the operation’s commander.
• Konrad Curze left before the strategy meeting, so Angron gave Sevatar and other Night Lords officers temporary authority to represent their Legion.
• Angron proposed that the Legions advance toward Krako in six detached fleets and one main fleet to join the battle between the Blood Axe Clan and the Ullanor Imperium.
• Angron assigned the Night Lords decapitation operations instead of defensive duties and agreed that the World Eaters would handle their logistics.
• The primarchs and officers discussed the plan, then left the Resolute Determination to organize their forces.

The Imperium fleet reached Krako and attacked the Ullanor Imperium’s regrouping forces, turning the battle into a massive void melee. Qin Xa watched as the human fleet gained the upper hand and the White Knight headed toward Krako I.

• Lorgar commanded the vanguard fleet and coordinated its advance using the White Knights Librarians’ astropathic communications.
• Qin Xa reassured Wilson that the White Knight would enter Krako alongside the main fleet, then asked Angron about Curze’s condition and the Night Lords’ troubles.
• The White Knight emerged into the Krako system and found wreckage from the Blood Axe Clan fleet while the Ullanor Imperium regrouped with 1,900 warships.
• The Imperium fleet emerged in formation and attacked before the Ullanor forces could organize, destroying their flagship with gunfire and torpedoes.
• Qin Xa observed the fleets clash in a chaotic melee as Gloriana-class Battleships and Space Marine boarding parties broke through Greenskin ships.