Chapter Summaries

The Expeditionary Force destroyed the Ork main force and captured Shield World 003, though the victory cost millions of lives. After learning that the Orks were corrupted descendants of Custodian biological weapons and that the Storage Unit held Ark and Halo technology, Sui Bian ordered the remaining Ork worlds sterilized and planned to make the Shield World his new flagship.

• Robert ordered Corax to have the Storage Unit cool Shield World 003 while the fleet began post-battle recovery, with casualties estimated at 5.1 to 5.4 million.
• Sui Bian reassured Robert and the other Primarchs, then asked the Storage Unit to explain the Orks’ origins and the cause of the infestation.
• The Storage Unit revealed that the Kror were Custodian-made soldiers whose damaged descendants became Orks, and that Ti'opu bombardment had awakened the buried Kror on Shield World 003.
• The Storage Unit disclosed that it possessed nanobiotechnology, Bio-Exoskeleton technology, and the means to build Arks and Halos.
• Sui Bian ordered the Primarchs to sterilize every planet the Orks had invaded and then move Shield World 003 to the Solar System.
• Sui Bian asked the Red Queen and White Queen to take control of the Shield World and told them to have Ferrus pause construction of the Homeworld while he prepared to use the Shield World as his flagship.

The Expeditionary Force defeated the last Ork forces, and humanity expanded its holdings while taking control of the Custodian Shield World. Sarah Kerrigan returned to Fenris after traveling through human space, and the chapter ended with Sui Bian’s group confirming the success of Constantine’s surgery and preparing to extend the project to the Praetorian Guard.

• The Expeditionary Force destroyed the remaining Ork Bosses and won the campaign, while Sarah Kerrigan completed her Astartes recruit trials under Nova’s guidance.
• Sui Bian appointed Lion governor of the new Temple Sector and assigned him the occupied territory, three thousand warships, and nearly two hundred million UNSC personnel.
• Robert brought Shield World 003 to the Solar System, and Sui Bian took control of it while Umbrella researchers began studying the Custodian technology.
• Sarah Kerrigan traveled across human space and returned to Fenris, where Space Wolves welcomed her and took her out for drinks, barbecue, and fights.
• Constantine fought off thirty-two Xenomorphs in a training test, and Alexia and Rebecca confirmed his surgery had succeeded as Sui Bian approved expanding the project to the Praetorian Guard.

Sui Bian oversaw the Praetorianization program as Umbrella prepared to upgrade its six thousand Praetorians, while humanity continued expanding its power fourteen years after defeating the Orks. He summoned Artemis to a collection room and showed her a collectible tied to Zeus: Thunder.

• Rebecca and Alexia reported on Constantine's Praetorianization, and Sui Bian left the remaining Praetorians in their care.
• Alexia stopped the flow of Xenos into the trial grounds, and Constantine finished the last few before technicians examined him.
• Red Queen informed Sui Bian that Russ had destroyed the Colonisers' main fleet, and Sui Bian told Russ to watch for other roaming fleets.
• Sui Bian reviewed humanity's progress, including its population of 690.2 billion and its study of Halo Technology.
• Artemis joined Sui Bian at his request, and he led her to a collection room where she saw Thunder, a collectible associated with Zeus.

Sui Bian gave Artemis Thunder and tasked her with helping Leon and the Grey Knights contain Demons in the Temple Sector, while the search for Hera continued. Aboard the Eudora, Leon and Ada prepared to transport artifacts recovered from an unknown civilization, and Ada suspected the mission might go wrong.

• Sui Bian handed Thunder to Artemis as her father's relic and thanked her for her service to humanity.
• Sui Bian ordered Artemis to help Leon and the Grey Knights respond to Demon incidents in the Temple Sector.
• The Red and White Queens reported that their investigation had not found Hera, and Sui Bian told them to continue searching for her and other missing gods.
• Humanity treated Sui Bian as its Guardian, embraced Human Truth, and re-elected him Chairman with 96% support in 2120.
• Leon prepared the Eudora to leave the starport with cargo recovered by Croft and her team from an unknown civilization's ruins.
• Ada warned Leon that the recovered artifacts gave her a feeling that something might go wrong on the mission, but Leon reassured her.

After returning from Sokoyang, Leon woke from a deep sleep aboard the Eudora to find the ship stranded in the Warp and its corridors strewn with bodies. He headed toward the bridge to learn what had happened, but encountered a horde of Scythe Monsters closing in on him.

• Leon and the Eudora crew returned from Sokoyang with relics intended for Warp analysis, and Leon filed his expedition report before sleeping in his cabin.
• Leon woke to find the Eudora drifting through an unfamiliar pink-and-purple region of the Warp, while ship communications returned only a busy signal, sobs, and pleas for help.
• Leon armed himself and found blood and mutilated colleagues in the corridors; Ada's cabin was wrecked, but her body was nowhere to be seen.
• Leon detoured toward the bridge through the biological and experimental area, where he found a dying soldier who warned him not to let the monsters take his body.
• Leon encountered mutated researchers, staff, and Hunter Force soldiers with scythe-shaped bone arms, and opened fire as they charged toward him.

Leon escaped the Scythe Monsters by awakening twelve Living Dead soldiers and arming them, then led them toward the bridge of the Eudora. After joining forces with a charging Elite to clear the infested corridor hall, Leon and the Elite advanced together toward the bridge airlock.

• Leon retreated into a Cold Storage Room, awakened twelve Living Dead, and ordered them to help fight off the Scythe Monsters.
• Leon and the Living Dead defeated the creatures, then found weapons and equipment and armed the soldiers.
• Leon split the group into three teams and led them through the Eudora toward the bridge, avoiding the main passages.
• Leon spotted an Elite fighting Aberrations in the corridor hall and ordered his teams to support him from the flanks and rear.
• Leon and the Elite cleared a path through the hall and charged together toward the bridge.

Leon reached the Eudora’s bridge, learned that a Psionic Power surge had turned most of the crew into Aberrations, and led a strike team through ventilation ducts to reach the engine room. There he saw Ada unconscious in the infested cargo hold and continued toward the engine room, hoping to return the ship to the Material Universe before she was taken.

• Leon unlocked the bridge hatch and joined more than a hundred survivors, then watched footage showing a crimson Psionic Power surge transform the Eudora’s crew and overwhelm the Pursuer.
• The First Officer reported that the Eudora had lost control of its engines and been pulled into a region resembling the Warp, while researchers suspected the surge had directly triggered mutations in people’s nervous systems.
• Leon chose to lead a strike team through ventilation ducts toward the engine room, and he assigned the wounded and crew to remain on the bridge and restore communications.
• After nearly thirty minutes in the ducts, Leon’s team reached the cargo hold and saw a black stone tablet, Aberrations, and tumors dragging unconscious people inside.
• Leon spotted Ada among the unconscious and, despite his urge to rescue her, pressed on toward the engine room so he could return the Eudora to the Material Universe.

Leon armed his team, restarted the Eudora’s jump sequence, and led a rescue of Ada and the unconscious survivors in the cargo hold. The Eudora returned to the Material Universe, where Genro Sigurd sent the Beowulf’s First Company and Sarah Kerrigan aboard to investigate, while Sui Bian studied the stone stele and wondered if it was a beacon.

• Leon and his team raided an armory, equipped themselves with Power Armor and weapons, and reached the engine room ahead of schedule.
• Leon restarted the Eudora’s jump sequence, then led a voluntary rescue mission to the cargo hold as Vasso and the others drew Aberrations away.
• Leon and the Living Dead stunned the Aberrations, destroyed the mass of flesh threatening Ada, and helped Ada and the other survivors fight back.
• Genro Sigurd detected the Eudora’s return, ordered the Beowulf to jump to it, and sent the First Company to board and investigate.
• Sarah sensed a hungry presence aboard the Eudora, then joined the Space Wolves and Auxilia in fighting Aberrations as they searched the ship.
• Sui Bian examined the projected stone stele and wondered whether it was a beacon.

After the Eudora disaster, Sui Bian ordered support for Lara Croft’s investigation of the Sokoyang ruins and reviewed the losses, the surviving Pursuer, and evidence that time flowed differently in the Warp. At the Pyramid, the Plague Doctor joined Lara’s team while Artemis prepared the Grey Knights for possible danger.

• Sui Bian ordered local departments and the UNSC to support Lara Croft, sent Artemis and Grey Knights to defend Sokoyang, and dispatched the Plague Doctor to study the purged stele before joining the investigation.
• Sui Bian reviewed the Eudora’s aftermath: only 407 of 44,014 people had survived, and Leon, Ada, and the others had experienced sixteen hours aboard while nearly twelve days passed outside the Warp.
• Sui Bian ordered Hive creatures to accompany the Plague Doctor and restore the supposedly indestructible Pursuer, which the 13th Battalion had found alive but badly mutilated.
• Twenty-six Earth days later, Artemis and four Grey Knights guarded the Sokoyang Pyramid while Lara Croft welcomed the Plague Doctor and led him inside.
• Artemis then ordered the Grey Knights to prepare their Power Armor and ammunition, warning them to stay ready despite sensing no immediate threat.

The Plague Doctor opened a blood-powered passage from the Pyramid ruins into the Underworld, unleashing demons that Artemis and the Grey Knights drove back. Artemis then led an expedition through the vortex, where they found a vast, burning realm and an enormous inverted Pyramid.

• The Plague Doctor examined the ruins’ sculptures and pillars, concluding that the Pyramid suppressed Warp activity and that blood could open a path to the Underworld.
• The Plague Doctor spilled blood on all four pillars, opening a crimson vortex that unleashed tentacles and demons.
• Artemis destroyed the tentacles with the Full Moon Bow, and the Grey Knights and Dark Angels reserves forced the demons back through the vortex.
• The Plague Doctor explained that the ruins honored a god imprisoned in the Underworld, and Artemis ordered Ran Min, Sigismund, Chloe, Senkai, and Hoyd to accompany her inside.
• The Plague Doctor entered the vortex first, followed by Artemis and half the Grey Knights, while the rest stayed behind to guard the hall.
• Artemis and the others emerged in a vast, fiery realm and saw an enormous inverted Pyramid in the distance.

Artemis and the Grey Knights entered the inverted Pyramid, where Artemis freed Hades from his demonic captor by instantly destroying the Chaos Titan. They rescued Hades and Persephone and returned to Umbrella, where Sui Bian broke the curse on Persephone’s sarcophagus and prepared to learn what had happened to the Underworld’s royal couple.

• The Plague Doctor raced ahead to the Pyramid, captured demons as specimens, and collected samples while Artemis and the Grey Knights followed.
• Inside the Pyramid, Artemis recognized her chained uncle Hades, but a four-hundred-meter Chaos Titan appeared outside and Artemis destroyed it with a single strike from Thunder.
• The Plague Doctor cut Hades free and examined him, finding severe irreversible damage but no infection, while Ran Min found Persephone sealed inside a cursed Crystal Sarcophagus.
• Artemis ordered the group to take Hades and Persephone out of the Chaos Realm, and fourteen days later they returned to Umbrella’s Hollow Earth base.
• Sui Bian effortlessly broke the curse sealing Persephone’s sarcophagus and said they would learn what had happened to Hades and Persephone.

Artemis questioned Hades and Persephone about the Olympian army’s fate, and Hades recounted how Zeus’s forces were betrayed, broken by Chaos, and eventually stranded on Sokoyang. Sui Bian planned to recruit the couple as Umbrella allies, while a sudden deafening boom interrupted a street dispute.

• Artemis questioned Hades about what happened to Zeus and the Olympian army in the Warp, while Sui Bian listened remotely.
• Hades explained that Samael had corrupted Hermes and lured Zeus’s army into an ambush, where the Olympians defeated their attackers but lost their route home.
• Hades recounted how the surviving gods dwindled, Apollo and Pallas fell to Chaos, and a failed attack on the Chaos Gods sent him and Persephone back to the Material Universe.
• Hades said Zeus and Poseidon later stole most of his Psionic Power and imprisoned him and Persephone in a Chaos Realm before Umbrella rescued them.
• Artemis showed Hades and Persephone humanity’s current power and territory, and Sui Bian told the White Queen to persuade them to work with Umbrella.
• Two drivers argued at a red light until an Elite separated them, but a deafening boom interrupted the street.

A massive Portal opened in District 19, unleashing a Zerg Swarm that caused catastrophic civilian losses before the Wild Wolf Legion wiped it out. Sui Bian asked Russ how he would respond to the inter-universal breach, and Russ prepared to announce a crusade into the other universe.

• A four-kilometer Portal appeared in the center of District 19, and a Zerg Swarm poured through, killing residents and overwhelming the streets.
• Public Security officers and a special squad tried to hold the Swarm back, but their weapons and ammunition proved inadequate.
• Wild Wolf reservists, followed by the Legion's forces and Auxilia, arrived and destroyed the Swarm as it advanced toward the Portal.
• Russ learned that the Portal had opened on Fenris near his office and mourned the estimated 1.6 to 1.75 million civilian casualties.
• Sui Bian asked Russ how he would handle the breach, and Russ proposed making it public and launching a crusade against the Zerg.
• Sui Bian agreed with Russ's plan but warned him that the humans in the other universe were also targets requiring attention.

Sui Bian authorized Russ to lead the Space Wolves on an expedition through Fenris’s Space Gate, aiming to seize a parallel galaxy and overthrow its corrupt human government before the Warp could intervene. After announcing humanity’s Third Expedition to the public, Russ led his fleet through the gate to confront the Arachnid Bugs and the humans beyond.

• Sui Bian told Russ that the expedition’s target was the other universe’s human government and gave him freedom to crush it, while urging him to act quickly and beware of Zerg infestations.
• Sui Bian reviewed the Arachnid Bugs and the United Citizen Federation, concluding that the Federation might have deliberately provoked the war with the bugs to unite humanity and preserve its power.
• Sui Bian instructed White Queen to arrange a press conference and publicize Fenris’s Space Gate and the possibility of parallel universes.
• Sui Bian announced humanity’s Third Expedition in New Raccoon City, naming Russ and the Space Wolves as its leaders and declaring that the bugs would pay for the million human deaths.
• Russ commanded the assembled fleet, including the Beowulf and Totem Glory, to move out through the Space Gate.

Russ sent a large expedition through the Space Gate to secure the bug-infested planet, where scans revealed a human outpost under siege. As Russ ordered three battalions to rescue its defenders, unfamiliar aircraft arrived over the trapped soldiers.

• Russ sent Totem Glory through the Space Gate and used a Plasma Incendiary Bomb to burn a swath through the bugs.
• Ships and ground forces followed through the gate to establish a forward base while Engineering Sentinels searched for materials.
• Totem Glory's scans found human activity at an outpost about nine hundred kilometers southeast of the Space Gate.
• Russ ordered the 3rd, 9th, and 13th Battalions to attack Area 01, rescue the humans, and compete for the first commendation.
• At the besieged outpost, the Lieutenant learned that the Federation fleet could not be reached and suspected his unit had been abandoned as bait.
• A soldier spotted a vast formation of aircraft approaching, but none of them bore Federation designs.

A mysterious human force rescued the Roughnecks at Whiskey Outpost with a devastating air strike, then sent Astartes and Sarah Kerrigan to finish off the bugs. The Roughnecks mistook the newcomers for a threat, and Sarah disarmed and immobilized their entire company with Psionic Power.

• The Lieutenant watched an unfamiliar air formation approach as the Roughnecks celebrated its arrival and opened fire on the bugs.
• The aircraft bombed the bug swarm with acid cluster munitions, then fighters strafed the survivors and transports brought in the Wild Wolves.
• Hundreds of veteran Wild Wolves in Mjolnir Mark VI armor slaughtered the remaining bugs while Sarah Kerrigan cut them down with her Starlight Sword and Psionic Power.
• Rico reported that the fleet was expected in two hours, and the Lieutenant ordered the Roughnecks to aim their weapons at the unknown reinforcements.
• The 13th Battalion company commander asked Sarah to teach the Roughnecks a lesson, and she used Psionic Power to wrench away their guns and pin them to the ground.

Sarah and the Wild Wolves captured the Roughnecks at L-03 and learned that the United Citizen Federation’s 3rd Fleet was approaching. Russ demanded the fleet’s surrender, then ordered an attack that destroyed its flagship and left the fleet under fire and boarding assault.

• Sarah used her Psionic Power to subdue the Roughnecks, read Lieutenant Jean Rasczak’s memories, and learned that the 3rd Fleet would soon arrive.
• Sarah’s 13th Battalion argued with the other Wolf battalions over credit for the first victory, but the commanders agreed to settle it on a later expedition.
• The Wild Wolves took the Roughnecks and outpost samples aboard a Thunderhawk, while Viking Fighters destroyed the outpost and escorted them toward the ships in orbit.
• Russ ordered the command staff to prepare to capture the 3rd Fleet after Red Queen explained that intact Federation warships could expose the Federation’s secrets.
• General Rosenbloom marked the Roughneck company as killed in action, then approved an unusual communications request from L-03 and spoke with Russ.
• Russ gave Rosenbloom thirty-five seconds to surrender, then ended the call and ordered an electromagnetic cannon barrage that destroyed the flagship as the Expeditionary Force encircled the fleet and launched boarding actions.

The Expeditionary Force crushed the Federation’s 3rd Fleet, boarding and capturing most of its surviving ships with the Wild Wolves. After the battle, the Red Queen prepared to begin psychological warfare against the Federation.

• The 3rd Fleet launched a massive attack with conventional rounds and nuclear missiles, but the Zeus-class ships’ shields absorbed the blasts.
• Carrier squadrons and Thunderhawk Transports breached the Rodger Young, where the Wild Wolves incapacitated its Mobile Infantry with rubber rounds.
• Captain Savani Dratier ordered the Rodger Young’s crew to surrender, and the Wolves captured the bridge after one crewman’s sneak attack failed.
• The Rodger Young and other boarded ships turned away from the battle, breaking the 3rd Fleet; its surviving ships fled as the Expeditionary Force captured most of its vessels and crews.
• The Expeditionary Force began repairing the captured ships and guarding prisoners, while the Red Queen prepared a campaign of psychological warfare.

After the 3rd Fleet’s defeat, a hacked broadcast exposed that Federation leaders had knowingly let the Bugs threaten Earth to provoke a war and preserve their crumbling government. As public anger rose, sixteen jump exits appeared above Earth, leaving the Federation leadership’s fate in the hands of an approaching force.

• Within forty-eight hours of the 3rd Fleet’s defeat, civilians across the Federation heard the news and mocked the government’s denials.
• In a San Diego bar, two civilians provoked Federation soldiers into a brawl, which stopped when a hacked television broadcast showed the former Federation Marshal planning to use an asteroid threat to rally the Federation into war.
• The broadcast resumed with Lieutenant Jean Rasczak condemning the Federation for sending the Roughnecks to die, followed by footage of the Wild Wolves, the 3rd Fleet’s defeat, and other Federation secrets.
• Civilians, citizens, and soldiers grew furious and discussed resisting the Federation, though they feared its military strength.
• Sixteen jump exits appeared in space at least six hundred kilometers above Earth.

Russ and the Space Wolves reached Geneva, where they helped a Red Queen-backed uprising confront the Federation government. After exposing the Federation’s lies and giving its leaders a chance to surrender, Russ destroyed the government building with its officials still inside.

• Red Queen disabled the Federation’s defenses and systems, while Sui Bian reflected on Russ taking the blame for the expedition and promised to reward him and the Space Wolves.
• Protests against the Federation spread through Geneva, and police prepared to fire live ammunition on the crowd.
• Russ and thirty Alpha Wolves teleported into the confrontation and shielded protesters from the officers’ gunfire.
• Russ’s psychic roar drove Federation police and soldiers to abandon their posts, leaving the government building unprotected.
• Red Queen livestreamed Russ’s accusations and footage of the Arachnid Bugs’ defeat as Russ demanded the Federation Marshal and officials surrender.
• When the officials refused to surrender, Russ split the ground beneath the Federation building and engulfed it in magma.