Chapter Summaries

The Main Universe fleet destroyed Holy Terra’s orbital defenses and prepared to invade the planet, while Sui Bian sent his sons and the legions to fight the New Imperium of Man’s remaining forces. The Luna Wolves began their drop toward the surface, determined to confront the traitorous Sons of Horus.

• The Main Universe fleet emerged around Holy Terra, destroyed its Space Fortresses and defending ships, and forced the survivors to retreat behind the planet’s defensive barrier.
• The White Queen reported that reinforcements were approaching from other planets and that A-1999’s strike force had disrupted the Warp with the Vaccine Bomb.
• Sui Bian ordered the legions to attack the traitors on the surface, then persuaded Constantine and the Praetorians to join the ground assault.
• John and Corax brought their legions to Holy Terra, while the Luna Wolves followed the Spartan fleet and prepared to fight the Sons of Horus.
• The Vengeful Spirit and nearby ships bombarded the traitor-held areas before launching Drop Pods, aircraft, and landing craft toward the surface.
• In a Drop Pod, Sirothas Hitler rallied the Luna Wolves to storm the Imperial Palace and kill Horus.

Sirothas and the Luna Wolves led a charge through Terra’s devastated industrial district toward the Imperial Palace, protected by Chairman Sui’s Golden Light Barrier. After breaking through Iron Warriors defenses and storming a fortress, they encountered Iron Warriors and Sons of Horus waiting in its command room.

• Sirothas, the Luna Wolves, Spartans, and Auxilia advanced through the ruins as Main Universe forces landed across Terra and encircled the Imperial Palace.
• The Iron Warriors unleashed a heavy barrage at the ravine, but the Golden Light Barrier protected the attackers after their energy shields failed.
• An Iron Fist Captain led his company in a charge against a fortress, and the Spartans, Helljumpers, Auxilia, and UNSC troops followed.
• Sirothas led the Luna Wolves and Auxilia into close combat, killed two Iron Warriors at the fortress entrance, and ordered his troops to purge the interior.
• Sirothas and his troops reached the second-floor command room, where Iron Warriors sergeants and Sons of Horus in Terminator armor fired Chaos-empowered Bolter Rounds at them.

Sirothas and the Luna Wolves captured an Iron Warriors fortress, and Sirothas killed a Sons of Horus champion after Sui Bian secretly strengthened him. After resupplying and regrouping with the Spartan and Honor Fist forces, they prepared to advance toward the Imperial Palace as the sky turned to Warp colors and Chaos surged.

• Sirothas fought a Sons of Horus company champion while the Luna Wolves and Auxilia killed the Iron Warriors defending the fortress.
• The fortress floor collapsed, and Sirothas killed the wounded champion by smashing its head with his fist; Sui Bian had secretly transformed him to match Umbrella's Astartes.
• Sirothas ordered the Luna Wolves to secure the area and rest while the Spartan and Honor Fist battalions fortified the trench and prepared to hold their ground.
• Sirothas reassured a hesitant brother that the Luna Wolves had to face Horus, then received reinforcements from the Vengeful Spirit and ordered his troops to resupply.
• The Luna Wolves advanced with the Spartan and Honor Fist forces, but the sky above the Imperial Palace turned pink and purple as Chaos surged.

Sirothas, Asterion Moloc, and the allied battalions stormed the traitor defenses outside the Imperial Palace, but a vast demonic host poured through Warp Portals. As Kaharand sent his army against them, a golden-rimmed portal opened behind the human front.

• Asterion Moloc led the 12th Spartan Battalion in a charge as the other battalions, Luna Wolves, tanks, artillery, and aircraft attacked the traitor defenses.
• Moloc tore through demons and Iron Warriors, while Sirothas followed with the Luna Wolves and marveled at the commander's extraordinary strength.
• Countless Vortex Portals opened above the Imperial Palace, bringing in immense numbers of demons, including roughly 150,000 to 200,000 high-tier demons.
• Kaharand, a gigantic bull-headed demon favored by Khorne, arrived and ordered his army of hundreds of millions of demons to attack.
• Sirothas and the other commanders prepared to meet the charge, but a vast portal with a golden rim opened at the landing zone behind them.

Sui Bian summoned the heroic spirits of fallen warriors to help the Expeditionary Force fight the demons on Holy Terra. Moloch reunited with his dead brother Sartu, while familiar battle cries left Sirothas wondering whether spirits from his own universe had also answered the call.

• Four golden portals opened in the ravine, and millions of shimmering dead warriors charged the demon army under Andre Alexeyevich Ivanovsky's command.
• The warrior spirits unleashed golden gunfire and missiles that annihilated demons, prompting Kaharand to take the battle seriously despite the thirty-six Greater Demons opposing humanity.
• Sirothas, Moloch, and the battalion commanders recognized the spirits as fallen defenders and learned that Sui Bian had awakened them from the Warp to avoid intervening directly.
• Moloch recognized Sartu Demetrius and the fallen veterans of the 16th Battalion, fought through traitors to reach them, and clasped hands with his brother before they led their warriors into battle together.
• Sirothas longed to see his own fallen comrades, then heard familiar battle cries that suggested warriors from his universe might have arrived too.

Sui Bian’s Spirit Warriors, including Fulgrim and Sanguinius, arrived to help the human forces defeat the demons in Terra’s ravines. Sanguinius drew Kaharand’s attention while the God Body struck and pinned the Greater Demon, leaving its fate uncertain.

• More than a hundred thousand loyalist Astartes Spirit Warriors and Sisters of Battle emerged through a Portal and overwhelmed the traitors and demon horde.
• Fulgrim greeted Sirothas and the surviving Luna Wolves, while Sanguinius urged them to join him in stopping Horus.
• Kaharand attacked Sui Bian’s golden barrier with a bloodthirsty roar and its weapons, but the barrier held.
• Sanguinius flew toward Kaharand and let the Greater Demon taunt him while he waited for an opening.
• Golden Radiance pierced Kaharand, and a huge spear struck its back and pinned it to the ground.

Sanguinius and the Expeditionary Force routed the demons and broke into the Imperial Palace while Sui Bian monitored the assault and ordered the Solar System secured. The forces advanced toward Horus as Roger searched the palace for the Golden Throne, the Emperor, and his family.

• Sanguinius killed Kaharand with a Psionic Arrow, and the surviving demon army fled as Spirit Warriors and human forces pursued.
• Sanguinius and the artillery destroyed the palace’s shield and southeastern wall, allowing the assault forces to enter the Imperial Palace.
• White Queen reported that the forces were advancing through the palace and that the fleet was defeating the New Imperium’s defensive fleets.
• Sui Bian approved White Queen’s plan to occupy the Solar System and ordered her to warn John, Roger, and the others not to challenge Horus recklessly.
• Roger led his bodyguards through the palace corridors, searching for a route to the Golden Throne and hoping to meet the Emperor, Perturabo, and his other-universe family.

Roger led the Iron Fist Guards through the Imperial Palace’s underground passages, where they fought off a Chaos assault before Perturabo confronted him. Roger opened their encounter by firing a nanite-filled orb that melted through Perturabo’s defenses and forced him to cut off his own arm.

• Roger learned that reinforcements from the 4th and 5th Battalions were racing to join him underground.
• At a junction, Roger’s group was attacked by demons, nearly ten thousand Chaos Astartes, and other enemy forces, but the Iron Fists and Centurions slaughtered them.
• Roger sensed a powerful presence and dodged as Perturabo smashed through a wall with his Power Hammer, accompanied by Iron Circles.
• Perturabo gathered his Iron Circles for a confrontation, but Roger ignored the chance for a war of words and fired his custom Nano-Pistol.
• The nanite orb pierced Perturabo’s Psionic barrier and began corroding his arm, so Perturabo severed it to stop the attack.

Roger used his Nano-Pistol to capture Perturabo and advanced toward the palace’s inner sanctum as the battle for Holy Terra intensified. Meanwhile, Constantine and the Praetorian Guard reached an underground prison and found Jaghatai Khan in terrible condition.

• Roger’s nanites devoured Perturabo’s Iron Guard and stripped Perturabo of his limbs and armor before Roger shut them down.
• Roger had Perturabo bound and teleported to the Never-Fall, then led his troops into the palace passage in search of Horus and the Golden Throne.
• John and Angron, Sanguinius and Corax, and Roger raced toward the palace’s inner sanctum while the Imperial Palace’s defenses faltered and Chaos forces reinforced the traitors.
• Constantine and the Praetorian Guard defeated the Custodians at a Himalayan mountain complex and entered its temple-like building.
• Constantine and his men broke into the prison beneath the temple and found Jaghatai Khan in abysmal physical and mental condition.

Constantine rescued the tortured Jaghatai Khan and brought him to the Hollow Earth for treatment, while John confronted Horus Lupercal in the Imperial Palace. The chapter ended with John and Horus fighting in the hall before the Golden Throne.

• Constantine and the Praetorian Guard freed Jaghatai Khan from his hooks and teleported him to the Hollow Earth.
• The Plague Doctor injected Jaghatai with a sedative and sent him to the observation ward to rest before treatment.
• White Queen told Sui Bian that John and his Warrior Guard had reached Horus, and Sui Bian ordered her to share John's location with Roger, Angron, and the others.
• John told his Warrior Guard to wait for reinforcements, then entered the shielded hall alone and found Horus beside the Golden Throne.
• John hurled the Spear of Fear at Horus, but Horus blocked it and tried to persuade John to join him in serving the Warp.
• John rejected Horus's offer and charged him, beginning a fierce battle with Worldbreaker and the Spear of Fear.

John, Roger, Corax, Angron, and Sanguinius overwhelmed Horus and killed him in the Throne Room, where Sui Bian then found Horus's soul and spoke to the system. The system granted most of the mission rewards but required Sui Bian to communicate with the Emperor of Mankind on the Golden Throne to claim the final reward.

• Horus gained the advantage over John until Roger and Corax arrived and attacked alongside him.
• Angron joined the fight, and Sanguinius broke Horus's Psionic barrier with a golden arrow.
• John, Roger, Corax, and Angron wounded Horus, then killed him in a coordinated assault.
• Sui Bian arrived, comforted the dying Horus, and found his soul in the Warp to spare it from further torment.
• The system issued the mission rewards but said Sui Bian had to communicate with the Emperor of Mankind to obtain the original Emperor's Psionic Power.
• Sui Bian looked at the Emperor of Mankind on the Golden Throne and fell silent.

Sui Bian touched The Emperor and entered a mental space where he learned that The Emperor was both his multiversal counterpart and the system from his previous life. The Emperor explained that he had engineered the Imperium’s apparent rebellion to fulfill a plan to save humanity across the multiverse, leaving Sui Bian to hear how his own birth connected to that plan.

• Sui Bian failed to communicate with The Emperor until he touched The Emperor’s shin, which drew his consciousness into a silent space.
• The Emperor’s psychic projection spoke with Sui Bian and confirmed that he was the system and Sui Bian’s counterpart in another universe.
• The Emperor recounted his youthful personality and explained that he had foreseen humanity’s eventual extinction and sought a way to save humanity across the multiverse.
• The Emperor described traveling through the Warp to other universes, plundering useful knowledge and objects, and learning Psionic Plunder to destroy Chaos at its source.
• The Emperor revealed that multiversal laws required him to pay for his plunder with his own life, power, and freedom, so he sought a counterpart to bear the cost.
• The Emperor explained that he had arranged for Alpharius, Omegon, and Konrad Curze to aid the traitors and place him on the Golden Throne, and that Sui Bian had been born as his plan began.

Sui Bian learned that the Emperor of Universe 03 had arranged his death and rebirth so he could inherit the Emperor’s power and continue humanity’s fight against the Warp. After accepting the gift, Sui Bian returned to the Never-Fall and used his new Psionic Power to grow to five point four meters.

• The Emperor of Universe 03 explained how he had arranged Sui Bian’s death, rebirth, and rise, and why he had chosen him to lead humanity.
• Sui Bian accepted the Emperor’s Psionic Power, knowledge, and Perpetual physique as the Emperor sought freedom from his long confinement.
• In the Throne Room, the five Primarchs watched Sui Bian’s Psionic Power surge as the Emperor crumbled and vanished from the Golden Throne.
• Sui Bian ordered Roger to retrieve Horus Lupercal’s corpse for the Plague Doctor and told the other Primarchs to purge the remaining traitors and daemons.
• Sui Bian returned to the Never-Fall and demonstrated his new abilities by increasing his height to five point four meters.

After absorbing Emperor of Universe 03, Sui Bian ended his experiment and began planning to create a new generation of Primarchs. The Expeditionary Force secured Holy Terra and the Solar System, while Spirit Warrior dead returned to the Warp; the campaign’s aftermath continued as Sui Bian turned his attention to cultivating new Primarch bodies.

• Sui Bian kept his height near two meters, declined White Queen’s offer of a medical examination, and asked her to send the Plague Doctor files on manufacturing Primarchs, Astartes, and Adeptus Custodes.
• The Expeditionary Force destroyed the New Imperium’s forces and installations across the Solar System, defeated the Imperial fleets, and won control of Holy Terra.
• Fulgrim and Sanguinius told Sirothas and the Luna Wolves to accept that the Spirit Warriors belonged to another world as the dead returned through the Portal to the Garden in the Warp.
• The Expeditionary Force began planning to occupy and rebuild the Galaxy, while Jaghatai Khan received treatment and Vulkan remained missing.
• Sui Bian devoted nearly all his attention to cultivating bodies for a new generation of Primarchs.

Sui Bian oversaw the rebirth and assimilation of Universe 03's Primarchs while Umbrella prepared upgraded Primarch and Astartes programs. The chapter ended with Sui Bian and the researchers watching a silver-haired Primarch infant in an incubator.

• Humanity consolidated control of the Galaxy as its forces repelled Xeno incursions and began rebuilding worlds across Universe 03.
• Umbrella researchers cultivated nine Primarch vessels, and Sui Bian implanted them with the souls of Primarchs whose memories he had erased.
• Sui Bian treated Konrad Curze and arranged gene-seed protections for surviving Astartes, while Umbrella prepared G-Gland surgeries for Curze and Jaghatai Khan.
• Sui Bian merged Universe 03 Primarch souls into his sons, then gave John some of his own Psionic Power to make up for John's inability to assimilate a counterpart.
• Sui Bian, Alexia, the Plague Doctor, and other researchers gathered around an incubator containing a silver-haired Primarch infant.

Sui Bian oversaw the cultivation of a new generation of Primarchs and considered how humanity could evolve beyond the elite Astartes. The chapter introduced the Orion Project, a mass-produced enhancement program whose first graduates arrived at the Gustva colony.

• William Birkin praised the G-Virus as the foundation of the new Primarchs, and Alexia Reshik reminded him that the whole company and the Plague Doctor had contributed.
• The Plague Doctor requested more D-Boys as a reward for his work, and Sui Bian approved before leaving the Primarchs in the researchers’ care.
• Sui Bian planned a second surgery for Roger and resolved to develop an evolutionary path available to more people than the Astartes.
• A group of enhanced young officers from Minos Island traveled to Gustva to begin Legion Auxilia service as the first graduates of the Orion Project.
• The chapter revealed that Sui Bian had adapted Halo’s Spartan programs into a simpler mass-production enhancement program with less restrictive requirements.

Sui Bian’s Orion Project had augmented 240 million Auxilia across five legions, while his forces continued rebuilding and securing human territory. On Gustva, Sherry Birkin welcomed a group of rookie intelligence agents and directed them to work with the Thutmose 45th Battalion, the Blood Ravens.

• Sui Bian combined elements of the Spartan-II, -III, and -IV programs to launch the Orion Project, which began augmenting Veteran Elites and proved successful.
• By September 1, 2195, 240 million Auxilia from five legions had completed Orion surgery, while forces vaccinated and purified Universe 03 and restored many colonies.
• Sui Bian kept Konrad Curze’s Night Lords intact, then helped them establish the Integral Sector in the Main Universe; Jaghatai Khan slowly rebuilt the White Scars after their destruction.
• A passenger ship carrying recruits and company employees arrived at Gustva, where the newcomers disembarked at Umbrella’s private reception hall.
• Sherry Birkin addressed the rookie intelligence agents, warned them not to flee danger, and told them to get to know Gabriel Angelos’s Thutmose 45th Battalion, the Blood Ravens.

Sherry and the rookie intelligence agents traveled toward the Blood Ravens base on Gustva, where they were due to meet Battalion Commander Gabriel Angelos. On the way, Sherry learned that a Vortex Space Gate had appeared in the system and that Angelos had asked the Blood Ravens to handle the incident unless it proved too severe.

• The narration described how Thutmose's 45th Battalion became the Blood Ravens under Gabriel Angelos and established its territory around Gustva.
• Sherry and the rookie agents rode through Gustva toward the Blood Ravens base, passing the battalion's fleet docked above its starport.
• Sherry received a call from her assistant reporting a six-kilometer Vortex Space Gate in the system's outer asteroid belt, connecting to a parallel universe.
• Sherry asked about Angelos's response, and her assistant reported that he had requested the Blood Ravens take responsibility for the Space Gate incident, with the Legion and company ready to intervene if necessary.

Sherry and Gabriel prepared a joint Intelligence Department and Blood Ravens reconnaissance of the Vortex Space Gate after Sui Bian authorized them to act as they saw fit. An Engineering Ship entered the parallel universe, confirmed it was a version of the Solar System, and prepared to warp toward Earth after detecting human bases on Saturn’s moons.

• Sherry ordered reconnaissance of the Vortex Space Gate and asked the Blood Ravens and UNSC to prepare defenses against possible threats.
• Sherry joined Gabriel at the Command Center, where he told her that Sui Bian had authorized them to proceed after gathering intelligence.
• Sherry told the new intelligence recruits that they would take part in the joint operation and learn about the parallel universe.
• An Intelligence Department Engineering Ship sent a reconnaissance robot through the gate and identified the other side as a parallel Solar System, with the gate near Saturn.
• The Engineering Ship scanned Saturn’s moons, found artificial bases on Enceladus and Titan, and prepared to warp to Earth while ordering its crew to respond if the local humans showed hostility.

Gabriel led the Blood Ravens to Earth in Universe 04 to offer its leaders a choice between cooperating with the Main Universe and being forced to comply. President Patricia Langford refused to submit, and the Litany of Fury detected the planet’s defenses charging as Gabriel acknowledged her resolve.

• Sherry and Gabriel reviewed surveillance footage of Earth in Universe 04, and Gabriel decided to lead an expedition there while leaving Sule and his 2nd Company on Gustva.
• The Litany of Fury passed through the Vortex Space Gate, made a conspicuous warp jump to Earth, and received a communication from President Patricia Langford.
• Gabriel told Langford that an extradimensional threat would corrupt and destroy their world, then offered her cooperation or forced compliance.
• Langford rejected Gabriel’s ultimatum, citing humanity’s past resistance to an alien invasion, and Gabriel said he respected her resolve.
• A fire-control crew member reported that Universe 04’s orbital defense network was charging.