Recaps

The loyalist Space Marines fought through overwhelming Chaos forces while the Grey Knights tried to complete their ritual. Kasan Sabius and the arriving Chapter leaders faced Angron, whose assault left them with almost no chance of victory.

• Theodosius led the Black Templars, White Scars, and Red Scorpions against the Chaos warband while psychic barriers protected the Grey Knights' ritual.
• Morians expanded his barrier despite his greatly weakened psychic power, while Dol bled and struggled to maintain his own barrier.
• Kasan Sabius arrived on Is III and saw the Red Scorpions corrupted by Chaos, then fought furiously to avenge their defilement.
• Kosarro Khan and Kardan Stronos learned from a White Scars Librarian that a new Chaos dimension was about to form and that a powerful psychic surge was underway.
• Angron emerged as a Daemon Prince and charged the loyalists, sending Kasan Sabius flying and killing an Iron Father with Gorefather.
• The loyalists faced Angron and his World Eaters with few reinforcements and little hope of defeating him.

Cisrain arrived through a Webway gate and fought Angron with the Emperor's Sword, turning the tide as the Imperial forces struggled to reach the ritual site. After severing Angron's arms, Cisrain headed toward the fissure as the fifth Chaos domain began its premature birth.

• As the defenders were pinned down by Angron and Chaos forces, Sabius prayed for the Emperor's guidance and a Webway gate opened.
• Cisrain and his silver-white warriors emerged through the gate and fired weapons that stripped away Angron's defenses.
• Cisrain blocked Angron's battle-axe with the Emperor's Sword, and the clash unleashed a vast psychic shockwave across the battlefield.
• Cisrain wounded Angron with the Emperor's Sword, cut off both of his arms, and decided to take him back for research.
• As the fifth Chaos domain began to be born, Cisrain moved toward the fissure while the fighting kept Stronos and the others occupied.

Morians, the Grey Knights, and the Blood Raven Librarians sacrificed themselves to sever the newborn Chaos realm’s connection to reality and save Is III. The planet returned to real space, but its survivors were left mutated, traumatized, and facing the ruin of their Chapters and faith.

• Morians and the Black Templars fought desperately as the Chaos realm began to emerge and time itself reversed across the battlefield.
• A figure moving against time stabbed the vast Chaos eye with a golden sword, giving the Grey Knights a brief chance to activate Anti-Genesis.
• The Grey Knights and Blood Raven Librarians became logic bombs, sacrificing themselves to sever causality and strip away Chaos’s new physical laws.
• The Emperor’s image and the released souls pulled Is III from the Chaos fetal membrane, leaving a black equatorial scar and recurring Chaos pulses.
• The survivors returned to reality with their memories rewritten, while Imperial fleets detected lasting changes to the system’s physical constants.
• The surviving Imperial humans, Astartes, and T'au discovered widespread mutations and faced despair over the damage to their faith and Chapters.

The Red Scorpions and other tainted survivors faced death or continued fighting as the Chaos-born rift began to heal. Kharn and Lucius escaped after completing their ritual, while the Empire’s attention remained elsewhere and Chaos prepared a wider offensive.

• Kardan Stronos asked the Chapter Masters how to deal with the soldiers corrupted during the war, and the Red Scorpions knelt before Sabius to accept his judgment.
• Sabius executed the corrupted Red Scorpions, while Rutes killed himself rather than live with Chaos’s mark.
• Theodosius, Mayne, and other tainted survivors chose death or battle, as the Chaos-born rift left a permanent scar on the planet.
• Kharn and Lucius escaped after the ritual revived Chaos warriors, and Nurgle declared that the Black Crusade had begun.
• The Iron Father told Stronos that the Webway was healing, and Stronos acknowledged it.

Stronos watched Cisrain leave and told the Iron Lords that a Primarch had returned, while a psychic research station began studying Chaos and Gamma World prepared vast planetary machinery. The chapter left the station’s captives trapped in suppressive tanks as construction continued on Karamat.

• Cisrain acknowledged Stronos and the Iron Lords before departing through the Webway, and Stronos told them that a Primarch had returned.
• Stronos learned that the Inquisition’s fleet was approaching and that Abaddon’s Black Legion had appeared on Cadia, while the corrupted warriors faced possible Exterminatus.
• Researchers brought Chaos creatures to a psychic laboratory above Ozrax, where the station suppressed psychic powers and restrained its captives.
• A trapped warrior recognized Magnus, Angron’s head, Abaddon’s head, and members of several Space Marine Chapters inside the laboratory, and Magnus said the warrior would join the first batch of live experiments.
• Vetius praised the Omnissiah as a huge domed spacecraft neared completion on Gamma World, while enormous structures rose on Karamat.

Gamma World launched its expeditionary fleet and began deploying a compressed base on Karamat to establish a new Forge World against the Tyranids. As the base took root, Karamat’s inhabitants watched from below, and the planet was set to become a Utopia world like Gamma World.

• Gamma World shifted heavy industry to its hinterlands and organized four surrounding worlds into a defensive and production network.
• Gamma World dispatched First and Second Expeditionary Army Groups, numbering more than fifty thousand Space Marines, to expand its military reach.
• Vetius admired Gamma World’s rapid growth and sought a transfer to repair the Sacred Khala, hoping to gain access to the Synapse Condenser.
• Gamma World’s fleet carried a base to Karamat, a mineral-rich world whose small human-like inhabitants saw the descending structure in the sky.
• The base drove its spine-like lower section into Karamat, beginning the planet’s compression into a Utopia world.

A psyker warned Chief Tusk that Genestealers had infiltrated the tribes, while an STC Template landed and began linking to the planet and assembling a factory. Its researchers identified the Genestealers as a planetary threat and ordered a purge.

• A persecuted psyker pleaded with Chief Tusk to believe that Genestealers had replaced tribespeople and were destroying their race.
• The STC Template drove its underground network into the planet, scanned its resources, and connected to geothermal energy.
• Researchers aboard a starship confirmed that the STC Template was functioning and authorized the world factory to begin production.
• The STC factory emerged beneath its silver canopy as mechanical forces deployed and nearby creatures watched in fear.
• Captain Dean's team identified the planet's infiltrators as third-generation Tyranid Genestealers and ordered the planet purged.

Gamma World launched an extermination campaign against the Genestealers and all other life on the planet, while building factories around [Brain]. Cleansers descended to begin the purge as the Empire pursued a weapon that could eliminate life across an entire planet at once.

• Gamma ordered the soldiers to kill every living creature on the planet so the Genestealers could not spread to Gamma World.
• Chief Tusk and the tribal chiefs saw the Genestealer hybrids attack and retreated after witnessing the humans' powerful weapons.
• Gamma World soldiers and combat mechs pursued the fleeing aliens, struggling to aim at their small targets while continuing the purge.
• The STC Template monitored the assembly of surface factories as [Brain] incorporated underground mineral regions into its calculations.
• Gamma's forces reported to the governor and deployed Cleansers, while the Empire continued researching the Colossus Project.

Gamma World researchers traced the energy behind Gauss Weapons and Living Metal to a possible C'tan source, and Cyrus ordered an expedition to seize it. The Second Army's Third Company prepared to investigate Necron territory.

• Researchers at the Gauss Laboratory identified a signal linking Necron weapons and Living Metal to a distant source and reported it to Professor Brown.
• Brown sent the findings to Cyrus, who concluded that Gamma World needed its own C'tan energy source to use Necron technology without limits.
• Cyrus ordered the Second Army's Third Company to plan an operation against the suspected Necron site.
• The Third Company welcomed the mission and began reviewing the limited Necron information in Gamma World's database.

Cyrus reflected on the Blood Ravens’ rebellion and Gamma World’s growing gene-ascension program before leading newly promoted captains and inexperienced recruits on an investigation of a Necron world. The team arrived at an ochre-yellow planet where Orks were already scavenging, and Cyrus sent probes down to investigate.

• Cyrus learned that the Blood Ravens’ Fifth Company had rebelled, opened a Warp rift, and unleashed daemons before the Chief Librarian and two Librarians sealed it.
• Cyrus visited Utopia on Gamma World, saw its unusually capable newborn recruits, and decided to stay rather than return to the Blood Ravens.
• Yalta and Talon led new recruits through mission preparations, teaching them to use the Blood Ravens’ database and avoid direct combat with the Necrons.
• Cyrus announced that the team had arrived at an ochre-yellow planet and ordered two probes launched toward its surface.
• Ork boys scavenging near the planet watched a probe fly past while one Ork told two Gretchin stories about Gork, Mork, and a powerful human commissar.

The Blood Ravens investigated a planet inhabited by Orks and a Necron dynasty, planning to use the Greenskins against the Necrons rather than fight them directly. Oukekaosi awoke in his tomb and saw a human party enter the world.

• A Greenskin boy frightened two Gretchin with tales of One-Eyed Boss as probes gathered data on the planet's Orks.
• Cyrus ordered the Blood Ravens to avoid a direct confrontation with the Orks and consider drawing them into battle with the Necrons.
• The cloaked escort ship approached the planet as Magnus and Blue sensed powerful psychic suppression from Necron Blackstone devices.
• Oukekaosi awakened and recalled how the dynasty's internal chaos, a C'tan shard, and an incomplete tesseract tomb had left his people in danger.
• Oukekaosi watched a human party enter the world.

Oukekaosi recalled the lost Necron dynasty and reflected on the C'tan imprisoned in its power device as Magnus explained Necron history to the Blood Raven team. The team infiltrated an Ork-infested planet to locate a Necron tomb, while Cyrus tracked the Greenskins and their growing Warboss threat from the command ship.

• Oukekaosi mistook a memory for the Silent King’s visit, then questioned whether time had distorted his recollections and looked toward the device holding the C'tan shard Omisar.
• Magnus explained that many Necron dynasties remained asleep and that the awakened ones would reclaim what they believed was theirs when the time came.
• The team joked about raiding Necron tombs and Terra, prompting Magnus to warn them against saying such things and fear that they were becoming known as the Tomb Raider Chapter.
• The Third Company infiltrated a planet covered in Ork fungal carpets, and Yalta ordered stealth equipment activated so they could reach the Necron tomb without fighting the Greenskins.
• Yalta reported that Magnus’s group had arrived and Talon’s group had reached a ruin world, while Cyrus reviewed maps marking the Orks, fungal carpets, and signs of an emerging Warboss.

Cyrus's forces confirmed that the signal came from hidden Necron territory, while Yalta's squad found no visible entrance and concluded that waking the Necrons would require a major disturbance. Inside the tomb, Oukekaosi discovered that someone had altered his memories and opened a breach, but his Canoptek Spyders could not repair it.

• Cyrus learned that Yalta's squad had lost contact and ordered the discovery reported to the Governor.
• Yalta recognized the oppressive psychic dead zone, used a Blackstone detector to confirm the signal's source, and reported that the Necrons were hidden underground.
• Yalta's squad found no visible entrance and determined that a major disturbance would be needed to awaken the Necrons.
• Oukekaosi noticed the humans searching outside and discovered an open corridor that led beyond the tomb.
• Oukekaosi realized someone had entered and tampered with his memories, then ordered Canoptek Spyders to repair the breach.
• The Canoptek Spyders failed to mend the crack, and Oukekaosi demanded to know who had caused it.

Oukekaosi forcibly awakened the Deathmark Hebinus after discovering the Deathmark program was faulty, while Yalta’s expedition came under attack in the Spirit-Driving Dead Zone. Their distress signal brought Talon’s squad and the mothership into action, and the Governor arranged a lance strike as Greenskins converged on the battlefield.

• Oukekaosi used his authority to awaken Hebinus and sent the Deathmark outside with orders.
• Yalta’s squad began withdrawing after failing to find the tomb entrance, but an expeditionary soldier emerged from stealth and collapsed with his life destroyed by an unknown weapon.
• Yalta ordered his team to scan for enemies and send a distress signal, and a flare revealed a Greenskin silhouette to nearby forces.
• Talon recognized the agreed signal, concluded Yalta’s squad was under attack, and ordered his forces into stealth to reach them and cover their withdrawal.
• Cyrus ordered unmanned vessels to locate the rescue signal and provide covering fire, then relayed that the Governor had arranged a lance strike.
• The mothership warned Talon and Magnus to evacuate before the strike, while signal flares drew Greenskins toward the Spirit-Driving Dead Zone.

Yalta escaped with his team as the Orks' Waaagh! disrupted the Psychic-Null Dead Zone and drew them into a projected battle. Enraged, Oukekaosi awakened vast numbers of Necron civilians and opened fire on the Orks.

• Orks charging into the Psychic-Null Dead Zone suffered weapon failures and confusion, while Yalta's team abandoned their dead and withdrew under stealth.
• A Deathmark focused on the Orks, allowing Yalta's battle projections to appear and fool them into believing a Warboss and Necron army were fighting nearby.
• The Orks charged toward the projection, and their gathered Waaagh! weakened the Psychic-Null Dead Zone and made the projected Warboss seem real.
• Oukekaosi ordered the destruction of every living thing on the planet and activated the resurrection protocol for the Oukekaosi Dynasty's civilian Necrons.
• Oukekaosi opened the gate to the physical world, and the Necrons fired Gauss Rays at the advancing Orks.

Gamma World's fleet arrived to seize the Necrons' C'tan Energy and struck the battlefield with a lance attack from dozens of light-years away. The bombardment devastated both the Orks and Necrons, leaving the conflict poised to shift into a war between Gamma World and the Necrons.

• The Orks attacked the Necrons, but their weapons could not match the Necrons' defenses and regeneration.
• Gamma World's fleet arrived, and a gravitational disturbance tore apart Ork ships approaching its vessels.
• A lance strike from an undetected source dozens of light-years away hit a planetary satellite, scattering debris toward the planet and devastating the battlefield below.
• Cisrain ordered Gamma World's fleet to bombard the Necrons and draw their warships away while his forces tried to reach the control center and C'tan Shard.
• The surviving Orks routed after the bombardment, and a Gretchin stared into the enormous crater left by the strike.

Oukekaosi ordered the Necron Dynasty’s forces awakened and expanded the Spirit-Driving Dead Zone as Gamma World’s expeditionary force bombarded and fought across the planet. The zone severed the Warp connection over dozens of light-years, while the Deathmark continued hunting his targets and Gamma World’s forces recognized the enemy’s intent to kill them.

• Gamma World’s bombardment struck the Necron tombs, and Oukekaosi ordered the Resurrection Protocol activated and vowed to destroy the attacking fleet and its connected worlds.
• Gamma World’s expeditionary force counterattacked the emerging Necron legions while Oukekaosi activated Nether Lords and Nether Constructs.
• The Deathmark pursued Liu Xing and Huo Yu across the battlefield and sensed Oukekaosi activating the Blackstone Constructs.
• The Spirit-Driving Dead Zone expanded, cutting off humans’ connection to the Warp and enabling Necron nobles to teleport across the battlefield.
• Desolator Scorpion Lords entered the fight, and the Deathmark used the expanded zone to hunt his targets.
• In space, a speaker reported that the zone had blocked Warp energy across dozens of light-years, and the Governor’s side concluded the enemy intended to kill them.

The Spirit-Driving Dead Zone spread across Gamma World and nearby star regions, disrupting Warp connections as the Necron Dynasty expanded its forces. Cisrain’s troops broke through a weak point in the Necron defenses, while a Necron infiltrated the warship guarding the Spirit Stone that collected the dead.

• The Spirit-Driving Dead Zone spread across Gamma World and nearby regions, disrupting Orks’ psychic powers and erasing most Warp-related readings on Attila World.
• Sage Vetius found no records explaining the disturbance as the Necrons continued building spectral warships and preparing to expand their forces.
• Cisrain arrived at the battlefield as the Necrons increased in number, and a Deathmark observed that slain people’s souls were being drawn away rather than lost to the Warp.
• The Necron Dynasty’s spectral vessels began appearing, and the expeditionary forces ordered Soul Guardians to protect the Spirit Stone that collected battlefield souls.
• A Necron entered the warship cabin guarding the Spirit Stone, while human troops broke through a weakened point in the Necron defenses and advanced into the dynasty.

Cisrain’s expeditionary force reached a Necron data center and used the Blackstone Key to copy data, override the C’tan energy system, and infect the Resurrection Protocol database. As Cisrain went to hold off the tomb’s defenses, a flood of Canoptek Scarabs and Spyders engulfed his soldiers.

• Cisrain’s force followed the map through the tomb, destroyed the regeneration pools, and reached the data center as cracks spread through the structures.
• The technical sergeant used the Blackstone Key to access the Necron database and began copying important technology while uploading a virus.
• Cisrain ordered his soldiers to defend the data specialists as the Necron forces approached.
• The technical sergeant found the hypercube technology, then altered the protocols of an unoccupied Desolator Scorpion Lord body to protect Gamma World.
• Cisrain led his men toward the gathered Canoptek Scarabs and Spyders, whose enormous swarm swept over the front ranks.

Cisrain and Gamma World's expeditionary force fought through a Necron tomb against swarms of Canoptek Scarabs and two Desolator Scorpion Lords. One Scorpion Lord suddenly killed the other, and the soldiers revealed they had found the Tesseract Labyrinth blueprints and could breach its permissions.

• Cisrain and the soldiers fought through Canoptek Scarabs and Necron troops as they regrouped in the cramped corridors.
• A Desolator Scorpion Lord wounded a soldier with its phase blade, but Cisrain pulled him clear and blocked the attack with the Emperor's Sword.
• Two Desolator Scorpion Lords attacked the expeditionary force from opposite sides while Necrons, Scarabs, and Spyders pressed in behind them.
• One Desolator Scorpion Lord suddenly struck down the other and tore its brain from its body, stunning the Gamma World soldiers.
• The soldiers said they had found the Tesseract Labyrinth blueprints and could breach the permissions to enter it.

Cisrain’s forces opened a dimensional passage to divert Necron defenders while their Techmarines targeted the dynasty’s database. Overlord Oukekaosi discovered that his weapons and protocols had been stripped away, and Gamma World’s troops were left wondering why the Necrons would not launch a stronger counterattack.

• Cisrain ordered the dimensional passage opened to draw Necron forces toward the C’tan energy labyrinth and ease pressure on the Techmarines stealing the database.
• Oukekaosi blamed Hernus for the missing database, altered protocols, and inaccessible elite units, then found that his greatest weapons could no longer be built.
• Oukekaosi watched Gamma World’s forces attack the tombs with fire dragons and kinetic bombs, but his attempted countermeasures were unavailable.
• Cyrus and Gamma World’s troops waited for the Necrons to attack, prepared to sacrifice themselves, but the Necron ships stayed behind their shields.

Gamma World launched a massive assault on the weakened Necrons, whose Deathmarks and remaining heavy weapons still inflicted serious losses. As five of eight battlefields turned against the Oukekaosi Dynasty, Oukekaosi ordered a retreat.

• Gamma World troops entered the battle, and a Deathmark killed at least thirteen soldiers before escaping through its phase engine without reaching the soulstone container.
• Gamma World soldiers charged without fearing death, relying on stored souls and replacement bodies to return to battle.
• A Deathmark killed a combat craft pilot, but another soldier immediately took command and led an even fiercer assault.
• Gamma World forces poured from Drop Pods and Battle Barges while Necron Ghost Arks, Annihilators, and Nether Constructs counterattacked and destroyed many ships.
• Five of the eight battlefields fell into disadvantage for the Necrons as Gamma World continued reinforcing the planet.
• Oukekaosi felt mounting pressure and ordered the Necrons to retreat.

Oukekaosi withdrew with the Crypteks loyal to him, leaving the C'tan energy system and most of his forces behind as Gamma World's expeditionary army pressed the attack. After the fighting subsided, Cisrain learned that Necrons might still be hidden on the planet and considered connecting the C'tan energy to Gamma World.

• Oukekaosi chose to withdraw, taking his loyal Crypteks and leaving the C'tan energy system without a backdoor while sabotaging its upkeep.
• Gamma World's expeditionary army pursued the retreating Necrons, using a three-sided encirclement to limit casualties and drive the main force away.
• Necron Chronomancers and Plasmancers covered the retreat, while the enemy abandoned its Resurrection Protocol and the Scarabs withdrew underground.
• Gamma World forces entered the tomb and learned that the Necrons had taken only their Crypteks, leaving the tesseract construct and possibly hiding most of their forces on the planet.
• Cisrain ordered the secret file kept confidential and asked whether the C'tan energy could be connected to Gamma World, but learned it could not be moved.

Gamma World's forces drove the Necrons from the battlefield, captured their control center, and began salvaging their technology. In a tomb, Cisrain encountered Omisar, a shard of the Deceiver C'tan Mephet'ran, which offered him advanced technology in exchange for a deal.

• The Necron fleet retreated with its remaining warriors and tombs, while Gamma World's army celebrated its victory and mourned a soldier who had died before the soul-container mothership arrived.
• Gamma World's forces shut down the Spirit-Driving Dead Zone, reclaimed communications, and received orders to excavate the remaining tombs and salvage the battlefield.
• Cyrus redirected Third Company from collecting battlefield spoils to assisting scientists with the tomb excavation, prompting Talon and Magnus to joke about the company's grave-robbing habits.
• Cisrain approached the tesseract construct containing a C'tan shard and endured the overwhelming knowledge radiating from it.
• The shard identified itself as Omisar, also known as Mephet'ran, and offered to rapidly elevate Gamma World's technology in exchange for a deal.

Cisrain accepted a challenge to deceive the Deceiver C'tan while Gamma World prepared to study C'tan energy and connect it to its Synapse Condenser. Vetius, overwhelmed by how much Gamma World had changed and furious that it had copied his technology, decided to leave, but changed course when he heard Gamma World had captured a Necron Tomb World and obtained C'tan shards.

• Cisrain accepted the challenge to deceive the Deceiver C'tan and learn the locations of Mephet'ran's shards.
• Brown learned that Gamma World had acquired C'tan energy and planned to connect it to the Megastructure Synapse Condenser.
• Vetius returned to Gamma World and was stunned by its transformed society and its unusually capable children.
• Vetius confronted his apprentices over Gamma World copying his technology and decided to leave for the Imperium.
• Vetius learned that Gamma World had taken a Necron Tomb World and wanted his help studying its C'tan shards.