Chapter Summaries

Cisrain Southon’s research vessel was drawn into a Warp disturbance as it approached Ozrax, where the abandoned Imperial defenders faced another Chaos raid. A human Space Marine warship then fell from the sky, and the defenders believed the Imperium had finally returned.

• Cisrain heard garbled warnings about galactic disasters as his research vessel approached the target planet.
• A crimson Space Marine warship crashed through a Warp energy surge, but Cisrain’s vessel survived and continued toward the planet.
• Cisrain discovered that the Warp was watching him and set out to investigate the energy signatures on the alien-ravaged world of Ozrax.
• The remaining Imperial Guard forces in Vulkan Castle argued over their abandoned world as Chaos prepared to return and take captives.
• A falling human Space Marine warship appeared above the cathedral, and the Imperial defenders shouted that the Imperium had come.

A Blood Raven warship crashed on Ozrax, where Chaos forces were abducting children and tormenting the people of Vulkan Castle. Cisrain and other figures descended into the church as the Chaos warriors prepared to fight, and one fired a bolter round at Cisrain.

• Captain Cyrus led a recon squad away from the crashed warship while Talon tried to contact the flagship.
• Chaos power overwhelmed the people gathered at Vulkan Castle, and two Chaos warriors chose children to take away.
• An Astra Militarum veteran resisted the psychic interference, fired at a Chaos warrior, and was killed by a bolter shot.
• Cisrain and several other figures descended through beams of light into the church, prompting the Chaos warriors to prepare to attack.
• A Chaos warrior fired a bolter round at Cisrain, who reached out to catch it.

Cisrain and his researchers confronted a Chaos warband, and he killed two Chaos warriors while capturing one of their cursed weapons. Brown Hoken arrived to scold Cisrain as the Warp answered the Chaos warband’s earlier call.

• Cisrain caught a bolter round and protected his soldiers with a force-field shield while researchers trapped the Chaos warriors in capture nets.
• Cisrain approached the trapped warriors and overpowered one, forcing him to shoot his companion before killing him with a shot beneath his own chin.
• Cisrain stabbed the remaining warrior with the Blade of Corruption, discovered it contained a daemon, and expressed disappointment that only two enemies had appeared.
• Brown Hoken arrived and reprimanded Cisrain for personally entering the battlefield.
• The Warp answered the Chaos warband’s call.

Cisrain led the Imperial defenders of Vulkan Castle against a Chaos assault, while a Chaos Beacon drew the attention of Captain Cyrus and the Blood Ravens. The chapter left Cisrain charging into battle as Cyrus sent Talon toward the nearby explosions to find the force fighting Chaos.

• Cisrain ordered the Astra Militarum to hold position and protect the civilians as Chaos forces surrounded Vulkan Castle.
• A gigantic mechanical Chaos creature and three Chaos Space Marines broke through the castle defenses, and Cisrain led the advance outside to attack them.
• A purple Chaos Beacon appeared on a barren mountain, and Captain Cyrus warned that it would gather nearby Chaos forces.
• After torpedoes exploded near the beacon, Cyrus ordered Talon to abandon the Battle Barge and regroup at the blast site.

Cisrain held off the Chaos forces around Vulkan's church while a research vessel bombed the Chaos Beacon with a nuclear torpedo. The beacon was destroyed, but Cisrain learned that eighteen more had activated around Gamma Planet and that the wider Chaos crisis still threatened the planet.

• Brown ordered the research vessel to target the purple beam, and its crew prepared a torpedo carrying a nuclear warhead.
• Cisrain fought through the Chaos troops outside the church while Brown directed the scientists and soldiers to seek cover.
• The nuclear torpedo struck the Chaos Beacon, and Cisrain braced against the blast with his force-field shield.
• The blast destroyed the Chaos Beacon, and observers mistook Cisrain's silhouette in the light for a sign that he was a Living Saint.
• Cisrain saw a hidden event revealing that nineteen Chaos Beacons had activated around Gamma Planet and that the destroyed beacon was only one of them.

Cisrain destroyed the Chaos Beacon on Ozrax and prepared to expand Gamma Empire’s operations, but other beacons began summoning Chaos across nearby worlds. Meanwhile, Captain Cyrus and his Blood Raven scouts reached Cisrain, seeking help after their ship was damaged.

• Cisrain ordered the battlefield cleared and a Research Station established in orbit around Ozrax.
• A Chaos Beacon activated on a nearby Desert Planet, where a World Eater was unleashed to slaughter the world for Khorne.
• Chaos beacons lit across the region, isolating Ozrax and Gamma Planet from resources and contact with Segmentum Obscurus.
• Captain Cyrus and his scouting squad met Astra Militarum Guardsmen, who told them Cisrain had defeated the daemons and saved them.
• Cyrus examined the battlefield and followed the Guardsman to the church, where Cisrain turned to greet him.

Cyrus and his Blood Ravens scout squad were drawn into Cisrain’s mission to open a mysterious black door, which he said concealed equipment capable of turning the galactic war. Cyrus recognized the markings as likely Necron writing and accepted that they might have been brought to the Far East Frontier by the Emperor’s design; the chapter ended with an Imperium citizen angering Sicarius by criticizing the Five Hundred Worlds.

• Cyrus introduced himself and asked Cisrain for a Battle Barge, but Cisrain assigned the squad an urgent mission instead.
• Cisrain led the scouts to a Chaos Beacon site and explained that Chaos had attacked two years earlier before sealing the black door beneath it.
• Cisrain revealed that the mission was to obtain equipment that could turn the war across the galaxy, and Cyrus learned they were in the Far East Frontier.
• Cisrain inserted the Blackstone into the door, causing strange characters to appear, and Cyrus suspected the site belonged to the Necrons.
• Cyrus told his squad to stay alert as they accepted the mission, while a citizen on Macragge provoked Sicarius by complaining about the state of the Imperium.

Cisrain used the universal key to restart a Necron system, uncovering a lost dynasty’s defeat and sending its distress signal again. He completed the mission, gained new technologies, and left for his homeworld while a Necron ruler received the signal and noticed the missing dynasty.

• Cisrain opened the black monolith with the universal key and downloaded data while a projection revealed how Chaos had destroyed the Necron dynasty’s resurrection protocols.
• Cisrain’s system identified reverse-engineerable Necron technologies and awarded him Synapse Condenser technology for accelerating research.
• Cisrain declared the mission complete and told his team to leave the remaining work to others.
• Talon told Cyrus that the human garrison at Vulkan Castle had advanced equipment and offered to modify their power armor, and Cyrus accepted Cisrain’s invitation to return to his homeworld.
• Ozrax received the distress signal and stared at the vanished Necron dynasty on the galactic map.

Talon watched Cisrain’s forces rapidly build factories and infrastructure on the world, while Cyrus learned that cunning Xenos were ambushing their troops. Cisrain accepted the Blood Ravens’ help with the Xenos, but Brown stopped the group to ask whether they wanted to back up the data.

• Talon marveled at the high-grade alloy used for the Research Station and questioned the workers about their technology and methods.
• Drop Pods delivered machines that assembled factories and a steelworks at astonishing speed, impressing Talon and Cyrus.
• Cisrain received reports that Xenos ambushes had killed soldiers while his forces transformed the world.
• Cyrus offered the Blood Ravens’ help, and Cisrain agreed to send them on what he hoped would be their last mission.
• As the group prepared to depart, Brown hurried over and asked whether they wanted to back up the data.

Cyrus rejected the offer to preserve his memories and genetic data, while Talon prepared to test an upgraded capture gun. The Blood Ravens began clearing Wasp-men from the planet, and Talon called for backup after finding survivors and a large group of Xenos.

• Brown explained the memory and genetic backup technology, but Cyrus refused to let the Research Station preserve his data.
• Talon showed Cyrus his spray-painted upgraded capture gun, which had gone missing from the warehouse.
• The Seventh Company received orders to establish a base and eliminate the planet’s Xenos within six months.
• Wasp-men hunted human survivors, and one survivor ran into a Space Marine who killed her pursuer with a pistol shot.
• Talon reported finding survivors and many Wasp-men, then drew his combat knife and requested backup.

Cisrain’s forces fought the Wasp-men on Ozrax, bombarded their hive cities, and began processing the captured Xenos as food after renaming the planet Consumer Goods Planet 1. With alloys, energy, and a fleet still in short supply, Cisrain looked toward nearby empires for resources and hoped to find an excuse to start a war.

• Talon, Cyrus, the Astartes, and Gamma Planet’s soldiers advanced through the Wasp-men’s swarms while scouts identified their hive cities and called in missile strikes.
• Cisrain ordered the Wasp-men processed into canned food and renamed Ozrax Consumer Goods Planet 1 for easier administration.
• Cisrain worried about shortages of alloys, energy, and warships while the homeworld’s researchers worked to build the power-hungry Synapse Condenser.
• Cisrain learned that one science ship had entered an Ork sector and another was heading toward the Tau Empire, and he hoped to find an excuse to seize energy and mining planets.
• The soldiers switched from flamethrowers to capture guns so they could collect the Xenos, leaving the Astartes puzzled by Cisrain’s planet name and plans.

Cyrus and his squad continued helping Cisrain secure Ozrax while waiting for their equipment upgrades and resenting the delay in returning to their Chapter. At the research station, they learned that Gamma Planet’s scientists had reverse-engineered the Gauss Ray but lacked the power and resources to proceed.

• Gamma Planet’s educators, factories, soldiers, and churches spread human-supremacist doctrine and maintained Ozrax under Cisrain’s rule.
• Cyrus’s squad complained that Cisrain had kept them occupied with minor tasks and that scientists had dismantled their ship and Librarium for research.
• Talon refused a letter from a girl who called him her hero, prompting his squadmates to tease him.
• Cyrus led the squad to Ozrax’s orbital research station, where scientists offered upgraded power armor and promised reverse-engineered Gauss Rays.
• A power surge disrupted the station, and the researchers explained that the Synapse Condenser consumed most of Ozrax’s available electricity.
• Cyrus asked whether the station was severely short on resources.

Cyrus learned that Gamma’s researchers could reverse-engineer devastating technologies but lacked the resources to develop them at scale. He concluded that acquiring more planets could solve the shortage and asked to meet Governor Cisrain.

• Cyrus recognized that Gamma’s researchers had reverse-engineered Gauss Ray weapons, Living Metal, and Soul Protocol technology despite having acquired the Gauss Rays only half a month earlier.
• Brown explained that building the Synapse Condenser had consumed Gamma’s resources and that the research projects were stalled by shortages of energy, alloys, and population computing power.
• Brown said that developing a faster-than-light fleet could take generations with the resources of a single planet.
• Cyrus reasoned that obtaining more planets could supply the resources Gamma needed and identified the nearby Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar as a potential source.
• Cyrus asked Brown to take him to Governor Cisrain, and a scientist offered to lead him and the others to the main control room.

Cisrain assessed nearby resource planets and the research bottlenecks holding back his expansion, then met Cyrus and the Talon men as they warned that the Chaos forces on Ozrax were part of a larger threat. The chapter ended with Cisrain showing them eleven Chaos Beacons linked to Warp rifts.

• Cisrain reviewed the faction borders and identified two unclaimed neighboring planets that could supply power and alloys.
• Cisrain checked the stalled research projects and concluded he needed to secure resource planets to restore production and advance his technology.
• Cyrus and the Talon men arrived, and Cisrain thanked them and told them their Power Armor had been upgraded with Grade III alloy.
• Cyrus warned Cisrain that the Chaos forces on Ozrax were likely planning something and had not appeared there by chance.
• Cisrain showed Cyrus the star map, revealing eleven Chaos Beacons connected to rifts leading into the Warp.

Cisrain learned that eleven Chaos Beacons and a suspected Chaos fleet threatened Ozrax, while nearby planets could provide the resources his colony needed. He ordered the Gauss Ray research completed within three days and prepared Cyrus’s squad and the colony for expansion.

• Cyrus studied the star map and warned Cisrain that the eleven Chaos Beacons and nearby Chaos forces threatened Ozrax.
• Cyrus proposed taking the Oceanic Planet and Desert Planet to supply resources for research, but Cisrain ordered him and his squad to rest for three days.
• Cisrain told Mina to prepare settlers and institutions for the two planets, redirected half the funds to the port, and set deadlines for building a spaceport and fleet.
• Cisrain ordered the Synapse Condenser’s research redirected to complete the Gauss Ray within three days, then move on to grid integration.

Cisrain used captured Xenos as biological batteries to power Gamma’s factories, while Cyrus’s squad returned to the Research Station to receive upgraded armor and weapons. The Astartes were issued lighter Power Armor and Gauss Rifles as Gamma prepared to expand its colonies.

• Cisrain’s workers processed captured Xenos into chemical batteries that supplied power to the Grid and factories.
• Talon installed a Xenos battery, rejected another letter, and left with Cyrus’s squad for the Research Station.
• An exploration vessel returned safely with technology, weapons, and an industrial system for Gamma’s expansion.
• Scientists upgraded the Astartes’ Power Armor with lighter construction and force-field shields.
• Brown’s team equipped each Astartes with a Gauss Rifle capable of disintegrating Power Armor.

Cisrain prepared to defend Ozrax from a Chaos Warband while Cyrus and his team competed with the Tau Empire for two planets. The warband’s commander, a corrupted Salamander veteran, ordered an attack on Ozrax and sought the gene-seed of the Salamanders on Tangle Planet.

• Talon tested the new Astartes sniper rifle while Cyrus asked Brown to back up the team’s data and questioned whether he could trust Cisrain.
• Brown showed Cyrus a lifetime employment agreement that promised workers could continue serving Gamma World after death until their debts were paid.
• Cisrain learned that a Chaos Warband was heading for Ozrax and the Tau Empire was moving on two planets he wanted to annex.
• Cisrain ordered missile bases built in the Ozrax system and demanded that the Battle Barge carrying Cyrus and the others be repaired, deciding to defend the colony himself.
• A Chaos commander revealed that his warband had once belonged to the Salamanders Chapter and ordered Orlando to attack Ozrax and retrieve Salamander gene-seed from Tangle Planet.
• The Chaos Warband tortured kidnapped children and prepared to use them to create new Chaos Space Marines.

Cyrus and his squad traveled to Tangle aboard a research vessel, preparing to help secure the planet from the Tau Empire and its allies. As the squad descended toward the battlefield, Vulkan fought to protect human soldiers until a Wasp-man's neutron weapon struck his arm and made him drop his hammer.

• Cyrus signed Brown's agreement and led his squad through a seven-day voyage to Tangle, while the team adjusted to their new duties and equipment.
• The squad reached the six-planet system and spotted a Xenos fleet near Tangle; Cyrus ordered the Ghost One probe ship to carry them to the planet while the research vessel prepared defenses.
• The Ghost One evaded enemy ships and descended toward Tangle as rebels and Stinger Bee forces attacked the capital under Tau Empire control.
• Vulkan fought the Xenos on the city wall and tried to drive the frenzied human soldiers away before putting down those who could not be stopped.
• A Stinger Bee fired a neutron weapon at Vulkan, striking his arm and making him drop his hammer.

The Tau Empire launched a final assault against the Salamanders, using long-range fire and drones to exploit their damaged weapons and limited reach. As Vulkan charged through the bombardment, silver-white Terminator-clad Astartes arrived, though their Chapter remained unknown.

• The Tau commander ordered the Stinger Bee Second Company and First Company infantry to crush the planet's government and install a puppet regime.
• The Fire Warriors attacked the Salamanders from long range, while their drones and Wasp-men added to the assault.
• The Salamanders struggled to reach the Tau forces as pulse and plasma fire killed their human allies and pierced their armor.
• Vulkan rallied his men and ordered a charge after their defenses began to fail.
• The Fire Warriors took to the air to evade Vulkan's charge, but a green shot killed one of them.
• A soldier reported that Astartes reinforcements in silver-white Terminator suits had arrived, though their Chapter was unknown.

Cyrus’s squad and Talon attacked the Tau Empire forces, helping the Salamanders turn the battle against the Fire Warriors. The Tau deployed heavy reinforcements, and Cyrus ordered Talon to disable the giant Battlesuits as one crashed down before them.

• Vulkan charged the falling Fire Warriors and smashed several Tau troops with his hammer.
• Cyrus split his squad, sending Talon to snipe from the city while the others attacked the Tau drop zone.
• Talon and Cyrus’s squad attacked the Fire Warriors, and the Salamanders recognized the arriving Astartes reinforcements and joined the counterattack.
• The Tau bombarded Talon’s position, but he survived and continued firing as the Fire Warriors’ jetpacks began to overload.
• The Tau sent Drones, Stinger Bees, vehicles, and XV8 Crisis Battlesuits to hold back Cyrus’s squad and the Salamanders.
• A giant Battlesuit crashed down in front of the advancing forces, and Cyrus ordered Talon to disable the big ones.