Chapter Summaries

The Death Guard and Thousand Sons fought over the Threefold Forge Worlds, each claiming the planet was destined for their god. As their war devastated the world, ancient warriors in space prepared to enter the battlefield.

• The Death Guard's Second and Fourth Plague Companies landed on Three Gates and discovered the Thousand Sons were already fighting Imperial forces there.
• The Death Guard spread a rust virus through the tank factories while the Fourth Company competed with Tzeentchian sorcerers for the worlds' psykers.
• Nurgle's death sorcerers and the Thousand Sons unleashed opposing psychic storms that ravaged the Forge World and its inhabitants.
• The Death Guard and Thousand Sons escalated their war as Imperial soldiers, Adeptus Mechanicus personnel, and cult clerics were pulled into the fighting.
• Ancient soldiers aboard probes sensed the familiar presence of the Thousand Sons and Death Guard and decided to destroy most of the battlefield's enemies before entering.

Gamma World began its assault on the Chaos-held planet with devastating orbital strikes and a rapid ground invasion. Its expeditionary force cornered the Death Guard's Second Company and overwhelmed them with advanced weapons and technology.

• Gamma World bombarded the battlefield and a Nurgle-corrupted factory with light lances, destroying Chaos forces and scattering survivors.
• Gamma World sent Drop Pods carrying veteran soldiers in advanced biomass Power Armor to protect the planet's people and secure its Forge World.
• Gamma's soldiers used psychic sensors and heavy weapons to eliminate Chaos ambushes and cultists hiding beneath a steel factory.
• Notaus gathered the surviving Death Guard Second Company in an underground mine, but Gamma's expeditionary force tracked them down and attacked.
• Gamma's weapons, healing armor, Necron constructs, and force-field shields overwhelmed the Death Guard, while the earthquakes across the planet ceased.

Gamma World’s forces hunted Chaos on Three Gates Star while its laboratory recreated an uncorrupted Angron and the pivotal battlefield from his past. The new Angron joined the War of the High Walls with Gamma World’s aid and charged toward the slave masters.

• Gamma World’s Expeditionary Forces cleared District Nine and began air-dropping troops into District Ten, absorbing the souls of Chaos sorcerers and Thousand Sons warriors.
• Gamma World’s psychic laboratory made progress reconstructing Angron from soul particles and prepared a new version who would have to defeat his daemon self to reclaim his authority.
• Gamma World recreated the War of the High Walls on Nuceria, bringing the new Angron into the battle where the Emperor had once taken him away from his comrades.
• Angron rallied the enslaved gladiators, fought and defeated Meat Mountain, and pushed toward the fortress as armored warriors arrived to support the uprising.
• Angron roared at the slave masters and continued his charge despite the blades embedded in his body.

Angron led the slaves to defeat the nobles and kill their leader, then collapsed from his wounds. Gamma World retrieved him and completed surgery to remove the Butcher's Nails and restore his body, and he awoke in an unfamiliar ward.

• Angron charged through the nobles' defenses despite his grievous wounds, while his slave brothers fought beside him.
• A slave ambushed Angron with a thermodynamic spear, but Angron pulled it free and killed Kaegrus, prompting the remaining nobles to retreat.
• The victorious slaves celebrated their freedom as Angron collapsed and lost consciousness.
• Gamma World brought Angron back from the gravitational field of history and began repairing his body and removing the Butcher's Nails.
• The researchers completed Angron's physical restoration and moved him to a ward, where he soon woke up.

Angron awoke on Gamma World and learned from Oenomaus that he had been revived with a chance to save his Brotherhood. After witnessing the agonized life of his ascended self, Angron chose to stay and atone rather than leave.

• Angron awoke and was stunned to find Oenomaus alive, who explained that Gamma World had revived him and could also restore members of the Brotherhood.
• Oenomaus persuaded Angron to see the ascended Angron and learn how his life had been used and twisted.
• Angron watched the history of his future self, from The Emperor abandoning the Brotherhood to Angron's fall under Chaos and Khorne.
• The ascended Angron briefly recognized the freedom of the Angron before him, but the Butcher's Nails dragged him back into torment.
• Oenomaus explained that killing the daemon Angron would only return him to endless agony, and Angron asked how he could help revive the Brotherhood.
• Angron chose not to flee and resolved to atone for the mistakes of his other self.

Angron chose to enlist with Gamma World and atone for his past, then received a mission to stop Kharn’s World Eaters from breaching Gamma’s defenses. Meanwhile, Chaos forces near Is III discovered through a ritual that Angron had returned and continued preparing their infiltration.

• Angron told Oenomaus he would return to the battlefield, help restore his slave brothers, and atone for his past.
• After learning about the war against Gamma World and the fates of his brothers, Angron enlisted, received armor and a Power Axe, and prepared to prove himself under Sigismund’s command.
• Angron accepted a mission to stop Kharn’s World Eaters from opening a breach in Gamma World’s defenses, with Oenomaus joining him and Margo withholding his trust.
• Chaos forces above Is III tore open the Warp rift again, hijacked a Gamma World smuggling vessel, and used its people in a divination ritual.
• The Chaos sorcerers saw the ritual react and concluded that Angron had returned.

Human Angron emerged on Gamma World and joined its war against Chaos, drawing Khorne’s attention and hopes for a fight between human and daemon Primarchs. Tzeentch then moved to exploit Angron’s return by summoning Lorgar and asking whether Corax or Horus might follow.

• Angron arrived on Gamma World as a human and continued working under a number until he had atoned for his sins.
• Khorne welcomed Angron’s return and imagined blessing him, then pitting him against daemon Angron for entertainment.
• Angron joined the battlefield, adapted quickly, and fought the Chaos forces, whose attacks seemed to trigger Khorne’s blessings on him.
• Khorne watched Angron grow stronger and called for the daemon Primarchs to fight for his attention.
• Tzeentch summoned Lorgar and told him Angron had appeared, hoping the news would draw out Corax or Horus.

Angron’s return and Gamma World’s rapid rise drew the attention and schemes of powerful factions across the Milky Way. Meanwhile, Cisrain reached the third stage of genetic ascension and took his place on Gamma World’s Silver Throne, viewing authority as something founded on trust.

• Angron fought on the battlefield with graceful movements and poetic verses, while his demonic form remained bound to the Butcher’s Nails by the real universe’s impression of him.
• The Necrons considered Gamma World a source of technological and spiritual knowledge, even as they feared its growth and other factions turned their attention toward it.
• Cisrain captured the Warp shadow forming over Gamma World for study and advanced from the second to the third stage of genetic ascension.
• Gamma World’s people built Cisrain a Silver Throne from Tier 3 alloy, and he watched the wars from it.
• Cisrain reflected that lasting authority came from the shared trust of others rather than violence.

Cisrain surveyed the Chaos forces surrounding Gamma World and ordered a strike against Vashtorr, who had disappeared after the fall of Cadia. He left the chapter by activating the Colossus Project to destroy Vashtorr’s energy planet and force him out of hiding.

• Cisrain inspected the star map and saw Chaos forces swarming across the second ring around Gamma World.
• Cisrain considered Vashtorr a threat because he might use his research into Cadia’s Blackstone Pylons to overcome anti-Warp fields.
• Cisrain’s secretary reported that Vashtorr had vanished into the Warp after appearing near Cadia, and that his later movements could not be traced.
• Cisrain asked whether Vashtorr’s energy planet remained and decided to destroy it to make Vashtorr show himself.
• Cisrain ordered the Colossus Project activated.

Gamma World prepared a vast force and anti-daemonic weapons for a strike against Vashtorr, while Chaos powers recognized that Gamma World’s continued existence obstructed their conquest of the galaxy’s dark side. Abaddon held back from attacking Terra as strange psychic forces began purging daemons from his fleets.

• Gamma World assembled half an army group and prepared the Colossus’s Neutron Sweep device, obelisks, specialized detectors, and a hypercube construct for its planned strike against Vashtorr.
• Chaos forces around Gamma World spread news of the mobilization, restrained their operations, and sought to draw more forces toward the region.
• Chaos leaders concluded that Gamma World had become a rallying point for human worlds and that the dark side could not be conquered while it remained.
• Abaddon returned his forces to their lair after Cadia and ignored Black Legion veterans urging him to attack Terra, intending to avoid Horus’s failed strategy.
• Mechanical tapeworms began tearing daemons from Abaddon’s Chaos Fleets as powerful psychic fluctuations made the warships’ machine spirits scream.

Vashtorr persuaded Abaddon to help him seize an ancient weapon by promising the Black Legion powerful support, and directed Abaddon’s fleet toward Magdalo World. The Iron Angels were overwhelmed, leaving Chapter Master Rubicius and a few dozen warriors to defend their monastery as Chaos forces descended.

• Vashtorr restored the Nemesis and offered Abaddon technological support in exchange for help securing an Old Ones-forged weapon.
• Abaddon agreed to attack Magdalo World, home to the dwindling Iron Angels Chapter, while remaining wary of Vashtorr’s ambitions.
• Vashtorr guided Abaddon’s fleet through Warp routes to Magdalo, where the Marauder Legion and Chaos sorcery overwhelmed the Iron Angels’ space force.
• Rubicius sent distress signals after the Iron Angels lost contact with their space force, then took his place at the monastery’s outer defenses with the remaining warriors.
• Chaos drop pods descended through the sky as Rubicius and the few dozen Iron Angels prepared to defend Magdalo.

Abaddon and Vashtorr led the Black Legion’s assault on Magdalo, pushing the Iron Angels and Sisters of Battle to the brink of defeat. Gamma World sent the remaining Fourth Army Group to confront Vashtorr, and the chapter ended as the Black Legion suddenly froze under an oppressive presence.

• Abaddon and Vashtorr attacked the Iron Angels monastery, overwhelming its defenders as Vashtorr descended to claim what he sought.
• The Iron Angels captain and the Sisters of Battle prepared to make a final stand as Chaos forces closed in on the chapel.
• Gamma World detected Vashtorr’s location and ordered the remaining Fourth Army Group to investigate and seize the Webway key fragment.
• Seraph and the other conscripts boarded warships carrying weapons prepared to counter Vashtorr and Chaos corruption.
• The Black Legion drove the Iron Angels toward annihilation, but its marauders and Abaddon suddenly halted as they sensed an oppressive presence.

Abaddon and Vashtorr attacked the Steel Angels monastery to recover a Webway key fragment, but Gamma World arrived without warning and devastated the Nemesis. As Vashtorr hurried to the Chapter vault, Abaddon encountered Sanguinius descending into the battle.

• Abaddon felt a warning tremor as he approached the monastery, while Vashtorr used sorcery to turn a human into a Chaos construct and break the defenders’ resistance.
• A Sister Superior charged the attackers with the Blade of Loyalty, and Ze'en died defending the Steel Angels’ vault after the monastery was struck by a lance from space.
• Gamma World’s warship suddenly appeared beside the Black Legion and heavily damaged the Nemesis with macro-cannon fire and a plasma lance.
• Abaddon recognized Gamma World as the source of his warning, while Vashtorr hurried toward the vault to seize the Oathstone containing a Webway key fragment.
• Sanguinius appeared before Abaddon, who recognized the Primarch as Ze'en died.

An angel sent by Gamma World pursued Vashtorr to seize the Webway key fragment, while Abaddon mistook the angel for Sanguinius and attacked. The angel’s reinforcements battled the Black Legion as Vashtorr repaired the key fragment, only for the angel to steal it and leave Vashtorr holding a humiliating substitute.

• The angel ignored Abaddon’s challenges and requested reinforcements while fleeing toward Vashtorr.
• Gamma World deployed Viper Squad, whose phase-engine warriors slaughtered Black Legion troops and forced Abaddon to call on Chaos sorcerers to hinder their teleportation.
• Vashtorr transformed the Oathstone into a Webway key fragment and celebrated being one step from godhood.
• The angel crashed into Vashtorr, swapped the repaired fragment for a humiliating object, and took the key fragment while thanking him.

Angel and the Gamma World forces escaped with the Webway key fragment, while Vashtorr and Abaddon agreed to unite against Gamma World. Gamma World began striking Vashtorr’s energy planets as the two prepared for war.

• Angel escaped Vashtorr with the Webway key fragment as Gamma World’s anti-daemon field blocked Vashtorr’s attempt to trap him in a Warp rift.
• Angel called the warriors fighting Abaddon to withdraw, and they returned to their mothership with the fragment while Abaddon’s left arm remained disabled by a neural extermination round.
• Gamma World’s warship vanished after dropping a weapon onto the planet, triggering a massive explosion and atmospheric incineration.
• Vashtorr entered Abaddon’s Nemesis and urged war against Gamma World, then revealed his plans and offered his forces, weapons, and the Ark of Omen to strengthen Abaddon’s army.
• Abaddon accepted Vashtorr’s offer as a strategic gain, and Gamma World’s attacks on Vashtorr’s energy planets began.

Gamma World's colossal Blackstone weapon arrived above Saramas V, Vashtorr's corrupted energy world, and began a Neutron Sweep aimed at its Chaos forces and core infrastructure. Vashtorr recognized the attack as Gamma World's attempt to seize the key fragment, while the neutron plume started descending over the planet.

• Magos Tarquin's history revealed how Vashtorr had corrupted him, turned him into a daemon engine, and made him a suffering servant on Saramas V.
• Gamma World's immense Blackstone weapon appeared beside Saramas, alarming the pirate fleets, Chaos Space Marines, and Vistan, who had never seen it before.
• The weapon stopped above the naval spaceport, and the Chaos forces realized it belonged to their enemy when its Neutron Sweep began.
• Vashtorr identified Gamma World as the attacker and recognized that it had come for the key fragment on Saramas.
• Gamma World's weapon opened its firing fissures, and a bright neutron plume descended through the darkened sky toward the planet.

The Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and Carcharodons joined Gamma World's assault on Salamas after learning Vashtorr's forces were under attack. Gamma World's Neutron Sweep and warships overwhelmed the Chaos defenders, leaving the allied Chapters to pursue enemies who were already fleeing.

• The Space Wolves and Blood Angels learned that another force had attacked the planet they planned to assault, and the Carcharodons joined them in the fight.
• The three Chapters deployed from their Battle Barges, with the Space Wolves targeting the Red Corsairs and the Blood Angels attacking the Chaos Space Marines.
• Gamma World's Neutron Sweep device unleashed neutron plumes across the planet while white-clad troops and Gamma World's forces attacked the Chaos defenders.
• Vashtorr offered powerful weapons and warships to recruit help, but the newcomers discovered Gamma World's fleet and anti-psyker defenses were formidable.
• The Red Corsairs and other Chaos forces fled, abandoning their armor and weapons rather than risk their lives against Gamma World's forces.

Gamma World effortlessly defeated the enemy and began exchanging intelligence with the Imperium forces while continuing work on a superweapon. Vashtorr planned to rebuild his forces and seize Gamma World's Webway Key as Gamma World advanced its research from mastery to domination.

• Gamma World's forces routed the enemy, and Commander Maya agreed to communicate with the Imperium warbands while the planet was cleared of Chaos.
• Vashtorr raged over Magdalo's destruction, then decided Gamma World's technological progress could fuel his own rise to power.
• Vashtorr offered Abaddon a pact: the Dark Mechanicum would build a powerful fleet while Abaddon helped seize Gamma World's Webway Key.
• Vashtorr's followers salvaged and transformed warships into a fleet of Chaos vessels linked by flesh-and-steel networks and powered by the Warp.
• Vashtorr created the Soul-Calling Pillar to gather nearby Chaos forces, while Gamma World completed the mastery stage of its research and prepared to pursue domination.

Gamma World began a resource-driven campaign of conquest while secretly preparing an enormous Ascension Ark to escape the doomed universe. As the galaxy descended further into war, Malcador returned to Terra.

• Gamma World concealed its Ascension Plan while constructing a colossal device near Tangle Planet and forging metal on a massive scale.
• Gamma World’s leadership issued resource missions to its legions, directing them to plunder distant worlds and obtain materials for its planned fleet and fortresses.
• Gamma World used border disputes and other pretexts to attack Tau, Orks, humans, Aeldari, and other neighboring powers.
• As Gamma World expanded and the Imperium’s dark side continued to collapse, Malcador completed his long voyage and returned to Terra.

Inquisitor Decia and the Terra watchtower discovered that a vast fleet of Chapters, led by the Iron Hands, had arrived without answering their calls. The fleet carried Malcador, whose supporters planned to bring him to Terra and restore him to power, and more warships continued emerging from the Warp.

• A colossal battleship bearing the Iron Hands' markings emerged from a Warp rift near Terra, prompting Inquisitor Decia to order it stopped.
• The watchtower realized that multiple Space Marine Chapters were arriving together, and the fleet refused to communicate with the station.
• Malcador's escorts recalled repeated Chaos, xenos, and assassin attacks during their journey and explained that they had tightened his security.
• The Iron Fathers and Chapter Masters escorted Malcador toward Terra, believing his return would restore the Imperium and planning to make him its leader and commander.
• The gathered Chapters prepared to prevent the High Lords from obstructing Malcador's return, even if that meant civil war.
• Additional Warp rifts opened behind the arriving fleet as mortals at the watchtower watched more warships emerge.