Chapter Summaries

Cisrain received Aeonid Thiel’s soul after completing the Death Employment Service Center and began planning to recruit psykers and warriors to put it to work. The Tau fleet withdrew from Gamma World, leaving the three-eyed inhabitants to celebrate their apparent victory.

• Cisrain learned that The Emperor had placed Aeonid Thiel’s soul into the Death Employment Service Center and decided to recruit psykers and suitable warriors to fuse with it.
• Cisrain continued construction on the power plant complex, naval port, and cloning base.
• Fi’rios ordered the Tau fleet to withdraw after the ground forces lost control of the planet and anti-aircraft guns threatened the ships.
• Fi’rios vowed that the Tau Empire would return with more fleets and warriors to reclaim the valuable world.
• The three-eyed demi-humans emerged from hiding, saw the Kroot fleeing and the sky shield vanish, and celebrated their victory.

As Karamat expanded into a vast steel city, the Kroot grew resentful of their failed conquest and the Tau Empire’s refusal to honor its promises. Tau'an struggled to contain the Kroot, but their attacks on Tau and allied forces eventually triggered civil war.

• The Kroot watched the human-led reconstruction transform Karamat and pleaded with the Tau Empire for help.
• The Kroot demanded that Tau'an hand over Mota'ri and fulfill the promise to share the world, but Tau'an told them to wait for the homeworld’s reply.
• Two days later, Tau'an learned that the human commander had allied with the three-eyed demi-humans and that Kroot were hunting Tau patrols and attacking human allies.
• Tau'an endured the Kroot attacks to avoid a conflict that might benefit the humans, while recognizing that the Kroot had become a liability.
• The alien races under Mota'ri’s administration could no longer tolerate the Kroot’s ambushes and assassinations, and civil war erupted.

After Gamma World established the Human Federation and the Afterlife Employment Service Center, Cyrus considered the Imperium a threat to Cisrain’s world while Vulkan regretted refusing to sign contracts. Vulkan asked Cisrain for a three-thousand-year contract, and Cyrus concluded that Gamma World needed to grow stronger before contacting Ultramar.

• Gamma World established the Human Federation, supported Karamat, and made the Afterlife Employment Service Center an independent department under Cisrain’s supervision.
• Cisrain reviewed the battle’s heavy losses, including the destruction of ten mining ships and the deaths of three Salamanders who could not be resurrected because they lacked contracts.
• Vulkan, Cyrus, and the White Temple members saw the souls awaiting resurrection in the center, including Hill, and Cyrus’s faith in Cisrain’s promises deepened.
• Cyrus worried that the Imperium would exploit or destroy Gamma World if it learned of the planet, and he resolved that they needed more Space Marines before approaching Ultramar.
• Vulkan regretted refusing Cisrain’s earlier offer to create a Salamander company and asked to sign a three-thousand-year contract.

Vulkan and the others signed five-hundred-year contracts with Gamma World’s Afterlife Employment Service Center, though Vulkan objected to the benefits and asked for Hill to be assigned to his Salamanders. On Terra, an Administratum clerk rated a world’s unpaid Imperial Tithe as urgent and called for an Adeptus Custodes deployment.

• Vulkan learned the system allowed contracts of up to five hundred years, and he signed one for himself and his companions.
• Vulkan rejected the salary, housing, and leave benefits as unnecessary, insisting that resources should go to people in need.
• Vulkan agreed to the governor’s proposal and asked for Hill to be assigned to the Salamanders.
• An Administratum clerk reviewed reports about threats across the Imperium, dismissing most as unimportant or leaving them in the review queue.
• The clerk marked an independent world’s failure to pay the Imperial Tithe as urgent and required an Adeptus Custodes deployment.

Cisrain prepared to seize Tau and Kroot resources while his people developed Dark Matter Engines and Whisper Escorts. As the human alliance attacked the Kroot rather than the Tau, Tau'An mistook the assault for a sign of goodwill and reported that negotiations could bring the humans under Tau rule.

• Cisrain learned that the Modified Soul Stone could collect contracted souls beyond the Afterlife Employment Service Center's star sectors.
• Cisrain received news that the planet would soon be transformed for Utopia and that the Dark Matter Engine had been developed, raising the Catastrophe level to Phase 2.0.
• Cisrain ordered research into Whisper Escorts and directed Koro to reclaim lost territory, capture Tau for the Synapse Condensers, and treat the rest as food.
• Cisrain learned that Chaos power was spreading around the Chaos Beacon on Ozrax and prioritized building Whisper Escorts before confronting it.
• Tau'An saw the human alliance attacking the Kroot and assumed the humans had come to help the Tau and negotiate.
• Tau'An deleted his earlier complaint to Commander Noah and sent a report claiming his leadership had won human cooperation and could guide them into Tau rule.

Sidros and other Astartes clones were revived and prepared for training while soul-loaded logging machines advanced across Karamat and crushed the Kroot. Faced with the machines, Tau'an realized the Tau had to negotiate or surrender, and tried to secure better terms before the humans attacked.

• Sidros awoke in a clone body with altered memories and was told he had to complete extensive virtual training before joining the battle.
• Logging machines loaded with souls advanced across Karamat, cutting down Kroot warriors and driving the Kroot into retreat.
• The Kroot Shaper roared in fury as the machines overwhelmed the Kroot, while Tau'an feared the human forces' growing strength.
• A Gamma World representative demanded that the Tau lay down their weapons and gave them a countdown to surrender.
• Tau'an concluded that fleeing would abandon much of his force and tried to negotiate a reasonable price as the humans prepared to attack.

Tau'an surrendered his forces to the humans in exchange for a promise of safety, but the captives soon learned that their allies were being exterminated. Meanwhile, Chief Koro announced plans to purge Chaos from the Gamma Worlds and bring calamity to the xenos who had opposed them.

• Tau'an ordered most of his Fire Warriors to lay down their weapons, and the humans registered and disarmed the prisoners.
• Tarellians attacked during the headcount and were violently suppressed, while the humans confiscated the Tau Empire's Drones.
• Tau'an demanded to see the governor, but the human escort refused and the prisoners saw the surrounding ground engulfed in fire as their allies were killed.
• The human forces were ordered to clear the Forge World of xenos and send their corpses to processing plants.
• Chief Koro told his colleagues that the governor had contacted the other chiefs and that Chaos would be uprooted from the Gamma Worlds.
• Koro said the Gamma Worlds would soon make the xenos who had harassed them experience their power.

Chapter Master Calgar led the Ultramarines across a Chaos-corrupted planet, learned of the Lamenters’ last stand, and ordered Trajan to destroy the Chaos Beacon before preparing to face traitors. Meanwhile, Gamma World strained its energy and processing capacity as it expanded its workforce, and an emergency alert reported that Chaos power in the Ozrax Sector had risen despite the beacon’s destruction.

• Calgar crushed a daemon-possessed cultist as Chaos forces surrounded his squad beneath the planet’s Chaos Beacon.
• Trajan reported that the Lamenters had fought on the world for at least a year, and Calgar learned that their last surviving battle-brother had fallen to the Black Rage.
• Calgar ordered Trajan and five Space Marines to destroy the Chaos Beacon, then met with the Space Wolves’ Chapter Master to discuss the traitors.
• On Gamma World, two Synapse Condensers ran at full capacity, while the shortage of energy and resources fueled plans to seize Tau Empire assets in the Eastern Fringe.
• Gamma World used Tau Ethereal and Earth Caste Clones in its Synapse Condenser, while three-eyed subhumans entered schools and began learning the planet’s culture.
• An emergency alert announced that the Chaos Beacon had been extinguished but Chaos power in the Ozrax Sector had increased.

Cisrain ordered Gamma World to accelerate its war preparations as the Chaos threat and rival factions closed in. During a night patrol, the Blood Ravens captured a Tau stealth operative alive and prepared to use it to locate the enemy's hiding place.

• Cisrain decided Gamma World needed more forge worlds and ordered officials to accelerate postwar work despite the exhausted workforce.
• Cisrain told Koro to cancel shifts, keep workers producing ammunition, and deploy newly tested stimulatory organs.
• Cyrus's squad increased its night patrols while its members discussed scarce Salamander scrolls and relics linked to Rogal Dorn.
• Talon and the Blood Ravens detected and ambushed a Tau stealth team, killing four members and capturing the last with Magnus's psychic power.
• The squad decided to interrogate the captive to find the Tau hiding place, then excitedly examined items in the Blood Ravens' storeroom that they claimed were Rogal Dorn's remains.

Chaos destroyed the Synapse Condenser on Gamma World through a Warp ritual, killing the people trapped inside and disrupting the planet’s development. Cisrain learned that the Chaos Beacon and the plague on Ozrax had enabled the attack, then received the Emperor’s Sword as a new soul in the Afterlife Employment Service Center.

• Talon tried to stop the simulation, but Cyrus shot the captive Tau before the corrupted Synapse Condenser collapsed and crushed its prisoners.
• Cyrus rescued a mortal scientist and reported the destruction to Governor Cisrain, while Vulkan and the others examined the ruins.
• Cisrain received an emergency notification linking the disaster to a Chaos deity, the Chaos Beacon, and the plague outbreak on Ozrax.
• Cisrain concluded that Chaos had acted to delay his progress and force him to confront the Chaos Beacon and the Tau Empire at once.
• The Afterlife Employment Service Center gained the sub-heroic soul Idamas, listed as the Emperor's Sword, and Cisrain reacted with surprise.

Cisrain managed Karamat World’s preparations after the Synapse Condenser’s destruction, including defenses, research, and plans for the Tau Empire’s expected counterattack. He ended Cyrus’s self-blame and ordered him to lead a Chaos expedition with one hundred enhanced soldiers, while the world bought them time.

• Cisrain approved production changes, a revised military formation, and deployment of a non-standard Whisper Escort while suspending several reverse-engineering projects.
• Officials reported that the Gravity Slingshot had completed a successful test from Gamma World and that Tau Empire forces were expected to reach Karamat World in thirteen Gamma days.
• Cyrus offered to take responsibility for the Synapse Condenser’s destruction, but Cisrain told him the matter was resolved and ended.
• Cisrain ordered Cyrus to launch the Chaos expedition once the Gravity Slingshot and escort ships were ready, giving him one hundred enhanced soldiers and no support until the Tau Empire issue was resolved.
• Cyrus noticed that the sword carried by Cisrain resembled the Emperor’s Sword, and a guard interrupted two transmigrators praising the Emperor by asking which heretic’s Emperor they meant.

Cyrus prepared the Blood Raven Chapter’s expedition against the Chaos Beacon while Zephram and Vulkan remained on Karamat to carry out their own vital missions. As Karamat’s First Expeditionary Force assembled, the controllable artificial neutron star ignited to power a Gravity Slingshot.

• Cyrus told Zephram that the Blood Ravens would leave to attack the Chaos Beacon, while Zephram’s warriors stayed to defend Karamat.
• Cyrus informed Vulkan that the expedition was likely fatal, and Vulkan acknowledged that his own top-secret mission carried an even greater risk.
• Cisrain ordered Marshal Koro to take full wartime command and directed the First Expeditionary Force to install anomalous energy purge systems.
• The massive Gravity Slingshot activated its controllable artificial neutron star, sending pulse signals across Karamat and warping spacetime.

Karamat’s artificial neutron star powered the first stage of a Gravity Slingshot, awing its inhabitants and the Imperium visitors while alarming the Tau Empire. As the Tau vowed to stop Karamat’s growing development, one of their ships suddenly vanished.

• The artificial neutron star lit Karamat’s night sky, and local administrators told the awestruck inhabitants that it was one of the Lord of Karamat’s wonders.
• Qibela saw the artificial sun and resolved to gain enough knowledge to enter Sacred Khala.
• Cyrus, Talon, and Vulkan learned that the incomplete Gravity Slingshot could enable faster-than-light travel within five star systems, while a complete version could cross the galaxy.
• Cyrus departed with the first Whisper Escort completed and left the remaining work to the Salamanders.
• The neutron star’s radiation disrupted Tau instruments, and Phi'rios learned that Karamat had created a stabilizing pulsar.
• Phi'rios vowed that the Greater Good would crush Karamat’s development, but one of the Tau ships suddenly vanished.

Phirios learned that the planet had used a gravity-based technology to make a ship vanish, and he considered claiming the world for the Tau Empire. While Gamma World continued expanding and building its fleet, the chapter shifted to a planet where the Black Legion had invaded and fought the Lamenters, ending with a cry of “HORUS!!!”

• An Earth Caste researcher told Phirios that a ship had vanished during the planet’s pulsar activity, possibly through gravity-based faster-than-light travel.
• Phirios recognized the technology’s importance and considered offering the planet to Aun'va and conquering it for the Tau Empire.
• Mining crews gathered resources from the outer planets as Cisrain reviewed construction reports and monitored Gamma World’s expansion.
• The Black Legion invaded a medieval human world and ravaged, conquered, and slaughtered its inhabitants.
• A voice cried “HORUS!!!” amid the war between the Black Legion and the Lamenters.

The Lamenters fought the Black Legion on Gedi'an, driven by the Black Rage and the Chaplain’s reminder that their father needed them. They continued their doomed battle as an act of atonement, with a Chaos Lord challenging their loyalty to the Imperium.

• The Black Legion slaughtered Gedi'an’s people and turned the planet into a scene of despair.
• A Chaplain carrying the Blood Tears Banner told the Lamenters consumed by the Black Rage, “Father needs us,” and helped them grasp their duty.
• Krixius, Atugray, and their brothers charged the Black Legion, fighting through the Red Thirst and Black Rage despite their isolation and lack of support.
• A wounded Lamenter detonated his explosive while fighting a Hellbrute, killing them both.
• A Chaos Lord of the Black Legion pierced a frenzied Lamenter and questioned why the Lamenters still served the Imperium.

The Lamenters refused to submit as the Chaos Lord killed Krixius and threatened to destroy their Chapter. As the Death Company charged the Black Legion, a warp disturbance appeared in space, leaving the arrival of possible reinforcements unresolved.

• A Lamenter consumed by the Black Rage charged the Chaos Lord, who stopped his Chainsword strike and tore Krixius apart.
• Krixius struck the Chaos Lord's armor before dying, and the Lamenters' Chaplain defended their loyalty and sacrifice.
• A mortal slave spat at the Chaos Lord, provoking him to order the Black Legion to kill everyone and destroy the Lamenters' honor.
• The Death Company charged into battle against the Black Legion, declaring that they knew no reinforcements would come.
• A beam of light appeared in space as the surrounding area warped from a gathering gravitational force.

Cisrain prepared Karamat as the Tau fleet approached, while the Black Legion’s mutated warship was struck by a mysterious force. A Tau Ethereal arrived to oversee the campaign and considered how to claim Karamat’s technology for the Greater Good.

• The Sons of Cruelty dragged captives through Black Tallen and prepared to sacrifice them to the Dark Prince.
• Black Tallen shook violently, and the statue of the Dark Prince blazed as something seemed to descend.
• Cisrain reviewed possible orbital defenses and recognized that the Tau fleet had accelerated toward Karamat.
• A supreme Ethereal arrived to encourage the Tau Empire’s Second Fleet and examined Karamat’s megastructure wonders.
• The Ethereal discussed rewarding F'rios if the Tau seized Karamat and its technology.

Supreme Ethereal An'no arrived to lead the Tau Empire's Second Fleet and ordered it to negotiate with the intelligent species holding their captured people. After reviewing the news, Cisrain decided that An'no's presence made his planned attack on the Tau homeworld unnecessary.

• Fi'rios welcomed Supreme Ethereal An'no, whose arrival greatly boosted the Second Fleet's morale.
• An'no prioritized rescuing the hundreds of thousands of captured Tau and allies and ordered negotiations with the opposing intelligent species.
• Cisrain gave the intelligence about the Ethereal council member to Koro's second military adviser.
• Cisrain said he had planned to launch Chaos-corrupted warships, flesh, runes, and forbidden knowledge at the Tau homeworld, but now saw no need to do so.

Cisrain let the Tau Empire destroy decoy space facilities while his fleet remained hidden, then accepted their invitation to negotiate aboard their ship. The Tau demanded he come alone, believing their control of space left them with every advantage.

• Skaiqi’s proposal became a backup plan before the Tau Empire fleet began attacking Karamat’s spacecraft and structures.
• Vulkan’s hidden fleet watched the bombardment and followed Cisrain’s plan to avoid acting rashly while their forces sacrificed themselves.
• The Tau Empire’s long-range fire slowed, and a Water Caste envoy requested negotiations.
• The Supreme Councillor agreed to meet only if Cisrain boarded alone, without weapons, enhanced warriors, or nearby fleet support.
• Cisrain’s advisers protested the danger, but Cisrain said he would go alone.

Cisrain agreed to negotiate with the Tau alone after they demanded he board their ship without an escort. His supporters were furious and began discussing ways to retaliate, while Koro and the others faced blame for letting him take the risk.

• Cisrain insisted on attending the negotiations despite warnings from his followers.
• The Tau allowed Cisrain to bring his ceremonial sword but barred his escort from joining him.
• Zephram and the other soldiers urged Cisrain to fight, but Cisrain left for the Tau ship alone.
• Brown blamed Koro for allowing Cisrain to board alone and complained that his split selves cared only about research.
• Mina condemned Koro and Skaiqi for failing to protect Cisrain and ordered the Gravity Slingshot's aim improved.
• Koro sneezed at the Chaos Beacon.