Recaps

Lin Fan agreed to face Lieutenant Sura and the Valhallans in a series of contests to settle their doubts about his abilities. At the chapter’s end, Sura and Lin Fan chose their weapons for a shooting contest in the ship’s training ground.

• Lieutenant Sura challenged Lin Fan to a marksmanship contest, and Lin Fan invited the Valhallans to propose other challenges.
• Commissar Cain silenced the crowd after hearing someone joke about locking Colonel Soap and Jurgen together.
• Delia told Lin Fan that the fleet’s crew had been replaced after years of battles and that the priest who recorded his accuracy had been promoted.
• Cain told the training-ground manager to prepare a full-standard course for two competitors, and the manager reshaped magnetic sand into a battlefield.
• Lieutenant Sura chose a modified Mellervi-pattern assault lasgun, while Lin Fan selected the oversized Beast Tamer V lasgun for its sustained fire.

Lin Fan and Lieutenant Sura competed in a training-ground shooting exercise, with Lin Fan using Khorne’s vision and instinct to fire accurately with his eyes closed. Commissar Cain recognized that Lin Fan was outshooting Sura, while worrying that his superior’s prowess would lead to more dangerous assignments.

• Lieutenant Sura confidently advanced through the training ground, using cover and precise bursts to destroy the simulated enemies.
• Lin Fan closed his eyes against the Beast-Tamer rifle’s blinding effects and walked forward, firing steadily without pausing to observe.
• Valhallan soldiers mocked Lin Fan, but Ciaphas Cain pointed out that Lin Fan’s shots were striking enemies before they could emerge and counterattack.
• Cain concluded that Sura could not defeat Lin Fan and feared that his formidable superior would bring him more perilous duties.
• Cain reflected on leaving his Space Marine liaison post, then noted that the apparent heretical device was an Imperial servitor modification used by the Ecclesiarchy to punish sinners.

Lieutenant Sura struggled through the light weapons training ground before Lin Fan cleared it with ease, impressing her and Cain. Cain then had Jurgen test Lin Fan with heavy weapons, and Lin Fan’s superhuman strength left Cain wary of him.

• Lieutenant Sura fought through the training ground, but electric bolts disabled her and she fell short of defeating Colonel Soap.
• Lin Fan used accurate fire from behind cover to eliminate the remaining enemies and helped Lieutenant Sura up.
• Cain ordered Jurgen to compete with Lin Fan in the heavy weapons training ground.
• Lin Fan charged forward while firing a heavy bolter one-handed and carrying a crate of ammunition, astonishing Cain.

Lin Fan finished the Valhallans’ training exercise, ordered the troops into mixed evening classes, and teased Commissar Cain about sparring. The chapter then recounted Cain’s unlikely military career and his many dangerous exploits, leaving him established as a reluctant hero who survived through skill and luck.

• Lin Fan returned with Jurgen, ended the Valhallans’ betting, and ordered the Karmaklans to complete extra worksheets.
• Lin Fan announced that all Valhallan companies would be mixed for evening classes led by him, Confessor Delia, Signalwoman Rebecca, and Commissar Cain.
• Lin Fan invited Commissar Cain to spar, and Cain modestly declined by pointing out that Lin Fan could wield a heavy bolter.
• Lin Fan reflected on Cain’s supposed cowardice, exceptional achievements, and the crucial support of his aide, Jurgen.
• The account traced Cain’s service from the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery Regiment through the 597th Regiment and his later adventures with Inquisitor Amberley.

After entering the Warp, Lin Fan’s fleet traveled under unusually calm conditions while soldiers from other regiments noticed the Kasare 37th Regiment’s evening classes. Two Valhallan soldiers joined a lesson and were immediately called on to answer a question about lasgun power packs.

• The fleet passed through Mandeville Point and entered the Warp, which had been unusually stable in recent years.
• Two Valhallan soldiers decided to skip drinking and attend the Kasare 37th Regiment’s evening class after hearing about its practical battlefield lessons.
• Rebecca welcomed the soldiers, gave them passes, and directed them to seats in the classroom.
• A Valhallan colonel began a lesson on keeping lasgun power packs from losing heat in extreme cold and called on the two newcomers to repeat the procedure.

Lin Fan reviewed the soldiers’ uneven progress in military classes and defended educating them to Commissar Cain, who doubted the Imperium could use mobile warfare. Cain began recalling a campaign against an independent planet as the chapter ended.

• Colonel Erika tested the Valhalla auditors Tukufu and Valiedi and reprimanded the class for forgetting their lessons.
• Lin Fan examined reports showing the Krieg soldiers led in academic performance, followed by the Karmaklan soldiers, while the Penitent Army and Valhallans learned more slowly.
• Lin Fan discussed expanding the curriculum with Rebecca, including planetary customs, alien identification, military theory, and equipment operation.
• Cain questioned whether soldier education and mobile warfare were useful, and Lin Fan argued that teaching showed the troops their commanders cared whether they survived.
• Cain began describing a planet that had tried to resist the Imperium with defensive lines, pocket positions, mobile warfare, and deep defense.

Cain described how the Imperium used overwhelming forces and orbital support to crush rebellious worlds, while Lin Fan warned that their own front would still leave them outnumbered. Cain remained wary of Lin Fan's prediction as they awaited new communicators.

• Cain recalled that Imperial expeditions were often diverted by crises and that unreliable Warp travel made it difficult to concentrate the Imperium's vast strength.
• Cain explained how Imperial forces used psychic intelligence, orbital bombardment, mass deployments, and heavy vehicles to overwhelm planetary defenses.
• Lin Fan questioned whether the expeditionary fleet could commit all its forces against the T'au, noting that the Imperium had faced fewer Ork and Aeldari threats recently.
• Lin Fan told Cain to expect new communicators and warned that they would still be at a disadvantage on their front line.
• Cain wondered whether Lin Fan was cursing him, then reflected that he always ended up stationed where the enemy attacked hardest.

Commander Shadowsun prepared to lead the T'au Empire’s Third Sphere Expansion while privately fearing that the Imperium’s enormous population would make its wars of attrition disastrous for the T'au. The chapter ended with an author’s discussion of inconsistencies in Warhammer 40k’s scale and lore.

• The Ethereal High Council named O'Shaserra Commander Shadowsun and urged her to lead the Third Sphere Expansion without bringing shame upon the Greater Good.
• Shadowsun met Earth Caste technician Wakan and Water Caste diplomat Masha, and Wakan reported that the T'au had begun reverse-engineering weapons recovered from the Imperium during the Second Sphere Expansion.
• Shadowsun surveyed the restored world of Keguna and recalled how the T'au had rebuilt it and converted its human inhabitants to the Greater Good.
• Shadowsun privately doubted the T'au Empire’s prospects, believing the Imperium was far larger than scholars estimated and that its huge population made attrition warfare a grave threat.
• The author discussed problems in Warhammer 40k’s depictions of population, planetary development, fleets, and combat, concluding that the setting’s scale was inconsistent.

Shadowsun learned that the Earth-Siowak Research Institute had reverse-engineered part of a human Warp engine, while Wakan wondered what the Warp was. Masha reported that Gue'vesa were ready to join the T'au in an attack across the Damocles Gulf, and Shadowsun turned her thoughts to protecting the Empire and its people.

• Wakan told Shadowsun that the Earth-Siowak Research Institute had scanned a Warp engine and used part of its design for new jump engines.
• Wakan questioned what the Warp was, then left to continue his research.
• Masha told Shadowsun that younger humans had forgotten the Imperium of Man and that the Gue'vesa were prepared to cross the Damocles Gulf and attack its government.
• Shadowsun approved the Gue'vesa's involvement and asked how the caravan's infiltration and trade with the Imperium of Man were progressing.
• Shadowsun reflected on the T'au Empire's human population and communal child-rearing, then vowed to protect the Empire from the Imperium's return.

Shadowsun and Masha visited a secret prison to question Governor Clark, an Imperial captive who rejected the T'au Empire's offer to join the Greater Good. Clark revealed that an Imperial fleet was already on its way, leaving Shadowsun demanding to know its strength.

• Masha received a signal that Governor Clark, captured during the infiltration of Likode, wanted to speak with the T'au.
• Shadowsun and Masha traveled with Fire Caste escorts to the concealed prison, where Shadowsun insisted on meeting Clark without protection.
• Shadowsun greeted Clark and urged him to abandon the Imperium, but he mocked the T'au and called their forces a trivial threat.
• Clark warned Shadowsun that an Imperial fleet was on its way and questioned how long the T'au Empire could survive.
• Shadowsun grabbed Clark and demanded to know how many ships the Imperial fleet had.

Shadowsun questioned Governor Clark about the Imperium’s strength and learned that its population and territory dwarfed the T’au Empire. Clark detonated his own heart in an escape attempt, and an investigation revealed that the dark-gold heart had survived the explosion unharmed.

• Shadowsun considered whether her powerful expeditionary fleet could withstand the Imperium’s counterattack as Governor Clark described the troops a single Imperial sector could raise.
• Clark laughed at Shadowsun’s estimate of the Imperium’s size and claimed it was countless times larger than the T’au Empire.
• Shadowsun identified herself as commander of the Mugulas Gulf Fleet and demanded to know the strength of the human fleet.
• Clark’s heart exploded in a plasma blast, but Shadowsun shielded herself and escaped the room.
• Several days later, Walu showed Shadowsun the dark-gold sphere found at the blast site and explained that it had been Clark’s heart.
• Shadowsun examined the undamaged heart and considered the danger posed by Imperial technology.

Shadowsun led a massive T'au fleet across the Damocles Gulf and seized more than a hundred planets with trade, diplomacy, and rapid construction. As the T'au prepared defenses for an Imperial counterattack, a far larger human fleet arrived than expected.

• Shadowsun ordered the assembled T'au fleet to leave its star system and begin the voyage without using the untested transition engines.
• T'au traders and diplomats had already won influence on frontier human worlds, persuading many to welcome the coming fleet and oppose the Imperium.
• Shadowsun's forces took more than a hundred planets beyond the Damocles Gulf with little resistance.
• Earth Caste engineers and construction drones began developing settlements and underground command centers, while engineers installed plasma turrets to defend the planets.
• A human fleet arrived in unexpectedly great numbers, threatening the T'au forces as they prepared for battle.

Shadowsun prepared to defend Covenant Haven, the vital supply hub in Tarahod Port District, and planned to starve the approaching Imperium fleet by attacking its supply lines. Zhan An and Earth Caste technicians monitored the sector from a distant observation station as the T'au forces readied for battle.

• Shadowsun studied the Imperium fleet’s advance and identified Tarahod Port District as its likely target.
• Shadowsun chose to fortify Covenant Haven, the district’s crucial industrial and logistics hub, while planning attacks on the Imperium’s supply lines.
• Xiao Kan reported that Covenant Haven had built extensive command centers, underground camps, and plasma gun emplacements, with billions of defenders ready.
• Zhan An and the Earth Caste technicians monitored the distant observation station to ensure the T'au fleet received reliable intelligence.

Zhanwa’s detection station discovered the Imperium of Man’s enormous fleet, but the fleet destroyed the station and launched a brutal campaign to retake T'au worlds. As the Imperials approached Tarahod Port District, they planned a targeted assault on Covenant Haven, beginning with a Space Marine strike and an Astra Militarum landing at the South Pole.

• Zhanwa used the detection station to scan the Imperium’s fleet and sent its intelligence to the rear before an Imperial shell destroyed the station and the nearby data center.
• Adeptus Mechanicus priests condemned the xenos for observing their fleet, and the Imperium returned to realspace to bombard T'au defenses and invade their planets.
• Imperial forces retook and purged world after world, leaving Astra Militarum troops and Adeptus Mechanicus priests behind to restore Imperial control.
• The expedition fleet chose a targeted assault on Covenant Haven, assigning Space Marines to sabotage its defenses and the Imperial Navy to seize orbit and its spaceports.
• After Space Marines neutralized the polar anti-aircraft guns, Astra Militarum transports landed at Covenant Haven’s South Pole, where the soldiers were ordered to burn the T'au-modified landscape.

Lin Fan explained to Commissar Cain that the Imperial supply world was likely to become a T'au target and that their presence was part of a trap. The T'au main fleet then appeared, leaving Cain to put on his heroic demeanor and head for a bunker.

• Lin Fan and Cain rested at the supply center while Lin Fan predicted that the planet would soon become an apocalyptic battlefield.
• Lin Fan told Cain that the T'au used retreat, defense, and surprise attacks, and that Imperial command losses left many Astra Militarum troops disorganized.
• Lin Fan revealed that the supply world was deliberately chosen as a target because he and the 37th Regiment were there to spring a trap on the T'au.
• A soldier reported that the T'au main fleet had appeared and that Captain Urus was fighting it with the patrol fleet.
• Cain immediately resumed his confident heroic persona and ordered them to the nearest bunker.

Lin Fan and Cain joined Zizek’s briefing as Imperial forces prepared to lure the T’au fleet into a trap around the Divination Tower. Shadowsun launched a ground assault against the defenses, and Fireblade Yan Ou led T’au warriors toward the battlefield.

• Lin Fan and Cain arrived at the command center, where Zizek explained the plan to lure the T’au fleet toward the planetary shield and trap it with a gravity capture field.
• Cain asked how long Imperial forces needed to delay the T’au, and Zizek said they were waiting for Imperial hunting fleets to arrive from nearby sectors.
• The T’au fleet under Shadowsun defeated the ships stationed at the planet and began preparing a ground assault on the conspicuous defensive position around the Divination Tower.
• Shadowsun ordered Barracuda Fighters to cover Orca Dropships carrying Fire Caste warriors toward the human defenses.
• Yan Ou urged his Fire Caste unit to fight for the Greater Good as Earth Caste technicians began assembling a temporary command post.

Yan Ou led the Fire Caste Warriors through the outer trenches toward the giant tower, where Kasare 1189th Regiment soldiers fiercely resisted their advance. With the middle defensive line holding and the T'au forces stalled, Shadowsun ordered commanders to break through the fortress wall sections at any cost.

• Yan Ou advanced with his Fire Caste Warriors as their turrets and drones intercepted artillery and attacked the human defenses.
• Yan Ou spotted an Imperium soldier hiding among the corpses and killed him, but the soldier's melta bomb exploded and vaporized two nearby warriors.
• Yan Ou's troops encountered Kasare 1189th Regiment soldiers and were pinned down by heavy fire while trying to breach a trench wall section.
• Yan Ou learned that T'au armored units were being ambushed and that the middle defensive line had halted the offensive.
• Shadowsun reported that three million troops had seized five hundred kilometers of the outer line but could not penetrate the reinforced middle defenses, then ordered a breakthrough at any cost.

Yan Ou led the T'au charge against the Astra Militarum after railgun and missile strikes battered the human defenses. The T'au broke through the wall, but radiation-weapon-wielding Skitarii killed Bangsi and threatened the advancing Fire Warriors.

• Shadowsun ordered the T'au vehicles to bombard the human positions, and Yan Ou ordered his Fire Warriors to charge.
• The bombardment battered the defenders, but a commissar rallied wounded soldiers and fought a Crisis Battlesuit before it killed him.
• Yan Ou and his Fire Warriors broke through the wall and met Bangsi, whose Crisis Battlesuit squad had lost its other members.
• Skitarii robots opened fire with radiation-laced weapons, and Bangsi shielded the Fire Warriors before the radiation melted his battlesuit and killed him.

The Skitarii used an electromagnetic hymn to disable the T'au’s drones, then destroyed their Manta aircraft and advanced. At the central defensive line, Lin Fan and Rebecca prepared to spring a gravity trap as the battle escalated.

• Yan Ou ordered his soldiers to take cover from the Skitarii’s radiation fire while waiting for armored support.
• The Skitarii sang the Soul-Exorcising Hymn and unleashed an electromagnetic wave that shut down the Remora aircraft, which crashed into the battlefield.
• The T'au Manta attacked the Skitarii, but a Volcano Cannon destroyed it before it could continue firing.
• Rebecca and Lin Fan watched the fighting from the central defensive line as Lin Fan warned her to hide what she was from the Skitarii.
• Lin Fan recalled how he exposed T'au warriors near Commissar Cain, who reflexively cut down the Stealth Suits and was praised by the soldiers.
• Lin Fan and Rebecca discussed letting the Skitarii force the T'au to commit more troops before activating the gravity trap.

Shadowsun intensified the T'au assault despite devastating casualties as Yan Ou led another breakthrough against the Imperium of Man. The attack ended with Yan Ou's squad facing a Ruststalker that slaughtered his soldiers, leaving Yan Ou fearing he would not survive.

• Shadowsun ordered the T'au to intensify their attack and focus on capturing the great tower, despite losing many troops.
• Yan Ou led his repeatedly depleted squad across a battlefield strewn with corpses and wrecked vehicles to attempt another breakthrough.
• T'au aircraft and ground forces attacked the Imperium's positions, while concealed Hydra guns shot down Sun Shark bombers and T'au weapons returned fire.
• Yan Ou spotted a Ruststalker and warned his soldiers to turn off their sound receivers before it attacked.
• The Ruststalker dismembered Yan Ou's soldiers with its claws and vibrating blade, while Yan Ou struggled to hit it and feared he would die.

Yan Ou advanced with a Kroot squad through the irradiated battlefield, where they fought off mechanical enemies and encountered a powerful Skitarii force. The Skitarii alpha survived a damaging shot and killed a Pathfinder with its arc pistol.

• Kroot warriors rescued Yan Ou by dismantling a metal skeleton, and their captain explained that radiation-tainted flesh was forbidden by tradition rather than harmless to them.
• Yan Ou followed the Kroot forward as allied forces pushed through the enemy positions and encountered more self-repairing mechanical soldiers.
• A Kroot scout spotted an approaching threat, and Skitarii emerged from the wreckage to attack Yan Ou's group.
• Yan Ou threw an electromagnetic grenade, but the Skitarii were only briefly disrupted before their alpha took command and led the attack.
• The XV88 Battlesuit damaged the Skitarii formation, while the alpha's plasma cannon battered its armor and overheated.
• A Pathfinder wounded the venting Skitarii alpha, but the alpha shot him with an arc pistol, causing him to collapse in an electromagnetic blast.

Yan Ou and Si Wei’s T'au force suffered devastating losses fighting Skitarii, while Shadowsun’s battered army reached the giant tower and prepared to deploy its rarest battlesuits for the final assault. The chapter ended with the T'au committing the XV46, XV95, and XV104 suits against the Imperium’s defenses.

• A Kroot attacked Skitarii Alpharius, who killed it with an arc pistol before Yan Ou knocked Alpharius down and fired into him.
• Si Wei stopped Yan Ou from losing control, acknowledged the T'au’s heavy casualties, and opened Skitarii Alpharius’s helmet to examine its inhuman face.
• Shadowsun weighed the mounting losses and the Imperium’s counteroffensive, then resolved to destroy the giant tower and delay humanity’s advance.
• The T'au forces reached the foot of the giant tower after more than a hundred rotational cycles of siege warfare.
• Shadowsun ordered the deployment of the XV46, XV95, and XV104 battlesuits, stunning the command staff.

Yan Ou led T'au reinforcements in a final assault on the Imperium's giant tower, warning them about its electromagnetic interference and the mysterious red-robed enemies. The charge began under devastating fire, and Yan Ou fought onward through a battlefield of corpses and wreckage.

• Shadowsun urged the T'au forces to make a final strike, while Yan Ou joined the defense and took command of XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Squad 145, led by Captain Os.
• Yan Ou ordered the troops to disable their helmets' advanced functions near the tower's lightning sphere and warned them to hide if they saw enemies singing.
• After the T'au air force launched its last attacks and elite troops descended in drop pods, Yan Ou led the infantry and vehicles into a frontal assault.
• Yan Ou watched soldiers and armored units die under fire, then advanced beneath wrecked vehicles and fired his pulse rifle at enemies in the mud.

Yan Ou and the T'au forces fought their way to the great tower while Imperial troops and a Knight mech overwhelmed them. The T'au destroyed the Knight, but its reactor began to explode as the ground gave way beneath Yan Ou.

• Yan Ou fought Imperial Guard soldiers at close quarters with a captured bayonet and pulse pistol, then gave another Fire Caste warrior a bayonet.
• Imperial troops poured from the tower gates, and Lord Talen Hockdel announced his arrival in a Knight mech and unleashed a barrage that Yan Ou narrowly survived.
• The Knight repelled the XV104 Riptide Battlesuits’ attacks, so the T'au activated their Nova Reactors while other battlesuits attacked the Knight and cleared its surroundings.
• Yan Ou charged the tower gates with his comrades as their combined attacks overloaded the Knight’s shield and destroyed its armor and internal structure.
• The Knight crashed down and its reactor began flashing before an explosion shook the ground and Yan Ou fell through the overloaded surface.

Lin Fan explained how the Imperium had lured Shadowsun's forces toward the Divination Tower, then led the 37th Regiment into battle at the breached underground generators. Rebecca disabled T'au communications and battlesuits, and the chapter ended as the two sides prepared for close combat.

• Tech-Priest Delia received the order to seal the breach outside the Divination Tower, and Lin Fan said Magos Kaos's deception had drawn the T'au into the trap.
• Lin Fan explained to Commissar Cain how the Imperium had used staged withdrawals and the tower's defenses to draw Shadowsun into committing her troops.
• Lin Fan ordered the 37th Regiment toward the underground generators, where Skitarii were fighting T'au forces and several generators had already exploded.
• Lin Fan ordered his troops to take anti-radiation pills, and Rebecca disrupted the T'au communications network and disabled their battlesuits.
• Lin Fan led the 37th Regiment in a charge as Yan Ou and the T'au prepared for close combat.