Recaps

Lin Fan’s forces defeated the T’au defenders at the power district and destroyed it, prompting Shadowsun to order a planetary bombardment. As the T’au prepared to evacuate, Grand Sage Kaos readied his Mechanicus Ark for a Warp-anchor jump.

• Yan Ou fought the Imperium soldiers until Lin Fan’s forces arrived and destroyed the XV104 Riptide Battlesuits.
• Lin Fan spared the wounded Yan Ou, explained that he intended to make the T’au submit after winning the war, and ordered the generators overloaded.
• Delia overloaded the generators, and the power district exploded as Lin Fan’s forces withdrew.
• Shadowsun ordered the fleet to bombard the planet after learning that 4,700 anti-aircraft guns and missile arrays had been destroyed.
• The T’au began evacuating their remaining troops while Grand Sage Kaos ordered his Mechanicus Ark to prepare for a Warp-anchor jump.

The Imperium trapped Shadowsun’s fleet near the planet with the Divination Tower’s gravity field and seized control of several T'au ships. An Emperor-class battleship joined the encirclement, and the Imperium began attacking as Shadowsun realized the fleet faced a full-scale counterattack.

• Two Tech-Priests joked with the Mechanical Ark AI while the Ark prepared to translate toward the T'au fleet.
• Shadowsun detected an approaching force and ordered her ships to regroup and withdraw, but the Divination Tower captured them with its gravity field.
• T'au commanders considered crashing their ships into the planet, but Trazyn’s Tomb Technicians took control of the trapped vessels.
• Shadowsun’s fleet was surrounded by Imperium ships, and the Emperor-class battleship Emperor's Wrath identified itself to the T'au.
• The Emperor-class battleship captain ordered an assault, and the T'au shields and plasma cannons exchanged fire with the Imperium fleet.

Captain Eliosicht von Raedel’s Emperor-class battleship, the Slayer, devastated Shadowsun’s fleet as she escaped with five Protector-class Battleships. Twelve battered T'au ships fled through an experimental Warp rift, while the Long Howl Tribe offered to work for the Imperium and Raedel weighed their proposal.

• The Slayer’s macro cannons shattered T'au Protector-class Battleships, and Shadowsun ordered her core fleet to flee while the rest covered its retreat.
• Imperial cruisers prepared to pursue the escaping T'au ships, but an Astropath warned of a brief disturbance in the Warp.
• T'au engineers activated experimental engines, sending twelve surviving ships through a Warp rift without a Gellar Field.
• Raedel questioned how the T'au had survived Warp travel, then ordered the fleet to surround the Kroot Warspheres.
• The Long Howl Tribe’s chieftain told Raedel that his people were mercenaries and offered their services to the Imperium; Raedel asked what they would do if he refused.

The Adeptus Mechanicus ark destroyed the Kroot Warsphere while the T'au fleet’s twelve surviving ships drifted through the Warp. A grotesque, living doorway emerged aboard one ship, leaving its crew facing terrifying creatures.

• Sage Kaos ordered the Imperium fleet to clear the Mechanicus ark’s firing line, and the ark engaged the Kroot Warsphere.
• The Kroot discovered that Mechanicus troops had boarded their ship and that the T'au’s experimental Warp engine had disrupted space, so they turned toward the planet and launched an attack.
• The Mechanicus ark blasted apart the Warsphere, and recovery teams began investigating its wreckage.
• The twelve T'au ships drifted through the Warp, where their commander found that their instruments and communications were failing.
• The commander distributed Pulse Carbines and sent Wurun and a team to find the Fire Warriors, but the doorway snapped shut and cut Wurun in half.
• The doorway transformed into a monstrous mouth, and bizarre creatures emerged from its darkness.

Captain Skashi, Gunnery Chief Longke, and Communications Officer Anfen fought a horrifying swarm of mutated T'au and Gue'vesa as the Warp twisted their ship apart. They survived the wreckage somehow able to breathe, though their fate remained uncertain.

• Skashi ordered the crew to fire on the grotesque creatures pouring through the doorway, while two Water Caste members vomited themselves inside out and were shot.
• The monsters overwhelmed the command room, and only Skashi, Longke, and Anfen remained able to fight as communications failed.
• After Skashi cursed the Greater Good, the monsters stopped attacking and echoed the phrase, prompting him and Longke to advance on them.
• Anfen saw the Warp tear apart ships and the vessel's floor open an eye beneath her, then screamed for help as a tentacle pierced the hull.
• Skashi, Longke, and Anfen drifted among the wreckage and discovered they could still breathe despite being in the cold vacuum.

Skashi and the other survivors encountered a vast silhouette that called itself the Greater Good God, prompting a dispute over whether gods could exist. The silhouette ended the discussion by declaring that Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va was dead, leaving the T'au in panic.

• A colossal silhouette rescued the battered warships and survivors, then introduced itself as the Greater Good God.
• The Gue'vesa worshipped the silhouette, while Skashi denounced them for bringing religious superstition into the T'au's ideal of the Greater Good.
• Anfen restrained Skashi as Longke urged the survivors to listen to the being.
• The silhouette argued that a god could be understood materially and questioned whether the Ethereals were divine representatives.
• The Greater Good God announced that Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va was dead, shocking the T'au survivors.

After the Greater Good God rescued the T'au survivors from the Warp, he sent them to find someone chosen by the Greater Good. The twelve surviving ships emerged in the Farsight Enclaves, where Anfen decided to seek help despite Farsight being branded a traitor.

• Skashi refused to believe that Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va had died, while the survivors feared the Imperium's offensive and the Emperor's return.
• The Greater Good God told the survivors that the Greater Good belonged to humanity as well as the T'au and urged them to find one chosen by it.
• The Greater Good God pushed the survivors' ships out of the Warp before being swallowed by malice, and twelve vessels returned to realspace.
• Anfen identified their location as the Farsight Enclaves, while Longke sedated the distraught Skashi.
• Anfen contacted the other ships and learned that the fleet had suffered catastrophic losses and lacked the personnel and power to keep operating.
• Anfen proposed contacting the Farsight Enclaves for rescue, and the survivors agreed that she should do what she must.

The God-Emperor and The Emperor disguised the Greater Good’s Warp projection as a T'au to encourage an alliance with the Imperium, while leaving Aun'Va’s death to Lin Fan. At a military meeting about attacking Mugula Gulf, Lin Fan claimed Commissar Cain had volunteered the Kasare 37th Regiment for the assault.

• The Emperor and the God-Emperor revealed they had created the Greater Good deity and discussed how to use it to keep the T'au in line.
• The God-Emperor explained that human worshippers in the T'au Empire had shaped the Greater Good’s Warp projection, and The Emperor recounted how the T'au would purge humans if they saw it in human form.
• The God-Emperor and The Emperor decided to make the projection look like a T'au so the Imperium could ally with the T'au against threats including Hive Fleet tendrils, and they agreed not to interfere with Aun'Va’s death.
• Lin Fan sneezed during a meeting, and Rebecca teased him about Yilafren until Commissar Cain reminded them to focus.
• When the gathering asked Commissar Cain for his thoughts on attacking Mugula Gulf, Lin Fan announced that Cain had urged the Kasare 37th Regiment to volunteer for the hardest assault mission.

Lin Fan talked Commissar Cain into accepting exaggerated credit for the victories at Supply World-01 and Covenant Haven. Meanwhile, news of the T'au fleet’s defeat caused Covenant Haven’s merchant armies to collapse, and their leaders faced ruin.

• Cain confronted Lin Fan over credit for Supply World-01 and Covenant Haven, demanding an explanation.
• Lin Fan and Magos Kaos had piled exaggerated praise for the Supply World-01 ambush onto Cain, including credit for destroying an XV104 battlesuit.
• Cain recited Lin Fan’s embellished Covenant Haven report and complained that soldiers were singing a song about him.
• Lin Fan reminded Cain of his actions on Hill 489, and Cain began to accept that the praise might be justified.
• Lin Fan sent Cain off with a soldier under the pretense that he needed a medic, then privately celebrated having fooled him.
• After Shadowsun’s raid failed, Covenant Haven’s wavering merchant-army factions collapsed, and their high-ranking officers and wealthy merchants committed suicide in despair.

Lin Fan told Kaiser Whitefang that Rebecca had disabled the T'au weapons, then met Raven Guard Chapter Master Corvin Severax. After reflecting on the Raven Guard's sacrifices, Lin Fan resolved to save Corvin from his eventual death and help the Lamenters if he encountered them.

• Lin Fan reunited with Kaiser Whitefang, who asked who had crippled the T'au equipment.
• Lin Fan revealed that Rebecca had caused the EMP disruption and told Kaiser Whitefang she was an abominable intelligence from the Golden Age.
• Corvin Severax appeared unexpectedly, and Kaiser Whitefang introduced him to Lin Fan.
• Lin Fan reflected on the Raven Guard's ideals and tragic sacrifices, then vowed to save Corvin and the Lamenters.

Lin Fan explained to Kaiser Whitefang and Wodhaus why he was promoting Commissar Cain: the Imperium could not afford the centuries required to conquer the T'au Empire, whose future expansion would make it increasingly dangerous. The discussion ended as Lin Fan began describing the T'au Empire’s predicted transformation.

• Colvin left after Kaiser Whitefang teased Lin Fan about his popularity with women, and Kaiser invited Lin Fan to join a secret meal.
• Lin Fan followed Kaiser to the kitchen, where Wodhaus and Bennett were eating roasted meat with the cook, Flavor Supreme.
• Wodhaus used psychic power to send Flavor Supreme away so the group could talk privately, leaving him as an alarm.
• Lin Fan said his own achievements were kept quiet by the Imperium, while Commissar Cain was already famous among the T'au.
• Lin Fan explained that conquering the T'au Empire would take at least two centuries, which the Imperium could not spare amid threats from Orks, Necrons, and other remnants.
• Lin Fan said prophecy foretold a Fourth Expansion that would turn the T'au Empire into a nervous regime focused on purges and extermination.

The chapter surveys the T'au Empire’s place among the galaxy’s powers, contrasting its efforts to spread the Greater Good with the harsher realities of the Warhammer universe. It recounts how later expansions humbled the T'au and leaves them portrayed as a tightly managed society that still looked comparatively bright beside the Imperium.

• The chapter described the T'au as an emerging power whose expansion and claims of superiority drew hostility from older galactic factions.
• It recounted how the Third Expansion provoked stronger Imperial counterattacks and threats from the Necrons and Orks.
• The Fourth Expansion’s experimental Warp engines exposed the T'au to the Warp and a human-looking god of the Greater Good, driving survivors toward purges.
• The Ethereal Council established the Re-education Department and targeted unstable elements, while humans who resisted or joined the Greater Good were killed.
• Tyranid and Chaos threats pressured the T'au during the Fifth and Sixth Expansions, pushing the empire toward a more cautious policy.
• The chapter noted that the T'au provided extensive services but arranged nearly every aspect of their citizens’ lives.

Lin Fan explained his plan to win at Mugula Gulf, manipulate the T'au Empire into accepting a treaty, and use the threat of a Tyranid invasion to pressure it. He left the details of his scheme undisclosed while considering how to remove Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va.

• Lin Fan told Kaiser Whitefang, Wodhaus, and Bennett that the Imperium would win at Mugula Gulf, stage Cain's capture, and force the T'au toward a treaty.
• Lin Fan described how The Emperor would guide the T'au and the Imperium toward knowledge of the Tyranid hive fleet, drawing Imperial forces east and making Shadowsun seek peace.
• Bennett compared Lin Fan's elaborate plan to the schemes of Tzeentch's followers, and Lin Fan defended his newfound strategic thinking.
• Kaiser Whitefang asked whether casualties would make the T'au hate the Imperium, and Lin Fan said they cared more about attacks on the Greater Good than personal losses.
• Lin Fan decided that Aun'Va had to die, but not at the Imperium's hands.

After Wodhaus foresaw a Tyranid invasion threatening the T'au Empire, Imperial divinations confirmed the danger and forced the expedition to postpone its full assault. The commanders changed their objective to severing the T'au Empire's reach in the Damocles Gulf while preparing for the Tyranids.

• Wodhaus entered a three-day trance and saw Tyranids attacking the T'au Empire, then gathered the Space Wolves and announced his prophecy.
• Psykers across the fleet repeatedly used the Emperor Tarot, and the assembled leaders received grim omens of calamity.
• The Librarians completed thirteen days of joint prophecy and confirmed that the fleet should delay its offensive and prepare defenses against the Tyranids.
• Captain Raedel argued that the Imperium should avoid crippling the T'au Empire before the Tyranids arrived.
• Sage Kaos reported that the T'au Empire's territory held no important strategic resources, so the commanders chose to conquer the Mugula Gulf and sever the empire's reach in the Damocles Gulf.
• The sector fleets and Space Marine Chapters departed as the expedition's commanders prepared for the revised campaign.

The Imperium’s forces prepared to seize Mugula Gulf, while Raven Guard infiltrators sabotaged the T’au planet’s defenses and Sage Kaos activated the Mechanical Ark’s weather controller. The radiation storms began to dissipate, clearing the way for an assault.

• The expeditionary fleet split up to reinforce its sectors and prepare for the approaching Tyranid swarm, while a force remained to conquer Mugula Gulf.
• Corvin Sevraks and the Raven Guard infiltrated the T’au gun emplacements and caused their turrets to explode before they could fire.
• Sage Kaos activated the weather controller aboard the Mechanical Ark, the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine.
• A blue beam disrupted Mugula Gulf’s radiation storm, rapidly dissipating it.

Lin Fan and the 37th Regiment landed in the desert after the fleet exposed and bombarded the T'au ambush forces. The Imperium assembled its armored assault force, including Doomblade tanks, as the troops prepared to encircle the T'au city.

• The fleet bombarded the T'au ambush units after Sage Kaos cleared the radiation storm, burying Hammerhead teams beneath superheated sand.
• Lin Fan and the 37th Regiment disembarked, and Lin Fan ordered every squad to report suspicious activity to Rebecca.
• Imperial transports deployed Leman Russ tanks, while Doomblade tanks dropped directly from the fleet onto the landing field.
• Colonel Dektar introduced the Cadia Advance Hell Tank Regiment to Commissar Cain and Lin Fan and pledged to coordinate with their attack.
• Rebecca complained to Lin Fan about the Doomblades' slow speed, and Lin Fan reflected on the Imperium's reliance on overwhelming frontal warfare and the Space Marines' surprise attacks.

Shadowsun met Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va and Director Eternal Explorer, who unveiled a plan to block Imperial forces from crossing Damocles Gulf with Warp transmitters. Shadowsun doubted the technology's reliability, but Eternal Explorer dismissed her concerns as Aun'Va backed his plan.

• Shadowsun watched human forces deploy and mourned the destruction of Deadwind's storms.
• Aun'Va arrived, absolved Shadowsun of blame for the failed expansion, and promised a path to victory in Mugula Gulf.
• Aun'Va introduced Director Eternal Explorer, whose presence gave Shadowsun an unexplained sense of death.
• Eternal Explorer proposed using Warp transmitters to create a one-way spatial barrier that would stop Imperial ships crossing Damocles Gulf.
• Shadowsun warned that the Imperium had powerful new forces and might understand its technology better than they believed.
• Eternal Explorer dismissed her concerns, claiming the Imperium relied on inherited relics and could not understand its own Warp engines.

Shadowsun and Aun'Va visited Yongtan’s secret underground research institute, where he promised to reveal a weapon that could help hold Mugula Gulf. As Yongtan plunged the facility into darkness, Aun'Va considered the collapse of the Third Sphere Expansion and the horrors reported by the eastern fleets.

• Aun'Va rebuked Shadowsun for her fear and led her to a fortified Orca transport carrying her to the hidden institute.
• Yongtan revealed that builder drones and Gusavi had constructed the facility, and Shadowsun learned the Gue'vesa workers had been killed to keep its location secret.
• Shadowsun accepted Aun'Va's justification that the Gue'vesa had died for the Greater Good, though Yongtan appeared thoughtful as they repeated the phrase.
• Shadowsun saw an automated factory filled with glass pods, but Yongtan redirected her toward the secret weapon.
• Yongtan extinguished the lights to demonstrate a surprise, startling Shadowsun and putting the Honour Guard on alert.
• Aun'Va recalled reports of the failed Third Sphere Expansion, including an eastern fleet's fearful final message about colossal monsters and darkness.

The T'au Empire faced setbacks on its eastern and southern fronts while Aun'Va suppressed news of Shadowsun's defeat and placed his hopes in Director Yongtan's research. Yongtan unveiled thousands of prototype Astartes warriors called Reflections, which Aun'Va assigned to Shadowsun as the T'au prepared for war.

• The eastern fleet appeared to have suffered a disaster, while Ork fleets drove the southern expansion force back and forced the region into a wartime economy.
• The northern fleet discovered mysterious Blackstone, but Earth Caste engineers could neither study nor mine it.
• After learning of Shadowsun's crushing defeat, the Ethereals suppressed the news, cut consumer goods production, and trusted the Earth-Xiaowake Research Institute's claim that it had developed a decisive weapon.
• A silver-white armored giant appeared before Shadowsun and the Honor Guard, then knelt and pledged loyalty to Aun'Va.
• Director Yongtan revealed thousands of AI-integrated warriors equipped with jump packs, Rotary Ion Scatter Cannons, and Thermal Knives, and named them Reflections, the Shadows of Damocles.
• Aun'Va assigned the Reflections to Shadowsun's command and ordered Yongtan to produce more warriors.

Yongtan harvested gene-seed from captured Raven Guard and refined his plans for an army built from viruses, gene-seed, and T'au biology. He discovered that T'au traits could shield his Annihilation Virus subjects from Warp corruption, leaving him eager to exploit the T'au Empire once the Damocles Gulf was sealed.

• Yongtan had Reflection Warriors hold captured Raven Guard while he extracted their gene-seed, killing them in the process.
• Yongtan reviewed his experiments and found that T'au genetic traits helped prevent the Annihilation Virus from succumbing to Warp corruption.
• Yongtan watched Z-99 obey him without the instability seen in subjects from other species.
• Yongtan planned to harvest T'au and combine their traits with viruses and Space Marine gene-seed to build a vast army.
• Yongtan examined a mutilated T'au head for signs of hatred, then fed it to a degraded form.

Shadowsun worried that the Reflection Warriors were becoming more like autonomous weapons than T'au soldiers, even as their numbers and combat success grew. She planned a concentrated counteroffensive at Mugula Gulf and ordered them to help encircle Commissar Cain and the 37th Regiment.

• Shadowsun questioned whether the Reflection Warriors, who had suffered seventeen casualties but left no remains, could still be considered T'au.
• A Xiaowak Researcher told Shadowsun that Director Yongtan would send more Reflection Warriors, bringing the available force to three thousand.
• Shadowsun proposed breaking through the Imperium's lines and driving its First and Second Armored Groups and attached Astra Militarum regiments into the New Storm Cluster.
• After learning that the Earth Caste had cracked human communications, Shadowsun planned to use an attack on Ciaphas Cain to draw in nearby Imperium forces.
• Shadowsun ordered a major counteroffensive for the following week and directed the Reflection Warriors to help encircle the 37th Regiment and capture Cain if possible.

Lin Fan prepared for the T'au Empire's counteroffensive while worrying that the early appearance of Reflections would provoke the Space Marines to invade. As Shadowsun's assault squad began its attack, she spotted the 37th Regiment's conspicuous banner.

• Rebecca told Lin Fan that the T'au were attacking and targeting Cain, and Lin Fan worried that the Reflections had appeared far too early.
• Lin Fan learned that Colonel Selina was recovering after his life essence regrew her limbs, though Delia was cutting away excess growths.
• Lin Fan and Rebecca discussed the coming counteroffensive and kept her ability to crack T'au systems secret.
• The T'au disabled Imperium monitoring with interference waves and blinding New Light Missiles as Shadowsun's assault squad flew toward the 37th Regiment.
• Shadowsun spotted the 37th Regiment's unusual red banner amid its fortifications.

Shadowsun led a T'au battlesuit assault against the Imperial defenders while Rebecca struggled to break through the upgraded electronic defenses. Lin Fan and the White Scars inflicted heavy losses, and the chapter left Kor'sarro Khan facing a mysterious black figure that emerged from the air.

• Shadowsun ordered her battlesuits to find and capture Commissar Cain as the T'au attack struck the 37th Regiment's bunkers.
• Rebecca's crash-loop code was blocked by Yongtan's unfamiliar anti-interference system, forcing Lin Fan to handle the battlesuits directly.
• Lin Fan smashed an XV8 Battlesuit and drove the nearby battlesuits into an emergency retreat.
• Kor'sarro Khan and the White Scars attacked Shadowsun, whose fusion blast destroyed a bike after a shield drone deflected Khan's first strike.
• Khan sensed a greater danger, fired at Shadowsun, and turned to slash at a black shadow that suddenly appeared before him.

Kor'sarro Khan, Lin Fan, and Rebecca fought strange Reflection Warriors that contained twisted creatures beneath T'au skin, while Tech-Priest Delia arrived with reinforcements. Delia sent her mechanical dog Alpha toward the 37th Regiment's front line as Rebecca remained uncertain what the creatures were.

• Kor'sarro Khan's force was disrupted by shadow warriors while Shadowsun's battlesuit troops recovered and counterattacked.
• Rebecca discovered that Reflection Warriors contained tortured creatures bound inside T'au skin, and saw their bodies recover after she struck them with electricity.
• Tech-Priest Delia arrived and destroyed a Reflection Warrior, while Rebecca saw its bound flesh vanish completely.
• Delia told Rebecca that she had brought Selina, Kastin, and Cain, and Rebecca explained that Soap had charged ahead while Erika and Old Jock held the front line.
• Delia sent Alpha, transformed from her rocket engines into a mechanical dog, to check the 37th Regiment's front.

Commissar Cain’s forces regrouped and attacked the Mirror Soldiers guarding the black sphere, while the battle inside remained obscured. The fighting continued without fleet support, and Cain faced a Mirror Soldier in close combat as Jurgen covered him.

• Delia retrieved battlefield footage from her mechanical dog, revealing the black sphere and the Mirror Soldiers collecting the fallen.
• Cain learned that the Valhalla battalion had over fifteen thousand combatants and the Penitent Army had around eight thousand, but Rebecca said they could not contact the fleet and suspected Aeldari involvement.
• Cain ordered Kastin and Selina to deploy their forces, and Valhallan mortar crews bombarded the Mirror Soldiers around the sphere.
• Selina led the Penitent Army into the attack, while the Valhallans used coordinated mortar fire to crack a Mirror Soldier’s armor and bring him down with bolt rounds.
• Cain fought a Mirror Soldier with a Shattered Sacred Sword and struggled to keep pace until Jurgen’s sniper round struck the enemy’s helmet.