Recaps

Trazyn recalled his past as Dr. Odessus and explained Oedmeir’s connection to Ers, while Lin Fan considered the dangers facing his territory and the Imperium. They agreed to seek the Storm King’s support and to call on Trazyn if uncontrolled Necron dynasties became a threat.

• Trazyn remembered Ers, Oedmeir’s father, and the Human Federation as he recovered memories of his life as Dr. Odessus.
• Trazyn told Lin Fan that Oedmeir had once been a child studying under Ers and explained that the fountain pen she carried was suited to her work.
• Lin Fan considered the Void Dragon’s threat and the risks posed by the Imperium’s reliance on the Adeptus Mechanicus, then decided to focus on developing his territory.
• Lin Fan asked how Trazyn would feel if he killed the Necrons, then explained that he wanted an introduction to the Storm King so they could extort him for protection.
• Trazyn promised to explain the situation to the Storm King and told Lin Fan to call him if uncontrolled Necron dynasties threatened him.
• Trazyn recalled signs of madness among the Necrons, including Zahndrekh the Crowned’s delusions and the Executioner Dynasty’s erratic law emperor.

Trazyn recalled the Necrons’ war against the swarms beyond the galaxy and the Silent King’s warning not to let the Subjective One awaken. Lin Fan then reported the Blackstone deposit to Oedmeir, who used Rebecca as the core of a rocket-powered device and launched her skyward.

• Trazyn recalled how the Silent King’s forces fought the swarms beyond the galaxy and ordered the dynasties not to let the Subjective One awaken.
• Trazyn ate fruit Lin Fan offered, then opened a transdimensional portal and left.
• Lin Fan contacted Oedmeir and told her he had found the Blackstone deposit, while Rebecca cried out in pain in the background.
• Oedmeir showed Lin Fan a device built around Rebecca’s floating core and explained it would spare Rebecca from sacrificing herself in the future.
• Oedmeir started the rocket engines and launched Rebecca into the sky.

Oedmeir turned metal wreckage into a massive warship in just over twenty hours while Rebecca controlled its construction and flight. Lin Fan learned that building more ships would require enormous amounts of raw materials, and Oedmeir said they could make a second after gathering Blackstone and mining a nearby planet.

• Oedmeir had Rebecca fly into the ruins while she shaped a ship design using blue light and drew surrounding metal scraps into a molten mass.
• The Flame's captain fired a macro-cannon shell and a lance at the mass, but the attacks failed to stop it from growing.
• Oedmeir split the molten mass into three constructs: a ring around a gas giant, a drill-bearing structure on a barren planet, and a warship bearing a statue of The Emperor.
• Oedmeir finished the warship, and Rebecca took control and sailed it toward the planet while the Flame's crew and tech-priests watched in amazement.
• Lin Fan asked Oedmeir to make more warships, but she explained the immense material costs and said a second ship could be built after they obtained Blackstone and mined a neighboring planet.

Lin Fan named the newly settled system Grand Hotel and its planets after food, then reflected on the poor quality and production of Astra Militarum rations. The chapter ended with an explanation of the artificial microbial colony added to Imperial military supplies to protect soldiers from germs.

• Lin Fan struggled to find unused names for the system and planet, then misunderstood Commissar Cain’s suggestion and chose food-themed names.
• Lin Fan named the system Grand Hotel, its habitable planet Big Canteen, its star Stove, its gas giant Dough-Drop Soup, and its barren planets Blanch, Spicy, and Thirteen-Spice.
• Lin Fan recalled how soldiers of the 37th Regiment received meals ranging from stewed meat slabs and starch mash to trench rations and canned vegetables.
• Lin Fan described how livestock was processed into meat slabs and how military cooks prepared them in huge vats.
• Lin Fan explained that Imperial military supplies contained an artificial microbial colony intended to protect soldiers from germs.

Lin Fan confronted the Imperium’s economic stagnation and worried about how to develop the Big Canteen, while Oedmeir offered to build useful equipment from Blackstone ore. Oedmeir revealed that her enormous warship was still unfinished, though its hull and propulsion system were ready for a first mining trip.

• Lin Fan considered how the Imperium’s lack of a unified currency and its crushing tithes would complicate economic reform if he established the Webway.
• Lin Fan worried that the Big Canteen’s residents and economy were poorly developed, and Oedmeir reassured him that she could make useful equipment if they found enough Blackstone ore.
• Rebecca piloted her shuttle excitedly toward the laboratory, prompting Lin Fan to question whether she should control the warship.
• Oedmeir explained that Lin Fan, Delia, and she could handle the first ore-mining trip without outside help, despite the vessel being 150 kilometers long.
• Oedmeir showed Lin Fan that the warship remained unfinished, with only its hull, propulsion system, and an activatable shuttle cannon completed.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir surveyed the construction of a new city on Big Canteen, where factories and workers rapidly built fortress-like housing as the planet became a fortress world. The work continued through meal breaks, with workers taking turns to keep the furnaces supplied.

• Oedmeir explained that Rebecca was not seriously hurt and would need compatible servo systems produced on Spicy Planet.
• Lin Fan showed Oedmeir the construction site, where mobile furnaces and engineering vehicles turned ore and concrete into buildings.
• Lin Fan saw workers with different tools and learned that better equipment was reserved for those who performed well in their studies.
• Lin Fan reassured the supervising soldier that he was not dissatisfied with the work.
• A food vehicle arrived, and the soldier ordered the workers to eat in shifts while others kept feeding ore into the furnaces.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir enjoyed a meal of giant beans before heading out to gather ore and discuss building a Webway gate. They could build one in principle, but lacked the enormous amount of materials it would require.

• Lin Fan and Oedmeir ate giant beans seasoned with pepper and chili at the mess hall.
• Oedmeir suggested making synthetic meat to improve the soldiers’ meals and planned to test Delia’s progress on a blueprint.
• Lin Fan and Oedmeir left Delia to gather ore, while the Flame departed to rejoin its naval patrol duties.
• Oedmeir altered the ship’s personnel’s memories so they would regard the system as a newly discovered colony.
• Lin Fan asked whether they could build a Webway gate, and Oedmeir said the technology was possible but required immense resources.

Oedmeir explained the immense scale of the Aeldari Webway and why the Human Federation had never tried to build or seize one. She and Rebecca then launched the warship into the Warp on a mission to retrieve Blackstone ore.

• Rebecca described the Webway beneath Terra and explained that forcing open a passage from outside required enormous resources and energy.
• Oedmeir told Lin Fan that even the entire Human Federation could build only a tiny fraction of the Webway, and that the Federation had once fought the Aeldari to a draw.
• Oedmeir connected herself to the warship's data network while Lin Fan examined the piece of wraithbone Many-Faced had given him.
• Oedmeir and Rebecca activated the Warp engines at the Mandeville Point beyond the Big Hotel Galaxy.
• Oedmeir overloaded the Warp engines and sent the colossal warship plunging into the Warp for an ultra-long-range journey to obtain Blackstone ore.

Lin Fan fought off unaligned demons aboard Oedmeir’s ship as she steered it through the raging Warp. After Lin Fan called Khorne for help, the furious war god opened a rift and sent his forces to attack the demons surrounding him.

• Oedmeir steered the ship into the fiercest Warp waves and told Lin Fan to protect the spherical cockpit as the Gellar Field weakened around the bridge.
• Lin Fan used War Sight and his strength from Khorne to kill demons that invaded the cockpit, but the endless horde kept attacking.
• Lin Fan called Khorne, who was repairing his armor and forging a new World-Ending Blade after battling the other gods.
• Khorne located Lin Fan, saw unaligned demons attacking his prey, and tore open space to reach him.
• Khorne sent his army through the rift to slaughter the demons surrounding Lin Fan.

Lin Fan and Oedmeir escaped Khorne’s attack and returned to the material universe aboard the colossal warship. They emerged into a battle between Orks and Iron Warriors, whose fleets both turned their attention to the ship.

• Lin Fan held back the masterless demons while Khorne’s forces overwhelmed them and cleared a path around the warship.
• At Oedmeir’s urging, Lin Fan placed the holy icon into the pillar, strengthening the Gellar Field and burning away demons as Oedmeir drove the ship out of the Warp.
• Khorne tried to seize the warship, but its golden shield held long enough for it to escape; his blade broke as the rift closed.
• Oedmeir discussed the journey with Lin Fan, then steered the warship toward its coordinates, where it arrived amid a battle between Orks and Iron Warriors.
• The Orks and Iron Warriors spotted the colossal warship and redirected their fleets toward it; the Iron Warriors commander prepared an emergency escape while the Orks aimed their weapons at the vessel.

Orks launched a chaotic assault on Rebecca's colossal warship, but Oedmeir used its giant shields to smash their vessels and crush their morale. The Ork warlord rallied his forces to teleport aboard the ship, though Lin Fan remained uncertain whether the teleporters could power an ancient Warlord-class Titan.

• Orks crowded into crude torpedoes and charged toward Rebecca's colossal warship as their junk fleet closed in.
• Lin Fan offered to help, but Oedmeir confidently prepared to defend the warship with its giant shields.
• Oedmeir sent the shields into the Ork fleet, where they smashed warships apart and left the Orks' torpedoes harmlessly battered.
• The Orks' warlord ordered the Big Meks to activate the teleporters and send the fighters aboard the colossal warship.
• The Big Meks promised to teleport every Ork without charging teef, while Gretchin ran through the turbine chambers to generate power.

The Orks tried to breach Rebecca’s ship using Weirdboy-powered technology, but the unstable teleportation killed most of the invading force. Rebecca and Oedmeir dealt with the debris and the few survivors as the chapter ended with the Valhallans fighting alongside the Space Wolves.

• The Whip Boss forced the Weirdboyz into a tank, where a Mekboy burned them to power his green chair.
• The Mekboy’s shield held off Oedmeir’s great shield while another Mekboy prepared the Orks’ teleporter.
• The Orks teleported toward Rebecca’s ship, but the faulty coordinates scattered or crushed most of them.
• Rebecca separated Ork debris from her hull while Lin Fan cleaned up the surviving Orks.
• The Valhallans fought shoulder to shoulder with the Space Wolves.

The Iron Warriors' Warsmith Sander tried to force Oest to help seize a powerful ancient human warship, threatening to expose Oest's past failure. Oest resisted the demand for empty promises of recognition as the Ork fleet's barrier fell and the shields advanced.

• The Big Mek exhausted himself, turned to ash, and let the four massive shields break through the green barrier and smash into the Ork fleet.
• Warsmith Sander ordered the Iron Warriors' crew to prepare the Warp engines and daemon cages, hoping to capture the weakened warship and use it against the Mountain Array.
• Oest and his men secretly prepared to open a gate and escape while Oest agreed that their Father would be interested in the ship.
• Warsmith Sander threatened to report Oest's failed attack in the Kodema System, leaving Oest fearing punishment such as being interred in a Hellbrute.
• Oest demanded a price for his men's help, but Warsmith Sander offered only to praise him before Father and promised that Father might acknowledge their sacrifice.

Oest and the Iron Warriors broke from their fleet to place a beacon on Oedmeir's battleship, hoping to summon Perturabo and earn his approval. Lin Fan saw a chance to lure Perturabo into an encounter, while Oedmeir's shields attacked the Iron Warriors and their Warp sorcery disrupted her defenses.

• Oest convinced his soldiers that their sacrifice might earn Father’s recognition, swore loyalty to Lin Fan’s cause, and led a third of the Iron Warriors fleet toward the battlefield as Forge-master Sander prepared to flee.
• Oedmeir asked Lin Fan about the Iron Warriors’ Father, and Lin Fan identified him as Perturabo while the two discussed the Iron Warriors’ likely plan to claim the battleship.
• Lin Fan told Oedmeir to leave an opening so the Iron Warriors could reach the ship and plant their markers, hoping to draw Perturabo out.
• Oedmeir used four massive shields to destroy the remaining Orks and sent four others against the Iron Warriors’ ships.
• Oest ordered his fleet to drain power from its daemon hosts, and the Iron Warriors raised Warp-energy shields that the massive shields passed through without impact.

Oedmeir used the Teleportation Cannon to devastate Oest’s Iron Warriors ships, whose Warp shields caused the shells to teleport repeatedly inside their hulls. Oest released Electro-Daemons to counter the attack, and Oedmeir took control of the data sea as the daemons infiltrated her ship.

• Oedmeir fired the Teleportation Cannon at the Iron Warriors ships, sending shells through portals and shattering their interiors.
• Oedmeir realized the Warp shields were teleporting shells back inside the ships, where they struck repeatedly.
• Oest ordered his subordinates to execute the daemon hosts and release the Electro-Daemons.
• The Iron Warriors reversed the slave conveyors and destroyed the daemon hosts and Chaos shrines as the Electro-Daemons escaped their containment boxes.
• Oedmeir sensed the Electro-Daemons infiltrating her ship through the data sea and ordered Rebecca to relinquish control.

Oedmeir confronted the electronic demon over an ancient contract and learned that humanity still owed half of the Golden Ark. After the demon departed, its interference crippled the colossal ship and gave the Iron Warriors an opening to board it.

• Rebecca obeyed Oedmeir and hid in the temporary safe zone while Oedmeir dealt with the electronic demon.
• The electronic demon showed Oedmeir the contract, which recorded the Mars civil war and bore the signatures of Malcador, Tzeentch, and an unreadable third party.
• The electronic demon warned Oedmeir that the contract’s terms could not be broken and revealed that the final debt was half of the Golden Ark.
• Oedmeir said she did not know where the Ark was, and the electronic demon replied that fate would lead her to it.
• After the electronic demon left, the colossal ship’s engines, energy system, and shields faltered, giving the Iron Warriors time to recover.
• Oest led elite Iron Warriors toward the boarding torpedoes to place a daemon beacon inside the ship.

Oest led Iron Warriors in an assault torpedo attack on Lin Fan’s seemingly abandoned warship, hoping to seize it and impress Perturabo. Lin Fan and Oedmeir trapped the attackers, and after the ship was restored to power, Shande the Blacksmith fled.

• Oest dismissed his soldiers’ plans, split the assault torpedoes between the stern engines and bridge, and aimed to seize the warship.
• Oest and his Iron Warriors breached the bridge, where Lin Fan greeted them and prevented their weapons from firing.
• Oedmeir immobilized the Iron Warriors with magnetic fields and gravity while Lin Fan inspected them and revealed that the encounter had followed their plans.
• Oedmeir cleared the attackers and repaired the breach, restoring power to the warship.
• Shande the Blacksmith fled once the warship regained power.

Oedmeir, Lin Fan, and Rebecca salvaged wreckage and mined Blackstone on a dying planet while Sander the smith returned to Medrengard with news for Perturabo. Sander faced suspicion from the other Warsmiths and reached the Iron Star, where Perturabo’s cold distance left him troubled.

• Oedmeir had Rebecca gather the space wreckage, and Rebecca said a daemon mark was burning on her body.
• Oedmeir and Lin Fan landed on a dying planet, where scientists found enough Blackstone to sustain their Gellar Field.
• Oedmeir used modified engineering machines to extract Blackstone while Rebecca adjusted the ship’s position.
• Sander the smith returned to the Iron Warriors’ Warp stronghold, where other Warsmiths questioned why his fleet had come back alone.
• Sander reached Medrengard and saw Perturabo’s flagship guarded by automated fortresses and Ironkin, then walked through the grim fortress city with his subordinates.

On Medrengard, overseer Knis tortured a slave who had sabotaged factory machinery and defied the workers by giving the Aquila Salute. The slave remained defiant, and Knis prepared to stab him as Sander approached to restore order.

• Smith Sander noticed a disturbance between an overseer and several slaves and sent his soldiers to wait while he investigated.
• Knis confronted a captured outsider-marked slave who had shoved a wrench into the gears and given the Aquila Salute.
• Knis beat and shocked the slave while warning the other workers to obey, and some slaves struggled to hide their resentment.
• The battered slave spat blood at Knis and declared, "The Emperor protects."
• Knis turned his shock baton to maximum power, extended its spike, and prepared to drive it into the slave's abdomen.

Smith Sander discovered that a Cadian slave had made the Aquila Salute and ordered Knis to suspend him above a furnace until his faith failed. Knis carried out the order, and the slave was lowered into molten metal as factory production continued.

• Smith Sander arrived at the factory and demanded to know why production had stopped.
• Knis explained that the slave had made an Aquila Salute, and Smith Sander revived the injured man and identified him as a Cadian.
• The Cadian cursed Smith Sander and the Iron Warriors, and Smith Sander ordered Knis to hang him above the furnace and lower him whenever he stopped saluting.
• Knis chained the Cadian over the K-3 furnace and lowered him into the molten metal when his arms gave way.

Shande the Blacksmith sought Perturabo’s approval for Captain Oest’s plan to claim a marked Golden Age warship, but Perturabo rejected him and kept working in isolation. Perturabo then began another simulation of his past, recreating the destruction of his homeland.

• Shande the Blacksmith was escorted by the Iron Bone Guard to the Iron Blood after requesting an urgent audience with Perturabo.
• Shande sent Perturabo a message saying Captain Oest’s forces had marked a Golden Age warship and wanted to seize it for their cause.
• Perturabo’s automatic reply told Shande not to call him Father and ordered him to leave.
• Perturabo continued building a robot in his laboratory and connected himself to a controlled body resembling his pre-daemon form.
• Perturabo began simulation attempt 1,919,810, depicting himself climbing through a burning, collapsing palace in Olympia.

Perturabo returned to Olympia during its bombardment, revisiting his memories of the planet and confronting his adoptive father’s coffin and a machine modeled on his sister. His sister challenged his reasons for destroying his homeland, while Perturabo insisted that he had only reclaimed what was his.

• Perturabo ignored his captain’s report, kicked him aside, and watched his soldiers kneel before him.
• Perturabo entered the palace and mourned over the coffin of Dammekos, calling him Father and lamenting that the ideal had failed.
• Perturabo’s elderly sister appeared and challenged him for calling Dammekos Father only after his death.
• Perturabo denied that he had rebelled and claimed that he had merely taken back what was rightfully his.
• Perturabo’s sister asked whether Dammekos was to blame for Olympia’s suffering and pointed out how many people had opposed him.
• Perturabo recognized that his sister was a machine modeled on her personality and memories, then seethed over his sacrifices for the Imperium.

Perturabo confronted his sister in a memory and confessed his envy of Andos’s ordinary life, his regret over his failed utopian ideals, and his resentment at being exploited by both The Emperor and Horus. His sister challenged his rigidity and warned that neither fear nor indifference could earn people’s devotion, leaving Perturabo’s nerves shattered.

• Perturabo tried to speak calmly with his sister, who accused him of denying his divinity and abandoning their shared ideals.
• Perturabo remembered envying Andos’s curiosity and ordinary life, and resented being used as a tool by The Emperor and Horus.
• Perturabo admitted that he had believed his father could help build their ideal, but human nature had obstructed it and perfection could not exist.
• Perturabo said that wishes did not come true, while his sister called him inflexible and an angry child who frightened those around him.
• Perturabo’s sister argued that rulers needed love and respect or fear, not indifference and contempt, then criticized the stupidity of his endless bombardments and sieges.

Perturabo’s sister condemned his cruelty and confronted him with his longing for love and his abandoned ideals. Perturabo crushed her to death, then looked down at the terrified civilians fleeing through Lochos.

• Perturabo’s sister accused him of executing his Legionaries by lot and sacrificing Olympia’s people in the name of rebuilding.
• Perturabo recalled his former ideal of protecting people and admitted he could no longer endure his brothers’ betrayal of their ideals.
• Perturabo’s sister told him that he craved love but had repeatedly rejected and trampled the affection offered to him.
• Perturabo seized his sister and crushed her despite her continuing to speak.
• Perturabo realized he had killed his sister, threw her corpse down, and walked to the doors overlooking Lochos.
• Perturabo saw bloodied civilians fleeing through the streets below.

Perturabo relived the destruction of a civilian population and confronted his guilt over what he had become and the Legion’s unquestioning obedience. The simulation ended, and he stored another destroyed bionic body among nearly two million others before blaming Fulgrim for his return to the past.

• Perturabo watched the Iron Warriors enslave and slaughter civilians in a memory of a world they had conquered.
• Perturabo recalled the other Traitor Legions, condemned Horus for trying to control him, and remembered firing an Emperor’s Children captain at Terra’s walls.
• Forrix reported that the resistance had been crushed and the population divided between slave camps, recruitment tests, and extermination.
• Perturabo asked whether any Iron Warriors had refused to attack civilians, and Forrix admitted that a small number had.
• Perturabo’s simulation shattered, and he placed the destroyed bionic robot in a chamber containing 1,919,810 other ruined bodies.
• Perturabo wondered why Fulgrim’s rebellion had forced him to return.