Recaps

Bonecrusher Salaka ordered Iron Foot Bad Gut to abandon the port battle and lead the Orks to Hades Hive. Bad Gut gathered the Boyz and withdrew, leaving the battered Guardsmen behind as Waaagh! energy erupted across the harbor.

• Bonecrusher Salaka heard Gork and Mork tell him to seek a bloodier fight at Hades Hive and ordered Bad Gut to finish the port battle quickly.
• A Gretchin delivered Bone Uncle’s order to Bad Gut, who hesitated because the Boyz were enjoying their fight.
• Bad Gut used a loudspeaker to tell the Orks they were leaving the port and heading to Hades Hive, and the Boyz obeyed.
• The Orks withdrew, leaving the exhausted Guardsmen amid the wreckage, while Bad Gut ordered the brain-broken Orks released to deal with the humies.
• Half an hour after the main Ork force left, Waaagh! energy erupted across the harbor.

Commissar Yarrick asked Kaos the Sage to attach Ughulhard’s Ork power claw to him, accepting a high risk of death so he could return to the front. After the surgery, Yarrick received a twin-linked Storm Arrow and headed back toward the fighting, where an Ork assault was underway.

• Yarrick brought Ughulhard’s power claw to Kaos the Sage and asked him to install it, despite warnings that it was unstable and the surgery had an 80.99% mortality rate.
• Kaos the Sage modified Yarrick’s body, attached the power claw, and supplied him with a twin-linked Storm Arrow.
• Yarrick tested his new equipment, removed the power claw to put on his uniform, and left Kaos the Sage’s sanctum with the soldiers.
• Yarrick’s striking new appearance made him conspicuous as an Ork assault struck a small defensive position.
• An Ork boss split a soldier with an axe while the defenders’ lasguns failed to penetrate his armor and their heavy weapon crews lay buried under rubble.

Yarrick used his Storm Bolter and power claw to kill an Ork boss and break the assault on Hades Hive. As Orks spread an increasingly exaggerated tale of him under the name “Dead-Eye,” Yarrick grew more comfortable with his new weapons.

• Yarrick shot the charging Ork boss, caught his axe with the power claw, and cut the axe apart.
• Yarrick killed the boss by driving his claw through him, then urged the soldiers to fire on the fleeing Orks.
• Yarrick left to reinforce other positions after his forces smashed the Ork attack again.
• An Ork storyteller described Yarrick’s weapons and fighting to the boys, who named him “Dead-Eye.”
• Yarrick tested his power claw with a cup of recaf and found he was gaining control of it.

Bone Uncle ordered the Orks to prepare new ways to assault Hades Hive, including an aerial attack and heavier cannons. After five days without attacks, Yarrick watched the ominous clouds gathering over the Ork camp and realized the main assault was near.

• Bone Uncle dictated a battle plan to attack Hades Hive with Blood Axe aircraft, heavier cannons, and fires spread throughout the city.
• A Blood Axe Kommando boss ordered his Boyz to fly over Hades Hive and suggested using rockets to land safely.
• A Big Mek halted production of big shootas and ordered the factory to make more cannons and explosive shells.
• After five quiet days, Yarrick observed the growing blips and dark clouds above the Ork camp and anticipated a major attack.

The Orks launched a disciplined combined ground and air assault on Hades Hive, destroying an Imperial artillery position and forcing Yarrick to order a withdrawal. As the Orks surged into the trenches, Yarrick and Lede set out to cover the retreat, while a frontline sergeant fought to hold his position.

• The Orks advanced behind armored vehicles while bombers flew past Imperial anti-aircraft fire and dropped bombs and airborne Boyz near Vinsloran Street.
• A huge explosion silenced the Imperial artillery, and Yarrick ordered a tactical withdrawal into the hive’s defenses.
• Yarrick summoned Lede and the Iron Fist Squad to draw the Orks’ attention and cover the army’s retreat.
• Orks charged the Imperial positions, and a frontline sergeant killed one with repeated lasgun shots before fighting continued in the trenches.
• An Ork sprang from the shadows and knocked down the sergeant and a soldier, impaling the soldier on its shoulder spikes as the sergeant raised his gun.

A sergeant and a badly wounded soldier were surrounded by Orks until the Orks recognized the advancing Yarrick as Dead-Eye and fled toward him. Yarrick continued slaughtering Orks across the battlefield and realized that his reputation and eyes were frightening them, leaving him to consider asking the Tech-Priests for help.

• The sergeant used his Lasgun to block an Ork Boy’s axe, then killed the Ork with his tactical knife after the weapon broke.
• The sergeant checked on the soldier, who could barely move, as four or five more Orks surrounded them.
• The Orks abandoned the sergeant and wounded soldier after hearing that Dead-Eye was nearby and seeing Yarrick pursue a mob of Orks.
• Yarrick charged the Orks, killed those who resisted, and drove others to flee by his presence and Power Klaw.
• After Yarrick beheaded a wounded Ork that feared being stared to death, he wondered whether he needed to trouble the Tech-Priests again.

Fleet Commander Cassimian led his fleet through the Warp storm to reinforce Armageddon and attack the Orks. As the Kasare 37th Regiment fought aboard its ship, Lin Fan’s 3rd Company encountered Orks in the corridors and opened fire.

• Cassimian waited for the Warp lightning to fade, then sent detection torpedoes ahead and ordered his fleet to advance toward Armageddon.
• The fleet reached the Armageddon system and engaged the Ork fleet in a battle fought across vast distances.
• Lin Fan, Old Jock, Damian, and Delia moved through their shaking ship to drive off Orks who had boarded it.
• Delia detected an Ork unit ahead and transformed her arms into weapons as the company prepared to fight.
• After watching an interrogation-department medic treat a wounded soldier, Lin Fan raised his lasgun and fired on the approaching Orks.

Old Jock watched Lin Fan display extraordinary Lasgun accuracy and kill a large group of Orks. The soldiers advanced behind Lin Fan, while Old Jock kept his suspicions about the captain’s background to himself.

• Old Jock recalled Lin Fan’s remarkable shooting records, including hitting a dummy’s eyes with every shot from a hundred-round magazine at eight hundred meters.
• Lin Fan exhausted one Lasgun’s energy, took Cahir’s weapon, and fired more than a hundred and seventy shots in five seconds.
• Lin Fan’s barrage silenced the Orks, and the advancing troops found more than a hundred and fifty of them dead from precise shots through their eyes.
• Old Jock suspected Lin Fan had an important background but chose not to investigate, while Damian and the others admired their commander.

Lin Fan and the 3rd Company advanced through the ship, fighting Orks and capturing a Kommando. He frightened the prisoner with a story about the Emperor’s icon, hoping to learn how many Orks were ahead.

• Lin Fan compared fighting Orks favorably to fighting Chaos Space Marines and led the company toward another Ork group in the lower levels.
• Lin Fan found a Kommando waiting around a corner, dodged its axe, and disabled it with his bare hands.
• Lin Fan questioned the captive in crude Ork, but the Kommando refused to reveal how many Orks were nearby.
• Lin Fan borrowed Damian’s Emperor icon and threatened that wearing it would keep the Ork from joining Gork and Mork or the Emperor after death.
• The Kommando panicked and begged Lin Fan not to put the icon on it.

Lin Fan used an insult about Gork and Mork to disrupt the Orks’ attack, giving the Astra Militarum time to improve its defenses. The Orks regrouped and assaulted the position again, while Stormboyz flew toward Lin Fan’s group on the skybridge.

• Lin Fan and his 3rd Company reached a metal walkway above a battle between the Orks and the Astra Militarum.
• Lin Fan had Tech-Priest Delia broadcast an insult about Mork, provoking Orks who worshipped Gork and Mork to fight among themselves.
• The Orks restored order and launched another assault, but the Astra Militarum’s repositioned heavy weapons held them back.
• Ork rockets blasted the skybridge, and several hundred Stormboyz flew toward Lin Fan’s group.
• Lin Fan adjusted his lasgun to target the Stormboyz’ unstable rocket engines.

Lin Fan helped defeat the Orks aboard the Flame, and the Imperium prepared to deploy reinforcements to Armageddon. On Hades Hive, Yarrick assessed the worsening defenses as Orks attacked from above, through the sewers, and with specialized siege weapons.

• Lin Fan and the soldiers shot down the Stormboyz, then drove back the Orks who fired on their skybridge.
• Lin Fan learned that the bridge could withstand the Orks’ weapons and continued fighting as the Orks’ numbers dwindled and they fled.
• The Imperium fleet contacted Armageddon, learned that its defenders still held, and finalized plans to deploy Astra Militarum troops and the Kasare Legion.
• Yarrick reviewed Hades Hive’s defenses as Ork siege weapons and infiltrators wrecked fortifications, disrupted factories, and forced his troops into scattered close-quarters fights.
• The chapter ended with a joke about the Land Raider Wrath of Rynn being alone after the Crimson Fists monastery was destroyed.

Commissar Yarrick learned that an Imperial relief fleet had reached Armageddon but needed soldiers to clear a landing zone and destroy Ork anti-aircraft guns. Meanwhile, Dovell and an unnamed veteran searched the ruins for a fortress with a working vox and spotted two Orks dismantling armor plating.

• Astropath Ando told Yarrick that the relief fleet had driven off the greenskin fleet and would deploy a regiment to Hades Hive once a landing zone was cleared.
• Yarrick explained to Lede why the Imperial fleet could not bombard the Orks without risking valuable ships and industrial assets.
• Lede left, troubled by papers from the Departmento Munitorum, and Yarrick told a soldier to watch him.
• Dovell and an unnamed veteran continued through the ruins, searching for the last fortress still in contact by vox.
• The veteran signaled Dovell to stop, and Dovell used a telescope to see two Orks trying to dismantle armor plating fused into concrete.

Dovell and a veteran reached the Last Bastion, where they joined scattered Imperial troops preparing for a final offensive against the Orks. As the soldiers gathered for the mission, Dovell mourned those he had lost while the veteran quietly handled their polished dog tags.

• Dovell and the veteran passed through the ruins and reached the Last Bastion, where its turrets identified them as friendly.
• A commissar welcomed them despite criticizing their failure to hold their previous positions, and they entered the fortress to rest and breathe filtered air.
• After three days, Dovell joined thousands of soldiers as the commissar announced Commissar Yarrick's orders to prepare a landing site and attack the Orks at Imperial Statue Square.
• The soldiers discussed the coming fight and remembered their losses, while Dovell sat beside the veteran and the veteran gently examined a handful of dog tags.

The Last Bastion forces launched a surprise attack on Emperor's Word Plaza to destroy its anti-aircraft guns and secure a landing zone. They broke through the plaza gates, and Crotch Chopper's Orks spotted the charging soldiers as the battle began.

• The commissar received word that Commissar Yarrick's forces had engaged the Orks and ordered the Last Bastion troops to advance.
• Crotch Chopper learned that human soldiers had emerged from the ruins near his Happy Music District and ordered the Rock Boyz to attack them.
• The Last Bastion forces reached Emperor's Word Plaza and found its statue and banners replaced by Ork decorations.
• The commissar ordered anti-tank teams to blast the cables holding the plaza gates, then led his soldiers through the breach.
• The Orks heard the gates crash and saw the humans charging through the dust.

The Last Bastion remnants fought the Orks at Emperor's Word Plaza while Yarrick led a heavily armored counterattack to break through the enemy lines. Yarrick's forces pushed toward the plaza, leaving the battle for a landing zone within reach.

• The commissar and Dovell fought through Orks as the remnants advanced toward the plaza's anti-aircraft guns.
• The sergeant ordered the troops to spread out and clear the gun emplacements to secure a landing zone.
• Yarrick led combat-ready forces out of the lower industrial district, sending newly modified heavy Chimeras charging at the Ork defenses.
• Magos Kaos's vehicle modifications helped the Chimeras withstand Ork rockets and move at greatly increased speed.
• Yarrick fired his laser eye at the Orks, and his arrival made them flee while calling him Old Dead-Eye and other names.

Randolph led the Lightning Flight Group toward Emperor's Word Plaza to bomb Ork fortresses, while Yarrick's troops fought through the Ork defenses below. Yarrick's advance stalled under heavy fire, and he called for an air strike.

• Randolph briefed the Lightning Flight Group and led more than twenty Marauder Bombers and over forty Thunderbolt Heavy Fighters toward Emperor's Word Plaza.
• Ork aircraft and flak attacked Randolph's bomber, while Riegel struggled to target the unpredictable enemy fighters.
• Commissar Yarrick reached Emperor's Word Plaza and ordered his veterans to dismount and clear the Ork anti-aircraft positions.
• Yarrick, Lede, and the others destroyed several anti-aircraft emplacements but came under intense fire from twin-linked gun turrets.
• Yarrick asked Lede to contact the air units for an air strike.

Lede called in a Marauder Bomber to destroy the Ork anti-air turret, but its electric shield repelled the bomber’s bombs and the aircraft was shot to pieces. Sage Kaos secretly accelerated Randolph’s final attack, letting the bomber smash through the turret and destroy it.

• Lede contacted Randolph for air support, and the Marauder Bomber attacked the massive Ork turret.
• The turret’s electric shield disabled the melta bombs, while its guns damaged the bomber and killed or wounded most of its crew.
• Randolph and Riegel reported that the bomber had exhausted its ammunition, and Yarrick understood that they intended to make a final attack.
• Sage Kaos studied the shield and used a black stone device to accelerate Randolph’s damaged bomber.
• Randolph’s bomber pierced the shield and crashed through the turret, destroying it in a huge explosion.

Yarrick and Lede fought their way into Crotch Chopper’s concert hall, where the Ork musician and his four rock boys attacked them. With Lede wounded and their soldiers falling, Lede prepared to use a syringe to keep the mission from failing.

• Yarrick and Lede advanced through the Orks after the gun tower sank, reaching a circular hall that looked like a concert venue.
• Crotch Chopper summoned four rock boys and attacked Yarrick’s group while wielding his iron rods.
• Lede fired his meltagun to save Yarrick, but Crotch Chopper pierced Lede’s shoulder with a thrown iron rod.
• The rock boys overwhelmed the soldiers as Crotch Chopper kept Yarrick occupied, and Lede pulled a syringe from his armor.

Lede injected himself with Hades Butcher Hormone and helped Commissar Yarrick fight Crotch Chopper, but a drop pod crushed the Ork boss and Lede died from his wounds. Yarrick collected Lede’s dog tags and kept a bundle from his pocket, leaving him to gaze at sunlight.

• Lede injected himself with Hades Butcher Hormone, pulled the iron rod from his wound, and attacked the Ork rockers.
• Lede and Yarrick charged Crotch Chopper together, but the Ork boss badly wounded both of them.
• A drop pod crashed into the music hall and crushed Crotch Chopper, while Sage Kaos arrived after destroying the Orks’ artillery and setting up a beacon.
• Lede asked Yarrick if he was a good soldier and whether the Emperor would forgive him, and Yarrick reassured him before he died.
• Yarrick took Lede’s dog tags and cloth bundle, then left his eyes open as sunlight streamed into the hall.

Lin Fan’s squad survived a malfunctioning drop pod landing and joined Commissar Yarrick and Archmagos Kaos after the Orks scattered from Holy Word Square. The chapter ended with Dovell and a veteran defending a blast door as Orks burst through.

• Tech-Priest Delia lost control of the drop pod, which crashed through obstacles and landed amid convulsing Defense Force soldiers.
• Lin Fan escaped the jammed pod and met Commissar Yarrick, who accepted Lin Fan’s offer to serve under his temporary command.
• Archmagos Kaos explained that the dead Ork boss had triggered music across Holy Word Square, causing the Orks to scatter.
• Lin Fan and Yarrick led soldiers out to hunt the remaining Orks while medics stayed behind to treat the wounded.
• Dovell and a veteran prepared to fight as Orks forced open the blast door at their position.

Dovell and the veteran fought a group of Orks in a corridor, suffering devastating injuries as they tried to survive. Dovell killed the last Ork with his lasgun, then pointed arriving soldiers toward the fallen veteran as he became unable to move.

• Dovell threw a frag grenade into the corridor, killing several Orks, while the veteran fought the survivors.
• Dovell blinded an Ork with radioactive dust, but the Ork struck his gun and smashed his helmet with an axe.
• The veteran killed one Ork and, despite losing an arm, wounded the blinded Ork with his chainsword and dagger.
• The Ork threw its axe into Dovell's shoulder, then pinned the veteran and battered him.
• Dovell dragged his lasgun close and fired at the Ork, killing it as it collapsed on the veteran.
• Other soldiers arrived, and Dovell pointed them toward the veteran before he could check on him.

Lin Fan and Yarrick cleared Orks from a building and found wounded soldiers and a dead comrade whose dog tags suggested he came from Heglas Hive. After the Kasare Legion arrived to reinforce Hades Hive, Yarrick called Domisilon and told him Lede had died.

• Lin Fan and Yarrick fought through the building, killing Orks and finding wounded survivors among the dead.
• Lin Fan found a one-armed soldier who pointed out his mangled comrade, and Yarrick recovered the dead man's dog tags.
• Yarrick tied the straightened dog tags to the surviving soldier's wrist and said the dead had served the Emperor.
• The Kasare Legion landed at Emperor's Word Plaza to reinforce Hades Hive and prepare a counterattack.
• Yarrick called Domisilon and told him Lede had been killed, promising to send his ashes back.

Domisilon surveyed the devastation in the industrial district and mourned the lives lost, then joined Yarrick, General Westad, and Sage Kaos to plan their next move against the Orks. With their forces and equipment depleted, the meeting ended with a decision to defend the city and wait for support from the Styx Line.

• Domisilon held the industrial district with gang enforcers, workers, and militia while Ork infiltrators attacked survivors and production remained crippled.
• Domisilon drank alone amid the ruins, lamented the dead, and spoke to a photograph of Lede while recalling their past.
• Five days later, Domisilon, Commissar Yarrick, General Westad, and Sage Kaos met to plan the battle against the Orks in Hades Hive.
• Domisilon and Yarrick reported that the industrial district needed extensive recovery and that their output was largely committed to repairing damaged vehicles.
• General Westad explained that his Legion lacked the equipment for a counterattack, so the group agreed to defend the city and await forces advancing from the Styx Line.
• An unidentified attendee asked to speak as the meeting concluded.

Priest Delia presented her research on Orks to the war council, arguing that all Orks possessed psychic power through an independent Waaagh! network. Her explanation gained support from Sage Kaos and Commissar Yarrick, and she prepared to reveal an even more startling finding.

• Lin Fan suggested that the war council hear Priest Delia's research on Orks, and Sage Kaos supported the idea.
• General Westad summoned Delia, who nervously began presenting research based on information Lin Fan had given her.
• Delia explained that Orks reproduced through spores and released the most spores when they died.
• Delia argued that every Ork was a psyker connected through an independent Waaagh! network that could make things work according to Orks' belief.
• Sage Kaos and Commissar Yarrick supported Delia's theory, and she grew confident enough to prepare an even more explosive revelation.

Delia explained to Yarrick and Westad how Ork technology and weapons were shaped by Waaagh! energy and belief, then proposed exploiting that belief to strengthen Imperial lasguns. Yarrick and Westad considered how her claims could change the Imperium’s approach to Orks, while Domisilon wondered if he was dreaming.

• Delia described how Orks inherited technological knowledge and used Waaagh! energy to make crude weapons work, including Tankbusta Axes capable of piercing tanks.
• Yarrick asked why the Orks had not conquered the universe, and Delia said they enjoyed fighting and that greater knowledge limited their ability to believe in unlikely outcomes.
• Lin Fan watched Delia explain Ork lore to Yarrick and Westad, hoping they would compile a Greenskin Encyclopedia, while Magos Kaos listened nearby.
• Delia argued that Ork weapons drew power from their users’ beliefs, and Yarrick acknowledged that their unreliable ammunition still penetrated heavy armor.
• Delia and Magos Kaos suggested making lasguns louder and brighter to exploit Ork beliefs, while Yarrick and Westad reflected on the two Mechanicus members’ unconventional methods.
• Domisilon bit his hand and wondered whether he was dreaming.