Chapter Summaries

Trazyn was summoned by the Silent King while Lin Fan reorganized the 37th Regiment and went to inspect the Landes Penitent Army remnants. Lin Fan arrived at the military encampment outside the hive city, where he learned how the Adeptus Arbites fortress had landed safely from orbit.

• Trazyn recorded Lin Fan's story, fed Kaos the Great Sage fruit, and received a Triarch Praetorian order to report to a spatial breach at Odysseus Quadrant-15.
• Before leaving, Trazyn instructed Kaos to be friendly with Lin Fan's 37th Regiment and told his technicians to watch over Lin Fan and his companions.
• Lin Fan visited Marian and Sha Si on their honeymoon, then returned to his office and reviewed the reorganization of the 37th Regiment into four companies totaling 85,000 personnel.
• Lin Fan ordered Colonel Erika to bring Priest Delia and the others so they could inspect the Landes Penitent Army's garrison.
• Lin Fan's group traveled to the encampment and learned from Delia that the Adeptus Arbites fortress used a kinetic energy converter to absorb its orbital descent and power itself.

Lin Fan learned that the Penitent Army’s survivors were living in shame after killing their families under a daemon’s illusion, and he appointed Sister Superior Selina to lead them. He then considered how to strengthen and unite the regiment, ordering more communicators so every squad could report in.

• Lin Fan saw the Penitent Army’s self-punishing appearance and learned from Selina that its members had killed their families while trapped in an illusion.
• Selina asked to join Lin Fan’s expedition and die in battle, and Lin Fan appointed her commanding officer of the Penitent Army.
• Lin Fan promised Selina the Shattered Sacred Sword and offered to provide additional Grey Knights weapons for capable soldiers.
• Lin Fan considered having the regiment’s companies share combat skills and develop beyond their specialized roles.
• Lin Fan learned that communications equipment was limited to officers and ordered enough communicators for every squad to relay information.

Lin Fan arranged for Rebecca and Delia to develop clearer, more practical communicators for the Penitent Legion, and Sage Kaos reluctantly approved their production. Delia then asked Kaos whether she could study the Machine God’s gifts without abandoning her human form, but left his Ark Mechanicus dejected after he dismissed her concerns.

• Lin Fan told Delia that Rebecca was Little Yi and arranged for them to design improved communicators for the legion.
• Rebecca supplied the communicator blueprints, and Delia disguised them as an STC template for Sage Kaos to inspect.
• Sage Kaos approved production despite Martian Cult rules, after Lin Fan invoked Captain Soap’s special order.
• Delia asked Sage Kaos whether she could learn the Machine God’s gifts while retaining her human appearance, and he said that greater knowledge made mortal flesh a burden.
• Delia left the ark and met Rebecca playing old-era rock music aboard the transport ship.

Delia and Rebecca discussed the Imperium’s outdated technology, then Rebecca helped Delia plan external databases so she could study the Machine God without extensive bodily augmentation. Delia revealed that Cain’s fondness for Felicia’s human body had inspired her, leaving Rebecca amused.

• Delia told Rebecca that their optimized communicators were entering production, and Rebecca explained how far the Imperium’s equipment lagged behind Federation technology.
• Rebecca described the Federation’s playful culture and recounted Lin Fan’s wedding dance, which people interpreted as a sacred ritual.
• Delia told Rebecca about a Mechanicus sage whose study of ancient statues led him to conclude that ancient humans were freaks.
• Delia said she wanted to study the Machine God without turning herself into a steel monstrosity, so Rebecca proposed making her a small, portable learning machine to serve as an external database.
• Delia explained that Cain’s praise of Felicia’s human body had made her reconsider augmentation, and Rebecca understood why she wanted to retain her humanity.

Delia confronted the regiment’s soldiers over their resistance to Colonel Soap’s plan to form mixed units. When Lieutenant Sura challenged Lin Fan’s authority, he invited the Valhallans to test him, leaving Commissar Cain expecting her to be humbled.

• Delia silenced the noisy soldiers and learned that Colonel Soap had reorganized the companies into mixed units.
• Lieutenant Sura protested the changes, and Delia threatened to replace parts of her body if she refused to respect Colonel Soap.
• Colonel Kastin suggested that Commissar Cain and Colonel Soap resolve the regiment’s confused chain of command.
• Lin Fan acknowledged the Valhallans’ doubts and offered to prove his abilities through any challenge over the next few days.
• Lieutenant Sura accepted Lin Fan’s offer and said the regiment would go to Commissar Cain if Lin Fan lost.

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.