Chapter Summaries

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.

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.