Chapter Summaries

Lin Fan, Shadowsun, and the White Scars rode toward the secret research facility to rescue the trapped Space Wolves and Raven Guard, but found the T'au forces missing and suspected Amalaga had taken them. At the facility, Kor'sarro led the White Scars in a direct charge down the deep pit.

• Kor'sarro carried Lin Fan on his back after refusing to let Shadowsun fly him to the facility.
• The group crossed the devastated T'au fortress, where Shadowsun found no survivors and Lin Fan learned that Yongtan had been given command authority.
• Shadowsun explained that Yongtan was an Honorary Ethereal, and Lin Fan identified him as the Haemonculus Amalaga, an old enemy who had attacked Jaghatai.
• The group reached the research facility and found a deep pit where the entrance had been.
• Kor'sarro rallied the White Scars with Jaghatai's words, then led them down the vertical cliff on their bikes.

The White Scars and Lin Fan fought their way through a passage filled with grotesquely mutated Reflection Warriors. Their bikes became bogged down in flesh, so they dismounted and continued the charge on foot.

• The White Scars rode down the wall and Kor'sarro Khan boasted about the landing while Lin Fan endured the impact.
• Rebecca detected biological signals ahead, and Kor'sarro Khan led the squad in firing on the mutated Reflection Warriors.
• Lin Fan used a long-range pulse rifle as the enemies returned fire with rotary ion cannons and other weapons, while the White Scars shielded one another and pressed forward.
• The White Scars' bikes crushed through hundreds of meters of enemies but slowed as flesh clogged their machinery.
• Kor'sarro Khan pulled Lin Fan off his bike, and the warriors cleared a patch of ground before Lin Fan and the White Scars charged on foot.
• Delia landed among the Reflection Warriors and destroyed one with her shoulder-mounted arc rifle.

Shadowsun watched Imperial forces overwhelm the T'au and questioned the Imperium's strength, while Rebecca revealed that the monstrous Reflections warriors were made from T'au and human victims. The chapter left Shadowsun shaken and directed her to ask Lin Fan how vast the Imperium's dangers were.

• Shadowsun watched Imperial troops and Space Marines fight the T'au and wondered whether joining the battle would only hinder them.
• The Imperial forces trapped Colvin with Shadowsun's doubles and killed him beneath vaporizing artillery fire.
• Rebecca told Shadowsun that Reflections warriors contained compressed T'au and human genetic material, likely made from tens of thousands of people.
• Rebecca revealed that the director of the Eternal Exploration Institute was a Drukhari master Haemonculi, leaving Shadowsun horrified.
• Rebecca pointed Shadowsun toward Lin Fan when Shadowsun asked how many dangers existed in the universe.
• Lin Fan and Kor'sarro argued over whether Kor'sarro should block Lin Fan's hammer swings.

Kaiser Whitefang and Colvin led the wounded Space Wolves and Raven Guard through the research facility while Reflections warriors pursued them. Their escape was interrupted when a flesh-covered KV128 Stormsurge burst through a wall and targeted them with missiles.

• Kaiser Whitefang carried the wounded Wodhaus as the warriors fled, and the Grey Hunters fired their last rounds at the pursuing monsters.
• Kaiser Whitefang and Wodhaus traded insults while Colvin thanked the Space Wolves Librarian for helping them escape an ambush.
• Colvin reflected on the Raven Guard's silent, regimented routines and realized they rarely showed the brotherly affection Kaiser described.
• Kaiser Whitefang considered the Raven Guard's habits and compared them with the strange behavior of other Chapters.
• A flesh-covered KV128 Stormsurge blasted through a wall and fired its missile pods at the fleeing warriors.

Colvin and the Raven Guard fought a corrupted KV128 Stormsurge while Wodhaus suffered a psychic breakdown from the ancient, deathly presence within it. Colvin leaped into the battlesuit’s dark interior, and the chapter ended with its pieces falling away as his Lightning Claw flickered.

• Wodhaus deflected the Stormsurge’s missiles, but sensing the strange presence within the Reflections warriors overwhelmed his mind until Kaiser Whitefang tried to rouse him.
• Colvin and his veterans attacked the Stormsurge as its corpse weapons impaled Space Marines and made their gene-seed impossible to recover.
• Colvin realized the Raven Guard lacked contact with the fleet and chose to risk everything to protect the surviving brothers.
• Colvin tore open the Stormsurge’s head, felt drawn toward the darkness inside, and leaped into the void after a veteran was killed.
• The Stormsurge began falling apart as the Warp sighed and Colvin’s Lightning Claw flickered within it.

The Raven Guard tried to extract Colvin’s gene-seed after the Apothecary judged him beyond saving, but Kaiser Whitefang stole him away, insisting he could be rescued. Lin Fan accidentally shattered Colvin when Kaiser threw him through a wall, leaving the Raven Guard grieving and furious as Lin Fan realized he might still be able to save him.

• The Apothecary declared Colvin gravely corrupted and prepared to grant him the Emperor’s Peace so the Raven Guard could preserve his gene-seed.
• Kaiser Whitefang and the Space Wolves took Colvin from the Raven Guard, sparking a fight between the two groups as they battled the pursuing Reflections.
• Kaiser Whitefang held Colvin over the ground to stop the Raven Guard from attacking, then threw him toward Lin Fan when Lin Fan broke through a wall.
• Lin Fan struck the incoming Colvin with his hammer, shattering him into stone fragments and prompting the Raven Guard to charge at Lin Fan and Kaiser Whitefang.
• Lin Fan heard Kor'sarro identify the shattered rock as Colvin and realized he might still be able to save the Chapter Master.

Lin Fan reassembled Colvin and revived him with Nurgle life essence, then the God-Emperor returned Colvin’s soul to his body. Colvin stopped the fighting between the Raven Guard and their allies, while Kaiser Whitefang brought the wounded Wodhaus to Lin Fan for help.

• Lin Fan and Rebecca pieced Colvin’s shattered stone body together as Kor'sarro and the White Scars held back the Raven Guard.
• Tech-priest Delia intercepted a Raven Guard veteran who attacked Lin Fan, but the veteran broke through her defenses and injured her.
• Lin Fan applied Nurgle life essence and the holy icon to Colvin, prompting the God-Emperor to return Colvin’s soul to his restored body.
• Colvin woke and ordered the Raven Guard to cease fire, stopping the fighting among the Space Marines.
• A Raven Guard veteran explained the misunderstanding to Colvin, while Kaiser Whitefang brought Wodhaus to Lin Fan to be revived.

Lin Fan led the survivors out of Amalga’s collapsing laboratory after concluding that the Haemonculi had escaped and Aun’Va was likely dead. At the escape route, he announced that the war with the T’au Empire might be over and began explaining his call for peace to the angry Space Marines.

• Lin Fan had Rebecca use Selina’s plasma to treat the wounded while Tech-Priest Delia reassembled her lower body.
• As the laboratory began to collapse, Lin Fan ordered a retreat and carried Delia while rescuing Shadowsun from the facility.
• Rebecca disabled Shadowsun’s battlesuit, and Lin Fan carried her as the group escaped through a tunnel he had smashed open.
• Delia launched herself into the sky with Alpha to bring reinforcements, while Lin Fan told the Space Marines that the war with the T’au might be over.
• Colvin challenged Lin Fan’s proposal, and Lin Fan gathered the warriors to question whether the Imperium could ever find peace.

Lin Fan questioned Kor'sarro Khan, Kaiser Whitefang, and Colvin about their identities, beliefs, and hopes for the Imperium. Their answers revealed Kor'sarro's choice to spare Nightspear, Kaiser Whitefang's grief over endless Imperial suffering, and Colvin's hope for peace despite not knowing how to achieve it.

• Kor'sarro Khan described his long service to the Throne and declared that all xenos should be exterminated.
• Lin Fan recounted how Kor'sarro had spared the wounded Aeldari Ranger Illic Nightspear after escaping the Necrons, and Kor'sarro admitted he had no right to hunt for the Great Khan.
• Kaiser Whitefang described his life from Fenris and recalled the suffering he had witnessed across the Imperium, including a frail child, before lamenting that the Imperium might never stop bleeding.
• Colvin said that peace must one day come to the galaxy, but admitted he did not know how to make it happen.
• An author-style interruption complained that someone else had received a long-awaited Living Saint certification.

Lin Fan reflected on the brutality and corruption that shaped human history and the Imperium, and on the Emperor’s desperate effort to save humanity by building a Webway. The chapter ended with the Webway project’s failure and a cry of accusation: “What have you done, fool! I was trying to save us, Father!”

• Lin Fan considered how he would have fought oppression in different historical eras, from revolution in the Republican era to social progress under feudalism.
• Lin Fan condemned the Imperium’s persecution of mutants, endless wars, and xenophobia, and resolved to remake the galaxy despite its history of hatred.
• Lin Fan traced the galaxy’s corruption through the War in Heaven, the decline of the Human Federation, the Age of Strife, and the birth of Slaanesh.
• Lin Fan understood that The Emperor launched the Great Crusade to gather resources and build a human Webway that could reduce corruption and unite Imperial worlds.
• The Webway project failed, prompting the cry, “What have you done, fool! I was trying to save us, Father!”

Lin Fan argued that the galaxy needed to halt its cycle of revenge and proposed becoming a neutral core for an alliance among the races. The Space Marines reacted with surprise and doubt, while incoming aircraft signaled that reinforcements had arrived.

• Lin Fan told the Space Marines that he wanted to restore the Human Federation and pursue peace through communication, while retaining force against threats such as Orks and Tyranids.
• Lin Fan acknowledged Colvin's concern that the weak could not trust the strong and offered to serve as a neutral, Warp-resistant core for an alliance.
• Lin Fan told Kor'sarro Khan that the Emperor supported his efforts and that he was the Emperor's friend, not his child.
• Kor'sarro Khan asked whether he could still call Lin Fan Uncle, and Kaiser Whitefang lightened the mood by joking about Soap and the Space Wolves.
• Colvin warned Lin Fan that the Imperium would oppose his ideals, and Lin Fan said he would not rely heavily on the Imperium.
• Lin Fan heard aircraft overhead and recognized that reinforcements had arrived.

Lin Fan decided the T'au Empire's northern border could become a place where different races negotiated, then boarded a White Scars Thunderhawk with Shadowsun. The journey was interrupted by news that a fresh T'au fleet was confronting the Imperial forces.

• Lin Fan considered establishing a region near the T'au border where different races could negotiate and gestured for Shadowsun to board a Thunderhawk.
• Kor'sarro Khan and Kaiser Whitefang argued over whose Thunderhawk Lin Fan should ride, and Lin Fan chose the White Scars' transport.
• Lin Fan sampled tea leaves with hot water from the Thunderhawk's coolant pipes while Kor'sarro Khan praised him.
• Delia arrived with a rocket engine strapped to her back and told Lin Fan that T'au survivors remained on the ground and a fresh T'au fleet was confronting them.

Lin Fan and Shadowsun discovered that Commander Farsight’s fleet had arrived after Warp-tainted land fragments tore apart the planet and pursued the escapees. Shadowsun recognized Farsight’s ships, and Lin Fan recalled how the T'au Empire had erased the celebrated commander’s history and branded him a traitor.

• Kor'sarro and the White Scars found the fleet destroyed and learned that Warp-corrupted pieces of the planet had broken through its defenses and fled.
• Lin Fan inferred that Amalaga had been aboard and learned that a Mechanical Ark had gone after the escapees.
• Lin Fan spotted Shadowsun's ships among a much larger fleet bearing crimson markings.
• Shadowsun recognized the fleet as belonging to Farsight, the former T'au commander branded a traitor.
• Lin Fan recalled Farsight's victories, his departure after the disaster at Arthas Moloch, and the Ethereals' efforts to erase his legacy.

Lin Fan secured the Imperium fleet's agreement to communicate with the T'au and connected with Farsight. Farsight's opening words stunned the fleet and left Shadowsun wondering if she was dreaming.

• Lin Fan asked to contact Farsight, then convened an emergency meeting aboard the Thunderhawk with Rebecca's help.
• Colvin invoked his authority as Raven Guard Chapter Master to support the meeting after a fleet commander challenged Lin Fan's right to call it.
• Lin Fan called for communication with the T'au and asked the fleet not to fire until their position was clear.
• Westad, Wodhaus, Colvin, Kor'sarro, Vissi, and Anderson supported communication, while Colvin's forces and allies secretly guarded against internal unrest.
• The fleet's communication link connected to Farsight, whose first words stunned the Imperium forces and Shadowsun.

Farsight offered the Imperium an equal alliance, hoping to fulfill a prophecy, but the Imperium’s fractured political structure made acceptance difficult. Kaiser Whitefang proposed using an old Great Crusade edict to authorize the agreement.

• Farsight told Lin Fan that the Farsight Enclaves wanted to join the Imperium because of a revelation from the Greater Good God.
• Farsight explained that the revelation called for him to find an incorruptible person within the Imperium, and he demanded that the Enclaves retain their autonomy as equal allies.
• Kor'sarro Khan angrily rejected Farsight’s terms, but Lin Fan restrained him and argued that the Imperium needed allies despite its decline.
• Lin Fan said he could accept the alliance on The Emperor’s behalf but could not ensure the whole Imperium would honor it, leaving Farsight doubtful that an agreement would matter.
• Kaiser Whitefang suggested invoking the Xenos Conquest Edict from the Great Crusade era to authorize the alliance.

Lin Fan asked the Emperor about the xenos execution clause and learned about the Emperor’s lost years, his partnership with Malcador, and his uncertain memories of his own origins. The Emperor explained why he once entered the Warp and admitted that his wisdom could not keep pace with humanity’s scientific progress.

• Lin Fan asked the Emperor about the xenos execution clause, and the Emperor recalled that Malcador had wanted to leave room for xenos.
• The Emperor described returning from the Warp to find humanity reduced to techno-barbarian Terra and explained how he and Malcador built a sanctuary amid the wastelands.
• Lin Fan asked how the Emperor had been born, and the Emperor’s memories shifted between accounts of shaman sacrifices and a technological creation.
• The Emperor struggled with contradictory memories, unleashed a furious golden storm, then regained his composure and turned the conversation to humanity’s future.
• The Emperor told Lin Fan that he had entered the Warp seeking meaning because humanity’s scientific progress had outgrown his understanding, and credited his teacher and Federal Truth University with his education.

The Emperor told Lin Fan about Malcador, Terra’s unification, and the Alien Execution Edict, then Lin Fan used the edict to advance negotiations between the Imperium and the T'au. The parties agreed to begin a treaty, though Farsight remained unsure it would protect the Farsight Enclaves.

• The Emperor explained how Malcador found him, helped unite Terra, and founded major Imperial institutions after the Thunder Warriors were exterminated.
• The Emperor said the Golden Age’s fall had a complicated history and recited the three clauses of the Alien Execution Edict, which allowed limited leniency for cooperative xenos and abhumans.
• Lin Fan returned to the meeting and read the edict aloud, surprising Colvin with Kaiser Whitefang’s apparent familiarity with books.
• Lin Fan declared that the T'au Empire and the Imperium had entered the first stage of their relationship and proposed signing a treaty to present to Farsight.
• Farsight asked whether the treaty could protect the Farsight Enclaves, and Lin Fan admitted that its practical effect was uncertain.

Lin Fan arranged a diplomatic visit to Farsight’s ship as the Imperium and the T'au moved toward a treaty, while Imperial officials concealed how he had secured it. The chapter ended with Trazyn waking in the British Museum and accepting that he had been legally acquired.

• Farsight and the Imperium agreed to avoid expansion into each other’s territory and to refrain from unprovoked attacks, while Shadowsun asked for time to summon the Ethereal Caste to sign a treaty with the T'au Empire.
• The Damocles Crusade fleet split in Mugula Gulf, with one part staying to repair the region and another escorting the T'au fleet toward the Damocles Gulf as a diplomatic mission.
• Shadowsun boarded Farsight’s ship under Lin Fan’s escort, while the Imperium sent a formal diplomatic delegation.
• Colvin and other Imperial officials used memory-erasing agents and an explanatory document to conceal Lin Fan’s role in securing the agreement from fleet personnel.
• Lin Fan considered Farsight’s Chaos-influenced visions, which showed T'au oppression, civil war, and a plague spreading toward the cradle of T'au civilization.
• Trazyn woke and learned that he had been legally acquired as property of the British Museum.

Lin Fan and the Imperium delegation met with Farsight’s forces, where Shadowsun and Farsight argued over whether the Ethereals could be trusted. Meanwhile, Yongtan tortured Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va for information and spotted a Mechanical Ark approaching the living continent.

• Lin Fan and the others disembarked aboard Farsight’s ship and met the seven warriors guarding Commander Farsight.
• Farsight welcomed Lin Fan, and the group proceeded to a meeting room where Shadowsun announced that Supreme Ethereal Aun'Va had been captured.
• Shadowsun and Farsight argued over the Ethereals’ leadership and whether they manipulated the T'au people.
• Yongtan tortured the still-living Aun'Va while extracting memories from his exposed brain.
• Yongtan connected to the eyes across the living continent, saw a Mechanical Ark arrive, and opened the continent to reveal its Warp-radiating core.

Yongtan activated the continent’s Warp core and entered the Formless Wastes, where the true word “Life” transformed him into Amalaga. Amalaga used Aun'Va to exploit the barrier between the Warp and reality, then guided the continent out of the dead region.

• Yongtan pulled the continent into the Warp as the Crypteks requested aid and the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine lost track of it.
• Yongtan revealed his true form and reached the emerald slab bearing the word “Life,” becoming Amalaga.
• Amalaga compressed the flesh erupting around the true word and watched a colossal Void Whale devour the dead ruins before vanishing.
• Amalaga carried Aun'Va’s shattered body into the wasteland and explained how a living being could tear a breach in the Warp.
• Amalaga guided the continent out of the Formless Wastes.