Chapter Summaries

The Lamenters fought Stone’s company, whose Aegis shields and heavy weapons inflicted unexpected casualties before the Space Marines broke through and wiped out the defenders. Hope led the surviving Lamenters deeper into the hive city, still confident that the soldiers could not match them in close combat.

• The Lamenters used plasma and ion fire against Stone’s company, while armor-piercing harpoons eventually pierced the soldiers’ Aegis shields.
• Stone watched comrades die, then fired back at the Lamenters as jump-pack assault troops attacked his position.
• The Lamenters eliminated the mortal traitors in less than a minute, losing five brothers in the brief fight.
• Hope and the Destroyer squad captain blamed the Aegis shields for the Lamenters’ casualties, and Hope led the force farther into the hive city.

Hope led two thousand Space Marines in an assault on the hive city's drop zone while twenty Lamenters veterans attacked the enemy command post. The Marines broke through and killed the defenders, but suffered heavy losses, and Hope wondered about the green lightning that had destroyed their Land Raiders.

• The Lamenters veterans launched a decapitation strike on the combat battalion's command post, but its trained soldiers continued fighting under orders from high command.
• The veterans fought through Aegis barriers and XVE-39 battlesuits, destroying eighty suits and killing 2,400 soldiers before the entire twenty-man squad was wiped out.
• Hope led the main assault, and his Space Marines broke through the drop zone's defenses and slaughtered all twenty thousand defenders.
• A Techmarine told Hope that five Dreadnoughts, two Land Raiders, and more than five hundred battle-brothers had been lost, with little gene-seed recoverable.
• Hope examined the wrecked Land Raiders and recalled that green lightning, rather than the other weapons, had brought them down.

After the Lamenters defeated the combat battalion in the hive city, Oedmeir defended arming ordinary forces and criticized the Imperium’s oppressive governance. The commanders tested the battalion on open plains, where its Aegis defenses pinned down the Lamenters, while Rogal Dorn raised concerns about Space Marine supremacy and another Heresy.

• Rogal Dorn worried that giving ordinary people powerful weapons could make rebellions harder for Space Marines to suppress, and Oedmeir argued that helpless civilians faced an even greater danger.
• Oedmeir replayed the memory of an Adeptus Arbites chief killing a starving laborer, then said the Imperium’s social failures made rebellion a consequence of its rule.
• Oedmeir said the 37th Regiment would replace ineffective officials and govern worlds with the T’au Water Caste, while Lin Fan learned Commissar Cain was teaching the T’au common sense.
• The Lamenters won the virtual battle, annihilating the 100,000-man combat battalion at the cost of 900 casualties, after using hive-city terrain to infiltrate and overwhelm its positions.
• Perturabo arranged for the combat battalion to fight the Lamenters on open plains, where its Aegis defenses and heavy weapons forced the Space Marines to advance under fire.
• Jaghatai, Fulgrim, and Perturabo discussed restoring the Great Crusade’s division of military roles, while Rogal Dorn warned of renewed Astartes supremacy and Lin Fan dismissed fears of another Horus Heresy.

Oedmeir outlined reforms to build a stable alliance among the Imperium, T'au, and Aeldari, while Lin Fan was sent to discuss cooperation with the Aeldari. In Biel-Tan, Yvraine revealed the terrible cost of awakening Ynnead and asked Lin Fan about an alternative called the Seventh Path.

• Oedmeir criticized Space Marine arrogance and proposed stricter recruitment and reforms so Chapters could fight alongside the Astra Militarum.
• Oedmeir assigned the T'au a larger role in trade and proposed that the Aeldari supplement interstellar communications and share psychic and Webway knowledge.
• The Primarchs accepted Oedmeir's proposal, and she sent Lin Fan to discuss cooperation with the Aeldari.
• Yvraine told Biel-Tan's Seer Council that awakening Ynnead to destroy Slaanesh required the deaths of ninety-nine percent of the Aeldari.
• Yvraine revealed that Lin Fan had named a possible alternative the Seventh Path, but he told her he knew nothing more and advised her to ask Ynnead.

Lin Fan asked the Aeldari to select volunteers to serve as messengers and liaisons on other worlds, and the Seers agreed. As two sisters considered leaving the Craftworld, Lin Fan asked Slaanesh whether the Aeldari still needed the Paths, and Slaanesh warned that their souls would remain vulnerable if they fully released their emotions.

• Lin Fan described Oedmeir's proposal, and the Aeldari Seers agreed to select volunteers from the Craftworld.
• The Seer Council's divinations failed to reveal Lin Fan, leaving the Seers unable to follow their prophecies about the Imperium.
• An Aeldari botanist decided to apply for the Path of the Outcast and asked her younger sister to leave the Craftworld with her.
• The younger sister declined to join her, and submitted an application to the Seer Council.
• Lin Fan asked Slaanesh whether the Aeldari still needed the Paths, and Slaanesh said it could not protect their souls if they fully released their emotions.

Lin Fan learned that Slaanesh could not protect every Aeldari soul in the Warp, but Slaanesh rescued Yawens when she entered it. Yawens and Anya stayed with the astropaths while Lin Fan left for a meeting.

• Slaanesh told Lin Fan that some Aeldari souls could escape her reach, and Lin Fan warned that he would tell Yvraine and the others to be careful.
• Lin Fan tore Slaanesh apart to soothe her, and Slaanesh later watched the Golden Throne and reflected on why she wanted the Aeldari to remain under Lin Fan's control.
• Slaanesh sensed Yawens's soul entering the Warp, drove off nearby demons, and sent Yawens safely back to the material world.
• Yawens told Lin Fan that Slaanesh had protected her soul, and Lin Fan concluded that the Aeldari Path system should remain in place.
• Lin Fan left Yawens and Anya with the astropaths and Krieg guards to attend a meeting, while Anya asked the astropaths to tell her their stories.

Anya and Yawens listened as an Astropath described the hardships of his life and the Soul-Binding ritual, then Anya began teaching the Astropaths. Meanwhile, Jaghatai Khan struggled through administrative paperwork after Perturabo’s wager put the Primarchs and Space Marines in charge of the government for a month.

• An Astropath recounted being taken by the Black Ships, trained for service, and blinded during the Soul-Binding ritual.
• Yawens questioned why the Astropaths faced the Warp without fear, and they explained that they accepted death and sacrifice for humanity’s survival.
• Anya, shocked by their devotion, made a Wraithbone rune and proposed that they begin learning.
• Jaghatai Khan continued processing piles of government documents and blamed Perturabo and Rogal Dorn for the wager that had led to his paperwork duty.
• Jaghatai recalled that Oedmeir had appointed Primarchs and Space Marines to replace administrative officials for a month, after Perturabo proposed the trial.

Oedmeir gathered Jaghatai, Perturabo, and Rogal Dorn to reveal research results after Fulgrim reunited with his soul and returned to his brothers. She explained her theory that Gene-seed acted like a vaccine against Chaos corruption, leaving the primarchs to consider the idea.

• Oedmeir summoned Jaghatai to the underground laboratory, where Perturabo and Rogal Dorn soon joined him after enduring piles of paperwork.
• Oedmeir revealed that Fulgrim had reunited with his soul, and Fulgrim embraced Perturabo as his brothers welcomed him back.
• Oedmeir presented Fabius's research and explained that Gene-seed might help Space Marines resist Chaos corruption like cowpox inoculation protects against smallpox.
• Perturabo grasped the analogy and suggested that Gene-seed implantation mildly corrupted Space Marines in advance, earning Oedmeir's approving praise.

Oedmeir presented a Warp-contamination inoculation made from the Kabbalah Tree of Life, then revealed an Inquisition proposal to protect planets with Martyr’s Bastions powered by imprisoned Sisters of Silence. The Primarchs recoiled at the proposal’s brutality, leaving Oedmeir’s vaccine as the less horrifying alternative.

• Oedmeir explained how existing Warp contamination might help Space Marines resist further corruption and proposed inoculating ordinary people against it.
• Oedmeir revealed the Kabbalah Tree of Life on Spicy and offered its dew as a vaccine, asking the Primarchs to volunteer for the first dose.
• Oedmeir showed the Primarchs an Inquisition letter proposing Martyr’s Bastions built around living Sisters of Silence to shield planets from Warp attacks.
• The Primarchs imagined the sisters being mutilated and chained into shrines and war machines, and their furious reactions made the Grey Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus hide their own grim devices.

Oedmeir and the Primarchs recoiled at how the Imperium turned its faithful into living weapons, then chose a war-torn world to test the vaccine rather than surrender their humanity. The Lodeyun Civilized World’s history showed how the Imperium’s wars and Space Marine intervention had devastated its people while officials cared only about restoring taxes and production.

• Rogal Dorn used the Canoness chained to his armor to withstand the Lord of Change’s sorcery, then snapped the daemon’s neck and praised her devotion.
• Jaghatai, Rogal Dorn, Fulgrim, and Perturabo discussed the horrifying sacrifices the Imperium’s faithful might make, while Oedmeir said such practices were achievable.
• Oedmeir proposed testing the vaccine on a world engulfed in war, and Biel-Tan’s seers identified the Lodeyun Civilized World.
• The two governors of Lodeyun’s hive cities fought for control, while Imperial authorities ignored the civil war so long as taxes and production continued.
• The Departmento Munitorum sent the Flesh Tearers and Crimson Angels to end the Stromark Incident, and their attacks killed billions and devastated both planets.

A desperate underhive fighter gained strength from a being in the void and rose to fame in underground blood fights while supporting his family. Meanwhile, Oedmeir’s vaccine fleet reached the Lodeyun system, and she planned a tiered trade network that accounted for the Webway’s dangerous condition.

• Administratum officials classified Stromark’s population losses as a minor production setback, while the governors kept Lodeyun’s war from affecting its tithe.
• A young man prayed for food and medicine for his sick mother and hungry sister, and a being in the void showed him underground blood fights and strengthened his arms.
• The young man won brutal matches, earned money to support his family, and demanded greater pay from the arena owner, who sent armed slaves to drive him away.
• Oedmeir’s vaccine fleet reached the edge of the Lodeyun system after two weeks of travel through the Warp and the damaged Webway.
• Oedmeir proposed dividing trade into high-speed Aeldari Webway routes, joint Webway-and-Warp express fleets, and slower T'au Warp-only trade fleets.

A mixed force led by the 37th Regiment, Space Marines, Aeldari, and T'au attacked a hive world overrun by the Blood Army and Khorne's daemons. After a week of fighting, Lin Fan confronted the final Khorne champion and granted him release.

• Aeldari warriors disabled the anti-air guns, allowing Space Marines and the 37th Regiment to land and breach the hive gates with chapel arc bombardments.
• T'au and Imperial forces overwhelmed the Blood Army's defenses, while volkite fire destroyed blood-mist-charged attackers.
• Blood arenas summoned brass bull daemons, which the chapels defeated by piercing them with spires and expelling their daemons with Gellar Fields.
• The 37th Regiment spent a week advancing through the hive, purging cultists and searching for survivors as Earth Caste drones rebuilt the ruins.
• Space Marines and Aeldari Rangers found Khorne's final shrine, where Lin Fan asked its champion about his family and saw the skulls of his mother and sister.
• The champion's remaining reason returned as he wept, and Lin Fan granted him release.

Oedmeir oversaw the planet’s reconstruction and challenged its nobles and officials when they demanded special privileges over ordinary citizens. The nobles accepted her offer of palaces, unaware that the Earth Caste technicians were being directed to Area A-10, while young officials who opposed them were sent to train with the Krieg instructors.

• Perturabo urged a brutal punishment for the remaining governor, but Oedmeir insisted that he be sentenced according to law and hinted that his execution could be harsher.
• Earth Caste technicians began removing toxins from the planet, while Rogal Dorn sent the Black Templars to protect them and clear mutant monsters from the hive city.
• Nobles and officials protested equal housing for citizens, and Oedmeir asked whether the group shared their demand for better treatment.
• Several young officials objected to the nobles’ demands, but Minister Sike intimidated them into silence.
• Oedmeir gave the nobles a card for Area A-10 and sent the young officials to study under the Krieg instructors.
• An Earth Caste technician was stunned when the nobles presented the card and requested palaces and villas.

Oedmeir arranged an extreme test of the Cabal Life Vaccine by exposing a vaccinated planet to Slaanesh’s strongest corruption, while also planning an Aeldari communications experiment. As Slaanesh overwhelmed the world, the God-Emperor watched and hoped the vaccine would work, seeing it as the galaxy’s last chance to break Chaos’s cycle.

• Three months after the planet was restored, Oedmeir prepared experiments to test the vaccine and a new Aeldari communications department.
• Oedmeir revealed that she had given the nobles a powerful hallucinogen, and Slaanesh’s corruption spread across the planet.
• Slaanesh manifested through the Palace of Lust and approached Lin Fan as the Primarchs and others struggled against her influence.
• Oedmeir said the vaccine had to be tested under the most extreme conditions, and Lin Fan told Slaanesh to unleash her strongest winds of indulgence.
• Slaanesh’s music and dance spread across the planet, while the God-Emperor watched and hoped the vaccinated residents would resist corruption.

Slaanesh ended a carefully restrained, sixty-six-day corruption of the planet to test Oedmeir’s vaccine, and the God-Emperor waited for the results despite his guilt over the casualties. Slaanesh judged the vaccine highly effective, while Perturabo and Rogal Dorn questioned her about the test data.

• Slaanesh recalled her daemons and withdrew her corruption, restoring the planet after sixty-six days of indulgence.
• The God-Emperor struggled with guilt over the people who died during the test but waited on the throne for the results.
• Oedmeir said the vaccine could enter mass production if the planet’s condition was acceptable.
• Slaanesh reported that the vaccine worked well and described how corruption affected the surviving population.
• Perturabo asked for specific data, and Dorn questioned what Slaanesh meant by people forming connections.
• Perturabo explained the phrase to Dorn, who suggested a more precise term, making Fulgrim uneasy.

Slaanesh reported the results of the planet’s Chaos corruption, and Oedmeir celebrated how the vaccine had preserved many people’s humanity. Lin Fan led the group in an oath for peace.

• Slaanesh described the people’s varying degrees of corruption, prompting the Primarchs to recoil and Fulgrim to weep.
• Slaanesh recalled the Aeldari Empire’s excesses and accused Yvraine and the Craftworld Aeldari of fleeing rather than repairing their society.
• Lin Fan stopped Slaanesh’s taunting, and she revealed that 333,333 people had become inside-out while another 333,333 had turned into Chaos Spawn.
• Oedmeir praised the vaccine for blocking mild and moderate corruption and helping humanity retain its form and reason.
• Perturabo asked what words they should use for their oath, and Lin Fan recited an account of the Imperium’s grim future.
• Lin Fan joined everyone’s hands and led them in an oath: “For peace.”

Across the galaxy, factions fought, argued, and hoped for peace while the Chaos Gods responded to Lin Fan’s words in their own ways. Tzeentch convened Khorne and Nurgle over a blank contract and proposed a bargain that promised them greater influence and him half of the Golden Ark.

• T'au soldiers prepared to defend their fortress world from a Tyranid swarm, and their Fireblade commander declared, “For peace.”
• Yarrick and Kaiser Whitefang watched Adeptus Mechanicus Titans and Skitarii arrive, then charged alongside one another against the Orks.
• The Alaitoc and Iyanden delegations argued beneath their Wraithbone domes until an Iyanden Seer called for peace.
• The Silent King watched Tyranids fall to Gauss beams, while daemons spread atrocities and Khorne, Nurgle, and Isha pursued their own concerns.
• The God-Emperor and The Emperor each spoke of peace, while Tzeentch, Slaanesh, and Gork and Mork reacted differently.
• Tzeentch summoned Khorne and Nurgle with a blank contract and offered Khorne a chance to plunge the Milky Way into war, Nurgle a chance to spread his love, and himself half of the Golden Ark.

Tzeentch secured Khorne and Nurgle’s signatures on a pact to expand the Great Game into reality and divide Slaanesh’s authority at the end of the 41st millennium. Meanwhile, Oedmeir activated a tower that erased survivors’ traumatic memories on Lodeyun, and the new psychic communications department successfully sent a clear message from the Big Canteen.

• Tzeentch persuaded Khorne and Nurgle to sign a pact that would end when the 41st millennium crossed into the 42nd, after which the gods would receive their rewards and resume their war.
• Tzeentch assigned Carlos to work with the Black Legion, Vect to provide Commorragh’s Webway maps and set traps, and took Rokasna to the Well of Eternity, where Rokasna jumped in.
• Oedmeir activated the tower at Lodeyun’s South Pole, and Slaanesh processed the survivors’ memories to remove the worst trauma caused by the Wind of Lust.
• Oedmeir demonstrated that the new psychic communications department could transmit a clear message, as an astropath read Delia’s report that everything was normal at the Big Canteen.

Lin Fan received news that a Tyranid swarm of 240 billion was attacking the T'au Empire and planned to destroy its synapse creatures while Oedmeir organized support and vaccine distribution. In the VK-01 System, human commander Volani and T'au commander Ketan prepared to face the swarm as they worried that the K-1 System had fallen.

• Anya and Yawens guided the astropaths as they sent a message reporting five Tyranid fleets attacking the T'au Empire's eastern fringe.
• Lin Fan explained that killing the swarm's synapse creatures would disrupt its coordination, then said he would attack while Oedmeir returned to establish Tree of Life production lines.
• Oedmeir assigned the primarchs to help distribute vaccines, and Lin Fan said the second Great Crusade could proceed slowly because they could now repair the Imperium's problems.
• Lin Fan's advice had led the T'au to cover border planets in greenery to lure the Tyranids, including a planet where flame mines lay hidden beneath the grass.
• Volani and Ketan met in the VK-01 System, where Volani worried that the K-1 System had fallen after sending no news for more than two years.

Ketan, Volani, and the T'au prepared to delay the Hash swarm, which reached the VK-01 system ten months later and attacked the T'au defenses. Aboard a breached Guardian warship, Sas fought Tyranid creatures adapted to resist T'au weapons, leaving him surrounded by bugs.

• Ketan and Volani agreed that the fortress must hold off the Hash swarm for two years so the rear could be evacuated.
• The Hash swarm arrived in the VK-01 system, and a warship captain ordered his crew to fire everything they had before overloading the engines.
• The T'au bombardment destroyed many Tyranid creatures, but the Hash swarm replenished its numbers and evolved energy shielding against plasma fire.
• Sas dodged corrosive venom aboard the breached Guardian warship as Tyranid creatures poured inside and devoured its contents.
• Sas shot a gun bug, took a bone spine to his breastplate, severed a blade bug's forelimb, and threw it into another attacker.