Recaps

Mo Tuo’s Space Marines exterminated the Slaanesh daemons, while Star Sea expanded its forces and prepared to reclaim more systems. As heretic attacks spread through the Provence Sector, Imperial reinforcements gathered under Bulon, who assembled eighteen Chapters and began preparing for war.

• Mo Tuo and Aishiliya led the Space Marines in killing Sestian and exterminating the daemons, though Aishiliya’s squad also killed 235 human survivors hidden in the Underhive.
• A Ratling qualified for the army by hitting moving targets, a grandfather comforted his granddaughter about food and her absent parents, workers’ complaints brought a factory owner’s arrest, and Yixiu sailed for Milzhi World with undisclosed cargo.
• Mendeleev and the Navy received hundreds of new warships, then agreed on fleet changes and gave the logistics department fifty ships to help develop twenty star systems.
• After six months of preparations, Tulas split the expedition force into four fleets carrying Space Marines and Defense Force soldiers to reclaim four systems.
• Seth learned that twelve worlds near Star Sea World faced heretic attacks, then killed himself before Imperial reinforcements arrived, leaving Carl to report the crisis to Bulon.
• Bulon questioned Carl, learned that heretics had occupied more than twenty worlds and attacked twenty more, and ordered her to lead a death charge while the Sisters of Battle arrested Provence officials.
• Tyberos offered to lead the Carcharodons against the heretics, but Cawl withheld their equipment until the forces assembled, and Bulon mobilised more than thirty million soldiers as Astartes reinforcements arrived.
• Bulon convened eighteen Chapter Masters, who argued over the lack of intelligence and preparations before he announced that Holy Terra had supplied weapons and equipment.

Bulon united the Chapter Masters against the False Emperor’s forces, while the Star Navy fought off an Imperial fleet and Flesh Tearers invasion. The Imperial attack on Manda Planet continued after heavy losses, with Astra Militarum troops preparing to probe the city.

• Bulon persuaded the Chapter Masters to accept weapons and armour, then agreed with them to split their forces and attack Star Sea World after destroying heretic outposts and troops.
• As the Third Fleet secured Manda World, Nack and Anrida coordinated defenses against attacks by the False Emperor’s forces, and Lilith led the Star Navy to intercept the incoming Imperial fleet.
• Lilith’s fleet destroyed Imperial warships as they emerged from the Warp, but Gabriel brought the remaining fleet into realspace and ordered it to attack.
• The Star Navy repelled Imperial assault craft and fighters, while Gabriel pushed his fleet forward and sacrificed its flagship to create a Warp rift that enabled Ivar to teleport the Flesh Tearers aboard the Star Navy battleship.
• Gabriel led the Blood Angels through the battleship toward the bridge, but Nack’s Star Space Marines intercepted them and killed most of the invaders before Gabriel severed Nack’s arm in their duel.
• Nack ordered the battlefield cleared and underwent treatment as Lilith continued the fleet battle, while Dok left Manda Planet’s stubborn former nobles and merchants to fend for themselves.
• Spike sent Chaplain Kazaen and fifty Blood Angels to capture Manda Planet’s spaceport, but combat robots trapped and decimated the boarding force before the spaceport exploded, killing Kazaen and many of his brothers.
• Spike ordered the Astra Militarum deployed onto Manda Planet, where Colonel Tim landed away from the Defense Force positions and prepared three companies to probe the city while keeping three in reserve.

The Astra Militarum’s assault on Manda Planet collapsed under the Defense Force’s fire, while Mo Tuo’s boarding operations crippled the Imperial Combined Fleet and brought Azrael and much of the Minotaurs Chapter to surrender. The Star Navy then ambushed the arriving Carcharodons Chapter and continued to dominate the void battle.

• Commissar Kam ordered mass executions in the captured city and forced the survivors into suicide attacks, but the Defense Force’s artillery and weapons annihilated Tim’s assaulting regiment.
• Kaberons and Himmler called for help from the Emperor’s Angels, and Spike led Blood Angels and Astra Militarum troops into another failed assault, where the Defense Force’s bombardment and self-destruct hounds killed many, including Spike.
• Mo Tuo and Wood used teleport beacons to destroy Imperial warships and send Exploding Hounds and Star Space Marines aboard a Battle Barge, where they silenced its macro-cannons and fought the Minotaurs.
• Cawl’s avatar captured five Star Space Marines with a Time-Dilation Field, while Mo Tuo’s other forces advanced through the Battle Barge and summoned Earth Dreadnoughts to destroy the Minotaurs’ armor and defenses.
• Mo Tuo offered Azrael surrender or death, and Azrael accepted surrender after learning that the Minotaurs had lost their ability to resist and that the assault on Olia II had failed.
• Azrael pledged the Minotaurs to the Lord of the Stars and ordered the Imperial Combined Fleet to lay down its weapons, though Garcia rejected his command and continued the fight.
• Azrael led the surrendering Minotaurs toward the Star Navy Fleet as Mo Tuo and Wood exploited boarding opportunities and the Star Navy destroyed Imperial warships.
• Tulas’s fleet ambushed Tyberos and the Carcharodons at the Mandeville Point, evaded their return fire, and destroyed Imperial Combined Fleet ships.

Gray defeated Tyberos and brought the Carcharodons and most of the Imperial Navy to surrender, while Bulon’s forces invaded Jesta. As the Defense Force held off successive attacks and Orks descended on the planet, Neketz’s Apocalypse Tanks joined the battle and pushed the Orks back.

• After the Imperial Combined Fleet lost fifty-five ships in the Karen System, Tyberos prepared to board the Emperor-class Battleship, and Nophis volunteered to carry a teleport beacon.
• Kaliush broke through the fleet’s defenses and threw the beacon aboard the Emperor-class Battleship, allowing Tyberos and the Carcharodons to teleport in.
• Ten Earth Dreadnoughts slaughtered Carcharodons, and Tyberos ordered his warriors to stand down before Gray offered them a place under the Lord of the Stars.
• Gray defeated Tyberos in a duel, and Tyberos surrendered, and the Librarian agreed to withdraw, after which most Imperial Navy commanders also surrendered.
• Bulon’s fleet overwhelmed Mendeleev’s Star Navy Fleet and sent transports toward Jesta, where Pius’s Defense Force destroyed many of them and repelled a Brass Dragons assault with artillery.
• Arjinto and the Brass Dragons joined House Storm Knights in an attack on the Defense Force, but artillery and an electromagnetic pulse cannon crippled the advancing Knights and forced both forces to retreat.
• Kairos Fateweaver drew Chaos warbands and an Ork fleet toward the Jesta System, and Ork warships entered the system and crashed onto Jesta as the Imperial and Star Navy fleets fought them in space.
• Orks overran Astra Militarum positions, but Neketz led one hundred thousand Apocalypse Tanks into battle, and the tanks devastated the horde as Arjinto led the Brass Dragons forward to inspect their weapons.