Chapter Summaries

Ork Warboss Gulga and his Greenskins fought a Tyranid invasion, but the evolved bugs coordinated their attacks and overwhelmed his forces. Gulga was surrounded and killed, and the Tyranids reluctantly ate his foul-tasting head.

• Gulga rallied the Ork Boyz and charged into the Tyranid swarm, but the bugs pressed in from every side and isolated him.
• Gulga fought a Hive Tyrant and wounded it, then rescued his guard captain Kru from three Tyrants.
• Tyrant Guard killed Kru and closed in on Gulga as the Tyranids broke through the Greenskin lines.
• Gulga fought on while his guards and Mekboyz fell, and his Big Mek shouted that the rear line and most of the Boyz had been lost.
• The Tyranids surrounded Gulga and cut off his head, then a Tyrant ate some of his brains despite finding them foul.

Lin En’s Tyranids exterminated the Greenskins on the planet, absorbing their biomass and growing in number as a few Orks escaped aboard ships. After landing, Lin En ordered the transformed swarm back into the Mothership and reflected on how powerful the Tyranids were.

• The Tyranids defeated Gulga’s Greenskins, devoured their bodies, and continued advancing across the planet.
• The Greenskins on the far side were overwhelmed by the swarm, while an Ork boss escaped with a few Boyz aboard an airship.
• The battle ended with the Tyranids occupying the planet and almost all Greenskins consumed, including their spilled blood.
• Lin En landed after the cleanup and found that the Tyranid swarm had grown despite the battle.
• Lin En ordered the Tyranids to return to the Mothership, which then flew back into space.

After the Purple Carapace Chapter destroyed the Greenskins on Isman, Lin En met the planet’s human survivors and tried to convince them that the Tyranids were an official Imperial force. A Navy fleet arrived to reinforce the planet, but Rear Admiral Claude discovered the Tyranid Motherships and prepared to attack them.

• Lin En ordered Phoros to keep the twelve Motherships under watch while he searched Isman for surviving humans.
• Lin En found a fortified survivor settlement and introduced himself as a representative of the Imperium and the Lamenters.
• Lin En showed the survivors an official document and insisted that the Tyranids were the loyal Purple Carapace Chapter.
• Rear Admiral Claude arrived with an Imperial Navy fleet intending to bombard the Greenskins on Isman.
• Claude detected twelve Tyranid Motherships in orbit and ordered his ships to aim their weapons at them.

Rear Admiral Claude learned that Lin En had already secured Isman with the Tyranid Purple Carapace Chapter and brought his fleet to take charge of the survivors. Meanwhile, Grom and a handful of Orks fled to a Greenskin stronghold and warned its warriors that the bugs had devoured Boss Gulga and his WAAAGH.

• Claude received Lin En’s transmission identifying the Tyranid motherships as the loyal Purple Carapace Chapter and learned that Isman was safe.
• Lin En invited Claude’s fleet to orbit Isman, clear survivors, and bring food while the Tyranids moved aside.
• Claude ordered his fleet to stow its weapons and descend, then told his crew to treat the Purple Carapace as a holographic malfunction.
• Grom and the surviving Orks escaped their ruined camp and ran through a mushroom forest toward another Greenskin stronghold.
• Grom warned the assembled Greenskins that bugs had eaten Boss Gulga and his WAAAGH, and the warriors erupted in outrage.

After hearing Grom’s account of the Tyranids, the Greenskins decided to avoid both humans and bugs. Lin En returned to Bolomite with twelve Tyranid Motherships, whose newly green-and-purple carapaces baffled the Imperial defenders.

• The Greenskin leader ordered his band to flee or hide from humans after learning that Tyranids had devoured their planet.
• Greenskin stories about humans and bugs spread, and Greenskins began keeping their distance from both.
• Lin En brought twelve green-and-purple Tyranid Motherships back into orbit around Bolomite.
• A Bolomite sentry identified the approaching Motherships as belonging to the Purple Carapace Chapter and canceled the combat alert.
• Iron Hammer and Gabriel inspected the color-changed Motherships, and Iron Hammer decided to wait until Lin En returned to ask what had happened.

Lin En welcomed the survivors from Isman Planet and learned that the Tyranid motherships had changed color after eating Greenskins. He decided to keep using Greenskins as their food and rejected Iron Hammer’s idea to paint Bolomite’s factories to match them.

• Lin En brought three sturdy survivors from Isman Planet to join the mortal Guard Army, and a Flesh Tearers warrior escorted them to register.
• Gabriel and Iron Hammer questioned the Tyranids’ purple-and-green appearance, and Lin En explained that eating Greenskins had changed their carapaces’ color.
• Lin En calculated the motherships’ enormous food costs and chose Greenskins as their main feed, while Phoros confirmed the fleet was stable and on standby.
• Lin En ordered the twelve motherships to remain near a barren planet so they would not frighten the port’s residents.
• Lin En toured Bolomite’s Industrial Zone and told Phoros he would stop Iron Hammer from painting the factory walls in the Tyranids’ colors.

After the Purple Carapace Chapter won its first battle with help from twelve Tyranid Motherships, the Inquisition argued over the alliance and Guilliman approved their passage through Imperial space. Lin En then planned a campaign to clear enemies from the Maelstrom Sector and beyond.

• The Inquisition received the report that the Purple Carapace Chapter had wiped out a Greenskin planet in less than half a day with zero Imperial Navy casualties, and the conservatives defended the victory against the radicals’ objections.
• Guilliman called Lin En about the battle report, then approved a commendation and transit authorization for the Tyranid Motherships under Lamenters escort and supervision.
• Iron Hammer questioned the authorization before Lin En joked with him and unfolded a Tactical Star Map of the Maelstrom Sector.
• Lin En laid out a plan for the Purple Carapace Chapter to lead a ring-by-ring campaign against Greenskins, Chaos, and Drukhari, with the Lamenters taking over cleared territory and other Chapters rotating to rest and refit.

Lin En led the Purple Carapace Chapter through the Maelstrom, consuming Greenskins and Aeldari and clearing routes for Imperial traffic. When the swarm reached a Word Bearers stronghold, it overwhelmed the traitors but gained nothing from eating daemons, so Lin En sent the Tyranids back to fighting material-world Xenos and prepared the Lamenters to face the daemons.

• Lin En led twelve Tyranid motherships through the Maelstrom, where the swarm devoured Greenskins, destroyed a Drukhari raiding station, and cleared more worlds and asteroids.
• The Purple Carapace Chapter advanced through the Maelstrom, turning red regions on Lin En's star chart green as trade routes and starports reopened.
• Lin En sent the evolved Tyranids to attack a Chaos-tainted planet, where they fought Word Bearers, cultists, and Daemon Engines effectively.
• Khorne answered the Word Bearers' prayers with hordes of Bloodletters, but the Tyranids found that daemons provided no biomass and grew hungrier after eating them.
• Lin En redirected the Tyranids toward Greenskins and sent the Lamenters out to confront the daemons.

Lin En and the Lamenters overwhelmed a Chaos host with golden weapons that permanently erased daemons, while the Purple Carapace Chapter trapped the retreating Chaos Space Marines. Meanwhile, Alberic led a Drukhari raid toward Bolomite, where his forces attacked the Tyranid fleet guarding the system.

• Lin En led the Lamenters into the daemonic sea, where Phoros, Krix, and the others cut down daemons with weapons empowered by golden light.
• Lin En ordered the Lamenters' Librarians to slow the closing Warp Rifts as the golden aura and their attacks dwindled the daemon tide.
• The Purple Carapace Chapter blocked the Chaos Space Marines' escape, and Phoros split the Chaos Company Commander with one strike.
• Alberic brought an elite Drukhari Raiding Party to Bolomite to hunt Lin En, dismissing concerns about the colors of the Tyranids guarding the system.
• Alberic ordered the Warp Spiders to open a gap in the Tyranid defenses, and they leapt from their ships toward the escort frigates.

Alberic’s Drukhari assault was annihilated by the Tyranid escort fleet before it could reach Lin En, and the surviving Kabal leaders convened in Commorragh to consider the growing threat. They failed to agree on a response and returned home to fend for themselves.

• The Tyranid escorts overwhelmed Alberic’s elite force, resisting the Aeldari’s weapons and poison before engulfing the warriors and swallowing Alberic with a mothership-class creature.
• Lin En watched the battle aboard the Night Goddess and hoped the Drukhari would bring more fighters next time.
• After Alberic’s death was reported in Commorragh, twelve Drukhari Kabal leaders gathered for an emergency meeting.
• The leaders argued over making peace with humans or killing Lin En, but acknowledged that they could not defeat him or easily escape his reach.
• The meeting ended without a plan, and the Kabal leaders returned to their respective homes to focus on their own survival.

Amenhotep IX learned that humans had taken control of the Tyranids and ordered the Nikzashi Dynasty to investigate how. Meanwhile, Lin En’s fleet encountered a Behemoth splinter fleet approaching them on the Eastern Fringe.

• Amenhotep IX became the Nikzashi Dynasty’s Phaeron after the Megalith King’s memory engrams were destroyed and he was reduced to a mining slave.
• Necron scouts confirmed that Tyranids were attacking other races alongside human warships, and Amenhotep IX ordered them to discover how humans controlled the swarm.
• Lin En led the Purple Carapace Chapter and its allied forces through the galaxy, clearing Xenos from around the Maelstrom and beyond.
• Phoros identified a Behemoth remnant splinter fleet of eight Mothership-class Bio-ships and about 150 escorts near the Eastern Fringe.
• Lin En learned that the Behemoth fleet was approaching, apparently hoping to challenge his Tyranids and devour the defeated swarm.

Lin En sent the Purple Carapace Chapter to devour a deep-blue Tyranid splinter fleet, and their carapaces changed to blue-green-purple after the feast. When Emperor's Scythes Chapter Master Sosila warned that a Hive Fleet Kraken splinter was approaching Sotha, Lin En immediately redirected his fleet to intercept it.

• Lin En ordered the Purple Carapace Chapter to attack and devour the deep-blue Tyranid fleet.
• The evolved Purple Carapace Chapter overwhelmed and consumed the splinter fleet, and its carapaces changed to blue-green-purple.
• Lin En asked Iron Hammer to prepare artificial pigment so he could try to create a rainbow-colored fleet.
• Sosila told Lin En that a Hive Fleet Kraken splinter was expected to reach Sotha in three days.
• Lin En ordered his fleet to head for Sotha and asked whether there were Greenskins nearby to clear out as well.

Lin En learned that the Kraken splinter fleet had fled from Sotha after sensing his fleet, so he pursued it toward the Eastern Fringe. On Terra, the Ecclesiarchy debated how to present his command of Tyranids and decided to ask for his instructions before canonizing him.

• Sosila told Lin En that the Kraken splinter fleet had turned away from Sotha and fled after detecting the Purple Carapace Chapter.
• Lin En set off with Phoros and the others to pursue the splinter fleet toward the Eastern Fringe, where Sosila warned that other Xenos were active.
• Guilliman told Sosila to let Lin En fight on his own, confident that he would not lose.
• The Ecclesiarch and the Cardinals debated Lin En's status and agreed to describe the Tyranids as the Emperor's Swarm in sermons.
• The Ecclesiarch decided the Ecclesiarchy would ask Lin En's opinion before proceeding with his canonization.

The Emperor's Swarm became a symbol of hope among Imperial citizens and soldiers, who believed Lin En's command of the Tyranids was the Emperor's blessing. When the Ecclesiarchy proposed canonizing Lin En as a Living Saint, he declined the ceremony but agreed to formal registration, and the pontiff defended his response.

• Missionaries preached that the Emperor had sent Lin En and the Emperor's Swarm to defend the Imperium, and worshippers praised the Emperor.
• Imperial soldiers discussed how the swarm might spare them from fighting and remembered those who had died before Lin En appeared.
• The Ecclesiarchy sent Lin En a document proposing his canonization as a Living Saint, while Iron Hammer tried to persuade him to approve a carapace design.
• Phoros and the others welcomed the proposal, but Lin En said he did not need the Ecclesiarchy's recognition or a formal ceremony.
• Lin En replied that the Ecclesiarchy could register him as a Living Saint without delaying military affairs.
• Some Ecclesiarchy members objected to Lin En's response, but the pontiff rebuked them and called Lin En a Living Saint who truly belonged to the Imperium.

The Ecclesiarchy formally canonized Lin En as a Living Saint without a ceremony while he continued leading the Tyranid swarm through the galaxy. Rear Admiral Claude’s navy followed behind to occupy the cleared worlds, and Claude reflected on how Lin En protected human lives.

• The Ecclesiarch ordered Lin En’s canonization documents distributed and the ceremony kept simple.
• A week later, Chaplains across the Imperium announced Lin En’s canonization and urged the faithful to pray for him.
• Lin En put the documents away, then told Phoros to list the Living Saint’s unprovided benefits for him to request later.
• Lin En led the swarm in clearing worlds, while the Imperial Navy followed to establish outposts and claim them for the Imperium.
• Rear Admiral Claude watched Tyranids destroy a Greenskin planet, then ordered his fleet to land and take control after the swarm moved on.
• As his marines established a garrison, Claude remembered the lives lost in earlier wars and recognized Lin En’s care for every human.

Lin En learned that the Pariah Nexus conflict was unfolding nearby and decided to intervene. He set out to save the Salamanders, Ultramarines, civilians, and Battle Sister Danica before the story’s tragic events could take place.

• Lin En enhanced Communication Link with the blue card Survive in Space, increasing its duration to four and a half minutes.
• Lin En asked Phoros how long it would take to reach the Nephilim Sector and settled down for a nap.
• The system told Lin En that the Pariah Nexus events were happening nearby, prompting him to jump up in alarm.
• Lin En recalled the Necrons’ Blackstone network and the battles on Paradis III, including Sa'kan’s crash and Danica’s fate.
• Lin En resolved to save Sa'kan, Danica, the surviving soldiers, the Ministorum Priest, and the children.

Lin En activated the livestream system function, which connected his view to twenty-first-century Warhammer fans. As he traveled toward the Napheli Sector, viewers mistook the Lamenters and the Night Goddess for a remarkably realistic game or fan-made video.

• The system offered Lin En a livestream that could connect with Warhammer fans, and he agreed to turn it on.
• Lin En decided not to contact his family through the stream because he feared drawing official attention and could not return home.
• Lin En asked Phoros how long remained until the Night Goddess reached the Napheli Sector, and Phoros estimated three hours.
• The livestream showed the Night Goddess's bridge and Phoros in master-crafted armor, prompting viewers to marvel at the Lamenters and assume they were watching a game or fan short.
• Viewers debated whether the stream followed a protagonist in first-person, while Lin En continued to act as though the comments were not there.

Lin En led the fleet into the Necron-controlled Napheli Sector and ordered all twelve Tyranid motherships to land on Paradise III. The Tyranids launched an assault on the Necrons, beginning a costly battle among the planet’s ruins.

• Lin En’s fleet entered the Napheli Sector, where Blackstone Arrays suppressed his psychic power and weakened Emperor’s Gaze.
• The fleet reached Paradise III, and Lin En ordered all twelve Tyranid motherships to land despite Phoros warning that they might not be able to retreat.
• Lin En commanded the Tyranids to attack every Necron activity signal on the ruined sanctuary world.
• The twelve motherships rooted themselves on Paradise III and released their Tyranid forces.
• The Tyranid swarm charged the Necron Warriors, whose Gauss Rifles cut down some attackers before the bugs overwhelmed one Warrior and sent it back for reassembly.

Lin En rejected a limited rescue and launched a full assault on the Necrons to free Paradis III and save its surviving population. His Tyranid swarm began tearing down Blackstone Obelisks and fighting Necron forces across the planet.

• The system told Lin En that the Necrons had crushed Paradis III’s defenses and deployed their Blackstone Array, but Sa'kan’s Thunderhawk had not yet crashed.
• Lin En chose to destroy Zeras, lift the planet’s stasis field, eliminate the Necron garrison, and rescue everyone still alive.
• Lin En ordered the Tyranids to destroy Blackstone Obelisks and Necron forces, storm tombs, and bring Zeras’s head to him.
• The Tyranid swarm attacked the Obelisks and Necron warriors, throwing the ground battlefield into chaos.
• The live commenters watched in disbelief as the Tyranids chased the Necrons and questioned whether Lin En would kill Zeras.

A Tyranid swarm swept past the trapped survivors in Sanctuary Cathedral and attacked the Necrons instead, giving them hope of rescue. Lin En then coordinated evacuations and empowered the Tyranids to withstand Necron fire as the battle continued.

• An Astra Militarum veteran, a Krieg soldier, a Salamanders Marine, wounded Battle Sisters, and civilians prepared to face approaching Necrons in the bunker.
• A huge Tyranid swarm charged past the bunker and overwhelmed the Necrons, sparing the survivors and prompting Laila’s mother to tell her they would live.
• Lin En received the survivors’ locations through the swarm and sent Transport Shuttles from the Night Goddess and the Mother of Tears to evacuate civilians and wounded people.
• Lin En went down to Paradis III and used Mass Healing Aura and Thirty Days on the Tyranids, allowing a Termagant to recover from a wound that would normally have killed it.