Recaps

Mortarion fought the Khrave Progenitor aboard the Bridge, but its Warp energy defeated his attacks and repelled the Death Guard’s weapons. As Mortarion prepared another charge after his warriors killed the ordinary Khrave, four more mummified figures appeared before him.

• Mortarion charged the Khrave Progenitor, but ordinary Khrave restrained him while the Progenitor blasted him into the Bridge’s bulkhead with Warp energy.
• Calas Typhon, Garro, and the Death Guard opened fire, but the Progenitor’s psychic field deflected or destroyed their attacks.
• Mortarion recovered and charged again as wounded Khrave tried to seize Silence; he crushed one and snapped another’s neck.
• Garro and Calas led the Death Guard in killing the remaining ordinary Khrave, leaving Mortarion facing the Progenitor alone.
• Four figures resembling the Progenitor appeared in a semicircle before Mortarion as he prepared another charge.

Mortarion resisted a psychic assault by four Khrave Primals and destroyed the one that breached his mental world. He remained badly wounded and kneeling as the three surviving attackers continued to face him.

• The leading Khrave Primal attacked Mortarion's mind, and three others joined it to overwhelm his defenses.
• One Primal sent a fragment of its consciousness into Mortarion's mental world, a wasteland filled with Toxic Miasma.
• Mortarion's will took shape in the miasma and crushed the invading fragment.
• The controlling Primal's head burst apart, and its body collapsed as the surviving Primals' psychic assault faltered.
• Mortarion fell to one knee, bleeding and weakened, while the four remaining Khrave Primals faced him.

Lorgar and Hercules arrived on the Bridge just in time to shield Mortarion and the Death Guard from the Khrave Progenitors’ psychic attack. Lorgar unleashed his healing psychic power and prepared to face the Progenitors alongside Hercules.

• Garro and Calas Typhon urged Mortarion to withdraw, but Mortarion refused, warning that leaving would doom his defenders, and ordered the Legion to prepare for battle.
• The four Khrave Progenitors fired converging beams of Warp energy at Mortarion and his defenders, but a golden psychic barrier blocked the attack.
• Lorgar and Hercules appeared behind the barrier, and Lorgar checked that Mortarion was still alive.
• Lorgar challenged the Progenitors, unleashed golden psychic energy that healed wounded Death Guard and militia soldiers, and declared that he and Hercules would fight them.
• Hercules reacted with surprise when Lorgar named him as one of the opponents.

Lorgar empowered Hercules with Golden Psychic Energy and sent him to kill one of the Khrave Progenitors. Hercules overcame its psychic attacks and repeated teleports, then destroyed it with a final sword strike.

• Lorgar wrapped Hercules in golden psychic armour that awakened his dormant strength and ordered him to attack a weakened Khrave Progenitor.
• Hercules charged and struck at the Progenitor, missing it but cleaving through the Bridge deck and Central Tactical Control Console.
• The Progenitor repeatedly teleported to evade Hercules, but Lorgar's psychic radiance hindered its movements and drained its reserves.
• Cornered, the Progenitor launched a final black-purple psychic attack, which Hercules's armour reflected back and used to disable it.
• Hercules split the immobilized Progenitor in two with his greatsword, then looked toward Lorgar in disbelief.

Hercules tested his new strength as Lorgar faced the three remaining Khrave Progenitors, but Angron’s arrival and the destruction of the Khrave fleet shifted the battle. Angron charged the Progenitors and wounded two of them in a fierce opening exchange.

• Hercules marveled at his power after cleaving the Khrave Progenitor, and Lorgar warned him not to get ahead of himself.
• Lorgar challenged the three remaining Khrave Progenitors to attack him together or one at a time.
• An explosion revealed that Angron and the War Hounds had destroyed the Khrave fleet and cut off the Progenitors’ escape.
• Angron burst into the Bridge and charged the three Progenitors with his Chainaxes.
• Angron shredded one Progenitor’s arm, knocked another aside, and drove his axe into the third, hurling it into a bulkhead.

Lorgar destroyed the three remaining Khrave Progenitors on the Endurance’s Bridge, ending their assault. With all five Progenitors annihilated, the golden psychic power around Lorgar began to recede.

• The three remaining Progenitors charged Lorgar, who stopped them with a burst of Golden Psychic Energy.
• Lorgar killed one Progenitor by crushing its head with his Flail.
• Lorgar shattered another Progenitor’s face with his Mace, killing it.
• The Progenitor leader began gathering energy to detonate itself, but Lorgar struck both sides of its head with his Flail and Mace before it could attack.
• The leader fell, all five Khrave Progenitors were annihilated, and Lorgar’s golden psychic radiance began to fade.

After the Khrave Progenitors were defeated, Mortarion acknowledged that he owed Lorgar a favor, while Angron’s loyalty led him to imagine Lorgar taking the Golden Throne. Lorgar rejected the idea and ordered Angron to focus on the cleanup and repairs aboard the Endurance.

• Mortarion told Lorgar that he owed him a favor, then left for the damaged Command Center.
• Angron returned and mocked Mortarion’s blunt acknowledgment as posing.
• Angron privately resolved to support Lorgar if he ever sought the Golden Throne, while Lorgar rejected the idea of rebelling.
• Angron mistook Lorgar’s warning to stop imagining things for a plan to lie low and build strength.
• Lorgar asked what Angron had been reading, then ordered him to clear the battlefield, count casualties, and prepare repairs to the Endurance.

On the Forge World of Shina, Major Leki’s battle group endured shortages and Rangdan attacks while holding a ruined defensive line. After Legion Command ordered a strategic withdrawal into the Inner City, Leki chose to obey, and Solas reluctantly accepted the order.

• A Recruit asked Leki whether Rangdan auxiliary corpses could be eaten, and Leki answered by shooting three scavenging xenos with his Lasgun.
• Leki reflected on how his depleted battle group had gathered scattered survivors and held the line after a supply convoy brought weapons and ammunition.
• Legion Command ordered the 13th Armoured Grenadier Regiment to assemble and withdraw to the Inner City within thirty minutes.
• Solas angrily protested the retreat order, but a higher-ranking officer explained that the front was conducting a strategic retrenchment.
• Leki told the soldiers to follow orders, and Solas saluted and agreed.

Major Leki watched the defeated Imperial forces retreat into Pascal Hive City and noticed a remarkably disciplined Penal Legion among them. The skull-marked unit marched into the city, leaving Leki intrigued and wary.

• Millions of retreating Imperial militia troops entered Pascal Hive City as its residents watched in silence and Adeptus Arbites officers maintained order.
• Young recruits inside Major Leki's Chimera gaped at the hive's towering industrial buildings until a veteran ordered them to prepare their weapons.
• A thousand soldiers of the Colchis Auxiliary Army's Penal Legion joined the retreating column, marching in perfect order with well-maintained weapons and white skull insignia.
• A lieutenant colonel berated his demoralized regular soldiers by comparing their discipline unfavorably with the Penal Legion.
• Major Leki examined the skull-marked troops, recognized their toughness and rigorous discipline, and grew interested in them as his Chimera moved on.

Chapter Master Korolia led forty-seven Raven Guard in a stealth assault on a Rangdan Overlord controlling enthralled civilians in Ska Hive City’s industrial waste zone. After Korolia killed the Overlord, the Raven Guard launched a coordinated attack on the Rangdan forces.

• Korolia and forty-six Raven Guard infiltrated the waste zone and surrounded the Rangdan Overlord without alerting its guards.
• Korolia rushed the Overlord and cut through the psychic nerve bundle at the back of its neck with his Power Gladius.
• Korolia ordered the Raven Guard to leave none alive, and they emerged from hiding to attack the Rangdan guards.
• Raven Guard snipers, knife throwers, and assault warriors struck the Rangdan forces from multiple angles.

General Sechter assigned Colonel Warren Heinrich and the 103rd “Skulls” Penal Infantry Regiment to defend Pascal Hive City’s District 28 against an expected Rangdan assault. After reading the regiment’s brutal battle record, Sechter wondered how a unit repeatedly destroyed and replenished had become so effective.

• Warren reported that the regiment’s personnel committed to battle had amounted to 507 percent of its original strength, while its subordinate officers had been replaced five times.
• Sechter ordered Warren and the Skulls Regiment to hold District 28, a difficult position expected to face a major Rangdan attack, without retreating unless ordered.
• Warren accepted the assignment without requesting reinforcements or equipment and left to prepare his regiment.
• Sechter reviewed records of the regiment’s costly actions at Noras Gate, Bes, Kara Canyon, Enns Heights, and the outskirts of Pascal.
• After reading that the regiment had repeatedly returned to battle despite catastrophic losses, Sechter wondered why it fought so effectively.

Warren watched the 103rd "Skulls" Regiment draw strength from faith, supplies, and the belief that their deaths made them needed. After ordering a five-hour rest, he prepared them to advance toward District 28, which the soldiers eagerly saw as a chance to earn glory.

• A chaplain led the gathered Skulls in fervent chants praising Lorgar and calling for the extermination of xenos.
• Warren watched the regiment and understood that its soldiers were driven by the feeling that they were needed and valued.
• Warren arrived before the soldiers, who fell silent and opened a path for him.
• Warren ordered the regiment to rest for five hours, check its equipment, and assemble to advance toward District 28.
• The soldiers ate, prepared their weapons, and eagerly discussed the dangers and honors awaiting them in District 28.

Leki watched the 103rd "Skulls" Penal Infantry Regiment march through the Hive City toward the battlefront, led by Colonel Warren Heinrich and an Emperor's Blade bearing the words "Sacrifice is honor." The regiment disappeared toward a deadly defensive sector as Leki and the other soldiers understood that its members faced another near-suicidal assignment.

• Leki saw signs that the Imperial Fleet's battle against the Rangdan Xenos had eased and recalled hearing that the Word Bearers were approaching as reinforcements.
• The 103rd "Skulls" Penal Infantry Regiment marched in disciplined formation through the street, with an Emperor's Blade super-heavy tank at its head.
• Soldiers and residents watched the regiment pass, while an auxiliary soldier dismissed the penal troops as animals and cannon fodder.
• Colonel Warren Heinrich briefly met Leki's gaze before turning forward, and both men recognized the divide between their units and their shared need to fight.
• Leki and the other soldiers watched the Skulls regiment head toward District 28 or another deadly defensive sector.

Warren Heinrich’s Skulls Regiment repelled a Rangdan Elite infiltration attack inside its maze-like defenses. Warren’s suicide squad drew the surviving attackers close before he detonated their explosives, and he prepared the regiment for another assault.

• Rangdan Elite infiltrators appeared inside the Skulls Regiment’s forward line, where prepared defenses and concentrated fire killed several and drove the rest into a trapped labyrinth.
• Warren Heinrich led his guard platoon against the infiltrators’ flank and rear as the regiment sealed their escape routes and attacked from multiple positions.
• A dozen surviving Rangdan Elite destroyed several Tarantula turrets and charged through the gap, where Warren’s volunteer suicide squad rushed them with shotguns and explosives.
• The Rangdan Elite killed the charging volunteers, but Warren remotely detonated the bombs strapped to them and obliterated the attackers in the passage.
• Warren ordered his soldiers to clear the passage, restore the automated turrets, and prepare for another wave.

Warren Heinrich ordered every available soldier into the defense as a Rangdan-led tide of controlled Mortals attacked the Skulls Regiment. The Regiment’s Hydra guns devastated the attackers, but a Rangdan Overlord’s gravity weapon crushed several defenders, and Warren called for it to be destroyed.

• Warren ordered all personnel who could carry a gun to join the frontline and sent a final request for support to Hive City command.
• The Mortals struck the minefield, where explosions killed thousands but failed to stop their advance.
• Warren held back the Tarantula turrets and brought three modified Hydra gun turrets into position.
• The Hydra guns shredded the packed attackers and forced Rangdan Elites to take cover.
• A Rangdan Overlord fired a gravity weapon that crushed a barricade and the Skulls Regiment soldiers behind it.
• Warren identified the gravity generator as a priority target and ordered the Regiment to concentrate fire on it.

Colonel Warren Heinrich ordered the Emperor's Blade, Siegfried, to attack the Rangdan Overlord, but its first shell failed to break his psychic shield. With the Overlord preparing to destroy the charging tank, Siegfried closed to point-blank range with its cannon aimed at him.

• Warren ordered the gunner to fire at the Rangdan Overlord, but the Overlord dodged and emerged unharmed from the explosion.
• As the Overlord moved for cover, Warren ordered Siegfried to charge him while the gunner prepared another shot.
• A concealed Leman Russ struck the Overlord's shield twice, disrupting his aim and weakening the shield.
• The Overlord turned his Gravity Emitter on the Leman Russ and compressed the tank and its crew into a sheet of iron.
• Siegfried charged within a hundred meters and leveled its cannon at the Overlord at close range.

Colonel Warren killed a Rangdan Overlord, but enemy fire disabled his Tank and left him exposed to two Rangdan Soldiers. After a Skull Regiment missile saved him from a lethal strike, he escaped behind their cover and taunted the surviving attackers.

• Warren's shot shattered a Rangdan Overlord's shield and killed it, but a plasma beam struck the Emperor's Blade and forced him out of the crippled Tank.
• Two Rangdan Soldiers advanced on Warren, whose Bolt Pistol fire failed to penetrate their armor.
• Warren drew his combat Dagger and charged one Rangdan Soldier as it prepared to strike with a Power Sword.
• A missile from the Skull Regiment hit the Rangdan Soldier, and Warren abandoned his attack to run for cover.
• Warren dodged a plasma beam with a slide and roll, reached the Skull Regiment's cover, and shouted for the Rangdan Soldiers to come get him.

The remaining Rangdan Overlord launched its elite warriors in a lethal assault against Warren’s battered Skull Regiment, whose defensive fire was swiftly suppressed. Warren and his soldiers fought back with grenades and plasma weapons, killing one Rangdan Elite as the attack continued.

• The Rangdan Overlord sent more than thirty Rangdan Elites charging the Defense Line, and Warren ordered the Tarantula turrets activated and bayonets fixed.
• The Rangdan Elites picked off exposed soldiers with precise plasma shots while the Overlord destroyed the Tarantula turrets and silenced several heavy-weapon positions.
• Warren rallied his guard platoon to throw grenades and concentrate fire, while other squads added suppressing fire and drew the Rangdan Elites' attention.
• Four soldiers advanced with Plasma Guns and struck a Rangdan Elite, overloading its shield and melting through its armor.
• Skull Regiment soldiers hurled Plasma Grenades into the enemy ranks, and the explosions disintegrated the fallen Elite.

Rangdan Elites broke into the Skull Regiment’s left flank and slaughtered the soldiers defending it. A young soldier refused to retreat and attacked one of the xenos, but his knife broke and he clung to its armor as it raised a hand to strike.

• Warren learned that Rangdan Elites had breached the left flank and ordered nearby sectors to circle around while the rest held the line.
• Three or four Rangdan Elites charged into the trenches and killed the soldiers who attacked them at close quarters.
• A young Skull Regiment soldier remained standing after his comrades were killed and stabbed at a gap in a Rangdan Elite’s armor, but his knife snapped.
• The young soldier dropped the broken knife and wrapped his arms around the Rangdan Elite in a desperate attempt to restrain it.
• The Rangdan Elite regarded the soldier clinging to it and raised its armored hand.

Warren Heinrich rescued a young soldier by blasting the Rangdan Elite’s helmet and throwing a Plasma Grenade into the opening, allowing nearby Skull Regiment soldiers to kill it. He gave the shaken survivor a Lasgun and ordered him back into the fight, warning that the battle was not over.

• As the Rangdan Elite reached to kill the young soldier, Warren Heinrich charged from behind a barricade and shot its helmet at close range.
• Warren threw a Plasma Grenade into the damaged helmet, crippling the Rangdan Elite and knocking it to the ground.
• Warren ordered the nearby Skull Regiment soldiers to attack, and they repeatedly struck the creature’s exposed head until it stopped moving.
• Warren picked up a Lasgun and gave it to the shaken young soldier, who struggled to his feet.
• Warren told the young soldier to take up his weapon because everyone who could still fire was needed.

Ding Xiu led his White Scars squad against a Rangdan Overlord attacking the Skull Regiment’s position, but the Overlord killed every rider except him. The Overlord then withdrew, leaving twenty Rangdan Elite soldiers to surround Ding Xiu.

• Ding Xiu and his squad arrived at the Skull Regiment’s devastated defense line, where the Rangdan Overlord was slaughtering Mortals soldiers.
• Ding Xiu ordered his White Scars to attack the Overlord with Bolters, Hover Bikes, and Power Lances.
• The Overlord killed two White Scars warriors in its first counterattack, then slew the remaining riders as Ding Xiu searched for an opening.
• Ding Xiu was left alone among his fallen brothers while Rangdan forces attacked positions throughout Pascal Hive City.
• The Overlord abruptly withdrew, and twenty Rangdan Elite soldiers emerged to surround Ding Xiu and aim their weapons at him.

Ding Xiu fought twenty Rangdan Elites while Warren Heinrich and the Skull Regiment provided support, killing more than fifteen before the soldiers were wiped out and Ding Xiu was nearly incapacitated. The remaining five Rangdan abruptly withdrew, leaving Ding Xiu and the lone surviving Warren amid the battlefield; an author’s note explained that Angron’s arrival behind the Rangdan had prompted their retreat.

• Ding Xiu ordered Warren Heinrich and the surviving Skull Regiment soldiers to stay behind cover and provide supporting fire while he approached the twenty Rangdan Elites alone.
• The Rangdan Elites crippled Ding Xiu’s Hover Bike, but he escaped the crash, severed one Elite’s arm, blinded another with his Plasma Pistol, and killed the blinded warrior.
• Warren and the Skull Regiment disrupted the Rangdan with Laser fire, helping Ding Xiu kill a third Elite before concentrated enemy fire destroyed the soldiers’ cover and killed nearly all of them.
• Ding Xiu continued fighting among the ruins despite injuries, killing more Elites until he was badly wounded and surrounded by the last five.
• The final five Rangdan Elites abruptly turned and withdrew, leaving Ding Xiu alive among the dead; Warren Heinrich was the only other person still standing.
• The author noted that the Rangdan had retreated because the protagonist had brought Angron around to attack them from behind.

Lorgar’s fleet advanced toward Xana Forge World after a suspiciously easy breakthrough, while Lion El'Jonson warned that the Rangdan might be luring them into a trap. As the fleet arrived, it found Xana sealed inside an enormous blue spherical barrier.

• Lion El'Jonson told Lorgar that his fleet’s strike had eased pressure on the front and ordered him to rush to Xana Forge World.
• Lorgar questioned whether the Rangdan were truly as weak as their smooth advance suggested, and Lion agreed that the enemy’s intentions were concerning but insisted Xana had to be reinforced.
• Lion ordered Lorgar to remain cautious and maintain communications silence until their fleets rendezvoused at Xana.
• Lotara and Angron urgently summoned Lorgar, reporting an unexplained sight rather than an enemy fleet ahead.
• The Law of Faith emerged from its final warp jump and found Xana’s entire star system enclosed by a vast blue spherical barrier.

Lorgar summoned the Blackstone Fortress to break the psychic barrier around the Star System, but, unwilling to wait, he forced open a passage with his own power so Angron’s fleet could enter. After collapsing from the effort, Lorgar sensed a powerful enemy approaching as an immense warship appeared before him.

• Archmagos Grut reported that the Blackstone Fortress could move but its damaged Obelisk array was too unreliable to counter the barrier, so Lorgar ordered it activated and sent to his fleet.
• Lorgar unleashed golden psychic beams against the blue barrier, opening a temporary breach while the clash of energies formed a beacon in the Warp.
• Lorgar warned Angron that the passage would last no more than three minutes, and Angron led the Conqueror and the War Hounds fleet through at full speed.
• After the last Battleship crossed, Lorgar’s beams failed and he collapsed, bleeding and exhausted, while forbidding Hercules, Anastasia, and the others from approaching.
• Lorgar sensed a power comparable to one of his Primarch brothers and declared that the enemy had arrived as an immense warship appeared before him.

After sealing the breach that Angron had escaped through, Lorgar and the Combined Fleet confronted a fleet of grotesque Rangdan biomechanical warships emerging from the Void. Lorgar and Mortarion both sensed an imminent catastrophe, and their fleets prepared to destroy the intruders.

• Lorgar sealed the barrier behind Angron, then detected a massive hybrid of living flesh and machinery emerging nearby.
• Seras ordered the Combined Fleet to maximum combat readiness as the Death Guard fleet also activated its weapons and tightened formation.
• More biomechanical warships appeared alongside Rangdan vessels, and the fleet's identification systems marked them hostile.
• Lorgar felt a deep psychic unease while Mortarion's predictive model spiraled into warnings of imminent danger.
• Lorgar and Mortarion exchanged warnings over an encrypted channel, and Lorgar ordered that the enemy be destroyed.
• The Law of Faith, the Endurance, and the Combined Fleet aimed their weapons at the approaching Rangdan fleet.