Recaps

Lorgar fought off a Chaos envoy who tried to obstruct the Divine Wrath in the Warp, then discovered the ship had been compromised and could no longer navigate safely. With the Navigator lost and the Warp Engine locked, he wrapped the warship in his psychic power and drove it into the heart of a violent Warp storm in search of escape.

• Lorgar raised a golden psychic shield against a deep-blue surge, but the attack shattered it and froze the Bridge in time.
• A blue-robed old man appeared and warned Lorgar that the Lord of Change did not want him to interrupt the ordained script; Lorgar attacked him and formed a psychic isolation layer around the Divine Wrath.
• After the stasis ended, Lorgar found the Navigator corrupted by deep-blue psychic energy and killed him with a single blow to prevent him from becoming a beacon in the Warp.
• Lorgar ordered the crew to leave the Warp, but an officer reported that the Navigator array had collapsed and the Warp Engine was locked.
• Lorgar enveloped the Divine Wrath in golden psychic energy and directed its engines into the most violent Warp turbulence.

Lorgar forced the damaged Sacred Fury through the Warp and emerged near Terra, exhausted and uncertain of his location. Adeptus Custodes accused him of abandoning the front to aid the traitor Saladin, but the Emperor ordered them to bring Lorgar to Terra, and he agreed to go.

• Lorgar used his psychic power to open a passage through the Warp and drove the Sacred Fury toward a tear leading to realspace.
• The Sacred Fury burst out near the Segmentum Solar, badly damaged, and Lorgar struggled to determine where the ship had arrived.
• Adeptus Custodes appeared on the Bridge and accused Lorgar of leaving the front lines and possibly acting at Saladin's direction.
• Seras drew his weapons and defended Lorgar, insisting that his father would never betray the Emperor or humanity.
• After receiving the Emperor's command to bring Lorgar to Terra, the Captain-General identified their location near the planet, and Lorgar told the Custodes to lead the way.

Lorgar returned to Terra after nine months lost in the Warp and learned that Saladin and much of the Second Legion had betrayed the Imperium alongside the Rangdan Xenos. The Emperor entrusted Lorgar with a sealed anti-psychic Cross and sent him to the Rangdan front to confront his brother.

• Lorgar was escorted through a locked-down Imperial Palace, where he saw Imperial Fists warships and the Phalanx sealing off Terra.
• Lorgar met the Emperor and Malcador in the Emperor's private laboratories and demanded to know what had happened.
• The Emperor told Lorgar that Saladin and more than half of the Second Legion had joined the Rangdan Xenos and turned against the Imperium.
• Malcador revealed that nine months, nine days, and nine hours had passed in realspace while Lorgar was lost in the Warp.
• The Emperor had black-and-gold Custodians retrieve a blood-covered, chained Cross from a sealed passage and explained its anti-psychic powers.
• The Emperor ordered Lorgar to take the Cross to the Rangdan front and face Saladin's rebellion.

Saladin prepared the Second Legion to join the Dark Angels in destroying a planet-sized Rangdan space station, while warning his commanders against human arrogance and oppression. As the fleet advanced, a strange whisper briefly suggested that humanity's blades might eventually turn against one another.

• Saladin reviewed the Second Legion as its hundred thousand warriors prepared to depart, with Captain Saolis and the Word Bearers observing.
• Saladin led the expedition fleet toward a rendezvous with the Dark Angels to attack a major Rangdan command station.
• Saladin rejected Takidin's praise and urged his commanders to remain humble, condemning humanity's capacity to oppress and destroy its own kind.
• Saladin expressed eagerness to fight Rangdan commanders, then heard a strange whisper questioning what humanity would do when its external enemies were gone.
• Saladin dismissed the brief disturbance and refocused on the station, though the whisper left a faint shadow in his mind.

Saladin oversaw the assault on the Rangdan Planetary Construct, where Legion forces fought through its defenses. After seeing the Luna Wolves use Imperialis Militia as expendable bait, he decided to descend to the battlefield and end the battle himself.

• Gokbuli led the Second Legion’s boarding assault into the Planetary Construct and pushed his warriors toward its core.
• The Dark Angels launched a slower, heavily armed assault on the construct from another direction.
• Saladin saw Moseng’s Luna Wolves squad drive Imperialis Militia into enemy fire to expose Rangdan positions, then attack through the resulting crossfire.
• Saladin confronted Moseng over the militia’s deaths, smashed the command console in anger, and ordered Takidin to prepare a transport ship.
• Saladin left the Bridge to join the battle and bring the war to an end himself.

Saladin led the Primarch Guard through the Planetary Construct, cutting down Rangdan forces as he advanced. Visions of human victims began appearing among the alien dead, but he dismissed them as psychic tricks and charged toward a Rangdan command node.

• Saladin and Takidin led fewer than a hundred Primarch Guard members into battle against thousands of Rangdan Soldiers.
• The Primarch Guard’s shields, scimitars, and protective cloaks helped them withstand enemy fire as they carved through the Rangdan ranks.
• Saladin killed an Overlord-class warrior, then briefly saw its corpse as a bloodied human in Power Armour before the vision vanished.
• As Saladin continued fighting, Rangdan corpses seemed to turn into wounded or dying Mortals, and he insisted the images were hallucinations caused by Xenos psychic attacks.
• Saladin shouted at the Rangdan for tampering with his mind and charged toward the enemy’s densest concentration of fire near a command node.

Saladin charged through the Rangdan construct with Saolis and the Word Bearers close behind, but he vanished after entering a silent chamber where an unseen force grievously wounded Saolis. Takidin and the Primarch Guard reached the chamber and found three unusually powerful Rangdan Overlords waiting in the darkness.

• Saladin carved through the Rangdan forces, while Saolis and the Word Bearers followed and fought their way through the passages.
• Saolis noticed Saladin's rage seemed close to slipping out of control and hurried after him around a damaged junction.
• Saolis entered a silent, empty chamber and lost contact with Saladin; an unseen attacker struck him and hurled him into a support pillar.
• Takidin and the Primarch Guard arrived, and Saolis told them that Saladin had vanished and something powerful had attacked him.
• Three heavily armed, purple-armoured Rangdan Overlords emerged from the darkness as Takidin, the guards, and the wounded Saolis prepared to fight.

Saladin cautiously followed a silent passage through a strange, increasingly alien section of the facility and entered a vast hall. He confronted three heavily armored Rangdan figures, and battle was about to begin.

• Saladin noticed that the sounds of the battle and his companions had vanished, then advanced cautiously through the unnaturally quiet corridor.
• Saladin cut through a series of bulkhead doors as the passage changed into a dark space covered in strange patterns.
• Saladin found an enormous silver gate and watched it open as he reached toward it.
• Saladin crossed the threshold and discovered three imposing Rangdan-armored figures waiting in a dim hall.
• Saladin raised his scimitar into a combat stance and called the figures xenos.

Saolis fought a Rangdan Overlord whose Shock Lance severely mangled his left arm, then killed it by shooting its Helmet with a Plasma Pistol and forcing it onto its own weapon. He turned to Takidin’s ongoing battle and urged him to finish quickly.

• Saolis struggled to defend himself against the Rangdan Overlord’s powerful Shock Lance and sustained a devastating injury to his left arm.
• Takidin offered Saolis help while leading ten members of the Primarch Guard against two other Rangdan Overlords, but Saolis refused.
• The Rangdan Overlord charged, and Saolis drew his Plasma Pistol and shattered its energy shield and Helmet with a shot.
• Saolis seized the Overlord’s lance-bearing arm, threw it forward, and impaled it on its own Shock Lance.
• Saolis retrieved his Power Sword, turned toward Takidin’s fight, and told him to pick up the pace.

Takidin and the Primarch Guard fought two Rangdan Overlords, but the aliens injected an unknown substance and killed three guardsmen before the Ironwing arrived and destroyed them. After Saolis helped stop the second Overlord, Takidin thanked him for saving his life.

• Takidin and the guardsmen coordinated their attacks and destroyed both Overlords’ arm-shield generators.
• The Overlords swallowed an unknown substance that greatly increased their speed and strength, and the spear-wielder killed three guardsmen.
• The Ironwing arrived with Contemptor Dreadnoughts and heavy weapons, blasting the spear-wielding Overlord.
• Saolis hurled a Shock Lance into the blade-wielding Overlord’s knee, letting the Ironwing’s fire finish it off.
• Takidin mourned the fallen guardsmen and thanked Saolis for his help.

Saolis and the survivors found Saladin unconscious beside the corpses of three Rangdan Warmasters and evacuated him to the Soul of the Sea of Sand for urgent treatment. As Saladin’s condition remained uncertain, Biberus suspended offensive operations, while Saolis reported the incident to Rockefeller and vowed to continue the Primarch’s mission.

• Saolis, Takidin, and the surviving guards found Saladin in a coma beside three dead Rangdan Warmasters and carefully carried him away.
• Takidin ordered the group to withdraw and establish a defensive perimeter without noticing that the Warmasters’ heads had apparently burst from within.
• Apothecaries, Archmagos, and human physicians began treating Saladin on the Soul of the Sea of Sand’s medical deck.
• Biberus ordered the Fleet to hold its position, withdraw landing forces, and suspend offensive operations indefinitely while Saladin’s condition remained uncertain.
• Saolis reported the incident to Rockefeller and swore to complete the Primarch’s mission.

Rockefeller received Lorgar’s curt order to remain vigilant after reporting Saladin’s injury, while an ominous presence seemed to haunt the communication. A week later Saladin awakened, but greeted his sons with chilling detachment and demanded a report on the Great Crusade.

• Rockefeller reported Saladin’s grave injuries to Lorgar, who ordered him to remain vigilant before the connection ended with a faint malicious chuckle and blasphemous buzzing.
• For a week, Apothecaries, an Archmagos, and physicians watched over Saladin as he remained unconscious aboard the Sand Sea Throne.
• Saladin’s vital signs surged and then rapidly returned to baseline, and he woke with a cold, bewildered gaze.
• Biberus and five Great Company Commanders came to Saladin’s quarters and knelt before their awakened Gene-Father.
• Saladin showed no warmth toward the commanders and asked them to report on the Great Crusade’s progress.

Saladin ordered the Second Legion to resume the Great Crusade despite Biberus's concerns, claiming he had received a revelation that the enemy was weakening. After struggling against conflicting voices in his mind, he discovered that he had killed more than twenty attendants during a violent hallucination, and was left horrified by what he had done.

• Saladin ordered the Second Legion to resume its advance and rebuked Biberus for questioning him.
• Abdullah praised Saladin and volunteered the Fourth Company as the vanguard, while Saladin ordered a message sent to Lion El'Jonson.
• Saolis listened outside the chamber and sensed fanaticism in Saladin's changed words.
• Saladin entered meditation and struggled against two conflicting voices that fought over his loyalty to the Emperor.
• Saladin hallucinated a battle with sand jackals and slaughtered them with his bare hands.
• Saladin realized he had killed more than twenty attendants, including his trusted maid, and stared in shock at the blood on his hands.

After Saladin was found kneeling among the bodies of more than twenty attendants, the Second Legion's leaders argued over whether his behavior had changed and how they should respond. Biberus condemned the killing and challenged Abdullah, leaving the brothers on the brink of drawing weapons.

• Primarch Guard members found Saladin kneeling in a pool of blood among more than twenty dead attendants, and Takidin sealed the chamber and suppressed news of the incident.
• Biberus told the Second Legion's company commanders that Saladin had shut himself away in the innermost meditation chamber and that the incident had to remain secret.
• Abdullah dismissed the deaths and argued that Saladin needed time to recover, while Biberus said their father had changed since waking from his injuries.
• Abdullah defended Saladin's killing of the attendants as a worthwhile sacrifice, and Biberus accused him of abandoning Saladin's teachings about protecting Mortal lives.
• Biberus gripped his Power Scimitar and threatened Abdullah, who reached for his weapon as the other commanders watched the confrontation escalate.

Saladin wrestled with conflicting voices in the Meditation Chamber as one persuaded him that the Emperor’s Imperium was built on conquest and urged him to ally with the Rangdan Federation. The chapter left him being asked to prepare a convincing pledge of allegiance and prove his resolve with a victory.

• Saladin hid in the Meditation Chamber, tormented by hallucinations and voices condemning his loss of control.
• A voice defended the Rangdan and questioned the Emperor’s claims that humanity’s war against xenos was salvation.
• Saladin asked what he should do and whom he should trust.
• The voice dismissed his brothers as unsuitable allies and named the Rangdan Federation as the power that could share his vision.
• The voice urged Saladin to prepare a convincing pledge of allegiance and win a glorious victory for the Rangdan.

Saladin returned to the commanders’ meeting and punished Biberus for intending to draw his blade against Abdullah, relieving him of command and ordering an isolated investigation. He then redirected the Legion toward coordinating with Lion El’Jonson to attack the Rangdan Empire’s heartland.

• Saladin acknowledged his lapse in conduct and ordered the commanders not to let it divide the Legion.
• Saladin questioned Biberus, who admitted he had intended to use force against Abdullah.
• Saladin relieved Biberus of his duties as Lord Commander of the Second Legion and ordered him confined under investigation; Biberus surrendered his Power Scimitar and accepted the ruling.
• Saladin declared that brothers-in-arms must never take up arms against one another, and the remaining commanders agreed.
• Saladin ordered the Legion to contact Lion El’Jonson and plan a decisive assault on the Rangdan Empire’s heartland, prompting the commanders to renew their battle cry.

Craston confronted Biberus in the Detention Cell and insisted that Biberus's suspicions about Saladin lacked evidence. After Saolis reported Biberus's dismissal, Rockefeller suspected that communications impersonating Lorgar and the upheaval in the Second Legion were connected, and chose to investigate while maintaining the Word Bearers' mission.

• Craston visited Biberus in the Detention Cell and challenged his accusations against Saladin, while Biberus continued to believe something was wrong with their father.
• Rockefeller noticed that his recent communications with Lorgar felt unnatural, then received Saolis's report that Saladin had disarmed and confined Biberus.
• Saolis told Rockefeller that Biberus had challenged Saladin's condition and orders, and that Saladin's treatment of mortal attendants had seemed abnormal.
• Rockefeller suspected that an unknown force had intercepted or simulated his communications with Lorgar and might be manipulating events within the Second Legion.
• Rockefeller chose to preserve the Word Bearers' mission, told Saolis to keep observing the Second Legion, and promised to address the compromised communications.

Rockefeller told Angron that Lorgar was unreachable and that events involving Saladin might be connected, provoking Angron to take up his axe and march to kill him. Rockefeller reminded Angron of Lorgar’s orders, stopping the Primarch just before Curze arrived.

• Rockefeller reported Lorgar’s lost communications and linked them to Saladin’s abnormal awakening, an attendant’s death, and Biberus’s confinement.
• Angron concluded that Saladin might be behind Lorgar’s disappearance, seized his Power Axe, and set out to kill him.
• Rockefeller and dozens of Word Bearers and War Hounds officers clung to Angron and pleaded with him to stop.
• Rockefeller reminded Angron that Lorgar had ordered them to coordinate, observe, and report, and Angron lowered his axe and halted.
• A herald informed Rockefeller that Curze had arrived.

Konrad Curze arrived seeking Lorgar and proudly showed off his human-skin cloak and Night Lords Legion. When he learned Lorgar was absent and heard Angron shout Saladin's name, Curze calmly vowed to find Saladin and make his skin into a gift for Lorgar, leaving Rockefeller fearing war.

• Konrad Curze entered the reception room and said he had come to show Lorgar his cloak and Legion.
• Curze asked where Lorgar was, and Angron erupted in fury at the mention of Saladin.
• Sevatar, Khârn, Hercules, and the Night Lords officers rushed to restrain Angron.
• Curze studied the chaos, then said he would find Saladin and peel off his skin to make Lorgar a gift.
• Rockefeller watched Angron and Curze and feared their presence meant all-out war.

Angron proposed a convoluted plan to deceive Saladin and strike when the time was right, though Curze and the others struggled to understand it. Meanwhile, Saolis secretly informed Biberus that Lorgar was missing and recruited his loyalists for a future operation.

• Angron calmed down and proposed pretending to support Saladin while stirring internal unrest before striking him and searching for Lorgar.
• Curze told Angron to rest and said he would send men to watch Saladin.
• Saolis used Galaka’s maintenance access to secretly visit Biberus in the detention area.
• Saolis told Biberus that Lorgar was missing and that Saladin’s recent change might be connected to intercepted or spoofed communications.
• Biberus identified about two hundred trusted loyalists who could assemble quickly, and Saolis instructed him to await an encrypted signal.

Saladin questioned Craston about his loyalty and his assessment of Biberus, then claimed Biberus might have been psychically corrupted by the Rangdan. He appointed Craston acting Lord Commander of the Second Legion and ordered him to find and detain Biberus’s remaining supporters, leaving Craston to carry out the task.

• Saladin asked Craston whether he could trust him, and Craston pledged to obey while seeking the truth when needed.
• Craston described Biberus as impulsive but loyal to Saladin, the Legion, and the Imperium.
• Saladin suggested the Rangdan might have secretly controlled Biberus and presented his isolation as protection and investigation.
• Saladin appointed Craston acting Lord Commander of the Second Legion and ordered him to secretly identify and detain Biberus’s remaining adherents, using force if necessary.
• Craston accepted the appointment and promised to eliminate hidden threats and ensure the Legion’s unity.

Craston freed Biberus from torture and secretly arranged his escape aboard the transport ship Remembrance of Ashes so he could seek help from allied Legions and expose his suspicions about Saladin. Biberus left the fleet, while Craston remained behind and erased him from the Second Legion’s official records.

• Craston entered Biberus’s cell, destroyed the searchlights, and told him that the Primarch wanted him alive.
• Biberus accused Saladin of purging dissenters, but Craston defended their father before sparing him and cutting his chains.
• Craston told Biberus to seize the Remembrance of Ashes and seek help from the Word Bearers or another allied force, despite learning that Lorgar was missing.
• Craston placed Magnetic Manacles on Biberus and escorted him to the transport ship, explaining that he would be struck from the Legion’s records as a suspected traitor.
• Biberus asked if they would meet again, and Craston said he hoped so before sending him aboard with two Honour Guards.
• Craston watched the Remembrance of Ashes depart into the void, then returned alone.

Craston reported that 507 Legion members tied to Biberus or showing signs of instability had been detained and transferred to the Remembrance of Ashes. Saladin ordered Company Captain Dirham to oversee them, then prepared the Legion to join the Dark Angels in an assault on Bloodscab.

• Craston reported the detainees' transfer to the Remembrance of Ashes and described its remote containment measures.
• Abdullah warned Saladin that concentrating the detainees aboard one ship was risky and proposed sending an oversight detachment.
• Craston recommended Company Captain Dirham, and Saladin ordered Abdullah to send Dirham and dependable men aboard the Remembrance of Ashes.
• Saladin announced that the Sons of the Yellow Sands would join Lion El'Jonson's Dark Angels in attacking Bloodscab and capturing the Rangdan command center.
• Craston, Abdullah, and the other commanders pledged themselves to the Emperor and the Legion.

Isas descended onto Bloodscab with the Dark Angels and joined the assault against the Rangdan defenses. After witnessing a Lunar-class Cruiser crash and devastate a mountain range, he charged into a Rangdan position and cut through its infantry.

• Rangdan antiaircraft fire struck the descending Drop Pods and brought down a Lunar-class Cruiser, whose crash created a vast molten crater.
• Isas survived the Drop Pod landing and emerged as Dark Angels vehicles and Imperialis Militia forces attacked the Rangdan defenses.
• Isas led his squad toward a Rangdan rallying point, evading incoming fire and deflecting an energy beam with his greatsword.
• Isas entered the Rangdan infantry position and killed the soldiers around him with a series of precise greatsword strikes.

Major General Doram survived a disastrous landing under overwhelming xenos fire and was dragged into a frontline command bunker. There, a furious surviving general gave him command of a guard platoon and ordered him to assault an enemy mortar position in sector B-7.

• Doram’s Landing Craft crashed onto the battlefield, and enemy fire slaughtered soldiers as they tried to escape.
• Doram crawled toward cover, watched a beam kill the accompanying chaplain, and was pulled into a trench by an unknown soldier.
• Two soldiers dragged Doram into a bunker, where the only surviving general cursed headquarters over the landing’s catastrophic losses and destroyed his communicator.
• The general recognized Doram, handed him a Lasgun, and placed his guard platoon under Doram’s command.
• The general ordered Doram to form up within a minute and assault the alloy ruins in sector B-7 to take or distract an enemy mortar position.