Recaps

Lorgar and his squad fought off an ambush by Aeldari Striking Scorpions deep inside the Blackstone Fortress. After identifying the attackers, they learned that other forces were also seeking the fortress.

• As the squad advanced through the fortress, Lorgar sensed that something was watching them, and William Theras and Isas noticed his unease.
• More than a dozen Aeldari Striking Scorpions emerged from hidden passages and attacked Lorgar.
• Lorgar killed several attackers with his bare hands while Isas, William Theras, and the squad fought the ambush.
• The surviving attackers tried to flee, but Lorgar caught and killed one before identifying the enemy as Aeldari Striking Scorpions.
• Isas denounced the xenos, and reports of attacks on other squad members began arriving over the comms.

Sergeant Chris and his trapped Word Bearers and Imperial Army soldiers fought back against an Aeldari attack in a narrow passage. After killing two Rangers, they charged the Guardians, while the last Ranger remained pinned behind cover.

• Chris ordered Lais and Vesk to draw the Rangers' fire while Best, Northman, and Stetson prepared to shoot, and he told the Imperial Army lieutenant to suppress the Guardians.
• Chris exposed himself and killed three Guardians with precise Bolter fire, then took a Ranger's laser shot on his pauldron.
• Best shot and killed the Ranger who had fired at Chris.
• Chris ordered an all-out assault, and the Word Bearers and Imperial Army soldiers charged and exchanged fire with the Aeldari.
• Northman and Stetson killed another Ranger, while the last Ranger was pinned behind wreckage by the Word Bearers' fire.

An Eldar Warlock named Laman appeared behind Chris’s forces and slaughtered Best, Imperial Army soldiers, and three Word Bearers Warriors. Chris’s grenade failed to harm Laman, who stood unharmed as the surviving Aeldari Guardians bowed to him.

• Best sensed danger too late and was killed by Laman’s Witchblade, while Laman’s energy lash tore apart a group of Imperial Army soldiers.
• Laman deflected the Word Bearers Warriors’ Bolter barrage with his blade, then killed three of them in a rapid attack.
• Chris charged Laman with a Monomolecular Knife, but Laman disarmed and impaled him.
• As he died, Chris detonated a Frag Grenade against Laman, but Laman emerged from the smoke without a scratch.
• The surviving Aeldari Guardians emerged from cover and greeted Laman with awe and reverence.

Lorgar's forces and Warlock Laman's Aeldari fought to seize the Blackstone Fortress's Control Console. Isas began using a device to access it while Laman was pinned down by Dark Angels Swordmasters.

• Lorgar ordered his forces to tighten formation after learning that reconnaissance squads had vanished in Aeldari ambushes.
• Lorgar's force and Laman's Aeldari reached the Core Sanctum and found the fortress's central Control Console.
• Lorgar sent Isas and the Dark Angels to seize the console while Seras and the Word Bearers held off the Aeldari.
• Laman raced for the console as Aeldari warriors delayed Lorgar and the Word Bearers.
• Muller tried to stop Laman, but Laman deflected his strike before five Dark Angels Swordmasters surrounded him.
• Isas connected a black device to the console and began reading its data as the Dark Angels fought to keep Laman occupied.

While Isas worked to claim the fortress core, a Warp Spider ambushed the Dark Angels and helped Raman escape their sword formation. Isas evaded the Warp Spider’s attack and vaporized the Aeldari warrior with his Plasma Pistol.

• Isas left five Dark Angels swordmasters to contain Raman and focused on accessing the control console.
• A Warp Spider severed a Cataphractii Terminator’s arm with monofilament, and Raman escaped the swordmasters’ formation and killed the wounded warrior.
• The Warp Spider aimed another monofilament shot at Isas, but Isas sidestepped the attack and turned to face the ambusher.
• Isas fired his Plasma Pistol and vaporized the Warp Spider on the ceiling.

Lorgar massacred the Aeldari defenders in the outer hall and rushed into the control room to aid Muller. He killed Aheduo and stopped Laman from reaching the Control Console, leaving the Blackstone Fortress out of Laman’s hands.

• Lorgar smashed through the Aeldari Guardians, Rangers, Striking Scorpions, and Howling Banshees in the outer hall.
• After clearing the hall, Lorgar called for Rass to hold the defenders and charged toward the Control Console.
• Laman called Aheduo for help, and the Striking Scorpion Priest ambushed a Dark Angels warrior before attacking Muller.
• Lorgar arrived and killed Aheduo with one blow from his Warhammer.
• Laman lunged toward the Control Console, but Lorgar seized his ankle and hurled him into a wall, killing him.

After claiming the Blackstone Fortress, Lorgar left its repair and defense to his forces and departed with Seras to find Angron. The Emperor chose not to interfere with Lorgar, while Lion El'Jonson grew suspicious of the Word Bearers.

• Lorgar had Archmagos Grut inspect the Blackstone Fortress, then ordered him to oversee its repairs and stationed troops to guard it.
• Isas reported his impressions of Lorgar to Lion El'Jonson, who warned that the Word Bearers and their Primarch should be watched closely.
• The Emperor told Malcador that Lorgar was exceptional and strange, but allowed him to act freely while planning to give him a warning.
• Lorgar put Rockefeller in charge of continuing the Great Crusade and left with Seras to find Angron and guide him before he became more unstable.
• The chapter listed Lorgar Aurelian, Korsler Evans, Rockefeller, William Seras, and Colin as the legion's principal leaders.

Lomanheim briefed nearly a hundred Word Bearers recruits on their final training trial on Tenerum: survive the Death World's dangers and travel one hundred kilometres to a rendezvous point. The recruits began the ordeal alone after the Thunderhawk departed.

• Lomanheim explained that the recruits' final assessment would test their combat skills, faith in the Imperial Truth, and bonds with their future battle-brothers.
• Lomanheim warned the recruits about Tenerum's lethal environment and Three-Headed Hounds, and told wounded trainees to use their signal flares to call for rescue.
• Lomanheim ordered the recruits to cross the deadly region alive and reach the rendezvous point one hundred kilometres away.
• The recruits rappelled from the Thunderhawk, landed on Tenerum, and formed defensive positions.
• Lomanheim watched until the recruits had landed, then shut the hatch as the Thunderhawk departed, leaving them alone on Tenerum.

Hercules and Frank joined a group of recruits crossing Tenerum toward the assembly point, while Doram led several trainees toward a dangerous mountain shortcut. From orbit, Lomanheim flagged their group for rescue, and the chapter established that the Word Bearers' trial was designed to train recruits without needlessly sacrificing them.

• Hercules checked his sparse equipment and joined Frank after the recruits gathered into teams.
• Hercules and Frank joined a larger group and began traveling toward the assembly point across the poisonous wasteland.
• Doram argued for a shortcut through the Charon Mountains, then left the main group with several trainees.
• Hercules and Frank stayed with the main group and continued along the more cautious route.
• Lomanheim flagged Doram's group for monitoring and ordered the standby rescue team to prepare.

Hercules's squad camped for the night and watched a flare rise from the mountains, where Doram and his trainees were under attack by Throat-Rippers. Lomanheim rescued them, and Doram learned that an Imperialis Militia commander wanted him; he received a Throat-Ripper fang as a reward.

• Hercules's squad stopped beneath a rocky hill to rest, and Hercules spotted a flare rising from the mountains.
• Lomanheim arrived in a Thunderhawk and found Doram's group surrounded by Throat-Rippers, with two trainees badly wounded.
• Lomanheim killed the blue-ringed Throat-Ripper with a Bolter shot, and the other Word Bearers veterans eliminated the remaining creatures.
• Lomanheim's veterans treated and evacuated Doram's squad, ending their trial.
• Lomanheim told Doram that an Imperialis Militia commander wanted him and gave him a Throat-Ripper fang in recognition of his courage.

A hidden vent of scalding acid steam destroyed a Recruit’s lower leg, forcing Hercules to stabilize him and signal for evacuation. After the survivors learned that thirty Recruits had died and forty-five had withdrawn, Frank and Hercules resumed the march and saw a three-headed monster charging toward them near the assembly point.

• A Recruit stepped through a brittle crust into a hidden hole, where acidic steam dissolved his lower leg.
• Hercules treated the stump with clotting foam and ordered a companion to activate the Recruit’s withdrawal signal.
• A Thunderhawk rescued the wounded Recruit, and the survivors later learned that thirty Recruits had died and forty-five had withdrawn.
• Hercules and Frank discussed their differing beliefs about the Emperor and the Word Bearers.
• Frank and Hercules resumed the march and saw a three-headed monster hurtling toward the group.

Hercules and Frank led the surviving trainees in preparing to fight the charging Three-Headed Hound in Tenerum. Hercules wounded it but lost his Dagger, and the trainees charged as all three heads turned on him.

• A Three-Headed Hound charged toward the trainees, and Hercules ordered them to form up and aim their torches at its eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Hercules told Frank to escape and alert the rally point if he fell, but Frank refused to abandon him.
• Hercules threw his torch at the hound's middle head, then charged beneath its body and stabbed its belly with his Monomolecular Knife.
• The hound struck at Hercules with a claw, but he dodged and wounded its belly before the force tore the Dagger from his hand and left it lodged in the monster.
• The hound focused all three heads on Hercules, and the trainees charged it from every direction, shouting for the Emperor and their survival.

Frank and Hercules led the trainees in killing the Three-Headed Hound, but Frank was badly wounded by its last head. Hercules carried Frank and another injured trainee toward the assembly point.

• Frank stabbed the Three-Headed Hound in its central eye, and its frenzied thrashing knocked a trainee unconscious.
• Hercules climbed onto the beast’s back and restrained one of its necks while Frank and the other trainees distracted and pinned it down.
• The trainees attacked the fallen beast, Frank stabbed another head in the neck, and Hercules broke the neck he was holding, killing the hound.
• The supposedly dead head bit Frank’s lower leg, so Hercules tore it off and called for someone to stop Frank’s bleeding.
• Hercules lifted Frank and another wounded trainee onto his shoulders and led them toward the assembly point.

Hercules reached the Rally Point carrying Frank and another wounded trainee, earning a place among the Word Bearers Legion's reserve ranks. Months later, Lorgar continued his extreme combat training aboard the Battle Barge, pushing its machinery close to failure.

• Hercules carried Frank and another unconscious companion across the Rally Point boundary with a handful of wounded survivors before the deadline.
• Lomanheim ordered medics to treat the injured and sent Hercules and the other survivors aboard the transport ship Pandorath for food and rest.
• Lomanheim judged Hercules's resilience and loyalty promising, while the survivors earned entry into the Word Bearers Legion's reserve ranks.
• Hercules arrived aboard the Battle Barge, where he and the other recruits would recover for three days before beginning their future training.
• Several months later, Lorgar spent over a month in combat simulations without water, overloading the training room's machinery.

Lorgar and Seras arrived on Nuceria in disguise to find Angron, while the fleet waited in silence above the planet. Lorgar headed for the Duel Arena, believing Angron was still trapped there.

• Lorgar ended his virtual reality training and ordered Seras to accompany him to Nuceria while Mathieu prepared the legionaries for battle.
• Lorgar ordered the fleet to remain silent and descended with Seras and Chapter Master William Theras in a small transport, disguised as ordinary travelers.
• Lorgar and Seras saw that Nuceria's surface was covered by a vast city, and Lorgar concluded Angron had likely not yet escaped his predicament.
• At the starport, Lorgar frightened the administrators with his psychic pressure, paid one to protect the transport, and left with Seras.
• Lorgar told Seras they would search for Angron at the Duel Arena.

Angron fought a colossal Behemoth in Nuceria’s arena while Lorgar realized Angron lacked the Butcher’s Nails and prepared to intervene. The arena owner ordered Oenomaus, Angron’s adoptive father, to make Angron lose, leaving him horrified and defiant.

• Angron entered the arena to face the Dark Nebula Behemoth as the crowd cheered and placed bets.
• Lorgar spotted that Angron did not have the Butcher’s Nails and told Seras to prepare to call for backup.
• Angron charged the Behemoth and struck its armored wrist, but his axe failed to break through before the creature counterattacked.
• The arena owner, concerned with the changing bets, ordered his staff to bring Oenomaus to him.
• The owner threatened Oenomaus and demanded that he make Angron lose the fight, and Oenomaus rejected the order as impossible.

Angron was ambushed with a tranquilizer after defeating Behemoth, and the arena owner forced him to face Oenomaus. Lorgar intervened, killed the soldiers with psychic power, and promised to take Angron and his people home.

• Angron defeated Behemoth, but hidden shooters struck him with tranquilizer darts as he prepared to deliver the final blow.
• The arena's deputy brought soldiers in Dark Age of Technology Power Armour into the arena and announced a forced contest between Angron and his father, Oenomaus.
• Oenomaus urged Angron to kill him, then asked him to live and return home before raising his spear to take his own life.
• Lorgar leapt into the arena, destroyed the soldiers with golden psychic energy, and helped Angron to his feet.
• Lorgar introduced himself as Angron's brother and promised to free him and his people from their suffering.

Lorgar stormed the Gladiatorial Arena’s viewing chamber and captured the Duel Arena master while Angron fought off the Nucerian soldiers. Angron killed the master and declared the gladiators free.

• Lorgar told Angron to hold the arena and charged toward the viewing chamber, destroying the soldiers who tried to stop him with golden lightning.
• Lorgar broke through the chamber door, disarmed the master’s bodyguard, and seized the Duel Arena master.
• Angron cut down the remaining Nucerian soldiers while Lorgar carried the master back into the arena.
• Lorgar handed the master to Angron, who tore off his limbs and impaled his torso with Oenomaus’s training spear.
• Angron raised the master’s body and shouted to the gladiators that they were free.

Lorgar and Angron led a revolt against Nuceria’s forces while William Theras freed the imprisoned Gladiators and rallied them to fight. Word Bearers and Ultramarines reinforcements arrived, and the Emperor headed to the planet as the invasion devastated its surface.

• Lorgar killed the Arena Administrator as Angron and the Gladiators overwhelmed the soldiers around them.
• William Theras broke open the dungeon cells and urged the Gladiators to join Angron and fight for their freedom.
• The freed Gladiators emerged into the arena, saw Angron and Lorgar fighting, and charged the enemy with whatever weapons they could find.
• Lorgar used Psychic Flame to destroy approaching Nucerian Elite Soldiers while Word Bearers Drop Pods and gunships descended alongside an Ultramarines patrol.
• The Emperor set out for Nuceria with Malcador and Valdor, while Lance beams melted the Continental Shelf and the Word Bearers’ banners rose over the scorched earth.

Lorgar freed Angron on Nuceria, and the Emperor arrived to invite Angron to join the Great Crusade. Angron rejected the Emperor’s claim of fatherhood and declared he would follow Lorgar, leaving the Emperor and everyone present stunned.

• Lorgar supported the exhausted Angron after the gladiators won their freedom, while the Word Bearers assembled around them.
• Ultramarines Captain Cassius Vinus introduced himself and promised to deliver Lorgar’s regards to Roboute Guilliman.
• An overwhelming psychic presence forced nearly everyone in the arena to kneel as the Emperor appeared above Nuceria.
• The Emperor offered Angron a place in the Great Crusade, but Angron said he did not know the Emperor and would do whatever Lorgar told him.
• The Emperor questioned Lorgar about what he had done to Angron, and Lorgar denied responsibility.

Angron agreed to join the Great Crusade after Lorgar persuaded him, and Lorgar began teaching him how to deal with alien worlds. Meanwhile, Sergeant Kran and the Word Bearers' Fifteenth Squad investigated a silent Hive City on Rox and discovered a heap of burned corpses stripped of their mechanical augmentations.

• Angron refused the Emperor's request to lead his Legion but agreed to join the Great Crusade after Lorgar persuaded him.
• Angron asked to follow Lorgar to learn about alien civilizations, and Lorgar showed him how to order exterminatus on a planet.
• Lorgar warned Angron to oppose anyone who wanted to divide his Legion into Chapters of a thousand men, then left to study technology recovered from Nuceria.
• Sergeant Kran and the Word Bearers' Fifteenth Squad investigated Rox after its Hive City had gone silent for three months.
• Kran's squad landed in the Hive City and found a heap of charred corpses surrounded by discarded mechanical augmentations.
• Techmarine Cassius examined a corpse and found that its prosthesis had been removed without cutting or tool marks.

Sergeant Kran and his Word Bearers squad advanced into the ruined hive city of Rox to investigate its communications blackout and the unknown threat behind the mass incinerations. After Kran shot a terrified civilian who rushed toward them, a group of Imperial Army soldiers surrendered and Kran demanded to know what had happened.

• Kran ordered the squad to enter the hive city after finding corpses and evidence of an unknown presence at the landing pad.
• The squad followed the Glorious Stairway through wreckage and signs of fierce fighting, while Cassius found evidence that a Chimera's crew had fought both outside and inside the vehicle.
• Kran ordered the squad to seek an Imperial Army garrison for combat records and command links.
• A bloodied civilian rushed from an alley, and Kran shot him with his Bolt Pistol as he approached.
• About ten Imperial Army soldiers carrying Flamers emerged from the alley, dropped their weapons, and knelt before the squad.
• Kran told the soldiers to stand and explain what they had been pursuing and what had happened to the hive city.

Kran and the Word Bearers reached humanity’s last refuge in the Rox Steelworks and discovered that disguised Imitators had infiltrated it. Kran ordered the camp purged, and the battle to stop any infected from escaping began.

• An apparent corpse’s severed legs mutated into crawling creatures, and Kran destroyed them with his Bolt Pistol.
• An Imperial Army Sergeant revealed that Imitators had overrun command posts and led Kran’s squad to the Rox Steelworks, where temperature scanners screened entrants.
• Kran sensed something wrong among the crowd, spotted a Doctor at the makeshift medical area, and shot him.
• Kran ordered the Word Bearers to begin purification and leave no survivors as they opened fire on disguised Imitators throughout the refuge.
• Kran assigned Talous and two men to seal the eastern exit, ordered Cassius to secure the Central Passage and Energy Core, and led the remaining squad in a sweep while human soldiers joined the fighting.

Kran and Talous fought infected mimics inside a steelworks, learning that cutting them apart could make them multiply. Talous destroyed a flesh mound targeting the temperature scanner with a grenade, leaving the checkpoint intact.

• Kran killed a transforming monster with his Chainsword and Bolt Pistol, then ordered the squad to use bolt weapons or disruption-field weapons instead of melee attacks.
• Talous spotted an infected creature crawling toward the temperature scanner and shot its head, but the body kept moving.
• Nearby infected creatures combined into a protective mound around the crawling body and charged toward the scanner.
• Talous fired at the mound, then threw a Frag Grenade through an opening in its flesh.
• The grenade exploded inside the mound, destroying it while leaving the temperature scanner intact.

Kran quarantined Rox and sent a small team toward the Kloß Anker Mine while the Imperial Army held the Steelworks against a massive Xenos assault. The soldiers fought on to buy the Word Bearers time to reach the source of the catastrophe.

• Kran declared Rox under full quarantine and ordered that no craft leave the planet without authorization.
• The Major identified the Kloß Anker Mine and its Ice Cavern as the likely source of the Xenos outbreak.
• Kran ordered the Imperial Army to draw the Xenos toward the Steelworks while he and the Word Bearers prepared to travel light toward the mine.
• The Word Bearers slipped away under cover of the Steelworks' heavy weapons barrage.
• The Major rallied the soldiers as a tide of Xenos attacked the Defense Line, and they fought to hold it until their last breath.