Recaps

Kran and the Word Bearers reached the frozen mine, fought through infected creatures, and advanced into its biomass-lined depths. As the squad moved cautiously through the unnaturally quiet passage, an attack began.

• Kran led the Word Bearers to the pit and ordered the squad to leave no survivors.
• Infected creatures disguised as miners and soldiers attacked, and the squad exposed their disguises and fought back.
• Kran shot an infected gunman, while Talous destroyed a Heavy Bolter emplacement with a Melta Grenade.
• The Word Bearers cleared the creatures outside the mine and advanced several kilometers into its depths.
• Kran noticed the pulsing green biomass covering the mine walls as the squad proceeded through the quiet passages.
• An attack began just as Talous stepped onto a broad passage resembling a major blood vessel.

Kran and his squad fought through a mining pit filled with camouflaged, intelligent Tentacles and discovered that they extended from an enormous sphere made of fused corpses. After their weapons barely damaged the regenerating mass, Kran charged it with his Chainsword.

• Talous was pinned against the fleshy wall by a concealed Tentacle as the passage erupted with attackers.
• Kran and Cassius fought off the Tentacles while Cassius spotted a vast pulsing sphere of fused corpses at the mining pit's centre.
• Talous broke free, and the squad's grenades, Bolters, plasma, and meltagun fire damaged the sphere's outer tissue but failed to destroy it.
• The sphere shifted its Tentacles into coordinated movements as Kran ordered another attack.
• Kran removed his helmet and charged the sphere with his Chainsword while his squad cleared his path.
• Kran's Chainsword cut deep into the sphere's outer shell, spraying flesh and slime.

Kran destroyed the flesh sphere with a modified Melta Bomb, then the group found an ancient Dragon Kingdom survey ship buried in the glacier. Its logs revealed that the crew had discovered a monster-infected planet and that Captain Zhao Hang had crashed the ship after failing to send a warning.

• Kran planted a modified Melta Bomb inside the flesh sphere and pinned it in place with his Chainsword as its tentacles thrashed around the cavern.
• The bomb vaporized the flesh sphere and blasted Kran across the mine, leaving him badly injured but alive.
• The group discovered a spaceship marked with the letters CNSA lodged in the glacier, and Techmarine Cassius identified its lettering as the script of the Dragon Kingdom.
• Cassius deciphered the hatch controls, and Kran forced open the cockpit after Cassius failed to unlock it.
• Cassius recovered the ship's voyage logs, which showed that the Dragon Kingdom researchers had found a habitable planet and been infected by its monsters.
• The logs revealed that Captain Zhao Hang had crashed the ship in the glacier, burned himself alive to prevent infection, and failed to transmit the planet's coordinates to the Dragon Kingdom capital.

After confirming the xenos threat on Rox had been destroyed, Company Captain Arut led an Imperial fleet to the Star Chart coordinates of the xenos homeworld. The fleet carried out Exterminatus, shattering the crimson planet into an asteroid belt.

• Sergeant Kran reported that the threat on Rox had been destroyed and shared Star Chart data identifying the suspected xenos system of origin.
• Company Captain Arut ordered the Imperium to punish the xenos, while Imperial forces began strict cleansing and quarantine operations across Rox.
• Arut assembled an expeditionary fleet, which emerged from Warp travel near a crimson planet whose surface showed a uniform biomass reading.
• Arut ordered Exterminatus, and the Blade of Piety launched two Cyclonic Torpedoes at the planet.
• The Cyclonic Torpedoes shattered the planet, reducing it to an incandescent asteroid belt.

Lorgar reviewed the Word Bearers' affairs aboard the Law of Faith and learned that the first batch of recruits would soon finish training. Meanwhile, Anglia reported to Angron aboard the Conqueror, reflecting on Lorgar's role in saving his Primarch.

• Lorgar recalled seeing Angron destroy hundreds of armoured Servitors and decided he could not match him in a fight without psychic powers.
• Rockefeller told Lorgar that the first recruits would complete their modifications and training in four months, and presented their assessment rankings.
• Lorgar learned that about 5,870 recruits would join the Seventh Chapter for five years before being assigned elsewhere, and warned Rockefeller to prevent divisions between Terran and Colchis-born warriors.
• Anglia approached Angron on the Conqueror's observation deck and reported to him, feeling gratitude toward Lorgar for saving Angron.

Lotara Sarrin asked Angron for command of the Conqueror and the fleet’s operations before the boarding action. Angron granted her authority over the fleet, and she coordinated with Lorgar, who assigned her force to lead the assault.

• Lotara introduced herself to Angron and requested full tactical command of the Conqueror and the task force during the fleet engagement.
• Angron recognized Lotara’s determination and ability, then granted her command of the fleet and instructed her to coordinate with Lorgar.
• Lotara contacted Lorgar aboard the Law of Faith and confirmed that Angron had approved her authority.
• Lorgar told Lotara’s force to lead the assault into the battlefield and reflected on her reputation as a relentless fighter.

Lorgar and Angron arrived with the Imperial fleet to destroy the Healing Brotherhood, a brutal human regime that experimented on captured civilians and fielded powerful war machines. As Brotherhood ships dissected a disabled Imperial battleship and its commander anticipated harvesting the survivors, more than a hundred Imperial warships appeared on their flank.

• The Imperial fleet emerged from the Warp and found the Healing Brotherhood’s forces waiting in the star cluster.
• The chapter recounted how the Brotherhood deceived an Imperial advance party, massacred a diplomatic delegation, and used captured humans for experiments and war-machine production.
• Hundreds of Brotherhood warships attacked a disabled Emperor-class battleship with precise laser fire.
• A Brotherhood commander celebrated the attack as a vivisection and planned to harvest the crew as fuel for Bio-Engines.
• More than a hundred Imperial warships appeared beside the besieging fleet as Lorgar and Angron turned toward them.

Ship Captain Lotara ordered the Conqueror to charge the Healing Brotherhood’s fleet while deploying its fighters to disrupt enemy defenses. Captain Morak’s flight destroyed an enemy flagship’s command center, and Lorgar began his own deployment.

• Lotara ordered the Conqueror to accelerate at combat speed and ram the center of the Healing Brotherhood’s fleet.
• Lotara launched fifty squadrons to suppress enemy sensors and point-defense weapons.
• Captain Morak led his flight through the enemy barrage toward a flagship’s Bridge.
• Morak fired an armour-piercing missile that destroyed the Bridge, killed its occupants, and disabled the flagship’s engines.
• Lorgar began his deployment elsewhere.

The Word Bearers' Fleet advanced in disciplined formation and devastated the Healing Brotherhood's ships with coordinated Lance volleys. On the Conqueror, Lotara Sarrin ordered the Bear Claw attack, grappling the enemy flagship and setting the stage for a boarding assault.

• The Word Bearers' Fleet held formation around the Law of Faith and methodically destroyed approaching Healing Brotherhood Warships with Lance volleys.
• Word Bearers Chaplains led prayers as the Fleet continued its relentless advance through the enemy formation.
• Lotara Sarrin identified the enemy Fleet Flagship and ordered the Conqueror to deploy the Bear Claw.
• The Conqueror's grappling weapons struck and locked onto the enemy flagship, binding the two ships together for the coming boarding action.

The War Hounds Legion launched a boarding assault on the Healing Brotherhood’s flagship, and Angron led the attack through the ship’s defenders. Skolzne commanded the Primarch Guard protecting Angron as he fought.

• The War Hounds Legion launched Drop Pods into the enemy flagship and poured into its corridors.
• The Legion’s Assault Squads cut down the Healing Brotherhood’s lightly armed defenders as they advanced through the ship.
• Angron arrived at the breach and carved through the enemy with his twin axes.
• Lorgar had formed a Primarch Guard to support Angron, who selected elite Legion warriors to serve in it.
• Skolzne, a scarred warrior who refused to repair his scars, led the Primarch Guard.

Angron led the War Hounds through the Healing Brotherhood’s ship, where white-armoured defenders used Nanometal weapons to restrain him. Skolzne broke the encirclement, giving Angron a chance to counterattack as the battle continued.

• Angron and Skolzne led the War Hounds through the ship, overwhelming its initial defenders.
• The Healing Brotherhood’s elite warriors formed a defensive line and attacked Angron with Nanometal blades and spears.
• Angron slaughtered several warriors, but the Brotherhood’s fighters coordinated to bind him with Nanometal chains and nets.
• Skolzne killed a warrior holding one of the chains, weakening the restraint on Angron.
• Angron crushed another Brotherhood warrior and urged the Legion to charge with him.

Company Captain Paulus and the Word Bearers attacked the Healing Brotherhood’s warship, where Khârn joined the battle and devastated the enemy forces. Paulus recognized the blood-soaked War Hounds warrior as the 8th Assault Company Captain.

• Company Captain Paulus led the Word Bearers through the breached warship and killed a Healing Brotherhood mech with his Power Sword.
• Paulus dodged and parried attacks, then disabled another mech by striking its power transmission assembly.
• Khârn charged into the melee, wielding a Chainaxe and carrying a Healing Brotherhood warrior’s severed head.
• Khârn slaughtered the surrounding enemies, smashing mechs aside and crushing a fallen warrior beneath his foot.
• Paulus recognized the warrior as Khârn, 8th Assault Company Captain of the War Hounds Legion.

Paulus, Khârn, and the Imperial warriors fought their way to the warship’s control room, where a Nanite Swarm attacked them. Angron charged into the room and tore apart Iliya, but Iliya reassembled from nanometal and attacked Angron with scythes.

• Paulus led his Terminators toward the control room while Khârn and the others fought the enemy.
• A Nanite Swarm poured from the shattered control-room doors, overwhelming the warriors without Void Shields.
• Angron charged through the swarm and tore open the control-room wall with his fists and shoulder.
• Angron punched through Iliya and ripped him in half, but Iliya liquefied into nanometal and reassembled.
• Iliya revealed that his consciousness lived in the nanoswarm, transformed his arms into scythes, and attacked Angron.

Angron and the Word Bearers fought Iliya in the control room, where Iliya's nanometal body adapted to damage and rebuilt itself. Angron pursued him into space and hurled him into a destroyer's plasma engine nozzle.

• Angron and Iliya clashed in the control room while Iliya's nanometal shield blocked the Word Bearers' covering fire.
• Angron knocked Iliya into a bulkhead and pummelled him as a Word Bearers sergeant used a Meltagun Gun to destroy Iliya's right arm.
• Iliya rebuilt his arm from nearby wreckage, killed the sergeant with a nanometal spear, and tried to escape.
• Angron seized Iliya as he began to disperse, hurled him through the hull breach, and followed him into space.
• Angron dragged Iliya toward an Imperial Cobra-class Destroyer's engine nozzle and threw him into its plasma stream.

After Angron survived the battle, he told Lorgar that he could turn others’ emotions into strength, leaving Lorgar uncertain whether this was a Warp power or a Chaos trap. Meanwhile, the Healing Brotherhood’s leader learned that the Final Battle Virus was ready and set out to witness its power.

• Rockefeller spotted Angron drifting among the wreckage, and Lorgar sent transports to recover him.
• Angron woke after his wounds began healing, asked whether they had won, and Lorgar confirmed their victory.
• Angron told Lorgar that he had absorbed nearby warriors’ emotions as strength and altered their pain, prompting Lorgar to plan surveillance within the War Hounds.
• The Healing Brotherhood’s leader condemned his executives over the destruction of his fleet and demanded an explanation.
• A researcher announced that the Final Battle Virus was complete, and the leader ordered a demonstration at the highest-containment laboratory.

The Healing Brotherhood tested its Decisive Battle Virus on captured Imperial prisoners and celebrated its lethal capabilities and stockpile. An infiltrating Space Marine revealed himself as Sergeant Griffins and transmitted the enemy’s weapons documentation to Lorgar Aurelian.

• The Healing Brotherhood’s project director released the Decisive Battle Virus into a chamber full of Imperial prisoners, killing them as their bodies dissolved.
• The project director described the virus’s adjustable incubation, aerosol transmission, and claimed ability to destroy an Imperial regiment or contaminate a capital ship.
• The Brotherhood’s leader ordered the virus deployed on the battlefield, and the project director agreed.
• After the experiment, a disguised guard returned to his room and revealed himself as Sergeant Griffins of the Ursus Infiltration Squad.
• Sergeant Griffins transmitted the enemy weapons documentation to Lorgar Aurelian.

Sergeant Griffins, infiltrating the Healing Brotherhood as officer Ans, received orders to escort its newly created Decisive Battle weapon to the frontline. Meanwhile, Lorgar continued the Great Crusade and, after receiving Alpha Legion intelligence about the weapon shipment, decided to intercept it.

• Sergeant Griffins maintained his cover as Ans while secretly gathering intelligence inside the Healing Brotherhood.
• An executive officer ordered Ans to take trusted personnel to section three of the armory and escort special weapons to the frontline.
• Angron and the War Hounds captured a Healing Brotherhood planet, while Khârn led a force to free hundreds of thousands of prisoners from a laboratory camp.
• The Alpha Legion sent Lorgar intelligence about the Decisive Battle weapon and the shipment's location.
• Lorgar ordered several squads to intercept the shipment and coordinate with the Alpha Legion infiltrators.

Sergeant Griffins infiltrated the Healing Brotherhood’s transport ship as Captain Ans and gained control of its monitoring and automated defense systems to prepare for an incoming assault. When a guard confronted him outside his cabin, they drew weapons and both claimed, “I am Alpharius.”

• Griffins entered the Transport Ship Silence using Captain Ans’s identity and secured a private cabin.
• He assessed the ship’s roughly three hundred elite guards and planned to weaken them before Lorgar and Angron’s interception squads attacked.
• Griffins hacked into the ship’s biological monitoring network and automated defenses, giving himself the ability to track guards and turn the weapons against them.
• A white-uniformed man questioned Griffins outside his cabin, and they drew weapons on each other.
• Griffins and the man both demanded to know who the other was, then simultaneously said, “I am Alpharius.”

Spencer discovered that the suspicious Captain Ans was actually his Alpha Legion commander, Griffins, and their tense reunion was interrupted by another Alpha Legion warrior claiming to be Alpharius. The two resumed their disguises and attended Kalapan’s briefing, where Griffins prepared for the coming interception and Spencer assessed the officers around them.

• Spencer approached Captain Ans to investigate and potentially eliminate him, but learned that Ans was Griffins, his own squad commander.
• A third Alpha Legion warrior emerged from the ventilation duct, declared himself Alpharius, and was ordered back inside by Spencer and Griffins.
• Spencer and Griffins maintained their cover as Captain Ans and a junior officer and went to the meeting room.
• Kalapan delivered a fervent speech to officers whose reactions ranged from genuine enthusiasm to weary indifference.
• Griffins mentally analyzed the ship’s defenses and possible interception scenarios while Spencer memorized the officers and judged how they might respond to the coming chaos.

Griffins and Spencer attended Kalapan’s conference when a violent impact rocked their transport ship, and they realized neither Alpha Legionnaire had caused it. In the control room, an impostor posing as Captain Ross revealed himself as an Alpha Legion warrior and admitted he had deliberately caused the impact.

• Khârn told Paulus and the Word Bearers to cover the flanks while he planned to kill the enemy commander.
• Griffins and Spencer grew impatient during Kalapan’s lengthy conference speech and considered ending it with an accident.
• A powerful impact shook the ship, cut the lights, and triggered alarms and panic throughout the conference room.
• Griffins and Spencer silently confirmed that neither of them had caused the disruption.
• Kalapan claimed the ship had suffered a minor meteorite impact, though Griffins and Spencer doubted his explanation.
• When Healing Brotherhood guards confronted Captain Ross in the control room, he shed his disguise, revealed his Alpha Legion armour, and admitted he had caused the impact deliberately.

An Alpha warrior killed the Healing Brotherhood guards and destroyed the Warship’s central control system, giving Griffins the chance to launch the boarding operation and turn the ship’s defenses against its crew. Griffins trapped and killed Brotherhood soldiers throughout the vessel, leaving the transport crippled by the actions of just three Alpha Legionnaires.

• The Alpha warrior shot two Healing Brotherhood guard officers and blew up the main Control Console with a Frag Grenade.
• Griffins saw the Warship lose power and stability, then sent the encrypted command, "Begin Boarding."
• Griffins took control of the Warship’s secondary systems, sealing Emergency Bulkheads and splitting the Brotherhood soldiers into isolated groups.
• Griffins hijacked the automated turrets, which opened fire on the Healing Brotherhood soldiers in the corridors.
• Griffins activated the Vacuum Extraction Protocol in selected sectors, suffocating most of the soldiers trapped there.

Khârn and the War Hounds breached the Transport Ship Silent Carrier and launched a brutal assault on its crew and guards. Company Captain Paulus and the Word Bearers joined the battle, and together they broke through the Brotherhood's final defensive line.

• Khârn led the War Hounds in a drill-ram assault that tore a breach in the Transport Ship Silent Carrier's hull.
• Khârn charged into the ship with the War Hounds and cut through the Healing Brotherhood crew and guards.
• More Brotherhood guards and biochemical monsters arrived, locking the War Hounds into a fierce fight.
• Company Captain Paulus led the Word Bearers and Cataphractii Terminators into battle, destroying the monsters and cutting down Brotherhood soldiers.
• Paulus and Khârn attacked together and shattered the enemy's final defensive line.

Paulus and Khârn helped destroy the Silent Carrier and seize the Decisive Weapon, breaking the Healing Brotherhood’s resistance. Lorgar’s fleet reached the Brotherhood’s homeworld and bombarded it, then prepared to begin the ground assault.

• Paulus and Khârn met Griffins, Spencer, and Brotherhood soldiers, and the disguised Captain Ans revealed himself and killed the soldiers.
• Paulus learned that four Alpha infiltrators had independently been assigned to the same Warship, and the group took all the virus containers before destroying the transport.
• The Silent Carrier’s destruction and the loss of the Decisive Weapon shattered the Brotherhood’s resistance as Lorgar’s fleets seized its outposts and advanced on its homeworld.
• Lorgar ordered the Imperial Fleet to bombard the homeworld, destroying its Medical Sanctums and other targets while the Brotherhood’s air defenses failed to stop the attack.
• After the bombardment, Lorgar ordered Rockefeller and Seras to assemble their troops for the landing and told Khârn to watch Angron.

Karachis and the Colchis Auxilia fought a brutal battle against the Brotherhood’s fortified lines and repelled a flanking attack by genetically modified warriors. Lorgar arrived with First Company Terminators and ordered the Word Bearers to attack on all fronts.

• Karachis destroyed a Brotherhood rapid-fire cannon with a plasma shot and assessed the enemy’s fierce defenses and biological weapons.
• A squad of Brotherhood genetically modified warriors attacked the Imperial right flank, but the Colchis Auxilia pinned them down with coordinated crossfire.
• Oznell and the Word Bearers counterattacked, killing the remaining enemy warriors after the Auxilia had helped stop their charge.
• Lorgar arrived in a Drop Pod with the First Company’s Cataphractii Terminators and ordered the Word Bearers to rally and attack on all fronts.

Lorgar and Angron led the assault that broke the Healing Brotherhood’s final defenses and carried the fighting into its central City. As the War Hounds slaughtered the city’s defenders and civilians, Lorgar sent Company Captain Paulus to recover records and headed to confront the enemy leader.

• Lorgar rallied the Word Bearers while Angron ordered the War Hounds to breach the Healing Brotherhood’s defenses.
• Angron led the War Hounds through the breach and into the City, where they destroyed buildings and killed fleeing researchers and civilians.
• The War Hounds combed through the streets and buildings, crushing resistance without mercy.
• Lorgar ordered Company Captain Paulus to recover resources and Dark Age of Technology documents with the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Lorgar set out for the most dangerous battlefield to kill the enemy leader.