Recaps

Bella escaped into the shadows as Lorgar kept Corax in his grip, but Corax transformed and slipped free. Lorgar then overwhelmed Corax in battle and hurled him into space, before stepping through the breach to pursue him.

• Bella retreated into the Bridge's shadows while Lorgar held Corax by the neck.
• Corax dissolved into black mist and feathers, escaped Lorgar's grasp, and taunted him from the darkness.
• Lorgar battered Corax with golden-flame punches, preventing him from escaping or counterattacking.
• Corax lunged at Lorgar with his Talon Blades, but Lorgar dodged and drew his Greatsword.
• Lorgar's Greatsword shattered Corax's guard and sent him through the Shadow of the Emperor's hull into space.
• Lorgar stepped through the breach to pursue Corax among the stars.

Biberus struggled against Raven Guard warriors whose daemonic remnants could only be destroyed by intense heat, until Hercules arrived and cut through the attackers with his reforged greatsword. The battle shifted when Corax crashed into the fortress, badly beaten and unable to rise.

• Biberus discovered that the Raven Guard warriors regenerated unless flame, plasma, or melta weapons reduced them to ash, and he switched to a flamer.
• A huge mutated Chaos Space Marine charged through the fighting, but Hercules arrived and cleaved him in two with his reforged greatsword.
• Hercules advanced through the Raven Guard, banishing hundreds of them back to the Warp with broad, powerful strikes.
• Corax crashed through a breach into the fortress and lay broken on the deck, looking toward the figure at the edge of the void.

Corax lay gravely wounded after Lorgar defeated him, while Mortarion kept the Death Guard out of the battle despite repeated pleas for reinforcements. When Mortarion sensed Lorgar on the Bakka Battlefield and his calculations changed, he ordered the fleet to prepare for a warp jump, leaving Naberius to wonder whether the Death Guard would finally join the fight.

• Lorgar taunted the badly wounded Corax, who realized Mortarion's promised reinforcements had not arrived.
• Naberius repeatedly pleaded with Mortarion to send the Death Guard to aid the Raven Guard and Sons of Horus, but Mortarion refused and marked their requests as read.
• Mortarion relied on numerology to predict that deploying would bring the Death Guard a fatal loss, and he waited for the other forces to exhaust themselves.
• Mortarion sensed Lorgar's presence on the Bakka Battlefield, which altered his calculations.
• Mortarion ordered the Death Guard fleet to prepare for a warp jump to Bakka, and Naberius was stunned by the sudden change.

Mortarion arrived at the Bakka Battlefield and saw Lorgar pursuing the wounded Corax while the Sons of Horus withdrew. After killing Naberius and Storas for urging him to intervene, Mortarion ordered a communications link with Lorgar.

• Mortarion's Death Guard fleet emerged from the Warp and found the Raven Guard under heavy Word Bearers fire as the Sons of Horus retreated.
• Mortarion spotted Lorgar chasing the wounded Corax through the wreckage with a flaming greatsword.
• Naberius urged Mortarion to help Corax, but Mortarion sensed corruption emanating from the Shadow of the Emperor and ignored him.
• Mortarion crushed Naberius's head, extinguishing the Ringwraith Solemnace before it could awaken.
• Mortarion killed Storas with Silence after Storas drew his sword.
• Mortarion ordered his crew to connect him to Lorgar.

Lorgar fought Corax on a volcanic death world, overpowering him despite Corax’s Chaos-fueled attacks. Lorgar banished Corax to the Warp again and vowed they would settle their score there in the future.

• Lorgar hurled Corax onto a volcanic planet, where Corax struggled to rise and attacked him.
• Lorgar kicked Corax into a volcano, but Corax emerged from the lava and launched an all-or-nothing assault.
• Their clash shattered half the planet and left Corax badly mutilated while Lorgar remained standing.
• Corax mocked Lorgar’s loyalty to the Emperor and accused him of becoming the Emperor’s tool.
• Lorgar declared that Corax was no longer his brother and banished him to the Warp with a strike of golden psychic energy.

Lorgar confronted Mortarion after seeing the Death Guard join the Sons of Horus fleet, but Mortarion revealed that he had secretly protected key industrial worlds and sent Garro's Seventh Company to Terra. Lorgar accepted Mortarion's choice and asked him to wait as he prepared to address the Death Guard's lack of manpower.

• Lorgar saw the Death Guard fleet join the Sons of Horus and connected Mortarion's incoming call, suspecting that his brother had turned traitor.
• Mortarion sent Lorgar records showing that he had arranged for Garro to lead the Seventh Company to Terra and secured industrial worlds targeted by the Sons of Horus.
• Mortarion explained that he had acted to repay his debt to Lorgar and the Word Bearers from the Rangdan Xenocides, declaring that they were even.
• Lorgar understood Mortarion's actions, thanked him, and asked what he needed.
• Mortarion hinted that his Legion had only 170,000 men, and Lorgar told him to wait before ending the call.

Mortarion withdrew the Endurance from Bakka, while he and Lorgar silently vowed they would meet again. Lorgar ordered the Word Bearers to avoid direct conflict with the Death Guard and considered Bakka a local victory as the larger war continued to gather force.

• Mortarion ordered Naberius recorded as executed for undermining morale and Storas as a loyal sacrifice killed by the enemy.
• Mortarion sent the Endurance into the Warp on a course away from Horus and quietly wondered whether he would meet Lorgar again.
• Lorgar watched the Endurance disappear and promised they would meet again, even ten thousand years later.
• Lorgar ordered the Word Bearers to prioritize withdrawal and avoid direct confrontation whenever they encountered the Death Guard.
• The Word Bearers retook Bakka, but Lorgar recognized the victory as temporary while Horus’s forces and the wider threat of Chaos remained strong.

Horus learned that Lorgar had won at Bakka, then revealed that the victory was a deception used to draw the Imperium’s attention away from the Sons of Horus’ true target. He ordered Anlosian to follow him as the fleet changed course toward its next objective.

• Anlosian told Horus that the battle of Bakka had been lost, and Horus remarked that Corax had faced Lorgar.
• Horus admitted that even he could not be certain of defeating Lorgar and said that Lorgar would belong to him as well.
• Horus left his study with Anlosian and watched the Sons of Horus destroy the Imperial Fleet formations.
• Horus explained that Anlosian’s Chaos prophecy had led him to use Bakka as a feint while the main fleet struck elsewhere.
• Horus declared that the Imperium would soon realize its victory at Bakka was an illusion, and the fleet changed course toward another target.

Lorgar ordered the worlds under his rule to raise soldiers for the war against Horus and his rebels. On Merilla, the population eagerly answered by mobilizing troops and sending recruits from every social class into the Planetary Defense Chapter.

• Lorgar issued a conscription order requiring everyone capable of fighting across the Millennium Worlds to prepare for war.
• Merilla’s Planetary Defense Chapter was presented as a force formed from the planet’s indigenous people and experienced in rainforest combat.
• An officer delivered Lorgar’s sealed order to the nobles of York, and they approved the call to arms.
• Merilla’s nobles mobilized their private troops and enrolled their children under the order’s expanded recruitment rules.
• The conscription order spread across Merilla, prompting people from the hive city and rural settlements to seek places for their children in the Chapter.

Corax and the Raven Guard reformed aboard the Shadow of the Emperor, and Corax considered making his legion stronger by transforming its warriors while preserving their wills. Ferrus Manus then offered to deal with Lorgar, leaving Corax to challenge whether he could defeat Lorgar alone.

• Corax and the slain Raven Guard regenerated in the Warp aboard the Shadow of the Emperor.
• Corax studied Narat Kiling's controlled transformation and considered turning his legion into a smaller but more powerful force.
• Ferrus Manus appeared on the bridge's screen and said he would deal with Lorgar.
• Corax insisted that Lorgar was his prey, and Ferrus questioned whether he could defeat Lorgar alone.

Alpha Legion infiltrator Zorge secretly gathered intelligence on Gungnir, a weapon capable of striking any planet in Imperial territory, but his attempts to send the information failed. Kroge confronted him after growing suspicious, and Zorge faced exposure as Kroge moved to reveal the face beneath his armor.

• Zorge infiltrated the Raven Guard guarding Gungnir and rose to command them while secretly recording the weapon’s capabilities and weaknesses.
• Zorge’s attempts to transmit his intelligence failed, leaving him isolated and unaware that civil war had cut off his contacts.
• Kroge grew suspicious of Zorge and waited for an opportunity to confront him.
• Kroge and more than a dozen Raven Guard trapped Zorge in the hangar and accused him of being a spy.
• Zorge claimed he was a Son of Corax, but Kroge rejected his answer and drew a dagger to uncover his true face.

Zorge escaped Kroge’s encirclement in the hangar and fled into the Gungnir’s Lower Deck, but a stray shot exposed his Alpha Legion armor and left him alone in enemy territory. As footsteps approached, he armed himself with a concealed spear.

• Kroge demanded Zorge surrender his weapon and declared loyalty to the Warmaster and the Primarch.
• Zorge seized Kroge’s Bolt Pistol, shot three Raven Guard warriors, and disappeared into the shadows as Kroge ordered a search.
• Zorge reached the Gungnir’s Lower Deck and discovered that a stray round had wounded him and destroyed his armor’s camouflage.
• Zorge’s wound rapidly healed, but his armor revealed its Alpha Legion cyan, leaving his infiltration exposed.
• Zorge unfolded a concealed baton into a spear and looked toward approaching footsteps.

Utio confronted Kroge over the Alpha Legion’s theft of Gungnir’s data and warned that the moon-sized weapon was entering its final test-firing stage. Kroge mobilized the facility to hunt Zorge, who decided to escape with the stolen information before Gungnir could threaten Holy Terra.

• Utio accused Kroge of allowing an Alpha Legion infiltrator to steal Gungnir’s data and described the weapon’s planet-destroying power.
• Utio warned Kroge that Gungnir was nearing its final test firing and threatened to make him its point-blank observer if anything went wrong.
• Kroge left the Command Room and ordered the facility to find Zorge and kill him before he escaped.
• Zorge reviewed the stolen information terminal while hiding after killing more than a dozen traitor Space Marines.
• Zorge abandoned the idea of fighting a guerrilla campaign and decided to seize a shuttle and carry the information off Gungnir.

Zorge infiltrated the Gungnir’s Lower Deck and ambushed an Imperialis Militia search team. After killing the squad, he consumed its leader’s brain to learn the patrol routes and secure an escape plan.

• Zorge watched the militia assemble and studied the search teams’ routes from a ventilation duct.
• Zorge chose a ten-man team that included a boarding-shotgun wielder and two Volkite gunners as priority targets.
• Zorge dropped from the duct and killed the team with his spear before its members could raise their weapons.
• Zorge pinned the squad leader to a wall and devoured his brain to obtain the search deployments, guard positions, and escape routes.
• Zorge learned how to reach an unmanned sentry post and planned to leave aboard a waste transport ship after the next shift change.

After Squad 945 went silent, Kroge mobilized Gungnir’s garrison to search for Zorge, who avoided the guarded escape routes and hid inside a transport ship’s cargo of toxic black waste. The ship departed Gungnir with Zorge buried beneath the pollutant, badly wounded but still concealed.

• A mortal officer reported that Squad 945 had stopped responding, and Kroge ordered a concentrated search of the area where contact was lost.
• Nearly a thousand Space Marines and a hundred thousand Imperialis Militia troops sealed the corridors, gates, and hangars while searching for Zorge.
• Zorge used a remote maintenance passage to reach the processing station at the bottom of Gungnir.
• Despite the corrosive fumes worsening his wounds, Zorge crossed the scrap heaps and climbed into a transport ship’s cargo of black waste.
• Zorge buried himself beneath the pollutant and remained still as the transport ship finished loading and departed Gungnir.

Zorge escaped the Gungnir aboard a waste transport ship, killed its crew, and fled into the warp despite a rapidly worsening wound. He lost consciousness as a Word Bearers fleet appeared ahead and noticed his ship.

• Zorge hid beneath black waste and escaped the Gungnir aboard a transport ship bound for a recycling station.
• As the ship docked, Zorge killed its crew and seized control of the cockpit.
• Zorge broke the transport ship free of the recycling station and fled into space.
• Zorge chose to travel through the warp toward the nearest Mandeville Point, despite his infected wound.
• The wound consumed Zorge’s strength, and he passed out as the transport ship entered the warp.
• A Word Bearers fleet emerged ahead and noticed Zorge’s ship.

Zorge, a dying Alpha Legionnaire, urged Abaddon to consume his brain to obtain crucial intelligence about contaminants from Gungnir. Abaddon complied and received a torrent of information, leaving him to process what Zorge had passed on.

• Abaddon and his companions examined the unconscious Zorge after his ship crashed into Abaddon's warship.
• Loken shocked Zorge awake and noticed black fluid leaking from his armor.
• Zorge told Abaddon that contaminants were corrupting his brain and demanded that Abaddon eat it to receive vital intelligence.
• Abaddon consumed Zorge's brain, killing him and taking in a flood of data, images, sounds, coordinates, and timelines.
• Loken steadied Abaddon as he clutched his head and endured the incoming information.

Abaddon learned from Zorge’s memories that the near-complete superweapon Gungnir was preparing for its final test firing. Lorgar sent Leman Russ to intercept it while Abaddon rallied the Black Legion for war.

• Abaddon recovered Gungnir’s coordinates and status from Zorge’s memories and ordered Loken to report the intelligence to Lorgar.
• Lorgar ordered Hercules to reinforce Abaddon, warned the Emperor about Utio’s potential rebellion, and kept the expeditionary fleet on course.
• Lorgar contacted Leman Russ and sent him Gungnir’s coordinates, asking him to go there immediately.
• Abaddon rallied fifty thousand Black Legion Space Marines and called for vengeance against the blasphemers in the Emperor’s name.

Omega met Alpharius, who ordered him to infiltrate the Loyalists while remaining a servant of the Warmaster. He was assigned to defend Gungnir, Horus’s planet-destroying weapon, leaving him caught between both sides as a double agent.

• Omega met Alpharius in an abandoned passage near Gungnir and confirmed his allegiance to the Warmaster.
• Alpharius ordered Omega to pose as a Loyalist Primarch and await Horus’s orders.
• Alpharius showed Omega the plans for Gungnir and explained that it could destroy any Imperial planet.
• Alpharius gave Omega command over Gungnir’s defenses, including Utio’s mechanized forces, and ordered him to protect the weapon until its test firing was complete.
• Omega accepted the assignment and remained alone, tasked with defending Gungnir while pretending to be a Loyalist.

Fabricator-General Utio and a thousand Tech-Priests test-fired Gungnir, creating and unleashing a black sphere powered by the Warp. The sphere tore through celestial bodies and entered a Warp Rift, heading toward a Forge World hundreds of thousands of light-years away.

• Utio ordered the Tech-Priests to connect to Gungnir’s control nodes and prepare for test firing.
• Utio preached devotion to the Machine God and Heaven as the Tech-Priests drove Gungnir’s systems to their limits.
• The targeting priest calculated the firing parameters as Gungnir’s reactor drew in and compressed Warp power.
• Utio pressed the firing button, and the overloaded Tech-Priests continued chanting as a vast black sphere formed before Gungnir’s spearhead.
• Gungnir released the sphere, which sped through space, destroyed asteroids and a gas planet, and entered a Warp Rift toward a Forge World.

Utio watched the Black Sphere annihilate a Forge World and devastate its surrounding star system, then chose Holy Terra as the next target for the second test firing.

• The Black Sphere destroyed the Forge World, its moons, and nearby planets, while opening a realspace rift that released Warp Abominations.
• Utio watched the destruction through surviving sensor signals and praised the weapon’s power.
• A Dark Mechanicum Archmagos told Utio that the second test firing would take place in one Terran month and asked him to choose a target.
• Utio considered Terra, Mars, Colchis, and Macragge, then selected Holy Terra for the next strike.

Omega planned to stop Gungnir before it could fire on Holy Terra, but a Word Bearers fleet arrived as Abaddon led an assault on the weapon. Omega teleported aboard Abaddon's flagship and came face to face with Abaddon, Kaebo, Torgaddon, and Loken.

• Omega decided that Gungnir had to be destroyed before it could target Terra.
• A Word Bearers fleet emerged from the warp, and Omega offered to lead the Alpha Legion in confronting it.
• Abaddon ordered his fleet to board Gungnir and destroy it.
• Omega gathered the Alpha Legion boarding force aboard Beta and teleported to Abaddon's flagship.
• Abaddon, Kaebo, Torgaddon, and Loken confronted Omega after he appeared on their deck.

Omega and Abaddon fought on the Bridge of Gungnir as Abaddon’s warriors attacked the teal-armoured intruder. After Abaddon damaged Omega’s armour, Omega removed his helmet, revealed a face identical to Alpharius’s, and acknowledged Abaddon’s strength.

• Omega and Abaddon recognized each other amid the wreckage but could not explain why they had been brought together.
• An explosion interrupted them, and Abaddon, Kaebo, Loken, and Torgaddon attacked Omega in a coordinated assault.
• Omega repelled the attackers, throwing Loken and Torgaddon aside, hurling Kaebo into a wall, and shrugging off their gunfire.
• Abaddon pressed Omega with a relentless series of Warhammer and Power Klaw attacks, eventually tearing a groove through Omega’s breastplate and wounding him.
• Omega stopped retreating, removed his helmet to reveal a face identical to Alpharius’s, and told Abaddon to be proud of his strength.

Abaddon fought Omega across the Bridge and refused to surrender despite suffering grievous wounds. As Omega’s spear was about to strike Abaddon’s skull, Horus’s familiar voice rang out and someone shoved Abaddon aside.

• Abaddon charged Omega again, and the two exchanged rapid blows across the Bridge.
• Omega repeatedly wounded Abaddon with his spear, but Abaddon kept attacking despite his injuries.
• Omega urged Abaddon to surrender, but Abaddon declared his loyalty and charged once more.
• Omega thrust his spear toward Abaddon’s skull, but Horus’s voice called to him and someone shoved him aside.

Omega abandoned his fight with Abaddon to confront the Space Wolves fleet attacking the Gungnir’s flank. Abaddon ordered his warriors to board and support Leman Russ, who led the Space Wolves in an assault on the Gungnir.

• Omega narrowly missed Abaddon with a spear thrust, but Abaddon dodged at the last moment.
• Utio warned Omega that the Space Wolves had arrived on the Gungnir’s flank, and Omega turned to face them.
• The Alpha Legion warriors withdrew from the warship, and Abaddon ordered Kaebo, Loken, Torgaddon, and the others to board and support Leman Russ.
• Leman Russ commanded the Space Wolves to prepare to board as the Hrafnkel charged toward the Gungnir.
• As the Hrafnkel came under fire, Russ ordered his warriors to follow him and strode toward the boarding pod.