Recaps

Angron tore through the city and breached a sealed iron door, discovering millions of people imprisoned in glass cages. After Lorgar found a child and called for medical aid, Angron renewed his resolve to save the captives and punish those responsible.

• Angron rampaged through the city while the War Hounds followed behind him, clearing the resistance he left in his wake.
• Angron punched through a heavy iron door and entered a vast space filled with millions of people confined in glass boxes.
• Angron and the arriving Lorgar, Khârn, and Primarch Guard saw the prisoners staring silently at them.
• Lorgar broke open a glass box, lifted an unconscious girl, and ordered someone to bring the medical team.
• Angron vowed to kill the heretics responsible, and Lorgar urged him to continue toward the other people who needed rescuing.

Company Captain Paulus fell through a collapsing platform into a vast underground chamber and discovered a huge white machine. Archmagos Lucasstro followed him down and identified it as a lost Standard Template Construct.

• Paulus guarded Archmagos Lucasstro's Mechanicus expedition as it excavated ancient ruins.
• The platform beneath Paulus cracked and collapsed, sending him falling into darkness.
• Paulus landed in an enormous underground chamber and found a smooth, white spherical machine nearly twenty meters tall.
• Lucasstro descended on a lowering rig, rushed to Paulus, and declared the machine a lost STC.

Archmagos Lucasstro activated the ancient STC and discovered a blueprint for a heavily armed main battle tank. He told Company Captain Paulus that the weapon would be named by him and issued first to the Word Bearers' Imperialis Militia.

• Archmagos Lucasstro approached the white sphere while Company Captain Paulus watched.
• Lucasstro touched the sphere, awakening it and causing it to open and project a control console and holographic screen.
• Lucasstro examined the interface and recognized its data as a weapon production blueprint.
• Lucasstro translated the tank schematic and ordered personnel outside to bring in metal.
• Lucasstro told Paulus that he could name the weapon and that it would be issued first to the Word Bearers' Imperialis Militia.

Archmagos Lucasstro activated an ancient STC production line and watched it transform scrap into a new Tank. Meanwhile, Lorgar and Angron led the Imperial assault on the Healing Brotherhood’s last defenses, and Lorgar smashed open the Jade Hall’s Giant Gate.

• Lucasstro activated the underground STC production line and ordered it to build a standard-template vehicle from scrap.
• The production line assembled a fully operational Tank with a heavy Railgun in ten seconds.
• The Imperial Army bombarded the Healing Brotherhood’s final Defense Line as Lorgar led the Word Bearers forward and Angron charged into enemy ranks.
• Lorgar struck the Temple’s Giant Gate with his psychic-charged Mace, shattering the weapon and cracking the doors.
• The Giant Gate collapsed inward, opening the Temple to the Imperial Army.

Lorgar and Angron entered the Brotherhood leader’s hall, where Lorgar killed him without allowing him to speak and declared that heretics should be killed. Afterward, Lorgar dealt with news of Paulus’s STC tank and returned to training, while the Emperor and Malcador watched and considered how to respond if Lorgar became a threat.

• Angron, Skolzne, and Lorgar broke through the temple’s defenses and reached the Brotherhood leader seated alone on an emerald Throne.
• Lorgar hurled a Power Spear through the Brotherhood leader, then told Angron that heretics were not worthy of speaking to them and should be killed.
• Lorgar promised to find Vulkan or Ferrus Manus to forge Angron a weapon and left officers to handle the aftermath.
• Archmagos Lucasstro told Lorgar that Paulus had obtained an STC Template and named its tank the Aurelian Heavy Tank; Lucasstro had already taken the Template aboard the Ark Mechanicus.
• Lorgar returned to his warship to practice combat skills and consider getting custom weapons made.
• The Emperor and Malcador watched Lorgar, discussed the Primarchs forming their own circles, and agreed to wait while keeping the First Legion as a possible response.

Hercules prepared for the eighteenth and final implantation procedure needed to become a Space Marine neophyte. The Progenoid Gland implantation began as he slept in the cultivation chamber, while the chapter explained the Word Bearers’ careful, anesthetized approach to enhancement surgery.

• Hercules stood ready for his eighteenth procedure as Frank and the Apothecary offered support and instructions.
• The Apothecary described the procedure as the final step in Hercules’s transformation and opened the cultivation chamber.
• Hercules entered the chamber, grasped its handrails, and was submerged in life-sustaining fluid.
• Sedatives lulled Hercules to sleep as he listened to the hymns of the monks outside the laboratory.
• The Apothecary began Hercules’s Progenoid Gland implantation and activation protocol.
• The chapter explained that Lorgar required the Word Bearers to use anesthesia and sterile conditions to minimize needless suffering and deaths during surgery.

Hercules’s gene-seed implantation went wrong when his body violently rejected it, forcing the Apothecaries to halt the surgery and rush him to emergency treatment. He left the genetics laboratory unconscious and barely alive.

• The Legion Apothecary began Hercules’s augmentation surgery and successfully implanted the gene-seed in his chest.
• A rejection alarm sounded as Hercules’s genetic compatibility failed, and he convulsed while blood filled the life-support fluid.
• The Apothecary and Servitors injected drugs to slow the rejection, leaving Hercules unconscious with only faint signs of life.
• The Master Apothecary terminated the procedure, and Servitors carried Hercules toward the highest-level treatment room.
• Frank and the others entered the laboratory and found the cultivation chamber broken and its handrails crushed.

Hercules fought through a hallucination of his family transforming into monsters and woke in the hospital after five days unconscious. The Apothecary was left alone with him and asked what he had seen.

• Hercules saw his family on Colchis, but they transformed into grotesque monsters that attacked him.
• Hercules fought and killed the monsters, grieving as he tore apart the illusion of his loved ones.
• Hercules woke abruptly and accidentally struck Frank with his forehead, sending him several meters away.
• Frank told Hercules that he had been unconscious for five days and that everyone else had completed the eighteenth surgery.
• The Apothecary sent Frank and Perseus away, then asked Hercules what he had seen.

Hercules learned that the gene-seed rejection had left him with powerful emotional memories and a dramatic physical mutation. After he crushed an alloy rod with ease, the Apothecary estimated his strength at around one hundred tons and took him to test it against a Dreadnought before his nineteenth surgery.

• Hercules recalled hallucinating that he had killed his family, and the Apothecary explained that the gene-seed rejection had mutated his genetics and amplified his retained memories of Colchis.
• The Apothecary described Hercules's emotions as a possible defect, but urged him to test the strength his mutation had granted him.
• Hercules casually snapped a high-strength alloy rod in two, stunning the Apothecary.
• The Apothecary estimated Hercules's strength at around one hundred tons and said he would need weapons made by another Legion.
• Hercules followed the Apothecary to the training ground, where a Dreadnought was waiting before Hercules's nineteenth surgery.

Apothecary Norskar arranged a strength test between Hercules, a newly inducted Battle-Brother from Colchis, and Chaplain Skranchi in his Dreadnought. Hercules left the test grounds having ripped a towing ring and armor plating from Skranchi’s machine, revealing strength far beyond Norskar’s expectations.

• Norskar awakened Chaplain Skranchi and told him that Novan and Rass, his former comrades, had died.
• Norskar introduced Hercules and explained that a genetic mutation had given him extraordinary strength.
• Norskar attached a heavy chain between Hercules and Skranchi’s Dreadnought and began the strength test.
• Hercules pulled against Skranchi’s thrusters, then tore the Dreadnought’s towing ring and surrounding armor free.
• Skranchi remarked on the strength of people from Colchis, while Norskar studied the readings and recognized how powerful Hercules was.

Lorgar received reports on the expeditionary fleets and addressed tensions between the Legion’s Terran and Colchis-born Space Marines. He set the Legion’s faith policy and arranged exchanges with the Legions whose Primarchs had agreed.

• Lorgar ordered Hercules to undergo intense training after learning that a genetic mutation had greatly increased his strength.
• Sask reported that the 83rd Expeditionary Fleet had conquered 143 planets, while Gorn reported that the 95th had destroyed 64 xenos civilizations.
• Balax warned Lorgar that Terran Space Marines resented the coming arrival of the first Colchis-born recruits.
• Lorgar told the Legion to place the Emperor’s ideas at its core and set aside other questions of faith for now.
• Lorgar decided to send one company to each Legion whose Primarch had agreed to exchange units for mutual learning.

Lorgar tried to rest, but Chaplain Mathieu mistook his idleness for deep contemplation and ordered the guards not to disturb him. Meanwhile, Company Captain Menoetius began Hercules’s special combat training by trapping him in a cage with an activated Combat Servitor.

• Lorgar handed the expeditionary fleet’s affairs to Rockefeller and returned to his room to relax.
• Chaplain Mathieu found Lorgar lounging, assumed he was contemplating the Imperium, and told the guards to let him rest.
• Company Captain Menoetius brought Hercules to a reinforced training room and placed him inside a steel cage.
• Menoetius activated the Combat Servitor’s enemy elimination mode and told Hercules to survive for ten minutes or destroy it.

Hercules destroyed a Training Robot with his bare hands, but Menoetius then sent three faster machines against him and left him badly injured. While Apothecary Norskar treated him, Skranchi joked about Hercules someday becoming a Dreadnought.

• Hercules tore through the H-30 Training Robot's armor, shattered its Power Klaw, and destroyed its Sensors, disabling it.
• Menoetius released three larger Training Robots and offered to recommend Hercules as his Adjutant if he defeated them.
• The three Training Robots overwhelmed Hercules and blasted him out of the cage into a wall.
• Apothecary Norskar treated Hercules, while Skranchi joked about him becoming a Dreadnought and recommended a Contemptor over a Saturn.

Hercules followed a punishing daily training and medical routine, then used his brief free time to read an archived account of the Battle of Colonius. Frank interrupted him and called him to eat, leaving the account unfinished.

• Menoetius battered Hercules in daily training, and Norskar treated his injuries while Skranchi urged him to become a Dreadnought.
• Hercules spent his recuperation time in the archive searching for records about Menoetius.
• Hercules found an eyewitness account describing how the Word Bearers purged the worlds of the Colonius Sector after psychic heretics ambushed a reconnaissance fleet.
• Ethon's account said the Word Bearers bombarded the rebel worlds, fought through psychic storms and mind-controlled assaults, and destroyed the remaining resistance.
• Frank startled Hercules, asked what he was reading, and summoned him to eat.

Hercules visited the Battle Barge Edict of Truth’s mess hall with Frank and struggled with the Space Marines’ dense, overly sweet food. When a parasite burst from an Ant Bull steak and attacked Frank, Hercules killed it, then ordered the contaminated meat returned to the kitchen for high-temperature processing.

• At Frank’s recommendation, Hercules went to the mess hall after relying on Apothecary Norskar’s nutrient solution throughout his grueling training.
• Hercules tasted a standard energy brick and found its concentrated sweetness nearly unbearable, while Frank ate his portion without complaint.
• Hercules asked a Servitor for roast meat or bread, and it brought him Norn hard marching bread and a roasted Ant Bull steak.
• When Frank prodded the steak, a long parasite burst from it and lunged at his face.
• Hercules threw a table knife that killed the parasite, then told the Servitor to return the meat for high-temperature processing and bring him three more portions of Norn bread.

Menoetius sent Hercules into a cage to fight three Ant Bulls as a test of impact resistance and strength. Hercules killed one and wounded another, then faced the remaining two beasts.

• Menoetius told Hercules to meet him in the training room and revealed that his opponent would be an Ant Bull.
• Menoetius kicked Hercules into a cage, released one brown Ant Bull, and dropped two mutated blue Ant Bulls into the arena.
• Hercules dodged the brown Ant Bull's charge, broke a blue Ant Bull's hind leg, and blocked another beast's strike with his fists.
• Hercules killed the injured blue Ant Bull with three punches.
• Hercules slid beneath the charging brown Ant Bull and tore open its belly, leaving it and the last blue Ant Bull alive.

Hercules killed the three Ant Bulls in the training cage, demonstrating his immense strength and completing his impact-resistance training. Menoetius named him the Strangler, and the Terra-born Word Bearers veterans cheered him.

• Hercules shattered the wounded brown Ant Bull’s forelimb and tore its head from its body.
• Hercules tripped the blue Ant Bull, then killed the brown Behemoth by crushing its neck and ripping off its head.
• Hercules killed the final blue Ant Bull by tearing out its heart.
• Menoetius congratulated Hercules and declared his new name to be the Strangler.
• Terra-born Word Bearers veterans gathered outside the arena and chanted Hercules’s name.

Underhive miners uncovered an immense black-metal structure deep beneath Vanado Hive City, and a mining pick striking it activated a destructive system. As the chapter ended, the structure began tearing apart and consuming the mine’s machinery and metal.

• Donas dismissed a young miner’s concerns about abnormal pressure and vibration readings and led the crew down to the mining zone.
• Miners uncovered a smooth black-metal structure covered in incomprehensible symbols in a side passage.
• A miner’s pick struck the structure, releasing a pulse that made metal objects and machinery disintegrate into black dust.
• The black dust streamed into the structure, which absorbed it and began activating with a deafening roar.
• The structure’s symbols glowed red as its suction intensified, pulling nearby mining machines apart and consuming them.

Imperial forces failed to stop the metal-devouring machines unleashed by the awakened Xenos Factory, and Vanado Hive City fell under attack from within. The black tide spread across the planet, beginning a catastrophe on a star-system scale.

• The officer ordered the Imperialis Militia to bombard the mine, but the black haze consumed their metal projectiles and expanded.
• The black tide released swarms of war machines that overwhelmed the defenders, prompting the officer to order the mine sealed and poison gas pumped inside despite the trapped miners.
• A colossal underground drill opened a vast breach beneath the Hive City and sent more machines and Nanocloud toward its densely populated center.
• Imperial soldiers, Arbites, and noble troops formed a Defense Line in the Middle Hive while an officer called for Valkyrie Gunships to bomb his position.
• The plasma bombardment briefly drove back the machines, but the black tide surged on, consuming the Hive City and spreading across the planet.

Ship Captain Cassius ordered Exterminatus on Derrick, but the Xenos Factory consumed the Planet and overwhelmed the Fleet. After waking from a seventy-two-hour sleep, Lorgar saw Astartes fighting the black mist and was approached by the Adeptus Custodes.

• Ship Captain Cassius ordered Cyclonic Torpedoes and a Virus Bomb fired at Derrick, igniting a global inferno.
• Scans revealed that the Xenos Factory's core remained intact and was draining energy from the Planet's core.
• The Xenos Factory transformed Derrick into a black metal sphere and sent torrents of nanometal to engulf the Fleet, destroying the ships and killing Cassius.
• The black Planet moved toward another Planet and extended its nanometal to consume it.
• Lorgar awoke after seventy-two hours and watched a projection of Astartes fighting the black mist.
• Several figures in golden armor appeared before Lorgar, identified as the Imperium's Adeptus Custodes.

Lorgar received the Emperor’s order to join a major campaign against a destructive threat ravaging Ultramar, and he dispatched forces while Angron pledged to support him. Hercules continued weapons training aboard a Battle Barge until an announcement ordered the ship to the battlefield.

• Hermes delivered the Emperor’s Edict ordering the Word Bearers to join the Ultramarines, Iron Warriors, Salamanders, and Adeptus Custodes against a threat in Ultramar.
• Lorgar sent Seras and more than a thousand warriors toward Ultramar while ordering Rockefeller to continue the Expeditionary Force’s advance and summon reinforcements.
• Angron told Khârn and Skolzne to muster troops and declared that he would back Lorgar in battle.
• Hercules trained with several weapons, and a Plasma Pistol burst while he was practicing, nearly injuring his hand.
• The Battle Barge’s announcement system ordered the ship to proceed to the battlefield immediately.

Hercules and the Recruits prepared to fight alongside the Legion as the Primarchs gathered aboard the Iron Blood to plan their assault on an enemy fortress system. Perturabo described the enemy’s vast, rapidly growing forces, leaving the commanders to determine how to stop them.

• Menoetius equipped Hercules with a Volkite Pistol and warned the Recruits that many might die in the battle.
• Skranchi told Hercules to stay behind him, while the Legion and its awakened Dreadnoughts prepared to fight for their Primarch and the Imperium.
• Menoetius gave Hercules a disruption-field Power Sword forged from the teeth of monsters Hercules had killed.
• Lorgar and the other Primarchs arrived aboard the Iron Blood and were escorted by Frix to the command conference.
• Perturabo explained that the enemy had consumed fifteen inhabited planets, fielded hundreds of millions of units, and could produce more at an extraordinary rate.

Perturabo assembled Guilliman, Vulkan, Lorgar, Angron, their Legions, and supporting forces to plan a campaign against the enemy, including destroying resource sites and rescuing trapped Space Marine companies. On a besieged world, Ultramarines Captain Harris and his dwindling company continued fighting the self-repairing Constructs while awaiting reinforcements.

• Guilliman, Vulkan, and Lorgar reported the forces they had brought, and Lorgar revealed he had thirty thousand Astartes, more than a hundred Imperialis Militia units, and over a hundred capital ships.
• Angron said he had brought two thousand legionaries, and Perturabo estimated that roughly eighty thousand Space Marines were fighting across the battlefield.
• Perturabo proposed destroying 160 Planets to deny the enemy resources, forming a defensive cordon, and then rescuing the companies trapped on several worlds; Lorgar, Angron, Guilliman, and Vulkan supported the plan.
• Ultramarines Captain Harris warned Sergeant Andreas of an incoming beam as their company fought a vast swarm of armed Constructs at the ruined Iron Ring position.
• Harris ordered his warriors to concentrate fire on the Constructs’ weak points after seeing them repair themselves with other Constructs’ material, while his force dwindled below eighty Astartes.
• Harris urged his warriors to fight to the death for Macragge and Ultramar as they awaited reinforcements.

Company Captain Harris's forces repelled the Constructs' assaults, including an underground attack, before a humanoid Construct appeared and resisted their concentrated fire. Harris charged it and struck with his Power Fist, but the blow sank into its head as black nanobots crawled up his arm.

• Company Captain Harris ordered the company to focus its energy weapons on the attacking Constructs, while Rhys directed the Deimos tanks to target the largest threats.
• A centipede-like drill Construct erupted beneath the command post, and a Leman Russ commander rammed it into the shaft before detonating his ammunition.
• Imperium engineers sealed the shaft with explosives, Meltaguns, and plasma cutters.
• Company Captain Harris sensed a mortal threat and spotted a humanoid Construct that spoke the word “Human.”
• The defenders concentrated their fire on the humanoid Construct, but it remained unharmed, so Harris charged it as Adjutant Watson and the others provided cover.
• Harris struck the Construct's head with his Power Fist, which sank into it as black nanobots crawled up his arm.

Imperial reinforcements rescued the surrounded Ultramarines and swept the Constructs from the planet. After the survivors evacuated, the Iron Warriors destroyed the planet from its core, while Company Captain Paulus wondered why he had said he had saved the Ultramarines “again.”

• Company Captain Harris blasted off his infected right arm with his Volkite Pistol to stop the nanobots from consuming him.
• Ten Fire Falcon gunships attacked the Constructs with missiles and Rust Bombs, while Word Bearers emerged from Storm Eagles and cut down the weakened enemies with energy weapons.
• Iron Warriors and World Eaters joined the assault, and the Imperial forces drove the remaining Constructs from the planet.
• A Word Bearers Apothecary treated Harris as Company Captain Paulus arrived and called out that he had come to save the Ultramarines again.
• The Ultramarines evacuated aboard transports while the Iron Warriors planted machines to destroy the Planetary Core, then detonated them after everyone had left.