Recaps

Lorgar destroyed the Aeldari Phantom Titan and hurried toward Angron after hearing a warning about a trap capable of imprisoning a Primarch. He reached a vast hall inside the Craftworld, where Word Bearers, War Hounds, and Aeldari were still fighting beneath an immense ancient gate.

• Lorgar feared the Aeldari warning meant Angron was in danger and resolved to reach him after eliminating every threat from the Phantom Titan.
• Lorgar unleashed golden psychic energy through the Titan's wreckage, erasing it in a blinding explosion.
• The Glory of the Holy Word and other Imperial Titans saluted Lorgar, while Captain Gallagher called the destruction a miracle.
• Lorgar left the battlefield and followed the bloody trail of combat through the Craftworld.
• Lorgar arrived at a circular hall where Word Bearers, War Hounds, and Aeldari fought beneath a colossal gate.

Khârn and Hercules held the line against the Aeldari while Angron remained trapped behind a powerful psychic barrier. Lorgar arrived, learned of the ambush, and attacked the Aeldari psyker Ythirama, whose shield withstood his opening blow.

• Khârn and Hercules fought back to back, leading the War Hounds and Word Bearers against the Aeldari counterattack.
• A robed figure watched the battle from a wraithbone gallery without intervening.
• Lorgar appeared on the battlefield and demanded to know where Angron was.
• Khârn told Lorgar that Angron and his guards had been caught in a psychic trap deep inside the gallery, behind a barrier they could not break.
• Ythirama descended before Lorgar, but Lorgar attacked him before he could finish speaking.
• Ythirama formed a runic psychic shield that cracked under Lorgar's golden fist but did not shatter.

Ythirama revealed himself as the Craftworld’s chosen Child King and sacrificed his blood, life, and soul to summon the Khaine Shard. As its primal power shook the Temple, Shina Xinaniels strengthened the Craftworld’s shields, while Lorgar turned his attention toward rescuing Angron.

• Ythirama survived Lorgar’s blow and escaped into a shrine as Lorgar chose to seek information about Angron’s trap rather than pursue him.
• Ythirama revealed his role as the Child King, filled the Kriel Communion Chalice with his blood, and drank it before vanishing into Khaine’s shrine.
• The summoning unleashed immense psychic energy that shook the Temple and began warping reality around it.
• Lorgar sensed the ancient, savage presence entering the Temple and recognized that something was wrong.
• Shina Xinaniels mourned Ythirama, then poured her psychic energy into the Craftworld’s shields and raised a protective barrier around it.

Lorgar and the surviving Space Marines faced the Khaine Shard after it descended into the Temple, but conventional weapons failed to harm it. Lorgar disarmed the avatar and struck it with his Powered Maul, yet the Khaine Shard resisted and seized the weapon as its blood-red energy spread toward Lorgar.

• Lorgar sensed the Khaine Shard breaking through reality and rallied Khârn, Hercules, and the surviving warriors into defensive formations.
• The Khaine Shard crashed through the Temple dome, and the Space Marines' combined fire failed to penetrate its Psychic Flame.
• The avatar's landing shockwave hurled nearby warriors aside, and it swept its flaming Greatsword at Khârn and Hercules.
• Lorgar charged between Khârn and Hercules, knocked the Khaine Shard off balance, and grappled with it as their psychic energies clashed.
• Lorgar kicked the Greatsword away and brought his Powered Maul down on the avatar, driving it to one knee.
• The Khaine Shard forced the maul aside, seized its head, and spread blood-red psychic energy along it toward Lorgar's arm.

Lorgar overwhelmed the Khaine Shard in the Temple, first disarming and battering it with his mace before the weapon broke. He endured its desperate counterattack and beat the wounded incarnation into a motionless heap, while his brother remained trapped.

• Lorgar feinted with his grip, punched the off-balance Khaine Shard, and hurled it through the Temple’s wraithbone pillars.
• Lorgar kicked the Khaine Shard’s flaming greatsword out of reach and attacked it with his Mace, targeting its vulnerable joints and head.
• Lorgar’s Mace snapped, allowing the Khaine Shard to punch him in the face, but he stayed on his feet and taunted it.
• Lorgar struck both sides of the Khaine Shard’s head, tackled it to the floor, and pinned it beneath him.
• Lorgar repeatedly punched the Khaine Shard until its psychic energy dissipated and it stopped moving.

Lorgar recovered from the Khaine Shard’s final attack, then healed Angron, Anglia, and the surviving War Hounds after they escaped an Aeldari ambush. As Angron recounted the slaughter, Lorgar resolved to confront Supreme Seer Xinaniels behind the sealed Giant Gate.

• Lorgar healed completely from the Khaine Shard’s final blow and discarded his broken Warhammer.
• Angron, Anglia, and several badly wounded War Hounds veterans emerged from a spatial rift beside Lorgar.
• Lorgar used golden psychic energy to stabilize Angron, Anglia, and the veterans.
• Angron described how Aeldari forces trapped his company in a warped labyrinth and killed nearly all of his warriors.
• Angron said he broke through the spatial barrier with a final furious strike and escaped with the survivors.
• Lorgar blamed Supreme Seer Xinaniels for the traps and turned his attention to the sealed Giant Gate.

Lorgar and Angron broke through the Giant Gate to reach the Aeldari seer Shina Xinaniels, who was powering a shield meant to trap the Imperium’s forces on the Craftworld. Their attack failed to stop her, and Lorgar’s defense began to crack under her escalating psychic assault.

• Gallagher warned Lorgar that a vast psychic barrier was forming around the Craftworld and would soon trap the landing forces.
• Lorgar and Angron destroyed the Giant Gate and found Shina Xinaniels channeling power into the barrier’s core.
• The Word Bearers and War Hounds fired on Shina, but the pillar of psychic energy deflected their attacks.
• Lorgar led Angron, Khârn, Hercules, and the surviving warriors in a charge against Shina.
• Shina unleashed a psychic tsunami that hurled many Legion veterans away, while Lorgar shielded the remaining fighters.
• Shina doubled her psychic power, and cracks spread across Lorgar’s golden shield.

Lorgar sacrificed his psychic shield and life force to bring down part of the Temple dome, distract Xinaniels, and reach her through the psychic pillar. He dragged her out of the beam, interrupting the ritual as they crashed onto the wraithbone floor.

• Lorgar ordered Angron, Hercules, Khârn, and the surviving warriors to hold against the psychic tsunami for one second after he dropped his shield.
• Angron, Hercules, Khârn, and the others linked together and endured the psychic assault while Lorgar used his energy and life force to strike the cracked dome.
• The falling wraithbone wreckage forced Xinaniels to divert her attention and psychic power to stop it.
• Lorgar exploited the brief lull, entered the psychic pillar, and seized Xinaniels despite the pillar burning his body.
• Lorgar hurled Xinaniels out of the pillar, interrupting the psychic beam as they fell onto the floor.

Lorgar recovered from Xinaniels’s attack and prepared to fight her, while Angron and his companions held back the Aeldari forces surrounding the Temple. Angron charged into the enemy ranks, buying Lorgar time to reach the Farseer.

• Shina rose from the ground and condemned Lorgar after the ritual failed, but Lorgar healed his burns with golden psychic energy and readied a broken Power Sword.
• Angron offered to help Lorgar, then Lorgar ordered him to hold off the Aeldari for ten minutes while he fought Xinaniels.
• Angron, Hercules, and Khârn formed a defensive line, while Anglia was ordered to guard the wounded.
• The Aeldari charged, and Angron counterattacked, using Howling Banshees as weapons and smashing through the enemy formation.
• Angron evaded focused fire, wielded a broken beam as a Warhammer, and used nearby debris and fallen Aeldari to keep slaughtering the attackers.

Lorgar fought Supreme Seer Xinaniels in the Temple while Angron and the others held the defensive line. He deceived her prophecy and landed a series of devastating blows, leaving her trapped in the wall as the battle continued.

• Lorgar and Xinaniels traded attacks and defenses, each using foresight to predict and counter the other's moves.
• Lorgar planted a false vision of a low sweeping kick in Xinaniels's mind, making her lower her guard against his punch.
• Lorgar's true punch shattered Xinaniels's psychic shield and struck her abdomen, then his follow-up blow drove her into a wraithbone wall.
• An Aeldari Bishop tried to break away from Hercules to rescue Xinaniels, but Hercules blocked the bishop's path.
• Lorgar struck Xinaniels again as she tried to pull herself free, smashing her deeper into the wall.

Lorgar defeated Supreme Seer Shina Xinaniels and killed her in a deliberately humiliating display, while Angron and Anglia held off the Aeldari warriors. The chapter left Shina's blood smeared down the Temple wall as a mark of the Imperium's victory.

• Angron slaughtered Aeldari attackers and protected the brothers behind him, while Anglia guarded the wounded from a Striking Scorpion ambush.
• Lorgar pulled the badly injured Shina Xinaniels from the crater in the Temple wall and rejected her warning that other Aeldari would seek revenge.
• Shina tried to stab Lorgar with a concealed psychic dagger, but he broke her wrist and crushed the weapon.
• Lorgar leaped from the Temple with Shina and ground her body against its outer wall, killing her and leaving a long smear of blood.
• Lorgar looked up at the bloody mark and told Shina to greet Erebus in the Warp.

The Aeldari destroyed their own Craftworld as Lorgar’s forces escaped, and Lorgar ordered the fleet toward its next target. Anglia survived his severe injuries and remained aboard the Law of Faith for treatment, briefly waking to beg that he not be put in a Dreadnought.

• After Supreme Seer Xinaniels fell, the Aeldari retreated while Angron evacuated wounded warriors and joined Lorgar’s transport.
• The Aeldari fleet bombarded and destroyed its own Craftworld after the Imperial vessels escaped.
• Lorgar ordered the fleet to its next target star cluster and warned that the Imperium would meet any pursuing Aeldari with its guns.
• Lorgar and Angron learned that Anglia had survived but suffered severe injuries, and they agreed he would recover aboard the Law of Faith.
• Angron assigned Khârn to manage First Company temporarily, and Anglia briefly woke during treatment to beg the Apothecary not to put him in a Dreadnought.

After the battle, Lorgar returned to the Bridge and discussed Anastasia’s habits and limited term of allegiance. The conversation ended as Lorgar turned his attention to choosing the Legion’s next target.

• Lorgar returned to the Bridge after seeing to Anglia’s treatment and confirming the fleet was underway.
• Anastasia explained that drinking coffee supported her sensory simulation and asked Lorgar how she should address him; he told her to call him Lorgar.
• Anastasia declared that she had set a maximum term of allegiance of five thousand Terran years, after which she would leave to pursue her own unfinished business.
• Lorgar questioned why Anastasia would put her own pursuits above humanity’s survival, and she challenged the idea that survival was the only worthwhile goal.
• Lorgar insisted that he and his Legion had no time for personal pursuits while human worlds remained oppressed, then began searching the Star Chart for their next target.

Lucius welcomed Sergeant Chelast and his Word Bearers squad aboard the Will of Eternity, where their shared swordsmanship record sparked a challenge to spar. Saul Tarvitz intervened and formally welcomed the squad, leaving their exchange mission ready to begin.

• Sergeant Chelast led nine Word Bearers through the Will of Eternity on an exchange mission ordered by Lorgar Aurelian.
• Lucius introduced himself as Fulgrim’s Sword Champion and welcomed the squad aboard.
• Chelast told Lucius that he had once won his Legion’s swordsmanship tournament, prompting Lucius to invite him to spar.
• Saul Tarvitz arrived, cautioned Lucius against troubling the guests, and formally welcomed the Word Bearers on behalf of the Tenth Company.

Lucius challenged Word Bearers Sergeant Chelast to a duel aboard the Will of Eternity, and the two fought to test their skill and build understanding between their Legions. Lucius defeated Chelast, then offered him wine in recognition of his worthy opponent.

• Lucius proposed a sparring match while the Word Bearers waited for their next assignment, and Chelast accepted.
• Lucius offered Chelast wine before the duel, but Chelast declined and chose a training longsword.
• Chelast opened with a fast thrust, but Lucius deflected it and pressed him with a series of elaborate attacks.
• Lucius ended the stalemate with a swift thrust, disarmed Chelast, and knocked him to the arena floor.
• Lucius acknowledged Chelast's tenacity, helped him up, and offered him wine after the bout.

Fulgrim arrived at the Duel Arena and welcomed Chelast’s Word Bearers as allies, then assigned Lucius to lead a joint mission against Xenos occupying a space station. The chapter left Lucius and the Word Bearers preparing to undertake their first operation together.

• Chelast accepted Lucius’s welcome after their duel, and the warriors’ rivalry eased over a shared drink.
• Tarvitz announced that Fulgrim had arrived, prompting the Emperor’s Children and the Word Bearers to prepare a formal welcome.
• Fulgrim greeted Chelast and his squad, acknowledging Lorgar’s plans for cooperation between their Legions.
• Fulgrim announced a joint purge of a Xenos-held space station and ordered Lucius and his squad to accompany the Word Bearers.
• Lucius accepted the assignment eagerly, and Fulgrim departed, leaving Tarvitz to coordinate the mission details.

Lucius, Tarvitz, and Chelast traveled aboard the Flames of Burning to investigate the silent Dawn station, where scans showed no damage despite a reported nonhuman biological signal. The station’s communications officer claimed everything was normal and invited them to dock, leaving the Astartes wary but needing to board and investigate.

• Tarvitz briefed Lucius, Chelast, and the others that contact with Dawn had ceased after a brief nonhuman biological signal, and ordered a forced boarding and purge.
• The Flames of Burning approached Dawn and found its exterior intact, with its defensive weapons on standby and no evidence of battle.
• Lucius ordered the station hailed, and a calm voice from the communications center answered that all systems were functioning normally.
• The speaker identified himself as Major Mass and gave an identification code that matched the station database.
• Major Mass invited the Astartes to send a squad aboard, and Lucius, Tarvitz, and Chelast exchanged wary glances as they prepared to investigate.

Lucius and Chelast arrived at Dawn station, where the spotless order and unnaturally calm soldiers raised their suspicions. Lucius ordered a full inspection and sent Chelast to check the supply stores, while he continued toward the Command Room with Mass Major.

• Lucius and Chelast found Dawn station operating with unsettling perfection despite its recent communications blackout and biological-signal surge.
• Mass Major claimed all was well, but Lucius ordered the station inspected and its senior officers assembled in the Command Room.
• Chelast detected a faint, cloying scent in the air and agreed with Lucius that the station's cleanliness and silence were suspicious.
• Lucius sent Chelast and two Word Bearers Warriors to inspect food, water, and medical supplies, with the young Adjutant as their guide.
• Chelast and the two warriors followed the Adjutant toward the supply stores in Sector C-7 while Lucius continued with Mass Major.

Chelast investigated suspicious supplies in Dawn station's main storage depot and exposed the Adjutant as a xenos disguised as a human. After Chelast and his Word Bearers attacked, the depot's other disguised figures turned toward them.

• Chelast inspected pristine lasguns and nearly untouched ration crates, challenging the Adjutant about the garrison's supply records.
• The Adjutant faltered, and Chelast spotted an unnatural patch beneath his collar.
• Chelast stabbed the Adjutant, whose wound oozed dark yellow sap instead of blood, and accused him of being a xenos.
• The two Word Bearers shot several workers and soldiers, revealing sap inside their bodies.
• The remaining figures stopped working and turned in unison to face Chelast and his warriors.

Lucius exposed and attacked the xenos mimics on the bridge while Chelast and two squadmates fought their way out of the storage depot. With their transport destroyed and communications jammed, the squad was trapped on the station and tried to regroup with Lucius.

• Chelast warned Lucius that the storage depot guards were xenos, and Lucius killed Major Maas, whose body burst into green slime.
• Lucius shot five disguised soldiers as they raised their Lasguns, revealing more xenos mimics on the bridge.
• Chelast realized the xenos might have access to the station's systems and warned the transport ship to depart.
• Station autocannons destroyed the transport ship, and jamming prevented Chelast from contacting the Battle Barge Flame's Pyre.
• Chelast and his two squadmates fought toward the depot doors, and one warrior destroyed a charging Engineering Mech with a Melta Grenade.
• The three escaped into the station corridors to seek out Lucius, still isolated and surrounded by danger.

Lucius led sixteen Space Marines through the station, cutting down swarms of xenos puppets while communications remained jammed. After killing 1,313 enemies, he charged a group of Leman Russ tanks and destroyed the first one, then rushed toward the remaining tanks.

• Lucius and the Space Marines fought their way through the station corridors as Techmarine Torres reported that static blocked all contact with the warship.
• Lucius killed 1,313 puppets, and the squad paused briefly after clearing the corridor.
• Several Leman Russ tanks emerged through a gate and aimed their guns at the Space Marines.
• Lucius dodged the tanks' fire, reached the first tank's flank, and split its turret-hull joint with his Power Sword, causing it to explode.
• Lucius turned toward the two remaining tanks and charged them.

Chelast and two Word Bearers fought through the station’s shifting corridors while pursued by relentless puppets. When their route was blocked, Chelast breached the wall with a Melta Bomb and pressed onward toward another partition.

• Chelast and his comrades raced through the corridors, fighting puppets as they tried to reach Lucius’s main force.
• Dres discovered that the schematics showed a corridor behind a seamless wall, but the route was blocked.
• Dres scanned the station and found that its walls and passages were changing, making their map useless.
• Chelast threw a Frag Grenade to clear pursuers, then attached a Melta Bomb to the blocked wall and detonated it.
• Chelast crossed the breach into another corridor and headed toward a second partition with another Melta Bomb.

Chelast rejoined Lucius’s force at the station’s energy core, where they fought seemingly endless xenos copies. After a dying Adjutant pleaded to be killed and burst into blood mist, Chelast deduced that a controlling consciousness was eliminating unstable copies, and Lucius proposed finding its central mind.

• Chelast and two Word Bearers forced their way through the station’s shifting bulkheads and regrouped with Lucius’s warriors under attack at the energy core.
• A wounded Adjutant Chelast had previously stabbed grabbed him, begged him to kill him, then exploded into green blood mist.
• Chelast told Lucius that the attackers were copies controlled by a central consciousness and might carry memories and skills taken from their victims.
• Lucius, Techmarine Torres, and the other Space Marines agreed to search for the controlling entity, while Chelast remained uneasy about the station.

A violent spatial shift revealed that the space station was a living xenos organism, which separated Techmarine Torres from Lucius and the others and killed him. Lucius and Chelast fought off its replicas and tentacles as the station transformed around them into a vast living organ.

• The station twisted space and transported Lucius, Chelast, and the warriors to a chamber covered in pulsing organic tubes.
• Lucius realized the station itself was alive, and it produced lifeless replicas that attacked them.
• Techmarine Torres's mutilated body fell from the ceiling, and Lucius warned that the station was separating them to hunt them individually.
• Lucius charged the replicas and rallied the Emperor's Children and Word Bearers to fight to the death.
• A tentacle attacked Lucius, but Chelast shoved him aside and blasted two more tentacles with his Bolt Pistol.
• The station shed its disguise as flesh overtook the steel walls and floor, surrounding the warriors with surging green slime.

Lucius and Chelast regained communications with Tarvitz and led their squad toward an emergency evacuation transport through the shifting, living station. The station’s attacks intensified, and the survivors continued fleeing as their pursuers mutated and closed in.

• Lucius told Tarvitz that the station was a living xenos trap and demanded an evacuation transport followed by a bombardment.
• Tarvitz dispatched a second transport to docking point G-6945 and sent the squad a recalculated route based on real-time scans.
• Lucius stayed behind briefly to throw a plasma grenade at the pursuing Tentacles, then fired on survivors as the squad ran.
• A Tentacle-driven spike impaled an Emperor's Children warrior, who detonated his Melta Bomb to destroy the wall creature and buy the squad time.
• Chelast urged the survivors onward and fought off the pursuing duplicates as vines emerged from their bodies and their movements grew more inhuman.