Recaps

Chelast learned that the monster on Dawn station imprisoned the souls of its victims and chose to stay behind to destroy its core. Lucius joined him, while Tarvitz evacuated the other survivors aboard the Transport Ship.

• Chelast glimpsed the young adjutant among the replicas, then continued toward the extraction point as the voices of suffering grew clearer.
• Chelast reached the Transport Ship and saw a vision revealing how the alien organism had taken over Dawn station and trapped its victims' souls.
• Chelast turned away from the boarding ramp and vowed to destroy the soul-imprisoning monster.
• Lucius leaped from the Transport Ship to join Chelast, ordering Tarvitz to take the others away.
• Chelast and Lucius stood back to back and advanced against the surging replicas and vines.

Lucius and Chelast fought through the station’s living defenses as Chelast felt the torment of the souls trapped inside and unleashed his fury against the xenos abomination. They reached the lower deck, where a corridor packed with vine-covered replicas blocked their way.

• The station attacked Lucius and Chelast with a mass of shadowy vines, and the two warriors fought their way toward its core.
• Chelast used his Plasma Pistol to blast through the vines while Lucius precisely cut down anything that got past him.
• Chelast sensed the imprisoned souls’ pain and heard their pleas for release, driving him to fight with greater fury.
• The pair descended to the lower deck and found a second wave of vine-covered replicas filling the corridor.

Chelast and Lucius fought through the living space station to reach its core, where they discovered a colossal flesh-and-vine Tree producing replicas and imprisoning countless souls. Chelast identified the Tree as the source of the suffering and prepared to confront it.

• Chelast and Lucius cut through waves of replicas and vines as they followed the powerful psychic fluctuations toward the station's core.
• They used grenades to break through the vines and Chelast blasted open a metal door with his last Melta Bomb.
• The two Astartes entered a vast cavern and found an enormous Tree rooted throughout the station.
• They saw brain-like objects hanging from the Tree's branches, desiccated corpses at its roots, and new replicas crawling from its tissue.
• Chelast sensed the source of the suffering in the Tree's trunk and said they had found it.

Chelast and Lucius tried to destroy the Tree at the station’s core, but its defenses disarmed and trapped them. Chelast charged the trunk, where a psychic blast froze him and drew the corrupted minds toward him, engulfing him in hallucinations.

• Chelast aimed his Plasma Pistol at the Tree while Lucius prepared a Frag Grenade, but hidden vines knocked away Chelast’s gun and bound his legs.
• A vine struck Lucius’s sword wrist, disarming him as the living floor trapped his legs.
• Lucius fought off the attacking vines with his fists and called for Chelast to act.
• Chelast charged the Tree with his Chainsword, dragging the flesh that held his legs toward the trunk.
• The Tree unleashed a psychic blast that froze Chelast, and the hanging brains focused their power on him, flooding his senses with hallucinations.

Chelast was trapped in an illusion that made him relive his childhood and face a false God-Emperor. Recognizing the xenos deception, he broke through the illusion with his fury and struck at the golden figure.

• Chelast awoke in his childhood body and found his long-dead mother beside him.
• His mother led him to a city-state square where the crowd worshipped a golden figure as the God-Emperor.
• Chelast spotted Mass's adjutant among the worshippers and realized the scene was an illusion created by the xenos.
• The false Emperor demanded that Chelast kneel, provoking him to denounce the deception as blasphemy.
• Chelast unleashed his psychic strength and warrior's resolve, then punched the approaching golden figure.

Chelast escaped the Xenos Tree’s illusion and discovered that attacking its core could free the souls trapped inside it. Facing a swarm of vines, he armed explosives against the Tree while Lucius fled to seal the chamber, leaving Chelast alone with the Hive Mind.

• Chelast broke free of the illusion and crushed a vine that had tried to pierce his Helmet.
• Chelast realized the Tree used illusions to imprison its victims’ souls, then damaged its trunk with his Chainsword and freed several souls.
• The Tree’s vines attacked Chelast, and he found an Incendiary Bomb in the Adjutant’s hand.
• Chelast threatened the Tree with the bomb and ordered Lucius to throw him every explosive and escape to shut the door.
• Lucius gave Chelast two Frag Grenades and a Plasma Grenade, then ran for the exit while Chelast pressed the explosives against the Tree’s trunk.

Chelast destroyed the giant Tree at the heart of the space station, freeing the souls it had imprisoned. After declaring their release, he collapsed unconscious amid the flames.

• Chelast forced an Incendiary Bomb into the Tree’s wounded trunk and hurled grenades at the surrounding vines, setting the core chamber ablaze.
• Chelast severed the Tree’s burning vines and cut the connections linking the desiccated corpses to its trunk, resolving to take the dead home.
• The fire reached the station’s Ammunition storage room, triggering a massive explosion that spread the inferno through the chamber.
• Chelast removed his Helmet, stabbed the burning trunk with his combat Dagger, and proclaimed that he was releasing the hundred thousand imprisoned souls.
• Chelast saw the souls rise beneath immense wings of fire, then lost consciousness from his injuries, exhaustion, heat, and lack of oxygen.

Chelast awoke after three days unconscious following the destruction of Dawn space station, where he had freed its hundred thousand people from their xenos captors. He remained uncertain whether the liberated souls had truly protected him from the explosion, but chose to believe they had as he silently thanked them.

• Chelast drifted through darkness until the liberated souls of Dawn space station lifted his consciousness toward a golden light.
• Adjutant Mass saluted Chelast and helped push him toward the light with the other souls.
• Chelast woke in a Medical Pod, where Lucius and Saul Tarvitz told him he had been unconscious for three days.
• Lucius explained that Chelast had survived the station's destruction in a sheltered section of wreckage, while his armor and the surrounding area showed little damage.
• Chelast remembered the souls shielding him from the explosion but told Lucius it might have been luck.
• Tarvitz said the follow-up fleet had purged and scanned the wreckage, then left Chelast to rest as he silently thanked the dead.

Anastasia explored the Word Bearers' flagship while Lorgar received the Emperor's summons to return to Terra with the special creation he had recovered. Lorgar took Anastasia and two officers with him, leaving Rockefeller in command of the expeditionary Fleet as they departed for Holy Terra.

• Anastasia admired the Word Bearers' paintings and observed that their Legion's culture centered on narratives of Lorgar's achievements.
• Hermes told Lorgar that the Emperor ordered him to return to Terra and bring the recovered creation for a personal discussion.
• Lorgar assigned Rockefeller command of the expeditionary Fleet and ordered him to avoid large-scale conflicts without direct authorization.
• Lorgar selected Hercules and Seras to accompany him to Terra.
• Anastasia entered the strategy room, and Lorgar told her she would meet the Emperor.
• Lorgar, Anastasia, Hermes, Hercules, and Seras boarded a Battle Barge and set off at maximum speed for Holy Terra.

Lorgar and his companions arrived at the Imperial Palace on Terra and climbed the monumental staircase to meet Valdor at the Golden Gate. Valdor opened the way into the inner precincts but would not say whether the Emperor was waiting for them.

• Lorgar, Hercules, Seras, and Anastasia landed at the Imperial Palace after traveling through the Warp.
• Lorgar led the group up the palace staircase, and Hercules regained his composure after Lorgar urged him to hold his head high.
• The group reached the Golden Gate, where Valdor stood waiting and briefly regarded Anastasia.
• Lorgar greeted Valdor and asked whether the Emperor was waiting, but Valdor refused to disclose that information.
• The Golden Gate opened, and Lorgar beckoned his companions to follow him inside.

Lorgar was summoned to meet the Emperor on Terra and was ordered to leave his companions behind. After meeting the Emperor in a private chamber, Lorgar followed him to the Imperial Palace garden, uncertain why he had been called.

• A Custodian and a Sister of Silence stopped Lorgar and ordered him to meet the Emperor alone.
• Lorgar told Hercules, Seras, and Anastasia to wait, then followed the Custodian through the palace to a private chamber.
• Lorgar entered the chamber and saw the Emperor, whose psychic presence shaped how Lorgar perceived him.
• The Emperor called him Lorgar and denied that the Men of Iron were the reason for the summons.
• The Emperor invited Lorgar to the garden, and Lorgar followed him there.

The Emperor questioned Lorgar about his loyalty, his view of faith, and his true origins. Lorgar answered that he served humanity and denied that the Emperor or Primarchs were gods, then left with permission to take Anastasia after the palace Tech-Priests backed up her core data.

• The Emperor asked what Lorgar fought for, and Lorgar declared his loyalty to humanity rather than the Imperium.
• The Emperor asked whether Lorgar considered him or the other Primarchs gods, and Lorgar described faith as a tool and denied their divinity.
• The Emperor asked where Lorgar truly came from, and Lorgar answered that he came from Colchis.
• The Emperor told Lorgar to have the palace Tech-Priests back up Anastasia's core data, then continue the Great Crusade.
• After Lorgar left, Malcador told the Emperor that Lorgar was fine except for occasionally thinking strange things.

Lorgar left the Emperor’s palace with Anastasia, Hercules, and Seras and ordered an immediate departure from Terra. Aboard the Battle Barge in the Warp, he reconsidered the Emperor’s questions and remained uncertain about what the Emperor knew of his origins.

• Anastasia examined a Custodian until Lorgar called her away, ending the tense encounter.
• Lorgar told Hercules and Seras that everything was settled and ordered them to leave Terra immediately.
• Captain-General Valdor watched as Lorgar and his companions boarded their transport, while Malcador met his operative Nagase Yasu.
• After the Battle Barge entered the Warp, Lorgar replayed his conversation with the Emperor and questioned why the Emperor had not pursued his evasive answer about where he came from.
• Lorgar considered whether the Emperor accepted him, planned to use him, or had another purpose, but found no reassuring explanation.

Major Doram endured the brutal heat at the 48th Colchis Auxiliary Army garrison and reflected on the generous provisions Lorgar secured for his soldiers. As Rom returned with reassignment orders from the Departmento Munitorum, Doram hoped the unit would be sent somewhere cooler.

• Doram recalled being rejected from the Interstellar Space Marine training camp and rising from private to major in a year.
• Nagins told Doram that Rom had gone to the Departmento Munitorum post to collect reassignment orders.
• Doram reflected on Lorgar's support for the auxiliary army, including its high pay, ample food, and access to comforts such as soda.
• Doram ate in the air-conditioned mess hall, then gave his reserve bottle of soda to the overheated Emperor's Blade Tank crew.
• A Departmento Munitorum transport arrived at the camp, and Doram recognized that Rom had returned with the reassignment orders.

Major Doram learned that the 48th Colchis Auxiliary Army would deploy in fifteen days, though its destination remained unknown. The campaign would involve at least five Space Marine Legions, and Doram ordered his units to prepare for combat.

• Lieutenant Rom told Doram that a transport would collect the 48th Colchis Auxiliary Army in half a month and that they should prepare for combat.
• Doram welcomed the prospect of leaving the scorching planet and asked Rom for the good news.
• Rom revealed that at least five Space Marine Legions would join the campaign, prompting strategic deployments across the eastern and Northern Star Cluster regions to change.
• Doram learned that the transport would arrive at Landing Field Three in fifteen days.
• Doram ordered Rom to notify all units, inspect equipment and ammunition, and submit inventories and supply requests before departure.

A masked figure infiltrated the Sunlight Estate on Nostramo and slaughtered the powerful elites gathered there. After killing Casimir and the chairman of the Mine Owners' Association, he disappeared into the shadows.

• A figure crossed the Sunlight Estate’s defenses and entered the banquet unseen.
• The estate’s lights went out, and the figure stabbed Casimir, the head of the Nostramo Workers' Insurance Company.
• The figure killed the nobles, bodyguards, and guests who tried to fight or hide.
• The chairman of the Mine Owners' Association begged for his life, but the figure tore out his spine.
• The figure left the blood-soaked Hall and vanished into the shadows.

Curze returned to Teresa’s home, where she comforted him and accepted the food he brought. He declared that he would destroy Nostramo’s corrupt elite, then set out to erase the Max Family.

• Curze visited Teresa, who greeted him calmly and touched his hand.
• Curze gave Teresa a parcel of food and vowed to kill those he blamed for Nostramo’s corruption.
• Teresa remembered how she had cared for Curze during the nights when his prophecies tormented him.
• Curze watched the city from a spire and identified the Max Family as his target for enslaving workers with mind-altering drugs.
• Curze leaped from the spire into the city’s shadows to attack the Max Family.

Curze approached the Max Family mansion after learning that Loman Max had prepared a trap for him. As the mansion’s alarm sounded and the guards reported Curze’s arrival, Loman’s confidence faltered.

• People in Nostramo’s lower passageways discussed how Dark Night Judgment had killed hundreds at an upper-level mansion and frightened the gangs and nobles.
• Curze sensed the defenses and schemes inside the Max Family mansion, recognized that Loman Max had set a trap, and headed toward it.
• Loman Max explained that he planned to lure Curze into the mansion, escape through a secret passage, and destroy the fortress with explosives.
• The mansion’s alarm sounded, and Loman Max’s guard captain reported that Curze had arrived before the transmission ended with the sound of flesh being torn apart.

Curze slaughtered the fortress bodyguards, evaded their defenses, and killed the survivors inside an elevator. The elevator opened onto a firing line of hundreds of defenders, whom Curze greeted from behind.

• Curze used his speed, prophetic ability, and Arm Blades to overwhelm the bodyguards in the restricted area.
• The surviving bodyguards fled into an elevator, but Curze entered through the maintenance grille and killed them.
• The elevator reached the mansion’s entrance hall, where hundreds of defenders aimed their weapons at its bloodied interior.
• Curze spoke from behind the defenders, saying, "Hello... there..."

Curze slaughtered Loman Max’s bodyguards in the dark and confronted the family patriarch. He dragged Loman into the mansion’s shadows to punish him with the drugs the Max Family had used to enslave others.

• Curze emerged behind the bodyguards and began killing them with his Arm Blades.
• The mansion’s lights went out, and Curze used the darkness and his visions of the future to evade the bodyguards’ gunfire while continuing the slaughter.
• Loman Max watched his guards fall and cowered as Curze declared, “I am Midnight,” “I am Revenge,” and “I am Judgment.”
• Curze cornered Loman, wounded him, and ignored his pleas for mercy.
• Curze dragged Loman toward the mansion’s secret drug storeroom to begin his punishment.

Curze confronted Loman Max in the family’s drug storeroom and rejected his excuses for selling addictive drugs. He forced Loman to ingest the lethal concentrate, then vanished while Loman writhed in agony.

• Curze examined the Max Family’s drug stock and carried a drum of undiluted concentrate to the wounded Loman Max.
• Loman defended his business by blaming market demand and claiming it created jobs and tax revenue.
• Curze opened the drum, called the punishment a special transaction, and forced Loman’s head into the concentrate.
• Loman suffered violent convulsions and hallucinations as the drug overwhelmed him.
• Curze watched Loman’s agony, then disappeared into the night.

After sensing that Teresa had been abducted by unknown intruders, Curze rushed back to her room and confronted a group of Aeldari. Their leader told him that the Phoenix King Eldrad requested his presence.

• Curze escaped the mansion after destroying the Max Family and planned to let fear spread through Nostramo.
• Curze experienced a vision of strange, gloved hands abducting Teresa from her room.
• Curze hurried to Teresa’s home and found it empty, with signs of a struggle and an unfamiliar scent.
• Curze detected the intruders hiding in the darkness and demanded that they reveal themselves.
• More than a dozen Aeldari appeared and surrounded Curze.
• The Aeldari leader told Curze that the Phoenix King Eldrad requested his presence.

Curze entered a mine to rescue Teresa from the Aeldari, who claimed his future would bring catastrophe and tried to kill him. As Teresa shielded the kneeling Curze, Lorgar arrived and attacked the Phoenix King, declaring that he had come for Curze.

• Curze reached the mine platform and found Teresa surrounded by eight Aeldari, led by the Phoenix King.
• The Phoenix King showed Curze visions of the destruction he would cause and held a crystal dagger to Teresa’s neck.
• Curze lowered his weapons and knelt, but Teresa leapt from her chair to shield him as the Phoenix King prepared to strike.
• Lorgar burst into the mine and blasted the Phoenix King with golden psychic energy, forcing him back.
• Lorgar declared himself lord of the Seventeenth Legion and said he had come for Curze.

Lorgar rescued Curze from the Aeldari on Nostramo, then comforted him and promised he would never face his struggles alone. Curze wept as his visions of an unavoidable fate began to change, and he saw Lorgar charge a colossal dragon of black flames.

• Lorgar arrived on Nostramo after a Warp diversion and broke open the mine to reach Curze.
• The Phoenix King fled using a phase-shifting device, and the other Aeldari retreated after him.
• Lorgar approached Curze, soothed him with golden psychic energy, and told him he was not a monster and would never be alone.
• Curze wept for the first time and sensed that his fate might hold new possibilities.
• Curze foresaw Lorgar facing a gigantic black Fire Dragon and charging it with golden light.

As Imperial forces began their assault on Nostramo, Lorgar offered Curze a place at his side, but Curze chose to pursue justice by letting the oppressed judge their rulers. He seized the city’s signal tower and began addressing its people.

• Lorgar helped Curze to his feet, welcomed him home, and offered to guide him in fulfilling his duties as a Primarch.
• Word Bearers and Ultramarines forces descended on Nostramo as dawn broke and fighting spread through the city.
• Curze told Lorgar that the people must rise and carry out their own reckoning against Nostramo’s oppressors.
• Lorgar accepted Curze’s choice and promised to support and protect him.
• Curze raced to Nostramo’s signal tower, broke through its defenses, and took control of the planetary broadcast system.
• Curze’s voice and image reached the city, and he told its people to look at him.