Chapter Summaries

The Lion and Chaghatai’s reinforcements attacked the Emperor’s Children battleship Phoenician Sword, using electromagnetic pulse weapons to cripple it before boarding. Corswain led the Dark Angels aboard, confronted the ship’s commander Elkennax, and began a duel with him.

• The Lion ordered the fleet to launch EMP torpedoes and prepare boarding forces against the Phoenician Sword.
• The EMP barrage disabled the battleship’s shields, power, and systems, while Elkennax rallied the Emperor’s Children to resist the coming boarding action.
• Corswain led the Deathwing and Dreadwing onto the crippled ship and ordered them to kill the traitors but capture their commander alive.
• Corswain called out the Emperor’s Children and mocked Elkennax and the Phoenix Guard, drawing them to face him.
• Corswain and Elkennax clashed in a rapid sword duel as their warriors watched.

Corswain defeated and captured Elkenarx aboard the Phoenician's Sword, exposing his Warp-induced mutations and shattering his pride. Corswain's boarding force continued its purge, while the traitors of Beta-Garmon remained targets of the loyalists' vengeance.

• Corswain mocked Elkenarx's swordsmanship and effortlessly countered the Emperor's Child's attacks.
• Corswain disarmed Elkenarx, disabled his power pack, and knocked him to the deck.
• Corswain removed Elkenarx's helmet, condemned his Warp corruption, and bound him in chains.
• Elkenarx saw his mutated face and collapsed, unable to resist or even cry.
• Corswain's forces continued purging the traitors aboard the Phoenician's Sword, and the Sandalwood Order prepared to extract intelligence from Elkenarx.

The Dark Angels destroyed a traitor fleet and recovered its data while Lion prepared to draw Horus’s forces into a decisive battle at Beta-Garmon. He turned the enemy warship Phoenician Sword into a falling weapon that annihilated the Tiger Eyes Titan Legion, leaving the planetary governor ready to welcome the Imperium’s reinforcements.

• The Dark Angels purged the traitor warship, extracted its database, and returned to the New Caliban with valuable prisoners.
• Sanguinius explained that Dorn had ordered the loyalist forces to destroy the enemy Titans at Beta-Garmon, and Lion planned to draw more of Horus’s forces into the battle.
• Lion ordered the New Caliban to redirect the powerless Phoenician Sword toward the planet and break it into fragments before impact.
• The planetary governor celebrated the arrival of Imperial reinforcements while Lancelot ordered everyone into shelters and activated the defenses.
• The Phoenician Sword’s wreckage struck the Tiger Eyes Titan Legion and annihilated it, while the planetary governor prepared to welcome the Imperium’s forces.

Lion El'Jonson arrived in the war zone, condemned the Emperor's Children rebels, and ordered their captured commander preserved so he could mock Fulgrim with him. He then authorized the Sunfire Titan Legion's landing, as its Titans began descending toward the planet.

• The Lion watched the Phoenician Sword explode and declared that the Emperor's Children rebels would face judgment.
• Elkenax was brought before the Lion, who told him that the traitors' promises had been false and ordered the captive taken away alive if possible.
• The Lion ordered Captain Stannes to continue the Sunfire Titan Legion's landing to reassure loyalists and deter the traitors.
• Adeptus Mechanicus priests awakened the Sunfire Titan Legion's Machine Spirits with prayers and sacred rites.
• The Sunfire Titan Legion's Emperor-class Titans left the New Caliban's landing bays and descended toward the planet.

The Lion secured Berman IV and used the Suns of Fire Titan Legion’s Emperor-class Titans to display the Imperium’s might. He ordered the Ultramarines to fortify the planet and prepared an astropathic message challenging Horus and the other traitors to battle.

• The Suns of Fire Titan Legion descended onto Berman IV with three Emperor-class Titans, and Steadfast Princeps Rupert welcomed the reinforcements.
• The planetary governor ordered the hive fortress’s void shields lowered and claimed the loyalists had held out until the Imperium arrived.
• The Lion ordered Corswain to deploy Ultramarines to garrison Berman IV, strengthen its defenses, and purge potential traitors.
• The Lion requisitioned the planet’s astropaths and ordered a cluster-wide transmission announcing his arrival and challenging Horus and the other traitors to a decisive battle.

Lion El'Jonson broadcast a declaration of war to the traitors in the Beta-Garmon Cluster, prompting Horus to answer by rallying his forces aboard the Vengeful Spirit. Horus led his vast fleet toward the cluster, where Lion awaited him.

• Lion El'Jonson purged Pullman IV with the Dark Angels, secured the governor's loyalty, and gathered more than a thousand astropaths to broadcast his declaration of war.
• Lox heard Lion's message on Terra and reflected that the outcome of Lion's war would determine the Imperium's fate as Guilliman remained delayed by enemy forces.
• The Vengeful Spirit led Horus's immense traitor fleet toward the Beta-Garmon Cluster, with Vilen Ashurhaddon and Little Horus Aximand commanding forces within it.
• Horus told Ezekyle Abaddon and the assembled warriors that Lion had challenged him through the Warp, then declared that his sons would unite to build a new human empire.
• The Astartes and mortals aboard the Vengeful Spirit cheered Horus and affirmed their commitment to his cause.

Horus summoned Lorgar to answer for the failed campaign in the Far East and demanded that he secure Terra. As Lorgar recognized how deeply the four Warp powers had changed Horus, the Wolf Lord reaffirmed his resolve to stop the Emperor, even if the whole galaxy had to burn.

• Abaddon sensed that Horus's once-warm charisma had become an urge to abase oneself, then obeyed his father's order to summon Lorgar.
• Abaddon interrupted Lorgar's meditation aboard the Vengeful Spirit and looked with disgust on the Warp-altered Blessed Sons guarding him.
• Lorgar went alone to meet Horus and recognized the immense Warp blessings shining around the Wolf Lord.
• Horus toyed with the Talon of Horus as Lorgar apologized for the failed plan in the Far East and blamed the Primordial Truth's broken prophecy on outside interference.
• Horus rejected Lorgar's explanation and demanded Terra, while Lorgar realized Horus no longer needed him as a bridge to the Warp.
• Horus recalled his vision of the Emperor's future ascension and resolved to oppose him, even if the whole galaxy burned.

Horus confronted Lorgar over the rebels’ technological and military disadvantage in the Beta-Garmon Cluster, then demanded a meeting with the mysterious Warp daemon Vashtorr. Vashtorr appeared aboard the Vengeful Spirit and introduced himself as Horus’s future partner.

• Horus displayed captured Imperial weapons and equipment and blamed the Dark Adeptus Mechanicus for failing to match the loyalists’ technology.
• Horus questioned Lorgar about how they would overcome Lion’s forces and the Thundercloud-class planetary battleships at Beta-Garmon.
• Lorgar revealed that an unfamiliar Warp being called Vashtorr had answered his summons and wanted to speak with Horus.
• Horus ordered Lorgar to arrange the meeting, despite Lorgar’s reluctance to share his role as intermediary.
• Lorgar performed a Chaos ritual, and Vashtorr manifested through an augmented Dark Mechanicus priest in the Vengeful Spirit’s throne room.
• Vashtorr introduced himself as the Lord of the Soul Forges, the Maker, and Horus’s future partner.

Vashtorr offered Horus military aid in exchange for becoming his client, demonstrating his power by transforming Abaddon's weapons and armor. He revealed the location of a dormant Blackstone Fortress, which Horus claimed as his own, then presented a contract.

• Vashtorr offered Horus warships, weapons, and daemon thralls, while Abaddon demanded to know what he wanted.
• Vashtorr transformed Abaddon's armor and weapons with black forgefire, making Abaddon the bane of machinery and controlling the nearby Justaerin Terminators.
• Vashtorr revealed a dormant Blackstone Fortress near an Aeldari Crone World and gave Horus its coordinates.
• Horus claimed the Blackstone Fortress and asked Vashtorr what he wanted in return.
• Vashtorr presented a long contract and offered to lead Horus to victory if he signed.

Horus made a pact with Vashtorr for weapons, ships, armies, and the Blackstone Fortress in exchange for mortal souls, then ordered Lorgar to retrieve Fulgrim. Lorgar left the Vengeful Spirit outwardly obedient but resolved to pursue his own ambitions.

• Horus examined Vashtorr's contract and accepted its terms, including sacrifices of souls and flesh in exchange for military aid and the Blackstone Fortress.
• Vashtorr explained that Kelbor-Hal and the Dark Mechanicum strengthened him through their inventions and recovered technology, then vanished after completing the pact.
• Horus ordered Abaddon to tell his brothers to conserve mortals for sacrifices and service rather than slaughter them wastefully.
• Horus commanded Lorgar to bring Fulgrim back and warned him not to disappoint him again.
• Lorgar addressed Horus as Warmaster, departed aboard the Trisagion, and told his Blessed Sons he would retrieve Fulgrim for himself.

Lion Johnson imposed wartime conscription and harsh reforms on Pullman IV as the Imperial forces prepared for war in the Beta-Garmon Cluster. After Corswain stopped an assassination attempt and the Dark Angels purged the conspirators, Lion, Sanguinius, and Jaghatai Khan prepared to lead separate parts of the campaign as Horus's rebellion gathered.

• Lion Johnson turned Pullman IV into a forward base and ordered its people to become soldiers or factory workers.
• Corswain froze a disguised fusion bomb with a stasis bomb when nobles attempted to assassinate the governor and the primarchs.
• The Dark Angels hunted down suspected nobles, and Corswain executed the high official behind the plot.
• Lion said the assassination attempt had been a trap to expose hidden traitors and prepared to set out.
• Jaghatai Khan took command of the White Scars' guerrilla campaign, while Lion focused on fleet movements and Sanguinius on ground assaults.

With the Solar System temporarily secure, Lox used the Advanced Technology Community and Ganymede’s factories to develop a mass-producible combat Iron Man suited to the Imperium’s current wars. He completed a design built around melee combat, adaptable weapons, and linked elite controllers, intending the Iron Men to become a plentiful front-line force alongside mortal auxiliaries and Astartes.

• Lion’s fleet cleared rebel forces and pirates from the systems between the Solar System and Beta-Garmon, while Rogal Dorn received reinforcements to strengthen the Solar Fleet’s defenses.
• Lox delegated research on psychic control towers and thought-branding to Sage Arkhan Land, and planned to transfer Space Marine enhancement research if Cawl recovered its original template from the Moon.
• Lox designed combat Iron Men with melee weapons, ranged Tesla Arc or laser weapons, and cost-effective bodies with limited self-repair.
• Lox gave only a small number of elite Iron Men cognitive authority to control their comrades through the Cogitator, reducing Blackstone use and the risk of Warp corruption.
• Lox planned for mass-produced Iron Men to replace mortal auxiliaries in dangerous front-line roles, with Astartes serving as elite assault forces alongside them.

Lox relied on the Stone Men to refine and test his combat Iron Man design while managing Ganymede. When Sage Takar Rag Sinsong arrived, Lox recognized him as Trazyn, who revealed he held a longstanding identity as an Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagos.

• Lox gave the Stone Men his combat Iron Man design, and they revised it through the STC network.
• The Stone Men tested the prototype against extreme temperatures and a range of kinetic weapons while Lox rested with tea.
• Angie told Lox that xenos-research sage Takar Rag Sinsong had requested a private meeting.
• Lox recognized the visiting sage as Trazyn, and Trazyn admitted he had expected Lox to identify him sooner.
• Trazyn claimed he had held an Adeptus Mechanicus identity and seat since the organization's founding and said he had come to support the High Technology Community.

Lox discussed the Necrons’ history and Trazyn’s desire to help humanity study Machine Spirits, which he hoped could lead his people to reclaim their lost souls. Lox reluctantly agreed to let Trazyn observe the unsealing of the Iron Men.

• Trazyn assured Lox that he could escape even if the Emperor discovered him, while Lox remained wary of the Necron overlord.
• Trazyn argued that the Necrontyr had gone to war against the Old Ones to preserve their civilization, and Lox silently acknowledged that their actions had been driven by survival.
• Trazyn explained that the Necrons had lost their souls during biotransference and hoped to regain them by learning how humanity created Machine Spirits.
• Trazyn asked to join Lox’s research into unsealing the Iron Men so he could study their similarity to the Necrons.
• Lox reluctantly agreed to Trazyn’s request, despite doubting that humanity understood how Machine Spirits came to exist.

Lox received Eldrad Ulthran, who announced that he had secured Aeldari reinforcements and brought Vulkan back to Terra. The revelation sent Lox hurrying to meet the resurrected Lord of Drakes, while Ulthran insisted on coming along.

• Angie told Lox that Eldrad Ulthran had requested a meeting, and Lox allowed him into the reception hall despite Trazyn's presence.
• Ulthran and Trazyn exchanged hostile remarks while Lox urged them not to endanger the fragile cooperation between humanity, the Aeldari, and the Necrons.
• Ulthran revealed that Craftworld Iyanden, Craftworld Alaitoc, and a Harlequin troupe had agreed to aid humanity against the Warp, though their reinforcements would not enter the Solar System immediately.
• Ulthran told Trazyn that the Necrons had done little beyond sleeping in their tomb worlds, and Lox stopped their argument before it escalated.
• Ulthran announced that the Aeldari had brought the resurrected Vulkan from Nocturne to Terra, prompting Lox to leave to see him.
• Ulthran said he was coming too, surprising Lox.

Lox and Uslan traveled to Terra, where Uslan revealed his old friendship with the Emperor and described the Emperor’s adventurous journeys among the Aeldari. They reached the Imperial Palace to meet the Emperor, leaving Lox wondering whether the Emperor’s obsession with the Webway began during their visit to Commorragh.

• Uslan told Lox and Trazyn that he had briefly befriended the Emperor before the Emperor took up humanity’s cause, when the Emperor explored Aeldari territory.
• Uslan described the ancient Aeldari’s long lives, reincarnation, and later loss of immortality after the Nightbringer imposed death upon them.
• Uslan explained that his prophecies had revealed Vulkan would return to Terra to guard the Emperor and the Golden Throne.
• Lox, Uslan, and Trazyn arrived at the Imperial Palace, where Tribune Diocletian escorted them inside on the Emperor’s orders.
• Uslan recalled guiding the Emperor through Commorragh and the Webway, prompting Lox to wonder whether that visit had inspired the Emperor’s later Webway project.

Lox entered the throne room and watched Vulkan reunite with Rogal Dorn after returning to Terra. Malcador announced that the Emperor had matters to entrust to Vulkan, then began channeling the Emperor’s power.

• Lox entered the throne room and saw Vulkan standing beside Rogal Dorn beneath the Golden Throne.
• Vulkan apologized to Dorn for losing control on Macragge and asked where their other brothers were.
• Dorn welcomed Vulkan back, and Vulkan embraced him so tightly that Lox worried the primarch would crush him.
• Vulkan recognized Lox from Macragge and ran toward him, but Lox pushed Ulthwé in front of himself as a shield.
• Malcador told Vulkan that the Emperor had matters to entrust to him, then began channeling the Emperor’s power.

Vulkan reunited with the Emperor, who revealed that the Seven-Hammer Talisman was a final safeguard meant to destroy Terra and the Webway if Horus defeated him. Vulkan accepted the duty and remained beside the Golden Throne, while Lox realized this plan was linked to his own escape across universes and resolved that the terrible future must not come to pass.

• The Emperor, speaking through Malcador, welcomed Vulkan and learned what he had endured since the betrayal at Isstvan.
• Uslan told Lox that Vulkan’s son Numeon had sacrificed himself in Nocturne’s volcano, bringing Vulkan back to life.
• The Emperor removed the Seven-Hammer Talisman from Vulkan’s Hand of Burning and explained that it could destroy Terra and the Warp beneath the Imperial Palace.
• The Emperor ordered Vulkan to detonate the Golden Throne and destroy Terra if Horus defeated him, so the resulting power could wound the four Chaos Gods.
• Vulkan accepted his duty, and the Emperor departed after entrusting him with the talisman.
• Vulkan entered the shadows of the Golden Throne with his three Salamanders, while Lox resolved to prevent that future.

Chaghatai Khan led the White Scars’ fast fleet toward rebel-held Zeta-Garmon, determined to seize Zeta-Garmon Ten despite the system’s formidable defenses. The chapter ended as the Sky Eagle accelerated toward the enemy’s outer defensive line at near light speed, catching the Iron Warriors and Sons of Horus by surprise.

• Nurg Taria Khan told Chaghatai that Zeta-Garmon held a large rebel garrison of Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Iron Warriors, and auxilia.
• Chaghatai ordered the White Scars to seize Zeta-Garmon Ten and urged his warriors to accelerate into battle.
• The Sky Eagle’s crew and Mechanicum sages poured power into the ship’s engines, driving the fleet toward the system’s defenses.
• Iron Warriors and Sons of Horus on the orbital defenses spotted the fast-approaching fleet on their scanners and raised the alarm.

Velen Ashurden’s rebel defenses tried to stop the White Scars fleet with predictive barrages, but Jaghatai Khan repeatedly changed course and outmaneuvered them. The White Scars broke through the orbital defenses and entered the star system, beginning their assault on the rebel ships.

• Velen Ashurden ordered the Sons of Horus and Iron Warriors defenses to launch torpedoes and fire on the White Scars’ predicted route.
• The White Scars fleet vanished from the rebels’ scanners and reappeared on a different flight path, leaving Ashurden unable to explain the shift.
• Ashurden redirected his forces and fired again, but Jaghatai Khan changed course once more and exposed the rebels’ slow response.
• Jaghatai Khan led the White Scars in a chisel formation around the Sky Eagle, breaking through from the opposite corner of the star system.
• The Sky Eagle destroyed rebel warships and orbital defenses, and Jaghatai Khan ordered the White Scars to attack.