Recaps

Kien rallied the Wild Eldar dragon riders to keep fighting as the human forces crushed Pandora’s giant beasts and flying monsters. The Wild Eldar’s forces were left devastated, while the White Scars celebrated their victory in the skies.

• Kien urged the Wild Eldar dragon riders to charge into battle, trusting that their Craftworld Eldar cousins would arrive in time to help.
• The Wild Eldar’s beast tide battered human fortifications, but the humans gave ground strategically and continued their artillery bombardment.
• Human fire killed every giant beast on the battlefield, and the Wild Eldar dragon riders realized Pandora would be without such beasts for years.
• The White Scars defeated the flying beasts, losing fifteen Tengu Mechs but saving all their pilots with their escape systems.
• Captain Gantula reported the aerial victory to Lox, who praised the White Scars for defeating Pandora’s dragons.

Keen led the Dragon Riders into battle against Lox’s Knight mechs as Eywa weakened from the damage to Pandora’s ecosystem. After heavy losses on both sides, the surviving Dragon Riders continued their charge, and Lox ordered his forces to grant them the battle they sought.

• Keen rallied the Dragon Riders to fight before Eywa’s blessing faded, and Lox ordered his forces to stop firing and let them meet the enemy with dignity.
• Dozens of Knight mechs and Tengu Mechs advanced from the smoke, while Fafnir’s Space Wolves returned to the battlefield.
• Keen opened the battle with a psychic lance blast, and the Dragon Riders charged as the Knight mechs unleashed missiles, cannons, and gunfire.
• Keen’s tyrannosaur overturned a Knight mech, allowing Keen to pierce its cockpit and kill the pilot, but the veteran triggered the reactor’s self-destruct and mortally wounded the beast.
• The Knight mechs and Tengu Mechs killed many dragons, leaving only thirty or forty Dragon Riders with Keen, who urged them to keep charging.
• Lox recognized that the Dragon Riders were choosing death and ordered his forces to grant their wish.

Keen and the surviving savage Aeldari were overwhelmed by the Space Marines and Knights, and Barabas Dantioch ordered them to surrender. When a female Aeldari refused, Dantioch severed her arm and gave the survivors one final warning.

• Keen fought Fafnir Bloodpact but was wounded and forced to retreat as the Knights destroyed the dragon cavalry.
• Keen regrouped with four other battered savage Aeldari atop a rise of dragon corpses.
• Fafnir halted his attack when Nykona Sharrowkyn appeared and Barabas Dantioch said Lox wanted living captives.
• Dantioch approached the survivors and demanded that they surrender or die.
• The female Aeldari refused, so Dantioch cut off her arm with his C'tan phase sword and repeated his warning.

Barabas Dantioch subdued the savage Aeldari, and Fafnir extracted intelligence about their sacred tree, the Webway, and the approaching Craftworld Alaitoc. Lox planned an ambush at the Aeldari lair, while Captain Gantula discovered that the Dragon Rider's badly burned mount had survived and hoped to ride it.

• Barabas Dantioch anesthetized the savage Aeldari after they refused to surrender Pandora, and Fafnir recovered their memories by tasting the leader's flesh.
• Fafnir told Lox that Craftworld Alaitoc had agreed to aid the savage Aeldari, and Lox learned the Webway entrance was near the sacred tree Eywa.
• Lox ordered his forces to rest, then prepare an ambush for the Craftworld Aeldari at the savage Aeldari's ancestral lair.
• The Ultramarines and Tech-Priests collected battlefield specimens while the White Scars harvested beast trophies.
• Captain Gantula found that the Chief Dragon Rider's mount was still alive, and the Biologis said it would recover without treatment.

Illic Nightspear led Alaitoc Craftworld’s relief fleet through the Webway toward Pandora, warning his companions to distrust humanity and to travel cautiously. As he explained the Webway, Eldrad Ulthran appeared aboard the ship.

• Alaitoc Craftworld sent three Eclipse-class cruisers, two Shadow-class cruisers, and escorting frigates to aid the Exodite Aeldari on Pandora.
• Illic Nightspear guided the fleet through the Webway and warned that humanity posed a serious threat.
• Illic split the force, sending the fleet toward Pandora’s giant gas planet and the Aspect Warriors and rangers toward the Exodite Webway gate.
• Illic described the Webway as a living, changeable refuge that the Aeldari needed to study carefully.
• Psychic power disrupted the warship, and Eldrad Ulthran appeared before the Aeldari.

Eldrad Ulthran warned Illic Nightspear that the Aeldari of Pandora were near defeat and that the rescue mission could end in death. Illic chose to continue, and Ulthran agreed to help guide the expedition toward survival.

• Eldrad Ulthran arrived among the Alaitoc Aeldari, who stayed wary of the infamous Farseer.
• Ulthran told Illic Nightspear that Pandora’s Aeldari had been driven close to destruction after their forces and the World Spirit failed to stop the humans.
• Ulthran urged Illic to abandon the mission, warning that his vision showed a fifty percent chance of death and that he could not clearly see what awaited them on Pandora.
• Mortley challenged Ulthran’s warning, but Illic rebuked him and insisted the Alaitoc warriors would risk their lives to save their kin.
• Illic decided to continue to Pandora, and Ulthran agreed to guide the expedition toward the possibility in which they survived.

Nightspear led Craftworld Aeldari reinforcements through the Webway to Pandora, where they found the Exodites grieving their defeat by humanity. He urged Chieftain Karen to stand and resist rather than surrender to despair.

• Nightspear ordered the Aeldari fleet to remain hidden and prepared two Wraithknights for the fight against humanity.
• Nightspear led fighters through the Webway and emerged above Pandora with more than five hundred Aeldari reinforcements.
• The Exodites gathered beside Eywa learned that humanity had destroyed most of their warriors, though Dragon Rider Keen was still alive and captive.
• Nightspear appeared before Karen and urged the Exodites to fight alongside the Craftworld Aeldari.
• Karen accepted Nightspear's hand and agreed that they could resist sorrow and death.

Lox psychologically broke Kien, the captured Dragon Rider leader, by making him believe his comrades had betrayed him and threatening to invoke the Aeldari’s deepest fear. Kien surrendered and agreed to reveal the Webway’s secrets, while Lox explained his deception to Magos Lawrence.

• Lox questioned the captive Kien about the Webway and Craftworld Alaitoc, then used the other prisoners to make him doubt his comrades.
• Kien resisted Lox’s claims that the others had disclosed information and insisted human torture could not break the Aeldari.
• Lox showed Kien a hologram of an injured female prisoner and began to name the Thirsting Lady, causing Kien’s defenses to collapse.
• Kien begged Lox not to say the name and agreed to reveal everything he knew about the Webway.
• Lox told Magos Lawrence that he had used a realistic hologram and psychological pressure rather than torturing the prisoners, and explained that the Necrons had taught him the Aeldari feared the Thirsting Lady.

After extracting intelligence from the Exodite Aeldari, Lox learned that the Webway could protect humanity from the Warp and became determined to secure Pandora’s gate. He ordered his forces to capture Aeldari when possible, and Hill organized the assault on their main base and world spirit.

• Magos Lawrence used Lox’s specially formatted phrases to persuade people and help gather information from the Aeldari captives.
• Lox compared the five Exodite Aeldari’s accounts and learned about the Webway’s vast passages, its protection from the Warp, and the hubs of Kharas and Commorragh.
• Lox recognized Pandora’s Webway gate as the planet’s most valuable asset and ordered the frontline forces to preserve Aeldari lives when possible while remaining especially wary of the Craftworld Aeldari.
• Hill assigned the White Scars to reconnaissance and air defense, the Iron Hands to fire support, and the Ultramarines to the frontal advance.
• Space Marines and Knight walkers advanced through Pandora’s jungle toward the Exodite Aeldari’s main base and world spirit, supported by automated surveillance drones.

Illic Nightspear and the Craftworld Aeldari Rangers ambushed the Ultramarines in the Pandora Forest, killing several veterans before the Space Marines unleashed overwhelming artillery and forced the Rangers to withdraw. The Rangers mounted Raptor jetbikes and began high-speed guerrilla attacks as the battle continued.

• Aeldari Rangers used their cloaks and long rifles to ambush the advancing Ultramarines, but the Space Marines struggled to locate them.
• Illic Nightspear killed an Ultramarine with a shot through his helmet lens, and Hill called for artillery support.
• The Iron Hands and other Imperial forces bombarded the Rangers' suspected positions, killing several Rangers and setting the forest ablaze.
• Illic Nightspear ordered the surviving Rangers to abandon their positions and escape on hidden Raptor jetbikes.
• The Rangers formed pairs on the jetbikes and began high-speed guerrilla attacks through the forest.

Hill led the Ultramarines through a forest battle against Aeldari Rangers whose stealth defeated their scanners and whose ambushes weakened the Imperial force. After the Rangers tried to kill him, Hill captured both alive and handed them to his battle-brothers.

• Hill ordered the Ultramarines to rely on their senses and instincts after their scanners failed to reveal the Aeldari.
• The Aeldari harassed the Ultramarines by destroying supply vehicles, sabotaging equipment, and assassinating mortal officers.
• Hill evaded an Aeldari jetbike ambush and shot the craft, forcing its two riders to crash and flee on foot.
• Hill deflected the Rangers’ shuriken fire and fought them at close range, using his power armor’s strength to overpower them.
• Hill knocked both Rangers unconscious, chained them, and handed them over to his battle-brothers.

Nykona Sharrowkyn hunted the Aeldari commander Illic Nightspear through the forest, and the two clashed after Nightspear recognized Sharrowkyn’s Necron weapons. Their duel turned against Nightspear until an Aspect Warrior intervened, and Sharrowkyn fired his plasma pistol at the newcomer.

• The Ultramarines pushed the Aeldari Rangers back as fighting escalated across the ground and in the air.
• Nykona Sharrowkyn found and killed a concealed Aeldari Ranger with his Gauss sniper rifle.
• Illic Nightspear ordered his followers to keep the humans occupied and went to hunt the wielder of the Necron weapon.
• Nightspear dodged Sharrowkyn’s shot, then charged him with the Voidbringer and a power sword.
• Sharrowkyn blocked Nightspear with his power sword and C’tan phase sword, then drove him toward defeat.
• An Aspect Warrior stepped in to block Sharrowkyn’s fatal strike, and Sharrowkyn fired his plasma pistol at her.

Barabas Dantioch, also called Nykona Sharrowkyn, held off Ilic Nightspear and a Howling Banshee while waiting for the Iron Hands to lock onto their position. He teleported back to the forward base just before their fission bomb struck, while Ilic tried to shield the Howling Banshee from the blast.

• The Howling Banshee and Ilic Nightspear attacked Barabas Dantioch together, but he parried their strikes and resisted the Banshee's psychic scream.
• Barabas Dantioch endured the Howling Banshee's strongest psychic shockwave and identified himself as Nykona Sharrowkyn, a Raven Guard warrior.
• Ilic Nightspear asked what Barabas Dantioch was waiting for, and Barabas revealed he had been stalling until his comrades could provide fire support.
• Ilic Nightspear grabbed the Howling Banshee and fled as the Iron Hands dropped a fission bomb onto the battlefield.
• Barabas Dantioch activated his teleport beacon and returned to the forward base just before the explosion, while Ilic shielded the Howling Banshee with his body and a psychic barrier.

Barabas Dantioch returned to the forward base as the Aeldari revealed their Wraithknights and inflicted heavy losses on the human Knight mechs. With the Aeldari outnumbered and divided over whether to retreat, Uslan proposed negotiating with humanity's ruler to end the war.

• Barabas Dantioch reported to Lox that he had failed to kill the enemy commander, though the Iron Hands' bombardment had already disrupted the enemy command system.
• Lox and Barabas Dantioch observed the allied Aeldari retreat before the Ultramarines, then watched two Wraithknights ambush the human Knights and destroy three of them.
• Illic Nightspear ordered the savage Aeldari to prepare to evacuate, but a wounded Howling Banshee told him they refused to abandon their world spirit.
• Illic set out to find Chief Karen and persuade him to retreat, but Uslan appeared and warned that continued resistance would bring death.
• Illic asked Uslan for guidance, and Uslan offered to negotiate with humanity's ruler because humanity sought the Blackstone and did not bear great hostility toward the Aeldari.

Uslan persuaded the Aeldari leaders to withdraw and negotiate with humanity, arguing that their people could not afford to keep fighting over Pandora. As the battlefield fell quiet, Uslan approached Commander Hill and declared that he had come to negotiate.

• Uslan argued that humanity was not the Aeldari’s true enemy and that they should seek peace rather than waste more lives defending Pandora.
• Uslan challenged Illic Nightspear and the others to admit that their concern for the Exodites did not justify fighting humanity to the bitter end, and Illic agreed to follow his plan.
• Uslan told the Aeldari forces to retreat, and the Aspect Warriors covered the Exodites as they withdrew from the battlefield.
• Commander Hill watched the Aeldari retreat while Chief Librarian Troy detected a calming psychic field spreading across the battlefield.
• Uslan emerged from the forest, approached Commander Hill, and announced that he had come to negotiate.

Lox received the Aeldari seer Uslan, who proposed a ceasefire and offered humanity the Blackstone on Pandora. Uslan began explaining Blackstone’s ancient connection to the C’tan, and Lox asked him to reveal what the Aeldari knew about them.

• Hill doubted Uslan’s peaceful intentions, but Lox ordered him to bring the seer to the forward base under guard.
• Uslan endured the Untouchables’ soulless field and demonstrated his sincerity by approaching them and asking to meet Lox.
• At the meeting, Uslan said he wanted to settle the conflict between humanity and the Aeldari and fashioned a psychic imitation of the Crown of Isha.
• Uslan proposed a ceasefire and offered humanity Pandora’s Blackstone, saying it could help resist Chaos.
• Uslan explained that Blackstone was not made by the Necrons and described a theory that the C’tan Mag’ladroth, the Void Dragon, created it.
• Lox asked Uslan to tell him what the Aeldari knew about the C’tan.

Uslan explained to Lox how the C'tan transformed the Necrontyr into soulless Necrons and how the C'tan and Necrons fought the Old Ones. He revealed that the Void Dragon, Mag'ladroth, created Blackstone to counter the Old Ones' psychic powers, leaving Lox stunned by the C'tan's power over matter.

• Uslan told Lox that the C'tan were ancient beings born from the universe's energies and that the Necrontyr gave them living metal bodies.
• Uslan explained that the C'tan tricked the Necrontyr into biotransference, devouring their souls and leaving behind Necrons with living-metal shells and copied memories.
• Lox concluded that the Necrons' technological advancement had come from the C'tan and that their bargain had cost them their souls.
• Lox pressed Uslan to explain Blackstone, prompting the seer to describe the Old Ones and their Webway network.
• Uslan said the Necrons allied with the C'tan against the Old Ones, whose psychic powers initially held them back.
• Uslan revealed that the Void Dragon, Mag'ladroth, created Blackstone as an anti-psychic substance, and Lox marveled at the C'tan's power.

Uslan explained how the War in Heaven polluted the Warp and gave rise to Chaos, arguing that humanity and the Aeldari shared an interest in resisting it. He left Lox with a warning that humanity’s daemon princes were a uniquely special kind of Warp daemon.

• Lox compared the Necrons’ and Aeldari’s accounts of the War in Heaven and accused Uslan of wanting humanity to serve as the Aeldari’s shield.
• Uslan admitted that he hoped humanity would help protect the Aeldari, but said their peoples shared common interests against Chaos and other threats.
• Uslan explained that the War in Heaven’s deaths and suffering had polluted the once-neutral Warp and led to the birth of the Chaos Gods.
• Lox asked about Samus, and Uslan identified the daemon as a relatively ordinary servant of Chaos Undivided.
• Uslan said humanity was now the galaxy’s most prosperous and powerful race, making it a target of the Warp, and revealed that human daemon princes were an exceptionally special kind of daemon.

Lox and Seer Usran discussed Chaos, prophecy, and their efforts to prevent Fulgrim's corruption before sharing a drink and beginning to build trust. Usran then revealed that the Cabal had sent a Perpetual assassin to kill Vulkan, leaving Lox demanding an explanation.

• Usran told Lox that he had tried to warn Fulgrim on Talos but failed, losing an ancient Wraithlord, an avatar of Khaine, and many Aeldari maiden worlds to retaliation.
• Lox recalled encountering Fulgrim at Isstvan V and lamented that the Emperor's Children had betrayed the Emperor.
• Lox and Usran spoke at length, shared Aeldari meditation liquor, and toasted what Usran called the first step toward unity between humanity and the Aeldari.
• Usran said his psychic projection had observed Lox on Macragge and revealed that the Cabal had sent a Perpetual assassin to kill Vulkan.
• Lox demanded that Usran explain the Cabal's plan and why so many people wanted Vulkan dead.

Lox learned that the Cabal, an ancient xenos organization, planned to weaken humanity to defeat Chaos and had sent agents to kill Vulkan. Uslan revealed that he had dispatched the secretly loyal Word Bearer Narek to hunt the agents on Macragge, leaving Lox worried that the operation would trigger wider chaos.

• Uslan explained that the Cabal had recruited Alpharius and was targeting loyal primarchs to weaken humanity.
• Lox grew furious at the Cabal’s plan and asked how its agents intended to kill Vulkan.
• Uslan said the Cabal’s human agent John Grammaticus had received a Fulgurite Spear capable of killing Perpetuals.
• Uslan revealed that he had sent Narek to eliminate the Cabal’s agents and was also trying to turn John against them.
• Lox questioned why Uslan had not warned Guilliman directly, then hoped the operation on Macragge would not go wrong.

John Grammaticus and Narek encountered Cabal agent Damon in the underground tunnels beneath Macragge, where Damon urged them to kill Vulkan with a fulgurite spear. John struggled between obeying the Cabal and trying to save Vulkan, and the chapter left him considering defying the Cabal despite the danger.

• John and Narek traveled through Macragge’s underground pipelines while planning how to reach Vulkan, whom John sensed was contained in a secret Ultramarines base.
• Narek heard an approaching stranger and drew his weapons, but John stepped between him and Damon, another Cabal agent who had come to find him.
• Damon told John that the Cabal wanted Vulkan killed and pointed out the fulgurite spear that could permanently kill a Perpetual.
• Damon explained that the Cabal intended Horus to win and humanity to go extinct, believing the resulting catastrophe would burn away Chaos.
• John remembered Eldrad Ulthran’s plea to serve humanity and considered refusing the Cabal’s orders, even if it meant his final death.

John, Damon, and Narek infiltrated an Ultramarines base to find Vulkan, whom John intended to kill with the Fulgurite Spear. With Vulkan's location still unknown and their distraction unlikely to last, John searched desperately while resolving to be a hero at least once.

• John told Damon he planned to kill Vulkan with the Fulgurite Spear, while Damon suspected he meant to betray the Cabal.
• John, Damon, and Narek planned to draw the Ultramarines away from their base, and Damon revealed he had a sealed Warp daemon to use as a distraction.
• Damon threw the bottle near the base, releasing a monstrous Warp daemon that brought the Ultramarines to full alert.
• John and the others used the chaos to infiltrate the secret base, where John searched psychically for Vulkan.
• John sensed Vulkan's pain and fury but had not yet found him, and he urged himself to be a hero once.

John, Damon, and Narek reached Vulkan’s stasis chamber and shut down the field so Damon could kill him. Vulkan dodged the shuriken fire and summoned Dawnbringer, leaving the three intruders facing an armed primarch.

• John used his psychic powers to guide the group through the base and learn how its defenses worked.
• John implanted false memories in two Ultramarines, convincing them that the Dark Angels had attacked Guilliman, and sent them racing to the surface.
• Damon ordered John to disable Vulkan’s stasis field while Narek locked the chamber door.
• John shut down the field, and Damon fired his shuriken pistols at Vulkan, but Vulkan moved too fast for the shots to hit.
• Vulkan summoned Dawnbringer through a Warp rift and grasped his warhammer.

Damon, John, and Narek struggled to survive after Vulkan broke free and attacked them with Dawnbringer. The chapter left Narek gravely injured, Damon crushed, and John alone before the raging primarch.

• Vulkan broke free of the stasis field and attacked the three agents, crushing Narek with a single warhammer blow.
• Damon dodged Vulkan's attacks and fired starshuriken rounds that tore through the primarch's body, but Vulkan rapidly healed.
• Vulkan used Dawnbringer to unleash Warp energy, then vanished with the warhammer after Damon wounded him.
• Damon helped pull Narek from the wall and tried to get him back on his feet.
• Vulkan reappeared behind Damon and smashed him into a puddle of blood, leaving John as the only agent still able to move.

John tried to awaken Vulkan and free him by transferring his Perpetual power through the Fulgurite Spear. After Narek shot Vulkan and Damon encouraged John to follow through, John plunged the spear into Vulkan’s chest, and its blinding light began draining John’s immortal power into him.

• John summoned Vulkan’s lost soul and prepared to use the Fulgurite Spear to transfer his Perpetual power to him.
• Vulkan instinctively swung his warhammer at John after sensing the spear’s danger.
• Narek shot Vulkan in the head, briefly stopping him, but Vulkan immediately began regenerating.
• Damon completed his resurrection and urged John to do what he had always wanted to do.
• John drove the Fulgurite Spear into Vulkan’s chest, releasing blinding psychic light that burned the Warp daemon and began draining John’s power.