Recaps

Lox traveled to Terra with Leman Russ, who revealed that he planned to assassinate Horus and needed Malcador to locate him. The chapter left Russ intent on obtaining the information and departing at once, while Lox doubted he could survive the attempt.

• Leman Russ joined Lox aboard the Red Alert after arranging for his own ship to leave, and they set course for Terra to meet Malcador.
• Russ told Lox that he no longer saw himself as the Emperor’s executioner and regretted his role in driving Magnus into rebellion.
• Russ admitted that he intended to assassinate Horus because his depleted Legion could not make a difference in a large-scale battle.
• Russ argued that Horus’s command of the traitor Legions made him uniquely dangerous and that even Terra’s defenses might not stop him.
• Russ said he needed Malcador to reveal Horus’s location so he could depart immediately, while Lox questioned whether Russ could defeat Horus.

Lox and Russ visited Malcador, where Russ resolved to confront Horus despite the Sigillite's warning. Malcador offered Russ intelligence from Garviel Loken, the last Luna Wolf.

• Lox and Russ crossed Malcador's vast administrative offices, and Russ explained that Malmer had returned from Macragge eager to handle paperwork.
• Malcador dismissed the psychic duplicates he had used to process documents and welcomed Lox and Russ into his office.
• Malcador warned Russ that Horus, empowered by the four gods, was too strong for him to face alone.
• Russ stood firm and said that confronting Horus was something only he could do, so Malcador agreed to help him with intelligence.
• Malcador introduced Garviel Loken as the last Luna Wolf and a member of the Sixteenth Legion's Mournival.

Leman Russ gathered intelligence from Gaviel Loken and set out to assassinate Horus with the Dionysian Spear. After Russ left, Lox asked Malcador about Magnus's shattered soul, and Malcador revealed he knew of some clues to its fragments.

• Malcador introduced Gaviel Loken, a Knight-Errant and loyal Luna Wolf, and asked him to tell Leman Russ what he knew about Horus.
• Loken warned Russ that Horus had become like a daemon after making a deeper pact with the Chaos Gods, then shared what he learned during the Knights-Errant's mission to Molech.
• Leman Russ accepted the danger of his mission, and Constantin Valdor delivered the Dionysian Spear to him on the Emperor's orders.
• Russ departed with his Wolf Guard to pursue Horus, while Lox remained with Malcador.
• Lox asked Malcador where Magnus's soul fragments were, and Malcador said he knew a few clues.

Lox told Malcador his plan to lure Magnus back to the Imperial Palace and force him onto the Golden Throne so the Emperor could be freed. Malcador revealed that Magnus's soul fragment had been fused with Revuel Arvida, but they decided to proceed and enlist the Knights-Errant and Custodes.

• Lox explained that Konrad would lure Magnus to the Imperial Palace using a fragment of the Crimson King's soul as bait.
• Malcador said Magnus's return could free the Emperor, who remained trapped on the Golden Throne.
• Lox asked about Magnus's soul fragment, and Malcador admitted he had fused it with the loyal Thousand Son Revuel Arvida.
• Malcador explained that separating the fragment would likely kill Arvida and destroy it, so Lox kept his plan to capture Magnus and force him onto the Golden Throne.
• Malcador pledged the Knights-Errant's support and said he would persuade Constantin Valdor and the Custodes to cooperate.

Lox arranged for Konrad Curze to break into the Invincible Reason and free his imprisoned Night Lords, explaining to Lion El'Jonson that Curze had been forgiven by the Emperor and was on an important mission. Lion accepted the Emperor's will and ordered the Dark Angels to lower their guard, leaving Curze free to move through the ship.

• Lox returned Mercy and Forgiveness and Terminator armor to Curze, then tasked him with freeing Sevatar and escaping the Solar System aboard a hijacked warship.
• Curze teleported from the Red Alert to the Invincible Reason, where he sensed Sevatar and a few surviving Atramentar.
• Lox secretly contacted Lion and told him Curze was aboard the Invincible Reason and had returned to the Imperium with the Emperor's forgiveness.
• Lion accepted that the Emperor had authorized Curze's mission and said the First Legion would obey without question.
• Lion ordered Corswain to lift the security alert aboard the Invincible Reason and allow Curze to move freely.

Konrad Curze infiltrated the Invincible Reason and freed Sevatar and the remaining Atramentar from the Dark Angels’ cells. After Sevatar shouted to slay the False Emperor and provoked the guards, Curze fled with his sons aboard an escape cruiser bound for Mandeville Point.

• Konrad Curze found that the Dark Angels let him pass through their ship and reached Sevatar’s cell.
• Curze freed Sevatar and gave him a power sword and throwing knives, then released the Atramentar.
• Sevatar gathered the Night Lords and shouted, “Slay the False Emperor!”
• The Dark Angels’ suppressed hostility surged, so Curze seized his unarmored sons and demanded an escape route from Lox.
• Lox guided Curze and his group to a waiting cruiser, which sped toward Mandeville Point.

Lion secretly enabled Konrad Curze to escape the Invincible Reason, while Curze reunited with Sevatar and set out to return to Horus and bring Magnus back to Terra. Sevatar learned that Curze had changed and began guiding the fleeing cruiser with help from the rescued Astropath, Atani.

• Lion manipulated the Solar System's defenses to let Curze escape, then ordered the Invincible Reason to refit for a campaign to the Beta-Garmon Cluster.
• The Invincible Reason's commander reported that Curze had taken Sevatar and several Night Lords, an Astropath had disappeared, and Sevatar had killed an overseer who abused her.
• Sevatar told Curze he had deduced that the Lion had allowed their escape, and Curze revealed his plan to rebuild the Night Lords.
• Sevatar treated his wounds, recovered armor, and reunited with Atani, the Astropath he had rescued from the Invincible Reason.
• Sevatar used his foresight with Atani's psychic help to guide the cruiser through the Warp as Curze watched them and reflected on the Night Lords' future.

Lox sent Curze back to the traitors with armor and orders, then explained why Mars remained in enemy hands and chose Ganymede for a new war base. The base vehicle landed on the moon and began transforming.

• Lox watched Curze depart and hoped he could maneuver among the traitor primarchs while carrying out his mission.
• Lox discussed the damaged state of Mars and explained to Barabas Dantioch why the Imperium had not retaken it from the Dark Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Lox selected Ganymede as the site for a war base, with the nearby asteroid belt providing resources.
• With Imperial warships cleared from the area, Lox ordered the war base deployed on Ganymede.
• The upgraded base vehicle landed on a stable region of Ganymede’s ice and began transforming.

Lox oversaw Ganymede’s rapid transformation into a technologically advanced world and began building the Helios Shipyard near Ceres. As Adeptus Mechanicus ships gathered around Ganymede, Lox lowered the star ring defenses and invited the Martian refugees to join him.

• Lox’s Cogitator used nanobots and Ganymede’s resources to build infrastructure, control the climate, strengthen the magnetic field, and establish cities and orbital star rings.
• Lox launched a second construction effort near Ceres to build the Helios Shipyard, though it would take considerable time to begin producing warships.
• After seventy days, Ganymede had become a gleaming steel city, while construction at Ceres continued.
• Adeptus Mechanicus sages watched Ganymede’s transformation and gathered their Ark Mechanicus vessels beyond the star rings.
• Lox ordered the star ring defenses lowered and invited the Martian Adeptus Mechanicus refugees to land and unite under his leadership.

As the Adeptus Mechanicus landed on Ganymede, Lox explained the history of Mars’s civil war and the loyalists’ flight to Terra to Barabas Dantioch. Seeing the scattered loyalists as a chance to restore technology and strengthen the Imperium, Lox decided to lead them and consider using the Stone Men and Iron Men.

• Lox described how the Emperor secured Mars’s allegiance through the Treaty of Olympus and how Horus’s promises of forbidden research and autonomy drew Fabricator-General Kebor Hal and his supporters to the rebellion.
• Barabas Dantioch recalled his past as a mining slave on Deliverance and asked what had motivated the Mechanicum’s split.
• Lox explained that loyalist Mechanicum forces had fled Mars, suffered losses on Terra, and faced attempts by the Council of Terra to disband them before their Titan war machines secured their reorganization.
• Lox resolved to unite the loyalist Mechanicum with technological knowledge and STC relics, making them part of his effort to restore technology.
• Lox considered lifting restrictions on the Stone Men and Iron Men, reasoning that Necron Blackstone technology could help resist the Warp.

Archmagos Arkhan Land arrived at Ganymede aboard his Ark Mechanicus to investigate the STC technology behind the city's innovations and meet Lox. He singled out the young Belisarius Cawl as a promising ally and approached the meeting with hope that Macragge's fresh ideas could revive the loyalist Adeptus Mechanicus.

• An Ark Mechanicus entered orbit around Ganymede, and smaller Mechanicus ships gathered nearby.
• Archmagos Arkhan Land arrived in a modified hovering Land Raider while other Tech-priests followed behind him.
• Land recognized Ganymede's technology as originating from unfamiliar STC templates and criticized his colleagues for waiting to scavenge discoveries.
• Land noticed the young Belisarius Cawl and recalled his history, including his return to Terra with Leman Russ.
• Land decided to meet Lox, the sage from Macragge, and hoped the meeting would help renew the loyalist Adeptus Mechanicus.

Archmagos Arkhan Land and the Adeptus Mechanicus delegation visited Ganymede and encountered its advanced automata and technology. After one Tech-priest was disabled for trying to seize a robot, Land learned that Ganymede used a gravity well to siphon resources from Jupiter for mining.

• Archmagos Arkhan Land arrived at Ganymede’s star ring with the Adeptus Mechanicus delegation and marveled at its triangular automata.
• A Tech-priest tried to capture an automaton, so the robots trapped and paralyzed him with an electromagnetic pulse.
• The delegation traveled by space elevator and saw that Ganymede’s surface had been covered in metal drawn from Jupiter.
• Arkhan Land realized the star ring created a gravity well that siphoned matter from Jupiter to Ganymede’s refineries.
• The automata told Land that the gravity well accelerated resource gathering and that Ganymede called this efficiency.

Arkan Land and the Martian Tech-priests toured Ganymede, where Sage Lox had built a clean, advanced forge world with the help of Stone Men and Iron Men. Troubled by the use of artificial intelligence but impressed by Lox’s power, Land decided the Martian refugees might have to follow him as he led the delegation into the planetary control center.

• Arkan Land admired Ganymede’s transport megastructure, efficient factories, and clean residential districts, contrasting them with Mars’s polluted cities and harsh living conditions.
• Land questioned whether Sage Lox could protect Ganymede from the coming war as the delegation approached the planetary control center.
• Land and the Tech-priests saw Iron Men directing construction machines, prompting fear and anger over the violation of the Crimson Accord.
• A human-looking Stone Man explained that she and the Iron Men were controllable creations of Great Sage Lox and were rapidly rebuilding Ganymede.
• Land concluded that Mars lacked the strength to enforce its prohibitions and that Lox might be able to lead the Martian refugees, then entered the control center with his colleagues.

Lox prepared to reveal his Iron Men and Stone Men research to Arkhan Land and the Mechanicus delegates, relying on Blackstone safeguards against Warp corruption. After showing them Ganymede’s research center, he told Land that the Emperor had ordered the work and was backing him, leaving Land to accept the revelation.

• Lox introduced Anji, the Stone Man he had created, and welcomed Arkhan Land and the Mechanicus delegates to Ganymede’s planetary control center.
• Land asked to tour the city, and Lox first questioned him about the bio-engineered monkey on his shoulder and corrected his mistaken belief that monkeys had venomous stingers.
• Lox led Land and the delegates through the control center as they examined its sealed laboratories and unfamiliar technology.
• Land warned Lox against researching Iron Men and other forbidden technologies, but Lox explained that Blackstone could suppress Warp influence.
• Lox said the Emperor had ordered him to unseal and study the Iron Men and Stone Men, and Land accepted that the Emperor was backing the research.

Lox revealed that the Emperor had authorized him to lift the ban on artificial intelligence under Blackstone protections, then showed the Adeptus Mechanicus scholars his extensive technological inheritance. He called on them to unite under his leadership, ending the chapter by asking who approved and who objected.

• Lox told Arkhan Land that the Emperor had authorized limited artificial-intelligence research using Blackstone technology.
• Lox showed the assembled Tech-priests knowledge and STC data from the Red Alert, including science and technologies gathered from human and xenos sources.
• The scholars were overwhelmed by Lox’s technological inheritance, which he described as a foundation they could advance together.
• Lox urged the divided Adeptus Mechanicus to unite under him and help the Imperium defeat the traitors and the Dark Mechanicum.
• Lox asked the gathered Tech-priests who approved and who objected.

Lox secured the support of the assembled Tech-priests and declared the founding of the High Technology Commonwealth. The Mechanicus Order’s fractured factions rallied around him as their new center.

• Lox asked the Tech-priests to stand on the side they supported, and most gathered to his left.
• Ezekiel Sedayne challenged Lox’s confidence but ultimately joined his supporters.
• Sage Arkhan Land endorsed Lox and urged him to keep welcoming new talent and ideas.
• Belisarius Cawl pledged to follow Lox, and both he and Sage Land moved to Lox’s side.
• With everyone supporting him, Lox declared the High Technology Commonwealth established.

Malcador and the Emperor discussed the origins and purpose of Martian Mechanicus faith while watching Lox establish the Advanced Technology Commonwealth. The Emperor hoped Lox would become the Omnissiah and lead humanity toward technological progress, while he continued resisting the Warp and the dark presence within himself.

• Malcador watched Lox reach an agreement with the Imperium-loyal Mechanicus factions on Ganymede and establish the Advanced Technology Commonwealth.
• The Emperor resisted the Four Gods' Warp storm and rejected the expanding black sun that called for him to merge with it.
• Malcador complained about the Imperium's endless paperwork and reflected that Lion, Sanguinius, and Guilliman had not hidden their actions from his notice.
• The Emperor recalled defeating the Void Dragon shard and sealing it beneath Mars, then explained how he had shaped Martian faith through Moravec and the prophecy of the Omnissiah.
• Malcador explained that the Mechanicus's belief in the God of All Machines, the Omnissiah, and the Motive Force divided Martian faith and kept it from empowering Warp entities.
• The Emperor said the Omnissiah could be anyone and hoped Lox would become one, making the Advanced Technology Commonwealth the result of their efforts.

Lox founded the Advanced Technology Community to unite Tech-priests by sharing technology and knowledge in exchange for contributions. He outlined how the community would circulate discoveries and help restore humanity’s fragmented scientific knowledge.

• Lox announced the founding of the Advanced Technology Community, independent of the Mechanicus Order.
• Lox explained that the Imperium’s hoarding of knowledge and reliance on recovered relics had stifled technological progress.
• Arkhan Land questioned whether Lox truly intended to share knowledge freely, and Lox affirmed his plan.
• Lox said he would share his technology, knowledge, and STC templates with members who contributed valuable discoveries.
• Lox proposed a contribution system that would let Tech-priests exchange relics for useful knowledge and help complete his technology tree.

Lox established the High Technology Community’s governing body, the Council of Sages, with safeguards to review innovations and guard against Warp corruption. He named its first twelve councilors, setting the organization on a path to direct the Mechanicus’s knowledge and technology toward strengthening the Imperium.

• Arkhan Land recounted Kelbor-Hal’s opposition to the Emperor and explained how he had gained power as Fabricator-General of Mars.
• Lox announced that the High Technology Community would have foundational rules to prevent dictatorship and extremism.
• Lox established the thirteen-seat Council of Sages, where councilors would vote on major decisions and review innovations before implementation.
• Lox said the planetary control center would be protected by a Blackstone anti-Warp field and required two-thirds council approval for innovations.
• Lox named Arkhan Land, Ezekiel Sedayne, Bakker Dylan, and nine other Mechanicus Sages to the first Council of Sages.

Lox established the High Technology Commonwealth on Ganymede and offered Tech-priests fair access to technological knowledge in exchange for contributions. The chapter ended with the new members celebrating Lox while one disciple feared his mentor, Ezekiel Sedayne, would take his initial contribution points.

• Lox planned a contribution and ranking system overseen by a Cogitator, with points earned by research, labor, and military service.
• Tech-priests registered with the High Technology Commonwealth and received five initial contribution points to spend on knowledge from its database.
• Tech-priests praised Lox and began considering research work and battles against rebels as ways to earn more points.
• A Tech-priest revealed that Ezekiel Sedayne had ordered his disciples to surrender their contribution points for redistribution.
• The Tech-priests sympathized with the disciple and silently praised Lox for offering them a better path than their mentors.

Lox watched the High Technology Community’s exchanges circulate knowledge and bring in STCs, then noticed Belisarius Cawl and several senior Tech-priests making valuable trades. Sage Arkhan Land exchanged his collection for the Moravec Cube, prompting Lox to seek him out and learn why.

• Lox allowed Tech-priests to pool contribution points and exchange technological relics, and nineteen submitted items filled gaps in his technology tree.
• Lox saw Belisarius Cawl exchange soul synthesis research for 205,404 contribution points and privately suspected Cawl had fused his mentor’s cognitive core with his own mind.
• Sage Ezekiel exchanged six damaged STC fragments for usage rights to the Brain STC so he could study its biological knowledge.
• Sage Arkhan Land exchanged more than twenty STCs, including two nearly complete ones, for over a million contribution points.
• Sage Land spent his points to redeem the Moravec Cube, and Lox decided to visit him to discover his reason.

Lox visited Arkhan Land as he studied the Moravec Cube and learned its psychic research could enable a major upgrade to the Astartes. Land believed the plans were logically sound, but Lox questioned why Moravec would have developed them for the Emperor’s warriors.

• Lox entered Arkhan Land’s biological laboratory with Barabas Dantioch and found Belisarius Cawl and Fredici helping study the Moravec Cube.
• After half a day of analysis, Land said the cube contained Moravec’s research on using psychic power to enhance humanity.
• Land proposed that the research could create an army stronger than the Astartes by upgrading and perfecting the Space Marines.
• Lox warned that altering the Astartes required caution and cited the losses caused by skipped enhancement procedures in Inductii.
• Land said the cube’s theory was internally consistent, while Lox wondered why Moravec would improve the Emperor’s warriors after losing to him.

As Sage Land analyzed the Moravik Cube, he concluded that Astartes were incomplete and could be improved by adding traits found in Primarchs. Lox suspected the Emperor had deliberately limited their potential and resolved to strengthen their bodies and stabilize their gene-seed.

• Sage Land explained that Moravik's records described ways to improve the Astartes and revealed that gene-seed linked each Legion to its Primarch through genetics and psychic power.
• Sage Land recounted studying Angron, whom he called Subject Twelve, and discovering a gland in the Primarch's brain that amplified his body's organs, muscles, and bones.
• Sage Land concluded that Astartes lacked organs found in Primarchs and proposed completing them to bring them closer to Primarch-level power.
• Lox suspected the Emperor had intentionally limited the Astartes to prevent them from threatening humanity and worried that loyalists relied too heavily on superior armor against Warp-empowered traitors.
• Lox resolved to make the Astartes larger, faster, and stronger, with more stable gene-seed.

Sage Land explained that improving the Emperor’s creations required advanced genetic engineering and the Primarchs’ primordial genetic material. Belisarius Cawl identified the Selene Gene Cult’s primordial template as their target, and Lox authorized him to retrieve it from the Moon, with Barabas Dantioch accompanying him.

• Arkan Land said that analyzing the Moravec Cube would require decades or centuries and that the project needed advanced genetic engineering and primordial genetic material from all twenty Primarchs.
• Belisarius Cawl proposed that the primordial material might be held by the Selene Gene Cult on the Moon and revealed that he had learned of its primordial template through Hurst Aspetia.
• Cawl explained that the template supposedly contained primordial genetic material from all twenty Primarchs and could help create beings more perfect than the Astartes.
• Lox granted Cawl authority to mobilize Consortium resources and Imperial forces, ordering him to bring the template back from the Moon and recruit key cult members if possible.
• Cawl accepted the mission and departed for Ganymede, while Barabas Dantioch went with him to assist and monitor him.

Sage Land discussed Cawl’s talents and his willingness to pass on his knowledge, even if that meant Cawl eventually fused with his soul. He also told Lox that he had witnessed the Emperor summon loyal dead during the Webway War, leaving Lox stunned by the existence of the Emperor’s spirit warriors.

• Lox and Sage Land discussed Cawl’s mastery of soul-synthesis and Land’s intention to invite him to become his final disciple.
• Land said he might send Cawl to study under Ezekiel Sedayne, whose genetic research and knowledge he wanted preserved despite distrusting his motives.
• Land explained that he would rather pass his knowledge to Cawl than cling to life and lose his creativity.
• Land told Lox that he had witnessed the Emperor gather loyal souls on the Golden Throne and send some back into battle as spell-bound warriors.
• Land described a headless primarch leading the Emperor’s flaming warriors through the Webway, and Lox realized it could have been Ferrus Manus.