Recaps

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.

Chaghatai Khan's Sky Eagle devastated Ashurden's rebel fleet and planetary defenses, prompting Ashurden to send boarding forces to cripple the super-warship. The surviving boarders teleported into the ship and met Gantula, Qin Xin, and the White Scars, who began cutting them down.

• Chaghatai Khan drove the Sky Eagle through the rebels' defenses, bombarding planets and orbital platforms as Ashurden tried to rally his fleet.
• Ashurden ordered his finest warriors to board the Sky Eagle after his fleet's attacks failed to penetrate its shields.
• The Sky Eagle destroyed many boarding craft, and only a fraction of the rebel Astartes reached the ship after breaching its shields and attempting beaconless teleportation.
• Gantula and Qin Xin led the White Scars and mortal auxiliaries against the Sons of Horus and Iron Warriors who appeared aboard the ship.
• Qin Xin charged into the rebels and killed them with his power guandao.

The White Scars fought off the Sons of Horus boarding party aboard the Sky Eagle while Jaghatai Khan used its planet-killer cannon and void shields to destroy the rebel fleet’s attacking battleships. Velen Ashurden accepted defeat and ordered a report sent to Horus, warning that only a primarch could stop Jaghatai.

• The White Scars’ Keshig Guard defeated most of the Sons of Horus boarders, and the survivors were killed by the Sky Eagle’s automated weapons when they tried to escape into its lower decks.
• Velen Ashurden ordered three battleships to ram the Sky Eagle, intending to keep it from joining the Imperial fleet’s counterattack.
• Jaghatai Khan fired the Sky Eagle’s planet-killer cannon and destroyed two charging battleships.
• Jaghatai accelerated the Sky Eagle into the final ramming ship, whose hull was crushed and disintegrated against the warship’s void shields.
• Velen Ashurden admitted defeat and ordered his forces to report to Horus that Jaghatai stood in their way.

Chaghatai Khan defeated the rebel fleet at Zeta Garmon, then ordered the destruction of planets where enemy forces remained. After eradicating the resistance on Zeta Garmon Ten, he departed the system with his fleet.

• Chaghatai Khan led the Imperial fleet in a week-long battle that destroyed the rebel naval forces, though his fleet lost a quarter of its warships.
• Gantula reported that the White Scars had recovered rebel gene-seed, and Chaghatai ordered the Legion to check it for Chaos corruption before reuse.
• Chaghatai learned that rebel forces remained in underground fortifications on Zeta Garmon Ten and ordered Exterminatus rather than occupy the planets.
• Nugan Khan arranged orbital bombardments, and a Mechanicus priest deployed the Sky Eagle's continental shelf oscillation bomb against Zeta Garmon Ten.
• The bomb triggered massive earthquakes and shifting continental plates that crushed the rebels' underground shelters and buried the survivors.
• Chaghatai destroyed the rebels' control of the region and departed the Zeta Garmon system with his fleet.

After the traitors suffered a crushing defeat at Zeta Garmon, Ashurhaddon tried to unite the bickering Legion representatives and assess their next moves. He revealed that Horus was secretly seeking the Blackstone Fortress, while warning that the absent Dark Angels and Lion El'Jonson posed the greatest threat.

• Ashurhaddon watched the Sons of Horus fleet vanish from the display as the representatives argued over their defeat and the White Scars' powerful new warship, the Sky Eagle.
• The Iron Warriors commander questioned the return of the captured Aelkenax, prompting the Emperor's Children representative to defend him and Ashurhaddon to stop their quarrel.
• Ashurhaddon privately recalled that Horus had gone to retrieve the Blackstone Fortress, which he believed could counter the Sky Eagle.
• Ashurhaddon warned the traitor commanders that Lion El'Jonson was their key enemy and that Jaghatai Khan's White Scars movements might be concealing the Dark Angels' plans.
• The World Eaters captain dismissed Ashurhaddon's concerns and demanded more opportunities to kill, leaving Ashurhaddon exhausted by the Legions he was expected to lead.

Ashurhaddon received Horus’s message that he had returned, while Horus traveled to a hidden Aeldari Crone World to claim the Blackstone Fortress. Horus began awakening the ancient weapon and declared that he could control it without its two keys.

• Ashurhaddon ordered the Alpha Legion to stir unrest behind Imperial lines and relied on the Iron Warriors to strengthen the defenses at Beta-Garmon.
• A Gasterlin Terminator delivered Horus’s astropathic message to Ashurhaddon, stating that Horus had returned.
• Horus arrived aboard the Vengeful Spirit at a hidden dead Aeldari Crone World with Kelbor-Hal and reflected on the Primarchs who had refused to join him.
• Kelbor-Hal identified the Blackstone Fortress as an Aeldari relic and said it required the Hand of Darkness and the Eye of Night to control.
• Horus manipulated the Warp to shield his fleet from the dead star’s gravity and sensed the Blackstone Fortress awakening.
• Horus said he could control the Blackstone Fortress without possessing its two keys.

Horus explained the origins and safeguards of Blackstone Fortresses to Kebor-Har, then revealed enough of his power to awaken the ancient fortress above the Crone World of Death. The fortress turned its weapons toward Horus’s fleet and fired a beam of aetheric energy.

• Kebor-Har asked whether the Blackstone Fortress was created by the Aeldari or the Necrons, and Horus said both factions had possessed versions of the weapon.
• Horus explained that the C'tan had created Blackstone and that the Necrons and Aeldari had used Blackstone Fortresses against their enemies and gods.
• Kebor-Har concluded that more Blackstone Fortresses must exist and lamented that the Dark Mechanicum lacked the Hand of Darkness and the Eye of Night.
• Horus revealed a fraction of his true nature, prompting the Blackstone Fortress above the Crone World of Death to awaken in response to the threat.
• The fortress gathered immense Warp energy, turned toward Horus’s fleet, and fired a brilliant beam of immaterial light.

Horus used his Warp power to withstand the Blackstone Fortress’s attack, seize control of the fortress, and discover a Webway gate. After an Aeldari god barred him from entering its library, Horus rejoined Abaddon and the Sons of Horus and prepared to return to Beta-Garmon to approach his brothers again.

• The Blackstone Fortress unleashed a psychic attack, but Horus absorbed its power and reached the fortress.
• Horus overwhelmed the fortress’s consciousness, took control of it, and entered its interior.
• Horus found a Webway gate and tried to tear it open, but a clown god from an Aeldari library forbade his entry and collapsed the gate.
• Abaddon and the Justaerin Terminators arrived on the fortress and found Horus unharmed.
• Horus told his sons to return to Beta-Garmon, where he would ask his brothers whether they would stand with him or oppose him.

Horus captured the Blackstone Fortress, and Maloghurst took charge of securing it for the Sons of Horus. He sacrificed its mortal slaves and transformed five thousand Inductii into daemon-hosting Blessed Sons, leaving the fortress increasingly corrupted by the Warp.

• Horus forced the Blackstone Fortress to follow the Vengeful Spirit, then returned to his throne as the fleet headed for Beta-Garmon.
• Maloghurst urged Abaddon to call Horus the Warmaster and offered to oversee the Blackstone Fortress; Abaddon authorized him to take charge.
• Maloghurst led five thousand Inductii to the fortress and ordered them to perform Warp rituals using mortal slaves.
• The Inductii slaughtered the slaves, and their blood and souls empowered the Warp corruption spreading through the fortress.
• Maloghurst summoned daemons and commanded them to possess the Inductii, turning the warriors into Blessed Sons of the Sixteenth Legion.

Horus signed a pact with Vashtorr, then helped him sacrifice a hive world's population so Vashtorr could forge the daemons' souls into weapons and armor for the Sons of Horus. The Legion gained terrifying new power as Horus prepared his sons to serve his cause.

• Horus accepted Vashtorr's pact after Vashtorr acquired the Blackstone Fortress, binding them to the agreement through the Warp.
• Horus reassured Abaddon that the daemons aboard the Vengeful Spirit were temporary allies, then ordered the Astartes to remove their armor and surrender their weapons.
• Abaddon arranged for Apothecaries and Dark Mechanicum sages to cut away the mutations spreading through the Sons of Horus.
• Horus seized a rebel hive world whose inhabitants had enjoyed months of peace, then unleashed daemons upon them as an offering to Vashtorr.
• Vashtorr forged the sacrificed souls and daemons into the Sons of Horus' weapons and armor, greatly increasing their power.

Jaghatai Khan, Sanguinius, and Lion El'Jonson coordinated their advance through the Beta-Garmon Cluster while Horus remained hidden. The loyalist forces pressed toward the cluster’s core, leaving Lion waiting for Horus’s expected decisive strike.

• Jaghatai asked Sanguinius whether his visions had revealed anything, and Sanguinius said his prophecies had grown less accurate since his return from Macragge.
• Jaghatai reassured Sanguinius that the future was changing and that their choices still mattered.
• Lion continued to hold the largest Imperial fleet in reserve while Jaghatai raided Horus’s territory and Sanguinius integrated more than thirty Titan Legions.
• Sanguinius described the difficulty of uniting the Titan Legions as they advanced toward the traitor-held core of Beta-Garmon.
• Lion reviewed the heavy fighting awaiting Sanguinius on Delta-Garmon II and Beta-Garmon II, but kept his own forces in position because Horus’s main fleet remained unseen.
• Lion wondered what Horus was waiting for and warned that the loyalists’ capture of Beta-Garmon II and III would close the cluster to him.