Recaps

Sanguinius reflected on the dangers facing Horus and worried about his sons’ future as he taught Azkaellon that the Blood Angels must protect humanity. He then prepared to lead the fleet to Beta-Garmon II for the final battle against the traitors.

• Sanguinius worried that Horus’s inner turmoil could make him lose control and wondered how Raldoron’s rescue mission on Gamma Minor Garmon was progressing.
• Sanguinius told Azkaellon that the Blood Angels must defend humanity, honor their mortal origins, and remain humble.
• Sanguinius feared that after his death, the Blood Angels might succumb to the Red Thirst and return to their brutal past.
• Azkaellon said he wanted only to remain beside Sanguinius and protect him, and Sanguinius accepted his devotion.
• Sanguinius ordered the fleet to Beta-Garmon II and declared it the site of the Mechanicum’s final battle against the traitors.

Raldoron led the Blood Angels to liberate Minoris Garmon 147 from the Death Guard, whose weapons had poisoned the agricultural world and left its people starving. As the Blood Angels began their orbital assault, farmer-turned-militiaman Calvin waited in a trench, weakened by hunger and despair.

• Raldoron surveyed Minoris Garmon 147 and resolved to rescue its surviving people, condemning the Death Guard’s destruction of the world.
• Raldoron and Kano reflected on how the Blood Angels sought to change their harsh homeworld rather than glorify suffering.
• Raldoron led a thousand Blood Angels in a rapid orbital drop assault against Death Guard forces occupying the planet.
• Calvin endured hunger in a trench and recalled how chemical attacks had poisoned the soil and water, killing civilians who tried to eat or drink.
• Calvin learned that many women, children, and elderly people had starved to death despite living on an agricultural world.

Carl fought as a starving militiwoman against plague-walking corpses and Dark Mechanicus forces, finding courage in prayer to the God-Emperor. After taking up a Solar Auxilia veteran’s flamer and surviving its blast, she saw Imperial reinforcements arrive as the Blood Angels descended.

• Carl took position in the trench and fired her lasgun at the approaching plague-ridden corpses, recharging its power pack over a fire when it ran dry.
• Carl prayed to the God-Emperor and felt her fear lessen as the first wave of walking corpses fell.
• Dark Mechanicus slave soldiers, Knights, and armored vehicles attacked, and artillery destroyed the loyalist Sicaran tanks and a Solar Auxilia veteran beside Carl.
• Carl feared she had been infected, grabbed the fallen veteran’s promethium flamer, and burned nearby enemies before its detonation threw her into the gravel.
• Carl heard her comrades announce that Imperial reinforcements had arrived and that the Blood Angels were there.

The Blood Angels arrived in force to reinforce the beleaguered Imperial defenders, and Raldoron led their assault against the Death Guard. Zadar Krosius withdrew his outnumbered troops to defensive positions as the defenders prepared to advance alongside the newcomers.

• Zadar Krosius ordered the Death Guard to fire anti-aircraft guns and missiles at the Blood Angels’ drop pods.
• Raldoron’s drop pods used missiles and evasive flight to avoid the Death Guard’s fire and descend safely.
• Krosius judged that his seven tactical squads could not defeat the arriving Blood Angels and ordered a withdrawal under cover of the Desolate March Auxilia.
• The Blood Angels landed, sterilized their landing zones, and Raldoron led the charge with his jump pack.
• The Imperial militia and Solar Auxilia cheered the Blood Angels’ arrival and moved to encircle the retreating Death Guard.

Crosius and the Death Guard accepted the Warp power in Horus's daemon-possessed armor, transforming into plague-ridden warriors devoted to Grandfather. As they charged the approaching Blood Angels, Raldoron warned his troops that the Death Guard had fallen completely to Chaos.

• Crosius led the Death Guard back to their defensive position and ordered them to form ranks as the Blood Angels approached.
• The daemon-possessed armor fused with the Death Guard's bodies, spreading sores and blisters while increasing their size and strength.
• Crosius heard a colossal being bless the Death Guard, then called it Grandfather and felt his pain disappear.
• Crosius ordered the mortal auxilia to hold back the Solar Auxilia while the Death Guard charged the Blood Angels.
• Nurglings emerged across the battlefield as Raldoron landed and warned his Blood Angel Guard that the enemy's Warp power had spiraled out of control.

Crocius and the Death Guard advanced with swarms of Nurglings, whose plague devastated the Solar Auxilia and Imperial militia. As the daemons and Death Guard attacked the Blood Angels, Raldoron identified their corrosive threat and led a counterattack, though the enemy’s sorcery made them increasingly resilient.

• Crocius found himself drawn to the Nurglings, but kicked one away when it nearly pulled the pin on his grenade.
• The Nurglings overwhelmed the Solar Auxilia and Imperial militia, infecting Calvin’s comrades with a plague that killed and ruptured their bodies.
• Mucani Kano recognized the Nurglings’ plague as psychic and led Blood Angel Librarians in an attack on the Death Guard.
• Kano discovered the Death Guard could regenerate after devastating injuries, while their attacks corroded the Blood Angels’ adamantium armor.
• Raldoron warned the Blood Angels about the corrosive fire, then used a melta grenade to open a gap and led the Sanguinary Guard in a flanking attack.

Raldoron led the Blood Angels against the unnaturally resilient Death Guard and confronted their commander, Crozius. He killed Crozius despite the Death Guard’s Warp-enhanced regeneration, then prepared to give the fallen traitor a final death.

• Raldoron and the Blood Angels fought through the Death Guard, whose bodies rapidly regenerated from bolter wounds.
• Raldoron used melta grenades to destroy one Death Guard warrior, while Kano and other Blood Angels battled the enemy and Nurglings.
• Seeing the Blood Angels’ advance falter, Raldoron took to the air and identified Crozius as the enemy commander.
• Crozius blocked Raldoron’s attack and unleashed a psychic shock, but Raldoron resisted and severed half his body with his power sword.
• Raldoron told Crozius that the Blood Angels’ strength came from Sanguinius’s blood and killed him with a precise strike.
• As Crozius’s body continued to regenerate, Raldoron raised Angel’s Sword to finish him.

Raldoron and the Blood Angels withdrew when a Great Unclean One overwhelmed the battlefield, then destroyed it with orbital bombardment from the Red Tear. They left the corrupted planet to be purged, while Kano revealed that surviving Death Guard had escaped through the Warp and would fight again.

• Raldoron recognized the Great Unclean One as it appeared and watched it devour the wounded Death Guard leader Crozius.
• After Kano asked what they should do, Raldoron ordered the Blood Angels to retreat and requested an orbital strike from the Red Tear.
• The Red Tear’s light lance pierced the Great Unclean One’s barrier, and the fleet’s weapons and Thunderhawks destroyed the daemon.
• Raldoron ordered the fleet to bombard the corrupted planet and explained to Kano that the mortals could no longer be saved.
• Librarian Kano divined that the surviving Death Guard had escaped through the Warp, and Raldoron realized they would return with daemon-possessed weapons.

After the Blood Angels destroyed the enemy and contaminated battlefield on Minoris Garmon 147, Raldoron urged General Thundike Roy to evacuate the planet. Thundike refused to abandon his home but entrusted its children to Raldoron, who marked the world as a death world and departed for another campaign.

• Raldoron met General Thundike Roy after the Blood Angels' orbital bombardment had destroyed the battlefield and left a vast scar on Minoris Garmon 147.
• Raldoron told Thundike that the planet was contaminated, would receive no further reinforcements, and should be evacuated.
• Thundike refused to leave the home his people had defended for six years, and Raldoron accepted his choice without punishment.
• Thundike asked Raldoron to take Minoris's children away so they could have a future elsewhere.
• Raldoron took the children under fourteen aboard the Red Tear, ordered Kano to mark Minoris Garmon 147 as a death world, and led the fleet toward its next campaign.

Raldoron ordered the Blood Angels to protect Minoris’s orphaned children and considered expanding recruitment as the Imperium’s forces advanced through Beta-Garmon. The Vengeful Spirit appeared west of the cluster, prompting the Imperial fleets to converge for a decisive battle against Horus.

• Raldoron told the mortal officials to care for Minoris’s orphaned children and suggested that promising candidates could try to become Blood Angels aspirants.
• Raldoron discussed the Ultramarines’ broad recruitment practices with Kano and warned that Horus remained dangerous despite the traitors’ setbacks.
• An astropath reported that Horus’s flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, had appeared west of Beta-Garmon and that Jaghatai Khan had engaged its forces.
• Raldoron ordered the Blood Angels to change course and join the battle as Lion El’Jonson mobilized the Imperial forces to converge on Horus.

Lorgar entered Slaanesh’s Six Circles with Zardu Layak to find Fulgrim, while revealing that he intended to replace Horus as Chaos’s chosen leader. He forced his way toward Slaanesh’s palace and called out to Fulgrim.

• Lorgar and Zardu Layak entered Slaanesh’s realm, where Lorgar warned that their desires could be magnified and described the six circles surrounding the Palace of Pleasure.
• Lorgar sensed that Fulgrim was within the realm and learned that his brother had given himself over to Slaanesh.
• Lorgar told Layak that he believed Horus would lead Chaos to defeat and declared himself the gods’ perfect chosen one.
• Lorgar asked Layak to use Fulgrim’s true name after Lorgar gained control of his brother.
• Lorgar tore through the Six Circles, drove back Slaanesh’s daemons, and roared for Fulgrim.

Lorgar entered Slaanesh’s palace to persuade Fulgrim to return to the war against the Emperor, but Fulgrim refused and attacked him. The chapter ended with Fulgrim unleashing his true form and demanding that Lorgar leave.

• Lorgar and Layak entered the palace and found Fulgrim entwined with Nakari amid Slaanesh’s debauched court.
• Lorgar urged Fulgrim to return to the war, but Fulgrim mocked him and rejected any duty to Horus.
• Lorgar provoked Fulgrim by asking about Ferrus, and Fulgrim struck him into a wall before killing the other Word Bearer Astartes.
• Lorgar fought Fulgrim and argued that the war against the Emperor was a fight against lies, but Fulgrim said the war had nothing to do with him.
• Fulgrim revealed his true form, declared that he did not care about the war, and ordered Lorgar to leave.

Lorgar defeated Fulgrim by having Zardu Layak recite the daemon primarch’s true name, then took control of him and left Slaanesh’s realm with the Emperor’s Children. Back aboard the Trisagion, Lorgar planned to let Horus and Lion weaken each other before making his move, while plotting to gather other traitor primarchs to his side.

• Fulgrim overwhelmed Lorgar in Slaanesh’s Six Circles, but Zardu Layak recited Fulgrim’s true name and drained his power.
• Lorgar struck the bound Fulgrim and claimed him as a pawn, while Slaanesh allowed the confrontation to unfold.
• Layak controlled Fulgrim, reunited the scattered Emperor’s Children, and led them out of Slaanesh’s realm with Lorgar.
• Lorgar returned to the Trisagion and ordered his forces toward Beta-Garmon, intending to act after Horus and Lion had fought each other to exhaustion.
• Lorgar discovered that Konrad Curze had escaped Lion’s custody and planned to recruit him and other traitor primarchs for a rebellion against Horus.

Chaghatai Khan’s White Scars fleet detected Horus’s forces in the Beta-Garmon Cluster and discovered the Vengeful Spirit’s signal, then tried to withdraw. Their Warp translation failed, leaving them surrounded by Horus’s fleet and forced to fight their way out in realspace.

• Chaghatai Khan divined an omen of misfortune and warned Gantula, who told him reconnaissance had found Horus’s forces heading toward the Pacificus Sector.
• After a week of scouting through the Beta-Garmon Cluster, the White Scars detected the Vengeful Spirit’s signal, and Chaghatai ordered an immediate withdrawal rather than risk a decapitation strike.
• The fleet’s Warp translation failed at Mandeville Point despite its engines and instruments appearing normal.
• Horus’s rebel warships emerged around the White Scars from the Warp, revealing that Chaghatai’s fleet had been encircled.
• Chaghatai ordered the fleet to fight through Horus’s blockade and escape through realspace.

Horus psychically confronted Chaghatai and tried to persuade him to join the rebellion, insisting that he could use Chaos without becoming its servant. Chaghatai saw that Horus still had some goodness left, but Chaos overcame his doubts, and Horus threatened to kill him unless he surrendered.

• Horus appeared as a psychic projection aboard the Sky Eagle and claimed he had sealed the star system against escape.
• Chaghatai rejected Horus’s claim that they were still brothers and recognized him as a Warp monster wearing Horus’s identity.
• Horus justified his rebellion by describing his visions of the Emperor’s future and his desire to lead humanity to revival.
• Chaghatai reminded Horus of his happy years with the Emperor and argued that Horus himself might be the cause of the suffering he had foreseen.
• Horus wrestled with Chaghatai’s words, but Chaos suppressed his resistance, and he summoned the Talon of Horus and Worldbreaker to demand Chaghatai’s surrender or death.

Chaghatai fought Horus in a Warp realm, where he discovered the Chaos Gods behind Horus’s corruption and learned that Horus intended to overthrow the Emperor and rule humanity. Horus overwhelmed and captured Chaghatai, but the Khan refused to surrender.

• As Chaghatai prepared to fight Horus, Horus drew him into a dark Warp domain and declared it his world.
• Chaghatai summoned lightning and storms to resist the darkness, then recognized the four Chaos Gods behind Horus and cursed them for killing his brother.
• Chaghatai attacked Horus with the White Tiger Vicious Blade, but Horus caught the strike with the Talon of Horus and revealed that he had seized the gods’ power to become humanity’s new master.
• Horus easily sent Chaghatai flying, then pierced his shoulder with the Talon and lifted him while recalling their past brotherhood.
• Chaghatai refused to yield and spat blood onto the eye on Horus’s chest, declaring that he would rather die than become Horus’s captive.

Horus defeated Jaghatai and dragged him through a dark realm as his fragmented mind swung between memories and hatred, leaving the Khan near death and searching for a way to understand his own essence. Leman Russ arrived with the Space Wolves, armed with new knowledge of the Spear of Dionysus, and led a costly assault that breached the Vengeful Spirit.

• Horus subdued Jaghatai and spoke to him about their past while revealing his fractured, near-mad state.
• Jaghatai realized Horus had been consumed by Chaos and began reflecting on the Warp essence within the primarchs, but he could find no way to escape.
• Leman Russ returned from Fenris after completing Ergin's trials and learning that the Spear of Dionysus could restore its target to its primal state.
• Russ discovered that only he could dispel the Chaos power surrounding Horus, then rallied the Space Wolves to attack the Warmaster's fleet.
• The Space Wolves sacrificed ships and warriors to reach the Vengeful Spirit, where Russ led his warriors through a breach in its armor.

Leman Russ led the Space Wolves in a suicidal boarding assault on the Vengeful Spirit, directing packs through the corrupted ship as they fought to reach Horus. The Wolf King encountered a warped passage guarded by three concealed Contemptor Dreadnoughts.

• Leman Russ and the Space Wolves boarded the Vengeful Spirit, while the Hrafnkel bombarded the ship and most of the Legion's assault craft were destroyed.
• Leman Russ sent packs to hunt Horus and destroy the ship's armories, while Bjorn and the Long Fangs planted melta bombs in an ammunition depot.
• Bjorn fought beside Leman Russ and proved himself in battle as the wolves advanced through the Vengeful Spirit's corpse-filled corridors.
• Leman Russ followed the Rune Priests through the ship's warped, living interior toward Horus's throne hall, while the Vengeful Spirit attacked both intruders and its own crew.
• Leman Russ cleared away a poisonous mist and revealed three Contemptor Dreadnoughts blocking the wolves' path.

Leman Russ led the Space Wolves through a deadly ambush by corrupted Sons of Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, destroying their Dreadnoughts and rallying his warriors. The Space Wolves pressed their attack with renewed morale as Russ called them to kill the remaining enemies.

• Leman Russ warned the Space Wolves about the Warp-corrupted Sons of Horus and advanced through their heavy Dreadnought fire with a psychic shield and the Spear of Dionysus.
• Leman Russ pierced a Dreadnought and used the Spear of Dionysus to purge the corruption from its dying occupant, granting the warrior a final death.
• Bjorn planted a melta bomb on another Dreadnought, destroying it in a searing explosion.
• Leman Russ impaled a third Dreadnought and shielded his sons when its reactor exploded.
• The Space Wolves roared for Leman Russ as their morale rose, and Russ raised the Spear of Dionysus and called them to kill the enemy.

Leman Russ reached the throne room of the Vengeful Spirit and began a life-or-death duel with Horus, interrupting the Warmaster as he attacked Jaghatai Khan's soul. Jaghatai returned to his body and ordered the White Scars to charge Horus's fleet and rescue Russ.

• Leman Russ fought through the Sons of Horus and reached the Vengeful Spirit's throne room, where he found an empty throne and sensed Horus hiding in another dimension.
• Russ saw Horus holding the dying Jaghatai Khan in the realm of souls and attacked him with the Dionysian Spear.
• Horus blocked Russ's spear with Worldbreaker, shattering the dark realm and returning Jaghatai's soul to his body.
• Jaghatai awoke among the Keshig, then ordered the White Scars fleet to attack Horus's combined fleet and save Russ.
• The White Scars accelerated the Heavenly Eagle toward the Vengeful Spirit as Russ and Horus began their fated duel.

Leman Russ fought Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, using the Dionysian Spear to reach the brother still buried beneath Chaos's control. Russ left Horus wounded by the spear, and Horus briefly regained enough awareness to ask what he had done.

• Horus's Chaos-twisted perception erased his brief recognition of the Sons of Horus's mutations, and he again urged Russ to join him.
• Russ fought back with the Dionysian Spear while the two Primarchs unleashed opposing Warp powers aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• As Horus gained the advantage, Russ realized he only needed to drive the spear into Horus and accepted the cost of doing so.
• Horus tore through Russ's armor and body, but Russ thrust the Dionysian Spear into Horus's abdomen.
• The spear expelled Warp energy from Horus, who staggered back and asked Russ what he had done.

The Emperor summoned Lox to ask him to support the Lion at Beta-Garmon, where Vashtorr and an expanded enemy alliance threatened the Imperium’s forces. He explained the primarchs’ Warp-born essences and revealed his connection to the Dark King, leaving Lox demanding to know what that had to do with Vashtorr.

• The Emperor sensed Leman Russ stab Horus with the Spear of the Wine God and grieved as Horus’s last kind soul began to awaken.
• The Emperor teleported Lox from Ganymede to the Imperial Palace and explained that Russ had awakened his primarch essence.
• The Emperor asked Lox to bring his Iron Men legion to support the Lion’s expeditionary fleet against an enlarged alliance that included Vashtorr.
• Lox challenged the Emperor for withholding information, and the Emperor explained the four vacant seats among Chaos’s potential gods and his bond with the Dark King.
• Lox questioned whether the Emperor was truly a god and whether he had destroyed humanity to ascend, and the Emperor denied that he served the Dark King.
• Lox asked what the Dark King had to do with Vashtorr.

The Emperor explained the Dark King, Vashtorr, and the Adeptus Mechanicus’ hidden origins to Lox before transferring the Machine God’s accumulated faith and the Omnissiah’s authority to him. Lox left the Golden Throne with new power and a mission to confront Vashtorr, while the Emperor feared that the gift might set his friend on the path to godhood.

• The Emperor told Lox that he would prevent the Dark King’s birth, which would also block Vashtorr’s ascension.
• The Emperor revealed that the Omnissiah’s role pointed to him, while the Machine God was the Void Dragon, whom he had defeated and imprisoned beneath Mars.
• The Emperor restrained Lox and asked him to take up the fight against Vashtorr, then transferred the faith he had collected and his Omnissiah authority to him.
• Lox gained heightened perception and understanding, and questioned whether the Emperor trusted him with such power.
• The Emperor sent Lox away from the Golden Throne to become the true Omnissiah, knowing the power might lead him toward godhood.

After receiving the Omnissiah’s authority from the Emperor, Lox discovered that he could command machines and set out to lead the Iron Men Legion and Ganymede’s forces to reinforce Lion El'Jonson at Beta-Garmon. His fleet left the Solar System and entered the Warp.

• Lox tested his new authority in his laboratory, making Ganymede’s machines run beyond their design limits.
• Arkhan Land recognized Lox as the source of the machines’ strange behavior, and Lox told him the Emperor had given him a mission.
• Lox formed armor from raw materials and ordered Land to gather the Iron Men Legion for the Beta-Garmon expedition.
• Lox considered the limits and dangers of his influence over machines and restrained himself from indulging in the faith flowing from the Adeptus Mechanicus priests.
• Lox assembled Iron Men, Skitarii, and loyal Knight Houses aboard a fleet of more than a thousand warships, then departed for Beta-Garmon.

Leman Russ used the Dionysian Spear to briefly free Horus from Chaos, and the brothers mourned together before Horus begged Russ to kill him. When Russ withdrew the spear, Chaos reclaimed Horus, who attacked his brother again.

• Russ drove the Dionysian Spear into Horus, weakening Chaos and allowing Horus’s free will to return.
• Horus confessed his guilt and apologized to Russ, and the brothers wept as their tears restored part of the Vengeful Spirit’s deck.
• Horus told Abaddon and the Sons of Horus to stop fighting, then begged Russ to kill him before Chaos could use his body again.
• Russ hesitated and pulled the spear from Horus’s body, allowing Chaos to surge back into the Warmaster.
• Horus seized the spear, struck Russ away with Worldbreaker, and declared that he would stop the Emperor even if he had to become more evil than him.