Recaps

Horus brought his fleet into orbit between Terra and the Moon, drove the Imperial defenses away, and began the Great Bombardment of Terra. The chapter leaves Terra’s hive cities in flames as hundreds of millions died and survivors fled toward the Imperial Palace.

• Horus sent fleets toward Mars and the Moon while his main force confronted Terra’s depleted defenses.
• Horus’s fleet forced the Mountain Array and the Emperor’s Dream to retreat, while Dorn gathered forces near the Imperial Palace.
• On February 13th of the twelfth year of the thirty-first millennium, Horus began the bombardment of Terra with more than five thousand warships.
• The Imperial Palace’s Aegis defense system blocked the first barrage, but the rebels continued attacking Terra’s hive cities.
• The bombardment destroyed hive structures, flattened landscapes, and killed hundreds of millions as survivors fled toward the Imperial Palace.

Horus’s fleet bombarded Terra while the Imperial Palace remained protected by its Aegis shields, and the Emperor addressed the defenders. He accepted responsibility for Horus’s rebellion, sent the others to protect civilians, and asked Lox to speak with him privately.

• Horus’s fleet unleashed a devastating bombardment on Terra, but the Imperial Palace’s Aegis system intercepted the attacks.
• Malcador the Sigillite calmed the populace, and Rogal Dorn ordered civilians into the Palace’s outer districts for protection.
• Lox, Barabas Dantioch, Nykona Sharrowkyn, and Iron Man Adam discussed the invasion and held on to hope that the Imperium could win.
• The Emperor told the gathered defenders that Horus had been corrupted and apologized for his responsibility as a father.
• The Emperor told Leman Russ, Rogal Dorn, Jaghatai, and Sanguinius to protect humanity rather than intervene in his battle with Horus, then asked Lox to speak with him privately.

The Emperor revealed that his plans to save humanity had repeatedly led to catastrophe and gave Lox a compass that could carry the Red Alert to another universe. Lox accepted the possibility of founding a new home for humanity, though he hoped the Imperium could still be saved.

• The Emperor explained to Lox that his attempts to change the future had failed, and that even victory over Horus risked awakening the Dark King.
• The Emperor declared that he would wait for Horus to reveal himself before beginning a decisive boarding duel.
• Constantin Valdor swore that the Ten Thousand would follow the Emperor, who reminded him that he had already been given his role.
• The Emperor gave Lox a compass and tasked him with continuing the Future Reinforcement Project by seeking a new home for humanity in another universe.
• The Emperor told Lox that he could take only the Red Alert and a small number of people, who would need to sleep during the journey.
• Lox planned to bring gene-seed, human embryos, trusted people, and technological records if he had to establish humanity in another universe.

Lox accepted his role in securing humanity’s future beyond the universe while the Emperor organized Terra’s defense and Lox deployed his forces. As Horus’s bombardment weakened the palace’s Aegis, Perturabo launched an assault with thousands of Dreadclaw drop pods.

• Lox resolved to lead part of humanity into other universes if the Emperor’s plan failed, hoping they could survive and eventually help humanity in their home universe.
• The Emperor ordered Dorn to lead the counterattack on Terra, assigned Sanguinius, Jaghatai, and Russ to support him, and tasked Valdor with guarding against Warp creatures.
• Lox ordered Nykona Sharrowkyn and Endryd Haar to hunt enemy leaders and help the Imperial Fists defend the walls, while Adam assembled Iron Men forces for the coming battle.
• Horus’s month-long bombardment devastated Terra and weakened the Aegis around the Imperial Palace, as Lion’s First Legion relentlessly attacked Perturabo’s forces.
• Perturabo sent thousands of Dreadclaw drop pods toward weak points around the palace, declaring that the rebels had to take Terra to survive.

Horus’s rebel forces launched their invasion of Terra, sending waves of corrupted cultists and mortal auxiliaries against the Imperial Palace’s Solar Auxilia. The battle escalated into a fierce contest of artillery and air power, with both commanders still holding back their Astartes to make the enemy commit theirs first.

• Horus called on his followers to seize Terra, and Chaos-corrupted cultists and abhumans descended in Dreadclaw drop pods.
• Imperial Solar Auxilia used heavy guns and artillery to destroy the first wave of rebels before it could mount an effective assault.
• Cthonia Headhunter Auxilia, Word Bearers sorcerers, and Warp creatures arrived in the second wave and pushed deeper into the palace defenses.
• Selucian Thorakites attacked behind tanks and transports, sacrificing themselves to breach the Solar Auxilia’s first defensive line.
• Iron Warriors auxiliary forces bombarded the Imperial positions, while the Solar Auxilia countered with fortified defenses and aerial support.
• Rebel and Imperial aircraft fought overhead as both commanders continued using mortal troops to force the other side to deploy its Astartes first.

Jeremiah Blitz served with the 177th Solar Auxilia Regiment in the defense of Terra, where an accidental request for artillery support destroyed a hidden rebel position and earned him credit. After seven days of holding the line, a sudden plague killed and reanimated one of his comrades as the Death Guard arrived through a spreading fog.

• Jeremiah Blitz and his former subordinates were drafted into the 177th Solar Auxilia Regiment after the Imperial Navy requisitioned his ship.
• Jeremiah accidentally transmitted coordinates while scratching his wrist, and artillery destroyed a hidden rebel stronghold, earning him recorded merit.
• Jeremiah and his squad repelled repeated rebel assaults for seven days, including drawing traitor Knight suits into minefields.
• A mysterious fever killed Jeremiah's comrade, whose corpse turned dark green and rose again.
• Jeremiah burned the reanimated soldier, but plague fog spread through the position as the Death Guard began landing on Terra.

Jeremiah and the Solar Auxilia defended their line as Typhus led the Death Guard in a plague-fueled assault on Terra. The defenders launched a counterattack, ending with a recruit defiantly facing the Death Guard and promising to burn them.

• Jeremiah warned the Solar Auxilia that the Death Guard had arrived and ordered them to kill any fallen comrades who rose again.
• A Solar Auxilia soldier realized the Chaos sorcerers had spread Warp plagues across earlier battlefields to prepare the Death Guard's arrival.
• Perturabo sent the Death Guard to attack after Layak revealed that a ritual could summon them, while eight ritual sites anchored the Warp around the Imperial Palace.
• Typhus led thousands of Death Guard forward, their weapons rotting fortifications, guns, shields, and a Land Raider as they spread lethal plagues.
• Jeremiah rallied the Solar Auxilia to counterattack with meltaguns and flame tanks, and a recruit cursed the Death Guard from atop a tank.

Jeremiah Blitz fought the Death Guard on Terra, inspiring the Solar Auxilia before the enemy’s plague and sorcery overwhelmed their defenses. As Jeremiah faced a deadly melee assault, a flying mech arrived and rescued him.

• Jeremiah rallied the Solar Auxilia, but the Death Guard crossed their minefield on a corrupting fungal carpet while swarms of insects weakened their artillery and weapons.
• Jeremiah ordered the defenders to burn the charging Death Guard, then resisted Dark Apostle Layak’s blood-rain sermon and killed one attacker with a melta cannon.
• The Death Guard slaughtered Jeremiah’s comrades and raised the fallen as Chaos puppets while Jeremiah retreated and called for reinforcements.
• A platinum-painted flying mech swept in, blasted apart the Death Guard about to kill Jeremiah, and transformed as it landed.

Qin Xin and the White Scars deployed their Tengu Mechs against the Death Guard, turning the battle into a one-sided slaughter. After demanding that Mortarion face them, Qin Xin shifted his attention to Typhus.

• The White Scars’ Tengu Mech squadron launched air raids against the Death Guard and destroyed several corrupted Knight mechs.
• Qin Xin ordered the Solar Auxilia to withdraw and provide long-range fire support, then led the Tengu Mechs into ground combat.
• Qin Xin’s plasma cannon blasted apart the Death Guard’s formation as the White Scars charged into their ranks.
• The Tengu Mechs overwhelmed the Death Guard with their size, speed, armor, and power claws while shielding their pilots from daemon flies.
• Qin Xin called for Mortarion to come out, then tore through Death Guard warriors and turned to attack Typhus.

Qin Xin confronted Typhus while searching for Mortarion, whose escape from Nurgle had enraged the Death Guard leader. Typhus overwhelmed the Tengu Mech with psychic corruption and swarms of plague flies, leaving Qin Xin’s fate uncertain.

• Qin Xin cut down several Death Guards and demanded that Mortarion come out, prompting Typhus to denounce Mortarion as a coward and traitor who had escaped Nurgle.
• Typhus recalled how Isha had freed Mortarion and how Nurgle’s favored Greater Daemons, including Ku'gath and Rotigus, had threatened him for failing to guard his primarch.
• Qin Xin mocked Typhus and Nurgle, provoking Typhus to charge him with a giant scythe as his plague power corrupted the Tengu Mech.
• Typhus clashed with Qin Xin’s power claws while Destroyer Flies swarmed the battlefield and the other White Scars attacked them with plasma weapons.
• Qin Xin blasted Typhus in the face with a melta beam, but Typhus regenerated and charged again as his flies pierced the mech’s defenses and killed Qin Xin.

Nathaniel Garro arrived on Terra’s battlefield and defeated Typhus with the Emperor’s blessing, forcing the Death Guard to retreat. Mortarion then emerged from a Warp portal in an unexpected female form, leaving Garro, Lox, and Jaghatai Khan stunned.

• Qin Xin and the White Scars struggled against Typhus and the Death Guard as Warp corruption slowed their Tengu Mechs and wore down their weapons.
• Lox agreed to send Nathaniel Garro into battle, and Garro asked to settle his debts with Typhus and cleanse the shame of the XIV Legion.
• Garro teleported to the front line, where the Emperor’s power and Lox’s blessing empowered him to sever Typhus’s scythe and banish the Daemon Prince.
• With Typhus defeated, the Death Guard broke into rival groups and retreated, while Garro grieved for his former battle-brothers and wondered whether Mortarion had fallen.
• Mortarion arrived through a pale-green Warp portal with Deathshroud guards, and Garro recognized his gene-father but discovered that Mortarion had a woman’s voice and appearance.
• Lox joked to Jaghatai Khan that he might soon have another sister.

Mortarion sought to take Garro away, but he refused and Chaghatai Khan challenged her over her crimes. Their fierce duel left Mortarion wounded and enraged, while Uslan and Lox struggled to stop the fighting and learn about Isha.

• Mortarion revealed her transformed form and asked Garro to leave the war with her, but Garro refused and vowed to bring her before the Emperor to atone for her crimes.
• Chaghatai Khan barred Mortarion from escaping and fought her with Silence against his White Tiger Dao while Garro and the assembled warriors watched.
• Mortarion and Chaghatai exchanged blows and psychic attacks, wounding each other as Lox secretly boosted Chaghatai’s armor.
• Chaghatai provoked Mortarion by mocking her old reliance on Calas Typhon, and her furious psychic storm tore apart the battlefield.
• Uslan arrived and tried to stop the duel, asking Lox to help because he needed to learn Mother Goddess Isha’s situation; Lox reluctantly agreed to intervene.

The Emperor subdued Mortarion after Jaghatai exposed her resentment and the Death Guard surrendered, then considered how to punish her. Uslann proposed giving Mortarion to the Aeldari, and Lox revealed that losing her human identity frightened her more than permanent imprisonment before declaring he would support that punishment.

• Jaghatai and Mortarion fought until the Emperor’s projection restrained them, while Jaghatai continued to condemn Mortarion’s choices and resentment toward her father.
• Uslann suggested that the Aeldari could take Mortarion, whose blood came partly from their Mother Goddess Isha, and Lox agreed the proposal might be possible.
• The Emperor bound Mortarion, ordered her imprisoned in the Shadow Cells, and accepted the Death Guard’s surrender after promising not to kill her.
• Lox presented Mortarion with permanent imprisonment or expulsion from humanity into Aeldari society, and Mortarion panicked and chose imprisonment.
• Lox dismissed Mortarion’s choice and said he would vote to strip her of her human status.

Sevatar and Sigismund led an assault through the rebel defenses to reach Khârn and Angeltai, who were guarding the route to Terra. As Sevatar tried to awaken his old friend’s emotions, Sigismund fought Khârn with overwhelming force, leaving the battle unresolved as Angeltai intervened to save Khârn from a fatal blow.

• Sevatar’s Night Lords purged a World Eaters position, and he discovered that Khârn and Angeltai were stationed together.
• Sevatar and Sigismund independently chose to strike at the rebel commanders, then joined forces and advanced toward the command center.
• Sevatar reminded Sigismund of their past and his bond with Khârn, but Sigismund remained resolute and continued toward Terra.
• Sevatar and Sigismund reached Khârn and Angeltai, who prepared to defend their position as the four warriors clashed.
• Khârn repeatedly attacked Sigismund, but the Emperor’s Champion outmatched him and nearly killed him.
• Angeltai took a wound from Sevatar and threw his Custodian spear to block Sigismund’s fatal strike against Khârn, but Sigismund knocked the nearly broken spear away.

Angrath persuaded Khârn to abandon Angron and the rebellion, and together they withdrew the Word Bearers and most of the World Eaters from Perturabo’s defensive line. Their betrayal let Lion El'Jonson break through, leaving Perturabo furious as the rebel fleet descended into chaos.

• After Sigismund defeated Khârn, Angrath urged him to leave Horus and Angron and pursue a future in which humanity and the Warp could coexist, and Khârn agreed.
• Angrath and Khârn joined forces as the Chaos Legion, held off Sigismund and Sevatar long enough to escape, and ordered their followers to withdraw.
• Angrath’s fleets abandoned their mortal followers, fired torpedoes at the Iron Warriors’ defenses, and sent Lion El'Jonson intelligence about Perturabo’s forces.
• Lion El'Jonson seized the opening and launched a full assault, while rebel ships turned on one another and the defensive line collapsed.
• Perturabo learned of the retreat and raged at his commanders as the surviving rebels struggled against the Dark Angels.

Jeremiah Blitz fought through the Siege of Terra as Chaos forces gathered for their greatest assault, while Perturabo ordered a final attack on the Lion’s Gate. As the daemon hosts charged, Sanguinius flew out alone to meet them.

• Jeremiah Blitz fought for the Solar Auxilia with a gauss rifle and reflected on the Iron Men whose weapons were helping the loyalists hold the line.
• Lox learned that the daemon hosts of all four Chaos Gods had broken through to Terra as the Warp’s power surged.
• Perturabo ordered Kroeger to attack the Lion’s Gate and sent Angron and Fulgrim to lead the assault with the Chaos daemons.
• Lox, Sanguinius, Leman Russ, and their allied forces prepared to defend the Lion’s Gate against the advancing daemon tide.
• Sanguinius told Lox he would not die before the prophesied moment, then flew into the sky to confront Angron and the other Greater Daemons.

Sanguinius defended the Lion's Gate, killing Ka'Bandha, Ang'grath, and Angron before the traitor armies launched their assault on the Imperial Palace. Perturabo directed the attack as Imperial defenders and Titans met the advancing daemons and Chaos forces.

• Sanguinius leapt from the Lion's Gate walls, rallied humanity, and destroyed a Warlord-class Titan with a single strike.
• Sanguinius pinned and killed Ka'Bandha, then split Ang'grath apart while Angron approached.
• Sanguinius fought Angron through Imperial bombardment, tore out the Butcher's Nails, and killed him.
• Perturabo ordered the Chaos forces, Titan Legions, and daemon engines to attack the Imperial Palace, while allowing Abaddon to assault a suspected weak point.
• Perturabo's daemonic armies reached the Lion's Gate as Imperial Titans, tanks, and mortal troops fought back against them.

Iron Men Legion led the loyalist counteroffensive after Lox’s Blackstone obelisks weakened the Chaos horde at the Lion’s Gate. Adam’s Iron Men and the Astartes drove into the enemy, while Adam, Leman Russ, and Skarbrand’s forces converged for a decisive clash.

• Kroeger’s Iron Warriors overwhelmed the loyalist defenses with armor and daemon engines, while Jeremiah Blitz commanded the beleaguered 177th Solar Auxilia at the Lion’s Gate.
• Lox and Rogal Dorn launched Blackstone obelisks that suppressed the Warp, weakening the daemons and causing many Death Guard to realize their corruption and take their own lives.
• Rogal Dorn ordered a counterattack with the Iron Men as the spearhead, and Adam addressed humanity before leading tens of thousands of Iron Men into battle.
• Adam’s Iron Men sacrificed themselves to carve a path through the Chaos horde as the White Scars, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, and Space Wolves advanced behind them.
• Adam charged toward Skullbrand, and Leman Russ joined him as the Bloodthirster prepared to fight them.

Adam and Rogal Dorn tried to lure Perturabo into a decisive battle by taunting him while the Imperial forces fought the Chaos armies at the Lion’s Gate. Perturabo lost his temper and charged toward Dorn, despite recognizing the challenge as a trap.

• Lox watched Adam command the Iron Men and continued using his authority to counter Vashtorr’s corruption.
• Adam and Leman Russ worked together to kill Skarbrand, then identified Perturabo as the key to coordinating the Chaos armies.
• Dorn fought Fulgrim while Adam joined the battle, and the two broadcast challenges meant to draw Perturabo out.
• Perturabo heard Dorn and Adam’s taunts, flew into a rage, and struck down a Warsmith who urged him to ignore the trap.
• Perturabo ordered the wounded Warsmith placed in a Leviathan Dreadnought and declared that he would charge into the trap to face Dorn.

Dorn and Fulgrim fought while Adam provoked Perturabo into abandoning his safer strategy and joining the battlefield. Adam copied and improved Perturabo’s Iron Circle robots, and the battle escalated into a legion-wide war as Perturabo and Dorn charged toward their final clash.

• Fulgrim taunted Dorn during their duel, while Dorn defended himself with precise attacks and refused to persuade his brother to return to the Imperium.
• Perturabo arrived with eighty-one Iron Circle robots, and Adam provoked him by recalling his broken oath and his past betrayal of the Emperor and his brothers.
• With Lox’s power, Adam transformed his war-model Iron Men into improved Iron Circle robots, prompting Perturabo to order his forces to attack.
• Perturabo’s Iron Warriors and Dorn’s Imperial Fists clashed across the battlefield as Adam’s robots fought and adapted against Perturabo’s machines.
• Perturabo raised Forgebreaker and charged at Rogal Dorn, who charged toward him with Storm’s Teeth.

Perturabo’s duel with Dorn was interrupted when Adam detonated the lingering Hrud temporal field clinging to Perturabo, transforming him into a naked toddler. As Fulgrim attacked to seize the diminished primarch for Slaanesh, Dorn and the Iron Warriors fought to protect him.

• Perturabo and Dorn fought fiercely before the Imperial Palace while Fulgrim taunted them and watched.
• Lox discovered that Perturabo still carried a Hrud temporal distortion field and told Adam how to exploit it.
• Adam fired a temporal weapon at the battling primarchs, triggering the Hrud field and causing Perturabo to shrink into a toddler while Dorn was physically aged.
• Slaanesh ordered Fulgrim to seize little Perturabo, and Fulgrim attacked Dorn as Dorn shielded his brother.
• The Iron Warriors rushed to rescue Perturabo, while he clung to Dorn’s finger to keep Fulgrim from taking him.

Dorn and Adam rescued the child-sized Perturabo from Fulgrim, while the Iron Warriors retreated and surrendered to the Lion’s encircling fleet. Lion returned to the Lion’s Gate with reinforcements, helped destroy the Chaos assault, and then learned that the Emperor’s condition was still unknown as he faced Perturabo and the transformed Mortarion.

• Dorn refused to kill Perturabo and hurled him toward Fulgrim, but Adam caught him and escaped after scattering Blackstone anti-psyker powder over Fulgrim.
• Adam challenged Perturabo’s beliefs and explained how his power had kept him from learning from failure, while the Iron Warriors’ assault collapsed after losing their commander.
• Forrix chose to surrender the Iron Warriors fleet to Lion El'Jonson, who accepted and ordered the ships disarmed and boarded.
• Lion learned that the Sons of Horus under Ezekyle Abaddon were attacking the Saturnine Wall, then led the Dark Angels back to the Lion’s Gate.
• Lion and the arriving loyalist forces joined the battle, killed the Greater Daemons, and helped break the Chaos assault.
• Lion asked Dorn about the Emperor, then saw child-sized Perturabo and remembered that Mortarion had also been transformed.

Perturabo appeared as a tiny child while the primarchs regrouped and learned that Abaddon was attacking the Saturnine Wall. Abaddon’s assault fell into Dorn’s nuclear trap, and after escaping several primarchs, he vanished in Vashtorr’s soul-fire rather than reveal Horus’s remaining plans.

• Perturabo stood only sixty centimeters tall as the primarchs discussed the fighting and prepared to confront Abaddon at the Saturnine Wall.
• Abaddon led the Sons of Horus through the breached defenses, where Dorn’s fusion bombs and other traps devastated his forces and killed Aximand.
• Garviel Loken and Endryd Haar confronted Abaddon, but he survived Haar’s beating and fled toward Jaghatai Khan.
• Abaddon begged Jaghatai Khan for mercy by invoking their past ties, and the Khan let him go.
• Lion El'Jonson, Leman Russ, and Lox intercepted Abaddon near the dead Sons of Horus relief force and demanded to know Horus’s plans.
• Abaddon refused to betray Horus, ignited his armor with soul-fire, and vanished.

After Abaddon escaped to the Vengeful Spirit, the Emperor gathered his sons and ordered Guilliman to clear the outer Sol System while the others prepared to board Horus’s warped flagship. The Emperor led the boarding force through the Warp’s darkness, and they arrived before the Vengeful Spirit ready to confront Horus.

• Abaddon vanished through the forge, and Lion El'Jonson concluded that Vashtorr had taken him aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• The primarchs gathered before the Emperor, who explained that the Vengeful Spirit had fused with its Warp projection and could only be defeated by confronting Horus aboard it.
• Guilliman contacted the Emperor from outside the sealed Sol System, and the Emperor ordered him to destroy the remaining rebel forces there.
• The Emperor assigned Vulkan to guard Magnus and the Golden Throne and Dorn to guard Mortarion and Perturabo, but Dorn and the other primarchs insisted on joining the assault.
• The Emperor armed himself, and Lox, Curze, the primarchs, Malcador's chosen warriors, and their companions prepared to board the Vengeful Spirit.
• The Emperor drove his sword into the ground and used its light to guide the boarding force through the Warp until the Vengeful Spirit appeared before them.

Lox and Konrad Curze arrived in a recreated twenty-first-millennium Terra, where Lox recognized his homeland and suspected they had been separated from the others. Elsewhere, Rogal Dorn endured Khorne’s endless battlefield, while Leman Russ and Lion El'Jonson lived different lives on Caliban and Fenris under a hidden Tzeentchian scheme.

• Lox and Konrad Curze found themselves in the Pan-Solar System Alliance University’s city, where Lox’s memories of his old life returned and he decided to seek the chief of the Alliance Science Division.
• Lox concluded that he and Curze had been separated from their companions and that their surroundings might be an illusion, while Curze followed him through the city.
• Rogal Dorn continued fighting in Khorne’s battlefield after three hundred years, resisted the Blood God’s offer, and refused to become his champion.
• On Caliban, thirteen-year-old Leman Russ led the united knightly orders against the planet’s giant beasts while wondering why he preferred axes to swords.
• On Fenris, Lion El'Jonson killed a Kraken to protect the Leman tribe, then remained troubled by his forgotten identity and his feelings about the name Leman.
• A Tzeentchian daemon observed Lion and Leman Russ, explaining that the Lord of Change had altered their landing places and that the Four Gods hoped to claim two more primarchs.