Recaps

Lox questioned Konrad Curze, discovered Vulkan was alive, and secured Dark Angels relics while helping Joy survive her awakening as an Alpha-class Psyker. He then led White Scars, Space Wolves, and Ultramarines to Sotha to search for Blackstone, where the expedition encountered the Tau and uncovered signs of genetic engineering.

• Lox and Guilliman questioned Konrad Curze, whose psychic power briefly broke through the Untouchables’ suppression when he saw the Emperor behind Lox.
• After Konrad told Lox that Vulkan was immortal, Guilliman found Vulkan regenerating, but the revived Primarch broke out and attacked the Lion before they restrained him.
• Lox examined the Dark Angels’ relic vaults and negotiated an exchange with the Lion for access to their technology, including an STC and Moravik’s Cube.
• Lox helped Joy survive a psychic crisis by using Lowell McKen’s notebook to draw Warp corruption from her, and Titus agreed to watch over and train her.
• Lox recruited White Scars and Space Wolves for the Sotha expedition, while Narek freed John and agreed to help him reach Vulkan’s secret prison.
• Lox returned to Sotha, established it as a forward base, and took the Red Alert and five light cruisers to investigate suspected Blackstone worlds.
• At DX-114, Lox’s forces attacked the Tau, and the White Scars, Ultramarines, and Space Wolves spent a week destroying most of their population.
• After Fafnir’s Tau-meat promotion poisoned mortal auxilia, Lox punished him and learned from Magos Lawrence that the Tau’s rapid evolution suggested they had been genetically engineered.

Lox’s forces discovered Blackstone on Pandora and clashed with the planet’s Feral Aeldari, who used Eywa and its creatures to resist the human invasion. The battle left both sides fighting across the human defenses as Lox’s forces targeted the beast horde and Nykona Sharrowkyn led the sniper rankings.

• Magos Lawrence explained that the Tau’s evolution had been guided by genetic edits, and Lox realized they had been cultivated for centuries by an unknown power.
• Kuran Shovah armed the Fire Caste against the White Scars, but a blue rift swallowed him before Qin Xin could kill him, and Ether told him his mission was unfinished.
• Youhai taught Kulan Shovah about humanity and the Greater Good, while the Ethereals resolved to avoid another clash with humanity and wait for an opportunity.
• Lox withdrew his forces from DX-114, gave Nykona Sharrowkyn a C'tan Phase Sword and Necron Gauss rifle, and led the fleet to Pandora.
• Lox’s expedition found a vast Blackstone vein on Pandora, while the White Scars and Space Wolves fought the planet’s colossal beasts and discovered that Aeldari were directing them.
• The Feral Aeldari turned Pandora’s storms and vegetation against the human base, but Lox ordered orbital lance strikes that ended the assault and damaged Eywa’s domain.
• Kien rallied the Dragon Knights and summoned Pandora’s beasts against the human landing site, while Lox’s forces prepared trenches, artillery, and mechs for the battle.
• Hill’s defenders and Fafnir’s Space Wolves fought the advancing horde, and Lox used Librarians to guide snipers against explosive toads as Nykona Sharrowkyn topped the kill rankings.

Human forces defeated the Exodites’ resistance on Pandora, but Uslan negotiated a ceasefire by offering the Blackstone and sharing what he knew about the C’tan and the Cabal. Meanwhile, John and his allies reached Vulkan’s hidden chamber on Macragge, where John used the Fulgurite Spear on the primarch.

• Kien led the Dragon Riders into battle, but human forces destroyed their beasts and killed most of the riders before taking the survivors captive.
• Illic Nightspear brought Alaitoc reinforcements to Pandora, where the Craftworld Aeldari and Exodites fought the humans until Uslan persuaded them to retreat and negotiate.
• Uslan offered Lox a ceasefire and Pandora’s Blackstone, then explained its connection to the Void Dragon and told him about the War in Heaven, Chaos, and the Cabal’s plan to kill Vulkan.
• John, Narek, and Damon infiltrated Macragge’s secret base after releasing a Warp daemon as a distraction, and John disabled Vulkan’s stasis field.
• Vulkan broke free and killed Narek and Damon, while John prepared to use the Fulgurite Spear on him.
• John drove the spear into Vulkan’s chest, releasing blinding psychic light that burned the daemon and began draining John’s power.

After Vulkan’s apparent death, Guilliman and Lion formed the secret Second Empire with Sanguinius, while Lox secured Pandora’s Blackstone and allied with the Aeldari. The arc ended with the primarchs preparing to reach Terra through the Webway, though Uslan warned it could not carry their full forces and supplies.

• Damon escaped with John’s body after the Fulgurite Spear lost its power, while Guilliman learned that two mortal Psykers and a Word Bearer had assassinated Vulkan and ordered Narek kept alive.
• Guilliman and Lion consulted Konrad Curze, who foresaw Vulkan’s death and return as the Emperor’s final safeguard, then welcomed Sanguinius and the Blood Angels to Macragge.
• Sanguinius agreed to a secret pact with Guilliman and Lion to preserve an alternate Imperium and march on Terra when the Warp storms cleared.
• Lox accepted the Pandora Aeldari’s terms, helped Uslan transfer their compressed World Spirit to Keen, and witnessed an Emperor’s Children attack that loyalist and Aeldari forces defeated.
• The loyalists killed Eidolon and Lucius, with Barabas Dantioch killing Lucius without feeling pleasure, then kept Pandora’s Blackstone deposits and traveled to Macragge through the Webway.
• Lox returned as Deputy Governor and introduced Eldrad Ulthran, whose visions revealed Horus’s corruption and the coming siege of Terra, and Lox, Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Uslan sealed an alliance between humanity and the Aeldari.
• Lion returned to Macragge after destroying an Ork-held world, then agreed conditionally to the Aeldari alliance despite drawing his sword on Ulthran at first.
• Guilliman pledged vast Ultramarines, mortal, Mechanicum, Titan, and fleet forces for Terra, while Sanguinius committed his remaining Blood Angels and Uslan warned that the Webway could not carry all their troops and supplies.