Chapter Summaries

Qile gathered support against Alfreda’s Ecclesiarchy while Vulkan led the Salamanders through the Ghoul Stars, destroying an Ork fleet and its home system by harvesting its sun. The chapter ended with Vulkan’s fleet lured into the U522 System as an Ork gravity weapon activated.

• Qile won the backing of cardinal bishops and dissatisfied believers, while Terra’s commanders delayed support for Alfreda’s punitive crusade.
• Vulkan’s fleet destroyed roughly eight hundred Ork ships, then activated the stellar harvester and caused the system’s sun to collapse, killing the Greenskins on its planets.
• Three days later, Vulkan’s fleet encountered two Ork battle moons and surrounded them while probing their defenses.
• Vulkan’s fleet concentrated torpedo fire on the larger battle moon, breached its shield, and watched the Orks repair the damage.
• Vulkan lured the battle moons toward the U522 System, where the Salamanders slowed down and detected a dangerous Ork gravity weapon.

Vulkan used the battle moons’ gravity lashes to tear apart a nearby planet, then turned its fragments into a weapon that crippled both moons. With the Ork defenses shattered and their confidence collapsing, the Salamanders launched a full assault to destroy the surviving Greenskins.

• The Unquenchable Embers evaded the two battle moons’ gravity storms by maneuvering behind a planet, while Vulkan waited for the planet to approach its Roche limit.
• Vulkan ordered the launch of bipolar cyclone torpedoes, which triggered the planet’s collapse and sent massive fragments crashing into the battle moons.
• The collision destroyed the battle moons’ shields and critical systems, killed most of the Orks, and left the survivors unable to stop the Salamanders’ boarding assault.
• Vulkan ordered the Salamanders to board the damaged moons and eliminate the remaining Greenskins as Ork morale collapsed across the system.
• Salamanders forces deployed Iron Men, tanks, artillery, Titans, and aircraft across the battle moon, overwhelming the surviving Orks and driving them toward extermination.

Vulkan inspected the captured battle moon, discovered the Orks had received Chaos support, and killed the defeated warlord Iron Skull after questioning him. Meanwhile, Bloodhowl Zak approved Thomas Edison’s plan to use human civilians as bait for a trap against Vulkan and summon Warp allies to help kill him.

• Vulkan descended onto the battle moon with Tassa and the Primarch Guard, inspected its weapons, and destroyed a daemon-possessed blade.
• Vulkan learned from the captured Ork warlord Iron Skull that Chaos traitors had aided the Orks, then killed him after the interrogation.
• Thomas Edison gave Bloodhowl Zak mushroom ale laced with a hallucinogenic powder and proposed trapping Vulkan by threatening human civilians.
• Thomas Edison revealed that the plan included sacrificing billions of civilians to open a path for Warp allies, and Zak authorized him to proceed.

Hospitalier Sister Olivia Lewis and five-year-old Andre endured captivity and brutal suffering on the Ork death world Gork's Anvil, while the Orks recorded their misery for a calculated message to the Imperium. The chapter ended with Salamanders discovering the footage and learning that more than ten billion humans were imprisoned on the planet.

• Olivia protected Andre from a Gretchin, and a wounded old soldier distracted the creature and sacrificed himself to save the child.
• A Snotling killed the Gretchin and hid the old soldier's body, though Olivia and the other captives remained prisoners.
• Olivia and the survivors were transported to Gork's Anvil, where they were imprisoned among millions of humans suffering in Ork-made cages and factories.
• Thomas Edison ordered ten thousand of the most miserable human captives sent as a gift to Vulkan, after the Orks recorded footage of the prisoners' torment.
• The Orks selected Andre to be returned to the Imperium, separating him from Olivia, who urged him to live.
• Salamanders boarded Andre's transport and watched Thomas Edison's message and the footage, learning that over ten billion humans were imprisoned on Gork's Anvil.

Vulkan turned the Salamanders fleet toward Gork's Anvil to answer the pleas of ten billion human prisoners, despite recognizing the Orks' trap. After the fleet was encircled and Vulkan realized he could not rescue the captives, he ordered Exterminatus, leaving Sister Hospitaller Olivia and the prisoners to face the planet's destruction.

• Vulkan ordered the Salamanders fleet to head for Gork's Anvil and informed Guilliman that he was going to redeem the prisoners.
• Guilliman decided to support Vulkan, and he and Lox prepared to receive him and attack the Orks from within and without.
• Vulkan entered the Anvil System, identified the Ork ambush, and ordered Exterminatus when he concluded the Salamanders could not rescue the prisoners.
• The Orks revealed their fleet and surrounded the Salamanders as the Unquenchable Ember launched three cyclonic torpedoes toward Gork's Anvil.
• Sister Hospitaller Olivia recognized the descending torpedoes as Exterminatus, offered her final loyalty to the Emperor, and watched the sky ignite as the prisoners' hope turned to despair.

Cyclonic torpedoes failed to destroy Gork's Anvils after Chaos absorbed their fire, and a mass ritual opened a Warp rift that brought Lorgar, Fulgrim, Angron, Word Bearers, and daemons into the world. Fulgrim captured Hospitaller Sister Olivia and cursed her to remain alive as a witness to his plan to resurrect Ferrus.

• Olivia and the human captives saw Chaos symbols absorb the cyclonic torpedoes, and the markings corrupted the prisoners into followers of Nurgle and Khorne.
• Olivia led a small group of loyal survivors through the prison as Chaos cultists and Orks slaughtered one another and the ritual spread across Gork's Anvils.
• After nine hours, nine minutes, and nine seconds, a Warp rift opened, and Lorgar, Fulgrim, Angron, Word Bearers, and daemons entered the material universe.
• Lorgar urged Fulgrim and Angron to set aside their rivalry and help him capture Vulkan and the Salamanders fleet.
• Fulgrim's Possessed Marines brought Olivia before the Daemon Primarchs, and Fulgrim killed the Astra Militarum veterans accompanying her.
• Fulgrim told Olivia he planned to resurrect Ferrus and cursed her to survive until she witnessed it.

Vulkan’s fleet was trapped between the Orks and Chaos forces, so he triggered a supernova to break the encirclement. After the battered Salamanders flagship was boarded by three daemon primarchs, Vulkan confronted Angron as the battle for the fleet’s survival began.

• Vulkan learned that a Warp barrier had trapped the human captives on Gork’s Anvil and that Chaos boarding assaults were hitting his fleet.
• Vulkan ordered the Stellar Harvester to trigger a supernova, and the solar storm devastated the Ork fleet, the Salamanders ships, and Gork’s Anvil.
• Lorgar, Fulgrim, and Angron boarded the damaged Unquenchable Ember and slaughtered Salamanders and mortal defenders.
• Vulkan arrived and saw his sons’ bodies, then faced the three daemon primarchs as Angron claimed the right to fight him.
• Vulkan and Angron clashed with Dawnbringer and the Black Blade, beginning a brutal duel aboard the Unquenchable Ember.

Vulkan fought Angron, Fulgrim, and Lorgar aboard a warship, using his immortality and forging skill to defeat the two daemon primarchs. Lorgar activated an ascension ritual that bound Vulkan and began pulling him into the Warp.

• Vulkan faced Angron and used Dawnbringer to hammer the Butcher’s Nails, briefly quieting them and letting Angron feel genuine pain.
• Khorne intensified Angron’s rage, but Vulkan tore out the Nails and defeated him after dying and resurrecting repeatedly.
• Fulgrim attacked Vulkan while Angron awaited resurrection, severing his joints and repeatedly destroying his organs as Vulkan taunted him about Ferrus.
• Lorgar prepared a ritual to sacrifice Vulkan, while Fulgrim used psychic power to reduce Vulkan to a skeleton; Vulkan regenerated and eventually smashed Fulgrim down.
• Lorgar activated his ritual, bound Vulkan with psychic tentacles, and began chanting to draw him into the Warp.

Lorgar’s ritual to corrupt Vulkan was interrupted when Ferrus and the Legion of the Damned arrived, giving the Salamanders and other defenders a chance to fight back. As the battle turned against the daemon primarchs and the solar storm weakened, the Greenskin Orks prepared to attack again.

• Lorgar’s ritual nearly pushed Vulkan into the Warp, but Ferrus appeared and seized the ritual dagger while the Legion of the Damned attacked the Chaos forces.
• Vulkan recognized Ferrus and learned that the Emperor had sent the Bound warriors; Ferrus confronted Fulgrim, while the Salamanders reached Vulkan.
• Vulkan ordered Tassa to restart the Eternal Ember and the other warships as he and Ferrus held off the daemon primarchs.
• Lorgar summoned more daemons, but Ferrus called in additional Bound forces, and Olivia used the Lectitio Divinitatus to attack the Warp creatures.
• Ferrus and Vulkan drove Fulgrim and Angron back as the solar storm weakened, while the battered Greenskin Orks rallied for another assault.

Thomas Edison’s Orks attacked Vulkan’s battered fleet while Vulkan and Ferrus fought the Daemon Primarchs aboard the Unquenchable Ember. Guilliman arrived with reinforcements, and Lox calmed the star’s solar storm, but the brothers faced a new three-on-three battle as the traitors turned on Guilliman.

• Thomas Edison ordered the Orks to attack Vulkan’s fleet as their battle moons shielded the Greenskin ships from the solar storm.
• Vulkan rebuked Lorgar and exposed his ignorance of the Dark King while fighting him aboard the Unquenchable Ember.
• Ferrus and Fulgrim fought amid Angron’s assault until Guilliman’s fleet arrived at the Anvil System.
• Lox redirected the star’s energy into polar gamma-ray bursts, weakening the solar storm and allowing Guilliman’s fleet to approach.
• Guilliman, Lox, and the Victrix Guard boarded the Unquenchable Ember, where Lox banished daemons and began cleansing the ship.
• Guilliman charged into the fight to aid Vulkan and Ferrus, and Lorgar and Fulgrim welcomed him as a new target.

Guilliman used his hidden anti-psychic power to behead Fulgrim and, with Vulkan and Ferrus, defeat Angron, while Lorgar escaped through the Warp. After the battle, Ferrus praised Guilliman, explained the Legion of the Damned’s nature, and warned that the Emperor’s conflict with the Dark King could only be resolved through a dangerous rise from death.

• Guilliman weakened Fulgrim’s Warp-powered weapons with his negating psychic power, then cut off Fulgrim’s head and banished him.
• Lorgar used a time-distorting spell to escape into the Warp with nearby Word Bearers, leaving Angron surrounded by Guilliman, Vulkan, and Ferrus.
• Guilliman and his brothers defeated Angron, and Guilliman crushed the Daemon Prince’s head while their forces overwhelmed the World Eaters.
• Vulkan thanked Guilliman for saving the Salamanders, and Ferrus praised Guilliman’s loyalty and strength before the Legion of the Damned departed.
• Ferrus explained that the Legion of the Damned drew its power from the Emperor and fallen heroes, then warned Lox that the Emperor’s struggle against the Dark King required humanity to rise from death.

Ferrus reassured Lox and the primarchs that the Emperor remained in control of events, then asked them to help the Iron Hands and warned Lox to watch Barabas Dantioch. Lox used the Anvil System’s newly formed white dwarf to destroy the Ork battle moon, and the survivors planned their next advance while discussing how to turn the white dwarf into a weapon.

• Ferrus told Lox that the Emperor’s plan remained in control, praised the campaign against the Orks, and said Malcador and Valdor would return when the time was right.
• Ferrus asked Guilliman and the others to guide the Iron Hands away from their extreme devotion to machinery, and he relayed the Emperor’s request that Lox watch Barabas Dantioch.
• Lox accelerated the Anvil System’s white dwarf toward the Ork fleet, whose warships and battle moon were dragged into its gravity and destroyed.
• After the battle, Vulkan ordered damaged Salamanders ships to withdraw to the Nostramo System while able-bodied warriors continued the expedition with the Solar Fleet.
• Lox told Guilliman and Vulkan that he planned to build a dimensional engine inside the battle white dwarf and develop gravity-based and spatial weapons.

Lox presented Guilliman and Vulkan with a theoretical combat white dwarf armed with a weapon that could tear through space, and they agreed to help build it in the Anvil System. Meanwhile, Luther investigated a mysterious force of Iron Warriors on the western front as Barabas Dantioch persuaded Adam to stay with Nirvana Steel and join a strike against the Ork Beasts.

• Lox demonstrated how a combat white dwarf could open spatial rifts that destroyed a planet, prompting Guilliman to keep the fleet in the Anvil System for a month while Vulkan offered to help with construction.
• Luther struggled to command the divided western front, where the Iron Hands resisted his authority and the Necron World Engine outpaced human forces.
• Galland Spencer reported that about fifty thousand mysterious Astartes had appeared in the Battle of Harad, and Luther concluded that they were likely loyalist Iron Warriors who had helped defeat the Orks.
• Barabas Dantioch persuaded Adam to remain with Nirvana Steel, explaining that their forces could help one another while staying hidden within dimensional space.
• Dantioch proposed that Nirvana Steel and Adam's Iron Men attack the Ork battle planet during Luther's coming battle and kill the Beasts.

Adam and Dantioch planned to seize the Beast’s head while the Orks were distracted, as Luther’s forces advanced on the Blackstone Rift. Luther led the attack against the Ork fleet, where the Iron Hands unleashed a forbidden weapon that destroyed one battle moon and began annihilating another.

• Adam judged Dantioch’s plan feasible, and they agreed to wait until the Orks were absorbed in fighting the Imperial and Necron forces before striking for the Beast.
• Luther brought the Astartes Legions to the Blackstone Rift and ordered the Iron Hands to lead, the Space Wolves to guard the flank, and the Raven Guard to provide mobile support.
• Luther reflected on his complicated bond with Lion and remembered how Lion had apologized for doubting and exiling him.
• The Iron Hands’ vanguard inflicted heavy losses on the Ork fleet, but the Orks deployed two battle moons and destroyed Iron Hands ships with their gravity weapons.
• An Iron Father ordered the Iron Hands to release the Vault of Oblivion’s vibration weapon, which shattered a battle moon’s shield and tore the celestial body apart, killing its Orks.
• The Iron Hands rammed three cruisers into the second battle moon, releasing a spreading black sphere that began annihilating the moon and the Orks on it.

Crowned General Claudius planned to let humanity struggle against the Orks before intervening, while the human fleet failed to break the shield around the battle planet. Trazyn confronted Claudius and secured his agreement to open the shield, giving Luther a chance to attack the Ork stronghold.

• Claudius ordered his forces to prepare for war but planned to wait until humanity suffered before the Nihilakh Dynasty intervened, hoping to win influence and control over its ally.
• The Iron Hands destroyed thousands of Ork warships with ancient armed satellites, but the battle planet's Waaagh shield absorbed the attack and the Orks countered the nanite swarm sent by Luther's Dark Angels.
• Mel Ahn transferred battlefield control to Luther, whose fleet attacked the battle planet but reduced its shield by only 13.5 percent before it began repairing itself.
• Luther asked Trazyn for help, and Trazyn revealed that Claudius had refused to deploy the World Engine, claiming it needed repairs.
• Trazyn confronted Claudius over his refusal and argued about the Necrons' alliance with humanity, while Luther realized that Lox and the AllSpark were central to their cooperation.
• Trazyn persuaded Claudius to open the battle planet's Waaagh shield, and Luther prepared to exploit the opening to destroy the Ork stronghold.

Trazyn secured the World Engine’s intervention, and its strike weakened the battle planet’s shield enough for Luther to begin a human invasion. As the four Legions established a foothold and fought across the planet, four Ork Beasts gathered underground and planned to summon hidden battle planets against the Necrons.

• Claudius activated the World Engine, whose three-second attack crippled the battle planet’s surface shield and disrupted its defenses.
• Luther ordered orbital bombardment to clear a landing zone, then deployed Dark Angels, Iron Hands, Space Wolves, Raven Guard, mortal auxiliaries, and supporting forces onto the planet.
• Bjorn led the Space Wolves against Ork leaders, Raven Guard snipers hunted Ork commanders, and Astelan directed Dark Angels attacks on Ork defenses as humanity consolidated its foothold.
• Claudius watched the human forces coordinate effectively and recognized that their combat ability exceeded his expectations.
• Four Ork Beasts met in the battle planet’s underground fortress and decided to summon hidden battle planets through Waaagh gates to attack the World Engine, leaving one Beast behind to defend their position.

The Imperial forces advanced across the battle planet, destroying Ork cities and clashing with Gargants as Luther raced to seize the planet’s vulnerable energy systems. Iron Father Mel-Ayn discovered the hidden Beast during an Ork ambush and gambled his force on killing it, burying the Beast beneath a toppled Gargant in the chapter’s final moments.

• The Imperials deployed Astartes, Titan Legions, and heavy weapons to burn through Ork cities while avoiding a costly street-by-street battle.
• Imperial Titans fought and destroyed Ork Gargants as Luther’s forces pushed toward the battle planet’s exposed reactors and energy systems.
• Mel-Ayn’s armored force encountered an Ork ambush, and he spotted a Beast-class warlord more than twelve meters tall.
• Mel-Ayn ordered his tanks to halt their retreat and attack the Beast, despite the danger of being surrounded.
• Mel-Ayn’s Apocalypse tanks used magnetic harpoons to pull down a Gargant beside the Beast, and the collapsing machine buried him amid explosions.

Mel Aen’s attack failed to kill the Beast, and Astellan and Bjorn’s decapitation assault also faltered against its overwhelming strength. As the Beast cornered them, an unknown warrior in silver-and-red power armor appeared and struck it with lightning.

• Mel Aen’s armored forces crushed a Gargant and bombarded the Beast, but the Beast emerged from the wreckage nearly unharmed, killed Mel, and was then wounded by a Shadowsword’s volcano cannon.
• Astellan led Dark Angels, Space Wolves, and Raven Guard forces into the battle as Astellan and Bjorn destroyed Gargants from within and competed to bring down the most.
• The Beast charged Astellan and Bjorn, overwhelmed them, and pinned Astellan beneath its foot while Bjorn lost his right hand trying to save him.
• Astellan escaped when Bjorn interrupted the Beast, and the two commanders retreated toward the human Titans as their warriors fell around them.
• A mysterious figure in silver-and-red power armor descended in a bolt of lightning and struck the Beast’s raised axe.

Dantioch revealed his C'tan-like powers and confronted the Beast Warlord, while the Dark Angels and Space Wolves struggled to identify the mysterious warrior. He summoned the Nirvana Steel and Iron Men legions, turning the battle around and leaving the combined forces closing in on the Beast.

• Dantioch arrived on the battlefield and used spatial manipulation and physical-law powers to overpower the Beast Warlord.
• The Beast attacked Dantioch and ordered the Gargants to fire, but Dantioch survived and destroyed the Ork war engines with his powers.
• The Beast mobilized Blackstone obelisks and Ork Psykers to attack Dantioch, whose damaged helmet allowed the Dark Angels to identify him as Barabas Dantioch.
• Dantioch opened dimensional rifts and deployed the Nirvana Steel Legion and Adam's Iron Men, who attacked the Ork Psykers and destroyed the Blackstone obelisks.
• Dantioch and Adam charged the Beast as Astelan, Bjorn, the Astartes, and the Titan Legion joined the attack.

Claudius discovered that an intelligent C'tan shard was hidden among the humans, but the converging Ork battle planets forced the Necrons to fight before he could act. Adam and Dantioch defeated and captured the Beast, the western front fell, and Luther led the human forces toward the Orks' homeworld while the damaged Necron World Engine finished off the pursuing battle planets.

• Claudius recognized that an intelligent C'tan shard was concealed within the human forces, while Dantioch ignored a trapped shard's plea for help.
• Claudius ordered the World Engine to engage as multiple Ork battle planets converged on it.
• Adam wounded the Beast, and Dantioch restrained him so Adam could sever his limbs; Dantioch then captured the living Ork warlord.
• The Beast's apparent death shattered the Orks' morale, allowing Astelan, Bjorn, and the human forces to rout them; Dantioch restored Mel Ayan, and Luther promised not to attack Nirvana Steel during the war.
• Luther refused to aid the Necron World Engine as Ork battle planets assaulted it, then led the human armies deeper into the Ghoul Stars.
• Half a Terran month later, the damaged World Engine destroyed the pursuing battle planets, while the human forces prepared to converge and attack the Orks' homeworld.