Chapter Summaries

Hawk and the Grey Knights fought Cheng Mingrui, whose power overwhelmed their defenses, while the Ordo Malleus brought in reinforcements to attack his followers. Cheng Mingrui tried to protect the Yellow Turban Strongmen, but a psychic storm engulfed the battlefield, and he discovered he could not yet bless or protect anyone else.

• Hawk called Levinie and requested every available Grey Knight, and she sent reinforcements from the orbiting warship.
• Cheng Mingrui unleashed his flaming chained blades, shattered the psychic barrier of fifty Grey Knights, and sent them flying.
• Hawk ordered the forces to attack Cheng Mingrui's followers after realizing Cheng Mingrui restrained his attacks to protect them.
• Grey Knights and Space Marines from the Angry Ones surrounded Cheng Mingrui and the Yellow Turban Strongmen, who suffered heavy losses against their superior equipment.
• Cheng Mingrui took a Power Halberd wound while protecting a Yellow Turban Strongman and ordered his followers to retreat to defensible ground.
• The Grey Knights unleashed a psychic storm that engulfed both sides, and Cheng Mingrui found he could not bestow blessings or protection on others until he reached a higher level of divinity.

Hawk and the Legion of the Damned attacked Cheng Mingrui, but the Emperor intervened and tried to kill him. Khorne broke the Emperor’s suppression, and Cheng Mingrui clashed with him as Ovisgral Fortress and two Imperial Navy cruisers were destroyed; Levinie feared the Emperor had been wounded and resolved to suppress any rumors.

• Hawk summoned the Legion of the Damned, whose attacks killed Yellow Turban Strongmen and enraged Cheng Mingrui until he shattered the psychic storm.
• Hawk struck Cheng Mingrui with his Nemesis Power Halberd and detonated immense divine power within him, drawing the Emperor into the golden light.
• The Emperor approached Cheng Mingrui and raised his flaming longsword, but a clownlike laugh and Khorne’s intervention interrupted the attack.
• Khorne freed Cheng Mingrui from the Emperor’s pressure, and Cheng Mingrui clashed his twin blades against the Emperor’s greatsword.
• The clash destroyed Ovisgral Fortress and blasted two Imperial Navy cruisers apart, while Levinie thought she saw crimson power pierce the Emperor and set out to contain rumors.

Levinie's plan to use the light beam as cover gave way to a planet-wide counterattack, while the Screw Clan continued expanding through the Webway and across the galaxy. Boss Slick ordered Grom to destroy the Tyranids' forces after sensing that their troops and tactics were changing.

• Yellow Turban troops and Genestealers launched a pincer attack on the Imperium's forces near Ovisgral Fortress as counterattacks erupted across the planet.
• Little Slick and the Screw Clan mapped part of the Webway, killed a Hrud hive's Norn Queen, and established an Ork Forward Base in its egg-laying chamber.
• Boss Copperhead challenged Little Slick to a fight, and the Ork bosses battled while nearby Orks cheered and placed bets.
• Boss Slick directed the Screw Clan's expansion from the Psychic Power Convergence Tower as Ork forces spread through the Webway, the Octarius Sector, and the Ultima Segmentum.
• Grom reported that Tyranid Fleets had begun attacking the Orks again, and Boss Slick urged him to annihilate them because their forces and tactics were changing.

Boss Slick learned that the Tyranids were adapting their tactics against the Orks and preparing a new assault on Baal, while they also infiltrated the Screw Clan disguised as Squigs. He investigated Duncehead’s report about Adeptus Mechanicus members working with Orks and saw them making and selling weapons on an Ork junk planet.

• Boss Slick suspected the Tyranids were using small battles to test new organisms and tactics, while retreating to avoid prolonged fights with the Orks.
• The Great Devourer assembled a powerful Tendril Fleet to attack Baal and recover the Blood Angels’ genes before the Orks overran the Ultima Segmentum.
• Goldtooth discovered Tyranids disguised as Squigs infiltrating the Screw Clan and used special Squigs to hunt them down.
• Boss Slick asked Goldtooth to send him the special Squigs so he could find Tyranids hidden among his own forces.
• Duncehead told Boss Slick that humans wanted to help make Ork weapons, and Boss Slick saw Adeptus Mechanicus captives gathering scrap and selling weapons to the Orks.

Boss Slick discovered that the Adeptus Mechanicus members in the Screw Clan worshipped him as the Machine God, and traced their prayers to Vashtorr. Vashtorr fled after sensing Boss Slick, leaving Abaddon to abandon his reliance on Chaos and resolve to pursue his ambitions through his own strength.

• Duncehead told Boss Slick that the Screw Clan had freed captured Adeptus Mechanicus members after they began worshipping Boss Slick and chose to remain with the clan.
• Boss Slick heard the Adeptus Mechanicus pray for mechanical ascension and told them that they needed to turn their souls into machine spirits.
• Boss Slick followed the worshippers' faith through the Star Sea, noticed its strongest stream leading toward Terra, and traced another stream to Vashtorr in Imperium Nihilus.
• Vashtorr sensed Boss Slick watching him, broke off his communication with Abaddon, and fled into the Warp.
• Abaddon cursed the Chaos Legions and the gods of the Empyrean, then resolved to achieve his ambitions and vengeance through his own strength as the Vengeful Spirit remained damaged after Vigilus.

Abaddon prepared to travel to the Target Sector while Boss Slick ordered Ork forces to expand and investigate Vashtorr’s disappearance. After months of uneventful fighting, Rambo contacted Boss Slick from the Webway with news that he had found the Tyranid bosses’ nest.

• Moriana praised Abaddon and told him the Vengeful Spirit would be repaired in about six hours, but Abaddon cut her off and complained that Vashtorr had raised his price and disappeared.
• Abaddon resolved to honor his deal and head to the Target Sector to gain power, while reflecting that the Galaxy’s actors had to take the stage soon.
• Boss Slick suspected Vashtorr might be plotting against him and ordered Kidd and Luo Wen to complete two Battle Moons and lead a huge Ork fleet to investigate where Vashtorr had vanished.
• Boss Slick directed the Southern and Northern War Zones to keep advancing, then spent three months guiding Ork forces as their territory grew and battles bored him.
• Rambo contacted Boss Slick from the Webway and reported that he had found the beetle bosses’ nest.

Rambo captured the Hrud queen, Ils, and used her System-controlled communication to contact Boss Slick. Ils pledged allegiance and sent her position, so Boss Slick led the Orks toward her while Rambo remained wary of a trap.

• Rambo explained that Ils had helped him contact Boss Slick, then threatened to blow up the queen and hive if the surrounding insects attacked.
• Boss Slick spoke with Ils, learned that her name and communication system came from Hrud records, and discovered she could not create a psychic local network.
• Ils explained that the system controlled their communication and identified the sphere she spat out as a System Subterminal.
• Ils pledged her Hive's obedience, and the dragonfly-like insects around Rambo landed and lowered their weapons.
• Rambo warned Boss Slick that the insects might be stalling, so Boss Slick sent Little Slick and the Ork army through the Webway toward Ils's position.

Little Slick and Boss Copperhead led a massive Ork biker charge through Hrud territory, smashing through the ambushes in their path. After Norn Queen Ils pointed out the route to the Hrud Norn Queen’s palace, Little Slick followed the pheromone trail toward it.

• Boss Slick rejected Norn Queen Ils’s offers to withdraw her troops or send Warrior Bugs to attack, and Little Slick prepared the Speed Freeks to break through the Hrud-held area.
• Little Slick accelerated at the head of tens of thousands of Ork bikers, who raced through the Webway and fought off Hrud ambushes despite suffering casualties.
• Boss Copperhead leaped onto a huge centipede and split it with his Killer Axe before Little Slick picked him up and sped onward.
• Norn Queen Ils told Little Slick that the Hrud Norn Queen’s palace lay in the direction of the strongest pheromones, and Boss Copperhead urged him to charge toward the danger.
• Little Slick repurposed the bike’s speedometer into a pheromone meter and steered toward the palace.

Little Slick and Boss Copperhead broke through the Hrud’s hidden passage and attacked the Norn Queen’s Palace, killing the Queen and throwing the Tyranid Swarm into chaos. With Boss Copperhead eager for another fight, Little Slick urged him to rescue Rambo, who was surrounded by bugs.

• Little Slick drove the Speedbike through a concealed Webway wall, and he and Boss Copperhead fought their way through the narrow passage.
• The two Ork bosses fell into the Norn Queen’s chamber, fighting Flying Dragonflies as the biker gang crashed and fired its weapons into the palace.
• Little Slick and Boss Copperhead pierced the Norn Queen’s Guard and killed the Norn Queen, scattering the Tyranid Swarm into disorder.
• Boss Copperhead grew bored with the disorganized bugs and turned toward Little Slick, who told him they needed to rescue Rambo from another group of bugs.

Boss Slick reached Rambo and questioned the captured Hrud Norn Queen Ils, who offered her allegiance in exchange for the survival of her dynasty. Ils began recounting Hrud history, describing a cosmic war between the Old Ones and the C'tan.

• Boss Copperhead and Boss Slick built bikes from wreckage, and surviving Speed Freaks joined them as they traveled through the Webway.
• Three days later, Little Slick led the Greenskins to Rambo, where Boss Slick fitted a pot-lid lie detector over Ils's head and questioned her.
• Ils explained that the Hrud's supreme queen had retreated, leaving nearby hives independent and fighting among themselves, which let Rambo capture her.
• Ils offered her warriors, a successor princess, and nutritious worker bees in exchange for the survival of her dynasty.
• Boss Slick asked Ils to tell him Hrud history and why Krork Orks had called their leader the Philosopher King.
• Ils began describing a war beyond ordinary reality, in which the Old Ones and the C'tan were the decisive powers.

Ils explained the Krork’s ancient history and pledged allegiance to Boss Slick, who found a way to use the Webway’s portals to reach her queen. He set out to learn the queen’s forces’ weaknesses so he could seize the system terminal efficiently.

• Ils described how the Aeldari had taken the Old Ones’ place, excluded the Krork from the Webway, and erased parts of history, while Boss Slick compared her account with Necron records.
• Boss Slick confirmed Ils was sincere but could not determine whether the Hrud or Necrons had altered or embellished their histories.
• Ils pledged allegiance to Boss Slick and revealed that the Webway section’s system terminal was with her queen, offering a sphere that could track her.
• Boss Slick used the sphere and the Screw Clan’s maps to locate the queen, then realized its psychic lights marked portals linking distant Webway passages.
• Boss Slick asked Ils about her race’s weaknesses so he could kill the queen and take the system terminal without wasting time.

Ils helped Boss Slick plan an infiltration of the Hrud queen while Eldrad aided the displaced Ulthwé Aeldari in building a settlement in the Webway. Eldrad agreed to help Parker Pan return to Realspace, but explained that the only way out required passing through dangerous Commorragh.

• Ils told Boss Slick that her pheromones could mask his Kommandos and help them reach the Hrud queen, and Boss Slick ordered Rambo to lead the infiltration under Little Slick's commands.
• Hols stopped a collapsing wraithbone tower from crushing Aeldari workers, and Wraithlords helped secure it.
• Parker Pan asked Eldrad for supplies, ships, and guards so he could return to Realspace and convene a Craftworld Council about the new Great Prophecy.
• Eldrad considered detaining Parker Pan but chose to support the wider Aeldari cause and agreed to provide assistance.
• Eldrad told Parker Pan that the Ulthwé Aeldari could not control their Webway exit and would have to travel to Commorragh, Vect's dangerous stronghold.

Parker Pan agreed to travel to Commorragh to obtain a Webway control terminal, with Ovisus and Tyranda joining him. Elsewhere in the Warp, Fulgrim pursued his artistic work while captives suffered in a prison beneath his palace.

• Eldrad explained that the group needed a control terminal from Commorragh to control the Webway routes, and Parker Pan warned that the Reaper Host operated there.
• Eldrad urged Parker Pan to take the risk, then assigned him a battle-hardened Seer Council as an escort.
• Parker Pan found Ovisus feeding Hols, and Ovisus agreed to accompany him to Commorragh; Hols eagerly anticipated seeing its captives and fighting.
• Fulgrim sculpted statues of his legion's company commanders, corrected a mistake, and drank blood to improve his mood.
• Prison guards dragged a dead captive through the prison beneath Fulgrim's palace while the other captives watched in silence.

Fulgrim celebrated Lucius and Miriael’s entry into the Webway as they unleashed a Slaaneshi invasion on the Aeldari city of Korota. Elsewhere, Rambo led Little Slick and a force of Kommandos through the Webway toward their infiltration target, guided by Iris’s beetle.

• Fulgrim learned that Lucius and Miriael had entered the Webway and flew into the Warp in triumph.
• Lucius opened Korota’s Webway Gate for Miriael and the Chaos forces, then demanded the gene-seed she had promised him.
• Three Chaos Sorcerers corrupted the gate, widening it into a passage through which Slaaneshi forces poured into the city.
• An Aeldari Titan attacked the invaders, but a Keeper of Secrets blocked its strike and fought it while Miriael rejoiced in the slaughter.
• Lucius left Miriael and sought his own troops, hoping to win a greater reward from the Dark Prince.
• Rambo redirected Little Slick and several hundred Kommandos after Iris’s beetle guided them toward their target.

Boss Slick’s raiding party risked discovery by a perceptive Male Bug while traveling through the Tyranid swarm toward the Queen. Boss Slick devised a way to make the Male Bug doubt what he saw, and the chapter ended as the Male Bug examined the disguised raiders and found them increasingly strange.

• Greenskins trampled Decomposer Worker Bees, drawing a Male Bug and Warrior Bugs to investigate the trail of fluids and wreckage.
• Ils explained to Little Slick that the Male Bug was intelligent and powerful, and that he might detect their disguise before they reached the Queen.
• Boss Slick learned the Queen was still three to five days away, though the Male Bug might find the party within three hours.
• Boss Slick decided to exploit the Male Bug’s ability to deceive himself, using the Kommandos’ skill at deception.
• The Male Bug caught up with the raiding party, surrounded the strange Warrior Bugs, and scrutinized their unfamiliar pheromones and appearance.

The Male Bug killed Little Beetle, misread the disguised Orks as hungry refugees from another Hive, and accepted them into the Hive. With Rambo secretly riding on his back, Little Slick led the Special Operations Bosses deeper into the Hive, using a pheromone detector to track the Male Bug through the Webway Portals.

• The Male Bug caught Little Beetle, killed him with a psychic counterattack, and learned from his pheromones that he carried the scent of Krork Orks.
• A Warrior Bug secretly attached a strange chip to the Male Bug, whose new insights led him to mistake the disguised Orks for starving survivors from a defeated Hive.
• The Male Bug accepted the strange Warrior Bugs into the Hive and showed them where to find food before leaving to report to the Queen.
• Rambo clung unnoticed to the Male Bug as Little Slick and several hundred Special Operations Bosses continued deeper into the Hive.
• Little Slick used his pheromone detector to track the Male Bug through Webway Portals, making the journey seem much faster than three days.

Little Slick led the Special Operations Bosses through the Hrud’s Webway toward the Hrud Queen, learning how its complex Tyranid society worked. He discovered Rambo’s signal was motionless just as the squad was ambushed, and the Orks fought off the swarm without losing anyone.

• Little Slick used a sugar-carrying Beetle to get past Worker Bees blocking the first Portal, then led the squad through the Webway.
• Little Slick followed the pheromone detector toward the Hrud Queen and spotted an enormous Tyranid being carried by flying creatures.
• Little Slick noticed Rambo’s signal was motionless inside the swarm and suspected that Rambo had been trapped.
• The Tyranids surged toward the hidden squad, and Little Slick shouted that it was a trap before opening fire.
• The Special Operations Bosses unleashed their weapons and held back the swarm, killing over a hundred thousand Warrior Bugs without a casualty.
• A Nob ran out of ammunition and strapped his Scimitar to his Shoota to fight the charging Warrior Bugs.

Little Slick’s Special Operations Bosses fought the Hrud until a powerful Stag Beetle unleashed a devastating psychic storm. After swallowing the Webway Sub-Terminal, Little Slick gained authorization and Boss Slick shared his power, revealing a black sphere absorbing the Hrud’s psychic energy.

• Little Slick ordered the Special Operations Bosses to conserve ammunition and fight the weaker Warrior Bugs with choppas.
• The Hrud Queen sent a powerful Stag Beetle, whose psychic barrier blocked the Orks’ attacks as it gathered energy on its horn.
• The Stag Beetle unleashed a three-minute lightning storm that burned the battlefield and repeatedly struck Little Slick and the Special Operations Bosses.
• Ils told Boss Slick that a powerful intelligence was likely controlling the Stag Beetle through the Mother Terminal.
• Little Slick swallowed the Webway Sub-Terminal, allowing Boss Slick to share the Blood God’s blessing and protect the Orks.
• Boss Slick used psychic sight to see a black sphere on the Hrud’s side absorbing their scattered psychic power.

Little Slick discovered that the Hrud Queen had been controlling the rhinoceros beetle remotely and pursued her through the burning sky. After defeating her and hearing her offer an alliance, he was struck by her sudden psychic attack.

• Little Slick realized the Hrud Queen was hidden among the dragonflies and remotely controlling the rhinoceros beetle.
• Rambo revealed that he had wounded the Queen with a warship-grade incendiary bomb, while Little Slick and the Special Operations Bosses attacked the beetle from its back.
• Little Slick used the beetle's explosion to launch himself through the flames and seize the wounded Hrud Queen, whose lower body had been severed.
• The Hrud Queen begged for mercy and offered to restore Rambo's arm and ally the Tyranids with the Krork Orks.
• When Little Slick rejected her offer, the Hrud Queen stiffened and attacked him with her psychic power.

Little Slick killed the Hrud queen, recovered the main terminal, and opened a Webway Gate so the Special Operations Bosses and reinforcements could escape. The wounded Orks returned to realspace, where Big Blade treated them while securing two valuable teeth from Boss Slick.

• Little Slick crushed the Hrud queen and found the main terminal among her remains.
• The Hrud Swarm fell into chaos, and Little Slick killed bugs on his descent while the surviving Special Operations Bosses gathered below.
• Little Slick swallowed the main terminal, learned the surrounding Webway map, and opened a gate that let the Junkyard and other Ork machines pour in.
• Little Slick led the Special Operations Bosses through the gate, and the Orks escaped the Webway into realspace.
• Psychic Teleportation and the Krakka Teleporter brought the wounded Orks to Big Blade's operating room, where Big Blade treated them without charge to protect his new teeth.