Chapter Summaries

Daft escaped concentrated fire by dropping a powerful bomb on Capello, while the Ork air squadron devastated the city. Chuck sent Lightning Fighters to counter the bombers, but an injured officer warned that Orks were attacking the command centre.

• Daft dropped his Gork-painted bomb, escaped the heavy stubbers, and watched the explosion destroy nearby Planetary Defense Force soldiers.
• Daft’s air squadron bombarded Capello, and Chuck learned that the Ork main force was advancing toward the city while most airfields had been damaged.
• Chuck ordered the fighters at the two remaining operational airfields to intercept the Ork aircraft, and the Lightning Fighters engaged them over Capello.
• A bloodied officer burst into the command centre and warned Chuck that Orks were coming for it.

Iron Claw led his Nasty Boyz in a brutal assault through Capello, aiming to kill the human commander Chuck. After a day of heavy fighting, the Orks reached the Command Centre’s defenses, where Iron Claw personally tore through the Leman Russ tanks.

• Iron Claw ordered his Nasty Boyz to attack the humans and take Chuck’s head.
• The Nasty Boyz slaughtered Planetary Defense Force troops and militia across Capello.
• Chuck sent the Armored Division’s Leman Russ tanks to stop the Orks.
• The tanks and Nasty Boyz fought for a day, leaving hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers dead.
• Iron Claw led the last Orks against the Command Centre’s defensive line and tore a tank apart with his Power Klaw.

Iron Claw’s battle frenzy intensified the waaagh, overwhelming the Planetary Defense Force’s southern line and drawing Orks across Number 3 toward Capello. As Goldtooth’s force abandoned its raids and marched north, Iron Claw crashed down onto a Leman Russ Tank.

• Iron Claw endured repeated tank shelling, then emerged from the smoke and charged into the human armor, unleashing a powerful surge of waaagh energy.
• Orks on the southern battlefield grew faster and stronger, while some Psyker Boys awakened and blasted human positions with green lightning.
• The Orks broke through the exhausted System Defense Force lines, and a Banshee pilot declared the Planetary Defense Force’s Southern Army finished.
• Ork spores took root in the blood-soaked soil as Goldtooth continued looting cities and expanding his railway network on the left-hand continent.
• Goldtooth and the other Orks felt a call to fight in the north, abandoned their raids, and surged toward Capello.
• Iron Claw dropped onto the defensive line and crushed a Leman Russ Tank beneath his weight.

Iron Claw overwhelmed the Planetary Defense Force and broke into the Command Centre, where he killed Chuck and took his head as a trophy. As dawn came, he saw Imperial spacecraft descending and welcomed the arrival of stronger opponents.

• Chuck ordered the Planetary Defense Force troops outside the Command Centre to retreat behind its gates.
• Iron Claw charged after the retreating defenders and held the adamantium gates open long enough to enter the fortress.
• Chuck led the defenders underground and ordered the Capello Garrison to stop sending reinforcements and hold its positions.
• Iron Claw broke through the underground defenses, found Chuck, and tore off his head.
• Iron Claw emerged at dawn and saw Imperial spacecraft descending, then laughed in anticipation of fighting stronger opponents.

Aboard the Harbinger of Doom, Pex proposed leading the Expeditionary Force to draw the Orks away from Capello and expose their boss to an orbital strike. Kester approved the risky plan despite lingering suspicions about Pex.

• Kester and Pex surveyed Number 3, and Kester reflected on his admiration for Pex alongside his suspicions of him.
• Pex recommended abandoning the Right Wing Continent and avoiding a costly war of attrition at Capello.
• Pex proposed gathering southern survivors, establishing a base in the swamp forests and lakes, and drawing the Orks toward his forces.
• Pex urged Kester to bombard the Ork boss if it reached his position and refused to hand command to someone else.
• Kester weighed the plan's risks against his doubts about Pex, then approved it and wished him victory.

Governor Cornwall performed a ritual to seek wisdom from the presence in a dark mirror, hoping to learn how to escape Number 3. The voice promised to help without payment, then seized Cornwall with a tentacle.

• Kester secretly kept blood and tissue samples from Pex's soldiers for testing while he focused on the crises on Number 3.
• Cornwall prepared a ritual in a hidden room and contacted a powerful presence through a pitch-black mirror.
• Cornwall offered ancient books and proposed sacrificing mortals, but the voice rejected both offers.
• The voice revealed Cornwall's wish to flee the system and promised to help without demanding a price.
• Cornwall stepped toward the mirror, and a tentacle shot out and wrapped around him.

Cornwall remained undercover as the Tyranid Fleet accelerated toward the Euronia System, while Cheng Mingrui continued killing monsters in the Dimensional Prison. Afentis contacted him to propose cooperation and revealed that Brainboys carried inherited technological knowledge, which Cheng Mingrui might have lost.

• Corruption briefly changed Cornwall’s eyes, and he understood that he needed to stay undercover and await an opportunity to fulfill his master’s mission.
• The Tyranid Fleet accelerated toward the Euronia System as a larger war loomed there.
• Cheng Mingrui killed more than five hundred monsters in the Dimensional Prison and wondered why Afentis had created them.
• Afentis contacted Cheng Mingrui, admitted that he had once planned to imprison him as a test subject, and proposed cooperation against a common threat.
• Afentis learned that Cheng Mingrui knew nothing about the Brainboys’ genetic legacy and explained that it held paths to technological knowledge.

Afentis explained that the Dimensional Prison was collapsing and that a Void Dragon C'tan Shard threatened to escape, then asked Cheng Mingrui to cooperate. Cheng Mingrui attacked Afentis and destroyed the Control Scepter, leaving the prison's collapse seemingly unstoppable.

• Afentis told Cheng Mingrui that imprisoning him had destabilized the Dimensional Prison and revealed that a Void Dragon shard was sealed inside.
• Afentis warned that the shard's escape would destroy the tomb, planet, and surrounding space, and asked Cheng Mingrui to cooperate.
• Cheng Mingrui tore Afentis apart, destroyed his Control Scepter, and hung Afentis's head from his belt.
• Cheng Mingrui said Mork had revealed Afentis's plans and accused him of wanting to restore the prison's power before imprisoning the Orks again.
• Afentis admitted that restoring the energy supply was essential but said destroying the Control Scepter had made their deaths inevitable, then his eye dimmed.

Cheng Mingrui dealt with Afentis and considered how to face the C'tan, while Dio discovered a powerful barrier and learned that Boss Slick and the other Orks were fighting beyond it. Dio rallied the Mega Bosses to blast through the barrier and join the battle.

• Cheng Mingrui left Afentis hanging from a spike on his back and relied on Gork and Mork's promise of support as he thought about the Void Dragon.
• Dio led the remaining Heavy Nobs through the Tomb Passage, where he found Black Obelisks and an abyss concealed behind green force fields.
• Dio lost two fingers when he touched the force field, then heard a garbled message from Boss Slick about a fight and a trial from Gork and Mork.
• Dio assumed Kidd had found a way through the barrier and left him behind, so he ordered the Mekboys to bring the Giant Eye of Mork and blast it open.
• The Mega Bosses resisted Dio until he told them Boss Slick and the other Slaughter Squads were fighting without them, which made them eager to join the battle.

Dio ordered the Mekboys to build an enormous Zzap Gun after the Eye of Mork failed to break the barrier, while Cheng Mingrui devised a way to reinforce the Dimensional Prison. When Kidd, Kuka, Rambo, and the Heavy Nobs arrived, the space revealed the colossal Void Dragon shard, and Kuka charged into battle.

• Dio ordered the Mekboys to connect the Ribz' power sources and build the biggest Waaagh! Zzap Gun.
• Cheng Mingrui devised a plan to reinforce the Dimensional Prison and solve the C'tan Shard problem.
• Kidd, Kuka, Rambo, and the Heavy Nobs emerged from the mist, boasting of their battles and increased strength.
• The mist vanished, revealing a cosmic void and the enormous face of the Void Dragon shard.
• Kuka transformed into a gigantic Ork enveloped in Waaagh Energy and roared for Gork and Mork.

Kuka, Kidd, Rambo, and Cheng Mingrui unleashed everything they had against the Void Dragon, but their attacks barely affected the C'tan shard. As the Waaagh consumed Cheng Mingrui’s reason, he began seeing a vision of an ancient battle between Necrons and Krork.

• Kuka repeatedly formed Gork's Fist and smashed it against the Void Dragon's barrier, even as his arms were mangled.
• Kidd, Rambo, and the Mega Bosses joined the assault, firing and striking the Void Dragon without effect.
• Cheng Mingrui chose to fight instead of escaping, built an electromagnetic cannon from scraps, and fired at the Void Dragon while flying around it.
• The Greenskins’ battle frenzy consumed Cheng Mingrui, and he continued attacking despite his injuries and the futility of the battle.
• Cheng Mingrui saw a vision of Necrons advancing against towering Krork, whose silent searchlight beam made Necrons vanish.

Krork and Ancient Aeldari overwhelmed the Necrons until a Black Obelisk suppressed their psychic powers, but the Krork still drove the Necrons into retreat. A C'tan avatar then appeared and annihilated Krork by the thousands, while an unknown intervention began weakening its power.

• Ancient Aeldari struck the Necrons with a Psychic Storm while Krork led the ground assault.
• A Black Obelisk severed the Aeldari and Krork from psychic power and triggered a backlash that killed the Aeldari and injured the Krork.
• Krork charged the giant Necron war machines with weapons formed from green light and forced the Necrons to retreat.
• The Krork destroyed the Necron forces and Black Obelisk, but space tore open and transported them to a stark white expanse with a towering yellow monster.
• The C'tan avatar annihilated Krork who came within ten meters, but their unrelenting charge shrank its annihilation radius.
• The C'tan avatar sensed that an unknown power had changed a rule of the universe.

Cheng Mingrui learned from a vision that Krork could defeat a C’tan by overwhelming it, but the Void Dragon’s Shard devastated his Orks and killed Kuka. As Cheng Mingrui cried out to Gork and Mork, green phantoms appeared and pinned the Void Dragon in place.

• A memory showed a C’tan avatar trapped by reality-altering statements and overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of Krork until it shattered.
• Cheng Mingrui returned to the battle against the Shard of the Void Dragon, where its slight movement crushed many Heavy Nobs and killed Kuka.
• Grieving Kuka and Cleverhead, Cheng Mingrui cursed Gork and Mork and kept firing the Electromagnetic Cannon at the Void Dragon.
• The Void Dragon froze as green phantoms filled the sky and promised Cheng Mingrui they would have his back.

Gork and Mork manifested to help Cheng Mingrui and the Orks battle the Void Dragon, while Dio broke into the Dimensional Prison with a weapon that struck the C'tan Shard. The Void Dragon began to destabilize, and Dio joined Cheng Mingrui with more Boyz.

• Gork and Mork emerged from Cheng Mingrui and battered the Void Dragon, while Cheng Mingrui realized they existed alongside every Ork and drew power from the Greenskins.
• Kidd, Rambo, the surviving Nobs, and Cheng Mingrui attacked the Void Dragon with weapons empowered by green light, wounding its eye as Gork and Mork held it down.
• The Dimensional Prison shook, and a dark green shot from a spatial rift struck the crack in the Void Dragon's forehead, destabilizing its body.
• Cheng Mingrui looked toward the rift as Dio arrived in an Orkish aircraft and said he had brought the Boyz to join the fight.
• Dio explained that he had combined a Ribz weapon with a Zzap Gun to make a Super Zzap Gun, which had blasted through the prison's barrier.

Dio led the Orks in a massive assault on the Void Dragon, and their combined attacks weakened the C’tan shard until it began to collapse. As Gork and Mork faded, Cheng Mingrui called on them to help him finish the Void Dragon quickly, and their power transformed him into a giant larger than the Orks’ war machines.

• Dio charged the Void Dragon and dropped Locator Beacons that brought in waves of Ork aircraft, mechs, armored cans, vehicles, and infantry.
• More than twenty million Orks surrounded the Void Dragon and attacked alongside Gork and Mork, whose blows opened a breach in its head.
• The badly wounded Void Dragon began collapsing in a destructive burst of purple energy that killed many Orks.
• Cheng Mingrui regained his reason, dodged a blast, and resolved to end the fight quickly to protect his Boyz.
• Cheng Mingrui called on Gork and Mork, who poured their remaining power into him and made him grow larger than the Orks’ biggest war machines.

Cheng Mingrui became a colossal Boss Slick and defeated the Void Dragon by devouring it, enduring its chaotic purple energy to protect the Greenskins. Exhausted and reduced to six meters tall, he rallied the surviving Boys after their costly victory over the C'tan Shard.

• Clever Git and the Greenskins hailed Cheng Mingrui as Boss Slick, pouring waaagh energy into him until he grew as large as Gork and Mork.
• Cheng Mingrui battered the Void Dragon, while the Greenskins joined the attack and suffered casualties from its purple energy.
• Cheng Mingrui realized the battle was costing the Greenskins too many lives, so he stopped punching and devoured the Void Dragon, swallowing its energy despite the agony.
• A voice praised Cheng Mingrui and eased his pain as his body shrank, finally settling at six meters tall.
• Cheng Mingrui praised the Boys for defeating the C'tan Shard and vowed they would eagerly fight even stronger enemies, prompting a roar of Waaagh!

Afentis escaped Number 4 in a hidden Necron body and fled aboard his spacecraft to seek allies for studying Gork and Mork. On Number 3, Pex expanded his refuge for millions of refugees and reminded one grateful survivor that mortals had to save themselves.

• Afentis awoke in a prepared spare body, concluded that Gork and Mork were real, and decided to seek help from powerful Necrons.
• Afentis retrieved a backup Control Scepter, boarded his personal spacecraft, and left the star system aboard a crescent-shaped warship.
• Pex built a refuge in Stone Ridge, where millions of refugees gathered as his reputation grew.
• Pex enforced strict sterilization procedures as his convoy brought rescued refugees into the camp for shelter and screening.
• When a refugee called Pex an angel, Pex told him that mortals themselves were the ones who could save them.

Pex reassured a traumatized refugee that he was not an Emperor’s angel and promised to lead a Mass, while his officers reported on their campaigns against the Orks and the cult’s efforts to avoid exposure. The chapter explained how the Ecclesiarchy’s faith in the Emperor united humanity and made him a god in practice.

• A refugee recounted watching the Orks slaughter the Planetary Defense Force and insisted that only the Emperor’s angels could fight them, but Pex denied being an angel and invited him to a Mass.
• Pex’s officers reported that Orks had noticed their sweeps, refugee numbers were falling, and repeated burning of battlefields was consuming fuel.
• Pex asked about a suspicious recruit, and his officers claimed the man had died in battle; Pex warned them to be less blatant and to avoid attracting Kester’s attention.
• Pex planned to seek fuel from Governor Cornwall and prepare for the evening Mass as he focused on gathering people and strengthening the cult.
• The chapter explained that the Ecclesiarchy’s worship of the Emperor contradicted the Imperial Truth but provided a shared faith that helped hold the Imperium together and could produce Living Saints.

Pex preached a new faith to refugees on Number 3, teaching that ordinary people were strong through unity and equal in worth, and claiming these ideas came from a new aspect of the Emperor. He fed the refugees and promised to discuss the faith further the next day as the Four-Armed Emperor Church prepared to welcome converts.

• Pex told the refugees that mortals could save themselves and become one with the Emperor through their own actions.
• When refugees questioned his claims, Pex argued that ordinary people formed the Imperium’s foundation and that all people were equal.
• Pex said the Emperor had many divine aspects and that a new aspect could unite ordinary people and give them greater strength.
• Pex had attendants distribute food, then told the refugees to rest before discussing the new faith the next day.

Commissar Kester mediated a dispute between Governor Cornwall and Priest Kater over the Adeptus Mechanicus taking control of ten cities on Number 3. Cornwall agreed to transfer most of the requested cities in exchange for military equipment, while retaining his personal domain, the planetary capital.

• Priest Kater demanded absolute control of ten cities to expand Number 3's industrial capacity and transform it into a Fortress World.
• Cornwall protested that the cities represented a major share of the planet's industry and argued that his families had developed the system without Imperial assistance.
• Kater said he would secure the cities with his Skitarii and Astra Militarum while Cornwall's complaint went through an inefficient appeals process.
• Kester intervened and proposed transferring nine cities while Cornwall kept the capital, with compensation from the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Kater agreed to provide equipment for two million Planetary Defense Force soldiers, and Kester added an Emperor's Bane Super-heavy Tank with maintenance personnel.
• Cornwall accepted the deal, and Kester ordered him to transfer administrative control to Kater as soon as possible.