Chapter Summaries

Evan's forces defeated the Drukhari after Bars and Adams stopped the falling carrier, then blocked the survivors' escape through the Webway. The chapter ended with Evan reviewing the heavy losses and considering Rogier's advice, while the surviving Astartes imitated Kazhaniv and began to grow twisted.

• A Drukhari leader shut down the carrier's propulsion, sending it toward the ocean as Evan and the Astartes continued fighting aboard it.
• Bars raised a vast column of seawater to catch the carrier, and Adams froze the water into a pillar that held it above the ocean.
• Astartes killed Drukhari who tried to flee across the ice, while the remaining Crimson Tide warriors trapped and eliminated enemies inside the radioactive wreckage; the battle left 221 Astartes dead and about 930 Drukhari killed.
• Doverlit and the Imperialis Militia stopped the remaining Drukhari from escaping through the Webway, destroying their ships and capturing the survivors.
• Enke put Doverlit into a Stasis Field after the war, while Situval beat the badly injured Kazhaniv and Evan counted the fallen and worried over the loss of gene-seed.
• Rogier told Evan that the Space Wolves fought better by playing to their strengths, and Evan saw the surviving Astartes begin imitating Kazhaniv as they brooded over their losses.

After the Drukhari assault, Evan defended his strategy of destroying invaders outright rather than only guarding Shelters, while Maturio struggled with the cost to humanity. Evan later visited Christina on Langjuxu to discuss experiments on the T'au’s weak Warp connection, and she revealed two enormous suits of battle armor.

• Maturio questioned Evan about leaving the people to suffer, and Evan argued that crushing invaders would deter future attacks better than merely holding the line at each Shelter.
• Maturio left to hear the survivors’ views, while Evan wrote to request reinforcements; Anthony had already secretly sent fifty warriors from the Parent Chapter.
• The arriving warriors relayed messages from Magos Haituo and Christina, and Evan quietly left Bars in charge before traveling to Langjuxu.
• Evan found Christina and Magos Haituo fighting over laboratory space, and Christina carried him off to her private laboratory.
• Christina reported that her experiments had found no anti-psyker substance, so Evan suggested testing living T'au and monitoring their psychic signals; she demanded more space and resources.
• Christina opened a warehouse and showed Evan two enormous suits of battle armor.

Evan collected Christina's ordinary-Astartes Centurion suits, then heard Sage Haituo's weapons pitches and reacted to his untested cruiser upgrades. Elsewhere, Inquisitor Mofus and the last survivor of the 1313th Regiment, 1313, deployed to reinforce a desert war, where Anthony and the Dawn Angels faced a powerful Chaos army; the chapter ended as the Dawn Angels charged its grotesque champion.

• Christina showed Evan an Assault Centurion Warsuit and a Devastator Centurion Warsuit, but explained that neither was designed for him.
• Evan visited Sage Haituo, who showcased experimental devices; Evan learned Haituo had tested his cruiser upgrades only on blueprints and threatened to cut his research territory.
• Inquisitor Mofus prepared to take 1313, the sole survivor of his regiment, to reinforce a desert world occupied by Chaos forces.
• Anthony and the Dawn Angels joined the Salamanders and other Imperial forces in battle against a disciplined Chaos army while the Taran Desert Raiders withdrew to attack its supply lines.
• A grotesque Chaos champion struck the Astreaus Super-heavy Tank with a powerful attack, and the Dawn Angels charged into close combat.

The Imperial forces broke through Chaos defenses, with 1313 fighting alongside Inquisitor Mofus and helping defeat a Chaos Sorcerer before the battle advanced into a mine. Meanwhile, Evan returned to the T'au's Three Hundred Worlds with new equipment from Langjuxu and demonstrated an Impact Grenade to Maturio.

• The Salamanders, Sons of Sanguinius, and Astra Militarum forces attacked Chaos positions, while 1313 helped Mofus kill a Chaos Sorcerer and collapse the black mist barrier.
• The Basilisks' bombardment struck the Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment as well as the enemy artillery position, and a Taran Desert Raiders spotter continued reporting until Chaos corruption consumed him.
• Anthony fought through the melee with 1313's help, then regrouped with the Imperial forces and advanced toward the mine after recovering from his wounds.
• Mofus told Anthony that he was still investigating whether 1313 was a Living Saint, and Anthony later charged into the mine with other recovered warriors.
• Evan returned to the T'au's Three Hundred Worlds and showed Maturio an Impact Grenade from Magos Haituo's equipment, using its shock wave to stop him.

Anthony’s force joined Inquisitor Mofus and the Vostroyan Firstborn aboard a land train, then stormed a Chaos arms factory to aid the Salamanders. After 1313 knocked a daemon into a Devastator’s firing line, the story shifted to Situval overseeing new Apothecaries and a trial to choose the first Primaris Astartes with Iron Warriors gene-seed.

• Anthony’s squad was teleported into a mine pit, destroyed a hidden sacrifice altar, and followed the fighting to a central ore station.
• Anthony met Mofus and the wounded Vostroyan Firstborn aboard a land train, then led them to a processing plant where the Salamanders were under attack.
• Anthony’s warriors split up to fight their way through the arms factory, while a daemon possessed a huge transport machine and attacked them.
• Anthony used falling ore to reveal the daemon’s real position, and 1313 struck it with a shovel, knocking it into a plasma incinerator’s line of fire.
• Situval graduated ten Apothecaries after training them for fifty years and began overseeing a Neophyte selection trial for the Chapter’s first Primaris Astartes with Iron Warriors gene-seed.

Situval arrived at a poor Imperial Fists recruiting world to select a candidate for transformation, while Anthony led the Crimson Tide through a mine-clearing campaign against entrenched Chaos forces. The battle ended with 1313 sacrificing himself to destroy the Helbrute, and Mofus found no trace of him.

• Situval arrived at the recruiting world, where descendants of the Imperial Fists ran endurance, technical, combat, and Warp tests for candidates.
• Anthony warned the war council that Chaos might be delaying the Imperium to cover other operations, but the navy and Astra Militarum resisted his concerns and left him responsible for clearing the mines.
• Anthony followed 1313 through the tunnels, and their force broke through Chaos defenses before reaching the enemy's concealed gathering place.
• Anthony's troops ambushed the Chaos leaders, while Chaos warriors released a Helbrute and it attacked the Imperial forces.
• 1313 charged the Helbrute with a Melta Bomb, was pierced by its spike, and detonated the bomb, destroying much of the Helbrute and himself.
• Mofus searched for 1313 after the explosion but found no trace of him.

Over ten years, the Crimson Tide fleet traded xenos technology for supplies and ships, allowing the Chapter to expand its Neophyte program while maintaining its territory. Meanwhile, Lian Leilo reclaimed a long-isolated human world, restored Imperial rule, and invited its people to join the Astartes.

• The Crimson Tide fleet used Aeldari and T'au technology to trade across Forge Worlds, eventually buying ships and recovering gene-seed for the Chapter.
• The Chapter created more than three hundred Neophytes, while Ralph received intensive training from Situval, Kazhaniv, the Sons of Dorn, and Enke.
• The fleet returned to T'au with new cruisers and gunships, while Evan relocated half the T'au population to another world aboard transports, seven of which were destroyed and their passengers delivered to Christina.
• Lian Leilo led the Azure Celestial Pool and a company of Space Marines to the Skyforsaken world, where he forced local leaders to accept Imperial rule and cooperate with the Astartes.
• Lian Leilo established reforms, education, technology-sharing, museums, and a Ministry of Truth, then announced recruitment for humans who wanted to become Astartes.

Lian Leilo’s forces investigated a dead moon colony and a collapsing ocean world before the Crimson Tide Chapter reorganized and encountered a stranded ship carrying Sisters of Battle. The chapter ended with Xiao Lan escorting the survivors and asking Senior Sister Anlena to explain the crusade’s situation.

• Lian Leilo designated the lifeless moon colony a priority observation area and decided not to resettle it yet.
• Lian Leilo found that deep-sea xenos had cut off the ocean world's people, evacuated just over two hundred thousand survivors, and ordered food sent from Olaye.
• The Chapter reorganized its companies and forces as it prepared to expand its territory.
• Evan's fleet responded to a battered hospital ship emerging from the warp, and Xiao Lan greeted Senior Sister Anlena and her Sisters of Battle.
• Xiao Lan told Anlena to keep the Chapter's identity and mission secret, then asked her to describe the crusade's situation.

Sister Anlena recounted her battles across the Segmentum Tempestus, from the Ork war and the expedition to the Sixth Holy Hospital’s disastrous warp journey. After Xiao Lan introduced her to Kazhaniv, Anlena spoke with him privately while the survivors settled aboard the ship, unaware that something in the Warp was watching them.

• Sister Anlena told Xiao Lan how her force fought Tyranids and Orks alongside Imperial fleets and Astartes, suffering heavy losses during the campaign to reclaim Baka’s gateway worlds.
• Anlena described how the Imperial Navy Marshal’s retreat order exposed the Astartes to devastating Ork fire, and how her sister sacrificed herself to protect a Strike Cruiser.
• Anlena recounted the later campaign against Wildtoof and the expedition’s struggles, including a suspected Genestealer cult, setbacks among the other expeditionary forces, and the Sixth Holy Hospital’s forced journey toward the front.
• Anlena explained that warp turbulence scattered the fleet and a gigantic construct struck their ship; an Inquisitor guided the survivors to safety but became a monstrosity, which she killed herself.
• Xiao Lan sent Anlena to speak with Kazhaniv, while the Hospitallers treated injured militia aboard the ship and Ina sat apart on the battered Black Ship.
• The chapter ended with the survivors’ apparent calm contrasted with unseen things in the Warp watching them.

The Phantom Feather Warband invaded Sorok World to capture Sister Anlena, launching attacks across the system and boarding the Light of Dawn. As the fighting spread through the ship, Evan forced Haka to retreat, while Anlena and Kuroser faced the Chaos leader and his guard in a corridor.

• The Phantom Feather Warband followed the Sisters to Sorok World, and Evan recognized its fleet as a full-scale invasion and ordered the ships to intercept it.
• A Chaos Sorcerer sacrificed himself to teleport Haka and his guards aboard the Light of Dawn, where they attacked mortals and fought the ship's defenders.
• Evan confronted Haka with his Warblade and the Anti-Psyker Shield, wounded him, and drove him to escape with two guards.
• Haka found Anlena in a corridor and attacked her while Kuroser burst through a false wall and fought one of the guards.
• Haka lashed Anlena and damaged her armor as Kuroser's opponent detonated a Firework Grenade, leaving Kuroser howling in pain.

The Light of Dawn’s defenders fought back against the Phantom Feather Warband’s boarding assault, while Haka tried to escape with the wounded Sister Anlena. Reinforcements arrived at Sorok World as the chapter ended, turning the attackers’ advantage into a counterattack.

• Rogier drove back the Bodyguard with his Anti-Psyker Shield, while Haka fled with Anlena and Kuroser pursued him.
• Haka gathered captives for an ascension ritual as Chaos forces pressed into the Light of Dawn’s outer compartments and defenders held their lines.
• Kuroser and Kazhaniv’s warriors attacked the ritual site, while Bars destroyed the Chaos Sorcerer’s soul-assault flowers with a surge of mortal faith and psyker power.
• Haka escaped toward his Battle Barge with Anlena after the Phantom Feather Warband’s Librarian teleported them away, and Kazhaniv prepared a boarding assault with Rogier and Kuroser.
• Ina and the Hospitallers defended the Black Ship against daemons and cultists as the Supreme Abyss and other warships fought off the enemy fleet.
• The trading fleet arrived at Sorok World, split its forces to aid the besieged ships and planet, and launched a counterattack against the enemy Battle Barges.

The Crimson Tide captured the Phantom Feather Warband’s ships, killed Haka, and rescued Anlena, then sent forces to fight on Sorok World and nearby worlds. Elsewhere, the Death Guard’s Disease Brewer began corrupting a captured Blood Wolf with enchanted liquor.

• The Crimson Tide boarded the Phantom Feather Warband’s ships, while Haka fled with Anlena and tried to escape the fighting.
• Nian Cijin and his warriors cornered and killed Haka, while Evan found Anlena and had her treated for warp corruption.
• The Crimson Tide captured two Battle Barges and began repairs, while Anlena was taken aboard the Black Ship and Vlorus was tasked with keeping her under watch.
• The Sisters of Battle insisted on joining the ground fighting, and Vlorus assigned them a small enemy force while Ralph’s squad fought a larger clan of Tree Men.
• The Crimson Tide’s main force descended to Sorok World to aid its failing defenses against the Slaaneshi forces.
• The Disease Brewer offered an enchanted bowl of liquor to a captured Blood Wolf, who drank it and began to fall under Nurgle’s influence.

The Plague Brewer devised a way to use fine wine and Rustfallen to corrupt the Blood Wolf and target the Space Wolves, while Evan and Xiao Lan dealt with the Sisters of Battle, recruiting, and wine. The Space Wolves carried corrupted wine into the Warp, where Nurgle’s forces ambushed them.

• The Plague Brewer used wine, metal particles, and Rustfallen to transform the Blood Wolf into a Plague Wolf Warrior and sent a new batch of wine to the Fifth Company.
• Xiao Lan had Sister Teresa and the Sisters of Battle sample five food bars, then persuaded Teresa that the Tree Men could make the planet a suitable agri world while delaying her report until Anlena woke.
• Rogier and Kuroser stole supplies and joined the returning wolf brothers for a drinking session aboard the Eternal Mountain.
• Evan offered Rogier fine wine in exchange for training one hundred wolf neophytes, and Rogier agreed before rushing off to find Sergeant Enke’s breaching tools.
• The Space Wolves raided the Blood Wolf traitors for wine, drank it, and carried it into the Warp as they headed for the Fang.
• The Rustfallen and Nurgle’s forces ambushed the Space Wolves with new viruses and corruption.

The Plague Brewer’s poisoned wine led the Space Wolves into repeated ambushes, but Leman Russ destroyed the brewer and seized its brewing apparatus. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide searched for its scattered warriors, found six survivors, and joined Imperial forces in a major victory over the Death Guard before William’s group was discovered in the Maelstrom Subsector.

• The Space Wolves drank the Plague Brewer’s wine, suffered escalating Rustfallen attacks in the warp, and sent a distress call before other Space Wolves rescued them.
• Leman Russ stole the second batch of wine’s transport, attacked the Plague Brewer, and later took its brewing apparatus after destroying the Plaguebearer force.
• The Crimson Tide Trade Fleet found a damaged Lunar-class Cruiser and tracked six surviving warriors to the Kas 73 Star System, where they learned how Alpha Legion infiltrators had attacked the ship and killed its Navigators.
• The Trade Fleet received word that William was missing, while William’s scattered force arrived in the Maelstrom Subsector and was escorted by the Bite of the Grey Scar Chapter.
• The Space Wolves and their allies, including the Salamanders and Anthony’s Primaris Warriors, lured the Death Guard into realspace and defeated their assault, prompting the enemy to retreat.

The Crimson Tide Chapter expanded its neophyte program, organized new company Honour Guards, and traded xenos technologies with Mavrek Forge World for Power Armour, Titans, and long-term military supplies. As the Chapter’s slow advance through realspace continued, Evan left Archbishop Froes bound to a major supply deal.

• The Chapter increased its transformation program, while Annos began Ascension Surgery so he could continue his warship research as a Primaris Warrior.
• Evan assigned Honour Guard names to several companies, and the Eleventh Company established a hundred-metre Power Armour trial for its warriors.
• The Chapter’s armour shortage worsened, so Evan brought a catalogue of xenos technologies to negotiate with Archbishop Froes on Mavrek.
• Evan and Froes agreed on Power Armour supplies, a renewed Titan lease, and orders for battleships and Astartes equipment over the next two hundred years.
• The Three Hundred Worlds continued their slow realspace advance through the Ultima Segmentum, steering clear of the Storm King's territory.

Li Anjun returned to his village to perform the marriage ritual and dreamed of a woman destined to be his wife, but the evil Imperium invaded before they could meet. After the temple’s statue was destroyed, the Matchmaker Goddess appeared in Li Anjun’s mind, while his dream bride remained unidentified.

• Li Anjun traveled home with Wang Fugui and performed the temple ritual to seek his destined wife.
• Li Anjun dreamed that Matchmaker bound him to a naked woman for seventy-one years and dropped them near the old tree at the village entrance.
• The village chief warned that the evil Imperium was coming, and Li Anjun’s father sent him to find his dream bride.
• An explosion knocked Li Anjun down and destroyed the Matchmaker Goddess’s statue, whose purple shadow entered his mind.
• Li Anjun encountered his dream bride in his mind, caught a Snow Jade Flower, and realized the creature before him was the Matchmaker Goddess from his dream.

Evan and Rogier’s forces uncovered the Matchmaker Goddess’s demonic scheme: she had cultivated centuries of faith and began draining the planet’s adults to ascend into a Greater Daemon. Evan charged into the palace with two Anti-Psyker Shields, but the daemon trapped him in flesh as its transformation neared completion.

• Evan found Li Anjun possessed by the wounded Matchmaker Goddess, drove the daemon from him, and took the young man along despite his age making augmentation risky.
• Rogier and Bars fought the Moon Matchmaker and the Matchmaker Demon inside the palace while the daemons’ forces cost the Neophytes heavy casualties.
• Evan shattered the palace’s psychic illusion, revealing the giant daemon to the city’s worshippers, who knelt as it drained their life and faith to gain power.
• Evan realized the Matchmaker Goddess was a Tzeentch daemon seeking Greater Daemonhood and asked Rogier for his Anti-Psyker Shield.
• Evan charged the daemon with both shields, fought through its attacks, and slashed at its heart, but it shrank into masses of flesh and trapped him as its new form began to take shape.

Ina, Evan, Bars, and Rogier fought the Matchmaker Demon and the Moon Matchmaker as the city collapsed, while Li Anjun awakened to powerful psychic abilities. The Baina Robe ultimately destroyed the Moon Matchmaker in the Warp, and the surviving warriors escaped the disaster zone.

• Ina arrived as a Sister of Silence and attacked the Matchmaker Demon, while Bars and Rogier drove the Moon Matchmaker to flee by possessing one of his followers.
• Ina, Evan, Bars, Rogier, and the White Scars neophytes kept the Matchmaker Demon under pressure until Evan pinned her with his Chainsword and Ina beheaded her.
• The city began collapsing, and Evan and the other warriors evacuated as the Moon Matchmaker escaped in a human host.
• Li Anjun found his bride-to-be turned into a skeleton, then rejected the Moon Matchmaker and unleashed a psychic awakening that hurled the daemon away.
• The Baina Robe pulled the Moon Matchmaker into the Warp and destroyed him with the collective power of humanity's convictions.

The Crimson Tide survived a daemonic disaster, recruited children, and expanded its influence in the Maelstrom Subsector through William’s trading and scheming. Meanwhile, Anthony tricked an Imperial representative into supplying Mark X armour and sent it toward T'au.

• The neophytes found Li Anjun alive after the daemonic assaults, and he agreed to join them as the anti-psyker field suppressed his Warp connection.
• The Chapter began recruiting children on the devastated world while its Apothecary prepared to study Li Anjun, an uncontrolled Beta-level psyker.
• William used captured technology and supplies to build influence among the Maelstrom Subsector’s Forge Worlds and Chapters, then reunited with Nian Cijin’s First Trade Fleet and secretly exchanged warriors and equipment.
• Sisyphus advised a young Librarian to focus on communications and strategy instead of carrying a Thunder Hammer, though the newcomer misunderstood his lesson.
• Anthony convinced Sir Scott that the Crimson Tide lacked the five hundred suits of Mark X armour it had been promised, prompting an expedited shipment that Anthony sent toward T'au with warriors and supplies.

Annos welcomed Siwana and her pirate crew aboard the Secret Cult Warship, where Siwana reunited with Kazhaniv and anxiously questioned him about the Sisters of Battle. The story then shifted to Lian Leilo battling a mechanized Genestealer force, leaving the cause of their transformation unexplained.

• Annos recognized Siwana when the Fountain of Wealth emerged from the Warp and welcomed her aboard the Secret Cult Warship.
• Siwana arrived with her pirate crew and waited several days for Kazhaniv to return from patrol.
• Kazhaniv caught Siwana when her knees buckled, then reassured her that he had only sparred with the Sisters of Battle and watched their training.
• Siwana asked Kazhaniv whether he found the Sisters pretty, and he told her she was prettier before she left in high spirits.
• Lian Leilo and his Chapter fought Genestealers modified with extensive mechanical replacements and biological jet propulsion.