Chapter Summaries

The Crimson Tide’s assault on the Aeldari Craftworld turned against its defenders as Space Mantas and reinforcements overwhelmed the Titans and mortal troops. Chief Librarian Mororis and Bars helped break the Aeldari’s central defense, but Warp Spiders teleported toward the weakened Bars.

• A swarm of Space Mantas overwhelmed the Aeldari Titans, destroying a Ghost Titan and crippling a Wraith Scout Titan.
• Aeldari militia and elite troops struck the human rear while the Astartes pushed deeper into the Craftworld.
• Aelos’s defenders opened a Warp Rift, and Chief Librarian Mororis emerged to attack the Aeldari with his experimental walker.
• The Flying Little Train brought Anti-psyker-armoured Neophytes into the battle, while Sisyphus sniped the living Warlocks guiding the Wraithguard.
• Bars and the Baina Robe joined Mororis, and Bars unleashed enough psychic power to shatter the Wraithseer.
• Warp Spiders teleported toward the exhausted Bars after the Wraithseer’s death disrupted the Aeldari defenders.

Evan’s forces destroyed the Aeldari craftworld, rescued thousands of prisoners, and suffered catastrophic losses as Slaanesh consumed the ancestral souls and corrupted the survivors. After Evan addressed the fallen soldiers’ families and reorganized his forces, Guilliman met with Cawl about the Armour of Hope before receiving an urgent message from Yvraine.

• Slaanesh devoured the souls released when the Aeldari ancestral land shattered, while Evan’s forces captured at least 4,800 Aeldari and ordered the mortal troops to charge the fleeing enemies.
• Slaanesh’s corruption spread across the craftworld, and Evan’s search teams found almost no survivors before his forces secured and towed the wrecked vessel away.
• Evan learned that most fallen soldiers’ relatives were orphans and ordered support for their children, then called an Astartes meeting to address the failure to protect them.
• Guilliman met Cawl, who presented the Armour of Hope with flight systems, concealed weapons, wings, and a protective shield.
• Yvraine sent Guilliman an urgent message saying that the war situation was dire and she needed to speak with him.

Guilliman met Yvraine wearing Cawl’s new Armour of Hope, and learned that Nurgle’s forces had invaded the Aeldari Craftworlds. He agreed to consider sending Imperial troops to help, while Yvraine and the Reaper Host returned to the war.

• Cawl presented Guilliman with the Armour of Hope and its weaponized wings, which Guilliman named Despair; Guilliman refused Cawl’s request to use more gene-seed varieties for the Primaris Reformation.
• Guilliman travelled to meet Yvraine, who accused Imperial forces of attacking a Craftworld; Guilliman denied ordering the attack and promised to investigate.
• Yvraine explained that Nurgle’s forces had invaded several Craftworlds and that the Reaper Host had suffered heavy losses; she asked Guilliman for military support.
• Guilliman agreed to muster troops near the Imperium’s borders, provided the Aeldari guaranteed they would not attack human worlds, and said he needed a reason to give the frontier Chapters.
• Guilliman returned to his flagship and told Titus that cooperation with the Aeldari would buy the Imperium time to rebuild; Yvraine led the Reaper Host back to reinforce the Craftworlds.

Evan led the Light of the People into the Ghoul Stars to establish a route through the dangerous region, where they encountered the Nidher and fought their stealthy warships. As the Nidher fleet arrived in the system, the Crimson Tide began recovering debris from the presumed-destroyed enemy vessel, unaware of the scale of the threat approaching.

• Evan ordered the Dawn Angels to protect the False Archangel until the Emperor decided his fate, then planned a route through the Ghoul Stars.
• The Light of the People discovered a planet covered in radiation-feeding algae, and the Nidher sent a reconnaissance ship to investigate the disturbance.
• Wind and Cloud Nine attacked the Nidher ship, which used camouflage and explosive biomass defenses before faking its destruction and launching a Bio-Stinger that killed a gun crew.
• Evan ordered reconnaissance forces to recover the enemy ship's fragments, but their sensors failed to detect the hidden Nidher vessel.
• Ninety-six Nidher masses emerged at the edge of the system, including one exceptionally large vessel.

The Nidher launched a surprise offensive against Evan’s fleet, using stealth, decoys, boarding machines, and sacrificial ramming attacks. Evan’s forces repelled the assault and secretly followed a surviving enemy vessel, leaving the Nidher terrified by the enemy’s renewed stealth.

• The Nidher commander sent seventy-odd warships to attack Evan’s fleet while other ships salvaged a scout and investigated the area.
• The Nidher ambushed the Wind and Cloud-class Battleships, but Annos revealed the Light of the People’s surveillance and more than sixty ships charged into battle.
• The fleets exchanged fire and boarding attacks, and the Dawn Angels fought Nidher pilots inside the damaged battleships.
• The Nidher used Scuttling Mode to turn sections of their ships into missiles, but the Light of the People evaded most of the attack and Evan ordered a saturation bombardment.
• The fleet destroyed the Nidher reconnaissance ships and routed the damaged vessels before Evan ordered the Light of the People to shadow a surviving ship toward the Nidher Homeworld.

The Light of the People followed the Nidher into a Necron hyperspace cube, where Evan used the ship’s core to break through the psychic suppression and ordered an assault. The Wolf Brothers boarded the Nidher vessel and killed its commander, but Captain Rogier was gravely injured and left in the Apothecary’s care.

• The Nidher lured the Light of the People toward the Ghoul Stars, where the sealed Warp and psychic suppression revealed that the fleet had entered a Necron hyperspace cube.
• Evan asked Annos for help, and the Light of the People diverted vast power to tear open the reality barrier before pursuing the Nidher ship.
• Rogier and the Wolf Brothers boarded the vessel, fought through its spherical corridors, and endured its weapons and shifting gravity.
• A Nidher guard used an electromagnetic cannon corridor to strike the boarding party, gravely injuring Rogier, while Kuroser and the others halted the attack.
• Philos Keller began repairing Rogier with emergency drugs and nanometal filaments as a wounded Wolf Brother charged toward the command room.
• The Wolf Brother killed and devoured the Nidher commander, gaining memories of planets across the Ghoul Stars, then fell beside him after telling Rogier to stay alive.

Rogier recovered in the infirmary while Evan’s fleet escaped a Necron Tomb Ship and withdrew from the Ghoul Stars after judging the region too dangerous to conquer. The chapter ended on a distant planet, where a Blackshield Astartes was killed by his mutated brothers as they prepared to leave.

• Rogier woke in the infirmary, learned that Enke had repaired his bionic eye, and recalled the Iron Wolves’ disastrous reliance on machinery before asking Philos Keller to discuss gene-seed.
• Evan ordered the Light of the People to retreat when a Necron Tomb Ship appeared, and the flagship escaped through a blackstone field into an Ork-filled system.
• The Light of the People fought the Tomb Ship amid the Ork fleet, survived its attacks, and destroyed the system’s world before the Necron vessel vanished.
• After returning to his fleet, Evan examined intelligence about the Ghoul Stars, concluded its strange factions and depleted stars made conquest impossible, and ordered a strategic withdrawal toward new bases.
• On a dark planet, a Blackshield Astartes argued with his mutated brothers about their past and their mission before one of them shot him dead.

The corrupted Blackshields escaped their dying world and headed for Stone City, while the Light of Redemption Chapter arrived there and attacked them, mistaking the Forge World’s defenders for heretics. Nian Cijin’s fleet overwhelmed the newcomers in battle and forced their Chapter Master to reconsider withdrawing.

• The Blackshields enslaved mutants, created high-mutation Xenos Astartes under Tzeentch’s influence, and launched their Lunar-class Cruisers from a world they had shattered.
• The Blackshields emerged from the Warp near Stone City and broadcast a false claim that they were Crimson Tide ships seeking supplies.
• The Light of Redemption Chapter, descended from the Second Legion but believing itself to be Guilliman’s successor, engaged the Blackshields’ cruisers.
• Nian Cijin arrived at Stone City with his fleet, identified the battle, and ordered both sides to stop fighting.
• The Light of Redemption Chapter ignored Nian Cijin’s warning and attacked his ships, but his fleet disabled the attackers’ Void Shields and stopped their advance.
• The Light of Redemption Chapter’s Master ordered a withdrawal, but Nian Cijin fired a Nova Cannon salvo that halted their ships.

Nian Cijin and Diokin negotiated after the Light of Redemption mistook the Crimson Tide’s ships for Xenos vessels, while the Crimson Tide prepared to clear the mutant humans aboard the two Lunar-class Cruisers. As Evan joined the assault, a Tzeentchian High Priest’s plan and conflicting Librarian prophecies hinted at a looming catastrophe.

• Nian Cijin met Diokin and learned that Diokin’s forces had fought hordes of mutated humans who wore stolen Astartes armour aboard the Lunar-class Cruisers.
• Nian Cijin explained that the cruisers had vanished in the Warp over a century earlier, offered compensation for Diokin’s fallen warriors, and brought a fleet of 120 Wind and Cloud-class Battleships into the system.
• Evan urged Xiao Lan to consider leading the Chapter, then reflected on his own growing willingness to sacrifice others and agreed to watch the mortals’ surveillance feeds.
• The High Priest revealed his plan to seize the Crimson Tide’s territory and march on Terra, while two Prophetic Librarians received opposing visions of what would happen aboard the cruisers.
• Nian Cijin learned that the enemies were modified humans and warned Diokin of a coming psyker threat, but the Crimson Tide sent reinforcements instead of evacuating.
• Evan boarded a Lunar-class Cruiser and led his warriors toward an enemy squad, ordering them to open fire.

Evan and Vlorus led the Crimson Tide in an assault on the mutant Astartes and the Thousand Sons trying to steal the Light of Redemption Chapter’s armour. The Thousand Sons champion escaped through a psychic rift, then found Li Anjun alone aboard the cruiser and prepared a surprise attack.

• Evan’s force crushed mutant Astartes in the cruiser corridors and joined Vlorus at the airlock, where the Melta Bombs were ready for the final assault.
• Vlorus led the breach, while Evan attacked the High Priest from below and trapped the newly armoured mutants between their forces.
• Evan confronted Ahriman and the Rubric Marines, disrupting their sorcery as Vlorus fought off their psychic attacks with anti-psyker bolts.
• The Baina Robe fought a Tzeentch Electrodemon in the Warp, while the Thousand Sons champion escaped with the remaining Rubric Marines through a psychic rift.
• The champion found Li Anjun inspecting the Gellar Field Generator and approached him for a surprise attack.

Li Anjun and Evan's forces drove the Thousand Sons from the Lunar-class Cruiser, while the Crimson Tide pressured Diokin's Light of Redemption Chapter into an exchange agreement. Diokin agreed to escort the Crimson Tide's warriors and an STC fragment toward Guilliman, with a contingent of his own Astartes sent to serve aboard the damaged Strike Cruiser.

• Li Anjun's psychic powers overwhelmed the Thousand Sons champion, who tried to escape with a double as the Wolf Brothers attacked and killed him.
• Evan expelled Patchwork Robe from Li Anjun, confirmed the Thousand Sons had been driven out, and ordered a thorough search of the ship.
• Nian Cijin offered Diokin restored Power Armour, a Nova-class Frigate, and closer ties between their Chapters, but Diokin initially refused.
• Nian Cijin's warriors entered Diokin's Strike Cruiser in Primaris Centurion Warsuits and revealed their mission to deliver an STC fragment to Roboute Guilliman.
• After Nian Cijin offered Diokin's Techmarines access to the fragment's technology, Diokin agreed to escort the Crimson Tide and send at least a hundred Astartes to serve aboard the damaged Strike Cruiser.

After receiving the Emperor’s approval, Guilliman expelled sacred faith from his body and used it to purge Chaos corruption from Terra. He began a plan to unite the Imperium and entrusted Diokin, Victor, and Evan with supporting the Crimson Tide and its expanding responsibilities.

• Guilliman announced the Primaris Reformation would establish new Chapters and reinforce the Ten Chapters, while presenting anti-psyker armour as a reward for their service.
• Guilliman met the Emperor, endured a torrent of sacred faith, and received approval to act as he believed right before the Emperor’s time ran out.
• Guilliman emerged from the Imperial Palace radiating sacred light, then flew over Terra and cleansed its human population of Chaos corruption.
• Diokin told Guilliman that Evan possessed more than one hundred and twenty extraordinary Battleships, and Guilliman asked Diokin to help the Crimson Tide as part of his plan.
• Guilliman sent Victor, now calling himself a Watcher, to support the Light of Redemption and two new Chapters, and assigned the Crimson Tide the territories previously protected by Chapters on the Galaxy’s outskirts.

The Crimson Tide received five hundred Sons of Dorn recruits and two thousand returning Primaris Warriors, while Evan welcomed the Light of Redemption Chapter and its new mission. Victor confronted Evan over his technology and military strength, then accompanied him through the Crimson Tide’s extraordinary shipyard and warship.

• Two Crimson Tide veterans welcomed five hundred Sons of Dorn recruits, explained that the Chapter monastery had not returned from an emergency warp jump, and began training them.
• The Light of Redemption Chapter returned to Stone City with two thousand Primaris Warriors and ten warships, and Diokin accepted Guilliman’s assignment to rebel alongside Evan.
• Victor stole the Fire of Cutting from Evan, confronted him about the Crimson Tide’s technology, and revealed that the Emperor had ordered him to assist and oversee Evan.
• Victor and Evan fought briefly before Victor agreed to follow him, and Evan began showing him the Crimson Tide’s shipyard, weapons, and Space Mantas.
• Victor toured the All People's Light, where Evan showed him the Dawn Angels painting their Primarch and the Bloodspawn Axe taken from Khârn.

Victor toured the Chapter’s history and war matériel with Evan before disappearing to assess it from the shadows, while Evan later injured himself during a supposed sleepwalking episode. In the Caligari Subsector, William’s Deathbringers manipulated the Navy and Planetary Governors for supplies and military credit, then set out to attack a world where they had discovered Chaos traitors.

• Victor reviewed the Chapter’s history and learned that Evan claimed Malcador the Sigillite had taught him calligraphy, then memorized more than two hundred years of records.
• Evan showed Victor the war matériel warehouse, and Victor vanished among the engines of war to assess the Chapter from the shadows.
• Evan injured his head while supposedly sleepwalking, and afterward he wore his helmet even while sleeping.
• The Deathbringers built a pirate monopoly in the Caligari Subsector while secretly cooperating with Navy officers, who traded supplies for military credit earned by killing rival pirates.
• A Deathbringer scout reported Chaos traitors and a missing Psyker Reconnaissance Squad on Luo Star System World 24, so William ordered the fleet to assemble and depart.

William led his fleet to capture a corrupted world, where he killed an Inquisitor and defeated a grotesque Slaanesh creature. After receiving a coded psychic signal containing Warp coordinates, he urgently recalled his forces and ordered them to rendezvous with the Parent Chapter, fearing an imminent battle.

• William ordered the fleet to attack despite warnings that its ship count had unexpectedly increased, then identified disguised enemy ships and called for them to be watched.
• An Inquisitor and his aide boarded William's ship, but William and his crew killed them and destroyed the disguised vessels.
• William's troops fought flesh constructs in a noble district, and William personally tore through the enormous Slaanesh creature beneath it.
• William received a report that an Astropath had detected a signal resembling the frequency he had mentioned and rushed to question her.
• After learning the signal contained coded Warp coordinates, William ordered an immediate withdrawal and told the fleet to rendezvous with the Parent Chapter at full speed.

The Crimson Tide’s emergency summons drew forces from across the galaxy toward a Webway breach, where Vect planned to trap and destroy the Chapter’s rescuers. The invasion instead spread into Commorragh, and the chapter ended with Drukhari forces boarding the leading human warship.

• Veterans on Chapter Homeworlds gathered Neophytes and departed for unexplained coordinates, while Evan persuaded Victor to join the response.
• Nian Cijin abandoned negotiations with the Adeptus Mechanicus, and Lian Leilo led reinforcements toward the crisis, drawing in warriors and fleets from multiple Chapters.
• Vect interrogated a captured Primaris Warrior and an Aeldari, then used the Crimson Tide’s assembly order to lure its forces into Commorragh.
• The Great Thousand World First Fleet entered the breach, followed by other human fleets, while Maleris withdrew the Kabal of the Venomous Serpent from the threatened district.
• Vect ordered the Kabal of the Black Heart’s reserves into battle, and Drukhari elites boarded the leading Battle Barge as its weapons and armor were damaged.

The Drukhari drew the Crimson Tide Chapter and its allies into Commorragh, where Asdrubael Vect unleashed a stellar firestorm that devastated the invading fleet. Evan arrived with reinforcements from Langjuxu, and the Light of the People began rapidly equipping ships with anti-psyker armor at the Webway breach.

• The Drukhari stormed the Battle Barge, but the Astartes lured them into trapped compartments and held vital positions with overwhelming firepower.
• The crippled Battle Barge crashed into Commorragh’s old quarter, where surviving Primaris Warriors took cover and fought as more Imperial ships entered the city.
• Asdrubael Vect summoned Commorragh’s leaders, escaped assassination attempts, and used the Eye of the Storm to unleash a stellar firestorm that destroyed several Imperial ships and damaged the city.
• The Imperial advance slowed under Vect’s counterattack, while Evan reached the Webway breach with an Adeptus Mechanicus fleet carrying improved anti-psyker armor.
• The Light of the People blocked the breach and used Annos’s shipyard to rapidly equip arriving warships with anti-psyker armor before sending them back into battle.

Kazhaniv and Rogier’s forces attacked Crimson Harbor while Evan’s fleet pressed into Commorragh and Vect tried to force the Drukhari to unite against the invasion. The chapter ended as the Crimson Tide began its assault on Eilinda Qu with a vast mechanized army and billions of mobilized human troops.

• Kazhaniv’s Terminators teleported into Crimson Harbor, while Rogier led the Space Wolves through Sparos to attack from the other side.
• Rogier killed a Mandrake assassin, and his Wolf Brothers fought off a massive Mandrake ambush before reaching Crimson Harbor’s fortified walls.
• After Kazhaniv’s attack destroyed the harbor’s dark-matter shield, the Infinite Loyalty bombarded the district and opened a huge crater.
• Vect sealed the major Webway passages and abandoned the Clive Corridor, forcing the Drukhari to fight the invasion rather than flee.
• Evan’s forces bypassed Vect’s bait and chose Eilinda Qu, where the Crimson Tide deployed tanks and a vast army drawn from thousands of worlds.

Evan directed the assault on Commorragh, targeting the Haemonculi beneath the city while Imperial forces fought through the land of bones and the Light of the People came under attack. As Drukhari boarders invaded the warship, Evan faced an Incubus until Victor intervened and killed him.

• Victor criticized Evan's attack routes, but Evan explained that the forces would use widespread explosions to breach the Haemonculi's hidden bases and lure the Wych Cults into a mistaken defense.
• Evan joined the battle as human armies advanced through the land of bones, while Vect urged Commorragh's leaders to unseal Force Weapons against the Light of the People and they rejected him.
• Imperial artillery and armored forces weakened the Drukhari ground assault, while their Kabals redirected their vehicles toward the Light of the People to seize the ancient warship.
• Drukhari forces breached the Light of the People with poison gas and bombs, and Evan left Xiao Lan in command as he went to fight alongside the defenders.
• An Incubus fought Evan in the warship's corridors, but Victor appeared behind the Drukhari and tore him apart.

Victor and Evan fought off Drukhari boarding parties aboard the Light of the People while Imperial forces pushed into Commorragh. The battle reached the arena at the base of the tower, where the Flying Little Train joined the fight against a Drukhari Tantalus.

• Victor killed the Archon of the Kabal of the Chilling Moonlight and the Ur-Ghul while protecting Evan.
• Evan defeated the beastmaster and his Blade-winged Crows, then caught Cypher sneaking out of his cell and sent him back.
• The Lamenters fought through the factory district, and Doverlit awakened in the Dawn Dreadnought to burn down the Lhamaean attacking them.
• The Firefighting Squad stormed the arena and set it ablaze, while the Drukhari deployed Succubi, a Tantalus, and other defenses against the Imperial assault.
• The Flying Little Train smashed through the arena wall and attacked the Drukhari, while the Tantalus maneuvered to sweep its blade across the train.