Chapter Summaries

Sisyphus destroyed a Drukhari Tantalus while the battle for Commorragh spread across the city, drawing Slaanesh’s attention and engulfing the lower levels in Ork warfare. The Crimson Tide’s reinforcements and Techmarines joined the assault, and William’s pirate army emerged from the Warp at the chapter’s end.

• Sisyphus boarded the Tantalus, killed one Drukhari with his Gourd Hammer, and watched the Son of Iron Hands destroy another before the vehicle crashed into the arena wall.
• Slaanesh sensed the growing flow of souls from Commorragh and chose to focus on driving back Nurgle’s forces before sending reinforcements.
• Orks overran Commorragh’s slave districts as the Kabals, Wych Cults, Haemonculi, and human forces fought across the city.
• The Chief Librarian gathered the Techmarines and Apothecaries, led them into battle against the Orks, and advanced toward the Haemonculi’s experimental districts.
• A Talos Pain Engine attacked the advancing warriors, and the Commissar and mortal troops charged through its venomous needles before the Apothecaries and Techmarines counterattacked.
• William’s pirate army arrived through a Warp breach and sent thousands of small spacecraft surging into the region.

Situval and the Apothecaries fought the Haemonculus and destroyed his Talos Pain Engine, while the Chief Librarian battled through the Webway in his damaged Iron Coffin. William joined the scattered Imperial forces in Commorragh, where Iron Face arrived to seek forgiveness and fight under his command.

• Situval, Philos Keller, and the Techmarines attacked the Haemonculus and his Talos Pain Engine, then pursued the fleeing Haemonculus through the collapsing passageways.
• The Haemonculus’s escape ended when a mechanical behemoth knocked him into Situval, while the Chief Librarian fought enemies at the junction and flew deeper into the Webway.
• William ordered the pirates to support the human forces against the Drukhari and joined a group that included Deathwatch warriors and a Xenos Inquisitor.
• William’s group reached a spire and fought Direwolf Reavers, while Iron Face and his Blackshield squad ambushed the attackers from above.
• Iron Face knelt before William, apologized for his mistakes, and asked to atone as William ordered everyone to burn the enemy.

William and Sisyphus led the Astartes through the Final Hatred Kabal’s hidden lair, where they uncovered the Drukhari’s experiments with souls and death. A stasis trap froze the group, and Sisyphus struck Archon T'ien Clark’s soul to break it before collapsing unconscious.

• William’s force and the Deathwatch fought off thirty-two Sslyth, with William and Sisyphus killing many of them.
• The Inquisitor guided the warriors through a trap-filled maze, while Sisyphus identified an illusion and found a hidden passage around a sealed vault door.
• The group entered the Final Hatred Kabal’s chambers and discovered its grotesque experiments binding tortured human souls to corpses.
• William ordered the warriors to destroy a statue bearing Archon T'ien Clark’s name, revealing a Drukhari woman sealed inside it.
• The inscription triggered a stasis field that froze the warriors, but Sisyphus used a Warp-Dimensional Strike against T'ien Clark’s soul and collapsed as the statue vanished.
• William shouted into his communicator for the Strategic Resource Involuntary Transfer Unit.

William returned as the battle for Commorragh escalated, with the Crimson Tide breaking Vect’s trap and the Drukhari deploying an ancient weapon that devastated the city. Evan’s transport crashed into Unbound City, where he and the Beiwei Army emerged amid the ruins.

• Evan fled after placing William in charge of frontline command and Xiao Lan in overall command, while Victor killed the Archon and three Kabalite Warriors.
• The Crimson Tide’s Terminators and Librarians smashed through the Final Barrier, forcing Vect to prepare the Quantum Breakdown Weapon using the souls of ten Trueborn.
• Senior members of the Kabal of the Venomous Serpent discussed Vect’s possible death, while one member kept her connection to the Harlequins secret.
• Six spires fired the Quantum Breakdown Weapon at the Light of the People, but Xiao Lan deployed its last decoy round, redirecting the weapon and destroying Commorragh’s central district.
• Evan’s transport crashed in Unbound City, where he killed a Drukhari attacker and regrouped with the Beiwei Army.

Evan fought through the Unbound City while the Emperor’s Angels battled the Haemonculi’s flesh experiments and Vect prepared to move Commorragh away from the Warp breach. The chapter left Vect committed to abandoning and destroying the city, while its defenders still believed he would save them.

• Evan led his forces through the Unbound City as Drukhari flesh constructs attacked the Emperor’s Angels and human troops.
• The Chief Librarian and the Techmarines fought the Haemonculi underground, where a psychic shriek disabled the Chief Librarian and killed several Techmarines.
• Situval killed the Haemonculus, and a Techmarine swallowed its alloy spine to recover thousands of years of its memories.
• Evan reunited with Victor and boarded the Transport Craft as daemons poured through the Warp breach into the Webway.
• Vect revealed that Commorragh could escape destruction only by being moved, then decided to abandon the city and let it be annihilated.

Asdrubael Vect activated Fate's End, draining Commorragh's Black Sun and unleashing a devastating psychic weapon while the city's districts began separating. Evan's forces survived the dimensional monsters and found a way toward an Aeldari warship, but they faced powerful spatial fluctuations as Commorragh's collapse accelerated.

• Asdrubael Vect launched a decahedron into the Black Sun, releasing the stored souls and activating Fate's End across Commorragh.
• Evan's Transport Ship rammed the Drukhari assault line, giving Kazhaniv's forces a chance to push toward the Khalai Wall.
• Dimensional turbulence flooded the battlefield with monsters, forcing Evan and the First Company to retreat behind the barrier and hold their position.
• Li Anjun's scout reported that Commorragh's districts were separating, while Victor revealed that the Black Sun and their warships had vanished from sight.
• The Chief Librarian's forces broke through a Haemonculus facility, and Victor offered to lead the group to an Aeldari warship he had captured.
• Evan's group descended toward the warship, but its hyperdimensional engine produced spatial fluctuations that threatened to separate their souls from their bodies.

The human fleet rescued the prisoners from the Black Heart and unleashed the Light of the People's main cannon, destroying much of Commorragh but failing to kill Asdrubael Vect. As the humans prepared to confront the daemons pouring through the Warp breach, another fleet charged toward them.

• Vect ordered the Black Heart to broadcast the prisoners' screams and lure the humans toward the Black Sun, while the human army continued its withdrawal.
• William took command and ordered the fleet to meet the Drukhari attack, while Evan cut the prisoners' cages free and escaped with them into the shipyard aboard a captured vessel.
• The Crimson Tide fleet counterattacked, then Evan fired the Light of the People's main cannon into the psychic vortex, devastating Commorragh and forcing it to retreat.
• Vect planned to keep the humans fighting daemons at the Warp breach, but a Harlequin appeared and told him that other players had gone to warn them.
• Slaanesh's daemons poured through the breach and fought the other daemons as the humans engaged them, until a new fleet charged toward the human forces.

The Light of the People destroyed the Slaaneshi army and the last fleet around Commorragh, then retreated while a depleted Aeldari coalition watched. At the human command post, Evan confronted a Harlequin troupe, and Victor killed the Exalted Warlock after a brutal fight that left Evan and his allies gravely wounded.

• Evan ordered the Light of the People to retreat and fired its main gun, destroying the King of Sapphires, Slaanesh's Daemons, and the remaining signals around Commorragh.
• Yvraine and the Reaper Host encountered the Warp breach and joined the effort to seal it after Slaanesh's forces withdrew.
• Harlequins entered the human forward command post and performed plays about the Aeldari's history while demanding unity against Chaos.
• Evan accused the Exalted Warlock and the Aeldari of letting pride obstruct the fight against Chaos, and the Harlequins attacked.
• Evan fought the Exalted Warlock while Victor, William, and Xiao Lan battled the other Harlequins, leaving Evan's hand shattered and his allies badly injured.
• Victor killed the Exalted Warlock, and Evan regained consciousness beside the dying Victor.

Victor killed four Harlequins in a brutal battle, while Jaghatai Khan confronted Cegorach in the Black Library and searched its knowledge. Guilliman learned that Victor was needed back, reconsidered the fate of his brothers, and began preparing a Great Crusade against the enemies encroaching on the Imperium.

• Victor used Xiao Lan and William as shields, killed four Harlequins, and defeated their exalted Warlock despite suffering severe injuries.
• Jaghatai Khan confronted the Avatar of Cegorach in the Black Library and challenged the Aeldari’s record of fighting Chaos.
• Jaghatai left the Black Library after declaring that the Star Hunters would sail to hunt sea monsters, while Cegorach ordered the Harlequin troupes to investigate how Evan’s White Scar knew so many secrets.
• A Custodian told Guilliman that Victor had to return, and Guilliman agreed to consider sending other Custodians in his place.
• After studying historical records, Guilliman questioned what had happened to his missing brothers and wondered whether Perturabo knew something about the Fire of Cutting.
• Guilliman summoned a strategic conference and announced that he would launch a Great Crusade into enemy territory.

Alpharius, posing as Guilliman, organized the Primaris Chapters and built military alliances while the Crimson Tide launched a vast crusade against the Drukhari. The campaign left worlds devastated and families grieving, ending with Hudson Helix asking whether her son had been brave in battle.

• Alpharius rallied the Sons of Sanguinius around Sanguinius’s legacy, then forced the Wolf Brothers to respect Guilliman by defeating them in combat.
• Guilliman secured Custodes support and Adeptus Mechanicus cooperation before launching a crusade to clear enemies from the Imperium’s territory.
• Evan found Mororis out of stasis and fled after seeing the Chief Librarian threaten Enke while demanding weapons be installed in his Dreadnought body.
• The Crimson Tide fleet traveled through devastated worlds as survivors mourned their dead and some soldiers chose to remain among the ruins.
• A soldier returned to his home alley carrying the belongings of the dead Second Company and told the gathered families that they had been Heroes.
• Hudson Helix asked the soldier whether her son Murakhel had been brave on the battlefield.

Guilliman reprimanded the Crimson Tide for failing to protect frontier worlds, then gave its veteran a special mission after learning of the Chapter’s attack on the Webway. Meanwhile, the Necron general Zahadrek lured a Tyranid tendril into a trap, and Evan’s force investigated a silent T’au world where a patrol ship had vanished.

• Guilliman refused to demand the Crimson Tide’s new armour technology, but condemned the Chapter for failing to protect worlds from Drukhari attacks.
• An Aeldari envoy blamed Guilliman’s forces for damaging the Webway, and Guilliman watched Evan’s edited footage of the attack on Commorragh before summoning the Crimson Tide veteran for a special mission.
• Zahadrek and Obyron used a failed Biotransference Gate to draw in and destroy a Tyranid tendril, then returned toward the Storm King’s domain.
• Evan, William, and Xiao Lan investigated a T’au colony world after a report said its inhabitants and garrison had disappeared; they found no biological activity and ruled out a Virus Bomb.
• The search team found the wreckage of Wind and Cloud-class Battleship 087 with no one aboard.

Evan investigated a mysteriously severed battleship and learned that a fortress world had suffered a similar attack, then brought the Light of the People to confront the Necrons. The chapter ended with the two fleets trading fire as Evan challenged his opponents and prepared for a decisive fight.

• Evan found the Wind and Cloud-class Battleship cleanly cut apart and discovered that the Sixth Fortress World had suffered the same fate.
• Evan ordered the Light of the People toward the region's most densely populated worlds, while Zahadrek had Obyron test captured humans in an arena.
• Obyron killed a planetary commissar and fought a Primaris Warrior until Zahadrek halted the contest after the Light of the People's main gun struck the Tomb Ship.
• Zahadrek used a C'tan Shard's power to kill the prisoners and called for reinforcements as Evan's fleet arrived.
• Evan and Kazhaniv discussed boarding the Necron ships while both sides exchanged fire, and Evan challenged the Necrons to identify themselves.

Evan negotiated with Zahadrek by pretending his people were exiled Necrontyr, then learned the Sautekh Dynasty was seeking biological sacrifices and offered to lead them to Orks. The talks ended with Zahadrek demanding answers about the Key of Helrek as Obyron secretly boarded Evan's vessel.

• Evan used repeated messages praising the Silent King to confuse Zahadrek, while their ships exchanged fire and the Light of the People’s shields failed.
• Evan and Kazhaniv met Zahadrek on a platform, where Zahadrek mistook Evan for a Necrontyr noble and asked about the Key of Helrek.
• Evan invented a story about leading exiled commoners, and Zahadrek offered to admit them into the Sautekh Dynasty if they served him.
• Zahadrek revealed that his mission required mass sacrifices, and Evan proposed using Orks instead of his own people.
• Evan gave Zahadrek coordinates to the Orks and returned to his vessel, where Obyron secretly teleported aboard as Zahadrek demanded an explanation about the key.

Evan maneuvered the Crimson Tide away from the Necrons while persuading Zahadrek to let his forces fight the Tyranids, then ordered the Great Thousand World to colonize the cleared Ork territories. In year 299, the Supreme Rune Warband attacked a colony world with Chaos calligraphy, and corrupted Astropaths aboard the Light of the People warned the Chapter to change course.

• Evan and his warriors drove Obyron off their transport, and Zahadrek let them leave after the two sides exchanged threats.
• Evan demanded that the Sautekh Dynasty prove its loyalty to the Silent King by fighting the rebels, and Zahadrek gave him tomb construction plans while secretly ordering Obyron to investigate his forces.
• Evan explained that he had avoided a fight to preserve his warriors, then ordered the Great Thousand World to send colony ships into the cleared Ork territories.
• In year 299, the Supreme Rune Warband led by Agura turned a deserted world into a Chaos weapon by inscribing runes across its surface and opening a path to the warp.
• Two Astropaths aboard the Light of the People became corrupted, prompting the crew to stop receiving warp signals and ask which direction they had been monitoring.

Agura’s ritual dragged the planet toward Slaanesh’s domain, but Orikan’s temporal intervention pulled most of it back into realspace. Evan led an expedition to stop the ritual, where Agura transformed into a daemon-riding creature and attacked the Beiwei Army.

• Agura’s runes corrupted the planet as it began sinking into the Warp, while the Commissar wandered through the altered world and encountered surviving soldiers.
• Evan ordered the planet destroyed, but time stopped as two Necron ships fought; Orikan then used temporal power to pull most of the planet from the Warp.
• Evan deployed the Glory of Annos and led an expedition, using reality-anchor bombardments to destroy the runes and slow the planet’s descent.
• Agura accelerated through the bombardment, killed the Commissar’s cavalry leader, and fused himself with his Desire Steed as his body mutated.
• Agura charged Evan’s force, but Evan killed one Desire Steed and knocked its rider down before the cavalry surrounded the Beiwei Army in fog.

Evan and the Beiwei Army defeated Slaanesh’s forces, then faced the planet’s collapse after the Warp Rift shut. William and the Light of the People stabilized the world and began reshaping it into a battle-planet staging ground, while Evan set course for Segmentum Pacificus.

• Evan and the Beiwei Army broke through the Chaos cavalry, and Evan’s forces burned away the mist and destroyed the Chaos runes.
• Rogier killed Agura and the Word Bearer, but a riderless Desire Steed escaped with their heads toward the Warp Rift.
• The Warp Rift snapped shut, tearing away part of the planet and triggering catastrophic geological upheaval as the Space Marines evacuated.
• William used the Glory of Annos and the Light of the People to hold the planet together while he and Enke planned its reconstruction as a subterranean industrial zone for battle-planet conversion.
• Evan recruited Xiao Lan and the Neophytes and ordered them to set course for Segmentum Pacificus to visit Lian Leilo.

Lian Leilo led the Crimson Tide in an assault on a xenos space fortress, but his forces struggled against its defenses until Evan arrived with the Glory of Annos. After the fortress and its planet were destroyed, Evan ordered the army back toward regions suitable for human settlement, unaware that powerful entities were watching from the dead zones.

• Lian Leilo spent twenty-one years weakening his xenos enemies, then returned from the Battle of Commorragh with new warships and conquered the colonial enclave.
• Lian Leilo authorized Cyclonic Torpedoes and led the Vanguard Battalion in an assault on the xenos space fortress, where tiny armored defenders and a layered shield halted his advance.
• A surprise beam attack damaged the Blessed Forest, but Lian Leilo followed the captain's plan and withdrew when Evan's message reached him.
• Evan arrived aboard the Glory of Annos, directed the fleet to destroy the fortress's defenses, and deployed lightning-generating flying towers against the space city.
• The isolated shield core was destroyed, the xenos crew overloaded its engines, and Cyclonic Torpedoes destroyed the homeworld.
• Evan ordered the army to return to human-settled regions while C'tan Shards and Necron dynasties remained active in the surrounding dead zones.

Evan’s fleet was diverted through the Warp to Hurricane Star, where Kaldor Draigo was fighting Daemons beside a dying Dark Angel. Evan and the Crimson Tide broke through the storm to join the battle, and the chapter ended with Evan reaching Kaldor’s Lightning Domain.

• Evan rejected Lian Leilo’s suggestion to create successor Chapters and appointed him Lord Lian Leilo, then took five companies of warriors and the Blessed Forest from the rebuilding logistics hub.
• The Emperor secretly diverted Evan’s fleet toward Hurricane Star, where Kaldor Draigo and a dying Dark Angel were fighting Daemons over Eternal Sorrow.
• Evan ordered the Annos Glory closer to the Daemon World and used its enhanced Gellar Field to force a path through the Warp; his Drop Pod was crushed by the planet’s sonic storm, but he escaped and ran toward Kaldor’s domain.
• Kaldor’s power cleansed the arriving Primaris Warriors, while Evan fought a Bloodthirster and helped destroy it with missiles and acid bombs from the Annos Glory.
• Evan killed a Tzeentch daemon that attacked him and reached Kaldor Draigo, greeting him in surprise.

Evan and the Beiwei Army rescued a wounded Dark Angel and escaped the besieged ships through the Warp, while Kaldor Draigo stayed behind to fight the daemons. The ships reached Hou Wenk World, and Kaldor unleashed his full power against the daemon host.

• Evan questioned Kaldor Draigo about his power as the Beiwei Army evacuated with the Dark Angel and Eternal Sorrow, and Kaldor promised to answer if Evan called his full name.
• Kaldor's lightning shielded the Thunderhawk from daemonic sorcery, and Evan returned to the Battle Barge with the wounded Dark Angel as the ships fought off daemons.
• Evan and the warriors battled daemons aboard the ships, and the Navigator led the Annos Glory and the Blessed Forest through a dangerous Warp vortex toward realspace.
• The ships arrived at Hou Wenk World, where Xiao Lan and the newly awakened Primaris Warriors joined the fighting; Evan sent Barton to help clean up the battlefield and check on the Dark Angel.
• Kaldor Draigo unleashed his psychic power after the ships departed, striking down the Bloodthirster and charging into the daemon horde.

After being lost for ten years, Evan learned that Eternal Sorrow was a dangerous anti-psyker weapon and planned to take it to Kazhaniv for Li Anjun to study. As Guilliman prepared a galaxy-spanning crusade, Victor defeated the Captain-General in their duel and secured the Custodes’ support for ten Expeditionary Forces.

• Evan discovered that ten years had passed while he was lost, and learned that the Great Thousand World had expanded under a system of regional lords.
• A psyker activated Eternal Sorrow and died as the spear demonstrated its ability to bypass anti-psyker protection, so Evan planned to rendezvous with Kazhaniv and give it to Li Anjun for study.
• Guilliman dispatched reconnaissance fleets and organized nine combined crusade fleets to purge rebellious worlds and reclaim the Imperium’s frontiers.
• Victor fought the Captain-General across the Imperial Palace, using his unarmoured speed and an improvised neck-trap to bring the duel to a standstill.
• Victor declared that he had lost because his fighting style could not lead a frontal army, and the Captain-General agreed to support ten Expeditionary Forces.