Chapter Summaries

Evan returned to Stone City and the Light of the People, arranging new ship and fighter production while preparing the Crimson Tide for future battles. Elsewhere, Li Anjun tested the Eternal Sorrow Spear with Cancero, who asked him to bring it to his final battlefield, and Evan began plotting to draw out the Word Bearers and Corvus Corax.

• Victor warned that the Crimson Tide could devastate the Imperium if it rebelled, then departed for the Chapter's Homeworld with two brothers while the Adeptus Custodes prepared to monitor and support the Chapter.
• Evan told Barton that most Astartes could not reach Kaldor's psychic mastery, and said Belisarius Cawl was working on Pharos technology to enable rapid reinforcement.
• Evan arrived at Stone City, where Sage Haituo received him and heard that Stone City's resources were tightening as the Imperium prepared another major crusade; Evan directed production toward smaller ships and fighters.
• Evan returned to the Light of the People, and Kazhaniv requested deployment; Evan said he would draw distant Xenos toward them as they fled the Imperium's crusade.
• Li Anjun tested Eternal Sorrow with Cancero, who demonstrated its power, warned that it was a double-edged sword, and asked Li Anjun to bring it to his final battle.
• Evan realized the fleet was short on supplies and decided to lure out and attack the Word Bearers, who were being pursued by Corvus Corax.

Evan sent the Crimson Tide and two angel Chapters to aid Macragge after its defenses weakened, while Honsou launched an invasion with an army of more than ten thousand renegade warriors. Honsou breached Macragge’s defenses and fought its defenders aboard his flagship as the battle for the planet continued.

• After learning that Felix had fallen and the Five Hundred Worlds could not receive timely aid, Evan left Vlorus in command and sent the two angel Chapters and the Crimson Tide toward the War Zone.
• Honsou gathered a force of more than ten thousand renegade warriors and attacked Macragge while its defenses were weakened and communications were disrupted.
• Honsou used a forbidden weapon to overload Macragge’s auxiliary Void Shields, then sent shadow fighters and landing pods to suppress its defenses.
• Ultramarines veterans boarded Honsou’s flagship, where a warrior in Adamantium armour fought his forces until Honsou joined the battle and defeated him.
• A Devastator Torpedo and a Lance strike damaged Honsou’s flagship, while a Chapter monastery vessel was destroyed; Honsou then taunted the pinned Ultramarine and took the Sonic Resonator.

Honsou’s fleet battled Imperial reinforcements while the Lamenters boarded the corrupted prison hulk and Kazhaniv led a Terminator assault against the traitors. Evan and the Beiwei Army stormed an enemy transport, where Evan confronted Word Bearers and a Possessed warrior.

• Honsou ordered his fleet to trap the Imperial Navy’s Strike Cruiser while preparing an assault on Macragge.
• The Light of the People revealed a relief fleet, forcing Honsou to redirect several companies to intercept it.
• Maturio led the Lamenters into the prison hulk, where they destroyed Warp runes and fought through mutated Grox and Chaos Spawn.
• Kazhaniv sent more than eight hundred Terminators into the enemy fleet, assigning his guard to attack the Bronze Heart Chapter’s monastery and the others to board troop transports.
• Evan charged into a traitor transport with the Beiwei Army, smashed a Word Bearer with repeated slaps, and rushed the Possessed warrior Frax as the enemy called for support.

Evan and the Beiwei Army broke the Chaos assault on Macragge while Kazhaniv’s Terminators routed Honsou’s forces and Honsou withdrew into a trap. As the fighting continued across the fleets, Li Anjun quietly killed a lone Iron Warrior aboard a Chaos ship.

• Evan killed a Daemon by stuffing a Plasma Heatstorm Bomb into its abdomen and embracing it as the bomb detonated.
• The Imperial battleship captain ordered suppressive fire at the fleeing Light of the People, but its unexpected Lance hit prompted the Eternal Mountain to withdraw from the Macragge system.
• Evan activated plan B, sending the First Grand Company to disable enemy weapon arrays while Terminators boarded transports and massacred the troops and artillery aboard.
• A Warp Rift unleashed Daemons at a ground command post, where the commander executed possessed warriors before a Daemon stitched from Astartes remains emerged and attacked an Imperial suicide squad.
• Kazhaniv defeated Honsou’s bodyguards and forced Honsou to flee, while Honsou ordered his ships to withdraw and planned to return for a surprise attack.
• The Light of the People and twenty Wind and Cloud-class Battleships waited near Honsou’s outpost, while Li Anjun killed a guarding Iron Warrior with the Eternal Sorrow Spear.

Evan and Maturio fought Daemon Prince Kor Megalon aboard a corrupted prison hulk and banished him into the Warp, while the Crimson Tide withdrew from Macragge to pursue the remaining traitors. The chapter left the Light of the People in chaos and Victor explaining the Crimson Tide’s reputation to two Adeptus Custodes.

• The prison hulk transformed into a flesh-ship, and the Eternal Mountain intervened when an Imperial Navy Battleship tried to destroy it while the Lamenters were aboard.
• Kor Megalon revealed himself as the mastermind behind the attack, and Evan led twenty personal guards in boarding the flesh-ship.
• Maturio survived Kor Megalon’s attacks and fought alongside Evan as the Beiwei Army joined the battle.
• Evan and Maturio brought Kor Megalon down, and Evan banished the Daemon Prince while preventing Maturio from succumbing to the Black Rage.
• Cypher caused chaos aboard the Light of the People while trying to reach the guarded Lion Sword, and the Crimson Tide withdrew from the battlefield.
• Evan announced that the Crimson Tide would pursue the traitors, while Victor described the Chapter to two Adeptus Custodes.

Evan and his forces retook control of the Light of the People and contained the escaped False Sanguinius, while Guilliman reviewed the widening web of conspiracies and considered the Dark Angels’ attack on Cawl’s duplicate. The story then shifted to a frozen world, where Rogier’s arrival in a steel ship sparked a brawl with the Glory Clan, ending as its Patriarch attacked him.

• Evan entered the Light of the People through an emergency passage, found the False Sanguinius trapped aboard, and ordered Stasis Field equipment brought in to recapture him.
• Three days later, Guilliman learned that the crisis on Macragge had been resolved and heard Cawl’s report that the Dark Angels had attacked one of his duplicates.
• Guilliman decided not to question the Crimson Fists or Dark Angels immediately and authorized Cawl to use resources for experiments with the operational Pharos.
• On a frozen world, an ice-ship crew repaired their vessel and spotted a black steel ship near their home, prompting the captain to hurry back.
• Rogier fought the Glory Clan’s warriors at the harbor, and the clan’s Patriarch raised his Divine Wood spear and thrust it toward Rogier’s exposed head.

Rogier killed a storm-flying beast, was accepted as the clan’s new leader, and began recruiting children while preparing a feast. Meanwhile, Evan learned of the stranded Night Lords battleship Nightveil and sent his flagship toward it, unaware that an Alpha Legion ambush awaited.

• Rogier broke the old patriarch’s Sacredwood Spear during their duel, then climbed the sacred tree into the storm and killed the beast circling above the clan.
• Rogier claimed the broken spear as the clan’s symbol of authority and announced that children who climbed to the spear would be recruited into his clan.
• Rogier lit a bonfire, roasted the fallen beast, and offered food and liquor to the clanspeople as they celebrated him.
• Evan received a report locating the damaged Night Lords battleship Nightveil and ordered his flagship to approach through realspace without sending scouts.
• The Alpha Legion’s patrol moved through Nightveil, where the Night Lords had all died after the Omegon Legion destroyed their ship in battle.
• The Alpha Legion waited aboard the concealed Omegon and Nightveil, planning to ambush an Imperial fleet and use its Astartes in a sacrificial ritual.

Evan’s fleet ambushed the Alpha Legion rebels and attacked the Gloriana-class Nightveil, while Terminators and other warriors fought their way through its deadly interior. The battle spread to the rebel fleet, with the Omegon moving to support the Nightveil as the two sides fought to kill every enemy Astartes.

• The Alpha Legion rebels waited in hiding for the Raven Guard expedition, unaware that their psychic signal had failed to reach the Light of the People.
• Evan questioned a captured Night Lord, then ordered the cloaked fleet to approach the rebels’ system and attack the Nightveil.
• The Light of the People and ten Wind and Cloud-class Battleships shattered the Nightveil’s Void Shields and damaged its armour, while Terminators teleported aboard.
• Kazhaniv, Li Anjun, and their forces battled Alpha Legion warriors through the Nightveil’s traps as Siege-Breaker armour smashed through the ship’s walls.
• The Omegon and the hidden rebel fleet joined the battle, while the Light of the People charged into the fleet and deployed boarding forces.

Evan’s forces battled the Alpha Legion aboard the Light of the People and the Nightveil, while a warrior empowered to impersonate Omegon led a lethal assault against the Crimson Tide. The Chief Librarian arrived on the battlefield as Li Anjun collapsed, and Li Anjun entrusted him with Eternal Sorrow, the spear he said was the key.

• Evan’s fleet fought the concealed Omegon, whose attack breached the Light of the People’s shields and sent boarding pods toward the opening.
• Omegon used the Nightveil’s shifting maze to ambush the Crimson Tide, killing Terminators and gravely wounding Kazhaniv while Li Anjun strained to protect the defenders.
• Evan ordered the Chief Librarian to reinforce Li Anjun and Kazhaniv, and Enke summoned the heavily augmented Librarian through the Warp Teleportarium.
• Omegon appeared amid the fighting after Li Anjun exposed him with a burst of psyker power, and the newly arrived Chief Librarian confronted him.
• Li Anjun collapsed and let go of Eternal Sorrow, telling the Chief Librarian that the spear was the key; the Chief Librarian took it.

Cancero sacrificed his body and soul to destroy Omegon-Ris and trap the Alpha Assassins, but his debt to the Warp left his soul at risk of becoming a daemon. He bound his remaining soul to Eternal Sorrow as a curse, and Li Anjun accepted the spear despite its cost.

• Cancero used his psychic power and Mororis's support to unleash a metal storm and lightning across the battlefield, while the First Grand Company attacked the Alpha Legion forces.
• Cancero summoned the souls of fallen warriors through the Baina Robe and Eternal Sorrow, and their flying swords overwhelmed and killed Omegon-Ris.
• Cancero warned his students that he would become their enemy if they met again, as his debt to the Warp threatened to transform him into a daemon.
• A Techmarine tried to preserve Cancero with a Stasis Bomb, but Cancero chose to die rather than become a threat to his allies.
• Li Anjun took up Eternal Sorrow and discovered that Cancero had cursed it: its power would grow, but each wielder would suffer the decay of their flesh.
• Li Anjun and the Librarians vowed to carry on Cancero's will, accepting the spear's curse and the sacrifice it demanded.

Omegon infiltrated the Light of the People and fought to reach the False Sanguinius, but Evan and the Dawn Angels helped the Archangel kill him. The Alpha Legion retreated after discovering they could awaken another Omegon from the primarch’s blood.

• Omegon-Ris emerged aboard the Light of the People, killed Beiwei warriors, and escaped a Gravity Trap before heading for the False Archangel.
• Evan led reinforcements to the Archangel’s chamber, where Omegon fought the Dawn Angels and the Watchers sacrificed themselves to hold him back.
• Evan disrupted the Stasis Field, freeing False Sanguinius, who attacked Omegon and drove him into another Stasis Field vault.
• Omegon’s fight with False Sanguinius continued amid the spreading ice, and Evan sealed Omegon’s escape route with an Ion Bolt.
• False Sanguinius killed Omegon with the Blade of Gleikvhand, while a Techmarine rushed in with a Stasis Bomb to restrain the Archangel.
• The Alpha Legion’s Wizard ordered an orderly retreat after learning that another Omegon could be awakened, while wounded traitors were left behind and slaughtered.

Evan led a boarding assault on the Gloriana-class Omegon, where his forces fought Omegon and suffered heavy losses before the ship escaped into the Warp. As Evan’s warriors advanced through the vessel, Li Anjun followed Evan’s contingency instructions and shouted Kaldor Draigo’s name when Omegon attacked again.

• Evan gathered the Chief Librarian, Li Anjun, Techmarines, and boarding forces to plan how to contain a Primarch aboard the Omegon.
• The Omegon summoned Omegon again and entered the Light of the People’s hangar, where the Primarch attacked Evan and the Chief Librarian.
• The Chief Librarian and Librarians fought Omegon while Li Anjun and another Librarian used Eternal Sorrow to wound him, but Omegon escaped into the crowd and resumed his assassinations.
• Evan regrouped with the Beiwei Army as the Omegon plunged into the Warp, cutting off reinforcements and releasing Possessed from its cages.
• Omegon ambushed Li Anjun and the remaining Librarians, and Li Anjun shouted “Kaldor Draigo” as Evan had instructed.

Kaldor Draigo, Li Anjun, the Chief Librarian, the Sanguinor, and a Techmarine trapped Omegon in a stasis field and forced him out of the Warp. As the fleet pursued the displaced Primarch, Raven Guard scouts struggled to understand what they had witnessed, while Alpha Legion infiltrators attacked a meeting of Omegon's agents in the Golden Glory Chapter.

• Kaldor Draigo fought Omegon in his lightning domain while the Chief Librarian and Li Anjun supported him, and the Baina Robe empowered Li Anjun to battle the Primarch.
• The Sanguinor joined the fight, and he and the Techmarine used a gravity field and a Stasis Bomb to freeze Omegon before the Chief Librarian placed the frozen space in a stasis-field device.
• Kaldor Draigo stayed behind to fight the Daemons as the Chief Librarian and Techmarine tried to save the badly injured Li Anjun; the Omegon emerged from the Warp in a region without the Light of the People.
• The Light of the People pursued the vanished Omegon, and Raven Guard scouts watched the aftermath and planned to report what they had seen to the Lord Regent.
• Alpha Legion infiltrators attacked a meeting of Omegon's agents within the Golden Glory Chapter, beginning a clash of assassinations and counter-assassinations.

Evan’s forces captured the Omegon at great cost, then he devised a scheme to keep the Necrons and Tyranids fighting while building a Genestealer world near Zahadrek. After the Adeptus Custodes joined the campaign and helped clear the battleships, Evan tried to leave for repairs, but a Wolf Brother held him under Rogier’s orders.

• Evan ordered his warriors to destroy the Omegon’s systems and slowly secure its Void Shields and engines, suffering heavy losses against the Alpha Legion.
• The Light of the People disabled the Omegon’s Weapon Array and towed it away, while Evan learned that Li Anjun was critically injured and a Necron vessel was monitoring them.
• Evan persuaded Zahadrek to let him build a world of fake Pyramid Tombs near Necron territory, where rival Genestealer Cults would summon Tyranid tendrils and keep the Necrons occupied.
• Rogier reunited with Evan, raged over missing his chance to fight, and discovered that the Alpha Legion had destroyed his hidden booze.
• Victor arrived with two Adeptus Custodes, led them through the ships to kill Alpha Legion warriors, and began establishing their authority among the Astartes.
• Evan tried to leave for Langjuxu to repair his armor, but a Wolf Brother grabbed him and refused to release him despite his order.

Evan returned to Christina, had her remove and repair his armor, and discussed capturing Genestealers by using a T'au society and a fabricated cult of Szarekh. The Crimson Tide later reached a Deathwatch outpost, where Li Anjun claimed the Chapter had come for revenge and arranged to obtain live Genestealers, while Evan's forces declared the battle already over.

• Evan returned to Christina, who repaired his armor after teasing him and launching him out to race around the Necron facility.
• Evan proposed keeping Genestealers in captivity and explained that he would use T'au society and worship of Szarekh to control them.
• The Crimson Tide moved five billion T'au to a barren world and ordered them to build enormous pyramid residential zones.
• Evan decided to seek xenos specimens from the Deathwatch, whose Inquisitor was struggling to direct a joint force after a mysterious xenos attack.
• The Red River Chapter arrived and took control of the response, while Li Anjun told the Inquisitor that the Crimson Tide wanted revenge and requested live purestrain Genestealers.
• Li Anjun offered the Inquisitor access to new weapons in exchange for cooperation, but the Inquisitor replied that he would discuss it after the battle, and Li Anjun said the war was already over.

Li Anjun and the Crimson Tide fleet pursued reports of Genestealers to a Forge World, where Evan’s forces found a planet overrun with hidden xenos and mutants instead. The Crimson Tide invaded and fought through the hives, while the Governor escaped and the chapter left the planet’s people facing chaos.

• Li Anjun escorted the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor to his outpost, where Crimson Tide warriors took food and Li Anjun gathered public Imperial intelligence.
• Li Anjun found reports of an isolated Forge World honored for production and led the Crimson Tide fleet toward it before an Imperial expeditionary force could arrive.
• Evan’s fleet blockaded the planet and began landing after the Governor demanded witnesses and prepared to flee using a bioman double.
• The Governor teleported to a mining planet, while his double ordered the planetary defenses to attack the Crimson Tide forces.
• Xiao Lan discovered that the defenders used xenos weapons, and Evan’s warriors found the underhive filled with xenos and mutants rather than Genestealers.
• Evan’s forces fought through the hives, destroyed the nobles’ power and laboratories, and advanced to protect the human population as the planet descended into chaos.

Evan ordered the Great Thousand World's forces to attack enemy territories while the Crimson Tide suppressed the xenos uprising and left the damaged planet. The story then shifted to a dying Knight World, where a young house leader sacrificed herself and half her house to destroy an Aeldari Titan, but her attempt to open a Warp rift failed.

• Evan ordered combat-ready forces to launch offensives into the Dark Segmentum, Far Frontier, and Base while Astartes led the locals against the xenos uprising.
• The Crimson Tide swept away the concentrated xenos armies, handed the remaining fighting to local forces, and departed for another model worker world.
• The Crimson Tide's commanders discussed how corruption had doomed the productive world and decided to investigate a nearby Knight House's world.
• The Knight House patriarchs argued over their depleted forces as Aeldari Titans continued destroying their Knights across the Webway Gate.
• The young leader of the Horned Viper-pattern Knight overloaded her Throne Mechanicum and led her household into a charge against an Aeldari Soul Reaper Titan.
• The young leader and much of her house destroyed the Soul Reaper Titan, but her attempt to trigger a Warp surge through a small rift failed.

The Chief Librarian infiltrated the Knight World disguised as a pale-yellow Horned Viper Knight, attacked an Aeldari Titan, and escaped after exposing the Adeptus Mechanicus's secrets. The Crimson Tide's clash with the Mechanicus escalated into war, while a Khorne Warband invaded the Forge World and forced Evan to demand a ceasefire.

• The Knight Houses pressed their assault on the Aeldari, while the Adeptus Mechanicus argued over how to protect its secrets and respond to the Imperium's demands.
• Xiao Lan's troops discovered a damaged pale-yellow Knight suit, and the Techmarines disguised the Chief Librarian as a smaller Horned Viper-pattern Knight to infiltrate the Webway.
• The Chief Librarian charged into the Aeldari battlefield, crippled a Phantom Titan with Psyker powers and a Laser Cutter, then escaped through the Webway Gate as the Knight Houses exposed his disguise.
• Li Anjun and the Chief Librarian fled aboard a transport ship as the Crimson Tide and Adeptus Mechanicus opened fire, escalating the standoff into a full-scale war.
• Evan's forces attacked the Forge World, but the Archmagos learned that a Khorne Warband had invaded Forge One and received Evan's demand to cease hostilities and address the Chaos invasion.

Evan and the Crimson Tide staged a false Khorne attack to seize control of a Forge World, then used forbidden knowledge and negotiations to bring its leadership under their influence. Evan left to pursue the Aeldari in the Knight World's Webway after the Adeptus Mechanicus tacitly approved the operation.

• Evan stalled the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet while the Crimson Tide launched a disguised assault on the Forge World, killing senior officials and driving the Archmagos to believe the Chapter had defeated Khorne's forces.
• Rogier and the Wolf Brothers fought through the Forge World, and Ans helped destroy an Automated Sentry before the Crimson Tide declared victory.
• The returning Archmagos learned that the Archbishop had fallen and rushed to claim his memory backup, while the Crimson Tide could not identify who had killed him.
• Bars negotiated with Priest Andrei, offering knowledge in response to the Forge World's compensation demands, and the Crimson Tide used forbidden knowledge to gain influence over its leadership.
• Evan left the Forge World negotiations to pursue the Aeldari in the Knight World's Webway, with the Adeptus Mechanicus tacitly approving the operation after seeing the technology offered.

Evan and the Crimson Tide fought Aeldari forces inside the Webway, holding off their Titans while Warp Spider assassins attacked their lines. The Warp Spider Bishop tried to escape and summon aid, but Evan and the Chief Librarian killed him, and the human forces advanced through the gate.

• The Knight Houses opened the area beneath their territory, and Evan rode a Mastodon through the Webway Gate to assess the battlefield.
• Evan’s forces used artillery, Knights, Kruger Beasts, and fortified defenses to contain the Aeldari Titans and force the battle into a stalemate.
• The High Priest ordered the Warp Spiders to break through the encirclement and seek reinforcements, giving their Bishop a ring that could withstand three lethal attacks.
• Warp Spiders teleported into the human lines and killed or wounded soldiers, prompting Evan to order more Astartes into the fight.
• Evan used laser fire, an Ion Bolt, and land mines to stop the Warp Spider Bishop near the Webway Gate, then killed him with the Key of Helrek.
• The Chief Librarian’s Warhound Dreadnought blocked the gate and struck down the Bishop, while the Flying Blade Super-heavy Tank led the human advance.