Chapter Summaries

The Chief Librarian and the Imperial forces repelled an Aeldari Titan assault while the Aeldari High Priest struggled to contain a daemon uprising and considered how to confront the humans. Meanwhile, Guilliman turned an Adeptus Mechanicus complaint about the Crimson Tide into a scheme to obtain Adamantium Armor from Evan, then extended the Ten Chapters’ gene-seed tithe exemption for another hundred years.

• The Chief Librarian fitted new legs, helped destroy an Aeldari Titan with the Flying Blade’s Volkite Culverin, and watched the remaining Titans retreat.
• The Aeldari High Priest learned that the chief Warlock could not hold the daemon prison much longer and planned to divide forces between defending their home and closing the Webway Gate against the humans.
• An Adeptus Mechanicus envoy reported the Crimson Tide’s attack to Guilliman, who arranged an investigation and promised aid while secretly expecting to take Evan’s surplus Adamantium Armor.
• Guilliman extended the Ten Chapters’ gene-seed tithe exemption by another hundred years, dating it from the new order.

The Crimson Tide fought a massive daemonic invasion led by a power-amplifying Keeper of Secrets, while Victor and Ina advanced toward her and Evan led the counterattack. The battle remained underway as Rogier’s force hurried to reinforce the main army, and an Ultramarines fleet demanded five thousand sets of Crimson Tide armor.

• Doverlit woke and joined the battlefield, where his presence rallied the Knight army after an Aeldari Titan fell.
• Evan’s forces prepared a series of feints, but a daemonic army erupted from beneath the ground and the Keeper of Secrets incapacitated much of the Vanguard Force with her music.
• Evan reorganized the central army into a crimson battle line, and the Crimson Tide charged the daemons while Victor and Ina moved toward the Keeper of Secrets.
• Victor recognized that the Keeper grew stronger as her daemons died, then pushed through the battle with Ina as Evan attacked the horde.
• Doverlit and Kazhaniv’s Terminator Grand Company fought Aeldari attempting to close the Webway Gate during the battle.
• Kuroser received Roboute Guilliman’s order for five thousand sets of Crimson Tide armor, then diverted the Wolf Brothers to reinforce the Knight World; Rogier realized Evan had tricked him into keeping his force out of the earlier fight.

Evan, Victor, Ina, and Li Anjun helped break the Daemon Tide by killing its Keeper of Secrets, while Rogier's forces arrived in orbit. Evan then learned that Guilliman had sent a Victrix Guard veteran to requisition Adamantium Armor, and he tried to persuade him that the real mission was to transport Knights.

• Evan endured a greater daemon's assault, drained a lesser daemon with concealed blades, and burst through the greater daemon's body as the First Grand Company charged across it.
• The Chief Librarian and Li Anjun fought through false greater daemons, and Li Anjun used Eternal Sorrow to wound the Keeper of Secrets before Victor and Ina killed her.
• The Keeper of Secrets' death threw the Daemon Tide into chaos, while another greater daemon turned its attention toward the Aeldari lines.
• Rogier's forces reached the Knight World, and Evan established communications with the Victrix Guard veteran sent by Guilliman to collect five thousand suits of Adamantium Armor.
• After Kuroser pointed out that the veteran had ten Transport Ships, Evan suggested Guilliman had secretly sent him to carry Knight suits to the Expeditionary Force.

Evan’s forces defeated the daemons while the Aeldari escaped through the Webway, and Ina was rushed into emergency treatment after a psychic blast. Evan then revealed his Chapter’s depleted and battered armor to the Victrix Guard veteran and formally transferred 998 suits of Adamantium Armor to the Ultramarines.

• Evan persuaded the Victrix Guard veteran that damaged Knight suits could conceal armor shipments, while refusing to let him join the dangerous battle.
• The Crimson Tide advanced behind a wall of armor and heavy artillery as the Aeldari and daemons fought; the High Priest’s psychic power erupted, killing many Aeldari and blasting open the Webway.
• Six Aeldari escaped through the Webway, while Victor and Ina helped banish the remaining Greater Daemon; Ina collapsed afterward and the Chapter’s medics began treating her.
• The Victrix Guard veteran learned from Victor that something was amiss with Guilliman’s order, then challenged Evan about the missing five thousand suits of Power Armor.
• Evan assembled his warriors, showed the veteran their battered armor and casualties, and formally handed 998 suits of Adamantium Armor to the Ultramarines.

Evan’s Chapter secretly restored its forces, then joined Lian Leilo and the Ten Chapters in a devastating campaign against a Genestealer-infested world, escaping as Tyranids approached. Elsewhere, an Imperial Expeditionary Force suffered heavy losses fighting a Necron Dynasty and retreated toward a Forge World, leaving the Necrons to turn their attention to the arriving Hive Fleet.

• Evan concealed most of his supposedly fallen warriors from the Victrix Guard, then equipped his veterans with Christina’s ugly but resilient Third-generation Adamantium Armour.
• After Ina recovered, Evan realized the Chapter still needed to find Genestealers, and Lian Leilo discovered them on a wealthy rebel world in Chapter Era 322.
• Evan gathered the Ten Chapters and Lian Leilo’s forces, captured Purestrain Genestealers, and deployed more than ten thousand Primaris Warriors to attack the Genestealer-held world.
• Kazhaniv killed the Genestealer Patriarch and Evan killed the High Priest as the Chapter devastated the world, seized supplies, rescued survivors, and withdrew before the Tyranids arrived.
• The Imperial Expeditionary Force suffered crippling losses against a Necron Dynasty, destroyed one small Necron warship, and retreated toward a Forge World for repairs.
• The Necrons abandoned their pursuit of an escaped C’tan Shard and prepared to scour the region as a Hive Fleet arrived.

Evan cleared a Purity Corridor, then met the Carcharodons and defeated them in a friendly fight before trading advanced armor for rare weapons and technology. At Atris, he gave Lian Leilo a Grand Company and more Neophytes, then watched the thriving city from afar, unable to return to ordinary human life.

• Evan encountered Tyberos and the Carcharodons in the frontier of Segmentum Pacificus, where they demanded that he define his territory.
• After Evan provoked them, the chapters fought on an aerial platform, and the Carcharodons conceded defeat against the Adamantium Warriors.
• Evan traded Adamantium Armor for a Sicaran Tank, a Scorpius Whirlwind missile vehicle, and unfinished Lightning Power Claws with manufacturing instructions.
• At Atris, Evan appointed Barton a Company Commander and gave Lian Leilo command of a Grand Company of Neophytes.
• Xiao Lan complained that the Light of Redemption Chapter had greatly increased Neophyte production, so Evan assigned several hundred men to the Tenth Company.
• Evan watched Atris from afar until dawn, when he overheard locals discussing a visit to pay homage to him.

Evan witnessed the Light of the People fall into the Warp and raced to Atris Hive City as daemons invaded the planet. He left an old man dead in a crater and fought through the daemonic hordes, ending surrounded outside the still-lit hive city.

• Evan watched the Light of the People suffer an internal breach, fall into the Warp, and open a vast hole in reality above Atris.
• Falling debris killed the child and old man; Evan shielded the old man, then left him in a crater and ran toward Atris Hive City.
• The chief commissar ordered a distress call and mobilized Atris Hive City, while guardians destroyed the Biological Organ Production Line and outlying strongholds faced daemon attacks.
• Tzeentch sent daemons through the Warp hole, and Vashtorr unleashed his machine daemons against Atris.
• Evan fought through the invading daemons and destroyed a scepter-wielding daemon’s miniature forge, but found himself surrounded.

Evan fought through the corrupted strongpoint and helped a beleaguered convoy reach Atris’s defenses, where he was identified as the Chapter Master. Vashtorr learned Evan was on the planet and sent Ironforger and a Chaos fleet against Atris as Imperial reinforcements raced toward the worsening battle.

• Evan destroyed a daemon made from human limbs at the strongpoint, then left as greater daemons closed in.
• Evan used a lava-ball daemon to wreck a daemon mortar and helped a human convoy reach Atris’s gates, where the defenders admitted the troops under Blockade Protocol One.
• A Hovering Weapons Platform arrived, and Evan identified himself over the communications channel as the Chapter Master while considering how the flagship’s attack had opened the Warp breach.
• Vashtorr learned from an ironwing eagle daemon that Evan was on Atris and dispatched Ironforger and the Hellfire Dreadnought to fight there.
• Two Lunar-class Cruisers chose to support Atris and prepare to use the Arctic Base’s anti-ship cannons after a Vashtorr-aligned Chaos fleet attacked the system’s outer defenses.

Evan discovered that Atris’s widespread worship of him had drawn Tzeentch’s attention and helped trigger the daemon invasion. As the Chaos forces converged on Hive City Number One, he rallied its defenders and took position at the front, unaware that Vashtorr was tracking him through cameras.

• The Lunar-class Cruiser bombarded Atris and withdrew from attempts to close the Warp opening as Chaos ships destroyed the system’s outer defenses.
• Evan found Atris’s nobles and citizens worshipping his Icon, ordered them back to their duties, and commanded them to melt the Icons down for ammunition.
• Vashtorr used Ironforger to equip daemons with cameras, letting him track Evan and coordinate attacks through electronic feeds.
• The battered troops outside the Hive City received an Ion Pistol, then saw Evan arrive and rally them before he organized their defenses.
• The Chaos fleet launched drop pods and artillery as the Hive City’s weapons engaged the attacking daemons.
• After the daemons spotted Evan through cameras, hordes across Atris abandoned other battles and converged on Number One Gate of Hive City Number One.

Evan and the defenders of Atris Hive City repelled a series of daemon assaults, but the planet remained under siege and its outlying mining and farming sites were lost. The chapter ended with the Baina Robe diverting a Wind and Cloud-class Battleship toward Atris by killing its Astropaths, bringing potential reinforcements closer.

• Evan directed the Planetary Defense Force against Vashtorr's motorcycle and metal cavalry daemons, holding the trenches with disciplined fire, Skitarii, and his own swordsmanship.
• Evan ordered mortar fire on the enemy's floodlights and warned the other Astartes to search the hive cities for infiltrators as the daemon tanks advanced.
• The Chief Commissar sent Emperor's Blade Tanks (Type II) and elite troops to reinforce the defenders, helping Evan turn the battle and lead a counterattack to reclaim some positions.
• The mining-base defenders sacrificed their mineral convoy in a massive explosion, destroying many daemons, while the hive city prepared to endure the siege with stored food, water, and weapons materials.
• The Baina Robe returned from the Great Thousand World, found the warp blockade too strong to cross, and struck a patrolling Wind and Cloud-class Battleship to make it turn toward Atris.
• The battleship's captain learned that all its Astropaths had died and changed course for Atris, telling the Emperor's Angels that it needed to return early.

Atris’s defenders held the hive against Vashtorr’s daemonic assault as Evan fought the Magma Hellfire Dreadnought and an Ironwing Eagle Daemon. The patrol fleet arrived ahead of schedule, struck the invaders, and sent nine adamantium warriors toward an unknown mission.

• The Chief Commissar explained that Atris had been turned into a defensible trap and admitted that his orders against Evan worship had failed to account for the population’s devotion.
• Corrupted daemonic remains spread Chaos whispers among the soldiers, while Evan’s presence drove the whispers away and the defenders reclaimed their lost positions.
• Ironforger and the Magma Hellfire Dreadnought attacked through the void shield, and Evan destroyed the Dreadnought after surviving its magma weapons and soul flames.
• Evan fought an Ironwing Eagle Daemon aboard a grounded flying platform as enemy tanks threatened the front, and the commissar sacrificed himself to save Evan from a falling platform.
• The patrol ships arrived early and bombarded the enemy around Atris, while a Wind and Cloud-class Battleship damaged a Chaos Strike Cruiser and dispatched nine adamantium warriors in a transport ship.

Evan’s forces fought to hold Atris Hive City as Vashtorr’s army adapted its attacks and overwhelmed the outer defenses, while the Imperial fleet and mortal defenders suffered devastating losses. Two groups of Astartes arrived in crashes, and the Chief Commissar tried to persuade the Doom Warriors to join the fight by offering them three Chaos Strike Cruisers.

• Evan saw the enemy withdraw after the Wind and Cloud-class Battleship devastated its Titan Legion, then watched reinforcements crash into the Spire and two Primaris Warriors emerge.
• The Far North Base commander ordered its guns to destroy the two nearly captured Lunar-class Cruisers, and both ships burned into Atris’s ice fields as the commander collapsed from exhaustion.
• Evan’s troops used tunnels and mines to resist Vashtorr’s changing attacks, but enemy Titans and melee engines broke through Gate One and forced a retreat into the hive city.
• The Doom Warriors received no clear answer from Atris and debated whether to launch Exterminatus, then sent their Chaplain and several warriors down to investigate.
• The Doom Warriors’ Thunderhawk crashed into the earlier transport ship above the hive city, and the Chief Commissar welcomed the Chaplain as a possible reinforcement.
• After learning the Doom Warriors were reluctant to fight, the Chief Commissar offered them the three enemy Strike Cruisers in exchange for helping the Crimson Tide.

The Doom Warriors joined the defense of Atris as Vashtorr’s forces escalated the war, while Tzeentch turned the Dark Mechanicum’s super cannons against Hive City Number One. Evan survived the blast and woke to learn that the Light of the People had been destroyed by a merged C’tan Shard, which now remained trapped at great cost.

• The Doom Warriors inspected Atris’s defenses, confirmed the Chaos forces were committed to the hive city, and sent a force aboard a Thunderhawk to attack the enemy Strike Cruisers.
• Vashtorr arrived with an Ark Mechanicus, strengthened the daemons, and secretly prepared two enormous cannons from the Lunar-class Cruiser wrecks to destroy Hive City Number One.
• Tzeentch awakened cultists in the Dark Mechanicum, who fired both cannons; the blast destroyed the hive city’s Void Shield and defenses, wounded Evan, and left him in the Astartes’ Final Slumber.
• Nine days later, Evan woke as Situval and Ina treated him, and he learned that reinforcements had stabilized the fighting in Atris.
• Victor explained that two C’tan Shards had merged after escaping their restraints and destroying the Light of the People, but Kaldor Draigo, the Custodians, and a costly psychic cage had contained the shard.

Evan drove Vashtorr from Atris with a Psyker Shockwave, then organized the planet’s survivors into the Avenging Sons and began dealing with the aftermath. He discovered the Doom Warriors had sacrificed themselves to stop a bomb that could turn nonmetallic matter into metal.

• Evan learned the Light of the People had lost much of its structure and many Exodites, but its main gun still had about ten reserve rounds.
• Evan ordered the flagship to advance on the Warp breach, where his Psyker Shockwave destroyed Vashtorr’s Ark Mechanicus and forced Vashtorr to retreat as the breach closed.
• Evan called for vengeance across Atris and formed the Avenging Sons from the soldiers who had fought and survived the invasion.
• Evan considered Atris’s devastation and the Chapter’s strained resources, then went to investigate the corrupted Doom Warriors Strike Cruiser after Enke found their signals inside a metal wall.
• Evan and Enke discovered the Doom Warriors had been transformed into metal while stopping a bomb that could convert nonmetallic matter into metal.

After the Doom Warriors’ sacrifice on Atris, Evan planned a new system of planetary and subsector governance while Lian Leilo’s forces fought Vashtorr’s daemons in the system’s defense ring. The Light of the People destroyed the ring after a warp breach disrupted the battle, and Evan ordered the Chapter to investigate its security and review its strategy.

• The Techmarines examined the Doom Warriors’ remains and found that their final poses showed them charging toward the sphere at Atris’s center.
• Evan proposed planetary Blood Games and roaming Subsector Commanders aboard Wind and Cloud-class Battleships to improve governance and defense.
• Lian Leilo’s forces attacked the daemon-forged defense ring, where the Adamantium Warriors fought traps and a Throne Daemon while the enemy tried to open a warp breach.
• The Light of the People fired at the breach, forcing Vashtorr to withdraw it and freeing First Squad from the trap; the Third Heavy Assault Company then evacuated before the ring was destroyed.
• Lian Leilo apologized to Evan for arriving late, but Evan absolved him and assigned him to summon Sisyphus’s troops and the messengers.
• The Chapter began investigating security across its worlds, preparing to elect a sub-subsector leader, and suspending its large-warship expansion strategy during an internal review.

Evan traded the C'tan Shard to Zahadrek for blackstone technology and maps, securing the final component of his plan to aid the Emperor. As the Light of the People searched for blackstone deposits, Evan's forces attacked a mine and discovered they had mistaken the Adeptus Custodes for enemies.

• Evan showed Zahadrek and Obyron the enormous C'tan Shard and claimed it was a superweapon fragment sought by rebels.
• Evan traded the shard for blackstone, blackstone technology, and maps of blackstone deposits, while Zahadrek dispatched Tomb Technicians to deliver a Hyperspace Cube Containment device.
• Evan realized reverse-activated blackstone could amplify the Emperor's psyker power and help stabilize the Webway after the Emperor returned to the Warp.
• Victor confronted Evan over trading with aliens, but agreed to pass the acquired knowledge to a Custodian technical genius.
• Evan searched the mapped locations for blackstone, then led an assault on a defended mine after finding it occupied by suspicious forces.
• Victor recognized the mine's defenders as the Adeptus Custodes, halted the battle, and ordered everyone to switch communications channels and transmit an encrypted code.

Evan and Belisarius Cawl’s forces stopped fighting and exchanged blackstone and Pharos information, though both left distrustful of the other. Guilliman then faced a worsening galaxy-wide war as Orks gathered into an unprecedented Waaagh and attacked the Ultramarines’ expeditionary force.

• Belisarius Cawl explained that his duplicate was protecting the Pharos project with the Custodes, and Victor’s countersigns stopped the battle between the two forces.
• Evan and Cawl disputed their authority and mining operations, then let the Custodes combine their blackstone maps and exchange information about Pharos.
• Cawl gave Evan a Grav-cannon, while Evan offered Cawl Rice Bamboo; the Crimson Tide then withdrew with blackstone taken from Cawl’s warehouses.
• Evan planted imperfect blackstone spires and released four Genestealers on Zahadrek’s home territory before moving the Chapter onward.
• Guilliman received Cawl’s complaint but dismissed it, then reviewed the uneven progress of the Great Crusade and the growing Ork migration toward Segmentum Tempestus.
• The Ultramarines fought a large Ork fleet across several star systems without locating its boss, as the enemy attacked the Macragge’s Honour and threatened Guilliman.

Boomblasta turned his Ork fleet into a colossal Space Gungat and struck Macragge's Honour, but Celestine intervened and helped the Imperial forces turn the battle. After learning the Orks were heading for Baka, Guilliman redirected his fleet and ordered Evan to reclaim territory in the Five Hundred Worlds.

• Boomblasta built himself into a ship-sized Ork warlord, destroyed an Adeptus Mechanicus fire ship with Mork's Gaze, and overwhelmed it with boarding pods.
• Mighty Big Bitey crippled another fire ship while Guilliman's fleet trapped and destroyed many Ork vessels around Macragge's Honour.
• Boomblasta joined dozens of ships into the Space Gungat, struck Macragge's Honour with a massive punch, and led the surviving Ork fleet into the Warp.
• Celestine appeared and cut apart Space Gungat's right arm as the Imperial forces rallied; Guilliman survived, and the Imperium cleared the remaining battlefield.
• Celestine told Guilliman that the Orks were heading toward Baka, so he redirected the expedition and ordered Evan to reclaim the Lost Realm in the northern Five Hundred Worlds.
• Evan gathered troops from the Ten Chapters and prepared to seize resources from the contested worlds under Guilliman's order.

The Crimson Tide Chapter uncovered a Dark Mechanicum research and shipbuilding complex beneath a Paradise World and a frozen planet, then launched attacks across both worlds. Frank escaped the hidden base aboard a warship, but the fighting continued as Xiao Lan protected the Neophytes from monstrous creatures.

• Evan discovered an uncharted Paradise World and ordered Xiao Lan’s troops to investigate while protecting its ecology.
• The Neophytes found a concealed underground base beneath the frozen planet, while Xiao Lan’s troops infiltrated the Paradise World’s experimental zones and uncovered the Dark Mechanicum’s creature research.
• Frank activated the planetary Gravitational Slingshot and launched warships from the planet’s core, but he maneuvered his own ship through the ensuing chaos to escape.
• Evan’s flagship crippled one enemy ship, and Primaris Warriors pushed into the underground shipbuilding base as battle spread across both planets.
• Xiao Lan fought to shield a Neophyte from a charging beast, injured his hand, and faced a Dread Bat Beast swooping toward him.

Xiao Lan’s forces defeated the Dark Mechanicum’s beasts and uncovered evidence that the Paradise World was an Ark Mechanicus wrapped in a planetary shell. Evan then sent Frank to infiltrate Kambaha, where Frank’s disguised team entered the Brass Fortress as an arena bomber crashed into the center of the arena.

• Xiao Lan’s Terminators protected the neophytes from magma-dwelling beasts until Bars and the Wolf Warriors arrived and froze the battlefield.
• Evan learned that seventy-six reinforced installations on the frozen world suggested the Dark Mechanicum had hidden an Ark Mechanicus beneath a planetary shell, and he agreed to use the system as a site for studying flesh change.
• Frank told Evan about the surrounding territories and his dealings with the Dark Mechanicum, but Evan judged his account false and sent him to solitary confinement.
• Frank reached Kambaha with Primaris Warriors disguised as Ogryns and entered the Brass Fortress under the pretense of auctioning rare beasts.
• An enormous bomber crashed into the arena after a missile struck it, and the arena’s duel began.