Chapter Summaries

Captain Frank’s shipment caused a brawl at the Brass Fortress, while the Crimson Tide infiltrated the planet and launched coordinated attacks. Kazhaniv broke into the treasury and fought its champion, who transformed into a Chaos Spawn.

• The Brass Fortress appraisers bought the giant snapping turtle as a treasury trap, and Frank’s Ogryns attacked the guards who tried to take the beasts.
• The Primaris Warriors planned an Orbital Bombardment and used Kazhaniv’s modified turtle to conceal him inside the fortress.
• The Crimson Tide joined the Vile Banshee Arena’s mercenaries, then used a bomber attack to provoke conflict among the planet’s factions.
• The Ogryns and White Scars Sons attacked the Brass Fortress, destroyed its power system, and advanced on the treasury.
• Kazhaniv tore out of the turtle, crossed the traps, and confronted the arena champion in the treasury corridor.
• Kazhaniv wounded the champion, who transformed into a Chaos Spawn, and continued cutting it apart with his Lightning Power Claws.

Kazhaniv and the Astartes captured the Brass Fortress and helped reclaim the planet before Evan’s forces moved on to a world ruled by slave owners. After the rulers fell, the enslaved soldiers continued fighting under their masters’ conditioning, while Ninety-Six joined the arriving liberators and Evan recognized that the system would persist without deliberate intervention.

• Kazhaniv killed the Chaos Spawn, and the Astartes seized the Brass Fortress, destroyed its Khorne Relic, and looted its hidden treasures.
• Evan’s forces devastated the planet’s factions and reclaimed the world, then he ordered an interception fleet to keep the Ecclesiarchy from reaching the Five Hundred Worlds before the Ultramarines.
• Frank returned from the fighting with stolen treasures, and Evan gave him upgraded quarters while deciding to watch him closely.
• On the next world, Ninety-Six, another Ninety-Six, and Ten found records of earlier failed rebellions and added their own account to the underground legacy.
• Evan’s army killed the planetary rulers and attacked their fortress, but the conditioned slave soldiers continued resisting until Ninety-Six heard the liberators’ battle cry and ran toward them.
• Evan explained that the slaves would keep following their old routines even without their masters, and he compared their obedience to the Emperor’s commands.

Victor destroyed Gohors’s cloning operation and the Slave Lords’ rule, while Boomblasta seized control of a vast Ork battle in Segmentum Tempestus. The Crimson Tide then joined a Black Templars assault on a Daemon World, where Kazhaniv and the Terminators arrived in force as the Chaplain watched.

• Victor explored Gohors’s palace, survived its destruction, and discovered hundreds of clone vats in the Machine Palace.
• Victor destroyed the vats, and the Adamantium Warriors killed the last Slave Lord and plundered the world’s wealth.
• Victor gave Evan a physical shield, which struck him in the face before activating.
• Boomblasta emerged in the Space Gungat, destroyed Ork warships, and rallied the Orks while the Deathskulls Warlord plotted to steal his power and authority.
• Evan brought the Crimson Tide to a Daemon World where the Black Templars and Sisters of Battle were fighting, and Kazhaniv led more than eighty beams of Terminators onto the battlefield.

Kazhaniv and the Crimson Tide joined the Black Templars in assaulting a Chaos stronghold, where Kazhaniv destroyed a Daemon controlling the battlefield and shielded his allies from a psychic blast. After the victory, Evan welcomed the Black Templars aboard the Eternal Mountain, while Kazhaniv received names for his twin Lightning Power Claws and proposed a Chapter ceremony.

• The Black Templars and Crimson Tide Terminators fought through Daemons and Chaos Cultists toward the metal river surrounding the Chaos Device.
• Xiao Lan brought Kazhaniv rocket thrusters and Evan's command, and eight hundred Terminators flew across the river to attack the Daemon forces.
• Kazhaniv reached the human-skin Daemon, destroyed its Soul Vessel, and absorbed the psychic shockwave to protect the Terminators as the Daemon was banished.
• The allied Astartes defeated the remaining Daemons, and Kazhaniv told the Black Templars' Chaplain that he was the Crimson Tide's Emperor's Champion before returning to Evan.
• Evan received the Black Templars aboard the Eternal Mountain and discussed their past assault on Terra during the Apostasy Revolt.
• Evan named Kazhaniv's twin claws Summoning Tiger and Piao Yao, and Kazhaniv proposed a ceremony to honor them.

The Black Templars received reports of their warriors seeing legendary dead heroes and rushed to investigate, only to find translucent xenos that possessed their battle-brothers by deceiving every sense. Evan followed with the Light of the People and helped uncover how to fight the creatures, while the chapter ended with the Black Templars and their allies confronting the possibility that even Terminator Armour could be penetrated.

• The Black Templars Chaplain received reports that warriors in the Kritavan Expeditionary Force had encountered apparitions of Sigmandas, Rogal Dorn, Sigismund, and deceased mentors, then hurried away with his force.
• Evan pursued the Black Templars, and the two forces reunited near the planet as the Techmarine advised using EXE Mode and flamers against the strange threat.
• A Black Templars task force discovered translucent creatures enveloping neophytes, and its warriors found that flamers and ion turbulence damaged the xenos while bolter fire did not.
• The Techmarine used controlled flamer bursts to test two infested neophytes; one died, while the other survived long enough for the Apothecary to treat him and investigate the creatures.
• Victor captured a Quantum Ghost in an ionic cage, and the Interrogator Chaplain concluded that the xenos created false sensory experiences while clinging to their victims.
• The Techmarine questioned whether the creatures could enter Terminator Armour, and the Interrogator Chaplain pointed to an Indomitus-pattern Terminator in the distance.

Bars led a Crimson Tide rescue squad into the Quantum Ghosts’ lair, saving captured Black Templars and recovering their own warriors. Victor emerged wounded from a dimensional rift and ordered an immediate evacuation before an Exterminatus-level strike.

• Bars took Librarians and Mark X-armored warriors into the enemy lines and rescued a captured neophyte, who described being trapped in false scenes of the White Scars and Jaghatai Khan.
• Bars’s squad found a Black Templars veteran fighting off the ghosts, then carried him along with them despite his protests and followed the trail toward the canyon.
• The Black Templars’ flame-wielding force reached the entrance and tried to free two possessed Adamantium Warriors, but flamers and plasma weapons failed to affect their armor.
• Bars and the Black Templars regrouped at a dimensional rift, where Victor emerged wounded after entering it and warned that an Exterminatus-level strike was imminent.
• The Black Templars obeyed Victor’s order to evacuate while their senior warriors continued examining the undamaged Adamantium Armor.

Evan and the Black Templars staged a contest for Adamantium Armor and sacred relics, while Victor and Evan considered how to deal with a dimensional rift below the planet. The Black Templars’ battle against the armor-clad warriors continued, with a Concussion Hammer beginning to turn the fight.

• Victor freed two Black Templars veterans from their corrupted Adamantium Armor, and Bars led the rescued warriors away.
• Evan presented Adamantium Armor to the Chaplain and proposed a contest in which the Black Templars could win more suits and reclaim their relics.
• The Black Templars accepted the contest, and their Terminators fought the Adamantium Warriors in the Eternal Mountain’s arena.
• An Adamantium Warrior defeated the first charging Terminator, and the Marshal joined the expanding melee with his warriors.
• Evan and Victor considered how to destroy the dimensional rift and prepared the Light of the People’s newly installed Foundation Cannons.
• Black Templars reinforcements joined the contest, and their fighters used a relic Concussion Hammer to slow the Adamantium Warriors before the Marshal took it into battle.

The Black Templars fought the Crimson Tide’s Adamantium Warriors in a brutal duel, then departed after learning about the Crimson Tide’s weapons and Chapter Homeworld. After the reclamation of the Five Hundred Worlds, Tech-Priest Mapus arrived with research into a living warship design and begged Evan to let him serve aboard the Crimson Tide’s Gloriana-class Battleship.

• The Black Templars’ remaining veterans fought Kazhaniv and the Adamantium Warriors, losing their Thunder Hammer after suffering a ten-to-one exchange.
• The observer discovered that the Calamity World had been devastated, while the Crimson Tide denied responsibility for the Adeptus Custodes’ retaliation.
• The Crimson Tide demonstrated Adamantium Armor equipped with weapons backpacks, and the Black Templars departed on their eternal crusade.
• By year 351 of the Chapter Era, the Crimson Tide had reclaimed every Rebel Zone in the Five Hundred Worlds, though many worlds lay in ruins.
• Tech-Priest Mapus arrived at the Stone City Forge World, and Vlorus revealed the Gloriana-class Battleship Nightveil to him.
• Mapus gave Evan his research memories and a model of a living warship based on the Deep-Sea Monster, pleading to join the Crimson Tide and serve aboard the battleship.

Evan recruited Tech-Priest Mapus to help create Leviathan-hide ships and sent Rogier and the Wolf Brothers to capture juvenile sea monsters on Fenris II World. The chapter left the Wolf Brothers waiting in deep-sea submarines as the smell of food drew the young Leviathans toward their bait.

• Evan approved Mapus's Leviathan-hide warship designs and asked him to build a fleet of vessels that could resemble Tyranid ships.
• Mapus asked to serve aboard the Gloriana-class Battleship Nightveil, but Evan instead assigned him to build Leviathan vessels and revealed that their shipyard was aboard the Light of the People.
• Evan appointed Ans commander of the Sixth Company and ordered Rogier to lead the Wolf Brothers in capturing young Leviathan Sea Monsters on Fenris II World.
• The Wolf Brothers repeatedly drank the Kolan anesthetic meant for their harpoon missiles, delaying preparations until the Light of the People reached the target system.
• Evan forced the Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagos to allow an investigation, then used a fleet of Strike Cruisers to draw the adult sea monsters toward the surface while submarines carried the Wolf Brothers into the depths.
• Rogier ordered the submarines to lure the juvenile Leviathans with lamps, sound, and traces of blood, and the cooked sea life from the lance bombardment made the bait smell increasingly enticing.

Agura transformed himself into a half-daemonic Chaos Ascendant and slaughtered the Rust Knights who attacked his ship. He headed for Huron’s Skull Feast Tournament with a powerful fleet but no faction, intending to rise through the ranks by collecting souls.

• The Crimson Tide used submarines, Stasis Bombs, and transport ships to capture several Leviathan juveniles, then Evan pressed the Adeptus Mechanicus to negotiate for ancient ship-hull technology.
• As Agura’s ship neared Huron’s territory for the Skull Feast Tournament, the Word Bearer guarded Agura’s rune-covered chamber from the boarding Rust Knights.
• The Rust Knights killed the Word Bearer and tried to break into Agura’s chamber, but Agura emerged after reaching a new realm.
• Agura revealed that he had used his soul as ink to ascend to daemonhood, then burned the warp-given power from the Rust Knights and bound their souls into runes.
• Agura slaughtered most of the ship’s Chaos Cultists and set out for the tournament as a lone Astartes with a vast fleet, seeking more battles and souls.

Huron prepared to confront the Imperial Fists while investigating a counterfeit Red Corsairs force, and Agura fought through the Skull Feast as Huron tried to recruit him. Meanwhile, the White Scars and Red Talons battled the expanding Ork Waaagh, and Khan Morigen led an elite force into Snakebite territory, where scouts approached an unexplored world.

• Huron learned that Agura had slaughtered many Warbands and invited him to join the Red Corsairs, but Agura refused and continued in the Skull Feast.
• Agura used an illusion and a shadow storm to defeat an Iron Warriors veteran in the arena while Huron watched.
• The Celestial Lions and other Imperial Fists celebrated their victory over a Drukhari slave world as Chaos forces prepared an attack around the Blades Gathering.
• The Red Talons irradiated an Ork world and attacked its Battle Moon shipyard, destroying it before Khan Morigen arrived with the main White Scars force.
• Morigen split the Expeditionary Force to draw apart the advancing Orks, then led an elite group toward the Snakebites’ inner worlds.
• Morigen sent scouts toward a dark-green planet in unexplored Snakebite territory.

Khan Morigen’s White Scars tried to rescue their scouts on a spore-choked Snakebites world, but the Orks’ mushrooms crippled their aircraft and forced the survivors into a costly retreat. Morigen ordered Exterminatus as the Snakebites prepared a giant slingshot and their true boss’s moving island began to awaken.

• Khan Morigen sent a Thunderhawk to recover the scouts, but the Snakebites attacked it with squig bombs, poisoned spears, and mushroom nutrient solution that covered it in growth and trapped it in the atmosphere.
• The White Scars rescued six of the seven neophytes, including two corpses, while the final neophyte ran through the woods carrying his broken bike until a veteran found him and hauled him aboard.
• Snakebite boys regrouped after the Thunderhawk’s attack, but their boss lost track of them while chasing a mushroom, and the boys took the broken scout bike.
• Khan Morigen learned the operation had cost two neophytes and several vehicles, then ordered a Virus Bomb followed by a Cyclonic Torpedo despite the risks to both weapons.
• The Snakebites built a giant slingshot between mountain peaks and prepared to launch a planetary boarding battleship, while Invincible Turtle Gungat Island began moving.

Khan Morigen’s White Scars destroyed an Ork world with virus bombs and cyclonic torpedoes, then withdrew as the planet broke apart. Evan set out toward the Maelstrom to answer a call for aid, but diverted to ambush a Red Corsairs convoy, where Rogier boarded the captured Wolf of Fenris.

• Khan Morigen’s fleet fought off Ork missiles and slingshots while preparing Exterminatus weapons, and an Ork boarding pod struck one of the warships.
• The White Scars deployed virus bombs and cyclonic torpedoes, shattering the Ork planet; Morigen withdrew his forces while the surviving Orks tried to escape aboard the Gungat.
• Evan learned that the Imperial Fists and other Sons of Dorn were under attack during the Blade Feast, and he led the Light of the People toward the Maelstrom to gather resources from the Red Corsairs instead of joining the main battle.
• Evan’s fleet ambushed a Red Corsairs convoy carrying the captured Wolf of Fenris, and Rogier led the Wolf Brothers in an assault on the ship.
• Rogier boarded the Wolf of Fenris with the Blood Claws and Long Fangs as Evan’s forces destroyed its Void Shield and the warship burned.

Rogier led the Wolf Brothers in a hunt aboard the Wolf of Fenris and killed a Chaos champion, while Evan's Crimson Tide fleet lured Huron's forces into a trap. The ambush collided with a real Imperial Fists fleet, and the chapter ended as Huron rallied his forces and the battlefield descended into chaos.

• Rogier ordered the Wolf Brothers to hunt through the traitor-held ship, then fought and killed a Chaos champion after the pack wore down his corrupted sword and wounded him.
• Evan used the Crimson Tide fleet to bait the Red Corsairs into a binary-star system, where Huron gathered his forces to encircle them.
• The Imperial Fists fleet led by Kallenius arrived unexpectedly, turning Evan's planned ambush into a real joint battle against Huron's forces.
• Bars claimed the Wolf Brothers and other allies had come to aid the Imperial Fists, and Kallenius accepted their support and assigned them a target.
• Huron ordered Galon to muster all forces and surround the enemy, while psychic interference and radiation disrupted communications across the battlefield.
• Evan's fleet, the Imperial forces, and Huron's forces converged in confusion as pirates gathered nearby and the White Scars Big Boss waited to see what Huron would do.

Huron’s ambush unraveled as the Nightveil entered the battle, forcing the Imperial assault toward the Destroyer Ghost while Agura rampaged through the ships and attacked Ina and a Custodian. Agura unleashed a vast Shadowstorm, and Evan stepped out to face him.

• Huron used a Ramilies-class Star Fortress to try to divide the Imperial forces, but the fleets converged on it from both sides.
• Garon sent Agura to stop a Battle Barge, where Agura slaughtered its crew before the ship’s defenders drove him off; Ans was badly burned during the fight.
• Evan disguised the Nightveil and brought it into the battle, startling Huron and forcing the Destroyer Ghost out of the Stardust Cluster.
• The Nightveil’s arrival prompted Kallenius to lead an assault on Huron, while Victor and a force of Custodes appeared aboard the Furious Storm through the Pharos device.
• Ina and a Custodian confronted Agura aboard the flagship, and Agura activated Shadowstorm, destroying factories and consuming workers as Evan came out to challenge him.

Evan and the Imperial Fists defeated Agura, but Huron escaped through a Warp rift and unleashed daemons. The forces began capturing the Red Corsairs’ ships and pursuing Garon, whose fleet reached the Corsairs’ home system, where Evan launched an assault.

• Evan, Ina, a Librarian, and the Custodian fought Agura, who was ultimately split apart and destroyed as his soul vanished against Evan.
• Huron escaped into the Warp as daemons poured from the rift, and the Custodians and Imperial Fists fought together until they destroyed the Chaos altar.
• Victor told Kallenius that he had called for the Custodians and ordered the Imperial Fists to pacify the Maelstrom while training with Adamantium Armor.
• Evan ordered the fleet to pursue the fleeing Red Corsairs, capture their larger ships, and follow Garon’s force toward the Corsairs’ home system.
• Garon sacrificed captured Chaos Warriors at the system’s mutated sun to open a passage into the Stellar Interior Base, and Evan sent Kazhaniv and his warriors to attack.
• Garon’s fleet was boarded by the Mad Wolf’s Boarding Pod, and its warriors searched the corrupted ship for him.

Kazhaniv and Barton defeated Garon aboard the sinking warship, but Barton suffered severe radiation burns during their escape. The Imperial forces withdrew from the star as their campaign against Huron continued, while the Imperial Fists Expeditionary Force entered the Maelstrom and the White Scars fought the Orks.

• Kazhaniv and Barton broke through the defenders of the Command Room, where Barton led his warriors into a trap among Chaos beasts.
• Garon ambushed Kazhaniv, but Kazhaniv and Barton pinned down and killed Garon and banished the daemon possessing him.
• Kazhaniv and Barton escaped the Command Room ahead of a stellar radiation storm, though the radiation badly burned Barton's face.
• Annos sent the Nightveil to support the fleet as the Light of the People attacked Huron's forces, and the Beiwei Army and mortal suicide squads fought across the planet.
• Evan and Enke searched for Huron's Blackstone Fortress, while Kazhaniv reported finding corrupted relics and a captive Dark Angel.
• Rogier reported that the Imperial Fists Expeditionary Force was advancing into the Maelstrom, while Khan Morigen ordered the White Scars to regroup after their losses against the Blood Axes.

The Blood Axes Warboss ambushed Guilliman’s forces during a raid on their supply fleet, then boarded Macragge’s Honour and fought Guilliman. Titus defeated the Weirdboss and rushed to help his Gene-Father as the Warboss continued attacking.

• The Blood Axes Warboss lured the escort ships away, disguised his fleet as asteroids, and ambushed the supply convoy.
• Guilliman arrived with the Ultramarines, and the Blood Axes Warboss pursued them into a dead star system before boarding a Battle Barge and slaughtering its crew.
• The Blood Axes Warboss teleported into Macragge’s Honour’s Relic Chamber, where he clashed with Cato Sicarius and Guilliman’s forces.
• Titus fought the Warboss’s bodyguard, severed one of his arms, and then fell through the damaged floor as Guilliman confronted the Warboss.
• Titus killed the Weirdboss with his Chainsword, which disintegrated in the strike, then charged toward Guilliman and the Blood Axes Warboss.

Guilliman defeated the Blood Axe boss aboard Macragge's Honour, but a Weirdboss teleported the boss's headless body to the Deathskulls, where the Loot Boss used it to create a powerful new stand-in. The Imperium regrouped as the Deathskulls and Bad Moons traded warships and teef, while the looming arrival of the White Scars and other Ork clans set up a wider conflict.

• Cato Sicarius threw the Blood Axe boss's axe to Titus, who took it into the fight while Sicarius pursued the Orks in his Dreadnought.
• Titus and the Victrix Guard fought the Big Mek, and Titus killed him after the Big Mek's weapons killed a Victrix Guard warrior.
• Guilliman defeated the Blood Axe boss, but the Weirdboss teleported the boss away at the last moment, leaving his headless body behind.
• The Deathskulls Loot Boss had the Mad Dok attach his head to the Blood Axe boss's body, creating the Bloodskull Boss.
• The Imperium won the battle and searched for the White Scars as the Deathskulls and Bad Moons negotiated over warships and teef.
• The Bad Moons boss warned that the White Scars were coming, and the Deathskulls boss refused to buy intelligence as four major Ork forces gathered for conflict.

A Callidus Assassin infiltrated Boomblasta’s Space Gungat as a squig and stabbed him with a C’tan Phase Sword, leaving him deranged and the blade lodged in his body. After Boomblasta attacked the Goffs and fought the White Scars, Guilliman rebuked Cawl over his blackstone security, while a Solitaire secretly followed the Adamantium Warriors into the Light of the People’s shipyard.

• A Callidus Assassin disguised as a squig poisoned Boomblasta’s mushroom soup, entered his mech through the feeding pipe, and fought through its defenses to stab him with a Phase Sword.
• Boomblasta crushed the assassin but could not remove the sword, killed the Painboy who advised him, and became increasingly unstable.
• Boomblasta attacked the Goff fleet, where Khan Morigen and the White Scars helped rout the Goffs and break their clan apart.
• Guilliman ordered Cawl to improve the security of his blackstone technology and denied him exclusive extraction rights to the Blackstone Vein.
• A powerful Solitaire sought Evan and secretly followed the Adamantium Warriors from a transport ship into the Light of the People’s shipyard.