Chapter Summaries

Sisyphus’s fleet helped defeat a xenos coalition, and Evan began reorganizing Librarians while Rogier’s attempt to integrate his warriors with the Space Wolves stalled. As new crises and a Crimson Tide call to destroy the Ecclesiarchy surfaced, Victor returned with a plan to stage a devastating war in the Ghoul Stars and draw Imperial forces back toward Terra.

• The xenos alliance pushed into Imperial territory, but the Sisyphus Expeditionary Force ambushed its fleets and drove them into retreat.
• Sisyphus boarded an enemy ship with Terminators, disrupted the War Council, and helped secure a great victory; Evan then proposed a graded Librarian hierarchy led by System Masters.
• Rogier discussed forming a separate Chapter with Ragnar Blackmane, who refused to fold Rogier’s warriors into the Space Wolves, and Evan’s summons called the warriors back to the war.
• Reports of new threats and a Crimson Tide declaration to destroy the Ecclesiarchy alarmed Evan, who feared the Chapter had started a rebellion without his approval.
• Victor returned and ordered Evan to stage a real, destructive conflict in the Ghoul Stars so Imperial Expeditionary Forces would have grounds to return and defend Terra.

The Dark Angels devastated the Ghoul Stars while the Crimson Tide struck their supply lines and prepared to meet them in battle. After gaining the Emperor’s power, Azrael led the Dark Angels to a savage world for a final confrontation over Marbas and the gene-seed, where both fleets began a massive ground assault.

• The Dark Angels summoned Sisters of Battle, priests, and Inquisitors, then attacked frontier worlds as the Angels of Vigilance assassinated a Primaris commander and the Angels of Vengeance fought through heavy losses.
• A Wind and Cloud-class Battleship attacked the Dark Angels’ rear while civilians and surviving defenders resisted; Azrael responded by unleashing an Antimatter Annihilation Matrix that scarred a planet.
• Crimson Tide and allied fleets joined forces, while Li Anjun’s forces cut off the Dark Angels’ supply lines and Wind and Cloud-class Battleships disrupted Imperial logistics.
• Victor empowered Azrael in a relic repository, awakening his gene-seed and changing his view of the Fallen; Azrael then prepared a savage planet as a battlefield where Marbas and rival forces would gather.
• Evan and Azrael brought their fleets to the planet, and both sides exchanged fire while landing troops, tanks, and other forces for a major ground battle.

The Crimson Tide lured the Dark Angels into a disastrous boarding assault, then fought them across the savage world as both sides suffered heavy losses. Azrael resisted calls to escalate the war, while Marbas awoke and led a World Eaters force toward the battlefield.

• William used the Crimson Tide's apparently weakened shields and retreat to draw Dark Angels ships into a boarding trap, where Adamantium Warriors killed many of the assaulting Astartes.
• The Dark Angels withdrew with damaged ships after the Crimson Tide's fleet restored its shields and attacked the pursuing vessels.
• Ravenwing bikers fought the White Scars Sons, but the Crimson Tide's anti-gravity bikes evaded Gravity Bombs by flying skyward and tunneling underground.
• Azrael rejected Inner Circle members' demands to deploy an ancient mech-virus and warned them against twisting the Emperor's will.
• Marbas awoke in the Warp, learned that the Dark Angels were bleeding, and agreed to join the battle with a World Eaters army.

Evan withdrew his forces from the battle with the Dark Angels when Khorne’s daemons arrived, but the daemons’ attack exposed that both Imperial armies were fighting each other. Khorne and Tzeentch began reconsidering the conflict as Azrael’s fleet and the Blood Army revealed their hidden weapons and became caught in a pincer attack.

• Evan ordered his troops to withdraw and gather the bodies when Marbas summoned daemons to the Savage World, while Azrael redirected the Dark Angels’ fire toward the World Eaters.
• Khorne recognized the Adamantium Warriors and Dark Angels as Imperial forces fighting one another, and Tzeentch interpreted their conflict as a possible new Horus Heresy.
• Marbas located Azrael’s Battle Barge, and Azrael used a hidden Annihilation Torpedo and a Vitrification Shell to destroy a World Eaters warship.
• The Mortal Champion prepared to attack the opposing fleet with Khorne’s Bone Sword as the Renegade Astra Militarum and navy forces moved to board the enemy ships.
• The Wind and Cloud-class Battleships broke through the World Eaters’ blockade and joined the Dark Angels, trapping the World Eaters’ warships in a pincer attack.

Azrael and the Dark Angels fought a fleet of World Eaters, while Azmodai boarded their ships to find Marbas. Marbas’s warship was rammed by the hidden hive-city flagship and crashed onto the Savage World, fulfilling the prophecy of his arrival.

• Azrael rejected the Ravenwing Grand Master's request to deploy the Rock and ordered Azmodai to board the corrupted Battle Barge and capture Marbas.
• Azmodai fought through World Eaters, questioned a daemon engine, and encountered a Heart of Marbas warrior before a Bloodletter attacked him.
• Azrael slew a possessed Word Bearers Berserker in close combat and wondered where Marbas was.
• Marbas diverted toward the Savage World after the White Scars Sons damaged his fleet, while Evan ordered the hidden flagship to ram his warship.
• The hive-city flagship struck Marbas’s vessel from behind, sending the Blood Dreadnought crashing onto the Savage World.

The Adamantium Warriors fought through a devastating shock wave and continued toward the crashed warship as Dark Angels reinforcements battled Marbas. The fighting spread to the ships in orbit, where Azrael faced the Eight Sons Warband and their powerful leader.

• A physical shock wave scattered the Adamantium Warriors, daemons, and Dark Angels, after which the Adamantium Warriors captured a wounded Angel and headed east toward the crashed warship.
• The Angels of Absolution used a Null-Amplification Collar to weaken Marbas, while their Dreadnought and the Deathwing Grand Master attacked him.
• Azmodai led Ravenwing forces through the daemon horde as the Adamantium Warriors retreated with the wounded Angel and left the newly arriving Dark Angels reinforcements to fight.
• Situval drugged the captured Night Lord to make him relive three hundred years while torturing him for information.
• The Eight Sons Warband emerged aboard a Dark Angels ship and overwhelmed Azrael's Honour Guard, forcing Azrael to face the leader's Gravitic Jet Axe.

Azrael captured the Eightbound leader and tried to contain the rebellion while the Dark Angels split over their hunt for the Fallen. Elsewhere, Marbas summoned the Sons of Malice, and the Night Lords uncovered fragments about Curze’s death.

• Azrael defeated the Eightbound leader and trapped him in the Dark Angels’ Stillness cage, then ordered his forces to withdraw and regroup after hearing that Space Wolves had turned traitor.
• Azrael pursued Evan’s main rebel force as the Blood Legion vanished toward another battlefield, while Azmodai and the Deathwing Grand Master argued over Azrael’s changed attitude toward the Fallen.
• Marbas used Luther’s Power Armor fragments to summon Malice’s Sons, while a lost Sisters of Battle squad and Astra Militarum survivors wandered into danger on the planet.
• The Night Lords tortured a captive for memories and learned that Mu Shen had sent back fragments concerning Curze’s death.
• Sevatar ordered copies of the Primarch’s recovered fragments distributed to every Night Lords warband, briefly uniting the Eighth Legion.

Situval interrogated the Night Lord, then Evan led the Crimson Tide into the Ghoul Stars and maneuvered against the Husai Bees while Azrael’s Dark Angels pursued. After the two forces clashed with the xenos, Guilliman redirected his Expeditionary Force toward Terra and declined to send Azrael direct support.

• Situval handed the Night Lord’s interrogation to a Commissar, and Evan confirmed that the captured information was mostly accurate.
• Evan led the Crimson Tide into the Ghoul Stars, where its fleet attacked an Imperial Star Fortress before the First Expeditionary Force arrived and Azrael’s main force followed.
• Evan issued orders to strike xenos forces, protect supplies, and retreat when needed, then disguised his fleet as an asteroid belt using moon fragments.
• Azrael authorized forbidden weapons and attacked the Husai Bees while sending a force to pursue the Wind and Cloud-class Battleships; Evan’s forces destroyed a xenos surveillance ship.
• Guilliman received news of the fighting between the First Legion and the Crimson Tide, ordered his Expeditionary Force back toward Terra, and decided not to send Azrael direct support.

Evan’s fleet raided the Dark Angels’ supplies before heading toward the Husai Bees, while Rogier’s Wolf Brothers rescued and captured Dark Angels Sergeant Sero Alex during a fight aboard a wrecked Inquisition ship. Rogier wondered how the Dark Angels would view the Wolf Brothers fighting among the rebels.

• Evan sent his fleet through the Mandeville Point to seize the Dark Angels’ repair supplies and transport ships while their forces were occupied fighting the Husai Bees.
• Evan sent Sisyphus to command the Imperial Battleship fleet and took the Wind and Cloud-class Battleships toward the Husai Bees’ territory, following a Dark Angels reconnaissance vessel.
• The Dark Angels’ reconnaissance squad fought Husai Bees and transdimensional xenos aboard a wrecked Inquisition ship, leaving Sero Alex stranded with damaged armor and dwindling ammunition.
• Rogier and the Wolf Brothers arrived in a Boarding Pod, drove back the transdimensional attackers, and knocked Sero Alex unconscious before taking him aboard.
• Evan warned Rogier not to trust the Dark Angels, and Rogier worried about how they would regard the Wolf Brothers serving among the rebels.

Rogier taunted a Dark Angels sergeant while Evan devised a plan to draw the Husai Bees into a decisive fight. After the First Expeditionary Force helped destroy a Husai Bees deployment and rescued the embattled Lamenters, Evan’s fleet stumbled into an awakened Necron Dynasty that attacked despite its Sautekh allegiance.

• Rogier challenged Sergeant Sero Alex’s beliefs and claimed the Emperor’s true goal was to liberate the entire galaxy.
• Victor warned Evan that the Husai Bees’ command core might be hidden in Higher-dimensional Space, and Evan planned to lure the enemy into a Necron stronghold.
• Kuroser’s Adamantium Warriors trapped the Dark Angels, drew out Husai Bees reinforcements, and used the Tech Mogul’s missile to collapse the Rift, while the Dark Angels later found their Scout Ship missing.
• Librarian Sisyphus disrupted the Dark Angels’ supply lines, prompting Azrael to withdraw the First Expeditionary Force from the Husai Bees’ territory.
• Maturio’s Lamenters attacked a Husai Bees outpost, but a warrior’s red thirst exposed them to enemy reinforcements; Bars received their distress call, and Evan sent the fleet to help.
• Evan’s fleet was forced out of transit by a Necron anti-psyker wall, and the awakened dynasty attacked after identifying the fleet as Zahadrek’s vassals.

Evan’s fleet survived a devastating Necron attack by bluffing with a transdimensional cannon strike, then paused to repair and regroup. As the Crimson Tide organized its next expedition, Azrael received word that the Husai Bees’ main force had been destroyed but kept his patrols in place, suspecting a trap.

• The Necrons attacked Evan’s fleet with C’tan-powered weapons, destroying many ships before the survivors fled toward the Lamenters.
• Annos swallowed the battle barge and nearby craft into the Light of the People, where the crew repelled the Husai Bees and Evan ordered the main cannon to fire through a Higher-dimensional Rift.
• The Necrons withdrew after Evan issued a Sautekh ultimatum, and the Light of the People drifted toward the edge of the system while crews repaired its damage.
• Evan sent a Messenger Ship to report the Husai Bees’ defeat, then arranged for Rogier, Kazhaniv, Bars, and Xiao Lan to take on roles in the next expedition.
• Azrael received the report but kept patrols near the Husai Bees’ territory because he feared the Crimson Tide might be setting a trap.

The Inquisitor uncovered a daemon plot during the Crimson Tide’s aspirant trials, but the Chapter’s leaders and recruits departed before he could learn more. When Ultramarines arrived to reclaim the homeworld, he learned that more than twenty thousand Crimson Tide Astartes had turned renegade and struggled to understand the Ultramarines’ restrained response.

• The Inquisitor asked the Chaplain to let him join the crusade, but the Chaplain refused and urged him to remain in charge of planetary construction.
• The Inquisitor detected psychic interference at the aspirant trials, where Combat Servitors found a Chaos brand and he exposed a daemon incursion with psychic lightning.
• The Chaplain and Inquisitor fought the daemons, while the Chaplain decided to continue the trials and observe the surviving aspirants.
• The Inquisitor secretly discovered the Crimson Tide’s abnormal numbers, but the Astartes and aspirants left the homeworld before he could investigate further.
• Ultramarines arrived to reclaim the planet and told the Inquisitor that more than twenty thousand Crimson Tide Astartes had turned renegade.
• The Inquisitor demanded an all-out war, but the Ultramarines instead pursued negotiations and loyalty screenings, leaving him bewildered.

The Crimson Tide and Azrael coordinated a deceptive campaign that drew the Dark Angels into battles while the fleet raided xenos territory. As Yvraine’s Reaper Host emerged from the Webway and found Ynnead’s attention diverted, Guilliman staged an Alpha Legion offensive to force the Imperium’s leaders to reinforce Terra.

• Victor and Azrael planned a trap for the Dark Angels, and Azrael pledged himself to the Emperor’s will after learning Victor knew the Legion’s secrets.
• Victor returned to the Light of the People, where Evan nearly set grilled meat on a map before they reviewed the battle plan and rejected a scheme to use Neophytes as false defectors.
• The Crimson Tide attacked a xenos faction, and Azrael’s forces followed its feigned retreat before joining the fighting and driving the xenos from their homeworld.
• The Adamantium Warriors led the Dark Angels to believe they had uncovered the Crimson Tide’s strength, then fled underground and found Drukhari ruins as Yvraine and the Reaper Host emerged from a Webway Gate.
• Guilliman fortified Terra’s approaches and secretly sent the Alpha Legion to seize Warp routes, prompting the Inquisition and Officio Assassinorum to seek an urgent audience with him.

Evan's ambush turned into a costly fleet battle, while Azrael chose to keep pursuing the Crimson Tide rather than divert the First Expeditionary Force to search for Cypher. On Savage Planet, Azmodai confronted Marbas as the Sons of Spite summoned an Emperor-class Titan, leaving the scattered Dark Angels under its bombardment.

• Evan's ambush fleet struck the First Expeditionary Force, but the battle turned into a genuine rout and Azrael ordered his ships to pursue the fleeing Crimson Tide.
• Azrael found records of Cypher aboard a captured warship, but he rejected the Ravenwing Grand Master's demand to pursue him and insisted on destroying the Crimson Tide.
• Several Dark Angels left the fleet to search for Cypher, while Azrael gathered the remaining warriors and assured a Neophyte that their sacred weapons could counter the Adamantium Warriors.
• Azmodai organized the Deathwing's hunt for Marbas after the enemy repeatedly eluded them and strange altars appeared across Savage Planet.
• A black mist disabled the Thunderhawk carrying Azmodai and his squad, forcing them to jump out before they advanced toward Marbas's volcanic stronghold.
• The Sons of Spite summoned an Emperor-class Titan fused with a Greater Daemon, and its long-range weapons began bombarding the surrounding land as the Dark Angels converged.

Azmodai led the Deathwing through Malice’s Warp-corrupted battlefield toward the Emperor-class Titan, enduring illusions, ambushes, and heavy losses. After fighting through the Titan’s defenses, Azmodai reached Marbas and prepared to face the Daemon Prince directly.

• The Angels of Absolution deployed Deathwing Terminators and anti-psyker equipment to attack Malice’s corrupted crater, while Azmodai’s force struggled through illusions and darkness.
• Azmodai broke free of an illusion of Marvin Rimmel, killed a Son of Spite, and continued toward the volcano despite mounting Terminator casualties.
• Azmodai used a Proteus-pattern Land Raider to evade the Titan’s bombardments and reach its defenses, where Marbas disabled the tank before withdrawing under fire.
• Azmodai’s warriors entered the underground fortifications, joined an Angels of Repentance squad, and planned to breach the Titan’s armor with explosives.
• A biker and a recovering Librarian relayed the battlefield situation to the fleet, and the Librarian urged it to prepare an orbital Lance strike and trust Azmodai.
• Azmodai fought through the Titan’s defensive lines until he emerged before Marbas, who lunged at him, and Azmodai raised a metal door as a shield.

Azmodai defeated Marbas after awakening the ancient combat memories of Pharos Redros, then helped the Dark Angels destroy Malice’s altar and free the Emperor-class Titan before being teleported away. Ten days after the battle, he awoke badly injured and learned that Azrael was in trouble in an unknown star system in Ghoul.

• Azmodai fought Marbas, relived an ancient trial against a Caliban beast, and discovered that his gene-seed came from Pharos Redros.
• Azmodai pinned Marbas with the Blade of Reason, but the altar absorbed the Daemon Prince and began attacking everyone nearby.
• Azmodai ordered the Antimatter Bomb deployed against the altar, freeing the Emperor-class Titan as the surviving warriors escaped using the Deflection Field.
• A Dark Raven Fighter struck the Titan’s Void Shield with a missile, allowing the fleet to target it with a lance.
• The Angels of Absolution’s Apothecary and a Techmarine treated Azmodai after he was found three days later, and he awoke ten days after that with a mechanical arm and repaired organs.
• The Techmarine told Azmodai that Azrael’s forces had lost thirteen battles and that Inner Circle brothers had been ambushed in Ghoul.

The Adamantium Warriors and Yvraine’s Reaper Host fought through the underground mine as the Dark Angels closed in, while a Warp Spider’s escape brought daemonic corruption into the tunnels. Yvraine fled through the Webway with the Adamantium captain and pursuing Dark Angels following her, leaving the Sisters of Battle to find a chamber full of corpses and the glowing gate.

• The Adamantium captain sent his warriors to hide in the mine while he searched for a missing scout, and the Reaper Host attacked his advancing group.
• The Aeldari trapped the captain beneath a rockfall with gravitational devices, but he broke free and the Warp Spider wounded him before escaping through a narrow Warp Rift and becoming corrupted by daemons.
• Yvraine’s exhausted Reaper Host faced the Adamantium Warriors, while Dark Angels, Sisters of Battle, and psykers arrived and joined the underground battle.
• Yvraine entered the Webway with the remnants of her Reaper Host, and the Adamantium captain and pursuing Dark Angels chased after them.
• The Sisters of Battle reached the chamber and found corpses scattered around the still-glowing Webway Gate.

Yvraine and the Reaper Host fought through a Webway battle alongside the Adamantium Warriors, Dark Angels, and Sisters of Battle as Aeldari reinforcements arrived. The Adamantium Warriors seized an Aeldari Gunboat, and its squad leader delivered Guilliman’s threat to Yvraine.

• Yvraine’s decoy force turned back toward the Webway Gate, while the Adamantium Warriors, Dark Angels, and Sisters of Battle fought the daemons and each other.
• The Adamantium Warriors charged through the Daemon Tide, drawing the Aeldari wounded into the battle as Yvraine’s forces struggled to hold their ground.
• The Idamondric shuttle arrived with Aeldari reinforcements, and Yvraine recovered Bhaighatan’s Wrath while the Reaper Host suffered heavy losses.
• Aeldari reinforcements gathered at the Webway Gate, and the Adamantium Warriors pushed through the daemons toward them.
• The Adamantium Warriors leaped onto an approaching Antigrav Gunboat and took control of it, killing its crew as the squad leader reached the cockpit.
• The squad leader piloted the Gunboat over Yvraine and shouted that the Lord Regent was going to kill her.

The Adamantium Warriors escaped through the Webway and decided to raid Aeldari outposts, while the Dark Angels’ hunt for Cypher ended in a disastrous ambush and a fleet-wide counteroffensive by Evan. By 867.M42, the First Expeditionary Force had been battered and the war’s outcome announced as a victory, while Guilliman ordered forces to prepare for the Crimson Tide’s advance.

• The captain’s gunboat evaded daemons in the Webway, and the warriors killed an invisible daemon before deciding to become Webway raiders and hunt Aeldari outposts.
• Azmodai’s fleet answered a distress signal as Evan’s forces trapped the Dark Angels on a frozen moon; the Heavenly Heroes suffered heavy losses while fighting to recover Dark Angels gene-seed.
• Azmodai confronted Azrael over Cypher and the Inner Circle’s disobedience, then imposed renewed obedience before the First Expeditionary Force resumed its pursuit.
• Evan’s Crimson Tide fleet regrouped behind the pursuing First Expeditionary Force, struck its supply routes, and drove it through a series of costly battles until its fighting capacity collapsed.
• Evan declared the strategic objectives achieved and tasked the Dawn Angels with spreading news of the Dark Angels’ defeat; Ragnar Blackmane mocked Azrael’s accusations against the Space Wolves.
• Guilliman ordered six expeditionary forces back to defend Terra, assigned the Space Wolves to guard the Eye of Terror, and told the Dark Angels to rebuild and prepare to encircle the rebels.

The Crimson Tide raided an Agri-World for its tithe before launching a full-scale assault on a Sanctuary World, where the Ecclesiarchy and Sisters of Battle resisted. Evan directed the campaign as the Astartes seized key targets, and Rogier’s Wolf Warriors became trapped deep in the city after capturing a warehouse.

• The Crimson Tide forced the Agri-World’s tribal chiefs to surrender ten years of livestock tithe in exchange for supplies and forty years without Imperial taxation.
• The fleet reached the Sanctuary World and began attacking its defenses, while Tenth Company neophytes watched the poorer districts and Evan coordinated the assault.
• Astartes captured key areas and public warehouses as believers, Servitors, Sisters of Battle, and an Astra Militarum regiment fought back through the city.
• The Wolf Warriors attacked the city’s power reactor but were hit by toxic scented-candle fumes, and the Sisters of Battle’s counterattack ended in heavy losses.
• Rogier led the Wolf Warriors to capture a warehouse, then found their withdrawal blocked by crowds and heavy vehicles at the surrounding intersections.
• An Imperial Fist transport commander fired an overloaded Zhengyang Particle Cannon into the believers gathered below.