Chapter Summaries

Evan’s Crimson Tide raided an Ecclesiarchy pilgrimage world, captured its orbital fleet, and evaded the Black Templars before continuing its covert campaign through nearby subsectors. As a Dark Angels force reached Evan’s chosen forge world, its workers joined a Genestealer Cult and began building a psychic beacon to summon their god.

• The Crimson Tide devastated the pilgrimage world, captured the Imperial Icon and nearby installations, then withdrew before the Black Templars arrived.
• Evan’s fleet evaded pursuit by traveling through realspace, returned to an agri world, and reclaimed its strike cruisers during a staged battle with the Dark Angels.
• Nian Cijin arranged a meeting with a paradise world’s Steward, and Evan coerced him into providing intelligence in exchange for protection and treasure.
• The Crimson Tide launched raids across nearby subsectors while the Dark Angels tracked its movements and organized a two-hundred-ship encirclement force led by the Grand Master of the Deathwing.
• As the Dark Angels entered the forge world’s system, its population gathered to hear a Genestealer Cult Bishop announce the construction of an Ascension Altar that would amplify psychic power and summon the thousand-armed god.

Nian Cijin’s fleet discovered a Genestealer Cult infiltrating Magos Nine’s Forge World and launched a fierce assault to seize the world and destroy its Ascension Platform. The platform’s psychic power brought down the Spaceport, leaving the Genestealers buried beneath its wreckage and the battle unresolved.

• Nian Cijin sent Magos Nine back toward his laboratory with a Roscoe Ground Sweeper tank as a gift, but the Genestealer Cult ambushed them and opened fire on the fleet.
• The Astartes rescued Magos Nine, fought through the Space Station, and launched an assault that broke the Forge World’s defenses and exposed the unfinished Ascension Platform.
• Magos Nine identified the platform’s location, and Nian Cijin ordered a Lance strike while the High Priest gathered the Genestealers’ psychic power to protect it.
• The Patriarch joined the High Priest, and their combined psychic power struck the Battle Barge as the Light of the People attacked the platform’s defenses.
• Nian Cijin ordered the Battle Barge to pull away, but the Spaceport fell onto the Ascension Platform and buried the area in wreckage; seven Adamantium squads were reported missing.
• The Genestealers survived beneath an armored cover, and the Patriarch urged them to finish the Ascension Platform while the earth shook around them.

Ans uncovered the Genestealer Cult’s underground supply routes and led the Crimson Tide forces into a fierce assault toward the Ascension Platform. After battling Aberrants and resisting the High Priest’s psychic attack, he received Evan’s order to withdraw.

• Ans found a hidden passage, used a Mechanical Eagle to locate the enemy’s underground network, and called the Firefighting Squad to map it.
• Ans led the forces through the passages with a Tarantula-pattern Mole Drill, while Genestealers launched a suicide attack with an explosive carrier.
• The Genestealer Patriarch committed its reserves to defend the Ascension Platform, and Ans called Kuroser’s Wolf Warriors to reinforce him.
• Ans fought Aberrants and Genestealers alongside the Firefighting Squad, then ordered the mortals to advance in coordinated fire.
• The High Priest attacked Ans’s mind with psychic power, but Evan ordered every unit to withdraw.

The Crimson Tide retreated from a Genestealer-infested Forge World while the Dark Angels pursued them, and Evan redirected his fleet toward the Alpha Legion. On Terra, Guilliman, Titus, and Inquisitor Besque infiltrated the sewers to hunt the Genestealers, and Guilliman split off to reach their lair alone.

• Ans ordered the Firefighting Squad to retreat after a psychic blast crippled his armor and burned off his hair, and the squad escaped by detonating an ion plasma cylinder against pursuing Genestealers.
• The Dark Angels arrived at the Forge World, followed signs left by the Crimson Tide, and Azrael ordered the force to retake the strategically important planet.
• Evan sent his fleet toward a Warp route that would bring it near the Alpha Legion, while the Custodian Tech Mogul told him that Terra could be transformed into a Gaia World in about a year.
• Guilliman secretly led a hunt for Terra's Genestealers with Titus and Inquisitor Besque, who used his flesh psyker powers to disguise himself as a Genestealer and create scout creatures.
• Guilliman chose the largest passage at a sewer junction and ran ahead alone, while Titus and Besque followed separately.

Guilliman’s forces attacked the Genestealer Cult from above and below while Alpharius ambushed and killed the fleeing Patriarch. Titus and the Inquisitor then defeated the cult’s war leader, and the surviving xenos fled into another wave of Imperial forces as Alpharius disguised himself as Guilliman again.

• The Victrix Guard’s supply convoy drew the Genestealer Cult into an attack, while the Custodes intercepted the Purestrain Genestealers the Patriarch sent against them.
• The Patriarch fled through hidden tunnels with an Abominant, but Alpharius ambushed them, killed the Abominant, and wounded the Patriarch in a prolonged fight.
• The wounded Patriarch blasted through a blocked passage, but Alpharius pursued and killed it, causing the Genestealer Cult to collapse into chaos.
• Titus fought the cult’s war leader’s followers while the Inquisitor challenged and killed the war leader.
• The surviving xenos fled into another Imperial force, while Alpharius recovered, changed into Guilliman’s form, and remained gaunt from hunger.

After recovering from battle, Guilliman returned to Imperial administration while the Crimson Tide fleet traveled to resupply among a Rogue Trader dynasty. Tzeentch’s Changeling infiltrated the Light of the People and sowed chaos across the ship, ending with Victor confronting its latest disguise.

• Guilliman hid his damaged armor fragments in a Genestealer’s carcass, drank its blood, and ordered the Victrix Guard to pursue the remaining enemies while he held the passage.
• Guilliman rejected Titus’s transfer request, reviewed the Raven Guard’s warning about the Crimson Tide, and told the Raven Guard to continue its mission.
• The Crimson Tide withdrew from an Imperial fortress world and traveled by a remote warp route to trade with a Rogue Trader dynasty, while Tzeentch planned to exploit the fleet’s need to replenish its crews.
• Nian Cijin’s fleet exchanged goods with the Rogue Traders, then departed with scouts and agents deployed across the region.
• The Changeling infiltrated the Light of the People, sabotaged its operations, provoked a fight among Astartes, and impersonated Horus, prompting Evan to raise the alarm.
• The Changeling appeared as a sacred image of Deika in the Chapter history hall, but Victor emerged from the shadows and confronted it.

Victor and the Tech Mogul fought The Changeling as it transformed into a Reaver-class Titan, while Ina was injured and Evan raced to the battlefield in the Silver Throne. Evan joined Victor in weakening the daemon, but The Changeling escaped their attacks and threatened Ina before a furious voice intervened.

• Victor attacked The Changeling, which dodged his strikes by changing forms and slaughtered mortals in the hall.
• The Changeling became a Reaver-class Titan, destroyed the Warp suppressors, and forced Victor, the Tech Mogul, and the Adamantium Warriors to fight under heavy fire.
• Ina was injured while trying to enter the hall, and an exaggerated report of her condition drove Evan to seize the Silver Throne and speed toward the battle.
• Evan crashed the Silver Throne into the Titan, disrupting The Changeling’s sorcery, then attacked alongside Victor with the Key of Helrek.
• The Changeling shrank into a Wraithknight and tried to escape amid the arrival of Blood Angels overcome by the black rage.
• The Changeling landed before the weakened Ina and raised its foot to crush her, but a furious shout rang out before it struck.

Evan and the Custodians defeated the Changeling, while the Crimson Tide set course for the Solar Sanctum and Victor left to restore his fading combat strength. Lian Leilo’s forces seized an Imperial defense world and captured an admiral, as Evan’s fleet pressed on toward the Imperium’s heart.

• Evan, Victor, and the Tech Mogul attacked the Changeling with anti-psyker weapons until it fled as a falcon, and the Custodians pursued it.
• Ina and Evan were carried from the battlefield, and the Changeling’s incursion was kept secret from most of the fleet.
• The Chapter criticized Evan for abandoning command, but he ordered the fleet to rendezvous with Lian Leilo and advance toward the Solar Sanctum.
• Victor told Evan he would leave to regain his strength, then departed through the Tech Mogul’s secret passage.
• The Crimson Tide bypassed Imperial worlds and defenses, while an Inquisitor assembled a decoy supply fleet and captured six Wind and Cloud-class Battleships.
• Lian Leilo’s forces infiltrated the Aelos Veil, seized a world, and captured an Imperial admiral who had conscripted local dignitaries.

Lian Leilo’s forces survived repeated Warp attacks, but Tzeentch’s daemons exploited the Iron Warriors’ shortage of Adamantium Armor to infiltrate a heavy cruiser. The chapter ended as corrupted mortals surrounded three Adamantium Warriors trapped in a shifting defensive maze.

• Lian Leilo brought Ralph’s rapidly growing Iron Warriors from Atris, where Ralph had covered the devastated landscape in steel, and moved them aboard Navy warships.
• Tzeentch targeted Lian Leilo’s forces because many neophytes lacked Adamantium Armor, but the Iron Warriors resisted the first daemon assault aboard an escort ship at the cost of heavy casualties among its crew.
• A Tzeentch daemon manipulated a heavy cruiser’s supervisor into preparing a trap and corrupted an Iron Warrior through a Chaos-tainted Tactical Visor.
• The corrupted Iron Warriors killed the supervisor, fought off their brothers, and concealed their possession of several bodies by repairing the lower decks and disguising the corpses as warriors.
• Three Adamantium Warriors investigated the suspicious lower decks, where the corrupted neophytes drew them into a maze of hidden weapons and moving walls.
• The three veterans found themselves trapped as ten daemons and corrupted mortals closed in, with the crowd praising change.

The Iron Warriors fought off Tzeentch’s attacks on the fleet, but a Sorcerous Torpedo struck after a pilot sacrificed himself to intercept it. As Ralph feared a growing curse on the Legion, Perturabo accepted a pact forged by Vashtorr.

• The Iron Warriors systematically hunted the Tzeentch Daemons through the lower decks, banishing nine while the tenth escaped into the warship’s exterior.
• A daemon infiltrated a Macro-cannon, but the Iron Warriors searched for it as Tzeentch’s forces disrupted the fleet and launched a Sorcerous Torpedo toward a warship.
• A fighter pilot rammed the torpedo, and the Iron Warriors answered the resulting sorcery with a united battle cry until its effects dissipated.
• Ralph ordered the warriors to spend more time in their Adamantium Warriors armour and sought the Baina Robe’s help, fearing a devastating conceptual shock from the renegade Legion.
• Perturabo refused Vashtorr’s offer to join the entombed abominations, then read and accepted a pact presented by the Dark Machine God.

The Iron Warriors began purging traitors devoted to other Chaos Gods while the Crimson Tide fought Imperial forces and the Minotaurs Chapter. A Minotaurs boarding action collided with Kazhaniv’s warriors, and Kazhaniv’s duel with the Minotaurs Chapter Master left him badly struck.

• Perturabo ordered the Iron Warriors to purge followers of the other Dark Gods, restoring morale and halting much of the Chaos offensive against realspace.
• Lian Leilo led the Crimson Tide through a dangerous Warp route, while Guilliman sent the Minotaurs Chapter to pressure Imperial Chapters fighting the rebels into withdrawing.
• The Silver Swords Chapter repeatedly raided the Crimson Tide’s forces, then launched a larger attack after learning the Minotaurs were approaching.
• The Minotaurs mistakenly boarded the Pipi Shrimp, and their Gorgon-pattern Terminators clashed with Kazhaniv’s Lerna Terminators as the fighting intensified.
• Kazhaniv fought the Minotaurs Chapter Master, who wielded an Akonak-pattern suit of Terminator armour, and their duel ended with the Chapter Master ramming his shield into Kazhaniv’s chest.

Kazhaniv’s Terminators overwhelmed the Minotaurs and forced their retreat, then boarded the disguised Daughter of the Storm, where the Lamenters and Chief Librarian joined the fighting. The chapter ended with the Chief Librarian landing in the Minotaurs’ armory and ordering their Neophytes to surrender.

• Kazhaniv trapped Asterion Molech’s weapons and crippled his shield arm, while Bars and the Crimson Tide’s firepower overwhelmed the Minotaurs’ troops.
• The Chief Librarian raised a wall to separate Kazhaniv and Asterion, then helped his comrades teleport away; Kazhaniv ordered his forces to rearm and board the enemy Battle Barge.
• The Minotaurs’ disguised Battle Barge used erratic gravity to hinder boarders, but Astartes adjusted their Grav-guns and fought through the ship as the fleet battle lasted eleven hours.
• Evan sent the Dawn Angels and Lamenters to the battle, and Maturio led the Lamenters aboard the ship they recognized as the Daughter of the Storm.
• The Chief Librarian tore open a Warp Rift and landed in the Techmarine’s armory, crushing a Damocles-pattern Rhino before ordering the Minotaurs’ Neophytes to surrender.

The Chief Librarian and the Adamantium Warriors battled the Minotaurs across captured warships as Evan decided to delay entering the Solar Sanctum and regroup with Lian Leilo. Meanwhile, Lian Leilo attacked Vollex Fortress World, where a two-man infiltration team entered the sealed city to sabotage its defenses.

• The Chief Librarian overpowered the Minotaurs aboard the Battle Barge Daughter of the Storm and ordered the Adamantium Warriors to capture it, while the Minotaurs Chapter Master led a retreat under heavy losses.
• The Chief Librarian and the Adamantium Warriors pushed through the warship's defenses, and the Minotaurs fleet fled toward the Solar Sanctum as its ships were disabled and boarded.
• Evan learned that Guilliman had sent the Minotaurs to retrieve the smaller chapters, then chose to wait for reinforcements and rendezvous with Lian Leilo before entering the Solar Sanctum.
• Lian Leilo attacked Vollex Fortress World, but its defenses held against bombardment, so he planned to use empty Drop Pods as a diversion for a sabotage team.
• The teleportation Librarian died when the team materialized inside rock, and the Neophyte Instructor and Demolition Expert infiltrated the city while seeking access to its central systems.
• The Neophyte Instructor staged an accident to follow an injured Astra Militarum soldier to the infirmary, then slipped beneath a medical supply truck with the Demolition Expert.

Two Crimson Tide warriors infiltrated the fortress world’s void shield complex, but Lian Leilo canceled their mission and the Chief Librarian teleported them back to the fleet. The Crimson Tide then split its campaign: Lian Leilo led the main force through Segmentum Pacificus while Evan drew Imperial forces toward the Solar Sanctum, and Guilliman responded by ordering its defenses reinforced and receiving reports of attacks on Nova Terra.

• The Neophyte Instructor and Demolition Expert used a staged ion-wind incident to enter the void shield complex, but Lian Leilo sent a signal ordering them to withdraw.
• The warriors escaped the lockdown through an exhaust duct, and the Chief Librarian arrived to teleport them back to the flagship.
• Evan gave Lian Leilo the fleet and ordered him to expand the campaign across the galaxy, while the Chief Librarian chased Evan through the flagship after accusing him of starting a war with the Imperium.
• The Crimson Tide displayed the Light of the People before the fortress world, then departed after its ground cannon overloaded two repaired void shields.
• Evan attacked the Solar Sanctum’s approaches to divert Imperial forces, while Lian Leilo’s fleet launched a major offensive across Segmentum Pacificus.
• Guilliman ordered the Solar Sanctum strongpoints defended and sent the Light of the People’s model to the First Founding Chapters, then received reports of Crimson Tide attacks on Nova Terra.

Alpharius issued orders to secure Imperial territory before setting out, while Lucius led his warband in a sudden boarding assault on a Crimson Tide battleship. The battle escalated when the Adamantium Warriors and Kuroser’s Wolf Brothers confronted Lucius, who ended the chapter facing Kuroser with a severed wolf’s head in hand.

• Alpharius condemned Imperium Secundus, ordered the White Scars and Raven Guard to continue their missions, dispersed the First Expeditionary Force, and summoned the Imperial Fists Chapter Master.
• Lucius complained of dwindling stimulant supplies, threatened and whipped The Masque Dancer, then prepared his warband for battle when their Space Hulk collided with a Crimson Tide battleship.
• Lucius’s forces teleported aboard the battleship and attacked the Adamantium Warriors, while Rasved’s sorcery corrupted the corridors and Lucius fought the armored defenders.
• Kuroser led the Wolf Brothers into the ship and joined the battle, while Lucius knocked an Adamantium Warrior down and moved to strike him.
• A giant wolf tore the stimulant injector from Lucius’s back, and Lucius retaliated by hurling the wolf into a wall and taking its head as Kuroser challenged him.

Kuroser defeated Lucius in battle but was left grievously wounded and corrupted by the daemon’s whip. Evan recognized the danger that Lucius could possess Kuroser when he died, so he had him sealed in a heavily reinforced Stasis Field, leaving the story with Kuroser imprisoned as a possible weapon against powerful enemies.

• Kuroser fought Lucius and his servants, enduring severe injuries while Lucius’s bodyguards fell to the Space Wolves.
• Kuroser caught Lucius’s Whip of Torment in his teeth and slammed Lucius into a wall, crushing his body before Lucius could strike again.
• The Whip’s corruption overwhelmed Kuroser’s senses, and his brothers carried him away as he lost consciousness.
• After learning that the enemy was Lucius, Evan ordered a Stasis Field, a Gravity Field, and Blank remains prepared to contain him if he possessed Kuroser.
• Evan placed liquor beside Kuroser in the Stasis Field and explained that Kuroser could serve as a weapon against formidable enemies because Lucius might possess whoever killed him.

Evan directed the battle against the Slaaneshi forces while the Heavenly Heroes helped defeat the Masque Dancer, but the fight unleashed the Wolf Brothers’ werewolf curse. Rogier ordered himself and the transformed warriors placed in stasis, leaving Ans to command the survivors and Evan grieving the heavy losses.

• Evan sent the fleet to intercept the pursuing Imperium forces and ordered Vlorus to reinforce the Wolf Warriors.
• Kazhaniv’s Terminators struggled against the daemons aboard the Space Hulk until the Adamantium Warriors and Iron Warriors brought heavy firepower to the battle.
• The Masque Dancer overwhelmed Rogier and bound the Wolf Brothers with her dancing curse, but Vlorus and the blinded Prophetic Librarian struck her down with their Thunder Hammers.
• The Masque Dancer’s dying scream awakened the Wolf Brothers’ werewolf transformation, and the Sixth Company mourned its many dead.
• Situval subdued the transformed Rogier, who ordered Ans to lead the Wolf Brothers and himself and the affected warriors to be placed in stasis.
• Evan ordered the Beiwei Army to reinforce Kazhaniv, then visited Rogier, who entered the stasis field after reaffirming his resolve to protect humanity.

Guilliman ordered the Solar Sanctum’s defenders to hold position and tightened security as Evan set out against the Alpha Legion. After Sisyphus foresaw a Tyranid swarm approaching the Legion, Evan headed toward the crisis while the Alpha Legion destroyed a besieged world and tried to escape the advancing Hive Fleet.

• Guilliman rejected calls to pursue the retreating Crimson Tide, ordered the Imperium’s forces to hold their positions, and had the Inquisition supervise military defenses.
• Guilliman ordered stricter inspections of supply ships, and Imperial forces uncovered cultist ships and a Khorne relic hidden among incoming supplies.
• Evan took the Light of the People to attack Imperial Navy fleets that had disobeyed Guilliman’s orders, while Sisyphus detected a Slaanesh cultist among the enemy forces.
• During a seizure, Sisyphus warned Kazhaniv that a Tyranid swarm was heading toward the Alpha Legion, and Evan set course for the threat.
• The Alpha Legion fought through fierce Imperial resistance and used a Virus Bomb to destroy the last planet in the system before the Tyranid fleet arrived.
• Caught between Tyranid forces, the Alpha Legion abandoned its refugee transports and concentrated its firepower on breaking out.

Evan’s fleet pursued the withdrawing Alpha Legion, but a Custodian stopped him from attacking, so he turned toward the Nachmund Region and Vigilus. On a lawless world, Marines Malevolent tried to seize four Crimson Tide veterans, prompting the Light of the People to send reinforcements; the chapter ends as the Wolf Brother and a White Scars warrior attack.

• The Alpha Legion’s transports detonated to open an escape route, and Evan destroyed the Tyranid tendril’s command ship with the Psyker Main Cannon, forcing the swarm to withdraw.
• Evan followed the Alpha Legion, but the Tech Mogul stopped his planned attack after confirming Guilliman had ordered the Custodians not to interfere with the Twentieth Legion.
• Evan left for the Nachmund Region and Vigilus, and his fleet encountered the impoverished Marines Malevolent while traveling through the galaxy.
• Marines Malevolent cornered four Crimson Tide veterans who were posing as the Light of Redemption Chapter, and the veterans called for reinforcements after realizing they were outnumbered.
• The Light of the People sent warriors to the planet after losing contact with the veterans, and a Wolf Brother charged the Marines Malevolent with a Power Axe as a White Scars warrior struck alongside him.

The Crimson Tide and Adamantium Warriors defeated the Malevolent Warriors, seized their Strike Cruiser, and uncovered a record warning that Tyranids had consumed a Custodian. Evan then set course for Vigilus to find Belisarius Cawl’s Blackstone research sites, while Cawl scrambled to defend them.

• The Crimson Tide overwhelmed the Malevolent Warriors on the ground, captured their surviving fighters, and used their communicator to summon their brothers from the Strike Cruiser.
• The Adamantium Warriors boarded and captured the Malevolent Warriors’ Strike Cruiser, and Evan ordered the surviving Malevolent Warriors exiled to the planet below.
• Enke showed Evan a record describing a Custodian Watcher’s death on Loke 2 and the possibility that Tyranids had acquired Custodian genes.
• Evan sealed the Malevolent Warriors’ gene-seed and ordered the Crimson Tide to head for Vigilus, where he hoped to locate Cawl’s Blackstone research sites.
• Cawl learned that the Crimson Tide was attacking the Vigilus region and sought reinforcements as Evan ordered bombardment of planets near suspected laboratories.
• An Adeptus Custodes warrior traveled with the Wind and Cloud-class Battleship to tell Cawl to halt his experiments and turn existing materials into Blackstone Spires.