Chapter Summaries

The Dawn Army under Horus conquered Cabalide’s Primary Hive City after a costly battle with the Astra Militarum. Horus and Bona then discussed the newly awakened Necrons and decided to consolidate their forces before confronting them.

• Horus led the Dawn Army in a coordinated assault that broke the Astra Militarum’s command and surrounded its strongpoints.
• Sako survived the bombardment, then fought alongside Commissar Jackson and the Astra Militarum as they repelled an initial Dawn Army push before Astartes arrived and overwhelmed them.
• The final Astra Militarum stronghold fell, with more than eighteen thousand soldiers dead and over twenty Astartes killed.
• Horus reviewed reports of black xenos fleets and metal skeletons attacking Imperial forces with Green Lightning and Particle Whips.
• Bona identified the xenos as Necrons and explained that Archmagos Antonia had studied their technology.
• Horus called for the Necrons’ eradication, but Bona urged him to occupy nearby sectors and strengthen the Dawn Army first.

Bona reconsidered his plans for the Ecclesiarchy after a Sector Preacher explained how faith sustained the Imperium’s people and soldiers. After speaking with Horus, Bona decided to go to Ultramar.

• Bals rebuked the XVI Legion’s recruits for their losses and began training them by fighting them himself.
• The expeditionary fleet received reinforcements, bringing the XVI Legion to three thousand Astartes and expanding from Cabalide.
• Bona asked the Sector Preacher to cooperate, but the preacher defended the importance of faith despite the Ecclesiarchy’s abuses.
• Bona realized that destroying the Ecclesiarchy could deprive humanity of the faith that kept it from Chaos.
• Horus found Bona outside the intact church and asked about his plans, and Bona announced that he was going to Ultramar.

Bona explored Macragge and admired the enduring prosperity built on Roboute Guilliman’s laws before remembering his agreement with Slaanesh. He entered the Fortress of Hera with Teresa and prepared to pose her as Yvraine to influence the comatose Guilliman, while keeping the Ultramarines under watch.

• Bona toured Macragge, spoke with its residents, and drew inspiration from the society Guilliman had established.
• Bona remembered his agreement with Slaanesh and brought Teresa to the Fortress of Hera, where they passed unseen by the guards.
• Bona found Guilliman in stasis with a Chaos-tainted throat wound and decided not to revive him with his blood.
• Bona instructed Teresa to disguise herself as Yvraine and maximize Guilliman’s affection for the Aeldari.
• Bona sealed the doors to Guilliman’s chamber and resolved to keep watch on the Ultramarines.

Bona planted a convincing dream in Guilliman’s mind, then searched the Fortress of Hera’s archives and discovered records of Imperium Secundus. Meanwhile, Tigurius warned Calgar of a coming catastrophe from Cadia and sensed Chaos Sorcery in the fortress.

• Bona made Guilliman dream that Horus betrayed the Imperium and that Yvraine’s Aeldari forces came to his aid.
• Bona entered a heavily guarded archive and read Guilliman’s sealed records, including documents about Imperium Secundus.
• Tigurius arrived at the Fortress of Hera and urged Calgar to prepare Ultramar and send reinforcements to Cadia.
• Tigurius warned Calgar that the Fortress of Hera reeked of Chaos Sorcery.

Bona used himself as a decoy to distract the Ultramarines while Teresa carried out her maneuvers, then escaped with her through a Warp rift. Tigurius recognized that the powerful Tzeentch sorcerer had left the Fortress of Hera and resolved to report the incident to Calgar.

• Bona alerted the Ultramarines to his presence in the archives, drawing Calgar and Tigurius to confront him.
• Calgar fought Bona, while Tigurius warned that the enemy’s Warp presence was extraordinarily powerful.
• Sicarius disarmed and subdued Bona, but the captive dissolved into an illusion.
• Bona watched the Ultramarines scramble from the Fortress of Hera, then escaped through a Warp rift with Teresa.
• Tigurius found Tzeentch’s sigil scorched into the grass and decided to report the sorcerer’s escape to Calgar.

Bona expanded the Thunderhawk Empire through reforms, a new Ecclesiarchy, and limited xenos trade while Horus led its offensives across the Eastern Fringe. As an Imperial expeditionary fleet advanced toward Cabalide, Horus chose to defend Hexen and intercept it there.

• Bona added proportional tithes and term limits for planetary governors to the Human Codex, founded the New Ecclesiarchy, and legalized the purchase of xenos goods.
• Bona ordered the execution of T'au merchants after learning they promoted the Greater Good.
• Horus directed coordinated attacks by Imperial, Space Marine, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Chaos warships that shattered the Eastern Fringe's defenses.
• Horus studied an Imperial expeditionary fleet advancing toward Cabalide and identified Hexen as the best place to intercept it.
• Horus ordered his troops to assemble and defend Hexen.

An Imperial expedition gathered to plan its campaign against the rebel empire in the Eastern Fringe, then learned that Horus Lupercal commanded the enemy. Inquisitor Achilles assigned the Space Marines to find Horus, though he withheld what that mission entailed.

• Cardinal Noshvar denounced the heretical empire as the commanders debated their campaign plan.
• The admiral explained that the expedition would secure its rear, recover stranded Imperial forces, and attack Cabalide, but Hexen blocked its route.
• Inquisitor Achilles revealed that Horus Lupercal, the ancient instigator of the Horus Heresy, led the enemy forces.
• Inquisitor Achilles said the expedition could only slow Horus's advance because most Imperial forces were committed against the Black Legion near the Eye of Terror.
• Inquisitor Achilles ordered the Space Marines to find Horus, but refused to explain the mission further when McDoss demanded details.

Titus joined the Ultramarines' preparations for an assault on Horus, while Horus fortified Hexen and awaited the Imperial Expeditionary Force. The Imperials entered the system and defeated Admiral Spire's Dawn Fleet in a costly retreat, leaving Hexen's defenses as their next obstacle.

• Blood Angels Company Captain McDoss left the meeting to rally reinforcements for an attack on Horus, while Agemman assigned Titus to fight as an adjutant with the Second Company.
• Horus prepared Hexen for the invasion by yielding the Southern Continent to the Orks and fortifying the Northern Sector with mines, artillery, and fortresses.
• The Imperial Expeditionary Force entered the Hexen system and suffered losses to Chaos warship fire and space mines.
• Admiral Spire ordered the Dawn Fleet to fight while withdrawing, but the Imperial Fleet inflicted heavy losses before automated asteroid gun batteries covered the Dawn Fleet's retreat.
• The Imperial Expeditionary Force advanced toward Hexen, a world covered in wilderness.

Titus and the Ultramarines landed off course on Hexen and fought through the Dawn Army’s armoured forces while Cato Sicarius ordered them to support Deher Squad. Imperial reinforcements secured a landing zone, and both armies regrouped overnight as a more brutal battle loomed on the second day.

• Titus’s landing pod was damaged by antiaircraft fire and landed off course on Hexen, where the Ultramarines attacked nearby Dawn Army troops and destroyed a Chimera.
• Sicarius told Titus that Deher Squad was under attack fifty kilometres south, so Titus ordered his battle-brothers to bring anti-materiel weapons and support them.
• Imperial Knights, Sisters of Battle, Kasrkin, and Elysian airborne troops helped break the Dawn Army’s armoured counterattack and secure a landing zone.
• The Dawn Army withdrew to its frontline fortresses as the Imperium continued deploying troops, while both sides paused their ground fighting for the night.
• The second day’s sunlight rose over Hexen as both sides prepared for an even more brutal battle.

Tam and the Dawn Army defenders faced repeated assaults by the Death Korps of Krieg, whose soldiers advanced through artillery fire and flames without faltering. The Krieg broke through the fortress line, leaving the Dawn Army in retreat.

• Tam told his companion about killing an armoured woman who had murdered Ek and Presi, then admitted he doubted the Emperor after his sister was taken by dark witches.
• Astra Militarum artillery struck the fortress, and Tam and the Dawn Army scrambled into shelters before taking up defensive positions.
• The Dawn Army opened fire on an initial Krieg assault, but the attackers returned in successive waves despite heavy casualties and resumed bombardment.
• Tam was wounded by a lasgun blast as the defenders and Astra Militarum exchanged fire, while Roarer heavy artillery silenced the enemy guns.
• A larger Krieg force advanced with Chimera carriers and Leman Russ tanks, and Tam recognized that the earlier charges had been probes.
• Krieg soldiers emerged from burning promethium and charged into the defensive line, killing defenders and breaking the Dawn Army.

The Krieg, Ultramarines, and Knight Houses fought the Dawn Army’s armored assault, while the Ultramarines clashed with Luna Wolves led by their First Company Captain. In the southern hemisphere, Big Teef’s Orks attacked the Imperial landing zone until enormous mountain-like beings appeared and fired on them.

• The Krieg soldiers charged the Dawn Army’s armor, and the Knight Houses fought until their Ion Shields failed, buying time for gunships to slow the advance.
• A Dreadnought crushed and blasted enemy vehicles as Ultramarines arrived to support it, then the Ultramarines fought Astartes in white armor bearing Luna Wolves emblems.
• Titus noticed that the Luna Wolves were unusually inexperienced yet stronger and faster than his warriors, then fought their First Company Captain.
• Big Teef’s Dihuang Boss fired its Dead Stare lasers at a Knight and led an Ork assault on the Imperial landing zone while Sisters of Battle tried and failed to destroy it.
• A heat ray tore through the Dihuang Boss, and Big Teef saw enormous mountain-like beings approach and fire again.

Naruf reported to Horus that Sector C had fallen as the Imperial Army drove the Dawn Army back, but an emergency transmission revealed that a Titan Legion had entered the battle. Led by Laos Four Hundred in his Warlord-class Titan Elena, the Legion reached its firing position and unleashed its Volcano Cannon.

• Naruf returned to the Waning Moon Fortress and told Horus that Sector C had fallen.
• Horus reviewed the Imperial Army’s steady advance and the Dawn Fleet’s success in preventing a full naval blockade.
• An emergency transmission warned Horus that the enemy had deployed a Titan Legion.
• Laos Four Hundred led the Titan Legion across Hexen with Elena, his Warlord-class Titan.
• At the firing position, Four Hundred let Elena unleash her Volcano Cannon, whose blast lit the darkened battlefield.

Sage Dorkerson unleashed the Wrath of the Omnissiah, erasing most of the Titan Legion and leaving one Warlord-class Titan alive. Horus ordered Kobel and the Second Company to board the surviving Titan and prevent it from returning to its lines.

• Sage Dorkerson revealed the Wrath of the Omnissiah and fired it at the Titan Legion.
• The weapon destroyed the leading Warhound Titan, the rest of the Legion, nearby Knights, Skitarii, and part of Hexen, while one Warlord Titan survived.
• Four Hundred and Elena reacted in terror to the destruction, and Four Hundred ordered a retreat.
• Sage Dorkerson told Horus that the weapon needed to rest, and Horus arranged air cover for his withdrawal.
• Horus ordered Kobel and the Second Company to board the surviving Titan, with support from the Seventy-eighth Armored Regiment.

Captain Kobel and his Astartes boarded the Titan, disabled it, and turned the battle around as the Dawn Army tried to protect the machine from Imperial forces. At Imperial Army headquarters, Inquisitor Blackhammer took command and ordered an immediate assault on the Main Fortress.

• Captain Kobel led Second Company out of the fortress while the Seventy-eighth Armored Regiment and a Knight Force fought the Titan and the Dawn Army’s armored vehicles.
• A Duelist destroyed an Emperor’s Baneblade, while the Knights were overwhelmed and brought down.
• Captain Kobel grappled onto the Titan, breached its armor with a Melta Bomb, and entered the machine.
• Four Hundred realized that Astartes had boarded the Titan and attacked his crew, while Elena reported that the right foot had stopped responding.
• The Titan fell silent, prompting the Dawn Army to defend it as the Imperial Army attacked.
• Inquisitor Blackhammer took command at Imperial Army headquarters and ordered a direct assault on the Main Fortress, regardless of losses.

Horus realized the Imperial Army’s assault was aimed at him and led the Luna Wolves into battle against its elite forces. Custodians and a Grey Knights Arbiter arrived, but the Arbiter’s attempt to weaken Horus by shouting his names only enraged him.

• Horus recognized that the Imperial assault targeted him and ordered Naruf to gather the First Company and every wolf pup in the fortress.
• Horus emerged from the fortress gates, and the Blood Angels and other Imperial forces charged him and the Luna Wolves.
• Titus and Cato Sicarius fought together as Horus’s leadership and the Bones of War helped the Luna Wolves overwhelm the Loyalist warriors.
• Custodians and Grey Knights reinforcements arrived, and the Grey Knights Arbiter tried to weaken Horus by calling out his names.
• Horus appeared unaffected by the Arbiter’s attack and threatened to chop him into mincemeat.

Horus’s forces fought off the Imperial troops at Crescent Moon Fortress until Bona’s Dawn Fleet arrived and forced the Imperial Fleet to flee Hexen, abandoning its ground forces. Bona then fired special shells across the planet, knocking nearly everyone unconscious as he prepared to deal with the remaining troops.

• Horus battled the Adeptus Custodes and Grey Knights, then withdrew from Crescent Moon Fortress while Automata held off the Imperial forces.
• Imperial headquarters ordered an emergency withdrawal after Dawn Army reinforcements attacked the Imperial Fleet, leaving most troops on Hexen behind.
• Bona contacted Horus aboard his flagship and explained that he had split crews across newly launched warships to bring the Dawn Fleet to Hexen.
• The Dawn Fleet drove the Imperial Fleet from the system, while abandoned Astra Militarum forces collapsed into panic and some tried to surrender to Chaos.
• Bona fired over ten thousand special shells at Hexen, releasing warp energy that knocked Imperial and Dawn Army troops unconscious, while the Orks in the southern hemisphere remained active.

Bona dealt with the captured Imperial forces on Hexen, assigning the most fanatical prisoners to labor or sparring while ordering a captured Titan princeps kept in custody. Elsewhere, Horus faced a challenge from an Ork boss and killed him with one hammer blow, leaving the other Orks unwilling to fight.

• Colonel Sakot reported that the Thunderhawk Empire had captured roughly four and a half million Astra Militarum troops, and Bona planned to screen them for possible service in the Dawn Army.
• Bona ordered the Sisters of Battle sent to Cabalide and Taranckd for labor, and the captured Space Marines sent to the Luna Wolves for sparring practice.
• Bona learned that a Titan princeps, an intact god-engine, and damaged Knight suits had been captured, then ordered the silent princeps held until he talked or died.
• The Imperium's forces suffered a crushing defeat on Hexen while the Black Adeptus Mechanicus salvaged Imperial warships from space.
• Big Nunu challenged Horus for the Ork boss's position, but Horus killed him with a single hammer strike and dared the other Orks to fight.

Abaddon launched the Thirteenth Black Crusade against Cadia, but the planet’s shield blocked the opening strike and its defenders resisted the Chaos invasion. As the front lines began to collapse, Lord Castellan Creed rallied the surviving soldiers to hold their ground.

• Abaddon brought the Chaos fleet to Cadia and ordered the Vengeful Spirit’s forces to destroy the planet.
• The Blackstone Fortress Eternal Will fired on Cadia, but the planet’s shield reactivated and stopped the attack.
• Abaddon sent landing forces to the surface, where Chaos armies overwhelmed Imperial aircraft and assaulted the fortresses.
• Imperial troops, Sisters of Battle, and Black Templars fought back as Kreiv Bastion endured bombardment and the Vulcan Titan Legion advanced.
• Lord Castellan Creed went to the front line and rallied the soldiers, who answered, “Cadia stands!”

Streka sacrificed himself to stall a Chaos Titan as Cadia’s defenders fought to hold Kreiv Bastion until Saint Celestine arrived and drove back the daemons. The Blackstone Fortress exploded, then fell onto Cadia, shattering the planet despite the Imperial Navy’s efforts to stop it.

• Streka led Squadron 119 in an attack on the Legio Ignatum, then crashed his burning Valkyrie into a Warlord Titan and briefly halted it.
• Ucantors and the Hounds of Abaddon overwhelmed Kreiv Bastion’s defenders, forcing them to retreat as the Khorne Cultists grew stronger.
• Saint Celestine appeared above the battlefield, killed Ucantors, and rallied the Imperial defenders to retake Kreiv Bastion.
• The Blackstone Fortress exploded and devastated much of the Chaos Fleet as the Phalanx arrived and attacked the remaining warships.
• Abaddon ordered the Chaos fleet to drive the Blackstone Fortress into Cadia, while the Imperial Navy and the Phalanx tried to stop it.
• The Blackstone Fortress crashed into Cadia, causing the planet’s crust and core to fracture until Cadia broke apart.

The Dawn Army tried to reinforce the Ultima Segmentum as a warp storm cut off Cadia, but Alpha Legion agents sabotaged the spaceport and attacked its defenders. Bona identified the Legion’s long-term aim as making the Emperor a god.

• After seven fleets vanished trying to reach Cadia, Bona ordered the Dawn Army to suspend hostilities with the Imperium and prepare to reinforce the Ultima Segmentum.
• As the fleet prepared to depart, Luna Wolves attacked the spaceport and seized its gates, prompting Horus to lead the response.
• Horus defeated the attackers at Gate Three and discovered that the captured Astartes were Alpha Legion warriors.
• Horus ordered Naruf to inspect every Astartes in the legion and arrest anyone who seemed irregular.
• Bona argued that the Alpha Legion had fueled wars across Imperial history to keep the Imperium embroiled in conflict, ultimately aiming to make the Emperor a god.