Chapter Summaries

Bona and Perturabo defended Asdenak against the Tyranid invasion while the planet’s immense cannon charged. After the surface was devastated and the fighting moved underground, Bona learned that an enemy was attacking the energy hub and went to confront it.

• Bona confirmed with Fabricator-General Antonia that the cannon needed about four days to charge as the Tyranid fleet approached.
• Tyranid Bio-ships overwhelmed the human fleet and crashed onto Asdenak, where the invading swarm rapidly overran the surface defenses.
• Perturabo’s preparations ignited the planet’s promethium pipelines and unleashed Virus Bombs mixed with Nurgle’s Rot, briefly clearing the surface.
• The Tyranids exposed the underground passages by stripping away the surface, then renewed their assault as human casualties mounted.
• Fabricator-General Antonia reported that attacks on energy storage sectors had delayed the cannon and warned that an enemy was assaulting the energy hub in Zone A.
• Bona picked up his Chainsword and went to deal with the attacker.

Legion Commander Gell and the remaining defenders fought a Tyranid assault as the Hive Lord broke through their last line. Bona unleashed his psychic power to destroy the Hive Lord, and Horus reported that the cannon was fully charged.

• Gell and fewer than a hundred Iron Warriors formed a final defense before Asdenak's vital charging zone.
• The Hive Lord tore through the blast doors, and Tyranid creatures overran the defenders after corrosive shells opened a gap in their line.
• Gell challenged the Hive Lord, but it ignored him and pressed toward the rear until Bona attacked with psychic lightning.
• Bona evaded the Hive Lord's corrosive shot, struck its head from behind, and unleashed a psychic blast that burned its upper body to charcoal.
• Bona and the unconscious Gell were the only survivors in the hall when Horus reported the cannon was fully charged, and Bona ordered it to fire.

Fabricator-General Antonia fired Asdenak’s planetary cannon at the Ancient Ship, but the Great Devourer survived and left humanity facing defeat. Bona rallied the remaining warriors to board and attack the Tyranid ships.

• Asdenak split open to reveal its planetary weapon, and Fabricator-General Antonia prepared to fire as the Tech-Priests completed the energy rites.
• The Great Devourer unleashed a psychic shriek that killed Psykers and Synapse Creatures, paralyzed human forces, and drove the Tyranids to sabotage the planet’s weapon.
• Antonia pulled the control lever, and Asdenak’s cannon blasted the Ancient Ship, but the explosion wrecked the planet and the ship survived, badly burned.
• The surviving humans realized they had failed, and Horus froze in panic as the Great Devourer’s defiant shriek sounded again.
• Bona broadcast his final order, calling on everyone to charge the ships, board them, and attack.

Bona led the human fleets and Orks in a reckless assault on the Tyranid Ancient Ship, then slipped away from the command post to pursue its psychic nerve center. Horus discovered Bona and the Thunder Warriors had vanished while the boarding battle continued.

• Human regiments and commanders answered Bona’s call, and Horus and Perturabo joined the charge against the Ancient Ship.
• Kakka Ironhammer rallied the Orks to turn their fleet around and follow the humans into the assault.
• Bona’s flagship and the other human vessels plunged through the Ancient Ship’s wounds, and Magos Dorkerson identified the vessels and spinal columns that needed to be demolished.
• Bona chose to head toward the region beneath the ship’s central spinal ridge, which Magos Dorkerson identified as its likely nerve center and synaptic hub.
• Tyranid creatures poured from emergency hatching sites as humans and Tyranids fought fiercely inside the ship, and Horus realized Bona and the Thunder Warriors had disappeared.

Bona entered the Ancient Ship’s Ventricular Chamber and met the Queen, who revealed that the Tyranids were created to destroy all life and starve the Chaos Gods. Refusing to let her kill every living creature, Bona unleashed Warp power into the chamber, and the Ancient Ship lost its connection to the Great Devourer.

• Bona entered the Ventricular Chamber while Company Commander Dakan and the Thunder Warriors went to attack the Brain Matter Region.
• The Queen appeared to Bona in the void and revealed that she was the Great Devourer, created by the Old Ones to destroy all life and prevent the rise of a Dark God.
• The Queen identified the Ancient Ship as her child, Node Branch X-7, and warned that killing it would give the Dark God more room to breathe.
• Bona refused to let the Queen carry out her mission, despite acknowledging that he understood the danger she described.
• Bona ignited nameless flames throughout the Ventricular Chamber and channeled Warp power into the Materium, opening a Warp Rift that swallowed warships.
• The Ancient Ship lost its connection to the Great Devourer, and the chaotic Warp consciousness drove the minds of both sides’ fighters mad.

Horus rallied the surviving human forces as a Warp Rift brought daemons into the battle, while the Lamenters emerged from the Warp and lost their Battle Barge to the Tyranids. After the Tyranid Swarm lost contact with the Great Devourer, Horus ordered the Lamenters captured as traitors.

• Horus shot a Chaos Spawn and rallied the surviving troops to attack the remaining demolition sites as daemons disrupted both armies.
• The Lamenters emerged from the Warp, but a wounded Tyranid bioship attacked their Battle Barge, forcing Chapter Master Hope to evacuate his crew and surviving brothers.
• Hope and the Lamenters were recovered by Imperial forces in the Menshilo Gulf, where they found the battle-brothers cold and wary.
• A distant blast ruptured the immense Tyranid bioship, severing the Swarm's connection to the Great Devourer and sending the Tyranids fleeing.
• Horus ordered the Tyranids hunted down, while magnetic restraints and mortal soldiers disarmed Hope and the Lamenters and took them into custody.

After the Tyranid Swarm lost the Great Devourer, Szarekh reflected on what made a true king while the Necrons held back from attacking the humans. The war ended, but Horus learned Bona had fallen into the Warp and asked Magnus to find him; Magnus’s ritual suggested Bona was all right for now.

• Trazyn entered the Necron warship, found Szarekh in Amarkun’s seat, and quickly withdrew after recognizing the Silent King.
• Amarkun asked whether the Necrons should attack the humans, and Szarekh explained that a true king had to inspire devotion and unite his people.
• The Great Devourer’s defeat left the Tyranids scattered, while Asdenak and its defenders began recovering from the war.
• Captain Dakan told Horus that Bona had vanished into the Warp Rift, and Horus returned to Cabalide to tell Magnus.
• Magnus began a ritual to locate Bona and, after nine days, told Horus that Bona should be all right for now.

In the Warp, Gork and Mork wondered why the Orks had accepted a human as their boss, then fought off white-armored Astartes and skeletal angels invading their domain. A black-armored giant rescued the unconscious Bona, but when the battle turned into a clash between two silent legions, Bona disappeared.

• Gork and Mork learned that their Ork Boyz had defeated the Tyranids and rescued their human boss, Bona, from the Warp Rift.
• Gork and Mork argued over whether the Orks had gone mad by following a human, then resumed fighting each other and their boyz.
• White-armored Astartes entered the Ork domain and annihilated the souls of Ork Boyz, while skeletal angels joined the attack.
• A skeletal angel tried to kill the unconscious Bona, but a black-armored giant knocked it aside and crushed it.
• Black-armored Astartes appeared and fought the white-armored legion as Gork and Mork urged the Orks to attack both sides.
• Bona vanished from the Squig while the battle continued.

Constantin Valdor led the Thunder Warriors toward Cabalide after they rescued Bona, though Leodorio challenged his authority. On Terra, Guilliman and Sanguinius discussed the Thunderhawk’s costly gamble in the Menshilo Gulf, and Sanguinius decided to go to Vigilus.

• Leodorio thanked Valdor for helping the Thunder Warriors escape pursuit, then told him he would no longer decide their route.
• Valdor had led the Thunder Warriors through a Space Hulk and the Warp, helping them survive pursuit and rescue Bona before setting course for Cabalide.
• Guilliman reviewed reports about the battle in the Menshilo Gulf and told Sanguinius he was troubled by the Thunderhawk’s willingness to risk everything rather than use cheaper methods.
• Guilliman and Sanguinius discussed the disunity on Vigilus as Calgar struggled against local leaders while Abaddon’s Black Legion advanced.
• Sanguinius told Guilliman he would go to Vigilus to resolve his lingering burden, and declined to have Calgar follow his instructions.

After the Tyranid defeat, the wreck of the Ancient Ship attracted pirates, Aeldari agents, and the Inquisition’s scrutiny of the increasingly powerful Black Adeptus Mechanicus. Trazyn collected the Ancient Ship’s head while secretly smuggling out a chainsword, leaving the Tech-Priests unaware of his trick.

• Pirates began scavenging Tyranid remains while Dawn Army patrols guarded the Ancient Ship, and Aeldari sent by Rogue Traders slipped aboard without killing human soldiers.
• The Inquisition grew alarmed by Tech-Priests defecting to the Black Adeptus Mechanicus and by the Dawn Army’s advances in technology and biotechnology.
• Trazyn relaxed aboard his ship, enjoyed his new flesh-and-blood body, and watched Canoptek Scarabs cut off the Ancient Ship’s head.
• Trazyn stored the Ancient Ship’s head in his Tesseract Labyrinth, and Tech-Priests inspected the wreck before allowing him to leave.
• Trazyn secretly kept a chainsword that had been embedded in the Ancient Ship’s brain and smugly watched the Tech-Priests miss it.

Trazyn admired the ancient Chainsword until the Blood Ravens ambushed his ship and forced him to flee. Gabriel took up the weapon, experienced a vision in which ancient warriors killed him, then awoke as his brothers signaled that they had recovered the Holy Relics.

• Trazyn admired the Chainsword and considered adding it to his collection.
• The Blood Ravens, led by Gabriel, ambushed Trazyn's ship and fought through its defenses toward the storage area.
• A Librarian sensed a Holy Relic, so Gabriel led the First Company to its location while the Second Company continued the assault.
• Trazyn fled through a Dimensional Portal as Gabriel reached the control room and picked up the Chainsword.
• Gabriel was transported into a battlefield vision, where ancient warriors wounded and killed him.
• Gabriel awoke surrounded by his battle-brothers, received the signal that they had recovered the Holy Relics, and ordered them to leave.

Valdor revealed that the Emperor had ordered him to find the Emperor’s true name and stop him if necessary, and Bona learned that Valdor had preserved the memory in a necklace. After Bona returned to work-weakened Thunderhawk, the Silent King froze the world around him, captured him with anti-psychic chains, and threatened to kill him.

• Valdor told Bona and Horus that the Emperor had tasked him with finding his true name and stopping him, even by killing him, if necessary.
• Valdor showed them a necklace containing the memory of the Emperor’s true name, which he had never dared examine.
• Bona continued bearing the strain of defending Thunderhawk as Chaos forces gathered and attacked across Imperium Nihilus, until the medical team insisted he rest.
• Bona found the world frozen and confronted the Silent King, who arrived with Necron forces in the sector government building.
• Szarekh bound Bona with anti-psychic chains that blocked Mag'drala'ros's power and threatened to kill him.

Szarekh confronted Bona about the Necrons’ power, but Bona exposed the Silent King’s fear that the Necrontyr would go extinct. Convinced Bona could lead his people toward a better future, Szarekh named him the next Silent King.

• Szarekh dismissed Bona’s attempts to unsettle him and declared that Necron power surpassed humanity’s fears and gods.
• Bona revealed his regenerative arm and accused Szarekh of hiding his fear for the Necrontyr’s survival.
• Bona confronted Szarekh with the Necrons’ declining numbers and risk of losing their awareness, provoking the Silent King’s anger.
• Bona told Szarekh that his presence proved he could not afford to wait, and Szarekh reflected on his guilt over the Necrontyr’s transformation.
• Szarekh freed Bona from his chains and proclaimed him the next Silent King of the Necrontyr.

Bona accepted the Necrontyr scepter and became the new Silent King, while Szarekh chose exile to atone for his people. Bona then announced that the Necrons would join the Thunderhawk Empire with broad autonomy, prompting protests and questions from its leaders.

• Bona accepted the Scepter of Eternal Glory, and Amarkun pledged allegiance to him as the new Silent King.
• Szarekh refused living-body conversion, chose exile to atone for the Necrontyr, and departed through a Dimensional Portal.
• Bona announced at an emergency meeting that the Necrons would join the Thunderhawk Empire with legal equality, tax exemptions, autonomy, and military independence.
• Bona defended the decision by revealing that he was the new Silent King and warning that Chaos had taken border planets.
• Inquisitor Arlith asked how Bona became Silent King, and Archmagos Antonia demanded Necron technology; Bona declined to disclose the first publicly and rejected the second demand.
• Gagags Ironclaw asked for the Necrons' powerful weapons and devices that produced bursts of light.

Bona reviewed the Necrons’ dwindling numbers and their Pariah Nexus plan, then ordered the factions to find a way to use a World Engine to close the Eye of Terror. On Vigilus, Calgar welcomed Sanguinius, whose arrival offered hope to the besieged world.

• Bona learned that fewer than half of the Necrons could respond, fewer than three hundred thousand could undergo biotransference, and many Overlords had joined Imotekh’s rebellion.
• Amarkun’s loyalists presented the Pariah Nexus plan, which would weaken the Warp but also strip human psykers of their minds for Necron experiments.
• Bona rejected scrapping the plan and called for a way to close the Eye of Terror; Amarkun and Cryptek Zaa revealed that a World Engine’s Warp Amplifier could help seal the Great Rift.
• Perturabo pointed out that the World Engine would have to be brought intact into the Eye of Terror and activated amid Chaos forces, prompting the commanders to consider cooperation with the Imperium.
• On Vigilus, Calgar and the War Senate welcomed Sanguinius after his Blood Angels escort landed, and Sanguinius agreed to discuss the grim situation inside.

Sanguinius assessed the worsening battle for Vigilus and identified Abaddon as the key to breaking the Chaos assault. He proposed a plan to kill the Chaos Warmaster, though the chapter ended before he explained how.

• Sanguinius learned that the Great Devourer's destruction had caused the Pauper Princes to collapse, freeing Chaos forces to attack Imperial positions.
• Sanguinius reviewed the disorganized front as Calgar described the losses and failed attempts to draw the Orks against the Black Legion.
• Sanguinius pointed out that the Chaos factions fought without coordination and concluded that killing Abaddon would make them collapse.
• An Astra Militarum junior commander suggested Abaddon would not come to Vigilus, then begged Sanguinius for forgiveness and tried to shoot himself.
• Sanguinius stopped the commander and declared that killing Abaddon was his plan.

Horus decided to go to Vigilus, and Bona agreed to let him take a small force after the two shared a brief moment of concern. On Vigilus, Sanguinius challenged Abaddon to battle, and Abaddon arrived in the hive city to face him.

• Horus told Bona he intended to go to Vigilus, and Bona agreed to help him prepare a small force.
• Horus reminded Bona to rest before leaving, while Bona returned to his overwhelming workload.
• A Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priest reported that Vigilus’s planetary shield and anti-air defenses had been shut down.
• Abaddon saw Sanguinius standing in a ruined garden and recognized the Great Angel.
• Abaddon ordered Sercos to prepare troops and Korda to oversee the battle, then teleported with the Black Legion to confront Sanguinius.
• Sanguinius condemned Abaddon’s crimes, and Abaddon vowed to kill him as his father had ten thousand years earlier.

Sanguinius led an ambush against Abaddon on Vigilus, but the Warmaster unleashed Drach'nyen's full power and the battle reached a fatal turning point. Sanguinius pierced Abaddon's heart as the daemon sword struck him, then heard death's hum fade amid the scent of a forest and an echoing lion's roar.

• Sanguinius fought Abaddon, enduring Drach'nyen's soul-searing flames and black mist while narrowly evading a lethal slash.
• Sanguinius activated hidden Teleport Beacons, bringing Calgar, Dante, and their Astartes forces into the Blighted Garden to surround Abaddon and cut him off from the Chaos Fleet.
• Calgar and Dante joined Sanguinius against Abaddon, but Drach'nyen's black flames overwhelmed the fighters and wounded both Chapter Masters.
• Abaddon drew on Drach'nyen's power as the warp rift above Vigilus and the Emperor's Statue responded, while Sanguinius's spear and wings blazed with golden fire.
• Sanguinius pierced Abaddon's heart with the Spear of Telesto as Abaddon brought Drach'nyen down; Sanguinius then heard death's hum fade and sensed a forest and a lion's roar.

A mysterious force intervened in the battle on Vigilus, saving Sanguinius from Abaddon’s killing blow while the Warmaster escaped to the Vengeful Spirit. Abaddon ordered Vigilus destroyed, but a fleet of Necron and human ships attacked, and a towering newcomer confronted him aboard his flagship.

• In a hidden facility beneath the Tibetan Plateau, Malcador and the Emperor discussed preparing twenty gestation pods for a final line of defense.
• A towering figure emerged from the phantom forest and helped Sanguinius block Drach'nyen, but the blow hurled them both away; unidentified black-armored Astartes appeared, while Sekhros teleported away with the wounded Abaddon.
• Sanguinius crashed onto Vigilus, where an Ork became a brainboy and stood on him until a Blood Angel killed him.
• Dante and the Blood Angels found Sanguinius and fought the Orks, while Sanguinius pointed Dante toward another direction.
• Abaddon returned to the Vengeful Spirit and ordered his fleet to destroy Vigilus, but Necron and human warships appeared and attacked the Chaos Fleet.
• A towering figure teleported onto the Vengeful Spirit, killed Sekhros, and fixed its gaze on Abaddon.

Horus confronted Abaddon and the Sons of Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, declaring that their crimes left death as the only end he could offer. Sanguinius and Lion El'Jonson recovered after the siege of Vigilus was lifted, then learned that Horus had attacked the fleeing Chaos forces in orbit.

• Abaddon recognized Horus as the real Primarch and warned the veterans that he had come to kill them.
• Horus admitted that he had betrayed his sons and said he would not accept their surrender, while Abaddon denounced him and raised Drach'nyen.
• Sanguinius recovered in the infirmary beside Lion El'Jonson, with Dante and Zabriel attending them.
• Calgar reported that the siege of Vigilus had ended and that Chaos forces had abandoned their ground troops.
• Lion El'Jonson learned that the Vengeful Spirit had been boarded and its Warp Engine destroyed, and Sanguinius explained that Horus was fighting the XVI Legion.