Chapter Summaries

Alexander turned the 99th Regiment into a close-knit force and inspired its soldiers to welcome a dangerous deployment to Viridia Prime. As Colonel Valeus demanded a practical way to survive and defend the planet, Alexander faced the challenge of turning their renewed spirit into a workable plan.

• Alexander told the 99th Regiment that its veterans and recruits formed a shared hearth, and the soldiers roared that they were ready to burn again.
• Sector high command ordered the 99th Regiment to leave within twelve hours and reinforce Viridia Prime against an Ork Waaagh! fleet.
• The soldiers greeted the deployment with eager calls for vengeance and a chance to prove themselves.
• Colonel Valeus warned Alexander that the regiment was understrength, poorly equipped, and unprepared for the fight.
• Alexander argued that defending Viridia Prime's civilians made the mission a worthy sacrifice, and Valeus asked him for a plan to survive and succeed.

Alexander planned to gather the 99th Regiment at the Iron Temple and use its grain dust to spring a trap on the Orks, then rallied his soldiers as they headed for Viridia. In orbit, Grak dismissed the approaching regiment’s battered ships and ordered his Orks to let them land.

• Alexander presented Colonel Valeus with a plan to concentrate the regiment at the defensible Iron Temple and turn its grain dust into a weapon against the Orks.
• Alexander addressed the 99th Regiment, recasting its soldiers’ abandonment and poor equipment as reasons the Orks would underestimate them.
• The soldiers answered Alexander’s rallying cries by declaring they fought for their families, their regiment, and the Emperor as their transports departed for Viridia.
• A Gretchin told Grak that a group of battered human ships was approaching Viridia, and Grak’s Orks laughed at the news.
• Grak refused a boss’s offer to attack the ships in space and ordered his forces to let them land.

The 99th Regiment landed in Agricultural Zone 7 and prepared to face Grak’s Ork Waaagh!, whose leader had ordered his forces to leave the area intact for amusement. The regiment met the Ork vanguard in battle, and the chapter ended as the two sides clashed in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

• Grak ordered his boyz not to destroy everything and chose the Steel Outhouse as his throne to watch the fighting.
• The 99th Regiment landed under artillery fire, and Sergeant Orik organized the soldiers into defensive positions while Alexander joined the front line.
• Colonel Valeus ordered the Heavy Bolters to fire on the advancing Ork war wagons, but the Orks charged on through the wreckage.
• Orik rallied the soldiers, and the 99th Regiment opened fire with Lasguns and grenades as the Orks pressed closer.
• The Orks and soldiers collided in melee, and a soldier’s comrade drove a bayonet into an Ork’s eye after the Ork cut him down.

Alexander and the 99th Regiment fought with suicidal fervor, killed Mog "Ironfang," and drove the Orks from the battlefield. In orbit, Grak "Ironjaw" Bonecrusher learned of the defeat and began hearing that the humans were strange.

• Alexander and his Flame Core fought at the center of the battle while Orik killed an Ork boss attacking him and shielded him.
• Alexander declared that he and Orik were family, spurring the soldiers to fight harder to protect him.
• A Griffon mortar shell killed Mog "Ironfang" and his elite bodyguards, causing the remaining Orks to flee.
• Colonel Valeus ordered the regiment to hold its position, clear the battlefield, and treat the wounded, while recognizing Alexander's influence over the soldiers.
• Grak "Ironjaw" Bonecrusher crushed the Gretchin who reported Mog's defeat, and another Ork warned him that the humans were strange.

Grak learned that the humans at the Iron Temple fought with a reckless disregard for death and eagerly ordered his Waaagh! to attack them. The exhausted 99th Regiment reached the Iron Temple, where Alexander planned to use its combustible grain dust against the Orks.

• Grak heard that the human fighters had killed Mog by piling their lives onto him, then became excited to face a worthy enemy.
• Grak ordered his Orks to converge on the Iron Temple and vowed to kill the black-clad cook boss himself.
• Alexander led the exhausted 99th Regiment across the Viridia Plains while Ork scouts and bombers pursued them.
• Colonel Valeus ordered the regiment to enter the Iron Temple and secure its entrances and high ground.
• Alexander told Valeus that the Iron Temple's combustible grain dust would provide the firewood for his plan to destroy the attacking Orks.

Alexander von Lawrence and Colonel Valeus prepared the Iron Temple for a last stand, then faced an enormous Ork horde. The 99th Regiment opened fire and halted the first wave of Ork riders hundreds of meters from their defenses.

• Sergeant Orik reported a concealed Adepta Sororitas armory, and Valeus ordered its weapons and explosives distributed around the Iron Temple.
• Valeus's soldiers built barricades and firing positions while Alexander had them paint fanatical slogans in blood across the fortress.
• An immense Ork horde approached, and Alexander rallied the 99th Regiment to make their stand for the Emperor and their families.
• Valeus drew his Power Sword and joined Alexander as the Orks began their assault on the Iron Temple.
• Valeus ordered the soldiers to open fire, and Heavy Bolters, Multi-meltas, and Lasguns tore through the charging Madboyz and Wildboyz, stopping their advance hundreds of meters from the human lines.

Orks breached the 99th Regiment’s outer defenses and overwhelmed the Iron Temple with brutal close-quarters fighting, while Colonel Valeus watched his troops suffer heavy losses. Alexander refused to reinforce the southern granary and revealed that he intended to lure the Orks into the trap at Granary No. 7.

• Warlord Grak sent the Tin Cans forward, and the Orks’ steel behemoths smashed through the regiment’s barricades despite rocket fire.
• Sergeant Orik and the Kasrkin veterans brought down Tin Cans with attacks on their leg joints, grenades, and a makeshift weapon thrust through a cockpit slit.
• Ork Boyz flooded the Iron Temple, and Astra Militarum soldiers and Orks died in savage street and room-to-room fighting.
• Colonel Valeus saw his soldiers’ markers disappear from the tactical screen, but the defensive line continued to hold as each position fought on.
• Alexander refused Valeus’s request for reserves and said they would let the Orks enter the trap prepared at Granary No. 7.

The Death Korps of Krieg arrived at the Iron Temple as Orks broke through the 99th Regiment’s defenses and poured toward the Central Control Room. Orik fell in a final stand while Colonel Valeus watched the besieged room’s bulletproof glass begin to crack with Alexander inside.

• Colonel Grimm led the 17th Siege Regiment of Krieg toward the Iron Temple after finding the surrounding battlefield littered with Ork corpses and wreckage.
• Ironjaw Bonecrusher Grak mistook the 99th Regiment’s deliberate withdrawal at Grain Depot Area 7 for a collapse and ordered his Boyz to charge toward the Central Control Room.
• Orik and the surviving defenders fought the Orks outside the Central Control Room after running out of ammunition.
• A Kasrkin veteran detonated his last grenade, and Orik charged into the Ork tide to hold the line outside the sealed doors.
• Colonel Valeus watched Orik’s death with Alexander as Orks surrounded the Central Control Room and cracks spread across its bulletproof glass.

Alexander detonated the explosives throughout the Iron Temple, triggering a massive grain-dust explosion that obliterated the Ork horde and devastated the surrounding area. The Death Korps of Krieg’s 17th Siege Regiment watched the blast from afar as Commissar Friedrich called it a judgment.

• Warlord Grak threatened Alexander and struck the strained bulletproof glass with his power klaw.
• Alexander taunted Grak, then smiled at Colonel Valeus and activated the final detonator.
• The explosives ignited the grain dust in the Iron Temple, killing the Orks inside and creating a vast fireball and shock wave.
• The explosion destroyed Ork reserves and war machines and devastated hundreds of thousands of Orks around the temple.
• The Death Korps of Krieg’s 17th Siege Regiment saw the mushroom cloud, and Commissar Friedrich called the blast a judgment.

Colonel Grimm’s forces discovered that the 99th Regiment had destroyed the Orks’ main ground force by detonating the grain-processing plant, while the blast threw Viridia Prime into darkness. In orbit, the Ork fleet collapsed into infighting after its warlord died, allowing the Imperial Navy to begin destroying it.

• The vox operator told Colonel Grimm that the devastating blast had come from the surface, and the dust storm revealed the Iron Temple had become a vast, magma-lit crater.
• Commissar Friedrich declared the Orks’ main ground force destroyed, while Colonel Grimm ordered a battlefield sweep and advanced into the wasteland.
• Orks aboard the Big Smash realized that Ironjaw Bonecrusher Grak and hundreds of thousands of Boyz had vanished in the blast.
• Ork bosses fought one another for control, and the fleet splintered into rival groups trying to seize command or flee.
• The Imperial Navy opened fire on the disorganized Ork fleet, beginning a one-sided battle in orbit above Viridia Prime.

Death Korps of Krieg soldiers found Alexander von Lawrence and 351 other survivors of the 99th Regiment beneath the ruins of the Central Control Room. A postbattle report celebrated the regiment’s victory over the Orks while warning that Alexander’s influence and “Fireplace Theory” might be heretical, prompting an uproar among Imperial authorities.

• Krieg soldiers detected faint life signs in the crater and dug more than a dozen survivors of the 99th Regiment from the rubble.
• The wounded survivors called Alexander their “eldest brother” and asked whether he was alive; rescuers found him unconscious beneath a console, clutching the regiment’s banner.
• Commissar Friedrich ordered medics to save Alexander, who had lost his left arm and suffered life-threatening burns.
• The postbattle report confirmed the destruction of the Ork forces and orbital fleet, but recorded that the 99th Regiment had only 351 survivors and had ceased to exist as a formation.
• Colonel Grimm praised the regiment’s sacrifice, while Friedrich’s assessment warned that its survivors treated Alexander as a sacred leader and recommended Inquisition scrutiny.
• The contradictory report caused an uproar among the Imperium’s highest authorities.

Alexander awoke in a medical convent after weeks in a coma, badly injured and missing his left arm. After receiving a powerful combat prosthesis from the Adeptus Mechanicus and enduring its painful connection surgery, he tested his new steel arm just as an unexpected visitor entered.

• Alexander woke after twenty-seven days and learned that his injuries had cost him his left arm.
• A Hospitaller presented the Punisher Mark VII combat prosthesis built for Alexander by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Alexander underwent painful treatment and surgery to connect the mechanical arm to his nerves.
• Alexander controlled the prosthesis for the first time and felt its crushing strength.
• Someone other than the Hospitaller entered Alexander's room.

Alexander reunited with the surviving soldiers of the 99th Regiment, then faced Inquisitor Valerius, who ordered him to come in for questioning over suspected heresy and unauthorized tactics. As Valerius’s psychic pressure struck the ward, a warm, powerful force rose from Alexander’s bed and dissolved it.

• More than three hundred surviving soldiers of the 99th Regiment gathered around Alexander and saluted him, and he welcomed them home.
• Inquisitor Valerius entered the ward with Stormtroopers and announced that he was investigating Alexander for unauthorized tactics, inciting abnormal sentiments, and possible heresy.
• The soldiers formed a barrier around Alexander and protested when Valerius ordered him to get dressed and come with him.
• Valerius unleashed psychic pressure to silence the agitated soldiers, but a warm force rising from Alexander’s bed effortlessly dispelled it.

Alexander negotiated for the wounded soldiers to receive full honors and care before agreeing to accompany Inquisitor Valerius. On Holy Terra, Roboute Guilliman reviewed the report of Viridia Prime’s defense and its extraordinary losses and tactics.

• Alexander’s abilities unsettled Inquisitor Valerius as Alexander agreed to go with him only after demanding proper care and recognition for the surviving soldiers.
• Valerius accepted Alexander’s demands and promised to oversee them personally.
• Alexander told the soldiers to heal and stay alive, then left the ward under Valerius’s escort.
• Roboute Guilliman read the encrypted report on Viridia Prime’s defense and paused at its account of the regiment’s tactics and sacrifice.

Guilliman decided to meet Alexander von Lawrence after reading about his dangerous but effective “fire-place-theory,” and ordered Cawl to retrieve him from the Inquisition. Alexander arrived on Holy Terra under Ultramarines protection and came face to face with Guilliman.

• Guilliman judged the fire-place-theory to be powerful but potentially dangerous to the Imperium and decided to assess Alexander in person.
• Guilliman summoned Belisarius Cawl and ordered him to get Alexander out of Inquisitor Valerius’s custody.
• Cawl intercepted Valerius’s cruiser near Terra and informed the Inquisitor that Guilliman wanted to meet Alexander.
• Alexander arrived on Holy Terra and was escorted through its defenses by Ultramarines veterans.
• Guilliman walked from his throne to meet Alexander, who stood trembling before the Primarch.

After Alexander met with Guilliman, the 99th Regiment was officially honored, replenished, and assigned to the Indomitus Crusade, while Alexander received a promotion to Legion Commissar. Reunited with his rebuilt soldiers, Alexander welcomed their new commander, Colonel Valerius Carsten, whose contempt for the regiment set up an immediate clash.

• Guilliman issued an edict naming Alexander a hero, preserving the 99th Regiment, granting it top-priority replacements and equipment, and promoting Alexander to Legion Commissar.
• The edict assigned the reorganized 99th Regiment to the Fourth Fleet battle group of the Indomitus Crusade, prompting speculation about Alexander's meeting with Guilliman.
• Alexander reunited with the 351 surviving soldiers at a rehabilitation center and greeted them as they saluted him with their new prosthetic limbs.
• Colonel Valerius Carsten arrived to take charge of the regiment's military affairs and training, regarding the soldiers as an undisciplined mob and Alexander as a dangerous cult leader.
• Alexander welcomed Carsten to the regiment's “warm and loving family,” and Carsten visibly bristled at the greeting.

Commissar Alexander turned Colonel Carsten’s attempt to suppress the 99th Regiment’s devotion to the “Fireplace” into a confrontation, while the Imperium’s absurd supplies and recruits overwhelmed the new commander. Alexander made light of each disaster and began adapting the regiment to its unwanted equipment, leaving Carsten facing a bitter reorganization.

• Colonel Carsten warned Alexander that he would stamp out the regiment’s personality cult, and Alexander rallied the veterans to roar a hostile welcome for their new commander.
• The regiment received ornate ceremonial uniforms, primitive flintlocks, and three thousand undisciplined criminals and vagrants as replacement troops, driving Carsten toward despair.
• Alexander turned the uniforms into a fashion show, then had the veterans use them for shooting practice.
• Alexander formed a weapons research group and modified the flintlocks with laser sights, high-explosive ammunition, and chainsaw bayonets.
• Alexander treated the replacement troops with patience and warmth, unlike the overwhelmed Colonel Carsten.

Alexander won the loyalty of more than ten thousand Hive City recruits by encouraging them to embrace their hatred and join his new family. Over the next six months, he transformed the 99th Regiment into a disciplined army on the outside and a fiercely devoted cult within, while Colonel Carsten failed to stop him.

• Alexander listened as Zora described his brother’s death and his own life on Terra, then told the recruits to turn their hatred into vengeance.
• Zora knelt before Alexander, and more than ten thousand recruits followed, pledging themselves to his new family.
• Over six months, Colonel Carsten made the 99th Regiment outwardly disciplined while Alexander spread his Fireplace Theory and trained the recruits to see one another as family.
• Alexander’s veterans became Battle Priests, teaching brutal combat skills and fostering the regiment’s devotion to its family and murderous resolve toward its enemies.
• Carsten repeatedly threatened to report Alexander, but Alexander defended his methods as loyal interpretations of Imperial teachings, leaving Carsten unable to challenge him.

Alexander and Colonel Carsten received orders to take the Pride of Cadia 99th Regiment to Malakbel, where the Hymn Engine was expected to draw Angron and the World Eaters into battle. After a perilous Warp voyage, the regiment reached the system and was summoned to meet Admiral Abukhensis aboard the Glory of Terra.

• A Thunderhawk delivered Admiral Abukhensis's order for the Pride of Cadia 99th Regiment to embark for garrison duty in Malakbel, and Alexander anticipated the coming battle with Angron.
• During the Warp voyage, a powerful storm destabilized the Gellar Field, but Alexander steadied the regiment and urged them to face the danger together.
• The transport arrived at an orbital station in the Malakbel system, where Alexander saw the Hymn Engine shining on the planet below.
• A liaison officer summoned Alexander and Colonel Carsten to the Glory of Terra to meet Admiral Abukhensis.
• Alexander and Colonel Carsten entered the flagship's bridge, where Admiral Abukhensis awaited them before a vast star chart.

Alexander asked Admiral Abukhensis to deploy the 99th Regiment, the Pride of Cadia, at the Hymn Engine’s final line of defense against Angron. He explained that his soldiers no longer feared death and had come prepared to sacrifice themselves in an attempt to destroy the Red Angel, and Abukhensis accepted their offer.

• Admiral Abukhensis welcomed Colonel Carsten and Commissar Lawrence, then asked what they could contribute to the coming war.
• Alexander confirmed that the enemy was Angron and requested that his regiment defend the Hymn Engine’s final line.
• A Mars Fleet captain accused Alexander and his troops of cowardice, and Alexander agreed that ordinary soldiers would fear Angron.
• Alexander said his soldiers had given their souls to their “fireplace” and would sacrifice themselves with explosives to destroy Angron.
• Admiral Abukhensis accepted Alexander’s request and thanked him for the regiment’s sacrifice.