Chapter Summaries

The chapter explained how Space Marines’ Gene-Detecting Nerves absorbed memories and abilities from consumed flesh, then described how the Blood Drinkers and Flesh Tearers used mutated versions of the organ. It ended by noting that the nerve’s power depended on how its users applied it.

• Space Marines used their Gene-Detecting Nerves to learn creatures’ instincts and survival skills by eating their flesh.
• The Blood Drinkers suppressed the Black Rage by secretly drinking human blood, leaving dried corpses behind after their defense of Castobel.
• The Flesh Tearers prolonged their sanity by consuming corpses and gained skills by eating, while their battlefields were left with bloodstains and tufts of meat.
• The chapter concluded that Space Marines’ implants were powerful inventions whose uses varied among Chapters.

Su Ming persuaded Orpheus and Gunnar to reaffirm their loyalty and suggested that the Inquisition might have been corrupted by Chaos. Gunnar agreed to wait for Su Ming to find evidence so the Space Wolves could act against the Inquisition without appearing to rebel.

• Su Ming suggested that Grey Knights might have read the secrets of the Dark Angels and Space Wolves from the recruits’ Gene-Detecting Nerves, prompting Firas, Gunnar, and Orpheus to consider the danger.
• Su Ming asked Orpheus and Gunnar whether they would remain loyal to the Emperor, and both pledged their Chapters’ loyalty.
• Firas recounted how an Inquisitor named Ophelia had tried to expose the Dark Angels with a demon’s help, only for the Grey Knights to kill her and destroy her ship after discovering the demon.
• Orpheus left to contact the Grand Master and restore the communications array, while Gunnar asked Su Ming whether the Space Wolves would be used as a weapon against the Dark Angels.
• Su Ming told Gunnar that he would seek evidence of the Inquisition’s corruption, the Dark Angels would support the plan, and the Space Wolves would deliver the final blow.

Deathstroke and Efferal prepared for an assassin’s attack, and the assassin began firing at them as they walked outside the Relay Station. After Efferal psychically located the attacker, Deathstroke left to kill her.

• Deathstroke explained that an Inquisitor might send Grey Knights and that he planned to use the assassin’s attack to prepare for future enemies.
• Efferal asked whether the assassin would take the bait, and Deathstroke said she would follow her orders even if the fight seemed hopeless.
• The assassin fired from multiple directions, but Deathstroke caught or blocked each bullet while Efferal locked onto her with psychic power.
• Deathstroke tossed the bullets to Efferal and vanished into the darkness to confront the assassin.

Su Ming captured a Cult of Death Worship assassin after she attacked him in the ruined city, then brought her to the Relay Station for interrogation. Gunnar and Orpheus identified her and her rifle as connected to their investigation, while Su Ming held her broken neck in place.

• Su Ming intercepted the sniper assassin and asked whether an Inquisitor had come with her.
• The assassin attacked with twin blades, but Su Ming struck her down and paralyzed her.
• Su Ming silenced the captive with Strangle and concealed her from the Greenskin Boyz who came searching.
• Gunnar and Orpheus arrived at the Relay Station, where Su Ming presented the captive for questioning.
• Orpheus examined the assassin’s rifle and recognized its bullets, confirming that she was the one they sought.

Gunnar and Deathstroke uncovered a Chaos plot behind the assassin’s attack, and Deathstroke secretly extracted information from her corpse. He learned the Inquisitor’s location and that an escort ship was available to seize, while the Sister questioned how he had cleaned the room so thoroughly.

• Gunnar tortured the assassin, recognized her Khorne allegiance, and killed her after the Chaplain ordered her burned.
• Gunnar thanked Deathstroke for uncovering the scheme and left him with the Sister to search for more enemies.
• Deathstroke sent the Sister outside, warning her against using psychic power while he secretly used Strangle to obtain the assassin’s memories.
• Deathstroke told the Sister he had found the Inquisitor and an escort ship, and that the Adeptus Mechanicus’s communications had been intercepted.
• The Sister asked whether Deathstroke had licked the room clean, and he reminded her that she still wanted revenge.

Su Ming and the Sister infiltrated the Inquisition’s hidden warship while waiting for the pursuing Inquisitor to return. After killing the bridge crew, Su Ming used a distraction to get aboard and killed the last menial as the Inquisitor’s group approached.

• The Sister prayed nervously while Su Ming brought her to the shore near the Inquisition’s warship.
• Su Ming told the Sister he would deal with the pursuing Inquisitor, and she reluctantly accepted his help.
• The Sister revealed that the Inquisition’s frigate was hidden in a coastal cave, and Su Ming denied involvement in the disappearance of two Space Marines.
• Su Ming caused a distraction on a distant cliff, then carried the Sister through the warship’s cargo bay and killed the bridge crew.
• Su Ming watched the menial identify the returning Inquisitor’s group on the surveillance screens, then killed him with his sword.

Su Ming manipulated Efferal’s reunion with the Inquisitor to ensure the Sister would break with the Inquisition and remain useful to him. After the Inquisitor opened fire, Efferal could not bring herself to fight her former ally, leaving Su Ming to face the Inquisitor in close combat.

• Efferal asked Su Ming to let her speak with the Inquisitor, and he agreed as they went to meet her outside the ship.
• The Inquisitor recognized Efferal beside what appeared to be a Slaanesh demon and ordered her retinue to open fire.
• Su Ming dragged Efferal behind cover and explained that the Inquisition now considered her a Chaos heretic.
• Efferal admitted she could not fight the Inquisitor and asked Su Ming to handle her while she tried to make sense of what had happened.
• Su Ming reassured Efferal and engaged the lightning-wielding Inquisitor in close combat.

Su Ming and Efferal seized an Inquisition frigate after killing the Inquisitor and her crew, then returned it to the Space Wolves. Orpheus welcomed the captured ship as a way to carry out his plans.

• Su Ming killed the Inquisitor and her squad, and Efferal refused to keep the Inquisitor’s head as a keepsake.
• Su Ming gave Efferal the Inquisitor’s head and told her to take command of the frigate by convincing the Tech-Priests that the Inquisitor had died in battle.
• Efferal took command while Su Ming piloted the frigate back to the Relay Station through enemy air attacks.
• Su Ming told Gunnar and Orpheus that the Inquisitor and Grey Knights had become daemon-possessed and that their brains had burned out during a failed ritual.
• Su Ming reported that Efferal had purified the frigate and that it carried valuable records and intercepted communications, and Orpheus welcomed the ship for his plans.

Su Ming and the Space Wolves studied the warship’s data and uncovered the Inquisition’s accusations against Efferal, along with the Adeptus Mechanicus’s information about Necron burial sites. The chapter ended with Su Ming linking the ancient Grand Cemeteries to the War in Heaven, while Orpheus prepared to borrow the ship to retrieve the Dark Angels’ Deathwing.

• Su Ming deduced that the Dark Angels had kept their Deathwing elsewhere and agreed to lend Orpheus the warship to bring them to the planet.
• Gunnar and the others examined Efferal’s Inquisition files, which listed more than a hundred accusations, and Efferal rejected them as slander.
• Su Ming redirected the group to the intercepted Adeptus Mechanicus message, and Gunnar dismissed its claim that Necron Grand Cemeteries were sixty million years old.
• Su Ming argued that the Grand Cemeteries had to exist and said that, if they dated back sixty million years, they must have witnessed the War in Heaven.
• Su Ming explained that the War in Heaven was the conflict between the C’tan and the Old Ones, while Efferal’s knowledge of the Eldar Black Library gave her context for the reference.

Su Ming assigned the Necrons to himself and outlined how he would use intelligence and the Sister’s psychic abilities to locate their tombs. He explained the Necrons’ history and concluded that the planet’s dynasty had entered hibernation voluntarily at the height of its power, an unusual clue that left the reason for its slumber unresolved.

• Su Ming divided the enemy factions among the Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and himself, claiming the Necrons as his target.
• Su Ming planned to compare excavation-site intelligence with Necron troop movements, then use the Sister to investigate suspicious locations.
• Su Ming recounted how the Necrontyr traded their souls for immortal metal bodies, defeated the Old Ones, and later turned against the C’tan.
• The Necrons retreated into stasis vaults as the Eldar Empire rose and eventually collapsed, leaving tomb worlds hidden across the galaxy.
• Su Ming noted that the planet had changed hands among Eldar, Greenskins, and humans, but its dynasty had voluntarily entered hibernation sixty million years ago.

Su Ming outlined his plan to let the Chaos and Eldar forces lead him to the Necrons’ main tomb while the Space Marines held the city. As Chaos forces attacked, he left to search for a useful corpse and warned the Sister to stay behind.

• Su Ming and the Sister spent the past weeks relaxing while the Space Wolves and Dark Angels fought to win the enemy-killing contest.
• Su Ming explained that the Necrons held the equatorial region and that he planned to follow the Chaos and Eldar forces to the main tomb passage.
• The Sister shared her uneasy intuition about the planet, and Su Ming agreed that something terrible was coming.
• When the Chaos Warbands attacked the city under warship bombardment, Su Ming went to the battlefield and told the Sister not to approach her Chaos enemy.

Su Ming confronted the Chaos assault on the Dark Angels’ defensive line and annihilated much of the attacking force with a display of overwhelming power. The Chaos Space Marines retreated, and Su Ming left the First Company Captain to purify the battlefield before returning to eat hotpot.

• The Iron Warriors sent millions of cultist slaves against the Dark Angels while the Emperor’s Children and Iron Warriors prepared to attack.
• Su Ming arrived at the front line and told the First Company Captain he would handle the enemy, despite the veteran’s doubts.
• Su Ming unleashed a vast seven-colored ray that vaporized over a hundred thousand Chaos troops and carved a trench across the battlefield.
• The Chaos commanders withdrew their Space Marines, leaving slave troops behind to cover their retreat, and the Emperor’s Children pulled back after suffering heavy losses.
• Su Ming struck the remaining slave troops to stop them summoning a Greater Daemon, then returned to the First Company Captain and told him to purify the battlefield.

After revealing his power, Su Ming watched the enemy factions’ movements from orbit while the Sister struggled to understand who he was. When Chaos and the Eldar rushed to plunder the Necron tombs, Su Ming began an operation to locate the treasure, bringing the Sister to probe an Eldar-held battlefield.

• Su Ming returned to the terrace after monitoring the retreating factions, and the Sister questioned him about his power as he prepared lunch.
• Su Ming told the Sister that he had revealed his strength to show the hidden players that he was a chess player, while Orpheus and Gunnar later praised him for his combat power.
• Su Ming used his trips into orbit to track the Chaos and Eldar armies as they surrounded more than twenty suspected Necron tombs.
• Su Ming took the Sister to the nearest Eldar encirclement and asked her to sense for danger underground, suggesting that she use Eldar equipment for the search.

Su Ming and Efferal searched several battlefield encampments for the dangerous item Deathstroke was seeking, but her scans found nothing and exposed her to strange psychic whispers. They continued their search while Su Ming fought off the defenders, ending with him battling an Avatar of Khaine and ordering his Cloak of Levitation to drain its energy.

• Efferal's first scan found only a stasis chamber full of awakening Necrons, while strange whispers and laughter made her head hurt.
• Su Ming shielded Efferal from outside thoughts with a small disc, then carried her to other encirclements to continue searching.
• Su Ming killed a Chaos Champion that challenged him, and the pair moved on when the Sister found nothing there.
• An Eldar camp summoned an Avatar of Khaine, and Su Ming stopped its burning sword while protecting Efferal from the other attackers.
• Su Ming sent his Cloak of Levitation to feed on the Avatar's soul-fire and said he would take its head off.

Su Ming killed the Avatar of the God of War and collected its Wraithbone remains while the Eldar fled before the Necrons. Efferal sensed an immense underground city and a terrifying echo calling to her as the Necrons attacked.

• Cloak drained the Avatar's energy while Su Ming stole its sword and cut down the Eldar around him.
• Su Ming severed the Avatar's head with its own sword, and the blast left the Eldar overwhelmed by grief as the Necrons kept advancing.
• The Eldar routed, and Su Ming cut the damaged Avatar into pieces and stored its remains for Cloak to eat later.
• Su Ming helped Efferal shield herself from Necron fire, and she sensed a vast underground city and a terrifying echo calling to her.

Su Ming and Efferal watched the Necrons and Eldar fight below while he arranged for the Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and his own fleet to converge on the tomb. His forces emerged from a portal and began disabling the Chaos fleet, leaving the other Space Marine forces a chance to board the enemy ships.

• Su Ming threw his flaming greatsword into the Necron ranks, then escaped with Efferal while the Necrons resumed hunting wounded Eldar.
• Su Ming explained that he wanted the Eldar and Necrons to draw together before striking the center of their encirclement, and said the Space Wolves and Dark Angels should help drive enemies toward it.
• Su Ming revealed that his fleet and warriors were ready to engage the Chaos fleet, then fired a Cosmic Energy beacon to open a portal into space.
• Brainiac 21's Skull Ships attacked the Chaos fleet, disabled its ships, and captured Chaos warriors and cultists with mind-control devices.
• Su Ming's fleet attacked the immobilized Chaos ships' engines, while he and Efferal watched from the Cloak and he expected the Space Wolves and Dark Angels to board the enemy vessels.

Su Ming spoke with Brainiac 21 about the ongoing space battle, her research into emotions, and a possible intelligence exchange with the Adjutant. He reassured the Sister that he would protect her from the Inquisition, then prepared to take her underground once the fighting ended.

• A Skeleton Drone projected Brainiac 21, who apologized to Su Ming for doubting his claim and discussed her experiments with magic and emotions.
• Brainiac 21 reported that allied fleets had joined the space battle and predicted victory in about 27 minutes, then requested an intelligence-sharing arrangement with the Adjutant.
• Su Ming told Brainiac 21 to negotiate directly with the Adjutant and asked her to tell the Council of the Sky to prepare the Mythal and Black Diamond.
• After the drone departed, Su Ming teased the Sister about her lack of curiosity, and she said she had already decided to stay with him.
• Su Ming promised to keep the Inquisition away and negotiate with the Emperor on the Sister's behalf before they went underground.

Su Ming and the Sister descended into a Necron tomb passage after orbital bombardment drove enemy forces into a battle around the Necrons. They reached a vast underground corridor lined with carvings, where the Sister began deciphering the dynasty’s history.

• Su Ming explained that the bombardment would force Chaos, Greenskin, and bug forces to fight the Necrons alongside the Eldar already on the ground.
• Su Ming and the Sister landed unseen in the middle of the battle and bored a hole into the earth with Cosmic Energy.
• Su Ming, the Sister, and Cloak descended more than a thousand meters and reached a metal floor inside the tomb.
• The Sister made a sphere of psychic lightning to illuminate the corridor, and Su Ming reshaped it into wings on her back.
• Su Ming examined the Blackstone carvings while the Sister began deciphering the Necron dynasty’s recorded past.

Su Ming and Efferal followed the Necron reliefs, which recounted the rise of the Necron Empire and revealed footage of its war against a C’tan. Their discussion of the Necrons’ bargain and betrayal ended with Efferal questioning the price of her own relationship with Su Ming.

• Su Ming and Efferal followed the repeating reliefs, which depicted the Necrons’ origins, the rise of their Empire, and their discovery of the Old Ones.
• Efferal touched a carving and used her psychic power to project its recorded images, revealing a fleet of Necron ships attacking an invisible C’tan.
• Su Ming identified the scene as a battle near the end of the War in Heaven and criticized the Silent King for failing to understand the cost of the Necrons’ bargain for immortality.
• Efferal argued that the Silent King could not have predicted the C’tan’s methods, while Su Ming insisted that rulers should expect a price for every gain.
• Efferal asked whether Su Ming’s revenge for her meant she had to follow him, and Su Ming replied that she had improved under his guidance.

Su Ming and Efferal explored a Necron tomb after learning that a C'tan Shard lay buried beneath the planet. Tzeentch’s interference clouded Efferal’s visions, so Su Ming used a shoe toss to choose their next path into the darkness.

• Efferal recalled that the C'tan’s defeat had devastated the planet, and that the Necron Pharaoh’s dynasty had gone into stasis to guard the buried C'tan Shard.
• Efferal briefly envisioned herself striking Tzeentch with the Shard, and Su Ming realized the Chaos God had interfered with her sight.
• Su Ming and Efferal reached a vast chamber filled with Necrons sleeping in stasis, where Efferal found a sixty-million-year-old record from Crypt Technician Ptah-hotep.
• Efferal could not safely use her psychic power to locate the Shard, so Su Ming tossed a high-heeled shoe and followed the direction its toe pointed.
• Su Ming explained that the shoe had belonged to his apprentice, then carried Efferal into a dark passage between the stasis chambers.