Chapter Summaries

Sith led a charge against the Orks to reach a Hive City gate, steadying the terrified recruits by promising to go first. When the nobles’ gate-closing command failed, Sith and Daviro sealed the passage with Melta Bombs, leaving the veteran rear guard outside as the Orks surged toward the Hive City.

• Daviro explained that the soldiers had to cross the battlefield, open the Hive City gate, and close it using codes supplied by the nobles.
• Sith reassured the recruits, saying he would go first, then led them in a charge through the Ork horde.
• Daviro and two other Deathwatch warriors opened the gate, but one discovered that the nobles’ closing command was wrong.
• Daviro ordered the passage collapsed with Melta Bombs, and Sith saluted the veterans at the rear so they would stay behind to hold off the Orks.
• The Deathwatch warriors detonated the Melta Bombs, sealing the passage as the rear guard cried out for the Emperor and the Hive City’s survivors faced the approaching Orks.

Sith and Daviro fought their way toward the Hive City's spire while rebels and a sabotaged route inflicted heavy casualties. They reached the final door, but Ana discovered that the nobles still refused to open it as Brunok's machine gun roared behind them.

• Brunok and the veterans covered the retreat as rebels surged through a blasted-open gate toward the spire.
• Sith led the soldiers through dark passages, shooting hidden enemies while Ana searched for a route and found that the door-opening command was still wrong.
• Sith concluded that the nobles were using them to let Orks into the Hive City and purge the lower levels, while Daviro prepared a Melta Bomb to open the next gate.
• A rebel ambush killed more than twenty veterans and badly wounded a Deathwatch warrior, but Sith's soldiers charged in and killed the rebel officer.
• Sith's battered force reached the final door to the spire, but Ana found that the nobles would not open it and angrily struck the communications console.

Sith and the battered 101st Regiment held the passage while Daviro rigged the Hive City gate with explosives, allowing the defenders to break through and reach the noble guards. When the governor ignored Sith and showed contempt for the soldiers, Daviro declared the execution the Inquisition’s judgment and aimed his bolter at him.

• Sith ordered the surviving soldiers to collect ammunition, fix bayonets, and hold the passage while Daviro summoned him to the gate.
• Daviro revealed his expertise in siege assaults and asked Sith and his battle-brother to hold the rebels back while he placed explosives.
• Sith and the Astartes fought the charging rebels until Daviro’s explosives weakened the gate and he toppled it with a kick.
• The noble guards poured fire into the passage as the 101st Regiment and the Astartes emerged, and the guards showed respect for the bloodied soldiers.
• The governor ignored Sith and tried to flatter Daviro, who stopped Sith from executing him and declared the Inquisition’s judgment while pressing his bolter to the governor’s forehead.

Sith expanded and equipped his forces after taking control of the spire, but discovered that its refugees and soldiers depended on corpse starch for food. He inspected Ana’s experimental starch after it turned recruits blue and learned that its flaw would only matter if the soldiers survived long enough.

• Brunok reported that Sith had enough supplies to rebuild his forces to 150,000, but food stocks would last only a month with the refugees included.
• Sith learned that the spire’s refugees had been eating corpse starch from a factory and that the factory supplied his regiments as well.
• Brunok told Sith that Ana could make starch from promethium, chemical waste, and corpses, prompting Sith to inspect her experiment.
• Sith found that Ana’s recruits had turned blue after eating her starch, while Ana’s tests showed no immediate problem.
• Ana admitted the starch had a biological flaw but argued it was harmless given the soldiers’ short careers, and Sith objected that they might not die.

Daviro and Sith led a hundred veterans into the Underhive while the 101st Regiment attacked the Upper Hive to draw rebel forces away. They captured the governor’s secret fortress, where Sith discovered an enormous portrait of the God-Emperor with four arms.

• Daviro asked Sith to launch an attack in the Upper Hive as a diversion, and Sith agreed.
• Sith took a hundred veteran soldiers with Daviro into a secret elevator passage while the 101st Regiment and twenty-nine infantry regiments assaulted the Upper Hive.
• The elevator opened onto a waiting mass of rebels, and Daviro and the veterans fought their way through the gunfire.
• Sith, Daviro, and the veterans cleared the governor’s secret fortress and secured its defenses.
• Sith inspected the rebel camp, noticed the God-Emperor’s portrait, and froze when he saw it had four arms.

Sith and his Deathwatch squad fought through a Genestealer uprising in Vigilus’s Underhive, following Daviro into the lower hive to uncover the corruption. They encountered a Zoanthrope, whose psychic question failed to frighten Sith or his veterans.

• Daviro confirmed that Genestealers had instigated the rebellion and led the squad toward a branch in the lower hive.
• Sith’s squad fought through waves of Genestealers and hybrids as Daviro charged ahead, splitting away from the group.
• Sith’s veterans found a dead Deathwatch warrior and followed his path into a dark area the Genestealers avoided.
• Daviro attacked a floating Zoanthrope, but a spatial force suspended him in midair as the creature asked what they feared.
• Sith resisted the Zoanthrope’s mental assault and shouted that they were afraid it would run.

Sith and his veterans killed the Zoanthrope and fought their way back to the tower summit, where they reunited with Brunok and Ana. As Imperial forces proclaimed victory over Vigilus and bombarded its fallen Hive Cities, Sith saw the war’s grim reality and sought a moment of peace in the water.

• Sith killed the Zoanthrope, breaking its hold on Daviro, and urged him to return with their intelligence as Genestealers closed in.
• Daviro ordered the mission team to withdraw, and Sith led the veterans into the Genestealer tide to fight their way back.
• After Ana’s message arrived, Brunok ordered the 101st Regiment to retreat to the tower summit and collapse the passages behind them.
• Sith and more than seventy veterans returned in the elevator atop a heap of dead Aberrants, astonishing the soldiers waiting at the summit.
• Imperial broadcasts announced that Vigilus was under control as the Navy bombarded fallen Hive Cities, while Genestealers and Orks continued their assaults.
• Sith watched the fleet and then submerged his head in the water, seeking quiet as the war for Vigilus began in earnest.

Sith refused the nobles’ request for elite troops to escort them and their property from the spiretop, then ordered Ana to prioritize giving them her blue starch. The chapter ended with Ana puzzled by Sith’s decision as he allocated the remaining supplies to soldiers and refugees.

• Two nobles met Sith in his office and asked him to assign elite troops to escort them and their attendants and property to safety.
• Brunok reacted with disgust to the nobles’ demand, while Sith calmly refused to arrange their escort.
• After the nobles left, Ana asked Sith whether he was displeased with them.
• Sith told Ana that she could never have too much starch and ordered her to give the nobles priority for blue starch, distributing the rest to soldiers and refugees according to his list.

On Vigilus, Calgar used the Senate to enforce a no-retreat policy and demanded recognition and support for Sith’s 101st Regiment, which was holding out beyond Imperial lines. The Astra Militarum promised the regiment formal induction, an aerial supply route, combat suits, and storm trooper equipment.

• Calgar ordered that no Imperial position be abandoned and that any retreat without his personally signed order be treated as treason.
• Calgar questioned why the 101st Regiment had not received top-priority supplies, commendations, and recognition for its victories.
• A noble blamed the Astra Militarum for the regiment’s neglected rewards, then offered Sith master-crafted Power Armour and public commendations.
• The Astra Militarum commander promised commendations, formal induction of the 101st Regiment, an aerial supply route, and 150,000 fully enclosed combat suits.
• The Astra Militarum commander added that the regiment would receive 5,000 sets of storm trooper equipment.

Sith received ten thousand combat suits and saw his soldiers enjoy a rare, comfortable evening amid the war on Vigilus. The Imperial Fleet departed to fight xenos in space, leaving Sith to realize that the fighting on Vigilus was about to intensify.

• An Astra Militarum officer delivered ten thousand fully enclosed combat suits and asked Sith to sign a photograph of his wife and child.
• Sith learned that his 101st Regiment’s equipment now placed it among the Imperium’s elite mortal forces.
• Sith inspected his soldiers as they donned black combat suits and received a hearty dinner, tobacco, and synthetic coffee.
• Sith heard a radio report that Calgar was leading the fleet against xenos in space as the Imperial warships stopped firing and departed.
• Sith watched his soldiers savor their brief comfort and remarked that Vigilus was getting livelier.

Sith recognized that the Imperial Navy’s supposed victory was propaganda and prepared the 101st Regiment as the Black Crusade approached Vigilus. When Genestealer rumors sparked a refugee riot over water, he learned that the nobles had hoarded the clean water inside the fortress.

• Sith silenced the propaganda broadcast and saw that the remaining Imperial ships were falling from orbit while the pamphlets proclaimed victory.
• Sith ordered the 101st Regiment to follow a strict training schedule, reinstate curfew, and triple its guard strength.
• After a small clash, Brunok reported that refugees were rioting and Genestealers were spreading rumors that the water purification facility had been captured.
• Sith identified the crisis as a struggle over Vigilus’s clean water and ordered water rationing and the preparation of purification and recycling equipment.
• Brunok revealed that the nobles had taken all the water and hidden it in the fortress, and Sith crushed his canteen in anger.

As unrest spread across the Imperium, Sith stormed a nobles’ fortress to seize its water supplies and received Calgar’s order to retake the water purification station. The mission appeared nearly suicidal, but Sith’s spirits rose when he saw the Artificer Power Armour delivered for him.

• Ana reported that civilians were joining the Genestealers by the hundreds of millions as nobles barricaded themselves in their fortresses.
• Sith and Daviro breached the fortress gate with Melta Bombs, and Sith used an autocannon to kill the nobles’ private soldiers and subdue the nobles.
• Brunok led men in hunting down the remaining private soldiers, while Ana organized water tankers to carry supplies to Sith’s headquarters.
• A herald delivered two thousand Jump Packs and told Sith that Calgar planned a large offensive while Sith retook the water purification station.
• The herald unveiled a suit of Artificer Power Armour, lifting Sith’s spirits despite the danger of the assignment.

Sith trained the 101st Regiment to climb the space elevator while Calgar’s forces fought Orks and Genestealers across Hyperia. After three months of accusations that Sith had delayed his mission, the recapture effort passed 50 percent, and Calgar saw the regiment fighting its way up through the Genestealers.

• Sith donned his master-crafted Power Armour, raised the 101st Regiment’s standard, and ordered two thousand veterans to climb to the spire’s tip one hundred times every day.
• Orks attacked mortal soldiers across the Hive Cluster as Calgar bombed Genestealer-held Hive Cities and faced reports accusing Sith of delaying his mission.
• Calgar dismissed the accusations after seeing reports that Sith’s troops were training to climb.
• A Tech-Priest announced that the water purification station’s recapture progress had passed 50.01 percent.
• Calgar watched a projection of the 101st Regiment climbing through the space elevator and fighting its way upward against the Genestealers.

Calgar and the command centre watched Sith and the 101st fight up the space elevator toward the Genestealer-infested water purification station, while their hopes of success collapsed when a Lictor appeared. Sith killed the Lictor, prompting Calgar to order a retreat and announce that Sith and the 101st had reclaimed the station.

• Servo-skulls transmitted footage of two thousand 101st troops fighting their way up the space elevator, astonishing the command centre and Calgar.
• Calgar ordered the offensive to continue, though Purestrain Genestealers increased the veterans’ casualties as they neared the top.
• A Lictor appeared, and the Tech-Priest assessed the operation’s chance of success as zero while the command centre assumed Sith’s force could not survive.
• As Sith fell through the shaft, he kept fighting until his Power Sword struck the Lictor; his jump pack then held him aloft as the Lictor plunged to the ground.
• The Tech-Priest raised the operation’s success probability to 97.75 percent, and Calgar ordered all forces to retreat and announced that Sith and the 101st had reclaimed the water purification station.

Sith and the surviving veterans restored the water supply at the top of the purification station, only for Abaddon's Chaos fleet to destroy it with a Macro-cannon shell. Sith returned to the battle on the tower top and found Brunok's forces had inflicted heavy losses on the Chaos Astartes, leaving the enemy commander stunned.

• Sith and the veterans reopened the purification station and restored its water supply while the Adeptus Mechanicus brought in an enormous ice crystal.
• Sith spotted Abaddon's fleet and ordered everyone to jump from the station just before a Macro-cannon shell destroyed it.
• Sith landed on the tower top, asked for Brunok, and gave the returning 101st storm troopers half an hour to rest and refit.
• Sith found Brunok directing the fighting amid extensive casualties and saw fifty recruits bring down a Chaos Astartes.
• Brunok's forces had killed so many Chaos Astartes that their commander wondered whether fewer than fifty mortals had traded away his warriors.

As Chaos forces attacked Vigilus, Sith and the 101st Regiment inflicted severe losses on Black Skull’s warband, while Hyperia fell into riots and lost its supply route. Dujiao tried to avoid fighting Sith by volunteering to face the Genestealers emerging through a demolished gate, and the confused factions prepared to fight.

• Black Skull watched the 101st Regiment trade few casualties for Chaos Astartes and concluded that the Emperor was blessing them.
• Black Skull ordered Dujiao to prove his loyalty, and Dujiao led his men toward a warped gate to avoid confronting Sith.
• Brunok told Sith that Chaos had cut off supplies to Hyperia, destroyed its water purification plant, and sparked riots requiring Astartes to suppress.
• An explosion opened a passage near the battlefield, revealing Genestealers and stunning Sith’s soldiers, Black Skull’s warband, and the Genestealers already nearby.
• Dujiao volunteered to hold back the newly revealed Genestealers, who raised their weapons and declared that anyone approaching would be shot.

The 101st Regiment held its position while Chaos and Genestealers fought nearby, and Sith finally prepared to confront Black Skull. When the Chaos Astartes charged, Sith swung his Power Sword, and Black Skull fled toward a transport aircraft, desperate to escape.

• Sith rotated the 101st Regiment’s troops and had hot food brought to the front as they watched Chaos fight the Genestealers.
• Brunok insulted Black Skull, provoking him and the Chaos Astartes to prepare an attack on the human position.
• Sith drew his Power Sword and artificer boltgun, and Black Skull sensed a terrifying threat in the mortal wearing Power Armour.
• Black Skull rallied his warband and sent the Chaos Astartes charging while he stayed behind with Dujiao.
• The Chaos Astartes suppressed the 101st Regiment, but when Sith swung his Power Sword, Black Skull ordered his ship ready and ran for the transport aircraft.

Abaddon learned that Black Skull had fled after Sith’s forces drove it off, but he dismissed the incident and ordered the siege of Hyperia to continue. As Sith led the 101st Regiment out of the Hive City, an extermination torpedo fell from the sky toward them.

• A Chaos light cruiser broke formation and left Vigilus, prompting Abaddon to learn that Black Skull had departed.
• Abaddon reviewed information about Black Skull and, after seeing that Sith’s mortals had driven it off, ordered the force exterminated while keeping his focus on Hyperia.
• A Chaos light cruiser carrying a Cyclonic Torpedo changed course toward Sith.
• Sith ordered the 101st Regiment to abandon the line and fight its way out of the Hive City as Genestealers pressed their position.
• Sith led the soldiers through an opened exit passage into the warped world below the Hive City.
• Sith recognized the object falling through the clouds as an extermination torpedo dropped from space.

Sith led the 101st Regiment away from a Cyclonic Torpedo’s destruction of a hive city and charged into the battle between the Orks and Chaos, declaring that Vigilus still belonged to the Imperium. At Hyperia, Calgar learned that a mortal regiment remained in the field and was still attacking.

• A Cyclonic Torpedo struck the hive city, collapsing it and devastating the surrounding area while Sith and the surviving recruits watched from outside.
• Sith ordered his soldiers to march toward Hyperia across the transformed battlefield, where Orks, Chaos forces, and Warp daemons fought.
• Sith led the 101st Regiment into battle, ordering them to raise their banner and open fire as they charged the Orks and Chaos army.
• At Hyperia, an Ultramarine delivered a report to Calgar that a mortal regiment remained in the field and was still launching attacks.

Sith led the exhausted survivors of the 101st Regiment across the glass-smooth battlefield toward Hyperia after defeating vast numbers of Chaos forces and Orks. An Imperial fighter crashed nearby, and its Servo-skull projected Lord Calgar, who saw the heaps of enemy dead and asked Sith if he had killed them all.

• Sith ordered Brunok to gather the surviving soldiers and move toward Hyperia.
• The remaining soldiers of the 101st Regiment gathered and followed Sith across the mirrored battlefield.
• An Imperial fighter crashed nearby, and Sith approached it with several stormtroopers.
• A Servo-skull projected Lord Calgar, who was directing the Imperial defense of the outer fortress and its Void Shields.
• Calgar surveyed the battlefield, saw the heaps of Chaos Astartes and Ork corpses, and asked Sith if he had killed them all.