Chapter Summaries

Luna used Destined Death to kill Lynn’s Ork identity, Seven-Smasha, despite Rena Dahan’s attempt to protect him. As Toothy mourned him and Lynn said goodbye to Rena, Lynn awakened as a human aboard the Obsidian Pinnacle in orbit around Carl II.

• Luna explained that Destined Death stored attacks and unleashed them in a pursuing orb against Lynn.
• Rena Dahan shielded Lynn from the orb, but Luna redirected it through dimensional openings and struck Seven-Smasha.
• The orb annihilated most of Seven-Smasha’s body and destroyed his ability to regenerate, while Rena’s psychic storm swept through the area.
• Toothy wept over Lynn, who apologized for using him and told him they would meet again.
• Lynn’s voice told Rena to wait for him, and a human man with deep purple eyes awakened aboard the Obsidian Pinnacle.

Luna escaped through a portal after killing Lynn, abandoning much of her force to the Orks. The humans’ defeat sparked a massive Ork civil war across Carl II, while Sith failed to stop the fighting and Chandler continued spinning his Gargant, firing indiscriminately.

• Luna revealed that she had prepared an escape portal, fled with the officers who could follow, and ordered her forces to abandon their wounded and heavy equipment.
• The Orks slaughtered the Imperial soldiers left behind, then turned on one another over loot, clan rivalries, and old grudges.
• Fighting spread across Carl II as Orks battled on the platforms, in the passages, and in the port, setting off a planet-wide civil war.
• Sith tried to halt the fighting and called on Chandler to help, but his orders went unheard amid the chaos.
• Chandler remained absorbed in spinning his Gargant, whose indiscriminate fire killed Orks and destroyed the surrounding square as the crowd’s cheers strengthened its Waaagh! Field.

Sith tried to stop Chandler’s spinning Gargant Mech, but Rena Dahan attacked before he could act. After she caught Sith’s enormous sword and evaded his psychic defenses, Sith realized her Psychic Power suppressed other psychic abilities at their source.

• Sith taunted Chandler, but the Gargant Mech kept spinning, and Sith suspected Chandler had passed out in its cockpit.
• As Sith gathered Psychic Power to stop the mech, Rena Dahan struck him with a neural pulse and disrupted his attack.
• Sith forged a massive iron sword from wreckage and swung it at Rena Dahan, who caught the blade with her four hands without being hurt.
• Rena Dahan vanished and reappeared behind Sith, whose five psychic shields shattered under her chitinous blades.
• Sith teleported away with a serious shoulder wound and realized Rena Dahan’s Psychic Power could suppress other Psychic Power at its source.

Sith discovered that Rena Dahan and the Hokage Clan were Tyranid infiltrators, but the Waaagh! Field kept the other Orks from seeing the truth. As Rena's blades pierced his chest, Sith unleashed the Gaze of Gork, which struck the Hive Mind but failed to break through its pink shield.

• Rena Dahan relentlessly attacked Sith, who relied on instinct and psychic foresight as his Psychic Power remained suppressed.
• Sith saw Rena Dahan's true Tyranid form and realized the Hokage Clan were spies provoking a civil war to weaken Carl II.
• The Waaagh! Field distorted the Orks' perceptions, preventing Sith from exposing the Tyranids while they cheered on the fight.
• As Rena Dahan's blades pierced his psychic shield, Sith drained the Psychic Power of over a hundred Psychic Power Boyz and unleashed the Gaze of Gork.
• Gork's force attacked the Hive Mind in Rena Dahan's consciousness, but a pink shield protected it as her blades plunged into Sith's chest.

Rena Dahan stabbed Sith and suppressed the Waaagh! power he unleashed in a final attempt to destroy Carl II. Sith’s psychic catastrophe failed, and he died as the civil war continued around him.

• Rena Dahan stabbed Sith with her twin blades, cutting him off from the Waaagh Field and draining his strength.
• Sith watched the fighting and the spinning Gargant Mech on Carl II before deciding to destroy the station rather than let anyone claim it.
• Sith’s body swelled as his dying Psychic Power triggered a massive Waaagh! explosion, and the Orks cheered as its energy gathered.
• Rena Dahan shrieked and spread the Shadow in the Warp across the core district, frightening the Orks and trapping Sith’s power in a purple barrier.
• Rena Dahan pulled her blades from Sith, and his body shriveled as he died; a green beam shot from his corpse into space.

After Rena Dahan's true Tyranid form was revealed, the Orks turned on her, but Lynn's Purification Crusade fleet arrived and attacked them while carefully sparing Rena. Rena prepared to deal with the still-uncontrolled Chandler as Lynn's forces cleared the battlefield.

• The Orks discovered that Rena Dahan was a Tyranid monster and furiously rejected the Divine Emissary they had worshipped.
• Toothy rallied Sith's surviving Orks and led them in a charge against Rena Dahan.
• Lynn's Purification Crusade fleet arrived at Carl II's core area and unleashed a precise barrage on the Ork army.
• Lynn's forces advanced with tanks, transports, aircraft, and Vanguard elites, avoiding Rena while destroying the Orks who approached her.
• Rena Dahan watched the Expeditionary Force clear the battlefield as she prepared to deal with Chandler.

Lynn led the Expeditionary Force against the Orks, and Toothy recognized him as Seven-Smasha before retreating with the surviving Hokage Clan Boyz. Lynn then ordered Rena Dahan to attack Chandler’s Gargant, but the mech’s spinning flail hurled her away as the Orks cheered Chandler.

• Lynn killed a Goffs Nob atop the Cold Front Super-heavy Tank and rallied the Expeditionary Force to charge the Orks.
• Toothy recognized Lynn as Seven-Smasha, and Lynn ordered the tanks to fire around him without killing him.
• Toothy led the surviving Hokage Clan Boyz toward the underground passages, while Lynn turned his attention to the Gargant Mech.
• Rena Dahan charged Chandler’s Gargant and fired acid spores, but its Waaagh Field neutralized them and repaired the armour.
• Rena Dahan aimed a bone round at the Gargant’s eye, but its spinning flail struck her into a Chimera Armoured Vehicle.
• The surrounding Orks cheered Chandler and praised him as the strongest warboss.

Rena Dahan used a psychic metal whip to slow Chandler’s spinning Gargant Mech while the Brevis Expeditionary Force and the bugs overwhelmed the Orks elsewhere. As the Orks watched Chandler fail to fight back, they stopped cheering and began mocking him with a song.

• After Sith died, Orks from other clans joined Chandler’s camp and cheered him as he spun in the Gargant Mech.
• Rena Dahan repeatedly failed to penetrate the Gargant Mech’s spinning defenses, and Lynn realized that countering its rotation might stop it.
• Following Lynn’s advice, Rena Dahan forged the Whip of the Tyranids from scrap and struck against the Gargant Mech’s spin, gradually slowing it.
• Rena Dahan lashed aside Orks who tried to interfere while the Brevis Expeditionary Force and bugs kept other Orks from returning to the core zone.
• The Orks saw Chandler remain helpless as Rena whipped him, then spread a mocking song about him and his mech.

Rena Dahan stopped the Gargant Mech, pulled Chandler from its cockpit, and killed him, causing the Orks’ Waaagh Field and command structure on Carl II to collapse. Lynn ordered the Brevis Expeditionary Force to wipe out the remaining Orks while Rena Dahan signaled the Tyranids to retreat and hide.

• Rena Dahan whipped the Gargant Mech to a halt, tore open its cockpit, and dragged out the unconscious Chandler.
• Chandler awoke, learned that Rena Dahan had stopped his mech, and found himself unable to control it without the Waaagh Field.
• Rena Dahan beheaded Chandler, and the Waaagh Field across Carl II rapidly dissipated.
• The Orks abandoned their attack on the humans and fought among themselves for the vacant position of Warboss.
• Lynn ordered the Brevis Expeditionary Force to purge Carl II, while Gus directed artillery and Genestealer Cult squads and fighters attacked the Orks.
• Rena Dahan signaled the Tyranids to retreat and conceal themselves across Carl II, where they waited to reclaim its biomass.

Toothy led the Hokage Clan remnants away from Carl II as Seven-Smasha’s victory and the fading Waaagh! Field left the Orks in disarray. On Dorito, Ragnar received Sith’s warning about the Hokage Clan, while the expeditionary force’s cleanup continued amid the collapse of Ork technology and clans.

• Toothy led the surviving Hokage Clan toward Dorito, telling Sasuke they would rebuild and return to fight Seven-Smasha one day.
• Sith’s green-lit form crashed into Ragnar’s starch-jelly pot and left a warning to beware the Hokage Clan.
• Ragnar dismissed the warning aloud but secretly took it seriously and ordered a big lad to investigate the Hokage Clan.
• As the Waaagh! Field faded, Ork weapons, warships, Squigs, and fortresses across Carl II failed or turned dangerous.
• Without warbosses or their shared will, the Ork clans broke apart into scattered gangs.

The Expeditionary Force reclaimed Carl II from the Orks and began clearing the station while its Ork-built outer sections disintegrated. Lynn learned that the Orks had grotesquely altered the station’s power, gravity, and defense systems, leaving the engineering team facing urgent repairs.

• Ork gangs fought over scraps and wreckage across Carl II, while the Expeditionary Force methodically cleared sectors and rescued wounded soldiers.
• Gus directed the cleanup, and Lynn received figures showing 16.15 million Orks eliminated, major areas secured, and 121.75 million still scattered across the station.
• Lynn ordered the soldiers to remain vigilant and inspect every passage and ruin for surviving Orks.
• Ork-built sections broke away from Carl II and formed a debris belt as the station began shrinking toward its original size.
• Alderman reported that the Orks had replaced the central reactor with Squig-powered Waaagh! generators, made gravity unstable with a spinning iron ball, and rendered the defense guns ineffective.

Lynn arranged to defend the damaged Carl II while Alderman organized repairs, but the fleet received urgent news that the Imperium’s Tithe collection fleet was about to reach Brevis. Lynn was left facing a choice between holding Carl II and rushing back to his home base.

• Alderman told Lynn that repairing Carl II would take at least two months and require far more engineers, Servitors, and materials than they had.
• Lynn ordered most of the fleet and all five million ground troops to remain on Carl II while Alderman prioritized restoring power, life support, and the port’s anti-aircraft guns.
• An unidentified ship emerged from the Warp and approached Carl II, prompting the fleet to assume level-one combat readiness.
• The ship identified itself as being from the Brevis Governor’s Office, and its young official told Lynn that the Tithe collection fleet was less than three days from Brevis.
• The official said Chief Archon Carter had ordered him to summon Lynn back immediately, as the Tithe fleet was likely nearing orbit around Brevis.

Lynn feared that Brevis would face a double manpower Tithe and possibly additional levies, which could trigger famine and expose its hidden psykers to the Black Ships. He decided to return to Brevis with three frigates and ended by asking Gus whether he still hated him for what happened aboard the Song Offering.

• Lynn worried that the Tithe collector might demand food and psykers from Brevis, endangering the planet and his plans.
• Lynn ordered the Obsidian Pinnacle, destroyers, frigates, and ground troops to stay at Carl II while he returned to Brevis aboard Lightning, Gale, and Thunder.
• Lynn summoned Gus and praised his performance and loyalty during the expedition.
• Lynn asked Gus whether he still hated him for what had happened aboard the Song Offering.

Lynn appointed Gus to command the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet while he was away from Carl II, as the approaching Tithe fleet and an expected Ork counterattack threatened the newly reclaimed world. The officers reacted with shock as Gus faced the prospect of becoming the expedition's Grand General.

• Lynn asked Gus whether he still resented him over the events aboard the Song Offering, and Gus said he had let the past go and was grateful for the life Lynn had given him.
• Lynn told the senior officers that the Tithe fleet had entered the Calixis System and might soon reach Brevis.
• Lynn warned that Ork spores remained on Carl II and that Big Gut Ragnar would likely launch a counterattack if the main forces left.
• Lynn announced that he would establish the position of Grand General to exercise his authority over the fleet and command its forces while he was away.
• The officers suspected Gus would receive the position, and Gus reacted with shock as the bridge's broadcast system came to life.

Lynn appointed Gus Griffith grand general of the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet and entrusted him with holding Carl II against the Orks. In private, he outlined a defensive strategy and left Gus with Dahan and Bailu to help protect the planet.

• Lynn asked Gus Griffith to serve as grand general, and Gus swore to defend Carl II from the Orks.
• Lynn ordered the officers to obey Gus unconditionally and took him to the captain’s quarters for a private briefing.
• Lynn instructed Gus to concentrate the fleet and ground forces around the core zone, mid-level platforms, and three main ports, building layered defenses and avoiding costly offensives.
• Gus described his plan to guard hidden passages, patrol for Ork gatherings, and prioritize repairs to reactors, life-support systems, and port defenses.
• Lynn assigned Dahan and Bailu to help Gus, explaining Bailu’s psychic abilities and telling him to heed Rena’s judgment when he faced difficult decisions.

Lynn left Gus in command of Carl II and departed with three frigates for Brevis, trusting undercover Orks to warn them of Ragnar’s plans. The fleet entered the Warp under Rena Dongzhi’s guidance, protected from Chaos as it traveled toward Brevis.

• Lynn told Gus that genetically modified half-bug Orks had infiltrated Ragnar’s forces and would provide advance warning of enemy movements.
• Lynn warned Gus that Ragnar’s menzi could drive Orks into a frenzy and urged him to prevent them from boarding; Gus promised to defend Carl II.
• Lynn boarded the Lightning and departed Carl II with two other Turbulent-class Frigates, waving goodbye to Gus.
• Lynn ordered the fleet into the Warp and set its destination for Brevis orbit.
• Rena Dongzhi guided the fleet through the Warp while the Gellar Fields and her Shadow in the Warp shielded the ships from Chaos.

Lynn discussed why he refused to betray the Imperium with Rena, who had secretly hypnotized the noble generals. Their frigate then emerged from the Warp and reached orbit over Brevis.

• Rena told Lynn to rebel against the Imperium and use the swarm to destroy anyone who opposed them, but Lynn explained that Brevis's human soldiers and civilians remained loyal to the Imperium.
• Rena admitted she had hypnotized the noble generals so they would obey orders and not notice the swarm recovering biomass; Lynn told her to warn him before acting on her own.
• Lynn suggested sending the generals to the front lines when Ragnar attacked so they could die fighting the Orks, and Rena eagerly agreed.
• Lynn told Rena that betraying humanity would mean losing his identity, and Rena said she would stay with him whatever he chose to do.
• The frigate exited the Warp and reached orbit over Brevis, where Lynn saw the familiar planet below.

After losing Carl II to Lynn, Luna learned that the Imperial Tithe fleet had entered the Calixis System and set course for Brevis, hoping to use the crushing levy against him. Lynn returned to Brevis and found its people celebrating the news of Carl II’s liberation, though the Tithe remained a looming threat.

• Luna surveyed her shattered fleet after losing Carl II to Lynn, while her adjutant warned that they were low on supplies.
• A sorcerer told Luna that an unusually large Imperial Tithe fleet had entered the Calixis System and that Brevis would struggle to pay its levy.
• Luna ordered her fleet to return to Brevis, determined to exploit the Tithe and challenge Lynn’s position as governor.
• Protected by Tzeentch’s blue flames, Luna’s fleet crossed the Warp and reached the Brevis system in less than ten hours.
• Aboard the Lightning, Lynn sensed Brevis’s joy and hope, and Rena told him that the people were happy.

One day before Lynn’s return, Isolde told Carter that Lynn had retaken Carl II, and Carter announced the victory across Brevis. Lynn then returned to the Governor’s Palace, where he prepared to deal with the approaching Tithe fleet and erase signs of Tyranid activity.

• Isolde told Carter that Lynn had retaken Carl II and killed the Ork warlord, Iron Pincers Chandler.
• Carter announced Lynn’s victory across Brevis, and the citizens celebrated while the nobles feared his growing power.
• Lynn arrived at Brevis’s main starport with Rena, where Marcus welcomed him with exaggerated praise.
• Lynn ordered Marcus to strengthen security at the starport and went straight to his transport aircraft.
• Lynn flew toward the Governor’s Palace to take stock of supplies and mobilize Brevis’s wildmen to remove traces of Tyranid activity before the Tithe fleet arrived.

Lynn returned to Brevis and rallied the St. Garus Family and local leaders as the Imperium’s Tithe fleet approached. The chapter ended with him assigning groups to provide supplies and recruits while promising to handle the Psyker levy.

• Lynn arrived in Brevis, reunited with Leo and Carter, and learned that Leo had stabilized the St. Garus Family’s position against Luna’s supporters and the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Leo promised the St. Garus Family’s full support for Brevis’s Tithe and laughed as Lynn recounted Luna’s losses on Carl II.
• Lynn held a welcoming banquet for Brevis’s prominent figures and thanked them for supporting the victory on Carl II.
• Lynn announced that the Imperium’s Tithe collection fleet would soon arrive and warned that Brevis faced dire consequences if it failed to pay.
• Lynn assigned guilds to provide minerals and military supplies, scavenger alliances to provide recruits, and asked the nobles to help supply food while he handled the Psyker levy.