Chapter Summaries

Lynn and Rena watched Ragnar’s Ork fleet retreat toward Dorito and decided not to pursue him recklessly. Rena then reported a rapidly spreading plague on Dorito, and Lynn privately suspected Nurgle was behind it.

• Lynn recognized that Ragnar was still alive when the Ork fleet turned back toward Dorito.
• Lynn proposed sneaking aboard an Ork warship to pursue Ragnar, but Rena warned him that infiltrating Dorito was too dangerous.
• Lynn accepted Rena’s advice and acknowledged that the Waaagh! Field had made him more impulsive.
• Rena told Lynn that a plague had turned human corpses into walking dead and had spread across three continents of Dorito in a few days.
• Lynn used their psychic link to ask why Nurgle was in Dorito.

Lynn concluded that a major conflict was brewing in the Brevis System and ordered Rena to secretly expand the Tyranid swarm on Dead World A. He then headed back to Carl II to deal with the abandoned Ork Boyz and maintain Dominic’s support.

• Lynn and Rena discussed the arrival of Nurgle’s followers and wondered why Chaos was targeting Brevis.
• Lynn ordered Rena to move half the swarm from Dead World B to Dead World A and build a concealed hive underground.
• Rena agreed to establish hidden spawning pools and expand the swarm without alerting the humans on Brevis.
• Lynn said he would intervene and claim Brevis’s biomass if the Imperium could no longer defend the planet.
• Lynn and Rena flew back to Carl II to deal with the abandoned Ork Boyz and keep Dominic’s forces on their side.

Lynn’s Expeditionary Force trapped and destroyed an Ork invasion aboard the Carl II space station, then prepared to meet the human rear admiral. Lynn left the battlefield intending to discuss something with him.

• Lynn focused on raising Rena’s affection, which had passed 80, while deciding to ignore Sorine and Dominic as conquest targets.
• Millions of Orks invaded the Carl II space station, where Lynn’s Expeditionary Force used guerrilla tactics to harass and delay them.
• After learning their main fleet had retreated toward Dorito, the Orks panicked, and Lynn ordered the Tithe Fleet to bombard the station.
• The bombardment and cleanup eliminated over 3.2 million Orks at a cost of 315,217 Expeditionary Force casualties.
• Rena told Lynn that the Tithe Fleet had returned to orbit and that a human rear admiral had repeatedly requested a meeting, so Lynn agreed to see him.

Lynn warned Dominic that the Ork fleet’s orderly retreat suggested Ragnar might still be alive, despite reports that he died in battle. He left Dominic confronting the possibility that the Ork Warboss had survived by means no one understood.

• Dominic praised Lynn for defending Carl II and proposed attacking Dorito while the Orks were in disarray.
• Lynn argued that the Ork fleet’s orderly retreat did not match the chaos expected after a Warboss’s death and a leadership change.
• Lynn concluded that Ragnar was probably still alive, prompting Dominic to angrily insist that Ragnar had died in the psychic collapse.
• Lynn recalled Ragnar’s extraordinary regeneration and his flagship’s ability to swallow a fleet’s salvo, then asked why Ragnar could not have returned from the dead.

Lynn persuaded Dominic to reconsider his assumption that Ragnar was dead and proposed delaying the assault on Dorito to repair and resupply the fleet. He warned that rushing into a ground war against billions of Orks could turn the Imperium’s advantage into disaster.

• Dominic reviewed the battle’s abnormal events and, despite his anger over the sacrifices, agreed to hear Lynn’s proposal.
• Lynn explained that the Ork fleet had lost much of its strength and that Ragnar would struggle to restore it soon, even if he had survived.
• Lynn outlined the Gemstone’s damage and the shortage of ammunition at Carl II, then recommended resting and establishing a supply route before attacking Dorito.
• Dominic questioned whether a pause would let the Orks rebuild their Waaagh Field and grow stronger.
• Lynn argued that a damaged fleet and fewer than twenty million Imperial troops could not safely overcome Dorito’s five billion Orks, and urged Dominic to consolidate their forces before striking.

Dominic accepted Lynn’s advice to pause and refit at Carl II before launching a full offensive against Dorito, and the two formed a genuine alliance. As preparations began, Dominic grew preoccupied with the mysterious silver-haired Inquisitor who had saved him and hoped to meet her again.

• A Tech-Priest showed Dominic simulations that gave a hasty pursuit an 8.6% chance of victory and a planned offensive after resupply an 89.2% chance.
• Dominic abandoned the pursuit, ordered the fleet to rest and refit at Carl II, and planned an all-out offensive against Dorito once supplies and repairs were ready.
• Dominic clasped Lynn’s hand, and Lynn’s system announced that Dominic’s positive bond had unlocked.
• Lynn helped Dominic coordinate supplies, fleet rotations, and defenses while Carl II underwent extensive repairs and military preparations.
• Dominic repeatedly examined the black mask left by the silver-haired Inquisitor, wondered why she had saved him, and sought news of her in hopes of meeting again.

After his defeat at Carl II, Ragnar returned toward Dorito with a battered fleet and weakening authority. Three Nurgle-corrupted space hulks ambushed the Orks, but the fight revived their spirits and began a brutal battle in Dorito’s orbit.

• Ragnar struggled to control his discontented clan bosses while the Stew God remained dormant and his wounds healed slowly.
• Three plague-covered space hulks emerged near Dorito, and a damaged Ork assault ship crashed into the first one.
• Rotting corpses and mutated monsters poured from the hulk and attacked the Orks, whose weapons struggled to kill them.
• Ragnar rallied the fleet to attack, reigniting the Orks’ enthusiasm for battle.
• The Ork clans charged the three hulks, beginning a fierce battle against Nurgle’s plague-mutated creatures above Dorito.

Rust Phelps abandoned Abaddon's orders to seize the Life Shard on Brevis, but a Warp Storm destroyed most of his plague hulks. After the remaining fleet encountered Orks, Phelps ordered it to bypass the battle and sneak toward Brevis so he could infect the planet by other means.

• Rust Phelps recalled how he had defied Abaddon’s orders and diverted the Pale Hand to Brevis after receiving a revelation about the Life Shard.
• A Warp Storm destroyed twenty-seven of Phelps’s thirty plague hulks, leaving three to carry his fleet toward the Calixis System.
• The Death Guard ships encountered Orks, whose natural resistance made Phelps’s plagues ineffective and whose fleet attacked the hulks.
• Phelps refused to waste forces fighting the Orks and ordered his ships to shut down their engines and scans.
• Phelps led the fleet along the nebula’s western side toward Brevis, planning to spread plagues through infiltration or other attacks.

Ragnar and the Orks destroyed Nurgle’s Blight Arks above Dorito, restoring much of their Waaagh Field. Luna then adjusted her plans to exploit Lynn’s attention turning toward the Orks, ordering her followers to stay hidden and wait for another opportunity.

• Ragnar led the Orks in a three-day battle, boarding the Blight Arks and growing stronger as the Waaagh Field recovered.
• The Orks destroyed the last Blight Ark, and Ragnar celebrated their victory with the Boyz.
• Luna saw the defeat of Nurgle’s vanguard in her crystal ball and learned that the expected disorder had been delayed.
• Luna reasoned that Lynn would focus on the Orks and lower his guard, so she told her sorcerer to make no changes and leave no traces.
• Luna ordered her followers to monitor Lynn and the Orks, then declared that they would wait for the next tide.

Ragnar returned to Dorito and discovered that walking corpses had devastated his mushroom fields and Squig farms. After learning that the Gretchin Toothy devised the plan that stopped the outbreak, Ragnar summoned him, while Toothy secretly prepared to meet the Warboss.

• Ragnar arrived on Dorito and found the mushroom fields trampled and the Squig farms wrecked.
• Ragnar summoned the Warbosses, and a scar-faced boss told him that walking corpses had spread across the planet and ruined the farms.
• Ragnar recognized the three space hulks as the likely source and ordered his Orks to destroy anything marked with three circles and three arrows.
• The scar-faced boss explained that Toothy had stopped the outbreak by burning buried corpses and trapping the walking corpses behind a firebreak.
• Ragnar praised Toothy and sent a bodyguard to fetch him, while Toothy watched from an encampment and strode toward Ragnar with his bark notebook.

Dominic oversaw the final preparations for the Imperial assault on Dorito while privately judging Lynn’s close relationship with Ailei. The chapter ended with Lynn and Ailei sitting together at the orbital port, unaware of Dominic’s thoughts.

• Dominic received word that the seventh supply convoy was nearing Carl II and ordered the ammunition distributed, with repair parts prioritized for the Gemstone.
• Dominic credited Kerry Von and Lynn with helping secure victory at Carl II, while reflecting on his first independent command of a war across star systems.
• Dominic reviewed Lynn’s marriage to Isolde and suspected that Ailei was more than Lynn’s personal assistant, but decided not to interfere.
• Dominic said he would attack Dorito once the remaining supplies arrived and vowed to kill Ragnar in revenge for Ralfa and the fallen soldiers.
• Lynn and Ailei sat together on a shipping container, unaware that Dominic had begun to view Lynn as a playboy.

Lynn and Rena discussed their growing suspicion that the smooth campaign on Carl II concealed a Death Guard plot against Brevis. They prepared to monitor the planet and system for plague or enemy ships, while Lynn remained focused on defeating the Orks and taking Dorito.

• Rena told Lynn she sensed a danger approaching Brevis and that the three Blight Arks had been only the beginning.
• Lynn concluded that a Death Guard warband had deliberately sent the Blight Arks to spread plague and prepare for an attack on the Calixis System.
• Rena warned Lynn that the Death Guard would likely unleash a plague before bringing in their main force.
• Lynn explained that Butcher's people were monitoring Hive City's water and food supplies and that an epidemic reporting system had been established.
• Lynn asked Rena to send scout bio-ships to patrol the Brevis System's outskirts while he continued preparations for the attack on Dorito.
• Rena's worry eased as Lynn reassured her, and she promised to stay by his side.

Rena told Lynn she regretted that they could not have a child together, explaining that she wanted to experience human-style family and create a unique life with him. Lynn reassured her that he loved her regardless and said the swarm they had built together could be considered their child.

• Lynn noticed Rena growing lonely again and asked what was wrong, but she said she regretted not being able to give him a son or daughter.
• Rena explained that she wanted to bear a child with Lynn because humans learned and developed as individuals, unlike Tyranids, who were created according to the Hive Mind’s genetic designs.
• Lynn said he would do his part if Rena wanted a child, but the coming attack on Dorito and the biological differences between them made it impossible for them to have one.
• Rena admitted she had been fanciful, and Lynn comforted her by saying children did not prove their love and that the swarm they had shaped together was, in a sense, their child.

Rena accepted Lynn’s reassurance that the swarm was their shared child, and they held each other while hoping for the future. On Dorito, Toothy explained how observing humans had taught him to understand enemies, impressing Ragnar and earning the Warbosses’ resentment and silence.

• Lynn told Rena that the swarm was their child, and Rena agreed before they embraced.
• Ragnar recovered much of his strength at the Deffskull Clan’s camp in Cauldron City while the Warbosses stood around him.
• Toothy entered Ragnar’s camp and greeted him with a respectful bow, drawing mockery and suspicion from the Warbosses.
• Ragnar suspected Toothy of contacting humans, but Toothy said he had learned from observing them in battle and studying discarded documents.
• Ragnar praised Toothy’s advice to understand an enemy and berated the Warbosses for relying only on force.

Ragnar promoted Toothy to chief adviser and gave him command of part of the Blood Axe Clan. After hearing about the humie fleet’s attack on Carl II, Toothy devised a defense of Dorito and identified Dominic’s arrogance as a weakness, impressing Ragnar while privately anticipating a reunion with Seven-Smasha.

• Ragnar named Toothy his chief adviser and assigned him tens of thousands of Blood Axe Clan Boyz, three thousand battlewagons, and five hundred fighters.
• Ragnar told Toothy how the humie fleet had driven him from Carl II and described its one-armed noble, the fighter in a purple trench coat, and the powerful bug.
• Ragnar asked Toothy how to defend Dorito from the humies’ expected attack.
• Toothy argued that Dorito’s five billion Boyz and plentiful supplies made it difficult to invade, and that the humie noble’s confidence revealed his arrogance.
• Ragnar praised Toothy’s analysis, while Toothy quietly thought that he would meet Seven-Smasha again soon.

Toothy assured Ragnar and the other Warbosses that he had devised a plan to counter the Imperial fleet, then secretly shared its key details with Ragnar. After Dominic built up and launched his fleet toward Dorito, Lynn and Rena worried that Toothy had prepared the Orks for the coming attack.

• Toothy explained that the Orks should evacuate important supplies and facilities, then whispered the most important part of his plan to Ragnar.
• Ragnar praised Toothy’s plan, and the Warbosses cheered without knowing what it involved.
• Dominic forced Brevis’s nobles to provide funds, supplies, troops, and warships, while repairs to Carl II’s defenses and the Gemstone were completed.
• Dominic ordered the Imperial Fleet to depart Carl II Space Station for Dorito.
• Lynn and Rena suspected Toothy had warned Ragnar and worried that the Gretchin was unusually capable.

As the Imperial Fleet approached Planet Dorito, Dominic planned a concentrated assault on the dispersed Ork fleet, and Lynn and Rena judged it viable while warning him to guard the retreat route. Dominic ordered the attack and tightened security around Carl II as the fleet advanced.

• The Imperial Fleet reached the outskirts of the Dorito System and detected about two hundred Ork warships spread around the planet.
• Dominic proposed concentrating the main force to break through the Ork line and destroy important ground facilities.
• Rena assessed the plan as viable, estimating ten percent ship losses and an eighty-nine percent chance of success.
• Lynn endorsed the assault but warned Dominic to withdraw after hitting the ground targets and to watch for an Ork ambush against the route to Carl II.
• Dominic ordered patrols along the Carl II supply route and told the stationed troops to avoid getting bogged down in combat.
• Dominic ordered all warships to form an assault formation and advance at full speed.

Dominic led the Imperial Fleet through the Ork defenses and ordered a bombardment of Dorito, destroying Cauldron City. Ragnar blamed Toothy for the failed defense, but Toothy claimed to have a backup plan that would kill the humans.

• Dominic concentrated the Imperial Fleet's firepower and charged through the Ork defensive line, breaking through its orbital defenses in less than two hours.
• Dominic ordered the fleet to bombard Dorito, prioritizing Cauldron City, starports, Mekboy workshops, and mushroom fields.
• Ragnar and the Warbosses learned that the Imperial Fleet had reached Dorito and begun bombing the surface.
• Ragnar attacked Toothy, furious that his prediction about the spread-out Ork formation had failed.
• Toothy evaded Ragnar and insisted he had anticipated the breakthrough and prepared a backup plan.
• Ragnar agreed to hear Toothy's backup plan.

Toothy persuaded Ragnar that the Orks’ apparent defeat was a trap, with an elite fleet sent to seize Carl II Space Station while the Boyz hid underground. As the Imperial Fleet finished bombarding Dorito and began firing missiles designed to hit underground targets, Dominic ordered his ships to withdraw to Carl II.

• Toothy explained that Red Raven was leading eighty elite Ork warships toward Carl II Space Station to cut off Imperial supplies.
• Ragnar accepted Toothy’s plan and ordered all Boyz to hide underground until the Imperial landing troops arrived.
• The Imperial Fleet continued bombarding Dorito, burning mushroom fields and destroying its designated targets.
• Dominic ordered a final attack with Mole missiles aimed at possible Ork forces underground, then instructed the warships to withdraw to Carl II.

Ragnar and the Orks suffered devastating losses when Imperial bunker-buster missiles destroyed their underground command center, but Toothy urged him to keep fighting. As Dominic’s fleet prepared to withdraw from Dorito, the regrouped Ork fleet surrounded it, leaving the Imperial ships trapped.

• Bunker-buster missiles collapsed the underground command room, burying Orks and badly injuring Ragnar while Toothy survived inside an iron pot.
• Toothy reminded Ragnar that the Orks still had their main force and that Red Raven’s fleet was nearing Carl II, restoring Ragnar’s resolve to retaliate.
• Above Duolidi, Dominic ordered the Imperial Fleet to return to Carl II after its bombardment killed an estimated five hundred million Orks.
• As the Imperial Fleet tried to leave Dorito’s orbit, detectors reported about one hundred and fifty approaching warships, and Dominic realized the Ork fleet had surrounded them.
• Lynn’s transmission suddenly came through to the surrounded Imperial Fleet.