Chapter Summaries

Bishop Jensen organized nine purification squads to assault the factories and destroy the Chaos altars, while William accepted his plan despite the civilians at risk. Cecilia’s squad fought through mutants and sorcerous attacks, and the chapter ended as a Purestrain Genestealer secretly transmitted a route into an Iron Guard soldier’s mind.

• William handed Bishop Jensen the command token and agreed to follow his lead.
• Bishop Jensen organized nine mixed purification squads and ordered them to enter the factories, destroy the altars, and protect the city.
• Cecilia led the First Purification Squad into Factory C, where priests’ prayers shielded the soldiers as they fought Chaos walking corpses.
• A disguised mutant attacked the squad, and Cecilia killed it after it wounded an Iron Guard soldier.
• Tzeentch sorcery turned civilians into attackers, sowed hallucinations among the soldiers, and brought daemons into the factory.
• A Purestrain Genestealer watched from the ceiling and sent a route into the consciousness network of an Iron Guard soldier.

Genestealer watchers secretly guided the purification squads through eight recruitment camps, helping them avoid traps and reach the Chaos altars. The raids succeeded with few casualties, but Camp Eight remained.

• Genestealers relayed the camps’ hidden routes, traps, and altar locations to the swarm’s consciousness network.
• Holt told Sister Cecilia that he knew the factory layout, and she ordered him to guide the squad.
• The squad bypassed mutants and sorcerous traps, reached the central workshop, and destroyed the cultists and altar.
• The barrier fell, and the first recruitment camp was declared purified.
• Purification squads cleared seven more factories with minimal casualties, leaving only Camp Eight.
• William was stunned by the low losses, while Bishop Jensen looked toward the eighth factory with a furrowed brow.

Sixteen-year-old Quirk gained strength each time he killed mutants in Factory Eight, but his urge to slaughter soon consumed him and he killed everyone in his path. Sister Agnes's purification squad found him surrounded by corpses, and he begged them to stop him before charging at them; Agnes suspected the Blood God was behind his transformation.

• Quirk survived attacks in the storeroom by killing seven mutants with a nailed table leg, then gained overwhelming strength when a fire ignited in his chest.
• Quirk killed an eighth Aberrant, took its bone blade, and set out to find survivors, but everyone he encountered turned into a monster or attacked him.
• Quirk's growing power and pleasure in killing led him to attack anything that moved, until he stood nine feet tall and armed himself with two improvised flails.
• Sister Agnes led her purification squad through corridors filled with corpses brutally crushed by an unknown force.
• Quirk recognized the squad as the Emperor's warriors and begged them to stop him, but he charged at them as Agnes identified the Blood God.

Quirk became a Chosen of Slaughter and slaughtered the purification squad and three lurking Purestrain Genestealers in the factory. The chapter ended with every attacker dead and Quirk unharmed.

• The purification squad opened fire on Quirk, but his blood-scab armor and Khorne's blessing left him unhurt.
• Sister Agnes recognized Quirk as a Chosen of Slaughter and ordered the squad to aim for his eyes.
• Quirk charged into the squad, shattering shields and killing Iron Guard soldiers and Sisters of Battle.
• Three battle priests struck Quirk with holy flames, briefly slowing him before he broke through and killed them.
• Three Purestrain Genestealers attacked Quirk from behind, but he smashed them into the ceiling with his flail.
• Quirk killed all the purification squad members and all three Purestrain Genestealers within seconds.

Bishop Jensen and Commander William discovered that the nine altars operated in parallel, so the surviving altar triggered rifts across all nine factories and fed a gigantic flesh Aberrant. Isolde approved an orbital strike, which was due to hit in thirty seconds.

• Bishop Jensen sensed Agnes's death and ordered the tenth reserve squad to breach factory building eight, but a blue pillar of light rose from its dome.
• Bishop Jensen and Commander William saw runes appear at all nine factories and realized any single surviving altar could activate the entire ritual network.
• Warp Rifts opened in all nine factories, drawing in corpses, mutants, and souls to feed the underground ritual.
• A huge flesh growth erupted between the factories, and Commander William's artillery and the Priests' purification fire failed to stop its rapid regeneration.
• Bishop Jensen requested orbital support from Isolde, who approved a lance strike from Commodore Griffith's warship for thirty seconds later.

A Warp domain absorbed an orbital lance and revealed the Thousand Sons, escalating the crisis on Brevis into a threat to the entire system. Bishop Jensen ordered a defense of Midtown and committed the Iron Guard 6th Regiment, battle priests, and Sisters of Battle to hold the line.

• Nine factories poured the souls of their victims into the tumor, which swelled and opened into a flower of flesh.
• The flower absorbed the orbital lance and created a Warp domain that cut off the area from the outside world.
• A Thousand Sons warrior emerged from a rift, and Bishop Jensen identified the traitor legion and warned that its sorcerers were its greatest strength.
• Bishop Jensen ordered the garrison to establish three defensive lines and called on Midtown's clergy to prepare for battle.
• Bishop Jensen pledged to lead the battle priests and Sisters of Battle at the foremost line, and Colonel William committed the Iron Guard 6th Regiment to hold Midtown.

Rena sensed the Imperial defenders’ resolve and mobilized Brevis’s forces to protect Midtown while they bought time. Atia, a Thousand Sons sorcerer investigating the human-Tyranid symbiosis, ordered his warband to clear the defenders so he could reach his target.

• Rena sensed the garrison’s fear and determination as its soldiers, priests, and Bishop Jensen prepared to hold the line.
• Rena ordered the undercity’s plague-cleansing forces, Vanguard reserves, and anti-aircraft guns to defend Midtown and the Warp domain.
• Atia revealed that the Eye of Radicus had shown him a person on Brevis whose fate was blank and whose body was symbiotic with the Tyranids.
• Atia arrived with an elite Thousand Sons warband, dismissed the Imperial defenders as obstacles, and ordered them cleared away.

Atia unleashed his Supreme Thrallband through nine rifts to attack the mid-city, while Commander William’s defenders prepared to fight. The Chaos army’s sorcerous deflection field and healing magic blunted the defenders’ opening barrage, leaving their positions under mounting pressure.

• Atia summoned sorcerers, Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators, daemons, and cultists through nine rifts as his Supreme Thrallband.
• Commander William ordered his soldiers to fire when the Chaos forces came within range and rallied them to fight for the Emperor and Brevis.
• Bishop Jensen identified the charging Norsac warriors and recognized their champions as Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch.
• William ordered the defenders to unleash their artillery, but a sorcerous deflection field diverted most of their shots.
• Norsac sorcerers healed the Chaos Spawn struck by the few shells that hit, intensifying the pressure on the defenders.

Bishop Jensen and William led the defenders of the middle city in a counterattack that briefly disrupted the Chaos army with mines and holy explosives. The charge stalled under the enemy’s strength, and Jensen joined the final wave as the Chaos army resumed its advance.

• William steadied the soldiers and ordered them to prepare the mine arrays, which blasted apart the Chaos army’s vanguard before sorcerers sent more Chaos Spawn across the field.
• Bishop Jensen ordered three thousand Ecclesiarchy zealots to attack the enemy flanks, then detonated their bombs packed with martyrs’ ashes and blessed Promethium, engulfing the Norsac warriors in holy fire.
• William ordered the Iron Guard Assault Battalion to charge through the gaps as the Sisters of Battle and armoured vehicles attacked alongside them.
• The defenders’ advance became bogged down in close combat, and within five minutes they had lost over half the Iron Guard soldiers, while vehicles were overturned or immobilized.
• The Chaos army resumed its advance toward the middle city’s core, and Bishop Jensen picked up an officer’s Chainsword and joined the final wave of the charge.

Captain Keller led military police into the corrupted H4 Living Area, where they discovered the enemy had concealed a large-scale plague infestation. After fighting through a few Flesh Golems, the squad reached the central dormitory gate, which was kicked outward from within and crushed two engineers.

• Keller found the lowest-deck living area filled with corpses and concluded that a high-ranking mole had falsified inspections and surveillance records.
• Corpse piles merged into Plague Flesh Golems, and Keller ordered the military police to attack their joints with purifying bolt rounds and sacred flames.
• The squad burned through the scattered monsters, but Keller suspected the enemy's main force was hiding ahead and ordered the soldiers to search ventilation ducts and maintenance shafts.
• Keller's squad reached the rust-covered central dormitory gate, and two engineers began planting Melta Bombs to blast its lock.
• A creature behind the gate kicked it outward, crushing both engineers beneath the massive steel door.

Phelps led twenty-one Plague Marines through a hidden Warp teleportation array onto the Gemstone, where they slaughtered Keller’s naval police squad. The Death Guard’s infiltration had been prepared for weeks, and Phelps revealed that corrupted workers had helped conceal their arrival.

• Keller ordered the naval police to take cover and fire when the door opened onto twenty-two Plague Marines.
• The squad’s sanctified ammunition and flamethrowers failed to stop the Death Guard, whose plague quickly weakened and killed the defenders.
• A plague engineer killed Keller with a rusted warhammer, and the Plague Marines wiped out the three hundred naval police in under ten seconds.
• Phelps said the Grandfather’s gaze had preceded the enemy’s bullets and explained that he had teleported onto the Gemstone with twenty-one elite Plague Marines.
• Phelps revealed that Brevis’s undercity contacts had hidden plague spores and teleportation anchors in supply crates, while corrupted workers infected the H4 Living Area and concealed the invasion for five days.

Phelps planned to reach the Gemstone’s machine temple and corrupt its Machine Spirit, but the Imperial forces sealed off the lower decks. He sent zombies to draw their attention while he and the Plague Marines moved through maintenance shafts toward the defenders’ flank, where he spotted a heavily armed force as ideal prey.

• Phelps learned that the bridge had sealed the lower decks and sent two naval garrison companies and Skitarii toward Zone H4.
• Phelps ordered cultists to lead over a thousand Plague Zombies in a feint against the main passage.
• Phelps and twenty-one Plague Marines climbed through maintenance ducts to flank the Imperial force.
• Phelps spread the rust plague through the bulkheads and used the ship’s surveillance network to observe the defenders’ positions and weapons.
• Phelps saw the mixed Adeptus Mechanicus and naval force, including tanks, walkers, and Kastelan Battle Robots, as perfect prey.

Phelps and the Death Guard used a zombie assault to distract the defenders before unleashing the Rust Plague inside their position. The plague turned the defenders’ machines against them, and the Death Guard slaughtered the mixed force in two minutes.

• Phelps ordered the cultists to drive the Plague Zombies toward the main entrance and draw the defenders’ attention.
• The defenders focused on the frontal assault while dark green gas grenades fell from the ventilation ducts and spread the Rust Plague through their position.
• The Rust Plague corrupted the Servitors, Combat Servitors, and vehicles, while infected Skitarii struggled to fight without their support.
• Phelps led twenty-two Death Guard through the ventilation ducts and charged the Skitarii line as plague symptoms overwhelmed the defenders.
• Phelps killed the Tech-Priest, and the Death Guard nearly wiped out the two-thousand-strong mixed force within two minutes.

Phelps corrupted the position’s machines and led the Death Guard and Plague Zombies in routing nearly eight thousand Imperial Navy troops. After watching the massacre, Dominic concluded that the Death Guard were targeting the Mechanicus temple and ordered the Gemstone’s forces to regroup there for the battle ahead.

• Phelps transformed battle robots, walkers, tanks, Servitors, and more than a thousand Plague Zombies into a plague force.
• The Imperial Navy troops opened fire, but the plague machines and twenty-two Death Guard overwhelmed them, routing nearly eight thousand soldiers in minutes.
• Phelps looked into a surveillance camera before the rust plague consumed it and cut the signal.
• Dominic assessed the Death Guard’s tactics and the plague’s effects, then identified the Mechanicus temple as their likely target.
• Dominic ordered the garrison to concentrate around the Mechanicus temple, keep Skitarii out of close combat, and assign Ministorum Priests to every combat detachment.

Rear Admiral Dominic fortified the plague-free middle decks of the Gemstone, while Phelps prepared a direct assault with reanimated naval corpses and corrupted vehicles. The undead army advanced toward the defenders’ mine-protected line as Phelps ordered it forward.

• The Rust Plague consumed the Gemstone’s lower decks but stalled at the sacred, Machine Spirit-protected middle decks.
• Rear Admiral Dominic ordered mobile forces to abandon lower-deck surveillance blind spots and establish defensive lines along the plague boundary.
• Phelps sensed the defenses and chose to attack head-on through the narrow corridors rather than rely on stealth and ambushes.
• Phelps raised more than eight thousand plague-corrupted corpses and gathered dozens of infected vehicles into an assault force.
• The naval defenders prepared heavy weapons, blast walls, and sensor-triggered mines around their first defensive line.
• Phelps ordered the undead and plague vehicles to advance despite the mines.

Phelps and the Death Guard broke through Dominic’s defensive line, overcame its elite guards and Sisters of Battle, and reached the priests. The chapter ended as Phelps’s warriors began slaughtering the priests whose faith had protected the defenders from the Rust Plague.

• The Death Guard charged the defensive line, smashing through its blast wall before the soldiers could mount an effective response.
• Dominic’s Ventria elite trapped eleven Plague Marines in a coordinated electrified spear formation.
• Phelps led the remaining Death Guard around the spear formation, targeting the priests behind the line.
• The Sisters of Battle defended the priests, but Phelps’s chemical gas grenade slowed them and the Death Guard killed all twelve.
• Phelps led ten warriors into the priests’ compartment and began slaughtering them.

After the priests were slaughtered, the Rust Plague overwhelmed the Gemstone’s first defensive line, forcing Dominic to conclude that only a strike against the Plague Marines’ leaders could save the ship. Despite Karen’s warning about the danger, Dominic resolved to lead his bodyguards and the Sisters of Silence into battle to defend the Gemstone.

• The plague army overran the first defensive line after the priests’ deaths ended the protection of their faith, and the soldiers fell back or became walking corpses.
• Dominic received word that his carefully prepared defense had collapsed in less than half an hour and realized the plague would grow stronger as it spread.
• Dominic decided he had to attack the Plague Marines and their leader himself, accompanied by the Celestial Lion Guard Squad and the Sisters of Silence.
• Karen warned Dominic not to risk himself, recalling how the Ork warlord Ragnar had nearly killed him aboard the Gemstone.
• Dominic explained that he could not allow the Gemstone to fall to Chaos, and Karen reluctantly accepted his resolve.

Dominic prepared the Gemstone’s last defenses as Phelps’s plague army grew and reached the machine temple. When the Death Guard charged the final defensive line, Dominic and the Celestial Lions Terminator Squad appeared alongside the Sisters of Silence to face them.

• Dominic ordered Karen to ready the household guard and Celestial Lions equipment, and told the rear defenses to delay the enemy at any cost.
• Phelps’s plague army swelled to thirty thousand zombies, gained corrupted vehicles and daemons, and broke through successive defensive lines.
• Phelps led the army to the machine temple, where Imperial vehicles and Tech-Priests held the final position.
• The defenders’ fire pinned the zombies, and their defenses suppressed the plague’s effects, prompting Phelps to lead twenty-two Plague Marines in a direct charge.
• Dominic and six other Celestial Lions Terminators dropped from the ceiling with seven Sisters of Silence, blocking the Plague Marines’ advance.

The Sisters of Silence suppressed the Death Guard’s Warp-powered plague, restoring the warriors’ memories and showing them what they had become. Nineteen killed themselves, while two survivors attacked Phelps for leading them into corruption.

• Phelps recognized the Sisters of Silence as Blanks and realized their null fields were weakening the Death Guard.
• The Sisters expanded their null fields, cutting the Plague Marines off from Nurgle and restoring their memories of the Emperor’s Death Guard and the Legion’s fall.
• The Death Guard remembered their past and blamed Phelps, while he insisted that Nurgle’s gifts were their source of strength.
• Nineteen Plague Marines killed themselves rather than continue living as Nurgle’s servants.
• The two remaining warriors charged Phelps with a Power Axe and a Power Hammer, intent on killing him.

The Sisters of Silence’s null field weakened the Death Guard, causing nineteen to kill themselves and leaving Phelps fighting Barlow and Coren. Dominic and the Celestial Lions exploited the opening, and Dominic beheaded Phelps, leaving the passage clear of the immediate threat.

• The null field stripped away the Death Guard’s plague blessings, leaving Barlow and Coren too weakened to fight effectively against Phelps.
• Phelps urged Barlow and Coren to accept Nurgle’s gifts again, but they rejected him and continued fighting.
• Dominic recognized that the Sisters of Silence had created a rare tactical opportunity and ordered them to hold their position.
• Dominic directed the Celestial Lions Terminators to fire precise bursts at Phelps while Barlow and Coren pinned him in place.
• Dominic charged Phelps and cut through his pauldron and neck, beheading him.