Chapter Summaries

Luna rallied the nobles by announcing the St. Garus Family’s enormous military contribution, but Lynn challenged her leadership and explained why fighting Orks required more than overwhelming firepower. He ended by asking Luna to commit only part of her forces and expressed confidence that the expedition could succeed with her help.

• Luna offered the Noble Council five million troops, while the Adeptus Mechanicus would provide Skitarii, battle robots, Servitors, warships, and Knight suits.
• The nobles cheered for Luna, but Lynn remained calm until the celebration subsided, then stood and confronted her.
• Lynn warned that the Orks’ WAGHHHH Field let them rapidly imitate human technology, making a prolonged conflict dangerous for Brevis.
• Lynn said he had killed Ork Warbosses twice and knew how to defeat them before their technology caught up.
• Lynn asked Luna to provide only part of her military resources and said her help would give the expedition a strong chance of success.

Lynn and Luna failed to agree over who would lead the expedition against Dorito, so they wagered the marshal position on who could capture Carl II first. Before the contest began, Lynn revealed that Leo St. Garus was alive and cleared, threatening Luna’s claim to power.

• Luna offered to serve as expedition marshal while Lynn carried out her battle plans, but they could not agree over whether resources or experience mattered more.
• Lynn proposed that whoever took Carl II first would become marshal, and Luna accepted the wager.
• Lynn revealed that he had not formally recognized Luna as Lord Regent, then summoned Leo St. Garus, Gus, and Bishop Anthony Douglas into the hall.
• Luna’s supporters reacted with shock and anger at Leo’s return, while Leo silently faced Luna.
• Luna realized that Leo’s survival and reputation made him a stronger High King candidate, and her supporters began to waver.

Leo countered Luna’s accusations at the family meeting, winning the support of senior clergy and many St. Garus loyalists. He refused to claim the throne while Caladogon remained missing, but declared himself Prince Regent to lead the family through the crisis.

• Leo greeted Luna, but she accused him, Gus, and Anthony of Chaos corruption and rejected the evidence that Leo was innocent.
• Lynn denied having the power to corrupt the Emperor’s servants, and Goodwin defended Anthony’s loyalty while Anthony displayed his devout faith.
• Sorine watched Luna from among the attendants, ready to expose her if she acted out of line.
• Galil St. Garus pledged himself to Leo, and roughly half the paladins, retainers, and commanders followed him.
• Leo said he would not inherit the throne while Caladogon might still be alive, then declared himself the family’s Prince Regent.

After Luna compromised at the family meeting, Lynn explained to Rena why he believed Luna could not quickly defeat him in the race to seize Carl II. The chapter ended with Lynn confident that Leo’s resistance, the Mechanicus’s interest in the STC, and Carl II’s defenses would delay Luna’s campaign.

• Luna accepted the meeting’s outcome and left, while nobles who had supported her reconsidered their allegiance.
• Lynn returned to the governor’s residence with Isolde, and Gus received his approval for his actions.
• Rena warned Lynn that Luna’s fleet was ready to depart while his flagship still needed repairs.
• Lynn argued that Leo’s supporters would delay Luna’s preparations and that the Mechanicus would prioritize studying the STC over supporting her.
• Lynn explained that Carl II had grown into a vast, maze-like Ork stronghold that Luna would struggle to capture without elite fighters or authority to order Exterminatus.

Lynn praised Rena’s insight and watched to see how Luna would react to his plans. Luna purged Genestealers from her fleet and tested her cruiser, but an unexplained engine failure left her demanding an investigation.

• Rena admired Lynn’s cleverness, and Lynn said he wanted to see how Luna responded.
• Luna assessed the fleet she could muster and noted that Leo’s allies and the Adeptus Mechanicus were obstructing her preparations.
• Luna used Servitors and Auspex scans to find and purge Genestealers aboard her ships.
• Luna took the Rule of Discipline on a test flight, but its engines lost power and its systems became unstable on the return trip.
• The Rule of Discipline returned to port after its engines recovered, and Luna ordered the technicians to investigate the unexplained malfunction.

Luna searched the Rule of Discipline for Genestealers and psychic interference, but the ship suffered another unexplained engine anomaly during its test flight. After Lynn offered help in a suspiciously polite message, Luna invited him to send technicians so she could uncover his tricks.

• Luna supervised a search of the Rule of Discipline and found a Genestealer Tech-Priest who had managed the Gellar Field.
• Luna ordered the residual psychic power near the engines removed, then sent the ship on a second test flight with a heavily mechanized crew.
• During the third circuit around Brevis, the Rule of Discipline's auxiliary engines lost power for thirteen minutes before recovering.
• Emil van Horn inspected the ship and found no mechanical faults, leaving Luna convinced that Lynn had tampered with it somehow.
• Lynn sent Luna a message offering technicians to help, and Luna replied that he could send someone over.

Lynn arranged for ordinary local technicians to perform a strange ritual beside the Rule of Discipline after its third test flight failed. The ritual appeared to restore the ship for one flight, but the next test failed again, leaving Luna frightened by what she could not understand.

• Lynn told Rena to wait and let the Rule of Discipline fly once more before sending anyone.
• The Rule of Discipline’s third test flight failed when its main engine lost power, so Luna requested Lynn’s help.
• A group of local technicians performed a bizarre ritual in front of the ship without touching it, then left.
• The Rule of Discipline completed its fourth test flight without any malfunctions after the ritual.
• The ship’s engines failed again during its fifth test flight, and Luna and Sage Emil wondered whether the ritual had worked.

Luna St. Garus copied Lynn’s bizarre ritual in an attempt to uncover his trick, and the Rule of Discipline’s sixth test flight succeeded. Lynn revealed that he had actually caused the engine problems by bribing fuel administrators to slightly dilute the generators’ ordinary fuel.

• Luna watched the recording repeatedly, decided to perform the ritual herself, and ordered attendants to join her after Tech-Priests refused.
• Luna and her attendants performed the strange movements and incantations aboard the Rule of Discipline while Sage Emil and others watched in discomfort.
• Through Rena’s consciousness, Lynn and Isolde saw Luna’s performance and laughed, and Lynn guessed why the ritual had been chosen.
• The Rule of Discipline completed its sixth test flight without engine trouble, leaving Luna, Sage Emil, and the Tech-Priests baffled.
• Lynn explained that he had bribed fuel administrators to lower the concentration of ordinary generator fuel, causing the power problems without using Tyranids.

Luna led a fleet to attack Carl II, but the Orks ambushed her ships with weaponized asteroids and a swarm of Brute Ram Ships. As the Rule of Discipline suffered repeated impacts, Luna suspected Lynn had known about the trap.

• Lynn planned to let Luna attack Carl II first while he waited for her and the Orks to weaken each other.
• Fifteen days after the upper city meeting, Luna sailed for Carl II with the Rule of Discipline, two other Strike Cruisers, twelve frigates, transports, and mobile shipyards.
• Luna sent two Lunar-class Cruisers and six frigates ahead to scout a passage through the asteroid field surrounding Carl II.
• The Orks propelled hundreds of disguised asteroids toward the fleet, crippling a Cobra-class Destroyer and draining the Rule of Discipline's Void Shield.
• More than a hundred Brute Ram Ships charged the Rule of Discipline, evaded the fleet's weapons, and struck its hull repeatedly.
• Luna realized the Orks had prepared an ambush and roared Lynn's name in fury.

Lynn sent the Purple Crystal to harass the Orks on Carl II, provoking them into preparing an ambush. When Luna’s fleet arrived, Mekboy Karch saw a chance to challenge the powerful Iron Pincers Chandler.

• Lynn launched the Purple Crystal from Dead World B to deploy spore sacs around Carl II.
• The Rippers and other Tyranid creatures annoyed the Orks with daily attacks before the Purple Crystal withdrew.
• Iron Pincers Chandler ordered the Orks to set traps and hide their fleet throughout the asteroid belt.
• After waiting two days, the Orks detected Luna’s fleet entering the system.
• Karch, an ambitious Mekboy leading an ambush force, saw Luna’s arrival as an opportunity to prove himself stronger than Chandler.

Mekboy Karch ambushed the human fleet with a swarm of Brute Ram Ships, damaging the Rule of Discipline’s shields. Luna ordered the use of a forbidden Dark Age weapon, and its Warp vortices swallowed Karch and the final wave of Orks.

• Karch saw the human fleet split apart and waited until the Rule of Discipline was isolated from the two ships advancing ahead.
• Karch launched asteroids and 121 Brute Ram Ships at the Rule of Discipline, disabling a destroyer and lowering the warship’s Void Shield reserves to fifty-two percent.
• Luna ordered Secret Weapon Number Three deployed after warning that shield damage could force the fleet to retreat for repairs.
• The Rule of Discipline launched two Shadow Vortex Torpedoes, which opened Warp vortices among the charging Ork ram ships.
• The vortices swallowed the remaining ram ships, including Karch’s, and dragged Karch into the Warp.

Luna’s advance fleet destroyed an Ork scrap fleet but lost the initiative after an ambush, so she ordered repairs before confronting the Orks. Meanwhile, Tzeentch Cultists secretly sabotaged Lynn’s fleet preparations, but Rena’s Genestealers detected and reversed their interference.

• The advance fleet destroyed the Ork scrap ships with almost no losses, leaving Luna and her officers grim about the failed campaign’s opening.
• Luna ordered the fleet to fall back, repair damaged vessels, and prepare every ship for combat within three days.
• Luna’s allies infiltrated Brevis Prime Hive’s maintenance crews, where Tzeentch Cultists subtly altered ship systems, parts, and records to cause failures during battle.
• Lynn knew about the infiltration and allowed it to proceed, confident that he had ways to counter the Cultists’ sabotage.
• Rena’s Genestealers watched the Cultists, restored altered data, replaced compromised parts, and destroyed corruption traps.

The Tzeentch Cultists tried to sabotage the fleet’s preparations, but the Genestealers quietly thwarted them and an Ogryn discarded their corruption trap. With the fleet progressing a third faster than planned, Lynn asked how things were going on Carl II.

• Rena used the Shadow in the Warp to detect and reverse the Cultists’ changes to the fleet’s blueprints.
• The Cultists discovered that the cruiser’s senior officers were Genestealers and chose to target the maintenance supervisor instead.
• The Cultists planted a psychic corruption trap in a document, but the Ogryn supervisor crumpled it and threw it away while reading a picture book.
• A stealthy Cultist saw the supervisor discard the document and reported back, leaving the Cultists dismayed that their plan had failed.
• Lynn noted that the expeditionary fleet was nearing completion a third faster than expected and asked Rena about Luna’s progress on Carl II.

After five costly but inconclusive engagements on Carl II, Luna blockaded the Ork-held station and sent infiltrators to locate Iron Pincers Chandler. Lynn’s Tyranids launched their own infiltration, beginning a race to find the Warboss first.

• Luna’s fleet won five engagements but failed to capture Carl II, so Luna halted direct assaults and ordered a search for Chandler.
• Lynn and Isolde concluded that killing the Warboss was the only way to defeat the Orks and that whoever found him first would gain the advantage.
• The Purple Crystal sent ten Lictors and over a hundred Ymgarl Genestealers to infiltrate Carl II.
• Luna deployed 103 Sicarian Infiltrators and sent Tzeentch Cultists into Carl II during the previous landing.
• Tyranid infiltrators and Luna’s forces began searching Carl II for Iron Pincers Chandler.

Lictors, Ymgarl, and Sicarian Infiltrators infiltrated Carl II and discovered that its core zone was guarded by powerful Ork Psykers. After nearly a hundred Infiltrators were killed by psychic attacks, Luna learned that a Psychic Power Boss occupied the station’s deepest reaches.

• Lictors, Ymgarl, and Sicarian Infiltrators slipped through Carl II’s outer and middle zones toward the core.
• Three Lictors and ten Sicarian Infiltrators clashed in a middle-zone passageway; the Lictors retreated wounded, while five Infiltrators were wrecked.
• Sicarian Infiltrators entered the core zone, where psychic attacks killed nearly a hundred of them without revealing their enemy.
• The Lictors sensed the powerful psychic presence, learned that at least fifty psychic units guarded the core, and withdrew from Carl II.
• A Tzeentch Cultist told Luna about the Ork Psykers and the Psychic Power Boss in the core zone, and Luna decided she needed help from Him.

Lynn received Rena’s report that Ork Psykers made infiltration of Carl II’s core sector impossible, and he proposed a disguise that required becoming Orks. After Luna’s repeated infiltration attempts failed, she learned that Lynn’s expeditionary fleet had departed Brevis to retake Carl II.

• Rena told Lynn that Ork Psykers could detect the Tyranid infiltrators, so Lynn ordered them to withdraw and proposed that the best disguise was to actually become an Ork.
• Bigfoot Sith reported to Iron Pincers Chandler that a few humans had escaped, and Chandler smashed his scrap throne in anger.
• Luna’s infiltrators and sorcery repeatedly failed to bypass the Psychic Power Boys, costing her more than two companies of operatives.
• Luna learned that the governor’s expeditionary fleet had set sail from Brevis.
• Lynn led the Pinnacle Black Obsidian and its escorts and transports out of the spaceport, declaring that they would retake Carl II as Brevis’s citizens prayed for the fleet.

Luna and two Tzeentch Sorcerers devised a plan to lure Carl II’s Ork Big Mek by spreading rumors about a technological treasure trove aboard their fleet. The Orks’ belief in the rumors manifested a mysterious metal sphere aboard the Rule of Discipline.

• Luna learned that Lynn’s fleet had set sail sooner than expected and convened her senior officers to discuss their predicament.
• Patton identified Carl II’s Ork Warboss as a likely Big Mek, based on the Orks’ unusually large numbers of war machines and Mekboyz.
• Wood proposed spreading a rumor that the fleet carried a technological treasure trove, and Luna praised Patton and Wood as her “twin stars.”
• A rumor about the fleet’s ability to build powerful walkers spread across Carl II, and Luna sent two Knights to defeat several Deff Dreadnoughts and fuel the Orks’ belief.
• An intricately inscribed metal sphere appeared aboard the Rule of Discipline, created from the Orks’ Power of Belief.

Luna's fleet was caught by surprise when Iron Pincers Chandler’s purple-painted Battle Barge, the Mad Bull, rammed the Rule of Discipline and led a vastly strengthened Ork fleet into battle. As Luna retreated from the collapsing fight, Chandler watched his Waaagh! tear into her ship.

• After two days without an Ork attack, Luna ordered her forces to step up their efforts to spread the plan.
• On the fourth night, a huge Ork Battle Barge appeared beside the Rule of Discipline and smashed through the defending frigates.
• The Battle Barge rammed the Rule of Discipline, rapidly draining its Void Shields as a powerful Ork fleet emerged behind it.
• Luna's cruisers and frigates fought back, but the Orks' improved weapons and overwhelming numbers pushed her fleet toward defeat.
• Luna followed her adjutant off the bridge to retreat, while Iron Pincers Chandler watched from the Mad Bull and revealed that its purple paint had concealed it from detection.

The Orks breached the Rule of Discipline and threatened to overwhelm Luna’s fleet as Luna remained absent. Lynn arrived with his fleet and attacked the Orks, disrupting their shield fields and turning the space battle.

• Chandler rammed the Mad Bull into the Rule of Discipline after its Void Shield failed, damaging the ship and allowing Orks to board.
• Ork Boyz and war machines poured aboard the Rule of Discipline, where Skitarii and Tzeentch Cultists struggled to hold them back as Chandler led the assault.
• Ork ships overwhelmed Luna’s fleet in space, surrounding cruisers and threatening to destroy the remaining vessels.
• Lynn arrived on the battlefield aboard the Pinnacle Black Obsidian and ordered his fleet to attack the Orks despite his personal differences with Luna.
• Lynn’s lance batteries and torpedoes struck the Ork fleet, disrupting the ships’ shield fields.

Lynn’s expeditionary fleet battered the Orks while Chandler searched the Rule of Discipline for the secret of invincible mechs. Ork boarders entered the Warrior’s Resolve through its Void Shields, only to meet a swarm of hidden bugs in the dark.

• Lynn ordered the Pinnacle Black Obsidian to fire on the Mad Bull, blasting a huge breach into its flank.
• Chandler learned that a new Imperial fleet was attacking, but continued searching the Rule of Discipline for the mech secret.
• An Ork cruiser led transports through a gap in Lynn’s formation, and the transports struck several frigates after passing through their Void Shields.
• The Orks boarded the Warrior’s Resolve and found its corridors empty, then split up to search the ship.
• The Nob’s group reached the dark depths of the frigate, where crimson lights appeared and hidden bugs attacked, severing the Nob’s arm.