Chapter Summaries

Han Mingxuan asked Trazyn, Orikan, and Jia whether Mortarion could move Barbarus into the Peaceful Star System, and they agreed while insisting Mortarion handle the matter himself. Han then found Curze and the other Primarchs vacationing on Nostramo, leaving Horus to run the Imperium’s civil service system.

• Han Mingxuan told Trazyn, Orikan, and Jia that Mortarion wanted to move Barbarus into the Peaceful Star System and asked for their opinions.
• Trazyn, Orikan, and Jia approved the move but insisted that Mortarion discuss it himself instead of relying on Han.
• Trazyn told Han that Curze and several other Primarchs were on Nostramo, and Jia revealed that they were vacationing at the beach with the Emperor and Malcador.
• Han arrived at the beach and asked Curze who was running the Imperium’s civil service and internal affairs systems.
• Curze and Roboute said Horus Lupercal had volunteered to take charge, and Han worried about how long Horus could manage it.

Han Mingxuan planned to relocate Barbarus to the Peaceful Star System and recruited the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists to help. He left Perturabo eager to work with Rogal Dorn in a construction competition while Roboute, Sanguinius, and Curze prepared to assist with the move.

• Han Mingxuan told Roboute, Sanguinius, Curze, and the Emperor about Xiao Mo’s plan to move Barbarus, and said he would recruit Perturabo and Dorn.
• Roboute agreed to help after Lady Euten urged him to support his uncle, while Sanguinius and Curze also set off to assist with coordination and preparations.
• Han Mingxuan asked Perturabo and the IV Legion to help relocate Barbarus to the Peaceful Star System, and Perturabo agreed.
• Han Mingxuan announced that the IV Legion and Seventh Legion would work together in a rivalry, and Perturabo eagerly accepted the challenge.
• Perturabo offered to contact Dorn himself, and Han Mingxuan returned to Nostramo to prepare the coordination work.

Perturabo and Rogal Dorn joined forces to help Mortarion relocate Barbarus to the Peaceful Star System, with Nostraman construction crews and Necron technology making the population transfer remarkably swift. After the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists began dismantling the planet’s infrastructure, Dorn noticed that the Imperial Fists could not match the Iron Warriors’ speed.

• Perturabo contacted Dorn and told him that the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists would jointly relocate Barbarus to the Peaceful Star System.
• Perturabo ordered the Iron Warriors to work quickly and outdo the Imperial Fists, while Mortarion executed Typhon and prepared his people to leave Barbarus.
• The Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists arrived on Barbarus, where Perturabo identified the Nostraman planetary construction special forces as allies sent to help.
• The construction crews deployed Blackstone Obelisks and activated Necron Phase-shifting Portals, relocating Barbarus’s entire population in less than ten days.
• The Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists began dismantling Barbarus’s buildings and moving its industrial base, and Dorn noticed that his legion was slower than the Iron Warriors.

Perturabo and Mortarion arrived in the Peaceful Star System after the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists dismantled Barbarus, and Perturabo began a construction project that set the two legions racing against each other. The Iron Warriors quickly outpaced the Imperial Fists, while Curze and the Night Haunter plotted an unpleasant surprise for Mortarion.

• Mortarion used Numerology to learn that the Iron Warriors had been reforged through suffering, and Perturabo credited Uncle for saving him and his legion.
• Dorn offered to cook, alarming Perturabo and Mortarion, and the Seventh and IV Legions finished dismantling Barbarus.
• Perturabo told Dorn he would leave Barbarus behind, and the group traveled to the Peaceful Star System, where Curze welcomed Mortarion and required him to follow the Evernight Code.
• Curze and the Night Haunter privately planned to give Mortarion a memorable moving experience, while Perturabo prepared to take revenge on Dorn.
• Perturabo led the Iron Warriors in construction on a green, habitable planet, and the Imperial Fists joined the competition but soon fell behind as their armor motors began to smoke.

Perturabo and the Iron Warriors outbuilt Dorn and the Imperial Fists on Barbarus after Perturabo awakened his Warp Essence, and the Legions completed the first phase of reconstruction. Perturabo then advised Dorn to send his Scions into the Imperium’s civil service, while Dorn mistook his brothers’ amused encouragement for sincere support.

• Perturabo accelerated his construction after the Hammer of Olympia awakened his Warp Essence, summoning a growing host of Iron Colossi as Dorn watched in shock.
• The Iron Warriors repeatedly defeated the Imperial Fists in their construction rivalry and completed Barbarus’s first-phase project, leaving the rest to the locals.
• Han Mingxuan praised Perturabo and acknowledged Dorn’s Legion’s progress at the Nostramo Saviour Building.
• Perturabo told Dorn to implement the Resolution and send his Scions through the Eleven-Choice Examination into the Imperium’s Civil Servant System, with his brothers recommending the Administratum and Departmento Munitorum.
• Dorn believed his brothers were happy for him and looking out for him as they urged him to follow Perturabo’s advice.

Mortarion sought ownership of his relocated homeworld, Barbarus, but the Necrontyr required him and the planet to pass several reviews. After enduring a decade of repeated battles in an Octagon, Mortarion passed the combat assessment and was left to recover.

• Dorn left to conduct the Eleven-Choice Examination, while Mortarion decided not to warn him about the Administratum.
• Curze told Mortarion that he had to negotiate Barbarus’s property rights with the Necrontyr representatives.
• Trazyn, Jia, and Orikan required reviews of Barbarus’s society and Mortarion’s conduct, along with an assessment of his combat ability.
• Trazyn transported Mortarion into a dimensional Octagon, where he fought a Krork through ten years of repeated time resets.
• Mortarion crawled out after five minutes had passed outside, and Trazyn confirmed that he had passed the assessment.

The Great Angel confirmed that Barbarus had no Warp contamination but delayed Baal’s move while he watched how Mortarion fared. Meanwhile, Horus took charge of four Imperial departments and granted their Mortal workers leave, prompting the Iron Warriors to devise a way to escape their own administrative duties during the handover.

• Trazyn told the Great Angel that the Barbarus settlers showed no signs of Warp contamination, and the Great Angel decided to observe Mortarion before moving Baal.
• Horus ordered the Mortals in four Imperial departments to take a month of paid leave, and the Astartes completed the initial handover in less than three days.
• The Iron Hands arrived to serve under Horus, while the Iron Warriors warned him not to grant more leave and watched Astartes fill the vacant positions.
• An Iron Warriors captain feared the handover would trap his men on Terra, so he planned to overwhelm the Luna Wolves with work catalogs from four departments.
• The Iron Warriors began the handover alongside members of the First, Eighth, Ninth, and Thirteenth Legions who had yet to complete their withdrawal.

Horus took charge of the Imperium’s administrative departments after the Legions completed their handovers, only to discover that the mountain of books awaiting him consisted entirely of indexes. On his second day, he found an even larger mountain of indexes and demanded an investigation.

• The Iron Warriors and the Eighth Legion finished their handovers and left Terra for the front lines, while the First Legion, Blood Angels, and Ultramarines also completed their administrative handovers.
• The Blood Angels' squad leader gave Horus a sealed pouch containing Dataslates with guidance for handling anything unclear in the handover.
• Horus started work and spent a day discovering that the mountain of books on his desk consisted entirely of indexes.
• Horus opened the pouch and learned that the Adeptus Administratum received 114,514 indexes a day, each recording as many as 233,333 issues.
• On his second day, Horus found an even larger mountain of indexes and ordered someone to investigate.

Horus discovered that the Administratum’s apparent backlog was actually the work assigned for a single day, and he questioned mortal officials about its efficiency. After they left him advice on improving the process, Horus organized the Astartes to sort the paperwork, a task that took them a month to learn.

• Horus learned that the Administratum’s documents were not accumulated backlog but that day’s work, and he summoned the urban construction officials for answers.
• The officials explained that the bureaucracy now finished each day’s documents on the same day and that overwork deaths had fallen by 70%.
• Horus asked the officials how to improve efficiency, and they gave him a method before rushing off to their garden worlds.
• The officials’ advice was to keep Horus steady by appealing to his identity as the Imperium’s First-Returned Son.
• Horus gathered the XVI Legion and the X Legion and began sorting the administrative work into categories, and the Astartes took a month to adapt.

Astartes working in the Administratum drove the Adeptus Mechanicus to madness while Horus gained respect for Malcador and the Imperium’s civil servants. The Iron Hands, frustrated by their prosthetics breaking down, asked the Thousand Sons for advice on strengthening their flesh, prompting Ferrus Manus to rush to meet them.

• The X Legion’s prosthetics repeatedly broke down in the Administratum, overwhelming the Adeptus Mechanicus and eventually ending its support.
• Horus struggled with the Department of Justice’s workload and came to regard Malcador as one of the Imperium’s greatest beings.
• Santar cursed the failing machinery, then returned to processing paperwork and recognized the loyalty of the Imperium’s civil servants.
• Santar contacted Ahriman to ask for physical training advice because the Iron Hands had begun to prefer flesh over machinery.
• Ahriman informed Magnus, who told Ferrus Manus that the Iron Hands wanted stronger bodies, and Ferrus Manus set off to meet them.

Ferrus Manus returned to Terra with Dorn and joined him in helping Horus manage the Administratum, where endless paperwork had driven Horus to despair. Ferrus agreed to keep his Scions there for training, and the three Primarchs began discussing how to divide the work among the four departments.

• Ferrus Manus contacted Dorn, and they returned to Terra together to find Horus exhausted and overwhelmed by multiplying Administratum documents.
• Dorn punched apart a desk and brought Horus back to his senses, then assigned work to the Seventh Legion and its Scions.
• Horus persuaded Ferrus to keep the X Legion at the Administratum by arguing that service there made Legions stronger, and Ferrus secured two hours of daily physical training for his Scions.
• Ferrus reunited with his Scions, who welcomed him as their rescuer, and told them he had obtained the Thousand Sons' workout plan and two hours of training time each day.
• Ferrus returned to Horus and Dorn, and Dorn warned that Astartes who had completed their civil-service handovers had already been sent to the front.

Astartes from the Eighth, Ninth, Thirteenth, and First Legions arrived in the Ultima Segmentum and launched a suicidal boarding assault on an Ork fleet. After the Space Marines adopted the Orks’ war cry, they overwhelmed the fleet, leaving only Gretchin.

• Aequus welcomed the Eighth Legion’s Department of Justice Enforcer Squad back from the Administratum and ordered them to destroy an entire Ork fleet without help.
• Astartes from the Ninth, Thirteenth, and First Legions gathered in the same war zone and raced the Eighth Legion to battle.
• Sandamel’s modified vehicles carried the Astartes into a boarding assault against an Ork mothership, where they charged into close combat.
• A Dark Angel shouted “waaaaaagh,” and the Eighth, Ninth, and Thirteenth Legions joined in, prompting the Orks to answer with their own war cries.
• The Space Marines and Orks fought in a massive melee until the Astartes killed all but the Gretchin, and the squad reported the fleet cleared to Aequus.

Horus and Dorn struggled to manage the flood of verified good news from the Ultima Segmentum until Ferrus Manus secured simplified electronic neural systems from the Adeptus Mechanicus. After the systems were installed across three Legiones Astartes, the Administratum's efficiency rose by 30%.

• Horus redirected the frequent Ultima Segmentum reports to Dorn, then arranged for Ferrus Manus to receive alternating reports when Dorn was overwhelmed.
• Ferrus Manus went to Mars and persuaded the Adeptus Mechanicus to provide a data processing system without sending its personnel to the Administratum.
• Ferrus Manus returned to Terra with simplified electronic neural conduits, and Horus and Dorn told him that administrative work had piled up in his absence.
• The three Legiones Astartes equipped their warriors with the neural systems, allowing them to process administrative work more efficiently.
• The Administratum's efficiency rose by 30% as the new systems and additional Astartes recruits helped its operations run.

Santar persuaded Ferrus Manus and the other Primarchs to limit the Iron Hands’ workload to a sustainable passing grade, and the new policy eased the Administratum’s frantic pace. Meanwhile, Abaddon sneezed in the Luna Wolves’ defense zone and guessed that a Xenos was cursing him.

• Horus, Dorn, and Ferrus Manus’s forces tackled the Administratum’s ancient backlog until their efficiency declined and the Electronic Neural System repeatedly overheated.
• Santar proposed that the Iron Hands complete only 60 percent of the workload so they could keep working sustainably, and he defended the idea as a way to preserve their humanity.
• Ferrus Manus consulted Dorn and Horus, who supported Santar’s proposal partly because it could give them time to go to the front.
• Ferrus Manus approved the passing grade policy, and the X Legion celebrated as the Administratum’s breakneck work pace eased.
• Ferrus Manus realized the Administratum had changed his legion’s radical work practices, while Abaddon sneezed and told Sejanus that a Xenos might be cursing him.

Han Mingxuan prepared the Necrons to carry the universe’s last hope, which he believed might be needed if he died. He left them with his heart’s blood and the embers of hope, asking them to keep despair at bay.

• Han Mingxuan asked Oll Persson to persuade the Emperor to return to work and said he would begin intervening in the Imperium’s wars after visiting the last three Legions.
• Han Mingxuan told Urtana to proceed with a sacrifice, but she refused, and Szarekh argued that the Necrons would rather risk another War in Heaven than let harm come to him.
• Han Mingxuan explained that Nurgle’s prophecy had left him with a sense that he would die and that he was seeking a less desperate way to avert that future.
• Han Mingxuan reminded Szarekh of Nurgle’s words about the embers of hope and stopped Imotekh from trying to flatten the Warp.
• Han Mingxuan gave the Necrons a silver-gray cane as a vessel for faith and entrusted them with his heart’s blood and a pinch of ash, telling them not to let despair come too quickly if he died.

Han Mingxuan revived Szarekh by sacrificing his own strength and gave Trazyn a Staff bearing the power of Miracle. As the Silent King resumed his bet with Trazyn, Oll Persson refused the Emperor’s request to return, choosing to remain on Nostramo while Klein was still missing.

• Han Mingxuan used his heart’s blood, soul, and power to create a blue-gold energy, and told Szarekh that the people of the Milky Way deserved a future beyond suffering.
• Han Mingxuan warned Szarekh that he would be unable to watch over the Necrons for several hundred years, then revived him after three days.
• Trazyn noticed Imotekh’s strange behavior and learned that Han Mingxuan had spent more power than expected while reviving Szarekh.
• Han Mingxuan gave Trazyn the Staff containing the Miracle fragment, and Trazyn lost his food bet with the Silent King.
• Oll Persson refused Neoth’s request to return, deciding to stay on Nostramo until there was news of Klein.

Han Mingxuan organized a recruitment drive on Nostramo, inviting the Primarchs and opening the Legion assessments to the planet’s military academy soldiers. After the Primarchs gathered, Horus arrived without the Four Kings Council, who were occupied with urgent military matters.

• The White Scars and Sixth Legion fleets arrived on Nostramo, and Jaghatai told Han Mingxuan that the Primarchs had come to recruit.
• Han Mingxuan announced that Nostramo would hold a recruitment drive in one month, letting soldiers choose any Legion whose assessment they passed.
• Han Mingxuan set up eighteen recruitment points in the central square and agreed that the Eighth Legion would recruit first.
• The Primarchs arrived over the next two weeks, while Ferrus Manus said Horus would come after handling family matters.
• Horus arrived three days later and told Han Mingxuan that the Four Kings Council was away dealing with urgent military matters.

After Horus sent five Luna Wolves veterans to the Administratum as punishment, an Apothecary treated them while the Legion traveled to Nostramo for its second recruitment drive. The story left off with the Luna Wolves' Primarch trying to learn which recruits might suit his Legion, but Impetus refusing to reveal any information before the examination.

• An Apothecary found the unconscious Four Kings Council members and Garviel Loken at a Terra spaceport and learned Horus had sent them to the Administratum after discovering their trick.
• The Apothecary determined their injuries were mostly superficial, then put them in Repair Pods for a long rest.
• A battle-brother explained that the five veterans had rendered great service by helping end Great Astartes Supremacy and told the Apothecary to treat them with appropriate restraint.
• The Apothecary learned the Primarchs were traveling to Nostramo for its second recruitment drive, and the Vengeful Spirit set off for the planet.
• The Luna Wolves' Primarch called Impetus to ask which recruits would suit the XVI Legion, but Impetus refused to disclose information about the Nostramo College Entrance Examination.

Horus asked Impetus how Nostramo selected recruits for the Legion, learning that the recruits’ law specializations shaped their abilities and that Criminal Law majors made up most of the force. After the call, Impetus revealed to the Evernight Network that he had kept the selective Nine Laws of the Night Bat program secret, which trained candidates for the Evernight Legion and its large reserve force.

• Horus asked Impetus about Nostramo’s recruitment system, and Impetus explained how the Public Judiciary University’s law majors shaped recruits’ skills.
• Impetus told Horus that Criminal Law majors were especially formidable and made up eighty percent of recruits, leaving Horus stunned by Nostramo’s strength.
• Horus thanked Impetus and ended the call, and Impetus posted on the Evernight Network that the Wolf of Fenris had asked about recruit quality.
• Impetus told Sevatar and Shen that he had not disclosed the Nine Laws of the Night Bat, whose students were selected through strict ability requirements and a test by Curze and the Council of the Long Night.
• The chapter explained that the Evernight Legion kept its official strength at five thousand, while reservists and external reserves brought its total reserve force to two hundred thousand.

On Nostramo, the Primarchs met the last two previously unseen members of the Council of the Long Night while the Eighth Legion handled recruitment. Draco Thune revealed that he was a Beta-level Psyker whose power amplified other Psykers, leaving the Primarchs astonished by the Legion's hidden strength.

• The Primarchs paused their wait to recruit soldiers and went to meet the Council members they had not yet seen.
• Yesugei reunited with Sandamel, who introduced Madian as the Council's chief Apothecary and teased him about matchmaking.
• Sevatar introduced Draco Thune as an archaeologist and member of the Council, then scolded him for hiding his abilities.
• Draco revealed that he was a Beta-level Psyker with Psychic Power Amplification that increased a target's power by 13% to 39%, except for Psykers at Alpha-plus level or above.
• Magnus and Lorgar reacted eagerly to Draco's abilities, while the Primarchs realized Curze had kept another powerful member secret.