The Last Ultramarine screwing up Tzeentch's ritual in the beginning, allowing Taylor to be brought to the future, yet preventing Chaos from laying claim to her.
Taylor appears in the middle of an unknown place, surrounded by Imperial Guard men and women (who dress way too similar to the Empire 88 for her taste), in the aftermath of the battle against Behemoth - and about five minutes before the Imperial Guard's position is attacked by a massive number of Orks. Instead of staying back, she jumps in on the defence, fighting with a sword she has never used, and then begins to simultaneously control millions of bugs, using them to blind and kill as many Orks as possible - and killing the Ork leader by having her bugs eat it from the inside, breaking the back of the first strike. That is just the beginning - and completely changes the course of history.
The Nyx Fleet shipmen and tech-priests of the Gracious Overlord taking some bloody vengeance on the idiotic Admiral that ordered the purge of a tenth of its crew.
The Fay 20th, aided by the 6th and the 8th, number about 14,000 soldiers - and they are very much outnumbered by the quarter-million Orks that have invaded Fay. With a solid defense, a big bomb and some very nasty use of insects by Taylor, the Orks are destroyed, saving not only Fay - but also three other planets that would have been attacked by the Ork WAAAAGH!
Arrival Interlude
Even without Khepri, humanity was able to defeat Scion during Gold Morning.
Malcador the Sigillite convincing Psamtic Mehhur, a former Rubric Marine (remember, a Chaos Space Marine) to join his Knights Errant.
Oh yeah, and the fact that Malcador has somehow survived his death on the Golden Throne.
Gavreel Forcas, of the Dark Angels Legion, makes his debut by wiping his way through Wuhan's Hive Asao's underhive.
The Fay 20th becomes the first Imperial unit to fight the Necrons and survive.
Trazyn the Infinite Collector, Taylor, Lankovar and Gavreel fight and defeat Iash'uddra the Endless Swarm, the First Endbringer.
After that fight, Trazyn tries to take Taylor, Lankovar and Gavreel for his collection. Taylor promptly shows him that she's far from defenseless - by throwing all the Canoptek Scarabs contained in the tomb at him. Trazyn decides she requires too much effort to be worth the reward and leaves, gifting her the Nebula's Shard, a relic from the War in Heaven.
Peril Interlude
Contessa leading the Knights Errant into an Inquisitorial secret fortress controlled by a Lord of Change to rescue Missy "Vista" Biron.
Sophia Hess landed in Necromunda, but manages to survive for long enough to get off - only to get recruited into the Officio Assassinorum - as a Callidus.
Sentinel
Taylor impresses Gavreel enough that he would have recommended her for immediate Astartes recruitment if female Space Marines existed.
Wei Cao, a formerly pampered Wuhan noble, chooses to join the Imperial Guard - and when it turns out she is not going to get any prestigious position, she just eats crow and takes on everything put in front of her.
The Battle of Andes Primus: a battallion of Eldar attacks the Imperial forces because they want the Nebula's Shard. Enter Dragon and her new tank making mincemeat of the Eldars' tanks, the Imperials fighting like daemons - and Taylor wielding the Nebula's Shard, turning every Eldar it touches into crystal.
The Magos Laurentis is forced to land on an Ork Battle Moon. The Imperial Guard and the Mechanicus engage in a days-long non-stop battle against the Orks and a battallion of Eldars seeking revenge for the deaths in Andes and win.
Seeing the magnitude of the fight before them, Magos Lankovar decides the Godzilla Threshold has been passed and authorizes Dragon to use her flying armors, as well as giving Taylor all the insects she needs. Needless to say, both prove very useful during the Battle of the Death Star.
Taylor finds a Standard Template Construct Database.
Autarch-Mariner Gladiel Imrik calling out High Farseer Aessen Manorith for his idiotic determination in trying to retrieve the Nebula's Shard from the Ork Battle Moon, even though it risks the lives of all the Eldar in the fleet.
The Black Templars on board of the ship found in the Death Star did not go gentle into the night. Gavreel manages to find a still-working cryogenic chamber containing multiple gene-seeds that was protected by the Apothecary to his last breath.
Colonel Larkine is mortally injured by a bunch of Eldar - but Larkine does not die alone, because he throws a plasma grenade with his only remaining arm and wipes out six Eldar - including a High Farseer.
The Space Marines (a band of Renegade Alpha Legionaries) arrive in time to act as The Cavalry.
Leet debuts by killing the Ork Warboss with a Holy Hand Grenade. Granted, he also kills five allied Alpha Legionaries at the same time, so not so awesome.
As the Imperials finally manage to escape the Ork Battle Moon, they find themselves in a worse situation - they are attacked by the Certamen Ferale, a Chaos Space Marine warship. But the Imperium has also sent massive reinforcements, and the space battle soon turns as brutal as the battle on land was.
When the Chaos Space Marines and daemons assault the spaceship she is in, Vista uses her Space Master powers to great effectivity, sending enemy troops directly in the path of death or causing the daemons to kill each other.
Dragon pulverizing a dragon-like daemon in a few seconds.
Commissar Zuhev, a normal (if slightly augmented) human, crossing swords against a Champion of Khorne and winning.
Ka'Bandha opens the game by knocking out the Brothers of the Red (numbering more than a hundred) in a second, without touching them.
Taylor faces off Ka'Bandha without fear, even though she is five feet ten to the daemon's fifty-plus feet - and rips a Baal ruby that belonged to Sanguinius. Cue all the Brothers of the Red standing up and pummelling Ka'Bandha and the daemons with a blaze of bolters, while Taylor goes to town on Ka'Bandha.
... allowing Taylor to move, stand up (even though her legs are broken) - and proceed to destroy Ka'Bandha in five swipes of the Nebula's Shard, becoming one of the Emperor's Living Saints.
Leet, in the meantime, repeats his previous feat by building a device that exorcises the daemons in the ship.
Combining with a Funny Moment, Trazyn steals the entire relief Eldar force and sends a mocking message to Manorith thanking him for his generous donation to his collection.
Escalation Interlude
Gladiel Imrik willingly returns to his Craftworld, even though he knows he will become the scapegoat for their defeat in the Death Star - because he knows his men do not deserve punishment.
The Kneel Before Frodo moment: Taylor homaged by the Guards and the Space Marines after she recovers from her injuries.
Decision
In a room that contains high-ranked members of every branch of the Imperium, as soon as Taylor (a teenager who, just a few months before, didn't even exist from the Imperium's point of view) steps inside, everyone knows who is going to call the shots.
Leet actually managing to intimidate Taylor - even though he was not trying to do it to her.
Taylor, Clockblocker, Vista and Leet calling Contessa out for how they completely screwed up their supposed plans - and the way they left Brockton Bay to rot.
Taylor, faced off with a Marshall of the Black Templars (the Space Marines that make even the fiercest fundamentalist look like Mr Rogers), finds herself underwhelmingly unimpressed.
After much convincing, Taylor decides that becoming the Governor of the Nyx Sector is the best way to proceed with her plans to push humanity back into the path of restoration.
When she lands on the planet, Nostradamus Vandire (the other main candidate for the position) sends the Nyx elite PDF troops, the Purebloods, to arrest and/or kill her. Taylor releases a bunch of butterflies - and ten seconds later, all the Purebloods are dropping off asleep.
Nostradamus tries to blackmail a Nyx noble with revealing the actions of his daughter. Said noble decides to take his chances.
What said daughter was doing? Acting like a vigilante, punishing people who were getting away with multiple crimes and preventing others. Not something you usually see in this universe.
Taylor faces off against Nostradamus Vandire and dominates the field easily, recounting the man's actions and completely ripping him off for his corruption. And then renders him unto the Inquisition, so he can pay for his many, many crimes.
Taylor proving that her time as a Warlord and some common sense have helped forge her into a very good governor - it is telling that, in the future, her governorship is remarked as a Golden Age for Nyx.
One of her first actions is to decide about what to do with the nobles. Unlike her predecessors, she is all too willing to have the worst of them punished - one of them, who had a penchant for sexually abusingchildren, is sentenced to death by hanging, and Taylor orders that said hanging be as long and painful as possible - while giving those that can still redeem themselves a second chance.
During the assault on the Izmir Palace, the Ancient Dreadnought Pierre of the Heracles Wardens (the rebranded Alpha Legion warband that helped them at the Death Star) sneaks around the Dawnbreaker Guard and brings the doors down single-handedly while being an absolute Troll.
Trazyn the Infinite Collector off-handedly requests an audience with Taylor under disguise - and when discovered, he is completely unperturbed. Also doubles as a Funny Moment.
Taylor indirectly touching the Tyranid Hivemind while taking control of a Catachan ant. And surviving with her mind intact. For the record, the number of people in 40K canon who have done that without ending up dead or insane as a direct result is one - Chief Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines.
The Dragon armors are such a novel concept and powerful weapon that, when Ryza begins to deploy them against Chaos, they start losing their Heldrakes in droves (the first such battle being a ninety-to-one loss), with one Chaos leader realizing that they are suffering heavy defeats thanks to this.
During the Matapan rebellion, Clockblocker and Vista get to show what they can really do with the support of the Mechanicus: the former can project fields of stopped time, the latter can outright wipe out entire armies by creating huge pits under them.
Muster
According to the Fictional Document at the beginning of 6.3, the victory in Operation Caribbean was important enough to merit placing a banner in front of the Eternity Gate - a feat only awarded to the greatest heroes of the Imperium.
The Heracles Wardens manage to sneak into the Palace of Feasting and subvert the entire station in a few hours. Without being detected.
Shadowpoint
The Battle of Pavia. Full stop. If there's something to prove to the Imperium how to make successful campaigns, this is one of them.
Five years of preparation have a big pay-off. Being able to overwhelm the enemy is just the first.
The Heracles Wardens' infiltration ensures the subversion of the Rashan pirate fleet and the takeover of the main starforts in the system.
Three fleets get destroyed from a distance before they can do a thing.
The Mechanicus unleashes one of its most powerful available weapons - one that submerges an entire region of space into a brutal wall of fire that annihilates anything it touches and lasts for hours.
When one ship manages to escape the aforementioned Mechanicus weapon, Taylor orders the use of another weapon - boarding torpedoes filled with two of the most lethal insect species in her arsenal. They clean up the ship's interior without a problem.
Sliscus gets a villainous moment of his own when he ruins Hoth's plan to sink Pavia into the Warp - by sending ships to destroy the cultists that would have done the deed. He then activates a huge superweapon made out of the Space Hulk he controls.
That's when the Necrons make their appearance: their World Engine (strategically stealthed as a moon) fires once and sends a shockwave through the entire Imperial fleet, while wiping out Sliscus' own superweapon.
In short - at the moment the overt part of Operation Caribbean began, Pavia was the home of the thirteen most dangerous pirate fleets in the quadrant. Fifty hours later, eleven of said fleets have been suborned, destroyed, captured, or forced to flee - with the hopes of the last two making it out in any condition to cause trouble for anyone else in the near future being very, very low. It's so impressive that a Custodes (and not any Custodes - it's the Captain General!) gives Weaver the Emperor's Thanks and congratulations for her victory in person.
The next chapter indicates how overwhelming victory was: the pirates lose 13,000+ starfighters, almost a thousand starships of different sizes, thirty-five star bases, two star forts and more than 47 million pirates. The Imperial Fleet only loses a couple of lower-end spaceships. Again, in fifty hours.
The Custodes (the kind of guy that is to Space Marines what Space Marines are to common people) actually acknowledges that Taylor is dangerous. And Taylor is talking to one of the most powerful men in the Imperium almost like an equal.
Taylor is dangerous enough that the Custodes makes a mental note to have the defenses of the Golden Throne updated - and even then he considers that it may not be enough.
With time running short after the Custodes charges Taylor with a mission, Taylor personally goes to Sliscus' flagship. The assault is another curbstomp that only ends when they reach Sliscus himself.
Sliscus pulls off another surprise: he has Shrax'lor, another of the Swords of Vaul, which kills every insect Taylor throws at him - and after the Imperials destroy Sliscus' spaceship, Taylor comes in and personally engages the Dark Eldar. The result is a duel that every Space Marine around compare as just below the Emperor's duel with Horus, with Taylor (a twenty-something old human) not only matching Sliscus (who is old enough to have been alive when the Fall happened) blow by blow, but defeating him, all while still controlling all the insects running around the ship - and laying traps made of silk that end cutting off Sliscus' hand, forcing the Dark Eldar to admit he has been defeated, accepting there's no shame in losing to her and even warning her about other dangers.
Taylor is now powerful enough to keep an Eldar's soul from being claimed by Slaanesh.
The Battle of Commorragh. Pavia was peanuts compared to the absolute massacre that is storming the heart of the Webway.
From the opening of Chapter 36: the survivors of the Second Fall of the Dark Eldar refer to Taylor as Maelsha'eil Dannan, the Angel of Death.
At the beginning of the attack, there are 187.6 billion Drukhari. Nineteen hours later, there are 4.5 billion less Drukhari.
Twenty-two hours later, the death toll has risen to 12.4 billion Drukhari and 1.1 million Asuryani.
At the forty-seven hour mark, 61.4 billion Drukhari are dead, 48.3 billion have joined Slaanesh and 973 million Asuryani have died.
In ninety-seven hours, there are only 51.6 billion living Drukhari, 32.1 billion corrupted Drukhari and 1.8 billion dead Asuryani.note Let's repeat that. In 97 hours, the forces of the Imperium has, directly or indirectly, caused the death of more than 100 BILLION Drukhari. And at the end of the chapter, there's another 2 hours to go before the Mark of Commoragh.
Final account, three hours after the Mark of Commorragh: 24.7 billion uncorrupted Drukhari, 0 corrupted Drukhari, 2.2 billion dead Asuryani.note That means that, in just 100 hours, the Imperium has reduced the number of Dark Eldar to less than 15 per cent of the original population! The average kill-count is just under 440 thousand dead Drukhari...per SECOND.
The reaction from the Chaos Gods: Khorne laughs about Tzeentch's mistake, Tzeentch says nothing, Nurgle realizes the insects are not under his control... and Slaanesh freaks the f**k out. So much that it sends all of her Legions to take down the Gate of Khaine and kill Weaver.
The opening salvo destroys a good part of the Drukhari fleet - and when one of the falling battleships falls, it ignites the main ammo depot.
The first hour of the attack is an absolute massacre as the Imperials destroy everything in sight without opposition, as shown with a wing of Marauder bombers that bombard all they see and return only because they are out of ammunition.
The Iron Drakes find and execute Asdrubael Vect. When he claims he will return, Chapter Master Dupleix replies they will be ready to kill him again.
It takes less than one hour for the Imperials to destroy nearly 200 battleships, four times that in cruisers and twenty-five percent of the Port of Lost Souls' infrastructure. Just that could be enough to cripple Drukhari operations for years to come... and there's still more than ninety hours left.
For the Salamanders, the mere fact that Taylor has managed to recover two of the Artifacts of Vulkan is enough to celebrate.
The Dark Eldars manage to bring in reinforcements, so Taylor calls in her own. This is followed by a scene where one Dark Eldar ship's crew goes through a Mass "Oh, Crap!" of gargantuan proportions when they see that Taylor's reinforcements are Necron ships. This prompts the Dark Eldar to aim everything they have at the Necrons, ignoring the Imperials - and becoming so desperate as to ask for help from the Eldar.
How to deal with one of the ports so it won't become a liability, Imperial Style: Atmospheric Incineration Torpedos. Ten seconds after launching, Port Carmine is no more.
Asdrubael Vect, convinced of his species' superiority, realizes that the Imperial-Necron attack on Commorragh, even if stopped then and there, will have crippled the Dark Eldar for generations to come.
Taylor enters the field by sending multiple centipedes against the disciplined Dark Eldar guards to help the Alamo Penal Legion, and the Heracles Wardens follow by air-dropping including Pierre (now wearing his pirate tricorn) over the Eldar. Nothing like having a 4000 year old Dreadnought insulting their prowess to encourage the Penal Legion to fight even harder .
Eldrad Ulthran realizes part of the actual plan, as made by the Emperor: It might be enough to permanently destroy Slaanesh' main source of power.
When Biel-Tan decides to go fight Weaver at Commorragh, multiple Imperial planets are saved as the Biel-Tan invaders retreat.
Farseer Filgonith Sirethmoren proves himself to be the Only Sane Man of Biel-Tan by not only calling out the Craftworld's other Farseers for their idiocy, but also for being willing to aid the same Dark Eldar that have been going after Eldars since the Fall and by pointing out that the "Aeldari Empire" they want to revive is exactly the same thing Commorragh stands for.
When the Salamanders learn about the attack on Commorragh, they call ALL THE SPACE MARINES near Pavia to join the attack.
Aeonid Thiel finds a White Scar, who manages to reveal to him one important hint before dying: a lost Primarch is near the Black Gate!
The Necrons drop in an army of more than a million and a half soldiers in two and a half seconds.
When the Dark Eldar send their best troops in, Taylor unleashes her full powers - by controlling the millions of Helspiders living under Commorragh and sending them against the Eldar.
When Drazhar (a former Phoenix Lord) goes into the battlefield, Taylor does the same, and once more fights one of the most dangerous Dark Eldar in existence and wins - and this time, she gains her Saint wings.
Txacopec's 1st Cavalry regiment rides acid-spitting reptiles. Since Commorragh's forces killed said reptiles, the riders decided to tame Helspiders instead. Note that Weaver wasn't around to keep the horrors docile, yet the riders still managed.
Dynast Kraillach breaks out a weapon, ignoring official protocol to get the permission of his fellow Dynasts and uses it to wipe out most of the attacking Hellspiders. Taylor then simply sends in Ambulls to counter this.
Dynast Yillithian's reaction to Trazyn appearing to add his treasure vaults (and the Dynast himself) to his collection really shows just how dreaded The Collector is.
Ariex had participated in hundreds of battles. He had cut down millions of enemies, He was a Dynast of Commorragh, Master of the White Sun, Lord of Port Carmine, the Old City of Commorragh and the Citadel of Mar'lych. And at this moment he knew there was no chance of victory against this monster. The Yillithian Dynast leaped from his throne and began to run away.
Admiral Y'Polleon responds to the arrogance of the first arriving Biel-Tan task force by convincing them to lead a charge that he's reluctant to risk his own men with. Destruction-Overlord Sitkah's answer to their attack is to release a C'Tan. Cue burning slaughter for the Eldar. Also cue the defenders of Commorragh having possibly alienated any Biel-Tan forces yet to arrive for absolutely no net gain.
Isley and his men destroying cloning labs to prevent many of the Eldar leaders from being reborn. When Urien Rakarth, the greatest Haemonculi in Commoragh, expresses his displeasure and claim to be a God, Pierre gets a great Shout-Out after killing him.
Eldar forces seeking to help Commorragh flood the battlefield, almost crushing the human navy... until the Necrons activate a Dolmen Seal to block every gate except for Pavia's. And the Salamanders have come.
The Last Stand of Jezek and her Incubi, at 100-1 odds.
The Bloody Baroness avoided fifty-three blows before one faster-than-eye tail strike impaled her.
Slaanesh is so desperate, Fulgrim is among the forces dispatched to Commorragh.
Major-General Domenico Flabanico and his forces purging the slave markets of Zel'harst and then defiantly hoisting the Imperium's Flag.
Slaanesh being left weakened enough that Khorne's forces do indeed attack her while the Battle rages on, led by Ka'Bandha as he claims that Taylor is ''his''.
The Chancellor of the Imperial Council on Terra hears a bell ringing... and starts to lose his shit when he understands this is the Bell of Golden Dawn calling the Custodes to war.
Grevyth Xelian, heir to the Xelian Dynasty, is betrayed by mutinous Succubi that leave him defenseless for any prisoners of the fortress to kill. He listens to sounds of fighting, then one victorious prisoner emerges, a human with so many "ravages of poisons and uncountable duels and massacres" that he can scarcely believe it. The human then speaks to him in Aeldari, claiming to have eaten several of his kind. And when Grevyth tries to save his life by threatening the human's homeworld, that proves to be the last thing he ever says. And as for the last thing he ever hears...
Lelith Hesperax survived a battle with a minor C'Tan in the War In Heaven, and from what she did to a shard the Necrons were using, it's easy to see how she could have done so. She later defeats Trazyn off-screen.
Not only does she defeat Trazyn, but its revealed that they've faced each other several time in the past and he's ran every time. This is not only a testament to her powers, but also provides a great moment for Trazyn, when this time he refuses to run, but instead faces her to buy his allies time.
The huge flux of fate and change forces Tzeentch to let a warship go from a Warp Storm: the Flamewrought, Vulkan's flagship, full of survivors of the Drop Site Massacre!
Displaced by thousands of years, with entire decks of its crew dead and their last Navigator dying, the ship doesn't hesitate to jump back into the fray performing two separate Gunship Rescues and claiming revenge for the Drop Site Massacre.
Taylor's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Biel-Tan and the other Craftworld Eldar for killing so many of her people and complicating the mission, unleashing nuclear bombs, hordes of insects and even other dangerous weapons upon them and vowing to destroy Biel-Tan once the fight is over. At the end of 8.2, fifty-eight hours before the Mark of Commoragh, 1.1 million Craftworld Eldar had died in the battle. At the end of 8.3, just sixteen hours later, 973 million Craftworld Eldar have died in the battle. Fifty hours later, that number jumps to 1.8 billion.
Aurelia Malys killing the condescending Biel-Tan forces, who try to re-enslave her no less, then getting away from Commorragh with everyone she can muster.
Theodora Gaius is mortally wounded in the battle against the faux-Fulgrim, but manages to keep the daemon from withdrawing his blades from her body which not only buys the other fighters time, but allows Cawl to put the blades in stasis, which would allow a cure for their poison to be engineered for a certain Primarch...
General Failure Gorgias gets a great offscreen Redemption Equals Death moment, when, after being left alive by assassins sent to decapitate the command structure of his sector because he was seen as an active deterrent, he gathers up everyone he can to Hold the Line for the rest of his division and personally kills at least eight Eldar as he goes down.
Taylor calls out "Fulgrim" for being nothing more than a daemon using the Primarch's form as a puppet, and fights him along with Rogal Dorn, permanently scarring him with a C'Tan blade, and ultimately banishing him back to the Warp, which severs his connection to the Emperor's Children in the process and weakens him enough that Khorne's forces can kill him again easily.
One of Taylor's objectives is to reshape the Webway so that the Golden Throne is no longer under constant assault from Chaos. To do this she needs to use an Eldar artifact, and to make the changes that she needs, she has to claim the title of Empress of the Aelderi, since she actually fits the requirements.
The sudden change of the Webway leaves the Chaos forces besieging the Gate of Terra completely cut off from reinforcements and surprised - giving the Custodes and their allies the opening they need to annihilate them, and allowing the Emperor to finally focus on other important matters.
And, just to put the cherry on top, Taylor links the Terran gate to an abandoned one near a caldera on Nocturne.
A great Evil Versus Evil moment comes when Vect starts detonating his bombs, doing a lot of damage to the Legions of Excess and then, when being cornered, daring to mock his likely executioner.
He manages to survive his fight with Morathi (by dint of her being sent to deal with Lelith, as described below) while mortally injured, so he decides to go out on his own terms: he goes to the top of a tower to watch the destruction, and when Malekith tries to kill him, he detonates a bomb that obliterates his soul and nearly destroys Malekith's as well.
Lelith not only manages to disable two Space Marines without anyone noticing, Taylor notes that she has no scars, despite her long history as a warrior in a war-torn galaxy, and Taylor can't even look her in the eyes.
Taylor acknowledges that Lelith is way above her, even more than what Leviathan was when he attacked Brockton Bay, and the facts prove it. Taylor manages to kill two of the Keepers of Secrets (the weakest, by Taylor's own word) with the support of her swarm. Lelith easily and single-handedly destroys three of them and decapitates the last one.
Slaanesh ups the ante by sending Malekith, the last Aeldari Emperor, and Urien Rakarth, the greatest Drukhari Haemonculi, and the 32nd Most Wanted Being of the Imperium, both of them turned into Daemon Princes. Cue Taylor zinging the former and Lelith mocking them both... and deciding to throw one big "Screw You" in their faces by stating Taylor has proven acceptable and proclaiming her the Aeldari Empress.
Taylor offers to pay Lelith to kill Rakarth. Lelith accepts the request and annihilates him beyond any hope of further existence.
A Harlequin Troupe's machinations trap Taylor and Lelith in a sphere that allows demons to get in. The two destroy demons by thousands as Lelith nonchalantly negotiates her payment for killing Rakarth. Then, Slaanesh Morathi Uldanesh after them... and Lelith proves her killing of Rakarth was not a fluke.
And, just for the finishing touch, she unleashes her true power and annihilates the entire Slaaneshi army. Before telling Taylor that, if the Imperium tries to invade the Webway again, she will kill the Emperor - and that's no idle boast.
Unknown to Taylor, Lelith manages to psychically find the Queen Administrator Shard - and notices that the Emperor's power is changing it.
As another point for Taylor, even Lelith knows that the Queen of the Swarm is dangerous. For someone who can easily destroy Daemon Princes, that's no mean compliment. Lelith even considers it likely that Taylor could become an actual threat to her someday.
By the end of the Extermination cycle, Taylor has met with Aeonid Thiel of the Ultramarines, and retrieved the poisoned blades of Fulgrim, potentially curing Roboute Guilliman, retrieved the remains of a White Scar trapped and tortured in Commoragh, freed the Salamanders trapped in the Forgehammer in Commoragh as well as found two Artifacts of Vulkan, indirectly freed the battleship Flamewrought, full of Great Crusade-era Space Marines, including more Salamanders and Raven Guards, freed Rogal Dorn to the delight of the Black Templars and other Imperial Fist-descended chapters, as well as was given enough blood by Dorn to create a whole new Imperial Fist chapter. All this, of course, in addition to the Chapters of the Blood and the first-generation Third Legion gene-seed. There's a good chance the Dawnbreaker Guard will grow.
Much was speculated about "Objective I", which was implied to be something that would really screw with the Word Bearers. The Imperium sends Malal-worshipping Skaven into their homeworld!
Releasing the Skaven anywhere would be bad enough, but it will be even worse on Sicarus. It's a City Planet with new layers of buildings being constantly built on top of previously abandoned structure. This means there is a planet-wide, pre-built warren for the Skaven to infest and multiply within.
One Biel-Tan general snaps at the Head Farseer of their expeditionary force for continuing to insist on killing their expeditionary force out of hatred for Weaver delivers a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech and then kills most of his bodyguards in an effort to kill the General Ripper/ General Failure before going down.
Finally, there's the also mysterious Objective J - the last movement to the symphony, and heavily implied to be behind the Mark of Commorragh that is what the countdown has been going for.
First, as part of a trap, the Biologis use golden bacta and Taylor's own Emperor-derived anti-Chaos psychic power to create a giant golden moth that seems to sooth those around it - which Taylor promptly names Lisa.
Then, the mentions of "something" being brought into Commorragh, something so big that it requires a special gate to bring in. Chapter 8.4 finally reveals what it is: a Blackstone Fortress! And not just any Blackstone Fortress, but the Will of Eternity, the one that Abaddon used to destroy Cadia in the original timeline.
Lisa then imbues the Fortress' core with the Emperor's anti-Chaos psychic energy, and the importance of this is marked: one shot could now erase Slaanesh.
The final space battle of the Battle of Commorragh is truly brutal, as the Eldar attempt to get through the Human-Necron alliance to reach the Eversprings Gate and destroy the Blackstone Fortress, while the Humans and Necrons hold them off while the Fortress prepares its shot.
Slaanesh, at the edge of its despair, decides to pull out its last trump card: manifest into Commorragh through an avatar. Who is there to stop it? Cegorach, The Laughing God.
Slaanesh mocks Cegorach, even as he pulls out another of the Swords of Vaul. Cegorach replies that the sword's purpose is to protect him. Then the Blackstone Fortress fires.
The Fortress' first shot annihilates all the Dark Eldar, renders all the Eldar weak and easy prey for further attacks and weakens Slaanesh so much that Cegorach manages to stab it multiple times with his sword.
But still the fourth God of Chaos manages to remain standing, and not only does it manage to pull the sword out, it disarms Cegorach and sends the Sword of Vaul to another realm, leaving Cegorach at the mercy of the Doom of the Aeldari... only for Aenaria Eldanesh to step in and take on Slaanesh!
The reduced crew on board of the Blackstone Fortress can make another shot, but it will take time to rotate and charge, time that Chaos would surely use to destroy the Fortress' core. The Captain-General of the Custodes, the Last Sentinel, Constantin Valdor has the crew prepare the shot and then evacuate, while he stands alone to protect the core. The First of the Custodes holds off the daemons, noted as killing thousands of daemons - helpfully aided by the Fortress itself, which has been infused with the Emperor's essence and is thus anathema to them - and adds the last ingredient to the Fortress' core: one of the Emperor's Tears, completely overcharging it. Then the Blackstone Fortress fires for the last time, exploding and killing Constantin, but fulfilling its purpose.
This second shot wipes out all the daemons and hits Slaanesh (again), and this time it hits it so hard that it has to sacrifice trillions of its followers and daemons to stay alive. But this renders Slaanesh weak for a short time, so Aenaria gives her sword to Cegorach, who proceeds to destroy Slaanesh by dividing it in six parts!
After Slaanesh is defeated, Aenaria and Cegorach manage to save the life of her Avatar as they flee.
Final results of what might be the biggest battle humanity has been involved in since the Horus Heresy:
The first, of course, the death of a Chaos God, along with trillions of its followers. While its aspects survive, the other Chaos gods have divided them amongst themselves either to assimilate or seal and torture until they disappear, preventing Slaanesh from being reborn. What remains of the Slaaneshi daemons and cultists are likely to be crushed now that their god is gone. It is a heavy blow dealt to Chaos by Humanity, who definitely wins this round.
While the Emperor has had to potentially cause the rebirth of Malal as a Chaos God, the means used to do so will cause Chaos no end of trouble due to Malal's own nature.
The Eye of Terror shrinks. Not enough to matter on a strategic level, but enough that it could be noticed.
The Siege of Terra from the Webway Gate is finally ended, allowing the Emperor to begin concentrating his efforts in other important matters and empowering the Astronomican, which is increasing in range.
With the destruction of Commorragh, the Dark Eldar lose their only stable base in the entire galaxy, which will force them to start from scrap or beg the Eldar for help to repair their ships - and this after losing nearly ninety percent of their pre-Raid population, thus ensuring that most of the Galaxy will now be free from their predations.
Humanity not only recovers priceless archeotech (including twelve STC templates), religious relics galore and strategic materials from the ruins of the Dark City, but gains maps guiding towards regions of space where even more archeotech could be found, while Space Marines thought lost return to the Imperium.
Two Primarchs (Rogal Dorn and Jaghatai Khan) are confirmed to be alive, and will eventually return to the Imperium, while a third (Roboute Guilliman) may be healed from the poisoning that led to his being put into stasis.
The scarring of the false Fulgrim has broken the connection between Chaos and the Emperor's Children. While those already turned by the Ruinous Powers (who survived the death of Slaanesh, which isn't very many of them) are still a threat, the geneseeds Taylor acquired are now relatively safe from the taint of Chaos.
The planet of Pavia, which had been rendered uninhabitable by the pirates, is purified by the shards of pure Anathema from the second shot of the Blackstone Fortress, allowing its colonization.
Biel-tan and the Craftworlds that supported them in the attack lose all the forces they send, which amount to nearly 40 percent of all their forces. Biel-tan also got a heavy psychic earthquake because their Gates were still open when Slaanesh died. And, with the rearrangement of the Webway, any redeployment of their forces will be complicated at best.
The Imperium and Neferten sign an agreement to collaborate. While it may not be something that lasts forever, it is something that marks a new era in the Imperium. It also provides another potential source of human archeotech, as well as information on sleeping Necrons who would engage in the killing of humanity if they awoke.
And, just for kicks, Pavia and Commorragh take place back-to-back, with barely any time to rest in between, over the course of about two hundred hours - eight days and eight hours. The two fights that completely ensure Nothing Is the Same Anymore for the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy happen in little more than a week. And despite the horrific casualties (23 million men lost, or 46% of all who fought), when compared to the size of the Imperial war machine, that's a drop in the bucket compared to how many soldiers die in a typical week across the galaxy. They'd have considered this victory cheap at a million times the cost.
Extermination Interlude
After the Battle of Commorragh, the Eldar develop a new doctrine: if there's ever a hint that Weaver is nearby, cancel any plots and RUN AWAY.
Malal-worshipping Skaven kick off a slave uprising against the Word Bearers. And they do this not with magic or brute force, but by their Grey Seer giving a Rousing Speech while sacrificing its own life.
Jain Zar's (Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees) scathing and furious "The Reason You Suck" Speech at the Biel-Tan leaders before gathering everyone she feels responsible for and leaving the others to their fates.
The new strategy of the Craftworlds working on a plan to redeem their species and save their souls from the remaining ruinous powers.
The Silent King's efforts against the approaching Tyranids, having apparently destroyed entire Hive Fleets and used a flagship that can casually destroy whole solar systems, all to prevent them from entering the galaxy.
Meanwhile, the Tyranids get one because, in spite of this opposition, they're still coming.
The Captain-General of the Custodes naming Taylor "Peer of Terra", which means that now she only bows to the Emperor himself!
The Emperor giving Sophia a much needed reality check, partially by letting her feel a small portion of his torment.
The techpriests find Rylanor and bring him back to serve. Motherfucking Rylanor.
Ovation
A sign of the kind of bullshit Cawl has hidden away: using technology from the War of the Beast, Cawl manages to teleport an entire f*cking moon from one planet's orbit to another's without causing a catastrophe!
The Biel-Tan Crusade. Granted, the fanatic Eldar have lost a good part of their army in Commorragh, the dislocation of the Webway ensures most of their deployed forces won't be able to return any time soon and many of the Aspect Warriors and civilians in the planet have been taken away by their Phoenix Lords, but it is still unprecedent when the joint strike force manages to bring down and conquer the entire Craftworld in thirty hours.
One for the last Supreme Exarch of Biel-Tan: he knows that his Craftworld is going to die no matter what, accepts his part of the blame for not speaking against attacking in Commorragh, destroys the Craftworld's WMDs to save the surviving Eldar from what would be a Fate Worse than Death when the Imperium answers and goes out fighting the invading Space Marines.
Also, Taylor has managed to do what few people could: make the Black Templars consider different strategies other than Attack! Attack! Attack!
Also a hilarious moment, a Harlequin manages to get into Taylor's private rooms, drop the Emissary of the Queen of Blades in and jump out of the window while dodging the Dawnbreaker Guard and without injuring anyone.
Vista takes out a rebel base controlling a mountain pass by using her space-warping abilities to fold the mountain onto the base.
Rylanor spent nearly 5000 years buried in the catacombs of Istvaan III on the slim hope that loyal Imperium forces would rescue him. In the event that it was the enemy who found him first, he was resting on an explosive that would kill them and him as well. And he spent the entire time conscious, a feat that Taylor is willing to admit she couldn't imagine doing herself. As a token of respect for this, Taylor bows to him, a act that, as a Peer of Terra, she is not required to do to anyone in the galaxy short of the God-Emperor himself.
Trazyn disabling Orikan the Diviner with override codes.
How much of a threat is the Ymga Monolith? The one time the Imperium tried to attack, its outer defences utterly butchered the Second Legion with their Primarch!
As several worshippers of Nurgle squabble over the best way to fight the Inquisitorial purge about to fall on their heads, one of them can feel a presence — hinted to be Malal, already powerful enough to start influencing the world outside the Warp and ruin the other Powers' day.
The appearance of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Imperator-Class Emperor Titan the size of a mountain that makes normal Battle Titans look like children.note For reference, given the traditional figurine scale having a baseline human at 28mm high, a to-scale Imperator is five feet tall
Elena Kerrigan manages to stop a rebellion without personally killing anyone.
Dennis, Gabriella and Cor Phoecus not only rediscovering New Etna but freeing it from the Abominable Intelligence that had seized control of the planet. Notably, even though she is no longer part of the Ordo Assassinorum, Gabriella still got her old skillset, and uses it to blow up the A.I's logical engines and teleport back to safety.
The Simurgh intervenes in a fight between Malicia's and Khârn's traitor soldiers, robbing both side of the prize they were after while throwing debris at Kharn and royally pissing off both the Betrayer and the Destiny Unwritten.
The identity of Malicia: Victoria Dallon!
Malicia learned to imbue Noctilith with Tzeentch's power, turning it into Changestone. And she is building her own Pylon Array with it. Khorne, meanwhile, has decided to do the same and promises Lotara Sarin she will have it when she finds more Noctilith.
The return of not one but two more Primarchs: Jaghatai Kahn and Corvus Corax!
This deserves elaboration: Jaghatai Khan is found battling in an arena within the Webway. While his escort goes to free him, Rogal Dorn battles Argel Tal, who is armed with Kha-vir, the Sword of Sorrow. Well, he would have if Yvraine didn't steal it. Rogal summarily delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle, and Jaghatai intervenes to send Argel running.
Corvus Corax, meanwhile, pulls a Mook Horror Show on the crew of the Vox Dominus, leaving everyone dead save for Dark Apostle Paristur who finds a raven's feather on his seat. Stealth Expert at its finest.
The Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights killing a Greater Daemon with a headbutt. Granted, he's got Aethergold implanted on his forehead, but still...
A Tech-Priest struggling to biotransfer psychic insects for Taylor encounters an old man who both assuages his fears and gives him a little inspiration to solve the problem. The old man introduces himself before leaving. The name? Malcador.
The Imperium is successfully studying biotransference. Let me repeat: the Imperium is successfully studying biotransference! Granted, the Nerushlatset only gave enough data for Canoptek level biotransference, which the Mechanicus have started using with insects to considerably improve Taylor's arsenal, but it still remains a vast achievement.
Black Crusade
Right before the Black Crusade begins, the Skaven launch a general offensive that overwhelms everything the Word Bearers keep on Sicarus. Lorgar's response? Make a pact with the Chaos Gods and freeze Sicarus as a sacrifice, in exchange of freeing Slaanesh's aspects if he wins the Crusade!
Corvus Corax finally shows up in the fleet - and makes an alliance with the last surviving Skaven assassin through the intervention of Malal - who prophecizes that two Primarchs will die in the upcoming battle.
And, finally, after a decade of build-up, work, preparations and planning... both Operation Stalingrad and the Fifth Black Crusade begin.
An arrogant Necron Overlord ignores his underlings' warning about the field of Kane particles he and his entire fleet is flying into. Then the Imperial Fleet ignites it. Neat result: one extra-crispy Deader than Dead Overlord and the entirety of his fleet, a certain Overlord Sobekhotep having a mental breakdown ("SIMUT! SIMUT! GIVE ME BACK MY FLEET!") and the bridge of the Enterprise looking like it's celebrating the Sanguinala. Even the Forgefather of the Salamanders notes it might have been "a bit overkill" in hindsight.
Chapter 49 begins with Corax sending an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech with elements of a Badass Boast across the Warp to his treacherous brother Lorgar. The end of his speech is especially biting.
Corax: The power of Octarite and Chaos Undivided is waning. The pacts and promises you made are worth exactly as much as every pact the immaterial abominations ever swore, which is to say, nothing. You think you have planned for everything. You think your insane gambits can force your problems back into nonexistence if you shout and scream enough. You are wrong. And at the end of the path, this Black Crusade will be remembered as your folly, and no one else's.
Corax kills the spiritual leader of the Word Bearers by leaving him trapped with a bomb that can be disarmed by pulling out a red wire, only all of the wires (and there are a lot of them) are red. And then there's his Offhand Backhand reaction when his target tries to fight back.
Eight words were uttered. Eight words of true power. Each word could cast a Neverborn back into the Sea of Souls, set cities aflame with madness and chaos, wipe out regiments, and reveal the Faithful from the Unbelievers.
The attack was severed by the massive Lightning Claws know as the Raven's Talons like it was nothing.
One Cadian officer has an Impressively Stiff Upper Lip while preparing for near-certain death.
Eugen von Stahl: Come on Cadians, Hell awaits us. We swore the Gate must stay closed. Damn the Titans. Damn the beasts. Damn the traitors. Damn the heretics! CADIA STANDS!
Soldiers: CADIA STANDS FOREVER!
They climbed up the trench and immediately had to fire a volley to kill a mass of mutants which had hoped to crawl up close in order to surprise them.
Then the 8th Company of the Cadian 2nd Shock Troopers, Kasr Kraf military command, went on the attack.
The primary General Failure of Cadia's defense fleet (who, unsurprisingly, is a member of the Vandire Clan) is relieved of command by his Space Marines in an Anti-Mutiny and threatened with execution when he protests, regardless of his family connections.
Arkos the Faithless successfully betrays Lorgar. This results in massive damage to Lorgar's supply train. Since his betrayal wasn't called for (unlike Drecarth's), this pisses off Lorgar. In the seconds before his execution, decides to Face Death with Dignity and Troll Lorgar by claiming to be acting on Corax's behalf. It works, leaving Lorger absolutely furious.
When Lorgar summons a An'ggrath the Unbound (a Bloodthirster somewhat stronger than the Endbringer Ka'Bandha, the Angel's Bane) to attack Cadia, the Emperor summons a Saint who hasn't been born yet from the futurenote Saint Celestine.. Said Saint proceeds to mock the demon's hypocrisy and then kill him on the field of battle, badly demoralizing Lorgar's army while encouraging the humans.
An'ggrath: You are here. You are weak. I will break you, and offer your skull to Khorne.
Saint: You will try.
Right for the Wrong Reasons he may be, the fact Zahndrekh still managed to predict Taylor's strategy for the Throne's assault is worth a mention. There is a reason he is considered a military genius despite his insanity.
Taylor sends Legio Astorum onto the surface of the Ymga Monolith as a distraction. The real attack? Ilmarina and some Templar Sororitas sneak into the Monolith to free a C'tan shard of Hsiagn'la, the Frosthell in order to negotiate an alliance.
It does not disappoint. Hsiagn'la's rampage causes massive and permanent losses to Necron forces and Ymga Monolith's facilities before being recaptured by Nemesor Zahndrekh. This counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Zahndrekh as well.
The Orks get one too with The Cavalry moment: Arrgard's and the remainder of his Ork WAAGH is seemingly destined for a slow war of attrition against a Necron Fleet that they'd eventually lose, all to unwittingly serve to buy time for Taylor's fleets against the Ymga Monolith. Yet despite having no possible technological or psychic way of calling for helpnote The Necron Null zone preventing Astropathic communications, Taylor having several Fleets to both warn and stall the arrival of reinforcements, as well as monitoring any powerful outbound transmissions, a new, unrelated Ork fleet suddenly appears from behind the System's star and way past Taylor's blockade. Taylor theorises that Arrgard's Orks had such utter Faith in other Orks being drawn to this fightnote Which the Orks call "Vallawaagh" and "Ragnarork" that it somehow communicated this to nearby Orks anyway despite it being basically impossible.
Trust one of the stupidest species in the galaxy to find a way to complicate every other race's life even when the laws of reality were against them.
With these new reinforcements and the Ymga Monolith's teleporting to a Mandragora, Arrgard realises that the Necrons most likely teleported to more of their allies, which to him means that they've gone to a better fight. So he orders for his new fleet to follow after itnote despite Imperial Officers noting that it would be impossible to follow after the Monolith's teleportation method and orders that every Warboss in the galaxy be called to come with, goading them that any Warband that stays out of this Ork Mythical fight to be a squig.
Arrgard's arrival at Mandragora is awesome in its own right. With the Mechanicus forces bloodied and forced to withdraw, the Ork Waagh! emerges from the Warp almost on top of the planet and proceed to crash every ship they have onto the surface, all while Arrgard tells the humans he's going to show them how to have a "proppa scrappa."
Imotekh the Stormlord effectively counters both Samartian Eta-Eta and Gastaph Hediatrix when they launch their assault against the Golden Crown, forcing them to retreat and admit they lost this round. The Stormlord fully deserves his reputation: this is the first true, genuine defeat Taylor's forces have suffered in the entire story.
Taylor later returns the favor by engaging Phaeron Djosakhat and his retinue and inflicting him a Wound That Will Not Heal through her Anathema Light. Imotekh admits he never felt more furious... or powerless, even calling the clash an humiliation.
A group of Space Marines piloting Dragon Armors infiltrate a group of Chaos-aligned Heldrakes to blow them up with explosives.
The Imperial ground forces are heavily losing ground against the Necrons, and are facing a Bolivian Army Ending - when suddenly Taylor teleports in, takes control of the hundred of millions of Canoptek Scarabs the Necron army was deploying and promptly turns them on the Necrons. In a second, she completely turns the tide of battle in the Imperium's favor, forcing the Necrons into a retreat.
When the Necrons release a shard of the Void Dragon against the Orks and the Imperium, Taylor gives a speech about how there would be no symbolic value in her fighting that dragon, and so, given the way the Warp works, she'd be doomed to lose against it. However, the same isn't true for all of her companions, and she sends Dragon Richter to fight the C'Tan. Dragon wins while controlling a custom-made Titan Dragon Armour, while making plenty of Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu? comments throughout the fight.
Minor note for Arrgard the Metal Defiler. At his arrival at what would be his final fight, he is noted by the Necrons to very close to the size of a Krork, and had gained a primal intelligence to refer to the Necrons and C'tan as Yngir, the name the Eldar called them. He built-up such a powerful Waaagh that he probably came the closest any Ork has ever come to evolving back into a Krork since the Beast, maybe even closer than them.
The Throne of Oblivion prepares to fire a cannon, the Nova Reaper, powered by a Nightbringer shard that is capable of killing anything and everything on Mandragora with the spark of life in it, including other Necrons. There is only eight hours until it fires, and Taylor is desperate to evacuate as much of her army as she can from the planet, as she won't be able to reach it in time. However, the Invaders Chapter of Space Marines is near enough to reach the Throne of Oblivion, but only has 500 Space Marines and wouldn't be able to survive. Despite this, the Chapter Master proposes and, with Taylor's very reluctant permission, commits a suicide strike against the Throne. After flying through the hoard of gunfire from the Throne's defence systems, they have their Battle-Barge ram into the cannon just after the Marines all dropped away to the surface, then fight their way to and destroy the C'tan energy grid that powers the cannon; covering what is noted as days-worth of ground fighting in under four hours. They are slaughtered entirely in the end, but they succeed in stopping the weapon and Taylor and her army honour them for their sacrifice.
Not all of them are killed: five of them (including their Chapter Master) were captured by the Necrons. And when the Imperials come knocking on the Throne of Oblivion, the five of them get ready to fight once more the moment they get an opening.
Rune Priest Loki Wyrdhowl's Dying Moment of Awesome. After having secretly turned a merchant ship into a psy-Battleship (a Battleship armed with a psychic cannon) orbiting Fenris, he uses it when the Word Bearers come to raze the Space Wolves' home planet. Even though it causes him great agony (and he is the only one that can power the psychic cannon) and is pretty much going to kill him, he is elated when the cannon One Hit Kills two Chaos battleships and six escorts in two shots. The traitors send multitude of soldiers to destroy the ship and Fenris' orbital defense grid from within before he can fire again, but Loki (who can't even move) begins to laugh and fires the cannon one last time, destroying a Fifteenth Legion capital ship, still laughing as his ship blows around him.
The Chaos troops manage to land on Fenris. The Space Wolves at one landing zone wait until the perfect moment to not only shoot down the landing ships with their anti-air batteries, they trigger a massive avalanche that disintegrates more than 95% of the entire army in one go - and the rest gets quickly hunted down by Fenris' local fauna.
A Space Wolves' Great Company falls into a trap set by the invading Chaos Space Marines and Daemons, the latter being led by a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch. All seems lost - only for Bjorn Fell-Handed to drop in and inflict a completely one-sided Curb-Stomp Battle on the Greater Daemon, even issuing a challenge to Magnus before wiping out the Daemon.
The Dark Mechanicus is ready to unleash their plans for the takeover of the Fang, only to be surprised by something no one expected: a fleet of Eldar ships, led by Ulion Lakadieth, ready to strike at the Chaos fleet's backs and prevent them from summoning a Greater Daemon of Nurgle on Midgardia while Farseer Ulthran drops in Fenris to destroy the back-up ritual.
Taylor and three of the Dawnbreakers are sent along with Imotekh the Stormlord to a chamber within the Throne of Oblivion - or, rather, to the Tesseract that contains the Throne's shard of Iash'uddra, who is not only quite ready for revenge on Taylor, but also possessing the corpse of the Second Primarch. And, for the second time, Taylor has to join forces with a Necron Lord to fight a C'Tan.
While the three Dawnbreakers sadly die before they can do too much, Taylor manages to once more take over Iash'uddra's swarm, but this time she's more than able to inflict incredible damage - and when the C'Tan attempts to kill her, in comes the Sanguinor himself, who manages to destroy Iash'uddra at the cost of his own life, passing the torch of Protector of the Blood Angels onto her before dying.
For all his madness, Lorgar achieves the feat of catching Magnus the Red completely unaware. To his credit, Magnus takes it into stride, even throwing a few barbed comments at his brother.
As Chaos breaches the entrance to the Fang, the Space Wolves and all the tribe warriors gather for a Last Stand, Bjorn the Fell-Handed's shouts for Leman Russ suddenly feel different - as if, for the first time, someone was actually listening. The Wolftime has come, and Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, will be there to fight alongside his sons.
Leman Russ arrives to Fenris in absolutely epic fashion, on board of his personal flagship, the Hrafnkel, at the same time as Imperial reinforcements arrive, and issuing a challenge to Magnus. One that's heard from ORBIT.
Chaos takes advantage of the disruption caused by Taylor's reveal that the Tau Ethereals are Enslavers to attack the planet, sending Be'lakor, the Dark Master, to kill the Ethereals and force the Tau's psychic awakening, which could cause the planet to fall to Chaos. Taylor teleports into Tau and engages Be'lakor into a 80+ hour long duel (and that's on top of everything Taylor has had to deal with already).
Before then, Be'lakor tries to unnerve Taylor with a series of Badass Boasts. Taylor promptly counters them with boasts of her own and sussing out that Be'lakor is secretly worried about his plots - which sets him off his game so much his mask collapses and he's forced into his true form, a mutated Aeldari. Taylor was able to win a psychological war with the first Drukhari.
Be'lakor falls into Anarchy, and his power allows him to change the pact tying Ethereals, causing plenty of chaos because, among other things, it forces Ethereals to pick one of the Tau castes to protect. Taylor, however, notices a loophole Be'lakor left by accident, and claims the Earth Caste as hers, with intention to claim the others at a later point.
Thanks to the Chaos Gods siphoning away so much of his power, Taylor permanently kills Be'lakor before Malal can properly claim him.
Malal manifests into T'au to kill Taylor because of her disruptions of his plan. No less than Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch show up to force Malal to back off, and then they claim the remaining Tau Castes for themselves.
After befriending a litter of frostlion kittens and their mother, she manages to kill even more Chaos Space Marines, to the point the Fang besiegers take notice of it.
Corax interrupts the ritual that will banish Magnus by breaking one of the chains holding him. Magnus promptly breaks the other six chains and steps out of the ritual circle ready to face off with Lorgar. The Naga moves to protect Lorgar when Omegon lands in, carried inside a Dreadnought-like armor - and then Leman Russ follows, ready to kill all the traitors. Cue epic Primarch fight.
The Skaven assassin that had accompanied Corax sacrifices herself in the ritual, giving it the spark that causes Malal to ascend as the Fourth Chaos God, finishing the idea of Chaos Undivided forever.
Malal quickly proves he's a big deal by turning Lorgar into a Chaos Spawn, ripping the Naga out of Fulgrim, turning Omegon into his own Daemon Primarch and then ripping out Magnus' psychic powers and undoing the Rubric.
While Omegon fights Leman Russ, Malal proceeds to fight Corax so he can take his powers over the shadows. Corax replies by pointing out Malal missed two things: the first, he didn't track what Bjorn the Fell-Handed was doing (cue Omegon getting shot by Bjorn, allowing Leman to banish him into the Warp). The second, that Corax's shadow powers were not drained because of the ritual - but because he granted them to someone else: Elena, who suddenly backstabs Malal, forcing him into a position where Leman Russ can throw him into the Warp rift Malal used to manifest.
The debut of the Fourth Endbringer, Behemoth: a Tyranid Hive Ship that slept in the depths of Fenris' oceans!
The end result of the ritual sends Fenris and T'au to Maccrage.
Extinction
The Tyranids join the game by hitting strong: they wipe out the Alpha Legion's flagship with a boarding action and One-Hit Kill one of the Traitors' strongest ships with a psychic blast that ignores every protection it could have.
In the midst of a company of Ultramarines, multiple Harlequins and a company of Eldar Rangers, it's blatantly obvious that Aenaria Eldanesh is the one in charge.
Aeonid Thiel's feats are such that Lucius is very much not happy to hear he's anywhere close to him.
Sota-Nul is ready to abandon the battlefield, when Kor Phaeron orders a special torpedo loaded with a Necron artifact to be shot at her. Suddenly, her ships are within range of the Imperial fleet, and she loses all but one of her ships, surviving herself only because she used everything she had in her arsenal.
The Blood Angels board one of Sota-Nul's ships, where a good number of Iron Warriors are waiting for them - only for the latter to be rendered unable to fight because the Angels carry ion shields and Volkite weaponry. They are then ambushed by a band of Night Lords that heavily outnumber them, but even then the Angels manage to make them pay dear for each of them that dies, and Weaver sends her swarm to force the Night Lords on the run.
The Tyranid taint in Fenris is such that the planet must be destroyed in order to deny it to Behemoth, but the survivors of the Battle of Fenris (including Leman Russ, Corvus Corax, and Magnus) cannot be fully evacuated before it is too late. Russ reveals that he has a really big ace in the hole, which he proceeds to reveal: the Fang has massive rocket engines underneath it, and manages to escape Fenris' gravity well to become a Starfort.While also having shields powerful enough to No-Sell Behemoth's psychic weapon.
Cawl repeats the technological feat where he moved a Nyxian moon to orbit a different planet - only, here he applies it to T'au, which is sent from Macragge to a star in Nyx Sector.
For once, Trazyn gets caught by surprise as the Queen of Blades (and the Enterprise's security measures) catch him in the act.
Leman Russ attempts to take charge of the Imperial forces in Maccrage... and even when he unleashes his full transhuman aura, Taylor denies him.
Taylor finally meets Elena Kerrigan after more than twenty years, and the Saint is clearly enraged to see one of the people that caused her Trigger - and manages to attack her from millions of kilometres away. It takes Corax's intervention to save Elena.
Elena then proves she has changed from her past as Sophia Hess: she kneels and begs for forgiveness. The shock of this - along with a few other factors - is enough to make Taylor grant it.
The Imperial Army and Space Marines start their counterattack in Laphis - and Lucius is absolutely terrified when he sees the Marine leading the charge is Ancient Rylanor, all too ready to take revenge for the betrayal at Istvaan, with the White Thunderbolts he personally trained right behind him. Lucius is forced to order a retreat.
Elena manages to create another material with Noctilith, Umbralshroud, and she immediately drapes herself and her Frostlion with it and goes to hunt some Dark Apostles. They are unable to see her coming.
Contessa coming back from the Webway and dragging herself on the battlefield in spite of her many injuries to prevent Lotara Sarrin from killing the little girl that will grow up to become Saint Celestine.
After five millenia, Rylanor finally gets to have a duel to the death with Lucius and avenge every loyalist Legionary that fell on Istvaan's sands.
The Midgard, a Federation era Dreadnought, arrives to Macragge with Leet, Borek and a large number of Squat Slayers just in time to provide some very much needed help to the Space Wolves fighting Behemoth.
A Chaos Titan has been converted to an anti-air platform, preventing the bombers from supporting the defence against the Titans. Several companies of Space Marines, with the support of Rhinos and a new weapon developed by Dragon, manage to bring down the Titan.
Elena insta-kills Dark Apostle Eliphas by using her power over shadows to get into his Titan and stabbing him with the C'tan blade Taylor loaned her.
Aenaria Eldanesh manages to protect the ship she's on from Behemoth's psychic attack, and create a bubble to make the giant Tyranid believe the Eldar are dead.
Aurelia Malys recovers a Cronesword from a Daemon World so Aenaria can wield it. Aenaria's first attack destroys one of Behemoth's nine hearts, creating a kilometer-long wound that resists all of Behemoth's attempts to regenerate and threatens another heart. The second attack destroys two more hearts. The third slices Behemoth in half. The last destroys one of those halves. And, in the process, completely cuts off all connections between Behemoth and the Tyranids on Ardium.
Brought before Abaddon the Despoiler, Taylor manages to face off with the Most Wanted Person in the Imperium and defeats him in a debate.
When Abaddon points out that Atharti and Addaioth are too weak to be able to protect the Eldar souls, Taylor fully claims the title of Empress of the Aeldari - which allows her to order Chaos to return the Aspects of Slaanesh. And Chaos obeys.
Before this, Taylor attempts to claim the last of Sanguinius' shards, only for it to be corrupted by millenia in the Eye of Terror. Taylor almost dies to Chaos - and Aurelia Malys saves her by using her power as Atharti's Herald to open a gate and bring Taylor out of Chaos' trap.
Taylor quickly imprisons the Aspects of Slaanesh - including Addaioth.
When Khaine himself comes knocking to force Taylor to submit or die, not only does Taylor mock the Eldar God, but (with Aurelia's help) manages to kill him. Granted, it's heavily weakened, but, regardless, he's still a God - and Taylor and Aurelia kill him.
Elena kills more than a hundred Word Bearers Space Marines during the battle, among them Argel Tal - and later fights Lorgar himself, first alone and then with Yvraine's help.
When the Chaos Gods themselves attempt to force Abaddon's Black Legion to kill Weaver, they (mostly) resist the order. And when it looks like one of them will lose, Abaddon just says "No." The presence of the Gods vanishes.
Taylor and Aurelia create Atharti. Yes, you read that right. By using Taylor's authority as Empress of the Aeldari, the power of the Queen Administrator and Aurelia's own Aeldari powers, the two of them manage to combine Carnality with Symbiosis - aka, the purified Heart of Khaine, War, Moderation - aka the purified Shard of Excess, Passion - aka. the purified Shard of Avidity and Harmony - aka. the purified Shard of Gluttony, to give birth to Atharti, Goddess of Symbiosis. And it is a true, genuine Goddess like the Four are, complete with a sacred number and worshippers, but aligned with Order rather than Chaos.
When faced with the possibility of Lorgar killing Guilliman, Chapter Master Cato Valens of the Ultramarines sacrifices himself to grant his Primarch 10 hours of life.
Taylor with the boost in power from Sanguinius' Death Echo and Ynesth's powers is able to hold off and beat Lorgar long enough for his body to start failing him.
Upon being restored to his full health for ten hours through a combination of Valens' sacrifice and Cawl's treatments, the first thing Roboute Guilliman does is decapitate Lorgar, finally avenging those lost at Calth.
The final battle against the Tyranids on Ardium where they unleash psychic Titans and are able to give Aeneria difficulty and even kill a Squat Slayer Warrior. Taylor also uses this to convince numerous other factions that Tyranids are a major threat they need to be prepared for and can't afford to fight each other.
Taylor calls upon Atharti's help to save Ardium from the Fang crashing into it.
Russ and Corax use the remains of Fenris to do a Colony Drop on Skavenblight.
Tyranny
Malicia's journey to the Graveyard of the False Gods ends with her finding the Black Blade of Antwyr, a weapon of a similar nature as Drach'nyen. It starts with a battle of wills between her and the very sentient Blade, which Malicia wins. She then prepares to seal Antwyr away, because Screw Destiny. She is, after all, the Destiny Unwritten. Antwyr, desperate to avoid being imprisoned again, offers her a Pact... which Malicia accepts. Their next encounter is with a warband of Iron Warriors who are getting badly battered by the Graveyard's horrors. Antwyr says one word. All but the Warsmith are kneeling moments later.
Doubling as a Funny Moment: Leman Russ' arrival on Terra means dealing with several things he'd rather avoid, such as answering questions regarding how the Space Wolves have been conducting themselves, and negotiating with the High Lords. The High Twelve have been forewarned of his arrival, and to top it off, he's not authorised to kill any of them. Leman responds by playing up his boisterous Barbarian King persona and throwing a Fenrisian-style feast that gets the entire High Twelve drunk out of their skulls, ensuring nothing gets done.
An army of a thousand former Rubric Marines (revived due to Malal's shenanigans) led by Azrek Ahriman manages to rescue 9999 of their fellow Marines from one of the pyramids in Sortarius where they were trapped - only for it to turn out to be a trap intended to kill the Marines or force them back into Tzeentch's service. But Ahriman has an ace under his sleeve: he has been preparing a ritual that, when he finishes it, for just a few hours... he becomes the God of Sortarius, allowing him to banish everything Chaos-related in the planet and freeing his brothers to escape - at the cost of being subjected to a Fate Worse than Death.
The end of 12-2 is the absolutely hellish preparations for the Battle of the Calyx Hell Stars, a winner-takes-all apocalyptic war between the Four Gods of Chaos and the King in Yellow for the absolute control of the region.
12-3 keeps upping the awesomeness.
In order to bring down Dust, the first planet to be attacked in the system, Perturabo drops in a Legion-sized group of Men of Iron, which are strong enough to inflict a Curb-Stomp Battle on the legions of skeletons controlled by the King in Yellow. The Mortarch in charge of the defenses of Dust unleashes a ritual that rusts any metal. The Men of Iron are quickly done for.
After cracking apart Dust with an Exterminatus, the Chaos forces begin to attack in earnest, but Malicia realizes something is amiss and carries out a ritual - revealing that the King has been hiding multiple fleets across the system.
The Simurgh shows up again, and sends a fleet of brainwashed people (both Imperial and Chaos) against Typhus' fleet, while she opens a way to Typhus' flagship's vault and (after curb-stomping him) turns the pylon of Jaderot he had been working on into another weapon to use - because said pylon contained a shard of Isha that has now acquired life, and it isn't interested in dealing with the Primordial Annihilator.
The King in Yellow tricks Angron into falling for a trap, putting him in an iron maiden at the middle of his Starfort - which allows him to cause the fort to emit an aura that turns anyone within it into complete berserkers, with no regards for friend nor foe, something that Malicia agrees could have destroyed the Chaos forces. With no other recourse, Lotara sends Hekatii to free Angron, which she does - becoming free from Khorne's influence in exchange of such service. And, before she can be killed, the Queen of Blades shows up to kick Angron out of the Starfort, along with Weaver, who recruits Hekatii into her service.
When Chaos prepares its assault on the King in Yellow's last fortress, Perturabo drops his surviving Men of Iron to open a beachhead for his Titans - and then teleports himself on the surface, using a Titan that makes the 40-meter tall Warmaster Titans reach out to the top of its legs.
Omegon and Mortarion take to the field, and the four brothers battle their way to fight and kill their nameless brother, who proves himself a tough cookie when he pretty much one-shots Perturabo.
The King offers a Deal with the Devil to Malicia, who fires back that his armies can be vanquished. When the King retorts he is invincible, an Ork WAAAAAAGH! drops in all of a sudden, leaving the entire battlefield in Stunned Silence, and the ziggurats that are acting as the King's minions' bases begin to be destroyed.
The arrival of the Orks prompts the hidden Grey Knights nearby to take on the fight, armed with Aethergold-infused weapons and armor. Which they use to wipe out thousands of demons and skeletons without taking casualties, and then summoning an Angel of Destruction that destroys the Nameless Ziggurat's shields and its top in one blow.
Leet and Borek, of all people, show up to be the second Spanner in the Works to the King in Yellow's plans, helping destroy (by accident) the King's hourglasses he uses for his rituals, ruining the latter's plans.
Rogal Dorn and Jaghatai Khan then show up, challenging their nameless brother. But, before the latter can act, the four Chaos Primarchs enter the room, ensuring that there are seven Primarchs together for the first time in millenia. And the Chaos Primarchs and the King start to duke it out, while the Loyalists let them bleed each other.
The King is alone only for a short time, because then the Simurgh joins him, as does the former Shard of Isha, who has become Drakira, Queen of Vengeance and Suffering - who quickly impales Mortarion before he can attack the King.
Malicia has her forces attack, and manages to stab the King in Yellow with her Black Blade, but the King surprises her by revealing he has subverted Ax'senaea, who proceeds to ambush Malicia, forcing her into a fight to death while all of Chaos' forces in the room are brought down.
The King approaches to kill Malicia, who prepares for what she knows she won't survive... but then a true Angel arrives. Weaver, the Angel of Sacrifice, who proceeds to verbally put the King down with pure panache. But she's not there to fight the King... but to deliver Malicia a recruitment offer (which she rejects) and a message to...
Rogal Dorn, who quickly understands the meaning and drops in a verbal bomb.
Rogal Dorn: And I am tired of listening to your arrogant proclamations of superiority... Nagash.
This causes everything that kept Chaos from freely acting here to be rendered null, allowing the Four to just revive their fallen and bring everything they have into the fight. Not only that, but Rogal Dorn has single-handedly destroyed Nagash's attempts to claim godhood and Eternity permanently, forcing him to instead settle for a much lesser claim over Tyranny and becoming the equivalent of a Daemon Primarch instead. And as Weaver herself stated in the introduction, no matter which other Chaos faction claims victory over the Calyx Hell Stars, the fact that Rogal has successfully denied Eternity to the Yellow King means that the Imperium wins by default.
Malicia is forced to fight Ax'senaea again, and manages to win even though they stabbed each other simultaneously... which at the same time allows Ax'sneaea to become a Daemon Princess, who swears to support Malicia in the future.
Lotara Sarrin destroys the last of Nagash's hourglasses and, when Nagash attempts to kill Angron, she does it for him, becoming Angron's replacement in Khorne's service and forcing Nagash to run away. This allows her to ascend to become the Nephilim Queen Valkia and claim the Calyx Hell Stars for herself, thus securing Khorne as the ultimate victor of the battle (at least where the forces of Chaos are concerned).
