Will Bates

Cadia licks its wounds in the wake of the Thirteenth Black Crusade. The heretic forces retreat on all fronts. The day is won. But Lord Castellan Creed cannot rest easy. Something tells him the assault was a mere prelude to something greater, something more final. He is right. Out of the Eye of Terror comes Abaddon the Despoiler, at the head of a warhost unmatched in scale since the dread days of the Horus Heresy. In the face of the looming apocalypse, Creed must weld the champions of Cadia into a bulwark capable of withstanding Abaddon’s fury.

Under almost constant besiegement by the hosts pouring from the Eye of Terror, Cadia acts as a bulwark against tyranny and death. Its fortresses and armies have held back the hordes of Chaos for centuries, but that grim defiance is about to reach its end. As Abaddon's Thirteenth Black Crusade batters Cadia's defences, and armies of the Imperium flock to reinforce this crucial world, a terrible ritual long in the making comes to fruition and the delicate balance of this brutal war shifts.

As the Great Crusade enters its sixth decade, the fleets and armies of the Emperor spear out into the galaxy to bring the Imperial Truth to thousands of worlds. Expansion has been swift, but must now be tempered with consolidation. Even so, the Emperor demands that the boundaries of the Imperium be pushed further into the unknown. The Master of Mankind tasks four primarchs with the dangerous mission of securing the worlds of the Occluda Noctis—hundreds of star systems on the far side of the Northern Major Warp Storm.

Long before the coming of the Imperium, the realm of Ultramar was ruled by Roboute Guilliman, the last Battle King of Macragge. Even after learning of his true heritage as a primarch son of the Emperor of Mankind, he strove to expand his domain as efficiently and benevolently as possible, with the XIII Legion Ultramarines as his alone to command.

Unaware of the wider Heresy and following the Warmaster's increasingly cryptic orders, Roboute Guilliman returns to Ultramar to muster his Legion for war against the orks massing in the Veridian system. Without warning, their supposed allies in the Word Bearers Legion launch a devastating invasion of Calth, scattering the Ultramarines fleet and slaughtering all who stand in their way. This confirms the worst scenario Guilliman can imagine - Lorgar means to settle their bitter rivalry once and for all.

When the ork hordes of Warlord Snagrod lay waste to the planet of Badlanding and wipe out the Crimson Fists Space Marines sent to halt their advance, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor must prepare the defense of the Chapter's home planet, Rynn's World. Tragedy strikes when an errant missile destroys the Space Marines' Chapter monastery, killing many of their remaining warriors. With only a handful of Crimson Fists left, Kantor must fight the campaign of his life, to defeat Snagrod's orks and prevent his Chapter's annihilation.

After ten thousand years of dreaming, locked in stasis at the heart of his shattered home world, Lion El'Jonson wakes to the nightmare of Imperium Nihilus. In this midnight age, the dying embers of humanity are threatened on all sides by the hungry darkness. Alone, even the Lion has no hope of prevailing against such evil – but there are those who would aid him in his quest. Hunted to the edge of endurance, many among his Fallen knights have long-awaited the day their liege would return to redeem them.

Recalled from the Great Crusade after Ullanor, Rogal Dorn and the VIIth Legion were appointed as the Emperor's praetorians - but only after the Warmaster's treachery was revealed did the full extent of that sacred duty become apparent. Now, the Solar System comes under attack for the first time since the war began, and many of the seemingly impregnable defences wrought by the Imperial Fists prove inadequate. With all eyes fixed firmly upon this new threat beyond the gates of Terra, who in turn will protect Dorn from the enemy within?

The Officio Assassinorum safeguards the future of humanity. Its agents are the bloody-handed, secret saviours of the Imperium, killers charged with achieving the impossible...and Vindicare assassin Absolom Raithe has just been handed the most difficult assignment of his career.