This episode takes us back to a time before the Sword of Baal arrived at Niades. Witness the might of an Imperial battlefleet at war, and the confluence of events which saw the Blood Angels seek safe harbour from the birth of the Cicatrix Maledictum. When Orpheo and his honour guard descend to the planet's surface, they make a series of troubling discoveries.

While Ancaeus' surviving warriors follow Castia's Servitors through the under-tunnels of Niades, the Tech-priest explains her plan to the paralysed Captain Orpheo. High above them, in the inner sanctum of the Siren Tower, the Genestealer Cult's Magus tells her brood-kin the hour of their ascension is nigh.