As the Blood Angels on the surface of Niades cut a course through the entrenched Genestealer Cultists towards the signal from Captain Orpheo's beacon, the situation aboard the Sword of Baal goes from bad to worse. Unable to free their vessel from the station, the ship's crew are attacked by waves of hideous Genestealer Hybrids. Meanwhile, several ships from the flotilla turn to make attack runs on the stranded Strike Cruiser.

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.