For Ianthe, war is all too familiar. A former soldier in the Astra Militarum, she now serves Inquisitor Covenant as an agent of the Throne. Her first mission sees her investigating a cult called the Children of Eternity. Falling foul of the local Enforcers, Ianthe soon learns that war in the shadows is seldom straightforward and that the local, angry law-keepers are the least of her troubles.

A great darkness has befallen the galaxy, and the armies of Chaos are rampant. To survive, humanity must retaliate and take back what they have lost. By the will of the reborn primarch, Roboute Guilliman, is the Indomitus Crusade launched - a military undertaking that eclipses all others in known history. From the Throneworld of Terra does the Avenging Son hurl his fleets, their mission the very salvation of mankind.

On the prison world of Zartak, darkness has fallen on arbitrators and inmates alike. The Night Lords have come, bringing with them the shadow of fear and pain. But these monsters are not the only ones with an interest in Zartak. From the void, running on silent, another fleet emerges. These Space Marine warriors are grey-clad and white-faced, and their eyes are as black as the Outer Dark – the savage Carcharodon Astra.

Supreme Grand Master Azrael summons Lazarus and his Fifth Company to honour an old debt on the Knight world of Reis – a planet upon which the warp has set its hungry gaze. But Lazarus is not so sure Reis wants to be saved – its Knights are long lost, its governance is dogged by political strife, and internecine conflict hampers the world’s defence against an ancient evil. ­An evil which, like Lazarus himself, refuses to die.

The fortress world of Regium has a proud history, For millennia, it has endured when others have fallen to ruin and damnation, standing defiant in defence of the Imperium of Man. But now it is shaken. Parasitic plagues run rampant, and Regium's citizens are haunted by dreams of horrific monsters feasting upon their flesh and marrow. Lieutenant Castamon of the Ultramarines recognises these signs of an impending Tyranid invasion all too well. Rallying his warriors, the battle-hardened veteran launches a strike force to slaughter the xenos in the outer system, before it can reach Regium.

The feral warrior-kings of Fenris, the Space Wolves are the sons of Leman Russ. Savage heroes, few can match their ferocity in battle. After half a century apart, Space Wolves Ingvar and Gunnlaugr are reunited. Sent to defend an important shrine world from the plague-ridden Death Guard, the Grey Hunters clash with the pious Sisters of Battle—who see the Space Wolves as little better than the enemy they fight. As enemies close in around them and treachery is revealed, Gunnlaugr and his warriors must hold the defenders together.

Legend tells of a foolhardy expedition, led by the radical Magos Telok, that ventured out into the unknown space beyond the Halo Worlds in search of the 'Breath of the Gods' - an arcane device with the power to unmake and reshape the very stars themselves. Thousands of years later, the ambitious Lexell Kotov musters his Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet and sets out to follow in mad old Telok's footsteps.

Two centuries ago, the Imperium of Man and the upstart Tau Empire fought to a standstill in the Damocles Gulf. Now, as the 41st millennium draws to a close, the tau have returned. As the world of Agrellan falls under attack, the White Scars and Raven Guard rush to its defence, but with the skilled Commander Shadowsun leading the alien forces, the Space Marines and their allies are hard pressed. Kor'sarro Khan, Huntmaster of the White Scars, swears that he will win the day in the most direct way possible – by taking Shadowsun's head.

Commander O’Shaserra, better known as Shadowsun, is an ice-cold military genius celebrated across the Chalnath Expanse. She is the master of the stealth battlesuit assault and the Kauyon metastrategy – a philosophy of war that emulates the Patient Hunter. But how to lay a trap for the Chaos-worshipping warriors of the Death Guard, whose ancient technology allows their fleet to rip holes in space? And how to deal with their daemonic patrons, who defy the laws of physics and shatter the logical methods that Shadowsun holds so dear?

The primarchs, nigh-immortal sons of the Emperor of Mankind, take the stage in a series of short stories showcasing some of their great deeds and hideous acts from across the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

For a thousand years, the Sabbat Worlds have been lost to the Imperium, claimed by the dread powers of Chaos. Now, a mighty crusade seeks to return the sector to Imperial rule. And at the forefront of that crusade are Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only - better known as Gaunt’s Ghosts. Trapped in the grinding trench warfare of Fortis Binary, the Ghosts find themselves drawn into a conspiracy to assassinate the crusade’s leader, Warmaster Macaroth.

After seven long years of conflict, the Horus Heresy nears its end. But now, as the Warmaster Horus marches on Terra to rip his father from the Throne, the seat of the arch-traitor’s power lies empty. Cthonia, a world once dominated by brutal murder-gangs, is occupied by the Emperor’s praetorians—the indomitable Imperial Fists. For the Sons of Horus, this outrage demands a reckoning.

Newly promoted to the captaincy of the Ultramarines Fourth Company, Uriel Ventris leads his warriors to the world of Pavonis, where vicious alien raiders are bringing death and destruction. As Pavonis descends into political turmoil, Uriel and his warriors must battle the xenos as they unravel a plot to unleash an ancient evil buried deep beneath the world - the mysterious and deadly Nightbringer.

The galaxy is in flames. Chaos is in the ascendant across the stars. The Great Rift has split the holdings of the Imperium in twain, isolating entire sectors from the light of Holy Terra. But all hope is not lost. The Primarch Roboute Guilliman has returned from deathless sleep and appointed Commander Dante, lord of the Blood Angels, as Regent and Warden of the newly dubbed Imperium Nihilus. In the Baal system, the shattered holding of the Chapter is being rebuilt, and Dante plans the greatest campaign of his long life, to retake half an empire.

This audiobook brings together 13 uproarious short stories and one novella, focused on Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium. His stories are celebrated as heroic propaganda pieces, but he’s simply trying to stay alive in a hostile galaxy.