The battle for Rezlan VI is over, but for Commissar Valian Hesh of the Death Korps of Krieg, the war has just begun.

After an Imperial battleship condemns the ravaged world to an agonising death, the t’au and the Imperium of Man are locked in a bitter stalemate. Hesh has only one chance to escape this madness – preventing the 472nd Siege Regiment of Krieg from attempting a suicidal final assault on enemy lines. But as the t’au tighten their grasp on the planet and fire and poison leaches into its atmosphere, the commissar’s time is running short. With few allies save for Jens, his cryptic prefectus militant, he must risk everything to save his soldiers.

Can Hesh bring the 472nd to heel, or will he lose himself in the process?