"Humans are born prey. Fragile, afraid. The Imperium selects a chosen few— children we break over decades of conditioning. Purging them of weakness, carving out their fear. Those that survive are reborn with the strength to level cities, to conquer worlds. But power must be controlled. Fear forged into obedience. Into faith. Centuries ago, I chose a child filled with pain and rage. A child who had never known fear. What could a soul like that be capable of?"
— Metaurus, Bladeguard Sergeant
This episode is based on Warhammer 40,000, specifically the Space Marine game series.
Set after the events of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, a squad of Ultramarines are tasked to find and destroy a heretical relic of Chaos origins on the planet of Zsah'uj, which is currently suffering from a rebellion by Chaos Cultists. The squad is led by Bladeguard Sergeant Metaurus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who is accompanied by two Bladeguard Veterans. A fourth member of the squad is an Ultramarine that he knows well, for this Ultramarine was chosen by Metaurus himself to become one of the Emperor's Angels of Death: Lieutenant Demetrian Titus (Clive Standen) of the Ultramarines 2nd Company.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Alien Blood: The Tzaangors the squad fight have neon blue blood that glows. Given that Space Marine II shows Tzaangors with red blood, this seems to be a result of either a mutation unique to this group or an indication of favor from Tzeentch.
- Ambiguous Situation: The episode still refuses to clarify much on why Titus is able to resist such high-level Warp sorcery that would and did reduce other Astartes beneath it like ants under a magnifying glass; leaving it in the air if Titus somehow harbors the Blank gene, some blessing tied directly to the Emperor himself, sheer Heroic Willpower, or something else entirely.
- Anti-Magic: The Astropath produces a psychic shield to protect the Ultramarines from the chaos magic of the statue. In response, it summons a Chaos Sorcerer that stops time outside the barrier and then kills the Astropath with a thrown dagger, freezing the Ultramarines when the shield collapses.
- Barbaric Battleaxe: Sergeant Metaurus makes use of a double-bit power axe during the mission.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Tzaangors' Alien Blood glows bright blue, and for some reason is the only light source in the abyss.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: The battles against the Chaos Cultists and Tzaangors leaves the Ultramarines drenched with blood.
- Body Horror: The Chaos Sorcerer. Dear God-Emperor the Chaos Sorcerer. Especially so when it opens up its face, and reveals its massive “eye”.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The episode ends with Metaurus badly injured and Titus facing down a horde of Chaos Cultists and Tzaangors, with Titus ready to kill his way through that group, too.
- Break the Badass: The vision the sorcerer inflicts on Metaurus rattles him so much that, once the mission is completed, he just seems ready to lay down and die at the hands of the oncoming cultists.
- Car Fu: Some of the cultists try to meet Titus's charge by ramming him with a scrap car. Titus simply plows straight through the car unscathed, reducing it to a cloud of debris.
- Coffin Contraband: When the Ultramarines land on the planet's surface, Titus is shown dragging a casket. When they reach the area containing the chaos relic, Titus unlocks the casket to deploy an Astropath. The Astropath begins praying and produces a psychic shield that allows the Ultramarines to be shielded from the sorcerous attacks of the relic when the Astartes shoot at it.
- Creator Thumbprint: The drop pod launch being shown in an ultra-wide shot is a trademark of Syama Pedersen, who used it in Astartes to show off the sheer scale of the grimdark future of 40k.
- Cross-Melting Aura: The area where the Chaos relic is located is apparently so corrupted by the powers of Chaos that its unholiness burns away the purity seals of the Ultramarines the closer they get to it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The four man squad of Ultramarines face off against large groups of Chaos Cultists and Tzaangors, and the former group easily beat the latter two with minimal effort. The only time that the Ultramarines are slowed down is when the Cultists fire at them with a gatling cannon mounted on top of a tank, and even then they only consider this a mild inconvenience as Titus charges and leaps on top of the tank and eliminates the gunner before dropping a grenade inside the tank to kill the remaining crew.
- Once the Sorcerer unleashes its full power, it stops time and casually drops three of the Ultramarines with psychic attacks while they're frozen and helpless. Only Titus's anomalously strong Heroic Willpower makes it vulnerable to counterattack.
- Darkened Building Shootout: The fight with the Tzaangors is revealed only by the squad's muzzle flashes and the glowing blood of their enemies.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The chaos relic turns out to be a statue of a Lord of Change (a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch). Although it is heavily implied that it is an actual Lord of Change in a petrified state, as it initially attacks the Ultramarines with sorcerous power once they start shooting at it.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Even though Metaurus tells him his mission is over and there's ordinance inbound to kill them all, Titus insists on facing the horde of inbound cultists.
- Failed a Spot Check: If the greatest thing a superhuman warrior fears is the man right next to him, it is probably not a good idea to mess with said man. By the time the Sorcerer realizes its mistake, it's already too late.
- Foreshadowing: When the demon of Tzeench enters the mind of Sergeant Metaurus, it beholds that the thing he fears most is Titus falling to Chaos. It goes over the demon's head that Titus is not to be trifled with and it pays for it with its life.
- Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: Flashbacks showing a young Demetrian Titus, shows him dragging along an Astartes Combat Knife, which to an adult human is already the size of a sword, but for a child like him? It's essentially a BFS.
- Gravity Screw: The Ultramarines jump into an abyss, then halfway down they stop falling and stand up to continue walking down the cliff face, which has now become the ground.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Titus kills the Sorcerer by effortlessly bisecting it with his knife.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Sorcerer's power allows it to look into the minds of its foes and turn their greatest fears on them, reflecting the injuries those fears cause upon them in reality. When it gets to Titus, Titus instead turns his wrath on the Sorcerer and breaks its staff in his vision, which also happens in reality and ends the time stop holding him in place.
- Horrifying the Horror: When the Sorcerer looks into Titus's mind with their psychic assault, he proves to be completely impervious to their power as Titus turns it against them passively. The Sorcerer has a look of abject horror as if they cannot believe a mortal can turn their own power against them... before Titus bisects them clean in half as they try to retreat.
- I Know What You Fear: The Sorcerer has the power to psychically penetrate its opponents psyche and subject them to an attack from a manifestation of their greatest fear, with whatever they suffer in the mindscape reflecting back into reality.
- One of the Bladeguard Veterans is subjected to a vision of his armor ripping itself open, dragging his own body out from it and crushing his head. The exact meaning behind this isn't elaborated on.note
- Sergeant Metaurus sees Titus, corrupted into a Chaos Marine, who drives a combat knife into his gut. A memory of him contemplating how he selected Titus to become a Space Marine aspirant, and fears what he may become. Likely not helping matters if he was aware of Titus' heresy charges and imprisonment by the Inquisition at the end of Space Marine I.
- Titus appears in his mindscape as a boy but is otherwise unaffected, whereas his compatriots were all frozen and helpless. Titus turns around to face the Sorcerer and rapidly grows into his adult Space Marine self as he advances before reaching out and snapping the Sorcerer's staff.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Sorcerer quickly puts an end to the Astropath and his magical shield by hurling a sword through his body from behind.
- Inertial Impalement: One of the motorbike cultists tries to attack Metaurus from behind, only for the latter to jab his axe's hilt backwards. The combination of his Super-Strength and the bike's speed leaves his foe impaled.
- Insert Grenade Here: Titus jumps onto an enemy tank and drops a grenade into the cockpit, fragging the occupants. The Ultramarines then slap a melta charge to the thing for good measure.
- Leeroy Jenkins: The Ultramarines maintain a disciplined line while dealing with continuous waves of cultists until they come across a tank, which forces Metaurus to raise a shield against its heavy gatling fire. As he's protecting the squad, Titus charges ahead without a word and kills the entire crew himself. Metaurus' only response is to hand back responsibility of the casket to Titus in annoyance.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Chaos Sorcerer has two pairs of arms. The Sorcerer is a dangerous foe, but it doesn't actually use the extra pair when it attacks the Ultramarines, as it mainly uses its sorcery to deadly effect. Seems like it just wanted to show off one of its mutations.
- No-Sell: During the initial clash with the heretics, melee weapons and lower caliber firearms don't even scratch the paint on the Ultramarines' armor, even at close range. Metaurus grabs one who shoots him uselessly in the helmet, Metaurus killing him in turn with a headbutt. While the Ultramarines are forced to take cover when fired upon by a gatling cannon on a cultist tank, the marines' shields are more than adequate at stopping the rounds. Titus then leaps aboard it (having smashed through another vehicle on charging), almost casually approaching the gunner who is taking completely ineffective shots with his sidearm and slicing his throat open.
- Oh, Crap!: The Sorcerer immediately realising Titus's resistance to its psychic attack, before unsuccessfully attempting to retreat in both the mindscape and reality.
- Old Soldier: Judging by his service studs, Sergeant Metaurus is about four centuries old. A major indication of his old age is how his beard is nearly greyed out. He was a Firstborn Marine when he chose Titus to become an Ultramarine, and he has clearly lived and survived many battles over the centuries to undergo the transformational procedure to become a Primaris Marine.
- Pedestrian Crushes Car: The cultists attempt to ram Titus with a car as he's charging the tank, but Titus simply plows right through the vehicle as if it were made of paper.
- Silent Snarker: After Titus abandons the casket to take on a tank by himself, Metaurus' annoyance at his actions comes through his body language even buried under his helmet and heavy armor.
- Submissive Badass: Command of the mission is assigned to Sergeant Metaurus; despite Lieutenant Titus outranking Meraurus, Titus defers to the lower-ranked Veteran without question. It helps that Metaurus is older than Titus and was the one who inducted Titus into the Ultramarines, when he was a young child.
- Suicide Mission: Command predicted that the mission would have no survivors. Even after Metaurus and Titus complete all their objectives, headquarters only responds by acknowledging their success and bidding the Battle Brothers a good death, since there's still an entire army of Cultists that are now on their way to finish the job.
- Sword and Fist: As Metaurus and his squad engage a bunch of cultists, they use not only their melee weapons but also their fists. With the Sergeant even sending a few cultists flying with power-armoured punches.
- Time Stands Still: The Sorcerer uses its power to freeze time, preventing the bolter rounds from reaching their targets and leaving the Ultramarines helpless against it. The spell is broken when it gets to Titus and his will overwhelms it.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Sorcerer attempts to use its powers on Titus, but Titus immediately turns the vision back on it and overwhelms it, breaking the spell before bisecting the creature.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Centuries ago, Metaurus saw a young boy with a chilling expression on his face. Metaurus was more than a little troubled seeing the boy was full of fury and unafraid despite undergoing trial by combat.
- Unflinching Walk: The Ultramarines do this after setting up a melta charge on the disabled cultist tank. The explosion is huge and the Astartes are briefly covered in a dust cloud, and yet they continue on their away unbothered.
- Your Head A-Splode:
- Metaurus does this to one of the cultists by grabbing their head in his hand and crushing it like a tomato.
- The Sorcerer does this to one of the Bladeguard Veterans after it freezes time and uses its sorcerous powers to crush his head. We do not see the results, but we do see blood gushing out of the Veteran's helmet.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The Sorcerer shows visions to the Ultramarines that prey on their greatest fears, which cause them real harm when they resolve, such as one poor bastard getting his head crushed in the mindscape suffering the same fate in reality. This backfires when it gets to Titus and Titus breaks its staff in the mindscape, which causes its staff to break in the real world and cancels the time stop. Able to move once more, Titus quickly bisects the Sorcerer as it tries to flee.
