More Horus Heresy from the Black Library
HORUS RISING Dan Abnett
FALSE GODS Graham McNeill
GALAXY IN FLAMES Ben Counter
The Horus Heresy
James Swallow
The Flight
OF THE ElSENSTEIN
The heresy unfolds
With thanks to Lindsey Priestley, Marc Gascoigne,
Alan Merrett, Steve Horvath, John Cravato, Matt Farrer and
the GW Bromley crew, and especially to Dan, Graham and
Ben for lighting the way.
A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION
First published in Great Britain in 2007 by
BL Publishing,
Games Workshop Ltd.,
Willow Road, Nottingham , NG7 2WS , UK .
10 98765432 1
Cover illustration by Neil Roberts.
First page illustration by Neil Roberts.
© Games Workshop Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
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ISBN 13: 978-1-84416-459-2 ISBN 10: 1-84416-459-4
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The Horus Heresy
It is a time of legend.
Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy.
The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered
the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have
been smashed by the Emperor's elite warriors and wiped
from the face of history.
The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons.
Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors.
First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs,
superheroic beings who have led the Emperor's armies of
Space Marines in victory after victory. They are unstoppable
and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor's genetic
experimentation. The Space Marines are the mightiest
human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of
besting a hundred normal men or more in combat.
Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.
Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glorious, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor's military might, subjugator of a thousand, thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme, and his ambition knows no bounds.
The stage has been set.
~ DRAMATIS PERSONAE ~
The Primarchs
Horus Warmaster and Commander of the Sons of Horus Legion
Rogal Dorn Primarch of the Imperial Fists
Mortarion Primarch of the Death Guard
The Death Guard
Nathaniel Garro Battle-Captain of the 7th Company
Ignatius Grulgor Commander of the 2nd Company
Calas Typhon First Captain
Ullis Temeter Captain of the 4th Company
Andus Hakur Veteran Sergeant, 7th Company
Meric Voyen Apothecary, 7th Company
Tollen Sender 7th Company
Pyr Rahl 7th Company
Solun Decius 7th Company
Kaleb Arin Housecarl to Captain Garro
Other Space Marines
Saul tarvitz First Captain of the Emperor's Children
Iacton Qruze, 'the Half-heard' Captain, 3rd Company, Sons of Horus
Sigismund First Captain, Imperial Fists
Non-Astartes Imperials
Maloghurst 'the Twisted' Equerry to the Warmaster
Amendera Kendel Oblivion Knight, Storm Dagger Witchseeker Squad
Malcador The Sigillite, Regent of Terra
Kyril Sindermann Primary iterator
Mersadie Oliton Remembrancer, documentarist
Euphrati Keeler 'The New Saint'; remembrancer
Baryk Carya Shipmaster of the frigate Eisenstein
Racel Vought Executive officer of the frigate Eisenstein
Tirin Maas Vox officer of the frigate Eisenstein
PART ONE
THE BLINDED STAR
'If the sole trait these Astartes share in common with we mere mortal masses is their bond of brotherhood, then one must dare to ask the question – if that were lost to them, what would they become?'
- attributed to the remembrancer Ignace Karkasy
"We are the voice and the clarion call; We are tyrant's ruin and rival's fall.'
- from the battle mantra of the Dusk Raiders
'As with men so it is with silk; it is difficult to change their colours once they have been set!
- attributed to the ancient Terran warlord Mo Zi
ONE
Assembly
A Fine Sword
Death Lord
Inthe void, the vessels gathered. shifting gently in the silent darkness, the crenellated hulls and great ornate shapes appeared as a congregation of Gothic edifices, cathedral-wrought in their complexity, drifting as if torn from the surface of worlds and carved into warships. Great sculpted bows filigreed into arrow points turned, stately and lethal, to face into the dark on a uniform heading. Torches burned on some, in apparent defiance of the airless vacuum. Plasma fires trailed white-orange streams of turbulent gas from chimneys along the kilometres of gunmetal hulls. These beacons were lit only when conflict was in the moment. The flares of wasteful, daring heat they generated were signs to the enemy.
We bring the light of illumination to you.
The craft that rode at the head of the flotilla was cut from steel the shade of a stormy sky, with a prow sheathed in dark ocean green. It moved as a
slow dagger might in the hand of a patient killer, inescapable, inexorable. It bore little in the way of ornament. The ship's only decorations were martial in nature, etchings on the plough-blade bow in letters the height of a man, long lines of text that recalled an age of battles fought, worlds visited, opponents lain to wreckage. Her only adornments of any note were two-fold: a golden spread eagle with two heads across the face of the flying bridge and a great icon made of heavy nickel-iron ore, a single stone skull set inside a hollow steel ring in the shape of a star, at the very lip of the spiked blade, watchful and threatening.
More ships fell into line behind her, taking up a formation that mirrored the spear tip battle-patterns of the warriors that were her payload. In echo of the unbreakable resolve of those fighters, the warship proudly bore a name in High Gothic script across her iron hulclass="underline" Endurance.