Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
I
!
l,
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
THE HORUS HERESY®
BOOK NINE
-
CRUSADE
A SUPPLEMENT FOR THE HORUS HERESY: AGE OF DARKNESS
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Tlte HOTW Htre!)' Book Nine- Crusade© Copyrlght Games Workshop Limited 2020. Tlte Horus Htre!)' Book Nine - Crusade,The Horus Heresy, GW, Games Workshop,
Forge World, The Horus Heresy,The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the '.Aquila' Double-headed Eagle logo,
and all associated logos, illusrrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either
., orTM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world. All Rights Reserved.
No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or rransmitted in any form
or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission ofthe publishers.
This is a work offiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. .
British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Pictures used for illustrative purposes only.
ProductCode: 60043087009 ISBN: 978-i-7882Cr944-5 Printed in China
Games Workshop web site: www.games-workshop.com
Forge World web site: www.forgeworld.co.uk
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
CONTENTS t
THRAMAS: THE GRAVE OF HEROES '
The Edge ofRllin....................................................................................................9 Death's Swift Wings ........................................................................................... 32
The Thramas Crusade ........................................................................................ 15 When Dreams Become Nighnnares ............................................................. 44
Dusk's Bleak Shadow ......................................................................................... 20 The Heavy Toll of Victory ................................................................................ 60
The Principal Worlds of the Eastern Fringe ................................................... 71
FORCES OF THE THRAMAS CRUSADE
The Dark Angels.................................................................................................. 82 A Legion Accursed: The Night Lords at Thramas................................... l 28
Legio Victorum .................................................................................................... 136
THE THRAMAS CAMPAIGN
Campaign Overview........................'................................................................. 142 Devastation Mission One - The Logic ofWar ......................................... l 50
The Armies .......................................................................................................... 142 Devastation Mission Two - No Stone Upon Stone ................................ 151
Campaign Duration.......................................................................................... 144 Devastation Mission Three - Confrontation............................................ l 52
Campaign Rules................................................................................................. 145 Devastation Mission Four - The Last Bastion.......................................... l 53
l.EGIONES AsrARTEs APPENDIX: THE DARK ANGELS
Legiones Astartes (Dark Angels) .................................................................. l 56 Firewing Enigmatus Cabal............................................................................. 166
Dark Angels Legion Specific Wargear........................................................ 157 Dreadwing Interemptors ................................................................................ 167
The Hexagrammaton ....................................................................................... 158 Ironwing Excindio Class Battle-automata................................................. 168
Dark Angels Unique Rites ofWar................................................................ 159 Corswain .............................................................................................................. 170
Inner Circle Knights Cenobium .................................................................. 163 Marduk Sedras ................................................................................................... l 71
Deathwing Companion Detachment.......................................................... 164 Lion El'Jonson........................................................................................,,_,,,_, 172
l.EGroNEs AsrARTES APPENDIX: THE NIGHr LoRDs
Legiones Astartes (Night Lords) .................................................................. 176 Night Raptor Squad.................................................................................._ ,_ 182
Night Lords Specific Wargear ....................................................................... 177 Nakrid Thole ...................................................................................................... 184
Night Lords Unique Rites ofWar................................................................ 178 Sevatar .................................................................................................................. 186
Terror Squad .............~......................................................................................... 180 Flaymaster Mawdrym Llansahai .................................................................. 188
Contekar Terminator Elite ............................................................................. 18l Kheron Ophion ofthe Kryoptera ................................................................ l 89
Konrad Curze ........................................................................................................ 190
AP.MY Lrsrs AnDmoNs
Legion Hussar Squadron ................................................................................ 194 Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought...................................................................... 202
Legion Jetbike Sky Seeker Squadron.......................................................... 195 Saturnyne Pattern Aurox Armoured Transport (Solar Auxilia) .......... 204
Legion Sabre Strike Tank................................................................................ 196 AuroxArmoured Transport (Imperialis Militia and Cults).................. 204
Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill ........................................................... 198 Saturnyne Pattern Carnodon Strike Squadron (Solar Auxilia) ........... 205
Legion Arquitor Bombard .............................................................................. 200 Carnodon Strike Squadron (Imperialis Militia and Cults)................... 205
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
r-.-. .._"_._. ..... ;;...~ ..±+?·-··· •. ~ -~===---=== : ; 4 : ;....n..............;;;,;
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
THE WARMASTER's REBEnroN FK[angba
In the fifth year of the 31" Millennium Witt NigJttmar
Horus Lupercal, Warmaster, favoured son of
the Emperor and hero ofthe Great Crusade,
plunged the Imperium ofMankind into
a war from which it would never truly
recover. Amid the shattered cities ofthe
lonely and distant world oflsstvan III, he
set the warriors ofthe Legiones Astartes
against their brothers, raising the banner of
rebellion and drowned his oaths ofloyalty
in blood. Those ofhis brothers that held
true to their oaths would come to face him
at Isstvan V, only to find that Horus had
laid well his plans of treason. Fully halfof
the Emperor's Primarchs and Space Marine
Legions were already secretly sworn to
Horus' side and they turned their guns upon
their kin with abandon, leaving the pride of
the Imperium broken upon the black sands
of that once insignificant world. Worse yet,
the Primarch Ferrus Manus would be slain
outright, his head made a trophy for the
traitor Warmaster, and Corvus Corax and
Vulkan lost to their sons. At a stroke Horus
had shattered the Legions that had all but
conquered the galaxy, cleaved apart the heart
of the Imperium and laid clear his path to
the throne.
That would be his ultimate goal, Terra, the The End ofEmpire .A~ian
Throne World of the Imperium, that he The short and decisive war that Horus
might cast down his own father and take had planned for had not come to pass, his · z~a~all p
His place. In his way stood Rogal Dorn triumphant advance on Terra stymied in
and the few remaining steadfast armies of years of grinding conflict, all while the ~rbaru.s
the Imperium, the other loyal Primarchs Imperium bled and suffered. Those few loyal
scattered to the far corners of the Imperium Legions that retained the force ofarms to Witt illtdtm.uf.
and unable to come to the Emperor's aid. A resist the Traitors in open war were penned ~t iR.Captr
narrow belt ofworlds held the main route in small enclaves, unable to halt the chaos
from the far north and Isstvan to Terra, that now spread to engulf the realm they onslaught. Distant Ultramar, the rich domain
the fortresses of Paramar, Beta-Garmon had fought to create. The Imperial Fists were of the Ultramarines where the largest army
and Lorin Alpha. Here would be fought arrayed defiantly about Terra, their strength in all the Imperium waited for the call to
a desperate holding action, Rogal Dorn the only remaining bar to the Warmaster's arms, was in ruins and cut off from all contact
spending all his resources and committing with Terra, which they presumed had now
all those warriors at his command to slowing fallen to the enemy. Even the fortress system
the advance ofthe Traitor hordes. For two of Baal and the proud warriors ofthe Blood
long years they would hold the line, keeping Angels sat within a cage of the Warmaster's
Horus at bay at the cost of millions oflives in making, paralysed by the absence oftheir
a series ofbitter sieges and desperate battles, master and inundated with the broken
a conflict that would spawn legends to last survivors ofisstvan Vand the terrible doubt
10,000 years. Yet even as they fought, the those broken warriors carried with them.
flame ofrebellion spread and took root in all
the worlds ofthe wider Imperium, the war
no longer a simple matter ofoverthrowing
Terra and claiming the throne, but a
sprawling morass ofold grudges and feuds
now ignited into open battle.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
,
,
ll{s.stuan
Jlqrus 1 lark i!mijj~~ ZONE TRAITORIS
ZONE IMPERIALIS
mri lllaw QL~tlyt ZONE PERDITUS
BASfION OMEGA
fijtstraano
llnmain of tltt
Nig~t ]lfaunter
® ~agoris
lN(octurnr
OOci:tuba lltftramar Ul[eµrntuncr
,
Yet, despite their hardships these disparate matter of bitter rime and gruesome sacrifice lives and costing Horus many long months
forces had managed to slow the Traitors before Horus tightened his grip around Terra of battle, while the daring assaults ofthe
with their stubborn refusal to fall before the and took the throne for himself Those that Raven Guard and White Scars would slow
might oftheir treasonous brothers, keeping still remained loyal would not make this task the passage ofmen and munitions from
alive the embers ofthe Loyalist cause as easy, they would fight to their last drop of Horus' northern strongholds to a crawl Yet,
they fought. blood to oppose the Warmaster and those of even this bravery would last only so long,
their brothers that had forsaken their oaths and in return Horus would claim dominion
Defeat loomed dark and grim on the horizon in order to serve him, fighting a series of over all the northern worlds; from the dark
for the forces of the Emperor, for though grim sieges and bitter raiding campaigns to machine-vaults ofXana to the shining spires
they could delay the Warmaster and his hold them at bay. The fortress of Paramar ofAngelis, the Eye of Horus flew triumphant
hordes, they could strike no decisive blow would change hands many rimes, the three and the isolated pockets ofresistarlce were
to end his onslaught. It would simply be a major assaults upon it consuming millions of crushed beneath the heel of his vast army.
·' ~ Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
ft:. l(J"<{~~._llf'::!E!!:::::!..i,:,in• 1rlt_..,f.1· (if)f'r(l/t ,z;;,._J•(lfl'fo J,>(o(,/n J..n.(11<,a-, "f*l(it 2,..,;c,. 7!?!,;-:::_,,,,._.::;;_i~r.::;;:;:::?:.. •. ~ ::[1?:.:·!f:. /,;.(~1;(.;, >/IU 1,(1'".f~•Vritd~· ~t'•f~, rl1'l'"Hf1• ¥for;·.t;:t,-;;:;., ~'.~I/!:.;•'!,;;'~( 1..1-1•11£~'.!:• }r,,,,(J;t ,(,,'1,fr'1•1t;-",, I'/;(::::.. )..~,:,;;~U'l•rf J
~
I
new war, consumed not by the wrath of the
xenos scourge that had once terrorised them
but by those they had once called brother.
Old allies who had gone to war under the
eagle banner of the Emperor would fall upon
each other in red abandon, while those that
had once been rivals for glory in the Great
Crusade now found themselves desperate
allies against the traitorous hordes. All that
had once seemed right and good, all the
ceremonies of innocence and loyalty, were
drowned in blood and none could see where
the death would end.
I Horus would wreak a terrible vengeance on The Razor's Edge
those that did not join him once he ~ad taken The galaxy-wide empire that had been built
r Worlds that had once given their loyalty Terra. Worlds that stood strong in the face of during the Great Crusade began to tear
the storm that was the Horus Heresy would itself apart, a final fall of darkness upon the
I find themselves alone amid a sea offoes, grand dreams of unity and empire that the
never knowing which of their once stalwart Emperor had kindled in Mankind's collective
grudgingly to the Emperor now gleefully allies they could trust in the chaos. Human soul. The fragile web of courier frigates and
threw off those shackles to take up the cause cultures that had survived all the terrors of astropathic relays that bound its worlds
Old Night would fall silent in the face of this together began to fray as war and madness
I ofthe Warmaster, eager to curry his favour took its toll, the remaining fragments singing
in the hope they too could reap their share of a grim dirge of terror and destruction, word
the spoils ofwar. Even those worlds that had ofthe Warmaster's bloody march on Terra
once freely bent the knee to the Emperor and the fall ofLoyalist strongholds. Fear
now forsook their vows in the face ofHis ruled in almost every sector ofthat wide
apparently inevitable defeat, fearing that realm that the Legiones Astartes had forged,
a fickle master that goaded its subjects to
unwise war and futile battle, to abandon their
neighbour and offer up the weak in the hope
of their own salvation. In those savage years
there were but few lights in the darkness, a
few fleeting tales ofbravery and respite that
passed like whispers through the tattered
remnants of the astropathic network. They
spoke ofthe return of Corvus Corax from
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
the grave of Isstvan V, ofthe valiant defence Broken, Blinded and Bound
of Baal and the gathering might of Ultramar Among the many plans set in place by Horus, before even the first bombs fell on the
waiting to be unleashed. Few believed such ruined worlds of lsstvan, were those intended to see the most potent threats to his
tales, for all about them was now blood and supremacy removed from contention. For though the Wannaster would acknowledge
ruin, death and terror. Such was the fragile no public rival, in private he held several ofhis brothers as objects of no little discomfort,
nature ofcivilisation in those years that each warriors that he would prefer not to meet on the field of battle. For these paragons
rumour of doom held more power than any amongst the Primarchs would not bow to the skill at arms or the might of Horus' armies,
loudly broadcast litany ofhope. but the subtle skills that had earned him his title of Warmaster would see them neutered
and rendered powerless before they could even raise their hands against him.
All it would take was one final blow to the
structure ofthe Imperium, one more strike There were three among the Primarchs that stood as the most dire threats to the
to the heart of that fragile empire and it Warmaster and his nascent schemes. Lion El'Jonson was a warrior without equal whose
would crumble to dust and ashes. Once loyalty to the Imperium could not be subverted, Sanguinius held the awe and trust of all
again it would plunge into the abyss of chaos his brothers which Horus had long envied, and Guilliman possessed an army and strategic
and isolation that had sought to swallow it genius that could doom any rebellion ifleft unchecked. Horus laid plans to remove each of
once before, and Horus would be left with these from his path, the preparations in place long years before he would reveal his desire
only the broken fragments of the Emperor's to rule and standing as the signposts to the Horus Heresy visible only to us now through
glorious vision. As the seventh year of the the clarity ofhindsight.
31" Millennium began, the second year of
the war for the Imperium, there were few Once confirmed in his position as Wannaster, the ultimate authority barring only the
parts ofthat wide realm that had not given Emperor Himselfover the armies of the Great Crusade, Horus was granted the most
themselves over to bloodshed and madness, effective of tools for dealing with these formidable threats. By official writ and warrant
few worlds ofimport not invested by the of the Wannaster, the Lion and the great majority ofhis forces were sent out beyond
warriors of one side or another. Ofthose, lost the borders ofthe Imperium, there to wage war in the darkness where little news ofthe
amid the darkness at the far eastern fringe of Imperium could reach. Ever isolated from his peers, Lion El'Jonson made little complaint
the Imperium,Thramas seemed an unlikely at such a task, accepting the grim duty as ifit was his due and granted Horus the time he
fulcrum upon which to lever the course of would need to set in motion his plans. Sanguinius and his Blood Angels would likewise
history, but this oft-forgotten outpost of the see orders from their new Warmaster send them to the far corners of the Imperium, not
Great Crusade was now to take its place in simply led astray but trapped by secrets the Warmaster had long kept in readiness. Here
the annals of the Horus Heresy. Here would he sought to dispose of the troublesome Angel and suborn his Legion to the service of
the fate of emperors and empires be sealed, his rehellion in a space where none could come to their aid. The system of Signus had
here would the last of the great warlords of been crafted into a killing ground in which the Blood Angels would fight and die alone or
the Age of Darkness take their place upon pledge their very souls to the Wannaster.
the stage.
Guilliman and the serried ranks ofhis Ultramarines were more troublesome, for they
were such a force that they could not be dispatched to chase after some petty threat on the
edges of space. Instead, the Warmaster's orders would bring them to a battlefield of Horus'
choosing, the industrial stronghold of Calth at the borders of Ultramar itsel£ There, lured
by the promise ofglory and put at ease by the seal of the Warmaster, the Ultramarines
would fall to treachery and deceit, their numbers decimated by those they had thought to
be allies. Last ofthose to be led astray by the Warmaster and his subtle strategies was the
Khan and his White Scars, though unlike the others Horus would seek not to kill his old
friend but rather to keep him isolated at Chondax by his order until he could be convinced
ofthe justice of Horus' cause. It would only be the interference of the Alpha Legion
that would set these plans awry and spoil the carefully set snare that the Khan had been
lured into.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
••hi.·'iri:'(tNW11k~ ..,,;;J/«v ,,,,,.,. t:71..,,...we"""::>U:(.:";,,,7.,,.x::;: ""1Udr.·t1u)"" ).."'11""- •1111). IC;(t,., i!J..li.1::W..¢"'"''"'' ,,,,,;~;.~;;:-:ft:,;;;;;i;~n1/;,. """' 1t·l•w ·~r?.t• ,, .tn ,;,.,,...,,,,, ..,,-mf;:;,.~;;,., ·1.-u,....... ;''!'"" ,,;,,..,,,"'-' ?.t::l~n.. ..,,11.,1.,n """'""'"., ,,.,,,,;, ).,;;<,;~
rf'I To RULE AMONG THE AsHES OF EMPIRE
r 0 ---- ci e- - -- - --- 'c . -.-·-. - - --.
hold the road to the Imperial throne. Horus appetite of war and how vital it would be to
By the year 007.M31, the great rebellion of stood checked, with no swift path but only a capture the resources of the eastern sectors,
Horus Lupercal had spread to engulf much long war of attrition against the Seneschal of and the vast majority of an entire Legion
ofthe core sectors ofthe young Imperium, Terra, a war that would require resources and and its support troops were committed to
drowning the golden dreams ofempire and bodies were it to succeed. the fight. The Night Lords were set loose
dominion in the blood ofmartyrs. All across upon the worlds ofThramas, unrestrained
the northern reaches of the Imperium flew Here was the crux of history, for given by any notion of duty to the people they
the banner of the Eye of Horus, the badge of sufficient resources and warriors, regardless sought to enslave and freed from the
the Traitor and, upon those strongholds held of their fervour for the cause, there was dictates of the Emperor and His Principia
by the Loyalists, the Warmaster's fist had no defence or stratagem that could bar the Bellicosa, His rules ofwar, to enforce the
already descended, leaving Ultramar in ruins Warmaster from Terra. Thramas, which will of the Warmaster as they pleased.
and scattering the hosts ofthe Emperor. Yet, many have deemed a sideshow to the true Horus cared little for the fate of distant
thanks to the efforts of those brave warriors battles of the Horus Heresy, to those gaudy Thramas so long as its riches in men and
who remained true to their oaths ofloyalty, massacres at Calth and Signus, would decide materials flowed into his war chest. Ifthe
Terra stood aware ofits peril and Rogal Dorn the course of the rebellion. Horus was no Night Haunter and his blood-soaked kin
had set those forces that remained to him to fool, he was well aware of the rapacious chose to rule through fear and the edge of
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
a skinning knife, it was ofno consequence - for, unknown to those who fought so IfThramas held, its defenders would behold
when weighed against even the smallest desperately on both sides, word ofthe the turning ofthe tide, the beginning of
advantage in the fight to seize Terra and rebellion and the betrayal ofthe Imperium the war and the end ofthe rout that was the
topple the Emperor from His throne. had spread far further than any might have Horus Heresy. Once they had been first,
thought and set loose another terror. greatest and most feared, but now they came
Those forces that remained loyal to the last to the battlefield, diverted by the wiles
Emperor were ill-placed to oppose the What approached the Imperium was no ofHorus and enraged by the betrayal of
conquest ofThramas and the jewel ofthe simple band ofkillers, for the Night Lords
sector- the trio ofForge Worlds at Triplex even with the gene-blessings oftheir their kin.
- for the loyal Legions were either scattered Legiones Astartes heritage had become
and broken or penned within the borders little more than that. No fractured remnant The Lion made haste to properly greet his
ofUltramar and other small bastions of ofa Legion all but beaten by the treachery wayward brothers, and he who followed at
resistance. It was the midnight ofthe ofHorus, but a full army ofthe Legiones his heels was Death.
Imperium, the darkest point ofthis newly Astartes in all its furious glory come to exact
looming Dark Age. Yet, as with all nights, a toll for the betrayal ofthe vows once sworn
the dawn was inexorably approaching by the Warmaster and his conspirators.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
To Shake the Pillars of Heaven linked Forge Worlds: Galatia, Phall and demise. This would be the true legacy of
The war for the Eastern Fringe is often termed Thule, produced a wealth ofmunitions
the Thramas Crusade by historiographers and engines of war, enough to overwhelm the Thramas Crusade, a legacy written in
and scholars, a title that, while dramatic, the cordon Rogal Dom had placed around
serves only to trivialise what was a far more Terra and swamp the planet with sheer the burned-out husks ofonce flourishing
widespread conflict. The campaign Horus numbers. Secondary, stood the capture of
began when lie unleashed the Night Lords Thramas and the heavily-populated worlds colonies and the broken remnants of proud I
would encompass most ofthe Eastern Fringe that surrounded it, which would provide the Forge Worlds all across the border territorie~
before its end, with major battles fought in Warmaster with a vast reserve ofsoldiers to
four fully incorporated and warranted sectors sacrifice upon the altar of war. Armed with ofthe Imperium. '
ofthe Emperor's new Imperium and spilling the output ofTriplex and other Traitor Forge
out across the border territories at the very Worlds, the forcibly-recruited populations of The Price ofDefiance
edge ofthe galaxy where the stars grew dim these worlds would serve as the chaff Horus It would begin quietly, almost unnoticed
and distant. This was not to be a conflict would require for his great rebellion. Those in the panic and uncertainty that swept the
limited to a single world or battlefield and remaining worlds, the minor forges and small galaxy in the wake of the Isstvan atrocities.
fought by a single army, but a true crusade colonies that abounded at the edge of known The Night Lords returned to their old
waged by millions upon millions ofwarriors space, served as little more than minor prizes places of power, to the ruins ofNostramo
across dozens ofworlds that would leave a trail and offerings to the bloodthirsty nature of and the sprawling hive cities of Cairn and
ofdeath and destruction far worse than any the Night Lords. Kruun, replete with the plunder ofisstvan
ofthe famous massacres ofthe opening years and hungry to claim a place ofglory withui '
ofthe Horus Heresy. Given free rein by the This was to be a war unlike those seen before Horus' new order. These worlds had long
Warmaster and the fugue ofnightmares and in the opening years ofthe Horus Heresy, suffered under the stewardship ofthe
insanity that plagued the Night Haunter, the a war that would shake the foundations of Night Lords, the strict laws ofthe Night
Night Lords would carve a bloody ruin across the Imperium. It had become more than a Haunter corrupted into a harsh system of I
the stars ofthe Eastern Fringe, leaving few simple rebellion, more than a briefbattle honour killings and bribery by time and the
ofits worlds unmarked by their rampage. It for the throne where the armies ofthe degradation of his Legion. Having long sine
would be a legacy ofterror that would linger Great Crusade tore each other apart, but a learned the terrible price ofdefiance, they
in those benighted regions for millennia to confrontation in which the very fabric of offered up their sons and daughters to serve
come, far longer than the distant rumours of human civilisation was rent asunder. Not the Warmaster without hesitation, not out o
the destruction unleashed at Isstvan and later only would brother be pitted against brother, loyalty but for fear of the punishment that
at Terra itself but the warriors once lauded as the saviours any refusal would draw down upon them.
ofMankind would tum upon that which But these were the last dregs of systems long
However, this was no unfocused war of they had created. The dream ofa golden since bled dry. In short order, the Night Lor
annihilation, a campaign fought purely to empire would die, murdered by those that turned towards Thramas, having replenishe
revel in the slaughter it caused; rather, it had once sworn their lives to its creation. the ranks oftheir thralls and the munitions
had several fixed goals. Chief among these With its death would be sealed the fate of our holds of their fleets with the lifeblood of I
was the capture and domination of the Imperium - doomed to a slow and lingering the Nostramo sector, casting offthe husk of I
three forges ofTriplex. These three closely Nostramo and the exhausted dominion one:
given into their care by the Emperor that th
might claim a realm more fitting oftheir ne
station at the Warmaster's side.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
that they might spread the word ofthe Night
Lords' approach and the terrible toll they
would exact on those who chose to oppose
them. Upon the ruins ofTsagualsa's broken
cities, the Night Lords set the foundations of
a new citadel to replace their lost holdings on
I Nostramo, a statement to the worlds ofthe
Eastern Fringe that the Night Lords had not
I come merely as raiders or messengers but as
II , conquerors and overlords. Tsagualsa would be
but the beginning ofthis campaign ofterror,
i with individual bands ofNight Lords - often
!
little more than a lone cruiser and a few
companies ofthe Vlllth Legion - spreading
throughout the isolated worlds along the Path
ofTears and offering each world the same
~i brutal choice: surrender themselves utterly to
the will ofthe Night Lords and the Warmaster
or watch their homes burn and people die.
Within the space ofa few short months, the
H borders ofthe adjoining Thramas sector and
Gulgorahd Protectorate were thronging with
overburdened refugee ships and dire tales of
bloodshed and death.
Such atrocities were a common feature of
the cruel style ofwar prosecuted by the
Night Lords, a stratagem that the Legion had
originally pursued with a cold logic, seeking
to sap the will ofthe foe by fear and terror,
but which many within the Legion now
cleaved to with a savage joyfor slaughter and
death, regardless ofwhether it granted them
any military advantage. Indeed, the Legion
had long suffered from a slow decline in
the character ofits recruits, with the dregs
1hramas and its environs, situated but a short hunger ofwar and sustain the Night Lords, ofNostramo and the surrounding squalid
span oftravel from the Nostramo sector, were and offered only a short lifetime ofblood and worlds coming to dominate many ofits ranks.
no strangers to the Night Lords. The chain of toil in exchange. The hardy border settlers of What had once been an army dedicated to the
inhabited worlds that linked the two sectors Tsagualsa balked at the surrender oftheir lives, unfeeling application ofjustice and retribution
was known as the Tithe Road, or the Path of families and homes for the glory ofa renegade had slowly become more akin to an unruly
Tears, for along this route the Night Lords had Warmaster and a distant battle for a planet they mob; the once strict order ofthe Legion
long made annual pilgrimages to claim the toll had never beheld, but with little more than a becoming aloose association ofwarbands
for their protection and patronage, taking for few regiments ofmilitia to defend themselves, and gangs. Even its Primarch, Konrad Curze,
their own those that survived their brutal trials they could only beg the Night Lords to relent. had fallen into a strange malaise, foregoing
ofinitiation. Ever the first stop upon this Tithe more and more ofhis duties to his Legion to
Road,Tsagualsa had endured the demands of With casual indifference, the Night Lords fell indulge bloody whims and morbid impulses
the Night Lords for almost a century, giving up upon Tsagualsa in the wake oftheir refusal while allowing the various warlords among
the finest ofits meagre population to serve the ofthe Warmaster's terms, as eager to use the the Night Lords to gather more power unto
whims ofKonrad Curze and, when the Night world as an object example as they were to themselves. He grew more distant and morose
Lords returned in the last months of007.M31, accept its loyalty and small wealth. Tsagualsa with each passing day, haunted by visions of
they were prepared to offer what they could to burned; its few defenders slaughtered in a a future he refused to reveal to even the most
the warriors that had conquered the galaxy in confrontation that could not be called a battle, trusted ofhis sons and afate that stole from
the Emperor's name. Yet, this time the Night for it was little more than a slaughter as the him any emotion other than hateful spite. By
Lords did not come bearing the golden seal Night Lords crushed those who dared resist the early stages ofthe Legion's encroachment
ofthe Emperor but the grim terms ofHorus' them with contemptuous ease and set about into the Thramas sector, the Night Lords were
infamous Dark Compliance. OfTsagualsa they the grim practices for which they had become split between two informal factions: those few
demanded every citizen that could bear arms infamous. In a single night ofblood and death, that still remembered the Legion that once
or serve as thrall for the VIIr1' Legion, and the population ofTsagualsa were herded into was and strove to preserve it and its master,
u laid claim to those few resources possessed the flaying pits ofCurze's sons and shown the and those who sought only to indulge their
~k~at small and insignificant world. They price ofdefiance, with a few hundred allowed bloodthirsty nature without the interference of
~::::::ro~~~:~=::~7;::::.~~:=:_:,,~~--.~Fr-·"-'·-•~
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
It was this latter faction that took the lead the arrival of the Night Lords, the warriors Here, Nakrid Thole and those that
as the Night Lords stood on the borders of ofThramas now unwelcome on the worlds followed him paused to indulge once
the Thramas sector, burning and killing for they had sworn to protect, judged a force more in their bloody obsession, making
the simple pleasure of it. Chief among these just large enough to warrant destruction gruesome examples of even the slightest
warriors was the Nostraman Nakrid Thole, but not powerful enough to stand against sign of resistance and taking a terrible
an outspoken critic of his Prirnarch and a the Night Lords' raiding companies alone. delight in the slow annihilation of those
charismatic warlord who had garnered a Rather than bring destruction down upon that offered open defiance. The wide plaza
large following among the newer recruits. the people of the border marches, many of Serk, once filled with statues dedicated
His warriors led the reaving of the Path of Nightwatch regiments abandoned their to the heroes of the Great Crusade, was
Tears and made a reality of its name, before bases and took to ships bound for Thramas, rendered into a gore-spattered charnel
turning their avaricious gaze upon the leaving behind nothing of use for the Night house when the governor refused to deface
richer pickings of the Thramas sector. These Lords and entrusting the fate of the worlds the monuments to those Legions that had
worlds were the Imperium's final border they had once stood sentinel over to the remained loyal to the Emperor. Nakrid
with the unknown and were defended by planetary militia and governors. A few Thole himself draped the governor's
the Thramassi Nightwatch regiments of the accepted the mandate of the Warmaster flayed skin atop the statue of Dorn after
Solar Auxilia, men and women who had long and turned their coats in allegiance to him, a short and one-sided battle to take the
fought to hold their homes safe far from the deeming the mantle of rebel preferable to many-spired palace of Serk, the planetary
busy heart ofthe Imperium. Yet, the tales of the bitter pride of the martyr, while others militia no match for his Night Lords. The
woe brought by those refugees that fled to secreted their wargear in hidden caches Night Haunter himself took to the hive
the safety of the throne world ofThramas and took refuge in plain sight among the domes of Makator V, seeking to exact a
told of the fate of those who resisted and, populace, hoping to wait out this savage tithe in blood for the wealth its merchants
with the world ofThramas itself silent in storm. Within the space of a few months, had long flaunted. It was a crude and
the face of Horus' declaration of dominion the Night Lords were the uncontested debased re-enactment of his youth on
over the Imperium, few among the people masters of nearly half the Thramas sector, Nostramo, a bloody release of the visions
of that distant frontier wished to provoke from Tsagualsa to the galactic north to the that tormented him, but one that could not
the ire of Horus' bloody emissaries. Many of key crossroads world of Crucible on the very dispel the malaise that drove him towards
the border worlds fell to hysteria long before doorstep ofThramas itself. madness and despair.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
The Keystone ofVictory most ardent in its support of the Emperor heart ofthe underground fortress to strike at
Even as the most bloodthirsty of the Night and His works, had been subjugated by its the cannon's reactors. With the majority of
Haunter's sons urged their master to ever cousins in a short and bitter conflict. The the defenders mustered at the gateways and
greater feats ofcarnage, those who still system was littered with the signs of it; the entrances, the Night Lords faced but scant
remembered their duty drove on to the hulks ofbroken starships and the corpses resistance and swiftly captured and deactivated
Triplex sector. This was the key to Horus' of fallen Titans on the plains of Thule, and the great cannon.
plans for the Eastern Fringe, the vast above all the fortresses of the Mechanicum,
m.anufactoria and skilled forge wrights of the the Eye of Horus flew alongside the With this last defence stripped away,
Triplex system more than capable ofcreating banners of the Opus Machina. All that the Titans of the Traitor Legio Victorum
an army fit for the Warmaster's goals. With remained was the destruction of the last began the annihilation of their former
three full Forge Worlds to be found within holdout bastions of the Thule Magi, a task brethren. On the surface ofNehren, the
the Triplex system, it boasted a force of arms to which the Night Lords took with relish, Foe Breakers, loyal to their last breath,
more than capable offending off an assault eager to cement their alliance with those advanced against five times their number,
by anything less than the full VIIItb Legion, ofTriplex's rulers that sought to align determined to exact a worthy toll for their
and even then such a battle would likely themselves with the Traitors. extinction. Even as giants duelled to the
leave the valuable indusrrial infrastructure death above, the Night Lords pressed
in broken ruin. Led by the lord of the The final battle ofthe Triplex subjugation was deeper into the fortress to challenge the
Atramentar, Sevatar, and others of the Night fought on the outermost world ofthe system, Archmagos ofThule. Sevatar himself
Haunter's most veteran commanders, many barren Nehren. Here, the final fortress ofthe defeated the automata sentinels that
ofwhom had origins on distant Terra, the Magi ofThule was set deep into the frozen rock, guarded the Archmagos and made a captive
Night Lords numbered four full Chapters, guarded from above by the last few maniples of him, a martial triumph for which he
a force at once both too grand for simple ofthe Legio Victorum III, the Foe Breakers, refused any reward, seemingly bemused by
raids and insufficient for a full scale assault. as well as several batteries oforbital defence the offer. With Triplex now firmly in the
Breaching real space, the Night Lords' flotilla cannon and from within by the remains ofthe hands of the Traitor archmagi of Galatia
entered Triplex in full battle array, prepared automata and thralls ofthat fallen forge. Until and Phall, they acceded to an alliance
for anything that might await them, except now, the defence cannon had kept the Traitor with the Warmaster and the Night Lords,
perhaps what they were to find. Mechanicum fleet at bay, the vast landers ofthe offering the service of their armies and the
Legio Victorum I and II reluctant to risk their labour of their manufactoria so that they
Triplex did not stand ready to prosecute precious cargo in the face ofthe bombardment might share in the glory of his victory over
a war, but was instead amidst the work of from the surface, but the arrival ofthe Night Mars and the Emperor.
recovery in the aftermath of one all but Lords broke the stalemate asunder. The
concluded. Triplex Thule, the smallest of Terminators ofthe Atramentar, with Sevatar Unsated by the slaughter in which he
the three forges of the system and long the at their head, risked a teleport assault into the had indulged, Konrad Curze would arrive
)?'\I late to the victory in Triplex, having left
the prosecution ofThramas' capture to
"" Nakrid Thole. He had followed along
the trail of his loyal sons, drawn to .the
death and destruction that had been
wrought in Triplex. Just as his favoured
son Sevatar had refused the largesse of
the archmagi, so too did Curze shun their
petty praise and flattery as they sought to
ingratiate themselves with the Warmaster's
representative. Instead, he took the captive
Archmagos ofThule as a living trophy,
plying the grim trade of torture upon the
I helpless potentate in the solitude of his
sanctum aboard Nightfall, the flagship of
I his fleet. Despite the foundations of a new
"' fortress for the Night Lords being laid on
the distant world ofTsagualsa, it would
be Triplex that played host to the Night
Haunter and the core of his Legion for
much of the campaign, though the Primarch
himself was most often to be found sealed
within his hidden sanctum, the reins of
leadership left to the individual warlords of
the VIII'h Legion. Despite this, it seemed
· opposition to their assault save for scattered
massacres and short-lived rebellions.
that the Traitors had firmly seized the
upper hand in the conflict, with no open
I5 "4 . .,;,". '?~~;:;z"',".,/({•i•~• ,,.,,,,,,_ 1.n..;r...::.::::..~~''<'., ~-,,;:•6...'Z::..~ ,;,:;~~:')-, t:h·e-'s,t;u;.f.f;;iJf.;y.o-.u.1li.k,e/,:it¢!;• .;s:.. .'""'~'.''''~'•••"•.. ••,;,~••"""'" ''- ~ "" ,,_ ~I~ '
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy
~ ...-. ,.........._7'"-
Surrender is Death alone. With a force amounting to little the Great Crusade that were headed for the
NakridThole, though no veteran ofthe more than asingle Chapter ofhis kin and a eastern gulf, the dark space at the edge of the
centuries-long Great Crusade, knew well squadron ofthree cruisers he translated into galaxy and, as such, boasted a constellation of
the worth ofterror and how to best wield it. the Thramas system, his arrival delayed by a planetary defences powerful enough to stand
It was a lesson carved into the souls ofthe thirst for destruction that saw his fleet stop off any conventional fleet, as well as several
sons ofCurze's Nostramo, a world that had at a number ofsmallerworlds along their small Expeditionary fleets which were
been destroyed by the harsh laws and keen course. The Thramas system was unlike any awaiting orders at the orbital dry-docks and
punishments ofthe Night Haunter. He ofthe lesser border worlds, for it served as a mustering stations at the zenith and nadir
and the other praetors and warlords ofthe major way-station for those detachments of points ofthe local system.
malcontent faction ofthe Legion had sown
the seeds offear across the weakest sub-sectors
ofThramassi space and now were set to reap
the fruits oftheir labour, moving to seize the
lastkeystones ofthe Eastern Fringe, the lesser
Forge World ofGulgorahd and the hive world
ofThramas, jewel ofthe border marches.
In their hubris, the warlords allied to Thole
judged that those worlds that remained would
offer no real resistance, cowed by fear and
burdened by the throngs ofrefugees driven
to them by the campaign ofterror that had
been wrought upon the border marches, and
dispatched but token forces to take control of
them. For with the Night Haunter diminished
by the curse offoresight and secluded in
Triplex, there was no force to unify the Night
Lords and bind them to a goal other than
simple butchery, none to keep them from
dissolution and madness. Each ofthe warlords
that had chosen not to follow Curze to Triplex
chose a path for themselves, without care for
the plans ofHorus or their brothers, seeking
only to sate the bloody urges oftheir followers
and to seize a territory oftheir own.
A loose alliance ofseveral Chapters moved
on the closed borders ofthe Gulgorahd
Protectorate, expecting the swift surrender
ofthe lesser forge, just as the greater power
ofTriplex had bent the knee to the Night
Haunter, while Thole claimed the honour
ofaccepting Thramas' surrender for himself
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
On the surface its defences were just as Thramas, though armoured and buttressed Mayvin Khelen,weighed the worth ofloyalty
formidable, its vast hives more akin to against bomb and shell, had been laid low by and defiance against the value ofher citizen's
fortresses than cities, enveloped in tiers of a far more insidious weapon. Fear had taken lives, for should Thramas rise in defence ofthe
ferrocrete fortifications and crackling void hold ofits people and the senate ofThramas; Imperium and the Emperor's dream ofunity,
shields, and defended by a host ofregiments the hordes ofbroken refugees had sown their it would pay with the blood ofeach ofits sons
ofthe Imperial Army, both the Thramassi seeds ofdespair, with each successive wave and daughters. As the Night Lords cruisers
Nightwatch and those units intended for the bringing new tales ofwoe and word ofmore loomed in orbit,it seemed to all those present
Great Crusade but now trapped on Thramas. worlds ruined for the sin ofresistance. Terra that Thramas would fall without firing a shot
It was a veritable planetary citadel intended was silent and word ofthe massacre ofthe and the wealth ofthe Eastern Fringe would
to stand offany incursion by xenos invaders Loyalist Legions at lsstvan had been widely be claimed by Horus. Nakrid Thole and his
or horrors from the outer void, but equally spread by Horus' agents. Thramas believed it honour guard stepped from their transports
capable ofkeeping Thole's small fleet at bay stood alone against a storm that they could not into a city consumed by despair, its streets
were it pitted against them in open battle - hope to withstand.The Regent ofThramas, crowded with the warriors of the Nightwatch,
but, as Thole and his ships approached, the
guns lay cold and the warriors ofthe Great
Crusade sat idle in their barracks.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it! --
gathered from across the sector by the advance the Emperor, he took hold ofthe great brass "War is a simple equation;its solution is victory
ofthe Traitors, angry and impotent in the gates ofthe Regent's palace and threw them or death.
face ofthe Night Lords' hegemony ofthe open to receive his due.
sector. Without allies they could do nothing Those who cannot triumph are ground to dust by
but perish, any desire to avenge the atrocities Then, a single battered frigate, its hull the gears of history, for only in victory can there
committed by the sons ofCurze tempered by fractured by weapons fire and lit by the be found life. No matter the strength ofthe foe, to
the knowledge that it would cost those they dreadful flare ofinternal fires, breached resist even in the face of annihilation is the only
had sworn to protect their very lives. Nakrid realspace and blasted a high-gain vox logical course of action. Surrender is but a slower
Thole wore the cloak ofhis victory with an transmission bearing the seal ofthe lesser resolution ofthe equation, a lingering and painful
arrogance that sparked the hatred ofall that forge ofGulgorahd across the Thramas system: end to the struggle.
observed his slow approach to the palace, and
with gauntlets still stained a dull brown with Gulgorahd will never surrender.
the blood ofinnocents and loyal servants of
Surrender is death".
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Emperor, and mobs ofcitizens and vengeful
refugees took up arms to seek revenge for
the months oftorment inflicted by the Night
Lords. The small detachment ofNight Lords
Thole had left at the space port to secure their
transports was overwhelmed by the onslaught
ofthe Antikaan Hussars, whose banners bore
the mark ofthe Imperial Fists whom they had
long fought alongside, while other bands of
Night Lords escaping from the palace were
hunted and harried through the city by the
light armour ofthe Midnight Host. Death
stalked the city for the entirety ofthe long
Thramassi night, with running battles and
desperate sieges playing out all across the world
in the wake ofthe Regent's sudden declaration
o f war.
Nightfall Konrad Curze and the Night Lords. In return In orbit, the surviving Night Lords ofThole's
The ponderous gates ofthe Regent's palace Mayvin Khelen, last Regent ofThramas, Terminator bodyguard and the horribly-
on Thramas opened on a scene that Thole spoke a single word: "No". wounded praetor himself had barely reached
had not expected, the vast throne room the safety of their cruiser, having captured a
was packed with the members ofthe At her side, Arcturus Morhde, Captain- Thramassi shuttle from the palace's spire-top
Thramassi senate and with the warriors of general ofthe Nightwatch regiments and a landing bays, when the macro-cannon and
the Nightwatch, but something had changed. Terran veteran ofthe Great Crusade, drew defence lasers on the planet below opened
No longer did fear hang heavy in the air, no the archaeotech pistol once presented to fire. Searing beams of energy and immense
longer did the veterans of the Solar Auxilia him by the courts ofTerra as reward for his explosions turned the night sky ofThramas
bow their heads and cower in the face of the loyalty and emptied its magazine into Thole's as bright as noon, the cruisers' shields flaring
Night Lords, but instead glared their hatred dumbfounded face. Around him the elite of and buckling under the sustained barrage
with a new determination. Yet, Thole was of the Nightwatch, the Midnight Host, activated with little power to spare for any counter-
the Legiones Astartes, the hatred of mortal their power axes and charged into the ranks assault. In the orbital stations around the
warriors was nothing to him and victory ofthe Night Lords honour guard, which met embattled Night Lords ships, the various
more cherished than life. He advanced down them with roaring chainglaives. The throne craft of the Great Crusade fleets at anchor
the long hallway, its walls lined with the room erupted into a chaos offlashing blades woke to the sudden eruption ofconflict,
banners ofthe Great Crusade's victories and and gunfire, the Night Lords carving a path out many having been sat at battle stations since
the proud history ofThramas as a stronghold ofthe palace, the crippled body oftheir lord the arrival of the Night Lords in the system.
of the Emperor and His dream ofunity, past carried amongst them, while the city took up Some, such as the Crimson Tyrant, an ancient
the warriors that had carved an empire at the arms in the name ofthe Emperor. All across the Visigoth class battle cruiser that had fought
edge of the galaxy alongside those heroes planet and on the stations in orbit, regiments many times at the behest of Horus Lupercal,
that now lay dead in the dust of distant scrambled to full battle readiness, some called to battered clear of docking restraints fixed by
Isstvan V, and gave a mocking bow before arms by defiant vox broadcasts from the palace, the Thramassi officers and blasted a path to
the Regent's throne. There, in the heart of others by the orders oftheir own officers and the aid ofthe Night Lords. Others found
his enemy's domain, he knew no fear, only a some by simple instinct as the city descended themselves boarded at anchor by the warriors
certainty in his own success and the power into chaos. Those regiments that had shown of the Nightwatch and taken as prizes by
. of the fear he had sown across the stars loyalty to the Warmaster or argued for the Loyalist cause, their command crews
of the Eastern Fringe, and demanded the surrender to the Night Lords suddenly found executed and ratings forced into the service
unconditional surrender ofThramas and all themselves attacked by the loyal Nightwatch ofthe Regent and the Emperor. Most took
its domains, in the name of the Warmaster, or Great Crusade units whose loyalty was to the up the cause ofThramas when the guns
began to sound and advanced upon the small
Traitor flotilla that hung in the sky above that
embattled world, a wedge ofvengeful ships
more than enough to overwhelm the Night
Lords and their allies.
With the pragmatism for which they were
renowned, the Night Lords made no attempt
to contest control of orbit, instead launching
a spiteful volley of phage warheads at the
planet and then abandoning their erstwhile
allies in order to flee the system. However,
their escape could not stop what was
coming, word spread out from Thramas and
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
·- ~~r:_~t£~· tl(;;;&;'Ji,;;::t;::.-1:,.tt,,, ,;J~!""'"';;;,,7,.t,, .,,.... tll,..,.o,#-::i"f''"" n./,..,,,,,,h, ('.,.t:z;"" uf;.,, 11>f.trlt.· ktir;,,,, )md1io"'"' ,.,,,,7,f:;.tmu (1.,1/,Nlt• J.1...Jo<,1"~ ~""" ''(o"' ,,,,,.. 5~1,._,,,,,/,,, /!A,n11,,-.-1f•· .ow ·~tM"~ .,,..u.., ,t;;;,,i;;:~-;:;:;:;;;:::;-r:m;;;;; ;,,,,<1,,.nlu(•"'"' &zz- ?~
' - ,~
- -' -c c-
across the sector, borne by raiding frigates the superior skill ofthe Night Lords and Between the Titans of the Legio Victorum ~.
and Nightwatch battle squadrons; no longer soon found themselves bogged down in the and the warriors ofthe Night Lords there
would the loyal people of the Eastern Fringe desperate defence ofthose few worlds they were few defences to hold them back, and ·~·
stand idly by while Horus plundered their had managed to secure. Qetesh Prime and the first worlds in his path, the packed hives
~' '
homes and enslaved their neighbours - Crucible were little more than chamel houses of Sheol III and Yaelis, fell within a week. '~
now there would be war no matter the where the Night Lords committed an endless
cost. The scattered warbands of the Night stream ofslave-soldiers and thralls to weaken Knowing full well the fate of those that
fell into the hands ofthe Night Lords, the
Lords dissidents, still each intent on their the Nightwatch's defences, while Thramas itself defenders of Sheol fought to the last, making ti
own private slaughter, found themselves endured constant raids and spoiling attacks on no attempt to broker a surrender and instead
hard pressed by sudden rebellions and the orders ofthe now hideously scarred and mining the central hive spire around them
unexpected assaults. Those soldiers ofthe deranged Nakrid Thole. Gulgorahd, despite with phosphex charges and detonating them
Nightwatch that had gone into hiding its fervour and bluster, was caught between once the final fortifications were breached.
became guerrillas and saboteurs, harrying the Night Lords and the Traitor worlds of On Yaelis, so far largely intact despite having
the Night Lords' logistical bases and isolated the Aegis sector, barely able to hold the outer changed hands three times during the
garrisons, while the armies ofThramas and bastion worlds on the borders ofits territory. fighting, the ragged survivors of a dozen
Gulgorahd went on the offensive on planets Indeed, Bastion-019 endured such aferocious decimated Auxilia regiments fell back into
across the Thramas sector and beyond. assault that its surface was entirely scorched the manufactoria in the hive's lower levels
Against any other foe, the counter-attack and irradiated, the thrall-Knights and automata hoping the enemy would not dare engage
would have been overwhelming, but the legions taking refuge in a labyrinth ofsub- them in a pitched battle, only to perish
Night Lords were no normal force, but a surface tunnels and fortifications to continue piecemeal as the Night Haunter himself
Legion of the finest warriors ever created. their stubborn resistance. descended to hunt them like animals as an
They returned the desperate assault of the example to others who might resist. Bastions
Loyalists with a fury of their own and the The Loyalists could not defeat their foe, could on and 009 fell in some of the largest Titan
sector fell into a nightmare ofbloodshed not push the Night Lords from their homes, battles of the entire Thramas Crusade,
and battle. On those worlds where the but nor could they be defeated without with the Traitor Legios Victorum I and II
Night Lords were beset by insurgents, they dealing a mortal blow to Horus' ambitions as well as the Legio Phasma, long bound
slaughtered the populace indiscriminately and crippling his plan to drain the Eastern to the Night Lords, engaging the bulk of
to root out the warriors hidden among them, Fringe ofresources. The Thramas sector, and Gulgorahd's Legio Adamantus and elements
making bloody trophies ofthe slain and those territories adjoining it, stood on a knife of the loyal Legios Atrox and Saevus. Near
decorating the flanks of their war engines edge but one slip away from annihilation. Yet a hundred god-engines would fall in the
with the skins of those they captured. they held the line and for a short, bittersweet course of a month's fighting, though the
Where the enemy dared to make open moment ofhistory, it seemed that they might Legio Adamantus lived up to its cognomen,
war against them, they took to the cities be able to hold the foe in bloody stalemate the Unbroken, with many maniples fighting
to fight their battles, forcing the warriors to the last rather than retreating even in the
till exhaustion sent him in search ofless
ofThramas to bomb those they sought to tenacious prey. Until the return ofthe Night face ofoverwhelming odds. It seemed that
save or face the Night Lords in the twisted Haunter that is, stirred from his dark and time had run out for the Loyalist cause, for
steel canyons ofhive and manufactoria morbid dreams by the changing winds offate now it was not a matter ofif they would be
where the Nightwatch's superior numbers and driven back into the eye of the storm. defeated, but simply when. Night had fallen
meant nothing in the face of the skill of the on the great dream ofthe Emperor, and it
Legiones Astartes. Curze descended upon the worlds around seemed that there was none that could avert I
Thramas like a thunderbolt, with the armies its final and inexorable end.
Total war gripped the sector, fought in every ofTriplex at his back and the most loyal of I,
theatre ofcombat and with every weapon his sons at his side, a concentration offorce
i'fi I
~
available. There was no longer such a thing more than enough to break the stalemate
as a noncombatant, only Loyalist or Traitor - that had taken hold ofthe Eastern Fringe.
ally or enemy. Those few worlds that avoided
the fires of open battle were wracked by
starvation as trade ceased across the quadrant,
and disease stalked the worlds ofthe Eastern
Fringe with impunity and abandon. Thramas
and the armies ofthe Regent, despite their
initial advantage, made little headway against
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
MIDNIGIIT IN 1HE KINGDOM OF AsHES their original size repelling the continuous Unexpected and Unlooked For
Despair settled over the worlds of the lhramas raids of the Night Lords. With retreat not In all the long months of fighting, Triplex
sector and the Gulgorahd Protectorate like an option, the Captain-general armed the had not been idle, its vast manufactoria
a dark shroud. Those warriors who fought underhive gangs and conscripted every churned out a near endless stream of
against the Wannaster, whether they cared citizen capable of holding a weapon to fight, war machines and munitions, some sent
for the Loyalist cause or not, had come to dispersing veterans ofthe Nightwatch straight into conflict and the greater
accept that they lived now on borrowed time, among their ranks as overseers. On the portion set aside as tribute for the
that death had already claimed their souls far side of the warzone, Bastion-019 still Warmaster. Entire cohorts of automata
and was merely forestalling collection. Yet, held, having been besieged for almost six marched from the factories, the skeletons
the enemy they faced now was no less than long months, the world now little more of new Titans were raised in the great
the Night Haunter himself, and the price he than an amalgamation of craters and blast halls of the forges of Phall and Galatia as
demanded for their surrender was not simply scars where a few hundred surviving tech- the riches ofThramas poured into Triplex,
death but the slaughter and dismemberment thralls and a handful of Knights continued wealth so vast that even the archmagi of
ofall those they held dear; for in their defiance their resistance as nomadic companies the Mechanicum struggled to tabulate
they had unleashed the whirlwind and could in the labyrinth of sub-surface tunnels. its worth. Ships flying the colours of
not return it to its slumber. The war was Bastion-019 posed no real threat to the the Warmaster, the baleful eye of Horus,
no longer a simple matter ofwhich distant Traitor fleets anymore, but its stubborn thronged into the system to transport the
figurehead would be named their sovereign, refusal to accept defeat was an affront to newly-forged hordes to war in Thramas
ofwhich banner flew above their homes, but the Night Lords' pride and they refused or far off to the frontlines of the Horus
one ofannihilation For, consumed by his to bypass the world until the last defender Heresy at Paramar and Beta-Garmon. With
dark dreams, the Night Haunter had thrown was reduced to a trophy to adorn their so many ships moving between the main
aside Horus' desire to seize the Thramas war engines. forges and the various Mandeville points
sector intact and allowed his demons and at the edge of the system, it is little wonder
the most debased ofhis sons to take the lead No longer did either side make any attempt that the arrival of a new formation went
Death would be the reward ofthe fortunate to offer or seek terms, to negotiate or unnoticed by the Mechanicum sentinel
few, while an eternity of torment awaited demand, the lines had been drawn and barges. These new arrivals were no bulk
the survivors. now only death could end things. Slowly haulers or even the sleek and gruesomely
but surely the Traitor forces, now superior adorned ships of the Night Lords, but
This was the only truth left for Thramas, in both number and skill, ground down a type ofvessel all but extinct in the
and the warriors that remained to defend its and annihilated the defenders in a series Imperium. These were relics of a forgotten
worlds fought likethe damned themselves. of deliberately slow and drawn out battles. age, ancient warships whose design dated
Some sought a swift end, and on Kenrac The Night Lords seemed to savour the utter back to the Golden Age of Mankind,
the Imperialis Militia regiments chose to destruction of both the defenders' bodies garbed all in sable black and each bearing a
slaughter their own people rather than and their spirits, wasting much time and single device: a winged sword.
leave them to the mercy of the Night Lords, effort on demoralising raids and gruesome
before mounting a suicidal assault into the massacres, spurning more than one
Traitors' landing zones to seek an end of opportunity for quick conquest to indulge
their own. On Crucible, a vital strategic in carnage. Despite this, by the middle of
crossroads to the heart of the Thramas 008.M31 it would appear that the Thramas
sector, Captain-general Morhde of the Crusade was all but won.
Nightwatch commanded eight regiments
ofthe Solar Auxilia in its defence, but soon
found his forces reduced to a fraction of
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
??±ff==- .~~;;;::;,.__.... Q£;;;; £--tu= ~#a:;#
.:;z "':' @~•& };M:(•ure~"="~ 4_, hinrL"'f?.t•• •~ f...w..t. w:;;A; •-·tt~ 7(fa; ~;; a;_,"h" 1.1zt/6.. Jnu)"" )-.:z;;;;~ :t::1!_;_~,.;.:o:=:..::~
' ~ warrior lost in the dark places ofthe galaxy
while he stole the Emperor's throne, and now
Diamat Incursion it seemed that the one man that Horus did
The Dark Angels had been dispatched by Horus to the distant Shield Worlds, an enclave not want to face had returned. The Lion had
ofMankind situated in the black between galaxies and bound in some fashion to a xenos entered the war, and worse yet, the stoic Lord
breed unknown within our own realm. The war to subjugate this realm had kept the Lion ofCaliban had been driven to anger by the
absent from the Imperium while Horus made the first moves ofhis rebellion, but still actions ofhis brother.
rumours ofunrest and tragedy would eventually reach him. His Legion fully engaged in
the war with the Shield Worlds, the Lion could spare only a small force to investigate the Within the space ofa few silent moments
situation within the Imperium, to verify the mad rumours ofHorus turning traitor and the lead Night Lords cruiser, the shadow of
gauge what measures should be taken by the First Legion in response. Justice, was raked with pinpoint lance fire
and crippled, left alive but unable to fend
The Lion chose 15 ofhis fastest capital ships and a small host ofwarriors, veterans all, to offthe squadrons ofDreadclaw boarding
accompany him and charted a course to Tanagra. This system lay at the very edge ofthe craft that set upon it. Rather than attempt
Imperium's newly-laid borders and sat at the conflux ofa number of stable warp corridors to save their stricken brother, the other
that would allow rapid redeployment to locations deeper in Imperial space. Furthermore, cruisers abandoned the fight, trading valour
it hosted a Forge World of some size, Diamat, which could serve to re-equip and rearm for pragmatism and withdrawing so that
the Dark Angels fleet and supply them with news ofthe Imperium. It was a well-laid they might fight again. Aboard the Shadow
plan, one that considered almost every possibility, but what the Lion could not know ofJustice, the survivors ofthe Night Lords
was that Diamat had long since given its loyalty to the Warmaster and had taken up arms crew braced themselves for their final battle,
in his cause. Almost immediately upon arrival, the Dark Angels came under fire from hoping perhaps to escape the inevitable fate
Traitor craft, swiftly verifying the rumours ofcivil war within the Imperium, and records that loomed over them, but the warriors that
discovered within the broken forge after the Lion had pacified it confirmed that Horus emerged from the boarding craft offered
was at its head. Amid the ruins ofthe forge, the Lion would discover that these plans of them no honourable death. Bearing the
rebellion were no sudden madness but a long-seated cancer. For stored in the depths hourglass emblem ofthe Dreadwing, they
ofthe Forge World's vaults was a trove ofvast ordinarus built to a pattern unknown in seized key junctions and bulkheads before
the Imperium, based on a technology long since forbidden to the priests ofMars and flooding entire sections ofthe craft with
commissioned in secret by Horus some 50 years before. phosphex and bio-phages, slaughtering
most ofthe Night Lords without even
He was met in the ruins of Diamat by Perturabo, the lord ofthe Iron Warriors whom the raising a blade. Only the bridge was spared
Lion believed to still hold true to his oaths ofloyalty to the Emperor. From Perturabo he annihilation, left isolated as the screams and
learned ofthe Night Haunter's assault on the Eastern Fringe and the massacres at Isstvan, gurgles ofthe dying echoed throughout the
though the whole truth was concealed from him by the false Primarch. For Perturabo ship, and then once all had become silent, the
acted to divert the Lion on Horus' orders, keeping him from Terra and Isstvan by means Lion himself smashed aside the reinforced
ofKonrad Curze - a lure to keep the First Legion occupied while the rebellion continued and shielded entry portal Gunfire and blades
apace. When the Lion departed Diamat he did so just as the Warmaster had planned, struck the battered armour ofthe Primarch
throwing himselfinto a war that would keep his powerful Legion neutered while Horus ofthe First Legion to little avail, its battle-
pressed on to Terra - worse still, he left the recovered treasures of Diamat in the hands of tested surface proofagainst such paltry
the Iron Warriors, from whence they would pass to Horus himself Little realising that his attacks, and the Lion cleared the chafffrom
brother had played him false, the Lion departed for the nearby Forge World ofTriplex with his path with a few mighty sweeps ofthe
those forces he had brought to Diamat, hoping to reach it before his brother and called for Lion Sword. The praetor-commander ofthe
all his Legion still fighting past the bounds ofthe galaxy to join him there. The Imperium Shadow ofJustice lunged from concealment,
stood on the brink ofdestruction and the Dark Angels would not permit such a tragedy to having sacrificed his kin in exchange for a
come to pass while they still drew breath. single strike at the Primarch's back, only to
find himselfcaught in the vice-like grip of
the Lion. His dying stroke foiled with casual
The first ofthe Triplex defence barges to Lords heavy cruisers and frigates engaged the indifference, the Night Lords praetor spat his
respond was annihilated before it could even foe at extreme range,the Legiones Astartes curses at the Lion and prepared for his death,
issue a warning, a barrage oflance beams craft managing at last to provide some real but this was not to be his end, and before
striking it from a range far beyond that which resistance to the newcomers, but even these dragging his reluctant guest to the depths of
standard Imperial technology could reach. As formidable ships found themselves hard the Invincible Reason, the Lion spoke:
ifat a prearranged signal, the black-clad flotilla pressed in battle. Though almost equal in
systematically reduced every ship within number to the black craft, the Night Lords "I was content in the dark places ofthe galaxy,
their astounding weapons' range to broken attacked with uncharacteristic hesitancy, for content to kill in the name ofempire and be
hulks and drifring wreckage. They struck at unlike the Mechanicum craft they recognised forgotten. But you have summoned me back with
the Mechanicum's defence craft and transport the subtle heraldry ofthese ships. This was a your pitiful flailings at rebellion, for you have
ships alike and made no attempt to parley or small fragment ofthe First Legion - a single endangered the empire my toil has built and for
issue warnings or demands. Every craft that squadron ofthe relic cruisers gifted them that there is aprice to be paid. First we shall speak
bore the Eye ofHorus in their path burned, by the Emperor Himself- moreover, it was
ofmy brothers, Curze and Horus, and then you
those that attempted to fight fared no better a harbinger ofsomething far more terrible. shall learn what terror truly means for the brief
than those that fled, save that their deaths The Warmaster had plotted to send the First remnants of your existence."
found them faster. A single squadron ofNight Legion far from his rebellion, all to have one
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
. ··:..f!_~I('!: £;~'!i,.i,F::~'f.t.., ::th~ ~!a-.. :;;;;",~ •""'' ZM,,._.,,~-•'!J.utn- ;;;~.,..,.,,,.., 7.,x:;:;.. ,,,,µ,. •'""~ cull11n im~-1•.,,,.....,,T,t;';f:'-' {f~).Mt,,, M<ll.Jit~ ,,,,.,, "!·m' u,,,.. rf_,:;x; l.X'Mtt.u 2r-.. cs1nt "'C'·t..• -''" ,t.zw u:;::;u IUn. J.:1:,Ntt.< ;,ff '*2c.Uv-t'i!: ~~'"'""":
- - ez;,::;.; t .> CL C c - ..
F'!
The Fall of Triplex escorts disappeared into the dubious safety assault, instead assembling the massed ranks
The Dark Angels flotilla, which numbered of the Warp. Those Mechanicum barges ofthe Deathwing to render a quick end to
18 capital class ships and no more than that remained died in defence of their forge, the fighting. Having sworn their oaths before
100 frigates and lesser combat craft, took each continuing to fire even as the Dark the Lion himself, the Deathwing launched
up station in the outer system as the lords Angels cut them to pieces, the servitor crews themselves into the heart of Galatia's main
ofTriplex gathered all their might in orbit working to maintain the barrage even as they forge-fane, loosed from the orbiting cruisers
of Galatia, the closest ofits remaining two burned. Despite this enforced bravery, they
intact Forge Worlds. More than 100 bulky could not stay the hand of death that hung as a storm ofdrop pods and landing craft
Mechanicum gunships and defence barges, over them, and within the space ofa few
the remains ofthe Night Lords squadron thick enough to leave Galatia in shadow as
and even those vessels still fresh from the short hours the Dark Angels had full control they fell. Dozens ofthe packed pods were
great orbital shipyards ofGalatia assembled incinerated by the fire ofvolkite defence
but, still uncertain in the face ofthe might of the orbit of Galatia. guns and the screaming beams of photon
ofthe Dark Angels, did not iminediately cannon, with hundreds ofDeathwing
fall upon the smaller fleet. This was to be The destruction oftheir fleet did not veterans disgorged from the flaming
their undoing, for as the interrogator adepts lessen the resolve of the Magi ofTriplex wreckage as broken corpses, but many more
ofthe Firewing wrung secrets from the Galatia, the cold logic of the followers of reached the surface intact and stormed into
mind ofthe captured Night Lords praetor, the tech-cult having no place for fear or the fray. The pride ofthe Deathwing met
more of the Dark Angels responded to the despair. They set their formidable surface the Galatian Thallax cohorts and tech-thrall
summons from their lord. As though called defences and prepared to repel a planetary custodian regiments in the tangled metal
forth from the blackest dep~ of space, landing, assuming that no attacker would canyons of the forge halls, Calibanite blades
warp apertures formed across the system dare threaten the vast factories oftheir pitted against the arcane technology of the
and disgorged dozens ofcruisers and other forge-fanes with an indiscriminate orbital Mechanicum in a battle that raged for much
black-clad capital ships, for the fleet of the bombardment and that they could hold the ofthe first day ofthe conflict. True to their
First Legion far exceeded in number many Dark Angels at bay until reinforcements oaths, the Deathwing cleared and held a
oftheir brethren and had now been brought beachhead within the forge halls, spending
to bear on Triplex en-masse by command of from Phall or out-system arrived to lift the their lives to secure a safe landing site for the
the Lion. It was to be an object lesson, not warriors that followed in their wake.
offear ofwhat might happen should the siege. However, the Dark Angels did not
foe resist, as the Night Lords had attempted intend either a lengthy siege or conventional
to teach Thramas,but ofthe certainty of
destruction for those who dared oppose the
Lion. The black-clad squadrons of the First
fell upon the mighty fleet ofTriplex and its
allies as they huddled within the protective
constellations of kill-sats, gun platforms and
vast shipyards in orbit of Galatia and tore
them to pieces.
It could not be called a battle. Striking from ''
every vector nearly loo First Legion capital
ships fell upon the Traitor fleet, their relic
weapons clawing the foe from the sky with
terrifying efficiency. Outnumbered a paltry
two-to-one, the Dark Angels eschewed any
pretence ofcomplex strategy and simply
battered aside the lesser ships that opposed
them, leaving a dense field ofspinning debris
in orbit to pour down upon Galatia like a
rain offire. As the Mechanicum gun-barges
erupted in flames about them, the Night
Lords squadron abandoned the defence
and mounted a concerted assault on the
Dark Angels battleship Undying Will and,
in a ferocious exchange offire, managed
to cripple it with only the loss oftwo of
their own. Having forced an opening in the
encircling Dark Angels armada, the Night
Lords, fighting with the ferocity ofthe
doomed, tore free of the First Legion fleet,
.and the surviving three cruisers and their
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
The second wave ofthe Dark Angels assault artificia swarmed in the sky above them, their with the telltale form ofstasis projectors
was led by the initiates ofthe Dreadwing intelligence growing with their numbers and power field generators, all rendered
and the Eskaton Marduk Sedras in the as they tore into the Space Marines below, non-functional by the catastrophic impact
ceremonial Terminator plate ofthe Order forcing the Dark Angels to halt their advance and released its cargo. That cargo was truly
ofthe Shattered Sceptre, a warrior that and fortify the positions they had claimed. terrible, 12 nightmares torn from the pages
had overseen the death ofworlds beyond With automata forged by the twisted and ofhistory and the darkest horrors ofold
count in the name ofthe Emperor and forbidden technologies mastered by the Night on Terra, immense inhuman forms
their Primarch. Plasma flame scoured clean fallen magi ofGalatia rampaging through ofsculpted ceramite and steel adorned
the ancient forge-Eanes ofGalatia, the the landing zone and the Dreadwing hard with weapons long forbidden by edict
Interemptors and Terminator-armoured pressed to hold them in check and their ofthe Emperor Himself. These were the
Naufragia leaving no stone upon stone as heavy armour neutered by the cybertheurgic Excindio, the last ofthe silica anima that
they advanced, a desecration intended to arts ofthe tech-magi, Lion El'Jonson had once been the plague of the Golden Age
draw out the Mechanicum and force them invoked the ancient Ikaros Contingency ofMankind, mutilated and bound to serve
to commit the bulk oftheir forces into battle and instructed the Masters ofthe Armoury the Lion should the Mechanicum be so
or face the slow annihilation oftheir sacred to wake the Excindio that slumbered in the foolish as to go to war with the Imperium.
halls. Their plan would prove even more deepest stasis vaults ofthe Invincible Reason. Their neural cores immune to the crude
successful than they had hoped, though cybertheurgy of the Mechanicum, the
perhaps more than even the First Legion had Those Dark Angels still fighting on the Excindio tore into the creations ofthe fallen
been prepared for. Galatia, and its greater surface withdrew to carefully prepared and magi that would come to be known as the
sibling Phall, had long experimented with fortified positions as the Invincible Reason Dark Mechanicum, the forbidden arts that
forbidden technologies and dark theorem, detached a section ofits lower hull, casting had forged them in aeons now long lost far
subverting the rule ofMars to increase it into the churning atmosphere ofGalatia superior to the stumbling efforts of Galatia's
their own power unnoticed at the very edge like a crude drop pod where it blazed briefly nascent cult. Into that hellish battlefield of
ofthe Imperium, and now at the brink of in the grip ofgravity before punching into screeching automata and whirling metal
destruction they unleashed that power the towering spires and halls around the monsters strode the Lion, the one creature
openly. Towering automata ofunknown Dark Angels' landing zone. The ruined that even the Excindio, whose hatred for
design punched holes in reality with arcane slab ofstarship, embedded in the rubble of all organic life knew no bounds, refused to
beam weapons and unleashed raw warp Galatia's once proud central fane, hinged oppose, seeking the head ofthe serpent, the
energy upon the Dark Angels, while Harpax and opened, revealing an interior studded commander of Galatia's forces.
r
I
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
·~
Instead, as the nightmares he had unleashed the dormant shells ofthe surviving seven all of the military force that remained in the
hunted and killed as once they had done, the Excindio, whose limited power reserves had system, a significant fleet and potent army
Lion faced the greatest of the fallen magi's run dry and plunged them back into a state stood ready to defend the world, though
creations as it stood warden over the sealed of torpor. The deep salvation-vaults were still no greater than the force that had been
salvation-vaults ofthe Galatian archmagi. unearthed by the Dreadwing and Eskaton obliterated in orbit of Galatia. The slow
A huge multi-legged construct ofbrass Sardas himselfoversaw the purging ofthose destruction of Galatia had left the magi of
and steel loomed over the Primarch, its tail chambers with phosphex, slaughtering Phall much time to consider the perils of
primed with arcane weapons and scythe- the surviving members ofthe Galatian their situation, with some choosing to gather
bladed claws reaching for the lord of Caliban, leadership, and then proceeding to set magna their apprentices and chattels before fleeing
a monster greater even than the beasts of charges throughout the forge halls and the system, while others refused to leave the
that distant world. There are few tales of manufactoria. Over the course ofthe next planet. When the Dark Angels left Galatia
what would follow, for on this battlefield no few weeks, the Dark Angels systematically and approached Phall they did so in attack
mortal human could survive, it was the haunt culled any surviving automata or Tech-Priests formation, fully expecting to find a world set
of demons and gods alone. What is known and destroyed all trace of the forbidden in arms against them. However, the fighting
is that when the Dark Angels returned to technology that had been unleashed against on Phall, though brutal, was concluded long
the field ofbattle as the sun grew dim and them. Only the orbital shipyards were left before their arrival as the more orthodox
night fell on Galatia, Lion El'Jonson stood intact, that they might serve the Imperium in ofthe remaining magi put their renegade
alone amongst a field ofmetal corpses and its war and aid in the repairs the Dark Angels brethren to the sword and offered the Lion
fleet had incurred in seizing Galatia. their unconditional surrender. The servants
ofthe Omnissiah saw value only in their
Once they had completed the final survival, and that seemed better assured
destruction of that world, leaving nothing by the sacrifice ofthe few rather than in
but ruin and rubble, the Lion turned his stubborn defiance. Likewise, the Lion prized
gaze to Phall, the largest ofthe three Forge pragmatism over petty vengeance and knew
Worlds ofTriplex and now the only one that well the value ofa Forge World like Phall
remained intact. Phall had gathered about it to the Imperium and to any campaign that
would have to be fought in the Thramas
sector. So he chose to accept their surrender,
taking from Phall any and all remnants ofthe
dark research ofthose that had been purged
for his own and placing Eskaton Sardas and a
garrison ofthe fearsome Dreadwing warriors
that had brought proud Galatia to ruin to
administer the world in his name and to feed
the hunger ofhis Legion as it prosecuted a i
new kind of war in the Emperor's name.
~~,.;-~--$1fu '·''"'~F+J-t.M-•;;;i"'E??-ew...W.:Aa-A&•-·'G?ff-, *""""(UR,a:;:;_.+.. ...t_,,,. ,,.,,.-;;.;;:::;:;;:;••;J, :C:C-:-d?-t"""t' Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
%""?¥=-...6"
once the black banners ofthe First Legion
were flown in battle, the survivors ofthose
Loyalist regiments that had fought against
the Night Lords rallied to them. At first, it
was only small units that had managed to
hide from the victorious Night Lords but,
as word spread to nearby worlds, entire
regiments began to arrive, battered and
scarred but still not yet defeated.
Hope had returned to Thramas in the form of
the Lion and his sons, and the flame ofdefiance
that had almost been extinguished by the Night
Haunter flared back into life and raced across
the stars far faster than the Lion and his forces
could ever hope to advance. Though delayed,
the First Legion could not be stopped and, once
Sheol and Yaelis were scoured clean ofNight
Lords cells, the Dark Angels pushed into the
surrounding worlds, careful not to press too far
or spread their numbers too thin.They left few
openings for the Night Lords to take advantage
A Bloody Equilibrium Lords and those Traitor forces that had fled of, made wary by the first battles against fellow
From the unwilling confessions ofhis Triplex, those forces were dispersed across
Space Marines, and gathered to them all the
prisoners, the Lion knew two true facts: two whole sectors while his own host was allies they could find, bolstering their forces
Horus had turned upon his father and was concentrated in a single system. Planning to with each new victory. Within another month
indeed leading a rebellion and the Night capitalise on this advantage, the Lion made ofhard fought planetary assaults and equally
Haunter had followed him, charged with gruelling counter-insurgency campaigns,
his initial foray into just two systems, the key
seizing the worlds ofthe Eastern Fringe for junctures ofSheol III and Yaelis. Both worlds they reached Crucible, where Captain-general
his new master. He knew that even now had already changed hands several times in Morhde and the last desperate remnants
Horus must be pressing the defences of the fighting, being both vital links between
ofhis Nightwatch still held out against the
Terra, for while the Emperor's Throne World the Aegis and Thramas sectors and key lines Night Lords.
still stood so too did the Imperium, but also oftransit around the Crucible exclusion rone,
he knew that should Horus make a ruin of and few remained among the ruins but killers. This proved to be the extent oftheir reach,
the rest ofthe Imperium then Terra itself Forewarned by those fleeing the death of now spread too thin protecting the dozen
would be worthless, an isolated throne in a Triplex Galatia, the defenders ofSheol and worlds they held to advance further without
sea ofdeath. He was forced to balance his Yaelis knew who it was that came for them becoming vulnerable to the Night Lords
loyalty to the Emperor as a man and to the and yet they did not flee.The madness ofwar and their allies. The heart ofthe Eastern
lmperium as a monument to that man, to Fringe still lay under the Night Haunter's
had taken full hold ofthose that yet dwelt in
decide which held the balance ofsignificance Thramas and its environs, and few that still control, and the core ofhis Legion held an
in the eyes ofhistory and the people who fought would accept surrender as an option. iron cordon around Thramas itself, while
would write it. Lion El'Jonson, ever practical The Night Lords and their slaves were too Gulgorahd's borders still burned with the
in the face ofdisaster, understood that he few to defeat the massed Dark Angels, but fires ofwar. Newly-arrived detachments of
would be too late to forestall an assault on then that was not their intent, they sold their the Dark Angels, rearmed and refitted at
Terra, that the Emperor's fate was decided, lives and those ofthe massed regiments of Triplex,mounted a second front with an attack
but that the Imperium could still be saved by conscripts and slaves they threw at the Dark through Verstun in the Aegis sector, only to
his actions. Angels simply to slow their advance. find themselves bogged down fighting Traitor
The Night Haunter's goals he understood, The conquest ofthese two worlds would armies mustering from Memlock and the vast
occupy the Dark Angels for almost a full expanse ofthe Heraclid nebula. The fighting
though his methods escaped the pragmatic month, for once the Night Lords exhausted was now spread across four separate sectors,
lord ofthe First Legion, his piecemeal with tens ofmillions ofwarriors in arms
ravaging ofthe Eastern Fringe a mad puzzle the lives oftheir chattel in open battle they on over a hundred active warzones. It was a
that Lion EPJonson's ordered mind could not resorted to hit and run assaults and guerrilla bloody equilibrium ofwar, the Dark Angels
warfare to harry the occupying forces. A few not numerous enough to force a breakthrough
explain with military logic. As such his initial hundred midnight-clad warriors held tens without abandoning those worlds they had
ofthousands in place by their savage skill retaken and the Night Lords too widely spread
movements into the widerThramas sector at arms, buying time for the Night Haunter to push back their Loyalist brethren. While
were cautious, designed to protect his warriors to prepare and reminding their cousins in it lasted neither could claim victory and
from ambush or other surprises. With some the First Legion ofthe cost one must pay both remained pinned in the Eastern Fringe,
70/X>O warriors ofthe First Legion, over twice to vanquish the Legiones Astartes. Yet the unable to retreat while their foe remained
that in support troops and three demi-Legio assault on these first worlds also yielded unbroken at their back and incapable of
forces drawn from different Titan Legions, something other than death and blood, for forcing a breach in the front lines to advance.
the Lion possessed a significant force ofarms.
Though it was outnumbered by the Night
~~~§§~~~~~~~i:i~~~~;;:z:;:;.-~~-=~~·!·!:An.oth.er;Cu-sto-de~s3L:8ibreis~~shae~re.~?Bu~yftheistu+ff i=f yo-u lik5e ift! ;...... " -
r. .;c;;;- .,., 1tm111UI-;: tt;~;;;;!j_a>-;;;.-:r..1!./..,_ ";;;;n.o_J~;.../z, ~l''t,~c.; ~-· tl!u,,,.~-ilf•(uirT' ;;;:...,,.....tc~ft;..._. t1.f•dn ,,..,....;Jtlf )md~.-11 ,,../T,xtr({rs,. t71'ilil'lfl• Jt',./~,fl~ ft,.. 'T(Ollf rm" rtt~•ul(f..., /,5/Jrnt{Jt1 :&•·' lf•lnt •Y(<Mc.• U.•fn.• (fi"'Tlllfft• J-;;;;:;;;;;;;-:d!!;;:;;;,;;:;;;;;J!:,,(Mtl/•r *~
:"'' _..... __ - - - - - -- --- -- 'c c- c - ·, :
.,.
The Lost, the Fallen and the Broken destroy or capture his supply dumps and had been concealed by the Night Haunter ij'.~I
With the Imperium riven and broken by transport ships. The Night Haunter fought in return for their loyalty, unnoticed along
Horus' civil war, neither side could call with a desperate fury, ever at the forefront the dark edges of the maps created by the '-1~~1I
upon the nearly unlimited resources that of any attack and always searching for Great Crusade. Small scout craft, crewed
had fuelled the Great Crusade. They could his brother, Lion El'Jonson, seeking by the most loyal and captained by the I~ lf
rely on no reinforcements save those perhaps to prove his nightmares wrong most trusted of the Legion, were sent l·
they could rally by their own schemes, by seeking a death other than that which forth to distant and hidden stars. Many ~~
and the war-torn worlds along the front had haunted him for so long. The most of these ships were lost, some crippled
lines of the war, the once-prosperous loyal of his sons, the warriors Sevatar and by the swelling warp storms that scoured -11
worlds of the Aegis, Thramas, Triplex and Anrek Barbatos, struggled to rein in their the area, others intercepted and destroyed rn..'··1H--·l
Gulgorahd sectors were all but exhausted. master's mania and sought to avoid seeing by the fast cutters of the Dark Angels or f
Both sides were forced to turn to other the VIII'h Legion drawn into a disastrous Thramassi cruisers, but some few would
sources to procure the edge that would be confrontation with the main strength reach their destinations and issue the ~
needed to break the stubborn and bloody of the Dark Angels. By means of careful Night Lords' summons.
stalemate that had developed before what suggestion and outright subversion of his
few resources that remained to them were often contradictory decrees, they turned The brutish warriors ofTohruk, debased
spent. For, with fighting along the front his lust for death into a means to both cousins of the more common Ogryn bred
showing no signs of abating, that end resupply their own troops and weaken the by a long-dead outpost of Mankind as
loomed ever closer. Dark Angels with constant raids. shock troops and living weapons, bolstered
the Night Lords assault companies in their
The constant raids and assaults on the Rather than allow the Night Haunter's attacks on the Dark Angels, fodder for
world ofThramas took a heavy toll on the unpredictable madness to draw the Legion the exhausted guns of the First Legion.
Night Lords, for though combat losses into disaster, the veterans of the old Legion Cannibal legions from Glabro, battle-
were few, the munitions they expended sought to make use of the Midnight psykers from the lost moons ofThex and
were all but irreplaceable after the loss of Treaties. These hidden texts were bargains a dozen more aberrations were set loose
Triplex. By order of the Faceless Prince, as struck by Curze during the Great Crusade upon the front lines, each a further drain
Nakrid Thole had become known among with certain factions along the fringes on Lion El'Jonson's strength and further
his kin after his flight from Thramas, they of human space, factions that did not fit slowing the progress of the First Legion.
had thrown a blockade around that system, within the tidy bounds of the Emperor's
attempting to stop all ships from entering future, but that could still offer the Night .'s
or leaving while the siege continued. Lords power: abhuman breeds that skirted
Yet swift frigates continued to brave the the boundaries of humanity, reavers and •
blockade to bring word of the battle to the madmen that preyed upon their fellows
Lion and to deliver vital supplies to the and Forge Worlds whose doctrines were
defenders ofThramas. Rather than simply unacceptable to Mars. All these and more
obliterate these intruders with their heavy
guns, Thole ordered his warriors to cripple
and board them, clearing the ships with
blades only to preserve ammunition and
stripping them of all usable supplies before
scuttling the captured craft.
Along the front lines of the war, the main
body of the Night Lords struck again and
again at the defences of the Dark Angels,
seeking not to secure territory or attack
the gathered host of their foe, but rather to
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
A Gathering ofMalice
The balance ofwar was shifting, the ride of
fate ever in morion seemed to have turned
against the Loyalist cause. The ships sent by
the Lion to seek aid at the old Great Crusade
bases ofTigrus and Honourum had failed
to return and the growing turbulence in
the aether that was the Ruinstorm blocked
any attempt to contact those ofhis brothers
he hoped had remained true to their vows.
Thramas, still besieged by the vengeful Night
Lords, remained beyond the Lion's grasp
and his Legion was effectively paralysed by
the need to protect the vulnerable worlds
they had liberated in the months after the
fall ofCrucible. There was no question of
their retreat, for the First Legion would
not accept defeat, but neither did it seem
that they would be able to claim victory, all
across the front the black-clad warriors of
Caliban braced themselves for the storm they
knew approached.
Its first stirrings were seen in a wave of
attacks across the sector, howling mobs of
slave soldiers and abhuman shock troops
Yet worst of all the terrors unleashed Last of all the playing pieces to arrive was dropped on each ofthe worlds held by
from the darkness of the fringe was the the Brotherhood ofthe Shattered Shield, the Loyalists with only light support from
predator-forge of Ulan Ruda. Long hidden a detachment of the ~Legion, the White the Traitor Space Marines. Against the
in the storm that haunted the edge of the Scars, which had been wandering in far warriors of the First Legion, these lesser
galaxy, that fallen Forge World had long places when Horus declared his rebellion. troops stood little chance, sacrificed solely
devoted itselfto the forbidden and had They breached realspace at Nostramo to allow Night Lords cruisers observing the
even developed a crude array ofengines hoping to find refit and resupply only to landings from orbit to chart the strength of
to move the entire Forge World through behold the ruin that the Night Haunter the foe and to drain their supplies. It was
the Warp. By means of this, and other had made ofhis old home, with silence the a cruel but effective stratagem, its malice
arcane obscenities, Ulan Ruda fed upon only reply to their calls to Great Crusade carefully planned and as much for the
other worlds beyond the borders of the bases and way stations. Zhenjin Khan and amusement ofthe watching Night Lords as
Imperium, tearing them apart to supply its his warriors were soon made guests of the for its effectiveness on the battlefield. Such
forges and leaving only shattered systems Night Lords, who informed them of the had always been the nature of the Night
in its wake. Warmaster's orders to pacify the rebellious Haunter's twisted sons, but now severed
Eastern Fringe and ofthe traitors that from the constraints of Imperial law they
Ulan Ruda had long been allied to the waited for them there. Though veterans made little attempt to conceal their relish for
Night Lords in secret, supplying its Titans, ofthe Great Crusade, Zhenjin Khan and such bloody excess.
the Legio Phasma, to them in exchange for his Brotherhood had heard only tales of
their silence, and now they loosed it upon the First Legion, of their matchless pride On Yrrdek, the drop sites chosen by the
Thramas. At first only whispers reached and the many secrets they kept from the Night Lords were over a site known to have
Thramas of the destruction, ofthe silence other Legions. Weighed against the loyalty been mined by the Dark Angels months
and emptiness where border posts of they held to Horus, who had always been a beforehand, the conscript militia blasted
isolated colonies should be, but there soon friend and patron to the White Scars, it was apart in a storm of explosions simply to test
followed the harrowing accounts brought a simple choice for Zhenjin Khan to offer the extent of the field and to amuse their
by the survivors. Entire worlds had been his blade as thanks for the supplies they had taskmasters. Amid the ice spires of Chenro
overrun by the monstrous automata hordes been granted and set his ships on course to IX, the VIII'h Legion overseers wagered on
of Ulan Ruda and then shattered and rendezvous with the Night Haunter. With how long it would take the Dark Angels
consumed, the broken corpses ofplanets this last addition, some 3,000 veterans of the to slaughter the crude auxilia armour sent
left lifeless and empty. With almost all of Great Crusade and six capital class warships, against their defences while they counted
the Thramassi forces locked in the defence the Night Lords controlled a force great the emplaced guns hidden on the spires. The
of Crucible and Thramas, there was little enough to challenge the Dark Angels in Thungaard volunteer regiments that had
that could be done to curb the terrible open war, word was sent to all commands landed on Sedricce, the deepest point in the
appetite of the magi of Ulan Ruda, save - the Night Haunter would go to meet Dark Angels' defensive line, only survived to
to send word to the Lion and hope for the his brother. return to their dropships due to the actions
siege to be lifted. ofthe White Scars of the Shattered Shield,
whose warriors had chosen to allow the
:;;;::..;S~::l!E!EE~~ril!iE::.i.!15:2:E:ESE:2:EE=-~~;~rz:;-~E!-:~~~· !~::;...A.~-n~~~oth·~er-C~ustod4es0~Li~bri:ssh~ar=e.~Bu=yth-e5stu:ffi:fyo;u'lik2eit4! ~· .~.-~. e~~ s:::::~~-~~~4:2i!~-s;;;s::;:~:=?!~·~~::;e:E:;~
retreat ofthe decimated Loyalists troops to His call answered, the metal mass of precisely target the First Legion redoubts and
evacuate those that had survived the abortive Ulan Ruda sundered the veil ofthe Warp forcing them onto the defensive. The single
attack. This chivalrous effort earned Zhenjin and tore into realspace trailing balefire Chapter ofthe Dark Angels was overwhelmed,
a salute from the praetor commanding like a cloak, and began to feast upon the the last detachments calling in fire support
the First Legion brigade, but the bemused outermost planets ofthat system. Cutting from cruisers engaged in orbit onto their
Night Lords began to style the White Scars beams with a calibre measured in kilometres own positions to hold back the Night Lords
khan 'The Saviour' in a joke peculiar to the and fleets ofservitor drones made short as they struggled to evacuate. At Sedricce, the
sensibilities ofthe Nostraman warriors. work ofthe great rocks orbiting far from Night Lords battleship Tenebrous Will and its
The insult implicit in the title was not lost Thramas' sun and the predator-forge attendant cruisers drove offthe Dark Angels
on the White Scars, nor was the callous turned its gaze upon the prey promised
nature oftheir new allies or the apparent it by Nakrid Thole. Death had come for craft in orbit and subjected the surface to a
honour ofthose they had been ordered to Thramas and the last few Loyalist ships in
consider traitors. the system broke from orbit ofthe doomed sustained bombardment, flattening every
world hoping to bring word ofits plight to identified defensive position and devastating
Preparations complete, the Night Haunter the Lion, whose troops fought for their lives the planet's surface. The Night Lords that
himself, roused to some semblance ofhis half a sector away. landed in the bombardment's wake found a
old selfby the presence ofhis brother and few intact bunkers that had weathered the
the promise ofblood and death, called The Weight oftheir Choices firestorms, taking a vicious glee in the slow
the Night Lords to battle. He summoned In the final days of008.M3I the assault began manner they chose to breach and clearthem,
all ofthe disparate bands ofhis Legion to in earnest, with massed Night Lords attacks
assemble, leaving only a skeleton force to falling on a halfdozen worlds. These were much to the dismay oftheir White Scars allies.
attend to its battles elsewhere in the Eastern unlike the raids that the Dark Angels had
Fringe. Some 1001000 ofthe Night Lords repelled before, but the total war as practised The last ofthese bunkers held the Dark
took their places at 50 separate staging by the Legiones Astartes, an assault offury Angels commander in charge ofthe world's
points along the front established by the and overwhelming firepower whose goal was defence,who demanded the Night Lords
Dark Angels, their warlords all present on simple annihilation. Three whole Chapters praetor meet him in single combat to
Nergante where the Night Haunter held ofthe Night Lords landed on Chenro, using answer for his betrayal ofthe oaths made
court. Caring only for the confrontation that the data gathered in their previous attacks to to the Emperor. The defiant Dark Angels
was to come, Konrad Curze did little more commander, badly wounded during the
than brood over the gathering ofhis sons, bombardment, stood little chance against
some a reminder oflost glories and others of the fresh Night Lords praetor, who toyed
the curse that had claimed the heart ofthe
Legion, while it fell to others like Sevatar
and Barbatos to set strategy for the assault.
Plans were set and grudges settled in the
bloody tradition ofNostramo, by hidden
schemes and sharp blades, a scene that left
the White Scars uneasy.
Of all the warlords ofthe VIII'h Legion,
only one failed to heed the Night Haunter's
call. The Faceless Prince, his hatred fixed
on Thramas alone, would not abandon the
siege ofthat battered world and kept those
forces loyal first to him at their stations. By
this time, Thramas had endured almost two
years ofsiege, ravaged by constant raids and
tormented by the phage warheads dropped
on its surface at Thole's orders. Ofits outer
bodies, every last moon and asteroid in
the Thramas system belonged to Thole,
but Thramas itselfstill resisted. Now, with
much ofhis strength stripped away by the
Night Haunter's command, Thole lacked
the numbers to do more than maintain his
blockade around the system. Instead he
turned to darker means for his final revenge,
offering a tribute ofthose Thramassi
prisoners he held in the bowels ofhis ship
as thralls in order to bring the predator-
forge Ulan Ruda to Thramas.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
cruelly with his opponent in front ofthe nine rebuilt regiments ofthe Nightwatch, Made up ofthe entirety ofthe conscripted
gathered warriors before killing him and ordinatus from the workshops ofTriplex militia assets, the first wave of the assault
taking his Calibanite warblade and the and four full Chapters ofthe First Legion. was thrown directly into the strongest parts
survivors ofhis force as trophies. Only the Ranged against them were six Chapters ofthe ofthe Dark Angels' lines, purposefully
intervention ofZhenjin Khan and his White Night Lords, a sub-Legio deployment ofthe sacrificed to drain ammunition and distract
Scars force preserved the Loyalist warriors renegade Legio Victorum II and some 50,000 the defenders. While these expendable
from a grim fate in the skinning pits, 'the conscripts, abhumans and other auxi.lia troops assets were torn apart by the Dark Angels,
Saviour' fighting a duel ofhis own to claim pressed into service, with the Night Haunter the Night Lords landed and consolidated
their lives and the warblade ofthe fallen himselfat their head. the bulk oftheir forces unmolested, a vast
Dark Angels commander, bringing them horde that thronged around the feet of
The formidable ships of the First Legion's the Battle Titans and far outnumbered the
aboard his own ships though it bought him fleet were swamped as the Night Lords defenders. Even as the Traitor host began to
armada burst from the Warp, their sheer marshal and divide as directed by the plan
no respect in the eyes ofthe Night Lords. numbers too great for them to be kept devised at Nergante, the Night Haunter
The White Scars made little effort to join the from orbit of Crucible. Unable to swiftly broke from the main body, forcing ever-
fighting after Sedricce, Zhenjin spending an eliminate the powerful relic cruisers of loyal Sevatar and his Atramentar to follow
increasing amount oftime sequestered with the First Legion, the Night Lords instead in his wake. The Night Haunter struck
his 'captives', an obsession whose intent the began a combat drop even as their forward the Dark Angels' line like a thunderbolt,
Night Lords assumed was malign. fleet elements engaged the Dark Angels scattering resistance but failing to secure
ships, raining drop pods and landing craft the breaches he created, each sealed by Dark
In total, four worlds fell into the hands of into the skies. Only the ships ofthe White Angels reserves as he roved the expanse of
the Night Lords, though they made no Scars hung back from the chaotic battle that the battlefield in search ofhis brother, while
attempt to consolidate these victories and erupted in orbit, perhaps worried that in the Sevatar strove futilely to clear his path.
swiftly moved on to their next targets. Only mass ofduelling starships their unfamiliar
the Night Haunter lingered, searching markings would see them made targets by The chaos caused by the Night Haunter's
both ofthe other two Legions, or hesitant to unpredictable assault paved the way for the
every world obsessively for his brother and sacrifice themselves as pawns for the Night Night Lords' onslaught, with the Titans of
Haunter's strategy. Descending through the Legio Victorum II taking the lead, their
letting no chance for battle pass him by, the storm ofcannonfire that had erupted in great cannon blasting holes in the line and
throwing himselfinto every engagement orbit, the Night Lords entered the carefully- obliterating fortified bunkers with a single
prepared defences ofthe First Legion, all blast. At their feet, abhuman brutes and
with a desperate fury. The main target ofthe arranged around the ruins of Crucible's Night Lords heavy assault infantry surged
fallen hive. Ingenious interlinked patterns forwards, met in turn by the swordsmen
second wave was the now barren wasteland of oftrenches and barricades funnelled ofthe Deathwing, who refused to retreat
Crucible, a planetscape covered in the ruins attackers into killing zones pre-sighted despite the vast numbers ofthe foe. The
ofprevious battles and dominated by hastily for heavy weapons and artillery, while line infantry ofthe First Legion made a
assembled fortifications and redoubts. Here detachments of the Ravenwing stood by as a disciplined withdrawal, firing by ranks as
reserve force to plug gaps in the line. It was they moved to a second line ofdefence,
the Dark Angels had drawn up much oftheir a flawless plan, but one that could not cope
with the sheer wanton disregard for life that
strength, for it was the gateway to Triplex, the was key to the Night Lords' attack.
sole source oftheir supplies and munitions,
and they were determined to hold it no matter
the cost. In orbit, a pair offormidable Gloriana
class battleships formed the core ofthe
defences, supported by two dozen cruisers and
scores offrigates, while on the surface were
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
while Sagittar Ordinatus targeted the lead Yet, rather than set them loose upon the The ships of the ~Legion moved into orbit,
Titans. The Dark Angels were precise and battlefield haphazardly, he had a specific the hard-pressed craft ofthe Dark Angels
immovable on defence, exploiting every task for the terrors of Old Night, he set could not oppose them and the Night Lords
opening in the disjointed attacks of their them upon his brother, on Konrad Curze gave way before their advance,granting
opponents, mounting counter-attacks to himsel£ Even seven such monsters could them access to dropzones over the heart
break the Night Lords' momentum at a not defeat the Night Haunter, but they ofthe fighting. At this point in the battle
moment's notice. Against any other foe, it were enough to keep him at bay and even a single Brotherhood would turn the
would have been enough to stop them in occupied on the edge of the fighting, a tide in its favour, as was announced by the
their tracks, but against the Night Lords and flailing storm of destruction whose manic triumphant vox signals ofthe Night Lords
the sheer numbers of their host it merely hate was a match for that of the Night captains in orbit, and the launch of their
delayed the inevitable. Haunter. As those two forces of destruction drop pods would mark the end of the battle
met, the Lion finally revealed himself, and the start of the rout. The pale white pods
Even with the Night Haunter cutting a striding forth at the head of the Deathwing smashed into the centre of the battle line,
path through the Dark Angels' lines the Companions in their distinct bone-white but what issued forth was a mix of white and
Lion had not shown himself, and though armour. He fell upon the disorganised black, all led by a warrior wielding a long
they had demanded a high toll in lives commanders of the Night Lords and set Calibanite warblade. Zhenjin Khan led the
it seemed that the First Legion would them to flight, those foolish enough to Brotherhood of the Shattered Shield and
be broken that day. The Night Lords stand against the Lion fell before his blade the survivors of Sedricce into battle against
commanders exulted in their apparent and those that fled threw their warriors the Night Lords and in orbit his cruisers
victory. Leaving the Night Haunter to into confusion. It was a grand opening opened fire on their erstwhile allies at point
the fringes of the battle, they gathered for in the horde, one which the Dark Angels blank range. The battle ended, the sudden
the final assault on the broken stub of the committed themselves to in their entirety, onslaught ofthe Saviour and his warriors
fallen spire's central pillar, where much of abandoning the fortification to the throwing the Night Lords into chaos,
the surviving Dark Angels host had fallen Nightwatch and surging forwards in the followed by the renewed attack of the Lion,
back to. Each jealous of the others, they attack. The two sides met in a furious clash cutting down any that opposed him. The
fell to bickering on the battlefield over of arms, the Dark Angels few in number Night Lords abandoned their auxiliaries as
the shares of the spoils and their retinues but focused and led by their Primarch, the they scrambled to evacuate, with Sevatar and
turned to fighting their own battles for Night Lords ill-disciplined but ferocious Barbatos all but dragging the Night Haunter
the glory oftheir individual lords rather and many. For a moment the battle hung from the field as he screamed for his brother
than that of the entire host. It was at this in the balance, victory but a hair's breadth to face him. They chose to flee rather than
point that the Lion played his final trump away for both sides and neither willing to seek a pyrrhic victory, abandoning the hope
card, the last strategy that offered him a give an inch of ground. Then the White that had sustained the Dark Angels, saving
hope ofvictory in the face of such odds: he Scars committed themselves to the battle the greater part of their numbers but ceding
unleashed the Excindio once more. at last. victory to the First Legion.
In the aftermath, amid a field ofcorpses and
fire, Zhenjin Khan bent the knee before the
Lion and offered him the Calibanite blade he
bore and his life to atone for the mistake he
had made. The Lion, ever pragmatic, looked
down upon the warrior ofthe~. at his
loyal warriors and the Dark Angels mixed in
amongst them, each one on his knees, and
uttered a simple judgement:
"Here in this moment I see neither Traitor nor
Loyalist, only the living and the dead. The dead
can beg neither mercy nor forgiveness, for now
only history can judge them. The living must bear
the weight of their choices and fight for them, and
there is much fighting still to be done."
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
The Slow March to Victory spread like storms across the battlefield, The Witch ofThramas
The retreat from Crucible cost the Night but preserved the full combat strength of The arrival of a badly damaged frigate
Lords dearly, with only a quarter of those the forces still available to them. Some from Thramas would instigate the next
warriors sent into combat returning to have seen the Night Lords' tactics as major confrontation, bringing news of
their dropships. With both numbers and dishonourable or even cowardly, but seen Ulan Huda's arrival at that vital Loyalist
surprise now on the side of the Loyalists, in hindsight their actions kept the VIII'b stronghold and the doom that had fallen
and with the Night Haunter unable to Legion combat-capable amid what might upon it. Thramas itself still lay beyond
intercede, the Dark Angels repaid the well have been a complete disaster. the advancing lines of the Loyalist armies
Traitors for the massacre at lsstvan V and within territory controlled by the
with a cold fury that the Night Lords The Night Lords would succeed at Night Lords, mainly those warbands loyal
could not match. There would be only withdrawing from their failed offensive to the Faceless Prince that had not been
one fate for those of the Traitors that did and retain enough of their combat assets reduced in strength by the fighting at
not flee the surface, for the Dark Angels to continue to pose a threat to the Lion, Crucible. The Lion refused to overextend
had little mercy for unrepentant traitors, with even the Night Haunter evading the his forces by committing to a major assault
though many of those that failed to reach vengeful First Legion fleet and returning to to break the lines and seize Thramas and,
the escaping dropships took to the wild the half-built fortress on Tsagualsa where even were he willing, such an arduous
places of Crucible, forcing the Dark Angels he fell once again into a morose fugue. struggle would never be resolved in time
to waste precious days hunting the last However, freed from the constraints of to aid that besieged world. Yet the Lion
of them down. Despite this small boon fighting a foe whose skill at arms equalled was unwilling to allow such an important
granted by their comrades' bitter defiance, their own, the Dark Angels and their allies resource to be destroyed without a fight,
the Night Lords had few options left to switched flawlessly from staunch defence and so he gathered to him a select group of
them with so many of their number lying to all-out assault. The forces from the warriors to undertake an attack, bypassing
dead amid the rubble of Crucible's once- nearby Forge World ofTigrus opened a the main lines to strike directly at Thramas.
great hive spire. Where once they had new front, attacking through the world of A full 1 1000 Deathwing veterans, sworn
been the supreme power, their numbers Verstun in the Aegis sector, whose conquest to safeguard their Primarch no matter the
enough to counter the renowned skill at had slowed their arrival at Crucible. This cost and taken from the remains of several
arms of the First Legion, now they found assault on the Traitor worlds of the Aegis companies shattered during the fighting
themselves reduced to the point where sector was a dire blow to the Traitor war on Crucible, formed the core of his force,
that advantage disappeared. effort, stripping them ofyet another source augmented by the remaining strength of
of resources as the lords of Heraldor and the Crimson Lion Chapter and Praetor
With the crucial confrontation on Crucible Memlock turned the armies and the output Corswain, who won a place at the Lion's
turned into a rout, those of the Night Lords of their factories to the defence of their own side by means of his singular valour and
engaged on other worlds along the front domain. The main force of the Lion's armies skill at arms. Added to this strength were
line quickly found themselves threatened. pressed further into the Thramas sector, the the surviving warriors of the White Scars,
Their own reinforcements lay dead on Night Lords fighting only where they could volunteered by Zhenjin Khan who had
Crucible and the main Dark Angels host muster an advantage over their foes in the sworn a mighty and binding oath that
was quick to dispatch warriors to those local system and abandoning their position he and his Brotherhood would redeem
planets under attack. Where the Night to fall back when confronted by a force themselves in battle or in death, and
Lords had expected one-sided massacres whose numbers negated any advantage the
on ground they had thoroughly scouted, Legiones Astartes held in combat. With the
they now faced dangerously even battles Night Haunter secluded on Tsagualsa with
on much wider battlegrounds, a gamble the more devoted of his warriors, it fell to
that they could ill-afford with a foe as the individual warlords along the front lines
capable as the First Legion. Several of to decide strategy for themselves. Another
the Night Lords warlords, seeing limited disadvantage in the face of the unified
chances for glory or loot in the battles they command structure of the Loyalists, where
fought, simply withdrew from combat the Lion exerted sole command over the
without engaging the reinforced Dark grand strategy of the Thramas Crusade.
Angels forces. On Yrrdek the Night Lords,
suddenly beset by three new companies
of Dark Angels dropping from orbit,
detonated the huge Loyalist minefields
they had previously charted and retreated
as waves of shrapnel and concussive force
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
expunge the taint ofthe Traitor from their the surviving ships of the Thramassi fleet
record. A wedge of black and white cruisers and armed chartist craft matched against
headed by the battleship, Invincible Reason, the warships ofNostramo and the scrap-
they plunged into the Warp, a perilous barques of Ulan Huda. It was a vision of
course set through the warp storms that madness, a hell ofspinning debris dominated
surrounded Thramas, a risk dictated by by the bloated terror of the predator-forge
need, for they had not the time to avoid the and lit by the actinic flare of hundreds of
vast morass of aetheric eddies and vortices lance batteries and the death throes ofgreat
that plagued that area of space. cruisers, a battlefield devoid of tactics or
strategy where only slaughter and death
Two ships, the Pale Horseman and the Azure remained. No subtle trick or clever ploy
Bolt, were destroyed during this treacherous could avert the doom poised in high orbit
passage through the depths of the Warp. The over Thramas, only an act of suicidal valour
first torn apart by the tumultuous storms would stay the advance of Ulan Ruda.
that sprang up without warning and the
other simply lost, vanished into the endless The Lion did not hesitate and the Invincible
vaults of aetheric space without a trace. The Reason's cannon roared their defiance as
remaining ships, though most sustained at the ancient ship powered forward into
least minor damage during the crossing, the fray, the other ships ofthe squadron
survived to breach the Warp less than a taking up positions at its side. Sweeping
week after they had departed, a fractured but through the battlefield the Lion made no
determined stone cast into a pool already attempt to engage the Night Lords or Dark
in turmoil. For Thramas now stood on the Mechanicum craft in protracted battle, but
very edge ofdestruction, the vast shadow of instead used the combined firepower of his
Ulan Ruda lay upon the ancient capital of ships to blast open a path to the looming
the Eastern Fringe and the loathsome mass bulk ofthe moon ofUlan Ruda. The moon,
ofthe predator-forge alone caused untold though small when compared to a planet like
damage to Thramas' surface as it crept into Thramas, was still vast beyond imagining to
position to begin its feast. The various orbital the ships that now challenged it, the layers
planes ofThramas were crowded with the of manufactoria, forge halls and engine-
floating hulks ofbroken ships and the vaults a skin of armour many kilometres
battered squadrons ofthose that still fought; thick and all studded with innumerable
The Price ofFailure
Six reinforced Chapters ofthe Night Lords, perhaps 12,000 warriors in all, dropped on
the surface of Crucible alongside 50,000 auxillia and 18 Titans of the Legio Victorum I.
Only a fraction ofthese forces would escape the surface intact, and of those that escaped
many would not be able to fight free ofthe system. For the conscripts and abhuman troops,
whose bulk landers were woefully incapable of rapid exfiltration under combat conditions,
almost none survived. Most perished in battle or whilst attempting to flee the Dark Angels'
counter-attack, with less than 5,000 leaving the system alive, and most of these being
reserve troops not yet deployed from their landing craft. Of the Legio Victorum I, the Foe
Slayers, none of the Titans deployed into combat would leave Crucible, several falling to
concentrated fire from Loyalist ordinatus platforms and the others to the Titans of the
Legio Solaria. The princeps ofthe Imperial Hunters rushed headlong into combat, taking
serious damage in their determination to reach and engage the Traitor Titans, their zeal
ensuring that none ofthe Traitors left the surface alive. The Night Lords fared better than
their allies, their drop craft well capable ofretrieving them even under heavy fire, and with
some elite formations even able to evacuate by means ofteleportarium chambers on the
orbiting ships. Even so, one-in-three of those committed to the battle would not return,
with particularly heavy casualties among the Atramentar and the retinue ofBarbatos as
they struggled to shield their Primarch as he was convinced to withdraw.
When added to the casualties incurred on other battlefields that would collapse in the
wake ofthe defeat on Crucible, the defection of the White Scars and the arrival of new
troops from Tigrus, the campaign in Thramas underwent a dramatic shift. Where once the
Traitors had dominated the battles through sheer numbers, now they found themselves on
the receiving end of this same disparity.
Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!
The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
The Horus Heresy Book 9 - Crusade
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search