Hektor Heresy

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

This page covers the war launched by the Warmaster Hektor Cincinnatus against the government of the Imperium. If you're looking for the main project page, go to the /tg/ Heresy

The Hektor Heresy was a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Imperial forces loyal to the Emperor (referred to as the Loyalists) and those who sided with Hektor Cincinnatus (the Traitors), including his Chaos allies. It brought the Great Crusade to an end and ravaged the Imperium.

Prelude

001.M31: Cadia: The Fall of Hektor

Within months of his inauguraion as Warmaster, Hektor and the Heralds of Hektor were called to Cadia by the Eternal Zealots in the 203rd year of the Great Crusad. The planet had been made complaint by them thirty years earlier just afther their censure by the Emperor, but the Imperial Commander that had left behind as the Planetary Governor had turned traitor. Enraged at what he saw as an affront to himself as Warmaster and a chance to show that he was worthy of his new rank, Hektor Cincinnatus attacked Cadia himself with a spearhead of 4,000 Heralds of Hektor Astartes.

Hektor led an assault into the fortified governor’s lair in the city of Partox, but when he and 200 of his Astartes had fought their way inside, the superstructure was deliberately collapsed, cutting Hektor off from the rest of his warriors.

Alone now, Hektor made his way through the bowels of the ruined fortress in search of the Governor. He found him in the throne room, defacing a statue of Hektor, with a defiled statue of the Emperor Himself beside it. Hektor killed the governor in single combat, but not before he was struck in the eye by a dark blade. The Anathame poisoned Hektor until he was unable to walk and close to death, and in desperation his men called upon Aubrey of the Eternal Zealots who was well known as a healer in his past, who promised he would heal the Warmaster of his wound and restore him.

Aubrey's dark arts did the trick, but Hektor was a changed man. He had lost one of his eyes, and yet his other one now burned with a dark energy. He had met with the powers of the Warp, and forged a pact with them. The Galaxy for the Emperor. From that moment on Chaos was his true master.

The Standard of Rebellion

The Clouds Gather

No sooner did he return from Cadia then the Warmaster began to lay out an intricate plan of treachery. His newly granted authority gave him untold power, and he now used it to send away those he knew he could not trust or who would never side with him against the Emperor. The largest and most dangerous, including the Steel Marshalls, Silver Cataphracts and Void Angels were dispatched far from the light of Sol to the furthest edges of the Imperium where they would never hear of the treachery until it was too late. Other Legions he tried to neutralize through scheme, intrigue and war, dispatching them into tough campaigns and limiting their supplies thanks to his contacts in the Mechanicum.

Hektor now sought out those Primarchs he believed he could most readily trust, or at least those who had the least love for the Emperor. Those he swayed to his side, setting them with him and against the Emperor.

With the Primarchs now corrupted, the Legions began to fall in turn. The loyalty of the Space Marine Legions to their Primarchs was largely absolute, and the Primarchs now became an opening for corruption against which the Space Marines had no defense. It was not long before most of their Legions were turned along with their masters. As time went on and the rot secretly spread, the Primarchs noted which of their men had not drunk of the cocktail of lies and they believed would not side against the Emperor, and these loyal Space Marines were marked for death.

This conspiracy was cautious in its planning, and careful not to reveal its hand. Hektor had a brilliant masterstroke that would in one blow not only destroy those who stood against him, but open the route to Terra. And it would be done by his cats-paws, most notably the oldest and most corrupt of all.

The Northern Massacres

When Hektor finally acted, he did not act himself. News of a rebellion against the Emperor on the far-flung frontier lynchpin of Isstvan III was swiftly followed by the news that it was Aubrey the Grey, censured Primarch of the Eternal Zealots who had orchestrated it and who had declared war against the Imperium for the crime of the destruction of Lazarus over thirty years earlier.

At the same time as the Emperor began to marshal his response against his wayward son, an immense force of Psychic energy smashes the Human Webway project of the Emperor. Along with the destruction came a message from the Voidwatcher. The Webway was shattered, the Palace's considerable psychic defenses breached and millions of people across Terra killed, their minds melted by the storm of psychic energy unleashed by the Voidwatcher.

Warmaster Hektor now took command of the galactic retribution forces and began to organize a counterstrike against the two traitor forces. He carefully selected the Legions to be dispatched to both Isstvan and Ostium, and tasked two more to secure a Forgeworld that had apparently sided with Aubrey.

As those fleets moved towards their targets, the first great betrayal was made. In what would be called by some historians later the Night of the Long Knives, the Loyalists within those fleets alligned with Hektor were killed in their beds, training cages and firing pits by those they thought were their brothers. In the Heralds of Hektor alone 20,000 Marines were killed over the course of a few hours, the sound of gunfire echoing through the halls of the great Battleships and Battlebarges of the fleet. A few ships mostly crewed by loyalists escaped, but because they were in transit in the Warp at the time they were cast near and far, unable to warn the Emperor of the treachery that was even now unfolding.

Isstvan V

Drop Site Massacre
Date	ca. 566006.M31
Scale	Planetary Assault
Theatre	Istvaan V, Istvaan System, Segmentum Ultima
Status	Decisive Traitor Victory
Belligerents
The Traitor legions of Warmaster Hektor	The Loyal Legion Retribution Force
Commanders and Leaders
Warmaster Hektor	Bohemond of the Knights of Justice
Strength
Sons of Fire, Lions Rampant, Heralds of Hektor, Iron Rangers, Life Bringers, Black Augurs, Eternal Zealots, Gorgers, Eyes of the Emperor (Defected), Mastodontii, Horns of Ruin, Imperial Army, Dark Mechanicum elements, Legio Mortis, Legio Aperferrum	Knights of Justice, War Scribes, the Entombed, Stone Men, Imperial Army, Mechanicum elements, Legio Tonat, Knights of Accolon, Knights of Krast
Losses
In the tens of thousands, extensive losses amongst all Traitor assets	Hundreds of thousands of Loyalist dead
Outcome
four entire Loyalist Space Marine Legions nearly eliminated

The Dropsite Massacre

"War is the crucible in which we burn. In the fires of battle is the past consumed and the future born on tongues of flame. No greater fire has there been in our times than the three bloody hours of the Dropsite Massacre."

(attributed to Malcador the Sigillite, Regent of Terra.)

Isstvan V was considered the most vital target for Imperial Forces. It was at the hub of the northern Ultima Segmentum and commanded the vital northern reaches. From there Aubrey could easily wrest control of the entire Northern Imperium if he was left unopposed for too long. Aubrey furthermore had by his side two other Legions, the Emperor’s Teeth and Horns of Ruin, which made attacking him an even tougher nut to crack. Alongside these Astartes units Aubrey also commanded millions of traitor Imperial Army forces and a large detachment of Titans of the Legios Aperferrum and Fureans, though most of them were scattered across the systems around Isstvan, securing them from attack.

Hektor wasted no time and immediately transmitted the order for six Legions, just over a full third of the Legiones Astartes to strike. This included his own Heralds of Hektor, the War Scribes, the Stone Men, the Mastodontii, the Sons of Fire, Eyes of the Emperor - to travel to the Isstvan system and destroy the traitor forces. They would attack in two waves and fall under the supreme command of the Warmaster Himself, who now was finally getting a chance to prove that his appointment as Warmaster was warranted. Events would prove that both right and wrong.

Through a masterful application of Astropathic co-ordination and favourable transit, the avenging forces of the Emperor made swift speed to their target, with the forerunners being the fleets of the War Scribes and the Stone Men along with their attendant auxiliary forces, with the other Legions following close behind. In retrospect, these seemingly co-incidental facts -- the thwarting of the Scale Bearers fleet, the ease of passage for the others, which Legions should approach the Istvaan System first and in what order -- all take on a malign and sinister predestination in light of what is now known of the dark powers that were even then guiding Hektor’s hand.

As the Imperial Fleet closed on the Istvaan System, information relayed by Astropathic transmissions from the Warp Runners secretly dispatched by the Children of Armok to reconnoiter the system in advance of the loyalist assault. The information was duly analysed by the war council, three Primarchs present in person and the other four via hololith. Given the scale of the activity on Istvaan V which could not be concealed from the hidden eyes of the Children of Armok, it was clear that the enemy was rearing up a mighty fortress there, no doubt intended to be the headquarters of Aubrey’s rebellion and its principal mustering ground. The absence of the Traitors' fleet was of more concern, but one explained by a need for the traitors to secure resources and supply from distant systems in preparation for the loyal assault. Aubrey had learned much from the destruction of Lazarus and would not make the same mistakes again.

At the conclave, the decision was made to strike now, before the enemy fleets returned, and crush the rebellion outright with a single concerted attack. Hektor would not allow this challenge to the Emperor’s authority to stand for a moment longer. The enemy was vulnerable and the battle would be bloody but short and ultimately victorious, or so the Loyalists thought.

The battle opened with a thunderous bombardment as for a quarter of an hour, the forces of the Emperor that had just moved into orbit over Istvaan V pounded the Urgall Plateau, a firestorm of unimaginable ferocity hammering the surface of Istvaan V with everything short of an exterminatus strike. Lance Strikes and Cluster Warheads vented their fury against the Void Shields that shielded the fortress raised by the Horns of Ruin. The Fortress survived the bombardment largely intact, though many sub-fortresses marked for death by the watching eyes of the Children of Armok were overwhelmed and reduced to rubble and mobile anti-starship defence launchers were destroyed with swift fury. The Bombardment failed to level the enemy fortress, but it had suppressed the defences and made a landing possible.

Minutes later the skies darkened again, but this time the darkness was thousands upon thousands of Drop Pods, Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and other drop craft streaking through the atmosphere towards the planet’s surface as the initial Loyalist assault came down like a rain of steel. Hundreds of loyalist drop craft were destroyed by the surviving anti-air weapons of the traitors and marauding fighter squadrons, but thousands more landed successfully and disgorged their cargo into the heart of the foe.

The traitors were ready for them, even as the loyalist forces began to land the traitors were upon them, and hundreds died in the opening minutes of the battle, smashed apart by point blank bolter fire, or hacked by combat knives and chainswords in a battle as savage and pitiless as any of the Great Crusade. The shock of the initial assault counted for little, and the battle swiftly descended into chaos as the loyalist forces carved out a foothold.

The Vanguard Assault held the traitors back, and allowed the loyalists to begin unloading more heavy equipment, including the bulk of their Legions, their armour and heavy artillery. Soon loyalist guns began to pound the great fortress, being answered by the fire of the traitor’s own heavy artillery as the loyalist lines pushed forward to relieve the battered vanguard and carry the fight to the traitors.

Within an hour, the plateau was running red with blood. Treacherous warriors twisted by hatred fought their former brothers-in-arms in a conflict unparalleled in its bitterness. The mighty Titan war engines of the Machine God walked the planet’s surface and death followed in their wake. All across the Urgall Depression, thousands were dying every minute, the slaughter terrible to behold as enough martial power to conquer an entire sector was unleashed in a line less than twenty kilometres wide.

The Zealots fought with insane fury, fighting till the last round and then trying to take as many down with them in melee. The Horns of Ruin rained explosive fire down upon the loyal forces, while the Emperor’s Teeth struck again and again like an enraged serpent. They were only facing two Loyal Legions, but those legions were themselves highly equipped and well supplied, and the battle was a stalemate. Supplies began to run low, and both sides fought over the armaments of the dead and dying in order to sustain the fight, or fought each other with broken chainblades, bolters cracked from the strain of firing and now fit only as mere clubs and sometimes even bare gauntlets.

By the third hour of the battle, weariness and attrition had all but forced both sides apart. By best estimate the casualties on both sides were at 40% or more, and the loyalist artillery train was now subjecting the Warmaster’s fortress to a grim and steady bombardment. The weakened loyalist forces needed to rest, re-arm and recover under the shield of their heavy guns or all their gains would be for naught. Even the legendary endurance of the Stone Men counted for naught here. The enemy Fortress-line still held, the fortress guns still fired and the enemy was still far from defeated.

Finally the second wave of Astartes arrived, the Warmaster’s Heralds, the Sons of Fire, the Mastodontii and Eyes of the Emperor descended on wings of fire, hundreds of landers streaking through the sky.

With exceptional speed, the newly landed Legions set up their own drop zones south of the initial dropsite. Hundreds of fur and ivory adorned tanks of the Mastodontii formed up into great armoured echelons ready to advance. The serried ranks of the Heralds under the watchful eye of the Warmaster Himself formed the centre, with the heavy weapons specialists of the Eyes of the Emperor on the right and the Sons of Fire on the left. The Loyal Legions now fell back towards their saviours, ready to be resupplied and rearmed in preparation for the final assault. Aubrey’s traitors were now doomed. Or so they thought.

The Warmaster contacted his Brothers on the Hololith, and spoke about their heroism and the sacrifices they had made. He then apologized to them, and at that moment, one and all, the newly arrived Legions declared their treachery with the voice of the barrels of a thousand guns. The Warmaster now revealed his hand, that he was behind it all, and that he had deliberately sent the War Scribes and Stone Men to die.

The carnage was total, as hundreds of the surviving War Scribes and Stone Men were cut down in the fury of the first few moments, hundreds more in the seconds following, and then thousands more in the minutes afterwards as volley after volley of Bolter fire and missiles scythed through their unsuspecting ranks. Caught between Fire and flood, the Loyalists had no hope but to either escape, or die. The Stone Men took the brunt of the assault, many deliberately charging the foe to allow the others to escape.

It was now that the traitors suffered their own set-back, as the Eyes of the Emperor abruptly began to withdraw, fleeing the battle. At first little attention was given, but as the move became apparent, Hektor’s rage was stoked, and he ordered his forces to fire upon the craven, fleeing Eyes. Hundreds of their drop ships were shot down, but the Legion managed to withdraw in good order, fleeing the wrath of the allies they never wanted.

It is known that were it not for the self-sacrifice of the Stone Men and the retreat of the Eyes of the Emperor, none of the Loyal Forces would have escaped. Thousands managed to flee in gunships, running back to their ships and escaping the system, and this would greatly aid the Loyalists in the years to come. However the cost was high. Over 150,000 Astartes were lost, and with them died the Emperor’s dream, of human dominance of the stars.

As crushing as the Traitor victory at the Drop Site Massacre had been, it soon became apparent that it was not as total as the Warmaster had wanted. Numbers of Loyalist survivors had managed to break out of the encircling trap as soon as it became clear that all was lost, either managing to escape via gunship in the chaos or slip away into the crags and shifting volcanic sands and dust storms of the desert plains; an escape aided in part by the bloodlust of some of the Traitors, and the eagerness to pick over the spoils of battle by others, and the sheer contempt some of the Warmaster’s Legions seemed to hold for each other, even then. Neither the Stone Men nor the War Scribes had been completely destroyed, and as news of the other battles across the region trickled in, it was clear they hadn’t gone Hektor’s way either.

In the skies above Istvaan V, the war fleets of the Loyalist Legions was also betrayed and assaulted though although over-matched, the battle had not been such a one-sided affair as the Traitors would have liked. The Loyalist vessels had been fully Void Shielded and on battle alert as befitted them in a war zone, and were quick to respond in kind once the initial assault had been weathered, with many of their number damaged, but far from destroyed by the sudden attack of their supposed allies. The resulting void battle had lasted for many more hours than the carnage on the ground, and some Loyalist warships had fought on stubbornly, refusing to abandon their Legion forces planet-side to whatever dark fate had befallen them even as they paid the ultimate price for their loyalty. Others, badly damaged, were either driven off, or realizing the futility of the overwhelming odds they faced fled.

The Battle of Istvaan V was over, the treacherous Warmaster Hektor was its victor. The whirlwind of galactic civil war had been sown, and the Dark Gods would reap the years of terror and bloodshed that would follow.

Diamat

The Scale Bearers were one of the Loyal Legions assigned to the Isstvan Assault, but Warp Turbulence delayed their arrival until after the Massacre was done. When their fleet emerged from the Warp near the Gas Giant Isstvan VI, they fell straight into the trap. The Warmaster had left fleet elements of several of his newly turned Legions, along with the bulk of the Iron Rangers Legion waiting for their arrival, having been warned by the Voidwatcher and the powers of the Warp. The Iron Rangers ships approached close under the guise of friendship, only to suddenly open fire once they had compromised the Scale Bearers formations. Within seconds the enemy vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one upon the Scale Bearers Battlecruiser Thagomizer. The doomed vessel exploded spectacularly as the enemy salvo set off a chain reaction in the ship’s plasma engines. Within seconds of its destruction 12 more ships suffered the same fate, consumed by nova-shell explosions and torpedo spreads. Fortunately the Scale Bearer vessels had been fully armed and ready for anything, and were quick to respond in kind once the initial assault had been weathered despite nearly a sixth of their fleet damaged or destroyed in the opening moments. The resulting void battle had lasted for several hours as the Scale Bearers fought off their foes, at first trying to push their way towards Isstvan to find out what had happened to their allies, but finally realizing the futility of the overwhelming odds they faced as the fleets of the first Traitor Legions re-appeared, Tiran Osoros ordered the retreat and was successful in escaping the system, the hounds of the enemy snapping at their heels and bitter vengeance in their hearts. The Scale Bearers would get their revenge for Isstvan.

Ultima Segmentum

After the success of Isstvan V Hektor had now crippled a few of the loyalist legions, but not all. Thanks to the intervention of the Stonemen the loyalists were able to quit the field and make a hasty retreat back into Imperial space. Hektor would not be able to rely on the same tricks the next time. The majority of Hektor's traitor legions were now gathered around him and many had taken substantial losses while there were still many loyalist legions at full strength for him to contend with.

By now all would have heard of his treachery and would no doubt be racing to defend their false emperor. As great a general as he was, even Hektor doubted he would be able to defeat the Emperor if he was able to unite the remaining loyalists into a single fleet. No, if he wanted to fulfill his destiny as the savior of mankind he would have to learn some new tricks. He did not need to defeat every loyalist legion, merely delay them from helping their emperor.

At least 4 loyalists still remained in the Ultima Segmentum on the other side of the Maelstrom. With only two paths around the Maelstrom, if the traitors were able to block off both ways then the loyalists would never be able to reach Holy Terra. Speaking with his brothers, Hektor dispatched The Voidwatcher and his Black Augurs to the south of the Maelstrom, where they would conjure a second warp storm using their sorcery that would block any from trying to pass.

The Burning Crusade

The Eternal Zealots and Sons of Fire attacked the border of the Atalantos Worlds, drawing the remnants of the War Scribes into a terrible battle. Only the arrival of the Scions of Europa saved Arelex Orannis' Legion from total annihilation.

Segmentum Tempestus

The Storm of Steel: The Battle of Zhuko V

Zhuko V's massive manufactorium's and stockpiles of armoured vehicles made it a critical target during the Heresy. The Mastodontii were assigned to secure the world for Hektor.

Sol Campaign

The Jovian & Saturnian Theatre

Terra and Mars were not the only theatres of significance in the Sol system, with the Jovian and Saturnian moons also important strategic objectives for other sides. Europa, Titan, Enceladus, Ganymede, and a handful other moons were fairly well populated, and also host to plethora industries or mining ventures that would be extremely useful for the maintenance of the war effort in the system. The massive gas mining stations which orbited Saturn since the Dark Age of Technology were especially valued, and much of the fuel for the Emperor’s vessels originated from these massive archaeotech refineries.

It was thus unsurprising that the Voidwatcher moved to secure these facilities promptly after his arrival in the system. Riding a high from their victory in the Isstvan system, they swept aside the various local forces present, established a security cordon around Saturn and its moons, and secured the majority of the facilities. With full control of the spacelanes not yet entirely established, the Black Augurs were forced to pull away the majority of their space-based forces to deal with emergent threats on the outer end of the star system, where loyalist forces were still a nuisance.

It was during this critical moment when the Thunder Kings arrived, running the blockade around Charon and forcing a sizable contingent of Black Augurs into pursuit. Four tribes, totalling some seventy-thousand marines between them, preceded their Primarch in breaking into Sol; making for Terra on a very direct axis of approach. Unfortunately for the Loyalists, the disposition of Traitorous forces was such that it proved impossible to approach Terra so readily, and so the majority of Thunder King forces would be forced to remain in the outer star system for the majority of the Battle of Terra.

Commander Anibalos took the Bleeding Crowns and the Grinning Ghosts tribes, totalling some forty-thousand marines, and deposited them along the moons of Saturn while Commander Cnaios took the Mountain Breakers and the Star-Eaters, totalling another thirty-five thousand, to Jupiter’s moons. Despite the advantage in numbers traitorous forces enjoyed in space, their need to maintain ships at the system’s peripheries to intercept Loyalist reinforcements as well as to blockade the various worlds they were besieging, allowed the Thunder Kings fleet to remain relatively intact. It was never able to establish even local space superiority, on account of the sizable Black Augurs fleet presence, but the clever use of both Saturn’s and Jupiter’s depleted rings in hiding the Thunder Kings fleet would allow for its intermittent use in operational offensives throughout the duration of the conflict.

Of all the other moons, Titan and Ganymede would prove to be the most contested. As important transit points for much of the material the gas refining stations put out, as well as possessing many such refining facilities themselves, they were highly sought after by both sides. The initial Thunder Kings landings managed to overwhelm the standing Black Augurs garrisons in much the same manner as they themselves had overwhelmed the mortal defenders, and so resecured the planets mostly intact.

However, they soon faced a concerted counter-attack and invasion by the Black Augurs. It was to turn into a moon-hopping campaign, with both sides jumping from moon to moon in an attempt to take strategic points before their enemy--or to seize them when an opportunity presented itself from their enemy. No better example exists than Silacos’ gambit, when the Commander of the Star-Eaters tribe opportunistically left a skeleton garrison on Europa, gathered the majority of the Thunder Kings fleet, and scattered his forces across the outer Jovian moons while the Mountain Breakers were defending Ganymede. For a brief while, at least, the control of the defense batteries on those outer moons provided the Thunder Kings space superiority in that front of the theatre.

One of the more decisive battles of the Saturnian campaign was the Battle of Huygen’s Gap, which took place in the aforementioned zone of Saturn’s rings. The Eternal Zealots, alongside remaining Black Augurs space forces in the area, made comprehensive sweeps of Saturn’s ice rings once they arrived. In a series of small skirmishes, the Thunder Kings fleet was forced out into the Gap, where the traitor’s forces were able to finally meet them in an actual battle. Brennus and Aubrey briefly dueled, and would continue to directly oppose one another via a series of battles waged across the fleets via teleportation and boarding actions. Ultimately, with both sides sustaining heavy casualties, Aubrey teleported away and the Eternal Zealots withdrew from Huygen’s Gap.Their failure to mention their retreat to their Black Augur allies resulted in the destruction of much of the Black Augur fleet in orbit, eventually culminating in the spiteful destruction by the Black Augur commander of the ancient Vinyaya refining station.

The Siege of Terra

On the thirteenth of Secundus, the bombardment began. From orbit, the Warmaster's ships laid down an unrelenting barrage of missiles and deadly energy beams. The aim was to cripple the defences around the Emperor's Palace and make possible a massive invasion of Terra. Striking from Mars, their bastion in the system, the traitors had destroyed or silenced the lunar bases and crippled or scattered the defending Fleets.

Hektor's attack was the final act in the bloody civil war which had consumed the stellar realm of man. On countless worlds, blood-mad warriors clashed. Those who had pledged loyalty to the Emperor fought those who had sworn fealty to Warmaster Hektor the fallen light and, through him, to the dark powers of Chaos. The Emperor's realm was in turmoil and some of the greatest battles in human history were being fought. On the hive-world of Thranx over a billion warriors died in a single day on the killing fields of Perdagor. On the vast plains of Zhuko V, at the Ka'an Salient, a hundred thousand tanks clashed in the greatest armoured action of all time. On Rosskar, countless millions died in the bloody snows as a Legion Homeworld burned. The Atalantos Worlds felt the kiss of Phosphex as two Legions bled them dry. During the space drop on Vanaheim, three hive-cities were depopulated by the Warmaster’s forces as a warning against resistance, yet still the defenders fought to the last man.

Like a cancer, the Heresy infected the entire structure of the Imperium. Everywhere brave men gave up their lives to try to excise that cancer.

It was on Terra, at the very heart of the Emperor's realm and the cradle of Humanity, that the fate of the galaxy was to be decided. In those last days, the sky was black with dust clouds and the earth split by gigantic fissures. Tectonic plates shifted under the stress of the bombardment. Mountain chains shivered and the last few seas evaporated and became barren deserts. Rains of blood and ash dripped from the dark sky. Astropathic choirs sang of evil portents and men went mad with fear. Hideously twisted ships full of the lost and the damned hung in orbit over the ravaged world. Shielded from the devastation by the cunningly wrought defences of the Mechanicum, a pitiful few stood ready to repel the invaders.

The embattled remnants of the Emperor's army were desperately trying to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Though the Emperor was consumed with the war beneath, within the Imperial palace itself the Emperor's personal bodyguard, the Custodians, stood ready to fight. At their side was the Emperor’s Praetorian, Thomas Gaudin and his Crusaders Legion. In the palace grounds stood the stalwart Adeptus Arbites and the honourable Knights of Accolon, along with their King, the honoured Arturia Eld.

The palace was not the only bastion of resistance; there were others, each an awesome fortified city filled with dauntless soldiers. Beneath the ruins of the Imperial Basilica, grim visaged Kleisthenes led the Scions of Europa in their preparations. Within the armoured factory complexes of the loyal Mechanicum, tech-priests put aside their tools and girded themselves with the fearsome weapons of their order. In the dense fortifications built by him personally, Roman Albrecht and the Steel Marshalls prepared to hold back the tide. Three full Titan legions and billions of Imperial Army troopers stood ready to defend their Emperor.

As the earth shuddered under the bombardment, tank divisions roared across the tortured landscape to take up their position against the coming invasion. Brave men checked their weapons and some offered up last prayers. Defence lasers swivelled to face the turbulent threatening sky. Suddenly, the night was streaked by the plasma contrails of drop-pods.

The pods touched the ground and from them erupted a mass of traitor Space Marines who charged at the Imperial defenders, guns ablaze with fire, roaring the name of Hektor and the Dark Gods. These were no longer the fine human warriors of legend who had forged the Imperium, but twisted creatures, bodies warped by the energies of Chaos, minds twisted by their devotion to the dark powers. If what had happened to the Space Marines was bad then what had happened to their Primarchs was worse. They had been created higher in the Emperor's esteem and had fallen further. None of their former comrades would have recognised them - they had been transformed into creatures both daemonic and exultant.

Inferox "The Burned King" strode forwards, a trail of flames left in his wake. Around him his Sons of Fire burned all before them, roaring the name of the god of Blood and Fire, Khorne. The wave of red slowly advanced towards the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport, ready to spill blood and spread fire for the Blood God.

At the rasping command of Johannes Vrach, the Life Bringers emerged silently from the festering cocoons of their drop-pods and advanced on their terror-stricken foes. Once the bringers of life, now they spread death, disease and despair as they advanced on the loyalists.

Aubrey The Grey, first among traitors spearheaded the advance of his Eternal Zealots, cutting down all before him, looking for the perfect challenge, the perfect foe to show his skills against and to send their soul to the Gods he had sworn himself to.

A hail of deadly bolter shells cut down dozens of the Lions Rampant. Undeterred, the wounded howled with pleasure at the experience and chanted the praises of their Primarch, Cromwald Walgrun. The Sons of the Pleasure God surged forward to carve a path through their foes.

Perhaps some defenders went mad with fear. Perhaps the corruption of Chaos ran deeper than anyone suspected. Perhaps some were even foolish enough to think that they could negotiate with the ultimate enemy. Whatever the reason, one last vile treachery was to take place. Many units of the Imperial army that had pledged loyalty to the Emperor turned blasphemer even as the Traitor Legions made their drop. It was almost as if it were a pre-arranged signal. In one of the basest acts of betrayal in Humanity's history, they turned their weapons on their brother warriors and cut them down like dogs. Thus did the Lions Gate Spaceport fall to the rebels. As the heretics chanted and howled their mad prayers and the skies were torn with drop pods, the air shimmered and slavering daemons emerged from the warp to spread terror and dismay.

If there was ever doubt as to which masters Hektor served then the appearance of the daemonic horde dispelled them. Then indeed did it seem to the defenders that they were living in the last days of Mankind, the end of the Emperor’s dream.

Huge bat-winged Bloodthirsters swept triumphantly across the weeping skies. Clawed Keepers of Secrets danced lasciviously on piles of corpses. Great Unclean Ones chuckled as they lumbered through the ruined streets spreading trails of filth and slime and disease. Enigmatic Lords of Change perched atop the towers and statues and supervised the coming of Chaos to the heart of the world.

Now with all the pieces in place The Warmaster ordered the rest of his army to the battle and at his signal troop transports of his fleet began to make planetfall. A veritable host of Ships drifted down through the atmosphere of Earth escorted by thousands of fighters, hoping to over the defenders by sheer weight of numbers. Unlike the drop-pods, these presented fine targets for the weapons of the defenders. And thus did the battle for Terra begin in earnest.

Defence lasers and marauding packs of loyal fighter craft blasted many renegade ships from the sky, sending thousands of tons of fused metal death raining down onto the ground below. One giant raft span out of control and crashed into a hab-unit, killing a billion people in seconds. Another was welded to the ground, disgorging its passengers into a lake of bubbling tar and plas-crete. The Titan Ark of the Legio Damnatus, the Warped Dogs was vaporised and that Titan Legion's name passed into history. As quickly as they disembarked, the traitors surged forth from the spaceports to besiege the bastions of the defenders. Their first objective was to silence the defence lasers inflicting such casualties on their comrades and destroy the airfields to the fighters could no longer fly. The rebels were met by a wave of Imperial defenders, desperate men and women who knew that they were giving their lives for their home world and their Emperor.

In the tightly packed streets around the spaceports, the fighting was close and deadly. Bolters chattered, lasrifles hissed and missile launchers delivered cargoes of death from building to nearby building. Traitor tanks rumbled through the avenues, turrets swivelling to bring weapons to bear on the hastily improvised barricades of their former comrades.

Soon the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport had been swept aside by the merciless assault and the hordes of the Warmaster were in total possession of the space field. More and more intricately wrought drop-ships descended from orbit. They towered over the landing ground like nightmare skyscrapers, the dark runes on their sides glowing evilly in the gloom.

Hundred-metre high doors opened in their kilometre-long sides. From their red depths, Titans emerged. They were warped giants; the armour of their carapace fused and moulded into new shapes by the power of Chaos. Within them were men melded to their machines. Some of the hideous Titans had strange and potent weapons, others were a bizarre hybrid of the organic and the machine. Metal tentacles lashed, spiked tails whipped back and forth. Engines roared like the voices of angry beasts. Banners fluttering, the Titans of the Storm Lords, the Fire Masters, the Flaming Skulls and the Deaths Heads legions marched forth. At Lions Gate Spaceport, the traitors welcomed the towering black war engines of the Khornate host. Monsters, mutants and cultists seethed like angry ants around their bases.

Reinforced by this fresh wave of troops, the hordes swept on, driving through the exhausted and demoralised Imperial troops to the very walls of the Emperor's palace. Khornate warriors howling their bestial war cries raced towards the marble and steel outer ring, burning all before them. Hordes of unstoppable Eternal Zealots marched relentlessly forward, bolter fire raking the defenders. Slaanesh’s Lions swept aside the Imperial infantry and reached the Saturnine Gate. Round the walls bitter fighting ensued as the Imperial soldiers and Space Marines sallied forth, trying to drive the attackers back before the main body of the assaulting troops arrived. Men died in their Millions. From pillbox emplacements in the palace walls Imperial gun crews rained death down on the relentless attackers. Again and again the streets outside the palace were swept clear of heretics. Again and again new foes stepped forward to take their place.

Now indeed it seemed that the tide of battle had turned against the Emperor. The spaceports were firmly in the grasp of the minions of the Warmaster. Billions of troops poured down from orbit. Gibbering mutants and hideous amorphous Chaos Spawn surged out of the dread ships. Under the banner of the dread star, the sign of Hektor, the lackeys of the four great powers of Chaos marched united. Mounted in Rhinos, Chimeras and Testudos, lurking within mighty behemoths and clinging to the sides of gigantic war-engines, they made their way en masse to the Emperor's palace for the final confrontation. Thunderhawks, Stormbirds and Fire Raptors flew overhead and the massed tank brigades that drove on towards the Palace threw up great clouds of dust.

Looking down on the seething sea of foulness, the defenders' hearts went cold. Mingling with the daemons and the mad-eyed cultists and the mutants, they could see heretical Space Marines and traitor Guardsmen. These were people they might have once fought alongside, who had once been as loyal to the Emperor as themselves. They looked upon a dark mirror of their souls. Down there they could see martial honour become berserk madness, human cleverness become sly treachery, hope become foulness and love become abominable lust. The brave men on the walls knew that there was no way out. Here they must stand and fight and die. There would be no mercy from those below.

With a roar the horde advanced towards the walls. Great Lords of Battle lurched forward on iron wheels, crushing anything in their way, unloading racks of missiles and turning the area on the top of the walls into blazing storms of death. Doom Burners sent tongues of superheated metal licking out at the emplacements. Molten brass filtered through the windows and scalded those inside. Multi-tracked Cauldrons of Blood squirted jets of obscene daemonic ichor onto the defenders. Enormous Flesh Hounds of Khorne loped forward in their wake. Titans armed with specially constructed siege weapons lumbered into position. Battle cruisers dropped megatons of explosive death onto the defenders.

Every loyal warrior knew that he was already dead, that there was no way he could survive the coming of the daemonic army. The soldiers fought with the desperate ferocity of hopeless men, firing until their weapons were empty, snatching up the bolters of the fallen, and facing monsters with the butts of their guns when all ammunition was exhausted. Three times the horde managed to scale the walls, and three times it was driven off by the valiant efforts of Gaudin and his Crusaders, supported by the Knights of Accolon, who time and again sallied forth into the horde to destroy the siege engines, ramps and towers that were used to scale the walls. Wearily the Primarch marshalled the defenders, rallying the broken, speaking words of comfort to the mortally wounded, fighting with cold, implacable fury when he was called upon to do so. Slowly though, despite his efforts, the Chaos forces managed to erode the defence. They seemed numberless as the grains of sand on a sea shore and Hektor spent their lives carelessly.

Meanwhile in the depths of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne, now his prison and brooded on the events occurring far above him. His psychic might was needed to keep the warp-portal tightly shut against the eternal hordes of Chaos that pounded at the doorway from within the webway beyond. If He relented and let slip His focus then the daemonic forces of Chaos would be able to pile through the gateway and into His Palace and that would be the end. But the Emperor knew he must soon relinquish his hold on the Throne and confront his traitor son in person. The Warmaster could only win the victory he sought by vanquishing the Emperor - everything he had done and was doing was intended to bring about that goal. The battle above was merely a deliberate act of provocation whereby Hektor was attempting to goad the Emperor into dropping his guard and facing him. The Emperor was patient. He would meet Hektor soon enough. For now He waited and bided His time. Hektor would become impatient and act rashly and then, and only then, would the Emperor face him.

Outside the walls, scattered Imperial forces frantically raced from their bastions to try to relieve the palace. Titan legions boldly cut their way towards the centre of the rebel army. Space Marine forces harried their flanks. No attempt to break the rebel line succeeded. Breaking through that blood-mad horde was a near impossible task. All of the Traitor Primarchs inspired their followers to feats of fiendish bravery. For every Chaos warrior who died it seemed that ten more stood ready to take their places.

In orbit, the Warmaster watched approvingly. If the palace fell and the Emperor died, loyalist legions across the galaxy would lose heart and the war would be over. Without the psychic shield of the Emperor's power, Humanity would swiftly fall prey to Chaos. Hektor would stand triumphant amid the rubble of Humanity's greatest empire. He would become a new and angry god, the true master of Chaos. If he did not win soon, reinforcements would filter in from the corners of the Imperium, and his attack would falter. For the Warmaster this was the desperate, ultimate gamble. Everything was staked on this attack. It had to succeed, and at that moment it looked as if it might.

Day by day the siege wore on, casualties rose from the millions to billions and even trillions. Bodies had to be bulldozed from the access ways to the Saturnine Gate by war machines. Chaos Titans blazed at the walls, specially constructed missiles ripping great chunks from the masonry. The Titans of the Fire Wasps answered their fire with volcano cannons. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the corpses of the dead were incinerated in funeral pyres a hundred foot high. Obscene ash parched the throats of the defenders. The Sons of Fire built a pyramid of scorched skulls thousands of feet high in Temple Square that grew day by day. By night the chants of degenerate cultists echoed through the streets and daemons flitted among the ruins of Terra.

The daemon that was Cromwald was bored by the static nature of the Siege. He was the chosen of Slaanesh. He craved action, he yearned for something to happen so he could indulge himself and his master. Yet still the defenders of the Palace repulsed their attacks again and again. The daemon decided he could bear it no longer and that there must be easier prey on the planet so satisfy his hunger. With this, Cromwald gathered his legion about him and set off on an orgy of destruction across the planet. With so much of the loyal efforts towards defending the Emperor from the traitor Legions, the rest of Terra was left largely unprotected and weak. Billions of Terrans were used as human guinea pigs or raw materials for depraved rites, as daemonic hosts to bring Slaaneshi Daemonic Legions to the fight from the Warp, as tools of pleasure or were simply slain outright to allow a Traitor Marine the fleeting enjoyment brought on by the sensation of brutal murder. This act would leave a permanent scar, and conclude the damnation of the Legion.

Slowly, foot by torturous foot, the defenders were forced back. The great walls of the palace were riddled with hundreds of kilometres of bulkheads and corridor. Within this maze, bitter hand-to-hand fighting ensued until entire sections of passage were filled with bloated corpses. Feeling that progress was too slow, Hektor ordered the Titans of the Death's Head Legion to demolish entire sections of the wall. Despite taking tremendous casualties, with dozens of titans destroyed in as many minutes, the great Warlord Titans finally broke through, and the forces of the Warmaster flooded into the palace grounds.

The battle raged across the grounds of the Inner Gardens. What had once been a vast parkland was swiftly turned into a killing ground. Men used statues for cover and monuments for bunkers. Blood swirled in the waters of the ornamental lakes. Groves of ancient redwoods transplanted by the Emperor burned. The smell of the burning mingled with the acrid odours of weapons and engines and death. Red-eyed, snatching sleep when they could, both sides fought a total war. Trenches were hurriedly excavated in the meadows. Snipers killed men as they tried to sip brackish water from the ruined fountains.

Gaudin led the defence personally, leading charge after charge from the cupola of his command tank. But finally as the tide turned he was confronted by the mightiest of Slaanesh’s servants, Zarakynel the Souleater. Though he fought bravely, the Daemon of Slaanesh laid him low, Burt before the killing blow was delivered, the King of Cattegirn interposed her steed between the Primarch and the Daemon, and the two clashed. Both sides halted for a moment to watch the titanic struggle. It was a conflict such as has been rarely seen; two beings of awesome power wrestling before them. Eventually the Knight struck Zarakynel’s head off and escorted the Primarch to safety as the Battle raged anew around them.

Both sides fought with unimaginable naked ferocity. Both sides sensed that the end was near.

Eventually Gaudin was forced to retreat to within the palace itself, personally holding the Ultimate Gate against the oncoming horde while the last of his wounded men was carried through. Just as the giant ceramite gate was about to close, Arturia Eld, her knight scored with wounds, elected to remain behind and hold off the traitors for as long as possible to allow the defenders more time. Alone she stood before the entire Traitor force as the Ultimate Gate shut. None know her final fate, but at that moment she entered the halls of legend.

Now the final siege began. Through great breaches in the outer walls more and more armaments and reinforcements were brought to bear. The Warmaster himself prepared to teleport down to the surface and supervise the destruction of his former lord. Then a daemon from the Warp whispered to him the words that he had dreaded. The Void Angels had entered the System and were even now clashing with the Black Augurs in the outer Solar System. What was worse was that a loyalist fleet under Arelex bearing a fresh army of War Scribes was only hours away. It would take days to break Humanity's last citadel, even with Hektor leading his troops. It seemed that time had run out for the Warmaster, that his gamble had failed.

Hektor, upon hearing this news resolved to try one final desperate gambit. He could still kill the Emperor. He ordered all comm-net communications blocked so that the defenders would get no word from their rescuers and then he used his psychic powers to the full to prevent the Emperor becoming aware of this. Finally he dropped the shields of his command ship. It was an invitation and a personal challenge that he knew the Emperor could not resist. He was being offered a chance finally to smite the foe who had harried him for so long.

The Emperor rose to the challenge, and he and his surviving Primarchs teleported aboard the Warmaster's battle barge. However the malign influence of the Gods separated the Emperor from his loyal followers. The loyalists were transported to different spots within the hideously altered Bucephalus. It was Kleisthenes who first came upon the Warmaster’s throneroom and encountered his fallen brother. In his evil cunning the Warmaster offered the Scion a chance to switch sides, using old bonds of brotherhood and loyalty.

But Kleisthenes refused, and Hektor grew wrathful and attacked him. At the peak of his powers the Blood Angel would have been no match for the now possessed Warmaster and now, sorely wounded and weary, he had no chance at all. Hektor gutted him, mutilated him, tore off all his limbs and left his mangled body to slowly die on the deck, but not before Kleisthenes made a tiny chink in the Warmaster’s armour.

The Emperor found his fallen son shortly after this and what happened next is the subject of legend. The two mightiest beings in the history of Mankind clashed. They met blade to blade, power to power, mind to mind and tested sinew and psychic ability to the ultimate. Behind Hektor was the massed power of the Chaos gods. The Emperor stood alone and still he triumphed, though he was terribly wounded in the process.

The psychic shock wave of the Warmaster's passing rippled outward through the warp. On Earth, daemons screamed and vanished, and the rebel Primarchs stood dumbfounded. It was their leader, not their enemy's, who was dead and they knew it. With the one who had raised the banner of rebellion dead, there was nothing to hold the rebels together. They were demoralised and dismayed. When word of the oncoming Imperial fleets reached them they knew that they must flee.

The Traitor Primarchs led their men to their ships and departed, leaving the deluded, traitorous followers of Chaos to their fate. As he stepped aboard his ship, Inferox turned and shook his fist at the glittering dome of the Imperial palace that had proved just out of his taloned reach.

Then he shrugged; he and his fellow rebels had all eternity to seek revenge. The Battle for Terra was now over. The Hektor Heresy was ended. Gaudin found the Emperor's broken body in the ruins of the Warmaster's throne room. Through mangled lips, the Emperor whispered instructions for the creation of his golden throne. And with that the Heresy came to an end, and the age of the Emperor passed.