Editing Mars (Hektor Heresy) (section)

===Mars on the Eve of Unification===

Late in the 30th Millennium, the great Warp Storms that had plagued the Galaxy finally began to recede.  On Terra, the Emperor of Mankind began his great military campaign to put an end to the [[Unification Wars (Hektor Heresy)|Unification Wars]].  Unity was approaching on Mars as well.  The Machine Cult controlled the majority of their planet with barbaric tribes restricted to the barren wastes between Forge Cities.  It is true that the spans of wasteland became greater the further one traveled from the cult's center around Tharsis, but nowhere on Mars was truly beyond the reach of the Machine God.  Secure in their hegemony, the scheming archmagoi of the Martian Parliament launched raids on the other planets of the Solar System or vied with one another for temporal power.  First in their ambitions was the office of Fabricator General, guardian of the great Temple of All Knowledge at Olympus Mons and spiritual superior of the cult.  For many decades, that position had been held by Leton Tygian, a sagacious and careful Archmagos who used the honour of his position to arbitrate between the disputes of his peers.  By making himself the justice of Mars, Leton garnered great renown to his person and the office of the Fabricator-General.  He became so beloved that some suggested that Leton was the coming of the Omnissiah, but the Fabricator-General humbly denounced this bold charge and reminded Mars that he was but a humble mortal in service to the Machine God.  His modest words were backed up by his actions, for Leton Tygian died later that year.

Following Leton's death, elections were held for a new Fabricator-General.  The Emperor's successes on Terra, and especially the conquest of Luna through the defection of [[Pallas Eugenesis]], weighed heavy on the Martian Parliament.  Many felt that the foremost order of the day was teaching the Terran upstart a lesson, partitioning his realm, and restoring the old balance of the Solar System - the preferred euphemism for Martian primacy.  Valran Burija, Forge Lord of Urbis Juventas, was the bannerman of the anti-Terran party.  He called for swift and decisive action, but once granted the post of Fabricator General Burija struggled to mobilise the hosts of Mars.  After lengthy political struggle, Burija managed to outfit a punitive expedition against Terra by agreeing to lead the forces himself.  His intervention went poorly.  [[Hektor Cincinnatus]] met the Fabricator-General in battle, routed the Martian host, and slew their leader in single combat.  The few tech-priests who managed to escape returned to Mars with horror stories of the new breed of warrior that had emerged on Terra.

Once more, the Martian Parliament assembled under the shadow of Terra to elect a new Fabricator-General.  Burija's death had crushed enthusiasm for war.  There were some few like [[Duniya Kanaash]] who spoke of redeeming the honour of Mars with another expedition.  Equally sparse were the supporters of a long peace - the most famous of them was [[Zorr Yenser]], who had fought at Burija's side and believed that the defeat on Terra was a sign from the Omnissiah.  But at this stage, Yenser was thought eccentric at best and he was even openly denounced as a mental defective in the chambers of the Temple of All Knowledge.  Most of the Lords of Mars merely wanted a representative to make peace with the Emperor, a peace in which to reassess the capabilities of the Terran warlord and make new plans.  Yet none of the greatest worthies of the Red Planet were eager to be disgraced by taking terms from Terra.  For this reason, a relative unknown, [[Kalkas Tygian]] was elected to the post of Fabricator-General.  Kalkas was young, frankly too young for his exalted office, but he was Leton's nephew and wore his exalted name.  With this threadbare qualification, the young tech priest would receive the self-proclaimed Emperor of Mankind.