Editing The Beheading (section)

==Vangorich's Fall==

A strike force of 400 Marines led by the [[Imperial Fists]] under [[Chapter Master]] [[Maximus Thane]] and supported by elements of newly created chapters (the [[Halo Brethren]] and [[Sable Swords]] specifically) landed at the Imperial Palace to hunt down Drakan and seize control of the Senatorum Imperialis. The Assassinorum responded in kind, deploying its most lethal operatives; the landing zones became killboxes filled with snipers and the disembarking Astartes were assailed by hundreds of assassins from various temples, losing a Chapter Master to a Vindicare's shot in the first few minutes of the battle. [[Callidus]] and [[Culexus]] Assassins harassed their advance, while [[Vindicare|Vindicares]] took shots at them from every angle. [[Venenum]] and [[Vanus]] operatives were notably absent from the battlefield in the official story of it, but probably worked from behind the scenes to hinder their advance. Despite their effectiveness at taking down such heavily armoured targets, the [[Eversor|Eversor]] assassins were conspicuously absent from the battlefield, for reasons that would soon become very apparent.

Despite losing half their numbers in the process, [[Plot Armor|the Astartes managed to carve their way through the assassins]] and clear out the Senatorum for the most part. Thane then confronted Inquisitorial Representative Wienand, who revealed Vangorich had fled to the Eversor temple at the North Pole and laid a trap there - all of Temple Eversor's assassins and acolytes, ready to be unleashed upon the Astartes when they stormed the fortress. Both had a exchange of words lamenting the situation and questioning which of them was more to blame for the current situation, before Thane departed to hunt Vangorich down. Wienand stayed behind to die by a bomb trap Vangorich had placed in the Senatorum (she was aware of it, but felt she required a way to convince Thane of her sincerity, as he suspected her to be a traitor).

The remains of the strike force assaulted the temple and confronted Vangorich, who had some final words with Thane, with both accusing the other of having some responsibility for the current situation (Thane himself admitted that he should've stayed behind and gotten things in order before gallivanting off on a crusade to restore the Fists' personal honour, but at the same time, Vangorich's more recent actions and refusal to step down were way over the line). With the Fists threatening him with arrest (and almost certain execution for treason) or death on the spot, Vangorich played his final card - flooding the room with super-cooled methalon gas and unleashing all of Temple Eversor's acolytes (roughly one hundred Eversors total) on the Astartes. The two forces cut each other down until only three remained: Thane, Vangorich, and a single Eversor.

Vangorich ordered the Eversor to kill Thane, but the Assassin [[Bullshit|broke his programming]] long enough to refuse, revealing himself to be (dun dun dun!) Beast Krule, who had been [[grimdark|forcibly converted into one of the WRYYY!s after getting cold feet over the extent of The Beheading and trying to kill Vangorich]]. Staring down the barrel of Thane's bolt pistol, the defeated Grand Master of Assassins asked if Thane wanted to know how [[Konrad Curze]] died (seemingly attempting to draw a parallel between their intended roles in the Imperium and the methods they actually used) but Thane had none of it, killing him before he could answer. Only the badly wounded Thane survived the ordeal and Vangorich was left to go down in history as a cruel, deranged tyrant.

Over the next millennia, many reformations were implemented to prevent one person gaining complete control of the Imperium and causing such trouble (abolishing the position of Lord Guilliman, for instance), helped along by [[Goge Vandire|a certain asshole]] being another great example of what the Imperium does NOT need in a leader with absolute power. The [[Ordo Sicarius]] was also set up to keep some assassins pointed at the assassins and prevent another Beheading if the Grand Master of Assassins went rogue.