Editing History of the Green Men (section)

===Burning the bridges===
Fortunately or not, they failed. Johannes Vrach himself gave his approval to the experiments of Sachs and personally spearheaded High Genetor's research. Progress that would have normally taken decades of trial and error was made every day, and soon Vrach and Sachs presented the first outcomes of their research to the Legion - experimental creatures known as Sym-Biomes, permanently diseased yet theoretically immortal half-living monsters. Very few knew how the Primarch managed to achieve such impressive results so quickly, and Alraun was amongst them. Desperate in his hopeless quest to find the ultimate cure, Johannes Vrach agreed to summon the Master of Disease, who revealed himself to the prodigal Primarch as the Plague God Nurgle. As a patron of life in all of its forms and manifestations, Nurgle refused to give Vrach the panacea that would cure all illnesses - indeed, why would he give anyone a horrible weapon capable of killing billions of billions of viruses and bacteria who have the same right to live as humans do? Instead, he offered the Primarch a deal. He would shield a select few from disease, but only if they offered their bodies as hives to billions of his smallest grandchildren, by which he meant pathogenic microorganisms. With a heavy heart, Vrach agreed, thus cursing himself and his entire Legion for all eternity. Immediately thereafter, a dark ritual was conducted, during which several of Nurgle's high-ranking daemons possessed Librarians of the Life Bringers. With help from those repugnant advisers, the prototype Sym-Biomes were ready in no time at all.

Vrach realised perfectly well that this dark act had placed him firmly beyond his father's forgiveness. And so, when a messenger arrived from his brother [[Hektor Cincinnatus|Hektor]] with a proposal to join his rebellion against the Emperor's tyrannical rule, Johannes had no choice but to agree. As a test of their loyalty to their new cause, Hektor assigned the Life Bringers an important role in the Isstvan Blitz that he had planned, nowadays commonly known as the Isstvan Massacre. The children of Vrach were to exterminate the stubborn [[The Entombed|Entombed]], who wouldn't betray the Emperor even if death was the only other option. Although the Primarch was less than enthusiastic about this mission, preferring to keep the casualties on both sides as low as possible, Sachs saw this as a great chance to finally put the talents of his Genetors to a proper use. He ordered them to create the deadliest weapons they could think of, which were to be field tested on the Entombed. Ever the creative type, Galen devised a multitude of devilishly inventive plant-based weapons. The Lash of Torment was a thorny vine that could be used as a whip; its thorns constantly secreted an acidic venom that softened ceramite and made the lash effective even against heavily armoured targets. The Death Belcher was a parasitic mushroom that was planted on a suit of power armour and constantly emitted clouds of acidic spores, making its bearer a machine of death in close combat. But the most notorious of his inventions was the dreaded Brambleseed Gun. The bullets it fired each contained a seed of a diabolical parasitic plant. Once inserted into a living organism, it took root in its intestines within seconds and, with startling speed, started growing thorny vines similar to organic barbed wire that tore its unfortunate victim from within. To this day, this gun remains one of the most feared weapons wielded by the Traitor Legions; its mere mentioning is sometimes enough to make whole regiments of the Imperial Guard desert.

When the day of the Isstvan Massacre had come, all of these instruments of death were put to test and all of them passed it with excellence. Although the Entombed fought valiantly and sold their lives for a very high price, they stood no chance from the very beginning: a combination of Hektor's strategic brilliance, wicked treachery and the technological superiority of the Life Bringers had spelt their doom before they even landed on Isstvan's barren surface. It was there that Wilmut Sachs first showcased his Plague Marines - bloated, oozing walking cadavers crawling with disease who could soak up a hail of bullets without as much as flinching. As impressive as they might have been, they met their match in the stout Entombed, and so almost the entire first batch of High Genetor's pet monsters was slaughtered on this day. As a final gesture of contempt to a fallen enemy that had caused him so much trouble, Sachs unleashed his dreaded genophage virus on the broken ranks of the Entombed and watched with wicked glee as his unholy creation was unmaking their geneseed. The fact that several Life Bringers were also affected by the virus bothered him not; they were left to rot on the scarred planet together with their defeated adversaries. 

It should be noted, though, that not all of the sons of Vrach fought as dishonourably as High Genetor. The Company lead by Tribulus Bercilak and outfitted entirely with Galen's plant-based biological weapons proved most successful in routing the enemy without resorting to dirty tricks. Galen himself oversaw the combat testing of his creations, while Alraun saved Bercilak's vanguard from a flank assault by the heavy vehicles of the Entombed by summoning forth a plague of vines that entangled the heavy tanks and pinned them to the ground. As a recognition of their overwhelming success, Johannes Vrach announced the creation of a special elite detachment within his legion which was to include the soldiers who fought under Bercilak on that day. Unsurprisingly, they called themselves the Green Men, painted their power armour green and adorned it with vines to show their respect to the true architect of their impressive victory - Nikephoros Galen.

There was now no coming back; all the roads led to Holy Terra.