Editing Hektor Heresy (section)

===The Bloody Star===
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<center>'''FROM THE SHADOWS'''</center>
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After their murderous assault at Diamat, the Iron Rangers had not returned to Olmer, but Rogerius Merrill had stayed in contact with Hektor. The two agreed that it would be impolitic to appear together but their loyalty to one another was undamaged by the death of Tiran Osoros. Free from the obligations of maintaining a peaceful facade, Merrill gathered his Legion for war. By the time the Olmer Tribunal concluded and the march on Terra began, the Iron Rangers were ready and becoming impatient.  Merrill's men initially kept a relatively low profile, attacking in advance of Hektor's Legions and paving the way for a Traitor victory. Only after Onyx's raid at Kuniat guaranteed a longer war did the Iron Rangers openly fight alongside their allies.
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''What good can be said of The Voidwatcher? The hive moon of Ostium robbed him of every noble quality that could be found in a man. His tale is not even as much as a tragedy. The Voidwatcher was just a waste.''

- Gaspard Lumey, private correspondence

The Silver Cataphracts and Eyes of the Emperor were surprised by the forces that contested the perimeter with them. Hektor's own Legion and those of the Olmer Tribunal Primarchs had all fallen back to regroup. In their place were the fresh [[Black Augurs]] and [[Iron Rangers]]. While Rogerius Merrill's men were devious and unconventional, they at least fought for comprehensible objectives. The Black Augurs seemingly attacked worlds at random, indifferent to their pronounced loyalties, and focused on slaughter more than battle. Yet as the Voidwatcher's rampage continued, the powerful psykers defending Sol began to sense a terrible disturbance in the Immaterium. Malcador and Shakya Vardhana conferred with the savants of the Astra Telepathica and determined that the Voidwatcher's seemingly random attacks were part of a vast work of sorcery. Once the gathered psykers had determined the next world to be struck, the Vardhana set forth with his Disciples to stop whatever vileness the Black Augurs were hatching.

The Voidwatcher made it to Yu-Jang first, but his Marines were still engaged with the garrison when the Vardhana's warriors began to drop from the skies. Against all military logic, the Black Augurs did not rally to oppose their enemies but instead carried out horrible sacrifices of the civilian population while the Eyes raced to stop them. Eventually the madness on Yu-Jang was confined to the luckless city of Fengdu, where the Voidwatcher himself presided over a carnival of atrocities. Shakya Vardhana led his Disciples in a desperate assault but nothing could have prepared them for the power being channelled through the Voidwatcher. Once in failing health, the traitor Primarch had been revitalised through some unholy bargain and revelled in his new might. The Vardhana was gravely wounded and his men slain, but the Voidwatcher showed a twisted streak of honour. Recalling how Shakya Vardhana had called for mercy at the Council of Nikaea, the lord of the Black Augurs decided to let his brother live - but used foul sorcery to tear away the Vardhana's psychic powers. Despite the cacophony of the Warp Storms the Voidwatcher had conjured into being, telepaths across the Segmentum Solar shuddered at the psychic screams of Shakya Vardhana. Even to those who did not recognise the Primarch's mind, the agony was unmistakable. To Phirun Soun, his gene-father's agony was almost unbearable. The Librarian hastily boarded the ''Devotion of Illobian'' to once more find a way to his lord's side. There was no possibility of saving Shakya Vardhana from the Voidwatcher, but Soun found his crippled gene-sire in the blood-drenched husk of Fengdu and carried him back to Terra.

If the grievous injury to Shakya Vardhana was not bad enough, the Warp Storms created by the Black Augurs would last for years and greatly hampered Warp communications. Astro-telepathy into or out of the Sol Sector was all but impossible. The light of the Astronomican was greatly obscured even in the nearby Sectors of the Segmentum Solar and totally invisible to Navigators in the far Segmenta.  Without a fixed point of reference, Warp travel was dangerous and slow. The Loyalists could rely on short-range Warp beacons, though these were mainly found in the centre of the Imperium where the Astronomican was visible anyway.  Hektor's forces turned to new allies introduced by Aubrey the Grey, the enigmatic Hezeyar. Although the Primarch claimed that the creatures were only psychically gifted Xenos, in truth the Hezeyar owed their abilities to the malign influence of Chaos, their souls long sold to Dark Gods. The corrupting influence of these vile entities would accelerate the moral degeneration of the Legions in Hektor's service, but their affinity for the Warp would also give his forces an important strategic advantage. As has always been the case, those who are too quick to compromise end up compromising themselves.