Editing Pacha the Earthquake (section)

=Fate & Legacy=
Despite his desire to mourn his lost brothers and men, there was much to do, and as soon as Terra was purged of Chaos forces, Pacha set off to cleanse Imperial space from the Chaos warbands roaming and pillaging around, and to combat the spread of the Imperial Cult (although ineffectively). Eventually, he would arrive to a planet near the Eye of Terror that had just begun to be sieged by the Chosen of Hecate, led by Lambach himself. Although taking void control of the planet and cleansing it through Exterminatus would've been the more strategically sound choice, Pacha was not one to leave civilians to die, and thus made planetfall alongside most of his Golden Mountains and the Blazing Condors auxiliary regiment as his fleet engaged the traitors' in combat.

There, Pacha engaged Lambach in singular combat atop a plateau in the tallest mountain of the planet, the Daemon Primarch seemingly having awaited The Earthquake there, as the two's legions and their attached forces fought across the whole planet. The Champion of Nurgle was quick to take the upper hand, his daemonic ascension-granted powers allowing him to slowly but surely overpower Pacha, eventually managing to take out his shield arm. Pacha, however, felt a psychic presence deep in the planet itself, although asleep. He drew upon it and, unknowingly, started to merge with it. Lambach's momentum ground to a halt, as Pacha's wounds and missing parts were covered and or replaced with metals and gemstones that surges from the earth around them. Then, the terrain started to actively change, favoring the loyalist Primarch, whose physical strength and psychic might seemed to grow by the second. However, during the combat, Pacha felt his consciousness slowly start to fade, as if whatever was in the planet dragged him to its depths. Banishing the Daemon Primarch with one final blow of Resolve, Pacha heard Lambach's last snark, commenting that the planet was lost anyways, Chaos corruption spread across it, and that the Earthquake would be lost to the Imperium as well, but that he would eventually return once more to the Materium. Yet, Pacha would not allow this to stand. Drawing the planet's full power for one last time, in a wave of golden psychic energy, he banished all Chaotic influence on the planet, instantly banishing all daemons and depriving both Heretic Astartes and their allies of any blessings they had been granted, as well as purifying the souls of those civilians who still held the Emperor in their hearts. Those that did not immediately retreat were ruthlessly slaughtered, and without their primarch, the Chosen of Hecate fleet retreated into the Eye.

The Golden Mountains seized administrative control of the planet, to protect it from an overeager Inquisition, renaming it Apu in honor of their Primarch. The Second Legion would from then onwards stop actively propagandizing against the Imperial Cult, knowing that without their Primarch, their chances would be few. However, the Legion would remain under a singular command structure, even if the chapters would mostly split on their own, they would still answer to the call of the Legion Master. However, Chapter Master Huáscar would split off from the Legion and defect to the Separatists, unable to accept an Imperium where the Ecclesiarchy ruled supreme. Similarly, Company Captain Camac effectively turned the Avalanche Company into a rogue warband, fighting for the Imperium while still resisting the Ecclesiarchy with military force when possible.

The psychic aura that coats Apu remains the hope of the Golden Mountains that their Primarch might one day return, as no daemon can approach it; calming the nearby Warp currents and allowing the psykers in that planet to lead peaceful, undisturbed lifes.