Siege of Terra - Revision history

imported>Administrator: 237 revisions imported

2023-06-22T16:08:14Z

237 revisions imported

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2023-06-19T03:42:56Z

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1d4chan>SFH at 15:59, 3 June 2023

2023-06-03T15:59:10Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:59, 3 June 2023
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	==Second Battle for the Lion's Gate and the Rise of the Emperor's Champion==		==Second Battle for the Lion's Gate and the Rise of the Emperor's Champion==
			{{topquote\|'''If you know what I did, then you would know the truth of it, brother--I can no longer die!'''"<br>"Oh, I know that. But ''I'' can! And ''that'' makes the difference.\|[[Mortarion]] and [[Jaghatai Khan]]}}
	With the Mercury Wall breached, the Siege was reaching its endgame. The loyalist forces were being slowly shoved back into the innermost circles of the Palace defenses. Comms were unreliable at best, supplies were running low, and sheer exhaustion and hopelessness were grinding the defenders down. Angron and the World Eaters were loose inside the Palatine, with the Sons of Horus following behind. The Death Guard occupied the Lion's Gate spaceport, taking over after the IV Legion's abrupt departure from the battlespace. As their tainted presence began to warp the port into a twisted mirror of Barbarus, Mortarion established himself in one of its command centers, using his new daemonic powers to amplify the currents of the warp and blanket the Palace in a psychic miasma of despair. The effect was so potent that even Rogal Dorn's legendary resolve was cracking under the weight of Mortarion's malignant influence. He had bent all his prodigious intellect and unmatched engineering skill toward transforming Terra into the mightiest fortress the galaxy had ever seen, and it had not been enough. Without Guilliman and the Lion and their legions, they were doomed to inevitable defeat.		With the Mercury Wall breached, the Siege was reaching its endgame. The loyalist forces were being slowly shoved back into the innermost circles of the Palace defenses. Comms were unreliable at best, supplies were running low, and sheer exhaustion and hopelessness were grinding the defenders down. Angron and the World Eaters were loose inside the Palatine, with the Sons of Horus following behind. The Death Guard occupied the Lion's Gate spaceport, taking over after the IV Legion's abrupt departure from the battlespace. As their tainted presence began to warp the port into a twisted mirror of Barbarus, Mortarion established himself in one of its command centers, using his new daemonic powers to amplify the currents of the warp and blanket the Palace in a psychic miasma of despair. The effect was so potent that even Rogal Dorn's legendary resolve was cracking under the weight of Mortarion's malignant influence. He had bent all his prodigious intellect and unmatched engineering skill toward transforming Terra into the mightiest fortress the galaxy had ever seen, and it had not been enough. Without Guilliman and the Lion and their legions, they were doomed to inevitable defeat.

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:6131:1E26:C449:F533 at 13:33, 2 June 2023

2023-06-02T13:33:27Z

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1d4chan>SFH: /* Assault on the Mercury Wall and Recapture of the Astronomican */

2023-05-27T17:33:17Z

Assault on the Mercury Wall and Recapture of the Astronomican

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:33, 27 May 2023
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	Subsidiary combat continued all along the Palace's defensive perimeter, though it was comparatively small in scale when measured against the annihilating fight taking place at the Mercury Wall. The loyalists were beginning to reach the limits of their mental, physical, and spiritual endurance, though some of them took confidence in a new credo: "He protects us as we protect Him." Even so, the loyalists' morale was being further eroded by the malign influence of the Warp. Those who were sensitive to its currents and eddies noted that its strength was waxing as the Siege ground on, working its way through the cracks in the Emperor's wards and battering down the mental defenses of the loyalist troops. Suicides, murders, and desertions spiked as exhausted and despairing soldiers and civilians sought to escape into a paradisaical dreamland. Unfortunately for them, this dreamland was a trap laid by the Emperor's Children to prey on the desperate and fearful. Thousands of unfortunate souls were lured to the Hatay-Antakya Hive, where the III Legion entrapped them in their dreams and "milked" them for their emotions. These activities were disrupted by the arrival of [[Ollanius Pius\|Ollanius Persson]] and his band of refugees from Calth, who were seeking to rendezvous with John Grammaticus and his prototype Space Marine bodyguard Leetu. They in turn were aided in their escape by a mysterious woman calling herself "Actaea" and a legionary in scaled armor who identified himself as Alpharius. Together, this unlikely group of allies embarked on an unspecified mission involving the Emperor.		Subsidiary combat continued all along the Palace's defensive perimeter, though it was comparatively small in scale when measured against the annihilating fight taking place at the Mercury Wall. The loyalists were beginning to reach the limits of their mental, physical, and spiritual endurance, though some of them took confidence in a new credo: "He protects us as we protect Him." Even so, the loyalists' morale was being further eroded by the malign influence of the Warp. Those who were sensitive to its currents and eddies noted that its strength was waxing as the Siege ground on, working its way through the cracks in the Emperor's wards and battering down the mental defenses of the loyalist troops. Suicides, murders, and desertions spiked as exhausted and despairing soldiers and civilians sought to escape into a paradisaical dreamland. Unfortunately for them, this dreamland was a trap laid by the Emperor's Children to prey on the desperate and fearful. Thousands of unfortunate souls were lured to the Hatay-Antakya Hive, where the III Legion entrapped them in their dreams and "milked" them for their emotions. These activities were disrupted by the arrival of [[Ollanius Pius\|Ollanius Persson]] and his band of refugees from Calth, who were seeking to rendezvous with John Grammaticus and his prototype Space Marine bodyguard Leetu. They in turn were aided in their escape by a mysterious woman calling herself "Actaea" and a legionary in scaled armor who identified himself as Alpharius. Together, this unlikely group of allies embarked on an unspecified mission involving the Emperor.

			Back at the Ultimate Wall, loyalists were succumbing to the despair field and insanity of the Warp, including at pivotal gun sections. Despite sane loyalists attempting to stop it, a group of maddened tech-priests sabotaged the shutdown mechanism of a section of wall guns, causing the guns to continue firing and risking the reactors powering them. The guns subsequently failed and exposed the reactor to incoming fire from the Traitor Titans. Despite loyalist efforts to avert disaster, the reactors were destroyed by incoming fire, resulting in chain reaction that caused a kilometers wide breach in the Ultimate Wall. While the rubble field delayed the Titans for a time, it would not stop Traitor infantry and Armour from scaling the debris.

			The Traitors were now inside the Inner Palace.

	==Second Battle for the Lion's Gate and the Rise of the Emperor's Champion==		==Second Battle for the Lion's Gate and the Rise of the Emperor's Champion==

108.173.152.173: /* The End and the Death */

2023-05-25T20:05:51Z

The End and the Death

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:05, 25 May 2023
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	With the Eternity Gate closed and the Sanctum Imperialis sealed, the Siege had reached its terminal phase. The loyalist forces were scattered across the ruins of the Inner Palace, fighting on as best they could in the face of what seemed to be Horus’ inevitable victory. Imperial Fists, White Scars, Blood Angels, [[Solar Auxilia]], Imperial Army, Custodians, and Null Maidens all fought side by side wherever they happened to be, while [[Penal legion\|penal units]], [[Whiteshield Conscript\|civilian conscripts]], [[Administratum\|rear-echelon functionaries]], and senior officers took up arms and joined the fighting. Broken chains of command and lines of organization were hastily reconstituted by whoever happened to be on the scene. The White Scars still held the Lion’s Gate and were using its firepower to devastate the traitors’ fleet, but the anti-orbital batteries and their power sources were slowly being destroyed one by one. Legions of Neverborn manifested on Terra’s soil, joining with the Warmaster’s hordes as they surrounded the Sanctum and slowly choked the life from its remaining defenders. As they swarmed across the Throneworld, they wrote and sang and spoke a single name: the Dark King.		With the Eternity Gate closed and the Sanctum Imperialis sealed, the Siege had reached its terminal phase. The loyalist forces were scattered across the ruins of the Inner Palace, fighting on as best they could in the face of what seemed to be Horus’ inevitable victory. Imperial Fists, White Scars, Blood Angels, [[Solar Auxilia]], Imperial Army, Custodians, and Null Maidens all fought side by side wherever they happened to be, while [[Penal legion\|penal units]], [[Whiteshield Conscript\|civilian conscripts]], [[Administratum\|rear-echelon functionaries]], and senior officers took up arms and joined the fighting. Broken chains of command and lines of organization were hastily reconstituted by whoever happened to be on the scene. The White Scars still held the Lion’s Gate and were using its firepower to devastate the traitors’ fleet, but the anti-orbital batteries and their power sources were slowly being destroyed one by one. Legions of Neverborn manifested on Terra’s soil, joining with the Warmaster’s hordes as they surrounded the Sanctum and slowly choked the life from its remaining defenders. As they swarmed across the Throneworld, they wrote and sang and spoke a single name: the Dark King.

	Bhab Bastion, the nerve center of the defense for so many months, was smashed by Titan fire and taken by the reconstituted Catulan Reavers. Abaddon himself was leading the Sons of Horus toward the Sanctum despite his own bitterness at how their victory had come to pass. Across the wreckage of the Inner Palace, massed Titan battles further scorched the earth and destroyed whatever remained standing. All of the Palatine Bastions were destroyed or overrun one by one. The hordes of desperate refugees stranded outside the Sanctum fled to nowhere in particular, herded by the oncoming waves of traitor forces and daemons. Thousands died of fear, exhaustion, insanity, or simple sensory overload, their minds broken by the omnipresent sound of the world ending around them: the shrieks of twisting metal, the grinding and crunching of crushed and collapsing stone, the endless thunder of massed bombardment weapons, the ceaseless crack and clatter of small arms, and the screams of the millions of dying. Time, space, and matter were becoming malleable as Terra sank deeper into the clutches of the Warp. Walls and floors rusted, melted, rotted, suppurated, and were shaped like clay by the Neverborn. Chronometers and other timepieces skipped hours and days, ceased to function, or ran backwards. The reddened sun burned endlessly in the dust-shrouded skies. Soldiers who had been fighting at the Praestor Gate suddenly found themselves on the Via Aquila, fifteen kilometers away. Daemons and traitor Astartes attacked from places they could never have been, upending defensive plans and overrunning loyalist forces.		The Bhab Bastion, the nerve center of the defense for so many months, was smashed by Titan fire and taken by the reconstituted Catulan Reavers. Abaddon himself was leading the Sons of Horus toward the Sanctum despite his own bitterness at how their victory had come to pass. Across the wreckage of the Inner Palace, massed Titan battles further scorched the earth and destroyed whatever remained standing. All of the Palatine Bastions were destroyed or overrun one by one. The hordes of desperate refugees stranded outside the Sanctum fled to nowhere in particular, herded by the oncoming waves of traitor forces and daemons. Thousands died of fear, exhaustion, insanity, or simple sensory overload, their minds broken by the omnipresent sound of the world ending around them: the shrieks of twisting metal, the grinding and crunching of crushed and collapsing stone, the endless thunder of massed bombardment weapons, the ceaseless crack and clatter of small arms, and the screams of the millions of dying. Time, space, and matter were becoming malleable as Terra sank deeper into the clutches of the Warp. Walls and floors rusted, melted, rotted, suppurated, and were shaped like clay by the Neverborn. Chronometers and other timepieces skipped hours and days, ceased to function, or ran backwards. The reddened sun burned endlessly in the dust-shrouded skies. Soldiers who had been fighting at the Praestor Gate suddenly found themselves on the Via Aquila, fifteen kilometers away. Daemons and traitor Astartes attacked from places they could never have been, upending defensive plans and overrunning loyalist forces.

	In the midst of the devastation, Euphrati Keeler and her conclave of faithful struggled to organize any kind of meaningful response, delivering arms, munitions, and scraps of inspiration wherever they could. Keeler herself was coming to terms with what she truly believed about the Emperor, and her dawning realization that one did not necessarily need to believe in him as a god, but instead as the embodiment of [[Dune\|a path upon which he had set humanity millennia ago]]. Humanity did not need understanding, or enlightenment, only blind faith that the Emperor’s designs would be fulfilled as long as they believed in him and played their parts.		In the midst of the devastation, Euphrati Keeler and her conclave of faithful struggled to organize any kind of meaningful response, delivering arms, munitions, and scraps of inspiration wherever they could. Keeler herself was coming to terms with what she truly believed about the Emperor, and her dawning realization that one did not necessarily need to believe in him as a god, but instead as the embodiment of [[Dune\|a path upon which he had set humanity millennia ago]]. Humanity did not need understanding, or enlightenment, only blind faith that the Emperor’s designs would be fulfilled as long as they believed in him and played their parts.

1d4chan>Rogalydondon: /* The End and the Death */

2023-03-05T16:29:55Z

The End and the Death

Show changes

2607:FB91:119A:44DF:C8AD:B884:FF14:8318: /* The End and the Death */

2023-03-03T19:25:36Z

The End and the Death

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:25, 3 March 2023
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	Ezekyle Abaddon found himself the master of a legion that no longer cared to listen to any masters save their own lust for blood and death. His orders were ignored or brushed off as the captains of the Legion surged toward the Sanctum, sensing final victory in their grasp. Even as he grew increasingly furious with his wayward brothers and heartsick by the devastation they were wreaking upon Terra, he learned that the ''Vengeful Spirit'''s shields were down and came as close to panic as he had ever been. He attempted to recall the XVI Legion to return to the flagship and defend their father, only for most of the Legion's captains to ignore his orders, while most of those who responded derided his concern and insulted him as a coward and a petulant child. Nevertheless, he was able to assemble a small force to return to the ''Spirit''.		Ezekyle Abaddon found himself the master of a legion that no longer cared to listen to any masters save their own lust for blood and death. His orders were ignored or brushed off as the captains of the Legion surged toward the Sanctum, sensing final victory in their grasp. Even as he grew increasingly furious with his wayward brothers and heartsick by the devastation they were wreaking upon Terra, he learned that the ''Vengeful Spirit'''s shields were down and came as close to panic as he had ever been. He attempted to recall the XVI Legion to return to the flagship and defend their father, only for most of the Legion's captains to ignore his orders, while most of those who responded derided his concern and insulted him as a coward and a petulant child. Nevertheless, he was able to assemble a small force to return to the ''Spirit''.

	As Ollanius Persson and his small band of unlikely allies wended their way deeper into the forgotten depths beneath the Imperial Palace, they revealed themselves to the others one by one. Ollanius explained his Perpetual nature and his falling out with the Emperor at the Tower of Babel, while Actaea revealed herself as Cyrene Valantion, reforged as an artificial Perpetual after her death at the hands of the Custodes and, so she claimed, enlightened as to the true nature of the Warp. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legionnaire accompanying her explained his mission to John Grammaticus. At the outset of the Heresy, Dorn had created at least six hidden pathways out of the Palace in case the worst should come to pass. The Alpha Legion had located one of these passages and had planted reserves of legionaries and materiel caches deep beneath the Palace to exploit this opening. These legionaries had all been hypno-conditioned with a variety of plans devised by Alpharius and Omegon, each activated by a different code word. “Sagittary” would trigger loyalty to Horus, while “Xenophon” would command them to fight for the Emperor. “Paramus” would order them to bring down both sides in a case of mutual annihilation, while “Thisbe” would trigger a full evacuation and “Orphaeus” would command them to focus on Chaos, either to defeat it or to master it. The Legionnaire then revealed his true identity and allegiance. He was First Captain Ingo Pech, and he had recognized that Horus had to be stopped in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. He had been sent to activate "Xenophon", only for Actaea to intercept him and hijack his mission by using her psyker talents to trigger "Orphaeus" instead. When a stunned Grammaticus asked what her plan was, Pech explained that she intended to turn Horus upon Chaos itself, using his Warp-borne power to enslave and master it and thereby end the war. As part of this plan, she needed both Ollanius and the athame he was carrying, since the knife in his hands was the only thing that might still wound Horus. He then asked Grammaticus to stop Actaea, which would also mean killing him due to the hypno-conditioning, and Grammaticus agreed. After they had infiltrated the Palace, Grammaticus clamped a limpet mine to Pech’s chest and confronted ~~Actae~~, who explained that she had been sent by Erda as a second weapon of last resort: if Ollanius couldn’t stop the Emperor, she would stop Horus. She agreed to be psychically leashed to the group’s psyker Katt, but Pech was left behind, since she could not undo his hypno-conditioning. They successfully infiltrated the Sanctum Imperialis, but were captured and brought before Vulkan, who remembered Grammaticus from their encounter on Macragge years before. When Ollanius asked to speak with the Emperor, Vulkan informed him that he was already aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''. As he considered what to do with these unlikely intruders, Khalid Hassan noted that he had found a card in Leetu’s tarot deck that the prototype Astartes swore had not been there when he entered the Palace: the Dark King. A horrified Actaea revealed its true meaning to all present. The Dark King was a name that had been whispered in thousands of languages since before the rise of humanity. It was the name of a god yet unborn, a god of the Warp who would be forged from the clay of Horus Lupercal and birthed in the annihilation of Terra and humanity, just as Slaanesh had risen from the destruction of the Eldar empire thousands of years prior. This was the true endgame of the Siege and of Chaos.		As Ollanius Persson and his small band of unlikely allies wended their way deeper into the forgotten depths beneath the Imperial Palace, they revealed themselves to the others one by one. Ollanius explained his Perpetual nature and his falling out with the Emperor at the Tower of Babel, while Actaea revealed herself as Cyrene Valantion, reforged as an artificial Perpetual after her death at the hands of the Custodes and, so she claimed, enlightened as to the true nature of the Warp. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legionnaire accompanying her explained his mission to John Grammaticus. At the outset of the Heresy, Dorn had created at least six hidden pathways out of the Palace in case the worst should come to pass. The Alpha Legion had located one of these passages and had planted reserves of legionaries and materiel caches deep beneath the Palace to exploit this opening. These legionaries had all been hypno-conditioned with a variety of plans devised by Alpharius and Omegon, each activated by a different code word. “Sagittary” would trigger loyalty to Horus, while “Xenophon” would command them to fight for the Emperor. “Paramus” would order them to bring down both sides in a case of mutual annihilation, while “Thisbe” would trigger a full evacuation and “Orphaeus” would command them to focus on Chaos, either to defeat it or to master it. The Legionnaire then revealed his true identity and allegiance. He was First Captain Ingo Pech, and he had recognized that Horus had to be stopped in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. He had been sent to activate "Xenophon", only for Actaea to intercept him and hijack his mission by using her psyker talents to trigger "Orphaeus" instead. When a stunned Grammaticus asked what her plan was, Pech explained that she intended to turn Horus upon Chaos itself, using his Warp-borne power to enslave and master it and thereby end the war. As part of this plan, she needed both Ollanius and the athame he was carrying, since the knife in his hands was the only thing that might still wound Horus. He then asked Grammaticus to stop Actaea, which would also mean killing him due to the hypno-conditioning, and Grammaticus agreed. After they had infiltrated the Palace, Grammaticus clamped a limpet mine to Pech’s chest and confronted Actaea, who explained that she had been sent by Erda as a second weapon of last resort: if Ollanius couldn’t stop the Emperor, she would stop Horus. She agreed to be psychically leashed to the group’s psyker Katt, but Pech was left behind, since she could not undo his hypno-conditioning. They successfully infiltrated the Sanctum Imperialis, but were captured and brought before Vulkan, who remembered Grammaticus from their encounter on Macragge years before. When Ollanius asked to speak with the Emperor, Vulkan informed him that he was already aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''. As he considered what to do with these unlikely intruders, Khalid Hassan noted that he had found a card in Leetu’s tarot deck that the prototype Astartes swore had not been there when he entered the Palace: the Dark King. A horrified Actaea revealed its true meaning to all present. The Dark King was a name that had been whispered in thousands of languages since before the rise of humanity. It was the name of a god yet unborn, a god of the Warp who would be forged from the clay of Horus Lupercal and birthed in the annihilation of Terra and humanity, just as Slaanesh had risen from the destruction of the Eldar empire thousands of years prior. This was the true endgame of the Siege and of Chaos.

	==Duel of the Emperor and Horus==		==Duel of the Emperor and Horus==

2607:FB91:119A:44DF:C8AD:B884:FF14:8318: /* The End and the Death */

2023-03-03T19:24:51Z

The End and the Death

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:24, 3 March 2023
Line 142:		Line 142:
	Ezekyle Abaddon found himself the master of a legion that no longer cared to listen to any masters save their own lust for blood and death. His orders were ignored or brushed off as the captains of the Legion surged toward the Sanctum, sensing final victory in their grasp. Even as he grew increasingly furious with his wayward brothers and heartsick by the devastation they were wreaking upon Terra, he learned that the ''Vengeful Spirit'''s shields were down and came as close to panic as he had ever been. He attempted to recall the XVI Legion to return to the flagship and defend their father, only for most of the Legion's captains to ignore his orders, while most of those who responded derided his concern and insulted him as a coward and a petulant child. Nevertheless, he was able to assemble a small force to return to the ''Spirit''.		Ezekyle Abaddon found himself the master of a legion that no longer cared to listen to any masters save their own lust for blood and death. His orders were ignored or brushed off as the captains of the Legion surged toward the Sanctum, sensing final victory in their grasp. Even as he grew increasingly furious with his wayward brothers and heartsick by the devastation they were wreaking upon Terra, he learned that the ''Vengeful Spirit'''s shields were down and came as close to panic as he had ever been. He attempted to recall the XVI Legion to return to the flagship and defend their father, only for most of the Legion's captains to ignore his orders, while most of those who responded derided his concern and insulted him as a coward and a petulant child. Nevertheless, he was able to assemble a small force to return to the ''Spirit''.

	As Ollanius Persson and his small band of unlikely allies wended their way deeper into the forgotten depths beneath the Imperial Palace, they revealed themselves to the others one by one. Ollanius explained his Perpetual nature and his falling out with the Emperor at the Tower of Babel, while ~~Actae~~ revealed herself as Cyrene Valantion, reforged as an artificial Perpetual after her death at the hands of the Custodes and, so she claimed, enlightened as to the true nature of the Warp. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legionnaire accompanying her explained his mission to John Grammaticus. At the outset of the Heresy, Dorn had created at least six hidden pathways out of the Palace in case the worst should come to pass. The Alpha Legion had located one of these passages and had planted reserves of legionaries and materiel caches deep beneath the Palace to exploit this opening. These legionaries had all been hypno-conditioned with a variety of plans devised by Alpharius and Omegon, each activated by a different code word. “Sagittary” would trigger loyalty to Horus, while “Xenophon” would command them to fight for the Emperor. “Paramus” would order them to bring down both sides in a case of mutual annihilation, while “Thisbe” would trigger a full evacuation and “Orphaeus” would command them to focus on Chaos, either to defeat it or to master it. The Legionnaire then revealed his true identity and allegiance. He was First Captain Ingo Pech, and he had recognized that Horus had to be stopped in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. He had been sent to activate "Xenophon", only for ~~Actae~~ to intercept him and hijack his mission by using her psyker talents to trigger "Orphaeus" instead. When a stunned Grammaticus asked what her plan was, Pech explained that she intended to turn Horus upon Chaos itself, using his Warp-borne power to enslave and master it and thereby end the war. As part of this plan, she needed both Ollanius and the athame he was carrying, since the knife in his hands was the only thing that might still wound Horus. He then asked Grammaticus to stop ~~Actae~~, which would also mean killing him due to the hypno-conditioning, and Grammaticus agreed. After they had infiltrated the Palace, Grammaticus clamped a limpet mine to Pech’s chest and confronted Actae, who explained that she had been sent by Erda as a second weapon of last resort: if Ollanius couldn’t stop the Emperor, she would stop Horus. She agreed to be psychically leashed to the group’s psyker Katt, but Pech was left behind, since she could not undo his hypno-conditioning. They successfully infiltrated the Sanctum Imperialis, but were captured and brought before Vulkan, who remembered Grammaticus from their encounter on Macragge years before. When Ollanius asked to speak with the Emperor, Vulkan informed him that he was already aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''. As he considered what to do with these unlikely intruders, Khalid Hassan noted that he had found a card in Leetu’s tarot deck that the prototype Astartes swore had not been there when he entered the Palace: the Dark King. A horrified ~~Actae~~ revealed its true meaning to all present. The Dark King was a name that had been whispered in thousands of languages since before the rise of humanity. It was the name of a god yet unborn, a god of the Warp who would be forged from the clay of Horus Lupercal and birthed in the annihilation of Terra and humanity, just as Slaanesh had risen from the destruction of the Eldar empire thousands of years prior. This was the true endgame of the Siege and of Chaos.		As Ollanius Persson and his small band of unlikely allies wended their way deeper into the forgotten depths beneath the Imperial Palace, they revealed themselves to the others one by one. Ollanius explained his Perpetual nature and his falling out with the Emperor at the Tower of Babel, while Actaea revealed herself as Cyrene Valantion, reforged as an artificial Perpetual after her death at the hands of the Custodes and, so she claimed, enlightened as to the true nature of the Warp. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legionnaire accompanying her explained his mission to John Grammaticus. At the outset of the Heresy, Dorn had created at least six hidden pathways out of the Palace in case the worst should come to pass. The Alpha Legion had located one of these passages and had planted reserves of legionaries and materiel caches deep beneath the Palace to exploit this opening. These legionaries had all been hypno-conditioned with a variety of plans devised by Alpharius and Omegon, each activated by a different code word. “Sagittary” would trigger loyalty to Horus, while “Xenophon” would command them to fight for the Emperor. “Paramus” would order them to bring down both sides in a case of mutual annihilation, while “Thisbe” would trigger a full evacuation and “Orphaeus” would command them to focus on Chaos, either to defeat it or to master it. The Legionnaire then revealed his true identity and allegiance. He was First Captain Ingo Pech, and he had recognized that Horus had to be stopped in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. He had been sent to activate "Xenophon", only for Actaea to intercept him and hijack his mission by using her psyker talents to trigger "Orphaeus" instead. When a stunned Grammaticus asked what her plan was, Pech explained that she intended to turn Horus upon Chaos itself, using his Warp-borne power to enslave and master it and thereby end the war. As part of this plan, she needed both Ollanius and the athame he was carrying, since the knife in his hands was the only thing that might still wound Horus. He then asked Grammaticus to stop Actaea, which would also mean killing him due to the hypno-conditioning, and Grammaticus agreed. After they had infiltrated the Palace, Grammaticus clamped a limpet mine to Pech’s chest and confronted Actae, who explained that she had been sent by Erda as a second weapon of last resort: if Ollanius couldn’t stop the Emperor, she would stop Horus. She agreed to be psychically leashed to the group’s psyker Katt, but Pech was left behind, since she could not undo his hypno-conditioning. They successfully infiltrated the Sanctum Imperialis, but were captured and brought before Vulkan, who remembered Grammaticus from their encounter on Macragge years before. When Ollanius asked to speak with the Emperor, Vulkan informed him that he was already aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''. As he considered what to do with these unlikely intruders, Khalid Hassan noted that he had found a card in Leetu’s tarot deck that the prototype Astartes swore had not been there when he entered the Palace: the Dark King. A horrified Actaea revealed its true meaning to all present. The Dark King was a name that had been whispered in thousands of languages since before the rise of humanity. It was the name of a god yet unborn, a god of the Warp who would be forged from the clay of Horus Lupercal and birthed in the annihilation of Terra and humanity, just as Slaanesh had risen from the destruction of the Eldar empire thousands of years prior. This was the true endgame of the Siege and of Chaos.

	==Duel of the Emperor and Horus==		==Duel of the Emperor and Horus==

1d4chan>Gilten: /* The End and the Death */

2023-03-03T07:27:17Z

The End and the Death

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:27, 3 March 2023
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	==The End and the Death==		==The End and the Death==
			{{topquote\|We are in the endgame now.\|Doctor Strange, ''Avengers: Infinity War''}}
	With the Eternity Gate closed and the Sanctum Imperialis sealed, the Siege had reached its terminal phase. The loyalist forces were scattered across the ruins of the Inner Palace, fighting on as best they could in the face of what seemed to be Horus’ inevitable victory. Imperial Fists, White Scars, Blood Angels, [[Solar Auxilia]], Imperial Army, Custodians, and Null Maidens all fought side by side wherever they happened to be, while [[Penal legion\|penal units]], [[Whiteshield Conscript\|civilian conscripts]], [[Administratum\|rear-echelon functionaries]], and senior officers took up arms and joined the fighting. Broken chains of command and lines of organization were hastily reconstituted by whoever happened to be on the scene. The White Scars still held the Lion’s Gate and were using its firepower to devastate the traitors’ fleet, but the anti-orbital batteries and their power sources were slowly being destroyed one by one. Legions of Neverborn manifested on Terra’s soil, joining with the Warmaster’s hordes as they surrounded the Sanctum and slowly choked the life from its remaining defenders. As they swarmed across the Throneworld, they wrote and sang and spoke a single name: the Dark King.		With the Eternity Gate closed and the Sanctum Imperialis sealed, the Siege had reached its terminal phase. The loyalist forces were scattered across the ruins of the Inner Palace, fighting on as best they could in the face of what seemed to be Horus’ inevitable victory. Imperial Fists, White Scars, Blood Angels, [[Solar Auxilia]], Imperial Army, Custodians, and Null Maidens all fought side by side wherever they happened to be, while [[Penal legion\|penal units]], [[Whiteshield Conscript\|civilian conscripts]], [[Administratum\|rear-echelon functionaries]], and senior officers took up arms and joined the fighting. Broken chains of command and lines of organization were hastily reconstituted by whoever happened to be on the scene. The White Scars still held the Lion’s Gate and were using its firepower to devastate the traitors’ fleet, but the anti-orbital batteries and their power sources were slowly being destroyed one by one. Legions of Neverborn manifested on Terra’s soil, joining with the Warmaster’s hordes as they surrounded the Sanctum and slowly choked the life from its remaining defenders. As they swarmed across the Throneworld, they wrote and sang and spoke a single name: the Dark King.