NationStates Jolt Archive

Hallowed Terra, The Closing Hours of the Horus Heresy

In the final bastion of loyal guardsmen and marines, the Emperor of mankind contemplated his fate, and the fate of his Imperium. Around him stood thousands, hundreds of thousands of terrified soldiers and stoic Space Marines waiting for his commands in what all believed would be the final battle of the Imperium of Man. The air was filled with the sounds of a titanic war, as millions clashed in the grounds of the titanic palace of the Emperor. War machines greater than iron skyscrapers unleashed torrents of energy into the quivering mass of terrified loyalists. Monstrous daemons duelled with heroic and almost angelic warriors of mankind. Hideous mutants leered at the defenders, spewing blasphemous curses even with their dying breaths. And though they died in great numbers, they were winning. It would only be a matter of time until they pushed right into the last position.
The Emperor was cursing this fate as one of his Primarchs knelt before him, the noble winged Sanguinius of the Blood Angels.

"Your Majesty, our sensors have detected something unusual."

"What is it?"

"The traitor Horus' flagship has lowered it's void shields. Allow me to gather a few men, some Terminators..."

"He has set a trap for me. And I will walk right into the teeth of it. Sanguinius, Rogal, gather your best men. We will strike deep into the heart of my treacherous son's ship."

The winged Primarch nodded. Soon, he and Rogal Dorn were standing before the Emperor surrounded by a group of ancient veteran Space marines clad in holy Tactical Dreadnought power armour, armed with the most fearsome infantry weapons of the Imperium. In a flash of light, they had left the cavernous expanse of the sacred Palace, and were in the bowels of the foul Chaos-warped flagship of the Heretic Horus.

Joint Flagship of the IInd and XIth Space Marine Legions

The two anonymous Primarchs watched on in horror at the decimation of Terra. Their fleet had remained hidden, far from the jump point from which the obscene Chaotic fleet had emerged, and out of the sight of their scanners, and now they watched impotently as their brothers stood and died on the holiest ground of the Imperium. They wept for the desecration of sacred Terra, and for the loss of all those warriors of the Emperor. They watched the hololithic displays showing the energy signatures of the Chaos fleet, made all the more clear by the massive energy signatures of the void shields that protected them. With a quiet bleep, one such signature grew fainter. One of the Primarchs turned to a nearby bridge officer.

"What was that?"

"A Chaos ship dropped its shields, my lord."

"What class?"

"A marine battle-barge, Primarch. Of the Sons of Horus."

"The sly bastard. A trap, no doubt. For our Emperor. Well, we'll give him a shock. If we're going to die, we'll die bloodying his nose. Have the fleet move ahead, full speed, with orders to fire on anything they can hit when it comes in range. Take us to within teleporting distance of that ship."

[To be continued at some point. Feel free to comment.]

OOC: Hm, seems an interesting concept. Of course recent fluff points to at least one of them having died, never "fulfilling his potential" as Horus puts it, but I won't hold the confusing quagmire of Sabretooth fluff ruin this for you :)

You just better have an awesome reason for them being erased utterly from the Imperial Records

OOC: Tag of intrest

OOC: Nicely done man. Very good. Hope to RP with you soon!

for me.]

The Bridge, Horus' Flagship

The Emperor stood before Horus, his holy power manifesting in the form of near-blinding light penetrating the darkness of the bridge of the hideously mutated flagship. The mutilated corpse of Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion lay before him, recognisable only by the blood-spattered wings that jutted from his back. Behind him stood a Space marine in Terminator armour, overshadowed by the forms of Mankind's saviour and his heretical son. As the two titanic beings stood glowering at each other, no doubt exchanging psychic words too terrible for the minds of mortals, the Marine charged, or tried.
His storm bolter was quickly silenced as the traitor Horus turned and crushed the annoyance with a gesture. Intoning the words of ancient chaotic spells Horus inflicted unspeakable torments on the helpless marine, tearing the armour apart effortlessly, removing the skin. The Emperor stood by, enraged by the mutilation of one of his favoured warriors. Finally, the marine expired.

"you really are lost, Horus."

"Bow before me, and the Chaos Gods, and you will be spared. I have bent the dark Gods to my will, and with them I will "

"I will not bow before the ruinous powers, regardless of who wields them. You have betrayed me, and all of mankind. Your murder of Sanguinius, and this marine show that you are a tool of Chaos, rather than the master. You have torn apart mankind's dominion, and sullied countless souls with false words and promises. This all ends here, Horus."

With a snarl, the Warmaster fell on his creator, daemonic weapon screaming for this most powerful of souls to drink. The Emperor barely had time to parry before he was assailed again. Out of the corner of his eye, in a viewport he could see a rapidly approaching spear of light.


Bridge, Joint Flagship of the IInd and XIth Legions

Bodies littered the deck of the burning command centre of the flagship, as officers hurried about directing damage control crews and tried to co-ordinate the fire of crippled batteries. The sound of klaxons muted the shouts and screams of the remaining crew. One voice was heard by all, the poor quality of the damaged and static-ridden internal vox-casters boosted by a considerable psychic talent.

"We are ready. Good luck. May the Emperor preserve us all."

At that message, a junior officer tapped a set of activation runes, teleporting the two Primarchs to the Emperor's aid. The sudden power strain overloading the ship's plasma generator, catastrophically damaging the flagship.

*more to come*

OOC: Could've left someone else one of the lost Legions :P

A great starting point, and post, and I look forward to what I imagine may be an alternate ending to the Horus Heresy. I'd go for 'And They Shall Know No Fear' as a sig, myself. 'We' just sets off my spider-sense, y'know?

Anyway, welcome to NS and FT.

The Bridge, Horus' Flagship

The duel between the Emperor and Horus went badly for Mankind's God. Despite his anger at the obscene display of violence towards his fellow Primarch and a respected andd experienced holy warrior of the Imperium, the Emperor still saw some sliver of humanity in the traitor Horus, and so he fought defensively, warding off blow after blow. Unfortunately, he could not keep this up forever. The Primarch had recieved the gifts of all the Chaos Gods, his physical power now easily rivalling or outstripping the Emperor's. The air was heavy with the psychic reverberations of the battle, and any mere mortal to enter the place would most likely have been annihilated instantly. Snarling, Horus raised his daemonic weapon to strike, and for a split second the Emperor's light shone on his corrupted Terminator armour in such a way as to reveal a gash down the blasphemous runes that protected Horus from all manner of psychic assaults.

If I can just get a second..

The Emperor's brief lapse in concentration cost him dearly. The daemon blade flashed down, fast enough even for the Emperor's godly perception to miss the movement. The holy golden power-armour of the Emperor of mankind crumpled like paper, crushed by the Primarch's mighty blow. As the Emperor writhed on the ground further blows rained down, cutting him almost to ribbons. Horus grinned, and readied his weapon once more.

"It is over. I wil lead humanity to a new future. The Dark Gods will serve me, and by extension humanity. Your reign ends here."

The Emperor simply closed his eyes. He was dully aware of a bright flash, a blood-curdling scream and a light impact on his back.

~ Tag ~

Very nice opening post. Well done.

Opening his eyes, the Emperor didn't see the dark and corrupt mutated bridge of Horus' barge, but the blessed and incense-clouded interior of the office of the chief Apothecary of a Space marine chapter. The Apothecary that stood over him bore no Legion markings, only gleaming white armour slicked with blood. Around the Emperor others rushed around, tending to injured marines. Others dragged corpses out of the way. Periodically, the whole place shook furiosly, pitching over equipment and poorly-balanced servitors alike.

"Where... Am... I?"

The Apothecary started, but quickly recovered his composure.

"You are aboard the Battle-Barge Cleansing Light, Majesty, currently attempting to make it to a Warp jump-point."

"Retreat? Why?"

"We have lost a great deal of our strength, lord. Several ships, thousands of men and in all likelihood, the first companies of both of our Legions. As we speak they're boarding Chaos ships to buy us the time to get out of the system. Emperor, there's no time to be spent discussing these matters now. There are casualties flooding in, and you require much attention."

With that, in an act of near-blasphemous impudence, the Apothecary reached out and injected the Emperor with a powerful sedative.
The retreat of the Legions that would come to be known to those in the highest echelons of the fragmented society that followed as the Lost Legions went badly. The retreat to the jump-point was reduced to a mad scramble of battle-barges, constantly harassed by the twisted mutant strike-craft of the wounded Chaos battlefleet that held the Sol system in its polluted claw. Even as the mauled remains of the IInd and XIth made it to the jump-point Chaos had one final spiteful act.
Standing over the corpses of the majority of the First Company of the second Legion of the Adeptus Astartes and the three mutilated Primarchs, Horus sensed the retreat of the Space marines and the escape of his creator, and in his sheer rage summoned up a Warp storm that would hold the two Legions for tens of millenia.

[Flame time. :)]

[I appear to have lost my last post. ._.]

[ooc: but...wait...how....what....NO!

Ok, officially something needs to die, if I read this right, the Emperor is still alive, which means he never sat upon the Golden Throne, which means he never recived One Thousand Souls a day for more then ten-thousand years, which means he isn't a sleeping warp entity, which means the entire basis of the Entire Plan I had is gone.

And I was writing the damn post to! Emperor's Wrath thats kinda crap.

Anyway, interesting idea, if slightly irritating since you effectivlly took not only the two lost Legions, but the Emperor to. I find it interesting where you plan to go with this, meanwhile I need to go work out how to rework this idea to work.

You have MSN? Mine tiz anisarian@gmail.com

Right, time to go work on some ideas.

Love Anisarian, the Singing Lady.]

[I was expecting at the very least some annoyance at the fantastic feat of canon-slaying I have pulled... ]