Graham McNeill - False Gods

version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> sf_action Graham McNeill False Gods

The Horus Heresy

Graham McNeill

FALSE GODS

The heresy takes root

To Dan. Thanks for the illumination.

A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by

BL Publishing,

Games Workshop Ltd.,

Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4

Cover illustration by Philip Sibbering.

First page illustration by Philip Sibbering.

© Games Workshop Limited 2006. All rights reserved.

Black Library, the Black Library logo, BL Publishing, Games Workshop,

the Games Workshop logo and all associated marks, names, characters,

illustrations and images from the Warhammer 40,000 universe are

either •, TM and,’or ® Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2006, variably

registered in the UK and other countries around the world. All rights

reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 13: 978-1-84416-370-0 ISBN 10: 1-84416-370-9

Distributed in the US by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, US.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookmarque, Surrey, UK.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this

book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is

purely coincidental.

See the Black Library on the Internet at

www.blacklibrary.com

Find out more about Games Workshop and the world of Warhammer 40,000 at

www.games-workshop.com

The Horus Heresy

It is a time of legend.

Mighty heroes battle for the right to rale the galaxy.

The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered

the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have

been smashed by the Emperor's elite warriors and wiped

from the face of history.

The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons.

Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors.

First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs,

superheroic beings who have led the Emperor's armies of

Space Marines in victory after victory. They are unstoppable

and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor's genetic

experimentation. The Space Marines are the mightiest

human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of

besting a hundred normal men or more in combat.

Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.

Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glori­ous, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor's military might, subjugator of a thousand thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme.

Horus is a star ascendant, but how far can a star rise before it falls?

~ DRAMATIS PERSONAE ~

The Sons of Horus

The Warmaster Horus Commander of the Sons of Horus Legion

Ezekyle Abaddon First Captain of the Sons of Horus

Tarik Torgaddon Captain, 2nd Company, Sons of Horus

Iacton Qruze, 'the Half-heard' Captain, 3rd Company, Sons of Horus

Hastur Sejanus Captain, 4th Company, Sons of Horus (Deceased)

Horus Aximand, 'Little Horus' Captain, 5th Company, Sons of Horus

Serghar Targost Captain, 7th Company, Sons of Horus, lodge master

Garviel Loken Captain, 10th Company, Sons of Horus

Luc Sedirae Captain, 13th Company, Sons of Horus

Tybalt Marr, 'the Either' Captain, 18th Company, Sons of Horus

Verulam Moy, 'the Or' Captain, 19th Company, Sons of Horus

Kalus Ekaddon, Captain Catulan Reaver Squad, Sons of Ноше

Falkus Kibre, 'Widowmaker' Captain, Justaerin Terminator Squad, Sons of Horus

Nero Vipus Sergeant, Locasta Tactical Squad, Sons of Horus

Maloghurst 'the Twisted' Equerry to the Warmaster

The Primarchs

Angron Primarch of the World Eaters

Fulgrim Primarch of the Emperor's Children

Other Space Marines

Erebus First Chaplain of the Word Bearers

KhArn Captain, 8th Assault Company of the World Eaters

The Legio Mortis

Princeps Esau Turnet Commander of the Dies Irae, an Imperator-class Titan

Moderati Primus Cassar One of the senior crew of the Dies Irae

Moderati Primus Aruken Another of the Dies Irae's crew

The Davinites

Lodge Priestess Akshub Leader of the Lodge of the Serpent

Tsi Rekh Davinite liaison

Tsepha A cultist of Davin and facilitator for Akshub

Non-Astartes Imperials

Petroneixa Vivar Palatina Majoria of House Carpinus – one of the scions of a wealthy noble family of Terra

Maggard Bodyguard to Petronella

Lord Commander Varvaras, Commander of Imperial Army forces attached to Horas's Legion Mechanicum Adept Regulus, Mechanicum representative to Horus, he commands the Legion's robots and maintains its fighting machines

PART ONE

THE BETRAYER

I was there the day that Horus fell…

'It is the folly of men to believe that they are great players on the stage of history, that their actions might affect the grand procession that is the passage of time. It is an insulating conceit a powerful man might clasp tight to his bosom that he might sleep away the night, safe in the knowledge that, but for his presence, the world would not turn, the mountains would crumble and the seas dry up. But if the remembrance of history has taught us anything, it is that, in time, all things will pass. Unnumbered civilisations before ours are naught but dust and bones, and the greatest heroes of their age are forgotten legends. No man lives forever and even as memory fades, so too will any remembrance of him.

'It is a universal truth and an unavoidable law that cannot be denied, despite the protestations of the vain, the arrogant and the tyrannical.

'Horus was the exception.'

- Kyril Sindermann, Preface to the Remembrancers

'It would take a thousand cliches to describe the Warmaster, each one truer than the last.'

- Petronella Vivar, Palatina Majoria of House Carpinus

'Everything degenerates in the hands of men.'

- Ignace Karkasy, Meditations on the Elegiac Hero

ONE

Scion of Terra

Colossi

Rebel moon

Cyclopean Magnus, Rogal Dorn, Leman Russ: names that rang with history, names that shaped history. Her eyes roamed further up the list: Corax, Night Haunter, Angron… and so on through a legacy of heroism and conquest, of worlds reclaimed in the name of the Emperor as part of the ever-expanding Imperium of Man.

It thrilled her just to hear the names in her head.

But greater than any of them was the name at the top of the list.

Horus: the Warmaster.

Lupercal, she heard his soldiers now called him – an affectionate nickname for their beloved commander. It was a name earned in the fires of battle: on Ullanor, on Murder, on Sixty-Three Nineteen, – a world the deluded inhabitants had, in their ignorance, known as Terra – and a thousand other batdes she had not yet committed to her mnemonic implants.