Graham McNeill - A Thousand Sons

version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> Боевая фантастика Graham McNeill A Thousand Sons

The Horus Heresy

A THOUSAND SONS

all is dust…

Horus Heresy – 12

Graham McNeill

(An Undead Scan v1.0)

1

To Evan. One down, nine hundred and ninety-nine to go.

2

The Horus Heresy

Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule 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 worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a

warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme.

As the flames of war spread through the Imperium, mankind’s champions will all be put to the

ultimate test.

3

~ DRAMATIS PERSONAE ~

The Thousand Sons

Magnus the Red – Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion

The Corvidae

Ahzek Ahriman – Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons

Ankhu Anen – Guardian of the Great Library

Amon – Captain of the 9th Fellowship, Equerry to the Primarch

The Pyrae

Khalophis – Captain of the 6th Fellowship

Auramagma – Captain of the 8th Fellowship

The Pavoni

Hathor Maat – Captain of the 3rd Fellowship

The Athanaeans

Baleq Uthizaar – Captain of the 5th Fellowship

The Raptora

Phosis T’kar – Captain of the 2nd Fellowship

Phael Toron – Captain of the 7th Fellowship

The Primarchs

Leman Russ – Primarch of the Space Wolves

Lorgar – Primarch of the Word Bearers

Mortarion – Primarch of the Death Guard

Sanguinius – Primarch of the Blood Angels

Fulgrim – Primarch of the Emperor’s Children

The Space Wolves

Amlodhi Skarssen Skarssensson – Lord of the 5th Company of Space Wolves

Ohthere Wyrdmake – Rune Priest of the 5th Co. of Space Wolves

The Custodes

Constantin Valdor – Chief Custodian

Amon – Custodian Guard

Non-Space Marines

Malcador – The Sigillite of Terra

4

= Page 5 =

Kallista Eris – Historiographer

Mahavastu Kallimakus – Scrivener Extraordinary to Magnus the Red

Camille Shivani – Architectural Archeohistorian

Lemuel Gaumon – Societal Behaviourist

Yatiri – Leader of the Aghoru

5

“The ancient knights’ quest for the grail, the alchemist’s search for the Stone of the

Philosophers, all were part of the Great Work and are therefore endless. Success only opens up new

avenues of brilliant possibility. Such a task is eternal and its joys without bounds; for the whole

universe, and all its wonders… what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and

Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing heirs of the galaxy and eternity,

whose name is Mankind?”

—The Book of Magnus

“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”

—Ahzek Ahriman

“The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself: ye,

all which it inherits shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack

behind!”

—The Prophecy of Amon

6

All is dust…

How prophetic those words seem now.

A wise man from ancient Terra said them, or words just like them. I wonder if he was gifted as I

am. I say gifted, but with every passing day, I come to regard my powers as a curse.

I look out from the top of my tower, over a landscape of madness and storms of impossible

energies, and I remember reading those words in a crumbling book on Terra. Over the centuries, I

read every one of the texts from the forgotten ages that filled the great libraries of Prospero, but I

do not think I really understood them until today.

I can feel him drawing near with every breath, every heartbeat.

That I still have either is a miracle, especially now.

He is coming to kill me, of course. I can feel his anger, his hurt pride and his great regret. The

power he now has was unlooked for, unwanted and unnatural. Power is fleeting, some say, but not

this power.

Once acquired it can never be given back.

His abilities are like nothing else wielded by man. He could kill me from the other side of the

galaxy, but he will not. He needs to look me in the eye as he destroys me. It is his flaw, one of them

at least, that he is honourable.

He behaves to others as he expects to be treated.

That was his undoing.

I know what he thinks I have done. He thinks I have betrayed him, but I have not. Truly, I have

not. None of our cabal betrayed him; we did everything we could to save our brothers.

It has come to this, a father set to kill his favoured son.

That is the greatest tragedy of the Thousand Sons. They will call us traitors, but such an irony

will go unrecorded, even in the lost books of Kallimakus. We remain loyal, as we have always been.

No one will believe that, not the Emperor, not our brothers, and especially not the wolves that

are not wolves.

History will say they unleashed the Wolves of Russ on us, but history will be wrong. They

unleashed something far worse.

I can hear him climbing the steps of my tower.

He will think I have done this because of Ohrmuzd, and in a way he is right. But it is so much

more than that.

I have destroyed my Legion: The Legion I loved, the Legion that saved me. I have destroyed the

Legion he tried to save, and when he kills me he will be right to do so.

I deserve no less, and perhaps much more.

Ah, but before he destroys me, I must tell you of our doom.

Yet where to begin?

There are no beginnings and no endings, especially upon worlds of the Great Ocean. Past,

present and future are one, and time is a meaningless.

So it must be arbitrary, this place where I begin.

I will start with a mountain.

The Mountain that Eats Men.

7

BOOK ONE

IN THE KINGDOM

OF THE BLIND

CHAPTER ONE

The Mountain that Eats Men / Captains / Observers

The Mountain had existed for tens of thousands of years, a rearing landmass of rock that had been

willed into existence by forces greater than any living inhabitant of Aghoru could imagine. Though