An Angel's Fall

Josias_21

Summary:

This is an alternative heresy I created inspired by Roboutian and Leonine Heresy.

Notes:

Well this chapter would be the first of several index chapters about an Alternate Heresy that I created inspired by Roboutian heresy and Leonine heresy. I hope you enjoy it

Chapter 1: The heresy

Chapter Text

Introduction:

Over 10,000 years ago, humanity was launched into the darkness of the long night. Their unity and power shattered into a thousand pieces as they were betrayed by their creations made of metal and torn apart by storms of madness, at the same time xenos of all kinds took advantage of this moment of weakness to subjugate the human race. But in humanity's darkest hour, a light had risen The emperor of mankind arose in the cradle of the human race and after an arduous war he united the entire planet under his banner. With the support of Mars, he launched himself into the infinite vastness of space, with the aim not only of uniting the human race, but also of claiming the innate human right of galactic dominion. Alongside him were the endless regiments of the Imperial army, the war gods of the Martian titans, the silent and shadowy Assassins, all forces of incredible power and importance, but none of them surpassed the Emperor's Magnum Opus. The legions of Astarters. They were the greatest forces of humanity, few in comparison to mortal armies, but each soldier was superior in every way to humans. Each of the great legions was led by one of the Emperor's sons, a Primarch, not only a skilled general, but also the genetic father of all the Artasters in his legion. It was the legions that brought the greatest glories to mankind, it was they who conquered the territory that now makes up the empire. And it was they who doomed humanity.

The great crusade:

"I remember the conquest of Ullanor, the defeat of the Ragdan, the uniting of hundreds of worlds under the banner of the two-headed eagle. I remember the arguments I had with the Khan, the hardheadedness of Dorn, the charisma of Sanguinius. I remember the times when we were seen as gods of war and justice, and our children the Angels who bring death to the alien scum. I remember all of that."

"...And now, the only thing I want, and for those times to return."

-Fulgrim, primarch of the Emperor's Children.

Within his laboratory in the Himalayas, the Emperor of Mankind used his genius to create 20 superhuman generals who would be tasked with leading the artaster legions, but before he could put his plan into action, forces beyond human comprehension separated the Emperor's Primarchs and hurled them across the galaxy in an attempt to disrupt the Emperor's plans. But rather than delay his plans, this motivated the Emperor to launch himself into the infinity of stars to unite humanity while searching for his children.

The first Primarch found was Horus Lupercal on the planet of Cthonia, followed by Leman Russ of Fenris, Ferrus manus of Medusa, and so it went on until all the Primarchs had been found and united with their legions.

With the help of his sons, the emperor unified almost all of humanity under a single banner while eliminating most of the xenos empires in just over two hundred years. The only resistance to humanity's empire was the Ork Empire of the Ullanor system, the largest Ork Empire encompassed by humanity and a threat that could not exist if humanity wanted to live in peace. Thus, in the first year of the 31st millennium, the force of 4 different legions and billions of soldiers of the imperial army was summoned in a crusade against said empire, led by the emperor himself, the human armies fought against trillions of orks until they reached the heart of the empire, the world of Ullanor prime. There the emperor and his favorite son, Horus lupercal, descended on the planet and, as two forces of nature, fought against hundreds of orks until they found the ork leader, there they both fought against said beast and ended his life, thus demoralizing his army and ending the greatest orkish threat humanity had seen so far.

With the victory over the xenos, the Emperor had the world of Ullanor remodeled and turned into a trophy world. There a grand parade was held with 13 different Primarchs in attendance to mark the greatest achievement of mankind and what would be the beginning of a new golden age of humanity. There, to the surprise of all present, the Emperor declared that he was abandoning the great crusade and would return to Terra. In his place, Horus would be appointed the new Warmaster and would lead the efforts to conquer what remained of the galaxy. Along with this, Horus' legion, the Luna Wolves, was renamed the Sons of Horus so that everyone would know who the new Warmaster was and who would finish the job the Emperor had started. Although several of his brethren congratulated Horus, several others doubted that he would be able to carry on the Emperor's work, or even thought themselves more worthy of such a task than the first-found.

But before the Emperor could retreat to Terra and begin work on a project unknown to all the Primarchs, he had to attend to an urgent matter that only increased as time passed. The Psykers.

It was no secret that, even among the Primarchs, there were individuals who disliked the Psykers and even some who despised them. This bad view of psykers was directly related to not only the fear of the unknown, but also to the many cases of psykers using their powers to inflict pain and subjugate humanity. The Emperor, in his great wisdom, decided to hold a council with a representative from each legion and various other imperial bodies to discuss the use of psychic powers. Several of those present gave neutral opinions on the use of psychic powers as a whole, opining that even if dangerous they were necessary for the survival of humanity. The defenders of the librarium were led by Sanguinius, Jaghatai khan and Magnus the red, they were joined by other high profile individuals such as Fulgrim or the master navigators who supported the wider use of psychics by the Imperium.

The meeting was seemingly in favor of using psychic powers, until it was the turn of the naysayers to speak. Curze opened the discussion by stating that the warp powers corrupt everything they touch and that he had met over a dozen crazy psykers who subjugated their worlds with an iron fist, Mortarion and Corax continued with Curze's reasoning, stating how witches were corrupt and the scum of humanity who only brought misfortune where they walk. To finalize the opponents' statements, Leman Russ took his turn to speak. He stated the dangers of using psychic powers if they were not well guided, that using powers coming from the great ocean could cause its user to drown, at the same time he stated with all certainty that Magnus and his legion had already submerged themselves so much in the great ocean that they not only corrupted themselves, if not that they could corrupt those around them.

After the opponents had finished speaking, it was Magnus' turn to speak. The Primarch opened his speech by admitting that the powers of the Warp were complicated to master, and that many psychics had gone mad because they couldn't master their powers. But then he talked about the wonders of the Warp, how it helped humanity in many different ways and how important these powers were in getting them to where they are, and he said that the Astarters were more than capable of mastering the Warp without being dominated by it as happened with the witches in Age of Strife. In the end, Magnus asked his father to think calmly about the decision he was going to make and thanked everyone who had come.

At the end of Magnus' speech, the Emperor took the rostrum and announced that the librarium would continue with new rules imposed to guarantee the maximum safety of humanity. All the anti-psychiatrists present at the meeting were outraged by this choice and spoke out against it, all except one.

The wolf king sat there while all his brothers who shared his vision began to show indignation and whisper at his father's words, his pro brothers began to whisper and congratulate Magnus, but the wolf king just sat there with no expression or emotion blooming from him.

The whole room fell silent as he suddenly stood up. He could hear Horus speaking softly so as not to do anything crazy, but he took no notice.

He looked at Magnus, with a little anger in his eyes, then looked at his father. Everyone expected the screams, but they never came, the only thing Russ did was look at his father with sadness and disappointment in his eyes.

"Fool."

That was the only thing he said before he turned and left the room.

After Russ's departure, the rest of the Primarchs and the authorities prepared to leave, but before they could leave the Emperor announced that he had chosen one of his sons to accompany him to the land and be his Praetorian. To a large extent, the Primarchs were divided, some thinking that the stoic Dorn would be the chosen one, others the cold and calculating Perturabo, after all if he had Primarchs suitable to build the Emperor's palace, he would be one of them. So it's not surprising that no one expected Fulgrim to be nominated for such an honor.

The Phoenician himself was taken aback by this choice, but those most affected by it were Dorn and Perturabo. The latter glared at his father before leaving the room, clearly furious. The former congratulated his brother on the honor and wished him luck before leaving, but everyone in the room could see that he was screaming inside. Almost everyone else present congratulated Fulgrim on his new position before leaving the room.

Viewed from the present day both the triumph of Ullanor and the Edict of Nikea clearly show the cracks in the imperium that were only growing throughout the Crusade, but back then they were invisible to all involved, all except those wandering in the shadows

Atrocities in the shadows:

After Nikea the great crusade continued relatively normally in Horus' hands, the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy was putting the war master over the edge, but with the help of the mournival he managed to adapt and was already giving orders more quickly than at the beginning, and in a few years the whole galaxy would be united under the banner of the two-headed eagle.

That was until a call for help from Sanguinius about a new threat known as Interex. The angel informed him that they were a faction of humans who had joined forces with various xenos races to survive the long night, and that in recent years they had expanded their territories until they reached the imperial borders. Sanguinius considered launching a direct attack against them, but given the territory they dominated and the advanced technology they used, it would be a difficult campaign for just one legion, so he asked for the warmaster's help in the campaign.

Horus, eager to get out of the bureaucracy and back into action, called more than 70% of his legion and together they set off towards the place where Sanguinius had sent their location. Many of the remembrancers who didn't go on this campaign spoke of Horus' happiness at being able to fight alongside Sanguinius after so long. A sad memory considering the fate of the Sons of Horus.

After Horus and his fleet entered the warp, no campaign reports reached the greater Empire. At first it was believed that this was the fault of the warp's unsettled state in recent years, but more than five months after Horus' disappearance, several Imperial agents began to worry about the Warmaster's disappearance. The Emperor was about to order the available legions to start searching for the Warmaster. But before that order could be carried out, unexpected news reached all the leading members of the imeprium and forced them to put the search for Horus to one side.

According to the captains of the second and seventh companies of the Death Guard, Nathaniel Garro and Ignatius Grulgor, four legions had betrayed the Emperor. The Death Guard, the Iron Warriors, the Imperial Fists and the Iron Hands had executed members loyal to the throne on the surface of the world of Istvaan III. They had narrowly escaped massacre and, before the traitors found them, the Primarch Lorgar found them and brought them to the sacred Terra.

Fulgrim almost killed them on the spot when they told the story, but Lorgar and Amon stopped him before it was too late. After calming the Phoenician down and convincing him that the story was true, they both reported that apparently the traitors were making their headquarters in the Isstvan system.

While the Primarchs and the Emperor were organizing a reprisal, news of the same scale reached them. Apparently, the Space Wolves had attacked Prospero and decimated the planet, killing most of the Thousand Sons in the process. With such treachery on a scale never seen before, the Emperor called all the loyal legions back to Earth to coordinate the counter-attack on the traitors.

After two months a total of eight legions responded to his call, Jagathai and his White scars came quickly as usual, Vulkan and Angron arrived next and both brought almost all of their legions in tow, Lion arrived shortly afterwards already informing them that they had mobilized companies of Dark Angels for the world of Medusa, half of the Night Lords returned from their campaign in the Ghoul stars, Unfortunately, Curze was unavailable for the campaign and handed over command to Sevatar, Corax arrived next with almost 80% of his legion to help punish the traitors, Lorgar arrived with more than two-thirds of his legion and the news that Guilliman would not be joining the offensive as he was organizing preparations for the campaign, but that in a few weeks he would send a fleet with several chapters to support the punishment of the traitors. No response from Alpharius and the legions involved in prospero reached Terra.

And finally, Sanguinius arrived with his entire legion behind elements of the sons of Horus. When asked where Horus was, he only commented that the Interex was holding out longer than expected and that the campaign would take a few more weeks. Horus asked Sanguinius to go in his place not only to put an end to the traitors, but also to show the emperor's enemies that it was not only the warmaster that they should fear.

With such an attack force, the role of each legion was quickly organized. The Raven Guard, along with elements of the Sisters of Silence and the Custodes, would hunt down the Space Wolves and, when they found them, engage in a war of attrition until the rest of the legions finished their attack on Istvaan and went to subdue the wolves. The rest would go to Istvaan and put an end to the rebellion once and for all before it could grow.

Fulgrim looked to the skies as the ships of his brothers and their legions plunged into the infinite space between the stars, he asked to join in and bring the traitors, especially Ferrus, to justice, but the Emperor stopped him, something that didn't want the Praetorian to leave the solar system.

"It's rare to see you so distressed." The sigilite walked over to stand next to the demigod, his presence seemed tiny next to him, but he still commanded respect.

"What's bothering you? He asked, his tone as neutral as possible, but there was still a hint of curiosity in the deep.

"It's nothing, I just... I have a bad feeling about this.

When they arrived in the Isstvan system, it didn't take long for the Night Lords' explorers to locate the traitors, they had taken refuge on Istvaan V, the images obtained not only showed that they were building a base on the planet, but that most of their fleet was missing. Based on this information, the Primarchs drew up a plan of attack. In it, the salamanders, the Devourers of Worlds, the Word Bearers, along with some companies of the Night Lords and the elements of the sons of Horus would fall on the planet and serve as a hammer against the traitors' defenses, after most of the defenses fell, the rest of the legions would fall and serve as a spearhead going into the heart of the traitors at the same time as the elements of the first wave retreated to replenish themselves. Everyone agreed to this plan and prepared to crush the traitors in 36 hours.

When the time came, the Loyalist fleet advanced against the few traitor ships in orbit and destroyed them in a few minutes. As soon as the last traitor ship fell, the loyalists made a planetary drop and began to invest against the traitors, most of the defense was formed by the iron hands and the imperial fists, the Death guard were outnumbered and the iron warriors were practically absent, something that caught the attention of more than one legalist commander, another thing that the legionnaires were finding strange was the fact that almost all the Night Lords had distanced themselves from the other legions as soon as they fell on the planet, and refused to answer the calls of the other loyalists. But even with these events, the legions managed to break through the first walls and defensive systems of the traitors' base and retook a bunker near the traitors' landing port. As soon as they mastered these points, they began to slowly withdraw to the port to resupply, while their cousins beat back the rest of the traitors.

But it was when they reached the landing point that the cracks broke and the unimaginable happened. Their newly arrived allies suddenly began to open fire on the weary legionnaires, and before they could even react the Night Lords legionnaires in their midst stabbed them from behind.

The night lords joined in said retreat and raced to the meeting point while the drop-pods of the second wave were already falling as the loyalists were arriving at the meeting point. But it was when they reached the landing point that the unimaginable happened. Their newly arrived allies suddenly began to open fire on the tired legionnaires and, before they could react, the Night Lords' legionnaires in their midst stabbed them from behind.

There on the sands of Isstvan, brother shed brother's blood, and the dream of humanity was slain.

The loyalists tried to retreat but found themselves between these newly discovered traitors and their original targets. The Salamanders tried to resist the two forces that were crushing them while the rest of the loyalists fled, but the ground beneath them broke and out of it came rats the size of humans who began to throw themselves at the loyalists, individually they weren't as strong as the legionnaires, but their numbers were such that they caused serious casualties to the sons of Vulkan.

At the same time in space, the loyal fleet was taken by surprise when their former allies opened fire on them. Millions died in the first few minutes of this battle, but the worst was yet to come, as radars detected that Phalanx and a fleet of Iron Hands had entered the system.

This broke the loyalists, the only "safe" place was alongside the loyal Primarchs, but that wouldn't last long, as traitorous Primarchs could appear at any minute. In a desperate attempt to survive, all the loyalists who survived the first hour of this massacre gathered in the bunker and coordinated a desperate race to the nearby spaceport. The loyalists ran and, like a death machine that eliminated traitors and xenos rats without mercy, were only stopped on two occasions. The first was when the angel himself descended from the heavens to wipe out the loyalists with his bare hands, Vulkan ordered everyone to run while he held Sanguinius, with a pain in his chest the Salamanders let him fight this fight that everyone already knew was certain death. The second was when they were at the port gate, the Khan and Dorn attacked their former allies as a last attempt to stop the loyalists to the throne. Angron and Lorgar, together with the elite of their legions, took it upon themselves to hold them off as long as possible, while the legionnaires went ahead and prepared to evacuate.

Inside, it wasn't long before the loyalists took control of the port and began their desperate escape. Angron, supported by Lorgar and the few surviving legionnaires, entered and quickly joined the fray. But on the horizon the traitors could be seen running towards the port and it wouldn't be long before they arrived. In a heroic sacrifice that will never be forgotten by those present, the 500 sons of Horus among the loyalists decided to stay behind and hold out long enough while the others retreated.

He was exhausted. When the Praetorian asked him to support the attack with his brothers he was honored, but here he found that this was not an attack, it was a slaughter.

His legs were probably broken, the only thing that made them move was his severely damaged armor, but that was enough to stand on. With difficulty he raised his head to look at the liar responsible for the death of his brothers. The Primarch stood at the door of the port looking at him, his golden hair and angelic wings creating a figure of divine characteristics that, together with his friendly aura, created a figure that charmed the inferior men and gave faith to all his allies.

"Bastard..." Severian growled at the angel with what little strength he still had. He looked at the traitor, who suddenly disappeared only to appear in front of him again, and with a hand on his neck lifted him up as if he were a rag doll.

"I know it's hard to believe, but I guarantee you, the monster you call the Emperor would do the same." He looked at Luna wolf not with hatred, but with pity. "I saw what he did to the warriors who united Terra, how he discarded them like trash, and they showed me what my father was going to do-" His speech was interrupted by Severian when it spat in his face, the acidic blood made a small mark before disappearing through the primarch's regeneration. With all the strength he had, the loyalist gathered air before shouting.

"FOR THE EMPER-" The sound of Luna Wolf's neck breaking sounded through the room. Sanguinius simply let the body fall to the floor before turning to leave the room.

The loyalists could barely escape the slaughterhouse called Isstvan, the World eaters and Word bearers had little more than a third of their numbers from when they entered on the system, and the salamanders not only had even fewer legionnaires, but had to deal with the moral blow of having lost their genetic father. The loyalists had a bleak outlook ahead of them.

In contrast, the traitors were celebrating on the surface of Istvaan, having defeated and crushed the loyalists in an operation that could only be described as a resounding success. But everyone there knew that this was only the beginning of something much bigger. Sanguinius turned on the vox channel on every tuner on the planet and announced the beginning of a new era, an era without the false emperor, an era in which they were free to rule the galaxy for themselves. Even more motivated than before, the traitors prepared to leave Isstvan and spread throughout the galaxy with the aim of spreading the fire of betrayal.

And so, with everyone going their own way, the Emperor's downfall could finally begin.

The galaxy burns:

The three broken loyalists legions sent the message of the greatest betrayal before each going their own way. The Salamanders went to Nocturne to replenish and recuperate while they thought about what to do next, Lorgar went to meet up with the rest of his legion and then head to Earth, and Angron grabbed the resources of any loyalist planet in front of him so he could recover as quickly as possible and stand up to the traitors.

But the traitors didn't wait. Curze called back his entire legion and then confronted the Raven Guard and his companions from the Emperor's Talons, so they started a war that, while burning hundreds of planets, took place in the shadow of a hundred others.

Mortarion performed a ritual with objects known as warpstones, and summoned a Warpstorm of dimensions never seen before, known as Ruinstorm, this storm flooded Ultramar separating it from the rest of the galaxy and causing complications in travel throughout the galaxy. Of the Ultramarines, only the chapters that Guilliman sent to help punish the traitors were able to escape the storm. Many wondered about the fate of Guilliman and his legion, but the loyalists didn't have time to focus on the situation overseas and were only able to find out everything that had happened in the realm oficial ultramar when the storm finally passed.

The Word bearers had to deal with three chapters allying themselves with the traitors thanks to the influence of the first chaplain Erebus, this internal war consumed resources and time of the 17th legion.

To make matters worse, the general fabricator of Mars, Kelbor-Hal, betrayed the Emperor and with him not only a third of the mechanicum on Mars went along, but hundreds of world forges were revealed. So many betrayals together broke the eagle and left it on the brink of death.

But lucky for the loyalists to the throne the traitors were not so united. The Iron hands focused on only attacking forge worlds, they ignored the rest of the imperial worlds in favor of a campaign against the Eldars to please their god. The Khan was dedicated to conquering random worlds and systems, not caring much about attacking a specific legion or location, simply conquering everything he saw in front of him. And the Dark Angels were dedicated to attacking random worlds and raiding their vaults and digging in the , the sigillite agents said that the sons of the lion were collecting technologies not only from the dark ages of technology, if not they were also digging deep to collect some kind of Xeno technology that didn't match any imperial records.

The only ones who helped Sanguinius' campaign were Dorn, who constantly attacked the solar segmentum, and Perturabo who sought to become the arch-traitor's right hand.

This lack of cohesion among the traitors was compounded by the determination of those loyal to the throne not to go down without a fight. Angron led his World eaters on a brutal campaign that killed billions of traitorous soldiers. Added to this were the salamanders, who after recovering used all the anger they had towards the traitors as fuel in various campaigns that burned important worlds for the angel's army.

One strange case was the reports on the actions of the alpha legion. Since the reports said that the XX legion was supporting the traitors with various companies and that they were being led by Alpharius himself. But new reports arrived not only stating that the vast majority of the alpha legion was fighting for the throne, but also that elements of both the Thousand Sons and the Space wolfs were accompanying them. The Imperials tried to communicate with the hydra in order to understand the whole situation, but the only answers they received were that the Twentieth was on the Emperor's side and that the Space wolfs were loyal, that they had been manipulated by the traitors in prospero.

This gave room for the loyalists to not only prepare and form a defense in the solar system and some strongholds outside of it, but the Raven Guard was able to reach Earth to support the defense of throne-world. The situation was getting complicated for the angel, and he didn't know how long it would take for the missing loyalists to return. So he called all his forces back and moved to an all-out assault on the cradle of humanity.

Siege of Terra:

Before they could reach the solar system, the traitors had to pass through the Beta garmon cluster, which was being defended by several legions of titans and several billion solar aid soldiers. The system's defenses proved to be more than capable of containing the traitors' advance, to the point that even with the help of the night lords who had recently joined Sanguinius' fleet and the magic of the iron warriors who had already turned completely to the worship of tzeetnch, the advances were minimal. The traitors' predictions showed that it would take several weeks to finally break through the imperial defenses and reach the solar system.

Knowing that with each passing week the future attack on Earth would become more complicated, Sanguinius and Curze decided to take a measure that would change the balance of the battle.

The now daemon prince Perturabo walked for several minutes around the point of the colossal ship, his every step making no sound and not reflecting the weight of a being of his size. His walk took him to the door of the Red Loom bridge where two Keruvim stood guard. Both human warriors looked at the unborn being in front of them and stepped to the side while opening the door for the primarch to pass through.

When the Iron Lord entered the bridge, he found all the ship's usual officers and workers monitoring the ship's data to ensure that the technological marvel that was the Gloriana class was working properly. In front of the window that overlooked the vastness of the space surrounding the planet Beta-garmon III, Sanguinius and Curze were standing, the latter slightly surprising Perturabo. Since the beginning of this campaign, Curze and Sanguinius had become very close, something that even as a tzeentch demon he couldn't understand why. For him, the only visual difference from Curze was the black and white details on each side of his armor and the eight-pointed star symbol. He suspected that Curze was much more important than he let on, but the iron lord didn't know exactly how.

"Perturabo, it's good to see that you answered my call. I called you here to find out how long you anticipate the defeat of the loyalists will take." Sanguinius' voice was as angelic as ever, but at the same time it was more intimidating than usual.

"By my estimates, it wouldn't take us more than five weeks before we could break the Loyalists, brother."

"Five weeks? Well, I'd like you to organize all the troops for a massive attack, and reduce that time to less than three weeks." What he was asking was crazy, but Perturabo knew that going against Sanguinius' orders was going against the orders of the big four, and he didn't have the power to go against their will, at least not yet.

"I understand, I'll inform the officers and in thirty minutes I'll be out attacking the loyalists."

"Thanks Perturabo, but before you go I wanted to show you something, which will be very useful for this ." With a wave of his hand, one of the servers sent a message on the vox channel.

It wasn't long before one of the Night Lords' ships began to release warp energy in a pure state, the reality bled and screamed in pain as the ship shredded it. The ship then suddenly exploded, causing a wound in reality at the edge of the planet's atmosphere. The wound continued to bleed energies that could only be defined as insanity in its purest state for a few seconds, until a badly damaged ship came out of it, then two, then three, then more than a dozen ships of the most distinct classes came out of that crack, all clearly of human origin. Then a ship that was over the size of a Gloriana-Class came out of the wound. It was not the fact that this ship was huge that scared Perturabo, no, the fact that he recognized it made the primarch daemon's blood run cold. The fact that he knew that ship was the Vengeful Spirit.

"This time the wolves won't have collars." Sanguinius said as he looked at the ships of the 16th legion.

After an absence of more than seven years, the 16th Legion had finally reappeared in the galaxy to show what horrors they had become. Most of the legion were nothing more than rabid dogs who had completely submerged themselves in the madness that characterizes most devotees of the god of blood, Khorne. They ran like wild dogs at the human troops, while the legion's officers, led by Mournival, took it upon themselves to duel the few Astarters on the planet. Taking advantage of the Sons of Horus' attack, the other traitor legions focused on supporting the traitor titans in their battles with the loyal titans.

In less than two weeks, all the loyalists on Beta-Garmon II and III were killed and the world fell into the hands of the angel's legions.

With a clear path to the solar system, Sanguinius called on all the traitors to take part in the final attack on the false Emperor. All the traitor legions answered the call and united for the occasion, several of them had fallen so far that they were visibly different from when they served the Emperor. The only setback for the traitors was the death of Jagathai at the hands of Angron, but both Angron and the world eaters were so exhausted by all the efforts they had made throughout the heresy that they couldn't come to Earth's aid. So, with all preparations ready, the traitors launched their attack on the solar system and began the greatest battle in human history

But when the traitors entered the system, they were in for a bitter surprise when they met a larger number of loyalists than they had expected. For in all the years of the civil war, the agents of the sigillite and the legionnaires of the alpha legion had made every effort to bring as many loyalists as possible to the defense of the solar system. So not only did they meet elements of all the loyalist legions and the most varied regiments of the solar auxiliary, but all the loyalists of the traitor legions now led by the former first captain of the imperial fists Sigismund were the first line of defense against the angel's armada. So the traitors had to fight against his sons who remained loyal to the throne from the surface of Pluto to the moons of Uranus.

Sigismund cut down another one of his Ex-brothers. The old yellow armor was dirty and several parts were rusted.

An equally disfigured occultist that the Fists tried to jump on him but a shot from Nathaniel blew off his head and upper torso.

"Those bastards keep coming." Complained the Ex-Death Guard.

"Then stop complaining and kill them until the last one dies." Ulrach replied as he finished killing a terminator already too damaged to counter attack.

They accepted the second chance given by the Emperor and were not going to let Terra fall without a fight.

However, even with all the marines assembled and Sigismund's leadership, this had already been a lost battle since the traitors entered the system, so it wasn't long before the traitor fleet was able to penetrate the loyalist defenses and enter deeper into the system.

They continued on their way until they reached the moon. There, a bloody battle took place between the fleet of dark god followers and the moon's defense forces and the Imperial Navy. Their Earth glowed orange as the Phalanx and the Bucephelus fired weapons at each other that could tear entire celestial bodies apart and smaller ships died around them.When the luna finally fell, the traitors turned their attention to the place that would be the stage for the battle that would define the fate of the human and the galaxy as a whole, the cradle of humanity.

The first wave was made up of the lost and damned and who served as cannon fodder to weaken the loyalist defenses of the palace. After several weeks, the traitorous legionnaires finally decided to join the conflict. At the same time as they made the remains of the ships re-enter the atmosphere, the traitors made planetary drops in their drop-pods and began to advance against the walls of the imperial palace.

The planet itself began writhing in pain as it was tainted with the corruption of chaos that the traitors brought. Ahead of them were the sons of Horus advancing like wild animals, behind them the sacks of disease that had become the imperial fists and the freaks of flesh and metal that had once been the Iron Warriors surrounded the Palace. And behind the coordination of everything were the Blood Angels and the socerers of the Night Lords who kept an eye on how the siege was going.

However, once again chaos proved to be their greatest enemy. Almost half of the Iron Hands had go to Mars to break into their vaults full of technologies from the Dark Age of Technology. The White Scars were busy claiming the ancient lands of Merica to attack the palace. Death guard supported the siege but most of the Skavens were busy robbing and looting the humans in the Hives near the palace. The Dark Angels also attacked the palace, but they never obeyed the angel's orders and rarely helped the other traitors with things that weren't related to their agendas.

Even so, the traitors began to gain ground little by little until several months later they were finally able to break through the palace defenses and invade the inner palace

The outlook became even darker for the Loyalists when Mournival appeared and brought with him Horus, already transformed into a demon prince. The Sons of Horus went into a new violent frenzy that led them to massacre thousands of Loyalist soldiers until they reached the Eternity Gate. The only thing that prevented Angron from passing the Eternity Gate was Corax, who along with the exterminators of his legion stood up to Horus in a battle so bloody that after Horus was banished to the Warp, it was necessary to attend to Corax's wounds lest he die.

The situation seemed lost for the loyalists, and several traitors were already chanting victory, until a group of ships in the colors of the Alpha Legion, led by Alpha and accompanied by ships from the thousand sons, entered the system and advanced at full speed towards terra. Caught off guard by this event, the traitors began to panic and several tried to escape from the throne world to escape the fury of this new force, which caused clashes between the traitors and the disorganization of several of their offensives. This gave the loyalists the cue to launch a counter-offensive and push the traitors back several kilometers.

When the ships of the 20th arrived, they were faced with a wounded and disorganized traitor fleet that was struggling to contain the remains of a morale-boosting solar fleet that was far inferior in numbers. And with the alpha legion fleet joining in, the scales were tipping in favor of the loyalists. It didn't take long for the fleet to gain enough space to launch drop pods over the traitor camps, and out of them came Artasters from the 20th, 6th and 15th legions.

In the confusion caused by the surprise reinforcements and the desperate escape of several others, several ships managed to board and deposit their occupants inside the Red tear.

Among these occupants were Magnus, Russ and Alpharius and their entourage, who quickly rushed to disable the shields on the Arch-Traitor's ship. Alpharius immediately separated from his brothers and went to the back of the ship, to the location of the ship's cells; the Primarch was never seen again after that. Russ and Magnus rushed to stop a kind of ritual that Curze and the sorcerers of the night lords were performing. Magnus entered the ritual chamber and began trying to interrupt it, and Russ clashed with Perturabo who tried to stop the two Primarchs.

This shouldn't be happening like this. He was so close to winning. But now his victory was slipping out of his hands.

He had to go with Curze to make sure the ritual was going to take place, if the ritual took place it didn't matter if his father was alive or not, he couldn't go against what they were going to cause.

The angel continued his run to where Curze was, until there was only one hallway between him and the ritual room. He opened the door leading into the hallway, only to meet the lord of drakes in front of him.

Sanguinius looked at his brother for a second that lasted more than a thousand years. Then the angel stepped forward and Vulkan raised his hammer in defiance, all while smiling.

The Emperor took advantage of the destruction of the ship's shields and teleported along with his custodians into the bridge of the Red Tear, there he found Sanguinius standing over Vulkan's corpse. His soul was so broken that even as a Perpetual he would not return.

Then Father and son looked at each other. Both knowing that everything would depend on the outcome of this battle. Not only this war, but the whole galaxy was at stake. Both immortals ran at each other, and the dark angel and the false god fought. It is said that all Artasters who looked directly at said fight were blinded by the unleashed power.

A burst of psychic power flooded the entire ship, the entire galaxy held its breath as the dust subsided. When it was finally gone, Sanguinius fell dead to the ground with the mortally wounded Emperor in front of him.

The psychic explosion over their father's death drove all of Sanguinius' descendants insane, they suddenly relived the last moments of their father's life, these visions to this day, 10,000 years later, haunt the ninth legion.

At the same time that Sanguinius died Magnus undid the Night Lords' ritual. The combination of psychic energies in the ship caused it to be heavily damaged, to the point that even without being attacked it was already having trouble staying in the air. And as expected, the remnants of the imperial fleet took the opportunity to open fire on the main ship of the traitorous fleet.

The Iron Warriors and Night Lords had to drag the Blood Angels out of the Red Tear while hallucinating. Raldoron tried to carry Sanguinius' body out of the ship, but the other marines wouldn't let him do it. In the end he was only able to retrieve Sanguinius' sword, leaving behind the body of his genetic father.

Arch-Traidor's death not only affected his sons, but all the traitors. Most of the traitors began retreating the instant the news of Sanguinius' death reached them, they put aside any semblance of comradeship they had and began running over each other to escape the imperials. The Imperial Fists and the mournival tried to re-group to counterattack, but with the situation worsening for the traitor side they decided to evacuate Terra. The Dark Angels were forced to evacuate even though they were only a few steps away from victory. The Death Guard were the last to leave Earth, only giving up their attack on the Palace when they saw the Red Tear fall and turn into a fireball at the atmospheric entrance.

Just under two hours after the angel's death, no relevant traitorous forces remained on the planet. The battle was over, they had won. But the price they paid was enormous. Hundreds of billions of lives have been lost in the conflict, it would take millennia to recover the lost infrastructure, and worst of all, the Emperor had to be put on the Golden Throne lest he die. Few were present when he spoke his last words before he shut up and never spoke again for 10,000 years.

The few imperial commanders still alive were destroyed mentally and in some cases physically. All they wanted was to be able to leave this life of endless war and finally find peace.

But they couldn't stop, because they had an empire to rebuild and traitors to purge.

Post-Heresy:

The day after the siege ended, Terra was already rebuilding, humanity simply could not stop if it wanted to survive. There all 5 legions began to reorganize and prepare to take back everything stolen by the traitors. Fulgrim with the help of Magnus and Russ created the Codex Artasters as a way to ensure that no one ever again has access to the power of a legion. Making the legions divided into chapters of no more than 2000 marines, and having no authority over the Imperial Army.

The Raven guard and Emperor's Children split almost immediately, while the Space Wolfs and Thousand Sons had to wait until they got the size to be able to generate offspring. Fabius Bile led the efforts of the Apothecaries to rebuild the legions and deploy new recruits. To this day, no apothecary can surpass his genius, and he has been listed as an imperial saint by the Ecclesiarchy for all the advances in the field of genetics.

While the rebuilding of the legions continued, several of the remaining loyal Primarchs dedicated themselves to creating new organizations or modifying existing ones. Lorgar organized the masses who saw his father as a god and under his tutelage created the Eclessiarch to regulate the faith of the Imperium and ensure that the population followed a path away from the temptations of the Dark gods. At the same time, Corax together with several former agents of the sigilite, founded the Inquisition, an organization designed to keep an eye on the Imperium and to prevent crimes against the Emperor before they happen.

The loyalists of the traitor legions banded together and under Sigismund's command became the Black Templars, the sons of Istvaan who never rested until the last of the traitors burned. Meanwhile, all the Ultramarines who were outside Ultramar joined together and continued Guilliman's legacy with a new chapter of the Ultramarines.

Then, a year after the siege ended, the imperium gathered as many forces as it could and declared a crusade against all the heretics still ravaging its territories. Said campaign was brutal and bloody but succeeded in driving the traitors out into the eye of terror, where they reside to this day. With the Dark Angels being the only exception to this rule, as the sons of the lion claimed the territories near Caliban, and formed a parody of the imperium where the use of Xenos technology and forbidden weapons is commonplace.

The last event of the traitors' purge would be the campaign against the vermin stars. When the ruinstorm finally subsided, the imperium launched a crusade overseas to reclaim space from any traitors who had claimed it as their own. There, the imperium discovered that the ultramarines inside Ruinstorm had not been killed, but had survived all those years fighting against the 14th legion, even after their father was killed by Mortarion. After almost completely expelling the Death Guard, the imperium tried to unite both strains of Guilliman, but both sides refused and claimed that the other was not truly Guilliman's son. Since then, both armies have carried the symbol and colors of the ultramarines, but refuse to work together or unite.

After the campaign of the vermin stars, the loyal primarchs disappeared one by one until the mortal men who made up the greater imperium had to take the reins and rule the imperium.

Since then, humanity has fallen lower and lower morally, to the point where violent religious fanaticism and political corruption run rampant. What's worse, the weight of maintaining such vast territories over the last 10,000 years has begun to catch up with humanity, and every day it becomes more difficult to keep its territories under control. Every day more tomb worlds rise up with the goal of wiping all organic life from the galaxy. The Tau fools make the imperium spend precious resources on campaigns against their expanding spheres. More and more hive fleets arrive in our galaxy seeking to consume everything. WAAAAGH Orks of never-before-seen sizes devastate entire systems. And the Eldar put their differences aside to join a cult of the god of death.

And to make matters worse, traitor legions have begun to move within the eye of terror and launch ever larger attacks on Cadia. Currently there is a silent feud between the former first captain of the Blood Angels, Raldoron, and a mysterious chaos lord known as Dante. Whoever wins is theorized to be the new chaos champion and if this happens it would not be unthinkable for him to turn his forces with the focus of finishing what his father started over 10,000 years ago.

With each passing day humanity seems to be closer to its final days, we can only have faith to get out of this as the Times of ending arrives.