PART 6

THE XIX ‘RAVEN GUARD’ LEGION

It is the events concerning the Raven Guard that provide the most evidence to support the theory that the Isstvan and Istvaan Systems are separate locations, and that the destruction of the loyalists took place far closer to Terra. There is no way the rescue of Corax and the Raven Guard Survivors from the dropsite massacres could have been accomplished if the betrayal occurred in the Isstvan System. The rescue forces left from Deliverance, and a journey of 65,000 Light Years would have meant four-and-a-half years would have passed in real time.

Even though the rescue force would have only experienced about three weeks as they made their way through the warp, they would have arrived far, far too late to rescue anyone. In fact, the Horus Heresy would have been in its final weeks by then. When Branne and his rescue party arrived, the Raven Guard had been fighting on the surface of Istvaan for ninety-eight days.

If Praefector Vaalerius had been experiencing his visions from the time the dropsite massacres began, and the rescue forces left immediately, their journey would have taken a single day of warp travel to arrive ninety-eight days after it began. However, given the sudden resurgence of warp storms around this time, conditions were not as ideal as they once were. The journey may have resulted in more time passing in the warp to cover the same distance and arrive in the same real-time period.

Deliverance Lost, 2012, Gav Thorpe

Regardless of the conditions, there is no possible way the dropsite massacres took place in the Isstvan System. And then there is the fact that almost three thousand Raven Guard survivors were evacuated from the surface at all. Only five loyalists of the first wave Legions managed to escape the massacre. Even if these were loyalists that actually deployed on the surface, the Raven Guard could not have been part of the first wave.  

Biting back his anger, Corax followed Aloni up the ramp, his boots ringing on the metal. As the ramp began to close, he looked out across the World Eaters army, baying like frustrated hounds as their prey slipped from their grasp. “We survived, lord.” Aloni’s tone conveyed his utter disbelief at the truth of this. “Ninety-eight days!” Corax felt no urge to celebrate. He looked at Aloni and the other legionaries sitting down on the long benches inside the transport compartment. “I came to Isstvan with eighty-thousand warriors,” the primarch reminded them. “I leave with less than three thousand.” The Horus Heresy, volume XVIII, Deliverance Lost, p19

The most recent official records may insist that the first wave of the reprisal forces comprised of the X ‘Iron Hands’, XVIII ‘Salamanders’ and XIX ‘Raven Guard’, even provide what appears to be undeniable evidence, but the evidence itself undermines the assertion. Under close scrutiny, the evidence is reduced to a collection of assumption, misinterpretations, fabrications, propaganda, and misinformation. The dropsite massacres was far more complex in its undertaking than conveyed in the official records.

“The world of black sand. Istvaan,” he said. “The fifth planet. The Legion makes good speed. Lord Dorn’s retribution flies true, yet the sons of Medusa will strike before even the Ravens or the sons of Nocturn. Lord Manus demands first blood and the head of the Phoenix.” The Horus Heresy, volume XVII, The Outcast Dead, p25

Rogal Dorn may have been given authority to organise and plan the reprisal force, but it is well known that no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. And then there was Ferrus Manus who had been goaded into a typical short-tempered and irrational response by Fulgrim. It makes no sense for the Legions to be deployed on the surface at all, let alone piecemeal in waves when a single fleet should have been able to obliterate the traitor forces on the surface. It also makes no sense for the system to be so lightly defended that the veteran elements of the Iron Hands could eliminate the resistance on their own.

There were four traitor Primarchs on the surface, and whatever remained of their Legions following the purge on Istvaan III. Given there was so little orbital defence from the combined might of the four traitor Legions, it can be assumed that some surviving elements of the traitor Legions had been dispatched on other campaigns If this was the case, and approximately a third of each traitor Legion had been purged or otherwise killed on the surface of Istvaan III, then less than two-thirds of each remained.

The Sons of Horus were rumoured to be the third largest of the Legions, numbering around eighty-thousand Astartes at full strength. The Death Guard and World Eaters numbered less, and the Emperor’s Children were one of the smallest Legions. The situation on Istvaan V would suggest each were able to field less than half their original numbers. The Iron Hands had been crippled by a previous betrayal by the Emperor’s Children, so only their veteran elements arrived with Ferrus, the rest following behind.

Ferrus was desperate for revenge, but did not have the forces needed for his plans to deploy on the surface. He was forced to wait, impatient as he was, for other Legions to arrive. The official records appear to suggest that when Vulkan and Corax arrived, they deployed with Ferrus as the first wave, and did not wait for the remaining four Legions of the reprisal force to arrive. Imminent arrival of traitor reinforcements or not, it was foolish. And it may not have even happened that way at all.

Next to the broad, mightily muscled Primarch of the Iron Hands, Corax of the Raven Guard was tall and slender. His armour was also black, but it seemed to be utterly non-reflective, as though it swallowed any light that dared to fall upon it.  The Horus Heresy, volume V, Fulgrim, p454

There is a very real possibility that Corax was not physically present at all. The entry in Fulgrim certainly could be interpreted to suggest Corax actually appeared via hololithic display, but the additional information in that entry clearly indicated the Iron Hands vanguard arrived to find the fleets of the Salamanders and Raven Guard already present. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of references to Corax, however, is that his behaviour was noted as being out of character. Indeed, he behaved almost as an extension of Ferrus himself.

He would have cut an imposing figure on the crowded thoroughfare. Instead the citizens of De Sota City saw one of their own, a miserable specimen of unimportance: a trademonger or cartelier presented in hololithic semblance. The amulet field generator concealed upon his person disguised the true perfection of his true form, cloaking him in the vague impression of mortal mediocracy.       The Horus Heresy, volume XX, The Primarchs, p454

Regardless of whether he appeared in person or via a hololithic display, then it is also entirely possible it was not Corax at all, but some form of deception by the traitor Legions to encourage Ferrus to commit to impulsive and reckless actions which would ultimately destroy the loyalist elements of the reprisal fleet, and lead to his own death. Corax would have most likely suffered a similar deception that might explain what really happened on Istvaan V.

Amit caught Raldoron’s eye and spared him a look; then suddenly he seemed to lose definition and become jagged, like a low-gain sensor return. Ripples of colour crossed through him before he became stable once again. Like many of the Blood angels in the lithocast chamber, Captain Amit was not physically present. At this moment, he stood in a transmission vestibule on board the battle-barge Victus, on the far side of the fleet. Hololithic arrays embedded in all the plinths allowed representations of each company commander to be part of the gathering, without them needing to travel from their own ships. The power requirement and cogitator processing capacity to operate the multiple real-time holograph communications streams was high, and the system was rarely used on this scale. Beyond the range of a few light days, the delay in the message transfer became problematic and unwieldy, but with the massed fleet in close proximity the chamber was performing its function perfectly.  The Horus Heresy, volume XXI, Fear to Tread, p197

It seems likely Corax would have received orders to deploy with the second wave, while another Legion took the place of his own for deployment with the first wave. If there was any evidence to support this, however, it appears to have been removed from official records. Given the suspicion of information that did not conform to expectations concerning the plans or predicted outcome of Dorn’s reprisal action, any supporting information would have been disregarded.

The ‘careless rumours’ suggesting Corax and the Raven Guard had been destroyed are a good example. Dorn’s plans had intended for the XIX Legion to deploy in the first wave, and reports indicated that all but five Astartes of the first wave Legions had been destroyed. Dorn and the other loyalist commanders appear to have assumed these reports to be false given Corax and elements of his Legion had survived. And yet, the official records still include the same information that all but five Astartes of the first wave Legions had been destroyed.

No word had been received from the Raven Guard, lending weight to careless rumours from Er scryers that Primax Corax and his Legion had been destroyed utterly.  A few elements of the Salamanders were believed to have escaped Istvaan V in disarray, but the only reports of this time were third hand at best.  Primarch Vulkan’s fate was unknown but many feared that he too was lost.  The Iron Hands were all but gone, their devastated Chapters scattered to the winds in the aftermath of the primarch’s death.  Despite the completeness of the betrayal, Sarashina still found it hard to accept the idea that a primarch could die.  But as shocking as it had been to learn of Horus Lupercal’s betrayal, subsequent events were piling impossibility upon impossibility until nothing was beyond belief. The Horus Heresy, volume XVII, The Outcast Dead, p160

THE XX ‘ALPHA LEGION’ LEGION

Only one Legion was known for its extensive use of deception and subterfuge: the Alpha Legion. It is believed that Alpharius himself was behind the planning for the treachery that unfolded in the Istvaan System, and other efforts to destabilise loyalist forces through misinformation and traitor propaganda across the galaxy, including on Terra itself. If Corax and the Raven Guard were, somehow, reassigned to the second wave, then Alpharius and his Legion are the most likely source of this trickery.

Some tales spoke of the Warmaster’s fleet breaching the outer perimeter of the solar system, while other’s had his warships on the verge of entering Terra’s orbit. False prophets arose on every continent, spreading a credo of falsehoods and misinformation until Imperial Arbitrators or gold-armoured warriors of the Legio Custodes silenced them. As more and more lies spread across the world, suspicions began to form in the minds of the Terra’s leaders that not all were the result of panic and the mutational power of rumour and distance, but of deliberate misinformation by agents of the Warmaster. The Horus Heresy, volume XVII, The Outcast Dead, p125

Alpharius was the last of the Primarchs to be reunited with the Emperor. Most of his history is unrecorded or so clouded by obfuscation that nothing about him or his Legion can be trusted. According to Alpharius himself, he was the eldest of identical twins, but the evidence reveal something altogether more astonishing. Despite what Alpharius claimed, the official records all insist that the Emperor only created twenty Primarchs, so if Alpharius and Omegon were twins then there would actually be twenty-one.

“Alone amongst the genetic sons of the Terran Emperor, you are the only twins. You are both the Primarch, one soul in two vessels.”  The Horus Heresy, volume VII, Legion, p373

Despite what members of the Cabal believed, Alpharius and Omegon may not have actually been twins at all, at least, not in the sense they thought. Argal Tal interpreted the visions he was shown of the gestation pod which contained the infant XX Primarch to indicate that it contained two Primarachs. Assuming these could be trusted at all, there was another way to interpret what Argal Tal saw – not two Primarchs, but one exhibiting the unique abilities he possessed that enabled him to effectively become invisible.

As his senses faded, he caught a momentary glimpse through the viewplate on the pod’s bulky front.  Whatever moved within the incubator had too many limbs to be a lone human child. The Horus Heresy, volume XIV, The First Heretic, p312

What Argal Tal saw as too many limbs may have simply been Alpharius moving so quickly his limbs appeared to phase between two locations at the same time. This does not mean that the aliens of the Cabal were wrong in what they said, just not entirely correct. There was another Primarch with similar ‘invisibility’ abilities – Corax. It is entirely possible that Corax and Alpharius were twins, but there is more to consider.

Legion, 2008, Dan Abnett

The XX Legion probably wasn’t originally named the Alpha Legion. It seems to be a name at odds with being the last Legion and something a Primarch who felt like he had something to prove would rename his Legion if he thought others considered him inferior to the other Primarchs. If there were rumours that Alpharius and Corax were twins, Alpharius may have responded with his usual efforts to deceive others regarding the facts, creating an alternate version of reality that could be used to his own advantage.

There is also a very real possibility that Alpharius was not the name of the XX Primarch. It is possible the XX Legion was originally named the Omegamarines, while their Primarch was named Omegon Rius and Alpha was a title meaning something similar to Supreme Commander. The real Primarch would, therefore, be Omegon and Alpharius nothing more than an elaborate deception. Again, if the theory is accurate in any way, any supporting evidence no longer exists (if it ever did) and all that remains is circumstantial.

The captain could still taste the primarch’s blood. Omegon had mixed a little of his vitality with the wine the pair had taken on the Upsilon – an offering of the primarch’s thanks, and much more. He had tasted remembrance and come to know the secrets of his gene-sire: early days spent by the twins on their distant homeworld, scheming their way to supremecy; the paradoxical horror of the alien Acuity; the gradual realisation of what would be required of both of them in the years still to come… Ranko had born the burden of this offering and had done what his primarch had asked him a thousand times before. He had taken his place. He had acted like, all thought like his primarch. He had been Omegon. The Horus Heresy, volume XX, The Primarchs, p433

The memories Omegon shares with Captain Ranko in The Primarchs, however, provide a revealing glimpse of unrecorded history, as well as suggesting the official records are not all fact. Firstly, Ranko’s thoughts refer to Omegon as “his gene-sire” rather than “one of his gen-sires”. Secondly, the reference “early days spent by the twins on their distant homeworld” could refer to the time Omegon and his twin spent on Terra, their homeworld – wherever they ended up was their adopted homeworld.

Corax is recorded as having remembered his time on Terra, something that surprised the Emperor. It has also been suggested the Primarchs may have spent their early years there before being scattered across the galaxy, a fictional history of their arrival and rapid growth being created and enforced with the hypno-indoctrination of key individuals to promote the myths. It is, therefore, entirely possible that Corax and Omegon were twins and every primarch had these early memories suppressed or purged, but the twins were somehow able to remember some elements of their past.

But the fact that Ranko had not just acted and thought like his primarch, but literally become Omegon, supports official records that there were only twenty Primarchs and the XX Legion only had one Primarch - Alpharius was a fiction created by Omegon to deceive and manipulate rivals. What the Cabal members believed was one soul within two vessels was simply Omegon and a member of his Legion under the influence that afflicted Ranko, something that appeared to suppress and overwrite the personality and “soul” of the double.

On Istvaan V, Alpharius infiltrated XX Legion Astartes into the Raven Guard ranks to accomplish a long-term scheme to obtain information and (as it turns out) technology that would allow a Legion to rapidly replace losses that might otherwise take months or years. The incident also revealed that the Alpha Legion had been practicing this method of facial reconstruction to infiltrate target organisations for some time. It can, therefore, be assumed other Legions included similar agents, some of which may have been instrumental in the dropsite massacres.

“I got aboard the III Legion’s flagship in a bombardment shell case before Istvaan.” The Horus Heresy, volume XX, The Primarchs, p376

It is entirely possible that loyalists in the first and second wave of the reprisal fleets were fooled into believing that the Legions of the other wave had sided with Horus and, as a result, turned on one another. The XX Legion Astartes had demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice themselves to accomplish their tasks which makes this theory entirely plausible. But it does not explain why the Cabal aliens were so certain that the two ‘Primarchs’ they met were Alpharius and Omegon, or how they shared a single soul.

Sarashina had briefly linked her mind to his, but could make no sense of the imagery she saw there.  A mountain dragon drinking from a golden lake, an orchid emerging from a crack in an obsidian plain that stretched for thousands of kilometres in all directions, a flaming sword hanging motionless over a world utterly devoid of life or geography.  Twins conjoined by a single soul, tugging in different directions.  The Horus Heresy, volume XVII, The Outcast Dead, p161

PART 5

PART 7