PART 5

THE LOYALIST REPRISAL FLEETS

Despite the conflicting evidence presented in the official records, it does appear that the only Legions that were involved in the reprisal fleet sent to Istvaan V were the IV ‘Iron Warriors’, VIII ‘Night Lords’, X ‘Iron Hands’, XVII ‘Word Bearers’, XVIII ‘Salamanders’, XIX ‘Raven Guard’, and XX ‘Alpha Legion’. Although there are consistent references to these being seven entire Legions, the constant and irksome exaggerations found within the official records would suggest that this, too, is inaccurate.

Shadows of Treachery, 2012, edited by Christian Dunn and Nick Kyme

The Night Lords, for example, were limited to their loyalist Chapters. Rogal Dorn had insisted that the orders for the Legion to muster for the reprisal be issued only to those Night Lords Chapters he could trust – those that were stationed within the Sol System. It should also be noted that the Word Bearers had been ordered to muster at Calth at this time, by the Warmaster Horus, so the forces they contributed would also have been limited.

Regardless of whether the incident occurred in the Isstvan System in the northern fringes, or the Istvaan System located within 40 Light Years of the Sol system, the majority of the Word Bearers would have been located near Calth. Given the distance has already been established at around 50,000 Light Years from both the Solar System and Isstvan System, most of the Word Bearers would have beenb over three years warp travel from this conflict with no way of returning in time to participate.

And then there is the inconsistency in the accounts concerning the fact of the first wave Legions. Even if there is latitude for exaggeration, the accounts all agree that the first wave Legions were completely wiped out but for the five Space Marines who managed to escape the massacre, bearing the gene-seed of their fallen brethren. Although the identities and Legion source of the survivors was never recorded, nor that of the gene-seed they carried with them, it is clear that the Raven Guard could not have been part of the first wave.

Logic would suggest that the first wave Legion forces did not all deploy on the surface of Istvaan V, and that some of those serving in the orbiting fleet managed to escape the betrayal, but if the Raven Guard deployed as part of the first wave they could not have evacuated any of their forces from the surface. Clearly, Raven Guard forces deployed as part of the second wave, but whoever took their placed remains a mystery because evidence to support this has long since been expunged along with anything to explain how two of the first wave Legions could have been completely destroyed when, obviously, none of the existing Legions at the time were not.

The rest of the 52nd Expedition was following behind the Ferrum, but when they might arrive in-system was unknown, and every second they delayed might give the traitors more time to fortify their position. The Legions of Corax and Vulkan were in position to commence their attack runs on Isstvan V, but astropath Cistor had received no word from Ferrus Manus’s brother primarchs of the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion. The Horus Heresy, volume V, Fulgrim, 2007, p454

It is also unclear why Astropath Cistor of the Iron Hands would expect to hear word from Konrad Curze given Rogal Dorn had insisted the orders to muster at Istvan V not be sent to the VIII Legion Primarch, only to Night Lords Chapters in the Sol System. Argel Tal’s response to seeing Alpharius, Perturabo and Curze before he and the other traitors deployed in the second wave may not have been surprise at the gathering alone, but that Curze or any of his Night Lords were there at all.

Upon entering the war room, Argal Tal couldn’t hold back an exhalation of awe. He’d been expecting a gathering of Word Bearer captains, Chaplains and Chapter Masters. He’d not anticipated the presence of commanders from the Night Lords, Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors, let alone the three figures that stood around the central hololithic table.  The Horus Heresy, volume XIV, The First Heretic, 2010, p413

Most of those who read those records assume these were the second wave Primarchs and their commanders, but in reality, Curze and the renegade Night Lords present during that meeting would not have been sent any orders to muster for the campaign. It seems far more likely that the loyalist Night Lords elements deployed in the first wave in place of the Raven Guard, and were purged on the surface, their gene-seed collected by their renegade brethren, who would have followed the second wave once the Raven Guard moved to reinforce the first wave while the Iron Warriors fortified the landing site with the Word Bearers and Alpha Legion.  

THE IV ‘IRON WARRIORS’ LEGION

Shortly before the virus bombing of Istvaan III, Horus himself delivered news to Perturabo about a rebellion on his adopted home world of Olympus. The campaign against the Hrud on Gugann ceased as the IV Legion forces there made their way to Olympia to end the insurrection. The official records on the matter, again, conflict with one another and are tainted by the misuse of the term ‘Legion’, suggesting the entire Legion returned to their home world to restore Compliance.

Angel Exterminatus, 2012, Graham McNeill

The most confounding issue regarding the actions of Perturabo and the Iron Warriors during this incident is the decision to turn against the Emperor. Compliance actions by other Legions during the Great Crusade resulted in entire populations being brutally murdered because they refused to submit to the Emperor’s ideological views and so-called ‘Enlightenment’. If the Iron Warriors were restoring Compliance on Olympia, the mass murder of an estimated five million civilians would not have caused any concern at all.

In the midst of the cleansing of the Hrud Warrens on Gugann matters were brought to a head. It was Horus who broke the news to Perturabo that Olympia was in rebellion. Dammekos had died and the population, incited by demagogues, had taken up arms. Perturabo was by this time tired of repeatedly having to prove his worth and now, after all his battles, the thought of being the only Legion unable to hold its own home world appalled him. Horus made the most of the opportunity. Before his departure, Horus presented Perturabo with the hammer Forgebreaker. It is possible that the weapon acted as a conduit through which the forces of Chaos could manipulate the Iron Warrior Primarch. Alternatively, a mark of respect from such a leader as Horus could have signalled the sealing of a pact between the two. Perturabo and the Iron Warriors suppressed the rebellion on the streets of one city state after another. No one was spared. It was the principle of surrender or no quarter, and the Iron Warriors had grown accustomed to granting no quarter. Perturabo watched on as unmoved and cold as the fortifications in which he taken such pride were overcome. By the time the massacre was over, Olympia had been culled into slavery with almost 5 million civilians dead. Bitter and Twisted: The Iron Warriors Space Marine Chapter, Index Astartes I, 2002 Bitter and Twisted: The Iron Warriors Space Marine Chapter, White Dwarf, volume 256

The decision to turn against the Emperor and join with Horus would make more sense if Perturabo returned to find the people of Olympia being oppressed by Terran occupation forces, and helped his people overthrow them to restore their independence. Under these conditions, Perturabo would have no choice but to join the Warmaster and other traitors, or risk the Emperor’s wrath for breaking faith to defy the edicts of Compliance.

The official records all agree that the Iron Warriors were part of the second wave, and declared their loyalty to Horus by turning on the loyalists during the Istvaan V dropsite massacres. Again, not all of the members of the IV Legion were traitors, and some elements of the Legion were not even involved in the betrayal on Istvaan V. The Iron Warriors under the command of Dantioch being a good example, and the records concerning the efforts of the traitors to purge those loyalists from their ranks reveals something very interesting.

The relationship between Malcador and Guilliman suggests they both had a similar agenda in regards to loyalist members of the traitor Legions. There is also a very real possibility that those loyalists were each permitted to form a Second Founding Chapter under the Ultramarines in the wake of the Horus Heresy. The oldest known copy of the Codex Astartes is known as the Apocrypha of Skaros and recorded twenty-three Second Founding Chapters being created under the Ultramarines, but does not name them.

“I assured you once that my Lord Guilliman had a plan. You have executed your part of that plan flawlessly, Iron Warrior. Lord Guilliman still has need of such ingenuity and skill. The Imperium is frail, Dantioch. An Iron Warrior’s eye could spot such a weakness and the good grace of his hand might make it strong once again.” The Horus Heresy, volume XVI, Age of Darkness, pp361-2

Codex Ultramarines (1995) named twelve Second Founding Ultramarines Chapters. As a point of interest, there were nine traitor Legions, and two others whose records were expunged in the decades that preceded the Horus Heresy. As a further point of interest, the Silver Skulls bear heraldry very similar to that of the Iron Warriors, and are believed to be a Second Founding Chapter of the Ultramarines. Given the rumours concerning the fate of the disbanded loyalists of the two unrecorded Legions, and the cryptic remarks made to Dantioch, there is a very real possibility that loyalists from the unrecorded and traitor Legions formed Second Founding Chapters.

“There are not only those like yourself who have escaped ambush,” the Sigillite continued, “but also brave warriors who have recently arrived from within the traitors’ ranks.” The Horus Heresy, volume XVIII, Deliverance Lost, p133

PART 4

PART 6