Book 1 – THE SOLAR WAR
Book 2 - THE LOST AND THE DAMNED
(Autumn 2019)
Book 1 – HORUS RISING
Book 2 – FALSE GODS
Book 3 – GALAXY IN FLAMES
Book 4 – THE FLIGHT OF THE EISENSTEIN
Book 5 – FULGRIM
Book 6 – DESCENT OF ANGELS
Book 7 – LEGION
Book 8 – BATTLE FOR THE ABYSS
Book 9 – MECHANICUM
Book 10 – TALES OF HERESY
Book 11 – FALLEN ANGELS
Book 12 – A THOUSAND SONS
Book 13 – NEMESIS
Book 14 – THE FIRST HERETIC
Book 15 – PROSPERO BURNS
Book 16 – AGE OF DARKNESS
Book 17 – THE OUTCAST DEAD
Book 18 – DELIVERANCE LOST
Book 19 – KNOW NO FEAR
Book 20 – THE PRIMARCHS
Book 21 – FEAR TO TREAD
Book 22 – SHADOWS OF TREACHERY
Book 23 – ANGEL EXTERMINATUS
Book 24 – BETRAYER
Book 25 – MARK OF CALTH
Book 26 – VULKAN LIVES
Book 27 – THE UNREMEMBERED EMPIRE
Book 28 – SCARS
Book 29 – VENGEFUL SPIRIT
Book 30 – THE DAMNATION OF PYTHOS
Book 31 – LEGACIES OF BETRAYAL
Book 32 – DEATHFIRE
Book 33 – WAR WITHOUT END
Book 34 – PHAROS
Book 35 – EYE OF TERRA
Book 36 – THE PATH OF HEAVEN
Book 37 – THE SILENT WAR
Book 38 – ANGELS OF CALIBAN
Book 39 – PRAETORIAN OF DORN
Book 40 – CORAX
Book 41 – THE MASTER OF MANKIND
Book 42 – GARRO
Book 43 – SHATTERED LEGIONS
Book 44 – THE CRIMSON KING
Book 45 – TALLARN
Book 46 – RUINSTORM
Book 47 – OLD EARTH
Book 48 – THE BURDEN OF LOYALTY
Book 49 – WOLFSBANE
Book 50 – BORN OF FLAME
Book 51 – SLAVES TO DARKNESS
Book 52 – HERALDS OF THE SIEGE
Book 53 – TITANDEATH
Book 54 – THE BURIED DAGGER
More tales from the Horus Heresy...
PROMETHEAN SUN
AURELIAN
BROTHERHOOD OF THE STORM
THE CRIMSON FIST
CORAX: SOULFORGE
PRINCE OF CROWS
DEATH AND DEFIANCE
TALLARN: EXECUTIONER
SCORCHED EARTH
THE PURGE
THE HONOURED
THE UNBURDENED
BLADES OF THE TRAITOR
TALLARN: IRONCLAD
RAVENLORD
THE SEVENTH SERPENT
WOLF KING
CYBERNETICA
SONS OF THE FORGE
Many of these titles are also available as abridged and unabridged audiobooks. Order the full range of Horus Heresy novels and audiobooks from blacklibrary.com
Also available
MACRAGGE’S HONOUR
Dan Abnett and Neil Roberts
Audio Dramas
THE DARK KING & THE LIGHTNING TOWER
RAVEN’S FLIGHT
GARRO: OATH OF MOMENT
GARRO: LEGION OF ONE
BUTCHER’S NAILS
GREY ANGEL
GARRO: BURDEN OF DUTY
GARRO: SWORD OF TRUTH
THE SIGILLITE
HONOUR TO THE DEAD
CENSURE
WOLF HUNT
HUNTER’S MOON
THIEF OF REVELATIONS
TEMPLAR
ECHOES OF RUIN
MASTER OF THE FIRST
THE LONG NIGHT
THE EAGLE’S TALON
IRON CORPSES
RAPTOR
GREY TALON
THE EITHER
THE HEART OF THE PHAROS / CHILDREN OF SICARUS
RED-MARKED
ECHOES OF IMPERIUM
ECHOES OF REVELATION
THE THIRTEENTH WOLF
VIRTUES OF THE SONS/SINS OF THE FATHER
THE BINARY SUCCESSION
DARK COMPLIANCE
BLACKSHIELDS: THE FALSE WAR
BLACKSHIELDS: THE RED FIEF
HUBRIS OF MONARCHIA
NIGHTFANE
Download the full range of Horus Heresy audio dramas from blacklibrary.com
Contents
Cover
Backlist
Title Page
The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra
Dramatis Personae
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Afterword
About the Author
An Extract from ‘Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter’
A Black Library Publication
eBook license
It is a time of legend.
The galaxy is in flames. The Emperor’s glorious vision for humanity is in ruins. His favoured son, Horus, has turned from his father’s light and embraced Chaos.
His armies, the mighty and redoubtable Space Marines, are locked in a brutal civil war. Once, these ultimate warriors fought side by side as brothers, protecting the galaxy and bringing mankind back into the Emperor’s light. Now they are divided.
Some remain loyal to the Emperor, whilst others have sided with the Warmaster. Pre-eminent amongst them, the leaders of their thousands-strong Legions, are the primarchs. Magnificent, superhuman beings, they are the crowning achievement of the Emperor’s genetic science. Thrust into battle against one another, victory is uncertain for either side.
Worlds are burning. At Isstvan V, Horus dealt a vicious blow and three loyal Legions were all but destroyed. War was begun, a conflict that will engulf all mankind in fire. Treachery and betrayal have usurped honour and nobility. Assassins lurk in every shadow. Armies are gathering. All must choose a side or die.
Horus musters his armada, Terra itself the object of his wrath. Seated upon the Golden Throne, the Emperor waits for his wayward son to return. But his true enemy is Chaos, a primordial force that seeks to enslave mankind to its capricious whims.
The screams of the innocent, the pleas of the righteous resound to the cruel laughter of Dark Gods. Suffering and damnation await all should the Emperor fail and the war be lost.
The end is here. The skies darken, colossal armies gather.
For the fate of the Throneworld, for the fate of mankind itself...
The Siege of Terra has begun.
Dramatis Personae
The Emperor, Master of Mankind, Last and First Lord of the Imperium
The Traitor Primarchs
Horus, Warmaster, Primarch of the XVI Legion
Fulgrim, ‘The Phoenician’, Primarch of the III Legion
Perturabo, ‘The Lord of Iron’, Primarch of the IV Legion
Angron, ‘The Red Angel’, Primarch of the XII Legion
Mortarion, ‘The Lord of Death’, Primarch of the XIV Legion
Magnus the Red, Primarch of the XV Legion
Alpharius, Primarch of the XX Legion
The Loyal Primarchs
Jaghatai Khan, ‘The Warhawk of Chogoris’, Primarch of the V Legion
Rogal Dorn, ‘Praetorian of Terra’, Primarch of the VII Legion
Sanguinius, ‘The Great Angel’, Primarch of the IX Legion
The High Lords of Terra
Malcador the Sigillite, Regent of the Imperium
Kelsi Demidov, Speaker for the Chartist Captains
Harr Rantal, Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites
Ossian, Chancellor of the Imperial Estates
Simeon Pentasian, Master of the Administratum
Sidat Yaseen Tharcher, Chirurgeon-General of the Orders Hospitalis
Nemo Zhi-Meng, Choirmaster of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Bolam Haardiker, Paternoval Envoy of the Navis Nobilite
Jemm Marison, High Lady of the Imperial Chancellory
General Adreen, Lord Commander Militant of the Imperial Armies
Constantin Valdor, Captain-General of the Legio Custodes
The Kushtun Naganda, ‘Old Hundred’ Imperial Army Regiment
Katsuhiro, Conscript
Runnecan, Conscript
Adinahav Jainan, Acting Captain
198th Palace Aerial Defence Squadron ‘Bright Hawks’
Aisha Daveinpor, Squadron Mistress
Yancy Modin, Pilot, flight one
Dandar Bey, Flight Master, flight two
The VII Legion ‘Imperial Fists’
Maximus Thane, Captain, 22nd Company
Raldoron, First Captain, First Chapter
Azkaellon, Captain, Sanguinary Guard
The VIII Legion ‘Night Lords’
Gendor Skraivok, ‘The Painted Count’, Acting Legion Commander
Thandamell, Terror Master
Lucoryphus, Raptor
The XII Legion ‘World Eaters’
Khârn, Captain, Eighth Assault Company
Lotara Sarrin, Shipmistress, Legion Flagship, the Conqueror
The XVI Legion ‘Sons of Horus’
Ezekyle Abaddon, First Captain
Horus Aximand, ‘Little Horus’, Captain, Fifth Company
Tormageddon, Possessed Space Marine
Falkus Kibre, ‘Widowmaker’, Captain, Justaerin Cohort
The XVII Legion ‘Word Bearers’
Zardu Layak, ‘The Crimson Apostle’, Master of the Unspeaking
The XX Legion ‘Alpha Legion’
Lydia Myzmadra, Operative
Ashul, Operative
The Dark Mechanicum
Kelbor-Hal, True Fabricator General of Mars
Sota-Nul, Martian emissary to the Warmaster, Mistress of the Disciples of Nul
Clain Pent, Fifth Disciple of Nul
The Adeptus Mechanicus
Zagreus Kane, Fabricator General of Mars-in-exile
Vethorel, Ambassadress
The Adeptus Titanicus
Esha Ani Mohana Vi, ‘Great Mother’, Legio Solaria
Thernian 7th, Imperial Army regiment
Hanis oFar, Trooper
Fendo, Trooper
Others
Thuria Amund, In-system traffic controller, Bhab Bastion
Azmedi, Beastman
When strikes midnight
Bombardment
We will stand
Bhab Bastion, 13th of Secundus
On the thirteenth day of Secundus, the bombardment of Terra began.
The enemy aimed the first shell deliberately at the centre of the Inner Palace, the Sanctum Imperialis, the Emperor’s own quarters. It screamed a song of fire as it tore apart the atmosphere over Himalazia, falling through the furious storm of anti-ship cannonades and defence laser beams coming up from the Imperial defences. The assault on the Warmaster’s fleet was so intense that the shell went almost unnoticed. Its flight was short, being cut apart by a net of las-beams as soon as it was detected.
But it was seen.
The Emperor’s Praetorian watched its brief descent, his stern features unmoved. Two others stood with him, mighty lords of the Imperium both. The Great Angel and the Warhawk saw the momentary flash also.
Three armoured giants forged in the fires of yesterday’s knowledge. They were brothers, after a fashion, born of the same science and the same inhuman genius.
The Praetorian’s name was Rogal Dorn. His armour was of gold. His hair was shocking white. His sculpted face was as severe as any patriarch from mankind’s long history. There was no room for compromise in his expression.
Sanguinius, the Angel was named. He was garbed in gold as bright as Dorn’s panoply. His armour covered all his body save his face and his snow-white wings. He was beautiful, a divine being incarnate pulled down from heaven and exiled in the soiled world of men. He observed the universe sadly.
The Warhawk wore gleaming white. His adopted people called him Jaghatai Khan, the first name given for his prowess, the latter because he was their king. He kept the name. Like his brothers he went without his helm. Below a tall topknot his face was proud, wild, always on the verge of a smile, but troubled, like the sky at summer’s end edged with autumn’s clouds. He sought out death simply for the joy of laughing at it.
‘Midnight, as the old reckoning has it. The symbolic spearcast,’ said the Khan. ‘Our brother marks his enmity for us. It is a challenge. A promise of his victory. We did this on Chogoris, when armies met. This shot is meant for the three of us.’
‘Such arrogance,’ said Sanguinius softly.
‘Horus was well gifted with confidence. It has grown wayward. He is too sure of himself.’ The Khan shrugged as if Horus’ fall had been an inevitability. His glorious armour hissed and sighed. ‘Arrogance is close kin to hubris. He will fail because of it.’
Dorn turned his gaze to the Warmaster’s armada. Not since the Principia Imperialis had mustered at the opening of the Great Crusade had such a fleet of void-ships gathered over Terra, and never before had so many come as enemies. Terra’s iron children returned to their origin with murder in their hearts, to spit hatred onto the cradle of mankind. And yet, for the moment, they held back, weathering the storm of explosives and violent energies hurled at them from the ground.
Thousands upon thousands of ships crowded every orbit, so many that their lights outcompeted the stars and sun and turned night and day into a single, ceaseless murk of red war-glow, strobed with vicious flashes. Void shields deflected the Palace’s attack, spilling unclean colours across the upper atmosphere in such amounts that they encased the planet in vile aurorae.
Bells rang from every Palace tower. Sirens wailed. Tocsins clamoured. Guns rippled out asynchronous drumbeats. The sky crackled and boomed with the discharge of mighty weaponry. The Palace defences had been firing since the moment the ships came within effective range. The fleet was so densely packed the defenders could not miss. As the brothers watched, a ship came apart, shedding debris meteors.
The enemy’s response was that single shell.
‘Why do you wait?’ Dorn said quietly. The ramparts of the Bhab Bastion were empty except for the three brothers. The question he uttered for the sake of speaking, for recently he felt himself f
alling too often into silence. ‘Come to us. Break yourself upon our walls.’
‘He waits no more,’ said Sanguinius. His voice, once melodious, was strained. ‘It begins.’ He lifted his hand and pointed.
The sky sparkled a billion times as every ship in the fleet spoke together. The Emperor will fall, the pattern of light seemed to say. We have come to wreak ruin.
‘Every war I have ever seen has hidden beauty,’ said the Khan. ‘But I have seen few sights quite so entrancing as this.’
‘A fleeting beauty,’ said Dorn. ‘And deadly.’
The shells hit the upper atmosphere where they drew flaming lines through the sky.
‘All things are fleeting,’ said the Khan. ‘Life is short and full of woe. One must wring every moment dry, and drink in the experience it has to offer, good or bad.’
The space above the Palace was full of the downwards arcs of munitions, and the straight lines of las-bursts stabbing upwards. The air shook with matter hurtling from the void. Booming reverberations echoed from the peaks of the Himalazian massif, resounding around the whole world, girdling it in sound even before the first shot detonated.
‘How can you see the good in this?’ Sanguinius asked the Khan. As he turned to look to the Warhawk the first shells burst over the Skye orbital plate, the last of Terra’s artificial satellites. It hung low to the horizon, near the Inner Palace, its wide arrays of grav engines labouring to keep it aloft. The munitions exploded harmlessly, their fury vented into the warp by void shields. The dome of the plate’s protective aegis shone with baleful energies.
‘Joy is an act of defiance,’ said the Khan. ‘With joy, we win, even if we lose. To have lived well is a victory all its own, for we all die. Death is unimportant to the laughing warrior. A poet makes tragedy glorious. That is why.’
The shells hit the main shields seconds after hitting Skye. The aegis was wrought with ancient knowledge jealously harboured by the priests of Mars. The voids comprising the aegis reacted, and roofed the Earth with fire. Storms of flame shot out complex tangles of discharge lightning. The Palace shuddered with the effort of buried machines as halls of generators fought to hold back the bombardment from the spires of the city. Beyond the aegis’ protection the ground bucked. Towers of nuclear fire roared skywards from every horizon. Tremors shook the world. As the first round of shells hit, the fleet’s energy cannons awoke, hurling shafts of burning light and streams of plasma down, so that the void shields danced, and the view of the ships was lost.
The Emperor’s Praetorian looked into the inferno in the sky. His eyes focused somewhere past the fleet, deep into the hidden void, as if he could see beyond the bounds of the Solar System and the material universe and out into the warp, where the fleets of Roboute Guilliman made all haste to the Throneworld. His gauntlets gripped the lip of the parapet tightly.