Sons of the Selenar Read online

  Book 1 – THE SOLAR WAR

  Book 2 – THE LOST AND THE DAMNED

  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

  Title Page

  The Siege of Terra

  Dramatis Personae

  Prologue

  Book 1

  1

  2

  3

  Book 2

  4

  5

  6

  7

  Book 3

  8

  9

  10

  11

  Afterword

  About the Author

  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 Sisypheum

  Ulrach Branthan, Captain, Iron Hands 65th Clan-Company

  Cadmus Tyro, Acting captain of the Sisypheum

  Frater Thamatica, Ironwrought, Avernii veteran

  Ignatius Numen, Battle-brother

  Sabik Wayland, Iron Father

  Garuda, Eagle construct of Ulrach Branthan

  Nykona Sharrowkyn, Raven Guard 66th Company

  Atesh Tarsa, Apothecary, Salamanders 24th Company

  The Selenar

  Heliosa-54, High Matriarch of Luna's Selenar cults

  Ta'lab Vita-37, Gene-witch of the Selenar

  The Sons of Horus

&n
bsp; Trastevere, Justaerin, captain of the Eye's Watch

  Vornak, Justaerin Terminator

  Urgave, Justaerin Terminator

  'I, for one, know of no sweeter sight for a man's eyes than his own country...'

  - Omerus, the Blind Bard of Ionia

  'A leader is ultimately responsible for everything.'

  - The Primarch Guilliman

  'Loyalist, traitor...? The distinction is irrelevant. They are all sons of the Selenar.'

  - Ta'lab Vita-37

  PROLOGUE

  Do not swear by the moon,

  for she changes constantly.

  The surface of Terra was burning.

  Its atmosphere glowed with the fires of Unity.

  Storms of global war raged beneath toxic skies, like the banked embers of a hearth.

  They bathed the Lunar surface in red.

  Warfare had riven humanity's birthrock for as long as the Selenar could remember, the conflicts growing in scale with every passing epoch and each unchecked evolution of technology.

  'War has recast the world in its image,' said Heliosa-54, the ruddy light of Terra's unification reflecting from the moulded surfaces of her chromium mask.

  'It has always been thus, revered matriarch,' spat Ta'lab Vita-37, her multi-armed form hunched over the data-light of the command console. 'It is mankind's nature to destroy.'

  The matriarch of the Selenar turned to her most trusted gene maiden, hearing the stress placed on the man of mankind.

  'That is likely true,' agreed Heliosa-54, 'but we too are a branch of that shared root. Yes, we distil the essences of singular genetic paths in search of the perfect aspects of our species, but follow the strands of history far enough back, and we are not so different.'

  She felt Ta'lab Vita-37's urge to challenge that assertion, her consciously evolved nature as a contrarian and questioner warring with her respect for Heliosa-54's vaunted archetype.

  'You disagree?'

  'I would not presume to, revered matriarch. Not now.'

  'Of course you would, it is the archetype you iterate upon with every evolution. Speak freely.'

  'Very well, revered matriarch,' said Ta'lab Vita-37, pausing to gesture towards the grim situation unfolding in front of them. 'The Emperor's transhuman warriors are bred to wreak bloody ruin and nothing else. They are capable of nothing else. But we of the Selenar cults, by iterating upon the twin mysteries of the helix, perform acts of delation and creation. The gene-wrights of the Emperor pursue only the science of death, and it is too late for them to change their course.'

  'And our sciences? Do we not also craft killing engines of steel and flesh?'

  'For the defence of our fiefdoms, yes,' Ta'lab Vita-37 conceded. 'But the Dianic rites bring us closer to the true potential of humanity. Ultimately they will move us further from the urge to destroy.

  'I hope that will one day prove to be the case,' said Heliosa-54. 'But do not be so quick to condemn our Terran brothers. In times past, there were moments when the better angels of human nature sought to turn our species from the bloody altars of war. To embrace Peace.'

  'Such times were few and far between,' pointed out la lab Vita-37. 'And they never lasted.'

  As if to reinforce her point, the curve-walled chamber at the heart of the moon shook with the impact of nearby detonations. Grey dust spilled from cracks in the ceiling. It danced in the suspensor fields surrounding Heliosa-54's floating, cursive-spined form. Fractal patterns of dust glittered in the actinic light thrown out by the gently spinning gene-looms woven into the stone walls.

  The pneuma-tubes along Heliosa-54's neck pulsed in time with her frosted breath, crafting a twisting helix at her throat.

  'Why does the Emperor seek to destroy us?' asked Ta'lab Vita-37.

  'The Emperor does not seek to destroy us.'

  Ta'lab Vita-37 extended a curved, talon-like fingertip, hooking a disc of noospheric light from the gloss-black of the command console and lifting it up between them.

  A rapidly shrinking noose of red light converged on their location, a silver icon of the crescent moon. Previously muted vox-channels surged with screams of the doomed and dying. The unmistakable bangs of bolter fire and shrieking plasma explosions formed a deafening cacophony of slaughter.

  'All available data suggests otherwise,' she said. 'Warriors of the Seventh and Sixteenth Legions are slaughtering everything in their path. Our cults are dying as we speak.'

  The howls of their attackers were a screeching din that scraped the spine, feral war-shouts of men born in the dark and raised on murder. Such men would accept nothing less than the complete destruction of whoever dared stand before them.

  'The Emperor does not seek to destroy us,' repeated Heliosa-54. 'He seeks to yoke us to His great work. Not without some justification, He hopes we fear annihilation more than servitude. His hubris requires our science, our looms and our mysteries. He knows much, but He does not know everything.'

  'Is that why you brought me here?' asked Ta'lab Vita-37. 'Is that why you still remain?'

  'Yes. If the Emperor's killers do not find me here, they will tear Luna apart until they do. They will break me and I will be forced to give them the Magna Mater.'

  Ta'lab Vita-37 flinched at the thought, and said, 'What is it you require of me?’

  Heliosa-54 extended a dextrous, needle-like hand, one whose fingertips had crafted gene-sequences of such dizzying complexity that it seemed inconceivable they did not belong to some ancient creator goddess.

  'To forsake me,' said Heliosa-54.

  'I do not understand,' said Ta'lab Vita-37.

  Data flowed between them, coiling spirals of light bearing gene sequences, marker codes and swathes of information so complex it made Ta'lab Vita-37 gasp at the density of inload.

  ‘Go below to the Ergodic Vault. Sever your connections to the Luna Manifold, take the Magna Mater and vanish. I cannot divulge what I do not know. Too few of the high priestesses remain alive to destroy the Magna Mater, so you must keep it from the Emperor, you understand?'

  'I understand,' said Ta'lab Vita-37.

  Heliosa-54 saw Ta'lab Vita-37's shoulders slump, the gene-maiden already burdened by the terrible duty she had placed upon her.

  'And if they should eventually find me?'

  'Then pray that he who takes the Magna Mater is a wiser soul and has greater vision than Terra's new master.'

  Ta'lab Vita-37 bowed, clasping her hands across her chest.

  'It shall be as you say, revered matriarch,' she said. 'I will not fail you.'

  Heliosa-54 did not watch her go, already beginning a mnemonic purge. Sadness touched her as precious memories burned away in the fires of synaptic erasure. She had loved Ta'lab Vita-37 as a daughter, but could not allow any trace of the gene-maiden to be found within her neural network.

  She turned back to the console.

  Barely six hours had passed since the sudden, shocking assault of the brute-crafted gene-warriors from Terra.

  Every war front on Luna told the same story of defeat.

  Her heart heavy with fear for the future, the High Matriarch of Luna opened a broad-spectrum vox-channel.

  She knew the Emperor would hear her.

  She hoped His warriors would.

  'Call off your wolves,' she begged.

  BOOK 1

  MAIDEN

  She is a wild, tangled forest with temples

  and treasures concealed within.

  1

  A Captain Remade

  Skeleton Crew

  Carnager

  How best should a warrior die?

  He had given much thought to this over the years. As a neophyte, he imagined his end would come in a terrible war against some hideous xenoform, fighting side by side with his brothers for a noble and heroic cause. His last moments would come in a battle spoken of in awe by the warriors of ages yet to pass.

  In the following millennia, lessons learned from his end would be taught in every academy of war - requ
ired reading for the youth of this new age.

  Libraries of books would be written of that bloody time.

  But war cares nothing for the arrogant imaginings of young men.

  Its teachings are bloody and indifferent.

  Yes, heroes are forged in the crucible of combat, and the legacies of a handful live on in the memories of those who endure. But tor every hero whose deeds transcend their death, tens of thousands more are forgotten or never known at all.

  Their courage goes unrecorded.

  Their stories are never told.

  Nykona Sharrowkyn was no longer a neophyte, and ever since Sabik Wayland had dragged his ruined body from the betrayal on Isstvan V, he'd long known he would die in the dark, alone and unremembered.

  A fitting end for a warrior of the Raven Guard.

  How best should a warrior die?

  In a little over two minutes, he'd likely find out.

  Spots of light flickered like auspex glitches on the ochre orb of Jupiter, which filled the Sisypheum's viewscreen. But they weren't glitches, they were burning weapons platforms struck from their orbital anchors and now dragged to destruction by the vast planet's gravity. In the foreground, pyrochemical lightning and ash storms distorted the gun-metal ellipse of Ganymede as its vast hydro-stacks burned in the fury of traitor bombardments.

  The Solar War was raging, hot and bright, but drawing inexorably closer to Terra from the outer-system planets. The Warmaster was tightening his noose, but every minute the loyalists kept the traitors from the Throneworld's glory was a victory.

  Dying ships blazed in Jupiter's high orbit, skeletons of blackened metal alight from within. Atomic storms raged in their wakes as millions of megatons of ship-killing ordnance detonated like distant supernovas.

  Not as distant as Nykona Sharrowkyn would have liked.

  Swarms of torpedoes flew hot in the void. Macro shells lit up space in blinding explosions. Banks of lasers blinked in collimated lines of actinic brightness.

  Something detonated off the ventral axis. Sharrowkyn had no idea what it might have been. A torpedo warhead? A ship exploding? A hunter-killer mine?

  Three hundred and sixty-seven ships manoeuvred aggressively within the Jovian engagement volume. Escorts and destroyers mostly At least seventy vessels of capital displacement also Sharrowkyn had little skill in coordinating void fights or the operation of a starship, but after the disastrous mission to Lema Two-Twelve and the decimation of the Sisypheum's crew, he'd had to learn something of the craft.