@Bright_Ops@Sophrus@Ollumhammersong@BCTheEntity@Eisenhorn
Hive World of Ephron Five - ca. 020.M31, The Great Scouring
The very chamber itself shook with the shock-waves of explosive bombardment, rockcrete powder and shards of jagged metal dropping onto the kneeling figure below with little noticeable affect; for days, weeks, months even, the huge individual had interred himself within the darkened chamber beneath the lowest levels of the Ephron Hive without food or drink or contact with the outside world, and there he had remained ever since. In this period, when the galaxy was being torn apart by brutal reprises from Loyalist and Traitor forces alike, one more person was largely ignored; this was one 'man' who should not have been.
He was Ar Khanata, a native of Colchis and an Astartes of the XVII Legion, the so-called 'Word Bearers', a Battle-Brother who had fought to bring worlds and entire systems into the fold of Imperial Compliance, but now sought only to record the dictates of his Primarch Lorgar and the deities of the dark pantheon he followed.
Spread all about him in heaps and scattered here and there, the room empty save for the materials - parchment, dataslates and auto-quills mostly - that he required to finish his abominable task, were the fractured segments of four tomes. Each tome was dedicated to one of the four Ruinous Powers, mere quarters of a scheme toward apotheosis that he would never be able to complete...they were coming for him.
How they had discovered his whereabouts he did not know, all the Dark Apostle did know was that the Loyalist Astartes, his former comrades-in-arms, would show him and the planet on which he had chosen to abide not the slightest hint of quarter or mercy. The sprawling Hive City would be cleansed and most probably re-populated with loyal Imperial citizens, possibly even families of Terran stock, families that would never support Chaos of even the idea of it. Then, ten-thousand years from now, they would no doubt rise to become the ruling overlords of Ephron V and the very name of Horus would be gone forever.
Muttering passes from the Book of Lorgar to himself, one large fist scraping at the skin of his scalp where he had taken to writing heretical verses in imitation of his daemonic Primarch.
"Changing....last of the loyal...tr-true..." he was beginning to lose his concentration, to lose his very mind, only his superhuman physiology having allowed him to contain the raw energies being directed at him from the Immaterium for this long, "mussst finisssh," his eyes began to twitch and blood to flow freely from his ears, blocking out the continuing sound of Imperial bombardment, "I am coming, masters, I am coming!" In one motion he sat bolt-upright, flinging open his arms in time for three figures to enter the chamber.
"Shoot him!" Roared one of the Astartes aggressors, the blue and white of the Ultramarines illuminated by what little light there was in the cell, "we cannot allow him to live." A quick gesture bought the other pair of Marines into the cell, a flamer held in the clutches of one, and without a word he unleashed a raging inferno into a room hardly big enough for the four of them.
"You are too late, you fools!" Spat the once-loyal warrior of darkness, even as the promethium-fuelled flames began to strip away his blackening flesh, "so it is written, so shall it be done, as the Gods are my witnesses."
Before long he was naught but a pile of ash, the room forever scorched black, sealed by the Ultramarines upon their leaving of the planet; yet they were too late, for the texts which the heretic had been writing had been sent out into the ether at the very last moment. Even now, others - psykers, traitors and the insane - would be reproducing his works...yes, Ar Khanata would live on.
Hive World of Ephron Five - Present Day
Time had passed as it always did, and the fifth planet of Ephron did become an Imperial asset once more, supplying regiments for the Imperial Guard at regular intervals and generally paying substantial tithes to the Imperium and - as the traitor had first predicted - those descendants of the Terran colonists, the famililies to resettle its population centres after the initial cleansing by the Ultramarines, were now the highest and mightiest on the face of the planet.
What had happened on the planet during the Great Scouring, as with most everything about and immediatly after the Horus Heresy, had been abolished from Imperial records - even the Planetary Governor had no idea that his world had once been infested with the taint of Chaos, or that a powerful servant of their's had written four of the most blasphemous texts formerly known to the Imperium of Man somewhere in this very city.
Over time they had managed to track down and destroy every copy...or so they believed.
A time of change was coming to the Hive World, a time when things would be turned upon there head and the highest would become the lowest, when the pauper would become a king, and when the Corpse-Emperor would know the wrath of a planet in which the seed of heresy had been planted ten-thousand years ago.
When all four are bought as one, when all are bought together, there shall be no force in this realm of mortal man that can stop them from ascending to greatness - blood shall flow, lust shall ensnare, the weak shall grow sick and die, and change will come to all. O' weak and foolish servants of a false God, do you not see? You are as nothing, and to nothing you shall return, to pain, despair and torture for all eternity. The loyal and true shall inherit all.
Hive World of Ephron Five - ca. 020.M31, The Great Scouring
The very chamber itself shook with the shock-waves of explosive bombardment, rockcrete powder and shards of jagged metal dropping onto the kneeling figure below with little noticeable affect; for days, weeks, months even, the huge individual had interred himself within the darkened chamber beneath the lowest levels of the Ephron Hive without food or drink or contact with the outside world, and there he had remained ever since. In this period, when the galaxy was being torn apart by brutal reprises from Loyalist and Traitor forces alike, one more person was largely ignored; this was one 'man' who should not have been.
He was Ar Khanata, a native of Colchis and an Astartes of the XVII Legion, the so-called 'Word Bearers', a Battle-Brother who had fought to bring worlds and entire systems into the fold of Imperial Compliance, but now sought only to record the dictates of his Primarch Lorgar and the deities of the dark pantheon he followed.
Spread all about him in heaps and scattered here and there, the room empty save for the materials - parchment, dataslates and auto-quills mostly - that he required to finish his abominable task, were the fractured segments of four tomes. Each tome was dedicated to one of the four Ruinous Powers, mere quarters of a scheme toward apotheosis that he would never be able to complete...they were coming for him.
How they had discovered his whereabouts he did not know, all the Dark Apostle did know was that the Loyalist Astartes, his former comrades-in-arms, would show him and the planet on which he had chosen to abide not the slightest hint of quarter or mercy. The sprawling Hive City would be cleansed and most probably re-populated with loyal Imperial citizens, possibly even families of Terran stock, families that would never support Chaos of even the idea of it. Then, ten-thousand years from now, they would no doubt rise to become the ruling overlords of Ephron V and the very name of Horus would be gone forever.
Muttering passes from the Book of Lorgar to himself, one large fist scraping at the skin of his scalp where he had taken to writing heretical verses in imitation of his daemonic Primarch.
"Changing....last of the loyal...tr-true..." he was beginning to lose his concentration, to lose his very mind, only his superhuman physiology having allowed him to contain the raw energies being directed at him from the Immaterium for this long, "mussst finisssh," his eyes began to twitch and blood to flow freely from his ears, blocking out the continuing sound of Imperial bombardment, "I am coming, masters, I am coming!" In one motion he sat bolt-upright, flinging open his arms in time for three figures to enter the chamber.
"Shoot him!" Roared one of the Astartes aggressors, the blue and white of the Ultramarines illuminated by what little light there was in the cell, "we cannot allow him to live." A quick gesture bought the other pair of Marines into the cell, a flamer held in the clutches of one, and without a word he unleashed a raging inferno into a room hardly big enough for the four of them.
"You are too late, you fools!" Spat the once-loyal warrior of darkness, even as the promethium-fuelled flames began to strip away his blackening flesh, "so it is written, so shall it be done, as the Gods are my witnesses."
Before long he was naught but a pile of ash, the room forever scorched black, sealed by the Ultramarines upon their leaving of the planet; yet they were too late, for the texts which the heretic had been writing had been sent out into the ether at the very last moment. Even now, others - psykers, traitors and the insane - would be reproducing his works...yes, Ar Khanata would live on.
Hive World of Ephron Five - Present Day
Time had passed as it always did, and the fifth planet of Ephron did become an Imperial asset once more, supplying regiments for the Imperial Guard at regular intervals and generally paying substantial tithes to the Imperium and - as the traitor had first predicted - those descendants of the Terran colonists, the famililies to resettle its population centres after the initial cleansing by the Ultramarines, were now the highest and mightiest on the face of the planet.
What had happened on the planet during the Great Scouring, as with most everything about and immediatly after the Horus Heresy, had been abolished from Imperial records - even the Planetary Governor had no idea that his world had once been infested with the taint of Chaos, or that a powerful servant of their's had written four of the most blasphemous texts formerly known to the Imperium of Man somewhere in this very city.
Over time they had managed to track down and destroy every copy...or so they believed.
A time of change was coming to the Hive World, a time when things would be turned upon there head and the highest would become the lowest, when the pauper would become a king, and when the Corpse-Emperor would know the wrath of a planet in which the seed of heresy had been planted ten-thousand years ago.
When all four are bought as one, when all are bought together, there shall be no force in this realm of mortal man that can stop them from ascending to greatness - blood shall flow, lust shall ensnare, the weak shall grow sick and die, and change will come to all. O' weak and foolish servants of a false God, do you not see? You are as nothing, and to nothing you shall return, to pain, despair and torture for all eternity. The loyal and true shall inherit all.
