horus heresy warhammer 40k ( this is a good book to start Warhammer with)

Horus heresy book 1

this is just page 1-2

 THE HORUS HERESY

Dan Abnett

HORUS RISING

The seeds of heresy are sown

v1.2 (2011.11)

The Horus Heresy

It is a time of legend.

Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy. The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have been smashed by the Emperor's elite warriors and wiped from the face of history.

The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons.

Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors.

First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs, superheroic beings who have led the Emperor's armies of Space Marines in victory after victory. They are unstoppable and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor's genetic experimentation. The Space Marines are the mightiest human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of besting a hundred normal men or more in combat.

Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.

Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glorious, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor's military might, subjugator of a thousand thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme.

Horus is a star ascendant, but how much further can a star rise before it falls?

CONTENTS

HORUS RISING

The Horus Heresy

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PART ONE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

PART TWO

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

PART THREE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

TIMELINE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The Primarchs

HORUS, First Primarch and Warmaster, Commander-in-Chief of the Luna Wolves

ROGAL DORN, Primarch of the Imperial Fists

SANGUINIUS, Primarch of the Blood Angels

The Luna Wolves Legion

EZEKYLE ABADDON, First Captain

TARIK TORGADDON, Captain, 2nd Company

IACTON QRUZE, 'The Half-heard', Captain, 3rd Company

HASTUR SEJANUS, Captain, 4th Company

HORUS AXIMAND, 'Little Horus', Captain, 5th Company

SERGHAR TARGOST, Captain, 7th Company, Lodge Master

GARVIEL LOKEN, Captain, 10th Company

LUC SEDIRAE, Captain, 13th Company

TYBALT MARR, 'The Either', Captain, 18th Company

VERULAM MOY, 'The Or', Captain, 19th Company

LEV GOSHEN, Captain, 25th Company

KALUS EKADDON, Captain, Catulan Reaver Squad

FALKUS KIBRE, 'Widowmaker', Captain, Justaerin Terminator Squad

NERO VIPUS, Sergeant, Locasta Tactical Squad

XAVYER JUBAL, Sergeant, Hellebore Tactical Squad

MALOGHURST, 'The Twisted', Equerry to the Warmaster

The 140th Imperial Expedition Fleet

MATHANUAL AUGUST, Master of the Fleet

Imperial Personae

KYRIL SINDERMANN, Primary iterator

IGNACE KARKASY, Official remembrancer, poet

MERSADIE OLITON, Official remembrancer, documentarist

EUPHRATI KEELER, Official remembrancer, imagist

PEETER EGON MOMUS, Architect designate

AENID RATHBONE, High Administratrix

Non Imperial Personae

JEPHTA NAUD, General Commander, the armies of the interex

DIATH SHEHN, Abbrocarius

ASHEROT, Indentured Kinebrach, Keeper of Devices

MITHRAS TULL, Subordinate Commander, the armies of the interex

The Word Bearers Legion

EREBUS, First Chaplain

The Imperial Fists Legion

SIGISMUND, First Captain

The Emperor's Children Legion

EIDOLON, Lord Commander

LUCIUS, Captain

SAUL TARVITZ, Captain

The Blood Angels Legion

RALDORON, Chapter Master

The 63rd Imperial Expedition Fleet

BOAS COMNENUS, Master of the Fleet

HEKTOR VARVARUS, Lord Commander of the Army

ING MAE SING, Mistress of Astropaths

ERFA HINE SWEQ CHOROGUS, High Senior of the Navis Nobilite

REGULUS, Adept, Envoy of the Martian Mechanicum

PART ONE

THE DECEIVED

I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor...

'Myths grow like crystals, according to their own recurrent pattern; but there must be a suitable core to start their growth.'

— attributed to the remembrancer Koestler (fl. M2)

'The difference between gods and daemons largely depends upon where one is standing at the time.'

— the Primarch Lorgar

'The new light of science shines more brightly than the old light of sorcery. Why, then, do we not seem to see as far?'

— the Sumaturan philosopher Sahlonum (fl. M29)

ONE

Blood from misunderstanding

Our brethren in ignorance

The Emperor dies

'I WAS THERE,' he would say afterwards, until afterwards became a time quite devoid of laughter. 'I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.' It was a delicious conceit, and his comrades would chuckle at the sheer treason of it.

The story was a good one. Torgaddon would usually be the one to cajole him into telling it, for Torgaddon was the joker, a man of mighty laughter and idiot tricks. And Loken would tell it again, a tale rehearsed through so many retellings, it almost told itself.

Loken was always careful to make sure his audience properly understood the irony in his story. It was likely that he felt some shame about his complicity in the matter itself, for it was a case of blood spilled from misunderstanding. There was a great tragedy implicit in the tale of the Emperor's murder, a tragedy that Loken always wanted his listeners to appreciate. But the death of Sejanus was usually all that fixed their attentions.

That, and the punchline.

It had been, as far as the warp-dilated horologs could attest, the two hundred and third year of the Great Crusade. Loken always set his story in its proper time and place. The commander had been Warmaster for about a year, since the triumphant conclusion of the Ullanor campaign, and he was anxious to prove his new-found status, particularly in the eyes of his brothers.

Warmaster. Such a title. The fit was still new and unnatural, not yet worn in.

It was a strange time to be abroad amongst stars. They had been doing what they had been doing for two centuries, but now it felt unfamiliar. It was a start of things. And an ending too.

The ships of the 63rd Expedition came upon the Imperium by chance. A sudden etheric storm, later declared providential by Maloghurst, forced a route alteration, and they translated into the edges of a system comprising nine worlds.

Nine worlds, circling a yellow sun.

Detecting the shoal of rugged expedition warships on station at the out-system edges, the Emperor first demanded to know their occupation and agenda. Then he painstakingly corrected what he s