The First Wall

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The First Wall Page 1

by Gav Thorpe




  Book 1 – THE SOLAR WAR

  Book 2 - THE LOST AND THE DAMNED

  Book 3 - THE FIRST WALL

  SONS OF THE SELENAR

  (Spring 2020)

  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

  BLACKSHIELDS: THE BROKEN CHAIN

  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

  Prologue

  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

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  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.

  ‘There are three weapons in the armoury of the victorious. Endurance, Belief and Loyalty.’

  – Monito san Vastall, First General-Maximus of the Lucifer Blacks

  ‘There is no foe so powerful or so innumerable that we ­cannot overcome them with single-minded determination. Our weapons are simply an extension of our will, and it is our will that shall conquer the galaxy.’

  – Warmaster Horus, address to the Ullanor Triumph

  ‘Faith exists to be tested.’

  – Lorgar Urizen, Lectitio Divinitatus

  Dramatis Personae

  Horus, Warmaster, Primarch of the XVI Legion, Ascendant Vessel of Chaos

  The Primarchs

  Perturabo, ‘The Lord of Iron’, Primarch of the IV Legion

  Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, Primarch of the VII Legion

  Angron, ‘The Red Angel’, Primarch of the XII Legion

  Fulgrim, ‘The Phoenician’, Primarch of the III Legion

  Mortarion, ‘The Lord of Death’, Primarch of the XIV Legion

  Jaghatai Khan, ‘The Warhawk’, Primarch of the V Legion

  Sanguinius, Archangel of Baal, Primarch of the IX Legion

  The IV Legion ‘Iron Warriors’

  Kydomor Forrix, ‘The Breaker’, First Captain, Triarch

  Barban Falk, ‘The Warsmith’, Triarch

  Kroeger, Triarch

  Vull Bronn, ‘The Stonewrought’, 45th Grand Battalion

  Volk-Sa’ra’am, ‘The Obliterator’

  Gharal, Captain

  Berossus, Captain, Dreadnought

  The VII Legion ‘Imperial Fists’

  Sigismund, Lord Castellan, Marshal of the Templars

  Fafnir Rann, Lord Seneschal, Captain of the First Assault Cadre

  Haeger, Lieutenant-Commander, Castellan of the Lion’s Gate space port

  Ortor, Sergeant, First Squad, First Assault Cadre

  The XIV Legion ‘Death Guard’

  Typhus, First Captain, Host of the Destroyer Hive

  The XVI Legion ‘Sons of Horus’

  Ezekyle Abaddon, First Captain

  The XVII Legion ‘Word Bearers’

  Zardu Layak, ‘The Crimson Apostle’, Master of the Unspeaking

  Kulnar, Slave of the Anakatis Blade

  Hebek, Slave of the Anakatis Blade

  The XII Legion ‘World Eaters’

  Khârn, Captain, Eighth Assault Company

  The Dark Mechanicum

  Inar Satarael, Archmagos

  The Neverborn

  Cor’bax Utterblight, The Life Within Death

  Imperial Army

  Colonel Maigraut, Chief of Staff, Lion’s Gate space port

  Zenobi Adedeji, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Menber Adedeji, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Kettai, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Yennu Egwu, Captain, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Okoye, Lieutenant, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Alekzanda, Sergeant, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Seleen, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Sweetana, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Tewedros, Volunteer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Jawaahir Adunay Hadinet, Integrity High Officer, Addaba 64th Defence Corps

  Katsuhiro, Trooper, Palatine Arc quarantine zone garrison

  Nasha, Tank commander, Breath of Wrath, Bakk-Makkah First Regiment

  Imperial Personae

  Malcador, Regent of the Imperium

  Euphrati Keeler, Former Remembrancer

  Kyril Sindermann, Former Iterator

  Valdor, Captain-General of the Legio Custodes

  Amon Tauromachian, Custodian

  Olivier Muižnieks, Head of the Lightbearers

  Manish Dhaubanjar, Hauler operator

  Daxa Dhaubanjar, Hauler operator

  Himalazia, undisclosed location, date unknown

  The smog of hundreds of engines blackened the sky, adding to the gloom of the filth-choked heavens. The thunder of tanks and transports, some the size of city blocks, created a deafening wave of sound that reverberated from the mountainsides, an assault on ears already numbed by the winds of the high Himalazia.

  The growl of machine voices all but drowned out human shouts, even those amplified by voxmitters. Electronic clarions howled into the whirl of noise, sounding the advance or stand-to, their mod­ulated calls overlapping.

  Everything was sudden movement, dust billowing from treads and boots alike.

  ‘This is it.’ General-Captain Egwu did not raise her voice, but her words were carried by the tongues of those under her command. ‘Everyone stand ready.’

  Beside her, Zenobi Adedeji fidgeted with the cover of the banner she carried, eyes flicking between her company commander and the scene of organised bedlam being enacted around the troopers from Addaba Hive.

  ‘Everything we have done, the oaths we have sworn, the hardships we have endured, has led to this moment.’ Now Egwu shouted, not simply to be heard, but filled with passion. Her remaining eye stared wide amongst the burn scars that covered most of her face, fresh tissue pink against her dark skin. ‘Now is the time we strike at the enemy! Our families laboured and died to deliver us to this place. Our courage and determination have carried us this far. We may not live beyond this day, but our deeds will!’

  ‘Now?’ asked Zenobi, her voice quavering with emotion, a shaking hand reaching towards the cover of the standard.

  ‘Yes,’ said the general-captain. ‘Now.’

  The Lord of Iron

  Farewells

  An honour bestowed

  The Iron Blood, Terran near orbit, seventy hours before assault

  Patches of static in the holo-display vexed Perturabo, causing him pain in a way that a wound to his flesh could not. Every blur marring the projected image was a failure of surveyors, each a gap in his knowledge.

  His only companions were the six automatons of his Iron Circle, stationed at regular intervals around the periphery of the octa­gonal chamber. They stood with their shields raised, mauls dormant, the only movement that of their ocular lenses, which whirred and clicked as they followed the pacing of their creator.

  ‘I could extrapolate the defences hidden from me,’ Perturabo thought aloud to his bodyguard. Their unquestioning silence was a welcome break from the ceaseless doubts and queries that spilled from his subordinates of late. ‘I have perfect recollection of other works raised by Dorn, and by patterning those memories with what is shown here I can fill the gaps to a high degree of accuracy.’

  He stared at a glimmering hololith that filled most of his planning chamber aboard the Iron Blood, as though force of will could make it offer up its secrets.

  ‘Extrapolation is not fact,’ he growled. ‘There is too much at stake for assumption, no matter how well informed.’

  His mind, his military genius, was the key Horus needed to unlock the palace of his father, but it needed data like an army needed supplies.

  He stepped into the display, his massive suit of armour hissing and wheezing. Its shadow obliterated whole sectors of the Sanctum Imperialis as he strode to examine one area in particular. He crouched, coming eye to eye with a fictional defender standing on the Ultimate Wall.

  The yellow of Dorn’s Legion was spread everywhere, though it was concentrated around the north-east and south-west. The red of the Blood Angels was strongest to the south-east, where Mortarion’s Death Guard had launched a damaging but ultimately unsuccessful assault near the Helios Gate.

  The Khan’s White Scars were harder
to place. They had sallied forth against Mortarion in support of Sanguinius, but had since been seen in several other battles to the north and west of that attack. The precise whereabouts of the primarchs themselves was a factor to be considered, but impossible to ascertain with any degree of time­liness or certainty.

  Raising the fingers of his left hand, he gestured and the display rotated around him, placing him behind the wall so that he was looking out across the Katabatic Plains surrounding the Palace.

  The Warmaster’s forces were rendered in a more abstract sense; series of runes, numbers and sigils denoting troop type, strength, current morale estimates, longevity of engagement, and half a dozen other factors.

  And there were more features, sketched with a nomenclature he was still creating. These were the forces of the warp, whose powers he had only just started to investigate. Daemons. Possessed legionaries. Word Bearers and Thousand Sons sorcerers.

  And his brothers. Swirls of arcane conjunctions between the real and the imaginary, with a foot in the world of the mortal and immortal alike. Angron, so determined to prove himself, unable to hold his wrath, was still trying the defences at Helios. Mortarion had not personally attempted to breach the Emperor’s shield yet, and at the command of Horus was redirecting efforts to the south-west, attacking a twenty-kilometre stretch of wall near to the bastion of the Saturnine Gate. The Emperor’s Children and Fulgrim, who Perturabo considered the least trustworthy of Horus’ other lieutenants, had been engaging the defenders to the west and north, without any breakthrough.

  Of Magnus there was no sign, but his Legion commanders had been content to take assignment from Perturabo and invested the south-west of the continent-city, supporting the efforts of the Death Guard.

  All of his brothers were baulked at the walls still, held back by the last and most powerfully enigmatic variable in the whole war.

  The Emperor.

  So many questions Perturabo could scarcely think of them, much less attempt to provide answers. Queries that stretched back decades, strategies and decisions he had been picking apart since first he’d come into the presence of his creator.

  But it was equally simple to dismiss most of the unease. Questions of why his father had acted in certain ways, why He had treated His sons the way He had, were now irrelevant. All that was left was the how of the matter. It was connected to the powers of the warp. If Perturabo could unpick that relationship, he could break apart the psychic wards that held back his brothers.

  ‘Titans,’ he reminded himself. ‘The Warmaster needs our Titans to break the siege. He is right – the war engines of our foes’ Legios are a force we cannot yet counter.’

 

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