Of Kings and Gods
T'sun-tzu's family suffered the worst indignation any T'au could, ostracised from the Ethereal cast. His father T'sun-Yun'o, failed in completing a successful campaign early in the second sphere of expansion. The man returned home to no fanfare and public opinion turning completely against him. The magnitude of which had him exiled to the Fire-Cast. A decision that was nearly unanimous with the Ethereal coucil.
Despite this, Yun'o wasn't without friends in the highest of places. He wouldn't let his son suffer his condemnation. Instead his young son, barely six rotational cycles, was given to Ne'Q'aah to assume his mantle of responsibility. His son secretly took the academia-nobili to study the art of leadership. Tzu had his father ingenious and his own natural cult of personality. The young student found he could easily sway minds with a few choice words in a few choice ears.
After completing his studies, he worked under the council doing litigation and missionary work. He had something the other senators lacked: courage. The other council members found their fear entrenched. The T'au had been in an endless deadlock for well over two millennia. They first made leaps and bounds until they ran into the sleeping bear. When the Imperium woke up and the rusty gears of bureaucracy finally started grinding, the T'au found themselves in someone else's galaxy.
T'sun-tzu had suffered through decades of tiptoeing senators. His family was not one of them. Tzu was a strong-willed young man surrounded by old men who wanted to preserve the status quo. They were too afraid of the Ork, Tyranids, and the bear to be effective leaders. Tzu is a man of ambition. Ambition had become as rare as psykers in the T'au race. But that young senator had more than an ample supply.
The council broke into three distinct groups - hated him, feared him, and respected him. The first two groups would play intrigue together. But everybody wants something. Most of the council fought over the homeworld and the lesser species. He would help one senator only to gain leverage and turn around and betray them. There were many great works he helped organize. Though internal wars within the T'au were forbidden, the twin inhabited worlds of the Ilaix system were in a constant state of cold war. Creation of a state of peace could further his career and win over favor with two senators. But hostile voices threatened to escalate the situation into violence. Ilaix suffered from incompetence and not having a unified government. They were fighting over mining rights on a neighboring world between them. Tzu worked towards a joint venture between the worlds using Yaahng'hn mining firm as a proxy. The entire venture nearly collapsed when rumors of his involvement in the company began to circulate throughout the public consciousness. In reality, he owned a large portion of most T'au companies.
Many historians try to paint a picture of the T'au being spacefaring communists. But there really is no real world analogy. On paper their society is supposed to work like this. The T'au government owns fifty percent stock in all businesses. Twenty five percent is owned by the state religion of the greater good. The remaining twenty five are independently owned and autonomous. The problem is that this only exists on paper. In reality the independents have the greatest influence and control. The state's control had been slipping for millennia. People like Tzu had stock in most companies even though it's highly unethical and illegal. Tzu had his blue hands in so many pockets that it would be pointless to list them all. If anyone found out, he would bury them in a litigation nightmare. This is how he handled the Ilaix rumors, burying them in septillian tons of bureaucracy. The conspirators wouldn't see the sun for another two-hundred years.
The success of Ilaix pushed him from just a simple litigation magistrate to praetor. His rhetoric further pushed his career. His next hurdle came in a series of ecological disasters on TyrnQ'lar. The ethereal council largely ignored this disaster and downplayed its significance. Tzu predicted the backlash from T'au society at the perceived betrayal of the Greater Good. He offered aid long before the ethereals even acknowledged the disaster, even with money from his own pocket. Tzu suddenly became the model of the greater good ideals manifested. His popularity exploded within the castes. Overnight he earned the lowest position in the ethereal council. But also earned many new enemies within his new appointment.
His third hurdle came from the kroot-vespid war, a fopaux in T'au society. In a strange turn of fate, the kroot weren't the instagaters. The ethereal response was to condemn both parties, but ultimately try to sanction them into peace talks. Tzu's plan wasn't so suddle. He told the kroot he was invading and any kroot or vespid still on the battlefield would be executed with no quarter given. He was largely ignored by both parties which made the surprise attack all the more deadly. Using the authority invested in him by his position, he invaded the kroot home of Pech. Records show less than 2% of enemy combatants in the war survived. Many kroot-vespid military combatants didn't know if they should return fire and died because of it.
After that day, no one ever doubted him. It was well known that he possessed a cold ruthlessness. People suspected that he held a belief that life was an inconvenience that should be dealt with swiftly on wings of fire.
The T'au were hemmed in from all sides. The various Orks clans on one side - Krag Skulls, Rotz Grotz, and Iron Tusk Krankle Biters. On the otherside Hive Fleet Gorgon. Finally they had the sleeping bear, the Imperium. But suddenly the T'au's third front went strangely silent, all the Orks strangely absent. The T'au were able to quickly gather territory and shift an entire front: men, munitions, and material toward beating Hive Fleet Gorgon. By 541 M.41, Hive Fleet Gorgon had been smashed and the T'au suddenly had a surplus of everything.
The T'au launched a ferocious campaign against the Imperium. But even the imperium was strangely silent. They captured nine planets within a year's time. Then they dug in and waited for a response. But none came. True, space is vast and response can get lost. But none of the local forces sent reinforcements.
Tzu seized the momentum, throwing everything into the push forward. True, defenses got worse and attrition increased. But the imperium wasn't coming. This worried Tzu. Something worse was happening elsewhere in the galaxy.
Bile needed vast Laboratoria and undying loyalty to complete the clone of Horus. No one could find out what he was doing. So he relied heavily on servitors and the black Laboratoria. Every couple of weeks he would kill the servitors or anyone else tied to the project. Subtly shifting from the creation of second founding marines to working on the Horus clone. Then he contracted out to the Dark Mechanicum to construct the armor from Archeoschematica. Though the Mechanicum wanted to know more and pressured him to reveal the nonexistent STC. The lack of a STC just made the technology hunger worse and Bile's knowledge more mysterious.
The armor was extremely complicated to understand but relatively easy to assemble. Then as Abbadon began his war on the Imperium, he brought the clone to life by carefully putting the catatonic body into the power armor and inserting the soul stone into the receptacle. Suddenly the brain was alive with nerve impulses and neuron fire. Horus awakened remembering much from his time within the hell dimension. But had no understanding of the current time line. It came as a grave surprise to find not only did he succeed in killing the Emperor, but that it ultimately caused his vision. Bile didn't know Horus' plans, but the primarch seemed determined to change the fate of the galaxy.
Horus did learn about his legion, Abbadon, and of his previous destruction. But such topics are stories for remembrancers and won't be covered here. Horus left his name to history. He didn't want to be remembered for his failures and nobody remembered his face. Horus adopted the name Amun-ra Fenrir in all but the most private of circles. Though the name brought fond memories, its stigma was too much to overcome.
The newcomer was just one of many consolidating power in the eye. Many warbands refused to serve any master, even the champion of chaos. Some snubbed Abbadon personally. Some preferred their own glory. These minor bands were too numerous for Abbadon to waste time hunting down. Luckily for Horus, power brokerage in the warbands is settled by duals. But the various warband quickly wised up to Horus' ploy. One doesn't simply go toe-to-toe with, by this time, an ancient primarch. Soon space battles were a common occurrence and boarding was a necessity of the plan.
Horus' forces had grown to challenge most warbands. Still some incredibly stupid Warlords attempted to challenge him on sheer provado alone. What followed afterward was a slow, military genius skill level of power brokering. Horus absorbed one small warband and used its military might to absorb the next.
Because of the warp's wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff, Abbadon would not only not receive word, but wouldn't even be able to interfere. Whether the gods had a hand in this interference is a matter of your conjecture.
By the time of Abbadon's defeat at the Ork's and the end of the 13'th Black Crusade, Horus had gathered a sizable following, normally not enough to defeat Abbadon. But even the warp was whispering of Abbadon's defeat.
The surviving black fleet was ambushed upon returning to the Eye. Abbadon played no part in the spacebattle, wounded beyond the ability to command and driven nearly insane with the loss of his sword. The champion of chaos lay wounded on a medicae bed as his fleet was systematically destroyed. Once the new flagship of the chaos fleet, the Herald of Sorrow, was boarded, the Black Legion and two Primarchs attempted to protect the wounded champion.
Rumors of an unknown primarch walking around in the flesh spread throughout the ship like wildfire. Lorgar wanted to dismiss these claims so he sought the truth of the matter. Only to have his skepticism turn to cold hard truth that broke his fragile psyche and brought him to his knees.
But Mortarion didn't not falter like his brother believing this to be Immaterium falsity. This is a dupe and he is not gullible. But Horus is no ghost and he had near perfect recall of memories of sparring with him in the days of old. The old Primarch found his friend had become stagnant in his old age. Mortarion never found a reason to improve his fighting style. It was predictable as a bad holo-comedy on a vid-cast. To make the battle more one sided, the endless battles with the echo of the Emperor had honed his edge.
That edge tore through the Deathshroud and the sight of their broken bodies nearly caused Mortarion to falter. But he found a well of courage and threw himself at his old friend. But one single side step brought Mortarion low, but not dead. The final blow was more of an insult, snapping Silence in half at the handle. Then Horus offered redemption. Instead Mortarion asked one simple question, "Are you Horus?"
Horus gave a solemn, "Not anymore." Mortarion let the pieces of Silence clatter to the floor. The surviving fighters saw this and lowered their weapons. The confusion was obvious on their faces. The two Primarchs embraced and exchanged pleasantries before discussing the matter at hand. There was much work to be done for the future invasion. The chaos fleet was in tatters and brought tiding of the largest Ork fleet ever seen. Horus ordered the fleet to make full speed towards Belis Corona for repair. They wouldn let the imperium weaken itself against the Orks.
The vengeful spirit's descent tore a massive trench throughout the planet's equator before coming to a stop with an earthshaking impact. Most of the hive cities were buried under adamantium and steel. Plasma from the vengeful spirit reactor had leaked out setting the planet on fire. Munitions were cooking in the fire creating massive continent wide explosions. A stockpile of cyclonic torpedoes had detonated, ripping the ship in half and destroying most of the planet's equator. With this apocalyptic destruction you would think Ghazghkull would have died in the crash, but the tenacious ork bastard somehow survived, along with some of his retinue of Weirdboyz. He used his Weirdboyz to reestablish contact with the ork armada, once again take command, and began a land campaign against the surviving hive cities. The prophet's commanding presence rallied the crash survivors for an attack against the capital city of Capta Arguztus.
This is the situation Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed found himself in. Communication had been effectively cut off along with air and ground support. The ork ships had descended on Cadia like vultures, choking out the skies. Most of the ork fleet was in high anchor over the planet and almost oblivious to the apocalyptic conditions of the planet surface. They didn't have to land a assualt force, they could bomb the planet from orbit. But the brutes were seemingly determined to assault the planetary capital: Capta Arguztus. With the limited forces mobilized, he continued to push back the scattered ork force.
During the fleet engagement the ork had brought down vast invasion forces, a trickle of the flood. That force had been caught in the planet cracking impact and reduced to foot fodder, but the amount was innumerable. More fodder was being transitioned from orbit every minute. His hive city had thousands of chinks in its armor. Orks were landing out of range of his heavy anti-air guns and pouring in from almost every crack in his defenses. While Creed was busy coming up with defensive operations, a lowly tech adept came into his chamber for a private conversation. The next day Creed mobilizes every man, woman, and child. Militarized or armed personnel were prioritized for troop transports. The remaining troop transports were crammed with civilian fodder. Arguztus prisons were emptied onto the pollutant waste outside the city and thrown, with what artillery support could be provided, at the massing ork threat. Behind the prisoner the transports blitzkrieg the Ork lines heading for the crashed ship. Many of the transports were destroyed or engulfed in the inferno, but a few made it. They found an intact hanger and disembarked. The civilian mob were given blasting charges and mining equipment to clear collapsed bulkheads and as improvised weapons.
The civilians met resistance only a few meters into the superstructure from ork lootas and scavengers. As their progress and courage slowed, imperial guard turned commissar were ordered to fire at any retreating civilians, secondarily providing fire-support. Eventually the guardsmen were thrust to the front to protect the civilians clearing a passage to the engine room.
They breach the engine room. Then the Tech Adepts started the reactor and disabled the safeties. Warnings started to blare throughout the ship and the temperature in the engine room became unbearable. Then it was over.
Battlefleet obscurus was forced to fight their way out of the system. More than half of the survivors of previous naval conflict died as casualties of the retreat. The astropaths had found the warp fortunate. It only took six weeks to transition to real space outside of the interplanetary relay X-103 and signal for lord admiral Yuri Nimitz. Within three days, the remnants of battlefleet Obsecurs merged with battlefleet Solar and the combined fleet made haste for Cadia.
Six weeks later the ork fleet managed to blunder its way into the Agripinaa planetary system. The fleet came under fire from the Agripinaa's picket line. Three Ark Mechanicus ships had materialized out of the immaterium for resupply only to be caught in the system invasion. The ships were protected by orbital cannons until they could enter orbit, but it was clear that defeat was inevitable. Battlefleet solar materialized on the outskirts of the Agripinaa and ran into the leading edge of the Ork fleet. The size of the ork picket fleet equalled Battlefleet Solar. Despite the valiant effort on the part of various ship captains and crews, the ork picket fleet won the battle. Agripinaa was left to be scavenged by the orks.
The battle hadn't been a costly one. Most of the battlefleet would require a few weeks docked in a shipyard. Battlefleet Solar retreated to the world of Elysia where imperium begam amassing forces for the final showdown. Massive orbital batteries were constructed and mines were laid through the system. This rearming period would realistically take months, but they had weeks at best. Two unknown parties came at their behest, but their appearance wouldn't happen until much later in the story.
Then something very orky happened. Ork lootas found a ship graveyard over Fenris and decided to stop and loot scrap from the derelict ships. But they weren't aware that Fenris had been classified as a quarantine world since inquisitor Neizallkin disappeared and his fleet was found floating abandoned in the cold hard vacuum of space. After the events that killed him, the inquisition was too scared to exterminatus the planet. Even the most staunch inquisitors believe the place was cursed and dare not venture into the system. The greatest of rogue traders give the system a wide berth. But the Orks boarded the ghost ships and almost immediately started disappearing. Entire crews of scrapboyz or lootas just disappeared. Superstition about beastie boys began to circulate throughout the ork fleet. Orks began to boast that they could hunt the beasts, but those orks disappeared. Eventually Ghazghkull ordered the derelict fleet, "Dakka to sodden scrap."
Then the Orks attempt to explore the planet lead to much the same effect. The sheer amount of trouble delayed the fleet for months and cost the orks hundreds of ship's crew and thousands of boyz. 'For sodden no'ting'
By the time the ork fleet arrived at Elysia, the new defense lines were complete. Initial ork picket ships were crippled by mines and long range salvos from cyclonic torpedo orbital emplacements. The leading ork elements came under fire from orbital batteries and missile barges. Finally the bulk of the ork fleet came into conflict with Battlefleet Solar. At the ork's rear lines, the two unknown parties made their presence known. The Black Templars and Blood Angels fleet based chapters attacked the rear lines. The initial conflict was a brief 48 hours, but the Ork fleet was repulsed. There was a brief respite before a renewed ork offensive could begin. By the time the next Ork offense began, mines were expended, the cyclonic batteries were emptied. Orbital batteries depleted of their munitions. Still another fresh wave of ork ships had arrived. The defenders had been pushed back to the planet. Elysia two moons had been completely abandoned.
After another two days of fighting, battlefleet Solar was nearly crippled and out of munitions, but the Ork tide had been completely halted. The remaining ork pulled out of the system. The Imperium war fleet began resupplying. A massive reinforcements and resupply column had entered the system within two weeks. On the supply column heels was a massive fleet pulled from every corner of the known galaxy. A couple weeks later a third Ork offense began with probing force hitting various parts of the Imperial defenses on the edge of the system. Before the main assault could begin, asteroid turn gun platforms were towed to the system edge. They fired inaccurate solid state munition and missiles at stationary targets. While behind the gun line the ork fleet gathered. This is the first time attack moons have been seen. The Ork's two week bombardment started the next day. During the bombardment, the Imperium's long range artillery dueled with the Ork's guns. The asteroids provided easy but nearly indestructible targets for Imperium gunners.
Third week saw space hulks. For the last three weeks, reports had been coming in from across the system showing the Orks are up to something, but that something couldn't be rightly identified. Strange energy reading and gravimetric disturbance were detected all the way to Elysia. Then one day, bands of green lighting began to arc between the Ork ships. Several of their ships exploded into green spark. Other ships were wracked by electrical disturbances. Then space itself seems to start bleeding. The wound leaking purple into the inky blackness of space.
Amongst the purple were twinkling dots. Thousands of Ork space hulks poured from the wound towards the human defenders. The misshapen amalgamation of ships collided with yellow tracers that exploded across their hull. The outer system defensive installations were the first to fall. Then the inner system defensive installation went silent. Then Battlefleet solar was swallowed by the green tide.
Yuri held a general counsel with all of the military leaders including High Marshal Helbrecht. The general consensus is that beating the Orks was impossible. They had to kill the Ork warboss. The Imperial fleet would give their lives so that the Emperor's avenging angels could bring retribution to the warboss. Most, if any, of battlefleet Solar wouldn't survive the mission. The ships set out on one final crusade for the Emperor.
When the chaos fleet transitioned to materium space, they found their cogitator off by one-hundred years. Augers picked up no vox traffic. The outside of the eye was dead. The fleet set course for Belis Corona. On route, they ran into extensive privateers, but no Imperial ships. They found their holdings in the Belis Corona were laid to ruins and Drukhari had moved into the abandoned system. The squatters had turned the system into a privateer base to raid the surrounding area. But there was no significant presence of any major faction.
He ordered the freebooters driven off and assets reclaimed. Extensive records from traitor garrison showed a final battle with an Ork armada. Most of the infrastructure was destroyed in the battle, what survived was picked clean by the Orks. The Imperium's lack of response was a grave concern. They had made no effort to reclaim the system or even curtail the privateers. The world would require extensive reconstruction effort before it could be used. He set course for the next planet in the ship nav-core.
Horus had no knowledge of Cadia and relied on previous intel. The report didn't explain the reality of the situation. The world was shattered. A massive chunk of the world had been blasted into orbit forming a moon of sorts and planetary debris had formed an asteroid field. There was localized vox traffic coming from underground facilities and abandoned terraforming equipment floating abandoned in the asteroid field. Horus called a general meeting to discuss the situation. The imperium had abandoned this world in a hurry.
The sheer destruction showed a gutted Imperium. A tempting target, but the fact one Ork warboss could cripple the Imperium to the point of abandoning Cadia worried him. Clearly the Orks had been underestimated. The general consensus of the various leaders was to subjugate the remaining survivors. Horus rejected the majority's decision and opted for diplomacy. Despite Cadia's previous fervent loyalty to the Imperium, the survivors were more than willing to join the chaos fleet. The surviving Cadia told stories of starvation and constant war with various pirates, cutthroats, and outlaws. This decision caused a lot of strife amongst the various leaders.
The fleet pressed on to Elysia, finding the entire system had become one massive ship graveyard that held over a thousand imperium vessels and innumerable alien vessels. The capital planet hung dead in the backdrop. The graveyard was only just now beginning to be broken down by scavengers like the orks and Drukhari. There was indecision among the leaders whether they should stay and attempt to salvage the ships or continue the crusade. Horus forced the decision to stay. He wanted to bolster his fleet strength. The ships would be repaired at the docks at Belis Corona. That is, if the docks could be repaired. But that would require raw materials. Auger scans showed extensive planetary damage. They wouldn't find the supplies here.
Imperial records showed a Forge World nearby: Stygies VIII. They could get the supplies there. The lack of deep space patrols was the first sign something had gone wrong. The planet had suffered extensive damage like the previous planets. But there was a human population present on the planet. The population had survived, even if society had not. They had been reduced to techno-barbarism. The various primitive tribes fighting with feral Orks for resources scavenge from hive-cities lost a century ago.
Horus called a counsel meeting to address the feral state of Imperium and called for an end to the long war, a move that drew the ire of most of the primarchs and the black legion. He drew attention to the Orks whose presence had grown throughout the galaxy and the state of total collapse of the imperium.
They left another dead world heading for the unknown with optimism at their backs. They later discovered Piscina IV. The planet was in better condition than previous worlds. The initial reports showed a group of marines had established a fiefdom and subjugated the population. They constructed vast manufactorum under massive arboreal mountain ranges. Horus wanted a peaceful introduction but the adeptus astartes wanted nothing to do with them. A short conflict broke out. Horus quickly realized he would be subjugating a galaxy of graveyards. The Imperium he knew, that his father had built, was lost. Wherever he went he found signs of the greenskin menace. They had all but inherited the galaxy. He wouldn't be taking the galaxy from the Imperium, but from the Orks.
The barbarity of Horus' allies seems to be limitless. They wanted to enslave the miners and put them to work at the end of a lash. But Horus had grander visions than slavery and death. He offered the mortals a fresh start at the cost of loyalty of the traitor legion. He noticed a growing disquiet of the primarchs and the traitor legion. His rule had turned against barbarity and the weak being under the boot of the strong. Even the primarchs' loyalty was divided. The lack of glory and riches and ruling over a kingdom of corpses only exasperated the situation. Horus would be forced to make a decision.