Notes:
What do you guys think of my AU version of Horu's fall to chaos? Be sure to post your comments down below! Also feel free to predict who the daughter of the night haunter is in this AU.
Jaune Lupercal was born to the primarch Horus Lupercal and an unknown remembrancer a full 4 Terran years before the triumph on the planet of Ullanor.
According to his farther he had inherited his mother's hair and her slight Frankish accent as well as her soft spoken and kind nature.
Jaune had grown to be the kind face of the legion and had acted as Horus's counter balance for his darker nature and moods as was intended for the demi primarchs.
Not to say that Horus did not have a kind side to himself but Jaune was his pride and joy and served as his reminder of his humanity and why he was fighting the great crusade, to build a future for not only his son but for the rest of humanity as a whole.
Jaune had an eventful upbringing to put it mildly, being one of the only royal children to grow up in the emperor's presence as well as his father's not only this but he had grown up in one of the most elite legions meaning he had a lot of well trained and experienced astartes and imperial army officers to draw from as his teacher's.
Jaune had excelled in small squad level tactics under the instruction of captain Tarik and captain Loken of the tenth company with the latter being a choice of teacher that Jaune had made personally.
There were two snags in his education, one of them being the Jaune's hatred of terminator armour of any mark and pattern and the second being his lack of any interest in bolters what's so ever and much to his farther shock had favoured a relic weapon he had discovered on a Forrest heavy death world.
The weapon in question was a power Laz bow he had discovered whilst leading a small defensive action alongside elements of the local militia and imperial army during one of the rare times where a royal child had been given the command ability to lead a compliance action.
The world was dubbed Artemis primus and the moon was dubbed Artemis Secundus in his honour by Horus and officially approved by the emperor himself apparently having been incredibly impressed by the success.
As a result of this achievement Horus had given Jaune permission to take up a company for himself within the legion, something to reshape in his style of fighting, Jaune had so far rejected the offer and instead opted to keep leading small-scale operations and squads of handpicked astartes with these squads being called the "Hunter packs" or "wolf pack"
Jaune's armoury consisted of his relic energy how and his paragon blade and storm shield with the shield being a gift from the Imperial Fist's legion for one of the operations where Jaune and his "wolf pack" had saved a squad of Imperial Fists legion support from an Xenos ambush.
The bow according to the Chthonian born astartes had resembled a weapon used by a Hunter from a local legend but Jaune had chalked it up to coincidence in a large wide-open galaxy.
His power armour was as typical for the legions colour scheme in this time, pearl white MK 3 artificer grade armour with his sword arms shoulder pauldron being the largest of the two, but his trim was done in a pale aged bronze colour. His personal emblem was the legions wolf with his bow clutched in its teeth with the bow standing in for a crescent moon.
Jaune had gotten along famously well with the daughter of the Vulka Fenrika, Valkyrie and the champion of the twelfth legion world eaters who had never shown their true face to anyone according to the reports of the legions that served with the twelfth.
The "champion of the twelfth" or simply Sarrin had gotten very attached to Jaune in their interactions due to his generally kind nature and his charisma.
One of the best days of his life was the eventual triumph of Ulanor and his father's ascension to the rank of war master with 14 out of the remaining 18 legions and primarchs although he'd never admit to this in public but he hardly regarded Angron as a primarch, not with those nails in his skull.
Johan, Qrow, the daughter of the great Angel, Valkyrie of the sons of Russ and the ever-silent stoic daughter of the Night Lords who even outdid the daughter of the twelfth in terms of never showing their face although in her case it was likely due to their legion's terror tactics all watched with naked awe for hours and enjoyed a great deal of feasting after the fact with Mulan Khan and Valkyrie getting into a drunken brawl as was an almost tradition between the two at that point.
But jaune was officially named the deputy war master by the emperor of man himself and it was a role Jaune had become quite experienced in over the coming years which would prove critical in his later years.
After the triumph was concluded Horus, Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn has all advised Jaune to take up his offer to take command of a company within his legion and with such encouragement he relented but had cut his company in roughly half the size form 20-man squads to 10-man squads and had dispersed the other brothers to the rest of the legions companies that had desperately needed recruits to fill them out back up to full strength.
However, Jaune insisted on his company being made up of primarily of new recruits from the population of Artemis primus and secundus, chthonian and Terrans coming as secondary recruitment pools.
the decision had left Horus himself befuddled and confused with Dorn being the one having got explain the decision and it's reasoning to Horus.
After the action on 6319 Jaune's voice was one of those who spoke in favour of Loken becoming a member of his farther mournival which had proved successful with both his word and that of Dorn's counting towards him with both he and the captain became very attached to one another.
Horus had even finally declared Loken as the sole praetorian of his Son much to the anger and dismay of 1st captain Abaddon who was assured that he, as 1st captain SHOULD have gotten even and Jaune once had to stop his father from beating the 1st captain senseless when he proceeded to insult Horus's decision.
And then came Davin...
Jaune had very quickly grown to despise the Word Bearer's chaplain Erebus as well as the legion as a hole as their entire modus operandi ran contrary to the very purpose of the great crusade, although he thought their humiliation on Monarchia was going above and beyond what was reasonable.
Jaune thought evil surrounded every word the Chaplin spoke and with every step seemed to be cursing the very legion, from his scripture tattooed skin to his scarlet red armour and general demeanour Jaune thought there was something deeply wrong about him and had gone to his farther directly with his concerns on multiple occasions and each time was told he was simply overly concerned with the astarte.
Being raised around demigod primarch and astartes had proven more than fruitful for Jaune it had left him with a certain awkwardness when it came to social situations with Garviel Loken and the remembrancers attached to the legion and the other royal children whenever possible with Valkyrie being a particular favourite of his to speak to.
When the legion had been forced to return to Davin to put down a rebellion from a planetary governor Horus himself had trusted with the job of running the planet and its moon and Jaune felt though some wired sense that something catastrophic was about to go wrong here...
Horus had ordered his son to join him on the surface of the moon to show "what happens to those who revolt against the imperium of man"
From the very start of the operation Jaune had been nervous of what was going to happen, something deep within him was screaming to high heaven for him to leave, run away to the point he started to hear a grandfatherly voice...
But once on the moon he and his legion had discovered it was a noxious swap with a thick miasmic gas filling the air and blocking vision as far as the he could effectively see even with artificer grade power armour of the MK 3 pattern.
Jaune had his paragon blade and storm shield equipped and drawn ready for an ambush any second now, his father's Hulking primarch pattern terminator plate was not a stone's throw from him when he speaks to his son over their personal vox link "calm yourself my son, I can see your nervous"
Jaune jolts a bit in his power armour as he responds "there's something wrong here... something of the wa.." He's cut of as multiple rotted corpses of imperial army troopers rise up out of the sludge and muck of the swamp and on the spot the astartes open fire, loud staccato booms of Phobos pattern bolt guns, the destinations blowing the rotted infected flesh apart or knocking them back into the disgusting sewage smelling swamp.
Jaune swings his blade out in front of him, cutting the head of one corpse and is about to strike another when the 1st still comes at him something of which greatly shocks him causing him to take a step back and smash his storm shield into it sending it flying backwards through the sludge in a brilliant flashing arc of blue energy.
One of Jaune's company honour guard, captain Atlantos dressed in artificer MK 4 maximus plate, quickly joins him by his side wielding his wrist mounted bolter and paragon blade and says "my prince! Melee is no use hear! Take my pistol aim for the limbs!" Jaune mag locks his sword to his back and reluctantly takes the bolt pistol and starts taking noticeably at 1st missed or miss placed rounds.
It takes some time before the war party had reached the signal of the traitor and had discovered it was a crashed imperial army command ship, weird mutated forms of former troopers guard the ship, mutated beyond recognition. They had become bloated form the swamp water and by some... warp related means... Jaune knew there was something at play here gnawing at his mind he just couldn't place his finger upon it.
Once Horus and the Justaerian had cleared a path to the ship the headmaster had called up his son and his son alone "come my boy! Let us deal with this traitor as one" he mag locks world breaker to his hip to help pull his eager son up the wreckage and into the entry where he stood and once there, he says through his helmet says "no matter what happens my boy I'm right beside you"
Jaune looks at his mountain of a farther and responds "and the same to you farther"
The farther and son pairing had made their way through the collapsing wreck making dam sure their helmets were firmly raised to their heads when they found HIM...
It had all happened so fast; the tainted governor had been found but he was baring the stolen Anathema blade stolen from the interrex race they had to while out not a year prior to this. Jaune alongside his farther desperately fought the man, no THING. Horus himself was locked desperately trying to defend his boy from the crazed demon, his instincts as a farther had taken over him. Jaune on the other hand was trying to not only slay the demon but make sure his farther didn't get himself killed on his behalf.
Jaune in a blind panic had seen the demon thrust his sword at his farther and with its trajectory would have pierced him right through his gut and had jumped in the way with the blade cutting straight through his gut...
Jaune passes out cold against his feathers breast plate but not before he sees and hears his farther let out an almighty roar of anger and grief and had surged towards the demon with the comatose Jaune in his arms and had ripped his helmet away and had BIT the man's head ripping it clean from his torso...
Once the rage had cleared Horus flies into a panic as he drops world breaker and yanks the anathema free of his body and tosses it into the dark of the wrecked command room
"No... no... no... my boy..." With each passing second Horus felt truly... Vulnerable... helpless.. unable to use his charisma, strength or tactics to get him out of this situation and it cut him deeply.
Over the vox Horus screams for a transport and as many apothecaries that could be assembled.
Within seconds possibly minutes a dozen Luna wolves charge into the room baring heavy Grav stretcher for the comatose Prince with Abaddon, Tarik and little Horus having to try and pry the boy away from the near weeping war master.
Captain Loken rushes up to his Lord who is still kneeling looking down at the blood of his son on his hands and says "my lord... forgive me and the legion as we should have..." " Silence! " The voice was loud and thunderous and reverberated across everything in the room, it wasn't angry or sad, it was dead pan with disappointment in himself "the blade that did the deed is there... take it back to the ship and I herby charge your company with its guardianship... I'll bring my sons weapons back myself... " with the mournival present as well as a few other senior officers they had never seen their gene sire so very vulnerable... Human even.
On the medical deck of the vengeful spirit...
It had been hours since Jaune had been struck by the anathema and with the collected minds of the entire legions medical staff both human and astartes had utterly failed to find a way to cure. the poison coursing through Jaune's veins even with the sword that did the deed in their possession, any results had come up were failures to many it has appeared to have lost any potency it had.
With them, the Mournival, senior legion officers and Jaune's own staff and his own Mournival equivalent the "triumvirate" all stood around the comatose body of their Prince and the grief stricken primarch they suddenly hear Horus in a dead inside monotone tone say "leave us... If any try to enter untiI I say so otherwise... gun them down."
this order has them all shocked to the core but one simple micro shift in his posture to cause them all to leave without a word.
Once the chamber was empty Horus scooped up his dying boy in his arms and in a truly rare thing for even primarchs like Sanguinius to do and started to...cry hot tears streak down his face and drip onto the sterile white floor in wet splats, allowing himself to express his feelings freely and be free of judgement, not as the war master, not as Horus Lupercal of the Luna wolves but as a farther holding a dying son...
Then Erebus walks in, from where Horus didn't know but he knew who was in the room with him based solely on the armoured footfalls that dripped with the arrogance only a son of Lorgar could possess...
Before he could get within touching distance of the primarch Horus growls through gritted teeth "you had best leave Erebus... Especially now, your presence is not welcome nor asked for" his tone carried no emotion but one of a dangerous killer just waiting to sink his knife in, on what would make even Konrad Cruze gawk.
Erebus grins to himself as he responds "I come baring aid my war master, I have..."
"My chief apothecary, no, all of the combined knowledge of my legion could not dig a solution up, what hopes does a priest hold in doing what they couldn't?!" He cuts him off mid-sentence as he sets his boy down and turns to the chaplain standing up dwarfing him with ease.
Erebus continues "I understand you are suffering almost as much as your son my lord; I understand you may find it difficult to place your trust in someone not of the legion. But this is not something mere science can cure, this is a curse of the warp, my master Lorgar knows of a cure for an anathemas poison"
as Horus hears him drone on something inside of him clicks, the timing of the theft of the blade, the betrayal of the governors timing and how the news got to him, and lastly Erebus was the one that was so insistent on Horus dealing with it personally... then it all falls into order like a well fitted puzzle set a million parts large, "Erebus had planned all of this..."
Horus looks at Erebus in the eyes and Erebus can see the look of realisation in his eyes and his twin hearts stop as a sort of primal fear grips him as the war masters' eyes look at him with a TRULY murderous look.
Before he can react, Erebus is already flying across the chamber impacting on the chamber's walls, severely denting it and the shock of the impact causing his very power armour to deactivate leaving him but a rock logged in place.
Inside his clothing Horus rushes over and peels him of the wall as he tries to bring his psychic might to bear but Horus has him by the throat and smashes his head into the wall with enough force to break his skull and he starts to yell "HOW DARE YOU PLAN TO MURDER MYSLEF OR MY SON!" he shouts more than loud enough to cause his own astartes outside to start rushing in out of shock.
By the time the servitor has the core open Erebus is but a red smear across the wall with his armour in a lifeless heap and as the sons of Horus look at what their primarch had just done they hear one single order
"Arrest all of the Word Bearers in the legion...plot a course for the Word Bearer's expedition... I want answers"
Only a few short days later...
When Jaune finally comes to he's not on-board the vengeful spirit or his strike cruiser the Archer, but he's awake on Lorgars flagship the Fidelitas Lex. His eyes are sore from what feels like centuries of no use when he pries them open and sees Lorgar, his farther, Argle Taal, and a few other officers from his legion and the Word Bearers.
He sees Lorgar stood over him a hand on his head reading from a book he's holding and he's chanting, Jaune having never liked Lorgar or trusted him very quickly springs up from under his hand and of the bed with a heavy "thunk" on the floor wincing as he catches one of his carapace ports of his right thigh.
Lorgar in his ever-creepy voice clasps the book shut and says "he is cured dear brother; he is well again" Jaune locks eyes onto him and he knows something is well and truly wrong with this situation like theirs an evil air across everything in this chamber...
His father's voice is what briefly calms him down "your well my boy..." Jaune gets up and rushes over to Horus and embraces him but when he looks up at him there's a certain glow to his eyes making Jaune think "what did you do father... what price did you pay"
And oh, Jaune will find out the hard way...
Over the next year Jaune saw helplessly as his farther descended into a whirlwind of madness...
The legions name had changed to the sons of Horus and the colour scheme with it, Jaune and his company has been spared the colour change but a lot more had changed.
Horus grew distant, met less and less with the Mournival and even himself his own son, his style of conquest had changed and started down the road toward something that resembled the style of the world eaters...
New armour marks, new tanks, new weapons even ships had come flooding in which at 1st didn't arouse suspicion, he was a part of the legion that was of the war master of course they'd take President.
What really disturbed Jaune was when he noticed legions like the Iron Hands and Blood Angels were suffering equipment shortages and were in need of modernised equipment, when he had done a personal inspection of the forge ship in the fleet, he noticed the bolt shells were different to, armour piercing tips and cores with explosive payloads...
Jaune soon after had fled to the safety of his strike cruiser the archer and spent weeks trying to get desperate astropathic messages out to anyone who will listen and warn them to investigate Horus.
But little did he know all of this would fall on deaths ears as the word bearers had kept intercepting any communications he sent and over time the rest of the legions grew increasingly hostile towards Terrans and the company's the children of the primarch led especially Jaune's, the "champion" of the world eaters, the Palentina blades company and many others.
And then came the news of the burning of Prospero. what was supposed to be a simple arrest turned into an all-out war between the Vulka Fenrika and the sons of Magnus with Leman Russ supposedly turning into a rabid demonic beast by the end of the siege...
This was what broke the camel's back for Jaune, he knew something was seriously wrong and had decided the benefit of the doubt wasn't going to cut it and had secretly sent orders to Artemis prime and secundus to start fortification efforts and kick any manufacturing capabilities into war time levels.
On top of this he tried to make efforts to get the other royal children who also suspected something was wrong away from their legions and once again had made efforts to send an astropathic warning out... But this time, when the legions entered the Isstvan system he had ordered Jaune to meet him personally on the vengeful spirit...
Stepping into the meeting chamber Jaune in his full gear alongside his honour guard of 4 astartes from his company one of which was captain Atlantos.
Horus with his now painted black terminator armour turns to his son and his guard and takes of his helmet and smiles semi warmly at his son and says "my boy, I trust your well"
the faint of the warp was upon him and Jaune could hear it in his voice which makes his reply all the more difficult to say "father, I know this year we have grown distant, but please it not for the sake of a primarch to his men answer as a farther would his son.
what is it you're planning here? Please tell me it isn't what I'm suspecting..."
Horus glances at the armed astartes with his son and kneels in front of his son resting his mace wielding hand on his shoulder guard and says "it's... What... ha has to be done, if humanity is to have a glorious future... free of tyranny... free of the lies the emperor..." Jaune pulls his helmet of, utterly shocked as he asks "what has Lorgar done to you..."
Horus's tone is shaky as what remains of his former self pushes through "in trade for you to be cured and to grant me enlightenment I have sold my soul, no price is too high when it comes to your safety..."
Jaune pushes away "you sold your soul to save me!? You sacrificed your very soul, what made you... Who you are, and now, you plan to rip the imperium asunder? I would have rather died in your arms farther"
Horus seems deeply wounded by this knowing his son had made up his mind before he could hope of asking him to stay by his side. Bringing him into an embrace Horus with a tear rolling down his cheek, fighting to keep the chaos tainted Horus from taking over "I'm so sorry my boy... please before the shell's start flying... take your company... flee to Artemis... save yourself... and the astartes and humans under you..."
He pauses to yank a ring form a secret compartment from his armour "this ring was your mother's...take it with you, she would have been so proud of the man you became. Go please..." Horus let's his weeping son go closing Jaune's hand around the ring with the crescent moon in onyx set against a diamond background.
Jaune pockets the ring into an empty bolt pistol mag pouch and is about to turn to leave but faces back towards Horus "goodbye father. Luna Lupus Aeterna Victrix"
He says in fluent Chthonian as he and his guard leave the chamber as a weeping Horus looks down at his hand and materializes a holo photo of his son's mother, a remembrancer by the name of Amelia Goodwitch, who was born in what used to be Franc with beautiful long flowing hair "I'm sorry I had to do this Amelia, I'm just glad you aren't here to see me like this"
A short bit later aboard the Archer...
Jaune and the men need his wing barely had time to scramble to their gunships to escape to the Archer before arousing suspicion, he tried to warn Loken, the other legions and the Royal children but like before his vox, and messages from the librarians in his ranks had fallen onto deaths ears...
With a heavy heart he exits the storm bird into and into the hangar of the Archer and starts bellowing orders "Battle stations! Roll out the guns and prepare for combat! " Jaune wasn't an idiot he knew if Horus had to let him slip away privately then the others would not let him slip so easily...
But on the way to the bridge to lead the ship to escape to Jaune's system of Artemis, he's walking past the escape pod deck to use the shortcut when he and his 4 guardians are suddenly under attack by men dressed in their armour...
Before Jaune could register what had happened 3 of them are on the floor dead their heads torn asunder by bolt shell's and Atlantos wounded in his right shoulder and on his knee.
Their assailants are men of the alpha legion with what he assumes is their sergeant addressing them "you need to get into the pod painted with a red X now, we've not much time, Lorgar has a small fleet ready and waiting for you in the edge of the Artemis system seeking to destroy you and this ship, having anticipated Horus would let you free"
Jaune looks at Atlantos before saying "what of my company? What assurances I have that this isn't a trap?" The alpha legionnaire responds without skipping a beat "we would have killed you thrice over if that was the case, as for your company, they will be redirected to the other side of the system and their fate is their own after that."
Jaune looks down at Atlantos and the look lingers for a while before he responds "make sure Atlantos and the Archer get to Artemis, where will I be sent?" He asks looking over to the sergeant as the alpha legionnaire dressed as an apothecary helps Atlantos to his feet and he responds "you have my word; the pod will send you to a high-tech level death world to wait for recovery by your company" Jaune reluctantly agrees and walks over to the pod "who put you up to this? Your legion doesn't do anything for nothing"
The sergeant says "our primarch himself had ordered this" he says punching in the codes for the pod once Jaune is inside it.
The pod is fired form the cruiser sending him screaming into the void at high speed as the Archer starts to pull away to make its warp jump away...
Jaune doesn't know how long he's been in the void when one day he looks out the window and sees a beautiful death world with an orbiting moon that was shattered by something in its past "this must be the world... I just hope it's not full of cannibals" he says half chuckling to himself as the pod suddenly starts zooming to the planet at high speed as the entry engines kick in.
Over the next several minutes Jaune's entry is incredibly violent as he's rocked back and didn't in the pod, what he doesn't know is that he's coming down over the vale near an old family farm...
Right as he hits the dirt, he's knocked out cold his head slamming into the bulkhead.
It feels like an eternity before he wakes up but not in his pod, blinks his eyes and notices his helmet is not on his head the second thing he noticed he's in a farm barn.
Groaning reaching up to clutch at his head he notices his power armour is deactivated making it nigh impossible to move "what the hell turned off my armour" mustering all of his strength as a demi primarch, he sits up at least and sees a shocked family stood there gawking at him with the balding dad of the bunch saying "you've got some explaining to do boy, 1st of all start with your name"
"Jaune, Jaune Lupercal... I didn't damage anything did I?" he says pulling his helmet free of his head and they let out sighs of relief that he is at least human. The father of the family responds "no you didn't, thank the maidens, Jaune Lupercal, that's an interesting name. I am Jason Arc and this is my family"
He gestures at the others with him and Jaune smiles and waves politely "hello, can you give me an energy source to kick start my power armour please? It's a strain sitting upright in this without the power on hehe.." the dad sends two of his older daughters to bring the car up as the youngest daughter holds up the relic bow of Artemis.
Jaune takes it as the dad asks "care to say why you use power equipment that doesn't use dust?"
To be continued...