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Celestine awaited her friend's departure from the sanctum with great impatience, rising up the steps to meet up with the Lupercal as he exited the massive gilded doors. "What task has the Emperor given you, Lord Horus?" Her expression grew from curiosity to concern as she took in the grim aura past the expressionless visage of his helm. "What troubles you?"
"My father wishes me to rebuild my legion." Horus replied, "I must make the journey towards Mars and scour its lost archives for the genetor-blueprints in order to perfect the schematic necessary for such an endeavor. He would not have the Luna Wolves be just any army, he would have me create the next generation of astartes- more powerful and stable than ever before. To be honest, I'm at a loss of where to start."
"How so?" Celestine asked, "Is the task too much?"
"No, but I'll admit it is beyond what I'm accustomed to." Horus said with a shrug, "I can't remember the last time I played fetch-the-stick, but if father deemed me capable of handling it I'm sure it will work itself out."
Fetch-the-stick? Celestine frowned, unfamiliar with the Primarch's strange idiom. "Er...I'm sure it will."
"We shall leave immediately, word will have preceded us and reached the Red Planet by now." The Primarch's footfalls thundered upon the marble floor as he neared the edge of the steps. "No doubt the Adeptus Mechanicus hates me with equal flame as our enemies, but at least this time their resistance will be dissuaded advance of our arrival."
"Our arrival?" Celestine smiled, "My Lord, have you forgotten that I am tasked with the burden of leading the Ecclesiarchy out of its petty squabbling and back on the proper path? I'm afraid our journeys together end here."
Horus gazed down at the angel, a strange sadness seeping into the cracks of his mind as he slowly digested these words. "Oh. My apologies. I have enjoyed your company as well as valued your counsel throughout the long odyssey from Cadia to Terra, so much so that I feel reluctant to part now." The Saint regarded the Primarch with a curious look, unsure what to feel about his words. "I have very few friends in my past life, even lesser in this new one- yet I am proud to have you among them."
Celestine's bright gold eyes gazed down at the Primarch's outstretched hand, to which she took up in a firm grasp of her own. "I am honored to have known you, Horus Lupercal. God-Emperor willing, we shall meet again when the dawn has casted its rays upon a reunified Imperium."
"Farewell, Celestine." Horus nodded, turning heel to descend the steps leading to the Thunderhawk transporter that would take him offworld. The Saint remained upon the pedestal, watching with longing eyes as the craft ascended into the skies, disappearing behind heavy clouds of darkest gray.
"Farewell, Horus."
The Primarch, having concluded what was needed to be done upon Terra, turned his attentions towards the task at hand and met up with the new allies that pledged to serve him and his cause.
The reception that followed soon after was startling to say the least. Horus had expected a tad smaller number of loyalist warriors, support-units and crewmen to volunteer for his taskforce. Truly, the hatred for him had receded significantly following the events that transpired upon Terra's surface. This news came as a great comfort to the Primarch, and he reveled in the feeling of camaraderie present in the hangar from which he came to meet.
Captain- or more formally recognized as Admiral Maranda Goodwill at present, stood at the front to welcome her liege aboard the battlecruiser Divine Fury. The former commander of the vessel had initially sided with the loyalist fleets hellbent on preventing Horus' arrival on Terra per the orders of the late Lords of Terra, and upon realizing the grave error on his part- took his life in an effort to absolve his sin for betraying the Emperor. Left leaderless, the crew turned in desperation for a replacement and soon found one in the capable hands of Admiral Goodwill- who earned her promotion on the same day the Emperor had spoken to his Sons and relayed his grand plan.
"Things are looking up, my liege." The woman said proudly, receiving Horus warmly as he boarded the Divine Fury. The ship was twice the size of the Golgo's Respite, with three times the manpower and destructive capabilities. Nothing could replace her former ship, but at the very least this new one could get the job done. "I knew my faith in you would pay off eventually. The Emperor ordained it so, praise be to Him."
"Yes, but now we are set with another task to perform." Horus replied, turning to address the new faces present at the assembly. "Ah, the volunteers."
Horus' eyes fell upon the one among the many, a single astartes warrior with a battered and heavily scratched armor that pre-dated even the earliest iteration of power-armor. Many ancients resurfaced after the Primarchs have been reported to return, but this one caught the Lupercal's attention the most due to one notable reason.
The wolf with the moon standing at its back, a faded and barely existent symbol etched on his pauldrons.
There was no doubt about it, this one was a Luna Wolf!
The astartes donned a cloak of matted silver, presumably taken from a direwolf on some distant world. Few ornaments and trophies were displayed at his belt and sash, but proudly did he display them. Whereas the others carried bolters and chainswords, the Luna Wolf wielded an ornate makhaira with a blade of red and black.
"Who are you?"
The astartes stepped forth and knelt before his gene-sire, his grizzled and ancient voice rattling against a poorly maintained vox-grill. "I am called Galio. For a thousand years, I have roamed the cosmos without purpose until I have heard of your actions upon the Cadian Gate. I followed your trail until I came back to Terra itself. Words cannot express the joy I've felt upon hearing your return, and that you were all the while innocent of the sins of the Civil War."
"Your faith in me warms my heart, son of Cthonia. Are there more of you?"
Galio shook his head, "The Warp claimed many of my brothers during the trek here, I am the only one left."
"Galio came with a motley band of spacemarines hailing from different chapters." Maranda explained, "As reported, there were sixteen Luna Wolves under his command before they were swallowed up by a Warp storm, only he remains. These men; Cataphracts, Steel Tigers and Crimson Lords; they were screened and tried by our best psykers. They are clean, and willing to pledge themselves to your cause."
"You honor me with your decision, Brother Galio." Horus bid the man rise.
"The Emperor has ordained you forgiven, and so we do his bidding." The Luna Wolf replied, "How can we serve?"
"I am to journey for Mars, your aid will be most beneficial as I work to restore the Luna Wolves Legion."
"The Emperor wishes to restore our Legion?" The ancient was visibly moved, "The days grow brighter! My wait was not for naught!"
Hope was evident in the voices of the other spacemarines, "Will the Emperor do this for us as well? Will the Legions be restored?"
"There is no doubt he will, there is no wisdom behind doing otherwise." Horus turned to address the astartes, "This promise I make unto you. For too long, the mounting problems besetting the Imperium had exceeded its capacity to solve. Too long have we abandoned hope of fixing it, deciding instead to outlive it. Those days are over. Henceforth, such problems shall be addressed, starting with the return of the Legio Astartes. Let us make for the Red Planet, and bring back mankind upon proper path."
The Imperial Aquila had two heads. One for Terra, the birthplace of mankind and the seat of the Imperium's power. And the other for Mars, the cradle from which the Adeptus Mechanicus had spawned from since the days of the Age of Strife.
Upon hearing the preceding order given from the Emperor's own lips about his son's impending arrival, the leaders of the Red Planet gathered together to formally greet the returned Primarch. All were a mere formality, masking a bitter and resentful face beneath the veil, as all things in the heart of the Imperium are.
Horus cared little for what they thought of him at this point, just enough to be wary should a traitor's thoughts turn to ripe opportunity at a moment's notice. Sparing the pleasantries, the Primarch commanded the leaders of Mars under the authority bestowed upon him by the Omnissiah to allow him entrance to the most sacred and heavily guarded vaults of the Forbidden Zone. It goes without saying that such an order was met with great reluctance, but adhered to nonetheless. Fearing another assault upon their revered world, the Adeptus Mechanicus did as commanded and guided the Primarch and his men to the gates of hell.
Librarius Omnis, a vast subterranean, continent-spanning repository of knowledge located in the labyrinthine catacombs of Mars. Over the millennia, it has been the subject of several Techno-archaeologist expeditions. It was here, at the dawn of the Imperium, that the legendary Techno-Archaeologist Arkhan Land led an expedition with the intention of finding an intact, complete and still-functioning STC database. Though he was unsuccessful in this endeavor, he did make two other discoveries which revolutionized Imperial technical thinking for millennia to come - a near complete dataslab image of STC information on what would come to be known as a Land Raider, and information on rare anti-gravitic plates, and theories on their uses, which eventually led to the construction of the first "Land Speeder."
Various automata and skitarii legionnaires were deployed to assist the Primarch's expeditionary forces in their quest for acquiring the secrets foretold by the Emperor, per the orders of the returned Archmagos Belisarius Cawl. The most his peers could and would do was wish the Primarch a successful mission and sent him on a speedy departure from the surface, as was expected of the craven fools. In spite of this, Horus kept his mind trained on the task at hand and marched on with his men.
Navigating the treacherous halls of the ancient vault was a daunting task, but one that must be done in order for them to reach their goal. Curiosity will be their only guide, for the winding paths of the Librarius Omnis had never been mapped though it had been visited many times by the Adeptus Mechanicus' past expeditionary forces. The darkness here was prevalent, offset only by the faint glow of barely awakened machines and blinking consoles of damaged archives. Ancient bones of dead adventurers, scribes and war machines littered the ground ahead- perhaps a foretelling of their fate should they proceed further in?
"Eyes out, be wary." Horus instructed, "We are not alone here."
"What are the odds of us ending up face to face with one of the horrors of the Abomination Intelligence?" Galio inquired.
"They grow higher as we venture further in, that much I'm certain of." Graves, the task force's marksman and one of the seven ancients who pledged himself to Horus' cause, rescanned the corridor as he gave his answer. The astartes hailed from a far off successor chapter long expired to the winds of time, a son of Rogal Dorn. He lived during the maiden years of the Second Founding, shedding off his gilded banners at the reluctant behest of his gene-sire. But when his chapter found itself caught within the crossfire of two opposing astartes chapters in a civil war, then were devoured by the maw of the Tyranids, only the marksman escaped to tell the tale. Graves' Thunderhawk had been thrusted into the Warp for two hundred years, emerging into realspace only to face the Tyranids again, alone in a wasteland of devoured worlds.
Here, the son of Dorn learned to survive amongst predators, in a nature not unlike the jungle fighters of Catachan. The gilded armor now lay bare, stripped of its golden colors to bone-white. His right pauldron had been removed, baring his arm to the elements. To replace the valued piece of hardware, Graves donned the skull of a slain Hive Lord he had the displeasure of encountering on one of the blighted worlds. His sturdy longrifle weathered the times as much as he did, ever ready to deliver a swift death to the Emperor's foes.
His keen eyes would be a valuable asset to the team, and he would act as the first warning they would ever need for any encounter.
"If they come, we are more than prepared." Thavos, a hulking brute of a warrior, hailing from the lesser known Mastodon chapter. This was likely due to the fact that their chapter's name was often mistaken in reference to the pre-Heresy Mastodon warmachine commonly deployed at Salamander campaigns. Thavos had long abandoned his chapter after repeated losses due in no small part to an incompetent commander, selling his skills to the highest bidders as a mercenary- often hired by prominent Planetary Governors upon hearing his successes in the Badab Campaigns.
Armed with an Avenger Mega Bolter he had ripped off the wings of a fallen Nephilim fighter-jet in a past battle, Thavos had fashioned a deadly amalgamation that was fearsome in design and potent in its implication. The weapon had sent many a screaming soul into the Warp only after its bolts had rendered their flesh into a fine red mist.
Apothecary Ygor of the Ultramarines 2nd Company, under orders borne from the lips of Guilliman himself to assist Horus in all his endeavors, uttered a grizzled snarl at the proud Mastodon. "Careful now, pride precipitates a dizzying fall."
"True, but confidence can be used as a weapon." Otho Galatian spoke up, "Provided that it does not falter in the face of adversity." Otho Galatian, the youngest of the seven ancients, was considered the least experienced spacemarine of the lot. This, however, was never proven as a fact. Otho had shown time and time again of his affinity as an Outrider marine, specializing in mechanized reconnaissance and fast strikes. His skills will undoubtedly prove useful in this expedition. He stood out from his peers due to his cheery disposition, a nature foreign in this line of work.
The man was seconded by his brother-in-arms Mordekai, a Breacher marine and a fellow Doomslayer- another ill-fated chapter wiped clean off the face of the universe. Mordekai regarded his brother in silence and turned to tend to his combat shield, the one piece of hardware that stood between him and certain death. It had saved him from the unnatural energies of the Warp when it swallowed both the corrupted world beneath his feet and his brothers as the cultists offered up the populace to Khorne. The ordeal had scarred him both in body and mind, and the last of his word went with the death of the Doomslayers. From then on the astartes became a silent harbinger of death, going forth from world to world hunting down every last one of the Khornate cultists who had wronged him. He was only recruited into the ancients due to an alignment of interests, as Galio had made it a priority to secure the sector he was in which so happened to be plagued with many heretical cults.
He and another ancient had been held under much scrutiny by the authorities when they arrived on Terra, and with good reason. Alduin, Master of the Signal, was just as old as Galio and bore a similarly dark origin- for Alduin hailed from the Emperor's Children Legion and was present during the dark days of the Istvaan Drop-site Massacre.
Though it was not uncommon for a traitor to realize his mistakes and seek absolution, Alduin refused to shed his colors and take up the mantle of Templar. Instead, he chose to exile himself and went on a long walk of penance not unlike that of which Horus had walked following his resurrection on Hel'Nkuza.
"I'm picking up a lot of vox-chatter, the channels vary." Alduin reported, "Lord Horus, I sense they are getting close. I recommend caution, the rogue machine-spirits will undoubtedly sense our presence."
"We tread upon their halls, they've known since we first set foot on the Librarius." Horus replied, "We shall not slow our pace, just be ready for an assault."
It did not take long for such an assault to occur, however. "My Lord, there!" Graves announced, rising up from the top of the Land Raider as his scanners caught sight of an approaching horde of mechanized shamblers, beasts born from the darkest pits conceivable through the Age of Strife. "Multiple hostiles detected."
"That means shoot, you idiots." Thavos grunted at the Skitarii, the rest of his sentence ground out by the whir of his gargantuan weapon. "For the Emperor!"
The shamblers uttered a unified scream, causing the whole complex to shake violently at the resonating roar, then made a mad dash for the expeditionary forces. Bolter-fire and molten plasma struck down the first line, serving as fodder to make way for the stronger units. Claws of twisted metal, serrated with irradiated substances that could melt the hardiest of alloys, were extended with vile intent. Teeth of filed down ceramite gnashed and chomped, promising a bloody end to their prey.
"Stand together, do not let them separate us!" Horus announced calmly, striking Soulrender upon the ground to further illuminate the dark chamber.
"These bastards waste our ammunition!" Thavos scoffed, lowering his weapon upon realizing how little of a threat the enemy posed. "Your work's cut out for you, Brother Otho. I will not use the Heavy Bolter until the big ones show themselves."
It was a haughty gesture, but not without its own wisdom. The Avenger Heavy Bolter would prove most efficient when used against bigger prey, and a regrettable waste should they use it against these besotted fools. The astartes stood back and allowed their Skitarii allies to dispatch the assailing horde, save for Otho and Mordekai who excelled in the melee.
Otho's chainsword revved up noisily as his fist closed down on the handle, the teeth chattered as it bit into amalgamated flesh and iron. The astartes swung his weapon in a wide arc, taking out four hulking shamblers in one strike. Mordekai charged a mighty blow from his powerfist, crushing the largest monstrosity that acted as the horde's leader as he barreled forth into the frey. With their commander gone, the shamblers were easy prey for the Skitarii's advanced railguns. They were lined up, then subdued with deadly efficiency.
Before the group could rejoice at the quick victory, Alduin's scanners picked up an enormous power surge in the local area. "Be on your guard! This is merely the beginning!"
"Acknowledged." Horus replied, signalling the convoy to move forward. "On to the path, we have a lot of ground to cover!"
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