Maeleum Datum : 013.M35
From their headquarters at Hydraphur, the remnants of Imperial Segmentum command attempted to coordinate the efforts of those worlds and forces that remained loyal to the Imperium in Pacificus. Scattered Guard and Navy elements were redirected to bolster the defenses of loyalist systems, until the fall of Hydraphur in 013.M35, when a coalition of independent powers led by the Council of Ur-Terra defeated their fleet and stormed the stronghold. Only the valiant sacrifice of the Cadian 666th Infantry, who had been reassigned to the defense of the headquarters, managed to delay the rebels long enough for the cogitators to be wiped of all information regarding the disposition of loyalist forces in Pacificus, thwarting the Ur-Council's plans to hunt down the remnants of the Imperium at their leisure.
With the Kingdoms of the Dead blocking the quicker passages and the fall of Hydraphur cutting off their most important source of intel, combined with the annihilation of the Crusade's vanguard when the Kingdoms had first manifested, the Imperium was forced to concede the fact that, until further notice, all of Pacificus was independent. Those Space Marines who had been tasked with the Segmentum's defense had been mostly gathered for the Crusade before being redirected, leaving only a handful of loyalist Astartes serving as kill-teams for loyalist groups. With the collapse of the Adepta's supply lines, even these worlds were forced to rely on the weapons and equipment they could produce on their own or secure from nearby forge-worlds who hadn't succumbed to their own uprisings.
By and large, each of the loyalist worlds of the Segmentum was on its own, and the consequences of the Sundering were soon felt across a quarter of a million worlds.
As one of the symbols of Imperial authority, the Black Ships could no longer operate in Pacificus. After the first few instances of the sinister vessels being attacked (in at least one case under the secret command of Thousand Sons operatives), the remaining Black Ships left the Segmentum entirely. To compensate for the loss of tithed psykers, the Sisters of Silent redoubled their hunt across the rest of the Imperium, scouring planets for witches to send to the Throneworld for training or sacrifice to the Astronomican and the Golden Throne.
As soon as the Sundering had begun, the rebels' military preparations had only intensified. Even in systems deep within the Segmentum, where the Imperium's advance wouldn't be felt for decades if not centuries, the need for protection was keenly felt. The xenos raiders whose unchecked depredations had helped foster anti-Imperial discontent were still here, and the formerly Imperial worlds now had to see to their own defenses.
After learning of what had happened in the Kingdoms of the Dead, the Prophet of Cogs reached out to the principalities which they believed weren't yet afflicted by the corruption of the Warp, but were at risk of becoming so. Their agents freely shared the technology they had developed, allowing them to build up their military strength to a level matching that of the Imperial Guard, rather than being dependant on imports from forge-worlds and a handful of industrialised hive-worlds as had been the case under the Imperium.
Of course, even back then there had been weapon production everywhere – the PDFs needed to be equipped, after all – but new Astra Militarum Regiments had been outfitted with wargear purchased from sanctioned production centers at ruinous cost to the local government more often than not. The paranoia of the Adeptus Terra had made sure of that, in order to diminish the risk of more dangerous weapons falling into rebel hands, a move which had also increased discontent as the people were unable to properly defend themselves.
For many, however, the ability to build their own weapons wasn't enough – and of course, the sheer size of the Segmentum meant that the representatives of the Prophet couldn't get everywhere. The fear of the Imperium ran deep, and Pacificus' leaders sought weapons that would allow them to keep their hard-earned freedom as well as defend themselves from the monsters that stalked the galaxy.
The Mechanicus' monopoly on technology had been abolished, letting the various governments begin their own research programs. In most cases, these were directed by former tech-priests who had either joined the local revolution for their own reasons, or simply went along with it in order to survive. In other cases, unanointed citizens with mechanical leanings were recruited and had to essentially rebuild science from the scraps of lore they had scavenged from local Mechanicus outposts. Tens of thousands of research facilities were constructed, crewed by renegade tech-priests and unanointed researchers alike, espousing the credo of science promoted by the Prophet of Cogs.
Apart from military technology, the envoys of the Prophet of Cogs also brought with them devices that cleaned the atmosphere of polluted planets and set the long work of restoring ravaged ecosystems. Automation replaced manual labor, freeing millions of citizens from assembly lines with appalling productivity and freeing manpower for the various enterprises of the new regimes. A name began to circulate, attached to these wonders delivered by benevolent strangers : Nova Firenze. There dwelled the Prophet of Cogs, continuing their research for the benefit of all Humanity and sending their apostles across Pacificus to bring the bounty of technology to beleaguered planets.
The Ur-Council of Nova Terra was, unsurprisingly, the most powerful of the factions within Pacificus. Its leaders had prepared their rebellion for generations. Even then, their influence was restricted to a few hundred worlds under their direct control and thousands more under their influence, which was only a fraction of the Segmentum's total population. As such, it was inevitable that different creeds would rise among the Sundered Segmentum, and just as inevitable that conflict would follow between those who had rejected the Imperium's yoke.
Soon, the first wars between local powers erupted as isolated kingdoms fought for resources or ideologies. Hordes of Orks looking for a good fight soon emerged from the Veiled Region. The efforts of the Ur-Council to present a Segmentum-wide united front against the threat of Imperial reconquest failed to unite more than the Sectors immediately threatened, as the people refused to simply trade the distant rule of Terra for that of Nova Terra (the name of the planet itself may not have done the Ur-Council any favors here). Smaller-scale defensive pacts between worlds soon became full-fledged alliances, and lesser powers multiplied all over Pacificus.
Though the Horusians had been the driving force behind the Sundering, the other factions of the Eye of Terror were quick to seize the opportunities presented by so many systems being effectively on their own. Fear and isolation made the lesser powers easy prey for the infiltration tactics that had been honed since the Proclamation of Horus, with the promises of military power becoming more tempting than ever before. Avenues of research that had been forbidden under the Imperium were now openly pursued.
The resurgence of the Orks was a blessing in disguise for the agents of Chaos in that regard. Freed from the Imperium's crushing propaganda and brainwashing, most of the rebel kingdoms of Pacificus would hesitate to declare war against fellow humans, but the xenos brutes were not afforded any such consideration. Once footage of the horrors committed by the greenskins upon the humans that fell in their claws spread, there was no line the armed forces weren't willing to cross to keep the xenos beasts from destroying their cities and devouring their people.
As the influence of the Dark Powers grew, mutants began to appear among the population, but those weren't the difformed horrors that had appeared during the Heresy. The Chaos Gods had changed their approach to match that of their champion Horus : now the mutations they bestowed appeared benign, even beneficent. The old fear of the mutant cultivated by Imperial propaganda began to dwindle, seen as just another instrument of Imperial oppression : according to the rebel leadership, the Imperium had sought to create an internal enemy from an inoffensive section of its own population, simply to help maintain its control.
The most martially-suited of these mutants were recruited by the local armies, quickly forming elite corps within the new military structures that rose from the Planetary Defense Forces. By that point, they were hardly the most unconventional units to be deployed : entire battalions were commanded by wild psykers who had managed to gain some degree of control over their abilities and wielded them in service of their world of origin. Having heard the horror stories spread about the Black Ships and the human sacrifices taking place on Terra, they were among the most fervent supporters of the Sundering, willing to fight and die for their homeworld if it meant dying as free people rather than fuel for the designs of a distant, uncaring Emperor.
The battlefields of Pacificus became weird and surreal places. Weaponry that wouldn't have been out of place in Mankind's first global conflicts was deployed alongside cutting edge Firenzi technology and occult devices drawing on the Warp for power. Mutants and wyrds fought alongside cybernetically enhanced troops against Ork warmachines.
Over time, the touch of Chaos began to warp the cultures that had unknowingly embraced it, whether for survival and prosperity. Hundreds of systems within Pacificus became nightmarish empires of sin and torment, fuelled by blood and sorcery, while others were just as dangerous beneath the deceptively normal facades they presented to their neighbours. Intrigue blossomed as the principalities spied and plotted against each other, while the flames of ambition, fanned by the taste of freedom, led to countless counter-revolutions and attempted coups, much to the joy of Tzeentch.
"When the Hexarchy asked me to come work for them translating ancient texts of dubious origins, I thought I had found the perfect way to avoid being conscripted into the army we were raising to fight against the Orks. As an academic, the rebellion against the Imperium had opened entire new fields of study that the Ecclesiarchy had previously forbidden. The idea of dying against the greenskin hordes when such opportunities presented themselves had been quite galling.
I was told at the time that our work had the blessing of one of the Hexarchs, but I didn't pay it much mind. The work itself was much more interesting than whatever politics I thought were responsible for the project.
The texts I was asked to translate were written in a script unlike any I had encountered before. The Hexarchy had obtained a basic translation key (when I asked where it had come from, I was politely but firmly told it was 'classified', whatever that meant), but it was incomplete and far too literal.
After months of work, I managed to translate a description of a pagan ritual, which, if my translation was correct, was meant to 'sunder the veil between realities' and 'grant the priest the wisdom of the gods'.
My overseers asked that we perform the ritual, despite my protestations that this was clearly some ancient religious text. I went along with them, thinking that they were testing if this old faith could be used as a replacement for the Imperial Creed we had broken free of. The academic in me understood the need for something to believe in, after so many centuries of being manipulated by the Ministorum, but I confess I had my doubts on the righteousness of that course of action.
Obviously, I didn't think it would work. But it did. Somehow the chanting, the incense, and the lines drawn in powdered bone were enough to break the laws of physics. That night, I made contact with the Empyreal Ones, and understood how small we are in the grand scheme of things. Crucially, I also understood how small they are too, for all that they tower above us.
This was ten months ago, and now our Empyreal Soldiers fight on the frontlines against the Orks, each of them a dedicated servant of the Hexarchy whose spirit has been entwined with an Empyreal One through our rituals. Less than a hundred of them, yet they have won us victories entire companies of tanks would have struggled to deliver. Yes, the price is high, higher than I would like, but I have seen the numbers, and I know that this is the kinder path.
Only through mastery of the Empyrean can the Hexarchy prosper in this hostile galaxy, and through our work that mastery shall be achieved."
From the private writings of Efram Wolff, Head Empyreal Researcher of the Hexarchy, one of the greatest stellar kingdoms to emerge in Segmentum Pacificus post-Sundering
Among the most successful attempts by the Eye's factions to influence Pacificus was Warpsmith Andraaz, who shaped the rise of a powerful stellar empire, the Keranian Dominion, for over fifty years after the Sundering. Eventually, he came to rule openly over a score of planets where the entire population lived in a state of constant martial law. Cruel enforcers augmented with Dark Tech cybernetics patrolled the streets, while factories that covered entire landmasses spat out thousands of tanks and uncountable tons of ammunition and ship components for the Warpsmith's growing fleets.
Through it all, the Warpsmith's goal was to muster enough strength to conquer Nova Firenze and claim its technology for the Fourth Legion – along with cutting off the new technologies which brought hope and salvation to billions, making the Traitor Legions' subversive efforts much more difficult as the Prophet of Cogs still vehemently opposed anything Warp-related.
After decades of searching and countless sacrifices, Andraaz eventually located the elusive stronghold of the Prophet of Cogs. But when Andraaz led the assault, his force of Daemon Engines and cultists was wiped out to the last, his fleet annihilated, and his own company of Iron Warriors slaughtered before firing a single shot. The Warpsmith's soul was summoned from the Warp at Perturabo's own command by the Fourth Legion's Sorcerers, and thrown into the Forge of Souls as punishment for his abject failure.
In Andraaz' absence, the Keranian Dominion promptly fell apart as his mortal lieutenants turned on each other, each desiring to claim the Warpsmith's throne for themselves. The resulting civil war left most of the Dominion's worlds as smoking ruins, though the remnants of their horrific technology would continue to plague Pacificus for centuries, as officers of the dissolved military led their troops in their own campaigns of conquest or became raiders and pirates.
Other, subtler efforts were met with more success in the long term. The Hexarchy, using texts recovered from the husk of Colchis, the former homeworld of the Word Bearers, made great stride into mastering the art of creating daemonhosts, using them as shock troopers in their wars to great effect. On Tanith, a circle of daemons posing as benevolent supernatural entities assisted the rebels in overthrowing the local Imperial government, offering boons of strength and knowledge in return for worship – only for the price of that worship to slowly increase over the next decades, along with their influence on the world.
On the hive-world of Verghast, devices from the Dark Age of Technology were discovered and, after years of trial and error, successfully duplicated. These small augmetics were immortality inducers, regenerating the flesh of their hosts from all but the most complete of annihilation. By equipping their soldiers with them, the Verghastian armies became all but unstoppable, though the process of dying and being reborn took a toll on their soldiers. Each death exposed them to the Warp before their souls were dragged back into their reconstructed bodies, and sometimes they brought something else back – which was why the lords of Verghast didn't use the devices for themselves.
Even the mysterious New Empire of Fabius Bile reached out to several principalities, offering them cloning technology with which to replenish their troops – before going further and subjecting entire armies to unholy alteration procedures designed by the demented mind of the Manflayer. When the arch-alchemists of Ghavian XI got their hands on a Blood Angels' recruiting center, their attempts at creating their own Space Marines drew the attention of Bile's agents, leading to the creation of the Revenants : clone-born transhuman warriors whose thirst for blood made them as dangerous to their masters as their enemies.
To the Inquisition, the situation in Segmentum Pacificus was a prelude to what the Ruinous Powers would make of the entire galaxy should the Imperium fall. To Horus Lupercal, however, it was a testing ground for new methods and ideologies, as well as for the weapons and armies with which he would inevitably bring about the destruction of his father's failed empire.
AN : This chapter was heavily inspired by me playing the Zombie Army series recently. As a result, I have had the "Weird War" trope stuck in my mind for several weeks now, which has resulted in some interesting ideas for later stories.
Also, while writing this chapter, I was once more reminded of just how horribly awful the Imperium is in canon. Seriously, we hear about it being "the most bloody and terrible regime imaginable", but that's not an empty boast, it's cold, hard truth. There is a reason rebellions pop up everywhere constantly.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, and look forward to your reactions.
Zahariel out.