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    The First Wall


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      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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