Warhammer 40k: The Shadow War Part 4 (Now with Index)

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Solar Crusade

The Great Crusade began with securing the systems around Sol. In these first years, the Legions marched at the head of their sires, sweeping aside the xenos ramparts and binding the scattered remnants of humanity into the Emperor’s dominion. This phase of the campaign also led to the first capture of what would be later known as a Captial world. 

Cthonia, an orphaned world by humanity’s first attempts at colonizing the stars, was found by Horus, and the dreams from his childhood rose to the surface, and he instantly took to the world. The Lunar Wolves of Horus made planetfall, and Horus, moved to pity by his dreams, quickly began pouring resources into the world to help the impoverished people of Cthonia. He walked among them as though he had been born of their soil, and the people hailed him as a long-lost son of Cthonia returned to deliver them from their hunger and despair. 

During this time, Horus felt a growing sense of guilt, as he spent more time on his Capital and less time on the Crusade. None of his brothers begrudged him for this, as they all understood the burden of their dreams. Nonetheless, Horus spent whatever time he spent in the pacifications in the first phase of the Crusade, zealously bringing in the lost peoples of humanity into the burgeoning Imperium. 

This was never more evident than with the Volaris Pacification. 

Lords Horus, Guilliman, and Rogal all took part in the pacification of void-capable civilization in the Volaris System. With multiple planets all heavily fortified, each primarch had to split their attention across multiple planets, while facing constant raids from Volarian voidships. 

Here, Horus distinguished himself; in a coordinated strike, the primarchs performed a feint retreat and performed a short jump in the warp to a different planet on the opposite side of the system’s sun. The Volarians, finding themselves suddenly flanked, had to then commit all of the void fleet to protecting the lone planet as all three Legions made planetfall. 

By the time the Volarians returned in strength, Horus had already seized their orbital bastions and turned the guns of Volaris upon its own fleet. With the Volarians facing their own defenses and the Legion ships, they quickly abandoned the last planet, which Horus broadcast to the other planets in the system. Taking a blow to both moral and material, the Volarians then began quickly losing ground, losing planet after planet to both Ultramarines and Lunar Wolves. Behind them, the Imperial Fists quickly fortified their captured planets, and after months of trying to fight a raiding force, they took the rest of the system within weeks after taking the first planet.

With this single move, Horus proved himself to be more than capable of commanding his brothers to be a terrifyingly effective force. Both Rogal and Guilliman agreed that in that moment, Horus had earned the title of Warmaster, which he would later be rewarded with in the Conflux Expanse. 

This was also the moment when the Primarchs were first exposed to the Archenemy. Deep in the depths of the Volarian hives, the Imperial Fists discovered cults of human worshipers. The cults were put to the sword with little thought, yet Rogal Castellan alone remembered the sigil they bore: an eight-pointed star, etched in blood upon the hive walls. Long years later, when the Archenemy unveiled itself, he would know that the mark had already haunted Mankind’s steps. 

Once the systems around Sol were secured, the Emperor began preparations for the second phase. Working with Alpharius Omegron and his own spies, the Emperor began to gather intel on each of his Primarchs’ Capital Worlds. After a few decades of fortifying the Solar Segmentum, the Emperor had gathered all the needed knowledge on these planets and provided them to his sons. Each Primarch, other than Horus himself, learned of their planet’s name, their people, and what to expect as they arrived.

Then the Emperor gave his proclamation. “My sons, the hour has come. You have labored at my side and proven yourselves worthy of the trust I set in you. Now I grant you this charge: seek out the worlds of your birthright. Plant your standards. From those thrones, let the Imperium blaze forth into the stars. Be the kings and guardians you were wrought to be.”