Editing Siege of Terra (section)

==The End and the Death==
{{topquote|We are in the endgame now.|Doctor Strange, ''Avengers: Infinity War''}}
With the Eternity Gate closed and the Sanctum Imperialis sealed, the Siege had reached its terminal phase. The loyalist forces were scattered across the ruins of the Inner Palace, fighting on as best they could in the face of what seemed to be Horus’ inevitable victory. Imperial Fists, White Scars, Blood Angels, [[Solar Auxilia]], Imperial Army, Custodians, and Null Maidens all fought side by side wherever they happened to be, while [[Penal legion|penal units]], [[Whiteshield Conscript|civilian conscripts]], [[Administratum|rear-echelon functionaries]], and senior officers took up arms and joined the fighting. Broken chains of command and lines of organization were hastily reconstituted by whoever happened to be on the scene. The White Scars still held the Lion’s Gate and were using its firepower to devastate the traitors’ fleet, but the anti-orbital batteries and their power sources were slowly being destroyed one by one. Legions of Neverborn manifested on Terra’s soil, joining with the Warmaster’s hordes as they surrounded the Sanctum and slowly choked the life from its remaining defenders. As they swarmed across the Throneworld, they wrote and sang and spoke a single name: the Dark King.

The Bhab Bastion, the nerve center of the defense for so many months, was smashed by Titan fire and taken by the reconstituted Catulan Reavers. Abaddon himself was leading the Sons of Horus toward the Sanctum despite his own bitterness at how their victory had come to pass. Across the wreckage of the Inner Palace, massed Titan battles further scorched the earth and destroyed whatever remained standing. All of the Palatine Bastions were destroyed or overrun one by one. The hordes of desperate refugees stranded outside the Sanctum fled to nowhere in particular, herded by the oncoming waves of traitor forces and daemons. Thousands died of fear, exhaustion, insanity, or simple sensory overload, their minds broken by the omnipresent sound of the world ending around them: the shrieks of twisting metal, the grinding and crunching of crushed and collapsing stone, the endless thunder of massed bombardment weapons, the ceaseless crack and clatter of small arms, and the screams of the millions of dying. Time, space, and matter were becoming malleable as Terra sank deeper into the clutches of the Warp. Walls and floors rusted, melted, rotted, suppurated, and were shaped like clay by the Neverborn. Chronometers and other timepieces skipped hours and days, ceased to function, or ran backwards. The reddened sun burned endlessly in the dust-shrouded skies. Soldiers who had been fighting at the Praestor Gate suddenly found themselves on the Via Aquila, fifteen kilometers away. Daemons and traitor Astartes attacked from places they could never have been, upending defensive plans and overrunning loyalist forces.

In the midst of the devastation, Euphrati Keeler and her conclave of faithful struggled to organize any kind of meaningful response, delivering arms, munitions, and scraps of inspiration wherever they could. Keeler herself was coming to terms with what she truly believed about the Emperor, and her dawning realization that one did not necessarily need to believe in him as a god, but instead as the embodiment of [[Dune|a path upon which he had set humanity millennia ago]]. Humanity did not need understanding, or enlightenment, only blind faith that the Emperor’s designs would be fulfilled as long as they believed in him and played their parts.

Aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit'', Horus was reliving an interview he had given to Mersadie Oliton on the eve of the war with the [[Interex]], discussing his elevation to the office of Warmaster, the nature of his relationship to the Emperor and his brothers, and his dreams of the future that they were forging together. When Kiron Argonis attempted to bring his attention to the siege, he confused it for the compliance of Xenobia, called for the long-dead Maloghurst and Hastur Sejanus, and lapsed back into his fugue state as quickly as he had emerged. Even as he regained some understanding of where he was and what he was doing, he continued to see and speak to Maloghurst, Sejanus, Nero Vipus, Luc Sedirae, and Tarik Torgaddon, all long dead.

At the Astronomican, Corswain and his contingent of Dark Angels sought a way to relight the psychic beacon. Librarian Vassago was slain, apparently by daemons, and so Corswain turned to four of his Calibanite brethren, all of them psykers themselves, and asked them to serve in Vassago’s stead. Zahariel, the senior of the four, convinced his brothers to obey Corswain’s orders, noting that if Horus won, Caliban and the Order would be extinguished by Chaos. If the loyalists won, however, they would have an opportunity to bring Corswain and his men to their side and to return home to Luther and Caliban in triumph. As Corswain planned and Zahariel plotted, they received word of an approaching host: the Death Guard, led by Typhus, was coming to settle accounts with Corswain and the I Legion. The Death Guard arrived within hours, not the days the Angels had expected, and began climbing the flanks of the Astronomican, a relentless tide of festering plague and rot. As the Dark Angels met them on the battlements, their willpower was sapped by a psychic malaise wrought by the Herald of Nurgle which lasted until Zahariel opted to take up the mask of Cypher to aid the Angels in fighting off the XIV Legion. With his appearance, the Dark Angels were able to rally and push back the Death Guard.

Within the Imperial Dungeon, Malcador began attempting to draw the Emperor out of his psychic war against the legions of Chaos, recognizing that the time had come for him to stand up from the Golden Throne and fight like a man, not a god. The Emperor couldn’t hear him over the constant waves of pain being produced by his mental battles with Horus, the Chaos gods, and the ceaseless tides of Neverborn surging against the Webway gate. When he received no immediate response, Malcador withdrew to his own labors: coordinating what was left of the defense within the Palace, overseeing the activities of his chosen agents, and attempting to reunite Jaghatai Khan’s soul with his shattered body. This latter was a task at which he’d been laboring since the Khagan was brought back from his duel with Mortarion at the Lion’s Gate, without success. While waiting on the Emperor’s response, he gathered himself for another attempt, and this time seemingly succeeded in drawing the Khan’s soul back to its corpus, only to realize that he had not accomplished this apparent impossibility. The Emperor had roused from his work, and said only one thing: “I cannot fight alone.”.

In response, Malcador summoned Vulkan, Dorn, Sanguinius, and Constantin Valdor. These four were the last pillars of strength upon which the Emperor could count, and even they had their own trials and concerns now. Vulkan was still trudging through the Webway, his body reknitting from the devastation wrought upon it by Magnus. Sanguinius was exhausted and severely injured from his battles with Angron and Ka’Bandha. Dorn was at a loss; his fortress was in ruins and his defensive plans no longer viable, and for the first time in his life he was unsure of what to do next. Constantin Valdor was hunting down and killing the daemons who had infiltrated the Sanctum, while also concocting his own contingencies in case the Emperor failed. Nevertheless, all four heeded the summons. There, they were told the plan. Anabasis, it was called. The Emperor would board the ''Vengeful Spirit'' now that its shields were down, and there he would kill the Warmaster and end the Siege once and for all. Dorn, Vulkan, Sanguinius, and Valdor were to remain on Terra while this took place. All four immediately insisted that they be allowed to accompany their father and lord. The Emperor was angered by their defiance, but Malcador reminded him that they were loyal and stalwart and sought only to stand by him in his greatest hour of need, as they had always done. Thus the plan was modified. Dorn, Sanguinius, and Valdor would each choose a company of their finest warriors to join the assault, but while the Praetorian and the Captain-General would be allowed to join him, Sanguinius was to remain behind to serve as the leader and figurehead of the remaining defenders. Vulkan also had to stay, explained Malcador, because if all else failed, then he would have to trip the dead man’s switch he’d installed in the Throne and destroy Terra before Horus could claim his victory. With Anabasis enacted, other contingencies had to be set into place. The Unspoken Sanction was prepared in case it was needed to supplement Malcador’s strength as he sat upon the Throne. Basilio Fo’s gene-phage was brought up from the Dark Cells of the Palace and readied to be used as the last of all resorts. Finally, as the Emperor rose from the Golden Throne, Malcador took his place, fully aware that this was the last act of devotion he would ever perform for his master and friend. Sanguinius confronted the Emperor as he was arming for the engagement, explaining that he wished to go along. In turn, the Emperor’s Companions explained why he was being left behind; he was wounded, grievously so, and the Emperor had wished him to remain behind to keep him safe. Sanguinius countered that he intended to face Horus because of his visions of his death at the Warmaster’s hand. But, he continued, he did not intend to die. As time was coming undone around Terra, he believed that the future was coming undone as well. Thus it was possible that his death could be averted.

Just as the Anabasis strike force teleported up to the ''Vengeful Spirit'', a signal was received in the Court of the Hegemon, the new command center established after the fall of Bhab Bastion. The Ultramarines, Dark Angels, and Space Wolves were only nine hours out and needed the Astronomican to light their way. The War Court frantically attempted to alert Anabasis, to no avail. Meanwhile, on the ''Vengeful Spirit'', the Warmaster's trap was sprung. Horus had been feigning his madness and distraction all along, preparing himself for the final confrontation he knew was coming. Now that the shields were down and the Emperor had taken his bait, he cast off his shrouds and revealed himself as Horus Ascended, the avatar of the Chaos Gods. By his will, the ''Spirit'' itself turned on the loyalist invaders and began corrupting their minds and senses. The Emperor’s own bodyguard of Custodians were almost instantly ensnared and turned upon their own master, defying their gene-bred loyalty to him. The Emperor was forced to kill thirty-nine of his Companions before he could regain enough focus and will to break through Horus’ manipulations, and had to expend his own strength and will to free the survivors and keep them sane. The rest of the assault team was scattered across the ship, itself a maze of insanity wrought by the touch of the Ruinous Powers and Horus' own mad will. Rogal Dorn found himself alone and lost in an endless desert for what seemed like centuries, tempted by whispers from Khorne as his identity slowly eroded away. Constantin Valdor and his men landed in the midst of a pit of daemons, their focus and energy steadily being sapped as they fought through the neverending tide of warpspawn. The Blood Angels were the only element to strike as intended, and only a quarter of the assault force arrived where they were supposed to. Nevertheless, Sanguinius and his sons fought their way through the ''Vengeful Spirit'' with fury and skill, using the Great Angel’s intimate knowledge of the ship to cripple it as precisely as possible. On the Golden Throne, wracked with the pain of containing eternity, Malcador saw the full scope of Horus’ plan, and struggled to communicate it to those who might yet help avert the Emperor’s death and the end of the Imperium. Kyril Sindermann, Boetharch Hellick Mauer, Garviel Loken, and Euphrati Keeler found themselves drawn to the Hall of Leng, the Emperor’s greatest repository of secrets, searching for something concealed in its vast archives of forgotten and forbidden lore. In the depths of Collection 888, they found themselves confronted by a single phrase, repeated over and over: the Dark King. They then found a hatch that the Hall’s archivist swore had never been there before. When Loken opened it, he found himself walking the decks of the ''Vengeful Spirit''. He ordered the others to remain behind before sealing the hatch and reboarding the ship that had been his home for two centuries, preparing for the final confrontation with his traitorous father.

Ezekyle Abaddon found himself the master of a legion that no longer cared to listen to any masters save their own lust for blood and death. His orders were ignored or brushed off as the captains of the Legion surged toward the Sanctum, sensing final victory in their grasp. Even as he grew increasingly furious with his wayward brothers and heartsick by the devastation they were wreaking upon Terra, he learned that the ''Vengeful Spirit'''s shields were down and came as close to panic as he had ever been. He attempted to recall the XVI Legion to return to the flagship and defend their father, only for most of the Legion's captains to ignore his orders, while most of those who responded derided his concern and insulted him as a coward and a petulant child. Nevertheless, he was able to assemble a small force to return to the ''Spirit''.

As Ollanius Persson and his small band of unlikely allies wended their way deeper into the forgotten depths beneath the Imperial Palace, they revealed themselves to the others one by one. Ollanius explained his Perpetual nature and his falling out with the Emperor at the Tower of Babel, while Actaea revealed herself as Cyrene Valantion, reforged as an artificial Perpetual after her death at the hands of the Custodes and, so she claimed, enlightened as to the true nature of the Warp. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legionnaire accompanying her explained his mission to John Grammaticus. At the outset of the Heresy, Dorn had created at least six hidden pathways out of the Palace in case the worst should come to pass. The Alpha Legion had located one of these passages and had planted reserves of legionaries and materiel caches deep beneath the Palace to exploit the opening. These legionaries had all been hypno-conditioned with a variety of plans devised by Alpharius and Omegon, each activated by a different code word. “Sagittary” would trigger loyalty to Horus, while “Xenophon” would command them to fight for the Emperor. “Paramus” would order them to bring down both sides in a case of mutual annihilation, while “Thisbe” would trigger a full evacuation and “Orphaeus” would command them to focus on Chaos, either to defeat it or to master it. The Legionnaire then revealed his true identity and allegiance. He was First Captain Ingo Pech, and he had recognized that Horus had to be stopped in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. He had been sent to activate "Xenophon", only for Actaea to intercept him and hijack his mission by using her psyker talents to trigger "Orphaeus" instead. When Grammaticus asked what her plan was, Pech explained that she intended to turn Horus upon Chaos itself, using his Warp-borne power to enslave and master it and thereby end the war. As part of this plan, she needed both Ollanius and the athame he was carrying, since the knife in his hands was the only thing that might still wound Horus. He then asked Grammaticus to stop Actaea, which would also mean killing him due to the hypno-conditioning, and Grammaticus agreed. After they had infiltrated the Palace, Grammaticus clamped a limpet mine to Pech’s chest and confronted Actaea, who explained that she believed she had been sent by Erda as a second weapon of last resort: if Ollanius couldn’t stop the Emperor, she would stop Horus. She agreed to be psychically leashed to the group’s psyker Katt, but Pech was left behind, since she could not undo his hypno-conditioning. They successfully infiltrated the Sanctum Imperialis, but were captured and brought before Vulkan, who remembered Grammaticus from their encounter on Macragge years before. When Ollanius asked to speak with the Emperor, Vulkan informed him that he was already aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''. As he considered what to do with these unlikely intruders, Khalid Hassan noted that he had found a card in Leetu’s tarot deck that the prototype Astartes swore had not been there when he entered the Palace: the Dark King. A horrified Actaea revealed its true meaning to all present. The Dark King was a name that had been whispered in thousands of languages for eons, even before the existence of humanity. It was the name of a deity yet unborn, a new god of the Warp who would be shaped from the clay of Horus Lupercal and birthed in the annihilation of Terra and humanity, just as Slaanesh had risen from the destruction of the Eldar empire thousands of years prior. This was the true endgame of the Siege and of Chaos.