Siege of Terra

John French

After seven years of bitter war, the end has come at last for the conflict known infamously as the Horus Heresy. Terra now lies within the Warmaster’s sights, the Throneworld and the seat of his father’s rule. Horus’ desire is nothing less than the death of the Emperor of Mankind and the utter subjugation of the Imperium. He has become the ascendant vessel of Chaos, and amassed a terrible army with which to enact his will and vengeance. But the way to the Throne will be hard as the primarch Rogal Dorn, the Praetorian and protector of Terra, marshals the defences. First and foremost, Horus must challenge the might of the Sol System itself and the many fleets and bulwarks arrayed there. To gain even a foothold on Terran soil, he must first contend the Solar War. Thus the first stage of the greatest conflict in the history of all mankind begins.

Guy Haley

On the thirteenth day of Secundus, the bombardment of Terra began. With the solar defences overcome through the devastating strength of the Traitor armada and the power of the warp, Horus launches his assault on the Throneworld in earnest. After withstanding a ferocious barrage of ordnance, an immense ground war commences outside the Palace with every inch gained paid for in the lives of billions. The front lines are beyond horrific and the very air is reduced to poison and blood. Bodies are thrown into the meat grinder but the outer redoubts cannot possibly hold for long, even with the loyal primarchs to reinforce them. For Horus has his own generals to call upon. Between the plague weapons of Mortarion and the fury of Angron, the defenders face a losing battle. Running time 12 hours and 58 minutes. Narrated by Jonathan Keeble.

Gav Thorpe

The war for the fate of mankind blazes on. Though the outer defences have fallen, the walls of the Palace itself remain inviolate as Rogal Dorn, the Praetorian of Terra himself, uses every known stratagem and ploy to keep Horus's vast armies at bay. In Perturabo, the Traitor siegebreaker, Dorn faces an adversary worthy of his skill. A terrible, grinding attrition ensues. The crucial battle for the Lion's Gate space port is at the heart of this conflict. With it in their possession, the Traitors can land their most devastating weapons on Terran soil. Dorn knows it must not fall. But with enemies attacking from all sides, and the stirrings of the Neverborn drawn to the slaughter, can the Imperial defenders possibly prevail?

Dan Abnett

The Traitor Host of Horus Lupercal tightens its iron grip on the Palace of Terra, and one by one the walls and bastions begin to crumple and collapse. Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, redoubles his efforts to keep the relentless enemy at bay, but his forces are vastly outnumbered and hopelessly outgunned. Dorn simply cannot defend everything. Any chance of survival now requires sacrifice, but what battles dare he lose so that others can be won? Is there one tactical stroke, one crucial combat, that could turn the tide forever and win the war outright?

John French

L'HISTOIRE Les victoires de Saturnine et les sacrifices au spatioport du Mur d’Éternité rejoignent les espérances passées. Frustrés mais pas vaincus, les traîtres intensifient leur assaut sur le Palais Impérial. Les principaux spatioports étant aux mains d'Horus, le Maître de Guerre peut faire pleuvoir ses réserves. À mesure que la pression s'accroît, la puissance du Chaos grandit. Les jours des défenseurs ne sont que désespoir, et leurs songes nocturnes les transportent dans un paradis illusoire. Alors que les défenses se délitent et que les combattants perdent courage, Horus ordonne aux titans de la Legio Mortis d'abattre les remparts. Face à eux, la solidité du Mur Mercure et la vaillance de la Legio Ignatum. Rivales de longue date, les machines divines des deux Legios s'affrontent pendant qu'à l'abri des murailles une poignée d'individus cherchent désespérément un moyen de refouler l'influence maligne du warp. Un peu partout sur Terra, guerriers et voyageurs égarés parcourent des désolations et des jardins de l'horreur pour regagner leur foyer en vue d'un futur incertain. Écrit par John French

Chris Wraight

The Inner Walls are breached. Traitor vanguards tear towards the heart of the Palace, sensing victory. Desperate gambits are attempted: an unwilling saint is released into the ruins, as well as an enthusiastic sinner. A black sword rises, forged from spite, ready to create a legend. But amid the slaughter, Jaghatai Khan, Warhawk of Chogoris, prepares to launch the most audacious strike of the conflict. His goal is nothing less than the liberation of the Lion's Gate space port. Cut off from any help, he stakes everything on one desperate counter-offensive, launched against an old enemy who has been made far greater than he ever was before. As the White Scars ride out against the newly crowned lords of life and death, they know that defeat for them dooms not only the Legion, but Terra itself.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The walls have fallen. The defenders are broken. The Inner Palace lies in ruins. The Warmaster’s horde advances through the fire and ash of Terra's dying breaths, forcing the loyalists back to the Delphic Battlement – the very walls of the Sanctum Imperialis. Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters and Herald of Horus, has achieved immortality through annihilation – now he leads the armies of the damned in a wrathful tide, destroying all before them as the warp begins its poisonous corruption of Terra's very soil. For the Emperor’s beleaguered forces, the end has come. The Khan lies on the edge of death. Rogal Dorn is encircled, fighting his own war at Bhab Bastion. Guilliman will not reach Terra in time. Without his brothers, Sanguinius – the Angel of the Ninth Legion – waits on the final battlements, hoping to rally a desperate band of defenders and refugees for one last stand.

Dan Abnett

Terra is besieged. The outcome of the war lies on a knife edge. The Warmaster Horus’ bloody seven-year crusade has led to this – the cradle of humanity, where he is to kill his father, the Emperor. With the war at this critical juncture, Sanguinius, primarch of the loyalist Blood Angels, braves the horrors of the Warmaster’s flagship, The Vengeful Spirit, with a single purpose in mind – to slay his brother Horus, decapitate the Heresy once and for all, and stop the forces of Chaos from taking Terra. But at the whim of a Warmaster fallen so far from grace, the Dark Gods will not make Sanguinius’ task easy. As the war edges towards its explosive, bloody conclusion, events are about to unfold that could either save humanity or plunge it headlong into an eternity of darkness.

Dan Abnett

Terra is besieged. The outcome of the war lies on a knife edge. The Warmaster Horus’ bloody seven-year crusade has led to this – the cradle of humanity, where he is to kill his father, the Emperor. With the war at this critical juncture, Sanguinius, primarch of the loyalist Blood Angels, braves the horrors of the Warmaster’s flagship, The Vengeful Spirit, with a single purpose in mind – to slay his brother Horus, decapitate the Heresy once and for all, and stop the forces of Chaos from taking Terra. But at the whim of a Warmaster fallen so far from grace, the Dark Gods will not make Sanguinius’ task easy. As the war edges towards its explosive, bloody conclusion, events are about to unfold that could either save humanity or plunge it headlong into an eternity of darkness.

Dan Abnett

The Great Angel, Sanguinius, lies slain at his brother's hand. Terra burns as reality itself unravels, and the greatest bastion of civilisation teeters on the brink of annihilation. Desperate defenders gather, banding against the rabid traitor hordes. The Hollow Mountain, host to the pilgrims of Euphrati Keeler, is one of the last redoubts held by the Dark Angels while the unclean host of Typhus lays siege. Malcador the Sigillite sits ablaze on the Golden Throne, trying to buy his master more time. But time is running out… Guilliman races across the stars to reinforce the Throneworld. Will he return to ashes, where a Warmaster of Chaos has ascended to godhood, or will the Emperor have triumphed? And at what cost?

Graham McNeill

The Shattered Legions crew of the Sisypheum, broken and at the end of their endurance, find themselves divided – torn between following their resurrected captain on a suicidal mission or obeying orders to return to Terra and rejoin their Legion brothers. Following a series of garbled messages intercepted by the Kryptos, the divided warriors descend to the shattered surface of Luna. Here, their bonds of loyalty, duty, and their devotion to one another will be tested as ancient horrors of the earliest days of gene-manipulation are unleashed, and a long-buried secret is revealed. A secret that will have far-reaching consequences for the future course of the galaxy, no matter who eventually claims Terra.

Graham McNeill

Of all the Emperor’s sons who fell to Chaos, it is perhaps Magnus the Red whose tale is the most tragic. Sanctioned because of his desire for knowledge, chastised, judged, and shattered to his very elements – there is much for the Crimson King to feel vengeful for. Yet revenge is not the only thing that draws him to Terra alongside the Warmaster’s besieging armies. He seeks something, a fragment, the missing piece of himself that lies within the most impregnable place on the planet – the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace. As the greatest conflict of the ages reaches fever pitch, Magnus fights his own inner battle. To be whole once more, he must not only overcome the fiercest of defences, but also face the one being whom he loves and hates with equal fervour more than any other – his errant father, the Emperor of Mankind.

James Swallow

As the epic battle for Terra rages and the future of mankind hangs in the balance, former Knight Errant Nathaniel Garro fights among the ashes and fire of the embattled Imperial Palace as the shadow of Horus Lupercal's triumph looms. From the brutal betrayal at Isstvan to the desperate flight of the Eisenstein, through his missions as Malcador the Sigillite's Agentia Primus, Garro's path has drawn him inexorably towards a destiny that can only end in bloodshed. As he struggles to protect Euphrati Keeler, the first Saint of the Imperial Church, from the horrors of this titanic war, Garro must face his greatest enemy – his father, Mortarion, his former master, and the monstrous liege-lord of the traitorous Death Guard – in a final, shattering confrontation.

various

In Chris Wraight’s Homebound, Ilya Ravallion must choose between the decimated White Scars and living out what remains of her life in peace. An embattled Ahzek Ahriman must race against time to learn what he can of the warp before its gates close to him forever in Ex Libris by John French. Featuring tales from Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Guy Haley and many more, this anthology follows mighty Custodians, scheming sorcerers, and the lowly footsoldiers of the Imperial Army as all negotiate the devastating aftermath of Humanity's greatest reckoning. CONTENTS – Introduction by Jacob Youngs – Angels of Another Age, by John French – Fulgurite, by Nick Kyme – Fragments (All We Have Left), by Dan Abnett – Ex Libris, by John French – System Purge, by Gav Thorpe – After the Dawn, the Darkness, by Guy Haley – Homebound, by Chris Wraight – The Carrion Lord of the Imperium, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden Audio is narrated by Shogo Miyakita, Colleen Prendergast, and Jonathan Keeble. Runtime 8 hours and 31 minutes approx.