Horus Heresy. Book IX

The Mark of Kalta The Heresy came to Kalta without warning. In just a few hours, the Word Bearers destroyed their former brothers—the proud warriors of the Ultramarines. Now, with the world scorched by the flashes of the mangled star Veridia, the survivors must either fight the XVII Legion and their dishonorable allies or meet their doom in the grim refuges of arcologies beneath the planet's surface. Vulcan Lives The survivors of the Istvaan massacre, warriors of the Salamander Legion, have long and fruitlessly sought their fallen primarch. They do not know that Vulcan, to his misfortune, is still alive... and languishes in captivity, serving as a plaything for a cruel jailer, his own brother Conrad Kurze. Under horrific tortures designed to break both body and spirit, Vulcan will witness the depths of moral decay of the Night Haunter—and unveil a secret that could change the course of the entire war. The Forgotten Empire Far in the Eastern Fringe lie the worlds of Ultramar. Having survived the attack by the Word Bearers on Kalta and the subsequent Shadow Crusade against the Five Hundred Worlds, the primarch of the Ultramarines Roboute Guilliman is now gathering allies on Macragge—as he hopes, the new future citadel of humanity. The inhabitants of Ultramar are isolated from Terra by a terrible warp storm. The rest of the Galaxy is engulfed in the fire of war. With the arrival of numerous refugees, the differences between friends and foes begin to blur. Can Guilliman now compete in power with the traitor Horus?