Dark Compliance

“Horus was going to have to take every inch of the planet by blood. And flesh was weaker than iron.”

As I touched on in my spoiler free review, my favourite part of this audio drama was the fighting spirit of the loyalists who, knowing their death was inevitable, were determined to take as many of Horus’ forces with them as they could. I remember being filled with hope when the battle cogitator says that in taking the planet Horus would lose 70 point something percent of his own troops.

They would buy time for Terra and make Dorn’s job so much easier.

But we already know that’s not how the battle of Terra goes down. Of course, Horus uses daemonic incursion to destroy the world and leaves most of his forces unscathed. I liked this ending. It was sad, but not in a way that I had to cry myself to sleep that night. It hit home what an inexorable force Horus and his fleet are, something I’m sure all of the characters in-universe are feeling keenly.

Ultimately, this story is being told by a Son of Horus in order to scare a planetary governor into surrendering. Because this story is being told in-universe, we don’t know for certain that it’s true, though it almost definitely is. Especially considering that the story contains elements that the storyteller couldn’t possibly know about, like Horus’ talks with Maloghurst, or the thoughts of the loyalists.

The conversations between Horus and Maloghurst were another cool thing and they weren’t how I remembered them being. Horus still calls him ‘Mal’ like he did before he fell and while their conversations aren’t particularly friendly, you can still tell that Horus has some affection for Maloghurst. One complaint about ‘False Gods’ is that it seems to imply that the person we’re seeing isn’t actually Horus, but rather some daemonic force of the ruinous powers. Because of this, I always appreciate any glimpses we get that the old Horus is still in there. Speaking of which, if you haven’t read or listened to ‘Warmaster’, go and read my review. I think it’s a pretty good story.

The Emperor Protects