Eastern Fringe, the Forge World of Cavor Sarta, adjacent to the Ghoul Stars.
Mateo, a Dark Apostle clad in crimson armor painted with dried blood, bore black vines painted across his shoulders. His bald head was covered from crown to chin with two hundred marks of faith personally approved by Chief Chaplain Erebus, Your Excellency.
He raised his Crozius high and shouted at the clamorous crowd that had been driven down.
"Mortals, listen!"
The Dark Apostle's voice boomed through the loudspeakers, drowning out every other sound.
He looked down with satisfaction at the silenced crowd. "You have been enslaved by the False Emperor's servants. You labor day and night, yet cannot even fill your bellies."
"You bleed yourselves dry, soaking the blades of his brutal weapons."
The Dark Apostle paused, giving these hive-dwellers time to understand his words.
He pointed at the Word Bearers standing at attention nearby, clad in brand-new dark crimson armor.
"Golden Lorgar's Poison Vine warriors have liberated you from the False Emperor's enslavement."
"The Warmaster has exempted you from every tax imposed by the Imperium."
Alvaro, a loader from the Hive City world of Saran Luxor, raised his scar-covered arm.
"Merciful Warmaster!"
"Merciful Golden Lorgar!"
"Poison Vine Angels!"
Mateo swept his gaze across the shouting crowd and pointed at the weapons freshly forged in the furnace.
"Now, the False Emperor's hounds seek to enslave you once more."
"Take up your weapons. Fight for the Warmaster and Golden Lorgar."
Alvaro's eyes reddened as veins bulged across his clenched fist.
"Fight for the Warmaster and Golden Lorgar! Kill the False Emperor's hounds!"
He was the first to pounce on the twisted, grotesque weapons, with the workers surging after him in a dark mass.
Mateo watched as a worker picked up a jet-black axe steeped in poisonous hemlock juice