Horus had ordered the death of Salinan, the Forge Consul of the Technocracy, who had come aboard the Vengeful Spirit to negotiate. After slandering him as an assassin, Horus had found the excuse he needed and immediately started a war with the Technocracy.
However, neither the Vengeful Spirit nor most of the ships in the Sixty-Third Fleet had remained in the Technocracy's system. Instead, they had continued sailing toward some distant region of the galaxy.
After all, a mere Technocracy was hardly worth Horus, his XVI Legion, or even the Sixty-Third Fleet's attention. If they hadn't wanted to obtain the other side's intact STC, they would have long since reduced their planets to rubble with Virus Bombs and orbital bombardment.
Of course, none of that mattered!
Today, Warmaster Horus had locked himself alone in his office. He then used a projection to enter the Warp and began a secret conversation with several of his closest Primarch brothers.
Those who appeared in the Warp with him included Angron, Primarch of the XII Legion, the World Eaters; Mortarion, Primarch of the XIV Legion, the Death Guard; and Fulgrim, Horus's close friend and Primarch of the III Legion, the Emperor's Children.
At first, the three hadn't been manipulated by the Word Bearers or anyone else, then whispered to and corrupted while near death, when their mental defenses were at their weakest, as Horus had been. Instead, Horus had corrupted them gradually, speaking to them as a friend. Through his own eloquence and the whispers of the Warp, he had successfully drawn them into his Chaos camp.
Now that they had completely embraced the Warp and been corrupted by the Chaos Gods, the four of them could easily gather in an image within the Warp by using projections—even without the powerful psychic talent and