Lorgar's voice continued to echo through the conference room, bathed in pale golden psychic energy, but its warmth seemed to have quietly diminished.
"Our Legion's warriors have repeatedly come under attack in recent operations from an unprecedented enemy that defies classification," Lorgar began.
"In the surface campaign on Suiyang, during shipping-lane clearance missions in the Thras Corridor, and even in remote sectors far beyond the Imperium's main territories, all but barren of civilization, teams conducting exploration and preliminary reconnaissance have sent back reports of similar encounters."
His tone was calm, but the locations and circumstances he listed made the Chapter Masters' hearts sink slightly.
These incidents had not erupted in one concentrated outbreak. Instead, they were scattered across such vast distances and such varied missions that the appearance of this "enemy" could not be isolated or accidental. It might be a widespread threat, either spreading now or having lurked all along.
"At first, based on the fragmentary combat records sent back from the front, the vague perceptions of Psykers, and the disjointed accounts of a handful of survivors, most of the Imperium's senior leadership were inclined to believe that these twisted, inhuman beings, brimming with blasphemous energy, might be biological weapons belonging to some Xenos species unknown to us, or creations left behind by a lost civilization that had escaped control. Or perhaps they were monsters summoned from some other dimension through forbidden rituals by human traitors devoted to vile sorcery, or by Xenos sorcerers."
"But..." As Lorgar spoke that word, his tone abruptly turned heavy and cold, like ancient ice crashing onto the polished metal tabletop.
He raised his chin slightly. The light in his golden eyes seemed to retreat entirely, leaving only a fathomless darkness that had glimpsed a terrible secret.
"We were all wrong."
"They..."
"Are Daemons."