The Battle of Molech

Molech was no ordinary world. Ringed by defences to rival Terra itself and garrisoned by Legions, Titans and the household troops of Imperial Knights, it guarded a secret known to few: a hidden gateway into the Warp, from which the Emperor had once drawn the power to forge His empire. It was for this secret, not for the world, that Horus came. The Battle of Molech would be one of the pivotal turning points of the Heresy.

The Warmaster hurled his traitor host against the planet's formidable defences, and the Space Marines of both loyalist and renegade Legions clashed in a war of appalling ferocity. The loyalists fought to hold a fortress they did not fully understand, while the Chaos Space Marines bled themselves white to breach its heart. Titans burned and Knight houses were annihilated in the grinding slaughter.

Horus won through, and passed alone into the hidden gate. When he returned, he had bargained with the Dark Gods and claimed a portion of their power for his own, sacrificing much of his humanity in the exchange. Molech fell, but the true prize was the terrible strength the Warmaster carried back with him, power he would one day turn against his father beneath the walls of the Imperial Palace.