The restoration of the Han Dynasty began with the Horus Rebellion.

Chapter 84 Peturabo's Ambition

Chapter 85 Peturabo's Ambition

On the ground battlefield of Istvan V, the Iron Warriors and Midnight Lords legions, under the command of their Primarchs, steadily advanced, and with the fire support of the three legion fleets in orbit, they quickly tore through the defenses constructed by the Deathguards and the Sons of the Emperor.

Just when it seemed the empire was about to achieve a great victory with minimal cost, an unexpected event occurred.

The Midnight Lords suddenly launched an attack on the Iron Warriors and cut off the retreat route of Peturabo's legions. At the same time, the Death Guard and the Sons of the Emperor, who were originally in retreat, immediately launched a counterattack, surrounding the Fourth Legion from three sides.

At this moment, Peturabo displayed exceptional command skills. He calmly ordered the Iron Warriors to huddle together in place and construct temporary military fortifications to hold their ground, thus avoiding total annihilation due to being caught off guard. However, casualties continued to rise under the siege of three legions.

The three Primarchs who witnessed this scene in the Orbital Fleet were shocked by Conrad Coz's shameless betrayal, but they immediately decided to find a way to save Peturabo and the Fourth Legion.

After all, in their eyes, Peturab and his descendants had proven their loyalty with their lives and blood, and they could never stand by and watch them perish under the enemy's encirclement.

Since the Empire still held the advantage in overall combat power and had already gained an absolute advantage in the orbit, the three loyal Primarchs almost quickly came up with a plan.

Lord Volkan, the Fire Dragon Lord, will lead the Salamanders into battle, making the traitorous Midnight Lord pay the price; meanwhile, Felus will lead an elite squad to raid the Emperor's Son, who has long wanted to face his brother, once his closest confidant, now an irreconcilable enemy, once again.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when the encirclement is torn open, Peturabo will be able to lead the Iron Warriors out of the encirclement.

Meanwhile, Kolax directed covering fire from the rails until all troops had temporarily retreated to the landing point to regroup, preparing for the next offensive—

So far, the plan has been perfect.

But it seems the same applies to the enemy.

When Peturabo had initially withdrawn from the encirclement, Vokán decided to abandon the search for Conrad and prepare to notify Fernús, who was advancing into enemy territory, to retreat...

Yet another legion has betrayed us.

However, this was not any of the legions that Macado had previously been wary of.

Without any warning, the Steel Hand fleet suddenly aimed its cannons at its unsuspecting allies and unleashed its most ferocious firepower without mercy!

The Raven Guard suffered the most severe losses in the first wave of bombardment. Due to the legion's culture and its strategic positioning in the Great Crusade, the Nineteenth Legion was particularly skilled in behind-enemy-lines raids and guerrilla warfare. Their ships were specialized in speed and stealth, which greatly sacrificed their defensive capabilities.

In particular, the Primarch flagship, the Shadow of the Emperor, is equipped with a special internal void shield that can absorb any energy radiation emitted by the ship, thus achieving a stealth effect that makes it completely undetectable by radar. However, this also means that if attacked while in stealth mode, it will have extremely catastrophic consequences.

And so it was. Within seconds, as the entire Raven Guard fleet plummeted like a meteor shower, the loyalist warriors on the ground realized they were in dire straits.

Volkan immediately wanted to rush to find Fenus and question him about whether he knew about the betrayal and evil deeds of his own offspring, but he soon realized that his legion was exposed to the firepower of the Iron Hand.

From that moment on, the Istfan V battlefield became a bloody meat grinder and a performance of Peturabo's personal heroism.

Perturabo's first decision was to order his legion to stop retreating and instead launch an attack on the Death Guard's stronghold. Because the Midnight Lord was engrossed in going to the landing point to coordinate the bombardment and slaughter of the salamanders, the Emperor's Son was distracted by Fenus's forces, which became his best opportunity to break through the defenses.

The details of the subsequent battle are unknown, but several Iron Warriors and captured Death Guards have confirmed that after breaching the fortress, Perturabo successfully defeated Mortarion in a duel and mercilessly executed his Primarch brother.

Then Peturabo modified the base's broadcast array to direct his support ships deployed in orbit. With the help of the remaining fleets of other legions such as the Salamanders, as well as support from the Imperial Navy and the Mechanicus, they finally regained control of the orbital airspace.

Peturabo then unified command of the troops, defeated the Night Lords and the Emperor's Son, and saved the few remaining remnants of the Salamander Legion.

Just as they were about to press their advantage and wipe out the rebels, bad news arrived—

The Word Bearers and the Alpha Legion did intercept Horus at Mandeville, but the Word Bearers betrayed him almost without hesitation. The Alpha Legion, however, showed extreme loyalty and fought a fierce battle with Horus's fleet. They were forced to retreat and give way after suffering heavy losses.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Horus's fleet did not seem to intend to fight the Imperial army to the death. He was only there to pick up the defeated army of the Emperor's Son and the Night Lords. Perturabo also ordered a halt to the pursuit, prioritizing the elimination of the remaining rebel forces in the system and the rescue of the wounded legions.

Thus, the bloody Battle of Istfan V came to an end.

Judging from the post-war summary and imperial propaganda, this was a great victory for the empire against the rebels.

Horus’s carefully laid trap was destroyed, one of the rebel Primarchs was executed, the Emperor’s Legion was severely weakened, and the main fighting force of the rebels was reduced to the Sixteenth Legion and the Word Bearers.

More importantly, this failure will cause Horus to lose his appeal, making it even more difficult for him to persuade other planets in the galaxy to submit.

However, the Empire also suffered heavy losses. Corax went missing during the fleet bombardment and his fate was unknown. Volkan died on the battlefield. However, the Salamanders believed that their father would eventually return after a little while.

Then there's Feralus Manus, whose last known sighting was of him fighting Forgrim in a near-mental breakdown, after which he too disappeared without a trace.

This is why the Empire did not immediately declare it a traitorous Primarch—of course, here the Empire refers to...

Peturabo.

Yes, shortly after the Battle of Istvan V, the warp, which had just calmed down, experienced an even stronger warp storm, which completely cut off Terra from travel outside the solar system, making even communication extremely difficult.

In this situation, as one of only two Primarchs still alive in the "Punishment Fleet," Peturabo, at the behest of Alpharis, announced that he would take command of the Astartes, a region inaccessible to the Empire, in order to continue carrying out the Emperor's orders to quell the rebellion.

For other Imperial armies, they had no choice but to contact Terra and other loyal Primarchs, and Perturabo was on a legitimate mission to quell the rebellion. As long as they used the pretext of suppressing the rebellion, they could get any Imperial army or even a planetary civilization under the Imperial regime to cooperate and obey.

Although it has no other name, Peturabo is now essentially the Imperial will in areas beyond the reach of the Empire's communication network outside of the warp storm.

The position of Warmaster, whose power rivals that of Horus!

Two years later, his new expedition direction is...

Extreme Starfield.

Guilliman's Second Reich!