Golden Throne - The Emperor's Ascension: At the height of the Siege of Terra, Horus lowered the Void Shields of his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, as a personal challenge to the Emperor. The Emperor rose to the challenge, leading members of His elite personal guard, the Legio Custodes, the primarchs Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn, and several companies of Imperial Fists and Blood Angels Veteran Space Marines in the assault and teleported aboard the Vengeful Spirit.Horus used his Chaos powers to scatter the Emperor's force throughout the massive warship when they teleported up through the Warp. Each fought a series of battles against the elite forces of Chaos aboard the corrupted starship, attempting to link up with their comrades and confront Horus.Eventually, after what seemed like an age of fighting, the attacks upon the Loyalist forces ceased and the ship was still. Rogal Dorn and the last few remaining Loyalist survivors rushed to the command centre, the great chamber within which the Emperor and Horus had fought, and despair overcame them.When Rogal Dorn brought the mortally injured ruler of Mankind back to the Golden Throne after He had defeated Horus, Dorn found Malcador sitting wasted, psychic energy lashing across his shriveled body, tortured by the psychic bombardments of the collapsing Imperial Webway.The Sigillite was almost dead when the Tech-priests made the exchange -- disengaging Malcador from the strange machine even as they moved to modify it to support the Emperor's crippled life functions indefinitely. As Malcador was removed from the device, the last flicker of life left him and the dust of his corpse blew across the stone floor.Yet Malcador managed to prove one final time his loyalty and love for the Emperor, for despite his ordeal and agony, he still managed to gather what remained of his wasted power, and willingly forsook it to feed the Emperor and allow his master to survive.Malcador's final sacrifice allowed the Emperor to awake from His coma briefly and give His servants -- including the primarchs Rogal Dorn and Jaghatai Khan, their final orders before being interned silently for the next 10,000 standard years within the modified life support systems of the Golden Throne:"Poor, brave Malcador the Hero. He reserved a fragment of his strength for me. It gives me little time to pass final orders to you. If you do as I ask then I shall not wholly die, my spirit at least will survive. My injuries are severe, more so than I had hoped but less than I feared. My psychic powers will return to me in time but my body will never heal. I shall never walk amongst you again. I am now bound to this machine for all time. My faithful bodyguard and attendants know what is required. You must do as they request!"Dorn and Jaghatai, you have much work to do. Though the head of the serpent has been destroyed its coils still choke the safety of Mankind. You and your loyal brothers must fight on. Cleanse the taint of treachery from our stars. Never again must we allow the Ruinous Powers of Chaos to have such a chance. Now all of you go! You know your duties. Execute them well. The universe has many horrors yet to throw at us. This is not the end of our struggle. This is just the beginning of our crusade to save Humanity. Be faithful! Be strong! Be vigilant!"With this final proclamation, the Emperor spoke no more, a silence that was to last for the next ten thousand Terran years.From the Golden Throne the Emperor would maintain the psychic beacon of the Astronomican as a replacement for the now-lost Imperial Webway project and do His best to shield Humanity -- particularly Terra -- from the worst terrors of the Immaterium. Through the sacrifice of Malcador, Mankind would live on, and its people would face the growing darkness of the Age of the Imperium that was about to dawn with a single chant upon their lips -- the Emperor protects.