Luther - Sarosh: Shortly after their entry into the Great Crusade after the expansion of the Ist Legion upon Caliban, the 4th Expeditionary Fleet of the Dark Angels under the command of Lion El'Jonson reached the orbit of the planet Sarosh, replacing an Imperial force that had been commanded by Shang Khan of the White Scars Legion.The Saroshi -- ruled by a bureaucracy -- had recently expressed their interest in becoming part of the Imperium, and the Imperials were eager to allow them in, but for some unknown reason the Saroshi continued to stall. There were always delays and more intransigence. For whatever reason the Saroshi appeared to intentionally put off Imperial Compliance.The Imperials believed that these peaceful people seemed to possess the same secular beliefs as they did in the Imperial Truth. But the Saroshi (without mentioning it to the Imperial expedition) secretly worshipped Chaos entities in the Warp they called the Melachim, and saw the anti-religious stance of the pre-Heresy Imperium's "Imperial Truth" as a pure expression of evil.When the lord high exalter, the leader of the Saroshi bureaucracy, came aboard the Dark Angels' flagship Invincible Reason to discuss the issue of Compliance he formally denounced the Emperor and Jonson to his face. The Saroshi believed that no society could make claim to be righteous if it does not acknowledge the primacy of divine power. Secular truth was false truth.When they heard that the Emperor preached that there were only false gods, the Saroshi believed they knew the Emperor's real nature; he was a liar daemon, a creature of falsehood, sent by dark powers to lead Mankind astray. Enraged, Lion El'Jonson drew his gleaming ceremonial sword and clove through the fat Saroshi exalter's shoulder and down into his ample gut.Meanwhile, Luther and the Librarian Zahariel waited in the embarkation deck to deploy to the surface of Sarosh. Out of curiosity, Luther suggested to his battle-brother to investigate the Saroshi shuttle. The commander's interest was piqued, for the shuttle was thousands of Terran years old -- a functioning relic of an earlier age.Upon further investigation, the Legion's second-in-command went utterly pale. Zahariel noticed the change in Luther, who appeared pallid and had a strange expression. The commander dismissed Zahariel, telling him to rejoin his company until he was called for. He left the Legion's second-in-command at the door to the embarkation deck, watching as Luther stared in fascination at the Saroshi shuttle.But the young Librarian's prescience nagged at him with the feeling that something was terribly wrong, and so he rushed back to the embarkation deck. Upon closer inspection of the shuttle he discovered a dark device that had been hidden in a secret compartment of the shuttle's nose. As he tried to deduce the device's purpose, Luther suddenly interrupted Zahariel's introspection.Luther informed the Librarian that it was some kind of atomic weapon. The Saroshi were obviously intent on assassinating the Dark Angels' entire command hierarchy, including the primarch. Zahariel was confused by this startling revelation. Why had the commander not revealed this truth earlier? Luther informed the confused Astartes that he had wanted to, but then he thought of what could be his if he didn't: the Legion, command, Caliban. It would all be his, and he would no longer have to share it with someone whose shadow obscured everything that he did.Zahariel argued that the Lion's deeds were great, as were Luther's. Luther countered his argument, explaining that his deeds might have been great in another age, one in which he did not share the same span of time as a man like the Lion. In any other age, the glory of leading Caliban from the darkness would have been Luther's, but instead it had gone to his brother. He told Zahariel that he had no idea how galling it was to be the greatest man of the age and have that taken from you in an instant.After a solar decade or more, the feelings that had been contained within a dam of honour and restraint was finally crumbling, and Luther's true feelings spilled out. Zahariel had no idea that Luther felt this way. The commander told him that no one did, not even he: not fully, not until he saw the Saroshi shuttle. All he had to do was not lift a finger and walk away, and everything that he had ever wanted would be his.Luther had ordered everyone out of the embarkation deck and walked away, but he hadn't gone more than a few steps before he knew that he couldn't do it. Luther had come to realise that it was an honour to serve a warrior as great as the Lion, and that he was the luckiest man alive to be allowed to call him brother.With the help of the Librarian Zahariel, the two Dark Angels managed to open the embarkation deck's outer doors, blasting the makeshift bomb hurling into the void of space as the deck decompressed. The blast wave from the warhead's detonation only caused minor damage to the flagship. They had managed to save the Lion's life.The attack on the Invincible Reason had just been the beginning, as all across the fleet, and in the cities and lands of Sarosh, the Imperials soon found themselves under attack by the people they had assumed regarded them as heroes. But the inhabitants of Sarosh had rejected the Imperium and everything that it stood for with great violence, perpetrating appalling deeds of horror and bloodshed through all manner of acts of terror.More than a thousand Imperial Army and Armada Imperialis personnel on shore leave, enjoying the delights of the local carnival, were either murdered or disappeared without a trace. At around the same time the Saroshi shuttle exploded, an angry mob attacked the Imperial Governor's residence, as well as the nearby Imperial offices.Quickly overwhelming the few army troopers who had been left on guard duty, the riot's ringleaders dragged the Imperial functionaries out onto the streets and hacked them to death with axes and knives as the crowd bayed for blood.Only a few of the Imperials present on Sarosh managed to escape being murdered or abducted. Later, when these survivors told their tales, it would become clear that the entire population of the planet had exploded in a frenzy of bloodletting every bit as sudden and dramatic as the blast that nearly tore through the Invincible Reason. Within the Dark Angels' fleet, multiple ships were attacked at the same time by mutineers. Mostly, the mutinies were suppressed before they could do any real damage, but on the Arbalest the mutineers managed to let off a torpedo salvo. They hit the Bold Conveyor and damaged her.The situation in Sarosh's orbit was stabilised, but there were more pressing concerns below on the planet's surface. The fleet's astropathic choir had become aware of a growing build up of psychic energy in the northern deserts, indicative of a major Warp rift. The cause of this rift was unknown.Within a couple of solar hours the primarch and his Dark Angels, spearheaded by their Librarians, assaulted the Warp rift's location, intent on detonating a modified Cyclonic Torpedo in order to disrupt the build up of psychic energy. Luther was noticeably absent from the assault.The Dark Angels were intent on getting as close to the vicinity of this rift as possible in order for the makeshift weapon to be effective. The Dark Angels performed a combat jump utilising their Jump Packs upon the mining station of One Zeta Five. They were to fight through all resistance as quickly as possible in order to deliver the senior Brother-Librarian and his deadly cargo.But when the Dark Angels descended upon the designated target they found the mining station eerily devoid of signs of life. The only signs left by the enemy were scattered droplets or larger puddles of spilt blood. Suddenly the walls of one of the prefabricated building exploded outward, taking the Astartes by surprise. It was some unidentifiable reptilian creature which struck down one the battle-brothers.As the Dark Angels continued to make their way towards the centre of the settlement the strange reptilian beast attacked twice more, with unnatural speed and ferocity. Though each attack drew blood, no more warriors fell to their ambushes. When they reached the centre of the settlement a group of the unnatural reptilian creatures had gathered in a mass of scaled bodies before the entrance to a mineshaft.The Lion exploded into action, leading the charge against the fell creatures. The Dark Angels open fired with their bolters, as their primarch met the beasts head on. For all their speed and ferocity, the ghost-like monsters could not hope to stand against the relentless stoicism of the Dark Angels, who closed the noose of their warrior circles and slaughtered them without mercy.The Dark Angels entered the mineshaft, making their way underground to engage the enemy. As the Astartes made their way deeper into the lightless tunnel they soon came upon a large cavern. As the Dark Angels entered the cavern, the mystery of what had become of Sarosh's missing population was a mystery no more.Illuminated by glaring strip lights hanging from the cavern's roof, steel walkways crossed an immense chasm that was filled almost to the brim with dead bodies - millions of dead bodies. The Dark Angels continued to press on, intent on wreaking their vengeance against the vile Saroshi.The Sarosh had summoned one of their Melachim -- a vile Warp entity that passed into the material realm from the Immaterium. The Dark Angels were halted by the horrendous sight of the unspeakable creature, but their primarch spurred into action. He slew the masked cultists, dispatching them with pistol and sword. The Lion's actions spurred the Dark Angels to follow, and they too, leapt to the attack.Librarian Zahariel used his bolt pistol to slay the host body so that the vile Warp entity could not fully translate into their reality. The senior Librarian activated the device and a wave of psychic force erupted from the warhead. Seizing on the moment, Zahariel added his psyche, focusing his innate abilities on the foul creature. The powerful psychic attack banished the creature to whence it came.