Thramas Crusade - Preparing the Battlefield: Among the many plans set in place by Horus, before even the first virus-bombs fell on the ruined world of Isstvan III, were those intended to see the most potent threats to his supremacy removed from contention. For though the Warmaster would acknowledge no public rival, in private he held several of his primarch brothers as objects of no little discomfort, warriors that he would prefer not to meet on the field of battle. For these paragons amongst the primarchs would not bow to the skill at arms or the might of Horus' armies, but the subtle skills that had earned him his title of Warmaster would see them neutered and rendered powerless before they could even raise their hands against him.There were three among the primarchs that stood as the most dire threats to the Warmaster and his nascent schemes. Lion El'Jonson was a warrior without equal whose loyalty to the Imperium could not be subverted, Sanguinius held the awe and trust of all his brothers which Horus had long envied, and Roboute Guilliman possessed an army and strategic genius that could doom any rebellion if left unchecked. Horus laid plans to remove each of these from his path, the preparations in place long standard years before he would reveal his desire to rule and standing as the signposts to the Horus Heresy visible only to us now through the clarity of hindsight.Once confirmed in his position as Warmaster, the ultimate authority barring only the Emperor Himself over the armies of the Great Crusade, Horus was granted the most effective of tools for dealing with these formidable threats. By official writ and warrant of the Warmaster, the Lion and the great majority of his forces were sent out beyond the borders of the Imperium, there to wage war in the darkness where little news of theImperium could reach. Ever isolated from his peers, Lion El'Jonson made little complaint at such a task, accepting the grim duty as if it was his due and granted Horus the time he would need to set in motion his plans.Sanguinius and his Blood Angels would likewise see orders from their new Warmaster send them to the far corners of the Imperium, not simply led astray but trapped by secrets the Warmaster had long kept in readiness. Here he sought to dispose of the troublesome Angel and suborn his Legion to the service of his rebellion in a space where none could come to their aid. The system of Signus had been crafted into a killing ground by the powers of Chaos in which the Blood Angels would fight and die alone or pledge their very souls to the Warmaster and his allies in the Warp.Guilliman and the serried ranks of his Ultramarines were more troublesome, for they were such a force that they could not be dispatched to chase after some petty threat on the edges of space. Instead, the Warmaster's orders would bring them to a battlefield of Horus' choosing, the industrial stronghold of Calth at the borders of Ultramar itself. There, lured by the promise of glory and put at ease by the seal of the Warmaster, the Ultramarines would fall to treachery and deceit, their numbers decimated by those among the Word Bearers they had thought to be allies.Last of those to be led astray by the Warmaster and his subtle strategies was Jaghatai Khan and his White Scars, though unlike the others Horus would seek not to kill his old friend but rather to keep him isolated at Chondax by his order until he could be convinced of the justice of Horus' cause. It would only be the interference of the Alpha Legion that would set these plans awry and spoil the carefully-set snare that the Khan had been lured into.