Merir Astelan - The Horus Heresy: Note: The following account is based upon the testimony of Merir Astelan given under the ministrations of the Dark Angels' Interrogator-Chaplains after his initial capture as one of the Fallen Angels. As such, the truth of these claims must be considered potentially self-serving or even outright false.By this time, the Dark Angels' Primarch was far away, continuing the Great Crusade, when Astelan and his brothers on Caliban were brought word of terrible news -- Horus, the greatest of the Primarchs, the Emperor's own Warmaster, had turned Traitor. Accounts were fragmentary, and infrequent, but slowly Astelan and his brothers pieced together what had occurred during the opening days of the conflict. They heard the stories of the other Primarchs and their Traitor Legions turning against the Emperor, and against themselves. It became impossible to tell friend from foe. The Dark Angels on Caliban had heard on more than one occasion that the Lion's Dark Angels had turned on the Emperor, or that Lion El'Jonson had been killed. There was talk of the Space Wolves fighting against the Thousand Sons, and of Astartes killing Astartes across the breadth of the galaxy.Astelan claimed that Luther -- a natural great warrior and leader of men -- despondent at this supposed abandonment and believing that the Lion's jealousy had damned him to rot, would have retreated into useless ranting and shouting from his tower without Astelan's guidance and plan to remake the Dark Angels left on Caliban into something purposeful. For, while the newer Calibanite Astartes assigned to remain on the planet took the Primarch as their lord, the bulk of the forces stationed there -- the Terran-born Astartes -- felt abandoned by the Lion and considered therefore that their loyalty was to the Emperor alone. They listened to Luther only out of polite respect for his previous achievements. As a result, when Luther needed to sway the Terran Astartes to his cause, his oratory initially fell on less-than-receptive ears. Astelan claimed that it was his actions that made the difference. As a senior Veteran of the Old Legion, when he stood up next to Luther and offered the Master of Caliban his support, the Terran Astartes followed his lead.Astelan later claimed that he and his fellow Dark Angels wanted to leave Caliban, to go and fight the Traitor forces of Horus, but they could be sure of nothing except of that which was in their own hearts. It was Luther who first spoke of leaving Caliban and joining the fight to defend the Emperor. But Astelan and his Battle-Brothers did not know what their Primarch wanted them to do -- communication with the rest of the I Legion had been cut off in the chaos across the galaxy, and the intent of the Lion was obscured by hundreds of light years and many conflicting rumours. But there were some amongst the number of Dark Angels on Caliban, newly raised Calibanite Battle-Brothers who perhaps slightly lacked the faith and zeal of the Old Legion, who opposed their leaving to aid the Emperor without the permission of their Primarch.Astelan later claimed that these "Lionist" dissenters attacked first, revealing their treacherous intent with the death of hundreds of their fellows. Astelan and the others loyal to the Emperor had prepared everything to leave, and were embarking onto the transports to take them into orbit where the Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers of the Dark Angels Legion assigned to Caliban awaited them. As the ships began to leave, the Traitors struck.Their orbiting warships opened fire on the Loyalists, and the dissenters stormed the planetary defence batteries and opened fire on the Loyalist transports from the surface. Defence Lasers blew the Loyalist transports out of the sky and they rained down in pieces onto the surface. Some of the Loyalist transports tried to continue into orbit, and they were destroyed by the enemy, while others were blasted into shrapnel as they attempted to land. Their strike was short-lived, however, as Astelan and his Space Marines counterattacked in force. The dissenters' ships fled, and those who had taken the planetary defence batteries were driven out or killed.Astelan and his Space Marines of the Old Legion felt that they could not abandon Caliban, for they were afraid of what might happen if they left their adoptive homeworld in the hands of their treacherous former brethren. They could not leave until they were sure that Caliban was safe. They hunted down the dissenters until they were virtually wiped out. After three solar months of fighting, Astelan and his fellow Loyalist Astartes felt that the threat had been nullified. Thinking their foe destroyed, Astelan and his men relaxed their guard as they began to make preparations to leave once more.That was when their former brethren struck. They had hidden themselves away more thoroughly than Astelan and the Loyalist Dark Angels could have ever imagined, in the most inhospitable places on Caliban. Without warning, the dissenters gathered their might and launched an attack on the starport, taking several transports and launching them into orbit. Stunned, Astelan and his men did not react quickly enough and by the time the planetary defence lasers were active, the dissenters were already amongst Astelan's fleet in orbit and the Loyalists on the surface could not target them for fear of hitting their own ships.The Lionist dissenters concentrated their attacks on the largest craft in the fleet, including Astelan's own Battle Barge, the Wrath of Terra. They stormed her, took control, and turned the vessel's immense guns and torpedoes on the rest of the Loyalist Dark Angels fleet in orbit of Caliban. The battle was short-lived, for the Wrath of Terra outclassed any vessel in orbit, and soon Astelan's Chapter fleet was reduced to smoking, drifting ruins.Then the dissenters piloted the Wrath of Terra into Caliban's atmosphere, where the immense flagship burned up and exploded into fiery fragments that rained down upon the surface. Plasma Reactors trailing infernos from the destroyed vessel exploded in the forests of Caliban, leaving craters kilometres across and sending dust and rock into the sky to obscure the sun.Fragments crashed into the world's cities and castles, destroying them, and the largest portion of the great warship plunged into the Southern Ocean, creating a tidal wave that wiped out everything within twenty kilometres of the southern coast. Not only had the Lionist dissenters marooned Astelan and his warriors upon Caliban, they had wrought untold destruction upon the planet that had now become their prison.Caliban had become a ravaged, desolate place as a result of the Wrath of Terra’s fall -- the forests died and the life-giving energies of the sun were blotted out by the clouds of dirt and ash that hung in the air. Astelan and the Space Marines of the Old Legion felt immense shame and guilt as the trees burned around them, and the light of the stars was taken from them.Luther had taken up residence in Angelicasta, the Tower of Angels, the largest citadel on Caliban and the greatest fortress of the Dark Angels. Astelan had taken personal command of the outer defences and the laser batteries from a command centre hundreds of kilometers away. When he received a signal that a new fleet of starships had entered orbit, Astelan thought at first that the Traitor ships had returned -- the ones that his Space Marines had driven off in the first battle against the Lionists.It soon became clear that, in fact, the Dark Angels' Primarch had returned. Luther contacted Astelan directly, seeking his advice. He was troubled because he had intercepted a communication that claimed Lion El'Jonson himself led the approaching starships. Luther did not know what to do, fearing the wrath of the Lion for what had befallen Caliban. Astelan told Luther nothing, and on his own initiative as second-in-command of Caliban's planetary defence forces, gave the grim order using the code word "Starfire" for the batteries to open fire on the approaching Dark Angels starships.Astelan felt there was nothing else that they could do. The Chapter Commander felt that El'Jonson was going to wipe out the Dark Angels remaining on Caliban, for he suspected that the Lionist ships had met the Primarch first, and that their twisted version of events would have damned all those who remained on Caliban. Astelan thought that their Primarch would have them all killed for what had befallen his homeworld. The Chapter Master also feared that their Primarch was no longer loyal to the Emperor. Astelan and the Dark Angels stationed on Caliban had heard little of the exploits of their Legion during the Horus Heresy, and he did not discount the thought that this was due to El'Jonson having sided with Horus.Chapter Master Astelan claimed that he had the forces on Caliban fire upon their brethren because he wanted Lion El'Jonson killed. The loyalty of the Terran-born portion of the I Legion was first and foremost to the Emperor, and their Primarch was a distant second in their affections. Astelan felt that it was his duty to the Emperor to protect the Space Marines under his command -- Space Marines that the Emperor Himself had picked and raised, and who were now possibly threatened by their own Primarch, as had happened to the Astartes of the Traitor Legions on Istvaan III who had remained loyal to the Master of Mankind. It was only later that Astelan realised that he was wrong in believing that Lion El'Jonson had sought a reckoning with him and the Terran Astartes of the Legion. It was Jonson's mentor and friend, Luther, that the Primarch was intent on destroying. It was Luther, Steward of Caliban, his saviour, that El'Jonson had grown to hate, to envy.After coming under fire, El'Jonson immediately ordered a sustained orbital bombardment of what he saw as the Traitor positions on his homeworld and led an attack against Luther's position personally. Meanwhile, the massed guns of the arriving Dark Angels fleet pounded the planet, until the very surface of Caliban began to crack under the strain of the bombardment.As the Lion lay mortally wounded following their battle, Luther realised his own mistake and slumped down next to the fallen Primarch as Caliban was engulfed in a Warp Storm of epic proportions. The immense strain these powerful psychic forces placed upon the planet, in combination with the tectonic shifting and cracking caused by the orbital bombardment, caused the entire planet to heave and twist itself into oblivion. Caliban shattered, breaking apart into countless chunks of rock and dust.