Russ is on Terra?

[b1soul]

I've heard disturbing news that Russ is on Terra (playing chess with Malcador or something like that) as per Vengeful Spirit

 

Could someone offer an explanation for this? Is this another retcon to the Horus Heresy? 

[Daemon2027]

He got there, and left again to take the war to the traitors, against the orders/advice of Dorn.

[DarkChaplain]

There's a gap between Scars and Vengeful Spirit. The battle at Alaxxes, Wolves versus Alpha Legion, was left out, but will be shown in a later work by Chris Wraight.

 

Vengeful Spirit didn't say much on the matter, only that the Wolves were supported/saved by the Dark Angels. Mind you, not the fleet bound for Ultramar, but one the Lion dispatched elsewhere. The fleet was featured in a short story printed in The Imperial Truth anthology, but ended without Alaxxes being brought up iirc.

So yes, there's an obvious gap here, waiting to be filled. It was kind of to be expected, considering Scars plays shortly after Isstvan V and Prospero, whereas Vengeful Spirit plays about two years past Isstvan.

 

It would have been preferrable to have the Alaxxes story, as well as the Death Guard novel, released before VS, but I guess it couldn't be helped. Gotta push those Knights.

[Kol Saresk]

So wait, the fleet Corswain was in was the fleet that saved the Wolves at Alaxxes? But that'd mean the Alpha Legion tied them up for about two years or so.

[Reyner]

Dogs can chase their tails for quite a while sometimes...

 

[RapatoR]

He is on Terra and apparently plans to take his legion and attack Horus. By himself. I am not sure I like this:

Dorn: 'You have been badly mauled on Prospero and Alaxxes. Brother, please stay here and help defending Terra.'

Russ: ' Terra, I am taking my wounded legion to a suicidal mission. Because of reasons.'

[Leif Bearclaw]

Have to agree with RapatoR. Admittedly this is bereft of much context, but it sounds really, really derp.

 

This is worrying trend for me as the HH series continues. While some very good stuff has come out of it; Horus Rising, Galaxy in Flames, A Thousand Sons/Prospero Burns (mostly) and Mechanicum, there's also been some abject terrible stuff; Fulgrim and Nemesis. As it goes on, it seems to be messing up more and more. I've heard little good about Fear to Tread, Angel Exterminatus gets a fair bit of flak, Kyme seems to have taken Vulkan completely out of the ongoing story (which is weird, what with his established role during the arguments about splitting the Legions into Chapters), Dorn's almost biploar thanks to multiple authors and no firm character direction, the RG's gene-seed was sabotaged by AL rather than they accidentally/accepted degraded it in desperation to rebuild their strength. And now giving Russ a terminal case of the stupid, especially irritating in comparison to the old fluff, where he is really dispondnet about his failure to reach Terra in time. What purpose does this serve in the story, other than making Russ look like an idiot for the sake of it?

[daveNYC]

Don't talk about Vulkan Lives, that book never happened.

[Night Runner]

Don't talk about Vulkan Lives, that book never happened.

Yeah it was a very poor read! It was exasperating in some parts to be truthful.  I was going to give the Salamander triology a try, but after reading this, I don't want to invest the time in this author.  To be honest, it did have some redeeming parts, but these were few ad too far between to change my opinion.

[Night Runner]

Have to agree with RapatoR. Admittedly this is bereft of much context, but it sounds really, really derp.

 

This is worrying trend for me as the HH series continues. While some very good stuff has come out of it; Horus Rising, Galaxy in Flames, A Thousand Sons/Prospero Burns (mostly) and Mechanicum, there's also been some abject terrible stuff; Fulgrim and Nemesis. As it goes on, it seems to be messing up more and more. I've heard little good about Fear to Tread, Angel Exterminatus gets a fair bit of flak, Kyme seems to have taken Vulkan completely out of the ongoing story (which is weird, what with his established role during the arguments about splitting the Legions into Chapters), Dorn's almost biploar thanks to multiple authors and no firm character direction, the RG's gene-seed was sabotaged by AL rather than they accidentally/accepted degraded it in desperation to rebuild their strength. And now giving Russ a terminal case of the stupid, especially irritating in comparison to the old fluff, where he is really dispondnet about his failure to reach Terra in time. What purpose does this serve in the story, other than making Russ look like an idiot for the sake of it?

I have to respectfully disagree with your point on the Space Wolves.  I don't see how this makes Russ look stupid?  I would say it is a fatal error on Russ' part, and one he comes to regret with foresight. This just makes it more interesting imo, and shakes up the dynamic of a story we all know about, adding new info and plot possibilities - for example the mention of the Lion helping out the SW against the AL.  Why not!

[daveNYC]

Deciding to take the Wolves off Terra (which is where they know Horus is heading towards) to try and strike at Horus is pretty stupid.  They took heavy losses at Prospero, and unlike the Raven Guard, they're not experts at covert operations.

 

Now if he actually has a specific strategic target that he thinks will help the war effort, great, but heading out to try and take on Horus head-on post-Istvaan V is just throwing men away.

[Kol Saresk]

He thinks he's the Executioner, the Oncoming Storm, the Emperor's Blade and all that garbage. As far as they're concerned, they can go for Horus' neck and win.

[Wade Garrett]

"When they have you surrounded, there's no way they can run away!"

 

-inscription in Fenrisian runes, found on a discarded scrap of paper in Guilliman's "Proffered Contributions To The Codex Astartes" file.

[Lucien Eilam]

We know he fails, but that doesn't make it a stupid decision. The only thing he's ever met that he couldn't kill was the Emperor. He's not sure if he can take Horus down, but he thinks it's worth the gamble for a chance to end the war in a single blow.

 

The Space Wolves aren't exactly well-suited to waiting behind fortress walls for an attack to happen anyway. Even if he didn't go for Horus, he wouldn't have done what Dorn wanted.

 

If Horus hadn't just levelled up, it might even have worked.

[Sanct]

He got there, and left again to take the war to the traitors, against the orders/advice of Dorn.

 

you mean like Corax did even after the geneseed issues?

 

TBH HH:extermination does say that the Heresy was supposed to take months but because of setbacks ended taking years so giving all the initiative to Horus by castling up on Terra, for nobody knew how long, is strategically silly.  

 

 

Dogs can chase their tails for quite a while sometimes...

 

Only dogs I know of are the War Hounds and they prefer to chase anything that runs.

Before getting abused by their master and chasing things that run, walk, stand still, dig, crawl, lie down etc etc

[daveNYC]

 

He got there, and left again to take the war to the traitors, against the orders/advice of Dorn.

 

you mean like Corax did even after the geneseed issues?

 

Corax actually did have a good argument though.  His legion did specialize in behind enemy lines covert actions.  Given the 5000 or so of them that were alive after Deliverance Lost, sending them out to disrupt supply lines and other things to slow Horus' approach to Terra wasn't a horrible decision.

 

Unless we get more info, what we have here is Russ taking the surviving Space Wolves (totally guestimating them to be somewhere around 50k at best in size) to take on all of Team Horus.  So unless Russ managed to wrangle up some serious naval support, some Imperial Army units, and maybe a Titan or two, he's getting in way over his head.

[Wade Garrett]

The Space Wolves aren't exactly well-suited to waiting behind fortress walls for an attack to happen anyway. Even if he didn't go for Horus, he wouldn't have done what Dorn wanted.

 

If Horus hadn't just levelled up, it might even have worked.

A. The White Scars gave a fairly good accounting of themselves at Terra. The Wolves are less suited to defense than biker Mongols who emphasize mobility and fluidity above all? Of course, Khan has never given himself a fancy title and thought it was his appointed place to dictate to his brothers. Which is probably why he worked with Dorn instead of going off on some fool crusade.

 

B. Whether or not Russ can punch Horus's face off one on one has no bearing on the wisdom of him throwing his Legion at another Legion that outnumbered them even before they were ground up by Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion, and has the Death Guard backing them up.

 

One would think Russ would grasp this better than most, with his trying to teach the selfsame lesson to Angron on Ghenna, but then, Angron never took it into his head that he was THE UNSTOPPABLE EXECUTIONER either.

[Stonerhino]

In the exchange between the Emperor and Malcador.  The Emperor sounds like he supports the idea of Russ going after Horus.  Malcador, even appears to think it could work.  He would raher the Wolves stay on Terra but is still giving Russ the best chance he can of actually defeating Horus.

[Kol Saresk]

Corax was supposed to go to Terra, leave and rebuild his Legion. So far, the pnly discrepancy is that instead of badass mutant-clones, we get mutants.

 

Russ was supposed to get stuck in the Eastern Fringe, join up with the Lion and then try to make it to Terra and fail and become guilt-ridden over it. Not go to Terra when the Heresy is halfway over and then leave evause he was bored and then feel guilt-ridden that he couldn't make it back time while completely ignoring the fact THAT HE WAS THERE AND HE CHOSE TO LEAVE.

 

Its like in an effort to tone down the VI Legion to equalize its standing with the others, there is an effort to make Russ look mentally incompetent.

[Stonerhino]

Ever consider that he gets stuck in the Eastern Fringes because he was following Loken's "Hunter's trail".  That really was just a wild goose chase. 

[Kol Saresk]

Actually Alaxxes was suppose to waylay him until he joined with the Lion and then Russ would make the humanitarian decision to save as many worlds as possible between where started and Terra and his only regret was that he didn't do it all faster. Which honestly puts him in a better light than him trying to imitate Horus with a speartip maneuver, failing an then going "Somehow I didn't make it back to Terra even though Horus was able to go right around me."

[Lucien Eilam]

A. The White Scars gave a fairly good accounting of themselves at Terra. The Wolves are less suited to defense than biker Mongols who emphasize mobility and fluidity above all? Of course, Khan has never given himself a fancy title and thought it was his appointed place to dictate to his brothers. Which is probably why he worked with Dorn instead of going off on some fool crusade.

 

The White Scars aren't at Terra yet. We're still years from the Battle of Terra. If the Khan was in Russ's position at this point in the story, would he be content to sit around waiting for Horus to show up? Doubt it.

 

B. Whether or not Russ can punch Horus's face off one on one has no bearing on the wisdom of him throwing his Legion at another Legion that outnumbered them even before they were ground up by Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion, and has the Death Guard backing them up.

 

There's nothing in Vengeful Spirit to suggest he intends to "throw" his Legion at anyone. Maybe his plan is a little more subtle than that?

 

 

Ah, Loken, you’ve a lot to learn about how clever the Rout really are.

[Kol Saresk]

 

 

A. The White Scars gave a fairly good accounting of themselves at Terra. The Wolves are less suited to defense than biker Mongols who emphasize mobility and fluidity above all? Of course, Khan has never given himself a fancy title and thought it was his appointed place to dictate to his brothers. Which is probably why he worked with Dorn instead of going off on some fool crusade.

The White Scars aren't at Terra yet. We're still years from the Battle of Terra. If the Khan was in Russ's position at this point in the story, would he be content to sit around waiting for Horus to show up? Doubt it.

But that's the difference so far. The White Scars sent the message "Call when the storm reaches Terra, and we will answer." And then they go off to fight the war in the meantime.

 

From what I've read and heard so far, Russ' thinking seems to be "We have to fight this war. I'm going to Terra. I'm at Terra. I have to fight this war. So I'm going to leave after wasting all this time to stand on the sidelines. Because reasons that will be published later on that hopefully help this make sense. So pray neither Thorpe, McNeill nor Kyme write these reasons."

[Wade Garrett]

There's nothing in Vengeful Spirit to suggest he intends to "throw" his Legion at anyone. Maybe his plan is a little more subtle than that?

 

Given the "subtlety" we've seen on display the only other times Russ has engaged other Primarchs (Night of the Wolf and Prospero) I feel it is not unreasonable to assume that his plan for dealing with Horus has more in common with "LEMAN SMASH!" than "What we do is, when our fleet enters the system, we hail the Vengeful Spirit, and I tell him I'm Alpharius disguised as Leman Russ, because reasons. Then when he drops his guard..."

[Vesper]

The SW are likely at the point where they're about meet the Alpha Legion (and maybe some Sons of Horus along with Abaddon) at Yarant.