The Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned

[DarkChaplain]

Looking at Warzone Fenris, it seems like he actually had the right idea about the powers of Fenris vs Maleficarum. Either way, he also acknowledges his hypocrisy after the Siege.

Edited November 4, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[Marshal Rohr]

Ferrus being the one told would make a lot of sense:

 

-Medusa borders the EoT

-He was a premier Primarch in command of a third of the Great Crusade

-Not much of a talker, probably good at keeping a secret

-Wouldn’t have been too shocked by it, given his first life experience was fighting a liquid metal dragon

-Him being dead would cover the ‘why didn’t the Primarch warn anyone’ question before it’s asked.

[Fedor]

The Lion also didn't have a clue what was going on at the end of Descent of Angels when that masked society (Saroshi?)  manifest a mighty daemonic abomination.

 

With Russ you would think he would have brought up the knowledge at some point after Prospero, either in defence of his actions there or especially during attack on Horus.

 

With Ferrus it sits awkwardly with the scene where Fulgrim tries to get him to rebel and his subsequent shocked rage at it. If he knew there was such a powerful corrupting force out there that the Emperor was actively working against in the way he was, then i have to think that confrontation and subsequent actions would go a bit different. It doesn't fit well with the dialogue he has with Fulgrim before their Dropsite fight either as by that time the EC had a good number of visible Slaanesh corruption signs and he'd just carved his way through a lot of them.

 

Not too sure about Vulkan. I'd go with Alpharius and Omegon as the best choice, at least in terms of it not sitting too awkwardly with what we already have in the series.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Fedor

[Lord_Caerolion]

The Primarch being Alpharius also meshes with the theory that the Alpha Legion Primarch never fully left Terra during the scattering. 

[Tymell]

Going through this thread (the first half anyway, I dropped off when it seemed to be descending into yet another primarch power level debate :p ) really reminds me how much I still detest the whole "LE months before regular format" system.

 

Anywho, I got through this one over the last week or so, and I suspect I'll end up echoing general sentiment on it. In short, it was decent, but not great.

 

The writing is solid, as it usually is with Haley, and there are plenty of individual parts, scenes, characters and choices that I really enjoyed. Sanguinius manages to be melancholic without being mopey, I love Jaghatai's honest passion, Raldoron finally gets some good bits, and Angron is as monstrous as he should be (I particularly liked the scene of Khârn tracking him down). Most of all, I really like that we're getting plenty of POV from non-astartes/primarchs. The aeronautica pilots, Katsuhiro and the conscripts, and the lost and the damned themselves. The scenes with the conscripts in particular carried a nice WWI trench warfare vibe, yet it's all topped with the insanity the setting is known for, like Layak delivering a sermon atop a platform of bones, or hundreds-of-metres-tall siege towers. And this is all before the daemons really get involved properly!

 

So yeah, I like most of the parts that make this book up, my issue is more how they're put together. The narrative, to me, feels choppy, like it jumps from place to place or person to person without ever really focusing on them. I get that this is the Siege of Terra and there's always going to be a huge cast of characters involved, but by comparison, The Solar War felt much more focused. It had a lot going on, but everything felt anchored to Abaddon and his mission, Sigismund and his defences, or Oliton/Loken and their own mission in the middle of it all. It felt like a book about their journeys and characters.

 

Here, when I ask myself who the main characters are...it's kind of everyone and no one. Katsuhiro is probably the closest we have, but even then there's plenty of the book that doesn't involve him (I did a very basic page-count of my e-book version, and he appears in around 20% of the book). The rest is divided between Sanguinius, Raldoron, Skraivok, Angron, Khârn, Horus, Abaddon, Layak, Dorn, Jaghatai Khan, Ashul & Myzmadra, Kane, the Dark Mechanicum, the Death Guard, Azmedi, Hanis oFar, Perturabo, Aisha Daveinpor, Thuria Amund...some of them get a single appearance, some a few chapters dedicated to them.

 

It's a lot, and it made it hard to get properly invested in them, and hard to see much in the way of progression or arcs. They appear, they do their thing, and it's well-written, but then we move right on to the next person. I feel like I'd get more into it if it had a proper core of characters to anchor the story around, and got to show their development over that story.

 

All of which probably sounds more critical than I mean it to be. I liked this book. I kept reading, and there's very little I didn't enjoy. It's just tricky to properly explain what I didn't like. Oh and before I move off completely from the negative: yes, this book really should've been better checked/edited. I saw someone posted a twitter response about Dorn's apparent surprise at Vulkan's survival, but I can't say I'm convinced. It's the sort of thing that's very easy to write retroactively, and reading that scene, I don't see any indication that Dorn is acting (nor any real reason for him to do so). I know, writing doesn't have to spell everything out, it can be subtle, but when I see things like:

 

The shock visible on Sanguinius, Dorn and the Khan's faces gratified the Sigillite

 

That doesn't say, to me, that Dorn is playing along. I picked up on both that and the Thramas Crusade error on my first read-through, so I don't think it's asking a lot for such things to be picked up by paid professionals.

 

Anyway, I did still enjoy The Lost and the Damned overall. These continuity issues aren't book-ruining key plot points, and I still enjoyed the bits that made up the story, even if I felt the way they were put together wasn't especially satisfying.

 

7/10

[Indefragable]

Just started (finally) listening to the audiobook, but just saw @Tymell mention that Death Guard make an appearance...

 

...if given the option, should one read The Buried Dagger before Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned? (Thank Humble Bundle for the audiobook version of TBD!)

 

 

Also, in Chapter 1 Dorn thinks about Alpharius with the following thought:

 

 

paraphrasing the book, Dorn realizes that that when he confronted Alpharius 1:1 at Pluto, Alpharius perhaps was attempting to express regret or contrition about which side of the conflict he chose, but Dorn is to kill-mode to notice at the time.

 

 

...does anyone have that part of Praetorian of Dorn perchance?

Edited November 9, 2019 by Indefragable

[StrangerOrders]

Just started (finally) listening to the audiobook, but just saw @Tymell mention that Death Guard make an appearance...

 

...if given the option, should one read The Buried Dagger before Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned? (Thank Humble Bundle for the audiobook version of TBD!)

 

 

Also, in Chapter 1 Dorn thinks about Alpharius with the following thought:

 

 

paraphrasing the book, Dorn realizes that that when he confronted Alpharius 1:1 at Pluto, Alpharius perhaps was attempting to express regret or contrition about which side of the conflict he chose, but Dorn is to kill-mode to notice at the time.

 

 

...does anyone have that part of Praetorian of Dorn perchance?

Need to pull it but iirc, Alpharius sort of says that he laid siege to the sol system to prove that Dorn is too close-minded and didn't appreciate that Alpharius was trying to prove his utility.

 

Now, I do not mean to say that Dorn was right.... but killing half a fleet, millions across the system and leveling several moons might be a bit far to go to prove a point.

 

Granted, Alpharius is weirdly both the most subtle and by far the most melodramatic Primarch. His way of saying that he is in your corner being crippling your defenses, nearly killing you and giving your defense plans to your enemy does add up.

[JH79]

A big hats off to everyone who made it through this book. Despite my best efforts this now joins Titan Death as the only other Heresy novel I've not finished 

[bluntblade]

 

 

Just started (finally) listening to the audiobook, but just saw @Tymell mention that Death Guard make an appearance...

 

...if given the option, should one read The Buried Dagger before Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned? (Thank Humble Bundle for the audiobook version of TBD!)

 

 

Also, in Chapter 1 Dorn thinks about Alpharius with the following thought:

 

 

paraphrasing the book, Dorn realizes that that when he confronted Alpharius 1:1 at Pluto, Alpharius perhaps was attempting to express regret or contrition about which side of the conflict he chose, but Dorn is to kill-mode to notice at the time.

 

 

...does anyone have that part of Praetorian of Dorn perchance?

Need to pull it but iirc, Alpharius sort of says that he laid siege to the sol system to prove that Dorn is too close-minded and didn't appreciate that Alpharius was trying to prove his utility.

 

Now, I do not mean to say that Dorn was right.... but killing half a fleet, millions across the system and leveling several moons might be a bit far to go to prove a point.

 

Granted, Alpharius is weirdly both the most subtle and by far the most melodramatic Primarch. His way of saying that he is in your corner being crippling your defenses, nearly killing you and giving your defense plans to your enemy does add up.

Dorn did also find him mid-murder of someone he cared about, so yeah, Alpharius went a little OTT.

[Tymell]

Just started (finally) listening to the audiobook, but just saw @Tymell mention that Death Guard make an appearance...

 

...if given the option, should one read The Buried Dagger before Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned? (Thank Humble Bundle for the audiobook version of TBD!)

 

I'd say it's not really essential if you already know the basic outcome (i.e. that Mortarion and the Death Guard arrive late to Terra and now corrupted by Nurgle). The legion plays a reasonably significant role in these early engagements since they're the first traitor legion to make planetfall, and take part in the initial siege assault on the fortifications, but in terms of the narrative they're enemies rather than POV characters, with nothing reflecting specifically on Buried Dagger beyond them now being corrupted and Nurgle-y.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Tymell

[Beren]

 

 

Just started (finally) listening to the audiobook, but just saw @Tymell mention that Death Guard make an appearance...

 

...if given the option, should one read The Buried Dagger before Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned? (Thank Humble Bundle for the audiobook version of TBD!)

 

 

Also, in Chapter 1 Dorn thinks about Alpharius with the following thought:

 

 

paraphrasing the book, Dorn realizes that that when he confronted Alpharius 1:1 at Pluto, Alpharius perhaps was attempting to express regret or contrition about which side of the conflict he chose, but Dorn is to kill-mode to notice at the time.

 

 

...does anyone have that part of Praetorian of Dorn perchance?

Need to pull it but iirc, Alpharius sort of says that he laid siege to the sol system to prove that Dorn is too close-minded and didn't appreciate that Alpharius was trying to prove his utility.

 

Now, I do not mean to say that Dorn was right.... but killing half a fleet, millions across the system and leveling several moons might be a bit far to go to prove a point.

 

Granted, Alpharius is weirdly both the most subtle and by far the most melodramatic Primarch. His way of saying that he is in your corner being crippling your defenses, nearly killing you and giving your defense plans to your enemy does add up.

Dorn did also find him mid-murder of someone he cared about, so yeah, Alpharius went a little OTT.

 

 

That's pretty much how the Alpha Legion roll though. One of their exemplary battles in Extermination shows them conducting a battle in a way that was deliberately designed to be as intricate and convoluted as they were effective, as does that earlier scene in Praetorian of Dorn where he lectures Alpharius on how his tactics could have worked better. Half their battles are not only about winning, but winning in such a manner that shows how much more cunning and sophisticated the Legion is compared to everyone else regardless of the material cost.

[SkimaskMohawk]

The superiority complex is definitely part of the alpha legion; they need everyone else to know just how clever and effective they are.

 

But the end scene of praetorian of dorn is a little more than that. Yes, it could be one convoluted attempt to show dorn his weaknesses; alpharius could be thinking he was doing a big solid. Or, he could actually be attacking the solar defenses and be trying to distract dorn with his monologue for his finishing blow. He talks a lot about true victory, but we never actually know what alpharius' criteria is. It's not like he's creating a standoff to talk to dorn in the chamber, instead, he's actively killing all the fists and fighting dorn

[Fedor]

I took Alpharius monologue as being him trolling Dorn about how clueless he was to the greater issues at stake that the AL knew about....the cabal aquity on how best to defeat Chaos etc Remember it was Omegon that we saw really turn away from the Cabal by this, not Alpharius. as far as we know he's still going along with their plan to be on the traitors side for the sake of a quick chaos burnout.

 

He was definitely trying kill Dorn, not show him weaknesses in the defences because he was really on their side.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Fedor

[Indefragable]

Finished the audiobook version of this.

 

Overall I liked it. In a trend that should no longer surprise me for Guy Haley works, the parts I was somewhat least interested in actually became some of my favorite parts. In this case, it was the conscripts...

 

 

...I actually really liked how Katsumoto (sp?)'s arc, going from passing out even thinking of battle to being recognized as a hero of the Imperium of sorts by the Astartes. That's the kind of I love about the setting. I was actually thinking that throughout the course of the story how the meme about Imperial Guard needing wheelbarrows to cart their of steel around is proven in spades by Katsumoto's storyline:

 

"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyways."

-John Wayne

 

One of my favorite quotes, and I loved how the Imperial Fists Capt Thane recognizes just how freakin' brave the Conscripts are who did their job. They were barely trained at all yet for months kept going back to face the absolute worst the galaxy could throw at them. That's some cahones.

 

I also thought the scene with the Imperial Senatoris was well done. One could cynically look at it as an "as you know..." excuse to tell the reader things that characters in the setting already know, but I didn't get that from the scene. It felt grounded and realistic to me and in fact a sign of how the Loyalists are keeping their heads on straight by informing folks who--without something to do--could actively find somewhere less constructive to apply their talents. Speaking of doing something...the Khan was great even though he didn't get too much screen time.

"Even if the Emperor was here and told me himself not to go...I would not listen." <shiver>

. I think the Khan has been the single most redeeming part of the entire HH series for reasons like that.

 

I liked that we got a sense of the "chessboard" that Horus sees, with how they are going to take the palace explained; how there are layers of defenses and each one needs to be tackled a certain way and each part of Horus' forces has a part to play.

 

I can see why some people gripe about the Traitor Primarchs coming off as a bit weak. There wasn't anything special about them, although I thought Perturabo came off competent compared to the rest...nothing in particular, but he didn't seem terrible to me. I do also like how it is reinforced that only Horus can keep them all focused and on the same page. His 1:1 conversation with Perty gave us a glimpse of why he was the first among Primarchs: that sort of smoothtalking is almost as good as Sanguinius charming the Khan in the latter's Primarchs novel.

 

I wish there was a bit more juxtaposition to how both sides are trying to keep their plans and forces together. An interesting comparison between

both Angron and the Khan not being able to be kept on a leash

.

 

I've never hidden my Blood Angels fanboyism and I have to say their portrayal in this was good. I have my own nitpickings and gripes, but honestly, I'll take what was given and leave it at that. So glad that Raldoron got a moment in the sun...when even a daemon is like "you thought you could take him?" you know a character is finally getting their due.

 

...I've heard gripes that the Night Lords were made to look like morons, but did anyone actually like

Skraviok (sp?)

? Or can it just be chalked up to the heel getting his just desserts?

 

Sanguinius did get some good moments overall though I have my gripes (see below). I thought it did a great job showing the "+1Ld" buff aura aspect of Primarchs even more than them wrecking face (though there was some of that).

 

If there's one thing that is really grating my nerves, though, it's the overarching-multi-novel-decision to make Sanguinius not only "know" that he is going to die facing Horus, but basically use that to justify every single action he takes. "Should I have chicken or fish for dinner? Well, I'm not going to die until I face Horus so I might as well have a steak extra rare!" There are some interesting moments for Sang, but--for me--they are a bit cheapened by his whole "I do not die today" shtick. In Titandeath, the "I do not die today" mantra was pretty cool because it seemed more of a way of him psyching himself up for Moments of Awesome^TM ...kind of like how in the movie The 13th Warrior

Hidden Content

Ibn Fadn repeatedly says "it's only a man" to himself when he has to kill the scary bad bear people things...it's a way of reminding himself that he can do this and it's a bit of a courage pill for himself to do Moments of Awesome.

However, as this series goes on, it seems to remove agency from him. It removes some of the weight from his actions and--to me--reduces what could be Moments of Awesome^TM to Moments of Meh-Ok. Take his

confrontation with Angron

¹ and his decision to

disobey Dorn's explicit instructions for him not to expose himself beyond the walls

... in my humble opinion, both of those would have been way cooler if he just did them out of ballsiness rather than this mental emo armor about not having to worry about dying. 

 

Likewise, I'm torn on how they want to portray Horus. Struggling to find the right words for what I mean, but I will say more once I've figured out what I'm trying to say.

 

I also agree with others' gripes about the destiny angle being rammed home a bit much:

"say, Abaddon....your future is pretty bright, eh? <wink wink nudge nudge poke poke>" and the fact that "the only way to defeat the Emperor is a one-on-one confrontation

. I guess I would just prefer to see some of those aspects develop organically throughout the course of the 8-novel narrative rather than have them be so blatantly stated, but it is what it is at this point. More thoughts below².

 

Ok, so that was mostly gripes and nitpicks above, but don't that's more because I liked it enough to find a few personal gripes with it more than anything else.

 

Solid entry into the series, though I am sure it will neither be the best nor worst of the bunch. Overall GOOD.

 

¹ by the way, I sure hope that wasn't supposed to be the epic stare down between the two that has been in lore for a bajillion years

 

²

Hidden Content

It makes sense on a lot of levels that Horus has to slay the Emperor himself...I just don't like how Zardu-annoying-as-all- - Layak is the one who all-knowingly says this. I, personally, would have preferred if this was something that Horus knew and was keeping to himself, with all the others unsure of just why Horus' strategy is what it is....and then its this reason why Horus decides to take the gambit of dropping the shields in the end to force that mano-e-mano showdown.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Indefragable

[SkimaskMohawk]

In terms of the traitor primarchs, I'd agree that perturabo comes across as competent and that horus wrangling them shows his diplomatic prowess. But the dialogue was so stilted and perturabo was so...not how he was in Solar War and Slaves.

[DarkChaplain]

In Solar War and Slaves to Darkness, he was being put in charge of things. His outbursts in Lost and the Damned had him relegated to doing the gruntwork while Horus was acting as the mastermind behind the Siege that Perturabo was put in charge of, and it appeared like Horus was going back on his word of letting Pert be the one to break the walls and Dorn.

 

At the end of Slaves to Darkness, Perturabo finally felt like he had been acknowledged and praised the way he deserved, being named marshal and all that, and entrusted to bring Angron to heel. In Solar War, he got to orchestrate the assault while Horus hadn't even entered the stage yet, actually acting in capacity of general leader of the traitor forces and making his plans work.

In The Lost and the Damned, he still has the plans and solutions to most issues, but increasingly control is slipping from him in favor of Horus' gambits, Angron's madness, Layak's rituals etc.

 

Perturabo, at his core, needs to prove himself superior to Dorn, and show to the Emperor that his potential had been squandered. His martyr complex won't let him settle for less than his sworn rival admitting defeat in the face of Perturabo's tactics. This also gets reinforced in The Last Wall. For Perturabo, not being the one to break Terra, not being the one to make Dorn concede, not being the mind to plan the downfall of the walls, it all goes against his very nature and ambition. He needs this triumph, to prove not only to them, but also himself, that he was right in acting like he did, that he was really getting shafted by the Emperor and his brothers, that the slights were real and not imagined. For anyone, even Horus, to take that from him will make him flip.

 

Perturabo needs to be vindicated in his martyr complex. To be disregarded and relegated to menial tasks by Horus now, after all he did, would just mirror what he was like under the Emperor. He's already aware that he traded one master for another, as per Slaves to Darkness, and that he's screwed either way, but he cannot have anyone making him feel like he was wrong in his own stubborn martyr complex, or that he won't be able to prove himself right.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thats one way of looking at it.

 

His plotline in slaves to darkness starts with gruelling, under-supplied defensive actions in a parallel to how they were used in the crusade. Volk and presumably other iron warriors comment on this fact; there's no scene of perturabo crying about how horus promised things would be different. Next, argonis comes and tells him to abandon that work and sacrifice and to hunt down angron, simply because "he knew they would obey". It's not an honour; it's not strategically sound, but he still doesn't throw a fit about being used when argonis tells him this.

 

He also never wants to become a god...

[b1soul]

Perturabo was about to lose to Pollux in the void. The guy has an inflated view of his tactical prowess.

[Roomsky]

My descent into a jaded fan continues and I'm retroactively docking this book a point for so hideously stripping down the characters in the previous entry. For all his success in The Primarchs, I think Haley might be worse at this than Mcneill, his characters are just so flat and cartoonish compared to French's versions of them. Both this and, from what I've read so far, The First Wall, opt to jettison the entire character arc Perty received from French in favour of making him the petulant masochist he began the series as. Don't even get me started on Layak.

 

Indefragable, while I always think you go far to easy on Haley, I appreciate your lengthy reviews and always find them a joy to read. Keep up the good work!

[Indefragable]

...but Horus basically tells Perturabo that he is the most competent of his brothers and he is being held back precisely because of how useful he is...let the others get themselves shot up rushing the walls while Dorn has plenty of ammo left. That’s what I took away from it, anyways. Whether Horus really means that or is just stro—ahem....calming...his brother is a different matter, but it seemed sincere (at least Keeble’s narration makes it sincere). Perturabo seems a bit whiny, but this is about as egotistical of a moment as you can get and it makes sense that it is a competition among traitors to see who can do what first. You can imagine the superlatives given out by Master of Accolades: First Boots on the Ground, Highest Kill Count With Melee Weapon, First to Take a Piss On The Wall (North side), Most Statuary Desecrated, Longest Drop from Orbit (non-Possessed class), etc... Throw in the group think such competition creates and I can easily see any humans getting carried away. Magnified to Primarch proportions...

 

...speaking of which, it flat out says that Pert thinks he’s the smartest person in the room. In every room. So again, it does not seem unreasonable that he would make his case for what he wants. Was his dialogue Shakespearean in it’s eloquence? Not exactly, but I didn’t think it was an anchor the dragged the whole boat to the ocean floor either. And this is from a guy who owns a FW Perturabo model. 
 

@Roomsky Thanks Frater. I don’t consider a book truly finished until I’ve read the Roomsky Report, so never stop your own efforts either. As for Haley...he has been impressing me more and more lately so I have to give credit where it’s due, IMO, and to be completely honest, I’ve gotten sick and tired of all the author bashing on this forum. We all have our loves and hates, but sometimes it gets a bit much for me...let’s keep it positive, you know? Anyways enough mushy ...get off your duff and review The First Wall already, wouldja?
 

 

Edit: autocorrect....blessing or curse?

Edited December 1, 2019 by Indefragable

[Roomsky]

Yeet

 

I appreciate it, Frater. TBH people shouldn't take my cynicism or author-bashing too seriously, most of them have redeeming qualities that are hard to write at length about like problems are. For instance, I think Haley's books are paced very well, which is a huge positive but beyond mentioning it there's not a ton to write. I just find his mainline-heresy primarch writing very frustrating, especially when his Dark Imperium and Primarchs entries demonstrate he can do far better.

 

Oddly enough, I almost would have liked a Katsuhiro novel / novella with the only primarch appearance being Sanguinius' inspirational cameo. The poor man had some very effective scenes.

[BrainFireBob]

i don't get the complaint dude. There's how many more novels on the siege yet to come?

 

But you complain we have a novel that focuses on humans? in a war where literally untold billions of aforementioned humans die...

 

we have enough space marine battles bolter porn.....is it really so bad that humans get a story for once

The Heresy is an Astartes story, first and foremost. So yes

[BrainFireBob]

Torn on this one. I was really hoping to not equate Terra with the palace- more a Battle of Alesia situation. The palace besieged under Dorn's overall command with Sanguinius being at the front, the besiegers in turn besieged by the hordes of Terra. It would have given a reason to unleash the IIIrd, and a reason for the Khan to run around outside the walls to counter. With Fists defending key gun emplacements and shield generators everywhere, it would have been a layered battle.

[Scribe]

 

i don't get the complaint dude. There's how many more novels on the siege yet to come?

 

But you complain we have a novel that focuses on humans? in a war where literally untold billions of aforementioned humans die...

 

we have enough space marine battles bolter porn.....is it really so bad that humans get a story for once

The Heresy is an Astartes story, first and foremost. So yes

 

 

I'd disagree with that.

 

It would be the Emperor's story, if you want to really boil it down. If you dont, it is the story of Humanity. Space Marines have never been the important part of the lore.

[Dagoth Ur]

 

 

 

I'd disagree with that.

 

It would be the Emperor's story, if you want to really boil it down. If you dont, it is the story of Humanity. Space Marines have never been the important part of the lore.

 

 

The Horus Heresy is literally the story of Horus' rebellion; the rebellion that saw half the primarchs and legions take up arms against the Emperor and the Imperium. How is the Horus Heresy not primarily a story and setting revolving around Space Marines when they are our primary viewpoint and focus of the story? While I welcome more human viewpoints (Legion being one of my favorite novels for that reason alone), to say that the Horus Heresy is not primarily about the tantrums and battles fought between Space Marines is factually incorrect when viewed in the light of the novel series and the black book series. Having a human viewpoint doesnt mean it aint about space marines - it just means that we are viewing a story with strong space marine focus through the eyes of a baseline human and see the repercussions of the main conflict on their own diegetic self.