Dropsite Massacre - John French

[Roomsky]

Look man, you know me. A good story isn't enough, I need execution that I vibe with. Fulgrim is one of my least favourite McNeill books and I think it was a poor choice to be the primary source for the second most important battle of the Heresy. Yes actually, I would like a more complex overview of that battlefield, of Ferrus' decisions, of what Horus was doing. Isstvan V in Fulgrim was just a backdrop for Fulgrim's story, which is fine, character 100% comes first in a narrative, but I wanted more. More in a book I don't find pretty bad overall. More even than the too-many shorts and the excellent scenes in The First Heretic. It's hypocritical of me, because frankly I don't give two :cuss:s about the biggest tank fight ever on Tallarn and would happily argue the POVs in that anthology are all we need for a good story. And yet, here I stand. With the second most important battle in the Heresy only glimpsed in tiny pieces by the Word Bearers on my shelf.

 

The story in Galaxy in Flames was fine. I would like it told by an author who doesn't suck.

 

[wecanhaveallthree]

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Fulgrim is one of my least favourite McNeill books

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More like Snore Travitz, am I right?

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My chief complaint about Galaxy in Flames is that it's not a completely different genre and style of book

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After reading Shadowbreaker, I could probably take Steve Parker in a fight

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I SPIT ON BILLY KING'S GRAVE! *ptoh* GOTREK IS AN ELF-LOVER!

 

What can men do against such reckless hate?!

[DarkChaplain]

I'm still not done, but I love basically everything about the book so far.

 

 

Like, ANGRON trying to go for an "honorable" rebellion while making excuses for the Isstvan III virus bombing betrayal? Trying to argue for choice and freedom over being forced into submission yet again? HORUS actually coming in to beat him in a duel, then refusing to kill him, stating that Angron's war will never end, so long as the Emperor lives? And all that being seen through the eyes of a broken, uncertain Khârn, who feels like some part of him actually died on Isstvan III?

Ferrus being not just called out by Corax and Vulkan, but also showing his very human self-doubt, and even gratitude to his brothers for keeping him straight?

You could argue that, yes, all three Primarchs now are shown to commit to the mistaken strategy that led to the Dropsite Massacre... but it's the how and why that works. Ferrus made the plans, and the others begrudgingly prepared for their executions. But NONE of them felt actually right about it all. They're all struggling with it in their own way. In a sense, the real mistake is inherent in the entire response, from Dorn to Ferrus: They're up against Horus Lupercal. They could easily spiral into questioning their questioning of their questioning. They could run loops around the problem, delay, doubt, let Horus spread his influence as news of his betrayal actually makes its way across the Imperium. Horus's fleet is out-system, and they know it's going to come up against them, so a siege of Isstvan isn't as feasible as it ought to be.

Dorn isn't even considered, despite him sending a Retribution Fleet of his own after the fact... which got stranded and contained at Phall, for almost half a year. Guilliman is at Calth, Sanguinius at Signus, with no chance of them joining before any of this gets out of hand. Russ is at Nikaea, following his father's commands, perverted by Horus's meddling.

 But they've got reinforcements of their own in the presumed-loyal Legions, which could counter-pincer the traitor fleet. Just that they're actually traitors, too.

....and from their exchanges shown, there's little room for doubt based on the words exchanged that these Legions were indeed loyal to the Throne. Lorgar is as passionate about the Emperor as they'd expect. Alpharius actually gives sound advice to Corax, which, if followed and agreed upon from the outset by Ferrus, would've changed the war entirely.

 The traitors on the surface are tearing each other and themselves apart, mentally and physically. They've just committed atrocity at Isstvan III and this quiet time before the loyalist response is making them think. It's making them brood. It's making them question. All while inter-Legion feuds spring up, particularly between the sons of Fulgrim and Angron. They're all still pretending they're virtuous, that they are right, that they are justified in rising up against the Emperor. Horus most of all. But even as they perform their theater, high on their own beliefs, rot creeps in, cracks form, sanity frays, and doubt between the Traitors blossoms. They've already turned traitor once, there is no loyalty to count on for them anymore.

Their biggest threat at this juncture is actually time, not the bolter shells of the Loyalists. But on the other hand, time is also the enemy of the Imperium - the Great Crusade had made great strides, but we know there were countless worlds only barely sticking to compliance, numerous planets waiting for opportunities to rebel against the Emperor. News of Horus, the Emperor's brightest and best, would've emboldened them and given them a catalyst to rise up. Somebody to rally behind. Somebody to even reinforce at Isstvan, if given the chance. At this point, news about the Heresy is still fresh and raw. The Loyalists only had it at all in time to react was because of Garro and the Eisenstein. Letting it fester in public would've been ruinous to these past two centuries of conquest. The necessary thing was to beat it down and erase Horus the Rebel Leader from being a rallying point forever. To make an example of him, to show that rebellion is futile.

 Would a few days' worth of delay have made a difference? Probably not, not really. But weeks, months, of gathering forces, debating, doubting any course of action because they're up against Horus, sitting at Beta-Garmon or wherever, letting the traitor fleets do their thing relatively freely, Isstvan mostly uncontained? Likely ruinous. Besieging the Isstvan system for that long? With how long Astartes can go without breaking? Unlikely to work, might take years to grind them down, especially with how fortified the Traitors already were, making virus bombing Isstvan V as well kind of pointless. At the end of the day, they also needed to see the bodies of the traitor Primarchs to make certain that they'd no longer be a threat.

They were all wary of Horus, the master strategist. It was always unlikely that he didn't have something up his sleeve they didn't see. But that he had turned not just three other Legions, but FOUR additional ones already? One of them being the most obviously pro-Emperor guy in existence? Yikes. This was simply unthinkable - not just because four Legions turning was already such a big deal, but also because it'd have invited endless doubt between the brothers, tearing the Imperium apart from the inside even if they had been victorious. The ramifications of it were just too brutal to contemplate, especially while they were all still in shock, traumatized, grieving.

 The "mistake" was to actually believe that Ferrus might have been the only one who had been approached by the Traitors in recent days, which he considered a stain upon himself. Their mistake was not question whether their brothers were lying about not having been approached. But once that doubt creeps in, there is no longer any trust to be had in the galaxy. So they had to trust in something, and crush that doubt before it could fully bloom. Which, sadly, made Horus's plans succeed.
 

In summary:

The mistake of the Loyalists was to trust each other to still be true to one another.

This allowed the Traitors, who didn't trust each other and could only rely on one another to pursue their own ends within the schism, to put their own doubts and grievances aside while dealing with an immediate, external threat again.

But both were up against a wall, running out of time to keep things together.

We can argue in hindsight about which action would've been the better choice, having all the facts available to us, but in the moment, time was of the essence, and a commitment had to be made to head off other avenues of doubt... which, sadly, gave clarity of purpose to the flagging Traitors again.

Edited 14 hours ago by DarkChaplain

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

Something on the Thramas Crusade to give Night Lords more coverage would be great.

 

Personally I would love something on Inwit and what was happening there. Any excuse to get more Imperial Fists basically. 

 

 

[Malkydel]

Having just finished this I have to say that DarkChaplain has put it probably better than I ever could.

 

This is a book that is, as so much else that French does, a labour of love. It is meticulously planned out and plotted to give us a view of the war that complements and supports both the fragments we've seen in previous fiction and with an eye to the scale and intricacy of the Black Books. There really are so many compelling moving parts, whether they're new bit characters or established already in the telling.

 

It conveys competence and mistakes on both sides, it gives us more hows and whys. It informs and adds, without overwriting. It keys itself in to the crucial moments and it shows us a scale rendition of atrocity. Some of the losses hit deep. The reactions and the visceral fallout of it is, in my opinion, rendered out in beautiful horror and chilling asides.

 

Everyone puts in a spectacular showing and I'm very glad this book exists.

[The Scorpion]

17 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

There are several battles mentioned in passing in both the HH series itself and the FW Black Books that could be expanded on.  Not sure any of them are that pivotal that they would necessarily need this sort of treatment.

One that is HH adjacent, and could do with a book (imho), is the Rangdan Xenocides, especially the Third one.  While they happened at the back end of the Great Crusade, they are close enough to have implications for the approaching HH.  50,000 rumoured casualties for the DA alone would affect the 1st Legion you would think.

Lion Primarch book should've been set in the end of the Xenocides. Sorta like that one short story "First Legion" where the Alpha Legionnaires go urge the Lion to consider the Warmaster position

[Tolmeus]

2 hours ago, Malkydel said:

Having just finished this I have to say that DarkChaplain has put it probably better than I ever could.

 

True words. Also finished it 5min ago.

 

I too share the sentiment that French delivered to us a great work of the Heresy. Maybe a pity that it was just delivered now, but then again maybe that was good timing. Many of us were or are still burned out after the Siege of Terra. But as I have mentioned before, this story had capitvated me like the times I frist read the Heresy novels.

 

Another aspect: As @DarkChaplain already laid out, we only got a fragmented view of the Dropsite Massacre till now. It is fair to say that we can appreciate this work more knowing what gap it filled. Than again, what a hugh service it would have done to the series had it been released as one of its books? 

 

I am thankful for it and would enjoy more works which do a service to the series, both to feed my nostalgia for it and to enjoy new "old" stories that might just lurk there. Kudos Mr French!