Luna Wolf: A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance (The Moon Alpha Series)

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The Mournival was the advisory war council of four Space Marine Captains of the Luna Wolves Space Marine Legion that served their Primarch and Warmaster Horus as advisers and close companions throughout the Great Crusade until the start of the Horus Heresy. The Luna Wolves' approach to the Great Crusade was direct and brutal, and their results were often inelegant if unmistakably effective. Though it proved bloody, the XVI th Legion's progress was undoubtedly swift and laurels of victory were heaped upon the Luna Wolves and above all upon their primarch Horus, the most beloved son of the Emperor. It was a traumatic and devastating blow for the Sons of Horus. Leaderless, the remnants of the XVI th Legion fled into the Eye of Terror, where the Legion's First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon eventually rose to claim the mantle of Warmaster of the Forces of Chaos and become Horus' heir as the greatest of the Champions of Chaos. The XVI th Legion was originally known as the Luna Wolves during the Great Crusade. In honour of Horus' great achievements during the latter years of that era after the Imperial victory over the Orks during the Ullanor Crusade, the Emperor suggested that the Legion be renamed the " Sons of Horus" to honour his most beloved son's accomplishments. Loken next journeyed into Terra's ruins to find Euphratii Keeler, who had gone missing. He discovered her leading fanatical militias in a hopeless religious war against traitor forces. Loken initially opposed this helpless struggle, but was convinced by Keeler to allow her to continue her work. Loken agreed to stay with Keeler and make her see her senses before it's too late. [13] However, due to the chronological and spacial chaos that began to erupt on Terra in the final stages of the Siege, the two soon themselves moving to areas far apart from each other in short spans of time. [14a]

In the aftermath of this Ullanor Crusade, Horus was granted the newly-created title of " Warmaster," the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. Before returning to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of his stellar empire, the Emperor suggested to Horus that he rename the XVI th Legion the "Sons of Horus," in honour of their primarch and to show his preeminent place amongst the other primarchs.Compliance of Krypt (Unknown Date.M31) - The Compliance of Krypt was a relatively short campaign conducted during the Great Crusade by both the Luna Wolves and the Death Guard Legions against the Orks upon the frozen plains of the world of Krypt. Fighting together for more than a week across the frozen surface of the planet, the Space Marine Legions turned the blue ice dark with xenos blood. The Luna Wolves’ Captain Garviel Loken and his 10 th Company are known to have fought alongside Death Guard Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro and his 7 th Great Company at this time. Horus initially declined this honour, not wishing to be set above his brothers, and so his Legion continued as the Luna Wolves for a little while longer. But Horus and the other primarchs never came to terms with the Emperor's absence. Their hurt feelings over his seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade to pursue a secret project whose purpose he chose not to reveal to his sons laid the seeds of jealousy and resentment that would ultimately blossom into the corruption that begat the Horus Heresy. Vengeful Spirit ( Gloriana-class Battleship) - The Vengeful Spirit was the infamous flagship of the XVI th Legion and the Warmaster Horus during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It was upon this vessel that the final battle of the Heresy between the Emperor of Mankind and Horus played out and where the Warmaster's life and soul was finally extinguished by the unmatched psychic power of the Emperor. The Sons of Horus were able to recover their fallen primarch's body before they fled the Sol System for the Eye of Terror and the Vengeful Spirit was taken by Horus' successor, Abaddon the Despoiler, as his own flagship. It still often serves in that function at the present. Oblivion (Strike Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Oblivion was severely damaged during Abaddon’s assault on Manachea Vysidae during the Manachean War. It is believed that the Oblivion was amongst the first vessels to be repaired at the recently conquered facilities of Port Maw. The position of Horus as the Emperor's favoured son undoubtedly enhanced their triumphs. The Emperor fought alongside all of the primarchs, and led all of the Legions at different times, but Horus and the Luna Wolves stood beside him for many of his greatest victories. The Luna Wolves stood with the Emperor from the beginning of the Great Crusade until the Emperor's return to Terra following the triumph of the Ullanor Crusade and the elevation of Horus to the esteemed rank of Warmaster and commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's vast armies.

Perhaps most tellingly, the Cthonian word for cutting the throat of an enemy gang-killer in single combat -- "aebathan" -- became a common term in the ranks to describe the completion of a campaign. The personal charisma and reputation of a commander within the Legion came to apply to the Astartes under his command, as if the ways of the Cthonian gang lords now informed the Luna Wolves' own understanding of leadership. This applied particularly to the Luna Wolves' Primarch Horus after his rediscovery by the Emperor, as his cult of personality was universal within the Legion and all Luna Wolves came to revere the Lupercal to an extent that would ultimately prove their undoing. However, such mutations were seen as a mark of favour from the Chaos Gods and were generally displayed with pride by Sons of Horus Astartes, though it also meant that the Legion would soon no longer be able to produce new Astartes from its own gene-seed to replenish its ranks since the Astartes organs would not properly cultivate or had become so genetically warped as to kill any human male they were implanted within.Cerberus, the name adopted by Loken after the battle of Isstvan III, is the dog who guards the Underworld in classical mythology. Torgaddon joked that it was an appropriate appellation for Loken, the last Luna Wolf standing sentry over the graveyard of Isstvan III. [6] At some time the notion of the Emperor sending His "wolves" to break intractable or potential enemies took root in the consciousness of the new-born Imperium of Man, with the Pacification of Luna in the late 30 th Millennium -- considered by many the first true battle of the Great Crusade -- its apocryphal source. The XVI th Legion embraced the epithet "Luna Wolves" they earned after this first campaign with relish. The specialties and wargear of squads in the Luna Wolves included all of those generally found in other Legions, including those designated Destroyer and Seeker units, who were shunned by some and existed in lesser quantities. The Luna Wolves also maintained considerable resources in terms of armour and vehicles, with tithed industrial worlds they had brought into Imperial Compliance and good relations with the Mechanicum ensuring a steady supply of munitions and materials for the XVI th Legion, which spent such political coin readily. Those captains of the Luna Wolves (and the Sons of Horus after the Legion's name change) who were chosen to serve in the Mournival were generally considered the best officers of the Legion by their fellow Battle-Brothers. In general, each of the four members of the Mournival were chosen because they each possessed very different personalities and characteristics that were intended to complement one another and provide the Warmaster with a wide array of different viewpoints. Assault on Dahinta (Unknown Date.M30) - On the world of Dahinta, the Luna Wolves fought against a race of self-aware machines called the Overseers, who were led by the artificial intelligence known as the Archdroid. One of the Emperor's longest-standing commands was that no sentient machines could be allowed to exist, for they had nearly caused the extinction of Mankind when they had rebelled against their human overseers during the Dark Age of Technology. Despite heavy casualties amongst, the thinking machines were wiped from the face of Dahinta by the savagery of the Astartes. Only after the campaign had ended was the full truth learned: the Overseers had been created by a vanished offshoot of humanity that had settled Dahinta, perhaps during the Age of Technology. The Overseers had cared for their lost masters' crumbling cities long after they had become extinct or left their homeworld behind.