Flight of the Eisenstein

Infobox Book |
name = Flight of the Eisenstein


author = James Swallow
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = The Horus Heresy
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Black Library
release_date = Spring 2007
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 407
isbn = 978-1-84416-459-2
preceded_by = Galaxy in Flames
followed_by = Fulgrim

"Flight of the Eisenstein" is a Science Fiction novel by James Swallow based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, published by the Black Library. Released in spring 2007, this is the fourth book of the Horus Heresy series, started with Horus Rising and continued in False Gods and Galaxy in Flames. The story is set 10,000 years before the timeframe of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, and expands upon the tale of the Horus Heresy, the galaxy's greatest civil war and the root cause of many issues in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The "Eisenstein", mentioned in the name of the book, is a frigate of the Death Guard Legion commanded by Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro (of the 7th Company), one of the few commanders in the Traitor Legions that remained loyal to the Emperor. The title specifically refers with the "Eisenstein"'s escape from Istvaan III (the site of a genocidal attack instigated by Warmaster Horus) and its voyage across the galaxy to reach the Emperor of Mankind on Terra.

Plot summary

The Blinded Star

The novel starts shortly before the XIV Legion, the Death Guard, begin their space-borne assault on a space colony inhabited by a race known as the Jorgall. It is here that the protagonist, Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro, is introduced, and his centuries-long history with the Legion revealed. The Legion is accompanied by a small detachment of Sisters of Silence for reasons known only to Mortarion himself, which unsettles Garro.

In the ensuing boarding action by the Death Guard on the Jorgalli bottle-world, Garro comes across an alien psyker who projects psyker visions into his mind foretelling grave portents, washing over his belief in the Death Guard. The brief contact is summarily terminated by Amendera Kendel, leader of the detachment of Sisters of Silence.

The brief contact Garro has with the Jorgall psyker plants the first seeds of doubt that will prove pivotal throughout the novel and the series.

Hard Landing

At this point in the story, the Warmaster Horus has decisively turned his back on the Emperor of Mankind. His plot to overthrow the Imperium unfolds, as first revealed in "Galaxy in Flames" by Ben Counter. Horus' plans have yet to be shared throughout the entirety of 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, and squads Horus suspects of being more loyal to the Emperor are hand picked and despatched to Istvan III, tasked with reclaiming the renegade bastion, the Choral City. While these Loyalist Astartes committed to the attack and now isolated from his forces, Horus then moves his fleet into position. Horus then unleashes one of the Imperium's most fatal weapon - the "Life Eater" virus. This bio-weapon will destroy the planet and organic life upon it.

Horus believed this would eliminate all opposition within the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet at one stroke. Unknown to Horus, however, the loyalist captains Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children and Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard have escaped their assignment and learnt of Horus's treachery, and immediately begin warning their brethren on the planet's surface. Their Broadcasts are received by Fourth Captain Ullis Temeter of the Death Guard, who saves the majority of the ground troops under his command (but not himself) by ordering them to seek shelter into underground bunkers before the virus attack can begin.

The Flight

Meanwhile, back on the "Eisenstein", Garro and his men have been fighting the Second Company under the traitorous Captain Grulgor. Before quitting the field, Garro's forces take full command of the frigate, and do so without attracting the rest of the fleet's attention. Garro incepts his plan to escape from the system and bring back word to Terra of Horus's treachery. Before the ship can escape, they are discovered and bombarded by the capital ship "Terminus Est". This engagement results in heavy damage to the "Eisenstein"'s warp engines and, consequently, the ship's Gellar field.

Despite the incalculable risk of entering the warp without a stable Gellar field, Garro orders the navigator to take them in. Warp storms envelop their ship, imperilling them further. These storms are the creation of Chaos, an evil and omnipotent sentience found within the warp, the very forces that corrupted Horus. Soon after entering the warp, the "Eisenstein" attracts the attention of Nurgle, a deity of the Chaos pantheon. Nurgle's powers of influence include disease, decay, despair and destruction. Through the holes in the ship's Gellar field, the raw power of Nurgle spreads throughout the ship. The remains of Grulgor and his traitors, who have been slain by Garro, are warped into decayed and massively corrupted daemons. These, the first Plague Marines, attack the ship and its crew. Garro and the survivors fight back, and realize they must exit the warp immediately. The emergency exit results in the death of the ship's remaining navigators and astropaths, leaving the crew blind and stranded in a remote area of space. Garro orders the engines to be overcharged and then jettisoned - a desperate gamble to attract nearby shipping.

The resulting explosion temporarily clears the warp storms that have choked this region of space. Unknown to all, the Imperial Fists had been stalled nearby by these storms. The warp engine explosion gives the legion a point of reference and, under the orders of Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, the VII Legion investigates.

Garro and his surviving forces are rescued by the Imperial Fists and the message of Horus's betrayal is relayed. Dorn does not take well to the given information, in fact he refuses to believe most of it. But ever cautious he sends most of his forces to Isstvan to investigate the accusations while he returns to Terra with the survivors of the Eisenstein.

Coming Home

When Rogal Dorn returns to the Sol System, the heart of the Imperium, he is confronted by the Order of the Silent Sisterhood. They tell him that amongst the Eisenstein survivors there is a woman named Euphrati Keeler and it is their wish to take her into custody. How they know she is aboard is not revealed. However, Keeler and the rest of the Eisenstein survivors are given to their custody. This includes a loyalist from the Luna Wolves named Iacton Qruze, Nathaniel Garro, and the surviving members of his Death Guard Company - a number close to seventy space marines.

In the meantime, Decius, a Death Guard infected with Nurgle's Rot, finally succumbs to Nurgle and turns against Garro and his men. He kills members of the Death Guard and Silent Sisterhood before Garro finally defeats him.

The Eisenstein survivors are unable to deliver their message directly to the Emperor, and are told that the Emperor cannot be disturbed from his secret labours. Instead the warning is conveyed to the Regent of Terra, Malcador the Sigilite. It is alluded by the Regent that the service of these Loyalists may not be over:the Imperium needs men and women of an 'inquisitive' nature, suggesting Garro and his men form the nucelus of what will become the Inquisition.

Through contact with the 'Living Saint' Euphrati Keeler, Garro slowly comes to reject the secularism of Imperial Truth. Instead, adopting the faith of the blossoming Lectitio Divinitatus, becoming the first known Loyalist Marine to worship the God-Emperor.

Also worth a note is the "living saint" Euphrati Keeler was the frist living saints of the Sisters of Battle, the military wing of the Adepta Sororitas formed by the loyalist Silent Sisterhood after the Heresy was crushed and the Emperor had been confined to the Golden Throne on Terra.