Vox Extremis - The Baleful Call

 

Helius.117, a bleak world of harsh broken hills, blasted wastes and storm wracked oceans. Despite its low value in resources its high importance was attributed to the psychic beacon tower located at its northern pole. For centuries voidships navigating the Voltarnus Cluster relied upon its signal to navigate the shifting stars. 

In [REDACTED.iSi82].M41 deep survey teams in the fog shrouded northern mesa ranges discovered ancient ruins of an unknown origin. The purpose of the strange geometric designs and esoteric rune columns eluded the techno-archaeologists and scholars who studied them in extensive detail. After decades of research the sites were marked Ex Anomalous, catalogued in the Imperial archives and passed into obscurity.

 

Many years later marked by the passing of a rogue celestial body - the space hulk Pryies Lament; a mass wreckage of lost void ships hammered together and ejected by the warp. In its wake a cloaked figure emerged from the ash desert levitating ominously above the ground. The figure was that of Xothu, an alpha-class psyker of ghastly telepathic power.

Able to reach into the unprotected mind with ease, he gathered an ever growing flock of devotees. One by one the settlements of Helius.117 fell under the grip of Xothus dark influence. As the planet was overrun frantic messages were sent from the psychic beacon tower before its link to the Astronomican was extinguished. In a single night of terror the cultist militias of Xothu besieged the beacon tower and put the entire facility to the torch and axe. 

The final defenders - a group of Navigator guildsmen attempted to fortify themselves in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the complex. These Astropathic guardians hastily erected a null shield to thwart the relentless nightmare visions assailing their senses. When the shield eventually failed the final navigators bodies cracked and contorted by some fell power, amalgamating into a protean mass of mutated horns, clawed limbs and snarling visages. A beast that should not be; the Horror of Gan'gora was born at Xothus foul behest. 

So it was that Helius.117 fell under the grip of the dark psyker, retiring to his lair in the mountain crags of Vonsalva to feed off the enslaved populace.