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News has reached '''Town Forty-Four''', on the tranquil world of [[Virger-Mos II]]: [[Terra ]] has fallen, the [[Emperor ]] is dead and the [[Imperium ]] belongs to [[Horus Lupercal]]. As the people of Forty-Four struggle to deal with this revelation and the rest of the planet falls into anarchy, [[Leon Kyyter ]] begins to doubt the news, along with the stranger from Terra, the [[remembrancer ]] with the odd tattoo...{{Fn|1}}

The people of '''Town 44''' on the remote Imperial backwater world [[Virger-Mos II]] are thrown into doubt and confusion when it is announced that [[Horus]] has slain the [[Emperor]] and now rules the galaxy. [[Mechanic Silas Cincade]] volunteers to travel to the capital to find out the truth,{{fn|2a}} and meanwhile the people begin carrying weapons and having arguments over the best course of action. Lights in the sky appear to herald the arrival of [[Astartes]], and reports start to come through of armoured figures wiping out towns. Solar farmer [[Dallon Prael]] announces his intention to die rather than surrender to Horus's forces and mistakenly shoots dead Silas Cincade as he returns from the capital.{{fn|2c}} As the town falls into violence and anarchy a boy named [[Leon Kyyter ]] discovers his father's lodger, a [[remembrancer ]] named [[Mendacs]] who arrived eight weeks earlier{{fn|2b}} and formed something of a friendship with the boy{{fn|2d}}, sneaking out of the house and follows him to the town's skyhook. Mendacs forces the skyhook's lone [[astropath]] to send a message before executing her, and reveals to Leon that he is an [[Alpha Legion]] agent tasked with spreading false tidings of Horus's victory who has orchestrated events to make Virger-Mos II fall to the Warmaster without even being invaded. Mendacs departs for his next mission, and unable to stop him Leon watches silently as his planet burns.{{fn|2e}}