CAPTAIN GARRO, HERO OF THE DEATH GUARD

When Horus's rebellion was finally understood, seventy Space Marines, alone of five Legions, remained steadfast in their loyalty to the Emperor. These men seized the Imperial cruiser Eisenstein and broke the Traitors' blockade of the Istvaan system to carry word of the treachery to Terra. Their warning may have saved the Imperium. Commanding the Death Guard contingent was a great battle-captain, Garro.

There are conflicting testimonies regarding the fate of Captain Garro and his men. There are those who say that in the turmoil accompanying Horus's assault on the Imperial Palace no one knew what to do with the handful of loyal Marines who's entire Legions had turned traitor. The captain, indeed all of the Eisenstein seventy who survived the gauntlet to reach Terra, were placed in custody pending deposition by the Emperor himself, a deposition which, after his fall and enshrinement in the Golden Throne, never came. Garro and the other 'Heroes of the Imperium' never saw the light of day and died prisoners. Others maintain that Garro himself fought in the palace defence, and when he saw what his brother Legionnaires had become, he renounced arms and served devotedly at the Master Apothecariate, where Space Marine Apothecaries receive their training, futilely seeking a cure for the plague which had taken his entire Legion of brothers, until his own death.

More fanciful taletellers link Garro and his band to secret societies moving behind the public face of the Imperium, and claim that Garro and his original Space Marines still live, an elite force committed to thwarting the aims of Nurgle, Mortarion and the Death Guard, who appear in battle clad in the colours and flying the banners of the pre-Heresy Death Guard, then vanish, like grey ghosts from the Warp.

Flight of the Eisenstein

The seventy Loyalists led by Captain Garro commandeered the Imperial frigate Eisenstein and evading the forces of Horus, were able to escape from the Isstvan System into the Immaterium. The Eisenstein was badly damaged during its escape from Isstvan III; all its astropaths were dead, and its lone Navigator was mortally wounded. However, Garro managed to attract the attention of passing Loyalist ships by setting the vessel's Warp engines to self-destruct and ejecting them from the ship. Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists Legion had been becalmed in the Warp with its fleet for some time, and his Navigators sensed the detonation of the Eisenstein's Warp drives. Making an immediate course for the location of the ship's beacon, Dorn met with Garro, who explained to him all that had happened with the Traitor Legions.

The Eisenstein was able to reach Terra, allowing the loyal Marines to report the extent of the atrocities that had occurred in the Istvaan System. It was said in later millennia that without this warning, the Imperium would have faced even greater difficulties in responding to Horus' next moves.

The fate of these seventy Marines is ultimately unknown. Some believe they continued to fight for the Emperor until death claimed them, while others maintain that they were treated as if they were their traitorous brethren, either imprisoned and left to rot, or executed. Others believe that Captain Garro, shocked by the terrible betrayal, became an Apothecary, vowing never to kill again. Others believe some of these men formed the nucleus of the elite Space Marines Chapter later known as the Grey Knights, for Malcador the Sigilite had presented four of the survivors to the Emperor before his departure. These men were gifted psykers, came from the ranks of the Legions that had turned Traitor, and yet maintained both an unbreakable faith in the Emperor and talent for resisting the temptations of Chaos.