I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. Dark Compliance is the eleventh short story in the book, written by John French.
On the scale of historical documentation to story, I think this is another one that serves largely as a historical textbook. There is a story here, but it's really basic. A faction of the Mechanicum declines compliance with Horus, so Horus detroys the world with daemononic fury. That's the story.
Dark Compliance has several satisfying elements in its story, such as it is, for the Warhammer lore generalist. First of all, even the story's title mirrors the Imperium's goals in the first several books of the Horus Heresy. The great crusade was all about compliance. Horus travelled from systm to system, introduce himself to the leaders, and kindly let them know that they needed to recognise the Emperor as the ultimate authority over all mankind and pay a tithe accordingly, or else be destroyed. Not a big deal, just normal everyday colonialism (to be clear, in case my sarcasm doesn't come through in text: This is pure evil).
Dark Compliance is the exact same story. It's 100% Horus exercising the same entitled superiority of his father, but for himself. It's the same process, possibly with less tolerance than he showed when recruiting for the Emperor.
The other thing we get to see in this story is daemonic warfare. We've seen it elsewhere, but this time we witness Horus himself descending to a planet, summoning a daemon, and literally raining fury down upon the surface. In fact, it's the witnessing of the event (one might even say the "remembrancing") that's the stated purpose of this story. Horus brings a witness along with him because he wants his fury recorded and remembered. (The irony that it's arguably his obsession with remembrancers that led to the cult of the Emperor is lost on Horus. Or who knows? maybe it's leveraged by him.)
If you're a fan of Horus, or a fan of the Mechanicum and you want to hear about a martyr who refused to turn against the Omnissiah, then this is worth reading for the story. If you're a Warhammer generalist, then this story offers insight into Horus's version of his own great crusade, and what happened when a planet declined his, um, offer of authoritarianism.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.