Horus heresy image - Warhammer 40K Fan Group

i think the ultramarine and the sons of horus dude are getting owned by Word Bearers

you mean UltraMarine and Thousand sons, but yea i guess it does seem like it.

i think theres a world eater at the back also

No way. World Eaters (pre-heresy) have white and blue colors with a huge jaw, devouring a world as a badge. While here we have a pwned Thousand Sons dude (in the red armour and sunlike badge), U-smurf in blue armor (almost pwned) and 2 Word Bearers in grey.

Hey that "pwned" Thousand Sons dude managed to take out a daemon all by himself (At the time where nobody really knew about daemons or how to fight them) while injured, give the guy some credit.

Man, at this moment we are talking about the cover of the book, not about the story described in the book. It is usual case when the cover somehow doesn't coincide with the content of the book. And this is the case when it doesn't.

This picture shows us an U-smurf and seriously wounded Son defending against 2 dudes in gray armor. Now let's have a look at the inconsistencies. WARNING! Spoilers incoming.

Whose ship can it be? Definitely Furious Abyss, because there were no any Word Bearers' ship in that area. Who are those 2 dudes in gray? The story says that Word Bearers already repainted their armor to dark red, but if they attack U-smurf and a Son it means that they can be only Word Bearers (maybe some of them didn't repaint their armor yet). They can't be Space Wolves because: a) Wolves failed to get to the Abyss in the shipyard (Antig, Scraal and 3 more World Eaters managed to do it); b) Wolves failed during the boarding of the Abyss: almost all of them crashed, remains of Blood Claws were bitten to death by Brinngar (the only Wolf who survived) who became insane; c) When Brinngar met Scraal, Antig (U-smurf) was already dead. Next.

Who is the dude in red? Thousand Sons dude, we can see his badge. Can it be Mhotep? Of course not. And here is why: a) this guy is already dead, and on the Abyss, while Mhotep never was on the Abyss; b)Mhotep died together with loyal ship, fighting a demon; c) Mhotep never fought with Word Bearers. Now about U-smurf... Is it Antig? No. Because Antig infiltrated the ship with World Eaters, while here he is together with a Son dude.

My verdict: here we have 1 random U-smurf and 1 random Thousand Son fighting 2 random Word Bearers. Maybe this is failed Sons + U-smurfs attack on the Abyss during the first encounter with loyal fleet.