™

EXPANS ION
The Warhammer Vault exists to preserve the rich lore and
background of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age
of Sigmar. As such, outdated game scenarios and unit rules
have been removed from this publication.
 ™

VOLUME TEN
THE BADAB WAR – PART TWO
BY ALAN BLIGH

® ™

1
 Credits

Written by ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Alan Bligh

Graphic Design by �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Paul Rudge, Ian Strickland, Sam Lamont & Kenton Mills
Artwork by �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Karl Kopinski & Paul Bonner
Colour Profiles & Technical Line Drawings by ���������������������������������������������������Paul Rudge, Ian Strickland, Sam Lamont, Kenton Mills
& Chris Bristow
Digital Photographic Artwork by �������������������������������������������������������������������������Sam Lamont, Warwick Kinrade & Tony Cottrell
Photography by ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Sam Lamont, Ian Strickland, Tony Cottrell & Kenton Mills

Acknowledgments

Forge World Models Designed by �����������������������������������������������������������������������Daren Parrwood, Will Hayes, Mark Bedford,
Simon Egan, Phil Stutcinskas, Daniel Cockersell,
Stuart Williamson & Tony Cottrell
Models Painted by ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Phil Stutcinskas, Mark Bedford, Stuart Williamson,
Owen Branham, Stuart Witter, Paul Rudge, Kenton Mills,
Daren Parrwood, Warwick Kinrade, Will Hayes,
Alan Bligh, John French, Paul Scott, Stephen Green
& the ’Eavy Metal team
Proof Reading ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Talima Fox, Will Hayes, Stephen Morris, Paul Mooney, Ead
Brown & Kenton Mills
Thanks to ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������The staff at Forge World and Games Workshop for their
continued support, advice and encouragement, and the
Games Workshop Studio for their invaluable assistance.
Campaign Playtesters �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Alan Bligh, Andrew Kenrick, Stephen Morris, Paul Scott,
Ed Morris, Stephen Green, Ead Brown & John French

PRODUCED BY FORGE WORLD

First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Forge World, Games Workshop, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS.

© The copyright in all text, artwork and images herein is the property of Games Workshop Limited 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Games Workshop, the Games Workshop logo, GW, Citadel and the Citadel Device, Warhammer 40,000, the Warhammer 40,000 logo, 40,000, 40K,
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the UK and other countries around the world. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photo-
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This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Pictures used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain Citadel products may be dangerous if used incorrectly and Games Workshop does not recommend them for use by children under the age of 16
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Product Code: 60040187014

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Games Workshop Web site: www.games-workshop.com
Forge World Web site: www.forgeworld.co.uk

2
 Contents

THE BADAB WAR PART TWO

Chapter Five: The Wrath of The Imperium ������������������������������������������������� 9

The Tyrant of Badab ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 20

Chapter Six: The Tyrant Stands Alone ������������������������������������������������������� 22

Salamanders Vanguard Veteran ���������������������������������������������������������������� 32

The Badab System ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40

Chapter Seven: The Fall of Badab ������������������������������������������������������������ 42

Badab War Time Line ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 56

CHAPTERS OF THE BADAB WAR PART TWO

The Mantis Warriors ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 64

The Salamanders ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74

The Executioners���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 84

The Sons of Medusa ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94

The Minotaurs �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104

The Carcharodons �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114

The Exorcists ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124

The Star Phantoms ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132

ENGINES OF DESTRUCTION

The Caestus Assault Ram �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 143

Dreadnoughts ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 145

The Land Raider Achilles ��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 148

Land Raider ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 150

Land Speeders ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 155

The Rhino and its Variants ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158

Thunderhawks �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165

Astartes Armour ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 166

3
 INTRODUCTION
SPACE MARINES, BLOOD OATHS AND THE BITTER END

Hello again one and all and welcome to Imperial Armour Volume 10, Quite apart from the story and game rules provided for this shadowy
the Badab War Part 2. and somewhat blood-soaked part of the Warhammer 40,000
universe, you will also find in this book some fantastic inspiration as a
This book is the second in Forge World’s two-part exploration of the hobbyist and painter, and I can’t praise the graphical and layout talent
dark and terrible Space Marine civil conflict known as the Badab that has gone into Imperial Armour 10 (and 9 for that matter) highly
War. It not only continues the story of that war to its final, cataclysmic enough for bringing the war-torn age of the Imperium, not to mention
conclusion at the siege of Badab, but also details the fate of the my own febrile imaginings, to life.
Tyrant, and the shadowy conflicts and savage slaughters that typified
the closing years of the war, and those forces and personalities that Once again I’d also like to thank my long-suffering playtest crew and
shaped them, not least of all the Space Marine Chapters involved. all at Forge World for their invaluable help and assistance (not to
Also contained here you’ll find a mass of technical information on mention forbearance!), everybody who spoke to me at Games Day
the weapons and war machines of the Space Marines, as well as for their feedback, which is genuinely always welcomed, and
full background on the remainder of the Space Marine Chapters who importantly Mat Ward, Adam Troke and Alan Merrett for their sage
were involved in the war, not to mention some new battle missions wisdom and guidance.
and special characters so you can fight your own Badab War on
the tabletop. Well, that’s enough of me for a spell. The final dark secrets and
terrible deeds of the Badab War await you. Enjoy!
As I mentioned in my introduction to Part 1, the story of the Badab
War was a tale that grew in the telling, and I think it has represented
for me as the author a rich seam of dark adventure and gothic
warfare, just as I hope it has and will to you too. It’s been a great
pleasure to write, and a privilege to craft so much more detail and
background into the story of the war itself and those Space Marine
Chapters involved in it.

Alan Bligh

September 2010

4
5
6
7
Utilitaum Inquis – Prioris Maxima

Warning: Clearance: Umbra-/Amaranth-/Omega

++++Transmitted: Conclave of Khorazin

++++Received: <<static blackout>>
++++Destination: <<static blackout>>
++++Temporal Reference/Send: 5 078 137 933.M41
++++Telepathic Duct: Locus Tempestus/Khorazin Terminus
++++Sidereal/Ref/Ordinator: 77ʕʯ-0/y56-234/Astropath Vexil
++++Transcriptor: Autosavant Penitent -56D/Σ/Cealia – [liquidated after use]

Thought for the Day: “The wise man seeks truth amid horrors; the fool embraces lies and platitudes.”

In Preface:

Terror. Those of us given the onerous and dire responsibility of an Inquisitor in the service
of the God-Emperor of Mankind flatter ourselves that we understand terror.

We face it daily, both in the nightmarish enemies we must confront and in the weight of knowledge
that hangs heavy on our hearts. We use it to our own just ends, shaping it in the minds of others
as a potter might shape clay. But in our familiarity with terror we can lose sight of its universal
truth; that it is perhaps above all the greatest constant in human experience, perhaps in the
experience of all that lives. Savage, warlike and murderous things stalk the stars of our uncaring
cosmos, and Mankind is one of them. We are terror incarnate to the alien and the mutant, and the
greatest fears of our enemies are reserved for that great and pure distillation of human wrath, the
Space Marines. How great then is the tragedy and dread when we must turn them on our own?

The following documentation furthers my previous dispatch concerning a true, and as far as can be
ascertained, accurate précis of the Badab War which recently so ravaged the Maelstrom Zone and whose
dire consequences and ramifications are still yet unfolding. It contains truths and portents forbidden
to wider dissemination and beyond the purview of the other Adepta and incorporates lore about those
Space Marine Chapters closely involved in the latter part of the Badab War, their natures, and actions
during the conflict, as well as technical specifications of their wargear and arts of battle. This document
details the latter, darker stages of the conflict which came after the wider secession had been successfully
suppressed but the task of prising the black-hearted Lugft Huron, self-proclaimed ‘Tyrant of Badab’
from his stronghold had not yet been undertaken. There also remained renegade forces abroad and
unpunished in the Maelstrom Zone, but these were no mere heretics or mutant rabble, they were Space
Marines – and bringing them to judgement would be no simple task, even for others of their own kind.
What was to follow was to be an almost unimaginably brutal and savage conflict, worse yet than had
gone before, and it would see unleashed the darkest fury of the Angels of Death, terrible to behold.

Compiled under my seal

Talon Encarmidus

Inquisitor-Ordinate

Ordo Hereticus

Timestamp//11/S.102.933.M41
8
At the close of 909.M41 the Badab War had raged for six garrison and defend their realms under the harshest and
years. What had begun as an attempt by Lugft Huron, most fearsome regime of bloody discipline. In order to
the self-proclaimed Tyrant of Badab, notionally to assert defeat this extremely powerful enemy the Imperium, under
the independence of his Chapter and his allies from the direction of the Inquisitorial Legates had assembled a
the central authorities of the Segmentum, had revealed mighty force of its own comprising elements of no fewer
treachery and heresy at the heart of the Astral Claws than twelve ‘Loyalist’ Space Marine Chapters assisted
Chapter, and turned into the brutal persecution of a by Inquisitorial forces and elements of Battlefleet Solar.
renegade faction by the full weight of the Imperium’s might. Overriding tactical and strategic command of the Loyalist
forces was in the hands of the newly anointed Chapter
The Badab Secessionist movement had comprised four Master of the Red Scorpions, Carab Culln, as Magister
Space Marine Chapters: the Astral Claws under Lugft Militum, or ‘first among equals’, who had proved himself
Huron, the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors, who had an able and sophisticated commander whose strategy
formed the Maelstrom Warder force assigned to the had seen many of the Secessionist gains reversed,
area, as well as the Executioners Chapter who had come although not without a great cost in blood and materiel.
to the Astral Claws’ aid in payment of an ancient blood
debt. Aiding these Space Marine forces were a far more The six year course of the war thus far had been both
numerous, albeit less able, force known as the Tyrant’s unpredictable and brutal. Rather than a grinding conflict
Legion, which comprised a human auxiliary force directly of constant attrition, it had been fought in fits and starts
under the control of the Astral Claws. This was used to on scores of different worlds and warzones, and been

Minotaurs Chapter Land

Raider Redeemer, The
Scourging of Crows World

9
a conflict subject to sudden reversals and lightning long before they went on the offensive, for every day
campaigns to topple one world or another in favour of gave the Secessionists further opportunity to entrench
either the Loyalist or Secessionist cause. The initial and perhaps make good their own losses. Culln knew
conquests and gains of the Secessionist Chapters he simply could not afford to allow a general of Lugft
had forged for them, in effect, a pocket empire in the Huron’s calibre too long to rebuild, plan and prepare.
Maelstrom Zone, but thanks to a series of victories by the
Loyalist forces, by 909.M41 the Secessionist domains The cusp of the year 910.M41 proved to be a final
had been fractured and divided, robbing them of the deathly calm before the oncoming storm which would
strategic initiative and placing them on the back foot. A see the Badab War reach its terrible conclusion. On the
further crushing defeat was inflicted on the Secessionist Loyalist side many of the Chapters that had fought the
cause in 888908.M41 when the fleet-based Lamenters Imperium’s cause had suffered substantial losses and now
Chapter was effectively destroyed in a savage ship-to- would be replaced in the order of battle by other Space
ship battle at Optera by the Loyalist Minotaurs Chapter. Marine Chapters of yet darker renown. The Maelstrom
All but a handful of the Chapter’s forces were either slain Zone would be visited by slaughter unlike anything it
or captured in the process. After this the Maelstrom had known, even in its long and troubled history.
Secession was largely contained. However the Loyalist
commanders were under no illusion that the war itself The Subjugation of Galen
was over, and fighting sporadically continued from the 4 017 910.M41
borders of the Endymion Cluster where elements of the As is often the case in great wars, unexpected battles can
Fire Angels and the Sons of Medusa fought to contain the spring up and blaze fiercely in often unexpected places,
Mantis Warriors, to the edges of the Khymaran Drift and and in the early days of 910.M41, one such battle occurred
the Pale Stars where the reaving ships of the Executioners on the overburdened colony world of Galen VI. For six
Chapter still struck almost at will, giving battle against the years the isolated Galen system had been a prize that
Red Scorpions and Minotaurs Chapters, harrying Loyalist had been battled over repeatedly and changed hands
shipping and stymieing attempts to consolidate Loyalist between Loyalist and Secessionist forces several times.
gains. Many accurately judged that what remained would Most significantly the Galen system had been the site of
be an even more brutal phase of operations than any a major battle between the Fire Hawks Chapter and a
seen before in the conflict; a time of ruthless planetary mixed Secessionist assault force which had incurred heavy
purges, scorched earth campaigns and apocalyptic losses on both sides, a battle which had seen Galen II’s
sieges. The Loyalists needed time to prepare for such life supporting domes laid waste, leading to mass refugee
a campaign and fresh reinforcements if a victory was to immigration to its neighbour, the hardscrabble world of
be swiftly achieved, but Lord Commander Carab Culln Galen VI. These tribulations were but the latest tragedies
and his advisors knew they could not afford to wait too to befall the Galen system, which had been ravaged by

The Face of the Enemy they had grown far beyond the dictates of the Codex
By the latter stages of the Badab War, the position both prior to and during the outbreak of the conflict.
of the Secessionists was grave; they had suffered This was a factor which had alone enabled them to
numerous defeats in the preceding half decade that weather the storm of the war and sustain casualties of
had shorn them of much of their former strength. Of the a degree that would have seen a normal Space Marine
four Space Marine Chapters that Lugft Huron had taken Chapter wiped out. But even the augmented Astral
with him into rebellion, none had escaped unscathed. Claws could not sustain such losses indefinitely and
Most woeful of these losses had been sustained by the those Space Marines that were left to them were now a
fleet-based Lamenters Chapter, which having borne mixture of bloody-handed veterans and relatively untried
the brunt of the ship-to-ship fighting in the early stages neophytes, raised up to battle having known only Lugft
of the war had been brought to full scale battle against Huron’s war. Of the Secessionist forces, the seemingly
the powerful Loyalist Minotaurs Chapter and effectively least reduced were those of the Executioners Chapter.
destroyed as a fighting force (although at a great cost Strangers to the Maelstrom Zone, the Executioners
to the Minotaurs as well). The Mantis Warriors had also had come to aid the Tyrant’s cause not through alliance
suffered greatly, their strength bled away by continuous or fellowship of belief, but in payment of an ancient
battle against numerically superior foes. Despite blood debt, and did so on their own terms, much to the
important victories in their favour, they had been reduced Tyrant’s increasing frustration. Operating as an elusive
to perhaps less than half their original fighting strength, raiding force that struck at the Loyalist’s lines the length
and were now hemmed in and dispersed across their and breadth of the Maelstrom Zone, the Executioners
ancient domains in the Endymion Cluster and effectively remained a persistent thorn in the side of the Loyalists
cut off from the rest of the Secessionists. Crucially and a force perhaps able to turn the tide of the war, yet
they were lacking in heavy warships to enable them to seemingly unwilling to do more than give battle against
attempt a breakout of any kind. As to the Astral Claws, targets of their own choosing, seeking glory and battle,
thanks to the heretical policies of the Tyrant of Badab, rather than fulfilling the Tyrant’s strategic goals.

10
 Sons of Medusa Assault Force,
The Subjugation of Galen VI

five separate major conflicts during the previous century. revolt against their just masters, with the intent of throwing
The most serious of which had been a Chaos-influenced off Imperial control and remaining independent of the
uprising that had resulted in a campaign of suppression Secessionists as well, with the general belief that both
shortly before the inception of the Maelstrom Warders. By sides had brought them nothing but bloodshed and misery.
910.M41 Galen was reduced to a single, barely habitable That the people of Galen VI had deluded themselves into
sphere, the harsh and barren world of Galen VI, a near- believing this possible at the centre of such a great and
dead world of metallic salt flats studded with open-cast bitterly contested war is perhaps a testament to the horrors
mines, industrial sprawls and now ramshackle refugee they had suffered. Within hours of the revolt’s beginning,
camps, filled with the human detritus of the shattered much of the Imperial garrison which comprised a single
colonies across the system. Galen VI’s resources had indentured Imperial Guard regiment and a detachment of
been stretched beyond breaking by the influx of displaced Stormtroopers had been overwhelmed; the Old City was
and dispossessed, and now famine and malcontent were in flames and an orgy of bloody counter-reprisals against
rife on the world. In the wake of its most recent ‘liberation’ those who had supported either power took hold. Although
by Loyalist forces an Ordo Hereticus detachment under covert plotting between the different local factions had
the control of Inquisitor Taria Shard had arrived to conduct succeeded in overthrowing the small Imperial garrison,
an investigation into the Secessionist’s activities while they could not hold together as a cohesive force once
they were in possession of the system, and to weed out this aim had been achieved and rebel reprisals devolved
and punish collaborators in the civilian population’s ranks. into blind mass-murder and looting by rival factions and
Based in Galen VI’s capital, known in local parlance petty warlords. Soon the refugee camps had dissolved
simply as the ‘Old City’, the Ordo’s detachment was both into an anarchy of gangs killing each other over scraps
reviled and feared by the locals, and maintained a ready of food in the cities and sprawls. When word reached
stranglehold on the planet by the direct control of the the Loyalist high command of this loss, Legate Inquisitor
Old City’s water purification plants on which hundreds of Jarndyce Frain was swift to declare the Galen system
thousands of refugees relied for the subsistence of life. The apostate, having been first liberated from the clutches of
civil insurrection that followed was perhaps inevitable and the Secessionists and then having turned wilfully from the
no doubt expected, but what was not anticipated was the Emperor’s grace. Thus was the fate of Galen VI sealed.
sheer fury and degree of organisation the uprising showed.
Simultaneous with a popular rebellion in the camps, the The bulk of the Loyalist Sons of Medusa Chapter forces,
city-warders and industrial guilds also entered into armed then undergoing redeployment from around Cygnax

11
to forward positions, were diverted to impose order on prepared defensive positions or sought to hide or flee the
Galen VI. They did so under the direct command of city. Those that tried to escape were slaughtered at the
Carab Culln, the ‘Magister Militum’ or overall commander Old City’s borders, cut down by patrolling Land Speeders
of the Loyalist Space Marines, and were accompanied and Vulture gunships as they tried to break out across the
by an Ordo Hereticus detachment under Inquisitor open ground to the perceived safety of the dust barrens.
Kramner, one of Frain’s personal aides. Culln’s orders Soon the roadways out of the Old City were choked with
were direct and explicit, the Galen System was to be the burnt out wrecks of ground-cars and huddled piles of
brought as swiftly as possible back under Imperial sprawled and torn bodies. Within the city those that offered
control, and any hope of future resistance crushed serious resistance were first isolated and then destroyed,
utterly. The only caveats to the order were that the barricaded hab-blocks and manufactora offering little
planet was to remain habitable and a sufficient core of protection from the merciless skill and power of the
the population and infrastructure was to be left alive and Space Marines. Entire city-towers toppled, their lower
intact to service the needs of the Imperial war effort. floors blasted out by concentrated fire from demolisher
cannon and melta strikes, burying their defenders and
The Sons of Medusa calculated their pattern of attack those unfortunates caught with them in the rubble, while
accordingly and drew their plans to retake the world, under wildfires ravaged the ruins. Only the shattered and abject
direction of their ‘Iron Thane’ and theatre commander, were spared, all but ignored by the giants that stalked
Vaylund Cal. On arrival in orbit they targeted and the dust-fog, the wretched civilians waited for death to
bombarded pre-chosen landing zones on the outskirts reach out for them but the Sons of Medusa stayed their
of the Old City, rendering them little more than craters hands as they had been ordered. Many were reported to
and smoking rubble. Into these ravaged zones the Space have wept openly in joy to be taken up by the Inquisitions’
Marines made three company-strength landing assaults on foot soldiers for processing and judgement, and extant
the edge of Galen VI’s Old City, encircling it and destroying pict-captures from the aftermath showed line upon
any immediate resistance on landing with almost cursory line of grey-streaked, hollowed-eyed men and women
ease. For three days and nights the Sons of Medusa passively awaiting their fate in the Holy Ordos assize-
remained within the shattered craters, landing supplies bastions awaiting them in the Imperial landing zones.
and troops and fabricating new fortifications and bastions,
which rose up from the dust and smoke like jagged teeth Within fifty-six hours of the commencement of the Sons
sliding from a predator’s jaws. Within the Old City, the of Medusa’s attack, the Old City was firmly in the hands
tide of inter-communal violence ebbed, and a new pall of the Imperium. Just as they had planned, news of the
of fear began to descend over the sprawling cityscape massacres had spread across Galen VI, and a shroud of
and its several million surviving inhabitants. All had seen terror now tightened around the planet. First hundreds,
and heard the fury of the bombardment from the heavens then thousands and then soon in millions, the people
that had so strangely spared the city and the fiery trails of Galen VI, native and refugee alike surrendered,
of landing craft and many could guess at just what they even though many faced death in doing so, rather than
portended. Whispers spread through paramilitary death live in the fear of what was to come. Inquisitor Shard
squads and huddled survivors alike of the dust-shrouded was discovered to have survived, but had been terribly
hammerings and the crackling actinic flashes of power- wounded by a bomb-blast, her life preserved by her
arcs within the crater’s depths, and of the vast searchlights faithful coterie of acolytes, and was returned to Inquisitor
sweeping the city around them with death delivered by Kramner. Once restored by the ministrations of the Sons
emerald-armoured spectres to any who strayed too close. of Medusa’s Techmarines, she was placed in charge of
On the dawning of the fourth day, an unnatural and near court proceedings, and her judgments were both swift
total silence had fallen over the Old City, pregnant with and final, and soon the entirety of the Old City ruins were
dread at what was to come. Such fear was a calculated re-purposed and rebuilt as an internment and processing
weapon in the hands of the Sons of Medusa, and they did centre to handle Galen VI’s population. Overall, the Galen
not disappoint the expectation of terror they had created. campaign was considered to be an unalloyed success,
Armoured columns of Rhino and Razorback transports, and although much of the population of the Old City had
thundering Land Raiders and the hulking figures of been slain, the total death toll was light compared to that
Dreadnoughts stalked out of the shrouding dust clouds, which would have been the result of a lengthy, planet-
while the droning shadows of Land Speeders took to the wide campaign of attrition. While the worst recidivist and
skies like flocks of carrion crows above. Alongside the heretical elements found on the planet were delivered to
green livery of the Sons of Medusa vehicles was dotted the the pyre, the Ordo Hereticus was merciful, and indentured
crimson of the Inquisition, and from their Chimeras’ and the majority of the planet’s population into a lifetime of
Repressors’ Laud Hailers they demanded the immediate penal servitude to pay for their crimes and transgressions.
surrender of all of Galen VI’s population for immediate As a result a number of fresh Penal Legions were raised
judgment. Those that had taken up arms knew that for for the Departmento Munitorum from the most hardened
them there would be little mercy shown. Some hurled elements found on the world, while the rest were set
themselves suicidally at the embodiment of the Emperor’s to work, either toiling on Galen VI itself or deported to
wrath only to be ruthlessly destroyed by the Sons of aid the rebuilding efforts elsewhere in the Maelstrom
Medusa in open battle, while others cowered in hastily Zone. The Sons of Medusa soon departed Galen VI,

12
 Governmental Type: Pre-Conflict: Paramilitary
Oligarchy (semi-feudal base). Various emplaced
Imperial/Secessionist governors during conflict.
Planetary Governor: See file ref: 123//#qw.

Adept Presence: (as of 5445909.M41) Adeptus Arbites

Reformation Battalion, Adeptus Ministorum
Canticle, Departmento Munitorum Provender
Extraction Work Division, Inquisitorial Garrison
and Inquiry Task force: Overall Command-
Inquisitor Taria Shard, Ordo Hereticus.

Military: (as of 5445909.M41) Imperial

Garrison comprising 11th Markgraf Light
Infantry Regiment, 234th, 456th and 33rd
Volk-Progenium Stormtrooper Regiments
Planetary Datafax: Galen VI assigned to the Inquisitorial taskforce.

Time Ref: 909.M41 Trade/Economy/Notes: Despite its inhospitable

nature, Galen VI has been the home to human
Class: Type Sub-Terran, (Rotation 31.2 inhabitation for more than three millennia,
standard hours, 1.03G, 0.55 TM) and its native population has proved itself to
be extremely hardy, self-sufficient and often
Designation: Frontier World fractious. Historically, control of the world
has rested in the hands of a number of shifting
Population: Human-Imperial/Human- factions who have warred amongst themselves for
Indigenous, 23 million estimated [refugee control of the planet’s limited industry (chemical
influx estimated increase 230% and falling] extraction of various toxic metallic salts and
chemical compounds from open cast mines and
Tithe Grade Exactas Nil [Previous to Badab drift-flats for off-world export) and control
Conflict, established trade and support of sources of clean food and water. Galen VI’s
links with Badab Sector and Surngraad] principal urban/industrial settlement, known as
the ‘Old City’ has remained the planet’s de-facto
Climate/Geography/Biosphere: Atmosphere – capital owing to its concentrated technological
Temperate/hot, planetary biosphere inhospitable, capacity and access to significant subterranean
registering on lower quotient of ability to support water supply and processing facilities. Given
unassisted human life. Local minor fauna and flora Galen VI’s history of conflict, frequent external
species only, adaptation to high level of metallic attack and industrial base, much of the native
toxins in environment make them unsuitable for population is judged to be combat effective.
use as food-base without extensive reprocessing.
This factor along with environmental hardships Special Addendum: Presence of large scale
such as arid climate and ground toxicity has refugee influx has terminally over-stretched
stunted development of planetary population. Galen VI’s infrastructural resources.

leaving it a prison world whose people would pay for their although still valid, Imperial authorisation protocols. It
crimes against the Imperium for generations to come. announced the arrival of a Space Marine force come
to offer their swords to the Loyalist cause against the
Blood in the Dark Waters heretics, claiming to have come in answer to a summons
3 327 910.M41 from Holy Terra itself. They identified their Chapter as that
Quite unexpectedly, a single fire-blackened Space Marine of the Carcharodon Astra, using the ancient form (or Space
strike cruiser, bearing unknown livery and transmitting a Sharks to give their name a more modern rendition in
previously unknown vox-identity cipher exited the Warp on Low Gothic), and formally requested their acceptance and
the outer reaches of the Cygnax system in 3327910.M41. permission to enter the war zone and draw blood. After
It was the Levitus Vex, and its coming was to herald the a fearful stand off, the Naval ships sent communications
arrival of a force whose name was to become synonymous back to the Loyalist central command, and upon
with bloodshed and the darkest acts of the Badab War. confirmation that the vessel was but the forerunner of
The vessel, making contact with Imperial piquet ships an entire fleet of vessels now traversing the edge of the
set to monitor Cygnax space identified itself with ancient, Golgothan Wastes, a formal deputation was dispatched

13
to meet with the head of this war fleet under the direct the beginning Lord Commander Carab Culln was wary
command of Legate-Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain himself to of these new recruits to the Loyalist forces, particularly
ascertain its true intentions. Frain’s personal involvement given the independent reports of the Fire Angels who
has led some observers to believe that he had some had accompanied Frain (as limited as they were) which
inkling of just who and what he was dealing with all along, painted the Carcharodons as barbarous and aberrant, with
but others have pointed out that Frain himself had learned little to commend them as even resembling the dictates
to distrust the honour-bound nature of the Space Marines of the Codex Astartes. Frain’s Legatine authority was not
in such matters after the treachery that had led to the death to be questioned however, and in truth, the Loyalists were
of Verant Ortys, the prior master of the Red Scorpions in need of just such reinforcement if they were to press
during a parlay with Lugft Huron some years before. – An the attack in a timely fashion. After some deliberation,
event the Loyalists could not afford to see repeated. Culln dispatched the Carcharodons to the ongoing
campaign against the Secessionist and renegade worlds
Frain’s delegation, which contained his ablest servants of the Endymion Cluster in order to prove their worth.
and savants of Adeptus Astartes lore, along with a
Life Guard chosen from the Fire Angels Chapter and The Tranquility Campaign
several powerful Imperial Navy vessels, met with the 3 360 910.M41
oncoming Carcharodons fleet at the dead star of Null- The Badab War had placed the Mantis Warriors Chapter
17 in the interstellar void beyond Cygnax. The precise in an invidious position by the year 910.M41. As one of
details of this conference have long remained secret, the Maelstrom Warder Chapters they had directly and
known only to those who were with Inquisitor Frain unquestioningly allied themselves with Lugft Huron and
as he boarded the Carcharodons’ flagship, the Nicor, his Astral Claws at the outset of the secession, being
but it is known that after some tense negotiations and both true to their bonds of blood and alliance with their
direct inquiries, some conducted under the auspices of fellow Warders and incensed with what they saw as the
Sanctioned Truthsayers, that Inquisitor Frain accepted Administratum’s wanton breach of authority and protocol
the Carcharodons’ alliance in prosecution of the war. over the political matters of the earlier Badab Schism.
However as the war progressed it appears they began
What little can be gleaned of this shadowed Space Marine to harbour grave doubts about the Tyrant’s motives
Chapter paints them as having a strange and ancient and the increasingly dark practices of the Astral Claws
provenance, and much about them seemed steeped Chapter, particularly after the mysterious death of their
in archaic ways and secrets best left undisturbed. The own Chapter Master Yarvan Sartaq during the notorious
Chapter’s ceaseless and perpetual Crusade against incident that became known as the Betrayal at Grief. By
the enemies of Mankind, they claimed, had taken them this time however the die had been cast and the Mantis
away from the settled and established areas of the Warriors had been responsible for spilling the blood of
Imperium for centuries, perhaps millennia at a time. The a great many Loyalist Space Marines, and indeed were
Chapter’s existence had long since fallen from the pages held responsible for the first armed conflict between
of recorded history and only traces of them remained in Space Marines in the war. Increasingly worn down by
apocryphal sources, clouded with legend and allegory. casualties and losses in warships, and also increasingly
The Carcharodons’ reappearance, as if predators drawn distrustful of their former close allies, the Mantis Warriors
by blood, when the Badab War was to enter its most by 908.M41 found themselves largely isolated within
deadly stage seemed to many a suspect one at best. From the familiar battlegrounds of the stars and worlds of the

Red Scorpions Chapter forces,

Deployed to the defence of
landing zone Theta-7, Karsh
Tertius Counter Offensive

14
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[1v1//24/S.102] 933.M41

The blackened metal iris of the atmosphere-lock screamed open like a soul in torment. Its
blade-like petals slid back into the circular airlock frame only so far as to permit them to
enter single file, points like curved fangs still protruding from the aperture like a maw.
The symbolism was no doubt as deliberate as it was unsubtle, and it was not lost on
Acolyte-Savant Montressor as the augur-beams that flickered from his hovering servo-
skull familiars recorded it in microscopic detail. His floating creations of bone and silver
measured the portal’s exact design and dimensions, while Montressor’s own half-augmentic
brain studied the ghosts of data they fed him, cross-referencing historical records, shipyard
specifications, forbidden tracts and occult permutations, searching as ever for the devil in the
details. All passing before his mind’s eye quicker than the sluggish thoughts of an unaltered
brain could conceive, and some distracted fragment of Montressor’s psyche conceived dimly of
all he had lost to make way for his gifts; memories of a family, childhood, the echoes of his
past – all purged away and un-mourned for; payment he knew for a thought crime he could
no longer remember or even conceive of – thus he had entered his master’s service.
Such was his lot, and such was his reason for being here on this cold and shadowed deck,
standing on the brink of a vessel the likes of which to his knowledge had not been seen for
more than eleven centuries in this region. His presence required not simply for the storehouse
of lore he kept, but because he was as much a sifter of truth as either of the Sanctioned
Psykers that walked alongside him into this void-born relic of arcane and forbidden history,
and to divine truth, he must see it first hand.
The Fire Angels Space Marine, the shining silver-steel, white and crimson of his armour
resplendent in the shadows beyond the iris-maw, beckoned them forward and the Inquisition
party advanced. At its head was a plain, simple figure in an unadorned black hooded cassock
worn over light environmental armour as colourless as dust. In his hand the figure carried
an iron sceptre capped with a wreathed Aquila to mark his exalted rank – he was Legate-
Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain.
Frain’s slight form seemed almost childlike as it stepped through the gaping iris and passed
between the towering forms of the Astartes bodyguards beyond. Montressor followed with the
others in his turn, his frail, calliper-bound limbs jerking him along in a shambling gait as he
entered the Nicor.
“Great Emperor preserve us!” He heard Proctor Kevas, the Ministorum attaché whisper
aloud as he entered the processional vault behind him, but Montressor barely registered the
exclamation, his own mind flooding with the unending streams of data that assailed his
perception like a storm front. Dimly some part of his still-organic brain knew both awe
and terror at what confronted him in the frigid air of the immense vaulted corridor, but to
his conscious mind there was so much to sift and record, such a vortex of permutation and
questions unanswered that it drowned out all else.
For a half-kilometre the Inquisitor and his retinue walked through the great processional,
and although the gantry on which they trod was narrow at barely three metres wide, the long
corridor-chamber extended on either side of the mid-air walkway to four times that distance
and below them to an unknown depth, its downward limit concealed by the uncounted
detritus of war. Below them was a charnel pit of broken metal, splintered armour and
tattered finery, and here arrayed in an unsorted and scorned mass were pile after pile of
shattered weapons and broken banners, split helms and ravaged skeletons from unnumbered
wars and uncounted slaughters. Montressor’s learned eye spied and correlated thousands of
unique artefacts among the mass ranging from Imperial lasguns to primitive black powder
flintlocks, and rarer prizes such as the trampled and broken icons of the foul Traitor to the
sundered Wraithbone half of an Eldar Farseer’s spear. Alongside those things he recognised
was much to which even his vast storehouse of arcana had no answer in identifying. Above
this deep trench of detritus soared the banners and pennants of the Imperium; albeit in
ancient guises and patterns seldom seen for millennia; the Great Aquila, the graven icons of
[1v1//48/S.102] 933.M41

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16
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[1v1//24/S.102] 933.M41

saints, primarchs and more besides. Between these were hung less familiar relics in the shape
of ashen banners and shadowy helm paldrons, all sable-grey and tarnished bronze, broken
here and there with abyssal black and blood crimson. They were each marked with swirling
death-sigils and the image-shape of a near-mythic predator Montressor identified as one said
to have been ancient before the holy form of Mankind was born.
As at last they reached the end of the shadowed processional in silence they were confronted
by another great fanged iris, this one circled by the skulls of beasts and xenos forms. It began
to flex and scream open at their approach, and all but the dauntless Space Marines and the
indefatigable form of Montressor’s master could not help but shy warily back.
Wet-black steam hissed from the opened aperture and a hulking form materialised from the
darkness, a Space Marine in Terminator armour whose grey livery faded from the umbra of a
darkened thunderhead to the deathly pallor of a winter mist, the armour itself unlike anything
Montressor had seen except in faded chronicles of forbidden history. The figure was huge, even
for a Space Marine so-raimented, and as its armoured foot hammered on to the gantry like a
bell strike, the Fire Angels accompanying them fell into battle stance.
Coldly focusing on his sworn task despite the shadow of death he felt looming over him
Montressor logged the image of the Terminator and translated the armorial wording he saw
there. The dialect was old; a sub-tongue of High Gothic he traced to the Solar Court of
the early 33rd Millennium, ‘Tyberos’ it read, ‘of the Red Wake’. Quickly he signalled this
information to his master’s vox implant.
Legate-Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain stood before the hulking figure as if daring death to strike
him down and raised high the sceptre, touched by the hands of the High Lords of Terra
themselves. With sudden and unexpected grace the massive Terminator slid to his knees before
the black-cassocked man who was but a fraction of his size.
Armoured gauntlets went to the Terminator’s helm and the fastenings hissed open, amber
light dying in the helm’s optic-lenses. The scarred face that was revealed was sharp visaged
and waxen, deathly white, the eyes as fathomless and pitiless a black as the dark between the
stars.
“Hail the Emperor,” the Carcharodon whispered through rows of ivory teeth.

[1v1//48/S.102] 933.M41

Lam 047
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17
 throughout post-industrial ‘sprawl’ areas,
with demographic concentrations found
near higher-functioning industrial zones.

Governmental Type: Feudal dictatorship,

numerous rival houses of nobility, power-
base constituted on control of industrial
areas and refining contracts.

Planetary Governor: None. Last incumbent, Duke

Fultan Vualanti of House Vualanti, executed by the
Fire Angels Chapter. No replacement yet appointed.

Adept Presence: Minor: Local Ministorum Clergy,

extant Administratum and Adeptus Arbites
representation purged during Secession.
Planetary Datafax: Endymion Prime
Military: Former planetary defence forces
Time Ref: 907.M41 made up of the combined armsmen cadres of
Endymion’s noble house (second line Imperial
Class: Tellurian (Rotation 18 Guard equivalent) now in open revolt against
standard hours, 0.9G, 0.85 TM) the Imperium and principal forces engaged in
heretical insurgency against Imperial rule.
Designation: Industrial World
[Declining, Former Sub-Hive World] Trade/Economy/Notes: Special Addendum: As with
many worlds in the Cluster, human habitation of
Population: Human-Imperial/ Endymion Prime can be traced back at least to the
Abhuman: 1.1billion estimated late M34, with it reaching its apotheosis around
M38 as the region’s only industrial sub-hive
Tithe Grade Exactas Minoris [Formerly higher world, (although never attaining the scale and
previous to economic collapse circa M39] population of either Cygnax or Badab Primaris
elsewhere in the Maelstrom Zone). Subject to
Climate/Geography/Biosphere: Unstable privation and attack owing to its proximity to
planetary climate typified by sulphurous rain the Maelstrom on numerous occasions, the planet
storms, hurricane winds and specifically suffered economic collapse and decline circa
tornadoes in polar latitudes, planetary surface M39 when its primary natural resources were
designated as ‘Ash Waste’ with majority of exhausted, its population and capacity shrinking
population subsisting in dispersed communities over the centuries to its current parlous state.

Endymion Cluster, a region of space they had long taken its most frequent and costly battles were fought. It was at
as their domain to defend. Using their great familiarity this time that the figure of Ahazra Redth, Chief Librarian of
with these star systems and worlds, the endemic loyalty the Mantis Warriors and known to his Chapter as ‘the Dust
of their peoples to their ancient protectors, and the long Prophet’ rose to prominence, effectively becoming master
standing series of hidden bastions they maintained of the Mantis Warriors until the end of the war. Guided by
here, the Mantis Warriors had successfully fallen back the uncanny foresight and cunning leadership of Ahazra
into a seemly unassailable position. Here the Chapter Redth, the Mantis Warriors became an ever greater force
played to its great strengths and expertise; fighting to be reckoned with, determined and ruthless in defence
guerrilla campaigns against numerically superior foes, of their honour and the worlds they were sworn to protect.
and frequently employing hit and run tactics, raids and
ambushes. Such was their power and skill here that they The strength of the remaining Mantis Warriors, although
successfully fended off Stormtrooper regiment backed considerably weakened from its height at the start
detachments from both the Fire Angels and Sons of of the war by ongoing attrition, was such that Carab
Medusa sent to hound them out in a series of protracted Culln recognised the folly of leaving them undefeated
actions and engagements which became known as the at his flank as the Loyalists turned their full force to the
Tranquility Campaign, after the Tranquility system where invasion of the Badab Sector, particularly as on this

18
other flank the Executioners Chapter also remained caked shanties amid a great slaughter. Endymion was
a significant threat. The Magister Militum had already quickly overtaken by a confused planet-wide battle which
been considering a change in his deployments in order shattered the insurgency and set great swathes of industrial
to mount a renewed offensive against the Endymion sprawls ablaze and flooded other areas with millions of litres
Cluster, but with the arrival of the Carcharodons, of poisonous chemical waste from sundered containment
Carab Culln was offered an unexpected asset to vessels. The honourable Mantis Warriors could not abandon
deploy, and he let loose their savage tide against the the world to its fate and had no choice but to respond,
Mantis Warriors and the worlds of their domain. coming to Endymion’s aid with increasing numbers of their
Chapter’s Battle Brothers in an attempt to curb the savagery
The Sigard system was the first to taste the wrath and fury of the Carcharodons’ assault. The Mantis Warriors matched
of the grey-clad Space Marines, and the Carcharodon the Carcharodons callous slaughter with their own fierce
fleet broke out of Warp directly above the system on the martial skill in lighting hit-and-run attacks and murderous
galactic plane, perilously close to Sigard’s swollen and ambushes, but they were too few and could not turn the tide
violent sun. Using its solar flares as a shield, the fleet of the assault. They would not retreat however, even after
split up its dozens of striking forces and devastated the Ahazra Redth forbade further attempts at reinforcement,
numerous belt-colonies, ship-clans and asteroid-citadels but those caught fought on and died in defence of their
of the Sigard system, destroying in mere days and weeks ancient pact with the people of Endymion, just as the plan
what had taken millennia to build and had withstood the that Legate Frain had concocted with the Carcharodons’
ravages of alien and renegade alike. An Imperial Navy leader Tyberos had predicted they would. The pattern was
scout vessel, the Resplendent Martyr, which swept Sigard repeated on the minor worlds of C’sthal and Largitor, and
in the aftermath of the attack, reported the entire system then the twin worlds of the Tranquility system themselves.
littered with wreckage and discordant with the ghostly Here attacks smashed each world’s infrastructure in turn,
vox signals of dead and dying ships. It also noted that leaving desperate survivors alive to suffer on in the wake of
along with the wholesale destruction, much had been their punishment. Again and again the Mantis Warriors were
deliberately plundered and scavenged, both in terms of brought to battle and each time although they saw some
gear, resources and indeed human life. It has been the victories against the onslaught and inflicted casualties of
conclusion of several authorities since that the choice of their own, each time fewer of them returned to fight again.
Sigard, with its wealth of void-colonies and infrastructure, By the end of 910.M41 the stricken cluster’s resistance
had been the Carcharodons’ first target not simply was crushed and the Mantis Warriors, now worn down and
because it had long connections with the Mantis Warriors, scattered, had ceased to exist as an effective fighting force,
but because after the Carcharodons’ unknown voyage but at a great price. Starvation, disease and lingering death
from the outer darkness they had need of its bounty to were now the only masters of a dozen inhabited worlds, and
replenish themselves in readiness for their part in the war. millions were left unburied to rot beneath the sightless stars.

The verdant world of Iblis was to be the Carcharodons’ In the aftermath of the Tranquility campaign, the Fire
next target. Already the giant feudal world had been the Angels Space Marines, having in prior battles earned
site of a great battle between the Fire Hawks and the for themselves the highest honour in the Badab War,
encircling Secessionists in the war’s early stages, leaving and suffered heavy causalities, sought permission to
much of its equatorial veldt a scorched wasteland. Iblis had withdraw from the conflict. This unusual act was in no
repeatedly sided with the Mantis Warriors in the Secession small part owing to the increasing anger of the Fire Angels
and its petty-kings still offered the Chapter aid and support Chapter against the Carcharodons, with whom they had
despite having suffered punitive raids. The Carcharodons repeatedly been at odds during the Tranquility campaign
descended on the feudal world and systematically smashed and whose methods they held in utter contempt. Rather
its infrastructure and put its rulers to the sword, attacking than risk the growing enmity between the two Loyalist
the planet’s scattered settlements and nomadic crawler- Chapters sparking into full scale civil conflict (blood
caravans by night and leaving nothing but bloody wreckage. having already been shed between them in sporadic
The Mantis Warriors were swift to respond, attempting to skirmishes), the Fire Angels departed with honour to their
distract and divert the Carcharodons with raids of their own home world to rebuild their sorely damaged Chapter.
against Loyalist targets, and split up the attacking fleets by
feigned flights and ruses, but to no avail. The Carcharodons With the Endymion Cluster no longer a threat to the
would not be stayed, and after they had smashed Iblis into Loyalist flanks, the Carcharodons redeployed, splitting
a disjointed wasteland inhabited only by scattered bands of their fleets to patrol the Loyalist rear echelons and
shell-shocked survivors, the fleet moved on. This time their relieve the Minotaurs and Red Scorpions to consolidate
target was the blighted industrial world of Endymion Prime ahead of the expected invasion of the Badab Sector.
itself, where a small Fire Angels force were already holding Unfortunately for the peoples of the Endymion Cluster,
command of the decrepit, fog-shrouded manufactora the Carcharodons would yet return in later years to
complexes against Mantis Warrior-led insurgents. Without visit a further calamity on its doomed worlds.
recourse to the Fire Angels’ dispositions the Carcharodons
assaulted from the skies into the contested sprawl,
hundreds of drop pods hammering down into the soot-

19
 THE TYRANT
OF BADAB
Lugft Huron, Master of the Astral
Claws Chapter and overall
leader of the Secessionists
during the Badab War.

Source Material: This image of the Tyrant of Badab was

found within the manse of the Pyzentos family, one of the
noble houses who formed the ruling puppet oligarchy
of Eshunna. The painting is dedicated to “Our Glorious
Master, Lauft Har’n” (representing his name in local dialect,
whereas the derivations Lugft or Lufgt are more common
in the Low Gothic). It is an example of the Tyrant’s endemic
cult of personality within the Badab Sector and remains
perhaps the finest extant portrait of the Tyrant during the
war, and one of the few to escape the Edict of Obliteration.

20
1: Terminator Armour
As master of a well-resourced and equipped Space Marine
Chapter, Lugft Huron had access to a plethora of arms
and wargear of the highest quality, included among which
were a number of suits of armour of various types. Perhaps
most famous of these was what was known as his ‘Armour
of Pride’ - a heavily customised set of Terminator armour
adapted and augmented for him by the Astral Claws Master
Artificer Armenneus Valthex in which he is here depicted.
Terminator armour is the most potent form of personal
defence produced by Imperial technology and is able 4
to survive tremendous impact force, radiation exposure
or directed energy without loss of structural integrity or
serious harm to the wearer. Terminator armour also offers 3
a fully sealed and independently regulated environment,
making it perfectly suited for enduring combat in the savage 1
void of space or the harshest planetary conditions.
2
2: The Ghost Razors
Depicted here is the infamous ‘claw’ of the Tyrant, more
properly a weapon known as the ‘Ghost Razors’. A single
lightning claw type weapon conforming roughly to Adeptus
Astartes specifications, it is a heavily armoured gauntlet
housing a number of articulated power blades. The
Ghost Razors’ true mechanism and fabrication remained
unknown even to the Tyrant himself. Fragmentary evidence
recovered after the conflict mark this weapon as being in
fact a relic gifted to Lugft Huron by the remnants of the
Tiger Claws Chapter in gratitude to their saviour, and given
the shadowed legends that surround that lost Chapter its
provenance may have been indeed a dark one. In close
combat the Ghost Razors were an all but unmatched
weapon, the unidentified phase-frequency disruption
fields imparted to their cutting edges proved able to slice
though solid matter at a sub-molecular level, parting
ceramite and adamantine plate effortlessly and sundering
energy fields and force barriers they encountered. symbols, including the Chapter’s principal and ancient
icon, that of the winged lion of victory, a symbol with its
3: Heavy Flamer origins said to descend down unfathomable ages from
The Tyrant’s secondary armament as shown here is pre-Imperial Terra, the vortex spiral used to denote the
a heavy flamer. Usually employed as a squad support Maelstrom Warder Chapters in ornate form, and also the
weapon by Terminator units deployed into closely confined Iron Halo, denoting endurance and leadership. Attached
battle zones, the use of such a weapon by a Space to Lugft Huron’s Terminator armour cuirass can also be
Marine commander is an unorthodox choice, but one that seen a sealed reliquary which is believed to have contained
clearly reflects Lugft Huron’s preference for participating a portion of the ashes of his predecessor, Astral Claws
at the forefront of battle sand heavy assaults. The heavy Master Rovik Blake, a funerary custom of the Chapter.
flamer’s specific pattern remains unknown, and it was likely Of most significance perhaps is the icon of the ‘Tyrant’s
a direct creation of Armenneus Valthex in his capacity Claw’ itself. This symbol which Lugft Huron adopted as his
as the Tyrant’s personal armourer and weaponsmith. personal heraldic device upon his accession as Chapter
Master, represented the Astral Claws themselves, with
4: The Tyrant’s Claw Icon, Reliquaries the star at its centre representing the Maelstrom Zone
and Chapter Insignia and Badab Primaris in particular. Used foremost as the
As a Chapter the Astral Claws, as with many of the Adeptus principal armorial of the so-called ‘Tyrant’s Legion’ forces.
Astartes, employed a rich and extensive body of heraldry As the war went on this symbol, rather than the traditional
and insignia, much of which has allegorical meaning or icons of the Chapter, became increasingly displayed by the
represents concepts of ritual or historical significance. Here Chapter’s Battle Brothers as a mark of their allegiance.
graven upon the Tyrant’s armour can be seen many such

21
A Clash of Iron and Fire tracked by the squadron’s lead Navigator, the infamous
5 260 911.M41 and legendarily skilled Onna Nostromo by their echo
An increase in corsair activity along the Eastern in the Warp to the riven star system of Lamptan, and
Maelstrom Zone in mid 910.M41 had led to the belief its twin feral worlds of Shaprias and Scarfel. Thus,
among those in the Loyalist high command that at least having divined that a strong enemy force was massing
one Astral Claws task force had slipped out of the Badab at Lamptan, the Imperial squadron, now badly in need
Sector itself and was now operating from the edges of the of refit and resupply, returned to seek reinforcements.
Maelstrom proper. Concerned that this could be the start
of a new battle front opening on their flank, Imperial Navy Elsewhere in the war the Loyalists and Secessionists
escort search-and-destroy squadrons were dispatched had once more entered into a period of increasing
to the area to hunt for evidence of enemy operations armed engagement. In the northern Maelstrom Zone,
and quell the attacks. Traversing even the edge of the the Carcharodons were enacting the final stages of the
Maelstrom was a dangerous business, and the squadron Tranquility campaign, while in the southern zone, the
suffered high rates of crew casualties to madness and Minotaurs and Sons of Medusa, backed by Imperial
storms even without contacting the enemy. On the frontier Guard penal regiments, were assaulting Isin on the edge
world of Rook, one of the few worlds in the Maelstrom of the Badab Sector itself, where a tenacious defence
whose puritanical population of Oblationist zealots could was underway by the Tyrant’s Legion. During this period
be relied upon to willingly aid Imperial agents, they found Lord Commander Culln was then marshalling his own
their evidence. Here they heard testimony of increased Red Scorpions and the newly reinforced Exorcist Chapter
slave raids of nearby systems, and attacks by human contingent at Sagan in preparation for an assault on the
corsair ships led by an Astral Claws strike cruiser they strategic Warp terminus of Pireaus, a target considered
identified as the Hyrcania. This pattern of attacks was by many to be the gateway to the Badab Sector. Overall

\\Sentinel-Sigma Station
Badab System \\Ref\\ ‘The Ring
of Steel’\\

22
the Loyalist forces had suffered considerable losses since make immediate planetfall to attack the Secessionist
the start of the war, and the contingents of many of the bastions and training camps, while after conducting the
Space Marine Chapters which had previously fought for orbital insertion their ships and naval escort would sweep
the Loyalist cause had now departed. Some, such as immediately out again and set about destroying the
the Howling Griffons and Marines Errant, had withdrawn armada of would-be troop ships as swiftly and thoroughly
owing to the casualties they had suffered, while others as possible, thus removing both factors of threat.
such as the Novamarines and most recently the Fire
Angels had departed for reasons of their own. In short, The drop pods and Thunderhawks of the two Chapters
Loyalist forces were stretched thin despite the fresher roared down through Shaprias’ cold crimson skies
Space Marine companies that had recently arrived, and accompanied by bombardment from the Pyre of
Lord Commander Carab Culln could not afford to be Glory’s macro cannon against what was deemed to
drawn into fighting on an increasing number of fronts be the most heavily entrenched targets. Once in the
to be bled dry slowly by attrition, as no doubt was the atmosphere the two Chapters divided to their chosen
Tyrant’s plan. Taking council with his commanders, it killing grounds. The Minotaurs attacked the iron-shod
was the old and famed warrior, Pellas Mir’san, leader bastions where the dark architects of this domain were
of the Salamanders Space Marine contingent who likely concealed, while the bulk of the Salamanders
offered a solution to the events on Lamptan. He offered forces descended on the heart of the city-sized training
to lead his own forces, now a little under a Company in camps. A secondary force, composed of a chosen wing
strength but very well equipped in armour and weapons of Caestus pattern Assault Rams carrying aboard them
in a lightning strike against Lamptan, relying on the a force of Salamanders Fire Drake Terminators, the
element of surprise, the arcane skills of Onna Nostromo greatest warriors of their esteemed Chapter, took on the
to position their attack, and the power of their potent task of attacking the Secessionist landing grounds.
battle barge Pyre of Glory to deal a crippling blow to the
enemy. Culln saw both the inherent risks as well as the On their first pass the armoured prows and magna-meltas
potential rewards of this plan, and was further moved of the Caestus savaged the enemy transport craft caught
in its favour when somewhat unexpectedly, the grim on the ground, sundering and burning through their hulls,
and taciturn Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, who represented rupturing their fuel tanks. The flames soared hundreds
the often aloof and secretive Minotaurs Chapter in the of metres into the air in incandescent storms, phosphor
war council offered to take his personal guard and such white against the red skies. The Fire Drakes, assaulting
forces he could muster in aid of the mission. So approved from their craft into the billowing black palls of smoke,
Mir’san’s strike force, named the ‘Gift of Fire’, was further turned confusion and destruction into a massacre, their
augmented by a pair of Imperial Navy light cruisers storm bolters and cyclone missile launchers sweeping
and a frigate squadron. This force was dispatched the panicked foe away before any resistance could be
immediately from Sagan on the long voyage to the organised. Elsewhere the main Salamanders force led
murderous and turbulent vortex of the Maelstrom itself by Captain Mir’san had descended into the heart of
and the Lamptan system, there to meet the foe in battle. the enemy, deploying their troops and armour into a
defensive ring at the centre of the training camps. Utterly
Entering Realspace in the inner sphere of the erratic surrounded, the Salamanders force at under a hundred
binary star system of Lamptan, with its serpent-like Space Marines was outnumbered more than a thousand
plume of burning gas coiling between the two suns, to one by the horde of savages and mutants, the brutal
the Loyalist’s fears were soon realised. Clearly visible inhabitants of a dozen nearby worlds, that rose up before
above the feral world of Shaprias a ragged armada of them. For any other warriors the position would have
star vessels, scows and wrecks had been assembled been a suicidal one, but these were the scions of Vulkan,
from scavenged hulks and pirated freighters, while and they cared little for such odds. Staggered by the
auspex scans and augury-probes revealed that on the sudden fury and shock of the assault, the great horde,
planet below vast camps and training grounds had been all but leaderless and without thought, was slow to react,
raised up beneath the shadow of iron-sided bastion and by the time they pressed the attack, the savage
towers and ringed with kilometres of blade-wire. Here mass was met by a wall of firepower, and thousands fell
on Shaprias a new army was being forged from brutal within the opening minutes of the battle as Whirlwind
and tainted tribal warriors enslaved to the Tyrant’s launchers, Destructor pattern Predator tanks and the
cause, and was in the process of being tempered into a ordered ranks of the Salamanders Space Marines let
spear to be hurled at the Loyalists from an unexpected fire at almost point blank range into a solid mass of
quarter – a disposable weapon to kill and be killed at flesh and bone, killing hundreds. The enemy faltered
Lugft Huron’s will. Given the presence of only a few immediately, their jagged blades and autoguns a poor
corsair escorts and raider ships in near orbit which were answer to the output of the armouries of Prometheus.
quickly scattered by their attack, Mir’san deduced that What few heavier weapons the enemy brought to bear
the bulk of the enemy warships were away on some were quickly marked and destroyed by concentrated fire.
mission of plunder, and there would be no better time to As the broken ground of the training fields was steadily
strike. His swiftly configured attack plan was a bold and covered with mounds of twitching bodies, the horde,
resolute one. The Salamanders and Minotaurs would shying away from the bloodshed, only rallied when their

23
taskmasters took to the field behind them, the blood- of twisted metal and shattered rockcrete. Although in
stained and steel-coloured power armour of Astral Claws numbers the attacking Minotaurs and the defending
Retaliator squads amid the dirty cloth and pale skins Astral Claws at the bastion line were roughly equal,
of the horde clearly visible to the heightened senses of the Astral Claws were well dug in, well armed and led,
the Salamanders as they kept up their relentless tide and lacked nothing for bravery and fighting spirit. The
of fire. As the Salamanders marked their true foe amid Minotaurs however were masters of siegecraft, and this
the carnage, Mir’san sprung the second phase of his blood-soaked close-quarter hell was exactly the kind of
assault plan into action, and three Land Raiders of the battlefield in which they revelled. With the Astral Claws
rare and prized Achilles pattern spearheaded a counter counter-attack pinned in place at the shattered bastion,
assault aimed directly at the Astral Claws contingent. the formed up Minotaurs’ second attack line, led by
The tanks’ Thunderfire cannon blasted a swathe through an armoured spearhead of Land Raiders and Siege
the ranks of the horde, and their multi-meltas lashed Dreadnoughts opened up a parallel assault against the
into the packed masses of bodies turning scores of next bastion in the chain. Chaplain Enkomi personally
savage fighters into screaming explosions of blood commanded the jump pack equipped Vanguard Veterans
and steam with each blast. The Land Raiders’ thrice- in storming the second enemy bastion and slaying all
blessed hulls shrugged off the lascannon beams and within, his vox-amplified battle cries echoing louder
shrieking missiles the Astral Claws sought to stop them even than the roar of the guns. Cut off and encircled,
with, and ploughed a corpse-paved path clear through the Astral Claws sally-force was swiftly isolated and
to the centre of the Astral Claws force. This achieved the destroyed in detail, as the Minotaurs began advancing
inviolate trio of Land Raiders swung aside as the fury of one half of their forces to take the next bastion in the
the Ancients was unleashed. Six Dreadnoughts, led by line, while the other consolidated the previous prize and
Bra’yath Ashmantle, known darkly in the chronicles of re-armed in preparation for the next sequential assault.
his Chapter as the Iron Dragon, stormed into the waiting The progress was slow and bloody, and the Astral Claws
Astral Claws like a thunderbolt, smashing them asunder made them pay a price in dead for every fortification
and drenching them with purifying flame. Overmatched the Minotaurs took, but the Secessionists’ martial fury
and overwhelmed, the Astral Claws did not yield lightly, could not stem the Loyalist advance and one by one, the
but were slain in glorious combat, felling two of the bastions fell and victory was claimed by the Minotaurs.
Salamanders’ Ancients. As the last Astral Claws died,
the name of the Tyrant was howled with their Centurion’s Deep beneath the smashed fortifications the Minotaurs
dying breath as the Iron Dragon tore him in half and cast and Salamanders soon discovered what secrets they
his carcass to the winds. With their masters slaughtered, were built to defend; a vast natural cavern system
the horde panicked and broke, the tens of thousands that housing heretek laboratories. These had been
remained alive fleeing in a mindless stampede away from manufacturing combat drugs in vast quantities and
the lords of fire and death at their backs, crushing and attempting primitive gene-tampering and experimental
killing hundreds more of their own number in the rout. surgery on the feral warriors of Shaprias, along with
hundreds of Imperial prisoners taken in raids across the
At the bastion line, the Minotaurs met with firmer eastern Maelstrom Zone. At the lowest levels, guarded
resistance. The defences had been built into a range of by a cadre of the hated Corpse Taker Apothecaries of
basalt crags with the Astral Claws’ typical diligence and the Tyrant’s Legion and their servitors, was an armoured
skill, and the iron-shod towers were studded with heavy vault within which was a store of Space Marine gene-
bolter and battle cannon emplacements that covered seed in part stolen from Loyalists fallen in battle.
every ground approach with interlocking kill zones, while
quad guns and Icarus lascannons guarded the skies While the battle had raged below, the conflict in orbit had
above them. The Minotaurs’ assault began with low level also gone in the Loyalists’ favour, but not without cost.
attack runs by Thunderhawk gunships, which skimmed While the makeshift armada had been blasted to scrap
the jagged terrain to focus their firepower on a carefully and burning debris, concealed weapons platforms set to
selected point in the bastion line, punching a gap in guard the fleet had inflicted damage to the Pyre of Gory
the firing lines and disgorging assault Terminators and and gutted the Sword class frigate Epona which had to be
Devastator squads directly into the smoking wreckage. abandoned as a burning hulk. Less than eleven standard
Braving the storm of fire, the rest of the company-strong days after the battle was first joined, Gift of Fire departed
Minotaurs force deployed directly behind this breakpoint, the Lamptan system to undertake the perilous voyage
which suffered the brunt of the enemy counterattack. back to Loyalist-held space, with over a thousand freed
The Minotaurs’ Vanguard held the ruined bastion with prisoners carried in the holds of its Naval light cruisers,
disciplined ferocity, not giving an inch of ground to the and the priceless recovered gene-seed held in the
oncoming Secessionists despite heavy casualties. The inner sanctum of the Pyre of Glory itself. Gift of Fire had
bronzed armoured Minotaurs clashed in brutal close claimed a great victory for the Loyalists and uncovered
combat with the Astral Claws Retaliators who advanced and thwarted a dark machination of the Tyrant’s that if
under cover of their combat shields through a hail of left to hatch out could have had dire consequences for
bolter fire to try to re-take the sundered fortifications, the Imperium. Little did any in the Loyalist high command
only to be hurled back time and again from the mount suspect however that the attack at Lamptan would have

24
 population. Population unconfirmed, estimate
20-50 million native inhabitants.

Tithe Grade Exactas Nil: This world exists outside

the Grace of the God Emperor of Mankind.

Climate/Geography/Biosphere: Governmental Type:

Shaprias is one of two near-identical inhabitable
worlds found within the binary star system of
Lamptan. That stable inhabitable worlds exist in
such a locale is extremely unusual, and accounted
for in the judgement of the Scholam Astra as a
likely result of the reality-warping influence of
the Maelstrom itself, at the outer reaches of which
the system is located. Both Shaprias and its brother
world of Scarfel are primordial planets, covered
Planetary Datafax: Shaprias in verdant jungles and subject to active volcanism
and turbulent storms. Shaprias alone however has
Time Ref: 910.M41 been recorded as possessing a native population of
atavistic humans. This population exists in a pre-
Class: Trans-Tellurian, (Rotation 60.7 technological state as a myriad of warring tribes,
standard hours, 1.05G, 1.9 TM) untouched by the blessed influence of the Imperium.

Locational Reference: Lamptan System [Lamptan V] Planetary Governor: Nil

Designation: Feral World: Occultus Astra Adept Presence: Nil

Population: Atavistic pre-Imperial human, Military: Nil

grade 1///7 Scirtae classification [Ref Magos
Biologis: M39 visitation] with moderate Trade/Economy/Notes: Shaprias is forbidden
levels of Warp taint evidenced in general to non-Adeptus Imperial contact.

immediate and unforeseen consequences that would Shaprias destroyed, and its master, the Astral Claws Arch-
unexpectedly alter the course of the Badab War. Centurion Carnac Commodus, craved vengeance and a
chance to ameliorate his failings in his lord’s eyes. Alone,
The Red Hour however, Commodus’ single strike cruiser had little chance
6 270 911.M41 of taking on the wounded Loyalists with success, and so
The Gift of Fire task force, fresh from its victory in the he desperately sought assistance in taking on the enemy
Lamptan system, was unexpectedly struck by a powerful while they were still isolated. His encrypted Astropathic
Warp squall and scattered en route back to Imperial message found an unexpected ally in the Phaeton’s Wrath,
controlled space. Utter calamity was averted by the skills flagship battle barge of the Executioners Chapter, and
of their lead Navigator Nostromo, and only a single frigate her accompanying Gladius class frigate escorts, which
was lost to the seething Empyrean, while the Salamanders’ had been taking in supplies at the uninhabited ocean
battle barge Pyre of Glory and the light cruiser Admiral world of Deluge on the edge of the Magog Cluster.
Gregorius were turned back into the Maelstrom riding The combined battlegroup attacked as the Loyalist
ahead of the stormfront and forced to ford into Realspace vessels moved toward the Warp transfer point at Calah
in the relative stability of the Calah Shoals within the to embark again on their troubled voyage, their repairs at
Maelstrom’s boundary. With their Geller Fields on the point last completed. The battle was swift and hard fought, with
of collapse and their drives failing, the two Loyalist vessels the Admiral Gregorius blasted to atoms in the opening
limped into the outer orbit of Calah’s boundaries to repair salvo of the Secessionists guns, although the Pyre of
and refit. Their arrival at Calah had not gone unnoticed Glory quickly proved to be far less easy prey. Repelling
however, and a human raider ship that had been trading the first boarding assaults against her and destroying two
with the scattered Ork lairs that infested the inner system of the attacking frigates, heavy fire from the Phaeton’s
departed unseen and carried news of their presence to the Wrath managed to entirely disable the Salamanders battle
Secessionists. The Astral Claws strike cruiser Hyrcania barge’s thrusters after a three hour long running battle,
was still in the region, having found its home base on leaving it dead in space. With the Pyre of Glory disabled,

25
SALAMANDERS CHAPTER
UNIT ORGANISATION
The Battle of Shaprias, The Lamptan Intervention,
The Badab War: 260 911.M41

FLEET Opperating from the Battle Barge Pyre of Glory

7 Thunderhawks 8 Drop Pods 3x Caestus Assault Rams

3 Gunships 5 Assault
4 Transporters 3 Deathstorm

COMMAND Lead by Captain Pellas Mir’San

Land Raider Five Strong

Command Squad

2ND COMPANY EXTENDED DETACHMENT

10 Assault 45 Tactical 4 Rhinos Bray’ath 3 Ironclad 2 Siege

Ashmantle Dreadnoughts Dreadnoughts

Dreadnought 20 Devastator 6 Razorback 10 Sternguard 21 Terminators

ARMOURY

Landraider Landraider Redeemer Landraider Helios

6 Predators 6 Whirlwinds 1 Landraider Helios

5 Destructors
1 Annihilators
26
MINOTAURS CHAPTER
UNIT ORGANISATION
The Battle of Shaprias, The Lamptan Intervention,
The Badab War: 260 911.M41

FLEET Opperating from the Strike Cruiser Bronze Catechist

5 Thunderhawks 12 Drop Pods 1x Caestus Assault Rams

2 Gunships 10 Assault
3 Transporters 2 Deathstorm

COMMAND Lead by Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi

Rhino Five Strong

Command Squad

AUGMENTED 4TH COMPANY

30 Assault 50 Tactical 10 Devastator 6 Vanguard 8 Terminators

Veterans

2 Dreadnoughts 3 Razorback 6 Rhinos 1 Ironclad

Dreadnought

ARMOURY

Landraider Achilles Landraider Redeemer 2 Landraider

4 Predators 2 Whirlwinds 3 Vindicators 4 Sentry Guns

2 Destructors
2 Annihilators
27
28
The ‘Sapphire Claw’
Astral Claws Chapter Caestus Pattern Assault
Ram Attack Squadron attached to the Battle
Barge ‘Seraph of Judgement’
 Ryza Pattern Chimera with Autocannon turret
Undesignated Unit, The Tyrant’s Legion
Destroyed During the Destruction of Hive Dominar

Leman Russ Battle Tank

II Legion, Destroyed During the Battle
for the Palace of Thorns

Armageddon Pattern Basilisk,

Sector 129-d Counter Battery, Tyrant’s Legion
Captured Intact, Crew Slaughtered by Carchardons

29
Thulsa Kane, master of the Executioners, vox-signalled would die by their hands regardless of the cost. Pellas
the Salamanders’ vessel and offered them the chance Mir’san rallied those Salamanders that yet survived and
for honourable surrender, vouchsafing passage for mounted a defence of the battle barge’s inner sanctum,
them from the war zone under oath not to take up arms unleashing the power of Bray’ath and his fellow ancients
again in the conflict. Pellas Mir’san, commanding the to aid them. The corridors and vaults of first the immense
Salamanders force, conceded to this demand, despite and ancient Pyre of Glory and then the Astral Claws
the misgivings of some of those under his command, Hyrcania, ran red with blood. In what quickly entered the
knowing that otherwise his force would be destroyed legends of the war as the ‘Red Hour’ every single Astral
without any ability to strike back at their foe. Pellas Claw, Chapter serf and servitor present was relentlessly
Mir’san was a wise and highly experienced veteran and savagely slaughtered, and the Hyrcania was left
commander, and knew that the vainglorious sacrifice of a charnel house of decapitated bodies. As a deathly
his force would achieve nothing other than to benefit the silence fell in the aftermath, Thulsa Kane came alone
Imperium’s enemies. Having himself fought alongside before Mir’san at the gates of the sanctum, his grim
the Executioners Chapter centuries before as a Scout armour scorched and torn. He knelt in the light of the
neophyte he trusted to their oath of offered surety. burning sanctum braziers before the Salamanders and
offered them no words, but from beneath his ragged black
Both the Phaeton’s Wrath and the Hyrcania drew cloak he let a single gory object fall and roll at Mir’san’s
alongside the battered Pyre of Glory and docked, Thulsa feet. It was the head of Arch-Centurion Commodus.
Kane personally leading the Executioners boarding
party and accepting Mir’san’s sword in surrender as The Executioners withdrew without further comment,
the Salamanders stood down their arms. It was then leaving the stricken Pyre of Glory and the empty
elsewhere within the great ship, the unthinkable occurred. strike cruiser docked alongside and departed. But
Arch-Centurion Commodus had led his own boarding their maddened desire for vengeance had not been
party to seize the Pyre of Glory’s armouries, and thanks satiated, and soon its message reached every corner
to the conditions of the surrender had been all but of the Maelstrom Zone. From this point onwards, the
unopposed. Heedless of the consequences Commodus Executioners Chapter became a rogue element in the
sought to breach the ship’s sanctum vaults in search of war, not only seeking out and descending with suicidal
the prize in gene-seed he hoped to find there; not only fury on the Astral Claws and their agents wherever
that which the Salamanders had recovered from the they could be found outside the safety of Badab itself,
caverns of Shaprias, but the sons of Nocturne’s own, but also refusing to surrender to Loyalist forces when
recovered stock from the fatalities they had sustained encountered. The most notorious incident of this
during the war. When the Salamanders’ Apothecaries kind, was the Executioners’ destruction of the Sons
resisted, the snarling Commodus cut them down. The of Medusa strike cruiser Warspite in the Grief system
Arch-Centurion’s vengeful fury unleashed, immediately in 310911.M41, when battle groups from both forces
he ordered the massacre of the Salamanders they had engaged unexpectedly off the Warp route transfer
taken prisoner, commanding his Corpse Takers to strip point there, but there were numerous others. Beyond
them of their gene-seed whether alive or dead, and this however, the Executioners Chapter’s attacks on
pitched battle broke out across the decks. As reports wider Imperial shipping ceased almost immediately.
reached the bridge-chamber of what was happening, This development was explained only when some
Thulsa Kane was incensed to a murderous rage. Mir’san standard months later, the near-wrecked Pyre of
seeing this, wisely divined that the Executioners may Glory finally put into port at the Loyalist battle station
not have full knowledge of the enormities of heresy and at Surngraad with a strange and bloody tale to tell.
blasphemy the Astral Claws had come to embrace,
perhaps having been deliberately deceived by the For the Tyrant’s cause there could have been no more
Tyrant. Controlling his own outrage, Mir’san poured bitter blow than that struck by these allies turned
deliberate scorn on the Executioners’ leader, both for enemies. Not only had the severing of the Executioners
this breach of his word and the dishonour of standing from the Secessionist cause robbed Huron’s forces of
by and allowing the Tyrant’s sins to go unchallenged. much of its remaining strength in warships and raider
With the reports of his Executioners’ own eyes giving craft, but as foes the Executioners were both implacable
the gravity of truth to Mir’san’s claims, Kane’s wrath and had the advantage of detailed knowledge of many
was terrible to behold. He declared that the blood oath of the Secessionists’ hidden bases and deployments
binding his Chapter to Huron’s cause had been violated, which they put to immediate use in destroying them.
and the dark stain of infamy the Astral Claws had With first the Lamenters and then the Mantis Warriors
brought upon them could only be washed clean by a shorn from the Secessionist order of battle, and now
river of blood. Those Salamanders Battle Brothers that most bitterly the Executioners turned against him, Lugft
survived what was to come have since given witness Huron and what remained of his once-mighty Astral
that a bleak madness came upon the Executioners at Claws were truly alone before the Imperium’s wrath,
Kane’s pronouncement, and that they tore into the Astral their dreams of dominion and eternal glory shattered.
Claws with a murderous vengeance, heedless of the risk
to their own lives, satisfied only that their former allies

30
An Order for Death Sector and in the Tyrant’s spite and fury, great basilica
5 319 911.M41 were toppled, and clergy and adepts were slaughtered
Following what he regarded as the treachery of his former (despite any prior proven allegiances). As for the Astral
allies, Lugft Huron announced in a recorded message Claws themselves, although the practice was by no means
that was relayed throughout the Badab Sector that the universal, many of the Battle Brothers began to deface
Astral Claws and their subjects were no longer part of the any semblance of Imperial heraldry and insignia from their
Imperium of Man, an institution he saw as a “Bankrupt, armour and wargear, scouring it to bare metal or daubing it
rotting carcass, fit only for the grave...” but a sovereign in reds and crimsons in representation of their blood oath of
state dedicated to “Survival and the triumph of Mankind”. vengeance, until only the symbols of the Tyrant remained.
The Tyrant further swore that he and his followers would Inquisitorial agents infiltrating the Badab Sector at this time
fight to their last breath to avenge themselves upon those report that conditions on its principal worlds grew ever
who had “...betrayed us” and maintain their freedom, harsher, famine and want were commonplace, and despair’s
ending the soon-infamous recording with the statement shadow fell over all. Whereas before the population of
that “The strong are strongest alone”. Soon afterwards the Badab Sector had been controlled with inflexible and
within Huron’s remaining domains, all signs and symbols savage discipline but were still viewed as a war resource to
of Imperial authority, culture and creed were cast down be maintained and managed, now the Astral Claws’ wrath
in a firestorm of iconoclasm, and the mass executions grew ever more arbitrary and brutal as their increasing
on Badab Primaris of clerics and functionaries (most of paranoia and the murderous rages to which Lugft Huron
whom had remained largely ignorant of the true cause and was becoming prone took their toll on those unfortunates
nature of the war) were reported to last for many weeks caught within the Tyrant’s domains. On Badab Primaris, for
without pause. Up until this point it is to be remembered non-Astartes to dare to look directly upon the face of one of
that although the Badab Secessionists had been declared the Astral Claws was now punishable by blinding, and after
heretic by the Imperium, within the worlds they had an assassin tried to take the life of Huron within his own
controlled the pattern of established life had gone on much command chamber (the assailant being slain by the Tyrant
as it had for many centuries, and the worship of the God himself), non-Space Marines were banned entirely from
Emperor had been maintained. Those prelates that had the precincts of the Palace of Thorns on pain of death, and
overtly disagreed with the Secession had been removed thousands of civilians were killed in groundless reprisals
and replaced with those more amenable to the Tyrant’s by the Astral Claws Retaliators. As to the mind set of the
cause and millions still followed their faith unimpeded, Astral Claws themselves, most it seems had succumbed to
while the Sector’s native defenders believed naturally a siege mentality, they expected death as now inevitable,
enough that they fought and died in a battle against but were spurred on by a bleak desire for vengeance
heresy, rather than in its name. No longer however was against those they believed had wronged them, spite and
the truth concealed from the pitiable masses of the Badab rage consuming what little remained of their honour.

Astral Claws Siege

Dreadnought, Tyrant’s
Legion markings, The Fall
of Badab

31
SALAMANDERS VANGUARD VETERAN
2: Chainsword
Since time immemorial the most commonly chosen
close combat weapon of Space Marine assault units is
the chainsword. A heavy, weighted sword whose blade-
2 housing holds an array of whirring mechanised cutting
teeth, chainswords offer a high degree of flexibility and
may be used for parrying and disarming a foe as well as
1 dealing killing blows. Hal’sar’s personal weapon shown
here is a MK XI ‘Hell’s Teeth’ type chainsword, a common
design employed by Codex Chapters, but as is the practise
among the Salamanders it has been extensively customised
and modified by Hal’sar himself. In particular, the usual
carborundum-alloy teeth have been replaced by molecularly
aligned and shaped obsidian shards harvested from the fire-
3 fields of Nocturne, which while less hard-wearing than the
common alloy, offer a cutting edge of extraordinary quality.

4 3: Plasma Pistol
One of the most powerful compact hand weapons available
to the armed forces of the Imperium, plasma pistols
incorporate rare and temperamental ancestor-technologies
little understood by many in the current age. Hal’sar’s
weapon is one of the rarer MK V ‘Wrathfire’ patterns, more
compact than the more commonplace ‘Sunfury’ and ‘Ultra’
types. It uses a mono-core design to force-compress and
superheat a composite hydrogen compound fuel source
into plasma which is ejected at high velocity against its
target as a thermo-explosive bolt. These weapons run
1: Void Hardened Power Armour the risk of catastrophic self-immolation through repeated
All suits and models of Space Marine power armour in use, and as shown here by the upper radiating coil’s
general service are proofed against adverse atmospheric shedding of excess heat, has been recently fired.
conditions and designed to function as void suits in their
own right, as well as augmenting their wearer and shielding 4: Salamanders Chapter Insignia
their bodies from harm in battle. However, where protracted Veteran Brother Hal’sar’s armour displays numerous
void-fighting is expected, or local void conditions are insignia, some of which such as the icon of his Chapter
particularly hazardous (such as in high-rad drift zones, and the arrow-cross denotes that he is part of an assault
solar corona shadows and micro-meteoric storms) it has unit. Others however are not so easily defined by those
been the practice since the Great Crusade to increase the outside of the Salamanders, as the intricate pattering of
capacity of Astartes armour to withstand these hazards. serpents and draconic forms, as well as symbols of fire
This is known as void hardening, and often incorporates and the forge tell their own detailed and intricate sagas of
such features as extended air supply canisters rigged to Hal’sar’s career, victories and trials. Notably on Hal’sar’s
the armour, enhanced coolant systems, ablative fracture poleyn is clearly depicted the icon of the Firedrakes,
plates and attitudinal correction units. Dependant on who both compose the Veteran 1st Company of the
tradition and available resources, such modifications Salamanders of which Hal’sar is part and the keepers of
can either be obvious and somewhat bulky, or as in the the inner mysteries of the Chapter’s Promethean Cult.
case of Veteran Brother Hal’sar’s power armour, nearly
seamlessly integrated into his mark VII ‘Aquila’ armour Veteran Brother Lamon Hal’sar was one of the most highly honoured
as befits the artisanship for which the Salamanders Salamanders Battle Brothers of the Badab War. This warrior had previously
Chapter is famed. In this case in particular, the extensive been under assignment as an instructor of recruits on Nocturne while
additional heat dispersal system the armour has been recuperating from injuries sustained in the field. Hal’sar is depicted here
enhanced with has been stylised into the form of the leading the counter assault against the Secessionist-backed privateer
armorial draconic and serpent forms adorning his armour, Provender Creed after it attacked the High Conveyer Cacaxtla on which he
which glows a livid red when operating at high capacity. and his brethren were stationed. Hal’sar garnered further honour as part of
the Salamanders task force deployed to take part in the so-called ‘Angstrom
Incident’ and in the Star Fort attacks during the final siege of Badab.

32
Veteran Brother Hal’sar, pictured
here during the successful boarding
assault on the Provender Creed.

33
The Invasion of Pireaus of the Imperial Navy along with several squadrons of
3 705 911.M41 minesweepers and escorts as well as flotillas of planetary
Having waited as long as he thought strategically assault craft ferrying Imperial Guard and Inquisitorial
advantageous to gather forces for a heavy assault, Lord forces (the latter forming a rear echelon intended to
Commander Culln put into action his plans for the invasion consolidate and exploit a successful Astartes attack).
and conquest of the Pireaus system on the edge of the Initial enemy resistance in space as expected proved
Badab Sector. Loyalist strategic command had identified insufficient to slow the attacking column down, sporadically
the Pireaus system as key to the subsequent attack on the encountered minefields were breached or bypassed
central Badab system itself thanks to the relatively stable without loss, and long range auguries detected only
Warp route between the two regions. Pireaus would be an a dozen defence monitor ships and a score of locally
ideal staging post for an invasion as it already possessed produced destroyers (copies of the inferior Pugius class).
extensive lunar orbital stations and minor shipyards This defence armada would have been enough to stand
centred around the gas giant Kritias. These facilities off a sizable raiding force, particularly in combination with
if seized intact would both weaken the Secessionists the chain of orbital weapons platforms which formed a
further and be of invaluable assistance to the Loyalists second line around Pireaus V, but against the force Lord
as a forward base. A plan long in the fruition, Culln had Commander Culln had assembled, they stood little chance
already set up a series of secondary fronts at Isin and of long delaying, let alone preventing, the Loyalist assault.
Decaballus, where raids and hit and run actions by his
own Red Scorpions Chapter along with the Minotaurs and Despite unexpectedly heavy long range torpedo
Exorcists had destabilised much of the region and forced bombardment which the Loyalist fleet was forced to
the Tyrant’s armies to spread their outer defences thinly. endure for several hours thanks to the enforced distance
of their attack run, they reached their mission break point
The initial attack plan against Pireaus called for a Navy intact and split to engage their separate targets without
assault to interdict the industrial world of Pireaus V (also incident. The bulk of the Imperial Naval ships led by the
known locally as Yarrow Station), with a direct Space Retribution Class Battleship Throne of Blood broke off to
Marine assault against the lunar colonies on the second engage the defence fleet and bombard Pireaus V, while
moon of the Pireaus’ dominant gas giant Kritias. This the Space Marines strike force diverted to assault the
attack was to be conducted by the combined forces of moon of Kritias Secundus. The fighting above Pireaus
the Exorcists and the Red Scorpions Chapters, their V proved particularly fierce, as the defence ships flung
strike force amounting to an effective strength of six themselves almost suicidally against the attackers, scoring
Space Marine companies. The majority of the Space several hits against the oncoming cruisers before being
Marine contingent was made up of fresh reinforcements wiped out. “They fought as if the Tyrant’s Claw was at
of the Exorcists Chapter who Lord Commander Culln their necks, and they feared him far more than mere death
had kept in reserve for this closing stage of the war, at the muzzles of our guns,” as Vice-Admiral Kagawa
although overall tactical command of the assault commanding the Throne of Blood was later to observe.
was taken up by Lord Commander Culln himself. The Imperial Navy ships however were prevented from
achieving their secondary objective of close bombardment
From the start, the invasion of the Pireaus system was of Pireaus V as ground fire from massive emplacements of
subject to reversal and unexpected calamity, this first macro-cannon and defence laser batteries on the surface,
reared its head when one of the Imperial Navy cruisers unpredicted in strength and ferocity, forced the Naval
attached to the task force, the Spear of Mezoa, suffered ships back. Their fury crippling the Tyrant Class cruiser
a catastrophic Geller Field failure as the invasion Gauntlet of Ages when it strayed too close. Elsewhere, in
fleet left the Larsa system to make the Warp transit to orbit of Kritias Secundus, despite strong resistance greater
Pireaus, hurling all onboard screaming to their doom success was found by the Loyalists, and between them
in the Empyrean. Further unexpected turbulence in the the combined might of the Red Scorpions’ Sword of Ordon
usually stable Warp route further disrupted the ill-fated and the Exorcists’ Redeemer smashed aside the moon’s
fleet, damaging and scattering several ships and forcing asteroid forts in short order. Landing zones in the vicinity
the remainder to arrive piecemeal into Realspace at the of the lunar colonies’ main citadels and generatora stations
target system’s edge, further out than had been planned were quickly identified and subjected to preliminary
and scattered over a period of many hours thanks to bombardment before a full-scale Planetstrike was initiated
time distortion effects. Far from their chosen attack via Thunderhawk and drop pod assault. The Space
vector to the system, the Loyalist ships were forced to Marines’ task was to strike hard and with speed to take
reassemble and operate at maximum thruster burn for the lunar colonies and their strategically valuable facilities
a number of days to reach the inner worlds of Pireaus, intact. On landing, the Red Scorpions and Exorcists were
after which time all element of surprise had been lost. immediately met head on by the Tyrant’s Legion in a
strong counter-offensive, their enemy’s numbers increased
With little choice but to press the attack, the Loyalist fleet several fold by indentured workers in crude breather masks
reassembled itself and made best speed to engage. This to protect them from Kritias’ poisonous air, driven on by
fleet included some two battle barges and four strike the use of explosive-collars and armed with little more
cruisers, alongside a single battleship and six cruisers than sharpened tools and crude promethium bombs.

34
35
The Tyrant’s Legion Auxilia and their slave-worker allies The Secessionist armada represented the last excise of
were killed in droves by the assaulting Space Marines their once vaunted naval power. Its flagship was the final
in hectic close quarter fighting, but their numbers alone remaining operable battle barge in the Astral Claws fleet,
slowed the attackers down and prevented them from the mighty and storied Seraph of Judgment, clustered
fanning out to their individual targets as planned. It around which were eight line class vessels. These
was at this point, with the bulk of the Red Scorpions were the last remnants of the Secessionist Chapter and
and Exorcists engaged but effectively bottled into their Maelstrom Squadron fleets, including two strike cruisers,
landing zones, that the Astral Claws’ trap was sprung. the relic Cardinal class heavy cruiser Thoth’s Hound
and the Gothic class cruiser Dreadchild captured from
Previously silent and long concealed ground batteries the Karthan forces seven years before. Alongside this
fired from the depths of the alien forests that covered main force were over sixty other vessels; a ramshackle
the moon, striking down Thunderhawks and landing conglomeration of Chapter escorts, patrol frigates, raider
craft and ripping into the Space Marine ships in close craft of unknown provenance and hastily converted armed
orbit above, their vessels’ bellies exposed as they transports, at least a dozen of which proved to be fire
descended to deploy their deadly cargo. The Sword ships; suicide weapons packed with volatile cargo and
of Ordon barely made it into space and escaped the primitive atomic explosives, and driven before the main
brunt of the barrage, spewing flame and trailing debris fleet. Vice-Admiral Kagawa, assaying the suddenly shifted
from her shattered launch bays, while the Exorcists’ tactical situation realised that if the Tyrant’s fleet could
strike cruiser Aleph Argentium, having moments before take on the two Loyalist forces (both of which had already
deployed its last forces, was caught in a crossfire of sustained damage and expended considerable stocks of
converging plasma streams and exploded showering their ordnance) separately, they might yet attain a crushing
burning wreckage down onto the planet, setting ablaze victory. But if matched against both simultaneously, the
hundreds of square kilometres of the tangled vegetation Loyalists would be far more evenly matched against them.
below. From within the moon’s citadels cannons and He immediately ordered his fleet to maximum velocity and
mortars thundered afresh, pelting the Loyalist Space moved away from the oncoming enemy ships, and via
Marines with missile and shell, indiscriminately targeting coded channels sent a request setting out his assessment
the battles where their own forces were engaged at of the upcoming battle to the Space Marine forces near
close quarters with the Loyalists. This was only a Kritias Secundus – attempting to demand their compliance
heralding barrage however, and from bunkers concealed he realised would be fruitless, and so he appealed to their
beneath the tiered, disk-stacked towers, scores of greatest chance of victory. With communications with the
Land Raider tanks and Rhino transports bearing the ongoing ground war impossible, it was with a heavy heart
insignia of the star-clutching black claw roared forth; that Captain Waite Ryder, the Exorcists’ Master of the Fleet,
the Astral Claws in near-Chapter strength and with their reluctantly agreed with the Vice Admiral’s dire assessment
master, Lugft Huron at their head. Lord Commander of the situation and complied with his plan of feigned retreat
Carab Culln and those that stood with him were and rendezvous. The Space Marine ships withdrew at full
caught between the fire above and the Tyrant below. power, sling-shotting themselves round the gas giant of
Kritias using its gravitational mass to boost their velocity.
The Tyrant, it seems, had long ago divined the
importance of the Pireaus system as a keystone in With their enemies seemingly in full-flight before them
the Badab Sector’s defence and drew his own plans the Secessionist fleet ravaged into the inner system at
accordingly. Likewise through spies and auguries of his full speed, their ships’ differing thrust-forces and the
own, he had been able to anticipate the Loyalists’ plan of general indiscipline of their captains soon rendering their
attack. Whether his decision to lead the counter-attack formation ragged and drawn-out as the slower vessels
personally was a stroke of brilliance or folly can be fell behind and faster raider ships ran ahead. These front
argued in either case, but for all his overweening pride runners started striking at targets of opportunity such as
and black-hearted heresy, Lugft Huron was no coward the ungainly Loyalist rear echelon transports. These now
and a brilliant commander in the field, whose presence, despite fleeing at their best speeds, became easy prey
in and of itself, provided the Secessionist force on Kritias to the hunters, thousands of the embarked troops aboard
Secundus with a great asset in battle. The presence of a dying without ever knowing the cause of their demise. The
concentration of Astral Claws on Kritias, and the secret badly damaged Loyalist Gauntlet of Ages, her captain
upgrading and cunning deployment of its defences had realising that her ship could not keep up with its comrades,
not been the whole of the Tyrant’s strategy either, and turned instead to a glorious and fatal last charge into
within an hour of the hidden guns on Kritias Secundus the teeth of the oncoming enemy, deliberately seeking
opening fire and cutting off the Loyalist spearhead from out and engaging the Secessionist fire ships before they
its supporting ships, the Tyrant’s own war fleet ripped could wreak havoc on the Loyalist main force. Weathering
into Realspace at the edge of the inner Pireaus system. broadside after broadside and engulfed twice by the
What was to follow was to be one of the largest and seething nuclear fire of immolating ships, the Gauntlet of
the last major fleet engagement of the Badab War. Ages still staggered on into the fray, her few remaining
batteries keeping up sporadic fire until the Seraph of
Judgement closed in and crushed her valiant heart.

36
 The Onslaught of the Seraph of
Judgement, The Battle of Pireaus

Below on Kritias Secundus, savage fighting raged on as Huron head on, intercepting the Tyrant’s force at the
two forces of humanity’s greatest warriors clashed without foot of the looming habitation stack the Red Scorpions
mercy. Now outnumbered by an enemy who might was were using to anchor their defence. There, rather than
their match, it was the Loyalists who were pushed back being matched against the Tyrant, Silas Alberec found
into ever narrowing defensive circles amid the stacked himself in a duel with Ancient Kleitor, one of the most
habitation towers and tangled alien forests. With little feared and infamous of the Astral Claws’ Dreadnought
clear line of sight between the combatants, mass bloody brethren, and suffered terrible wounds which crushed
hand-to-hand confrontations and indiscriminate fire at and crippled his Terminator armour before disabling
a half-seen foe were the way of the battle. The Astral the Dreadnought’s motive systems with his relic-mace,
Claws came on in savage and bitter fury, heedless of felling the great beast of Adamantine and Ceramite.
their ‘merely human’ foot soldiers caught between them
and the object of their vengeance. The Red Scorpions As the battle raged on at the foot of the many-tiered tower
met them with righteous hatred of their own, while the stack in a whirlwind confusion of blood and metal, the two
Exorcists displayed their usual unnerving calm in the face masters of war at last found each other, and Carab Culln
of overwhelming force. As in a battle from ancient myth, and Lugft Huron matched their skills in personal combat.
these gods of destruction clashed, and at their fore were This was no organised and formal duel as might be told of
the two masters of the war. Lord Commander Carab Culln in chronicles and legends, but a savage free-for all amid
of the Red Scorpions, stood as an unyielding rock amid a mass combat, with a press of armoured bodies about
the storm of battle on which the enemy broke, and at his them and the air riven with bolt shell and plasma blast. The
side was Sevrin Loth, Chief Librarian of the Chapter, his Tyrant came on in fury, bellowing his hatred and cursing
armour glimmering with baleful light as he rent the foe the Golden Throne bitterly, while Culln fought in grim
asunder with murderous blasts of psychic force. Lugft silence, every ounce of his formidable skill needed to wield
Huron, Tyrant of Badab and master of the Astral Claws, his relic blade to counter the frenzy of blows rained on him
struck the Exorcists line like a thunderbolt, smashing by the Tyrant’s ghostly claw. Only this ancient heirloom
aside Space Marines as if they were pieces on a gaming of his Chapter, the Blade of the Scorpion, seemed proof
board, burning and hacking his way through the crimson against his enemy’s blows, and within moments of Lugft
armoured Exorcists with wild, almost insane, abandon. Huron’s onslaught, Carab Culln had seen his storm bolter
The Tyrant’s blood-spattered personal guard poured into shredded like paper, his Iron Halo flicker and fail and his
the breach behind him, forming a murderous wedge as Terminator armour gouged and slashed in a dozen places.
the Tyrant strove to reach his true and chosen enemy; – The wounds caused by the eerie lighting claw the Tyrant
Carab Culln. Silas Alberec, Captain and commander used were flowing freely with blood in defiance of his
of the Exorcist forces knew that if he were not stopped, Astartes-augmented metabolism. Finally, parting from the
the Tyrant alone might turn the course of the battle and exchange of blows, did Carab Culln answer the Tyrant’s
so opposed him, leading a counter-assaulting force of taunts with accusations of his own, bellowing that Huron
his Chapter’s elite Enochian Guard to confront Lugft was a “...traitor and a cur, a cruel and petty false-king, no

37
 in fast-growing, highly invasive coral like tree
structures which cover most of planet’s surface
in ‘forests’. Indigenous flora can be made edible
with treatment, providing abundant foodstuffs.

Governmental Type: Formerly Oratory

of Guilds, now subject to Secessionist
appointed governor-general.

Planetary Governor: Unknown.

Adept Presence: None; extinguished under

Secessionist control. Formerly minor, including
Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Chantry House. Imperial
Navy tertiary ship yard provender and garrison
company (Maelstrom Squadron detachment).
Planetary Datafax: Kritias Secundus
Military: Formerly the planet maintained a small
Class: Type-IV semi-inhabitable moon, Satellite void-capable planetary defence force, latterly
of Gas Giant Kritias (Pireaus VI), mass .6 T, a Tyrant’s Legion garrison, extent unknown.
(Rotation 22.3 standard hours), 0.87G.
Trade/Economy: Human colonial habitation on
Designation: Industrialised Colony Kritias Secundus has been in operation since at least
M.34, and may in fact predate the colonisation
Population: Currently unknown of the more readily inhabitable Pireaus V. Extant
[Formerly estimeare: 37 million] reasons for this are the moon’s use as a base for
sustained gas mining efforts of its principal sphere,
Tithe Grade: N/A, Formally Exactus Tertius and numerous exotic trace elements found in
surface strata of the planetoid itself. Since the
Climate/Geography/Biosphere: Atmosphere –native advent of the Maelstrom Warders’ control of the
atmosphere is poor in oxygen and rich in carbon region, existing orbital construction and shipyard
monoxide, meaning that human life cannot exist facilities (small scale but of ancient provenance)
without artificial aids. However presence of were co-opted from native control and turned
subsurface water table makes habitation viable over to the use of the Maelstrom Squadron as
with sufficient infrastructure. Extensive native a secondary replenishment and supply base.
non-Terran pseudo plant-life present, particularly

better than a pawn of Chaos” who had “...brought to ruin down a slope of rubble and armoured bodies before
all the Astral Claws had striven and bled for these ages the looming Tyrant whose bitter laughter echoed above
past for corrupt vanity and pride!” The Tyrant of Badab, him. Direly wounded, Culln staggered once more to his
further maddened and howling inarticulately with rage, feet as the battle thundered on, and a new sun burned
charged again at the Red Scorpion, who expecting the in the heavens, raining destruction down on all below.
frenzied attack, deftly turned aside allowing the Tyrant’s
momentum to take his Terminator-armoured bulk past. In the cold darkness of the void above Kritias, battle
Lashing out with the Blade of the Scorpion, he slashed was once again joined between the now concentrated
deeply into the Tyrant’s side, parting his foe’s armour warships of the Imperium and the claw-marked renegades
in a welter of blood. Such a blow should have felled of Badab. The Secessionists both outnumbered the
even the mightiest Space Marine, but it did not slay the Loyalists and outgunned them, but the Loyalists, even
Tyrant of Badab. Lugft Huron wheeled around, his claw though many of their vessels were damaged, had
arcing down, the ghostly blades punching effortlessly the greater number of heavy warships in their line of
through Carab Culln’s breastplate and spearing into his battle, and were far the greater in quality of skilled and
chest, piercing flesh and bone alike. With monumental disciplined crew. The rebel fleet came on in a chaotic and
effort of will Carab Culln fought through his agony and ragged attack column, and this was to prove their undoing
hurled himself backwards onto the bloody ground before as the combined Imperial Navy and Space Marine
the Tyrant could close his clawed fingers and rip out warships formed into tight formation and crossed laterally
the Red Scorpion’s heart. Snarling in pain Culln slid in an oblique pass on the enemy column, maximising

38
their broadsides while the Secessionists could not fully slow moving targets, could not now quickly respond and
bring theirs to bear. In their chaotic counter-attack several panicked when faced with this comet from the heavens,
of the Secessionists’ own outlaying escorts were caught the fire blazing around her shields making the Redeemer
in the line of fire from the cruisers at the centre of the appear as a terrible blazing sun in the sky. Although
column and were destroyed. Both sides took heavy all communications to the surface had been jammed,
damage in this first close pass, but the Secessionists Librarian Taloth of the Exorcists had locked in on the
had the worse of it, with the ill-fated Dreadchild spinning bright soul of Sevrin Loth and the familiar spark of his
out of control from the renegade attack column, fires wounded master Alberec, and so the Redeemer made
burning within her from stem to stern. The courses of for its target. As it rode appallingly low in the skies, its
the two fleets carried them on sweeping away from each armoured belly shearing off the tops of tower-stacks as
other, and so thrusters flaring, they both strained to come it passed, a pressure wave ran before it like a tsunami
about, tightened into concentric turns and came again to and smashed the alien forest flat, toppling buildings
engage head on, weapons blazing, neither side holding and armoured Space Marine alike before its fury. At this
back and each fleet willing to meet victory or defeat in unexpected arrival, the Astral Claws were hurled back
a single, tumultuous clash of the line. The void between amid a storm of dust and debris, and below its sky-
them was split by gouts of fire and bright lances of energy blotting bulk, the battlefield where Culln and the Tyrant
as the two sides hurled all their spite at each other, fought was showered in rubble and flame, parting them
fighter craft tumbling and dying as starships exploded before their combat could reach a final conclusion in
around them in storms of radiation and shrapnel. The either’s favour. Immediately extraction operations got
strike cruiser God Slayer rammed the Thoth’s Hound and under way before the enemy could rally to the defence
broke her back, cleaving the relic-ship in two, while lance as the Redeemer’s guns, designed for the epic battles
strikes bit deep into the Sword of Ordon disabling her of fleet combat, spoke like the voice of an apocalypse,
main guns. The Throne of Blood, her steering shattered rending the ground asunder and pulverising the towers
and spewing fire from scores of craters and wounds on of nearby citadels. In a fraught operation lasting nearly
her flanks, confronted the Seraph of Judgement on a two hours almost three in five of the Loyalist Space
collision course at point blank range. The venerable battle Marines that had made planet fall were recovered,
barge frantically manoeuvred to bring her bombardment although most of them were either casualties or bore
cannon to bear, but the Throne of Blood unleashed a some fresh wound or scar to mark the furious combat
full salvo of melta-headed torpedoes at the last possible they had seen. Not least of the wounded was Lord
moment, their machine-spirits all locked onto the pulsing Commander Culln, who was taken up in the care of his
reactors deep with the battle barge’s hull. In an instant Chapter Apothecaries. The Redeemer, its tortured hull
all became flooded with impossibly bright, burning white and over-taxed engines protesting under the strain, seals
light, and when at last it had faded, a war machine that and bulkheads rupturing up and down her superstructure,
had survived a thousand battles and millennia of war was made exit from the moon’s atmosphere, ground fire
nothing but a smouldering corona of ash and radiation- tracing vengeful streaks behind her, void shields holding
fogged haze, and the Throne of Blood tumbled on, just long enough for the mighty ship to break orbit.
its vast armoured prow replaced with a scorched and
blacked stump. The star battle was won for the Loyalists The invasion of Pireaus was over; both sides claimed
with the death of the Seraph of Judgement but at great a victory and both sides tasted defeat. For the
cost, and there remained a great deal of bloody fighting Secessionists, the Loyalist invaders had been driven
to do as the surviving enemy ships were put to flight or off and not one iota of ground had been surrendered
captured in a series of brutal boarding assaults. Before to them, but in doing so they had gambled the last of
this tangled conflict could be resolved, a single ship broke their once mighty fleet and lost it, and with it any hope
free, its engines blazing far-past their maximum Adeptus of maintaining dominion outside of the Badab system
Mechanicus-proscribed capacity; it was the Redeemer itself. Fatalities on both sides had been appallingly high,
and it was heading directly for Kritias Secundus. and Lord Commander Culln had seen his attacking force
blunted and many of his most powerful ships of the line
Bargaining that the planetary defences would be half- damaged to the extent that might take years to repair.
blinded by the battle above them, Captain Ryder gambled For a brief time some hoped that the Tyrant himself had
all on a dangerous plan to extract the forces stranded been slain in the anarchy of the extraction, but Culln did
below. Of all the Loyalist warships by a combination of not believe it, and he was quickly proved right. The Badab
good fortune and the skill of her master and crew, the War had arguably been won at Pireaus by the Loyalists,
Redeemer was among the least scathed, and its bays but there was one last battle to fight, and that was likely
had been filled with surviving Thunderhawks from across to be the most terrible of all; the final Siege of Badab.
the fleet for the emergency operation. The vast battle The whole system was a heavily fortified death-trap the
barge sliced into Kritias Secundus’ thin atmosphere at likes of which few had ever encountered, but the Tyrant
perilous speed, trusting to its void shields and blessed could not be left alone in his place of power to fester.
hull to keep it from breaking up under the battering force If the invasion of Pireaus had a lesson to be learned, it
of re-entry. As predicated, the ground batteries, which was that the Tyrant should never be underestimated, and
had previously proven deadly against close range and nothing was more dangerous than a cornered beast.

39
40
41
The Silent War sliding into anarchy or succumbing to civil strife as those
03 519 912.M41 in the Galen system had. Information also soon came
After the tumultuous events surrounding the failed to light that the Tyrant’s forces were now falling back to
invasion of the Pireaus system and the unknown status the Badab system itself, stripping defences from worlds
of the Executioners Chapter, the Badab War entered such as Isin and Decabalus and abandoning them to their
a new and uncertain era. The Badab Secessionists fates. While some interdiction was attempted against
were unquestionably at their lowest ebb, but equally the this, the Imperial forces simply didn’t have the available
Loyalist forces were in no position to immediately exploit manpower or ships in the area to prevent less than a
their enemy’s weakness and press the attack. This handful of convoys and transports from conducting the
period of the conflict, which lasted from the aftermath of retreat. Matters became further confused when it appeared
the invasion of Pireaus to the mid-divisions of 912.M41 that some forces of the Tyrant’s Legion, and even some
became known as the ‘Silent War’ as it was composed small splinter groups of Astral Claws had abandoned their
of hundreds of small scale and petty engagements, master, turned fully renegade and made an attempt to flee
cat-and-mouse duels between lone vessels and bloody into the Maelstrom Zone, while once again corsair and
but short-lived skirmishes across the region, many xenos sightings began to increase across the western
of which went all but unreported and unknown. and southern zone. From facing a single unified enemy,
it seemed to the Loyalists that they were on the verge of
The Maelstrom Zone could not be considered pacified being left with many fractured foes whose actions could
by any means despite the sundering of the Secessionist not be readily predicted, potentially spread out over a
domains and it was only the presence of the Loyalist vast area of dangerous wilderness space. If the strategic
detachments of the Minotaurs and Sons of Medusa initiative was lost now or the victory was an incomplete
Chapters that kept the Imperial lines of supply viable. one, some feared, and not without cause, that the conflict
Moreover, it was only the thinly spread Imperial Guard could spawn a spreading slow canker through the region
and Inquisition forces attached to the Loyalist command that might take decades if not centuries to quell.
that kept retaken worlds in the Pale Stars region from

Astral Claws Counter Attack

Force, Kritias Secundus

42
 The Dread Wraith
Legio Crucius,
Mars Pattern Warhound Class Scout Titan

43
 The Pact of Angstrom
Prior relations between Loyalist forces and the notoriously independent Adeptus Mechanicus presence in Angstrom
on the Maelstrom Zone’s eastern border had been troubled at best. Although previously aloof from the conflict, which
they had considered an “internal matter” between Space Marine Chapters which did not concern them, they had
become belligerent to both sides after the notorious ‘Angstrom Incident’ of 908.M41 had provoked them to violence.
A secondary full-scale conflict between Angstrom and the Loyalists had only been prevented from escalating by
direct and terse negotiations between the Archmagos Lords of Angstrom and Legate-Inquisitor Frain. Further to
this, a line of dialogue had remained open between the parties and secret negotiations had been undertaken well
in advance of the grand war council held in 912.M41. What price or concessions were paid for Angstrom’s aid
have never been fully as of yet brought to light, and given that the Adeptus Mechanicus effectively form a ‘mirror’
Imperium of their own, the bargain’s results may have had hidden ramifications far removed from the Maelstrom
Zone. In any case invaluable aid to the Loyalists was indeed granted as the later siege of Badab would prove.

In light of this shifting and uncertain situation, the of battle came. Plans and deployments were quickly
injured but still active Lord Commander Carab Culln formulated and entered into, and warriors and warships
convened a full council of war in 519912.M41 at the newly were swiftly redeployed throughout the Maelstrom
commissioned Imperial battle station complex in the Zone. In accordance with the Loyalists’ newly formed
Vyaniah system to determine a strategy and divine the strategies, and with the hard lesson of Pireaus well
future course of the war. Present were representatives of learned, the ultimate goal of the investiture and siege
all the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters still involved in the of Badab would now be delayed until overwhelming
conflict; Culln’s own Red Scorpions, the Salamanders, forces were available. In the meantime an enhanced
Minotaurs, Exorcists, Carcharodons and Sons of blockade and watch would be maintained there while
Medusa. Despite reservations held by the others, the the Maelstrom Zone was brought better under its heel.
Fire Hawks’ master, the now ailing Stibor Lazaerek, on
whom some stain of blame and suspicion of dissent still The Raptorous Rex, the Fire Hawks’ immense mobile
persisted was also summoned as an equal. Inquisitorial fortress monastery was brought to the Pireaus system
Legate Jarndyce Frain, whose voice was that of the High to form the lynchpin of the reinforced blockade, and on
Lords in the council, served as arbiter, and at Frain’s arrival the Loyalist taskforce found the Pireaus system,
personal invitation a deputation of the Archmagos over which so much blood had recently been shed,
of the forge world of Angstrom was also received, in a half-abandoned shambles. The lunar colonies of
and now welcomed as allies to the Loyalist cause. Kritias Secundus were ravaged and near lifeless, and
Yarrow Station gutted and famine-struck by its former
Along with fresh demands that the Tyrant be cut from masters and its population left to their fate, a fate which
his place of safety on Badab Primaris and brought to the Raptorus Rex’s wrath sealed upon the traitors
the Emperor’s judgement with all despatch, Legate- below by protracted orbital bombardment. Elsewhere in
Inquisitor Frain bought news to the council both good the Maelstrom Zone, the Carcharodons were recalled
and ill. The first order of the council was the acceptance from the Endymion Cluster, their work there done in
of the formal surrender and repentance of the scattered accordance with undertakings given to the Mantis
survivors of the Mantis Warriors Chapter, who had finally Warriors as part of their surrender agreement. Now
submitted themselves before the Legate’s authority to available for redeployment, the Carcharodons’ large
avoid the utter destruction of their worlds. Less welcome fleet, along with ships from the Exorcists and Sons of
news came when Frain further informed the assembled Medusa Chapters were assigned into small battle groups
Space Marine commanders that hoped for reinforcements alongside Imperial Navy scouting vessels and despatched
from the Imperial Guard Segmentum reserves and fresh on independent hunter-killer missions throughout the
warships from the Navy would not be forthcoming, wars Maelstrom Zone in search of targets of opportunity as
and conflicts were everywhere, and matters pressing forces for the final assault were steadily assembled, with
against the Tyranid threat and newly arising xenos powers the Crow’s World system chosen as their rallying point.
to the galactic east claimed priority on all that might be
gathered to the Loyalist cause on short notice. However, Debts of Honour
the Inquisitor’s agents had at last tracked down fresh 03 838 912.M41
allies to whom the Badab conflict would have a far greater With the Badab War drawing to its bloody conclusion, there
resonance than any other concern for reasons of their remained but a few major matters to settle, and for some
own; the darkly legended Star Phantoms Space Marine of those factions involved on the Loyalist side the greatest
Chapter were on their way in full strength and would be of these remained that of the Executioners Chapter. It
with the Loyalists by the year’s turning. Further aid was came to pass that the Sons of Medusa and Carcharodons
provided by the Adeptus Mechanicus of Angstrom who forces began to co-ordinate their efforts to hunt down the
both granted a bounty of arms and munitions and also Chapter, and discover its believed centre of operations in
vowed to aid the Loyalist attack on Badab when the hour the Dene Stellar Drift, with the stated aim of prosecuting a

44
45
Legio Crucius and Sons of
Medusa Purgation Forces,
Sector Manax Industrial Zone,
The Fall of Badab
campaign of annihilation against them. Hearing of this as on the Loyalist side who, though bound to obedience in the
skirmishes and clashes between them began to escalate, matter, would never forget the bad blood between them.
the Salamanders’ Captain Pellas Mir’san was deeply
troubled. He believed that for all their fury and bloodletting Breaking the Ring of Steel
the Executioners had acted with honour during the war, 3 117 913.M41
and moreover, he felt his own Chapter owed them a debt With the arrival of the grim Star Phantoms’ Chapter fleet
not easily repaid following the events of the ‘Red Hour’. carrying a powerful force fully ten companies strong, and
With his own small and battered force renewed by the also a maniple of battle Titans of the Legio Crucius (the
arrival of the Salamanders’ vanguard cruiser Obsidia and Warmongers) brought in by the intervention of the Adeptus
a half-company of Battle Brothers freshly returned from the Mechanicus of Angstrom, and with several heavy warships
Segmentum Solar, Mir’san took it upon himself to seek out such as the Sword of Ordon brought back into full
the leader of the Executioners, Thulsa Kane, and parlay a operation, at last the final siege of Badab could begin. The
negotiated end to the Executioners part in the war. After initial attack itself would not be easy as Badab’s infamous
a questing search along the Maelstrom Zone’s southern ‘Ring of Steel’ space defence globe held sufficient
periphery lasting several standard months, the Obsidia firepower to hold off almost any fleet of attackers and had
rushed to respond to reports of battle joined at the fringes turned the void between its planets into a deadly maze
of the Eridian Cataract and there found the Executioners of minefields and interlocking fire-zones. No star system
battle barge Phaeton’s Wrath and the infamous Night could be made impregnable however as history had proved
Hag hunting down two damaged Sons of Medusa strike countless times, and the Loyalist high command had come
cruisers in the dense asteroid fields and dust clouds of up with an unorthodox plan to sunder the Ring of Steel
the turbulent star system. Acting without second thought with minimal losses, allowing for an immediate planetary
as to his ship’s own safety, Mir’san ordered the Obsidia assault. The key to this plan was twofold and it relied both
interposed between the two warring sides and deactivated on the arcane arts of the Magos of Angstrom and the
its own weapons, demanding that an honourable effects of the Tyrant’s own growing paranoia. The ring of
discourse between brothers take place. After a tense steel’s greatest vulnerability was that it was largely static;
stand-off in which the Loyalist forces came to the brink the positions of its various minefields and massively armed
of warring among themselves, Mir’san was successful in star forts were predicable, and what few defence ships
forcing both sides to stand down and in then negotiating and armed vessels of any size Badab still possessed were
the Sons of Medusa’s departure and the Executioners’ insufficient to turn the tide against a concerted localised
ceasefire, bringing the Night Hag with Kane aboard, under attack. The cornerstone of the outer system’s defence was
the Salamanders’ own personal flag of safety to formal the heavily defended star fortress orbiting Sigma (Badab
parley with the Loyalist command. Their voyage to Crow’s VI). Here Loyalist spies had discovered, at Sentinel-
World was shadowed with the Warp-echoes of prowling Sigma, was the primary node of control, which the Tyrant
Carcharodons warships, but they were not attacked. had placed in the charge of one of the few subordinates
he truly trusted, the infamous Astral Claws Captain
Although many on the Loyalist side were minded to arrest Corien Sumatris. This was done rather than devolve the
or even slay the Executioners on sight while they were star forts and minefields control autonomously in the
in their power, the voice of Pellas Mir’san, a respected hands of scores of commanders he thought unreliable. If
representative of his 1st Founding Chapter was not so Sentinel-Sigma could be taken intact then the legendary
easily dismissed, nor were the likely consequences ‘big guns’ of the Badab system could be silenced.
should blood be shed dishonourably at this juncture.
Lord Commander Culln, seeing the strategic wisdom of On 3117913.M41 the Loyalist assault armada entered
removing the dangerous and unpredictable Chapter all Realspace in the Badab system, high up on the vertical
but bloodlessly from the war, and mindful of the potential plain of the planetary system, directly on an attack course
for further civil strife in his own ranks, acquiesced to for Badab VI. The armada consisted of no fewer than six
Mir’san’s proposals regarding the Executioners, but with a Space Marine battle barges and nine strike cruisers, along
few added caveats of his own. Under terms of honourable with six other Imperial navy ships of the line, an Adeptus
armistice, the Executioners were to end all hostilities and Mechanicus War Caravel and eighty-four escorts and
quit the region of the Maelstrom Zone entirely, never to strike vessels of various classes. At its vanguard was the
return. The bulk of their surviving forces were then to Raptorus Rex, behind which, thanks to the artisanship
travel to their distant home system under oath to remain of the Magos of Angstrom, was towed a burning stellar
there until full judgement could later be passed on their core fragment torn bodily from the Bale Cascade. As
actions by a full Consistorial Court of inquiry. Their leader the war machines of Badab sprang to life in response to
Thulsa Kane, his chosen honour guard and crew, along the threat, thousands of gun batteries powered up and
with the Night Hag voluntarily gave themselves over drifting clouds of assassin mines woke to murderous
to the Salamanders’ custody and were interned at the intent, but as their auger beams and targeting sensoria
Salamanders’ Chapter world of Nocturne until the end swept the onrushing armada, it was already too late to
of the war. The Salamanders Chapter themselves would prevent what was to happen next. Swiftly reaching terminal
from this point stand as guarantor of the Executioners’ velocity, the ponderous cyclopean bulk of the Raptorus
compliance and conduct, although there remained those Rex engaged its main drive at maximum power to alter

46
course, straining against inertia to allow the hellish fire of There was no relenting from the apocalyptic cataclysm
the stellar fragment to pass it by on its collision course with the Loyalists had unleashed, and hard on the wake of
the Sentinel-Sigma battle station, while the Loyalist armada the energy storm came the Angels of Death. Boarding
fell into a spearhead formation a safe distance behind. torpedoes and assault rams smashed into the reeling
Sentinel-Sigma, carrying with them the might of the Sons
The Sentinel-Sigma station had no hope of escaping the of Medusa and Exorcists Chapters, and were met in deadly
path of the rogue star fragment in time and faced certain combat amid the station’s vaults and corridors by battle
destruction should it impact. If it fell, a yawing gap would servitors and the suicidal fury of the vaunted Astral Claws
be blown clear through the ring of steel and the control hub 2nd Company and their master, the arch-swordsman Corien
for the entire outer-system defences would be annihilated Sumatris. As this action raged the battle barges Sword
at a stroke. Soon every weapon on the defence line within of Ordon and the Star Phantoms’ Memento Mori led a
range and resolution of the immense tumbling fireball wing of strike cruisers to assault the burned and blinded
let loose. Tens of thousands of mass-driven projectiles, star fort network at point-blank range, taking one after the
torpedoes and macro shells filled the void hurtling towards other intact in a series of brutal boarding assaults which
the dense, amorphous mass of nuclear plasma and left none they found within alive. Meanwhile the Minotaurs
elemental force. Most were spent fruitlessly, exploding and carried out strikes upon the system’s other inhabited
incinerating in its superheated corona before they could spheres Badab Secundus and Rigeal, decapitating
reach its core. Blinded by the light of this new and terrible their governments and military commands with brutal
star careering towards them, the weapons of the ring of efficiency. Lord Asterion Moloc, the darkly famed master
steel could not clearly see, let alone target the oncoming of the Minotaurs, hurled the members of Secundus’
armada, and legions of mines and weapons platforms, ruling satrapy from the spire of its oratory-cathedral. This
their targeter-arrays maddened by the conflagration set he did after impaling the Astral Claws Chaplain Varna
upon each other and set off waves of atomic detonations Sabin to the front of his personal Land Raider transport
through the void, lighting up the skies of the inner worlds as an example to traitors of the fate that awaited them.
with an omen of coruscating fire. Only at near point-
blank range did the defence lasers and arc-cannon of the When at last Vaylund Cal, Iron Thane of the Sons of
star forts begin to take a toll on the burning mass, their Medusa communicated from atop a mound of broken
beams tearing gouts of burning matter clear, until at last bodies that Sentinel-Sigma was theirs, he was joined via
they punched their way deep into the unstable core and teleporter by the Mechanicus Lords of Angstrom. Within
the fragment was rent apart in a great wave of energy hours, they had achieved what Lugft Huron and his court
which washed over the Sentinel-Sigma, painting its failing had considered unthinkable; the subjugation of the station’s
void shields with lambent flame and burning through Silica Animus, and with it access to the many machine
defence ships and fighters in a torrent of destruction. spirits and weapons slaved to it. Incontrovertible override
and destruct signals were sent out across the void. A

Minotaurs Chapter Assault,

Badab Secundus

47
 Star Phantoms Chapter Forces
Saint Caracal’s Plaza
The Battle of the Palace of
Thorns

function only possible because of the possessive paranoia the High Guard orbital fortress in concert with the smaller
of a single man to control a system so large. In response Fire Hawks and Sons of Medusa contingents. For the
to the command the outer Badab system became a sea second, the Carcharodons would descend in full force to the
of fire. The ring of steel was shattered, and only Badab surface of Badab Primaris’ hives to crush any opposition.
Primaris and the defences that encircled it remained. The third and most vital attack force would be formed by
the bulk of the Star Phantoms, some seven companies
The Final Assault in strength, assisted by heavy assault elements drawn
3 118 913.M41 from across the Loyalist Chapters and Inquisitorial storm
With the star system now under Loyalist control and trooper companies. This would take the battle to the
surviving defence ships hunted down and destroyed, heart of the foe and besiege the Palace of Thorns itself.
deployments were quickly put into place to surround and
besiege Badab Primaris, with the ships of the Exorcists The attack was heralded by waves of orbital bombardment
Chapter along with the Imperial Navy detachments and hurled debris from orbit sent to sow havoc below as
breaking off to blockade the star system to ensure none weapons fire split the heavens above Badab Primaris.
would escape what was to come. The assault from orbit The sable form of the Momento Mori led the attack and
against Badab Primaris was to have been spearheaded was rocked with explosions as it breached the upper
by the Raptorus Rex, but that was no longer possible, the atmosphere, its own cannons roaring in answer and vortex
strain of the core fragment attack having caused significant missiles screaming out from its weapons decks to rip great
structural damage which destabilised the engines of the wounds in the planet’s crust. Behind the dauntless battle
vast craft making close-orbital operations impossible. The barge dozens of other warships swept low to unleash their
guns of Badab Primaris were still to be greatly feared and it deadly cargo. Blazing bright lances of energy pierced
was a forlorn hope that even a Space Marine battle barge upwards and the skies darkened as wave after wave of
would survive long if they could not be silenced quickly drop pods painted in midnight black and cold grey rained
by orbital counter-battery fire. The Star Phantoms had down in precisely executed assaults. Brighter yet, from the
asked for and been granted the glory of leading the first halo edge of space, the Carcharodons’ relic-flagship Nicor
wave, and it was their ancient battle barge the Memento unleashed the vast plasma-destructor weapon concealed
Mori which would be first to brave the guns of Badab. in its belly and burned a great trench in Badab’s surface,
sundering the bastion wall of Primaris’ main city, Hive
Further hazard to the assault was presented by the High Dominar, and soon after Thunderhawks and assault rams
Guard orbital station which the Astral Claws had first spiralled down to exploit the breach. Such was the burning
used as a fortress monastery before Lugft Huron had pall of smoke, swirling cinder ash and choking dust that
descended to take over the Palace of Thorns below. The came up, night fell over Badab’s northern continent as
hastily revised attack plan was to be a three-pronged the siege assault raged, the darkness riven with meteoric
offensive. The first axis of attack would be formed by two streaks of flame as wreckage fell from high above.
companies of Star Phantoms Space Marines attacking

48
A full hour had passed since the first shots were fired and seen and at every turn the Star Phantoms encountered
still the defence batteries had not yet been fully silenced, death-traps and heavily defended gun positions. They fought
but many were now choked off or destroyed. Troop ships brutal close range engagements with Astral Claws assault
and Thunderhawks continued to descend perilously through squads who counter-attacked them from concealed sally-
the storm of smoke and fire, ferrying their reinforcements ports paying in blood for every advance. Further in, Land
and heavy armour down to the tumult of battle. Deeming Raiders and Predators spilled from underground bunkers in
the approach now safe, like a hammer of the gods, the defence of the citadel’s shield wall, their power matched by
colossal landing craft of the Legio Crucius fell to earth the deadly accurate fire of Star Phantoms Devastator squads
outside Hive Dominar, their impact sending a powerful and Dreadnoughts firing from the shattered towers they had
tremor-shock through the ground, bringing yet more of already stormed. The siege soon descended into a bloody
the breached bastion wall tumbling down. Vast armoured meat-grinder as the wide-open plazas that ringed the citadel
doors opened and slammed buildings flat as Titans became lethal killing grounds which offered scant cover
walked on Badab, their bellowing sirens echoing like the to attacker or defender alike. For every two gun-ziggurats
clarion call of doom come for the beleaguered world. that were taken by the Star Phantoms, another held out or
was re-taken by counter assault, and soon the siege lines
The assault moved into its second and then third hour without became a confused anarchy where the enemy could be
any sign of relenting and soon Hive Dominar had become a encountered on all sides. Slowly though the bloody siege
city of death. Within its hundreds of kilometres of multi-tiered of the Palace’s outer precincts began to tip in the Loyalists’
roadways and vast, arched habitation towers, the Tyrant’s favour, as making their way up the volcanic ridges, storm
Legion fought an insane and desperate battle against the grey trooper reinforcements joined the fray allowing the Star
giants that had come among them. Transit junctions were Phantoms to press the attack, while Loyalist Terminator
soon clogged with burning vehicles and shattered rubble, and squads locked on to the Star Phantoms’ teleport homers
for the wretched civilians trapped within the doomed hive, were despatched to the surface from strike cruisers braving
there was nothing for them but terror and death. Offered no the much reduced ground fire. But despite the massive force
chance of surrender or survival, the soldiers of the Auxilia brought to bear against it still the citadel held. The Palace
bitterly fought on as best they could as the Carcharodons of Thorn’s lightning field remained un-breached, and attack
fell on them with nightmarish fury, savagely hacking through after attack was hurled away from its citadel by murderous
their defence lines and leaving nothing but torn bodies and counter-attack as deadly fire rained down from the walls.
shattered war machines in their wake. In the face of the The attackers’ losses mounted steadily and even the Reaver
unstoppable grey-red tide that had come upon them, all Titans of the Legio Crucius alongside fresh Sons of Medusa
pretence of command and control within the Tyrant’s Legion detachments could not force the issue. Indeed the first Titan
rapidly broke down as vox-sets uttered nothing but screams to attempt the attack was disabled as it sought to lend its
and unanswered pleas for mercy. Fires began to spread out of firepower to the assault, its command deck gutted by a well-
control and the carnage was only worsened as those isolated placed conversion-beamer blast in the shadow of the citadel.
Legion redoubts and tank squadrons that still survived began The siege of the Place of Thorns was at a lethal impasse.
to shell indiscriminately into the shadows of buildings. Their
desperate and chaotic attacks were in the vain hope of fighting As true night fell over Hive Dominar and the Palace of
an enemy that came at them with terrifying speed only to fade Thorns, the fighting and killing went on unabated, spreading
away and strike again, each time leaving fewer and fewer alive. out to the planet’s sub-hives and industrial zones. The pall
of smoke from Badab’s burning cities thickened the night
To the north-east of Hive Dominar lay the Palace of Thorns. to an umbral black deep enough to fog the auspexes of the
Built into a mountainous volcanic plateau that rose high above ships in orbit; and the planet to them becoming a mass of
the level of the hive city, it comprised a hulking, ornate citadel indistinguishable heat blooms from the fires below. Titans
surrounded by wide statue-lined plazas and minaret-capped stalked the benighted and ruined cityscapes, their powerful
gun towers studded with defence lasers and flak batteries. weapons lighting up the darkness like thunderstorms
This was the heart of the Astral Claws’ domain and the lair as their footfalls shook the earth. Crushing any hint of
of the Tyrant of Badab. Above the Palace complex’s centre resistance they encountered and systematically smashing
an actinic-bright lighting shield rippled and clashed in the manufactora and habitation blocks, the Titans’ machine
air; a vast charged power-field that disintegrated anything it spirits and crews revelled in the desolation they brought,
touched and shrugged off even the firepower of the warships driving waves of screaming refugees and routed Legion
above. The plazas and weapons batteries that spread out troopers before them in a disordered swarm. Meanwhile the
beyond the Palace were not so impervious however, and it Carcharodons haunted the shadows of the Badab Hives
was into them the Star Phantoms descended with unmatched like blood-painted grey spectres, the city was theirs.
precision and timing, their drop pods smashing down through
the ornate sepulchres and toppling needle-thin auspex- Of Lugft Huron’s actions during this long night of destruction
masts as they descended. Despite the blizzard of fire that little can be said for certain. Some reports have the
had greeted them, over five hundred Battle Brothers out of Tyrant sighted almost everywhere in the defence of the
the seven hundred strong force survived to make landfall, Palace, hurling back the rent and shattered bodies of his
and now they set about besieging the heavily protected enemies, roaring his defiance, while other tales place
Palace. The combat was as fierce as any the Chapter had him alone and silent in the throne chamber, impassively

49
The Warmongers kinship the Legio Crucius became involved in the Badab
The Titan Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus are War’s savage closing battles. The Legio Crucius forces
among the most powerful military entities within the deployed to the siege of Badab Itself comprised three
Imperium of Man. Ancient and implacable, the Titan war full maniples of Titans, some fifteen machines in all
machines they command are colossal engines of war, commanded by the Warlord Class Titan Hell’s Daughter
rightly known as God-Machines to some, the smallest and the High Princeps Cadmon Krom. The Titans’
of which are mighty enough to destroy an entire tank principal task in the battle was to smash heavy defence
squadron in a span of seconds or level a city block. Each points in Badab Primaris’ hive cities and industrial
Titan Legion is its own warrior order inextricably linked zones and crush major pockets of resistance where
to the forge world (or worlds) on which it is based, fierce encountered, a mission they took to with great relish,
and proud, with its own historic alliances and rivalries, fully living up to their Legio’s long-standing reputation
and its own unique character. as savage city-breakers and world burners, accounting
for untold casualties and devastating the remaining
The Legio Crucius, known more colloquially as the Secessionist heavy armoured forces. The Legio suffered
‘Warmongers’ in the Low Gothic by the Imperium’s only three losses during the engagement despite the
other armed forces, have their great Perceptory and heavy resistance they encountered, and managed to
base of operations at Ryza, a major forge world within recover all but one of the wrecked Titans in the anarchic
the Segmentum Solar whose arts and sophistication retreat from the planet.
some claim is second only to those of Mars itself. It
is then unsurprising perhaps that the Legio Crucius,
whose associations with Ryza are said to predate the
Great Crusade, are renowned as one of the most well-
equipped Titan Legions in service, and sufficient in
number to provide garrison forces for sevteral smaller
outlying forge worlds and Adeptus Mechanicus outposts
whose Magos maintain fealty or alliance to Ryza and
its masters. One such world was Angstrom, the highly
independent and militant minor forge world situated at
the edge of the Maelstrom Zones, and by this web of
Legio Crucius Icon

War Maniple
Secutar
(Ventator subtype
deployment)
Spearhead Titan
attack on Hive
Dominar, The Fall
of Badab

Primus Secutar Astramos Mortis Æternem

Wolfshead Black Strider Blood of Caldos

50
 The ‘Astramos Mortis Æternem’
Legio Crucius Mars Pattern Reaver Titan
Primus Engine, War Maniple Secutar
The Fall of Badab

51
 391,384,887,598//584 XP:4
[1v1//54/S.102] 933.M41
The catacomb tunnel was narrow and filled with smoke, but his helm’s respirator cleared it easily, and the air brought
with it the taste of scorched flesh and cindered stone. Just as easily his augmented sight pierced the dust and smoke
and made out the shape of a larger junction chamber beyond.
Veteran Sergeant Wotan raised his gauntleted hand and the Star Phantoms behind him fell still. Above them the
labyrinthine halls and galleries of the Palace of Thorns shook and thundered, and dust rained down as another
titanic blast struck the citadel. The boosted auspex in his other hand rolled with static, its signal strangled by the
basalt block walls and the ionising radiation that flooded the sub-levels. A flicker, there for a second, and then gone; a
heavy contact, ahead of them in the catacombs on the other side of the junction chamber.
He gestured rapidly with his raised hand, flashing a complex pattern in the Chapter’s own battle-sign –an invaluable
tool on a battlefield where vox-signals were easily compromised and the enemy were once brothers.
Wotan’s instructions were simple and quickly obeyed; advance immediatly and engage, trap the enemy in the confines
of the tunnel before they could do the same to Wotan’s squad.
The six Star Phantoms fanned out, silent but for the crunch of their armoured boots on the dusty mosaic floor. As a
Chapter they knew no battle cry nor needed one to vent their martial spirit, their gift was death and all were welcome
in its cold embrace.
The enemy rose up from the smoke, hulking figures of crimson-daubed tarnished steel, shadowy mirrors to the Star
Phantoms’ pale armoured forms, armed and armoured as they were; it was if they fought themselves reflected as
through a glass darkly.
The moment’s illusion ended as blades crashed sending sparks fountaining and bolt shells screaming through the air
a hand’s breadth away from Wotan’s helm, the Astral Claws’ bellowing roars answered only by grim silence as the
dying began.
Wotan backhanded a parry with his gun hand against the Astral Claw that lunged to meet his charge. Turning
into the blow, Wotan brought up his sickle-blade power sword and opened up the enemy before him from crotch to
gullet, the stench of molten metal and bloody steam washing over him as he kicked his foe away. Moving again bolt
shells smashed into his shoulder pouldron as he located his next target and a frag grenade went off nearby, the flash
and sound washing over him like water. Two steps later Wotan was down on one knee, the muzzle of his bolt pistol
pressed against the temple of a wounded Astral Claw who was struggling to rise. He pulled the trigger once and the
traitor’s shattered faceplate bounced off the mosaic floor amid a black liquid rush.
His autosenses told him two of his squad were slain, but his alacrity had been rewarded and the enemy’s tally of dead
was much higher.
A sudden movement glimmered in the dark, a fast moving bulk, almost too fast to be a Space Marine, came at him.
Only his enhanced reflexes prevented the swinging thunder hammer from pulverising him where he stood. Instead the
black armoured body hit him square on and he was shunted off his feet and thrown to the floor. He rolled twice and
slammed into the chamber wall, the force of the running figure had hit him like a mag-train!
In an instant he took in the armoured form that had struck him down. The black of its armour marked it different
from the rest, and tattered prayer scrolls and purity seals fluttered from rents in the Space Marine’s ceramite plating
which opened to gaping bloody wounds. On the black-armoured Space Marine’s shoulder was the scoured remains
of white chequy and a red symbol, which was enough to confirm Wotan’s suspicions. The murderous figure whirled
again and let out a cry, as much of anguish as rage, and brought the hammer down on the back of one of Wotan’s
Star Phantoms who was trading blows with an enemy of his own. There was an explosive crack as the backpack was
smashed to pieces and the hammer crushed the life from the Star Phantom who then collapsed like a bundle of rags.
Still in his prone position against the wall Wotan calmly ejected the half-spent magazine from his bolt pistol and fed
in another, slipping the fire selector to ‘storm’. Taking careful aim he waited for the black armoured Space Marine
to wheel around again in search of another victim and chose his moment precisely. A tongue of flame lashed from the
pistol’s muzzle and the explosive bolts flew straight and true into the exposed joint at the back of his enemy’s knee,
which came apart in a gout of shrapnel and clotted flesh, dropping Wotan’s target onto his back.
Wotan rose again to his feet and reclaimed his power sword from where it had buried itself in the mosaic floor. As the
weapon hummed to life in his gauntleted hand he thought “Even angels may fall.” He gave no sound as he swung the
blade down.
[1v1//48/S.50] 933.M41

Al 42
Rud 613

52
watching the destruction of all he had wrought in the more than a rubble-strewn butcher’s yard. At the height of
flickering light of his holo-sphere. Regardless of the this desperate last battle at the palace, Lugft Huron was
truth, what can be accurately said is that no Astral Claw mortally wounded by the dying Star Phantoms’ Captain
surrendered to their fate. Each fought to the end, whether Zhrukal Androcles. Records recovered after the clash
at the Palace of Thorns, in the hive cities of Badab or from the auto-sense logs of the Star Phantoms indicate a
in defence of the High Guard orbital station, the Astral brutal melee erupting between Androcles’ forces and the
Claws sold their lives in a blaze of fury and spite. Tyrant’s personal guard to their near mutual destruction
in one of the Palace’s deep sub-levels, and it is likely
At the dawn of the second day of the assault, the Huron’s party were attempting to flee to a concealed
Carcharodons took matters in their own hands to bring escape craft via the sub-surface. Captain Androcles was
about the end. Assigned by Lord Commander Carab struck down by the Tyrant in the confrontation, who in
Culln the task of attacking the planet’s infrastructure and his arrogance strode over the fallen hero believing him
preventing an organised defence from taking root, they dead. As his life bled from him, the grimly determined Star
had devised their own plan of doing so, and set their own Phantom’s Captain succeeded in discharging his combi-
deadly measure to the extremes to which they would go. melta at the looming figure of Lugft Huron at point blank
Having ravaged the Tyrant’s Legion forces defending range. The melta-blast struck the arcane lighting claw the
the cities and setting the hives ablaze, they continued to Tyrant habitually wore which catastrophically exploded
the final stage of their plan and despatched strike teams unleashing a baleful pulse of energy. This blast incinerated
deep into the hive sub-surface. There they sabotaged the Tyrant’s arm and much of his right side, and the
the vast and ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors remnants of his burning armour collapsing to the ground
which powered the hives and fed the hungry planetary was the last image recorded by the fallen captain’s auto-
defence batteries with energy. Across Badab Primaris senses. Soon afterward, when a second Star Phantoms
power failed or suddenly spiked adding to the chaos, squad entered the vault, they found the bloody remains
and slowly, with inexorable horror, the hives began to of the melee, along with shrapnel and organic detritus
quake and the towers of Badab toppled like felled trees. later identified by the Magos Biologis of the Consistorial
Silently and in good order, the Carcharodons began to Court as belonging to the Tyrant. The bulk of Lugft Huron’s
withdraw from the surface, the fatal blow struck, the God body however was not found, nor were any remains that
Emperor’s judgement on treacherous Badab delivered. could be later identified as belonging to the Astral Claws
Master of the Forge, Armenneus Valthex, who had also
Few realised just what had begun, and at the Place of been present in the combat. Further investigation of the
Thorns the sudden destabilisation of power had offered matter or deeper exploration of the lower levels of the
the Loyalists a much needed opening in which to strike. As Palace of Thorns proved impossible however as the wider
the lightning field and the citadel’s other defences flickered situation on Badab Primaris began to deteriorate rapidly.
for a moment before drawing power again from their own
reactors, a Star Phantoms assault force managed to Beneath the hives of Badab Primaris, the cascading
breach the lower level bunker network and catacombs. destruction of the deep-sunk reactor cores was taking
With Captain Zhrukal Androcles at its head, this force its toll. Tectonic shocks and volcanic eruptions were
of assault-equipped Space Marines and Terminators increasing at an exponential rate and entire hive sectors
finally forced their way into the citadel and the heart of collapsed into gaping maws that opened in the ground
the enemy. The Star Phantoms assault was brutal and beneath them to be replaced by seas of lava. The
relentless, its passage blasted through by thunder hammer campaign of purgation and conquest on Badab quickly
rent bulkheads and charge-blown walls, while the Astral devolved into anarchic retreat and many were caught in
Claws that fought against them were the most fanatical and the path of destruction. Wherever they could be found
hate-filled of their breed – their crimson-splattered armour interface vessels of any and all kinds were commandeered
devoid of any sign of their former service as defenders of by Loyalist and renegade alike in a desperate effort to flee.
the Imperium. Chain-blades flashed and bolters roared
in the closest of confines in the under-citadel as the In the anarchy and ruin that followed the fall of the hive
ossuaries of the Astral Claws’ Chapter were blasted apart cities, the air was filled with toxic ash and fallout, and
as each side slaughtered the other in the hellish struggle. the majority of the planet’s population are estimated to
have been exterminated within a few standard days.
All over Badab the ground began to quake and Confusion reigned in the wreckage-strewn system.
shudder as high above in orbit auguries registered Several Loyalist transports were also shot down by the
the massive tectonic upheaval in the planet’s sub- blockade ships, and it is believed that at least one small
hive structures radiating out across ancient geological Warp-capable privateer vessel managed to escape
fault lines, spewing molten magma and radioactive the Badab system into the Warp. Later intelligence
ash up from the earth. Badab Primaris began to die. reports suggest that less than two hundred Secessionist
survivors were on board, led by Armenneus Valthex
At the Palace of Thorns, the bastion wall was finally and carrying with them their master’s broken body.
breached, collapsing the lightning shield. The Star
Phantoms stormed the citadel, much of which was now no The Badab War was over.

53
 The Star Pahntoms make
landfall on Jahga

Trial and Punishment Secession guilty in breaking with both the Codex and
2 895 913.M41 the ancient covenant it represented. In punishment all
In the aftermath of the death of Badab Primaris, the surviving Astral Claws in Imperial custody were then put
remaining Astral Claws, Executioners, Mantis Warriors to the sword, blindfolded and shackled in dishonour. It
and Lamenters were put on trial before a specially was further judged that the other surviving Secessionist
convened Consistorial Court of their peers with their Chapters would have to each undertake a one hundred
very existence at stake. Despite the attempts of Legate year penitent crusade to atone for their transgressions,
Frain to have the matter placed fully under Inquisitorial and must do so without the right to recruit new brethren
remit, a conclave of five Space Marine Chapter Masters during this time. Their future survival or destruction was left
whose forces were not part of the conflict were convened then in their own hands, and in the grace of the Emperor.
in judgement in accordance with Astartes tradition.
Representatives of those that fought on both sides went In addition, the Mantis Warriors would henceforth lose
on to give evidence to the court. Particularly noteworthy all rights to their ancient domains in the Endymion
was the testimony of Captain Mir’san of the Salamanders, Cluster, with their goods and chattels given over to the
speaking out in eloquent and moving defence of the Fire Hawks in perpetuity, and likewise the Lamenters
Executioners Chapter’s honour, if not their actions. Chapter were condemned to surrender reparations in
Also heard at length was the now near-dead Master of ships and wargear to the Minotaurs (this in essence
the Fire Hawks, Stibor Lazaerek, and his bitter calls to being no more than a rubber-stamp approval of actions
eradicate the vanquished foe without exception garnered already taken place). The Executioners Chapter in contrast
some sympathy from the tribunal. The last to testify was were granted a measure of comparable clemency, and
Legate-Inquisitor Frain himself, whose impassioned and their twin Chapter worlds were given over in trust to the
wise words called on the assembled Chapter Masters Salamanders Chapter and their own successors rather
to weigh both the deeds of men and the will of the than forfeited entirely, to be returned to them should they
Emperor, and heed the judgment of history on them. endure their hundred year act of contrition and survive.

A judgement was passed by unanimous verdict confirming As to the men and women of the Maelstrom Zone, caught
the Astral Claws as traitors most foul, guilty of taking up up in a decade of calamity and bloodshed, their lives now
arms against the Imperium and deceitfully causing their belonged to the Administratum. Alongside them were the
brethren to do likewise. The Consistorial Court also found Adeptus Mechanicus and Inquisition, both of which had
all of those Chapters who had taken part in the Badab their own interests to serve and all would have their due.

54
 The Star Phantoms’ Prize Before departing the Maelstrom Zone, the Carcharodons
4 995 913.M41 fleet returned to the Endymion Cluster. There, with the
As a bloody prize and in recognition for their efforts in the agreement of the Fire Hawks, they struck at the Tranquility
war’s brutal closing act, the badly mauled Star Phantoms system, whose worlds were once the primary recruiting and
Chapter were given the somewhat pyrrhic reward of training grounds of the Mantis Warriors Chapter. From these
dominion over the once proud Badab Sector, along with the worlds they harvested an entire generation to renew their
task of policing its survivors by edict of Legate-Inquisitor own losses, forcing those selected to fight to the death to
Frain. This reward was somewhat of a hollow one, as prove their worth in order to survive in the Carcharodons’
the Star Phantoms Chapter had been reduced to under brethren. Thus paid in blood, the Carcharodons fleet
a third of its former strength by the fighting, and its new departed, the last known sighting of them made by an
domains were little more than a kingdom of ashes. The Star Explorator augery-beacon, which marked them tacking
Phantoms, however, long fleet-based after the loss of their course through the Warp, ascending the galactic plane into
former home world centuries before, grasped this laurel of the blackness of the outer void once more.
victory as their just and long-laboured for reward. Given the
pick of the sector’s worlds, they chose to bring down their Expurgation
badly damaged battle-barge Memento Mori on the surface 1 009 915.M41
of the ice moon of Jahga in the Archaea system (which had On returning to Holy Terra, and with his last act before he
been all but untouched by the conflict) to serve as the core discharged his legatine authority, Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain
of their new fortress monastery and slowly began to rebuild. ordered an Edict of Obliteration to be carried out under
the auspices of the Adeptus Terra in regards to the Astral
The Sorrow of Tranquility Claws, the Tiger Claws and their master Lugft Huron. The
5 997 913.M41 task therefore began of wiping their accursed name and
With the arrival of a fresh Imperial Navy task force their sins from the pages of Imperial history. Sanitised and
redeployed to be based at Vyaniah, and Adminstratum altered versions of the events of the war began to enter
auditors emplaced on Sagan, the other Loyalist Space the official record, distorting nomenclature and reference
Marine forces having completed their operations in the as the first stage of eventual total purgation, while an
Maelstrom Zone, began to depart for their Chapter worlds Inquisition enforced data-pogrom to unmake extraneous
and wars afresh. The care of the Maelstrom Zone was now or morally unworthy facts concerning the Badab War was
in other hands and the province of new masters. conducted. The eye of the Imperium moved on.

It was only when the Sword of Ordon, the last of the

Loyalist battle barges, was taking leave to depart Vyaniah
on the long voyage back to Zabeaus Minoris, that news
reached the system of a dark fate that had befallen the
Tranquility system.

Black heart
5 113 927.M41
Maelstrom
Attacks from corsair forces operat ing in and around the
gh other than the Pale Stars region,
worsened considerably, althou
largel y (and it appear s delibe rately)
the rest of the Maelstrom Zone
agents sent into the region began
remained unaffected. Vessel s and
ing within
to uncov er rumours of a power ful new corsair lord operat
nd of crimso n-daub ed renega de Space
the Maelstrom, leading a warba
ance to any prior known factio n and
Marines seeming to owe no allegi
feroci ty and tactic al discipl ine.
operat ing with extraordinary
’.
The corsair lord is said to style himself ‘Huron Black heart

form by some foul agency?

Can it be true, can the Tyrant of Badab yet live, at least inishsome
to claim it cannot be so.
tmar
I have seen too many mira cles both wondrous and nigh
Are we, Mankind, then doome d to be always the father of our own torment,
the genesis of our own destruction, time and time again?
God Emperor help us – ever has it been so.

55
Extract of Chronological events to be excised [Locus Maelstrom Zone]

Circa 720.M40-580.M41 [The Predations of the Maelstrom]

Throughout the later M40 and early M41, the Imperium suffers an upsurge in attacks by malignant forces originating
from within Maelstrom, a massive and ancient stellar/warp vortex near the galactic core. Imperial control over the
economically important frontier region, known as the Maelstrom Zone, begins to dangerously slip.

577.M41 [The Death of Cygnax]

The heavily militarised Hive World of Cygnax, long a lynchpin of Imperial control in the Northern Maelstrom Zone,
succumbs to corruption from within and attack from without. Despite the intervention of the Mantis Warriors Space
Marine Chapter, the death cults gained access to part of the planet’s defence missile silo network. The resulting atomic
winter, radioactive fallout and tectonic upheavals annihilated all life on Cygnax, effectively collapsing Imperial control of
the northern Maelstrom Zone.

587.M41 [The Warder Chapters are Assigned]

In response to an Edict Imperialis pronounced by the High Lords of Terra, the order is given to permanently base several
Space Marine Chapters in the region in order to protect the Imperium’s borders and pacify the Maelstrom zone. The
Astral Claws Chapter are given the high honour of commanding the newly constituted Maelstrom Warders, a deployment
which is also to include the fleet-based Lamenters and Charnel Guard Chapters and is also to incorporate the Mantis
Warriors. Once established, the Warders quickly stabilize the surrounding area and purge the inner zone of heretical and
xenos elements. The wealth of the Maelstrom Zone flows into the coffers of the Imperium.

640-651.M41 [The Scourge Campaign]

The Astral Claws and their allies conduct a series of major combat operations designated the Scourge Campaign, striking
deep into the heart of the Maelstrom and taking the battle to the foe. Despite their successes, their efforts are curtailed
when the Charnel Guard Chapter is abruptly withdrawn from the Maelstrom Zone entirely. The Astral Claws petition for
a replacement Chapter to be assigned to the Warders in due course, but are denied.

681.M41 [The Unhallowed Heart]

A previously unknown space hulk, designated Unhallowed Heart appears at the edge of the Maelstrom. It draws
into orbit around the world of Eshunna and fully a quarter of the population die in a single long night, falling victim
to a wave of mass suicides, murderous rampages and wanton hysteria. The Lamenters succeed in destroying it but
subsequent Ordo Malleus investigation is critical of the Chapter for not destroying the hulk as soon as possible at the
planet’s expense. A judgement that is greeted with some fury by the Lamenters.

715.M41 [The Battle of Hellsiris]

The Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, Rovik Blake, who has led the Chapter for the last two centuries, falls in single
combat with the Ork Warboss Vorg Manburna at the Battle of Hellsiris deep within the Maelstrom. On their return to
Badab, Lugft Huron, captain of the Astral Claws 3rd Company is appointed Chapter Master by popular acclaim of his
peers, becoming by far the youngest warrior in the Chapter’s history to attain this rank.

718.M41 [The Tyrant of Badab]

After a failed palace-coup on Badab Primaris leads to an abortive civil war on the hive-world, the Astral Claws step in
and brutally crush the conflict. The Space Marines swiftly impose order executing much of the planet’s ruling class, in
the aftermath Lugft Huron takes on the mantle of planetary ruler as well for the better protection of the Badab sector,
styling himself the Tyrant of Badab. Huron’s power is further cemented by the creation of what becomes known as ‘The
Tyrant’s Legion’ in a massive re-organisation of the uneven and often isolationist native planetary defence forces in the
Badab Sector and nearby worlds.

723-900.M41 [The Astral Claws Gene-Seed Tithe Falters]

The regular Astral Claws Gene-seed submission to the Magos Invigila of the Adeptus Mechanicus becomes infrequent
and incomplete, although cause for concern, such matters are not uncommon involving Space Marine Chapters
particularly deployed to border areas or on crusade.

729.M41 [The Astral Claws Petition Holy Terra]

Lugft Huron’s servants deliver formal document of petition to the High Lords making a detailed case for completely
purging and subduing the Maelstrom and the surrounding area. In order to achieve this, the document sets out the
case for a massively augmented deployment of Space Marines to the Maelstrom Warders. Huron’s petition is dismissed
without full hearing on the grounds that the Imperium’s needs are better met elsewhere.

748.M41 [The Badab Schism]

After further requests to redistribute resources from the Maelstrom Zone are denied and met with increased quota
demands from the Administratum, Huron withholds Badab Primaris’s planetary tithe in protest over their failure to
provide him and his allies sufficient resources to police the Maelstrom. This situation is cause for political controversy
and bitter argument. The furore becomes known as the Badab Schism and lasts for more than a century and a half,
during which the military operations of the Astral Claws and the Maelstrom Warders carry on as usual against a
backdrop of worsening civil tension with the Administratum.
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 780.M41 [The Lycanthos Drift Campaign]
The Astral Claws move to intervene in the closing stages of the long running Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, undertaking
the Lycanthos Campaign against one of the last major stronghold systems of the revolt on the southern borders of the
Maelstrom Zone. Lazaerek, the Chapter Master of the Fire Hawks, bitter that he was not given command of the campaign
rather than Huron is known to have born a grudge against the Astral Claws from this time

821.M41 [The Defence of Khirab]

A heavy Ork raiding force from the Maelstrom is intercepted and destroyed in a series of battles in the Khirab system
in the Endymion Cluster by a combined force of the Maelstrom Warders. During the battle, Lugft Huron slays Overdog
Rakka, the Ork Warboss, in single combat and is hailed as a hero of the people of Endymion.

901.M41 [The Destruction of Tithe Fleet VX542/11]

With preliminary judgements into the Badab Schism in the Segmentum Courts Temporal weighing in the Administratum’s
favour, an Imperial investigation fleet including representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis Invigila and the
Administratum Lords of the Karthargo Sector, is sent to Badab to demand the delivery of the Badab tithe and Chapter’s
Gene-seed requirements. The investigation fleet is fired on and destroyed as it attempts to force its way through the Badab
system’s ‘ring of steel’ and press its demands. Claim and counter-claim ensues in the aftermath as to how this tragic
destruction has occurred. Karthan Sector Governor Tanit Koenig calls for the arrest and trial of Huron for treachery
against the Imperium.

902-903.M41 [The Karthan Retaliation]

The Karthan Imperial Commanders take it on themselves to send two further punitive expeditions into the Maelstrom
Zone under the auspices of Imperial Authority, both fleets are lost in unknown circumstances with intervention by the
Astral Claws and their allies gravely suspected.

903.M41 [The Maelstrom Secession]

Huron produces his Articles of Secession which are also signed and ratified by the masters of the Lamenters and Mantis
Warriors Chapters which they deliver to the Segmentum authorities. Around this time Imperial shipping passing through
the Maelstrom Zone is attacked and contact with several still Loyalist worlds within the inner zone ends with garbled
communications warning of attack and siege by Space Marine forces. The Karthans threaten all out war in response,
sending direct appeals to several Space Marine Chapters to aid them. The Fire Hawks are the first to respond to their
cause.

904.M41 [The Badab War Begins]

A vessel belonging to the Fire Hawks Space Marine Chapter is attacked and captured by the Mantis Warriors them into
the worsening conflict. Matters swiftly escalate and the Fire Hawks, aided by the Karthan fleet throwing then launch a
series of probing attacks towards Badab and the Endymion Cluster. The Fire Hawks are brought to battle against the
Mantis Warriors on the feudal agri-world world of Iblis, and while they are so occupied, the Administratum-controlled
system of Sagan and its orbital fleet anchorage (regarded as the gateway to the Maelstrom zone) is invaded and captured
by the Astral Claws and Lamenters amid a great slaughter.

904.M41 [The Coming of the Executioners]

In payment of an ancient blood oath given to the Astral Claws, the Executioners Chapter also announces their armed
support for the Secessionists, sending the warship Night Hag containing a full augmented battle company of space marines
to back up their words. The rest of this notoriously grim and independent Chapter’s forces assemble on their distant twin-
home worlds of Stygia-Aqulion in preparation for war.

904.M41 [The Widening Storm]

The Marines Errant answer the call of the Fire Hawks for reinforcement, diverting a sizable force of five companies and
a fleet of support vessels from the undertaking of an extra-galactic crusade in order to aid them. Matters steadily worsen
throughout the year as more and more systems are drawn into the rapidly escalating war, and the Fire Hawks and their
Karthan allies suffer heavy losses in battle.

905.M41 [The Eye of the High Lords]

With five different Chapters of the Space Marines now embroiled in open warfare, along with various naval detachments,
local defence armies and the sectarian forces of various Adeptus now involved in what is rapidly accelerating to become
the greatest conflict of its kind since the infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Imperium’s high authorities finally act.
A triumvirate of Imperial Legates are despatched under the Seal of the High Lords to pronounce judgement over the
ongoing strife in the Maelstrom Zone under orders to leave no stone unturned.

905.M41 [The Castigation of Sidon Ultra]

Legatine investigations carried out at Sidon Ultra, capital of the Karthago Sector finds Imperial Commander and Karthan
Sector Governor, Satrap Tanit Koenig culpable for provoking the war, and she and the worlds she commanded are bitterly
punished. The armed cross-sector conflict and its causes however remain unresolved and the war continues unabated.

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 905.M41 [The Firebombing of Sacristan]
In what is widely regarded as a strategically wasteful and vainglorious assault, Lazaerek of the Fire Hawks uses his
surviving Chapter fleet led by the Star Fortress Raptorus Rex to conduct a retaliatory orbital assault on the frontier
planet of Sacristan, systematically laying waste to its few cities and slaughtering their inhabitants before retreating
from the star system.

905.M41 [The Judgment of the High Lords]

The resolution of the Badab secession crisis is pronounced by the Terran Legates to be a matter of the Imperium’s
security rather than a civil conflict between local factions. They issue a demand for the unconditional ceasefire of all
parties and the surrender of the Secessionists which is immediately rejected by Huron. As a result, orders are issued
by the Terran Legates for the arrest pending trial of the Chapter Masters of all the Secessionist chapters and the
seizure pending judgement of their worlds, goods and chattels.

905.M41 [The Loyalists Gather for War]

A major deployment of Space Marine forces is now brought into the war at the Legates’ request to enforce their
authority. The Red Scorpions Chapter form the largest part of this Loyalist Space Marine force, backed by battle
companies drawn from the Salamanders, Raptors and Fire Angels Chapters, and the surviving Fire Hawks and
Marines Errant are ordered to stand down from independent operations and submit to the high lords’ authority. While
Inquisitor Frain now has theoretical command of the forces prosecuting the Legatine Mission’s orders on behalf of
the High Lords, it is instead Verant Ortys, Lord High Commander of the Red Scorpions who is given overall tactical
command of the unified ‘Loyalist’ Space Marine forces as Magister Militum; a ‘first among equals’, by the commanders
of the other Space Marine contingents.

906.M41 [The Woe of Bellerophon’s Fall]

The Mantis Warriors successfully draw a sizable portion of the Marines Errant contingent into a trap on the
industrial moon of Bellerophon’s Fall, and destroy much of the Chapter’s command structure in a series of
murderous surgical strikes.

906.M41 [The Vyaniah Raids]

Red Scorpions and Salamanders Strike forces conduct a three-pronged raid on the Vyaniah system, with the target of
damaging its production capacity and orbital transhipping platforms.

906-907.M41 [Redeployment & Reinforcement]

With the arrival of contingents from the Novamarines and Howling Griffons Chapters to replace them in the order
of battle, the Marines Errant withdraw entirely from the Badab War, while the few surviving Fire Hawks are forcibly
retired to the rearguard by the newly appointed Magister Militum Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions.

907.M41 [The Betrayal at Grief]

Lugft Huron offers an honourable parlay with the Loyalist commander Ortys in order to avoid further bloodshed in
the outer reaches of the Grief system. The conference is attacked by unknown forces and confusion surrounds the
events that follow. Chapter Master Verant Ortys of the Red Scorpions is killed along with Chapter Master Sartaq of
the Mantis Warriors. Claim and counter claim ensued in the aftermath, with many on the Loyalist side blaming Huron
for the attack, claiming it as a rank betrayal, while the Secessionists themselves lay the blame at the Inquisition as a
plot to assassinate the Tyrant. With any possibility of rapprochement between the sides now effectively destroyed, the
war swiftly worsens.

907.M41 [The Axe Falls at Khymara]

A surprise attack on the Executioners Chapter arriving in force in the Maelstrom Zone succeeds in destroying a series
of Howling Griffon’s garrisoned listening stations and the vital Astropathic relay complex on the night moons of the
Khymara system. Outnumbered as well as overwhelmed by the force and speed of the assault, the Howling Griffons
suffer huge casualties as the station’s defence bastions fall one after the other despite their tenacious defence.

907.M41 [Huron’s Sins Uncovered]

Inquisitorial interrogation of a Secessionist Apothecary captured during the battle for Vyaniah VII reveals the
prisoner to be a former member of the Tiger Claws, a Chapter long thought lost. Further information gleaned from
his interrogation gains the Loyalists knowledge of Huron’s secret goal of transforming the Astral Claws into a force
equal to a Space Marine Legion of old. Further covert investigation uncovers that the Astral Claws Apothecarion has
been conducting heretical experiments in rapid zygote cultivation and while largely unsuccessful, thanks to the use of
its un-tithed Gene-seed, the Astral Claws Chapter now stands at around an estimated three and a half thousand battle
brothers strong.

907. M41 [The Wrath of the Minotaurs]

The Minotaurs, a fleet-based Chapter of dark renown and uncertain ties to the Inquisition, arrives in full strength in
the Maelstrom zone in mid 907.M41, announcing their presence in the war by launching a full chapter-scale attack
on Secessionist dominated mining facilities on Kyro, wiping out the Tyrant’s Legion garrison and destroying the
mine-works before moving on. The power of this Chapter quickly proved a decisive weight in the Loyalists’ favour as
Vyaniah and other worlds are taken by them after a series of bloody assaults.
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 907-909.M41 [The Green Tide]
Beyond the Badab War, massive Ork incursions and multiple Waaagh!s erupt, threatening the safety of the Ultima
Segmentum. The Loyalist forces of the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons, all of which have suffered heavy
battlefield attrition, are withdrawn. Fresh forces from the Exorcists and Sons of Medusa Chapters arrive to execute the
final destruction of the Secessionists.

908.M41 [Condemnation]
In the face of this wanton heresy and deceit, and invoking full emergency authority, Inquisitor Legate Jarndyce Frain
condemns the entire Astral Claws as Excommunicate Traitoris under sentence of death, and also places their allies as
under official suspicion of heresy and treasonous contravention of Imperial High Law, although no immediate evidence
exists that they too have strayed so far from the path. This fact fundamentally alters the nature of the conflict itself, and
a pall of secrecy descends over the true conduct of the war.

908.M41 [Inquest of the Renegade Chapters]

Inquisitorial missions are despatched by the Holy Ordos to the homes of the Mantis Warriors and Executioners to
examine them for evidence of heresy, genetic tampering and moral deviance.

908-910.M41 [The Scourging of Cygnax]

Evidence acquired by Inquisitorial agents reveals an Astral Claws mission has been undertaken in concert with
renegade human elements from the Golgothan Wastes to recover buried weapons stores from Cygnax, the Loyalists
order a scourging of the world. The Atropos Clan company of the Sons of Medusa is given the chief role in this task,
backed by a taskforce from the Exorcists Chapter they first blockade the planet before conducting a sector-by-sector
sweep of the world.

908.M41 [The Second Battle of Sagan]

In a major planetary assault, the Secessionists are driven from their fortresses on Sagan by the largest combined
Loyalist force so far fielded in the War , combining the massed strength of the Fire Angels, Red Scorpions and Exorcists
supported by assault-specialised forces drawn from the Salamanders, Raptors and Sons of Medusa. The fighting proved
particularly bloody and without quarter given by either side, with the Astral Claws resorting to the use of viral weapons
that slew tens of thousands of the world’s population. Rather than give up the strategically vital system, the Secessionists
chose to mount a defence at any cost which ultimately destroyed a sizable component of their battle line and resulted
in the highest death toll of any engagement of the war thus far and the loss of several key warships in a vain counter-
attack on the system.

908.M41 [The Destruction of the Lamenters]

In the closing days of the year ,the Lamenters Chapter are brought to battle and hammered into surrender in bloody
ship-to-ship fighting by the Minotaurs, effectively taking them out of the war and dealing a second severe blow to the
Secessionists. Having suffered serious losses in defeating the Lamenters, the Minotaurs claim salvage rights to the
crippled remnants of much of the Lamenters fleet and the wargear of the fallen, while the surviving Lamenters, baring a
few that remained at Huron’s side during the battle, are incarcerated on a prison hulk orbiting the night-side of Sagan-II
amid rumours of their growing insanity in confinement.

908.M41 [The Angstrom Incident]

The Red Scorpions and Salamanders jointly conduct a secret plan of attack and sabotage to prevent the Secessionists
from claiming the ‘Bounty’ of the independent forge world of Angstrom, which until now has maintained neutrality
in the conflict.. In the confusion and destructions that follows, the Angstrom Mechanicus incensed by the outbreak
of hostilities within their domain, assault both sides and drive them from the system, granting the Loyalists a major
strategic victory.

909.M41 [Loyalists Dominate the Maelstrom Zone]

The Imperium Loyalists now have effective command of the Maelstrom Zone’s major warp-routes, enabling them to
rapidly move their forces across the region and subject many rebel worlds and outposts. From this point onwards, the
Secessionists greatly reduced in fighting strength and ships, are hemmed in around a handful of heavily defended star
clusters, and relegated to conducting scattered raiding operations and fighting a series of close defensive sieges.

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 910.M41 [Blood in the Dark Waters]
The mysterious and sinister Carcharodons Space Marines Chapter appear on the edge of the Golgothan Wastes
and offer their services to the Loyalist cause against the heretics, claiming to have come in answer to a summons
from Holy Terra. Culln, wary of his new allies, but taking council from Inquisitor Legate Frain dispatches them to
the worlds of the Endymion Cluster to prove their worth. Here the Mantis Warriors, guided by the potent divinatory
powers of their Chief Librarian, Ahazra Redth, have been holding out by conducting a protracted and highly effective
guerrilla war. The Carcharodons descend on the worlds of Endymion with shocking fury, destroying the Mantis
Warriors’ ability to affect the war and soon forcing their final surrender. Appalled by the actions of their allies, the
Fire Angels withdraw their remaining contingents from the war and return to their home world.

911.M41 [The Red Hour]

Following a successful Loyalist attack against the hidden secessionist base on Shaprias, a combined battle group of
Executioners and Astral Claws ships disable the Salamanders Battle Barge Pyre of Glory after a surprise attack at
the warp-transfer point near Calah, and forces the mighty Space Marine ship’s surrender. The Astral Claws set about
attempting to massacre their prisoners and harvest their Gene-seed, but this the Executioners will not countenance.
The blood oath binding them to Huron’s cause violated, the Executioners free the captives and turn on the Astral
Claws, taking more than two hundred heads from their former allies in a single hour’s furious conflict. From this point
onward, the Executioners Chapter becomes a rogue element in the war.

911.M41 [The Tyrant Stands Alone]

Following what he regards as the treachery of his former allies, Lugft Huron announces in a recorded message that is
relayed throughout the warzone that the Astral Claws and their subjects are no longer part of the Imperium of Man.
Within Huron’s remaining domains, all signs and symbols of Imperial authority, culture and creed are cast down in a
firestorm of iconoclasm, and the mass executions on Badab Primaris of clerics and functionaries (most of whom have
remained largely ignorant of the true cause and nature of the war), are said to last for weeks without pause.

911.M41 [The Battle of Piraeus]

A massive Loyalist offensive at Piraeus ends in near disaster as the Tyrant’s forces trap and counter-attack the
assault force, inflicting heavy casualties on the Red Scorpions and Exorcists and slaughtering tens of thousands of
Imperial Guard and Inquisition forces in their transport ships as part of a mutually destructive space battle in the
system which sees the fleets of both sides ravaged. Carab Culln is terribly wounded in personal combat with the
Tyrant and only survives thanks to the desperate intervention of the Exorcists’ battle barge Redeemer. The Loyalist
assault blunted, they must now settle for a blockade of the Badab system while they rebuild their forces.

912.M41 [The Debt of Honour]

Salamanders Captain Pellas Mir’san takes it upon himself instead to seek out the leader of the Executioners, Thulsa
Kane, and parlay a negotiated end to their part in the war. After a tense standoff in which the Loyalist forces come to
the brink of warring among themselves, Mir’san is successful and the bulk of the Executioners leave the Maelstrom
zone to return to their home system under oath to remain there until judgement is passed, while their leader Kane, his
honour guard and the Night Hag voluntarily give themselves over to the Salamanders’ custody and are interned at the
Salamanders Chapter world of Nocturne until the end of the war.

913.M41 [The Siege of Badab]

With the remaining Astral Claws forced back at last to the hugely fortified Badab system and their allied Chapters
surrendered or battered into submission, the war enters its final phase. A concerted attack by the fleet, elements of
the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Red Scorpions, Star Phantoms, Carcharodons, Exorcists and Sons of Medusa breaks
through the Badab system’s ‘Ring of Steel’ assaulting its star forts and outer bastions in order to silence the legendary
‘Big Guns’ of the Badab system. Once the system is invested, a blockade on the outer system is mounted to prevent
any attempt at escape, and further assault units including battle titans of the Legio Crucius (The Warmongers) and
the forces of the Ordo Hereticus are brought up in preparation for the attack on Badab Primaris itself.

913.M41 [The Final Assault]

With Badab surrounded and under heavy bombardment from orbit, the final assault begins. The Star Phantoms and
Carcharodons lead the attack. Facing bitter and determined resistance from the remaining Astral Claws, the Star
Phantoms are soon caught in a bloody battle of attrition at the walls of the Palaceof Thorns. Elsewhere on Badab
the forces of the Carcharodons conduct massed drop attacks against the planet’s hive cities and infrastructure and
even Titan reinforcements from the Legio Crucius, and succeed in crushing all resistance before them. As the battle
enters its second day, the vast plasma-reactors that power Badab Primaris’s hive cities are overloaded by Carcharodon
strike teams as part of a merciless series of massacres and running battles with the tattered remains of the Tyrant’s
Legion. As the reactors begin to detonate, they rip apart Badab’s landmasses, triggering massive earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions and collapse its hive spires, hurling millions of tonnes of radioactive fallout and debris into the
atmosphere. At the height of the desperate battle at the palace, much of which is now little more than a rubble-strewn
charnel house, Lugft Huron is mortally wounded by the dying Star Phantoms Captain Zhrukal Androcles as he and
his bodyguard attempt to make their escape as the citadel’s lightning shield finally fails.

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 913.M41 [The Death of Badab Primaris]
In the anarchy and ruin that follows the fall of the hive cities, the majority of the planet’s population are exterminated
within a few standard days, while surviving Loyalist and Secessionist forces alike scramble to flee the dying world.
Several Loyalist transports are also shot down by the blockade ships in the confusion of the aftermath, and a single
small warp-capable privateer manages to escape the Badab system into the Warp. Later intelligence reports suggest that
less than two hundred Secessionist survivors were on board, carrying with them their leader’s broken body.

913.M41 [Trial and Punishment]:

The remaining Astral Claws, Executioners, Mantis Warriors and Lamenters are put on trial before a jury of their peers
in the shattered wreckage of the Badab system, with their very existence at stake. A judgement is passed confirming
that the Astral Claws are traitors most foul, guilty in taking up arms against the Imperium and deceitfully causing their
brethren to do likewise. All surviving Astral Claws prisoners in Imperial custody are then put to the sword. It is further
judged that the other surviving Secessionist Chapters must undertake a hundred year long penitent crusade to atone for
their transgressions.

913.M41 [The Star Phantoms’ Prize]

As a bloody prize and in recognition for their efforts, the badly mauled Star Phantoms Chapter were given the reward
of dominion over the once proud Badab Sector along with the task of policing its survivors. The Star Phantoms bring
down their crippled battle-barge Memento Mori on the surface of the ice moon of Jahga in the Archaea system to serve
as the core of their new fortress monastery and slowly began to rebuild.

913.M41 [The Sorrow of Tranquility]:

In the war’s aftermath, the imprisoned remainder of the Mantis Warriors can only watch as a great swath of the
Endymion Cluster’s young males are culled by the Carcharodons, taken as potential initiates to replenish the Chapter’s
losses in the war while many of the Mantis Warriors’ secret bases and cashes of wargear are found and ransacked.
Afterwards the Carcharodons fleet departs toward the edge of known space.

915.M41 [Exculpation]
An Edict of Obliteration is issued by the Holy Ordos in regards to the Astral Claws, Tiger Claws and their master Huron,
and the task begins of wiping their accursed name and their sins from the pages of Imperial History. Sanitised and
altered versions of the events of the war begin to enter the official record, while an Inquisition data-pogrom to purge
extraneous or morally unworthy facts is conducted.

927.M41 [The Blackheart]

The first rumours reach the Imperial authorities of a powerful new corsair lord operating within the Maelstrom, styling
himself Huron Blackheart.

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62
Almoner-Apothacary Karsweltus
Exorcists Chapter

63
 THE MANTIS WARRIORS
chapter name: ����������������������� mantis warriors
founding: ������������������������������ unknown, estimated as the
8th [circa mid-m.34]
chapter world: ��������������������� various /endymion cluster
fortress monastery : ������������� various / the valley of nine winds
[Tranquility III] primary training facility
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� white scars [asmd. marauders]
known descendants:��������������� none

“The winds of the desert care not whose bones they scour clean”.
- Endymion proverb

R enowned for their cunning and

guile, the Mantis Warriors Chapter
have long been one of the often unsung
Such teachings and lore the Mantis
Warriors themselves retain on the
matter have become so intertwined with
That this elder Chapter spoken of in
the Libris Gloriana and the Mantis
Warriors of the Badab War are one
and overlooked defenders of the myth and dense allegory as to be almost and the same seems likely as the
Imperium of Man. To those that know useless in divining certain facts. The Chapter’s own myths alludes to a great
of them, they are renowned for their earliest extant record likely to pertain to calamity in their past against which
skill at guerrilla warfare, devastating the Mantis Warriors can be found in the they undertook a crusade lasting many
ambushes and sudden overwhelming Libris Gloriana – a seven-hundred and centuries. Most tellingly, the Mantis
assaults. Like many Chapters who seventy-seven volume treatise on the Warriors’ gene-seed does bear the
are fated to stand guard over far-flung state of Imperial power commissioned hallmarks of the White Scars bloodline
border frontiers, or carry out armed for the ascension of High Lord Gogol (the Marauders Chapter being a 2nd
vigils on dark regions of the galaxy after the Nova Terra Interregnum in Founding White Scars successor). This
where dread threats slumber, the 093.M36. The massive accumulation last piece of evidence is particularly
Mantis Warriors have long stood alone of knowledge in the Libris Gloriana compelling as owing to certain endemic
in their watch, their autonomy seldom represents a rare resource, but one biogenetic difficulties, the White Scars’
challenged and with none to come that has been repeatedly suppressed gene-seed has historically been one
to their aid should events overtake and censored, and many doubt its of the rarest employed in the creation
them. This rarely broken solitude veracity in general. Further difficulties of new Space Marine Chapters, with
was to change in the year 587.M41, in the text are raised by the particularly less than a tenth of current Adeptus
when by edict of the High Lords of obscure dialect of High Gothic in which Astartes units owing their origins
Terra, the Mantis Warriors and their the treatise is written, which had been to the White Scars bloodline.
charges were incorporated within popular at the Terran court of the
the newly formed alliance of Space time. It mentions in bombastic terms Accurate and detailed records of the
Marine Chapters entitled the Maelstrom a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes Chapter only commenced in 455.
Warders. With this assignment came “…warrior legion of the Mantis (or M38 when the Magos Invilgia note
a long term alliance with two powerful ‘prophecy’, the language is unclear)” conducting a gene-seed tithe on
and very different Chapters: the of the 8th Founding (which would place the Mantis Warriors. This evidence
Astral Claws and the Lamenters - an its origins in the mid M34) of “…the establishes them as being based within
alliance that would eventually prove line of the great Khan, by his sons the the Endymion Cluster, while noting the
the Mantis Warriors’ undoing. Marauders”. The text goes on to praise tithe collection overdue owing to hostile
their successes in combating the traitors local conditions (a remark indicative of
As with many Chapters of similar of the Eye of Terror, as well as crushing prior, more successful, tithes whose
provenance, much of the details alien threats, and speaks of them as records are now lost). This compounds
pertaining to the origins and early operating far from home but fails to the evidence of several scattered
dispositions of the Mantis Warriors name their Chapter planet or state clues as to the Chapter’s presence
have been lost to the official record. the system in which it is to be found. in the area as much as a thousand

64
 Veteran Sergeant Audamus Terminator Brother Surabaya
Mantis Warriors Devastator Reserve Lost to the Void
Slain in the Sorrow of Iblis The Betrayal at Grief

Astartes Maxima MKIV Heavy Bolter Hecaton Variant MKIIIc Storm Bolter
Tactical Squad Support Weapon Terminator Standard Issue

MKIII Pattern Bolt Gun Umbra Pattern Bolt Gun

Badab Primaris Manufactura Issue Mantis Warriors Chapter Forge

65
years previously, including the Chapter which the Chapter is based. Unlike gunships and other attack craft to
entering into the indigenous myths their forebears however, their savage ensure their mobility in battle.
on Lastratti and Hu. This shrouded hearts are tempered by a streak of
past is perhaps unsurprising as the dark mysticism, and rather than the Perhaps because of this history
Chapter itself has always displayed a fury of the thunderstorm, theirs is the of shortage each Mantis Warrior
fundamentally independent and aloof focused power of a sudden hurricane maintains their wargear with a singular
nature, largely uninterested in the wider that comes and goes without warning reverence, beyond even the high
affairs of the Imperium except where and leaves devastation in its wake. degree that is displayed by most Space
they intersect with the Chapter’s own Marines. Within the Chapter individual
goals and those areas of wilderness ORGANISATION weapons and suits of power armour
space within their reach. Indeed, The Mantis Warriors’ deployment are handed down from generation to
prior to their inclusion as part of the and organisation conforms closely generation of Space Marines. Every
Maelstrom Warder force, it is telling to the tenets of the Codex Astartes, custodian will in turn add their own
that their closest common alliance adhering to a standard structure of embellishments, to the extent that each
with the Imperium’s wider authorities ten Companies, Chapter command, bolter and chainsword is a treasured
was with the secretive Deathwatch Apothecarion, armoury and fleet and storied relic in its own right. This
Chapter, which has had its own long- as normal. In practice however, the level of individualism in the ranks is
standing interests in destroying the Chapter, owing to its isolated position further evidenced by a high degree of
many alien forces at work within the and lack of resources, has for much of customisation in insignia, kill markings
Golgothan Wastes and the Maelstrom. its recorded history had to fight under- and other forms of personal adornment,
strength, particularly in terms of heavy including prophetic sigils and warding
In characters, a Space Marine of the vehicles. This difficulty has been made prayers engraved on their armour or
Mantis Warriors is perhaps more worse by the almost continuous slow written on purity seals found among
subtle and cunning than most with an attrition of its forces, and its Companies the Mantis Warriors Battle Brothers.
uncommon streak of individualism and have seldom operated with anything Also of note is that the Chapter’s
self-reliance. Each is a born survivor, close to a full complement of Battle individual Company markings are also
a killer from the shadows, and the Brothers. This has led the Mantis represented often by larger symbols or
inheritor of a warrior lineage that Warriors over time to concentrate stylised representations of arthropod
descends from one of the Endymion their resources and limited production or insectile forms instituted by that
Cluster’s savage death world tribes capacity on wargear which they could Company’s present commander,
or warring feudal states. These native best support and which most perfectly (with the megafauna of the death
traits are further honed and enhanced suited their favoured hit and run tactics. world of Tranquility-III where the
by decades of experience in the field In particular even at its lowest ebb Chapter’s recruits are trained providing
and the quixotic ferocity inherent the Chapter has been able to field a much of the inspiration for this).
in the White Scars’ gene-seed on considerable fleet of Thunderhawk

Addendum: The Protectorate daemonic spectres and unexpected not only been vital to protection of
of the Endymion Cluster storms. It is this region which the the human worlds of the Cluster, but
An enclave of Imperial worlds Mantis Warriors have taken for their has also provided the Chapter with
surrounded on each side by hostile domain, and for thousands of years a secure base of operations. From
wilderness space, the Endymion have guarded and shepherded its here the Mantis Warriors have been
Cluster comprises a score of scattered and oft-beset worlds in able to strike into the Wastes and
star systems (six of which can be the name of the Imperium from the even into the heart of the Maelstrom
regarded as of major importance) many predations that have assailed where far greater threats exist than
and lies due galactic east from Terra them. Rather than a single fortress mere isolated packs of Ork raiders
on the edge of the Maelstrom. This monastery or Chapter planet, the and renegades. The peoples of the
region, never sufficiently coherent Mantis Warriors have long made a Cluster’s feral and feudal worlds for
enough politically or economically practise of maintaining a number of their part have always viewed their
to become a true Imperial sector, small bases, bastions and watch- protectors as warrior spirits sent by
stands on the edge of the abyss stations across the cluster, many the Emperor. They are worshipped as
with the horrors of the Maelstrom of them hidden with great skill. The defenders that have stood between
at its back and the trackless alien- largest and most important base was them and the legions of hell since
haunted expanse of the Gologothan an area of the jungle-choked death time immemorial, and their loyalty
Wastes between it and the core of world of Tranquility-III they named to the Mantis Warriors is bred in the
the Imperium. There are few stable the Valley of the Nine Winds. This the bone. During the Badab War, these
Warp routes in or out of the cluster, Mantis Warriors used as their primary peoples would side faithfully with the
and such as there are, they are training ground for their initiates. The Chapter, the eventual punishment
often plagued with corsair traffic, sworn duty of the Mantis Warriors has for which would be grave indeed.

66
One beneficial consequence of the now littered with the corpses of its Slave Lords’ fall. Turning to the Mantis
Mantis Warriors being attached to defenders was overturned to locate Warriors Librarians, famed for their
the Maelstrom Warders was that their quarry and Kharfra, now a rolling skills in subterfuge and misdirection
particularly after Huron took charge, mass of blistered flesh twisted by the to hide their actions from sight, the
supplies and equipment flowed to fickle powers of those he served, was Chapter hatched a plan to entrap their
the Endymion Cluster to replenish eventually scorched from his refuge in vile enemies by providing them with
the Chapter’s failing stockpiles. This the reeking sewers below the fortress, a target too great for their vanity and
served to renew the Mantis Warriors’ still snarling overweening arrogance appetites to ignore. Publicly vowing
fighting strength, particularly in terms and hubris. Thus captured, the prisoner that Tranquility would be defended at
of heavy munitions, Rhino chassis was taken in chains by the Mantis any costs, they posted extra piquet
variants and most importantly Mark Warriors to the Inquisition watch-hold vessels in the system and began to
VII pattern powered armour (which the on Valsingam for final examination gather the planet’s small population in
Mantis Warriors freely incorporated and judgement, garnering the Chapter a single city-encampment, defended
piecemeal into their older stocks high accolades from the Ecclesiarchy. by two forces of Mantis Warriors,
which had primarily consisted of one seen and the other concealed
ancient and long-maintained Mark The Scourge of the Slave Lords beneath the desert sands on which the
V and Mark VI suits). It also bound [901.M40] camps rested. Very soon, a series of
the Mantis Warriors, who were by During the latter part of M40, assaults probing raids occurred in the nearby
nature highly independent and wary by the Maelstrom’s denizens were systems, behind which the Chapter’s
of outsiders, to their fellow Warders at their highest levels for over two Librarians determined a sophisticated
and the Astral Claws in particular. Ties thousand years, and although this pattern designed to tease apart a flaw
of honour that were then sealed in mounting threat would lead eventually in Tranquility’s defences, allowing the
blood as the Warders fought together to the formation of the Maelstrom reavers to slip though. When news
to purge the Maelstrom Zone. Warders, for a time the Mantis Warriors came of a heavy raid on the vital
stood all but alone against the terrible void mining colonies of Sigard, the
SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS forces ranged against the Imperial Mantis Warriors gambled that this was
The Hunt for Kharfra the worlds near the Maelstrom’s edge. the grand diversionary attack they
Antipath [330.M39] Thinly spread and utterly outnumbered, had been waiting for, and under the
After the failed assassination attempt the Mantis Warriors fought displaying deception of leaving a skeletal force
on the life of the Ecclesiarch Nyber not only unyielding courage but to defend the million-plus souls now
Vasille revealed the corruption of intelligence, luring enemies into waiting fearfully in the camps, their
Cardinal Kharfra, the false priest punishing ambushes, fighting only ships departed the system at speed.
and his hitherto secret Chaos cult where the advantage was theirs, and
fled before Imperial justice, sowing fading away before they could be tied As all but empty Mantis Warriors strike
destruction across the Segmentum down and overwhelmed. But while cruisers gave the appearance of a
Solar in their wake. Declared Traitoris their tactics proved effective against full Chapter response departed the
Extremis from every pulpit the word brutish Orks and even more so against Tranquility system, seemingly from
of the holy Ministorum could reach, insane cultists and renegades, the nowhere, the twisted, dagger-like forms
the Imperium-wide hunt for the Dark Eldar reavers known to the of Dark Eldar vessels appeared in
Antipath and his followers was to worlds they victimised simply as the Tranquility’s skies. Before them burning
last for decades, but it would be the “Slave Lords” were a different matter. black disks ripped into existence;
Mantis Warriors who would eventually Inhumanly cruel and with the malignant holes in the fabric of reality from which
find the damned Kharfra himself. patience of spiders, the Eldar’s dark shark-like skimmers and razor-winged
Intelligence ripped from the souls of kin were things of smoke and glass- skiffs poured forth to descend on the
renegade corsairs by the Chapter’s sharp shadows, impossible to find encampments, shrieking like creatures
Librarians gave the first hints that this and far too cunning to easily bait. For of nightmare. With hardened hearts
arch-enemy of Mankind had found more than sixty years the Slave Lords the Mantis Warriors waited in silence
refuge among the Chaos-worshipping scourged the Maelstrom Zone, their as the Dark Eldar reavers committed
renegades of the Golgothan Wastes. blood-dark serrated ships descending to the attack and hundreds of refugees
This sparked a five year manhunt by on unprotected worlds, carrying off died screaming to slicing whisper-
the Chapter that led eventually to the thousands screaming into the night thin blades or were struck down in
discovery of a secret stronghold in the sky, praying on ill-defended convoys their droves by storms of hypersonic
pre-Imperial ruins on the death world and murdering isolated outposts cut poisoned splinters. These martyrs’
of Parasis. Infiltrating the noisome off far from aid. After three-score battle deaths had bought the enemy within
fungal rainforests that surrounded brothers of the Mantis Warriors died the Chapter’s grasp and their trap was
the stronghold, the Mantis Warriors valiantly in a vain attempt to protect the sprung. From the desert sands beneath
attacked without warning, taking on a foremost shrine-city of the feudal world the camps the Mantis Warriors rose
force of mutants and heretics five times of Tranquility-II from the Slave Lords’ up in a vengeful fury to tear their foes
their number in a deadly night assault. predations, the whole Chapter turned from the skies. Elsewhere, hidden in
In a matter of hours the stronghold, their collective will to bringing about the the dune-seas of the deep deserts,

67
 Brother Herrodus Brother Qui
Awarded the Veteran’s Laurel Slain at Sagan
The Ambush at Bellerophon’s Fall Note: The Display of the Chapter’s Sigil of Prophecy

two Cobra class destroyers, buried The Mantis Warriors revelled in their their scattered bases and ships. The
more than seven months previously, revenge, offering no mercy to the Mantis Warriors Chapter fleet stood
shook off the covering shrouds of sand blinded and broken enemy, many of at a single battle barge, three strike
from their sunken prows and fired whom died not at the hands of the cruisers, two vanguard cruisers,
their torpedoes at point blank range Space Marines, but were brought six armed transports and at least
into the bellies of the Dark Eldar ships down by mobs of desert tribesmen nineteen escort and attack vessels of
high above. The torpedoes’ fusion whose terror had been transformed varying types and classes, including
warheads, designed for space combat, into wrath. As the winds finally died several formerly renegade and re-
burst like exploding suns above away and the fires muted, thousands commissioned xenos vessels that the
the arid land. As fire and wreckage of human lives had been martyred, Chapter utilised for infiltration attacks.
fell from the skies the hurricane but the scourge of the slave lords
strength blast-winds scattered the was ended and the lives of many The reason for the Mantis Warrior’s
alien skimmers like dead leaves and thousands more had been saved. involvement in the Secession was
drove sand and dust before them in a simple one: fiercely territorial and
walls hundreds of metres high. The BADAB WAR DISPOSITION loyal to their allies, they considered
Mantis Warriors’ blades were wetted At the outset of the Badab Conflict, the oaths of brotherhood taken when
with alien blood in the tumult as the the Mantis Warriors were somewhat the Maelstrom Warders were formed
lithe and murderous Dark Eldar were below full strength, having recently as utterly inviolable. They saw an
thrown into confusion and disorder. conducted several heavy raids into the attack on one of the Warders, even
The surviving corsair ships, badly fringes of the Maelstrom, and suffered by the Imperium itself, as an attack
wounded by the surprise attack, significant losses to their 4th Company on all. The protectiveness with
struggled to escape Tranquility’s purging a Genestealer infestation on which the Mantis Warriors regarded
orbit and abandoned their kin below Verkruz. This left them with what is their domains would also lead the
to their fates, only to be caught believed to have been an effective Chapter to hold the dubious honour
and destroyed in the outer system frontline strength of a little over eight- of having fired the first shots in anger
by the returning Mantis Warriors hundred Battle Brothers, with sixty to against their fellow Space Marines
strike cruisers as the last part of the eighty Scout initiates, as well as their in the Badab War. This occurred
Chapter’s vicious trap slammed shut. servitor auxiliary corpus and numerous when in 904.M41 they attacked and
Chapter bondsmen spread out among captured the Fire Hawks vessel Red

68
Harbinger; the ship had encroached the retaliatory firebombing of Sacristan. Mantis Warriors remained a fighting
upon their territory and refused These losses were to worsen as fresh part of the Secessionist cause until
demands to stand down and be Chapters joined the struggle and the bitter end. It is a testament both to
boarded. This act brought them into Loyalist gains effectively drove a wedge Ahazra Redth’s skill as a commander
open conflict with the Fire Hawks between the Endymion Cluster and the and the strength of his divinatory
and their Karthan allies and crossed rest of the Maelstrom Zone, cutting the powers, that even isolated, vastly
a line of no return for the Chapter. Mantis Warriors off from ready aid. outnumbered and facing the murderous
onslaught of the Carcharodons Chapter
As the conflict progressed, the Mantis There is evidence to suggest that by towards the war’s end, he and his
Warriors were actively engaged in the 908.M41 the Chapter was starting dwindling forces managed to avoid
Secessionist war effort at all levels, to have grave misgivings both over extermination, let alone inflict losses on
operating as part of the wider strategic the course the Secession was taking their foes in defence of their domains.
Secessionist deployments, rather than and the true nature and goals of the
system-by-system. For much of the Astral Claws, and their leader Lugft Both the Endymion Cluster and the
Badab War, the Chapter played to its Huron - particularly after the death of Mantis Warriors would pay a terrible
great strengths and expertise; fighting the Mantis Warrior’s Chapter Master blood price for their role in the Badab
guerrilla campaigns against numerically Yarvan Sartaq in the Tyrant’s company War, with under three hundred Battle
superior foes, and frequently during the attack on the disastrous Brothers left to face the Imperium’s
employed hit and run tactics, raids and parlay at Grief. But by this point the judgment. Ahazra Redth’s fate remains
ambushes, and among the Loyalist die had been cast, and too much unknown, and although he is said by
forces only the Raptors seemed able blood had been spilled on both sides some to have perished in the last days
to match them for guile. The most for anything but a violent resolution to of fighting on Tranquility-II, his body
notorious of the Chapter’s ambushes in be reached as to the Mantis Warriors’ was never found. In the aftermath of
the war was the trap at Bellerophon’s fate. It was at this time that the figure the Badab War, the Mantis Warriors are
Fall which was to leave the Marines of Ahazra Redth, Chief Librarian of left a ravaged Chapter, stripped of their
Errant shattered in its wake. As the the Mantis Warriors and known to his ancient domains, chattels and honours,
Badab War continued and the Loyalist Chapter as “the Dust Prophet” rose and condemned to endure a one
forces set against them grew, the to prominence, effectively becoming hundred year penitent crusade to pay
Mantis Warriors, despite their cunning master of the Mantis Warriors until for their crimes. The long-term survival
and skill, began to increasingly suffer the end of the war. Ahazra Redth of the Mantis Warriors as a Chapter of
levels of attrition they could not sustain, further distanced his Chapter from the the Adeptus Astartes remains doubtful.
as well as bitter blows to the domains machinations of the Tyrant of Badab,
they had protected for so long, such as but true to their word, both he and the

Mantis Warriors Chapter Rhino Armour Transport

Designation Unknown, Captured by Fire Angels Chapter
Forces on Endymion Prime

69
 ASSAULT SQUAD
SARAKEN
MANTIS WARRIORS
3RD BATTLE COMPANY

Veteran Sergeant Saraken Mantis Warrior Chapter Icon

Slain Leading the Defence of the Ful’Souk Settlement, Common Armorial Use
Tranquility II

Assault Squad Arms Saraken’s Personal Arms, Umbra-Magnus Bolt Pistol

Ultima Bolt Pistol, ‘Hell’s Teeth’ Chainsword, Deliverance ‘Surestrike’ Power Axe
Pattern Combat Shield

70
 Brother Azhira Brother Kedar
Slain During the Defence of the Ful’Souk Settlement, Survivor, the Defence of the Ful’Souk Settlement,
Tranquility II Tranquility II

Brother Zenobus Brother Damaskan

Honoured as an Enemy for Valour by the Fire Angels Slain During the Defence of the Ful’Souk Settlement,
Slain During the Defence of the Ful’Souk Settlement, Tranquility II
Tranquility II
71
 The Venerable Secarssa
‘The Bow of Ma’dan’
Dreadnought of the Mantis Warriors Chapter
MKV Dreadnought, Anti-Armour Configuration
Destroyed in Glorious Battle, the Siege of Endymion Prime

Mantis Warriors Chapter Razorback, Unknown Designation

Destroyed in Action, Bellerophon’s Fall

72
73
Mantis Warriors Chapter Thunderhawk Transporter
‘Maledictor Audax’
Confirmed in Operations, Bellerophon’s Fall, Galen VI, Isin and Endymion Prime
 THE SALAMANDERS
chapter name: ����������������������� the salamanders
founding: ������������������������������ 1st (legion number xviii)
chapter world: ��������������������� nocturne
fortress monastery : ������������� prometheus [lunar base]
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� none
known descendants:��������������� (none confirmed: apocryphal sources
infer that both the storm giants
and black dragons owe their gene-
seed lineage to the salamanders,
although this remains unproven).

“On the Anvil of War are the strong tempered and the weak made
to perish, thus are men’s souls tested as metal in the forge’s fire”
- The Primarch Vulkan

A Space Marine Legion of the

1st Founding and scions of the
Primarch Vulkan, the Salamanders
Legions, they bore the brunt of the
Traitor Legions’ betrayal and suffered
savage losses. The Salamanders
In the millennia that have passed since
the dark times of the Horus Heresy
the Salamanders have fought in wars
Chapter have a rich and honoured survived the wars of the Heresy and uncounted, and in doing so gained an
history and an unwavering reputation slowly rebuilt their strength, although unmatched reputation for wisdom and
as being among Humanity’s most such were their casualties that they stubborn determination in battle. It is
steadfast defenders. Born of fire and did not need to further subdivide their rightly said of the Salamanders that
darkness on the deadly volcanic world Legion into successor Chapters. Instead they are neither quick to anger, nor
of Nocturne, there are few stauncher their surviving Battle Brothers were do they sow destruction without first
warriors even among the Adeptus reorganised by Vulkan, who was a exercising due judgement, but once they
Astartes and their intelligence and strong supporter of Guilliman’s reforms have decided to unleash their wrath it
artisanship is only matched by their of the Space Marine Legions, into a is as unstoppable and terrible as the
skill at arms. Nocturne itself is a vision pattern of organisation which they volcanic fury of their home world.
of hell, a blasted volcanic landscape have maintained to this day. In doing
shrouded in clouds of ash, and riven so Vulkan also created the Chapter’s ORGANISATION
with earthquakes thanks to its orbital Promethean Cult, which encompasses Although the Salamanders follow the
tidal lock with the giant, barren moon its doctrines and deepest secrets. tenets of the Codex Astartes in their
of Prometheus. It is incredible to spirit, their structure and operations differ
imagine that human life can survive on The physical characteristics of the significantly from the norm. The reasons
Nocturne’s surface, but survive it has Salamanders Space Marines are for this deviation are partly owing to
since before the Imperium, and it was themselves striking and brought about the nature of the Chapter’s unique and
onto this desolate and shattered earth by a combination of their gene-seed, ancient history, as well as the influence
that the fledgling Primarch Vulkan fell. Nocturne’s erratic gravitational and of their Promethean Cult and also by their
With the visitation of the Emperor to radioactive forces, along with the situation on Nocturne. The Salamanders
Nocturne, the Primarch was reunited unique genetics of the population Chapter operates a total force of seven
with his Legion, who, although as never that has evolved to survive them. The line companies, each with a nominal
as great in numbers as others, quickly Battle Brothers of the Salamanders are active strength of a hundred and twenty
carved themselves out a reputation powerfully built, even for Space Marines, Battle Brothers in addition to a sub-
for stubborn tactics, superior wargear and are possessed of obsidian-black company of Scouts serving out their
and inviolate honour during the Great skin and burning red eyes. This almost training. Each of these seven companies
Crusade. When the horror of the Horus daemonic appearance, although entirely symbolically represents Nocturne’s
Heresy shook the foundations of the superficial in nature, is treated as but primary sanctuary settlements, and it
Imperium, the Salamanders stayed another tool in the Chapter’s arsenal, is these settlements and cities which
steadfastly loyal and paid the price and has been used by them to great serve as a focus of the Chapter’s
for their incorruptibility during the effect to terrify and intimidate more recruitment and governance on the
tragedy at Istvaan V. Here along with than one rebellion into submission planet and also exhibit their own unique
the Iron Hands and the Raven Guard without the need to destroy it. influences on the Chapter’s traditions.

74
 Brother Arion Veteran Terminator Brother Sa’kan
Salamanders 2nd Company Firedrake and Proctor of the Promethian Cult
Taken to the Emperor’s Grace Awarded the Order of the Fire of Ry’lan
The Battle of Sagan’s Moon Surngraad Assault

Nocturne-Ultima Modified Nocturne-Ultima Modified

Bolt Gun, Augmented Sighting Storm Bolter

MKII Absinia Pattern Assault Cannon

Terminator Fire Support Issue

75
The strong links between the arsenal allowing them to dominate the of the Emperor’s Wrath. This important
Salamanders brethren and the people open battlefield in most engagements, Cardinal world was and remains the
of Nocturne serve to create bonds although use of various bikes and capital of the Osiran Sector, and
of kinship and loyalty within each speeders, while not unknown in the is both the location of the revered
company’s ranks, and it provides the Chapter are not particularly favoured Basilica of Saint Thoth the Intercessor,
Chapter with a direct connection to by the Salamanders in their tactics. as well the sector’s primary Schola
the cycle of Nocturne’s history. An Progenium facility. As such it was the
inevitable degree of rivalry between The Chapter’s powerful and lynchpin of the Imperium’s spiritual
the Salamanders companies is formidably equipped 1st Company, and temporal control in this otherwise
also fostered by the nature of this the ‘Firedrakes’ are chosen from desolate region. In 533.M39 a massive
relationship as well, which only pushes the Salamander’s greatest warriors Ork Waaagh! under the thrall of the
the Salamanders Battle Brothers and so named for the deadliest of Snakebite Warlord “Rukrippa” was on
to greater heights of achievement Nocturne’s reptilian predators. The a collision course with Phaistos Osiris
and glory. The Chapter’s traditions bellicose reputation of the Firedrakes and threatened to drown the entire
regarding its recruitment however is legendary, even among their fellow Osiran sector in a savage darkness.
does also unfortunately serve to Space Marine Chapters, and stories When Rukrippa’s trio of gigantic
slow its turnaround of new initiates, of their might and valour are recorded Deff-Hulks battered their way into
a matter further compounded by the in scores of sources, from the heroic the Osiris system after despoiling a
fact that Nocturne’s population base sagas of the Space Wolves to the score of scattered outposts and colony
is relatively small, although its people, labyrinthine texts of the Red Talons’ worlds, they found the full strength of
hardened survivors all, are strong Techno-Cant Strife Chronicles. In the Salamanders Chapter waiting for
of constitution and psychologically addition to providing the Chapter with them and they were not alone. Given
resilient, making them excellent a veteran core of elite warriors, the advance warning by the Orks’ grinding
subjects for initiation into the Chapter. Firedrakes also serve as garrison progress, the Chapter stood at the
and guardians of the Salamander’s head of an army of disciplined troops
Another noteworthy feature of the foreboding fortress-monastery on raised from the students of the Imperial
Salamanders is their ability to field Nocturne’s giant moon, Prometheus. Schola and hundreds of thousands
advanced weapons and wargear This battle-station, whose foundations of volunteer pilgrim-militia whipped
of a quality almost unequalled by are sunk deep into the moon’s into a frenzy by the exhortations of
any other Space Marine Chapter. surface, as well as serving as the the Basilica’s clergy. All stood in
Spurred on by the teachings of the Chapter’s armoury, Apothecarion defence of a world too important to
Promethean Cult, the Chapter is able and chief reliquary, is rumoured be allowed to fall to the enemy, less
to maintain and more importantly to also house in its deepest vaults the lives of billions be blighted for
create superior weapons and systems, hidden forges and workshops whose generations. Even so, the defenders
such as artificer and Terminator sophistication (although not scale) are of Osiris faced terrifying odds as Orks
armour, advanced energy transmission said to be the equal of any but those in their millions, backed by savage
systems, Dreadnought frames and found on great Mars, throne world Squiggoth war-herds, descended in
personal weaponry of extraordinary of the Adeptus Mechanicus, itself. makeshift landing craft and ‘Krash-
quality. It is this superiority of Kapsuls’ from the Deff-Hulks in orbit
arms, coupled with the dogged SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS: on to the planet’s sacred soil.
determination and self-reliance of its The Fires of Phaistos
Battle Brothers that has enabled the Osiris [533.M39] Leading the resistance, the
Salamanders Chapter to play such Of all wars in which they have Salamanders Chapter had devised a
a prominent role in the annals of gained glory over the millennia, it is complex and subtle defence in depth
the Imperium despite its historically the actions of the Salamanders in which denied the planet’s resources
low fighting strength in numbers. defending this important Cardinal to the enemy. They employed a
world from an Ork onslaught which scorched earth policy; withdrawing
The Chapter’s tactical doctrines have most often been held up as a from the planet’s outer zones, which
focus on the application of close- shining example of the role of the they had laced with multiple traps,
range firepower, with flame and melta Adeptus Astartes in the protection extensive minefields and pre-planned
weapons most prevalent as standard the Imperium. The story of this great ambushes to break up and whittle
issue. This along with the widespread battle has since been mythologised down the invasion force before they
use of thunder hammers by their and praised time and again in tactical could mount a concerted assault.
assault Terminators allows the Chapter treatise and pulpit sermon alike. At Those civilians that could not fight;
to act with deadly effect against the time of its great trial the world of the old, the infirm and the young
fortified defences, enemy armour and Phaistos Osiris had long been a rare were sheltered in the many vaults of
monstrous foes. The Salamanders beacon of human civilisation and the great basilica complex and the
also maintain an enviable array and power in the northern Segmentum Osiran temple cities’ many holy sites,
number of Land Raiders, Predator Ultima, sited to the galactic north-east and with their kinfolk so protected
tanks and Dreadnoughts in their of the Warp vortex known as the Storm at their backs, the will of the pilgrim-

76
militia to resist was all the greater. As the superstitious Snakebite clan, grew apart by long-planted firebombs and
the numberless Ork horde, already increasing fractious at what might incendiaries rained down from the
enraged that open battle had been be an ill omen of Gork’s (or possibly great basilica’s own defence guns.
so far denied them broke against the Mork’s) disfavour at their failure to take The city burned and the Orks burned
walls of the temple-cities like a roaring, the temple-cities and quickly fell to with it. Their Squiggoths, driven
murderous tide, the Salamanders fighting among themselves. Rukrippa mad by the sea of flame rampaged
seemed to be everywhere striking was forced to take the matter in hand, out of control, trampling hundreds
down the foe with fire and fury, and brought together his army like a and destroying any order left in the
bolstering the defence wherever clenched fist and hammered it directly greenskin horde. As the burgeoning
it faltered and matching inhuman at Sanctis, the greatest of the temple- firestorm raged, shrines and walkways
brutality with unyielding strength. The cities and vowed before his chief Nobz crumbled and the skies were filled
wise and resolute Salamanders used and Weirdboy shaman to smash it with ash, the Salamanders launched
the Orks’ own homicidal rage and down or die trying. Not even the city’s their final counter-attack, now fighting
ill-discipline against them, goading fanatic defenders could hold back this on a hellish battlefield that was to
them on and trapping them into onslaught as scores of Gargantuan the Chapter no more nor less than
killing grounds of the Salamanders’ Squiggoths shattered the gates and home ground. The Salamanders
choosing, targeting and destroying pulverised their barricades. A wave surged up from the catacombs and
their leaders and slaughtering of savage Orks spread like a river of sanctuaries, their melta and flamer
swathes of the enemy in the resulting blood into the sacred city sweeping blasts adding to the conflagration.
confusion. With the first great assault all before them, killing as they went. With them came suicide-squads of
resisted, not a single temple-city had It was not until the first wave of fanatical Redemptionists, their robes
so far fallen, although the price paid rampaging Cyboar Tuskas reached the soon catching fire in the scalding air,
in lives by the defenders had been very steps of the great basilica that the singing hymns as they died, blades
appallingly high. It was then that the last of the Salamanders’ traps were and scourges flashing in their hands.
second phase of the Salamanders’ sprung and the city was set ablaze. The final killing blow came as the
plan swung into operation. Firedrakes descended from the
Thousands of gallons of Promethium darkness above; the Salamanders’
From its position of concealment poured from the city’s many church Thunderhawk and attack ram pilots,
in the eclipse phase of the Osiran gutters and gargoyles, pumped trained in Nocturne’s volcanic skies,
sun, the Salamander Chapter fleet, from prepared reservoirs deep from easily negotiated the burning debris
supported by Battlefleet Ultima attack beneath the city and torched into to deliver the Veteran company to
squadrons, engaged Ruckrippa’s flame as hab-blocs were blown do battle in the hell below. Rukrippa
Deff-Hulks in a shock assault. The
gigantic hulks, unable to quickly
manoeuvre to bring their weapons to Addendum: The Promethean Cult
bear on the attackers in close orbit Set down first as the teachings of their mighty and wise Primarch Vulkan, the
were soon encircled by the fleet and Promethean Cult is a body of doctrine that informs and codifies the spirit and
pounded remorselessly with torpedo culture of the Salamanders Chapter, with its most inner mysteries preserved
strikes and cannon fire. Even the fury for the elite Firedrakes alone to know. Compounded by many allegorical
of such weapons were unable to do stories and ancient tales of the coming of the Emperor to Nocturne and the
little more than scorch the surface wisdom of Chapter luminaries gathered over the millennia, the teachings of
of the Deff-Hulks such was their size the cult emphasise self-reliance, loyalty, duty, patience, self-sacrifice and
and density, but under the cover of above all self-discipline and endurance. From an early age, these values
the bombardment chosen squads are instilled in the Chapter’s potential recruits by an apprenticeship in one
of Firedrake Terminators conducted of Nocturne’s many forges, and both the hammer and fire as destroyer and
daring teleporter raids, planting creator are important symbols with deep spiritual significance to them. The
seismic charges a kilometre-deep skills learned in the forge and the tradition of artisanship within the Chapter are
within the hulks’ innards. Torn apart of paramount importance, and each Salamander Space Marine is expected to
from within by powerful atomic blasts, further refine and maintain their wargear to standards that would be regarded
the Deff-Hulks slowly broke apart and as the purview only of Techmarines elsewhere, while their Forge Masters
began to disintegrate, millions of tons are capable of feats of craftsmanship undreamt of except in a bygone age.
of metal and rock flying out into the
void, secondary explosions ripping like Implacable determination and the ability to endure any hardship is of equal
lightning flashes through the debris. importance within the teachings of the Promethean Cult, and trials of
endurance and strength, often marked by ritual scarring and branding are
Below on Phaistos Osiris, the skies commonplace in their training and ongoing spiritual discipline. These brands
were wracked with sudden storms and scars also serve as a flesh-seared record of an individual Salamanders
and riven by a fire-fall of wreckage Space Marine’s battle honours and achievements, with the nature and
raining down from the skies above. positioning of these sacred wounds of deep ritual significance within the cult.
The Orks below, belonging largely to

77
died at the chancel of the great covered them, thereby robbing their and the Fire Hawks as recently as the
Basilica. Some reports refer to a insidious enemies of sustenance Lycanthos Drift Campaign of the 810s
Salamanders Librarian wielding a and concealment before proceeding M.41 and the Chapter was greatly
sword of flame, while other tales claim to cleanse the ancient tunnels that troubled by the internecine conflict,
the beast died by the hand of the fiery honeycombed the moons’ surfaces. refusing to intervene on either side
incarnation of Saint Thoth himself. despite direct calls to do so by both
Regardless of the truth when he died The Salamanders advanced into the Astral Claws and the Fire Hawks
his Waaagh! died with him. In the the darkness in Mechanicus Termite in the early years of the conflict. This
weeks that followed, the scattered boring craft with spider-stalker stance remained until proof was
surviving Orks were purged from the servitors to scout their way forwards in given to them by Inquisitor Frain that
face of the world, and high above the the lightless underworld, methodically Huron’s Chapter had broken faith fully
wreckage from the destroyed Deff- scouring the tunnels. The Ymgarl with the ancient covenants and the
Hulks settled into new debris rings strain of Genestealer is a terrifying Salamanders were forced by duty to
girding the planet. Word of this great beast able to adapt to its foes and with act. Unfortunately by this time much of
victory spread far and wide and soon physical power enough to outmatch the Chapter was committed elsewhere
‘The Fires of Phaistos Osiris’ entered even a Space Marine with ease. As and so a force was hastily assembled
legend throughout the Imperium, and waves of the inhumanly fast creatures under the Captain of the then under-
although the temple-city of Sanctis came at the Salamanders hissing strength 2nd Company, Pellas Mir’san,
was sacrificed to destroy the Orks its from the darkness battle was joined who was himself to go on to play a
great basilica endured, its once-white against a foe none but the Adeptus key role in the war and its aftermath.
spires scorched a midnight black. In Astartes could hope to face and live. The bulk of the force was made up of
solemn gratitude for their intervention, Deeper and deeper the Salamanders the Salamanders 2nd Company, which
a battle standard depicting the black battled, encountering vast and strange had been recuperating and re-arming
silhouette of the Basilica of Saint blind and wormlike mutations crashing on Nocturne after an arduous tour of
Thoth wreathed in flame and woven through the tunnels, and appallingly duty fighting the Iron Warriors in the
from the sacred cloth of the Saint’s powerful brood-lords whose taloned Death’s-head nebula. This was further
death-shroud was presented to the hands could shred a Terminator at a augmented by reserve elements of the
Salamanders by the thankful cardinals stroke. The losses among the Space Nocturne garrison, as well as several
and commanders of Phaistos Osiris. Marines quickly mounted, but assaults veteran training instructors along with
The banner remains an honoured relic from the nightmare Genestealers were a core of Firedrakes thirty-strong to
of the Chapter to the present time. despatched in storms of fire or crushed serve as Mir’san’s bodyguard. All
under the shattering blows of thunder were well provided for in terms of
The Purging of the Moons hammers and the Salamanders did ships, vehicles and weapons from the
of Ymgarl [754-756.M41] not falter despite desperate hours and vaults of Prometheus. The force was
With the coming of the Tyranid menace terrible reversals. The campaign lasted further strengthened by a Hextad of
threatening the existence of the for nearly two years of bloody struggle Ancients; six venerable dreadnoughts
Imperium, it was realised with some and death from the darkness before of the Chapter, some of which had
shock that the insidious Genestealer finally the Magos Biologis pronounced not been woken into battle for more
menace, long a thorn in the side of the ancient threat on Ymgarl ended, than four centuries, who were now to
the Imperium, connected in some although its dark legacy would live on lend their implacable wrath and deep
way to this newer, greater peril. By in the shadows of chill ship holds, dark wisdom to Mir’san’s cause such was
the edict of the High Lords of Terra hulks and doomed worlds uncounted. the grave weight the Salamanders
actions against suspected Genestealer Chapter gave to the Tyrant’s sins. The
infection were stepped up to the BADAB WAR DISPOSITION Salamanders force, although relatively
highest possible effort. As part of this The Salamanders’ first direct few in number in comparison to some
xenocidal campaign, the Salamanders involvement in the Badab War other Loyalist contingents was heavily
were given the onerous duty of purging came in 906.M41, although they engaged throughout the conflict until
the Genestealers for all time from the had watched the unfolding events its end, both in void battle and open
moons of Ymgarl. This was a realm of the Badab Schism for years with warfare, playing key roles in several
where these foul creatures had always growing concern. Although Nocturne of the most important events of the
maintained a foothold and from which was located at some considerable Badab War, such as the Angstrom
they had previously been thought to distance from the Maelstrom Zone, Incident, the invasion of Shaprias and
originate. With the aid of the Magos they were no stranger to it or its the sundering of the Executioners
Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus, conflicts, as access to the area via Chapter from the Secessionist cause,
the Salamanders constructed a a stable Warp route though the Pale following the events of the ‘Red Hour’,
detailed plan of attack, first rooting Stars region had long been known. and the final siege of Badab itself.
out their prey by using specially The Chapter’s reluctance to intervene
sanctioned alkem-weapons to burn was further strengthened by the fact
away much of the moons’ atmospheres that Salamander Battle Brothers had
and destroy the teeming jungles that fought alongside both the Astral Claws

78
 Brother Damassen Veteran Sergeant Par’San
3rd Assault Squad, 2nd Company Fell in Action and Lost to the Flame
Assault Demi-Squad Detachment Commander ‘The Angstrom Incident’
‘The Angstrom Incident’

Nocturne-Modified ‘Gore Prow’ Pattern Absolution Sub-Pattern Flamer

Chainsword and
Deliverance Pattern Combat Shield
Salamanders Chapter Standard
Assault Issue

79
 STURNGARD SQUAD
KADMAEUS
DETACHED SERVICE, SALAMANDERS
CHAPTER BADAB DETACHMENT

Veteran Sergeant Kadmaeus Salamanders Chapter Icon

Commanding 5th Detached Service Demi-Squad Common Armorial Use
Martyr of the Chapter
Note: This squad was comprised of individuals chosen
from the current cyclical faculty of the Salamanders
Chapter’s Instruction Cadre, with these Veterans fielded
primarily as Sternguard in the conflict.
The demi-squad served with distinction during both the
Assault on Surngraad and the Battle of Shaprais, with all
but one member giving their lives in the successful
defence of the Pyre of Glory’s Inner Sanctum against
overwhelming odds during the events of ‘The Red Hour’

Nocturne Modified Umbra-Ferrox Pattern Bolt Gun with Sunfury Plasma Pistol and Reaper Power Axe
Chainblade Combat Unit

80
Veteran Brother Coran Veteran Brother Tul’dan
Martyr of the Chapter Martyr of the Chapter
The Red Hour The Red Hour

Veteran Brother Kai Veteran Brother Anusai

Martyr of the Chapter Survivor, Awarded the Martyr’s Seal
The Red Hour The Red Hour

81
82
The Amaranth Fang
Caestus Pattern Assault Ram
Attack Wing Leader, The Battle of Shaprais
 Salamander’s Chapter Rhino Transport
Drawn from Prometheus Forge Armoury Reserve,
Attached to Demi-Squad Kadmaeus, Battle of Shaprais

Sura’kan Foehammer
Awoken Ancient of the Hectad
Siege Configuration Armament shown
Battle of Shaprias

83
 THE EXECUTIONERS
chapter name: ����������������������� executioners
founding: ������������������������������ 3rd [unconfirmed: stated in the
chapter’s own chronicles]
chapter world/ deployment : ��� stygia-aquilon [binary-orbiting spheres]
fortress monastery : ������������� darkenvault [geo-stationary fortified
asteroid/stygia-aquilon]
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� imperial fists
known descendants:��������������� iron champions, crimson axes [recorded
lost circa 092.M39], [the skull
bearers claim the executioners as
their antecedents, but this remains
unsubstantiated by official records]

“You may cleave to your courage but that will fail you, look to
your weapons but you will find them not enough. Run, fight, hide,
pray, cry out or cower - it does not matter, for we are come.”
- Fafnir Rann

A n ancient and proud Chapter

whose origins are to be found in
the chaotic centuries that followed the
arms, they share little in common with
their progenitor Chapter’s culture and
traditions, nor are their ties to any
home at the twin worlds of Stygia and
Aquilon; infamous planets of fire and
ice locked in a perpetual orbit ellipsing
Horus Heresy, the Executioners are but their own successors among the around a giant, slowly dying sun at the
scions of the proud line of the Imperial Space Marines strong. Instead their edge of the endless benighted expanse
Fists. Founded under the command ancient ways and beliefs are very much of the galactic southern fringe. The
of Fafnir Rann, reputedly the most rooted in the feral worlds from which Executioners’ fortress-monastery is a
vicious of Rogal Dorn’s later captains, they have long recruited their Battle huge armoured asteroid base known
they were created, according to their Brothers. Accordingly, some of their as the Darkenvault, gravitationally
chronicles, for the sole task of seeking fellow Space Marines are known to trapped between these two worlds,
out and slaughtering Mankind’s foes view the Executioners as barely more and it is from this bleak and forbidding
rather than undertaking any more than ill-disciplined primitives and gore- bastion that their skull-prowed warships
defensive or strategic purpose. The splattered headhunters, little better sally forth into the immense blackness
Executioners are a bellicose, almost than renegades. However to hold this beyond in search of targets to destroy.
barbarous Chapter that disdains to be true is to ignore a high degree
the martial trappings and ordered of blood-bought battle wisdom and a By the laws and traditions of the
obedience of such stalwart and certain deliberate cunning that makes Chapter, each Executioners Space
unimpeachable members of the the Chapter far more than a barbaric Marine must forge their own path
Astartes as the Ultramarines and horde in Space Marine guise, and to glory and become worthy of
their own forebears the Imperial Fists, to set aside a record of unwavering remembrance in the great chronicles
but they have gained a fearsome service to the Imperium in some of that have been kept by successive
reputation for sheer undaunted the darkest periods of its history. generations of the Chapter’s Chaplains,
endurance and destructive wrath. or “Death-Speakers” as they are also
As a Chapter they see their goal and One of the Space Marine Chapters known. It is these Death-Speakers
purpose as a simple one; to extinguish posted on the Imperium’s fringes, whose task it is to recount the
the lives of those that would contest the the Executioners’ common range of slaughter-tallies of the Chapter’s
Imperium’s rule or threaten humanity, operations encompasses the desolate honoured dead during holy feasts
and to do so without remorse. In void wastes to the galactic south- and memorial ceremonies held deep
literal terms they see themselves as south-west, between the borders within the Darkenvault’s catacombs.
the Emperor’s chosen headsmen, of the Segmentum Tempestus and Their second and equally important
and his judgement theirs to enact. Segmentum Pacificus, although they task is to keep order in the often
are accustomed to great voyages and fractious Chapter, and consequently
Descended from the noble lineage forlorn quests over their long history, the Executioners maintain an unusually
of Rogal Dorn’s Imperial Fists, aside having fought in wars right across the high number of Chaplains, with each
from an inviolable sense of honour Imperium in the past. Since the closing company assigned three by tradition.
and a history of phenomenal skill at years of M37 the Chapter has made its These report to the overall High

84
 Axe Brother Sagor Terminator Brother Heltak
3rd Company Tactical Marine, Chronicled for his Remorseless Slaughter
The Night Hag The Battle of Khymara

Axe Brother Castigar ‘The Taker’ Death-Speaker Klarkash

6th Company Chapter Tactical Reserve Chaplain of the 3rd Company
Sundered Armour Recovered, the Corcyran Massacre Confessor and Sub-Commander of the Night Hag

85
 although given the Chapter’s reputation
Addendum: The Corcyran Massacre it must be said that many of their allies
Considered by some a ‘lost tale’ of the Badab War whose true facts will have been loathe to call upon them in
never be known, what became known as the Corcyran Massacre was return, except in times of dire need.
discovered by a Loyalist naval patrol in 339910.M41. In the wreckage of an
old smuggler base in the dust wastes of Corcyra-II was found the aftermath ORGANISATION
of a bloody battle between sub-company sized forces of the Executioners Perhaps surprisingly for a Chapter
and Carcharodons Chapters. These two Chapters, both famed in their own with so barbaric and unsophisticated
right as savage and unyielding, had fought each other to mutual annihilation, a reputation, the Executioners adhere
ripping apart the base around them and trampling its former inhabitants very strictly to the tenets of the
into the dust. Many of the bodies from both sides showed signs of having Codex Astartes in their structure and
fought on despite suffering horrendous wounds, severed limbs and massive organisation, with only a few minor
trauma that should have felled even a Space Marine, and several were changes in orthodoxy which largely
found locked in deathly, gore-spattered embraces, striking at their foes reflect a tendency towards close-
with their last ebbing strength. Which fighter, Executioner or Carcharodon range fire fights and brutal hand-
breathed last to claim a bitter victory shall never be known, as neither side to-hand combat. These tactics are
has acknowledged any survivors of the massacre living to tell of the battle. preferred as the Chapter’s brethren
may more readily prove themselves
in such decisive combats than in
Chaplain, also known as the Lord in which case they may be preserved operations carried via long range
Speaker of the Dead. As a part of their as relics, often adorning the Space firepower or using hit-and-run tactics.
duties the Chaplains keep precise Marine’s armour or wargear for a time.
records of the battles in which their Others exposed to the Executioners’ Operationally this tactical bias has
companies have fought, so that the ways have also taken issue with their been represented most obviously
lessons of both victory and defeat are spiritual beliefs, which have endured in the Chapter’s battle companies
never lost for future warriors of the since before the rise of the Ministorum. by the replacement of one of their
Chapter. It is only by right of bloodshed, Primarily these take the form of animism standard Codex approved Devastator
by taking the lives of the Emperor’s and ancestor worship, and while they squads for a Sternguard Veteran
enemies that an Executioners Space ascribe to the Emperor Divine temper squad of the Company’s finest
Marine can be granted the honour and right, they have little use for the warriors in their organisational line of
of a place in the chronicles, and Ecclesiarchy and its trappings of battle. Conversely, the use of bikes
thereby earn the respect of their fellow saints and ‘petty’ superstitions, save and attack bikes is disdained by the
Space Marines and in so doing attain as a useful tool for binding together Executioners, who have a preference
rank and honour in the Chapter. the Imperium’s scattered multitudes. for the use of Land Speeders for
scouting duties, and heavy armour
By nature intractable, ambitious and As with most Chapters posted in wherever possible for assault and
swift to anger, the Chapter’s Battle the further reaches of the void, reconnaissance in force. Capable of
Brothers are taught to avenge slights the Executioners Chapter is highly subtlety when the need arises, the
to their honour with blood, even among independent in operation and Executioners prefer to assure victory
their own, but unlike those few other deployment, undertaking its own and the glory of their warriors by
Chapters were such behaviour is ongoing war with the enemies of engaging the enemy as closely as
tolerated or even encouraged in the Mankind. But unlike some, they have possible, and are unafraid of battles
ranks (such as the Space Wolves or never allowed themselves to become of attrition or mutual destruction,
Marauders for example), little passes isolationist or insular, maintaining ties relying on the ability of their Battle
by way of brawling or boisterous of communication and pacts of service Brothers to overcome and endure
competition among them, because for and allegiance with the Segmentum anything the enemy can throw at
the Executioners, all such battles are Tempestus authorities at Bakka, them and return it with greater force.
to the maiming or the death of those Drachus and Gryphonne, further At times this has proved a flaw,
involved. Honour demands no less. cementing these ties by allowing the leading the Chapter to fight on once
Another eccentricity of the Chapter’s cavernous Darkenvault station to serve engaged where its better judgment
culture outsiders have found disturbing in extremis as a refuge for Explorator may have otherwise prevailed before
is the Executioners’ tendency to carry missions and deep range fleet patrols. its bloodlust had been roused, a
from the battlefield trophies taken from The Executioners themselves have failing that has also been said of their
particularly noteworthy victims, such as benefited from these relationships by ancient progenitors in the past.
skulls, heads and weapons - not for any gaining access to the Segmentum’s
ritual purpose, but rather for the tally fleet anchorages and supply stations. Within the Executioners Chapter,
of the Death-Speakers after the battle. Their pacts with the Mechanicus at each Company Captain is treated
They are then promptly discarded after Gryphonne have resulted in the Chapter as a warlord in their own right by the
they have served their purpose unless gaining many gifts of wargear and heavy Chapter, with a great independence of
judged to be particularly significant arms with which to wage their wars, action afforded them. The Chapter’s

86
master, also known as the High first Space Marine Chapters who took like a scythe, slaying everything that
Executioner, although possessing up arms against Cardinal Bucharis’ opposed them and laying waste to
ultimate authority, must also heed his splinter empire based at Galthamor, vast swathes of the planet’s surface.
company captains, who along with notably fighting alongside the Space It was said later in the whispers of
the Chapter’s Chief Librarian, Master Wolves, Angels of Absolution and those that survived this terrible day of
of the Forge and Lord Speaker of Raven Guard at various points during wrath that only those that prostrated
the Dead, form a war council which the conflict. Their most famous action themselves before the dark-armoured
by ancient right may, by unanimous during this time was the invasion and giants in surrender were spared, but
assent, overthrow the Chapter Master subsequent devastation of the hive every man or woman that raised up
should he prove unfit or unworthy world of Nova Sulis. The avaricious arms against the Executioners, be
in their eyes. Unlike the traditions water-barons of Sulis had been eager they guardsmen, noble, priest or hive
of most Space Marine Chapters, supporters of the Apostasy, taking the scum were struck down. With Nova
leadership contests for the command Cardinal’s stolen wealth in return for Sulis devastated and the supplies of
of the Executioners can be bloody vast quantities of munitions produced munitions to the Bucharis’ traitors cut
affairs; with each of the company in their hive-manufactora, which in turn off, the Executioners departed, leaving
Captains having the right to challenge were being ploughed into Bucharis’s the severed heads of those they
for the title of High Executioner in disastrous ongoing siege of Fenris, the slew lining kilometre after kilometre
trial by combat should they so wish. Space Wolves Chapter world. Falling of the wrecked city streets. With the
like a flaming comet on their victims, government literally beheaded and the
SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS the Executioners invaded Sulis in planet’s infrastructure in tatters, the
The Invasion of Nova Sulis, The force, their warships blackening the wild fires and secondary explosions
Plague of Unbelief [302.M36] skies and raining death on the baronial from the destruction they had wrought
During the wars that marked the estates and storehouse-palaces, while spread like a crawling plague across
beginning of the Plague of Unbelief, their armoured assault forces swept the world that would last for years
the Executioners were among the through the manufactora districts before they were finally curbed.

Venerable Laskho, Executioners Chapter Dreadnought

MKV Chassis, Fire Support Configuration

87
During the wars of these turbulent appetite for sacrifice he became a Night Hag as their prize. With the
times, the warriors of the Space curse upon the southern sectors of the assistance of the Archmagos masters
Wolves Chapter, who saw in the Segmentum Tempestus. This fifty- of Gryphonne IV they successfully
Executioners kindred spirits if grimmer seven year reign of terror lasted until purged the mighty warship of taint and
and darker of heart, first took to calling his ramshackle fleet was finally chased refitted it to the Chapter’s purposes.
the Chapter “Hlatur’sokn” in the old down and cornered in the Myr system In return the Magos were allowed to
Fenrisian tongue, or roughly “laughing by a combined force of Mechanicus remove certain relic-technologies
axe-men”. A deliberately ironic joke, Explorators, the Imperial Navy and from the vessel and were granted
but meant in weary respect to brothers the Executioners’ Chapter. In the free access to the ancient and unique
in arms. For their role in combating the middle of a grand and thunderous star lore stored in its data-tabernacle.
apostates and traitors of the Plague of battle, the Executioners assault rams
Unbelief, the Executioners were given managed to land boarding parties The Battle of Carrion
the rare honour of a new Chapter, the on Revvokan’s flagship, the Night Deep [899.M41]
Iron Champions, being raised from Hag, before it escaped to the Warp. Responding to a series of frantic
their gene-seed in a later Founding. The Executioners on board, cut off distress calls from Imperial deep-
with no hope of rescue or help, were range outposts, the forces of the
The Pursuit of Hektor heavily outnumbered and forced to Executioners 2nd Company found
Revvokan [137.M40] confront both Revvokan’s ghoulish themselves in desperate struggle
The last in a withered but still powerful slaves and a warband of World Eaters against an awakened threat stirring
line of Rogue Traders stretching Berserkers sworn to his service. With in the dead worlds near the Veiled
back to the Age of Apostasy, when no option of retreat the Executioners Region on the edge of the Segmentum
death came for him at the end of an fought with insane zeal, and chamber Tempestus. Discovering nothing but
unnaturally long life eked out through by chamber they brought the ancient a trail of shattered ruins and empty
forbidden xenos lore and dark science, warship under their control until they bastions where Imperial watchposts
Hektor Revvokan turned to the dark finally slaughtered Revvokan and should be, the Executioners were
gods to grant him immortality and in his cannibalistic get and crashed the ambushed in the wreckage of the
doing so was forever damned. Turning ship back into Realspace in a blaze frontier base on the dead world of
his guns on the Imperium’s frontier of Ætheric fire. In the aftermath of Carrion Deep. Their attackers were
worlds in order to satiate his masters’ the battle, the Executioners took the terrifying metallic spectres whose

Addendum: The Executioners’ Debt came under siege. The attackers were a nightmarish
The position of the Executioners during the Badab War xenos species of worm-ridden, writhing charnel-feasters
was a unique and complex one, and their siding with never before encountered. Again and again they struck
Lugft Huron and the Secessionists was not something without warning, their strange disk-like ships all but
that the Loyalist forces foresaw or outsiders could undetectable to Darkenvault’s defences until the last
predict, and many false accounts of the war entirely moment of their attack when their ghostly rays seared
misrepresent the Chapter’s role in the Badab War and through tens of metres of ferrous asteroid mass in an
their place in the Secession. The root cause of their instant to spill a tide of horror into the fortress’ lower
involvement was in truth a blood debt over a thousand levels. The resulting battles in the catacombs at the
years old that for the Executioners only blood could heart of the Executioners’ fortress-monastery were
repay, even if it meant the death of their Chapter. unceasing and terrible, and in a short span of time few
Space Marines remained to defend the inner sanctum
In the closing decades of the thirty-ninth millennium in and the Chapter stood on the brink of extinction.
what is now a largely forgotten episode of the Imperium’s
history, the southern fringe was assailed by wave after It was the Astral Claws, supported by the cruisers of
wave of Ork nomad fleets, xenoform migrations and Battlefleet Tempestus that broke the siege of Darkenvault;
strange psychic phenomenon which themselves caused their arrival came just as the last of the Executioners
a near epidemic of witch cults, alien infestations and were gathering for a final stand. Many Astral Claws
daemonic incursions. Seen now by some sources died in breaking the siege, and among their losses they
within the Ordo Xenos as a precursor to the coming of counted their Chapter Master, Acas Seneca. The handful
the Tyranids, these events were largely unrecognised of Executioners that endured owed a blood debt to the
at the time as forming a pattern, as the eyes of the Astral Claws for the salvation of their Chapter, and swore
Imperium were focused on threats elsewhere. Suffering that should the Astral Claws ever be so threatened they
severe attrition in a series of campaigns defending the would respond in kind. It would be almost a century
Imperium’s borders against invading Orks, Enslaver and a half before the Executioners returned again to
outbreaks and worse, the Executioners Chapter had full strength as a Chapter, and they would never forget
been reduced to less than three hundred Battle Brothers their oath. When the time came a thousand years
when their own twin chapter worlds of Stygia-Aquilon and more later, they would heed Lugft Huron’s call.

88
weapons made a mockery of the the Chapter’s receipt of their demand savaged by the Executioners’ persistent
strongest armour and who re-assembled for aid, arriving in the Maelstrom attacks. In particular the Night Hag
and reanimated themselves even Zone in late 904.M41. The rest of the under Captain Vanir Hex’s command
when blown apart. Surrounded and Executioners Chapter during this period became the terror of Loyalist freighters
outnumbered by foes that would not die, gathered their forces at Darkenvault and warships alike, as it proved able to
it was only by the dauntless leadership and mobilised for a long campaign overmatch even Imperial Navy cruisers
and wise cunning of the Executioners’ far from their base of operations. in one-on-one combats, and swift
High Chaplain Thulsa Kane that they The second wave would comprise enough to escape any trap mounted by
were able to survive. Drawing upon the the balance of the Chapter’s forces superior forces. Despite their invaluable
ancient chronicles of the Chapter for except their 2nd Company (which had service to the Secessionist war effort,
guidance, Thulsa Kane led the trapped still not fully recovered from events Huron was growing increasingly
Executioners in a furious counter- at Carrion Deep) and roughly half of aggrieved with the Chapter by 909.M41,
assault against a single point on the their 10 th Company, which were left and in particular he is known to have
enemy line, the Executioners grappling behind to garrison Darkenvault and railed against their tendency to leave
at close quarters with their monstrous maintain the Chapter’s watch. This survivors of their attacks behind once
metal foes where the Space Marines’ total force consisted roughly seven their strategic objectives were met, and
speed and ferocity could be brought companies in active strength, and was even their allowing the surrender of
into play. Thulsa Kane himself sought transported into battle by a combined defeated foes with honour. He sought
out and confronted the enemy leader, a fleet of one battle barge, three strike instead to solve this by having his forces
towering personification of death clad in cruisers, two vanguard cruisers, and shadow theirs “To do what must be
blighted gold and tattered cloth. After a two wings of five Sword class frigates. done” and to keep the Executioners
titanic clash of arms which left Kane’s This Executioners force, under the Chapter distant from as many of his
Crozius Arcanum broken and his right direct command of the High Chaplain own machinations and actions as
eye withered in his skull, he managed Thulsa Kane, was fully engaged in possible. But as the war worsened for
to strike the monster down, enabling the Badab War in early 907.M41. the Secessionists, they would be forced
his brethren to fight their escape, and to relay increasingly on the Chapter to
as much as many wanted to fight on to Although initially welcomed with contest the Maelstrom Zone, a policy
the bitter end, Kane’s will prevailed. open arms on their arrival to aid the which would prove disastrous and result
Secessionist cause by Lugft Huron in the Executioners turning on the Astral
Less than a third of the force succeeded and his allies, it was apparent from the Claws after the events surrounding the
in breaking out of the trap their deathly outset that the Executioners supported surrender of the Salamanders battle
foes had set for them and retreated off the Astral Claws only on their own barge Pyre of Glory. For a further year
the planet. This victory alone is counted terms. The relationship worsened as after this unexpected turn of events,
as nearly miraculous, and brought Thulsa Kane displayed nothing short the Executioners Chapter became
back to the Imperium one of the first of guarded contempt for his allies that an unpredictable rogue element in
confirmed and detailed battle reports by swiftly saw all interaction between him the war, fighting whenever attacked,
a surviving force against the awakening and the Secessionist command carried and conducting their own private
ancient menace later identified as out through intermediaries. Although war with their former allies until the
the Necrons. Carrion Deep remains they committed fully to any battle in Executioners negotiated a surrender
under quarantine by Imperial Order. which they engaged, the Executioners and withdrawal from the war zone was
refused to serve as garrison troops, effected for the Chapter in 911.M41.
BADAB WAR DISPOSITION claim fresh territory for the Secession,
The Executioners fought on the or attack anything they considered not Of all those caught up in the
Secessionist side during the Badab to be a military target. Despite these Secessionist cause, the Executioners
War, their involvement in Lugft Huron’s self-imposed strictures the Executioners Chapter perhaps endured the least
cause the unique consequence of a quickly gained themselves a fearsome scathed and the least tainted. They
blood debt the Chapter owed the Astral reputation among the Loyalist Space had fought honourably and had lived
Claws from more than a millennium Marines they fought, particularly after and died by their oaths. In punishment
before. The Executioners Chapter the heavy losses they inflicted against the Chapter was forced to give up
deployed to the Badab War in two the Howling Griffons at Khymara. reparations and exiled from their home
distinct stages, the first of which was as As the Badab War progressed, the system for the span of a hundred years,
a strike force comprising a reinforced Executioners proved easily the most in which time they would undertake
3rd Company commanded by Captain able and mobile raiding force the a penitent crusade to atone for the
Vanir Hex based upon the deep-range Secessionist cause had possessed, Loyalist blood they had spilled and be
cruiser Night Hag. This former Rogue destroying outposts, ambushing forbidden from taking up new initiates.
Trader vessel possessed far greater convoys and successfully forcing the
independent operating range and speed Loyalists to disperse their forces in
under Warp than any other warship rear-echelon reinforcement patterns
at the Chapter’s command, and it in order to prevent their supply lines
was despatched without delay upon being cut and their rearguard being

89
 VANGUARD SQUAD
HADRAKER
6TH SQUAD, 3RD BATTLE COMPANY

Veteran Sergeant Hadraker, Executioners Chapter Icon

Strike Leader, Boarding Assault Forces Common Armorial Use
The Phaeton’s Wrath

Executioners Chapter Panoply of Armaments,

commonly encountered in raiding forces.
Inc. Monocore Ryza manufacture plasma weapons,
Umbra pattern bolt weapons,
Chapter manufacture ‘Vanir’ type power weaponry

90
 Vanguard Brother Skaran Vanguard Brother Osric
Slain during the Red Hour Stigmatun Majoris, the Red Hour
.

Vanguard Brother Dunwych Vanguard Brother Amon

Chronicled to have taken the Head of Centurion Mendak Chronicled to have seized the Hyrcania’s Dorsal Gun Vault
the Red Hour and Slain all he Found There
the Red Hour

91
92
The ‘Heart of Blood’ Executioners Land Raider Redeemer
Attached to the 3rd Battle Company
Spearheaded the Assault on Outpost Lamda
the Khymaran Drift
 Executioners Chapter Rhino Transport
Attached to the 4th Company, Destroyed in Action
The Clash at Uzeal

Executioners Chapter Predator Tank, Annihilator Pattern

Attached to the 4th Company, Four Confirmed Armour Kills
The Clash at Uzeal

93
 THE SONS OF MEDUSA
chapter name: ����������������������� sons of medusa
Founding: ����������������������������� not recorded, chapter ratified by
edict; [011.M37: see history]
Homeworld: ������������������������� fleet based, [three primary independently
operating battle groups]
Fortress Monastery: ����������� fortified asteroid network, Taelus

posi
system [see addendum]
Gene-seed (Predecessor): ����� iron hands
K nown Descendants: ������������ none

“Purge the Weak”

- Motto of the Sons of Medusa

T he Sons of Medusa are a Chapter

with a history of ruthless efficiency
in the merciless persecution of
differences and competing powers.
One of the most acrimonious of these
conflicts was the Moirae Schism, a
bloodshed within the ranks was a
simple one – exile for the minority
who had embraced the dissident
the Imperium’s foes. Descended dogmatic battle between Martian doctrine, and a binding treaty never to
from the lineage of the Iron Hands Orthodoxy and a radical creed based raise their hands against their former
Chapter, they share many of their upon the prophetic writings of a brothers enacted by both sides. It is
forebears’ predilections, including triad of tech-mystics based on the believed that fully a third of the Iron
intolerance for the weakness of the minor forge world of Moirae. The Hands brethren then departed, to be
flesh and a reliance on the power of word of the Moirae would spread joined in time by a handful of other
the machine rarely found in Space like wildfire through the domains Space Marines from other Iron Hands
Marine Chapters. The Chapter’s of the Mechanicus even after their Successor Chapters who shared their
distinguished roll of battle honours, world was reduced to a cinder by the beliefs (although evidence exists
from its participation in a host of Fabricator General’s rectification fleet. that some such as the Red Talons
Crusades to its triumphant defence The disruptive creed quickly gained mercilessly destroyed their errant
of many of the Imperium’s worlds influence, both within sects of the brothers over this matter, rather than
from the heretic and the alien masks Mechanicus priesthood as well as a suffer the dissidents to live). This
a darker past that many would number of tech guard regiments and exiled faction still saw themselves as
guess at, and a secret and turbulent Titan legions causing untold harm, wholly part of the Imperium, still Iron
history of heresy and discord. before being transmitted even further Hands and although reduced to a rag-
afield to Space Marine Chapters tag fleet swiftly set about locating and
The origins of the Chapter lay in the with close ties to the Adeptus destroying enemy targets. Over time
time known to Imperial history as Mechanicus - and in this the Iron they slowly began to increase their
the Nova Terra Interregnum which Hands were no exception. The Moirae number and strength, commending
took place during the early 35th doctrines were quickly embraced their gene-seed to higher Imperial
millennium. This was a period of by a significant percentage of those authorities and conducting their
division and civil war in which the within the Chapter, and championed duty as if they were still part of their
Imperium became fractured into by the infamous Omnissian mystic, mother-Chapter. Over time, the
warring and disparate factions which Iron-Father Setol Sollex among exiled faction continued to use the
cut across the lines of the Adeptas their clan companies. Discord soon iconography and pattern of the Iron
and turned former allies against followed, and the Iron Hands rapidly Hands from which they had been
each other. During this period it was approached the edge of a full civil outcast (with some minor variations)
not just the Imperium’s governance war, an event only averted by the having further divided themselves
and religion which suffered schism, Iron Hands Great Clan Council’s into three new Clan Companies to
the Adeptus Mechanicus was also intervention to impose a settlement. support their steady increase in
afflicted with division and internal Notoriously straightforward and harsh, numbers, and eventually outlived the
warfare brought about by doctrinal their solution taken to avoid mass schism that had given them birth.

94
 Brother Kheres Brother Ashmon
Tactical Marine Cited For Fortitude, Cygnax Campaign
Mageara War Clan Affiliation

Forge-Wright Lumic
Sons Of Medusa Chapter Icon Sons of Medusa Techmarine
Common Armorial Use [Atropos War Clan Variation] Chamber Ferrum

95
So matters continued until the the Sons of Medusa took to the task shunned combat against their fellow
dawning of the Age of Redemption. with unalloyed zeal and implacable Space Marine Chapters who have
During this period the newly resurgent determination, outshining even their turned renegade or that become
High Lords of Terra re-assembled progenitor Chapter in the harsh and subject to Imperial censure.
the disparate strands of anarchy and unforgiving manner in which they
purged what could not be saved from executed their duty. Even after the ORGANISATION
the Imperium. The Moirae exiles Great Cull ended, the three Chapter Following a unique organisation
of the Iron Hands, now a separate fleets of the Sons of Medusa were pattern derived in part from the Iron
Chapter in all but name were weighed tireless in their prosecution of the Hands Chapter, the Sons of Medusa
and judged, their record examined in enemies of the Imperium, attaching differ somewhat from the Codex
minute detail as was their gene-seed themselves to many great Crusades Astartes in command structure, while
for unworthiness or deviance and they and pitching their forces against remaining true to its tenets at the
were found to be loyal and untainted. the foe, no matter how desperate tactical and squad level. Rather than
As a result by an almost unique edict the odds, winning for themselves the usual division of ten companies,
the Sons of Medusa were reorganised the grudging respect, if not the trust the Chapter is divided into three War
and ratified as a Chapter of the of their fellow Space Marines over Clans, each of which is further divided
Adeptus Astartes within the Emperor’s the centuries. Their reputation has into a Battle Company, a Tactical
grace, despite protests by some within been long-marred however by those Company and a Support Company
the Adeptus Mechanicus and the that would call the Sons of Medusa (the former two conforming roughly
grave misgivings held by numerous battlefield scavengers and carrion to their Codex equivalents, while
other Space Marine Chapters. crows. This is thanks to their tendency the Support company comprises a
to seek out and appropriate weapons mixture of Devastator, Assault and
The first campaigns the Sons and technology from the fallen; a Veteran squads). Additionally rather
of Medusa undertook after their habit learned during the lean years than a dedicated Scout company as
recognition were part of the Great of their exile. It is said of the Sons the Codex dictates, each of the War
Cull; the systematic destruction of of Medusa by their detractors that Clans maintains a body of recruits
those upon whom the Imperium’s the desire to take wargear remains and initiates which it considers to be
judgment had not been so kind. As if an underlying motive of theirs, and an auxiliary force. Taken together
to prove themselves to their doubters a principal reason they have never this force makes up the notional

The Moirae Schism could be read. They compiled the Although the Sons of Medusa were
A severe doctrinal conflict within the fruits of their apocalyptic divinations born as a result of the Moirae Schism,
Cult Mechanicus that occurred during within encrypted archives, copies of it is unknown just how much of its
the early years of M35, this schism, which quickly spread through many teachings they still cleave to more
named after the minor forge world of of the Cult Mechanicus’ sects. These than five millennia later. What is
Moirae on the north-western edge of radical teachings included among certain is that many factions of the
the Segmentum Solar, was one of the other visions and interpretations of Adeptus Mechanicus still view them
most divisive and widespread to afflict the Emperor’s will, veiled references with suspicion and their forebears,
the Adeptus Mechanicus since the to the future overthrow of Mars and the Iron Hands, treat them with cold
Horus Heresy. The schism erupted the fusion of the Cult Mechanicus civility at best. The Sons of Medusa
during the widespread civil strife of and the Ecclesiarchy into a unified however maintain good relations with
the Nova Terra Interregnum, and this whole. Such claims were treated certain Explorator sects and have
factor allowed the swift spread of (unsurprisingly) as dark sedition by been tireless in their defence of the
radical doctrines that would perhaps the Mechanicus authorities on Mars Imperium which has won them praise
have been quickly quashed in a and civil war was quickly sparked and honour on many battlefields. One
more stable period of the Imperium’s between traditionalist and radical final point of note however is that in
history. The Moirae tech-creed elements. One of the first casualties the late M39, the Sons of Medusa
was based on the prophetic wave of the conflict was the forge world established a series of fortified
calculations of a triad of tech-mystics of Moirae itself, blasted to ashes by asteroid stations in the abandoned
enshrined within Moirae’s colossal the Martian fleet. But by this time the mining system of Taelus to serve as
data-looms who believed that they schismatic creed had spread. Conflict a more permanent facility for their
had discerned a series of predictive between its advocates, the Martian fleet-based Chapter, constructing
patterns within the micro-fluctuations Orthodoxy and other opposing radical secure armouries, gene-seed banks
of the Astronomican beacon. These groups would flare up intermittently and forges deep within the ferrous
Gematric patterns they believed throughout the next millennium asteroid masses. The Taelus system
contained the word of the Omnissiah- before the schism was finally ended is but a single day under Warp
God-Emperor from which the skein of and its surviving adherents brought from the dead world of Moirae.
future history and humanity’s destiny back into the Cult Mechanicus’ fold.

96
strength of the Chapter to Codex dominated by a reliance on cold logic the Segmentum Pacificus from the
approved levels. In practice, as with and the pursuit of the art of destruction hands of aliens and heretics. This
all Chapters the actual strength raised to perfect efficiency. As befits Crusade, one of the largest of its
of the Sons of Medusa can vary a scion of the Iron Hands, the level kind in centuries, was conducted by
greatly based upon current levels of of technology and weaponry used by well over twenty-five million levied
attrition in the ranks and the status the Sons of Medusa Chapter is high, Imperial Guard troops with unknown
of its Scout force. This Scout force and their armouries are particularly numbers of pilgrims and hangers-on
in particular can vary in size, as the extensive and diverse. The Chapter’s swept along in its wake. The Crusade
Sons of Medusa are notoriously harsh forge ships are known to be able to was supplemented by the forces of
upon their recruits, brooking no sign salvage, repair and produce a wide two Titan Legions and eight Space
of weakness or failure in them. It is variety of Adeptus Astartes wargear. Marine Chapters at various times,
better in their minds to run the risk of This range of technology is thought of which one of the most active was
destroying a worthwhile candidate, to include the rare ability to construct the Sons of Medusa. The Laanah
rather than allow the chance of a new Dreadnought chassis and Rifts were a dangerous and largely
flawed individual into the ranks of build some of the rarer Land Raider uncharted area of space, much of
the Chapter’s Battle Brothers. For variants such as the Prometheus. This which had remained untouched by
those that falter or fail the judgement does not stop the Sons of Medusa human contact since before the Age
of their masters and yet survive, from aggressively seeking to add to of Strife and the Crusade met stiff
the fate of a mindless existence as their stockpiles however, and their resistance to its progress from the
a servitor in the Chapter’s forges Techmarines are well versed in start. Shortly after the opening thrust
is the best that can be hoped for. the secret Omnissian rites of re- into the unknown, the Sons of Medusa
commissioning and maletek-exorcism, Chapter was soon heavily engaged
Each of the Sons of Medusa’s facts which see every victory against in fighting previously unknown xenos
War Clans is ruled by an Iron a renegade Chapter further increase species, hideously degenerate
Thane, and each company within it the Sons of Medusa’s power. void tribes and petty sub-human
commanded by a Captain, attended empires who denied the Emperor’s
in a subordinate role by a dedicated In character the Sons of Medusa ascendancy. Within fifty years the
Chaplain as master of doctrine and owe much to their forebears, being Crusade began to falter, and it was
discipline. The Iron Thanes of the utterly intolerant of physical or mental at this time against the twisted alien
three War Clans act in concert to weakness in others and least of all race given the name of ‘Hellgrammite’
control the Chapter as its council, as themselves. This obsession manifests by the Imperial forces, that the Sons
the Chapter has had no single master most notably in a distinct preference of Medusa would win their greatest
since the passing of Setol Sollex for high levels of biomechanical victory of the Crusade. These foul
millennia ago. This council of three and cybernetic rebuild among their anthropoid creatures possessed
is further advised by the wisdom of Battle Brothers. Also of remark by occult-infused weaponry capable of
the Ancients; the Chapter’s honoured those that have fought alongside flooding the void around their worlds
cadre of Venerable Dreadnoughts. them is their chill manner and with Ætheric fire, and although their
The Chapter’s extensive brotherhood seemingly emotionless responses, physical forms were decayed and frail,
of Techmarines, known as the as they appear to take little pleasure they rode to battle on the backs of
‘Chamber Ferrum’, is greater both in success and do not crave glory howling bio-mechanical monstrosities
in number and authority within the except to prove their worthiness to whose barbed-pincers could slash
Sons of Medusa than the Techmarine their Chapter. Failure to the Sons of through tank armour with ease.
force found within a standard Codex Medusa is intolerable, and slights
Chapter. The Chamber Ferrum against the Chapter’s honour, With Bellrath’s crusade salient routed
exists outside the structure of the perceived or real, are met with deadly and the horrific xenos harrowing at
war clans, and its purpose is to force, while defeats are viewed as the retreating Imperial forces, the
enforce unity, cementing the Chapter things to be rectified and avenged. full might of the Sons of Medusa
together as a whole and it is they To do otherwise would be to show circumvented the aliens’ attack fleets
who maintain supplies of vital war weakness, and weakness is death. and conducted a perilous counter-
materiels to the Chapter’s disparate attack, cutting behind the aliens’ battle
strike forces. The Chamber Ferrum SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS: lines and striking like a spear thrust
further manages the disposition of The Bellrath Crusade [182-453.M38] at the heart of their domains at the
the Chapter’s fleet and holds within In the year 182.M38, under the star system code named ‘Wormgyre’.
it the Chapter’s Apothecarion and auspices of Praetor Slayban Bellrath, Using the arcane science of their
command of its forges and facilities. a powerful noble from the Terran court Explorator Magos allies, the Chapter’s
raised to the rank of Lord Militant, fleet had modified their vessels’ Warp
Despite what may seem an inherently a mighty crusade was instigated to coils to help repel the Ætheric fire
divided structure, the Sons of Medusa liberate and dominate the area of that shielded Wormgyre, providing
display a high degree of unity of space designated as the Laanah them with a measure of defence for
action and coherence as a Chapter, Rifts in the north-western fringes of a time, and so were able to catch

97
 Sons of Medusa Rhino Transport
Attached to the Command Squad,
Apropos Clan Battle Company
The Galen Subjugation Campaign

their enemy complacent behind their and power axe. It was said afterwards with a few scattered refugees hurling
burning skies. Knowing that time was that the Sons of Medusa killed and themselves into the mercy of the deep
short, the Sons of Medusa plunged killed again, methodically and coldly void to escape the wrath of humanity.
directly into a headlong attack with destroying the creatures, firing until Within a century, a great swathe of
the whole gathered might of their the promethium in their flamers was the Laanah Rifts was brought under
Chapter, hellish flames licking at their exhausted and their last bolt shell Imperial dominion, and the Sons of
warship’s void shields as they plunged spent. Still they went on killing, first Medusa entered the mythology of the
into low orbit over the Hellgrammite with combat blade and chainsword, new sector’s inhabitants, whispered
throne-world to unleash their deadly and then when they dulled and of in the old tales as “the Emerald
waves of drop pods, Thunderhawks failed, with anything they could Death” that fell from the stars to
and assault rams on the alien cities. find to wield. Many Battle Brothers punish the God-Emperor’s foes. The
were reduced to pulverising their Chapter for its part has retained some
The Sons of Medusa’s attack was enemies with their armoured fists ties to this, the site of one of their
as relentless as it was merciless, and tearing the shrieking, panicked most lauded victories, maintaining
and the Hellgrammite’s spider-web creatures apart with their bare hands. infrequent contact with some of the
towers of black coral were shattered The onslaught carried on until the Mechanicus factions that founded
and charnel-bedecked temples rubble of the alien temple-cities bases on its frontiers, and holding
to the dark gods raised millennia was painted with the Hellgrammite’s seldom-used recruiting rights on
before by inhuman hands were cast pale ichors and half their world had several of its worlds in tribute to their
down. Caught unprepared by the been smashed into ruin. Only then role in the Laanah sector’s founding.
speed and ferocity of the assault, did the Sons of Medusa withdraw.
the Hellgrammite for all their Warp- BADAB WAR DISPOSITION
spawned might were as helpless With the death of Wormgyre, the Sons The Sons of Medusa joined the
as children before the storm. Such of Medusa had torn the heart from the Loyalist cause in the Badab War in
resistance as the aliens could enemy, both militarily and spiritually, direct response to Legate Inquisitor
mount was mercilessly crushed, and the Hellgrammites’ resistance Jarndyce Frain’s call for Space Marine
their dreaded fire-shapers isolated to the crusade collapsed, their will to re-enforcements after the Secession
and gunned down in hails of assault war broken at a stroke. In a handful had been declared heretical. Their
cannon fire and their mighty battle- of years they were no more; a once stated principal aid in the war was the
mechanoids felled by thunder hammer proud race reduced to ashen-ruins punishment of the Astral Claws and

98
 The War Clans of the Sons of Medusa:

In a pattern similar to their forebears, the Sons of

Medusa maintain an over arching ‘clan’ structure
which overlays the more traditional patterns of
Space Marine organisation found within the Codex
Astartes. Whereas the Iron Hands are formed of ten
clans associated with their home world’s nomadic
city-caravans, the Sons of Medusa maintain three
‘War Clans’: the Lachesis, the Mageara, and the
Atropos, which were established by their founder
Sollex during the Moriae Schism. The doctrine
and hierarchy within these war clans is largely
independent of the others, but all owe fealty to
the larger Chapter command structure. Each war
clan’s insignia and heraldry varies somewhat from
the other, with the Mageara War Clan utilising
the ‘purest’ form of the Chapter’s emerald and
white heraldry, the Atropos incorporating further
elements of sable-black in their heraldry and the
Lachesis silver-steel. Beyond these visible signs of Atropos War Clan icon
difference between the War Clans, what dogmatic
or strategic variance between them exists, along
with their true interplay and seniority within the
Chapter remains utterly impenetrable to outsiders.

the other Secessionist Chapters whom Lord Commander Culln however had strike cruiser Warspite which was
they saw as demanding destruction for fought alongside the Sons of Medusa lost with all hands in battle with the
their sins. The first Sons of Medusa before in his career during the defeat Executioners Chapter near the Grief
strike cruisers and attack squadrons of Waaagh! Skullcleava thirty years system in 911.M41. The aftermath
arrived in early 907.M41 with the previously and knew them well, while of this battle was to result in the
remainder of their assigned task force the Red Scorpions also had the Sons Salamanders and Sons of Medusa
in place within the Loyalist’s order of of Medusa’s respect as a Chapter. nearly coming to blows over the
battle by the middle of the following This past history aided considerably Executioners standing down from
year. The combined Sons of Medusa in the relations between the two the war. The Sons of Medusa’s last
force comprised the full strength of the who might have been otherwise major engagement of the Badab War
Atropos War Clan backed by forces in discord owing to their disparate was to be the hard-fought assault on
drawn from the Chapter armouries and characters, and Lord Commander the orbital fortress of Sentinel-Sigma
elements of the Lachesis and Magaera Culln wisely deployed the Chapter in preparation for the final attack
War Clans with a combined estimated where its strengths and tenacity on Badab Primaris. In this brutal
strength of somewhere between five would provide their greatest effect. boarding action the Chapter battled
and six Codex companies, with a fleet through a storm of fire alongside the
of six strike cruisers, two forge ships, During the early part of their Exorcists in order to take command
a battle barge and fourteen escort involvement in the Badab War, the of the vital city-sized star fortress.
and attack vessels of various types. Sons of Medusa were first assigned to It was Vaylund Cal at the head of
scourging the post-atomic wasteland the Atropos Terminators who fought
The undisputed master of the Sons of Cygnax of the Secessionist forces, his way to the star fortress’s main
of Medusa force was the Iron Thane and later led the assault raids against engine vaults and severed the five-
Vaylund Cal of the Atropos War Clan, Decabalus and Eshunna, both outer metre thick plasma couplings to
and while he deferred to the Magister worlds of the Badab Sector. In addition silence the station’s guns, at last
Militum, Lord Commander Carab Culln to these battle honours the Sons of allowing the Loyalists free rein to
of the Red Scorpions, in strategic Medusa also famously conducted the attack the station’s surface. The
deployment and the use of his subjugation campaign against the eventual conquest of Sentinel-Sigma
Chapter, no Sons of Medusa answered rebel world of Galen. The Chapter’s shattered the Badab system’s ‘Ring
to the orders of any but their own greatest single defeat in the conflict of Steel’ defences and allowed the
Chapter superiors at the tactical level. came with the destruction of their final assault on Badab itself to begin.

99
 TERMINATOR
SQUAD DRAKON
3RD SQUAD, SUPPORT COMPANY
ATROPOS WAR CLAN

Terminator Sergeant Drakon Terminator Armour Chapter Icon Armorial

Commanded Third Attack Group [Clan Atropos Sub-Type]
Assault on Sentinel-Sigma Station
Squad Cited for Successful Destruction of the Astral Claws
Dreadnought Rahab Col and the breaching of the Station’s
Third Defence Cordon

Terminator Squad Armament, Absinia Pattern Assault Cannon,

Ultima Pattern Storm Bolter

100
 Terminator Brother Argentus Terminator Brother Sthal
Stigmartus, Assault on Sentinel-Sigma Station 18 Confirmed Astartes Slain,
Assault on Sentinel-Sigma Station

Terminator Brother Fhendal Terminator Brother Mondar

Taken to the Emperor’s Grace Struck the Deathblow to Rahab Col
Assault on Sentinel-Sigma Station Assault on Sentinel-Sigma Station

101
102
Sons of Medusa Land Raider Redeemer Euryalis’s Bane
Apropos Clan Battle Company
All ammunition exhausted, sector 4-5 Purgation,
continued in battle, utilising vehicle mass as
principal weapon
The Galen Subjugation Campaign
 Sons of Medusa Predator Tank ‘Sicalus’
Motive systems destroyed and vehicle abandoned to its
destruction on surface during retreat from Badab Primaris

Venerable Ancient Khaled

Sons of Medusa Dreadnought of the Chamber Ferrum
Attached to the Atropos War Clan
Suffered Severe Damage but Endured,
Primary Assault Phase, Sentinel-Sigma

103
 THE MINOTAURS
chapter name: ����������������������� minotaurs
founding: ����������������������������� unconfirmed, believed to be the
21st founding [also known as
the cursed founding, m36]
chapter world/ deployment : ��� fleet based
fortress monastery : ������������ the relic-ship daedelos krata

posi
gene- seed (predecessor): ������ unknown /classified
known descendants: �������������� none

“The beast, the bronze beast in the darkness, footsteps, it

never tired, it just kept coming! We didn’t stand a chance...
wherever we turned, we could not escape, never escape!”
Testimony of Hedrith Blaine
Sole survivor, Jurah-17 mining colony,
Larsha Tertius

A Space Marine Chapter of brutal

repute within the Imperium, the
Minotaurs have long been the brunt
eschewed any form of combat that
did not allow them to rapidly get to
grips with their enemies as fast as
afflict other Chapters of their Founding,
raised much darker suspicions about
the nature of the Minotaurs and
of suspicion and acrimony by other possible. This highly autonomous, the secrets they might be hiding.
Space Marine Chapters. Furthermore almost berserker force was known
they are thought by some within the for its ability to respond rapidly to the Such fragmentary records that now
Ordo Hereticus to possess unknown pleas and distress calls of besieged remain show the Chapter’s gene-
ties to the High Lords of Terra that they or invaded Imperial worlds, but was seed branded as ‘Chimeric’. This, as
find disquieting to say the least. While equally well known for refusing to form blasphemous as it may now seem, may
much of the Minotaurs’ record going part of a wider strategic plan. Their have indicated that its sources were
back over the last thousand years can presence was often announced in a either from a prohibited source, mixed,
be ascertained in outline by sifting war zone by the commencement of adulterated or somehow tampered with
the myriad war reports and battle an all-out assault upon their chosen genetically during its creation. Secret
archives from across the Imperium, target without preamble or even much experimentation of this kind is known
but their history before this point by way of reconnaissance, hurling to have been carried out on a number
however is not simply lost, but has themselves at the enemy without heed of the scions of the 21st Founding,
been deliberately obscured and sealed of loss or cost. Their fury spent, the and such annotations show that the
under binding edicts even an Inquisitor Minotaurs would then withdraw as Minotaurs were likely among those
cannot readily undo or circumvent. suddenly as they arrived, whereas tampered with in some way. The folly
That there existed a Space Marine in the same tactical situation a more of such hubris by the Magos Biologis
Chapter of the name ‘Minotaurs’, conventional Chapter might be of the time was to prove the undoing
created as part of the 21st Founding is expected to consolidate its gains or of many of the Chapters birthed by
not widely contested, but whether or pull back in preparation for a counter the 21st Founding, as they succumbed
not they are the same as the Chapter attack. Although the Minotaurs’ either to spiralling psychological
bearing the name that took part in the assaults more often than not left a flaws, or worse, monstrous genetic
suppression of the Macharian Heresy smashed and disoriented enemy in deviation, leading to their disbandment
in the opening decades of M41 (and their wake, Imperial commanders or destruction in the following millennia.
the same Chapter that would later go and other Space Marine Chapters It is likely that the Minotaurs’ barely
on to play a crucial and bloody role in found the Minotaurs too unpredictable controlled fury and their desire to shun
the Badab War) that is not so certain. and unreliable a force to count on, those they should have called comrade
preferring allies of more stable was a result of some particular curse
The Minotaurs of the 21st Founding temperament. As time progressed, laid on them in their blood, but whether
rapidly gained a reputation as a their tendency to shun the command their affliction mastered them or
force whose ferocity and fury on the of others, and their erratic gene-seed they mastered it remains unknown.
battlefield were all but unmatched. tithe to the Magos Invigila, combined Regardless, from mid M38 onwards,
On the battlefield their Space Marines with the diverse curses that seemed to the Minotaurs all but slipped from the

104
 Veteran Brother Isskar Brother Alkyon
Assault Leader, Tactical Marine, 4th Battle Company
Capture of the Suspiris Lox Lauded for Valour,
The Slaughter at Crow’s World

Minotaurs Chapter Icon Chapter Arms: Acitus Pattern Chainsword,

Common Armorial Use Chapter subtype Hesperex Pattern Power Axe,

105
Imperium’s records, their deeds and Still highly autonomous, the Minotaurs actions, have noted discrepancies
battle honours suppressed or expunged went where they willed but seemed between the Minotaurs Chapter of the
by a series of edicts and data-purges. far more content to operate within the present and that of the past, both in
structure and command of the Imperial terms of structure and behaviour, and
When the Minotaurs reappeared again war machine than the Chapter’s distant in matters of minutiae such as livery.
for the first time millennia later during history suggested. Both during the Any conclusions in this regard remain
the suppression of the Macharian Macharian Heresy and on several other largely speculative however, as does
Heresy, they were a Chapter both occasions since they have responded the matter of the Chapter’s gene-seed,
familiar by their reputation and quickly and without question to a call of which tithes have been logged
profoundly changed. Equipped to the to arms from the High Lords, and this but remain classified at the highest
highest standards a Space Marine has been the case even when that level. Some Imperial commanders
Chapter might aspire to, they fought call has been to castigate, apprehend that have had close contact with the
as an integrated and highly flexible or even destroy formerly loyal Space Chapter since their re-emergence
force and were based upon a powerful Marines who have been declared have gone on record as finding them
Chapter fleet operating more than a renegade or that have had suspected to be brooding and malign warriors,
dozen strike cruisers. No less brutal transgressions lodged against them. far from the epitome of honour and
than their ancient repute suggested, This has led to a fell reputation righteousness, and the Chapter’s
they fought in what was nevertheless attaching itself to the Chapter, and Space Marines as individuals who hold
a more considered and controlled in particular the Ultramarines and about them an aura of barely restrained
manner than that heard of in the ancient their successors are known to bear spite and malice that breeds fear and
tales of the Imperium; First deploying considerable ire towards the Minotaurs apprehension in all but the strongest
a vanguard to pin their enemies and will not fight beside them after heart. Others have gone further
in combat, then using fast units to the Minotaurs’ near-extermination of hinting at an edge of madness in the
encircle them to ensure there could be the Inceptors Chapter at Euxcine. Minotaurs, and described the defences
no escape before bringing in the full and security precautions, taken by them
weight of the Chapter’s firepower and Since its return to prominence certain even when dealing with supposed allies
armour to crush the foe without mercy. scholars of the Munitorum Collegia, as obsessive bordering on the paranoid.
who have studied the Chapter’s Given their many enemies both within
and without the Imperium’s order of
battle this is perhaps unsurprising.

As a Chapter the Minotaurs seem

‘Honoured Lord, to bear little respect for anyone or
I am afraid my covert inquiries into the Minotaurs anything, save the God Emperor and
Chapter after their involvement in the recent the High Lords of whom they have
action at Hermetica have met with a quite displayed fanatic and unquestioning
literal dead end - the murder of my agent Salco loyalty, but carry abundant hatred for
by unknown hands while attempting to recover all else. In their dealings with individual
sealed battle records from the scribe-citadel.
Imperial commanders and other Space
As you are aware my official investigations had been Marine Chapters they have shown no
effectively blocked by the local Imperial Commander love for civility or deference, but have
long enough for the Chapter’s ships to leave orbit. been noted to show some pleasure in
Of his sagacity the governor I discerned only that he testing their skills against worthy foes,
was afraid - more afraid of whoever had ordered him
and perhaps they consider their fellow
to stall my actions than he was of my Inquisitorial
rosette; a disquieting prospect to say the least. Astartes as particularly worthy. This
was certainly the case in one well-
This leaves us at present with little more than recorded incident before the fourteenth
confirmation of the reports of prior Inquisitorial
siege of Antigonis, when a Captain of
and Ministorum investigations into the Minotaurs
being stonewalled or diverted at the highest level, - if the Minotaurs deliberately provoked
further proof were needed. Given Salco’s death I have personal combat between himself and
judged that the trail has gone cold here and perhaps it a fellow Captain of the Genesis Chapter
is no longer safe for me to remain. I’ve also consigned by insulting the name of Marneus
a copy of my report to a secondary courier in case of Calgar and those that “slavishly
further ‘incident’ and remain your old comrade. fawned” on him. Relations between
the two Chapters rapidly deteriorated
and bloody conflict between them
D.
was only averted by the arrival of a
//Encrypted data-shard, recovered in the wreckage fresh assault wave of Orks from the
of the Merchantman /Pride of Jove/ 023.769.M41// Octarian Empire and renewed heavy
fighting on the front. Given this seeming

106
predilection for testing themselves Vindicators and Predators as tactical Chapter, operating fully equipped
against their fellow Space Marines it support vehicles), while the Minotaurs and at peak strength, the Minotaurs
was perhaps then unsurprising that Battle Brothers have evidenced fought as a single cohesive force that
the Minotaurs would appear during widespread access to supplies of struck like a series of brutal axe blows
the Badab War responding to Legate the advanced MKVIII power armour, at sources of schism and disorder,
Inquisitor Frain’s request for aid. The and commonly field much of their 1st quickly earning themselves a bloody
Astral Claws and other Secessionist Company as Terminators in combat. reputation by carrying out the orders
Chapters were certainly worthy foes of the High Lords without question or
by any estimation, and while the Inquisitorial reports conducted into falter. During the suppression, it was the
Minotaurs’ victories during the conflict, the Minotaurs after their role in the Minotaurs who formed the spearhead
most notably their lauded defeat of the defence of Antigonis indicated that the of the battle group which shattered
Lamenters at Optera, were extremely speed of transition between neophyte, the petty-empire of the outlaw Colonel
import to the Badab War’s outcome, scout and full initiate in the Chapter Lyrias of the 11th Kahdu Armoured
these triumphs have done little to salve was brief compared to that of many Corps, their Chapter’s Land Raiders
the Chapter’s unquiet reputation. other Chapters. This was explained blasting apart the famed tanks of the
by evidence of the use of extremely elite Kahdusine ‘Immortals’ on the ice
ORGANISATION AND TACTICS high levels of programmed psycho- plains of Cyros Prime. They also carried
In terms of broad organisation the indoctrination and neuro-cerebral out Exterminatus orders on the hive
Minotaurs conform to both the surgery by the Chapter. This program world of Duval and the sword realms of
structural and squad-level patterns of accelerated the recruits’ progression the Hope Cluster. While on the ocean
the Codex Astartes, but at a tactical and was continued during deployment planet of Nereus they hunted down
level differ significantly in their general as ongoing treatments to re-enforce and obliterated the xenos-possessed
approach to warfare. The Chapter mental conditioning administered by remnants of the Imperial Paladins
prefers to operate as a whole, or at the Chapter’s Apothecaries. Such Chapter’s 4th Company in the mazes of
least in as few divisions of its forces techniques, while not inherently the sub-surface cavern cities, poisoning
as possible in any given theatre heretical or forbidden at this heavy the seas of this once vital agri-world.
of war, concentrating and thereby level of use, are profoundly more
maximising its destructive power. invasive and carry a greater risk of The action from which the Minotaurs
This is a strategy that has allowed the damaging the subject physically gained most infamy during the
Minotaurs to excel at siegecraft and in and mentally than those normally Macharian Heresy by far was the
combat against monstrous opponents, performed by most Space Marine near-destruction of two Imperial Space
which they can overwhelm by sheer Chapters. For these reasons if no Marine Chapters who had become
weight of numbers if needs be. others, such techniques are rarely locked in conflict. These Chapters were
employed as most Chapters consider the Doom Warriors and the Inceptors.
Unlike most Space Marine Chapters the more studied training and battlefield Formerly allies in the Macharian
some of the Minotaurs’ key tactics erudition of their recruits to be of near Crusade, they had come to blows over
are partly dependant on the use of religious significance to their place in a matter of honour and were embroiled
superior attrition within a confined area the Chapter’s service and a key part in a long running and highly protracted
of engagement, and the Chapter’s of tempering the soul of the warrior. conflict fought under predetermined
commanders are perhaps less mindful rules of engagement in the Euxcine
of the fate of its individual Battle SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS system. With the two combatant
Brothers than some, just so long The Suppression of the Macharian Chapters refusing calls to end their
as victory is achieved. As well as a Heresy and the Euxcine battle and aid with the pacification, the
willingness to sacrifice their own flesh Incident [circa 053-077.M41] Minotaurs were dispatched to sunder
and blood to ensure the achievement After the death of Lord Solar Macharius the two apart and end the strife.
of its battle aims, the Minotaurs are those great domains that he had
aided in their chosen pattern of warfare conquered for the Imperium fell into Caring nothing for the causes or
by two significant factors. The first is civil war and anarchy, and with Space rights of the two Chapters, the
their excellent supplies of heavy arms Marine Chapters now drawing sword Minotaurs attacked in full force,
and war machinery and the second, upon each other in dispute and anger, catching the combatants unprepared
and perhaps more important is the the High Lords were forced to act and decimated both Chapters with
Chapter’s markedly rapid influx of new decisively. This they did by calling in their initial strike. Overmatched and
Battle Brothers to replace ongoing several waves of fresh Space Marine broken, the Doom Warriors fled the
losses. The exact source of their war Chapters to bring the civil conflict to system almost immediately in a barely
materiel has remained unconfirmed, an end by exterminating heretical organised retreat, however with most
but they have been observed to forces and bringing order to the of their warships either destroyed or
operate using large and replenishing region. One such Chapter operating captured in orbit the Inceptors found
stockpiles of tanks and heavy under the High Lords’ writ was the themselves trapped on Euxcine before
armour (allowing the Chapter’s battle Minotaurs, then a Chapter all but the Minotaurs’ wrath. Relentlessly
companies to make extensive use of unseen for millennia. A fleet-based and systematically the honoured 2nd

107
 Sternguard Veteran Thoul Veteran Sergeant Geryon
Sixty-seven Confirmed Kills, Taken to the Emperor’s Grace
The Judgement on Vyaniah The Lamptan Assault

Minotaurs Chapter Tactical Arms

Ultima and Godwyn Ultima Pattern Bolt Weapons, Maxima
Pattern Multi-Melta

108
Founding Chapter was encircled and they smashed through the cathedral border regions. In these battles the
slowly destroyed piece by piece, until the district’s plazas and temples heedless viciousness of the Chapter’s reputation
last remaining Inceptors Space Marines of the cost in attack columns of heavy for leaving no survivors among those
were forced into a humiliating surrender. armour. The Minotaurs’ advance was that resisted them quickly grew, and
Fewer than a hundred Inceptors Battle relentless, blasting apart any strong remained uncontested until the arrival of
Brothers survived the Euxcine incident, point they encountered and driving the savage Carcharodons to the Loyalist
while the Minotaurs stripped the fallen the enemy before them along with cause. The Minotaurs gained several
of many relics for their own armouries thousands of trapped civilians fleeing the important victories during this time,
and took the ravaged Chapter’s flagship, carnage but who had nowhere to run. effectively destroying the Secessionist
a Great Crusade-era assault transport forces on Kyro and Crows World, and
that had served the Inceptors since their Swiftly the cathedral complex itself was it was the Minotaurs that would finally
founding, as a spoil of war. That such encircled and bombarded; its kilometre- take the key world of Vyaniah for the
an ancient and revered Chapter and high spire toppled in a crossfire of Loyalists. The death toll of their attack
close scion of the Ultramarines could turbo-laser strikes from the Minotaurs’ would eventually only be exceeded by
be almost annihilated in this fashion, Thunderhawk Gunship wings. Into this the final battle for Badab Primaris itself.
and with the tacit agreement of the storm of debris and ash, the Terminators However, the action for which their fame
High Lords, sent shockwaves through and assault squads of the Chapter would spread far beyond the conflict
many of the Space Marine Chapters attacked to wipe out any survivors, led (despite a deliberate suppression of
who came to hear of it. The Minotaurs by their Chapter Master Asterion Moloc the war’s progress by the Inquisition),
were denounced across Ultramar for at the forefront of the attack. Fighting would be their wholesale defeat of the
their atrocities and forbidden to enter his way into the depths of the basilica Lamenters Chapter in a close-quarters
its bounds. Others of Guilliman’s line vaults, it was Asterion Moloc who space battle in the Optera system in
have since sworn vengeance on the slaughtered the foul Leyak’s daemon- the closing days of 908.M41. With the
Chapter should the opportunity arise possessed bodyguard and struck a Lamenters’ Chapter Barque crippled,
and honour permit them to carry it out. mortal blow to their hulking toad-like and the Secessionist Chapter already
master. But before the fatal stroke having suffered considerable losses
The Siege of Casaubon, The could be dealt to the Dark Apostle, he in the war, the Lamenters were badly
Defence of Hermetica [760.M41] fled into the Warp by his black arts. outnumbered and unable to escape
Capital of the Chonma sector in the when the full force of the Minotaurs
Segmentum Solar, the vital hive world of The degenerate tide fought on, but now Chapter attacked them. The Lamenters
Hermetica came under massive assault leaderless and without direction it was were eventually forced to surrender after
from a vast mutant horde numbering beaten back and contained until the a murderous seventeen hour struggle,
in the millions, led by the armies of the arrival of the Imperial 17th Battle Group in which scores of separate boarding
Word Bearers Dark Apostle Leyak the and Imperial Guard regiments from actions and counter-actions spilled into
Devourer in 659.M41. The Chaos attack Necromunda which purged the world the conflict on the planet below, both
arrived from a Warp rift that opened of the Chaos taint. Deflected from its sides suffering appalling causalities.
on the system’s edge and was carried course by nova-cannon strikes, the hulk
aboard a colossal space hulk designated Nightmare Paradox, now silent, occupies The Minotaurs continued in the war’s
Nightmare Paradox. Although Hermetica a quarantined orbit in the distant prosecution despite significant losses,
was well-protected, owing to the reaches of the star system, awaiting controlling the southern Maelstrom
suddenness of the onslaught and the further detailed examination by the Grey Zone for the Loyalists for the rest of the
sheer scale of the Chaos attack, the Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus. war. As fresh Space Marine Chapters
system’s outer defences were soon became available to prosecute the
overwhelmed, and the trans-continental BADAB WAR DISPOSITION war’s final stages, they mounted several
hives of Hermetica itself swiftly became The Minotaurs arrived to take part in punitive campaigns against former rebel
battlegrounds on which its beleaguered the Badab War in 907.M41, answering worlds, destroying renegade outposts
defenders fought desperately against the direct call of Legate Inquisitor Frain and contesting the Executioners
the tide of damned horrors that assailed for more Space Marines to join the Chapter’s raiding forces. In the war’s
them. The Minotaurs Chapter were Loyalist cause. By this time the conflict closing stages they were also utilised
the first outside force to respond to was in its fourth year of open warfare specifically for their renowned abilities
Hermetica’s strangled pleas for help, between Space Marine Chapters, in siegecraft. The Minotaurs withdrew
and using their fleet’s firepower for and the Minotaurs committed their from the Maelstrom Zone in 913.M41
cover, they cut off the invaders from entire strength to the war; some ten after the fall of Badab Primaris taking
orbit and swiftly counter-assaulted the companies and eleven capital ships with them several former Lamenters
main Chaos foothold on the planet at of various types in all. While the warships to replace their own losses.
Hive Casaubon, centred on the Basilica Minotaurs co-ordinated their efforts Astropathic records report the Chapter
of Saint Lehsor the Anchorite. The with Loyalist command, they operated heading towards the Segmentum
Minotaurs’ assault was devastating largely independently in the southern Pacificus when last sighted, likely
and indiscriminate, and after a heavy Maelstrom Zone, striking targets amid travelling towards the ongoing wars
bombardment of their landing zones the Pale Stars and Dene Stellar Drift on the western galactic fringe.

109
 TERMINATOR
ASSAULT SQUAD
ZELAOS
MINOTAURS 1ST COMPANY

Veteran Sergeant Zelaos Minotaurs Chapter Icon

Awarded the Bloody Mantle, Raised to Brevet Captaincy Terminator Armorial Depiction
The Battle of Optera

Terminator Assault Squad Zaelos, Articier Modified

Stormlord Pattern Thunder Hammers, and Vedic Pattern
Storm Shield

110
 Terminator Porphyo Terminator Kolkhis
Lost to the Void, The Battle of Optera Stigmatum Majoris, The Battle of Optera

Terminator Arkhlus Terminator Lianias

Slew Captain Numas of the Lamenters Taken to the Emperor’s Grace
Succumbed to His Wounds The Battle of Optera
The Battle of Optera

111
 Ancient Ephesios, Dreadnought of the Minotaurs Chapter
MKIV Dreadnought in close assault configuration
Damaged in action against the Executioners at Karsh Station,
marked with the Red Hand for his actions during the Battle of Shaprias

Minotaurs Chapter Whirlwind Mobile Support Vehicle

Deployed from Chapter Strategic Armoury Reserve,
The Punishment of Badab Secundus

112
113
Land Raider ‘Dakor Rex’
Minotaurs Chapter Armoury Reserve,
Destroyed in action, Century Colonnade Assault,
The Siege of Isin
 THE CARCHARODONS
chapter name: ����������������������� the carcharodons†
founding: ������������������������������ unknown
chapter world/ deployment : ��� unknown [believed ‘nomad-predation’
fleet organisation, see addendum]
fortress monastery : ������������� unknown
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� unknown [some recorded gene-seed
indicators point to the raven guard]
known descendants:��������������� none
†: sources unreliable: ‘carcharodons’,
‘carcharodon astra’ and various low gothic
derivations of the same are used both in
historical records and badab war accounts.

“…we…surrender… By the mercy of the God Emperor…

the war is over…we have surrendered...”
Final vox-intercept, Void Colony Sigard VII

O f all the Space Marine Chapters

involved in the Badab War,
the Carcharodons remain the most
and sealed and secret records within
the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition hold
several tantalising references and hints
calculated savagery fearful, even to
those hardened to the Imperium’s
methods of warfare, to contemplate.
enigmatic and mysterious, having as to the shadow this Chapter has To this baleful Chapter is afforded a
forged for themselves a dark and cast [see Probable Encounters]. The sacred and unending duty that has
bloody legend in the minds of those oldest of these may be found within seen them entrusted (or perhaps
that survived the conflict that has the pages of the Mythos Angelica condemned) to travel the empty spaces
continued long into its aftermath. Mortis written by the savant-scribes beyond the Imperium’s borders on an
The Chapter returned from the black of the Secretariat Militum of Terra in endless voyage, their goal to seek,
void beyond the Imperium’s borders late M36, which largely compiled from locate and destroy the enemies of
as strangers to friend and foe alike, earlier sources. In this often vague Mankind. All elements which tally
siding with the Loyalist cause against and incomplete work, references are with the Carcharodons Chapter and
those they saw as traitors to the made to a Space Marine Chapter it their actions in the Badab War.
divine Emperor. In some ways the calls the “Carcharodon Astra” being
Carcharodons seemed to be both despatched into the “Outer Darkness… Tactically, during the Badab conflict,
living anachronisms harking back to upon an endless voyage… to ravage the Carcharodons operated almost
an ancient past, and in others entirely the foes of mankind…” and to “… exclusively as a rapid-strike force,
strange and sinister beings, which were set about the traitor, the alien and the disdaining any kind of protracted
nevertheless recognisable as Space renegade without mercy, and harrow engagement wherever possible,
Marines in the Emperor’s service. them in their places of strength”. preferring to approach their targets
This text it seems stems from a far either with extreme speed or by
In the general course of the Imperium’s older work, now lost, dating back to stealth, allowing them to strike with
histories, or the order of battle of its the unknown era that surrounds the the element of surprise on their side
military might, the Carcharodons have Astropath Wars of late M32/M33. wherever possible. In attack they
no real official existence in recent This is a time now too shrouded in endeavoured to close ground with their
history. They simply feature nowhere myth and allegory, and its true nature enemies swiftly and do battle either in
within the open record, and likewise has been purged from history so hand-to-hand combat or unleash their
the Chapter has no known officially thoroughly that less is known of it to the firepower at near point-blank range.
recorded battle honours. While further Imperium’s high authorities than of the For this reason each Carcharodons
confusion is evident based on potential Horus Heresy or the Great Crusade. Space Marine, regardless of whether
mis-identification with other lesser- Other records grant this wandering they were part of the Devastator
known Chapters operating with similar Chapter variations in name or title, squads or dedicated assault units,
nomenclature and symbology (re: but remaining consistent between was observed to carry a plethora of
‘Void Reapers’, ‘Blood Sharks’, etc). the accounts are certain facets of bayonets, blades and chain weapons
However, deep study of certain ancient detail similarities of iconography in addition to their normal armaments
treatise on the wars of the Imperium and operation, and a bestial but so that they were always able to rend

114
 Unknown Battle Brother Unknown Terminator
Encountered during the Destruction of Sigard Slain, Remains Recovered in the Void of the Bale Cascade

MKII Absinia Pattern Assault Cannon

Umbra Pattern Bolt Gun with Incaladion Pattern Storm Bolter

Chainblade Combat Attachment Terminator Issue

115
at their foes at close quarters. The also quickly experienced another other Loyalist forces directly, they
combat style of the Carcharodons phenomena where the Chapter was neither mixed nor sought out the
proved both effective and brutal in the concerned which swiftly entered companionship or honour of the other
extreme – it was to strike hard and into legend; the Carcharodons’ Loyalists. The Chapter was observed
fast, inflicting the maximum damage eerie silence during their attack. to be highly religious however, and
possible in the shortest span of time. Their officers’ commands issued places of Imperial worship and those
If the enemy survived they would fade via a locked and encrypted vox-net, under holy orders were among the
away only to attack again, bleeding not a word or sound were being few places that were routinely spared
the foe dry until they could no longer uttered during battle to friend or foe, during their attacks. In addition many
resist and were destroyed. Once the save out of extreme necessity. of the Chapter’s Battle Brothers were
enemy had been slaughtered, they seen to carry devotional items, or use
would then move on without pause to In character the individual Space prayer-script or other markings on their
the next target, and do so again and Marines of the Chapter were observed wargear recognisable as belonging to
again until nothing surrounded them to be very taciturn, cautious and the traditions of the Terran Ministorum
but the remnants of their carnage. watchful, but exhibiting a marked and the Imperial Creed. In many
change into violent bouts of extreme instances these more conventional
After action battle reports involving bloodlust in combat, hacking down emblems of the Imperium were found
the Carcharodons showed their or blasting apart their foes with wild alongside more idiosyncratic markings,
aggressions to be precisely abandon. Despite their seeming often abstract or depictive images
channelled and re-directed as needed closeness to animal savagery, they and tokens concerning fanged maws,
towards specific strategic targets were highly formal in their dealings death’s heads, oceanic predators and
by their commanders. Those that with other Space Marines and agents bloody wounds. Primitivist in nature
fought beside them remarked upon of Imperial authority, preferring when they reflected the particular traditions of
their ability to seemingly erupt from such matters became necessary the Chapter, and were exemplars of a
absolute stillness to fury in a moment to address their peers in modes of unique and all but impenetrable culture
and without warning, and then equally High Gothic, using forms outdated by evolved over millennia of near isolation.
without warning withdraw like ghosts millennia. Other than when they were
from the battlefield should events summoned to High Commander Culln’s In appearance the Battle Brothers of
turn against them. Friend and foe council or needed to co-ordinate with the Chapter, when viewed in the flesh,

Addendum: [Archivists pattern used by many fleet-based this mode of operation is to cull
Note] - The Nature of the Space Marine forces (which seeks potential initiates from the young
Carcharodons Enigma to consciously imitate the example of the survivors of their assaults
For a faction of the Imperium’s armed of the Space Marine Legions of where practical, with intensive effort
forces to disappear for centuries, old), that instead the Carcharodons given to erasing any past loyalty or
even for millennia, either from its follow the rarer, so-called ‘Nomad- weakness that remains, and replacing
official records, or from reality itself Predation’ pattern. This is used it with the will of the Chapter.
(the latter being a curse of Warp almost exclusively by Space Marine
travel and other rarer non-Euclidian Chapters operating for long durations This evidence, taken together
forces), is a rare but not unknown beyond the Imperium’s borders and with their recorded actions, builds
phenomena. The reappearance of by certain Rogue Trader fleets, and into a profile both sinister and
such lost forces can be the cause refers to entirely self-contained forces suggestive, and perhaps presents
of both joy and misery as the fates which operate without recourse to a truth about Space Marines in
turn. Such occurrences can cause the Imperium for support at all. These general. That beyond their martial
the mighty to pause and make a liar nomad-predation fleets voyage trappings and the endless roll of
of accepted history. Accordingly, without end, pausing only to attack glorious victories, doomed last
precious little can be said in this targets that are within their means stands and courage in the face of
record of certainty about the to destroy without threatening their a hostile and deadly universe, a
Carcharodons Chapter’s true origins own viability as a fighting force. This Space Marine fundamentally is a
or history, except what can be pieced way the fleet may obtain resources superhuman engine built, bred and
together from fragmentary and to sustain itself and exterminate trained for war; an Angel of Death
unreliable sources, supplemented by future threats to the Imperium, - a monster by any other name. In
the observations of those who fought and at the same time avoid or raid the case of the Carcharodons, it
beside them in the Badab War. enemies too powerful for them to is well that such monsters belong
directly attack in force. The most to the Imperium rather than are
It seems likely that rather than the common form of recruitment for counted in the ranks of its enemies.
more conventional Crusade Chapter Space Marine Chapters given to

116
were also very singular, displaying a contingent of Terminator armour The Chapter also included both
greyish-pale, almost deathly pallor, suits, some of which had themselves Chaplains and Librarians conforming
with their more venerable members been clearly modified or augmented to the roles ascribed to them by
possessed of liquid-seeming black in unorthodox ways to keep them the Codex, although the Chapter’s
eyes without a visible iris or sclera. combat worthy. This strength was an forces encountered during the Badab
Aside from these marks, there was asset that served to greatly add to the War seemed low in terms both of
no common type of physiognomy or Carcharodons’ power as an attacking the number of Apothecaries and
genotype among them, likely pointing force, and was counterbalanced by Techmarines in their ranks. However,
to a very widely recruited base stock. considerable numbers of scouts used this impression may simply have been
Legate Inquisitor Frain’s examination flexibly to assay targets for attack. because these two cadres remained
of gene-seed samples taken from the in reserve with the Chapter fleet much
Chapter proved them to be untainted The Chapter was observed to conform of the time - this being far from an
although subject to some long-term very roughly to the tactical and squad unknown practise with Chapters who
degradation, and possessed of several doctrines laid down in the Codex spend large periods in isolation. This
markers found in the uncommon Astartes, but showed, at least to structure put the effective strength of
Raven Guard bloodline, a mutation outside eyes, considerable deviation each Carcharodon fighting company
of which may have resulted in their from its proscriptive command at around one hundred to a hundred
unusual physical appearance and structure and company arrangements. and twenty Initiates and twenty-to-
be the basis of some of their traits. In some instances it abandoned thirty neophyte Scouts, although
almost wholesale the symbology the exact size and disposition of the
Although it can be said of many Space and insignia of the Codex in favour Chapter as a whole remains unknown.
Marine Chapters that they are without of personal and often highly totemic
mercy to some extent, it proved doubly markings. The account recorded by While the Carcharodons were
true of the Carcharodons. Time and the Fire Angels Captain, Tarnus Vale, observed to maintain and utilise a
time again they displayed an utter who fought alongside their forces, sizable arsenal of armoured vehicles
disregard for any civilian casualties however, offers the supposition the and heavy siege gear during the Badab
they inflicted in pursuit of their military Carcharodons actually follow a very conflict (which it used to good effect
targets with a few salient exceptions, disciplined pattern of order, despite in their assault on Endymion Prime
and when they enacted judgement on their seeming barbarism, but this was a for example), large detachments of
those who had supported the rebellion, thing all but impenetrable to outsiders. mobile Space Marine infantry were
they were as the hand of death itself. This distance was only worsened by used as the Chapter’s principal weapon
the taciturn and withdrawn nature of and the bloody battle-prowess of the
Organisation the Chapter’s warriors. Tarnus Vale Carcharodons themselves was always
The forces of the Carcharodons also went on to describe their tactical relied on to carry the battle. Most
Chapter that arrived to join the Badab deployments and use of shock-assault tactical operations by the Chapter
conflict demonstrated a number of as highly reminiscent of those typical began with the use of small scouting
highly distinctive traits and trappings of the Black Templars, alongside forces and reconnaissance groups
that set them apart from their brethren which Vale had fought earlier in his to infiltrate close to enemy positions
fighting on either side of the war. career. Although in character the two to identify weak points and strategic
Their Chapter fleet was extensive but Chapters were as far apart as light targets of value, which once identified
inconsistent in makeup, and within and dark, he saw their overriding were subjected to overwhelming
its line of battle were numerous and implacable desire to close with surprise attack. The strike forces used
examples of vessels either very the enemy and shatter their foes in to conduct these lighting assaults
ancient, salvaged or extensively bloody personal combat as the same. would deploy directly into the line of fire
repaired, including one battle barge, by use of drop pods, Thunderhawks
the Nicor which was based on the hull Each Carcharodons Space Marine and other interface craft (which the
of a Charibdys class grand cruiser, Company encountered during the Carcharodons operated in considerable
a vessel class rarely seen since the Badab War operated in a fashion numbers), and comprised a mixed force
early days of the Great Crusade. similar to a Codex Battle Company, of Space Marine tactical, assault and
Also of ancient provenance were but was augmented with an attached support troops. These forces, which
much of the Chapter’s arms, vehicles auxiliary force of Scouts and relied on surprise to carry the assault
and wargear, with types such as the spearheaded by dedicated Terminator rather than preparatory bombardments
Phobos R/017 pattern bolt gun and veterans who served as bodyguard or armoured spearheads, proved
Mark V Heresy pattern power armour to the Company’s commanding particularly effective in attacking
predominating, alongside which were captain. Of Codex-style reserve dug-in opponents and well defended
used other weapons and equipment companies however, there appeared bastions during the later Badab War,
of designs and patterns that covered to be none within the Carcharodons’ although were markedly different
the span of the Imperium’s breadth forces and it is highly likely that all to the equally effective heavy siege
and history. Notable in the Chapter’s of the Carcharodons’ companies assaults of the Minotaurs Chapter. On
strength was also a considerable conformed to the observed pattern. several observed occasions, where

117
 Unknown Battle Brother Unknown Battle Brother
Image Recording Recovered from the Wreck Assault Squad, Massacre at Piety V
of the Privateer Pilgrim of Despair

resistance proved unexpectedly severe The Canticle of Cassandria that war, depicted in repeated fresco
or the enemy responded too rapidly, the Lev - Vol.CVI [Circa M37] and bar relief, but curiously the faces
Carcharodons would swiftly recall their Within the eponymous Sainted Sisters’ of the intervening Space Marines
forces again, leaving destruction to cover highly mythologized and oblique there depicted are obscured with
their wake. The Carcharodons’ forces account of the wars of the 7th Black featureless disks of black obsidian.
would circle the defended position again Crusade is found mention of a “grey-
and try the attack from another quarter, clad” Space Marines Chapter who The Report of Explorator Fleet
If that failed another and another until a came from “The outer night” to aid Hydrax-Lamda-15 [220.M41]
fatal weakness was found - all the time the Imperium, and whose “Jagged During a ranging expedition into the
avoiding their own forces becoming maw did swallow the stars...” and vicinity of the area of space near the
bogged down in costly breaching whose “...black gaze did mirror the Warp/Realspace anomaly known
actions or suffering heavy attrition. In void of oblivion”. In the course of as the Storm of Magnus, Explorator
concert with these intensive attacks, the canticle this Chapter’s ships set Fleet Hydrax-Lamda-15 encountered
the Carcharodons utilised their fleet upon Abaddon’s forces following the a large Ork terror ship dead in space
to conduct perilously close Terminator disastrous defeat and routing of the and set adrift. Showing signs of heavy
teleporter strikes in order to destroy the Blood Angels at Midian and attacked battle some time within the last few
chances of co-ordinated resistance or the pursuing forces as Saint Lev writes: Terran years, the corridors and vaults
decapitate enemy forces mid-battle. “…fell upon the servants of the skulled- of the ship were strewn with hundreds
one with great fury from the darkness, of Ork remains, most having died of
[SPECIAL] PROBABLE unseen as the beast that lurks beneath massive physical trauma consistent
ENCOUNTERS/RECORDED the black waters, death for death, with chain weapon and blade injuries
SIGHTINGS: blood for blood… thus were the Sons as well as bolter shell impacts. In one
Given the largely unknown history of Sanguinius bought respite, and did of the central gun-deck chambers
of the Chapter, accounts of their turn back upon their pursuers and so of the ship where the main fighting
activities can only be constructed were the damned traitors of the false appeared to have taken place, Orkoid
from recorded historical incidents and gods driven unto their ruin”. Images remains had been deliberately piled
fragmentary records that are believed of these events can be found upon the several metres high and into the
to have involved the Carcharodons walls of the crypt-world of Hypasitis summit of the mound of corpses an
on balance of evidence. created to house the honoured dead of Aquila-topped standard had been

118
thrust. Totems consisting of the fangs Culln accepted the Carcharodons into of Thorns. Unleashed like a ravening
and teeth of dozens of predatory species his line of battle, although still wary of predator on the hives of Badab, the
were found hanging from the standard, their loyalties and deeply concerned Carcharodons committed a great
along with a prayer scroll reading about how far they seemed to have slaughter on their defenders and any that
“Carcharodon Astra, by the Emperor it deviated from the Codex in their were caught in their path. Taking Culln’s
is willed”. No remains of the attackers long voyages into the darkness. order to break the hives’ resistance by
were uncovered, nor could the exact any means necessary to mean literally
origin or course of the Ork vessel be Lord Commander Culln’s first deployment that, systematically they sabotaged the
determined. The terror ship’s remains of the Carcharodons was to the hive’s main reactor cores; geothermal
were later cast into a nearby sun. Endymion Cluster, rather than the main plasma units that sank deep into the
assault line which now centred on the planet’s crust and set them to detonate
Badab War Disposition inner Badab Sector itself, perhaps as a one after the other as the Carcharodons
Arriving without warning in the Maelstrom consequence of his lingering misgivings themselves withdrew. This caused a slow
Zone in 910.M41 the Carcharodons about the Chapter. The Cluster, home tide of inexorable devastation to erupt
were completely unlooked for by either to the much reduced Secessionist across Badab Primaris, bringing with it
the Loyalist or Secessionist sides, and forces of the Mantis Warriors and a massive tectonic upheaval that within
the sudden appearance of their fleet number of militant worlds that had time would render it a dead world. As this
on the edge of the Golgothan Wastes supported them, was now the subject was happening the Palace of Thorns fell,
was initially cause for alarm in both of an ongoing containment campaign but in the resulting anarchy of a hurried
camps. In size their forces were of by the Fire Angels (themselves having retreat from the surface of a dying world
a rough approximation of six Space already suffered heavy losses in the the Loyalists suffered further casualties,
Marine Companies, led by their baleful taking of Sagan), supported by elements for which the Star Phantoms still bear
‘First Captain’ Tiburon, also known as of the Sons of Medusa and the Loyalist considerable ire for Badab’s murderers.
“the Red Wake”. Their fleet, though fleet. The remaining Mantis Warriors,
sizable largely comprised light to dispersed into small units, had been Upon departing the Maelstrom Zone,
medium ships and auxiliary vessels up till now conducting a highly effective the Carcharodons were to enact a final
commanded by a single battle-barge guerrilla resistance in the Cluster course of action that would seal their
of non-standard pattern. It has not supported by the local population. The dark legend; what has become known
been ascertained whether this force Carcharodons’ answer was a simple as the Sorrow of Tranquility. After the
comprised the whole or a part of the one; systematic annihilation. One by surrender of the last Mantis Warriors to
Carcharodons’ full Chapter strength, one they attacked worlds known to the Red Scorpions ended their part in
and it may indeed be the case that have harboured the Mantis Warriors the war, the Carcharodon’s fleet returned
the Carcharodons themselves did not and conducted a scorched planet policy to the Endymion Cluster. There, with the
know the fate of any other sub-fleets of against them, smashing the infrastructure agreement of the Fire Hawks, to whom
their Chapter still roaming the void. and inflicting mass casualties, but also in dominion had now been granted over the
many instances deliberately leaving large former Mantis Warriors’ domains, they
The subject of considerable suspicion numbers of survivors in suffering. This assisted the Fire Hawks in bringing the
by the Loyalists upon their arrival, their not only punished the local people for Cluster’s worlds brutally into compliance
commander Tiburon offered perhaps their transgressions, but also forced the with their new masters and punished
surprising co-operation with Inquisitor honourable Mantis Warriors to come to them for their transgressions. The
Legate Frain and Lord Commander their aid, and spared the Carcharodons Carcharodons focused their attentions
Culln; presenting them with Notices from having to run their enemies to in particular on the Tranquility system,
Patent provided to the Chapter affirming ground on worlds where their foes held whose worlds were the primary recruiting
its rights and titles issued by several the advantage of support and local and training grounds of the Mantis
High Lords and Inquisitors now long knowledge. Within a year, the stricken Warriors Chapter and housed several
dead. Tiburon even submitted personally Cluster’s resistance was crushed and of the Chapter’s hidden bases and
to psychic probing and gene-sampling the Mantis Warriors themselves were armouries. These the Carcharodons
by Legate Frain’s staff, but his Chapter’s utterly spent as a fighting force. uncovered and ransacked, and from
openness lasted only to a point, and Tranquility they harvested a generation
some answers they gave only to Frain. Unable to deny the Carcharodons’ of young males to fill the Chapter’s
Regardless of any misgivings that effectiveness, despite misgivings as losses, forcing them to fight to the death
remained, by this time the Badab War to their methods, Lord Commander to prove their worth, although whether
was entering its bitter final stages, and Culln placed the bellicose Chapter in the Fire Hawks had expected them to go
both Lord Commander Culln and Legate the centre of the assault plan for the this far remains unknown. Thus paid in
Frain knew that fresh forces such as final attack on Badab Primaris, giving blood, the Carcharodon’s fleet departed
these would be invaluable in pressing them the task of a direct attack on the the Cluster, with Explorator augers
the attack and bringing the conflict to infrastructure of the planetary hive- marking its course through the Warp as
a swift and absolute conclusion. With network while the Star Phantoms would ascending the galactic plane into the
Legate Inquisitor Frain now vouching conduct the set piece siege of Lugft darkness of the outer void once more.
for the Chapter, Lord Commander Huron’s centre of power at the Palace

119
 TACTICAL SQUAD
DESIGNATION
UNKNOWN

Unknown Strike Leader (Veteran Sergeant?) Carcharodons Chapter Icon

Image Recovered - Destruction of Precinct Common Armorial Use
Bastion Dominar-17, The Fall of Badab

Tactical Squad Panoply of Armaments Umbra-Magnus Bolt Pistol,

Chapter Modified Chain Blades, Proteus Pattern Missile Launcher

120
 Unknown Battle Brother Unknown Battle Brother (Weapons Specialist)
Image Recovered -Destruction of Precinct Bastion Image Recovered -Destruction of Precinct Bastion
Dominar-17, The Fall of Badab Dominar-17, The Fall of Badab

Unknown Battle Brother, Unknown Battle Brother

Image Recovered -Destruction of Precinct Bastion Image Recovered -Destruction of Precinct Bastion
Dominar-17, The Fall of Badab Dominar-17, The Fall of Badab

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 Unknown Chapter Dreadnought, MKV Frame
Tactical Support Armament Configuration
Distinct Image Recorded: Siege of Endymion Prime,
Engagement on Fulcram IV/C and the Fall of Badab

Carcharodons Chapter Rhino Transport

Unknown Designation, Destroyed Siege of Endymion Prime

122
123
Carcharodons Chapter MkIIB Land Raider,
Designation Unknown, Image Recorded,
The Fall of Badab
 THE EXORCISTS
chapter name: ����������������������� exorcists
founding: 13th ����������������������� [records sealed, circa late m35/early m36]
chapter world/ deployment : ��� banish /autonomous
fortress monastery : ������������� the basilica malefex
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� classified [by inquisitorial bull]
known descendants:��������������� none

“By my will I deny thee, by my heart I spurn thee,

by my hand I destroy thee; fiend of emptiness,
to the void I cast thy blackened soul…”
From the Liber Exorcismus

A noble and worthy Chapter,

and one that has saved many
threatened worlds and defeated many
senses betrayed and souls tainted by
prolonged exposure to the influence
of the Warp. Apart from this particular
the Warp. This capacity is far from
unknown among Space Marines,
(although some shun such techniques
great foes in the Emperor’s service, expertise the Exorcists are formulated in favour of religious fervour or simple
the Exorcists are at once an epitome of and organised as a fully capable channelled rage to achieve broadly the
the Adeptus Astartes and an enigma, and roundly equipped Space Marine same effects), but the extent to which
and much about them has long been Chapter, and are able to conduct the Exorcists are able to distance
shrouded in deep and occult mystery. strategic operations according to the themselves from physical and spiritual
The only known Chapter extant tenets of the Codex Astartes. In this hardship and continue to operate
from the 13th Founding of the Space the Chapter differs greatly from the has become near legendary. Each
Marines, called the 'Dark Founding' Grey Knights - that most arcane and Exorcist Space Marine is also a master
in some sources, the exact nature secret of Chapters, whose very nature of arcane lore to a degree unseen in
of their creation and the gene-seed and singular arms are dedicated to other Chapters, and in particular is
used in their creation has remained the destruction of daemonic entities adept at recognising the wiles of the
classified by special Bull Absolute above all else, and whose organisation Daemon and its works and knows how
of the Inquisitorial Representative and abilities are wholly unique in to combat them. It is said that every
issued at the time of their founding. the Imperium’s war machine. Battle Brother before they can pass into
The Chapter has long-standing and the Chapter and become a fully fledged
strong links with the Inquisition and The character of the Exorcists is Exorcist Space Marine must master
certain factions within the Ordo known to be studious, intelligent, the use of all six hundred and sixty-
Malleus in particular, and it is most highly honourable and above all six verses of the Ordo Malleus Liber
likely that it is the sponsorship and calm outside of battle, but in war Exorcismus, sunder the seven seals
designs of the Holy Ordos that has they undergo a transformation into of Salomoneth and become adept
given them their unique character, an uncommonly aggressive force, at the use of unicursal hexagrams
and may well have specified their whose intellect is applied to the rapid to spiritually ward their arms and
creation, either as a grand experiment analysis and exploitation of conditions equipment from Ætheric influences.
or for some singular purpose. on the battlefield and on the decisive This degree of dark knowledge
application of force to destroy the generally considered forbidden within
What is known is that the Chapter has enemy. In the thick of battle Exorcists the Imperium is itself cause for grave
long been specialised in combating Space Marines are known to utilise suspicion of the Chapter for some,
enemies of a daemonic nature or certain occult mental arts to enter particularly within the Ecclesiarchy and
those that have had truck with the an almost trance-like state of higher certain Space Marine Chapters with a
Ruinous Powers. In particular the consciousness which allows them fervent hatred of witchcraft of any kind
Exorcists are able to endure in hellish to become completely devoid of fear even when wielded by the Emperor’s
warzones where other Space Marines, and pain, even when confronted servants, such as the Black Templars.
however valiant, might have their by the sanity-destroying horrors of These charges have been more than

124
 Inceptus Kahl Lector Rabelias
Assault Veteran Sergeant and Initiate Terminator of the Exorcists 1st Company
of the Enochian Guard Assigned to the Bodyguard of Silas Alberec

effectively answered however by the as needed, the Chapter answering ORGANISATION

Exorcists’ exemplary record in the distress calls and gravitating towards The Exorcists are rightly regarded as
defence of the Imperium, not merely major war zones as it wishes. The a Codex Chapter, with a great deal of
against enemies of a daemonic mettle, Exorcists’ mobility is further aided by their organisation, structure and tactical
but against diverse other threats such an extensive long-range Chapter fleet operations adhering to that found within
as Ork Waaaghs!, Eldar incursions including the unusually high number this great tome. In addition, much of the
and traitors and renegades of a more of three battle barges, and history has Chapter’s common practice, insignia
mundane timbre over the centuries. proved the Chapter to be highly flexible and honours as well as basic tactical
in its deployments, operating at times doctrine is based closely on the tried and
The Chapter’s home world is known a widely spread task force but able tested patterns of the Ultramarines and
as Banish, said to be an ancient feral to swiftly reunite as a whole thanks their successors. The Chapter however,
world that lies within the borders of the to a well-integrated and responsive does feature several noteworthy and
Narasima Straits, a quarantined sector command structure and a refined substantial deviations from the Codex
of space on the Eastern Fringe. The capacity for operational planning. strictures, the first and most obvious is
planet serves as the Exorcists’ primary that the Exorcists’ order of battle totals
training facility and armoury, with their Compared to other Space Marine twelve companies, as opposed to the
fortress monastery, the heavily armed units involved in the Badab War, the regular ten. Companies ten, eleven and
Basilica Malefex housing their gene- Exorcists showed a high degree of twelve of the Chapter consist entirely
seed stores and Apothecarion as well adaptability and unpredictability in of Neophyte Scouts serving their
as vast archives of occult lore and battle, both in terms of tactics and apprenticeship to become full initiated
the Chapter’s battle honours. Banish the weapons they employed. When Battle Brothers. The reason for this
also houses several secret Ordo enemies realised their preference for expanded Scout cadre is generally
Malleus facilities under the Exorcists’ disciplined advance and sought to plan believed to be a consequence of some
protection. Despite this extensive accordingly, they found themselves out- highly unorthodox and dangerous
complex, the bulk of the Chapter is manoeuvred as the Chapter changed training practices by the Chapter, which
usually found on continuous active strategies, displaying a subtlety have long been rumoured to include
service, with the whole of the Imperium and clear perception that at times numerous techniques to put the worth
coming under its range of operations caught their foes entirely off guard. of body and soul of their neophytes to

125
the most extreme of tests. Some believe many of the Exorcists’ Devastator ambushes and vicious assaults of the
that these trials may even include veterans and Techmarines belong, Night Lords before confronting the
controlled exposure to baleful entities and the Broken Tower which is almost blackly-burning daemons that served the
of the Warp to armour the souls of the exclusively made up of members of the Horned God. In the final, titanic struggle
Exorcists’ brethren by building up some Chapter’s powerful Librarium faculty. amid the fallen ruins of a temple to the
form of tolerance to the unholy and weed dark gods older than the history of Man,
out those who may be susceptible to SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS: the Exorcist Enochian Guard and a
spiritual taint early on. The fatality and The Vanquishing of the Horned handful of surviving Inquisitors and their
corruption rates of such practices are God, the Aschen War [307.M40] agents confronted the Lord of Shadows
guaranteed to be frighteningly high, and In 300.M40, after a bloody cult-inspired in all its blasphemous and unholy
without the high influx of recruits it is revolt on the cardinal world of Dimmamar glory. Shrugging off shot, shell and
likely that the Chapter would soon fail. exposed how overstretched Imperial energy blast, the darkling beast slashed
The fate of those who fail the Exorcists control over the surrounding region had through the Exorcists’ ranks, shearing
training process remains unknown to become, a series of brushfire revolts Terminator-clad warriors in half with
those outside the Chapter’s hierarchy, and incursions erupted across the sub- contemptuous ease and ripping asunder
and perhaps those secretive factions of sector which would later become known the Daemonhosts of Inquisitor Grey
the Ordo Malleus who also make Banish as the Aschen War. Slowly stripped of before devouring their master whole.
their base of operations. The Exorcists much of its defences over the course of The Exorcists refused to retreat from
have consistently remained silent as several generations to provide for the the horror that confronted them despite
to their training methods and the origin needs of other pressing conflicts nearby, their losses, and slowly the weight of
and development of their unique gifts this border region was ill-equipped to their attacks began to take their toll. The
and knowledge, and as Banish lies stave off catastrophe when it came. turning point of the battle came when
within a forbidden zone in which the Very rapidly a three-way war developed one of the Chapter’s Dreadnoughts,
Chapter has near-unique dispensation between the beleaguered Imperial the Venerable Sybra, sacrificed himself
to operate, outside eyes have never protectors of the Aschen worlds, Chaos to rip a great chunk of the Daemon’s
witnessed their practices first hand. worshipping cults who had subsumed smouldering body away and exposed
several planetary defence garrisons its blazing heart. This noble act allowed
Another feature of note within the Chapter to their cause and Ork marauders the Exorcists to press their attack while
is the presence of certain esoteric sub- pouring across the border from the the daemon reeled in agony. With a
cults within the Exorcists’ ranks which adjacent Blood-Maw Cluster. The daring lunge Librarian Malachite pierced
dedicate themselves to particular fields Imperial counter-invasion was led by the the foul heart with his force spear, and
of expertise and knowledge, known combined forces of two Space Marine with the upmost exertion of his powers
generally as the Orisons. Many of these Chapters - the Exorcists and the Dark and adamant will through the weapon
Orisons are manifested on the battlefield Hands, backed by the Necromundan 54th severed the Daemon’s connection with
within the Chapters’ different squads and 60th Imperial Guard Rifles and the the mortal plane, finally vanquishing it.
and divisions, while their inner circles Battle Sisters of the Order of the Valorous
are made up of veterans and other high Heart. The Exorcists quickly realised As the arch-Daemon’s cries of rage and
ranking Battle Brothers. Acceptance that one of the keys to victory would be frustration echoed into eternity, all across
within one or more of these sub-cults locating and destroying the single dark the Aschen sub-sector, those who had
is a mark of high regard within the master of many names that lurked behind bartered their souls for a measure of
Chapter, and membership in one does the divergent Chaos cults in the region, the Horned God’s power paid the price
not preclude involvement with another. a daemonic creature that on Dimmamar and were consumed by black flames,
Each of the Orisons maintain their own was known as the Horned God. A thing shattering the power of the Chaos revolt.
books of lore through which their wisdom of shadow and malice, the Horned God Fully a third of the Exorcists Chapter
is passed on to future warriors, and was a master of hellish pacts engorged had perished, but the tide of the war
access to them is available to any within on the souls its servants had slaughtered. was now in the Imperium’s favour,
the Chapter who would learn from them. When the Exorcists finally cornered and within a year, the sub-sector was
The most prominent of these Orisons the Daemon Prince in the maze-like brought back under Imperial control.
is the Enochian Guard of which many pre-human ruins of the dead world of
of those veterans who make up the Belphago, it was attended by a guard of The Relief of Stonekraal [740.M41]
Chapter’s 1st Company belong. Named thousands of its fanatical followers and Before the full extent of the Tyranid threat
for Enoch Trismegistus, who according several warbands of Night Lords Chaos was realised, Hive Fleet Behemoth
to Chapter legend was the Exorcists’ Space Marines it had bound to its will. slashed a murderous wound deep into
first Chapter Master, the guard are hell- the Imperium before finally being halted
slayers, and membership to its number What followed was one of the hardest at Maccragge in 745.M41. In the years
carries the requirement of having slain fought and costly actions in the Chapter’s prior to this as the Ultramarines fell
a manifested Daemon in single combat. history, as the Exorcists with the aid of back to their Chapter world, much of the
Other Orisons within the Chapter that a hastily composed Ordo Malleus strike defence of the domains of Ultramar was
have become known to outsiders team fought their way through suicidal left in tatters and helplessly exposed
include the Obelisk Thelemus to which attack waves of cultists and the skilful before the hunger of the beast. Many

126
worlds fell, their cries for aid unheard them to ashes with coruscating soul- themselves admirably in assaulting
or ignored, while a scant few were fire. Stonekraal survived thanks to the and taking the Loyalists’ secondary
fortunate enough to escape by blind Exorcists’ efforts; a small victory perhaps strategic objective - the outpost world
fortune or outside help. Stonekraal in the grand scheme of the battle of Sagan V. An unexpected prize also
was one such world, a bleak and often against the Hive Fleets, but a victory claimed by the Exorcists Chapter during
overlooked minor frontier world on the none the less. After-action testimony the battle was the armed merchantman
north-eastern edge of Ultramar. When taken by Ordo Xenos investigators Soyuz-Maru, which had been taking
a scheduled trader vessel, the Nostros record clearly the fearful awe the on substantial supplies of munitions at
Vex appeared three weeks overdue and surviving colonists felt for their saviours, the time of the attack destined for the
drifting, seemingly lifeless on the edge and many still spoke of the sounds defence of the Endymion Cluster. The
of the system it heralded the beginning of the baleful litanies of the chanting Exorcists managed to take the ship and
of a nightmare for the colonists of Exorcists echoing in their dreams. its valuable cargo intact after a three
Stonekraal. Soon a rapidly multiplying hour boarding action contested by Mantis
infestation of Genestealers broke out, BADAB WAR DISPOSITION Warriors Space Marines guarding the
and in an ever-growing plague, the The Exorcists Chapter took part in the vessel. The Chapter went on to fight in a
horrific creatures hacked through the latter stages of the Badab War, a strong series of other more minor engagements
scattered, hardscrabble settlements detachment of the Chapter arriving to over the next several years.
of Stonekraal like a butcher’s cleaver reinforce the Loyalists in 908.M41 after
through raw meat. Alone, and realising the declaration of Lugft Huron and his When the final assaults on the Badab
their distress calls were unlikely to be Chapter as Excommunicate Traitoris. The sector were put into motion, the
answered, the remaining colonists did Exorcists force comprised the entirety Exorcists, who remained largely at full
their best to gather their few weapons of their 2nd, 3rd and 5th battle companies, strength were used as a cornerstone
together and mount a defence, along with their 6th tactical reserve of the Loyalists’ line of attack. The
determined to sell their lives dearly if they company, 11th scout company and half Chapter was heavily committed to the
could. When all seemed lost and only of their 1st Veteran company. The force, near-disastrous invasion of Pireaus,
the last major settlements remained, which arrived in stages between 908. where despite casualties it acquitted
all that was left was for the terrified M41 and 911.M41 was commanded by itself formidably and garnered high
men and women cowering behind futile Silas Alberec, the famed Exorcist 3rd praise for its stalwart and quick-thinking
barricades to pray for deliverance, and company captain and heir-designate actions. Later in the attack on Badab
deliverance came as deep crimson to the command of the Chapter. The itself, the Chapter was assigned to the
Thunderhawk gunships descended on Exorcists also brought with them two assault on the heavily defended star
plumes of fire above them. The Exorcists battle barges, three strike cruisers and fortress of Sentinel-Sigma, while their
3rd Company driven off course by the three squadrons of escorts and attack fleet of escorts comprised much of
Tyranids’ shadow in the Warp, had heard craft numbering seventeen ships in the system blockade force. In the first
the colony’s cries for help. Their strike total. This fleet offered the Loyalists a of these two tasks the Exorcists were
cruiser Hand of Glory, having already substantial increase in planetary assault triumphant, taking control of the station
slain two encroaching void kraken in capacity that would prove invaluable and destroying its garrison despite
the outer system, now unshipped its in the closing battles of the war. stalwart and bitter resistance led by
complement of Space Marines to make the infamous Astral Claws Captain
a stand on Stonekraal’s broken ground. The initial Loyalist deployment of the Corien Sumatris. To the Chapter’s
Exorcists’ forces was to reinforce shame however, the blockade of the
The battles that followed were swift but their main battle line, while a smaller system failed when anarchy reigned
furious; the Genestealers first seeking detachment was split off and sent to aid on the surface of Primaris after the
to infiltrate by stealth only to be met by the Sons of Medusa at Cygnax. This Carcharodons fired the hives’ reactors
the firepower of Exorcists waiting for latter task force however swiftly ran and started a chain reaction that would
them. The broods quickly shifted tactics into difficulties operating alongside the doom the planet. In the scramble to
and sought to overwhelm their foes in larger Sons of Medusa force owing to flee the surface, both Loyalists and
a whirlwind of fang and claw. Inured as marked differences in temperament and Secessionists struggled to escape in
they were to the terrors of the Warp, objectives and were soon recalled. The any craft they could. In the confusion
even these nightmarish xenos, although first major campaign the Chapter was that followed, the Exorcists fired on and
deadly beyond measure, held little fear involved in was the Loyalist invasion in some cases destroyed any vessel
for the Exorcists Space Marines. With of Sagan, which would prove to be that could not prove itself to be an ally,
near clinical efficiency the Space Marines one of the largest engagements of the unfortunately slaying fellow Loyalists in
set up interlocking fields of fire to trap entire war and arguably the beginning the process. Worse, a vessel containing
their attackers into pre-prepared killing of the Secessionists’ fall. During this many from Lugft Huron’s inner circle
zones in order to blunt the Genestealers’ hard-fought series of battles, the escaped the blockade in the confusion
advantage in speed and numbers. Exorcists took on the task of engaging carrying the body of their master.
Meanwhile the Exorcists’ potent Secessionist warships, utilising the These events would go on to tarnish
Librarian, Castor Machen, sought out combined firepower of their battle the story of the Chapter’s otherwise
the masters of the brood and scourged barges to great effect, before acquitting exemplary service in the Badab War.

127
 TACTICAL
SQUAD IDRIS
EXORCISTS CHAPTER 8TH SQUAD
TACTICAL RESERVE COMPANY

Almoner Sergeant Idris Exorcists Chapter Icon

Commander, 8th Squad, Common Armorial Use
Exorcists Tactical Reserve Company,
Squad Awarded the Order of the Iron Halo for their
Actions during the Battle of Shaprias

8th Squad Weapons Panoply; ‘Heraspex’ Power

Axe (Sergeant Idris),Godwyn-Ultima Bolt Guns,
Heretic Pattern Flamer

128
 Brother-Initiate Belloch Brother-Initiate Avasi
Taken to the Emperor’s Grace, Cited in the Rolls of Honour,
The Battle of Shaprias The Battle of Shaprias

Brother-Initiate Baeliastus Brother-Initiate Gebruah

Athemae of the Broken Tower Meritorious Sacrifice
Stigmatum Majoris The Battle of Shaprias
The Battle of Shaprias

129
 Exorcists Chapter Razorback
Assigned to the 2nd Tactical Squad,
3rd Battle Company
Hallow’s Point Incursion

Exorcists Chapter Whirlwind,

Attached to the 9th Company
Destroyed in Action, Battle of Shaprais

130
131
The ‘Burning Angel’
Exorcists Chapter Caestus Pattern Assault Ram
Attack Squadron attached to the Battle Barge
Redeemer
 THE STAR PHANTOMS
chapter name: ����������������������� the star phantoms
founding: ������������������������������ 23rd (sentinel) founding, circa early
M38
chapter world/ deployment: ��� until recently fleet based, formerly
haakoneth (destroyed) now jahga
fortress monastery : ������������� the battle barge memento mori, now
land-locked on the surface of jahga
gene- seed (predecessor): ������� unknown
known descendants:��������������� none

“Death is but a door...”

-Credo Mortifex

T he Star Phantoms Chapter is one

with a shrouded and sometimes
troubled history. Their victories,
The origins of the Star Phantoms
lie in the 23rd founding of early M38,
known in some sources as the
against the numerous foul xenoforms
that plagued the region. The Star
Phantoms’ neophyte-recruits were
though they have been many, Sentinel Founding as it was created drawn from the technologically
have largely remained unsung and to aid the Imperium’s defences in regressive barbaric remnant-
unremembered. For much of their numerous ill-starred and vulnerable populations of the surrounding
past they have been left to operate areas of the galaxy. Their exact systems, and their first tasks were to
alone at the edge of the Imperium origins and primogenitor Chapter guard against the numerous horrors
breeding in them an isolationist and remained mysterious even during that plagued that fallen seat of the
fiercely independent streak that has their creation, as did the backgrounds Imperium’s power. Since this time,
seldom embraced outside command. of many Chapters of this founding. the entire Sakkara sector has been
These vicissitudes of fate have led Some sources have since hinted lost to the outer void for more than a
to the Star Phantoms clashing with that they utilised the Dark Angels millennium, but these dark beginnings
Imperial authorities and fellow Adeptus gene-seed, although this has been appear to have left an indelible
Astartes on numerous occasions, vociferously denied by the Dark mark on the soul of the Chapter
and they have gained a shadowed Angels themselves, and the Star that has remained to the present.
reputation for themselves with other Phantoms consider such queries, even
Imperial commanders. Matters via official channels, as inherently Following the destruction of their
concerning the Chapter’s relations presumptuous and cause for offence. home world of Haakoneth in 120.M40,
with their fellow Space Marines have Likely this speculation is simply the Star Phantoms became a fleet-
been further worsened by suspicions based on some observed similarity based Chapter, slowly rebuilding their
caused by the Star Phantoms’ in livery, iconography and trappings, strength and participating in numerous
secretive operations, seemingly which along with their inherent conflicts and interventions across the
unnatural obsession with death and introversion of character has given Segmentum Obscuras. It was during
strange mortuary traditions. These birth to a likely unfounded assumption this period the Chapter came to further
factors have been the cause of dark by certain scholars of the Adeptus specialise in fleet combat and mass
suspicions regarding them in the past, Terra and Departmento Stratagos. assault operations from near orbit. A
although full Inquisitorial investigation favoured tactic of the Chapter being
of the Star Phantoms after their The Star Phantoms’ initial deployment the co-ordinated use of large numbers
role in the wars of the Macharian as a Chapter was to the shrine of drop pods of varying types and
Heresy exonerated the Chapter. The world of Haakoneth on the edge of classes, including weapons-platform
Inquisition uncovered no overt heresy the ravaged Sakkara sector where types such as the Deathstorm as a
of thought, spirit or biology, although they fortified one of the planet’s key part of their strategies. It was
the Holy Ordos did note with concern mountainous mausoleum-complexes during these years the Chapter
the depth and complexity of the to become their base of operations. earned a merciless reputation for the
Chapter’s unique funerary cult beliefs. From this bastion they sallied forth indiscriminate use of firepower, often

132
 Brother Mors Brother Lynch
Meritorious Sacrifice Sole Survivor of His Squad,
Assault on High Guard Station Awarded the Laurel of Endurance
The Fall of Badab Battle of the White Gate
The Fall of Badab

Star Phantoms Chapter, Sample Wargear:

Ryza-Ultima Variant Bolt Weapons, Mars Pattern ‘Sunfury’
Plasma Pistol, ‘Gore Prow’ Pattern Chainsword

133
inflicting wanton collateral damage on Organisation Devastator squads per standard battle
their targets during civil insurrections. In terms of Chapter organisation company, rather than the Codex
This reputation was further cemented the Star Phantoms broadly conform approved number of two as is the
when the Chapter took part in the to the standard patterns laid down norm. This doctrine of close range
Macharian Crusade. The Lord Solar in the Codex Astartes, with some firepower is also carried through
himself is on record as having judged considerable slant given in its by the Star Phantom’s command
the Star Phantoms as “Unsuitable deployments and production towards structure, with combi-weapons, again
for tactical close support of other the preferred use of ‘first strike’ favouring the incorporation of melta
Imperial units”. It was in the aftermath and drop assault weapons and war and plasma designs, produced in
of this famous crusade that the Star materiel, as well as exotic additions significant numbers by the Chapter’s
Phantoms’ darkest hour came. to the recognised tenets that tie in Techmarines and often carried into
with their own unique beliefs. The battle by its officers and Veteran
Having participated in many of the Chapter has a preference for using Sergeants as a symbol of rank. In
Macharian Crusade’s most deadly heavy firepower to slaughter their addition the Star Phantoms maintain
engagements, and despite having enemies, closing to assault only when a sizable core force of Vindicators
proved themselves time and again, it is most tactically expedient to do so. and Land Raiders for use in armoured
they garnered little respect as they For the Star Phantoms no one mode spearhead attacks, and manufacture
saw matters, and are known to have of combat holds any inherent glory or and employ large numbers of
had a troubled relationship with the value over another, all that matters Deathstorm drop pods in a fire
Crusade’s commanders as to strategy instead is that death is dealt to the support role for planetary assaults.
and deployment. After the death of enemy. Thanks in part to an extensive
Lord Solar Macharius they became and diverse Chapter armoury, the SELECTED BATTLE HONOURS
swiftly embroiled in the civil war tactical doctrines of the Star Phantoms The Massacre of Kormarg [718.M39]
and factional division that followed favour Space Marine-carried portable By the 710s of M39 the fortress world
among his generals and war leaders, heavy weapons to supply this combat of Kormarg II on the edge of the
clashing directly with those Imperial firepower at close range. Both plasma Sakkara sector had been besieged
Guard forces who in the Chapter’s and melta weapons in particular are for more than two centuries by Khrave
view had betrayed the Imperium. The fielded in comparably large numbers marauders. Kormarg had held out
Star Phantoms are listed in certain in the Star Phantoms’ ranks, with the against the odds stacked against
suppressed sources as being directly Chapter deploying a pattern of three it and had not fallen, but the world
responsible for the annihilation of
the 17th Terrax Guard on Thoth, and
are known to have engaged in a Addendum: Chapter Mortuary Cult Imperialis
bloody and protracted conflict with The existence of indigenous and often unique cult belief systems, martial
their former allies of the Marines philosophies and variations on the Cult Imperialis within the Adeptus Astartes
Malevolent, resulting in that Chapter’s is far from uncommon. They range from fairly minor ritualised Chapter traditions
near destruction at their hands. The such as are found in many Ultramarines successors to the entirely individualistic
Star Phantoms became subject to culture of a highly unorthodox Chapter such as the Space Wolves. The so-
Inquisitorial investigation as a result called Mortuary Cult of the Star Phantoms is of this more extreme variety, and
of their actions and were ultimately embraces the divinity of the God Emperor of Mankind as “Imperator Mortifex”
cleared of heresy but were censured — Judge of the souls of the dead and keeper of martyrs. Accordingly, the
by the Holy Ordos. They were bound brethren of the Chapter see themselves as divinely ordained killers; Angels
into the thankless and dangerous task of Death in the truest sense. Grim solemnity accompanies their proceedings
of partly forming the spearhead of at all times and they care little for the individual glory of the warrior, but are
the Imperial Interdiction campaign in instead consumed by the task of bringing death to those that defy the Emperor’s
the 070s.M41 to end the Macharian will or seek to thwart his holy purpose. True to Imperial dogma, they hold as
Heresy. In the aftermath of this short a central tenet of their beliefs “That only in death does duty end”, and while
and brutal campaign which involved they give little leeway or respite to the living, they deeply honour those who
elements from over a hundred Space fall in the Emperor’s service and hold the many martyrs of the Imperium and
Marine Chapters, the Star Phantoms, the dead of their Chapter with extreme reverence. As a part of their practices
once again badly reduced in strength the Star Phantoms have been observed to hold many strange and elaborate
undertook a self-appointed crusade funerary customs, and it is commonplace for battle brethren of the Chapter
alone into the southern Segmentum to maintain a personal reliquary containing votive items such as the ashes of
Tempestus attacking isolated Ork fallen comrades as a talisman, and are also apt to use the ground dust of their
and Chaos held worlds as they saw enemies’ bones compounded as lapping powder for their armour. The keepers
fit. Much of their activities afterward and high priests of these cult practices are the Star Phantoms Chaplains.
remain hidden both from the official Each company and detachment has its own attached Mortuary Chaplain to
record and the eyes of the Imperium administer its rites, with a separate chantry of four Reclusiarchs and a Master
until their participation in the brutal of Sanctity maintained as a key part of the Chapter’s command structure.
closing stages of the Badab War.

134
had been laid waste in the process. gates to their liberators however, it honour their martyrdom as the Star
Taking it upon themselves to answer quickly became apparent that in their Phantoms consigned the bodies
the defenders’ long-standing plea for years of struggle against the alien, to the flame. Shortly after the Star
help, the Star Phantoms Chapter fleet the human garrison had become Phantoms’ actions, Kormarg II was
attacked en masse, swiftly encircling genetically and spiritually corrupt. re-garrisoned as a Departmento
the Khrave nest-webs in orbit and The Master of the Star Phantoms Munitorum penal colony.
blasting them apart with concentrated was swift in his judgement. With
fire from their bombardment cannon. their defences already open to the The Death of Haakonath [101.M40]
Space Marines, the bastions which In 101.M40, the Chapter’s forces were
Once they had scattered the had held out for centuries against recalled to defend its endangered
remaining enemy snare-ships, the the xenos became blood-drenched home world of Haakonath from
Star Phantoms launched a full drop- killing chambers as the Star Phantoms sustained Ork attack by the warring
strike against the Khrave feasters on purged Kormarg II of its tainted Freeboota Klans from the Edge
the surface, crushing them between people. After the massacre, the Star Void. Ork ramships and roks invaded
the anvil of the extensive Kormarg Phantoms used the macro-shell the Haakonath system in assault
bastion network and the hammer of craters from the planet’s long war waves larger than anything before
the Chapter’s drop-pod onslaught, as giant pyre-pits for the liquidated encountered by its defenders. The
swiftly annihilating the foul xenos. population, and the Chapter’s chantry greenskin attack was unusually
As the defenders threw wide their servitors sang solemn hymns to frenzied, driven on both by the

Brother-Adept Eresh Terminator Veteran Malach

Star Phantoms Techmarine Cited for the Destruction of Enemy Land Raider
Attached to the 9th Company Breach Assault and Predator Tanks, Battle of the Shattered Plaza,
The Battle of the Palace of Thorns The Fall of Badab

135
brute savagery of the Orks and a one the ancient mausoleums and speculated some long standing
desperation whose cause was soon to cenotaphs of Haakoneth began to grudge with the Astral Claws known
become apparent. The Ork attackers crumble and collapse as the weight only to themselves which Inquisitor
hurtling headlong at Haakoneth itself of ages wore away at them, and Frain preyed on to bring them into the
took immediate losses, first blundering doomed Star Phantoms Space Loyalist fold, but the taciturn Chapter
through interlinked defences of the Marines were swallowed up by cruel would not be drawn on the matter,
system’s minefields before being met angles of distortion. The Chapter’s even by their fellow Space Marines.
by the combined power of the Star losses were heavy, and none could Regardless of the true cause of their
Phantoms’ Chapter fleet and their doubt only oblivion awaited the involvement, they brought with them
home world’s formidable defence survivors if they stayed. Rather than the full and substantial strength of
batteries. Ork ships were shot down face certain destruction at the hands their Chapter, and were willing to
in their hundreds, and whole clusters of an enemy they could not fight, commit it entirely to the cause. Un-
of attacking Roks were boarded and the Star Phantoms’ master Omadon bloodied by the decade-long war,
blasted apart without ever making Tiresias ordered his remaining which had already seen several Space
landfall in a running battle that lasted brethren to gather such relics as they Marine Chapters reduced to mere
sixty standard days, littering the star could and flee; a decision it remains shadows of their former strength, the
system with wreckage in a firestorm of rumoured not all of his brethren Star Phantoms’ power greatly added to
ordnance that threatened to exhaust obeyed, preferring to stand and perish the strength of the final attack against
the planet’s considerable stockpiles. with their world. The Chapter’s last Badab, and they were assigned
It was only then when the Ork forces remaining battle barge, the Memento the key task of performing the final
were at last broken and scattered Mori, carrying with it the Chapter’s assault on the Palace of Thorns, Lugft
that the grim Star Phantoms sensed corpus of Techmarines, led the ragged Huron’s capitol on Badab Primaris.
victory but then the true nature of remains of their once proud fleet’s Spearheaded by the venerable battle
the oncoming threat materialised. A escape from the rift-vortex lashing barge Memento Mori along with a
vast temporal-warp rift surged like the star system. Many of the Star second battle barge, the Pale Wrath,
a deadly rip-tide towards the star Phantoms’ ships were destroyed in the the Chapter undertook their role in
system from the outer void, and at desperate flight as Haakoneth, caught the battle with a powerful force of
its vanguard came the horror of a in the storm’s eye, shattered behind seven strike cruisers and twenty-
massive Hrud migration trapped them, and Tiresias himself was blinded five escorts and assault vessels of
within the rift’s event horizon. when a rogue time-eddy speared the various classes. The order of battle
Momento Mori’s command deck. for the invasion force included seven
It was this time-rip that the Ork of the Chapters’ Companies (the
forces had been driven before in Little more than a third of the rest deployed to secondary targets
flight, and that now engulfed the Chapter’s strength would survive the in the system), reinforced with the
Haakoneth system, causing its sun destruction of their home system, and full weight of their armoury including
to flare balefully. The rift all but cut as a consequence of Haakoneth’s seventeen Dreadnoughts and over
Haakoneth off from the rest of the destruction, the Star Phantoms would two hundred drop pods of various
galaxy with its surrounding vortex of spend many years slowly rebuilding types. The Star Phantoms attacked
spatial turbulence, and help, even their forces and would remain a without falter or relent, and neither
if it had been available was utterly fleet-based Chapter right up until gave nor expected quarter from their
out of reach. Immediately the Star the Badab War. The battle however foe. They were victorious, in their task,
Phantoms mounted a valiant defence earned the Star Phantoms the dubious shattering the last ring of defences
of their world from the oncoming distinction of being one of only a that protected the arch-traitor Huron.
storm, but it became swiftly apparent handful of Chapters in the Imperium’s It was an assault group led by the Star
their cause was lost as reality itself known history to face a full-scale Phantoms’ Captain Zhrukal Androcles
began to buckle around them. The Hrud migration alone and survive. that cornered Huron, and it was
Chapter fleet was decimated and Androcles himself whose melta-blast
scattered by the spacial storm, while BADAB WAR DISPOSITION felled the fleeing Tyrant of Badab,
on the fortress monastery below The Star Phantoms played a vital role although the Star Phantom was also
the enemy stalked in the darkness in the closing stages of the Badab slain in the combat. Although suffering
and no shield or wall could bar their War. Arriving by the direct intercession terrible losses in this apocalyptic final
passage. For every Hrud-thing that of Legate-Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain engagement, the Star Phantoms’
coalesced from the shadows and in the Maelstrom Zone in 912.M41, success was honoured by the granting
was cut down by the Star Phantoms, the Star Phantoms’ prior deployment of overlordship of the now ruined
another dozen misshapen forms remains something of a mystery, and worlds of the Badab Sector by the
took its place, distorting time and some observers have suggested Imperial Legates, and the Chapter
space by their presence, and the the likelihood that they had been chose the ice moon of Jahga in
very earth of Haakoneth splintered on detached service with the Holy the Archaea system upon which to
and roiled with quakes and tremors Ordos elsewhere, and were diverted found their new fortress monastery.
at the creatures’ passing. One by to the Maelstrom Zone. Others have

136
137
The ‘Spectre of Death’
Star Phantoms Chapter Caestus Assault Ram
Destroyed in Action at the Battle for the Palace of Thorns
The Fall of Badab
 DEVASTATOR
SQUAD VARNAE
STAR PHANTOMS 4TH SQUAD, 9TH
RESERVE COMPANY

Veteran Sergeant Varnae Star Phantoms Chapter Icon

Commanding the Support Deployment Common Armorial Use.
to Task Force Thanatos
Varnae’s squad held the ruins of the shattered
Administratum tithe bastion for three hours under intense
counter-assault from Astral Claws and Tyrant’s Legion forces
during the battle for the outer precincts of the Palace of
Thorns until Legio Crucius reinforcements relieved their
position. Varnae and the survivors of his force were awarded
the Iron Skull by the Magister Militum for this action

Squad Varnae Example Wargear, Umbra Pattern Bolt Pistol,

Proteus Pattern Missile Launcher, Ryza-Nightfire Pattern Plasma Cannon

138
 Brother Dhrytin Brother Ghede
2 Confirmed Armour Kills, Meritorious Sacrifice,
Taken to the Emperor’s Grace. Stigmartum

Brother Pretanus Brother Laskan

7 Confirmed Armour kills, Stigmartum Maxima,
Awarded the Pennant Specularis for Marksmenship Undergoing Cybernetic Reconstruction

139
 Star Phantoms Dreadnought Aradus
MKIV Pattern, Tactical Configuration

Spectral Nine, Star Phantoms Chapter

Land Speeder Tempest

Star Phantoms Chapter Rhino Attached to the Devastator

Support Squad, 5th Battle Company

140
141
The ‘Death of the Faithless’
Star Phantoms Land Raider
Attached to the 1st Company Veterans
The Battle of the Palace of Thorns
Assault Drop Pod, Minotaurs Chapter Reserve,
Forge Pattern Lucius/Daedelos Krata
Utilised in the Invasion of Vyaniah

142
 THE CAESTUS ASSAULT RAM

Assault rams are attack craft designed and outfitted to live up to its maintain a number of assault rams
intended to participate in close range designation with a highly protected such as the Caestus for use in the
boarding actions in space. There are forward superstructure buttressed most dangerous of drop zones and
many patterns of assault ram in use by inertial and recoil compensation ship-to-ship boarding actions. The
across the Imperium, but among the systems. These includes a near- Caestus is also able to use the same
Space Marine Chapters, the Caestus unique ‘misericordia’ system bay facilities as the Thunderhawk
is the most commonplace. Smaller designed to interlock with Space and its variants, aiding to its ease
in size and displacement than either Marine Terminator or Power Armour, of deployment. Caestus Assault
the Thunderhawk gunship or the protecting a full squad complement Rams are particularly common in
Shark class boarding torpedo, the aboard from any impact short of that the armouries of purely fleet-based
pattern’s chief advantage is its speed which would destroy the craft itself. Chapters who spend much of their
and phenomenal durability which The Caestus’ principle armament is efforts in combating enemy star
make it a highly survivable assault a forward firing magna-melta which it vessels, boarding space hulks or
craft even in the most fire-swept uses to weaken the hull armour of a attacking stations and asteroid
landing zones. Compact and heavily space craft or fortification wall before bases. When attacking these targets
armoured, the Caestus is intended crashing into its target. Its armoured the ram’s durability and heavy strike
not only to survive direct collision prow, creating a breach into which its capacity is invaluable and more
with an enemy — it is designed for it. complement of Space Marines can than outweighs any deficiencies
immediately deploy and advance. in range or tactical flexibility.
Originally used purely for ship-to-ship The magna-melta also provides
operations, the revelations brought it with a devastating close-range Over the millennia the Caestus itself
on by the discoveries of Arkhan weapon against enemy tanks and has rightly earned a murderous
Land enabled the augmentation of bunkers in ground attack operations. reputation, and more than one
the design with anti-gravitic plating, palace revolt on an Imperial world
allowing it to be used in high- Although most Chapters prefer to has abruptly ended with the roaring
velocity orbital operations, as well as focus on the use of more utilitarian crash of assault rams smashing
operate as a heavy battle skimmer Thunderhawks for general planetary their way into a hive’s tallest spires
in support of ground operations. interface operations and drop to deal death to those within.
As an assault ram the Caestus is pods for orbital strike, many also

143
 48

Caestus Pattern Assault Ram

Chapter Approved//Edict of
Mars//M.31

Primary Armament: Duel-Mount

Haephestus Pattern ‘Magna-Melta’
thermic cannon

144
 DREADNOUGHTS
The Dreadnoughts of the Adeptus mounted a sophisticated, sealed One of the other chief advantages
Astartes are among the most arcane life-support sarcophagus containing of Dreadnoughts is the versatility
and potent war machines available the preserved body and awakened of their weaponry, which can range
to the Space Marines. They are also mind of a Space Marine hero. from the infantry killing power of
ancient in design and purpose, their Rescued from the brink of death twin heavy bolters, to arcane flesh-
true origins remaining a mystery lost and interred within the centre of a disintegrating plasma cannon, to
in the birth of the Imperium, while web of surgically implanted nerve suppressive assault cannon and the
certain individual Dreadnoughts are fibre bundles and suspended in tank-busting power of lascannon and
some of the oldest war machines amniotic fluids, the fallen warrior will multi-meltas. The Dreadnought’s
still in active service in the 41st never leave the sarcophagus again on-board recoil compensators,
millennium, their armoured frames while they yet live. Inside this body ammunition storage and coolant
dating back to the battles of the Great of heavily armoured adamantine systems both serve to make these
Crusade. As well as being potent and ceramite, powered by their own weapons highly mobile and stable,
weapons of war, Dreadnoughts are advanced thermic reactor cores, as well as allow them to keep up
amongst a Chapter’s most treasured the mind of the Space Marine a higher rate of fire over sustained
and revered relics, known as ‘Old within has lost none of its skill and operations than those carried
Ones’ or the ‘Venerable Fathers’. experience and now commands by Devastator squads without
Hybrids of flesh and metal, they are a true engine of destruction as if sacrificing mobility. The majority
a direct link to the Chapter’s past it were their own flesh and blood, are also equipped with a powerful
and heritage, and their deathless Traditionally each Dreadnought bears manipulative limb which doubles as
minds, often kept in dormant upon its armoured superstructure an armour-shredding close combat
slumber between campaigns, hold various scrolls, insignia and weapon. Equipped with disruption
fragments and secrets of wars long reliquaries pertaining to its current field generators and massively
lost to living memory. The booming occupant’s glorious history, and strong magna-coil assisted servos,
synthesised voices that issue from should it fall in battle and the living the weapon can grip, rotate and rip
their armoured forms are weighted being within be slain, the robust through the strongest materials,
with wisdom bought by blood. chassis will more than likely be demolish reinforced structures
recovered, and the Dreadnought and punch through the hardest
Dreadnoughts are hulking, robotic will take on a new name when a tank armour. Dreadnought close
walkers at the centre of which is new warrior is interred as pilot. combat weapons along with the

145
 Dreadnought
Disruption-Field Assisted Servo Claws
‘Ironclad’
Variable payload
Mars/Unknown
. ---------
II-XXV
Various
Single Implanted Operator ---------

Thermic Reactor ---------

13 tonnes ---------

2.2 m 85mm

3.6m m 75mm

3.8 m ---------

0.45m

10 kph The Ironclad Pattern is designed for

close assault and increased endurance
8 kph as well as deploying specialised
weapons systems (ref: Seismic Hammer,
Hurricane Bolter, etc)

146
war machine’s mobility and bulk, accepted that the so-called MKV their own unique and arcane
as well as the centuries of combat, is perhaps the most common still patterns as well. Perhaps the most
their occupant can draw upon, in service in the 41st Millennium, widespread variant Dreadnoughts
make them both terrifying and while the MKIV, still prevalent in are those fielded in the ‘Ironclad’
all but unstoppable in combat. many Space Marine Chapters, is configuration; heavily augmented
believed to have been brought into and outfitted for siege assault and
Dreadnoughts remain rare and highly widespread service just before heavy space ship boarding actions.
sought after. Very few Chapters the Horus Heresy, accounting They sacrifice versatility and
have the ability to create fresh for the large numbers which can firepower for even greater armoured
machines from scratch, and even be still found, albeit heavily often defence and dedicated siege
those that do can often manage no corrupted, in the hands of the Traitor gear such as the potent seismic
more than a handful at a time, so Legions and their scions. Other hammer designed to pulverise
demanding are the resources and variants find favour with particular the toughest bastion or armoured
techniques required to construct Chapters or Space Marine lineages, bulkhead to twisted wreckage.
the sarcophagus system that lies such as the ‘Furioso’ pattern used
at their hearts, itself requiring lore exclusively by the Blood Angels and Many Space Marine Dreadnoughts
not fully understood since the high their Successor Chapters; a heavy remain hidden away in the depths
Dark Age of Technology. Such close combat variant, that exploits of Chapter fortress-monasteries or
mysteries are closely guarded, and their predilection for hand-to-hand stand lonely vigils in half-forgotten
even the arcane knowledge used slaughter. Likewise, the ‘Mortis’ warzones. It is impossible to know
simply to keep those Dreadnoughts pattern is frequently deployed what other variants and patterns
that do still exist functioning is by the secretive ‘Unforgiven’ might still exist undiscovered, and
prized above all else by Adeptus Chapters, kin of the Dark Angels; spread across the galaxy what
Astartes Techmarines. It is only this pattern’s origins, or why only ancient war machines may still
the Dreadnought’s great inherent this group of Chapters possess it is slumber, silent and all but forgotten,
durability that keeps them active in another mystery, while the arcane one day to reawaken again to battle.
useful numbers within the Space Grey Knights; Daemon hunters
Marine Chapters of the Imperium, without peer, are known to operate
and should one fall, unless destroyed
utterly it can be made to rise again
with a new soul commanding its The Chosen
might. If anything this phenomenal Internment inside a Dreadnought is a great honour and one of the highest a
resistance to damage seems to Space Marine can ever receive from his Chapter. It is a gift only ever bestowed
increase with the centuries, and the on those that have fallen in combat but have not yet passed beyond. The
feats of survival that grow like storied wound they have taken must be mortal, but the warrior must still be alive
legends around the most venerable when interred. A Space Marine who is already dead cannot be resurrected
Chapter Dreadnoughts are many, by internment in a Dreadnought, and the process of surgical fusion with the
and have led some Techmarines and sarcophagus carries with it no sure guarantee of success, and for those
Magos to theorise that over a long who fall at this hurdle there is nothing more to be done than their souls be
timescale, the integration between commended to the God Emperor they served in life. In all but a handful of
the war machine and the occupant Chapters the Dreadnought will serve not only as a potent war machine, but
within grows so close and seamless a source of great wisdom and experience for the Chapter to call upon. In all
that metal responds as hardened but a few Chapters, Dreadnoughts must forever stand outside the Chapter’s
flesh to the will that masters it in chain of command except in the direst of circumstances despite any former
blessed union. The whole becoming rank they held. For without this act, no Chapter may be renewed through
greater than the sum of its parts. successive generations of new blood, but risk stagnation and the rule of
creatures, that while still revered and loyal, are no longer remotely human.
Over the course of more than ten
thousand years there have been In interring a fallen hero within a Dreadnought, the Chapter to which he belongs
many different marks and patterns are recognising that he is amongst their greatest warriors, and that his skill and
of Dreadnoughts to serve the Space knowledge are too precious for the Chapter to lose to the grave. Very few are
Marines, and no definitive list or ever chosen for such an honour and in most Chapters only the Chapter Master,
study is known to encompass them in consultation with the warrior’s company Chaplain and the Chief Apothecary,
all, let alone detail in full their origins can give the final agreement for the internment. Only those too grievously
or the cause that brought them into wounded to be saved will be chosen and such a decision is never taken lightly.
being. As a result there is much There are other considerations such as mental stability and spiritual strength
conjecture and contradictory dogma to be taken into consideration, as the deathly transfiguration into a towering
about which are originals, and where engine of destruction can try the sanity and soul of even the strongest, and
or when particular patterns came such power as they will now wield can perhaps only increase with age.
into being, although it is generally

147
 THE LAND RAIDER ACHILLES

Born in the shadows of the closing the vehicle’s transport capacity. extended far beyond spearhead units
decades of the Great Crusade, the Thought originally to use the Viper of the Imperial Fists themselves
Land Raider Achilles is one of the pattern quad-launcher, most have with quantities delivered in gift to
rarest and most venerable Land since been replaced on machines the Dark Angels, Thousand Sons
Raider variants still used in the 41st in service with the more familiar and Salamanders Legions. Such
millennium. According to the last Astartes Thunderfire cannon. But examples of the tank that still fight on
volume of the Liber Armorum, the despite this impressive array of the battlefields of the 41st millennium
Land Raider Achilles owes its origins weapons, it is the Land Raider are rare, but are dispersed in small
to the Techmarines of the Imperial Achilles’ vaunted durability for numbers across a great many
Fists Legion working in concert which it has entered legend. At Imperial Space Marine Chapters.
with the Archmagos of Xan-Ebon. every stage of its fabrication and Fittingly only the Imperial Fists
They came together to create a commissioning layer upon layer of and their successors are known to
nigh-invulnerable siege variant ancient electromagnetic incantations field the pattern in any significant
Land Raider in response to a bloody and ferromantic computational quantity, although it is said that
impasse against a pocket xeno- algorithms are etched into each the Ordo Reductor of the Adeptus
empire far to the galactic south. The part of its structure at a microscopic Mechanicus also have access to
name of these creatures has long level using the most secret arts of the design. Above all else it is the
since been obliterated from history the Cult Mechanicus. The resultant individual war machine’s longevity
but from what records remain, they tank is almost impossible to harm that keeps the Land Raider Achilles
must have once been mighty indeed through the use of projected energy a prize highly sought after, and
to stand off the power of an entire weapons, and whereas a standard rumours of a wrecked or dormant
Crusade arm and warrant such a Land Raider is difficult to destroy, example unearthed on a forgotten
drastic solution. The Achilles differs the destruction of the Achilles is battlefield is enough to divert
from a standard Land Raider in both all but impossible save by infliction anearby Space Marine strike force
its armament configuration and in of massive kinetic impact. The to endeavour to reclaim it. The final
the particulars of its construction. In methods and material used in the caveat here however is that the
terms of armament it is fitted out as a creation of the Land Raider Achilles machine-spirit of a Land Raider
heavy siege tank with relatively short are far beyond the capacities of all Achilles is known to be one of
range but powerful multi-meltas on but the most supreme Master of the the most warlike and frighteningly
its sponson mounts, while the heavily Forge or Enginseer Artificer to work, self-aware of any Astartes
armoured centreline hull mount is and as a result the Achilles simply vehicle, perhaps as a result of the
configured to carry a four-barrelled could not be mass-produced then particulars of their creation, and
rapid-firing cannon, although the or now. At the time of the Horus much propitiation will be needed to
ammunition requirements cut down Heresy the pattern’s use had not recover the tank without bloodshed.

148
 847

Land Raider 2x Twin-linked

Achilles Multi-Meltas
1x Thunderfire
Mars/Gryhonne IV Cannon
180/-32 to +42
.
II/IV 30x 1 Second Blasts-
48 Rounds (variable Payload
Driver, Commander, Ordnancer
Adaptable Thermic Combustion/ [Composition Clearance
Magon-Infusion Reactor §-Omega Required]-
---------
76 tonnes
N/A
10.4 m 100 mm

6.2 m
95-115 mm
4.11 m
N/A
0.50 m

50 kph Note: The Achilles Pattern Construct

has never been mass produced and
40 kph many idiosyncrasies
between individual war machines have
Warning! Enhanced Necris-Phobos been noted.
Pattern Machine Spirit Genius Loci
-Propitiate with Extreme Caution

149
 LAND RAIDERS

Regarded by many as simply the arctic wastes without any noticeable class lascannons. These heavy
finest armoured fighting vehicle of impediment of its performance duty units have the power to smash
its class in the Imperium’s arsenal, and can even operate underwater enemy tanks and fortifications, and
if not the galaxy, the Land Raider is and in hard vacuum, ensuring that can sustain repeated rapid firings
a masterwork of design that heralds there is no open battlefield on thanks to both its own extensive
back to the might of Mankind during which its armoured wrath cannot be capacitor supply and their ability to
the lost Dark Age of Technology. A unleashed. Impressively the Land be powered directly from the Land
glory of human creation, the Land Raider is designed to operate both Raider’s on-board reactor. This
Raider is a phenomenally powerful as a frontline assault transport and armament is further supplemented
war machine, its multi-layered a main battle tank, and performs by twin heavy bolters for anti-infantry
composite armour and reinforced hull both tasks extremely well. It is capacity and a range of optional
is all but impervious even to heavy capable of carrying a full squad of pintle and cupola mounted secondary
weapons, and even the destructive fully equipped Space Marines or a weapons. Some of the Land Raider’s
power of a lascannon is not demi-squad of Terminators into the most remarkable and rare features
guaranteed to pierce its skin, even heart of the enemy, and thanks to its are to found within its hull, from the
at close range, and it has no truly central assault ramp it allows these compact hybrid atomantic/thermic
vulnerable areas being a hermetically troops to deploy immediately into a combustion system that powers
sealed unit designed to resist breach or fortification without delay it, to the advanced machine-spirit
enemy attack from any approach. or need to perform axial manoeuvre. autokenetic systems to the vehicle’s
Intended to serve in almost any As a battle tank its armament is suite of auspex and scanner
environment, the Land Raider can equally impressive, the standard systems linked to a sophisticated
operate freely in warzones ranging Land Raider being outfitted with two holo-sphere display that is in itself
from acid swamps to rad-deserts to sponson-mounted ‘Godhammer’ a priceless relic of a lost age.

150
 158/84 7

Land Raider 2x Twin-linked

Lascannons
N/A Twin-Linked
Heavy Bolter
Mars/Various 180/-32 to +42

II-XXVII Unlimited
[Reactor Fed Capacitor]
Driver, Commander
Adaptable Thermic Combustion/ 2,600 rounds
Atomantic Reactor

72 tonnes N/A

10.3 m 95 mm

6.1 m 98 mm

4.11 m N/A

0.45 m

55 kph

45 kph

151
MkIIB Subtype Mars
Pattern Land Raider
Remnant Legion Issue,
Highly Valued among
Codex Chapters

152
The Land Raider’s STC design killed on his return expedition, the tightly controlled to prevent its
pre-dates the Imperium by many victim of a psychic entity which spread into the wrong hands.
thousands of years, but after the destroyed his entire party, and
Age of Strife its design was lost, until what secrets of the Dark Ages Owing to the Land Raider’s ancient
it was rediscovered by legendary of Technology he discovered provenance and the longevity
Techno-archaeologist Arkhan that died with him and remain a of the individual war machines
Land. Legend has it that the Land mystery. No successive mission themselves, there have been many
Raider (originally known as Land’s has managed to penetrate as far patterns and variants of the basic
Raider) was rediscovered during as he did into the cydonian depths, Land Raider down the millennia,
Techno-archaeologist Arkhan and the Cult Mechanicus has long with the most common found in
Land’s great expedition into the forbidden any further attempts. service the ‘Phobos’ pattern still
Libraries Omnis deep within the extensively produced by the forges
deadly catacombs of Mars, prior During the Great Crusade vast of Mars. There have also been quite
to the Great Crusade. The main quantities of Land Raiders were a considerable number of variants
aim of Land’s expedition into the produced both on Mars and Anvilus in armament attempted, all seeking
labyrinth was to find functioning 9, with the latter forge world to exploit the power and durability
and intact STC (Standard Template turned over almost exclusively of the Land Raider design in service
Construct) databases. In this he to their construction. Several of a particular battlefield role. Some
failed, but two other discoveries variants and sub-patterns based such as the Spartan and Tartarus
were made which revolutionised on Land’s findings were produced have faded almost into history
both technical thinking and Imperial at these different locales, and with for one reason or another, while
warfare for millennia to come. The individual Space Marine Legions more recent (relatively speaking)
first was a near complete data- also manufacturing them in limited designs such as the Crusader and
slab image of STC information for quantities the dissemination of the Prometheus have found widespread
a heavily armoured battle tank of design across the fledgling Imperium currency with the Space Marines
an extraordinarily powerful design, was swift. However, with the fall of of the present age. The following is
the second unearthed information Anvilus IX to the Traitor forces in the a brief description of several Land
on rare compact anti-gravitic Horus Heresy and the widespread Raider variants encountered on the
plates, and their theories on their destruction of the centuries that battlefields of the 41st millennium.
uses, which eventually led to the followed, Land Raiders became
construction of the first of ‘Land’s restricted to the Adeptus Astartes The Land Raider Crusader
Speeders’ Land would later be and the Inquisition, their production The Crusader pattern was first
developed by the Black Templars
Chapter in M39 during the Jerulas
The Land Enigma Crusade as a line breaker, a weapon
Disciples of venerated Techno-archaeologist Arkhan Land, discoverer optimised to smash into enemy lines
of Land’s Raider and Land’s Speeder STC, have long formed their own and fortifications, disgorging Space
sub-cult within the Adeptus Mechanicus. Known in some sources as the Marines into the heart of a fortified
Landites or Landists, many can be found in the ranks of the Techmarines position, its weapons unleashing
of the Adeptus Astartes. They continue their founder’s work and research a torrent of fire in support. It is a
the many potential STC variants of Land’s discoveries. Their work has led brutal weapon, well-suited to the
to many innovations, such as the Prometheus and Helios Land Raider favoured shock tactics of certain
variants by Land’s adherents within the Space Marines. The inner circle Space Marine Chapters who deploy
of the Landist cult, which contains some very senior Adeptus Mechanicus it in large numbers, although almost
artisans are rumoured to have evidence of a new vehicle, but are keeping all now feature at least a handful
their discovery a secret. The cult’s esoteric research has revealed that in their armouries The Crusader
once, during the Great Crusade, there was an armoured vehicle which pattern exchanges, much of the
was heavier than the Predator, but lighter than the heavy assault transport Land Raider’s capacity as a main
of the Land Raider. Others within the Adeptus Mechanicus hierarchy battle tank in favour of a massive
dispute this, and in M39 several members of the Landist cult were arrested anti-infantry capacity in the shape
for techno-heresy and condemned to arco-flagellation for their crimes. of sponson-mounted hurricane
Ever since the Landists have been highly secretive about their work, but bolters and centreline twin-linked
their numbers have remained undiminished. They believe that within assault cannon. The other main
the very blueprints of the Land Raider exist system compatibilities and feature of the Crusader is its
redundancies, down to a microscopic level, that could help reconstruct substantially increased transport
the missing tank. Many Explorator disciples of Land have become capacity which is the largest of
obsessed with this work, directing their fleets to follow even the slightest any common variant and greatly
hint of such a work, but it seems ultimate success has continually eluded favoured by the Black Templars
them, and the mythical missing tank remains an enigma to this day. for this reason, as well as other
Chapters of similar temperament.

153
The Land Raider Helios Land Raider Redeemer a command and control vehicle.
Created by the Techmarines and A further development of the Land The Prometheus features highly
artificers of the Red Scorpions Raider Crusader, the Redeemer, sophisticated battle auspex
Chapter during the legendary Siege created first by the artificers of scanners, interpretive logic-engines
of Helios in late M38, the Land the Fire Lords Chapter, has been and a powerful transceiver array
Raider Helios is a heavy support optimised for city-fighting operations which boosts the power and abilities
variant pattern that sacrifices and jungle warfare by the retrofitting of the on-board holo-sphere and
troop capacity for the long range of giant flamestorm cannons on the squad-monitoring systems which are
firepower of the Whirlwind missile side-sponsons, allowing the Land a feature of all Land Raiders. This
launcher. This modification turns Raider Redeemer to incinerate allows the tank to act as a highly
the Land Raider into a hugely anything in its immediate vicinity. effective battlefield communications
durable bombardment platform able These weapons also allow the tank hub for a Space Marine task force,
to survive in high intensity assault to swiftly sweep clear bunkers and as well as enabling the interception
conditions where more lightly ruins with cleansing fire and thanks and monitoring of enemy movements
armoured vehicles would soon be to this armament the Land Raider and comms traffic. Such is the
destroyed. The Red Scorpions are Redeemer has proved a valuable sophistication of the Prometheus’
a notoriously independent-minded asset in the wars against the systems that few Space Marine
Chapter and one reason they opted Tyranid assault on the galaxy, able Chapters can maintain more than
for the radical step of creating a new to render entire swarms to cinders a handful of these war machines,
variant of the sacred Land Raider in seconds as they blindly crash and fewer yet can produce their
chassis was a reluctance to depend like waves against the tank’s hull. own. Because of their rarity and
entirely on allied Imperial Guard undoubted effectiveness, these
assets in battle, a factor perhaps that Land Raider Prometheus vehicles are viewed with great pride
holds true for the other Space Marine The Prometheus is a relatively and held in high honour by the
Chapters that have since adopted the rare variant pattern Land Raider Techmarines that tend them as a
Helios in their own armouries as well. of uncertain origin designed as symbol of their Chapter’s power.

154
 LAND SPEEDERS

A mainstay of most Space Marine There are however many variants both infantry and light-to-medium
Chapters, Land Speeders are high- and patterns of Land Speeder in armoured targets at range in swift,
speed reconnaissance and rapid service whose use and role varies strafing attacks. Both of these
attack craft that utilise anti-gravity considerably between Space Marine variants lend a Chapter a strong,
technology to achieve extraordinary Chapters. The most common of flexible core of rapidly deployable
battlefield mobility and speed. these are the Land Speeder Tornado firepower and make for highly able
Ground skimmers rather than true and the Land Speeder Typhoon. tank-hunters and close air support
aircraft, they are perfectly suited Both of these are modified into units. As a result, mixed formations
to ranging patrols and scouting primary attack craft, increasing the of Land Speeders are often called
missions, as well as sudden flanking basic Land Speeder’s firepower upon to operate as a strike force’s
strikes and harrying a scattered or considerably (although reducing rapid reaction force, held in reserve
unwieldy enemy force. As lightly somewhat its range owing to the to quickly intercept enemy counter-
armoured two-man craft, they increased weight). In the case of the attacks. Striking fast and hard
require the kind of skill and reflexes Tornado, this is a literal doubling of they are particularly apt at fighting
to operate at peak performance the vehicle’s armament, as it sports delaying actions, harassing enemy
that only a Space Marine can a second support weapon on a columns whilst the rest of a Space
bring to bear, and rely more on remotely operated undercarriage Marine force moves into position
their extreme manoeuvrability and mount. This sturdier emplacement or redeploys. They can then use
speed for survival than durability. also allows the Tornado to carry an their speed to retreat successfully if
assault cannon or heavy flamer if needed from the very teeth of a foe.
The vast majority of Land Speeders desired, greatly increasing the Land
in service are of the basic design Speeder’s firepower and widening its Most Space Marine Chapters
intended primarily for long-range, combat role. While in the case of the permanently assign several
rapid reconnaissance. They carry Typhoon, the refit is more extensive Land Speeders to each of their
a single compact support weapon with twin-purpose designed missile Companies, to serve as a dedicated
such as a heavy bolter or multi-melta, launching systems fitted to the reconnaissance wing, but the
both for defence and to attack targets rear fuselage on outriggers which majority of a Chapter’s Land Speeder
of opportunity when encountered. allow the Land Speeder to engage force is contained within the four

155
 Mark I ‘Tempest’ Pattern Land Speeder
Originating World: Chogoris

Land Speeder Tempest

‘Cut Away’ Interior View
[Inset: Warhead Stowage
Compartment]

156
 during the Evacuation of Barac in
The Fruits of Land M38 by the White Scars Chapter,
It is likely that there would be no widespread light anti-grav vehicles remaining and the original prototypes were
at all in Space Marine service if it were not for Techno-Archaeologist Arkhan likely field modifications by their
Land’s famous expedition into the Librarius Omnis on Mars. It was during Techmarines. The Land Speeder
Land’s search that he discovered information on the compact and robust anti- Tempest continues to hold pride
gravitic plates utilised by Land Speeders, and his work that later developed of place above all in the armouries
the theories of their uses. It took many years, (and Land did not live to see of the White Scars and their
its fruition) but these finds would eventually lead to the development of successors, not simply because
Land’s Speeder. The first of these high-speed, ground-skimming vehicles of their pride in its creation, but
entered service towards the end of the Great Crusades when they were also because it is well suited to
produced in huge numbers, albeit cut short by the wars of the Heresy. At this their preferred swift style of mobile
time variants of differing ability and finesse served in all arms of Mankind’s warfare although some Chapters
forces, but now those that remain in use are of the Astartes patterns and shun it as an unapproved and
all those that are newly constructed are allotted only to the Space Marine potentially blasphemous design. The
Chapters by the forges of the Machine Cult. They are simply far too Land Speeder Storm on the other
precious and complex to be risked in the hands of Imperial Guardsmen. hand is also heavily modified, but
this time its fuselage is extended
for use as a deep range scout
reserve companies and the Chapter previously, but they have not gained transport, and it carries an array of
armouries. In total, a typical ‘Codex’ the same universal acceptance as countermeasures to better suit it to
Chapter might be able to field around patterns such as the Typhoon and clandestine missions, although at
fifty to seventy Land Speeders of Tornado. The two most common the cost of survivability and speed.
various types in service at any one examples of this are the Land The Land Speeder Storm is intended
time, although the individual tactical Speeder Tempest and the Land to ferry an infiltrating demi-squad
doctrines favoured by particular Speeder Storm, vehicles which could of Space Marine Scouts behind
Chapters can influence this figure not be more different in intention and enemy lines and on long range
dramatically. The Dark Angels, as role. The Land Speeder Tempest is recon patrols, but it also sometimes
well as the White Scars and their extensively structurally converted serves as an attack transport. The
respective successors, are known with a single-seat armoured cockpit exact origins of the Storm pattern
to commonly field several times and integrated weapons systems, remain obscure, but the vehicle sees
this amount, while some, such as including a nose mounted assault extensive service in particular with
the impoverished and superstitious cannon and missile pods, allowing it the Ultramarines, Raven Guard and
Imperial Castilians Chapter, to act as a gunship and air support their successors, and it is likely one
field no Land Speeders at all. unit. The Tempest is particularly of their inventions or adoptions at
valued for its ability to take on enemy its genesis, while conversely it is all
There are other rarer, more extreme flyers in close defence of ground but unknown in the armouries of the
variants and patterns of the Land forces. The first use of the Land Space Wolves and Blood Angels.
Speeder in service than those listed Speeder Tempest was recorded

157
 THE RHINO AND ITS VARIANTS

The Rhino Armoured Personnel Ancient records show that the and in particular shepherded through
Carrier is a mainstay of Space Marine Rhino started life as the RH1-N-0 the anarchy and destruction of the
Chapters, and has been in continuous Tracked Exploration and Multi- Age of Strife by the rising power
service for over ten thousand years, Purpose Defence Vehicle, a Standard of the Adeptus Mechanicus on
but its origins are more distant still, Template Construction (STC) for Mars. It was through the Machine
lost among humanity’s ancient use by colonists and explorers as Cult’s agency that the Rhino, now
past. Since the Great Crusade it Mankind spread throughout the reserved for military use, was mass-
has provided armoured transport to galaxy colonising worlds. They produced in vast numbers to serve
the fighting forces of the Imperium. needed a robust, tracked all-terrain the Emperor’s Great Crusade and
It is robust and versatile, capable vehicle, sealed against hostile the great Liber Armorum records
of withstanding the most hostile of environments and providing some entire Space Marine Legions and
environments and is resistant to measure of protection and defence. Crusade Army groups being outfitted
small arms fire. The Rhino is the Localised armed forces adopted and with the Rhino and its variants as
basic squad transport vehicle of disseminated the design, fitting it general issue in the thousands. In
all Space Marine Chapters, and with weapons and extra armour for the later Age of the Imperium, Rhino
also sees service with other trusted combat. By the end of the Age of production was jealously sought after
fighting arms of the Imperium such as Strife however, most coherent STC and has become restricted to the use
Adeptus Sororitas, Adeptus Arbites systems had been lost or destroyed of the Adeptus Astartes foremost,
and the Inquisition, and its basic and attrition took its toll on the Rhinos with the Adepta Sororitas, Adeptus
pattern has provided the template for scattered throughout the galaxy. Arbites and the Holy Inquisition
numerous long-standing variant war The full technology and schematics also maintaining and utilising their
machines such as the Predator tank involved in their construction was own Rhinos and Rhino variants.
and the Whirlwind missile launcher. retained only on a handful of worlds The Imperial Guard on the whole

158
 7/1

Rhino Armoured Storm Bolter

Transport
N/A N/A

Mars/STC 360/-65 to +45

I-XXV 800 rounds std

Driver N/A
Quad Adaptable Thermic
Combustor/Reactor unit -

30 tonnes N/A-

6.6 m 60 mm

4.5 m 60 mm

3.6 m N/A

0.44 m
Owing to its extraordinarily robust
70 kph STC design, temporary/sub-optimal
materials can be used both for
55 kph construction and repair, with some
reduction in capability

159
are now relegated to using the less equipment, turning the APC into a The Predator Tank
sophisticated Chimera design instead. potent mobile command and control The Predator perhaps the best known
All Space Marine Chapters consider centre. The Damocles allows for and most widespread variant of the
the Rhino as a cornerstone of their swift and accurate co-ordination, basic Rhino chassis is equipped
wargear, although some may see helping direct a Space Marine force with superior armour protection and
other methods of battlefield transport in the field and acts as the main firepower but sacrificies the Rhino’s
(heavier vehicles such as the Land communications link between the troop transport capacity entirely. It is
Raider or orbital assault units such Chapter’s orbiting strike cruisers, an effective medium tank designed to
as drop pods) as more vital to their Thunderhawk air support, and a provide Space Marine detachments
particular approach to warfare, no Space Marine commander on a with heavy fire support in battle. It
Chapter would neglect the Rhino planet’s surface. One of the more fills this role ably and has proved
from its armouries. Likewise every advanced pattern variants of the its worth on countless battlefields,
Space Marine Battle Brother is Rhino, the Damocles is highly and while not so heavily armed or
fully adept in the use and basic valued and seldom risked in direct armoured as the lumbering metal
maintenance of the vehicle, while its front-line operations, with only behemoths favoured by the Imperial
inner mysteries and sacred rites are the best-resourced Space Marine Guard, it is considerably swifter
known to every serving Techmarine. Chapters in possession of more and more mobile, better suited
than a handful of these vehicles. to the Space Marines’ methods
Notable Design Features of war. Back during the Dark Age
Due to its STC roots, the Rhino The Razorback of Technology all Predators were
can be constructed (or repaired) The Razorback is a variant of the of the ‘Destructor’ variant; armed
if needs be using locally available Rhino equipped with an additional with an autocannon in an enclosed
materials, while most Rhinos are turret-mounted heavy weapons turret, while considerably later the
constructed of a bonded ceramite system in either an open embrasure ‘Annihilator’ was introduced as a
layer over a cast plasteel hull, or operated remotely from within, dedicated tank-hunter replacing the
providing them with considerable along with ammunition supplies. The turret armament with twin lascannon,
structural strength and external Razorback in essence surrenders a development apocryphally laid at
protection along with dedicated life some of the basic Rhino’s transport the invention of the Space Wolves
support and air filtration systems. capacity and endurance for during the Skarath Crusade. In
Another miracle of the STC design is enhanced firepower and is commonly either case the Predator is fielded
the Rhino’s highly adaptable engine used by assault, reconnaissance either with or without additional
system which can run on almost and command units in the field. sponson mounted weaponry, with
any combustible fuel to varying While the additional mobile firepower each sponson either mounting a
degrees of efficiency and with four is a valuable benefit to a Space single heavy bolter or lascannon
independent combustion modules Marine strike force, some Chapter as part of a modular unit. Sponson
and a self-charging capacitor array, Masters consider them too much weaponry is the standard for most
the vehicle can be kept mobile even of a compromise, as they are only Space Marine Chapters and often
having taken extensive damage. This able carry a demi-squad of six space reflects the expected conditions of
makes the Rhino an extraordinarily marines on the one hand, while their threat within a given warzone. where
robust vehicle suitable for use in lack of heavy armour prevents them heavy infantry resistance is predicted
almost any environment or theatre from operating in a true tank’s role on (such as in battle against the Orks
of war, and also greatly assists the other. A wide variety of patterns for example), heavy bolters are most
the ease and speed at which the and armaments of Razorbacks can favoured, while lascannons, where
vehicles can be repaired or salvaged be found in Space Marine armouries, available, are equipped where enemy
and cannibalised to suit the needs the most common by far being a armour is expected to predominate.
of an ongoing war effort. Rhinos twin-linked heavy bolter for squad Not mounting additional sponson
may be easily operated by a single support, while twin-lascannons weaponry can still offer some
crewmen, although in battle two are also frequently mounted for advantage, as although the tank’s
is the more common compliment; anti-armour missions. Some rarer firepower is reduced the increase
the second operator serving as armament configurations include a stowage capacity this frees up is of
gunner and auspex operator in multi-melta unit for bunker-busting, great use in conducting extended
most situations, while the Rhino assault cannons for use against operations where resupply is difficult.
itself provides sufficient capacity monstrous foes (the latter gaining
to transport ten fully equipped popularity during the Tyranic Wars) Generally a Space Marine Chapter
Space Marines into battle. and even an obscure lascannon/ will maintain between twenty and
plasma gun combination found in thirty Predators in service at any
The Damocles Command Rhino certain Phaeton pattern models. given time. The Rhino chassis’
This specific variant is designed to adaptability means that more can
house sophisticated communication, often be retrofitted into service
analysis, decryption and tracking as needed by the Chapter’s

160
Techmarines, as long as their principal armament is a heavy- through relentlessly closing with
machine spirits are properly calibre demolisher cannon capable the enemy wherever they can.
propitiated. Some Space Marine of smashing its way through armour
Chapters field far larger quantities and shattering fortifications and The Whirlwind Launcher
of the tank in their armouries breaching bunkers with ease. The Whirlwind provides a Space
as a matter of course, often Although the cannon is short Marine Chapter with highly mobile
those reflecting a preference for ranged and the tank is only able to indirect fire able to shower a target
mechanised assault as a tactic. The carry a limited supply of its rocket- area with multiple independent
Iron Hands and Fire Angels being assisted shells, the Vindicator warheads. The Whirlwind is an
two widely known examples of this, is an invaluable addition to any ancient design, and many different
each counting upwards of a hundred Space Marine strike force with patterns have been employed down
Predators in their armouries. the task of attacking a heavily the millennia and the designation
fortified position or city-fighting ‘Whirlwind’ in fact covers a range of
Baal Predator conditions where it can blast and different multiple missile launchers
The Baal Predator is a specialised shunt its way through barricades mounted on a Rhino chassis. Many
variant of the Predator tank and obstacles. Often deployed in of these remain in service with
developed from unique data by close support of infantry squads various Chapters across the galaxy,
the Blood Angels Chapter, and during street fighting operations or with some favouring one over the
used only by that Chapter and in dense terrain such as jungles, other for reasons of tradition or
its Successors. Instead of the the Vindicator’s heavily reinforced access to certain patterns, but not
autocannon or twin lascannons, armour and low hull profile increases others. Space Marine Chapters do
the Baal pattern mounts twin its survivability in high intensity not rely heavily on artillery fire to
assault cannons in the turret, warzones. This endurance, coupled achieve victory on the battlefield,
giving it devastating close range with the practice of equipping them preferring to operate entirely as
firepower, often supported with heavy siege-mantlet dozer rapid strike formations or as shock
by the use of heavy flamer blades to clear ground, offers Space troops, and have little requirement
sponsons. This vehicle’s pattern Marines the equivalent of a mobile or regard for sustained artillery
is unsanctioned by the Adeptus strongpoint, allowing them to better barrages to reduce enemy positions
Mechanicus, and as with others advance against heavy fire. Some before an attack. Instead they need
of the Chapter and its successors, Space Marine Chapters, greatly fast, highly mobile artillery, capable
also uses ‘Lucifer’ configuration enamoured of the Vindicator’s of delivering a brief but effective
overcharged engines, considered firepower go further and employ suppression barrage against
by many to be an anathema in the tank in large numbers as a specific tactical enemy targets. The
the sight of the Machine God. main battle line vehicle, using them Whirlwind fills this role ably, and can
in spearhead formations and as quickly unleash a high volume of
The Vindicator close range tank killers, attempting firepower, albeit at relatively short
A powerful assault tank based on to overcome any disadvantages range, against critical targets in an
the Rhino chassis, the Vindicator’s the Vindicator has in these roles assault, and rapidly redeploy and
react to the battlefield’s changing
tactical situation. This alone
The Rites of the Omnissiah represents a significant advantage
The purity and spiritual welfare of the machine-spirit or Anima Corpus is over the slower, heavier types
entrusted to a Chapter’s Techmarines, and is as important as the skill of the of artillery deployed by Imperial
artificers who built the vehicle and its structure and state of repair. As a result, Guard regiments, while by using the
in accordance with the Cult Mechanicus, there are many rituals surrounding Rhino chassis means it can keep
the construction, maintenance and use of the vehicles within a Chapter’s up with the rest of a fast moving
forges and armoury. They must be cared for using the correct liturgies of Space Marine strike force as well
maintenance, divined from the runes of engineering and the machine-spirit as utilise the same supply and
must be blessed to protect both the vehicle and its occupants in battle. maintenance chain. One widely
At every stage the correct unguents, micro-etched prayer encoding and adopted variant of the standard
propitiatory rituals and rites must be carried out to sanctify the work and ward configuration Whirlwind is the
off daemons and evil Ætheric and magno-ferric humours from corrupting the Whirlwind Hyperios, which uses a
machine. The final and most vital blessing is the Naming Ritual of any new modified launcher and enhanced
or re-commissioned vehicle. Each must have a battle name worthy of the logis-targeting engines to create
Chapter’s great history to be proclaimed, recorded and commonly used, and a highly effective anti-aircraft unit,
some Chapters will choose to paint or engrave it onto the hull, but each will able to intercept low-level strikes
have a secret name as well. This occult name, rendered in the arcane techno- and provide a mobile shield of air
cant of the Omnissian Cult, is known only to those who must tend to its cover for a Space Marine force.
secrets, a true name by which its warlike soul may be called up or placated.

161
 7/2

Macragge Pattern Damocles

Command Vehicle

MkVI Razorback with remote

controlled twin-linked
lascannon turret

162
 7/3

Baal Pattern Predator

Blood Angels and Successor
Chapter Unique issue

Mars Pattern MkIV Predator Tank

Annihilator Armament Configuration

163
 7/4

Helios Pattern Whirlwind Air

Defence Tank

Lucius Pattern Vindicator Siege

Assault Tank

164
 THUNDERHAWKS

The keystone of any Space Marine time and place to strike where the systems are the massive RX-92-00
force, Thunderhawks are extremely damage they inflict will prove the most ‘Mars’ pattern, combination rocket/
versatile and powerful craft, with the decisive. Entire wars have been won afterburning turbofans which power
standard Thunderhawk Gunship by just such acutely applied force and it in flight. They are able to serve it in
combining the roles of orbital drop such a deathblow is terrible to behold. both upper and lower atmospheric
ship, heavily armed assault craft and flight as well as in the null gravity void
medium bomber. The Transporter As well as providing the ability of near orbital space for some duration.
variant allowing the rapid and to rapidly deploy Space Marines The Thunderhawk carries a fearsome
accurate landing of supporting directly into the front lines (and array of weaponry and ordnance. Its
Space Marine armoured forces redeploy them when needed), primary weapon is the limited traverse
into the heaviest fire-zones. Thunderhawk Gunships also offer dorsal mount fitted with either a
substantial additional support turbo-laser able to strike down even a
Operating from space-faring Strike firepower and strategic strike capacity, Scout Titan with an accurate hit or an
Cruisers and Battle Barges, a and Thunderhawks themselves enhanced battle cannon for ground
Chapter’s Thunderhawk fleet, in are amongst the most advanced bombardment. For additional close-
concert with its Drop Pod assaults and technologically sophisticated support firepower they also mount
(and less frequently encountered vehicles deployed by any Imperial lascannons and up to eight heavy
attack craft such as Stormraven or force. Each has advanced targeting, bolters in remote turrets. In addition,
Fireraptor Gunships and Caestus sensory, communication, avionics and a Thunderhawk can carry various
Assault Rams), offer a Space Marine navigational equipment, protected payloads of missiles and bombs for
commander a spread of different inside an armoured hull, which specific bombing missions, all in all
strategic options and allow their forces although lighter, is constructed using making it a supremely formidable
to deploy rapidly to devastating effect. the same techniques as those in the weapons platform. The Transporter
This ability is paramount to Space Land Raider, layered with additional variant of the Thunderhawk, while less
Marine tactics as dictated by the ablative ceramite panels to guard vaunted perhaps is no less valuable
tenets of the Codex Astartes, as this against the heat and friction of orbital to a Space Marine Chapter as it can
sheer mobility allows a Space Marine re-entry. Strongly constructed a be relied on to bring in a variety of
commander to force an enemy to Thunderhawk can take an immense payloads up to and including Predator
fight where and when they choose, amount of damage and keep flying, and Land Raider tanks to the battlefield
bypass static defences, withdraw and despite their complex systems with equal flexibility and speed,
from overwhelming odds, respond to they have a well-deserved reputation although in its configuration it must
shifting events on the battlefield and for being rugged and reliable. One sacrifice much of the Thunderhawk
most importantly select the precise of their most revered techno-arcane Gunship’s armament to do so.

165
 MkIV Mars Pattern
Thunderhawk Gunship
-Turbo Laser Armament Variant

166
Thunderhawk Gunship
Interior Detail
84/ 2
167
Raptors Chapter Thunderhawk
Deployment, DX-2 Jungle Zone
Gargathea
 RTB MA R K V I I ‘A Q U I L A ’ A R MOU R 7A
BADAB/ ADEPTUS ASTARTES
POWER ARMOUR:
SUMMARY

Sp ace M arine Po w er A rmo u r is a n ex t ra o rd i n a r i l y

s op histicated defe ns iv e s y s t em w hic h c o mbin e s h uge
d u r ability to ph ysi c a l d a ma g e w it h a s ens o ry a r r a y
an d sealed enviro nment w hic h pro t ec t s it s we a r e r
f r om th e ravages o f t he v o id a nd a lien a t mos p h e r e s .
In te grated w ith in t he a rmo u r a re net w o rk s of e l e c tr o
moti vated fibre bu nd les w hic h mimic a nd a ugm e n t
the muscular stren g t h o f t he w ea rer. T he t rue ge n i us
of th e design h o wev er lies in it s c lo s e int eg r a t i o n
wi th th e already su perhu ma n phy s io lo g y , s en s e s a n d
r e f le x es o f th e Sp a c e M a rine w it hin a nd a rm o ur a n d
A startes to geth er bec o me a w ea po n w it ho u t e q ua l .

Each suit o f Space M a rine P o w er A rmo u r is a w o r k

of s upreme artisans hip, a nd a lt ho u g h it ma y b e o n e
of many, each is a u niq u e a rt efa c t w ho s e s pi r i t a n d
hi sto ry is o f deep s pirit u a l s ig nific a nc e bo t h t h e
Chapter to w h ich it belo ng s a nd t he Spa c e M a r i n e
who w ears it.

The r e are num ero u s d ifferent ma rk s o f P o we r

A r mo ur, m o st o f whic h d a t e ba c k in t erms o f de s i gn
an d a pplicatio n ma ny t ho u s a nd s o f y ea rs a g o t o t h e
ti me o f th e Great Cru s a d e a nd t he H o ru s H e r e s y , e a c h
of which h ave th eir o w n lo re a nd g enes is in p l a c e a n d
T h i s m a r k i s th e f i n a l p r o duc t o f t h e r a pi d d e v e l opm e nt
ti me . Even in th e 41s t M illenniu m s o me enac t s ui t s
o f S p a c e Ma r i n e P o w e r A r m o ur dur i ng t he H or u s
f r om th is near my t hic a l a g e s u rv iv e in a c t iv e s e r vi c e
He r e s y . W h i l e th e Ma r k V I I l a c ks s om e of t he a d v a nce d
as wa r-relics o f the Spa c e M a rines . Co u nt less o t h e r s
s y s te m s o f t h e Ma r k I V o r V I , t h i s d e si gn i ncor por a t e s
hav e been pro duced o r rea c q u ired s inc e, a nd di f f e r e n t
m a n y i m p r o ve m e n ts to th e de s i gn ’ s ov e r a l l l a you t a nd
Chapters o ften h ave ent irely d ifferent ra ng es o f
p r o t e c t i o n a s w e l l a s b e i n g e f f i c i e n t t o pr od u ce a nd
pan oply th ey can c a ll u po n t o a rmo u r t heir f o r c e s .
r e p a i r . I t i s a l s o e a s i l y a b l e t o i n t e gr a t e ol d e r a r m ou r
It i s also far fro m u nc o mmo n fo r mo re
c o m p o n e n t s w h o l l y o r i n p a r t i n t o i t s f a br i c a d d i ng
r e ce ntly fash io ned a rmo u r t o inc o rpo ra t e
to i ts ve r s a t i l i ty a n d us e . T h i s m a r k of Spa ce M a r i ne
s i l v e rs o r w h o le co mpo nent s fro m fa r o ld er
P o w e r A r m o ur h a s b e c o m e t h e m o s t wi d e l y pr od u ce d
s u i ts as revered co nnec t io ns t o t he pa s t .
ty p e o f i ts ki n d up t o t h e 4 1 s t Mi l l enni u m .

8J 7D
MA RK VIII ‘ERR A NT ’ A R M O UR MA R K V I I V A R I A N T : A P OT HE C A R Y

D e s i gned after th e t u rbu lenc e o f t he H o ru s He r e s y , I n a ddi t i o n t o s ta n da r d a r m o ur m a r k s u t i l i z e d by Spa ce

al though its ex act o rig ins rema in o bs c u re, E r r a n t Ma r i n e s i n C o m b a t, e a c h C h a p t e r m ai nt a i ns a nu m be r of
ar mour is a futh er d ev elo pment o f t he A q u i l a de s i gn , va r i a n t de s i gn s f o r us e b y t h e C h a pt e r ’ s Te chm a r i ne s,
i n corperating enh a nc ed c o o ling a nd po w er di s tr i b uti o n A p o t h e c a r i e s a n d o t h e r s p e c i a l i s ts The Ar m ou r
s ys tem s allo w ing fo r lo ng er c o mba t o pera t ion s , w i t h di s p l a y e d h e r e i s a n e x a m p l e o f th e Apot he ca r y’ s i ssu e ,
au g mented po ldro n a nd g o rg et a rmo u red s ec t i o n s a n d i n c o r p o r a t e s e x te n s i ve R e duc to r a nd Na r t he ci u m
f u ther increasing it s pro t ec t io n. E rra nt a rmour i s f ul l y s y s te m s f o r t h e a i d o f th e i r w o un de d br e t hr e n a nd t he
compatible w ith the A q u ila a rmo u r, if mo re di f f i c ul t r e c o ve r y o f th e ge n e - s e e d o f t h e f a l le n. I n a d d i t i on
to fabricate, and it is no t u nc o mmo n fo r a C h a p t e r t o th e a r m o ur a l s o f e a tur e s a b i o - a us p ex a r r a y a nd ot he r
g r an t co m po nents o f new ly fo rg ed E rra nt a r m o ur t o a e n h a n c e d s e n s o r ge a r
Battle Bro th er as a ma rk o f ho no u r.
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MA RK V ‘HERES Y’ A R M O UR 5A MA R K I V ‘ MA X I MU S ’ A R MOU R 4A

A hybrid design p ro d u c ed init ia lly a s a s t o p ga p a r m o ur C o n s i de r e d b y s o m e t o b e th e p i n n a cl e of P owe r Ar m ou r

i n the dark days o f t he H o ru s H eres y a nd sw i f tl y de ve l o p m e n t, th e Ma r k I V ‘Ma x i m u s’ pa t t e r n wa s a
ad opted by bo th s id es t o c o pe w it h hea v y a tt r i ti o n w h o l l y n e w a n d s o p h i s ti c a t e d de s i gn or i gi na t i ng a t t he
l oss es, th e M ark V is a mix t u re o f o ld er fea tur e s , ze n i th o f t h e E m p e r o r ’s r e i gn b e f or e t he he r e sy. H i ghl y
s u ch advances from t he M a x imu s a s c o u ld b e e a s i l y va l ue d b y th e A de p tus A s ta r t e s , f ew C ha pt e r s a r e a bl e
r e pl icated and th e int eg ra t io n o f mo re rea d i l y a va i l a b l e , to p r o duc e o r m a i n t a i n P o w e r A r m ou r of t hi s t ype i n t he
i f b ulker materials in it s c o ns t ru c t io n. Co nsi de r e d b y c ur r e n t a ge , a l t h o ugh th e r e a r e known e xce pt i ons t o t hi s
s ome to be ill-fav o u red , o t her Cha pt ers s t ill va l ue i t s s uc h a s t h e R e d S c o r p i o n s a n d I r on H a nd s, a nd a l l su ch
r ob ust design and ea s e o f repa ir, a nd o ft en i n t e gr a t e i t e x a m p l e s a r e h i gh l y va l ue d b y t h ose C ha pt e r s f or t u na t e
wi th o th er types in s erv ic e. to p o s s e s s th e m .

6C 3B
MARK VI ‘C O RV US’ A R M O UR MA R K I I I ‘ I R ON ’ A R MOU R

D e velo ped alo ngs id e t he M KV II by t he fo r ge s o f Ma r s T h e m o s t vi s ua l l y b r uta l a n d i m p o s ing of a l l t he

d u ring th e Heresy a s a mo re lo ng t erm s o luti o n to w i de l y p r o duc e d a r m o ur m a r ks , th e I r on Ar m ou r wa s a
the Space M arines ’ need s , t he Co rv u s d es ign w a s s o o n h e a vy , m o di f i e d Ma r k I I de s i gn ( i ts el f t he f i r st m a ss-
r apidly dissem in a t ed a nd s a w w id es prea d us e , a n d i n p r o duc e d P o w e r A r m o ur o f t h e C r u sa d e e r a ). The I r on
particular is asso c ia t ed w it h t he Defenc e of T e r r a b y A r m o ur ’ s s t r uc t ur e h a s a ugm e n t e d fr ont a l d e f e nce a nd
the Lo yalists. Alt ho u g h it s bro t her d es ig n b e c a m e m o r e i n c o r p o r a t e s a ddi ti o n a l a b l a ti ve p l a t e s, a nd i s i nt e nd e d
wi dely pro duced in la t er c ent u ries , ma ny C h a p t e r s w i t h f o r e m o s t f o r us e i n b o a r di n g a c ti o n s, t u nne l a ssa u l t s
d i r ect links to th e Imperiu m’ s d a rk es t ho ur s ti l l c l e a ve a n d vo i d w a r f a r e , a l t h o ugh i s c o n s i d e r a bl y he a v i e r a nd
to th e C o rvus armo u r’ s u s e. m o r e p o w e r h un gr y t h a n i ts c o n t e m por a r i e s.

169