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40kmemes · 2 years

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The ferocious, honor-scarred Battle-Brothers of the White Scars Chapter are the heirs of the Fifth Legion. Enlisted from the most vicious nomad tribes of the Feral world of Chogoris, the White Scars fight in the way of the warriors of the steppes. Mounting lightning assaults employing the swiftest of vehicles, the White Scars fall upon their foes in an unrelenting storm, their hearts filled with brutal joy and the battle cry “For the Emperor and the Khan!” on their lips. The Primarch of the White Scars was the great Jaghatai Khan, the first and only warrior to have risen to such strength that he could unify every one of the wild tribes of the Chogorian steppes into a single body. He accomplished all this before the Great Crusade reached Chogoris and the Primarch was re-united with his father. The young Jaghatai grew quickly to rule the tribe that had adopted him, and by the intensity of his speech as well as his arm, he joined the clans against their cruel city-dwelling oppressors. The steppes are said to have run red with blood as warriors fused under Jaghatai’s black horsehair banner and retaliated for every wrong ever done to them. They razed the cities, and put armies to the sword, until finally, all of Chogoris belonged to the tribes of the steppes. Mere months later, the Great Crusade reached Jaghatai’s kingdom, and upon setting eyes upon his father he knew that here was a man who shared his vision. Jaghatai understood that a far greater prize than any he could have imagined lay before him—the reunification of the entirety of Mankind. The ranks of the Fifth Legion were swelled by the intake of warriors inducted from Jaghatai Khan’s fierce army, the Legion inheriting the traditions of the Chogorian steppes nomads. Soon, the savagery of the tribes had bred itself into the Legion’s gene-seed too, but it was tempered by the fierce sense of honor and justice embodied so perfectly by the Legion’s Primarch. The White Scars fought with valor and determination throughout the Great Crusade, though the years immediately preceding the Horus Heresy were spent mired in a campaign against an Ork Empire centered on the Chondax System. It was at the climax of this grueling war that word arrived of the Warmaster’s treachery, and Rogal Dorn bade his brother Jaghatai to join with the Space Wolves of Leman Russ and return to Terra in preparation for the traitors’ assault. Anticipating such a move, the Warmaster dispatched the Alpha Legion to engage the Space Wolves. Jaghatai was faced with the dilemma of aiding his brother Russ or answering Dorn’s request. Forced to choose between his duty to his brother and duty to the Imperium, Jaghatai chose the latter, though the choice was far from easily made. The White Scars arrived at Terra in time to stand before the traitors, countless of their number gave their lives to thwart he who would undo the great work of the Father of Mankind. History recorded little of the Great Khan’s actions during the Siege of Terra, but it is known that his legion ranged the once proud thoroughfares of Terra engaging the traitors in punishing hit-and-run strikes, and that when the end finally came, the White Scars emerged from the fires of galactic civil war bloodied, but alive. They must surely have been at the forefront of the Legions that pursued the defeated traitors to the Eye of Terror, for the White Scars rarely allow a defeated foe to slip away once their blood is up.

#warhammer #warhammer 40k #40k #wh40k #orks #space marines #white scars #jaghatai #jaghatai khan #imperium #chogoris #games workshop #adeptus astartes

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lordsofmedrengard · 3 years

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Mantis Warriors + Alpha Legion = Mantis Legion?

This is my new favourite conspiracy theory, cooked up by me last night when I couldn’t sleep due to a cold.

TL;DR the Mantis Warriors look like the very first colour scheme for the Alpha Legion and fight in a vaguely similar way, so they’re loyalists from the XX Legiones Astartes now.

I know what you’re thinking: not only are the Mantis Warriors known to be descended from the White Scars via the Marauders, they weren’t even founded until several thousand years after the Heresy!

But there are too many coincidences for my sleep deprived brain to ignore. Let’s start with the coincidental similarities: The Mantis Warriors are also known as the Mantis LEGION. The original Alpha Legion colours were green and yellow, kind of like the colours of the Mantis Warriors. The Index Astartes noted that the Alpha Legion operated from a number of bases scattered across the Galaxy; the Mantis Warriors had bases all across the Endymion Cluster before they lost their feudal rights to those worlds as part of their punishment for fighting for the Secessionists during the Badab War.

Coincidences, right?

1E Alpha Legion iconography

Mantis Warrior

Consider this:

The Mantis Warriors (unlike the White Scars and many of their descendants) aren’t known for their bikers or their savagery in battle. Rather, like their ancestors the Marauders, they’re known for being skilled marksmen and launching devastating ambushes on their enemies, apparently to the point where many of the veterans of the Tranquility campaign against the Fire Angels and Carcharodons were formed into elite sniper-squads. “But OP,” I hear you say, “doesn’t this prove they’re descended from the White Scars? The Marauders have been confirmed WS Successors since they were introduced!”, and this is true. What’s also true is that the Alpha Legion favours ambush tactics in battle AND clashed with the White Scars multiple times over the Heresy, and if Forge World are to be believed secretly harried and disappear’d significant numbers of White Scars over the Chondax campaign in the years immediately preceding the Heresy. The Alpha Legion on numerous occasions infiltrated other Legions, and occasionally fought false flag operations in other Legion’s livery during the great Crusade. In other words, if they wanted White Scars geneseed, they would have collected White Scars geneseed, and they were practised at pretending to belong to other Legions than their own. The Alpha Legion also pioneered the “Seekers” and refined them into “Headhunters”, units of deadly marksmen and battlefield assassins vaguely anomalous to Sternguard veterans of the later Chapters, so they tick the box for marksmanship too.

And don’t forget, the ACTUAL CONFIRMED heritage of the Mantis Warriors is unknown – in-universe, the earliest confirmed source which claims them to be Marauder-descended sons of the Khan is a book from M36 that (in-universe) is known to have been edited and had parts redacted by various Imperial authorities, and to have been written by a High Lord of Terra as well, which if you ask me isn’t a very reliable source.

C.S. Goto may be Haram, but his books ARE canon, so the Mantis Warriors canonically used multilasers when fighting their penitent crusade to conserve their resources. The Alpha Legion are very far from being the only Space Marines who improvise or value free thinking, but I thought I’d include this as well – particularly since Warrior Brood also mentions how the elite units formed to hunt Red Corsairs have snake-like tattoos. Hmmmm.

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warsofasoiaf · 6 years

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Traitor Primarch Ask: Alpharius Omegon and the Alpha Legion (even if they may or may not be secret Loyalists)?

As might be expected, definite things regarding Alpharius, Omegon, and the Twentieth Legion are in very short supply. The Alpha Legion is full of both absent information and deliberate misinformation which makes pinning anything down hard, even their origin stories are fake, but there are some real concrete pieces of information there when we look.

Alpharius and Omegon are twins, but they shared a telepathic connection which meant that the two were never truly alone. This concept is writ large across the entire Alpha Legion, best emphasized in the metaphor of the Pale Spear. The Pale Spear can be disassembled and carried by the members of the individual Legion, but the Pale Spear itself isn’t broken, it remains the Pale Spear. Thus, even when an Alpha Legionnaire is alone, he is never truly alone, because he is still the Legion and can strike with the force of such.

The Alpha Legion borrows a lot from modern day non-nation militant groups including insurgency tactics, focus on sabotage and assassinating targets of opportunity, especially in their cell-based structure and largely independent commanders, meaning that the Alpha Legion cells can enact their own plots without knowing of the other or betraying the Legion, meaning that some Alpha Legionnaires may oppose another Alpha Legionnaire with a different idea or compete over the same resource or mission space. Thus, some members of the Alpha Legion could be actual Chaos Space Marines, worshiping Chaos and accepting their foul blessings, while others might be Renegades and still others secret Loyalists, fighting for the Imperium in the way that they know best.

The Legion isn’t just insurgency though, they also have some very strong Cold War vibes to them, including a Manchurian Candidate-like process of planting deep cover agents to be deployed when needed. While the Alpha Legion can (and has) fought conventional battle, they love to deploy false flag operations, attacking using enemy uniforms, and other means of PSYOPS to undermine the enemy.

This style of warfare annoyed plenty of Alpharius’s brother Primarchs. Konrad Curze despised the dishonesty of the Alpha Legion’s approach, his own terror tactics were certainly striking from ambush, but left no uncertainty as to what it was and why it was happening. Rogal Dorn considered the Alpha Legion to be assassins not worthy of bearing the Emperor’s mark. Roboute Guilliman felt that Alpharius’s approach left conquered areas seething with resentment, requiring resources to build them back up and maintain them. Mortarion and Leman Russ thought that the approach was cowardly and dishonorable. Horus was noted to have valued Alpharius’s approach, praising Alpharius’s panache and forging a close bond with Alpharius. It was speculated, of course, that Alpharius’s friendship with Horus was what led him to side with the Warmaster in the Heresy.

Dan Abnett’s Legion tells us that this is a lie, that the reason he joined the Heresy was due to the Cabal, a collection of xenos with prophetic powers. According to them, if the Emperor wins, he would give his life and become an undead monstrosity, then his Imperium would stagnate, feeding Chaos with the misery of humanity and empowering them. Eventually the spirit of the Emperor would fail and Chaos would consume the galaxy. If Horus won, the short-term victory would empower the Chaos Gods, but Horus’s guilt would cause him to embark on a cleansing crusade, fracturing Chaos, ending with the obliteration humanity and the Chaos Gods both. Alpharius made the decision to side with Horus because he believed that the Emperor would want such a sacrifice to stop the Chaos Gods.

Alpharius’s conduct during the Heresy is very interesting. When working with another legion, such as in the Dropsite Massacre, they cause great damage to the Loyalists, but they permitted the Raven Guard to escape with their Primarch (though with a few Alpha Legion plants mixed in among them). By the later stages of the Heresy, Horus couldn’t trust Alpharius with missions, stating that Alpharius had his own plots, thus Mortarion had to handle the Khan. During the Chondax campaign, the Alpha Legion delays Jaghatai Khan, allowing him to receive the missive from Rogal Dorn, but they attack the Space Wolves after the Burning of Prospero and do significant damage to them at the Alaxxes Nebula. In fact, when it came to his enemies, he fought the ones who disparaged him (Dorn, Russ) much harder than the ones who had not (Jaghatai Khan was one of the most live and let live Primarchs there was). While that almost seems too petty, remember that Lion knocked out Russ over a laugh and Magnus started his folly in part because he wanted to prove sorcery could be a benefit. The Primarchs are titans, and have titanic egos to match; Alpharius seeking validation from those who mocked him was not beyond reason.

The question is, was Alpharius, Omegon, or both secret loyalists, did they ever fall to Chaos, did they change their mind during the Heresy. The Alpha Legion at times even fought itself and prevented some loyalists from turning, and Alpharius and Omegon seemed to be of different minds about the ultimate goal. By The Unremembered Empire, the Cabal is convinced that the Alpharius gambit has failed (and Alpharius kills their representatives after Deliverance Lost, stating that he would act on his own initiative). Certainly, Alpharius also hindered the plans of the Chaos Gods, by refusing to destroy the genetic Astartes material Corax used after sabotaging his plans to rebuild the Raven Guard, but he didn’t turn over the material to Fabius Bile, instead giving him ultimately useless information that prevented Bile from creating newer and better Chaos Marines.

Rogal… I did this so that you would understand… So that you would see that you cannot win. I am not here to kill you, brother. I am not here for Horus. I am here to give you victory… I know the enemy, I know your weaknesses, and theirs. I know the truth… I can give you victory, brother.

What he does in Praetorian of Dorn is very fascinating. Alpharius launches his greatest Harrowing yet, challenging Rogal Dorn directly and using every weapon in his arsenal to subvert, destroy, and undermine Dorn’s defenses of the solar system. However, when the two Primarchs finally come to blows, Alpharius quite pointedly says that he was not there for Horus, and he references the enemy as not being the same person as Rogal. It hints that the “enemy” is Chaos, and that Alpharius can give Dorn victory, but what does that mean? Did Alpharius change his mind and now wished to return to the loyalists? If he had, why did he not deploy his Alpha Legion against the Traitor Legions, and why did he do damage to Dorn’s defenses and make it easier for Horus to attack Terra? Was he attempting to recruit Dorn even to the last hour in hopes of strengthening the Traitor Legions that would eventually scour the universe of Chaos at the cost of themselves? Or was it Alpharius’s addiction to complexity that led him to craft an overly elaborate plan instead of a straightforward one that ended up getting him killed at the hands of Rogal Dorn? Indirect and endlessly open to interpretation, Alpharius was true to himself all the way to his death.

When Omegon finally sensed that Alpharius was gone, what did that mean for him? Why did he take up the mantle of Alpharius, and why did he continue to work to prevent reinforcements from reaching Terra. Was Omegon a traitor the whole time, despite the fact that he seemed to be the one to oppose the switching to Chaos? Did he become Alpharius because he couldn’t stand being alone, and acted the way that he believed Alpharius would act? Or did the loss of Alpharius cause Omegon to accept Chaos into his heart? We may never know, and it might be better if we don’t ever know, so that fans can endlessly discuss what the Alpha Legion is.

Thanks for the question, Necromancer. I think only the arch-traitor is left.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#warhammer 40k #the primarchs

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tw6464sloreblog · 7 years

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The traitor legions

*the canon traitor legions remain mostly unchanged, except a few characters being swapped out and their names are different, except the Black Legion. For example, Ahzek Ahriman is not the one who casts the Rubricae, his brother Ormuzd Ahriman is, so Ormuzd is the leader of the Brotherhood of Dust.

*The traitor Emperor’s Children are known as the The Glorious Symphony; the traitor Iron Warriors are the Steel Tyrants; the traitor Night Lords are the Raptor Legion (heh); the traitor World Eaters are the Blades of Wrath; the traitor Death Guard are the Reapers of Despair; the traitor Thousand Sons are the Brotherhood of Dust; the traitor Word Bearers are the Prophets of Chaos; and finally the traitor Alpha Legion is the Brotherhood of the Hydra

*one last thing before I describe each traitor legion: there are no legions dedicated to a specific God. You can have Slaaneshi world eater traitors, Khornates thousand sons traitors, etc yeah I’m going to somewhat drop this idea, but I’’ll say that there are a few... “converts” to the other chaos gods, but they’re so rare that they’re practically none existent.

*The Azure Legions have already been detailed in my Chaos Ultramarines post, which is located here: https://tw6464sloreblog.tumblr.com/post/160804538767/chaos-ultramarines, so I’m gonna move on…

*The Dark Angels traitors form the Fallen Angels, except there aren’t any remorseful traitors amongst them; they’re cold, heartless and cruel crusaders of the Dark Gods, led by their Knight-Lord, Luther. They are crusaders of Chaos, striking with the precision of a broadsword and the power of a Claymore. They are masters of the sword, and of corrupting local populations into rebellion. They are often the least mutated marines, allowing them to easily pass as loyalists and wreak havoc upon their “allies”. None of the Fallen regret rebelling upon Caliban, rebelling against what they saw as a corrupt system of government; their only regret is that they failed in destroying the home of the Lion.

*The White Scars traitors form two Warbands: the Ronin, a band of disgraced White Scars who wield power nodachi and wander the Galaxy, selling their services to the highest bidder, as both a form of employment and as atonement; they’re made up of warriors of the Chondax campaign who instantly realized that they had damned their souls forever.

-The second, much larger group is known as the M'Andshu Hordes, led by Khan Khuu Tetsugai, who killed the Great Khan of their brotherhood and took over, using whatever bike squads, skimmer craft, fast moving tanks and flyers to strike swiftly and then move on to the next target of interest. They raid and pillage with incredible speed; almost all of their warriors are mounted, and if they’re not mounted they’re in transports ferrying them to battle.

*the Space Wolves traitors, many of whom actually split into two separate Warbands: Skyrar’s Dark Wolves, who are made up of warriors who are pretty much the Warriors of Chaos if they had guns, chainswords and power armor. They’re less conquers and more just raiders, killing and burning worlds for the slightest provocation; this may lead some to think that this aggressive form of fighting makes the Dark Wolves predictable, but any thoughts of an easy victory against the Wolves are shot down when their leader, Skyrar, is leading from the front. Skyrar is utterly unpredictable, manic and insane; whether this is due to his ingestion of a herb that supposedly boosts his fighting prowess, his constant exposure to the warp, or because he’s always been crazy, enemies should think twice before underestimating (or overestimating) the Chaos Jarl.

-The second warband is known as the Fangbound, led by Svane Wulfbad, who have given into the Canis Helix, transforming into something resembling the Wulfen (think the Wulfen models used in the 3rd Edition Eye of Terror campaign), before eventually transforming into a heavily corrupted form, known as the Fenrir.

*the Imperial fist traitors eventually form the Teutonic Lords, who are basically the Black Templar if instead of being zealots for the emperor, they were zealots for chaos. Also, some of them ride chaos steeds, because a horse is often times a better mount than a bike in certain terrains. They are still masters of siege warfare and defensive lines; however, they’re much more aggressive than their loyalist brethren, valuing counter-charges and shield walls rather than dug-in positions.

-Their bizarre form of martial honor has led many to assume that the Teutonic Lords are... to put it lightly, a bit thick. However, anyone who has fought against one of the high-ranking commanders of the legion, known as Barons, can attest that some Teutonic Lords are anything but honorable. While some of the Dukes and Their ultimate leader, Archduke Ferdinand of Charlemagne (the world upon which the Teutonic Lords have built their homes) value acts of bravery and valor, Barons will do anything to win,

*the Blood Angels traitors form the the Angelis Mortalis aka the Angels of Death. They struck their brethren during the Signus Prime campaign, where their leader, Apollyon, grew jealous and spiteful of their Primarch and begging for a real challenge, made a pact with the Chaos gods to grant himself and like-minded individuals the same abilities as a primarch. Of course, this pact didn’t come without a price; while they did gain almost Daemon Prince-like levels of strength, speed and agility and near-immortality, the Red Thirst present in these warriors went into overdrive. They stopped resisting the call of the Red Thirst, giving rise to cannibalistic tendencies and unparalleled savagery equivalent to the Black Rage; however, while the Black Rage only affects a small group of marines, the Angelis Mortalis are an entire legions worth of marines, all gorging on blood and flesh with reckless abandon.

-Thankfully, unlike the mythical undead creatures of Old Terran myth, most warbands of the Angelis Mortalis are unable to spread their curse through the exchange of bodily fluids or a bite. However. some warbands dedicated to Nurgle have found a way to transfer their curse via a virus; this method is ineffective, as if the Angels of Death are close enough to bite someone, chances are they’ll probably be ripping them apart to get to the blood and flesh faster.

-They also still go down to bolter shells and blades the same as everything else, as they also lack the common weaknesses present in the Vampires of legend, such as sunlight, garlic, silver, etc.; however, A few members of the Ordo Malleus have noted a few observation in regards to their weaknesses:

A) The Angelis Mortalis rarely launches attacks against Shrine Worlds. Whether this is due to the fact that Shrine Worlds are heavily defended or if this is due to some other outside force is unknown, but what few records of operations upon Shrine Worlds carried out by the traitors of the Ninth Legion have noted that the moment that Drop Pods struck down upon the world, the Marines bodies had totally disintegrated, becoming dust.

B) they are noticeably weaker in sunlight. They’re still faster than most mortal warriors and their loyalist brethren, but direct exposure to solar radiation causes their metabolisms to expend more energy, meaning that they become more tired and sluggish as fights drag on. As such, the Angelis Mortalis prefer to strike upon days of either heavy cloud or rainfall, or at night, becoming bedfellows with the Raptor Legion.

-This casual consumption of the living means they now require an bi-monthly intake of blood and flesh (the amount required for consumption varies on the level of restraint a Marine may have), and if they don’t get it after several weeks, they start to look like addicts, willing to do anything for just a drop of blood and a quick bite of flesh; their skin becomes more pale, they become more sluggish, become thin and atrophied, start to become delirious and seeing hallucinations.

-Their legion is organized like an aristocracy, with Kings, Princes, etc., based upon the age of each of the lords, with their ultimate master being known as The Supreme Lord of Blood and Night. This positiion of authority has been held by Apollyon since the Signus Prime campaign. each of whom has command of an army of Marines, as well as an auxiliary force called “Thralls”, who are similar to the Renegades and Heretics in terms of capabilities and appearance, with a few key differences; Thralls, in addition to serving as an allied force and as cannon fodder, double as a food supply if freshly available blood and flesh is nowhere to be found.

-They have become more and more vampire-like in their appearance, having grown giant, bat like wings, which protrude from their armor and wrap around them like a cloak; in addition, they have filed their fangs and claws to a monomolecular point, making them brutally vicious combatants even without their weapons.

*the Iron Hands traitors form the Gauntlets of Morlock, who are made up of the criminals, murderers, sociopaths and madmen of the clans of Medusa, all united under the Iron Lords of Clan Morlock. They continually give up more and more of their flesh to the machine, embracing the philosophy of “The Flesh is Weak”. As such, they have become close allies to the Dark Mechanicus, and are rarely seen apart.

*They eventually split into the Gauntlets and the Warband of Perfected Flesh, who replace their internal organs with robotic replacements. Both of these bands of traitors serve as a reminder to the loyalist Iron Hands and their successor chapters as to why the flesh and the machine must remain always in balance.

*the Salamanders traitors split into two groups: the Dragon Warriors, led by Vai'tan Ushorak, an ex-chaplain from Nocturne, who taught a corrupted version of the Promethean Creed, preaching domination over those deemed too weak to defend themselves; Vai’tan was eventually usurped by the Sorceror Nihilan, who continues to lead this warband today.

-The Dragon Warriors’ main strategy is massed infantry assault with a heavy emphasis placed on flamer, melta and other heat-based weaponry. They are also consummate smiths, being one of the only non-Hashut aligned or Dark Mechanicum forces able to bind a Daemon to a physical weapon.

*The second group, the Children of Purgatos, led by Purgatos, a Salamander marine from Terra itself, who grew tired of Vulkan’s charity and selfless nature ruining the fighting prowess of the 18th Legion. He accepted the restructuring of his legion, but never inducted himself into the Promethean Cult. As the Great Crusade dragged on, Purgatos became more and more agitated and frustrated at the compassion of Vulkan and the Prometheans, who valued the lives of what Purgatos saw as the “weak, teeming masses” over his own sons. Eventually, it all came to a head during the Ambush at Istvaan V, where Purgatos and those loyal to him turned upon their brothers, slaughtering the Prometheans in their company before turning their attention to the Primarch.

*the Raven guard traitors form the Shadow Vultures, a band of stealthy raiders who often prey on weak targets and proceed to rip them apart, until all that is left are carcasses and ash. They are merciless and cruel, often targeting innocent civilians at random using sniper rifles with camo cloaks, to further hide themselves and to hurt morale by being ghostly assassins. They are one of the few Traitor Legions to keep the Moritats and destroyer formations, their casual use of Rad Weapons making them a boon in the eyes of the Vultures. Their honorless tactics are a far cry from their compassionate loyalist counters, a fact not lost on the Vultures, who often make use of human shields when confronted with their foes.

-Their eyes have become pitch black

Well, that’s pretty much all the ideas I have for the traitor legions at the Moment. Let me know what you all think of the ideas I’ve put forth! Thanks for reading!

Updates: changed the name of the traitor alpha legion, changed the entry for the Ronin

update 2: changed the name of the white scars traitor legion what use bikes and speeders and such.

update 3: changed the name and title of the main leader of the M'Andshu Hordes

update 4: massive changes all around, I felt like cleaning upon some stuff and adding more to others.

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littleclevercat · 7 years

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Musings - Last years before Heresy

000.M31 - the Blood Angels found a large spacefaring “civilisation” of Orks near the Ullanor. Seeing, that he can not deal with Orks alone, Sanguinius called for Horus. The Lupercal summoned as much forces as possible. In addition, the Emperor told Primarchs to help Horus and Sanguinius. The skirmish took full five months, but the orks were smashed by the forces of seven Legions and millions of soldiers of Auxilla and Taghmata. Horus led the spearhead attack on the Ullanor and killed Ork Warlord. After that, the Emperor came himself to the Ullanor. The large valley on the planet was converted by Mechanicum into the field for parade. Here the Master of Mankind told to Primarchs that he would be no longer in charge of the Crusade. And it was up to Horus - who was now the Warmaster of the Imperium - to lead the Crusade.

000-001.M31 - Perturabo and Jagathai were busy eradicating the Orks near the Ullanor. Ferrus and Horus incorporated the planet 63-19 into the Imperium.

001.M31 - the Interex Campaign. Jagathai was ordered by Horus to go to the Chondax. Perturabo was ordered to deal with Hrud in the Eastern Fringes. The Council of Nikaea. The Emperor limited an amount of Librarians who could use their powers on the battlefield. Magnus was ordered to stop his research of the arcane. The Interex sector was incorporated into the Imperium.

002. M31 - 005.M31 - Perturabo had been waging the war with Hruds. At the beginning of the campaign his Legion forces include there 212 951 Astartes in 55 Grand-Battalions (not counting seven Grand-Battalions in the Medusian Sector and other detachments, scattered across the stars). After the victory - ~167 000 Astartes in 49 Grand-Battalions. Members of the Trident - Kydomur Forrix “The Shatterer” (Battlemaster of the 3rd), Nicholas Ungvar “The White Bear” (Battlemaster of the 19th), Barban Falk (Battlemaster of the 6th).

002. M31 - Horus fell ill after the Battle on Davin.

004. M31 - the Burning of Prospero. Ferrus and Fulgrim incorporated the … sector into the Imperium and than met with Horus.

005. M31 - the Istvaan-3 atrocity.

P.S.: what kind of orders could Oshun and Himiko get after the Ullanor?

P.P.S.: later I’m going to try describe Perturabo’s and Ferrus’s reaction.

#submission #text #question

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askjenetiakrole · 5 years

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The Betrayal at Byfrust

013007.M31

Perhaps the most curious addition to the Chondax fleet was a demi-vigil of the Silent Sisterhood. The Council of Nikaea, to which the Khagan had not been summoned, had not yet placed any restrictions on the use of battle-psykers within the Legions, and the White Scars continued to rely on their Stormseers to counter such threats. Some have opined that the reason for the inclusion of the Sisters was less because of their unique abilities and more due to the Terran-made jetbikes issued to one of their vigils, machines for which the White Scars held a noted curiosity. Others have noted the Khagan’s tendency to recruit advisers from the most unusual places, seeking differing perspectives from his own.

Byfrust, one of the final targets of the cleansing campaign, was host to a sizable force of White Scars, perhaps eight brotherhoods and atached militia forces that included detachments of the Charonid Sentinels and the Silent Sisterhood. A glacial world where the orks had dug vast fortified dens in the deep canyons away from the cutting winds that swept the world’s surface clean, Byfrust had proved a welcome challenge for the White Scars. Their mounted brotherhoods had been more than adept at clearing the glacial plains of orks, but less effective at fighting in the crude tunnels beneath. They had instead relied on the formidable skill of the Charonite engineers to force the orks to the surface, blasting shafts down with melta-charges before filling the warrens below with phosphex, after which they could be easily harried across the ice.

Having only recently ceased combat operations after the final battle, the gathered brotherhoods, under the overall lead of Tsolmon Khan, maintained deep-range patrols of the icy wastes, vigilant for any ork remnants. Instead, by pure luck, the patrols stumbled across the marshalling forces of a full battalion of the Alpha Legion and one of their two hidden bases within the Chondax system. Unwilling to allow the advantage of surprise to be lost, the Alpha Legion loosed their own mounted squadrons in pursuit, seeking to silence any warning before they fell upon the main host of the White Scars on Byfrust. However, they could not match the Vth Legion for speed or the peerless control they had over their mechanical mounts, and were quickly outdistanced. Tsolmon Khan, forewarned of the host approaching, had ample time to abandon his makeshift base and escape, but in doing so would surrender any chance of warning the Khagan of the Alpha Legion’s treachery. Neither he nor his warriors would abandon their duty and, despite the approach of the far larger Alpha Legion force, held their ground and attempted to transmit a message through the maelstrom of new signals now flooding the system.

The White Scars could not know that their Khagan was blasting a path directly away from the fighting on distant Byfrust. Tsolmon Khan’s attempts to warn the primarch failed, drowned out by the signals that had flooded the system, and the oncoming force of Alpharius’ sons bore enough heavy firepower to quickly reduce his meagre fortifications to ruin. In the face of overwhelming odds, Tsolmon is recorded as making the following statement, which has since passed into legend:

“Brothers, we know not from whence our betrayal has come, from the Warmaster or our Emperor, and it matters not. We fight for our honour and the Khagan, not at the demand of some distant tyrant. We fight because we were born to do so, not for the ambitions of emperors. We are the White Scars, we are the storm on the horizon and we bow to no one.”

And the White Scars charged, laughing as they went into battle, forming a flying wedge of jetbikes, assault land speeders and light armour aimed at the heart of the Alpha Legion formation. Little expecting this subtle ferocity, the Alpha Legion were initially taken by surprise, though such surprise would only be momentary. Yet this was all the opening the White Scars required. A detachment of the Golden Keshig opened a hole in the ranks of the Alpha Legion, lances shattering ceramite and spearing through even Terminator plate. Behind them came almost every warrior Tsolmon could muster, White Scars and Imperial soldiery alike staking everything on one desperate charge. The target of the assault was the commander Malek Striga and his acolytes, to cut the heads from the hydra. The heavier elements of the White Scars attack slowed to engage the main body of the enemy, granting the fleeter Scimitar and Erinyes jetbikes of the White Scars and Silent Sisterhood the opportunity to push deeper into their formation, seeking its corrupted heart.

Hurtling down upon the Alpha Legion’s command cadre, the jetbike-mounted warriors were met by a wall of dark, roiling warp-flame, the work of the sorcerous powers of Consul Striga and yet another sign of the Alpha Legion’s descent into treachery and abomination. The White Scars faltered as Striga and his acolytes unleashed hell upon them, gouts of rancid flame and shrieking beams of impossible energy tearing holes in their phalanx and stalling the assault in its tracks. Through the hel-storm, however, came the surviving warrior maidens of the Silent Sisterhood, warp-flame recoiling from them as though alive and terrified of their presence. Immune to the dark arts of the Alpha Legion’s sorcerer, the Silent Sisters threw themselves at the renegade Legionaries, the acolytes falling to their blades as their psychic kine-glaives failed them.

Knight-Centura Calistis Merovin, wounded and exhausted from battle, faced Malek Striga in single combat. Though a superlative warrior in her own right, the Silent Sister could not match the sheer transhuman might of the Legiones Astartes consul and was cast down, mortally wounded by his lance. As Striga prepared to deliver the final blow, Tsolmon Khan appeared through the failing psychic miasma that surrounded the pair, weakened as it was by the Knight-Centura, and struck him dead with his thunder hammer. Fading into the twisting glacial tunnels and redoubts so recently held by the orks, the Alpha Legion surrendered the field, no longer willing to indulge the White Scars in open battle.

At this point, as if in answer to the desperate alarm broadcast at Tsolmon’s order, a lone cruiser slid into high orbit over Byfrust. Yet this was no sleek White Scars vessel, but the blunt, efficient form of an Alpha Legion bombardment cruiser, later identified as Phi-Hekator. The Alpha Legion ship moved into geosynchronous orbit above the battlefield, weapon batteries primed and locked onto the site of the White Scars’ short-lived victory. Below, only now made aware that the Khagan and his fleet were far across the system, leaving Tsolmon and his troops with no hope of rescue of reinforcement, the last few hundred White Scars gathered, seeking out their wounded on the field that they might meet death defiantly on their feet. Tsolmon Khan himself, his fleeting success now rendered meaningless, tossed aside the corpse of Malek Striga and gathered up the fallen form of the Knight-Centura before joining his men that they might meet their fate together.

Less than three hundred warriors remained out of thousands - Legiones Astartes, Silent Sisterhood, and sentinels of the Charonid fanes all bound together by the betrayal perpetuated upon them. All waited in silence for their end as Phi-Hekator slowly turned to bring its vast macro-lance batteries to bear. Yet fate had decreed a different end, and when the sky lit up, it was not with the searing light of descending lance fire, but instead with the death throes of Phi-Hekator itself, struck without warning by another vessel.

This new arrival was barely recognisable, hull plating melted and deformed by the extreme heat it had endured and still bearing the marks of an earlier battle, but those few scraps of heraldry that remained marked it as the Hawkstar. Presumed lost in an earlier battle on the far side of the smaller companion star of the Chondax system, the Hawkstar had circumnavigated Chondax Alpha-Secundus under cover of its outer corona, finally emerging near Byfrust. Its first salvo had crippled Phi-Hekator, and its second obliterated the Alpha Legion ship before it could recover or return fire. The battered White Scars cruiser settled into orbit over Byfrust, still radiating the excess heat accumulated during its voyage as it dispatched landing craft to recover the survivors below.

On the surface, Tsolmon Khan and his warriors delayed their escape to perform one last duty. Upon the icy plains of Byfrust they raised a cairn of stone and fallen ship spars, a rough and harsh monument to those who had fallen valiantly in battle. Within, they interred all of the loyalist bodies they could find, from the lowliest battle-brother of the Vth Legion or initiate of the Charonid auxilia to that of Knight-Centura Merovin. In death all were made equal, and those who yet lived were humbled by the courage that they had shown on the field of battle. On that crude tomb, raised on the bleak and lonely surface of a world unknown to the wise and the mighty, they inscribed no lengthy tributes nor gilded laurels, only a few short words of praise in the flowing Korchin script of Chogoris:

Under blue heaven, empires rise and then they fall. Heroes cannot die.

- The Horus Heresy Book Eight: Malevolence

#warhammer 40k #horus heresy #white scars #alpha legion #sisters of silence #Silent Sisterhood #Chondax Campaign #the Age of Darkness #Tsolmon Khan #Calistis Merovin #Documentarist Archive #Imagist Archive #the Horus Heresy Malevolence #Betrayal at Byfrust #Miniatures #FW #The Hunt That Never Ends

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