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Badab War - Clash of Iron and Fire (910.M41): In mid-910.M41, there was in increase in corsair activity along the eastern Maelstrom Zone. Among those in the Loyalist high command, this was believed to have been caused by at least one Astral Claws task force that had somehow slipped out of the Badab Sector itself and was now operating from the edges of the Maelstrom. Imperial Navy escort search-and-destroy squadrons were dispatched to the area to quell these attacks so that the Secessionists would not be able to exploit the opportunity to start a new battle front on the Loyalists' flank.Upon the Frontier World of Rook they found their evidence. This was one of the few worlds within the Maelstrom that could be relied upon to willingly aid Imperial agents, as their population was made up of Oblationist zealots. They informed the Loyalist command that there had indeed been an increase in slave raids of nearby systems of Human corsair ships led by an Astral Claw strike cruiser identified as the Hyrcania.The pattern of attacks by these corsair ships was tracked by the echo left in the Warp to the Lamptan System and its twin Feral Worlds of Shaprias and Scarfel. Having divined that a strong enemy force was massing at this location, the Imperial Navy squadron was forced to withdraw in order to refit and resupply, returning to seek reinforcements.Elsewhere, in the northern Maelstrom Zone the Carcharodons were busy carrying out the final stages of the Tranquility Campaign, while in the southern zone, the Minotaurs and Sons of Medusa, backed by Astra Militarum penal regiments, were assaulting Isin on the edge of the Badab Sector itself, where the Tyrant's Legion was putting up a tenacious defence. Lord High Commander Calab Culln marshaled his own Red Scorpions Chapter and the newly reinforced Exorcists Chapter contingent at Sagan in preparation for an assault on the strategic Warp terminus of Piraeus.This was a vital target and considered by many to be the gateway to the Badab Sector. Overall the Loyalist forces had suffered considerable losses since the start of the war, and the contingents of many of the Space Marine Chapters which had previously fought for the Loyalist cause had now departed. Some, such as the Howling Griffons and Marines Errant, had withdrawn owing to the casualties they had suffered, while others such as the Novamarines and most recently the Fire Angels had departed for reasons of their own.In short, Loyalist forces were stretched thin despite the fresher Space Marine companies that had recently arrived, and Culln could not afford to be drawn into fighting on an increasing number of fronts to be bled dry slowly by attrition, as no doubt was the Tyrant of Badab's plan.Taking council with his fellow Space Marine commanders, it was the leader of the Salamanders contingent, the old and famed warrior Pellas Mir'san, who offered a solution to the events on Lamptan. Offering to lead his own forces in a lightning strike against Lamptan, the Salamanders would rely on the element of surprise, the arcane skills of Onna Nostroma to position their attack, and the power of their potent battle barge Pyre of Glory, dealing a crippling blow to the enemy.Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, representing the aloof and secretive Minotaurs Chapter in the war council, offered to take his personal guard and such forces as he could muster to aid the Salamanders in this mission. So approved, the strike force, named the "Gift of Fire," was further augmented by a pair of Imperial Navy light cruisers and a frigate squadron. This force was dispatched immediately on the long voyage to the Lamptan System, there to meet the foe in battle. |
Badab War - Castigation of Shaprias (910.M41): When the Loyalists entered the erratic binary star system of Lamptan, their fears were soon realised. Above the Feral World of Shaprias a ragged armada of star vessels, scows and wrecks had been assembled from scavenged hulks and pirated freighters, while auspex scans and augur-probes revealed that on the planet below vast camps and training grounds had been raised up. Here on Shaprias a new army was being forged from brutal and tainted tribal warriors enslaved to the Tyrant of Badab's cause, a disposable weapon to kill and be killed at Lufgt Huron's will.Mir'san deduced that the bulk of the enemy warships were away on some mission of plunder. There would not be a better time to strike. Swiftly, the venerable Salamanders commander configured a bold attack plan. The joint Astartes strike force made planetfall and immediately attacked the Secessionist bastions and training camps. In the meantime, their ships and naval escort immediately swept out again and set about destroying the armada as swiftly and thoroughly as possible.When the two Chapters launched their Drop Pods and Thunderhawk gunships they divided their chosen killing grounds. Though they met with firmer resistance than their Salamanders cousins, the Minotaurs were masters of siege craft, as they attacked the iron-shod bastions of the Astral Claws. Using their Thunderhawks to punch a gap in the enemy's firing lines, the gunships disgorged assault Terminators and Devastator Squads directly into the smoking wreckage.The rest of the company-strong Minotaurs force deployed directly behind this breakpoint, suffering the brunt of the enemy counterattack. Despite heavy casualties the Minotaurs' Vanguard Veterans held the ruined bastion with disciplined ferocity, not giving an inch of ground to the oncoming Secessionists. The bronze-armoured Minotaurs clashed in brutal close combat with the Astral Claws Retaliators who advanced under cover of their combat shields through a hail of bolter fire to try to re-take the sundered fortifications, only to be hurled back time and again from the mount of twisted metal and shattered rockcrete.Although in numbers the Minotaurs and the defending Astral Claws at the bastion line were roughly equal, the enemy was well entrenched, well armed and well led, lacking nothing for bravery and fighting spirit. But the Minotaurs were masters of siege-craft, and this blood-soaked close-quarter hell was exactly the kind of battlefield in which they reveled. Led by an armoured spearhead of Land Raiders and Siege Dreadnoughts the Astral Claws were pinned in place by the Minotaurs' second attack line.Chaplain Enkomi personally led a Jump Pack-equipped Vanguard Veteran Squad in storming the secondary enemy bastion and slaying all within. Encircled and cut-off, the Astral Claws were swiftly isolated and destroyed in detail. Though their progress was slow and bloody, the Secessionists could not stem the Loyalists' advance. The Astral Claws made them pay a price in dead for every fortification the Minotaurs took, but inevitably, the bastions fell one by one and victory was claimed by the Minotaurs.Meanwhile, the bulk of the Salamanders forces descended on the heart of the city-sized training camps. A secondary force, composed of a chosen wing of Caestus Assault Rams carrying aboard them a force of Salamanders Firedrakes Terminators, the greatest warriors of their esteemed Chapter, took on the task of attacking the Secessionist landing grounds. On their first pass the armoured prows and magna-meltas of the Caestus savaged the enemy transport craft caught on the ground, sundering and burning through their hulls, rupturing their fuel tanks.The Fire Drakes, assaulting from their craft into the billowing black palls of smoke turned confusion and destruction into a massacre, their Storm Bolters and Cyclone Missile Launchers sweeping the panicked foe away before any resistance could be organised.Elsewhere the main Salamanders force led by Captain Mir'san had descended into the heart of the enemy, deploying their troops and armour into a defensive ring at the centre of the training camps. Utterly surrounded, the Salamanders force at under a hundred Space Marines was outnumbered more than a thousand to one by the horde of savages and mutants, the brutal inhabitants of a dozen nearby worlds, that rose up before them.Though their position would have been considered a suicidal one by any other warriors, these were the scions of Vulkan, and they cared little for such odds. The great horde, which was leaderless and staggered by the sudden fury and shock of the Salamanders assault, were slow to react, and by the time they pressed the attack, they were met by a wall of firepower. Thousands of Heretics fell within the opening minutes of the battle as Whirlwind launchers, Predator Destructors and the ordered ranks of the Salamanders let loose with a salvo at almost point blank range.Soon the broken ground of the training fields was covered with mounds of twitching bodies. The horde only rallied when their taskmasters took to the field behind them, the blood-stained and steel-coloured power armour of Astral Claws. The Salamanders marked their true foe in the form of Retaliator Squads amid the filthy rabble of the Heretic horde, keeping up their relentless tide of fire.Mir'San sprang the second phase of his assault plan into action, as three prized Land Raiders Achilles sprearheaded a counterassault aimed directly at the Astral Claws contingent. The tanks fired their Thunderfire Cannons and multi-meltas, blasting a swathe through the ranks of the horde. As the Land Raiders ploughed through the centre of the Astral Claws force, they swung aside as the fury of the Ancients was unleashed.Six Dreadnoughts, led by the darkly famed Bray'arth Ashmantle, the "Iron Dragon," stormed into the Astral Claws' line, smashing them asunder and drenching them with purifying flame. Overmatched and overwhelmed, the Astral Claws did not yield lightly, but were slain in glorious combat, felling two of the Salamanders' Ancients.As the last Astral Claws died, the name of the Tyrant of Badab was howled with their centurion's dying breath as the Iron Dragon tore him in half and cast his carcass to the winds. With their masters slaughtered, the horde panicked and broke, the tens of thousands that remained alive fleeing in a mindless stampede away from the lords of fire and death at their backs, crushing and killing hundreds more of their own number in the rout.Deep beneath the smashed fortifications the Minotaurs and Salamanders soon discovered what secrets they were built to defend; a vast natural cavern system housing Heretek laboratories. These had been manufacturing combat drugs in vast quantities and attempting primitive gene-tampering and experimental surgery on the feral warriors of Shaprias, along with hundreds of Imperial prisoners taken in raids across the eastern Maelstrom Zone. At the lowest levels, guarded by a cadre of the hated "Corpse Taker" Apothecaries of the Tyrant's Legion and their servitors, was an armoured vault within which was a store of Space Marine gene-seed in part stolen from Loyalist fallen in battle.The conflict in orbit had also gone in the Loyalists' favour while the battle raged below, but not without cost. While the makeshift armada had been blasted to scrap and burning debris, concealed weapons platforms set to guard the fleet had inflicted damage to the Pyre of Gory and gutted the Sword-class frigate Epona which had to be abandoned as a burning hulk.Less than eleven solar days after the battle was first joined, the Gift of Fire taskforce departed the Lamptan System to undertake the perilous voyage back to Loyalist-held space, with over a thousand freed prisoners carried in the holds of its Naval light cruisers, and the priceless recovered gene-seed held in the inner sanctum of the Pyre of Glory itself.The Gift of Fire had claimed a great victory for the Loyalists and uncovered and thwarted a dark machination of the Tyrant's that if left to hatch could have had dire consequences for the Imperium. Little did any in the Loyalist high command suspect, however, that the attack at Lamptan would have immediate and unforeseen consequences that would unexpectedly alter the course of the Badab War. |
Badab War - The Red Hour (911.M41): The Gift of Fire task force was unexpectedly struck by a powerful Warp squall and scattered en route back to Imperial-controlled space. Calamity was averted by the formidable skills of their lead Navigator, and only a single frigate was lost to the Immaterium, while the Salamanders' battle barge Pyre of Glory and the light cruiser Admiral Gregorius were turned back into the Maelstrom riding ahead of the stormfront and forced to ford into realspace in the relative stability of the Calah Shoals within the Maelstrom's boundary to repair and refit.The Loyalists' arrival had not gone unnoticed, for soon news of their presence was carried to the Secessionists. The Astral Claws strike cruiser Hyrcania was still in the region, having found its home base on Shaprias destroyed. Its master, Arch-centurion Carnac Commodus craved vengeance and atonement for his failings in the eyes of his lord. But Commodus knew that alone, his vessel stood little chance on taking on the wounded Loyalists.He sent an encrypted astropathic message seeking aid was received by an unexpected ally in the Phaeton's Wrath, flagship battle barge of the Executioners Chapter, and her accompanying Gladius-class Frigate escorts, which had been taking on supplies at the uninhabited Ocean World of Deluge on the edge of the Magog Cluster.Their combined battlegroup attacked the wounded Loyalist vessels as they moved toward the Warp transfer point at Calah to embark once again. The light cruiser Admiral Gregorius was blasted to atoms in the opening salvo of the Secessionists' guns. The Pyre of Glory quickly proved to be far less easy prey. The Salamanders' mighty battle-barge managed to repel the first boarding assaults against her and destroyed two of the attacking frigates.But after a three-hour-long running battle, the Phaeton's Wrath managed to entirely disable the Pyre of Glory's thrusters leaving it dead in space. High Mortiurge (High Chaplain) Thulsa Kane vox-signalled the Salamanders' vessel and offered them the chance for honourable surrender, vouchsafing passage for them from the war zone under oath not to take up arms again in the conflict.Captain Pellas Mir'san conceded to this demand, despite the misgivings of some of those under his command, knowing that to do so would risk his force being destroyed without being able to strike back at their foe. Having himself fought alongside the Executioners Chapter centuries before as a Scout Marine neophyte he trusted to their oath of offered surety.Both the Phaeton's Wrath and the Hyrcania drew alongside the battered Pyre of Glory and docked, Thulsa Kane personally leading the Executioners boarding party and accepting Mir'san's sword in surrender as the Salamanders stood down their arms. It was then elsewhere within the great ship, the unthinkable occurred.Thanks to the conditions of the surrender, Arch-centurion Commodus led his own boarding party to seize the Pyre of Glory's armouries nearly unopposed. Heedless of the consequences, Commodus sought to breach the ship's sanctum vaults and seize not only the recovered gene-seed from the caverns of Shapiras, but also the Salamanders' own recovered stock from the fatalities sustained during the conflict.When the Salamanders' Apothecaries resisted, Commodus cut them down. He then unleashed his unfettered wrath upon the Salamanders, ordering the massacre of the Salamanders they had taken prisoner. He then ordered his "Corpse Takers" to strip them of their gene-seed whether alive or dead. A pitched battle quickly broke out across the decks.As reports reached the bridge of what was happening, Thulsa Kane was incensed with murderous rage. Seeing this reaction, Mir'san wisely divined that the Executioners may not have possessed full knowledge of the heresy and blasphemy committed by the Astral Claws, perhaps having been deliberately deceived by the Tyrant of Badab. Controlling his own outrage, Mir'san poured deliberate scorn on the Executioners' leader, both for this breach of his word and the dishonour of standing by and allowing the Tyrant's sins to go unchallenged.With the reports of his Executioners' own eyes giving the gravity of truth to Mir'san's claims, Kane's wrath was terrible to behold. He declared that the blood oath binding his Chapter to Lufgt Huron's cause had been violated, and the dark stain of infamy the Astral Claws had brought upon them could only be washed clean by a river of blood.Those Salamanders battle-brothers that survived what was to come have since given witness that a bleak madness came upon the Executioners at Kane's pronouncement, and that they tore into the Astral Claws with a murderous vengeance, heedless of the risk to their own lives, satisfied only that their former allies would die by their hands regardless of the cost.Captain Mir'san rallied his surviving Salamanders brethren and mounted a defence of the battle barge's inner sanctum, unleashing the power of the mighty Ancients, the Dreadnoughts, led by Bray'arth Ashmantle upon the apostate Astral Claws. First the corridors and vaults of the Pyre of Glory and then the Astral Claws Hyrcania ran red with blood.This dreadful battle became known in the legends of war as "The Red Hour," as every single Astral Claw, Chapter serf and servitor present was relentlessly hunted down and slaughtered. The Hyrcania was left a charnel house of decapitated bodies, as the Executioners took more than 200 heads from their former allies. Thulsa Kane came alone before the Salamanders' commander, Captain Mir'san, and knelt in the light of the burning sanctum braziers. Offering him no words, he presented a single gory object which rolled at Mir'san's feet -- the head of the Astral Claws Arch-centurion Commodus.Without further comment, the Executioners withdrew, leaving the stricken Salamanders battle barge and the empty Astral Claws strike cruiser docked alongside. The Executioners' maddened desire for vengeance had not been satiated, and soon its message reached every corner of the Maelstrom Zone. From this point onwards, the Executioners Chapter became a rogue element in the conflict, not only seeking out and descending with suicidal fury on the Astral Claws and their agents wherever they could be found, but also refusing to surrender to Loyalist forces when encountered.The most notorious incident of this kind occurred when the Executioners' destroyed the Sons of Medusa strike cruiser Warspite in the Grief System in 911.M41. But there were other incidents as well. Beyond these lamentable incidents, the Executioners Chapter's attacks on wider Imperial shipping ceased almost immediately. These unusual developments were only explained some solarmonths later, when the badly wrecked Pyre of Glory finally limped into port at the Loyalist battle station at Surngraad with their strange and bloody tale to tell.For the Tyrant of Badab's cause there could have been no more bitter blow than that struck by these allies turned enemies. Not only had the severing of the Executioners from the Secessionist cause robbed Huron's forces of much of its remaining strength in warships and raider craft, but as foes the Executioners were both implacable and had the advantage of detailed knowledge of many of the Secessionists' hidden bases and deployments which they put to immediate use in destroying them.With first the Lamenters and then the Mantis Warriors shorn from the Secessionist order of battle, and now most bitterly the Executioners turned against him, Lufgt Huron and what remained of his once-mighty Astral Claws were truly alone before the Imperium's wrath, their dreams of dominion and eternal glory shattered. |
Badab War - An Order for Death (911.M41): Following what he regarded as the treachery of his former allies, Lufgt Huron announced in a recorded message that was relayed throughout the warzone that the Astral Claws and their subjects no longer were part of the Imperium of Man. Up until this point, although the Badab Secessionists had been declared Heretic by the Imperium, within the worlds they had controlled the pattern of established life had gone on much as it had for many centuries, and the worship of the God-Emperor had been maintained.Those Adeptus Ministorum prelates that had overtly disagreed with the secession had been removed and replaced with those more amenable to the Tyrant of Badab's cause and millions still followed their faith unimpeded, while the Badab Sector's native defenders believed naturally enough that they fought and died in a battle against heresy, rather than in its name. But now the truth was no longer concealed from the pitiable masses of the sector.Within Huron's remaining domains, all signs and symbols of Imperial authority, culture and religious creed were cast down in a firestorm of iconoclasm, and the mass executions on Badab Primaris of Ecclesiarchy clerics and functionaries (most of whom remained largely ignorant of the true cause and nature of the conflict), was said to last for solar weeks without pause. Reports from Inquisitorial agents that had infiltrated the Badab Sector reported at this time that conditions on its principal worlds grew ever harsher, famine and want commonplace, and despair's shadow fell over all.As for the Astral Claws themselves, although the practise was by no means universal, many of the battle-brothers began to deface any semblance of Imperial heraldry and insignia from their armour and wargear, scouring it to bare metal or daubing it in reds and crimsons in representation of their blood oath of vengeance, until only the symbols of the Tyrant of Badab remained.Whereas before the population of the Badab Sector had been controlled with inflexible and savage discipline but were still viewed as a war resource to be maintained and managed, now the Astral Claws' wrath grew ever more arbitrary and brutal as their increasing paranoia and the murderous rages to which Lufgt Huron was becoming prone took their toll on those unfortunates caught within the Tyrant's domains.On Badab Primaris, for non-Astartes to dare to look directly upon the face of one of the Astral Claws was now punishable by blinding, and after an assassin tried to take the life of Huron within his own command chamber (the assailant being slain by the Tyrant himself), non-Space Marines were banned entirely from the precincts of the Palace of Thorns on pain of death. Thousands of civilians were killed in groundless reprisals by the Astral Claws Retaliators.By this point the mind set of the Astral Claws themselves had succumbed to a siege mentality, for they expected death as now inevitable but were spurred on by a bleak desire for vengeance against those they believed had wronged them, spite and rage consuming what little remained of their honour. |
Badab War - Invasion of Pireaus (911.M41): Lord High Commander Carab Culln, having waited as long as he thought was strategically advantageous to gather his forces for a heavy assault, put his plans for the invasion and conquest of the Piraeus System on the edge of the Badab System into action. The Piraeus System had been identified as the key to the subsequent attack on the central Badab System due in no small part to the relatively stable Warp route between the two regions.A plan long in fruition, Culln had already set up a series of secondary fronts at Isin and Decaballus, where raids and hit-and-run actions by his own Red Scorpions Chapter along with the Minotaurs and Exorcists had destabilised much of the region and forced the Tyrant of Badab's armies to spread their outer defences thinly.The initial attack would occur with an Imperial Navy assault to interdict the industrial world of Piraeus V (also known locally as Yarrow Station), with a direct Space Marine assault against the lunar colonies on the second moon of Piraeus' dominant gas giant Kritias. This attack was to be conducted by the combined forces of the Exorcists and the Red Scorpions Chapters, their strike force amounting to an effective strength of 6 Space Marine companies.The majority of the Space Marine contingent was made up of fresh reinforcements of the Exorcists Chapter who Lord Commander Culln had kept in reserve for this closing stage of the war, although overall tactical command of the assault was taken up by Culln himself.From the start, the invasion of the Piraeus System was subject to reversal and unexpected calamity. As the Loyalist invasion fleet left the Larsa System one of the Imperial Navy cruisers attached to the force, the Spear of Mendoza, suffered a catastrophic Geller Field failure, hurling all onboard screaming to their doom in the Immaterium.Several other ships were either damaged or scattered, due to unexpected turbulence in the usually stable Warp route. This forced the ill-fated fleet to arrive piecemeal at the target system's edge, further out than had been planned. The Loyalist starships were forced to reassemble and operate at maximum thruster burn for a number of solar days to reach the inner worlds of Pireaus, after which time all element of surprise had been lost.The Loyalist fleet had little choice but to press the attack. The bulk of the Imperial Naval ships led by the Retribution-class Battleship Throne of Blood broke off to engage the defence fleet and bombard Piraeus V, while the Space Marines strike force diverted to assault the moon of Kritias Secundus. A flotillas of planetary assault craft ferrying Astra Militarum and Inquisitorial forces formed a rear echelon intended to consolidate and exploit a successful Astartes attack.Initial enemy resistance in space proved insufficient to slow the attack down even though the Imperial forces sporadically encountered minefields that were breached or bypassed without loss. The Secessionist armada around Pireaus V stood little chance of long-delaying, let alone preventing, the Loyalist force assembled by Lord High Commander Culln from their inevitable assault.The fighting above Piraeus V proved particularly fierce, as the defence ships flung themselves almost suicidally against their attackers. The Imperial Navy ships however were prevented from achieving their secondary objective of close bombardment of Pireaus V as ground fire from massive emplacements of Macrocannon and Defence Laser batteries on the surface, unpredicted in strength and ferocity, forced the Naval ships back.Elsewhere, in orbit of Kritias Secundus, despite strong resistance greater success was found by the Loyalists, and between them the combined might of the Red Scorpions' Sword of Ordon and the Exorcists' Redeemer smashed aside the moon's asteroid forts in short order. Landing zones in the vicinity of the lunar colonies' main citadels and generatora stations were quickly identified and subjected to preliminary bombardment before a full-scale planetstrike was initiated via Thunderhawk and Drop Pod assault.On landing, the Red Scorpions and Exorcists were immediately met head on by the mortal auxilia of the Tyrant's Legion in a strong counter-offensive, their enemy's numbers increased several fold by indentured workers, driven on by the use of explosive-collars and armed with little more than sharpened tools and crude promethium bombs.Though the assaulting Space Marines killed the Tyrant's Legion auxilia and their slave-worker allies in droves, their numbers slowed the transhuman attackers down, preventing them from spreading out to assault their individual targets as planned. It was at this point, when the bulk of the Red Scorpions and Exorcists Chapters were both bottled in their landing zones, that the Astral Claws' sprung their trap.Previously silent and long-concealed ground batteries fired from the depths of the alien forests that covered the moon, striking down Thunderhawks and landing craft and ripping into the Space Marine warships in close orbit above. From within the moon's citadels cannons and mortars thundered afresh, pelting the Loyalist Space Marines with missile and shell, indiscriminately targeting the battles where their own forces were engaged at close quarters with the Loyalists.This was only a heralding barrage however, and from concealed bunkers, scores of Land Raider tanks and Rhino transports bearing the insignia of the Tyrant of Badab roared forth -- the near-Chapter strength of the Astral Claws with their master, Lufgt Huron, leading at the fore. Lord High Commander Culln and those Space Marines that stood with him were caught between a crossfire from above and the Tyrant below.The Tyrant had long ago divined the importance of the Piraeus System as a keystone in the Badab Sector's defence and drew his own plans accordingly. The presence of a concentration of Astral Claws on Kritias, and the secret upgrading and cunning deployment of its defences had not been the whole of the Tyrant's strategy either, and within a solar hour of the hidden guns on Kritias Secundus opening fire and cutting off the Loyalist spearhead from its supporting ships, the Tyrant's own war fleet ripped into realspace at the edge of the inner Piraeus System.What was to follow was to be one of the largest and the last major fleet engagement of the Badab War. With the final remaining operable battle barge in the Astral Claws fleet, the mighty and storied Seraph of Judgment, the Secessionist armada represented the last excise of their once vaunted naval power.Outgunned, the senior Imperial Navy admiral realised that the tactical situation had suddenly shifted and quickly ascertained that if the Tyrant's fleet could take on the two Loyalist forces (both of which had already sustained damage and expended considerable stocks of their ordnance) separately, they might yet attain a crushing victory. But if fought simultaneously, the Loyalists would be far more evenly matched against them.With communications with the ongoing ground war impossible, it was with a heavy heart that Captain Waite Ryder, the Exorcists' Master of the Fleet, reluctantly agreed with the vice-admiral's dire assessment of the situation and complied with his plan of feigned retreat and rendezvous. With their enemies seemingly in full-flight before them the Secessionist fleet ravaged into the inner system at full speed, striking at targets of opportunity such as the ungainly Loyalist rear echelon transports. Thousands of the embarked troops aboard these Imperial transports died as a result.On the planet's surface, savage fighting raged on as the Loyalists and Secessionists clashed without mercy. The Astral Claws came on in savage and bitter fury as the Red Scorpions met them with righteous hatred of their own, while the Exorcists displayed their usual unnerving calm in the face of overwhelming force. Lord High Commander Culln stood at the fore, at his side was Sevrin Loth, Chief Librarian of the Chapter.Lufgt Huron struck the Exorcists' battle line ferociously, smashing aside Space Marines with contemptuous ease. The Tyrant's blood-spattered personal guard poured into the breach behind him, forming a murderous wedge as the Tyrant strove to reach his true and chosen enemy; Carab Culln. Captain Silas Alberec, commander of the Exorcists forces, led a counter-assault force of his Chapter's elite Enochian Guard to confront the Tyrant head-on in an attempt to blunt his attack, and prevent the momentum of the battle from shifting at a critical juncture.Instead of being matched with the Tyrant, Silas Alberec found himself in a duel with Ancient Kleitor, one of the most feared and infamous of the Astral Claws' Dreadnoughts. The Exorcists captain suffered terrible wounds which crushed and crippled his Terminator Armour before he was able to disable the Dreadnought's motive systems with his master-crafted relic mace, The Hellslayer, felling the great metal beast.As the battle continued to rage the two Chapter Masters at last found each other, and Carab Culln and Lufgt Huron matched their skills in personal combat. The Tyrant of Badab charged the Red Scorpion Chapter Master in a fury, bellowing his rage and blaspheming the Emperor bitterly, while Culln fought in grim silence, concentrating on countering the frenzied blows of the Tyrant's relic Lightning Claw known as the Ghost Razors with the ancient heirloom of his Chapter, the Blade of the Scorpion. Soon Culln was covered in dozens of bleeding wounds.It was at this point, when the two warriors parted from the exchange of blows that Culln finally spoke, taunting the Tyrant with accusations of his own. Further maddened by these insults, the Tyrant of Badab howled in rage, charging at the Red Scorpion again. But Culln expected the frenzied attack and deftly turned aside, allowing the Tyrant's momentum to take him past. In a blow that would have normally fell even the mightiest of Space Marines, Culln lashed out with the Blade of the Scorpion and slashed deeply into the Tyrant's side, parting his foe's armour in a welter of blood.But the Tyrant shrugged off his opponent's attack and wheeled around, his claws arcing down and the ghostly blades punching through Carab Culln's breastplate. Only through monumental effort was Culln able to fight on through his agony, hurling himself backwards onto the ground before the Tyrant could close his clawed fingers and rip out his heart. The Red Scorpion then slid down a slope of rubble and armoured bodies before the looming Tyrant whose bitter laugh echoed above him. Culln staggered once more to his feet, direly wounded, as the battle continued to rage around him. Then suddenly, a new sun burned the heavens, raining destruction down on all below.Gambling on a dangerous plan to extract the forces stranded below, Captain Ryder bargained that the planetary defences would be half-blinded by the battle raging above them in orbit. The Exorcists' battle barge Redeemer was among the least scathed, its bays filled to capacity with surviving Thunderhawks from across the fleet for the emergency operation. The vast battle barge sliced into Kritias Secundus' thin atmosphere. The ground batteries proved ineffective against her, as the fire striking all around her shields made the Redeemer appear as a terrible blazing sun in the sky and the panicked defense crews failed to quickly respond.Librarian Taloth of the Exorcists was able to lock in on the bright soul of Sevrin Loth in the Warp and the familiar spark of his wounded master Alberec, and so the Redeemer made for its intended target. At this unexpected arrival, the Astral Claws were hurled back amid a storm of dust and debris, and below its sky-blotting bulk, the battlefield where Culln and the Tyrant fought was showered in rubble and flame, parting them before their combat could reach a final conclusion in either's favour.Immediately extraction operations got under way before the enemy could rally to the defence as the Redeemer's guns rent the ground asunder and pulverised the towers of nearby citadels. In a desperate operation lasting near two solar hours almost three in five of the Loyalist Space Marines that had made planet fall were recovered, although most of them were either casualties or bore some fresh wound or scar to mark the furious combat they had seen. Not least of the wounded was Lord Commander Culln, who was taken up in the care of his Chapter's Apothecaries.Above Kritias, battle had once again been joined between the Loyalist and the Secessionist warships. The Secessionists both outnumbered the Loyalists and outgunned them, but the Loyalists, even though many of their vessels were damaged, had the greater number of heavy warships in their line of battle, and were far the greater in quality of skilled and disciplined crew.The rebel fleet came on in a chaotic and ragged attack column, and this was to prove their undoing as the combined Imperial Navy and Adeptus Astartes warships formed into tight formation and crossed laterally in an oblique pass on the enemy column, maximising their broadsides while the Secessionists could not fully bring theirs to bear. The star battle was eventually won for the Loyalists with the death of the Seraph of Judgement but at great cost, and there remained a great deal of bloody fighting to do as the surviving enemy ships were put to flight or captured in a series of brutal boarding assaults.The invasion of Piraeus was over; both sides claimed a victory and both sides tasted defeat. For the Secessionists, the Loyalist invaders had been driven off and not one iota of ground had been surrendered to them, but in doing so they had gambled the last of their once mighty fleet and lost it, and with it any hope of maintaining dominion outside of the Badab System itself.Fatalities on both sides had been appallingly high, and Lord Commander Culln had seen his attacking force blunted and many of his most powerful ships of the line damaged to the extent that might take standard years to repair. The Badab War had arguably been won at Piraeus by the Loyalists but there was one last battle to fight, and that was likely to be the most terrible of all; the final siege of Badab itself. |
Badab War - The Silent War (912.M41): After the tumultuous events surrounding the failed invasion of the Piraeus System and the unknown status of the Executioners Chapter, the Badab War entered a new and uncertain era. The Secessionists were at their lowest ebb during the conflict, and the Loyalists hadn't fared any better after the substantial losses they had sustained in the recent campaign. They were in no position to exploit their enemy's weakness or press the attack.From the aftermath of the invasion of Piraeus to the mid-divisions of 912.M41 became known as the "Silent War" as it was composed of hundreds of small-scale engagements, many of which went all but unreported and unknown. The Maelstrom Zone could not be considered pacified by any means despite the sundering of the Secessionist domains and it was only the presence of the Loyalist detachments of the Minotaurs and Sons of Medusa Chapters that kept the Imperial lines of supply viable.Without the thinly-spread Astra Militarum and Inquisition forces attached to the Loyalist command, the retaken worlds in the Pale Stars region would have slid into anarchy or succumbed to the same civil strife that had stricken those in the Galen System. Soon the Loyalist command received word that the Tyrant of Badab's forces were falling back to the Badab System, stripping the defences from worlds such as Isin and Decabalus, abandoning them to their fates.Matters became further confused when it appeared that some forces of the Tyrant's Legion, and even some small splinter groups of Astral Claws had abandoned their master, turned fully Renegade and made an attempt to flee into the Maelstrom Zone, while once again corsair and xenos sightings began to increase across the western and southern zone.Potentially spread out over a vast area of dangerous Wilderness Space, the Loyalists now seemed to face multiple foes whose action could not be readily predicted. If the Loyalists did not take the strategic initiative the conflict could spread slowly throughout the entire region, possibly taking solar decades if not standard centuries to quell.The injured but still active Lord High Commander Carab Culln convened a full council of war at the newly commissioned Imperial battle station complex in the Vyaniah System to determine a strategy and divine a future course of the war. Representatives from all the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters still involved in the conflict were present; Culln's own Red Scorpions, the Salamanders, Minotaurs, Exorcists, Carcharodons and Sons of Medusa. The Fire Hawks' master, the now ailing Stibor Lazaerek, was also summoned as an equal, despite reservations held by others. Some stain of blame and suspicion of dissent still persisted amongst some of his peers.Inquisitorial Legate Jarndyce Frain, whose voice was that of the High Lords of Terra in the council, served as arbiter, and at Frain's personal invitation a deputation of the archmagi of the Forge World of Angstrom was also received, and now finally welcomed as allies to the Loyalist cause.Legate-Inquisitor Frain brought news to the council that the Mantis Warriors Chapter had finally submitted themselves before the legate's authority to avoid the utter destruction of their worlds. But he brought ill-omened news as well, reinforcements from the Astra Militarum segmentum reserves and fresh warships from the Imperial Navy would not be forthcoming. Wars and conflicts were everywhere, and matters pressing against the Tyranid threat and newly arising xenos powers to the galactic east claimed priority on all that might be gathered to the Loyalist cause on short notice.However, the darkly reputed Star Phantoms Chapter were en route at full Chapter strength and would be with the Loyalists by the year's turning. The Adeptus Mechanicus of Angstrom would provide further aid to the Loyalist cause by granting a bounty of arms and munitions. They also vowed to aid the Loyalist attack on Badab Primaris when the hour of battle came.In accordance with the Loyalists' newly-formed strategies, and with the hard lesson of Piraeus well-learned, the ultimate goal of the investiture and siege of Badab Primaris would now be delayed until overwhelming forces were available. In the meantime an enhanced blockade and watch would be maintained there while the Maelstrom Zone was brought better under its heel.The Fire Hawks immense mobile fortress-monastery, the Raptorous Rex, was brought to the Piraeus System to form the lynchpin of the reinforced blockade, but when the Loyalists arrived in-system they found it in half-abandoned shambles. Kritias Secundus was ravaged and near lifeless, and Yarrow Station had been gutted and was now famine-stricken by its former Astral Claws masters and left to their fate. The Fire Hawks' wrath sealed the fate of the Traitors below with a protracted orbital bombardment.The Carcharodons were recalled from the Endymion Cluster, having completed their work in accordance with the Mantis Warriors' surrender agreement. The Carcharodons' large fleet, along with ships from the Exorcists and Sons of Medusa Chapters, were assigned into small battle groups alongside Imperial Navy scouting vessels and despatched on independent hunter-killer missions throughout the Maelstrom Zone. |
Badab War - Debts of Honour (912.M41): With the Badab War drawing to its bloody conclusion, there remained a few major matters to settle. This was especially true in regards to the Executioners Chapter. It soon came to pass that the Sons of Medusa and Carcharodons Chapters began to coordinate their efforts to hunt down the elusive Chapter. They had discovered what they believed was their centre of operations in the Dene Stellar Drift, and they intended to prosecute a campaign of annihilation against them.As skirmish and clashes between them began to escalate, the Salamanders' Captain Pellas Mir'san was deeply troubled. The Executioners had acted with honour during the war, and moreover, he felt his own Chapter owed them a debt not easily repaid following the events of the "Red Hour." Renewed by the arrival of the Salamanders' vanguard cruiser Obsidia and a half-company of battle-brothers freshly returned from the Segmentum Solar, Mir'san took it upon himself to seek out the leader of the Executioners, Thulsa Kane, and attempt a parlay and a negotiated end to the Executioners' role in the war.Questing along the Maelstrom Zone's southern periphery for several solar months, the Obsidia rushed in response to reports of battle at the fringes of the Eridayn Cataract. There they found the Executioners battle barge Phaeton's Wrath and the infamous Night Hag hunting down two damaged Sons of Medusa strike cruisers in the dense asteroid fields and dust clouds of the turbulent star system.Without second thought to his own ship's safety, Captain Mir'san interposed his vessel between the two warring sides and deactivated his ship's weapons. He then demanded that an honourable discourse between brothers take place. The Loyalist forces faced a tense stand-off, coming to the brink of warring amongst themselves, but Mir'san was successful in forcing both sides to stand down.He then negotiated the Sons of Medusa's departure and the Executioners' ceasefire, bringing the Night Hag with Kane aboard, under the Salamanders' own personal flag of safety to formal parlay with the Loyalist command. Though shadowed with the Warp-echoes of prowling Carcharodons warships en route to Crow's World, they were not attacked.Many on the Loyalist side had a mind to arrest or even slay the Executioners on sight, but the voice of Pellas Mir'san, a respected representative of his First Founding Chapter was not so easily dismissed, nor were the likely consequences should blood be shed dishonourably at this time. Seeing the strategic wisdom of being able to remove a dangerous and unpredictable Chapter bloodlessly from the war, Lord High Commander Carab Culln acquiesced to Mir'san's proposals in regards to the Executioners.But the magister militum of the Adeptus Astartes forces added a few caveats of his own. The terms of honourable armistice stated that the Executioners would end all hostilities and quit the region of the Maelstrom Zone entirely, never to return. The bulk of their surviving forces were then to travel to their distant home system under oath to remain there until full judgement could later be passed on their actions by a full Consistorial Court of inquiry.The acting Executioners commander, Thulsa Kane, his chosen honour guard and crew, along with the Night Hag, voluntarily gave themselves over to the Salamanders' custody and were interned at the Salamanders' Chapter homeworld of Nocturne until the end of the war.From this point on the Salamanders Chapter stood as guarantor of the Executioners' compliance and conduct, although there remained those on the Loyalist side who, though bound to obedience in the matter, would never forget the bad blood between them. |
Badab War - Breaking the Ring of Steel (913.M41): The Loyalists were now ready at last to begin the final siege of the Badab System. Their forces had been greatly augmented by the arrival of the grim Star Phantoms Chapter, whose fleet carried a powerful force ten companies strong, as well as a maniple of Battle Titans of the Legio Crucius ("The Warmongers") brought in by the intervention of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Angstrom, and several heavy warships such as the Sword of Ordon which had been brought back into full operation.The initial attack itself would not be easy as the Loyalists first had to sunder the infamous "Ring of Steel" which held sufficient firepower to hold off almost any fleet of attackers, turning the void between its planets into a deadly maze of minefields and interlocking fire-zones. But the Loyalist high command had come up with an unorthodox plan to counter this threat with minimal losses which would allow for an immediate planetary assault. The key to this plan was twofold and it relied both on the arcane arts of the magi of Angstrom and the effects of the Tyrant of Badab's own growing paranoia.The greatest vulnerability of the "Ring of Steel" was that it was largely static. The positions of its various minefields and massively armed star forts were predictable, and what few defence ships and armed vessels of any size Badab possessed were insufficient to turn the tide against a concerted localised attack. The heavily defended star fortress orbiting Sigma (Badab VI) was the cornerstone of the outer system's defence.Loyalist spies had discovered here, at Sentinel-Sigma, was the primary node of control, which had been placed under the control of one of the few subordinates the Tyrant still trusted, the infamous Astral Claws Captain Corien Sumatris. This was done so that the control of the star forts and minefields wouldn't be controlled autonomously by scores of commanders the Tyrant thought unreliable. Taking Sentinel-Sigma intact would silence the legendary "big guns" of the Badab System.The Loyalist assault armada entered realspace in the Badab System on 317.913.M41, high up on the vertical plane of the planetary system, directly on an attack course for Badab VI. The armada consisted of no fewer than 6 Space Marine battle barges and 9 strike cruisers, along with 6 other Imperial Navy ships of the line, an Adeptus Mechanicus war caravel and 84 escorts and strike vessels of various classes. At its vanguard was the mobile star fortress Raptorus Rex, behind which, thanks to the artisanship of the magi of Angstrom, was towed a burning stellar core fragment torn bodily from the Bale Cascade.As the war machines of the Badab System sprang to life in response to the threat, it was already too late to prevent what was to happen next. Swiftly reaching terminal velocity, the ponderous cyclopean bulk of the Raptorus Rex engaged its main drive at maximum power to alter course, straining against inertia to allow the hellish fire of the stellar fragment to pass it by on its collision course with the Sentinel-Sigma battle station, while the Loyalist armada fell into a spearhead formation a safe distance behind.Unable to escape the path of the rogue star fragment, soon every weapon on the defence line within range and resolution was trained on the tumbling fireball. Blinded by the light of this new and terrible star careening towards them, the weapons of the "Ring of Steel" could not clearly see, let alone target the oncoming armada. This caused the legions of mines and weapon platforms' targeter-arrays to set upon each other, setting off waves of atomic detonations through the void.Only at near point-blank range did the Defence Lasers and arc-cannon of the star forts have any affect on the burning stellar matter, causing the fragment to be rent apart in a great wave of energy which washed over Sentinel-Sigma, painting its failing Void Shields with lambent flame and burning through defence ships and fighters in a torrent of destruction.Hard on the wake of the energy storm came the Angels of Death in unrelenting fury as boarding torpedoes and assault rams smashed into the reeling Sentinel-Sigma, carrying with them the might of the Sons of Medusa and Exorcists Chapters. Soon they were met in deadly combat amid the station's vaults and corridors by combat servitors and the suicidal fury of the vaunted Astral Claws 2nd Company and their commander, the arch-swordsman Corien Sumatris.As the boarding action raged the battle barges Sword of Ordon and the Star Phantoms' Memento Mori led a wing of strike cruisers to assault the burned and blinded star fort network at point-blank range, taking one after the other intact in a series of brutal boarding assaults which left none they found within alive.Meanwhile the Minotaurs carried out strikes upon the system's other inhabited spheres, Badab Secundus and Rigeal, with brutal efficiency. The darkly famed master of the Minotaurs, Asterion Moloc, hurled the members of Badab Secundus' ruling satrapy from the spire of its oratory-cathedral. This he did after impaling the Astral Claws Chaplain Varna Sabin to the front of his personal Land Raider transport as an example to Traitors of the fate that awaited them.Standing atop a mound of broken bodies, Vaylund Cal, Iron Thane of the Sons of Medusa, communicated to Loyalist high command that Sentinel-Sigma was theirs. He was joined via teleporter by the Mechanicus Lords of Angstrom. They did what Lufgt Huron and his court had considered unthinkable; within solar hours the Loyalists had subjugated the station's Silica Animus (artificial intelligence), and with it accessed the many Machine Spirits and weapons slaved to it.Incontrovertible override and destruct signals were sent out across the void. This function was only possible because of the possessive paranoia of the Tyrant in his effort to control a system so large. In response to the command the outer Badab System became a sea of fire. The "Ring of Steel" had been shattered, and only Badab Primaris and the defences that encircled it remained. |
Badab War - Final Assault on Badab Primaris (913.M41): With the star system now under Loyalist control, deployments of the Exorcists Chapter along with the Imperial Navy detachments were put into place to blockade the star system to ensure none would escape what was to come. Meanwhile surviving defence ships were quickly put into place to surround and besiege Badab Primaris.Initially, the mobile star fortress Raptorous Rex was to spearhead the assault, but that was no longer possible due to the strain of the stellar core fragment attack which caused significant structural damage which destabilised the engines of the vast craft making close-orbital operations impossible. Though the guns of Badab Primaris were still greatly feared, the Star Phantoms asked for and had been granted the glory of leading the first assault wave. It was their ancient battle barge Memento Mori which would be the spearhead of the attack, braving the guns of Badab Primaris.A hastily revised plan of attack called for a three-pronged offensive, for further hazard to the Loyalist assault was presented in the form of the High Guard orbital station which had been initially used as the Astral Claws' fortress-monastery before Lufgt Huron had descended to take over the Palace of Thorns on the surface of Badab Primaris below. Two companies of Star Phantoms Space Marines would form the first axis of attack, assaulting the High Guard orbital fortress in concert with the smaller Fire Hawks and Sons of Medusa contingents.The second would be led by the Carcharodons as they would descend in full force to the surface of Badab Primaris' hive cities to crush any opposition. The third and most vital attack force would be formed by the bulwark of the Star Phantoms, consisting of seven full companies and assisted by heavy assault elements drawn from across the Loyalist Chapters and Inquisitorial Storm Troopers companies. This would enable the Loyalists to take the battle to the heart of the foe and besiege the Palace of Thorns itself.Heralding the attack was a wave of orbital bombardment and hurled debris from orbit sent to sow havoc below as weapons fire split the sky above Badab Primaris. The sable-coloured Memento Mori led the attack as it breached the upper atmosphere, rocked by explosions from the planet's surface weapon emplacements. The Star Phantoms' battle barge answered in kind with its roaring cannons and Vortex Missiles, ripping great craters in the planet's surface.Behind the dauntless battle barge dozens of other warships swept low, releasing their deadly payloads. The skies darkened as wave after wave of midnight black and cold-grey-painted Drop Pods rained down in precisely executed assaults. Blazing bright lances of energy pierced upwards, futilely trying to stave off the attackers.The Carcharodons' relic-flagship Nicor unleashed a devastating blast from its vast Plasma Destructor weapon concealed in its belly, burning a great trench in Badab Primaris' surface and sundering the bastion wall of Badab Primaris' main city, Hive Dominar. Soon after, Thunderhawk gunships and Caestus Assault Rams spiraled down to exploit the breach. The burning pall of smoke, swirling cinder ash and choking dust blackened the sky, causing night to fall over Badab's northern continent as the siege assault raged.A full solar hour had passed since the opening of the Loyalists' assault, and though the defence batteries had not yet been fully silenced, many were now choked off or destroyed. Descending perilously through the storm of smoke and fire were troop ships and Thunderhawks, ferrying their reinforcements and heavy armour down to the chaos of the ground assault.As the approach was deemed safe, the colossal landing craft of the Legio Crucius fell to earth outside Hive Dominar, the tremor-shock of their impact shaking the ground, bringing even more of the breached bastion wall tumbling down. Titans now walked on Badab, immediately setting out to do the Emperor's work. Vast armoured doors opened and slammed buildings flat as the Titans' sirens echoed across the battlefield, bellowing their clarion call of doom for the beleaguered world.Hive Dominar soon became a city of death as the assault moved into its second and then third solar hour without any sign of relenting. The mortals of the Tyrant's Legion fought an insane and desperate battle against the grey, transhuman giants of the Carcharodons that walked amongst them. There were no means of escaping their gruesome fate as transit junctions became clogged with burning vehicles and shattered rubble, trapping the wretched civilians within the doomed hive city. There was nothing but terror and death.The soldiers of the auxilia bitterly fought on as best as they could, faced with the choice of surrender or survival. But the unstoppable grey-red tide of the Carcharodons fell upon them with nightmarish fury, savagely hacking through their defence lines, leaving nothing but torn bodies and shattered war machines in their wake.Command and control quickly broke down within the ranks of the Tyrant's Legion as their vox-sets uttered nothing but screams and unanswered pleas for mercy. Soon the carnage only worsened as fire began to spread and rage out of control. Those auxilia that had managed to survive began shelling indiscriminately into the shadows of buildings in a vain hope of stopping the savage assault of Carcharodons. But their efforts were for naught. |
Badab War - Fall of the Palace of Thorns (913.M41): To the northeast of Hive Dominar lay the Palace of Thorns. Built into a mountainous volcanic plateau that rose high above the level of the hive city, it comprised a hulking, ornate citadel surrounded by wide, statue-lined plazas and minaret-capped gun towers studded with Defence Lasers and flak batteries. This was the heart of the Astral Claws' domain and the lair of the Tyrant of Badab.Above the palace complex's centre an actinic-bright lightning shield rippled and clashed in the air; a vast charged power-field that disintegrated anything it touched and shrugged off even the firepower of the warships above. The plazas and weapons batteries that spread out beyond the Palace were not so impervious however, and it was into them the Star Phantoms descended with unmatched precision and timing, their Drop Pods smashing down through the ornate sepulchres and toppling needle-thin auspex-masts as they descended.Despite the hail of fire that had greeted the Star Phantoms, over 500 battle-brothers out of the 700-strong force managed to survive to make planetfall, and now they set about besieging the heavily protected Palace of Thorns. The combat was fierce as the Star Phantoms encountered cunning death-traps and heavily defended gun positions. Brutal close-range engagements were fought against Astral Claws Assault Squads who counter-attacked from concealed sally-ports, making the Loyalists pay in blood for every advance.Land Raiders and Predators spilled forth from underground bunkers in defence of the citadel's shield wall. But they were matched by the equally devastating firepower of the Star Phantoms' Devastator Squads and Dreadnoughts firing from the shattered towers they had already stormed. The wide-open plazas that ringed the citadel became lethal killing grounds, grinding the siege down into a bloody meat-grinder of attrition, for they offered very little cover to both attackers and defenders alike.The bloody siege began to tip in the Loyalists' favour as the Inquisitorial Storm Troopers regiments made their way up the volcanic ridges and joined the fray allowing the Star Phantoms to press the attack. Loyalist Terminator Squads locked on the Star Phantoms' Teleport Homers and were soon despatched down to the surface.But despite the massive force brought to bear against it, the citadel still held. The Palace of Thorn's lightning field remained unbreached, and multiple Loyalist attacks were hurled away from the citadel as the Astral Claws rained down deadly fire from the high walls in murderous counterattacks. Even with the advent of the Reaver-class Titans of the Legio Crucius alongside the Sons of Medusa detachments, the Loyalists could not force the issue. The siege of the Palace of Thorns was at a lethal impasse.The fighting and killing reigned unabated as true night fell over Hive Dominar and the Palace of Thorns. Soon the fighting spread out to the planet's sub-hives and industrial zones. The pall of smoke from the burning cities thickened the night to an umbral black that fogged the auspexes of the warships in orbit. Titans stalked the ruined cityscapes, crushing any hint of resistance they encountered and systematically smashed the manufactoria and habitation blocks, driving refugees and routed Tyrant's Legion troopers before them in a disordered swarm.During this long night of destruction little can be said for certain of Lufgt Huron's actions. Some reports have the Tyrant of Badab sighted almost everywhere in the defence of the palace, hurling back the rent and shattered bodies of his enemies, roaring his defiance, while other tales place him alone and silent in the throne chamber, impassively watching the destruction of all he had wrought in the flickering light of his hole-sphere.Regardless of the truth, what can be accurately said is that no Astral Claw surrendered to their fate. Each fought to the end, whether at the Palace of Thorns, in the hive cities of Badab or in defence of the High Guard orbital station. The Astral Claws sold their lives in a blaze of fury and spite.At dawn of the second solar day of the assault, the Carcharodons took matters into their own hands to bring about the end. Assigned by Lord High Commander Carab Culln the task of attacking the planet's infrastructure and preventing an organised defence from taking root, they had devised their own plan for doing so, and set their own deadly measure to the extremes to which they would go. Having already ravaged the Tyrant's Legion forces defending the cities and setting the hives ablaze, they continued the final state of their plan and despatched strike teams deep into the hive's sub-surface.The Carcharodons sabotaged the ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors which powered the world's hive cities and fed its hungry planetary defence batteries with energy. Across Badab Primaris power failed or suddenly spiked, adding to the chaos, and slowly, the hives began to quake and the towers of Badab toppled over.This resulted in a planetary tectonic upheaval, with entire hive city sectors collapsing into yawning chasms that opened up in the ground beneath them, replaced by seas of molten lava. Silently and in good order, the Carcharodons began to withdraw from the surface, the fatal blow struck, for the God-Emperor's judgement had been delivered on treacherous Badab.The sudden destabilisation of power offered the Loyalists a much-needed opening in which to strike. As the lightning field and the citadel's other defences flickered for a moment, allowing a Star Phantoms assault force to breach the lower level bunker network and catacombs before the citadel could draw power again from their own reactors. With Captain Zhrukal Androcles at the fore, his Assault Marines and Terminators forced their way into the citadel and the heart of the enemy.The Star Phantoms' assault was brutal and relentless, its passage blasted through by Thunder Hammer-rent bulkheads and charge-blown walls, while the Astral Claws that fought against them were the most fanatical and hate-filled of their breed -- their crimson-splattered armour devoid of any sign of their former service as defenders of the Imperium. Massive upheaval in the planet's sub-hive structures radiated out across the ancient geological fault lines, spewing molten magma and radioactive ash up from the earth. Badab Primaris began to die.At the Palace of Thorns, the bastion wall was finally breached, collapsing the lightning shield. The Star Phantoms stormed the rubble-strewn remnants of the citadel. As dark fate would have it, Androcles' own detachment encountered none other than Lufgt Huron and his elite bodyguard endeavouring to make their escape from their homeworld through these subterranean passages.It is likely Huron's party were attempting to flee to a concealed escape craft via the sub-surface. The battle that followed was swift and bloody, and the Star Phantoms' force was wiped out to an Astartes, but data recovered from the power armour of the slain Star Phantoms and Astral Claws in the combat's aftermath revealed that Captain Androcles was struck down by the Tyrant in the confrontation, who in his arrogance strode over the fallen hero believing him dead.As his life bled from him, with his dying strength the grimly determined Androcles managed to unleash a melta-blast at point blank range into the Tyrant of Badab, dealing him a mortal blow. The melta-blast struck the arcane Lightning Claw the Tyrant habitually wore, which catastrophically exploded and unleashed a baleful pulse of energy. This blast incinerated the Tyrant's arm and much of his right side, and the remnants of his burning armour collapsing to the ground was the last image recorded by the fallen Star Phantom captain's autosenses.Soon afterward, when a second Star Phantoms squad entered the vault, they found the bloody remains of the melee, along with shrapnel and organic detritus later identified by the Magos Biologis of the Consistorial Court as belonging to the Tyrant.The bulk of Lufgt Huron's body, however, was not found, nor were any remains that could be later identified as belonging to the Astral Claws Master of the Forge, Armenneus Valthex, who had also been present in the combat. Further investigation of the matter or deeper exploration of the lower levels of the Palace of Thorns proved impossible as the wider situation on Badab Primaris began to deteriorate rapidly.Beneath the hives of Badab Primaris, the cascading destruction of the reactor cores took its toll. The tectonic shocks and volcanic eruptions increased at an exponential rate, causing the campaign of purgation and conquest on Badab to quickly devolve into an anarchic retreat. Many were caught in the path of destruction. Vessels of any and all kinds were commandeered by both Loyalist and Secessionists alike in a desperate effort to flee.In the anarchy and ruin that followed the destruction of the hive cities, the majority of the planet's population was estimated to have been exterminated in a manner of solar days. As confusion reigned in the wreckage-strewn star system, several Loyalist transports were also shot down by the Loyalist blockade ships.It is believed that at least one small Warp-capable privateer vessel managed to escape the Badab System into the Immaterium. Later intelligence reports suggested that less than 200 Astral Claws were aboard, led by Armenneus Valthex and carrying their master's broken body. The Badab War was finally over. |
Badab War - Trial and Punishment (913.M41): In the aftermath of the death of Badab Primaris, the remaining Secessionists from the Astral Claws, Executioners, Mantis Warriors and Lamenters Chapters were put on trial before a specially convened Consistorial Court of their peers with their very existence at stake. Despite the attempts of the Inquisitor-Legate Jarndyce Frain to have the matter placed fully under Inquisitorial remit, a conclave of five Space Marine Chapter Masters whose forces were not part of the conflict were convened in judgement in accordance with Adeptus Astartes tradition.Representatives of those that fought on both sides went on to give evidence to the court. Particularly noteworthy was the testimony of Captain Mir'san of the Salamanders, speaking out in eloquent and moving defence of the Executioners Chapter's honour, if not their actions.Also heard at great length was the now near-dead master of the Fire Hawks, Stibor Lazaerek, and his bitter calls to eradicate the vanquished foe without exception garnered some sympathy from the tribunal. The last to testify was the Inquisitor-Legate Frain himself, whose impassioned and wise words called on the assembled Chapter Masters to weigh both the deeds of men and the will of the Emperor, and heed the judgement of history on them.A unanimous verdict was reached by the tribunal that the Astral Claws were judged to be Traitors most foul and that they were to be declared Excommunicate Traitoris. They were guilty of taking up arms against the Imperium and the Emperor and deceitfully causing their brethren to do likewise. The Consistorial Court also found that all of those Chapters who had taken part in the Badab Secession was guilty in breaking with both the Codex Astartes and the ancient covenant with the Emperor that it represented.In punishment, all the Astral Claws in Imperial custody were blindfolded and shackled in dishonour and then put to the sword. It was further judged that the other surviving Secessionist Chapters would have to each undertake a 100-standard-year-long penitent crusade to atone for their transgressions, and would have to do so without the right to recruit new brethren to replace their losses during this time of punishment. Their future survival would therefore be left in their own hands and by the grace and benevolence of the Holy Emperor.In addition, the Mantis Warriors would henceforth lose all rights to their ancient domains in the Endymion Cluster, with their goods and chattels given over to the Fire Hawks in perpetuity, and likewise the Lamenters Chapter were condemned to surrender reparations in starships and wargear to the Minotaurs Chapter (this in essence being no more than a rubber-stamp approval of actions that had already taken place).The Executioners Chapter in contrast were granted a measure of comparable clemency, and their twin Chapter worlds were given over in trust to the Salamanders Chapter and their own successors rather than forfeited entirely, to be returned to them should they endure their hundred-year act of contrition and survive.As to the mortal men and women of the Maelstrom Zone, caught up in a solar decade of calamity and bloodshed, their lives now belonged to the Administratum. Alongside them were the Adeptus Mechanicus and Inquisition, both of which had their own interests to serve and all would have their due. |
Badab War - Star Phantoms' Prize (913.M41): In recognition for their efforts in the war's brutal final assault, the badly mauled Star Phantoms Chapter was given the somewhat pyrrhic reward of dominion over the once proud Badab Sector, along with the task of policing its survivors by edict of the Inquisitor-Legate.Though the Star Phantoms were now reduced to less than a third of their former strength, ruling over a kingdom of ashes, they had long been a fleet-based Chapter after having lost their former homeworld centuries before.They eagerly grasped this laurel of victory as their just and long-laboured reward. With the pick of the sector's worlds for their choosing, the Star Phantoms brought their severely damaged battle barge Memento Mori down to the surface of the Ice World of Jahga in the Archaea System to serve as their core for a new fortress-monastery and slowly began the process of rebuilding their Chapter. |
Badab War - Sorrow of Tranquility (913.M41): With the arrival of a fresh Imperial Navy task force redeployed to be based at Vyaniah, and Administratum auditors emplaced on Sagan, the other Loyalist Space Marine forces, having completed their operations in the Maelstrom Zone, began to depart for their Chapter worlds and wars afresh.The care of the Maelstrom Zone was now in other hands and the province of new masters. It was only when the Red Scorpions' Sword of Ordon, the last of the Loyalist battle barges, was taking leave to depart Vyaniah on the long voyage back to Zaebus Minoris, that news reached the system of a dark fate that had befallen the Tranquility System.Before departing the Maelstrom Zone, the Carcharodons Chapter fleet returned to the Endymion Cluster. There, with the agreement of the Fire Hawks, they struck at the Tranquility System, whose worlds were once the primary recruiting and training grounds of the Mantis Warriors Chapter.From these worlds they harvested an entire generation to renew their own losses, forcing those selected to fight to the death to prove their worth in order to survive in the Carcharodons brethren. Thus paid in blood, the Carcharodons fleet departed, the last known sighting of them made by an Explorator augery-beacon, which marked them taking course through the Warp, ascending the galactic plane into the blackness of the outer void once more. |
Badab War - Expurgation (915.M41): On returning to Holy Terra, and with his last act before he discharged his legatine authority, Inquisitor Jarndyce Frain ordered an Edict of Obliteration to be carried out under the auspices of the Adeptus Terra in regards to the Astral Claws, the Tiger Claws and their master Lufgt Huron.The task therefore began of wiping their accursed name and their sins from the pages of Imperial history. Sanitised and altered versions of the events of the war began to enter the official record, distorting nomenclature and reference as the first stage of eventual total purgation, while an Inquisition-enforced data-pogrom to unmake extraneous or morally unworthy facts concerning the Badab War was conducted.The eye of the Imperium then moved on to the next crisis in a galaxy consumed by conflict. |
Badab War - Rise of Huron Blackheart (927.M41): Though badly maimed by a Multi-Melta blast, the Tyrant of Badab yet lived, though one side of his body was entirely reconstructed with bionics, the Techmarines and Apothecaries of his former Chapter standing long vigil over him.On the eighth solar day, the Tyrant could speak again and ordered his fleet to seek a new to world to conquer within the Maelstrom. By the twelfth day Huron could stand and don his power armour once more. His fanatical followers hailed his recovery as a miracle, but if it was any kind of miracle, it was a dark one.Huron's limited forces easily overwhelmed the first pirate stronghold they found, slaughtering all the Human corsairs within. The survivors swore allegiance to the Tyrant and became his slaves, soon learning to fear his fury.Lufgt Huron was reborn as as the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart -- Master of the Red Corsairs, Lord of the Maelstrom, the Blood Reaver. Now that he had acquired more ships and men, the Blackheart embarked upon building an empire worthy of his rule.His dreaded Astral Claws followers then became the Red Corsairs, after the blood-red colour they used to obliterate their old Imperial iconography and symbols, becoming a piratical Renegade warband of Chaos Space Marines that established a potent Chaos empire within the Warp rift of the Maelstrom to rival that of the Eye of Terror.To this day, many of those few Space Marines who have tragically fallen to the lure of Chaos are inevitably found within the ranks of the Red Corsairs, embittered and twisted by the evil power of Chaos that reigns supreme within this hellish realm. The crimson artifice chosen by his followers as their warband colours and iconography pleased Huron greatly and all of the Renegade Space Marines who have since joined him have taken these colours as their own to show their new allegiance.By early 927.M41, the first reports reached Imperial authorities of attacks from corsair forces operating in and around the Maelstrom which had worsened considerably, although other than the Pale Stars region, the rest of the Maelstrom Zone largely (and it appeared deliberately) remained unaffected.Vessels and agents sent into the region began to uncover rumours of a powerful new corsair lord operating within the Maelstrom, leading a warband of crimson-daubed Heretic Astartes seeming to owe no allegiance to any prior known faction and operating with extraordinary ferocity and tactical discipline. The corsair lord was said to style himself "Huron Blackheart."And so the Tyrant of Badab lived on to torment the servants of the Emperor in the dark days to come. |
Badab War - Senior Commanders: Jarndyce Frain - Inquisitor-Legate and Chief Prosecutor of the Badabian Tyranicide (Badab War)Carab Culln - Lord High Commander (Chapter Master), Red Scorpions Space Marine Chapter. After the Red Scorpions' former Lord High Commander Ortys was slain upon the world of Grief, Culln was almost unanimously elected to replace him as the Loyalist forces' Magister Militum, the overall commander of the Loyalist forces.Verant Ortys - Former Lord High Commander (Chapter Master) of the Red Scorpions and Magister Millitum and overall commander of the Loyalist forces during the Badab War. Ortys was slain when the Red Scorpions were betrayed by the deceitful Lufgt Huron and his Renegade Astral Claws Chapter on the world of Grief. While both sides were under a flag of truce, the Astral Claws launched a surprise attack against the Red Scorpions and Ortys was slain in the melee.Stibor Lazaerek - Knight-Commander Lazaerek was Grand Master (Chapter Master) Fire Hawks Space Marine ChapterLias Issodon, "The Grim" - Chapter Master of the Raptors Space Marine ChapterAsterion Moloc - "Master of the Minotaurs" - Chapter Master of the Minotaurs Space Marine ChapterOmadon Tiresias - Chapter Master of the Star Phantoms Space Marine ChapterTyberos "The Red Wake" - Chapter Master of the Carcharodons Space Marine ChapterUriaens - Consul-Master (Chapter Master) of the Fire Angels Space Marine ChapterSilas Alberec "Wielder of the Hellslayer" - Captain of the 3rd Company, Exorcists Space Marine ChapterMordacai Blaylock "The Stormbreaker" - Captain of the 1st Company, Novamarines Space Marine ChapterVaylund Cal - Iron Thane of the Atropos War Clan, High Artificer of the Sons of Medusa Space Marine ChapterPellas Mir'san - Captain of the 2nd Company, Salamanders Space Marine ChapterAnton Narvaez - Lieutenant Commander Narvaez is the Commander (Captain) of the 4th Company, Marines Errant Space Marine ChapterArmand Titus - Dreadnought Confessor, Howling Griffons Space Marine Chapter |
Badab War - Loyalist Adeptus Astartes Chapters: Carcharodons, entire Chapter deployedExorcists, entire Chapter deployedFire Angels, 7 CompaniesFire Hawks, entire Chapter deployedHowling Griffons, entire Chapter deployedMarines Errant, entire Chapter deployedMinotaurs, entire Chapter deployedNovamarines, entire Chapter deployedRaptors, 4 companiesRed Scorpions, 8 companiesSalamanders, 1 companySons of Medusa, 5-6 companiesStar Phantoms, entire Chapter deployed |
Badab War - Imperial Guard Regiments: Karthan Regiment (Regiment tithed to the Inquisition) |
Badab War - Adeptus Mechanicus Forces: Legio Crucius, 3 Maniples |
Badab War - Senior Commanders: Lufgt Huron, "The Tyrant of Badab" - Chapter Master Astral Claws Space Marine ChapterYarvan Sartaq - Former Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter who was slain in 906.M41 during the opening stages of the Badab War.Khoisan Neotera - Former Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter during the Badab War who replaced Yarvan Sartaq after his death in 906.M41 until the end of the conflict; he was permanently imprisoned by the Inquisition for his role in the Chapter's rebellion in the Imperial prison Penitentiacon in isolation for the rest of his life.Ahazra Redth, "Dust Prophet" - Chief Librarian Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter. He became the de facto Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors during the final days of the Badab War.Thulsa Kane - Reclusiarch (High Chaplain) of the Executioners Space Marine Chapter. Commanded Executioners contingent deployed in the Badab War.Malakim Phoros "Lord of Ruin" - Chapter Master Lamenters Space Marine Chapter |
Badab War - Secessionist Adeptus Astartes Chapters: Astral ClawsExecutionersLamentersMantis Warriors |
Badab War - Auxiliaries: Tyrant's Legion |
Badab War - Sources: Apocalypse (Rulebook), pg. 171Apocalypse Reload (Rulebook), pg. 56Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pg. 23Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pp. 56-57Cities of Death (4th Edition), "The Palace of Thorns", pp. 58-59Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One, pp. 1-208Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pp. 1-208Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (1st Edition), "The Badab War" by Rick Priestley, pp. 33-35White Dwarf 303 (UK) "Index Astartes: Rogue Sons" by Andy HoareWhite Dwarf 101 (UK) "Index Astartes: The Badab Uprising" by Rick Priestley, pp. 71-73Blood Reaver (Novel), by Aaron Demski-Bowden, pp. 64, 120Heroes of the Space Marines (Anthology), "The Skull Harvest" (Story) by Graham McNeill, pp. 9-21Into The Maelstrom (Anthology), "Into The Maelstrom" (Story) by Chris PramasThe Gildar Rift (Novel), by Sarah Cawkwell, pg. 199 |
Badlanding - Badlanding: The arid and isolated world of Badlanding was discovered in the Loki Sector of the galaxy, to the galactic southeast of Terra in the Segmentum Tempestus. It was originally colonised during an unknown period, most likely before the Age of Strife. It was rediscovered by Rogue Trader Uzieth Pallandaro in 238.M34. Imperial colonial settlements were first established on the arid world shortly thereafter. Despite its harsh environment, Badlanding eventually became an Agri-World that exported water filtration and extraction mechanisms, respirators, anti-static footwear, machinery parts and sodium chloride throughout the sector. |
Badlanding - The Rynn's World Incident: In mid-989.M41, the Ork Warlord Snagrod the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon united the warring Ork factions bordering the Loki Sector, and launched the largest WAAAGH! the Peryton 163 Cluster had seen in almost a millennium, attacking the isolated Imperial colony of Badlanding. The Imperial defenders of Badlanding were utterly unprepared for the invasion, and within days the only major strongpoint of resistance was the capital city of Krugerport, where the remnants of the 18th Mordian, 24th Lammas and 49th Boros Imperial Guard regiments, commanded by Commissar Alhaus Baldur, put up a bold, but ultimately doomed, defence. Confident that he had the world in his grasp, Snagrod put out incessant, ranting Vox broadcasts, boasting that his next conquest would be Rynn's World, which lay only a few weeks Warp travel from Badlanding. Crimson Fists' Chapter Master Pedro Kantor responded immediately, despatching the 4th Company under Captain Drakken to Badlanding to stall the Ork WAAAGH! and determine its strength. The Battle of Krugerport was a tragic defeat for the Crimson Fists who found WAAAGH! Snagrod to be far larger and more aggressive than any could have predicted. Only a handful of Space Marines survived the battle, though those that escaped were able to bring invaluable intelligence back to Rynn`s World. Kantor ordered the immediate recall of those Crimson Fists companies fighting away from Rynn's World, mobilised the Planetary Defence Force, and prepared for the inevitable Greenskin invasion. In the ensuing conflict, the Crimson Fists would suffer the tragic loss of their fortress-monastery, and much of Rynn's World would take many decades to rebuild from the devastating Ork assault. The wider war would take many years to win, and many of the worlds of the Loki Sector captured by WAAAGH! Snagrod, including Badlanding, are still lost, remaining in Ork hands to this day. |
Badlanding - Departmento Cartographicae Planetary Database: The estimated population of Badlanding in 998.M41 was 10,000 plus human Imperial citizens; the planet is currently uninhabitable by unprotected organic life. Indigenous lifeforms include the "Dust Weevil" which was once harvested by semi-mobile ultrasound rigs. Since the system was invaded by WAAAGH! Snagrod, the world of Badlanding remains in Ork hands to the present day.Tithe Grade: None (Formerly Exactis Particular)Climate/Geography/Biosphere: Arid/Desolate; Much of the surface of Badlanding is covered in extensive dust "seas" which are subject to the pull of two major satellites which build up powerful electro-static charges across their considerable surface area.Governmental Type: None (Formerly an Imperial Planetary Governor)Planetary Governor: None (Unknown)Adepta Presence: None (Formerly a minor presence of some Imperial Adepta)Military: None (Formerly a minor Imperial Guard presence, garrisoned by the 18th Mordian Iron Guard, 24th Lammas and 49th Boros regiments) |
Badrukk - Badrukk: Badrukk, better known as Kaptin Badrukk, is one of the most infamous Ork Freebooterz or space pirates of all time. He has plied the stars in his steel-jawed Kill Kroozer Da Blacktoof for several blood-splattered decades. He is the commanding officer of the Ork pirate band known as "Badrukk's Flash Gitz" who have fought with many of the Ork Warbosses active in Imperial space, including most of the more recent Warlords and their WAAAGH!s. He holds forth to any that will listen that without the devastating weapons of his Gitz, many of those selfsame Warlords would have been long dead -- a claim that any who have seen this pirate band in action may well believe. |
Badrukk - History: Kaptin Badrukk is the greatest Freebooter of his age, a monstrous, roaring privateer bedecked in barbarous finery. Badrukk's Flash Gitz carry enough firepower into battle to level a well-defended hab-block, and the Kaptin totes the most fearsome firearm of the lot. Badrukk and his villainous crew are legends among their own cutthroat subculture, thundering through space in their oversized Kill Kroozer Da Blacktoof, and they have fought at the side of every major Warboss worth following in recent history. Wherever the Kaptin and his ladz make planetfall, misery and destruction are sure to follow, for Badrukk's Flash Gitz are superlative reavers who live to commit murder and cause mayhem, stealing everything they can get their claws on.Years ago, Badrukk was chased out of the Bad Moons clan on charges of having too many teef for his own good. From the day of his exile, Badrukk's accomplishments have far outstripped those of his fellow Freebooter kaptins. Fighting alongside the fleet of Warlord Garaghak, Badrukk blunted a tendril of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken in 993.M41 with an all-guns-blazing raid upon the Norn Queen at its heart. During the War of Dakka, his warriors outshot a Tau Hunter Cadre. Some even claim that the Kaptin personally brought down a Freeblade Knight armed with nought but a hair Squig and several inebriated Snotlings, though it seems likely that such tales have grown in the telling. Some even claim that the Kaptin has personally killed one of the powerful spaceborne leviathans called Void-Whales. Most recently, Badrukk has been engaged in a series of bloody skirmishes against Space Wolves forces deep in the Sanctus Reach sub-sector. A rumour persists that these raids are being performed at the behest of a shady and extremely generous employer, but Badrukk is playing his cards extremely close to his chest.For an Ork, Badrukk is unusually cunning and has proved to be an excellent strategist and tactician. He often acts as a tactical advisor to any Ork Warlord or Warboss wealthy enough to meet his outrageously high fees. After the battle, Badrukk's Flash Gitz usually "persuade" their new employers to give them the largest share of any loot or salvage before they return to the Da Blacktoof and seek more chaos and carnage. Despite this blackmail, many Ork Warlords see this as a price well worth paying for the sake of a better fight than usual and the wonderfully intoxicating sight of seeing Badrukk and his Flash Gitz unleash their wonderful and lethal toys upon the enemy. |
Badrukk - Wargear: Badrukk is a typical Ork Freebooterz Warboss only in that his personal appearance is flamboyant in the extreme. As ugly as a Grox, Badrukk's bald and heavily-scarred green head is decorated with the medals of defeated Imperial Navy admirals whose starships he has ransacked and left for dead in the void. His teeth, so numerous that Badrukk's face is permanently split by a foul grin, are plated with an alloy of adamantium and priceless ur-gold taken from the Palace of Undying Light. The Kaptin's gilded Goldtoof Armour is often spattered with the black, drying blood of his most recent victims and his black banners, usually bearing the infamous "Jolly Ork" ensign of the Freebooterz, proclaim his abilities as a fighter and conqueror to other Greenskins and those humans unlucky enough to cross his path. It is plated with hundreds of melted-down gold teeth, kicked by Badrukk out of the mouths of other Freebooterz Kaptins.A lead-lined greatcoat protects Badrukk from the deadly radiation generated by his most beloved weapon, Da Rippa, a Shoota so dangerous that merely standing near it when it is fired is essentially a death sentence by radiation poisoning. The weapon once belonged to the Ogryn bodyguard of an Imperial Sub-sector Governor and the Kaptin has modified it to fire unstable plasma canisters instead of high-calibre slugs so that each detonates with all the heat and radioactive force of a small star. One day Da Rippa's victims will include Badrukk himself, but for now it is an extremely potent weapon in the hands of the Greenskin Kaptin. He has also been known to make use of various Power Weapons in close combat, such as a powered Choppa, a Bosspole, and Stikbomz for ranged attacks. He is normally followed around in combat by three Gretchins called "Da Powder Grotz" because it takes many pairs of green hands to carry the Kaptin's extensive stash of ammunition and personal loot. |
Badrukk - Sources: Codex: Orks (7th Edition), pp. 56, 72, 105, 131-132Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 57Codex: Orks (2nd Edition), pg. 65Freebooterz: Space Ork Army Lists, pg. 65White Dwarf 349 (UK), Preview & "Da Boyz Are Back In Town," by Phil Kelly, pp. 3, 18Games Workshop Online Catalogue - Kaptin Badrukk |
Baelor - Baelor: Baelor, also known as "Baelor the Imposter," is a Fallen Angel and Chaos Lord who served as the second-in-command of the warhost of Chaos Space Marines known as the Ten Thousand Eyes during the Era Indomitus. Baelor was the closest friend and primary lieutenant of the warhost's Sorcerer Lord, Seraphax. Ultimately, Baelor supported Seraphax in his conflict with Primarch Lion El'Jonson who had finally awakened beneath The Rock after the formation of the Great Rift and begun to travel to various worlds in the Imperium Nihilus through the sub-realm of the Immaterium called Mirror-Caliban.Seraphax slaughtered much of the population of the world of Sable in the Ten Thousand Eyes' conquered interstellar pocket empire in the Imperium Nihilus to draw the Lion to him so he could be captured to be used by the Sorcerer Lord in an insane plan to kill the Emperor and then use Him to eliminate the Chaos Gods.When the Lion was rescued by a force of The Risen, former Fallen who had not been corrupted by Chaos and had been forgiven by their primarch, Baelor betrayed his friend, who had mutated into a bestial form to subdue the Lion. Baelor stabbed Seraphax through the back using his Daemonsword, ending his life, for Baelor believed he had finally become too corrupted by Chaos to be allowed to live.Baelor asked for the forgiveness of the Lion for his crimes and was granted it briefly before the primarch gave his wayward gene-son a final gift, the Emperor's Peace. Baelor's long use of the Daemonsword had corrupted his body and he was slowly mutating, so he gladly embraced his end once the Lion had granted him absolution. |
Baelor - Origins: Baelor was one of the Fallen, the Space Marines of the Dark Angels Legion under the command of Luther who had been ordered to garrison the Legion's homeworld of Caliban during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. When Luther embraced Chaos and betrayed Lion El'Jonson after the end of the Heresy, the Fallen were cast through time and space in the Immaterium by the will of the Dark Gods as Caliban imploded. The Dark Angels and their Unforgiven successors spent the next ten Terran millennia hunting them down in a quest for absolution for their shame.While hunting for Baelor unsuccessfully in the late 40th Millennium in the Nephilim Sector, the Dark Angels discovered the lost STC template for the advanced "Lionheart Engine" which allowed the Chapter to create the Nephilim Jetfighter, named for the sector where the discovery was made. The new technology was used to modify older Imperial fighter designs by the Chapter to create the Dark Angels' signature interceptor. |
Baelor - Ten Thousand Eyes: By the time of the Great Rift's birth during the Era Indomitus, Baelor had come to serve as the second-in-command of the Heretic Astartes warhost known as the Ten Thousand Eyes under the command of his fellow Fallen and friend, the Sorcerer Lord Seraphax. Seraphax used his sorcerous abilities to keep Baelor free of mutation, and both still saw themselves as working for the betterment of Humanity through the use of the power of Chaos.When the Primarch Lion El'Jonson reemerged on the world of Camarth in the Imperium Nihilus, a planet that the Ten Thousand Eyes had conquered from the Ruby Crescents Chapter and now garrisoned, Baelor was disturbed by Seraphax's plan to capture the primarch and use him as a means to kill the Emperor. Seraphax hoped that by elevating the Master of Mankind through His death to the status of a new god in the Warp He could defeat the Chaos Gods and all of Humanity's xenos enemies.While Seraphax succeeded in capturing the Lion by luring him to the nearby world of Sable after he ordered the massacre of most of its population, those of the Fallen the Lion had met on his journeys and forgiven, now known as The Risen, arrived to interfere with Seraphax's plans.Seraphax called upon the power of the Warp to transform himself into a bestial mutant form, but was slain by Baelor who stabbed him from behind with his Daemonsword before he could subdue the primarch. Baelor saw the return of his primarch as a chance to gain his own redemption and become one of The Risen. He also saw Seraphax's mutation in his fight with the primarch as the final proof he needed that his friend had fallen too far to the corruption of Chaos to be allowed to survive.After Seraphax's death, Baelor asked for and received the forgiveness of the Lion, joining the ranks of The Risen for a short time. However, Baelor's body was slowly degrading and mutating under the influence of the Daemonsword Seraphax had gifted him long before, so he requested and the Lion granted him the quick and noble release of the Emperor's Peace. |
Baharroth - Baharroth: Baharroth, "The Cry of the Wind" in the Aeldari Lexicon, is the Phoenix Lord and founder of the Asuryani Warrior Path that is represented by the Swooping Hawks Aspect Shrine. He is the oldest of the Swooping Hawks, and the first Craftworld Aeldari Exarch to master aerial combat. |
Baharroth - History: Asurmen, the "Hand of Asuryan," was the first Phoenix Lord of the Craftworld Aeldari. Prior to the Fall of the Aeldari, it was Asurmen who led the craftworlds away from the ancient Aeldari homeworlds of their now lost interstellar Aeldari Empire and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, upon a barren moon of the same name located in a region of the Webway that his people initially settled.Asurmen found that he could not give up the Path of the Warrior to follow a different Asuryani Path, for he desired to use his skills to protect what remained of his species after the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts."From the Shrine of Asur sprang the first Aspect Warriors, and the Path of the Warrior was opened for the very first time to all of the Asuryani. Those Aeldari who wanted to follow this new path learned at the feet of their master, and in turn they assumed the mantle of Exarchs before spreading throughout the galaxy.The first Exarchs, the Asurya, the children of Asurmen, were the greatest of his students and went on to become the Phoenix Lords of the other Aspect Shrines, the first masters of the other specialised Asuryani combat disciplines.Baharroth is believed to have been the finest pupil of Asurmen, the first Asuryani Exarch. He is the Winged Phoenix, the oldest of the Swooping Hawks and the first of their winged Exarchs. He was the most vibrant and youthful of the Phoenix Lords, revelling in the sensation of the sun on his wings.Baharroth and Maugan Ra, the Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers, are brothers as the sun is to the moon, and many of the Craftworld Aeldari's deadliest foes have met their doom on the edge of those two Phoenix Lords' blades.Like all the Phoenix Lords, Baharroth has been reborn many times in the body of a new Exarch. Innumerable battlefields have felt his anger and countless foes have fallen before his might.Baharroth is also known for his speed and is said to be the fastest of all the Aeldari who have ever lived, a formidable claim that would make him a deadly opponent indeed. Though he moves with the subtlety and grace of a zephyr, he attacks with the force of a hurricane.The Asuryani consider his presence a sign of victory to come, for he appears above the battlefield as a glorious hero, shining with a brilliance of his own making. Looping and soaring through flak-churned skies, the Cry of the Wind looses pinpoint blasts of blinding fire into the cockpits of enemy aircraft and into those warriors who dare to venture into his domain, sending the airborne interlopers hurtling to an unmarked grave amongst their brethren below.Where Baharroth passes, the ground burns with blinding white fire, for the weapons of the Swooping Hawk are many, and his eyes are sharp enough to spy evil wherever it may be found. This glare is often the first and last warning his victims are granted, as he plunges like a falcon to engage his opponents before leaping skywards once more.His wings, like those of the Swooping Hawks, are made of small vibrating plates, which, as they vibrate, provide the wearer with a lifting surface for flight which is maintained by an anti-gravitic emitter incorporated into the wings.It is recorded in the Asuryata that Baharroth's final death will come during the Rhana Dandra, fighting alongside his fellow Aspect Warriors, the final battle between Chaos and the Aeldari of the material universe that will end with the destruction of both.Baharroth is known to be an especial foe of the forces of Chaos and he has participated in many raids on Chaos outposts and Daemon Worlds. Baharroth's family and much of his home craftworld, Anaen, was destroyed in a massive Chaos assault led by Trarkh, a known Chaos Lord and Khornate Berserker.All Asuryani secretly fear that the long foretold events of the Rhana Dandra will be played out within their lifetime. Given the portents of the Farseers, and the frequency with which the Phoenix Lords have been sighted in recent years, their fears may yet prove well placed. |
Baharroth - Baharroth's Tempest: Baharroth's name has become synonymous with deliverance and he has turned the tide of many battles in the Craftworld Aeldari's greatest times of need. Being one of the legendary Phoenix Lords, Baharroth tends to appear when his people need him the most, oft times while leading a group of elite warriors, chosen from across the craftworlds.They are amongst the most skilled students of the Swooping Hawks Aspect Shrine. This specialised battle formation is known as a "Tempest," for Baharroth chooses only the fastest and most agile Swooping Hawks to serve beside him.This is because their appointed task, the manoeuvre known as the Bahurkan -- "the hawk strike" in the Aeldari Lexicon -- requires speed above all else. Baharroth has delivered the Asuryani from aerial assaults on countless worlds with his Tempest, for it is difficult for the Asuryani to retain air superiority in the face of the overwhelming numbers which their foes like the Orks and the Imperium can often bring to bear.With a piercing cry, Baharroth and his Tempest leap into the sky, streaking towards the Phoenix Lord's chosen prey. The Swooping Hawk's Haywire Grenades are specially fitted with gravitic motors, effectively turning them into highly-effective, short-ranged aerial mines intended to short-circuit enemy aircraft.The Phoenix Lord and his companions easily dodge incoming fire from enemy aircraft, attaching their deadly payload to their targets and then they gracefully peel away, leaving the doomed aircraft to its fate. |
Baharroth - Wargear: Phoenix Armour - The legendary Phoenix Lords wear ancient, invaluable Aspect Armour so finely wrought it is proof against almost any weapon. The helmet of this suit contains the Spirit Stones of Baharroth which hold the souls of every Swooping Hawks Exarch to become the Phoenix Lord since Baharroth left the tutelage of Asurmen at the First Shrine on Asur himself millennia ago.Shining Blade - Legend tells that Baharroth's Power Sword, the Shining Blade, was forged by the daughters of the Aeldari smith god Vaul in the dying fires of a supernova, and that some of that long-gone star's astral might lives on in its blade. Those the sword judges as impure in heart and deed find their own blinding reflections burning painfully into their eyes.LasblasterShuriken Pistol |
Bairsten Prime - Bairsten Prime: Bairsten Prime was an Imperial Mining World that had once been a major source of duralium ore. It was devastated by the effects of the Great Rift's birth and its population was either killed off or abandoned the planet soon after. As a result it was later designated a Derelict World.During the War of the Spider in the Era Indomitus, Bairsten Prime was ravaged by the forces of Fabius Bile and The Shriven, who were later confronted by a force of Adeptus Custodes under the command of Shield-Captain Tyvar. Bairsten Prime then became the site of the second major battle of the War of the Spider, which ended when all sides withdrew and left the world abandoned once more. |
Bakka - Bakka: Bakka is an Imperial Mining World made famous across the galaxy by its orbiting shipyards, which have been in use to build new starships for the Imperial Navy since the early years of the Great Crusade in the 30th Millennium.Bakka serves as the primary Segmentum Fortress for Battlefleet Bakka, providing coordination for all Imperial Navy forces in the region and serving as the primary point of resupply and repair for all the Imperial battlefleets now operating in the Segmentum Tempestus. |
Bakka - History: A relatively young world, Bakka was colonised during the Dark Age of Technology by the restless agents of Mankind who claimed it for their own, greedy for its abundant and available mineral wealth. The surface of the planet consists of black island rafts of basalt and granite that float on a glowing viscous sea of cooling lava. Every so often, turbulent flow or a meteorite strike causes fresh magma to burst through the thin skin on the surface of the orange seas and throw incandescent fountains of yellow fire into the sky.The atmosphere is hot, arid and very poisonous; oxides of nitrous, sulphur and sodium mix with ammonia in spirals of yellow, brown and red fog. Giant, tracked machines extract minerals when convective flow forces important ores near the surface of the seas. The loss rate among the lava workers is substantial and commonly penitents and Heretics are assigned to the hazardous duty. The punishment for a penitent and a Heretic is the same, for though the God-Emperor rejoices at the righteous remorse of a penitent the sin must still be cleansed by punishment.Permanent installations are built on the black rafts. In the reinforced adamantium walls of the fortress-like plants, ore is processed into usable materials. Heavy laser batteries are mounted on the strengthened roofs of the squat, dark structures to blast away meteors and any of the Emperor's foes who might come calling. Most of the manufacturing facilities hang above the planet in geostationary orbit and there are also found the vast, sprawling dockyards of the Segmentum Tempestus Sector Naval Base. |
Bakka - Horus Heresy: Bakka is one of several locations where a combined Loyalist force of Space Wolves and Ultramarines faced a Traitor force composed of starships of the World Eaters, a single Thousand Sons starship and several vessels of the Saturnine Fleet in an attempt to destroy the massive Word Bearers Battleship called the Furious Abyss during the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. The Loyalist force was under the command of Captain Cestus of the Ultramarines. |
Bakka - Plague of Unbelief: During the early centuries of the 36th Millennium, many false prophets appeared throughout the anarchic Age of Apostasy, some little more than madmen leading rebel armies, others spiritual demagogues who commanded worlds and armies. The most powerful of these was the Apostate Cardinal of Gathalamor, Bucharis, whose heresies reached such proportions that they became known as the Plague of Unbelief.In 300.M36, Bakka was absorbed into this galaxy-spanning heresy, forming a minor pocket empire which was defined by its people's heretical belief that the Emperor was no longer able to rule the galaxy. This pocket empire stretched from Bakka in the galactic south to the Space Wolves' Chapter homeworld of Fenris in the galactic north. The back of this insurrection was eventually broken by the valour of the Space Wolves following the failure of the assault upon their fortress-monastery, The Fang, by Bucharis' forces. |
Bakka - First Tyrannic War: In 745.M41, the Imperium of Man first encountered the encroaching threat of the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth. Battlefleet Bakka was quickly dispatched from Bakka to lend aid in the valiant Imperial defence of the Ultramarines Chapter's homeworld of Macragge during the climactic Battle of Macragge. Though they ultimately emerged victorious from the conflict, the Ultramarines suffered substantial losses to the ravenous xenos. |
Bakka - The Red Corsairs: Aiming to seize additional vessels for his Renegade fleet, the infamous Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Chaos warband of Red Corsairs Renegade Space Marines attacked the Imperial orbital shipyards at Bakka. At the height of the battle, a Grey Knights Strike Cruiser warped into the heart of the Red Corsairs fleet.Though the Space Marines inflicted substantial casualties upon the Renegades, they failed to kill Huron, whose fleet made its escape back into the Warp. The Bakka shipyards are saved, but Grey Knights Grand Master Mordrak's vengeance was left unsatisfied. |
Bakka - Drukhari Raids: In 999.M41, Drukhari raiders managed to raid the Imperial Navy's moorings orbiting Bakka. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Bakka Sub-sector: The Bakka Sub-sector is a Sub-sector of the Imperium of Man within the Milky Way Galaxy located in the Segmentum Tempestus. This Sub-sector is home to the vitally important Imperial Mining World/Forge World of Bakka, made famous across the galaxy by its orbiting shipyards, which have been in use to build new starships for the Imperial Navy since the early years of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.Bakka serves as the primary Segmentum Naval Base for Battlefleet Bakka, providing coordination for all Imperial Navy forces in the region and serving as the primary point of resupply and repair for all the Imperial battlefleets now operating in the Segmentum Tempestus. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Segmentum Tempestus: Segmentum Tempestus is one of the five Segmentum Majoris, the great Imperial administrative divisions of the galaxy. It lies to the galactic south of the central Segmentum Solar, between Segmentum Pacificus to the galactic west and the Segmentum Ultima to the galactic east. Here, matter is scarce and the Segmentum is mostly a dark and empty void dimly lit by scattered stars. Segmentum Tempestus is organised into 200 light-year cubes calledSectors. The Imperial Navy's Segmentum headquarters is located in a 15 light-year cuboid known as Sub-Sector Bakka, which is located on the main galactic star arm that passes through the east of the Segmentum.Segmentum Tempestus is mercifully free from proximity to a festering mass incursion from the Warp, such as the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom. As such, a Chaos incursion is usually a problem of raiders rather than the mass attack of a large Chaos Fleet of deranged Heretics. However, Tempestus is notorious for infestations of Genestealers, as well as assaults from Ork and Eldar raiders. There has, therefore, been a tendency for Tempestus battlefleets to concentrate on small flotilla anti-piracy tactics rather than Grand Fleet strategy.In the 36th Millennium, a group of Segmentum Tempestus tacticians, sometimes called the Gareox Prerogative because they were based at the Gareox Sector Base, came to prominence. This "Young School" proposed a complete change to Imperial fleets so that they would now be based on Attack Craft carriers rather than large ships of the line, as such tactics had proved highly effective against pirate squadrons. The arrogant Prerogative eventually gained enough political influctence within the Imperial Navy to control Imperial warship design and were able to order the construction of Attack Carrier warships such as the ill-fated Despoiler-class Battleships.This action brought them into conflict with the "Big-Gun Lobby" at Bakka. Political rivalry eventually led to outright civil war, the so-called Gareox Incident (Inquisita Classificationae Purgata Secrata, level sextus). A series of fleet actions demonstrated the superiority of Lance-armed warships over Attack Craft carriers and the Prerogative was purged and the Gareox Sector Base cleansed of their presence. In their bitterness, many of their supporters in the fleet turned to blasphemy and fled into the Warp. Only three Despoilers were built out of the fifteen orginally ordered and all ultimately became Traitors. This incident left a suspicion for Attack Carriers in Segmentum Tempestus battlefleets and even today there is a tendency for such fleets to favour big-gun ships of the line. This is particularly true of Battlefleet Bakka where the Big-Gun Lobby had reigned supreme. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Forge World Bakka: A young world, Bakka was colonised during the Dark Age of Technology by the restless agents of Mankind who claimed it for their own, greedy for its abundant and available mineral wealth. The surface of the planet consists of black island rafts of basalt and granite that float on a glowing viscous sea of cooling lava. Every so often, turbulent flow or a meteorite strike causes fresh magma to burst through the thin skin on the surface of the orange seas and throw incandescent fountains of yellow fire into the sky. The atmosphere is hot, arid and very poisonous; oxides of nitrous, sulphur and sodium mix with ammonia in spirals of yellow, brown and red fog. Giant, tracked machines extract minerals when convective flow forces important ores near the surface of the seas. The loss rate among the lava workers is substantial and commonly penitents and Heretics are assigned to the hazardous duty. The punishment for a penitent and a Heretic is the same, for though the God-Emperor rejoices at the righteous remorse of a penitent, the sin must still be cleansed by punishment.Permanent installations are built on the black rafts. In the reinforced adamantium walls of the fortress-like plants, ore is processed into usable materials. Heavy laser batteries are mounted on the strengthened roofs of the squat, dark structures to blast away meteors, and any of the Emperor's foes who might come calling. Most of the manufacturing facilities hang above the planet in geostationary orbit and there are also found the vast, sprawling dockyards of the Segmentum Tempestus Sector Naval Base. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Horus Heresy: Bakka is one of several locations where a combined Loyalist force of Space Wolves and Ultramarines faced a Traitor force composed of starships of the World Eaters, a single Thousand Sons starship and several vessels of the Saturnine Fleet in an attempt to destroy the massive Word Bearers Battleship called the Furious Abyss during the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. The Loyalist force was under the command of Captain Cestus of the Ultramarines. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Plague of Unbelief: During the early centuries of the 36th Millennium, many false prophets appeared throughout the anarchic Age of Apostasy, some little more than madmen leading rebel armies, others spiritual demagogues who commanded worlds and armies. The most powerful of these was the Apostate Cardinal of Gathalamor, Bucharis, whose heresies reached such proportions that they became known as the Plague of Unbelief. In 300.M36, Bakka was absorbed into this galaxy-spanning heresy, forming a minor pocket empire which was defined by its people's heretical belief that the Emperor was no longer able to rule the galaxy.This pocket empire stretched from Bakka in the galactic south to the Space Wolves' Chapter homeworld of Fenris in the galactic north. The back of this insurrection was eventually broken by the valour of the Space Wolves following the failure of the assault upon their Fortress-Monastery, The Fang, by Bucharis' forces. |
Bakka Sub-sector - First Tyrannic War: In 745.M41, the Imperium of Man first encountered the encroaching threat of the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth. Battlefleet Bakka was quickly dispatched from Bakka to lend aid in the valiant Imperial defence of the Ultramarines Chapter's homeworld of Macragge during the climactic Battle of Macragge. Though they ultimately emerged victorious from the conflict, the Ultramarines suffered substantial losses to the ravenous xenos. |
Bakka Sub-sector - The Red Corsairs: Aiming to seize additional vessels for his Renegade fleet, the infamous Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Chaos warband of Red Corsairs Renegade Space Marines attacked the Imperial orbital shipyards at Bakka. At the height of the battle, a Grey Knights Strike Cruiser warped into the heart of the Red Corsairs fleet. Though the Space Marines inflicted substantial casualties upon the Renegades, they failed to kill Huron, whose fleet made its escape back into the Warp. The Bakka shipyards were saved, but Grey Knights Grand Master Vorth Mordrak's vengeance was left unsatisfied. |
Bakka Sub-sector - Locations: Bakka - Mining World/Forge World. Sector Naval Base for Bakka Sub-Sector and Imperial Navy Fleet Headquarters and home of the Segmentum Command for the entire Segmentum Tempestus.Chakka - Hive World.Delta Prime - Civilised World.Hades - Mining World.Iometa - Agri-World.Ironika - Mining World.Lochan - Hive World.Nexus - Uninhabited World.No Return - Prison World.Seraka - Agri-World.Verdantia - Agri-World.Wightan - Agri-World.384/87/BS/SW54/1 - Uninhabited World. |
Bale - Bale: Bale was the Chaos Lord who brought the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, in the form of his Alpha Legion warband, to the Civilised World of Tartarus. He was pursuing the Chaos artefact known as the Maledictum for himself, and to better serve the goals of the Chaos Gods.Bale was an unusual Alpha Legion commander in that he much preferred a brutal and frontally aggressive combat doctrine rather than the subtle manipulation that was more in line with the modus operandi of the Alpha Legion. This unusual aggressiveness probably indicated that Bale had served as a battle champion for the Alpha Legion during the Horus Heresy and had come much more under the influence of Khorne than his fellow Alpha Legion Astartes.Bale believed that he was firmly in command of his warband on Tartarus; however, the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr who accompanied Bale to Tartarus was a more traditionally manipulative Alpha Legion leader who actually made all the important decisions during the Alpha Legion's time on the planet. Eventually Sindri left Bale to fight Gabriel Angelos by himself, so that when Bale was killed in the duel, his "sacrifice" to the Blood God added to the deaths needed to obtain the Maledictum. |
Bale - Wargear: Manreaper Power ScytheBolt Pistol |
Balecaster - Balecaster: Balecaster is an Imperial Feudal World in the Markayn Marches sub-sector of the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. Known to its inhabitants as "Skorn," the planet was settled by Mankind several millennia ago.The planet has never progressed beyond a medieval, pre-industrial level of technology and written records of its history are all but non-existent. |
Balecaster - Geography and Inhabitants: The Imperial Administratum believes that the first Human settlers arrived around the 35th Millennium, and displaced the local indigenous population of sentients who were at that time uncategorised as either xenos or Human.This is still a matter for conjecture, as some scholars have postulated an even earlier colonisation attempt around the 20th Millennium based on extrapolating the path of ancient colony ships.Regardless of their pedigree, the indigenous people discovered by the Human settlers and known as "Bonehunters" are a primitive race dedicated to barbaric pursuits. Conflict between Imperial citizens and the indigenous population is known to be frequent and bloody.Skorn consists of one main continent and two substantial islands, upon which there are three civilisations that the Imperium recognises. Encroaching on the northwestern island and dominating the central continent is Gotland, a grim land of even more grim people ruled by the tyrant King Regent Tileon.Spanning the edges of the western continent from north to south, and with pockets of settlement all over the planet are the Omorians, seers, dabblers, and Machiavellian plotters.On the eastern island and the most easterly portions of the western continent is Machria, a land with a violent martial history, as well as a staunch tradition of enslaving their enemies.Each civilisation seeks only to conquer the others, and they have existed like this for as far as the three peoples can remember. From this conflict has come many exceptional warriors suitable for recruitment by the Astra Militarum.Recruitment of entire regiments are regular events, and all the local rulers ask for in return is enough high-technology to keep their strangleholds on power. On Skorn, a warrior with a mere lasgun will have a great advantage over his adversaries. |
Balecaster - Ecology: The ecology of Skorn is mostly native, with only a few introduced species including bovines (grox), equines, and canines. The apex-predators of the world are the Bonehunters, because they are both savage and possessed of a degenerated Human intelligence that makes them cunning and unpredictable.The only creatures that rival the Bonehunters, at least in wilderness areas, are the numerous unclassified species of large native cats, similar to Terran tigers but possessed of larger incisors and having shaggy pelts that are more suited to camouflage.Poisonous insects and invertebrates are uncommon, mainly being found in the desert regions, particularly scorpions and poisonous catcher-plants. The skies of Skorn are no less peaceful than the land or the sea, and raptors are so plentiful that they often resort to hunting each other for food.The largest aerial predator is a black, night-hunting bird with large forward facing eyes, like an owl, possessing over-developed claws and incredibly powerful legs that can break a Human's arm. Small animals are locked up at night, but larger animals that herd are usually safe if in numbers and if carefully watched. |
Balecaster - The Knights of the Star Sanctum: The Knights of the Star Sanctum are an elite order of trident-armed warriors, decked in all-encasing bloodshine armour. They are the most powerful military force on Balecaster and to go against the king would bring down the fury of the Star Sanctum.The Star Sanctum's origins are murky at best and there are numerous explanations about how they came into existence, many of which are at odds with one another.By far the most popular story is that the knights were once a warrior cult comprised of the best warriors from amongst the primitive tribes that roamed the world's central continent.While it's not clear what brought these warriors together -- the most contentious part of their legends -- what is known is that they met in a hidden chamber far below the planet's surface, a place known as the Star Sanctum.There, the knights codified the purpose of their order and mastered the fighting arts of their preferred weapons. Their detractors claim that far more than just their fighting style originated from this legendary chamber, and all sorts of stories about human sacrifice, worship of unspeakable forces and perverted rituals abound.That the knights remain silent on their origins does little to refute these claims, though their fierce reputation is enough to keep their enemies from voicing their theories in a more public forum. |
Baleflamer - Baleflamer: The Baleflamer is a daemonic Flamer Weapon that is employed by some Daemon Engines. The Baleflamer takes the shape of a large projector muzzle that is usually located within the Daemon Engine's mouth.The only current recorded use of the Baleflamer is by the Daemon Engine in the service of some Chaos Space Marine warbands known as a Heldrake.The Heldrake usually is armed with either a Baleflamer or a Hades Autocannon in its mouth. The weapon is fuelled by the dark Warp fires that burn within the beast's chest, and when unleashed the burning ichor that flows forth and rains down upon the creature's target ignites flesh and soul alike. |
Baleflamer - Sources: White Dwarf 394 (UK), pp. 8-10Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 52, 65 |
Balefortress - Balefortress: The Balefortress is a watch fortress of the Deathwatch Chapter located in the Thresnia Sector. The Balefortress is perhaps the last Imperial bulwark left that can stop the Ork WAAAGH! Nakkaslash from capsizing the sector.It is commanded by Watch Master Alathresis, who was seconded from the Novamarines Chapter. |
Baleful Eye - Baleful Eye: The Baleful Eye is a Chaos Space Marine warband that has risen to prominence within the Screaming Vortex within the Calixis Sector. They are suspected of being descended from the Night Lords Traitor Legion.These piratical raiders are known for ambushing their prey and prefer rapid and brutal boarding actions. Their voidships are adorned with cruel spikes and trophies of past conquests, while the red and midnight blue hull prominently displays images of a great glaring yellow eye.The raiders never leave any survivors and their victims' corpses are said to have looks of stark terror on their faces. What they witnessed can only be speculated upon, as every video log, pict-catcher, and eyeball is removed from the target vessel. |
Baleful Eye - Warband Colours: The Baleful Eye warband's colours are a blood red and midnight blue, similar to their Night Lords parent legion. |
Baleful Eye - Warband Badge : The Baleful Eye warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Baleful Sword - Baleful Sword: A Baleful Sword is a potent blade infused with the energy of the Warp that is sacred to the Chaos God Tzeentch. It is often wielded by his servants, including his Greater Daemons, the Lords of Change. |
Balemace - Balemace: A Balemace is a Chaos Knight-sized melee weapon deployed in the form of a tail on a Knight Abominant. Like the tails sometimes grown by Chaos Titans, the Balemace is found on those Chaos Knights like the Knight Abominant that have been heavily warped by the powers of the Immaterium. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Baleq Uthizzar: Baleq Uthizzar was the Captain of the 5th Fellowship of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion during the latter days of the Great Crusade and the beginning of the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. He obtained his rank following the death of Captain Apophis during the bloody Kamenka Troika Campaign against the Orks. Uthizzar also served as the XV Legion's Magister Templi of its Athanaean Cult. Following the Council of Nikaea where the Emperor proclaimed a Decree Absolute against the use of psychic powers and the continued forbidden study of the arcane, Magnus continued to dabble with forbidden knowledge despite his father's decree.When the Thousand Sons' Primarch failed to save the Warmaster Horus' soul from being corrupted by the Ruinous Powers, he utilised his own psychic abilities to get a message to the Imperial Palace on Terra by directly contacting the Emperor mind-to-mind, though this ruptured the Palace's considerable psychic defenses and killed thousands of people whose minds were unable to handle Magnus' potent psychic call. But the Emperor refused to believe that his favorite son Horus would ever betray his trust and so he assumed that it was Magnus who had been corrupted by the Chaos Gods since he was once again using the sorcerous powers that had been banned by the Council of Nikaea. Believing that Magnus sought to sow dissension in the Imperium to serve his masters in the Warp, the Emperor ordered the Space Wolves Legion to go to Prospero and bring back Magnus to Terra.When Uthizzar accidentally discovered the inevitable attack by the Space Wolves by inadvertently reading his Primarch's thoughts, he was shocked that his gene-sire would withhold such information from his sons. Remorseful at his actions and resigned to his fate, Magnus could not allow Uthizzar to reveal the truth, and so killed him with his powerful psychic abilities. |
Baleq Uthizzar - History: Baleq Uthizzar was born on the world of Prospero, and joined the ranks of the XV Legion, newly renamed the Thousand Sons, after they were reunited with their lost gene-sire. He was a member of one of the earliest intakes of potential Neophytes. His early career as an Astartes is not well known, for he first appeared in recorded history when he was seconded to the feral Space Wolves Legion on their icy homeworld of Fenris. As part of their training, all Captains of a Fellowship undertook a secondment to another Legion to learn its ways and further the Thousand Sons' understanding of the galaxy. Uthizzar's secondment had been amongst the shortest ever served, lasting a little less than a Terran year. None of his counterparts among the other Fellowship captains were ever sure whether the Space Wolves or Uthizzar had ended the exchange.Members of the Athanaean Cult like Uthizzar generally shunned large gatherings or those whose thoughts were too loud, too brutal, too jagged and too raucous. Uthizzar had not exactly been forthcoming after his secondment had ended. Most assumed the grand tales and hyperbolic praise heaped upon the sons of Leman Russ were the exaggeration of storytellers. But when the Thousand Sons met a small contingent of Space Wolves on the world of Aghoru during the Great Crusade, they quickly realised that was not so. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Great Crusade: By the middle years of the Great Crusade Uthizzar had already risen to the esteemed rank of Captain of the 5th Fellowship following the death of his predecessor Apophis during the bloody campaigns of extermination waged against the barbaric Orks of the world of Kamenka Troika. The Emperor had issued the writs of war, commanding the Thousand Sons, the Titans of the Legio Astorum and a Lifehost of PanPac Eugenians to drive that savage race of xenos from the three satellite planets of Kamenka Ulizarna, a Forge World claimed by the Mechanicum of Mars. Uthizaar remembered well the savagery of that war, the slaughter and relentless, grinding attrition that left tens of thousands dead in its wake. Imperial forces had been victorious after two standard years of fighting and earned a score of honours for the war banners. Victory had been won, but the cost had been high. Eight hundred and seventy-three warriors of the Thousand Sons had died, forcing Magnus so reduce his Legion from ten Fellowships to the Pesedjet, the nine Fellowships of antiquity. Amongst the casualties was Apophis, Captain of the 5th Fellowship and Chief Librarian Ahzek Ahriman's oldest friend. Uthizzar was raised to take over command of the 5th Fellowship by Magnus himself.Uthizzar also served as the Magister Templi of the Athanaean Cult. The Athanaean Cult's members were practiced masters of the discipline of telepathy, and were able to transmit their thoughts and read the thoughts of others. They often acted as the Legion's communications officers since their communications were secure from all but other psykers and they assisted the Corvidae Cult in conducting intelligence operations based on psychically-gleaned knowledge. While the Corvidae could provide an overall strategic direction based on their reading of the likely probabilities of future events occurring, the Athanaeans could use their ability to read the minds of the enemy to shape the XV Legion's battlefield tactics more directly, through weapon choice, the types of troops to be deployed and where, and the choice of the most advantageous terrain. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Aghoru Campaign: Baleq Uthizzar took part in the Imperial Compliance action of the world of Aghoru (officially codified in Imperial records as 28-16). This action was carried out by units of the Thousand Sons Legion who managed to achieve Compliance through simple diplomacy without bloodshed and was thus considered a great success. Secondary combat operations were carried out against apparent Warp denizen infestation (beings known to the local population as "Elohim") within the subterranean passages of a titanic peak that stood taller than Olympic Mons on Mars.The Thousand Sons forces were further enhanced by a small unit drawn from the Space Wolves Legion during this operation. At the height of these combat operations, the joint-Astartes forces faced off against a pair of unidentified Chaos-corrupted xenos combat walkers similar to Titans. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Ark Reach Cluster Campaign: The Ark Reach Cluster had been discovered by the Word Bearers Legion's 47th Expeditionary Fleet; it was a group of binary stars occupied by a number of belligerent human planetary empires that rejected the Imperium's offer to become part of the Emperor's growing demesne. This Imperial Compliance action of the Great Crusade was carried out through the combined efforts of the Thousand Sons working in concert with elements from the Space Wolves and the Word Bearers Legions. The first four star systems fell to the Word Bearers and Space Wolves. But the fifth and sixth proved more difficult, especially on the world of Helios, the cardinal world of the Avenian Empire. The Avenians were graceful and fine-boned, their facial features sharp and angular, like the mountains in which they lived. Their bodies appeared weak and fragile, but that was a lie. Autopsies had discovered bones that were flexible and strong, and their armour was augmented with fibre-bundle muscles not dissimilar to those within Astartes Power Armour.Ark Reach Secundus was the Imperial Cartographe designation for this world, a convenient label that began the process of assimilation before envoys were even despatched or shots fired in anger. Its people called it Heliosa, but the Imperial Army had another name for it, a name synonymous with the razor-beaked killers that were the bane of soldiers forced to assault the aerie fortresses. They called it Shrike. The Thousand Sons soon proved to be instrumental in breaking open the defences of the Ark Reach Cluster, their additional weight of force tipping the balance of war in favour of the Imperium. While the Word Bearers quelled the civilian population of outlying mountain cities, the Thousand Sons cleared a path for the Space Wolves to deliver the deathblow to the heart of the Avenian Empire. Only the settlement of Phoenix Crag remained and the world would be brought into successful Compliance.The Primarchs had met the previous evening to discuss how best to assault Phoenix Crag, Leman Russ and Lorgar were both eager to utterly eradicate the city, though for very different reasons. Russ simply because it stood against him, Lorgar because its ignorance of the Emperor offended him. It would be hard to imagine three more different brothers: Russ with the bestial mask he thought fooled everyone with its bellicose savagery, and Lorgar with his altogether subtler mask that hid a face even Magnus could not fully discern. They had spoken long into the night, each of his brothers vying for the upper hand. Phoenix Crag would not be like the other mountain cities of Heliosa, its records destroyed, its artefacts smashed and its importance forgotten. Magnus would save the history of this isolated outpost of humanity, and reclaim its place in the grand pageant of human endeavour. This world had survived the nightmare of Old Night, and deserved no less.The following day both the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves Legions, each lead by their prospective Primarch, assaulted the final bastion of resistance. Ahriman's 1st Fellowship linked with Hathor Maat's 3rd in a gorge of artisans' workshops, and scout elements of the Prospero Spireguard joined them in a region of hollowed out silo peaks. Uthizzar and his 5th Fellowship formed up alongside the three hundred warriors of Ahriman's Sekhmet Terminators and veterans of the Scarab Occult. Uthizzar and his fellow Athanaeans played an instrumental role during the campaign as they were able to read the thoughts of their enemies and telepathically communicate their intentions to their fellow battle-brothers, giving them an edge during the fighting. Leman Russ and his 1st Great Company had dropped directly onto the silver mountain's highest peak, extinguishing its eternal flame and toppling the symbols of rulership. The hearthguard of the Phoenix Court valiantly opposed the surging, unstoppable force of the Space Wolves, but they had been torn to scraps and hurled from the mountaintop. The defeated Avenian kings offered terms of surrender, but Leman Russ was deaf to such pleas.He had sworn words of doom upon his Legion's Grand Annulus, and the Wolf King would never break an oath for something as trivial as mercy. The Space Wolves tore down through the mountain, an unstoppable force of nature, their blades and bolts gutting the defenders' ranks like a butcher with a fresh carcass. Nothing was left in their wake, the mountain city a work of art vandalised by thoughtless brutality and wanton savagery. Behind the warriors of Russ was only death, and before them was their next target for destruction: the Great Library of the Phoenix Crag, where Magnus the Red and Phosis T'Kar's 2nd Fellowship stood in ordered ranks. Finally, the Space Wolves rampage was halted.Enraged at what he perceived as his brother's betrayal, the Wolf King let forth with a howl of pure rage, cold jagged and merciless. It was the rage of a hunter's fury denied. The force of psychic might was too powerful for any normal mind, and killed many battle-brothers within the ranks of the Thousand Sons. This psychic shockwave killed almost every Athanaean in the 2nd Fellowship, and most of the ones that weren't killed outright were reduced to drooling lackwits. Uthizzar and the rest of his fellow battle-brothers were nearly overwhelmed by the powerful psychic shockwave. Quickly, Ahriman's, Maat's and Uthizaar's forces linked up with their fellow battle-brothers to assist in forming a line of defence against the battle-crazed Space Wolves. The Great Company of Amlodhi Skarssen charged the implacable and immovable bulwark formed by the Thousand Sons, their charge unstoppable, elemental power. Enraged by his feral brother's shortsightedness, Magnus was more than willing to kill every last Space Wolf in order to preserve the knowledge within the Phoenix Crag. For though the Thousand Sons had not started this fight, they would more than be happy to finish it. Magnus ordered Maat and the Pavoni of the 3rd Fellowship to take the Wolves down.The captain of the 3rd Fellowship hammered a fist into his chest and directed his ferocious will to aiding his battle-brothers. Brother Hastar stood next to him as his fellow warriors of the Pavoni unleashed the full force of their bio-manipulation. Unseen currents of aetheric energy sliced into the Space Wolves, blocking neural transmitters, redirecting electrical impulses in the brain and rapidly deoxygenating the blood flowing from their lungs. The effect was instantaneous. The Space Wolves' push faltered as their bodies rebelled. Limbs spasmed, heart muscles fibrillated and warriors lost all physical autonomy, jerking like the maddened dolls of a demented puppeteer. Chief Librarian Ahriman tried to talk some sense into his gene-sire, before the situation spun out of control.The fighting only ceased when Hastar, an Astartes of the 1st Fellowship, underwent the cursed "flesh-change" during the battle. Ahriman and one of his fellow Captains fought to hold Hastar's body down, but the changes wracking his body were as apocalyptic as they were catastrophic. With the gurgle of wet meat and the crack of malformed bones, Hastar's body was suddenly upright, though any semblance of limbs was impossible to pick out in his erupting flesh. Swelling bulk and crackling energy patterns writhed across his flesh, and his screams turned to bubbling gibbers of maniacal laughter. The Thousand Sons scattered from Hastar's terrible new form, horrified and terrified in equal measure. This was their greatest fear returned to haunt them, a horror from their past long thought buried. A dreadful, wracking sickness quickly seized all the other Thousand Sons present and their innards began to rebel against their fixed shapes, their entire bodies trembling with desire for new form. A surging wave of power erupted as Magnus the Red stepped towards the hideously transformed Hastar. Unchecked energy had destroyed the warrior of the Pavoni, but it empowered Magnus.The creature Hastar had become reached out to Magnus, as though to embrace him, and the Primarch opened his arms to receive him with forgiveness and mercy. But before the Crimson King could help his stricken son, a thunderous bang sounded and Hastar's body exploded as a single, explosive round detonated within his chest. This was one of the first ever recorded acts of violence of an Astartes killing another and the first known time a member of the Thousand Sons Legion was killed by a member of the Space Wolves Legion. Only through the timely intervention of Lorgar did the two Primarchs not come to blows. This act of calculated brutality was the first wedge to be driven between Leman Russ and Magnus the Red. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Triumph of Ullanor: Four solar months after the collapse of resistance on Shrike, word came that the last text of the Phoenix Crag library had been copied into the archive stacks of the Photep. A day later, the 28th Expeditionary Fleet broke orbit, and Magnus the Red gave the order to make best speed for an isolated shoal of spatial debris in the galactic east of the Ark Reach. The various shipmasters of the 28th Expedition queried the coordinates, as they were far from the calculated system jump point, but Magnus’ order was confirmed. This region of space would allow their vessels a calmer entry to the Great Ocean, and only when the fleet had reached this newly declared jump point did Magnus reveal their ultimate destination. The 28th Expedition had been summoned to the Ullanor System, and excitement spread through the fleet at the prospect of joining the war against the Greenskin. More thrilling was the prospect of joining forces with the Emperor Himself, who fought in the forefront of the Ullanor Crusade, smiting the savage foe alongside Horus Lupercal. Hopes of glory to be earned and battles to be fought were dashed, only to be replaced by awe, as it became known that the campaign was already over. The war against the Greenskins of Ullanor had been projected to last for standard years, decades even. The Emperor's summons was not in the name of war, but of victory.The Thousand Sons were to stand with many of their brother Legions in a Great Triumph honouring the Emperor's victory, a spectacle the likes of which the galaxy would never see again. Under Magnus' expert direction, the fleet Navigators plotted a razor's course for the Ullanor System. Fourteen Space Marine Legions had answered the Emperor's summons, a 100,000 of the greatest warriors in all human history, and nine of the Primarchs were in attendance, the rest too scattered by the demands of the Crusade to reach Ullanor in time. Eight million soldiers of the Imperial Army had come, and a dizzying plethora of banners, battle flags, trophy standards and icon poles were rammed into the ground in the centre of each armed camp. They stood proud alongside thousands of armoured vehicles and hundreds of Titans of the Legio Titanicus. Towering above the mortal soldiers, the treads of the mighty battle engines were like a city of steel on the march. The Thousand Sons were amongst the last Legion forces to make planetfall. The entire continent sweltered like a blacksmith's forge, the hammer of history ready to beat the soft metal of existence into its new form. Only an event of galaxy-changing magnitude could warrant such a spectacle. Only the greatest being in the galaxy could inspire such devotion. This was to be a gathering like no other.Horus was to be given the new honour of an Imperial title above and beyond any that had been bestowed before; a title, it could be said, that would forever carry the echo of his name. After declaring Horus as Imperial Warmaster and the new supreme commander of the Great Crusade, the Emperor, to the shock of those assembled, announced his own intention to return to Terra to pursue a secret project intended to benefit all Mankind. After more than 200 standard years of hard conflict by the early 31st Millennium, over two million human-settled worlds across the Milky Way Galaxy had been reclaimed by the Emperor in the name of the Imperium of Man. Beside Him stood the Primarch Horus, who had fought alongside the Emperor for the early part of the Great Crusade as His only rediscovered son and primary military commander, glorying in the singular attentions of his father. The long wars had forged a strong bond between them, and they were truly father and son. But now the Emperor had to consolidate His newborn Imperium, and undertake the next phase of His Grand Plan for humanity.At this announcement there was much shock and outrage. Many of the other Primarchs did not understand why the Emperor was leaving them to fight the enemies of Mankind alone and, worse still, why Horus should be raised as the first amongst equals. The situation only grew worse when the Emperor announced that He would be creating a civilian administrative bureaucracy known as the Council of Terra that was comprised of Imperial bureaucrats and nobles to carry out the day-to-day governmental affairs of the Imperium, replacing the direct rule of the Emperor while He was engaged in his secret Imperial Webway Project. The Council of Terra would implement and administer the new galaxy-wide tax of resources and manpower called the Imperial Tithe and other matters of day-to-day law in the burgeoning Imperium of Man. The Primarchs would be relegated to a primarily military role as the Imperium's most preeminent commanders.Many of the Primarchs, including Horus, were deeply disturbed that their father would make them subject to normal men and women who had never shed blood in the establishment or expansion of the Imperium and that he would remove them from the political positions of rule to which they believed they were entitled. The Emperor had sought to create a civilian bureaucracy for the Imperium precisely because he wanted regular human beings to learn to govern themselves once more and not become beholden to a permanent, genetically-enhanced ruling class. The Chaos Gods would ultimately use the Primarchs' resentment as one of the all-too-human weaknesses they could exploit to corrupt half their number. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Council of Nikaea: As the Great Crusade progressed, some of the Primarchs voiced their dissent that so-called "psyker" Astartes were allowed to exist and be a part of the Emperor's righteous Great Crusade. Rumours and condemnations began to spread about the Thousand Sons Legion amongst the other Expeditionary Fleets. The most vocal of these detractors were the Primarchs of the Death Guard, Imperial Fists and Raven Guard Legions. The majority of the Astartes of the XV Legion had been afflicted by the rampant genetic mutation within their ranks early in their existence. Those that still remained unafflicted had seen their psychic abilities increase dramatically in power level. Soon the Thousands Sons' detractors raised their objections to the Emperor Himself, calling for the XV Legion's disbandment and for the Legion to be expunged from Imperial records like the II and XI Legions.The Emperor was also displeased by the Thousand Sons' dabblings in manipulating the corrupting powers of the Warp and later forbid the use of sorcery by either Magnus the Red or the members of his Legion after an Imperial Conclave was called on the world of Nikaea to deal with the question of psykers. When a consensus emerged among the Council of Nikaea's participants that psykers and their powers represented a potential danger to the people of the Imperium, the Emperor's edicts were that in the interest of unity, no one was to be censured for prior actions involving the use of psychic abilities. However, the future use of psychic abilities by the Imperium's military forces was banned (except the use of Astropaths, Navigators, and very strictly sanctioned and controlled psykers who were authorised to carry out Imperial business, like the Sisters of Silence). All Astartes Legion Librarians were to be disbanded, and their members returned to conventional combat duty. In effect, Magnus and the Thousand Sons were banned from practicing "sorcery" or using the psychic abilities and knowledge they so coveted. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Horus Heresy: As one of Magnus' senior Captains, Baleq Uthizzar had the honour of escorting his Primarch to the Council of Nikaea, and stood resolutely at his Primarch's side during the Emperor's pronouncement against the further use of psyhic abilities or the pursuit of forbidden knowledge in regards to the Warp. Following the Emperor's Decree Absolute, Magnus and his Thousand Sons couldn't depart Nikaea fast enough. The bulk of the XV Legion returned to the homeworld, and unknown to them, events would soon transpire that would prevent them from ever leaving it again. Despite the Emperor's decree, Magnus continued his forbidden pursuit of knowledge into the arcane. Meanwhile the other Legions continued to earn glory in battle; the Emperor's Children were on Laeran, the Luna Wolves on One-Forty-Twenty, the Ultramarines at Mescalor. It had been over two years since the Ark Reach campaign and yet the Thousand Sons sat idle while their brothers made war. The Primarch has had all his warriors buried in their cult's libraries since they had got back. Magnus had been keeping a monstrous secret from his captains while he worked feverishly and alone in his private library and the vaults beneath the Prosperine capital city of Tizca. Amon and Ankhu Anen, Guardian of the Great Library of Prospero and member of the Corvidae Cult, had shared Ahriman's knowledge that something was wrong, but even their combined power was unable to pierce the veils of the future to see what so concerned their Primarch.Gathering the members of the Rehati within his private sanctum, Magnus revealed to his sons that he had foreseen a terrifying vision of the Warmaster Horus falling from grace and dragging the burgeoning Imperium of Man into a war more terrible than any of them could imagine -- an Age of Darkness that had been prophesied tens of thousands of standard years before by the ancient Aegyptos of Old Terra. Even before the council had begun and Magnus revealed his terrifying vision, Uthizzar was crumpled by the weight of unimaginable treachery yet to come as he felt the Primarch's sense of betrayed grief as his own. Though he did not exactly know the means by which Horus would fall, all he could perceive from his vision is that something primordial and corrupt would take root in his soul. Magnus had foreseen that the Luna Wolves Legion would soon be making war on a moon of Davin, and the fates were conspiring to fell Horus with a weapon of dreadful sentience. In his weakened and blinded state, the enemies of all life would make their move to ensnare his warrior heart. Without the intervention of the Thousand Sons, they would succeed and split the galaxy asunder. The works that Magnus had Amon researching since the Council of Nikaea held the key to Horus Lupercal's salvation. With the help of his Fellowship Captains, Magnus projected himself across the Warp and attempt to shield his brother from his enemies. Unfortunately, the Primarch failed and Horus' soul was corrupted by the Ruinous Powers. |
Baleq Uthizzar - Burning of Prospero: When Magnus the Red learned of Horus' betrayal of the Imperium and his decision to give his loyalty to the Dark Gods, he used his own psychic abilities to get a message to the Imperial Palace on Terra by directly contacting the Emperor mind-to-mind, though this ruptured the Palace's considerable psychic defenses and killed thousands of people whose minds were unable to handle Magnus' potent psychic call. But the Emperor refused to believe that His favorite son Horus would ever betray His trust and so He assumed that it was Magnus who had been corrupted by the Chaos Gods since he was once again using the sorcerous powers that had been banned by the Council of Nikaea. Believing that Magnus sought to sow dissension in the Imperium to serve his masters in the Warp, the Emperor ordered the Space Wolves Legion to go to Prospero and bring back Magnus to Terra, so he could give account for his actions. But this was not to be, as the corrupted Warmaster Horus had intercepted the Emperor's communique with Russ' Legion and subtly manipulated their orders. Instead of just arresting the offending Primarch Magnus for his transgressions and bringing him back to the Emperor for censure and punishment for breaking his oath never to use his psychic powers again, Horus changed their orders to read that the Space Wolves were to assault the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero. Magnus had psychically foreseen the Loyalist Space Marines' attack on Prospero, which was eventually carried out by the Space Wolves Legion, elements of the Emperor's Legio Custodes, and millions of Imperial Army troops, all assisted by the Sisters of Silence acting as psychic "blanks" in order to nullify the Thousand Sons' psychic abilities.Magnus had finally understood, after his forced psychic entry into the Hall of the Golden Throne and his direct mental communication with the Emperor, that he had been manipulated by Tzeentch, with whom he had apparently unknowingly consorted with while desperately looking for a way to stop the emergence of the psychic mutations that were threatening to destroy his Legion. While the Primarch was within his sanctum he was confronted by the ancient entity that had granted him the means of saving his Legion from the ravages of the "flesh-change". Unknown to Magnus, this was the Changer of Ways, the Architect of Fate himself. It was the Chaos God Tzeentch. The entity informed the Primarch that this boon was now over and that he had now come to claim Magnus's soul. He showed the Primarch visions of the future, of the Golden Throne and the howling, withered cadaver that sat upon it, its once-mighty flesh blackened and matastasised. This was to be the Primarch's fate. But unknown to Magnus, this was a lie, for the being he had seen sitting upon the Golden Throne was none other than his father, the Emperor. The entity then informed that the Emperor's Wolves were even now coming for him. His anger boiling over, Magnus filled his chamber with billowing flames, burning everything within to cinders. Only the Book of Magnus remained inviolate, its pages impervious to the killing fire.The Primarch had no knowledge of how much time had passed when he heard the crash of his door breaking open. He looked up to see Uthizzar enter his chambers, his youthful features shocked at the devastation he saw within. A squad of Scarab Occult came with him, their visors marred by a single vertical slash that obscured the right eye lenses of their helmets. Magnus had heard that the tradition had become commonplace after the Council of Nikaea, but to see such a visible sign of his sons' devotion was a poisoned barb in his heart. The Primarch ordered the young captain to leave his chambers. Magnus raised a warding hand, his grief threatening to overwhelm him as he thought of all he had seen and all that the monstrous god of the Warp had shown him. Uthizzar staggered as the full force of Magnus' thoughts struck him like a blow. Magnus veiled his mind from the young telepath, but it was too late. Uthizzar knew it all. Shocked at his Primarch's betrayal, he began to leave so that he could warn the rest of the XV Legion of the impending attack. Suddenly a wall of unbreakable force sprang up before Uthizzar and his warriors, trapping them within his scorched and smoking chambers. With regret, Magnus unleashed his baleful powers against his sons, ending their lives.In an act of repentance and sacrifice, and to show his father that he and his Legion were loyal to the end, Magnus did not warn the defenders of the planet or his Legion of the coming Imperial attack; on the contrary, he imposed a psychic veil on the planet so the Thousand Sons would have no clue of the impending assault. He also dispersed the Thousand Sons' Legion fleet far away from Prospero. He knew that Tzeentch wanted the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves to slaughter each other, and he wanted to stop these plans, even if it meant the sacrifice of his Legion and homeworld.Therefore, the Space Wolves' attack on the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero came as a complete surprise. Because there was no warning, the invading fleet translated from the Warp into realspace practically on top of the planet, and quickly destroyed its orbital defences, initiating the great campaign of the Horus Heresy known as the Fall of Prospero to Imperial historians. |
Balesword - Balesword: A Balesword is a Daemon Weapon of Nurgle. These plague-infected blades are favoured melee weapons of the Heralds of Nurgle called Poxbringers and the Blightlord Terminators of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. |
Balistus Grenade Launcher - Balistus Grenade Launcher: A Balistus Grenade Launcher is a type of Grenade Launcher used by the warriors of the Adeptus Custodes whose grenades excel at piercing armour.These Grenade Launchers are fed by a drum mechanism that can be triggered by its Custodian users with but a thought, spitting salvoes of sanctified projectiles in saturation patterns through ranks of the enemy.Balistus Grenade Launchers are also capable of launching Concussion Grenades that explode amidst blows of electroexorcist chaff and overwhelming sound and light. Enemies subjected to these barrages are sent reeling, their weapons and equipment falter, their senses rebelling against the onslaught as they spasm in pain. |
Balistus Grenade Launcher - Notable Balistus Grenade Launchers: Obliteratum - The Obliteratum is a dreaded Balistus Grenade Launcher that incorporates several forbidden technologies whose possession would be death to any Imperial servants beyond the Adeptus Custodes. It fires concentrated antimatter, compressed within splinterglass canisters that shatter upon impact and cause the Obliteratum's victims to vanish in terrifying eruptions of nothingness. |
Balor-Attal Conglomerate - Balor-Attal Conglomerate: The Balor-Attal Conglomerate is a league of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. It began to politically disintegrate after its Votann degenerated to become little more than a Fane. |
Balor-Attal Conglomerate - History: Sometimes a Votann, the self-aware machine intelligences that govern the Leagues of Votann, degenerates so badly that they become little more than Fanes, the complex cogitators used by the Kin's Grimnyr to interface and communicate with their Ancestor Cores.To witness such a decline is a terrible tragedy to the Kin. Alliances such as the Kapellan League or the now-disintegrating Balor-Attal Conglomerate endured long Terran years of mourning after their Ancestor Cores suffered this terrible fate. |
Balor-Attal Conglomerate - Trivia: A "Balrog" was an evil Maia or lesser, embodied spirit being in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth that was associated with fire, often armed with a flaming sword and a cruel, barbed whip. The Balrogs were among the most powerful servants of the evil Dark Lord Morgoth. It was a Balrog that the wizard Gandalf met and fought with beneath the dwarven hold of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring.The term Balrog was also used by TSR, Inc. in early editions of Dungeons & Dragons as a powerful demon lord of the Abyss, but similarly to the way in which Games Workshop eventually changed the name of the Eldar to "Aeldari" to avoid copyright infringement claims from the Tolkien Estate, so did TSR change their version of Balrogs to the copyright-amenable "Balor," which this Kin league's name may reference.Alternatively the name may also be a reference from the Cornish language in the real world. The Cornish, inhabitants of the southeastern region of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, were world leaders in mining technologies in the 19th century, with emigration from Cornwall being responsible for the establishment of many mining sites worldwide. In this case, the name of the Balor-Attal Conglomerate would be derived from the phrase bal-or-atal or "rubbish border mines" in Cornish. |
Balthasar - Balthasar: Balthasar was the former Master of the Dark Angels Chapter's 5th Company, "The Unrelenting," and the Keeper of the Unseen Ritual.Balthasar was originally a Deathwing Sergeant who succeeded his mentor Master Zadakiel as the commander of the 5th Company after Zadakiel died at the hands of the Crimson Slaughter warband of Heretic Astartes.His lifetime of servitude to the Deathwing honed Balthasar into a crafty and cunning tactician. He held a strong desire for vengeance against the Crimson Slaughter for murdering his mentor.Balthasar is known amongst the Inner Circle of the Chapter for his low tolerance for psykers, although his negative opinions of the Dark Angels' own Librarians were more due to his conviction that their psychic powers were the only reason why they were chosen to become Space Marines, rather than skill in battle.Balthsar was slain in the period immediately following the opening of the Great Rift and replaced as Master of the 5th Company by Master Lazarus, the first Dark Angel Firstborn Space Marine to cross the Rubicon Primaris and ascend to become a Primaris Marine. |
Balthasar - History: Balthasar grew up on one of the thousands of worlds that the Dark Angels swore an oath to protect and, in turn, draw Aspirants from. That world had labored under the oppression of a psychic cult until it was brought down by a resistance movement, of which Balthasar was a member. This is what led to Balthasar's later extreme distrust of psykers.When Balthasar was a Sergeant of the 5th Company, he took part in the Battle of Honoria. During the mission, Ezekiel was tasked by Grand Master Danatheum to assess whether Balthasar should ascend to the Deathwing (a replacement was needed following the death of the Veteran Joadar).During the defence of Honoria's capital city, Aurelianum, the then-Master of the 5th Company Zadakiel was wounded by the Ork Warboss Groblonik. Although he survived, Zadakiel had to enter a Sus-an Membrane-induced healing coma; Balthasar assumed acting command of the 5th Company for the remainder of the Dark Angels' time on Honoria. Although Ezekiel decided that Balthasar was worthy of a position in the Deathwing, impressed by his actions on Honoria, the Librarian thought Balthasar was not yet ready for the position.Balthsar also served in the Pandorax Campaign, during which he was responsible for capturing Corpulax, a Plague Marine and Chaos Lord of the Black Legion who had once been an Astartes of the Consecrators Chapter. Balthasar decapitated the Chaos Lord and for this deed earned a new position deeper within the Dark Angels' Inner Circle as part of the elite Deathwing.While a member of the Veteran 1st Company, Balthasar was seconded to the Deathwatch for a period of 12 standard years. He was part of a Kill-team sent by an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos to investigate the remains of the destroyed Aeldari Craftworld known as Kher-Ys.Within the craftworld's Infinity Circuit, they found the Ruin of Kher-Ys -- the Spirit Stone of the Aeldari whose actions allowed the daemon called "Heartslayer" to manifest on the craftworld. Balthasar and his Watch Captain were the only two members of the Kill-team alive by that point, and it was the Watch Captain's intent to turn the Spirit Stone over to the Ordo Xenos. However, Balthasar and the Inquisitor killed the Watch Captain, revealing that the mission had always been to secure the stone for the Dark Angels alone.The Inquisitor died shortly afterwards, succumbing to the wounds she had sustained when she was stabbed by a Keeper of Secrets. With her last words, she asked Balthasar to tell Supreme Grand Master Azrael that her debt to the Dark Angels was paid.Upon returning to The Rock, Balthasar was questioned about the mission by Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai. His superiors were satisfied with his work in the Deathwatch and Balthasar returned to the ranks of the Deathwing with none of his Battle-Brothers learning of his mission.After returning to the Chapter, Balthasar was assigned to a Deathwing force attached to the 5th Company led by his former Master Zadakiel to the world of Stern's Remembrance where they discovered the notorious Fallen Angel Attias the Untamed, who then attempted to warn his erstwhile brothers that it was all an elaborate trap and that they should take their leave.The Dark Angels took Attias into custody and attempted to return off-planet, but as they made their way back to their Thunderhawks the trap was sprung. A massive Drop Pod assault was launched by the Chaos warband known as the Crimson Slaughter while their allied Chaos Cultists surrounded the outnumbered Dark Angels.In the ensuing battle, the Dark Angels reluctantly freed Attias, allowing him to fight by their side in order to survive the Heretic Astartes' onslaught. As Zadakiel was about to board the hovering gunship, the Helbrute Mortis Metalikus appeared. Zadakiel drew the Heavenfall Blade called Fellbane and started to do battle with the beast. Despite his agility, the Helbrute eventually got the upper hand and was about to crush him underfoot when the Thunderhawk appeared, shooting the Helbrute and giving Zadakiel the chance to climb aboard.However, as the Dark Angels Master grabbed the open ramp at the front of the Thunderhawk, the Helbrute snatched at him, dragging Zadakiel down. Seeing he could not escape his fate and that the Helbrute was aiming his Multi-melta at the Thunderhawk, Zadakiel threw Fellbane into the Thunderhawk and let go, falling to his death.His position as Master of the 5th Company was then passed on to Balthasar, who became the new leader of the company. Afterwards, Balthasar continued to obsessively hunt down the Crimson Slaughter, intent on enacting his vengeance against those Chaos Space Marines by destroying them utterly and avenging his fallen Master.He would eventually defeat Kranon the Relentless and his Chaos Space Marine warband in the Battle for Bane's Landing, with help from Librarian Turmiel and other forces of the 5th Company.Unfortunately, Balthasar was later slain in the chaotic battles surrounding the birth of the Great Rift at the start of the Era Indomitus. |
Balthasar - Wargear: Artificer ArmourFellbane - Fellbane is one of the legendary Heavenfall Blades wielded by chosen heroes of the Dark Angels Chapter.Bolt PistolMaster-crafted BolterFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Ban Jevrian - Ban Jevrian: Ban Jevrian is a Master Sergeant of the Astra Militarum and a member of the Cadian Shock Troops' famed Kasrkin. He leads the Cadian 88th Mechanised Infantry's elite Strike Team Cruor. |
Ban Jevrian - History: Ban Jevrian is one of the elite Kasrkin of Kasr Vallock, who are traditionally seconded to the Cadian Shock Troops' 88th Mechanised Infantry Regiment.Like all Kasrkin, Jevrian is an intimidating sight. He is a layer of slab-like muscle over thick bone, encased in Carapace Armour. His hulking form promises only pain and bristles with firepower.An excellent shot with his Hellpistol, Jevrian is also a master swordsman. Wielding a large, crackling Power Sabre, he is considered to be the greatest duellist within the entire 88th Mechanised Infantry.Jevrian is a veteran of the Imperium's endless war against Chaos, having fought during the 13th Black Crusade. In one particular battle, he and the rest of his regiment were pitted against a great Chaos Titan. He still hates to look back upon that day and the horrific loss of life that was required to claim victory.In the end, even as the skies of his homeworld burned, the grim master sergeant's only response was to mutter the phrase, "Going to be a busy week." |
Ban Jevrian - Reclamation of Kathur: When the forces of Cadia were called to reclaim the Shrine World of Kathur, the 88th Mechanised Infantry was tasked with assisting the Janus 6th in their struggle against the warband known as the Remnants, which were the corrupted remainder of Kathur's Planetary Defence Force.During the conflict, Jevrian was noted to have defeated a Chaos Dreadnought in combat. Having peppered the corrupt cyborg with hell-blasts, the Kasrkin then lunged onto its casket, scaling its bulk one-handed while impaling it with his Power Sword.Reaching the Dreadnought's ornate face, Jevrian jammed the muzzle of his pistol into its vision-slit and pulled the trigger. This vaporised the Heretic Astartes pilot entombed within.Upon seeing their champion fall, the forces of Chaos initiated a full retreat, only to be cut down in turn by a hail of Cadian las-fire. It was only then, after relinquishing his grip upon his fallen enemy, that Jevrian realised his arm had been broken.Though he carried this injury for the rest of the conflict, Jevrian continued to fight alongside the 88th mechanised, wielding his malfunctioning and broken Power Sabre. |
Bane Wolf - Bane Wolf: The Bane Wolf is a variant of the Hellhound flame-thrower tank that is used by the Astra Militarum, and both vehicles are based upon the Imperial Chimera armoured transport chassis. The Bane Wolf variant of the Hellhound replaces the Hellhound's Inferno Cannon with a special chemical weapon known as a Chem Cannon that makes it more effective in an anti-infantry role. The Chem Cannon is very potent against all types of infantry, even heavily armoured elite soldiers and those wearing power armour.A deceptively simple adaptation of the Hellhound, the Bane Wolf replaces its promethium storage with bulky canisters of toxic gas. This incredibly corrosive fume has been certified by the Magos Biologis as inimical to almost every life form in the galaxy. Ejected from the tank's Chem Cannon in hissing jets, the hideous substance chews through ceramite and chitin alike in microseconds. The victim is dissolved by the virulent chemicals; blood boils and organs rupture, skin erupts into bubbling lesions and sloughs from crumbling bone until, eventually, the target is reduced to a slick of organic sludge to be ground beneath the tank's whirring tracks.Commonly, Bane Wolf crews are remote, taciturn individuals who do not mix with other Guardsmen. Their vehicles are as likely to see action quelling the uprisings of traitorous Human Chaos Cults as they are against deadly xenos threats, and to deploy the Chem Cannon against fellow Humans, no matter how debased, can be a harrowing experience. It takes a particular kind of nihilist to crew such a short-ranged and grotesque terror weapon.The sacrosanct formula of gas used in a Bane Wolf's Chem Cannon is dictated by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even so, various regiments have been known to employ their own makeshift concoctions. One such mixture, known as "the penitent's breath," was used to scour a heretical uprising from the scum-pits of Savlar. The iridescent spray proved effective, but the Bane Wolf crews who employed it were themselves swiftly executed for heresy afterward.Bane Wolves are only used when the complete eradication of the enemy is warranted. They are rarely deployed as part of an Imperial Guard force, as the gas and fumes produced by the vehicle's main weapon are powerful enough to kill even Space Marines. The risk of collateral or friendly damage is high.There are several different patterns of the Hellhound and its variants in use by the Imperium, such as the Artemia Pattern which replaces the vehicle's turret with one that is remotely controlled from inside the vehicle by the vehicle's commander. This allows the tank to make do with a crew of only two.The Mars Pattern Bane Wolf replaces the standard pattern's single large fuel tank with several smaller fuel tanks that can be hidden inside the remnants of the Chimera chassis' troop compartment. The use of the smaller fuel tanks is preferred as they make the Hellhound and its variants more difficult to identify when compared to regular Chimera transports. |
Bane Wolf - Armament: The Bane Wolf replaces the standard hull-mounted Inferno Cannon found on the Hellhound with a Chem Cannon. The Bane Wolf is the only known Imperial Guard unit that makes use of the Chem Cannon, and in fact the Bane Wolf is the only unit in the entire Imperium that is known to make use of it.The Bane Wolf stores the toxic gases that fuel its main weapon in modified versions of the promethium storage tanks used on the standard Hellhound. The vehicle is also armed with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, which can be replaced with either a Heavy Flamer or a Multi-Melta.The tank can also be outfitted with the following enhancements: Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a mine sweeper, rough terrain modifications, a Pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber or Storm Bolter, track guards, a Searchlight, a Dozer Blade or mine plough, and Smoke Launchers. |
Bane Wolf - Unit Composition: 1-3 Hellhounds, Devil Dogs and/or Bane Wolves in any combination. |
Bane Wolf - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Bane WolfVehicle Name:Bane WolfMain Armament:Turret-mounted Chem CannonForge World of Origin:Graia, Mars, ArtemiaSecondary Armament:Hull-mounted Heavy BolterKnown Patterns:UnknownTraverse:360 degreesCrew:1 Commander, 1 Driver, 1 GunnerElevation:-8 to 25 degreesPowerplant:Vulcanor 16 Twin-Coupled Multi-BurnMain Ammunition:UnknownWeight:35 Tonnes (approx)Secondary Ammunition:400 RoundsLength:6.90 metresArmour:Width:5.70 metresHeight:4.10 metresSuperstructure:150 millimetresGround Clearance:0.45 metresHull:120 millimetresMax Speed On-Road:70 kilometres per hour (approx)Gun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:55 kilometres per hour (approx)Vehicle Designation:UnknownTransport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:150 millimetres |
Baneblade - Baneblade: The Baneblade is the primary super-heavy tank of the Astra Militarum, and one of the largest and oldest armoured fighting vehicles in the service of the Imperial armed forces. The tank is a venerated Standard Template Construct (STC) design, with ten people needed to fully crew one. It is also one of the oldest STC designs in existence. They are often used as command vehicles by Imperial Guard commanders.Bristling with armaments, a Baneblade is less of a tank and more of a rolling fortress. An unmistakable icon of the Imperium's armoured supremacy, a single one of these super-heavy war engines can serve as the mailed fist of an Astra Militarum offensive, or as the unassailable lynchpin of even the most desperate of defences.Possessed of overwhelming and versatile firepower, exceptionally thick armour and a near-indefatigable power plant, the Baneblade has been deployed in many varied war zones throughout the galaxy. Wherever a Baneblade sees battle it quickly becomes the centre of the battle line. Guardsmen and smaller tanks shelter in its colossal shadow, even as the ranks of the enemy flee from it in abject terror.The standard configuration Baneblade is a powerful main battle tank with no particular strength or weakness. It is best deployed in the role of heavy infantry support, where it can engage both infantry waves with its Heavy Bolters and Demolisher Cannon, while at the same time punish enemy armour with its Mega Battle Cannon and Lascannons.The sight of a mighty Baneblade rumbling forward is a major boost for any supporting Imperial infantry's morale, and when correctly supported, the Baneblade excels at decimating anything smaller than itself with its large array of guns while crushing the remains of its enemies under its massive tracks.This combination of inspiring presence on the battlefield and tremendous capacity for destruction explains why the Baneblade is favoured as a command vehicle by regimental commanders and even members of the Imperial General Staff who decide to take to the field.Such Command Baneblades are specially equipped with powerful Vox arrays and tactical planning equipment, allowing the officer in charge to keep control of his troops while he participates in the fighting.For all its might, however, the Baneblade is not perfect: it is slow, lacks maneuverability and is a very large target. Baneblades are also not as effective when facing dedicated anti-armour vehicles due to the relative short range of their weapons.A single tank hunter like a Leman Russ Vanquisher can easily damage or even destroy a Baneblade long before it comes into range of the smaller tank. This is why the very adaptable chassis of the Baneblade has been used over the millennia to create more dedicated versions.These include the Shadowsword Titan-killer which forgoes almost all other weapons to sport a Volcano Cannon; to the Stormlord line-breaker tank which gives up all anti-armour weaponry in favour of a Vulcan Mega Bolter, a greater number of Heavy Bolters, and the capacity to transport an entire platoon of Imperial Guardsmen. |
Baneblade - History: The Baneblade ranks amongst the most recognisable super-heavy tank of the Great Crusade, produced in the tens of thousands for service with the Excertus Imperialis all across the ever-expanding Imperium.The majority of Baneblades were produced on Mars, and the Lords of the Red Planet hold the Mars class vehicle as the inalienable iteration of the Machine God's vision and it galled them greatly that certain other Forge Worlds produced their own patterns.To the untrained eye the differences between the vehicles appeared superficial, but the Tech-priests of Mars preached otherwise, furthering that many schisms that had developed between the various Forge Worlds throughout the final decades of the Great Crusade.Regardless of its provenance, the Baneblade was a stately iron beast, its iconic turret-mounted Baneblade Cannon the bane of countless foes over the years. Its armour was nigh impenetrable and many of those in the service of the elite Solar Auxilia had been upgraded to the "Solar" sub-pattern and fitted with extensive exploration and survival equipment to allow operation in the most hostile of environments.The Baneblade and its variants are amongst the oldest patterns of tanks still being used by the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium. It is rumoured that in the past there were entire divisions of Baneblades in service to the Emperor of Mankind but that number is severely diminished at present, like most of the more advanced technologies available to the Imperium.There are two main patterns of Baneblade, the Lucius Pattern from Forge World Lucius, and the preeminent Mars Pattern, still manufactured on Mars itself. The Lucius Pattern Baneblade has a more heavily fortified chassis and larger amounts of armour plate and makes use of a more powerful engine to remain mobile with this added weight.However, the vast majority of Baneblades available in the Imperium were created in the forges of Mars. Every Baneblade made in the Imperium is transcribed with its own unique serial number and name and all the records of each vehicle's service and accomplishments in combat are reverently recorded on the Forge World of that vehicle's construction. |
Baneblade - Armament: The Baneblade possesses a powerful set of armaments. The standard Baneblade complement includes a turret-mounted Mega Battle Cannon, also known as the Baneblade Cannon, which includes a coaxial Autocannon, three sets of twin-linked Heavy Bolters (one sponson-mounted set on either side, and one turret-mounted on the front hull slope), two turret-mounted Lascannons on either side, mounted directly above the side sponsons, and lastly, a fixed-forward hull-mounted Demolisher Cannon.This totals eleven weapon barrels of various sizes and roles, giving full coverage in all arcs. The Baneblade can be further given a pintle mounted Storm Bolter or Heavy Stubber and a single-fire Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, bringing the total up to thirteen. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Searchlight and Smoke Launchers.Baneblades are so rare in the present Imperial armed forces that some companies upgrade a Leman Russ tank, adding sponson-mounted Lascannons if they are short on Baneblades. The Baneblade is also in extremely high demand amongst Imperial Guard armoured regiments, meaning that most such regiments will only possess 5-10. |
Baneblade - Baneblade Interior: The interior of a Baneblade has more in common with a fortified command bunker than it does with the insides of other, smaller armoured vehicles. Its weapons interfaces, operations points and data relays sprawl across several intermeshed layers of decks, which are connected by a warren of corridors and companionways.Yet despite its enormous bulk there is precious little space for the numerous crew. Every surface is encrusted with sancti-wired Servo-skulls, draped with Purity Seals or pocked with munitions sconces, all of which are devoted to the steering of the Baneblade's raging Machine Spirit.Before this ancient spirit can be awakened, each control panel and catechetical dial must be daubed with sanctified oils. When the engines do roar to fiery life, these oils quickly vaporise into an acrid fume. Many crews believe this represents the tank sharing its breath with those it has deemed worthy.The clangour inside a fully active Baneblade rivals that of all but the most apocalyptic of conflicts. Thunderous blasts reverberate throughout the hull every time the primary weapon is fired. A high-pitched clatter fills the stifling air as an unending cascade of spent shell casings rains down through grills into collection receptacles. Even the scratching of quill on parchment is deafening as reams of cogitative data are hastily recorded by batteries of auto-scribes.This is to say nothing of the mighty engine itself, the living heart of the Baneblade that thrums with fury as the mechanical beast drives into battle. Those crew manning the lower decks may hear the sound of lesser vehicles breaking beneath the Baneblade's adamantium tracks.The metallic crunch echoes up through the base plates, as does the splintering of bones from any warriors unlucky enough to be caught in the beast's path. So constant is this deafening sound that many Baneblade crew members begin to lose their sanity when exposed to the relative silence outside of their mechanical cocoon for too long.The hull of a Baneblade is composed of the most durable steel alloys known to the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even so, it is not completely impervious to damage. Baneblades are sent into battle against the most terrifying abominations in the galaxy -- gargantuan machines of eldritch design, towering xenos creatures and heinous daemons spewed forth from the Warp.These profane war machines and apex monstrosities can deliver enough force to breach a Baneblade's hull. When they do, destructive shock waves are sent rippling throughout the interior chambers. The pressure surge is enough to pulverise those inside, caving in the skulls of those closest to the impact and liquefying their organs.But the Baneblade is not dead. Hatches clamp down to contain burning plasma or daemonic bile, and the tank's neuro-couplings are quickly rerouted to the surviving crew members. Though scarred and scorched, the Baneblade can take an inordinate amount of damage without losing any of its destructive potential. |
Baneblade - Known Formations: Steel Fury Baneblade Company - Steel Fury Baneblade Companies are often formed to face enemy Titans in combat, particularly if the Imperial forces present do not possess any Titans themselves. When such an occasion occurs the Tactica Imperium dictates that all available super-heavy vehicles be drawn together to combat the threat. The super-heavy vehicles will concentrate their firepower upon the enemy war machine, and once under fire from multiple Baneblades, even the mightiest Titan must eventually fall. These companies are usually made up of anywhere between three to five Baneblades. |
Baneblade - Crew: A Baneblade is a massive war machine, requiring a crew of ten individuals to function properly. The functions of a Baneblade crew include:Tank Commander - The Tank Commander is the senior officer on board the vehicle (with a rank of at least Lieutenant). The Tank Commander serves to coordinate the massive tank's responses to any given situation.Tactical Officer - The Tactical Officer often serves as the tank's second-in-command and has to use the Auspex and Augury sensors of the Baneblade to identify roads, potential pitfalls, friend and foe, primary and secondary targets and assure the coordination between the tank and any other Imperial forces in the area. The position of Tactical Officer on a Baneblade is extremely demanding and requires a man or woman with a quick mind and nerves of steel.Driver - The driver steers the tank, which, considering the massive Baneblade's weight and inertia, can be a daunting task. In battle, the Driver can also fire both the frontal Demolisher Cannon and twin-linked Heavy Bolters when the situation requires it.Adept of the Mechanicus - Each Baneblade has a designated member of the Adeptus Mechanicus assigned to its crew who performs routine maintenance, the necessary rituals to placate the tank's Machine Spirit and various emergency repairs during combat operations. Depending on the age and importance of the tank, this Mechanicus representative be a simple Enginseer or even a full-fledged Tech-priest.Primary Gunner - The Primary Gunner operates the Baneblade's turret, mainly the Mega Battle Cannon. The coaxial Autocannon is only used to perform ranging shots for the other weapon systems.Secondary Gunner - The Secondary Gunner is in charge of the hull-mounted Demolisher Cannon.Primary and Secondary Loader - The Primary Loader and Secondary Loader work in tandem in the Baneblade's magazine, carrying out the thankless but vital task of furnishing the Mega Battle Cannon and Demolisher Cannon with the necessary ammunition.Tertiary Gunner - The Tertiary Gunner is in charge of all the secondary sponson-mounted weapon systems. If these secondary systems are not required in a given battle, the Tertiary Gunner assists the Tactical Officer and the Tank Commander by manning some of the Auspex sensor read-outs.Tertiary Loader - Since the sponson-mounted weapons are fed automatically, the Tertiary Loader acts more as a mobile reserve within the tank, assisting where his help is the most crucial, whether this is firing some sponsons in tandem with the Tertiary Gunner, ferrying shells with the other Loaders, manning the Vox while the Tactical Officer is otherwise busy or even assisting the Tech-priest with repairs. New members of a Baneblade crew almost always start their career as the Tertiary Loader, as the position gives them the opportunity to quickly learn the rudiments of every other crew function in the tank. |
Baneblade - Variants: There are several variants of the Baneblade officially recognised by the Adeptus Mechanicus that are in current use with the Astra Militarum. The Standard Template Construct chassis of the Baneblade is highly adaptable, and the Tech-priests have capitalised on this, furnishing the Astra Militarum with the tools of war it required without having to have the Imperial Guard field their own much harder to produce and maintain Titan Legions. These vehicles are mostly the result of an Imperial commander discovering an unmet tactical need that can only be accomplished by a super-heavy tank like the Baneblade. These variants are created by changing out the tank's standard weapons with those not usually found on a Baneblade. Known variants of the Baneblade include the following super-heavy tanks:Hellhammer - The Hellhammer variant of the Baneblade replaces the original Mega Battle Cannon with a Hellhammer Cannon. This weapon is a variant of the standard Battle Cannon deployed on Leman Russ Tanks except that it has a shorter barrel with special heavy-gauge suppressors built into it that allows it to fire extremely high-calibre shells without ripping itself apart. This weapon allows the Hellhammer to engage multiple infantry and light armour units at once, due to the higher rate of fire that the Hellhammer Cannon makes possible.Stormhammer - The Stormhammer is an extremely rare Baneblade variant that replaces the Mega Battle Cannon with a set of twin-linked Battle Cannons, and adds a second turret on the front hull with another set of twin-linked Battle Cannons. The Stormhammer also adds another set of sponson and top sponson mounts to the sides of the vehicle. A fully armed Stormhammer can deploy over 20 barrelled weapons at once, and is unsurpassed by any other Imperial armoured vehicle when it comes to sheer firepower. |
Baneblade - Notable Users of the Baneblade: 9th Konig Heavy Tank Company - Attached to the 7th Mortant Regiment's 2nd Company during the Colonia Campaign.13th Krieg Heavy Tank Company - Attached to the 28th Death Korps of Krieg Armoured Regiment during the Galen V Expedition.11th Tekarn Heavy Tank Company - Served on the Death World of Denkari Minor, fighting the Ork WAAAGH! Grughakh.1st Death Korps of Krieg Panzer Division, "Emperor's Loyal Shield" - The 1st Panzer Division participated in the Cleansing of Radnar.98th Cadian Armoured Regiment - Participated in the Luxor Uprising.3rd Cadian Heavy Tank Regiment (also known as the 3rd Cadian Heavy Tank Company) - Attached to the 122nd Cadian Shock Troops Regiment for the Battle of Vogen during the Khai Zhan Uprising.12th Tallarn Armoured Regiment - Fought against the Tau during the Taros Campaign.409th Tallarn Heavy Tank Regiment - Fought against the Tau during the Taros Campaign.66th Death Korps of Krieg Tank Regiment - Fought against the Traitor forces during the Siege of Vraks.11th Death Korps of Krieg Tank Regiment - Fought against the Traitor forces during the Siege of Vraks.7th Death Korps of Krieg Tank Regiment - Fought against the Traitor forces during the Siege of Vraks.9th Tallarn Heavy Tank Company19th Teutonian Super Heavy Tank Company8th Valhallan Armoured Regiment - Advanced on Sallan's Point during the Sallan's World Campaign.12th Vellurian Armoured Cavalry Regiment1st Kronus Regiment, "The Liberators"252nd Kauravan Conservator Regiment1st Kovnian Tank Regiment, "The Black Knights"5th Cadian Armoured Regiment - Part of the Cadian Gate garrison force.Tyrant's Legion - The Tyrant's Legion was the Secessionist Auxilia that fought against the Loyalist forces during the Badab War.44th Lavrentian Hussars - Used during the battle for the world of Pavonis.7th Paragonian Super-heavy Tank Company - The 7th Paragonian consisted of 2 Baneblades, the Mars Triumphant and the Artemen Ultrus, the Hellhammer Ostrakan's Rebirth and the Shadowsword Lux Imperator. The 7th Paragonian fought during the Imperial campaign against the Orks in the Kalidar System. Following the destruction of Mars Triumphant, the company was brought back to full strength with the addition of Cortein's Honour. |
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