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Belisarius Cawl - Deeds of Ages: Belisarius Cawl has invented dozens of weapons, uncovered scores of STC databases, and quested for knowledge across the galaxy, even once venturing into the Eye of Terror. Malfunctions, erasures, and jumbled bibelots have left vast holes in Cawl's ancient memories, but what remains fills vaulted halls the size of a Battle Cruiser.There, in binharic code stacks, are mountains of information -- from the hundreds of xenos races that he helped drive to extinction, to the schematic details of wonder-engines lost since the Age of Technology.From the galactic census during the Great Crusade to studies of communication difficulties in the aftermath of the birth of the Great Rift, it is a knowledge-hoard unlike any other.So vast is this information stockpile, that after ten millennia, Cawl can no longer recall how large portions of it were obtained.Even with his most recent glorious achievement -- the successful creation of the Primaris Space Marines and the subsequent Ultima Founding -- Archmagos Cawl believes he has even greater experiments currently in development. |
Belisarius Cawl - 13th Black Crusade: At the time of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, Cawl, in command of the Ark Mechanicus Iron Revenant and a large Mechanicus fleet including Skitarii troops and powerful Kataphron Battle Servitors, was guided by the Aeldari Harlequin Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker to the world of Eriad VI, a former Imperial Navy base which had been abandoned during the 4th Black Crusade in the 32nd Millennium. Unknown to the Imperials, Eriad VI had also been a Necron Tomb World.After battling Orks who had been drawn to combat on the empty world with the powerful Mechanicus fleet, he recovered an ancient Necron artefact. He also learned more about the nature of the Cadian Pylons originally built by the Necrons that were tasked with restraining the eruptions of the Immaterium -- especially the Eye of Terror -- into realspace.Cawl uneasily accepted Veilwalker's enigmatic instructions to make his way to Cadia, already under siege by Abaddon the Despoiler's massed forces of Chaos, where his timely arrival provided desperately needed reinforcements for Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed's embattled Imperial forces.While on Cadia, Cawl began his investigation of the local xenos pylons with the knowledge recovered from Eriad VI. During his investigation, the Necron Overlord Trazyn the Infinite, who had decided to intervene to aid Humanity against their mutual enemy in the Warp, made his presence known.Though wary of the Necron's motivations, Cawl's fascination with the highly advanced Necron technology of the pylons overcame his hostility to xenos and he accepted the Necron's aid.With Trazyn's knowledge, Cawl was able to determine how to use the pylons to cut off the local area of space-time from contact with the Immaterium. As the ground battle between the Despoiler's invaders and Ursarkar E. Creed's defenders reached its climax, Cawl activated the pylons.The Necron technology operated precisely as had been expected, cutting off Cadia from the Warp, banishing the daemons of Chaos, actually shrinking the Eye of Terror and giving Cadia's defenders a chance for yet another unlikely victory.Unfortunately, the Despoiler would not be denied the prize he had sought for millennia so easily. Foreseeing the need for a fail-safe, Abaddon had the damaged bulk of the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity, its systems disabled by an assault from the Imperial Fists' star fort Phalanx, hurled from orbit as an artificial meteor into the surface of Cadia. The massive kinetic strike destroyed what remained of the world's defences, ensuring its envelopment by the now rapidly-expanding Eye of Terror.Lord Castellan Creed ordered an evacuation of the dying world, and the Imperial survivors of Cadia -- led by Cawl, Saint Celestine, Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and Marshal Marius Amalrich of the Black Templars -- now calling themselves the Celestinian Crusade -- used every voidship at their disposal, including the Iron Revenant, to ferry the three million survivors off Cadia. Unable to enter the Warp because of the roiling instability of the Immaterium near the Cadian Gate, the Imperial fleet was forced to flee through the Cadia System at sub-light speed, and the Chaos warfleets gave chase.The largest and most powerful remaining Imperial capital ship, Cawl's Iron Revenant, heroically sacrificed itself in battle against Abaddon's flagship the Vengeful Spirit so that the Celestinian Crusade could escape to Klaisus, the nearby ice moon of the world of Kasr Holn.The Iron Revenant's loss was not in vain, for the surviving Celestinians were rescued from Chaos attacks and the unforgiving arctic environment at the last by the arrival of the Ynnari through Klaisus' hidden Webway gate. Though his flagship was lost, Belisarius Cawl had rescued its most precious cargo -- the Armour of Fate, key to the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman. |
Belisarius Cawl - Ultramar Campaign: The Reborn Aeldari guided the Celestinians through the Webway to the Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, now also under ferocious assault by the forces of the Despoiler. After some initial distrust, the Celestinians were ultimately taken by the Ultramarines who called Ultramar home to the realm's capital world of Macragge.Once in the Ultramarines' Fortress of Hera, Cawl revealed the identity of the artefacts in his accompanying auto-reliquary. He declared that they were intended to resurrect Primarch Roboute Guilliman from the mortal wound that had seen him trapped in stasis in the Temple of Correction for the last ten millennia.While under potent assault by the forces of Chaos within the primarch's final resting place, Cawl worked with Yvraine, the Daughter of Shades and priestess of Ynnead, the Aeldari God of the Dead, to restore the Primarch's life force while Cawl's technology healed his grievous wound. |
Belisarius Cawl - Terran Crusade: With Guilliman resurrected, the Primarch drove the invaders from Ultramar before deciding to make his way to Terra through the Warp anomalies roiling the galaxy to an extent not seen since the Horus Heresy. Cawl joined the Primarch on this Terran Crusade, his technological acumen and combat prowess aiding the Imperial forces of the Crusade in all their trials and tribulations in the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom.The survivors of the Terran Crusade finally arrived in the Sol System at Luna through the Webway after being freed from imprisonment in another Blackstone Fortress belonging to the Red Corsairs. Following the Crusade's rescue by the Fallen Angel Cypher and a troupe of Harlequins, Cawl was one of the few Imperials present at the fall of Cadia to survive both the Celestinian and Terran Crusades.After aiding in the defeat of the forces of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion and the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red on Luna, Cawl and his allies were finally ferried to the Imperial Palace on Terra. There, before the Eternity Gate of the Inner Palace leading to the throne room of the Emperor where Guilliman would meet his father for the first time in ten standard millennia, Cawl spoke with his Mechanicus fellows and with the primarch himself.His words were cryptic, mentioning secret pacts forged on the Red Planet and long works at last drawing to their conclusion. Satisfied, Cawl took his leave of the primarch and returned to his forge on Mars to oversee these projects to completion. |
Belisarius Cawl - Indomitus Crusade and the Ultima Founding: In fact, Cawl's work on Mars had been nothing less than an attempt to improve upon the Emperor's own works of creation.For ten standard millennia, the archmagos dominus had been working on another task set for him by the primarch Roboute Guilliman before he was mortally wounded by the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim at the Battle of Thessala in the days after the Horus Heresy: a new legion of transhuman warriors.In the time after the Terran Crusade, though the Imperium was poised on the brink of annihilation at the hands of Chaos, Cawl's task was at last completed. The Primaris Space Marines were a new generation of transhuman warriors developed across the span of ten standard millennia by Cawl on Mars. Cawl used the genetic template of the original Space Marines created by the Emperor for His Great Crusade as the starting point for the development of the new Astartes. Primaris Space Marines are bigger, more physically powerful and possess faster reaction times than their original Astartes counterparts.The Primaris Space Marines raised in the so-called Ultima Founding of 999.M41 are a new breed of hero for this, the darkest age in the Imperium of Man's history. These new warriors were the next step in the evolution of the Emperor's Angels of Death, and timely reinforcements for the Imperium's armies as their enemies closed in for the kill in the wake of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade and the birth of the Great Rift dividing the Imperium in two.To aid them in battle, these gene-forged warriors were equipped with new arms and armour forged on Mars itself at Cawl's direction, such as the Mark X Power Armour worn by the various types of Primaris Space Marines, which combined the most effective elements of ancestral Horus Heresy patterns of battle-plate with more recent developments in power armour technology; the Mark II Cawl Pattern Bolt Rifle, the archetypal firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, now re-engineered, re-crafted and perfected; the Mark III Belisarius Pattern Plasma Incinerator, a new refined Plasma Gun; Redemptor Dreadnoughts, the Overlord gunship, and Repulsor grav-tanks.At the dawn of the Indomitus Crusade called by Guilliman to throw back the forces of Chaos, these phenomenal new warriors joined the resurrected lord commander of the Imperium as he fought to liberate the scattered bastions of Imperial space. Some, Guilliman forged into new Space Marine Chapters, whole brotherhoods comprised only of these new transhuman warriors. Others he has offered to the existing Space Marine Chapters. Many Chapter Masters have welcomed their Primaris brethren into their ranks, accepting the new reinforcements gladly. Others, though, view these new creations with suspicion or outright hostility, claiming that the Emperor's work should never have been meddled with by mere mortals.Though they are a step removed from their brothers, the Primaris Space Marines still bear the gene-seed of their primarchs, and some dissenting voices worry how this new type of warrior will react with the known genetic quirks and flaws of some of the more unusual Chapters, such as the Blood Angels and the Space Wolves. The Primaris Space Marines offer new hope to a besieged Imperium, but the future remains a dark and uncertain place.During the Indomitus Crusade, Cawl was given free reign by Guilliman to unleash technological innovation to help the forces of the Imperium finally throw back the tides of Chaos. Cawl had been authorised to utilise new technology and new configurations of ancient devices to refit Guilliman's flagship, the Macragge's Honour. The ancient archmagos had proven to be the Imperium's only source of technological innovation across the span of the Indomitus Crusade, creating several new vehicles and weapons to outfit the formidable legions of Primaris Space Marines and the original Chapters of the Firstborn Adeptus Astartes.During the first solar decade of the Indomitus Crusade, Cawl became increasingly detached from the wider galaxy, instead focusing on his quest to create and perfect the Primaris Space Marines of the Ultima Founding and deploy them wherever the Indomitus Crusade Fleet Primus went to reinforce existing Firstborn Space Marine Chapters or to establish new Primaris Marine-only Chapters.As part of that initiative, he sought to persuade Guilliman to allow him to utilise gene-seed from the nine forbidden genetic lines of the Traitor Legions and even the two long-lost II and XI Legions. Cawl claimed that there had been nothing wrong with these gene-lines, as their Space Marines had operated as the Emperor had intended and that adding their tactical diversity to the Imperium would greatly strengthen the new Primaris Marines. Cawl claimed that the flaw in the Traitor Legions and the Lost Legions had lain in their primarchs, not their gene-seed.But Guilliman emphatically refused, and ordered the archmagos to not progress any further with this research, even as he knew that Cawl would most likely take it upon himself to pursue such heretekal lines of inquiry on his own. Guilliman was no fool, for he knew that all magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus hungered for knowledge. When they had it, they could rarely refrain from using it. On this particular matter, he did not trust Cawl one whit.Some twelve standard years after its inception, as the Indomitus Crusade reached the conclusion of its first phase of stabilising the Imperium Sanctus at the Battle of Raukos, Cawl had already been retasked by Guilliman to pursue a new line of crucial research -- discovering how the blackstone Cadian Pylon technology developed by the Necrons millions of Terran years before might be used to seal the Great Rift. |
Belisarius Cawl - Tensions in the Adeptus Mechanicus: Cawl had requested on multiple occasions for Roboute Guilliman to instill him as the fabricator-general of Mars. As the lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, Guilliman had replaced five of the High Twelve of the Senatorum Imperialis upon assumption of the regency of the Imperium, and hundreds of the lesser high lords.Cawl had argued what would be the difference if the primarch replaced one more lord? But Guilliman argued that the Imperium did not exert such authoritarian political control over Mars, in accordance with the tenets of the ancient Treaty of Mars, that the primarch could appoint his own fabricator-general, and the other Tech-priests would never accept it even if he could.Cawl countered this argument with all that he had accomplished on behalf of the primarch for the last ten millennia, for he alone had been able to unlock, understand and improve upon the work of the Emperor. He alone was the master of a hundred fields of technology and was unafraid of innovation. The ancient archmagos felt that he was the best candidate to rule Mars and the wider Mechanicus. Guilliman had considered this course of action, but the result would be outright civil war in the Adeptus Mechanicus' sub-empire of Forge Worlds.Many of Cawl's colleagues would disagree with such a decision. Especially since Cawl had committed, in their eyes, numerous egregious offences that ran counter to the tenets of the Cult Mechanicus -- trafficking with xenos and the usage of forbidden technology. Cawl's peers within the Cult Mechanicus would not take kindly to this if they knew the whole truth of the archmagos' actions.In fact, many Tech-priests hated Belisarius Cawl, viewing him as an Arch-heretek who disregarded all of the Machine God's commandments. Cawl believed that only envy motivated them if they knew the extent to which his knowledge outreached theirs. Some would move to destroy Cawl and his creations.By the end of the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade just before the start of the Plague Wars, a small faction of devoted Mechanicus Tech-priests had formed around the archmagos. They served as his obedient servants, eager to aid him in the pursuit of this radical new course called "innovation."But such a dramatic rejection of the Adeptus Mechanicus' dogma and beliefs also created many enemies for Cawl among the Mechanicus' traditionalists and conservatives. Such growing political resistance also caused Guilliman to worry about his ally, knowing that Cawl's desire for innovation could lead him to walk the same path that had led the original Dark Mechanicum into damnation over ten thousand standard years before.The primarch knew that Cawl's thirst for advancement could eventually become a problem for the Imperium, and at that time, he would have to deal harshly with his old ally. |
Belisarius Cawl - Cawl Inferior: As the ancient archmagos is dedicated to a multitude of projects that are running simultaneously, he has added multiple, independent consciousnesses to track them all. In order to facilitate his objectives and to allow him to focus further on his research and the re-discovery of lost technology, Cawl constructed at least two artificial intelligence devices, each known as the "Cawl Inferior."One was located aboard Roboute Guilliman's ancient flagship Macragge's Honour, secreted deep within the bowels of the mighty vessel, hidden within a chamber where none were allowed to go but the primarch himself, and by Cawl's invitation only. A similar device was installed on Cawl's own Ark Mechanicus, the Zar-Quaesitor.This massive device was operated by a lone master astropath, Guidus Losenti, and was often used by Cawl to communicate with Guilliman from across vast distances once Cawl had departed the Indomitus Crusade to pursue his own quest to discover the workings of the Necrons' blackstone Cadian Pylons and how their technology might be used to seal the Great Rift. Their communications through their respective Cawl Inferiors suffered no corruption of the like that had plagued astrotelepathy since the opening of the Great Rift.Cawl's blasphemous device was comprised of a being made up of hundreds of the decapitated but still-living heads of servitors, deck-sized, psychically-active cogitator processors and parts of obvious alien origin. When communicating with the lord commander of the Imperium, it could perfectly mimick Cawl's voice and mannerisms, though it insisted it was an all-together different entity entirely.When communicating with Guilliman, the Cawl Inferior claimed that it sought to seek to emulate Human interaction to make the primarch more comfortable with its aberrant existence. This preamble was to ease tension and re-establish bonds between Belisarius Cawl and the Imperial Regent.Though he had lived ten thousand years, the changes Cawl had wrought upon his body to support his mind through it had stripped most of his Humanity away. His emotions had become ghosts in the great mechanism of the Cawl Inferior that his mind now inhabited, and mediated through the machine, they should have been practically absent. But surprisingly, the Cawl Inferior's emotionless pronouncements often contained elements of sardonic humour from time to time, even in this soulless facsimile.The information conveyed through the Cawl Inferior to Guilliman was, in fact, innate to the device's construction. An encoded message sent through the device's operating Master Astropath unlocked the appropriate responses. The Cawl Inferior's creator supplied the machine with multiple, prerendered scenarios that he, in his great wisdom and genius, had mathematically extrapolated. The messages the Cawl Inferior received from its creator merely modified these prognostications to fit the actuality of current circumstances. The Cawl Inferior's programming was pre-loaded. The linked brains and the logic engines in the greater portion of the vessel's chamber contained all eventualities relevant to the task undertaken by Guilliman and Cawl. All probable futures were thus contained within the memory banks of the Cawl Inferior.Despite its protestations, Guilliman did not entirely trust the device, nor its creator. The Cawl Inferior claimed to be no Abominable Intelligence that possessed forbidden machine self-awareness and sentience. The entity's responses were not spontaneously generated, but predetermined by Cawl before its construction, and it violated none of the Adeptus Mechanicus' or the Emperor's technological proscriptions since the servitor brains that partially made up the Cawl Inferior's being were organic in nature and thus sanctioned for use.The Cawl Inferiors were thus not truly machines, nor unique, independent creations, but a limited expression of Belisarius Cawl's own entirely Human, if augmented, mind. By these means, the Cawl Inferior was supposedly free of the wickedness of the forbidden science of artificial general intelligence.Yet Guilliman believed that it was probable that the Cawl Inferior was a real machine intelligence masquerading as a non-intelligent device as a pretence. Guilliman was no technologist of the ability demonstrated by his brother primarchs Perturabo, Vulkan or Ferrus Manus, but he doubted that the archmagos was telling him the complete truth about how his creation truly worked, especially since it obviously also made use of power drawn from the Warp, which was one reason why Master Astropath Guidus Losenti preferred to never be in the machine's presence once he had activated it with the code Cawl had astrotelepathically transmitted to him.The Cawl inferior was thus clearly partly psychic in nature, a blend of various xenos and Imperial technologies, which definitely made it heretical by the tenets of the Adeptus Mechanicus in several regards, whether it could actually think for itself or not. Its existence, no matter how useful, was just another indicator that Cawl needed to be watched more closely lest he fall into true heresy. |
Belisarius Cawl - Necron Assault on the Adeptus Mechanicus: All across the Imperium after the birth of the Great Rift, primary Adeptus Mechanicus holdings -- from mining colonies to Knight Worlds to Forge Worlds -- found themselves under attack from Necrons. The massive influx of Chaos energies into realspace unleashed by the birth of the rift had triggered anti-Warp protocols in every Necron Tomb World, and things that had lain dormant for aeons stirred once more.The infamous Technomandrites of Magistrakh, struck down by the Necrontyr eons before, returned to seek vengeance and their lost dominion over the other Necron dynasties.Although there are many theories, none understands the reason for the Necron attacks upon Forge World territories as well as Archmagos Belisarius Cawl. Panic rose amongst the Tech-priests, for they were already besieged from without by the Chaos and alien forces that came in the wake of the rift's creation, and the Necron threat was now coming from within.Both sides were seeking deposits of the strange Warp-manipulating material -- blackstone -- from which the Cadian Pylons were fashioned in the wake of the Fall of Cadia. Many Mechanicus strongholds had been erected upon sites containing this precious resource, and were thus often present on Necron Tomb Worlds as their hibernating inhabitants awoke.Belisarius Cawl, charged with finding a way to close the Great Rift by Roboute Guilliman, sent his own agents -- armies of Mars and House Taranis -- across the stars in an effort to combat the growing danger, and hundreds of battles were fought as more and more Forge Worlds were drawn into the conflict to aid their beleaguered brethren.Even those Tech-priests that began to understand the reality of the dire situation were loath to call upon their Imperial allies for aid against the Necrons for fear of being branded Hereteks. |
Belisarius Cawl - Expedition to Sotha: The birth of the Great Rift that had bisected the galaxy at the start of the Era Indomitus reactivated the ancient Necron Warp beacon called the Pharos located on the world of Sotha in the Ultima Segmentum.This was discovered by the Scythes of the Emperor, who still guarded the ruins of Sotha after the planet's destruction by a Genestealer Cult infestation and Hive Fleet Kraken during the Second Tyrannic War.Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl led an expedition to Sotha with the aid of the Ultramarines and the remaining Firstborn Space Marines of the Scythes of the Emperor to study and perhaps use the Pharos' technology to close the Great Rift and defeat Chaos.The expedition came under assault by Genestealer Cultists who had infiltrated the Chapter serfs of the Scythes of the Emperor. Ultimately all of that Chapter's remaining Firstborn Marines were slain alongside their Chapter Master Thracius in combat with the Genestealer Patriarch whose cult had first called Hive Fleet Kraken to destroy Sotha during the Second Tyrannic War.After reaching the Pharos, Cawl discovered that a shard of the C'tan Zarhulash the Potentate had provided the power source for the ancient Pharos. He forged a deal with the alien star god, in which Zarhulash agreed to destroy the device by removing its heart, creating a destructive miniature singularity.In exchange, Cawl agreed to remove the shackles of necrodermis that kept the C'tan Shard captive and create a portal with the Pharos to allow him to finally escape from Sotha. Cawl seemingly agreed, but this was only a ruse as he actually teleported Zarhulash to a far region of the galaxy where the C'tan Shard was surrounded by hostile Necron Tomb Worlds. Zarhulash swore revenge on Cawl for this betrayal.Cawl was able to escape from Sotha and gathered much data from an examination of the Pharos' heart, including the location of other Pharos devices and large deposits of the strategic mineral known as blackstone across the galaxy.Cawl hoped to use this information to eventually find a way to build a technological solution that would seal the Great Rift once and for all. |
Belisarius Cawl - Wargear: Arc Scourge - The raw might of the motive force dances between the splayed claws of the Arc Scourge. A potent weapon of technobanishment, this weapon is designed to target Heretic war engines and exorcise their Machine Spirits with jolts of agonising lightning, disrupting their electronic and mechanical systems.Solar Atomiser - The Solar Atomiser is an exotic, highly advanced Melta Weapon first master-crafted by Cawl himself. Using a complex focussing array of Cawl's own design, this weapon concentrates thermal energy and melta-waves into a short-ranged but searing hot beam of unstoppable directed energy that can melt through an enemy war engine and the toughest of foes in seconds.Master-crafted Omnisian Axe - An Omnisian Axe is the Mechanicus' variant of a power axe. It is a Power Weapon taking the form of a single or double-edged battle axe. Power axes vary in length and design, and have been known to be crafted from one of any number of different materials, though usually adamantium. As with all Power Weapons, when its power field is activated, usually by operating a control located on the hilt, the blade is sheathed in a lethal corona of disruptive energy. This energy field allows the blade to carve through flesh, bone and most forms of armour plate alike, making a power axe a highly effective close combat weapon.Mechadendrite Hive - Hissing and slithering like a nest of mechanical snakes, the Mechadendrite Hive engulfs the foe in dozens of steel tendrils. Lashing, stabbing and throttling, the mass of Mechadendrites bloodily disassembles its victims with horrific speed.Scryerskull - The Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus take the assessment and exploitation of battlefield resources very seriously indeed -- so much so that many of them continue their work in this role beyond the point of death as Servo-skulls dedicated to tactical analysis, transmitting a torrent of binharic code outlining battlefield strengths and weaknesses back to their masters.Refractor Field - Considered essential by many lesser Tech-priests, the Refractor Field distorts the image of the wearer with a shimmering cloak of gravitic energy. Incoming attacks that strike the field will be refracted into multispectral electromagnetic bursts that dissipate harmlessly. The field, although less reliable than that generated by a Rosarius, can stop even the most powerful directed energy attacks, such as Lascannon and Plasma Gun fire.Cawl Inferior - Cawl Inferior was a digital construct that Cawl used to carry out a variety of tasks so that he could remain focused on what he deemed more important. Among the labours carried out by the Cawl Inferior was the archmagos' communications with others, including Roboute Guilliman. The primarch worried that the construct was actually a form of forbidden artificial general intelligence, and was indicative of Cawl's increasing willingness to dabble in tech-heresy. |
Belissar - Belissar: Belissar is a Dead World of the Jericho Reach, found far from the salients of the Achilus Crusade, yet considered enough of a threat to warrant quarantine by the Imperium of Man.The planet has been badly contaminated and influenced by the forces of Chaos. Over the last few millennia, a world that was once believed to be a jewel in need of refinement has been transformed into a near-worthless lump of rock.Those who continue to live among its ruins bear the marks of this destruction as contamination upon their flesh and souls. Yet in spite of this, there are those who believe that the world may yet hold tremendous hidden value.Belissar continues to bear mysteries for the Imperium. Even now, a few questions of any potential value are outweighed by the substantial risk such a contaminated world represents.Until those are better resolved, the Deathwatch believes that it must be observed and guarded rather than destroyed in the interests of security. |
Belissar - History: At the height of the ancient Jericho Sector, Humanity's successes were paramount. The civilised worlds were unable to contain the region's bounty. Mankind outgrew the sector's established worlds and began to colonise any worlds that seemed likely to contribute to its wealth.Those planets well-suited to agriculture were selected in particular, as several of the Hive Worlds were extremely dependent upon the import of foodstuffs.Records from this era are fragmented. After Verronus collapsed, there was no local surviving repository of data from the Jericho Sector, and few of the local records were ever transferred to blessed Terra. Most records have been scavenged and inferred from the few ancient reports that survive.Oral traditions of Imperial colonial worlds, including Belissar, are often contradictory and inconsistent. As a consequence, little of this information can be confirmed as fact. Bearing that in mind, it is believed that the colony on Belissar was founded in the late 33rd Millennium.A younger son of one of Verronus' noble lines chose to establish the colony, using a combination of Imperial resources and mercantile investments. It is clear that someone with influence and significant resources took a direct interest in the colonisation process.Analyses conducted by Inquisition assets using samples obtained from the surviving mutant population indicate that the world had a much higher population than a typical colony world.Some of the ancient legends indicate that members of the Adeptus Mechanicus were directly involved as well. These suggest that followers of the Machine Cult agreed to aid the world's agricultural development. Unfortunately, the precise nature of this development is unclear, and different legends contradict one another.The most likely conclusion is that substantial changes were made to the planet's atmosphere at the same time as several native plant and animal species were eliminated in favour of species adapted from Holy Terra. |
Belissar - Collapse: For many of the worlds of the lost Jericho Sector that fell from grace, the reasons are complex and unclear. This is not the case for Belissar. Simply put, the colony had not become self-sustaining prior to the sector's collapse. The world's civilisation was entirely dependent upon imported goods and technologies.Their agricultural facilities enabled the world to provide ample foodstuffs for its populace, but even these assets required maintenance from experts who only visited irregularly.Without a capable support network, the colonists were unable to maintain their technological base. In short order as the sector's Age of Shadow began, the population fell to infighting as all became more and more desperate for life's basic necessities.After thousands of Terran years of isolation, there were few survivors upon the world. Those that remained were struck by an even greater tragedy during the latter years of the 40th Millennium. Shortly after its manifestation, the Hadex Anomaly was prone to fitful movement and expansion.During a time of ill-portent, Belissar was swallowed by the Warp rift. After more than a century, the Anomaly moved into a different portion of the sector, and the planet emerged from the Warp, though horrifically changed.In 222.M41, Deathwatch and Ordo Malleus forces committed to a joint effort termed the "Belissar Suppression." The intent was to cleanse the planet of its Warp contamination, so that this hideous taint might be removed from the galaxy. Many of the field reports from that action have been permanently sealed.It is believed that the worst of the daemonic influences were eliminated from Belissar's surface. However, it is clear that the effort could not be deemed a triumph. The Warp's taint lingers upon this world, and none can say what measures might be taken to fully cleanse it. |
Belissar - End of the 41st Millennium: In spite of the best efforts of Inquisitorial forces, Belissar remains a world that has been severely contaminated by direct and extended exposure to the Warp.Unholy creatures from the Immaterium still maintain a strong hold upon the world and their influence is present everywhere. Descendants of the Imperial colonists now worship these foul creatures as cultists in servitude to the Ruinous Powers.Both physical mutations and extreme mental aberrations are common hallmarks of these unclean individuals. It is improbable that there are any surviving Humans who could return to the Imperium's fold.Despite this deep-seated corruption, Belissar's isolated position, far from other worlds of the Jericho Reach, has kept it largely safe from a full Exterminatus action, though the Ordo Malleus has insisted on a strict quarantine to enforce that isolation.After the events of the Belissar Suppression, the Deathwatch swore an oath to continue to oversee the world. Kill-teams are dispatched at least once a solar decade to investigate the world's contamination level.They are not expected to seriously attempt to cleanse the world of its Warp taint -- a monumental task even for the Deathwatch. Instead, they are tasked with the responsibility to keep this contagion from spreading.To date, most believe that their efforts have been successful. However, some argue that this ongoing contamination represents an unacceptable risk, and argue that more extreme measures must be taken.There are no other colonised worlds near Belissar, nor are their significant Warp anomalies in the region. The world is far from the front of the Achilus Crusade, so it is unlikely to directly interact with the Imperium for some time.A few Inquisitors among the Ordo Malleus believe that this isolation presents an unusual opportunity for them to study the unholy. There are rumours that at least one Inquisitor visits the world even more often than the Kill-teams.If this is true, the precise motivations for the visits are unknown and extremely worrisome. Extended exposure to this level of Warp corruption, even in the name of the Imperium's defence, might shatter the mind of even the most stalwart individual. |
Belissar - Environment: Ancient records and legends indicate that Belissar's atmosphere was once fully breathable and hint that it may even have been pleasant. While that may have once been true, this is no longer the case. Toxic compounds now flood much of the planet's atmosphere, water, and surface.These represent a substantial hazard to any Humans who might visit the world. The poisons are also one of the key factors for ongoing mutations among the cultists who continue to inhabit the world.In some regions, the toxins are so dense that they hang as a thick fog over the world's surface. The massive clouds are visible even from the void. Deathwatch tracking systems indicate that some of these clouds have been in existence for nearly a solar century, occasionally migrating but never dissipating.Within the clouds, filtration systems are necessary for breathing and vision enhancement is essential for any sort of navigation. Travel through these regions represents a significant risk, even for Space Marines, and must not be undertaken lightly.At times, these toxic clouds form into complex weather patterns, often due to interactions with other nearby pollutants. The resulting storm systems can be deadly -- not only from the wind shear and blinding rain -- but also from the incredibly corrosive nature of these elements.Belissar's unstable nature makes predicting such catastrophic events nigh-impossible. The storms erupt spontaneously and sometimes dissipate just as inexplicably.Even more dangerous contaminants possess other portions of this foul planet. The taint of Chaos has warped not only the world's inhabitants but the very essence of Belissar.There are countless enclaves of the Warp-spawned remaining on this world far from the Hadex Anomaly. The majority of these locales are made up of decidedly unnatural geographic features. The very surface of the planet may act against any who dare to tread upon it.In some such places, the planet looks and acts like a living being. Ground has become flesh and massive hairs, feathers, or scales sprout from its surface in place of foliage. In a few places, the surface flows with blood and bile, creating loathsome rivers and lakes.The unholy Warp-spawn that inhabit such locations sometimes take on physical appearances that are consistent with these places -- or it might just be a manifestation of the land itself.Kill-teams that have travelled into such "living" regions report attacks by creatures that resemble massive immune cells and mouths that spontaneously form and open before attempting to devour their battle-brothers.Other regions, which first appear comparatively mundane, exhibit a more subtle Warp contamination. Such locations appear to be relatively clean of toxins and even exhibit signs of native flora. Closer examination inevitably reveals that the land itself is alive. The planet's raw materials come to life and attempt to destroy intruders.Even a sacred bolter has limited efficiency against a cliff that makes a deliberate effort to collapse upon a Space Marine. Records suggest that regions such as this are most easily identified by their lack of visible pollution, but this is hardly a reliable benchmark. |
Belissar - Culture: Deathwatch forces believe that Belissar's inhabitants are effectively isolated. There is no indication that they are capable of constructing a void-capable vessel nor have watch-satellites shown any indications of Warp-capable craft entering the system.While they continue to oversee the world's security, the Deathwatch only commits to sporadic involvement with its surface. Consequently, the battle-brothers possess only limited records about the known population. Even though the planet represents a significant danger, that threat is mitigated by its isolation and by requests from the Ordo Malleus to maintain its isolation.It is believed that there are numerous tribal populations active upon the planet. Reports indicate that these factions generally maintain a high level of animosity towards one another during those times that they are not actively at war.This may be a consequence of the world's limited resources or a matter of differences in allegiance between those who follow the Ruinous Powers. Though the total number of inhabitants is unclear, as long as they remain effectively fractious, it is improbable that they could pose a meaningful threat to the galaxy at large.These populations consistently maintain a primitive technological base. There are no known manufactoria of any significant size. Their primary armaments are mostly hand weapons constructed from stone, very limited amounts of metals, and the complex Belissaran fungal structures that serve as a wood analogue. There have been no recent reports of these mutants using firearms.In addition to the Human populations, there are also significant incursions of Warp-spawned creatures residing upon Belissar. It is unclear how these entities maintain their existence within realspace on the world. It may simply be that the planet maintains a significant number of small rifts between the physical realm and the Immaterium.Such tears in the fabric of reality would allow for these terrors to cross into our world at will. If this is the case, it could simply be a matter of time before something more potent exploits these tears and posing a significant threat that extends beyond this isolated world.The Deathwatch continues to commit resources that monitor the world, so that such a threat might be identified and eliminated at the earliest possible stage. |
Bell of Lost Souls - Bell of Lost Souls: The Bell of Lost Souls is a colossal iron bell that is as massive as a building and adorned with dark runes. It is located at the top of one of the many spires of the Imperial Palace on Terra.Thousands of minarets, towers, and spires rise from the Imperial Palace and breach Terra's ever-thinning cloud cover. One, and only one, of these towers stands out from its gold and marbled kindred as it is coloured jet black. It is called the Tower of Heroes.The summit of this looming structure is capped by a bell tower. The belfry itself is the size of a cathedral and houses a single bell forged of unassuming, commonplace metals, marked by the stains and patinas of time's eroding touch.This lone bell is the size of a Titan, and attended by hundreds of men, women and servitors whose existence is entirely devoted to maintaining the sacred instrument's function.The Bell of Lost Souls tolls only when the greatest of the Imperium of Man's heroes perish and can be heard by millions of people across the face of Terra. It rarely rings, but when it does, all resident Imperial Palace servants must be evacuated and sealed within reinforced shelters to prevent the annihilation of their eardrums and subsequent death through lung rupture and embolism.Among its many legends is the holiest of all; that when the bell rings, the Emperor of Mankind hears the sound even in His slumber upon the Golden Throne, and sheds a single tear.The bell is inscribed across its entire surface with psychically-active hexagrammatic runes and its peal is said to sound like the scream of an anguished god, in this case the Emperor, mourning the lost lives of His children. Its wailing moan of grief lasts long and reaches the ears of millions, and its tones penetrate the unifying ether of humanity, turning the thoughts of countless billions towards the loss of Mankind as a whole.One of the most well-known, and recent ringings of the Bell of Lost Souls occurred when the Fire Hawks Chapter was declared "Lost to the Warp" in 963.M41 by the High Lords of Terra. That day, the bell tolled 1,000 times, once for each Astartes lost.There is a special dispensation for the use of the bell concerning the Grey Knights Chapter. As the Emperor's only genetic inheritors amongst the Adeptus Astartes and Mankind's most valued and incorruptible protectors, the Bell of Lost Souls rings once each time a Grey Knight falls in battle. It is said that this is their reward in place of the recognition they will never receive from a galaxy that does not even know that they exist.A Grey Knight battle-brother will stand at the base of the tower in the sacrosant control chamber, surrounded by reverent serfs of the Imperial Palace and burning incense, and pull the levers that set the great, arcane mechanisms to work.Solar minutes later, the bell will toll a certain number of times -- once for every fallen brother. All of Terra will then know that the mighty have fallen, and that the Imperium is a darker place because of it. |
Bell of Lost Souls - Operation: When the order comes from the High Lords of Terra or the Emperor Himself, the attendant Imperial Palace serfs and servitors will begin the laborious process of automated lockdown, broadcasting vox-transmissions to send the belfry attendants into their bunkers.Another serf will start working the controls to awaken the continental communications relays. An overseer will then key in the one hundred and three ciphers required to unlock the safeguards that will allow his menials to access the deeper systems.The wondrous and terrible complexity of the Imperium's bureaucracy makes the entire process of ringing the bell take almost eight solar hours. When all is in readiness, a single servant will have one hand resting on the ornate control console and the other on the lever that will activate the myriad mechanics within the monument.When ordered to do so, the serf grips the lever, whispering a single name as he pulls it. The last lament for the fallen then rings out across Mankind's birth world, ignored by none and heard by all, as Humanity's galactic empire mourns another of its fallen heroes. |
Bell of Lost Souls - Notable Lost Chapters: Lost Chapters are those unfortunate Adeptus Astartes Chapters that have been destroyed or lost through some misfortune.Some were utterly annihilated in one swift and sudden strike, while others may have slowly diminished over a period of time through attrition or genetic instability of their gene-seed.Information in regards to such Chapters is sometimes lost or garbled during the long millennia and official sources are often all-too scarce. The following is a list of notable Lost Chapters:Chapter NameOriginFoundingNotesAngels ExcelsisBlood AngelsUnknownDestroyed during the Devastation of Baal.Angels GloriousBlood AngelsUnknownDestroyed during the Devastation of Baal.Angels of RetributionUnknownUnknownDestroyed in an ambush on Alantor X. The Officio Assassinorum are believed to have been involved in their destruction.Astral DrakesUnknownUnknownDestroyed by the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.Astral KnightsImperial FistsUnknownChapter was lost when it sacrificed itself against the Necron World Engine during the Battle of Safehold in 926.M41.Black ConsulsUltramarinesSecond FoundingRecorded as annihilated during the Siege of Goddeth Hive by elements of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion in 455.M41. Restored with Primaris Marine reinforcements.Blades EternalUnknownUnknownLost after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the lamentable Imperial Abyssal Crusade.Blood EaglesBlood AngelsUnknownFought a civil war which resulted in the survivors splitting into two Chapters, the Angels Numinous and Red Seraphs.Blood WingsBlood AngelsUnknownDestroyed during the Devastation of Baal.Brothers of JaradBlood AngelsUnknownDestroyed during the Devastation of Baal.Brazen SkullsUnknownUnknownWiped out as a Chapter by 773.M41. Circumstances unknown. Later refounded during the Ultima Founding.Brothers of the RedBlood AngelsUnknownFatally undone by the genetic Flaw known as the Black Rage. Date unknown.Burning BloodBlood AngelsUnknownDestroyed during the Devastation of Baal.Celestial SwordsUnknownUnknownLost in the 9th Black Crusade.Chorus of EltainUnknownUnknownLost after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the lamentable Imperial Abyssal Crusade.Crimson AxesImperial FistsUnknownReported as lost as of 092.M39. Circumstances unknown.Crimson ConsulsUltramarinesUnknownDestroyed through the foul machinations of the Alpha Legion Traitor Legion in order to secure their gene-seed stocks, which were delivered to Abaddon the Despoiler and the Black Legion to help replenish their ranks before the unleashing the 13th Black Crusade.Crimson LegionBlood AngelsUnknownChapter destroyed. Most likely undone by their genetic Flaw. Circumstances unknown.Dark PaladinsUnknownThird FoundingFell in battle against Xenos believed to be the Necrons.Emperor's SwordsUnknownUnknownDecimated by the forces of the Alpha Legion after 300 standard years of infiltration and subversion. Another Chapter named the Emperor's Swords, was wiped out in 970.M41 when a massive force of Necrons.Fire HawksUltramarines21st Founding (Cursed Founding)After being nearly driven to extinction during the Badab War, the Fire Hawks' mobile fortress-monastery, the ancient void fortress Raptorus Rex, was lost in the Warp in 963.M41.Fists ExemplarImperial FistsSecond FoundingDepleted during the War of the Beast and later disbanded by its former Chapter Master Maximus Thane.Fists of OlchisUnknownUnknownLost after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the lamentable Imperial Abyssal Crusade.Golden SonsBlood AngelsUnknownChapter destroyed. Most likely undone by their genetic Flaw. Circumstances unknown.Knights of BloodBlood AngelsUnknownSacrificed themselves during the Devastation of Baal.Knights of EternityUnknownUnknownThe Knights of Eternity were one of many Chapters who sold their lives dearly in the defence of the Imperium against the predations Hive Fleet Kraken in 990.M41.Knights SanguineBlood AngelsUnknownConsumed by war.Lions SableDark AngelsSecond FoundingDuring the unspoken period of history known as the Forgotten Wars (580.M31-632.M32), the ill-fated Lions Sable were completely annihilated during a disastrous campaign into the Eye of Terror whilst in pursuit of the notorious Fallen known as Cypher. Their subsequent fate and entire Chapter history was deliberately destroyed by the Dark Angels.Marines MordantUltramarinesUnknownDestroyed by Alpha Legion.Marines VigilantUnknownUnknownDestroyed by the Crimson Fists Chapter on orders from the High Lords of Terra.Nova LegionUltramarinesUnknownDestroyed by Alpha Legion.Obsidian GlaivesUltramarinesUnknownAnnihilated when their Chapter Homeworld of Obstiria was invaded in 998.M41 by the vast Greenskin hordes of the Red WAAAGH!.Prophets of MercuryUnknownUnknownLost after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the Imperial Abyssal Crusade.Shadow WolvesImperial FistsUnknownMet their ultimate fate at the hands of a Tyranid splinter fleet in 987.M41 when their homeworld of Varadon was overrun by the xenos swarms.Silver StarsUnknownUnknownUnable to recover enough of the precious Progenoid Glands of their fallen battle-brothers, the Silver Stars could not cultivate further Astartes organ implants to create future generations of Space Marines for the Chapter. The Chapter quickly died off, unable to replace its losses.Sky SentinelsUnknownUnknownDestroyed while defending their Homeworld, from a Chaos invasion led by the Daemon Primarch Magnus.Soul DrinkersUnknownUnknownChapter fell to Chaos and was destroyed. Later refounded during the Ultima Founding.Sons of GideonUnknownUnknownThe Crimson Fists mercilessly destroyed the Sons of Gideon's homeworld of Gideon IV and then hunted down the Sons of Gideon's 3rd Company which had escaped the initial assault.Sons of GorgaxUnknownUnknownUnable to recover enough of the precious Progenoid Glands of their fallen battle-brothers, the Sons of Gorgax died off, unable to replace its losses.Sons of the RavenUnknownUnknownDestroyed by the forces of Chaos in the Sarum Ambush.Star ScorpionsUnknown25th FoundingThe Star Scorpions had the dual misfortune of producing highly mutated gene-seed and being utterly devastated by daemonic entities when the Chapter's fleet became trapped in the Warp.Tiger ClawsAstral ClawsUnknownDeclared destroyed over fourteen centuries earlier and effectively a dead Chapter. Secretly, the survivors joined the Astral Claws Chapter.VeneratorsUnknownUnknownOn Tarinth during the 5th Black Crusade, the Venerators and the Warhawks Chapters were utterly destroyed in the ruins of Kasyr Lutein.VindicatorsUltramarinesUnknownDestroyed by the Alpha Legion.WarhawksUnknownUnknownOn Tarinth during the 5th Black Crusade, the Venerators and the Warhawks Chapters were utterly destroyed in the ruins of Kasyr Lutein.Wolf BrothersSpace WolvesSecond FoundingForcibly disbanded by the Inquisition and the Space Wolves as a result of rampant genetic instability and resulting mutation. |
Bellerophon's Fall - Bellerophon's Fall: Bellerophon's FallThe FallDead WorldGolgothan WastesMaelstrom ZoneSegmentum UltimaHive WorldCygnaxAn uprising of Imperial helots in the middle centuries of the 41st Millennium released toxic industrial waste into the planet's atmosphere, killing off much of the population and transforming this once humming hive of manufactoria into a Dead World picked over by mutant scavengers and the descendants of the former slaves, many of them Abhumans.Bellerophon's Fall became the site for a major battle of the Badab War in 906.M41 between the Secessionist Mantis Warriors and the Loyalist Marines Errant Space Marine Chapters. |
Bellerophon's Fall - History: Bellerophon's Fall was once an active industrial hub centred on the processing of metallic ores mined from the surrounding star systems, and as a commercial transhipping point for the Badab Sector. Its colony was originally established and controlled by the Hive World of Cygnax.Material support for Bellerophon's Fall was severed following the death of Cygnax in 577.M41 and the resulting helot (slave) uprising which caused Bellerophon's Fall to suffer serious infrastructural damage, poisoning its biosphere with toxic industrial waste that resulted in widespread famine, disease, rioting and other mass casualty events.Currently, the world is the site of ongoing scavenger operations and small-scale attempts to recreate its industrial base sponsored by the noble houses of the world of Sagan in the Karthago Sector. An Imperial Navy fleet anchorage and navigational relay were re-established in orbit of the world in 843.M41.In 906.M41, during the internecine Imperial conflict known as the Badab War (904.M41-912.M41) that raged across the entirety of the Maelstrom Zone, the Secessionist Mantis Warriors Chapter of Space Marines successfully drew a sizable portion of the Loyalist Marines Errant's contingent into a trap on Bellerophon's Fall and destroyed much of the Chapter's command structure in a series of murderous surgical strikes. With their Chapter Master and his command staff dead, the Marines Errant were forced to retreat in disarray. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the alliance between that Chapter and the Fire Hawks collapsed into bitter recriminations. |
Bellerophon's Fall - Departmento Cartographicae Planetary Database: Since the loss of Imperial control over the world, the formerly enslaved helot workers and their descendants have dispersed into various ramshackle encampments and settlements of Renegades. The majority of these former slaves were designated as Abhuman work class "sub-grade". Other descendants of survivors of the slave revolt were subject to extensive chemo-toxic-induced mutations. The estimated population of Bellerophon's Fall is now between 9 and 20 million out of an original estimate of 120 million people before the revolt.Tithe Grade: Not currently applicable, formerly Exactus TertiusClimate/Geography/Biosphere: The climate of Bellerophon's Fall is arid/sub-arctic. Much of the surface is covered in ferric ore deposits, processed slag debris and ruined industrial plant. Toxicity is now extreme, and the lethal exposure average for a baseline human physiology without protection is 1-3 standard weeks.Governmental Type: None ExtantPlanetary Governor: None. The last Imperial Sub-Commander, Marco Nihilus, who was appointed under the dominion of Cygnax, was killed by assassination in 576.M41, an event that helped to induce the slave revolt.Adepta Presence: Minor, small tertiary grade Adeptus Mechanicus Reclaimator taskforce, Imperial Navy overwatch fleet anchorage, and four semi-independent scavenging stations notionally under the auspices of the Karthan Lords of Sagan.Military: No standing armed forces. External outposts maintain security forces (Grade Minima). |
Bellicatus Missile Array - Bellicatus Missile Array: The Bellicatus Missile Array is a potent Imperial Missile Launcher system deployed on the Primaris Space Marine Impulsor assault grav transport.It is used on the Impulsor when its squad of accompanying Primaris Marines is in need of greater fire support.The Bellicatus Missile Array can fire a variety of different missile types as the tactical situation requires. These include Krak Missiles, Frag Missiles and anti-aircraft Icarus Missiles. |
Bellom - Bellom: Bellom is the name of both a Dead World and its star system in the Jericho Reach.Once a massive trade hub for the Imperium, the fall of the Jericho Sector left Bellom barren of all life for centuries into the present day. |
Bellom - History: The Bellom System was once one of the most prosperous trading hubs in the old Jericho Sector, its fortunes built upon the flow of luxury goods passing along a spur of the Hyades Ebb Warp route that led directly towards the old sector capital of Verronus.That passage no longer exists, for with the rise of the Warp Storms that heralded the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, the route became unstable and then collapsed entirely.At some point during the Jericho Sector's "Age of Shadow," the raw stuff of the Warp spewed out of the old passage to Verronus, and engulfed the glittering spires of Bellom, cutting it off from all outside contact for many hundreds of Terran years. When the Warp Storms eventually subsided, the passage to Verronus was gone, as was every living thing on the surface of Bellom.The only survivors of the Warp Storm that engulfed the system were the Deathwatch Battle-Brothers present onboard Watch Station Bellom, which orbits in the system's outer reaches.When the Warp Storms came, the crew of the watch station raised its Gellar Field and used their Sus-an Membrane implants to enter a deep state of suspended animation in which they slept through the centuries until the storms lifted and they could resume their vigil.Just what the station stands sentinel against is unknown, not even to Watch Fortress Erioch's Chamber of Vigilance, but the fact of its existence is reason enough to maintain it.Of late, a number of efforts have been launched by the Achilus Crusade to reopen the old Bellom-Verronus Warp passage in the hope of establishing a new front by which the servants of Chaos infesting the central regions of the Jericho Reach can be assaulted.To date, even the most skilled of Navigators has failed to locate any such passage, and several of their number have perished in the attempt. Nonetheless, Lord Militant Solomon Tetrarchus has ordered the effort to continue, for now at least. |
Bellona - Bellona: Bellona is a Forge World or "Forge Moon" of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which orbits the Ocean World of Nemeton, the Chapter planet of the Emperor's Spears, located in the Elara's Veil sector of the Segmentum Ultima.Bellona was originally colonised many Terran millennia ago by fleets from the Forge World of Incaladion. The tech-priests of Bellona have a mutual defence pact with the Emperor's Spears Chapter, who dwell on Nemeton. The moon supports a large orbital shipyard which builds and maintains voidships for both the Mechanicus forces and the Emperor's Spears' Chapter fleet.The primitive, pre-industrial Human tribes of Nemeton believe that Bellona is the eye of the Emperor. |
Bellona - Canon Conflict: There is some dispute about the name of Nemeton and Bellona's star system. In the novel "Spears of the Emperor" it is called the Ophion System, while in White Dwarf 460 it is named the Avalon System. Because of this disparity, locals sometimes just default to calling the system after its primary inhabited world, thus the "Nemeton System." |
Bellrath Crusade - Bellrath Crusade: Bellrath CrusadeImperiumLaanah RiftsSegmentum PacificusThe crusade was conducted under the auspices of Praetor Slayban Bellrath, a powerful noble from the Terran court who was raised to the rank of Lord Militant.This Imperial Crusade was conducted by well over 25 million levied Astra Militarum troops with unknown numbers of pilgrims and hangers-on swept along in its wake. The crusade was supplemented by the forces of 2 Titan Legions and eight Space Marine Chapters at various times of which one of the most active was the Sons of Medusa.The Tome Keepers was an allied Chapter that also took part in this Imperial Crusade to help liberate the Laanath Rifts. Due to poor relations with the Adeptus Ministorum that led to internal conflict, they subsequently drew the searching eye of the Ordo Hereticus. Frustrated with their supposed allies, the Tome Keepers chose to fight solely alongside the Sons of Medusa against the Hellgrammite.The Laanah Rifts were a dangerous and largely uncharted area of space, much of which had remained untouched by human contact since before the Age of Strife, and the Crusade met stiff resistance to its progress from the start.Shortly after the opening thrust into the unknown, the Sons of Medusa Chapter was heavily engaged in fighting previously unknown xenos species, hideously degenerate void tribes and petty sub-human empires who denied the Emperor of Mankind's ascendancy.Within 50 standard years, the crusade began to falter, and it was at this time against the twisted alien race given the name of "Hellgrammite" by the Imperial forces, that the Sons of Medusa would win their greatest victory of the crusade.These foul anthropoid creatures possessed occult-infused weaponry capable of flooding the void around their worlds with Ætheric fire, and although their physical forms were decayed and frail, they rode to battle on the backs of howling bio-mechanical monstrosities whose barbed-pincers could slash through tank armour with ease.With Bellrath's crusade salient routed and the horrific xenos harrowing the retreating Imperial forces, the full might of the Sons of Medusa circumvented the aliens' attack fleets and conducted a perilous counterattack, cutting behind the aliens' battle lines and striking like a spear thrust at the heart of their demesnes at the star system code-named "Wormgyre."Using the arcane science of their Explorator magi allies, the Chapter's fleet had modified their vessels' Warp-Drives to help repel the Ætheric fire that shielded Wormgyre, providing them with a measure of defence for a time, and so were able to catch their enemy complacent behind their burning skies.Knowing that time was short, the Sons of Medusa plunged directly into a headlong attack with the whole gathered might of their Chapter, hellish flames licking at their warship's Void Shields as they plunged into low orbit over the Hellgrammite throne-world to unleash their deadly waves of Drop Pods, Thunderhawks and assault rams on the alien cities.The Sons of Medusa's attack was as relentless as it was merciless, and the Hellgrammite's spider-web towers of black coral were shattered and charnel-bedecked temples to the Dark Gods raised millennia before by inhuman hands were cast down. Caught unprepared by the speed and ferocity of the assault, the Hellgrammite for all their Warp-spawned might were as helpless as children before the storm.Such resistance as the aliens could mount was mercilessly crushed, their dreaded fire-shapers isolated and gunned down in hails of Assault Cannon fire and their mighty battlermechanoids felled by Thunder Hammer and Power Axe.It was said afterwards that the Sons of Medusa killed and killed again, methodically and coldly destroying the creatures, firing until the promethium in their flamers was exhausted and their last bolt shell spent. Still they went on killing, first with Combat Knife and chainsword, and then when they dulled and failed, with anything they could find to wield.Many battle-brothers were reduced to pulverising their enemies with their armoured fists and tearing the shrieking, panicked creatures apart with their bare hands. The onslaught carried on until the rubble of the alien temple-cities was painted with the Hellgrammite's pale ichors and half their world had been smashed into ruin. Only then did the Sons of Medusa withdraw.With the death of Wormgyre, the Sons of Medusa had torn the heart from the enemy, both militarily and spiritually, and the Hellgrammites' resistance to the crusade collapsed, their will to war broken at a stroke. In a handful of Terran years they were no more; a once proud alien race reduced to ashen-ruins with a few scattered refugees hurling themselves into the mercy of the deep void to escape the wrath of Humanity.Within a standard century, a great swathe of the Laanah Rifts was brought under Imperial dominion, and the Sons of Medusa entered the mythology of the new sector's inhabitants, whispered of in the old tales as "the Emerald Death" that fell from the stars to punish the God-Emperor's foes.The Chapter for its part has retained some ties to this, the site of one of their most lauded victories, maintaining infrequent contact with some of the Adeptus Mechanicus factions that founded bases on its frontiers, and holding seldom-used recruiting rights on several of its worlds in tribute to their role in the Laanah Sector's founding.The Bellrath Crusade was successfully concluded in 453.M38. |
Ben Counter - Ben Counter: Ben Counter is an author for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. |
Ben Counter - Apocalypse: Black Leviathan (Short Story) (2014, collected in Damocles (Anthology)) |
Ben Counter - Grey Knights: The Grey Knights Omnibus (2009, ISBN 1-84416-696-1) contains the following:Grey Knights (2004, ISBN 1-84416-087-4)Dark Adeptus (2006, ISBN 1-84416-242-7)Hammer of Daemons (2008, ISBN 1-84416-511-6) |
Ben Counter - Horus Heresy: Galaxy in Flames (2006, ISBN 1-84416-393-8)Battle for the Abyss (2008, ISBN 1-84416-549-3) |
Ben Counter - Lords of the Space Marines: Arjac Rockfist: Anvil of Fenris (2014, ISBN 978-1-84970-651-3) |
Ben Counter - Soul Drinkers: The Soul Drinkers Omnibus (2006, ISBN 1-84416-416-0) contains the following:Soul Drinker (2002, ISBN 0-74344-323-3)The Bleeding Chalice (2003, ISBN 1-84416-054-8)Crimson Tears (2006, ISBN 1-84416-160-9)Soul Drinkers: The Second Omnibus (2013, ISBN 1-84970-313-2) contains the following:Chapter War (2007, ISBN 1-84416-458-6)Hellforged (2009, ISBN 1-84416-691-0)Phalanx (2012, ISBN 1-84970-146-4)Daenyathos (2010, ISBN 1-84970-462-7)Traitor by Deed (2020, ISBN 978-1-78999-846-7) |
Ben Counter - Space Marine Battles: Endeavor of Will (Short Story) (2012, Collected in Architect of Fate (Anthology))Malodrax (2013, ISBN 1-84970-544-5)Santus Reach: Blood on the Mountain (2014, ISBN 1-84970-695-6)The World Engine (2014, ISBN 1-84970-880-0) |
Ben Counter - Space Marine Legends: Cassius (2016, ISBN 1-78496-490-5) |
Ben Counter - Others: Daemonblood (Short Story) (2001, collected in Dark Imperium (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology))Hellbreak (Short Story) (2001, collected in Dark Imperium (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology))Words of Blood (Short Story) (2002, collected in Words of Blood (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology))Defixio (Short Story) (2002, collected in Words of Blood (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology))Daemon World (2003, ISBN 0-74344-353-5)Seventh Retribution (2013, ISBN 1-84970-478-3)Twelve Wolves (Short Story) (Collected in There is Only War (Anthology)) |
Benediction - Benediction: Benediction, originally called Talledus, was a Cardinal World of the Imperium of Man ruled by the Astra Militarum in the form of its Planetary Governor, Cardinal Morst Bolifax.Benediction served as the capital world of both the Talledus System and the wider Veritus Sub-sector, which was of great religious and political significance to the Ecclesiarchy.It was because of this importance to the Imperial state religion that Benediction became a target of the forces of Chaos led by the Word Bearers senior Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron in the days after the formation of the Great Rift.At some point in the Era Indomitus, Kor Phaeron led a Chaos assault upon the Talledus System in the hopes of capturing Benediction and transforming it from a centre of worship for the God-Emperor into a dark Shrine World dedicated to the Dark Gods.This assault was blunted during the conflict known as the Talledus War through the efforts of the Astra Militarum, the Sisters of Battle of the Order of Our Martyred Lady and the Astartes of the Salamanders Chapter as well as a phenomenon of the Psychic Awakening called the "Saints' Wall" in which the spirits of the Imperial sacred dead were summoned by the faithful to their world.Yet the forces of Chaos have managed to claim most of the world's surface, and only the city-like Grand Honorificum cathedral complex remains under Imperial control. |
Benediction - History: The Talledus System lay in the centre of the Veritus Sub-sector, a region of space replete with Imperial worlds and navigable Warp routes. It was seen as a stronghold of the Ecclesiarchy, a vibrant symbol of the Imperial Creed's galaxy-spanning influence and power.Its capital world of Benediction was entirely covered by a golden theocropolis of astonishing scale, the entirety of the planet's surface reshaped and sculpted into a mausoleum-temple to house the corpses of thousands of saints of the Imperial church.Many faithful pilgrims of the God-Emperor would gladly have given their lives just to see the spire-mountains of Lux Eternis, to walk amidst the statues of long-dead priests and hierophants, to hear the sound of psalms echoing through the artificial valleys and stained glass towers of the Grand Honorificum.This ambitious project was started by none other than the legendary reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor. During the 36th Millennium's Age of Apostasy, Thor led a great revolt against the depravities of his predecessor, Ecclesiarch and High Lord of Terra Goge Vandire. Thoroughly insane and murderous, Vandire had become convinced that he alone was the God-Emperor’s divine instrument and successor.Anyone who questioned his increasingly deranged pronouncements was subject to hideous torture, then a summary execution at the hands of the Daughters of the Emperor, a sect of pious female warriors that had been swayed through religious fraud into Vandire's service.The Talledus System suffered terribly during those dark days. Its governor, Hectus Carmine, was one of the first to openly and publicly decry the outrages of Goge Vandire. In doing so he earned the mad Ecclesiarch's fury. Carmine's homeworld of Talledus was invaded by forces loyal to Vandire, who were faced with the governor's steadfast Astra Militarum regiments and thousands of the God-Emperor's faithful who refused to acknowledge Vandire's rule.After a fierce conflict that raged for many solar months, Carmine and hundreds of his co-conspirators were finally captured and put on trial. The deposed system governor was brutalised publicly for more than a solar month and ultimately burned alive on the steps of his palatial residence, while his populace was forced to witness. Not content with this blood price, Vandire ordered a grand purge of Heretics across the sub-sector.On worlds such as Boras Minor, Ghreddask and Satropol across the system, the measures taken by the insane Ecclesiarch would live in infamy. Once a prosperous system famed for its splendour, Talledus itself was reduced to a shadow of its former glory.Sebastian Thor was the leader of the Confederation of Light, an alliance of faithful souls determined to end Vandire's time as Ecclesiarch and reform the Imperial church, which had come to be known as the Reign of Blood. Thor gathered his forces -- which ultimately included several Space Marine Chapter Masters -- to Holy Terra, where they overthrew the tyrant and his loyal servants.In the process, Thor revealed the depths of Vandire's heresy to the Daughters of the Emperor, who repaid their master's lies with the edge of a Power Sword. As Vandire's severed head struck the floor of his chamber, the terror that had enveloped the Imperium was finally ended. In the aftermath of this bloody coup, Thor -- having convinced the High Lords of Terra of the righteousness of his actions -- was chosen to become the new Ecclesiarch.Thor was a bold and determined reformer. He decreed that the Daughters of the Emperor, having shown their true loyalty, would become the Chamber Militant of the Ecclesiarchy -- renamed the Sisters of Battle, they would faithfully serve the will of the God-Emperor. Having put in place measures to ensure that an event as disastrous as Vandire's Reign of Blood could not occur again, Thor departed Terra and began a grand tour of the Imperium's holy sites.One of the first sub-sectors the new Ecclesiarch visited was Veritus, and its broken capital world of Talledus was his first port of call.Though they had suffered greatly at the hands of the church, the survivors of Vandire's purges greeted their new Ecclesiarch reverently when he visited the ruins of Talledus. Moved by their faith, Thor ordered the construction of a grand monument to Hectus Carmine and all who had lost their lives during the Reign of Blood.The limitless coffers of the Ecclesiarchy were opened, and upon the ashes of the past were fashioned soaring temples and mausoleum-cities of gold. Thor decreed that Talledus be renamed "Benediction" in honour of the fallen.Over the following centuries the power and influence of the Veritus Sub-sector grew unchecked. The immense wealth generated by sacred tithes, pilgrimage tolls and the generous offerings of the God-Emperor's faithful flowed back into the vaults of the Ecclesiarchy.In order to protect this valuable and imposing symbol of their power, Thor's successors as Ecclesiarch ensured that several fortress-sanctuaries of the Sisters of Battle were built upon Martyr's Rest and its neighbouring worlds. Entire Astra Militarum regiments were diverted to protect its borders, and the Ecclesiarchy's tithe-collectors roamed the space lanes of the Veritus Sub-sector, ensuring that the God-Emperor's due was paid in full.The orbital dockyards at the world of Satrapol in the Talledus System were amongst the largest in the Imperium. Thousands upon thousands of vessels were packed together in cramped mooring claws, kept stationary for Terran months and sometimes even years as the Ecclesiarchy's agents methodically ensured that every tithe was collected. Those who failed to pay what was owed, or in any way roused the ire of the state church, were dealt with by the ruthlessly zealous Ghreddask Illuminators.These crack Astra Militarum regiments did not technically answer to the Adeptus Ministorum, as the Decree Passive, passed in the aftermath of the Reign of Blood, prevented the church from maintaining such a military body ever again. Yet, such was the ferocity of their faith, the Illuminators maintained suspiciously close political ties with members of the Talledoran priesthood.So did Talledus thrive for thousands of standard years. Even when the Great Rift tore open and Terra itself was savaged by the daemonic hordes of the Dark Gods, the Veritus Sub-sector remained untouched. The prophets of Benediction claimed that the faithful of Talledus lived under the eternal protection of the God-Emperor, a reward for all that they had once suffered.Such predictions would prove utterly false. The Dark Gods had set their eyes upon this gleaming jewel in Humanity's crown, and their greatest mortal champions planned to see it burn in the fires of Chaos. The Talledus War would consume Benediction and all the worlds of the system, bringing a clash of rival faiths to the Veritus Sub-sector. |
Benediction - Notable Locations: Grand Honorificum - The Grand Honorificum was a massive cathedral complex that housed the bodies and other relics of many of the Imperial saints buried on Benediction. It was essentially a "theocropolis," a city that was home to millions and dedicated wholly to the practice of religious faith. Its heart was covered by a great dome, and the entire complex was protected by Void Shields and multiple layers of overlapping defensive armaments.Lux Eternis - Spired mountains said to have bene carved to hold memorials and statues dedicated to many of the Imperial church's saints, long-dead priests and hierophants.River Carmine - A river that marks the region where the Grand Honorificum is located. Four great brides were constructed to span this waterway. It was the seizure of one of these bridges by the Salamanders during the Talledus War that allowed the Imperial defenders to divide the attacking Chaos army in two and establish a new defensive perimeter to protect the Grand Honorificum. |
Benedictors - Benedictors: The Benedictors is a Codex Astartes-compliant Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. Almost nothing is known about this Chapter in Imperial records. |
Benedictors - Chapter Colours: The Benedictor's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Benedictors - Chapter Badge: The Benedictor's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Benefictus - Benefictus: A Benefictus is a mutant Genestealer hybrid artificially created from a merger of Human and Tyranid DNA through the will of the Broodmind who serves the Genestealer Cults as a potent battle psyker.Where a Magus is an artful manipulator, a Benefictus has been likened to little more than a walking artillery piece. Those Broodkin who accompany it to battle are seen as forming an honour guard for a revered weapon of the Genestealer Patriarch rather than fighting alongside an inspirational hero. But in the cultists' eyes, a Benefictus is without doubt blessed by the Star Children who are to come to lead them to salvation and they are honoured as extensions of the Patriarch's power.The trigger for the birthing of a Benefictus aligns with that of Hybrid Metamorphs. Several of these living weapons appear within well-established gene-sects in the years leading up to the appearance of a Tyranid hive fleet at the cult's world. Yet they also mature amongst much younger cults, often in a reaction to local factors limiting the cult's growth and potential success. |
Benefictus - Role: Through careful selection of psi-capable gene-stock, the Broodminds of the various Genestealer Cults have cultivated a brand new mutation of Genestealer hybrids, a high-minded vector for its inhuman influence -- the Benefictus.With its grossly swollen brain, the Benefictus is able to focus the dispersed psychic energies of their cult's Broodmind into beams of raw telekinetic force that rival a lascannon for sheer destructive power. The shockwaves from these impacts carry echoes of the Broodmind's alien telepathy, forcing nearby enemies to recoil from waves of nauseating alien horror and hallucination, even as their comrades directly in the psyker's path are incinerated by the Benefictus' blast. The dazed survivors are then left vulnerable to any lurking Broodkin.No matter how well-planned a cult's raids, the militarised nature of many Imperial worlds means that the Broodkin's ploys will often come up against obstacles they cannot breach with the tools to hand. Doors to munitions vaults that are proof against simple chemical explosives; fortified bunkers containing a city's astropathic shrine preparing to call for aid; main battle tanks of punitive Imperial armies; even stolen industrial saws, lasers and drills are of limited use against these and a cult's resources cannot always be brought to bear against them all. To such conundrums, it is a Benefictus who often supplies the solution, delivering it like a miraculous gift from the Star Children.Benefictuses of early brood cycles can wipe out inquisitive patrols of Enforcers so suddenly that no distress call ever gets out. They can tear through blast shields sealing off their hive city district from another that is teeming with potential recruits. Others slay tank-sized xenofauna that compete with the cult for the sorts of underbelly territories they operate in.It is probable that these strange Genestealer hybrids are manifesting in greater numbers thanks to the opening of the Great Rift. Most Imperial worlds have seen large numbers of psykers swell beyond the authorities' ability to round them up as a result of the Psychic Awakening. Many escape into society's cracks, and a hidden Genestealer Cult is always ready to capitalise on such potent genetic stock.Where Hybrid Metamorphs use their twisted appendages and alien-augmented muscle, a Benefictus draws upon the power of the Broodmind to unleash blasts of searing psionic energy that can obliterate almost anything in their path. A Benefictus possesses a heaving mass of brain matter and twitching alien lobes that have swollen outwards in an extreme exaggeration of a more typical Genestealer hybrid's enlarged cranium. This mass pulses, seeping with protoplasmic drool as it concentrates the Broodmind's power.When a target presents itself, the Benefictus unleashes the accumulated psychic potential, which lances outwards from their cranial mass. At its touch, enemies disintegrate, armour crumples and sloughs away, and rockcrete ruptures in a geyser of powdered remains. The physical destruction is followed by something more eerie. The concentration of the Broodmind's telepathic energies is so powerful that psionic shock waves of alien horror roll outwards from the point of impact in a sickening flood that leaves survivors clutching their skulls and screaming in terror.Hallucinations and other sensory phantasms can disrupt even highly-disciplined troops and vehicle crews, leaving them exposed or out of position and easier prey for other cultists. There is nothing subtle about a Benefictus. |
Benefictus - Wargear: Psionic Cascade (Witchfire) - Using their psychic gift, a Benefictus can unleash the will of the Broodmind into beams of raw telekinetic force which are capable of destroying heavy vehicles and damaging tanks. Such power can be focused for even greater power, though at great risk to the Benefictus.Psionic Shield - A Benefictus can prevent incoming damage to itself by projecting a limited telekinetic shield to fend off ranged and melee attacks.Cultist Staff - Much like the cult's magus, a Benefictus often carries a Cultist Staff to enhance their psychic abilities. This staff, a type of Force Stave, is adorned with precious relics, such as vials of the very blood of their Genestealer Patriarch. |
Bernod Falkor - Bernod Falkor: Bernod Falkor was an officer of the Imperial Navy who served under both Warmasters Slaydo and Macaroth during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. He was killed in 773.M41 at the Battle of Addolorata, heroically preventing his commanding officer, Commodore Willer Waldesh, from mistakenly attacking an Imperial Starfort that served as a part of Addolorata's orbital defences. |
Bernod Falkor - History: Bernod Falkor was an experienced Imperial Navy officer who served aboard the Dreadnought Intangible, under the command of Vice Admiral Alber vander Trake. At the close of 773.M41, Imperial intelligence placed a Chaotic warfleet less than two weeks away from the world of Addolorata. Lord Militant Delayni ordered a fast attack flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Trake to alter course from Lotun and translate to Addolorata to take up a defensive station there. In a brilliantly executed inner run towards Addolorata, Trake managed to arrive before the Forces of Chaos. Unfortunately for the Imperial flotilla, the system's defence grid was braced to expect enemy intrusion, and mistakenly attacked Trake's forces upon their arrival. Thinking himself under attack by Chaos forces, Vice Admiral Trake ordered his flotilla to return fire.Realising he had made a gross miscalculation, one of the Heavy Cruisers in the Imperial flotilla was soon lost and the Intangible was on fire and listing badly. Trake's warship continued to take heavy fire as he tried to explain the situation to Addolorata's command-and-control. This took nearly three hours, and in the confusion one of the super heavy Destroyers was vaporised with the loss of all hands. The Vice Admiral finally managed to persuade the Addolorata System Defence Command to cease fire, and tried to marshal his flotilla into a new formation to defend the world. But by this time, the Intangible was foundering and close to death. To make matters worse, Warp-echo traces suggested the Chaotic fleet was not far behind them.Trake quit the Dreadnought and moved his flag to the super heavy Destroyer No Quarter. Unfortunately, matters took a turn for the worst when Trake's second-in-command, Commodore Willer Waldesh, who had been left in command of the stricken Intangible to oversee the evacuation and abandonment of the vessel, ordered his gunners to obtain target solutions and attack one of the remaining Starforts. Waldesh's bizarre behaviour may have been a result of him being becoming unhinged by the pain of the extensive injuries he had suffered when the planet's defences had mistakenly fired on the Imperial flotilla. Acting as First Officer, Bernod Falkor quickly realised the Commodore's mistake and attempted to wrest command of the vessel from the deranged Waldesh. The Commodore proceeded to shoot Falkor eight times "for mutiny," but Falkor managed to survive long enough to kill his erstwhile commander with a Bolt Pistol. On course for the Starfort, Falkor triggered the ship's auto-destruct, destroying the mighty vessel with all remaining hands. He was later posthumously decorated by the Imperial Navy for valour. |
Berserker Dreadnought - Berserker Dreadnought: A Berserker Dreadnought is a Chaos Dreadnought of any class that is deployed by Heretic Astartes forces dedicated to the service of the Blood God Khorne.Like their infantry counterparts, the Khornate Berserkers, Berserker Dreadnoughts seek only to kill, maim and murder in melee combat and will often launch seemingly suicidal charges against the foe devoid of any real tactics or strategy. |
Berserker Dreadnought - History: Although knowledge of them has long been suppressed and purged from most histories save the sealed archives of the Grey Knights on Titan and the sacred canticles of the mighty Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, the "slaughtering engines of Khorne" have long ranked among the most terrible enemies on the battlefield for the Imperium.The first "slaughterers" were encountered during the dark and terrible wars of the Horus Heresy. Thought to be a savage outgrowth of the more common Dreadnought walker technology employed widely by the Space Marine Legions.These first slaughterers were "Berserker Dreadnoughts" optimised for close combat assaults and as line breakers, modified from standard patterns to be larger and swifter than their more common counterparts, and employed in near suicidal charges into the heart of an enemy line.Their use by the World Eaters Legion is stated in some apocryphal sources in fact to pre-date the Heresy itself in some form, and such was the savage reputation of this Legion even before its fall that this is most likely true. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Berserkers of Skallathrax: The Berserkers of Skallathrax are a warband of Chaos Space Marines drawn from the World Eaters Traitor Legion. There have been multiple encounters throughout the Segmentum Obscurus between the forces of the Imperium of Man and this vicious warband of Heretic Astartes dedicated to the Blood God Khorne. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Warband History: The Berserkers of Skallathrax are a warband of corrupted Astartes drawn from the World Eaters Traitor Legion. After the end of the Horus Heresy the Traitor Legions were driven by the actions of Imperial forces into the Eye of Terror, a vast Warp rift of Daemon Worlds awash in Warp Storms. The World Eaters retreated from Terra only grudgingly and fought their way to the Eye of Terror, carving a bloody swathe through anything that impeded them.Within the Eye, the Traitor Legions eventually established a society dedicated to the rule and worship of Chaos. Whilst within the Eye, the World Eaters' searched for a homeworld to call their own. The World Eaters constantly fought the other Traitor Legions in bloody conflict as was the nature of those dedicated to Chaos, constantly trying to prove their worth to their Blood God, Khorne. But one such conflict would finally sunder the World Eaters Legion as a coherent, unified military force on the Daemon World of Skallathrax.The World Eaters faced off against the Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines, the devoted servants of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the chief rival among the Ruinous Powers of the World Eaters' own patron God. The two armies of Traitor Marines clashed through the planet's storm-lashed cities of black rock and ice in what was later known as the Battle of Skalathrax. City after city fell to the Khornate Berserker assaults of the World Eaters, as the chosen of Khorne hurled themselves at the Emperor's Children, slaughtering the hated Slaaneshi devotees until forced to halt their attack as the Daemon World's deep freezing night fell, bringing temperatures so low that they were barely survivable even for Astartes in Power Armour.A skilled World Eaters Captain by the name of Khârn, infuriated with the refusal of his fellow World Eaters to continue to attack the enemy while they sought shelter from the falling temperatures, proceeded to burn the shelters of both his own men and those of the enemy, killing both friend and foe alike as he did so and thus earning the title of "The Betrayer". This act shattered the World Eaters Legion's already fraying unity, splintering it into multiple warbands of Khornate Berserkers that roam the Eye of Terror to this day. The Berserkers of Skallathrax are one of the larger of these warbands that split off from their former Legion. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Notable Campaigns: The Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Berserkers of Skallathrax were one of the many warbands of Chaos Space Marines who were drawn to the Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime to aid in the slaughter alongside the Forces of Chaos led by the mighty Lord Zhufor, of the Khornate warband the Skulltakers, during the 17-year-long siege. Sickened by reports from the front of cowardice and desertion in the face of the enemy, Zhufor sought to unify the various Khornate warbands under his leadership. But the Berserkers of Skallathrax, like their fellow Khornate warbands whom followed the Blood God, did not give their loyalty easily. They only respected martial prowess and few could match Zhufor's. A giant of a man, he led by example and by fear. He challenged the leader of the Berserkers of Skallathrax to a duel to the death. At stake would be the leadership of both warbands. To refuse would be an affront to Khorne. Such a battle between his champions would please Khorne mightily. So, stripped of armour and armed with chainaxes the two Chaos Lords fought to the death, Zhufor winning the mighty combat. Striking the head from his opponent, he raised it to the baying crowd and claimed, by right of conquest, lordship over the Berserkers of Skallathrax. Any who would oppose his rule had to challenge him, yet none of the others came forward. Zhufor was Khorne's chosen Champion on Vraks and he had proved it with his own blood-soaked hands. The Berserkers of Skallathrax thereafter fought for him. After the Siege of Vraks ended in a pyrrhic victory for the Imperial forces, the Berserkers fled off-planet and their current location is unknown. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Warband Colours: The Berserkers of Skallathrax wear the colours of devotees of the Blood God; blood-red Power Armour trimmed in brass. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Warband Badge: The Berserkers of Skallathrax's emblem is reminiscent of the distinctive symbol of their former parent Legion -- the World Eaters -- which depicts a planet being devoured by a monstrous maw. |
Berserkers of Skallathrax - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pp. 17, 59, 138 |
Beseritor - Beseritor: Beseritor is a Hive World located within the Jericho Reach. Its conquest was one of the last great successes of the Achilus Crusade in the Orpheus Salient before the crusade's first encounter with the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon. |
Beseritor - History: Prior to the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, Beseritor was a thriving system that provided munitions, recruits, and food to fuel other planets of the ancient Jericho Sector.Construction had begun on the first of several planned hive cities, and the manufactoria and mining engines had begun the work of exploiting the world's resources for the Imperium.When communications with the Imperium ceased at the dawn of the region's Age of Shadow, Beseritor's sudden growth and development came to a screeching halt. Civil wars broke out, as various factions vied for control in the power vacuum left behind.Construction on the partially completed hive city was abandoned. Initially the manufactoria and mines were strategic assets, but they were soon turned into dangerous ruins where survivors dwelt.As the millennia passed, the population fell further from the technological standards of Imperial civilisation. By the time the crusade made contact, the planet's once-thriving civilisation had been reduced to little more than warring city-states made up of subsistence farmers whose most advanced technology was coal-powered steam engines.Though a few of these cultures still remembered the ancient legends of the God-Emperor, the majority had fallen prey to heathen nature worship.The missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy, with the support of the Imperial Navy, were able to convert much of the world's population to the Imperial Cult over the span of just a few solar months.With the assistance of the newly converted, General Mikal Curas chose to use overwhelming force to make examples of the resistant city-states. After the second city was laid to waste, the remaining resistance elements surrendered.The general quickly pronounced the system Compliant, and brought in the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to begin reconstruction. To everyone's surprise, many of the Imperial ruins, including the partially-completed hive city, were salvageable, even after having been abandoned for millennia.No explanations for this unusual state of preservation have been offered. In a matter of solar weeks, construction was resumed, and the process of relocating the population to the new hives was begun.In short order, the manufactoria belched smoke once more and the planet began tithing its due to support the crusade. Today, the planet's single hive city is thriving, and construction on a second hive has begun.As the Tyranid incursion has continued, the Orpheus Salient has becoming increasingly reliant upon Beseritor's production. The manufactoria have been pushed to capacity, and ancient mines are being examined for viability. Some members of the Adeptus Munitorum have even begun to argue that it may already be time to raise a Beseritor regiment.Because of this success, several light Imperial Navy vessels, designated Battlegroup Vishnu, have been assigned to keep station over the system. Communications between the system and the command elements of the Orpheus Salient have recently become restricted, as the Shadow in the Warp has encroached.Similarly, there have been some difficulties in maintaining consistent supply lines from the planet. Many fear that were it not for the presence of the battlegroup, this breakdown could offset the recent progress, causing the system to slip once more into anarchy.Beseritor is within a short Warp voyage of several systems currently under attack by Hive Fleet Dagon. This proximity has enabled it to serve as a rally point and resupply station for elements directly involved in the fighting.Oddly, no Tyranid incursions have been seen in the system. Rather than question this absence, the command elements of the salient have chosen to graciously thank the Emperor for His protection and exploited the resources at hand. |
Betalis III - Betalis III: Betalis III, or Bethalmae as it is known in the Aeldari Lexicon, is designated as both an Ice World and a Mining World of the Imperium of Man. It is located in the binary Betalis System of the Talis Munus Sector of the Segmentum Solar, being one of the two inhabitable planets -- the other is the Industrial World of Betalis IV -- orbiting the twin Betalis stars.The primary star of the binary system is a massive blue giant, at least twenty times larger than Sol and a million times more luminous.This star expels enormous amounts of stellar matter into the void surrounding it, which renders all but the outermost worlds unsuitable for Human settlement due to the high levels of ionising radiation they are afflicted with. This ejection of stellar matter is also the reason that a miniature local nebula -- known as the Karina Nebula -- is present in the star system.Betalis III was the site of the Betalis III Campaign or the Battle of the Dawning Twilight as it was known to the Asuryani, fought in 894.M41 between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and the Craftworld Aeldari who sought to recover the armour of the ancient Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the founder of the Shadow Spectre Aspect Warriors, who had perished on the world many Terran millennia before.An alliance of Asuryani forces from the craftworlds of Mymeara and Alaitoc, as well as Aeldari Corsairs from the Void Dragons, Sky Raiders, and Sunblitz Brotherhood, descended on the frigid world to recover their beloved Phoenix Lord's armour before it was discovered and defiled by the human miners present on Betalis III.In this way, the Mymearans sought to restore Irillyth to fight once more for his people, since his spirit would have remained intact within his armour's Spirit Stone.Betalis III was reinforced by Astra Militarum regiments drawn from the Cadian Shock Troops and the Elysian Drop Troops as well as Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus and the Space Marines of the Space Wolves Chapter.After the Imperial forces succeeded in fighting the Aeldari to a bloody standstill, the mysterious xenos vanished as quickly as they had arrived.In truth, the Asuryani forces had recovered Irillyth's armour from the depths of the Aresta IV mining complex on the frozen planet and thus had no further interest in the world. |
Betalis III - History: Betalis III was once the homeworld of a young, starfaring reptillian xenos species in the centuries following the Fall of the Aeldari, which was only beginning to forge its own interstellar empire. Irillyth, the Aeldari Phoenix Lord of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors, was gifted with a terrible vision of the future whilst still training under Asurmen, the first of the Phoenix Lords. In it, he saw the utter destruction of the Mymeara Craftworld at the hands of this very race, which would eventually grow to threaten the Aeldari.Struck with grief over the near-destruction of the Aeldari race during the Fall, Irillyth was unwilling to let any more of his kin be eradicated. He set out to discover the elusive Craftworld and help it avoid its fate. He ultimately succeeded in finding the Craftworld, although how he did it is clouded by various legends. The Phoenix Lord spoke to the Mymeara Seer Council of his vision, but offered them hope of preventing it from becoming true if their future enemies were destroyed at that point in time, before they became unstoppable.Yielding to the Phoenix Lord's wisdom, the Mymearan Seer Council granted him the right to take nearly half the Craftworld's forces to carry out this grim task. Irillyth left Mymeara with a heavy heart, for after his arrival on the Craftworld his vision had crystallised -- he knew that although he would succeed, it would come at the price of his life, and of all of those who followed him. For decades the Aeldari of Mymeara awaited news of Irillyth's victory and the return of their kin, but none came. Eventually, they had to accept that their brethren had been killed and the Phoenix Lord vanquished. The Mymearans set out to the areas of space where Irillyth said the empire of their eventual destroyers would be located to discover what became of him and his forces. Along their way, they bore witness to planets that had been sites of great battles and they saw cities obliterated by what could only have been Aeldari weaponry. The reptilian aliens scavenging amongst the ruins were little more than savages. However, no sign of Irillyth could be found.The Mymearans continued their search, and eventually reached the boundaries of the Imperium of Man. The Seers of the Craftworld knew that journey through such a region of space would be hazardous, and instead chose to remain in an uninhabited star system and conceal their massive world-ship in a nebula of stellar matter which, using their advanced technology, they drew out of a nearby star and enveloped themselves within. This nebula, later named the Karina Nebula by the Imperium, was located near the planet that was, unbeknownst to the Mymearans, Bethalmae, the homeworld of the reptilian nemesis that Irillyth had sought to destroy. This was the planet that would eventually become the Imperial Mining World of Betalis III. |
Betalis III - The Coming of the Imperium: Betalis III was first discovered by the Imperium during the latter part of the Omniel Crusade, when the Crusade Fleet was returning victorious from the campaign against Renegade worlds in the Saint Altus Constellation. During a long-range scan of the Betalis System, an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator team sent from the Crusade vessel Divine Unification discovered an ancient alien spacecraft buried in the ice of the frigid third planet circling the twin suns of Betalis. Until xeno-survey teams could arrive on the world to examine the finding, the Betalis System was declared off-limits to all other Imperial starships by the Inquisition, and an area stretching thousands of kilometres away from the system was planted with mines.The Inquisition's Ordo Xenos survey team confirmed that the alien vessel had been created by the Aeldari. The Aeldari spacecraft was secured and taken away from the planet for further examination whilst the entire star system was scrupulously scoured by hundreds of thousands Servitors for any further alien artefacts. Decades passed as the mindless Servitors carried out their task, but ultimately no further trace of any Aeldari presence in the system was discovered. The Ordo Xenos contingent departed from the world after determining that the vessel had been abandoned and its pilots had escaped the planet in some other way, leaving the ice-blue primary Betalis star to drift alone in the vastness of space.The Betalis System remained uninhabited for some time following this event, but eventually the Imperium's Administratum cast its gaze upon it and the rich natural resources that it contained: ores, rare elements from the stellar matter expelled from the system's pale star, heavy metals from the system's inner planets and valuable industrial gases that could be mined from the ice of Betalis III. The conditions on the majority of the worlds within the system were deemed too dangerous and unsustaining to support human life, but the two outermost planets -- Betalis III and Betalis IV -- were declared fit for human habitation by the Administratum's bureaucrats.The colonisation of Betalis III then began in earnest. Over the course of four standard decades 57 million Imperial citizens were transported from an overpopulated Hive World, the name of which is now lost in the enormous archives of the Sector histories maintained by the Imperium's vast bureaucracy. When the colonists arrived, they stared in awe as their craft flew over vast areas of featureless, frozen landscape; a world so fundamentally different from the cramped, human-infested hive cities that they had left behind that it boggled the mind.Any of the new colonists who ventured out onto the planet's wintry surface were quickly overcome by the frigid conditions, or were driven mad by agoraphobia -- the wide open landscapes of the world were so alien to the people who have grown up in the confines of a hive city that many a psyche simply could not bear it. The colonists of Betalis III also quickly came to realise that the "brave new lives" they had been promised by the Administratum came at a price, one which had to be first repaid through generations of labour in the mines already being dug into the planet's crust or in the overpowering heat and fumes of the recently constructed massive smelting plants.Twelve generations of the people of Betalis III have been born and died since that time, and the original colonists' descendants are still chained by the Administratum's mandate to the planet and its industry until their forefather's debt for the new opportunity has been deemed fully repaid by the Imperium. The only legitimate way of escaping their ancestor's due for the people of Betalis is to enlist in one of the Imperial Guard regiments that are raised from time-to-time as the planet's human tithe to the Departmento Munitorum. |
Betalis III - Betalis III Campaign: For centuries, the Aeldari of Mymeara sent out Rangers to search for the lost Phoenix Lord, although to no effect. When Irillyth was finally found, it was not by the Aeldari -- the human colonists on Betalis III, burrowing into the planet's crust in search of new natural resources to exploit, broke into a massive cave complex, the site of Irillyth's final battle against the alien enemies of Mymeara. In this last fight, the Mymearans' foes had been defeated, but as the Phoenix Lord saw in his vision, at the cost of his and the war host's lives. When the humans entered the cave, they triggered an arcane defence system located in Irillyth's armour that was designed to protect the Phoenix Lord's dormant spirit. This killed all of the intruding humans, and alerted the nearby Craftworld of the armour's presence. The Mymearans, now possessing the knowledge of where the Phoenix Lord had perished, forged alliances with other Aeldari forces and prepared for war to recover their ancient saviour.Betalis III was the site of the Betalis III Campaign fought in 894.M41 between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and the Aeldari who sought to recover the armour of the ancient Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the founder of the Shadow Spectre Aspect Warriors. The Aeldari of the Craftworld Mymeara brokered an alliance with the Craftworld Alaitoc, as well as Aeldari Corsairs from the Void Dragons, Sky Raiders, and Sunblitz Brotherhood who were aligned with it. These forces descended on the frigid world to recover the Phoenix Lord's armour before it was defiled by the human miners present on Betalis III. The Mymearans sought to reanimate Irillyth to fight once more for his people, as his spirit would have remained intact within his armour's Spirit Stone. Betalis III was reinforced by Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the Cadian Shock Troops and the Elysian Drop Troops as well as Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus and Space Wolves Space Marines. After the Imperial forces fought the Aeldari to a bloody standstill, the mysterious xenos vanished as quickly as they had arrived after they had recovered Irillyth.Although the Imperium hailed the Battle of Betalis III as a great victory over the enigmatic xenos, the truth -- well known to the Inquisition and the Ordo Xenos -- was wholly different. The Aeldari never intended to conquer the Imperial Mining World, which had no value to them. Their only interest was the Phoenix Lord Irillyth's armour, which, despite the efforts of Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk who commanded the Imperial forces on Betalis III, they succeeded in recovering and departed from the world as soon as they took possession of it. Betalis III's infrastructure was severely damaged as a result of the war.Aside from damage to facilities as a result of combat operations, the initial phase of the Aeldari attack saw the destruction of nearly the entire network of communications relay stations spanning the surface of three of the planet's continents. This damage would take time to repair in the frigid conditions of the world. Beyond the veil cast down by the disabled relay stations, the virtually undefended population suffered most. True to their darker natures, some of the Aeldari Corsairs did not remain on the eastern continents of the planet where the actual fighting took place, and instead raided the disparate human settlements.It came as no surprise to the Imperial authorities who had encountered Aeldari Corsairs before that when the Aeldari war hosts retreated, entire communities living in the planet's icy wilderness had simply vanished. The Craftworld Mymeara left its longtime hiding place in the Karina Nebula in the Betalis System after recovering the Phoenix Lord, and because the Aeldari no longer maintained it, this stellar phenomenon which was previously unexplorable to the Imperium eventually dissipated. This change allowed Mankind to gaze within this region of the system for the first time in history -- where they will discover that nothing of interest now resides. |
Betalis III - Departmento Cartographicae Planetary Data: Planetary Governor: Jamuel Escava (as of 894.M41)Population: Approximately 62 million (all humans). There are no major population centres on the surface of Betalis III. Instead, the population is spread across the entire planet at mine bases, water processing facilities, herder stations, hydroponics works, chemical works, power plants, airbases, orbital landing fields and many other industrial facilities. Most of those sites are subterranean to better provide protection from the cold. The planet is also home to approximately 3 million aliens, some or all of whom may be the savage and devolved descendants of the ancient reptiloid starfaring species whose civilisation was destroyed by the Mymearans under the command of Irillyth millennia ago. These xenos are not recognised by the human colonists as sentients.Climatic Phenomena:Magnetic Solar Flaring: The Betalis System's primary blue giant star expels vast amounts of stellar matter which render the majority of the worlds in the star system uninhabitable due to the sheer magnitude of the ambient radiation levels. Betalis III is protected from the worst of this effect by its unusually potent magnetosphere.Natural Satellites: Three moons.Water Supply: Frozen water melted and purified in industrial processes.Principle Exports:High quality iron ore (large hematite, magnetite, siderite and goethite deposits found on the planet).Cyanogen. Cyanogen is a key component of the chemical fertilizers used by Imperial Agri-worlds, and the majority of the world's output of cyanogen is exported to the nearby Levilnor System.Hydrogen Sulphate. This sulphorous gas with multiple industrial uses is extracted from other naturally occurring gases and converted into a form of Promethium fuel.Ammonia compounds. Extracted from naturally occurring ammonia present on Betalis III and used for: ammonia-based fuel, water purification, solvents and textile production. Note: The ammonia ice on Betalis III is highly unstable, as at temperatures over -78°C it quickly becomes liquid, and at temperatures over -33°C it vapourises. It is not unusual to find ammonia in all of these states of matter during the course of a standard Betalis day and night cycle.Principle Imports:ManpowerFoodstuffsImperial Technology (sanctioned)Mining equipmentDefences: Betalis III's own Planetary Defence Force and Imperial Guard regiments. The world's military headquarters is located at Port Ryira. Port Ryira was originally a temporary station, but it has grown into a sprawling fortified military centre which serves as a barracks, airbase, spaceport, supply centre and training facility. It is well defended by anti-aircraft emplacements, razorwire, minefields and an array of Void Shield generators, as well as surrounded by an ocean on three sides. |
Betalis III Campaign - Betalis III Campaign: The Betalis III Campaign, also known as the Battle of Betalis III and the Battle of the Dawning Twilight among the Asuryani, was a military campaign fought in 894.M41 by regiments of the Astra Militarum and the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter against the enigmatic Craftworld Aeldari and their Corsair allies on the Industrial World of Betalis III, known to the Asuryani as Bethalmae.Unknown to the Imperials, the Asuryani of the Mymeara and Alaitoc craftworlds were fighting to retrieve the Phoenix Armour of one of their lost Phoenix Lords known as Irillyth, the "Shade of Twilight," the long-lost master of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors.The entire campaign had largely been designed simply to serve as a distraction for the Imperial defenders while the Asuryani forces of Mymera recovered the Phoenix Lord's armour.After many solar months of fighting, the Imperial armed forces were able to push the Aeldari back and secure Betalis III.The Imperium believed it had defeated an Asuryani attempt to seize the world, but in fact the Asuryani forces retreated from Betalis III back into the Webway and ended the conflict as soon as Mymeara's High Farseer Bel-Annath had recovered Irillyth's Phoenix Armour from the depths of the Aresta IV mining complex on the frozen world. |
Betalis III Campaign - Craftworld Mymeara: Mymeara's story began with the Fall of the Aeldari -- the dying days of the Aeldari Empire, when Slaanesh's monstrous birth shattered their civilisation, and the survivors fled in disarray across the stars.Before their empire was torn apart, a small few amongst the Aeldari had the foresight or, more importantly, the desire to question whether their ambitions and hedonistic practices would eventually lead them. For ultimately all experiences have a limit and those Aeldari who acknowledged this could see that for their people their ways could only end in disaster.Amongst the wise few were the Aeldari of the colony world of Mymeara. As their system was located on the extreme limits of the Aeldari Empire, the corrupting influences of the many pleasure cults that had so far infiltrated other Aeldari societies had barely reached them, and so they looked upon the ever increasing extremes their brethren elsewhere in the Aeldari Empire were going to with disgust and revulsion.None though could deny their growing curiosity to experience this life of moral abandonment, and the wisest of Mymeara Aeldari realised that if they did not distance their population, it too would eventually be consumed by their species' growing madness.Through sheer force of will the Mymearans tempered their efforts towards building a massive craftworld, one in which their entire system's population could flee in should they so choose. It took many solar decades to complete, and with each that passed the system's worlds became ever more tightly gripped by the taint that had already poisoned most of their species.Only half of their population was on board when the vessel finally set sail, forced to flee as the acts of depravity on the worlds below them escalated into whole-scale bloodshed and slaughter. The craftworld travelled for many solar months until it was nearly out of range of Aeldari space.This, though, was still not far enough for it to escape the event known as the Fall, and nearly a third of its population was destroyed in the psychic scream that heralded the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Lost in their grief for the death of their species, the craftworld continued to drift through the stars, believed themselves now alone in the galaxy.Their mourning though was to be brutally cut short as they fell prey to those who dwelt in the darkness beyond the once great Aeldari Empire, and hundreds of thousands of Mymearans died as they fought to protect themselves from attacks by Orks and things far worse. |
Betalis III Campaign - Irillyth, the Shade of Twilight: During these terrible times hope came to the Mymearans in the form of Irillyth, a disciple of Asurmen who strode forth one day from one of the many Webway portals on the craftworld that had remained inactive since their departure.Through his wisdom the warrior-citizens of Mymeara learned how to combine the aspects of stealth, speed and overwhelming firepower to utterly decimate their foe. Together the warriors of the craftworld and the Phoenix Lord set about clearing a safe path through the galaxy for their world-vessel, hitting out mercilessly at any who dared to threaten them.Irillyth's presence upon the craftworld was short-lived though. Calling a meeting of the craftworld's Council of Seers, he announced that the ultimate reason for his arrival upon the craftworld was to prevent its utter destruction, which he had seen in a vision whilst undergoing his training with Asurmen, first of the Phoenix Lords.Centuries in the future, the craftworld would sail through the empire of a hostile species so vast and powerful that they would neither avoid nor survive its wrath. The Phoenix Lord could prevent the doom of the craftworld now if the Council of Seers would grant him a war host large enough to destroy the alien empire, which at that point in time was still in its infancy.Bowing to the wisdom and foresight of the Phoenix Lord, half of the entire craftworld's war host was given over to Irillyth. With a heavy heart, Irillyth left that day using the very same Webway portal he had arrived from, for since he had reached Mymeara his vision of the craftworld's future had altered, a fact he had kept to himself.He knew now that Mymeara would survive with his help, but at the cost of his own life and the lives of all those who came with him on his quest to find Mymeara's nemesis. What lay beyond the point of his own death was unknown, but Irillyth feared that to lose so many of their own would still bring about Mymeara's eventual demise.As the last citizen-warrior stepped across the threshold of the Webway portal the Phoenix Lord had appeared from years before, the device was destroyed as per his instructions, for fear that the enemy would one day somehow discover how to use it to invade the craftworld.If his war host was victorious, then the Phoenix Lord would find some other way to ensure their return. That was the last those who remained on the craftworld saw of their brethren. As their vessel slowly drifted through star systems where Irillyth had said the empire of their eventual destroyers would be, they could see that he had been true to his word and that paths of the reptilian alien race's evolution had been altered.Planets along their route had once been the site of cataclysmic battles. Whole cities had been destroyed by what could only have been Aeldari weaponry, and the reptile-like aliens scavenging amongst the ruins were now little more than savages. Still though there was no sign of Irillyth and the Mymearans.The craftworld continued their search, and eventually encroached upon part of the dominion of Mankind. Realising that to continue through such a populated region of space would put them at terrible risk, the Seers of the Mymeara Craftworld chose instead to conceal their great world-vessel and continue their search through other means.They came to rest in a region of space that had not yet been infested by other species, and using their technology hid themselves away, drawing the stellar matter of a nearby star around the craftworld like a shroud.There they remained for Terran centuries, sending out Rangers in the hope of locating their lost kin. During their search the Rangers came into contact with other survivors of their species.Although the Mymearans would have preferred to remain concealed from all, even their own kind, they recognised that they would need the support and protection kinship provided and brokered an alliance of sorts with Alaitoc craftworld and its Aeldari Corsair allies; the price of their allegiance being the exchange of Aeldari technology not seen by Alaitoc since the Fall. |
Betalis III Campaign - Bethalmae: When the Phoenix Lord was finally located in 894.M41, it was not the Mymearans who found Irillyth. Instead, whilst searching for new resources to rip from their world, Betalis III (known to the Aeldari as Bethalmae), Human colonists broke through into a massive cave system, the site, thousands of standard years before, of the final battle against those destined to destroy the Mymearan craftworld.During the conflict Mymeara's enemies had been defeated but as the Phoenix Lord Irillyth saw in his vision, it was at the cost of his and the war host's lives.But when a Phoenix Lord is slain, he does not truly die, only the body of the warrior hosting his spirit is killed. The Phoenix Lord's essence remains within his war panoply, to be taken on by the next Asuryani warrior to don it.When the colonists broke into the cave they triggered an ancient defence system within the Phoenix Lord's armour intended to protect it whilst his spirit is in a dormant state. This caused the cave-in which killed all the miners and also alerted those who still tended the Phoenix Lord's shrine on the Mymearan craftworld to his location.For the first time in millennia, the people of Craftworld Mymeara felt hope. It was not long before High Farseer Bel-Annath gave the order for Mymeara's war hosts to prepare themselves for battle and to reach out to Mymearan allies among the Alaitoc and the Aeldari Corsairs.The Asuryani would launch an assault upon Betalis III to distract the Imperial forces long enough to recover the lost Phoenix Lord from the tunnels of the Aresta IV mining facility. |
Betalis III Campaign - Opening Moves 024.894.M41: Located deep within the glacial fields of Betalis III's eastern continent, Relay Station NX87-04 formed part of the global surveillance network that kept permanent watch over the Ice world's vast uninhabitable wastelands.That it had functioned without issue for centuries in such harsh conditions was a testament to the consummate skills of the Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests who had seeded the planet with scores of such installations during its transformation into an Imperium mining colony. On the eve of its four hundred and fifth standard year of perfect operation the relay station abruptly ceased transmitting.The Logis-adept monitoring the relay station thousands of kilometres away at the planet's spaceport, Port Ryira, instantly went into cerebral shock and let out a soul-piercing scream; the sudden loss of data collapsing its higher brain functions which had exclusively devoted to processing NX87-04's constant stream of tech-scripts and binary ciphers its entire life.Its death cry sent a shock wave through the living, breathing bio-processor it was physically and mentally connected to, rendering five other adepts catatonic and leaving vast tracts of the planet's eastern-most continent unmonitored until repairs could be affected and the damaged bio-components replaced.On a world where temperatures had been sub-zero for millennia and lethal ice storms whipped up with little warning, the malfunction of NX87-04 was initially blamed on local conditions, and it was left to the trans-mechanic specialists of the Adeptus Mechanicus on-site to resolve the issue and revive the relay station's Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence).It was only when a Sentinel patrol from a nearby garrison was ordered to investigate the still-silent facility two solar days later that the isolated relay station was found to have been attacked and destroyed.The frozen bodies of its massacred trans-mechanics were lain scattered throughout the station's charred remains, the horrific injuries consistent with those caused by monofilament projectile weapons. A report of the patrol's grisly discovery was immediately dispatched to Port Ryira and as alarms blared throughout the facility, the planet's defence forces steeled themselves for further attacks.Over the solar weeks that followed the Ice World's global surveillance network was targeted by more raids; each facility being attacked under cover of darkness and with little, if any, warning.The motive for the attacks completely eluded Betalis III's planetary governor, Jamuel Escava, and the representatives of the noble mining families who oversaw production on the Ice World. The planet was of little strategic importance and of only minor economic worth to the sub-sector.Aside from the sixty-two million citizen-workers and their families living in settlements clustered around the planet's ore mines and refineries, and the fifteen thousand Administratum support staff based at Port Ryira, the planet was a desolate wasteland devoid of life. One of only two planets fit for habitation in the system, it was a stark contrast to the neighbouring Industrial World of Betalis IV.Even the aristocratic families granted mining charters on Betalis III generations before by the Administratum rarely visited their distant dominion. Instead their will was imposed by hundreds of petty bureaucrats, prefects and stewards charged with meeting the planet's annual Administratum tithes and ensuring that every last bit of profit possible after that was ground from the planet's bedrock and the unfortunate souls who lived upon it.The escalating raids were quickly attributed to the Aeldari Corsairs that the system's Imperial Navy fleet had previously encountered in the Betalis System's outer asteroid belt and the Karina Nebula beyond it. The Corsairs, identified as being aligned to the Void Dragons cadre, had posed a serious threat in the past to the Human colonists of Betalis III, launching attacks upon isolated communities whenever the opportunity had presented itself.Regular patrols by the system's fleet had kept them in check in recent years, but it was now obvious from the increasing sightings reported by the crews of cargo transports travelling to and from the system that those circumstances had changed.Meanwhile, on Betalis III, as the profile of the raids on the Ice World differed little from the Corsairs' modus operandi, Planetary Governor Escava dispatched his forces as he had done previously.Now though these were joined by troops from the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment, elements of which had been recently transferred to the planet to undergo hostile environment training. With their skills and experience, Planetary Governor Escava desperately hoped that, maybe, the fighting forces of Cadia would put an end to this persistent problem once and for all.Even with the aid of the vastly more experienced Cadian squads, hunting down the raiders was not as simple a matter as Planetary Governor Escava thought. As soon as a report of a raid was received, the Guardsmen were immediately dispatched in squadrons of Arvus Lighters across the frozen landscape.Of the raiding party though there would be no sign, only the destruction it had wrought upon yet another relay station or isolated outpost and indication of its passing. On the rare occasion there were terrified beyond rational sense, babbling incoherently about lights in the darkness before mercifully succumbing to their wounds.The horrific game of cat and mouse was to go on for solar weeks; the planet's overseers and stewards voicing their concerns ever louder with each attack, fearful that the situation would soon hamper their ability to meet the mining cartels' Administratum obligations.And so it might have continued had not greater military minds been watching events unfold on Betalis III from afar. |
Betalis III Campaign - Return of a Warrior 032.894.M41: A solar month after the attack on Relay Station NX87-04, a shuttlecraft set down on the primary landing strip at Port Ryira. Onboard was General Myndoras Odon, commander of the 6th Cadian Armoured Regiment and a decorated veteran of over thirty campaigns fought in the name of the Emperor.Recovering from the injuries he'd received whilst commanding the regiment in its successful defence of the Agri-world of Saras VII, the general had abruptly cut short his rehabilitation, giving only two solar hours notice of his impending arrival to the now nervously waiting Planetary Governor Escava.Striding past the fawning diplomats from the mining cartels that had hastily gathered to greet him, the general's first action was to reassume command of all divisions of the Cadian 6th garrisoned on the planet.Bowing to the general's superior military expertise, some might suggest almost too eagerly, Planetary Governor Escava put the planet's defence forces at the Astra Militarum commander's disposal.Only a few solar hours behind the general's ship but already filling long-range pict-screens at Port Ryira was an armada of vessels, on board which was the remainder of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment.Their headquarters had been temporarily based on the system's primary planet, Betalis IV, and the general had issued orders whilst en route that they were to redeploy to Betalis III; his assessment of the situation was that events unfolding on the planet were serious enough to warrant their immediate relocation.General Odon's long years of tactical training and battlefield experience had led him to conclude that the seemingly indiscriminate attacks were neither random nor the actions of opportunists taking advantage of what the general saw as a woefully poorly defended star system; an abomination he would be taking up with the commanders of its Imperial Navy fleet forthwith.Each attack had been planned by minds infinitely greater than those they had been toying with, and were undoubtedly, in his opinion, part of a much wider initiative.Although none of the facilities attacked were directly connected, by plotting the raids and then projecting where the next one would most likely occur, General Odon had realised that a tipping point would soon be reached where Betalis III's entire global surveillance network would be rendered inoperative with the removal of just four more relay stations thousands of kilometres apart from each other.With the planet unmonitored, and units from the 6th Cadian Armoured Regiment and Planetary Defence Forces spread too thin across its surface chasing ghosts, the world would be utterly unprepared for the much larger invasion General Odon believed the attacks were a prelude to. Betalis III's custodians had been foolishly dancing to someone else's tune and General Odon had arrived to put a stop to it.Knowing that time was a precious commodity he could now ill afford to waste and with not enough troops or armaments to protect the entire planet, General Odon ordered that all Astra Militarum and Planetary Defence Forces be recalled from the less populated southern and western continents with immediate effect.This raised a heated storm of protests from the cartels' representatives who feared what would happen if they lost the total control they currently exerted over the belligerent population, still bitter over what they saw as the "twisted" promises made to their ancestors centuries before.If the workers were not kept in check it was feared that riots would soon break out, affecting production rates and preventing the cartels from meeting the planet's stringent Administratum tithe.But during times of war rarely do the priorities of the common man, their Imperial overseers and the might of the military concur, and whilst the cartels petitioned furiously for him to rescind his order, the general had far greater concerns. He believed that what they would all soon face was far worse than a barely restrained militant population or the Administratum's vast chapters of auditors and bureaucrats.General Odon suspected that whoever was behind the raids was already massing its forces in the unmonitored glacial wastelands, and should they gain a foothold on Betalis III, then the infinitely more valuable Industrial World and staging point of Betalis IV would be their next target.Betalis III was nothing more than a stepping stone, in his eyes, to the indispensable strategic gem that hung in its heavens. |
Betalis III Campaign - The Die Is Cast 040.894.M41: The decision to recall the Astra Militarum squads from the southern and western continents achieved far more than a storm of protests from the planet's prefects; it also provoked the enemy into action, something General Odon had been counting on.As the last Guardsmen were shuttled back to Port Ryira, a cargo vessel flying supplies between the mining facilities on the southern ice plains of the continent was attacked and destroyed.Before his ship disappeared from Port Ryira's screens, the pilot relayed back a single pict-image of his pursuers. It showed two sleek craft clearly of Aeldari origin; each with their weapons illuminated with an unearthly glow as they powered up to blast the cargo ship from the skies.The message from the planet's assailants was loud and clear. The war for Betalis III had begun. |
Betalis III Campaign - Search for Arms and Armour: Even with thousands of Astra Militarum regiments in a constant state of readiness, the wheels of bureaucracy within the Departmento Munitorum grind woefully slowly. The order for the Hammer of the Emperor to strike may not be issued for solar weeks, months, or even standard years once a request for aid is first received as it makes its way through the seemingly endless chain of command.Those seeking assistance are therefore wise to look to their own defence in case they do not receive reinforcements in time or at all. Therefore, invoking his full powers as Consul Militant of the Betalis System, a position granted to him upon his return to active service, General Odon first issued a system-wide decree that all resources, both military and otherwise, were now part of the building war effort.Attached to this decree was notice that anyone who dared to object would be swiftly transferred to the ranks of the Adeptus Arbites penal battalion, charged as traitors for supporting the Aeldari cause.As the superior military force on the planet, the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment would form the core of the army, but what the regiment delivered in terms of experience and ability it lacked in equipment.It was sorely in need of tanks and had only half of its usual complement available. The remainder had not yet been replaced after they were destroyed in the war against the Orks on Saras VII.The Cadia 6th Armoured Regiment's officers first scoured Betalis III for anything with tracks and armour they could use. All of Betalis III's heavy armour, what little there was of it, was immediately stripped from the Planetary Defence Force and added to that of the Cadian regiment, along with its squadrons of Malcador Infernus flamer tanks and Crassus armoured assault transports.General Odon's next action was to gain consensus from the system's Imperial Navy commander that all non-essential flights be grounded on the planet to protect what little air support he would have to call upon during the conflict.The Imperial Navy's small defensive air fleet was comprised of little more than a squadron of Marauder Destroyers and another of Thunderbolts, with the majority of its "civilian" craft being Arvus cargo shuttles and bulk transports.General Odon knew that the Craftworld Aeldari would first and foremost seek superiority in the skies before committing any ground troops. With little to match their craft in terms of speed or manoeuvrability, this would be a hard battle for the Betalis System fleet, but one it would participate in regardless.Then the general's staff turned their attention to the colonists of the Ice World. The planetary governor had been in the process of building up and training recruits to meet the planet's Departmento Munitorum manpower tithes. The recruits, men and women mostly drawn from the Planetary Defence Force and workers militia, had been given the temporary title of the 28th Betalis Rifles.They had virtually no equipment or heavy weapons, but had already undergone training with the Cadian 6th Armoured and were considered battle ready. General Odon gave the order for their reassignment.These near-raw recruits had little experience but he needed the manpower. If nothing else they would free up more experienced Guardsmen from garrison and security duties. Their commander, Colonel Empteda, was a capable and loyal officer who had achieved good results in training the conscripts, and General Odon saw no need to replace him.The search for troops also led directly to the cells of the Adeptus Arbites. The life of the common man of the Imperium is rarely an easy one. War and disease take all too many from the Emperor's light too soon and those who survive will likely endure such hardships that each day is a constant struggle with little reward or comfort other than what one can take, whether willingly or otherwise, from another.On Betalis III the descendants of the original colonists survived their grim existence with their ancestors' bitter hatred for their overseers bred deep into their psyche. With absolute control over their lives, the cartels' enforcers made sure there was little time between work shifts for them to dwell upon their discontentment.Still, tempers regularly ran high and even minor scuffles or disagreements frequently escalated into riots among the general populace, and the swift, harsh penalties dealt out for even the smallest infraction meant there was rarely a cell empty in the many Arbites compounds on the world.It was to these that the general's staff turned next, and each prisoner, regardless of his crime or sentence, was armed and given the chance to redeem himself.The final addition to the burgeoning defence force was the primary mining cartel family's personal guard. The absent cartel family's representative on the planet, Lord-steward Vlaar, was a practical man, who recognised that the sooner the Aeldari threat was removed from Betalis III, the quicker normal operations would resume.The cartel's personal guard consisted of a thousand troops granted for ceremonial duties and protection should the members if the noble mining family who owned the Administratum mandate ever visit. The guard looked smart on the parade ground and had their own squadrons of Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras, but like the Betalis 28th had never seen any combat action.The general's staff took them anyway. In return Lord-steward Vlaar lobbied for and, to the surprise of many of the rival cartel families' representatives, was given the rank of colonel.Having exhausted what Betalis III could offer, the general's staff then turned to other sources of manpower. Neighbouring Betalis IV, also now on high alert, was currently the staging point of the Vaust 14th Armoured Regiment. The Vaustian commander was ordered to turn control of the regiment over to the Cadians; theirs was the senior force and the needs of the Betalis System overrode his previous orders.The regiment comprised troops conscripted from Vaust's hive gangs and workers, and although they lacked the Cadians' tradition of service and sacrifice, the regiment was well-equipped with Chimeras and Leman Russ tanks.It also had a heavy tank company of ageing but fully-functional Macharius heavy battle tanks. These would be essential, especially as the Cadians had little in the way of truly heavy armament, just a few surviving battle-worn squadrons of Baneblades, Stormblades and ShadowswordsA flotilla of vessels used by the mining cartels had already been prepared for the regiment's immediate transfer when its young colonel, in command of the regiment through nothing but sheer fluke of birthright, sent his response.Although he sympathized with the predicament that General Odon faced, he would not deviate from his original orders until sector command sent new instructions. The Vaust 14th Armoured Regiment would stay on Betalis IV. A skirmish on some backwater planet was not part of the Vaustian colonel's current concerns. |
Betalis III Campaign - The Intervention 048.894.M41: The defiance of the Vaust 14th's commander ended with the arrival of Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk at Port Ryira. The Inquisitor Lord, an agent of the great institution of the Ordo Xenos, swept into General Odon's command room unannounced and unchallenged. Accompanying the Inquisitor Lord was his retinue: three Cadian Guardsmen, an Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest upon whose arm perched a huge black bird, cables from the implants upon its skull linking it with its creator, and two Ogryns.Dragged unceremoniously between the two megalithic thugs was the pitiful sight of the young Vaustian colonel, all evidence of his former rank ripped unceremoniously from his soiled uniform.Ordered by his superiors to investigate the growing reports of Aeldari in the system, Inquisitor Lord Danzk had been en-route to Betalis III when he had intercepted the young colonel's complaints to his commanders regarding General Odon's orders.Diverting to Betalis IV, Danzk had arrested the colonel and his entire command staff and sentenced them to serve in the newly-formed Adeptus Arbites penal battalion until the end of the war.The Vaust 14th Armoured Regiment was immediately redeployed to Betalis III and within solar days their Leman Russ, Chimeras, Macharius and Ogryn Auxilia Company were reassigned to reinforce the Cadian squads.Some of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment's officers were also distributed throughout the new regiment's ranks, replacing the inexperienced officers drawn from the Hive World's ruling families with much more experienced Cadian sergeants and veterans. Commissars were also posted amongst the platoons to quash any dissent with their customary finality.As well as providing a solution to the army's lack of ground troops, the Inquisitor Lord had also called upon other resources, some even the new Consul Militant did not have access to. Also in the vicinity of the Betalis System was a convoy destined for the Yarant System, containing a Titan transport of the Legio Gryphonicus — the "War Griffons."General Odon forwarded an astropathic request to the War Griffons' homeworld requesting its temporary reassignment. The request was approved and in addition a strike force of Elysian Drop Troops accompanying the convoy was also diverted.The Elysians, under the command of a Captain Isarta, would provide their own airborne transports and form a mobile reserve for the defence force. En-route to the system Inquisitor Lord Danzk had also petitioned the Space Wolves Chapter for aid.There had been reports of their presence in a neighbouring system, and if the Space Marines heeded the call for reinforcements, then their added might would see a formidable force assembled for the defence of the planet.With all available options exhausted and the Aeldari Corsairs now openly mounting daylight raids on the other two continents, their populations left to fend for themselves by the order of the general, the Betalis III defence force was split into three battle groups.Colonel Empteda would take command of the first. His battle group was ordered to immediately head to the Bregan Glacier. The glacier loomed over the entrance to the Tarundor Peninsula, and if it were to fall into enemy hands then movement on and off the peninsula, where the Imperium's forces were based, would be severely restricted. It was essential that it was in Imperial hands before the war began.Meanwhile, the two other Astra Militarum battlegroups would remain on alert at Port Ryira. Only when the full scale of the enemy's forces and its intentions were absolutely clear would the largest battlegroup, led by General Myndoras Odon, deploy.The last of the three battlegroups, commanded by Colonel Vlaar, would remain at the spaceport unless the deployment of its reserve forces was deemed absolutely necessary.Until that time, the defenders of the Ice World of Betalis III prepared for war. |
Betalis III Campaign - Silence Ends 053.894.M41: The colossal blue star of the Betalis System was an ancient traveller. It had passed across the western spiral arms of the galaxy for billions of Terran years trailed by a ghostly shroud, and had figured in the myths and legends of the region in many guises.To the worlds of the Pashek Consortium it was the all-seeing eye of a terrifying cyclopean god that constantly watched and judged their every move. But to the Bad Moon Ork Warlord Gobteef Fangmaw, it had been a huge sparkling jewel dropped by the Ork god Gork (or possibly Mork) himself.Driven by his insatiable greed to possess the star-sized gem, the Ork warlord had swept across the sector at the head of a gargantuan WAAAGH! millions of Orks strong; his murderous rampage only being halted when he was slain by a rival Goff Ork Warlord.To the Imperium the Betalis star was none of these things. What they found instead when their survey ships examined and catalogued it was just another seething ball of plasma and radiation like so many others within the Emperor's domain.The star was nothing more than a minor sun that had been spewing its stellar matter out into the voids of space for millennia before it converged together again in a vast cloud of star dust nearly a light year away.Known as the Karina Nebula, the Betalis Dust Cloud or simply EPN31953 by Imperial xeno-cartographers, to the Craftworld Aeldari the hazy expanse was the "Maiden's Veil." Nothing more than an insignificant smudge on the star charts of the Imperial Navy, to the fathomless minds of the Asuryani it was a place avoided by those few who lived upon the craftworlds who were privy to its terrible secret.But for the young Asuryani who sought a life free of the restrictions and constraints of the Asuryani star palaces, it held no such fear. Instead for millennia it drew them like moths to a flame to join other such outcasts of their slowly dying race within its gossamer veil, and where now a massive Corsair fleet was massing in preparation for its assault upon the Betalis System. |
Betalis III Campaign - Eyes Wide in the Wilderness: The destruction of Betalis III's global surveillance network by the Aeldari Corsairs put General Odon's forces at a serious disadvantage. Without it vast stretches of the eastern continent could not be monitored, nor could they platforms.The platform's sensors had been designed to penetrate the highly reflective stellar matter that poured through the system from the Betalis sun. It would require many solar days of delicate recalibration by tech-adepts before they could be refocused on the planet, let alone provide images of sufficient quality for the battlegroup's commanders to use.Again Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk provided the solution. Amongst his retinue was an Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priest, Mydeaus, whom the Inquisitor Lord had rescued over thirty standard years before from a Chaos Cultist uprising on the Hive World of Hemisphere.With the relay stations and power systems of the surveillance network damaged too far beyond even the tech-priest's ability to repair by the Aeldari raids, he set to work on an alternative. Working without rest for two solar days and nights, the tech-priest put the now redundant monitoring system at Port Ryira to a new purpose.From its bio-mechanical components he created scores of surveillance servitors, mostly static devices but some even capable of low level flight. These were then distributed to key locations across the eastern continent by the Inquisitor's retinue; the three Cadians and tech-priest facing the very real risk of discovery at any moment by the increasing patrols mounted by Aeldari Jetbike squadrons.Within hours of the last of the devices being activated, the full scale of the Craftworld Aeldari incursion was realised. Monitoring the feeds from the servitors on the banks of pict-screens in his command Chimera, Inquisitor Lord Danzk informed General Odon that the defenders of Betalis III faced not one but two massive Craftworld Aeldari battle hosts. |
Betalis III Campaign - Battle for the Betalis System: The early warning systems on the Watchful Saviour, Betalis III's primary orbiting defence platform, burst into life as the Aeldari Corsair armada crossed into the system's outer reaches.As one of the dour, robed figures of its choir rose up from their ornately carved wooden stalls and began to chant the Canticle of the Observant Son; the low droning call to arms was a sombre contrast to the shrieking sirens that had also been triggered by the approach of the enemy ships.Far above them in the Watchful Saviour's towering spires, its gun crews prepared for battle. Scores of Imperial Navy indentured workers heaved the platform's massive Macrocannons and lance weapons forward into their firing positions; the bundles of chains they hauled them along with cutting deep into their hands and shoulders as they strained with the mammoth effort required of their task.Many levels below, deep in the core of the platform, Adeptus Mechanicus adepts blessed the workings of the station's plasma generator, the long black filaments of their elector-brushes smearing holy oils and unguents thickly upon its age-stained cogs and arcane gears.Then, only when they were satisfied they had bestowed upon them sufficient blessings and anointments, did the worshippers of the Omnissiah each take hold of one of the generator's primary valves and, with a softly whispered prayer, awaken the dormant Machine Spirit within.Two solar hours after its sensors had detected the approaching Corsair ships, the gun crews of the Watchful Saviour opened fire at maximum range, their blinding beams of light slicing deep into the flight path of the oncoming fleet.Their efforts went unrewarded thought as the beams harmlessly dissipated beyond the swarming ships. Again and again the crews fired but to little effect, the defence lasers glowing red hot as their crews laboured to track and hit the elusive targets whose holo-fields redirected and dispersed the shots with ease.Then, from behind the second moon of the Ice World, the system's Imperial naval fleet joined the battle -- dozens of Fury interceptors, defence monitors and system ships, their numbers pitifully few in comparison to the massed Aeldari craft.The Fury interceptors accelerated once they were clear of the moon, the fastest in the small fleet their orders were to lure the Aeldari off their current course and onto the guns of the slower but better-armed-and-armoured system ships. In response the first wave of Corsairs immediately engaged them.Twisting and spiralling through space, the Aeldari craft flew directly at the oncoming formation, paying scant regard to the barrage of lascannon shots and missiles the Imperium's interceptors fired as they closed the range. Then, each turning their sleek vessels through near impossible angles, they arced back round upon the flanks of their prey; the xenos pilots obliterating most of the Imperial Navy squadrons in a synchronous attack that was as perfect in its coordinated execution as it was deadly.With the first wave devoted to destroying the remnants of the Fury squadrons, waves of Aconite and Hellebore frigates advanced to engage the Imperium's system ships and defence monitors formation; the long, elegant xenos escort ships stubbed with pulsar lances and torpedo launchers.The Holy Retribution, one of the few system ships assigned to the Betalis fleet, was the first to suffer their attentions. Weapons battery after weapons battery was fired by the Holy Retribution's gun crews; the ratings and indentured workers inside the ship preparing the next volley the instant their weapons were discharged.Then, as the ship's trajectory curved past the moon, the long-range lance fire of the Watchful Saviour joined its salvos. Caught within the firestorm dozens of Corsair craft were laid to waste; their blasted remains soon drifting amongst those of the Fury interceptors that had been destroyed minutes before.For almost a solar hour the battle raged. First the Corsairs edged ever closer towards the ship and in return would be caught up in its intense gunfire or trapped within the lancing beams of the Watchful Saviour.But as time wore on Aeldari weapons fire took its toll upon the Holy Retribution. With insufficient Fury squadrons to protect it, the agile and powerful Aeldari Darkstar fighters inflicted enough damage to overload its shield generators, and dove in to strafe its gun decks and command spire the moment they failed.With external bulkheads compromised and the fractured metres-thick panels of armour-glass surrounding the command deck threatening to breach any moment, the Holy Retribution's commander, Flag-Captain Mevuen, gave the order for his dying vessel to be turned towards the one area of the system's outer reaches that all Imperial vessels had so far given a wide berth.Entering the region with the Corsairs still strafing his vessel, Flag-Captain Mevuen opened up the ship wide vox-network and started to recite the Common Prayer of the Fleet, the sound of the centuries old ship tearing apart clearly audible around him.The venerable flag-captain had not gotten far through his sombre liturgy when an Aeldari Darkstar fighter, its alien identity not recognised by the remnants of the minefield seeded in the Betalis System centuries before by the Divine Unification, triggered one of the abandoned mines.As the power generation crystals on the Aeldari craft shattered and its hull fragmented, its debris field set off further mines, critically damaging the Holy Retribution and scores of other Corsair vessels that had swarmed around the dying ship.The explosions tore through the Holy Retribution, causing its shields to fail and its bulkheads to be ripped apart, sending thousands of Imperial Navy crewmen into the cold vacuum of space. In the few areas of the vast ship where the crew were not immediately ejected into the void, men fought amongst themselves for places in the few undamaged salvation pods.Those fortunate to escape were either immediately targeted and destroyed by Aeldari Corsair vessels or slowly drifted through the system until they reached the safety of one of the inhabited planets.Whilst the destruction of the Holy Retribution played out across the edge of the Betalis system, the rest of the Corsair fleet maintained their course towards the Watchful Saviour and the last few remaining Fury squadrons and system ships that now stood guard over it.Virtually unopposed, the first wave of Darkstars scored multiple direct hits, their shots punching through its shields and critically damaging the platform's gravitic-stabilisers.With a sickening motion, the massive platform began to list, and anything not securely fixed down began to roll and slide across the decks, crushing all in its way as the Watchful Saviour tilted and began to drift out of its geo-stationary orbit.The effects were devastating. Gun crews and ratings were drowned as the huge vats of chemicals that hung over the defence lasers, their toxic contents used to prevent the weapons from overheating, broke free from their mountings, engulfing the frantically fleeing men in an acidic tidal wave.In the apothecarium, the Watchful Saviour's surgeon-master was near-fatally maimed when shelves storing surgical implements tipped over him mid-operation, their razor-sharp blades slicing him from head to toes with scores of incisions.A worse fate though was to befall the crews who worked in the bays permanently exposed to the outer void. As soon as the Watchful Saviour had begun to list, the bulkhead doors leading to the open sections of the platform automatically sealed shut.With their escape routes cut off, hundreds died when the protective energy field between the crew and space fluctuated for a few seconds, exposing them to the intense radiation of the Betalis System's star.Volleys from a third Corsair wave finished off the stricken platform, its return fire slackening as pyres raged within it and its compartments flooded with toxic smoke.With defeat imminent and his guns falling silent one by one, Flag Captain Basas, the Watchful Saviour's commander, ordered the platform's evacuation. Salvation pods were frantically loaded with the wounded and the lucky few unscathed survivors and the ejected towards the planet below.The few Imperial Navy ships that had survived the first assault retreated into the outer regions of the Betalis star, its radiation shielding them from the sensors of the Corsair fleet that now dominated the Betalis system.Having won the battle for the skies above Betalis III, the Aeldari immediately turned their attention to the planet below. |
Betalis III Campaign - Battle at Alnitac Prime 055.894.M41: The first major land offensive of the Betalis III war took place at Alnitac Prime, a vast facility that refined chemicals used in the production of Promethium, and that stretched for over fifty kilometres across and through the Bregan Glacier.Flowing down from the Escarta mountain range at the infinitesimal speed of less than half a metre a standard century, the glacier, its ice marbled with the dark grey ash that constantly fell like snow from the refinery's forest of chimneys and cooling towers, loomed ominously over the eastern edge of the Alacian Plains.The plains were little more than an icy wilderness but across them lay the entrance to the Isthmus of Tarundor, the land bridge which connected the north-eastern peninsula, and ultimately Port Ryira, to the rest of the eastern continent.The two Asuryani forces, that of Alaitoc in the south of the continent and the other from Mymeara speeding eastwards from its portal near the western coast, were expected to converge on the Alacian Plains. General Odon was preparing his battle group to oppose them there, and whoever controlled the glacier would hold an advantage in the battle to come.Dispatched in a fast moving convoy of Leman Russ, Malcador, Praetors and Crassus armoured assaults transports and taking advantage of the road networks that fed the facility's instable appetite for Betalis III's raw materials, Battlegroup Empteda deployed on the glacier on the evening on the third day of its departure from Port Ryira.As Colonel Empteda watched over the battlegroup's preparations, already thousands of workers and their families had left their hab blocks behind and set out on the perilous trek to seek shelter elsewhere, heading either for the northern and eastern highway tunnels or the networks of the canyons and caves in the surrounding mountains. Each man, woman and child knew the enemy was coming; the only question was when would it arrive?True to form, the Asuryani did not keep the defenders waiting long. In the pre-dawn hours of the fourth day, as the battlegroup's Sentinel forward reconnaissance squads patrolled the southern most regions of the glacier, the came under fire from squadrons of Asuryani grav-tanks and Vyper Jetbikes that had flown ahead of the main Mymeara force, skimming low across the Alacian Plains and up over the leading edge of the ice wall.Near invisible in the darkness, they registered as little more than faint smudges on the Sentinels' sensors as one by one the walker squadrons were annihilated; Asuryani Rangers already concealed in the surrounding ice canyons expertly guided their air-borne brethren in.Joining the Mymeara aircraft shortly after, the first wave of Corsair vessels began their attack run on the facility. Yet the Astra Militarum battle group was ready and waiting for them. As the Craftworld Aeldari Nightwing, Phoenix, Vampire Raider and Vampire Hunter aircraft soared down, they were met with a tremendous firestorm of las shot and artillery shell.But the Imperial defenders were not overwhelmed. Prior to leaving their base on the neighbouring Industrial World, the officers of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment had ordered their troops to completely strip its resupply depots of all the guns, ordnance and ammunition they could lay their hands on. Little remained by the time the final Cadian squad left for the Ice World.Each transport ship in the fleet had been stacked to the gunnels with enough armament to defend the planet for solar months, and amongst this huge arsenal had been a consignment of defence platforms due to be distributed to wars elsewhere in the sector.Now, a large stretch of the glacier bristled with the barrels of those guns as they unleashed salvo upon salvo into the oncoming Asuryani attack formation.The thunder of Battle Group Empteda's heavy weapons shook the surrounding mountain ranges to their core, triggering avalanches and rock falls that roared down their slopes, burying hundreds of refugees who had gambled that safety lay in the cave systems rather than heading east to risk the long walk across the sub-zero tundra.Undeterred by the firestorm they had flown into, the Asuryani flyers soared over the facility and once their attack run was complete, raced upwards into the heavens. With barely enough time to reload, the Guardsmen soon spotted scores of white contrails on the horizon which augured the approach of a second Corsair wave.The Guardsmen manning the defence platforms unleashed another booming volley as the enemy came within range. Shell after shot swept the sky as the crews swung their heavy weapons round to follow the flight paths of the sleek, darting ships before they too rose up above the facility at break-neck speed and out of range.The second attack had lasted no longer than the first and although both enemy forces had given their all, neither had inflicted a death blow upon the other.As silence descended once more upon Alnitac Prime, the gun crews reloaded and scanned the horizon, waiting for the tell-tale signs of contrails to appear once again. The next attack came swiftly, although not from the air but instead from the surrounding mountains as sniper fire ripped through the heavy weapons platforms.The Corsairs had been little more than a diversion, a feint to buy time for the Asuryani Rangers to move up so that their guns were within range of the battle group.Those Guardsmen who survived the opening volley were immediately pinned down, using what little cover their weapons platforms provided or lying motionless amongst the bodies of their fallen comrades as sniper fire ricocheted along the platforms' metalwork.Watching the battle back at Alnitac Prime, Colonel Empteda initiated the next part of his plan. On his command the heavily armoured Leman Russ, Chimera and Praetor armoured assault launcher squadrons waiting there sprang into action, their exhausts belching black oily fumes into the freezing cold air as they accelerated towards the besieged lines of heavy weapon platforms.With no chance of locating the Aeldari hidden amongst the vast network of ravines surrounding them, Colonel Empteda had turned to one of the few weapons in the Astra Militarum arsenal he had in abundance -- overwhelming firepower. The tanks' gunners sent round after round into the mountains, the shells setting off a lethal hailstorm of shrapnel as rocks and ice exploded with deadly effect.As the tanks prowled the battlefield and the sniper fire ceased, the survivors from the Vaust 14th and Betalis 28th Regiments on the platforms began to celebrate, believing the Aeldari had been destroyed. They had done it. They had seen off two attacks and lived.The more experienced Cadians amongst them remained grimly silent. They knew the Aeldari were not so easily beaten and would soon be back. This was something Colonel Empteda was more than ready to face, and in the few minutes when the pace of the battle briefly paused, he gave the order for the next part of his plan to commence.Speeding down the glacier from Alnitac Prime came the last of the vehicles Empteda had at his disposal. As they sped along, their tracks rumbled over the facility's massive air vents that were interspersed along the glacier.Only a solar day before, these vital lifelines had supplied precious clean air to dilute the toxic fumes that spewed from the furnaces in the facility below, preventing the suffocation of the thousands who toiled at them day and night.Hastily abandoned by the workers, those furnaces still burned fiercely and where once men and women had laboured, something else now moved in their place, transported to the glacier within the holds of the Crassus assault transports.The two waves of Imperial vehicles soon joined together and reformed into three huge blocks as they picked up speed, creating a new frontline a kilometre down the glacier. Now at the rear, the static heavy weapons platforms then took on the role of artillery. Once more the Corsair pilots swooped down, and in return the tank crews opened fire as the heavily armoured blocks rumbled forwards.Shuriken Cannon and Star Cannon traded shots with Heavy Bolters and Autocannons as the graceful craft strafed the battleline. The range was so close between the two sides that holo-fields and armour mattered little. In the furious fire fight the tight Imperial formation and its near-constant bombardment evened the odds.Teams of Jetbike riders skimmed across the surface of the glacier behind the Corsairs, following up on the attacks of the larger craft. The slow, lumbering Imperial force continued to roll stubbornly forwards; each driver trusting their safety to their armoured vehicle and its guns, and remaining within the formation.Fight together and live, stand alone and die. The choice was simple, however gaps were starting to appear, and even originally fully loaded, ammunition supplies were also running low through the near constant rate of fire.At Alnitac Prime Colonel Empteda watched on solemnly as the brave Guardsmen under his command fought on. Had they been given more time and resources they might have succeeded, but the young colonel knew such hope for the folly it was. It was clear that the Craftworld Aeldari's air superiority and increasing numbers would have eventually swept away the battle group regardless.His troops had done well to last this long. Already he'd had word from General Myndoras Odon's command staff that the main forces of the Mymeara host were deploying onto the Alacian Plains. If he didn't act now, then the Aeldari would gain the higher ground and Battle Group Empteda wouldn't stand a chance.Whispering a brief prayer for the Emperor's forgiveness, Colonel Empteda turned to the troopers behind him who controlled the Cyclops demolition vehicles now positioned throughout the depths of the facility, and with one word ended the battle at Alnitac Prime: "Detonate." |
Betalis III Campaign - A Prayer for the Fallen: Kiloemetres away from the glacier, Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk recited the Prayer for the Fallen as he watched the destruction of Battle Group Empteda and its attackers through the eyes of a hovering servitor.The detonation of the Cyclops demolition vehicles deployed through the facility during the battle had set off a catastrophic chain reaction amongst its furnaces and huge chemical storage vats.The blast that immediately followed liquefied the ice field above it, launching the battle group and billions of tonnes of melted ice and molten rock straight up into the vast flock of Aeldari aircraft circling above.Battle Group Empteda could never have held the glacier or facility against the arrayed might of the Craftworld Aeldari and its young colonel had known that as soon as he'd received his orders.But Inquisitor Lord Danzk had respectfully acknowledged that Colonel Empteda had performed his duty without question, and through his selfless sacrifice and that of his troops he had succeeded in denying that Aeldari the advantage of the higher ground and bought Battle Group Odon the time it so desperately needed.His sombre liturgy complete, Inquisitor Lord Danzk severed his connection with the servitor and looked out with his own eyes upon the impressive sight of the massed ranks of Battle Group Odon arrayed across the westward entrance to the Tarundor Isthmus below him. |
Betalis III Campaign - Dark Times 055.894.M41: The full might of Battle Group Odon dominated the approach to the Tarundor Isthmus. Tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery and Guardsmen stood arrayed on the Alacian Plains ready to meet the Craftworld Aeldari assault head-on.As dense black smoke billowed up from the Bregan Glacier, the wreckage from the explosion there still burning fiercely, reports were received that the host of Mymeara had swept on to the west Alacian Plains and begun its approach.Heralding their arrival, and first to come within range of the massed guns of the Astra Militarum, were their Aeldari Corsair allies, an armada of Phoenix, Hornet attack craft and Nightwings that dived down through the gathering storm clouds at break-neck speed.As at Alnitac, the troops of the Astra Militarum met the attack with a barrage of devastating firepower, Chimeras, Praetors, Baneblades, Stormblades, Shadowswords, Macharius Heavy Tanks and Leman Russ tanks lending their fury to the heavy artillery onslaught.The Corsair aircraft soared in undeterred, their agile pilots weaving and threading their craft through the air, their Shuriken Cannons and Missile Launchers returning fire as all around them shells and missiles exploded.First blood went to Betalis III's Human defenders as a Void Dragon Nightwing, its swept wing hull adorned with the symbol of its cadre, was ripped from the sky; its destroyer was a Hydra flak tank, one of the precious few deployed with the battle group.With its systems trained on the horizon, the Hydra's logic-spirit had swung the tank's Autocannons into action as soon as it had detected movement, tearing through one of the Nightwing's curved wings and sending it spiralling into a terminal dive that not even the superior skills of its Aeldari pilot could recover from.The Nightwing's destruction lifted the morale of the Guardsmen more than any rousing speech the Adeptus Ministorum priests could deliver. In that one moment they rose up from the depths of despair they had fallen into upon seeing the destruction of Battle Group Empteda earlier at Alnitac.But the rate of attrition intensified as more Corsairs came within range of the heavy guns, weapons fire from both sides causing death and unparalleled carnage at such close quarters. Amidst the furious assault, Leman Russ tanks were hit and damaged as the Corsairs found their marks and in return the xenos aircraft were blasted from the skies, straying too close to the battle group's many guns.Soon, even the most battle-thirsty Corsair pilots saw that to continue would ultimately mean their death; they broke off, speeding up through the gathering storm clouds and beyond to regroup and tend to their wounds. The opening moves of the battle had played out and the Alacian Plains were littered with its casualties.With the forces of Mymeara on the plains and reports coming in of the host of Craftworld Alaitoc now approaching from the south, General Myndoras Odon gave the order for the battle group to separate into two companies.It was a bold move, and one those Astra Militarum commanders who religiously followed the doctrines of the Tactica Imperialis would have considered foolhardy and reckless.However, as each Aeldari craftworld's force outnumbered the battle group many times over, if it remained in a single block it would be quickly overwhelmed and destroyed.The first company, code-named "Vengeance," comprised the tank squadrons: Leman Russ, Hydras and Chimeras. The second company, designated "Retribution," was mainly infantry, deployed in Crassus armoured assault transports with what little General Odon could spare in terms of Leman Russ and Praetors acting as escort.Company Vengeance had orders to head west. It was to lure in as many Aeldari craft as it could and take the inevitable first hit. This would give Company Retribution the chance to intercept the approaching Alaitoc land forces in the south.Joining Retribution and Vengeance on the Alacian Plains would be the Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus -- four Reaver-class Battle Titans and four Warhound Scout Titans -- which had just reached the warzone from Port Ryira.The original plan had been for the Legio Gryphonicus Titans to lend their much needed support to Company Vengeance's tank squadrons. Now they had a different objective.The surveillance network set up by Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk's retinue around the eastern continent had relayed back images of at least eight Aeldari Titans emerging from the Mymeara Webway portal.Amongst them and now somewhere on the northern edge of the Alacian Plains were two massive Aeldari Phantom Titans, and the princeps of the colossal god-engines of the Imperium had orders to destroy them. |
Betalis III Campaign - Assault on Company Vengeance: Deployed directly in the path of the Mymeara host, Company Vengeance, with General Myndoras Odon leading from the fore, clashed with the Craftworld Aeldari forces as the last rays of the system's cold blue sun were smothered by snow clouds pouring in from the north.Skimming ahead of Mymeara's infantry was a vast armada, hundreds of squadrons of Jetbikes, Hornets and Vypers. In stark contrast to their Corsair brethren, Mymeara's pilots demonstrated no desire to dive down upon their Imperial foe and satisfy a barely checked thirst for battle.Instead they came in low, in tight surgical formations, forcing the rear ranks of Company Vengeance to hold fast their fire lest their shells impact among their own front lines. The change in tactics served the Asuryani well.The wake of that devastating first sortie was strewn with the hulls of over seventy Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras, their thick armour plating scored by shuriken fire or the crew killed as Pulse Laser and Prism Cannon fire penetrated their tank's armour.But such losses were expected. Against the more chaotic attacks of the Aeldari Corsair pilots, standard tank tactics had sufficed, but to maintain such tight formations when faced with the main body of the Asuryani assault would have proved suicidal -- their more disciplined pilots would simply have stayed out of range of Company Vengeance's guns and attacked from afar.Once the battle was underway, Company Vengeance's numbers would be too few to repeat that manoeuvre. Instead they would engage the xenos aircraft in smaller groups, the experienced tank crews of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment fighting the battle on their own terms.The plan worked, but not as effectively as General Odon had bargained for. Having recently fought the Ork horde on Saras VII, a force that barely kept in check at the best of times by its Blood Axe Warlord, the Cadian officers reverted to the tactics which had worked there. These had to be quickly countermanded and replaced with more effective manoeuvres to use against the disciplined Asuryani army.Yet, as if the attack from the air wasn't enough for the Imperial forces to contend with, the first of the Asuryani land forces arrived.Deploying swiftly from the Mymeara portal far off in the west, squadrons of Wasps, the Aeldari species' long-legged assault walkers, launched themselves into the heart of the battle, their pilots using a combination of the Wasps' speed and the manoeuvrability afforded by their jump jets to land amongst Company Vengeance's squadrons.The tactic soon found some of the less-experienced sponson gunners from the Vaust 14th Regiment blasting away at tanks from their own side as they became fixated on the target in their sights, oblivious to anything else.Then, as the Jetbikes, Hornets and Vypers came round again for a second attack run, the Asuryani Wasps would propel themselves swiftly out of range as the Asuryani craft cut yet another swathe of destruction through Company Vengeance's lines, adding to the steadily growing numbers of burning tanks littering the battlefield.Yet with the benefit of General Odon's years of experience, the Astra Militarum force was nothing if not adaptable. The veteran tank commander ordered the Cadian crews to split up their squadrons; one tank from each was to separate off, presenting itself as the vulnerable target the Asuryani pilots were prowling the battlefield for.Once it had secured their attentions, it was to speed off as fast as it could, luring the xenos flyers straight onto the waiting guns of the rest of its squadron. It was not a precise or reliable tactic, but when it did work it was devastatingly effective. |
Betalis III Campaign - Gods of War Unleashed: Out on the ice plains, the Reaver and Warhound Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus were closing upon sector 45-3, where the last sighting of the Aeldari Phantom Titans had been reported.To search the vast, arctic wasteland more efficiently, they had split into two. The first group, Demi-maniple Invictus, was moving across the north of the Alacian Plains, a single Reaver Battle Titan flanked by a pair of Warhound Scout Titans . The larger of the two Titan groups, Maniple Exaro, was sweeping up from the south and comprised three Reaver Titans and a pair of Warhounds.Both groups were shadowed by the heavy armour of Battle Group Odon, the few squadrons of Titan-killing Baneblades, Shadowswords and Stormblades that the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment's command staff could secure in the short time they'd had to assemble the army.As the Aeldari Wasp squadrons launched their assault on Company Vengeance, the Reaver Battle Titan Invictus Nova and the Warhound Titans Tempus Prima and Magna Canis strode onto the frozen landscape of the northern Alacian Plains, the footfalls of the mechanical behemoths sinking metres deep into the permafrost as they searched for their foe.Without warning, five pulsar blasts slammed into the right flank of the Magna Canis from the mountains that edged the north of the Alacian Plains. The Warhound Titan staggered under the assault, waves of actinic energy flickering and sparking across its overloading void shields.With a command born of instinct rather than conscious thought, the princeps of the Nova and Tempus instantly returned fire. With their target hidden from sight, both saturated the mountainous border land with lancing plasma bolts, setting off avalanches that roared down the mountain ranges.The Magna Canis, damaged but still functioning, quickly recovered and added its own awesome might to the bombardment; its Plasma Blastgun had been disabled in the attack and so the Canis' princeps ordered his moderati to switch to its Turbo-Laser Destructor.An explosion from the super-heavy vehicle squadron suddenly buffeted the demi-maniple. A Shadowsword had flipped over, smoke and flames pouring out of its ruptured hull. Not waiting to suffer the same fate, the rest of its squadron split apart as another fusillade flashed between them, knocking out the tracks of one super-heavy and barely missing another.With inhuman speed the Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) of the Invictus Nova calculated the fusillade origin point and located their attacker, although the Aeldari giant was barely visible, so effective were its Holo-Fields.It was one of the Aeldari Phantom Titans, and before the demi-maniple of Imperial Titans had time to react, it unleashed another savage volley, the energy bolts from its pulsar stitching along the ice only metres behind another swerving Baneblade.In thunderous concert, the three Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus opened fire, but only the Nova's five Apocalypse Missiles had the range to reach their mark and they slammed into the Aeldari Phantom's left shoulder, its Holo-Fields shimmering and flickering as they temporarily failed.Before the Imperium's Titans could follow up with a second barrage, a high-pitched shriek emanated from the mountains behind them. With an almighty scream the first Aeldari Phantom's Distortion Cannon discharged a seething bolt of black Warp energy into the heart of the demi-maniple. It hit the Magna Canis, passing cleanly through its Void Shields and wreathing its torso in a shroud of impenetrable darkness.The princeps of the two Titans watched in absolute horror as sections of the massive war machine momentarily vanished into the rift between realspace and the Immaterium and then reappeared moments later as nothing more than a twisted mass of darkly glowing metal.Unable to cope with the massive stress its systems had been placed under, the Canis' plasma reactor detonated. The blast shook the northern Alacian Plains, its deafening boom heard as far away as the Tormus Delta in the south, where the first Guardsmen of Company Retribution were preparing to deploy.Still kilometres south of the battle, the princeps of Titan Group Exaro desperately tried to make contact with the demi-maniple, but their repeated vox hails met with silence. Too far away to immediately come to their aid, the Exaro maniple could only pray that, when they arrived, the other two Legio Gryphonicus Titans had somehow survived. |
Betalis III Campaign - Charge on the Tormus Delta: With no Imperial Navy support to provide air cover and Company Vengeance's heavy armour already fully engaged in the north, the Guardsmen of Company Retribution faced near impossible odds in their race to engage the Alaitoc host.But Company Retribution had two crucial factors in its favour -- time and the unforgiving landscape of the Ice World. The Alaitoc Webway portal was significantly further away from the Alacian Plains than that of the Mymeara craftworld by thousands of kilometres, and directly in the path of its land forces lay the Tormus Delta.Stretching across the entire southern edge of the Alacian Plains, the Tormus Delta was the result of millions of standard years of water erosion, a massive labyrinth of narrow canyons and gorges created at the confluence of two rivers that had frozen over millennia before. For Company Retribution to stand any chance against the Alaitoc host, it had to reach the Tormus Delta before the Aeldari craftworld's airborne armada crested its northern edge.General Myndoras Odon planned to use the Tormus Delta to shield Company Retribution from the worst that Alaitoc's pilots could unleash upon it, but this move was not without its consequences.For Company Vengeance this almost certainly meant it would soon be fighting on a second front as Alaitoc's pilots turned northwards in search of more accessible targets.Company Retribution's headlong charge to reach the Tormus Delta unopposed nearly succeeded, but just as the lead vehicles of its transport convoy were less than a kilometre away, the first of Alaitoc's Hornets, Falcons and Vypers, sleek and deadly aircraft emblazoned with its emblem of the sword of Khaine bisecting a red moon, shot over the northern edge of the delta.The moment they were spotted, the order to accelerate whip-lashed through Company Retribution's convoy. Unlike at Alnitac, there was no time to organise a rolling defence and all the troops of Company Retribution could do was hold tight and pray for the Emperor's protection.The Alaitoc aircraft's Shuriken Weapons and Pulse Lasers strafed the Imperium's convoy, but to little effect. The heavily plated hulls of the Crassus armoured assault transports ably protected the Guardsmen inside, with only a few vehicles being damaged by shots hitting their exposed tracks.However, the Guardsmen could not stay within them forever and when they reached the delta, their deployment was more of a mad dash for the shelter of its ice canyons than a carefully-orchestrated manoeuvre.As Alaitoc's pilots banked round again for another aerial attack, the first Astra Militarum squads to reach the Tormus Delta barrelled out of their vehicles as fast as they could, quickly followed by thousands more Guardsmen following close on their heels.Soon, a sea of deserted vehicles began to stretch back across the Alacian Plains until those travelling at the rear of the convoy were forced either to ditch their own transports there and make their way through the labyrinth of abandoned Crassus transports on foot or break away and enter it via one of its many other entrances further to the east or west.By the time the last Imperial troops had entered the interior of the Tormus Delta, the landscape around it was littered with smouldering wreckage and hundreds of dead and wounded Guardsmen.In contrast, Alaitoc's pilots had survived the assault virtually unscathed, and as General Odon predicted, they immediately turned north to add their firepower to that of their Mymeara brethren. |
Betalis III Campaign - Battle for the Tormus Delta: Company Retribution advanced warily into the Tormus Delta, its squads scattered amongst the tangled pathways. With medium to long-range vox-transmissions absorbed by the high walls of ice and rock, it was impossible to coordinate, let alone locate all the disparate bands of Guardsmen dispersed within the delta's midst.Barely having escaped the airborne assault and with no way to contact anyone not within line of sight, their officers followed the last order they had received -- locate and destroy the enemy.The Craftworld Aeldari had taken full advantage of their earlier airborne attack to disperse their forces within the delta. Alaitoc's Rangers, dropped in by the Aeldari Falcons now making their way north towards Company Vengeance, had already advanced into the ice labyrinth, tearing through its winding passages with unnatural speed before agilely scaling sheer sided ice walls, seeking any advantage they could gain against the oncoming Imperium force.Hidden under their long, flowing cameleoline cloaks, scores of Rangers were now positioned throughout the delta, coordinating Alaitoc's advance with lethal precision.They had been joined by hundreds of Aeldari Corsair troops who mounted hit and run attacks upon the Astra Militarum squads as they worked their way further into the delta. Using the element of surprise to their advantage, the bands of Corsairs stealthily worked their way along the tops of the canyon walls, then either fired directly down into the Human squads below them or dropped down and wreaked carnage in their midst.With the Imperium's officers unable to alert each other to the threat of ambush from above, dozens of Company Retribution's squads were completely wiped out by the vicious assaults of the Asuryani Outcasts. As Alaitoc's warriors joined in with the battle, the atrocities escalated.The most horrific fighting occurred in the north-west of the canyons. Eight squads of Guardsmen moving together were pinned down by sniper fire the moment they entered a large gorge. Firing at them from the overhanging cliffs, the Rangers forced the squads to seek what little shelter there was, their accurate shots hitting anyone who dared to break cover to fire at them.Hunkered down there was little the Guardsmen could do but pray that their frantic requests for assistance over the static-filled vox-net would be answered. What came though did not wear the uniform of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment or any of the other hastily assembled regiments from the system; instead one of the most terrifying facets of the Aeldari army unleashed itself upon them.The Guardsmen watched with disbelieving eyes as tendrils of bright white energy clawed into realspace, quickly coalescing into pools of retina-blinding light. Before the Guardsmen could react, a lethal cloud of monomolecular wire spewed from each portal. The razor-sharp threads scattered through the gorge, effortlessly penetrating any environment suit they came into contact with.Within seconds the canyon was echoing with hideous screams as the victims of the lethal strands were eviscerated, the only evidence of the carnage wrought within their bodies a spray of blood splattered across the snow as the filaments retracted.As each of the coruscating Warp-lights faded, the Warp Spiders that had manifested within them leapt into action, wielding their powerblades in great sweeping arcs which sliced cleanly through Human torsos, severing limbs and heads from bodies with consummate skill.Then, with their first strike complete, the Aspect Warriors faded back into the Warp, the afterglow of their departure dazzling all whose eyes were hypnotically drawn to it, etching their sight with chaotic, leering faces that gazed hungrily at them from the Immaterium.The gorge soon became little more than a charnel house as the massacre was repeated, despite the fierce resistance put up by those Guardsmen who had recovered the wit to do so.The Warp Spiders expertly traversed between realspace and Warpspace until their objective was achieved, then vanished completely. It had taken them less than three solar minutes to kill over eighty Guardsmen and there was no evidence that the Aspect warriors had suffered any injury in return.With battle joined, the forces of Alaitoc and Company Retribution clashed throughout the Tormus Delta, thousands on both sides fighting for their lives within its icy labyrinth. Craftworld Aeldari Guardians, having already seeded crossing points between the canyons with heavy weapons platforms, fired at any Guardsman that passed within their sights.The troopers mounted their own ambushes in return, risking the slippery ascent up the canyon walls to stake out the upper pathways. From there they threw Frag Grenades down into the paths of Aeldari war walkers who had been restricted to single file in the tighter confines of the delta.Then as the war walkers returned fire, the squads melted away, taking advantage of their lofty positions to leap out of danger and into the adjoining canyons.Death stalked the Tormus Delta, and who would win and who would survive was determined over the next few murderous solar hours. |
Betalis III Campaign - Diversion: The earlier Imperial defeat of the Phantom Titan was a victory the forces of Battle Group Odon desperately needed. In the west the battle was quickly turning against Company Vengeance and a new wave of Craftworld Aeldari aircraft had been reported appearing from the direction of the Mymeara Webway portal.All who watched expected this second wave to reinforce the Mymearan attack, but instead they carried on heading west directly towards the Tarundor Isthmus.The actions of this breakaway Aeldari force were a complete mystery to the veteran general, but with Battlegroup Odon's infantry and vehicles wholly committed on the Alacian Plains and in the Tormus Delta there was little he could do to prevent its advance. |
Betalis III Campaign - Tides Turn: War raged upon Betalis III, and in the heavens above it the few remaining Imperial Navy vessels in the Betalis System had retreated to the one place even the Aeldari Corsairs would not dare venture: the corona of the crystal-blue Betalis star.Amongst its gaseous outer regions, the flotilla of Imperial Navy warships was almost invisible to the keen-sighted Asuryani Outcast pilots and their sensors, but there was a high price to pay for the star's protection. Already its intense radiation was leeching through the outer hulls of the smaller spacecraft and reports of fatalities were increasing by the solar hour.The risks of remaining near to the star though were far outweighed by those the Imperial vessels faced from what waited for them beyond it. The Corsair fleet of the Void Dragons now roamed the voids between the Betalis System's worlds unchallenged, easily picking off the few Imperial Navy vessels who had been unable to reach the safety of the star's corona in time. Yet the Asuryani stranglehold on the Betalis System was to prove short-lived.The first indication those fighting for survival on Betalis III had that Imperial reinforcements were on their way was when the Corsair armada that had joined in the assault on Company Vengeance turned their vessels starwards and deserted their craftworld brethren.With billions of troops and machines of war at its disposal, all that the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man had needed was time, and General Odon's request for reinforcements had finally been answered in full by the planets and Imperial Navy bases of neighbouring star systems.Thousands of the Emperor's own were en-route to relieve the besieged defenders, and at the head of the speartip were the strike cruisers of the Space Wolves' Great Company of Bran Redmaw.The Space Wolves' battlefleet was first to appear at the system's outer boundaries, and like a ravening pack of wolves it tore a path straight through the Corsairs' Aconites, Nightshades and Hemlocks.Without stopping it continued towards Betalis III, the Asuryani fleet soon realising why it had not turned to follow up on its initial strike. A second wave of Imperial starships had appeared in-system closely behind the Space Marines and the Corsairs were soon outflanked as the massive Imperial Navy armada rounded on them.The Asuryani Outcasts at first held the advantage in terms of speed and agility and wove a deadly path through the squadrons of Imperial fighter craft as they launched.However, soon the Void Dragons were faced with overwhelming odds and for each ship they destroyed, the Corsairs found themselves evading the guns of two more.As well as coming to the aid of the defenders of Betalis III, the Imperial sector command had determined that its system was to finally be scoured of the Aeldari that had plagued it for Terran centuries.As the Imperial Navy engaged with the Void Dragons, Bran Redmaw's fleet continued towards Betalis III in a furious blaze of destruction. In all that time only once did it break its own counsel and contact those fighting on the planet below.The short message was broadcast by the Great Company's Wolf Lord, Bran Redmaw himself, and was sent directly to Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk's command Chimera, the bitter hatred the Space Wolves Chapter reserved for the Inquisition still burning from their clash over the massacre at Armageddon centuries before."We fight for the All-father, Inquisitor. Do not cross our path." |
Betalis III Campaign - Carnage within the Delta: The Space Wolves wasted little time deploying onto Betalis III. The skies above the Tormus Delta, where the troops of Company Retribution were fighting a furious defence against Craftworld Alaitoc's forces, were slashed with over a score of fiery contrails as the Chapter's Drop Pods plummeted from the heavens, the Claws of Russ digging deep into the Ice World as close to two hundred Space Wolves made planetfall.The instant the disembarkation ramps unfolded, each Drop Pod unleashed its deadly cargo, and with fire in their hearts and bolters at the ready, the Space Wolves stormed towards the icy labyrinth.Company Retribution had already begun to reestablish communications even before the Space Wolves' Drop Pods had landed. As the Asuryani Rangers and Corsairs had done before them, teams of vox operators had climbed above the transmission-deadening icy passageways and were now able to relay orders between the scattered forces.Sniper fire from the Rangers was taking a toll on their numbers, but enough were able to evade them for Company Retribution to finally start fighting as one coordinated force. The effects of this were soon felt by the Aeldari.Where once the support platforms manned by pairs of Guardians had cut a swathe through the frozen passageways and dominated large sections of the Tormus Delta, Company Retribution's squads now set to work in a two-pronged assault.Moving through adjacent canyons, strike teams would fire mortars over the canyon walls or fix explosive charges to the thin barriers of ice and rock between them, discharging a lethal hail of shrapnel into the Guardians' positions as squads of Guardsmen, waiting just out of harm's way, stormed through the settling dust and eradicated any Aeldari who had survived.In the south-west of the delta, where both sides had seen some of their fiercest encounters, Company Retribution's officers moved in their most experienced troops. Following a barrage of heavy weapons fire guided in by vox teams and Guardsmen acting as spotters, Veteran Cadian squads stormed the Aeldari battle lines en masse.In response to Company Retribution's new offensive, Alaitoc's Farseersmoved forwards squads of Dire Avengers, and their lightning fast assault soon cut into the Guardsmen's gains.The men and women of Company Retribution died in droves, whole squads being cut down by Shuriken Catapult fire or upon the blades wielded by the expert Asuryani swordsmen. This, though was where the Sons of Russ came into their own.The Space Wolves of Bran Redmaw's Great Company charged through the network of canyons and gorges, obliterating any resistance they met. Packs of Grey Hunters prowled the maze and the canyons echoed with the shriek and roar of shuriken fire and bolter rounds as they unleashed their wrath upon the Aeldari. Then bloodied, their ceramite power armour scored in numerous places, they would emerge triumphant and move on implacably to their next objective.Of all the bloody conflicts the Space Wolves were involved in within the Tormus Delta, the most daring were initiated by packs of Space Wolf Swiftclaws.Able to move at speed through the narrow, twisting passageways, these Bike Squads sowed havoc and confusion. The first an Aeldari squad would know of their approach would be the roar of Attack Bike engines, followed by the thunder of bolter fire as they tore through the xenos' ranks, leaving nothing but carnage and death in their wake.The impatience of youth though usually comes with a lesson to learn, and in the heat of battle this rarely ends well for even those as powerful as the superhuman warriors of Mankind.Bolstered by their victories, it did not take long for the headstrong Swiftclaw packs to attempt to outdo each other's achievements, boasting over their vox comms of how far they moved behind enemy lines and the tally of their kills.Like the much larger versions wielded by Mymeara's Phantom Titans, the Aeldari responded by unleashing Ghost Warriors armed with wraithcannons to create rifts between the Warp and realspace in the path of the Astartes bikers, instantly tearing apart one of the Space Wolves pack and throwing their Wolf Guard leader from his speeding vehicle as tendrils of the dark energy lashed out at it.Dazed but still conscious, the pack's Wolf Guard leader voxed an immediate request for reinforcements, knowing that his pack would not last long against such a foe.All Space Wolves in the vicinity not already engaged in combat immediately came to their assistance, but in the meantime the Swiftclaws had to deal with the implacable advance of the Wraithguard and Wraithseer on their own.Those still mounted on their bikes roared towards the ethereal warriors, blasting bolt after bolt into them. Guided by the Spirit Stones of long-dead Asuryani, the towering Wraithguard showed no fear as they weathered the fire storm, and fired once more upon the bikes, killing another Swiftclaw as the Space Wolves jinked and weaved to avoid them.Lying injured beneath his bike and unable to move, the Wolf Guard pack leader ordered his battle-brothers to reform and concentrate their fire upon the leader of the Wraithguard, its Wraithseer.Once an Asuryani Warlock who had died long ago, its spirit now once again directed the actions of its kin. Rather than trying to take out all the Wraithguard, if the Space Wolves could injure or kill it, they stood a greater chance of surviving their encounter with these ancient Aeldari warriors.Snarling their rage, the Swiftclaws gunned their engines to full speed and circled round the wide gorge to attack the Wraithseer, the Wraithguard raising their wraithcannon to fire again.It was then that the Wolf Guard pack leader noticed that the Swiftclaws had made a tactical error. They had naturally closed formation as they had circled round. Given their proximity to each other, one hit on target by their enemy would see them all torn apart.Their deaths were prevented by the arrival of one of the Great Company's few Dreadnoughts. A steady stream of bolter casings fell to the ground as it fired into the gorge from the passage it had arrived from.The Dreadnought's rounds tore into the Wraithguards' position, critically damaging one of the five, its Spirit Stones and armour shattering like ice. In response to this new threat, the Wraithseer turned in one swift motion and, with an unnatural strength, threw its Wraithblade at the Dreadnought.The faintly glowing blade dove deep into the armour protecting the sarcophagus of the Space Wolf warrior within. The Wolf Guard raged as he witnessed the death of the Dreadnought's occupant. Powerless to help, he howled out his fury.The Wolf Guard's battle-call did not go unanswered. |
Betalis III Campaign - Fire From the Hills: Watched intently on the pict-screens of Port Ryira, the wave of over two hundred Mymeara Jetbikes, Vypers and Falcons that had earlier bypassed the battle against Company Vengeance flew on to the Tarundor Peninsula. The armada did not turn immediately north to Port Ryira as expected but continued directly eastwards towards the large mining complex of Aresta IV.The facility was home to over nine hundred Imperial workers and their families, and as air raid sirens blared through the hab block shanty town that stretched across its eastern side, the workers' militia were already charging into position, manning the bunker sited heavy weapons that were the core of Aresta IV's defences.Joining them were the few elements of Battle Group Odon not fighting out on the Alacian Plains, mainly support staff and the first of the injured Guardsmen that had been brought back behind the battle lines.Regardless of injury or rank, all who were capable of fighting picked up a Lasgun and prepared to defend themselves as the Asuryani strike force launched itself upon the mining complex, Jetbikes and Vypers breaking formation diving down upon the defenders in a hail of shuriken discs and starcannon fire.In return shots from the heavy weapons bunkers and weapons batteries on the upper platforms of the complex pounded the skies. The assault from the air was swiftly followed by sniper fire from the hillsides surrounding the complex where Mymeara's Guardian squads and Rangers had moved into position during the opening attack. The Asuryani, it seemed, were intent on removing whatever threat those at Aresta IV posed to them.Had they believed the facility to be poorly defended, then the commanders of the Asuryani strike force were sorely mistaken. Ordered to move immediately into the path of this new Aeldari force by the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Lord Hestaphus Danzk, Elysian Drop Troop squads had already deployed in the hills above Aresta IV.Laying low, the Elysians, near invisible in their camouflaged uniforms, rose up and ambushed the unsuspecting Guardian squads as they passed by.The presence of the Elysians on the hillsides slowed the Asuryani attack but it could do little to stop it. Pouring through the most vulnerable point of the facility, the hab block shanty town, Aspect Warrior squads descended upon the militia.Howling Banshees haunted the area where the bunkers had been set up, their psychosonic battle screams paralysing all who opposed them so that there was little resistance from the Guardsmen and workers militia as they were cut down by the graceful xenos warriors.But it was at the entrance to the mines that the worst atrocities were committed by the Asuryani. Massive mining vehicles had been driven in front of the entrance to protect the workers who sought shelter within.The vehicles were melted into little more than slag by the fusion guns of Mymearan Fire Dragons squads, leaving those sheltering within undefended as the Aeldari advanced.The nightmare unfolding at the Aresta IV facility would be short-lived though. As the Asuryani flyers made for another pass at the heavy weapons teams in the bunkers, Imperial Navy Fury Interceptors from the now orbiting fleet dived down through the clearing storm clouds, just as the troop transports of the Battle Group Vlaar appeared on the horizon.Perhaps realising that the odds were soon to turn against them, the survivors at Aresta IV watched the Craftworld Aeldari flee. |
Betalis III Campaign - Wrath of Titans: As the Imperium's waves of reinforcements began to spread out across the besieged eastern continent of Betalis III, the Legio Gryphonicus had already engaged once more with the Aeldari Titans of the Mymeara craftworld.Still following their original orders, given to them by Inquisitor Lord hestaphus Danzk earlier that day, the princeps of the Titan maniples had tracked one of their foes to a region just north of where the battle between the Asuryani and Company Vengeance was being fought on the Alacian Plains.En route the Phantom Titan had also been joined by three Mymearan Revenant Titans. The second Phantom Titan, damaged earlier by the demi-maniple, had been observed by the Inquisitor Lord's servitors entering the coastal region of the Mymearan Webway portal to the west, and was believed to have either journeyed back through it to the craftworld or was now standing watch over the portal itself.Knowing that the presence of the remaining Aeldari Titans could tip the balance of battle against Company Vengeance, the princeps of the Invictus Nova had ordered his fellow Titan princeps to engage with the Aeldari war striders before they got any nearer.Facing an enemy half its number but significantly superior in terms of armament and speed, the Imperial Titans' princeps knew that the odds were against them as they stepped into battle once more.The Legio Gryphonicus Titans split again into their two original groups. The Demi-maniple Nova, now a Titan down after the destruction of the Warhound Titan Magnus Canis, first attacked the Aeldari Titans and then drew away eastwards into the heart of an ice storm.Their plan worked and the lead Aeldari steersman led his Titan host after them. In a series of skirmishes and assaults that ran over almost half of the length of the continent, the two groups of Titans fought.Moving through terrain much more in their favour than the rocky battlefield further west, the Imperial demi-maniple worked its way north-east via a two kilometre section of the highway that wound through and over the mountains.Meanwhile the Exaro maniple headed west and the north again across another part of the highway. As the Aeldari Titans followed Demi-maniple Nova out on to the ice fields beyond, the Exaro maniple charged in behind them to cut off their exit point.Over the next solar hour, the gods of war of both species fought a furious battle. With little shelter save for the vision-obscuring blizzard, the Imperium's princeps resorted to a pattern of feints and strikes to protect themselves from the Aeldari Titans' Distortion Cannons and Pulsars.First, Demi-maniple Nova would close within range of the Aeldari Titans and fire upon them. Then as soon as the Nova's shots were away, the Exaro maniple would attack, striding forwards to harry the Aeldari Titans, attempting to prevent them from returning fire upon the Nova and its Warhound escort.The battle was not without further casualties. The first was suffered by the Aeldari. One of the Revenant Titans was destroyed as it attempted to break away and circle back around onto the flanks of the Exaro maniple. Spotting its ruse, the maniple's princeps ordered three Reaver Titans and two Warhounds to fire upon its position.Their combined might overloaded the Revenant Titan's Holo-Fields and severed the power mechanisms within its leg casings. Unable to move, and with its lone crewman probably severely injured or dead already, the Aeldari Titan self-detonated, denying certain elements of the Imperium the rare opportunity to study such advanced xenos technology first-hand.The Legio Gryphonicus did not escape unscathed either, its Warhound Titans suffering the worst attentions of their foes. Two from the Exaro maniple received direct hits from the twin Pulse Lasers of the Revenants, one being critically damaged and forced to retreat from the battlefield.The Phantom Titan was to wreak the most devastation with its Distortion Cannon. At the height of the battle, it came close to destroying the Exaro itself when a shot from its arcane weapon glanced off the shields of the Battle Titan.Had the remaining Imperial Titans not come to its aid whilst the Titan and its crew recovered from the power surge that had temporarily crippled it, then it may have then been destroyed completely.Although most of the Imperium's Titans suffered from serious battle damage in the engagement, they were to emerge victorious. With the threat of the Mymearan Aeldari Titans removed from Betalis III, the Legio Gryphonicus joined for the final hours of the war with mobile elements of Bran Redmaw's Company that had been set down by Thunderhawk gunships to assist Company Vengeance.The small force of Space Wolves Land Raiders and other vehicles, plus the Legio Gryphonicus Titans, then outflanked part of Alaitoc's armada, blunting its fury and preventing it from fully engaging with Company Vengeance. |
Betalis III Campaign - War's End: With the hillsides around the Aresta IV mining complex reinforced by the Elysian Drop Troops and forward sections of Battle Group Vlaar, the Imperial Navy squadrons turned west towards Company Vengeance.As the pilots approached the combat zone, they were met by an apocalyptic scene of devastation. Gone were the military-precise squadron formations, and instead remained a few tight pockets of resistance focused upon nothing but the utter annihilation of their foe. Out of the hundreds of Imperial tanks and other heavy armour deployed there, less than a third was left.The joint Mymeara-Alaitoc war host had also taken a severe battering. Proving once again his reputation as an expert tank commander, General Myndoras Odon had organised Company Vengeance into mobile blocks of tanks that bristled with guns, and for every Leman Russ tank or Chimera destroyed, four Craftworld Aeldari aircraft took serious damage or were blown out of the skies.It was the general's tactical experience that had enabled Company Vengeance to hold out for so long and as the advancing Imperial Navy battle-wing began to move within range, the Aeldari aircraft broke formation and turned in the direction of the Webway portal that had gained them access to the Emperor's world.At the same moment in the Tormus Delta, Company Retribution's vox network was flooded with reports that Alaitoc's land forces had also broken from battle. Minutes before their war cries had echoed through the canyons, but now the icy maze was near silent.Hundreds of kilometres above the delta, the pict-screens of the Imperial Navy fleet confirmed what all below already knew: the Craftworld Aeldari were retreating.The forces of the Imperium believed they had won the battle for Betalis III, though in truth the Aeldari had already achieved their true objectives and were secretly searching for the armour of the lost Phoenix Lord Irillyth in the depths of the Aresta IV mining tunnels.It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that the Aeldari had launched what was in truth only a diversionary assault upon the Imperial military forces of the Ice World. |
Betalis III Campaign - Epilogue: With the seeming retreat of the Craftworld Aeldari from Betalis III, the Space Wolves took to assaulting the Asuryani fleets in orbit of the world. There had been uncomfirmed reports of larger Aeldari vesels skulking in the system's outer reaches and in the Karina Nebula beyond.But Inquisitor Lord Hephastus Danzk remained suspicious about the real reasons for the xenos assault on Betalis III and he took his retinue alongside a force of two hundred Astra Militarum and planetary militia into the mines of Aresta IV to investigate what he believed to be loose ends. In truth, he went there to fight the true final battle of Betalis III.For Danzk had realised that the Aeldari were still on the Ice World despite their seeming retreat, having left a small strike force behind in the deep tunnels of the Aresta IV facility. The xenos were looking for something, and had already been within the mining tunnels for five solar hours by the time the Inquisitor and his force had arrived.Danzk ordered the door of the massive forge chamber of the mines that led back up to the surface sealed so even if the Aeldari defeated the Imperials within the Aresta tunnels, they would face another major obstacle to their escape. He used servitors deployed from his command Chimera within the forge chamber to scout through the lowel levels of tunnels and locate the Aeldari force within them.The reconnaissance of his servitors discovered that the Aeldari had sought out a cavern in the mines that had been revealed during a cave-in that had killed over forty Human miners just solar weeks before the start of the xenos assault on Betalis III.The Aeldari had cleared the rubble of the cave-in to reveal a vast space beyond filled with the corpses of dead Aeldari who had died in a battle fought millennia before the first Human colonisation of the Ice World. It was clear to the Inquisitor that the casualties had been the result of a battle fought between the Aeldari and another, reptilian alien species unknown to the Imperium.The Inquisitor's servitors discovered that five Aeldari had penetrated the cavern and had located the body of a long-dead warrior. Unknown to Danzk, this was Irillyth, the long-lost Phoenix Lord of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors.The Asuryani party, led by the Farseer Bel-Annath of Craftworld Mymeara, conducted a psychic ritual to transfer the spirit of Irillyth to an Asuryani Exarch so that the Phoenix Lord could live anew.During the ritual, Inquisitor Lord Danzk was knocked unconscious when the power of the ritual flowed into one of the reconnaissance servitors he had been uplinked to through his augmetic implants and overwhelmed his senses.When he awoke it was to discover that the restored Irillyth and his accompanying Shadow Spectres had moved through the mining tunnels, killing all of the Imperial defenders and most of the Inquisitor Lord's own retinue of Acolytes.Only the Tech-priest Mydeaus managed to elude his pursuers, using his own extensive cybernetic implants to access the mining forge chamber's Machine Spirit (Artificial intelligence) and use its systems and automated mining apparatus to assault and obstruct the advancing Aeldari.Mydeaus proved effective, as Irillyth did not realise that only a single mind was directing the forge's systems against him and his warriors, and the Phoenix Lord began to waste precious time hunting for the Humans running the forge who did not exist.But Bel-Annath solved the problem, tracking one of the Inquisitor Lord's observing servitors back to him and then using his psychic abilities to merge his mind with Dansk's own.While the Inquisitor learned in his union with the Farseer the true motivation of the Mymearans in launching their attack on Betalis III simply as a diversion to enter the mines, the Farseer also managed to glean from the Human's thoughts the reality that only a single person was controlling the forge's defences.Swiftly relaying this information to Irillyth and his Shadow Spectres, the Phoenix Lord and his Aspect Warriors combined their firepower to blast their way through the forge's defences from above, ripping through the forge chamber's machinery and forest of cranes, unleashing pools of molten ore from damaged crucibles that flooded the forge and killed Mydeaus and eventually all the other Imperial defenders within the Aresta IV mining facility.With all the Imperials dead, the Asuryani blasted their way through the sealed forge chamber door and escaped. The Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors would be fully restored to the Asuryani craftworlds, providing a small glimmer of hope for that dying species.The true victors of the Betalis III Campaign were the Craftworld Aeldari.Following his death at Aresta IV, the truth of the Asuryani assault on Betalis III was learned by the Ordo Xenos from data extracted post-mortem from Inquisitor Lord Hephastus Dansk's visual augmetic implants.An investigation of his actions led to Danzk being posthumously judged guilty of 172 crimes against the Emperor and His blessed citizens, including failure to retain xenos artefacts for further examination.As punishment, Dansk's mortal remains were sentenced to serve 2,533 consecutive standard years in the Archival Cremea Servitor Corps as a level B3 servitor. |
Betcher's Gland - Betcher's Gland: The Betcher's Gland, also known as the Poison Bite, is the 17th of the 19 genetically-engineered gene-seed organs that are implanted into a Space Marine Neophyte to produce a new Astartes. Consisting of two glands that are implanted into multiple locations inside a Space Marine's mouth, including the inside of the lower lip, in the salivary glands or in the hard palate, these two glands working in tandem transform an Astartes' saliva into a corrosive, blinding acid when consciously triggered.This allows a Space Marine to spit a wad of corrosive acid with the effect of blinding, wounding or even killing an enemy outright. These implants' more common use is to aid in the digestion of unusually difficult or impossible things to digest, such as cellulose. In the gene-seed of several Primarchs, like that of Rogal Dorn, this organ has atrophied and is no longer as effective or has simply ceased to function entirely in the Astartes of the Chapters that use those Primarchs' gene-seed. |
Betrayer - Betrayer: Betrayer is the twenty-fourth volume in the Horus Heresy series of novels. |
Betrayer - Synopsis: The Shadow Crusade has begun. While the Ultramarines reel from Kor Phaeron’s surprise attack on Calth, Lorgar and the rest of the Word Bearers strike deep into Ultramar.Their unlikely allies, Angron and the World Eaters, continue to ravage each new system they come across – upon the garrison planet of Armatura, this relentless savagery may finally prove to be their undoing.Worlds will burn, Legions will clash and a primarch will fall. |
Betrayers of Pain - Betrayers of Pain: The Betrayers of Pain are a warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown origin. Almost nothing is known about them in current Imperial records. |
Betrayers of Pain - Chapter Colours: The Betrayers of Pain wear corroded green-coloured Power Armour with purple trim and black, blasphemous sigils. Their helmet is sometimes also painted purple. |
Betrayers of Pain - Chapter Badge: The Betrayers of Pain's warband iconography is a previously unknown blasphemous sigil of Chaos which resembles two curved scythe blades pointed in opposite directions, forming a circle centred on a field of green. |
Beyreuth - Beyreuth: Beyreuth was the Chief Custodian and Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes during the War of the Beast in the mid-32nd Millennium.Following that campaign, Beyreuth became the first Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes since Constantin Valdor to take up a seat on the Imperium of Man's ruling body, the Senatorum Imperialis, and to willingly engage in the process of ruling the domain of Mankind. |
Beyreuth - History: Little is known of the early history of the Custodian known as Beyreauth or when he ascended to the esteemed rank of Captain-General. What is well documented are his actions during the crisis which came to be known as the War of Beast in the mid-32nd Millennium.At that time, he led the Custodian Guard in battle against the Harlequins of the Troupe of Joyful Tears, when they managed to breach the sanctity of the Imperial Palace, intent on personally delivering a message to the Master of Mankind. Only Shadowseer Lhaerial Rey and Death Jester Bho reached the chamber that led to the Sanctum Imperialis.They were able to kill dozens of Custodians, all the while as the Shadowseer insisted that she had come in peace. She explained that she had been sent on behalf of the notable Ulthwé Farseer Eldrad Ulthran to deliver an important message to the Emperor.But the Adeptus Custodes would not relent in their sworn duties, and so the Custodians pressed their attack against the xenos interlopers, killing Bho and impaling Lhaerial to the ground with a Guardian Spear.As the Shadowseer continued to insist on meeting with the Emperor, the enraged Captain-General was about to give the order to kill her, until the timely intervention of Inquisitor Lord Veritus saved the Harlequin's life.In his capacity as the Inquisitorial Representative to the Senatorum Imperialis, Veritus forced Beyreuth to release Lhaerial to him so that he could interrogate her. After the tragic event known as The Beheading occurred, the de facto rule of the Imperium fell to the sole remaining High Lord of Terra, the Officio Assassinorum's Grand Master of Assassins, Drakan Vangorich, who reminded Beyreuth of the fact that the Aeldari had nearly breached the threshold of the Eternity Gate.This argument convinced Beyreuth to engage in Imperial politics and take his place amongst the esteemed ranks of the Senatorum Imperialis alongside Vangorich. |
Bheta-Decima - Bheta-Decima: Bheta-Decima, originally known as Emperor's Bounty, is a fume-shrouded Ocean World in the Nemesys Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus that in the Era Indomitus is in the process of becoming a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus.A chaotic, multi-faction conflict erupted on the world after its ruling magi unwisely sought to claim the space hulk Gallowdark so that they could ransack its technological secrets and the hulk accidentally crashed into the world, devastating the planet and its population. |
Bheta-Decima - Origins: Emperor's Bounty was an Ocean World of the Nemesys Sector in the Segmentum Tempestus that was only recently colonised in the 41st Millennium by the Adeptus Mechanicus, who sought to use its low gravity to make it easier to move heavy equipment and thus enhance the speed and efficiency of their mining efforts.The greedy tech-priests of the Mechanicus swept aside the small Human population that already called the world home with the deployment of their military power. They proceeded to transport millions of Mechanicus menials to the world to serve as a vassal labour force from elsewhere in the Mechanicus' vast domains. The tech-priests then redesignated Emperor's Bounty as "Bheta-Decima" and had the Administratum register it as the Priesthood of Mars' newest Forge World. |
Bheta-Decima - Fall of the Gallowdark: When the space hulk designated Gallowdark by the Imperium emerged from the Warp in Bheta-Decima's star system, the greedy magi of the Forge World used a massive, capital-ship-sized Graviton Cannon to pull the passing space hulk into the orbit of Bheta-Decima so that they could plunder it at their leisure of any archeotech riches it might hold.However, once the massive vessel was held in the grip of the Graviton Cannon the tidal forces unexpectedly proved too much for the composite vessel and the Gallowdark broke apart, raining debris and massive sections of the giant voidcraft across the surface of Bheta-Decimus and damaging most of its settlements, killing millions in the process.In the aftermath of this cataclysm anarchy and violence erupted among the world's survivors as they faced a decidedly more dangerous environment and a struggle for continued survival with the collpase of civilisation across much of the Forge World. The planet regress after the crash into an apocalyptic environment defined by high levels of crime and the oppotunities offered by the black market for continued survival. The world's devastated planetary defence forces and Enforcer police units were quickly overwhelmed by the desperate survivors.At the same time, various creatures that had called the Gallowdark home survived the crash and emerged from its wreckage to plague Bheta-Decima, including Orks, Beastmen in service to Chaos, Aeldari Corsairs and even mechanical horrors of unknown provenance. Mechancius hunter-clades were dispatched by the world's Skitarii Legions and its Battle Congregation to take on these foes, though before long units of Traitoris Militarum who had defected from the Astra Militarum sought to carve out their own private fiefs. The arrival of these xenos and Chaos foes only further contributed to the growing chaos across the Forge World.By this time, all Imperial authority on Bheta-Decima has simply collapsed. Its ruling magi and fabricator-general who served as the planetary governor had fled the planet with their most vaulable assets, battling the rebels, xenos and pirates seeking to ransack the shattered worlds all along the way. Schisms over Cult Mechanicus dogma as well as outright opportunism on the part of some of the tech-priests like Magos Virellan who chose to remain on the world further added to the anarchy.The Chaos-aligned Beastmen, mutants of the group known as the "Stichkin Gloomlings" and the Genestealer Cultists of the Cult of the Chittering Verse, who had long hidden themselves alongside their Genestealer Patriarch in the subterranean region of the world known as "the Seethe" where they established a hold to serve as their central headquarters called the "Deeprealm", became the greatest threats to the remaining Human population. Much of the fighting was focused around the artificial toxic sea of Hypersump IV and its wharf cities. |
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