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Ceibhal - History: During the Psychic Awakening, the Sabre came under assault by a vast horde of Orks while most of the Space Marines were off-world on campaign.The call for them to return was sent out, but until that time Captain Meznan commanded the Chapter's forces in the defence of their homeworld.Unless the absent battle-brothers returned, however, Ceibhal was likely to fall to the greenskin assault.In truth, by the time a Space Wolves strike force led by the Wolf Lord Erik Morkai finally arrived, Ceibhal had been claimed by the Orks. The Obsidian Jaguars fleet defending Ceibhal had also been destroyed, but Morkai still hoped to be able to recover the Chapter's gene-seed from their fortress-monastery.He infiltrated the Sabre with a strike force of his fellow Space Wolves, but it had been desecrated, its walls decorated with the corpses of the Obsidian Jaguars Astartes who had died defending it. Even worse, Morkai's warriors were only able to recover a small portion of the Obsidian Jaguars' gene-seed, as most of it had been destroyed or made unusable by the Orks.With little more to do, the Wolf Lord's strike force made their way off-world shortly before they activated explosives that destroyed The Sabre.The fate of the Chapter's survivors is uncertain. |
Ceibhal - Notable Locations: Plains of Karusal - These plains surrounded the fortress of the Sabre.Serpentine Jungle - The Serpentine Jungle lay at the edge of the Plains of Karusal and was comprised of a great forest of steelpalm trees.Arrowhead River - The Arrowhead River suffered from a heavy flow during the planet's Season of Downpouring. |
Celebrants - Celebrants: CelebrantsLoyalistChapterSpace MarinesFoundingth |
Celebrants - Chapter History: The Celebrants' only major mention in Imperial history is that they were ordered to withdraw from the world of Phaethon IV and instead to take up garrison duty on the Ecclesiarchy's Cardinal World of Nedicta Secundus to protect the holy relics of the Adeptus Ministorum found there from the ravages of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken.However, this was all part of a carefully staged ruse by the Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines, supposedly on the direct orders of their Primarch Alpharius himself (who may actually have been his secret twin brother Omegon), to get two companies of the Crimson Consuls Chapter of Space Marines stationed in place on Phaethon IV so that the Alpha Legion could destroy a portion of that Chapter by unleashing the Ork WAAAGH! Wuzghal upon it.The plan worked and the Crimson Consuls on Phaethon IV and elsewhere in the galaxy were ultimately wiped from the rolls of the Emperor's Astartes through the machinations of the insidious Alpha Legion. |
Celebrants - Notable Campaigns: False Flags (799.M39) - An Imperial Navy deep void way station came under heavy assault by a Space Marine force later identified by their singular heraldry as belonging to the Celebrants Chapter. Objections were lodged at the highest possible levels of the Imperial hierarchy, but the Celebrants' Chapter Master dismissed the accusations as false and threatened reprisals if they were not retracted. The discord reached a climax when the Celebrants withdrew from joint anti-pirate operations in the Arataen Deeps, leading ultimately to the loss of three entire sub-sectors. Subsequent Ordo Hereticus investigations determined that the original attack was carried out by the Night Lords in a typically cunning ploy to sow terror and confusion amongst the defenders of the Imperium.Rangda IX Rebellion (919.M41) - Rangda IX is a Forge World of the Imperium. A rebellion by Rangda IX's degenerate, mutant forge-clans was put down with the aid of elements drawn from the Celebrants Chapter.Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - The entire Celebrants Chapter participated in the Third War for Armageddon. |
Celebrants - Chapter Colours: The Celebrants' power armour has a unique colour pattern, with yellow on the lower legs that seamlessly blends into orange for the mid-torso and then red for the upper torso, helmet and arms. The black squad specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder plate.A white Low Gothic numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol indicates squad number.The colour of the left knee guard indicates company number in accordance with the Codex Astartes -- i.e. white (1st Company), yellow (2nd Company), red (3rd Company), etc. |
Celebrants - Chapter Badge: The Celebrants' Chapter badge is a black, five-pointed star sporting black, stylised wings similar to those used by the Blood Angels Chapter. This is centred on a field of red. |
Celebrants - Sources: Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet), pg. 23Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition), pg. 32Hammer and Bolter 3, "The Long Games at Carcharias" by Rob SandersImperial Armour Volume Thirteen: War Machines of the Lost & The Damned, pp. 23, 169Index Astartes: Emperor's Shield |
Celestial Guard - Celestial Guard: The Celestial Guard is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and genetic origin.Their Chapter homeworld is called Erenon and is a storm-shrouded Ocean World located to the galactic northwest of Nocturne. |
Celestial Guard - Notable Campaigns: The Martyred Sons (416.M37) - Inquisitor Lord Antonius Coil of the Ordo Malleus discovered the current location of the nomadic Hell-Forge of Sarum while conducting an Exterminatus against the Warp-tainted Hive World of Goleonda IX, and moved to see it destroyed at last. Along with warship committed from Battlefleet Reductus and several Militarum Tempestus regiments, he mobilised the aid of three Space Marine Chapters, the Celestial Guard, the Sons of the Raven and the Brazen Claws, to strike deep into the perilous Golgotha Wastes against this nightmarish thorn in the Imperium's side. Within sight of the baleful world, the Imperial fleet was ambushed on all sides by the pale warships of the Warp Ghosts and Black Wings Chaos Space Marines and the horrific Daemon Engines of their Dark Mechanicum allies of Sarum. In the brutal seventeen-solar-hour void battle which followed, the Imperial fleet was encircled and slowly torn to pieces both from without and from within as Daemons ripped open passages into realspace deep onboard the stalwart vessels. Only the Chapter fleet of the Brazen Claws broke free from the trap without crippling losses, while the Human contingent of the Imperium's strike forces was annihilated to the last. The ravaged Celestial Guard Chapter would take nearly a standard century to rebuild from its grievous losses from its stores of gene-seed, swearing bitter vengeance against the Warp Ghosts. The fleet-based Sons of the Raven Chapter, not one of whom escaped the deadly trap, were declared martyred and the great Bell of Lost Souls in the Tower of Heroes of the Imperial Palace on Terra tolled to mourn their passing. Eighteen standard years later, a corrupted Warspite-class Battle Barge, believed once to have been the Seraphina Carricus of the Sons of the Raven Chapter, was encountered transporting a Warp Ghosts raiding force off Mezoa XV, the withered face of Jo'sun Hernezu, the martyred Chapter's last master, worn by its revenant captain.Siege of Erenon (997.M41) - The Celestial Guard defended its homeworld of Erenon from a siege by the Tyranid forces of Hive Fleet Leviathan. |
Celestial Guard - Notable Celestial Guardians: Apothecary Borro - The Celestial Guard is a Chapter about which little is known, and it may be the case that Brother Borro represents the only one of his kin to have stood the Long Watch in the Jericho Reach or even anywhere. The annals of the Deathwatch record that Borro was engaged upon his first Vigil when the events of the defence of Watch Station Midael transpired, and was regarded as a competent warrior and a dedicated practitioner of the Apothecary's art. The watch station's spy net recorded the image of Borro retrieving a fallen brother's Progenoid Glands while fending off the attacks of no fewer than three Traitor Marines, and this scene is reproduced in numerous devotional works. The greatest is held in the tower of Watch Station Midael itself and takes the form of a tapestry ten metres wide and forty metres long, and which hangs from the central space of the tower's interior. Borro has become something of a totem to Space Marine Apothecaries serving in the Deathwatch of the Jericho Reach, and many invoke his name and his memory whilst preparing for a mission. |
Celestial Guard - Chapter Colours: The Celestial Guard wears primarily white power armour which includes the helmet, power pack, shoulder plates, arms and legs. The secondary colour is azure, which includes the Aquila or Imperialis on the chest, the torso and groin area.The azure squad tactical specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder plate.A white High Gothic numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol indicates squad number.The colour of the helmet stripe indicates company number in accordance with the Codex Astartes -- i.e. white (1st Company), yellow (2nd Company), red (3rd Company), etc. |
Celestial Guard - Chapter Badge: The Celestial Guard's Chapter badge consists of a pair of white, single-edged axes crossed over an azure shield, centred in a field of white. |
Celestial Lions - Celestial Lions: The Celestial Lions is a Loyalist Successor Chapter of the stoic Imperial Fists, raised in the 38th Millennium during an unknown Founding, though some Imperial scholars suspect it may have been the 23rd Founding.Following the 25th Founding at sometime in the latter half of the 40th Millennium, the Celestial Lions became a part of a triumvirate of Space Marine Chapters which included the Emperor's Spears and the now-extinct Star Scorpions, as a part of the Adeptus Vaelarii, better known as the "Sentinels of the Veil." These three Chapters were charged with the sacred duty to stand sentinel over the scattered worlds of the sector of space known as Elara's Veil in a backwater region of the Ultima Segmentum.Since its inception, the Chapter has had a long and glorious history, stretching back over 4,000 Terran years, but events set in motion over five solar decades ago during a routine assault on the world of Khattar in 948.M41 nearly proved to be the Chapter's undoing in the wake of the Third War for Armageddon, from which less than a company of Celestial Lions emerged intact.Targeted by a faction of the Inquisition to serve as an example of what happened to an Adeptus Astartes Chapter that stood against them in Imperial politics, the Celestial Lions survived only due to the intervention of the Black Templars, fellow scions of their Primarch Rogal Dorn.The few surviving Celestial Lions returned to their homeworld of Elysium IX in Elara's Veil under the command of their new Chapter Master Ekene Dubaku to begin the painstaking process of rebuilding their Chapter's numbers back to full strength.Later, after the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, the Chapter became involved alongside the Emperor's Spears with defending the Veil from an assault by a great Chaos warhost called the Exilarchy. The Exilarchy was under the command of a warband of Heretic Astartes called The Pure, who were the Chaos-corrupted remnants of the Star Scorpions Chapter that had once been a part of the Adeptus Vaelarii. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter History: The Celestial Lions is a Successor Chapter raised from the genestock of the Imperial Fists' Primarch Rogal Dorn. It was created during an unnamed Founding of the latter years of the 38th Millennium.Over the next four Terran millennia, the Lions proved to be a resolute Chapter and true scions of Dorn, fiercely defending the realms of Mankind from the enemies of the Emperor.But the Lions' fierce pride and strict moral principles may have contributed to the path that led towards their near-destruction as a Chapter. |
Celestial Lions - Khattar Insurrection: The Inquisition is a highly secretive organisation, bound by no Imperial law or authority save its own and that of the God-Emperor. Its only mission is seeing to the protection of humanity. Acting as the secret police force of the Imperium, the Inquisitors hunt down any and all of the myriad threats to the stability of the Emperor's realm, from the corruption caused by the forces of Chaos, Heretics, mutants and rebels, to assaults from vicious alien species like the Tyranids, Orks or Drukhari.But the Inquisition does not exist in the sense most Imperial citizens believe -- as a cohesive, interlinked cobweb of organised power. It is made up of individual men and women with wildly different ideologies, tactics and goals, invested with ultimate authority and immunity from all persecution and autonomy from all law. Everything else comes down to what they achieve, and what personal power they amass. Even their precious Ordos are simply lines of alignment, philosophies of specialisation and intent, not armies of organised allegiance. Their power is both utterly real and a cunning illusion, all at once.The Inquisition is, in all ways, the exact opposite of the Adeptus Astartes, whose temporal authority has been decreased since the Horus Heresy, yet these genetically enhanced transhuman warriors play an essential role in the defence of the Imperium, needing no illusion of commanding great power. Their Chapter fleets and brotherhoods speak for themselves.But Inquisitors are granted that most nebulous of virtues: authority. When an Inquisitor calls upon Imperial resources, he or she relies on the threat of authority, rather than any real organisation lending support to their needs.This was the case when the Inquisition called upon the Celestial Lions in 948.M41, to come to its aid to help put down a planet-wide revolt on the Shrine World of Khattar. Few Chapters knew of what happened on Khattar, and even fewer spoke of it. Of those that were aware of the planet's annihilation, most likely did not regard it as a true threat to the autonomy of the Adeptus Astartes, preferring to focus on their own concerns and their own wars.What little people knew of Khattar came down to a conflict of pride and duty between the Lions and their Inquisitorial allies -- the kind of conflict that takes place a thousand times each Terran year across the Imperium's vast spread of worlds. Many of these disagreements turn to bloodshed; what made the Lions' situation so galling was that they had reacted with a measure of composure and reason, when they had every right to draw their Bolters and finish it in a blunter, more efficient matter.Khattar was a world of priests and preachers, of followers and the faithful -- an Ecclesiarchy world in thrall to the ivory tower priests of the Imperial Creed. The priesthood had secretly fallen into deviancy, and as so many do, they prayed to the Ruinous Powers, and their dark untruths carried the faithful masses away from the Emperor's light, spreading to the highest echelons and furthest reaches. The apostates had corrupted the people of Khattar through blasphemy and lies, compelling enough to sound like truth to a society weary of their prayers going unanswered. Though the Emperor was immortal and mighty beyond reckoning, he was in truth no god. But Mankind, in its blessed ignorance, worshipped him as one.Yet false gods cannot answer prayers. How tempting it must seem to those sects and societies far from Terra to seek other answers when pleading with the Emperor who brought only silence. The Planetary Defence Forces of Khattar did not rise up to purge the revolt, they joined it. And soon more were still to come: Astra Militarum regiments in nearby systems did the same, such was the ferocity of Khattar's blasphemy.It was Inquisitor Apollyon who pleaded for the support of the Celestial Lions, for his efforts to crush the faithless lies had met with failure after failure. The Inquisitor possessed an Imperial Navy blockade, but nothing in the way of surface troops. So in the wake of his failure, the Lions made planetfall in full force. Hundreds of Astartes rained holy fire, sacred iron and true faith on a world that had forgotten the taste of all three.Slaughter soon followed, as the rebel forces were comprised of mere men and women, following the lies of false prophets. The Lions utterly destroyed them -- all of them -- every man and woman with a weapon in their hands. The Chapter quenched the rebellion in a matter of weeks. No armies existed once they were finished with Khattar, not even a town militia. Nowhere on that world did a single priest still draw breath. With the armed resistance annihilated, the Celestial Lions returned to their ships in orbit. Whatever heresy lingered among the defenceless population was under the eyes of others then -- no longer a matter for bolter and blades. Such misplaced faith the Lions had in their allies on that day.As with any cleansing, the Lions expected preachers of the Imperial Creed to take over, shepherding the lost populace back to enlightenment. It took several solar days for the Chapter to recover their war material, honour their dead, and prepare to leave. Meanwhile, Apollyon's underlings worked on the world below, assessing the population of eight billion for signs of further deviancy.As the Lions departed, their warships scarcely out of orbit, Apollyon's warship opened fire on the world below. The rest of the Imperial Navy blockade fired with him, targeting cities and population centres. As the Lions watched the Imperial warships carry out Apollyon's orders for Exterminatus, spitting fire onto the world they had just bled to cleanse of corruption, they became enraged as they witnessed their honour burn with those cities. Every shot they had fired was betrayed as a waste in an instant.The Celestial Lions' lords demanded the blockade to cease fire and answer for its actions. Apollyon refused, claiming that he had determined the entire population tainted beyond salvation. He even thanked the Lions for their worthy efforts, though they were in vain. A solar hour later, Khattar's cities were dust.It was possible that the Inquisitor was astute in his observations. Heresy had clearly taken root throughout Khattar's society. Perhaps it had wormed as deep as Apollyon claimed. Inquisitors were capable of determining the corruption in the minds of men in the space of a heartbeat, and a man in Apollyon's position could afford no chances. The Inquisitor had acted within the rights granted by his rank; he did as many of his Inquisitorial kindred would do. He also did as many Chapter Masters would have done.But that did not make it right, or virtuous. It merely made it real. Perhaps Apollyon was merely a hasty fool to whom human life meant little. This mournful truth was one that those who witnessed the Inquisitor's heinous actions would have to live with. He was hardly the first man of exalted rank to have his morals decay in a position of power.Despite their ire, instead of violence, the Lions' Chapter command sent word throughout the sub-sector, warning all Imperial outposts and regional governors about what had occurred and decrying the actions of the Inquisition. Word was sent directly to Terra -- a delegation of Deathspeakers and Warleaders chosen for the task, to show the gravity of the situation.They would never set foot on the holy Throneworld. Their vessel was found two Terran years later, dead in the void, deep in Ork-controlled space. All damage was indicative of a ruinous Warp flight. There were no signs of weapons fire on the hull. It was a common-enough occurrence. The interior of such unfortunate vessels had all life torn into genetic scrap; all metal mutated and poisoned beyond salvage.Over the coming solar decades, the Celestial Lions kept demanding an investigation into the Khattar Massacre. They sent word to any Imperial officials who would listen, from planetary regents to the priest-kings of Ecclesiarchy Shrine Worlds. If any such investigation took place, it remained a mystery to the Lions. The Chapter's highly vocal denouncement of the Inquisition and demand for investigation raised the ire of many important people within the Imperium's most senior circles. This may have contributed to the recent misfortune which nearly destroyed the Chapter. |
Celestial Lions - Third War for Armageddon: In 998.M41, the Third War for Armageddon began. This was a massive conflict between the Imperium of Man and the largest Ork WAAAGH! ever raised, led by the Greenskin Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. The war was fought on the Hive World of Armageddon where Ghazghkull Thraka had launched his first attempt to seize the planet exactly 57 Terran years before. The conflict eventually drew in portions of more than 25 Space Marine Chapters, dozens of Astra Militarum regiments, and several Titan Legions.The Celestial Lions had brought 983 warriors to this world. Their entire Chapter had landed on Armageddon but for the most remote, uninitiated training forces still spread across the Segmentum. By the time they stood in defence of the Mannheim Gap, they had been on the surface for three solar months and sixteen days, defending Hive Volcanus on the west coast of the subcontinent of Armageddon Prime. In that span of time, all of which was spent Bolter-to-blade in the city's burning streets, they suffered casualties far, far in advance of any other Chapter.Everywhere they fought, the enemy struck back in overwhelming numbers. Countless times they were deployed to reinforce elements of the Imperial Guard that were already long dead by the time the Lions arrived, leaving the Space Marines deep in enemy territory without an easy path for withdrawal.On at least fifteen catalogued occasions, they were ordered to advance on specific critical objectives, only to find themselves alone without the planned support forces or the promised reinforcements. As casualties mounted, ambushes were common, even on routine patrols through pacified territory.The Lions were assigned to hold crucial districts and sectors, and accordingly moved in force to cover all necessary ground. Yet they found their patrols being hit harder than any orbital intelligence had predicted possible. The enemy would appear in numbers undreamed, rising from ambushes in sectors that were recorded as being cleansed beforehand.The Lions were granted orbital picts and Auspex-scrye readouts from Hive Command, only to find their intelligence scarcely matched the embattled realities of their deployment zones. Time and again, the Lions jumped into the fire. They had no choice, for the Chapter would not allow the city to fall and they could not allow the enemy to live.It did not take long for them to rely first and foremost on their own scanners and Scouts, but their equipment suffered unexpected deterioration and frequent jamming; their Scouts often fell silent while out in the city alone. Sometimes the Lions would find their Scouts' bodies, but usually they were lost.Pict-feeds from their vessels in orbit were distorted from the void war playing out above, but those rare, wrecked visual clues were the most reliable intelligence they could muster. The Lions swore by them, thanking the thrall-captains of their warships for any and all devoted efforts. But these also grew more infrequent as their fleet was massacred in the sky.The Lions had fought well. No other Space Marine Chapter would cast aspersions on their fighting character. Their difficult straits had arisen from apparent ill-fortune: orders given but never received, or too slowly answered. There were many reports of Vox interference and orders never reaching their warship's captains. Much of it reeked of enemy guile.The Lions' Battle Barge Serenkai was boarded and overwhelmed when it pulled free of the Black Templars spearhead, failing to heed orders to maintain formation. The Cruiser Lavi took four solar hours to die from structural haemorrhage when it collided with the wounded Flesh Tearers flagship Victus. The Nubica destroyed itself when it was boarded, choosing sacrifice over capture. Only three vessels from the Lion's fleet remained during the latter part of the conflict. And those who might have borne closer witness to what had actually happened were in their graves.It was difficult to know which of these events were born of sabotage or treachery, rather than honest battle. If the Inquisition had moved against the Lions, it was doing so with a tenacity and subtlety rarely seen among its agents.Less than a solar month into the campaign, rearming runs from orbit began to grow as rare as reliable intelligence. Celestial Lions drop-ships were destroyed high in the atmosphere on two occasions, and on another, Volcanus' own wall-guns malfunctioned and destroyed an incoming shipment, blowing seven loaded Thunderhawks gunships out of the sky.Mere solar weeks into the war, half the Chapter already lay dead, the names of the slain added each dawn to the rolls of honour. The survivors fought on, for contained within each surviving Celestial Lion was a nourishing well of resolve that did credit to any son of Dorn. And then came the conflict in the Mannheim Gap. |
Celestial Lions - The Mannheim Gap: The Mannheim Gap on Armageddon was a canyon running through the mountains north of Hive Volcanus. It was a rent in Armageddon's priceless earth, torn open by the slow, active dance of the world's tectonics. Any who dwelled there for more than a handful of solar weeks knew that Armageddon was not a world that slept easy, whether due to Greenskins, dust storms, or yet another war.The Celestial Lions were told the canyon had to be assaulted, for it was a nest of mechanical heresy where the aliens were constructing their scrap iron god-machines or Gargants. Hive Volcanus' forces had to strike before the alien Gargants became active, or the tide would forever turn against the city's defenders. The Astra Militarum could not be trusted to deal such a surgical strike, nor could the hive city organise a mass withdrawal and redeployment of its deeply entrenched Guard elements to make it a plausible option. The task fell to the Lions.Primitive Void Shielding protected the site from orbital bombardment. The Lions had to strike overland, without Drop Pods, marching into the ravine alongside their tanks, attacking in battalion regiments like some echo of the Horus Heresy and the millennia of crude warfare before it. The Lions reconnoitred, of course. They scouted and watched, deeming Imperial intelligence reliable. None of the alien god-walkers were infused with life. But time was not on their side. Every solar hour they spent behind their fortress walls was another solar hour that brought the Gargant machines closer to awakening.Five hundred Celestial Lions Astartes attacked. The last half of the Chapter went to war, knowing that the enemy numbers were beyond the capability of the Imperial Guard to confront. They chose to bring overwhelming force and to strike fast and hard, seeking to counter their crippling inability to strike from the skies. Five hundred Space Marines were involved and some Chapters had taken whole worlds with a quarter of that number.The Lion commanders were right to commit their full fury. Any Chapter Master would have done the same. There was no possible way the enemy could have known such a force was coming to destroy them, and there was simply no way to prepare for an assault by five hundred Space Marine warriors. Strike with ferocity and destroy the enemy and then fall back before getting entrenched in a full-scale battle. It should have worked.In truth, the Gargants were not sleeping, they were simply waiting. Despite this setback, if that was all they had to deal with, the Lions might still have fought their way clear without being slaughtered. They might have even won, despite dying to the last man. The Lions' gold battle tanks raged skywards, streams of Lascannon fire bursting thin shields and scoring holes in the hulls of the towering enemy war machines. Warleaders shouted orders, in control of their warriors even in the heat of battle, establishing where to strike, where to push through the Orks' lines, where to move in defence of tank battalions threatened by enemy infantry.Even when the Gargants awoke, the last half of a noble Chapter still fought to win. They would purge the canyon at the cost of their own lives. Dorn himself would have stood with them that day. But the tide truly turned. The enemy ambush unfolded further as Greenskins spilled from the earth, pouring in hordes from warrens within the canyon sides and the rocky ground. There were thousands of them, roaring beneath fanged war banners and standards made from crucified Celestial Lions taken in other battles. This fresh army surged into the ravine, filling it like sand in an hourglass, blocking all hope of withdrawal and eliminating any chance of victory.Somehow the Orks knew that the Lions were coming. There could be no other reason to bury whole war-clans under the rock, waiting for such an assault. Their overlord was a beast clad in scrapwork armour -- the biggest Greenskin the Lions had ever seen. He ate the dead -- his own, and the Lions. Warleader Vularkh buried the war-sword Je'hara in the beast's belly and carved three metres of stinking alien guts free. It did nothing.The Lions fought back as they fell, but they knew they were betrayed. A traitor, somewhere, had fed word to the enemy, and the Orks made the most of their ambush. But soon, the extent of the treachery was revealed, as sniper fire, deadly accurate, rained down from the canyon walls. Not the solid shell rattle of Greenskin projectile throwers, for the Lions knew how the Orks fought. This was viciously precise laser weaponry, knifing through their officers' helms from above. Deathspeakers, Warleaders, Spiritwalkers, even Pride Leaders, cut down with fire too precise, too clinical, to be that of the Greenskin enemy.It took the Lions four solar hours to fight free. They carved their way back the way they came, abandoning a sea of dead tanks, slain Battle-Brothers, and butchered green enemy bodies. The gene-seed of half the Chapter lay rotting at the bottom of that canyon, unharvested by the Lions' Lifebinders and defiled by the thousands of foes they left alive.The Lions had fled from the field, and the most valiant battle the Celestial Lions ever fought was that retreat. Never had they faced such odds, and the last of them cut their way free, pulling their brothers from the storm of blades and fell back to their fortress with the enemy at their heels. The xenos flooded their forward base before most of their survivors had even arrived. The Celestial Lions had to fight just to escape their own falling fortress. Even then, for every gunship that raced free, another two were shot down in flames.The survivors of the Celestial Lions returned to Hive Volcanus. Only three officers were left at dusk of that day, three officers above the rank of Pride Leader. Deathspeaker Julkhara, who called Reclusiarch Merek Grimaldus of the Black Templars brother; Warleader Vakembi, the last surviving Captain of the Chapter; and Lifebinder Kei-Tukh, the Lion's only living Apothecary. The Chapter's future rested on his skills.But the final insult was yet to play out. The last gasp in this drama of shame and treachery occurred later that same, terrible evening. The Lion's territory inside the city was a cold foundry, nearly lightless, with a perimeter of rockcrete patrolled by their remaining warriors.Lifebinder Kei-Tukh did not survive the first night after their terrible defeat. The Lions found him at dawn, slouched against their last Land Raider, shot through the eye-lens. The gene-seed he had carried was gone, and he would harvest no more.The depths of the Celestial Lions' plight on Armageddon were dire indeed: they had lost their fleet, their armoury, their officers and almost all hope of rebuilding their Chapter. They couldn't even cling to pride, after the shame of defeat. All that remained to them was the truth. The Lions vowed to survive long enough to speak it. The Imperium needed to know what had happened to them on Armageddon, where they had been betrayed by others who claimed to serve the Emperor. |
Celestial Lions - Dark Truth: The remaining Celestial Lions then determined to die on Armageddon alongside their brothers, as was right and honourable if the Chapter could not be revived. Deathspeaker Julkhara reached out to Reclusiarch Grimaldus, a fellow son of Dorn, to know the truth behind their coming last stand, and ensure those that shared their Primarch's blood never spoke ill of the Celestial Lions' fall.Julkhara sent a lone Storm Eagle from Hive Volcanus to seek help from the Hero of Helsreach -- the zealous Chaplain Grimaldus, who had recently held the besieged Hive Helsreach against thousands of Orks. Convalescing for several solar weeks after being buried alive in the rubble of the collapsed Temple of the Emperor Ascendant, Grimaldus soon received word of the discovery of a crashed Storm Eagle. The downed Celestial Lions gunship had fallen victim to the fearful winds and violent storms that wracked Armageddon's skies, heralding the infamous Season of Fire.Acquiring a Valkyrie from the 101st Armageddon Steel Legion regiment, Grimaldus and his subordinate Chaplain Initiate Cyneric departed the safety of the hive city to investigate the crash site despite the horrendous weather conditions. The air was severe enough to scald unprotected flesh, and while the Astartes' Power Armour offered a shield against the elements, it wouldn't protect them for long.Grimaldus was unable to determine the Chapter origin of the Storm Eagle from its outward appearance, as whatever colours it had borne into battle were long gone, stolen by the storm. Its symbols of allegiance were similarly eroded by ash and dirt in the turbulent air. Smashing his way through the ship's bulkhead with his Crozius Maul, Grimaldus and Cyneric found the body of a lone Space Marine pilot, clad in burnished gold, lying in ungainly repose where the deck met the weapon-racked walls. The Reclusiarch recognised the Chapter's colours -- the Celestial Lions. But this discovery left more questions than answers.Grimaldus couldn't understand what this gunship was doing all the way out in this remote location, so far from Hive Volcanus, nearly half a world away from its point of origin. Removing the dead Space Marine's azure helmet, the faint signs of darkening decay in evidence clearly indicated that he had been several solar days dead. Upon further inspection Grimaldus discovered a hololithic imagifier the size of a human fist mag-locked to the dead warrior's belt.Once freed and activated, it gave rise to a flickering blue image -- the ghost of another warrior in another city -- wearing the heraldry of the Celestial Lions and carrying a skull-faced helmet beneath one arm. Grimaldus recognised the fellow Chaplain as Deathspeaker Julkhara, whose wavering voice brought grim tidings, "Grimaldus. They lied to us about the Mannheim Gap. They sent us here to die."Grimaldus and Cyneric departed the crash site and made their way back to the protective walls of Hive Helsreach. Once safely inside, the Reclusiarch sent a secure Vox message to the Eternal Crusader, the flagship of the Black Templars' High Marshal Helbrecht. When he contacted the mighty vessel, he relayed his orders to a Chapter Serf, instructing him to complete four tasks: first, he was to make contact with every vessel of the Celestial Lions Chapter still in orbit so that he could have a full accounting of their war fleet. Second, they were to contact whatever command structure remained in place at Hive Volcanus and to acquire a detailed report of every Adeptus Astartes casualty in that region since the war's commencement. Third, he and Cyneric needed a gunship to return to the Eternal Crusader. If the coming storm hit before arrangements could be made, they would risk teleportation.For the fourth and final order, the Eternal Crusader was to make contact with the ranking officer of the Celestial Lions, garrisoned at Hive Volcanus. He warned that the transmission would most assuredly be monitored, no matter what encryption processes were run. The following message was to be delivered -- Grimaldus knew he had to be careful how he worded his message -- it was only six words. "No pity. No remorse. No fear."Back aboard the Eternal Crusader Reclusiarch Grimaldus met with High Marshal Helbrecht, producing for him the hand-held holorecorder which relayed the dire message from the Celestial Lions' Deathspeaker. The High Marshal inquired as to what the Reclusiarch hoped to accomplish. Grimaldus sought to establish contact with the Celestial Lions to take stock of their losses, and if possible to destroy those who had betrayed them.But the High Marshal knew in his hearts that this would be impossible no matter how much it appealed to him. The High Marshal warned Grimaldus that he risked dragging the Chapter into direct conflict with the Inquisition. The High Marshal sympathised with Grimaldus' cause, for injustice must be stopped and impurity must be purged. But the Eternal Crusader was to set sail in three solar days in order to pursue the fleeing Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, the Ork Warlord who had led his massive WAAAGH! in the invasion of Armageddon.The Reclusiarch requested to be left behind. The High Marshal was surprised by Grimaldus' request. He was caught between the purity of a war against external enemies, and a just war against an internal foe. Grimaldus would fight both, if he could. The Ork Warlord's death, however, took priority over all else. The arch-warlord responsible for Armageddon could not be allowed to flee from their grasp, for retribution called as loud as justice.But Helbrecht could not overlook that the Celestial Lions' devastating losses were the principal reason he believed his Reclusiarch's concerns were valid. Justice called to them, and at the very least, the Black Templars wished to learn the truth of the matter. He ordered Grimaldus to go to Hive Volcanus to learn the truth of what happened. If the Celestial Lions were destined to die, the High Marshal wished to hear the truth of their tale before it was too late. |
Celestial Lions - The Last Officer: Soon Grimaldus and his charge made their way to Armageddon Prime, where Hive Volcanus was still besieged by the enemy and the winds were more often free of the burning sand and ash that so blighted the other side of the world. The Celestial Lions' firebase was located atop a natural rise in the landscape, supremely defensible, with great battlements and sacred statuary of fallen Imperial heroes staring down at any who would dare bring the fight to those dark walls.The whole site was already in ruin. The pair of Black Templars were honoured for their presence by the remaining Lions. Grimaldus noticed right away that several of the Celestial Lions were plundering their own firebase's supplies, loading up their surviving Thunderhawks with brutal efficiency. The warriors themselves kept at least one hand free to reach for a Bolter at a moment's notice.A lone Space Marine came forward, bearing the black helm of a Pride Leader. He knelt before the Reclusiarch and removed his dark helmet. Grimaldus was greeted by the sight of a face that was a warm, rich brown complexion of a human born to equatorial climes. Though he had never been to the Lions' homeworld of Elysium IX, he had met many of its dark-skinned sons. They were a culture of hunters: proud from birth to death, true Scions of Dorn.Grimaldus did not recognise the warrior who introduced himself as Pride Leader Ekene Dubaku. "Pride Leader" was the Lions' term for a Squad Sergeant. This did not bode well. Dubaku was now the senior surviving Lion who led those that remained. The Veteran Marine explained that there were ninety-six Lions still drawing breath upon Armageddon, and that he had inherited command from Warleader Vakembei, he of the Spear That Hunts Hearts who had been slain eighteen solar days earlier. Grimaldus knew Vakembei, a stalwart Space Marine officer and deadly swordsman.The Reclusiarch inquired as to the whereabouts of Deathspeaker Julkhara. The Pride Leader replied that he had been slain by the "kine" (a Celestial Lions' term for cattle or beasts -- the Greenskins) nearly twenty-four solar days past. Now the surviving Lions were looting what was left of their supplies at their forward base. They had little choice, since it was overrun. Their fallback stronghold was within Hive Volcanus itself, but they risked raids in this forward area every three solar days.Ammunition was low -- production and resupply from their fleet had dropped to almost nothing. Grimaldus wondered why the Celestial Lions had not requested aid from the other Chapters present on Armageddon, but understood that Dorn's blood ran thick in the veins of his descendants. It was difficult to lay such pride aside, even in the face of devastation. Especially then, for that was when a warrior was truly tested. There was no other time more fit for proving that a man was strong enough to stand alone.Dubaku explained that they had swallowed their pride long enough to request aid from the Flesh Tearers and the Black Templars, but the former were as depleted as they were, and the latter were preparing to take the fight out to the stars in pursuit of the fleeing Ork Warlord. The Lions felt they had no right to beg for scraps while being left behind. So they existed by plundering their fallen fortress and looting their own dead.This confirmed for Grimaldus that Julkhara's summons had been a personal one. It had cost his pride dearly to send it. The Reclusiarch was struck by one thing above all else: the Celestial Lions were effectively dead. While a hundred yet remained, the Chapter operated now without a single voice from their Chapter's high command, and their ranking Veteran officer was a squad sergeant.Grimaldus ordered the Lions to finish loading their gunships, then he wanted Dubaku to tell him everything that had happened to the Chapter since they made planetfall. It remained to be seen just what Julkhara expected of the Black Templar, or what Grimaldus could actually achieve for the Lions. It already felt less like he had been summoned to save the Lions, and more like he had been called to hold vigil, watching over the Chapter as it died.The Pride Leader's tale was grim. The Reclusiarch's blood ran cold as Dubaku revealed each new betrayal that had occurred. Grimaldus quickly realised that the surviving Lions meant to die on this world. The Pride Leader confirmed this was true. The Lions intended to die alongside their brothers, as it should be. Deathspeaker Julkhara wished for Grimaldus to know the truth behind their coming last stand, and ensure that those who shared their Primarch's blood never spoke ill of their sacrifice.Cyneric argued that the Celestial Lions should return to Elysium IX, to endure the shame if they must, as the Crimson Fists endured their shame after the Battle of Rynn's World. They had to rebuild their Chapter -- the galaxy must not lose the Celestial Lions forever.But the remaining Lions scoffed at this suggestion. Their Chapter had been savaged beyond resurrection. Men, material, knowledge...all of it was gone. They had nothing to hand down to any generation that would follow them. The remaining Lions refused to flee like cowards. But it was not cowardice Cyneric advocated, it was survival -- survival to preserve precious blood, and to rise again to fight another day.Grimaldus agreed with both opposing viewpoints, for a glorious last stand was no more less respectable than preserving the infinite value of a Space Marine Chapter. But Grimaldus wondered if Cyneric would advocate shame if he were the one facing the prospect of so glorious a last stand. Easier to speak of shame than endure it. And yet Grimaldus was just as determined that the Chapter had to survive.The remaining Lions explained to Grimaldus that the Inquisition wanted to silence them. But the Reclusiarch assured them that this was not the case. They were using the Celestial Lions to make an example. The Lions were in fact the most recent casualty in the Inquisition's campaign to rein in the political autonomy of the Adeptus Astartes. The Inquisition tolerated no attacks on its sovereign rights -- yet the Lions had challenged them. And now all would bear witness to the price of their Chapter's rebellion.The sabotages, the conflicting orders, the ambushes, all would lead to the destruction of a Space Marine Chapter. Millions of Imperial citizens would hear of how the Celestial Lions were killed on Armageddon. A mere handful would know the truth behind their deaths, and each of those would be Adeptus Astartes officers who would tread with much more caution when they dealt with the Inquisition in the future. The lesson would be learned, just as Inquisitor Apollyon's cronies wished.Digesting this information, Pride Leader Dubaku explained to the Reclusiarch that his Chapter would make for the Mannheim Gap and that, though many of the Gargants were gone, it was still a well-defended Ork stronghold. It remained a cancer in Hive Volcanus' territory, and it must fall.This seemed idealistic at best to Grimaldus. He informed the Lions that in fact, it would not fall. Not to a handful of Lions, no matter how noble and proud they were. Dubaku countered that they would die trying, for this was where the Celestial Lions had chosen to die. It had to be there, for then their bones would lie alongside their brothers. Grimaldus inquired if the Lions would fight alone, to which Debaku replied that they would. Volcanus could not spare its Astra Militarum regiments.Even with Mannheim emptied of Gargants in the solar weeks since the massacre -- a fact they still could not be certain was true -- it was still a difficult target, rich with the enemy's presence. Five of the Lions' Battle Companies had failed to take it. A few thousand Guardsmen would be nothing more than spitting into the wind. The Lions could not trust any of the Guardsmen in any case, for the Inquisition's talons were everywhere.After hearing their tale of woe, Grimaldus decided that Cyneric had been right. The Lions' death would be a disservice to the Imperium, no matter the greatness of their glorious last stand; no matter the heroism of individual warriors as they spent their life's blood. The Lions argued that this was how they wanted it to end -- to finish their legacy in fire, not in centuries of painstaking laboratory work to preserve their bloodline. They wanted to die as warriors.Indeed they would, thought Grimaldus, a hundred warriors, dying in glory...and denying the possibility of thousands of warriors who might be needed in a darker future. It was Dorn's way to fight on no matter the odds. Death against overwhelming numbers was no shame to any warrior born of the Imperial Fists' gene-seed. Yet, those were lessons first taught ten thousand Terran years ago, when the Imperium was so much stronger. The last centuries of the current Dark Millennium had all but bled Mankind's empire dry. Yet the Reclusiarch still admired Dubaku for his hunger to taste a glorious death, even if it was a last charge few would remember.Dubaku informed the Reclusiarch that they would not delay the inevitable and were prepared to make their last stand almost immediately. His Chapter would gather their resources the next day at their forward base, and make one last scouting run for supplies and survivors. The Lions would then charge to their final war at dawn the day after. The Pride Leader made one last request of the stern Chaplain. He requested that Grimaldus grant final unction to the surviving Celestial Lions warriors.The Black Templar had only agreed to speak of the Lions' death, and that he understood how it had happened and why they had chosen to act as they did. But now they wished for him to also bless their damnation. The Lions had no surviving Deathspeakers and so they wanted Grimaldus to bless the warriors of another Chapter, sharing the Black Templars' sacred rituals, and vowing before the Emperor and Rogal Dorn that their death would be a noble testament to the Imperial Fists' bloodline.Grimaldus looked upon the surviving Celestial Lions, standing amongst them during their desperate, respectful silence. Grimaldus felt he had no choice, could not grant his blessing to the suicide of the Chapter and refused to perform the requested rite upon the Lions. |
Celestial Lions - Choices: Grimaldus and his charge then departed the Celestial Lions' forward base and made for the Eternal Crusader. He went there to put an audacious plan into motion. The Chaplain knew he could not return to Hive Helsreach, for the Season of Fire played its tempestuous games around the city, harsh enough to kill sky traffic but not quite violent enough to interfere with Vox signals.Utilising the flagship's powerful communication array, he was able to amplify his transmitter's signal to send a message through. Making contact with the Imperial forces on the ground, he relayed a series of orders to one of the Astra Militarum officers present there. It took several more solar hours of coordinating Helsreach's defences from high orbit. Grimaldus knew a great many Guard officers were going to Vox skyward for confirmation in the hours to come.Time passed, as Grimaldus spoke with eighty-one Astra Militarum officers and eleven Naval captains. As his clearance was Rubicon-grade, no one dared to question his orders. Cyneric questioned the senior Chaplain's motives, and wondered if he hadn't exceeded his authority. But Grimaldus argued that the Lions' survival would be for the best and he was depleting Hive Helsreach's defences to march alongside the Lions back into the Mannheim Gap.The Reclusiarch explained that the city was vastly overdefended now, with entire battalions sitting idle and awaiting redeployment. It was an irritating truth; would that they had such a problem when the real war was being fought. The soldiers in Helsreach were actually bored. They did not do well with tedium, especially when left alone with nothing to do and no one to shoot.Cyneric felt that Grimaldus was playing on the people's regard for him. The Hero of Helsreach called them to war. Of course they would follow. But he was sure it was their war. The Reclusiarch argued that it was their world. And it was the only chance the Celestial Lions had, if they were to survive.The Lions' unseen enemies might well allow them to die in the glory they deserved. But their deaths served nothing but to ease the soreness of wounded pride. The Celestial Lions must not die on Armageddon and without help, the Chapter was doomed. Everything depended on just how fast Grimaldus' forces at Helsreach could break out from the storm, and redeploy halfway across the world. |
Celestial Lions - The Second Mannheim Siege: Arranging for an Imperial Navy shuttle, both Grimaldus and Cyneric deployed to the surface of Armageddon. Dawn was less than a solar hour away as they broke cloud cover above the Lions' ruined fortress stronghold. Grimaldus wondered if the Lions would have already left their fallen fortress by the time they arrived, marching towards their last stand.Besides the remaining four dust-blasted and paint-stripped Thunderhawks possessed by the Lions resting upon the wide rooftop platform, dozens of inelegant, blocky troop landers had joined them there. Struggling to locate an unmarked, untaken patch of ground, Grimaldus ordered the shuttle to break off its descent, as both he and Cyneric jumped from the ship's rear bay.The pair of Black Templars descended from the sky to the ground by utlising their Jump Packs. Pride Leader Dubaku was taken aback by the return of the Black Templars. Grimaldus replied that he thought that the Lions might appreciate the extra bodies. The Reclusiarch was greeted by General Kyranov of the Armageddon Steel Legion, the acting commander of the Imperial military forces at Helsreach. Within the solar hour a war council was called, ordained before a battalion of revving tanks. The plan was simple -- they would march into the Mannheim Gap, and they would destroy anything that moved or breathed.Dubaku stood with Grimaldus at the heart of the impromptu conclave, his anger a palpable thing. He directed his ire at the Reclusiarch, who he felt had overstepped his authority. The Pride Leader didn't appreciate these interlopers who threatened to interfere with their personal vendetta and their glorious last stand. He argued with Grimaldus that this was the Celestial Lions' fight and no one else's. Dubaku warned Grimaldus that when the time came, when they confronted the Ork Warlord responsible for so many of his Battle-Brothers' deaths, it would be a Lion's blade that killed the creature. Grimaldus vowed grimly that it would be so.And so, the forces gathered from Helsreach marched in long, armoured columns towards the Mannheim Gap. Every hope they possessed that Mannheim would be near devoid of Ork Titans was crushed before the first Steel Legion soldier had set foot on the loose rock slopes leading down into the canyon.The enemy was present in grotesque force. Great sockets in the rigging and stanchions along the canyon walls marked the absence of several Gargants, but many more were undergoing repair or reawakening after fighting in recent battles. The ravine was choked by multitudes of Orks going about their work, and thousands of mouldering corpses piled up into a sea of decaying organic matter.Gold armour, darkened and soiled by waste, showed among the barricades of the looted dead. The dead Celestial Lions had been heaped in undignified repose with their xenos murderers, and their ceramite -- useless to the junkyard heresy that constituted Greenskin technology -- was left to encase the rotting warriors amidst their flesh cairns.The Imperial force advanced over the sea of the disrespected dead, for tearing the barricades down was not an option. The Guardsmen climbed and waded through the sea of bodies or rode on the hulls of their tanks. Above the advance rode the gunship fleet, all flanking the four remaining Thunderhawks in the Celestial Lions' arsenal. The moment they streaked through the ravine's trench, cannonfire began to bring them down in tumbling fireballs.The Steel Legion did not baulk at the sight of such a vast enemy horde. They ploughed into the enemy's disarrayed ranks, slaughtering them to make room on fields of their bodies for the gunships to land. The first hours of the battle were unremarkable only for their ferocity. The Imperial Guard's massed cannonades devastated the Greenskin war machines. In reply, the Orks butchered the Guard at every point along the advance where it fell to men and women with bayonets to hold the line. As was so often the way of the Astra Militarum, they had the stronger steel, but the enemy had the stronger flesh.In such a grinding lock of armies, winning and losing was relative. The Imperial force pushed deep into the canyon as hundreds of men and women fell face down into the dirt. Behind the Space Marines lay a graveyard of tanks, practically all their own, all lost to enemy cannonfire. Lining the canyon's walls were the burning metal corpses of towering god-constructs, holed by missiles and tank shells, melting to slag in the flames of the Imperial Guard's bombardment. Stubber fire rattled against their ceramite harmlessly, but scythed Guardsmen down in droves. Still the Imperials advanced, sloshing through a rising torrent of blood. It was knee-deep on most of the humans, turning all advancement into a sweating wade through filth.Soon the pivotal moment of the battle came upon Grimaldus, as it had so many times before, his heraldry often drawing enemy commanders to him as often as he fought his way to them. It happened again at Mannheim, though he tried to avoid it. The largest of the Orks, doubtless hunting the Reclusiarch by heraldry, launched itself at Grimaldus from behind. It was a thing of blunt fangs, sinewy muscle and hammering limbs -- larger than Grimaldus, and both stronger and faster than him. A Celestial Lion called out to the Reclusiarch, reminding him that the Ork Warlord was the Pride Leader's kill.Grimaldus faced off against the massive beast, swinging his Crozius maul at the foul creature, but the powerful Greenskin moved as if immune to everything thrown against it. Las-fire lanced off the creature, going ignored against its armour, and equally ignored as the volleys scored fingertip-sized holes in its flesh. Celestial Lions charged the creature but the hulking warlord countered their feeble assaults with a sweep of his mighty mangling claw.As Grimaldus was driven to his knees and eventually struck to the ground, Dubaku finally came between the two combatants with a leap and a roar. He held his hand back, bidding Grimaldus to remain away. The Reclusiarch had to force himself to obey, something he would never have countenanced in any other circumstance. But they had fought this battle for a bloodline's pride, and here was the moment of reckoning.Dubaku beat his blade against his chestplate, staring at the Greenskin lord in its powered suit of tank armour scrap. Despite the cacophony of battle that raged all around them, Grimaldus could hear the Celestial Lion's words as clearly as if they had left his own mouth: "In whatever underworld your foul breed believes, you shall tell your pig-blooded ancestors that you died to the blade of Ekene of Elysium, Lion of the Emperor."No one knew it then, but at that moment, the Pride Leader was the last Lion still standing. Dubaku attacked, his Chainsword worthless against the beast's claw. He had just as little hope of parrying the creature's cudgel with his Combat Knife. So what he lacked in strength, he poured into speed -- never blocking, always dodging. The battle did not pause around the two combatants. Soon both the Pride Leader and the Ork Warlord were bleeding from a score of wounds.The Chainsword had found its way through armour joints and plunged into soft tissue; the Power Claw had mangled the Celestial Lion's armour each time it fell. Soon, Dubaku was backing away. Fighting such a beast was no task for one warrior alone, no matter the pleasure of pride. Then came a thunderclap of noise as a massive electrical burst turned the air to charged static. Orks and men in their droves cried out in pain at the sonic boom. The orbital shield was no longer functioning.Somehow at some point in the hours of melee, while the Reclusiarch fought with the Lions, the Steel Legion had laid explosives at the base of the Void Shield reactor. The Emperor alone knew when, where, and how. No sooner had the shield imploded, spitting its static charge in all directions, than a powerful and priority channel Vox-rune chimed loudly in the Reclusiarch's retinal display. Grimaldus activated it as he watched the Pride Leader and the Ork lord stagger around each other, wounded animals too proud to die.Soon Grimaldus heard a familiar voice -- it was High Marshal Helbrecht. He informed the Chaplain that the Black Templars were ready to reinforce their position. All he had to do was give the word. Grimaldus informed the High Marshal to blacken the sky. At that moment the severely wounded Celestial Lion was down before Grimaldus could reach him. The beast clutched Dubaku's arm in its mangling claw, crushing it at the biceps before ripping it free. The Pride Leader retaliated by ramming his Chainsword in an awkward thrust into the creature's throat. Deflected by armour, it barely bit. His assault came at the cost of his leg, as the iron claw scissored through the limb at the knee, dropping him on his back into the slime.Grimaldus was on the beast's back a heartbeat later, securing himself by digging into the creature's armour with his boots as he wrapped his severed weapon chain around its bleeding, sweating throat. The chain garrotted taut, cracking sinew in the beast's throat. The iron claw battered at the Reclusiarch, shearing chunks of ceramite away. It staggered without toppling, gasped without truly suffocating. Even this -- even strangling it with his last remaining weapon -- could not kill it.All Grimaldus could do was buy Dubaku the moments he needed to crawl free, which he quickly did. And Cyneric was waiting, a Bolter in his remaining hand. The mutilated Celestial Lion reached up for it, clutching it one-handed in a pistol grip, and aimed it up as he lay back in the sludge. Grimaldus dropped back, not completely, but enough to pull the chain tighter, adding his weight to his strength, and wrenching the beast's head back to bare its throat.The Bolter sang once, and the kick of something heavy struck near the chain. With a muffled burst, the Ork's head came free, tumbling back over its shoulders and landing with the Chaplain in the filth. The armoured body stood there without anything existing above its neck -- still too stubborn, too strong, to fall.Once he got to his feet, Grimaldus reclaimed his maul from the fallen beast. Then he tossed the thing's slack-jawed head to Dubaku where he lay. The battle continued to rage, as the men and women Grimaldus had led there fought their way further down the canyon. Dubaku looked up at the darkening sky as the Black Templars descended in a massive Drop Pod assault upon the Mannheim Gap. The Lion's only reaction was to rise as best he could, and pull his helmet clear. He ordered the Reclusiarch to help him stand. He didn't want to meet the High Marshal on his back. Cyneric and Grimaldus hauled Dubaku up between them. While they did so, the Guard's Vox link erupted in cheers, as Lord Helbrecht blackened the sky with Templar Drop Pods. |
Celestial Lions - New Beginnings: Reclusiarch Grimaldus bid his farewell to the newly-installed Chapter Master Ekene Dubaku of the Celestial Lions, escorted by his surviving few warriors onto the Black Templars Strike Cruiser Blade of the Seventh Son, with its course plotted for the distant world of Elysium IX. Dubaku now bore a bionic leg and a noticeable limp, his physiology not entirely adjusted to the augmetic replacement yet. The armour he wore was gold war-plate of an ancient Imperial Fists champion, granted as a gift from the Eternal Crusader's Halls of Memory. His cloak was that of Helbrecht's own Sword Brethren, red on black, elegantly cast over one shoulder.It was not known if this was the very same cloak Helbrecht had granted to Dubaku when he forced him to take the oath of lordship over his depleted Chapter. At his hip, bound by chains of black iron, was the flayed, polished skull of the Greenskin Warlord they had killed together. An honour indeed, to be named on a Chapter Master's prime trophy.The Black Templars Honour Guard comprised to bid him good journey consisted of the Reclusiarch, the newly promoted Chaplain Cyneric, and the High Marshal's household knights, clad in ceremonial colours. The Reclusiarch hoped most fervently, as time passed, that Chapter Master Dubaku's efforts in reconstructing the Celestial Lions and training the generation to follow him continued to go well. Grimaldus knew with grim satisfaction that they would most likely never meet again, as Dubaku was sworn to a life of defending what he could hold, and the Black Templars always sailed forth on the attack against the foes of the Emperor. |
Celestial Lions - Era Indomitus: Following the opening of the Great Rift the Celestial Lion's homeworld of Elysium IX was invaded by the warband of Chaos Cultists and mutants known as the Exilarchy, which was led by the Heretic Astartes and former Star Scorpions known as The Pure. The warband emerged from the Warp following the rift's creation.Before Elysium IX was invaded, the Celestial Lions Chapter Master Ekene Dubaku prepared to evacuate its population. Dubaku knew it would be impossible to save the entire populace of the planet, but hoped that enough would survive to help both his Chapter and the spirit and culture of Elysium IX to live on.The current fate of the world's surviving population is unknown, but Dubaku drafted a message asking his allied Chapter Master, Arucatas of the Emperor's Spears, if they could be relocated to his Chapter's homeworld of Nemeton.In the midst of meeting with the Emperor's Spears' representatives about this plan aboard their starship Hex, Dubaku was decapitated by a Callidus Assassin who had been masquerading as a Chapter serf named Kartash Avik in service to the Mentors Space Marine Amadeus Kaias Incarius. The Assassin had been sent by the Inquisition to continue its vendetta against the Celestial Lions. |
Celestial Lions - Notable Campaigns: Khattar Insurrection (948.M41) - During the event known as the Khattar Insurrection, five companies of the Celestial Lions were attached to Inquisitor Apollyon in order to crush the ongoing revolt on the main planet, Khattar. The orbital defences were nothing to the Space Marines and they soon landed on the world against virtually no opposition. As the campaign progressed and the number of prisoners increased, it became evident that this was no mere minor rebellion. Apparently the Imperial Cult's priesthood on Khattar had been corrupted by Chaos and had led the leaders of the world into the arms of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Local Renegade Astra Militarum and Planetary Defence Force regiments were quickly defeated and within a matter of solar weeks the rebellion was crushed. The detachment of the Celestial Lions boarded their voidships and left for their fortress-monastery. As the Astartes warships left orbit, the Imperial Navy, under the orders of Inquisitor Apollyon, carried out an Exterminatus action and bombarded the planet with Cyclonic Torpedoes, obliterating its entire population. This action horrified the Celestial Lions, who proceeded to condemn the Inquisitor for wiping out the population of a planet that had been cleansed of all heretical taint and whose people had largely remained innocent. Captain Saul, the commander of the Imperial Navy flagship in orbit of Khattar, had attempted to halt the bombardment, but could not countermand the order of an Inquisitor. From then on, the Celestial Lions were highly vocal political opponents of the Inquisition, as they believed it had been unnecessary to destroy the planet and all its people. They proclaimed a series of very loud and very public condemnations against the Inquisition that was intended to reach the powers-that-be within the highest echelons of the Imperium. A delegation of senior Chapter officers left for Terra to further their cause, but the starship never arrived. It was blown wildly off course by a freak Warp Storm, far into Ork territory. The wreckage was eventually found two standard years after the disappearance of the vessel, although this was not enough to deter the Celestial Lions, who kept demanding an investigation into the events surrounding the destruction of Khattar. Their efforts, though valiant, were completely in vain. The Inquisition technically answers to no one but itself and the Emperor, and is immune to any outside pressure or criticism, even from the Adeptus Astartes. Since the Khattar Insurrection the Celestial Lions have refused to work alongside the agents of the Inquisition again, and for its part, the Inquisition began to look into methods by which the Lions' constant criticism might be forever silenced.The Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - With the outbreak of the Third War for Armageddon, the entire Celestial Lions Chapter was deployed to that crucial Imperial Hive World to defend Hive Volcanus. They suffered horrendous casualties within only solar months of arriving. The intelligence they received was horribly inaccurate and often led them into ambushes where they were outnumbered and outgunned. Some of the higher-ranking officers of the Chapter began to suspect this was intentional, a ploy to wipe out the entire Chapter as part of the political machinations of the Inquisition which they had vocally opposed since the events at Khattar for over a standard decade, but nothing could be proven. In a matter of solar weeks half the Chapter lay dead.Mannheim Gap Massacre (998.M41) - One particularly devastating battle in the Mannheim Gap saw 4 entire companies of the Celestial Lions exterminated by the combined forces of a Gargant under the command of the Ork Warlord Thogfang and the Razor Speed Freeks. Losses mounted and the battle ended with a very well-coordinated Greenskin attack on the Celestial Lions' base camp. It had been thought by the Celestial Lions that Thogfang's Gargants were still under construction and the Space Marines hoped to take the Orks by surprise before their war engines became operational. Unfortunately not only were the Gargants fully operational, they were waiting for the Celestial Lions, targeting the exact ridge where the Chapter had intended to launch their assault. Undaunted by this apparent betrayal, the Celestial Lions fought bravely and thought they could win. But then the Orks launched their trap and hundreds of buried tunnels opened behind the Lions' position, swarming their rear with thousands upon thousands of Orks. The last Captain of the Celestial Lions force, Vularakh, was eaten by Thogfang. The Imperials' losses mounted and the assault finally ended with a very well-coordinated attack on the Celestial Lions' base camp. This particular battle lasted for only three solar hours. Hundreds of Astartes fell to the overwhelming Ork forces. Sniper fire rained down from the mountain sides, relentlessly targeting the Chapter's Apothecaries. It should be noted that the sniper fire was not Ork in origin, for Imperial-issued Long-Las Sniper Rifles were the culprits, burning holes straight through the helmet and eye-lenses of many of the Chapter's officers and non-commissioned officers. Finally, a small Celestial Lions company was able to break through the Ork lines and fight their way back to Hive Volcanus. Only 96 Astartes survived the battle at Mannheim Gap. To make matters worse, the last Celestial Lions Apothecary was shot in the head within solar hours of arriving at Hive Volcanus; he was found slumped against his Rhino transport with a las burn straight through his temple, his slayer unknown. The dead Celestial Lions' gene-seed lay unharvested on the surface of Armageddon and the remaining Battle-Brothers of the Lions swore to die alongside their fallen brothers, fighting to the last to regain their honour even if it meant the death of their entire Chapter. Seeking one last hope for redemption, then (Pride Leader) Ekene Dubaku requested that Reclusiarch Grimaldus of the Black Templars Chapter perform the last rites on the Celestial Lions' survivors, who intended to return to the Mannheim Gap to die alongside their slain brothers. Grimaldus had arrived earlier to investigate a message sent by the last remaining DeathSpeaker of the Chapter who had been a personal friend. Yet he refused to perform the last rites and marshaled the remaining Imperial defenders of Hive Helsreach to march alongside the Celestial Lions. Grimaldus believed that if the honour of the Celestial Lions could be salvaged by destroying the Ork base, then the remaining Lions warriors would return to their homeworld and be content with rebuilding their Chapter. The battle that ensued cost the lives of almost all of the remaining Celestial Lions. However, Pride Leader Dubaku was able to slay Warlord Thogfang with Grimaldus' help, avenging the loss of his Captain and the grievous wound to the pride of his Chapter. Only then did Grimaldus signal for Black Templar reinforcements to enter the fray and the Knights of Dorn fought one last time on Armageddon. Afterwards, High Marshal Helbrecht, the Chapter Master of the Black Templars present on Armageddon, forced Dubaku to take the oath of Chapter Master to lead the remnant of his Lions and granted him an ancient suit of Power Armour dating back to the Great Crusade which still bore the original heraldry of the Imperial Fists Legion. The few remaining Celestial Lions departed for their homeworld on the Strike Cruiser Blade of the Seventh Son, another gift from the Black Templars, alongside a temporary detachment of Black Templars Astartes to aid in the the rebuilding of the proud and defiant Celestial Lions Chapter on their homeworld of Elysium IX.War Against the Exilarchy (999.M41 - Present) - The birth of the Great Rift cut off the region of Elara's Veil from the wider Imperium, trapping it within the darkness of the Imperium Nihilus. At that time, a great Chaos warhost known as the Exilarchy came into being, comprised mainly of Humans and mutants, but supported by a small number of Heretic Astartes warbands. The true rulers of the Exilarchy were the Chaos Space Marines known as The Pure, the remnants of the Star Scorpions Chapter, who had been declared lost in the Warp. The Pure used the rest of the Exilarchy forces as foot soldiers to further their cause. In the aftermath of the Great Rift's creation, The Pure and the Exilarchy were expelled from their travels through the Warp into Elara's Veil. The worlds of the Veil were part of the Emperor's demesne, but The Pure sought to conquer them and reclaim the region they had once helped to defend in the name of the Dark Gods. This brought them into conflict with their former allies the Emperor's Spears and Celestial Lions Chapters, who were charged with protecting the worlds of Elara's Veil. Due to the sheer numbers of the Exilarchy war host, eventually half of the worlds of Elara's Veil fell to The Pure's control. The Emperor's Spears, the Celestial Lions and the rest of the Adeptus Vaelarii waged a slowly losing campaign against the forces of the Exilarchy. After over a Terran century of warfare, there was no longer any doubt that the Exilarchy and its Heretic Astartes masters had the upper hand. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter Organisation: The Lions are a hardened, veteran force fully able to embrace the concepts of the Codex Astartes. However, like their predecessors the Imperial Fists, the Chapter adheres to the precepts of the Codex in spirit, but deviates in several regards.All ranks of the Chapter are able to make tactical decisions and are encouraged to act on their own initiative. The Celestial Lions combine all arms in flexible balanced battle groups each of which can present an opponent with a diversity of threats, then press their attack so swiftly that the foe is overwhelmed before he can react. |
Celestial Lions - Specialist Ranks: The Celestial Lions' order of battle contains several specialist formations and officer ranks not present in other Space Marine Chapters, though they largely resemble the standard Codex Astartes ranks in function if not title.Warleader (Captain) - Status designated by a black helmet.Deathspeaker (Chaplain)Spiritwalker (Librarian)Lifebinder (Apothecary)Pride Leader (Squad Sergeant) |
Celestial Lions - Notable Celestial Lions: Chapter Master Ekene Dubaku (Assassinated) - Ekene Dubaku was a Pride Leader (Squad Sergeant) of the Celestial Lions who was one of the few non-commissioned officers to survive the massacre at Mannheim Gap. When the Lions returned to assault Warlord Thogfang's camp, it was Dubaku who finally slew the monstrous Ork and thus regained his Chapter's honour with the aid of Reclusiarch Grimaldus of the Black Templars. For his skill, bravery and proven leadership ability, Dubaku was selected by High Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars to become the new Chapter Master of the surviving Celestial Lions and to oversee the rebuilding of his Chapter on their homeworld of Elysium IX with some aid from the Black Templars. Dubaku was gifted a suit of relic Imperial Fists Legion Power Armour dating back to the time of the Great Crusade in the 30th Millennium by Helbrecht, which he proudly wore as a badge of his office. Ekene Dubaku was later decapitated by a Callidus Assassin sent by the Inquisition, who was concealed as a thrall to Amadeus Kaias Incarius, a Space Marine of the Mentors Chapter who had been sent to inspect the Imperial forces in Elara's Veil. Dubaku's death was the result of the Inquisition's continuing vendetta against the Chapter and desire to see it weakened and ultimately destroyed.Warleader Dukambe (KIA) - Dukambe was a Warleader (Captain) of the Celestial Lions.Warleader Vularakh (KIA) - Vularakh was a Warleader (Captain) of the Celestial Lions.Warleader Vakembei (KIA) - Vakembei was a Warleader (Captain) of the Celestial Lions, and the predecessor of Pride Leader Ekene Dubaku.Deathspeaker Julkhara (KIA) - Julkhara was the last surviving Deathspeaker (Chaplain) of the Mannheim Gap Massacre and the one who contacted Reclusiarch Grimaldus of the Black Templars so that the Imperium might know the truth behind the Chapter's betrayal and demise. Though he did not survive to see the arrival of Grimaldus, he may have saved his Chapter with his message.Spiritwalker Azadah (KIA) - Azadah was a Spiritwalker (Librarian) of the Celestial Lions. He was killed in the massacre at the Mannheim Gap.Lifebinder Kei-Tukh (KIA) - After the massacre at the Mannheim Gap, Kei-Tukh was the Chapter's last surviving Lifebinder (Apothecary) and the Celestial Lions' future was dependent on his biomedical skills. But after the massacre came the Inquisition's final insult. The Lions found him one morning, slumped against a Land Raider, shot through the eyepiece and robbed of his gene-seed. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter Fleet: Serenkai (Battle Barge) - The Serenkai was a Celestial Lions Battle Barge that was boarded and overwhelmed while fighting the Orks in orbit of Armageddon.Lavi (Strike Cruiser) - The Lavi took four solar hours to die from structural haemorrhage when it collided with the wounded Flesh Tearers flagship Victus.Blade of the Seventh Son (Strike Cruiser) - The Blade of the Seventh Son was gifted to the Celestial Lions by Reclusiarch Grimaldus of the Black Templars. The Blade of the Seventh Son now serves as the flagship of the Celestial Lions. The vessel served with the Celestial Lions for over a Terran century. During the chase against the Venatrix Candidus, a Cruiser controlled by the Chaos warhost known as the Exilarchy, the Blade of the Seventh Son was used to ram the heretical warship controlled by The Pure, the Chaos Space Marines who had once been the Celestial Lions' comrades the Star Scorpions, members of the Adeptus Vaelarii.Kai'manah (Strike Cruiser) - Kai'manah is a Strike Cruiser that was thought by the Imperium to have been destroyed shortly before the Great Rift's creation. It was instead part of the Imperial forces defending the worlds of Elara's Veil from an invasion by the Exilarchy. In doing so, the Strike Cruiser recently suffered extensive damage, which required the Kai'manah to undergo repairs in Nemeton's orbital shipyards.Nubica (Unknown Class) - During the Third War for Armageddon, the Nubica was boarded by Orks and rather than allow it to be captured, its captain scuttled the ship. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter Appearance: Leonine iconography is often incorporated as decoration upon the armour of the Celestial Lions. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter Colours: The Celestial Lions Chapter's power armour is primarily gold with azure shoulder plates and helmet.A Warleader is designated by a black helmet.The white squad tactical specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder guard. A black High Gothic numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol indicates company number. |
Celestial Lions - Chapter Badge: The Celestial Lions' Chapter badge is the profile of a white, roaring lion's head upon a field of azure. The lion's head is sometimes coloured gold for Astartes of the rank of Pride Leader and above.This symbol can also sometimes be surrounded by three four-pointed stars placed in a triangular pattern. |
Celestial Orrery - Celestial Orrery: The Celestial Orrery is a device located at the heart of the Necron Oruscar Dynasty's crownworld of Thanatos and that projects a web of holograms and necrodermis that represents every star in the galaxy.Its representation of the galaxy is not just a model, because the Orrery is directly connected to the galaxy it represents in some unknown way. For instance, altering the Orrery's image will also physically change that same region of the galaxy in the same way.The Orrery can be used to predict the strategic flow of coming events, or even alter them outright. |
Celestial Orrery - History: The Tomb World of Thanatos is a hollow planet, and hidden at its heart is one of the galaxy's greatest treasures -- the Celestial Orrery.Crafted by the artisans of the Oruscar Dynasty long before the onset of the War in Heaven, this web of hologram and living metal is beyond price for its artistic value alone.Yet the Celestial Orrery is far more than mere decorative finery. The tiny pinpricks of glowing light suspended within the impossibly intricate matrix record the positions of every star in the Milky Way Galaxy.Snuff out one of these lights and its physical counterpart will go supernova long Terran millennia before its destined time, bringing fiery oblivion to all nearby worlds.Such an act cannot be performed without consideration, however, as each star destroyed in this fashion upsets the fundamental forces of Creation, setting off a catastrophic chain reaction.Only with the further manipulation of the Celestial Orrery can these forces be returned to their proper balance, and this invariably taken many thousands of standard years of constant and precise micromanagement.With so much potential power at their fingertips, it is well that the Royal Court of Thanatos is not given to maniacal displays. Rather, they see themselves as gardeners of Creation and dispassionately use the Orrery in a precise and sparing manner, pruning the galaxy only out of need to prevent it from becoming wild and overgrown.Alas, this restraint is not something universally respected. Unending war rages across Thanatos' barren continents and in the skies above, as the legions and fleets of the Oruscar Dynasty strive to prevent the Celestial Orrery from falling into the incautious hands of aliens and other Necrons alike. |
Celestial Orrery - 13th Black Crusade: During the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Necron Overlord Trazyn the Infinite travelled to Thanatos to make use of the Celestial Orrery after the Bell of Saint Gerstahl, an ancient Imperial Shrine World artefact intended to ring when the forces of Chaos at last threatened to overwhelm the galaxy, badly damaged the master program of his own home Tomb World of Solemnace.Trazyn's welcome in the Oruscar Dynasty's halls was less than effusive -- in part due to a misunderstanding over the Oruscar Glyph of Dominance, which had gone missing during his prior visit.However, after bargains were struck and promises made, Trazyn was finally permitted access to the Orrery itself -- if under the watchful gaze of Oruscar Lychguards.As he stepped into the whirling sphere of living metal and holographic light, Trazyn realised something was amiss. The intricate webs that formed the links of the Orrery were under-lit by a crimson stain. It pulsed beneath the weave of worlds like an infection, forcing its way to the surface.Something was coming. Something that would change the shape of the galaxy. Thus far, it had gone unnoticed, but there was no hiding anything from the Celestial Orrery, for it was not merely a representation of the galaxy, but a perfect reflection of it.Trazyn realised the Oruscar had known about the rising corruption for Terran centuries -- perhaps even millennia -- but had made no move to combat it. They could not, for inaction was the price of their custodianship.But Trazyn had no such restraint -- indeed, he acknowledged no master save his own amusement. He could act, if he chose. After untold millennia, there was some appeal in playing at selflessness...But where to begin? Where was the cause of the corruption?Trazyn lost track of time studying the Orrery's pathways, searching for the wellspring of the galaxy's woes -- the source of the blight worming its way through the galaxy's heart. At last he found it, far to the galactic northwest, bordering the Eye of Terror.In the Orrery, that world was catalogued as a string of trinary data, whose details Trazyn deliberately forgot. To the Imperium of Man, it was known as Cadia. Trazyn could not recall setting foot there, not in all his travels.To his understanding, it was a drab, grey world, of interest only to the bellicose. On the other hand, if the role of saviour grew tiring, Cadia would surely offer opportunities to expand his collection of historical personages and artefacts.Through the Orrery, Trazyn learned that Cadia was home to the Cadian Pylons, the great Necron-built devices intended to help close off realspace from the Immaterium millions of standard years before during the War in Heaven.Trazyn ultimately travelled to Cadia during Abaddon the Despoiler's great assault on the world, and provided the Imperial defenders with aid against the forces of Chaos. He taught the Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl how to activate the Cadian Pylon network present on the planet and used elements from his own collection of historical individuals to provide reinforcements for the Imperial defenders of the Fortress World at key moments during the final battle.Unfortunately, these would prove to be insufficient to the task, and Cadia ultimately fell to the tides of the 13th Black Crusade. But not before Trazyn made one new acquisition to his collection -- the Lord Castellan of Cadia, Ursarkar E. Creed. |
Celestial Shield - Celestial Shield: A Celestial Shield is a psychically-activated force field technology that is sometimes used by Craftworld Aeldari Guardians as an emergency personal defence shield. Once activated, the psychic shield allows the Guardian to deflect kinetic and directed energy attacks that would otherwise have slain or badly injured them at a key moment during the battle. |
Celestial Swords - Celestial Swords: Celestial SwordsSpace MarineChapters38th MillenniumFoundingThe Celestial Swords hold the unique distinction of actually having been two separate Chapters founded with identical names and heraldries due to a mistake made by the Imperial bureaucracy. Almost nothing else is known about this Chapter in official Imperial records. |
Celestial Swords - Chapter History: Over the millennia, some Space Marine Chapters have been annihilated, only for a new Chapter to be founded with the same name, heraldry and traditions of their forebears. On one occasion, two Chapters named the Celestial Swords were created with identical names and matching heraldry. Such is the bureaucracy of the Adeptus Administratum that the blunder was not realised until two standard centuries later, when both Chapters were wiped out simultaneously by Abaddon the Despoiler's 9th Black Crusade in 537.M38, and the bodies of nearly two-thousand Battle-Brothers were recovered in the Cicerine System. |
Celestial Swords - Notable Campaigns: 9th Black Crusade (537.M38) - As part of a wider strategy to disable the Imperial Navy's naval fortress of Cancephalus, Abaddon the Despoiler led his 9th Black Crusade against the heaving population of nearby Antecanis. The seat of the world's Imperial Commander, Monarchive, was besieged by Abaddon's vanguard. By the time Imperial Guard regiments from Cancephalus arrived to reinforce the surviving defenders, Abaddon and his forces had already left the planet's surface. As a gesture of contempt, the Black Legion dropped a dozen Cyclonic warheads onto the ruins of Monarchive. The seventeen-year-long war that ensued eventually robbed both Antecanis and Cancephalus of their most precious resource -- manpower. Without the fleets of the naval fortress to stop him, Abaddon was able to ravage the sector at will, and his Sorcerers were free to conduct the rituals required to weaken the walls of reality in that region of space with impunity. Several Space Marine Chapters, including two Chapters known as the Celestial Swords, intervened in the ongoing conflict in an attempt to help bring peace back to the region. Unknown to the wider Imperium, these were two Chapters bearing identical names and heraldries founded at the same time that had been sent to fight in the same conflict! This mistake of the Imperial bureaucracy was only discovered when both Chapters were wiped out by Abaddon's forces and the bodies of nearly two-thousand Battle-Brothers were recovered in the Cicerine System. |
Celestial Swords - Chapter Colours: The Celestial Swords' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Celestial Swords - Chapter Badge: The Celestial Swords' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Celestian Guard - Celestian Guard: Celestian GuardCodex AstartesSpace MarineChapterFoundingLycanthos Drift Campaign |
Celestian Guard - Notable Campaigns: Lycanthos Drift Campaign (780.M41) - In the aftermath of the long-running and infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Celestian Guard answered the general call to arms among the Astartes of the region and undertook the Lycanthos Drift Campaign in 780.M41, against one of the last major stronghold star systems of the revolt located to the galactic south of the Maelstrom Zone. At the gathering of Imperial forces Astral Claws Chapter Master Lufgt Huron was elected battle leader of a number of Astartes contingents by common consent of a mixed taskforce comprising companies from the Astral Claws, Celestian Guard, Fire Hawks and White Scars Chapters, backed by the Death Korps of Krieg and Cal-Sec Imperial Guard Regiments and the Titans of Legio Venator. Under Huron's inspired command the taskforce ruthlessly purged the heavily fortified system of Traitor and Chaos forces in under a year. |
Celestian Guard - Chapter Colours: The Celestian Guard's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Celestian Guard - Chapter Badge: The Celestian Guard's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Cell-Kin - Cell-Kin: The Cell-Kin are a little-known intelligent alien race who attacked a company of the Subjugators Space Marine Chapter during a protracted campaign in the Technetium Belt, which occurred sometime in the 41st Millennium. The unique reproductive cycle of the species made their complete eradication very difficult to achieve.Several Astartes of the Subjugators' 3rd Company were infected by the insidious xenos, who breed by viral dissemination. Their DNA infects the body of the host, where it will literally reshape the host in its own image, that of a flabby and semi-amorphous humanoid, with eyes spread randomly around its head, this being the Cell-Kin's true form.Though the Space Marines' enhanced genetic make-up and immune systems proved largely resilient to this threat, 20 Battle-Brothers of the 3rd Company were lost in the early stages of the campaign as they were slowly mutated into new, hideous forms. The Chapter's Apothecaries identified the threat, but too late to save those Battle-Brothers already affected by the Cell-Kins' infection. The infected Brethren that survived the conflict escaped and are assumed to be at large in the galaxy to this day. There is little other information on this obscure xenos species. |
Cell (Anthology Short Story) - Cell (Anthology Short Story): Cell is a short story published in the Gaunt's Ghosts series that was originally part of an anthology. Cell was published as part of the Sabbat Worlds anthology in October 2010, and was later re-published as a stand-alone e-book. |
Cell (Anthology Short Story) - Synopsis: The armies of the Archenemy have taken the world of Reredos. Across the planet, cells of freedom fighters work to undermine the occupying forces and destabilise the regime to prepare the way for the inevitable Imperial relief force. Ayatani Perdu, a priest of Saint Sabbat, leads one resistance cell and finds that the taint of Chaos is everywhere. When anyone can be an enemy Traitor, who can he trust? |
Cemetery World - Cemetery World: A Cemetery World, also called a Mortuary World, is a formal classification for an Imperial planet where large areas of the planet's surface have been given over to care for the remains of the honoured Imperial dead. They are administered by the Ecclesiarchy just like Shrine Worlds.Cemetery Worlds may mark the site of a massive battle, or they may be covered in gigantic mausoleums, each dedicated to a particular Imperial noble family. In contrast some rare Cemetery Worlds may be covered in fields of endless, modest burial plots containing the remains of the inhabitants of a nearby Hive World. |
Cemetery World - Notable Cemetery Worlds: Planet NameSegmentumSectorSub-SectorSystemPopulationCertus-MinorSegmentum ObscurusUnknownPraga Sub-sectorUnknownUnknownCryptusSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorDrusus MarchesUnknownUnknownGranithorSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorGolgenna ReachUnknownUnknownMasuchi ParrUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownPilgrim's PauseSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknownUnknownPrester MyraSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorJosian ReachUnknownUnknown |
Cenobyte Servitor - Cenobyte Servitor: A cenobyte servitor, also spelled "cenobite servitor" in some older sources, is a specialised cybernetic servitor that assists the Chaplains of the Black Templars Chapter in their holy duties.Marching in the shadow of the Chaplain, they are used for carrying relics into battle, intoning prayers of worship to the God-Emperor, and bolstering the faith of nearby battle-brothers.They often carry equipment, repair technology, and operate basic interfaces on Black Templars vessels and vehicles.They are considered a symbol of the Chapter's faith, as a Black Templars battle-brother can gain the service of such a servitor as a symbol of status and trust from his peers.It is known that the neophytes of the Black Templars who fail in their duty are often punished by being transformed into cenobyte servitors. |
Cenobyte Servitor - Unit Composition: 3 Cenobyte Servitors |
Cenobyte Servitor - Wargear: Close combat weapon (any type) |
Cenobyte Servitor - Sources: Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pg. 107Psychic Awakening - Faith & Fury (8th Edition), pg. 47Games Workshop Website, Black Templars Concept Art (2005) (Defunct Page) |
Censure (Audio Drama) - Censure (Audio Drama): Censure is the fifteenth audio drama for the Horus Heresy Series that was not originally released as part of an anthology or other release. Censure was published online in July 2013 by the Black Library as an audio CD. The audio drama was later republished in prose format as an e-book and as an enhanced audio book. The title was also published as part of the Legacies of Betrayal main series anthology novel. |
Censure (Audio Drama) - Official Synopsis: In the depths of Calth's arcology network, the Underworld War has raged for years. Aeonid Thiel, previously an honoured Sergeant of the Ultramarines, once again finds himself in trouble pitted against the daemonic forces of the Word Bearers Legion. He has no choice but to venture back to the ravaged surface and brave the deadly solar flares that have scoured all life from this world. With a lowly Imperial Army trooper as his only companion, it falls to him to drive the maniacal Dark Apostle Kurtha Sedd and his warband from the overrun XIII Legion stronghold. |
Centaur - Centaur: The Centaur is a small, armoured utility vehicle that is used in a wide variety of battlefield roles. The Centaur is a common sight both within the armies of the Astra Militarum and those Planetary Defence Forces with sufficient technological knowledge to build them. The Centaur can serve as an Imperial Guard Command Squad transport, a communications vehicle, and a supply vehicle, but is most commonly used as an artillery tow vehicle during prolonged sieges of fixed enemy emplacements.The vehicle has a normal crew complement of only two -- a driver and a gunner -- but can be crewed by just one in special circumstances. A Centaur can carry up to five passengers in its open-topped crew compartment. Its notoriously robust and powerful engine can run even on low-grade promethium or any type of fossil fuel.While the Centaur can be used for a large number of logistical purposes on the battlefield, it is most commonly deployed as an artillery tow vehicle. The Centaur's powerful V6-engine allows it to easily pull smaller artillery pieces such as the Heavy Mortar Cannon and the Quad Cannon, even over the broken landscape of an Imperial battlefield. While the Centaur can also tow the much heavier Earthshaker Cannon and Medusa Siege Gun on flat terrain, it lacks the power to fulfill this role on the battlefield.When not towing artillery pieces, the Centaur is counted amongst the fastest vehicles of the Astra Militarium. Reaching an impressive top speed of 70 kilometres per hour off-road, the Centaur can also be assigned to serve as a transport to a squad of Imperial Guard Grenadiers.In this configuration, the vehicle is usually modified by the addition of Extra Armour Plating to protect its crew and passengers from enemy fire. The Centaur is generally well appreciated by its crew, not the least because passengers in a Centaur can attach the heavy or special weapons they possess to a mount on the vehicle's front, adding their own firepower to that of the vehicle. |
Centaur - Armament: The Centaur is armed with only a single Pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber, but can mount any heavy or special weapons its passengers are carrying. The vehicle can also be upgraded with Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, a Mine Sweeper, a Dozer Blade, rough terrain modifications, a Searchlight, track guards, and a Smoke Launcher. |
Centaur - Known Regiments That Make Use of Centaurs: The Death Korps of Krieg - Used thousands of Centaurs during the Siege of Vraks and the Orphean War. |
Centaur - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Centaur Utility TankVehicle Name:CentaurMain Armament:Heavy StubberForge World of Origin:VanaheimSecondary Armament:N/AKnown Patterns:I - XIVTraverse:160 degreesCrew:1 Driver, 1 GunnerElevation:-22 to 45 degreesPowerplant:Vulcanor 8 Twin Coupled Multi-FuelMain Ammunition:300 RoundsWeight:6.2 TonnesSecondary Ammunition:N/ALength:4.1 metresArmour:Width:3.0 metresHeight:2.3 metresSuperstructure:80 millimetresGround Clearance:0.4 metresHull:50 millimetresMax Speed On-Road:110 kilometres per hourGun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:70 kilometres per hourVehicle Designation:5657-436-0671-CN71Transport Capacity:5 SoldiersFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A |
Centaur - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One, pp. 109-111Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part TwoImperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part ThreeImperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard (Second Edition), pp. 9, 75-79, 258, 267Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 194Titanicus (Novel) by Dan Abnett |
Centaur - Also See: Imperial Guard Vehicles |
Centurio Ordinatus - Centurio Ordinatus: The Centurio Ordinatus is a section of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Divisio Militaris, the Mechanicus organisation responsible for the development, maintenance and operation of the mighty Ordinatus war machines. Every individual Ordinatus is a unique construction named after the Imperial world on which it was first employed or built.Each Ordinatus is a unique weapon unto itself, designed for a specific purpose or for a particular battle. This explains why the Ordinatii Tech-priests that operate these massive war machines of the Machine God are configured using special augmetics to aid their intended purpose. |
Centurio Ordinatus - History: The Centurio Ordinatus is an ancient sub-branch of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Divisio Militaris, able to trace their history back to the Age of Strife before the birth of the Imperium of Man when Mars was an independent Human empire ruled by the Tech-priests of the Mechanicum. The Centurio Ordinatus is a highly specialised force, created to deal with siege works or the demands of a specific battle. The immense war engines of the Ordinatus were often created by the individual Forge Worlds to fulfill very particular roles.The Ordinatus classification held the most powerful and arcane mobile weapons platforms in the ancient Mechanicum's arsenal. They were city-burners and fortress-breakers without compare, and whether armed with magna-beam lance, matter-cyclone or rad-conflagrator, each was mounted on huge tracked reactor units for mobility and heavily shielded from attack, allowing them to traverse and survive on the most hellish battlefield. Each was a work of deadly artifice and ancient power.Much like the Titans whose firepower they often outstripped, the Ordinatus varied in scale and potency. From the truly colossal, unique and unreplicable relics of the Dark Age of Technology, the Ordinatus Primaris, such as the Mars and Endymion whose power was legendary, even compared to the god machines of the great Legio Titanicus, to the lesser but still gargantuan and deadly Ordinatus Minoris sub-classes. The Minoris were, at the height of the Great Crusade, within the reach of only the most potent Forge Worlds to construct, and only then in the most limited numbers.During the Horus Heresy when the galaxy was torn apart by strife and civil war, both Loyalist and Traitor forces of the Centurio Ordinatus unleashed all manner of forbidden and experimental weapons upon one another. Such were the gifts that the Renegade Forge World of Xana II offered; no less than three such terrifying weapons of the Ordinatus Ulator pattern, fully battle ready and armed with devastating sonic destructor weapons.These were Titan-killers, slaughterers of armies, each powerful enough to turn the tide of a battle at a stroke, and in potency far beyond any super-heavy tank and dwarfing the firepower of even the mighty Diamatine siege-guns that had fallen into the grasp of the Iron Warriors earlier in the Horus Heresy. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Schism of Mars: During the Horus Heresy, Mars itself, homeworld of the ancient Mechanicum, was riven by civil war. This deadly internecine conflict erupted on Mars between the Loyalist factions of the Mechanicum and the Traitors of the Dark Mechanicum during the opening days of the galaxy-wide conflict and was known as the Schism of Mars.The Traitor Mechanicum armies, commanded by Magos Solomon Abbadon, turned against the Emperor and attempted to overthrow those Mechanicum elements not loyal to the traitorous Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. From his mountain citadel of Jericho, Abbadon sent forth his rebel forces to attack the forge-factories and installations of those who remained loyal to the Emperor.Inevitably, the Imperium retaliated and sent an Imperial expeditionary fleet commanded by the Imperial Fists Legion Champion and First Captain Sigismund, 4 companies of Imperial Fists and a large force of Imperial Army soldiers drawn from multiple regiments to secure the forges of Mars and to annihilate Magos Abbadon's traitorous minions and bring Imperial justice to the rebel lord.This proved impossible, though, since the fortress of Jericho was protected by an ancient alien device discovered during the Great Crusade. The Vortex field generator, thought to be an artefact of the enigmatic C'tan, rendered any attack from orbit impossible. Any ship which approached too close was torn apart or displaced into the Warp. Eventually, an Imperial army fought its way to the foothills of the mountains, a few kilometers from Jericho, where it discovered that the Vortex field did not cover the planet's surface.Castellum Jericho, as the citadel was known, boasted walls half a Terran mile thick, which soared into the clouds. The central bastion was constructed from the hardest metal alloys known to humanity and could withstand any amount of pounding by the Imperium's siegemasters. Another solution was needed, and the Loyalist Mechanicum provided the answer.The Ordinatus Mars utilised unique technology to produce a sound wave which resonated across the battlefield. When this sonic wall hit Castellum Jericho, the walls crumbled to dust as they shook themselves apart. The infamous Tower of Steel bent and crumpled like foil, filling the air with the tortured shriek of twisting metal. Thousands of Tech-Guard troops poured through the breach, and Solomon Abbadon was summarily executed for his treacherous crimes. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Post-Heresy Centurio Ordinatus: Following the end of the Horus Heresy, many of these leviathan war engines were lost or simply forgotten. Some remained hidden, deep underground or in remote locations, while others remained hidden in secret armouries lost to the ages.Often the rediscovery of such potent engines of destruction results in conflict as opposing factions vie for control of these immensely powerful living icons of the Machine God which are revered as sacred by the Mechanicus. Those few examples of Ordinatus weapons that still exist are deployed only sparingly, and many of them date back to the Great Crusade and have been meticulously maintained for millennia. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Centurio Ordinatus Today: These huge engines of destruction are not attached to any specific Titan Legion or Skitarii army. Instead, they fall under the direct control of a division of the Adeptus Mechanicus known as the Centurio Ordinatus. It is the Centurio Ordinatus that decides if these highly specialised machines are to be made available to Imperial military forces, since many of them are ancient indeed and require a large amount of preparation and maintenance to ready them for war.The Ordinatus are amongst the strangest machines to be constructed by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Almost all of them were originally designed and built for a particular battle or campaign, and some of them have never been powered up for conflict since their first and only use.Other Ordinatus have weapons and capabilities which see more general use, and demand for them is high. Only in the most important Imperial battles or campaigns are the Ordinatus sent to war, and even then only for pre-specified operations. Amongst the enemies of the Imperium, the names of the Ordinatus are spoken with reverent fear, their devastating capabilities displayed on thousands of battlefields since the Emperor's Ascension to the Golden Throne.The Cult Mechanicus reveres the Ordinatus as avatars of the Machine God, creations of such cunning and power they could never be improved upon or made outdated. Thus they have been carefully maintained, and when sent to war they are inscribed with sacred runes, anointed with the most precious oils and unguents, and blessed by the Lord of the Centurio Ordinatus. Their crews are the most highly trained of the Skitarii, warriors who fight with the zealous fanaticism of those who serve a living God. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Technology of the Ordinatii: The Ordinatii are renowned for their relentless advance towards the enemy, trailing havoc and destruction in their wake. Ordinatii are powered by immense plasma generators, which drive the tracks and energise their weapon systems. These are very volatile, and if the Ordinatus is destroyed they will explode spectacularly in a massive ball of roiling plasma.Ordinatii are protected by a massive energy shield known as a Dispersion Field. Projectiles and energy bolts deflect harmlessly away from this crackling dome of power, leaving the Ordinatus unscathed. Unfortunately, the Dispersion Field requires tremendous amounts of power, and will eventually overload its generators.This means that what starts out as a near impenetrable force field gradually weakens as the battle progresses, letting more and more enemy fire through. The shield also affords the Ordinatus some psychic protection, in much the same way as Void Shields do for Imperial starships. The following weapons are commonly employed by different Ordinatii.Hellfire Missile - Hellfire is a common term for a potent acidic/viral compound developed by the Adeptus Mechanicus. It burns through armour and sears flesh, usually leaving the few who survive hideously scarred and crippled. It is a matter of opinion whether or not it is better to die from a Hellfire attack or to survive. Ordinatus Golgotha carries 6 Hellfire Missiles and can only fire 1 or 2 per hour. A Hellfire Missile has multiple warheads, allowing it to completely devastate a wide area. In addition, the extensive scanning equipment aboard Ordinatus Golgotha allows it to fire with unerring accuracy. The Hellfire Missiles can be fired at any point on the battlefield, even at targets that are out of line of sight, with no chance of scattering. Unlike normal indirect barrages, there is no need for friendly troops to spot for the accurate launch of a Hellfire Missile. Enemy units attacked by this horrendous weapon may be panicked by the agonised screams of their comrades, as their flesh burns away and their bones melt.Nova Cannons - The Nova Cannon is similar to the Plasma Annihilator of an Imperator-class Titan. However, rather than releasing a burst of raw plasma, the Nova Cannon can focus and control the potent energies with greater precision. This allows the crew to siphon small amounts of plasma into the discharge chamber, producing a rapid burst of fire. Alternatively, the crew can flood the chamber with all the remaining plasma and send out an earth-shattering blast of energy. In addition, the immense energy released by a massive burst produces a beam of plasma which covers a wide area.Belicosa Pattern Volcano Cannon - An ancient pattern of weapon whose destructive power is comparable to many shipboard Lance cannons and planetary Defence Lasers, few mobile weapons platforms are capable of mounting the Belicosa simply due to its savage power requirements, as well as the danger of the thermal and radiation overspill of its firing. Only the Ordinatus Minoris and the most powerful Battle Titans, such as the Warlord-class, are ordained to bear such a weapon by the Mechanicum, and before their power, the strongest fortress walls may be reduced to glowing embers and the most resilient armour to molten slag and vapour.Sonic Disruptor - A Sonic Disruptor utilises unique technology that produces sound waves which resonate across the battlefield, crumbling buildings, shattering bones, bursting organs and causing electronic equipment to explode as the wall of sonic energy passes over enemy forces. The frequency of sound used by the Sonic Disrupter ravages those who fall victim to it, from a subsonic rumbling that tears buildings apart to a supersonic squall that pierces eardrums and flays skin from flesh. The Sonic Disrupter scales repeatedly up and down these frequencies, causing a blast of sonic energy that rolls forward like a force wave from a massive conventional explosion. Hiding in cover is of little use, since woods and rubble are just blown apart and walls simply amplify the sonic wave if they are not shattered. Even the weighty armour of a Titan or the reinforced buttresses of a stronghold provide little protection against the wrath of Sonic Disruptors, most of which were first deployed by the Ordinatus Mars. Targets protected by energy fields such as Void Shields will lose one shield to the sonic wave before it passes.Ulator Class Sonic Disruptor - A terrifying weapon whose origins lie in the shadows of the Age of Strife, these devices, though inferior copies of the unique armament of the great Primus Ordinatus Mars, still operate on an order of magnitude far beyond anything mounted even on the largest super-heavy tank found in the Imperium's common arsenal. Using a plasma reactor akin to those found on Battle Titans to power a directional sonic transduction generator of staggering force, it emits a varying waveform of destructive sound energy able to shatter the most resilient materials. The annihilating wave-pulse traverses the battlefield wreaking havoc in its path, the particular effect of its design meaning that the larger the target struck, the more damaging the wave's impact.Aktaeus Class Seismic Excavator Macro-drill - The Ordinatus Aktaeus is effectively a siege platform which carries a seismic excavator macro-drill. The workings of such a device are complex beyond the ken of even most Tech-adepts of the ancient Mechanicum. As such, deploying the seismic excavator is a lengthy process which will only be undertaken in the heat of battle in the rarest of circumstances. More often, the macro-drill is deployed solar days or weeks before a battle from a stationary launch platform located great distances from its eventual target.Terrebrax Rocket Battery - A weapon designed to blast through tough rock faces, the Terrebrax Rocket Battery is capable of cycle-firing a rapid salvo of rockets to crack even the most determined redoubt of stone or plasteel. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Known Ordinatii: Ordinatus Armageddon - Ordinatus Armageddon first shed blood during the massive Chaos invasion of the planet of the same name during the First War for Armageddon. The Krone Banelords, a group of Daemon Engines deployed for the Chaos assault upon Armageddon, were instrumental in the destruction of many cities, but a genius of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Geronimus Undersen, devised an Ordinatus as a defence against the marauding war machines. Undersen mounted a massive starship weapon onto a land bound chassis, giving the Imperial forces an immense war machine powerful enough to destroy even the largest and most heavily armoured foes. This idea was by no means original, and followed the concept behind the famous Squat Titan-killer known as the Cyclops. In the ensuing battle for Tartarus Hive, Ordinatus Armageddon destroyed no less than four Chaos Titans, and two detachments of Daemon Engines. With the heavy firepower of this machine, the Chaos assault waves broke upon the mile-high walls like a tide upon the rocks. Ordinatus Armageddon is feared by all enemies of the Imperium as a war machine capable of destroying all opposition.Ordinatus Belecane - The Ordinatus Belacane is an ancient and forbidding device mounted upon a colossal tracked crawler which can project a vast temporal Stasis Field up to a kilometre away. This field can either freeze anything in the path of its beam immobile, making it vulnerable to missile attacks, or age the target by centuries in a second if it is organic. It has not been used in anger for over 500 standard years, and is now regarded as too precious to leave its home planet, the Forge World of Belacane.Ordinatus Hervara - The Ordinatus hidden in the caverns of the planet Hervara, located on the Calixis Sector's Spinward Front, is a Sonic Disruptor. Physically, because of its armament, this Ordinatus most closely resembles the architectural style of the renowned Ordinatus Mars. While the whereabouts of that ancient vehicle are uncertain, there are no records of it ever having been in the Calixis Sector. Historical imagery also indicates several critical design variations from the Ordinatus present on Hervara. The origins of the one found buried upon Hervara are unclear. Consequently, its historical record remains unknown. In the event that the Imperial Guard were to recover the vehicle, it is certain that members of the Adeptus Mechanicus would make uncovering its history a priority. Most likely, the Ordinatus was sent to Hervara to be refit after seeing action during long-passed days of the Great Crusade. As there are no known records of activity upon the world from that ancient era, the massive vehicle might even have seen service there. Alternatively, it might be that it was used elsewhere within the Periphery Sub-sector, and transferred to Hervara because of the availability of certain raw materials or technical expertise at the time. Unless some documentation survives within the vehicle's Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence), the weapon's true history is almost certainly lost to time.Ordinatus Gehenna - The Gehenna is equipped with a massive weapon known as the Apocalypse Cannon. This weapon is capable of destroying mountains and punching a hole through a planet's crust to release a cataclysmic upwelling of magma. The Gehenna was fought over during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41 by the Forces of Chaos and the Imperium.Ordinatus Golgotha - After the infamous Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka was defeated on the Hive World of Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon, he fled to the stars. His nemesis, Commissar Yarrick, tracked him down to the Squat world of Golgotha. Despite the assistance of Yarrick, the Squats were defeated by Ghazghkull's horde and Yarrick was captured. In an attempt to humiliate his arch-foe, Ghazghkull did not kill Yarrick, but imprisoned him instead. However, the resourceful Yarrick managed to escape and return to Golgotha with a punitive force of Titans and Skitarri. The early battles went badly for the Imperium, as the sheer size of the Ork WAAAAGH! overwhelmed them time and time again. In an attempt to smash the massive Ork mobs, Ordinatus Golgotha was constructed in the recaptured strongholds of the Squats. Golgotha's terrifying Hellfire Missiles devastated the Orks, slaying thousands over the course of a week. The Orks were routed from the Squat homeworld and since then, Ordinatus Golgotha has always been in the forefront of any battle against enemies who have a strong numerical advantage.Ordinatus Mars - This Ordinatus was created at the outset of the Horus Heresy during the Mechanicum civil war known as the Schism of Mars by Loyalist Mechanicus forces to overcome the problem of assaulting the Dark Mechanicus forge-city known as the Castellum Jericho. This formidable citadel boasted walls half a mile thick and was protected by a mysterious archeotech device known as a Vortex Field Generator. The central bastion was constructed from the hardest metal alloys known to humanity and could withstand any amount of pounding by the Imperium's formost siegemasters. The Ordinatus Mars utilised the unique technology known as a Sonic Disruptor to produce sound waves which resonated across the battlefield, crumbling the walls of the formidable citadel to dust as they were shook apart.Ordinatus Endymion - There is no information about the nature of this Ordinatus in current Imperial records beyond its name.Ordinatus Magentus - The Magentus is equipped with a Sonic Destructor Cannon, similar to the Ordinatus Mars, and is capable of annihilating entire city blocks and even mountain slopes. It was part of the Adeptus Mechanicus contingent during the Imperium's battle against Chaos Space Marines of the Word Bearers Legion on the planet of Tanakreg.Ordinatus Priam - This huge tunneling Ordinatus was assembled during the Siege of Priam, a city overrun by the Traitor Legions during the Horus Heresy. This immense creation was designed to tunnel through the planet's crust and then navigate through the white-hot molten rock of the mantle underneath. This rendered it undetectable to Priam's defences and allowed four companies of elite Imperial Army troops to storm the city's Generatum Vulcanis, breaking the siege. However, Ordinatus Priam was irrevocably damaged during the attack, as parts of its heat shielding gave way.Ordinatii Minoris - Ordinatii Minoris are massive crawler units, each the length of three Leman Russ Tanks. They possess two wide track units, one at the front and one at the rear, and between these is supported the mass of the war machine. Upon their backs are mounted massive artillery pieces originally developed to be borne by the colossal war machines of the Titan Legions. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/1b/Ordinatus-Aktaeus.png/revision/latest?cb=20190604070754" class="image"><img alt="Ordinatus-Aktaeus" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/1b/Ordinatus-Aktaeus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20190604070754" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="250" height="258" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Ordinatus-Aktaeus.png" data-image-key="Ordinatus-Aktaeus.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/1b/Ordinatus-Aktaeus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20190604070754" /></a> Ordinatus Aktaeus - The Aktaeus is the most recognisable of the Ordinatus Minoris created and operated by the ancient Mechanicum, a super-heavy transport designed to carve a path through the stony heart of a world to deliver its cargo of warriors to the centre of the battlefield. Known to the armies of the Emperor as the "Imperial Mole," this vehicle is a siege engine capable of rendering even the most formidable fortifications pointless by burrowing beneath them. Based upon lesser examples of ancient terrascaping and earth-shaping engines, the Aktaeus design mounts only a relatively small battery of defensive weapons, including a series of melta-cutters to aid its tunnelling, and a missile system designed to saturate the vehicle's exit point and cover the disembarkation of its cargo. Such is its efficacy at siege work and Zone Mortalis transport, it is often seconded to other branches of the Imperial Host, seeing use with both the Imperialis Militia and Legiones Astartes under the supervision of Mechanicum adepts.Ordinatus Hellion - The Hellion-Minoris war machines were devised expressly for the Rangdan campaigns. Its primary weapon was a powerful Eradication Cannon developed by the Ordo Reductor. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/ba/Ordinatus_Sagittar_2.png/revision/latest?cb=20160401233652" class="image"><img alt="Ordinatus Sagittar 2" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/ba/Ordinatus_Sagittar_2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20160401233652" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="250" height="111" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Ordinatus Sagittar 2.png" data-image-key="Ordinatus_Sagittar_2.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/ba/Ordinatus_Sagittar_2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20160401233652" /></a> An Ordinatus Sagittar Ordinatus Sagittar - The ancient Mechanicum's Ordinatus Sagittar is a massively destructive war engine, as rare as it is potent. Similar in design to the Ordinatus Ulator, the Sagittar differs in its primary weapon being a Volcano Cannon of prodigious power. In the time of the Great Crusade the Ordinatus macro engines were rarer than even the Battle Titans of the Legio Titanica, and only a handful of Forge Worlds had the resources or indeed the doctrinal blessing and religious authority to produce or maintain such embodiments of the Omnissiah's divine wrath. Such was the sacredness of these machines above all others, that an entire sub-cult of the Mechanicum was devoted to their worship and propitiation. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e6/Ordinatus_Ulator.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151205043825" class="image"><img alt="Ordinatus Ulator" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e6/Ordinatus_Ulator.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20151205043825" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="250" height="169" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Ordinatus Ulator.jpg" data-image-key="Ordinatus_Ulator.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e6/Ordinatus_Ulator.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20151205043825" /></a> Ordinatus Ulator Ordinatus Ulator - A rare and truly arcane weapon system of staggering power, the Mechanicum Ordinatus Ulator is of the smaller classes of Ordinatus, but nevertheless is one of the most potent war machines at the Imperium's disposal. In the time of the Great Crusade, Ordinatus macro engines were rarer than even the Battle Titans of the Legio Titanica, and only a handful of Forge Worlds had the resources, or indeed the doctrinal blessing and religious authority, to produce or maintain such embodiments of the Omnissiah's divine wrath. Such was the sacredness of these machines above all others that an entire sub-cult of the Mechanicum was devoted to their worship and propitiation. An Ordinatus Ulator carries a trio of Volkite Culverins as its secondary armaments, but its primary weapon is the Ulator-class Sonic Destructor. A terrifying weapon whose origins lie in the shadows of the Age of Strife, the Sonic Destructor can generate a wave of annihilation that wreaks havoc across a battlefield. Three of these deadly Ordinatus platforms were to be given over to the Warmaster Horus at the behest of the Renegade Forge World of Xana II. These Ordinatus, named Mithrax, Nepothax and Ashurax after Ancient Terran deities, were first to be demonstrated before the Warmaster's chosen emissary at the Forge World's own proving grounds on the moon of Xana-Tisiphone, then afterwards, their ceremonial handover would act as a symbolic sealing of Xana's loyalty to Horus. In the end, however, two of the three were captured by Loyalist forces led by the Blackshield commander Endryd Haar during the Xana Incursion in 009.M31, and one was destroyed during that battle.Ordinatus Urkallac - There is no information about the nature of this Ordinatus in current Imperial records beyond its name.Ordinatus Ullanor - A desperate attempt of the Adeptus Mechanicus to turn the tides of battle to their favour after the disastrous initial landing of Imperial forces on Ullanor to destroy The Beast during the War of the Beast, which in the mid-32nd Millennium represented the greatest threat to Mankind since the Horus Heresy. After the flagship of the Mechanicus had been dragged to the surface of Ullanor by Orkish grav-weapons and the Astra Militarum contingents had been severely mauled by surprise attacks, loosing much of their equipment and armour, the Martian priests became desperate. Salvaging the remains of the Capitol Imperialis Praetor Fidelis, they mounted a plasma accelerator from their crashed ship onto the remaining treads of the super-heavy transport and used the generators to power the contraption. Clad in scaffolding, the ponderous vehicle rumbled across the surface of Ullanor and engaged Gargants in battle until it was ultimately destroyed in the assault on the capital city of Gorkogrod.Ordinatus Volcanis Ultor - A massive ballistic artillery piece manned by Volcanis Ultor's class of Tech-priests, this Ordinatus was used by the Dark Mechanicum with the intent to destroy the attacking forces of Grey Knights Space Marines before they could manage to breach the Heretics' defence lines. The battle would have been over in moments if the Ordinatus, stationed in the wasteland surrounding the primary hive city, could home in on the landing enemy forces and send pinpoint salvoes of multiple warheads on top of them. Fortunately, this Ordinatus was destroyed by the wreckage of the Grey Knights strike cruiser Rubicon after it was destroyed by the Chaos warships defending the planet from space. The Rubicon crashed into the Heretics' defence lines, and the massive wreckage ripped apart the Ordinatus' immense cannon barrel and its titanic ammunition loader systems.Ordinatii Diamat - The Eradicant and Obliteratus were potent siege-guns stolen from the ancient Mechanicum on Diamat by the Ist Legion during the opening days of the Horus Heresy in order to deny them to the Traitor Legions of the Warmaster Horus. The gargantuan mobile artillery pieces were subsequently entrusted to Perturabo before the Drop Site Massacre -- given as a gift from one Primarch to another -- the pride-foolish Lion El'Jonson thinking to buy the loyalties of his brother to be chosen as the next Warmaster after Horus was defeated. The Lion had unknowingly handed over the mighty siege-guns to the traitor Iron Warriors Legion, who later go on to make good use of them against the Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra. The mighty Ordinatii were as long as a Titan was tall, their enormous barrels comprised of a single Macrocannon gaping darkness and death from where its great pulleys and derricks allowed them to rest. The massive machines bristled with automated emplacements -- quad-lasers, flak batteries and mega-bolters silent and ready to roar to the siege gun's defence. Fat, tracked ordnance compartments two stories high stretched for hundreds of meters, trailing the main gun carriages like the segmentations of a death world decamillipede. Fully armoured and protected by void shield generators, their weaponry could level a small fortress with ease from miles away. Each mobile-artillery piece also boasted an MIU interface chamber -- a neural link between weapon and gunner which resulted in unparalleled accuracy, data-streaming, response-calibration and rate of ire -- not unlike that expected of a Titan's gunnery moderati -- to be one with the weapon. Utilising a unique, if somewhat suicidal, strategy devised by the disgraced Warsmith Idriss Krendl, known as Ironfire, the Iron Warriors were able to attack a fortification during a full-scale bombardment rather than following it. With such a redoubtable force, they were able to utilise the eye of the storm as their protection, striking at the strategic heart of an enemy exposed, an enemy in confusion, while all else about them was turned to ash and screams. With their powerful siege-guns, the Iron Warriors possessed the advantages mind-linked artillery could bring. The Techmarine gunners of each Ordinatus was able to monitor the attacking force's position from the signature of their battle plate, and time the impact of their artillery to clear a path before them of walls, structures, emplacements and enemy forces. It was a feat of transhuman timing and calculation -- a daring technique that was utilised with brutal effect against the defending forces of the Imperial Palace during the epic final battle of the Heresy. Following the conclusion of this epic conflict, and the routing of the Traitor Legions, history does not record what became of this pair of Ordinatii. |
Centurio Ordinatus - Sources: Black Industries - Guide to the Calixis Sector (PDF), pg. 24Dark Heresy: The Lathe Worlds (RPG), pg. 12Epic Warhammer 40,000 Armies Book (3rd Edition), pg. 24Only War: Final Testamanet (RPG), pp. 13, 16, 20, 31-37, 39, 47, 49, 57, 69-70, 83 , 88, 94, 96-119, 134, 136, 141-143The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 221The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 30, 62, 65-69, 71, 74, 80-81, 276-277White Dwarf 191 (UK), "Ordinatus: Imperium" by Gav Thorpe, pp. 49-53Ironfire (Short Story) by Rob SandersDark Apostle (Novel) by Anthony Reynolds, pp. 129, 185Grey Knights (Novel) by Ben Counter, pp. 67, 76, 87-88Helsreach (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenIron Hands (Novel) by Jonathan GreenThe Beast must die (Novel) by Gav ThorpeForge World - Mechanicum Ordinatus UlatorForge World - Mechanicum Ordinatus SagittarForge World - Mechanicum Ordinatus Aktaeus |
Centurion - Centurion: This article concerns the Space Marine infantry unit. For the Space Marine Legion rank, see Centurion (Space Marine Rank).A Centurion is a Space Marine who has been equipped with a powered exoskeleton worn over his normal suit of Power Armour known as a Centurion warsuit that allows him to serve a heavy ranged fire support or close support assault role between that of a normal Astartes and a Terminator. A Centurion warsuit enables a Space Marine to stride into battle with the firepower of a battle tank at his fingertips.Protected by thick ablative plates of ceramite, a Centurion warsuit renders its pilot immune to all but the most powerful of weapons. Named after the Space Marine Legion leaders of old, the Centurion warsuit design was unearthed in the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, and after sanction by the Adeptus Mechanicus, the suits found their way into the armouries of almost every Space Marine Chapter. |
Centurion - History: Centurion warsuits are one of the most deadly and powerful assets available to the Adeptus Astartes, able to punch holes through fortress walls with obscene force, flush out enemies with flame or cut down any foe's advancing lines. They are walking tanks with formidable firepower.With the wall-grinding Siege Drill of the Assault Centurion, and the mass-collapsing grav-weapons of the Devastator Centurion, the vehicle pools of numerous Chapters are well-stocked with both variants of these warsuits.It is much disputed by Imperial scholars as to when the Centurion warsuit first engaged in conflict. This is because its origins are to be found within that dark period of the Imperium's history known as the Age of Apostasy. This was a new age of religious strife, where millions of Heretics were slaughtered across numerous star systems.The structures of the Imperium groaned under the weight of violent, internal conflict. During the Siege of Drax, a whole hive city was destroyed, and the entire Cadian 23rd fireballed in the process. Whole companies of Space Marines were consumed in these enduring, bloody actions. Battle-Brothers were emptied into orbit as the ejecta of battlefleet assaults, or slaughtered in the shadows of their own fortresses.The horrific spectre of the Horus Heresy and the threat of another all-consuming civil war began to loom over the Imperium. It became apparent to the High Lords of Terra that their troops would need new, more brutal wargear so that they might successfully smash their way across the galaxy to exterminate the unfaithful -- weapons that could resolve the most abhorrent of battles, even if apostate factions had barricaded themselves within indomitable citadels.So it was that the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus prepared for the worst and embarked upon the Voyages of Understanding, their arks criss-crossing the galaxy on unfamiliar routes and legions of Adepts scouring ancient texts in a quest for archaic knowledge. They brought back technologies to their Forge Worlds that had never before been observed, and set to work.Manufactoria clattered with fevered industry. They echoed with litanies as Tech-priests refined weapons and armour that could be used by the Adeptus Astartes. Forge Worlds were choked by banks of acrid smoke, while thousands of menials died each day, burnt to a cinder as they sought to feed the ancient furnaces with promethium.Some of the newly discovered STC databases, such as the VX Bellam Ravager and Thermae Missile Suits were beyond the best efforts of the Tech-priests to replicate reliably, and many corrupted over time to produce disturbing results. These designs were locked away in stasis vaults lest their potency seduce the more weak-willed fabricators.But out of the manufactoria on Mars came the prototypes of a Space Marine warsuit, a vehicle that would encase existing Power Armour and even enable the Battle-Brother to mesh with the larger suit's Machine Spirit. Itself a statement of intent, the warsuit was named in a manner as to acknowledge the Space Marine heroes of the Horus Heresy.It was called the Centurion.The two sanctioned variants of the Centurion warsuits were not called upon to fight during the Age of Apostasy itself, and even standard years later these two remained the guarded secret of the Tech-priests, who continued to refine their litanies, pray over them and pour on sacred oils. The Centurions remained unused and untouched, unable to be unleashed across the corpse-choked battlefields of the Apostasy before the Heretics could be finally crushed.Because of this strange delay, it was muttered by some that the Omnissiah Himself was displeased with what this new brute force might enact. This rumour was only strengthened by suggestions that these terrible devices were craving war and their Machine Spirits were thirsty for blood. |
Centurion - Centurions Bring Redemption: After being sanctioned for official battlefield use, Centurion warsuits began to show in Imperial records during the bloody crusades of the Age of Redemption. Following pacts with the Adeptus Mechanicus, these slab-sided constructs were first utilised by squads of Imperial Fists and Iron Hands.Experts in tearing down fortifications and in rigorously maintaining defences, both Chapters were quick to see how the Centurion design would complement their own combat doctrines. Companies assigned pilots first from their Assault Squads, and later from their Devastator Squads. In these Centurion warsuits they found new ways to enforce and inflict the Imperial Creed upon numerous star systems.Companies of the Imperial Fists began to use the warsuits to provide an unstoppable impetus to their planetary assaults. They deployed them from their orbital Battle Barges in order to punch through fortresses and city blockades. They were not, however, only employed against Heretics. Xenos ships flashed like meteors through the skies to assault the planets of Mankind. Great daemonic entities and various macabre forms of alien races carved their way out of the Warp to annihilate frontier garrisons.On battlefields across the galaxy, these warsuits prevented a great many losses to Imperial forces. Wherever there was a threat to the Imperium of Man, the Centurion warsuits strode forth to crush the foe beneath their ceramite heel. Vast voidships, docked or in orbit around heathen planets, were ripped open to punish those who worshipped false prophets.Many worlds to this day -- which were liberated from the yoke of xenos oppressors by squads of Space Marine Centurions -- have since enshrined these mighty heroes as angels of the Emperor. Their hulking figures adorn stained-glass frescoes and auto-rhetorical shrines across the Imperium, crowned with glowing haloes and wielding the cleansing flame of Imperial justice.It was not long until more Chapters, first the Ultramarines and Salamanders, began to deploy full squads of Centurions. They, too, could appreciate the lethal utility of these suits. But to them especially the Centurion proved more than a siege weapon. They found their new Centurion Devastator Squads brought a withering level of firepower to the battlefield. The Assault Centurions helped to bring brutal vengeance to Heretics, crushing their twisted bodies and obscene idols with ease.Centurions brought not just the Light of the Emperor, but salvation. On Orbide II an Ork WAAAGH! promised to overwhelm the planet until squads of warsuits held the green tide back long enough for reinforcements to arrive.Kabalite raiding parties in the Vysis star system were crushed before they were able to conduct more than a handful of raids against the Agri-Worlds vital to the system's survival.Insurgencies were cut down, the Heretic hearts of many Traitor rebellions were burned out, and the Centurions became rightly feared. There was nowhere to hide for those who opposed the Imperium.Thus, by the 38th Millennium, it was unsurprising that almost all Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes began assigning these warsuits to their armouries. To this day, it is rare to find a Chapter whose armoury does not possess at least a single Centurion warsuit of either variant.Though only the Assault Centurion and Devastator Centurion variants have trod the field of war, many more had initially been discovered or produced as a result of Tech-priest modifications. These more unstable and heretical versions were discreetly lost by the Adeptus Mechanicus; they remain so to this day. |
Centurion - Stepping Into A Warsuit: The Centurion is an enormous, battle-ready exoskeleton, a vehicle to enable the vengeful brutality of the Adeptus Astartes to gain access to hitherto unreachable places. A Space Marine pilots each one and the Centurion warsuit communes with the Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) of his Power Armour. The Centurion stands taller than a Terminator and possesses all the resilience and firepower of a tank.Woe betide any citadel that bars its gates to a warrior so armed. The warsuit's construction is based on thick plates of ceramite, each one blessed with the Litany of Ritual Bonding by a Tech-priest before being fixed in place by crane-armed Servitors possessed by sanctified datahosts. With such protection Centurions can endure ferocious attacks, while the Space Marine inside can concentrate on punching through the bulkheads of hive city walls, or incinerating rows of armoured xenos.The Centurion designs permit a skilled Techmarine or Servitor to access the various pistons and cables within and apply any sacred unguents. For a Space Marine to step inside the warsuit from the rear, the top section of the warsuit must be lifted upwards. At this stage he may exchange helmets for a more appropriate Centurion helmet, to better augment his targeting or monitor the feedback of the Siege Drills, or simply rely upon his own enhanced instincts.It is often the newer pilots who opt to go into battle with a helmet so that they may override the Machine Spirit and gain better control over it from within a sealed constituent. Once they have tamed the violent tendencies of the warsuit, then they may trust it more, extending their awareness more completely to the warzone around them.Once inside, there are numerous harnesses to strap the Battle-Brother in place. These enable him to weather even the concussion caused by direct hits from firepower designed to rupture tank hulls. The pilot is connected by several power cables so that the Centurion suit directly interfaces with his own Power Armour; as this link is activated, his body pounds momentarily with newly established energies, enough to overwhelm an un-enhanced human.At first, new pilots must enter a trance-like state purely to gain control over the Machine Spirit, and a mental duel is fought even before the suit is even activated. Some Machine Spirits will not be tamed by the Space Marine, and a handful even cause burnout, frying the minds of their pilots.Such overly-powerful Centurion suits are quickly ushered away by Tech-priests for "decommissioning." Once connected into the warsuit, the accepted battle position is for a Space Marine's hands to be crossed against the front of his chest, behind the torso-plate and the suit's secondary weapons, for he controls the vehicle with his thoughts.It is worth noting that certain Chapters, such as the Iron Hands, have developed particular expertise when interfacing with their own vehicles, and are therefore more naturally inclined to use them in battle.In fact, such is the strength of their belief that all flesh is weak -- even that of a Space Marine -- that pilots from the Iron Hands tend to dwell within the warsuit longer than is strictly necessary. A number of their pilots are now permanently bonded within their warsuit and can never be removed without suffering a fatal neurological injury. |
Centurion - Pilot Training: Centurion training requires an intense level of focus and determination, even for a Space Marine. A pilot undergoes numerous simulations, tactical recreations and bouts of endurance testing to ensure he is capable of controlling such a complex and powerful piece of wargear in violent situations.As per the decrees of the Codex Astartes, each Chapter is responsible for training its own battle-ready Space Marine force, and an important part of this regime includes vehicle training. Only once tanks and aircraft have been mastered is a Space Marine ready to try his hand at controlling a Centurion battlesuit, though some Chapters -- notably the Imperial Fists -- will single out potential warsuit pilots earlier than others.Part of the intense regime for a Devastator Centurion is hardening the Space Marine to the severe recoil of the weaponry. The warsuit permits a Space Marine to walk into battle armed with the firepower of a tank, and such powerful weaponry would crush a mere human. Recoil kicks hard on the chestpiece of his Power Armour, its blasts ricocheting around his nervous system and musculature and causing spasms in those unprepared.Battle-Brothers who train as Devastator Centurions tend to develop massively proportioned upper-body muscles, even for Space Marines. The most successful Devastator pilots possess phenomenal mental powers of concentration in order to prioritise targets whilst enduring these violent kick-backs.For Assault Centurion pilots, much of their readiness for full combat missions depends upon their handling of a Siege Drill and developing the mental will and strength to operate it. Whilst some Chapters are satisfied to prepare at length on their homeworlds, others prefer to see that the Siege Drills are put to more immediate and practical use in the crucible of war, hurling new inductees into the teeth of the foe with Siege Drills growling.Because Centurion warsuits are a highly specialised asset within a Chapter's armoury, the majority of Centurion pilots are selected from a Chapter's Devastator and Assault Squads -- though not from the ranks of the 1st Company. A Chapter's Veterans possess an exceptional level of battlefield experience, and their knowledge and combat flexibility means they are called upon to fight in a greater variety of circumstances, many of which would be unsuitable for deploying these bulky warsuits. Some Veterans would add bluntly that they find going to war in such slow-moving constructs undignifying. |
Centurion - Role: Centurions are brutal yet ponderous specialists typically deployed as line breakers and besiegers -- where haste is less important than durability. Centurion warsuits do not interface with a Battle-Brother's Black Carapace; they are exoskeletons that enhance the already considerable might of Power Armour, making a Space Marine into a walking tank without being surgically implanted into the cybernetic chassis of a Dreadnought.Battle-Brothers learn to pilot Centurions as part of their vehicle training. Centurion pilots are not chosen from the ranks of a Chapter's elite 1st Company, but are hand-picked from the Chapter's Assault and Devastator brethren. The most frequent explanation for this is that a Centurion's role requires a Space Marine to be fully immersed in a particular style of war, whilst the bulky exosuits lack the degree of tactical flexibility that the Chapter's Veterans require. |
Centurion - Centurion Assault Squads: Into the storm of battle march the Assault Centurions, servos whining in their mighty armour, rubble crunching beneath their heavy tread. Encased in their exoskeletal warsuits, these hulking close support assault specialists are protected from all but the most overwhelming enemy firepower. Even a direct hit from heavy artillery will do little more than stagger a Centurion, and small arms fire patters from their armoured hides like hail.Centurion Assault Squads excel at storming enemy fortifications and advancing through the broken and crumbling terrain of an embattled city. They eschew long-ranged weapons completely, favouring close-range firearms and Flamers that they use for flushing enemies from cover. Instead of heavy guns, they wield Siege Drills -- heavy-duty tools of destruction that can swiftly shatter a building to rubble, tear a breach in a strong point's adamantium-reinforced walls or reduce a living opponent to a bloody mass of broken bone.Striding toward the foe, the Assault Centurions rake their enemies with bolt shells and fiery blasts. Barricades are smashed down with contemptuous ease, and as the enemy's fortress walls loom, the Centurions' Siege Drills roar to life. These weapons are capable of reducing enemy warriors to a flesh-and-blood blizzard with a single blow, and can make short work of even the thickest ferrocrete bulwarks. In moments, the Assault Centurions force a breach, allowing their brothers to pour in around them as they stride into the heart of the enemy's stronghold like conquering kings.Assault Centurions are normally deployed in fortified battle zones where sight lines are too crowded to bring siege tanks to bear, and routes of advance too constrictive to deploy an Ironclad Dreadnought. Under such circumstances, Assault Centurions form the vanguard of the attack, using their breaching tools to tear through any obstacles in their path, while drawing the defenders' fire away from the Tactical Squads that follow in their wake. Once the fortress walls have been breached, the Tactical Squads spread out to secure the area. Meanwhile, the Assault Centurions engage and pulverise anything foolish enough to stand in their way.Wherever the rapid-strike tactics of the Space Marines are foiled, the heavy stride of the Centurion Assault Squads can be heard. In the bitter street fighting that took place on Skataurus, the Silver Skulls Chapter found that Centurion Assault Squads spearheading the attacks were the only way to make headway in the rubble-filled corridors that were once proud avenues.Although their indomitable advance through the hive city was subjected to numerous ambushes, nothing could stop the inexorable Centurions from continuing their slow, steady progress. Dug-in tanks and reinforced bunkers fell before the grinding Siege Drills, while massed Chaos Cultist ambushes met their end as twin-linked Flamers washed them over with waves of flames.Not surprisingly, the Imperial Fists -- masters of siege-craft -- have made extensive use of their Centurion Assault Squads, deploying them in all manner of line-breaking spearheads. The Salamanders Chapter, with their penchant for slow and steady advances, have used their Centurion Assault Squads as their hammer, but have also had some success in driving foes onto them as an immovable anvil of firepower.Centurion Assault Squads are led by a Centurion Sergeant. |
Centurion - Centurion Devastator Squads: While Centurion Assault Squads are equipped for close quarters, Centurion Devastator Squads are long-range fire support specialists who pound enemy positions with salvos of heavy weapons fire. Bloody havoc is wrought upon anything that falls within the Centurions' targeting reticules.The pilots' marksmanship is augmented by the grim Machine Spirits of their warsuits, decimator protocols guiding servo-assisted recoil absorption and oracular auto-targeting to ensure the Centurions maintain a punishing rate of fire.Return fire is a futile gesture, akin to flinging stones at a fortress, for should the enemy launch an assault in an attempt to silence the Devastator Centurions' guns they must contend with the suits' massive strength and the pilots' skill at arms. A Centurion Devastator Squad's only real weakness is its lack of speed, for whilst they can outgun entire squads of enemy infantry, they are easily outpaced by the fast-moving elements of a foe's strike force.Thus, they are primarily employed to besiege defended enemy positions or to defend their own fortifications, or used as mobile firebases to strengthen advancing battle lines. The Codex Astartes thus recommends their deployment in fixed positions with good lines of fire.From such vantage points, the extreme firepower of a Devastator Centurion Squad can annihilate great swathes of advancing foes, or batter down the mightiest fortifications. Should swift relocation then be required, Stormraven gunships swoop down and snatch the Centurions from the jaws of danger, redeploying them to a new vantage point from which to scour the foe from the field.A single well-positioned Centurion Devastator Squad can command the battlefield, forcing the foe to either redirect their attacks and hence lose momentum or concentrate their forces in an effort to neutralize the punishing firepower. Either way, the Space Marines maintain the initiative and can better plan their counterattacks.Centurion Devastator Squads are led by a Centurion Sergeant. |
Centurion - Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort: The Ironfang Spire, the Impenetrabulum Obstinus, even the Nightmare Citadel of Morrowmire; all of these infamous fortifications and countless more have fallen to the concentrated fury of the Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort. Formed from Veteran Assault Centurion warsuit pilots and concentrated around the overwhelming brute force of Ironclad Dreadnoughts, there is no subtlety to the Siegebreaker Cohort.This is of little consolation to the foe, of course; even as the massively armoured warriors reach their foes' defences, their omniscopes target critical weak points. Within seconds walls tumble, barricades collapse and even armoured vehicles are torn into flaming ruin by the formation's fists and drills, each demolished with such skill and violence that hardly any survive to crawl from the sundered wreckage. |
Centurion - Markings: Centurions share the same heraldry and organizational squad markings that can be seen on many other vehicles within a Chapter's pools. As well as this, they occasionally share similar sigils to the pilots who control their warsuits with respect to honours won in battle or their status within a company.They also boast a Centurion Honour, a large stone sigil of two crossed fists set within a circle -- echoing the position taken by a pilot inside. This is displayed upon the shoulder of the warsuit, in much the same way as a Crux Terminatus. |
Centurion - Centurion Assault Squad: 2-5 Assault Centurions1 Assault Centurion Sergeant |
Centurion - Centurion Devastator Squad: 2-5 Devastator Centurions1 Devastator Centurion Sergeant |
Centurion - Assault Centurion: Centurion WarsuitTwin-linked Flamer (one on each arm)Ironclad Assault Launcher (mounted on chest)2 Siege DrillsHurricane Bolter (optional replacement for Ironclad Assault Launcher)Twin-linked Meltagun (optional replacement for Flamer)Omniscope (can only be taken by a Centurion Sergeant) - The Omniscope is an advanced targeting device that allows a Space Marine Centurion to more accurately target the foe with his weapons.Land Raider - A Centurion Assault Squad can be transported into combat by a Land Raider of any type. |
Centurion - Devastator Centurion: Centurion WarsuitTwin-linked Heavy Bolter (one on each arm)Hurricane Bolter (mounted on chest)Missile Launcher (optional replacement for Hurricane Bolter)Twin-linked Lascannon (optional replacement for Heavy Bolter)Grav-cannon with Grav-Amp to increase its power (optional replacement for Heavy Bolter)Omniscope (can only be taken by a Centurion Sergeant) - The Omniscope is an advanced targeting device that allows a Space Marine Centurion to more accurately target the foe with his weapons.Land Raider - A Centurion Devastator Squad can be transported into combat by a Land Raider of any type. |
Centurion - Sources: Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 73, 79, 167, 172Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 72, 77, 141, 149Codex: Space Marines (7th Edition), pp, 36, 52, 87-88, 95-96, 133-134, 169, 172, 177, 315-318, 363-365, 404-405Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 94, 172, 175Warhammer 40,000: Munitorum - Centurions (Digital Edition)Warhammer 40,000: Index Astartes - Volume I (Digital Edition) |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - Centurion (Space Marine Rank): This article concerns the Space Marine Legion rank. For the Space Marine infantry unit, see Centurion.A Centurion, also called a Consul or Legiones Consularis in High Gothic, was the generalised term given to the middle rank held by a senior Astartes line officer of the Space Marine Legions that was in use during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.A centurion served as a middle-tier battle line officer, as well as taking on more specialised functions which helped give an Astartes Legion its unusual operational depth and strategic flexibility.The actual name of the rank could vary from Legion to Legion, depending on its particular culture, traditions and the operational specialty of the officer in question. |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - History: The ancient Legiones Astartes were composed of tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of Space Marines. As such, each Legion required a substantial core of leaders, champions and line officers.Whether one of these specialist officers, generically called "consuls," was actually a captain who commanded a company composed of a thousand or more Legionaries on campaign, or a "shield-lieutenant" given charge of a boarding party in a savage void battle, to have risen through the ranks of their Legion to the middle tiers of its hierarchy meant that they had already demonstrated their worth in the bloody fire of conflict. |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - Consuls: The term "centurion" was often used to represent one of the specialist officers of the Space Marine Legions, who were collectively referred to as "consuls," or Legiones Consularis in High Gothic, although this covered many different ranks and specialties such as the Chaplains, fleet-captains, blood chieftains, vigilators, legates and even the psykers who became Librarians. |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - General Consul Types: The following are the most common examples of officers of what would be considered centurion rank found in the Space Marine forces of the Great Crusade, although many others existed in particular Legions.Consul Chaplain - Legion Chaplains ensured the spiritual well-being of their Legion and enforced the psyker ban in accordance to the Emperor's Decree Absolute rendered during the Council of Nikaea. These officers were picked from those Space Marines who were the most steadfast in their duties, and who had demonstrated the strongest loyalty to their Primarch and to the Emperor.Legion Champion Consul - A Legion Champion's sworn task was to hunt down and slay the commanders and heroes of an enemy force in single combat. Armed with the finest weapons available, these deadly transhuman warriors embodied the honour of their Legion.Legion Consul Praevian - A Legion Consul Praevian was a unique position within a Space Marine Legion who were often assigned to serve as the commander of a cohort of Battle-Automata, the walking engines of death forged by the Legio Cybernetica and bonded in service to an individual Space Marine Legion. These cohorts were comprised of either Castellax or Vorax-class Battle-Automata.Legion Delegatus - A Legion Delegatus was a mid-ranking Legion officer, such as a Centurion, tasked with a specific mission by Legion high command and formally deputised to act in all matters with the full weight of their commander's authority. As such, they could mobilise the Legion's resources to the full, deploy its assets and, if performing a mission of vital strategic worth, assemble a strike force of chosen warriors.Consul Librarian - The Legion Librarians served as battle psykers and the keepers of the Legion's records, battle honours and chronicles. The Legion Librarius departments were disbanded after the Council of Nikaea on the order of the Emperor.Master of Signal - A Master of Signal was commonly attached to the forward elements of a Space Marine assault, providing vox and cogitator-based communications support across the wider warzone, and was capable of calling down a pinpoint bombardment from either orbiting fleet assets or static artillery positions nearby, engulfing the foes of Mankind in flaming destruction.Moritat - A Moritat was an unofficial designation given to certain Astartes of the ancient Legiones Astartes who displayed suicidal urges and a blatant disregard for overall combat doctrine. Operating independently on the battlefield, these individuals were often employed as efficient shock assault troops and assassins. From its earliest days, the Raven Guard Legion employed more Moritats than did many others. The individuals assigned to this duty were often those considered extreme in their methods even by the cold-blooded Xeric (the original Terran members of the XIXth Legion) and they were often used -- willingly -- to undertake missions from which they were not expected to return. This bygone rank no longer exists amongst the Adeptus Astartes of the 41st Millennium.Legion Vigilator - Highly skilled as watchers and hunters among their brethren, Vigilators were the eyes of their Legion on the ground, their wisdom paramount in scouting out the foe's disposition and strength, and determining the best place to strike. Theirs also were the arts of sabotage and assassination, and while some Legions were more inclined to such subtleties than others, all saw their military value.Forge Lord - The Forge Lord served as a senior officer among the Legion's Techmarines.Primus Medicae - High officers of the Legion Apothecarion, the primus medicae of a Legion held the onerous duties of both ensuring the battle-readiness and physical well-being of their battle-brothers. This was an authority which none but a primarch or his chosen deputy could overrule, and such warriors were dedicated to preserving the gene-seed of the Legion from loss or contamination at any cost, even that of their lives. The primus medicae were skilled in all the fields of medicae relevant to the biomedical care of Astartes on and off the battlefield and the creation of new Space Marines for the Legion using the accelerated maturation techniques in use at the time of the Great Crusade.Siege Breaker - The wreckers of cities, the bringers-down of fortress walls and the shatterers of strongholds, Siege Breakers were mid-ranking officers of the Legion whose tactical specialty was precisely-applied destruction against strategic targets. Placed often in command of armoured spearhead assaults and frontline artillery units, they preferred to closely observe their work, rather than sit back behind the lines, and so were deadly efficient in adapting their force's attack patterns from moment to moment. |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - Wargear: Artificer ArmourBolterCombi-weapon (Any type)Volkite ChargerMelta BombsCombat ShieldRefractor FieldBoarding ShieldIron HaloJump PackSpace Marine BikeLegion Jetbike |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - Optional Wargear (For Centurion Terminators): Cataphractii Pattern Terminator ArmourCombi-bolterPower Weapon (Any type)Volkite ChargerPower FistLightning Claw or Pair of Lightning ClawsChainfistThunder Hammer |
Centurion (Space Marine Rank) - Optional Wargear: Volkite SerpentaPlasma PistolHeavy ChainswordCharnabal SabrePower WeaponPower FistSingle Lightning Claw or Pair of Lightning ClawsThunder HammerMelta BombsParagon BladeCombat ShieldRefractor FieldBoarding ShieldJump PackSpace Marine BikeLegion Jetbike |
Ceramite - Ceramite: Ceramite is a form of heat and shock-resistant ceramic material that is widely used throughout the Imperium of Man.High-quality ceramite is used in the manufacture of the higher-quality types of Imperial infantry, vehicle and aircraft armour, including Carapace Armour, Power Armour and Terminator Armour. High-quality ceramite is also used to provide additional protection for the vehicles of the Adeptus Astartes.Ceramite is capable of absorbing and dissipating even the most extreme thermal and directed-energy attacks, and conducts many other forms of electromagnetic radiation in such a way as to disperse it across a wide area. This makes ceramite especially effective at providing protection against directed-energy and particle-based weapons.Lower-quality ceramite is also used to mass-produce cheap Flak Armour for the Astra Militarum.An inexpensive and sturdy building material widely used across the Imperium consists of pulp wood formed around a core of low-grade ceramite. This material is used for the construction of the low-cost prefabricated housing blocks prevalent on many Imperial Hive Worlds. |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - Cerastus Knight-Acheron: A Cerastus Knight-Acheron is an Imperial Knight pattern that is utilised exclusively for terror and shock assaults.The devastation wrought by Knights-Acheron is terrifying to behold. Armed with a fearsome Reaper Chainfist, twin-linked Heavy Bolters and an Acheron Pattern Flame Cannon, they are employed as weapons of extermination and to inspire fear in their foes.Nothing will sway their attack until the enemy is utterly crushed, never to rise again from the flame-scoured ruins of their strongholds. |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - History: The Cerastus Knight-Acheron is a fearsome sight on the battlefield, a reaper of lives carefully designed not only to destroy, but also to inspire terror both in appearance and the manner in which it undertakes its grim task.The presence of an Acheron pattern Knight armour in the battlelines of a household warns the foe to expect no mercy, for such weapons are only deployed for missions of extermination, to topple the works of the enemy and scour clean his lands with flame.Scions rarely choose to ride into battle in Acheron armour voluntarily, accepting the task instead as an arduous duty to be undertaken for the good of their house, for the anima of these armours are often awash in the inherited memories of massacres and slaughters uncounted.Those few scions who prefer such grim mounts are either warriors of iron will, capable of suppressing the sinister whispers of the armour's Machine Spirits (artificial intelligence), or tortured souls who relish the armour's malicious impulses and the carnage it wreaks on the field of battle. |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - Unit Composition: 1 Cerastus Knight-Acheron |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - Wargear: Acheron-Pattern Flame CannonReaper Chainfist with in-built twin-linked Heavy BoltersIon ShieldBlessed AutocimulacraThrone MechanicumTitanic Feet - The weight of the Knight alone is enough for to crush enemy units beneath its behemoth tread. |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - Optional Wargear: Occular Augmetics - An upgrade to the Knight's Occular sensors enabling a far greater degree of visual input during low-light conditions, such as night fighting. |
Cerastus Knight-Acheron - Sources: The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest, by Alan Bligh, pp. 104, 125, 173, 296, 307The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest by Alan Bligh, pp. 128-129Forge World - Cerastus Knight-Acheron |
Cerastus Knight-Atrapos - Cerastus Knight-Atrapos: One of the rarest and most potent Imperial Knight patterns, the Cerastus Knight-Atrapos is a unique variant type of the standard Cerastus Pattern.Bearing particularly rare and potent weaponry of annihilation, the Cerastus Knight-Atrapos was created solely to destroy Heretek engines and xenos war machines whose very nature and existence were considered a blasphemy to the Omnissiah.The Machine Spirits (artificial intelligences) of the Knight-Atrapos are said to carry with them a cold and all-destroying hunger, and for the Scion who bonds with them, madness is a constant risk. But for such storied honour, however dark the outcome, this may be a price worth paying.The Cerastus Knight-Atrapos carries arcane and devastating weapons into battle; the focussed and deadly Atrapos Lascutter, that sees duty as both a ranged and close combat weapon, and the violently destructive, but potentially unstable, Graviton Singularity Cannon.With the speed and shielding of the Cerastus chassis, and the Knight-Atrapos' Macro-extinction Targeting Protocols, the Cerastus Knight-Atrapos is an uncommonly destructive weapon of war. |
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