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Part I +++The Icon of the Silent Gorgon+++ In the aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre, not every Loyalist survivor was a hero in the making. Amidst the devastation of Isstvan V, a small conclave of Apothecaries from the shattered Legions — Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard — found each other among the ruins. Driven mad with grief, rage, and the impossible knowledge of their gene-brothers’ total slaughter, these men refused to accept defeat. United by shared horror and bitter desperation, they hatched a forbidden plan: to resurrect their fallen Legions through cloning, genetic grafting, and any means necessary. They scavenged gene-seed from the corpses of their brothers, captured traitor Astartes for gene-stock, and began crude implantation procedures on abducted human candidates — in underground vaults, on derelict ships, and amid the craters of dead worlds. Their warband, known to terrify survivors and hunt warlords alike, The Echoes of Iskvara, are a shambling, patchwork force of cloned Astartes, half-finished marines, and failed gene-experiments. These are not proper legion succesors — they’re gestalt replicants of what was lost, reflections of the Apothecaries’ hatred made flesh. Fragment 717//A-Null//Iskvara Vault Archives Access Level: Sigillite-Redacted Recovered Source: Sequestered Mechanicum Noos-Loom, Orbit Iskvara-Primaris, Segmentum Obscurus Date: M31.017 Title: On the Emergence of the “Silent Gorgon” Phenomenon within Clade-Null Forces “In the aftermath of the Isstvan Cataclysm, various Loyalist Apothecarion remnants are recorded as having fled to the outlying Halo Stars. There, amid the uncharted moons and void-forgotten colony vaults, records indicate that unsanctioned replication protocols were enacted. It is within these databanks that repeated references to an emblem — a Gorgon’s visage, cracked and weeping — emerged among warbands of what later Imperial lexarchs classified under the designation Blackshields. Designation: The Silent Gorgon. The symbol was reportedly adapted from a relic-faceplate of an Iron Hands Clade-Myrmidon slain during the Drop Site Massacre. Recovered and obsessively preserved by a rogue Salamanders Praetor-Apothecary identified in fragmentary vox-records as Kordael Varn. Usage of the emblem appears linked to neuro-conditioning rituals enacted upon artificially bred Astartes progenoids — possibly a form of mythic mnemonic imprinting, instilling fear of betrayal and reverence for loyalty through the iconography of the petrifying myth-beast. Ritualized application of this sigil to the foreheads and armour-plate of vat-born clones marked them as inheritors of the Istvaan legacy, simultaneously as executioners and mourners. Surveillance reports suggest that during engagements against both Traitor and Loyalist detachments, Astartes bearing the Silent Gorgon often refrained from verbal communication, operating through gestural command and noospheric glyph-transmission only. As of this record, approximately 23 war-engines, 17 clone-squads, and 2 modified Sabre-class tanks identified as carrying the sigil have been sighted along the Alnisyan Expanse and Algethar Drift. Purge authorisation recommended.” — Fragment 717//A-Null//Iskvara Vault Archives +++ INLOAD COMPLETE +++ ++ SIGILLITE CLEARANCE ONLY ++ DATA FRAGMENT 310.AB // ISKVARA DRIFT ORIGIN: UNREGISTERED ASTROPATHIC RELAY DESTINATION: TERRA (RED-LINE PRIORITY) CLEARANCE: EPSILON-PRIME // [REDACTED] "...By the Throne, they're not dead. They're not even men anymore. We made planetfall at 0300 local cycle. Barren rock, like the whole damn Halo fringe. No signs of habitation, save for a single, ancient Mechanicum vault, half-buried in basalt and bone dust. They're here. Clad in grey ceramite so pale it seems to bleed into the mist. No heraldry, no rank marks, no Legion colours. Only that face. [REDACTED] mask of stone. Serpents for hair, empty eyes staring out from helm, from banners, even burned into the sides of their war machines. A Gorgon’s face. Silent. Staring. We tried to hail them. Vox went to static. No reply. They just moved through the fog. Killing anything that bore the marks of Warmaster or Throne alike. They're not Iron Hands, not Salamanders, not even Blackshields in the old sense. They're something else. Gestalt things. You can feel it through the helm. Like they're… connected. A single, broken mind spread across a hundred bodies. This is Apothecary-Commander Vireon of the 73rd Oathbound, final report. The moon Iskvara is lost. Do not attempt retrieval. Do not attempt contact. They remember us. And they are coming home." +++ PURGE CLASSIFICATION RECOMMENDED +++ +++ DISCONNECT DATUM-LINK IMMEDIATELY +++ +++ NOOSPHERIC BURN PROTOCOLS ACTIVE +++ << ENCRYPTED TERMINATION CODE: 02-A/THRONE/NULL >>