The Knights of Redemption

[shrike2214]

A bit long winded but i think a fairly good starting point

 

Those once loyal

 

It is often believed that at the time of the Great Heresy all of those oppose to Horus were murdered on the plains of Istavaan IV & V, That all loyal to the great Emperor were torn apart by the traitors to the Imperium, this however is not the case, as does happen with things that happened oh so long ago many of the small details have been glossed over or even erased totally, for there were some a band of loyal brethren who were warring away at the time, and how lucky we were that they were spared the blood bath that sparked the powder keg for had they not I would not be penning this account for had they not I do truly believe that Horus would have won and chaos would reign, but I digress and get ahead of myself for I have not yet set the stage for our drama.

It is two months before Horus fires the first shots, and the 68th expedition received a message from a space station not far from the galactic waste, The Motherload was its nickname its official designation was Beta-2214 it was there to monitor the wastes and report of any activity there, as you can imagine it was a rather quiet station, the message told of a warp storm opening up at the edge of the wastes and of creatures rampaging through the station Horus knew exactly the nature of these ‘creatures’ he would have been more than happy to let them run rampant but that would have shown his hand too soon. He dispatched three Chapters to the Motherload he sent 9th Chapter under the command of Titus a stern and aged commander he knew the ways of war so well having fought alongside the Emperor during the wars of unification, Horus also sent 14th under the charge of Balthazar a man who fought alongside Horus for years was even in the same clan on Horus’s adoptive world, he was also the snake in the pit, and last but by no means least 19th Chapter headed by none other than Ulannis a great commander and an even better warrior entombed forever in the mighty Dreadnought armour he was an unstoppable machine. These three Chapters were sent and would later rendezvous with two Chapters from the mighty Space Wolves to cleanse the Motherload.

Horus knew that if those men were away from the fleet that he could not purge their ranks when the time came, that is why he sent Balthazar to do it along with 14th Horus had already secured his commitment to the rebellion and had sent men he could trust to join him as soon as Balthazar was given the word he would strike destroying all of the loyal brothers on the Motherload and leaving none left to oppose Horus, little did he know how strong our heroes of this fable were, and how strong some men’s love for the Emperor could be.

 

Shortly after meeting up with the two Chapters of Space Wolves, 7th Lead by Sven Thunderfist and 13th Lead by Riker Stormhammer, the five Chapters made all haste to the Motherload upon translating as close to the great station as the warp storm would permit they got there first real look at the station it was huge easily rivalling the size of the Imperial Fists Phalanx. They landed in four separate docks where they were to pick up any survivors on the way and then converge on the centre of the station so they could mount a counter offensive this all sounded like a good idea and it would to you or anyone else reading this account or at least until you learn that the man who put the idea forward was Balthazar. Titus was to take the north, Ulannis the south, Balthazar the east, Stormhammer the west and Thunderfist was to stay on ship as re-enforcement if needed.

The four commanders inside the Motherload fought their way into the centre killing tides of ‘creatures’ three of the four arrived at the centre where they talked tactics and how they plan to eradicate this station of the ‘creatures’ and also trying to hail Balthazar they began to fear when they could not reach him but fear turned to anger and the large blast doors that they had fought to seal began to whine open, it was not that the doors were opening that made them angry but the vision that meet them through the doors, Balthazar standing petting one of the ‘creatures’ he is said to have smiled and looked at the commanders and the warriors grinning through cracked lips until he finally cried “For Horus and the dark gods!” at this the warriors under Balthazar’s charge began to rush the gathered loyalist, the three Chapters would have been able to deal with him easily but for the ‘creatures’.

The battle that ensued was brutal and bloody indeed many a man fell loyalist and traitor, the three loyal Chapters found it so difficult to kill men that they once would have called there brothers confusion, rage and sorrow all clouding their judgement but they fought on anyway, Sven Thunderfist and his Chapter were hailed from there ship to bolster the numbers, as soon as Sven and his 7th Chapter arrived the battle turned in the loyalists favour and Balthazar’s men were decimated and the blast doors sealed again to hold back the tide of ‘creatures’ Stormhammer managed to take Balthazar prisoner and was able to restrain him for questioning.

Now how they broke him I would hate to know the thought of what it must take to break a Space Marine of the Sons of Horus must have been blood curdling indeed, but he broke and told them everything, about gods, daemons, Horus plans and what the suspected plans the Emperor had made, the way Balthazar had told the story was that The Emperor was going to leave us ascend to godhood and leave the Imperium rotting beneath him this was hard for the loyalists to hear and much harder for them to believe as I said their love for the Emperor was too great to be broken and they all knew what needed to be done the Emperor must be warned of this, but so far out in the wastes and with a warp storm raging It would be imposable to get word to terra it was decided that they would make all haste to terra to warn them and to defend the Emperor.

As most of the Daemons had been slain by the loyalist it was not too difficult to retreat to the safety of their respective ships, and it would be there that they would decided exactly how they are going to reach Terra and to contemplate the full horror of what they had been told, And they were to assemble for a War Council on Ulannis flag ship The Saggitars Dart.

 

Now one player in this grand opera that I have not yet mentioned is Shamra back then he was just a scout that Titus had brought with him on this skirmish, wise Titus brought him to the war council with him in Titus eyes Shamra was the future of his beloved legion and as the future he should be there when the next course of action is decided.

The four Chapter commanders convened to the bridge of the Saggitars Dart voices were raised fists were slammed onto tables in anger and none could decide exactly how they should go around making it to terra all the while Shamra stood silent witnessing his first War Council with undisguised awe and shock at what was happening it was Titus who broke the stalemate and outlined his cunning plan, you see they could not just run rampant to Terra because what if someone had brought word to them first? And the ships break the warp at segmentum solar bedecked in the heraldry of the Sons of Horus? They would have been destroyed before the last ship broke the warp, no what Titus mused they must do is use the Motherload to amplify a vox signal to hail any loyalists in the area it was a huge risk because who is to say that they will not inadvertently let the traitors know they still yet cause them a problem but it had the benefit because if loyalists were to come to their aid then they could explain to them what is going on and then if the plan failed they would only have to face a few ships and not the mighty planetary cannons of Jupiter, and so that was the plan they were to sit it out and wait to see if anyone would answer there distress calls.

It had been three weeks ship time before anything happened on the third day of the fourth week a ship broke the warp not far from the loyalists and panic set in as they realised that they still do not know who is loyal and who is traitor, calls to arms were cried and battle stations were manned as the ship approached the master of the vox began to hail whoever was admiral of the ship pleading with him to state his intentions and for a tension filled hour there was no answer and it looked as if the ships may have to defend themselves until the vox crackled with life, it was Lord Gideon of the Imperial Fists the yellow and gold of the cruiser slid through real space with grace as its escort ships flowed from the warp in its support, he demanded to know what the meaning of their distress call was and why he had referred to specifically wanting a loyalist to answer and he was invited to the bridge to have it all explained to him Gideon reluctantly accepted as long as he could bring his honour guard to protect him if need be and he was met on the bridge by Titus, Shamra and Ulannis and they began to tell him the tail and of their situation.

Gideon did not believe them; of course he didn’t who would? If they hadn’t drawn the words form the traitor’s mouth themselves they wouldn’t believe it Gideon called them low born curs, foul mouth scum and worse. He would not be convinced, that was until Shamra brought forward a data slate taken from Balthazar which read ‘If you haven’t taken the station by now then you have failed and are no use to me, may you be more successful in death than you were in life and I will have to find someone else to help me take the Emperors head’ Gideon scoffed that anyone could have written that until he saw the coded signet of Horus, Warmaster.

 

With that damming proof Gideon had no other choice other than to believe Ulannis and his band of forgotten warriors and with Gideon on their side along with his warriors of the Imperial Fists they could make way to Terra and to their destiny.

As they prepared to make the warp jump Titus set off the charges that they had hardwired to the reactor sending the Motherload’s reactor critical and the left behind the starburst like a sun dying wiping the Motherload from reality.

 

Were this a fairy tale of old Earth then I would have written that they made it to Terra without hindrance, but as we know fairy tales are for children. The warp was against them it was full of turmoil and something attacked Ulannis flagship bursting its Geller field like a child bursting a balloon, it was as if the warp had been given orders to attack them, no one had that much power over the warp, or so we thought. It was forced to make an emergency exit from the warp literally tearing itself from the Immaterium no one knows exactly what happened to the ship in those few seconds while it was unprotected all we know is that when Gideon bored the Dart it was changed and twisted, only a few seconds in the warp and it had been changed until it was unrecognisable, Gideon and his squads found what was left of the two Chapters on the bridge of the Dart fighting with some daemon thing the first thing Gideon spotted was that Ulannis wasn’t moving. Oh the woe our hero Ulannis was wounded the Daemon had wounded him. The two Chapters of Luna Wolves purged the Daemon from there ship and were forced to abandon and scuttle her. With the battle on the Motherload and the Daemon incursion on their ship two Chapters had lost so many warriors that they were combined into one Chapter and just a devastating Ulannis in his dreadnought body had been grievously wounded but no apothecary in the fleet could find any reason for his wounds. Ulannis sarcophagi had been removed from its Dreadnought machine body and placed in the Medicare on Gideon’s ship Golden Fist where the Chapter of Luna Wolves had taken refuge and they waited until either Ulannis recovered or the cause for his catatonic state were discovered. After three weeks Ulannis awoke and was placed back into his dreadnought body the cause of his coma still a mystery that was until it broke free. A daemon had taken his body and Ulannis had activated his Sus-an membrane so he could battle the daemon in his mind, unfortunately he had failed and the daemon had taken his body for his own, the Ulannis daemon had begun to attack the Imperial fists. Gideon knew what he would have to do, he knew that Ulannis was still in there somewhere so they could not out and out destroy him there had been too much of his brothers blood spilt as of late. Gideon figured the only way was for him to battle the daemon himself and try to banish the daemon, if that failed then they would have no choice but to kill Ulannis.

 

Gideon managed to find Ulannis he was tearing at the blast doors that sealed him out of the bridge, the daemon was trying to force his way onto the bridge and then he would be able to do whatever he wanted to the ship. Gideon cried Ulannis name but he did not answer Gideon fired a round from his bolt pistol that managed to get the daemons attention Gideon was going to try and disable Ulannis dreadnought body and hold the daemon in place or at least that’s what he had planned to do, the daemon roared from Ulannis vox and it did the one thing Gideon fully expected it to do and rushed him headlong to try and crush him they fought for almost an hour and oh how they fought Space Marines of both legions entered the corridor to watch them fight, but Gideon eventually began to lose the battle he could sense his defeat was immanent the Ulannis daemon held Gideon in his great power claw Gideon knew what he would need to do he was forced to unleash the power that he had kept locked away since The Council of Nikea, he let out all of the psychic tension built up over the years he used it to bore his way into first Ulannis soul and then into the daemon where he tore it from Ulannis body and cast it back into the warp, the psychic backlash caused Ulannis limbs to seize up and his fist clenched crushing Gideon’s legs into a pulpy mess inside of his armour both warriors fell into a coma both suffering from psychic shock the onlookers surged forward to tend to their respective commanders both were taken to the apothecaries both were left to recover.

 

Almost two months passed as Ulannis and Gideon recovered and a lot was to happen in just those two months Shamra the scout became Shamra the battle brother all Space marines of the Luna Wolves daubed there armour black trimming it with gold they wore the black out of shame for what there brothers have done and the gold to the mark that they had the strength to carry out the Emperors duty. When Gideon and Ulannis finally woke they too had changed Gideon’s face was lined as though he had aged one hundred years in a day blue veins stuck out of his head and his face his hair had fallen out all from the psychic shock of unleashing so much power, and Ulannis..well he would never be the same the guilt at what he had done and what he could have done had Gideon not been there to stop him. Gideon’s legs were crippled and had to be removed by the apothecaries as they set back off on their quest to Terra Gideon had ne bionic replacements grafted for his legs they were not of the quality he would have liked but they would have to do. Not much was said after the confrontation afterwards but what could be said all that mattered was that they reached the Emperor before Horus did.

 

The ragtag band of warriors now totalling one company of Luna Wolves Two companies of Space Wolves and three Companies of Imperial Fists made for Terra via the warp no matter how difficult it was a navigator died almost every day just to see them through the warp each sacrifice was honoured in the hall of heroes until finally they broke through the warp into the Solar System and what a glorious sight it was humanity’s cradle of birth seeing it somehow made it real to the warrior band if the loyal forces were to fail all of this beauty would be lost forever. They broke warp just outside of Jupiter blaring the sirens of peace all hands were to the vox to try ad contact the Jupiter defence batteries from there they were told to make anchor at the Luna space port and await an emissary not wanting to make anything worse they did as they were told. Tense weeks would pass before anyone could come to see them, to the Space Marines it seemed ridiculous did they not understand the danger that they were in that Horus was at their door step, even when they had spoken to the emissary it took almost another month for them to finally be brought before the Emperor having to tell the story of Horus treachery a hundred times and one hundred times again even with almost five companies of Space marines testifying to the story people still refused to believe but finally Ulannis, Gideon, Titus and Shamra were granted and audience with the Emperor.

 

As the Emperor sat atop his golden throne, before he was entombed there of course, the four heroes explained to the Emperor recounting details of what had happened throughout he sat there nodding and grunting for them to continue after there was a tense silence as he thought about what he had been told after almost an hour his voice rumbled as he said ‘I had suspected’ and that was all he said and the four heroes were taken from the room by Malcador the Emperors chief advisor and they were told to make their companies ready for war for they would need as many warriors as could be mustered.

 

As the months drawled by waiting for Horus to come reports of bearing news of Horus came and he too was to join the battle his name was Garro I mention him because he will become key to the fate of out warriors. Not long after Garro came Horus and his other traitors brothers and out band of warriors were on the walls for the whole siege they fought and bled to hold the walls but as hard as they fought we all know how the siege ended, The Emperor fighting Horus face to face and we know that the Emperor won destroying Horus and casting his legions into the warp but it was victory at a price as the emperor was mortally wounded and was taken to be linked with the golden throne. Our heroes survived the battle alto there companies were almost destroyed after the battle Ulannis, Titus, Shamra and Gideon stood before the Emperor and his words will never be forgotten for it is carved in the Hall of Heroes he said ‘You must be my crusaders, you must carry on the fight and hunt your fell brothers, and await my return’ Ulannis was given command of a legion of new warriors and was tasked with hunting chaos wherever it may rear its ugly face and from that day Ulannis, Titus and Shamra began their new Crusade.

 

After just two thousand years the legion now going by the name of Knights of Redemption were declared traitors, there was no reason for this other than jealousy. Garro didn’t like that they had been sent on the crusade and he was left to clean up the mess and he declared them traitors to the Emperor, even to say there name is punishable by death, all records of them were deleted or burned and they were scoured from the history books no one but few know the names of our heroes, so from that day they were forced to run raiding supply ships for their weapons and armour and always trying to stay one step ahead of the inqusion who hunt them for heresy,

 

I must finish quickly for they have found me and my life is numbered in but hours. Although the Imperium may have turned her back on them they have not done the same they still fight they are out there somewhere fighting and dying to protect you from chaos, and all threats to the Emperors realm, somewhere in the vast galaxy Ulannis, Titus and Shamra are watching over you.

 

From the pen of Grado Shrike

Date M41.382