Renegade Astartes: The Black Razor

[Newtype]

Good day all.

 

It has been over a year since my first attempt at creating an IA for my Marine Chapter. But I have now gone back and reworked somethings as well as tried writing some background stories.

 

First up is a reworking of the IA I posted the first time. The second post will be a short creative piece that starts to discribe what is happening after the Chapter has gone renegade and is trying to pull all the scattered pieces together.

 

In all cases, creative comments and suggestions are wecome.

So first off the IA:Renegade

 

 

Astarte Renegade: Black Razor

"In our darkest time, we used the artifacts we uncovered to aid us in our oath to defend Mankind in the name of the Emperor. Because of this, the Adeptus Mechanicus branded us traitors and we were declared renegade. In treachery and betrayal, we saw what resided behind the eyes of the Machine God, and it cared nothing for Humanity. The oaths binding the Adpetus Mechanicus and the Imperium are meaningless; made out of ignorance and fear. And we will fear nothing in fighting to regain our stolen honor."

 

SYMBOL

The original symbol of the Black Razor does not matter now having been struck from the records and purged from history. After being declared renegade, the Chapter adopted a white skull to be placed upon their armor.

 

Though associated with pirates and renegades, the white skull had another long forgotten meaning. It was the symbol of free men who answered to no authority but God. In this the Chapter showed that it had no fear in standing before the Emperor and answering for its actions.

 

Along with the white skull, the Chapter retained the Imperial Aquila. Used to show the loyalty they still swore to the Emperor. They also kept the Crux Terminatus, which was kept as a symbol of skill and bravery in battle.

 

 

ORIGINS

Created as part of the 24’Th founding, the Black Razor were chartered to pacify and re-establish Imperial power over the scattered systems forming the trailing edge of the Sagittarius Arm. Long considered a lawless frontier, with failed colonies, mining holds, and forgotten human worlds strung out along the length of the galactic arm, these isolated and ignored systems had become home to deserters, renegades, outlaws and cults whose activity had begun to threaten shipping and commerce beyond the local systems.

 

Together with a growing number of attacks by Ork Warbosses, Elder Pirates, and Chaos forces as well, the situation was growing beyond the ability of the local governors to contain and was threatening shipping routes and trade lines within the interior of the Sagittarius Arm.

 

The Relictors were chosen to provide the initial Marine force and gene seed line. And it was a battle hardened Captain named Usin Bron that was expected to be chosen as the first Chapter Master. But in a controversial decision, a senior Captain from the Black Councils, Hagen Marr, was instead chosen to be the first Chapter Master.

 

No one knows why this was done, but it was suspected that the High Lords and the Administratum were attempting to prevent the total company independence shown by the Relictors and the other successor Chapters of the Raven Guard.

 

The Relictors and particularly Bron, took this appointment of an outsider to lead them as an insult and direct challenge to their honor. But by 738M39 and the Desmodan Zone Excursion, Marr proved himself a brave, skilled and capable leader now respected and honored by both Bron and the growing Chapter.

 

When Marr lay dying after killing the Ork Warboss Uzfang Skarzod during the Insbek IV Campaign in 823M39, his last request was for Bron to continue building the Chapter in his name and honor. Bron did so, and by 325M40, the Black Razor had grown into ten full companies.

 

The Chapter’s space fleet now consisted of the asteroid fortress Turbatus Domus, the battle barge Void Crusader, ten strike cruisers, and the escorts required to support the operations of a full Marine Chapter. They had also established numerous supply bases across the territories they now controlled.

 

Many of the systems cataloged by the Razor contained dead or uninhabited worlds, and within these systems the Chapter began to recover artifacts that were close to human STC designs, but were not of human origins.

 

The Chapter’s Tech-Marines along with the Adeptus Mechanicus determined the relics to be of Demiurg origin. Most were turned over to the Admech while some were retained by the Chapter. Nothing was made of this as all Chapters were free to pursue their own agendas, but it would be these artifacts that would lead to the eventual fall of the Black Razor.

 

The Fall Begins

When Chapter Master Octavin Arcady was killed during a terror raid on the agri-world of Angelakos in 377M40, the shocked and enraged Chapter could not know that the long and costly battle for vengeance would change them forever. Fighting against a Dark Eldar cabal called "The Heart of the Soulless Void”, the Razor engaged in a vicious and bloody game of cat and mouse along the edge of the galactic arm and even into the gulf beyond.

 

The “Blood Shadows” campaign, as this period was called, would consume two Chapter Masters and almost two whole companies of battle brothers before its end. Arcady’s successor, Rycus Sarayen fell during the Jensen VII assault in 429M40, while Sarayen’s successor Darius Caleb, was killed defending the pilgrimage city of Syphos Prime in 581M40.

 

Caleb’s death saw the mantel of Chapter Master placed on the shoulders of Titus Malik. Titus was a brooding veteran, who had a long turbulent history of unconventional tactics and challenges to authority. But underneath was a hard and uncompromising realist who saw his Chapter on the path to defeat and destruction.

 

The Black Razor were fighting shadows, spread out and weakened as supply lines and resources were stretched to their limits. The Dark Eldar would appear out of the void itself and attack at random. Planets and systems were verging on the point of mass panic and the Chapter seemed unable to stop them.

 

Seeing his Chapter nearing the end of their endurance, Titus and his Council of Captains chose to utilize certain Demiurg devices to achieve victory in two desperate and key battles. The first was to prevent the E’Talstron Port Hive from self destructing in an orgy of induced madness and paranoia.

 

Within the underhive, the Dark Eldar used a mutagenic drug to induce psychic emergence in the population. If not stopped, a critical mass would have been created and the resulting gestalt event would have allowed Choas to emerge unchecked to consume the population. The loss would have crippled the commercial space docks the local systems needed to maintain supply lines into the inner arm. And without regular resupply, whole worlds would have suffered an agonizing death from starvation and deprivation.

 

Using Demiurg devices that could detect the formation of warp portals and then force them closed, Scout squads were able to ambush and intercept the Dark Eldar moving through the hive at will. They became the hunters, killing the depraved xenos from within the darkness that once protected them.

 

The second battle was deep within the mining world of Selcul III, where a web way gate was uncovered by miners. In order to contain and trap the Eldar that pored through the gate, Devastator Squads used Demiurg cutting beams to seal tunnels and collapse storage catherdrals, entombing hundreds of Eldar under millions of tons of living rock. The gate itself was sealed and destroyed only by bringing down the roof of the cavern it was built into. Thus crushing it out of existence and severing that route into the web way forever.

 

The final battle of the Blood Shadows Campaign came about by the use of another Dimiurg device that detected the presence of Dark Eldar Shadow Fields. It allowed the Razor to finally locate the Eldar's hidden citadel. Much to the Chapter's horror, it lay right in the heart of Razor territory. Revealed at last, the finial battle of a long war could begin.

 

The Cauldron Anchorage

The greatest battle of the Chapter occurred in a region of space known as the Cauldron Anchorage. Along with two senior Captains, Helso Keck and Arell Hoth, Malik himself lead the assault. During the ship-to-ship action, he ordered his personal strike cruiser the Silent Cardinal to ram the Eldar Archon’s command ship as it maneuvered to shift into the warp. Titus ordered the gun batteries to open fire; gutting the Eldar ship stem to stern but also leaving his ship heavily damaged. Locked together in a grizzly dance, the Chapter Master faced the Soulless Void Archon herself, while the two Captains lead the boarding action against the citadel.

 

The final confrontation was bloody and vicious with Marine and Eldar locked in unending close quarter combat. Ships guns were used to systematically destroy sections of the citadel; knowing that the enhanced physiology of the Space Marines would allow them to survive such hellish bombardment better than the degenerate killers they faced. In the end Titus emerged with the severed head of the Archon and the citadel a smoking hulk. But the price he paid was heavy, with over half of his men and a quarter of the forces that boarded the Citadel dead.

 

Cause and Effect

When the Admech learned of what the Razor had done, they demanded Titus turn over all technology immediately, or face censure by the Omnisiah. He refused, and then forcefully reminded the Admech that they had no say in how the Astartes conducted their business. Titus was no fool though and knew the tenuous position he was in; so he turned some but not all of the artefacts over. He also grudgingly agreed to also allow the Admech to shadow his ships in a move that was calculated to placate the Machine Priests and buy time for his own Tech Marines to study unhindered the relics still under their control. What he could not know was that soon after, factions within the Adeptus Mechanicus had begun conspiring to betray and destroy the Chapter.

 

Titus died in 701M40 under circumstances that pointed to Admech involvement. Succeeded by Keck, the new Chapter Master would spend decades trying to prove that the Admech had a traitorous hand in Titus’s death, but he could not uncover evidence that proved their involvement.

 

Beginning in 763M40 with the Cartellion Sweep, and beyond his death in 966M40 during the Ekura III Rebellion, Keck, and his successor Sarlin Ral, emphasized greater self-reliance and independence in the Chapter’s skills and abilities to repair and build their own weapons and armour.

 

"If there are no Tech-Marines, what are you going to do? What if you were cut off behind enemy lines? Every one of my men has to know and understand the inner workings of the weapons and vehicles within the armoury of this Chapter. You must know how it works and how to maintain it under any condition. You must know how to field strip and re-align a plasma cannon coil. You must understand and be able to replace a Rhino transaxle. Can you strip the working repulsor plates from a downed speeder to get a second one operational? You are Space Marines! You do not subordinate your oaths to defend humanity and serve the Emperor to a so called machine spirit!”

Helso Keck, during the confrontation with his men and Master of the Forge Morrax Jeler in 825M40 during the Uster Provincial Pacification.

 

“The dammed machine spirit can take it up with me! Now do it!”

Mortally wounded Sergeant Jarax Zadra ordering his men to remove the power packs from the armour of himself and two others killed in a surprise assault by Chaos Marines, during the closing months of the Uster Provincial Pacification. Two of his men were immobilized by damaged power packs after being hit by shrapnel and the operational packs allowed them move back and regroup with their squad. When the Chaos Marines moved in on the crippled Sergeant, Zadra activated the demolition charges he had concealed with him. The explosion tore through the Chaos Marine squad and their armour support, which gave the Black Razor squad the chance to launch a counter-attack. The delaying action allowed the planetary PDF along with Razor support to regroup and launch a counter strike that broke the Chaos offensive.

 

The End

In 513M41, surveys of an ancient red star catalogued as showed that the asteroid belts orbiting it contained vast resource potential. A rouge planet, in a highly elliptical orbit, 39 degrees to the orbital disk, was thought to be responsible for the destruction of the system's planetary bodies, which created the asteroid belts.

 

The thirteenth Chapter Master, Barstron Joth, decided to move the Domus into the system because it’s strategic position. At the beginning of 643M41, the rouge planet began its closest approach. Long-range scans of the planet found evidence of an artificial structure buried deep into the planet surface. Two Frigates with Marine and Admech contingents were sent to investigate the structure and after a low orbital sweep, transports landed and Scout squads moved in to investigate.

 

As the Marines were moving through the outer sections of the structure, the Frigates reported sudden energy spikes, and with drives powering up for evasive manoeuvres, one of them was destroyed by an energy blast originating from within the construct. As the Marines regrouped, robotic skeletal warriors began to emerge from hidden locations and hunt down the Imperial forces. Executing a fighting withdrawal, the men escaped to the remaining Frigate in orbit, and under emergency power, they returned to the Domus. With warning signals all ready sent, the Domus had prepared to move. The stationed strike cruisers were deployed to attack and disrupt the construct as fleet augers picked up an even larger energy build up.

 

The senior Admech advisor, Magos Peustus Datic, advised Joth that the build up may be sufficient to damage the Domus but by his readings there should be sufficient time for the strike cruisers to delay it, if fire was concentrated into specific locations. Joth ordered it done, and as they unleashed all their firepower into the construct, new secondary readings were detected.

 

Vast crescent shaped pylons emerged from under the dead soil, emerald power fields glowing brighter and brighter as they rose into the black sky. Just as the main drive engines on the Domus reached full power, the pylons fired. The energy unleashed crossed the gulf and punched through the void shielding with disturbing speed and ease. The fortress was crippled in one nightmarish blow.

 

Amid the cacophony surrounding him, Joth came to realize that if there was going to be any chance of the Chapter surviving, he had only one real choice. The Tubatus Domus would have to be sacrificed.

 

The Admech priests were frantically trying to bring systems back on line. Once the decision had been made, Joth knew that his Marines and the crew of the Domus would follow their duties to secure what parts of the fortress they were responsible for. It was one of the secret orders that every Chapter Master had to prepare for. Abandon the Fortress.

 

Joth entered the main control chamber to the warp engine cathedrals. He saw Datic himself standing before a vast display slab that hung down from the vague ceiling high above. He composed himself before addressing the Magos.

“Can we warp before it fires again?”

 

Datic turned to him. Was that panic flashing across his one human eye?

“The machine god cries in pain and anger and you ask can we jump? The codes of rerouting, the chants of restructuralization must be finalized. We can’t even begin to plot the phase probability threads with the damage done. Mars, Metalica, Konor, they all must know of this! A random! A random…a random warp with a shallow phase translation shift made tangentially normal to discrete gravity plane could get us out of the system. The capture of such a construct could then be …”

 

Barstron’s eyes narrowed and a chilling thought emerged with in him.

‘We were right. We are all expendable to the Machine God.’

 

The display and status slates showed the damage that the Domus had sustained. Joth could see the long range imaging of the xenos construct. It looked like a vast skeletal hand emerging up through the surface of the planet. Reaching out to grasp and crush another world.

 

‘Is that what happened to this system?’ He thought.

 

‘If so, then may the Emperor forgive me.’ His hand griped the bolt pistol and the gun interface responded to his thoughts. He set the bolts to alternate impact and proximity detonation as he clicked the gun loose of the armour holdfast on his thigh and brought it up. Barstron fired at point blank range and placed four bursts into the head and upper chest of the Magos.

 

As Datic flopped backward onto the floor with smoke and steam rising from the ruins of his upper body and head, Barstron calmly touched the vox gem at his neck guard and tapped it for full broadcast.

 

He turned to look at every one of the other Tech Priests and Enginseers that were now staring in both shocked horror and cold fear at what they had just witnessed him doing.

 

“At this time and place nothing else can be considered. We are all facing our time of judgement and to waiver would be dishonouring our oaths to the Emperor, Humanity, and the Imperium. We do not hesitate in the face of death. We embrace it.”

“You are to set a point emergence field on the surface of that planet. Center it on the construct. Inform me when you are ready to warp.”

 

He closed his eyes and began a prayer of the dead. “Those who now stand before you, Emperor of Man, may you...”

 

In a distant secondary docking bay, Senior Apothecary Dalgine Quintos heaved a cryo-locker through the port access hatch of a Thunderhawk gunship. The engines were screaming at full power, and the marine could feel the groaning of holdfasts locking the drop ship to the bay surface through his entire body. He hailed his Chapter Master.

“We may not have enough time to get everything on board, my lord. It may not...”

 

Joth cut him off. “May the Emperor guide you brother.”

 

The Scout Marine beside him, Estes was his name, yelled “Look!” and pointed back over his shoulder to the far bay walls. He turned and saw reality shiver, like expanding ripples in a pool of water, as what was called the tertiary phase field formed within the wrap engines and expanded to envelop the whole fortress. He grabbed the scout by the shoulder and harshly threw him through the hatch. He jumped after him and managed to hammer the door cycle controls as he yelled, “Go!”

He felt and heard the explosive bolts release, and then was flung to the deck plating as the Thunderhawk rocketed away from the bay surface at full power.

 

“Hang on Sir” was all he heard and then, as the hold illuminators went dark and the emergency glow lights snapped on, he went deaf. The ultrasonic whine of the turbo laser discharge capacitors hitting his ears and causing pain that brought the veteran down to one knee. Auras danced around what he could see and he fought not to black out.

‘That was an override firing’ he managed to think.

 

Shaking his head he tried to stand but was brought back down by the deck heaving first up and then rolling right almost ninety degrees vertical. The noise of rending cermasteel and adamantium structural spars overrode the scream of the engines. He had time to see another cryo-locker come at him before it smashed him into unconscious.

“Phase potential reached. Ready Master Joth”

“Warp”

 

 

Joth did the unthinkable. He ordered the Domus to warp into the planet’s surface. The resulting interference between warp space and real space tore apart the dimensional barriers and consumed the complex in an explosion that vaporised an area of the surface almost 6400 km in diameter. The force of the explosion cracked the planetary crust down to the molten core and blasted the dead world into an orbit that would carry it into the systems' star. Forever lost.

 

Consequences

The Admech were outraged beyond all reason, accusing the Chapter of crimes against the Machine God and of desecration and wilful destruction of Omnisiah technology. With accusations that Joth forced the Techpriests to warp into the planet, they demanded the Razor be censured. Joth’s actions would have far reaching consequences for the men that would now lead. By 696M41, it was realized the Adeptus Mechanicus were now pushing the Inquisition to move against the Razor. The resentment that festered between the Admech and the Razor up until now grew to open distrust.

 

As impossible as the odds may have seemed, the Chapter carried on in its sworn duty to the Emperor and the Imperium. With loyalty built up within many of the local bases in their territory, the Razor circumvented Admech scrutiny to obtain needed men and materials.

 

The Void Crusader was now the Chapter’s home. Its armoured holds transformed into improvised manufacturing forges and apothecary sanctums which supplied the Chapter with a slow but steady stream of men and materials. They also started to use the Demiurg artefacts that had been kept from the Admech since the long “Blood Shadows” campaign to offset their weakened capabilities.

 

No Turning Back

Beginning in 853M41, Black Razor units began to receive distress calls from isolated systems out along the edge of the galactic arm about encounters with ravenous xeno bio-forms. These would later be identified as Tyranid infestation clusters and splinter cells. By 867M41, strike groups were organized to back track and find the possible sources of the bio-forms. One group lead by Junior Captain Jorgen Tagg, began a long and arduous mission out along a line of barren and distant worlds to investigate and cleanse the new threat. By 907M41, Tagg and his ships were stretched far out along the galactic edge and had tracked the Tyranid source back to a system hanging on the edge of the galactic arm. Star charts designated it only as 29C6M61-377AE, and to the shock of Tagg and his men, they discovered a Tau/Human colony fleet fighting for its life against a Tyranid splinter cell.

 

The system was far beyond even the renegade Farsight colonies, but how they got there would have to be answered later. Not asking questions, Tagg committed his men and ships to the battle against the great devourer. After a long and costly fight which saw some of the colony ships awash in blood, the Tyranids were finally destroyed.

 

Everyone was exhausted and spent, and all agreed to a truce in order to regroup. Two events then occurred that sealed the fate of Tagg and his men. The first was Tagg's refusal to kill the Tau and Human colonists on the orders of the Senior Magos Gadius Xyleon. Instead the Captain allowed the colonists to repair and then attempt a return to Tau space.

 

Tagg scowled as he studied the far off line of the horizon to the west. His right hand lifted up to block out the afternoon sun. He had requested a meeting with the Tau colony commander regarding the decision to allow them to return. The Orca dropship had landed a hundred meters from where the Damocles and his own Rhino were positioned. The Por'O, her Command Unit and Fire Warrior escorts then walked the distance in the open to where he had stood waiting along with three members of his Command Squad; Brother Tartel, Brother Dravik and Champion Orthon. When Xyleon's ship had appeared on the scanner slates, Tagg told the assembled leaders to prepare for 'party crashers' as his old Trinos servant would say.

 

Two minutes later they watched the ship appear in the sky and grow large as it approached fast and low over the dry lake bed. It circled tightly around their position and landed 300 meters away from the Rhinos and Orca. Lunes of dust and fine stone formed, revealing the intersecting boundaries of the repulsor and power fields that cushioned the landing of the Admech ship.

 

With the landing thrusters winding down, Tagg saw boarding ramps unlock and freefall to the ground, kicking up dust as they impacted the hard earth. Moments later he could hear the drumming of heavy armoured boots running down those ramps as four squads of Skitarii fanned out from the belly of the ship. At a full run they advanced directly towards his group and halted only fifty meters from where they stood.

 

Tagg heard the Shas’O give the orders to have all weapons and drone systems armed and ready to deploy. He tapped the vox gem to the monitored squad frequency.

"Damocles Novem, monitor everything you can. Brother Cron, be ready to screen us if things turn critical."

 

His men formed up around him and the colony Por’O, bolters held at the ready. Orthon stood next to Tagg.“The Emperor will be with us Captain.”

 

“I hope so my old friend. Otherwise we will fail.”

 

The arid wind blew dust across the hard packed earth as Xyleon and a personal guard approached. The Skitarii parted to allow their High Magos to pass through. He ‘walked’ right up to Tagg; though it was more than human limbs that propelled the Magos from the way the long crimson robes rippled.

 

'I wonder what parts are still human.' Tagg thought as he matched the gaze of the one human eye that was visible within the hood that closed around the Techpriest's head.

 

Three Marine sized close combat servitors stood back and remained focused on Tagg as Xyleon shouted at him. His vox amplified voice hissing with impatience.

"What is the treasonous excuse for failure to obey the orders of the Machine God this time Tagg? You are bound by oath to carry out the will of the Omnisiah when asked to do so! If you do not immediately follow…”

 

“Shut up Xyloeon! You do not order me to do anything! If I do not give them a chance to choose their own destiny, I will be committing the gravest insult to the honour of those who fought and died here. They earned it and you will not do anything to prevent that.”

 

“Do not tell the Omnisiah what to do Astartes! The noose that is around your Chapter’s neck is tightening even now. I will give you one more chance Marine!”

 

Tagg stared into that one real eye of the Magos. He saw the same mad gleam that he had seen in the eyes of Chaos Marines, but there was something else though. Under that gleam was something darker. A cold and soulless being that was loyal only to it and viewed everything else with contempt.

 

“Chaos take your Omnisiah.” Tagg cursed through clenched teeth to the Magos.

“If you move against the Tau and Human colonists, I will order my men to open fire on every Admech ship that is within weapons range. And if the Emperor wills it, I will make sure that you are the last one killed.”

 

Then without taking his eyes off Xyleon, he addressed the Tau Por’O behind him.

“Por Zune’Va, I am giving you a chance to return home. Do not waste it!”

 

‘This is it’ he thought, staring into the multi-eyed face of the Magos.

 

“For the greater good.” The Shas’O said as everyone tensed, ready to die.

 

Xyleon took one step towards Tagg then froze. “Have you confirmed it? I will return.”

He drew himself up to his full height, which took him above Tagg’s head. The physical posturing only convinced Tagg that his actions were right.

 

"You will pay for those treasonous words Astartes! This reprieve is not a show of mercy. You will answer to the Machine God!”

He pivoted and then returned to his ship. In less than fifteen minutes, dust and stones were blowing past the Marines and Tau as the Admech ship lifted at full power.

 

“What just happened?” Brother Dodeus asked slowly, not sure of what he had just witnessed.

 

“Whatever it is will cost us Captain.” Orthon said gravely.

 

“Yes it will.” Tagg responded, feeling uneasy and for only the second time in his life uncertain.

 

In the outer asteroid belt, a Mechanicus survey ship had tracked a large unknown object on course into the inner system. Scans revealed a damaged and abandoned Demiurg forge ship. The forge ships and planet based factory strongholds of the lost race were a prize the Admech had spent eons searching for. Scattered throughout the south and east of the galaxy, most were lost to history, but to now come upon a forge ship was worth the sacrifice of anything. Even a Chapter of the Astartes if need be. With the Razor weakened, spread out and unable to properly regroup, the Admech unilaterally declared them traitors and moved to seize and where necessary destroy their assets.

 

Shocked over their betrayal, Tagg lead his men in a hard fought battle against the surprise Admech attack. With the aid of the Tau and Human colonists, they managed to destroy the Mechanicus ships and kill Xyleon and his men.

 

Tag knelt beside the fallen section of display slate and bulkhead. He reached up, and with his normal gauntlet, turned and then removed his helmet after the neck seals disengaged from the ring locks. His white skin felt tight across his face and he looked down at the struggling upper torso of Xyleon. A mechandrite tendril flailed at him and he caught it with his power fist. He wrenched back and tore the tendril free from the body of the Magos. Wire like things within the structure of the tendril stretched and then tore, trailing a fine mist of fluid.

 

Xyleon shifted to look up at the black form of the Captain with his one human eye. The artificial eyes that covered the left side of his face sparked and faded to black, a sign that his cyber-mechanical systems were shutting down. The section of bulkhead that trapped the Magos had been blown free when the Marines had breached the command deck of his ship from space. It was Gadius’s augmentations that had allowed him to survive up till this point.

 

Hatred boiled up inside of Tagg. Hatred of the Admech and what they had done.

“Why? How could you betray the oaths between the Astartes and Mars?"

 

The Magos stared straight into Tagg’s eyes. Even with his body shattered and crushed under the section of bulkhead, Jorgon saw the same cold soulless thing that he had seen before.

“It was… It was a logical extrapolation from all possible outcomes. With the relevant contingency measures weighed against the projected material to be lost or gained. It was determined that the recovery of a complete Demiurg forge ship was paramount above all else. The elimination of Marine elements had been considered and planned for.”

 

“Elimination of Marine…“Tagg stopped as he realized the ominous and terrible implications of that statement.

 

“It was the will of the Omnisiah that condemned you Tagg, nothing more.”

 

“Then I lied. Yours is only going to be the first death.”

Tagg punched down with the powerfist, crushing the head of the Magos. The energy discharge induced arching through the now dead priest and the shattered display and input slates. He slowly stood up and touched the vox gem on the armoured collar. The power fist now clenched so tight that the servo fibres actually emitted a high pitch whine.

”This is Tagg. Try and contact anyone you can.”

 

As the Razor assessed their dire situation, they began receiving fragmented communications from other Chapter elements still in their home territories. All local bases and Marine assets had been attacked, seized, or destroyed by the Admech. Some local PDF units attempted to assist the Razor but were destroyed, while others were reminded of their loyalties by the Inquisition, which now emerged to suppress any chance of this "rebellion" spreading to the larger local populations.

 

Pursued by both Admech and Inquisitorial forces, the Marine survivors fought their way along the fringe to join up with Tagg at 29C6M61-377AE. What amounted to four Companies managed to make it to the fringe world. A garbled message from the Void Crusader was received stating that it was repelling Admech assault troops and boarding servitors.

 

In organizing what was left of the still proud Chapter, Tagg realized what he had done and what he had turned his fellow survivors into. Those who wished to leave were allowed to. Those that remained declared themselves a Free Chapter, serving the Emperor and Humanity where they saw fit. It actually shocked Tagg that none of the surviving Marines and Chapter Auxiliary chose to leave. At the present time, the Chapter is suspected to have the equivalent of four Companies, along with their Strike Cruisers and a handful of escort frigates. The Void Crusader is their mobile fortress with Jorgen Tagg the declared Chapter Master at this time.

 

 

HOME WORLD

The Razor did not have a single home world. Like other space-based chapters they lived and fought from their star ships. In addition to their space fleet, the Razor established a mobile Fortress, to act as foundry, academy, temple, and sanctuary. It was christened ‘Turbatus Domus’ or ‘Restless Home’. Surveyed in 558M39 by a Scouting mission, conversion of the asteroid into a mobile fortress was started by the Adaptus Mechanicus with construction titans anchoring power cores and drive engines deep into the igneous rock. By 610M39, the Turbatus Domus was finished. Its surface now filigreed with the lights of launch bays, ship berths, observation cathedrals, and defence batteries.

 

It was the location of the main repair yards for the Chapter’s space fleet. It contained the forges needed to produce the weapons, munitions, ordinance, and armour demanded by the Chapter. Apothecary chambers housed the gene seed storage vaults and implantation sanctums that turned raw recruits into space marines. Throughout its mass were the barracks, instructional halls, training ranges, storage vaults, and devotional chambers needed by the Chapter to maintain its body and soul.

 

 

ORGANIZATION

At their peak, the Razor commanded the battle barge ‘Void Crusader’, ten Strike Cruisers, and the assorted escort and supply Frigates needed to support the Chapters’ operations. Like the other Chapters descended from the Raven Guard, the Black Razor was organized into ten independent Battle Companies that contained the men, arms and armour that each required. Lead by a Senior Veteran Captain, each Company was contained within a Strike Fleet consisting of Strike Cruiser, Escort Frigates, and the required gunships and landing craft.

 

Support bases were established on various worlds to maintain both a presence within the local systems, and to provide labour and material support to the Battle Companies as they needed it. The main difference from other space based Chapters was that the Companies would return to the Chapter’s fortress for re-supply, rest and re-equipping on a semi-regular basis.

 

Two Companies were stationed on the Turbatus Domus. Under them was the vast workforce needed to operate the mobile fortress. If the Chapter Master deployed, then the Company he deployed with was referred to as the ‘Honoured 1’st.’ At all times two Strike Cruisers and their support Frigates were stationed at the fortress, which allowed the Companies to deploy immediately when commanded too.

 

Two Companies were assigned to the battle barge Void Crusader. In the early stages of the Chapter’s expansion, the venerable barge held the full complement of three, but over time the Void Crusader had its’ capacity reduced to two by the installation of maintenance, manufacturing, and support facilities. It became a second mobile fortress, able to provide direct material support during a battle and when called upon to, provide overpowering and devastating direct fire support from its assault guns and bombardment cannons.

 

The remaining six battle Companies were assigned to operational rotation. Scattered across many worlds and systems, they were the front line Companies. Each Captain expected to assess the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of his men and equipment and respond to any actual or perceived threat as they saw fit.

 

 

COMBAT DOCTRINE

In the beginning Marr and his successor Usin Bron, struggled to balance the independent nature and will of the Companies against the Codex tenants of central command and leadership. The solution to this was a doctrine of “All should lead, all should follow.”

 

By rotating his men through the different Companies, as well as involving them in the duties of the larger Chapter, they would be able to take their place beside their fellow brothers when called upon, no matter what the situation or circumstances were.

 

“You must have absolute confidence in yours’ and your Brother’s skills of battle and of leadership. No matter where you are assigned or who you are fighting with. No matter what the situation is, you must be prepared to take on any role, any responsibility, and any duty no matter what it is. I expect no less from any one of my men.”

 

This doctrine lead to a flexible and fluid fighting force; weather a small detachment of Scouts lead by a Senior Veteran or a Strike Force needing additional Scout and Assault Squads drawn from other Companies to act as an advanced spearhead. Marr gave his Company Captains the independence to pursue their own agendas, but also made them part of a larger distributed whole.

 

This made the Chapter better able to fight on many worlds and in many different conditions simultaneously. Scout squads were employed on a larger basis to provide the intelligence and covert surveillance needed to ensure men and equipment were not wasted needlessly on protracted and static battles. Precise attacks, hitting with overwhelming shock and ferocity where and when the enemy lest expected it, was the preferred method of the Razor.

 

“We’re a knife flash in the night. One brings fear. Two brings death.”

Veteran Sergeant Mortolia Rell before executing an unconventional drop pod assault that took out the pirate fleet bunkers during the Robuste Bay pacification in 243M40. He ordered two drop pods filled with explosives and then configured them to detonate by remote control. He then had his assault squads board their pods and wait as the entire peninsula was plunged into total darkness due to volcanic ash storms. Under this cover, and at the height of the storms, he launched the explosive pods first followed by his own. The two lead pods, following tracking beacons set up by concealed Scouts, screamed through the defence guns and smashed deep into the cermacrete bunkers. The bunkers were breached when Rell detonated them seconds before his own pods hit the now ruined ceilings. The assault earned him promotion to the 1’st Squad of the Company. There he would serve with distinction and earn the rank of Captain during the Sanchanta Glassing in 277M40

 

Rhinos and Razorbacks were used when needed. Their transport capabilities used to exploit openings and place Marines quickly behind enemy positions. Devastator Squads, Thunderfire Cannons, Land Speeders and the Chapter's Elite Terminators took on a greater role because they could be deployed by Landing Craft, Drop Pod, Thunderhawk Gunship or Teleportation Gate. Only when there was a secured beachhead or firebase, did the Chapter deploy heavier armour and Whirlwind units.

 

 

RECRUITING

The polluted mining colonies, failed hive cities, forgotten agri-worlds and other isolated human enclaves of the fringe territories did not support large enough populations to allow the Razor to recruit from a single planet or system. Recruits were drawn from many different systems so as to create a large enough pool of candidates to choose from. In some instances, scouting parties with senior Marines under the Master of Training and the Chapter Apothicarium, would set up challenges to test exceptional candidates in life or death situations.

 

All this was to select the few who would best survive the dangerous mental and physical trials that they would be subjected to in becoming Space Marines. Some systems did produce more acceptable candidates than others, and when they succeeded in surviving to become full Battle Brothers, they were used to create deeper ties of loyalty within the populations.

 

All recruits were taken to the Domus. This was done to begin building an identity as a Black Razor first and foremost. It also allowed the ‘Initiates’ to be exposed to the different Companies as they rotated back. As each Initiate progressed through the implantation stages, he would be put through the demanding tests, drills, and evaluations that all Chapters used to determine how successful the implantation was.

 

Like all other Astartes Chapter, the implantation stages produced success and failure. Failures sometimes resulted in death, but many lived and after extensive testing and evaluation were given the opportunity to join the Chapter Auxiliary or Household. This was the vast workforce needed to maintain the Chapter’s assets. And though they would not become full Brothers, their failure was not considered dishonourable in any way as their service was needed because the Chapter could not operate without them.

 

When the initiates began their ‘in theatre’ training, they were transferred from company to company as needed. This was done to develop a greater sense of duty to their brethren and Chapter, as all were brothers in arms together. No matter what system they came from, what company they were in, or fighting with, they fought as Black Razor first.

 

GENE SEED

The Black Razor looked upon their Raven Guard lineage as a symbol of honour, to be proudly venerated and maintained. Through constant random sampling and DNA checks of initiates and full brothers, the Razor maintained a high degree of stability within both the implantation organ stock and the recovered progeneroid seed bodies.

 

Those who indicated signs of genetic drift, degradation, or mutation were placed under secured watch and monitored. If the flaw proved to be unstable, they were eliminated or where applicable, converted into servitor organics to be used by the Chapter. If they were deemed stable, they were offered positions in the Chapter Auxiliary. Again, nothing was wasted.

 

 

BELIEFS

The Black Razor did not differ from other Codex Chapters in their view of the Emperor, the role of the Astartes and their place in the Imperium. From the beginning, the Chapter saw itself as the last line against chaos and anarchy, with a very clear demarcation between right and wrong. As they expanded and began to interact with and integrate themselves into the various local populations, drawing recruits from all manner of humanity, this black and white distinction slowly changed to a more pragmatic outlook. When humanity recognized the Emperor as the Savoir he was, all were to be granted the protection of the Astartes as it is ‘our first and only duty.’ Those that turned away were dealt with in a most straightforward and uncompromising manner. They were killed as enemies of the Imperium.

 

As the ideological conflict between the Razor and the Admech grew more intense, this belief did not change. If anything the actions of the Admech strengthened their resolve and belief because they now saw the Mechanicus as a lie. Deceiving the Imperium to maintain a strangle hold on knowledge and technology for their own treacherous ends. They had to be challenged because they had betrayed their pact with the Emperor and Humanity. The Chapter saw it as simple fulfillment of their manifest purpose.

 

As of the present Free Chapter, they see themselves as still loyal. The Admech betrayed them to seize the technology they had uncovered and used to carry out their duty. And that duty has not changed despite all the adversities now before them. To do so would be breaking their oath to the Emperor, and an Astartes cannot break that oath.

 

“We will not forget. We will not forgive. We will survive. We will fight. We will recruit amongst the forgotten worlds, the abandoned systems, and the empty corners. We will offer the chance of redemption to those that have been forgotten, abandoned, or worse, ignored. From the shadows we will fight the wrong that was done to us. We will not forget that our first and only duty is to defend mankind. So say we all.”

 

BATTLE CRY

A battle cry was never officially documented for the Razor. There are the hymns and dedications sung and recited by all Chapters but no one universal calling emerged within the Black Razor. As the animosity between the Razor and the Admech increased, the dedication of ‘Our first and only duty’ was adopted whenever the Razor ended a briefing, assembly, or prepared for combat. As a Free Chapter, they still recite 'Our fist and only duty' when preparing for combat. If any Adaptus Mechanicus are encountered, then Tagg and his men have only one thing to say.

''The Emperor will judge you in death. We will judge you now.”

[Newtype]

Now here is the second post. A short story that details some of the events that happened after the Chapter was declared renegade. It also provides more information and reasoning behind why the Chapter did what it did. Or it will as I expand and write more.

 

Gambit

 

Forty three hours ago the Chapter received an brief astro-telepathic vision from the Void Crusader. They were positioned within Quartis Secondus; the same system where the Turbatus Domus had been lost almost four centuries ago. The Battle Barge was being hunted by Adaptus Mechanicus ships and an engagement had damaged the Geller field focusing lances. They were now deep within the asteroid seas, concealed to affect repairs. Even though they could avoid detection for a long time, something had to be done and soon.

 

The last thirty eight hours had seen Tagg, along with Voroll Tarkin, Master of the Fleet Bertos Dom and Senior Captains Draen Ular and Sercis Zune assembled in an emergency council; devising a plan to return the venerable ship back to its Chapter. The finial plan agreed upon was to use servitor controlled relays to guide the battle barge to an ambush point where Caestus assault rams, launched from the Strike Cruiser Oath of Faith, would intercept the pursuing Admech ships and board them.

 

The delaying action would allow Tarkin along with a navigatio cogitare to board the Void Crusader and drop into the warp. The Void Crusader would then transition back into real space where they would rendezvous with the frigate Hammerfall. The Hammerfall would lead the Void Crusader to 29C6M61-377AE where the remains of the Chapter would be awaiting their arrival. The Oath of Faith meanwhile would recover the assault rams and make its way back as well.

 

After Bertos and the two Captains left to oversee the ships and men that would be needed for the mission, Tagg sat back down at the campaign desk. He was beginning to feel tired. Not from physical exhaustion or lack of sleep, but from concentrating on one task for too long a period of time.

 

He focused through the holo map of Quartis Secundus still projecting from the desk and onto the Marine sitting across from him. Viewed through the monochromatic projection, the angular and hollow face of the elder warrior made him look like an undead specter trapped within the scared and ancient power armor he wore. His left eye reflected the light of the map as he himself studied Tagg back through the projection.

 

“This is going to be our best chance to return the Void Crusader to us. Without it we will be condemned to degeneration into nothing more than pirates, mercenaries and perhaps worse.” Jorgen said.

 

“There are some Brothers who say we are perhaps worse already.”

 

“If there was ever a hint of that behind my actions, you would have cut me down long ago my old and wise Chaplin.”

 

“That is true Tagg. And that is why you picked me to lead the Void Crusader back to us.”

 

Voroll Tarkin, First Chaplin of the Chapter, maintained eye contact with Tagg as he slowly rose from the campaign stool and unclipped the Crozius Arcanum from his equipment webbing. His expression hardened as he placed it heavily on the desk between them. The wings of the Imperial Aquila blocked the projection crystal, winking the map out of existence. “I will not carry it for this mission.”

 

He reached to the side and picked his helmet up from the desk. Crafted into the shape of a domed white skull, an imaging magnifier sat where the right lens crystal would be. This was a match to the interface socket that physically replaced his own right eye over two centuries ago.

 

Placing it under his arm he turned and moved to the back wall of the command chamber where he respectfully removed a large and heavy relic blade from its place in the Reliquary of the Champion. He studied the crystal blade with the scrutiny of the Company Champion he himself had once been.

 

Reflected in the glass smooth surface he saw an aged and lined face, the interface socket an empty void in the reflection. He thumbed the activation crystal and the blade rippled and turned hazy as the power and phase field generators within the hilt energized. He felt the same shiver in his arm when he activated his Crozius Arcanum.

 

The blade glowed with a harsh turquoise radiance and the Chaplin moved his hand to get a feel for its balance and character. In the after image of the blade, smoky trails of memories formed.

 

He closed his eye and saw himself take up the sword from the dead hand of Champion Maceus and then leap at the Chaos traitor Revik. Then he was standing before Chapter Master Cordo Song holding the Gauntlet of the Champion; its adamantine chain used to bind the Relic Blade into the hand of the one who carried it.

 

He replayed the mission into the Tanhauzer Abyss and the rescue of Gollus Tarko, a Chaplin of the Sable Swords. Then there was the face of First Chaplin Torrez and the Test of Faith. This was followed by the destruction of the Turbatus Domus and the loss of Chapter Master Joth. He saw himself kill the Governor of Ordem V because he purposely mutated his population in order to hide his own crimes; and after that?

 

A long fractured campaign against the Tyranids that lead to betrayal by the Adeptus Mechanicus. A dark day that reveled them to be so far removed from Humanity and the Emperor that they forgot it was Man that came first. Not the Machine.

‘I serve the Emperor and Mankind first and only.’ he thought to himself and then opened his eye.

 

He brought the blade vertical to his chest in a salute to the shrine and then deactivated the sword. “Tell Champion Orthon that I will honor the sword and ensure it returns having killed the enemies of the Chapter and the Emperor. “

 

He moved to the entrance but momentarily halted before the door threshold and without turning to face Tagg, said in an accepting but somber tone:

“But remember what that Mace stands for Tagg. For even though I am following you down the road of damnation in the eyes of the Imperium, I know your heart and soul are pure, and you have not and will not betray your oaths to Humanity or The Emperor.”

“We are going to have to be very careful in dealing with them.”

 

As the Chaplin left and the door cycled closed, Tagg began to think again about ‘them’. And the ‘them’ he referred to were the Rouge Traders, Free Merchants and human worlds that resided on the edges of Imperial law, Imperial territory and Imperial notice.

 

He got up and walked over to a small stand that held a basin, pitcher and towels. He poured cold water into the basin, scooped some up with his hands, and threw it over his face.

'Emperor guide me.' he intoned quietly.

‘The Emperor guides those who are willing to sacrifice all in His name.’ The voice that answered was strong and clear within the confines of Jorgen’s mind.

‘Get out of my thoughts if you would be so kind, Xander.’ Tagg responded with an equally strong inner voice. He reached for a towel as the door cycled open.

 

Orteus Xander entered and waited as Tagg finished drying his face and placed the towel onto the back of the stand to dry. He wore the same Scout issue boots and breaches that Brothers wore when performing duties not requiring power armor. But instead of the tighter duty tunic that Tagg had, he wore a longer and looser fitting one that was cinched at the waist by a simple rope belt. The belt stood out against the bleached ivory of the tunic. Blue, and secured to itself by an ornate cast skull with ram horns that curved down and around it.

 

The most obvious difference between the two old veterans was that Xander’s scalp was missing. A slight pinkish ridge ran around the circumference of his head where his white skin contacted the edge of the black crystalline cap that formed the top and back of his head. The cap collected the resonant-crystal threads that were laced through his brain into nodes that dotted the cap in a very specific pattern. It was these nodes that a psychic hood plugged into whenever donned by a Marine.

“I am the only one who is able to do that, Tagg.”

 

“It’s probably because I still mistakenly trust you with my soul, Otreus. What is it?”

 

“Here” And the Master of the Librarium handed Tagg a data-scroll.

 

Unrolled, the parchment of the scroll presented Tagg with images and a report of an incident that occurred on one of the Tau colony ships three days ago. He used his finger to rotate and manipulate the images. Non-enhanced humans needed infoquills to do this, while Marines could do it as a side effect of the black carapace that was interwoven and laced under the subcutaneous layer of their skin.

“What is your assessment?”

 

“The trauma of the assault was what trigged the emergence. The fact that it was her father and two brothers made it especially hellish. It took all of the discipline of Codicer Nass to restrain the girl. She is extremely strong for such a traumatic emergence.”

 

The report stated that Nass had been onboard the ship to investigate several of the human colonists under Xander’s orders. He was passing a habitat section when he felt a sudden surge of wind and heard screams of terror and fear within his mind just as the section’s klaxons sounded an alarm. Realizing what he had experienced, Nass followed the ethereal wake to living quarters inside.

 

As he approached, he saw that the Tau and Humans in the section had fallen unconscious or to their knees stunned, hands gripping their temples in agony. Blood ran from the nostrils and ears of some of the crew and colonists while inside the living quarters were scenes of carnage and death.

 

Pieces of one body, the father’s, were flung across the room with meat and blood staining the walls, ceiling and floor. His head was found in a corner of the chamber with the face contorted into a mad grinning leer. A second body, the younger brother, was lying on the ground having been literally torn asunder at the limbs and torso. The face of this one had the same mad grinning leer contorted across the face.

 

A third body which was the older brother was alive and lying near the prone form of an unconscious teen girl. His body looked like it had been broken from blows delivered by a large mace or maul. His face however melted disturbingly back and forth between that of the other two males and a look of absolute pain and torment.

 

To the normal eye that was all that could be seen. But the third eye revealed much more. The Codicer saw a second aura that surrounded the brother still alive. A shifting inky black, it extruded tendrils of energy that bridged the space between the unconscious bodies and was entwining itself into the aura of the comatose girl.

 

With a sudden wail that scorched the room in a blast of heat, the girl’s body arched up and her eyes opened, casting beams of power up into the ceiling. Nass reacted immediately to erect barriers within the mind of the girl and control the psychic emergence while moving to prevent the possession of the girl by whatever entity was in control of the brother.

 

All this occurred on a plane that was not visible to the warp dead eyes of the Tau security detail as it arrived. The room had turned into a furnace and they were held at the entrance by a wall of heat. Through the haze they saw the Marine down on one knee, draw his force sword and cut down into the floor beside the girl. What they could not see was the blade cutting through and severing the psychic tendrils that would have condemned the girl to a far more horrific existence had she lived.

 

The girl was not out of danger though and verged on the uncontrollable. Nass erected a dome of power to isolate both of them from the brother and then placed one armored hand over the face and head of the girl.

 

He recited five canticles of focus and brought up barriers of will to contain and control the warp link formed in the girls mind. He then did something that as far as he knew; only Librarians could do. He transitioned the portion of his mind that was maintaining control over the girl to what was referred to as the 'Second self.'

 

Due to the complex interactions between a psychic's mind and the Catalepsean Node implanted into a Marine’s brain, a Librarian could learn to do more than switch off portions of his mind to sleep. He could split his attention into two separate selves. This allowed him to concentrate and perform two different tasks at the same time. Satisfied, his 'Prime self' focused on the prone body of the brother and reversed the grip on his sword.

 

Swiveling at the waist so as not to break contact with the girl, he lifted the sword up and with psychic energy crackling across the surface of the blade, plunged the tip down into the head of the older boy like a knife stabbing into a table. The sword went through the skull and down into the floor panels half way up the blade.

 

With a flash of black light and release of energy, he torqued the blade ninety degrees to tear the head free of the neck and spine. A scream of madness and rage erupted from the open mouth of the boy. It passed over him like a shock wave as whatever was using the body of the brother as a host died. Leaving the sword impaled in the floor he acted quickly to try and prevent this from getting any worse.

"Master Xander, this is Codicer Nass. I need your aid quickly"

 

“It would seem that Nass was lucky that the emergence of the girl stunned that habitat section of the ship, while the death of the demon stunned the responding warriors long enough for you to interfere and get them off ship.” Tagg glanced up from the report.

 

“No wonder I had to personally answer the very angry questions of the Tau Por’O and Shas’O. You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”

 

“Yes I did.”

 

Orteus Xander was the Master of the Librarium before Tagg became Captain and he had long ago learned to not question his motives and actions; just as the Librarian had learned to trust the motives and leadership of the headstrong 'Young Captain'. That and he heard the explanation of ‘emergence precognition’ too many times.

“We are going to need her kind Jorgen if we are to persevere.”

 

“I know that. So you have…”

 

“Placed her into a null cell and will begin to train her and her abilities into something that we can use as soon as possible.”

 

All Marine ships had null cells. They were special isolation chambers that disconnected a psychic from the presence of the warp itself. It was a horrific form of torment or a joyous solitude depending on the person who was placed there. These were designed to hold and nullify an emergent Space Marine. For a normal human, it would be a pit of hell. But that is what was needed to deal with an uncontrolled psychic.

 

“I first had to assess Brother Nass as to his abilities and mental fortitude before he could be allowed to petition for the rank of Epistolary. I also needed him to confirm some things that I have been investigating ever since we first came into contact with this Tau Colony Fleet.”

 

“And…”

 

“The girl is the seventh one to emerge within the human population.”

 

The report provided a brief description and images of seven humans: the girl, two women, an older man and three adolescent children.

“You see the same problem that I do?”

 

“Yes. That is too many for a small population to produce.”

 

“By focusing into the minds of those who emerged and others within the human colonists, my men and I have found the reason why this fleet is here beyond the edge of nowhere.”

 

“And that is?”

 

“They are all psychic. All of them are gifted with various rankings and ability potentials just under the threshold. Together they must have created some kind of collective subconscious presence projecting the fleet deeper into the warp than is possible with the Tau’s artificial drives.”

 

Tagg’s eyes narrowed and he returned to his seat at the desk as he worked through the numerous probabilities and causalities that could have brought about such a thing. None of them came to a comforting end point. ” What do the Tau navigation records show?”

 

“We were not allowed to view that information. But by interrogating the six we are aware of, as well as others, it would seem that the fleet was caught by warp storms near their outer boarders. They then emerged into the dead zone that surrounds this system.”

 

“The humans have the rancid, bitter taste of Chaos to them Jorgen. And the chances that the entire human population of a Tau Colony Fleet all have the gift, is impossible. There are hidden hands at work here Tagg, and I have my suspicions about what is going on.”

 

“There is a connection between the dead zone, the Tyranids and the Tau fleet.” Tagg responded. Xander slowly nodded his head in agreement.

 

“Yes. The dead zone somehow acts like a glow plate in the night; attracting creatures with its illumination. But here it acts on two different levels. In real space, the Tyranids somehow viewed it as a void or bubble in their field of perception and were drawn to it. Within the warp, it must have been perceived by the Colony Fleet as something to follow or be drawn into.”

 

Tagg leaned forward slightly. “Or something lead the Fleet here on purpose.”

 

“I have considered that as well. The dead zone triggers emergences within the population because Chaos abhors a vacuum as much as nature. And because the Tau have the same presence within the warp as animals do, they cannot perceive what is going on. Whatever it is we have stumbled upon, we are going to have to be very cautious in the decisions we make next.”

 

"What if the Tau stayed in system longer? Will the dead zone increase the rate of psychic emergence within the human population?"

 

"Yes. And then the Tau will be looking at a fleet of untrained psykers, many of which will be open for possession by Chaos. The longer they stay here the worse it will become."

 

Tagg fully closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. Exhaling to slow his mind, he considered what he had before him. Above and beyond anything else were his men. With no turning back from the path of renegade in the eyes of the Imperium, he had to contemplate certain undeniable facts. Before him now was one of them. He could see certain threads of possibility before him and where they lead to. He made up his mind.

 

He pressed a pattern of runes that linked the Command Chamber with the Strike Cruiser's bridge. "This is Tagg."

 

"Your wishes Chapter Master." The voice of Captain Isod responded back through the ship address system.

 

"Inform the Tau Por'O that I and Master Xander will be transporting across to her vessel within the next two ship hours. Then have a Thunderhawk prepared for launch. Tagg out."

 

Looking at Xander as he got up from the desk. "We are going to inform the Tau of what we found and what we suspect. And tell them to leave the system as quickly as they can. After that they are on their own and if Chaos consumes them, then so be it."

 

“You said that the girl is powerful. Is she strong enough to be an astropath?”

 

"Maybe. But it will take resources we have in short supply.”

 

“Everything is in short supply Xander. Master of the Forge Hauld is complaining about dealing with the xenos machines aboard the Demiurg derelict. But underneath he is praising the Emperor for removing the blindfolds the cursed Machine God placed over his mind and is reveling in what true understanding can achieve.”

 

“And what is that true understanding Tagg?”

 

"That we were created by the Emperor of Mankind, in his image, to defend and protect Humanity from all its enemies. Without fear.”

“We have had our honor and loyalty betrayed and stolen by those who have removed themselves so far from humanity that they have forgotten who they serve.”

 

“And we are going to remind them of who they serve?”

 

“Well, it is too late to call the Inquisition and tell them it's all been a big misunderstanding and can we please come back?"

 

“You know? I sometimes do not understand your sense of humor Jorgen.”

 

“I know. Forgive me. We are going to remind them of who they serve by standing on our own and perform our duty no matter what the cost. We answer to the Emperor, not the Machine God and not the Inquisition."

 

“Even if in the end we all die?”

 

“Even if in the end we all die. It will be worth the fight if for no other reason we fought as free men. Taking up arms against those who have wronged us and answering the call to a higher duty no matter what the price paid.”

 

“Agreed.”

 

“But right now we are going to personally inform the Tau Por’O and her Commanders that we are going to take the six emergent humans and any more like them. Whether she agrees to it or not. And for that I am not going to take any chances.”

"Assemble a Combat Squad from your men and then meet me in the launch bay."

 

The Master of the Librarium simply nodded in agreement and turned to leave as Tagg turned and took two steps to the wall behind his desk.

 

"And pray." He said as he placed his palm onto a black panel that was beside an ornate and heavily reinforced storage cell door.

 

"Pray?"

 

"That she is reasonable."

 

"Indeed." Was Xander's reply as he left to prepare himself.

 

The lock cognitator confirmed who he was and cycled open. The Imperial Aquila carved into the surface split along the two door halves as the cell opened to revel the armoring rack and mounting servos that held his personal armor.

 

"Because if she is not, she will be condemning her whole fleet to death. And I do not want to be the executioner this time." Jorgen said to himself as he started to disrobe.