The Nex Crusade

[Godspear]

"U

pon the hoary velvet plinth of Mankind's heaven, we are stewards; the thousand thousand keepers of a divine providence, a mandate of blood and fire to break the usurping, alien teeth of the strange and tyrannous stars upon the iron of our mailed fists. We stand upon the golden dais of His majesty, His chosen sons who have sacrificed all for the burden of Humanity's salvation. This sacrifice, this humble nobility is the founding writ of glory upon the immortal legacy of every battle brother. From the youngest neophyte to the most season sword brother, you have, each and every one of you, sworn a vow, an oath that harkens back to the most primal pledges of meaning that first echoed serendipitous human consciousness throughout the galaxy, a vow as old as it is sacred, to preserve the Emperor's own will, to be reforged into a divine manifestation of that singular purpose, to become his sword, forever vigilant and retributive across the infinite void; to bring order to the chaos, light to the malevolent shadow, death to the cunning xenos, and the Emperor's own vengeance to the vile heretic. This is your charge, and there is no greater purpose in the entirety of the universe."

[right; background-image:url(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">-Hauser Creed, Master of Sanctity, addressing a congregation of neophytes at Chapter Keep Steinholm[/right]

Chain of Command

M

arshal Ansgar Steinreich was brought into the Black Templar chapter on a feudal world in a quadrant of space on the southeastern rim of the Dominion of Storms. The planet Chalybsus had been isolated from Holy Terra during the Age of Strife. An indigenous population of feral orks, combined with a native bestiary of great and ancient predatory creatures prevented the human colony from ever achieving mastery over the planet, embroiled in war and the struggle for survival that they were. As supplies dwindled, lasguns became clubs and spears, the electricity powering the great palaces of the planetary governors flickered and died, and the colonists were plunged into an age of darkness and steel that endured for millennia. Humanity adapted roaving the land in barbaric, nomadic clusters of people. Where they met with green skin and howling death, they allied with their brothers to safeguard their history and their future. Eventually, alliances of convenience and survival became enduring treaties. The Seven Stewards were born, each house taking a creature native to Chalybsus, but bearing similar qualities to those illustrated in their archives, they united the centuries’ fractured colonial people, now as native and as feral as the beasts that stalked them in the night. The House of the Hawk was renowned as scouts and mercenaries, led by the cold and calculating Memnon Hoag. The House of the Dragon was lauded for its ferocious horsemen, and had likened the great flying Tyrannodon to ancient depictions of fire breathing horrors born from the primal minds of prehistoric man. The greatest of the houses, however, drew their livery from an ancient battle standard kept in an archive regarding the early knights of Europa. The noblest of predators that hunt the wilds of Chalybsus is the alphyn. Massive, winged, and white, they resemble Terran lions with coats of the purest shimmering alabaster, standing roughly eight feet at the shoulder and possessed of a wingspan of at least twenty feet. They are beasts of legend and nobility, like the knights that ride them across the skies of Chalybsus, bearing upon their mailed shoulders the standard of the House of Steinreich.


It is the fate of the second son of the Steward, as laid down in the Black Accordance of 702M41, to take the Oath of Martyrdom Ascendant, and to pledge one's life to the Primus Imperator, the Emperor of Mankind. This was the year that the people of Chalybsus were reunited with their ancient ancestors, who proved as terrible and god like as the ancient texts had exalted them to be. It was four years into the Ultramarine Corinthian Crusade, and a small contingent of Black Templar, led by the Marshal Hastur Roethe, had been conducting surveillance of neighboring systems to assess eliminate the potential threat of ork reinforcement to the Corinthian Waaagh, when the planet Chalybsus was discovered. Observing their customs as a touch misguided but essentially pure and possessed of a charming potential for faith and virtue, Marshal Roethe founded a Chapter Keep in the planetary capital of Leocivitas and recruited the second sons of each of the Seven Stewards, taking them up into their void ploughing vessels to enact the Emperor's holy work upon the enemies of mankind.

Ansgar made his mark early on, distinguishing himself among his neophyte brothers for his participation in dozens of battles with the greenskins in the Corinthian subsector, though he spent several decades at the side of Brother Gerhart Richtus, before being inducted into the ranks of the initiates. In 759M41, he saw his first campaign as a full-fledged battle brother, where he prosecuted the splinter fleets of the Great Devourer in the vacuum of space.

The Alphyn was inducted into the hallowed ranks of the sword brethren almost a century and a half later in 902M41. From the frothing, lunatic jowls of the Maelstrom was belched a massive amalgam of flesh, plasteel and rockcrete, a mighty space hulk, writhing and braying through the empty void its millennium of hatred and suffering. The God Spear was equal parts Imperial Naval vessel, Tyranid hive ship, and reanimated void whale carcass. Writhing muscle stitched together impossibly thick Tyranid carapace and heavy armored Imperial hull. Across grime stained plating and mutated sinew stabbed forth the numbers XII, embossed in brass and slick with layers of ancient gore. Since the earliest days following the Horus Heresy, the Eaters of Worlds had burned bright the torch of blasphemy within the creature. In vast cauldrons bubbling with molten brass, mortal slaves were boiled alive, the soupy mixture of slag and gore used to lash the souls of eight fold and eighty eight servants of the Skull Throne to the dead musculature of the void whale, giving it a new, unholy sentience. Here in the dark, Soul Grinders and Blood Letters birthed from the cavernous folds of stinking, seizing flesh, powered by the howling of daemons and the hiss of hydraulics, baptized in the black oil blood of its impossible progenitor. Here, the slaves of the Blood God had forged a perfect realm of war, where the very walls came alive with the thirst for butchery, and it had endured for millennia. Word was sent to the Ordo Malleus when initial scouting parties met with disaster. Reclusiarch Oskar Pax was summarily executed for a madman when he returned from the hulk frothing and babbling incoherently.

The God Spear Crusade lasted for twenty four years and saw the deaths of two inquisitors, seventeen Grey Knights, and eighty two battle brothers. Down in the dark veins of The God Spear, Marshal Roethe made slow progress through xeno and traitor alike, and only upon reaching the heart of the beast, the bridge of the cruiser Blessing of Angron, did they falter, for in the blasphemous chamber there dwelled the great Blood Thirster, Mol’Khaamon, bound to the service of an ancient Daemon Prince devoted to the Skull Throne. The entirety of the crusade fought to new heights of glory in and around that chamber. As scores of Blood Letters burst into reality, gene stealers and ripper swarms lunged from the shadow and berserkers beholden to the Blood God raged through the labyrinthine warren of cavernous, daemonic cyber flesh. At its end, eight Grey Knights, the last ten initiates of the crusade, Inquisitor Garren Von Drek, and Marshal Roethe walked from the vile halls of Angron’s ancient chosen, battered, bloodied, but victorious. The ten initiates that survived with marshal Roethe were immediately promoted to Sword Brethren. Ansgar was given the additional honor of carrying the battle standard in his marshal’s holy command squad.

Current Force Composition

Marshal - Ansgar "The Alphyn" Steinreich Master of Sanctity - Hauser Creed Reclusiarch (Keeper of the Dead) - Alrik Rogan Reclusiarch (Keeper of Mysteries) - Goddard Druss Emperor's Champion - Brother Gawain Bellator Suits of Power Armour - 276 Suits of Terminator Armour - 21 Dreadnaughts - 4 Sword Brethren - 6 Crusaders - 30 Neophytes - 30 Aspirants - 341 Predators - 4 Crusader Class Land Raider - "Hymn of Malediction"

Ansgar took the title of Marshal after the death of Marshal Roethe in 968M41, following an extended campaign against the awakening tomb world of Valya IV. There, he encountered the Lord Void Drinker, a horror as profound as the visage of Death itself in the minds of men and beasts. Its skull was distended and animal like, wreathed in tattered black veils, like dead leaves on the night that whipped around his bestial countenance with the pulse of the hoary wind. It slew Roethe with an inconceivable ease as an entire planet convulsed and vomited a black tide of unliving metal, forcing Ansgar and his Sword Brethren to fall back. Though his gene seed lives on, a vow is read for Marshal Roethe at evening benediction, and will be read until the Void Drinker has been vanquished.

Steinreich is known as a Marshal for the gregarious nature by which he interacts with other chapters. From war games and disciplined drilling with the Ultramarines, to feasting with the Space Wolves, Ansgar knows well the value of camaraderie, and does well to cultivate it among his fellows. Even within other chapters, the Alphyn’s name is legend. He pledged thirty initiates, five sword brethren, and himself to the Zeist Campaign. There, by using guerilla tactics deep behind enemy lines, he was responsible for the slaughter of several Ethereal Caste Tau leaders and was awarded the pair of blades that would come to be known as The Lion’s Pride. Later, He would assist the Blood Angels in repelling a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Jormungandr from the skies of an ancient forge world. Casting off his Terminator Armour, he soared across the sky with his battle brothers in homage to the venerated first founding chapter. When the fighting settled, Ansgar was given what would come to be known as the Pinions of the Alphyn, a jump pack styled in the same fashion as the winged packs of the Sanguinary Guard.

In the closing years of M41, Steinreich took his fleet west, toward the Eye of Terror, attracted by rumors of unexplained ships and plague, a chance to do the Emperor’s work. The crusade was small in number, so the marines confined their roles to scouting parties and boarding actions, while scanning nearby realspace for possible recruiting opportunities.

They came upon the darkened vessel Herald of Malediction, a Heresy Era cruiser bearing the livery of the Death Guard upon its prow, in the northern quadrant of the Scarus Sector. Initial scans showed the ship to be deserted. However, upon storming the bridge, Marshal Steinreich found a single marine, in an ancient, filthy set of power armour. The plates were caked in blackened, rotten flesh and viscera. Upon his discovery, the grime slick, ancient Astartes hacked out a challenge through lungs ragged with disease.

“Whosoever can end my eternal torment, and grant me the Emperor’s Mercy shall have the ancient relics of this ship eternal.”

The bridge was soon filled with maniacal laughter when the stranger’s head went rolling across the floor. Ansgar had accepted the challenge and had delivered the seeming death blow, but the chaos marine simply plucked his boil ridden head from the dust blanketed floor and cackled.

“In a year and a day, I’ll deliver this back to you, boy,” it sneered, and dissipated into a swarm of hungry flies that tore at the flesh of his battle brothers.

A moment of pride, of arrogant self-assurance, has damned Ansgar Steinreich. The Nex Crusade was formed with two objectives in mind. First, Ansgar must discover the nature of his foe, searching the stars for a way to defeat this strange plague marine. Second, he must repent his pride and atone through savagery and bloodshed. It seems that the Emperor has granted him a bounty in the way of opportunity. As the Thirteenth Black Crusade pours from the Eye of Terror, the Nex Crusade is in the perfect position to provide support.

The Reclusiam

Hauser Creed oversees the cultivation of faith among the collected battle brothers of the Nex Crusade. He is also responsible for leading the sword brethren across the battle field in the absence of Marshal Steinreich. He leads services within the Reclusiam as its Master of Sanctity, and oversees the induction of new aspirants into the chapter's ranks. The duties of the reclusiam, then, are twofold. First, the chaplains must preserve the history of the chapter, they must chronicle the glories of fallen brothers and guard closely any relics possessed or unearthed by the crusade. Secondly, the chaplains are responsible for ensuring the chapter's continuance and the grooming of its future. Each of these broad duties is overseen by a Reclusiarch who reports directly to Creed. The Keeper of the Dead, brother chaplain Alrik Rogan, keeps record, maintaining vast libraries of dust caked tomes aboard the battle barge Will of Dorn. Apothecaries of the crusade report any casualties to Rogan, including those of aspirants whose bodies reject the implants or who die in training. Alrik is responsible for holding burial services and dedications, as well as returning recovered gene-seed to the crusades reserves. The Keeper of Mysteries, brother chaplain Goddard Druss, is responsible for training new aspirants, holding the daily mass in the Reclusiam's chapel, pairing neophytes and initiates for mentorship, and maintaining a historical record of every space marine to wear a given suit of armour, and own a given progenoid. This goes hand in hand with the recording of the names and deeds of each Emperor's Champion in the crusade, a duty that also falls under the purview of the Keeper of Mysteries. In this manner, every marine to sit among the Alphyn's number is catalogued and celebrated as a hero of mankind. Incidentally, it is also the Keeper of Mysteries' responsibility to organize crusade feasts and is the first point of contact between Marshal Steinreich and the masters of other space marine chapters.

The Emperor's Champion, Gawain Bellator

Upon the eve of Steinreich's venture into Herald of Malediction brother initiate Gawain Bellator was struck with a vision of a man clad in golden armour and crowned in ebon locks, clutching his belly in agony and grief. Visions of honor and glory flooded his mind through the minds of all the men that ever lived and the auspices they used to commune with the ancient gods, split and dissected by an angry, scrutinizing eye, as immortal and ancient as it was terrible. The eagle eclipsed the sun, terrible and breathing fire; but as it heaped retribution upon the crawling serpents of the Earth, the fire of its hatred engulfed its feathers and it fell to lay on the ground beside Him, charred and mangled, and the crows tore at the eagle's flesh. The ancient, rusted ploughs of industry were melted down and forged into tools of death and vengeance, and upon the anvil of battle the eagle was made anew. Upon reporting his vision to Chaplain Druss, he was confined to the Reclusiam, that deeper meditations and counsel with the chaplains therein might uncover some meaning to his dreams.

[Trignama]

Really well written Godspear, do you have models accompanying the storyline? If so would love to see them!

[Eberious]

Models,, and looks like a good read. Think I'll save this for work tomorrow on my 13 hour shift...

[Godspear]

I'm painting as fast as my nubby digits can wiggle. Photos soon to come

[Marshal Rohr]

Templars fought on Thracian Primaris during the EoT, not Cadia, just so your aware.

[Godspear]

Indeed they did! Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't meant to infer that they'd be going to Cadia, simply that they were supporting efforts against the 13th Black Crusade.

 

Edit: Finished a few models. Going on display in the morning.

[Eberious]

I'll tell you somthing, its good to read a crusades fluff and 1.)be well written and 2.)not be so hyped up like my crusades the best ever no can beat it so there. I enjoyed reading that and look foward to more stories as your crusade grows and travels on its quest.

 

Although, I struggled to understand this word...retreat...whats that..lol

 

Its a damn shame I suck at creative writting as I would buff out my crusade thread. I may try tyo again one day.

 

Cause I'm lazy and a little thick. how do you get those fancy black boxes with text in your/our posts?

[Godspear]

Here's the cheat sheet I used. Should give you all the answers.

[Eberious]

Ah, thank you.

[WOOF on a Stick]

Awesome work!

I can't wait to see those models. If you made up a real campaign tournament for this story I would love to read the battle reports of your victories. ;)