The Jerahmias Crusade

[StMichael]

A bit of background fluff for my crusade, to include bike cavalry in friendly games where my opponents are agreeable to a friendly fluff game. Enjoy!

 

The Jerahmias Crusade:

Along the border of Segmentum Obscurus and the Ultima Segmentum lies subsector Corinthius, a small rural system with only one inhabitable planet, a mu class Feudal planet called Jerahmias. Though it produced little in regards to the Imperial Tithe, it still boasted valuable Space Marine recruits from its warrior-class nobility. When a Black Templar chapter keep reported an Ork infestation, a crusade was formed to scour the planet lest the Ork menace spread to nearby subsectors.

 

Consisting of 200 battle brothers, the Crusade employed the Templar's favored tactics of orbital bombardment followed by an armored spearhead marching into weakened enemy positions. Though the cleansing was going well, the Chaplains sensed something was amiss on Jerahmias. Only after it was too late did they find out what it was.

 

The planets ruling lord and his inner circle secretly served the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The Ork invasion served to lure the Black Templars into their trap. Once they made planetfall, the trap was sprung. A massive warp storm enveloped the subsector before the crusade had finished, leaving them stranded on the planet. Worse still, Daemonic portals began to open among the villages with Daemonic hosts spilling forth to lay waste to the planet. Though the Templars managed to spare a select few regions, the planet was awash in Chaos forces. Hopelessly outnumbered and with no sign of the warp storm abating, the crusade dug itself in and prepared for the long siege ahead.

 

Over the decades, battle brothers fell to attrition and were replenished by new recruits. In time, their tactics came to resemble those of the warrior nobility from which the neophytes were drawn, with long range fire softening their targets before strong infantry lines acted as an anvil upon which the hammer of mounted cavalry struck.

 

Frustrated by how long the loyalists were able to hold out, the cultist leader made a desperate ploy and begged the Dark Gods for Daemonhood that he might strike the Black Templars down once and for all. Amused by this, Khorne instead split his body open and ushered in a Bloodthirster to carry out his bidding, which immediately marched on the Black Templar chapter keep.

 

In the prayers before the battle, a young initiate was graced by the Emperor with visions of battles long passed and warriors long dead. One thing united these visions, however, and the initiate understood that he had been gifted with the life experience of Sigismund, the first Emperor's Champion. Presenting himself to the Chaplain, he was clad in the Armor of Faith and given the Black Sword to wield against the Bloodthirster.

 

Though it had been the first time any of the battle brothers had seen a Greater Daemon of Khorne, the Emperor's Champion did not falter, for by the grace of the Emperor he had already slain a thousand such beasts, and strode toward this new enemy undaunted. Though the Bloodthirster roared with a fury that shook the stone beneath their feet, the Emperor's Champion paid it no heed, and with a mighty swing clove the Daemon's hand from it's arm before thrusting the Black Sword deep into it's heart.

 

With the Greater Daemon slain, the Warp Storm finally lifted and the Daemons vanished back into the immaterium. The Jerahmias Crusade was finally at an end. Though the Black Templars rejoined their brothers in the great fleets, they felt as outsiders in a strangers home. They knew their duty was far from over, and so the brothers who fought, lived and died together set out on another crusade of their own, scouring planets of aliens, mutants and traitors as they had on Jerahmias.