Fall From Grace: The Lightning Bearers

[Soldier of Dorn]

That's definitely an impressive looking power mace. Top bit's from the Ravenwing Knights, correct?

[Nomus Sardauk]

Interesting... Am I correct in the assumption that's meant to be a Kanabo?

[apologist]

 

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/5338571b-90ef-4014-8aaa-9030099db3a9.jpg

 

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Quoted to save it from languishing at the bottom of the last page. 

A cool pose – are those Master-Crafted miniatures pads and Phoenix Terminator legs? The combination works really well; you have to look hard to see the components as it all blends so seamlessly :)

 

This thread is awesome.

[Lord_Caldera]

@ The Psycho: Yep it's the Ravenwing club

@ Sanguinius: It is indeed meant to be a kanabo. This was one of the first conversion ideas I had for the army actually. I'm a huge fan of blunt weapons and the kanabo is a singular example, and a Space Marine should be able to wield it to extremely bloody effect

@ Apologist: Thanks man! The Master-Crafted pads really are fantastic, as you know well. I borrowed the pose from your old Novamarines captain as well

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Seta, Battle-Brother of Gima Squad, 5th Company Lightning Bearers

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/e6059bb7-d955-4c23-8991-bdbd9e713392.jpg

This pict shows off one of the many experimental power armor variants adapted by the smiths of forge-moon Akira. Although the cuirass and helm are clearly modified Mars MkII, the other components are less obvious in their provenance. The greaves appear to be an early variant of MkIV, incorporating more efficient fiber-bundle musculature as well as improved frontal armor over older MkII pieces. The rimless pauldrons are almost certainly an active prototype being field-tested in limited numbers. After-action reports indicate an excellent level of protection against direct fire, but the model would prove too costly in rare materials to mass produce.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/9bfa34d9-a10b-469f-b21a-a5cd6011a456.jpg

A grizzled veteran of scores of battles, Seta was among the early generations of recruits to the Legion once Madrigal was brought into the Imperial fold. Despite his age and experience he did not advance far within the Legion, acting sergeant being the highest (temporary) rank he achieved in command of a remnant squad whose sergeant and Auger were killed in action. The absence or reluctance of promotion cannot be attributed to any lack of ability, as by all accounts Seta was an accomplished fighter and capable commander when needed. A clue may be found by the noted lack of psychic ability in the veteran's records in a legion which prized its guilty gifts. Indeed, over his career he was passed by for promotion in favor of equally, or arguably less, skilled brothers who only possessed psychic ability over Seta. Nonetheless the veteran was always pleased to share his vast wealth of knowledge with younger Lightning Bearers, and questions were always met with a small smile and polite modesty.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/aa580c52-dccc-4bad-a654-c454f14edc70.jpg

All Legiones Astartes are conditioned to be ambidextrous, but humans must favor one side by nature, In many Legions the prevalence of left-handed warriors was lessened further still by the necessities of phalanx tactics or cultural demands, but in the IInd Legion it was not uncommon to see brothers deliberately using their "off"=hand in order to focus themselves. Seta, as a veteran, is likely naturally left-handed. He carries a decorated dirk in place of the curved wakizashi common to those Legionaries of Madrigalan descent. It is known that Seta was one of few Lightning Bearers to participate in the nascent legion exchange program with the IX Legion. It is likely that Seta ritually exchanged his own side sword for this dagger with an oathsworn brother in the Blood Angels, and it is a sign of the high esteem in which the Legions held each other.

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[Lord_Caldera]

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Revin was young. How many battles had he fought? How much had he lived, really? Not many. Not much. And now he was going to die, of all places, here on his homeworld. It just wasn't fair.

 

He had trained so hard, aspired to so much. He had been chosen! He, above all the others boys of his village, only he in its long history had been taken by the Legion of Madrigal. The trials had been arduous. He had fought his fellow aspirants, bled for, with, and by them through the brutal training, endured the complete invasion of his body time after time as new organs were implanted. The pain as he grew from a thin boy into the posthuman creature he would become was indescribable, hundreds of pounds of taut muscle expanding inside of him as his bones lengthened and thickened unnaturally in a grotesque mockery of his lost puberty.

 

He had ventured on scouting missions beneath the dense, swirling rad-clouds of Madrigal, testing his mettle and resourcefulness against his newborn brothers' under the watchful eyes of grizzled sergeants. Decontamination and recovery from their short journey into the catacombs of their ancestors had taken a fortnight even with the remarkable healing powers of their new bodies and the full attention of the apothecarion. They had found nothing of value, but that every man of his neophyte unite had returned had an honor of its own. They had earned the right to bear the Storm Star.

 

He had been blooded against a stray faction of humanity not long ago. Revin had negligible psychic ability compared to many in his legion and could not feel the tides of fate as described in the blessed Primarch's writings, but what he saw on that world had graven the lessons of moderation on his psyche. It had been a planet wild with power, not unlike Madrigal, but with none of the will to contain it. The populace was mad, murdering and flaying, copulating in the streets, feeding the energies running amok. Lurid warp lightning leapt seemingly at random across the populace, mutating what it touched and spawning living nightmares. The legion had cleansed the world of life and un-life alike for its transgressions against humanity.

 

Sadly ironic, then, that Madrigal would now suffer the same fate at the hands of their own kin. Revin and his brothers would be cleansed just as thoroughly, for an imagined crime he didn't fully understand. He was only twenty-five standard years of age after all, and lacking the psychic affinity to have been inducted into any secrets of the legion. Still he was proud to have come so far at all, and he would sell his life dearly before he met his end. He shook himself out of his reverie and checked the load on his boltgun with bitterness growing in his heart.

 

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Revin, Initiate of Gima Squad, 5th Company Lightning Bearers

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/2d8b4ec7-a995-4666-ae24-cf52d6514182.jpg

 

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/1f77fe5c-588e-442c-8a25-71dd8bd7650e.jpg

 

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20160622_010504.jpg

 

And with Revin the first combat squad is done. Hopefully the other half will progress at about the same pace along with some heavier support and command elements.

[Lord_Caldera]

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A Seeker of Wisdom, I come

To this field,

Not to end your lives,

But to enrich humanity.

The petals drift from the trees and

I see them not, yet

The fading sparks of the lives I take

Flow through me

To the Stars.

 

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[Pearson73]

Looking good, especially the pose and horns.

[Thrillhouse]

I really like the mix of terminator marks. This is going straight to my carcharodons astra folder, tell you what.

[Olis]

Double the choom, double the fun. ;)

[Lord_Caldera]

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/64c5758e-2b1f-4a25-bc67-518e25401c83.jpg

 

Silence

 

Noha rummaged through the dead legionary's equipment pouches. He knew what he would find even before opening them, a combination of his knowledge of the First's habits and his own psychic gift, but the carrying through with the physical act gave him time to balance himself. The Dark Angels recon squad had been ambushed perfectly. None had suffered, but none had survived. And despite the circumstances of the Siege, despite watching his home invaded and his brothers killed, the murders he continued to commit himself disgusted Noha. There had always been rivalry between the First and Second, but never enmity. Never the hatred he felt even still echoing from this corpse.

 

The Lightning Bearers around him complete their own work one by one. Most had topped off their ammunition from their dead cousins' supplies, one or two had taken small tokens for remembrance but not as trophies. Their actions held no honor to be lauded for. As the squad's Augur Noha could feel their unease and their questions. What is the objective? Where do we go? Sensations pressed on his mind, queries from his brethren not fully formed yet base enough to interpret from his years of experience. He blinked once and eased himself into their familiar rhythms. Torio was angry of course, his young temper constantly battling against his mnem-enforced will. The injustice of this conflict ever stoked his rage higher and Noha gently massaged it down with his own false serenity. He felt Enji's sanguine soul touch his own, the newly minted sergeant plying his own calm across the squad. There was no more time now for ambition, and to his credit Enji had discarded those traces of himself that intruded upon a level head. 

 

Atsu's questions were the most insistent. The enhanced auto-senses of his Ryza-pattern Mark IV helm meshed with his precognitive abilities to warn of First Legion armor advancing toward their position. Noha dipped briefly into the scout's consciousness. Eleven minutes twenty-eight seconds; they would be long gone into the city by then. He only vaguely sensed Oru and Wara at the edge of his psychic perception. While many of the Second Legion were possessed of psychic ability it was far from all, and the two oldest members of the squad had dull souls. They always acquitted themselves well despite that handicap and Noha knew he could count on them to resupply and take up overwatch positions with a keener eye and instinct than most, if not a keener mind. And Suya...

 

Where was Suya? Noha felt momentarily disoriented as he realized he could not sense the sniper, usually to be counted on with a quick laugh and a sure shot, and his poetry was much sought-after. Noha had not sensed him die, he could never miss that feeling of a brother's soul-fire being extinguished. Suya was missed simply due to his lack of being there suddenly, like he had wandered away into black nothing. The augur's blood ran cold as he remembered another feeling like this from long ago. Back then, as an aspirant, he had witnessed firsthand the horrors that awaited those Legionaries who fought for too long. But Suya had only been Astartes for 23 years Terran standard, surely he could not have succumbed to that so soon.

 

His doubts were shattered by a dull roar that echoed through the psychic plane as much as it did through the alleys around them. The squad was already moving toward the disturbance as psychic shockwaves rippled from an alcove down the processional. Darkness and ash coalesced around a staggering shape that stalked into view even as brilliant blue flames spurted from rents in its armor. Eyes blacker than black and filled with the promise of death glared out from where the azure of their father's eyes should have, and the pale helm cracked into a set of bloody mandibles to roar a challenge. Noha looked on in horror as his friend's shape continued to shift, Suya's arms lengthening and breaking free of his armor into massive rending claws edged with perverse teeth. The sacred sakura blossom worn so quietly on Suya's breastplate convulsed and spread open into a chewing maw regurgitating dripping ropes of entrails that wound about its body obscenely. With another screech of fury the daemon first stepped, and then began bounding down the street towards the squad of Lightning Bearers.

 

The grim voice of Enji came over the vox this time, his psychic powers suppressed in his own defense against the abomination. "Enact Silence Protocol. Only in death does duty end."

 

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I've wanted to paint the Gal Vorbak for a very long time, and creating a corrupted Lightning Bearer seemed like a fun and challenging little project. Suya won't be used in games except maybe as an objective as nothing left of the man remains. I added black tendrils and scorch marks around his feet on the base to show the unnatural possession, inspired by the Mhara Gal's "The Earth Rebels" rule. I also tried to make the fire on his shoulder look like it is draining the color away from the storm star icon as it burns with soul-fire.

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170502_004739.jpg

 

The twisted face growing out of the chest of the model I painted in pinks to reflect the sculpted sakura blossoms work by some Lightning Bearers, twisting such a pure and elegantly simple symbol into an intestine-vomiting daemon face.

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170502_004720.jpg

 

Prayer scrolls don't fit the II as well as the XVII but I thought a calligraphic poem would juxtapose well with the monstrous nature of the model, as well as provide a link to the man who once was. I added a stamped signature seal in red.

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170502_004825.jpg

 

The horns and spines of the possessed were painted to be actively bleeding as they continue to work their way out of the flesh-form. Developing rents in the armor got a red wash to imply that the armor itself will soon be bleeding as is splits to reveal more abomination.

 

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[bluntblade]

Suya will have to feature somewhere in the BotL - admittedly several decades older. Don't know how I missed your return for three months, loving this stuff.

[Lord_Caldera]

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/cb434961-b3c1-45fc-8fe4-60feb613f58e.jpg

 

"Respect.

Not brotherhood for a thirsty soul.

Not admiration for a warrior fighting past death.

Not the comradery of shared battlefields.

Respect.

I'm sick of respect.

Respect is a pat on the back as your family dies screaming in front of you.

Respect is the salve for a wounded ego.

Respect is a feast of ashes for the starved wraith that I have become.

Respect is all that I ever receive as I wake and sleep and wake again. My lenses see their hard smiles and small bows, and I see them make superstitious signs of warding behind my iron back. I fight with them but I do not live with them. We are not brothers and never have been. My brothers are all dead, save one. Even he does not speak with me. Even he makes his bow to my ironform and moves on quickly, though I have seen him salute my back in the old way when he thinks no one is watching, bringing his fist over his heart. He, too, is alone, but only I am accursed.

 

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Canaan, Venerated Ancient of the Legion

 

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Elsiah is not truly the last Terran of 5th Company, merely the last living. There remains one other. Canaan was a gunner in a heavy support unit in life and retains that specialty after death. Canaan was interred in the chassis of a Contemptor dreadnought just after the discovery of the primarch Icarion, and in his increasingly necessary dormant periods he had little opportunity to engage himself with the Madrigalan legionaries. Even when he was awake the culture of his new brothers viewed his life-after-death as an abomination to be abhorred, and he was politely shunned from their society. As the company's Terrans died in combat, or were subject to the Silence Protocol, Canaan tried to adopt the culture that was leaving him behind, even going so far as to add a sakura blossom to his armored form, but the symbol held no true meaning for him and Madrigalans sneered when they saw it. 

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170605_022357.jpghttp://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170605_022338.jpg

 

 Shortly before the Siege of Madrigal his ironform was fitted with an experimental rotary cannon to replace the twin heavy bolter he had favored. He was not informed of the change before he was awakened; the Akiran techpriests merely apologized when they informed him of the switch.

 

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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170605_022501.jpghttp://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj254/lord_caldera/20170605_022447.jpg

 

Athrawes' beautiful original Contemptor was based on the Raven Guard model, and the studded band winding across it was considered to reflect the "sea of stars". I decided to use the interior of the filigree on Hekaton Aiakos to represent the same concept. Hope you like it