Forward Assist's First Legion - 'The Exterminators'

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

[Pict Capture of Sergeant Mal Bann ordering an unknown Dreadwing Legionary to destroy the remains of a dismembered Slaughth warrior construct during the Third Rangdan Xenocide. Date and loc-stat unknown.]

The records of the Rangdan Xenocides have long been restricted and sealed by the order of the Sigillite. Overshadowed by the Heresy that followed over a century later, at the time they were the largest campaigns of the Great Crusade with a butcher's bill of blood and material not seen in the galaxy since before the Dark Age of Technology.

What records are available show that in circa 890 M30 a xenos species thought defeated and purged reappeared in the galactic north. Resurgent in numbers that were simply apocalyptic, the horror known as the Slaughth had returned. A gestalt species of space-faring necrophages, the Slaughth were intelligent, cruel, and possessed by a singular need to devour. Colonies, compliant worlds, and even whole sectors fell before them, their numbers and nightmarish technology leading to the defeat of Imperial Army garrisons and what small Legion forces initially stood against them. With a speed that simply could not be countenanced, the northern flank of the freshly conquered Imperium was consumed by war.

Whilst the mind of the Emperor cannot be known, certain deductions can be made. If unchecked, the Slaughth's expansion would threaten to embroil the whole of the new Empire of Man; the xenos needed to be crushed immediately. However, purging the world's lost to the xenos with planet-killer weapons would be pyrrhic; to destroy so many worlds, to lose so much of humanity's resources would end the Great Crusade in an act of virtual galactic suicide.

The Emperor ordered forth his largest Legion: the First. Their full might would be deployed to halt the Slaughth's advance, take back the world's lost to them, and burn every last xenos to ash so they could never again threaten humanity. The First Legion's goal was the Slaughth's extinction and this campaign would be known as the Third Rangdan Xenocide.

The men fighting it would become known as 'the Exterminators'.

[Runefyre]

I've always loved the rangdan xenocide, an interesting part of fluff I hope FW expounds on when DA's get their proper treatment.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you can accomplish!

[Forward Assist]

The Xenocides are the starting point for my First Legion's fluff. The force I have are mainly based in the Thramas Crusade but I see the fires of the Xenocide as a key prologue.

 

Hope to do it justice.

[Reyner]

That diorama is great, gotta love Heresy Era Dark Angels!

[Wolfbiter]

Great work on your marines, and the base looks outstanding ... very creepy and organic!

Though I have to confess, this dialogue popped into my head when looking at the two of them:

"Bariel, how many times do I have to tell you? You do NOT have to shoot grenades to activate them! There's a pin right there!"

"Sorry, Brother-Sergeant. I was bit distracted. I had a dozen Slaugth chewing on my armor plates at the time..."

[Jerichus]

The Xenocides are the starting point for my First Legion's fluff. The force I have are mainly based in the Thramas Crusade but I see the fires of the Xenocide as a key prologue.

Hope to do it justice.

I like it alot! I'm really interested to see where you go for the Xenocides and, of course, it'll be nice to have a single resource for your beautiful 1st Legion

I'm really glad that we've got a couple of 1st legion guys around, hopefully that number will expand when FW does the full legion proper!

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

 

The initial response to the Slaugth invasion was simply massive. Over 200,000 Legionaries of the First Legion were mustered on the northwestern edge of Segmentum Solar. There they were bolstered with prodigious numbers of Imperial Army regiments and ships, as well as the might of the Mechanicum's Legio Titanicus and Cybernetica. The Emperor had conquered Sol with what is estimated to be no more than a quarter of the might gathered there on the eve of the campaign. Additional forces from other Legions were recalled from campaigns of compliance to garrison and fortify the systems bordering the Slaugth expansion, to create a firebreak between them and the Segmentum Solar. The threat the Slaught presented demanded nothing less. With the interstellar ring of steel established, the First Legion pushed into the ravaged northern sectors of the nascent Imperium.

 

The first priority of the masters of the Legion was to identify what Imperial forces in the embroiled sectors still fought on. Those forces that still effectively resisted the Slaugth on key Imperial worlds needed to be aided immediately. Those too ravaged to be effective were ordered to abandon the worlds they defended and regroup with incoming reinforcements. This would allow the First Legion to gain initial footholds back in the lost sectors quickly by concentrating their forces on battles that could be won, whilst preserving what Imperial might remained for the long campaign ahead. By this cold logic, astrotelepathic orders were issued to the forces fighting the Slaugth whilst the fleets of the First Legion plunged through the warp to join them in battle.

 

Battle groups ranging in size from individual chapters to whole hosts broke into real space in their assigned sectors. Some had the liberation of an entire system as their objective. Others were merely intended to secure a rendezvous in empty space for withdrawing Imperial forces.

 

All met with bloody ruin.

[Brother Pheidias]

Sounds promising so far :D

[Spaced Hulk]

I've been meaning to comment on your WIP thread for a while. I'm really impressed with your take on the First Legion, from the sleek, volkite goodness of the Tartaros termies and Dreads, to the sheer coolness of this diorama (I love the combi-volkite and the rotor cannon equipped Dreadwing marine). Your Rangdan fluff is excellent as well.

I'm currently working on the background and initial models for my own 30k Dark Angel force, and between you and Jerichus, there's plenty of inspiration around on the forum at the moment.

Keep up the great work, I look forward to the next update

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/0/05/Slaugth1.jpg

 

[+++Xenomorph: Slaugth+++]

 

The 'maggot men', the 'grey tide', the 'dream eaters' - the Slaugth. A xenos breed as numerous as the Ork, technologically advanced as the Eldar, and insidious as the Hrud. These qualities alone made the species highly dangerous but it was the Slaugth's consuming hunger that made them such a serious threat, always driven beyond reason to expand outwards into the void and consume.

 

Individually, the Slaugth are gestalt creatures with thousands of sentient worms or maggots bonded together in a viscous mucus to form a single nightmarish being. This mucus is believed to be a synaptic relay - as well as a digestive fluid - that allows the Slaugth to restructure its body on the fly. Whilst nominally each creature stands roughly 3 metres tall, this ability allows each creature to move with a sickening speed. It also allows them to regenerate significant bodily damage by rejecting individual dead worms and reforming itself. Whilst not made public to wider humanity, these facts made them an even match in combat to the Legiones Astartes.

 

The most chilling facet of the Slaugth's physiology, however, is the nature of their feeding. A species of necrophages, the Slaugth consume the bodies of their enemies by dissolving them in their mucus. When they consume the brains of their enemies, the 'dream eaters' gain their memories. Indeed, this experience gives the Slaugth a narcotic rush that drives them to consume even further.

 

When the First Legion made their initial forays into the Slaugth-held sectors, they found the black-hulled void craft of the xenos waiting in ambush at virtually every turn. Imperial forces that had been overrun whilst the First Legion ploughed through the warp had been devoured, their orders literally digested by the Slaugth. What had been planned as a series of lightning strikes to break through to the surviving Imperial forces, and so stop the Slaugth's advance across the northern Imperium, turned into immediate pitched battle.

 

The First Legion had no choice but to throw everything into the meat grinder if they were to merely survive.

 

EDIT - Cheers for the kind comments, gents. Appreciate them.

[helterskelter]

Choom them all!

[DarKnight]

Love your work man, so are the Xenocides pre-rediscovery of the Lion?

[Forward Assist]

To be honest, I'm not sure. The BL novels (spit) are not fantastically consistent when it comes to Johnson's rediscovery. Some timelines put him as being found about 50 years before the Xenocides. Some fluff puts him as being found about half way through the Great Crusade, which would be after them.

 

So I don't paint myself into a corner, for this thread I'm going to leave it vague.

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

[Pict Capture of Sergeant Mal Bann. He is garbed in Mk II 'Crusade' Power Armour that was standard issue across the Legion. At the time of the Rangdan Xenocides, after a century of service, the Mk II pattern was beginning to show its limitations. Despite its flexibility, the suit's small overlapping plates were vulnerable to the piercing tendrils of the Slaugth when fighting at close quarters.

Mal Bann's rank of Sergeant is denoted by the checkered pattern on his left vambrace. Also worthy of note is the Raptor Imperialis on Sergeant Bann's left kneepad, indicating he is a veteran of the Unification of Terra and, perhaps, one of the first members of the Legion.]

[in this Pict Capture Sergeant Bann's fighting order is more clearly on display. Given the scale of the campaign, Sergeant Bann carries large quantitues of ammunition in combat webbing worn over his Power Armour. Of note are the blue-tipped stasis grenades on his right hip; used in the auxiliary grenade launcher fitted to Sergeant Bann's Volkite charger, this chrono-weaponry would have given him a decisive edge against the vicious Slaugth.]

[This unknown Legionary is garbed in reinforced Mk III 'Iron' Armour, suiting his role as a Destroyer. The additional thick ceramite plates provided protection from both the onslaught of the Slaugth and the rad-weapons deemed necessary to destroy them. Unfortunately, the additional strain placed on the armour's power supply left a number of legionaries vulnerable when in the midst of the thickest fighting which, ironically as Destroyers, they were likely to find themselves.

This Legionary is armed with a rotor cannon. Whilst not the most powerful weapon to be found in First Legion's armouries, its high rate of fire was highly effective in cutting down the Slaugth hordes. Coupled with the radioactive ammunition issued to the Destroyers repressed the Slaugth's regenerative abilities.]

[The Legionary is also armed with 'PanPac' rad grenades of Terran provenance, favoured for their large payloads. Destroyers would utilise these weapons to sterilise battlefields of the remains of the 'maggot men' and eliminate any chance of the Slaugth reconstitutating.

The hourglass symbol on the Legionary's right pauldron is believed to be a tactical marking denoting him as a Destroyer.]

[Brother Pheidias]

Squeeeeeeee, been loking forward to these. Great as always, FA!

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

 

If the Rangdan Xenocides had to be summarised in a single word, that word would be 'sacrifice'. This could, perhaps, be held as a timeless, universal truth throughout the ages of human conflict but, during the opening stages of this censored chapter of the Great Crusade, it was a darkly literal fact.

 

Ambushed in virtually every system they had jumped into, the massed battle fleets of the First Legion took heavy losses at the hands of the waiting Slaugth. Whilst the carrion lords are often, and rightly, characterised by their obscene mastery of flesh craft, the obsidian hulls of their fleets boasted the Slaugth's technological prowess. Massed lance arrays unleashed salvos the colour of bruised flesh through the void to eviscerate Imperial vessels as soon as they exited the empyrean. In some systems fleets were destroyed piecemeal, with hardly the time to feel the onset of panic before their doom.

 

In other systems, amongst scenes of destruction as ship after ship under exploded in the void, whatever masters survived took on the burden of command. In testament to the cold pragmatism that was at the heart of the Legion's ethos at that time, the majority of the fleet commanders rapidly reached the same conclusion: without swift action they would be annihilated. Whole squadrons of escorts, Imperial Navy groups, and bulk auxilia transports were ordered forward into the interstellar killing zones. They could not hope to weather the storm of the grey tide but expended their lives to buy minutes with which, behind the shield of sacrifice, the Legion's own firepower could be consolidated and brought to bear.

 

Legion battleships, armed with archeotech forbidden to all others by the Emperor's decree, formed up and brought their devastating firepower online. Warp-weaponary, stasis arrays, and other ancient weapons previously unseen by the Slaugth answered devastation with devastation. The Slaugth's alien nature perhaps did not allow them to feel surprise but wherever the First's battleships fought back with their arsenals of annihilation, the grey tide receded and corridors of escape were carved through both Slaugth cruisers and the dying hulks of friendly ships alike.

 

Across the Galactic North, the First Legion fought free of the Slaugth's ambushes at the cost of scores of their own as well as hundreds of Imperial Navy ships abandoned behind them. In any other campaign, this would have been an indelible black mark of dishonour. In the Rangdan Xenocides, it was merely the first clawed handhold of survival.

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

 

Having fought clear of the interstellar ambushes laid by the Slaugth through a combination of tenacity, forbidden firepower, and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Imperial lives, it was clear to the masters of the First Legion that their situation was dire. The majority of surviving Imperial forces that had desperately held the line against the Slaugth no longer existed to be reinforced - the carrion lords had annihilated them. The First Legion's numerous battle groups had lost up to ten percent of the legion's deployed strength without even establishing secure footholds in the Galactic North, let alone the catastrophic losses suffered by their accompanying Imperial Armada and Army forces. The dream-eaters' necrophagic intelligence meant the entire strategy of the campaign was laid bare to the xenos and, now, their could be no quick decisive victory for the Imperium.

 

In hindsight, it is easy to see that the dark character of the First Legion - evident for centuries to come - would stem from the choices made in the scant hours following the disastrous beginning of the Third Rangdan Xenocide. The legion remained stoic despite the losses suffered and, to their great credit, there was no consideration of retreat by their masters; with cold hearts and disciplined minds the hard arithmetic of war was worked out. With the exception of whatever forces were directly attached to First Legion battle groups, whatever Imperial forces and citizenry in the embattled sectors remained were immediately abandoned to their fate. The Slaugth's hellish ability to devour knowledge from their victims meant no one outside the legion could be trusted with their objectives. Within the legion, knowledge was strictly restricted within the different circles of command. Secrecy became the First Legion's greatest shield.

 

Astrotelepathic orders were dispatched to each surviving battle group, each now only made aware of their own isolated objectives. Slipping back into the warp, the First Legion ignored both the last guttering flickers of astropathic pleas for help as well as bitterness of defeat in their hearts. Now they would visit the cold fury of Imperial vengeance against the Slaugth.

[Forward Assist]

Having seen a couple of excellent DA threads pop up with roots in the Rangdan Xenocide, I thought I should get back round to adding to this thread. As people may have seen in my WIP thread, my Thramas era heresy force is moving at glacial pace so my plan to get a couple more Rangdan miniramas completed has likewise stalled.

 

Hopefully, with the MK III plastics in the BoP now being available, I should be able to get more models cracked by Christmas but - for now - fluff for the fluff God!

[Forward Assist]

[+++Restricted Archive+++]

[Pict-capture of Sgt Mal Bann during the purge of Mechanicum Orbital Lambda-32. A Slaugth infiltrator, discarding its disguise as an indentured voidsman, attempts to slay the legionary whilst he reloads after an engagement.

The Slaugth made use of infiltrators, some utilising xenos falsehood technology to bypass Imperial defences, to gather intelligence and assassinate high value targets. Given the necrophagic nature of the Slaugth, these acts were often one and the same.]

[This supplementary pict-capture gives some insight into the intensity of close quarters combat against the Slaugth. Whilst Sgt Bann stands over the ashen remains of a deflagrated Slaugth warrior form, his discarded helmet and pauldron show how close the fight was. At close quarters, Slaugth warriors would penetrate between legionaries' Mk II overlapping plates with masses of their constituent maggots. Once inside, the maggots' necrotic mucous would quickly eat away at the legionary inside unless the plates could be rapidly discarded.

Interesting to note are both the Raptor Imperialis and barcode tattoo born by Sgt Bann, indicating him not only as a veteran of the campaign of Unity on Terra but also as one of the first legionaries to serve mankind.]

[Spaced Hulk]

I've been a little slow on the uptake, so I've only just realised that Srg Bann is the protagonist in both diaramas! It's a nice touch ☺.

 

Excellent work again mate. Great conversions and painting, and the fluff is really evocative.

 

Are you planning any more diaramas?

[Forward Assist]

Cheers, dude. Sgt Bann eventually becomes Captain Bann after the Xenocides and commands my Thramas-era Deathwing. I think I'll have a third mini-rama of Bann at the end of the xenocides showing him taking command of a reconstituted chapter formed from survivors of the Rangdan campaign, one consecrated in the fires of the xenocides...

[Rangaman]

That's a really cool rendition of the Slaugth and I love the story continuation of Bann, I didn't even realize the connection between the Sergeant and your Terminator Captain :O