Who Did Guilliman Send to Terra?

[Son of Carnelian]

Alright, so the Ruinstorm cuts off most of Ultramar from the rest of the galaxy. I get that. In fact, I have always liked that explanation. The Pharos serves as a beacon that can extend past the Runistorm, but could not reliably communicate beyond the 500 Worlds. 

 

So who did Guilliman send to confirm his father's demise? Obviously, he assumed Terra had fallen and put Imperium Secundus into effect. Whatever your feelings on that, that's the conclusion he comes to. But Guilliman is the strategist, the Avenging Son, the Empire Builder. So he would never just let his fears go unconfirmed.

 

So who did he send out into the Ruinstorm, with the vain hope that they might learn the truth? Is it stated in canon and I don't remember it? Are there fan theories about this? Is this a totally uncharted part of the background? Thanks you for any answers you can give me, brothers!

[IronDrake28]

As far as I know nothing of the sort has been mentioned, if I had to guess it would be one of his Tetrarchs.

[apologist]

I'm not aware of any material from GW that covers this, but it's an intriguing thought...

 

A small shipload of void-hardened Ultramarines sent into the storm, fully expecting either to be lost on route or to emerge to find horror, is a cool theme for an army. It has elements of Event Horizon and The Odyssey – great combo :)

[Son of Carnelian]

I'm not aware of any material from GW that covers this, but it's an intriguing thought...

A small shipload of void-hardened Ultramarines sent into the storm, fully expecting either to be lost on route or to emerge to find horror, is a cool theme for an army. It has elements of Event Horizon and The Odyssey – great combo

EXACTLY. Rife possibilities for a story there. Maybe a group of Word Bearers chases them in, partially out of thoroughness and partially out of fanaticism.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Calas Typhon]

I doubt he did in fact send anyone to check, after all, without the light, it would take untold years to get to Terra, then get back to bring the news making it somewhat pointless. Now sending them into the void blind in hopes of finding what happened.. perhaps. 

 

I think the reason why he did not go was the fact that something so powerful as the Light on Terra vanishing would only lead to one conclusion for him, not knowing the power that Horus' forces had. He was pretty nailed down in his own Empire by the World Eaters and Word Bearers until the ruinstorm hits, and by the time he realised a any amount of the power of Chaos through seeing Angron's Transformation, the ruinstorm was up and any chance of pushing to Terra had gone. 

[Son of Carnelian]

I doubt he did in fact send anyone to check, after all, without the light, it would take untold years to get to Terra, then get back to bring the news making it somewhat pointless. Now sending them into the void blind in hopes of finding what happened.. perhaps. 

 

I think the reason why he did not go was the fact that something so powerful as the Light on Terra vanishing would only lead to one conclusion for him, not knowing the power that Horus' forces had. He was pretty nailed down in his own Empire by the World Eaters and Word Bearers until the ruinstorm hits, and by the time he realised a any amount of the power of Chaos through seeing Angron's Transformation, the ruinstorm was up and any chance of pushing to Terra had gone. 

 

I respectfully disagree. I think he could spare a squad and a scout ship, and likely did. 

[Canadian_F_H]

I could see him making multiple moves to that end. Attempting to send ships above or below the galactic plane for example to find a route around the storm.

[Lord Blackwood]

I dunno ,  Ultramar was not the safest place during that whole Pharos / Imperium secundus arc , they were still sorting out the whole Word Bearer and World Eater stuff and the influx of night lords and  other scattered traitor forces was also a problem. Not to mention the fallout from calth. 

I dont think Big papa Smurf sent anyone to confirm his suspicions that the emperor had died , I think he just sort of came to that conclusion  and went about trying to secure his holdings and try and sort the whole Imperium Secundus stuff out.  If he did send anyone ( of which  I  have not read  up to this point of my working the way  through the fluff )  they damn sure didint make it back with news. 

 

[Son of Carnelian]

If he did send anyone ( of which  I  have not read  up to this point of my working the way  through the fluff )  they damn sure didint make it back with news. 

 

Or they didn't make it back in time... Boy, do I really like this idea. A handful of Ultramarines dive through the storm, barely survive the horrors of Chaos, come out the other end, and discover... what? The Battle of Terra? The 41st Millennium? And how does the storm change them and what they believe about the nature of the universe?

[Lord Blackwood]

considering the harrowing experience the Salmanders faced trying to get vulcan's body back to nocturn  when  they left mccragge in deathfire ( as terrible as that book was for me to get through )  I dont think it ends well for them. 

I mean sure if you wanna use the idea as an excuse to paint up some models go for it 

but as far as we know he didint send anybody toward terra 

[Son of Carnelian]

I mean sure if you wanna use the idea as an excuse to paint up some models go for it 

 

Might be more than that, brother. 

[Plaguecaster]

He may not of sent anyone but I am sure there is the posilibity of a Ultramarine force who may of been seperated from the main part of their legion during the start of the Heresy and were unble to get back to the their legion so instead chose to head to Terra instead

[Marshal Rohr]

There's a short story about ultramarines in the solar system out. Can't remember what it's called at the moment but they were doing some kind of hypo-simulations iirc.

[Sabadin]

There's a short story about ultramarines in the solar system out. Can't remember what it's called at the moment but they were doing some kind of hypo-simulations iirc.

Gates of Terra was the name I believe. Was an interesting little short.

[Kol Saresk]

For the most part, to our knowledge so far, Guilliman is operating on the second-hand information of traitors, possibly captured traitors, and the Shattered Legion forces who have come his way, who are all currently "Woe is me, my Legion is dead, we are all lost." This is futher reinforced by the fact that none of the forces he has contact with can find the Astronomicon, including the forces at Pharos.

 

So he's operating in a kind of "Terra might still be there, but it might not be" kind of attitude. What that means as far as we have been shown is that right here, right now, he is safeguarding Ultramar against further Traitor attacks while getting ready(or at least trying to with Lion El'Jonson running around and doing his own shenanigans) to launch his own counter-attack against the Traitors' main forces.

 

So he's not really thinking Terra is dead and gone, but rather he has something in the neighborhood of four hundred worlds that are either constantly under attack or under the threat of attack, and he needs to do something about all of these World Eaters and Word Bearers who are running amok, as well as these Death Guard, Night Lords, and other Traitors and Black Shield forces who are continuing to enter Ultramar, before he can do anything else.

 

I also think that he wouldn't necessarily be pessimistic that everyone is dead like he is being told, because he has found Vulkan alive, so he's probably thinking that "Terra stabds alone, but it still stands." even if it isn't something he can confirm. While he may be a logical realist about many things, I think this is the one thing he would actually have faith in being true.

[Son of Carnelian]

I still think he might spare an Escort-class ship an a small group of Marines, especially if made up of volunteers from the Scattered Legions.

[Kol Saresk]

I still think he might spare an Escort-class ship an a small group of Marines, especially if made up of volunteers from the Scattered Legions.

Probably, since they would be as "expendable" as his biews might go, the problem is whether or not they would make the journey to Terra, and make it back in time to actually have an impact on his decision-making process.

[Marshal Rohr]

Also, now that FW definitively outlined astropathic messaging requires a chain of nodes to go long distances and the removal of a single node blocks out the rest of the chain, the likely hood of Guilliman employing actual messengers is higher.

 

If the purpose of this exercise is to build a framework for ultramarines at the siege then I think forge world has already made it clear there will be enough presence for every loyal legion to be represented at the siege. The salamanders and Raven guard have already explicitly been mentioned in some capacity. I'm sure the iron hands, ultras, and dark Angels will also have a showing.

[Brother Aiwass]

I'm not aware of any material from GW that covers this, but it's an intriguing thought...

A small shipload of void-hardened Ultramarines sent into the storm, fully expecting either to be lost on route or to emerge to find horror, is a cool theme for an army. It has elements of Event Horizon and The Odyssey – great combo

EXACTLY. Rife possibilities for a story there. Maybe a group of Word Bearers chases them in, partially out of thoroughness and partially out of fanaticism.

Thanks for your feedback!

Please do it! It would be an interesting army to see ^^

[Calas Typhon]

Also, now that FW definitively outlined astropathic messaging requires a chain of nodes to go long distances and the removal of a single node blocks out the rest of the chain, the likely hood of Guilliman employing actual messengers is higher.

 

If the purpose of this exercise is to build a framework for ultramarines at the siege then I think forge world has already made it clear there will be enough presence for every loyal legion to be represented at the siege. The salamanders and Raven guard have already explicitly been mentioned in some capacity. I'm sure the iron hands, ultras, and dark Angels will also have a showing.

 

The whole Crius story pretty much covers the Iron Hands I think.

[b1soul]

No compelling reason why Guilliman would not send a few scout ships to try to break out of the storm and attempt to gather some intel

 

You don't have to make it to Terra to gather intel about Terra

 

It's not implausible.

[Jamafore]

Wasn't it mentioned in Unremembered Empire that he really had no idea what Terra's status was and Imperium Secundus was a "Plan for the worst, hope for the best" kinda thing? 

 

IIRC he said that if Terra still stood, his stance on Secundus would be something along the lines of, "What is this Imperium Secundus you speak of? I know of no such place. Shush, Jonson." 

 

While if Terra has/had fallen at the very least they had a place already set up to have a very impolite conversation with Horus when he came over asking for a cup of sugar.

 

EDIT: One of these days I'll learn to stop posting before I've had my coffee.

[Xenith]

I assume they would get shot to pieces by Dorn as soon as they arrived in the region of Terra.

 

It's still a cool idea, though. I'd imagine they exit the storm as something different.