BotL - Monthly fluff challenge

[bluntblade]

Funnily enough, Ladakh is one part of India I really want to go to.

[bluntblade]

Doing an in-universe retrospective from a character that should hopefully raise questions for anyone who follows The Praetorian of Terra.

[simison]

Doing an in-universe retrospective from a character that should hopefully raise questions for anyone who follows The Praetorian of Terra.

 

I'm intensely curious...

[bluntblade]

Even considering that Mars was the first Forge World whose surface I had walked, as a lowly sergeant and then newly made captain, Olympus Mons was a revelation which precious few sights have since eclipsed. Knights and Titans, which I have seen dominate the vista in so many urban warzones, were dwarfed by the architecture. So vast was the Temple of All-Knowledge that we could not discern its true shape in the dark, though its shields blazed under our bombardments and fires lit it from below.

 

I am an Angel of Death, wrought into a weapon of war and baptised in the Koloss Syntheticide; I am no stranger to bloodshed on a grand scale. But the Grand Mountain was something else entirely, even if now it seems only a portent of what was the come. Space Marine, automaton and Skitarius slew each other. Mortal soldiers perished by the thousand when radiation or poison gas flooded a zone.

 

Kelbor Hal sent his slaves against us, where our Seekers had not managed to disrupt the electoo relays. Words fail to describe the perversity of that act, forcing us to turn our guns upon men and women who fought with bare hands and crude tools. They ran straight into our volleys, never once flinching as our bolsters roared. What was left, scraps of clothing and flesh, fluttered like fallen leaves cast into the air. I saw three Stormlord tanks of the Zanskat Guard unload their mega-bolsters into one such mob, and nothing remained but red mist.

 

By the time we reached the Temple, my company contained fewer than a third of the men who were there at the start. I remained captain, but we had been recombined with two other shattered companies. The systematic element to Imperial warfare never abated, our commanders working throughout the fighting to ensure our efficiency and cohesion. Against the debased Martian Mechanicum, we could not afford to fall short.

 

The forces of a taghmata are so varied as to be bewildering, even under the most conservative magos, and of course the Traitors went far beyond the usual bounds. AI constructs the size of tanks, automata of strange and murderous designs, conjoined combat servitors, we faced all these and more. If not for the presence of the Abyssii and, above all, the Primarchs, we would have broken ourselves in the process of driving the heretics out.

 

We broke a great many of the informal codes regarding taking the weapons of foes. When Seleucus and I made our stand against the Ruststalker clades, back to back beneath the Arch of Reason, I fought with a Skitarii sword claimed on the Mariner Plain, Seleucus with an Arc Maul and his gladius. Techmarines salvaged and repurposed any tank or heavy weapon they could; by the end we had several Dreadnoughts armed with Castellax claws and grav-hammers. So strait were the conditions that any weapon that could be used without fear of outright heresy was swiftly put to use.

 

And yet we may now look back on this enormity as a time of relative innocence, when the true face of our greatest enemy was veiled, when the greatest blasphemies of the renegade Mechanicum were unborn. But even as my fleet prepares to light the skies of Anvilus with scourging flame, I know that the contagion is, at root, the one we tried and failed to stamp out on Mars.

 

Excerpt from the Account of Legate Akylles, generously donated to our order

Edited February 18, 2018 by bluntblade

[TheBlindPrimarch]

Nice work

[simison]

[This is what I have so far. Should I add anything else?]

 

The 14^th Brigade "Conquerors of Ladakh"

 

The 14th Brigade of the Vth Legion was the most eastward Warden brigade on the eve of the Day of Revelation. Commanded by Brigadier Singh, the Fourteenth belonged to the Second Cohort and was active in expanding the Imperium's borders in the Galactic East. The Brigade paid host to an active branch of the Prefects with Brigadier Singh and a third of his officers being standing members. As such, the Fourteenth possessed several robust tank companies that formed the heart of the brigade.

 

These weighty weapons of war were necessary throughout the Ladakh campaign. Their foe was a renegade empire composed of a disturbing union between man and xenos. The Geluans were parasitic creatures, originally limited to the frigid ice ranges on Ladakh Prime. However, a human colony ship had landed on the planet thousands of years earlier and unwittingly allowed the xenos species to thrive and spread throughout the system.

 

When bonded to the Geluans, human hosts suffered from chemical addiction as the parasites manipulated human hormone systems once they had successfully attached to a human's nerve stem. Equipment and shelters that were originally designed to withstood the elements were repurposed to maintain cooler internal temperatures to better sustain the Geluans. This had the added effect of increasing the armour of their emplacements and their vehicles, requiring the heavier ordnance of the tank companies.

 

Singh was a controversial figure within the Legion. Although his service record was undeniably exemplary, he flouted his Primarch's idealism and maintained an aggressive philosophy of war better suited to the original Storm Riders rather than the Halcyon Wardens. This continued even after several personal encounters with Alexandros. 

[Beren]

Details of what happened during the campaign itself maybe?

[simison]

Details of what happened during the campaign itself maybe?

 

You see, the spotlight is supposed to be on the unit itself, so I feel like I've already gone overboard on the campaign. 

 

I think I need to focus more on the unit itself, try to add more character to it.

[Beren]

Okay. How did Alexandros treat them compared to Corax's treatment of his recusants? Edited February 21, 2018 by Beren

[bluntblade]

Careful deployment on a tight leash - a Brigadier is still under a Legate.

[simison]

Okay. How did Alexandros treat them compared to Corax's treatment of his recusants?

Fairly. While Alex is disappointed that they don’t comprehend or follow his philosophy, he will not punish them for it.

[simison]

Oh, and voting is now open for next month. As a reminder, it will be a non-Legion month.

 

Additionally, I am concerned that we were unfair previously to the Imperial Army. We focus on each Legion but then treat the entire Army as one Legion.

 

Is this acceptable or should we keep equal focus for all factions?

[bluntblade]

You could argue that Forge World set a precedent for that with their treatment of the Solar Auxilia.

[TheBlindPrimarch]

I would rather focus in on factions within the larger organization I.e. the Heredes within the imperial army, the Abyssii within the Mechanicus, etc.

[helterskelter]

Could call it a humans/mech sub factions month so we can give regiments/forgeworlds some personality?

[bluntblade]

Might crank out two this time. Knight House and the Daughters

[simison]

Could call it a humans/mech sub factions month so we can give regiments/forgeworlds some personality?

Isn’t that just going in the opposite direction and throwing everyone who isn’t a Legion into one category?

 

And that’s one vote for greater focus, one for less focus, and one vote to repeat what we did last time.

[helterskelter]

Wouldn't call it one catergory, more a free got nuts month about everyone and anyone that isn't a space marine. It might be a broad spectrum but more to encourage creative flair than anything. Then in later challenges stuff we like that could come from it could be detailed further?

[Beren]

I'd prefer greater focus.

[simison]

Two for more focus

One to maintain status quo

One for less focus

 

Since this will impact what we can vote on, I'm going to keep this vote to a 24-hour period so that we don't take up too much time for the actual faction pick.

[bluntblade]

Let's pick Titans or Knights, I suggest

[TheBlindPrimarch]

For the faction pick I vote Heredes again

[bluntblade]

You had them within the Army faction. I think we should have some mecha fun

[TheBlindPrimarch]

My entry during the army month was genetic army

[bluntblade]

Perhaps after this, we should specifically do an Auxilia month. I have bigger fish to fry in March. Edited February 22, 2018 by bluntblade