+++ To the Bitter End - The Badab War +++

[Noctus Cornix]

http://i.imgur.com/d6DcbjX.png

 

 

 

To Die with Pride

 

 

H

e had been denied his death. 

To die with pride, bolter in hand was all that Ichoma Dentath had yearned. It was all any Astartes could wish... He had even been so lucky as to have that perfect moment, fighting alongside his closest brother there in the ruins of the subterranean sewage systems, just to hold off the Star Phantom dogs for a few moments longer. What a death that would have been..

 

And yet he had squandered that, it seemed.

 

How he remained alive was a mystery. A section at the right side of his skull was missing, the agonizing pain of that and the dozen other wounds he had sustained dulled into a merciful throb by pain inhibitors. He could see nothing for they had stolen his site, or perhaps at least from the eye that he had left. He could not move, arms bound behind his back, feet done in similar fashion to force him in a permanent kneeling position like some sinner seeking redemption. That was worth a laugh, even if the pain wasn't exactly worth it...

 

He could hear at least, the distant thrum of a ship's plasma engines growling in the distance like some predatory beast, a sound that was not welcoming to him in that moment. So they had taken him, it seemed... to extract information for who knows what reason. The Emperor might... but Ichoma had long forgotten any sense of prayer to that name. For decades he had been silent to their pleas for aid. Why would he answer now? 

 

Footsteps in the distance, two the familiar crash of ceramite boots, warriors of the Adeptus Astartes. The other, far weaker, human. Judging from the weight and stride they were of strong bearing, average build and likely wearing light carapace armour. Inquisition... 

 

No sooner had the doors to his cell open did he spit at the estimated location of the human intruder, that acidic bile fizzling as it hit the barrier field that surrounded his confined space. 

 

Worth a shot, at least...

 

"Your attempt to kill a member of the Holy Ordos is noted," the human voice spoke, a woman, stern and seemingly unphased by the failed attempt on her life.

 

"Can you blame me for trying?" Ichoma offered the woman he could not see an ugly smile, his right cheek little more than tortured sinew beneath a gouged eye socket.

 

"Yes."

 

"Fair enough."

 

Without a further word there was the familiar crack of bolter stocks meeting ceramite pauldrons, bolters no doubt raised at his head for any further sign of... lacking cooperation. The threat was obvious even if it went unspoken. 

 

"I am Interrogator Prime Allesandra Dellian of the most Holy Ordo and I address you as an agent of the God Emperor."

 

There was a small snort of jest from the prisoner, but the barb was promptly ignored.

 

"I speak to Brother Ichoma Dentath of the Astral Claws, correct?"

 

"Wrong."

 

"Illuminate me then."

 

"I am Battle Brother Ichoma Dentath, loyal knight of the Tyrant's Legion to my dying breath and formerly of the Astral Claws. I have no delusions of my place here. If I am alive then that means my Chapter is dead and my home world is no doubt already ashes. 5 billion loyal subjects and a Chapter with as many glorious honours as the Primogenitor chapters of old. All dead. All ashes. Ad Mortem."

 

"Dead traitors." This came from one of the two astartes that flanked the Interrogator Prime, the Montsegman accent clear in his voice. Red Hunters. Ichoma knew not to argue with them. 

 

"Why am I alive?" There was the important question. The Star Phantoms were hardly the merciful type, that much was already well known from their callous disregard for 'collateral damage'. Had they not some formal request from the Inquisition, he would be happily dead with his brothers in the ruins of his home. 

 

"To cleanse your soul." 

 

There was a pause, as though there was to be some following line to reveal this as some hilarious joke at his expense. That never came. 

 

"You have information," Allesandra continued when no response came, her voice as smooth and calm as it had been since she first entered the cell. "The Holy Ordos require this information, as we do from any of your kin that we have taken into custody. The heresy of Lufgt Huron, the one you call 'Tyrant', and the Astral Claws is one of unknown origins to us. In exchange for your cooperation, you will be assured a death with less pain than what your interrogations will guarantee and you may help to prevent such heresies from happening again. This contrition may act as a small atonement for the sin that stains your soul when we send your life to the Emperor."

 

Another pause, one that found itself cut by Ichoma's grim and mirthless laughter, a laughter filled with pain and disbelief. Whatever effect this might have had on the Interrogator Prime or the Astartes that watched him, he would not know, nor would he care. 

 

"You will not comply?"

 

"I am Battle Brother Ichoma Dentath, lion of the astral pride now extinct, loyal knight of the Tyrant to my dying breath."

 

"Then we will make you talk." That enough would give Ichoma cause to give another ugly smile.

 

"You may try."

 

 

 

Battle Brother Ichoma Dentath of the Astral Claws Chapter

Legionary Cohort Squad Haakon, XIII Legion

Pict-feed taken at the siege of the Palace of Thorns, subterranean sewer system

Subject Terminated by Summary Execution via bolt pistol round to the skull

Gene-Seed Disposed

 

He died in the singular pride that he pushed the Interrogator too far before she could break him. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pict-feed image of Battle Brothers Ichoma and Cycla together for the last time.

 

[No Foes Remain]

I love him and I love that story. Pissing off your captor to the point where they kill you, amazing.

[Noctus Cornix]

Nice work with the Hyaenidae - I thought that might have been a subtle reference to a long-standing MIA frater for a moment there  

 

I'm assuming that this is basically your own 'fleshing out' of one of them logical 'gaps' in the extant Badab regime fluff; and if so, it's a solid job, well done.  Good blend of real-world history and political hints, tethering back to the official fluff foundations and spars, and leaving that excellent room for dual-faced interpretations of certain elements [like, for example, whether Huron used his well-renowned unexpected ability at political manipulation and conspiratorializing to engineer himself a crisis that thusly *demanded* him to seize power not only from the fractious interior nobles of his domain ... but also directly displace the Imperial Governor, himself in the process! .. or whether it was, indeed, a series of reluctant/enraged responses to a situation that was already out of control and *had* to be sorted out for the general good of the sector].

 

Also, I gotta say - I am always  a huge fan of the old Kasrkin models turning up in 40k logs, espeically where it's somebody bringing something to life rather than just purely painting a few miniatures. Partially it's because I've always liked the design right back to when they came out [it's that real 'sweet spot' between the spec-ops vibe of the prior generation of metal storm troopers, the Cadians' own design elements, and a certain touch of 'sci fi' soldiery from the post-Halo cultural diffusion of .. well .. that; definitely look competent, professional, well equipped, and hard-edged without going toward the more 'baroque' look of 'official Imperium' in the current design ethos]; but it's also because they're such a visual contrast to the more recent plastics, and many conversions you see about the place. I mention this, because in its own way, it's kinda subconsciously closer to the Badab ethos of the Rogue Trader days [when men were men, Astartes were men, Inquisitors could *also* be half-men, and camouflage was also rated M for both Marine and Manly] , as compared to the occasionally overly-'Renaissance' of where the aesthetics are at nowadays. 'rugged' and 'utilitarian' are probably words I'm rambly-looking for. 

 

Edge highlighting and grey layering as you've done here also help to bring to life what can otherwise be a pretty flat and no-depth amorphous palette [it's something that's brought to a significant halt some of my own not-literally-storm troopers painting efforts ... the eternal tension between "dark greys make for a realistic looking human soldier", and "dark greys can be difficult to bring together to make for a visually pleasing, let alone eye-catching miniature - well, I mean .. that's 'realistically' the point, to avoid the eye-catching, right? :P ] ; and the use of the hot orange for a contrast on lenses and screen is well-chosen. 

 

Personally, I might have been circumspect upon having a Tyrant-loyal force depicted wearing Aquilas and such, given I think from memory Huron started outlawing a lot of the Imperial Cult bits and pieces as the war escalated on him - but YMMV, and it certainly isn't implausible for forces earlier on. The silver also makes for a pleasing contrast from the grey. 

 

Anyway, it's a real cool effort you've delivered there. Keep it up! 

 

[also, I see what you did there with the KIA due to blunt force trauma, and an Astral Claw with a bloodied gauntlet.] 

 

Firstly, thank you so much! 

 

Subtle reference? Not in the slightest! What ever made you think I was even trying to be subtle about it? 

 

To be honest, I just absolutely adore the Badab War. It's definitely one of my absolute favorite points of history in 40k lore, and I'm an ardent Huron fanboy. The Astral Claws have to be one of, if not my absolute, favorite chapters. Their color scheme is fantastic, their lore is amazing, their mentality is super interesting, and the Tyrant's Legion is awesome. I mean seriously, what's not to love about them? Unfortunately, There's just so much to be explored in the nature of the Astral Claws and all the political intrigue and nitty gritty involved in this deep and bitter Civil War. Forgeworld did an amazing job of giving us the highlights. Now I want to explore the finer details. I always told myself that if I was ever hired to write for Black Library, there's two points of 40k history that I'd love to write more than anything else. That's The Reign of Blood with Goge Vandire, and the Badab War. 

 

Obviously I'm not writing for Black Library.... yet, but it means a great deal to me to try and explore the War and the Sector under Huron's reign as much as possible. Right now I'm only in the prologue stage of my log and have plans to, time and attention span willing, to try and explore the entirety of the war from start to finish. There's a story I'd like to tell from the point of view of the Astral Claws and it's something that's been stewing in my brain for years. 

 

I'm glad you really like the storm trooper, though. Yeah, they've definitely been one of my favorite models in the 40k line for a long while. They've aged so well. It was really important for me to use the Kasrkins though for the Tyrant's Legion, and I'll explain why. I genuinely hope to, eventually, completely flesh out a force to represent the Legion, including human and Astartes elements. Given that we've never been show exactly what the human forces of the Tyrant's Legion look like, that's been a somewhat difficult decision to make. The best we've ever been shown is a few pictures of different tanks, which offers very little, but actually provides some huge insight.

 

 

Firstly, the colors was a huge things. They're they Tyrant's Legion, fighting alongside the Astral Claws, but not a single tank has even a hint of silver or blue in their color scheme. It's all very plain greys and blacks with red numbers. The only actual representation that connects them to their Astartes masters is the Tyrant's claw. That honestly really stood out to me, because it really felt like that simple fact made the disconnect between Astartes and humans so vast. The humans are expendable, a faceless, seething mass of grey and black soldiers to die for their overlords as needed. 

 

So that had me thinking. Facelessness always seemed to continually pop in my head over and over again. Combine that with the lore in the Badab books where Huron had the sector's forges pumping out obscene amounts of standard-issue gear and I had my idea. It's usually been commented how the gear that Cadians use are likely closest to what we would likely refer to as the most common form of Astra Militarum equipment we'll see in the Imperium. It's cheap, easy to make, and affordable for forges to pump out en-mass. So why not have the Tyrant's Legion human elements use the same equipment as the Cadians? More than that, Forgeworld has several upgrade sets that offer just for Cadians, a ton of them with rebreather masks that cover up their faces. The idea came to me, why not equip all of my human elements with rebreathers then? One, it looks super cool, and 2 it presents that genuine sense that the entire force is just an actual faceless mass of troops. 

 

Not only that, but I decided on a way in which I could use them to represent the level of deference that the Astartes placed upon their human soldiers. The more dependable you were as a unit, the more equipment you got. As a force, the Tyrant's Legion was never really prided for their ability to adapt. They were created to be sort of a one-size fits all kind of force, able to be dropped into any combat zone they were needed without requiring to worry about much in the way of changing their supplies. The Badab War alone was rife with combat zones that were inhospitable to unaided humans, and the Tyrant's legion had been functioning as a force for nearly 200 years before even that. So, every single human element in the Legion would be fitted with some form of standard-issue equipment to counter hostile environments and low to zero oxygen battlefields. The human elements of the Legion seem to be broken down into 3 levels, more or less. 

 

There's the Auxilia, the conscripted masses of citizenry pressed into service with little as little training as possible and the most basic of equipment. For them, I'll just use the Cadian Respirator Upgrade pack. Why bother giving any kind of valuable equipment to the glorified meatshields and bolter fodder? Slap a respirator on their face and send them out. 

 

The second level is the Armsmen Corps, the bulwark of actually trained and dependable soldiers the Astral Claws could actually rely upon. These soldiers will receive actual Hostile-Environment quality equipment and use the hostile-environment torso packs from Forgeworld. It's a small but noticeable difference that will help the Armsmen stand out.  

 

Lastly you have the Officers. For them I'll just be using the Hostile Environment Command Squad.  The fourth level, the Hyaenidae, were of my own making, but I think it helps solidify the tier levels, an actual part of the Legion with genuine equipment to get the job done when even the Armsmen were only offered limited trust. 

 

In every level, you'll have the faceless gray of the Legion's humans, a mutated mass of bodies fighting and dying as their silver and cerulean masters stand as demi-gods among the gray sea. 

 

(Also, thank God someone noticed that bit about the fist.   )

 

 

I love him and I love that story. Pissing off your captor to the point where they kill you, amazing.

 

Look, when you've been captured by the enemy it's all about those little victories you can steal away from your captors, right? 

 

 

 

Oh! And I almost forgot! Keep your eyes peeled, boys. I've got another one on the way....

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Noctus Cornix

[Ryltar Thamior]

Solid explication; and it's good to see not only the level of your enthusiasm and depth of thinking, but also your thought-process in motion. And, in light/response of that .. a few thoughts of my own upon the concept. Which I'll put in spoiler-tags, so as to avoid cluttering up your thread.

 

The interaction of Astartes and (less-augmented) human auxilia has been a particular interest of mine for awhile now, and it's something I've sought to explore ... generally in more positive ways (as applies the humans in question and their worth, at least) ... with, come to think of it, most of my projects since I got back into the hobby a few years back. [in fact, now that I think about it, what we've been doing at Vox Stellarum with Adamantia is, in a way, a bit of a more noble-bright but also wholesale-integratd 'reflection' of what happened with Badab] 

Most of the material we have upon the subject from official sources, is in two varieties - Lost And The Damned style direct integration of a small number of (Traitor) Astartes overseeing and standing behind [both for 'motivation' and 'bullet-spongery'] a mass of rabble-chaff tier humans and slightly more skilled Guard-equivalents [which is also kinda how the Army of Dark Compliance approach works for the Heresy-era ruleset] ;

or the somewhat different more 'co-operative'/'combined arms' approach we occasionally see in Great Crusade/Heresy-era fiction [and potentially some 'current era' material around, say, Ultramar Auxilia], wherein human troops may or may not be directly Astartes led [but certainly Astartes overseen/guided at the command level], generally (but not always) with a separation of combatants into more mono-type units beneath the command level, except on an ad-hoc basis and in extremis. [the old Inducted Guard/Inquisitorial Storm Troopers alongside Grey Knights or Deathwatch etc. are a more extreme version of this again] 

The Tyrant's Legion often tends to be presented as the former rather than the latter, for the general purpose of exploring the thematic disparity between human chaff and Astartes masters - and just how (grim)dark that can wind up being in practice when the two are called upon to directly interact. [see also: why the IVth Legion got the nickname "Corpsegrinders" and started to mostly be sent Penal units during the Great Crusade]. [the 'Feat of Iron' short story featuring Iron Hands and .. realizing that actually the 'combined arms' approach *has* some merit to it , particularly when the "combined" part is involved, is this,  but heading in an upward trajectory] 

However, having just taken a re-scan of the 40kwiki writeup on the force,it seems that there's also an acknowledgement of them actually having more value - both in military, and in narrative terms - than being mere 'redshirts'; and especially in the entirely logical areas of garrisoning and defence, wherein an Astartes would often be comparatively wasted. This is also something that allows a further point of 'realism' with the Tyrant's Legion - I'd been considering the 'numbers game', and it seemed that even with a full third of Huron's Astartes dedicated to Tyran'ts Legion related deployments ... there simply wouldn't be enough Marines to have them *everywhere* in command/control/disciplinary roles , particularly when the numbers required for various shock troop roles *also* part of Tyrant's Legion deployments are taken into consideration. 

Which is no problem. Because the way I see a lot of more human-dominated Tyrant's Legion deployments is basically early-WWII Soviet style [or, if you prefer, late-WWII German style] in nature. Told to dig in, hold the line at any and likely *all* costs; and not actually requiring any provision of orders and leadership beyond those initial deployment orders and the vague sense of menace of what lies behind them in blocking/military police-equivalent units. One way that this could be potentially slightly amusingly done, is by referencing the early-Soviet thinking around radios. Namely, the *non-equipping* of various lower-level units with radios [hence tank units communicating orders with semaphore in some cases], and some of those who *did* get radios ... having them turn out to be *one-way* radios, because they're only for orders coming down rather than any genuine 'communication' and back and forth. Makes for a rigid force, because all the thinking is supposed to be  being done much further up the chain. Which is doctrinally flawed in many ways [not least of which being how difficult it makes the use of fire support; although I suppose the trade-off is that if you're *expecting* the immediate result of contact with the enemy to be a progressive slaughter of your own forces, the last thing you need is your own commsnet turning into a morass of screams and panic and actually *impeding* effective C&C nor informational transmission] ... but fits quite strongly with the Tyrant's Legion mentality; and in any case, strong initiative or dynamism isn't really required of them - fast-moving counter-attacks and active interdiction is the job of the Astartes and other better-equipped human units. 

Somewhere, if they did such things, there would presumably be the stereotypical officer with a map, a sigh, and a red-line drawn with a ruler, in front of which all was "expendable".  And we would also be expecting a reasonable number crew-served heavy weapons [albeit not lascannons apparently] designed to augment relatively meager anti-astartes firepower capability, particularly as the mobility impairment they're otherwise associated iwth basically wouldn't matter for these units; combat-engineering of a certain degree might also be a thing - whether it's barricades and field fortifications, bunker complexes, or potentially more elaborate constructions [more on that in a moment] 

But all of that's probably stuff you've already considered. 

----

 

What really got me thinking, was something else entirely. Namely, as we know that the Astral Claws' and Huron in particular's reputation with the mortal populace of Badab appears to have been in part a 'redirection' of legitimate piety toward the Emperor and via extension the Astartes [a form of 'culture-jamming' you might say] ... it therefore makes sense that we might see irregular 'partisan' style groupings emerging on worlds that'd otherwise been taken by the advancing Imperium - and perhaps the mention of the "Insurgency" on Sigmar VI [the Howling Griffons camouflage colour-scheme iirc] is a reference to this. So, Viet Cong or Taliban style operations that disrupt Imperial operations, particularly through causing difficulties at staging posts behind the front lines, both on worlds under conflict, and worlds thought previously pacified. Fanatically loyal Badab-ians, acting as human guided demolition-charges on the battlefield, etc. that kind of thing. 

Also, going back briefly to the 'defensive operations' bit, and in direct light of what you're getting at with the Hyaenidae,, there's something I wrote up awhile back when I was doing real-world doctrinal analysis/comparisons with Heresy-era Legiones Astartes , around Hezbollah's use of "Nature Reserves", that is directly relevant here - I might PM you that. The over-simplified precis of it is that they used pre-prepared bunker complexes manned by their equivalent of well-equipped and trained forces, as trap kill-zones ... acquiring the nickname amidst the Israelis due to how you weren't supposed to go near them - following the encounter at Maroun al-Ras, wherein Israeli special forces suffered eleven casualties within literally seconds of entering what they *thought* was just a pretty light Hezbollah position. In some ways, it was a metaphor for much of the 2006 conflict [which also saw an array of other 'not supposed to happen/be able to happen' occurrences, including Hezbollah managing to damage an Israeli Naval asset and forcing it to limp back to port, and the overall experience of the Israeli armoured corps - which wound up having to significantly scale back potential operations and deployment inside Lebanon during the conflict, due to just how much damage and morale-damage Hezbollah was managing to inflict on even heavy armour]

The way to perhaps make reference to this would be by having overconfident Loyalist Astartes deploy against what's *supposed* to be a relatively pushover [by their standards] Tyrant's Legion position ... and then have this turn into a much more costly proposition due to the rather more canny/savvy/tactically aware mortals in question having the latitude and the intelligence to *prepare* for such actually-invited guests. Probably not to the scale of Alpha Legion operative "just as planned" shenanigans; but there would be some humour and aptness having over-eager Astartes running into well-placed anti-tank mines, trap floors, RPG barrages, sensor decoys, etc. 

Not, of course, that the above three paragraphs would be anything like normal or typical for Tyrant's Legion forces and deployments; but exceptions and one-in-a-thousand occurrences are what make for interesting story-telling and cases worthy of writeup consideration a lot of the time.

The psychological impact of these kinds of occurrences would potentially also be something Huron would factor in. In the case of the former, the likely mass-scale reprisals of Imperial forces against populations suspected of harbouring Huron-aligned insurgencies being brutal, and both taking up valuable manpower as well as triggering *further* hostile sentiment against the invading Imperials. And in the case of the latter, the effect of having humans *not* just dying-when-demanded upon enemy Astartes can be interesting and considerable - there's a Heresy-era short story, i think it is Little Horus, wherein the human defenders of Dwell actually manage to put up a reasonable resistance against the Sons of Horus, thus leading to the XVIth combatants reacting with outrage at the insult to their pride that they're being held up by mere mortals. It is not hard to see how this could be weaponized to lead Loyalist Astartes forces of certain psychological proclivities around by the nose.  

----

Now, a further - brief - thought I'd had, derived from my own treatment of Adamantia; is pondering whether, in the two centuries or so that Huron had had dominion over Badab, other efforts in the use of the population's "human resources" might have begun to be undertaken. At the most simple, it would seem not entirely illogical to be running eugenic efforts upon the Badab population at large,designed to increase the raw number of potential recruits, both in terms of physical and mental quality right from the get-go, as well as, more especially, ensuring that the recruitment-populations in question were more directly compatible with the Astartes geneseed that a small proportion amidst their number might one day be implanted with. The reasoning for this is simple. If you're going to try and build your own Legion-tier force ... and do so escalatingly quicklty, then one of the big complications facing you is that the already limited 'reproduction rate' of your Marines [two sets of geneseed per one Marine, per x number of years for one lot, and usually upon the death of the bearer for the other lot] is further reduced by the regrettable phenomenon of humans implanted with said geneseed not always tolerating it and causing abberations, wash-outs, etc. etc. etc. .

So if you start making alterations to your population to reduce incompatibilities and increase general quality of recruitment-pool, you are directly enhancing your legion-building project's success-rate and in some measure, its speed.

This may be particularly the case when we consider that with that Apothecary chap who's supposed to be one of the greater living authorities on Astartes biology - it's also possible that the Astral Claws may have begun tinkering with geneseed to try and produce XIXth legion 'raptor'-style 'hot-housed' far quicker to maturation implantation-to-deployable Marines. [indeed, iirc there's a round of Blood Angel novels which have them trying to do something not entirely dissimilar in response to yet another lose-most-of-the-chapter-in-some-heroic-last-stand occurrence. It goes ... about as well as you'd perhaps expect] . 

Additional attention to geneseed issues may be further neecssary given the potential that the broader array of geneseed the Astral Claws were working with by the last years of the War may introduce additional complications. But I digress. 

There may also be scope for deployments of 'chapter serf' style 'washouts' who've only managed to complete part of the augmentation process before circumstances or complications called a halt to their progress, but who are still broadly capable of being utilized in combat; or even Astartes who are only part-way through the implanttation process themselves, but pressed into the field due to desperation before they're even scout-tier 'finished'. 

----

Another question which sprang to mind, is where the Mechanicus are in all of this. I haven't looked in-depth at the FW fluff upon the matter; but I can see the situation vis a vis the Machine Cult becoming complex, politically and otherwise, inside Badab, especially following the outbreak of the War. Huron would be unlikely to be too keen on a 'domestic' institution that was independent; and Mechanicus congregations might not be that keen on *not* being independent, producing a potentially fractious working relationship or even subtle conflict. 

However, it would *also* open up the possibility for rogue or unorthodox tech-priests attempting to make their way to Badab , potentially invited there, in order to carry out otherwise frowned upon research under a paradoxically more 'tolerant' regime. 

There may also be scope for a kind of ... not-entirely-dissimilar reflection of the Tyrant's Legion/Hyaenidae relationshp with the Astral Claws in some techongregations' interactions iwth the Astral Claws' techmarine corps

---

The other way the potential issues around the Mechanicus might emerge, concerns the manufacturing of gear - while it's definitely the case that reasonably complex hardware is capable of being manufactured en-masse in Badab, I did wonder, particularly as applies the 'Volkssturm' style militia utilized in the last stages of the War, whether something closer to the more low-tech weaponry on the Neophyte Hybrid sprues might be appropriate - the autoguns, shotguns, and from the next tier up of cultists, the machine-pistol style stubbers/stub-pistols etc. ; it'd represent, perhaps, the sort of easily mass-manufactured, machine-stamped hardware that wouldn't even have the comparatively minor complexity of a lasgun and its energy-cells, charging mechanisms, etc. ; added bonus of using the neophyte hybrid arms is that while some of them have pretty orderly gloves, shoulder pads and such, others have pretty ragged frayed cloth sleeves. The old-school flamers are also pretty cool; and there's definite scope for, for instance, the dynamite-throwing arms and such. 

[also, before I forget .. slightly odd minor-amuse idea ... a squad of human outriders built out of Atalan Jackals, following around Iron Hunter Astartes bikers in the manner of the Hell's Angels in Good Omens who try being 'additional' Horsemen of the Apocalypse following around War, Pollution, Famine, and Death .. and taking on an escalating series of somewhat cringey nicknames in the process - "Death and Famine and War and Pollution continued biking toward Tadfield.
And Grievous Bodily Harm, Cruelty to Animals, Things Not Working Properly Even After You've Given Them A Good Thumping But Secretly No Alcohol Lager, and Really Cool People traveled with them."] 

--- 

The .. odd sociology of the Badab sector under Huron doesn't just lend itself to producing fanatic zealot human chaff - although actually, now that I think about it, there's *another* Heresy-era real-world Legion Doctrinal Comparison thing I'll pm you which builds upon the employment of the Basij around Basra during the Karbala operations in the Iran-Iraq war that's quite strongly resonant here ... 

but there's also mention of Underhive Gangs being incorporated into the Tyrant's Legion ranks as the War ground on. It's possible that this in an of itself might lead to curious quasi-religious cults and imitations of Astartes occurring, in much the manner of them Hells' Angels following the Horsemen of Apocalypse literary example I mentioned just above. Whether these would be tolerated by some Astartes as flattering to their ego, or viewed as an affront worthy only of firing squad or mine-clearance duty, is perhaps a matter of the affectations of the individual Marine in question. 

It would, however, also make for the potential for something like the War-Boys in Fury Road - shouting "WITNESS ME" immediately before huffing definitely-not-GW-brand aerosol silver spraypaint and doing something intended to be "heroic". Perhaps followed by the Astartes overseer in question, if he should bother to notice, sneering "Mediocre". [The Iranians actually had a ... something *slightly* like this during the course of the Iran-Iraq War - having, according to some accounts, an actor on a white horse ride up and down on a nearby hillside in view of militia troops and hailed as the return of Ali to lead them into glory] [There's probably something somwehre that could be incorporated about attempting to attain the attention of the Eye of  the Tyrant, even for a brief moment, through such conduct] [in fact, whether he'd intended it or whether it just organically grew up anyway, some sort of Huron-ite equivalent to Iterators might make a certain degree of sense] 

[also, while it's not spray-paint ... I think I vaguely remember while poking around on TV tropes some years ago, running across a Command & Conquer fan-fiction excerpt somebody'd written which, in that portion, was from the perspective of NOD troops assaulting a position held by much better equipped adversaries ... and doing so via the aid of tiberium-based combat-drugs - which would almost certainly be lethal to the users, but by that point, the defenders are more immediately lethal, so worth it for last stab of defiance points. I mention this, because there would certainly be some potential scope for Huron's overseers of the Tyrant's Legion, whether human or Astartes, to see the potential benefit as a force-multiplier for using exactly this kind of thing; combat drugs are, after all, a well-known feature of the 41st millennium ; albeit in this situation, perhaps ramp up the short-term efficacy and never mind the safety-profile. I think I *may* have included in that aforementioned legion real-world doctrinal analysis writeup the use of methamphetamine by North Korean forces during the Korean War for human wave attacks, as well; but anyway] 

---- 

The final thought I'll set down, is that there's a few other model-ranges you might potentially consider drawing from; or old-school and OOP stuff that may perhaps have some potential inspirational/aesthetic value.

In terms of the 'faceless mass' but also 'somewhat well equipped' vibe, what I would have perhaps initially have thought of was the Armageddon Steel Legion. The gas-masks are there, and seem less high-tech/sci-fi than the Cadian respirators; for bonus points, they've got the Fallschimjaeger style helms, jack-boots, and some patterns of weaponry that can look a bit more low-tech/outmoded [e.g. the 2nd edition style bolt pistols; also, the very cool RPG style missile-launchers]. Awhile back, I'd contemplated doing some plastic-based conversions built from Empire Archers - due to the longer-coat torsos and upper thighs, building the shoes and shins up into said boot aesthetic.

But I definitely take the point around Cadian gear being 'general issue' standard across the Imperium - and it's certainly a cheaper approach [FW resin, perhaps, notwithstanding :P ]. 

In terms of 'insurgency', likely also carried out in rather inhospitable environments, I'd potentially consider Tallarn guard - the rationale being that they can easily be painted up not just in desert schemes, but also ash-wastes and other such. A  few layers of scarf over the mouth and nose is not likely to be as good as a proper respirator mask for keeping out chemical and other such hazards, but it's a start, and may be all that's needed on some less-deadly biome worlds. Definitely would look good for more irregular style forces. 

And speaking of irregular forces .. while there's a few Necromunda special characters that might be pretty cool, I'm actually slightly surprised now that I think about it about how .. not that useful much of that range likely is for much of this. Ther's bits and pieces, of course - but a lot of it's either , curiously enough, too high-tech, too more-than-human, or  too 'gothic'. Some of the Cawdor 'reclaimed' weaponry might be quite useful, though, for the lowest-tier militia sorts. 

You could also get the sense of 'scratch companies' by having Tyrant's Legion units that are made up of multiple styles of uniform and gear all in the same group; either representing individual survivors thrown together into ad-hoc formations, or that whole "reclaimed gear" thing. I'm thinking in part of a thing done in the first Cityfight codex - bunch of different metal Guard regiment miniatures, all in reasonably similar urban camouflage for a sense of continuity. 

But what I was actually going to say is that the idea-field around Frateris Militia might be of use. The actual old metal miniatures haven't necessarily aged ideally, but there's some useful concepts to them and the idea they're representations of that could be updated. 

----

Anyway, sorry for ... putting several thousand words worth of my thoughts onto your log. I was impressed enough by your thinking and your enthusiasm that it sparked or crystallized a few things that might (or might not be) of use. 

Also, as applies some of them subtle, or not-so-subtle references [the name, and the bloodied fist] - we've got a lot of clever people on  these boards, many of whom do put those kinds of little touches into their miniatures, their fluff, whatever [occasionally going all the way out to a level of planning and intentional construction/construing that'd make a renaissance artist proud]; they often seem to just pass by amidst the enthusiasm for table-ready forces, and it's a shame to allow them to be overlooked or unacknowledged. It's something I've liked about the Inq28 style logs that turn up from time to time [and on Ammobunker especially]. 

But again, I digress. 

I look forward to seeing you continue to apply your detail-brush to the broad-strokes of this corner of Imperial history. 

[and will perhaps keep an eye pealed for an Age of Apostasy equivalent at some point ;) ] 
 

 

[No Foes Remain]

This thread just keeps getting better and better. (However I don't need this temptation! )

 

Also, Noctus, I don't know if you've seen these or even if they will help but I found some Q&A videos on FW's youtube feed from just before the Badab War books came out: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.

[Midnightmare]

Looking awesome Noctus :tu:the fluff as ever was an enjoyable read!

[Noctus Cornix]

I've sadly been too busy to be able to make a proper post yet, but I did get the time and the motivation to put a little work into this fella right here. He's not done, but I was kinda inspired and wanted to do a bit of something with some of Battlefleet Gothic vessels. What do you guys think? 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Noctus Cornix

[Marshal Rohr]

Excellent ship! Will you be doing any BFG conversions?

[Noctus Cornix]

Battle Brother Fay'Tal of the Astral Claws Chapter

Legionary Cohort Squad Haakon, XIII Legion

Pict-feed taken at the siege of the Palace of Thorns, subterranean cavern system

Subject Pronounced K.I.A, Primary and secondary hearts pierced by Lightning Claws

Gene-Seed Unrecovered

 

Cut off from his brothers, he died staring back in eyes of black and blades in the dark.

 

 

 

 

 

THE LOST SONS

As the Civil War of Badab's treachery raised, many a sins were revealed to have cobbled the path of the Tyrant's empire. Among them was the revealed fate of their successors of the Tiger Claws Chapter. Determined as extinct by the High Lords of Terra, what remained of the dying Chapter and their gene-seed stores were welcomed into the ranks of the Astral Claws and filtered into the Chapter and Tyrant's Legion under new identities. However, as the war raged the truth was revealed and allegations were thrown upon Huron and his followers for their further heresies. In light of this truth, some amidst the Legion who held this lost lineage began to embrace this this truth and display their origin heraldry with pride. Others were suspected to have worn the roaring tiger as a symbol of solidarity for their brothers and both marched on to their inevitable extinction.

 

[Brother Lunkhead]

Inspiring work Brother Noctus  This is the first chance I've had to look at your thread, but I am spellbound...… I hope you can find the time and energy to keep it up. I am definitely looking forward to more

[Noctus Cornix]

Excellent ship! Will you be doing any BFG conversions?

Thank you, brother. I think I probably will, I just haven't quite decided on what kind of stuff I'd do for that. It does raise a question however. So currently the majority of the Imperial vessels I have in my collection are Imperial Navy, not Space Marine. Of course I intend to get a couple more Space Marine ships in the future, but the eclectic mix of Space Marine and Navy ships is one of the really cool things about the Badab fleet. Now that brings up a question. We know that the Tyrant's Legion had different color schemes for the human elements. Even though I've already painted on ship in the Astral Claws colors, do you think this same thought process would extend to the ships pooled into the collective Tyrant's Fleet? Would the vessels of Battlefleet Maelstrom be bearing their original colors (and if so what color schemes would you guys recommend?) or would those ancient vessels now proudly fly the gleaming iron and lapis of their Masters? I'm curious to know what you guys think.

 

Inspiring work Brother Noctus:tu:  This is the first chance I've had to look at your thread, but I am spellbound...… I hope you can find the time and energy to keep it up. I am definitely looking forward to more:yes:

Thank you so much for the love, brother. I do genuinely hope to be able to. I think I've seriously been bitten by the Badab Bug and this Civil War train ain't stopping any time soon! The concern right now is more a financial one than a motivational one. As it stands I have enough models to make one character, roughly a 10 man legion cohort squad, and a squad of Hyaeindae, not including BFG ships. Once I reach that point I'd be forced to take a pause on the project until I'm able to find a job and a steady income. That being said, I've already reread the Badab War books twice this week with some extensive notes on how air want to tell this story. I ain't stopping any time soon.

[Brother Lunkhead]

The Forge World Badab War two volume set was my first ever purchase from FW and I've been hooked ever since I can completely understand your enthusiasm for this project. The narrative really captured my imagination, and the maps and illustrations are lavish. The total attention to detail is astounding. For me, this was the great Alan Bligh's and the rest of the FW crew's best work.

 

No pressure on the pace of your work though. Steady income and life must come first. We'll be waiting.

[Marshal Rohr]

I like the idea of the repainted Navy ships. They had several years to organize their forces before the war began and it seems like something Huron would commit to.

[Noctus Cornix]

Realized that I had accidentally forgotten to get to a couple people. Sorry, guys. 

 

@Ryltar Thamior - That's a lot to unpack there, brother! Honestly, you've given me a ton to think about and I sincerely hope that we can continue this flow of dialogue as this log progresses.

 

If I may though, I would like to state that I very firmly believe that Huron's rule over the Badab Sector and the organization of the Tyrant's Legion was an incredibly beneficial government system for the humans 'subjects' of his pocket empire and that the relationship between Astartes and humans amongst the Legion was a positive, at least initially. To say that the Reign of Thorns was not a brutal regime would be an abject lie. That's a very clear fact given the organization of special units like Retaliators and the implication of special rules like 'The Tyrant's Due', but the truth is that really none of these concepts are even unfamiliar to the wider Imperium, merely human responsibilities that have been taken up by Astartes. It functionally fulfilled the responsibilities that Arbites and Commissariat typically oversaw. The Astral Claws saw themselves and other Astartes as the rightful inheritors of the Emperor's Will and worthy of subservience and worship from humans as their subjects, but that doesn't necessarily imply that brutality is the work of mundane cruelty. After all, it's very apparent that Huron carried a cult of personality that held reinforce his rule of the sector. In Badab War: Part II it is referenced that the art piece of Huron was found in the manse of the Pyzentos family, a noble house of Eshunna that is noted as "Our Glorious Master, Lauft Har'n" which clearly shows the Tyrant's charisma and the unswerving loyalty many in the pocket empire had for their Lord. I believe that, at least for the majority of the war, the relationship of the human and Astartes elements among the Tyrant's Legion was an incredibly positive one of steadfast knights and their loyal men-at-arms. The Tyrant's Legion effectively served and fought together, human and space marine together, for around 200 years with an incredible number of successful campaigns against corsairs, xenos, mutants, and heretics alike. The Tyrant's Legion that the initial Loyalist forces must have faced at the beginning of the war must have been a battle-hardened bulwark of grizzled veterans who had seen the horrors of the warp and emerged victorious, standing beside their Astartes masters. 

 

Of course, we know this doesn't last. As the war progresses, both Huron and the Astral Claws descend into bitterness and paranoia, raging against the extermination of all they had ever fought and dreamed for crumbling to ash around them. More than that, the human elements were dying by the thousands, leading to more frequent churning of less trained conscripts that had to be ruled by fear more than respect. The nature of Tyrant's Legion shifts dramatically over the brutal years of the war, but that's one of the aspects about it that I love so much.

 

 

This thread just keeps getting better and better. (However I don't need this temptation! )

 

Also, Noctus, I don't know if you've seen these or even if they will help but I found some Q&A videos on FW's youtube feed from just before the Badab War books came out: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.

Heya No Foes Remain! I actually had never seen these before and, for some reason, genuinely never made some of the connections that Alan mentions. Honestly, I really love the use of Lapis to represent the color of their blue. It's a much more regal connotation that I quite adore. Thanks for sharing this!

 

 

Looking awesome Noctus :tu:the fluff as ever was an enjoyable read!

Thank you so much, man! I look forward to seeing more of your Black Legion too. :)

 

 

The Forge World Badab War two volume set was my first ever purchase from FW and I've been hooked ever since I can completely understand your enthusiasm for this project. The narrative really captured my imagination, and the maps and illustrations are lavish. The total attention to detail is astounding. For me, this was the great Alan Bligh's and the rest of the FW crew's best work.

 

No pressure on the pace of your work though. Steady income and life must come first. We'll be waiting.

Well, I actually have two job interviews tomorrow, so wish me luck! 

 

 

I like the idea of the repainted Navy ships. They had several years to organize their forces before the war began and it seems like something Huron would commit to.

Honestly, I like the idea too. I mean, this also plays in tandem with the fact that one of the first things that Huron did when he came into the mantle of Chapter Master was rapidly expand the size of the Chapter's fleet to try and make up for the significant losses they had taken, and it's noted that that quite a few were ships from Corsairs or ships intended for Imperial Navy. It makes sense to recolor the vessels of Battlefleet Maelstrom into the same pattern to help mask their numbers as well. No fluff for it presently, but I did finish him up. 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaand before I go, I'll leave you guys with another teaser for my next finished model. 

 

Enjoy.

[No Foes Remain]

Hope those links help, ended up rewatching them and Alan's insights are great.

 

In terms of your silver, do you go for the base leadbelcher silver or do you go to runefang steel? As I'm looking at some unpainted 40k models and wondering how bright I should have their metal plate.

 

 

 

 

And good luck with the interviews, was unemployed for two years and it was not fun.

Edited February 28, 2020 by No Foes Remain

[Ryltar Thamior]

Legit. Glad that there's some enthusiasm for the conversational conceptual exploration. I figured the response delay was due to there being ... rather a lot to respond to  

It's definitely possible that I went a bit hard in the Sons of Horus direction ... and also, for that matter, the more extreme authoritarian tendencies of the mid-20th century vibe; as well as, as you say, how things worked out toward  the *end* of the Badab regime in the course of my commentary. As has occasionally been observed, the "born to rule" ethos does entail a "noblesse oblige" element wherein it is incumbent upon the greater and grander mental and metaphysical aristocracy (which Marines, by definition, kinda are - closer to the Emperor, greater in all manner of abilities of relevancy to running a realm, etc.) to look after and provide superior governance and organization than the lesser beings would be able to manage by themselves [as QED'd by the immediate circumstances that lead to Huron's machtergreifung in the first place]. Or, at least, that's how the self-declared aristocrats of the soul tend to see things  

It is definitely worth, as you have noted, contextualizing just about anything the Astral Claws could be accused of as applies their interaction with the "human resources" of Badab, with recourse to the pretty direct comparatives of much of the rest of the Imperium. Rather than, as I think I probably did, going for the much more 'high-minded' attempted comparison of Ultramar [which, it should be noted, was quite a different stellar domain in many regards up until relatively recently - it's far larger, *doesn't* have a huge warp-storm immediately next door, and hadn't really been hard-pressed in the same manner as Badab was right from the get-go up until the Tyranids arrived; also, being ruled over by a First Founding chapter presumably made the whole thing *far* easier in terms of other internal Imperial factionalism and politicking, even before one takes into consideration the fact that there'd already been several millennia of long-term 'practice' at being an Astartes-directed Domain]  

Although I do think that inherent in both the Astartes psyche generally, as well as certain Chapters in particular [..looking at *you*, Marines Malevolent!] is a sort of attitude to just about everyone else that makes the teleological slide toward the more *extreme* end of the Imperial Brutality spectrum a potentially rather quicker one when they're placed in a position of lordship on a longer-term basis over a mortal population.  

[it is possible that I was somewhat over-influenced by the one Astral Claw character from the Deathwatch RPG - who appears to, and this is in the late 700s M41, take the "scorn and pity" perspective on humans all the way up to the point of treating them as "utterly expendable". Although balanced against that is that the Astartes in question appears to be pretty deft at masking this when actually engaging *with* said humans; so while it could be said that FFG went for portraying a somewhat stereotype/caricature of an Astral Claw .... they didn't just do the 'negative' side - they also did the side that's counter-balancing and consciously obscurating the negative side, as well.] 

And speaking of Astartes psyche, I do wonder whether in a manner perhaps akin to how the First Founding Legions found themselves utilizing less and less stable/ideal recruits, with less and less 'properly ideologically guided' training and development, as time wore on - both because of the pressures of replacing losses, and simply due to the Tyrant's drive to build himself a mini-Legion even before the Badab War began. This, in and of itself, could contribute to a long-running decay of the "Knights in Shining Power Armour" protecting and marshaling the lesser orders of the yeomanry ... through to heavily armoured killers in plate of blood-dimmed lustre presiding over peasants; a relationship of "shepherding" that laterly takes on the darker tone of the kind more apt for a man guarding his (future) dinner(s). [it's certainly possible that some Claws would come to view humanity as the entire problem - a worthless and ungrateful species in aggregate, unable to fend for itself, and which sought to drag down its natural leaders and superiors when What Was Necessary was done on its fetid(feted) behalf; justifying not only callous disregard for ordinary mortals, Badabian and otherwise - but also for the entire notion of 'rulership' over them, and being involved with them in any meaningful sense more substantive than occasionally-necessary slavery; thus leading to the eventual emergence of the Red Corsairs as the opposite of the Astral Claws - instead of the knightly defenders of a realm (which entails, coz feudalism, being bound to a particular land and populance as part of that great chain of being and responsibility), being *unbound* either to realm or other forms of 'downward' responsibility and carving their own bloody swathe across the stars as they please]

But while I would be somewhat circumspect about treating the painting you have referenced as an entirely at-face-value depiction of the state of internal caste (needs stronger word, that) politics in Badab; for the simple reason that outward displays of fealty and enthusiasm in totalitarian regimes are not always entirely reflective of reality (although, then again, it appears that much of the citizenry of the DPRK genuinely regards the Kim dynasty with great fervor and enthusiasm; and these days, not only does Stalin hold a strong approval rating in Russia, but there are somewhat serious proposals to canonize him as an Orthodox Saint), but may be 'aspirational' (including the 'aspiration' of continuing to be in a position of relative power influence and material prosperity by maintaining a close-to-regime tie; and the 'aspiration' of avoiding the scrutiny and sword-points that might accompany being seen to be *less* than sufficiently enthusiastic about the rulership of the realm) ... 

... I do think that it's a valid point to bring up; not only because of the aforementioned "human psychology, particularly in extreme situations [which is what 40k, by default, is, anyway], doesn't always work how the modern liberal mind thinks it - itself - would"; but largely for narrative and thematic purposes. 

That is to say, as you're getting at, if 40k is - as Gav Thorpe, I think, once put it - "Decayed Splendour" ; then something like that, a proverbial (wilted, shelled, dessicated, yet still somewhat painted and varnished) rose amidst the thorns, is an elegant way to demonstrate just what Badab once was, and still to some extent could have been through much of the War. 

In other words, the vibe you're going for is legit. It's more unilaterally positive on the Astral Claws early on than I would have considered; but that's partially because I tend to be rather suspicious ('smell flowers, look around for funeral'). And in any case, is certainly at least partially explicable by, as you've noted, the strong charisma of Huron and his sons. Which isn't merely a matter of political maneuvering [nor for that matter, conspiratorial happenings designed to make certain outcomes "inevitable" through THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE-ism]; but genuine ability to inspire and galvanize a following. Which may, of course, axiomatically entail the facility to get people to disregard or de-emphasize facts and appearances that might be less positive; projecting out a vision so strong and so salient that the collective perception and interaction with reality begins to mirror it, almost regardless of what it might happen to look like from further away. 

I do, myself, tend to forget that in the whole 'swirling rumours' explication of Imperial history, that while various developments and events *can* be explained as somebody engaging in duplicitous and ironfisted despotism .... it can also be accounted for through genuine inspiring leadership and charisma. Occasionally both at the same time. 

A quote apocryphally attributed to Napoleon by a certain film runs thus: "To get to power, you need to display absolute pettiness. To exercise power you need to show true greatness. Such pettiness and such greatness are rarely found in one human being."

Although as applies Huron, I also rather like this iteration somebody came up with while looking for the original source of the above:
 

"To be a great leader requires an empathetic understanding of man; but to achieve leadership requires a politician to be power-hungry and

duplicitous; rare is a mans nature who can be so great and so small at once." 

Also, you now have to show us what mortal Badab navy officers look like And, for that matter the Astral Claws fleet liason and command personnel, etc. ; we had some ideas ages ago for something like that for Adamantia - Astartes master of the fleet, suitably augmented and panoply'd for utilizing his superior mental and other abilities for void command. Perhaps an inverse of a certain "Khan" incident. 
 

[Noctus Cornix]

What Remains

913 M.41

Fourth Day of the Siege of Badab

          It's Quiet. . .

 

Silence had fallen, not in the absence of sound, but rather drowned away in the cold quietness that rings in the ears. It was as though the world itself was but a distant memory, fractal shards of fading memories that played at  the corner of his vision while his sight simply faded off to some distant realm beyond. Anywhere but here. The present was but a lingering reminder of what had once and could have been.

 

Someone stood before him. 

 

No. . .

 

Not standing. Kneeling. With a cold sluggishness his eyes drifted down and took its time to focus on just what he was looking it. It was a pathetic site to behold, dirty, bleeding human flesh curled into a ball and clutching at some muddied sphere of gleaming silver. 

 

It was just a girl, a frail little thing that had likely not even seen her second century of life. She was slumped into the mud, a sobbing like some wounded beast as her bloodied fingers clutched at the shattered remains of an Astral Claws helmet, the right eye lens hollowed open and caked with blood, yet still the thing was nearly the size of her torso. Had she known it's owner? 

 

Likely not.

 

She clutched tightly to the remnant of a angel with a fervent desperation of one who begged for deliverance from this nightmare, and she was not alone. More than two dozen men and women formed a line, forced to their knees in the quagmire of mud and shattered earth. Behind each stood one of the Hyaenidae. Several hundred more were corraled into a corner, shivering and hunched together as they watched on with their all too mortal horror. Civilians who hid away in hopes of avoiding the mandatory conscription of all able-bodied souls. Some even still wore the grey fatigues of Legion Auxilia, deserters who abandoned their posts and fled as cowards would. Each of their crimes were deserving only of execution. Except the girl.

 

Her sin was far worse. 

 

What stood behind her was a towering giant of silver and lapis, though much of the armour was dirtied by mud and gore. The Retaliator stood with bolt pistol in hand and  the yawning maw of the gun's barrel hovering over her head. The barrel  itself was wide enough that it almost took up half her skull. She could have died like the others, but the Retaliators had chosen to make special an example of her. To look upon an Astartes was punishable by blindness. To touch the sacred armour of a Claw was to see the limb removed. But to steal the armour from a fallen warrior amidst the battlefield? 

 

The Retaliator seemed to slip from his gaze as his focus once more returned to the girl. She wasn't even looking at him. She hadn't looked at any of them since they had found her. Her eyes were still screwed shut with anguish, tears rolling ceaselessly as she wailed worldless pleas. for what, he did not know. 

 

If her sin was so grave, why had no one taken the helmet from her? 

 

A command was called, distant beneath the dull ring in his ears. Then came the muffled bark of a bolt pistol and the bone-snapping crack of hellguns. He could barely hear it. Fresh blood was splattered upon the silver Imperialis of his breastplate and gorget. He didn't move, starting only at the now still body laying at his feet. 

 

Only a hand upon his shoulder and muffled voice of someone familiar finally drew his consciousness back to the unwelcoming reality. 

 

"What?..." he asked, turning to  meet the emerald gaze of Strike Leader Graham's blood-spattered helm. 

 

"I said thank you, Haakon."

 

"For what?" Veteran Sergeant Haakon asked, meeting the Retaliator's gaze before following it to the line of fresh corpses. 

 

"For finding these traitors." There was a sense of casual ease to the Retaliator's demeanor as he leaned his weight upon the great plasteel  and ceramite pavise he carried with him. It was almost as those a war for their own extinction wasn't occurring around them. A war they were losing. 

 

"I did only as the Chapter Master decreed. Order must be maintained if the siege defense is to maintain."

 

"Yes, the Tyrant did decree that, didn't he?" The Retaliator said with the smallest crack of a dark chuckle, one laced with the deepest bitterness and savagery Haakon had come to know so well in many of his brothers. . .

 

No. Not his brothers. His brothers were all dead. This was a different breed of warrior that wore the silver and lapis of Badab's Lions, one more akin to the most brutal of killers than the noble warriors he had known as his kin. 

 

As though Haakon and his squad were not even there, the Retaliator's helm clicked with a private vox link to his three remaining kin. Setting down their pavise shields, the Retaliators stalked towards the weeping civilians with chainswords revving and bloodied gauntlets curling into fists. 

 

"What are you doing?" Haakon asked, confusion writ plain across his brow. There was no need for further violence to cow these people to do their duty."You made your examples. These people could be given weapons and led back into the fight."

 

"Those were the old orders, sergeant." The Relatiator simply shrugged, letting his fingers rest idly against the grip of his sheathed chainsword as the screaming began. "The Tyrant's new orders are that any crime committed by mortals are execution. No exceptions." 

 

This reeked of petty cruelty, but already Haakon could feel himself drifting away from this world, letting the faces of brothers and servants slip away from his mind as he peered down at the blood-stained helm still clutched by tiny hands. He wanted to be anywhere but here.

 

So many.. So many it was just easy to forget and let their faces slip away. 

 

Without a word he stepped away, taking his men with him as he stalked back into the hell outside the slaughterhouse. 

 

Veteran Sergeant Haakon of the Astral Claws Chapter

Legionary Cohort Squad Haakon, XIII Legion

Former Sergeant of 4th Squad, 3rd Battle Company

Pict-feed taken at the siege of the Palace of Thorns, subterranean sewer system

Subject announced K.I.A. due to blood loss from several dozen combat knife-sized stab wounds and a slit throat

Gene-Seed Unrecovered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He died only with regret in his twin hearts.

[Vazzy]

Amazing work brother. One of your finest pieces to date imo.

[Noctus Cornix]

Hope those links help, ended up rewatching them and Alan's insights are great.

 

In terms of your silver, do you go for the base leadbelcher silver or do you go to runefang steel? As I'm looking at some unpainted 40k models and wondering how bright I should have their metal plate.

 

 

And good luck with the interviews, was unemployed for two years and it was not fun.

 

Honestly it's just Ironbreaker, actually. I've never used any runefang for them. I usually do two thin coats of Ironbreaker, a nuln oil wash, and then I go over it again with Ironbreaker while avoiding any recesses. It's fairly simple, but I think it keeps a nice, pure silver color. I might try looking at highlights with runefang at some point. 

 

Thanks for the well wishes, man. Yeah I've been unemployed for a little over a year now. Both interviews went well. One in particular went super well and I'm really excited. Here's to hoping I have a job soon!

 

 

Legit. Glad that there's some enthusiasm for the conversational conceptual exploration. I figured the response delay was due to there being ... rather a lot to respond to  

 

 

It's definitely possible that I went a bit hard in the Sons of Horus direction ... and also, for that matter, the more extreme authoritarian tendencies of the mid-20th century vibe; as well as, as you say, how things worked out toward  the *end* of the Badab regime in the course of my commentary. As has occasionally been observed, the "born to rule" ethos does entail a "noblesse oblige" element wherein it is incumbent upon the greater and grander mental and metaphysical aristocracy (which Marines, by definition, kinda are - closer to the Emperor, greater in all manner of abilities of relevancy to running a realm, etc.) to look after and provide superior governance and organization than the lesser beings would be able to manage by themselves [as QED'd by the immediate circumstances that lead to Huron's machtergreifung in the first place]. Or, at least, that's how the self-declared aristocrats of the soul tend to see things  

 

It is definitely worth, as you have noted, contextualizing just about anything the Astral Claws could be accused of as applies their interaction with the "human resources" of Badab, with recourse to the pretty direct comparatives of much of the rest of the Imperium. Rather than, as I think I probably did, going for the much more 'high-minded' attempted comparison of Ultramar [which, it should be noted, was quite a different stellar domain in many regards up until relatively recently - it's far larger, *doesn't* have a huge warp-storm immediately next door, and hadn't really been hard-pressed in the same manner as Badab was right from the get-go up until the Tyranids arrived; also, being ruled over by a First Founding chapter presumably made the whole thing *far* easier in terms of other internal Imperial factionalism and politicking, even before one takes into consideration the fact that there'd already been several millennia of long-term 'practice' at being an Astartes-directed Domain]  

 

Although I do think that inherent in both the Astartes psyche generally, as well as certain Chapters in particular [..looking at *you*, Marines Malevolent!] is a sort of attitude to just about everyone else that makes the teleological slide toward the more *extreme* end of the Imperial Brutality spectrum a potentially rather quicker one when they're placed in a position of lordship on a longer-term basis over a mortal population.  

 

[it is possible that I was somewhat over-influenced by the one Astral Claw character from the Deathwatch RPG - who appears to, and this is in the late 700s M41, take the "scorn and pity" perspective on humans all the way up to the point of treating them as "utterly expendable". Although balanced against that is that the Astartes in question appears to be pretty deft at masking this when actually engaging *with* said humans; so while it could be said that FFG went for portraying a somewhat stereotype/caricature of an Astral Claw .... they didn't just do the 'negative' side - they also did the side that's counter-balancing and consciously obscurating the negative side, as well.] 

 

And speaking of Astartes psyche, I do wonder whether in a manner perhaps akin to how the First Founding Legions found themselves utilizing less and less stable/ideal recruits, with less and less 'properly ideologically guided' training and development, as time wore on - both because of the pressures of replacing losses, and simply due to the Tyrant's drive to build himself a mini-Legion even before the Badab War began. This, in and of itself, could contribute to a long-running decay of the "Knights in Shining Power Armour" protecting and marshaling the lesser orders of the yeomanry ... through to heavily armoured killers in plate of blood-dimmed lustre presiding over peasants; a relationship of "shepherding" that laterly takes on the darker tone of the kind more apt for a man guarding his (future) dinner(s). [it's certainly possible that some Claws would come to view humanity as the entire problem - a worthless and ungrateful species in aggregate, unable to fend for itself, and which sought to drag down its natural leaders and superiors when What Was Necessary was done on its fetid(feted) behalf; justifying not only callous disregard for ordinary mortals, Badabian and otherwise - but also for the entire notion of 'rulership' over them, and being involved with them in any meaningful sense more substantive than occasionally-necessary slavery; thus leading to the eventual emergence of the Red Corsairs as the opposite of the Astral Claws - instead of the knightly defenders of a realm (which entails, coz feudalism, being bound to a particular land and populance as part of that great chain of being and responsibility), being *unbound* either to realm or other forms of 'downward' responsibility and carving their own bloody swathe across the stars as they please]

 

But while I would be somewhat circumspect about treating the painting you have referenced as an entirely at-face-value depiction of the state of internal caste (needs stronger word, that) politics in Badab; for the simple reason that outward displays of fealty and enthusiasm in totalitarian regimes are not always entirely reflective of reality (although, then again, it appears that much of the citizenry of the DPRK genuinely regards the Kim dynasty with great fervor and enthusiasm; and these days, not only does Stalin hold a strong approval rating in Russia, but there are somewhat serious proposals to canonize him as an Orthodox Saint), but may be 'aspirational' (including the 'aspiration' of continuing to be in a position of relative power influence and material prosperity by maintaining a close-to-regime tie; and the 'aspiration' of avoiding the scrutiny and sword-points that might accompany being seen to be *less* than sufficiently enthusiastic about the rulership of the realm) ... 

 

... I do think that it's a valid point to bring up; not only because of the aforementioned "human psychology, particularly in extreme situations [which is what 40k, by default, is, anyway], doesn't always work how the modern liberal mind thinks it - itself - would"; but largely for narrative and thematic purposes. 

 

That is to say, as you're getting at, if 40k is - as Gav Thorpe, I think, once put it - "Decayed Splendour" ; then something like that, a proverbial (wilted, shelled, dessicated, yet still somewhat painted and varnished) rose amidst the thorns, is an elegant way to demonstrate just what Badab once was, and still to some extent could have been through much of the War. 

 

In other words, the vibe you're going for is legit. It's more unilaterally positive on the Astral Claws early on than I would have considered; but that's partially because I tend to be rather suspicious ('smell flowers, look around for funeral'). And in any case, is certainly at least partially explicable by, as you've noted, the strong charisma of Huron and his sons. Which isn't merely a matter of political maneuvering [nor for that matter, conspiratorial happenings designed to make certain outcomes "inevitable" through THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE-ism]; but genuine ability to inspire and galvanize a following. Which may, of course, axiomatically entail the facility to get people to disregard or de-emphasize facts and appearances that might be less positive; projecting out a vision so strong and so salient that the collective perception and interaction with reality begins to mirror it, almost regardless of what it might happen to look like from further away. 

 

I do, myself, tend to forget that in the whole 'swirling rumours' explication of Imperial history, that while various developments and events *can* be explained as somebody engaging in duplicitous and ironfisted despotism .... it can also be accounted for through genuine inspiring leadership and charisma. Occasionally both at the same time. 

 

A quote apocryphally attributed to Napoleon by a certain film runs thus: "To get to power, you need to display absolute pettiness. To exercise power you need to show true greatness. Such pettiness and such greatness are rarely found in one human being."

 

Although as applies Huron, I also rather like this iteration somebody came up with while looking for the original source of the above:

 

"To be a great leader requires an empathetic understanding of man; but to achieve leadership requires a politician to be power-hungry and

duplicitous; rare is a mans nature who can be so great and so small at once." 

 

Also, you now have to show us what mortal Badab navy officers look like And, for that matter the Astral Claws fleet liason and command personnel, etc. ; we had some ideas ages ago for something like that for Adamantia - Astartes master of the fleet, suitably augmented and panoply'd for utilizing his superior mental and other abilities for void command. Perhaps an inverse of a certain "Khan" incident. 

 

 

To be fair, I don't think your comments were unfounded. Really, the explanation for the Astral Claws treatment of humans is hilariously all over the place. In the Tyrant's Due rule, it says that they think of the humans as expendable cannon fodder. In the Chapter fluff, is says that they see the humans as currency to be spent, but spent wisely. So it's genuinely up in the air. It's certainly something that I think they kept up in the air for a reason and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I for one find it more enjoyable to look at the Astral Claws and Huron from a sympathetic perspective. After all, the entire point of this story is the tragedy of it all. It's not good vs evil, the Imperium of Man vs Chaos. These are both loyal forces of the Imperium. For all his sins, it's very clear that everything Huron did (at least before the war) was solely to defend the Imperium from the Maelstrom zone. 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't take much stock into the Astral Claws character from the Deathwatch book. He always seemed very much like a caricature to me, especially considering that this is still in the 700's, but that's just my personal feelings.

 

Oh, and don't worry, I've got some plans for the Naval side of the war and the Tyrant's forces. ;)

 

 

Amazing work brother. One of your finest pieces to date imo.

Thank you kindly, brother. It does genuinely mean a lot to me.

[No Foes Remain]

Wow thats a really nice and simple scheme and gives a good result I'm totally stealing acquiring that in the name of the Warders, in addition how light do you go with the blue for my old models I think I just use the old Ultramarine blue or whatever the equivalent was.

 

Speaking of blue, how do you use blue for the models? I orignally thought it was pure silver for the 'main' chapter and blue pads for the 'shadow' chapter and Tyrants Legion but upon re-reading the Badab War Part 1 I saw that the 1st co veterans have one blue pad (sternguard) and the terminator had both pads blue? I know the retaliators have their exaust ports on their packs gold but aside from them I can't really see any consistancy which (in my mind) kinda goes against how the Claws were on the run up to the Badab War.

[Noctus Cornix]

Wow thats a really nice and simple scheme and gives a good result I'm totally stealing acquiring that in the name of the Warders, in addition how light do you go with the blue for my old models I think I just use the old Ultramarine blue or whatever the equivalent was.

 

Yeah, over all the color scheme for the Astral Claws has been rather simple. For example, the blue is literally just Caledor sky done the exact same way I do the silver. two coats of Caledor sky, nuln oil, one more Caledor sky. Caledor Sky is by far my favorite color out of any that GW makes. It's such a beautiful blue. Really the most complex aspect of painting these models is the 3d Tyrant's legion symbols, the ones that are imprinted over a Malestrom Warder emblem. That one takes a little extra effort than everything else. 

 

 

Speaking of blue, how do you use blue for the models? I orignally thought it was pure silver for the 'main' chapter and blue pads for the 'shadow' chapter and Tyrants Legion but upon re-reading the Badab War Part 1 I saw that the 1st co veterans have one blue pad (sternguard) and the terminator had both pads blue? I know the retaliators have their exaust ports on their packs gold but aside from them I can't really see any consistancy which (in my mind) kinda goes against how the Claws were on the run up to the Badab War.

 

An excellent question and I have just the answer for you!

 

 

I have no bloody clue. 

 

Seriously, this is one of those things that I've been turning over in my head again and again with no serious idea. From what I have been able to gather, we can make some important notes when it comes to the color scheme of the Chapter.

 

Firstly, gold. Gold is used as a sign to mark one as a veteran of the Chapter. We see it in use among the sternguard veteran, the terminator, and the retaliator veteran sergeant. That being said, there is no gold on the Apothecary or the Centurion, which leads me to think that gold is reserved for veterans depending on their specific field. So, if we saw a Chief Apothecary or a Arch Centurion, they would have golden trim for their armour. I don't actually have proof of that, it's just a guess. (A certain exception to this is the gold vents on Retaliators, but I think that's more a method of unit distinction than veterancy.)

 

Secondly, double-blue.  Astral Claws of rank have twin blue shoulderpads. The Centurion, Apothecary, and Retaliator veteran sergeant all have blue on both shoulders. The only exception to this restriction seems to be Terminators. While I don't know if it means anything at all, I'd like to roll on the assumption that maybe Only veterans who have led men into battle can earn the right to wear the Crux Terminatus. Thus, even though they may not be officers at the time, every Terminator of the Chapter has earned the right to wear the twin lapis. That or maybe it just means that that one terminator in particular had and maybe other terminators only have one silver. It's sort of up in the air for that one.

 

Now, the big question. When the heck do other people have blue? We can make a guess that Veterans all have at least one blue shoulder pad, considering both examples and every officer shown has some use of blue on the reference sheet. Likewise, there's a rather heavy use of blue when it comes to the vehicles of the Chapter's Armoury. My guess, and mind you this is ONLY a guess, is that the blue represents some kind of battle honour. Perhaps it represents a certain number of years served, or an award bestowed for great valor or a noteworthy deed. A potential thought is that it might literally just be personal preference, but given it's consistent use among veterans and officers, I can't honestly say that would be a sound option. Really, having it as a marking of honour in some way would make a good deal of sense. Of the five battle brothers shown in the book, (1 tactical marine of the 3rd company, and 4 Retaliators) only 2 retaliators have the blue shoulder. It doesn't explain the difference, but it's all I've got. 

 

I like to imagine that the blue took on a more cruel purpose as the war raged on and more and more Astartes were being brought into the Tyrant's regime. Rather than a mark of honour, perhaps it became representative of a kill tally. Perhaps you could earn the blue and earn the lapis of honour after you've taken the lives of twenty Astartes, or taken the life of an Astartes officer. 

 

These are all just thoughts in my head, but I'd love to hear what other people think. 

[No Foes Remain]

No, that makes sense.

 

Take the Retaliators for example, two didn't but three (including the sergeant) did and the Retaliators were made up from the most violent and the most loyal of all Astral Claws. So say one Claw is from the 8th Company, and has been there, killed that and more. 'Promote' him to the Retaliators and he does get the lapis pad for his years served and his killing capacity. But we have another Claw, fresh recruit from Badab and is loyal to his planet, his Tyrant and the Warders. For that he gets allocated to the Retaliators but doesn't get the lapis pad as hes a fresh recruit. However both get the gold exaust ports as a mark of honour of being one of the Tyrant's Retaliators.

 

This kinda ties into Alan's ideas on them being based on the Greek/Mesopotamian soldiers where they would start out with the most basic gear but as they served longer and killed more they got better at war and as such got better gear and were encouraged to customise it as long as they kept it in check with the rest of the army.

[Noctus Cornix]

I can certainly see where you're going with for something like that, man. It's more or less where my brain is headed when it comes to that and what you're getting at honestly brings up one of the more interesting aspects of the Astral Claws in the Badab War. Since it spans over a decade and the Astral Claws are really going heavy on the recruitment of new marines, there's an interesting dynamic of just what a difference you'd see between the old Claws, the ones who originated from the chapter itself and the newer claws who have never known anything but the Tyrant's reign and this war of Astartes. It was something I tried to touch briefly upon in my most recent short piece. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

To be fair, I don't think your comments were unfounded. Really, the explanation for the Astral Claws treatment of humans is hilariously all over the place. In the Tyrant's Due rule, it says that they think of the humans as expendable cannon fodder. In the Chapter fluff, is says that they see the humans as currency to be spent, but spent wisely. So it's genuinely up in the air. It's certainly something that I think they kept up in the air for a reason and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I for one find it more enjoyable to look at the Astral Claws and Huron from a sympathetic perspective. After all, the entire point of this story is the tragedy of it all. It's not good vs evil, the Imperium of Man vs Chaos. These are both loyal forces of the Imperium. For all his sins, it's very clear that everything Huron did (at least before the war) was solely to defend the Imperium from the Maelstrom zone. 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't take much stock into the Astral Claws character from the Deathwatch book. He always seemed very much like a caricature to me, especially considering that this is still in the 700's, but that's just my personal feelings.

 

Oh, and don't worry, I've got some plans for the Naval side of the war and the Tyrant's forces.

 

Legit. Looking forward to the boarding action writeups and such :P 

 

 

And yeah, as I probably mentioned, one of the glorious things about the 3rd/4th era fluff was how it did 'deliberate ambiguity' by presenting quite heavily contrasting versions of things - a classic example being the Iron Warriors Index Astartes article's writeup of The Iron Cage ... as compared to the Imperial Fists Index Astartes article's coverage of the same event. The latter basically went with how it was overall a good thing because something something purified legion of the more inflexible elements and left it able to actually accept and implement the Codex Astartes; the former - and I am quite biased - was probably more accurate. 

 

So the 'contrasting version' approach - wherein we hear about *both* the Astral Claws as shining paragons of the knight-protectors of the realm ... *and also* as the sneering saturday-morning-supermen stepping straight out of a Pulp serial but in power armour ... yeah, it's good historiography. Or, given this is The Imperium engaged in writeups of history .... propaganda masquerading as historiography, potentially. That could be an interesting idea for future story-telling opportunities - presenting a version of events as they've been officially chronicled and interpreted and understood post-facto [in part turned into something resembling an aesop about "Why Astartes In Charge Leads Inexorably To Hell"], and also showing at some point, the actual reality of the same event as it was experienced by those there. 

 

In any case, as you've pointed out, we're dealing with a rather lengthy period of time (by our contemporary standards, anyway); and more than just this or that individual. It's only natural that there's going to be some variance in terms of their own perceptions and motivations - both across time, and from Marine to Marine, or other Badab factotum. 

 

 

 

That was actually one of the things I really liked about your most recent short story - the manner in which it directly showcased both the temporal shift in attitudes between the 'old' Astral Claws, and the much more recent clades; as well as between individual Marines within the Chapter as a partial result. And also got in that point you'd raised earlier around the semi-deification and definite religious awe with which the Astartes were regarded by the populace toward the end. A helluva thing to shift from being the Maelstrom Wardens, protecting the people of Badab from the predatory foes of the outer dark...through to being the Tyrants of Badab, protecting themselves from the wider Imperium, no matter how high the ramparts of mortal corpses had to be to ensure that remained the case. 

 

As applies Huron himself ... 

 

 

 

It's an interesting thing; I mean I don't dispute that his earlier actions were both positive for the defence of that portion of the Imperium, and understandable/enhanced by frustration at what was going on around him thanks to the petty putting-the-feud-back-into-feudalism of the human-headed bodies he was forced to contend with or otherwise rely upon. 

 

It's definitely a spectrum - one of them slow roads to hell, paved with self-convincing justifications - rather than a sharp drop, that leads to him becoming the Tyrant of Badab as we know him from the Siege. 

 

Although the curious question I've been turning over in my mind, is a deceptively simple one: the extent to which, once he started out down the road of the conspiratorial manipulation of things, the power-building, all of that, even for the initially undeniably noble purpose .. to what extent this became a teleological excursion. To what extent his eventual situation and position had become inevitable. 

 

I don't think there's an easy answer to that; not least because at its heart, the conflict with The Imperium (rather than, of course, *For*  The Imperium) may have been difficult to avoid given that it was the localized inefficiencies and iniquities tied to the Imperial system which Huron wound up taking such strong issue with. 

 

it's something of a cliche to quote the old "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven"; not least because one rarely sets out with the conscious intent of winding up in Hell, still less often with the Hell in question being of one's own making. Rather, it tends to be the endeavour to *build* a Heaven (generally implicitly replacing the real one in the process - in this case, the suzerainty of the Imperium) that proves the overall undoing. Although as applies Huron himself, the place he *actually* wound up reigning in was the Maelstrom, so the original Miltonian maxim did wind up playing out in the end. With, given his recent antics in M42, the rework introduced in one of the Dune sequels about it being a 'defeatist sentiment' for the ambition of regency *only* to extend to Hell, rather than *everywhere*, potentially also in play. 

 

If the progression of Huron from "frustrated" to "refusing to let propriety get in the way of doing the right thing", to "well intentioned extremist", to simply "extremist", is that so frequently abused of rhetorical concepts, the "slippery slope" ... I guess the question is whether he could have actually *stopped* at any of these points - and, as a further and probably more foundational follow-up, whether he would have *wanted* to. Which is partially that question around potential psychological characteristics to the Claws (and Astartes in general, to be sure); and also partially that question around any man, transhuman or otherwise, put in a situation of both power and necessity. 

 

I do think that his being prepared to breach the initial array of laws and moral lines, even for ostensiably noble purposes, made it far easier to then transgress everything else - in fact, to not even view all the rest of his actions [particularly his treatment of other Astartes - including the geneseed harvesting and the alleged assassination of a brother chapter's command in order to keep them in the War] as actually being "transgressions" at all. Not "necessary evils", just "necessary'. I saw a fair bit of that in my previous life n politics - figures who started out all about principles and purposes, then compromised a bit here and there to get at them; then compromised more and greater, found themselves compromised as a result, and became all about their own longevity and self-perpetuation of regime, with the Principles a combination of effective propagandtastic/PR tool and thing to tell themselves when that nagging sense of conscience cropped up from time to time through the attempted-drowning in .. various things. 

 

Although having said that, one of my favourite 40k quotes, is from Inquisitor Coteaz - "There are those amongst our Ordo who say that I seek advancement for my own purposes, and they are correct. My purpose is to destroy the daemonic and if I must rise to command an entire sector to do so, then so be it. I am a servant of the Emperor and only those who consort with Warp-spawn need fear my ambition." 

 

It goes nicely, I think, alongside a quote of Gaunt's - "Give any man the power of a god, and you better hope he's got the wisdom and morals of a god to match. There's nothing feeble about my moral line. I value life. That is why I fight to protect it. I mourn every man I lose and every sacrifice I make. One life or a billion, they're all lives."

 

I thought about phrasing the implicit question of Huron as being whether he viewed power as means or end - and the answer's probably 'both', with the latter coming to completely overwhelm the former with the passage of time and the escalating madness of Badab's situation paradoxically cutting through any delusions one could possibly harbour as to what was being done being for the greater good of the Imperium or humanity (or the localized good thereof, potentially also). 

 

But I was also thinking about Apocalypse Now, and the psychological breakdown of Kurtz (or, if you like, the psychological adaptation of sanity in light of changed preconditions and an enhanced accuracy of perception about the situation it found itself expressed in) is something of a counterpoint to that. Instead of it presenting a villain who's only in it for either the secular agglomeration of personal aggrandizement, or the more metaphysically infused Evil ... which are the two usual go-tos for a lot of antagonist writing in 40k when it comes to traitors and secessionists - there's probably something to the Heart of Darkness approach. The idea that it's "what was necessary", and that at some point, making one's self into the razor means losing all sight of the fact that a razor sans handle is going to first cut and then cut off, the hand that would otherwise hold it and it would otherwise serve. Which is, itself, part and parcel of the somewhat obsessive manner in which an Astartes mind can work. 

 

Anyway, I'm rambling. 

 

 

 

It's a nice job with the veteran sergeant; and I also just noticed the little detail around the cause of death (and the geneseed extraction). I like the subtle implication that the earlier 'difference of opinion' and ethos between Haakon and the more recent Astral Claws was one that was not ultimately survivable. And also the somewaht frayed nobility still standing high of the old-style banner with golden halo'd skull.

 

Good job also with the heavy bolter veteran from his squad. And you're a braver man than I, attempting to get the ammunition feed to play nice with mounting on Mk.X - I had a few efforts with the heavy flamers from the sternguard kit which worked; and a devastator plasma cannon that ... was intensively frustrating.

[No Foes Remain]

I can certainly see where you're going with for something like that, man. It's more or less where my brain is headed when it comes to that and what you're getting at honestly brings up one of the more interesting aspects of the Astral Claws in the Badab War. Since it spans over a decade and the Astral Claws are really going heavy on the recruitment of new marines, there's an interesting dynamic of just what a difference you'd see between the old Claws, the ones who originated from the chapter itself and the newer claws who have never known anything but the Tyrant's reign and this war of Astartes. It was something I tried to touch briefly upon in my most recent short piece. 

Exactly that, you also see it with their heraldry with the older Pre-Huron veterans using their old leonic symbol vs the newer Astartes, which as you said only known the Tyrant, using the Tyrant's Claw and not the leonic one. Its also something I wanted to explore with my company and Tyrant's legion, which is happening sooner than planned as you are a terrible influence!