The Incipios Crusade - An Argent Forge Project

[Brother Argent]

"That's the issue if you keep digging down. Eventually you are going to find something you don't want. Or, even worse, it will find you..."

Rogue Trader Terena Deveaux on the mines on Incipios

The Cicatrix Maledictum had cut a viscous scar across the breadth of the Imperium. The galactic north had been declared the Imperium Nihilus and was cut off from most if not all of the golden light of the Emperor's Astronomicon as well as support and supplies from Terra and the heart of the dominion of man. As the enemies of humanity, the heretic within and the traitor without as well as the ever present insidious threat of the xeno, push these isolated and fractures worlds greater then they ever have the Imperium is forced to more and more draconic measures in an ever desperate attempt to push back the darkness of oblivion. Forge worlds are pushed to produce more and more equipment for the Imperium's many wars and their vast forges are the hungriest they have ever been for the raw materials to meet the demands. On mining worlds across the Imperium more and more criminals and citizens are drafted to the great mines to churn out more and more to meet the demands, the human cost a mere inconvenience when compared to the horrors that watch the failing light of humanity.

Incipios was one such Mining World. Once a verdant agri world its fertile fields were found to hold a far greater worth beneath their grassy vales. Following the discovery of rich mineral deposits beneath the planets surface it wasn't long before farms were replaced with great open cut mines and the planets waters were transported onboard great ships to be sent off world. Stripped of its vegetation the planet soon lost much of its atmosphere, becoming a hot and arid place, a hellish nightmare for those brought from off world to work its vasts mines. But even with Incipios's mineral stores its greatest wealth was when its was discovered to contain great reservoirs of the life blood of the Imperium, promethium.

Despite its nightmarish living conditions, or perhaps because of them, it was also a highly valuable world to the war machine of the Imperium. Its vast space port was surrounded by great factories and manufactorums that turned much of the planets raw materials to vital components to be sent elsewhere. The space port became a common stopping ground for Imperial forces enroute to far flung conflicts across the breadth of humanities realms. It was for this reason that the forces of the Star Leopards and what would become to be known as the Incipios Crusade would arrive in the early days of M.42

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When mighty Cadia fell and the Great Rift was born any number of worlds across the Imperium were lost to the ravages of the Warp. The Star Leopards home world of Argentum was once such world. Spared from complete destruction only by the machinations of the enigmatic Aeldari the Star Leopards were cut adrift and left decimated far from the ruin of their homeworld. It was only that arrival of the Indomitus Crusade and the Primaris reinforcements that saved the chapter from utter destruction. Although some could say the Primarchs gift was as much a curse as the mysterious origins and nature of the Star Leopards geneseed meant that the Arch-Magos Belisarius Cawl's primaris works didn't mesh and the Primaris assigned to the chapter were instead scions of the Ultramarines. Even later attempts to raise new recruits to primaris met with horrible failure and hugely high fatality rates amoungst its inductees. With the Chapter's numbers already decimated there were few willing to undertake the procedures required.

Despite this the Chapter had broken up and divided its remaining forces into forces known as Redemption Crusades, each responsible for its own surrpl and recruitment. Led by the remaining Captains of the Chapter each set off to redeem their Chapter's name and, perhaps in doing so, find a new homeworld and perhaps even their lost Chapter Master whom disappeared at the fall of their homeworld.

It was one such force that arrived at the mining world of Incipios, looking to resupply from its recent actions against the tyranids of Hive Fleet Titan. When they arrived at the mining world rather then be met with Imperial hails they were met with deathly silence. Drawing closer to the world they saw the ghostly silhouettes of shattered Imperial ships left adrift in space, their hulls open to the cold vacuum of space. High Captain Valis Dune of the remnants of the Star Leopards 5th Company wasted no time sending his forces to make planet fall. They were met with the same scenes of death and devastation. Doom had come to Incipios, it seemed, and it was up to the Star Leopards to find out what and why.

What was left of the world was shattered ruins and empty streets. There were no bodies to by found, either loyal or enemy, but the signs of battle wer everywhere. What little defence forces the planet had been able to muster had clearly put up a valiant fight. Against what was unsure to Imperial forces. All they were able to detect was the occasional unusual energy reading from deep below the planet surface that would show for a while on auspex scanners before disappearing before augers could get a lock. No life signs were detected in the twisted ruins. Incipios was a dead world.

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Okay so Fluff aside this is my newest project, the Incipios Crusade. For those whom know me I have tried to, on multiple occasions, attempted to make work in progress logs on my various armies, including my Tale of X Armies, with the number of armies varying over the years as I have found other armies (I have been in the hobby for 20 odd years, I have lots of unpainted armies floating around). So this time I am focusing on a fluff heavy log. And indeed will continue to do so for all the armies with my "Warzone" idea where I am dividing my various armies into separate conflicts. Anyway I recently acquired this:

Which turned into this:

Which in turn turned into this:

And this:

I must say it was a roller coaster of emotions assembling these models. The Assault Intercessors were an absolute dream to assemble and are amazing models. I will add in some other bits to make the first five different from the second five. The Outriders were a nightmare and I dont like the look of them at all. The Captain and Lt were again quite fun. The Necron warriors were fine once I got the hang of them but finding the parts on the sprue was a nightmare, with often getting the wrong part due to the number 1 of 18 etc being almost off the sprue resulting in constant muck ups. The scarabs were just a couple of bits so nothing to note. The Destroyers were easy and again awesome models. The Overlord and other character were fiddly and un-intuitive and although I like the end model I didn't enjoy building them. The pipes and buildings were the same, with the ruins and pies easy but the Thermo Exchange Shrine was a bit 50/50.

Not sure how much I will go with Necrons but I did start an army back in the day with old school warriors and a lord and scarabs but none of them really fit the new Necron look. Heck I haven't even read the new fluff but I know it has drastically changed. And if I am honest the recent release of 40,000 new primaris units has left a very bitter taste in my mouth with marines. Indeed this latest wave may mark the end of a 20 odd year stint of marines for me as I feel GW has somewhat screwed over long term players. Thats not to say I don't like the look of primaris, I actually like the look of most of their models, but I think they would have been better as a rework of marines rather then the shoe horned it replacement for everything monster they are. For now I will work what I have and the things from Conquest as I have been working on the relaunch of this Chapter for 15 years but afterwards I may move on to my other love, the Guard.

[Brother Dallo]

A good start. I look forward to seeing where you go with this.

 

Keep at it.

 

Dallo

[Llagos_Tyrant]

Love what you have so far! As a big fan of narrative and lore heavy WIP threads, I'll be following this with great interest!

[Brother Argent]

" All that was left on that world was ash. Ash and dust and smoking ruins. And death, cant forget that. Truth be told in the end we found more of that than anything else..."

Neophyte Pracius, Star Leopards 10th Company on Incipios

Shattered ruins, burned out vehicles and the discarded weaponry and barricades of the worlds defenders. That was all the Imperial Forces found on Incipios as they searched through the blasted ruins of Hive Primus. It was clear that the planets defenders had put up quite a fight against whatever foe had assaulted them. The otherwise empty streets were littered with hastily set up barricades and strong points. What soon became apparent was that whatever had destroyed the Hive and taken or killed its people had come from inside the Hive.

Imperial Forces sent out various scouting parties, consisting of Outriders, Marine Bikers and Scout Bikers into the vast wastes around the Hive, backed up by fast moving Landspeeders and Rhino's filled with Marines. In the Hive Scout squads backed up by full fledged marines and Primaris Intercessors moved from rubble to rubble, searching for signs of life, enemy or friendly. In parts it became a competition between the First born and Primaris of the Chapter. A competition that seemed to yield no results.

Assault Intercessor Squad Castus - Demi Squad

Intercessor Squad Castus was one of the Assault Intercessor Squads assigned to the search of the Lower Quarters of Hive Primus. The Lower Quarter was the area that encompassed much of the Manufactorums of the Hive along with a minor space port. It was an assignment that Castus took with disdain for, despite his Ultramarine heritage, Castus was brash and carried himself with a mannerism bordering on arrogance. He represented an almost opposite to the self effacing attitude of the Star Leopards. But underneath this rash and dismissive attitude Castus is unwavering in his determination to defend the loyal servants of the Imperium. He leads his squad with the same fire and, despite his attitude, is still highly regarded by many higher in the Chapter, although mostly his Primaris kin. Of recent Castus has spent more and more time with the Reclusiarch Kaseon, a fellow Primaris, although to what purpose remains unknown to those outside the two's cloistered meetings.

Castus lead his brothers through the winding and narrow Hive Primus streets, drawing closer and closer to the Space Port. It soon became apparent to the young sergeant that the closer to the Space Port they drew, the thicker the fighting seemed to be. Whatever had fallen upon Incipios in seemed it had, at least in part, come from the space port in the Lower Quarters. What also became more and more apparent was the flickering ghost energy signals around them and life signs that would disappear as soon as they appeared on auspex scans. A growing sense of foreboding grew amoungst Castus and his brothers as they soon began to realize they were being followed...

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Why oh why did I choose to do the buildings first? Two weeks of bashing my head against a wall to eke out something I am not entirely happy with. I assumed with the time of work I have had I would have been able to achieve something but I should have know otherwise. My wife flew out to Adelaide (a city of Australia in a different State) with my two month old son for him to have surgery. Long story short there were complications and they were over there for longer then though and I was left watching over our other four kids which was... draining... And now she is back we are in two weeks quarantine due to the Covid 19 restrictions so I have been put to work fixing things around the house. Still, am getting somewhere now and hopefully I can blitz through these models since I like them.

My intention was for updates every Sunday but things have gotten in the way. Hopefully can get somewhere now and work on improving my model output as well as quality and quantity of fluff.

Anyway back to the forge to crank out the start of Squad Castus and start to develop the Star Leopards on a more... personal level. Oh and finally restart my necrons after a 20 odd year hiatus

Edited September 28, 2020 by Brother Argent

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the ruins.