The 90th Company 9th Chapter The Novas - Heresy Ultramarines

[sarabando]

Lucretius Corvo turned his honours in his hands. The gilded laurels reflected the flickering candlelight across the dark walls of his cell. Lost deep in thought, the captain almost didn't hear the door chime.

"Enter." He said, putting the award onto a shelf. The door hissed open on well oiled pistons. The conservative space of the living quarters was filled instantly with a mass of ceramite. Clad in black, a marine stood before him, Cataphractii pattern terminator plate blocked the door and almost made Lucretius pull his legs up onto the hard cot he sat upon as if to make room for him to enter.

"Lucretius Corvo." It was a statement not a question.

"Yes." He replied.

"Your presence is requested by my lord and master." The Terminator held out a datascroll for the Ultramarine to take.

He ran his thumb over the seal, a minute hiss indicated his biometric reading had been accepted and the hemetic seal had broken. He opened the document and confirmed the request.  He had come to blows figuratively with the Lion a few days ago during the award ceremony and assumed it was time for another dose of his well known discipline, this time his own lord would not be present.

Corvo stood and gestured to the door allowing the messenger to lead him onwards to his punishment.

The cool night air had an anticipatory stillness to it, the city was nervous, but that was normal these days. Civilians who would have normally filled the streets partaking in street food, music, entertainers instead rushed quietly between destinations, cloaks drawn tightly around them.

The first legion had taken a portion of the local civitas as their own billeting troops and their many thralls at the expense of the locals. Clad in his simple tunic and trousers, Corvo swore he could feel the temperature drop as he crossed the Dionysus bridge into their territory. A detail of legionaries stared at him, their Iron armour faceplates blank.

The entered one of the many storehouses that had been converted to legion use, quickly ascending up to the administratum levels, there the Lion waited.
The room was dark, a wide space lit only by a scattering of munitorum field lamps, they cast long upwards shadows upon the face of the Primarch.  Light played off a series of tall windows at the far end of the room, but no light fell into the room beyond.

"Lucretius Corvo, Captain of the 90th chapter." Said the lion. "What do you know of the Phyryctoria of Thelasus?" He asked.

Corvo noticed that the lion's hand was resting on his weapon and swallowed, feeling the tug at his nerves.

"Nothing my lord." He answered truthfully.

"Good." Stated the first legion's primarch. "I would hate to have had to kill you." His tone had no hint of humour.

Corvo took a step back, more in readiness than fear this time, until a heavy hand landed on his unarmoured shoulder.

"What my brother means, is that all knowledge of the Phyryctoria network was expunged by our father." Corvo relaxed as he looked up into the face of his own Primarch. "Sadly such is the time that I must go against his wishes and share its existence with you my son."

 

"The Phyryctoria is an ancient system of astronomican style beacons that spread across the 500 worlds, used by early pre imperial humanity." Roboute passed a dataslate to his son containing more information, discovery, mechanicum investigation reports, much of it heavily redacted.

"The difference between this and the other such sites is its control system." He continued, "An abominable intelligence system. Your mission is to take it and break its spirit."

 

The briefing ended after many questions and several outbursts by the 1st legion's master.

"I shall take my leave, my lords." Corvo bowed to the pair.

"Why?" asked the Lion.

"To wake my men and begin briefing them, sire?" Corvo asked, the nervous feeling returning.

"No Lucretius." Smiled Guilliman. "Your men are already here." He gestured the glossy black windows at the end of the room.

The astarte walked to the window, his enhanced eyes unable to pierce the darkness.

"I was impressed with your actions and how you stood up to me, it took strength of character." Said the lion. "My men took these suits from a supply fleet heading to Cthonia, and I feel you are the man to put them to use." He flicked the lights on, illuminating the room below. There stood the 90th chapter arrayed for battle, their pitted and broken armour from recent conflict repaired and polished to a parade finish. His veterans stood at attention front and centre, clad in immaculate Cataphractii plate. To a man every one repainted in Corvo's own white and blue personal heraldry, as one they began banging their fists upon their armour in salute to their chaptermaster.

"Your honour guard, your novas." Smiled Guilliman.

Edited May 8, 2024 by sarabando

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Love the split colour models - really nicely done.

[Terminatorinhell]

I'm a sucker for Novamarines. And this scheme is so nice. I kind of like the slightly pastel effect. 

[sarabando]

8 hours ago, Terminatorinhell said:

I'm a sucker for Novamarines. And this scheme is so nice. I kind of like the slightly pastel effect. 

i call that my "overly enthusiastic application of matt varnish" technique. 

[Marshal Mittens]

Absolutely love the gritty look, hard to pull off with blue or white, and I think you did great. Very good looking Nova's you have there!

[Chaplain Killmer]

When I was looking at first i  thought something is very different to most marine pics that you see on the net. Now with the explanation of the varnish application I looked again - and to me even more stunning is - you don't really see much or any boltgun metal. I like that style. Very nice work.

[Domhnall]

Just finished listening to Pharos so understood who Lucretius Corvo is right away 

 

Very nicely done. 

Edited May 15, 2024 by Domhnall

[sarabando]

Corvo rolled his shoulders again testing the weight of his new plate, he felt a light impact at his side. 

"Stop it boy." Chidded Tor'Chiron his gruff tone buzzing across their private vox link. 

Normally such disrespect would be unheard of in the legion, a subordinate striking his superior would be enough to have the most veteran warrior censured. But Tor'Chrion was different. He was a legend, a drill master from mountains of Macragge who had trained hundreds of the legions greatest officers. The gruff old guard had requested to join Corvo shortly before his award ceremony stating flatly that he wanted to "die before i get to old to enjoy it."  

"Your fidgeting makes you look nervous." He growled. "That then makes the others nervous." 

The captain turned in the cramped space of the transport to fix his standard bearer with a stare. 

"What about you old goat? Are you nervous?" He asked his former teacher. 

"No, I just need to piss." 

Corvo chuckled and flicked his vox over to the senior band frequency. 

"Pilot, can you speed things up please Tor-Chiron forgot to relieve himself before we left!" 

A flurry of vox traffic indicators lit up his display as comments, jokes and laughter flittered between his senior staff. He felt the atmosphere lighten and stress lessen its grip. 

Below the blue ball of Thelasus raced up towards them their fate awaited below. 

 

Edited June 11, 2024 by sarabando
fix issue with images.

[apologist]

Love the poses, love the painting, love the background snippets. Just what Space Marines should be – bravo for a wonderful project.

[calgar101]

Those are beautifully done. I love Novamarines and that gritty look is pulled off well.

[sarabando]

Thelasus rushed up to greet the diving aircraft, communications challenges lay unanswered as picket ships were absent. 

"I have a bad feeling about this." Hummed Cantus to himself as the choppy atmosphere buffeted the fast moving strike craft. 

"Tell me of this world Cantus." Tested Corvo. 

The junior member of the retinue turned in the cramped crew bay and nodded. 

"Thelasus is a larger world by Terran standards, she is currently at the height of her glacial-interglacial cycle the last ice age having ended approximately a thousand to two thousand Terran standard years ago." He recited. 

"So no need for thermal undergarments then?" Asked Tor'Chiron playfully. 

"No lord, the planets surface is currently 98.347% water, with an average temperature of..." He was cut of with a wave of Corvo's hand. 

"Mission pertinent information Cantus. Facilities, expected resistance etcetera." He offered. 

"Apologies sir. Primary facility is located here." He linked a hololithic display throughout the retinue which Corvo patched into the entire force wordlessly. 

"The Mechanicum constructed this facility on top of an existing facility around 200 Terran standard years ago to study our objective." He cleared his throat nervously. 

"Standard Mechanicum defensive posturing is highly classified and hard to come by but using av alible reports id expect two dozen defence platforms located here and here." possible objective markers appeared in neutral blue across the map. "And  heavy garrison forces there and there." Another handful of blue markers appeared. 

 

"Where would you have us land here?" Asked Corvo pinging the primary landing pad. 

"No sir." Cantus rotated the map zooming into a perimeter facility. "Tertiary supply and evacuation pads." He offered. "We can approach along this vector, the facility itself will shield us from over 60% of the possible defences and we can land three vessels at a time, there is cover from the pads all the way to this airlock, and from there only 400 metres to a supply artery that should take us anywhere we need to go." He reasoned, a hint of pride creeping into his voice. 

 

Corvo studied the plan, it was solid. 

"What would you do about these defences?" He pointed at a glowing blue rune.

 

Cantus adjusted the display overlaying flight data. 

"Our Xiphon escorts buzz the towers, they fly fast enough to avoid any fire on the first pass."

 

"But they die on the second" Cautioned Tor'Chiron with a growl.

 

"But there won't be a second pass drill master, as the fire Raptors Centaur's fury and Illustrate fault will shadow them along this vector engaging any targets."

 

Corvo returned the look Tor'Chiron was giving him, blank face plates hiding the smug look he knew the old man was giving him. 

 

"This is satisfactory, escorts i am uploading new strike vectors, be cautious and only fire if fired upon." 

A flurry of acknowledgements filled his vision as outside in the bleak grey storm a pair of Xiphon interceptors broke formation and peeled off towards the closing target. 

 

"I will make first landing." Crackled the vox. It was not a request but a statement of fact, one Corvo didn't intend to question as the flight approached uncontested weapons platforms silent, unmoving. 

 

Ancient Horatius was already maglocked onto the landing ramp of his storm eagle, rain lashed against his ceramite sarcophagus. The long fallen warrior didn't wait for the slowly descending aircraft and stepped off onto the landing pad below dropping a dozen feet landing with a reverberating tone like a bell. 

 

"It seems sturdy enough brothers!" He voxed back, the structural integrity warnings of the area around him wailing about possible metal fatigue.  The rest of the force landing with more care, and professionalism. Squads split into fireteams and crossed the open gantries rain and wind buffeting them as they moved. 

 

 

Progress was slow, hatches that refused entry requests were opened with plasma fire, power weapons and melta charges. 

Within the hour the force was deep within the facility. No a single mortal had been located, a thin layer of dust and grime covered every surface. 

"This place appears long abandoned." Offered a warrior as he brushed aside personal belongings and scanning equipment. 

 

 

 

 

"Barracks decks, mess halls and chapel areas are empty lord commander" Growled Ancient Aneneas. "There is food here, spoiled, abandoned as if mid-consumption." 

 

 

"Grrr those religious fanatics must have abandoned this task, the shame!" Remus blared smashing a rusted trunnion in frustration. "To be given such a mission by the master of mankind himself and to simply walk away from it is what they would call heresy." 

 

 

 

"Auspex returns show miles of facility below us, below the waterline. Down brothers, we must go down." 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great - really nice weathering