18
It had been months since the Dominator left orbit above the commercial world of Lexmar Prime. The huge space bound fortress rumbled its way through real space, those aboard the old leviathan enjoying the brief respite from either liberation actions or assassination detail for the Ultima fleet. The Dominator had docked with the hexathedral station hanging in fixed orbit over the dead world of Tesla Prime. Like a swarm of insects the mechanicum engineers and tech priests descended upon the ancient war ship to replace blown components and even one of the gargantuan plasma drives that powered the vast craft. Uron Malefictus, Chapter Master, spent those months looking inwards at his Chapter. As mighty as they believed themselves to be, their strength lay in their numbers and numbers is something they did not have. At the height of the Badab war, Imperial forces had deployed several Astartes Chapters, dedicating the entire fighting forces to descend upon the Lamenter and Astral Claw rebellion. The Knights never made it thus far to engage, not far from the Dominators current position the Chapters singular Librarian, given charge of fully half the Chapter succumbed to the temptations of the Warp. None know what enticed him to twist the minds of his brothers so that they became slavering and ravaged beasts but from that point on the gene-seed was ruined beyond genetic repair.
Uron remembered those days as the Chapter dropped out of warp space into the blackness between stars to punish itself with treachery and blood. He had slain many of his brothers, furious in their blood lust. The weight hung heavy upon him and so did the fact that victory was not his. He had led the final push into the other battle barge while the strike cruisers engaged each other around the two huge hulks. A tide of feral and twisted marines swarmed the corridors as the First Company and the Chapter command had cleaved their way to the heart of the ship. They found Luxor, his body bloated and his soul sold. Icons daubed the walls in fecal matter and clotted blood, flies and wriggling, fat worms and maggots were crushed under foot. Two great wings, like those of a sand-roach had cracked open the rear of the Librarians armour. He burbled a laugh at Uron and fixed his multifaceted eyes upon the Chapter Master. He had raised his staff.
Uron had almost died that day, he should have died that day. He had lost a heart, a lung and almost half his torso, his left side punched out and shattered the portable reactor upon his back. His suit had slammed lifeless to the floor as cold green wytch light ghosted around the wound. In his last moments of consciousness he'd seen the newly honour Chapter Champion Serbus draw his blade, Uron remembered a touch of cold, so frozen that crystals formed in the air and he watched Serbus slay Luxor. Something he could not have done. He had survived and formed the Templari to safeguard the Chapter. The ever vigilant Chaplains who nurtured the young warriors recruited into the Chapters ranks. No matter how fast they harvested aspirants, the cycle rate of those who could handle the volatile gene-seed was far from high. As a result the Chapter had been reduced to four functioning Companies. The First, Second, Eight and Tenth. All other Chapters had been cannibalised to bolster the other companies to near full strength, the Company commanders returned to the Athena system to begin rebuilding from the ground up.
Their founding lay back in the Age of Apostasy, those dark and savage days where the Ecclesiarchy had ruled with an iron fist, bringing fire and death to so many of the Imperial worlds. They had been created in secret, an experimentation of heretical proportions involving the mighty gene-seed of the Blood Angels and the noble Imperial Fists. Uron did not know what madness had gripped the Cardinal, whatever be his name, and the Mechanicum bioengineers but they had tried to stabilise the inherent flaws. The Astartes of Dorn hadn't survived the diabolical experiments and his life perished so that ultimately the gene of Dorn diluted out of the Knights genetic makeup. Two Blood Angels, both having been exiled from their Chapter upon penitent crusades fared more than the Fist. The unsanctioned creation of an Astartes Chapter did not go unnoticed and it drew down the gaze of the Inquisition. A sizable force intercepted the Cardinals smaller fleet and lay siege to the crafts, gaining entry into the Mechanicum bio-ship. The Inquisition encountered inner turmoil as the surviving Blood Angel led a force of freshly created Space Marines in battle against their creators.
With the Cardinal put to death and the Mechanicus heretics executed the Inquisition turned its attentions to the Space Marines. Two Lords reviewed the super human warriors, one Lord, Bathor, pushed for their destruction, deeming them to be unclean. The second Lord, Adrianus, had their minds searched and their bodies studied extensively before pulling rank upon Bathor and declaring the Chapter sanctioned and ready for Imperial use. From that moment, the surviving Blood Angel had been told his penitent crusade was worth nought and he was now the Master of this new Chapter. Their creation had been a vermillion level breach of Imperial law and he was a crusading knight no matter what the Inquisitor said, so naturally, the Knights Vermillion were formed. This Blood Angel, the first Uron Malefictus in a long line of the same name led the Chapter into the stars to find the blasted and sparse Athena system deep in the star clusters dubbed the Dominion of Storms.
The Chapter Master decided after those long months sailing the Imperial lines of the Warp that the First and Second companies would return home to Armacia, their fortress world orbiting the Athenian star. Yet first, he must stay true to his word and return to Lexmar Prime and inquire as to the health and state of the population. It would come to grieve the Chapter Master upon his return to the Lexmar system to discover the planet once more rooted firmly in the seat of heresy. It's cities a flame, its populace turned upon one another again and vile, gibbering creatures capering the surface, summoned into being by hidden cults dedicated to the ruinous powers beneath the hives. Not for the first time Uron cursed the name of Luxor and the power of psykers as he ordered the battle fortress to lay waste to the planet below. Gigantic mass reactive shells slammed into the planets crust, breaking its shell and spilling the worlds molten life blood. Searing lances of energy set the very air on fire, scouring deep craters in the earth, leaving nothing alive. The assault continued until the seas had boiled, the towering cities were levelled and not even germ life flourished on the surface. Uron despaired at the loss of life. Templari Chaplain Grakar bared his teeth in a satisfied grin as he watched the planet burn from the bridge of the Dominator.