Tribes of the Plains World In the immediate aftermath of the Horus heresy and the subsequent treachery by Luthet, the remaining loylist dark Angels legion began the arduous task of reforming itself. Although their primarch was no longer with them, missing after the climactic battle on Caliban and their home world devastated with only their fortress monastary surviving on a continent sized piece of the planet, the angels resolutely continued the primarch's plans. The legion reformed in to chapters and the Dark Angel chapter retained the Tower of Angels. Slowly they rebuilt their resources and the massive task of making the Tower mobile in space. It was in this interim period that the Inner Circle made the decision to begin recruitment from nearby sstems and worlds until such time the Tower of Angels could move itself to various systems. So was born the tradition of the members of the first company leading the recruitment teams every few hundred years to different planets. Each planet built up its own mythos and traditions in relation to the space marines, revering them as representatives of the emperor. The Plains World was called that simply because of the majority of the land mass consisted of rolling plains, far more than any other world in the region. The different tribes that lived in the plains were honourable yet fierce and hardy hunters. They had provided a good and rich source of recruits for the chapter for many hundred years when the incident that would go in to the legends of Deathwing would take place. Tradition had established itself in such a way that all members of the Deathwing company who were recruited from a particular world would return there every hundred years for further recruitment. It also provided the home coming the battle weary veterans longed for as well as ease the trepidation of new recruits knowing their ancestors were there with them. Cloud Runner comes home It was one such home coming that Captain Ezekiel of the Dark Angels first company led with high expectation, accompanied by thirty terminator suit clad spacemarines from his world. Their thunderhawk drop ship was called Deathwing, since the local beliefs had a mythological bird of prey of the same name that was said to take their most exalted warriors to the emperor upon their deaths. Ezekiel's tribal name was Cloud Runner and was accompanied by men originally from different tribes but now united under the emperor's name. On landing they had been surprised by the absence of any of the tribal welcoming parties nor their elders. Raising their guard, the terminators searched the local villages of their ancestors. Finding only death, destruction and abandonement in each of the main tribal villages they extend their search to the mountains and caves discovering gruesome evidence of a final struggle between the plain people and their mountain nemesis. Evidence of possible genestealer infestation was discovered and the company gathered by the dusk light to decide on their actions. The standard imperial response to such infestation would have been to activate the exterminatus, virus bombing from the atmosphere. Each gunship contained atleast one such weapon for use in emergencies. However what was not lost to the gathered warriors was to do so would be to dprive their chapter of a rich source of potential recruits as well as ending their own tribal lines. The battle brothers now began a conference, speaking as tribal members rather than space marine terminators while their librarian colleague made preparations to perform a reconnaissance. The glory of Brother Lucius, Two-Heads-Talking Brother Lucius, known in tribal terms as two-heads-talking, was a powerful librarian. He made the essential preparations to enter the large settlement they had discovered and perform reconnaissance, his mystical arts providing him with the necessary camouflage. As he wandered the township he realized that here was the remnants of all the tribes under the sway of a genestealer cult. He came across a tribal elder called Morning Star who was being beaten up by a group of cultists. As Brother Lucius freed the old man, battle lust overtaking him and dropping the visual cover to reveal the awe inspiring form of the terminator librarian. Morning Star explained the arrival of the few cultists and the growth of the genestealer cult. It was then that Lucius was faced by a couple of genestealers and their magus. Killing the stealers in a burst of stormbolter fire Lucius battled single handedly against the magos, finally cleaving the abomination with his force axe. At that event he realized that the cult was surrounding him and attempted to evade their pursuit, but finally trapped and out of ammunition the brave librarian was mortally wonded and taken to face the genestealer patriarch. Legend of Deathwing Back in the terminator encampment Cloud Runner had an aparition of Lucius tell him of the occurrances in the township. The entire gathered force decide to attempt to free the world of the infestation. Performing their death rituals and painting their armour bone white, the colour of their ancestral dead then terminators set out to conquer their foes. Advancing straight in to the township they faced genestealer hybrids, cultists and full grown stealers. Boletr fire swept the ground and incinerating flames from their heavy flamers added to the stench. The gorund was thick with a mix of semi human blood and genestealer ichor. Powerfists crushed and assault cannons spat the emperor's vengeance. Then, just as the enemy resitance was hardening they seemed to suddenly overcome by confusion. Deep within the bowels of the township, Lucius was fighting his last battle with the patriarch. The patriarch had made psychic contact with him to lean all it could and Lucius, knowing he was dying, locked its mind to his and willed himself to death. The librarian' death agony killed the patriarch instantaneously despite its every effort to break contact. As the genestealer resitance wavered, the terminators reaped a bitter harvest. Not a single cultists, stealer or hybrid remained alive at the end of the day. Only five terminators stood standing, alive and thanking their emperor. The old ways It was then that Captain exekiel, Cloud Runner, decided to shed their terminator armour and each lead their tribes back to the old ways of hunting and living in the land. They wished to rekindle the old ways so that in time the tribes would flourish and provide a fertile ground once again for recruits for the sky warriors. Many years later a Dark Angel reconnaissance force investigating the disappearance of their terminators met the elder Cloud Runner. Receiving the stored terminator armour suits and astonished by this tale of courage and dedication they reruned to the Tower of Angels with Cloud Runners request to remember the Deathwing. The first company has ever since painted their terminator armour the coolour of the ancient tribal death rituals, bone white! REFERENCE: Deathwing Novel by Brian Ansell and Bill King, GW 1990. |
BATTLE HONOURS |
BATTLE for the PLAINS WORLD Compiled by ( Shadow Guard ) |
This section contains details of specific battles or conflicts of the unforgiven chapters that have gained fame and awe amongst the guardians of the Emperor's realms. This is essentially a battle honours roll call for the entire unforgievn legion and chapters. All battles that are described here are based on factual battles described by GW publications. Battle have been included regardless of whether they are at squad, company, chapter , army, epic or fleet strength. However the battles, and heir descriprions are written anew by myself and referenced to the appropriate GW material and are not copies of GW publications. As is the case with this web site, no infringement of their intellectual property is intended. |
