Armour of the Moreaumunda War

[//Sapper elements of the Void Barons strike force move to engage Pentarchy forces during a Partisan raid+]
[//simon_v/@heresyhobbyheadquarters+]

'A Space Marine is not merely his arms and armour. Nor is he defined by the strength in his sinew and breadth of his back; and neither by his spirit and his will. No, a Space Marine can be reduced of all these things and still remain worthy of the name – if he is willing to spit defiance at his enemies until all else is gone.'

[//attr. Volnoscere+]

***

Warzone: Moreaumunda Lesser

[//Moreaumunda Lesser {tithegrade=} Decuma Extremis.+]

[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Red Talons+ +Carcharadon elements+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Inheritors+ +Void Barons+ +Jade Talons+ +Argent Heralds+

Précis 

Typical of the disruptive raids performed by forward-ranging Partisan elements was the short-lived campaign for Moreaumunda Lesser. Occupied and exploited by the Red Talons and Carcharadons, the planet was struck by successive waves of Partisans en route to the Myrean League. Beyond this, the theatre was little known – and as the war proved, this was due to more than standard operational secrecy, but by the Red Talons' intentional obfuscation and obscuration of their activities.

The planet was the Pentarchy's main route to the contested Forgeworld of Coldforge – one of the key locations of the late war, and thus a vital strategic prize for Volnoscere in securing the Myrean League and setting his plans for winning the war.

The spotty records of the Moreaumunda Lesser warzone offers insight into the logistics and complexity of keeping thousands of Astartes in the field – and why the world of Coldforge became such a critical location.

More than that, it revealed the depths of extremity to which Autek Mor and the Red Talons had plunged...

''By any and all means necessary' – those were the High Lords' terms, Enoch.
Bother me no more with your prying and your investigations. You asked for an army and an army I have delivered unto you. You asked for warriors that would not bend, thirst or question orders – and that, too, I have delivered. And only now do you have reservations?
No, Enoch. I warned your emissaries when they delivered the writ of the Rose unto us. Yet they persevered. We all reap what we sow, Master Inquisitor. Perhaps it behoves you to sow your seed more carefully.'

[//Private Audience between Autek Mor and Lord Inquisitor Enoch+]

***

Pentarchy personal armour: Moreaumunda Lesser theatre

[//identval: unconfirmed; rank markings present that equate with obsolete 'Lieutenant Commander' position in the Tenth Legion. This figure – as yet unidentified – is believed to have been in system control of Moreaumunda Lesser+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

Occupied and reinforced by the Red Talons from the arrival of the Extinction Fleets, by the late war the planet of Moreaumunda Lesser was one of the primary recruitment grounds for the swollen Chapter. 

While the Red Talons had ever been successful in maintaining armour dating back to the Horus Heresy,  and with a number of examples that were contemporaneous with the Great Crusade, by the time of the War of the False Primarch in M35, the Chapter was largely kitted out with Armorum Impetor: Mark VII power armour. 

[//Battle-brother of Fifth Company; armed with volkite caliver. Honour the battlegear of the dead+
[//almir_h/@count.hodo+]

Its superiority in resilience and reliability over older armour marks had already been demonstrated in the early part of the war, where the Red Talons had scored a number of victories over the Silver Stars – then still primarily wearing the archaic Mark II Crusade Armour.

[//almir_h/@count.hodo+]

While the Red Talons used Mark VII extensively, they did not use it exclusively. The attrition of war – as well as personal preference or honorifics – meant that elements of older marks were commonplace amongst the brotherhood of the Red Talons from the very start of the war.

[//Mark IV Maximus armour elements were commonplace+]
[//almir_h/@count.hodo+]

While the pressures of maintaining roughly one thousand suits of power armour are considerable – most Chapters Astartes maintaining a dedicated armoury swarming with servitors and Chapter thralls or serfs in order to do just that – it was as nothing in comparison to the challenge of equipping the size of force that the Red Talons and other Pentarchy Chapters were expected to supply to defeat the 'Primarch' following the Edict of the Diet of Fools.

The Chapter's long history, expertise in the rituals of power armour maintenance and general machine-kin stood them in good stead. Coupled with this was the Red Talons' jealous hoarding of equipment from their earliest days, and the relative lack of damage taken in the early part of the war, when they had largely been stationed in Heliopolis, rather than on the front lines. The Red Talons were thus well-placed to armour their new recruits, able to delve into their extensive existing stores to armour the first three thousand warriors produced during the Sorrowful Years – though many were now expected to serve in equipment similar to that which had proved wanting on their opponents. 

[//12th Company Astartes, bearing fixed-helm variant Crusade armour+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

However, a large stock of armour in ancient vaults cannot completely account for how the Red Talons equipped the vast forces that appeared, and they squeezed the Imperium hard to ensure their forces were not deployed – as the Death Eagles occasionally were – in Scout or improvised armour. 

Indeed, the Red Talons' occupation of Forgeworld Helipolian was noted for the huge amounts of armour – mainly Mark VII – that the occupying Chapter tithed from the techpriests. So great was Autek Mor's demand for armour that the resources even of a primary forge like Helipolian were strained to the limit. This became a source of contention and argument within Orthodox High Command, for the Red Talons' actions meant that both the Imperial Guard and the allied Titan Legions were starved of resources. It is partly due to the Red Talons demands that neither Legio Validus nor Legio Punica were able to deploy their Engines in number until late during the Myrean League War.

+++

More disquieting than the results of their (arguably) selfish actions were the rumours of what was clothed within the Red Talons' new armour. 

Despite all the Red Talons' advantages over their Pentarchy brethren – fewer casualties, established lines of supply within Heliopolis and their marked ruthlessness in recruitment – these cannot entirely explain the speed with which the Chapter grew to such size over the Sorrowful years. More than seven thousand Red Talons were estimated to have been present on Moreaumunda Lesser, and this was not even their primary station. 

Such was the unexpected strength of resistance that even the four-thousand strong Partisan taskforce sent to dislodge them from the bridgehead to Coldforge was unable to achieve their aim.

***

The battles of Moreaumunda Lesser threatened to reveal a cancer at the Red Talons' heart: and actions arguably every bit as worthy of censure as those of their Partisan opponents. That such abomination was tacitly ignored during the War of the False Primarch highlights just how far the High Lords were prepared to go in order to defeat any threat to their primacy.

[//REDACTED+]
[//almir_h/@count.hodo+]

+What are they? What have you unleashed here? Why do these Space Marines refuse to die?! They lose limbs, they crawl onward. Las-barrages riddle them with holes and yet they care not as blood washes down their plate. I've seen one that had lost two thirds of his face – I could see his mangled, bloody brains! What have you done?+

+The dead of Istvaan walk again, Star Warden. So do the dead of Heliopolis. The dead of Moreaumunda. The dead of Dantin and Myrea and Calydon. Ours, yours – it makes no difference. In death, they have all donned the red. And red they will be when they pull the guts from your bodies. Kill me and be done with it, Star Warden. But you had better burn my body, lest our paths cross again.+

[//Recording of Praevian Khon's torture at the hands of the Star Wardens+]

[//REDACTED+]
[//jacob/@redstarreviews+]

[++Noosphere network datalink achieved++]

{+Inloading memory banks of derelict ship identified as Orion's Bounty of the ***scrapcode***-aron’s Chapter*}{Cycling to final recordings-commencing}

***Klaxons sounding***

“Am I glad to see you sir! We thought you were one of them Red Talons. Sir? Sir? Are you ok?”

*A-A- ACQU-ACQUIRING***

“Uhhh Sarge, I think something’s wrong...”

“Shut up, Jensen, I’m trying to hear what this Void Bar-“

***ACQUIRE-ACQUIRING TARG TAR TARG TAR***

“SARGE HE’S AIMING AT US!”

“I can see that! What the f-“

***ACQUIRED ACQUIRED WEAPONS SELECTED EN-EN-EN-ENGAGING***

“Open fir-“

“He ripped open sarge – run!”

“Jensen, get back here!”

“I got a bead on hi-“

***Klaxons continue sounding with screams***

{+inloading camera feed+}{+*scrapcode*i*want*to*know*scrapcode+}

[++Noosphere network datalink severed++]

***

Partisan personal armour: Moreaumunda Lesser theatre

[+identval: unconfirmed. This figure is believed to have been directing the overall command of the Partisan war effort on Moreaumunda Lesser; though his identity was never confirmed.+]
[//lars_j-d/@lars.j.dahl+]

In stark contrast to the well-supplied Pentarchy Chapters, who were falling back to positions and supply lines established and maintatined some years earlier by the Red Talons and Death Eagles, the majority of the Partisan Chapters were becoming increasingly stretched – and few more so than those that had been fighting in Heliopolis since prior to the Sorrowful Years: the Void Barons and Jade Talons. Both Chapters had been sent by Volnoscere to liaise with and support the Marines Saturnine – which had entailed pursuing the Death Eagles I successively through the Cambyses Subsector and into Pythinia Sub. 

Where the Marines Saturnine had settled to await the return of their commander in the Partisan-friendly Tannbach Cluster, the Void Barons and Jade Talons had pressed on to engage and harry the Death Eagles II and Red Talons. Following is commentary on the armour marques used by the principal Partisan forces of the war.

***

Void Barons

[//simon_v/@heresyhobbyheadquarters+]

With their supply lines drawn thin and casualties mounting against ever stronger resistance, the two fleet-based Chapters were increasingly being forced to improvise. The War for Moreaumunda Lesser saw the Void Barons increasingly deploying using hastily-reinforced or non-standard armour – though as the pict-capture above shows, Mark VII was still dominant. Of note here is the presence of Mark VI Corvus armour, which was rare in the region prior to the reactivation of Coldforge. 

Given the Sons of Siklon's predilictions, little can be drawn from isolated examples such as this, but it's worthwhile noting that the distinctive Coldforge pattern of armour was not yet present – indicating that the Void Barons operating on Moreaumunda Lesser had not yet been resupplied by the newly-declared Partisan Storm Tyrants of the Myrean League. 

[//Void Barons during the Anstrom Conflict during the War for Moreaumunda Lesser, showing cobbled together Mark III plate and a hybrid suit incoporating Mark VI helm. Note the removal of chest eagles – a practise becoming increasingly common for Partisan Chapters by this period. +]
[//@thedpll+]

***

Argent Heralds

Despite their alarming drop in numbers following the Machinedeath, and the lack of recruitment possible owing to their placement in the line with the Silver Stars and Inheritors during Operation Gauntlet, the Argent Heralds were nevertheless present in strength on Moreaumunda Lesser, scoring a number of impressive victories over the Red Talons in the densely-packed streets of Mon and rubble surrounding the Continent-cathedral of Clemency. 

[//The Pride of Praedius – Ident: Sergeant Castor, Argent Heralds Chapter+]
[//@tyrannicide1+]

While the Argent Heralds had been hard-hit and badly depleted during their part in the War of the False Primarch, they were also the beneficiaries of the Silver Stars' fleet armoury, which had been far from idle during the War. Volonoscere's seeming flagship, the Nostoi, was a non-standard craft – albeit with the underlying lines of a Jovan design. A pendulous dorsal region had been noted in the few engagements in which it had been sighted, and this was generally assessed to be a mobile armoury – perhaps a long-standing modification made during the pseudolegion's apparent exile.

Whether this was the truth is unclear even now, but the Argent Heralds benefitted from a peculiar form of Mark VII that included a number of archaic systems. Not quite as reliable as typical M33–34 patterns, this strange suit was nevertheless highly effective; its diagnostic abdominal over-armour giving it a minor advantage in comparison with the Helipolian-forge equivalents the Partisans faced.

The armour was never widely distributed – such suits making up only a fifth or so of identified Argent Heralds' forces; and was only infrequently used in concert with other parts: for whatever reason, it appeared the Silver Stars' manufacturing was slightly incompatible with STC-derived elements – though whether through fault or coincidence is unclear.

***

Jade Talons

Unusual as the Argent Heralds' new armour appeared, it was utterly conventional in comparison with the Jade Talons' unique variant. While elements like the flared knee rims and raised pauldrons were not unusual, the power pack vent plating and reinforcements at the neck and thighs were unlike anything identified. 

Such unique armour patterns are not entirely without precedent – the nature of the STC is that equipment such as power armour has sprung up repeatedly, and while Mars-, Lucius-, or Triplex Phall-patterns and their derivatives make up the most commonly encountered variants across the galaxy, there are a number of attested Chapters that use approved STCs from individual or exclusive sources.

[//Jade Talons Tactical Assault+]
[//adam_s/@adam_james_creates+]

This does not, however, appear to be the case with the Jade Talons, whose jungle-homeworld of Samsara has no local minor Forge, nor even nearby sponsored or affiliated manufactory worlds. Their armour pattern appears to be utterly unique – and one of the most enduring mysteries of the entire War of the False Primarch was the source of their strange equipment. 

Following the Chapter's destruction, a number of Mechanicus-sponsored expeditions have been mounted to Samsara and its surroundings – much to the chagrin of the Ordo Redactus – but nothing beyond scraps of equipment have ever been recovered.

***