Chapters of the Annulus Umbra

Quarantine: The Annulus Umbra

[//In the rain-lashed gullies and etchplains of Suma-Suma, Centaurs forces hunt down and extinguish Star Wardens fleeing the sector.+]
[//@rook_baraqu+]

Containing a Sector

As the Sorrowful Years simmered, the Orthodox forces – those loyal to the High Lords of Terra – swung ponderously into action. Some fifty years had passed since the first rumours of a returned Primarch had reached the Senatorum Imperialis. As the scale of the threat became clear, the Imperium's first and only answer – incontestable, unyielding and ever-increasing force – was stepped up. 

The concept of the 'Annulus Umbra' – a group of Astartes kept largely ignorant of events, who would prevent any forces leaving the Sector Morqub (and later Heliopolis) – was devised. Initially envisaged as a small number of second-line Chapters standing ready in case the Pentarchy of Blood were unable to execute their orders, the forces that took the solemn vow of containment and quarantine proliferated as paranoia increased over word of the False Primarch spreading beyond Morqub and Heliopolis. These Chapters came for a number of reasons – from honour-bindings to mere astrographical reach.

***

Cosmic space is inconceivably vast, and even equipped with some of the best voidcraft and intercessionary forces known to humanity, an Adeptus Astartes Chapter fleet would be hard-pressed to isolate even a single system, let alone an entire Sector.

The concept of isolating a sector of space bears further thought, as the logistics required to achieve this herculean feat are almost incomprehensible, and demonstrate the amount of force the High Lords of Terra were able to muster during this golden era for the Imperium. 


By the close of the war, it is said that more than two hundred Chapters – by far the greatest concentration of the Adeptus Astartes in millennia – were gathered in a battlespace large enough to surround the Heliopolis sector with largely unbroken lines of contact between Orthodox allies.

Representing more than a fifth of the Imperium's Space Marine forces, plus an incalculably monstrous proportion of the Adeptus Terra's resources to organise and supply, the Annulus Vow starved both the Segmentum Pacificus and the Segmentum Terra of protection for more than a century, as humanity's defenders were siphoned off to patrol a region about which they knew little.

The act of gathering so much force in so small a space was to demonstrate the hubris of the Orthodox Imperium. While the containment was successful, and the Chapters left with laurels gained, many returned to domains ravaged by war and rebellion, or lost entirely. Xenos forces, some contained since the Great Crusade, were resurgent across the Imperium. 

The Annulus Umbra was thus the last great act of the Imperial golden age. In the millennium that immediately followed the crisis, the Imperium's grip faltered on the galaxy – and was never to be regained.

***

Chapters that undertook the Annulus Vow

...Many of us call the Astartes 'Angels of Death' without truly appreciating the meaning of those words. But then how could we? To the Imperium at large they are saviours and protectors. They are paragons of virtue and warriors without peer, not unlike the Knyghtes of antiquity. But there was nothing noble in what was visited upon those worlds that declared for Volnoscere...
[//To Walk Among Demigods. A Treatise Upon The Nature of The Argyntum Stellae Cassar Illiatariu, Rememberancier Documantist Minoris. Published 863.M33, Sector Heliopolis, Segmentum Pacificus.+]

***

[//While primarily restricted from entering the Sectors, many of the Chapters were asked to send delegates to the Vigilants by the Ordo Astartes. The pictured Red Hunter, bearing the distinctive iconography of that group, is a good example. Of those that served, none emerged to reunite with their Chapters until after the close of the war. +]
[//aramis_esq+]



Owing to the necessity of clear communications between the Chapters of the Vow to maintain workable patrols across picket space, records of the Annulus Vow are notably consistent and clear amongst the murk, misdirection and obfuscation that shrouds the rest of the War of the False Primarch. Less clear is how much information individual Chapters were entrusted with. 

The events unfolding within the sector, of course, were forbidden to discuss; and the Astartes were expected merely – in the words of Master Enoch, the voice of the High Lords – to subject any emerging forces to:
'pursuance, harrying, and immediate and terminal extinguishment without prior communiqué, warning or explanation.'
The command cadre within each Chapter must have been informed of the broad strokes of a large-scale ongoing rebellion within the region, but this was forbidden to promulgate. It appears that individual Chapters' devotion to duty formed the keystone of this policy of secrecy – perhaps explaining why the initial intake was drawn from relatively far-flung Chapters with a particular record of unquestioning faithfulness and a tradition of a strong Chapter Cult Reclusiam.

***

Initial forces

Blood Kin

[//Typical 'Bloodline' grouping of the Blood Kin+]
[//oskar_w/@ruinstorm_militia+]

Typical of this intake were the Blood Kin, a loyalist chapter from the Blood Angels line of geneseed, who acted as part of the Annulus Umbra for the duration of the war. Their Marque of Recommendation was issued by Inquisitor Adrius Ebartan of the Ordo Pacificus, and during this time, it often acted on the information of the self-same Inquisitor, whose true goals remained shrouded. 

Ebartan's notes remark:

While loyal, they do not follow the Codex Astartes in terms of organisation, except perhaps in its loosest sense. The Blood Kin draws all of its recruits from one of the eighteen clans on the planet Uboru, and amongst the populace, the Chapter is revered as its protectors and masters: it is with great pride sons are sent to them for testing. 

It is this unusual structure from which their name is derived. Each individual squad of marines consists solely of individuals from the same bloodline. They are, therefore, literally blood kin. 
This practice has led to an array of small and unevenly-staffed Companies; and the Kin commonly field seemingly understrength squads and units as a result. Occasionally two bloodlines are merged in a single squad, but mostly the Kin keep their units small and rely on mutual battlefield support. Marines whose bloodline fails to replenish the losses suffered are often found in solitary combat roles, such as Judiciars and reconnaissance, protection or assassination roles.
 
In general, age is the defining factor for leadership in the Kin, but sometimes personal achievement, or the loss of the rest of one's squad, propels individuals into roles of leadership. I confess that I struggled with grasping the subtleties of hierarchy amongst the Blood Kin, as it is based on just three honorifics; the subtleties of which are obscure, but clearly of importance to the Chapter. Most battle brothers refer to one another as 'Kin Brother', while the term 'Elder' is used for anyone with a leadership position. The chapter is led by Goruan Shodd, who bears the title of 'Eldest' – and since he is equivalent in influence to a typical Chapter Master, it is to him that I recommend the Annulus Command is addressed[...]


[//Blood Kin specialists; posited to be non-Codex Honour Guard.+]
[//oskar_w/@ruinstorm_militia+]

As part of the Annulus Umbra, the Blood Kin were largely occupied in clearing out several abandoned mining worlds and colonies corewards of Morqub, and later patrolling the same region. Used as transit points for both Partisan and other forces trying to move in and out of the systems engulfed in the wider war, these abandoned complexes made for hazardous travels. 

Chief among the dangers travellers to such regions faced was the yellow and grey of the Blood Kin. They took their simple orders very literally: no one goes in or out. No one.

[//Blood Kin scratch-company engages supposedly neutral Mechanicus forces of the Mor-vel Reaches. +]
[//@ruinstorm_militia et @martin.kato [Mechanicus forces]+]

The Blood Kin are known to have fought several smaller conflicts over the course of the War of the False Primarch. One of the most lethal was the battles against the Mor-vel Mechanicum and its allies.

As the Blood Kin endeavoured to keep the cordon by Imperial Decree, the Mor-vel resisted: their domain had essentially been cut in half, with much of their resources outside the conflict area, but a number of key manufactora located within the quarantine zone.


[//Blood Kin Astartes engage presumed Partisan elements in the Mine-Hold of the Mor-Vel Mechanicus Clade+]
[//@ruinstorm_militia+]



[//The Blood Kin learned – at a high cost – how capable the robotic servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus could be. Several bloodlines were lost as they found themselves outgunned and outnumbered among the ruins where the Mor-vel had made their lair.+]
[//oskar_w/@ruinstorm_militia+]

***

Golden Hands

A peculiarity within the Annulus Umbra, and indeed within the Adeptus Astartes as a whole, the Golden Hand were to take a direct and critical role in the later stages of the war. Overwhelming curiosity would eventually lead them to breach the veil of secrecy imposed by the High Lords of Terra, seeking answers to questions that should not have been asked, and would ultimately result in their censure by the Pentarchy of Blood.

At the time of the Diet of Fools, however, the Chapter were merely one of the seventeen directed to form the Annulus Umbra. Their role in the late war warrants further expansion in a separate, pending Index Astartes dataslate, and the brief details here serve in relation to their duties as part of the Annulus Umbra.

Prior to the War of the False Primarch, the Golden Hands regarded themselves as the militant arm to the Ordo Astartes, in the manner of the Grey Knights or Deathwatch to the Ordos Malleus and Xenos respectively. Squads of Golden Hands routinely accompanied Ordo Astartes Inquisitors, and larger strike forces of a company size or greater were, by long-standing tradition, made freely available at their request. Indeed, on previous occasions the entire Chapter had deployed as one at the behest of their Inquisitorial masters.

[//Golden Hands detail: note Vigilants honorifics and artificer pauldron – perhaps a gift from the Death Eagles? – on the central warrior.+]
[//matt_t/@spacedhulk+]

The patronage of the Inquisition resulted in the Golden Hands being viewed with suspicion and resentment by many Imperial agencies. In particular, their close ties with the Ordo Astartes caused immense friction with their fellow Space Marines, and few other Chapters voluntarily campaigned alongside them. This – along with their acquisitive, domineering, and superior attitude – did little to ingratiate them with the other Chapters taking the Annulus Vow, and they quickly found themselves at odds with a number of their supposed allies.

You wish to discuss the Golden Hands, yes? You want to know why I have vetoed their inclusion in our great Pentarchy, when the task that awaits appears purpose-made for their abilities and mind set. The answer is simple and unarguable: they are too good at what they do.
Let us review the situation once more. Four loyal Chapters have turned against us, pledging themselves to an individual claiming to be a living son of the Emperor himself. Rumours of this are spreading like wildfire throughout two entire Sectors, and everywhere the sparks land we hear the same refrain: 'I want to know'. 
The truth is immaterial. Whether this being is truly a returned Primarch or not, the prospect itself is almost irresistibly enticing, preying on our inherent curiosity and romanticism. And whatever the truth, these claims have proven convincing enough to lure four entire Chapters, warriors as honourable as the Inheritors and as reliable as the Red Fish, to this creature's banner.
Now let us consider our Golden Hands. A Chapter for whom the pursuit of information is integral to not just their tactics, but their very character. Even their mantra, 'Knowledge is Power', has uncomfortable echoes of the Partisan's rallying cry. If we deploy the Hands to Morqub, they will systematically search for data about their prey. Who knows what they will learn? Who knows how they will react? 
My question is this, do we really wish to test their loyalty in this way? More importantly, do we really want to risk sending another Chapter, particularly one with the specific skills of the Golden Hands, into the arms of this False Primarch?
The Pentarchy requires unthinking and unquestioning brutality, not logic and calculation. A thunderous hammer blow rather a scalpel's precise edge. Keep the Hands close, if you wish. Let them patrol the cordon that keeps our quarry contained, and observe their fellow watchmen for signs of weakness. But for their sake, and ours, keep them far away from Morqub.
[//Inquisitor Lord Leong-Cassar+]

Present in the region at the beginning of the war, the Golden Hands were passed over for inclusion in the Pentarchy – a decision which clearly rankled with this unusual Chapter, who treated their duties in the Annulus Umbra with barely-hidden disdain. Perhaps as a sop to their demands, or because of their relationship as the militant arm of the Ordo Astartes, a substantial percentage of the Golden Hands were, however, assigned to the Vigilants and came to serve within the bounds of the Annulus Vow. 

This conflicting role as unknowing guardian and informed witness placed great strain on the Chapter's collective psyche; seeds that were to bear bitter fruit in the years after the war.

[//matt_t/@spacedhulk+]

How can I explain the contradiction of the Golden Hands? Their shining armour of gold and sable conjures up every romantic notion of our post-human protectors, every misplaced ideal we place upon their ceramite-clad shoulders. It is all too easy to imagine such beings as the epitome of selfless nobility, honourable warrior-knights dedicated to the service of humanity.  
Yet it is delusion, a lie we tell ourselves to placate our own fears. In truth the Hands despise us. They are repulsed by our weakness and fragile mortality. Nor do they uphold honour as anything but a naïve conceit, an excuse made by lesser men for the abandonment of logic and the glorification of defeat. For the Sons of Scarran desire victory above all else, regardless of its cost or how it is achieved. They utilise information as an essential tool in achieving this objective, and consider knowledge to be just as potent a weapon as a boltgun or a blade. For the Golden Hands, mental prowess is as important as martial ability, and they look down upon all who cannot match their exacting standards. Arrogance, condescension and isolationism are the inevitable results of such an outlook, and beneath their shining visage, these characteristics are all too plain to see. 
And yet despite their flaws, the Chapter remains fiercely loyal and obedient to the Throne world. Whilst they despise weakness and inferiority, their hatred for traitors, heretics and xenos burns brighter still. Small wonder, then, that they make such reliable and useful assets for the Inquisition, their gleaming golden plate acting as a highly visible reminder of Terran authority. But woe betide any who rouses their anger by describing them as our servants. Even now, after decades of utilising them for the purposes of the Ordo Astartes, I remain unsure as to the true nature of our relationship with this mysterious Chapter. Do we really control these Golden Hands, unleashing them against those who break their oaths and threaten the stability of the galactic order? Or are we simply another source of information for these 'Harvestmen', another tool at their disposal as they seek to prove their superiority by purging the Imperium of weakness?
[//Inquisitor Jaqi Greenwood, Ordo Astartes+]


[//matt_t/@spacedhulk+]



***

Expansion

Seventeen Chapters were initially deputised to the Extinction Fleets, but under the inspired leadership – or delusional monomania – of Master Enoch, elements of at least fifty-seven Astartes Chapters were eventually deputised to form part a mobile deployment-net around the Heliopolis and, later, Morqub Sectors. 

Some decades after the conclusion of the war, Inquisitor Invocation of the Ordo Pacificus was able to salvage this fragmentary list from the Edict of Obliteration issued by Inquisitor Osric Domalde of the Ordo Redactus. It is known as the Apocrypha of Dauphin Noir, and while fragmentary and incomplete, it represents the most complete and accurate list of the Chapters involved in whole or part in the Annulus Umbra. Even these entries were recovered only partially, and speculative data is indicated by italic text.
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Red Hunters
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Griefbringers
  • Centaurs
  • Higher Guard
  • Valedictors
  • Benedictors
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [ident. denied]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Chapter Tempest
  • Arbiters
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Gol[den H?]ands
  • Stellar St[eeds?]
  • Angels Aureate
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Sons[ of Eg?]yptus
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Heralds of Faith
  • Brazen Lions
  • Pyresworn
  • Sons of [the Sunde]red Circle
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Sons of Jarad
  • Si[REDACTED]rs
  • Angels Sepultus
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Ivory Skulls
  • Guard Hermetic
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Wode-Borne
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Metamarines
  • W[hite Co?]nsuls
  • Blood Kin
  • Godhammers Orionic
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • Angels of Ruin
  • Rams Imperial
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
  • [DATASPILL]
To the Chapters listed within the Apocrypha, others (like the Blood Kin detailed above) can be added through inference.

Together with an undisclosed number of classified Imperial forces that included the dreadful Sisters of Silence, Brazen Ones and supporting Naval elements, these Chapters were the celestial shroud that the Imperium threw around the Morqub and Heliopolis Sectors.

A few are known in more detail, and representative excerpts are detailed in the remainder of this dataslate.

***

Higher Guard

The Bisarra System consists of a class 3f-ß star orbited, by two dozen varied sub-stellar bodies, all uninhabited. Notable only for the mid-sized deep space monitoring and refueling station Enormusse operated by the Imperial Navy, Bisarra was a second-grade trade route that fed into the Heliopolis Sector from the galactic north-east. It was this strategically important position that saw it play an important role in the upkeep of the security cordon, around the mid-stages of the war. 

During this period, the station acted as the operational base for the Higher Guard Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, who were deployed to cordon duty on direct orders of the Senatorum Imperialis with strict orders to halt any attempt at leaving or entering the exclusion zone. Their ability to do so was soon to be tested.
[//@datacrypt_624+]


A note on chronography: The events of this shard cannot be accurately dated, owing to gravitational anomalies within the Bisarra star's Mandeville Radius. As an easy measurement of time in relation to Imperial Standard is not possible, the station maintains its own local standard time. These time-marks are accounted for where possible. Relating it to events that influenced, and were influenced by the developments at Bisarra Port, it can be tentatively placed at the early–mid stages of the war. 

[//+++++///++/+++/65INLOADINGPOOL//+++////////++/////////+///COMPLETE:;:://////
++//Dearest Lordes, in thysse volume shalt thou find best-compiled the most important  and weightiest detaylls of the Battle of Bisarra Port, also known as the Betrayal at Bisarra Port, or the Bisarra Incident. This engagement, seemingly small in comparison to the latter battles of ourre Age, nevertheless is of utmost importance to all further developments that will be the subject of this treatyse. I commendd it thus to you.+]

++//At 1413.08774 local time stamp, the deep space monitoring station Enormusse first picked up the signature of three large objects approaching the system.//++

++//At 0352.09774 local time stamp, system monitors registered three capital-tonnage vessels entering the system. They responded to hails and followed all instructions by Bisarra Port Command. The were able to present unusually old, but still valid, crypti-ident codes. The two smaller – though still considerable– ships were identified as the modified battlebarges Machaon and Podalirius. The largest was a huge ship of unknown class and tonnage identifying itself as the Asklepeion. [Some of our colleges have since argued the Asklepeion to be a heavily modified hospital ship from before Old Night; the theory largely based on the fact that the ship, while massive, was seriously ill-armored and undergunned by Imperial standards, and the accounts of the few survivors of various boarding actions since that day.] All three ships belonged to, and were operated by, an Astartes Chapter identifying itself as the Disciples of Panacaea.//++

++//At 0448.09774 local time stamp a transmission from the Asklepeion requested passage towards the Heliopolis Sector on authority of de-facto Chapter Master Yvane Danéy. Bisarra Port Command, alongside Higher Guard Chapter Command, denied the request, citing their strict no-trespassing orders.//++

++//At 0522.09774 local time stamp, the Asklepeion acknowledged the order to return from whence it came, only requesting to dock at Bisarra Station for refueling. That request was granted.//++

++//At 1304.0974 local time stamp, the Disciples' flotilla opened fire without warning. A first salvo of torpedoes was directed at the then-primed refueling system, heavily damaging or outright destroying a number of Navy and Higher Guard vessels docked for refueling, following earlier patrol duties. This sent the whole space around the station into chaos, as burning ships and debris crashed into ships that suddenly scrambled to get into a fighting formation. Battle was joined.

***

The report details how Higher Guard vessels were able to respond to the treacherous initial strike in a coordinated manner: the Astartes more fluid command structure and personal initiative allowing them to regain combat effectiveness faster than their Imperial Navy counterparts. In all, twenty combat craft were reported to have been inside Bisarra Port space at that time, with a roughly equivalent number of ships currently on patrol duties.

***

++//At 1321.09774 local time stamp, an Astropathic distress call was made from the stations choir, at the cost of 7 Astropaths. Realizing that the Disciples' main objective seemed to be breaking with pursuing forces and breaching the exclusion zone, the Navy vessels were ordered to blockade the battlespace, while the Higher Guard fleet was to engage the enemy in close range engagements and boarding actions. Contrary to standard Astartes doctrine, no boarding assaults from the Disciples against Higher Guard or Navy vessels were observed.//++

++//At 1436.09774, the Podalirius´ warp drive imploded, destroying the vessel wholesale following a successful boarding raid by elements of the Higher Guard´s 4th, 5th and 1st Companies.//++

++//At 1452.09774, the only observed boarding sortie was launched from the Asklepeion against Enormusse, following earlier ineffective bombardment. At this point, the Disciples' command elements must have realized that if they were to have a chance at losing their pursuers, they needed to get rid of the station´s longer range intelligence capabilities. With only a small Astartes contingent initially bolstering the installations defenders, the reactor chamber was quickly seized by the assailants and charges set. Though a swift counter-boarding action managed to engage and almost wipe out the Disciples force aboard the station, it had to be abandoned shortly after. At 1508.09774 local time stamp, the station suffered critical reactor malfunctions.//++

***

[//Combat is joined aboard the Enormusse. No surviving images are available of the boarders.+]
[//@datacrypt_624+]


++//At 1547.09774 local time stamp, the first returning patrol group entered the battle sphere in support of the defending forces.//++

++//At 1615.09774 local time stamp, the Asklepeion was able to breach the Navy blockade and set off towards the nearest Mandeville point, Machaon at its stern. //++

++//At 1632.09774 local time stamp, Machaon's main reactor detonated. The now powerless ship was caught on a terminal vector towards the massive Bisarra star before it could be seized. The debris cloud the detonation had cast in the pursuer's path helped the Asklepeion to disengage and gain ground towards its destination. Despite best efforts, no vessels were able to reengage the ship.//++

++//At 2258.09774 local time stamp, the Asklepeion transitioned to warpspace towards an unknown target within the Heliopolis Cluster. While the Higher Guard was preparing a sweeping pursuit operation, they received order from Orthodox High Command to stand down. No one was to enter the exclusion zone.//++

***

In all, seven Imperial Navy and six Higher Guard vessels were lost in the battle of Bisarra Port; the Higher Guard additionally reported a staggering loss of 378 individual Astartes. Though a grievous blow to the Higher Guard, the Chapter was subsequently commended for ensuring the incident did not endanger the integrity of the security cordon as a whole.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Bisarra Port, stricter security protocols were enforced on all elements along the exclusion zones perimeter, wich did not resonate well with naval high command, which stated that the complicated security procedures wee occupying much needed ressources on the Segmentum´s other war zones.//++

***
++// What we can know today of the Disciples of Panacaea, what led to the betrayal of their oaths, and how Bisarra affected them in return, I will treatise in another volume.//++
+++/ His Humble Servant/+++
+++/ L : H/+++
+++/His Holy Ordos, Ordo Astartes/+++
+++++/////MEMORYSPOOL++////+++POWERINGDOWN/////////++++++++++++++++++]

Detail of the Higher Guard's chapter icon.
[//@datacrypt_624+]


***

Benedictors 

[//Benedictors Chaplain+]
[//gunnar_l/@gunnarlopez+]
Deeds done in His holy name shall wash away the impurities of our heathen souls and strip away all but our righteous fury. Woe betide the skeptics, the blasphemers, and the unkynde.
[//Leonid+]

Recruited from their home system of Austerix as part of the Annulus Umbra, the Benedictors somehow came to learn of the nature of the conflict, and some of their veterans were later discovered to have led their 8th company in its entirety into the region in support of Volnoscere. 

This flagrant breach of the Annulus Vow saw these Marines publicly disavowed by the Chapter, but the damage was done, and the remainder of the Chapter were heavily sanctioned and monitored for the rest of the war, and their leadership ritually decimated.

[//Benedictors scouring Bo-Sodom of Eldar Raiders+]
[//gunnar_l/gunnarlopez08+]

Were it not for this egregious act, the Benedictors might otherwise have been regarded as exemplary, for both prior to, and subsequent to, the discovery of their errant brethren's betrayal, the Benedictors launched themselves into their duties with apparent relish. As an example, the Chapter were instrumental in defending the civilised world of Bo-Sodom from raids by Dain Mir forces.

The planet's defence force was already beleaguered, owing to unrest caused by mass food shortages. This was common to many systems accustomed to receiving trade and succour from Sector Heliopolis as supply lines were abruptly halted by the raising of the Annulus Umbra.

The Benedictors were able to engage and drive off a substantial invasion by the Eldar, whose presence in the area was never explained

[//Mendicant Killteam Grimaldus of the Benedictors chapter. Led by Sergeant Grimaldus this Killteam was involved in the assassination of Cardinal Wendala of Dardanus and the defense of Tarentus.+]
[//gunnar_l/@gunnarlopez08+]

In the later years of the Annulus Vow, the Benedictors saw a resurgence in the influence of their Reclusiam, with the imposed penitence sparking newfound devotion in the remaining Astartes. Bound by ritual, they ceased recruiting for the course of the war.

***

Meanwhile, those fighting alongside the False Primarch found themselves in the closing grip of the Pentarchy of Blood. They were believed lost during the closing days of the brutal and grinding warfare of the siege of the Myrean League Shieldworlds.

[//Ursus and Leonid, Scapadomii warriors who fought alongside the Storm Tyrants in the Siege of the Myrean Shieldworlds+]
[//gunnar_l/@gunnarlopez08+]

***

Pioneers né Chapter Tempest



'Orion's children are many, say I; seed falls far sometime – is't so?'
[//The Kauloki John Noddy+]

The Pioneers were known as the Chapter Tempest prior to their part in the Annulus Umbra, but en masse opted for honourable mind-scrub following the War of the False Primarch. Scant information on the Chapter's actions during the War of the False Primarch is available – but they serve as an example of the ill-fortune that later beset those Chapters that undertook the Annulus Vow.

[//______ ____ __. ____. [REDACTED]+]
[//edward_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

Fully eight hundred knelt in the great field of Serenity, banners unfurled in the warm sunlight. Their lone surviving Chaplain conducted the Chapter’s funerary rites for each Astartes in turn.

After forty-four hours, each bowed in turn, then self-administered the Draught of Lethe that would wipe away their former selves.

They awakened forty light years hence, under our temporary protection and stewardship while they were to be re-trained.
It is bitter to recall that awakening; the hesitancy and seeming fear I read in my beloved cousin's eyes. He was – as planned – unable to recognise me. Our battles together, struggles and victories hard-won over a century, were glossed as surely as death itself had come to empty his mind.

 [//Under-the-Sun, Stellar Steeds veteran]



[//Battlefield unclear; ident: incerto+]
[//edward_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

The Chapter Tempest's annals were honorably closed and sealed by the Ordo Redactus; though a highly redacted and fictionalised account of their history is freely available. Although utterly useless as a source of information on the War of the False Primarch, the Tempest Grimoire remains a fascinating curio.

Spanning three thousand years of history, it recounts in exacting detail an entirely fictionalised record of an Astartes Chapter. It is remarkable for the realism of its account; for numerous similar works have been penned for distribution through soft-media and for propaganda purposes. 

[//______ ____ __. ____. [REDACTED]+]
[//death_of_a_rubricist+]

One particular mention of a 'Chapterre Tempesstuous' appears to have bypassed the Edict of Obliteration, surviving in the Death Eagles' notorious Vault of Hortius. 

'Fourteenth-of-his-name [REDACTED] is overcoming the beastte that Chapterre Tempesstuous is fighting for. None escape and is fighting for the Fourteenth-of-his-name says and is dead. The vessel is out of the countrie Umbra because [REDACTED] patrol is fighting daemon. Damnéd therefore is Tallons. And Chapter Temps. is at woe and know they may be foredamnéd. So Eighth-of-his-name [REDACTED] records as is victorious.'
The strange tale, made more peculiar by the Death Eagles' halting and disorientating habit of styling all records in a fixed tense and peculiar coda, implies that the Chapter Tempest were heavily involved in the extensive campaign to prevent the Jade Talons' eluding Imperial justice – though a (less influential) counter-argument exists that the conflict somehow involved the Red Talons; a plausible possibility if only for that Chapter's domineering and direct manner of warfare.


***

Centaurs

[//Operation: Embankment+]
[//oliver_t/@rook_baraqu+]

We may look back now on the Third Founding as a time when our ambition outreached our ability.
What hubris! To think we could reconquer what was lost, to achieve what the Emperor himself and all his sons could not.

Consider the Centaurs then. Exemplars of their kind. What feats they might have accomplished! What difference they might have made in a thousand other warzones, more vital, more pressing! Instead, they are squandered, wardens of an unconquerable frontier, battling for victory where none is possible, unable to accept the bitter truth that they are not equal to the task set to them.

Not with a dozen chapters could Illyrius be tamed; and the Centaurs are but one. The most bitter truth of all is that for all their strength, for all their nobility and singularity of purpose, they – like all their kind – are simply unable to rebuild the Imperium.

And in that fact is the lesson we must learn from the Emperor's mighty Astartes.

[//Sallust the Eldar, Inquisitor, Ordo Hereticus+]


Stoic and honourable, the Centaurs are an exemplary successor of the Ultramarines, embracing a tactical flexibility within the parameters of the Codex Astartes that has drawn rebuke from some of their more dogmatic brother-successors. As one of two chapters designated the 'Wardens of the March', they, alongside the Astral Serpents, form the foundation of Imperial authority in subsector Illyrius. This far-flung and hostile hinterland in the Segmentum Pacificus, referred to as 'the Marches' is a frontier region where the grasp of Holy Terra is tenuous. 

Beset by the myriad predations of xenos, pirates and heretics for millennia, the Centaurs draw upon the tenants' martial honour, order and administration to form a bulwark of Imperial authority in subsector Illyrius that they hope will one day allow the Marches to be integrated securely into the Imperium in the image of the realm of Ultramar. The Centaurs draw recruits from the savage tribes that populate the frontier and death worlds of this remote border region, who are then brought to the Chapter home-world of Thebas; a bastion of Imperial culture and civilisation in the model of Macragge, and there imbued with the principles of discipline and martial honour that temper and hone the barbaric ferocity of the cultures from which they are drawn.


[//Brother {ident incerto?} Proto+]
[//oliver_t/@rook_baraqu+]

Wardens of the March of Illyrius, the Centaurs trace their origins to an indeterminate date in the 32nd Millenium. A product of the hazily-recalled Third Founding, which – according the the Centaurs' own records – saw a blend of genetic traits deliberately selected by the Terran gene-wrights. It is notable that the greater proportion of the chapters of the Chapters founded at this time – amongst them the Executioners, Flesh Eaters and the Scythes of the Emperor – all bear reputations for aggression and stoicism in varying degrees, and this holds true for the Centaurs. 

This generation of Astartes were destined to watch over some of the most perilous and lawless regions of the Imperiums' borders, re-establishing – or in some cases, expanding – the Lex Imperium where little had existed since the time of the Great Crusade. The foundation of chapters such as the Centaurs were the first signs of a move away from the period of containment and recovery necessary after the Heresy-Scouring era, and towards a more assertive and aggressive future.

[//Centaurs Veterans hunt a planetoid rumoured to be holding a cell of Riven Lords+]
[//oliver_t/@rook_baraqu+]


For the first time since the Emperor had fallen, the Imperium felt emboldened enough to begin reclaiming some of what had been lost in the millennia since His internment in the Golden Throne. The Centaurs, and the other chapters of the Third Founding, were the vanguard of a new period of reclamation, intended to pave the way for future conquests. 

Ultimately, however, this would be a vain ambition, far beyond the resources of an Imperium convulsing with internal strife and buckling under the weight of vast Xenos threats from beyond. 

[//oliver_t/@rook_baraqu+]

The Centaurs were a relatively late addition to the Annulus Chapters, answering the call dutifully though with little enthusiasm. The Centaurs' redeployment from the March of Illyrius to the Annulus Umbra is emblematic of the misdirection of crucially-needed resources in search of short-term gain. While stationed in near-endless patrols, all the while their territory was being slowly eroded.

The Centaurs' were eventually honorably cycled out of the Annulus Umbra, but on return found the worlds of the Marches aflame, the Astral Serpents buckling under the additional strain, and a thousand years of grinding progress lost in under a decade.

[//oliver_t/@rook_baraqu+]


It is an unfortunate happenstance that the continually-embattled Centaurs saw relatively little active combat while stationed as part of the Annulus Umbra, their few engagements primarily based around chasing off opportunistic orks and a series of skirmishes with a Chapter officially recorded as Renegade pirates, but in all likelihood actually Riven Lords led by the infamous Polemarch Red Serge.

***

Ivory Skulls

[//_____ [REDACTED]+]
[emanuele/@imanuel_of_the_lions]

The Ivory Skulls are recorded as serving with notable 'dignity and much honour' in the official records of the Annulus Umbra, sequestered but largely complete. Their service during the War is recorded in surprising detail, perhaps a reflection of the large number of well-educated and highly-motivated serfs that the Chapter supported.

Beyond this, little is known of this Chapter, which seems to have perished – as so many do – in the years since the War of the False Primarch. It is thus all the more intriguing that this apparently loyal and effective Chapter was dogged by the circulation of the following data-screed, supposedly widely distributed across the Morqub Sector by person or persons unknown.

***

Access Granted to Traitoris Perdita Old Log Info.(ADDENDUM: for Historitors Census, every term under [...] must be REDACTED within the next Transmission.) 

The [Ivory Skulls] were a [Fleet-based] Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes that patrolled the [outer routes] of Segmentum Pacificus, later sided with the False Primarch during his wretched rebellion. Of unknown Foundation, the origins of the Chapter were censored by [High Lords Decree] in the very first years of the Uprising, what is known, however, is the young age of the rioters, [500 years of Service].

Reports leaked shortly after the defeat of the Partisan Forces, considered the inexperience of the newly elected Chapter Master of the time and his council of Force Commanders to be the driving force of their Heresy.

[Among the firsts to bow to False Primarch will,] the [Ivory Skulls] found a base for their operations on the Forge World of [Achillax] (ADDENDUM: for the Historitors Census, any other Achillax mention MUST be censored within the next rotation).

The [Skitarii Legions] and the Companies of Astartes often traveled together during the first half of the conflict. The Ivory Skulls began a campaign of systematic conquest of numerous worlds near the [Segmentum Solar], being brutally repulsed by the [Imperial Fists] and other loyal forces. Supported in their retreat by the Imperial Guard [unknown] Regiments, [Skitarii] and Astartes returned to [Achillax] to muster their forces and resume the offensive. [The Forge World of Achillax] was attacked by the newly founded Pentarchy of Blood. The Chapter Master and Council of Force Commanders were entirely slaughtered in a Carcharodons deepstrike on the very first day of the siege, leaving the Defenders completely in disarray. The sudden assault prevented the Partisan Forces from sending distress signals or warnings to the rest of the 'Legion'.

The excessive zeal of the [Ivory Skulls] and their haste to reach Terra to end the conflict marked their end. Separated from the rest of the 'Legion', they were easy prey for the Pentarchy, leaving a hole in the defensive front of the Partisan Forces. Other Info, from Legion Historitor [REDACTED], retrieved after the loyalist capturing of Listening Post-101

The Chapter was among the first to serve under Caputmori, My Lord, symbol of the [False Primarch]. Some skeptical Magos of Achillax believe that it was Caputmori who convinced the Ivory Skulls to take sides in favor of the Rebels, as these superstitious and fickle Astartes consider the human skull a sacred symbol, seat of the soul and strength given by the Emperor to the Mankind, their recruiting worlds were reduced to ossuaries as they passed, with pyramids of failed aspirants' Skulls erected beneath brass altars of the Emperor, what barbarism. Seeing the [False Primarch] profane the wings of the Imperial Aquila has definitely convinced the most reticent to join the Partisans, but they are only rumors, without any foundation, my Lord. The Chapter has always been secretive, their traditions sealed behind their ancient MkIII helmets. But their nature was always to 'guide' the 'human flock'. Always been eager to meddle with the internal politics of the systems they passed through. Fierce. Young people. It won't be long before someone silences them... what will happen when the [False Primarch] discovers their rituals in the cathedrals of Achillax?

***

This scurrilous text was accompanied by pict-captures purporting to show an Ivory Skulls champion – possibly a Judiciar or Chaplain – wielding a mace constructed after the supposed form of Monstrance, the armament most associated with the False Primarch Volnoscere.

[emanuele/@imanuel_of_the_lions]

For what purpose was this text made? Who shared it? The answers, as ever, are lost.

***

Angels of Ruin

[//benji_b/@guro_banjo+]

'Barbarism Necesse Sunt.'
[//Motto of the Angels of Ruin+]

The Angels of Ruin had a reputation for being bold, unrelenting and direct – terms that seem euphemistic for the sheer spiteful brutality they unleashed upon their foe. Hugely valuable to the Ordo Astartes, the Angels of Ruin were gleefully and widely selected for Killteam duties by Orthodox Inquisitors, by virtue of being unquestioningly loyal and 'highly resistant to enemy propaganda efforts' –  the latter statement likely inculcated through the Chapter cult.

The wider Chapter made the vow to uphold the Annulus Umbra promptly and unceremoniously when orders came from Terra. It is notable that they held a number of combat records against elements of the Riven Lords and Void Barons, who they regarded as regional rivals. The details of these skirmishes are lost, but pre-date the War of the False Primarch. 

[//Kill Team Orchid+]
[//benji_b/@guro_banjo+]

Upon arrival in the region, the Angels of Ruin lost no time in making their presence felt, launching a blue-on-blue assault on a straggling ship, the Repudiation, under the protectorate of the Frateris Templars. This led to a sanction from the High Lord Ecclesiarch Benedin II himself. 

This highly inflammatory act, committed within days of the Chapter's arrival was noted thus:
The [attack by the Angels of Ruin] can be rightly attributed to aggravated Pilgrim fleets attempting to arrive, and forcibly bypass, the exclusion zone in the galactic north of the overall war-theatre. 

Their excuse, that they came to assist in 'The Emperor's holy war', was insufficient: none bore any clearance codes or writ of passage of validity sufficient to enter. Punishment was accordingly meted out as the Repudiation refused to halt.
It is a measure of the Angel of Ruins' high-handedness and disregard for authority that this was recorded in the official Chapter records by then-Codicier Haderach merely as a 'contretemps'. 

***

+DATACOMPILED//VARIOUSSOURCES//+
Members of the Angels of Ruin space marine chapter were repeatedly sighted engaging in various sabotage, espionage, abduction, assassination, and intelligence-gathering operations during The Sorrowful Years.

Reliable firsthand combat accounts are remarkably scarce regarding the Chapter's operations outside the Annulus Umbra, but a sanctioned Killteam deployed within the Sector became notable. Very few other recorded Astartes combatants were confirmed alive after an engagement with Killteam Orchid, and only one mortal firsthand account exists.

The construction of Orchid was unorthodox as each member was selected from every one of the ten existing companies. While most other killteams would be assembled from the marines at hand for short term deployments or single missions, Orchid would remain as a cohesive unit for the duration of the war.

[//Mark IV 'Maximus' armour was common amongst the Chapter. Following the end of the War, the Chapter received a bounty of two hundred Coldforge-pattern Corvus suits from the grateful victors.+]
[//benji_b/@guro_banjo+]

Their first recorded action was the abduction of Baroness incumbent Issabella Norn and her retinue from the surface of [REDACTED] following a massacre as Partisan auxiliary forces also attempted to reach Norn. Their actions against the Red Fish garrison here would seal the reputation of the marines of Orchid as brutally efficient – and in some cases malicious and sadistic – in their deployment of special issue wargear and nigh-on depraved means they would take to ensure mission completion. 

The most notable example of their capacity for excessive violence was the termination of friendly staff amongst an Adeptus Mechanicus retinue to simply 'make room' for other captives the team had taken during that particular deployment; but tales of Orchid's excesses abound. Another horrible instance records an emergency extraction from an enemy strongpoint, in which the team had apparently abandoned their primary targets entirely and escaped only with the masked and gagged concubine of their initial prey. The Red Fish rescue attempt was swift, their records noting the distaste of the Partisan Astartes as they came to the conclusion that the marines of Orchid were intending to use the slave as a human shield to help ensure escape. 

The Red Fish counterstrike force suffered a number of losses as they attempted to recover the victim alive. This was all for nought – in truth, the Angels of Ruin willingly allowed the unknowing victim to be taken from them – but as soon as the Red Fish had secured the area, a surreptitious explosive device on the slave's clothing was detonated, maiming a number more of the Partisans.

These heinous acts, as well as the highly selective nature of each Killteam member led to the speculation by the Marines Mendicant that each marine was hand-selected by the commanding elements of the chapter for the express purpose of such destabilizing missions; their apparent aim to demoralise and dismay the Partisans. 

***

Rams Imperial

[???}DATASCREEDextr.–––'Orion' One of the supposed chron[REDACTED]sors of Vulk[//??]

[//Accesscredentialwafer{FALSE}+]

[??//ALL=LOST+]

[...]

[...]

[??FATALERROR??+]
[//DATASCREED BREAKDOWN TERMINAL+]

[+iwanttoknow+]