Star Guardians

This article, Star Guardians, was written by TheStarGuardians. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission.

"War is life. In war and in life nothing is so precious as the truth. The truth is the end goal of all things, the ultimate victory. No path is too dark to tread in search of this goal, and thus, no path to victory in war is too dark to walk, for it brings us ever closer to that ultimate victory. Victory is all that matters, the means of attaining it are of little consequence, and that is why we can consign a million million souls to death in the blink of an eye. For what is the life of billions, compared to securing the ultimate victory?" ― Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer in the wake of the Exterminatus of 30-882

The Star Guardians are the IV^th Legiones Astartes, engineered by the Emperor's own hand in the final days of the Unification Wars of Terra, forged for the Great Crusade to bring His light to the long-lost human colony worlds scattered across the stars. Renowned for their cold-hearted brutality, mechanical nature and utter remorselessness in battle, the Star Guardians were among the most powerful and famed Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade.

Though the legion did fight on Terra alongside the Thunder Warriors, it was at Luna where they truly showed the warriors they could be, proving themselves experts in void warfare and the oft deadly zone mortalis actions called for when boarding an enemy voidship or assaulting their holdings. At Luna, the Legion would take their first name, the Dark Watchers, to ever ensure that no threats from the stars would seek to challenge the Imperium of Man and live.

When they were united with their Sire, the giant Shaaa Hydrades, the legions reputation for boarding troops grew a thousand-fold, becoming the unwavering hammer that had shattered countless foes in the Emperor's quest to liberate Mankind from the darkness of Old Night. It was Shaaa who decreed that the Legion would no longer merely watch the stars, but be their sole guardians, forever focused on bringing them into the Imperium, those who inhabited the worlds they conquered of little concern, human life representing the cheapest of currencies throughout the millions of worlds of the Imperium. In those days, the Dark Watchers died, and the Star Guardians would rise.

Throughout the Great Crusade, the Star Guardians were called upon to face the toughest of foes, striding into warzones that would have slain others of their kind a dozen times over, advancing in lockstep behind their unbreakable shield lines, the mighty forms of Dreadnoughts and Saturnine Terminators ensuring heavy weapons were ever available to the legion, despite their shortage of heavy vehicles, their prefered combat zones making their use all but impossible. From the deadly confrontations of the Squat Wars to the Twin Wars of Araneus, the Star Guardians never faltered, never tired, and never showed mercy.

Star Guardians Symbol (Great Crusade Era) — The Symbol of the Star Guardians Legion - Great Crusade and Early Apostasy Era [1]

In the wake of the Ullanor Crusade, the Star Guardians commanding the void war against the savage Orks, Shaaa Hydrades and his legion were named as the Praetorians of Terra, retiring from the frontlines of the Great Crusade to work on one of the greatest undertakings in humanities history, the construction of the Solar Guardian Array, a system wide defencive system, a beacon to any who would seek to challenge humanity that such a task was laughably impossible. They poured their figurative lifeblood into its construction, and in time, when Almire rose in open rebellion and struck at Terra, they would pour their physical blood upon it as well, the legion being all but broken in the First Solar War.

Shattered alongside their lord, the Star Guardians turned to the only one they could rely on in these desperate times, forging new allegiances with the Adeptus Mechanicus in their desperation, being reborn anew as a legion far more metal than flesh. Throughout the Frontier Wars this alliance would only grow stronger, the priesthood teaching the warriors of the IVth the deepest and most revered secrets of the machine, ensuring that the bonds forged would never be broken. By the time of the Second Solar War, the IVth was all but unrecognisable from the legion Shaaa himself had forged, a hybrid of skitarii and Astartes, creating a small but terrifyingly potent fighting force.

Legion History

The Great Crusade

The Watchers of the Dark

In the wake of the Emperor’s conquest of Old Albia, the first recruits of what would eventually become the IVth Legion of the fledgling Legiones Astartes were taken to the genelabs beneath the Himalayan Mountains, the genewrights of the Emperor forging them anew, making them more than men, a refinement on the Thunder Warriors of his army. Of these, the first survivor was a boy named Varinius Rampt, and it was this distinction as the first of the IVth that saw him named the Lord Commander of the newly formed legion.

For the first few years of the legions existence, the IVth were kept apart from almost all of their peers, a part of the mysterious 'Trefoil' Legions, alongside the XIIIth and XXth Legions. In this time, the legions numbers grew slowly but steadly, plagued with issues with gene-seed implantation matched only by a few other of the newly formed forces, seeing far more fatal implantation proceedures than the norm. As such, the IVth would not take part much in the Unification Wars, only making their debut at the closing of the conflict, selected to spearhead the attack on Luna, Terra’s only natural satellite and home of the Selenar gene-cults, a force the Emperor required if his visions for humanity were to see the light of reality, backed by small forces from over half of the other legions. Honoured by their personal selection by the Emperor himself, Varinius Rampt prepared to showcase that despite their small numbers, the IVth would be a force to be reckoned with.

Dark Watcher-0 — Unification Wars-era IVth Legion and Dark Watchers Colour Scheme [2]

Breaking orbit alongside the rest of the assault force, the IVth put their plan into motion. Their fleet was not one of battleships and cruisers as it would be in the future, but small assault craft, dozens Warhawk and Nephoros-class Stormbirds ferrying the legionaries towards their target, each one equipped with breathing masks to combat the unsealed nature of their mark one armour. At a signal from Varinius, the fleet split, most breaking to engage the void forces of the Selenar, leaving only the IVth to continue on.

Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the IVth Legion drifted silently towards Luna from Mankind's birthworld through the void like arrows fired into the night. The Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna’s surface lashed the oncoming Imperial Force, swatting ships from the void with seeming impunity, but the IVth went undetected, unlooked for and unseen as they landed on the surface of Luna itself like a dagger in the night. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man.

Void Pattern Armour — Pre-Apostasy Star Guardians Colour Scheme - Clad in the unique Void Pattern MkIII power armour of the IVth Legion [2]

Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead. Broken and humbled, the enslaved gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marine who would carry out Mankind's conquest of the stars. Praise was given to the strategy of the IVth, but for Varinius there were implications in the supreme efficacy of the tactic that reached far beyond that day If he could come up with such a plan to undo all but unassailable defences, then others within the galaxy could to. From that moment on, Varinius made a silent, personal vow that while he drew breath, the IVth legion would be the watchers in the darkness, securing the void from any foe who would seek to rest it from the Imperium. So galvanised, the IVth legion earned their name, the Dark Watchers rising from the victory at Luna.

In Darkness and Blood

Almost immediatly after their victory at Luna, already a costly battle that had left the IVth depleted, claiming the lives of many of their warriors, the Dark Watchers were assigned to a new warfront, taking part in their first and last action on Terra itself to aid in the pacification of the Techno-Barbarian state located in the Caucasus Peninsula of the ancient European continent, known as the Caucasus Wastes, their part in the operation recorded as the Assault on the Tempest Galleries. The Dark Watchers would not fight on the surface of the world during the brutal conflict however, instead descending beneath the earth, striking at the vast geo-thermal furnaces which provided power for the Ethnarchy's impregnable defences. Believed by almost all to be little more than a suicide mission the IVth once again entered the darkness, this time within the confines of a world rather than the depths of space, 20,000 warriors making the journey, seemingly none, save the Emperor himself, believeing they would ever return.

In this, they were almost correct, and of the 20,000, barely 1,000 remained, all but ending the Legion as a combative force during the closing years of the Unification Wars, the pacification of the Sol System, and even the opening years of the Great Crusade. It was a price that the Dark Watchers happily paid however, solidifying their reputaion as warriors who would hold any line or take on any assault, regardless of the casualties inflicted upon them, or the seemingly impossible nature of their assigned tasks.

The Saturnine Ordos

Faced with not only a complex geneseed that was rejected in almost all recruits, as well as two campaigns that severly depleted their strength, the Dark Watchers would take no further military action in the campaigns to secure the Sol System, spending much of their time on Luna remustering their strength, the gene-cults working to undo the genetic problems within the IVth, something they were unsuccessful in, hampering the Legions growth, ensuring they would remain small, unable to match the size they had been before the Tempest Gallaries and Luna, their recruitment prior to that carried out over decades, not mere years.

In the wake of the alliance with Mars at the Treaty of Olympus Mons, the IVth legion were equipped with new MK II ‘Crusade’ pattern power armour, and many of their number assigned to assist other, combat ready legions, specifically the Vth and XIth Legions as they pushed outwards, many other legions pushing inwards, taking the fight to Venus and Mercury. While the Vth did not break their advance, moving past Saturn to strike at the Jovians and the outer system, the XIth and IVth were ordered to take Saturn and its moons, securing the mineral rich area of space for the Imperium.

As they neared the world, the XIth broke off, descending to the moon of Titan that had been fortified by a xenos race lost to time during Old Night, the action gaining the legion their name, while the IVth moved into the rings of Saturn, scouting the way for the larger legion, and in doing so, making first contact with the humans who called Saturn their home, becoming the first Imperial Force to make contact with those who would quickly become one of the lynchpins of Imperial success.

Combining by far the most powerful fleet in the Sol System prior to Unification and an elite armed force known as the Saturnyne Ordo, the military of Saturn was a force to be reckoned with, rivalling even the early Astartes in skill, especially in void warfare, having honed their tactics over centuries against mutants and xenos alike. While the XIth fought against those same mutants and xenos, it was the Dark Watchers who helped to secure and alliance between the Imperium and the warriors of Saturn. Many have argued that it was only after the Polities of Saturn joined voluntarily with the Imperium that the Great Crusade truly began, their fleets, orbital shipyards and void expertise fundamental to the speed and scale of the early years of Imperial expansion.

While the rest of the Legions continued on, eventually leaving the Solar System as the Great Crusade officially began in M30.798, the Dark Watchers stayed behind with the new found Ordo’s, training alongside the first ten regiments of the newly raised Solar Auxilia, known collectively as the "Saturnyne Rams”. Here they learnt the ways of void warfare from the undisputed experts, and with their gene-wrought superiority over even the most well trained of men, they soon surpassed their teachers. In a show of respect for the Astartes, the Dark Watchers were forever enshrined by the Ordo’s as the 11th regiment of the Solar Auxilia, the final Saturnyne Ram, all others raised simply bearing the title of Solar Auxilia.

Finally, in M30.802, the Dark Watchers finally made to set out into the darkness of uncharted void. With them was a regiment of the Solar Auxilia, raised as the 12th regiment and commanded by the newly minted Legate Braden Jaxer. In their armouries were new suits of armour crafted by Mars for the legions, Saturnine Terminator armour representing an order of magnitude higher than the protective capabilities of standard power armour. The IVth were designated as the test bed for this new weapon, equipped with far more than the other legions as they struck ever outwards.

Their first conflict was on the world of 20-1, a world boasting a not inconsiderable void fleet of their own to challenge the Expeditionary Fleet. Undaunted, the IVth struck, and soon every vessel had been either captured or rendered inoperable by punishing broadsides and boarding actions from the Astartes. Faced with no way to stop the newly turned fleet that now surrounded every planet in the system, they offer the Watchers their unconditional surrender. Most of the ships are returned to the system as the new Imperial defences, but many are kept by the Legion to bolster their fleet.

Even for a legion of Astartes however, the victories were not without cost. At the Hyperion Way, the legion encountered an empire spanning three star systems, all united under a fanatically religious government, who view the Space Marines as daemons sent to test then. The population of the Hyperion Way all bore crude cybernetic modifications, allowing the Lord Cardinal of the Empire to subsume their minds at will, ensuring that none ever retreated in the face of annihilation, forcing the legion to purge each and every planet in turn, void defences on the planet's surface making even Exterminatus Actions impossible.

On each world, the Dark Watchers casualties rose, peaking in the final campaign of the war which saw the last great armoured assault of the IVth legion, the bloody fighting seeing almost all of the legions heavy fighting vehicles ruined beyond repair. When the world was finally purged and the Lord Cardinal struck down, only a handful of vehicles could be recovered back into the Dark Watchers armouries, the legion modifying their standard operating procedure substantially to compensate for the sudden lack. In time, this stop-gap measure became the norm, with Dreadnoughts and ma-portable heavy weapons taking the place of massed armour assaults, that left to the ever growing VIth legion.

In the wake of this harrowing and narrowly secured victory, the IVth needed a victory to stabilise moral, and soon, they were granted far more than a mere compliance, the legion being joined by the Emperor himself, steered towards a newly discovered sector of space, word of their lost sire upon the Master of Mankind’s lips.

Shaaa Hydrades

"You are my unbent sons, my tempered hammers. You have watched the dark for too long however, and there is far more than the mere darkness in the void of space. My creator bids us to conquer this galaxy for our new Imperium, let the other legions concern themselves with the affairs of the mortals who scurry upon the surface of their worlds. We shall take the only thing that truly matters in an empire such as this, and hold them for all time. No longer will you just watch, now you will become the very wardens of the void itself, the custodians of Imperial space; my Star Guardians." ― Shaaa Hydrades upon being united with his gene-sons.

The Dark Watchers, and the Star Guardians they would soon become, were the IVth Legion of Space Marines, created from the gene-seed of the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades. At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, before the Great Crusade had begun, the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, the Primarchs, were scattered across the known galaxy through the Warp in a mysterious accident due to the intervention of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The gestation capsules of all twenty Primarchs were stolen from the Emperor's secret gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains on Terra and were flung across thousands of light years, all eventually coming to rest on backwater human colony planets.

It was this first touch of Chaos before the Primarchs had even been born that may have corrupted so many of them and laid the foundation for the agonising tragedy of the Almire Apostasy that was to come. Of all of these young Primarch’s however, only one would come to rest on anything but a planet, Shaaa Hydrades crashing into the ancient megastructure known only as ‘the Ring’.

Smashing into a hanger bay, Shaaa’s mere arrival saw hundreds die as the sealed room was suddenly opened to the void. By the time warriors from the Hydrades empire, where the pod had impacted, arrived, they expected to find nothing but corpses or enemy EVA troopers within the hanger. Instead, what they found was a small child, seemingly no more than five years of age, sitting in the remains of a metallic pod, seemingly uncaring about the airless and freezing nature of the void that now surrounded him. Confused but realising that this was no ordinary child, the warriors quickly brought the child to their ruler, Lord Asher Hydrades of the Hydrades empire. Intrigued by the youth who displayed more talent than any of his years should have been able to, and a seeming immunity to the kiss of space, Asher quickly adopted the child, declaring his name to forever more be Shaaa of house Hydrades, adopting him into his family.

In his new family, Shaaa soon found himself treading both the path of the smith and the warrior, coming to hold full dominion over the great stellar forge complex of the Hydrades Empire when not fighting, or acting as the second in command of the Hydrades army, subservient only to his older brother, and to Ashur himself. A being of ferocious intellect, Shaaa delved deep into all the knowledge the Ring had to offer, crafting new weapons for his father, using STC technology that the Mechanicum of Mars would have waged several crusades to possess, sadly lost to the ravages of war before their arrival. It is even believed that had Shaaa had already reasoned out his true nature and the abstract nature of his origins as an artificial post-human being, created by someone superior to even himself, and someone he fully expected to one day reveal himself to Shaaa, afterall, you didn’t misplace a construct such as a Primarch, Shaaa knowing the word even though none had ever voiced it, and merely leave it to roam the galaxy without guidance.

Shaaa Hydrades (Pre-Imperium) — Shaaa Hydrades as he appeared before the coming of the Emperor and the wounds done to him by his father. The shield he carried on that day is the same one that he would carry with him until the First Solar War. [6]

In these days, Shaaa was almost a completely different man than the one who would one day stride the stars alongside the Imperium. He laughed, he joked, he even loved, taking a husband whom he gave everything too, often describing him as the utter pinnacle of his life, despite their obvious differences. He got on well with most he encountered, his older sister and younger brother both looking to him for guidance on numerous occasions, but this adulation was not universal, and it was from this that dark storms began to take shape.

Asher and Shaaa’s eldest brother both soon became wary of the Primarch, now leading a massive war across the entire space station, having already conquered more of it than any other warlord in history had come close to. Growing nervous that Shaaa would one day usurp him, and urged on by the jealous brother, Asher took steps to remove Shaaa from the equation entirely.

On the eve on Shaaa’s final march of the last remaining warlord to not both to Asher, while he was mustering his closest soldiers to him for a final war council, an agent loyal to Asher above all detonated a bomb, it's like unseen in all of the Ring’s history. An ancient archeotech masterpiece, the weapon continued both radiological and bio-chemical components, creating a blast that would destroy anything that stood in its way, at least in theory.

Shaaa took the full brunt of the sudden blast, as did his inner council, Shaaa’s brother and sister perishing in agony, while Shaaa’s husband survived for but a moment longer, Shaaa shielding him with his own bulk, a futile final act of love from a Primarch none who met him after that day would ever think capable of such.

The blast tore Shaaa in half, bisecting the Primarch at the waist, his body being scorched by the unnatural fire, half his body melting like hot wax, giving the Primarch the hideous visage he carried throughout the Great Crusade. No one else could have hoped to survive the blast, but Shaaa’s will to endure was the stuff of legend, and when Asher sent in his own warriors to clear up the wreckage and ensure his son was dead, they instead found a hideously wounded but very much alive warrior, enraged beyond anything he had exhibited in his life to date. Despite his injuries and his lack of legs, the warriors stood little chance against the Primarch, their corpses soon joining those of Shaaa’s followers in the airless void of the breached section of the station.

From that day forth, Shaaa had only one goal, the destruction of the Hydrades empire in its entirety, wanting nothing more than to tear up his foster-father's legacy root and stem for the ultimate act of betrayal. Fashioning himself crude cybernetics, Shaaa would soon rise at the head of a new army, those who had looked to Shaaa over Asher rallying to his call for vengeance. It was ironic that before the attempt on his life, Shaaa would never have contemplated betrayal of his father, and yet in the wake of his near death experience, Asher had ensured that what he most feared came to pass.

Soon, Shaaa marched on the Hydrades empire at the head of his own army, a changed man from the one who had already conquered the station once. Gone was the joy and laughter, replaced instead with a near incalculable rage, barely held in check by cold, unremitting logic more at home in a machine than a man. In time, it would become clear the blast had affected more than just Shaaa’s body, attacking his mind with the same self-replicating injuries that kept his body from ever hoping to heal. His emotional centres were all but destroyed, his left and right side of the brain practically fused together, making it difficult for the Primarch to process the emotions running hot through his body. In time, this would worsen considerably, making the merely difficult all but impossible, until Terra finally rendered the further degradation irrelevant.

Within five years, less than half of what it had taken him to conquer the station in Ashur's name, Shaaa and his army, the so called Immortals, had smashed apart all opposition before them. The Hydrades army was in tatters, Shaaa slaying his elder brother at the Apex of the last blood battle for supremacy aboard the station. With his victory there, none could challenge the Primarch. Shaaa was poised to strike, and yet on the eve of his victory, something he had all but forgotten about came to pass, appearing to him in a flash of golden light.

The Coming of the Emperor

From the flash of light strode beings Shaaa had never expected to see in the flesh. Glorious giants armoured in exquisitely wrought golden armour, carrying long spears tipped with the wide barrels of projectile weaponry. Behind them came smaller warriors, barely taller than the hulking forms of those who called the Ring their home. Their armour was not as fine, though still looking extremely proficient and adequate for any task the user could use. Clad in black, the only colour the warriors showed was burning orange eyepieces, seeming to pierce the soul of everyone present behind their emotionless faceplates.

Then finally, the last figured stepped through, Shaaa’s face twisting into what would once have been a smile, but now was closer to an ugly leer. The being that stepped forward was undoubtedly a being of supreme power, radiating a golden light that forced all who looked upon him to turn away, all save for Shaaa himself. Here was vindication of everything he had believed about his own past, a being like this was the only one who could have forged a being such as Shaaa.

According to all accounts of what transpired next, Shaaa knelt before a word was said, bowing his head before the Emperor of Mankind. The Emperor spoke of the Imperium, Shaaa remaining silent as he spoke, only rising when the Emperor made to hand Shaaa an army to finish what he had already begun, indicating the warriors in black he had brought with him. When Shaaa spoke, it was to refuse the aid, referring only to the Emperor as his creator, and proclaiming that the warriors of the Ring had begun the war, and only they would end it, asking the Emperor not to interfere in this last, most deserving of victories.

The Emperor agreed, though it was clear the warriors in black did not take the dismissal lightly, but Shaaa paid them little heed. Renewing his conquest, Shaaa smashed apart the last of Asher’s guards, tearing them asunder before finally reaching the man himself, standing before his foster-father’s throne bereft of guards. What passed between the pair has gone unrecorded from history, the next records showing a single shot being fired, before Shaaa strode from the throne room, his father’s frail frame clamped in one hand, still clinging to life, though lacking a right hand.

Flinging Asher into an airlock, Shaaa watched in silence as his father stood on the other side of the thick armour-glass. No words passed between them, to his credit Asher not uttering a sound as he struggled to stand with half a dozen clearly broken bones. And then it was over, the airlock cycling in a puff of expelled atmosphere, ejecting Asher Hydrades into the coldness of space. The Ring was unified under the Hydrades name, but it was Shaaa, not Asher, who was hailed as its undisputed and total ruler.

Now completed, the Emperor returned, Shaaa willingly travelling with his new found creator. Curiously, Shaaa never used the term father for the Emperor, that title forever tainted in his eyes, Creator serving as a term of respect for the being that had forged him. After a brief period in the Emperor's company, fighting alongside Him and consuming knowledge of the Great Crusade, its history, war machinery and operations, Shaaa was handed the command of the IVth Legion as the Emperor had promise, and the transition of authority to him was swift and absolute. His transition from a warlord on the Ring to a general of the Great Crusade was a swift one, aided by his evident hunger for the task set before him and the uncompromising intelligence and diligent application to this greater challenge he displayed. By M30.856, the IVth Legion had now grown from a little over 11,000 warriors to 35,000, with recruitment speeds increasing every month, the people of the Ring taking to Shaaa's geneseed in a way no population had to date, their populace seemingly immune to the genetic rejection issues that had plagued the IVth.

Addressing the assembled warriors, Shaaa took absolute command, the Emperor declaring his induction into the Imperium to be complete, Shaaa renaming and remaking his sons according to his desires. Sweeping away much of what had gone before by way of organisation at a stroke, the Primarch took the IVth Legion apart with the precision and intent with which an artisan might deconstruct a mechanical chronograph, reconfiguring its components and re-assembling it in a fashion more to his liking. On that day, the Dark Watchers were no more, and from them rose the Star Guardians, wearing the purple of the Hydrades empire upon their shoulders, a sign of being Shaaa’s chosen warriors from this day, till the end of days.

The Squat Wars

Shaaa Hydrades - Early Great Crusade Era — Shaaa Hydrades, shown here in the terminator armour granted to him by the Emperor of Mankind himself. The golden colours were chosen by the Emperor in the hopes that those who laid eyes upon it would believe the Emperor himself had come to their world. [4]

See: The Squat Wars

In M30.850, the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades, IVth son of the Emperor was discovered and reunited with his legion. Wasting no time in throwing himself into his father's crusade, Shaaa and his renamed Star Guardians pushed out from their home further into the galactic core. The first four planets that fell before the might of the 30th Expeditionary Fleet, the entire might of the IVth legion, coupled with elements of the VIIIth, Imperial Army and Mechanicum forces, rendering them as insignificant compliances. The fifth world however would forever change the IVth legion, and the Imperium itself.

Arriving in the system in M30.858, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet was hailed by a small fleet orbiting the systems primary world. Identifying themselves as traders of the Khazadi, they were cut off by Shaaa who demanded their complete and utter surrender before the Imperium of Man. Communications quickly broke down, the communications going quiet as hostilities erupt.

The Khazadi made range first, firing at the oncoming Imperial vessels with an unknown ion weapon. A single shot depleted shields almost fully, a barrage would disable an entire vessel, leaving them lifeless and helpless in the void. Three heavy cruisers suffered this fate as Shaaa pushed his fleet into engagement range, the Khazadi lacking any other weapons to finish the helpless vessels. Soon, the Imperial response thundered across the void, reducing the small fleet to burning wrecks in a matter of moments, only a pair of ships escaping, burning their engines at dangerous levels to outrun their aggressors. The way now clear, the Imperial fleet took up positions above the world, preparing for a full scale invasion.

The first to make planetfall were the Dusk Wyrms, warriors of the VIIIth Legion, the first of the Khazadi falling to their bolters as they advanced into the network of subterranean tunnels. Soon they were joined by the Star Guardians, Shaaa leading his sons himself, driving the enemy, now known as the ‘Squats’, deeper into their holes. The death toll rose rapidly on both sides, those human forces left on the surface struggling with the harsh environment, while beneath their feet Astartes fought and died in near total darkness.

Weeks ground into month, the Squats numbers beginning to take their toll. A counter attack across the surface forced the mortal forces to withdraw, cutting off the Primarch and the Legions as their bitter foe sealed the entrances. An armada, equal in might to the Imperial fleet, appeared soon after, forcing Shaaa’s forces to withdraw, their compliments of marines now planetside making boarding a deadly concept.

Now cut off, the Squats set about dividing the Astartes forces left on the world, succeeding in breaking their ranks, but not their resolve. As the Imperials broke through into a transit tunnel leading directly to the capital city of the world, butchering thousands of soldiers destined for the front line, the Squats enacted their final sanction, flooding the tunnels with magma in an attempt to destroy the invaders. Thousands of Astartes perished in the sudden attack, Shaaa himself disappearing, believed by some to be dead.

Squat Heartguard — A member of the Squat "Hearthguard" in combat on 30-5. Pict capture was recovered from the suit of a dead Dusk Wyrm

And then the Imperium responded. Uulious Kaezar, first Captain of the Sol Exemplar, arrived in system with a mighty fleet, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet combined with his own forces. On board was the entirety of the Sol Exemplar Legion, elements of the Sable Choir and Eaters of the Dead, alongside millions more mortal soldiers. Enough warriors to crack a system descended upon 30-5 to reinforce the initial assault. Little resistance was met from the Squats this time, those survivors who had been cut off from the main assault force passing stories of the devastation and the fall of Shaaa. These rumours were put to rest when Uulious broke the last defenders of the Squat city, finding Shaaa deep within the throne room, the world's leader dead in his feet. The Primarch of the IVth was wounded, his armour and weapons close to useless, but he was very much alive, and 30-5 was his. Those who survived the world spread word of his deeds, the Squats coming to hate him above all others, referring to him only as ‘The Beast’.

The battle won, the two forces withdrew to orbit once more, destroying the last vestiges of the squats as they left, but what was once believed to be a single compliance, soon became clear it was something more. Recovered details spoke of an empire, dozens of worlds, billions of soldiers, all mobilising against the fledgling Imperium. The Squat Wars, or the War of Lost Cousins as it would later be known by the Khazadi, had truly begun.

While 30-5 had been the first, and would remain one of the bloodiest, battles of the war, the next engagement was arguably the most pivotal. The world of Mareen was identified as a lynchpin of the Squat Empires defence. Mustering their fleet, the Imperial force struck at the world, clashing with the Mareen Navy.

The battle was short but bloody, ships on both sides dying in a matter of moments, the Mareen scattering those ships that the Star Guardians boarded, or they boarded themselves, across their empire. This battle also saw Durnan, a survivor of 30-5 and now sworn enemy of Shaaa, cross hammers with the Breacher Lord. Though he failed in his attempt on Shaaa’s life, he survived the confrontation, fleeing to the surface of Mareen. The Battle of Mareen was over, the Squats naval power all but spent, granting the Imperium unrestricted access across the void.

Uulious lead the invasion of Mareen, given command of the invasion by Shaaa himself, leading elements of all the present legions save the IVth against the dug in squats. Here, the squats unleashed their psi-stone weapons, channeling the warp against the Astartes. Only the nulls of the Xth could stand before them, heedless of the weapons power that could not find purchase in their soulless bodies. Even here however, the heretech innovation of the Squats found a solution, creating mines that preyed on the psychic null zone their kind emitted. Soon, as on 30-5, the Imperium found themselves bogged down in brutal, close quarters fighting. The modifications to power armour that Shaaa had overseen on 30-5 soon began to be adopted throughout the present legions, the Mechanicum representatives soon stepping in to standardise what would eventually become known as the Iron pattern of Power Armour, the third distinct mark to make its way through the legions.

Squat Overlord Ironclad — An Overlord Class Ironclad in combat during the Squat Wars. While most of the fighting in the war was subterranean, some vicious battles did take place on the surface of worlds, the largest war engines on both sides deploying to do battle against one another.

While Uulious led the war on the ground, Shaaa took what remained of the fleet that was not required to strike at the Squats in other areas of their empire to muster the scattered Imperial fleet. Worlds burnt under his merciless gaze, with no heed paid to whether or not there was a military presence on the planets.

As Agri-Worlds began to fall, the Squat Empire began to contend with a new enemy, one they thought vanquished generations earlier. Hunger. Starvation began to spread through the Squat’s empire, millions dying without ever seeing an Astartes or the kiss of war. Desperate, the Squats began to develop a weapon of terrible power, one they believed would end the war once and for all. Though Uulious led the war on Mareen against Durnan, the Squat never forgot the Beast who had destroyed his world, believing that to kill him would win the war. Using his position as war leader of the Khazadi he poured every available resource into the creation of three battle suits. Known as the Retributor suits, they were designed to destroy the Beast and bring about victory, but their construction was slow, plagued with difficulties and dwindling resources. What was envisioned as a quick solution spilled into years, and other avenues were subtly explored behind Durnan’s back.

A delegation from the Khazadi stole from their empire, travelling into the unknown in search of allies. No Squat vessel had travelled so far beyond the edge of their empire before, but desperate times pushed aside the superstitious warnings in favour of action. Through luck or chance, the delegation was spat from the warp near the recently rediscovered world of Baa;, home of Sanguinius, Primarch of the renamed Blood Angels. Though much of his legion was now by his side, rejoicing in their reunification, many also fought beside Uulious as the Eaters of the Dead, unaware of their new lord.

One of the most dreaded weapons of war deployed against the Imperium, the Squat Cyclops mounted a starship grade weapon within its hull, while carrying six missiles comparable to the Imperium's own Hellfire weapons. These vehicles were the match for even the Emperor-Class titans, but were mercifully far rarer.

At first the delegation made to run, or to sell their lives dearly as they quickly recognised the Imperial ships, but as it became clear they would not be fired upon unless they fired first, the Squats relented, gaining an audience with the Sanguinius himself. There they poured the story of the war as they saw it onto Sanguinius, the Primarch listening in sympathetic silence. He knew of the war, having been preparing to lead his legion to support his brother when the Squat delegation had arrived, but now, as he saw the truth in the words of the delegate, he prepared to set sail for a different purpose. Securing consent for his plan from the Emperor of Mankind himself, Sanguinius and his Blood Angels entered the warp towards the Squat Empire, members of the Crimson Swords and their Rogue Trader allies joining this new wave of Imperial Reinforcements.

Unaware of this new force preparing to enter the war, Shaaa and his reformed fleet appeared above Mareen, eager to assist in ending the war on the planet once and for all. As landing forces began to make their way from the fleet to the surface, alarms sounded throughout the Star Guardians flagship as a ship docked on the main hangar bay. Using a stolen Stormbird gunship, Durnan and two of his best Hearthguard stepped on to the Luna’s Fall, the Retributor battle suits they piloted thrumming with barely contained power. Those Astartes that rushed to meet them stood little chance, crushed beneath the blades of the trio. Even Lord Commander Varinius Rampt, the second in command of the IVth legion, fell before them, his injuries so great he would later be interred within the shell of a Dreadnought.

Then Shaaa entered the hangar, Durnan finally getting his wish to face the Beast on equal footing. Hammer crossed with axe, the mechanical might of the two remaining suits against his gene wrought strength. The sides were evenly matched, and though Shaaa felled one of Durnan’s comrades, he could not stop the Squat leader. The fight seemed to last for hours, none able to interfere without being torn apart, both combatants were soon bloodied and all but spent, refusing to given in while their hated rival still drew breath.

And then the hangar was bathed in glorious golden light. Shaaa and Durnan shielded their eyes from the sudden glare, knocked apart as Sanguinius teleported into the hangar, Blood Angels bearing the new crimson of their legion and Squats flanking him. He brought word of the peace he had been ordered to seek, but neither Shaaa nor Durnan wished to broach that idea. With a roar the pair charged each other once more, but they would never meet in combat again.

Stepping forward, a pair of the Squats raised an ion cannon, a single shot enough to overload the already struggling Retributor suit, sealing Durnan inside the lifeless machine much to the rage of its pilot. For Shaaa however, a more personal touch was required, and one that would shape relations between the IVth and IXth for the rest of time. Sanguinius stepped in front of the charging pair, faster than Shaaa could ever hope to match, delivering a single blow through the Breacher Lords helmet. Shaaa collapsed without a sound as the blow connected, his helmet shattering, damaged beyond repair. Sanguinius was not proud that his first interaction with his brother had been a violent one, but he stood by his actions until his final days.

With Shaaa and Durnan taken away by their warriors for medical treatment, Sanguinius began to arduous task of carrying out the Emperor's orders for peace. While the Squats now desired little else than an end to the bloodshed that threatened their entire kind, many of the Astartes who had fought and bled for victory, their Legions spent close to breaking point. Nevertheless, Sanguinius persevered, and soon a treaty was up between the Imperium and the Khazadi.

In recognition of the strength the Khazadi has displayed, their Empire was not merely absorbed into the Imperium as any other would be. Instead an offer was extended to their kind that had only been extended to one other, the red priests of Mars. Signed upon the war wracked surface of the Squats capital world, the Treaty of Mareen recognised a third empire within the Imperium.

Durnan never supported the peace as his brethren did, spitting on the truce and disappearing from the empire. He was not seen again until the dark days of M31.

When he finally awoke more than a week after the peace had been signed, Shaaa’s vengeful roar reportedly echoed throughout the ship for days, resonating with his sons for the rest of time. The IVth would never truly forgive the Squats, seeing them as a stain on their honour for as long as they lived, but it was the Sanguinius who held the greatest enmity for the Star Guardians, their lord held in the highest levels of contempt above any other.

And so, the Squat Wars or the War of Lost Cousins came to an end, the newly renamed Astra Khazadi standing beside their long lost brethren throughout the Great Crusade, and into the dark times beyond...

The Bloody Reprisal

In M30.915, the 30th expeditionary fleet approached a world only ever recorded as 30-206. Soon revealed to be the heart of a human empire spanning thirty two systems and seventy five inhabited worlds or mining outposts. It did not take long for the humans to detect the oncoming IVth, the population immediately turning hostile and launching a void attack against the oncoming Astartes fleet. Brushing aside the resistance with little difficulty, the world seemed to change its mind on the assault in mere moments, a transmission coming from the surface of the world begging for mercy, the fleet, allegedly, having already been in open rebellion against the world's rulers.

Scoffing at the idea, Shaaa made to land upon the world in force, the thought of allowing this surrender never crossing his mind, until Commander Harnt Redal voiced his own support of it. The Aide had been by Shaaa’s side since returning from the training exercise with the XIIIth legion, and had served as a calming influence for the Breacher Lord,forever tempering his more brutal nature. Speaking of the potential validity of the speaker's claims, and pointing that their fleet had already been scattered above this world, potentially in preperation for bombardment, Harnt convinced Shaaa to allow the events to play out, sending the Commander in his stead to accept this surrender.

A Warrior of 30-206 — A standard soldier of 30-206, armed with pritive las weapons and an armoured Great Coat

Descending to the surface of the world with his Division, their weapons ordered to be locked away in a show of peace, not invasion, Harnt Redal strode through the city streets alongside warriors of the worlds military, going helmetless, fighting the common curse of agoraphobia amongst the IVth legion, ensuring he presented the best front for the Imperium’s arrival, despite their bloody meeting. Soon, he reached the parliament building, the rulers of the world descending to meet him. There, they asked if he was the warrior in charge of this force, and with a nod, Harnt told them he was.

What happened next has forever been enshrined within the memory of the IVth legion, one of the rulers raising his hand, a single shot ringing out as an unseen sniper let lose a single bullet, the round striking Harnt directly between the eyes, a divergent type of mass reactive round detonating, leaving the commander a headless corpse that collapsed to the ground, twitching as his body tried to process its imminent demise.

Rage erupted soon after, both the explosive rage of those of Harnt’s own command, unleashing their vengeance at the end of a boltgun and chainsword, and Shaaa’s own rage, the cold calculating, impossibly deep anger of a Primarch slighted, long kept in check by one who was now dead through treachery.

Soon, the order came in bearing the command codes of the Lord Commander himself, acting upon orders passed to him directly from Shaaa. The 3rd Division were to pull back from the world and make for orbit, but the warriors were not in a forgiving mood. Blood flowed through the streets, and only through brutal pacification actions did the Division’s Discipline Corps regain order, ensuring the commands were carried out as their lord had decreed, close to a dozen Star Guardians dead by their hands in the interest of regaining an iron-fisted control.

If the world thought that they had been saved by these grim warriors however, they were sadly mistaken. As soon as the Astartes had withdrawn, lance strikes from high orbit began to plummet through the worlds clouds, boiling away sea’s and destroying entire cities in a venting of pure wrath. Finally, the final axe blade fell, exterminatus-grade phospex weaponry deployed, wiping the planet clean of all remaining life, and ensuring it would be of little use to any, save as a chunk or rock to be stripped mined once the atmosphere had burnt off and the void extinguishing the otherwise eternal living flames.

Even this was not the end of Shaaa vengeance however, the death of one world barely equalling a single one of his sons, and a warrior like Harnt requiring far more blood payment than any one world. None could sway him from his path, only Harnt and Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer having that influence, and the Lord Commander had no wish to stop the bloodshed either, having lost a close brother in the same way Shaaa had lost a son.

In total, sixty one worlds were reduced to little more than ruined craters, mining worlds for the Mechanicum but no longer suited for human habitation, one planet for every year Harnt had been within the Star Guardians. Eventually, even this rage blew out, and though many of his brothers called for Shaaa to answer for his perceived crimes, the Emperor never voiced his opinion on the matter, neither condoning or condemning the actions taken. Soon, the Mechanicum moved in, turning those worlds reduced to lifeless husks into strip mines in short order. The remainder of the empire capitulating with all speed, welcoming any occupation force other than the warriors of the IVth. It was noted that Shaaa’s own mental degredation seemed to accelerate from that day, his emotions becoming harder and harder for the Breacher Lord, or the newly named “Cold Hearted” to express as he once had, his fused mind delving deeper into unfeeling logic than ever before.

The Battle of the Endless Arkium

See: The Battle of the Endless Arkium

Responding to a call for reinforcements by Almire and a force of Imperial Justicars, the Star Guardians muster their full strength to strike at the Abominable Intellegence known as the Endless Arkium, or the Colossalstructure, alongside the Consuls Exemplar and the bulk of the Imperial Justicars. While Almire took full command of all Imperial forces, Shaaa Hydrades was entrusted with the vanguard of the assault, commanding his sons almost entierly from the fleet as they pushed forward, the newly deployed Void Pattern Mk3 armour proving its worth in the intense fighting, the death toll amongst units equipped with the new armour far lower than those equipped with standard Mk3 across the other legions present.

The Fall of the Favoured Son

The Ullanor Crusade

The Triumph of Ullanor

The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever defeated by the military forces of the Imperium of Man, one not to be rivalled for millenia, and as such, upon their defeat, the Emperor of Mankind declared a great triumph, over half of the Primarch’s managing to reach the Ullanor system in time. The mechanicum laboured for weeks, rendering the entirety of Ullanor Primes greatest mountain range flat and paved, save for a single dais, preparing for a military parade the scale of which had never been seen. Millions, if not billions of soldiers, mortal, augmented and transhuman alike, would march past in celebration of the greatest victory, looking to the Dais where the Emperor stood alongside the Primarch’s, Shaaa standing tall amongst them, his helmet removed at the Emperor’s request, his mood sour as a result even on such an auspicious occasion.

As the parade finally ended, the arrayed soldiers now turned to face the dais, great vid-monitor screens showing the Emperor and the Primarch's, all waiting with baited breath for what came next after this, surely the High Point of the Great Crusade. They did not have long to wait, the Master of Mankind giving voice to his great plas that would one day shake the Imperium to its very core, though none yet knew it. He would return to Terra soon, though for what reason he did not say and in his stead, Almire, undisputed hero of the Ullanor Crusade, was named as Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade, long regarded as the First among Equals, now uniquivicolly raised to such a position in name as well as spirit.

For a moment, the world seemed to stand silent, before Bartosz of the Palatine Wings moved, dropping to one knee, bowing his head before his brother, already first among equals, now raised to be equal no more. Like a damn breaking, the world erupted in cheers and cries of adulation. Millions of voices raised to celebrate the naming of the Warmaster, the Emperor’s own departure all but forgotten for the time being. Unnumbered human warriors would be deafened that day, their eardrums rupturing with the sheer number of voices joined in chorus, but all who suffered said they would gladly do so again.

Eventually, the cheers died away, the Emperor making one more proclamation before moving for Terra. The Imperium’s heart was to be secured fully, against any interloper that would dare to believe itself the equal of the Empire of man. In this, there could be only one to oversee the defences, Shaaa Hydrades being named as the Praetorian on Terra. While Almire would have undisputed command of the crusade, Shaaa would be given unprecedented authority within the Sol system itself, the better to protect the Emperor’s secretive project.

The cheers were lesser this time, almost infinitely so, Shaaa’s scowl remaining until the cheers died away for a second time. The Triumph so concluded, the muster made to disperse, the Emperor and Shaaa remaining on Ullanor for a time being, Shaaa ensuring his congratulations were passed on to Almire before he left, pausing only to stop at his ancient homeworld, ensuring the IVth would continue to see new recruits fill its ranks before he continued to Terra, plans already emerging in his mind for how he would conduct his newly appointed role.

At this time, Shaaa and the Star Guardians had one of the finiest military records in the Crusade, second only to Almire himself, his logical and analytical mind ensuring that his compliances were numerous, while his unyielding and merticulous nature ensured that worlds he subjugated stayed subjugated, unlike the more numerous campaigns of the Dragon Lords, whose conquests were often rushed, requiring recompliance actions from the Wisps. This record would soon be eclipsed, the Imperial Justicars continuing to outpace all others, while other legions like the Watchers of Akhet and the Dragon Lords surged forward as well, until soon, the Star Guardians combat record was seemingly forgotten, their new role as Castellans all that people equated to them. Whether or not Shaaa and the IVth were angered by this spurning of their priot deeds or not is a matter of conjecture, no opinions being voiced one way or another.

The Solar Guardian Array

The Solar Guardian Array was envisioned as the greatest piece of military engineering in the history of mankind, a project to rival even the ancient masters of the Golden Age of Technology. Devised by Shaaa himself in the wake of Ullanor when he was named Praetorian, the SGA was planned to take centuries to complete, Shaaa fully believing that the defences were never truly going to be needed, no force remaining to challenge the Imperium, but would instead stand as a statement in and of itself. Tangible proof that the Imperium did not merely rely on the technology of their forebears, but could improve upon it, and in time, exceed it utterly.

Command of the SGA is split in two, one acting as the primary relay, while the other acts as a failsafe, a thousand systems in place to ensure that should the primary fall, control will not be wrested from the secondary.

The Primary command node is Ceres, largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The dwarf-planet was soon all but hollowed out, its populace moved elsewhere or assigned to run the defencive bastion. There were few bigs guns on the surface, the majority of the world designated as a hanger or a communication node from which the entire array could be directed from, untold thousands of attack craft resting beneath its protective surface. High above however, this changed as the orbital trench network slowly took form. Massive orbital plates, made of little more than armoured plating and gun emplacements, constantly traversed the atmosphere of the world, perfectly set to cross over each other, providing a near constant armour shell for the world, crafts having to follow a constantly changing path to reach the surface without being destroyed by the massive plates. In this way, the world’s armour would constantly be in motion, damaged plates soon replaced by new ones, repair crews scrambling to repair the damage done to those out of the line of fire as they orbited around the world. Though Terra was the jewel in the crown of humanity, it would be Ceres that drew Shaaa’s attention the most. The Throneworld would continue to grow through artistry, while Ceres focused solely on the ugly business of warfare.

Secondary to Ceres was Mercury, its mines long since exhausted, it was now designated as a secondary command post, its position as close to the sun as any could reach meaning it would survive longer than the rest of the mighty array. If Ceres fell, Mercury would smoothly take control, but by the time of the Almire Apostasy, only the barest of these systems were in place, its own orbital trenches barely being considered a true defence.

Beyond these two worlds, much of the SGA was constructed from traditional defencive installations. Massive Star Forts that each took decades to construct hung in geosynchronous orbit around the systems worlds, ringing them with enough firepower to rival a small battlefleet. Further still, smaller gun emplacements stretched between the worlds, interlinked with vast minefields, each one ringed with sensor buoys to mark their edge, and the safe passage between the fields that shipping could travel through. Even the mightiest of battleships would not be able to force their way through such a field, requiring any attacker to either spend time clearing the fields while under fire, or brave the heavily defended safe route through.

One of the newly constructed Ramilles Class Star-fort's of the Solar Guardian Array. While these indomitable defences would usually be the lynch-pin of a worlds orbital defences, the Ramilles was considered a lesser part of the Solar Guardian Array

In time, all the worlds of the Sol system would feel the touch of the SGA, even Mars bending to accept these new defences, adding to the Ring of Iron’s already considerable facilities.

Beyond the immediate defencive bastions however, the SGA boasted dozens of great dry docks and refueling stations throughout its bulk, each one capable of enacting field repairs and refits for the mighty Battlefleet Solar, even if ships could not reach a true shipyard in times of war. With these, Shaaa planned to allow the orbital siege works to hold for as long as required, the battlefleet remaining active even if vital worlds such as jupiter or even Mars were rendered inoperable.

As with so much however, these were not ready when Almire showed his hand, striking at the SGA with enough force to crack it open, allowing passage to the sparsely defended jewel of Terra, decapitating the Imperium of Man in hopes the body would die. Even Almire however had not anticipated the resolve of humanity, and just as the Imperium survived in the Imperium Secundus, the SGA would survive the long years of the Frontier Wars, machine spirits whispered to have been aided by Shaaa’s own hand fighting the traitors attempts to bring it back online throughout the war, ensuring that when the loyalists finally returned, the SGA would be little further in its completion, allowing them some chance of victory during the Second Solar War.

The Council of Nikaea

The Council of Nikaea was a great Imperial conclave called by the Emperor of Mankind in 001.M31 on the world of Nikaea in the midst of the Great Crusade that was intended to determine whether or not the use of psychic powers represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man.Travelling from Terra alongside the Emperor, Shaaa spoke out against Psychers and Sorcery, his opinions on the matter long since known. Unlike many others who spoke that day, Shaaa did not do so with merely accusations and little proof. His intervention was short, impersonal and to the point, citing numerous times all the legions had fought against monstrous psykers who had lost control of their own abilities, and comparing the librarius to a plasma cannon with a ruptured containment unit, one that no amount of training could repair fully.

A Librarian of an unknown Legion — A Librarian of an unknown legion, their order containing some of the greatest battle psykers of the age

Ultimately the existence of psykers in the Imperium was sanctioned but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control. The potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was defined as "sorcery" -- bargaining for power with the entities that existed within the Warp -- was officially banned. Unbeknownst to all, many would continue to practice the art of both psychic and sorceress abilities in secret, their Primarch’s continuing to train their sons, or turning a blind eye to the practice within their own legion led by another. Curiously, Camelous, the Invictii, Master of the Dragon Lords and the strongest Psyker in the entire Imperium save the Emperor himself and perhaps his aide, Malcador, did nothing to disobey his father, instead accepting the decree, forcing his legion to give up their most potent weapon, even as he continued to push them as hard as before, their casualty rates spiking as a result.

As for Shaaa, the Breacher Lord is said to have let out a rare smile at the Edicts voicing, pleased in the final victory over the psyker. Soon however, this was pushed from his mind, returning to Terra to continue work upon the Solar Guardian Array.

The Almire Apostasy

A Brothers Request

Surmah and Shaaa Hydrades had always shared a close bond, their outlook on combat and the ends outweighing the means often causing their methods aligned in pacifying worlds. Unsurprisingly, when Surmah and Almire first joined their minds together, planning for the coming storm, Surmah insisted that Shaaa, despite his position as Praetorian, would see sense, joining his forces to theirs. It was a gamble, Almire knowing that if the plan did not go perfectly, their ruse could be uncovered, but nor could the warmaster ignore the potential of the plan succeeding, his main obstacle instead becoming a powerful boon. Many of Shaaa’s closest brothers had already voiced their support for Almire in their quietest moments, yet another possible way to sway the Breacher Lord. Tentatively, Almire gave Surmah permission for the attempt, stressing the importance that nothing concrete could be mentioned, Shaaa could not know the truth until it was too late, everything hinged on that fact.

Making all speed for Terra, Surmah gained an audience with the Praetorian, Shaaa receiving him aboard his flagship, embracing his brother tightly, Surmah being the only Primarch to return to Terra in decades. For a while they debated strategy, the Hound of the Moors spinning a thinly veiled cover, eventually Shaaa cutting to the heart of the issue, asking his brother why he had travelled from the Crusade to return to the homeworld.

Now Surmah launched his carefully planned strike, swiftly turning the conversation back to the Great Crusade, and what lay beyond it, when the Crusade was done. For a while they continued on, Shaaa insisting as he always did on the subject that the crusade would never be completed, their blood and drive would always force them ever onwards, ever further into the unknown. Surmah remained quiet on his own feeling on the end, before again switching the subject, this time to the Mechanicum, and the grasp they held over the Imperium.

Here he finally revealed to Shaaa the answer to a question the Breacher Lord had often asked to no avail. Surmah spoke of his own weapon, Rancor being a relic from a bygone age, but not merely a single one of its kind. Surmah spoke of the vaults on his homeworld, in which lay dozens, perhaps hundreds more of these terrifyingly potent dark age weapons. He had refrained from using them for fear of the Mechanicum’s reprisal should he not hand them over, but now, as the crusade drew ever nearer to its conclusion, he reasoned this fear was no longer a concern.

Appalled, Shaaa took a step back from his brother, shocked that he would so brazenly insult the Martian Priesthood, to spit on the Treaty of Olympus Mons, and worse, to risk all out war within the Imperium. Seeing his reaction, Surmah finally had his answer, realising that Shaaa would have no stomach for a civil war, and would not be swayed. He could push no harder, reveal no more without compromising Almire’s plans. Without a word he turned, leaving the Breacher Lord in silence.

Shaaa was still stunned by his brothers words as Surmah made to leave the system. Shaaa’s mind raced with every possible outcome of the next actions taken. Civil War with the Mechanicum if he did nothing and Surmah unleashed his weapons, another legion, that of a close brother at that, purged if Shaaa spoke this new knowledge to anyone else within Imperial High Command.

For hours, Shaaa wrestled with his next move, before finally deciding upon a course of action. Surmah could not be allowed to act on his words, but nor could Malcador or the other Primarch’s know the dangers Surmah was playing with. Calling the Hydradyne to his side, Shaaa outlined his plan to his favoured sons. For the first time in their organisations history, the Hydradyne would deploy as a single force, not against xenos or renegade humans, but against Verivaltas itself, homeworld of the Hounds of Surmah.

Hydradyne - Coloured — A Warrior of the Hydradyne, shown here in Mk5 Void Armour, prepared for the strike on Verivaltas in the months before the Almire Apostasy [7]

The Hydradyne did not speak their concerns if they had any, simply bowing their heads as Shaaa told them of their newest task. They would follow the Hounds fleet as it sped for Verivaltas, an experimental stealth vessel already requisitioned by Shaaa, supposedly to test the sensor capabilities of the SGA. Once on Verivaltas they would find the vault, retrieving or destroying all that was within. There were no boundaries for their mission, no lines they could not cross. Shaaa sanctioned legion against legion violence knowingly, convinced that if the weapons were destroyed, Surmah would have to back down, not daring to voice his outrage at his dead sons for fear of what Shaaa himself also knew. The IVth were not known for their stealth, but Shaaa saw no other option.

Soon the Hydradyne departed the system, making excellent time to the world of Verivaltas. For weeks they planned their moves, watching the comings and goings of the Hounds as they slowly closed in on the elusive vault. Finally, convinced that they had prepared as best they could, the Hydradyne struck. The resistance they found along the way fell before them in a heartbeat, their training allowing them to cut through the sparse and surprised defenders with ease, gaining entry to the vault itself.

Explosives were placed, the weapons were prepared to carry, but the Hydradyne had not been as perfect in their insertion as they believed. Surmah had suspected such a strike, though he had hoped Shaaa would not commit his hand so openly against him. With his own sons at his back, Surmah struck at the Hydradyne, battle erupting throughout the halls of the vault. The Hydradyne no longer had the advantage and were cut down by the numerically superior foe, dozens falling to Surmah alone, his warpick making light work of the Star Guardians shields and armour.

Knowing their mission was a failure, the remaining Hydradyne forced their way free, detonating the few explosives they had planted, and carrying the single weapon they had retrieved. Only two of the Hydradyne would survive the journey back to their ship, the mighty weapon still in their possession as they broke from orbit, preparing to flee for Terra, bringing word of the scope of Surmah’s betrayal.

They would never make it to the homeworld in time for their warning to matter. Their cover blown, the stealth ship was set upon by wing after wing of bomber craft from the vengeful Hounds Fleet. Though the Star Guardians were exemplary voidcraftsmen, even they could not stave off all attacks. Fire ripped through the lower decks just as the ship plunged into the warp. Crippled and without the crew required to conduct repairs, the vessel had little hope of breaching the warp, flying thousands of light years off course, crash landing upon a death world within the Ultima Segmentum. There they would remain for years, unable to signal out, attempting to repair their vessel and deliver a message that would soon become entirely unneeded.

Eventually they were found, but the situation was beyond anything they could have imagined. Terra fallen, a Primarch and Malcador dead, the Emperor himself lost, and Shaaa himself reduced to nothing more than a hunk of barely alive meat. All the remaining Hydradyne could do was reaffirm their oaths, none faltering to step into the vacant command positions, their training within the Hydradyne well and truly complete. They did however carry one final gift, the single weapon they had retrieved from Verivaltas. Potent beyond measure, and large enough to be utilised by a tank, it was perfect for the newly reforged Shaaa, the Revenant Lord easily accommodating the weapon, turning it to serve the Imperium of Man against those who had kept it from her for far too long.

The Siege of the Ring

The Ring - Internal Side — The Ring's internal facing

Late in M31.055, the galaxy would know the first sparks that would quickly grow into an all-encompassing firestorm, the Warmaster Almire entering into a betrayal as he began a lightning strike towards Terra, brushing aside the surprised defenders with consummate ease, demonstrating his mastery of battle, and showing how he had earned the title of Warmaster.

As one of a hundred feints and true strikes, designed to wrong foot the loyalists and keep them from mustering a true defence, the XIIth legion, the Brothers Encarmine, were split, the majority of their number travelling to the Istvaan system to strike against the Palatine Wings, but the smaller number, the so called ‘Widow Companies’, was tasked with striking at a different target. 12,000 of them in total split from the legion, the memories of their long dead Conjux partners still fresh in their minds, lending them to the near suicidal task ahead of them as they struck corewards.

The Ring, homeworld of the Star Guardians legion, the Praetorians of Terra, as well as a powerful production base and bastion to rival the greatest fortress worlds. Unaddressed, it would provide loyalist forces with an unmatched bastion from which to reorganise and rearm against the Warmaster’s forces. Almire would not let that stand, but nor would he commit the manpower needed to fully wrest the station from loyalist hands, not when the push on Terra loomed ahead.

Almost in synch with the Ambush as Istvaan, the Widows struck the Ring, catching the Brigade stationed to oversee the legions recruitment completely by surprise. Battle erupted across the station, tens of thousands of civilians and PDF forces falling before the Star Guardians manage to rally and push the Brothers back. The Widows however had planned for this, pulling back before their own losses grew too great, making for the system edge and waiting just outside the range of the stations mighty guns as they stirred into life. As the system defence fleet prepare to strike back at their new found foes and banish them from the Hydra Sector, a new arrival heralded the next stage of the plan.

Emerging from the Immaterium, the Purest Intent, formerly the flagship of the now shattered and fatherless Palatine Wings, entered the fray. With the very hull itself echoing with the death cries of tens of thousands of Astartes, the ship powered forth, already one of the fastest of its kind, it seemed to move ever quicker, its engines burning far beyond their tolerances. Mighty guns of the Ring came about, aiming at the oncoming vessel. This was where the sabotage of the Widows became evident, many of the guns failing to come about to engage the newest foe, while those that did draw a lock experienced the second surprise the widows had planned.

Entering transmission range, the Purest Intent began to broadcast on all frequencies, diabolical scrap-code seeping into the systems of the Ring, while thousands of slaves nailed to the hull itself began to sing, in discordant harmony with concussively loud music being blasted from the ship’s internal and external speakers, creating a psychic scream that overloaded the senses of those mortals who heard it, rupturing ears and hemorrhaging brains merely by the sound. Unable to do anything but watch and brace, the Purest Intent drew ever closer, before detonating with the power of a captive star, magnified further by salvaged ordnance packed within its hull at the Istvaan massacre.

For a split second, the Hydra system played host to a second star, before it’s light was snuffer out, little remaining of the once proud vessel. In its place was an ugly scar, ripped in the fabric of reality itself, and from this tear in the warp came the never born.

Neverborn Daemon — A Neverborn monstrosity tearing itself free from the warp aboard the Ring

Chittering and whooping with joy, the neverborn demons flung themselves through the rift, uncaring of the inhospitable nature of space as they poured through the rent hull of the Ring, slaughtering all who opposed them, empowered by the tendrils of their home plane. Only the warriors of the IVth had any hope to turn them back, but they were too few in number to do more than stem the tide, all the while the neverborn running roughshod over the station, millions perishing in agony in the first hours.

The Widows watched all of this uncharacteristically passionately. Long known for their grim attitudes and dour outlook on the galaxy, they were feeling joy as they watched spectacle unknown to their kind for decades. They had played their part, they had delivered the ultimate enemy into the very heart of the Praetorian legion. Now they simply had to watch, those aboard guaranteed a slow, agonising death, possible to stave off for a time, but impossible to halt while the rift remained open. The XIIth remained simply to destroy any who attempted to flee, those who escaped the guns of the fleet soon finding themselves boarded and captured, wishing they had seen the quick death of a macro-cannon, rather than the agony the Widows unleashed to slake their own boredom.

In time, Shaaa and Terra heard of the assault, the Breacher Lord reportedly flying into a rage unmatched since the days of the Squat Wars ending. Only the words of Malchador calmed him, stopping him from sending his own fleet to retake his home. Shaaa was powerless to save the Ring, and those aboard could do nothing but survive, making the neverborn pay for every step they took, holding out for a miracle that seemed to never arrive. Fighting continued for over three years, the death toll continuing to spiral upwards until finally, help came from the most unlikely ally of the IVth legion.

The First Solar War

Shaaa Hydrades - First Solar War — Pict capture of Shaaa Hydrades in battle aboard the SGA during the later months of the First Solar War. The warriors attacking him belong to an unidentified Blackshield Warband [3]

See: The First Solar War

Of all the battles of the early Apostasy, the First Solar War was undoubtably the greatest in scale, necessity and stakes, the entire Imperium hanging in the balance as eight traitor legions almost in their entierty bore down upon the Sol system and the Solar Guardian Array alongside mortals un-numbered. The Star Guardians and the Dragon Lords were the only loyalist legions present to oppose such a force in any meaningful number, no other able to reach Terra in time to aid in the desperate last stand.

And yet even with the advantage of such overbearing numbers, the loyalists did not capitulate or flee, the chant 'No Backwards Step!' being taken up by all forces, trans-human and mortal alike. For six months, the loyalists held the traitors away from Terra, the death toll spiralling into the mind-boggling within the first few moments of the assault.

Through it all, through every new loss or every new terrible ploy the traitors unleashed against them, Shaaa and his sons stood ready, the Star Guardians countering everything to the best of their ability, forcing the traitors to pay for every step they took with oceans of blood, their own mingling with that of their enemy as they were slowly but surely wittled down, the traitors finally breaking through the loyalists final line of defence above Terra as the IVth Legion were forced to muster their fleet in defence of Sol itself. With the Star Guardians fleet gone, the remaining ships in orbit did not last long, and soon, the traitor ships began to darken the skies of the throneworld with tens of thousands of dropships, bearing troops to the surface to begin the short and brutal Siege of Terra itself.

The Betrayal of Mars

See: The Betrayal of Mars

Since the Great Crusades inception, Mars had been a cornerstone of Imperial power and dominance within the stars, providing the Emperor's legions with the weapons and ships they needed to unmake the chaos of the galaxy, bringing the Emperor's order in their wake. Since Ullanor, the red planet had been the cornerstone of the Solar Guardian Array, Shaaa relying on the Mechanicum to help create his magnum opus like no other organisation. Since the start of the Almire Apostasy however, there was arguably no world as vital to the Warmaster's plans as Mars, and no single betrayal that caused such upheaval and destruction.

As the First Solar War ground on, the traitors launched a deverstating attack on the Elysian Gate, more appearing above the galactic plane itself, Mars acted, its guns opening fire not to punish the traitors who followed Almire, but on the loyal defenders of the throne, catching hundreds of ships by surprise in the opening instant. Thrown into disarray, it was only by the direct intervention of Shaaa himself that the surprise did not turn into a rout or a breachhead for a direct assault on Terra itself, at least for the timebeing.

Within hours of the reports reaching him on Ceres, Shaaa was in orbit above Mars, drawing any forces he could to his side as he struck for the Olympus Mons, determined to strike down the traiterous Fabricator General in an uncharacteristic lightning strike that saw the loyalist forces breach the walls of the mighty forge complex before reinforcements finally arrived to combat them.

Unable to resist against such forces with those he had managed to muster, Shaaa and the loyalists fought their way back through the recently captured territory, withdrawing first to their landing ships, and then to orbit, pausing only to retrieve or destroy any information they could to deny it to the enemy. When they left, Mars belonged to the Warmaster, the surviving loyalist fleet stationed at Mars now turning its guns downwards, errecting a hasty blockade that only stood through Shaaa's personal intervention, the Praetorian never returning to his seat of command at Ceres for the remainder or the war.

The Battle of Sol

See: Sol's End

One of the last battles of the Solar War, and certainly the last the Star Guardians would partake in at legion strength during the war, the Battle of Sol, later remembered perhaps ironically as 'Sol's End', was a deadly conflict between the IVth and Xth Legions, with nothing less than the entire Sol system and all those who dwelt within it, loyalist and traitor alike, hanging in the balance. The battle would see the battered and beleagured Star Guardians fleet engage the smaller and yet fresh Light bringers fleet, managing to finally board and neutralise the great weapon the Monad carried within its hull, a weapon of such power that it could force a star into a state of rapid collapse and expansion, creating a supernova, even in bodies not normally able to do so.

Though the IVth were victorious, it was not without great cost, the weight of it threatening to snap even the indomitable back of Shaaa's sons. Shaaa lay wounded and dying, as did Crikon and ten thousand others, while over four times that many now dwelt upon the plain of the living no more, many following the Bastion into the heart of the sun alongside the Monad, the Star Guardians forcing the crash to ensure victory.

This battle would forever be remembered by the IVth, for it was in those scant few hours that they turned from a legion that had distinguished themselves throughout the Great Crusade, into a shadow of their former self, no longer able ti reclaim lost glories alone, a fact which soon led them into the waiting arms of the newly reformed Adeptus Mechanicus.

The Frontier Wars

The IVth Reborn

Broken more than almost any other legion, only the Dragon Lords and Palatine Wings suffering loss on the same scale, the IVth Legion teetered on the brink of extinction as the remaining loyalist forces retreated from Terra. So many had perished aboard the SGA, from a legion of 200,000, barely 10,000 remained, almost all on death's door and unable to fight, while all but two of the division Commanders had perished along with their commands, robbing the legion of its command structure. Ancient knowledge and irreplaceable history had been lost, alongside heavy equipment, a vast majority of the IVth’s vaunted fleet, and worst of all, Shaaa Hydrades himself.

The Primarch of the IVth was not dead as the warriors who had given everything to stop the traitors had fled from Terra aboard Kastar, but nor was he truly alive. While those few of his sons who were able fought against the daemons that sought to snuff out the last hope of the loyalists, Shaaa fought his own battle, his ruined form little more than a bloody chunk of flesh clinging to life. Even aboard the Ring where he had lost his legs, Shaaa had not been this close to death, none knowing if even a Primarch would recover in any meaningful way.

When Kastar was finally spat out of the warp, the true work of rebuilding began in earnest. Shaaa was taken away by the greatest Magos Cybernetica and Biologis, those few surviving Tech Marines and Apothecaries of the Star Guardians going with him to work alongside those of the Ashen Crows, despite the legions distrust of the XIth. As they did, Crikon Hanfer, the Lord Commander of the IVth legion sought to find a way to rebuild, none seeming viable in the light of day.

The Ring and her population, long the Legion’s only recruiting ground and the only place found to have a population almost entirely suited for Shaaa’s gene-seed had been all but exterminated by the Neverborn siege, two hundred billion perishing over the five years before the siege was finally broken. Those that were left were often half mad, but were also required to man the stations mighty forges and bring its all but undamaged shipyards back to full productivity, the Imperium deciding that this goal was more important than rebuilding a single legion.

Then finally, the Mechanicum, or rather the newly reformed Adeptus Mechanicus, presented the answer through the lips of the long trusted Fabricator Locum, now Fabricator General of Graphina, Canitrak. Canitrak had served alongside the IVth legion for almost as long as Shaaa himself, and now she offered the Legion a way to rebuild, not through finding new recruits, but in saving those who still drew breath, regardless of their injuries. Dreadnoughts were favoured, but the supply nowhere near matched the demand, and thus were the Revenax born.

Revenax - MK1 — An Mk1 Revenax model during the Frontier Wars, armed with the standard armament of a combi-bolter and a chain-weapon, comparable in strength to a Legion chainaxe.

Based on the Thallax shell, the Revenax was further enhanced and improved upon, the straining meaning that none - save an Astartes - could hope to survive the conversion process. With this, the IVth legion was snatched from the jaws of death, and instead placed directly in the hands of the Mechanicus, Canitrak subtly but totally weaving the fates of the legion until they were all but indecipherable from the mechanicus itself. As it stood, only one being could buy freedom for the IVth now, but Shaaa had greater things to worry on than the fate of a single legion.

Shaaa Hydrades - Archimandrite Exterminatis — Artists rendition of Shaaa Hydrades in the years after the First Solar War, shown here in his earliest battle form, based off of a Thanatar Siege Automata [6]

Rebuilt from almost nothing, the Primarch of the IVth was now little more than a head and part of a chest, all but one of his lungs being discarded, replaced by custom wrought cybernetics that gave the Primarch new life. With his old form, his mind seemed to finally surrender to the degradation it had fought for two hundred years, logic reigning supreme, emotion little more than a distant memory. In a cruel twist of irony, Shaaa now rivalled Abner, the one who had brought him to this state, for emotionless conduct from that day forth.

Notable Campaigns

The Pacification of Luna (M30.970) - This early Imperial campaign was the first operation mounted by elements of the early Space Marine Legions beyond the skies of Terra. The Unification Wars were still raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. Luna was the bastion of a conglomeration of resurrectionist gene-cults whose members believed that human nature was both fractal, fractured and transcendent. Each of these Selenar gene-cults clung to a different set of archetypes. Every cult member was a product of creation by the Selenar gene-wrights according to formulae crafted in the Dark Age of Technology. Resurrected in body time and time again they sought to distill the true personification of a single human archetype. In their subterranean complexes the cults were powerful, insular and resistant to the Imperial Truth. The Imperials would have normally dealt with these insular cults in the usual matter they handled all of the other Terran factions and techno-barbarian states that refused to accept the rule of the Emperor of Mankind -- by obliteration. The fact that the Selenar gene-cults had something that the growing Imperium needed complicated such action. The Selenar responded to the Imperial entreaties for alliance with silence. As the threats of the Imperium soon began to outnumber its offers, the Selenar cults began to gird themselves for war. So it was that the Emperor finally ordered Luna to be pacified by the sword, their superstitious beliefs cast down before the Imperial Truth and their gene-craft yoked to the needs of the Imperium. To this task the Emperor set his legions, warriors drawn from over half of their number, though only one was present in great numbers; the IVth Legion, chosen as the most suited to this purpose on what some Imperial chroniclers name as the first true battle of the Great Crusade. The combined force lifted from the surface of Terra in a scattering of rocket flame, the as yet unnamed IVth Legion chosen to serve as the Space Marine force's vanguard, and had brought its full strength to bear. Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the IVth Legion drifted silently towards Luna from Mankind's birthworld through the void like arrows fired into the night. The Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna’s surface lashed the oncoming Imperial Force, swatting ships from the void with seeming impunity, but the IVth went undetected, unlooked for and unseen as they landed on the surface of Luna itself like a dagger in the night. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man. Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead. Broken and humbled, the enslaved gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marine who would carry out Mankind's conquest of the stars. Praise was given to the strategy of the IVth, but for Varinius there were implications in the supreme efficacy of the tactic that reached far beyond that day If he could come up with such a plan to undo all but unassailable defences, then others within the galaxy could to. From that moment on, Varinius made a silent, personal vow that while he drew breath, the IVth legion would be the watchers in the darkness, securing the void from any foe who would seek to rest it from the Imperium. So galvanised, the IVth legion earned their name, the Dark Watchers rising from the victory at Luna.

Assault on the Tempest Galleries (M30.970) - Almost immediatly after their victory at Luna, the Dark Watchers were reassigned to the surface of Terra for one of the final actions of the Unification Wars. Descending into the darkness beneath the Caucasus Wastes, the IVth Legion clashed with ancient Artifical Intelligence’s, the brutal fighting claiming thousands of Dark Watchers lives as their foe were all but immune to ranged weaponry, forcing them to close to overwhelm them with brute, kinetic force. Though they were victorious, the legion lost close to 95% of their fighting strength, ensuring they would not see true combat for decades to come as they rebuilt their strength.

The Compliance of 20-1(M30.802) - The Dark Watchers finish their additional training alongside the Saturnine Ordos and join the Great Crusade as the 20th Crusade Fleet, taking War to a non-compliant human nation, their first solo combat action for over thirty terran-standard years. In less than a week, the human’s mighty fleet has either been destroyed or captured by the IVth. Faced with no way to stop the newly turned fleet that now surrounded every planet in the system, they offer the Watchers their unconditional surrender. Most of the ships are returned to the system as the new Imperial defences, but many are kept by the Legion to bolster their fleet. The Victory becomes their first as a Crusade Force, 20-1

The Consus Drift Compliance (M31.804) - The Consus Drift was a belt of stellar debris which lay in the dark between stars close to the Sol System. Stranded far away from the warmth of suns or the life sustaining cycles of planets, it was nonetheless home to billions of humans who had been stranded there for millennia, caught in the Warp tides, whirlpools and flats of dead calm. The Mirror Race was such a pattern, and voidships caught in it were flung through its turbulence to emerge in the Consus Drift. Those who had been stranded in this region of space had managed to build a civilisation grown from lost souls -- vast strings of asteroid cities lay across the Consus Drift, connected together by tunnels made from the metal entrails of shipwrecks. Willow limbed, black eyed and pale skinned, the people of the sprawling archipelago were divided into warring Drift Clans, who continuously fought one another for salvage, territory and resources. The Imperium discovered the Consus Drift by accident, when the 20th Expeditionary Fleet of the Dark Watchers was caught in the Mirror Race and thrown into that region. As the fleet rolled in the void, damaged and confused, the Drift Clans attacked. Though severely outmatched, this was not totally true, for the archipelago of void cities mounted weapons scavenged over thousands of solar years. More significantly, the Drift Clans were schooled and blooded in the brutal arts of void warfare. The first assault waves hit the most damaged vessels and battles swarmed through the Imperial warships even as they tried to return fire, but even as the Drift Clans made progress, they met the first of the Dark Watchers and the battle changed. The Dark Watchers counterattacked, driving the Driftborn from their ships, and then continued their assault by launching gunships, boarding torpedoes and breaching pods into the void cities. Battering their way into the heart of each city, the Dark Watchers stopped only when their hands held the controls of the cities' life support systems. Across every Vox channel and speaker, Lord Commander Varinius Rampt gave the people of the Consus Drift an ultimatum: Imperial Compliance or extermination. The Clan Warriors immediately surrendered. Repairing the damage done to their vessels, the Dark Watchers departed, taking those warriors strong enough to have a hope of surviving the IVth’s difficult implantation process. Only a single warrior survived the process, a young boy named Sirvan Golz, the clustered star heraldry and tradition of elaborate full body tattoos continuing to cover his body throughout his life within the legion, speaking to the great traditions of the ancient clans of the Consus Drift.

The Disaster of the Hyperion Way (M30.826) - The 4th Legion encounters their first stumble of the Crusade as they enter the Hyperion Way, a stretch of space encompassing three systems, all unified under a fanatically religious government, who view the Space Marines as daemons sent to test then. The population of the Hyperion Way all bear crude cybernetic modifications, allowing the Lord Cardinal of the Empire to subsume their minds, ensuring that none will take a step back.The Watchers are forced to take each planet in turn, even the complete destruction or capture of the Hyperion fleet does not dissuade them. In the multiple compliance operations, the 4th suffers heavy casualties, none more so on the final world of Hyperion. In the bloody fighting, most of the Legions fighting vehicles are destroyed or damaged beyond their capability to continue fighting. Only a handful of vehicles are recovered, the 4th having to modify their standard operating procedures for planetary operations to compensate for the sudden lack of machines.In the decades that follow, the Watchers will rely less and less on the vehicles, learning to operate without them. The continue to receive shipments of them, but they become less and less prevalent for the Legion as they switch to the Dreadnought heavy model that they exhibit for much of the Crusade.

The Squat Wars (M30.858 - M30.867) - The first campaign of note for the newly reformed Star Guardians under the command of the liege lord, Shaaa Hydrades, the new 30th Expeditionary fleet, comprising the bulk of the Star Guardians 35,000 strong force, as well as a large contingent from the lordless sons of the VIIIth Legion, the Dusk Wyrms. With such a force, the Primarch expects to make quick work of his early compliances, but upon the world of 30-5, even the might of the 30th is brought to a halt by forces of the “Khazadi Empire”. Hostilities soon break out, and a subterranean war rages beneath the world's surface. The fighting is fierce, rivalling that of the Xenocides, the first suits of Mk3 Power Armour being seen as prototypes designed by Shaaa himself. Eventually the Imperial forces are victorious, Shaaa reinforced by warriors from the IXth, Xth and XIIIth Legions, as well as Imperial Army and Mechanicum Support. Even so, the war grinds on for nine long years, the derogatorily named “Squats” being pushed back meter by bloody meter, slowly losing the war but taking a fearsome toll on their attackers, all the Imperial Forces skirting close to total collapse. It is only when Sanguinius, Primarch of the IXth Legion, is found and petitions the Emperor to allow a truce between the two people that total annihilation on both sides is avoided. Nevertheless, Shaaa is outraged by the seemingly callous dismissal of his sons deaths in pursuit of the now denied victory, the IVth despising the IXth and their newfound lord from that day onwards. It is partly for this reason they were selected for the dark days that would soon befall the vaunted IXth.

The Liberation of Graphina (M30.875) - A large though relatively un-assuming Forge World on the edge of the Segmentum Solar, Graphina would likely have remained as merely one of thousands of Forge Worlds within the Martian Empire, forever attempting to gain the notice of those above it, were it not for the patronage of the IVth legion. A world long-since all but uninhabitable in every sense of the world, the system's star degenerated in the times before the Age of Strife, bombarding the world with lethal levels of radiation, killing even shielded life in a matter of hours, melting what remained of the worlds ice-caps, and plunging the world beneath the waves. For those of the Mechanicum however, this was little worry, their forge complexes quickly adapting to become giant underwater domes, shielded from the radiation by thousands of meters of frigid, dark water. During the Age of Strife, the world was cut off from the galaxy by fierce warp storms, cutting off all warp travel by any sane of mind. Unfortunately, those who were not of sane mind soon found the world, an Ork Waaagh under the control of Warboss Ash Claw appeared over the world, no less than three space hulks smashing into the worlds orbital defences. No ship survived the attack, but for the Orks, this was meaningless, two of the Hulks crashing to the ocean floor, still carrying millions of their eager soldiers. Battle raged for centuries between Orks equipped with crude breathing gear battling newly augmented Skitarii and Neuro-slaved Orks captured and turned against their own kind. Both sides dove deeper and deeper, physically and metaphorically, fighting taking place across the world in all areas, while new and deadly weapons were brought to bear from the ancient vaults of the Forge World, or the crazed minds of the Waaagh’s Mek Boyz. This deadlock would likely have continued for centuries more, neither side able to gain a tangible advantage over the other, were it not for the coming of the IVth legion. As the warp storms around the planet finally abated, the Star Guardians, made whole again after the devastation of the Squat Wars, descended upon Graphina in M30.875. After a short but brutal war, the IVth legion prevailed as Shaaa struck down Ash Claw himself, his sons proving that they were as adept at fighting in the oceans depths as they were in the silent void. In the wake of such a victory, the Mechanicum honoured the IVth legion with a pledge of fealty from the liberated Forges, pledging that for time immemorial, the world would serve the Star Guardians, furnishing them with weapons of war needed to continue the relentless drive forward in the Great Crusade, as well as pledging the support of the worlds Cybernetica defenders, the robots soon becoming a common sight within IVth legion compliances.

The Whisper of the Void (M30.895) - The Star Guardians face a xenos race known as the Djunn, advanced in both technology and Psychic Powers. Initial fights against the xenos prove costly for the Legion, before a discovery is made. The race is entirely blind, not even comprehending the sense of sight, relying on hearing and their Psychic powers to see their foes, even their automated weapon systems being hampered by the same downfall. With this discovered, the Star Guardians, reinforced by blanks from the Sisters of Silence, persecute the rest of war without a word, driving the xenos to a silent death. Historians remember this as The Whisper of the Void.

The Twin Wars of Araneus (M30.910) - The worlds of the Araneus Continuity were a series of nearly forty worlds close to the Halo Stars, each system maintaining contact with one another due to a series of ancient warp gates of unknown origin. These offered the forces of the Continuity unparalleled connection to their neighbours, as ships could travel through stable and near instantaneous routes to each other. The Continuity was ruled by a caste of Technobility from the world of Araneus Prime at the heart of the network of Warp Gates, their fortified world made rich from the travel around their empire. As such, when an Imperial Rogue Trader made a warp jump into one of their systems, the Continuity responded with violence, the Imperial ship being surrounded by a mighty fleet that seemed to arrive from nowhere, and the vessel boarded by cybernetically-grafted warriors. Soon after, an Envoy fleet was sent back along the Rogue Traders warp path and was allowed to return unharmed by the Imperium. The Emperor’s offer of alliance and absorption into the Imperium was rejected, the Envoy fleet making one final trip to the Imperium with their own offer. They would not bow to the Emperor, but instead invited Him to join their Empire, the Imperium as their tributary. Negotiations soon broke down, and the Legions were called. The 876th and 1,097th Expeditionary Fleets were the two closest forces at the time, containing the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Star Guardians Legion alongside millions or Imperial Army and Mechanicum soldiers. Banding together, these two forces made a coordinated jump into the Araneus Continuity in M30.905. In a series of rapid strikes, the two fleets quickly captured half of the Continuity’s Warp Gates, cutting their Empire off from trade, most crucially the supply of food from their outer reaches. In essence, the Star Guardians laid a siege across systems, starving the world of Araneus Prime. Soon, the Continuity was pushed back to their capital, and with no other choice, the Technobility surrendered themselves to the Star Guardians. The conflict had been quick, two short solar months of fighting with minimal losses, the sun rising upon a newly compliant Imperial realm but once before disaster struck, a new enemy emerged from the Warp Gates, unknowable and terrible to behold. At first it manifested as tiny ships flitting around the Warp Gates. By the time they were noticed, the enemy fleets began to move through, vast ships that destroyed and defiled all they touched with seemingly little effort. Within a week, the empire the Star Guardians had fought to bring to compliance as intact as possible was burning as their Stars were snuffed out, stolen by this new enemy. Numerous attempts were made to stop the encroaching forces, battles raged across the stars as calls for aid went out, but none were close enough to answer, and soon, the Star Guardians were pushed back to a single system, Araneus Prime. Reduced to less than half of their starting strength, the two Star Guardian fleets made one last joint effort to strike a killing blow at this beast, aiming for the Warp Gate Nexus, the heart of the network that had made the Continuity so powerful. In a cataclysmic battle, the Nexus was destroyed, overwhelming the network with a backlash that saw them detonate in spectacular localised warp storms. As they did so, the enemy fleet seemed to simply vanish, fading out of existence, sometimes mid battle. The Star Guardians were victorious, but it had not been an easy victory. Over a trillion dead within the Continuity, forty worlds reduced to just one. The 876th and 1,097th Expeditionary Fleets had also been reduced to a fraction of their former strength, barely 100 Astartes remaining from a force of over 20,000, their human Auxillia taking equally huge losses upwards of 90%. More than that, the warp gates had been utterly destroyed, not a trace remaining of their existence, and with them the knowledge that such a network of stable gates may have offered the Imperium. Even the final world of the Continuity had not escaped unharmed, it’s star had been diminished by the invaders as it now spun lazily as a dark world. Refusing to abandon it, Commanders Julius Atalan and Sirvan Golz stood upon the broken world with their remaining forces and made a proclamation. The world would stand as a fortress against the unknown, a bulwark safeguarded by the Star Guardians themselves. The Continuity had died, but this world would rise again, no longer as Araneus Prime, but as Mortuary.

The Burning of the Pharun Drift (M30.910) - The Star Guardians 30th Expeditionary fleet led by Shaaa himself successfully subjugate the rebellious population of the Pharun Drift, brutally putting the population to the sword, warriors of the XVIIIth Legion being unable to reach the system to carry out the task that would normally fall to them. All the target worlds are depopulated, and many are deemed too far gone for repopulation, being redesignated as Dead Worlds. These losses are deemed acceptable by Primarch Shaaa, as these lifeless husks are now part of the Imperium

The Bloody Reprisal (M30.915 - M30.918) - Shortly after the burning of the Pharum Drift, the world of 30-206 is encountered by the 30th Expeditionary Fleet. After a short war in the void that sees the empires fleet shattered, the world seeks to surrender, Commander Harnt Redal, favoured son of the IVth Legion, is sent to accept the surrender, only to reveal that the ruse is a hoax. Assassinated by a populace who believed they were striking at Shaaa himself, the Breacher Lord flies into a rage, reducing the planet to a lifeless husk before continuing on into the rest fo the human empire. In total, sixty one worlds were reduced to little more than ruined craters, mining worlds for the Mechanicum but no longer suited for human habitation, one planet for every year Harnt had been within the Star Guardians. Eventually, even this rage blew out, and though many of his brothers called for Shaaa to answer for his perceived crimes, the Emperor never voiced his opinion on the matter, neither condoning or condemning the actions taken. Soon, the Mechanicum moved in, turning those worlds reduced to lifeless husks into strip mines in short order. The remainder of the empire capitulating with all speed, welcoming any occupation force other than the warriors of the IVth. It was noted that Shaaa’s own mental seemed to accelerate from that day, his emotions becoming harder and harder for the Breacher Lord, or the newly named “Cold Hearted” to express as he once had, his fused mind delving deeper into unfeeling logic than ever before.

The Defence of Mortuary (M30.930) - The World of Mortuary comes under Assault by a force of Orks, the Imperial Defenders, comprising of a handful of Solar Auxillia Cohorts, Imperial Army regiments and a single squad of Star Guardians, cry out for aid. As the Orks begin to land, pushing back the defenders, Commander Julius Atalan and Sirvan Golz arrive at the head of their combined Expeditionary Fleet, comprised of the few survivors of their depleted commands. In less than three hours they rout the Ork fleet in orbit, destroying many times their number of vessels, before landing on the world. The pair remain on the world for almost two Solar Years, ensuring that the Ork menace is defeated and that no follow up attack is forthcoming. In that time the defences are strengthened further still, millions of soldiers and Mechanicum constructs soon turning the world into a premier fortress world where many would muster for expeditions into the Halo Stars beyond.

Battle of the Colossustructure (M30.945) - Mustering the entire Legion, Shaaa Hydrades leads his sons against the newly discovered “Colossustructure”, alongside Khnum of the Ist Legion and under the command of Almire of the XVIth. A gargantuan megastructure dwarfing even the Ring, the Colossustructure responds to the aggression with automated defences of near unlimited scope and flexibility, deploying robots smaller than a child or the size of a Battle Titan. Due to the immense size of the structure, the Star Guardians are actually able to bring many of their vessels within the Colossustructure, providing powerful void-borne artillery to those below as the Imperials force their way to the structures heart. Upon finding it however, wonder and the desire to study the structure quickly turns sour, a warp rift at the centre polluting the Colossustructure beyond all recovery. In a final act, the legions destabilise the containment field of the warp rift before escaping, the resultant collapse akin to a black hole, destroying the vast majority of the structure, or so they think. This campaign also saw the use of the “Void” pattern of Mk3 armour that had been in development for years deployed on a legion wide scale. The armour performed above expectations, casualty rates amongst the IVth far lower than those amongst Breacher Squads from the other legions.

The Gyre Deeps Campaign (M30.961) - The Gyre Deeps were a stretch of space long since held by the Hrud, an alien species of terrible power over time itself, using the Deeps as a pathway for their many migrations across the stars. By M30.961, this threat could no longer be avoided, and the Ist Legion, the Watchers of Akhet were called upon to pacify the region and to wipe the Hrud from the face of the galaxy. The progress was slow against their kind, the Watchers struggling against a foe that turned the very passing of years against them, aging warriors to naught but dust in a matter of seconds, or causing bolt shells to degrade over a thousand years in the time it took between exiting the barrel of their weapon to impacting upon the Hrud. Help was desperately needed and despite the fact his legion alone had been selected for the action by the Emperor himself, Khnum cried out for aid. For a time, none answered, until finally, a fleet belonging to the Breacher Lord entered the system, Shaaa not announcing his arrival as he and his sons landed upon the main world of the Deeps. Far from helping however, the Star Guardians merely handed the Watchers weapons designed for use in subterranean confines, Sub-Surface Torpedo Launchers seen only within the armouries of the IVth. When pushed for further action, Shaaa refused, stating his sons would provide no support for the attacks of the Ist, Khnum would have to win this war alone. Infuriated by the perceived lack of action on Shaaa’s behalf but unwilling to lose face with further begging, Khnum rallied his sons, drawing up a final plan to end the war once and for all. Linking beacons to the torpedo launchers, Khnum created a rough but serviceable map of the entire Hrud Warrens, and with that information, he struck. As one, the watchers surged forward, striking at their foe and setting up mighty blasting charges, designed to flood the warrens and drown the xenos, killing them a way they could not escape from through time. This was not without loss however, thousands perishing to carry out the plan, chief amongst them First Captain Pihorna, dying mere meters away from Khnum as he refused to retreat, ensuring his bomb was ready, sending it burrowing deeper into the warrens for its final detonation before being turned to dust. Finally, the Hrud pushing against the Watchers, seeking to escape the encroaching trap, the bombs detonated, flooding the warrens totally and annihilating the Hrud almost entirely. Clean-up crews from the Watchers began to fan out, descending into the flooded tunnels to finish off any survivors, but Khnum was not with them, seeking to slake his rage against the one who had done nothing but watch, Shaaa Hydrades. In a rage, Khnum demanded to know what madness had seized the Breacher Lord, accusing him of base cowardice of the worst kind. Shaaa remained impassive as Khnum tried to gain a rise from him, before returning with a bard of his own, laying the deaths of his sons solely at Khnum’s feet. This was too much for the Sunstone King, and with a roar he unleashed his swords, power packs flaring into life. Shaaa was a slow fighter, but he had far more experience than Khnum did, and fought with a level head, while Khnum’s superior skill was hampered by his desire to see the Breacher Lord humbled before him. It was this that was his undoing at the apex of the duel, Khnum opening a real advantage he could use to turn the flow of the fight in his favour. Instead however, he moved to hamstring his brother, not to defeat him more suredly, Shaaa having no such qualms. With a single swing of his hammer, Shaaa landed his first, and last blow of the duel, lifting Khnum from his feet and sending him flying through the air to crash into the tunnel wall, armour cracked and ribs broken. Before he could rise again, Shaaa was upon him, placing a foot Khnum’s chest, forcing him to stay down. It was here Shaaa revealed his own goals in remaining from the field, not cowardice as Khnum had accused, but a lesson, only teachable in one way. The Watchers had never known true loss, their compliances numerous but small in the casualties caused. The IVth knew all too well the realities of war however, and Shaaa had sought to teach this to his brother, allowing him to shoulder the burden alone, forced to rely on himself first and foremost, as all the Primarch’s had to learn. Allowing Khnum to rise, Shaaa pointed to the preparations his own sons had been working upon, bombs eclipsing the ones prepped by the Ist, ready to be deployed to finish Khnum’s plan if it had failed. The victory had never been a sacrifice Shaaa was willing to make, but the lesson had to be taught, no matter the cost, and Shaaa stood by that wholeheartedly. With few words in reply, Khnum turned and left, his sons leaving the graveyard far faster than the IVth did. For a time, Khnum harboured a hatred towards Shaaa even after his explanation, but eventually, Shaaa’s words did pierce his mind, Khnum coming to realise that while brutish, Shaaa had brought forth a valid point, one no other could have taught him so fully, and could have been imparted in no other way.

The Fallen One (M30.963) - Shaaa Hydrades is assigned to lead the purge of the Blood Angels legion, commanding from orbit while Necalli leads the Imperial forces from the frontlines. Shaaa Hydrades is the only one of the present Primarch's to not set foot on the surface of the world during the purge, remaining in orbit as he and his sons take apart the Blood Angels fleet. In the battle, they claim the vast majority of captured vessels as the spoils of war, just as other legions plunder the armouries of the IXth on the ground. The IVth's fleet skyrockets in size at this point, becoming the largest of any legion.

The Diasporex Extermination (M30.975 - M30.977) - During the latter part of the Great Crusade, the Star Guardians encountered a nomadic, fleet-based civilisation composed of both humans and xenos known as the Diasporex. The Star Guardians shared the Imperial Truth of the Emperor of Mankind and offered the human members of the Diasporex the opportunity to separate from their alien allies and to join the newly-forged Imperium, but they declined the Astartes' offer. Their offer rejected, the Iron Hands passed judgement, and in the following months the Iron Hands fleet attempted to annihilate the Diasporex, but they proved to be highly skilled and experienced in the realm of naval warfare, and managed to easily evade crucial battles, using their superior speed to avoid the ponderous battleline of the IVth. Despite the fact the IVth’s fleet was vastly superior to that of the Diasporex, the coalition refused to leave the sector and move on to someplace safer, and it was this that sealed their fate as Shaaa came to the only logical conclusion for such a desire to hold position. Star Guardian scouts soon confirmed this, finding hidden solar collector arrays to collect fuel for their vessels from a star. This was the reason why the Diasporex remained within the sector. Attacking these vital fuel stations, a portion of the Star Guardians Fleet drew the Diasporex fleet out into open battle as the human-alien alliance sought to avoid utter annihilation at the Imperials' hands, Shaaa making sure it looked like his fleet was far smaller than it truly was. When the Disaporex were committed to the assault, Shaaa sprang his own trap, entering the system and catching the unprepared rear of the enemy fleet. The annihilation was merciless and total, not a single ship escaping, the Diasporex’s entire culture perishing in the cold of the void.

The Ullanor Crusade (M31.000)

The Verivaltas Strike (M31.055)

The Battle of the Ring (M31.055)

The First Solar War (M31.060)

Legion Organisation

Great Crusade and Early Apostasy

Star Guardians Strategic Disposition (Recorded Strength at the Onset of the Ullanor Campaign)

As is perhaps unsurprising from so calculating and methodical a master as Shaaa Hydrades, the Star Guardians Legion was a highly structured military force, with numerous tactical and strategic divisions of power and organisations within its ranks. Sharing many similarities with the initial formation and structure of the legions as laid down by the Emperor himself, the IVth was nonetheless reforged by Shaaa, particularly in the wake of the Squat Wars, ensuring that the chain of command was rigid, inflexible and known to all within the legion, allowing battlefield losses to be instantly compensated for with predetermined paths of succession being followed until a new surviving leader was reached.

The Star Guardians numbers were anything but consistent throughout the Great Crusade, often fluctuating wildly as the extensive casualties the legion took in their prefered theatre of conflict took their toll. However, thanks to the large population the Ring boasted for new recruits, and the relative ease of implantation amongst their abhuman population, the numbers of new recruits continued to fill the legion, calculated losses allowing the legion to grow, though slowly, throughout the Great Crusade.

Alongside these numbers, the IVth were known to maintain a particularly extensive and sophisticated arsenal of wargear, particularly Dreadnought walkers and heavy, Astartes-portable heavy weapons, though the lacked any substantial numbers of armoured fighting vehicles. Only the Artellions XVth Legion rivalled the IVth for the number of their walker vehicles, but while the XVth focused on speed amongst their venerated dead, the IVth, as ever, focused on armour and firepower, tradining away speed for more of both. Thanks to long-standing ties to elements of the Mechanicum and the technological aptitude displayed by many in their number, the Star Guardians were able to widely reproduce and maintain large stockpiles of Grav-weapons, Conversion Beamer and Laser Destroyer systems, and other arcane and esoteric machineries of death, though in truth, the legion often prefered the simple bolter, easy to rearm and replace in the heat of battle where thousands could die with ease.

This range of materiel extended both to extensive numbers of Servitors (often created from failed Legion Aspirants and, it has long been rumoured, prisoners taken in battle), as well as the numerous Battle-Automata and troops from the Mechanicum Forge World of Graphina, the IVth Legions sworn allies alongside the forces of the Hydra Auxilia, both forces used for strategic support for the legion who was otherwise dismissive of most standard Imperial Army units for anything beyond life and carry or fourth line duties.

It is also worthy of note that the Star Guardians Legion, and its master Shaaa Hydrades, were at the forefront of the introduction of a number of weapons systems and armour patterns over the course of the Great Crusade. The fruits of some, such as their creation of the initial Mk3 ‘Iron’ Power Armour that the Mechanicum would later ratify and mass produce, or the Watcher Pattern Stormshield, that would later be widely disseminated to the rest of the loyalist forces. Yet, the Star Guardians were not wholly selfless in their technological developments; the secrets of certain other weapons and metallurgic and cybernetic crafts they kept to themselves and their most trusted confidantes within the Mechanicum.

This level of technological skill combined with the strength the Star Guardians Legion's system manifested was extraordinary if somewhat inflexible. Whether deployed as a single company or a full Legion in scale, it was a crushing leviathan when in action; extraordinarily difficult to stop, but also at times brutally intractable and slow to change course through its single-minded pursuit of its starting objectives. This was far from an accident however, Shaaa purposely designing the legion in this way, confident in his skill, and that of his sons, to ensure that the legion would only move when all variables had been calculated, and thus, would have no reason to stop or deviate from their plan until it was complete.

Specialist Ranks and Formations

The Saturnalians - The Saturnalians are the elite of the Star Guardians, a force already renowned for its excellent training and calibre of soldier. Few in number, almost all of them are a part of the Fist Division and are led by the Lord Commander himself, or deployed in smaller squads across the Legion to act as their Primarch’s Word and Will, empowered to take command of any battle they saw fit if they believed the current leader would fail in his appointed task of victory. Each member of the Saturnalians is clad in an ancient suit of Mk1 “Saturnine” Terminator armour, the mark falling out of favour in every other legion in favour of the lighter and more mobile Cataphractii, Tartaros or Indomitus Patterns. For the IVth however, who often fight in cramped corridors where there is no room to move and no need for speed over armour, the Saturnine Pattern is perfect. Strong enough to heft the heaviest weapons into battle one handed or upon their shoulders, the Mk1 Terminator armour is the greatest personal armour made by man, outside of the suits worn by the Emperor's Custodes, or the Primarch’s themselves. Each Saturnalian is therefore akin to a walking fire support team, bearing heavy weapons upon an all but indestructible frame, many a foe simply turning and running as the warrior advances, shrugging off even dedicated anti-tank firepower with seemingly effortless ease.
The Hydradyne - It is a well known fact that Shaaa runs his legion in a vice like grip, overseeing every aspect of his sons pursuit of warfare. It comes as little surprise then, that those in positions of high command are not merely offered in by their superiors, but rather selected and assigned by the Breacher Lord himself. This is the role of the Hydradyne. While the Saturnalians act as Shaaa’s Word and Will, the Hydradyne are his Eyes and Ears, dispersed across the legion not to command or to lead, but to obey, to learn what it truly means to command in Shaaa’s name, so they too may one day step into such a role. Taking their name and role from the Hydrades Dynasty of the Ring before even Shaaa arrived on the station, the Hydradyne are each personally selected by their Primarch, brought before him so he may judge their worth one final time. To date, none have failed in this final test, and it is here they are granted their new rank and wargear, one hundred suits of artificer armour personally forged by Shaaa’s own hand, set aside for this purpose, while Breaching Shields and newly designed thunder hammers crafted in the forges of the Ring that Shaaa himself had once tended himself as a child. The Hydradyne hold no sway over the rest of the legion, forbidden from uttering orders of their own by their Primarch, their role lending them to watch so they may better act in the future. In time, these warriors will be summoned back to the Breacher Lord, wherever he may be throughout the galaxy. Here they will know they have passed their final test, the raiment of the Hydradyne taken from them as new wargear is assigned, along with their newly appointed command, be it of a thousand brothers or ten thousand. As one of their numbers leave, Shaaa sends out new messages, a new Hydradyne summoned to take up the mantle and begin the cycle anew.

Indomitable Squads - While most legions will split their warriors into various facets upon the completion of their training, fielding tactical squads alongside assault and breacher formations, the Star Guardians know only one type of starting point, every warrior in the legion serving in an Indomitable Squad when first raised to the legion. A curious fusion of tactical and breacher tactics, the warriors of the Indomitable Squads can deliver the same punishing bolter fusillades that worn tactical squads renown across the Imperium, while keeping themselves secure behind a wall of thick ceramite boarding shields, utilising the unique “Guardian” pattern rather than those available to the other legions.
The Fracturam Lords - Known officially as the Fracturam in High Gothic, this name encompasses all different chassis of Dreadnoughts within the IVth Legion, from the seldom used Castraferrum right up to the mighty Leviathan shell that saw use by the time of the Almire Apostasy. Held in high esteem by the warriors of the Star Guardians, and further boosted by the Legions odd quirk to be able to stave off the need for stasis sleep amongst their walking dead, the Fracturam are often placed in positions of command, known as the Fracturam Lords. In this manner, it is not unheard of to see a talon of Dreadnoughts leading a charge in the manner that would normally fall to Centurions or Praetors in other legions. While many would say that a Dreadnought was unsuited for command, presenting a large and vulnerable target to enemy heavy weapons, Shaaa dismissed this claim and extolling the use of such commanders, his words hard to ignore when he himself stands above even a Contemptor’s chassis.

The Syriac - Less a military formation and more of a personal war council, the Syriac were the personal advisors to Shaaa Hydrades himself. Position within the Syriac was not in and of itself a rank, the Vexillarius Quantil Herok being a prime example of this, holding no command of his own despite being on the Primarch’s council, though the Lord Commander himself was a permanent fixture upon the council. The Syriac existed outside the rest of the IVth Legion's regular command structure, together functioning as the soul of the Star Guardians, supporting their Primarch and steering the IVth Legion's temperament and decisions. Only those warriors who possessed the necessary qualities of strength and charisma were ever allowed to serve at their Primarch's side, he Cold Hearted expected nothing less than the most extreme discipline and loyalty from his advisors, but most of all he expected an unbending obedience to the orders he gave. The Syriac’s members have remained fairly constant throughout the Great Crusade, but there was on who’s death affected the Primarch more than any other, that of Commander Harnt Redal, the Primarch’s favoured son.

Star Guardians Tactical Markings and Heraldry - 2 — Star Guardians Tactical Markings and Heraldry

Legion Tactical Markings and Heraldry

Void Armour Numerology-0 — A Star Guardian in the later Great Crusade of the Second Brigade, Fifth Battalion, Fourth Company, First Squad. His squad type designation and Division have not been recorded by the rememberancer.

Unsurprisngly, the Star Guardians have a strict rank system that is instantly recognisable at a distance, identifying which unit a warrior belongs to, their rank and any other specialisation they may fall under. In the beginning of the legions life-time, these were used by warriors of the legion for identification purposes, but as the Great Crusade wore on, the Legion began to rely more and more on the tactical readouts of the Mechanicum, each warrior possessing an individual signature in the Star Guardians battlenet which could be instantly downloaded and processed by the Star Guardians to know who it was they were looking at, even without seeing beyond the faceplate. However, numerology and squad designations were kept, aiding allies who did not have access to their battlenet in identifying warriors of the IVth at a glance.

Equipment

As with all the Legions, the Star Guardians held many pieces of wargear that were available to them, and them alone, either through tithes and deals made with the Mechanicum and various other factions of the Imperium, or through more direct means, the Star Guardians constructing the unique pieces of wargear themselves onboard the mighty factoriums of the Ring.

Almost all of these pieces of technology prided form over function, designed to be rough and rugged to survive battlefield conditions, and easy to reproduce in great numbers. While other legions such as the Silver Basilisks or the Ashen Crows might boast individually greater pieces of technology than was commonly fielded amongst the IVth Legion, they were far fewer in their numbers, while the IVth could boast thousands of each of their pieces, their brute simplicity allowing losses to be replaced with frightening speed. Hundreds, if not thousands of these semi-unique pieces of wargear were used throughout the legions life, unsurprising for a technically minded legion such as the IVth, but there were a few which stood out, either due to their commonality within the legion, or due to the visibility of their deployment.

The first amongst these pieces were the numerous shields that the legion developed and used in every strata of their war machine, from the first Storm Shields, the “Watcher” Pattern being a heavier and yet more projective version compared to that of the XVIth legion, all the way to the ubiquitous “Guardian” pattern boarding shield that saw as much use through the legion as the humble bolter did, utilising divergent lessons learnt during the Storm Shields construction to boast the protective capabilities of the common Boarding shield. Even Dreadnoughts were not exempt from these advances, the Fracturam Shield often seen equipped on the forearm of a IVth legion dreadnought, projecting an energy shield around the Dreadnought that would later be incorporated into the shell of the Leviathan chassis.

The final piece of these more common sights amongst the legion was the Sub-Surface Torpedo Launcher, a weapon designed specifically for the IVth legion after they discovered the “Mole Launcher” STC during the Great Crusade. Utilising the STC, the Sub-Surface Torpedo Launcher allows the legion to strike at targets behind cover, compensating for the lack of conventional indirect fire artillery, high arcing weapons all but unheard of in the IVth due to fighting in enclosed environments. Utilised by a single Space Marine equipped, the launcher is essentially little more than an upscaled version of the Mole Launcher, designed for use by a single Astartes rather than a pair of Imperial Army troopers. The fired torpedo is capable of digging through almost any obstacles and detonating with the force of a Krak Missile on the other side, be it the walls and floor of a subterranean tunnel, or the metal floor of a starship

The torpedo itself is an advanced weapon that carries a powerful drill in its nose that enables it to burrow through rock, earth or armoured metal, assisted by the small Power Field emitter mounted behind the drills head. This explosive drill is then linked back to the firer, the Astartes able to control the path of the weapon through his own Power Armours connection.

Once the target is located, the torpedo burrows up to the surface and explodes, allowing the user to unleash surprise attacks from beneath a vulnerable enemy-held bunker, building or vehicle. In the hands of a skilled user, this weapon can devastate an enemy without them ever seeing their doom approaching.

Void Pattern Power Armour

Beyond mere weapons however, the IVth were one of the few legions to boast a unique mark of power armour that affected the wargears functionality substantially, the so called “Void” Pattern. Utilising some advances found during the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project, the “Void” Pattern in both its Mk3 and Mk5 variations was hardened against the cold and radiation of deep-space, boasting extra ablative plating to ensure that the armour would not be easily punctured, a feature of extreme importance for those who fought in airless or toxic environments as almost standard. While this armour was often imitated, both the IInd and XXth having their own variations of the “Void” pattern, only the IVth could say that every member of the legion could march to war in such void hardened suits, each one produced on the oath bound forge world of Graphina.

Saturnine Terminator Armour

Alongside this armour, though far less common, was the Saturnine Terminator Armour suits the legion kept as prized pieces of wargear. Though not developed exclusively for the IVth, they were the first to trial the suits in battlefield conditions, and while the other legions did receive shipments, they found poor reception, quickly being phased out when the lighter and more mobile Cataphractii armour was developed, its loss in protective qualities seen as a near negligible trade-off. For the IVth however, any trade-off in protection was a death sentence in the close in confines of a starship or tunnel, the legion able to field thousands of such suits throughout the crusade.

War Disposition

Notable Bonded Formations

The Star Guardians were well known for their callous attitude towards human life in warfare, be it in their use extensive use of slaves who did not warrant upgrading into servitors, or their use of Imperial Army soldiers as little more than cannon fodder to drain enemy ammunition supplies and to identify strong points in the enemies lines, enemy prisoners also used for this goal as well. Some forces however were treated considerably better however, bonded to the IVth legion for almost the entirety of the Great Crusade.

The following are some of the more notable bonded auxilia units:

The Hydra Auxilia

A fusion of the skill of the Solar Auxillia, tempered with the mentality of the people of the Ring and their wargear, and trained directly by warriors of the IVth, the Hydra Auxillia quickly began to grow in game far beyond the 12th Solar Cohort they were formed from could ever have dreamed, their size swelling beyond that of a single Cohort into a mighty regiment in their own right, millions strong. Often, failed aspirants from the IVth who could still fight but were genetically incompatible or otherwise unable to continue the transition to Astartes through no fault of their own were transferred to the regiment instead, given positions of command and prestige few others could match, their failure not seen as a sign of weakness, unlike those who failed the ascension due to personal failings. Standing side by side with their Astartes Masters, no Star Guardians Expeditionary Fleet forwent Hydra Auxillia Support, the mortals bringing forces to bare the legion itself lacked, armour, speed, mobility, all backed up by the impeccable barrages of heavy stub-fire, the crack of their guns becoming as famous as the las-beams of the Solar Auxillia.

By the time of the Apostasy, the Hydra Auxilia comprises close to one percent of all denizens of the Ring, two and a half billion soldiers fighting across the Imperium as infantry, tank crews or boarding teams almost without equal, Lord Generals and Admirals fighting for cohorts from the elite regiment to be counted under their roster. When the Apostasy struck, almost all of the regiment remained loyal to Terra, many dying as they were turned upon by traitorous former allies. Those that did turn proved a considerable thorn in the Imperium’s side, loyal Hydra Auxilia forces swearing to see their one time brothers dead no matter the cost.

The Graphinan Taghmata

Raised from the Forge World of Graphina, itself a world fully oathed to the Star Guardians, the Graphinan Taghmata are led by the tireless will of Fabricator Locum Canitrak, directing the forces of her homeworld since before the coming of the Imperium. Like the legion they serve, the Graphinan Taghmata focuses heavily on heavy Cybernetica and Thallaxi units rather than the tech-thrall swarms some Magos favour, mirroring the slow infantry advances of the Star Guardians, further bolstering their own strengths, both sharing the same weaknesses as a result, faster enemies often able to escape their wrath. Just like with the legion however, in the battles Graphinan Taghmata is often called to fight, there is only so far the enemy can run, and when they are trapped, they are easily slaughtered by the tireless, merciless constructs of the sub-aquatic forgeworld.

Legio Marus 'The Pulsar Guard'

Raised from the world of Marus, Legio Marus is not truly bonded to the IVth legion, but instead swearing their fealty to the Mechanicum of Graphina itself. Through that world however, the Legio is bonded to the IVth through proxy, and while Shaaa has no direct control over the titans, their order standing as their own council as they always have, they often heed Shaaa’s requests for aid, marching alongside the legion to provide ultimate fire support.

Ignitus Mortem - Warmonger Class Imperator Titan — The mighty form of *Ignitus Mortem* in combat against the foes of the Imperium and the IVth legion

Favouring heavy engines, the mainstay titan of the legion is the mighty Warlord, backed by Reaver and Nemesis titans, and lead by the mighty forms of Ignitus Volt and Ignitus Mortem, Imperator class titans of Emperor and Warmonger classification respectively. The legion does lack scout titan forces, instead using Knight House Nollard to roam ahead of their titan masters, relaying information back to the legios big guns, ensuring none can escape the machine god's wrath.

Knight House Nollard

High Queen Euot's Knight — The Cerastus Knight-Lancer *Twice-Born Queen*, mount of High Queen Euot, the ruler of House Nollard

Raised on Marus like the Pulsar Guard, House Nollard was the ruling elite of that world when the Mechanicum found the world once again. During the great games of prestige, the House’s hubris became their undoing, House Gallux stealing their “rightful” victory and ascending to the realms of the titans, not the Knights. House Nollard would forever stand as second of Marus, subservient to the true god machines.

Now, House Nollard acts as the eyes and ears of the heavy Titan legion, boasting numerous Cerastus Pattern Knight armours within their armoury, making them a fast and deadly skirmishing force ranging ahead of the titans and the legion itself. Even some of the rarer types of armour, Magaera, Styrix and a full half dozen of the deadly Porphyrion pattern, are owned by Nollard, all used against the enemies of the Pulsar Guard. Like their titan legion, they owe no direct fealty to the Star Guardians, but just like the Pulsar Guard, they take the requests of Shaaa and his sons as higher than requests of others, often marching alongside the IVth legion as well as their towering masters.