Index Astartes: Blood Phoenix (part 1)

The Founding of a Chapter

In 002.M31, contingents from the Blood Angels, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists Legions were called upon to quell an uprising in the Larys system. Arriving aboard the Blood Angels strike cruiser Fire of Vengeance, they immediately set about shoring up the most likely defensible locations of the third and most populated planet of Risa, while preparing their base from which they were to launch all operations to protect the system. This was a vanguard group of four hundred marines, half of which were from the Blood Angels and overall command was held by their commander, Captain Marlin Sanguis. They only had a few days to prepare for the remainder of the fleet, four Imperial Army Cruisers with full escort and regimental support. These forces would undertake the defense and liberation of Larys and the surrounding systems.

Unfortunately for the ill-fated marines, a freak warp storm settled over the Larys system just ten hours before the arrival of their reinforcements. When the storm was sensed by the astropaths aboard these vessels, they immediately turned from their path and assumed the vanguard force lost to the warp.

Brother Librarian Lycergus of the Ultramarines was the first to realize their predicament and held fast council with Captain Sanguis. It was decided that with their current strength and the uncertainty of the storm's duration that they could only hope to defend a single planet effectively. Using Fire of Vengeance and its complement of Thunderhawks as ferries, the marines systematically evacuated the populations of Risa, Oraxys, and Kiln to the smaller planet of Benu. It was on Benu that Captain Sanguis and his men set their defenses against rebel and storm, unwittingly setting the groundwork for their survival during the Millenium of Isolation.

The first years of isolation were filled with building defenses and the extended redistribution of the population. It was the fifth year when daemons began to manifest from the warp and Captain Sanguis ordered the cruiser Fire of Vengeance physically landed on the surface so they could use it as a foundation for a defensive fortress that would take centuries to complete.

It was the one hundred and thirty first year since the warp storm had trapped them in the system that saw Captain Sanguis die. At least that was how it appeared to all who watched. He was overrun by a swarm of cultists and horrors. All believed him lost as one of the brother marines cleansed the area with a heavy flamer. Moments later, Sanguis emerged from the flames, his armor intact, but charred a deeper red from the heat of the fires. He waded back into battle without a glance at his men, but from that day forth the general population began calling him The Phoenix. It did not take long for the marines of all legions to follow suit.

Another century of warfare passed within the warp storm and still the remnants of the vanguard stood firm. They had been unable to replenish their losses as yet, but had begun to make use of civilian support for the defense of key areas. One hundred marines had been lost during those first three hundred years. With no end to the isolation in sight, a troubled Captain Sanguis sought council from his veteran brothers regarding their continued ability to defend themselves and their charges. In short, even the might of three hundred marines is not enough to defend an entire planet for an unknown length of time in the heart of a warp storm. Therefore they began to minimize their presence on the surface of Benu. They held fast surrounding their new fortress, which the population had taken to calling The Phoenix Nest, but left the remainder of the planet undefended.

They moved the civilians underground, inside vast caverns beneath the surface, and scout squads were sent with demolition charges to block off key passages. The result was a vast cavern network with only a single entry point on the surface located behind the walls of the marines’ fortress. Occasionally there would be a breakthrough from other cavern tunnels, but these were quickly defended and blockaded by the civilian forces until another scout squad could be dispersed to collapse the passage once again. The planet was thus defended successfully for the next two centuries.

After five hundred years of constant struggle, half the proud brethren lay dead. The two remaining Apothecaries of the marines advised Captain Sanguis that in order for them to survive and continue to defend Imperial soil and body, they would need to begin recruiting from the populace. Sanguis was reluctant since he had no authorization, but on the advice of his senior advisors he complied in the face of adversity. The people living in the caverns were consulted and the marines were not surprised at how eager they were for their youths to be tested for the honor.

Over the next century, their numbers slowly grew as the origins of the semiphyte system were born and they were able to continue the stalemate that had been their existence for half a millennium. They had survived wave after wave of chaos assault and proved worthy of the task, but their greatest trial was still ahead. It was nearly six hundred years since they had first been isolated in the Larys system. They were now close to equaling their original numbers at three hundred and sixty strong, only forty-two of which had been amongst the original arrivals. The rest had been recruited from the survivors they had sworn to protect. It was then that Ax’horra Lord of Change arrived.

The marines had beaten off mutants, cultists, and horrors for half a millennium, but not until now had they faced such a creature of chaos. None had seen such a beast before, not even the Captain. It towered over the battlefield before the fortress, its very skin bristling with warp energies of sorcerous power. Large colorful wings extended from its back while taloned feet shook the earth like the wrath of some mighty god. For the first time in their olympic struggle, did Sanguis fear for the survival of his men.

He knew immediately that the fortress walls would not withstand such an assault and with steady voice, he advised the acting Lord of the Household, an aged politician and architect, to draw up plans to improve the walls. He then called five of the eldest and most veteran marines from all three Chapters to his side and told them of his plan. Moments later, the fortress walls grew silent with awe as Captain Sanguis, Librarian Lycergus, and another four veteran brothers left the safety of the fortress to meet the daemon on the field of battle.

Sanguis knew that such a beast would tear through the walls quickly and was determined that they had not survived this long only to be defeated by the sorcerous heresy of this chaos minion. From the walls it appeared as if ants were approaching a lion, such was the size of the beast, but none of the six marines slowed their step. When they were within fifty yards of the daemon, Sanguis and his men powered their weapons and charged.

The battle lasted for over an hour as the five escorts held all other daemons and cultists at bay to allow their Captain his duel in peace. These were the best that the vanguard force had to offer and they proved it time and again this day. Finally, after battling for what seemed an eternity, Sanguis saw an opportunity to end the fight, but at a cost. He ignored his own defense and took the opening he was provided, mortally wounding Ax’horra and ensuring the beast would not survive to reach the walls of the fortress. Even as the monstrosity fell, a blast of pure sorcerous energy struck the Captain's chest and drove him to the ground.

Seeing their Captain fall, the five brother escorts went into a frenzy, killing all in their sight and actually driving back the horde long enough for one of their number to retrieve the fallen Sanguis. Brother Librarian Lycergus personally held the swarm at bay with a psychic shield as the other four veteran marines slowly made their retreat back to the walls of the fortress. Despite the constant battle and press of the enemy, a pall of mourning leapt to the air that drowned the cacophony of war. Their Captain had sacrificed himself to save them all.

This victory not only preserved them for the moment, it actually seemed to daunt the chaos forces for years, as the intermittent attacks lessened. The fortress walls expanded at Sanguis' final command and his body, barely on the brink of life, was interred within a suspension chamber still active within the cruiser fortress’s inner chambers. The marines had no dreadnoughts that were not in need of repair, but the men were loath to deny such a hero the honor of continuing his service, provided the warp storm ever abated.

Over the next two centuries the chaos attacks came less and less frequently until the defenders had some semblance of rest between actions. In this time, their numbers grew to nearly seven hundred strong. A new Captain was named from their ranks, the youngest of those who had first arrived six hundred years past. At the time he had been an Imperial Fists scout, but now he was Master of Benu's defense.

His name was Konrad Eberhardt and he made vast improvements of his own. With the delays between chaos assaults, he had engineers venture outside the walls and build up further fortifications such as crenellations on the exterior of the walls to hinder climbing and the clearing of what little cover the landscape provided to present his men better targets when the enemy attacked.

Undeniably the greatest achievement however was the Lava Trench. He had engineers and sappers dig a trench that lay fifty meters out from the fortress walls. He then had lava flows redirected from the volcanic mountains at their back into the trench so that a constant stream of molten lava now separated any attacking forces from the fortress itself. While this did little to defend against airborne attacks, it freed up men from harassing ground troops to assist in defending the skies.

These improvements took an additional fifty years, but the first wave of attacks following were defeated in a minimum of time expended. This, along with other achievements over the next two centuries, ensured his own name would survive in the annals of Benu. His command was cut short as his life was tragically ended in a tunnel collapse whilst he was on a diplomatic mission with the civilian population in the caverns.

The next Captain of the marines was named from a more recent addition, one that had been recruited in the past four hundred years from the ranks of the Benu survivors. His name was Gunnar Jansen. In addition to his prowess as a warrior, he was also a psyker, trained by Lycergus himself as a Librarian. His mind was as sharp as his blade and he knew that his predecessors had paved the way for their final victory over the chaos forces on Benu. Over the next year he sat in council with the eldest Librarians present, learning all he could of past encounters.

Knowing that the primary chaos forces against them were followers of Tzeentch, he and Johann Raimund, the eldest of the surviving Librarians and de facto Chief of their order on Benu, devised a plan for strengthening their defenses even further and possibly allowing them to go on the offensive.

Once the recruitment system had been implemented, the psykers among their people were those deemed worthy by the Librarians of the legions once their conversion to space marine had been completed. This had occasionally caused issue when a native human with latent psychic abilities had fallen prey to the temptations of chaos. Many such humans had to be eliminated by the marines over the years, leaving the defenders as watchful of themselves and their charges as they were of the forces that assaulted their walls.

Captain Jansen suggested modifications on the Gellar Field from the Fire of Vengeance. He proposed that with enough psychic energy to boost the energy field and some sort of relay device, they could effectively enclose the entirety of their fortress in a pocket of materium held safe from the warp storm. Jansen and Raimund enlisted the assistance of all the legions' surviving techmarines as well as the human engineers present. Together, after several years of development, they decided to test the theory in practice.

Jansen led a cadre of his most veteran men in a series of nightly excursions outside the fortress. Their objective was to find suitable locations and then position the experimental relay devices surrounding the fortress walls. Initially they had assumed that the relays would need to be placed on the walls themselves, as one of the restrictions for a ship’s Gellar Field is to cover an enclosed space such as a ship’s hull. Enclosing an entire fortress in such a manner was inconceivable however, and it was to one of the civilian engineer’s credit that a modification to the concept of a conversion field was utilized. The gravitic field generated was enough to supply a focal point for the Gellar Field’s energies, once further empowered by psychic energies.

The gamble proved successful and the fortress was protected from further attack by the forces of chaos. A group of ten librarians were entrusted with the responsibility of perpetually powering the Kossmann Field, named for the engineer who had suggested the conversion field modification. No matter their close relationship over the years, the marines of the legion did not trust civilian psykers with this honor. The only part they were to play was in sacrifice, as it required a regular influx of uninhibited psychic energy once every hundred days to keep the energy flowing.

Smaller Kossmann units were attempted for personal adornment, with the concept that squads of librarians could take offensive actions outside the safety of their fortress, but none of these personal shielding units proved effective. In the end, the marines settled for the continued safety of the civilians under their charge and only risked themselves when taking the fight outside their walls.

There were occasional battles from smaller bands of chaos over the remaining years, but the Kossmann Field effectively saw an end to the threat for Benu and its people. Captain Jansen held his command for the remainder of the isolation period, until the warp storm finally abated and they were once again reunited with the Imperium.

Outside the system and the warp storm, three hundred years passed before the Imperium officially declared the combined marines of the Larys Vanguard lost. Another millennium would pass before the warp storm dissipated. In 375.M32, the storm enveloping the Larys system was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Shortly thereafter, Imperial ships entered the area to investigate the effects of the warp.

The Larys system did not fare well. Risa, once a world of paradise, had been completely consumed by unknown means and lay dead in orbit. Kiln nearly shared its fate, having lost the lush forests and oceans of its past. Now all that remained was short grasslands surrounding the ruins of once great factories. Oraxys was miraculously spared from utter destruction, though its once verdant fields now lay at the bottom of vast oceans due to massive flooding caused by an orbital shift.

By far the greatest surprise was Benu. When the Imperial ships entered orbit around this planet, they noticed definite signs of civilization on the surface. Taking precaution, they descended to the surface and were greeted by none other than the remnants of the Space Marines that had staved off the horrors of the warp during the past millennium. The shell of the once mighty strike cruiser lay upon a volcano mountain serving as the centerpiece of their defensive fortress.

The Adeptus Astartes were notified and the Chapter Masters of the Blood Angels, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists personally visited Benu along with their entire first companies. Things were tense at first since the marooned survivors were wholly unaware of the Heresy that had taken place during the first years of their confinement. After lengthy interrogations and genetic tests to ensure no mutations had taken hold on these men, great honors were bestowed upon them for their steadfast defense of Imperial territory under the most dire of circumstances. The Masters from the three Chapters as well as the Black Templars were all in attendance for a great ceremony, along with several Interrogators from the Ordo Hereticus and Grey Knights, as suspicion still festered for those who had braved the perils of the warp for so long.

No matter their heroism, these marines could not rejoin their former brothers. The Codex Astartes had broken the former Legions into smaller Chapters of a finite number of marines. The three Chapters were already at full strength and the survivors of Benu now numbered a thousand men after reinforcing their numbers from the population over the centuries. It was thus decided that a new chapter should be formed. The Masters of the other chapters remained until representatives of the High Lords of Terra arrived and ratified their decision. They then bade the current acting Captain of the Benu survivors to take on the mantle of Chapter Master. The new chapter was named Blood Phoenix, in tribute to Captain Sanguis, who personally led them during the first six hundred years of their imprisonment.

The Kossmann Field, impressive while entrapped within the warp storm, proved ineffective for use in warp travel and lessened the effectiveness of the conversion field for personal protection. As such, it was never seen in use again, though the schematics are held within the inner sanctum of the Blood Phoenix Librarium Solumnus to this day. The psyker sacrifice to empower the field raised some eyebrows from other Space Marine Chapters and the Ordo Hereticus, but ultimately the marines and their civilian counterparts were found free of heresy as they had acted in the best interests of the Emperor.

Lord Captain Jansen afterwards became Chapter Master Gunnar Jansen of the Blood Phoenix Chapter of Space Marines. With the full support of the civilian populace that remained on the planet, the Blood Phoenix took Benu as their homeworld and the fortress known as Phoenix Nest their fortress monastery.