I finished my fiction for The Honour Thieves. I also managed to finish painting Squad Kalath!
And the weapons are magnetized!
My next chalange is not part of my priginal army list. My new HQ will be...
I'll make a new army list to share soon! Till then...
Veteran Retaliator Squad Arkash
Kyro Tyrant's Legion Enforcers
Seconded to the Second Company by order of Corien Sumatris
"The Honour Thieves"
Squad Arkash was forged in the fires of the defeat at Kyro. When Venerable Amru led the Astral Claws survivors in a breakout from the planet, Retaliator Arkash gathered all the surviving Retaliators together and formed a counter assault force that accompanied Amru in intercepting enemies attempting to engage the withdrawing units. The squad took heavy casualties but was steeped in Minotaur blood, most notably massacring a full assault squad waiting in ambush without loosing a single man. The survivors of the encounter formed the core of a new unit of Retaliators that would become known as "The Honour Thieves" for seeking out enemy champions and claiming their weapons and honors once they were slain. This unit saw lengthy service as a boarding assault garrison on a variety of ships throughout the war, eventually serving alongside Captain Corien Sumatris on the strike cruiser "Tyrants Talon." Sumatris was impressed by their marshal prowess and ruthless brutality and adopted "The Honour Thievs" as an unofficial bodyguard. This lead to a heated rivalry with the Second Company's Command Squad, who thought the captain should be guarded by honorable warriors, not a band of ruthless killers who stole honour from their foes. Sumatris tasked the command squad with defending the honour, relics, and morale of the second company while he and "The Honour Thieves" sought out and slew enemy champions, both physically and figuratively staining their honour with loyalist blood.
Though several squad members were confirmed killed in the defense of Sentinal Sigma, the status of most of the unit is unknown. Like Sumatris, it is believed the whole unit perished in the engagement. Dead or alive, the unit likely shared the same fate as their captain.
Here "The Honour Thieves" are seen engaging a squad of Minotaurs scouts during the fight for Isin. The squad of scouts held their ground only to be mercilessly slaughtered for their impudence. After Arkash smashed the scout sergeant into lumps of quivering gore and bits of sundered armour, the remaining scouts fled. "the Honour Thieves allowed their retreat and pressed on elsewhere in search of greater foes to overcome.
Veteran Retaliator Arkash
"The Hammer of Retaliation"
Tagar Arkash is an anomaly amongst the astartes, and his career of service reflects this throughout. Arkash was recruited in Huron's initial wave of expansionist reforms, his very creation anathema to the holy codex astartes. After his service as a neophyte, Arkash joined the Retaliators and The Tyrants Legion, where he ruled the auxila under his command with cold choler and an iron claw. He often implemented "trials by ordeal" to weed out the weak from his ranks. His men were forced to run for hours without rest or water, dig entrenchments meters deep, force-march under a hundred pounds of gear, and even spar with deadly blades. He expected absolute perfection and punished any found wanting with service in one of the "blocking detachments" used as human shields for the astartes. He gave these disgraced men two paths to redemption, glorious martyrdom or miraculous survival of their "trial by fire." In his eyes, constant "trials by ordeal" weeded out the weak and provided protection for the invaluable astartes elements of the legion.
When the garrison on Kyro was put to the sword, Arkash fought in the running battles of the withdrawal led by Venerable Amru. He gathered other Retaliators to him as he went, forming a counter assault element that intercepted Minotaurs forces attempting to catch the Astral Claws. During one such encounter, Arkash slew Veteran Sergeant Aperus, goring the Minotaur's neck with his chain blade before he could swing his mighty thunder hammer "Oblivions Touch."
Covered in the splattered gore of his defeated foe, Arkash claimed "Oblivions Touch" as his own, beginning the practice of trophy taking that would make "The Honour Thieves" so infamous throughout the war. He and his men would go on to claim "the spoils of the unworthy," better arming and armoring themselves as they drenched imperial honours in an iconoclasm of blood.
Veteran Retaliator Mammuth
"The Executioner"
Mammuth was one of the new recruits raised from the scout company into the ranks of The Tyrants Legion just before the outbreak of the war. Mammuth quickly earned a bloody reputation for fierce discipline amongst the human auxilia he oversaw. Mammuth strode amongst his charges like the herald of a vengeful god, installing terror, devotion, and discipline in equal measure. With his gore-splattered chainsword "Doom-bringer" he mercilessly executed all guilty of cowardice or dereliction of duty. Such bloody examples made even the weakest of his charges fall in line, a respectful fear of Mammuth and the tyrant he represented rooting them in place when saner men would have fled in terror.
When the Tyrants Legion garrison on Kyro fell, Mammuth withdrew from the planet with Venerable Armu's irregular forces. He became a founding member of "The Honur Thieves" after proving himself in combat against several Minotaurs during the withdrawal, his weapons, armour, shield, and honours drenched in blood.
The ultimate fate of Mammuth is unknown. He is technically recorded as missing in action, but most inquisitorial investigators believe he met his end on Sentinal Sigma.
Veteran Retaliator Cordoba
"Mentor"
Another founding member of "The Honour Thieves," Cordoba was famed for his close combat prowess long before the unit was forged. On Kyro, Cordoba was seen as an oddity by his fellows. Rather than training and tempering his charges through fear and punishment, Cordoba raised the skills of his auxilia through instruction, training, and reward. He thought it his duty to elevate the lowly auxila to a more effective fighting force, to better defend themselves and the Tyrants domains.
This earned him the mocking moniker "Mentor" and sneering ire from his fellow Retaliators. He cared not, and used his expertise to teach his auxila how to injure, cripple, or even kill an astartes. He showed his men weak points in power armour and taught them fire saturation. In combat he taught them to swam individual astartes with grenades, knives, and bayonets, downing the mighty giants through sheer weight of numbers or distracting them from more auxila sneaking in behind.
The other Retaliators saw little value in this. Instead using their auxila as ablative shields, having a foregone conclusion that such conflicts could only lead to the auxilas death. But it is a testament to Cordobas skills and methods that his men fought to the last, taking several Minotaurs down with them where other auxila would have simply been slaughtered.
Veteran Retaliator Kathum
After the loss at Kyro and the forming of "The Honour Thieves," Kathum earned a fearsome reputation among both loyalists and secessionists for seeking out and slaying enemy champions in single combat. During the boarding of the Red Scorpions cruiser "Envenomed Sting," Kathum became locked In a losing bout with Captian Stanso of the Red Scorpions Seventh Company. Though Kathum sought no aid, Cordoba soon intervened, causing Kathum much embarrassment and rage.
Beset on both sides, Stanso succumbed to their blows, the two Retaliators dealing him mortal blows simultaneously. In the aftermath of the battle, the two nearly shed blood contesting Stanso's praised set of lightning claws. The incident was only stymied by the intervention of Arkash himself, cowing the two men into sulking away with a single claw each. A bitter, competitive hatred simmered between Kathum and Cordoba for the rest of the war, and only ended when Kathum met his death in the defeat on Sentinal Sigma.
Veteran Retaliator Nicomedes
Nicomedes was appointed to the ranks of "The Honour Thieves" by order of Corien Sumatris. Originally an assault trooper in the Second Company, Nicomedes had only seen service in the company for a decade when he caught his captain's attention. During the boarding of the "Envenomed Sting" Nicomedes was charged by a Red Scorpions Vanguard Veteran. The young Astral Claw dodged and parried the veterans every strike, frustrating the Red Scorpion with manic energy brought on by desperation. Enraged, the Red Scorpion struck at Nicomedes head with reckless abandon. Nicomedes sidestepped and turned his head, causing the vanguards chainsword to tear down Nicomedes' helm and imbed itself deep in his shoulder pualdron.
Wincing in pain, Nicomedes twisted sideways and stepped forward, opening and entering the Red Scorpions guard as the imbedded chainsword moved with his body, its engine roaring impotently. Nicomedes slammed his own chainblade deep into a rent in the veterans abdominal armour, gutting his opponent in a gory spray.
After the battle he knelt before Sumatris, who replaced Nicomedes' helm and shoulder pualdron with those of his defeated foe, offered him a "Shield of Retaliation" and membership within "The Honour Thieves." From then on Nicomedes was intensely loyal to his benefactor and would repeatedly prove his worth, earning the respect of his brothers.
Resistance, retaliation, and revenge!
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