Crusade Lore 2: Marshals and Martyrs

INCOMING ASTROPATHIC TRANSMISSION

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+ + + + + + +TRANSMITTED: Black Templars Strike Cruiser Volsung, Calixis Sector
+ + + + + + + + +RECEIVED: Inquisitor Lord Valec, Ordo Hereticus
+ + + + + + +DESTINATION:  Scintilla, Calixis Sector
+ + + + +  + + + + + + DATE: 9.850.053.M42
+ + + + + TELEPATHIC DUCT: Karina Aeshma, Personal Astropath to Inquisitor Elam Grest.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + REF: INQ//440156.55//OH
+ + + + + + + + + +AUTHOR: Inquisitor Elam Grest, Ordo Hereticus
+ + +  + + + + + + SUBJECT:  Saint Byrenus, the Martyr of Valais IV
+ + + + + + + + + THOUGHT:  “A single man of faith can triumph over legions of the faithless.”

Crusade Lore Part 1: Mourning and Retribution
Crusade Lore Part 2: Marshals and Martyrs
Crusade Lore Part 3: Iconoclasts and Deceivers
Crusade Lore Part 4: Into the Outer Dark
 

 

Greetings Master Valac, 

While the Astartes forces of the Calixis Crusade remain small, consisting of a single strike cruiser and it’s small fighting company of marines, we have been taking on non-astartes survivors from the fall of Valais IV. Since my last correspondence, 3 new ships have been added to our growing crusade fleet. Two Imperial navy cruisers carrying soldiers from the Valais IV Imperial Guard regiment, and a civilian vessel full of refugees.  In order to gain a deeper understanding of the origins of the Calixis Crusade, I have been spending more and more time away from ‘The Volsung’ and aboard the non-astartes ships. At times blending with the civilian population. At others invoking my authority as an inquisitor to procure information. One story kept arising during my interviews about a martyr named Byrenus whom the human forces of the crusade regard as a saint and a hero.

During the period when the heretical cults of Valais IV emerged from the shadows and revealed themselves in open insurrection, those citizens and guardsmen who remained loyal to the Imperium found themselves to be greatly outnumbered. The corruption had spread all the way to the top of Valaisan society. So much so that the loyal servants of the Emperor were forced underground. They managed to send a cry for help, which these Black Templars responded to. But they were months away and so the loyal citizens and soldiers dug in to wait. But one figure emerged among the survivors: Byrenus. He and his men obtained a transmitter, and his pirated broadcasts with messages of hope, faith, and duty inspired the survivors to form a resistance. Their goal over the coming months would be to undermine the heretical government through sabotage, assassination, and guerrilla warfare. But central to it all were the daily sermons from Byrenus. Through his faith, courage, and leadership, the loyal resistance of Valais IV would be ready to rise up and offer support when the Black Templars arrived.

And ready they were. When the former Marshal Sigurd and his forces made planet fall, they found a highly organized resistance network comprised of citizen guerrilla fighters lead by loyal Valaisan Guardsmen. During the ensuring months, the resistance fighters supported the Black Templars in their campaign to crush the cult that had taken hold of the planet. As recounted in my previous transmission, Marshall Sigurd fell during the assault on the governor’s palace. Multiple sources all seem to support what happened next.

The fall of Cadia and the formation of the rift corresponded with the assault of the governors palace on Valais IV. In that instant, warp rifts opened all across the galaxy and the Valais system was no different. Warp-spawn poured into the throne room along with heretics of the Word Bearers legion. Marshal Sigurd was struck down in single combat by the lord of the Word Bearers warband. He was a champion of such terrible aspect that human soldiers who had stood faithfully in the face of the daemonic incursion of the throne room, quailed in fear and ran at the very sight of his emergence from the rift.  All men, except Byrenus. As the heretic champion stood atop the bodies of Sigurd and his honor guard, Byrenus charged in. His faith in the Emperor must have protected him, as no other soul -human or astartes- as able to land a single blow on the word bearers champion that day. To “honor” the brave mortal who managed to lay a hand upon his unholy war plate, the champion struck Byrenus’ hand from his wrist before taking his life. A trophy which he reportedly carries nailed to his pauldron to this day in grim mockery of the Emperor’s faithful of Valais IV.

The sacrifice made by Byrenus that day delayed the chaos lord long enough for Sigurd’s Sword Brethren to fight their way to his body and force the word bearers to retreat back through the rift. Thanks the the martyr Byrenus, Marshal Sigurd’s body and sacred war gear were recovered by his battle brothers. As for Byrenus’ body, it was interred in a walking auto-reliquary. The faithful mortal forces of the Calixis Crusade regard him as a saint and he still plays a central role in the crusade. When the fleet arrives at a world in the grips of heresy, the Astartes and Imperial Guard forces make surgical strikes to remove the heard of the cult. Simultaneously the resistance fighters of Valais IV are inserted into the civilian population of the world where they have become adept at organizing and training the Emperor’s faithful to prepare them for the final push to liberate their world. Central to their efforts are the recorded sermons of Saint Byrenus. His walking auto-reliquary is not only a focus for the faith of the populous, but is also platform for powerful transmitters which broadcast his sermons over pirated radio signals. When the Astartes leaders of the crusade signal the final push to retake a world, the heretical rulers often find a zealous throng of the Emperor’s faithful approaching their gates with the auto-reliquary of Saint Byrenus in the lead.

In His Name,

Elam Grest, Inquisitor – Ordo Hereticus.

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