The stable warp route discovered by Rogue Trader Maximo Florton will prove essential to the Imperium’s plan to retake the Burning Frontier from xenos and the Dark Mechanicum.

The Nguyen Naval Base, Belliose System issued a plea for reinforcements in early 738.M41 and, half a year later, numerous forces heeded the call. Among the most important were two battle companies of the Vorpal Swords Chapter.852

These dreaded survivors of the Abyssal Crusade in M37 had managed to overcome any and all enemies they had faced, even in the Warp itself. Thus their arrival in the Corvus Cluster was welcomed by the regional high command.

Vorpal Swords

After the conclusion of the Abyssal Crusade, the Vorpal Swords established a new homeworld, granted to them by the High Lords of Terra, on the planet of Vryreus IV. (This world is in the Agramento Sector in the far reaches of the Ultima Segmentum.)

Captain Theron Mograin commands the Imperial effort to retake the Burning Frontier.

Such a homeworld was needed. The chapter has been in the process of rebuilding its power base for centuries, as the Abyssal Crusade left them with less than a quarter of their manpower and with tremendous losses in ammunition and vehicles. Only recently have the Vorpal Swords managed to return to full operational capacity, thanks to a mutually beneficial alliance with the Agramento Sector’s forge world of Hexator. Providing support to Archmagos Cetrynax, the forge world’s overlord, has proven invaluable in obtaining the Adeptus Mechanics’ assistance with provisions, armaments, and armor.

Since the plea for help from the Corvus Cluster included information regarding one of their most despised foes, the servants of the Dark Mechanicum, the Vorpal Swords have not hesitated to join the war effort. As previously reported, two full battle companies—the 3d and 4th—were dispatched immediately to the area, along with detachments from the 1st and 10th companies of the chapter.

These forces embarked on the long journey from the Agramento Sector, swearing to eradicate any and all servants of the dark gods found on their crusade. For the purpose of their own annals, each warrior has sworn an oath on a sacred relic of the chapter: the Sword of Horon.

The Relics

Captain Eusebius Dervan commands the 4th Company of the Vorpal Swords and is second-in-command of the Crusade.

This famous weapon bears great significance to the chapter and its history. Decias Horon, a legendary chapter master of centuries past, was said to have struck down a daemon prince with this very blade and banished it to the Warp with the help of accompanying librarians.

Today, centuries after the fall of Horon, the sword has been entrusted to Captain Theron Mograin, together with an ancient and revered suit of Cataphractii-pattern terminator armor. Both relics were presented to Mograin by ancient and still-living Chapter Master Konvak Lann, who has led the Vorpal Swords for over two millennia (granting him a place among the oldest-living Adeptus Astartes as of the 41^st millennium).

Thus, the annals of the Vorpal Swords Chapter recorded the beginning of Mograin’s Crusade. For the strike force commander, the choice was obvious: Mograin, captain of the 3rd Company, a jaded vertan of centuries of war. His second in command was Captain Eusebius Dervan, commander of the 4th Company. Both arrived in the Corvus Cluster in  3 852 738.M41 and, after conferring with sector high command, they immediately led their warriors through the recently rediscovered warp route leading to the besieged world of Arthys IV to battle Waaagh! Gorefist.

The Space Marine companies, belonging to a chapter both diligent and cautious, did not, however, rush head-first into the breach. First, they established, with the help of a Goliath Class Forge Tender (dispatched from the allied forge world of Hexator), a trans-shipment supply point in a system neighboring the ork-infested world of Arthys—a system known as Port Halborg.

A Land Speeder squadron of the Vorpal Swords already has landed on the ork-held world of Arthys to prepare for the Crusade’s attack.

The system was placed under marshal law—the entire population conscripted for the coming war effort—with the approval of Corvus Cluster’s high command. All were put under the administration of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and both planet-based and orbital-based manufacturums were rededicated to the production of ammunition and other supplies required by  the growing war effort.

During this staging period, two regiments of Catachan jungle fighters arrived to join the fight, bringing the invasion force to full strength by 6 873.738.M41.

War looms

A contingent of Vorpal Swords scouts also have landed on Arthys.

At this time, scouts of the Vorpal Swords are conducting reconnaissance in the Burning Frontier. What follows will determine the fate of hundreds of thousands of tormented Imperial citizens kept under the heel of Dark Mechanicum overlords.

Time is short. In order to burn out the cancer of spreading Chaos in the region, the orks must first be dealt with—swiftly and definitively. The battle for Arthys is about to begin.

Author: Thurservor

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.