BACKGROUND: Ork Air Waaagh - Kolath Gutbad's Ironkrates

Now that I've finally gotten my Aeronautica Imperialis Ork Air Waaagh painted I thought it was about time to come up with some background stories for my squadron.

Ork Air Waaagh - Kolath Gutbad's Ironkrates

• Fighta 'Jawz of Doom' pilot Skargrod Nobskab
• Fighta 'Da Ridgeback' pilot Shakskab Naffrunt
• Fighta 'Flaming Deff' pilot Wazgul Ugrot
• Fighta 'Go Fasta' pilot Kolath Gutbad
  
• Fighta 'Wingtoof' pilot Snagazod Gobuz
• Fighta-bommer 'Jagged Deff' pilot Badurty Skarthug
• Fighta-bommer 'Killa Krate' pilot Duffrunt Duffsnik
• Fighta-bommer 'Flames of Waaagh' pilot Oggrod Urtygrub
• Fighta-bommer 'Widda Maker' pilot Grimsnaga Waaarg
• Bommer 'Big Burd' pilot Urtyuz Naffshak

The Skolarii Sector
Ork activity has increased right across the Skolarii sector at the end of the 41st millennium. This is largely due to the presence of one very influential Ork; Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Following the second war for Armageddon, the first Ork invasion, Ghazghkull travelled the galaxy replenishing his forces and rebuilding his strength. The Skolarii Sector was one of his destinations. He has stirred up Ork aggression on a dozen worlds but he did not offer just inspiration. Ghazghkull also brought with him a cadre of Mekboyz, Ork engineers.

These Meks, along with Ghazghkull's fiery oratory, spurred on the scattered Orks of the Skolarii Sector. They were more ambitious in their attacks against the Imperium and other factions, using new vehicles and space ships to co-ordinate their forces.

The rise of Kolath Gutbad
Kolath Gutbad was a lowly Trukk driver in an Evil Sunz warband led by Badskab Gobsnik. Kolath loved nothing more than to drive his Trukk at top speed, firing at his enemies in a hail of poorly aimed shots. His tactics were non existent, in fact he rarely gave a thought to the Boyz clinging on for dear life in the back of his Trukk, but he knew how to squeeze every last ounce of speed out of his vehicle and boy did he know how to drive!

Kolath Gutbad's name would probably have never been heard of by the Imperium had fate not intervened. Badskab, the Evil Sunz warband leader pledged his allegiance to Snagra Bullteef, a mighty Bad Moon warboss. Snagra was an ambitious Ork and had led a massive Waaagh from the sleepy backwater world of Moresp to the Hiveworld of Finschan in the Kandaeon Worlds many years before. Together with a cadre of mysterious off-world Orks Snagra was gathering forces to mount an attack on Garrison 41, a bastion that had consistently repelled wave after wave of Ork assaults in the past.

Garrison 41
Eager to throw his Trukk about on the ash-dunes outside Garrison 41 and riddle it's defenders with bullets, Kolath drove his Trukk out of the back of it's landing craft before it had even touched down. The last thing that went through the mind of Badskab Gobsnik was the exhaust pipe of Kolath's Trukk. He was standing right underneath the Trukk as it slammed to the ground.

Undeterred Kolath drove hell for leather into the teeth of the Imperial Guard forces at Garrison 41. The rest of the bewildered Evil Sunz piled in after Kolath and by the time Snagra Bullteef arrived in battle the Imperial Guardsmen had been overrun. Kolath received the acknowledgement of Snagra as a brave, ruthless warrior and assumed leadership of the Evil Sun warband.

Kolath called his warband the Ironkarts and won great acclaim from Snagra, fighting at the forefront of numerous engagements. His only command was 'go fasta' heard on the wind as he raced out ahead of his warband. The Ironkarts took heavy casualties as Kolath threw them into the opposition regardless of numbers, reinforcements or any other tactics or strategy. Eventually his warband had lost more than nine tenths of it's starting strength and looked like it might be wiped from existence.

A fortuitous meeting
Kolath then had his second stroke of luck. An Ork Mek called Morfug Waalug was thrown out of his warband when a Deff Dread he had helped to build ran amok killing several important Nobz. Kolath almost ran him over in the ash-dunes of Finschan while scavenging for parts for his vehicles.

Morfug had discovered a vast horde of archeotech buried beneath the ash. Kolath offered him a place in the Ironkrates warband if Morfug agreed to repair his vehicles. Morfug had a better idea. Why not use the archeotech to build some really fast and shooty vehicles - planes!

So the Ironkrates were born. Kolath renamed the warband and found many willing volunteers amongst his surviving warband to pilot his new fightas, fighta-bommers and even his big bommer. Kolath himself has never been happier and spends every minute he can in the air above Finschan, flying his fighta Go Fasta, dogfighting with Imperial Navy Thunderbolts and shooting up the planet's hive cities.

BACKGROUND: Afriel Strain Imperial Navy wing

I got a little piece of inspiration this week which has helped me inform the background of my Imperial Navy Aeronautica Imperialis wing.

I like to develop background material for all of my models, at the very least recording their origins, their commander and what they are up to in the Skolarii Sector. This background then feeds into my paint schemes, conversions army lists and even in-game tactics.

I'd been struggling to come up with an interesting hook for my fly-boys when I happened upon a documentary about the Tuskegee airmen. They were a group of African American pilots which were formed into a fighter group during the second world war and proved to be at least as able as the white pilots already fighting. What really hit home to me was one pilot who explained what happened when they returned from the war. They got off the plane and were then forced into a different line from the white pilots; segregation was still in place in the USA at the time.

This injustice was reminiscent to me of the harsh backdrop to 40k universe, and I wondered what the equivalent of that racism would be in Aeronautica Imperialis.

Then I remembered the Imperial Guard Afriel Strain doctrine from White Dwarf 303. These are genetically engineered albino soldiers who are given the best equipment and training to turn them into super-soldiers. All of the regiments so far have started out successfully and then succumbed to a variety of unfortunate accidents, leading to their entire destruction. Additionally, other troops despise them because of their unusual appearance and appalling bad luck.

I dug out the article and upon closer inspection I found no reason not to make my Navy wing an Afriel Strain experiment. It specifically mentions that the mysterious creators of the Strain continue to experiment, fielding their 'perfect soldiers' across the warzones of the Imperium.

The Tuskegee Airmen formed the 332nd Fighter Group and my own wing will also take that number.

Now I just need to pad out the background material and paint the models.

BACKGROUND: Inquisitor Johannes Kepler

This is my fourth, and last, Inquisitor profile - Johannes Kepler.

Johannes Kepler, like Alexander Barbero, is an Inquisitor who came to the Skolarii Sector relatively recently. A senior Inquisitor Lord of great renown, Kepler had disappeared and had been thought dead for many years.

In 756.M41 he turned up on Mangalore, investigating cult activities amongst the noble trade families. Over the next century he built a case against the prominent Solondz family and toppled them from their position as the foremost noble family in the Kandaeon Worlds.This led to Kepler's immediate promotion to Protector of sub sector four.

Seventy seven years later he joined the Suprema. His formidable psychic powers made him unpopular with Barbero and Buirman, as did his outspoken Amalathian politics. Many within the Inquisition Skolarii would see Kepler as a natural successor to von Aschausen if it were not for his highly strung nature. Whether his occasionally erratic behaviour is due to his prodigious psychic abilities or his long, mysterious disappearance, no-one can be sure.

I'll return to the Inquistion at some point and describe the rest of the Inquisitors who make up the Imperium's finest in the Skolarii Sector.

I have lots of new material for this blog to come over the next week. Gary and I have played another game in our Nemesis Campaign, so I need to write up that battle report. I have also been working out some of the details for the two armies I have to complete over the following tournament season; my Blood Angels and the Hooded Chaos Renegade Militia. Finally, I'm looking to put a raft of models up for sale on e-bay.

There is lots going on in the wider Games Workshop world, too. Chicago Games Day has taken place over the weekend and all sorts of news and rumours are filtering through from that. The Chaos Codex is still providing some surprises and the massive Apocalypse release is coming into view.

BACKGROUND: Inquisitor Franz Buirmann

More on those famous Inquisitors of the Skolarii Sector, this time around I have Franz Buirmann of the Ordo Xenos for your delectation.

Franz Buirmann represents the Odo Xenos on the Suprema. He is a bullish, blunt man with little time for politics. As a result he spends much of his time away from Jalein, roaming far and wide across the Skolarii Sector.

Both Alexander Barbero and Johannes Kepler have courted Buirmann's favour as they anticipate von Aschausen's departure, but so far he remains tight-lipped on his thoughts for the succession.

Buirmann presents himself as an orthodox moderate puritan but some have whispered that he is secretly a radical Inquisitor. They point to his former Explicator, Jean Baptiste Girard, who has swiftly risen to the lofty rank of Protector Ustra, despite his Istvaanian tendencies. Other radical Inquisitors have also prospered under Buirmann's patronage.

Only time will tell whether these rumors are true or are part of a plot to undermine Buirmann's shot at becoming High Protector.

The last member of the Suprema is Johannes Kepler, and I'll post his profile tomorrow.

BACKGROUND: Inquisitor Alexander Barbero

Tut, tut, tut. This is becoming something of a habit. Yet another day without a post. I'm just mega busy at the moment and I am out and about six nights out of seven this week. Something has to give. It's obviously this blog. On the plus side I have managed to play another Fantasy game against Gary's Dark Elves in our little Nemesis Crown campaign. I'll post the full battle report over the weekend.

First up, as promised, another Inquisitorial profile.

As a fellow member of the Ordo Malleus, Alexander Barbero could be expected to be a firm ally of High Protector Johan von Aschausen. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the High Protector is a staunch Amalathian, Barbero is a redoubtable Monodominant, a hardliner railing against von Aschausen's pragmatic approach.

Barbero is a relative newcomer to the Skolarii Sector. He was initially invited by Cardinal Astral Exume of the Udaeus Group to investigate the Klandal Coven and following the death of the Inquisitor General of Berin in the attack on Spire Eagle Resplendent, Barbero assumed her position.

Barbero's Monodominant stance matched that of the Cardinal Astral and the Inquisitor soon became the focus of anti-Amalathian feelings. With powerful patrons, both within and without the Inquisition, Barbero quickly rose through the organisation. He is now the most senior Monodominant Inquisitor in the Skolarii Sector and his faction has gained ground while von Aschausen falters.

Barbero is getting ready to make his move.

I'll be back shortly with a glimpse at Franz Buirman of the Ordo Xenos.

BACKGROUND: Inquisitor Johan Gottfried von Aschausen

My girlfriend made it safely back from the apocalypse. Well, the flooding of Gloucestershire anyway. She was tired and bedraggled, but safe. She has some horrific photographs of the river Severn encroaching onto the M5 and the driving rain they travelled through. It just goes to show how fragile our existence really is, and that for all our supposed technological superiority we can be brought to our knees by a bit of water.

So, onto gaming stuff. I had a bit of a tidy of my gaming room yesterday and found an old notebook tucked away in a dusty bag. It contained all my scribblings on the Inquisition in the Skolarii Sector. Most of it had already made it's way onto the lone pilgrim website but there were four descriptions of high ranking Inquisitors which hadn't. Together, they form the Suprema, the supreme council of the Inquisition Skolarii. I always enjoy reading my own writing when it is old and forgotten because it's like someone else wrote it. I keep thinking, did I really write this? Where did I get all these ideas from?

Anyway, I tidied up my notes and I'm going to post each profile up over the next few days. First is the most senior Inquisitor in the entire sector.

The current High Protector Skolarii is dying. He is almost 650 years old. He is the only member of the Inquisition Skolarii who can actually remember the first Chaos invasion of 333.M41. He was an Interrogator back then, and after the war he went on to become a field Inquisitor in his own right. Over the next 300 years he conducted a solid but unspectacular career. He belongs to the Amalathian faction; his old master, Cornwaller, having attended the conclave in person.

Von Aschausen became the de facto head of the Amalathian faction upon the death of it's previous leader, Belacevac. He did not want the position but his fellow Inquisitors insisted that that was the reason why he should take it. Reluctantly, von Aschausen swapped the field for the desk and began his political career within the Inquisition. He rose slowly but steadily up the organisation, from Inquisitor General of Meridium in 642.M41, to Protector Strophious in 811.M41, eventually becoming High Protector in 897.M41.

The High Protector always joked that his success was down to his longevity; he simply outlived the competition. Of course his Ordo Malleus origins stood him in good stead. Ever since the first Chaos invasion the High Protector has always been a Daemonhunter. He was also a stabilising influence upon the Inquisition Skolarii which had been left reeling following numerous shifts in power since the Variance Discords of the 7th century M.41.

In recent years Johan's public appearances have begun to dwindle and rumour has it that his health is failing. The Monodominants are already jockeying for position. Von Aschausen has always opposed change in the Inquisition Skolarii but the hardliners are fighting hard to bring in a raft of changes.

Just as the Inquisition seems to be entering a new period of instability the forces of the enemy are rising. Ork attacks have increased right across the sector, while the court of the Kjalter sector has evacuated to the Skolarii sector in the face of ferocious Chaos cult uprisings. Can Johan rally the Inquisition once more to meet this new threat?

I'll be back tomorrow with a look at the second member of the Suprema, Franz Buirman.

BACKGROUND: Exigators 10th company, part two

Inquisitor de Fire had killed all but thirteen members of the 10th company but his primary target, captain Finn Keys, was still alive. The inquisitor had tracked him down to Devil's Den, a rocky, heavily forested area to the south east of Orbis hill. It covered an area of over 200 square kilometres and comprised the most challenging terrain on the entire second continent. Keys knew the place intimately and had a dozen of his best scouts with him. He also had advance warning of the inquisitor's plans. M'Kellan's message had got through.

Inquisitor de Fire left his base at Stolidus wood for Devil's Den with almost two hundred Stormtroopers and came back two weeks later with sixty six wounded and ninety one full body bags. Only one of those held the remains of an Exigator. The inquisitor came up with a new plan. He told the 16 captured scouts that they were free of the taint that afflicted many of the Exigators and that if they helped to hunt down Keys they would be able to continue their training and serve as a Marine in another chapter.

The scouts began a deadly game of cat and mouse with their former battle brothers. For four weeks the scouts stalked each other through the hostile terrain. Occasionally, Devil's Den was filled with the sound of gunfire, the triggering of traps and ambushes and the shouts and cries of desperate close combat. All this activity was separated by long periods of silence which sent the impatient de Fire into fits of apoplexy.

Keys lost seven of his loyal scouts before he killed the last of his former pupils. He strung the body up on a rock face as a defiant message for his inquisitorial nemesis. But the inquisitor had one last option. He called in an Eversor assassin.

Finn Keys was a skilled, cunning hunter who could survive for months at a time in enemy territory without support, but even he could not withstand the naked fury of an Eversor assassin. Two of his men were caught and brutally butchered. In a desperate gambit he lured the assassin into an ambush with himself as the lure. The gambit failed.

The Eversor discovered one of the scouts and shot him with his needle pistol before he could bring his heavy bolter to bear. Keys retaliated under covering fire from his last pupil. The assassin and the captain raced toward each other. The sniper's shot was true and hit the Eversor in the chest, cracking a rib and collapsing a lung. The assassin didn't break stride. He didn't even flinch.

He tore past Keys and raked his neuro-gauntlet across the marine's torso. The Eversor ignored the mortally wounded captain and bounded off after the sniper scout. He broke off after the scout disappeared in heavy brush and returned to Keys. Utterly dispassionately, he lopped off the captain's head. This was presented to de Fire as a trophy.

Despite that one missing scout de Fire declared his mission a success and left Insolitus, never to return. The Exigators now have no formal 10th company but they do occasionally return to Insolitus to take the best men from it's warrior lodges and induct them into the chapter.

BACKGROUND: Exigators 10th company

This is a long piece, so I have split it over two posts. Part two will follow tomorrow.

Finn Keys was the captain of the 10th company and was responsible for the recruitment and training of future Exigators. Although the Exigators were a fleet-based chapter, with their companies split up and assigned to different roaming missions, their principal recruiting centre was on Insolitus in the Halasus Marches. There they encouraged warrior lodges amongst the population and chose the best as recruits for the chapter.

When the Imperium learned of the chapter's gene debasement they developed a two pronged solution. The main thrust would be against the Exigator's fleet at Knardlone, with a smaller but no less vital attack against the scout company, and Finn Keys, at the fortress of Orbis hill on Insolitus.

Inquisitor de Fire was tasked with the mission. The initial bombardment began as planned; lance strikes and melta torpedoes reduced the chapter fortress to rubble. His ground assault, consisting of almost two hundred Stormtroopers flying in on Valkyrie airborne assault carriers supported by Vulture gunships, was delayed for a crucial ninety minutes by unseasonal electrical storms which grounded the flyers north of Stolidus wood.

Astropath M'Kellan survived the devastation of the fortress and received a warning about the destruction of the fleet from the astropath aboard the Swift Justice. He relayed this to the rest of the survivors, some forty scouts and seventy surfs and servitors. They had just enough time to crowd aboard three Thunderhawk gunships, safely housed in bomb-proof bunkers deep below ground. As they roared away from their ruined fortress the Vultures came screaming in. After a short but intense dogfight two Thunderhawks were destroyed in spectacular explosions and the third was forced to splash down in the Rhodahnus river. It sunk to the river bed and 27 bedraggled survivors, including astropath M'kellan and 16 scouts were eventually captured by de Fire.

Following the dogfight, Valkyries deposited the Stormtroopers directly onto the remains of the fortress. They scoured the rubble for the body of Keys but their prime target could not be found. Inquisitor de Fire began aggressive questionning of his captives. Astropath M'Kellan broke under interrogation and revealed that the 10th company captain was out on manoeuvres in the Devil's Den with twelve of his most promising aspirants. M'Kellan tried to send a psychic warning to Keys but he died with the strain, before he could be sure that the message had reached it's target.

BACKGROUND: Exigators. Treachery at Knardlone

Chapter records deposited at Jalein in 377.M34 show the disposition of the Exigators as follows.

• HQ Chapter Master: Silas Bettanez
• HQ Chief Librarian: Jayat Queroz
• HQ Master Techmarine: Snarvat Rime
• HQ Master Apothecary: Ramone Amos
• HQ Chaplain: Vann Morr
• 1st Company Captain: Tchoi Guerez
• 2nd Company Captain: Badalementi Astrid
• 3rd Company Captain: Jaxxe Sebastian
• 4th Company Captain: Orton Jorke
• 5th Company Captain: Rea Gomez
• 6th Company Captain: Coxon Guillemot
• 7th Company Captain: Cullum West
• 8th Company Captain: Keene Silek
• 9th Company Captain: Rev Mylo
• 10th Company Captain: Finn Keys

According to the records, the chapter boasted 1015 marines in total. This chapter organisation was shattered irrevocably in what has become described by the survivors as the Treachery at Knardlone.

When the Exigators succumbed to spontaneous genetic mutation their apothecaries produced a serum which stabilised the marines long enough for them to reunite and seek more advanced medical assistance. Unbeknownst to the Exigators, they were not the only chapter to suffer from unstable geneseed. The entire founding was affected and later became known as the cursed founding. The council of Terra convened and decided upon a drastic course of action.

The Exigators were instructed to make for Knardlone, an isolated system in the Arlehk system. There, they would rendezvous with senior apothecaries from a dozen other chapters and their geneseed would be healed.

The Exigator's battle barge Mighty Hammer broke warp in the Knardlone system, together with the strike cruisers Swift Justice, Emperor's Promise and Silent Hunter. The fleet travelled in-system for two hours before the strike cruiser Indomitable arrived having experienced difficulties with its Geller Field. It hurried to rejoin the fleet.

Without warning, an Imperial fleet emerged from the dark side of the fifth planet and engaged the Exigators. The Emperor's Promise was destroyed instantly in a hail of torpedoes, while the Mighty Hammer exploded with a nova cannon shot to its plasma reactor. Chapter Master Silas Bettanez and Chief Librarian Jayat Queroz perished in the inferno.

Captain Rev Mylo of the 9th company was aboard the Swift Justice which was protected from the initial assault by the bulk of the Mighty Hammer. Together with Silent Hunter they turned 180 degrees and made for the warp exit.

The Indomitable came steaming in from the opposite direction and scattered the Navy fleet. It was an heroic sacrifice as the Indomitable was annihilated by multiple broadside salvoes. 6th company captain Coxon Guillemot is still reckoned a hero by the surviving Exigators to this day.

It seemed like the two strike cruisers would escape the ambush. But the Navy had two Grand Cruisers waiting to close the net. Swift Justice was badly damaged and left drifting, so Silent Hunter became the hunted. It survived for a further 42 minutes, leading the Grand Cruisers a merry dance before being cornered by the rest of the Navy fleet. The Silent Hunter was boarded and it's crew slaughtered.

The distraction gave Swift Justice enough time to repair it's warp drives and escape the system.

The ambush cost the Exigators 596 marine lives, their battle barge and three strike cruisers. It left the survivors bewildered and angry. Why had the Imperium abandoned them? How would they stop the mutations?

I'll explain what happened to the survivors in my next installment.

BACKGROUND: Exigators, 4th company

Orton Jorke was an ambitious and daring commander who initially vied with Tchoi Guerez for leadership of the 1st company. His bravery was never in doubt but his ambition sometimes outstripped his abilities.

Jorke was leading the 4th company against the Delaval in Hexen sub when the gene curse hit the chapter. He refused to withdraw and join the fleet, instead preferring to finish his war. Jorke returned to Insolitus to find their base razed, their recruits slaughtered and Finn Keys, Captain of the 10th company executed by servants of the Imperium.

long dormant jealousies and rivalries, Jorke made contact with elements of the 2nd company who had survived the fleet ambush and rendezvoused with Badalementi Astrid, the 2nd company captain. While Astrid stoked Jorke'sJorke was seduced by the lure of Chaos and vowed to induct the rest of his company. Those who rebelled were disposed of. Or so Jorke thought.

With his followers united the 4th company made for the Salazar Systems where they were supposed to meet Gryan, a 'turned' Marine Apothecary who claimed to be able to reverse the Exigators gene curse. En-route, several Marines mutinied. Vicious fighting broke out all over the strike cruiser. Jorke led a foolhardy attack on the Enginarium but was killed by a melta-charge booby trap. No-one is sure what happened next.

Some say that the overwhelmed loyalists disabled the ship's Geller field allowing Daemons to devour the souls of all those on board. Others say that the followers of Chaos triumphed and that, leaderless, they pledged their allegiance to the traitor Apothecary in the Salazar systems. A few maintain that the loyalists won the fight and took control of the strike cruiser. It is said that they patrol the Skolarii Sector to this day, fighting the forces of Chaos wherever they are found.