Rad Wastes, Sector 17, Day 45
Loyalist Victory
The salamander's warband, Herald of the Flames, was last reported entering a large magnetic storm in Sector 17. Over flight recon suggested that elements of the emperors children legion were transiting this sector, looking to reinforce against the loyalist breakthrough to the south, in sectors 12 and 14. The delta grade mag storm prevented comm's capture from the ensuing battle, but gun pict, biomonitor and machine spirit interdiction post battle give a limited idea to the engagement that followed.
Rad Wastes, Sector 17, Day 45.
The salamander's warband, Herald of the Flames, was last reported entering a large magnetic storm in Sector 17. Over flight recon suggested that elements of the emperors children legion were transiting this sector, looking to reinforce against the loyalist breakthrough to the south, in sectors 12 and 14. The delta grade mag storm prevented comm's capture from the ensuing battle, but gun pict, biomonitor and machine spirit interdiction post battle give a limited idea to the engagement that followed. After what appears to be prognostications carried out by the warbands librarius and officer cadre [See addendum 14-B-75 'Unsanctioned Psykanics and the Promethean cult'] the warband managed to intercept a column of 3rd legion units, despite the heavy cover of the storm. The 3rd legion found itself spread out in the maelstrom, a leading element having forged ahead impetuously of their heavier comrades, these vanguards would be bypass initially by the salamander's attack, only joining the battles later half. Utilising the element of surprise, light infantry squads worked their way forward, whilst tank destroyer and heavy transports opened fire on the 3rd legion, managing to destroy the command and control vehicle in the opening salvos. Girded against the dust storms by nocturnean artifice, jet bike squadrons followed up on the opening salvo, whittling away the 3rd legion infantry with heavy plasma fire. Ably supported by dreadnough chassis', the salamanders began to form a significant base of fire under which their assault units prepared to advance. Not ones to be caught flat footed, the traitor legion immediately lauched into a fierce counter assault, with veteran close combat squads overwhelming the light infantry and tactical marines on the salamander flanks, while a direct centre punch of heavy infantry looked poised to smash through the loyalist assault cadre. Given the conditions of the battle, many of the salamanders had opted to fight as so called despoiler units, with a large concentration lead into battle by their librarian and an unknown chaplain. [See Biomonitor report, D45-H1 and attached report on discrepancies with identified astartes] Despite heavy losses, the relatively outmatched line Astartes of the 18th managed to hold their ground against the terminator elite, with biomonitor records indicating that many of the combatants fought on with grievous wounds that ordinarily would have disabled or killed even an Astartes. Gun pict images show the librarian and enemy warlord engaged in single combat, the traitor champion appearing to suffer a severe wound from the librarian's force spear, although their fate is not known conclusively, as the pict capture feed cuts out when the bearer is slain by what appears to be a phoenix spear. The unexpectedly stiff resistance of the loyalist centre and the delay in arrival of the forward traitor elements, largely due to the worsening storm, gave time for the remaining base of fire units to advance and both interdict the arriving reinforcements and begin to overrun the traitor rear lines, forcing the remaining emperors children to withdraw before the storm closed in completely, possibly trapping them.[Addendum 14-B-75 'Unsanctioned Psykanics and the Promethean cult'] Excerpt, Chapter 2.
Ran by a triumvirate of line officers, its members are part of the secretive promethean cults spreading amongst the 18th since Vulkan's death, as such it is alienated from mainline forces and even the more orthodox shattered legion formations active in the sector. ... Initial intelligence is limited but suggests the original core of the force comes from one or perhaps two line companies that fought clear of istvaan, however it is clear that the unit has absorbed other legion formations and inducted new recuits at some point post masacre. The presence of librarius assests has been recorded, however pre-heresy records do not indicate any astartes with psycanik gifts and the battlefield techniques do not match any known psychic doctrines. Also unclear is the nature of the so called promethean cult and its promogulation within legion forces of the 18th. Attempts to interrogate imperial army survivors previously attached to the unit have been unsuccessful and in one instance resulted in reprisal action by ████████ It has been observed that at least one of the command triumvirate also fulfils some position of ritual significance. Unclear if this cult represents a significant threat to imperial truth or is strictly a closed legion practice, advise further investigation pending successful repulse of enemy.[Biomonitor report, D45-H1] Magos Biologis Maximilian Generatus Kappa-Ohmn
Whilst to the untrained and unagumented, it has been said that all astartes look alike, there exists clear telltale markers even amongst the relatively genetically homogenous legions. Putting aside for a moment the wisdom in wasting my time with these flippant and illogical requests, my findings are thus - Subject, designated 'Chaplain Primus' of the 18th legion warband Herald of the Flames [disambigious]. Clear inconsistencies exist within the recovered biomonitor data and the historical records on file for this legionary. While the death of innocence resulted in a macro-sacrilege of data being lost, archival records indicate that the previous bearer of this armour had noticable differences in their baseline heart rhythms and hormonal counts, gait monitoring and reflex capture are also anomalous. Omnisiah forgive my supposition here, but there is also a post heresy biography that indicates the legionary was seriously wounded and spent approximately 20 solar months in sus-ann coma being ministered to and augmented by the iron hands. My deepest respect for the iron fathers of that esteemed legion but some of the data we have seen in the aftermath of the dropsite masacre and their revenge campaign would trip the ethical subroutines of even the harshest and most 'pragmatic' gross chattel augemiticist. There are a multidude of explanations, the data discrepancies indicate that the astartes wearing that armour into battle is not the same astartes as it was issued to, biologically speaking! But whether another battle brother is wearing his panoply, or the original bearer is so badly wounded and, forgive me, so badly put back together is beyond my ability to state categorically and I will not sully the data stacks with baseless guess work.
