The Time of Change
The 42nd Millennium and Beyond
The Salamanders Chapter remained largely independent in the years following the Emperor’s demise – until, Vulkan He’stan, the Forgefather, located one of the Artefacts of Vulkan, a Siege Engine, the Engine of Woes, on the planet of Carador IV, where he single-handedly overcame an entire horde of renegade Guardsmen to claim the prize, which was in transit towards Nocturne, where it would be presented to the Chapter Master himself. However, a force of Mechanicus and the Inquisition intercepted Vulkan He’stan, using what power they had to seize the Engine of Woes from the grasp of the Forgefather, and as Inquisitor Kai claimed, this was to test, to see if the Engine was untainted by Chaos. He’stan reluctantly agreed, as the last thing his chapter wanted to do was to fall out of favour with not only the Inquisition, but also the Mechanicus.
However, before the Inquisition could deliver the Engine safely to Mars, a boarding party of Night Lords attacked the loyalist forces, claiming the artefact of Vulkan for themselves. However, they did not get far before Vulkan He’stan and a well-planned assault from the Firedrakes First Company stepped in to save the Engine and the Inquisitor’s life. Reluctantly, Kai agreed that the Engine of Woes should remain with the Salamanders, and departed back to Mars with the small remaining contingent of Mechanicus who had survived the Night Lords boarding party. So, the Forgefather returned to Nocturne with his prize. One more of the Artefacts of Vulkan had been reclaimed, and the sons of Vulkan were ever closer to finding the remaining artefacts.
Meanwhile, the Ultramarines Civil War continued regardless of the events that plagued the rest of the Imperium. Guilliman though, was kept out of the Civil War, as a commander of Agemman’s forces, for the ‘loyalist’ Ultramarines did not want the risk of losing their Primarch to the heretical forces of Uriel Ventris and Cato Sicarus. Whilst the renegades controlled Talassar and Calth, the homeworlds of the respective leaders, the large amount of Ultramar and its surrounding areas were either taken control of by xenos or Chaos, or in the hands of Agemman and the loyalists. The first major incident took place on Calth, where Agemman’s Terminator strike force was forced to retreat after the combined efforts of Uriel Ventris, Sergeant Telion and Cato Sicarus, alongside their bodyguards and attached Dreadnoughts, inflicted a heavy toll on their loyalist brothers. Thus, it was deemed that the traitors could never be redeemed, and were declared excommunicate from the Ultramarines own Chapter, by order of Guilliman himself, after spilling the lives of several of the Ultramarines Finest. The renegades themselves, after a daring raid on Macragge conducted by none other than Sergeant Telion himself, pillaged a small amount of the Chapter’s geneseed, and effectively made the worlds of Talassar and Calth their new homeworlds, renaming their Chapter Calgar’s Finest, to uphold the honour of their former master, and repainted their armour a golden colour, to stand out from the loyalist remains of the Ultramarines Chapter.
The Chaos forces, lead by Abaddon the Despoiler, finally broke Cadia’s back during the fourteenth Black Crusade, the strongest, and most powerful one yet. At last, the Legions of Chaos had a foothold in the material realm, and were no longer trapped by their own safe haven. Only a few loyalists still fought on Cadia - lead by the stubbornness of Ursarker E. Creed. Indeed, just as Abaddon declared that he had conquered Cadia, an elite group of Ratlings tried to target the Destroyer with their sniper rifles, but could not pull off a hit due to the protection of the nearby Terminator forces, who locked onto the Ratlings position, before teleporting into their midist – and then delivering them to Abaddon to do with as he saw fit. No records have been since recorded of the fate of the Ratlings, and that is perhaps for the better that the loyalists remain in the dark about their fate.
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