Reclamation of Orberus: Forces of the Reclamation War

 

The stage is set, the players are cast and the dice are ready to roll. On May 1st begins a war across six planets that will decide the fate of the Orberus Sector and the galaxy will know once and for all who has truly conquered this region of space. But just what factions are involved in the war and just how have they found themselves embroiled in the fight between the Silent King's forces and the servants of the Emperor?

In this eleventh hour article we will be uncovering each and every army signed up to this campaign and their back story, alongside a symbol notifying you dear readers of exactly which index/codex rules that faction will be utilising as well as the alliance each faction will be representing. So, without further ado, here are the forces fighting the Reclamation War...

Known in the Orberus Sector as the original conquerors of the Imperial capital world of Python IV, it was the Khertet Dynasty that had acted as the shock troops on behalf of the Silent King to further the expansion of the dreaded Pariah Nexus... or at least that was the story they carefully concocted. Their true goal was to recover the Crucible of Ne'hekh, a lost Necron artifact whose secrets could be unlocked on the tomb world of Ultrus Prime. It was the Khertet Dynasty's lust for power and negligence of maintaining rule of the Orberus Sector that allowed the Imperial interlopers to gather strength on the fringe moon of Venom and thus attracted the ire of the Silent King himself. Now the dynasty's Phaeron, Nemekh the Summoner, finds themselves forced back into a war they had originally begun in service to the Silent King or face having their Dynasty eradicated by the Triarch.

When reports began to circulate of the Hollowed, regiments of Imperial Guard who had been forced into servitude by the Necrons via xenos technology, the Tallarn "Seventeenth" willingly pledged their allegiance to the Silent King's forces. Masquerading as one of the Hollowed regiments themselves, the Tallarn "Seventeenth" have come to the conclusion that, whilst their Necron masters may sacrifice their lives to further their own cause without a second thought, the Imperium would likely sacrifice their lives without any reason whatsoever. Now the Guard regiment have only one true objective in mind: survive as best they can until the end of this blasted war, even if it is only a single guardsman left standing by the end of it.

Very little is known about this mysterious Necron Dynasty. Though they seemingly fight the cause of the Silent King, their actions are only merely tolerated by their allies at this time, being used more as a reactionary force by the Silent King as opposed to a more transparent and controllable asset such as the Khertet Dynasty, the Kaphenet Dynasty or the other allies that have joined their cause for material gain. Though the Reticent Host's true intentions are yet to be deemed as malicious, that hasn't stopped them being monitored closely by the Legions of Silence...

The Pillage are an offshoot warband of the Night Lords legion, devoted to the utter and complete destruction of the Imperium and their false Emperor. Currently led by Castellan Xand, a Warpsmith and Gate Prince of the Daemonforge of Viria III, the Pillage have decided the most effective way to accomplish their goals are to utilise new materials and the foul technologies deployed by the Legion of Silence in the fires of their own Daemonforge and have thus entered an alliance with the Silent King in return for these assets. Whilst a number of the warband's members bristle at the idea of being lapdogs to the Necron monarch, so long as they continue to receive ample rewards for their services they remain at least willing to keep their thoughts of rebellion in check and continue to do what is bidden of them.

Following the retreat of the renegade guard regiment from Ultrus Prime in the Nihilus Imperium, the Unseen were consequently subsumed into the ranks of the Adraxhar Khanate. Led by the fearsome Lelix Adraxhar, it had originally been her will to not only utterly destroy the Imperial forces in the Orberus Sector, but to disrupt the Necron plans as well, however the faction's hatred for the Imperium far outweighed their desire to halt the Pariah Nexus's expansion and have since decided on aligning their cause with that of the Silent King. Now they are not only aided but encouraged by the ancient xenos race in their crusade to kill the Imperial forces utterly and without remorse.

One of the oldest Necron Dynasties, the Xenniset Dynasty awoke from the Great Sleep unrecognisable from the wisened nobles that they once were due to electromagnetic storms interfering with their tombs and instead became the product of the very cultural artefacts and treasures they once coveted, acting and speaking as if the cast in a grand play on a stage that only they can perceive, and though the higher functioning amongst the Dynasty are aware of the eccentricities that affect them, even they find it impossible to overcome their creative urges. It is their obsession with culture in fact that has brought the Xenniset Dynasty to the Orberus Sector and have been given amnesty by the Silent King himself to scour the system in search of an uncorrupted copy of the Cultural Archives as well as the data vault hidden by Technomancer Juno-60.

The Kaphenet Dynasty are a vassal Dynasty of the Nihilakh Dynasty led by Kaphenet the Provider whose tombs had awoken somewhere near the Orberus Sector in recent years. Due to the relatively small size of their Dynasty as it stands, Kaphenet seeks to reawaken as many Necrons tombs as they can in order to subsume them into their own numbers, a goal that the Silent King has promised to aid in return for their support in his plans to expand the Pariah Nexus. Despite this, Kaphenet harbours a famous hatred towards Chaos and whilst this will undoubtedly prove to be useful in fighting off the Daemon incursions on Vector Alpha, the fact that the Silent King would debase himself by allying with servants of the ruinous powers is bound to unsettle the proud Overlord...

The Protocian Dynasty have long been branded as an eccentric and excessively dangerous Dynasty by the Necron race in general, so much so that many other Dynasties are reluctant to occupy any tombs anywhere near them and even the Silent King has condemned any of their forces straying too far from their Crown World to quick and complete destruction, however as the enemy encroaches upon the Orberus Sector and therefore the Pariah Nexus as a whole, even the Silent King himself must utilise every asset at his disposal. As such he has allowed the Protocian Dynasty to awaken a small number of their units to expand their domain into the Orberus Sector knowing that they will fight with their full might to protect what has officially been deemed to be theirs by right.

Very little is documented about the Warband of the Warpspawned Talon. When they entered the system they were scanned by Imperial fleets and mistaken as harmless debris and they seem to be very subservient to the needs of the Necrons in return for blackstone, though how they were integrated into the Legions of Silence to begin with is mostly unknown by many of the Silent King's forces and as such they remain under close watch by many of it's supposed allies.

The Peregrine Task Force hail from the Dark Angels successor chapter, the Angels of Vengeance, perhaps one of the the most clandestine of the already secretive unforgiven chapters. The chapter's ability to emerge victorious in battles most would have considered doomed should see them as some of the finest warriors of the Emperor's angels, were it not for their complete disregard for laurels and adulation. While the majority of Imperial forces rally behind the Dark Angel hosts whose defeat at the hands of the Khertet Dynasty led to the Necron conquest of the sector originally, a small task force led my Grand Master Israfel of the 3rd Company and Interrogator Chaplain Camael has been assembled. Tasked with disrupting enemy supply lines as well as the identifying and capturing of heretical elements amongst the sector's populace, the Peregrine Task Force has been given complete autonomy to accomplish their goals no matter the cost.

Following the Tyranid invasion of Ultrus Prime and the Nulla Faculta PDF's miraculous survival in the face of such overwhelming odds, the Imperial Guard regiment had automatically been reached for a regimental draft requisition, and thus was the Nulla Facultan 1st born. Veterans and novice soldiers alike were united in standing for defense of their homeworld alongside other, more hardened formations. Shortly after their inception, the regiment were loaded onto "The Inclement Tribulation" and shipped off to obey local commanders mounting their expeditionary transit to the Orberus Sector where their fighting spirit is hoped to inject some much required morale into the surviving populace desperately attempting to fight off the effects of the Stilling.

The Blood Ravens have always been a chapter that placed great reverence in the acquisition of artifacts and relics all over the galaxy. Recent intel have alerted the Blood Ravens of a significant relic of great power that has landed somewhere in the Orberus Sector, though the exact whereabouts of this relic is currently unknown. It was for this reason alone that the Seekers of the Tome, a small task force made up from the greater Blood Ravens chapter was created. Their primary mission is seek out the location of this relic before the servants of the ruinous powers can lay claim to it themselves.

The planet of Python III has most recently been the stage of bloody raids by Necron invasion decurions, overwhelming the Imperial forces there and trampling the allied Mechanicus cohorts under their necrodermal heels. However, through either sheer luck or perhaps clever tactics, Skitarii Marshall Mora-82 was able to ambush the xenos threat by the time it had reached them and disappeared into the night with her Skitarii cohort thanks to the last binaric transmission from Magos Ghoss, which simply read: <Survive>. Now known as the Skitarii Survivor Cohort 7-19, Mora-82 alongside the survivors she and her fellow Mechanicum warriors have subsumed into their group have three main objectives - 1: Survive. 2: Fight off the Necrons and secure a foothold on the planet. 3: Uncover the truth behind the disappearances of Tech Priests in the area.

A successor chapter of the 1st legion, the Dark Angels, the Watchers of the Fall have condemned themselves to an existence of self-imposed isolation for millennia on the fringes of the Orberus Sector, as such very little is known about their chapter's history, fighting doctrines etc. Often preferring to participate in wars where other Imperial forces are not involved, it came as somewhat of a surprise to the local Imperial navy commanders when the Watchers of the Fall responded to their request for aid against the Silent King's forces, though their reasons for doing so to this day remain a mystery.

Also known as the Calamity Company, Da'Cova'Kavaal were, until recently clashing with the Cult of the Red Serpent and a myriad of other forces in the Malyfax Sector, all the while gathering auxiliary aid and bolstering the resources they'd inevitably need if they were to make it home. In time, the expedition grew and grew and... just stayed put. For nigh on three years, the staus quo of constant warfare remained unchanged, that was until "D" showed up, a strange hooded figure who revealed a drive to them known as the Fos'tyann Mk.I capable of getting them just far enough to reach the Orberus Sector. "D" claims he can get the fleet all the way back to the T'au Spheres, but in return he requires an enormous amount of blackstone from the Orberus Sector itself, and for the the Calamity Company to disrupt any and all Necron experiments they come across, though for what reasoning "D" may have for these conditions or in fact for helping them at all is currently unknown.

A completely unknown factor in the Reclamation War, this Aeldari Craftworld's goal has been translated as "Purge & Cleanse". Though it has been suspected that this is in relation to the outbreak of Daemons on Vector Alpha, the moon on which first contact was made, no-one truly knows the intentions of this Aeldari force and as such have been viewed with more scrutiny by the typically xenophobic Imperium than usual.

Hailing from the Iyanden Craftworld, the Eternal Spear have come to the Orberus Sector to create a beautiful stalemate, to aid the Imperium just enough to foil the plans of the Necrons and become the architects of a perpetual war of mutual destruction between the two warring factions. They aim to do this by assassinating the head figures of the more prominent players in the Reclamation War such as the Khertet Dynasty and the Oathbound Changehost to name but a few, as well as to destroy as much Necron technology (such as the Noctilith Pylons) as they can.

Following their successful crusade for the Liber Infernus on Ultrus Prime, the warband once known as the Hedarai Vultures were rid of their leader Hedara in favour of serving their newly acquired daemonic master and with that changed their name to the Oathbound Changehost to signify their newfound loyalty. This newly reformed cult of Thousand Sons have since journeyed to the Orberus Sector in search of yet another relic that their ruinous lord demands of them, taking advantage of the cultist rituals taking place on Vector Alpha to enter the system relatively undetected. Now they find themselves in competition with the accursed Blood Ravens in a race spanning the entirety of the Orberus Sector in order to locate and claim the prize that they seek.

Many years ago, the feudal world of Wyrmwudd was brought to heel by the Genestealer Grandfather Onderghast Wyrmwudd in preparation of the day that the Skymother would come. When the Tyranid fleets of the Skymother finally arrived to consume the planet of Wyrmwudd, rather facing the end and being consumed by the great devourer as they were expected to, a chunk of the cult residing there including Grandfather Wyrmwudd himself took to the stars to bring more worlds into the embrace of the Skymother. This has led them to the Orberus Sector, particularly the infamously wild world of Perelus, where they have already absorbed a number of smaller, failed cults into their numbers already and are aiming to increase their following further so that the whole system may one day know the Skymother's embrace.

A subset of a much larger WAAAGH!! the Ork mob known only as the "Croosade Force" have recently fought a planetary war in a neighboring system and set back into the void once more to rejoin their klan having run out of strong enemies to fight. Emboldened (and embiggened) by their recent success, they have made a detour to the Orberus Sector on the way back to the WAAAGH!! in search of good skrap and a good scrap.

Following the Khertet Dynasty's initial invasion of the Orberus Sector, many Imperial citizens evacuated their homes to escape the unstoppable advance of the Silent King's forces. So desperate were the people of system that a number of them turned to the ruinous powers for aid against the silver tide, and this was particularly true of the moon Vector Alpha. From the rituals performed on this moon, the fabric of reality itself was weakened in this region and torn asunder, allowing Daemons to pour through into real space - the Acolytes of the Polygramatic Gore are but one of these Daemonic incursions to enter the system via these accursed rituals.

After their crusade on Ultrus Prime ending with their numbers in worse shape than they had began with their only gains being a few extra recruits to their cause, the Emperor's Children of the Sinfonia of the Screaming Void have changed their allegiances with the dark gods and are seeking to consolidate their forces, take prisoners and ascend their Lord Osiris to Daemonhood. Their ambitions have brought them to the Orberus Sector seeking the very thing that could make this happen, though what it is they are seeking remains a mystery to all but the Emperor's Children themselves.

Named after the insects of Old Terra for their distinct black and yellow colouring, Hive Fleet Vespae is one of the two known Tyranid Hive Fleets that have entered the Orberus Sector, though how they have entered the system undetected until recently is unknown, though it is theorised that they may have been lured here by another, more malicious entity...

Having succeeded the original Goff Warboss Soddit the Slayer who united many a mob through slaying their leaders (hence the name), the now Ex-Mega Nob Magrak 'da Irongob Gutchoppa finds himself the head of his own Ork warband after Soddit was killed enroute to join the great prophet Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka's great WAAAGH!! when their meteor crash landed on the planet of Perelus. After seizing power over the warband by headbutting his rival Nobz to death, Magrak now leads his forces on the surface of the planet they find themselves on, looking to claim any tech that might help them to get off this accursed rock and continue their way to the great WAAAGH!! as originally planned.

Following the events of Ultrus Prime and the injuries they had sustained in the war against the Tyranids, one member of the Inquisition found themselves injured and subsequently infected with the Genestealer curse, a curse that he has since passed on to his subordinates. As the Imperium begins sending troops to the Orberus Sector, the form now masquerading as the infamous Inquisitor dispatches a number of his newly formed cult alongside the oblivious Imperial forces with the intent to disrupt their plans and spread the love and faith of the true Emperor, the four armed Emperor, amongst the populace of the system.

A splinter fleet of the greater Hive Fleet Ex Umbra that was seen on Ultrus Prime has also been spotted on the outskirts of the Orberus Sector, though their arrival has been delayed somewhat compared to the other forces within the system and as such their first move was to instinctively attack the outskirt moon of Venom, the homebase for the Forces of Reclamation.