Shaaa Hydrades

> "*Human life is inherently worthless, this is not a statement to inflame or one that broaches discussion, it is a simple, undeniable, fact. Humans are expendable, we are self perpetuating, yet self destructive, adaptable, yet flawed. Human life is abundant. Overpopulation of any colonized world is a given. Through the lens of cold objectivity, it is impossible to say that every individual life has worth. And so, with that being the case, it is simple to state that human life is worthless. In the forging of the Imperium, an endeavour that will affect trillions, hundreds of trillions, perhaps even quadrillions of humans, what is the worth of a billion lives? Or two billion? Or ten billion? Our choices are limited, drastic action must be taken. By putting one world to the sword and fires or war, we safeguard the Imperium. Human life has no worth, but the Imperium? The Imperium has more worth than anyone or anything within it. A humans life given for the Imperium is not a trade, it is a given. A billion lives given for the Imperium to continue is not a concept, it is an undeniable fact. And so world's will die, populations shall be slaughtered, but all that matters, is the Imperium endures.*"
> ― Shaaa Hydrades on the ethics of putting an entire world to the sword
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Perturabo was the Primarch of the IVth Legion of Space Marines, the Iron Warriors, and a master smith to rival any of Mars, crafting weapons and armours used across the Imperium by both his brothers and the Astartes Legions at large.

If the Primarch’s were all created for some higher purpose, some aspect of the Emperor split into each of them like white light through a prism's rays, as many Imperial scholars of the Imperial Court suggested, then from such a point of view, Shaaa Hydrades was the Emperor’s unrivalled mechanical skill, capable of creating the machines that would see humanity take its rightful place as ruler of all reality, and importantly, acting as a bridge between Terra and Mars, creating a second link to bind the two worlds together in perpetuity.

Throughout the Great Crusade, Shaaa would fight in some of the worst war zones imaginable, from the darkness of the Squat Wars, to the killing zones of the Colossalstructure, to the void above Ullanor. His conquests were slow and yet innumerable, the benefit of having been found by the Imperium in its infancy. When Shaaa and his IVth were called upon, it was not to parley with the enemy, nor to deliver the final sanction of Exterminatus, though he often did destroy entire worlds in his pursuit of victory. Instead, Shaaa was relied upon to bring any world, no matter how harsh the environment, into compliance, his brutal and effective strategies shattering worlds, leaving those who dwelt upon them on the brink of extinction, but undeniably part of the Imperium.

When Shaaa joined the Imperium, all personal hopes and dreams were buried in favour of the utopian dream of Imperium the Emperor told him of. He would become a tool for the Emperor, ever his creator, but never referred to as ‘father’, carrying out any action asked of him with no thought of resistance. He murdered billions, broke empires, shattered armies, and even marched against his own kind, all for the simple fact that it was asked of him in pursuit of making the Imperium a reality. For Shaaa, that was all that was required for him to act.

It was perhaps for this reason that Shaaa was selected to serve as the Emperor’s Praetorian, drawn away from the Great Crusade in the wake of the Triumph of Ullanor to fortify the Sol system, from both aggressors, and dissenters.Predictably, Shaaa voiced no concern about being removed from the frontline, indeed the time spent away from war allowing him a period of peace he had not known for centuries.

For six decades, Shaaa laboured to create not just a fortress upon Terra, but a protective cordon around the entire Sol system, the Solar Guardian Array slowly taking shape at his command. Even this however could not stop the Warmaster, when Almire threw of his veil of loyalty and struck for Terra, catching all of guard in the masterfully executed first strike. Terra burnt, the IVth was shattered, and Shaaa all but destroyed by Abner of the Xth.

Only through the machinations of the Mechanicus did Shaaa survive, but with this final ascension, Shaaa’s mind had finally lost the battle that had been raging since before the Imperium. Logic reigned supreme in the new mechanical lord, his every goal focused on rebuilding the Imperial Armada to retake Terra and the system he claimed he had dominion over, given to him by the Emperor himself.

It was Shaaa who helped to lead the Imperium back to Terra under the gaze of the Emperor, Shaaa retaking sacred Mars while the Emperor struck down Almire in return for a mortal wound of his own. Upon hearing of the Emperor’s fate, the Shaaa that was would have flown into a rage, pursuing the traitors and killing any who dared stand before him. With but a nod however, the new Shaaa accepted this change, returning to work on the SGA once more.

When his work was finally completed, centuries after the Apostasy was declared done and the Legions split into Chapters, Shaaa turned to face the Imperium, only to find the empire he had poured everything into the forging of had moved on, his kind no longer having a place amongst the dark empire that had sprung from the hope of the Imperial Truth. Pausing only to transmit a single coded signal to what remained of his Star Guardians, Shaaa travelled to Mars, entering the forbidden vaults on the Red Planet and sealing them from within, ensuring none could follow in his footsteps as he began his newest and greatest project...

## History

### Youth

The Dark Watchers, and the Star Guardians they would soon become, were the IVth Legion of Space Marines, created from the gene-seed of the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades. At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, before the Great Crusade had begun, the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, the Primarchs, were scattered across the known galaxy through the Warp in a mysterious accident due to the intervention of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The gestation capsules of all twenty Primarchs were stolen from the Emperor's secret gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains on Terra and were flung across thousands of light years, all eventually coming to rest on backwater human colony planets.

It was this first touch of Chaos before the Primarchs had even been born that may have corrupted so many of them and laid the foundation for the agonising tragedy of the Almire Apostasy that was to come. Of all of these young Primarch’s however, only one would come to rest on anything but a planet, Shaaa Hydrades crashing into the ancient megastructure known only as ‘the Ring’.

Smashing into a hanger bay, Shaaa’s mere arrival saw hundreds die as the sealed room was suddenly opened to the void. By the time warriors from the Hydrades empire, where the pod had impacted, arrived, they expected to find nothing but corpses or enemy EVA troopers within the hanger. Instead, what they found was a small child, seemingly no more than five years of age, sitting in the remains of a metallic pod, seemingly uncaring about the airless and freezing nature of the void that now surrounded him. Confused but realising that this was no ordinary child, the warriors quickly brought the child to their ruler, Lord Asher Hydrades of the Hydrades empire. Intrigued by the youth who displayed more talent than any of his years should have been able to, and a seeming immunity to the kiss of space, Asher quickly adopted the child, declaring his name to forever more be Shaaa of house Hydrades, adopting him into his family.

In his new family, Shaaa soon found himself treading both the path of the smith and the warrior, coming to hold full dominion over the great stellar forge complex of the Hydrades Empire when not fighting, or acting as the second in command of the Hydrades army, subservient only to his older brother, and to Ashur himself. A being of ferocious intellect, Shaaa delved deep into all the knowledge the Ring had to offer, crafting new weapons for his father, using STC technology that the Mechanicum of Mars would have waged several crusades to possess, sadly lost to the ravages of war before their arrival. It is even believed that had Shaaa had already reasoned out his true nature and the abstract nature of his origins as an artificial post-human being, created by someone superior to even himself, and someone he fully expected to one day reveal himself to Shaaa, afterall, you didn’t misplace a construct such as a Primarch, Shaaa knowing the word even though none had ever voiced it, and merely leave it to roam the galaxy without guidance.

   In these days, Shaaa was almost a completely different man than the one who would one day stride the stars alongside the Imperium. He laughed, he joked, he even loved, taking a husband, named Torex, whom he gave everything too, often describing him as the utter pinnacle of his life, despite their obvious differences. He got on well with most he encountered, his older sister and younger brother both looking to him for guidance on numerous occasions, but this adulation was not universal, and it was from this that dark storms began to take shape.

Asher and Shaaa’s eldest brother both soon became wary of the Primarch, now leading a massive war across the entire space station, having already conquered more of it than any other warlord in history had come close to. Growing nervous that Shaaa would one day usurp him, and urged on by the jealous brother, Asher took steps to remove Shaaa from the equation entirely.

On the eve on Shaaa’s final march of the last remaining warlord to not both to Asher, while he was mustering his closest soldiers to him for a final war council, an agent loyal to Asher above all detonated a bomb, it's like unseen in all of the Ring’s history. An ancient archeotech masterpiece, the weapon continued both radiological and bio-chemical components, creating a blast that would destroy anything that stood in its way, at least in theory.

Shaaa took the full brunt of the sudden blast, as did his inner council, Shaaa’s brother and sister perishing in agony, while Shaaa’s husband survived for but a moment longer, Shaaa shielding him with his own bulk, a futile final act of love from a Primarch none who met him after that day would ever think capable of such.

The blast tore Shaaa in half, bisecting the Primarch at the waist, his body being scorched by the unnatural fire, half his body melting like hot wax, giving the Primarch the hideous visage he carried throughout the Great Crusade. No one else could have hoped to survive the blast, but Shaaa’s will to endure was the stuff of legend, and when Asher sent in his own warriors to clear up the wreckage and ensure his son was dead, they instead found a hideously wounded but very much alive warrior, enraged beyond anything he had exhibited in his life to date. Despite his injuries and his lack of legs, the warriors stood little chance against the Primarch, their corpses soon joining those of Shaaa’s followers in the airless void of the breached section of the station.

From that day forth, Shaaa had only one goal, the destruction of the Hydrades empire in its entirety, wanting nothing more than to tear up his foster-father's legacy root and stem for the ultimate act of betrayal. Fashioning himself crude cybernetics, Shaaa would soon rise at the head of a new army, those who had looked to Shaaa over Asher rallying to his call for vengeance. It was ironic that before the attempt on his life, Shaaa would never have contemplated betrayal of his father, and yet in the wake of his near death experience, Asher had ensured that what he most feared came to pass.

For all his power though, Shaaa was a shell of his former self in so many ways, his body broken, but his mind the worse casualty. The agoraphobia, so common amongst the people of the Ring that Shaaa had so long avoided dropped upon the Primarch like a battle tank, leading to him becoming irritable or enraged when outside of fully sealed battleplate, while his mis-firing neurons in his brain began to degrade, the emotional centres of the brain being subsumed by the logical parts. Though it would take centuries, in time emotions would be all but impossible for the Breacher Lord to show, though he felt them as keenly as any of his brothers, falling back instead on cold logic, something most began to equate to the Primarch being cold and uncarring, which was never the case. Shaaa did care deeply for all his kin, he simply lacked the ability to express this.

Soon, Shaaa marched on the Hydrades empire at the head of his own army, a changed man from the one who had already conquered the station once. Gone was the joy and laughter, replaced instead with a near incalculable rage, barely held in check by cold, unremitting logic more at home in a machine than a man. In time, it would become clear the blast had affected more than just Shaaa’s body, attacking his mind with the same self-replicating injuries that kept his body from ever hoping to heal. His emotional centres were all but destroyed, his left and right side of the brain practically fused together, making it difficult for the Primarch to process the emotions running hot through his body. In time, this would worsen considerably, making the merely difficult all but impossible, until Terra finally rendered the further degradation irrelevant.

Within five years, less than half of what it had taken him to conquer the station in Ashur's name, Shaaa and his army, the so called Immortals, had smashed apart all opposition before them. The Hydrades army was in tatters, Shaaa slaying his elder brother at the Apex of the last blood battle for supremacy aboard the station. With his victory there, none could challenge the Primarch. Shaaa was poised to strike, and yet on the eve of his victory, something he had all but forgotten about came to pass, appearing to him in a flash of golden light.

From the flash of light strode beings Shaaa had never expected to see in the flesh. Glorious giants armoured in exquisitely wrought golden armour, carrying long spears tipped with the wide barrels of projectile weaponry. Behind them came smaller warriors, barely taller than the hulking forms of those who called the Ring their home. Their armour was not as fine, though still looking extremely proficient and adequate for any task the user could use. Clad in black, the only colour the warriors showed was burning orange eyepieces, seeming to pierce the soul of everyone present behind their emotionless faceplates.

Then finally, the last figured stepped through, Shaaa’s face twisting into what would once have been a smile, but now was closer to an ugly leer. The being that stepped forward was undoubtedly a being of supreme power, radiating a golden light that forced all who looked upon him to turn away, all save for Shaaa himself. Here was vindication of everything he had believed about his own past, a being like this was the only one who could have forged a being such as Shaaa.

According to all accounts of what transpired next, Shaaa knelt before a word was said, bowing his head before the Emperor of Mankind. The Emperor spoke of the Imperium, Shaaa remaining silent as he spoke, only rising when the Emperor made to hand Shaaa an army to finish what he had already begun, indicating the warriors in black he had brought with him. When Shaaa spoke, it was to refuse the aid, referring only to the Emperor as his creator, and proclaiming that the warriors of the Ring had begun the war, and only they would end it, asking the Emperor not to interfere in this last, most deserving of victories.

The Emperor agreed, though it was clear the warriors in black did not take the dismissal lightly, but Shaaa paid them little heed. Renewing his conquest, Shaaa smashed apart the last of Asher’s guards, tearing them asunder before finally reaching the man himself, standing before his foster-father’s throne bereft of guards. What passed between the pair has gone unrecorded from history, the next records showing a single shot being fired, before Shaaa strode from the throne room, his father’s frail frame clamped in one hand, still clinging to life, though lacking a right hand.

Flinging Asher into an airlock, Shaaa watched in silence as his father stood on the other side of the thick armour-glass. No words passed between them, to his credit Asher not uttering a sound as he struggled to stand with half a dozen clearly broken bones. And then it was over, the airlock cycling in a puff of expelled atmosphere, ejecting Asher Hydrades into the coldness of space. The Ring was unified under the Hydrades name, but it was Shaaa, not Asher, who was hailed as its undisputed and total ruler.

### The Great Crusade

> "*And where my hand shall strike, the foes of Mankind shall be laid waste; so shall I be the hammer of the Emperor, and I shall never tire.*"
> ― Shaaa Hydrades before the Burning of the Pharun Drift
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    Shaaa Hydrades threw himself into the Great Crusade in the way only someone who had no doubts about the course he trode and the leader he followed could do. After only a brief period of training alongside the Emperor of Mankind, Shaaa and the newly formed 30th Expeditionary Fleet were released into the galaxy, the formation lasting through some of the worst conflicts of the Great Crusade, until its final dissolution in the wake of the Ullanor Crusade.

An uncompromising and utterly unforgiving general, Shaaa brought death to empires and brought ruined worlds into the Imperium, never taking a step back, never broaching compromise. From the depths of the Squat Wars to the void above [REDACTED], Shaaa carried out his appointed task with the same force of will that had united the Ring under his sole leadership.

It was this drive, as well as other whispered reasons by his detractors, that saw Shaaa elevated away from the Great Crusade, named as Praetorian of Terra and charged with its ultimate defence. This role quickly expanded beyond merely the world of Terra, Shaaa taking charge of the defence of the entire Sol system, as well as the civil aspects of void traversal, streamlining the shipping lanes to be both efficient, and easily defensible by his newly forming Solar Guardian Array and the fortress world of Ceres.

### The Almire Apostasy

Owing to his position as Praetorian, Shaaa was stationed within the Sol system alongside almost all of his legion when Almire’s rebellion erupted across the galaxy. Brought word of the betrayal of both Almire’s traitors and the mad Galvarian by the Ashen Crows Lord Fugal, Durath, Shaaa immediately began to prepare for the unthinkable; a strike at Terra itself.

Warp storms were already beginning to make external communications from Terra all but impossible, across the galaxy, and though Shaaa stood against Malcador as he ordered the Ashen Crows Legion from Terra, he continued his work of safeguarding the home system, accelerating construction of the Solar Guardian Array, the defences not even half completed when the war erupted.

Even with his position and usually level head and logical approach to warfare, Shaaa nearly fell ploy to one of the traitors traps, flying into a rage as word of the Brothers Encarmine’s attack on the Ring reached Terra. Almost giving the order to unleash the IVth’s fleet to retake his homeworld, it was only due to Malcador and Varinius Rampt’s council that the action was withheld, Shaaa reluctantly sacrificing his home for the sake of Terra.

It was here that Shaaa gained a new title, no longer merely the Praetorian of Terra, Shaaa was now named as the first Lord Commander of the Imperium, replacing the now tainted position of Warmaster as ultimate commander of all loyalist forces, though in practice this command was only over the forces that reached the Sol system, external communications still all but impossible from Terra.

    This rank came into its own when Almire finally arrived in the Sol System, beginning what would later become known as the First Solar War. Taking command of all forces within the Sol system, including Camelous and the Dragon Lords, Shaaa slowed the traitor's for close to six months, making them pay for every step they took, hoping that with each day they held out, more loyalist forces would arrive to turn the tide. In his heart of hearts though, Shaaa knew there would be no support during that war, and fully prepared himself for his own impending death in service of the Imperium.
The fate was not to pass however, the actions of his brother, Abner of the Light Bringers forcing Shaaa to act. Abner had already demonstrated that he possessed a weapon capable of sending a star into a catastrophic supernova when he had deployed it at Pax, and when he broke from the traitor lines and burnt sunwards, Shaaa had to react in kind. Transferring his title of Lord Commander to Camelous to ensure his brother could command with absolute authority in his absence, Shaaa took almost all surviving vessels of the IVth Legion to combat Abner in the light of the sun, truly living up to his legions name as a guardian of the mighty star of mankind's home.

    This reduction in loyalist defenders of Terra’s orbit allowed the traitors to finally break through and land on the planet, and as Terra fought, Shaaa too clashed with his brother in the void. Here, Shaaa’s mastery of such battles paid off, the IVth’s fleet inflicting devastating casualties on the Light Bringers, many of their own ships being destroyed or crippled in kind. At the apex of the battle, Shaaa himself boarded the Light Bringers flagship, his sons destroying the weapon, while Shaaa clashed with Abner.

It would be a clash that they would both survive, though only by the narrowest of margins. Though Abner was fast, Shaaa was strong, and initially had the upper hand in the confided duel, Abner unable to use his speed to his fullest advantage. This changed when Abner finally unleashed a weapon all too familiar to Shaaa, a heavy flamer fueled by the living phospex flames the IVth and Xth both used frequently. A weapon that Shaaa himself had designed and gifted to his favoured brother.

Engulfed in the unnatural flames, Shaaa was unable to defend himself from the renewed assault, Abner reducing the once mighty Breacher Lord to little more than a hunk of burnt meat and fused armour plating, his limbs and cybernetics destroyed utterly. Losing consciousness, Shaaa’s form was dragged from the Light Bringers flagship, the two fleets finally breaking from their battle, the Light Bringers mission a failure, though at a grave cost to the IVth Legion, Shaaa hanging on the verge of death. As word of Camelous’s demise and the loss of Terra itself, the remaining Star Guardians joined the retreat, Shaaa still fighting for his life, unmoving and unspeaking.

### The Frontier Wars

Though it took weeks, Shaaa was not dead, and none allowed him to slip free from the coils of mortality easily. Working alongside tech marines from the IVth Legion and Apothecaries of the XIth, the greatest Magos who had survived the betrayal of Mars and the Solar War rebuilt the Breacher Lord almost entirely. Flesh was stripped away and replaced until finally, Shaaa rose again, little more than a head and part of a chest, all but one of his lungs being discarded, replaced by custom wrought cybernetics that gave the Primarch new life. With his old form, his mind seemed to finally surrender to the degradation it had fought for two hundred years, logic reigning supreme, emotion little more than a distant memory. In a cruel twist of irony, Shaaa now rivalled Abner, the one who had brought him to this state, for emotionless conduct from that day forth.

This was not his permanent body, for the nearly fully mechanical Primarch now had no further need for a single form, and changed between many depending on the task at hand. Regardless of his form though, none could deny that he alone had been given position above his brothers by the Emperor himself, and though he had named Camelous as Lord Commander of the Imperium, an action neither reversed before the Dragon Lords demise, he was still the Praetorian, and with this rank was placed within the Triumvirate of the newly formed Imperium Secundus, ruling alongside the Fabricator General of Mars in Exile, and the Squat’s High King.

For the majority of the Frontier Wars, Shaaa did little on the frontlines, even as his own legion cried out for his leadership. Shaaa no longer cared for one legion, even his own sons, instead focused fully on rebuilding a mighty battlefleet, strong enough to retake Terra when the time finally came. The Magnum Opus of this was the mighty form of *The Triumph*, the largest and most powerful ship constructed by the Imperium of Man, eclipsing even the *Abyss* Class super battleships the traitors had revealed during the First Solar War.

    Even with this singular focus however, Shaaa was not able to remain from combat at all times, as much as he would have prefered to instead focus on the task he deemed as far more important. When he did stride to war, it was in a mighty war form known as the Archimandrite Exterminatis, the Avatar of the Unmaker God. The size of a Thanatar, and capable of hefting the largest of artillery grade weaponry with ease, Shaaa became a mobile tank on the battlefield, punishing all traitors who dared to come within the long range of his guns.

## Personality

To most, Shaaa’s personality was one of cold indifference, though one guided by a murderous and barely suppressed rage, as opposed to the true calm that the emotionless Abner demonstrated. While this was certainly true, it was by no means the entire truth, Shaaa’s personality as fractured and broken enigma to all but his closest brothers.

Owing to the damage done to his mind by his father's bomb, Shaaa struggles to display all but the most basic of emotional responses, anger, hatred and rage coming to him far easier than others, and it is for this reason Shaaa often dives into a logic driven approach to problems that face him, allowing him to proceed with a perceived lack of morality. Indeed, when Shaaa did allow himself to deviate from this logic driven path, the results were brutal for those who fell beneath his gaze, remembered as the Bloody Reprisal, and earning Shaaa the moniker of “The Cold Hearted”.

Despite all this, Shaaa cares deeply for all his brothers, even Camelous, who’s very nature he despises, as with all Psykers. The only way he is able to show this care however is through his artifice, crafting many weapons or suits of armour for his brothers, and his often brutally taught lessons, such as during the Grye Deeps campaign with Khnum. For most, this was enough to damn him in their eyes, only seeing the monster on the outside. For those that cared to look deeper, they saw the being within, often softening to the Cold Hearted lord of the IVth Legion.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Shaaa possessed one of the finest mechanical minds within the Imperium, rivalling or exceeding almost all within the Mechanicum, standing alongside the likes of Galvarian, Lu Yueh and Gaius within the pantheon. When not on the battlefield, Shaaa often shut himself away on board his flagship or within the Ring, crafting brutally efficient weapons of war for his legion, and the wider Imperium. The proto-types of Mk3 armour owe their existence to Shaaa, while his legion’s storm shields, enhanced power armour the IVth would become known for, and a whole host of armaments and armours for his beloved brothers would all spring from his mind.

Even members of the Mechanicus recognised his skill at weapon crafting, gaining respect throughout the Priesthood of Mars, travelling to the Red Planet on many an occasion. It was here he picked up one of his more unique skills, the ability to fully comprehend binaric machine code in its blurted, lightning fast audible form, something that would not have been possible for another, even a Primarch, without some form of translation device or implant. Indeed, many within the priesthood doubted the validity of this claim, even for a creation of the Omnissiah himself, though any who attempted to disprove it would soon come to realise that this claim, like so many others from the IVth Primarch, were entirely and unequivocally true. The Breacher Lord was also able to speak multiple xenos languages, which included a number of dialects of the Eldar tongue as well as the proto-speech of guttural barks and grunts that comprised the Ork language, something most thought only the xenos obsessed Galvarian would be capable of.

## Physique

Even before his near death experience at the hands of his father, Shaaa was a beast of a man, and afterwards, this only increased. Physically the largest of the Primarch’s, Shaaa was only matched in height by Galvarian of the Ashen Crows though not in sheer bulk, this mass made all the greater by the suit of Saturnine Terminator Armour Shaaa wore, allowing him to stand taller than even a Contemptor Dreadnought.

Coupled with this size was a strength that defied what even many of his brothers were capable of, Shaaa fully capable of wading into combat and delivering death blows against the mightiest of foes with little more than his armoured fists. To meet Shaaa’s blows was to invite death, even his brothers only able to withstand a few of these devastating attacks before they too were smashed aside.

All of this did come at a cost however, and that was in Shaaa’s speed and agility. While he was regarded as one of the strongest and largest Primarch’s, he was known to be the slowest of their number, lumbering into battle at a ponderous though unstoppable pace. Just like his prefered methods of combat in the void, Shaaa conducted himself with a seemingly aching slowness, belying the deadly touch he could deliver with but a single blow.

## Battle Style

Complementing both his extreme physique and his propensity towards rage when unleashed, Shaaa’s battle style is completely at odds with the logical manner in which he conducts himself strategically and tactically. Allowing his inhibitions to drop fully, Shaaa unleashes his fury against the foes of the Imperium, allowing hatred and rage to guide his blows with deadly surety.

Clad in his monstrously large terminator plate, carrying a hammer forged by the Emperor of Mankind himself in one hand, the first storm shield in the other, and weapons more commonly found on dreadnoughts and robots than living, breathing warriors, Shaaa waded into combat with a slow, unstoppable faith in his own skills and armour, trusting that the latter would allow him to weather the blows that his ponderous speed all but guaranteed would land, while believing fully that his own skill would ensure that he would be able to outlast his opponent, finally bringing his weapon to bear to deliver a single, terrifyingly potent hammer blow. Often, this was all that was needed, even the greatest of fighters unable to recover from such a strike. For those that could, the blow was enough to put them on the back foot, allowing Shaaa to advance once more, cutting off avenues of escape and slowly wearing his opponent down until he could land another single blow, then another, then another, until finally, the enemy of man would fall, little more than a bloody pulp before Shaaa’s wrath.

Shaaa lacked agility in a fight, he lacked subtly, and he was utterly devoid of any mercy, gaining a reputation as a fearsome linebreaker and frontline warrior. He believed he was born to fight, and that the Imperium was the instrument through which his potential was fully realised.

## Wargear

### The Great Crusade and Early Almire Apostasy

As befitted a warrior magos such as Shaaa Hydrades, the Breacher Lord maintained a vast panoply of wargear to further the advance of the Imperium. From swords and axes to giant heavy cannons even in the hands of one such as him, Shaaa’s armoury was impressive and varied, able to combat any threat he encountered. He did however gravitate towards certain pieces of wargear, utilising their killing and defensive prowess far more than the other examples that may have been used but once before being relegated back to Shaaa’s armoury.

#### The Hydra-Pattern Terminator Armour

Gifted to Shaaa by the Emperor himself upon his reunification with the Imperium, and further improved by the Breacher Lords master artifice, Shaaa strides to battle wearing the Hydra Terminator Armour, wrought to mimic the Saturnine Terminator Armour his legion so favoured, and widely regarded as the heaviest infantry armour ever forged, boasting thicker armour than many battle tanks of the day.

Wrought from the same Auramite as the Emperor’s own warplate, initially coloured a glorious burning gold, the Emperor hoping that while wearing it, Shaaa would bring hope to those who saw him, and spread the legend of the Emperor further still by the deeds of golden armoured giants. This gold colour would not last however, the armour warped black beneath the surface of 30-5, Shaaa keeping the newly changed colour from that moment onwards.

As well as providing a phenomenal level of defence against outside attack, the armour contained sophisticated command and control systems which linked Shaaa cybernetically to every facet of the forces under his disposal and a shifting array of weapons and secondary systems created by his vast intellect. The Hydra Pattern Terminator Armour incorporated the finest technology of its age, including a Teleport Homer, a Cortex Controller for controlling Automata, a Nuncio-Vox and a Cognis Signum,as well as a hardpoint for mighty heavy weapons worn upon his back.

#### 'Relaxing Armour'

Though Shaaa was most known for his mighty terminator warplate, it was far from the only suit in Shaaa's arsenal. Amongst these suits, the most commonplace was the smaller suit of artificer armour, known only as 'Relaxation Armour', the official designation lost, save for a binaric string used by the Mechanicum. Though this suit was often worn by Shaaa, it was almost always worn while Shaaa was outside of combat, the sealed plate helping to calm the Primarch in the way only an enclosed space could, keeping his agoraphobia at bay. There is only one example of the primarch striding to war in the armour, when the Ist and IVth combatted the Blood Toof WAAAAGH!, Shaaa forgoing the heavier Terminator plate in his need to reach the planets surface as quickly as possible.

#### The *Falling Star*

Forged by Shaaa in the wake of the Squats Wars upon his first time upon the homeworld of Terra, the *Falling Star* is a monstrously large warhammer, crafted beneath Mount Narodnya, the greatest forge of the Ural Mountains. The length of an Astartes, its haft fashioned from an alloy that was as unbreakable as it was unknown, veined with crackling white lightning, and capped by a eagle-headed pommel. The weapon would have been unliftable for even an Astartes, and even for many of his brothers it would have required two hands to utilise properly, but such was Shaaa’s undeniable strength that the weapon was swung in one hand, crushing enemies into a fine paste whenever it struck home.

#### *Barricade*

Crafted in the time before the Imperium was united with Shaaa, the shield “*Barricade*” was crafted using a near complete STC, serving Shaaa well on the wars of his home. However, during the final war against his father, the STC was yet another casualty of the conflict, and by the time the Mechanicum arrived at the giant space station, there was precious little to salvage, Shaaa and Almire both attempting to reverse engineer the shield into the prototype Storm shields their legions utilised.

*Barricade* was the wall against which many assaults would break, and an unstoppable slab when Shaaa advanced, many enemies simply turning and running, rather than trying to breach its sophisticated shielding and nigh impenetrable surface.

#### The Photon Annihilator

Based on the Darkfire Cannons found on larger Mechanicum automata, the Photon Annihilator has been modified to require a far smaller power draw, at the expense of some range and strength compared to what an unmodified Darkfire Cannon is capable of. Using the Photon Annihilator mounted above his armoured head, Shaaa can strike at even the hardiest of vehicles as he lumbers forward, gouring deep rents into their armour that he then widens further with the Falling Star, none escaping his vengeful wrath. Other than the Gorgon's Gaze, the Photon Annihilator is Shaaa's most common ranged weapon.

#### The *Gorgons Gaze*

> "*[Statement]: Artellion's creations are much like the basilisks he chose as his namesake; deadly, efficient, and beautiful. [Additional]: More than that, his creations have a purpose beyond the utilitarian, their machine spirits beg to be used. For all their flair and grace, there are no finer weapons outside of the Golden Age of Technology relics scattered across the stars. [Conclusive Statement]: These creations must be used, that is why it is still carried. [Final Statement]: Despite the fall of its maker, the traitors shall forever fear the Gorgon’s Gaze.*"
> ― Shaaa Hydrades in the years after the First Solar War, when asked why he still uses a weapon forged by a traitor
>
>

While most of the weapons the Breacher Lord used upon his armours back were crafted or augmented by his own hands, from the Photon Annihilator to his masterfully reworked twin-heavy bolter, there was a single weapon in his armoury that held pride of place, despite not being forged by Shaaa’s own hand. That weapon was the *Gorgon’s Gaze*, forged instead by Artellion, Primarch of the XVth Legion, the Silver Basilisks.

While Shaaa was a master at creating weapons ready for the battlefield, he was not the artisan than Artellion was, and the *Gorgon’s Gaze* was certainly a thing of beauty, grace, and deadly killing potential. Wrought in black steel, a pair of perfectly wrought imperial aquilas upon its frame, the weapon was a railgun, unique in its firing mechanics amongst the forces of the Imperium. With this mechanism, it could accelerate a small capsule of concentrated silicate acid to a fraction of the speed of light, which detonated on impact. Often, the force of the blow was enough to tear apart the enemy in question, but this was merely a side effect, the weapons true potency coming from the capsules cargo.

Releasing a concentrated silicate acid, the target would quickly find the invasive compound spreading across their body, replacing all organic matter with the silicate in a matter of moments, creating statues of his enemies that captured the screaming faces of their painful demise. The entire process takes but a matter of moments, any target that is struck and survives the initial blow, soon becoming little more than a statue, a monument to their own hubris for attempting to challenge the Breacher Lord.

While Shaaa is not known to smile much, an ugly leer the most any can usually pull from him, it is said that when Artellion presented him with the weapon and its power was demonstrated to Shaaa, the Breacher Lord genuinely smiled, testing the weapon to its breaking point, before declaring that the weapon was the finest he had ever seen, stating that none within the pantheon of Primarch’s could have forged a weapon to match its majesty.

While this weapon would become famous for its use during the Great Crusade, especially during the Ullanor Crusade and the First Solar War, Shaaa did not relinquish the weapon in the wake of his near death experience at the climax of the wars opening moves. When he awoke again and donned the warform of the Archimandrite Exterminatis, the *Gorgon's Gaze* was once again amongst his arsenal, now clasped in one of Shaaa's monsterously sized hands, wielded as easily as a human may wield a laspistol.

### The Frontier Wars

Rebuilt almost entirely in the wake of the First Solar War and the Battle of Sol, Shaaa Hydrades now boasts a plethora of different forms, each designed for different uses, but only one is used when he strides onto the battlefield. The size of the largest mechanicum constructs, carrying weapons from a more glorious age of technological enlightenment, and boasting sophisticated command and control cogitator arrays more often seen within command tanks or on starships, Shaaa no longer wades into combat to smite the foes of man face to face. Instead he stands afar, more often seen flanked by Mechanicus constructs than his own sons, delivering punishing salvo’s of impossibly powerful energy blasts, directing a battle with ease, akin to a conductor in front of an orchestra.

#### The Archimandrite Exterminatis

Part battle armour, part cybernetic augmentation, part dreadnought shell, Shaaa’s warform is known as the Archimandrite Exterminatis, the same name that Shaaa himself is known by for many of the more militant Mechanicus orders. Based upon a Thanatar siege automata’s body, this war form is proof against all but the most terrible of energies and firepower brought to bear upon it.

Though some of the deftness Shaaa used to enjoy has regrettably been lost in this new form, the Archimandrite Exterminatis allows Shaaa to heft the largest weapons into battle with ease, while internally the armour boasts dozens of techno-arcane wonders, backup and redundant backup systems and a vast cogitator array, all kept safe behind the forms thick armour, and allowing Shaaa to dominate a battle from afar.

Everything about the form is deadly in its own way. Its own bulk is a weapon, capable of crushing lesser troops beneath its tread, its weapons can smite foes who believe themselves safe from enemy fire, and even its power source, a slaved nucleonic reactor, can be deadly if so desired, venting radiation to weaken and debilitate even the hardiest of foes.

#### The Neutrino Eradicator

An ancient relic from the days before the Imperium, known as the Dark or Golden Age of Technology, this weapon was the only one recovered from the fated mission the Hydradyne conducted on Verivaltas, homeworld of the Hounds of Surmah, in the weeks before the scope of the Almire Apostasy engulfed the galaxy.

Despite the cost of that mission, the weapons recovery was well worth it, and when Shaaa was in need of a weapon, there were few choices more suited than the Neutrino Eradicator. Believed to be the weapon from which the deadly Graviton Singularity Cannon mounted upon the Cerastus Knight-Atrapos was developed, the Neutrino Eradicator is able to safely create a quantum singularity in the very fabric of space-time with hellish accuracy that tears its target, and the surrounding area, apart with extreme gravimetric forces. The weapon is extremely effective against any target that is trapped in the singularity, however it is especially effective against vehicles, the more massive the better. When the weapon is turned upon Shaaa’s chosen target, that foe is already dead, they simply have not grasped their ultimate fate.

#### The Torex-Pattern Lascannon

Named after Shaaa’s long dead husband, the Torex-Pattern Lascannon  is designed to draw power directly from Shaaa’s own warform, a strengthened barrel and enhanced forcussing arrays allowing the weapon to maintain a much higher rate of firepower than a conventional lascannon, while still maintaining the killing potential of its lesser kin.

#### The Plasma-ignited Incinerator

While Shaaa was recorded using both the Torex-Pattern Lascannon and the Gorgon’s Gaze as his pistol-grade weapon during the Frontier Wars, a title that belied true size of both weapons, them being equal to vehicle mounted ordinance, none came close to the destructive power of his final weapon; developed and used shortly before the Second Solar War; The Plasma-ignited Incinerator.

Plasma-ignited promethium was nothing unheard of, many starships falling prey to catastrophic damage when promethium was pumped into plasma drives during combat, but none had ever been able to safely replicate the mixture. None, until Shaaa set his mind to the task. Forged to deal with the heaviest of enemy armour, the weapon could belch forth a torrent of hellfire capable of eating through the hulls of even mighty star forts, or launching globes of the burning liquid, held in place with short lived containment fields over longer distance. Yet matter how it was fired, none could stand before its might, even the thickest armour melting away under its terrible power.

#### Manipulator claw

Part weapon, part battlesmith servo-arm, the Manipulator claw that replaces the left arm of the Archimandrite Exterminatis is both deadly and a welcome sight, depending on which side of a battlefield you stand upon. Scores of tanks owe their continued service to its ministrating touch, while just as many traitor vehicles have met their end as it efficiently takes them to pieces, exposing the now all too vulnerable crew.

## Transport

### Great Crusade and the Start of the Apostasy

During the Great Crusade, Shaaa was known to have many different methods of transport, necessitated by his sheer size which made riding in vehicles such as rhinos or even land raiders impossible even when unarmoured, and even the mighty Spartan struggling with his sheer scale when in full plate

As such, Shaaa often strode across the battlefield on foot, rather than travel in a combat vehicle, descending from the void in a drop ship or modified Stormbird, that self-same flier known to take him into combat when the need for expediency was at its height. At other times he was also known to deploy directly from a Kharybdis Assault Claw, the super-heavy drop pod easily able to accomodate his mighty frame.

Shaaa was also known to teleport directly into battle, the Herald of Destruction boasting a large teleportation array, even if Shaaa did not favour the method of transport, mistrusting the temperamental nature of teleportation, and only deigning to do it from his own flagship due to the known quality of the machinery at work.

Sometimes however there was little choice but to conduct an armoured assault, be it due to atmospheric conditions prohibiting the use of aerial insertion and teleportation, or due the often urban or underground nature of the IVth’s combat site making the need for a ground vehicle paramount, Shaaa turned to the mighty vehicle gifted to him by his brother, Khnum, known only as *Shaaa’s Psalm*.

In the wake of the joint operation against the Blood Teef WAAAGH! where the Watchers of Akhet and the Star Guardians destroyed the Ork horde and Shaaa had saved his brothers life, Khnum ordered a mighty vehicle to be constructed for his brother, similar in aspect to the Land Raiders or Fellblades of the legion, but just as Shaaa technically wore Terminator Armour, to call this a mere armoured transport did not do it justice.

A combination of a Spartan Assault Tank and a Glaive Super-heavy Special Weapons Tank, more commonly  as the Fellglaive, the mighty battle tank is equipped with a plethora of energy and solid shot weapons, while boasting thick enough armour to make a mockery of all but the most dedicated of enemy firepower. *Shaaa’s Psalm* was big enough to not only house Shaaa and his honour guard, be they Hydradyne or Saturnalians, but also provide command and control features to allow Shaaa to further dictate the flow of a battle as was his ultimate gift.

### The Frontier Wars

In the wake of the Battle of Sol, Shaaa Hydrades underwent a change that both took him off the battlefield almost entirely, and yet when he did stride to war once more, he did so in the guise of the Archimandrite Exterminatis, his new warform the size of a Thanatar making even *Shaaa’s Psalm* far too small to hope to carry him. Indeed, no land vehicle at the Imperium’s disposal could hope to carry the Praetorian of Imperium Secundus into battle, Shaaa instead having to look to different methods of deployment on the rare occasion he did march to war.

Just as in the days of the Great crusade, Shaaa was capable of teleporting into battle, his old issues with such technology now put aside in the face of their illogical nature. In the same vein, he was also often known to come down in standard drop ships, landing far behind the frontline and walking towards the front.

However, when Shaaa had to reach the frontline of a fight quickly, but required more precision than teleportation required, Shaaa’s eyes turned to aircraft, a heavily modified Pegasus-class Transporter most often used by Assault Regiments of the Imperial Army. The standard pattern was capable of carrying baneblade-class and other super heavy tanks into battle, protecting their payloads with thick armoured plating. Shaaa requested a trio of these mighty vehicles, ordering their conversion to suit his needs, and the needs of his standard bodyguard unit, a pair of Thanatar Battle-Automata.

Named the *Infernal-class Heavy Assault Lander*, these ships were the same size as the Pegasus or the Stormbirds and Space Marine Landing Craft of the legions, though mounted more armour and a single void shield which the Pegasus-class lacked. Held in the holds of the Triumph or other vessels that Shaaa rode to war in, the Infernal-class would secure itself over Shaaa’s massive form with massive grav-clamps and magnetic-inertia dampeners, before shooting from the hold towards the battlefield of Shaaa’s choosing, its powerful thrusters propelling it forward at speeds of several thousand kilometres a solar hour towards the surface, making it nearly impossible for enemy anti-air batteries to target it as it plummets through the atmosphere.

The craft hurls itself at velocities impossible for any, save a Primarch or the greatest of the mechanicum’s Automata  to endure, and just seconds before hitting the ground ballistic charges blow away the disposable heat shields protecting the more vulnerable parts of the landing craft and its precious cargo.

After the heat shields are cast aside the landing craft's powerful secondary engines and esoteric anti-grav devices are employed to rapidly slow down and level out the ship's descent, finally allowing it to touch down safely upon the surface. Before the lander even comes to a complete stop its many weapon systems swing into action, clearing the landing field of enemies as the clamps release, allowing Shaaa to stride free.

Within twenty to thirty solar seconds of leaving the orbiting starship, the Infernal-class can be on the ground, Shaaa ready for combat, supported by the craft's mounted gun batteries. When all three of the Infernal-class dropships are unleashed, few forces can hope to stand before their payload.

## Sources

1. - Art by Veronica Anrathi - https://www.artstation.com/disarmonia
2. - Art by James Calderbank - Author of the Sirens of Kastar
3. - Art by Blazbaros - https://www.deviantart.com/blazbaros
4. - Art by Nina Ward - https://www.facebook.com/NinaWardArtandIllustration/
5. - Art by Shane Cook - Deviant Art - https://www.deviantart.com/slaine69
6. Model created by Moridan 7th - http://mordian7th.blogspot.com/2009/04/pegasus-heavy-transporter.html