Yucahu Sumakutaa

Remembrancer sketch from Carpinius' *Speculum Historiale* of Yucahu Sumakutaa.

**Yucahu Sumakutaa**, known as the '***The Star-Born***', he was the Primarch of the IVth Legion - the Void Eagles. Growing as a military commander in the Coalition Worlds, he became a master of astral warfare, and took a reputation as an uncompromising commander, with little regard for anything other than the prosecution of the Great Crusade.

## History

### The Star-Born

Yucahu's earliest origins are shrouded in much mystery. The name of the world he landed upon following the scattering of his brothers is not recorded in history, though if he landed on a world at all is by itself pure conjecture. It is as likely he was found by an society of void-nomads, driven away from their homeworld by unknown forces. Whatever the reasons, it is recorded that the Primarch ended up as a soldier in a void-faring polity calling itself the Invictarian League, a motley crew of avengers sworn to the liberation of humans from the hands of xenos, as had happened so many times during Old Night. Through the decades, the primarch rose through the ranks, his strategic mind already predisposed to large-scale command. From a pirate-like league of reavers, he forged a professional interstellar army, under the command of a corps of void-fighters known as the Espatiers, comparable in competence to the Solar Auxilia.

His first documented conquest is that of Ekhwesh, a planet whose inhabitants had reverted to early industrial levels of civilisation, yet retained technologically advanced weaponry. Semi-sentient orbital defense grids took a surprisingly heavy toll on the initial scout squadrons, but showed extremely predictable patterns, which allowed for their destruction without a single loss on the Primarch's side. The planetary phase of the battle was far more bloody, soulless bombings both orbital and atmospheric targeted on political and military centers, to no avail: the people of Ekhwesh would not yield. Rather than accept that honorable trait and leave them be, Yucahu ordered more ruthless actions: the simultaneous crushing of all major population centers. In four hours, the planet had lost fourty million inhabitants, one quarter of its total population. Only then did Ekhwesh surrender to the "bringer of death born from the stars", or Oprit-Sumakutaa.

As the Ekhweshi survivors were taken into the Starborn Fleet, the name stuck among his drafted troops, initially as a veiled insult. Ultimately the Primarch would take it as his own, in defiance to the defeated: Yucahu Sumakutaa, whose combined meanings translate as "Lord of the fleets born from the stars". Under this new title, the Primarch would subjugate dozens of worlds for the Coalition, from xeno-enslaved Irautza to the burgeoning kingdom of Salezada, and the much valued Forges of Vernes, whose alliance with the Coalition gave Yucahu's conquests a massive boost in materiel strength, especially Warp-capable. This wave of conquests would only meet its end in 933.M30 on Coaban.

For unlike his brother Primarchs, Yucahu would first meet the Emperor on a battlefield. Coaban had gained a fearsome reputation in the local sector for its advanced weaponry, and with its recent acquisition of spacecraft, was threatening the expansion of both the Coalition and southwestern Imperium. Arriving at the Mandeville threshold, Imperial and Coaltiion forces struck a temporary alliance to bring Coaban to kneel. It was agreed that Marshall Sumakutaa's fleet, being more numerous, would engage orbital defenses while Zamindar Mashyan's Astartes made planetfall to wage war on the ground. However, both forces had underestimated the might of Coabanite weaponry. C-beams fired from satellite stations burned through ships as if they were cardboard, while the Morning Stars lost five of their own for each autodrone destroyed. For weeks on end the battle lasted, the allied forces slowly gaining ground, until the Coalition decided to break a point of its agreement: orbital bombardment was declared, shaking continents while the Primarch himself dropped to the position of Mashyan. Together, Void Marines and Astartes fought to the oligarchy's mockery of a Senate, where they unleashed a rain of bolt-shell and Vernal shotgun rounds upon the despots.

The leaders deposed, Coaban was left a burning waste, and as occupation forces from both parties awaited orders, a golden leviathan appeared in the skies: Imperator Somnium, the Emperor's own flagship. When the Emperor teleported down to the still-smoking battlefield, it is said that Yucahu instantly knelt, recognizing him as his true liege. Onboard the Emperor's ship, oaths were sworn, the Coalition officially dissolving into the Imperium, and Marshall Yucahu took the mantle of Primarch of the Fourth Legion; from this day on, they would be Morning Stars no more, but Void Eagles, in deference to the Aquila of his Lord; their livery would be brass, a lesser metal to the Emperor's gold. Coaban was given to him as a recruitment ground, and as a last gift before leaving, the Emperor granted his son with a Gloriana-class battle-barge: the Ala Lux, and an order to wage the Great Crusade. As an historator, I cannot help but wonder at whether this Coalition could have eclipsed the Dominion, had Yucahu been less humble than the Mycenor.