Sons of Understanding

Araphel

For some within the Iron Revenants legion, the Breaking of Keld’abe was a step they were unable to take. Faced with orders to attack their sworn brothers the Shadow Warriors, they could not do it. Across Keld’abe, individual Revenants refused to fire, either purposefully aiming for non-lethal areas or even missing shots or holstering their weapons. While most of these individuals were punished by the Legion and their resistance had little effect, in one area the resistance had a long-lasting effect.

## **History**

### **The Breaking**

The future Sons of Understanding would enter the Breaking of Keld’abe in relatively high spirits, not being privy to the machinations of Araphel or the legion’s high command. Once the Iron Revenants’ fleet had entered the Keld’abe System and Araphel and Rang had met, Lieutenant Runux and several of his men met up with their comrades in the Shadow Warriors, veterans of several campaigns together stretching back to the Second Rangdan Xenocide. The two groups spent several hours together, sharing stories and celebrating before the Iron Revenants returned to their vessel.

The following day, the Sons of Understanding were amongst the Revenants shocked by the orders to attack the Shadow Warriors, but as loyal sons they complied with their orders. Runux led his men in boarding actions against the Warriors in the void, where he and his squads performed in line with other boarding actions. Runux and his squads returned to his vessel relatively unscathed and were ordered to hold in preparation.

Runux and his squads would stand by as the orbital bombardment began. Runux could not help but feel that something was greatly wrong about what was occurring, that Keld’abe was an Imperial world, and the home of a legion, and so how could what they were doing be right. Before he could voice his displeasure, orders came in for him and his men to head to the drop pod hangar and prepare to drop once the Life Eater Virus had done its work.

Runux and the Sons of Understanding would be assigned to the assault on Quintus Station, notably alongside many elements of the Fifth Chapter and destroyer companies. The mood was grim, as the signs pointed to a difficult assault against a foe of unknown number that had used the previous hours to prepare. There would be no element of surprise by this point, and as Runux absorbed the plans of action from the commanding praetors he could not shake a sense of shame and dread.

During the hours of preparation, Runux and his men would be briefed on Shadow Warrior battle tactics, headed by a member of the First Chapter. Runux could not help but wonder how long the First Chapter had been accumulating this information, and whether it truly was by chance that the Iron Revenants had waged war on their brothers. Nevertheless, Runux and his men headed to their assigned drop pod and waited for the order to deploy.

Runux and his men were part of the first wave of the assault on the defence station of Primus, their drop pods being the primary targets of the defence guns as they descended. Two of the group’s drop pods were turned into burning wrecks falling through the sky, but although Runux felt rage at the loss of his brothers his rage was split between the enemies below and his commanders above.

*Why are our brothers dying over some fight between Primarchs? Some political argument over who sits on a throne?*

Before he could continue his thoughts, the drop pod impacted into the station. The doors opened, and Runux threw himself out of the pod. He and his men came under immediate fire from the Eighth Akaan’adiike regiment, men hurrying for cover as the dust settled. Runux and his men made short work of the mortal opposition, their bolt pistols and chainswords dispatching them rapidly and the Revenants moved to hold the entry room. Breachers arrived to begin the push through the station, whilst Runux led his squad to secure flanking corridors. Eventually, Runux received orders to hold a junction as the fighting intensified elsewhere in the station as a group of Shadow Warriors fought a fierce last stand. It was here that he was hailed by a familiar voice, that of his old friend Othon who he had fought alongside each other going as far back as the Second Rangdan Xenocide. Othon and five of his brothers were badly wounded, Othon missing his hand and his armour covered in scorch marks. He called on Runux in the name of the oaths they had sworn during the Second Rangdan Xenocide, and asked him to allow them to pass. While the squad sergeant attempted to stop them, Runux incapacitated him and allowed his friend and squad to pass.

Knowing that he and his squad had gone against their Primarch’s orders, Runux was resigned to handing himself in to his company captain, but his friend told him that he and his squad could join them, and together they could hunt for answers as to why this injustice had occurred. Runux hesitated for a second, but the sound of closing gunfire confirmed his choice. The squads of Warriors and Revenants made their way out of the Bral’Rang, with Runux using his inside information to guide them away from the stiffest defences and Othon rendezvousing with other surviving Shadow Warriors.

The enlarged group eventually made it to a checkpoint that they could not bypass or deceive their way through. Runux and his squad, though unwilling to attack their brothers, knew they had little choice at this point, and the group fought their way through the checkpoint and broke out.

The Sons of Understanding were cut off from the retreat to the Alii’Aliit, and so Runux directed the group away from the stream of Revenants and Shadows that were racing to the main underground hangar. Using the news of Araphel’s disappearance as cover, the Sons slowly worked their way up the volcano, making use of service hallways and at times climbing the walls of the volcano itself to avoid detection. Their goal was Station Secundus, where the diversionary force of mortal and mechanical allies of the Revenants would make easier passage than Station Primus.

Eventually they arrived at the Station, and Runux was able to bluff his way through some of the outer checkpoints. The Shadows were disguised as prisoners of war, their weapons removed and their hands bound. The mortal troops were visibly scared of the Revenants as they passed, many avoiding looking at the blood-stained Astartes and none stopping their progress. Trouble eventually came when they approached the main hangar where the few Revenant flyers that had accompanied the assault were stationed. The entrance was manned by Mechanicum Automata, not intimidated by the Astartes and more stringent in their security checks. Fate had smiled upon the Sons, as the hangar was for the most part empty as the forces had already departed for the chase. When the Mechanicum halted the party and demanded an official order from Araphel or a high ranking Revenant regarding the taking of prisoners, the Sons opened fire on the Mechanicum and made a run for one of the Storm Eagles. The Thallax Cohort in the hangar moved to intercept them, but the group managed to get onto the Eagle and escape the hangar.

The Storm Eagle *Tecumter* made its perilous journey across the planet and the ash storms as they were chased by the occasional Revenant and Shadow fighters. The *Tecumter*, guided by the Shadows, kept low and circled wide around Tra’aden, avoiding the crawler and the majority of the action. The Sons of Understanding landed in the once heavily-populated civilian district, now empty and littered by the bodies of the dead. The Sons began their plan to sneak aboard the *Ashnar’shukalar*.

Having landed in the deserted civilian district of Tra’aden, the Sons of Understanding laid low in an abandoned house as they worked out what to do next. While their Iron Revenants Storm Eagle had served to get them past the Revenants’ lines, there was no way to fly past the Shadows’ defences, and so now their escape would have to be on foot. Othon identified the spire as the most likely escape plan for the Shadows as a whole, and that the *Ashnar’shukalar* would be the only vessel that could break through the Iron Revenants’ fleet. The only way to escape was to get aboard the Gloriana, but Runux was unsure whether they would be executed if seen by the Shadows. They would have to try and stealth their way through the city and up the spire to escape into the bowels of the ship.

The journey of the Sons of Understanding was slow and tortuous, as the group manoeuvred around the scrambling Shadows and rushed to keep ahead of the advancing Revenants. The group was forced at times to defend itself against both sides, the chaos of the assault making trying to negotiate a truce impossible. Finally, the Sons arrived at the base of the space port, where there was no way to sneak through the Shadows’ defences. While the group huddled out of sight trying to decide what to do, Othon took Runux aside and revealed to him that there was a way to get through. Othon had joined a warrior lodge within the Shadow Warriors headed by Lorak Saar, and it was possible that the warrior lodge could help them in this time. The reason he had not revealed this sooner was that the lodge explored certain areas of tactics that Rang Talyc had frowned upon. Othon opened a secret vox channel and began communicating with his fellow lodge members, and several minutes later he returned to the group. He informed them that they would be given an opening to bypass the Shadows’ perimeter. They descended into the sewers of the city, and were met there by a hooded figure. Othon signalled him with a hand sign and the figure ushered the group into a secret hatch. The group was led to a service lift, which was guarded by a group of fellow Shadows. One of the guards attempted to stop the Sons from approaching, but another guard stabbed him in the back and cleared the hallway. The hooded figure wished the Sons good luck in the name of “the Pantheon” and they ascended towards the *Ashnar’shukalar*.