Ludara Kresh

Lady General Ludara Kresh, circa 011.M42

Lt. Stefan Kresh (son)

**Ludara Kresh** (born 944.M41) is a Lady General of the Ashimar Nova Guard. Kresh is a master strategist and military organizer, who is cold, ruthless, and logical in the planning and execution of her campaigns. She has brought many victories and battle honors to the Ashimar Nova Guard forces she has commanded, though often at great cost due to her relentless, win-at-all-costs mentality and calculating approach to her strategic planning. While many Ashimar Nova Guard officers are respected and beloved by their troops, Kresh is one of the few who is also feared.

## History

Among Ashimar's aristocratic families, the Kresh family is among the most prestigious. Its traditions of military service in the Ashimar Nova Guard stretch back over 600 years, to when Alanta Kresh was selected to be the commanding officer of the newly-founded Ashimar 1st. General Delvrus Kresh and his battlegroup participated in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, seeing action at the second campaign for Cociaminus and on Urdesh. In the records of the Ashimar Nova Guard, over a dozen members of the Kresh family achieved the rank of General - among them was Ludara's father, Jirad Kresh. Her mother, Nemira, was also a high ranking officer.

It was only natural then that Ludara Kresh was groomed from birth to be a military officer, especially because she was her parents' only child. Throughout her childhood she practiced fencing, riding, and target shooting, and studied the military history of both the Ashimar Nova Guard and the wider Astra Militarum. She served in the Youth Cadet Army, distinguishing herself as a skilled leader from an early age. As a young adult, she attended Ashimar's prestigious Kinodia Military Academy, where she was a classmate of fellow future Lord General Danilus Voltek. The two quickly became rivals, both in academics and other matters, due to both being prodigies and being from different backgrounds - Kresh was from the aristocracy and Voltek was a commoner. When they graduated in 965.M41, they were at the top of their class, tied for number one. Both were commissioned as Lieutenants, with Kresh going to the Ashimar 31st “Azure Exemplars” Infantry Regiment and Voltek going to the Ashimar 42nd “Golden Arrow” Infantry Regiment.

Kresh quickly rose through the ranks, rising from Lieutenant to Commander within her first decade of service. She served as a battalion commander and later executive officer of the Ashimar 31st. During this early period of her military service, Kresh would grow close to one of her fellow officers, Anton Nageris, and the two would eventually have a son, Stefan, who would grow up to be an officer in the Nova Guard. Kresh rose to the rank of Colonel and received command of the Ashimar 31st following the death of her predecessor, Col. Vanius Zenon, who committed suicide after being embroiled in a number of scandals which resulted in him being removed from command of the 31st.

Kresh would command the Ashimar 31st with distinction for over a decade; her strategic insights were crucial to several campaigns around the periphery of the Eye of Terror and led to her promotion to General in 984.M41 at the age of 40. Following the defeat of the Selvaan Insurrection in 995.M41, Kresh was promoted further to the rank of Lady General, and returned to Ashimar to serve on the Ashimar High Command.

As the 41st Millennium drew to a close and Abaddon the Despoiler launched his 13th Black Crusade, Imperial control over Segmentum Pacificus collapsed in the Night of a Thousand Rebellions. From the Chaos a warband known as the Grand Hellguard, led by fallen Ashimar Guardsmen, emerged on the hive world of Paradius, capital of Ashimar’s sector. The following year, the Hellguard, working alongside several warbands of Heretic Astartes, launched an offensive against several neighboring worlds of Ashimar, overrunning their defenders and causing millions of refugees and retreating military forces to flood into the Ashimar system. Ashimar High Command issued a recall order to all its regiments and began preparing for a defensive war against the imminent Hellguard attack. With the situation so serious, Kresh was declared First Marshal of Ashimar, with the planetary governor, High Consul Gailavera Safrax, dissolving the Planetary Council and ceding total military and political authority to Kresh.

Kresh orchestrated Ashimar's defense, where she had to maneuver herself politically around the many Generals, Canonesses, and Chapter Masters that led the allied Imperial forces that came to her aid in order to maintain overall control of her homeworld's defense. Kresh surmised that the Hellguard depended on consistent momentum and victories to keep their Heretic Astartes allies on board, and the longer the campaign dragged on, the more likely their coalition would fracture. She maintained a largely defensive stance for years, building up her forces in secret while mobilizing civilian militias, sending Youth Cadets and penal battalions into battle, and bringing relic vehicles back into service in order to make the situation look worse than it really was. When the time was right, she inflicted a devastating defeat on the Grand Hellguard at the Battle of Fort Alanta, where the Chaos hordes attacked a fortress they thought was manned by a tattered and exhausted army, but was in fact a strong, well-armed, and dug in defensive force. After a week of fighting, Kresh ordered her reserve forces into action, who outflanked and slaughtered the Traitor Guardsmen and cultists. Around the same time, forces from the Indomitus Crusade reached Ashimar, providing much-needed reinforcements to the Imperial forces defending the world. In short order, heretic forces were driven from Ashimar, and the planet was saved.

To the surprise of many, following the end of the Siege, Kresh relinquished her control over Ashimar and restored the Planetary Council under a new High Consul, PDF General Viktor Kamonis. Feeling her true place was participating in Roboute Guilliman’s efforts to save the Imperium, Kresh would join the Indomitus Crusade’s efforts, assuming command of Battlegroup Antares.

## Personality

Ludara Kresh is, at least publicly, an aloof and serious figure, devoted entirely to her duty. She is an incredibly shrewd and intelligent person, well educated in the history of Ashimar and the Imperial Guard. This has made Kresh a deeply introspective individual, frequently comparing herself to the Imperial heroes of the past and musing on her perceived shortcomings and failures.

While many Ashimar Nova Guard commanders go to great lengths to connect with their troops, Kresh does not, remaining distant from them. To her, the purpose of Guardsmen is to die, and no price is too high to pay for victories that will ensure countless more survive. Despite this, Kresh is not without a sense of justice. She is a firm disciplinarian who deals with crimes and misdeeds in the same ruthless, logical manner with which she wages war.

## Equipment

Ludara Kresh is most commonly armed with *Pride* and *Prejudice*, a pair of ornate, custom-made bolt pistols, and a power sword, *Invicta*. Like many Ashimar Generals, she wears carapace armor and a greatcoat.

When it is necessary for Kresh to be involved more directly in a battle, she often does so from the cupola of the Baneblade *Iron Lady*, her personal command vehicle.

## Quotes

### By Ludara Kresh

"*She's too soft. She's content to know only of the peaceful little bubble of stability and prosperity that Ashimar is, and remain ignorant of the dangers of the wider galaxy. If she knew what I knew, if she had seen what I have seen. If she knew of the marauding Ork warbands, the ever-present threat of Chaos, the insidious Genestealer Cults, the insatiable hunger of the Hive Fleets, the Necrons that could be slumbering beneath our very feet... then I think the High Consul would act differently, and be a better ruler and leader for Ashimar.*"
— Lady General Ludara Kresh on Gailavera Safrax, the High Consul of Ashimar.
### About Ludara Kresh

**Assessment:** *Group: Astra Militarum, Subgroup; Ashimar Nova Guard'*

**Subject:** *Ludara Kresh*

**Begin Log Commentary:** *Subject - "Ludara Kresh, Individual"*

*"Assessment, Individual, subject: Lady-General Ludara Kresh. Begin log commentary: Ludara Kresh displays a pragmatic attitude unshared by any other attempted contact on Ashimar. The covert exchange of the newest neural implants and rate weapons technology in exchange for the thousands of "penitents" sent to the Mons Mors Mine (ref: vernacular: "The Trimeta") to serve out their lives in service to the Omnissiah is proving to provide a steady source of top 10% producers allowed to ascend to become Skitarii. The troops under her command have proven uniquely effective as Sicarians and Kataphron Battle Servitors in particular, due to their naturally malevolent and hateful nature. She is the only of the Ashimar High Command with the sense to know that no criminal is beyond redemption if they give heart and soul to serving the Machine God. If all of the Ashimar commanders were as sensible and ruthless in serving the Imperium of our Omnissiah, the frequency of heresy and xenos aggression in the Southern Segmentum Pacificus were estimated to be up to 6% lower according to the initial Logos assessment of our 'understanding' with her. Notation: increase all laser weaponry battery allocation to Ashimar by 5% this month. The last batch of penitents for the mines proved to have a near 90% conversion rate to Skitarii. We must reward her for her eye for quality. End assessment."*

*Importance to Forge World Ferunus assessed as Highly Important.*

- Lexico Arcanus Stavros Arkes, Logos Dominus of Ontol Mons Forge,
 Adeptus of Forge World Ferunus