Order of the Matron

> *"Within the heart of mankind, there resides a spark waiting to ignite the fires of change. And it is our solemn duty, so privileged are we born with strength, to shepherd our kin into the dawn." - St. Regina Iudicii*
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Often considered to be another branch of the Convent Sanctorum of the Adepta Sororitas, the Order of the Matron is at once ancient and new to the galactic stage. Their inception is alleged to go as far back as the 39th millennium, when an Imperial saint founded the order following a brutal conflict on the distant world of Orledrya near the Halo Stars of Segmentum Obscurus.

Said confrontation left several minoris orders on the brink of annihilation before the saint emerged in a coruscating halo, interceding and casting a blasphemous lordling of ruin back to the shadows from whence he emerged in a brutal clash of blades. And with her presence, the remnants of the sisterhood, frateris militia and planetary defence force rallied behind this living miracle to smash the heathen's incursion upon the mountainside that fostered their sedition.

Through this decades long campaign, a new order was born from the ashes of a world whose government failed them. A world near consumed by the dissatisfaction that gave rise to dissidence. From this, a triumvirate order birthed from the ambition and divine purpose of its Matriarch, the saint Regina Iudicii.

## Orledrya

Larger than the galactic average recorded by the Adeptus Administratum, the agriworld of Orledrya boasted vast and diverse ecological biomes within its planet-spanning oceans. It boasted two oversized moons, not tidally locked, from which violet waves and turbulent storms derived. Wide varieties of fish palatable to innumerable Imperial worlds took to its briny waters while sprawling forests of kelp blanket the border between the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. Rainbow reefs housing grow near where islets and shoals crest over the waves. And great leviathans dwelling where the light could not reach offered fruitful bounties to any who ventured to claim them. Yet there was neither housing nor infrastructure beyond the control spires and space ports needed to ferry and station the planet's workforce.

This is where Orledrya Primus and Secundus came in.

Orledrya's twin moons served a vital role in the agriworld's production and shipment of foodstuffs to the wider Imperium. For on these moons were the residential and industrial infrastructure required to plumb every inch of the oceanic world of its bounty, prepare what was brought in and then provide what was left over to fulfill their tithe. This unique celestial relationship was facilitated by orbital stations and an in-depth shuttle system providing transportation between Orledrya and its satellites. And thus the only sapient life left planetside between harvests is the skeleton crew of the Mechanicus elements charged with the maintenance of control spires and spaceports.

Because of this, an air of mysticism for the oceans the Orledryans pulled from rose and took hold in their hearts.

Mad prophets ranted of unknowable things stalking the deepest trenches of the world, slithering and clawed crawling creatures squeezed between the tectonic plates. They cropped up and preached of these aquatic masterminds to all who listened on every street corner down near every shrine and steepled church. These were the first children of Orledrya, they said, the rightful heirs to the oceans! In man's hubris, they waged a child's war against them until the clamor of their tantrum forced them to roll onto their side and turn from their wayward siblings. And now their flagrant abuse of Orledrya and her bounty had roused them from their slumber to throw off man's shackles once and for all!

The end was nigh and all must repent, the madmen shouted! And for the gracious warning provided to the masses, these enlightened men and women were put to the torch by Arbites and Ecclesiarchy alike.

So it would be for millennia until the Great Upheaval came to Orledrya Secundus.

## Upheaval of Orledrya Secundus

The Great Upheaval began not with the rising of Orledrya's greatest leviathans but rather an uptick in population growth and the gradual reduction of interplanetary traffic between Secundus, Primus and Orledrya proper.

With the reduction of traffic, the ability for workers to harvest from the oceans dwindled. So too did their financial ability to stand on their own within the vast sprawling ecumenopolis. This was later attributed to a mismanaged series of forms scrounging up all capable shuttle craft for the system. With an unprecedented decline in infant mortality, the administratum's population projection was thrown awry. So the availability of work continued plummeting for the next few decades while those who needed work skyrocketed. This was later attributed to the growth of convents stationed on the moon helping to fight disease, crime and the like. And this began producing quiet dissent in the proletariat, manifesting in two parties of thought--one clung to the surety of duty while the other simmered in divisive anger.
Over the course of three generations, this division became a chasm separating the swelling population into squabbling children. Preachers recounted the deeds of saints past who endured far worse than this to stir the citizens' hearts while dissident madmen decried the gubernatorial organizations keeping them bound and starving. Suffering was proof of one's worship of He, they said! Our children starve while the governor and his cronies dwelt in excess, they shouted! In time the God-Emperor would see how His flock endured and grant them succor, they insisted! Where are His auspices when I lose my house and home to debt, they countered!

On into the morrow they screamed, rattling their chains and demanding satisfaction while a small voice crept into the ears of the naysayers. Why must they endure strife when others did not know such pain? It spoke with silver tongue and honeyed words. Could a better life await if they only took up the means to grasp at it? Stray violent thoughts caught in a fine net until they became all anyone could think of. How present were the Emperor's benedictions anyway?

Then, in a fit of zealous anger, a group took up arms and gunned down a church of the Emperor's most pious men and women--the first of many riots erupted in a mountainous city. Ringleaders emerged from prominent gangs, desperate men and women joined rallies to knock down administrative doors, and precincts collapsed under the withering weight of rebellion.

This city would be the first domino to fall.

### Rebellion of Secundus

War spread across the satellite with frightening alacrity, sweeping across street and shattering home alike under the thunder of pilfered artillery. Law enforcement was the first to fall with several waves of indiscriminate shelling. Next came a stampede of rioters quick to clash against the planetary defence forces scattered about the many mountain ranges, stealing from them everything they could before throwing themselves headlong into their lines. And with the suddenness of the conflict, the better armed and better trained forces were thrown into disarray.

How could they gun down their own friends and family, after all?

The few guard regiments stationed on the moon were quicker to react, amassing a defense at key holdouts across the surface and organizing the scattered defence forces. They scrounged together all the armaments available to them and established bunkers, forward operating bases and defense lines around the cities and streets that remained loyal. Confessors and clergymen whipped the populace into a frenzy through their sermons, taking up arms against the aggressors. Missions established on the moon supplemented these men and women, polished armor and gleaming bolters paired with the pilot lights of flamers and shrill revving of chainswords. Hospitallers established medical tents to treat the wounded tossed out of the frontline. And priestesses recited their litanies with the holy pop and crackle of laud hailers, invigorating the warriors to push on to the point of breaking.

Try as they might, these rabble-rousers could do less and less against the growing bulwark of piety and purpose.

In the span of several years, it seemed the bid for secession would come to an ignominious end.

Then legion crept out the mountainside.

### Fall of Orledrya Secundus

Trimmed in stained bronze and clad in vile tar, towering men bedecked in fanged armor strode forth from the rock and stone and metal with violent purpose. Bolter and blade push through mortal men and women kicked up into hysteria at their presence. Hollered battle cries vied with the war hymns of the Sororitas while malicious staccato drowned out the orders barked from commissars and commanders alike. And they broke the frontline against the rock the battlements cropped out of.

An immortal warrior of peerless skill spearheaded the renewed assault, swatting aside commandants and breaking canonesses over his knee while continuing a ceaseless advance.

Mortal men and women died in droves as the fighting dragged on. Civilians were caught in the crossfire and painted the ground red while streets ran blue with noble blood. Guard regiments were scattered to the wind as they tried to regroup with whatever remained of the PDF and frateris militia whipped up by the Ecclesiarchy. Militant orders were sundered in their fervent defense of the moon's holy sites, non-militant Sororitas cut down in a swathe of malevolence.

All that remained were valiant last stands, wavering convictions and ruined families praying for salvation never to come while their world burned.

Then a star was born, scorching the earth.

### Starborne Saint

In the final confrontation between the beleaguered remnants of a beaten people, the undying pinnacle of ruin amassed his band of warriors and would-be revolutionaries about the satellite's last bastion. Mortars howled and warriors chanted their cants. What fragmented remains of the moon's convents stood proud at the adamant-wrought gate. It was a meaningless gesture of defiance, a last act of martyrdom to venerate the bloated corpse they followed like flies to excrement. And he would grant them an inglorious end with a single command.

He shouted his order and rose his hand, prompting his men to loose their hateful volley.

Then a star was born, scorching the earth.

Great pillars of stellar fire erupted from the ground and wove around the city to interpose between the wretched salvos and the sisterhood. An incendiary bulwark rose up hundreds of meters high, turning mortar and bolt and artillery shell alike to ash, until the star overhead seemed dim in comparison. Those men and women who turned on their fellows were blinded by a vehement inferno glaring down upon them while the battered and ruined saw faces of melancholy and compassion writhing amid golden light. And for a moment, it seemed a three-faced titan of the Emperor's outrage and compassion was made manifest from the flames.

But then the stellar matter drew to a single point like the heart of a star before flaring out into the shape of a woman decked out in pitted, scarred artifice with razor halberd clutched in hand. Molten rock roiled beneath her while wings of cosmic incandescence spread out from her back. And a sneer of contempt contorted her face, disappointment and pity found in equal measure.
Yet the blackened champion did not flinch, did not backdown from this new development--it wouldn't matter.

He gave his command and the radiant warrior waved her hand across his ranks. Thunder erupted behind him and scattered twisted bodies to the winds, causing him to stagger forward and whip around to see the slagged husks that once were self-propelled artillery. Several still shone white hot while melting away to mere pools of material, each key in the chain reaction of detonated munition that crippled his siege capabilities. Then he looked back to the gate and saw how she drew low to the ground with her polearm readied to lance forward.

Anger bloomed in his heart but the champion held his temper. There was a new element at play, one capable beyond reckoning. And engaging without fully understanding what she could wreak upon his forces was tantamount to suicide.

Stepping back, a single order was given and a company of Khornate barbarians raced forward to smash their axes into this new foe while the rest pulled back out of range of whatever renewed fight was to be found in the moon's holdout.

The ash of their bodies would turn the ground grey yet hold this warrior at bay while those with enough sense heeded their new lord, all the rest turning the ground to mud when the hive wall's guns turned them to mist.

### New Hope

When the legion pulled back to their forward line, the winged woman regarded those who found themselves before the Emperor's will made manifest. Those with the strength to stand found it wanting under her scrutiny, dumbstruck on their knees bathed in her halo. Women and children wept while men dwelt in the suffocating shadow of death. Rapture trembled their lips while blood and dirt caked into their cragged faces turned to mud with exultation streaking down their face. Orisons quavered the air until a sea of rhapsody buffeted her as she strode through the swelling crowd. Soiled tents choked the streets while priests and hospitallers tended to the enfeebled and dying. And sisters trailed in her wake while the amassed plebeians reached out to she who parted the waves so they might know the hem of her chasuble.

It was a pitiable state of affairs for any world to find itself in.

She made her way into the partially toppled command structure the defenders had commandeered and found the heads of each order, each regiment, all gathered in one place in varying states of injury and activity. But no matter the wound they wore, each man and woman dedicated their every moment to reassessing the tactical situation with the traitors' sudden retreat. Chief among which were the acting Canoness Preceptors of the orders militant, dialogus and hospitaller amassed within the sole surviving city alongside a congregation of captains who had taken effective command over the shattered remnants of the PDF and Astra Militarum. Yet the specter of death stretched across their faces as well, knowing better than any outside the cobbled command structure just how hopeless a situation they were facing down.

But the edge of defiance was all the woman needed.

Defenders tittering on the brink were provided the saint's succor, flesh knit together till scar tissue shone through while bruises faded away. She sat crisscross before the topographical map assembled in the headquarters, waving away those who tried making a show of reverence, and posed a series of questions to those in charge. What was the enemy force's composition? How was their morale? What geographic factors were at play? What were the supplies of friend and foe alike?

So many and more posed to a beleaguered people who only sought answers to the problems running them ragged.

They asked her, begged her explain, why did the Emperor not give to his faithful their salvation?

And she told to them with a soft smile they had held salvation in their hands the whole time, that they needed only the hope and drive to pull it in close.

### Rebirth of Secundus

Sister and guardsman alike rose up from the squalor of their final bastion, arms and armor doled out to all who could still hold a gun while the guiding light of the Starborne Saint brought them to their battlements. They amassed fortifications out of rockcrete and metal fragments made as one with the few sappers left over. Wall emplacements discarded expended munitions and loaded in fresh salvos. And the civilian element was pushed back to the hive structures still capable of withstanding waves of artillery so they did not get caught in the crossfire.

They were never given an outright answer to a problem, always provided suggestions and opinions that may guide them down a wise course of action. But she was always willing to lend a hand and provide aid where she could, tending to the wounded and lifting troops' spirits while digging into the earth and planning.

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