Cato Sicarius - Knight Champion of Macragge: While many of the duties that fall to Sicarius, by dint of his office as Captain of the Second, involve officiating, planning and a large degree of bureaucracy, there is no doubt that the role to which he is best suited is that of Knight Champion of Macragge.Twice in his career Sicarius has served as a Company Champion, first to Captain Idaeus of the 4th and later to Captain Invictus of the 1st Company. It is a mark of how great a warrior and protector Sicarius is that in both those tenures, neither Captain came to any serious injury.Some within the Chapter whisper that Sicarius' apparent venom towards Captain Ventris of the 4th Company, during his trial following the Tarsis Ultra debacle, was due to the Suzerain's fondness for the late Captain Idaeus, beside whom he had fought during his own time in the 4th Company.As Knight Champion, Sicarius must answer challenges addressed to the Chapter as a whole and he has done so with startling and bloody results on many occasions. When Inquisitor Orchaedes denounced the precognitive abilities of Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius as evidence of forbidden pacts with the dark powers of the Warp, the accusation was met by the Chapter with the derision it deserved.However, Orchaedes pressed the issue, demanding an audience with Chapter Master Calgar. The trial took place in the Temple of Corrections, with more than a hundred Space Marines standing watch. As Orchaedes spat forth his anti-psyker rhetoric, scorning the good name of Tigurius and the honour of the Chapter that shielded him, the Ultramarines listened.To his credit, the Inquisitor was undaunted when Calgar's voice cut through his tirade like a peal of thunder, and only blanched slightly when Captain Sicarius, clad fully for war, descended from the left hand of his master to issue a challenge under the laws of trial by combat.For his part, Orchaedes had a champion of his own, and from within his personal army of Acolytes, Confessors, sycophants and soldiers emerged a hunched and hooded figure. Sicarius pointed with his sword, the legendary Talassarian Tempest blade, and ordered his opponent to show himself.Slowly the robes dropped to the ground to reveal a battle-class chrono-gladiator, which raised itself to full height on Skitarii-grade servo limbs. Roughly simian in shape, the chrono-gladiator was the height of a Space Marine in Terminator Armour and covered in strength-enhancing servo bundles and interlocking plates of armoured carapace.Designed for one-on-one combat, it combined Adeptus Mechanicus gene-science, hundreds of hours of augmetic surgery and the mind of a psychopathic killer. "Naogotha," the Inquisitor hissed, slowly pointing his finger at Captain Sicarius, "Kill him."Although Sicarius could never have seen it with his eyes locked on his newly unveiled foe, his liege, Marneus Calgar nodded once at Orchaedes as the battle began. Stim-activators surged into life, pumping frenzon, 'slaught and a dozen other war chemicals into the chrono-gladiator's frame, and it raised up a power flail and stun maul in its over-muscled hands.Sicarius did not pause for a moment, but advanced the twenty or so paces to the slathering techno-brute before him. The chrono-gladiator rushed forwards, thrashing at the Space Marine with every step. Sicarius dodged a crushing downward blow from the shock maul that fractured a flagstone in an explosion of marble, stepped back from a sweeping attack from the power flail that could have beheaded a Terminator, and parried its backswing in a shower of sparks.His lip curled in snarling anger, Sicarius drove his knee into the construct's stomach, forcing it back, and smashed his off-hand into the stim-injectors around its face. Before the chrono-gladiator could retaliate, he danced back, using the length of his Tempest Blade to hold it bay.Again and again, the Captain used his blade only to block and parry, instead crushing armour plates with his bludgeoning fists. Twice he tripped his foe to the ground, before stepping back to allow it to rise. Minutes turned to hours, and the chrono-gladiator's movements became laboured, the swings of its weapons clumsier and slower.The stimm-injectors feeding its frenzied movements ran dry, and it stumbled and fell, limbs thrashing and twitching until it was still. Sicarius' sword was unbloodied, and slowly he looked from his prone foe to the Inquisitor, whose mouth was silently working, as if to utter some dire proclamation."It is time you took your men and left Ultramar," Sicarius spoke, his tone low with menace. The Inquisitor's voice broke into a shrill cry as he strode towards the Space Marine -- all eyes in the hall, Adeptus Astartes and Inquisitorial retinue alike, looked on in horror.The Inquisitor stopped five paces from Captain Sicarius, a tirade of vitriol spewing from his lips as he denounced Tigurius as Warp-tainted and corrupt, and Sicarius as a whoreson and a lackey. As his rant rose in volume and invective, Orchaedes reached to his belt, perhaps for his rosette of office, or perhaps for his archeotech pistol...In a blur, Sicarius lunged forwards, swinging the Talassarian Tempest blade up in a savage arc that struck Orchaedes just as his hand emerged from the robes, slicing through the flesh and bone of his wrist. As Orchaedes' hand flopped to the ground, nerveless fingers clenched around the grip of his pistol, the Captain turned to face the Inquisitorial retinue, some of whom scurried forward to bear up their master, while others looked panicked enough to reach for weapons.With a snarl, Sicarius stamped forwards with a power armoured boot, crushing the severed hand and the precious pistol it still clutched into a meaty paste. He paused a moment longer, to drive his blade into the skull of the prone chrono-gladiator, before ordering the Inquisitor's followers to take their master and depart, never to return.As his words died down, one hundred Space Marines raised their Bolters and racked the slides. Calgar stood from his throne and, quaking with fear, Orchaedes' retinue filed out, their master's querulous cries for justice and vengeance going unanswered...