Vulkan - Rebirth: As Macragge became the new home of Imperium Secundus, the second stellar empire of Humanity created by the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute, more and more survivors of the XVIIIth Legion made their way to the Ultramarines' home world. Convinced of their Primarch's death, the Salamanders mourned their genetic-sire's loss. The Ultramarines had entombed Vulkan in a heavily decorated casket of pure gold -- a fitting resting place for one of the Emperor's sons, or so one would think. To the Salamanders standing vigil over Vulkan's body the cold mortuary chamber in which he now rested was a far cry from the burial rituals of the Promethean Cult. For all intent and purposes the Salamanders were a broken legion, the death of their Primarch having broken their indomitable spirit. Matters however soon changed when First Captain Artellus Numeon was successfully saved by an Ultramarine strikeforce. Many were those amongst the survivors that hoped that the return of their First Captain would give a new sense of purpose to what remained of the Legion - given them purpose and direction once again. Numeon firmly believed in his Primarch's survival, having constantly espoused the phrase, "Vulkan lives!" This became Numeon's battlecry and the cornerstone of his beliefs. Yet when Numeon asked to be taken to his Primarch, he only found an empty casket -- Vulkan's body having mysteriously vanished from his "final" resting place -- which planted the seed of doubt amongst Numeon's fellow Astartes, officers and Primarchs as to Vulkan's true condition.After several city-wide search-actions had returned empty-handed, Numeon himself, found the missing Primarch's body resting in a statuary garden. None could explain how the body had been overlooked or how it had gotten there, but Rouboute Guilliman soon assumed the reason to be a malfunction of the teleportation device inside of Vulkan's warhammer, Dawnbringer, which the Primarch had been entombed with. For many of the Salmanders however, this first miracle only confirmed Numeon's faith and beliefs. Coming together, the sixty-seven surviving Salamanders formed a new brotherhood --the Pyre -- and declared their intent. They would attempt to break through the Ruinstorm to return Vulkan to Nocturne, either to be properly laid to rest or resurrected. This was the fate they had chosen for themselves and nothing -- not even Lord Guilliman's refusal to let them leave -- would keep them from it. Fortunately for the Pyre, an XVIIIth Legion ship, the Battle-Barge Charybdis, was docked in Port Hera and undergoing final repairs. With the blessings of the Primarch Sanguinius, Emperor of Imperium Secundus, and with the tacit agreement of its Lord Protector, Lion El'Jonson, and -- at last -- that of Roboute Guilliman, Vulkan's casket was transferred aboard the Charybdis.The Charybdis’ voyage to Nocturne made for a tale of epic proportions, for the Archenemy would not let the chance to retrieve the body of a Primarch go so easily. Suffice it to say that through the Salamaners' heroism, obstinance, and great sacrifices, did the Charybdis reach its destination, but it was not alone. Both the Death Guard and the Word Bearers had followed the valiant Battle Barge's course, intent on claiming the Primarch's body and the mighty weapon still lodged in his chest. In a last desperate gamble, the Charybdis sacrificed itself on the guns of its enemies to allow the twenty survivors of the Pyre, amongst them Artellus Numeon, to covertly evacuate Vulkan's casket in a Thunderhawk gunship to Nocturn's surface. This ruse de guerre was, however, only short-lived and the Thunderhawk was soon severely damaged, causing it to crash-landed along the Acerbian Plaine. Fortunately for Numeon and fellow survivors, Nocturne was not entirely defenceless, as Lord Chaplain Nomus Rhy'tan soon rushed to the small party's crash side. Retrieving the Primarch's body just in time to reach one of the Legion's new bastions, the Draconis Gate, the Salamanders defended their homeworld against the invading Death Guard forces and utterly annihilate them.With the enemy defeated and Nocturne safe, the proper ceremony was conducted to remember Vulkan's passing. The Primarch, still wearing his artificer armour and clenching Dawnbringer in his hands, was carried into the fiery heart of Nocturne's sacred mountain, Mount Deathfire. The fulgurite spear was still jutting from his chest, as no one was able to remove it. In the presence of the remaining more than 700-strong honour guard -- all that remained of the Legion as far as any of the Salamanders knew -- Vulkan was lowered into the burning caldera of the volcano. No further miracle manifested itself. Vulkan had been given over to the earth and consigned to the flame and had not risen again.To those that had witnessed the miracles around Artellus Numeon and shared the hardships of the Charybdis' voyage, deception came hardest, but even they recognised, after a few days, that the final ceremony to honor Vulkan had given them closure -- from the ashes of defeat, the XVIIIth Legion would rise again, as it had done before -- with another amongst them to lead the legion. Only one man did not believe so; Artellus Numeon, First Captain of the Legion, the former commander of the Pyre Guard, would not see his faith go unrewarded. Numeon was wracked by grief, yet his heart felt alight with faith; the First Captain resolved himself to one last sacrifice -- to trade his life in exchange for that of his Primarch's. Covertly escaping the bastion of the Draconis Gate, Numeon, stripped of armour, weapons and rank, used the dawning of the Time of Trials to mask his escape and stall any form of pursuit before he could reach Mount Deathfire. There he immolated himself in one of the mountain's fiery crevasses, unable to see his Primarch again or to know if his sacrifice had been successful: an act of pure faith. When Numeon's erstwhile companions could finally follow without endangering their companions, only three of them went to search for him -- Sergeant Barek Zytos, Blacksmiter Igen Gargo, and Legionary Abidemi. Mounting jetbikes, which were by far the swiftest way to travel the ash-plains, the trio encountered a solitary figure kneeling in the desert, obviously weak and disoriented. Rejoicing at having found their comrade and friend, the astonished trio fell to their knees in supplication, when they saw the figure turn around and rise unsteadily to his feet, a hand clutching an all-too-familiar spear tip still embedded in his chest; it was their Primarch. Vulkan lived...