User:Montonius/Sandbox - The Saim-Hann Vendetta: The Aeldari of Craftworld Saim-Hann had divined that Vigilus was of paramount importance in the battleagainst the Great Enemy. During the first phase of the War of Beasts, they sent some of their fiercest clan warriors to tip the scales of fate against the nascent Chaos uprising that was also gathering pace on the planet in the midst of all its other difficulties.The governing Seer Council of Saim-Hann, at the insistence of Farseer Anvirr Keltoc, petitioned the clan chieftains to head through the Webway towards Vigilus. The Aeldari were hard-pressed as always defending their own territory from Chaos incursion, but nonetheless sent a small force into the Labyrinth Dimension, for they knew the Farseer would not send them on such an errand unless it would further the Craftworld's own agenda. At the head of the Webway force was the Autarch Rhyloor of Clan Moirec. Alongside him was his close relative, the Spiritseer Qelanaris.Farseer Keltoc had determined through his psychic auguries that the critical point of Vigilus' fate could be shifted by the assassination of a single individual -- Vannadan the Firebrand. Originally of Storvhal stock, this demagogue had roused the populace of that volcanic region of Vigilus, converting them to the worship of a fiery god that he alone knew was Tzeentch, the Changer of the Ways.With the seeds of rebellion sown in the fertile ground of Storvhal, he had moved on the poorer districts of Hyperia, seeking to convert the people there to his Chaos creed. Should he be allowed to succeed, Farseer Keltoc had foreseen that an industrial magma eruption would be triggered in Storvhal, causing a chain reaction that would stretch to the Martyr's Pyre district of the planetary capital at Saint's Haven. This would kill many of the hivesprawl's leaders, and destroy the planet's ruling council.The Aeldari force emerged from the Webway gate in the west of the southern polar region of Kaelac's Bane, the spirit divinations of Qelanaris enabling them to avoid the Drukhari that also made use of that gate and raided from the blizzards. Making haste upon sleek Jetbikes or riding within Wave Serpent transports, the Aeldari sped through the clouds towards their target.They found Vannadan preaching his rhetoric exactly where Keltoc had said he would be. Eschewing coordination with Imperial forces, their killing strike was swift -- after a brief and bloody battle, Vannadan's lacerated body was pitched into the street.But the flashing blurs of Saim-Hann's Jetbikes had not gone unnoticed, and the Aeldari's sudden appearance in Hyperia had been reported to what was then still the Aquilarian Council. The planet's rulers, upon hearing that a force of Aeldari was engaged in the slaughter of citizens, assumed them to be the same breed as the Drukhari that had been reported raiding the Oteck and Dirkden Hivesprawls.The council sent orders for a retributive strike, and within solar minutes an airborne team of Militarum Tempestus special forces descended from the skies. Dropping into the fray on Grav-Chutes, the 47th AntrellLions surrounded the Aeldari even as the xenos killed the last of Vannadan's tainted rebels. Qelanaris attempted a parley, explaining that they had excised a canker at the heart of the humans' realm.His words were met with a barrage of firepower. Autarch Rhyloor was gunned down, and most of the Windriders of his kinband were slain alongside him in that first bloody act. Qelanaris and the survivors withdrew, vowing a bloody revenge.Qelanaris made haste for the Kaelac's Bane Webway gate, taking the Spirit Stones of his slain comrades with him. Upon returning to Saim-Hann he used all his arts as a Spiritseer to install the souls of his kindred in wraithbone Ghost Warrior shells. He did not seek the sanction of the Seer Council for his vengeance, and did not heed the warnings of the other Saim-Hann clans. He and his kindred would have their vengeance, even if it meant raising the dead to do so.Several Terran years later, when Qelanaris returned to Vigilus in the third phase of the war, he sought revenge not only against the thuggish Imperial infantry that had gunned his people down, but the commanders that had orchestrated the strike. He did not know that by this point the Aquilarian Council had been replaced with the far more competent Vigilus Senate.Moving fast, the strike force of the Aeldari living and dead brought their vendetta against the seat of governance itself -- the Aquilarian Palace. There Qelanaris was to meet his match against the Ultramarines of Marneus Calgar.One of Calgar's first acts as the new ruler of Vigilus had been to reorder its military command structure. This decision was not taken lightly, but with undeniable evidence of the Genestealer Cult that infested the planet having reached its highest echelons, the act was clearly necessary. The doors of the Senate Hall were locked, and those dignitaries Calgar had allowed to remain were ordered to tell all they knew of the war effort upon Vigilus thus far.With a united front established, the first step on the road to eventual victory was knowledge and communication. The members of the Vigilus Senate found it easy to speak openly in the presence of the Lord Macragge, and progress was swiftly made.The reorganisation of the Imperial war machine on the planet was by no means confined to its commanders. In order to keep the new Vigilus Senate focused on the demands of the wider war, Calgar gathered an elite band of Ultramarines chosen from across the Battle Companies at his disposal, their duty to bar the path of any who would try for a decapitating strike upon what was now essentially the Imperial High Command.This force Calgar called the "Extremis Guard," led by Lieutenant Eothrus -- a rising Primaris Astartes hero who had already proven himself in the long and baleful wars fought by the Ultramarines after the opening of the Great Rift against Mortarion's Death Guard.Eothrus was one of the finest minds in the Ultramarines 2nd Company, and had a statesman's political wisdom that echoed that of the Ultramarines Primarch himself. The appointment proved wise; within solar days of the Extremis Guard's formation, they engaged, stalled and ultimately saw off an Aeldari attack that could have crippled the entire Vigilus command structure.When Lieutenant Eothrus and his Extremis Guard moved to intercept the Aeldari that had slaughtered the Antrell Lions at the eastern gates of the Aquilarian Palace, he became embroiled in a battle of distractions, feints and false flights. Whilst the bulk of his force took on the jetbikers that moved like lightning through the plazas and gatehouses of the palace, he moved to cut off any thrust aimed for the palace's most vital chambers. It was an insightful move, and sure enough, Eothrus found Qelanaris making for the Senate Hall.Eothrus approached with the intention of forming a truce, perhaps even an alliance. He had heard from the Space Wolves Battle Leader Haldor Icepelt, who had fought alongside the red-armoured Aeldari in the Stygius war zone, that the warrior codes of Saim-Hann were honourable. That day, however, Qelanaris' code was only one of revenge.A bitter struggle broke out, Aeldari slain by plasma and Bolter fire even as the Primaris Marines were torn apart by Wraithcannon fire. The Saim-Hann warband pushed through the Ultramarines cordon, pinning them with a storm ofshurikens and blasting at the doors of the Senate Hall. They were within striking distance of their goal when the doors opened of their own accord -- and a quartet of Space Marine Chapter Masters stormed out, their Honour Guards close behind. Qelanaris was forced to flee for his life, robbed of his final revenge.