Arkos the Faithless

Arkos the Faithless, also known as the Scion of Alpharius, is the Chaos Lord of the Chaos Space Marine Warband known as The Faithless. Since the Horus Heresy, this vile Chaos Lord has continued the Long War against the "Corpse Emperor" and his unwitting servants. Arkos continued to harangue and stir up dissension and rebellion within the realm of Mankind, until he met his eventual fate during the Siege of Vraks late in the 41st Millennium. Confronted by a combined strike team composed of the Angels of Absolution and the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter, it is rumoured that he was eventually captured and brought back to the mobile fortress-monastery, known as the Rock as a prisoner. His actual fate remains unknown.

History
Akos was once a loyal Space Marine Captain, a proud officer of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade, but during the Horus Heresy, he, along with the rest of his Legion followed the Arch-Traitor Horus in damnation. During the Heresy he fought alongside his Primarch Alpharius as the Alpha Legion conducted its own campaign against the Emperor’s loyalist forces. After the Warmaster’s defeat at the hands of the Emperor, he fled alongside his Legion to the Eye of Terror and has continued the Alpha Legion’s Long War against the False Emperor ever since. He lead a powerful warband of Alpha Legion Space Marines from his personal Despoiler-class Battleship, Anarchy’s Heart. Arkos had spent the long millennia raiding from the Eye of Terror, attacking Imperial shipping lanes, and cultivating agent provocateurs who spread discontent, sedition and false rumours, especially in sectors close to the Eye of Terror. His Alpha Legion warband were also known to supply captured weapons and training to selected Chaos Cultists units.

Arkos’ warband had been known to masquerade as a loyalist Space Marines in order to infiltrate small units on Imperial worlds. These units then acted as saboteurs and commandos behind enemy lines. Arkos planned such daring missions very carefully. Usually he preferred to orchestrate attacks from his ship and allow his lesser minions to do the fighting. Arkos iss a master of subtle and devious schemes. He plans carefully and rarely fights a battle in which he doesn’t already have a tactical advantage. As a true son of Alpharius, his Primarch’s gene-seed is still strong in his blood. Arkos inspires his men and those lesser mortals he leads in battle.

Siege of Vraks
The Faithless took part in the Siege of Vraks, a 17 year-long, bloody campaign to take the important Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime. Seven years after the first shots were fired, in 820.M41, new reports reached the commanders of the 88th Siege Army on Thracian Primaris, that the Vrakisian renegades had been reinforced by unknown Space Marines in dark blue Power Armour. These mysterious Astartes launched swift attacks that destroyed an entire regiment when they attempted to breach the traitor’s lines. Arkos’ battle barge Anarchy’s Heart had crept into the Vraks System and landed at the star port. Disguised as newly deployed loyalist Space Marines they had infiltrated through the Krieg Death Korps’ lines and, under the guise of launching an attack, crossed no-man’s land to reach the enemy side, before making for the Citadel, the headquarters of the Apostate Cardinal Xaphan. Arkos and his followers presented themselves at the Citadel, offering his support in the name of all the Chaos Gods. Akros offered not only his superb veteran warriors, adept at raiding and disruption behind enemy lines, but also training for the militias. Arkos himself could add his own tactical experience to the defensive campaign. He also promised more allies to follow, other warbands who would hear of Vraks, and they too would join their cause against the False Emperor and his corrupt Imperium. His aid gratefully accepted, Lord Arkos and his veteran brothers were immediately put to work.

Battle of the Vraks Star Port
In 821.M41, Supreme Grand Master Azrael leads nearly half of the Dark Angels Chapter to the beleaguered Vraks Prime. The Dark Angels force arrived on board the Battle-Barge Angel of Retribution and the Strike Cruisers Sword of Caliban and Salvation and a small number of escorts to assist against the Forces of Chaos that assailed the small Imperial planet. Without communicating his intentions, Azrael simply set about his self-assigned mission - the destruction of Vraks' star part which would sever any easy access to off-planet reinforcements. Needing no assistance, he saw no reason to involve the Imperial Guard regiments engaged on Vraks. Moving in a lightning assault, the Dark Angels' vanguard was led by Azrael himself. As the Dark Angels strike force moved through the star port they unleashed unrestrained destruction upon it. The Dark Angels fought for Vraks' star port for eight days before Azrael ordered the final assault.

Leading elements of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th and 9th Companies the Supreme Grand Master led his Dark Angels to finish the enemy's resistance and finally overrun the star port. Dismounting his Land Raider, Azrael led the assault as he plunged into the enemy ranks of militia men, his black blade, the Sword of Secrets cutting a bloody swathe. As the Dark Angels were about to achieve victory, the duplicitous Alpha Legion sprung their trap. The Chaos Space Marines had been lying in wait, using the militia as bait to draw the Dark Angels into an ambush. Azrael was confronted by the Chaos Lord Arkos the Faithless, and soon the two were engaged in furious combat. Azrael was badly wounded in the duel, and was about to meet his doom as Arkio prepared to strike the blow that would see the reign of the Supreme Grand Master ended, when Interrogator-Chaplain Belphegor charged into Arkio, his Crozius Arcanum swinging. Belphegor managed to strike the traitor to the ground with a blow that cracked his Terminator Armour. Arkos fell dazed and bleeding. Concerned for his wounded commander, the Chaplain turned to aid him. When he turned back to face Arkos, the traitor had vanished. Though the ambush had inflicted painful losses upon the Dark Angels, the traitors were unable to carry the day, and soon drifted away as they had been recalled by their thwarted commander. The Dark Angels proceeded to hunt down and destroy the remnants of surviving militiamen. After ten days the star port was securely in the hands of the Dark Angels. Almost 200 battle-brothers had been killed, including the Sacred Standard Bearer Anmael. Upon completing their mission the Dark Angels strike force departed.

Summoning Chaos
By 822.M41, the Alpha Legion Chaos Sorcerers sent a psychic signal through the Warp to call and draw forth old allies to Vraks Prime. Lurking around the Eye of Terror, these forces that heard the call were drawn to the Imperial world like moths to a flame by the flickering psychic light that promised battle, slaughter and plunder in the name of the Dark Gods. Fortunately for the Imperial forces the tides of the Warp were against the Forces of Disorder. The Warp storms that engulfed the systems of the Eye were fierce, raging without end and making navigation all but impossible. Most of the ancient battleships of Chaos that received the Alpha Legion’s psychic signal were raiding ships and their supporting transports. These vessels constantly skirted the Eye of Terror, emerging to launch bloody raids against human colonies or poorly defended Imperial shipping convoys. Many splinter groups from the vengeful Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions heard the clarion call, and so, they moved to the Vraks system.

Treachery
The mighty Chaos Lord Zhufor of the Khornate warband of Chaos Space Marines called the Skulltakers, was charged by his master Abaddon the Despoiler to run the war on Vraks to his liking. Zhufor first began subjugating the various Chaos warbands and factions, to unify them under his leadership. Most warbands submitted, all save Arkos and his Alpha Legion warband. The Faithless would not submit to Zhufor but in order to save his warband from being attacked, Arkos made a treacherous deal with the Khornate Lord. Of all the warband leaders he alone had the trust of the Apostate Cardinal Xaphan (the architect of the Chaotic insurrection on Vraks), who was hidden away inside his fortress. Arkos knew that the Apostate-Cardinal was already little more than a symbolic figurehead for the Chaotic forces on the planet, and that Arkos had been really directing the war effort for years. Yet many of the Vraksian Renegades saw the Cardinal as their messiah, particularly since Xaphan had already proclaimed himself as such. Arkos agreed to turn traitor against Xaphan and to maintain his own independence he would allow Zhufor to capture the Cardinal. The treacherous pact was made, and Arkos proved true to his word. In secret, the Alpha Legion allowed Zhufor and his personal bodyguard of Chaos Terminators into the Cardinal's Palace. The palace became a charnel house, as Zhufor and his men slaughtered nearly everyone within. The Cardinal was captured alive by Zhufor himself. He had played his part on Vraks but now Khorne only had one final use for him -- as a sacrifice.

Last Stand of the Faithless
As the final siege against the Cardinal’s Citadel ground on, the battle against the Forces of Chaos began to turn against them with the arrival of the Ordo Malleus and another Space Marine Chapter. The Angels of Absolution had come at the behest of Supreme Grand Master Azrael of the Dark Angels, composed of the battle barge Liberatorii Delictum and accompanied by the strike cruiser Repentant and their two escorts. The Angels of Absolution were a Chapter with close ties to their progenitors. At the Supreme Grand Master’s request, Dark Angels’ Interrogator Chaplain Belphegor was attached to the strike force alongside the Angel of Absolution’s Company Master Yafnir. The strike force presented themselves before Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex, who permitted the strike force to capture the traitor Arkos the Faithless after the Unforgiven had narrowly failed to capture him during their mission to Vraks, nine years earlier. The Inquisitor had some misgivings, as he felt that such a prize as a high ranking Alpha Legion commander, with all the sensitive intelligence he could reveal would be best used in the hands of the Ordo Malleus. He feared that in the Dark Angels’ hands, Arkos would vanish into the depths of the Rock and never be heard from again.

With their explicit orders from the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels and the Chapter Master of the Angels of Absolution, Interrogator-Chaplain Belphegor and Master Yafnir remained immoveable in their positions, for Arkos must be returned to the Rock, otherwise Yafnir would be forced to withdraw his vessels and battle brothers from Vraks. No Inquisitorial interference would be tolerated in pursuit of their mission. Eventually, Lord Rex relented and allowed the strike force free reign to plan and execute any operation they needed to. Master Yafnir’s brothers launched a drop pod assault directly into the Citadel, then Belphegor and his battle brothers descended upon the enemy in a lightning strike. Their target was the Basilica of St. Leonis, the heart of the Citadel. The Liberatorii Delictum and the Repentant began their own operation to find and destroy the Anarchy’s Heart, wherever it was hiding.

The Faithless were one of the last lines of defence within the Citadel. Interrogator-Chaplain Belphegor led the Sternguard, veterans of the Dark Angels elite 1st Company, the Deathwing. It would be they who would face down Arkos. Though the Chaos Lord’s warband had been much reduced by the long war, the potent traitor remained a dangerous opponent even for these vaunted Space Marines. The Angels of Absolution squads spread out and began their search of the rubble, looking for any sign of the Arch-Traitor, but the Basilica was vast. The loyalist Space Marines fought on, capturing as many of the Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines as they could. Even those grievously wounded were kept alive by the Angel of Absolution’s Apothecaries until they could reach the Rock. Most would die in the fierce fighting. Driven on by their master and the Interrogator-Chaplain, the Angels of Absolution hammered at the surviving traitors and cut them down.

In the midst of the battle, Master Yafnir found his target, surrounded by the last of his warband. Though sorely wounded, Arkos still grasped his Dark Blade in his armoured fist. A puncture in his chestplate seeped blood. Bellowing his defiance, Arkos cursed his enemies as the Angels of Absolution moved in, surrounding their dangerous foes, guns leveled and ready for the order to attack. Arkos stood little chance, trapped in his lair. Trapped with nowhere to run, the Traitor-lord attacked in a rush. Master Yafnir and Arkos met one another in vicious close-combat. Master Yafnir was sorely wounded as the devious Arkos rammed his blade forwards and upwards as fast as a snake strike, into Yafnir’s face plate. Standing over the wounded and barely conscious Yafnir, the Chaos Lord killed any who attempted to rescue him. As Arkos stood over the severely wounded Master Yafnir, Chaplain Belphegor arrived. The last two survivors of Arkos’ warband flanked him, blood-spattered chainswords in hand. The Interrogator-Chaplain ordered the Chaos Lord to yield, but he flatly refused. Raising his fell blade in challenge, the Chaplain stepped forwards, beside him came the Sternguard veterans, ready to spring into action.

The two champions met once again, for it was Belphegor’s intervention on the Vraks star port that saved Supreme Grand Master Azrael’s life nine years earlier. Arkos showed no sign that he recognised his old foe as he bellowed his defiance at Belphegor. The Chaplain immediately launched his attack, as the Angels of Absolution closed in about the two remaining survivors of Arkos’ warband. Though Arkos fought fiercely, the Emperor was with the Chaplain as the Dark Gods were driven from the Citadel. With a vicious blow from his Crozius Arcanum, Belphegor struck Arkos full in the face, staggering the Chaos Lord, and then the Chaplain slammed his Crozius down, cracking Arkos’ skull. The Chaos Lord sank to his knees, his tainted blood pouring down his neck and onto the floor. The Interrogator-Chaplain ordered his Sternguard to seize the vile Arch-Traitor, as he saw that both Arkos’ last bodyguard had also been cut down. Though the strike force had succeeded in capturing Arkos, it was done at great cost. Master Yafnir died from his wounds, bleeding out before he could receive any kind of medical assistance. Their mission complete, the Angels of Absolution disengaged and withdrew, their prize in tow.

Destruction of the Anarchy’s Heart
As expected, the final assaulted flushed the Anarchy’s Heart from its hiding place. The war on the ground had been lost, and they desperately sought to rescue their master and their fellow battle-brothers. The Repentant’s long-range augurs detected the energy spike as the Despoiler-class Battleship powered up its engines. The Liberatorii Delictum immediately moved to intercept the Chaos vessel and the two colossal capital ships met in a dual of titanic firepower. The Liberatorii Delictum’s lance batteries made short work of the enemy vessel, as the Repentant and their escort vessels joined in, attacking the massive Chaos vessel’s flank. The bombardment cannons of the Liberatorii Delictum hammered the battleship into burning debris as it was torn apart by internal explosions. The ancient traitor battleship would never again threaten the Imperium’s shipping lanes.

Fate of Arkos
Following his victory, Interrogator-Chaplain Belphegor immediately withdrew from Vraks, taking with him 15 Alpha Legionnaire prisoners. It was unknown whether the infamous Arkos the Faithless was amongst their number, neither the Dark Angels of the Angels of Absolution would disclose the truth of the matter. Master Yafnir’s body was returned to his battle barge for transport back to his Chapter’s catacombs. Soon after embarkation, the Liberatorii Delictum vanished from the Vraks system, no further communications were received. To this day the whereabouts of Arkos the Faithless are unknown, but the Ordo Malleus regards him as having been captured on Vraks. He is officially listed as being a prisoner of the Dark Angels. What secrets he revealed to them have so far been retained by Grand Master Azrael’s Inner Circle.

Wargear

 * Archaic Master-Crafted Terminator Armour
 * Bionics
 * Combi-Melta
 * Dark Blade – A magical Power Sword of fell power that was gifted to Arkos by the Chaos Gods for his long, faithful service.