Mikal Curas

Mikal Curas was the General of the Orpheus Salient prior to his death at the hands of Hive Fleet Dagon, during an investigation into the heart of the Shadow in the Warp. Neither he nor Battlefleet Argo would survive the encounter, with the General being slain by Tyranid boarding his ship.

Records of the event were sealed by Lord Admiral Arkelious upon their discovery six solar months later, in the logs of a stray picket ship found drifting through space.

History
When Lord General Tetrarchus began his assault into the Jericho Reach, he placed command of the Orpheus Salient under General Mikal Curas. Although his rank and prestige allow him to use the full honorific of "Lord General of the Imperial Guard", Curas feels that using such an ostentatious title would alienate him from the rest of his officers.

General Curas was a young and impulsive commander who enjoyed the patronage of Lord Militant Tetrarchus himself, and learned much of his command style from the Lord Militant. When he was apprised of his mentor's battle plan for retaking the Reach, Curas intuitively understood exactly what Tetrarchus was looking for.

Curas gathered together his advisors, tacticians, and regimental commanders and laid out his goals for accomplishing the task set before him. His plan involved lightning fast raids on planets that had fallen into disloyalty with an emphasis on removing the corrupt leadership of a planet first.

Curas had a strong belief in the theory of "Original Purity," that is, he felt that Mankind was inherently gifted with purity by the God-Emperor of Mankind and would only become corrupt if forced to perform corrupt acts.

By removing the leaders of a planet in the opening stages of an attack, he felt that the general populace would return to this state of purity and be loyal to the forces of the Imperium.

While publicly approving of his plan, most the officers under his command felt that this was a naively optimistic point of view. They could not argue however, as not only did Curas enjoy the favour of Lord Militant Tetrarchus, but the Ecclesiarchy also agreed strongly with the idea.

Whether or not his theory was correct, the results of his actions could not be denied. The Orpheus Salient quickly became the most successful of the three Salients.

First Castobel fell, then Shoinmunt, Treyan and Eleusis, followed swiftly by Freya. These were just the first of hundreds of planets to fall before the might of the crusade. At the forefront of all of these actions was General Curas himself, leading Battlegroup Argo personally. His dedication to the crusade and obvious success made him an extremely popular leader with his men.