Last Wall

The Last Wall Protocol was a secret protocol that could be enacted by the Imperial Fists Space Marine Chapter in conjunction with their Successor Chapters. Following the adoption of the Codex Astartes which saw the reorganisation of both the Imperium of Man and its military forces, as well as the sundering of the Legiones Astartes into smaller, separate Chapters, which became known as the Adeptus Astartes, Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn secretly laid down the foundations for the emergency protocol in case the Imperium was ever brought to the brink of annihilation like it faced during the dark days of the Horus Heresy.

Technically, to enact such a protocol was considered treason - a gross breach of the oaths sworn after the Heresy War when Lord Guillman's reforms were enacted. The proscriptions for the Last Wall Protocol were laid down by Lord Dorn in secret, in direct contravention of the proscribed dictates of the Codex Astartes, which forbade any one person commanding such large a formidable force such as a Space Marine Legion of old, ever again. The act of enacting the Last Wall protocol was in direct violation of the edicts of the Codex Astartes and the High Lords of Terra, and could possibly result in the condemnation of those who would dare follow its precepts and damn them in the eyes of the Imperium as traitors.

The Last Wall protocol was only to be enacted in the event that Terra should fall under a grave threat, or perhaps even have fallen, then the sons of Dorn would come together to deal with the matter as one like the VII Legion of ancient times. Though the Legions had been broken apart by Imperial decree, the old Legion would remember, and come together in the last place their enemies would ever look for them. A place that lived long in the memory of the sons of Dorn - the Phall System.

The last time this secret protocol was enacted was during the tumultuous era during the War of the Beast in 544.M32, which saw the galaxy invaded by an Ork WAAAGH! that rampaged across the Imperium on an unfathomable scale. The number of attacks grew until it became the greatest Greenskin invasion that the galaxy had ever known, eclipsing even the one defeated by Primarch Horus Lupercal upon the world of Ullanor during the latter years of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.

The former activation of the protocol was considered controversial even amongst the Scions of Dorn Successor Chapters themselves. Black Templars High Marshal Bohemond made his displeasure known when this protocol was enacted by Chapter Master Koorland, the "Last Son of Dorn", and that he reluctantly obeyed the formal summons, feeling that his Chapter's first duty should be to their neverending, galaxy-wide Crusade against the enemies of Mankind, as dictate by his Chapter's founder, Sigismund. Likewise, several more puritanical factions amongst the Scions of Dorn, such as Zerberyn of the Fists Exemplar, abhorred the act of enacting the Last Wall Protocol, for it was his Chapter's own founder, Oriax Dantalion, who had convinced their gene-sire of the wisdom of adopting the Codex Astartes and allowing for the division of the VII Legion into separate Chapters.

Despite their misgivings, the Scions of Dorn understood, that at that time, the issuing of the Last Wall protocol was a grave matter, and the appropriate situation for which their Primarch intended. The Imperium was beset by a foe (at that time) that would likely triumph over other forces. No Chapter alone could stand against this menace and so the bonds of old, forged by the Emperor's hand and broken by the dictate of the then-Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman, must be joined again. Therefore, they came to an agreement - the Scions of Dorn would stand united once more against this dire threat.

During this conflict, the so-called "Last Wall" Chapters suffered greatly during the prosecution of the War of The Beast, but still managed to donate a portion of their strength to help rebuild the then-extinct Imperial Fists Chapter once more (that had been wiped out during the earlier xenocidal campaign on Ardamantua during the outset of this conflict), which helped end the threat of The Beast and restore order once more to the galaxy.