Meros

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Meros fue un Apotecario, un medicae en su primera etapa, que sirvió en la Novena Compañía de la Legión de Ángeles Sangrientos bajo el mando del capitán Furio durante la Gran Cruzada y la Herejía de Horus. Inicialmente, Meros fue un simple Astartes de línea, con un servicio sólido pero no destacado. Pero más tarde, durante los primeros días de la Herejía, su destino se vería inextricablemente entrelazado con el de su Legión y con el de su Primarca Sanguinius durante la Campaña de Signus.

Historia

Meros fue un Astartes de línea de la IX Legión que sirvió como medicae juvenil de escuadra bajo el mando del capitán de Furio en la 9ª Compañía. Tras concluir con éxito la campaña en el mundo de Melchior contra los viles xenos conocidos como Nephilim, Meros fue convocado por el Señor del Capítulo Raldoron; primer capitán de los Ángeles Sangrientos y escudero del Primarca Sanguinius. Una vez dentro de una capilla derruida que una vez estuvo dedicada al culto a los Nephilim por parte de sus esclavos humanos, al apotecario se le ordenó extraer las glándulas progenoides de un Ángel Sangriento caído llamado Hermano Alotros. Sin saberlo Meros, Alotros había sufrido una enfermedad desconocida a la que había sucumbido durante lo más intenso de la batalla. Esta aflicción más tarde sería conocida como el defecto genético llamado la Sed de Sangre. El apotecario colocó reverentemente la semilla genética de Alotros en una cápsula hermética, pero antes de que pudiera colocarla en un cierre de la bolsa de su cadera, el capitán Raldoron extendió la mano y se la quitó.

El primer capitán entonces le preguntó al apotecario su nombre y su unidad. Meros obedeció e inmediatamente se identificó. Luego recibió una extraña serie de órdenes del prestigioso comandante. Se le ordenó a Meros no hablar jamás de ese momento; y se le hizo comprender que, en lo que respectaba al resto de miembros de la Legión, ni él ni el Primer Capitán habían estado jamás en esa capilla. Entonces Raldoron levantó la cápsula con las progenoides e informó a Meros de que ese objeto en particular tampoco existía. Sin comprender del todo al Señor del Capítulo, Meros se vio obligado a repetir todo lo que Raldoron acababa de decirle. Obediente, Meros accedió a los deseos del comandante mayor y saludó. Cuando ya retrocedía para irse, presenció otro curioso suceso. Vio a Raldoron extraer un objeto de su paquete de cinturón, un trozo de piedra de tinta de los desiertos de Baal Primus. Con movimientos rápidos, Raldoron lo pasó sobre la servoarmadura del guerrero muerto, oscureciendo el color carmesí de su servoarmadura con una capa de reluciente y ahumado color negro. La acción le resultó extraña, ritual. Sin preguntar nada, Meros regresó a su compañía; y el extraño incidente desapareció de su memoria.

Líneas de Sangre

Muchos años estándar después, Meros fue asignado a participar en una campaña contra los Eldar Oscuros en el mundo de Nartaba Octus. Él había sido asignado a una flotilla Ángeles Sangrientos que era responsable de supervisar la evacuación de la colonia científica humana situada en ese mundo Imperial antes de que fuera sometido a un Exterminatus. Los sádicos xenos habían infestado el planeta, y a pesar de los mejores esfuerzos de los Ángeles Sangrientos, una horda de Eldars Oscuros habían infligido un exterminio completo sobre la superficie. Meros formaba parte de la retaguardia, el último grupo en evacuar el mundo condenado. Mientras ayudaba a un civil herido, el apotecario fue alcanzado por la espalda por uno de los xenos con un letal proyectil de munición Rastreaalmas. El dardo fue disparado por un Rifle Cristalino de los Eldars Oscuros, un fragmento tóxico envenenado por medios convencionales, pero doblemente eficaz debido a alguna monstruosa forma de impregnación psíquica. La toxina que emanaba no sólo destruía la carne, sino que también desintegraba el alma de un hombre. Cualquier intento de extraer el proyectil lo rompería, lo que introduciría las toxinas aún más profundamente en los tejidos de la víctima.

Gravemente herido, Meros se deslizó en el profundo sopor de un sueño de recuperación, con su membrana An-Sus activada automáticamente. En un desesperado intento por salvar al mortalmente herido Apotecario, este fue colocado por el sargento Cassiel y el hermano Sarga en uno de los especialmente fabricados sarcófagos de oro de los Ángeles Sangrientos. Estas maravillas dadoras de vida de arcana tecnología  son obras maestras artesanales de maquinaria, tan avanzadas que incluso un Tecnomarine no podría comprender plenamente los entresijos de su funcionamiento. Estos sarcófagos son utilizados en el ritual de la IX Legión para la transformación de un aspirante enclenque de las tribus del radioactivo Baal en un Astartes Ángel Sangriento; sus reestructurados cuerpos y sus rasgos adquieren una belleza en el curso de su metamorfosis que se hace eco de la de su antecesor angelical.

Los hermanos de batalla de Meros creían que colocar a su compañero en el sarcófago sería útil para eliminar la sangre envenenada de su sistema, reemplazándola con limpia y fresca vitae. Durante su estancia en el sarcófago, Meros se reunió en un febril sueño psíquico con el Hermano Rafen, un Ángel Sangriento del lejano futuro de finales del Milenio 41ª. Ambos compartían un vínculo genético a través de su experiencia compartida en el mismo sarcófago, a pesar de estar separados por diez milenios estándar. En breve, los dos Ángeles Sangrientos se dieron cuenta de que no estaban solos, ya que ambos se encontraron en sus visiones el guardián Dorado de la venganza conocido como El Sanguinor. Las historias que Rafen había oído sobre él decían que este ser era un avatar de todo lo que era bueno y noble en el carácter de su capítulo; una fuerza inquebrantable de voluntad pura que le daría su bendición a los guerreros Ángeles Sangrientos que luchaban con todas las probabilidades de éxito en contra. El Sanguinor era el ángel dorado de la venganza que descendería de los cielos en el momento de mayor necesidad de los Ángeles Sangrientos.

Sin dar crédito a sus propios ojos, Rafen sacó pensativo su Bolter de la funda y probó el arma contra la misteriosa entidad. Rafen nunca había creído realmente las historias, porque había luchado en la punta de lanza de las guerras que habían sacudido los pilares de la historia de su Capítulo, y nunca había visto la cara de esta leyenda; y verla ahora, en este lugar, provocó una furia repentina al Ángel Sangriento. Meros vio a Rafen sacar su arma contra el guerrero dorado. La figura dorada sólo podía ser una cosa, un ser. En las restricciones de la IX Legión se prohibía que cualquiera salvo el propio primarca y los guerreros de su Guardia Sanguinaria personal usasen ese tipo de armadura. Sólo podía ser el propio Sanguinius; y aquí ante Meros, el guerrero Rafen esgrimía un arma contra él. Suponiendo que el Sanguinor sólo podía ser su amado Primarca, Meros intentó detener Rafen. El hermano Rafen informó a Meros de que Sanguinius llevaba muerto más de diez mil años terrestres, y que los Ángeles Sangrientos ya no existían como legión.

Negándose a creer tales blasfemias, Meros se enfureció y atacó a Rafen. Pero antes de que ambos Ángeles Sangrientos pudieran matarse el uno al otro fueron acosados por todas partes por fantasmas. Dejando a un lado sus diferencias, los dos Ángeles Sangrientos pelearon codo con codo, logrando vencer a sus enemigos fantasmales. Ambos Ángeles Sangrientos habían encontrado un sentimiento de camaradería a través de su patrimonio genético compartido. Rafen pronto se dio cuenta de los presagios terribles que suponía esa reunión. Antes de ser médicamente despertado de su paralelo, ambos en coma pero separados por las vastas distancias del tiempo y la historia, Rafen intentó comunicarse con su antecesor genético. Con todas sus fuerzas, con hasta el último aliento, Rafen luchó para pronunciar una advertencia. De su boca salía una sola palabra ahogada. Una maldición. "Horus-." El Sanguinor intervino rápidamente antes de que Rafen pudiera culminar su advertencia sobre la traición de Horus, y se colocó un guantelete de oro sobre los mudos labios de su máscara inmóvil, indicando claramente al Ángel Sangriento que debía permanecer en silencio. Justo en ese momento ambos Ángeles Sangrientos fueron llevados de nuevo a sus respectivas líneas temporales. Al despertar del sarcófago, milagrosamente curado de una muerte muy próxima, Meros se sorprendió al ver al Comandante de la Guardia Sanguinaria Azkaellon comprobando su estado. Aunque él pensaba que el apotecario seguramente moriría de sus graves heridas, el generalmente severo comandante de guardia de honor de los Ángeles Sangrientos estaba realmente impresionado por la capacidad de recuperación de Meros. Azkaellon luego informó a los Ángeles Sangrientos reunidos que habían recibido nuevas órdenes del Señor de la Guerra Horus. La totalidad de la IX Legión sería reunida para la batalla y la nueva gloria. Tal reunión de los Hijos de Sanguinius no tenía precedentes. Para que el Primarca los reuniera a todos en una misma operación, esta tendría que ser de gran importancia. El destino de la Legión los Ángeles Sangrientos era el Cúmulo Signus.

Campaña de Signus

Meros sirvió a bordo del buque insignia Lágrima Roja de los Ángeles Sangrientos durante el comienzo de la campaña imperial en el Sistema Signus. No mucho tiempo después de llegar al sistema, los Ángeles Sangrientos descubrieron restos de naves a la deriva más allá de los bordes del Cúmulo Signus. Los exploradores de la IX Legión habían encontrado los restos de más de una docena de diferentes naves bajo la atracción de la gravedad del mundo conocido como Phoros. Transportes civiles, patrullas de las fuerzas de defensa y transbordadores. Muchas de estas naves espaciales ni siquiera eran capaces de realizar saltos de disformidad. Su trayectoria sugería que huían de los mundos internos del sistema. Pronto la flota imperial estuvo plagada de rumores, como las historias que comenzaron a circular sobre algo inusual descubierto por la nave exploradora Numitor de los Ángeles Sangrientos. Acoplada a la Lágrima Roja, la fragata Numitor había tenido que amarrarse al cilindro de acoplamiento por sí misma, y como medida de precaución todos los auxiliares y tripulantes mortales no combatientes fueron enviados a otras funciones. Meros y otros compañeros Astartes apotecarios fueron convocados de urgencia con pocas explicaciones sobre los motivos. Meros se preguntó por qué se necesitaban Hermanos de Batalla armados para escoltar a un equipo médico en la cubierta del propio buque insignia del Primarca, pero no se ofrecieron explicaciones.

Each medicae had an assigned number of bodies to examine,and were then to pool their findings. Donning their full suits of Power Armour, the Apothecaries were to observe all biohazard procedures and report anything anomalous immediately. Meros followed his comrades out on to the service deck and found the four coffins set aside for him to examine. He wondered why the corpses had been brought aboard the Red Tear, but it was standard operating procedure. The Red Tear had the most advanced medicae labs and technical facilities of any starship in the IX Legion's fleet. As he opened the container and examined each body in turn, Meros quickly discovered heaps of clothing, curiously laid out in the shape of a person. Taking a sample of blood he discovered that the blood had somehow been altered. The vial of vitae, when held up to the light, showed that instead of crimson fluid, the matter within the crystal tube was thick and sluggish, an oily paste almost purple in colour. Upon closer scrutiny of the corpses, Meros quickly discovered that the bodies lacked rigidity as they were sunken and shriveled in a way that suggested a peculiar form of decay. Much to his shock, he discovered that that there were no bones within the corpses. They were little more than bags of skin and meat in the shape of a human being, misshapen under the weight of their own mass. Even more strangely, the Apothecaries could not figure out how the bones had been removed. The assembled Apothecaries were ordered by First Captain Raldoron to not discuss what they had seen without permission from their commanding officers.

As the Blood Angels continued their investigation of the scattered fleet of wrecked vessels, they could not figure out why these craft were even in that particular zone of space. The people of these ships had been obviously so afraid that they willingly sought out the embrace of deep space in order to escape whatever horror they had witnessed. By order of the Primarch, a task force of Blood Angels Astartes were to travel ahead to Signus VI, the Hive World known as Holst by its people, to discern the fate of the people of that planet. Meros and a squad of Blood Angels, accompanied by three Word Bearers Astartes, were sent down to the surface of the planet to investigate. But en route, their mortal pilot was overcome by the nightmarish visions that continued to plague him and all of the unaugmented humans aboard the IX Legion's fleet since it had entered the Signus System. The pilot succumbed to madness and shot the Servitors, the rest of the mortal crew and himself, forcing Meros to pilot the Stormbird and make a crash landing.

Once they arrived on the surface of the planet, the Astartes quickly realised they had no communication with their fleet and would not be missed for at least ten hours. They decided to go ahead and explore the planet’s surface, investigating the outer wards of Holst-Prime Hive. During their investigation, the small detachment of Space Marines heard the sounds of gunfire. The Space Marine on point, Brother Xagan of the Blood Angels, had somehow mysteriously disappeared down some ragged sink-hole within one of the habitat buildings. The only sign of his passing was a discarded Umbra Ferrox Pattern Bolter, vapour still curling from its muzzle. As they continued their investigation, the Blood Angels became separated from the three Word Bearers that had been accompanying them, just as they encountered enemy contact from unknown vectors. When Meros and the Blood Angels caught up to their compatriots, they discovered a dead Word Bearer Space Marine. Dark, oily fluid stained the the slate-coloured Power Armour of the dead Astartes. With a start, Meros realised that the purple fluid was the Space Marine's blood -- the strange vitae filled his thoughts, his senses. It was the same strange blood he had discovered in the boneless corpses aboard the Red Tear. Suddenly, and without warning, the Word Bearers' Captain immediately interposed himself between the Apothecary and the mutilated remains of his Battle-Brother.

As Meros and the contingent of Space Marines attempted to escape from the outer wards of Holst-Prime, the hive city itself came alive, attacking the Astartes in the form of living metallic constructs formed from fragments of wreckage. Surrounded and outnumbered, the small task force was only saved by the timely intervention of Captain Amit and the Blood Angels' 5th Company. Receiving the strange, but unbelievable reports from the survivors that had been on the planet’s surface, Sanguinius ordered the destruction of the cursed planet. Priming their cyclonic torpedoes and megaweapon systems, the entirety of the Blood Angels fleet bombarded Holst, subjecting it to the rarely used punishment of Exterminatus. Like a tormented animal, the planet ended with a tortured scream that even the void could not silence.

Meros would later be a part of a detachment from the 24th Company that set down on the surface of the Agri-World of Scoltrum to investigate whether or not they were any survivors aboard a Signusi frigate called the Stark Dagger, which had attempted to flee from the core worlds of the system. The Stark Dagger had been a part of the Signus Cluster’s outer defence squadron. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to flee and crash-landed upon the surface of the doomed planet. The Blood Angels managed to rescue a small band of survivors which included a Pariah amongst their number.

Signus Prime

Upon the blighted Signusi capital world of Signus Prime, Apothecary Meros met his ultimate fate. It was there that the Blood Angels Legion finally confronted the true enemy that now controlled the Signus System, the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Upon the Plains of the Damned the ferocious Space Marines confronted the vast, nightmarish horde of Chaos Cultists and packs of monstrous daemons. Sanguinius swore to personally confront and vanquish Kyriss the Perverse, the Keeper of Secrets and Greater Daemon of Slaanesh who controlled the Signus System, leading his elite companies to besiege the daemons' defiled palace that was known as the Cathedral of the Mark. Awash in blood, the Blood Angels valiantly fought the Forces of Chaos, cutting them down in their corrupted thousands. The ash wastes of Signus Prime, later known as the Plains of the Damned, became a charnel house as the Blood Angels forced their way into the very heart of the Greater Daemon's realm. On the battlefield that was Signus Prime, Sanguinius was confronted by the infamous Bloodthirster Ka'bandha, a Greater Daemon of Khorne. The Angel and the Daemon fought a titanic battle amidst the blood and carnage all around them. At the height of this confrontation, as the Primarch prepared to strike a killing blow against the fallen Bloodthirster, Ka'bandha struck a dishonourable blow with its massive barbed whip around the Primarch's legs, smashing the Angel to the ground. The Greater Daemon then summoned forth the malefic powers known as the Ragefire, and cut a huge swathe through the ranks of the Sons of Baal with his great axe, killing 500 Blood Angels in an instant. The psychic backlash of so many of his sons dying so suddenly blasted Sanguinius into unconsciousness.

Leaderless, the Blood Angels' fury was unfettered. The brutal violence of the Bloodthirster Ka'bandha unleashed something dark within the psyche of the Blood Angels, a thirst for blood that would not be slaked until the taint of Chaos had been wiped away from the planet. The Sons of Sanguinius lost themselves in the riot of killing. Careful, drilled lines of company and Chapter became broken and mixed, and from hour to hour, the IX Legion slowly transformed into something wild. Its Astartes became a red hurricane that tore across Signus Prime leaving nothing in its wake. The Blood Angels fought as they had never fought before, not with cool reason and righteous might as their guides, but with hearts beating for vengeance, a berserker’s blood-thirst on their lips. Unstoppable, all that stood in their path was obliterated. The foe had gravely miscalculated the will of the Angels. Far from being broken by the vicious, brutal attack upon their beloved Sanguinius, they had been cut loose by it. The bonds that held them in check were slipped, and a darkness previously hidden was fully unleashed. Each of them bayed for the blood of their enemy, but it was a thirst that could not be slaked -- only given respite for a brief interval. The red tide broke upon the walls of the great cathedral with unspeakable violence and the clash of a hundred thousand weapons. Leaderless and out of control, the Blood Angels acted on lethal instinct, converging at the towers of bone with only one impulse powering them forward. Hate drove them into the cohorts of Bloodletters and Succubae defending the approaches to the temple, and they tore the daemonic creatures into shreds. The Sons of Sanguinius were no longer a Space Marine Legion, but a force of nature laying waste to everything that stood in their way.

Miraculously unaffected by the Red Thirst, Chapter Master Raldoron, Meros and a small strike force of Blood Angels assaulted the Cathedral of the Mark. As the majority of their Legion was gripped in the bloody throes of their genetic curse, Meros and his Battle-Brothers fought through hordes of daemons in order to infiltrate the profane basilica. In the meantime, Raldoron's Adjutant, Brother Mkani Kano, gathered his fellow former Librarians who had been forbidden to use their psychic abilities since the Emperor's Decree Absolute during the Council of Nikaea, in an attempt to use their combined psychic abilities to wake their Primarch from his dark torpor. Using their combined psychic might, the Librarians sacrificed themselves with the exception of Kano, and miraculously awoke their Primarch, bringing him back from the edge of the abyss. The Angel arrived to confront both Kyris and Ka'bandha. The Bloodthirster and the Angel fought once more, but ultimately, Sanguinius prevailed and cast the Greater Daemon back into the Warp. The Blood Angels discovered the source of the rage that infected their entire Legion. The Dark Apostle Erebus had created a fell device, a psychic construct known as the Ragefire, which contained and was powered by the half-dead body of Captain Tagas, the former Captain of the Blood Angels' 111th Company, who had been presumed killed in action on the world of One-Forty-Twenty, the planet called Murder by all the Space Marines who had fought there several standard years earlier. Through the use of the dark sorceries of Chaos, the Word Bearers had created a conduit of undiluted rage that consumed nearly the entirety of the Blood Angels Legion. Driven to uncontrollable rage over their fallen Primarch, the Forces of Chaos hoped that the Blood Angels would lose control of their noble aspect, and willingly give themselves over to the Scarlet Path and the worship of the Blood God Khorne.

El Ángel Rojo

In bloody defeat, Kyriss the Perverse offered Sanguinius a foul deal: if the Primarch would willingly take the place of the half-dead Tagas within the psychic construct and give himself fully to the Ragefire, he would ensure that his sons would never again be affected by the genetic curse of the Red Thirst. The Primarch seriously contemplated the daemon's offer and finally came to the conclusion that this sacrifice was worth it to save his beloved sons. But before Sanguinius could enter the construct, Meros made the decision for him, and lept into the suspended crystal lattice. Sanguinius threw himself into the air in an effort to save his errant son, but was too late. The Apothecary committed the act without uncertainty, for he knew it was right. The Angel could not fall. When Meros had met the future Blood Angels Sergeant Rafen of the late 41st Millennium in the dreamscape of their joint healing blood-sleep, he had said a name, a warning. Only at that moment did Meros fully understand. Sanguinius had to live, in order to meet the Arch-Traitor Horus on equal footing. When the terrible confrontation finally came, the Angel had to be there to face him, brother against brother.

Before Meros stepped into the swirling vortex of undiluted rage, he forcibly and painfully forced his cutter to open a jagged tear through the layers of Ceramite and flesh beneath. Using the Reductor on his gauntlet's Narthecium, he guided the device as it bore through his skin, and removed his own Progenoid Glands. The device sucked the nodules of gene-rich tissue into a reservoir pod, sealed within for preservation. Meros' bequest to his Legion now lay secured. Detaching the medicae module from his armour he tossed it towards his Primarch, who snatched it out of the air, and requested that Sanguinius take it, so that something of him would live on. The Angel vowed to honour his son's final request. With this final act, Meros stepped into the whirling vortex. Meros transformed, writhing in the grip of an infernal glow as the burning power merged with every atom of his being. The flesh of his face distorted into a hollow mask far beyond the guise of pain. His armour became dark and disfigured, joints steaming, the shell of it trembling as it fought to contain energies never meant to be bound to this reality. In the Warp’s shadow, a pair of ghostly, blood-drenched wings briefly unfolded from the wounded Apothecary’s back, anointing the ruined bones beneath with a rain of phantasmal blood; then they were gone as Meros' body was possessed by a daemon of the Blood God. Brother Meros was gone, and in his place was the daemonic Red Angel.

Confronting the daemon-possessed Blood Angel, Sanguinius demanded that the avatar of hate release its hold on his son. The Red Angel flatly refused. When the Primarch inquired if there was any small part of Meros that remained, the Red Angel responded that there was a small trace of the former Apothecary. The Primarch told the vile creature to heed his words; whatever Ruinous Powers it served, whatever irrational choice Horus had made to seek a pact with them, they stood defeated this day upon the cusp of victory. Sanguinius vowed that Meros' sacrifice would not be in vain, and that one day, he would find a way to free him from the daemon that now possessed his mortal shell. The Red Angel then took its leave from the Cathedral of the Mark and disappeared into a Warp Gate that it had conjured.

The Blood Angels then completed their purge of the daemons on Signus Prime and even Kyriss the Perverse was sent screaming back to the Warp at the end of Sanguinius' sacred blade.

As for the daemonic entity known as the Red Angel, it presented itself to Horus aboard his flagship, the Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit. The Red Angel revealed itself as the Fallen Son of Baal, the Cruor Angelus, the Willing Slave. The Red Angel was a weapon to be used at Horus and the Traitor Legions' disposal, a weapon intended to seize Terra and throw down the False Emperor.

Fuentes

Extraído y traducido de [[en:Meros|Wikihammer 40K UK].

• Bloodlines, por James Swallow.

• Fear to Tread, por James Swallow.

• Visiones de la Herejía.

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