The Outcast Dead and Astropath Kai Zulane as they escape from The Vault
The Outcast Dead were a small group of Renegade Space Marines who belonged to the Traitor Legions and had been part of an Astartes honour guard known as the Crusader Host based on Terra. The Crusader Host was comprised of members drawn from all 18 of the Space Marine Legions. When news of the Warmaster Horus' betrayal of the Emperor of Mankind reached Terra on the frigate Eisenstein, the loyalty of all members of those Legions that had sided with Horus was considered suspect by the warriors of the Legio Custodes. The Custodes imprisoned these Astartes within a vast, underground Imperial prison complex deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains called The Vault. After breaking free and rescuing the Astropath Kai Zulane from The Vault and escaping from the prison complex, the Outcast Dead proceeded to fight their way across Terra in an attempt to escape back to their respective Legions. In so doing, they ultimately unleashed the secret help within Zulane's mind for which he had been imprisoned and which held the key to the future survival of the Imperium of Man in the wake of the Horus Heresy.
History
Great Crusade
The members of the Outcast Dead were once part of an elite Astartes honour guard called the Crusader Host which had been stationed on Terra. The Crusader Host was a unit of Space Marines that was composed of representatives from all 18 Astartes Legions and normally numbered at least 30 members. Although service in the Crusader Host was required on a rotational basis that all of the Legions had to adhere to, the Host was not required to have a member from each of the Space Marine Legions in its complement. The Crusader Host's main assignment was to act as an honour guard that patrolled the boundaries of the Imperial Palace while acting as representatives at the heart of the Imperial court for their respective Legions. The rotation of Astartes did not happen regularly, as some members of the Crusader Host had been away from their Legions for over 100 Terran years.
Horus Heresy
The Imperial Palace, which the Crusader Host helped to protect for most of the Great Crusade
During the early 31st Millennium, the Emperor's favoured son, the Warmaster Horus, fell to the seductive whispers of Chaos and instigated a galaxy-spanning civil war against the Imperium. Horus pited Primarch against Primarch and Legion against Legion. When the horrific news of Horus' betrayal reached Terra and the Emperor, the Crusader Host naturally came under suspicion of heresy and treachery. Under the orders of High Custodian Constantin Valdor, the Captain-General of the Legio Custodes, a "hunt team" of Custodes warriors was assembled to bring all the members of the Crusader Host to justice, by force if necessary.
Imprisonment
The hunt team sent to arrest the Crusader Host at their barracks, known as the Preceptory, was led by a Seer Hunter named Yaga Nagasena who worked for the Sisters of Silence in seeking out psykers for the Black Ships. Nagasena and his bondsman, Ulis Kartono, a bearer of the anti-psychic Pariah Gene, gathered a force of around 3,000 Imperial Army soldiers under the command of Major Maxim Golovko. The force consisted of Golovko's own Black Sentinels regiment, a regiment of the Attaman Janissaries, Lancers and a squad of Custodians that Golovko thought would be overly sufficent to bring 30 Space Marines to justice. Yet Nagasena remained unsure whether this force would prove to be enough.
Not wishing for any bloodshed, Nagasena and Kartono organised a meeting with Adept Exemptus Atharva of the Thousand Sons, one of the leading Astartes of the Crusader Host. Meeting at the doors of the Preceptory, Atharva made it clear that he and many others of the Crusader Host found it an insult that he had brought such a small force to apprehend them. Nagasena attempted to reason with Atharva and try to convince him and the Crusader Host that a battle was not necessary, to which Atharva agreed. While stating that he himself would not participate in any fighting, Atharva pointed out that the other Space Marines, especially the World Eaters, would not go down without a fight.
A battle shortly ensued, claiming the lives of 18 Astartes and hundreds of Imperial Army troops. The remaining 12 Astartes of the Crusader Host's suspect Legions were subdued, arrested and taken away to be imprisoned inside the most feared Imperial prison on all of Terra, which had been created to hold the worst war criminals of the Unification Wars.
The Crusader Host were taken to the underground, maximum-security prison complex buried deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains that was officially named Khangba Marwu, but was better known as "The Vault." The Vault had been created to hold Mankind's worst criminals. The Emperor had even designed some of its cells himself to hold his worst enemies, including a newly created cell intended ultimately to hold Horus himself. The surviving members of the Crusader Host were placed in cells in Primus Block Alpha-One-Zero where they were the only inmates. Their gaolers consisted of Custodians and elite Imperial Army drop-troops commanded by the Custodian Uttam Udar, who acted as the head gaoler for the entire facility.
During the many months that the Crusader Host were imprisoned inside The Vault, Atharva continued to behave respectfully to his gaolers and did not insult or threaten his guards in any way. Despite his seemingly serene behaviour, Atharva used his psychic abilities to scan and probe his surroundings and the minds of his gaolers. Despite the psy-dampners built into his cell, Atharva was easily able to reach into the minds of the normal humans that acted as his gaolers though he could not scan the minds of the far more powerful Custodian without detection.
Magnus' Arrival
While the Crusader Host was imprisoned inside The Vault, the Primarch Magnus the Red attempted to contact his father, the Emperor, to warn him about Horus' betrayal and his plans after learning them when he made contact with Horus in the Warp while the Warmaster was incapaiciated in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge on Davin, where the Chaos Gods, acting in rare concert, successfully corrupted him. Although the attempt failed and resulted in the Emperor despatching a force to Prospero to return Magnus to Terra for violation of the Edicts of Nikaea, the damage done to the Emperor's attempt to open up the Webway to humanity deep within the bowels of the Imperial Palace allowed Warp entities to launch an incursion into realspace on Terra. Although weak and easily destroyed, these Warp creatures passed on a vision of the ultimate outcome of the Horus Heresy into the mind of Aniq Sarashina, the Mistress of the Scholastica Psykana, before they were destroyed by Major General Maxim Golovko and his Black Sentinels. The vision included the knowledge that a true Imperial victory over Horus and the Forces of Chaos would prove impossible. Instead, the Emperor would be forced to sacrifice his own continued leadership of the Imperium in order to prevent Horus from claiming a total victory and damning Mankind to a servitude to the Ruinous Powers that would only result in the ultimate extinction of the human race. But the cost for this salvation would be terrible -- without the Emperor's active guidance the golden age of the Imperium of Man would come to an end and be replaced by an age characterised by religious superstition, technological stagnation, ruthless tyranny and endless war. Sarashina was unable to pass this vision on to the Emperor, as her exposure to the full power of the Warp was quickly killing her. Sarashina instead passed the information into the mind of the Astropath Kai Zulane. Zulane was unable to extract the message from his own mind due to his recent inactive time as an astropath. Because of this, Zulane was taken to The Vault by the Custodians for psychic interrogators to tear the information from his mind.
Although Magnus' untimley arrival proved fatal for both himself and his Legion, it did however, allow Adept Exemptus Atharva to witness what had happened to Astropath Zulane and also allowed him to understand that the knowledge inside Zulane's mind was of the upmost importance to the survival of the Imperium. While Atharva analysed this information, Kai Zulane was locked inside a cell within the Vault with two psychic interrogators, Adepts Hiriko and Scharff. Atharva quickly picked up on Zulane's position within the Vault using his vast psychic powers. It was at this point that Atharva realised he needed to escape from his cell, rescue Kai Zulane and escape from Terra.
Escape from the Vault
During the crisis that unfolded upon Magnus' arrival of Terra, Custodians Uttam Udar and Sumat Tirtha were leading a group of elite storm-troopers from the Uralian Stormlords to delivery food to the innmates of Primus Block Alpha-One-Zero. The first cell contained the imposing figure of Sergeant Tagore of the World Eaters. Tagore had been away from his Legion for around 100 years and had fought with his Primarch Angron from the very beginning. Because of this, Tagore had received psycho-surgery and cybernetic neural implants that made him more vicious and prone to fits of rage and violence. Tagore insulted and threatened his captors, stating his cell would not hold him forever. He created a particularly vicious grudge against the head goaler, Custodian Udar, promising to 'rip his head from his shoulders'. The next cell contained Atharva who continued to not rise to the goading and sarcasm of his captors, remaining calm and quite. Atharva was in fact reaching into the minds of the Uralian Stormlords attempting to find a suitable mind to influence, as Atharva was not powerful enough to take actual control over someone's mind.
The mind most suitable to influence was that of Natraj of the Uralian Stormlords. Although loyal to the Emperor and the Imperium, Natraj wished he could leave the service of the Imperial Army to look after his wife and many children. Atharva influenced Natraj into thinking he could leave the Imperial Army by shooting and killing his fellow goalers. Natraj levelled his plasma gun and fired into Custodian Tirtha's stomach, killing him. Custodian Udar quickly despatched Natraj with the master-crafted bolter on the end of his Custodian Spear, but this only instigated a fire-fight with the other Stormlords, who Atharva also influenced into thinking that Udar was an enemy. While Udar was occupied with defending himself from some of the most lethal and well-trained soldiers of the Imperium, Atharva influenced antoher Uralian Stormlord, Tejas Dozyna, to take the identification ring off the deceased Tirtha and to use it to unlock the cell door of one of the prisoners.
Known Outcast Dead
- Adept Exemptus Atharva of the Thousand Sons - Killed by Primarch Rogal Dorn
- Sergeant Tagore of the World Eaters - Killed by an Imperial Army Major General
- Battle-Brother Subha of the World Eaters - Killed by a warrior of the Legio Custodes
- Battle-Brother Asubha of the World Eaters - Killed by a warrior of the Legio Custodes
- Battle-Brother Severian of the Luna Wolves - Alive and suspected to have gone into hiding on Terra
- Battle-Brother Argentus Kiron of the Emperor's Children - Killed by a Thunder Warrior
- Battle-Brother Orhu Gythua of the Death Guard - Died as a result of multiple injuries suffered in the course of the Outcast Dead's escape
Gallery
Sources
- The Outcast Dead (Novel) by Graham McNeill