Sebastian Yarrick

"Heroes of Armageddon! You have withstood the evil savagery of the Orks, and they have nothing left for you to fear. So raise high the black banners of vengeance -- now it is our time."

— Last transmission from Commissar Yarrick prior to departing with a Black Templars Crusade to hunt down Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka

Imperial Commissar Yarrick holding a grim trophy

An Imperial portrait of Commissar Yarrick

Yarrick fighting Orks during the Second War for Armageddon

Sebastian Yarrick is an Imperial Guard Commissar, famous for his involvement in the Second and Third Wars for Armageddon in the last century of the 41st Millennium. There he fought against the forces of the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Yarrick was already old when the war began and was scheduled to retire on the day the Orks landed. He had had an excellent history serving with Armageddon's Planetary Defence Forces and a reputation for unswerving loyalty to the Emperor. In his youth he had learnt the Ork language from a captured raider and was an expert in the way the Ork mind worked.

History

Early Life

Like most Imperial Commissars, Yarrick was taken from his parents at birth to be raised and indoctrinated by the Imperium's Schola Progenium. He learned the Ork language while fighting the Greenskins during a WAAAGH! on the world of V'run. Since that time, he has extensively studied the Ork mind, and is considered one of the Imperium's leading experts on Orks. His years with the Imperial Guard were eventful ones, as he served in over a dozen warzones and with regiments from Necromunda, Luther McInytre, and Armageddon. His final assignment before retirement was to run the recruitment program for the rebuilding of the 4th Armageddon Imperial Guard Regiment.

The Second War for Armageddon

During the Second War for Armageddon, Yarrick had been banished to Hades Hive by Herman von Strab, the inept Planetary Governor of Armageddon, after he ordered the planet's astropaths to send a message to the Imperium for help. Von Strab has been described as "the greatest waste of flesh and bone born in the last five hundred years" by Princeps Prime Kurtiz Mannheim of the Iron Skulls Titan Legion. Gradually, under von Strab's incompetent leadership, the planet fell bit by bit until the Orks reached Hades Hive. Here, Commissar Yarrick commanded the defending forces, inspiring them to fight like the possessed. The Imperial defence was so vicious that eventually Ghazghkull himself joined the attack, leading his forces from the front. He tried to deplete the hive by every strategy he could muster, but Yarrick countered them all. Eventually, Hades Hive became a personal battle for the two warriors. Ghazghkull fell upon the hive, and Yarrick realised that Imperial defenders could not hold their position. In a series of daring shuttle runs, the remaining Imperial forces managed to escape from the Greenskin trap. In the retreat, Yarrick was almost killed, but his iron will allowed him to survive. Eventually, the war ended with the arrival of Commander Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines, whom the defenders of Armageddon turned to for leadership.

Golgotha

The tables were turned on Yarrick during the battle for the planet Golgotha. Ghazghkull devastated the Imperial defenders with such ferocity that even the Commissar himself could not stand against it. Yarrick was defeated and captured by Ghazghkull, who later released him, saying "Good enemies iz 'ard to find." Yarrick left the planet, but soon returned with a force from the Adeptus Mechanicus and the massive Ordinatus Golgotha, and routed the Orks from the world. Ghazghkull again escaped to fight another day.

The Third War for Armageddon

Commissar Yarrick's personal Baneblade super heavy tank, Fortress of Arrogance

Fifty years to the day after the end of the Second War for Armageddon, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka launched his second attempt to take the hive world of Armageddon from the Imperium. The Third War for Armageddon would prove to be a much harder battle for Commissar Yarrick. Yarrick arrived back on the planet two weeks before the invasion began. He agreed to take over total control of all forces on the planet and his first order was to send all remaining Imperial aircraft to destroy as many of the Orks as possible before they could touch the ground. Eventually, the Orks landed their Roks, providing them with pre-built fortresses made from hollowed-out asteroids. Yarrick personally led the assault on one of these with a force of Cadian Shock Troopers. Eventually the Orks were pushed out of the Armageddon System. When Ghazghkull fled Armageddon and the Black Templars prepared to give chase, Yarrick petitioned High Marshal Helbrecht to allow him to join their quest; Helbrecht agreed, and Yarrick immediately set off.

Yarrick is renowned for his iron will, and this is represented in the table-top game by the ability to shrug off wounds and return to battle, even after he should be dead. He has a trademark item, the Power Klaw he claimed from an Ork during the Second War for Armageddon, to replace the arm he lost in combat. It is powerful enough to kill in one swipe. He also has a special forcefield which shrugs off almost all attacks. Finally, he had a bionic eye implanted to play on the Orkish superstition that he possessed an evil eye and could kill with a glance. This Bale Eye can produce a laser beam in combat, so Yarrick can live up to this reputation.

The Siege of Hades Hive

Commissar Yarrick leads the troops of the Imperial Guard in defence of Armageddon

During the first assault on Hades Hive during the Third War for Armageddon, the Ork Warlord drove the bulk of his forces towards Yarrick's position, and was able to engage the elderly Commissar in single combat. Ugulhard quickly used his Power Klaw to sever Yarrick's right arm at the elbow. The Warlord's victory was cut short, as Yarrick, fighting the pain and shock like no mortal man, swung his sword and severed the Ork's head. Yarrick was said to have picked up and brandished the Ork Warlord's Power Klaw (and eventually had it attached in place of his right arm), inspiring fear in the Orks and prompting the Imperial defenders to surge forward and leap upon the aliens. Battlefield legend has it that only after the Ork assault was routed from Hades Hive did Yarrick "allow himself the luxury of passing out." News of this incident spread like wildfire amongst the Orks, and wherever Yarrick fought, the green-skinned xenos would flee in terror. Yarrick exploited this to the full, having Ugulhard's Klaw modified to suit him as a prosthetic limb. He also exchanged his left eye for a pulse laser bio-implant, playing on the Orks' superstition that he had an evil eye, as they called him the "bale eye that could kill with a glance."

For six months following the first assault, the defenders of Hades Hive held out against further attacks. Although recollections of the siege vary, it was almost unanimously considered that Yarrick was the man who made it all possible; he was the one who held the defenders together, the one who brought them back from the brink of defeat countless times, and the one whose belief gave others the strength to go on. The time he bought at Hades Hive, tying up a vast portion of the Ork WAAAGH! and distracting Ghazghkull himself from his ultimate goal, made all the difference, allowing time for the reinforcing Imperial Guard and Space Marines to muster and launch a counter-attack. Yarrick was one of the few survivors of the final battle for Hades Hive, and it took many months for him to recover from the injuries he sustained during that final assault. He accepted nominal retirement, along with a training post on Armageddon. However, the knowledge that an Ork like Ghazghkull was still at large proved too much of a distraction, and only months later he reported back for active duty, vowing that he would not rest until the day Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka was hunted down and killed.

Sources

• Battle For Armageddon
• Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), p. 63
• Codex: Imperial Guard (4th Edition), p. 52
• Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 1st Codex)
• Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex)
• Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition)
• Gunheads (Novel) by Steve Parker
• Helsreach (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• White Dwarf 152 (US), "Commissar Yarrick and Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka", pp. 14-22
• White Dwarf 182 (US), "Blood & Fire"
• White Dwarf 227 (US), "Chapter Approved - Imperial Guard, Commissar Yarrick"
• White Dwarf 248 (US), "In Defence of Armageddon"
• White Dwarf 338 (US), "Commissar Yarrick's Fortress of Arrogance" by Neil Hodgson, pp. 94-95