Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I was getting a bit burned out painting all that yellow for my imperial fists so I've decided to start something a little different, the Dark mechanicum with a knight thrown in there as I've been dying to paint one
Without further ado, I've prepared a bit of fluff about this dark forgeworld and their unexpected allies in the 41st millennium.
Long ago, during the age of strife, the fledgling mechanicum world of Malpulax encountered the Dark, mysterious power that is Tzeench. Fueled by the promise of power through arcane technology the magos Dominus of the world quickly swore allegiance to the God of change, heralding him as the true omnissiah.
Under Tzeench's patronage, large macro-factorums spread rapidly across the planet until the whole world became a mechanical shrine to their Machine God.
Completely autonomous and isolated from the rest of the mechanicum and mankind as a whole, Malpulax continued to grow in power and influence over the nearlby systems. Utilising knight class titans and legions of skitarii, the word of Tzeench quickly spread to all until the latter days of the Great crusade. The Warmaster, Horus was petitioned by the mechanicum to aid them in the pacification of their twisted once-bretheren.
Unbeknownst to all but a few at this point, Horus had already been swayed by the Dark gods and seeing the opportunity that the assets Malpulax and it's subjugated systems would provide in the war to come, chose to dispatch the loyalist 19th company under the command of Captain Daggodon in the Battle Barge "Lupercal's Will" as a false show of compliance. Ahead of the 19th, Horus had secretly sent a dispatch to the magos Dominus of Malpulax with the message
"aid me in overthrowing the false emperor and Mars and all her colonies shall be yours" to prove this wasn't some sort of ruse, the message also contained detailed information about the forces he had sent, such as size, make-up and deployment locations so that the magos would easily anticipate and crush the on coming invasion.
However, before the dispatch or the loyalist company could arrive, a vicious warp storm disrupted the 19th in transit and the secret message of allegiance from the Warmaster was dissipated into the turbulent void never to be received by anyone or anything.
Eventually, after what only felt like a month for the passengers and crew, Lupercal's Will arrived in system, they where aghast to find the cogitators and chronometers suddenly read the date at ten thousand years in the future.
Before anyone had time to ponder the ramifications of the sudden change in date, an ominous message played through the vox, and scrolled across every screen and dataslate available. It stated:
"Your Warmaster is long dead lost sons. Slain at the hand of the corpse Emperor" Disbelief ran throughout the ship dismissing it as a pathetic attempt at psychological warfare.
The source of the message, although seemingly coming from everywhere, was tracked to the only planet in the entire sector that registered signs of the enemy they had been ordered to return to the fold of the Mechanicum and Imperium.
The fact that a supposed sector wide threat was reduced to one world gave some credibility to the fleets apparently malfunctioning apparatus. Yet, the constant repetition of the message regarding Horus and the Emperor himself, began to gnaw at the patience of the 19th. They set forth to carry out their Warmaster's orders as without delay when a horrifically loud burst of static, almost like a warning, came through every available source on board.
A small contingent of Astartes vessels, bearing red and blue livery and symbolism, entirely unknown to the Sons of Horus, materialised in system less than a million kilometers away and immediately opened fire upon Lupercal's will.
Captain Daggodon immediately sent a hail to the impromptu attackers:
"In the name of the Emperor and the Warmaster! What is the meaning of this madness?!"
There was no respite in the fire coming from the newcomers but along with the lasers and missiles a reply was sent:
"This is Meduson Captain of the first company of the Brazen Claws. How dare you treacherous filth defile the Emperor's holy name! As for your Warmaster, the scum Abaddon is rotting in the eye with the rest of your ilk"
Captain Daggodon became numb, what was this, Meduson talking about? A high ranking Astartes referring to the Emperor as holy? And the first Captain, Warmaster? Clearly this man had gone insane. Before a reply could be made, several large vessels bearing the skull and cog sigil of the Mechanicum overlayed on a strange, almost crescent moon-shaped symbol, emerged from behind the nearlby planet and unleashed a heavy salvo upon the Ships of the Brazen Claws.
With a message offering much needed sanctuary the Ships of the Mechanicum moved into the void to shield Daggodon's vessel which began to make haste, as fast as it's crippled engines would allow, into high orbit on the far side of the planet.
A delegation from the surface of the planet docked with the Sons of Horus' battle barge and upon meeting with the Captain, explained everything that transpired during the time they had been in transit through the warp.
Through the following decades the initially reluctant Sons of Horus, who's actions of their Primarch had been, in their eyes, validated given the state the imperium had degraded into, became a garrison force for the Dark Forge world Malpulax. Having seen the imperial truth shattering power of Tzeench, the promise of the Magos to aid in the acquisition of gene-seed needed in order to rebuild Daggodon's shattered legion, the services of the Freeblade Insidiae and his knight "Sicut Cogitabat", Daggodon and the 19th company of the Sons of Horus are determined to right the wrongs of this bloated and decaying facsimile of what the Imperium was supposed to be.
My first completed model for this project:
The Renegade Freeblade, "Sicut Cogitabat" or in low Gothic "just as planned"
![[Disk]](/dakkaforum/templates/default/images/icon_disk.gif){kind=icon}
Click below for plenty guardsmen 
