A bit of fun, begun writing this a wee while ago, just wrote enough of it for sharing. Might finish it if i get some interest. The beliefs bit is kinda of the cool bit anyways. Enjoy!
The following is a report by myself, Inquisitor Quiran Uolis; an instrument of the Hammer and humble servant of the Emperor, concerning the Renegades known as the August Carnivores. I had to call in many a favour amongst the brothers of the Librarium Daemonica to draft this so quickly. As a result any future reports may require greater expenses or incur significant delays. All that being said, though I consulted many tomes that can claim only to have duplicates on Titan, I still had to rely on conjecture and Occamic reasoning when analysing some of the baser practises and rituals of these devious traitors.
The August Carnivores. Common Aliases: The bloodied maw, The Strife-feasters, The Carnivores, The Lishpers.
Selected Mistaken Identities: The lords of Malice (Wrongly credited with the sacking of Phiezar by historian Hayden Vesque), The Relictors ( Wrongly accused by High Lord Vurl Nepos of the complete destruction of the Ryzan 56th. Part of on extended smear campaign in M38), Doombreed's Chosen (A common mistake, mainly due to some of their converging 'beliefs').
Patriarch Legion: I can say beyond all reasonable doubt they are the sire of the Word Bearers. Extracted geneseed material set off the markers expected of this. Although it showed some significant degradation compared to the simulated specimen, some protein groups remained unmistakable.
A select few pieces of Anecdotal evidence further confirm this thesis, the most significant of which are worthy of note.
Of the few dead legionnaires that have been recovered, two carried some approximation of the thrice-damned book of Erebus. They had been transcribed by hand and featured some, admittedly impressive, illuminations. In a similar vein all appeared to carry an incomprehensible tome that appears to be entitled 'Carnivorous Ascent'. The effort in translating just the title was monumental, the cypher was so complex I had to misappropriate the use of a particularly venerated Logic Engine to eke out some sense. ( I say this only in case any in the mechanicus come to you seeking my head). This particular 'volume' is not a title associated with the Word Bearers per-se but a copy was recovered from one of their derelicts. Strangely, aside from the title, and codex, they shared zero content.
Furthermore A fragment of armour reclaimed from the killing fields of Sidon echoed with the harmonic frequency associated with a crozius field, which are often misused by the pathetic 'dark apostles' favoured amongst the Word Bearers. The frenzied abandon with which the Carnivore's fought that day is further testament to this shared attribute.
Alignment: The August carnivores favour none of the four most powerful Warp Entities. On occasion they may align themselves with a more biased force be it demonic or Mortal but never risking favouritism. The subject of their worship however is worthy of further explanation.
Combat Capabilities: The Carnivores have never been seen deploying more than a two company sized force of marines, it is unknown truly if this is due to a desire to fight on multiple parallel fronts or a simple lack of numbers. I myself suspect the latter.
They utilize some mechanized transport in the field, Usually in the form of Archaic Rhino APCs. Aside from this they appear to have but a threadbare motor pool available. It seems that not even one righteous land raider machine spirit bowed to their hateful means.
What they lack in tracked support they more than make up for in demon-engines, the Carnivores are commonly accompanied by an embarrassment of Dreadnoughts (I myself was taken aback when I saw the vid evidence of 27 dreadnoughts forging the breach atop Naval Station Helikios). So too do they deploy what are now known as 'Defilers' in equally shocking numbers. I have a theory as to why this is but all in good time.
Combining this with a tight focus on what the codex astartes refers to as assault weaponry they make for a formidable close range force. Their more elite soldiers are never far from a plasma gun or Flamer. They do not quite have the Bloodlust of most Renegade chapters but compared to a disciplined Astartes force they err on the side of hand to hand. It is Often however that the marines themselves avoid close quarter combat altogether relying instead on their scores of Possessed, Demonhosts, summoned demons and cultists to get up close. Not before they have heavily doused their aggressors in promethium and plasma of course.
Notable Victories and deployments of the August Carnivores. The fall of Helikios. Located on the border between the Ultima and Obscurus Segmentums, Helikios was one of the many Sentinel Stations supplied to prevent Traitors escaping the eye of Terror from the east. It also served to prevent Traffic between the Maelstrom and Eye. (The border between these two segmenti is a region of incredible stability, used by many, be it traitor, Loyalist or xenos, as a waypoint or lay by in which to recalculate course in real-space). The station was well supplied and well armoured with 5 full wings of Furies, 4 Shoreline frigates and a formidable point defence and offence battery. It was not even untried, having destroyed several corsair raiding parties, of both the xenos and heretic persuasion.
When the carnivores attacked it was not seen as a major threat or at least not one that required further naval intervention. They appeared with a force comprising one light Cruiser equivalent vessel and an anchored derelict. The station was more than capable of seeing off an attack from such a ship, if not cripple it should it's heavier weapons be brought to bear. A handful of cyclonic torpedoes would see to the derelict, its harmless fragments slingshotted away from direct impact by the blasts. Crucially, as it would turn out, Helikios did not scramble her Furies, a cautious move they would come to regret.
As the 2346 dead Navy Men could no doubt attest, this was not the final outcome. 1.375 seconds before entering the effective range envelope of the Helikios' Missile batteries the derelict suffered 14 distinct internal detonations. The structural damage was nothing short of catastrophic, rending the space hulk into great flaming messes. Audio Fragments capture the command deck of the Helikios questioning their Sensor Suite as it scanned the pieces. No heat sources, expected collision speed not sufficient for hull penetration. They switched all attention to the Cruiser, lazily approaching the station as it was, as if meaning to dock.
Initially the defensive firing solution took a heavy toll on the Cruiser, Disabling several weapon systems and causing a significant hull breach in the forward section but one by one the station's guns fell silent. Again the audio captures a confused crew, ammunition had been resupplied within the month, the guns were well maintained. Supplying an answer the first feed from a maintenance crew came through, the Helikios' exterior was swarming, covered in destructive insects, dreadnoughts and other demon engines had hatched from the debris of the derelict. Too late command attempted to scramble its fighters but the bays rang ominously silent. Within an hour the Cruiser had docked, within another nothing was left but embers and slag.
The Sacking of Menephon The August Carnivores cannot claim full credit for the destruction of this planet but their massacre of the Ryzan 56th relief Force was a pivotal moment in the short lived battle for this now life-scoured Rock. The subsequent capture of the Capital's space port meant the remaining imperial forces had no means of wholesale resupply and expedient extraction. Not to mention the terminal's Battery of Laser cannons with which the renegades forced the Heavy Carrier Solar Wind to disengage from Geo-Stationary orbit.
It had not begun auspiciously for the carnivores, they had suffered a defeat at the hands of the 73rd Necromundan Artillery division. The armoured group had fortunately caught a significant portion of the Warband moving up the western Flank attempting to seize the Manufacturing district. The renegades put up little resistance and quickly fell into a full retreat. Had a prouder formation of traitors been present it is likely they would have been shelled into oblivion, a shame then that the August Carnivores often see the futility of courage.
The hole left in the heretic lines was not one high command could resist pressing and they committed the fresh troops of the Ryzan 56th to the breach. Naturally along With support from the already proximal Necromundan artillery. Indeed it looked to be an uncanny instance of fortune for the hard pressed imperial forces.
Within a few hours Ryzan scout parties begun engaging the rearguard of the retreating carnivores, the casualties were high on both sides as the traitors fought bitterly to protect the main body of their force. In any other case it would have been a pointless sacrifice as there was only so much city and a lot of guns in the 73rd Necromundan. Within another 3 hours the 56th had the heretic forces cornered in the outer hab-blocks; the absolute fringe of defensible structures within the city limits. Rather ominously however the heretics had completely disappeared. Rather than commit the last of the scouting parties, who had seen the brunt of the fighting so far, command simply commenced the Bombardment blind. After 30 minutes of sustained artillery blitzkreig the first of the mechanized platoons advanced into the city. The initial reports were insubstantial so more divisions were committed, enough to commence a sector sweep. Lower echelons of command expressed their concern; a full sector sweep required all but the rearguard to be committed. But commit them they did.
It didn't come as much surprise when the familiar screams filled the comms-net, renegades had an uncanny knack for jamming communications. The ryzan engineers no doubt dismissed them, renegade scrambling frequencies could easily be nullified, it just took a little time. My inquiries into Ryzan technicians found them to be renowned for their ability to punch through most attempts at jamming, being able to restore crystal clear bands within 15 minutes fairly consistantly. (Perhaps some form of Unsanctioned Innovation heresy? Worth investigating.)
Well within that envelope the jamming ceased and command was bombarded with a jumble of distress calls and pleas for aid. Only a few minutes later a dozen hijacked chimeras broke out from the hab-block palisade, into the park-way that had been chosen for the Ryzan Beach-head. It was a masterful feint, analysis of the audio transcripts and the original radio chatter shows that it was broadcast from only a handful of sources, and in many cases looped and played again. The Carnivores had only taken what they needed, a mere two platoons but it made for a convincing deception. A panicked command decided there was no choice but to resume the heavy bombardment.
When the real broadcast frequencies resumed the reports were shocking, sifting through the data makes for grim listening, the desperation, begging for the artillery to cease. The Necromundan were shelling their own brothers to pieces but it was far too late to stop, so with great resolve they continued.
I can only imagine their despair when the true body of the August Carnivore Warband emerged from an uncatalogued subterreanean reservoir. No doubt some were happy to be slaughtered after what they had done.
Beliefs Unfortunately I had to return to 'Carnivorous Ascent' to get to the bottom of the Warband's unusual beliefs. Beliefs that, it must be said, have made them many enemies amongst their traitor cousins, most notably the Black legion.
Carnivorous Ascent appears to be a Reverential Biography of 4th lieutenant-captain (presumably a rank within the Word Bearer's legion during the Great Crusade) Falstaf Goethe. It initially portrays him as an exemplary soldier and a great asset to the arch heretic during the heresy. He was one of the first generation of chaplains and was one of great fervour and Zeal. This most certainly is not the reason his life has been so lovingly chronicled though; Falstaf Goethe is a Demon Prince and according to this book a paragon of the Breed. A Prince who has scaled more rungs than any other on the 'carnivorous ascent'.
Beliefs Section To be continued in Part 2
