Astartes Invictus: Apothecary Meros Part I - GC and HH

Löö people

Having a fair few Astartes characters, I’ve decided to group them all under one name: ‘Astartes Invictus’. This little series will pretty much just be lore and (when I get around to it) tabletop Warhammer 40k rules for them all. I think there is maybe 5 Astartes in my possession? Many of them are not RP characters however, and may be from fanfictions or other media I have produced/will produce in future. We start here with Apothecary Meros. This will likely encompass more than one post, although I can almost guarantee that others will take barely a fraction of the space. Warning, spoilers may lie ahead for 'The Horus Heresy: Fear To Tread' and all text in Dark Red are extracts from 'Bloodline.' (Both by James Swallow). Additional warning: any people who frequently use ‘TL:RD’ may wish to leave this post now.

The Great Crusade and Horus Heresy

Meros began his service as a brother of the Blood Angels legion during M31. Advancing to the rank of a squad-level medic for Squad Cassiel, his first significant action was upon Melchior against the hated Nephilim race alongside the Luna Wolves legion. He saw something most strange indeed, one he would never remember yet never be able to share. He saw the aftermath of the Flaw first hand - the blood pooling on the church floor, brother Altros mentally torn and rabid, laying dead by his own Primarch’s hand. He knew not what had occurred, only the specific instructions from 1st Captain Raldoron to remove the geneseed of his brother and to never speak of this event again. To this day, he honours the Captain’s word.

"Primarch?" Rafen turned upon him, knocking him back with a savage shove. "Whatever you see up there, it is not Sanguinius, the Emperor’s Light find him! It is an echo at best, a shadow of his glory released upon the moment of his death!"

Upon the scientific planet colony of Nartaba Octus fighting Dark Eldar raiders, Meros was felled my a splinter round while tending to a human civilian. He and his squad were swiftly returned to the starship Hermia in orbit and, in an attempt to save the selfless (if unremarkable) Apothecary’s life, was entombed within a healing sarcophagus - The Touch of Sanguine Dawn - to drain his blood of the poison. It was here, in the dream-like state induced by The Touch , that Meros became one of the first loyal marines to realise the threat of Chaos, and the inexplicable terror and carnage it would bring not only then, but for the next ten thousand years and beyond.

"What did you say?" He whispered. In the next second he was at Rafen’s throat, shaking him, glaring into his eyes. "He is not dead! The Primarch is not dead, how dare you speak such lies? I saw him stride the battleground at Melchior with my own eyes. I heard his own voice call me to arms!" Meros was livid with anger and confusion, unable to comprehend what would posses the other Blood Angel to voice such folly.

The legionary’s next theatre of war would be his last. Signus Prime. With the Red Tear - flagship of the Legion - stranded on the planets surface, Meros battled hordes upon hordes of daemons beside his liege lord in a headlong charge to the Cathedral of the Mark to face the Daemon Princes Ka’Bandha and Kyriss, as well as their Word Bearer puppets Apostle Tanus Kreed and Captain Uan Harox, all tasked by Horus Lupercal himself to destroy Sanguinius and the Blood Angels. This Blood Angel however, like all the Blood Angels on Signus Prime, would not go down easily.

Rafen struggled against him. "Then either the Rage has taken you, or you are a liar and a fool! My primarch lies dead, ten thousand years and gone-"
"Falsehood!" Meros’ towering anger slipped it’s leash and he struck out at the unspeakable lie as it fell from Rafen’s mouth. His blow hit home, knocking the rusted Bolt Pistol from the other warrior’s grip. The weapon tumbled away down the incline of the dune and vanished into the sandstorm.

++ “This. World. Is. Murder.” ++

"Will you kill me, then?" He asked. "Or let them do the deed?"
"I understand now," Rafen replied, nodding toward the silent watcher in gold. "Do you not see, Meros? We are here and our daemons are here. Alone, they will kill us." Over Rafen’s shoulder, the sands twisted into the form of a monstrous armoured Astartes, feral and abhorrent. It came on, clawed hands raised in attack. Behind Meros, the threads of skin reformed into something resembling a Dark Eldar Incubi, hollow-eyed and leering. Both shapes were becoming solid, real, lethal.

These were the last words of Captain Khitas Frome of the Blood Angels, and commander of the 140th Expeditionary Fleet. However, where his soul was at rest, 111th Captain Tagas would not rest so easily. His body was torn asunder by Megarachnids, and his body recovered in secret by Emperor’s Children master apothecary and well known batshit-crazy evil scientist Fabius Bile, who had other plans for the body of the Captain, and at the will of the suddenly appearing Chaplain Erebus, Tagas would become the catalyst for the undoing of the Blood Angels, and Sanguinius would forever regret telling Horus of brother Altros. Once squad Cassiel – led by Captain Raldoron - had battled through Bloodletters and Daemonettes within the Cathedral, Ka’Banha’s plans were clear. Where Horus demanded Sanguinius’ death, the daemons were convinced the Great Angel could turn to the forces of Chaos. Engineered by daemonic 'magik' the Ragefire was a cradle of pure anger, fuelling the Blood Angels in a frenzy across Signus Prime, exposing the Flaw in its purest form. Kyriss the perverse gave the Primarch an offer: take the place of the half-dead Captain Tagas in the Ragefire and the Blood Angels will forever be free of the Flaw. Shocked that Sanguinius was genuinely considering this, Meros came to the rim of the Ragefire to this liege lord’s place. Slicing away his own progenoid glands, Meros threw his Narthecium to his Primarch and became one with the Ragefire,

"What is the bloodline?" Rafen asked suddenly. The words had a ritual, rote quality to them.
"The eternal bond of brotherhood." Meros said, the reply coming to him from nowhere. "The will to survive beyond death."

His armour steamed and boiled, ceramic fusing with warp tainted flesh and the Apothecary’s face melting into a fiery mask of hatred and anguish. The Daemons relentlessly assaulted Meros’ body until they were a part of him, and the Red Angel was born. Scarlet wings, if for only a moment, sprouted from the Angel’s back. Sanguinius vowed that he would someday free what little part of Meros remained within this twisted architect of suffering, and the Apothecary’s sacrifice would not be in vain. The Red Angel faded into the warp, along with the armies of daemons on Signus Prime’s surface, and the world found itself in silence.

love it, but you knew that already :3

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