Imperial Knights

Subsequent to the destruction of Rylstone I during an invasion by the T'Pau sept, the Crypt Angels have taken to roaming the galaxy, seeking out their fallen brethren wherever they may lie. Over time, they have made three powerful allies - a trio of Imperial Knights.

Ares


When an Adeptus Mechanicus research clade on the planet Snowfall was caught up in an ork migration, the Imperial Knight Ares, originally of House Taranis, was dispatched to protect AdMech concerns in the area. The powerful warmachine was extremely successful in doing so, so much so that it caught the eye of an ork clan Warboss, Mazdrekk, who decided to focus his boyz on fighting the deadly foe.

The increased pressure proved too much for the Knight. Worn down by constant low-level skirmishes over several months, its leg hydraulics started malfunctioning. With its mobility reduced, it was unable to protect the full perimeter of the clade, and the AdMech facility was on the verge of being overrun.

With the orks moments away from destroying the final blast doors to the underground research facility, and Ares locked in a deadly duel with a trio of battlewagons, the day was saved by the arrival of Crypt Angel drop pods. As assault marines dispatched the orks, a Hellfire Dreadnaught ambushed the battlewagons, distracting them long enough for the near-crippled Ares to destroy two of them. The third fled, Mazdrekk with it.

The Crypt Angels had intervened not to protect the facility, but to request aid in investigating a cache of xenos tech they had captured. When the Magos in charge refused to help with such heretical activities, Duke Harqvist, the Knight's pilot, offered his services to thank the Marines for his life and the survival of his walker.

A powerful ally, Ares has helped the Crypt Angels in several engagements since. Without AdMech repair facilities, however, Ares is showing its age. Despite assistance from Techmarines like Sarxoph, the Knight is slowly succumbing to accumulated battle damage, and is unlikely to see many more years of battle.

Griffin


A freeblade Knight Warden piloted by the dashing Baron Gerek von Wrathsputin, Griffin has a short but glorious career fighting against the Eldar in and around the Uhulis Sector. It was during these battles that Griffin first fought alongside the Crypt Angels, smashing apart an armoured column of Dyns-tain craftworld Wave Serpents as they made their way through a deserted city block.

This action prevented large numbers of Guardians being redeployed in the Crypt Angels' rear lines, cutting off almost a third of their number from their supply lines. It also began an ongoing duel between Griffin and the Dreadknight Ore Crypta to see who could save the other from the most peril.

Ore Crypta intervened when a Harlequin troupe managed to paralyze Griffin with haywire grenades, killing the Eldar with its psycannon before they could inflict critical damage. Griffin later took out a Scorpion heavy gravtank moments before its main armament could vaporise Ore Crypta. The Dreadknight fatally wounded a Farseer who was using her psychic abilities to power down Griffin's weaponry during a firefight against multiple Wraithlords; Griffin responded by turning up at the last possible second to destroy a battery of Fire Prisms moments before they tore through Ore Crypta while it defended a vital convoy route.

Griffin ended the campaign ahead on dramatic rescues, as might be expected from larger and more powerful warmachine.  However, this gave the Baron a taste for showing up the Space Marine chapter, and the competitive life-saving outlasted the conflict with the Dyns-tain Eldar.

This was first discovered when Griffin deployed from high orbit during the Bogola Campaign, crushing the Soulgrinder that was about to defeat Ore Crypta. In fact Baron von Wrathsputin attempts to follow the Crypt Angels wherever they go, in order to show up the Dreadknight wherever possible. His recklessness in this regard has meant he's needed saving more than a few times himself, but the Baron sees this as part of the fun, and his corvette, the Marvellous Spree, is usually not far behind the Crypt Angels Battlebarges wherever they deploy.

Thorn


Using the heretical Casket of Dust, the Crypt Angels are thought to have brought back dead members of their Chapter to refill their heavily depleted ranks. This terrible and profane behaviour is far from their only transgression against the Imperial creed, however.

The Knight Crusader Lonely Watchman was a House Terryn asset, deployed along with the Imperial Guard as they fought a rearguard action in the Mombassa system. Necrons had overrun Imperial holdings after the Crypt Angels had pulled out of the conflict, and Lonely Watchman was keeping the asteroid-based starport Fort Miranda clear of the enemy so that the civilian population could be evacuated.

The teleport arrival of a Necron Triarch along with a Tesseract Vault just inside the armoured walls of the asteroid base spelled the end of the rearguard, and Lonely Watchman with it.

Several decades later, the Crypt Angels returned to the system in order to collect as many of their lost brethren as possible. In a series of hit and run attacks, they managed to recover a substantial amount of Second Company tactical assets, using the now-derelict Fort Miranda as a base of operations. During this time, they recovered Lonely Watchman.

The shattered wreck had been cored by some kind of advanced weapon system, punching a hole straight through the machine's Throne, where the pilot sat and interfaced with the walker. Using knowledge gained from his experience repairing Ares, Techmarine Sarxoph was able to fashion an alternative Throne for the Knight.

Repainted and renamed Thorn, the Knight was successfully used to crush a partially activated Monolith inside the starport when it began teleporting Necron troops into the Crypt Angels' base. It has served the Chapter since.

Exactly who or what now pilots Thorn is unknown. It is thought likely to be a reanimated member of the Chapter, however, due to the unquestioning way it obeys Kasfunatius' commands, as well as its use of Crypt Angels colours and iconography on the hull.


The Geminoi


Since the destruction of all three supporting Knights during the Siege of Rylstone Keep, Techmarine Sarxoph has been working incessantly on repairing the invaluable machines. So far, the damage to them has proved too great. The Daemons left too little behind, and the Chapter has been on the move to avoid Inquisitorial raids since the Siege. If Kasfunatius can find a way to give Sarxoph some time to work, perhaps he will yet pull a dark miracle.

In the meantime, using what little remnants he could glean, he has somehow managed to improvise a impressive pair of Armigers. Or Armiger equivalents, perhaps - their gait is a little different to other examples of the tech, more loping and feral somehow.

The matched pair are called the Geminoi by the Chapter. Their pilots are unknown and they are heretical in the eyes of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but so far have only seen action against the traditional foes of the Imperium - Xenos and Heretic alike.


Demon

The renegade who pilots this dread machine has attached himself to the Crypt Angels like a leech. Appearing often in the wake of the Chapter's actions to attack survivors or loot strongholds left bereft of defenders, Demon is feared and hated in equal measures by right-thinking Imperials.

In recent times, Demon has attacked more and more in sync with the Marines, who never seem to react to its presence. Has a deal been struck with the pilot? Or is it just that the increasing heresy of the Crypt Angels makes them more and more natural bedfellows with this reaver? Only Kasfunatius knows for sure.


Amor Venationum


House Taranis has not forgotten the debt they owe to the Crypt Angels. Perhaps misguidedly, they have sent this Armiger to fight alongside Kasfunatius's marines after the wreck of Ares during the Siege of Rylstone Keep.

A veteran of many years of war, Earl-Lazar Capellus Quintus is an excellent marksman. He chafes under his new task, particularly when he has been prevented from attacking such obvious and heretical targets as Demon or the Geminoi, but he remains loyal to his masters for now.


Vespillo


Mightiest of all of the creations of Sarxoph, this towering abomination shatters the battlefield where it walks.

When Ares was finally brought low in battle with a Great Unclean One, the greater demon's ooze encrusted the great Knight. Thorn and Griffin were both overrun by Bloodletters, their power cables slit and severed, leaving them useless.

Vespillo was originally the vast mobile gantry array used by the Techmarines to remove the wreckage of the three knights from the bridge outside Rylstone Keep. Something went terribly wrong during the process. The cognition devices used to manipulate the gantry became infested with a dire combination of residual Knight Throne machine spirit and daemonic aura. Seven of the Crypt Angels Techmarines were consumed by the device, which ran amok for three days, smashing anything moving it came across.

On the fourth day, Sarxoph somehow tamed it. Immersing himself in blessed oils of the finest purity, gifts from their allies in the Adeptus Mechanicus, Sarxoph managed to board the rampaging machine and bring it under his command.

Only he can now pilot the anguished machine, whose Throne echoes with the dead souls of the previous three knights. Re-armed and armoured in the image of a true Knight, this titanic golem is a true terror of technology. Groaning with remorse and damned spirits, the charnel shadow it casts is long indeed.


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