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COMMIT TO: Inquisition Record 1555 624-2000
CROSS FILE: Inquisition of the Vindicators
INPUT DATE: 3746914.M36
AUTHOR: Inquisitor Ryjak
TRANSMITTER: Astropath Secundus Ariel 
RECEIVER: Astropath Prime Joshua
SUBJECT:  Time of Trials THOUGHT: Uniting men to one goal is no easy task.

<<< Chapter 1----Chapter 3 >>>

    With the heart of heresy removed, the Crusader's main task was to maintain the peace until the region can rebuild it's lost fleets.  The Crusaders mainly fought Orks and Eldar raiders, scattered throughout the sector once again.  They made the industrial world of Rhinterveld their base of operations, and turned many of its forges to supplying them with necessary munitions and equipment.

    After 10 years of police actions and minor wars, Endurteil Sector was engulfed in Warp Storms.  Travel within the sector was perilous, and communication and travel beyond the sector impossible.  Captain Korovus and his command cadre declared the end of the Crusade of Vindication, and gathered their remaining forces on Rhinterveld.  Half of the initial crusading force was able to muster over the planet, the rest either lost through combat or separated by the storms.

    After 50 years of ruling over Rhinterveld, the warp storms had only intensified.  The Librarians couldn't determine how long they would be stuck on this world.  With no other alternative, Captain Korovus enacted Legio Unitas, and declared the crusaders would be united as a chapter, following the mandates of the Codex Astartes.   The new chapter was given the name of the crusade: Vindicators.

    Over the next 200 hundred years the traditions of the Vindicators evolved from the many traditions of the chapters that comprised the original crusaders.  The Ultramarines and their progenitors installed reverence for the Codex Astartes, the Black Templar veterans enforced strict discipline, and the White Scars brought strong monastic life to the Vindicators along with a ferocious assault doctrine.  During this time, the Warp storms slowly abated, and the Vindicators made contact with the few remaining elements of the original Crusaders, and welcomed them to join their growing chapter.  Many did.

    However, each group of marines was proud of their original chapters, and reacted violently to having to suppress certain traditions or beliefs.  Fighting often broke out among now-Brother Marines, over things as simple as to which side to flank an enemy from.  The infighting came to a climax when Captain Korovus's authority over the chapter was challenge by Lieutenant Justicar, formerly of the Novamarines.  Justicar, supported by many disgruntled leaders, enacted Dux Ducis, a trial of combat for leadership of the chapter.

    The two marines fought naked within the Hall of Justice, unarmed.  The combatants wrestled for nearly an hour, smashing noses and breaking bones.  The combat ended with Justicar head-butting Korovus in the chest, breaking his own neck and splintering his spinal cord.  Korovus's chest was crumpled from the impact, rupturing his two hearts.  The combatants collapsed in a heap.

    Both were brought to the Apothocarian. Justicar had irreparable nerve damage, forever paralyzed.  Korovus, however, was mortally wounded from the fighting, and fought to live. Eight hours after the Combat, despite the Chief Apothecarian's best efforts, Korovus died.  Justicar revealed whom Korovus had selected as his successor; Captain Integrius.  Integrius determined that each Company within the Chapter would be allowed to follow their own traditions, as long as certain Vindicator traditions laid out by Korovus were upheld.  Justicar was placed inside one of the chapter's few Dreadnoughts, and became the first Venerable Vindicator.

    The following 300 years were relatively calm for the Vindicators, but far from peaceful.  The various companies became more and more independent, often leaving Rhinterveld for years at a time.  Each company began to train it's own recruits, and followed it's own mandates.  However, every year, on the date of the founding of the Crusade of Vindication, Brother Marines always returned home to commemorate all within the chapter that had given their lives in the previous year.  They would gather in the great Hall of Justice, and remember battles and brothers passed.  Brother Justicar would always retell with great sadness how he had fought their founding father Mikal Korovus and had spilled his blood, which had never been cleaned from the floor.  It is during this time that rivalry between the Companies is forgotten and the spirit of brotherhood fills all present.

    During this time the Vindicators had three unified actions.  The first was against Waaagh Hugrogk, who swept in from beyond the Sector and laid waist to three worlds.  The Vindicators spent a year fighting the Orks, finally claiming victory when a Vindicator Assault tank squadron blew Hugrogk and his Nobs to pieces during vicious urban fighting.  The second action was against the Eldar, who fought a frustrating, unprovoked guerrilla war against the Vindicators.  Using the scattered nature of the Vindicators to their advantage, they hunted down and killed many promising marines.  After 30 years of sporadic contact they disappeared from the sector.

    The ultimate conflict in the Vindicator's history occurred in the Hellosis system.  This system had fallen to Chaos during the Horus Heresy, and consequently been virus bombed in Exterminatus.  Hellosis VII was recorded to have vast mines of neutronium crystal, a key element in plasma reactors and weapons.  The Vindicators had been monitoring the planet since coming into the sector, waiting for a time when the viruses died out, so they could reopen the mines and gather a material that was coming into increasingly short supply.

    In 577.M36, the 6th Company of the Vindicators made a sweep of Helosis VII.  Their instruments indicated that after 6000 years, the viruses had finally died out, destroying all life on the planet.  They sent an investigation team to explore the surface.

    Amidst the ruins of the war-torn world they found the remains of the Chaos Temples that had been built during the Heresy.  They burned the banners and piles of bones, and demolished what they couldn't burn.

    As they approached the former capitol of the now-dead world, a rumble sounded across the land.  Twisted machinery came to life, and the hulk of a Chaos temple thrummed with power.  The Vindicators shelled the complex, but couldn't hit where the energy was pulsing deep underground.  A warp gate emerged from the shattered temple, like a skeletal hand from the grave.  Chaos was coming to engulf the system.

<<< Chapter 1----Chapter 3 >>>

       If you need to contact me Lord, send your transmission to Inquisitor Ryjak

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