Proelia Seriphos: Avignon Burns

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If reliable, the following pict-caps indicate ongoing hostilities on Avignon Alpha. Recommend emergency convocation of Chamber Sidereal of Ordo St Asaph///CROSSREF>OrdoXenos>Ordo Malleus>Deparmento Munitorum

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Mundos Seriphos: Avignon Alpha

Avignon Alpha was a thriving Imperial shipping hub 500 years ago, second only to Seriphos Primaris as a crossing point for the San Leor-Ophelia Holy Road and coreward routes. Then, after the crisis on Knight’s Reach and subsequent quarantine of the Oberon Cluster, coreward trade waned, and so did the fortunes of Avignon Alpha. Interstellar traffic dwindled, warrants to pilot, load and unload interstellar craft became increasingly scarce, and Avignonian society fragmented along rival guild lines. Two hundred years of anarchy followed, during which time blood feuds escalated and murder cults sprang up across the planet. Eventually, Inquisition-led suppression forces restored the Pax Imperialis to the Avignon system, by which time the majority of the population had been slaughtered and the tech-level reduced to a medieval state. A bureaucratic cypher of the Adminstratum was appointed to rule over the cowed and much-diminished populace of Avignon Alpha, and peace was established amid the ruins of former prosperity. 

After Ork freebooters established a foothold on nearby Drakefell, Avignon Alpha came under attack from Snakebite Orks led by the deranged Pigmek. The Orks began systematically enslaving the human populace - indeed, the current planetary governor, Auldmann, was taken captive and forced to serve as an ammo runt. Before long, Traitor Marines of the Death Guard had also invaded the planet, and conflict between the xenos and traitors offered Avignonian loyalists a brief respite in which desperate calls for aid were broadcast across the sector. It transpired that elements of the Avignonian PDF had been infiltrated by other xenos elements, who joined forces with the Orks in their escalating struggle with the minions of Chaos. 

In their role as wardens of the Seriphos Sector, the Mourn Hounds responded to Avignonian distress calls, sending a strike force led by Captain Ywain of the 7th Company to bolster loyalist defences. The Mourn Hounds encountered resistance as soon as they made planetfall, and elements of the Orks and Death Guard temporarily suspended hostilities to battle this common foe. Traitor Marines of the Word Bearers commanded by Lord Euphraxes arrived on the planet and allied with the Death Guard: only the efforts of the Mourn Hounds and Okassis Guard prevented a major daemonic incursion. Subsequently, Imperial reports identified the major threats to security on Avignon Alpha.

As the Mourn Hounds were forced to redeploy against emergent threats in the Hunt’s Founding sub-sector, loyalist forces consolidated in the polar hab zone of Avignon Alpha and, the truce ended, the Ork and Chaos forces continued their battle for control of the planet. The Sin Eaters, renegade Space Marines long-active in the Seriphos region, made planetfall, with Lord Slaughtian the Archanarchist leading the search for rumoured unholy artifacts dating back to the dark days post-Oberon crisis. The Chaos warbands fought for control of the fabled Eye of Lorgar, and the Sin Eaters were driven off, departing Avignon Alpha for an ill-fated invasion of Hunt’s World.

By this point, the world had descended into an irreparable state of anarchy. Aside from Ork and Chaos factions, xenos mercenaries flocked to the system. Besieged on all sides, the human populace were trapped in a desperate battle for survival, which the depleted Sin Eaters hoped to capitalise on by dispatching agents to recruit fresh footsoldiers. Many native Avignonians fell victim to the zombie plague introduced to the planet by the Death Guard. The infected crave brains, human or Ork, and it seems this growing tide of the undead may yet engulf this once-proud world in the name of Father Nurgle.

Mundos Seriphos: Avignon

Avignon Phi is a superhot death world, uninhabited by Imperial forces.

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Avignon Delta is a dead world. Once the sister planet to Avignon Alpha, it was renowned across Seriphos as a seat of learning and culture, where the erudite and wealthy might visit to immerse themselves in devout poetry and soul-stirring artworks. The planet itself was a lifeless rock, and the glittering spires of the Imperial cities stood all the more proud as symbols of humanity’s resilience in a hostile universe. However, with no natural resources of its own, Delta was entirely reliant on imports and, as Alpha fell into decline post-Oberon crisis, Delta was neglected and supply runs dwindled. All contact was eventually lost, and by the time the inner Avignon system was reclaimed by loyalists, every last human on Delta had perished.

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Avignon Alpha is an active warzone.

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Avignon Epsilon is a gas giant with seven moons, most notably Drakefell.

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Avignon Gamma is a ringed gas giant. Its chemical rich atmosphere is mined by trawlers from nearby Avignon Beta, and three of its moons, nicknamed the ‘Garden of Avignon’, are given over entirely to the farming of protein-rich slime which sustains much of the human populace of the system.

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Avignon Beta is a mining world of some strategic significance, being a resource-rich supplier of the Departmento Munitorum and Adeptus Mechaincus. Essentiallly a fortress world, honeycombed with mines and wells, its dour folk have become ever more isolationist as the Avignon system has slipped into anarchy. The Overguild of Avignon Beta maintains a substantial planetary defence force, and the Betans ready their armoury in the grim knowledge that the faction which emerges triumphant on Avignon Alpha will strike directly at them next.

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Avignon Omega is an uninhabited ice world, notable for Crux, the orbital space station. Crux is one of the largest spaceborne structures in Saint Azaf, and is the main interstellar transport hub for the Avignon system. Although nominally an Imperial Fleet facility, Crux falls under the de facto jurisdiction of Avignon Beta.

Personae Seriphos: Arnold Porkinson

Porkinson is the disgraced son of a planetary governor of an Imperial garrison world somewhere in the Ultramar segmentum. As the second son of a noble in this region of the galaxy, he was tithed to the local Imperial Guard Finishing School for Officers, where he soon excelled, and was earmarked for a career as a morale officer with the Commissariat.

Again he excelled in his training, until one fateful day of training exercises and live-fire battlefield simulations. On that fateful day, he was set up by a jealous cadet, one Giles Coriandus, who took it upon himself to trip Porkinson whilst simultaneously shooting the instructing Commissar in the back with his bolt pistol. In the ensuing confusion, Porkinson and Coriandus' bolt pistols were mysteriously swapped, and the blame thus pointed at the seemingly clumsy Porkinson.

Despite his protestations of innocence, one severely maimed Commissar later, Porkinson was unceremoniously discharged from both the Commissariat and the Imperial Guard Finishing School for Officers AND the Imperial Guard itself. He was subsequently sent back to his father's holdings in disgrace. His father of course was outraged. Officer or not, Commissar or not, the second noble son must serve as a soldier, in some capacity or other. Thus Porkinson was required to enlist in the local Planetary Defence Force.

However, the local PDF is no place for a noble's son, as he was soon to find out. The PDF of course is made up of grunts who just can't cut it in the Imperial Guard, along with thuggish miscreants who have failed to find paid employ elsewhere. He was victimised and bullied by his new found peers until he proved himself worthy of their respect by busting heads and breaking noses in a barracks brawl. He even rose as high as the rank of Sergeant several years later, and it seemed he had managed to find a niche after all and redeem some honour for himself.

That is of course until a chaos cult emerged on planet and the subsequent spread of sedition. Eventually, an offshoot of an invading chaos fleet arrived in the system and soon made planet-fall. The Imperial Guard were called in to help put an end to the invasion, and this was when Porkinson and Coriandus were to cross paths again.

It seemed that Porkinson and his PDF unit had been tempted by the seditious whisperings and pamphlets that had been distributed by the chaos cult, and thus when they found themselves backing up a brave charge by the Imperial Guard, which was being led by the dashing (and smirking) Commissar Coriandus, there was another "friendly fire" accident. All Porkinson's bitterness, resentment and jealousy at events from a few years back once again bubbled to the surface once again, and one well placed las bolt to the back of the head later, Commissar Coriandus smirked no longer, and Porkinson took Coriandus' greatcoat and cavalla sabre as his battle spoils.

Personae Seriphos: Aenir Krakensbane

Aenir and his brother, Svengir, grew up together as a part of the Seawolf Tribe on Fenris, constantly traversing the dangerous seas of the equatorial reaches of the planet. As a young pup, Aenir watched with jealous eyes, as his older brother joined in, hunting bear whenever they made landfall, and lending a steady hand whenever the nets pulled in food for a feast.

Keen to prove himself his brother's equal, despite his lesser stature, Aenir the boy threw himself into acts of increasingly wanton and careless nature, in an attempt to prove himself the greater warrior. This may not have been so bad, had his brother been of a more sage and patient nature, but he saw Aenir's efforts as being a challenge to his growing position within the pack, and a nuisance that ought to be seen to before he was usurped.

One day whilst competing in a drinking competition, Svengir slipped some Nightganger skin into his brother's ale - the effects of which should not be underestimated upon a young Wolf Cub. The young warrior passed out almost instantly, and awoke aboard a small raft in the middle of the sea, with only his older brother and a pair of fighting axes for company.

This much is known of the story, as it was later recounted by the skald, Hreidar Silvertongue, who is widely regarded as being responsible for suggesting mischievously to Svengir that a duel to the death away from the restrictions and distractions of the rest of the tribe.

The rest, however, remains a mystery that neither brother will talk about. Two days later their raft washed up on the shore of Bear Claw Spit with the two brothers sat, axes in hand, holding the head of a young kraken between them - neither of the releasing hold of their dreadful prize.

From that day forth, the two brothers held the name, 'Krakensbane', and they have both been locked in a battle to prove themselves the better warrior, and the glory of the claim of the head of the kraken.

Proelia Seriphos: Path Of The Martyr

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+++Welcome, Inquisitor+++

+++Thought for the Day: Insidious is the Wych+++

+++Esteemed colleagues of the Ordo Saint Asaph, the situation on Avignon Alpha has worsened beyond mere incursion to dire crisis >>>Classificato Magenta Extremis>>>. Events are developing beyond my purview as a member of the Ordo Xenos; thus, I feel it incumbent upon myself to highlight the nature of the crisis as a matter of urgency for ye who are Malleus. Here follows pict-data obtained most recently, dated 456594990.M41. Pre-emptive apologies for any misnomering to be found herein - my knowledge of the Daemonic is but passing+++

+++A detachment of the Okassian Imperial Guard >>>CROSSREF>>>Imperial Guard deployments>>>SUBREF>>>Segmentum Tempestus>>SUBREF>>>>Battlegroup CVIII>>> had been deployed on the outskirts of Avignon Hab Prime in response to increase Heretic action in the vicinity of the Martyrs' Way, as evident in the above pict-caps. Notable amongst the devout forces of Okassis were the venerable war engines commonly known as Old Bess and Genevieve+++

+++Traitor forces included native Avignonian rebels and corrupted Astartes followers of the Plague God as observed in previous encounters >>>CROSSREF>>>Seditious Elements in the Avignon System>>passim>>>+++

+++Astartes reinforcements from the Mourn Hounds CROSSREF>>>file334432>>> deployed from orbit. Atmospheric interference led to slight irregularities in planetfall - such phenomena has been observed before on this world CROSSREF>>>file440332>>>+++

+++Pict-data above shows interaction between two Daemons of apparent high rank. While such abhorrences are not within my realms of full knowing, the attitude of the monstositites suggests recrimination of some kind+++

+++AEMENDUM: Data-transfer from Mourn Hounds >>>CROSSREF>34324877>>> confirms that Codicier Taliesin and psychic choir aboard orbital battle barge were able to disrupt multiple breaches in the Empyrean at this location/time. One might speculate that the Daemon Lords were deprived of some portion of their forces through the intervention of our honoured Astartes psykers.+++

+++ Having been near wiped out by the Okassian artillery, the Cultists withdrew to draw succour from their Plague Lord. May the Emperor curse their misbegotten souls eternally+++

+++While we select few of the Holy Ordos are privy to much that remains hidden from the Imperium at large, I feel it is difficult even for us to comprehend the hatred that festers between the Loyal Astartes and their fallen 'brothers'. But I digress+++

+++Mourn Hounds in Tactical Dreadnought Armour deployed via teleportarium and swiftly eliminated the Plague Lord+++

+++But vile Daemonic beasts erupted from the skull-laden Martyrs' Way, seeking vengeance+++

+++Could the stuff of Chaos be embedded within the very surface of Avignon Alpha, much as an Eldar Maiden World is infused with psychic energies? I leave this question to my learned Malleus peers+++

+++The Traitors had reinforcements of their own - a vile Daemon-machine the likes of which I have not seen before. Its effect on the Okassian infantrymen was most horrific+++

+++Coming under heavy bombardment from the Okassians, the Traitors did advance+++

+++The Avignonian cultists threw themselves at the the Terminators even as the Daemon-beasts fully translated to this plane. Note the escaping cult leader >>>IDENT PENDING>>> Traitor or not, few mere mortals would survive melee combat with Astatres in Tactical Dreadnought Armour+++

+++Lest we forget, the Traitor Astartes still possess the rigid discipline of their Loyal counterparts. By this stage, their ranks had been thinned considerably by the Guard bombardment, yet still they advanced+++

+++Then did Mourn Hounds Captain Ywain and a squad of Marines arrive via orbital descent. The Captain was keen to settle a score with the Traitor Lord >>>CROSSREF>49933555.a>>>+++

+++The Daemonic engine continued to work along the Okassian battle line, vomiting apppaling, noxious death as it did so. Only the noble efforts of the Primaris Psyker were to keep it at bay+++

+++Captain Ywain and the Mourn Hounds engaged the Traitors in the centre of the battlezone. The Tactical squad fared poorly against the Daemon Lord+++

+++Ywain was laid low by the Traitor Lord+++

+++Thus, a dark apotheosis did occur. Data feed betwen the preceding two pict-grabs is distorted, but it appears the Traitor Lord underwent a metamorphosis. Again, I leave evaluation of this to my respected Malleus peers+++

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+++The Terminators were able to stem the flow of Daemons from Martyrs' Way+++

+++Thus did the Mourn Hounds and Okassian Guard secure this zone, isolating the remaining Traitors, many of whom eluded retribution.+++

+++Nevertheless, this represents but one small geozone of Avignon Alpha, and there is evidence to suggest that Traitor elements, including the Daemonic, are far more deeply entrenched upon the world than was previously thought. This, combined with ongoing Orkoid infestation, make Avignon Alpha a likely recipient of the the blessing ofExterminatus, but I am aware that its strategic importance in Sector Saint Asaph >>>CROSSREF>>>Diagnostica Strategos/St. Asaph//>>>may make this option unacceptable+++

+++I have opened channels of communication with Bakka and Departmento Munitorum Tempestus, and I implore you, in particular my Malleus brothers and sisters, to join me in decisive action on this world, lest it become a new Armageddon or Ryza+++

+++I commend this report to Him-On-Earth and His All-Encompassing Right Hand+++

+++Inquisitor Hewris, Ordo Xenos+++

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