Continuing with the backstory for Caluphel Prime, our 40k campaign setting, here is a write up of the Reavers of Deculon Prime, my Chaos Space Marine Night Lords warband.
For those who have been following Comrade’s Wargames since its inception last summer, you probably know how my current 40k project started as an excuse to collect and paint up some of the vintage metal figures that enamored me when I was first dipping a toe into 40k during the mid 1990s. Of course, my project has expanded beyond that, and I’ve embraced some of the newer crisp plastic sculpts too, but I’ll always remember those old ‘Eavy Metal photos of the GW studio’s Night Lords Chaos Marines.
The Reavers of Deculon Prime, then, are my attempt at capturing a snapshot of that quintessential 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Night Lords warband — a roving band of schemers and murderers who are equally adept at back-alley executions and coordinated planetary assaults.
“A Dagger in the Night: On the Trail of the Night Lords”
A Strategic Dossier Prepared by Arch-Tactician Mordecai VulstThe Night Lords warband known as The Reavers of Deculon Prime first crossed paths with the Emperor’s defenders in Segmentum Ultima 10 years ago, when a Chaos strike cruiser known as the Nightgaunt conducted a lightning raid on an Imperial listening post in deep space. What few survivors there were reported an overwhelming boarding action conducted by massive warriors clad in deep blue armor adorned with lightning bolts and winged skulls. Even the most inexperienced tactica officer would know that these raiders were Night Lords, one of the most feared and ruthless of the Traitor Legions.
That these raiders made no attempt to hide their allegiance or origin speaks directly to the Night Lords’ overall strategy as observed over centuries — when they strike, they do so from a position of overwhelming strength, intent on inflicting as much damage as possible and striking utter terror in the hearts of their enemies. Survivors are deliberately left alive in order to carry wild-eyed stories of the raiders’ strike to the greater Imperium.
With the flagrant arrival of this Night Lords warband, then, Imperial tactica officers knew that they were witnessing the arrival of a long-term enemy in Segmentum Ultima. These accursed traitors were making a deliberate, strategic move — but toward what ends, none could say.
The Night Lords’ next assault resulted in them earning their accursed name — but it also equipped the Imperium with critical intelligence about their organization and possible goals.
Deculon Prime is a key stopover point for starships journeying into the dusty backwaters of Segmentum Ultima. In recent years, the planet hasn’t seen much activity, as increased patrols by the Tau Empire has reduced traffic to Deculon Prime by rogue traders and explorator fleets. In short, Deculon Prime has been marginalized — but in centuries past, it was a thriving waypoint for colonization fleets delving deep into the unexplored sectors of Ultima Segmentum.
Information about many hundreds of these colony missions –including, critically, their destinations in Ultima Segmentum — were still locked up in the planet’s mainframe computers.
It was this trove of information that brought the Night Lords.
The raiders swept in under the cover of darkness, landing strike forces throughout Deculon Prime’s capital city, sowing chaos and disarray. Fragmentary reports trickled into Planetary Defense Force headquarters, identifying the traitors as being led by Estebohr Bruton, a vile heretic and master of the dark arts of the warp.
As Bruton’s forces swept through the city in an orgy of violence, a parallel force led by Mors Dunjen, captain of the Night Lords and wielder of the cursed demon sword Languish, knifed through the tumult and assaulted the mainframe computer complex. Tech-adepts armed with clubs and pistols stood in their path, grimly defending the data cores that housed centuries of accumulated data and knowledge.
Dunjen offered no quarter. The horror and bloodshed in the dim cogitator tunnels were beyond description.
When the Reavers of Deculon Prime finally withdrew, after nearly 48 hours of constant combat, they left armed with precise knowledge about their true target: the location of Caluphel Prime, a mysterious lost colony world in a forgotten corner of Segmentum Ultima. The Emperor only knows what they hope to find there…
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