The Bulwark

Summary of Legion XXVIII

Renegade not heretics, siege defense and empire building focused

First known as the Qarin Sentinels, the Legion followed the Emperor on his Great Crusade, developing their innate talents for defense and infrastructure. They forged a bond with the other legions, many of whom were able to swap concepts and experiences of siege with the Sentinels.

Legion Equipment

Legion Doctrine

Serious, driven, and dour, the Bulwark are fierce defenders, and value personal toughness and stubbornness. Despite not being a heretic, they refuse to bow to the Emperor. Or the Traitor legions for that matter. They are repopulating the legion faster than most, but still maintaining the care taken pre-heresy for it.

Sebastian Rex, Primarch of The Bulwark

The Coming of The Emperor

Then, on a world named Arelon the legion found its lost Primarch, Sebastian Rex. Sebastian had been found in the forests, and had been looked after by the populace of a small city, constantly predated on by roaming bandit armies and the neighbouring nations and Great Cities. Over the course of his time on Arelon, Sebastian managed to take that small city, and turn it into a sprawling empire, the Jewel and capital city of all of Arelon. He had done this by meticulously, and patiently, fortifying the small city state and all of its conquests and the infrastructure linking them, so that they made an interlocking, interlinked web of citadels that protected each other and their cities. At first Sebastian would not listen to the Emperor, believing the Emperor to be a bigger, space-faring foe like he had faced on Arelon, one that he and his people would weather like a storm.

The Emperor ordered the Silver Cataphracts and the Steel Marshalls to use their siege expertise to force Sebastian out. They did so with ease, although the defenses did give them far more trouble than they expected, their advanced weaponry and tactics reduced the defenses to rubble. Seeing his empire, all he had built in ruins, Sebastian wept, but he remained steadfast, standing in front of the main gatehouse to the capital, that was still just about intact, and challenged his foes to duel him. He fought off many foes, fighting for hours on end, sustaining great wounds but shrugging them all off. Bloody and beginning to tire, Sebastian finally challenged the emperor himself to duel him as his final gambit.

The Emperor did not accept the duel, but chose to speak with Sebastian, explaining why he had come, and what Sebastians destiny was; to fortify the stars in the name of his father, the Emperor. Sebastian accepted this, agreeing to do his best for his father, but the seeds of resentment were already sown in his soul. His legion, renamed the Gatekeepers after their Sebastians heroic last stand on Arelon, now followed the Great Crusade, reinforcing and garrisoning strategic positions - using what he learned at the hands of the Cataphracts and the Marshalls to good use, and together with advanced technology, began perfecting the art of siege defense.

The Great Crusade

As the Great Crusade progressed, Sebastian began carving out his own network of highly defended, incredibly fortified planets, and steadily expanded this burgeoning empire until he had a prosperous sector under his control, benefiting from the regular patrols and heavy defenses, the sector economy became robust, constantly growing to keep up with the demand for construction materials and defensive weapons and space ships soared. He made friends with Arelex of the War Scribes, and Uriel Starikov of the Children of Armok.

As his empire grew and strengthened, Sebastian, and the Gatekeepers involvement in the crusades waned. And by the time the Heresy began, it had been some time since Sebastian and his legion had done more than fortify and defend against xenos attacks. Not knowing who to side with, and remembering the pain he felt at having his mightiest achievement reduced to rubble by the Emperor, Sebastian declared his neutrality, taking his now considerable personal empire with him.

The Heresy

As the Heresy raged, Sebastian was contacted by Uriel Starikov of the Children of Armok, and warned that his legions rivals, the Silver Cataphracts, and the Steel Marshals were en-route to his empire to force him to join them, as they had done back on Arelon. Images of his sector spanning empire reduces to rubble and glass like his first empire enraged Sebastian, and he began preparations to welcome his former brothers with concrete and steel. As one final insult to his oncoming foes, he sent a personal message to their Primarchs.

"You will now know us as the Bulwark. For we will break you upon our mighty defenses and laugh at your death. You will be destroyed in the Crucible I lay before you, but take solace knowing that we will forge your remains into new walls to crush all those who follow in your ill-fated footsteps. We are the Bulwark. Bring us your best. For we will take them all!"

Little did Sebastian know that the the two loyalist legions had been dispatched to provide assistance to the Bulwark, as Sebastians little corner of the Imperium was perhaps the safest and most secure loyalist sector in the whole galaxy. The Loyalists had planned to use it as a base for a second front, to lure the Traitors into the masterfully crafted defenses of the Bulwark Empire or attack them from behind if they marched on Terra. The Crucible Challenge came as a shock, but assuming the Bulwarks message to mean they had joined Hektors side, the Cataphtacts and the Marshals did not hesitate in preparing for battle.

The Crucible itself was made up of 4 worlds and 2 space stations, all garrisoned and fortified beyond normal necessity or logic. They were dug in for a long, bloody siege. The Crucible would last the rest of the heresy, and outmatch the Siege of Terra in scale and brutality. Ultimately, the Crucible would leave the Bulwark victorious, but having sustained heavy losses themselves, losing around 55% of their legion. The Cataphracts and the Marshals suffer an estimated 65% and 52% casualty rate respectively. Towards the end of the battle, seeing him in person, Sebastian challenged the Marshalls Primarch, Roman Albrecht to single combat. Roman was a far superior fighter, and lead the fight, but Sebastian's skill at defending kept the duel locked into a stalemate. As both Primarch's anger and desire to best their rival took over them, they began to ignore the battle that had temporarily lulled to watch the two giants duel. Finally, Sebastian struck; parrying a sword stroke, he disarmed Roman, and gave him no respite - not even stopping to gloat. Roman's head flew, and the silence that followed it was deafening. A Primarch, the mightiest of the mighty, save the Emperor of mankind himself, was dead. Before the head of Roman had even hit the floor, the carnage resumed at a higher force than before - deafening cheers from the Bulwark, and cries of anguish and sorrow fueled rage from the Marhsals. Sebastian stood, sword in the air, relishing in the feeling - he had bested one of the 2 mortals responsible for his people, his empire back on Arelon, being destroyed. The feeling did not last long. He had suffered some minor wounds during the fight, but they had weakened him, and he returned to his fortified battle lines. Later in the battle, Sebastian would face the Cataphracts Primarch Constantine while defending a breach in the curtain wall of the capital of the 4th and final world. Constantine was not as close a match for Sebastian as Roman was, but due to Sebastians wounds, Constantine was able to get the upper hand, and mortally wounded Sebastian with a powerful strike from his master-crafted power halberd. Before he succumbed to his wound however, Sebastian grabbed the halberds shaft, and pulled himself down the blade, so he was face to face with his rival brother, nothing but hatred on Sebastians face, but a look of remorse on the face of Constantine. Sebastian tried to say something, and Constantine leant in to hear his brothers last words over the din of battle. "Bring us your best, for we will take them all." He trailed off into laughter, that quickly became a coughing fit as blood poured out of his lips. His lips that smiled. Constantine looked confused, then was engulfed in an explosion that sent all those in a 30 radius flying. Constantine was not dead, but he was no longer conscious; the blast had ripped his lower body clean from the rest of him, and hurled his upper body up, and into the rubble of an outer wall. The apothecaries were able to keep him alive miraculously, but Constantine Komnemnos was in a deep coma, and would never be the same again.

Post-Heresy

Following the aftermath of the Crucible, and the now finished Heresy, the Bulwark return to their original business of building their Empire out on the fringes of the galaxy, and focus on rebuilding their decimated legion, which they do reasonably faster than most, due to their Empires strong economy, and all the gene-seed they could recover and steal from the dead at the Crucible.

They keep true to their promise and have their old fortifications rebuilt using the smelted down and crushed remains of their foes. Roman Albrecht's dead body is sealed in plas-glass, normally used for void windows, and sent to their fortress monastery, where his body watches over the main gate, a testament to all who would try and siege the Bulwark.