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The War of The Beast

2018-01-29T06:16:46Z

2601:40C:4301:80C0:C099:BE1E:53D1:868F: /* The Fist of the Imperium */ fixed grammar

{{spoilers}}

'''The War of the Beast''' is the focus of the ''The Beast Arises'' series and is one of the major events in [[40k]] history in which the [[Imperium]] got the biggest [[Anal circumference|buttfuck]] it would ever get in between the [[Horus Heresy]] and [[Time of Ending|the tremendous dumpster fire that is the late 41st millennium]]. The series serves as a reminder the orks represent serious business and, goofy moments aside, they can be as cruel, hateful and threatening as any other enemy of the Imperium.

==The Imperium at the time==
Believe it or not, during the years prior to the biggest [[WAAAGH]]! that has ever been the Imperium was living a time one might call peaceful. Yes, there were silly little wars here and there such as the first Black Crusade, the first battle of Cadia, the Battle of the Fang, multiple traitor Primarchs fucking over many worlds, not to mention all of the Daemon cults that were popping up everywhere, but if we ignore all of those 'minor' events/chaos invasions we're left with a few others which basically consisted of the Imperials wiping out some xenos races. The Astartes were ''dying out'' because the author forgot the other shit that happened, the Imperial Fists-for example- hadn't left Terra for centuries and it was said nearly none of its battle brothers had had real battle experience in any substantial terms. The Emperor's Herd had grown complacent.

==The Catastrophe: Slaughter at Ardamantua==
For the first time in centuries the [[Imperial Fists]] left their role as praetorians of the throneworld and went on to slaughter alien scum known as the '''Chromes''' who were considered little better than non-sentient vermin.

The Fists were caught by surprise by strange gravitational hazards which started chewing up the landscape and causing their starships to fail and crash, thus they were dealt severe losses. The [[High Lords of Terra]], reluctant to lend their own aid to the Fists on what they considered a trivial matter of fighting Chrome pests, allowed the remaining Fists who were guarding the throneworld to deploy to Ardamantua, along with a contingent of Guard forces commanded by the '''Lord Commander Militant Heth.'''

When the counter attack commenced, an ENTIRE MOON materialized in the system; the process by which it was traveling had been messing up the planet's gravity, practically destroying it, while causing navigational hazards which scattered the fleets in orbit around Ardamantua, crushing them.

Then appeared the WAAAGH! Beast. It was said that its boyz were as strong and big as space marines, as tall as them and quite cunning to boot. Its nobs were massive. However, its biggest threat was the Ork Warboss: [[The Beast]], (who will bring much) Slaughter. The Beast was a leader of unprecedented tactical acumen and sophistication for an Ork and thus managed to turn his WAAAGH into a cohesive fighting force that uses actual battlefield tactics and even diplomacy.

Lord Commander Militant Heth died as his forces were slaughtered right after warning the Imperium of the greatest threat they had ever faced before. The Imperial Fists were slaughtered to a man. There remained only one survivor: '''Captain [[Slaughter Koorland]]'''. The future [[Chapter Master]] of the [[Imperial Fists]] and then Lord Commander of the Imperium.

==Galaxy Spanning threat==
The WAAAGH! Beast threatened to engulf the whole galaxy: the guard was bogged down on many fronts, the space marine chapters were mostly tied down trying to fight the invading orks. The Ultramarines had 2 of their worlds invaded and had been forced to bring in successor reinforcements. Many chapters were annihilated as they struggled to fend off an enemy the likes of which they hadn't ever faced. Worst of all was the fact that the orks were DEVELOPING technology, having such things as gravitational whips and massive teleporters capable of teleporting whole armadas in the blink of an eye.

The Imperium couldn't help but lose ground as '''Lord High Admiral Lansung,''' leader of the [[Imperial Navy]] and main topdog of the High-Lords, focused more on deploying his fleets to gain favours from other high lords and protect his own interests rather than ferrying the Imperial Guard and fighting the ork fleets. The rest of the lords were about as incompetent barring one man: '''Drakan Vangorich''', the infamous Grand Master of Assassins who would later stage [[The Beheading]]. The man was a patriot and tried his damn best to get the imperials to move their damn fat asses. The pay off took a while but it was noticeable.

==Battle for Port Sanctus==
After a lot of political maneuvering and tug-o-war, Lansung decided to move his fat ass into fighting the orks (mainly because one of his admirals had broken his orders and he didn't want to lose face) for the shipyards of Port Sanctus. There half of what was a segmentum's fleet fought the Orks. And it went horribly at the beginning: the ork attack moon's gravity whip was so powerful that BATTLESHIPS were torn apart by it and the moon's WAAAGH! gate brought in constant reinforcements to fend off the imperial navy as thousands of boarding ships and small cruisers sent in boarding parties to the imperial vessels, even with the void shields up and the gellar fields on.
Lansung decided he couldn't take more of this shit, and for the first time in two whole novels of total incompetence he went on and got shit done: he led a suicidal assault towards the moon. Dozens of battlecruisers and battleships were lost to the Imperium but the void shields of the gargantuan construct were drained by the energy consumption and the Imperial Navy was able to obliterate the threat.

==Terra under threat and the Proletarian Crusade==
But all wasn't so nice. Yes, the Navy had, at a great cost, destroyed the attack moon ''(and closed its WAAAGH! Gate)'' but the thing was that the orks had more of those buggers around. And one of them had recently popped out...right by Terra itself. Right then the Navy assets were on Port Sanctus and the massive network of star forts was still in construction. Basically the throne world was under threat and there was nothing that could defend them. At that time Lansung's power had been almost lost as many of his political allies turned from him, a new figure taking his place: '''Juskina Tull.''' Tull represented the chartist captains and had a "brilliant idea" ''(read: a suicidal, stupid idea)'': lead a crusade made by the people. The idea was to take the massive merchant fleet available in Sol and load it chock full with people: guardsmen and civilian alike. Literally billions were ferried into ships that ranged from massive mass conveyors to tiny shuttles in a massive tide of steel. The ork defense forces shut down a great number (if not the majority) of the vessels but the Imperials still managed to land millions of sods and hundreds of vehicles.

There they frigging zerg rushed and beat the crap of the ork forces on the surfaces... only to be crushed by mountains. The orks manipulated the surface of the moon and shifted the mountains close to a door to the moon's interior. Trapped between the stones, the imperial forces were crushed by their own bodies and the master-crafted trap the orks laid.
Thus ended the last ditch effort of the Proletarian Crusade, with a single survivor: a female adeptus arbite.

Oh, and the [[Eldar]] show up in the Imperial Palace trying to warn the humans not to let the Orks distract them from [[Chaos]], cuz, you know, chaos has to be your #1 priority even though the Imperium is being torn apart by killer Ork death stars. This cryptic crap achieves absolutely nothing other than getting the hard-line [[Inquisitor]]s into a frenzy of saying "I told you so" to anyone who will listen.

==The Last Wall, a Legion reunified==
Dorn had envisioned the chance of something BIG happening. So he had ordered his sons that, should the need arise, they reunited at '''Phall''', where the Heresy began for the Imperial Fists. There they would unify into a single legion and fight as one again, albeit keeping their traditional heraldry. The note was sent with not much time in advance but the majority of the second founding chapters managed to be present. There Koorland revealed to the utter shock of his fellow chapter masters from the [[Black Templars]], [[Crimson Fists]], [[Excoriators]] and the [[Fists Exemplar]] that he was the last Imperial Fist alive. The truth was almost too much for them to process but in the end they decided to get over it and banded together.
Over 3000 astartes and 50 ships went into [[Terra]] and led a glorious assault to neutralize the attack moon.

The fleet was joined by the [[Iron Knights]] chapter and succeeded in destroying the WAAAGH gate at the heart of the moon and rescuing the remaining human prisoners ''(including the aforementioned female Arbitrator)'' but unfortunately leaving the moon intact. While also suffering substantial casualties, amongst which was Chapter Master Malfons of the Iron Knights, who sacrificed himself to save Koorland from an Ork warboss the size of a Dreadnought.

==The Imperium Strikes Back==
After the battle of Terra and the blockade of the attack moon, the Last Wall ''(the new name for the Fist Legion)'' were praised by The Lord Guilliman ''(also: Lord Commander of the Imperium, also: Warmaster, also: your boss)'' '''Udin Macht Udo''' ''(a fellow more useless than Abaddon)'' who wanted to make a show of having five chapters bow to him and invited them to a party. He also wanted to keep the loss of the [[Imperial Fists]] chapter a secret for public relations and ordered the successors to play dress up and give Koorland an honour guard. Udo would also show himself "gracious" enough to ratify Koorlands's position as Chapter Master, since according to rules lawyers, the successors aren't allowed to do that.

The Fists were explicitly ordered NOT to destroy the attack moon that remained in orbit, because the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] wanted the Ork technology for themselves. ''(oh the irony)'' The Fists were also disgusted by the constant power playing between the high lords and were happy enough to leave. Suffice to say, the space marines consider them all dicks.

==So that thing about Chaos? Orks are way worse==
Despite the warnings from the Eldar, Chaos, or more specifically: some [[Iron Warriors]] were also getting their asses kicked by Orks. While also being hunted by some Black Templars with a grudge. Realizing that the fight won't end well, they decide to join forces temporarily, but still can't overcome the Orks. When a relief force of Fists Exemplar show up to pull them out. However, the Orks use their gravity based weapons to SPAWN A FREAKIN' BLACK HOLE, which destroys the star system, the Imperial fleet escapes by scattering into the warp, where one ship turns up on '''Prax''' along with the Iron Warriors.

Prax turns out to be a key world in the new "Ork Empire" and reveals that the Orks have been evolving even further than anticipated. Where previously they were considered to be little but savages who could hammer bits of technology together and make it work, they now have their own society and specialists, "Bloody Axes" and "Leering Moons" and so forth. They actively conquer and enslave other races; taking humans, feeding them steroids and farming them like cattle, while some "lucky ones" get their teeth punched out, shaved bald, branded like slaves and get pushed into battle as [[Gue'vesa|auxilia cannon fodder]].

The combined Fists and Iron Warriors then destroy the planet rather than letting the Orks keep it.

Back on Terra, Vangorich manoeuvres Koorland into taking the top job of '''Lord Guilliman''' from Udo, who seems to think its business as usual, despite the Ork threat still signalling imminent doom. The Imperial Fists strut into the Senatorium and denounce him, and Udo orders their arrest, not noticing that everyone bar the Ecclesiarch and the Fabricator General have switched sides and actually ''wants'' someone competent to take command.

==The new regime==
With Koorland in charge, Vangorich brought him evidence of the Mechanicum withholding vital information to the war effort because of their fanatical need to hoard knowledge ''(and abscond with any new Ork tech)''. So Koorland's first act was to land military troops on Mars and bluff the Mechanicum into stepping into line. After a brief "incident" which was totally not a micro civil war the Fabricator General finally started singing the Imperial national anthem and revealed that the Orks were coming from '''Ullanor''', which had sunk into ancient legend because of its significance to the Great Crusade.

Deciding the Imperium needed its own legend, they went looking for [[Vulkan]], since the [[Inquisition]] conveniently knew where he was ''(and had been for a thousand years)''. Gathering a fleet, they went to the backwater volcanic planet and found Vulkan singlehandedly defending it against MILLIONS of Orks. Their arrival turned the tide, eliminated the attack moon being constructed in orbit. Providing the first major victory of the War. Yay.

==Attack on the Beast==
With Vulkan on board and confirming Koorland's position, the Imperium launched an assault against the Beast Capital, though upon coming to Ullanor the Imperial Fleet found massive resistance and were forced to adopt a suicide approach in order to allow troops to disembark. Once landed, the armies of the Imperium stormed The Beast's main citadel, and after a brutal raid a killteam composed of the Primarch himself and a bunch of chapter masters found the Beast, first confusing it with an humongous statue. The Beast soon revealed its power, reducing the smurf chapter master to a bloody pulp (seems like Games Workshop has finally apologized for 5th edition) and killing most of the imperial forces in a few minutes. Vulkan ordered the survivors to pull back while he dueled the Beast, quoting the "Forget the power of..." he used his own might to refocus the Waaagh! psychic make to blow himself and the Beast up. The Imperial armies retreated from the planet thinking the Beast slain, at the cost of a Primarch. Upon reaching Terra they discovered to their horror that the Beast had somehow survived the conflagration.

==The Deathwatch is born, the Sisters of Silence return==
With the Imperium getting overrun Koorland and Vangorich envisioned the creation of the Deathwatch. Knowing however this would not be enough, the Imperials, helped by inquisitor Veritus, managed to get the Sisters of Silence back from their self-imposed exile. Koorland ordered a new assault on Ullanor, this time using the brand new Deathwatch and the Sisters to assassinate The Beast. Sadly, they only managed to get a shadow of the former forces thrown into the assault, as the High nutheads of Terra argued they couldn't leave Segmentum Solar undefended or something (not that it would matter in a few months considering how bad the war was going). Still Koorland managed to punch through the Ork defenses once more and this time, with the help of the sisters and an ork psyker getting used as a waaagh! chain-reaction bomb, he managed to kill the Beast. Except it wasn't The Beast, but a lesser Prime-Ork. The real Beast appeared and proceeded to kill Koorland and destroy his [[geneseed|progenoids]], effectively destroying the Imperial Fists. The remaining survivors, seeing defeat, pulled back totally demoralized.

==The Fist of the Imperium==
The Imperium had mere weeks of life left, with their entire galactic military on the verge of annihilation and thousands of worlds being overrun, their populations murdered by an unending tide of orks. Meanwhile, on [[Inwit]], [[Maximus Thane]], Chapter Master of the [[Fists Exemplar]], presided the successor chapters a farewell ceremony for the last Imperial Fist, which took the form of the [[Feast of Blades]]. While competing (and subsequently winning) the Feast, suddenly he got an idea: so, the Last Wall protocol was active, right? That means technically the Imperial Fists legion was back, riiiiight? So, technically they could just say they were Imperial Fists too. After some agreement with the successors they pooled up and reformed the Imperial Fists, because, why not? He returned and asked the High Lords what they thought about it, some of them didn't get it and refused to cooperate, so Thane, teaming up with Vangorich, got them in line at gun point (finally, someone got fed up of them) and forced to unleash everything they got in a last ditch assault against Ullanor, ''everything'', regiments of Astra Militarum, Skitarii macro-clades, Titans, Mechanicus and Imperial Navy capital ships. And this time they decided to take note of the Orks tactic, [[Awesome|by unleashing asteroids against the Ork Capital, filled with the entire newly reformed Imperial Fists chapter and the remaining Sisters of Silence]] (problem, [[Administratum|Adepts]]?), and it worked, with the combination of asteroid drop, point-blank orbital bombardment and a chapter sized spearhead they forced a breach into the Beast stronghold and using the last remaining captured ork psykers they finally managed to kill the main Beast, the other Beasts and all near orks, ultimately cleaning Ullanor of Ork presence and finally breaking the back of greenskin unified galactic assault. The planet would have then been subjected to Exterminatus in order to ensure the greenskin threat was over, but the AdMech instead teleported the planet away elsewhere so they could loot the Ork technology for themselves.

==Aftermath==
The Imperium was saved, Chapter Master Thane and the Imperial Fists had managed to save mankind, unfortunately the flaws were still present, and in light of the AdMech's blatant disregard for how close the Orks had been to wiping out Terra Vangorich decided to fix things up in a very permanent manner. Interestingly, [[The Beheading|killing most of the High Lords of Terra]] actually wasn't so bad as you may think, as for the first decades him handling the Imperium's government while Thane was busy recovering all the territories lost to the ork seemed to work. Sadly, the fear that future High Lords could screw things up caused Vangorich to go mad, like, Perturabo mad, and stablished a terror regime (ok, even for Imperium's standard) on Terra. In the end Thane went back backed up by other 2 chapters and stormed the Throneworld to get Vangorich killed (by this point you may be wondering why is it that Failbaddon, Imotekh or the Tyranids have had it so hard to get here, plot armor maybe?). Vangorich unleashed 100 Eversors to deal with the marines, and if you watched that video made by Karl the Deranged from the Alpha Legion then you may imagine how bad it went for Thane, fortunately, the last eversor, who seemed about to kill him, was an ex-operative of Vangorich forcefully converted into a WRRYYY!, fighting back to psycho-conditioning and drugs, he gave Thane the open to kill Vangorich, the rest is history. Hey, this series was cool, and unlike the Horus Heresy, it actually went somewhere, don't you agree? {{BLAM}}

==Major revelations==

'''Here come some major spoilers!'''

The series has revealed many events which have previously only been hinted at or not really touched on at all:
*The [[Imperial Fists]] were completely wiped out during the war, it took the combined effort of the successor chapters to bring them back.
*It was Captain Koorland who came up with the idea of creating the Deathwatch from the marines who have survived the first months of the war.
*Drakan Vangorich was actually quite a cool guy, and it was only after 100 years passed from the beheading that he went mad and had to be removed.
*The novel series gives an excellent idea of the state of the human colonies during the Age of Strife when there wasn't an Imperium to defend mankind from the alien threat and why surrendering to xenos was a very bad idea.
*That inquisitor named Veritus? None other than Kyril Sindermann, formerly the Luna Wolves' [[Iterator]] and one of the founders of both the [[Imperial Creed]] and the Inquisition. This explains how he knew so much about, well, everything, and he came with the idea of the Ordo Malleus and the Ordo Xenos as separate defined branches, making him the grand-daddy of the modern Inquisition.
*Chapter Master Janus from the [[Grey Knights]] makes a cameo.
*Vulkan was still alive, and of course he will still be due being a perpetual, but it was good to have him back for a while, also, there are hints Rogal Dorn may be still alive too.
*After the defeat of the Beast the Mechanicus feinted destroying the planet of Ullanor by teleporting it to another solar system. It has become well known in the 41st millennium by the name of [[Armageddon]] (yeah THAT Armageddon).
*All the remaining Sisters of Silence were killed during the final battle against the Beast, the last one sacrificing herself to destroy the Ork-Prime, however it seems they too were later restablished, even if not so well funded and nurmerous as in M41, they arrived on Luna to stop Magnus from mopping the floor with Guilliman.
*[[Eldrad]] had a hand helping the Imperium to stop the orks, and during the final passages of the last book it was revealed to him that Mankind and [[Eldar]] fates are irrevocably intertwined.
*Throughout the siege of Terra, the Orks taunted the defenders with transmissions from orbit across all vox-channels in their own tongue: the name of their commander, a phrase roughly translating as "Beast", "I am Slaughter", or "Lord Who Brings Great Slaughter". It is revealed in the final passages of the last book that, in Orkish, this phrase is "Mag Uruk Thraka". Granted, [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] has exactly nothing on the Beast...at least, not yet.
**It's worth considering that the Orks believe that dead Orks go back to Gork and Mork to be belched into another body. And when ten zillion Orks believe a thing...
*Orks can be eradicated in mass through the use of the Pariah Gene and Wierdboyz, even the strongest Orks can die in groups to this form of attack, giving the Orks an enormous weak point any faction with sufficient Pariahs, which is only the Imperium, can exploit. If the Imperium has not simply forgotten this, it must be assumed that they have decided it is more important to use them to counter Daemons and other Chaos-related Warp shit for the time being, still, [[Adeptus Mechanicus|it's probably saved somewhere... just to have a grenade factory or something built upon that vault.]]

{{40k-Timeline}}

Cato Sicarius

2018-01-29T02:54:10Z

2601:40C:4301:80C0:C099:BE1E:53D1:868F: /* Ancient Inspiration */ fixed grammar

[[File:Cato Fall of Damnos.JPG|260px|thumb|right|"I, CATO SICARIUS, will lead you to the keg party! Toga, toga, toga!"]]
{{MattWard}}

''"Excuse me, but you must mean that it is one of the greatest deeds the Chapter has ever accomplished! And it was thanks to '''I''', Cato Sicarius, because that is what it is! And '''I''', Cato Sicarius, was thinking that it was the most righteous time to remind you that '''I''', Cato Sicarius, to be your rightful heir as the new Chapter Master."'' - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM8YGsAmeqE&feature=youtu.be&t=2m12s Cato Sicarius]

'''Cato Sicarius''' is the leader of the Victrix guard and formerly the [[Brother-Captain]] of the [[Ultramarines]]' Second Company. Among his titles are Master of the Watch, Knight Champion of Macragge, Grand Duke of Talassar, and High Shiggydiggytee of who gives a damn. The Brainy Smurf to Marneus Calgar's Papa Smurf (for being an arrogant, smug know-it-all who gets brought down a peg whenever he gets too full of himself. Both also tend to repeat names over and over again; see above).

Hailing from the planet Talassar, Sicarius was [[Brother-Sergeant|Veteran Sergeant]] of the Second Company under Captain [[Severus Agemman]], the Captain of the 5th Company and Master Of The Marches by the time [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] arrived to nom on [[Ultramar]]. After the First Company was horrendously nommed to the last man during the Battle for Macragge, Agemman was [[Promotions|promoted]] to First Captain and charged with filling up the First Company, with Sicarius replacing him as Captain of the Second Company, and Caito Galenus replacing Sicarius as Captain of the 5th Company. In the following two hundred and fifty some odd years, Sicarius has garnered a reputation for heroism and valiant actions surpassed only by a few others. Many within the Chapter believe that when [[Marneus Calgar]] dies, it will be Sicarius who succeeds him as [[Chapter Master]], even though Agemman (being First Captain) is the nominally designated successor.

He's one of the many fluff-based complaints against [[Matt Ward]], due to rather unbelievable feats such as repelling ''one million'' Tau army with only thousand marines, which is rather unbelievable. You know, when you get outnumbered 1000 to 1, no matter how superhuman your soldiers are, they have no chances, even against [[grot]]s, not to mention tough as nails angry warmonger barbarians or high-tech space communists with an unholy amount of firepower.

Unless you're [[Sly Marbo]], of course. But that goes without saying.

In the end, of course, it turned out that [[Shadowsun]] just manipulated Cato to keep the Marines together, rather than separating them to support [[Imperial Guard]] as spearhead. So while Sicarius and his ragtag band was busy liberating three (and a half!) planets, the [[Tau Empire]] conquered three dozen more, effortlessly smashing through [[Planetary Defence Force]]s and Imperial Guard. Oh yeah he also killed a Transcendent [[C'Tan]]. Without being instantly turned to dust. Though somehow he was completely outclassed by [[Imperial Armour|The Undying of Damnos]] (who was going nuts via the [[Necron Destroyer|Destroyer]] madness). (If you must know, he broke his own self imposed rules and used a vortex grenade)
He also has at least three (''more like 6, actually'') canon models of him (the one not shown here is the Captain form the ''Assault on Black Reach'' starter). Meanwhile, [[Tu'Shan]] is still waiting for ''one'' model and ''rules'', while the [[Iron Hands]] are still waiting for ''special characters''.

Most Ultramarine armies will have his heraldry, due to it being more or less the default.

As of the latest Codex: Space Marines, he got lost in The Warp after being sent back to Macragge by Guilliman to protect it, where he spent an undisclosed amount of time murdering daemons that breached his ship while they found a way out. He eventually got out and joined Guilliman on the Indomitus Crusade, where Guilliman has taken a liking to him for reminding him of Aeonid Thiel, one his old Great Crusade buddies. So he took Cato under his direct tutelage to temper the hot-headedness out of him, much to the surprise and chagrin of [[Marneus Calgar|Papa Smurf]].

== Un-assholing the asshole ==
[[Nick Kyme]] and [[Graham McNeill]], in the Ultramarines books they've written, have played with Sicarius' character, showing his desire for glory putting the Second Company in extreme danger, and having several of his own sergeants suspicious about his motives. Nick Kyme's Space Marine Battles novel about the fall of Damnos shows the real reason the Ultramarines lost: because Sicarius insisted on winning an actual victory instead of just [[Exterminatus|blowing the planet to kingdom come]], which [[Varro Tigurius]] ultimately did after Sicarius had his ass handed to him (Which didn't work at all since Damnos became a major Tomb World). Gods of Mars also noted this with one character (present during the Damnos Evacuation) saying that meeting Sicarius was the biggest anti-climax of his life because Sicarius gave every impression of feeling like he had lost personally, not the Ultramarines or the planet's population.

That said his way of thinking wasn't wrong, the Real Problem was that the Necrons outnumbered the Ultramarines 500 to one; and unlike other races they get back up, while the 2nd was mostly worn down by sheer attrition. Were any other forces present, Damnos could have been saved. In Graham McNeill's Ultramarines series, Sicarius acts as chief prosecutor (which is, technically, one of his roles as Captain of the 2nd) when [[Uriel Ventris]] and Pasanius Lysane are put on trial for violating the [[Codex Astartes]], having such a smug attitude toward his fellow Captain that even the [[Eldar]] would think he was being rude. While there is no denying he's ambitious, Sicarius takes extreme offense at insinuations that he's gunning for Chapter Master. Which means you can just rationalize Ward's fluff as just propaganda (in fact MOST of the codex reads like what Ultramar believes their chapter is). This wouldn't be the first time 40k had an asshole glory hound painted as the greatest hero ever, they're just usually in the [[Imperial Guard]].

That said he's been getting some character development turning him into a rather likable guy, namely in Veil of Darkness and Warzone Damnos. Such as the reason for his smugness during Uriel Ventris was because Cato was a long time friend (and Champion) of Captain Idaeus blaming Ventris for his death. On top of that, the typical Ultrasmurf Mary Sueishness aside, Sicarus is the only Ultramarines special character who regularly wears his damn helmet, and that’s gotta be worth brownie points for (un)common sense, at least. And oh Emperor, that armor looks awesome! And those who still can't get over his continual Mary Sue achievements have taken great joy in that he's been relegated from being on the front line all the time killing Necron and Tau armies with his pinky toe to guarding his resurrected primarch. This amounts to standing in front of doors while Grandpapa smurf talks to important people/sleeps/RAGES at what the Imperium became, or throwing himself into a lascannon shot pointed in Guiliman's direction. Seems the wrath of Ward can go both ways.

After the Gathering Storm and the return of [[Roboute Guilliman]], Sicarius is appointed Captain of the Victrix Guard, Guilliman's new [[Honour Guard]], though he technically retains his status of Captain of the Second Company, along with his other titles. Seeing a little of [[Aeonid Thiel]] in Sicarius, but also recognizing that his accomplishments have left his ego over swollen, Guilliman is trying to mentor Sicarius to turn him into the proper leader he could be than the warrior he already has become.

==CODEX DEVIANT!!!==

Cunto Shitarius is such a glory hound that he's responsible for one of the Ultramarine's only deviations from the [[Codex Astartes]]; the chapter champion, a title he presumably refused to give up when elevated to the rank of Captain (you'd think this would have been a warning sign for the people promoting him). According to the Codex a chapter's champion (a chosen warrior who stands for the chapter as a whole in honor duels and serves as the Chapter Master's personal champion) is selected from the ranks of the [[Honour Guard]] elite, but Cato Sicarius holds this position which is pretty fucking dumb when you stop and think about it. For one, the whole point of having a chapter champion in the first place is so that your chapter's officers aren't risking their life in honor duels, so having an officer serve as champion is a bit self-defeating. What's more, people in leadership roles don't have the time to train in blade work as much as a dedicated champion does, so the honor guards are going to be the better swordsmen, though this is only a problem from a fluff and common-sense standpoint, as [[Games Workshop]] insists on giving captains and chapter masters the best profiles despite the fact that they spend most of their time administrating and leading rather than fighting (all though admittedly they did not start off as administrators and their sheer experience can explain their combat skills). Finally you face the problem that Cato Sicarius is no match for Calgar himself. The idea of a chapter champion is that they're supposed to be the best single combatant in their chapter, so even if you throw the "no officers" rule out the window, he's not even the strongest officer.

== Canon Conflict ==

He has something of a canon conflict, as [[Captain Titus]] is Captain of the Second Company in [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]. According to the developers, Space Marine takes place in an alternate [read: better] universe where Titus was promoted instead of Sicarius (although they probably still know each other as Sicarius will most likely still be the 5th Captain). Though Titus might have just as well been one of the previous Captains of the 2nd Company before Severus Agemman, or it takes place sometime in early M42 and Sicarius has died and been replaced with someone much more competent, given there's no set date for the events of Space Marine. Or most likely Relic just went with the default Ultramarine colors and didn't care about the company colors.

== On the Tabletop ==

{{40k-Nonvehicle-Model-Profile|name=Cato Sicarius|points=195|ws=6|bs=5|s=4|t=4|w=3|i=5|a=3|ld=10|sv=2|inv=4|type=Infantry(Independent Character)|clear=yes)}}

Cato Sicarius is pretty much the vanilla space marine captain in the setting. While not a unholy god of rape in combat, he's hardly weak and stands a fair chance against most nameless IC's. He's just kinda... Meh. Rules wise he has the typical ultramarine's ATSKNF and Chapter tactics, plus he has FNP, Furious Charge, Independent Character, and Surprise Attack (grants +1 to reserve rolls while Cato is alive). He also has a unique rule called Battleforged Heroes that allows him to grant one tactical squad of your choosing one of the following rules: counter attack, tank hunter, infiltrate, or scout. His wargear includes an Iron Halo, artificer armor, frag and krak grenades, a plasma pistol, and the (surprisingly not master-crafted) relic blade Talassarian Tempest Blade which is Strength user AP3 with the Coup-de-grace special rule which allows him to trade all his melee attacks for a single mighty blow with +2 strength and instant death. Which is cool I guess. Be cooler if it was AP2.

Like I said, in game Cato Sicarius is pretty vanilla. He's a bit harder than most with a 4++ and FNP and he's pretty mean on the charge, but he's also a bit pricey. He has some nice tactical bonuses with his two special rules and his warlord trait, Rites of War, which allows friendly units in his army to use his Ld for any morale-based checks. He's a pretty good all-rounder whose abilities are focused on improving his men, despite his fluff making him out to be a glory hound and a legendary single-combatant.

'''In 8th Edition'''

Now at 132 points, he is much cheaper than before. He now has 5 wounds, 4 attacks and a 4+ invulnerable save. He gives friendly Ultramarines within 6" re-roll 1s to hit (much like any Captain) and also Ultramarine Tactical Squads within 6" always fight first in melee. Not a very useful ability since it does not affect himself and Tactical Squads do not really want to be in close combat. A Power Fist always striking first can be pretty dangerous though. His Tempest Blade now has AP -3 and D3 damage. On any wound roll of 6+ it deal D3 mortal wounds. This ability is going to be used a lot, since he still strikes at strength 4. However, with only 4 attacks, you will not be rolling 6s every time.

All in all, he is a nice complementary piece. He is not very expensive and also a cheap 2+ save model (almost equal to a vanilla Terminator Captain and with much better stats). Never make the mistake of overcharging his Plasma Pistol though. he has 1/36 chance to die instantly (will you risk it?).

== Ancient Inspiration ==
In ancient Rome, [[Ordo Sicarius|''Sicarius'']] was the word for murderous street thugs, named after their sickle-like bent dagger, and the word carries on as sicario, roughly meaning hired assassin in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. You could hide it (the dagger, not the thug) under your tunic. You had better, for the law prohibited being armed in the city. Because of this, using a ''sica'' was considered having no honor, while gutting your political opponent with, lets say, a ''gladius'' was totally okay, especially if you challenge them to get down in the Colosseum with you, while the crowd goes [[Khorne|observant cornflakes]].

One should wonder, what does this say about our smurf guy here? Considering GW usually picking telling names when speaking Latin? And Cato's visual appearance so clearly being that of a Roman centurion? Those connections make sense, as there are two renowned Roman Republic [[High Lords of Terra|traditionalist senators]] (who also served as generals without any formal training) by the name of Cato, Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger， great-grandfather and great-grandson respectively, and they generally make the [[Grimdark|High Lords of Terra look like very nice people]], like all ancient Roman politicians we have record of, and were also considered by their people as morally upright and incorruptible since they refused bribes and followed traditional virtues, [[Tzeentch|because that's totally all the credibility you need to be a good person.]]

Thought to think upon: More than once in ancient Rome, either Cato the Elder or Cato the Younger was mostly likely referred to, at least once, as "Cato Sicarius". A more grievous insult than what was meant indeed.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sicarius1.jpg|His mini, more lovingly crafted than most other 40k armies (Dare we say master-crafted?). Also, that fucking smug grin.
File:True_Captain_Sicarius.jpg|The old Space Marine Captain mini from the 4th edition was actually labelled as the model for Captain Sicarius.
File:Ultramarine_captain_sicarius_Medusa_V_Campaign.jpg|Sicarius's previous mini. Back during his wolverine phase.
File:Ultramarine captain cato sicarius by diegogisbertllorens-d7cml6y.jpg|Say what you will about this smug glory-hog, but he's a cooler and more well-rounded character than all the other "[[Torias Telion|I'm]] [[Antaro Chronus|the]] [[Varro Tigurius|best]] because [[Sammael|I'm]] the best"-character. He also surprisingly reminds of New-52 version of Superman with this haircut, hair colour, red cape and blue armor.
File:Cat-O Sicarius.jpg|Cat-O Sicarius, the most glorious of all house pets. (For extra laughs, read all the lines using [https://youtu.be/bM8YGsAmeqE?t=2m12s this voice].)
</gallery>

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