Faash

The Faash were a human civilization that emerged from the Dark Age of Technology that came into conflict with the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade. Their homeworld was Dulan which

Like the contemporary Interex they were technologically advanced, on a par with, if not already exceeding the capabilities of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Also like the Interex, they offer an interesting insight on human life separate from the Imperium after the Age of Strife: Where the Interex were Noblebright and sought to include various races of Xenos in their empire; the Faash actually abhorred the Alien, Mutant and the Heretic long before the development of the Imperial Creed and without any knowledge of god-like beings such as the Emperor or the Primarchs.

The Faash were ruled by their own Emperor: Durath, but unlike the Imperium, this leader was simply a regular, un-enhanced man with a strong personality cult and a dream which believed that he was the only person fit to rule humanity.

This "creed" along with the fact that they had cathedrals was an indication that they were at least a quasi-religious empire; and their level of belief in their cause meant that they were unimpressed by Adeptus Astartes, not demonstrating any of the awe that human forces typically suffer when faced down by power armoured superhuman giants (quite possibly because their own warriors were even larger than Astartes, more on that below) with Durath himself showing no fear of Lion El'Jonson, and even going so far as to broadcast images of deranged Wulfen as abominations and mutants and holding them as examples of what the Imperium could tolerate that the Faash would not.

The Dulan Campaign

The campaign against the Faash started due to their refusal to join the Imperium plain and simple; the war initially started against the Imperial Army, but the Space Wolves were called in after the technological superiority of the Faash became apparent and so Leman Russ was assigned command over the campaign.

However, after months of slow progress, the Imperial forces still had not even determined the location of the Faash homeworld and intelligence on their capabilities and disposition was hard to come by, partly due to the sheer resistance of the Faash vessels making them virtually impossible to capture. The courts on Terra were beginning to consider Russ to be ill-suited to the campaign and decided to send in his brother Lion El'Jonson to complete the job. Incensed, Leman Russ redoubled his efforts to end the campaign himself and managed to actually a capture a Faash vessel intact, thus gleaning the location of Dulan and sending his fleet there en-mass.

Upon arrival in the Dulan system, Russ discovered that the First were already there and engaging the fleet in orbit, having determined the location of the homeworld by checking through the old records that survived the Dark Age of Technology. - Russ had spent months tearing his foes apart searching for their heart, while the Lion simply read it in a book and went there directly.

Upon transiting into orbit, ignoring hails from the Dark Angels fleet, the Space Wolves decided to choose their own targets and started shooting down enemy battleships. Managing to destroy one cleanly, only to come under fire by the Dark Angels, because an entire company had already boarded the battleship and were close to capturing it and turning against the enemy, where if the Wolves had actually answered their hails they would have known about. Realising his error, Russ later apologised to his brother, though promised to end him if he pulled a stunt like that ever again.

Technology

As mentioned previously, the technological capabilities of the Faash were extremely potent when compared to the Imperium; their voidships were powered by unique fusion drives which outran Imperial ships at straight line speeds, meaning that they were very difficult to outmaneuver unless they were caught off-guard. Additionally, their ships were extremely resilient; protected by Aegis Shields which were apparently superior to Void shields and could only be overwhelmed by extremely high energy attacks. Aegis Shields were also capable of some measure of self-repair so that when they became damaged they would spring back to function within a very short space of time, making it virtually impossible to defeat a Faash vessel in any means short of destroying it outright. Not only that, but the aegis shields could be miniaturized and worn by its Mech-Guard infantry, making them proportionally resilient and difficult for the Imperium to deal with.

The Infantry soldiers were equipped in their own version of Power Armour, that was built on a scale slightly bulkier than that of the Astartes, these mech-guard were armed with Interference weapons that rearranged matter at the molecular level, causing horrific injuries no matter what protections its targets were using, though these interference weapons took a long time to recharge between volleys. Though, as a backup they were also armed with standard las weaponry that they could switch to in the interim. With all of their protections and the potency of their armament, the warriors of the Astartes soon determined that engaging the Mech-Guard in ranged combat was not effective as it would take a ridiculous amount to firepower to bring down just one opponent; they learned to wait until their interference volleys had completed before closing to engage them in melee where both sides were more evenly matched in terms of brute strength thanks to the power armour, but the Astartes had the advantage due to faster reactions and more savage instincts.

The Faash also had their own version of a Dreadnought called a Leviathan which incorporated the same aegis shield and interference weapon as the infantry, albeit on a larger scale. These Faash Leviathans were actually even larger than Imperial Leviathan Dreadnoughts and were a horrifying prospect to take down.