Specularia Incident

This article or section has been selected for Exterminatus by the Ordo Editant. The Emperor Corrects.

This is one of the campaigns of the War Scribes.

Worryingly, some situations were still cause for concern, particularly emerging during the "Defense of Specularia", a world that would live forever as one of the War Scribes' most difficult conquests. The planet of Specularia was of little value to the Great Crusade, save for its strategic location at the intersection of not two, but three major Warp routes. The currents of the Immaterium flowed strong and swift here, and the Imperium's ships gained great momentum by harnessing its exceptionally smooth and pliant flow. The inhabitants were a simple, brutish people, with little wit in their heads and strength in their limbs with which to resist the Second Legion, and the planet flew the Imperial Aquila within two days of their first landing.

Over the next couple months, Arelex oversaw the usual Imperial restoration, landing immense quantities of material, prefabricated Manufactorums, civilian populations, and all manner of other vital gear. Things went well, for a time, but the more humans settled on Specularia, the more unnatural incidents seemed to occur. Minor at first, a workman might lose his tools, then find them in an impossible spot out of reach, or a mother might set her child in its crib, only to find it playing happily on the floor a few moments later. As the incidents became worse, the currents of the Warp grew turbulent, and Arelex couldn't say which one was causing the other. He knew the Warp responded to emotions, the Emperor had told him as much, but was it cause or effect at play here?

Before he and his Legion could answer this question, a massive Warp Storm broke upon Specularia, casting malignant energies across the globe. All three Warp currents bent and twisted, disgorging titanic quantities of energy in all directions and temporarily cutting off almost a tenth of the Legion from their brethren on other Crusades. The Scribes looked to their trusty weaponry, bracing themselves for what was to come. The currents from beyond space were so bad that the Legion's well-organized command structure broke down into squads commanded by Captains and Sergeants, and sometimes without any ranking officers at all. Communications broke down entirely, just as the keening wind took on an altogether more menacing, hungrier tone.

The Warp did not like these new interlopers, and it showed its displeasure by reawakening the horror that slumbered within Specularia's inhabitants. Strange veils of energy enveloped the plodding simpletons, infusing them with unnatural vigor and a thirst for blood. Neither dirt, plasteel, ceramite or adamantium barred their way, for they simply passed through such obstacles with no more effort than a man might press forward into a light breeze. From every angle the half-phantoms struck, strangling the life from the Marines in truly horrible fashion. Totally disorganized and cut off from command, the War Scribes Legion was left to its own devices, and in their rising panic they failed to attain the mental calmness and coordination that Arelex's vertical envelopment doctrines demanded. Helpless before the rising fury, hundreds of Legionnaires died within minutes.

In bits and pieces, in squads and Companies, the Marines rallied over the course of several hours, falling back whenever the Warp hurled a new wave of phantom killers their way. Bolters were of no avail, but plasma rounds proved at least moderately effective. The scent of terror and death permeated everything, and raw strands of blood, bile, and other bodily fluids drifted perversely through the air like macabre streamers at a victory parade. Nevertheless, the Scribes held their ground. Working with inhuman speed and accuracy, the Primarch deployed a powerful mobile communications array, managing to pierce the screaming veil for a few moments.

Ordering the crew of the Lunar class cruiser Furious Justice to abandon ship, he commanded its captain to engage the Warp Drive and detonate the ship at the intersection of the hostile Warp currents. Captain Jicaeo Gelen went down with his vessel, and with his last breath, moments before the howling Warp claimed him, he saw the lurid, unnatural colors of the Immaterium recede from Specularia. Captain Gelen would be immortalized forever in the annals of the Legion, and one of their finest Battleships would bear his name throughout the Great Crusade, serving honorably in countless actions.

One thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven Legionnaires met their end that day, out of three and a half thousand proud warriors who had made planetfall only months before.

Legio Secundus had faced the Warp's fury and come through to the other side, but at great cost. Even more than the material damage, even more than the lives lost, both human and Marine, the Second Legion lost part of their confidence. When faced with truly unpredictable terrors, the Marines showed a tendency to freeze up and become indecisive, and this cost them many warriors. Another Legion might have lost themselves in the savage needs of the moment and fought with individual ferocity, but the disciplined War Scribes could not so easily separate thought from deed and were ill prepared for the madness of the Warp to cloud their minds.

It was a lesson they would take to heart, but the Legion would never be quite the same after Specularia. Tougher, stronger, more alert and knowledgeable, but always with the awareness that their tempered blade still held brittleness within. Arelex in particular would never forget the lessons the Warp taught him that black day. Though he had been raised in a Space Hulk, and was no stranger to the horrors of its random plunges into the Warp, Specularia showed him glimmers of some deeper malignance beyond his knowledge. With unease in his spirit, the Primarch began working with his Librarians to develop a doctrine for how the Legion would make use of its psykers. It would take time, but the Legion felt certain that carelessly handling Warp energy could only lead to peril. In particular, Arelex asked his Librarians to research methods of shielding the non-psychic Legionnaires from Warp-borne mental interference.