THE LAURELYN AVENGERS HISTORY

From Fairy Tale, To Nightmare

by Arthobald Trist

The chapter of the Emerald Warriors was born during the eighth foundation. They were entrusted of a little forested planet called New Amazonia, located half way between the imperial Cadia and the devastated El’Phanor. The Imperium had recently discovered that the giant spiders of New Amazonia secreted a powerful poison that could be used in the needle rifles. New Amazonia trees were more than 300 feet high, the biggest spiders were 2 yards long and weighed about 1000 pounds. Installing a Space marine chapter on this world would guarantee its security and continuous supplies.

The Emperor chosed Arthobald Trist as Master of the chapter. Arthobald had shown great fighting and leading skills in many wars as a commander in the Black Templars chapter. So began the building of the Emerald fortress on New Amazonia, that would last for decades and be remembered in the songs as the unfinished fortress. The inhabitants of the planet were all excellent hunters and experts in camouflage, in spite of (or maybe because of) their low technic level. Most of the suspended towns accepted the authority of the King Belgara, reckoning his wiseness and trusting him for all off-planet negotiations. Soon, Arthobald visited him to recruit the finest hunters of the world for the Emerald Warriors. The history of the chapter was sealed when Arthobald saw Belgara’s daughter, Maejima and fell in love with her. How this rude warrior who had conducted its company on dozens of worlds for the glory of the Emperor, had faced all kinds of death and seen countless horrors suddenly fell in love is still a mistery but love was mutual and the wedding was celebrated some months later, sealing the links between the chapter and the planet. More and more hunters were coming to join the Space marines and the chapter was soon ready to serve the Imperium. The first campaigns began and Arthobald was often far from New Amazonia and Maejima, writing slowly the first lines of the chapter list of victories. Nevertheless, Maejima soon gave birth to a little girl, called Laurelyn, whose name would soon be feared among chaos forces.

The day came when Laurelyn was 14 and her beauty and intelligence were such that everyone on the planet was proud and thought she would be the best suzerain ever. But a black crusade was progressing deep in the Imperium, the greatest threat for decades and the Emerald Warriors were called to help. Nearly all the chapter was ordered to embark in its giant ships to fight chaos, leaving New Amazonia with the slightest protection of some troops in the uncomplete fortress. Less than 20 years after is birth, the chapter was about to be nearly destroyed. Some weeks after forces were gone, some battle-cruisers appeared in the sky of New Amazonia and immediatly began a massive orbital bombing. Soon, the forests were in flames and the sun hidden by smoke and ashes. Then, invaders were dropped around the Emerald Warriors fortress. The marines left here for defense understood immediatly that all hope was lost when they saw that it was berserkers that were attacking them. They resisted hardly until their last breath but finally the fortress was taken. During the invasion, unfortunatly, Gorthaur, the lord commanding the band, fell on Maejima and Laurelyn. Maejima succeeded in bursting him in flames but the terminator armor was far too powerful and Gorthaur hitted her with his daemon sword and killed her. Then, seeing the beauty and the rage in the eyes of Laurelyn, he decided to take her for him. When he thought Khorne was satisfied, he gathered its berserkers and retreated to the Eye of Terror, leaving only an ash world behind him.

The Emerald warriors arrived only hours after they were gone, responding to the desperate calls launched in the warp by the astropaths during the invasion. Arthobald cried of pain when he found the ripped open body of his beloved Maejima but when he was told Laurelyn had been kidnapped, he became absolutly crazy. Talking to all the ships of the chapter, he exhorted all the marines to follow him in the Eye of Terror to avenge New Amazonia and rescue his daughter. Of course, every brother, listening him, got lost in hate and frenzyness. Forgetting everything but their burning hate and pain, Arthobald and the Emerald Warriors dived in the Eye of Terror, tracking the Gorthaur berserkers’ ships. Number of ships were lost during the hunt and lot of marines were killed or became insane. Not much is known about what happened during this terrible trip. The few ones that came back sane never wanted to talk about it. Anyway, the Emerald Warriors finally arrived in sight of Gorthaur’s palace and scanned it. The huge fortress was well protected but the scanners showed an enormous hall deep underground. Arthobald decided that all its marines but the first company would assault the front doors of the ramparts to divert the berserkers attention. So was done. The companies made brilliant moves, hit and run attacks, attracting the blood thirsting berserkers out of their walls to hammer them with heavy weapons. Meanwhile, the whole first company teleported in the big hall. As Arthobald had thought, here was the headquarters of Gorthaur. The Chaos Lord was there, surrounded by its terminator guard and number of hideous demons. Laurelyn was there too, tied on a bloody altar. Every marine of the first company became a hero that day, a great number of them gave their lives in a desperate attempt to free their beloved Laurelyn. As everybody knows, the name of each of these fallen brothers is now carved on a memorial on Terra and lot of people come to celebrate them as they died for love and loyalty. Arthobald’s name is not on the memorial because he betrayed the Emperor in taking the chapter for its own purpose. But here is the end of the story. Finally, Arthobald was successful at reaching Gorthaur. Their fight was terrible, fields lightning around them, their Terminator armors saving them many times. Finally, Arthobald hitted hardly Gorthaur with its Thunder Hammer. Gorthaur was taken by the fear he might die, so he came to the altar and beheaded Laurelyn with its claw and brandished the head in front of the master of the Emerald warriors. Arthobald was stunned for a second, enough for an enormous Bloodthirster to strike him and wound him deadly. It was too much for the brave marines. The first company teleported back on their ships and gathering the rest of the chapter, began their return to the Imperium.

Furlan Cerdeiki, Arthobald’s second was called on Terra to explain this disaster. Finally, after many disputes, the chapter was forgiven but renamed ‘The Laurelyn Avengers’. Patiently rebuild, the chapter is now famous for its terrible and endless hate of chaos and particulary of berserkers, that they hunt everywhere across the Imperium. The chapter kept its green colors with the black spider as insign but the commanders armors are now black and the Eye of Terror is drawn on their shoulder pad, filling every marine with hate when the time comes to fight Chaos.

The End