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Astral Knights

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The Astral Knights were a Space Marine Chapter from an unknown founding and were descended from the Imperial Fists[5]. The Chapter was destroyed in battle with the Necron World Engine in 926.M41.[1b]

Astral Knights
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AstralKnightsSM.jpg Unknown.jpg
Founding Chapter: Imperial Fists[5]
Founding: Unknown
Chapter Master: Thade
Homeworld: Obsidia (later ceded to the Sable Swords)
Fortress-Monastery: Unknown
Colours: Light Silver and Metallic Blue[4]
Specialty: Unknown
Strength: Destroyed
Battle Cry Unknown

History

Recent History

Final battle of the Astral Knights against the Necron forces on the World Engine

The Astral Knights sacrificed their chapter to destroy the World Engine. This Necron weapon was a planet-sized spaceship, armed with gauss projectors capable of scouring planets of all life.[1a] The World Engine was attacked by a task force composed of elements from fifteen Space Marine chapters, plus elements from the Imperial Navy. Even the starships' mightiest weapons could not harm it. Drop pods and torpedoes could not penetrate its void shields and it was impossible to lock on to it with teleport beams. The Imperial task force tried twelve times to overwhelm it through sheer valour and firepower and was rewarded with a string of destroyed and crippled ships and millions of casualties. The World Engine destroyed a third of an Imperial Navy Battlefleet before Artor Amhrad, the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights, decided to ram the World Engine with his Battle barge, Tempestus[1a].

Engines at full power, the Battle Barge collided with the World Engine's shields, and broke through. Only once they were inside the shields did the Space Marines have a chance. The entire Astral Knights chapter deployed from Drop Pods onto the artificial world's surface. For one hundred hours, seven hundred seventy-two Astral Knights fought against tens of thousands of Necrons, destroying every flux generator, weapon forge and command node they came upon. But each victory came at a price. Only Amhrad and five battle brothers were left to launch the final assault. Fighting with the fury that legends are made from, the surviving Astral Knights made their way to the deepest part of the World Engine that housed many command nodes. In a final act of heroism, Amhrad detonated melta-charges that brought down the World Engine's shields and silenced most of its weaponry. The Astral Knights were gone.[1a]

But their sacrifice was not in vain. Seeing the foe defenceless, the Imperial fleet destroyed the World Engine with volley after volley of cyclonic torpedoes. A monument made of seven hundred seventy-two arbalstone statues and the wreckage of the Tempestus now stands on the lifeless world of Safehold, the final victim of the World Engine. This shrine is guarded by a score of Space Marines from the dozen Chapters who fought at the Astral Knights' side.[1a]

Another Chapter, the Sable Swords, was formed to take custody of the Astral Knights' Fortress Monastery.[1a][2]

  • 926.M41 The World Engine - The Blood Angels 2nd and 4th Companies are dispatched to the Vidar Sector to assist against the threat of the Necron Worldengine. Following the sacrifice of the Astral Knights Chapter and the destruction of the Worldengine, it is Captain Donatos Aphael of the 2nd Company who proposes that a permanent shrine to the Astral Knights be raised upon the planet of Safehold. From that day forth, two Blood Angels of the 2nd Company are permanently assigned to stand guard over the memorial.[3]

Culture

Victory often rests on the correct weaponry being in the right place and at the right time. Even the most destructive weapons of war are worthless if absent from the battle.
- Artor Amhrad (deceased), Chapter Master of the Astral Knights.[1c]

Related Articles

Sources