Arion Vestus
Arion Vestus was a Praetor and First Captain of the XVIII Legion's 5th Company when it was led by Legion Master Cassian Vaughn during the Great Crusade.
He took part in the XVIII's campaign[1a] to save the Imperial Systems of the Taras Division from an invading million-strong Ork horde. Despite their best efforts, though, the vastly outnumbered XVIII could not stop the advance of the Orks and could only slow the Xenos down long enough for the populations of invaded worlds to evacuate and escape into the void. They did this repeatedly, from one fallen System to another, until they reached[1b] the Taras System and Legion Master Vaughn told the XVIII they would retreat no further. As the Taras System was home to billions, Vaughn knew the Legion could not fight long enough to have the entire System evacuated. Instead, the XVIII would draw the Orks to them by deploying to the System's volcanic Death World Antaeum and use its destructive nature to break the Ork horde. With no chance of Imperial reinforcements, though, all within the XVIII knew this was to be the Legion's final stand[1c]. When the Orks finally invaded Antaeum, the XVIII made them pay for every step, but the Xenos' sheer numbers began to overwhelm the Legion[1a]. Just as it seemed the XVIII would be wiped out however, a fleet led by their unmet Primarch Vulkan suddenly appeared near Antaeum. The Primarch soon led a large force of Nocturne Salamanders to Antaeum's surface, in order to save the Terran born XVIII, and the now-surrounded Orks were quickly killed. Afterwards, the two halves of the Legion met for the first time and became one, but it is unknown if Vestus survived to see this happen.[1d]
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