Talk:Sebastian Yarrick
From Lexicanum
I have a slightly diffrent amount of information that may be from 3rd edition. http://www.student.tue.nl/t/j.c.a.v.d.werf/Warhammer/Bible/The%20Imperial%20Guard.htm#Comissar%20Yarrick the source. and now the info.
Commissar Yarrick was an old man when Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka attacked the world of Armageddon and the siege of Hades began. His years with the Imperial Guard had been eventful ones for he had seen action on a dozen warzones with regiments from Necromunda, Luther McIntyre, and Armageddon. His last mission was to run the Departmento Munitorium recruitment program on Armageddon, where the 4th regiment was being reformed. Armageddon being a large and populous world with a substantial military recruitment base, the 4th Armageddon was a big regiment Ä almost an army in its own right.
In his youth Yarrick had learned the Ork tongue whilst fighting on V'run. Since then he had made a study of the creatures and was considered an expert on the Ork mind. During the battle for Armageddon this knowledge was to prove invaluable, though it undoubtedly could have been used to better effect were it not for the stubborness and arrogance of Herman von Straab, the Lord of Armageddon. Rather than listen to the advice of the old Commissar, von Straab had him banished to Hades, a sprawling hive complex away from the seat of government. As it happened, this was probably the best decision von Straab made during the whole war.
The Ork assault was swift and seemingly unstoppable. Von Straab's armies were by no means small or poorly equipped, but they could not stand before the savage Ork advance. Only when the Orks reached Hades did the surging tide come to a halt before the well ordered defences that Commissar Yarrick had quickly put into position. Even so, the initial Ork attack led by Warlord Ugulhard would have swept away human resistance were it not for the presence of Yarrick himself.
The Ork Warlord glimpsed the Commissar across the battlelines and drove his forces directly to where Yarrick stood. With a barbarous roar the Ork threw himself upon the Commissar. He swung his snapping battle claw at Yarrick and severed his right arm at the elbow. The Warlord's bellow of victory was cut short as Yarrick, fighting the pain and shock as no normal man could, swung his chainsword in a crimson arc and severed Uguihard's bony head from his shoulders. The Ork's body collapsed to the ground whilst the head continued to sneer and curse momentarily until the creature's extraordinary metabolism finally conceded that it was dead. Yarrick calmly reached down and plucked the battle claw from the Ork's twitching body He held it aloft so that all the green-skinned warriors could see it and know their champion had suffered defeat. A hush fell over the battlefield as man and Ork gazed in silence upon the gnarled old man brandishing the bloody claw Then the humans cheered and the Orks wailed in horror, and all at once the defenders leapt upon the aliens with indomitable vigour. Only when the Orks had been beaten from Hades did Yarrick allow himself the luxury of passing out.
News of this incident spread like wildfire amongst the Orks. They said that Yarrick could not be killed and that his gaze was death to even the most powerful Ork. Wherever Yarrick fought the Orks would flee in terror, or whatever passed for terror inside their inhuman green skulls. Yarrick understood the Ork mind well and exploited this weakness to the full. He had Ugulhard's battle claw fabricated into a prosthetic limb to replace the arm the Warlord had taken from him. Later he lost his left eye to a splinter shot from a laser, and had a bio-implant made that projected a pulse of laser light. This terrified the Orks even more and they called him the Bale Eye who could kill with a glance.
For six months following the fight in which Yarrick lost his arm the defenders of Hades held out against further attack. Those who survived paint a confused picture of heroism and dark savagery as the Orks gradually infiltrated the hive complex. But all agree that it was Yarrick who kept the defenders together, who brought them back from defeat time and time again, and whose dogged belief in ultimate victory gave others the strength to go on. The time that he bought was to make all the difference. By the time relief forces of Imperial Guard and Space Marines arrived the Orks had been worn away by the human defence. Even as Yarrick and his few remaining defenders gathered for the last stand the Ork armies were crumbling away.
Yarrick was one of the few survivors of the fighting around Hades. His barely living body was found by rescue searchers amongst the ruins, dozens of Ork corpses heaped at his feet. It took Yarrick many months to recover from his injuries, by which time the Orks had been defeated and a new Lord installed in place of the insane and incompetent von Straab. The old Commissar accepted nominal retirement and a training post on Armageddon where the planet's armies were being reformed. However, the knowledge that the supreme Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka was still living proved too great a distraction for Yarrick. After only a few months of peace he strapped on the Ork battle claw and reported for duty, vowing that he would not rest until Ghazghkull was hunted down and destroyed at last.
Sebastian
Where does it say that Sebastian was his first name? I've never come across this myself.--Jonru 12:23, 23 July 2008 (CEST)
- An old White Dwarf. #239, iirc.-Mob 21:03, 24 July 2008 (CEST)
