Crysos Morturg
Crysos Morturg was a member of the Death Guard during the early days of the Horus Heresy. A bitter and morbid warrior, he was disliked by his fellow Battle-Brothers despite his talents as a warrior and command.[1d] He went on to become a Blackshield[2] and later Captain of the 108th Independent Company.[3]
Biography
Born on neither Terra or Barbarus, Crysos Morturg was taken into the legion during an emergency influx of recruits from the induction pool of the 18th Expeditionary Fleet after the Death Guard suffered near catastrophic losses in the Rangda Xenocide Campaign. Despite this origin, Morturg soon rose to Lieutenant and manifested his latent Psyker powers. However this only served to further isolate him, and he had barely begun training as a Librarian when Mortarion disbanded the Librarium of his Legion and ordered all 'witchcraft' suppressed.[1d]
Horus Heresy
Reassigned to the Legion's Destroyer Corps, he was frequently assigned Legionaries judged to be fractious or unstable and his units took heavy losses in the worst fighting the Legion endured. He was later marked for death in the Battle of Isstvan III. However, he survived the treachery of his Primarch, rising to become one of the most prominent loyalist commanders in the battle. He managed to escape Isstvan III with a few scattered remnants of his loyalist troops, swearing revenge against his former brothers.[1d]
During the battle, he and his squad were caught outside when the traitor forces began bombarding the planet with the Life-Eater virus bombs. As they were far from the bunkers, Morturg led his squad inside a cargo-cell and fused it shut from the inside, then, the bombs fell and the cargo-cell shook and Crysos and his men waited in the dark, conserving their oxygen. After waiting a few moments, the squad heard the screams of fellow Legionary Juball as the Life-Eater had reached inside his armour and began consuming him, Morturg then pointed his flamer towards Juball to extinguish the virus inside him.[1a]
Later on, Morturg and his squad found themselves fighting in the trenches north-west of Choral City alongside the rest of the Death Guard loyalists. The squad fought free of the trench works before being cut off and ran to the industrial zone east sector where they met by chance 50 traitor Death Guard preparing an ambush who didn't see them because of the ash storm. Morturg and his men began fighting the traitors at close quarters but Morturg got separated from his men and was injured by a shot, finding himself low on blood and ammunition.[1b]
Crysos then found a crater where he nearly fell into which was ten metres wide and half-filled with World Eaters corpses. Crysos identified the crater as some sort of trap but had no time to question why it was there as an enemy Rhino was approaching. Crysos then jumped into the crater hoping that hiding among the dead would give him a chance to kill more enemies before they took him. As he lay among the dead he noticed the dead World Eaters had been scavenged, ripped open and stripped; not just weapons, but power units and circuitry as well.[1b]
As the Rhino made the crest of the crater there were dozens of individuals around it and Morturg identified them as Death Guard from Kalak's company by their markings. Crysos was about to fire them when he saw other figures coming out of the storm. Thinking they were World Eaters Terminators wearing an unknown pattern coming to avenge their dead Crysos realized they were too large and they were something else. The crater lit up like an exploding star and black lightning leapt from Death Guard to Death Guard, tearing them open.[1b]
Nearly two solar months after the start of the battle, when the Death Guard discipline collapsed Morturg and his destroyer squad managed to kill the traitor Death Guard marshal Durak Rask and his entire command squad.[1b]
Later on, around 7 or 15 days after the Precentor's Palace had fallen, Crysos Morturg found himself seriously battered and injured and commanding 19 legionaries from his legion, all wounded as well with their last Apothecary, Daeka, cut in half by a Medusa shell in the attack that had driven them from their last holdfast. Joining them were Shabran Darr from the World Eaters with six of his brothers berserkers who called themselves 'Revengers' and Calleb Decima the magos from the Ordo Reductor with his Thallax Cohorts, who had taken care of stacking away supplies.[1c]
Few in numbers and fueled and sustained by pure spite, the group of loyalists vowed to make an end of it while they were strong enough to do some damage still, an Oath of Moment to die and in dying make the traitors bleed. To Morturg's surprise, Decima agreed, arguing that "The Logic of war is to consume life and material. All things die, only death is eternal."[1c]
Morturg's group chose the outer concourse of the starport as the site for their stand, and to draw them in Decima had his last adepts crew a pair of armoured Proteus Land Raiders and a Grav-attack which were to attack a known staging point and feign flight. Though it was a suicide mission the adepts did not say a word. Moments later, one proteus returned to the group aflame with Morturg baffled at its survival, and in pursuit came a Fellblade at the head of four Rhino-mounted squads wearing the liveries of the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard. After the Fellblade destroyed the Land Raider and a Death Guard Land Raider had joined the rest of the armoured group, the traitors placed themselves where Morturg’s team wanted them.[1c]
Although the position was far from perfect, Decima deemed it good enough and warned the group to deactivate their armour beforehand, then he triggered a weapon he had previously concealed in a pit and flew skyward. For a second there was a flash that made Morturg see his bones through his armour and later half of the Fellblade was missing and one of the Sons of Horus rhinos was completely vaporized, leaving nothing left but a shadow burned onto the concourse. The rest of the vehicles had a curious, bleached-out quality to them and had fallen still, save for the Land Raider. Further back and unscathed it was reversing in retreat as swiftly as it was able as traitors spilled from the dead Rhinos like puppets with tangled strings.[1c]
Morturg and his group rose from their concealed positions and cut down the ones in the open with bolter fire while the World Eaters charged in to finish the rest. The Thallax smashed up from where they had been buried in the earth to block off the traitor’s retreat and caught the Land Raider in the converging arcs of their strange weapons, soot-black corposant dancing across its hull until its tracks disintegrated and cannon sponsons detonated. The machine-creatures left it for dead, flame spewing from its crew-ports.[1c]
Unfortunately, triumph lasted only a moment as the furthest group of Thallax was blown to pieces. Another Fellblade was smashing through the city towards Morturg’s group, flanked by Predator tanks and Rhinos, kicking up great clouds of ash in their wake. The group scattered to cover again as a squadron of Storm Eagles came in low across the concourse, showering the area with missiles, not caring if any of their own were still alive at the ambush site.[1c]
Soon, they were surrounded, scattered, cut off, and their trap was turned against them. Sons of Horus and Death Guard closing in on all sides, shells hammering down on the loyalists. Then, an autocannon shell, took Morturg in the side and powdered his ribs beneath his battleplate, but he would not let himself fall. He fired until his ammunition was gone, reclaimed a weapon from the fallen and fired again as his comrades died around him. There were so many, injured as he was that he couldn't miss. One of Horus’ Legionnaires with a volkite weapon in his hand managed to enter the barricades and Morturg beheaded him with his power blade, but not before he’d killed one of Morturg's men.[1c]
As the fight went on, Morturg witnessed Shabran Darr across the concourse, charging through the storm like some demon of ancient myth, his armour unravelling under countless hits. Morturg saw his left arm disappear in a spray of red mist and he staggered, but he still reached the traitors, throwing himself into the Sons of Horus with his Chainaxe. Then the Fellblade smashed aside the wreckage of its kin and fired point-blank into the ruin that Morturg and the handful of loyal Death Guard that remained were using as cover. Morturg was blown clear, turning his armour into ruin and shattering his legs.[1c]
As Morturg laid on the concourse, struggling to rise and determined to die on his feet, a tattered red blur flew over him and ran, spider-like up the glacis of the Fellblade. Morturg recognized the figure as Decima, and with a molten flash of red, Decima went inside the Fellblade’s turret. Later, while Morturg was injured and barely conscious, Decima carried him to safety from Isstvan III.[1c]
After surviving Isstvan III, the mutilated body of Crysos Morturg was reshaped by Magos Calleb Decima leaving only the scarred head and a fraction of his body, converting Crysos into a fused entity of unholy tech and biomancy. After this reshaping, Crysos, alongside Decima, continued to fight throughout the Horus Heresy becoming a Blackshield and gathering the remains of the XIVth Legion still loyal to the Throne, members of the Shattered Legions and other Blackshields, which he would lead aboard the Strike Cruiser Malice against isolated elements of the Death Guard.[2]
Independent Company
Morturg survived the Heresy and was made Captain of the 108th Independent Company. He was given command of the far rim monitoring station Occludus, from which the strike craft of Spectre squadron ran deep range patrols along the edges of restricted sectors bordering the Ghoul Stars.[3]
