Obdurate
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This article is about the ship; for the Rhino, see Obdurate (Rhino). |
The Obdurate is a Gladius-class frigate of the Imperial Fists chapter of Space Marines.[1a]
The remarkably intact remains of the Obdurate are currently stranded upon the surface of Ikaneos-Alpha in the Era Indomitus.[1a] For at least 3 centuries, the physical remains of the space marine and human crew have sat abandoned. The human serf-caste of the void-craft killed their space marine masters through their overwhelming numbers.
The forward flight deck of the frigate held an intact Thunderhawk designated Dagger of Inwuit still magnetically locked to the deck. It was salvaged and used as a means of escape from Ikaneos-Alpha's surface by Explorator Sherax and her surviving expeditionary forces after an Aeldari ambush.[1c]
Last Survivor
The last Astartes of the ship's company to die was a sergeant. He was ambushed by approximately 80-100 serfs within the corridors of the frigate's starboard flank. At the feet of the Astartes' desiccated corpse was mounds of the crew's remains, piled upon one another in an indistinguishable mass. The hilt of a combat knife, the kind issued as a weapon of last resort to the Chapter’s armsmen, protruded from the weaker, flexible material at the warrior’s neck. Others – thirteen in total – were stuck fast in the joints of his arms and legs. Bones, presumably those of his attackers, carpeted the deck.[1b]
They had been desperate, past caring about their own fate, giving their lives so that their brethren could stand atop their corpses and lash at their former master with broken blades. Others had worked their way to the warrior’s rear and hamstrung him. An effective tactic, as evidenced by the ceramite shell that sat slumped against the bulkhead.[1b]
The warrior's corpse still held a chainsword in hand and the damage to the walls indicated the Astartes had wielded a bolt weapon in their final conflict, now missing from their corpse. The torn stubs of femurs and forearms, roughly severed by a chainblade and the random scatter of fallen ribs and fragments of skull, blasted the length of the hallway by the explosive force of bolt shells.[1b]