85th Vendoland
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The 85th Vendoland was an Astra Militarum Regiment stationed on Meridian that assisted the Blood Ravens during the First[1a] and Second Aurelian Crusades.[2a] The Regiment's fate during the Third Aurelian Crusade is unknown.[3a]
Contents
Appearance & Uniform
- Infantry Squads wore dark green and grey fatigues with their flak armour in dark green.[1b][1c][2b][2c]
- Tempestus Scions wore dark green fatigues with their carapace armour in dark green.[1b][2c][1d][2e]
Weapons & Equipment
- Lasguns[1b][1c][2b][2c][2e]
- Bayonets[1b][1c][2b][2c][2e]
- Hotshot Lasguns[2c][2e]
- Autoguns[2b]
- Laspistols[1b][1c]
- Chainswords[2e][1b]
- Plasma Guns[2c]
Known Members
- Merrick - Sergeant active during the First[1b] and Second Aurelian Crusades.[3b] During the Third Aurelian Crusade he was transferred to the Cadian 8th and assigned under Lord General Castor's command.[3b]
- Tharp - Commissar. Killed by the Tyranids during the battle for Angel Forge. His Bolt Pistol was recovered by the Blood Ravens.[2f]
History
First Aurelian Crusade
Meridian
The 85th Vendoland was one of the many Astra Militarum forces dealing with Eldar raiding parties destroying Meridian's important infrastructure and supressing food riots in the lower city.[1] When the Blood Ravens arrived on Meridian they quickly assisted the 85th Vendoland in dealing with the Eldar as they didn't have the necessary firepower to deal with them.[1a] As the Eldar were slowly pushed back by the Blood Ravens, dire news arrived via Elena Derosa's reports regarding the Tyranids invading Meridian and the heavy casualties that were accumulating. Derosa told the truth regarding the Governor Vandis, who wanted to stall the Blood Ravens as he left the sector to die. Meanwhile Derosa gave the master control codes for Force Commander Aramus and his Blood Ravens strike force as they needed it to retake Angel Forge as the Tyranids are trying to destroy it with the 85th Vendoland barely holding the line.[1a] The regiment's Tempestus Scions and Infantry Squads started mobilizing to secure Angel Forge but took heavy casualties due to the generators powering the defences and Angel Gate being sabotaged. Sergeant Merrick and his squad were being chased by Tyranid Warriors when Force Commander Aramus arrived and saved them just in time. Merrick thanked Aramus for saving him and his men just as the Blood Ravens started pushing back the Tyranids and Orks while restoring power to Angel Forge. Along the way Aramus saved several stranded troops; Merrick regrouped with the survivors and helped defend Aramus closing the gates. Aramus successfully closed Angel Gate and saved it from the Tyranids and Orks, while Sergeant Tarkus remained behind to help defend Angel Forge against the orks.[1b]
The next day, Orks started raiding the storehouses within Angel Forge to use their contents against the defenders. Sergeant Merrick and his men stayed behind to man the defences while the Blood Ravens retook the storehouses from the orks. Just as Aramus and his men were securing the storehouses they found out that the governor had stolen relics of the Blood Ravens, with Tarkus openly accusing Derosa of stealing the Chapter's relics. Meanwhile Eldar under Indranel's leadership started attacking Angel Forge, with the defenders taking heavy casualties and falling back due to not being able to handle Indranel's troops. The Blood Ravens quickly headed back into Angel Forge to save it from destruction while Sergeant Tarkus secured the relics. Once Aramus and his men arrived they challenged Indranel, as killing her was the only way to save Meridian from destruction. Just as Indranel was about to overrun Aramus and his men, help arrived from Tarkus wearing Terminator Armour; the Space Marines were able to destroy the Eldar troops accompanying Indranel. Once Tarkus killed her, the Eldar were routed.[1c]
Weeks afterwards the Blood Ravens developed a poison to weaken the hive mind, along with weapons made in Angel Forge to be used against the Tyranids and they also used the Astronomican Array to find a weak point in the hive fleet. The Blood Ravens continued to defend Sub-Sector Aurelia and aid the 85th Vendoland as much as they could until they received an incoming transmission from Captain Gabriel Angelos regarding his fleet; the Captain told them that the ships might never reach the Sub-Sector, due to the influence of the hive mind disrupting their Librarians and Astropaths and rendering them permanently stuck in the Warp. Angelos's last orders to Aramus were to confront the Hive Mind on Typhon Primaris. Derosa sent in detachments of the 85th Vendoland who are veteran defenders of Angel Forge as they saw it as their duty to assist Aramus in destroying the Tyranids.[1a]
Typhon Primaris
Sergeant Merrick and his men were the first to arrive on Typhon Primaris but their Valkyries were intercepted by Tyranids and his men were scattered everywhere. Nonetheless Aramus and his men regrouped with the survivors and started delivering biotoxins to poison the hive fleet via the capillary towers. They defended their positions as waves and waves of Tyranids started attacking them until the poisons started kicking in, killing nearby capillary towers and Tyranid creatures. Aramus, his strikforce, and the 85th Vendoland started to find another vein to poison more capillary towers to kill the hive fleet. After starting to poison the vein again they started to digging in and defending their new position against countless waves of Tyranids.[1d]
During the battle, the Strike Cruiser Armageddon was destroyed by the hive fleet but not before evacuating Blood Ravens personnel onto Typhon Primaris. Despite this setback Aramus and his men successfully poisoned the hive fleet, seeing the damage they had done from how the creatures started dying around them. However, the Tyranids were still a threat but due to the destruction of the Armageddon and with nowhere to run the Blood Ravens and 85th Vendoland accepted their fate and prepared a last stand. Help arrived when Gabriel Angelos and his fleet started bombarding Tyranid positions to give Aramus and his men breathing room. With the help of Aramus and his men, Angelos successfully killed the Hive Tyrant controlling the swarm and saved Sub-Sector Aurelia from destruction.[1d]
Second Aurelia Crusade
A year later after Sub-Sector Aurelia was saved by the Blood Ravens, House Vandis forces openly rebelled against Governor Elana Derosa and started to destroy important infrastructure to disrupt Meridian and Astra Militarum forces, including the 85th Vendoland were stretched too thin from dealing with the many rebel forces.[2a] Derosa contacted the Blood Ravens for assistance as House Vandis militia started to assault and capture Angel Forge as a way to produce weapons and wargear for their rebellion. The situation was looking grim as the 85th Vendoland inside Angel Forge were outnumbered and couldn't deal with the Ork Lootas outside Angel Forge, who were stealing equipment from the storehouses. Aramus and his men deployed at Angel Forge to destroy the Orks outside and make sure they couldn't escape with captured weapons or equipment. After destroying the Orks, the Blood Ravens shifted their efforts and started aiding the 85th Vendoland within Angel Forge. They found out that Eliphas the Inheritor was leading the traitors. The Blood Ravens and 85th Vendoland managed to kick the traitors out but Eliphas escaped.[2b]
After the battle, members of the 85th Vendoland found intel regarding the location of the traitors' base on Aurelia and alerted Governor Elena Derosa with their findings. With intel in hand, the Governor sent troops to Aurelia and was be assisted by the Blood Ravens under orders from Captain Gabriel Angelos.[2a]
The 85th Vendoland arrived first and set up a command post as a rallying point for assaulting both the Black Legion and House Vandis militia. However, the traitors themselves started attacking the Guardsmen before they could consolidate their forces, but they were saved by Blood Ravens before they were overrun. An unnamed officer debriefed by the Blood Ravens regarding the enemies' strength. Vandis' traitor HQ was located but it was protected by a energy shield. After the Blood Ravens were debriefed and just as they were preparing to head out, the Command Post came under attack by Traitor artillery. Aramus and the Blood Ravens figured out a nearby communication array was being used to call in artillery strikes and shifted his priority to capture it to make the enemy stop bombing his own men and the 85th Vendoland. Aramus and his men successfully captured the communication array; along the way they regrouped with members of the 85th Vendoland to start pushing the traitors while using the traitors' own artillery against them as both groups made their way to the power station to disrupt the energy shield protecting the traitors' HQ. With the shield disabled the Blood Ravens destroyed the HQ. However, it was a trap with several Blood Ravens and 85th Vendoland troops killed by a chaos portal but before Aramus, his men and 85th Vendoland survivors evacuated immediately.[2c]
After destroying the traitors' HQ, elements of the Black Legion and House Vandis militia captured Spire Legis and erected artillery batteries and emplacements to secure their captured territory with the 85th Vendoland having a hard time retaking the spire. Elena Derosa contacted the Blood Ravens for aid as she didn't want the fate of Spire Legis's citizens to be at the mercy of the traitors.[2a]
The [Blood Ravens arrived at Spire Legis and started attacking key strategic targets to weaken the traitors' defences, in order for the 85th Vendoland to recapture the spire. The Blood Ravens eventually prevailed with destroying Black Legion assets and making it easier for the Regiment to recapture lost ground.[2d]
Despite Aramus and his men assisting the Astra Militarum forces on Meridian and having several key victories against the Black Legion and House Vandis militia, the loyalist forces were still losing ground for several days to the point the planetary capital was surrounded. All nearby forces raced to save the capital; Elena Derosa sent a priority message to Aramus to save the city from the traitors' hands while elements of the 85th Vendoland barely held the line outside the palace perimeter. Aramus accepted Derosa's request and deployed his troops at the capital to save the governor and her troops. After defeating the first wave, Derosa allowed two squads of Tempestus Scions to assist the Blood Ravens in defending the capital as Aramus and the men started digging in. The Black Legion's second wave of troops started attacking their positions, but both the Blood Ravens and 85th Vendoland stood their ground despite heavy casualties. During the battle, Derosa provided key intel regarding strategic assets that had to be captured in order to secure the flanks of the palace. Aramus immediately sent in his men to recapture them and, once those were captured, squads of Blood Ravens were dropped from the Strike Cruiser Retribution to secure the flanks along with several squads of Vendoland troops who volunteered to aid the reinforcements. Aramus secured the flanks just in time when the final wave of Black Legion troops assaulted, backed up by enemy tanks and daemons. Despite the overwhelming firepower deployed by the traitors, Aramus and his men successfully pushed the traitors back and saved the capital.[2e] After the battle Governor Derosa personally thanked Aramus for saving Meridian.[2a]
Third Aurelian Crusade
Ten years of constant warfare whittled down the loyalist regiments with Chaos corruption within their ranks, along with countless defections or desertion en masse. The problem got worse to the point Loyalist leadership had to call in several Cadian Shock Troops regiments, including the Cadian 8th[3b] lead by Lord General Castor[3d], into the sector to restore order.[3a] The fate of the 85th Vendoland during the crusade is unknown.[3a][3c]
Images
85th Vendoland Tempestus Scions stationed at Angel Forge on Meridian.[1b]
85th Vendoland Tempestus Scions Plasma Gunner deployed at Minos Ironworks on Aurelia.[2c]
85th Vendoland Tempestus Scions equipped with melee weapons are deployed to Meridian's Capital Palace to assist the Blood Ravens.[2e]
85th Vendoland Tempestus Scions are deployed to Meridian's Capital Palace to assist the Blood Ravens.[2e]
85th Vendoland Infantry Squads deployed alongside Blood Ravens reinforcements to secure nearby strategic assets near Meridian's Capital Palace.[2e]
