Keorn Asata
"These new recruits don't seem to have the right stuff. Dammit, when I first arrived here I didn't even get the privilege of the Ambull hunt."
Keorn Asata was Captain of the Ultramarines 2nd Company and the Chapter's Master of Ordnance in late M41.[1b]
History
Asata was born around 937.M41 on a Hive World. By age thirteen he had joined a street gang, and was captured that year (950.M41) during an Ultramarines recruiting mission. He underwent tissue compatibility and psychology tests and was earmarked for partial cerebral reprogramming. Though this was successful, it did not remove his "rough edge", and he remained a ruthless warrior with a naturally alert temperament and rather brash manner.[1c]
Asata was stationed to a fortress, and was initiated into the Ultramarines in battle with the Tyranids, which he was injured and permanently scarred from. He was taken back to the Apothecarion and healed, but as soon as he was out of the Apothecarion he was made to go on an Ambull hunt.[1a]
He became a Captain, and while at the fortress got to know half-Eldar, half-Human Chief Librarian and Astropath Illiyan Nastase. He was highly suspicious of psykers, and was always unnerved by Nastase, who he regarded with more than a little trepidation.[1a][1c]
In 985.M41, the Ultramarines lost many Dreadnoughts during a skirmish against Orks on Burbeck's Asteroid. Asata wanted to see Master of the Forge Samuel Dexter replace the lost Dreadnoughts, instead of carrying out his Robotic research, which caused friction between the two for some years.[1b]
By 987.M41, Asata was the Chapter's Master of Ordnance as well as Captain of 2nd Company, aided by Lieutenant Dieta, and Chaplain Maginty. He was the only Ultramarines Master who also led the Captaincy of a Company at that time.[1b]
During an Ambull hunt to test new Ultramarines recruits, Asata climbed the winding steps of the fortress to the uppermost battlements, and found Chief Librarian Nastase there. He considered killing the half-Eldar psyker, but spat venomously instead, and asked him if he had detected the recruits. He was disdainful when he heard that the new recruits seemed to have taken more casualties than expected, and recounted the story of his initiation to Nastase, which he had told him many times before.[1a]
Equipment
As the Ultramarines Master of Ordnance, Asata was entitled to wear a scarlet ceremonial floor-length cloak, with a unique badge woven in gold onto the cloak's collar.[1b]
Asata wore Mark VI Power Armour with the Master of Ordnance badge on his shoulder pad, and a refractor field.[1b][1c]
He carried an intricately inlaid power sword, as well as a boltgun, bolt pistol, and a knife.[1a][1c]
Trivia
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Conflicting sources
- Later editions have an entirely different set of Captains of the 2nd Company, with Severus Agemman as Captain until the Battle for Macragge in 745.M41, followed by Lucian Trajan, then Demetrian Titus[4], then Cato Sicarius until early in the Indomitus Crusade, when he was lost to the Warp and was succeeded by Sevastus Acheran.[2][3]
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 97 (UK):
- 2: Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pgs. 19, 40
- 3: Dark Imperium (Novel), Chapter 20
- 4: White Dwarf 498, pgs. 54-61
