Orthos Ulatal
Orthos Ulatal was a starfighter pilot and auxiliary attached to the Night Lords Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade.[1]
Biography
By one point in the Crusade, Ulatal was Commander of a fighter wing, assigned to the VIII Legion's Auxiliary corps. Although not a native of Nostramo, during his time with the Legion he became fluent in several Nostraman dialects. His career ended in a crash during an engagement on Juuvaur, in which Ulatal suffered severe and lasting injuries. He survived the incident but was left dependant on life support, unable to continue flying and so was removed from active duty. His wingmate and second-in-command, Perdita, was promoted to replace him.[1]
Following this, Ulatal was seconded to Crusade Battlefleet Archival Services, still attached to the VIII Legion. He spent much of his time stationed on board the VIII Legion vessel Serpent of the Black Seas, filing reports on the Legion's campaigns (although many thought that, due to the heroism attached to the events on Juuvaur, the Crusade staff might eventually promote him to command of a larger Armada vessel or a fighter group captain on a carrier vessel). This continued until Ulatal came across a personal log on a data-slate written by Khayon, a Legionary of the Thousand Sons, concerning a joint operation between his Legion and the Night Lords on the planet Zoah. The report on the slate alleged that the two Legions' primarchs, Konrad Curze and Magnus the Red, nearly came to blows in the aftermath of the campaign following a disagreement over the fate of a repository of warp lore on the planet. A number of details in the report caught Ulatal's attention, however: in particular the fact that Khayon had filed his report unofficially and behind his superiors' backs and that it cast the Night Lords in an extremely negative light. This left him unsure as to whether to file the report or not.[1]
Due to the nature of the report and Ulatal's own curiosity, he spent weeks travelling on cargo vessels until he eventually rendezvoused with the Night Lords' flagship, the Nightfall, in order to speak to one of the Legion's archivists. After waiting for three days, he finally received a response but not from a mere serf - he was paid a visit by none other than Sevatar, the Legion's First Captain. Sevatar proceeded to give Ulatal an ultimatum: he could file the report as it was, or delete it, and return to his posting, or Sevatar could show him the truth. Ulatal, despite suspecting that Sevatar would kill him for learning his secrets, watched the Captain's personal log on the Zoah campaign and the clash between the two primarchs.[1]
After the recording was over, Sevatar stood before Ulatal, preparing to execute him due to Crusade mandates about supressing knowledge of disunity between the primarchs. Before he struck, however, the Nightfall's commander, Shang, voxed a message to Sevatar, telling him that Ulatal had received his promotion and had been assigned as a group captain aboard the Voidmaw. His ultimate fate is unknown.[1]
