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The phrase "'''First Claw'''" (or 1st Claw) is itself a simple squad designation used by the [[Night Lords]] [[Chaos Space Marine]] [[Legion]] of unknown derivation; exactly why the word ‘claw’ is used instead of ‘squad’ is unknown, though given the high use of [[Nostraman]] terms within the legion and the difficulty in translating that dead language into [[Low Gothic]], it may just be a simple translation result, rather than anything more deliberately metaphorical.<sup>1,2</sup>
Regardless, this squad designation, while in possible use in all Night Lords units that still operate using Legion organisational schemes, in most instances worth noting refers to one particular First Claw: 1st Claw, 10th Company, once of the [[Exalted]]’s [[warband]], now of the warband of [[Talos]].<sup>1,2</sup>
== History ==
===First Claw, Tenth Company===
The early history of the First Claw of Tenth Company is not clearly known at this point in time, much of their deeds during the [[Great Crusade]] and the [[Horus Heresy]] currently unrecorded, although at least a few members were present for some of the former and all of the latter.<sup>2a</sup>
The first known commander of First Claw was [[Sergeant]] [[Vandred Anrathi]]<sup>2a, 2b</sup>, who led them at least up until the [[Siege of the Emperor’s Palace]]. Also present within the Claw at this time was [[Apothecary]] [[Talos (Character)|Talos]], whose life was saved by his Sergeant during the siege<sup>2c</sup>. At some point after the death of the Night Lords' [[Primarch]], [[Konrad Curze]], Vandred Anrathi rose to command all of 10th Company<sup>1a</sup>. This event is likely tied to the interment of [[Captain]] [[Malcharion]], the previous Company commander, although the exact order of events is not currently known. Talos, in turn, would become leader of First Claw, although again, the exact circumstances of the Apothecary’s rise to the command position are not clear. What is known is that Talos' Legionary serial number is 1-2-10, or 1st Claw, 2nd Astartes, 10th Company<sup>1b</sup>, perhaps indicating that he was simply next in line after Vandred Anrathi in terms of seniority. Certainly he was never directly promoted to a command position, and may simply have become leader by force of personality alone.<sup>1c</sup>
The actions of First Claw during the bulk of the [[Long War]] are not known, although it should be noted that warp-time dilation has made the 10,000 years between the Heresy and their actions in 999.[[M41]] pass in little more than a mere century to Talos<sup>1d</sup> and presumably all aboard the warship the ''Covenant of Blood'', First Claw’s customary billet as part of 10th Company. 10th Company transformed into the Warband of the Exalted over that time period...the Exalted being the title used by the now-[[daemon|daemonically]] [[possessed]] Captain Vandred Anrathi.
===First Claw, the Warband of the Exalted===
The first fully known of deployment of First Claw after the Heresy was a rather desultory visit to a randomly travelling asteroid; drawn there by a prophetic vision, First Claw interrupted the mining operation of a [[Rogue Trader]] and captured their [[Navigator]], [[Eurydice Mervallion]], whom Talos would take on as a slave-servant under the apellation '[[Octavia]]'. What made this operation signifcant to Talos, if not all of First Claw, was that the asteroid was in fact a fragment of [[Nostramo]], the long-destroyed homeworld of the Night Lords Legion.<sup>1e</sup>
Shortly after this, the Exalted’s warband joined a great mustering of the Chaos Legions under the banner of the [[Warmaster]] [[Abaddon]] himself, in the [[Crythe]] system. There, First Claw was immediately deployed into battle in a boarding action which resulted in the destruction of the [[Imperial]] [[Avenger Grand Cruiser]] ''Sword of the God-Emperor''.<sup>1f</sup>
As the Exalted’s warband formed up with the other forces under the command of the Warmaster, they received a request for Talos, the prophet of the 10th, to attend upon Abaddon the Despoiler personally. First Claw journeyed to the meeting, although only Talos was allowed into the Despoiler's presence. The others were then hastily forced to return to the ''Covenant'' aboard a [[Black Legion]] vessel, their own vessel – the [[Thunderhawk]], ''Blackened'' – being impounded. Separated from his support, Talos was offered a place in the Black Legion by Abaddon, who wished to accquire Talos’ services in order to exploit his precognitive ability. When he refused, Abaddon took more direct action, incapacitating Talos and subjecting him to a forced [[Chaos]] Ritual carried out by the turncoat [[Ruven]], once a member of First Claw himself and now a sorcerously empowered member of the Black Legion. The ritual was designed to either open Talos up to the true glory of Chaos or corrupt and brainwash him into Abaddon’s servitude, depending upon one’s point of view. This ritual failed, Talos resisting the temptations of the [[Ruinous Powers]]. Disgusted, Abaddon, departed, leaving Talos to his fate. In the meantime, ''Blackened'' had been attacked by Ruven’s human pawns. It’s crew, First Claw’s mortal servants [[Septimus]] and Octavia, had suffered as a result. Septimus was gravely injured, while the female Octavia had been kidnapped by the damned madmen. Upon his recovery from the ritual, Talos stemmed Septimus’ wounds, before hunting down and murdering all of Octavia’s kidnappers, reaccquiring his servant in the process.<sup>1g</sup>
Despite this unpleasantness, Talos and First Claw continued to deploy according to the military strategy of their commander, under the banner of the Warmaster. After a series of gruelling ground-assaults upon the [[factory-world]] of Crythe itself, First Claw found itself with two new recruits, as 7th Claw of the warband was effectively destroyed in the fighting. Bonds forged in the fires of combat - specifically, killing a [[Warhound]] [[Scout Titan]] with little more than infantry weapons - united First Claw with Seventh's survivors, [[Adhemar]] and [[Mercutian]]. First Claw also succeeded in capturing the [[Princeps]] of the Titan, keeping him alive as a valuable prize.<sup>1h</sup>
Talos then decided to attempt to awaken the warband's [[Dreadnought]]...Malcharion himself. At the fatal wounding of 10th Company's Captain, Malcharion had been interred within a Dreadnought, but had refused to activate. Convinced the Exalted was no longer a fit commander, Talos settled on the bold action of awakening Malcharion. Enlisting the help of Legion [[tech-adept]] [[Deltrian]] to carry out the lengthy process, First Claw locked itself inside the reawakening chamber, guarding against the attempt to prevent it they knew would come. This attempt was made by '''Vraal''' of the [[Atrementar]], the most disposable of the Exalted's [[Terminator]] bodyguards. Vraal proved superior to Mercutian, [[Xarl]] and [[Cyrion]] of First Claw in combat, wounding the latter, and was only prevented from killing all of them by the activation of Malcharion, who slew the crazed Terminator himself.<sup>1i</sup>
Whilst acceeding to the need to fulfill their deal with Abaddon, Malcharion over-ruled the Exalted's direct command over the remnants of 10th Company, leading them into combat on Crythe personally. First Claw took part in these actions in the vanguard, tasked with hunting down and executing specific members of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] defenders. However, shortly before launching to join the final battle, Talos' precognitive powers informed him that an Imperial relief force led by the [[Blood Angels]] [[Chapter]] of the [[Adeptus Astartes]] was scant hours away from translating in-system and wreaking tremendous damage upon the Warmaster's forces. Malcharion immediately ordered his Night Lords to retreat. The Imperial reinforcements attacked immediately upon arrival, and there was a short period of time where First Claw were effectively all the resistance available to meet the Blood Angels boarders. First Claw held off these invaders until their own reinforcements could arrive straight from battle on the planet's surface, including Malcharion himself. The Dreadnought entered into combat with a Blood Angels Dreadnought known as [[Raguel]]: a Blood Angel champion struck low by Malcharion when both existed outside their Dreadnought life-support systems. The battered First Claw emerged victorious from the vicious boarding action, although Malcharion was knocked - apparently permanently - off-line and Adhemar killed.<sup>1j</sup>
In the wake of this action, the Exalted's warband found itself critically low on supplies. First Claw were part of a force deployed to raid a stronghold world of the [[Marines Errant]], where they were able to torture the location of that Chapter's primary supply post from a captured Marine. They then executed the capture of this stronghold - a deep-space refinery and warehousing station called '''Ganges''' - by using their human servant, Septimus, as an infiltrator and ghosting the ''Covenant of Blood'' up to boarding range of the station under a sensor-jamming field. In the aftermath of this raid, First Claw gained another servant when Septimus selected the captured worked [[Maruc]] to be his aide. This action was partly neccessitated by the arms and armour of First Claw being severly damaged in an internecine fight with 3rd Claw of the warband, who attacked First Claw in a vengeance-strike brought about by [[Uzas]] of the First slaying one of their own whilst in a [[Khornate]] trance. First Claw were victorious in this combat, with 3rd Claw slain to a Marine.<sup>2d</sup>
Shortly afterwards, the Exalted decided to dock at [[Hell's Iris]] in order to fully repair and refit the ''Covenant''. First Claw were deployed as the warband's ambassadors upon reaching Hell's Iris, and taken to meet the lord of the station, [[Huron Blackheart]]. During this affair, they were reunited with two once-colleagues, [[Variel|Variel the Flayer]], an Apothecary of the [[Red Corsairs]] who had allied with them in the past, and none other than the turncoat Sorceror Ruven, who had been abandoned by Abaddon after Crythe and ended up as a prisoner of Huron's. Huron agreed to refit and repair the ''Covenant of Blood'' in return for a labour-debt; the Night Lords of the Exalted would accompany him on a military campaign as his vanguard. The Exalted agreed to this price, but principally for motives entirely separate for earning the repair of the ''Covenant''. For amongst the Red Corsair fleet was a vessel the Night Lords recognised; the ''Echo of Damnation'', sister-ship to their own, somehow now a prize vessel of the renegade 'weakbloods'. The Exalted and all his warband resolved to take it back.<sup>2e</sup>
Following along with Huron's plan, the Exalted's warband deployed onto the world of [[Vilamus]] in stealth, invading the [[fortress-monastery]] of the [[Marines Errant]] located there. First Claw led the way in this insertion, slaying serfs and causing havoc inside the complex, drawing attention away from the [[void-shield]] generators, which other elements of the warband proceeded to sabotage. With these down, Huron and the Red Corsairs were able to teleport inside the fortress-monastery. First Claw fought alongside Huron for a time, before simply and quietly abandoning the battle, as did all of the Exalted's forces already committed. In a previously planned step, an earlier-freed Ruven assumed navigation duties aboard the ''Covenant of Blood'', while Octavia joined a handpicked boarding team led by First Claw. They arrived on a ship already partially secured due to the actions of the Red Corsair Apothecary, Variel, who had decided to take up an invitation to join First Claw. Using his position of seniority in the Red Corsairs, he had been able to usurp the command echelon of the ''Echo of Damnation'' and purge most of its Astartes contingent out of a decompressing shuttlebay. First Claw then executed the ''Echo'''s Navigator, replacing her with Octavia, effectively stealing the ship. Communing with Ruven aboard the ''Covenant'', both ships warp-jumped away from Vilamus at the same time.<sup>2f</sup>
Unfortunately, they did not materialise at the same set of pre-arranged realspace co-ordinates. This allowed the pursuing Red Corsairs forces time to catch up with the ''Covenant of Blood'' and engage her in void-war. By the time the ''Echo of Damnation'' was able to arrive and offer assistance, the ''Covenant'' was grieviously damaged. The possibility of impending death having weakened the daemonic possession suffered by the being known as the Exalted, Captain Vandred Anrathi was able to bring himself to the fore for first time of any significant length in years, ordering the abandoning of his ship and all personnel and material to transport themselves to the ''Echo of Damnation''. Keeping a skeleton crew aboard, Vandred used the ''Covenant of Blood'' to hold off the Red Corsair fleet, allowing the ''Echo of Damnation'' and all aboard her to escape under the command of Talos of First Claw.<sup>2g</sup>
===First Claw, the Warband of Talos===
The first action of the Claw was the elimination of the traitorous Ruven, who had survived the destruction of the ''Covenant of Blood''. Talos’ given reason for killing Ruven was that the sorceror had previously slain his servant Secundus, and this destruction of Legion property could not stand. In a similar fashion, Uzas of First Claw was chastised for the deaths he had caused amongst the warband’s slaves when in a berzerker state, sentenced under Legion law to offer his life up in recompense whenever Talos demanded it.<sup>2h</sup>
Some five months (relative) later, First Claw deployed themselves aboard a [[Space Hulk]] in order to loot an Adeptus Mechanicus [[Titan]] support vessel known to be part of it. This mission was carried out successfully, despite the presence of both [[Genestealers]] and Imperial Space Marines of the [[Salamanders]] [[Chapter]] onboard the Hulk.
== Known Members of First Claw ==
*[[Adhemar]]- Once [[Sergeant]] of 7th Claw, he joined First Claw after the dissolution of the 7th during the Crythe campaign. Killed by a Blood Angel Dreadnought.
*[[Vandred Anrathi|Anrathi, Vandred]]– [[Sergeant]] (Heresy-era). Later Captain of the 10th, later still known as the '''Exalted'''.
*[[Cyrion]] - driver of First Claw's [[Land Raider]], ''Storm's Eye''.
*[[Mercutian]] – Once a [[Legionary]] of 7th Claw, he joined First Claw after the dissolution of the 7th during the Crythe campaign.
*[[Ruven]] – [[Sorcerer]]; abandoned the Claw and the Night Lords to become a Black Legionary. Slain by Talos.
*[[Talos]] – [[Apothecary]] (Heresy-era), recognised as leader of 1st Claw after Vandred’s rise to command the Company/Warband. Named '''Soul Hunter''' by the Primarch, often referred to as "'''the prophet'''" by others of the Legion.
*[[Uzas]] – Once Sgt of 4th Claw, 10th Company (Heresy-era), transferred to 1st Claw without recognised rank at an indeterminate point.
*[[Variel]] – Once an Apothecary of the [[Red Corsairs]], he betrayed his [[Chapter]] and joined First Claw at Talos’ invitation. Known as '''the Flayer'''.
*[[Xarl]]
*'''Zell, Sar''' – killed in action on Venrygar (SRp.74)
=== Known Servants of First Claw ===
In addition to the Legionary strength of the Claw, the Night Lords appear to assign dedicated [[serfs]] and [[tech-adepts]] to maintain Claw equipment and act as servants to the [[Astartes]]. By around one hundred years (relative) after the end of the Heresy, all the Claw serfs had perished in one way or another and had not been replaced, except for those personally sworn to serve Talos. First Claw’s leader had, in contrast to the others, kept up the practice of having personal servants and had replaced his deceased serf with a series of slaves which he referred to using [[High Gothic]] nomenclature. For example, his current servants go by the appellations of Septimus and Octavia. In addition to these slaves, Talos has secured the attention of 10th Company’s remaining tech-adept as a ‘preferred customer’ of sorts. Whether this tech-adept was originally assigned to First Claw or just synergises well with Talos’ squad above all others is unknown.
*'''Primus''' – died in battle aboard the ''Covenant of Blood'' SR..14-15
*'''Secundus''' – slain by Ruven.
*'''Tertius''' – suffered warp corruption and executed by Talos as a result.
*'''Quintus''' – killed by the Exalted.
*[[Septimus]] – [[Artificer]] and pilot; maintains and flies ''Blackened'', First Claw’s Thunderhawk.
*[[Octavia]] – real name '''Eurydice Mervallion'''; a Navigator, she first guided the ''Covenant of Blood'' and has since become the Navigator of the ''Echo of Damnation''.
*[[Nonus]] – real name Maruc; a maintainance worker, he aided Septimus in caring for First Claw’s armour and weapons. Slain by Caleb, a [[Chosen]] [[Red Corsair]].BRp.387
*[[Deltrian]] – Tech Adept; acts as engineer aboard the ''Covenant of Blood'' and later the ''Echo of Damnation''. Maintainer of 10th Company’s Dreadnought sarcophygai and regular participant in First Claw’s more technologically-involved schemes.
Nothing is currently known of the individuals who would have laboured under the names of Four or Six at present other than they existed and have since died.
== Sources ==
*<sup>1</sup>:[[Soul Hunter (Novel)|Soul Hunter]]
**<sup>1a</sup>:p.353
**<sup>1b</sup>:p.287
**<sup>1c</sup>:pp.141-2
**<sup>1d</sup>:p.238
**<sup>1e</sup>:pp.36-45
**<sup>1f</sup>:pp.93-127
**<sup>1g</sup>:pp.157-221
**<sup>1h</sup>:pp.243-262,276-9
**<sup>1i</sup>:pp.283-306
**<sup>1j</sup>:pp.321-409
*<sup>2</sup>:[[Blood Reaver (Novel)|Blood Reaver]]
**<sup>2a</sup>:pp.213-226
**<sup>2b</sup>:p.95
**<sup>2c</sup>:p.215
**<sup>2d</sup>:pp.23-38,45-69,92-4
**<sup>2e</sup>:pp.78-81,178-194,232-4
**<sup>2f</sup>:pp.279-355
**<sup>2g</sup>:pp.369-90
**<sup>2h</sup>:pp.391-98
