Sons of Malady

"“I know they eye me. As soon as I turn my back to them Maladists dream of forcing a blade through my spine. Every time I walk unto a new battlefield, I am surrounded by default. But there’s a reason I’ve survived this long, and a reason they whisper I’ve been in this Long War since the very beginning.”"

- Sergeant Lobanya, Exalted Champion of the Sons of Malady

The Sons of Malady are an Obliterator Cult dedicated to the Chaos God Nurgle. Originally hailing from the Iron Warriors, they are the co-masters of the planet Krypteia IV in the Maelstrom, ruling with an iron fist along with their allies, the Shadow Reavers. Their greatest achievement is the development of a ritual to bind a host afflicted with the Obliterator virus to a vehicle, similar to the binding used to create Daemon Engines. Paranoid as all Iron Warriors are, the Sons of Malady left their home of Medrengard, knowing that their brethren will covet their power. They have roamed the unruly Maelstrom since, away from the eyes of the Legions. A common interest in the vast forges of Krypteia IV created the pact between them and the Shadow Reavers, and the natural combination of their two ways of war during that siege created a strange alliance between the two.

History
The inception of the cult is lost to time, and not many remember it. What is certain is that the first to call himself a Son of Malady was Ba'ash Chellik, the cult's Warsmith and master. Rumoured to have been a techmarine in the Great Crusade, he served the Iron Warriors' many killing machines for countless centuries, granting his knowledge to whatever warband he could. Somewhere during this service he had been struck with the Obliterator technovirus and began his transformation to hulking monstrosity, dedicating his life to the service of the Plaguefather. As his power grew, he found those that would follow him, kindred afflicted with the technovirus, as well as warp smiths that hoped to one day be bestowed the same gifts. Soon, Ba'ash Chellik found himself the leader of his own warband, naming his men the Sons of Malady.

As the cult's number slowly grew, they began experimenting with the technovirus. After many unsuccessful experiments, they managed to develop a ritual whereby they would forever bind an infected host, usually in the primary stages of affliction, to a vehicle, thus granting similar powers to the machine. Like the Obliterator, a vehicle so treated begins absorbing any mounted weaponry into itself and can manifest it at will. Due to the size of its weapons, however, this is a process that takes days of dark ritual to complete and cannot be done in the heat of battle. Such an unholy communion of flesh and machine allows the Sons of Malady to keep a smaller convoy of vehicles that can be easily modified to serve any given purpose. The spiteful and competitive nature of the Iron Warriors always fueled paranoia, however, and the Sons of Malady began to see enemies everywhere on Medrengard. They became convinced that their fellow Iron Warriors, desiring the Maladists' knowledge, would soon attack and destroy them. So the Sons of Malady ran, away from the reach of their Legion. They wandered the Eye of Terror for a time, lending their services to whatever warlord would pay, and soon moved to the Maelstrom, further away from Medrengard. In their travels they became aware of the Krypteian system: a collection of six resourche-rich planets, the largest of which, Krypteia IV, housed a vast number of hidden forges. A desolate red desert planet roamed by marauding gangs and speed cults, its southern pole was swallowed up by a continent-spanning Hive, capitol to the planet and the renegade faction known as the Qaraskar Sovereignty’s seat of power. Within its lowest, darkest depths, the Hive contained entrances to the hidden forges, a planet-spanning labyrinth that churned out toxic fumes through the titanic chimneys that dotted Krypteia IV’s landscape. Numerous pirate crews frequented the Qaraskar Hive and traded bounty and slaves for the forges' commodities, the Sovereignty acquiring a share of the transactions. The Sons of Malady began to desire the forges' fruit, and began preparations to besiege the planet and topple its government, the Qaraskar Sovereignty. Soon however, the became aware that theirs were not the only eyes pointed towards the conquest of Krypteia IV.

The First Siege
When the Sons of Malady met the Shadow Reavers, they could not be more dissimilar. The renegade warband, dedicated to the worship of the Prince of Excess, favoured the use of infiltration, hit and run tactics and shadow warfare. It was the exact opposite of the Maladists' own approach to fighting: hitting the enemy with devastating power again and again until attrition dwindles them to nothing. Yet the Reavers, unlike the Maladists, had many, many more Astartes making up their ranks, and the two warbands shared a few vital aspects: neither trusted the other, neither held the other in high regard, and neither wished to share the spoils of Krypteia IV. Most importantly however, both were alike in the fact that they could not take the planet on their own.

When the Bearer of Malady, the Sons of Malady's Desolator Cruiser appeared above Krypteia IV’s sky accompanied by the Reavers' Battle Barge Caliginis Rex, the Defense Lasers opened fire immediately. The Space Marine vessels responded in kind with devastating efficiency, targeting established key defenses in orbital strikes. Through the exchange of fire, the Battle Barge and Cruiser spewed out their full detachments of Drop Pods, landing within the gigantic palace of the Sovereignty, crashing into its towering spires. Claxons fired from within its walls and immediately regiments of renegades, pirates and cultists, as well as a few Skitarii sent by the Techarchs, masters of the forges below, deployed and swarmed the palace to fend off the attackers. What they did not know was that their ever-secluded ruling elite had already been assassinated over the course of several planetary rotations by infiltrating Shadow Reavers, and that the jettisoned Drop Pods were empty. As the main bulk of Krypteia’s defenses gathered to defend the empty capital spire of their world, a devastating barrage of ordnance smashed into its foundations, bringing the massive edifice to collapse. A vanguard of Maladist heavy firepower had been smuggled into Krypteia, and given accurate assessment of the structure and its weak points. As the spire broke and shattered, collapsing with tremendous force into the bowels of the Hive, Krypteia IV lost the core corpus of its army, gathered there to defend their rulers.

The reservists, the stragglers that managed to escape and the regiments that could not reach the Sovereignty stronghold in time found themselves waylaid by blades and bolter rounds that seemed to strike from the dark and return to it as quickly as the slaughter had begun. Facing a force so versed in the art of silence, the Krypteians stood no chance at countering the deadly hit and run tactics, and with great zeal and homicidal anger the Shadow Reavers sought to still Krypteia of all living sound. Wherever pockets of resistance would become entrenched and prove tough to eliminate, the Sons of Malady took to gleefully exterminating them with superior firepower and the murderous experience of millenia. Spontaneously a cooperative understanding between the Reavers and Maladists developed, and the two forces, as different in their methods as they were, began acting in concert. The Maladists would appear with all the brutal firepower at their disposal and pound the enemy with such force that they could not hope to see the Reaver’s blade behind them. What didn’t crumble before the hail of iron was culled by unseen attackers.

With grand haste the Space Marines made their way through the Hive’s levels, the resistance becoming more and more sparse. Word of the massacres in the upper eschelons had already reached the rest of the Hive and permeated the vast forge caverns below, so that many militia regiments dispersed in fear-induced mutiny before the Reavers and Maladists even came. Recognizing the insignia of the invading Chaos Space Marines, cults dedicated to Slaanesh and Nurgle began to emerge and mobilize against the Krypteian defenders, wishing to claim the planet for the Dark Prince or the Plaguefather. Among the remaining Hive nobility, plots and intrigues were put into rapid action as those highborn that were part of the pleasure cults sought to seize power for themselves. Disorder came to rule Krypteia IV, and the Chaos Space Marines’ stride towards the interior was made all the easier as the Hive burned in conflict around them.

Six weeks into the siege, the Shadow Reavers and Sons of Malady reached the Bottomless Gate, the massive gateway that divided the lowest level of the Hive from the Techarchs’ forges within the planet. What remained of Krypteia’s defenders had garrisoned the gate and entrenched themselves there, but when the Chaos Space Marines arrived, the defenses were already weakened by the constant assault of the pleasure cults’ mobs. Surrounded by Cultists, the Shadow Reavers and Sons of Malady advanced on the fortified gate. As the siege engines of the Maladists peltered the gate with fire, the Reavers’ elites made their way unnoticed through the defenders’ ranks, and assaulted their rear. Beset by a myriad cultists and the unstoppable advance of the Chaos Space Marines from both sides, the Krypteian militia had nowhere to run as they were gunned down to the man. With them fell Krypteia IV.

The coalition of Space Marines began reorganizing the planet to fit their own desires. Even though they came into the siege as reluctant and distrustful allies, the fighting birthed a healthy respect between the two warbands, and for all their disparities, they found that their opposing styles of war meshed perfectly and naturally into a far deadlier battle method. After days of negotiation, they decided on how to share Krypteia’s spoils. The Reavers opted to name the Hive-continent Quiesca, and soon enough forced the planet’s populace to rebuild the Sovereignty’s spire into a bastion of Astartes power. Two towering fortresses, Maladia and the Silent Court came to dominate Quiesca’s skies, from whence the Reavers and Maladists ruled with an iron fist. Appointing planetary advisors and servants to handle the day-to-day management of the world, they took control of all piratical trade, demanding taxes from the renegade captains, as the Sovereignty once did.

For their part, the Sons of Malady gained free access to Krypteia’s forges, and strangely felt less anxious around the Reavers than around the rest of their Legion. The Reavers seemed to have developed some dogged belief in honour amongst thieves as part of their ideology of perfection, and so far showed no signs of planning to betray the Maladists. The untrusting nature of the Iron Warriors is not easily set aside, however, and the Maladists themselves spent a fair amount of time in preparing for an eventual falling out between the two, honing their skills, stockpiling resources, and creating plans and contingencies should the need to kill the Reavers ever arise.

The Second Siege
Beginning with 912.M41, an increasing number of the corsairs of Krypteia saw themselves ambushed out of their hiding spots and fought for their spoils. Rival pirates became increasingly bolder in their internecine attacks. Soon enough, Chaos Space Marines began assaulting Krypteian fleets. The Krypteian economy, burgeoning once with lucre, saw the signs of straining under the increased competition. Unrest among the pirate fleets became untenable, even as far as Chaos-aligned empires of insane, murderous criminals go. The Porphyr Elixis, as the loose coalition of pirates was known, increasingly clamoured for Shadow Reaver and Maladist aid in securing their bounties.

And so the Heretic Astartes began once more a wave of attacks on the Maelstrom. As the red fleets slowly encroached, the conflicts exacerbated. Outmaneuvering the Krypteian defenders, a strike force of the Putrescent Dawn and the Remainders cultist warbands, along with the plague marines of the Deathsplitters, landed on Krypteia IV.

When their Strike Cruiser finally arrived, the Sons of Malady found a planet in turmoil, and their first act was ordering defense units to retreat and abandon defense posts. They then proceeded to bombard from orbit sites of Putrescent Dawn victories and activity, levelling huge swaths of the Hive Continent of Quiesca and killing millions of its inhabitants. As they made planetfall, they regrouped at their fortress and began retaking lost land, driving their heavy guns through the streets of Krypteia while establishing orbital kill boxes. However, after failing to push the already infiltrated invading army back, and actually forcing the Putrescent Dawn to enter the hive even deeper to escape bombardment, the Maladists received a vox transmition bearing the signatures of the Reavers. They then began bombarding even larger swaths of the Hive, now sustaining the bombardments until nothing of the multi-leveled spires remained. They repurposed the Hive City’s defense lasers and artillery to add to the fire. Effectively, they returned parts of Quiesca back to the Krypteian desert, its winds burying what remained of the once tall spires under red sand. They then began cutting off the contested parts of the Hive, surrounding it by bombardment-induced ruins and creating an open buffer zone that the Putrescent Dawn would have to pass to go deeper into Quiesca. Any attempt to cross this zone was met with heavy fire, and the invaders were trapped into an ever-decreasing separated area of hab-blocks, the Bearer of Malady turning its guns to diminishing this invaded zone. When the Putrescent Dawn could be bottle-necked no longer, they were forced to flee the Maladists’ guns into the open ruins behind them. It was then that the Shadow Reavers joined the fray, at their helm a massive armada of scavenged and ad hoc vehicles. Through the course of the fighting, the returning Reavers had been assaulting and taking control of the many autonomous and disheveled speed cults that roamed the Krypteian wastes, unifying them in a mobilized army of weaponized cars and makeshift tanks. Trapped between the bombardment and the encroaching army of speed freaks, the Putrescent Dawn contingents were ran down and smashed beneath spiked wheels and repurposed roller-compactors, and soon the Deathsplitters themselves followed.

Then the Red Corsairs came. Consulting the venerable Ba'ash Chellik, Argenteus Crassus, Master of Shadows of the Reavers, announced his plan to swear fealty to the former Astral Claws and their master Huron. The Maladists, paranoid as ever, were opposed to such a plan. Yet after much deliberation, they realized they had but two options - either flee Krypteia IV, leave the planet to the Reavers and their new masters and return to offering their services for payment, or likewise lend their services to the Corsairs, keeping their seat of power. Although many of the old contingencies, plans to crush the Reavers were reexamined, in the end Ba'ash Chellik agreed with Crassus's assessment, and gave his blessing.

The moods of the sombre Sons of Malady were bettered however by wealth and the vast amount of spoils received through cooperation with the much larger armadas of Huron, and the Iron Warriors found themselves rich beyond measure. While doubts always lingered in their minds, for now the service to the Tyrant was agreeable. A new age of prosperity dawned upon Krypteia beneath the red wing of the Corsairs, and the Sons of Malady relished their power.

Time of Ending
At the twilight of the 41st millenium, the Maladists were finally summoned back to Medrengard by their lord Perturabo. Fearing reprisal upon refusing, they mobilized their armies and headed once again to the Eye of Terror. Taking complete control of their forces, the primarch stationed the Sons of Malady on the Daemon World of Temporia, as aid to the Dark Mechanicum. As Temporia was dragged from the Eye of Terror by gravitic tugs, its forces assailed the Cadian Gate, the Maladist's virus-bound vehicles leading the fray against several key fortresses, its obliterators striking at vulnerable targets, manifesting from the Warp and disappearing before they could be met with counter-fire.

As Cadia fell, the armies of the Iron Warriors fell upon its adjacent fortresses, toppling several ancient edifices with great relish. As the Black Crusade reached its zenith, the galaxy split in two, Abaddon’s Crimson Path manifesting as a giant scar across the galaxy, spanning from one end to the other. The Imperium of Man was torn asunder and the Astronomican fell dark. As the Immaterium burst with fell energies, the planets of Man were left alone and defenseless in the blackness. However, the forces of Chaos began to dissipate, guided by dogged self-interest. The momentum vanished, and many warbands left the fighting, chasing their own agendas. So too did the Sons of Malady leave the employ of their Primarch and skulked back to the Maelstrom. From the Maelstrom and from Krypteia IV now flowed pathways to almost all of the distant stars of the galaxy, and the Sons of Malady, accompanying the Shadow Reavers' forays assaulted with renewed vigour. The isolated planets of the Imperium were easy targets for raiding, and once again the Heretic Astartes’ coffers swelled as slaves and plunder were brought back with great fanfare to their hidden fortresses inside the Maelstrom.

The sycophants, hereteks and plague cultists that had massed around the Maladists now followed the Obliterator cult in massive armadas. Likewise, the Reavers found themselves followed by their own Slaanesh-worshiping sybarites. The pirate kingdom now housed two semi-independent forces, and they worked tirelessly and with newfound energy to swell the markets and docks of the planet with stolen plunder and chattel. And when the two forces gathered in tandem, they were enough to overwhelm star systems. As the new millennium dawned, the Sons of Malady and Shadow Reavers, bolstered by their vast piratical navies, renewed their reigns of terror. And with the Warp scar dividing the galaxy, they now preyed freely upon every corner of the galaxy, from end to bloody end.

Notable Engagements

 * Skaldris Incursion: After several Reaver-affiliated corsair bands report strange effects near a minor warpway that ends with the planet Skaldris, the Shadow Reavers and Sons of Malady make planetfall to investigate. There they are assaulted by a reawakened Necron threat and only narrowly manage to repel the first wave, in part due to the Maladists' neutralizing of much of the Necrons' heavy firepower. Yet the warbans are further assailed by the Dark Angels and Blood Angels, swarming the sector to fight back the Necrons. After several battles, the coalition are pushed into underground caverns, fortifying them as temporary bases. In the end, the Heretic Astartes manage to push out as the Imperium fights against the reawakened xenos threat. The Necrons seize the opportunity to reactivate their dormant planetary defenses and drive out the Imperium from their system, allowing the Chaos Space Marines to escape.
 * First Necron Invasion of Goblin Hive: In 567.997.M41 Skaldris's Hest'Jaw Dynasty begins expanding into the Gobelinus system. Simultaneously, the Ork Waaagh! Frikka-Frakka begins an invasion of the system. Xenos presence is answered by overwhelming Imperial response, sending contingents of the Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves. Following the Reavers' mission to destabilize the Imperial efforts, the Bearers of Malady send several of their number to aid the endeavour. Under guidance by Reaver saboteurs, the Maladists begin assaulting the Space Wolves assault against the Orks, opening fire with their Rapier Quad Heavy Bolters and decimating the charging Thunderwolf Cavalry. The Orks counter-attack, leading a devastating offensive against the Space Wolves' command. The Necrons manage to erect their massive defensive structures, and the Sons of Malady, following in the Reavers' wake, silently leave the planet and the exacerbating conflict.

Enemies

 * Blood Angels
 * Dark Angels
 * Imperial Fists
 * Hest'Jaw Necron Dynasty

Allies

 * Shadow Reavers
 * Krypteian Techarchy
 * Red Corsairs
 * Iron Warriors

Warband Organization
As highest leader of the Maladists stands the Lord Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless, a hulking, faceless monstrosity that has fought the Long War for millenia. Under his ancient command are his adjutants, the Plaguefather’s Chosen, the six other Obliterators of the warband. Many of them are as ancient as the Deathless himself, and are venerated as gods by their subordinates, for they are truly iron within and iron without. Those Heretic Astartes who serve the Obliterator Cult dream of one day being chosen by the Plaguefather and blessed with the technovirus, their flesh twisting into new and terrible forms. Knowing no compassion and no reservation, they advance relentlessly, armed with their considerable and terrible arsenal, and led by nothing but their grim resolve to destroy.

Below the Warsmith and the Chosen are the heretic techmarines and warp smiths that also make up the warband, known as the Iron Death. They answer directly to their fleshmetal masters. They number exactly seven warriors, venerating Nurgle thus by reproducing his holy number. They are lead by their own Sergeant, who is second in command of the cult.

The vehicles in the Maladists’ arsenal, also numbering seven, fused to their diseased inner hosts, go unmanned for they operate under their own fel intelligences. Violent and stubborn, these daemonic engines are seldom controlled, and seldom follow the orders of superiors. A more accurate assessment would be that they are 'let loose upon the enemy'. Indeed, the Maladists’ and Reavers’ combat doctrines are built around the certainty of the Sons’ warmachines’ unstoppable rampages.

As the Shadow Reavers have the cultists and acolytes of their Mutant Auxilia to aid them, so do the Sons of Malady muster their own renegade forces: the Plaguebatteries. Artillery regiments, machines of destruction crewed by acolytes, mutants and heretics alike, they are the bulk of Maladist armies. The hopefuls that wish to one day join the ranks of the Maladists will have to move up through the rigid and unyielding command structure of the Plaguebatteries first, where failure is not tolerated, nor is weakness unpunished. Only those most proficient in the siege will even be considered to join the venerable brotherhood. Although their number is always in flux, the Sons of Malady aim to have 7000 Plaguebattery soldiers under their command. They check the count periodically, holding snap inspections. If they are found undermanned, they send press gangs throughout Krypteia IV to kidnap the unwitting and enslave them into service. If they are found to have more than exactly 7000 men, lots are drawn at random, and the unlucky renegades chosen thus are beaten to death by their squad mates until the desired number of 7000 is reached.

Lords of Malady
"My end? Little whelpling, I’ve met many ends, and here I am still. But for you, I think a single one will suffice."

- Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless

Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless
For countless aeons The Deathless has led the Sons of Malady. Stricken with the obliterator virus a long time ago, he is a brutish mass of writhing flesh and ancient metal. Atop this beast is a rack of severed heads gathered from his favourite kills, and beneath his horned helm, where once there was flesh and a human face, now is left only a grinning skull, eyes ablaze with virulent daemonic glow. So unbearably disgusting and noxious the presence of the Deathless is that plants wane beneath his footsteps, and those of weak stomach vomit uncontrollably, or tremble at the very sight of Ba’ash Chellik’s bare skull surrounded by noxious pus and rot.

Many times has the Deathless been utterly destroyed, only to come back through sheer resilience. This unwillingness to die is what had first formed the Obliterator Cult around him, and those baseline humans that follow the Maladists, the cultists and hereteks beneath them consider him an immortal, a god of virulent, undying flesh.

Unbeknownst to anyone, it was his selfish scheme that saw the Maladists join forces with the Shadow Reavers at Krypteia, as he had heard rumours the hereteks of the planet were capable of constructing a Titan, desiring such a machine so as to bind his own flesh to the machine. The rumours were false, yet in the planet he found a good base to consolidate and continue his search. Several times during his long life, the Deathless had found himself on the opposite end of a Warhound Titan, yet decided to make no move against it, for a mere Warhound was beneath his station. So the Deathless bides his time and builds his arsenal from Krypteia, preparing to one day overcome an Imperator Titan and merge himself with it, becoming a magnificent and frightening god of metal and flesh.

From his fleshmetal arms hangs the daemon sword Malignus, as well as the ancient Power Fist Scourge of Pestilence, fitted also with a combibolter.

Sergeant Lobanya
As mistrustful as they come, Drax Lobanya has lead the Iron Death with an iron fist for centuries. Some say he fought in the Great Crusade, but he prefers not to comment on these rumours. Although a competent commander, he is known to execute his own men on the very suspicions of mutiny. Naturally, this bitter cruelty has led to many mutinies against him, but so far Lobanya has put down each and every one of them. Yet each attempt on his life had left him scarred, and through a thousand repeated wounds the flesh that made up his head was destroyed. While such damage will kill anyone, Lobanya simply survives out of spite.

Paranoid to the very core, Sergeant Lobanya has seen enough shifts of power to be weary of all those under his command, for leaders have always been easily replaceable among the Iron Warriors. Yet his irrational fear has kept Lobanya poised and ready in every waking moment, a fact that has saved his life numerous times. Constantly on edge, he has had the foresight, or just sheer tenacity and luck, to survive anything thrown at him, whether it be enemy or friendly fire, something that has veritably become a part of everyday life for him.

Carrying a bolter and power fist, as well as armed with mechadendrites, he directs the fury of his fellow Iron Death to where it is most needed. While Lobanya prefers to see his enemies dead before they can engage in close combat, he bears an ancient, blood-stained chainsword just in case. The men under him claim the chainsword had bore him through the Iron Cage, but of course this is only speculation.