Alaric Attelus

Colonel Alaric Attelus was the Commanding officer of the 12th Deeprok Light Infantry regiment. Alaric would be given his rank due to his blood, being the son of the famous General Gabriel Attelus. Gabriel would die before he could raise his son, and Attelus would be raised by at the Schola Progenium.

Early History
Attelus was born on the world of Askelphion Secundus in his families pleasure home. Alaric was to be bred to take his father's regiment, the Askelphion 1st, one of the most famous non-Cadian regiments in the Segmentum Obscurus. However, his father and all of his men were lost while fighting the forces of chaos, and their fate is unknown.

They were presumably slaughtered to a man by heretics. Attelus was raised to believe they died in a heroic last stand. Despite the assumed bravery of their death, Attelus still lost what he was to inherit from his father and shortly after his mother died, Attelus was shipped to the Schola Progenium.

After his graduation, Attelus was given the rank of colonel and sent to lead the 4th Calarran Heavy Infantry in their defense of their home. The Calarran's had been building defenses for an expected ork attack, as the neighboring planet of Dexis fell to an ork onslaught. Their beliefs proved valid, and shortly after Attelus's arrival, an ork warband fell on the planet.

Early Failures
During the battle, Attelus was able to repulse the orks from the position he had ordered his men to prepare in, Attelus was then ordered to hold position until a friendly armored regiment could arrive. Attelus, surprised he had managed to hold his position, ignored the order and had his men charge the regrouping ork army. The proceding slaughter ended with three fourths of the 4th Calarran dead or wounded and stalled the campaign on the world for another week.

Attelus was disgraced but was able to shift blame onto his dead command staff, claiming that they had failed to relay orders. His commander was suspicious of the claim, but the 4th had fought during a heavy snowstorm and he wrote it off as communications being blocked by the weather. This didn't stop him from quickly transferring Attelus off world.

The crestfallen colonel was moved to Horones V to perform in the Horones Campaign. Attelus was given command of the penal regiment, the Burgione 2nd Infantry. Attelus was tasked to defend a large city with only one other regiment in support, with no armor or air cover. Attelus managed to barely hold the city, and after the other regiment lost its command staff, Attelus assumed command of both regiments at the same time.

Attelus was able to keep the morale of his men up, even after both of the regiments commissars were slain and held off an entire ork army with a fourth of the expected losses. This would normally have eclipsed past failures, and ended with him being regarded as a hero if the orks were the only enemy with their eyes on Horones. However, shortly after his repulsion of the orks, a chaos fleet appeared in system. The fleet had managed to slip past the Imperial Navy and soon lay siege.

Once again being forced to hold the line, Attelus managed to hold back the forces of chaos until transports arrived to evacuate. Not wanting to repeat his past mistakes, he followed orders and moved towards the evacuation point. However, halfway there his men began to mutiny, either falling to chaos or becoming sick of Attelus's hard methods of command. By the time he reached evac, only one squad of men remained with him, having been the only ones not corrupted by chaos.

Attelus was nearly stripped of all rank and honors but was saved when the warmaster stepped in to intervene. The warmaster named Chryo explained to Attelus that Gabriel, his father, had been his second years ago and that he held much respect for his family. He gave Attelus one more command to repent for his failures, a small regiment being formed on Deeprok. The regiment would most likely see little action, and he would be able to, if not take back his glory, serve with dignity.