Bulls of Retribution

The Bulls of Retribution are a Loyalist Successor Chapter descended from the lineage of the stoic and proud Imperial Fists, raised in the 38th Millennium during an unknown Founding. This Chapter was created to stand sentinel over the vitally important Gudan Sector, located in the Ultima Segmentum, from the various enemies of Mankind. As a fleet-based Chapter, they constantly patrol their assigned region of the galaxy, ever-vigilant against the threats of invasion by the various xenos within the region or the vile Forces of Chaos. Their primary recruitment world is the world of Gudan Prime. The Chapter maintains a massive Chapter Keep, built atop the tallest spire of Hive Vaxilian. It is here, that the Bulls maintain their Chapter's vitally important gene-seed banks, reliquary and recruitment and training facilities.

Chapter History
Report Begins:

It is an age of strife, and war.

Long has the Imperium been beset by enemies, both within, and without. Since the crippling of the Emperor, and the death of the Arch-traitor Horus, the Imperium has seen no end to the conflict that embroils the galaxy; on a million worlds and a billion battlefronts, the Imperium is pressed both within and without by those who desire nothing more than to finally bring about an end to the rotting, bloated carcass that is the Imperium. Hungry, alien eyes gazing from the darkness as the domain of man takes its final, laboured breaths.

Yet mankind does not intend to go quietly into the oblivion that awaits. On every battlefront across the stars, the Astra Militarum deploy men beyond counting, tides of humanity so thick as to reach the horizon thrown as bloody grist into the mill of war. Yet wherever the fighting is thickest, wherever the need is most dire, there you may find the warriors that truly exemplify the fighting spirit of mankind, there you may find, the Space Marines.

Located deep within the depths of Imperium Nihilus, on the very edge of the Astronomican's former limits, there exists a Chapter who has fought and bled for the imperium for over 4,000 years, each day of their existence mired in the blood of their enemies. To be a Space Marine, is to be an exemplar of humanity, one of the finest warriors in the species history, born to fight and die upon the eternal battle-fields of mankind with all the fury and violence of that race. The Bulls of Retribution embrace this existence, for violence and conflict ran deep through their veins long before the Imperium declared their ancestors to be worthy of apotheosis. Theirs is a brief history, yet nonetheless bloody for it, for every day has seen the chapter wage war upon the enemies of man with unremitting violence.

In this dark age, Chaos swirls all around, corrupting the minds of men, and seeking always to bend the future to come to their wills. In such a time the need of the imperium for heroes is dire, and in the benighted darkness of Imperium Nihilus, in that place where the light of the emperor is no longer to be found, the Bulls of Retribution tend and keep the flame of the Imperium alive, raging against the darkness around them even as it encroaches ever closer. In the tides of war to come, none may gainsay who will survive, if any. Yet, it is all the more for that reason now that I lay down these records. To preserve, in some small part, an ember of the spirit of man from the coming darkness.

For none but the Master of Mankind know the destiny of the human race, and upon His Golden Throne, the "Imperator-Mortifex" speaks not.

Events of Antiquity
Report, Section-One Alpha: The War in Heaven, the Formation of Gods and the ancient Aeldari.

Mankind is not alone amidst the stars.

Since the earliest days of human space-flight, mankind has shared the stars with endless streams of xenos, each as perfidious a threat to the future of man as the traitors and chaos mutants that bay at the edges of the reality, eternally hungry for the souls of men. Yet mankind is not the first race to stride the cosmos, far from it; far older and far more malevolent powers have drifted across the stellar wastes since the dawn of time. Some, like the elegant Aeldari, were once the rulers of star-bound empires of their own, their sciences so advanced as to be arcane ritual beyond even the brightest of mechanicum adepts. Others, like the barbaric orks, have scourged the galaxy from before even the earliest known records; since its first tentatives explorations beyond Sol has man had to deal with the fearsome greenskin and his ilk.

In the stygian blackness of the lost past, within the depths of those horrors contained by history, there is a conflict at the dawn of creation that shook the universe to its foundations, a war of such awesome and destructive proportions that even today the galaxy still feels the effects of the battle upon its scarred flesh. It is known as the War in Heaven. A legendary Hyper-conflict of unimaginable proportions, the War in Heaven was said to be a nightmarish war for survival and destruction between the forces of the enigmatic Old-Ones and their psychically crafted children, and those of the star-consuming C'tan, along with their enslaved hordes of necrontyr. It was a conflict that would permanently scar creation; such were the might of the weapons used and their inherently destructive nature. Planets burned, stars died, and realspace was torn to shreds beneath the psychic weight of the bloodshed and violence as it seeped into the immaterium; disturbing its placid depths for the first time.

After millennia of conflict, and countless battles lost to time, the war came to a close with the death of the old ones, the sealing of the C'tan, and the retreat of the newly forged necrons into their vast stasis tombs. Such is the nature of so distant a conflict that we have nothing more that legends and the word of xenos to rely upon, and all of my Adepta know that such things are not to be treated with any veracity, lest the chronicles of man be polluted by xenos tongues. Regardless, what we can say with some certainty is that of those races who partook in the bloodshed, only the Aeldari survived, the sole inheritors of a galaxy scourged of life. Such was the brutality of the conflict that the very warp itself had become disturbed by the horrors unleashed, twisting that once placid dimensions into the first inklings of the psychic hellscape it exists as today.

From within came boiling the first Astral predators, the first conceptions of the entities you or I would know as daemons. Multitudinous were their names; the enslaver plague, the psychnoia, the Hroxanar, yet their purpose was the same; to ravage realspace and feast on the souls of the mortals they found their. Such was it that the Aeldari spend the first millenia of their new-found isolation sealing back the rents in reality, such tasks that today would seem an impossibility achieved in seconds by a race at the very height of its psychic and technological prowess. Oceans of madness were turned back, the proto-daemons of warp-space returned to their hellish cradle to plot and scheme and curse the mortals who would deny them, yet it was during this time that the Aeldari of the ancient empire encountered what they would one day know to be the shape of the nightmare to come. It was during these benighted centuries they encountered the first warp-god.

Knowledge of the astral-predators is a dangerous thing to possess, for the mere act of knowing of such a creatures existence is enough to draw its ire from across the dimensions. Though to the common herd of the imperium, a daemon is little more than an object of superstitious fear, know only through the parable and a sermon of the ministorums preachers, there are those within the imperium to whom the duty is entrusted of not only studying these creatures, but hunting, and if needs must, capturing them for the imperiums own ends. Thus it is that mankind has come into possession of some small shard of the knowledge that is to be gleaned from studying warpspace, and the maddening entities that writhe within it like maggots through rotting flesh.

A warp God is a psychic amalgam, a confluence point at which certain emotions and psychic signatures gather by virtue of their similarity in nature and intent. To fully describe the workings of these processes would be impossible, for they are unknown to the guardians of the imperium, and to comprehend them would be to court damnation; yet by means and ways unseen, these emotions and signatures begin to compound upon each other, similar to how layer upon layer of grit solidifies through pressure to become rock, until they are not a disparate collection of psychic emanations, but a single, unified whole, seperate from the rest of warp-space and conscious as to its ability to differentiate itself from the surrounding miasma of thought and emotion.

Such confluences can only be created around precise and differentiated concepts; a nascent chaos god in development must be able to begin to differentiate itself from the unspecialised warp-energy that surrounds it if it is to take on aspects of individual conscious and identity. In the modern era, the four chaos gods of the ruinous powers are excellent examples of this, as each god is clearly and deliberately separated from its fellows by a specific fulcrum of power, modus of worship, and individual desire. However, in the primordial eras prior to, and immediately following, the War in Heaven, the nature of the Immaterium and the entities that reside within it was vastly altered to the behaviours they exhibit today.

Within the modern era of the imperium, the warp is a nightmarish and disjointed reality, a hellscape forged from the psychic trauma of a galaxy at war. Within its depths lie madness that would destroy the mind and soul in but a heart-beat, a sickly and corrupted core where dwell within the four gods of the ruinous powers, titans of madness and corruption that seek always to entrap and devour the souls of men. Yet it was not always so. If legends are to be believed, in the day before the War in Heaven the war was not a hellscape but merely an inert dimension of psychic energy that ran parallel to ours, an unearthly reflection of the physical universe mirrored in pure energy. Unlike today, the warp energy of that time could be harnessed without the soul-devouring properties of our own era, and as such could be utilised for galaxy spanning feats of engineering and grandeur, such as the legendary webway of the Old Ones. However, along with the destruction unleashed between the C'tan and the Old Ones came the first signs of corruption as well, for as the battle raged on, evermore did the emotions and turmoil of the mortals caught in the maelstrom pollute the warp with their fear and hatred, causing the first distortions of warp-space and within it the first of the proto-daemons to spawn.

For long millenia the war continued, the psychic weight pressing upon the Immaterium rising and rising as the bloodshed unleashed forever tainted its core. As the War in Heaven reached its conclusion the distortions of the warp began to reach saturation levels, and the first stirrings of ture primordial warp-gods began to rumble within the depths; for while daemons may manifest themselves around even the most simple of concepts and ideas, it takes an altogether consistent, and specific formulation of ideal and intent to form a warp god, and the long millennia of the War in Heaven had been time enough for this first nascent warp-entity to gestate within its dark womb of insanity and bloodshed. Alone, and without their creators to guide them, the Aeldari took the battle to this nascent warp-god; for even though the War in Heaven had sapped them of their strength, these were eldar of the ancient empire, their kin of the modern era but a faint shadow of the powers they once wielded, and within all the psychic knowledge of their race they warred with this creature for generations.

Of these battles we have only conjecture, as even amongst the Aledari themselves it would seem that the events themselves are merely myth, but it is told that a great warrior of the empire lured the daemon into reality by offering the honeyed treat of a star in the primary sequence of its life-cycle, a potent source of physical energy to a being that sought to dominate the material realm. Slipping into realspace, the nascent god realised too late, even as its gaping rs of metal and light. As one, the greatest psykers of the Aeldari fleet that attended the warp-god raised their voices, and such was their combined power that they managed to not only sever the daemon-gods connection to the warp, but physically bind it to the star in its totality; entrapping the beast within a perfect cage of fusion, gravity, and the roiling energies of creation. The beast howled from within its cage, cursing the mortals to damnation, yet all for nought; within its star-bound cage, the nascent warp god was utterly isolated from its source of power and left with nought to devour but itself.

The Aeldari paused only briefly to congratulate themselves on their victory before turning away, for there were many battles yet to come before they were to enter their golden age and become the true inheritors to the Old Ones. Yet for now, victory had been achieved, and though their scryers had only the briefest glimpses of the future and its twisting paths, already they could see the destiny of the eldar people altering within the sealing away of this nascent warp-god, turning from a place of darkness towards the light. Wishing to ensure that no mortal could find the star-prison without great difficulty, the Aeldari placed psychic baffles upon the star, masking its gravitational shadow within the warp and making it undetectable to all save the most skilled of empyric navigators.

From here we return to the main current of history; the Aeldari empire would rise and continue to dominate the galaxy for nearly 60 million years until their descent into decadence and the creation of their own damnation; and all the ages of man would come to pass, untroubled by the secrets that the galaxy had forgotten from those dark eons. Yet as the great crusade came to a close, and the warmaster Horus turned from the face of the father to join the Ruinous powers, daemonic tongues whispered to the traitors of weapons that could be turned on the loyalists, and of those ancient beings who could be enlisted to the cause, if only they could be released.

The Horus Heresy
Report, Section One Beta: The Horus Heresy, Naredor the Slighted

The event known as the Horus Heresy was perhaps the most defining instant in the whole history of man. Never before or since, have the actions of humanity had so drastic an effect on the course of destiny. Who could have truly predicted the sheer scale of the catastrophe the warmaster would unleash upon the galaxy? Who can dare to dream what future may have awaited if Chaos had failed to bury its claws so deeply into the primarchs mind? A full recounting of the entire event is not publically available to my Adepta, as the Ordo's of the Inquisition lay tight claim to any knowledge pertaining to that era, yet as the Archivist assigned to the creation of this report for the benefit of you, Lord inquisitor Mann, I have been given access to those documents pertaining to the events that would later transpire in the as-yet unnamed Gudan Sector.

According to those records and documents I have been able to salvage, along with the ancient reports given to me by the inquisition, the events that occurred within the Gudan sector were set into motion when the Ruinstorm was unleashed upon the galaxy. Much as the Cicatrix Maladictum would later carve the God-Emperor's Imperium in twain, the ruinstorm made travel between ultima segmentum and segmentum solar impossible, and warped reality for lightyears around with a devastating cascade of warp-energy that caused reality itself to curdle and sour. This release of nightmarish essence rippled across reality, until it poured across the surface of the ancient Aeldari star prison. Dormant for millions of years, the daemon inside had been rendered inert by the perfection of its cage, bound so tightly that not even the faintest sliver of its being could slip free, and not the smallest trickle of warp-energy feed it. Yet as the bough-wave of the ruinstorms released washed over it, the arcane-prism of the star-cage buckled over so minutely; but that tiniest instant was all the warp-god needed to spirit a insignificant shard of itself out into the greater void of the galaxy.

Seeking always to free itself from celestial confinement, and desiring nothing more than to return to warp-space so as to gestate and return to its former power; the god-shard flitted across physical reality at the speed of thought, senses alert for some means of opening its prison from without. All about, realspace had greatly altered to the dimension that had previously existed when the warp-god had last slipped into reality, existence itself having been rent and torn asunder by millions of years of further strife, war and bloodshed. Everywhere the void echoed with the daemonic taint of the immaterium; bleeding through to make a mockery of physics and distort creation; Not the as-yet fully untainted energy that the nascent god had been reared on, but wholly and fully bent to the maddening whims of the ruinous powers. Realising this energy was tainted sufficiently for its purpose, and that should it be able to apply sufficient levels of this energy to prison that it would shatter in its entirety, the god-shard determined that it needed only to find a focus point through which to deliver such a tides of the warp, and a mortal with the cruelty and will to facilitate such a ritual.

Fortunately for the God-shard, at the time of its escape, the dire events of the horus heresy were unfurling across the length and breadth of the galaxy, and there were more than enough damned souls seeking leverage over the loyalists who would listen all to willingly to a voice from the warp. Thus it was that the god-shard found its way to the bridge of the Night-lord battle barge Writhing Wyrm, and whispered honeyed promises into the ears of the chaotic sorcerer it found there; Naredor the Slighted. Seeking to indulge himself with the warmasters inner circle, and knowing that Horus Lupercal sought a great weapon to aid in the invasion of Terra, Naredor listened with mounting, horrific glee as the god-shard laid out the requirements for the breaking of its chains. Naredor needed only to locate and capture an Alpha-Primaris psyker, an incredibly rare and power individual, and bring it to the Gudan sector, where he would conduct a ritual that would open the star-cage the smallest fraction and allow the warp-god inside to possess the psyker, who would then use the mortal puppet to force open the rest of the cage and return once more to devour realspace. Realising the glorious potential of the plan, and ruminating privately about what reward such a creature would have for the mortal that freed it, Naredor the slighted gathered those battle-brothers under his command and set out with a fleet of ships to hunt for the required alpha-primaris psyker, the vast battle barge Writhing Wyrm at the fleets head. For several long months the Night Lords Traitors conducted raids and skirmishes against imperial facilities along the edge of the ultima segmentum, striking those locations where the loyalists could possibly contain such a creature; as the powers of an alpha-primaris psyker are beyond even their own ability to control, and only a handful of installations would have had the equipment available safely keep such a being contained. As the final year of the heresy dawned Naredor finally located his quarry within a classified imperial facility upon the barren psy-moon of Kaelix, whose surface was riven by psychically reactive crystalline materials.

Slaughtering all within, Naredor abducted the raving psyker from her shielded cell, and spirited her back to the Writhing Wyrm that awaited in orbit. By the time elements of the Imperial Fists, which had been operating in the area, responded to the installations distress hymnal, the trail of Naredo had grown near-cold.

Battle of Gudan
Report Section One Gamme: Captain Tarsus and the Battle of Gudan'''

Under normal circumstances, picking up a warp-trail so old would have been a fool's errand, yet Captain Tarsus of the Imperial Fists, fresh from his battles with the Traitors and their newly found daemonic allies, was all to aware of the destructive potential of a psyker as a weapon, and considerably alarmed by the prospects of such traitors fielding a alpha-primaris psyker against loyalist forces; such a weapon would be nigh-impossible to oppose, and even then only a great cost. Charging his navigator with locating Naredor warband, the Imperial Fists dived head-fist into the warp, baying at Naredors trail like bloodhounds to a scent. The journey was a battle in and of itself, as the path of Naredor led to the very furthest limits of the Astronomican's light, and so far from the guidance of Terra's holy beacon, the warp was a nightmarish maze that threatened to consume the loyalist with every jump.

Only thanks to the legendary determination of the gene-sire did the sons of Dorn survive, even as some ships of the fleet were lost entirely to the tides of the immaterium. Until, at last, the Navigator reported the presence of a warp-shadow in the immaterium, the tell-tale signature of a stars gravitational bulk as it pulled at reality; though this signature was so small that it seemed to barely register. Trusting his gut instinct, Tarsus ordered his ships to drop out of warp-space, and was rewarded with his faith with the sight of Gudans primary star burning in the void, bright and flushed in the main-sequence of its life-cycle. For the first time, the forces of the Imperium beheld the Gudan system, and there, pinging on the Auspex scans as they ranged out ahead of the fleet, was Writhing Wyrm in high orbit above the star.

Ordering his battle-brothers to prepare for boarding actions, Tarsus ordered his battle-group to ready formation and engage the enemy. The forces of the Night Lords had arrayed themselves in a protective formation around Writhing Wyrm, shielding the battle-barge from enemy fire. This gave Tarsus pause, as a battle-barge is a great tactical asset in void combat, and for the traitors to do anything other than place the vessel at the head of their formation struck the captain as simply wrong. Realising that something of a fouler nature beyond his comprehension was afoot, Tarsus ordered his body-guard to make ready; he would personally lead the assault upon Writhing Wyrm, and discover for himself the intentions of his traitorous brethren. Forming his battle-group into a spearhead formation, Tarsus ordered his fleet to punch into the heart of the enemy and disable Writhing Wyrm; seeking to cut the rotten heart from the Night Lords operation and put a halt to their plans.

The void rippled with plasma fire as the two fleets approached engagement distance; macro-batteries and lance positions exchanging salvo after salvo as the Imperial Fists plunged into the heart of the enemy, led by Tarsus' own command ship; the battle-barge Penitence. Forcing aside the Night Lords shielding elements, the imperial fleet broke through the enemy formation, Penitence spitting death as she unleashed her full complement of melta torpedoes upon Writhing Wyrm, the salvo fired too close for the enemy ship to outmanoeuvre. Crippling his enemy with a single blow, Tarsus ordered the Boarding torpedoes launched, rocketing across the void with his men to pierce the vessel adamtine hull and bring death to those within. Yet even as the Astartes raced towards their target, the star beneath them was rent open.

Unbeknownst to the Imperial Fists, Naredor was wholly preoccupied with his ritual, even as the void-battle raged about the Writhing Wyrm. At the very same instant as Tarsus crossed to the enemy ship, Naredor had managed to work open the smallest weakness of the star-cage, and rising from within came the essence of the bound warp-god, eager and hungry to possess the alpha-primaris psykers flesh and fully release itself to terrorise reality once more. Staining the pure fire the of Gudan Star with its taint, the Daemon began to bind itself to the mind of the psyker, puppeting the mortal as a focus for its own energy, seizing the star-cage, and forcing ever wider open.

Baying with victory, Naredor believed the deed to be all but done, until the boarding torpedo of captain Tarsus came punching through the Writing Wryms adamantine hull, delivering the loyalists into the very heart of the enemy. Instantly battle raged as loyalist and traitor fought with the hatred only brothers know, slaughtering one another with wild fury. Sighting the alpha-primaris psyker at the back of the melee, eyes alight with daemonic power and flesh pulsing with unnatural energy, Tarsus realised that his forces may have already been to late to prevent the traitors machinations coming to fruition. Discarding the notion of personal survival, Tarsus laid into the enemy with furious abandon, his warhammer buckling plate and dashing skulls as it forged a path for his brothers through the traitor scum.

Seeing the Loyalist captain inch ever closer, and knowing the ritual was yet to complete, naredor threw himself into the path of the Imperial fist, unleashing the entirety of his psychic might upon Tarsus; tearing the flesh from half his skull with a single, horrific projection of power. Tarsus staggered under the blow, half his face flensed clean, and the bone beneath crushed and pulped, blood seeping from every orifice as he collapsed to his knees. About him his bodyguard sought to intervene, circling about their captain for his defense even as they were cut down in the bloody melee. Above them all the psyker began to steadily rise, her flesh tearing and pulsing where the power of the daemon spurred unnatural growth and mutation, the Writhing Wyrm itself screaming with strain as warp energy began to radiate through its very being; the ritual approaching its final, terrifying conclusion.

Knowing he had but seconds remaining, Tarsus rose to his feet, lurching from left to right as his pulped brain struggled to function so close to death. Unleashing from his chest one final, fearsome roar of defiance, Tarsus charged forward even as Naredor cut down the last of his bodyguard, his thunder-hammer smashing aside the Chaos Sorcerer before, with the last of his energy, Tarsus pulled back his arm and launched the weapon skyward, the hammer spinning end over end before it flat head plowed straight into the chest of the alpha-primaris psyker, the accompanying release of energy from the blow ripping her daemonically possessed body apart. As the raging screams of the daemon rang through the void, Tarsus realised he had achieved victory, and allowed a savage bark of laughed to cross his bloodied lips before he was felled by Naredor; slumping lifeless to the deck of the Writhing Wyrm with his brethren.

In the instant of the psyker's death, the gaping wound of the star-cage snapped shut, the daemon raging within as its plan was foiled. Within the dead husk of the psyker, the god-shard that had slipped free desperately searched for a new living host to survive, and seized upon the first escape it saw; the psychically active mind of Naredor. Possessing the chaos sorcerer, the god-shard howled with fury as the loyalist forces brought ruin to the remaining ships of the Night Lords fleet, Writhing Wyrms shield elements falling like wheat before the scythe. Yet even as freedom slipped from its grasp, the god-shard realised that enough of its essence had bonded with the alpha-primaris psyker to infuse its mortal host with the ability to open its star-cage regardless of psychic ability, and that if it could affect an escape there remained yet the possibility of returning at a later date.

Seizing control of Naredors confused and desperate warband, the god-shard ordered Writhing Wyrm to break from the battle, make for the systems mandeville point, and jump into the warp, leaving the remaining nightlord ships to die in the face of the loyalist onslaught. A cowardly move, but befitting of the slaves of chaos. From here Writhing Wyrm would disappear from history for millenia, returning over the centuries across the imperium as a vast and ever-growing space hulk, each appearance rendering more twisted than each one previous.

The Settlement of Gudan
Report Section One Delta: The Settlement of Gudan

In the wake of the battle, and the death of their captain, the Imperial Fists recorded the incident within their archives, gathered their honoured dead, and left the Gudan System for Holy Terra, seeking to reunite with their battle-brothers for the final confrontation against horus. Though they had emerged from the battle victorious, none of the survivors were aware as to the full nature of what had unfurled upon the Writhing Wyrm, and no survivors had returned from the vessel before it disengaged with the loyalist forces to tell the tale. Yet still, many had witnessed the gaping wound in the Gudan Star, and had also seen it snap shut in a mere instant, and all knew something of dire import had been prevented by their captain, even if the specifics of his valour could not be committed to the records of the chapter.

Though the reports made by the Imperial Fists were marked as high priority for investigation upon their reunion with the imperium, it would be centuries yet before the new formed Inquisition would being an investigation as to the exact nature of the Gudan star and what the Night Lords had sought to achieve there. First the Imperium would have to bear the great loss of the emperor, his primarchs, and the death of hope for the future of mankind. It would not be until M32 that an an imperial ship, the inquisition vessel gallow-tree, returned to the Gudan System.

The investigation by the Inquisition yielded many interesting, and dire, results for the imperium to contend with. The first of which was that contained within the Gudan star was what could only be described as a proto-warp-god, an unrefined, devolved form of the four ruinous powers that had laid low the master of mankind and fouled the destiny of the human race. From trace energy left in high orbit around the debris of the Night Lords fleet, the Inquisitors were also able to determine that some small piece of the daemon-god had been able to slip loose of its prison, and likely escaped out into the wider void of the galaxy. Knowing that this left the possibility of the traitors returning to the system a wholly likely reality the inquisition moved for immediate settlement of the Gudan System as a bastion facility, designed with the sole intention of fortifying the star and holding at bay those forces that sort to release the prisoner from its cage.

Under normal circumstances settlement so close to a daemonic entity would have been impossible, yet such was the perfection of the star-cage that the daemons corruption was totally contained, and those worlds in orbit of the start existed without mutation or devicancy. Another aiding factor to such colonisation was revealed when auspex scans uncovered the ruins of human structures from the dark age of technology upon the surface of Gudan Prime, a planet within the star's goldilocks zone, and that a viable human population had existed there for over six thousand years of isolation without major deviancy from baseline humanity.

So it was that in M33 an Imperial crusade was launched to establish the Gudan Sector, with the Gudan system, and star, at its very heart, shielded from traitor influence by whole star-systems dedicated to its defence. Though the fact that the sector existed solely to protect a daemonic star was known to only a handful within the ordo malleus and the planetary governor of Gudan Prime, the sector flourished, and for five thousand years was a bastion of loyalty and faith on the further edges of the Ultima Segmentum, guarding the emperors domain against those horrors from beyond his light. The centuries slipped by, and as all things are, the exact nature of the creature that slumbered within the Gudan star was lost to history, known only to those scribes charged with keeping the records in the vast vaults of terra. Only the Imperial Fists truly remembered what had occurred in high orbit above the star, and the name Writhing Wyrm.

So it was in 025.M38, when the Space Hulk was sighted breaking warp in the Gudan Sector the Sons of Dorn responded with all haste. For four chaotic gods already assailed the imperium, and they knew that were a fifth to join their number, the balance would be irrevocably turned to the forces of madness and carnage.

Founding
The first entry pertaining to the Bulls of Retribution within the Imperial archives was created in approximately chrono-segment 025.M38, long before the actual creation of the organisation, with the record itself referring to a conflict upon the future Chapter’s homeworld of Gudan. If the records are to be considered accurate (a true rarity in this era of chaos, though the machine spirit of Chronogitator is quite adamant as to their accuracy) those individuals who would found the chapter were originally the leaders of a vicious gang known as the ' Horns of Gudan ', which as a major political player on their homeworld was in control of vast regions of territory and valuable resources.

If local legends are to be believed, the Chapter was founded after a long and brutal campaign, now forgotten to history, which was waged throughout the sector. During this campaign, it is said, the Imperial Fists fought the Traitor Legion of the Night Lords, and the fighting was brutal in the extreme. Many worlds throughout the sector were put to the torch, and untold billions slaughtered in the name of the Dark Gods. When the Imperial Fists attempted to respond to a traitor invasion of Gudan, they found upon planetfall that they were not the only humans fighting to defend the populace of that world.

The Horns of Gudan, though only a loose coalition of tribes and hive gangs, had risen in force against the traitor invaders, casting aside their petty gang wars and turf disputes to instead rally against the warp horrors that encroached upon their home. So successful was this defensive action that the Night Lords had been unable to breach the inner defences of the capital hive, Hive Vaxilian, and the vast majority of the populace there had been saved from fates worse than death. The Sons of Dorn held these humans in high regard, for they'd fought against Heretic Astartes of the Ruinous Powers with nothing more than blood, autoguns, and steel, and against all the odds had succeeded. Following the war, the Imperial Fists made Gudan a recruiting world, building a Chapter Keep at the pinnacle of the highest spire of the planets greatest hive city; Hive Vaxilian. By 564.M38 the region had become stabilised enough that the High Lords of Terra deemed a new Founding was required to defend the burgeoning sector, and Imperial Fists knew just the world, and just the gang, suitable for the task.

The transformation of a loose coalition of vicious hive-gangers into what would one day become a full-fledged Chapter of Space Marines was a task considered almost ludicrous by the High Lords of Terra, who deemed that such lowlifes were surely not worthy of the emperors most precious gift to mankind. Though there is no official documentation of what happened next, legend has it that upon hearing such a slight to those the Chapter had personally praised, the captain of the 4th Company stationed upon Holy Terra became greatly angered, and promptly made his disagreement with the High Lords' ruling personally known while they sat in chambers; for though by Imperial decree only the High Lords might decide upon those who shall be beneficiaries of the Emperor's gene-seed, very rarely does a Chapter directly put forward a specific group of baseline humans as candidates, and for such a candidacy to be rejected in so insulting a manner roused the famed fury of the Imperial Fists to no end.

So it was, that the Horns of Gudan were selected to become the first members of the Bulls of Retribution, the chaplains of the Imperial Fists selecting only the strongest and most cunning of their number to be reforged by the apothecaries gene-science into true Adeptus Astartes. Over a century later, and gifting to the Bulls of Retribution the Chapter Keep atop Hive Vaxilian, the Imperial Fists departed the sector, leaving the newly marshalled Bulls of Retribution to begin their watch. Almost instantly the Chapter was required to make great deployments of marines; such was the nature of living on the outermost limits of the Astronomican's light, yet they did not turn from their duties, and for the next 4 millennia, waged unending war in the God-Emperor's name.

Return of the Night Lords
The next preserved record of the Bulls actions was logged by the infamous Archivist Uriah the Singed in chrono-segment 002.M39, stating that Gudan was besieged by the Night Lords Traitor Legion, who launched a vicious and brutal campaign of destruction, terror, and carnage upon the populace. Rallying the PDF forces of the planet, the then-Chapter Master Arcturous led an inspired counter-assault that saw the night-lords routed on several vital and strategically important fronts, culminating in the battle of Starport Vexillius, where the traitors to the golden throne had established their base of operations, and sought to flee back into orbit. Knowing that time was of the essence, and that if the foe were to escape other worlds would suffer as Gudan had, Arcturous, led a charge straight up the center of the enemy line, using the wrath of the Gudan Bull itself to rend and gore his way through the great enemy, before, in a feat of super-human strength, he seized the head of the arch-traitor warlord in his gauntleted hands, and ripped his skull from his body, spine and viscera flying in all directions. Seeing their lord butchered so brutally, the night-lords were routed.

Reclamation of a Lost Relic
In chrono-segment 763.M39, the Bulls of Retribution, were dispatched upon the request of the Imperial Fists to reclaim an ancient relic of the chapter, the Reliquary of Dorn, lost to it for millennium upon the planet of Mercinus XVII, within the Gudan Sector. A fiefdom-planet of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Mercinus XVII had been the location of a bitter battle between a contingent of Imperial Fists and Night Lords during the Horus Heresy, and legend held that Dorn himself had strode the planet in that distant age.

Descending into the cave networks that riddled the planet's crust, Chapter Master Arcturous led his battle-brothers deeper and deeper into the darkness, searching every nook and cranny they could find for the relic. However, it wasn't until they stumbled upon an enormous, pitch-black cavern that the Bulls found their target, resting amidst the remains of a crusade-era stasis field. Yet no sooner had they begun to move the Reliquary from its resting place before the Bulls were assailed with the screams of Night Lords Heretic Marines, who launched a savage ambush.

As the fighting raged, Arcturous realised these Night Lords were the same as those who had besieged Gudan a near millennium earlier, and felt fierce hatred rise within him. Raising his power-axe high, Arcturous roared the battle cry of the Bulls of Retribution, before lowering his horned helm and charging into the fray, goring his enemies left and right. The melee was lighting fast, an in what seemed an instant the chapter master locked his axe with the blade of the traitor warlord who let the Chaos Astartes. The Night Lord made for a quick-witted and barbaric opponent, nearly gutting Arcturous with his twin lightning claws; sparks flying as they sheared the tactical armour he wore and sent the Chapter Master to his knees.

Yet before the darkness could seize him and his strength fled, Arcturous let out the deafening roar of the Gudan Bull and leapt forward with one last surge of might, goring through the baroque battle-plate of the Chaos Lord to skewer his two hearts on lances of ivory. With a wordless scream, Arcturous rose to full height, the traitor lord sinking ever deeper onto his horns before the Chapter Master tossed the Chaos Astartes aside with the mere flick of his neck. Seeing their lord's vitae flowing from his gaping wounds, the Night Lords felt terror race up their spines as Arcturous rallied his men and led a charge into the surviving Night Lords. The traitors turned tail and fled, and the Reliquary of Dorn was secured, yet it came at a high price; Chapter Master Arcturous did not survive long enough to return to the surface alive, but his body was born with greatest solemnity back to Gudan, there to be buried with full honours alongside the greatest heroes of the Chapter. Upon receipt of the Reliquary, and hearing of the valour of Arcturous, it is declared by the Imperial Fists that his name shall be entered into the Annals of Dorn, the Chapter's record of only the greatest sons of Dorn. To the Bulls of Retribution, there is no higher honour.

A Dire Warning
After the passing of Arcturous into legend, the Bulls of Retribution spent the next millennia persecuting vicious conflicts against the Night Lords, driving them from the sector, and re-establishing the chapters supremacy within the Gudan Sector. Many decades pass, with almost no confirmed sightings of the Night Lords before 771.M40. During this time, a garbled psychic message from beyond the Light of the Astronomican was intercepted by the Astropathic choir based upon Gudan. As to the contents of the later, we cannot say, but records state that upon the instant of reception a full third of the choir collapsed in maddening death throes and a psychic scream of utter horror tore through their minds.

Only Chapter Master Galrov and his innermost circle of Astartes are privy to the message's contents, yet before the information is released to the wider Chapter, Galrov takes three companies of Bulls of Retribution and sets course into the darkness beyond the Emperor's light. The Chapter Master maintains psychic communications with Gudan for several chrono-segments, before simply disappearing into the void without a trace - the fleet's final message making vague references to ' Stars that bleed ' and ' Writhing Wyrms beneath the flesh. '

From this bizarre and most certainly horrifying incident onwards, there is scant information regarding the deployment of the Chapter’s Astartes and their disposition. Indeed, following the disappearance of chapter master Galrov, the Bulls of Retribution see no further entries into the Imperial archives for nearly a millennium, their activities during this time of darkness known only to the current chapter master Ilyanus.

The Writhing Wyrm
Indeed, it is not until 863.M41 that reference is made once again to the Chapter, though in this record they are mentioned only in passing. Approximately one century earlier from the date of entry, the Space-hulk designated Writhing Wyrm had been sighted breaking into realspace in the Gudan Sector for the first time. Previously the hulk had followed a seemingly erratic path through reality, slipping into, and being let loose from, the Immaterium in locations and times without rhyme or reason. Indeed, whilst attempting to access the Ordo Xenos' reports on the hulk I have found references to it as early as M32, with possible inferences to the self-same ship in records that are older still, yet too decayed for precise confirmation.

Yet though for all its previous life it had been a capricious wreck, once it dropped into realspace within the Gudan sector, Writhing Wyrm began a direct and powered course towards Gudan itself, filling the void with electromagnetic and psychic disturbances as it approached the systems lagrange point, causing those void-going ships who encountered the emissions to become stricken with the horrific disease known as Gellar-Pox. It is not until Writhing Wyrm arrives at the outermost point of the Gudan System that the terror of what awaits within the space-hulk is revealed. Broadcasting upon all vox channels and Noospheric links, the citizens of Gudan were met with the visage of a horrifically mutated beast, one whose flesh seemed to have run like tallow wax. Only to the Bulls of Retribution is the identity of this sickly creature known. It is the Bulls' former Chapter Master, Galrov.

Almost as soon as the recognition of that disturbed visage crossed the mind of Chapter Master Koriolov, who had been appointed to lead the Bulls of Retribution only a handful of decades earlier, the Chapter Master took swift and decisive action. Placing a ban upon all civilian void travel within the system, to contain the Gellar-Pox Writhing Wyrm carried within her, Koriolov summoned all combat-capable void-ships to high orbit above Gudan before breaking for the system's edge, seeking to intercept and destroy the hulk with cyclonic weaponry before it can pierce into the heart of the system. The initial approach began with ill manner, as those vessels crewed by the imperial navy suffered mass onset of Gellar-Pox, the baseline humans who crewed the vessel too weak in mind and body to bare the warps corrupting influence. only those vessels belonging to the Bulls of Retribution were hardy enough to establish orbit around the hulk and begin the bombardment. Yet such efforts were for naught.

Though the cyclonics were able to cause immense damage to the hulks outer superstructure, the vessel was an excellent example of its kind, and for every armoured layer of mangled void-ship that was stripped away with nucleonic fire, another was revealed beneath. Not only that, but auspex returns suggested that Galrov has based himself within the hulks very core, and that even if the fleet had possessed cyclonics sufficient to completely eradicate the Writing Wyrm, the rate of destruction, and the speed at which the hulk made its way to the star at the heart of the Gudan System, meant that there was not forced Chapter Master Koriolov to commit his marines to a boarding action.

Battle for Rajhun
In 010.M42, Ilyanus Shohet, Chapter Master of the Bulls of Retribution, was engraved in a deep discussion about a couple things with Pharoa Duri of the Void Lions, especially how they would need to expend more men around the Gudan sector, as well as the obtainment of more resources. The nearest unknown planet Ilya found was given to Duri and his clan, with him kindly accepting this offer; he named the planet Rajhun, in honor of Marsaak, the Void Lions present Chapter Master. Ilyanus was pleased with this, and thus, took his men and the Void Lions there, to investigate the planet and claim it for the Imperium. After a long time of endless traveling outside the Gudan sector, Ilyanus had a weird feeling within himself when he exited the sector with his men. He was out for so long, already. But he embraced it, as he knew he would go on more missions like that around Gudan, for resources and defenses’ maintenance.

Pharoa Duri began calming the Chapter Master down with his musings of experience, for he was at almost every spot the Imperium, and yet, Ilyanus didn’t take that in easily. Despite that fact, however, he clasped wrists with Duri and thanked him for his efforts. The fleet was already in the atmosphere of Rajhun, and the planet seemed to be… Barren. Yet had its beauty, with trees everywhere, magnificent rivers, and deep, blue sky. Pharoa was thoroughly amused. Since Gulup’s destruction he forgot how it felt, even. And so, both the Void Lions and Bulls of Retribution entered their Thunderhawks, and prepared to land on Rajhun. When already there, they landed in the jungle. Duri had a feeling something dangerous was yet to appear… Because the smell he had whiffed through his nostrils was very much familiar.

Terribly hungry Tyranids launched an ambush attack against the Space Marines, with two Lictors leading the ambush. Pharoa Duri immediately opened fire with his brothers and the Bulls, then charged in for the melee combat with their thunder hammers and power-axes. He, however, did not stay behind the lines, as he went to aid Ilyanus in killing the Tyranids that were overwhelming his defensive efforts with their long, deadly claws. Pharoa jumped in front of Ilya, and started killing every single beast he had in sight with his combat knife and bolter, while Shohet continued swinging his Iron Howl, cutting through waves of Tyranids. Suddenly, one of the Lictors pounced on Pharoa Duri, making him fall on his back. In a second the foul thing was going for the killing blow, Shohet shot through its very head with his plasma-pistol. With that kill, the remaining Tyranids retreated into the jungle. Ilyanus and Duri agreed to head west, to see if there were any camps, villages, or even towns. After approximately two hours of investigating the planet, they have stumbled upon a city Called Nikolavias. Its civilians were surprised to see Space Marines for the first time, admiring their height, armor, and weaponry. While patrolling the streets, Duri noticed there was one human being, walking towards them with a pair of other men, equipped with primitive autoguns. They assumed it was the leader of this city, and, truth be told - they were not wrong.

The leader came up to Ilyanus and Duri, and asked what is it that they need from them, in a rather aggressive tone. Ilyanus stood silent for a moment or two, for he did not expect such plain ignorance. Pharoa Duri immediately stood in the front, as he was not a man to take a risk of Ilyanus attacking the citizen, and thus, said so: “We are here to deliver a message from the Imperium, to protect your people from the upcoming threat, such as xenos, traitors and, worse yet - daemons. We are here to request an audience with the leader of this settlement.” Matveyus replied: “You are standing right before him.”

Duri and Ilya took off their helmets and greeted him with a salute. Matveyus, on the other hand, was a little nervous at first, but with that salute, he was, somehow, comforted. After a long discussion of what Space Marines were supposed to be, as well as many promises of supplies and defenses, Matveyus agreed to aid the Imperium and the Bulls for their bidding. That was until the Night Lords bombarded the city with their shells, and sent in their drop-pods for more terror and slaughter. The second after they landed, Ilyanus suddenly remembered the history of his chapter’s first promotion from a mere gang, he, too, remembered how that meekly that gang countered against Night Lords when they attacked Gudan for the first time. But now that he and his brothers have become proper Astartes, and he has the Lions at his side, he knew he had high chances and winning and obliterating them for good. A very, very bold assumption it was.

There were not just Raptors swarming around that small town; dreadnoughts, warp-talons, and even daemons were aiding the Night Lords in their assault. Ilyanus was in trouble. He needed a plan. His glance was focused on his brothers, as he raised his Iron Howl and shouted: "For Might and Honor, brothers!” While the formations were still drawn out on the battlefield, Duri called the “Bulls’ and Lions’ might” with Void Lions at the back, suppressing enemies with their fire, whilst the bulls were charging into the fray in melee combat. Ilyanus ordered his Devastator squads with las-cannons to get into the nearest building, and blast those traitor dreadnoughts from the distance, whereas Duri ordered his flamer squad to be near the Bulls and burn the traitors while they were pushing, also ordering his scouts to extract civilians from the battlefield to the nearest bunker, and to guard them in there.

Ilyanus knew that, to scatter those pathetic traitors, he needed to decapitate their head – their leader. But they had no leader amongst them, for they were freely rampaging through the city, much like a tide, slaughtering everything that is in their path. He did see there was a warp-rift in the sky, with warp-talons descending to the ground. He knew there were more of them, and thus - Shohet ordered a pair of Librarians to shut down the warp-storms with a couple of Space Marines that could guard them in a mission to end this madness. But Night Lords were no push-overs, especially with vehicles on their side, and daemons surrounding the loyal squadrons, left and right. Thankfully, the Bulls of Retribution, and the Void Lions with them, held the line, with their combined strategic efforts. The Librarians were successful in their mission, too, and thus, the Night Lords and Daemons began lacking numbers in an instant. At a cost of a hundred Bulls, and the same amount of the Void Lions… The victory was obtained by the Loyalists that day. The citizens, and Matveyus, himself, were more than grateful to assist the Marines, and joined the Imperium for the deeds that were committed by the two Astartes chapters. And so, Rajhun became the first loyal planet out of the Gudan sector, and thus – the conquests around Gudan have begun, as well.

Notable Campaigns

 * Founding of the Bulls (564.M38): Founding of the Chapter by order of Terra with Imperial Fist gene-seed.
 * Gudan Sector Invasion (002.M39): Newly appointed chapter master Arcturous leads the Bulls of Retribution against the Night Lords and repels them from Gudan.
 * Reclamation of a Lost Relic (763.M39): Arcturous leads his brethren to claim the Reliquary of Dorn, the mission succeeds but at the cost of his life.
 * A Dire Warning (771.M40): A garbled message from beyond the Light of the Astronomican causes Chapter Master Galrov to lead three companies of the Bulls into the darkness beyond the Emperor's light. He and his Space Marines never return.
 * Corrida De Toros (437.M41): In 437.M41 a battlegroup of the Bulls of Retribution and their Horns of Gudan Aucilia are deployed to the benighted world of Kuresh after the planet spends several months facing fierce piratical raids. Upon arrival the Bulls of Retribution realise that it is no mere pirate force they contend with, but a warband of Bradock's fierce Night Lords Heretic Astartes. Over a period of months the battle-group is slowly worn down by guerilla attacks... (More to be added...)
 * The Broken Iron (855.M41): Matus the unbreakable makes his first victory against the Iron Warriors and their leader Rainer as the leader of the Riders of Retribution on Arcturous.
 * The Writhing Wyrm (863.M41): The space-hulk Writhing Wyrm breaks from the warp at the Gudan System's edge, Chapter Master Koriolov Is killed when he is dismembered by a Genestealers Patriarch in a flash of blades and claws. His second-in-command, Ilyanus, rallies his brothers and performs a successful purge of the Hulk, reclaiming several valuable pieces of Archeotech for the chapter's armoury.
 * The Imperium Nihilus (999.M41): The Cicatrix Maledictum tears the galaxy in two, a large rent in the fabric of reality through which madness bleeds and the Emperor's light is snuffed out. Gudan, being on the far edge of the newly dubbed Imperium Nihilus, descends into Chaos, the Bulls of Retribution fights bitterly on all fronts.
 * Salvation of the Gudan System 112.M42): After centuries of isolation, the siege of the Gudan System is finally relieved by elements of the disbanding Indomitus Crusade, who bring with them the newly forged Primaris Marines.

The Broken Iron
''It is the 855.M41. Iron Warriors fleets were coming across the Gudan system, led by Rainer. When he noticed the system, he knew there might be Loyalist dogs hanging around, that controlled that very system, but he needed to find the main defense line of theirs, in the first place – Arcturous. As an Iron Warriors, he was a true, regarded specialist in offense, and thus – it was his responsibility to create a plan, to besiege and take over Arcturous for his legion. As he noticed, however, the fortress held many secrets of the Gudan System. Before boarding that same planet and building a camp there, before even developing his offensive drafts, he noticed something flickering from Gudan Star. The star made him uncomfortable, as most of the crew knew that the star god was trapped inside there, and tried to communicate with Rainer, but he failed, as stubborn as Rainer was, he didn't let himself be whispered by the daemon inside the star. After finally boarding the Arcturous. Rainer's scouts, after scanning the area and the fortress, brought the news to their liege, and told him the details regarding every corner, every soldier that is on his position, as well as walls and turrets. They told him the name of their leader, and he was, in fact, Matus the Unbreakable. After hearing his title, Rainer noisily chortled, as he mused to his retinue: "Well then! He shall, be broken.”

After days of planning the attack, the Horns of Gudan scouts spotted the Iron Warriors camps, and immediately ran towards the fortress, to deliver the information about the traitor groups to Matus and his company. But, at the second they began running, they were shot by the traitors, and thus - the Loyalists still didn't know what was going on. After two or three days of planning, Rainer was ready to attack and set all his positions to strike. Rainer was arrogant, however - he was no fool. He did notice that there were less Marines than usual. Something wasn't right. But his desire to attack was insufferable, and so - he led the attack to the fortress. The defenses… They were harsh. Unforgiving. But, for some reason, they were like a fireteam of Marines instead of whole company. And he DID see Matus on the frontlines, fighting off the traitors. Rainer boarded his bike, took his chain-axe, and drove towards the Loyalist. While the traitor was galloping towards him, Matus wasn't aware of Iron Warriors leader being present anywhere. He was more focused on killing the traitors, as many as possible, and defending his fortress.

"STAND FAST!" Matus yelled, "The Emperor is with us!" The second he finished shouting, Rainer drove into Matus, and sliced through his left arm – an arm holding the plasma pistol. Matus fell down, bleeding from his left arm socket, struggling to get up, but Bulls of Retribution and Horns of Gudan were already overwhelmed by the Iron Warriors numbers. Rainer saw this. He had a satisfying opportunity to kill Matus – to let him die a slow, painful death. He slowly walked towards the wounded Bull on the ground, as, around him, his men butchered the Bulls of Retribution and Horns of Gudan without any mercy. Finally, Rainer was upon Matus the Unbreakable, as he rose his chain-axe and asked: “Still unbroken?” As he was about to strike a fatal blow, Matus yelled as hard as he could. One could hear that shout miles away: "CHARGE WITH YOUR HORNS, BROTHERS!!!" Rainer stood there, laughed, but… After mere seconds, the earth started shaking. As if it was an actual earthquake. He looked behind his back, and in miles, charged the Riders of Retribution, the company of Marines riding on gigantic bulls: A rare Doom Bull, as well alpha male Gudan breed. Much bigger, stronger, faster, with bigger horns and horns coming out of their cheeks, skin of theirs was like steel. The Bulls of Retribution needed to wrestle those beasts, to take control of them, and tame the beasts – bare-handed.

Now, they were holding power axes and charging towards the Iron Warriors, as the earth shook around them. The Riders of Retribution yelled all together: "CHARGE WITH YOUR HORNS, BROTHERS!" As they charged in, they were already devastating the Fourth Legion, as Matus the Unbreakable took his power-axe from the ground again, and, with the help of his right arm, quickly stood up. He fought Rainer with single-handedly, while his traitor brethren were focused on fighting the Riders. As Matus was still weakened by left arm sliced off, Rainer kicked him in the chest yet again. The Unbreakeable fell on his back, and Rainer was ready to kill him once more, but one guardsman jumped in front of Matus, sacrificing himself to save his commander. Matus himself, enraged, quickly stood and sliced Rainer's head off in a single, precise move. The battle was won, but, it seems, that was a pyrrhic victory, for the casualties there were more than grand… And so, Matus called this battle "The Broken Iron".''

Bradock the Hunter
''Bradock the Hunter, also known as the “True Night Hunter”, was a part of the Night lords legion during the Horus Heresy in 005.M31. He was leading an assault on Istvaan V with his company, until the day of his Primach Konrad Kurze’s death came. When he received the reports of his father’s death, Bradock was furiously disappointed at Konrad. Bradock was so outraged he started to believe his abilities to be better than those of his primarch. “Better”, he said to himself. He started amassing a warband that believed Bradock was much more worthy than his father ever was, and they named him The Hunter, which, in return, caused Bradock to name his warband “True Hunters”, believing themselves to be the apex of the Night Lords legion, with much more refined tactics in slaughter and terror. Bradock has grown at an exponential rate since those times, and, over nine millennia later, he’s become much larger in size, as he’d gone through many chaotic mutations, with two vast, membranous wings now attached to his spine; while his face has shifted into that of half-human, half-bat shape. Possessing a chatotic gift that allows him to become invisible, he is one of the most dangerous units to have on the battlefield. His armor crackles around with small layers of lightning without arrest, along with his lightning claws - infused with his fingers, so that he could feel the slaughter on his hands. “My father was the biggest disappointment of my legion, his death disgraced us all, but his death gave me destiny and with that, I became what I am today, a perfect nightmare to my enemies. I saw visions granted by the chaos gods that I was on top of my legion leading the destruction of Terra, I can prove to all my none believers that I am true Night Hunter and the true father of the VIII legion.” - Bradock the Hunter. Wargear: Fused Cataphractii Pattern Terminator armour, 2 fused lightning claws, 2 huge bat wings, a fur cape and a nonstop, crackling lightning on his armor.

The Hunter arrives…

In 113.M42, after constructing Gudan and recruiting the newly-forged Primaris Marines, Gudan Sector was at ease, though, that was until planet Arcturous spotted ten Chaos battleships with a rather familiar symbol. A Night Lord’s symbol none the less, but with a different look, with two extra red wings and two horns coming out of the lower jaw of the skull. Bradock the Hunter was leading his warband called the “True Hunters”, after hearing the reports of Night Lords failed attempt to free the Star God. Bradock didn’t take that failure very kindly and took it to his own hands, as he’d sworn the Star God will be released from its cage. Ilyanus, however, would not go down without a fight. He looked at his modernized, Primaris brothers, kneeling in his fortress, and said: “Rise, brothers, let’s see how well you have trained to join my chapter! I expect each of you to kill at least a hundred of those traitors. May the Emperor guide us today.”

The chapter master swiftly went over to prepare for an upcoming battle on planet Arcturous, for the planet was constructed to spot any incoming vessels crossing the sector, Pharoa Duri, the high leader of the three tribes of Void Lions, insisted to assist the Bulls in their upcoming battle. With that offer accepted accordingly, Ilyanus transferred his best men with the Void Lions to Arcturous, since he knew that his sworn enemies were arriving, and were more than ready to face them. After arriving to the planet, Bradock wanted to test the Bulls, before sending all of his drop-pods on there. He ordered his fleet to stay put and sent a single battleship into the fray. The ship launched an orbital strike onto the battlefield, but Ilyanus saw it coming, and thus – he and his men were in a safe cover of a bunker. After the bombardment had ended, the ship sent Chaos drop-pods into the battle to start the invasion. A few landed, a couple others were destroyed in mid-air from all the anti-air artillery fire. The drop pods opened up, and the True Hunters’ Raptors came out flying, ready to attack at any given moment. Ilyanus and Duri agreed to put the Bulls to the front lines, striking in melee, while the Void Lions were to stand at the back, assisting the Bulls with covering and suppressing fire for them to make a successful charge. After landing a smooth attack on the landing Raptors, thankfully, there were no casualties from the Loyalists’ side… Yet.

The Hunter heard the reports on their status, tactics and numbers. He laughed. Chortled. Cackled, as it was a surprise for him to think these weaklings were a threat to his invasion, and thus - he pressed on with all of his battleships towards Arcturous. Bradock decided not to bombard the area, for he wanted to see Ilyanus in person, and witness what Bulls of Retribution really stand for. When already landed on the battlefield, the drop-pods did not open yet, except for the one that was slightly bigger than the others. In this bigger drop-pod, Bradock the Hunter was finally revealed to Ilyanus, as he was the leader of True Hunters, and this invasion. Ilyanus stood, and shouted: “What in all hell are you here for?!” Bradock replied: “Is this how you greet your old brothers, Chapter Master? We are here to finish the job what our original, and much more pathetic, brothers could not.”

Ilyanus stood there, silently, not amused a single bit by his size and mutated form, for he had faced Saren Dreagher before, and successfully pushed this wretch back into the warp. As Bradock started to stroll towards him and his forces, Ilyanus and his brothers didn’t let their guard down. While the Hunter was walking, the chapter master began hearing screams of the Warp. He looked up into the sky, and saw warp-storms open up, and from them - the Warp Talons descended to the ground. With their mighty screams and high speed, they started to charge towards the Bulls, and, at the same time, the Chaos drop-pods opened up, with True Hunters running out. Their warcry was fierce: “For the true Night Hunter!”

As the enemy charged towards the Bulls, the Void Lions opened fire at the traitors, while the True Hunters themselves were pressing on. With War Talons, they began feeling earthquakes near their area. They looked to the right, and saw a cavalry of Space Marines, riding black-furred bulls: These were the Riders of Retribution, with Matus the Unbreakable leading the defensive charge. From the right side of their charge, the True Hunters stopped for a moment, while the Warp Talons proceeded to continue onwards, and thus and got shot by the Void Lions. Nearly all of them died in a failed charge attempt.

Bradock glanced forward and grinned yet again, beginning his charge once more, while he didn’t sustain any damage at all, and went right for Ilyanus. The Riders of Retribution launched themselves in for the covered Hunters and started slowly carving them out. The Bulls’ Chapter Master ordered his men to stay put and on guard, though, he ordered only one man to be at his side, his right-hand man - Jackson the Mortifax. As he raised his hammer and saluted Ilyanus, both of them charged towards the Hunter. The proper fight has begun.

Ilyanus, as a start, stomped the ground with his boot, and made the earth shake around Bradock while Jackson charged in, leaping onto the traitor with his hammer going in for the kill. But the Hunter caught Jackson by the neck, for Bradock was big in size, mutated, abhorrent. While Jackson was being choked by the lightning claws, Ilyanus swiftly charged in and from the left side he attacked with his axe wounding his main opponent’s left arm. Bradock immediately released Jackson, and started to fight Ilyanus, and thus, Ilyanus slammed at his left knee to weaken the monster. And so he did. Bradock was severely wounded and fell to his knees, with his enemy in front of him, intact. Jackson jumped onto the arch-traitor’s back and began tearing a hole on the back of Bradock’s armor. The Hunter started to struggle and wrestle with the two, but he didn’t give up, as he knew he underestimated the Bulls’ bond. He jumped, only to fall on his back yet again, just so Jackson would leap off of him. While Bradock fell down, Ilyanus leaped on him, for the traitor was fully open for the killing blow. Bradock covered himself with two of his lightning claws, but before that - Ilyanus could strike the monster properly: A bolter round was shot towards Shohet’s left cheek. Ilyanus fell right next to Bradock. Now both of them had their chances rounded up…

The Hunter, while laying down, attempted to swing his lightning claw at Ilyanus, but Jackson broke Bradock’s left hand to stop the attempt, and by that made him scream in agony. The hand of his was torn off. Jackson swiftly took Ilyanus and retreated back to the front lines. Bradock was picked up by his forces, and went back to the rift that teleported troops back to their fleet. The battle was over.

Ilyanus was unconscious from the bolter round that went through his cheek, but, thankfully, was still breathing. He was immediately sent to Apothecarium, while Bradock, without his hand, was sent to the laboratory for healing. He concluded the situation as such to his men: “These bulls… They have horns. They, are not to be underestimated… We, however, will succeed at any cost. The star god must be, and will be, released.”''

Gudan Sector
The Gudan Sector, like many others within the imperium, is rife with enigma, mystery, and unsolved horror. From the great Star Cage of Gudan itself, to the fabled wreckage of Craftworld Kaliana, and the legendary Rings of Ilium, many are those places within the Gudan Sector that one may find relics of an ancient and by-gone time, their creators lost to history like so much else. From its furthest reaches, to the Gudan System itself, vast, elegant, and shattered remains of an ancient aeldari civilisation bestride the stars, the settlements of man built over the ruins of temples to extinct gods, and cities blasphemous xenos.

The following is a list of the worlds of the Gudan Sector:

Star Whisperer
Status: Perdita Extremis

Population: 0

Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non

Locations: undefined

Further Information: Classified by orders of the inquisition

Guardian
Status: Bastion World

Population: 200,000

Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non

Locations: Star Fortress Koriolov, Star Fortress Maximus

Further Information: See tag-file Locus (designate-59632)

Mineralus
Status: Adeptus Mechanicus Outpost World

Population: 12,000 Mechanicum members/ Approx 2,000,000 labourers

Tithe Grade: Decuma Particular

Locations: Epsilon Q-736, Epsilon F-243, Delta 946, Omnicron 503

Moons: Mineralus Alpha, Mineralus Omega, locked in binary orbit.

Further Information: Provides the majority of war materials and resources required for the chapter to operate.

The Shattered Halo
Status: minor colonisation efforts

Population: Approx 340,000

Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non

Locations: Port Grime, Asteroid Q-E7U-9OL

Further Information: Over 48 quarantine zones are currently active within the Shattered Halo by orders of the Inquisition.

Censure
Status: Gas-giant, settlements established upon Clamor

Population: Approx 300,000

Tithe Grade: Solutio Prima

Locations: Starport Vahlia, Hive-Sprawl Ukrov

Moons: Clamor; settled world. Silentium; Death World, Quarantine extremis.

Further Information: High Volume of Inquisition activity tracked upon Silentium, purpose currently unknown.

Aries
Status: Gas-giant

Population: 4,000

Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non

Locations: Orbital refinery Velora

Further Information: See tag-file corok (designate-67832)

Arcturous
Status: Bastion World

Population: 30,000

Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non

Locations: Shipyard Stroyika, Star Fortress Tarsus

Further Information: Arcturous serves as a defensive bastion, guarding the primary approaches from the systems mandeville point towards its heart.

Gudan Prime
Status: Chapter Homeworld

Population: Approx 40,000,000 as of last census

Tithe Grade: Decuma Prima

Locations: Hive Vaxillian, Starport Vexillius, Castra Bovem, The Arena of Fury, Cathedra Primus, Star-Spire The Iron Cradle.

Moons: Gudan Secundus

Further Information: Current chapter strength stands at approximately 800 marines supported by 8 sanctioned regiments of the Horns of Gudan.

Chapter Recruitment
According to the chronicles stored in the vaults of Terra, the entrance trial of the Bulls of Retribution is a simple, singular task, yet one that is no less dangerous for its simplicity. Aspirants who wish to join the Chapter must venture into the wilds beyond the few equatorial hives, out into the harsh waterless barrens of the worlds mesas and plateaus to hunt and kill a Gudan Bull, a fierce and wild beast said to be distantly descended from Terran livestock brought by the original Golden Age settlers. It is no simple task, for the creatures are greatly altered from the original animals brought from Terra and are famed planet-wide for their ability to gore open even the armoured slabs of a Leman Russ main battle tank. The Aspirants need only kill the beast and return with its head to the Chapter's Chapter Keep. It is a task few succeed in.

Companies
Inner cirlce: The horned Brotherhood.

1st company: Veteran and terminators, made up of the veterans of the Chapter. These include Veteran Squads, Terminator Squads and Terminator Assault Squads. Support for the First Company is Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts.

2nd company: battle company

3rd company: battle company

4th company: battle company

5th company: battle company

6th company: battle-line and bikers

7th company: Landspeeders and storms talons

8th company: assault and close support

9th company: fire support of Devastator Squads. They also make use of Rhinos or Razorback transports, though Dreadnoughts are usually only found in the 9th company.

10th company: Scout Company, consists entirely of Scouts and is often not entirely one hundred strong as a steady supply of recruits is not possible. They are the most lightly armoured and usually used as a reconnaissance force. They are sometimes mounted on Bikes but do not use Rhino or Razorback transports.

11th company: Riders of Retribution, Space marines that take oath in becoming a Rider of Retribution and a master of it’s own Doom Bull, never to be away from it’s mount.

12th company: Horns of Gudan, an Imperial Guard regiment equipped with cadian equipment.

The 11th Company
Doom Bulls:The Doom Bull is a rhino (transport) sized, fully black coated fur, big dark gray horns (from his head), mandible horns coming out of it's chicks (like in the picture), red eyes (aggressive cat pupil), battle scars.

An alpha male Doom Bull from the Gudan sector, a Gudan bull that has taken an evolution form which increased it's strength, speed and size, also while going through that evolution the Doom Bull will automatically has it's fur transformed from brown to pich black fur, and it's eyes will turn fully red with agressive sharp pupils with horns growing out of it's chicks, the Doom Bulls might be animals but they are no fools to trick, they are highly intelligent. Their size can get to even higher than Rhino the Astartes vehicle.

It is known for Bulls of Retribution to take oath of becoming Rider Of Retribution which means you get to tame your own Doom Bull and risking dying in process. The Doom Bull after being tamed start to be unimaginably loyal to it's master, and must remain always near him for his safe.

It is known in the chapter for every time Doom Bull’s master dies, the bull starts to rampage and goes into berserk mode which could be very helpful and also very dangerous for the chapter in middle of battle. When the Bulls of Retribution see a Doom Bull rampaging and charging for it’s own allies they have no choice but to strike down the beast and honor it’s services for the chapter. But, when the Doom Bull dies and it’s master still proceeds to live, mostly he will leave the 11th company and join his previous company from where he came for he doesn’t want to risk another of his Friends/mounts for it’s hard for an space marine to bear such tragedy.

Chapter Beliefs
Although they are righteous enemies of those who oppose the will of Terra, the Bulls of Retribution do not associate with baseline humanity, and at best view them with mild indifference, and at worst view them as an impediment. Though their Chapter Keep is located on at the peak of a grand hive-spire, the Astartes of the Chapter maintain strict segregation between themselves and the humans of Gudan. Even the number of chapter serfs within the fortress is kept to a bare minimum; yet this is not the only place where the Chapter separates itself from the herd of man. When dispatched to a warzone, the Bulls of Retribution will openly cooperate only with other Astartes chapters, scorning the men of the Imperial Guard, and seeking wherever possible, to ensure that the units of the Astra Militarum do not interfere with their mission and its completion.

Ilyanus Shohet
"I have seen my brothers and my people die in front of me many times, guess this is the burden every chapter master needs to suffer, I became the 13th one you see...and I won't be the last to stand and see where this galaxy will go on… but as a soldier and a servant of the Emperor, I must carry on this burden with my chapter and make sure the Star God and it’s thirst won’t break its a cage. You see I wasn’t ready to become the chapter master. But after I became one I swore I will make sure the Imperium won’t suffer the thirst we so eager to hold in its cage."

- Chapter Master Ilyanus Shohet

Ilyanus Shohet also known as the "Mighty Bull" is the 13th and current Chapter Master of the Bulls of Retribution. A master in melee combat and a skilled tactician, Ilyanus was the captain of the first company in time when Koriolov was the chapter master (the 12th Chapter Master) he was known for his skills as the "Tactician Captain" for he led many battles that were victorious in his chapter’s name, and as the time flew his skill grew at an exponential rate, until the time has come for him to become the next chapter master after Koriolov’s death at being the victor, nuking the writhing wyrm from within and sacrificing himself with it.

Jackson Mortifax
"My life for the chapter... that's what Kirov asked of me when he took me from my tribe. My life for the chapter indeed, ha! When the moment came and Koriolov took our finest brothers to face Galrov and his rotten ilk, I did not march with him. When my brothers fought to the last to save us all from the Star Gods rage, I was not there to die with them. No, I have not yet given my life for the chapter, the Emperor has yet to ask that of me. But when the time comes, and my death is upon me, it shall find me blade in hand and spitting plasma. Death shall not find me wanting."

- Jackson Mortifax

Jackson Mortifax and Ilyanus were best lads before Ilyanus became the Chapter Master. After he became one a Chapter Master must own 2 bodyguards, his left hand and his right hand. Ilyanus immediately entrusted the "Right hand" position to Jackson. Jackson was pleased with that and got an oath of trust on his right shoulder pad. When Ilyanus remembered how good was Jackson as a transport vehicle leader, he promoted him to an Admiral of the fleet.

Matus the Unbreakable
"When I tamed my Doom Bull "Sarbane" I never thought I would become the leader of the Riders of Retribution but when Koriolov died and Ilyanus took his place... I doubted him and his leading skills.... that we would perish with such a leader. But I was wrong, he led with many victories and smart tactics. I misjudged him and I regret it, now I follow him and lead my company for the sake of this sector's future."

- Matus the Unbreakable

Matus the Unbreakable is the Captain of the 11th company and leader of the Riders of Retribution, he became the captain of the 11th company 20 years before Koriolov's death. His first victory was in 855.M41 at the Arcturous planet after defeating Reiner from the Iron Warriors legion and losing his right arm in mid of battle. But every time he looks at his bionic arm he remembers the sacrifice he made for his first victory and now knows that being a leader is no easy task, especially for Ilyanus.

Amriel Sharp Eye
"I became the captain of the 10th company days after Ilyanus became the Chapter Master, I was chosen to become Captain of the 10th company through my sheer skill and intelligence of survival, I lost my right eye on the day the chapter has sent me on a test to become a member of Bulls of Retribution fighting a Gudan Bull, both my right eye and the scar on my left eye became my achievements on joining the chapter, and year after year of serving the Imperium I became better and stronger, now I leave my fate to this chapter and to my chapter master on leading us for a longer survival."

- Amriel Sharp Eye

Amriel Sharp Eye also known as "One-eyed sniper" became a recruit in the Bulls of Retribution chapter after bringing his eye and Gudan bull's head. After the chapter replaced his empty eye socket with a bionic one, Amriel started to train his shooting skills, after his first several missions and many kill counts, the chapter saw great potential in Amriel and his shooting skills and his main style called "Dead Eye". After the Captain of the 10th company died in mid of battle, Amriel was chosen to become the next 10th Company Captain. Amriel was pleased with the news but declined the given space marine armor to him for he was satisfied with the gear he already was equipped with.

Vladis Doom Bull Master
"I always knew I had some connection with animals... especially with Bulls, when I killed my first Gudan Bull and brought it's head to the chapter to finish my test, I became a recruit, when I went successfully through missions and made myself worthy, I made an eternal oath to join the 11th company, the Riders of Retribution... When I tamed my Doom Bulli named it "EarthBreaker" for I was lucky to stumble upon the mightiest Doom Bull Gudan has ever given birth to... And since then, I became one with it, it had a unique bond with me... And I'm grateful for that."

- Vladis Doom Bull Master

Vladis became known as Doom Bull Master because of his mount, after he joined the 11th company, the chapter saw many brutal battles that Vladis went through, butchering enemies left and right with his sword and the mighty horns of EarthBreaker, but that wasn't only that, he controlled the bull like it was some kind of servitor that did everything for him, EarthBreaker had great loyalty to Vladis, but... That didn't long last, after Vladis got killed in mid of battle, EarthBreaker begun to storm through enemies like a knife going through a paper, and after finishing the last enemy, he went for his own allies, for he was so outraged he couldn't tell who was his ally, because his only ally was Vladis. And so... The chapter had to put down the beast... and gave Vladis and his mount an honorable burial.

Chapter Colours
The Bulls of Retribution wear primarily dark red coloured power armour for they believe that the dark red color represents the blood color of the Gudan bull. The shoulder pauldron trims and the face plate (If Veteran rank) are golden for they believe that Gudan bulls are rich in nature. And finally the pauldrons themselves are brown to represent Gudan bull's mighty brown fur. Nearly every space marine wears a leather Pteruges made out of Gudan bull's leather for it is chapter's belief that the Gudan bull's fur brings good fortune.

Relations
Feel free to add your own

Void Lions
In approximately 001.M42, Chapter Master Marsaak Isaayah of the Void Lions took a pilgrimage to the Imperial Fists' mobile fortress-monastery, the Phalanx, where he found out that his Chapter were not recognized by their Progenitors as a legitimate successor due to their mutations and altered gene-seed. Instead, they were offered honorary membership into the specialty formation known as the Last Wall, as long as they were willing to perform three tasks in perpetuity: fight alongside all chapters of the VII Legion when they were in need, build fortifications on worlds the Scions of Dorn had claimed for the Imperium, placing the banner upon every one of them, and fighting the treacherous Iron Warriors whenever they were encountered. Marsaak Isaayah accepted these terms.

Each of the Black-Maned of the three tribes was told of this outcome. They were instructed to ally with and to assist any Imperial Fists Successors in need. Before the pilgrimage, he left the monitoring of alliances to Pharoa Duri. After the pilgrimage, Chapter Master Isaayah was told about what was occurring in the Gudan Sector. He was told the alliance between the Bulls of Retribution and the Void Lions of the Second Tribe. This afforded the Lions to fulfill their agreement with their progenitors by assisting their fellow brother Chapter. Pharoa Duri was simply there to seal the alliance as representative of the tribe in his absence. The void battle that occurred between the Night Lords Traitor Legion and the Bulls of Retribution was won thanks in no small part to the role the Void Lions' Chapter fleet, which combined with the Bulls' formidable fleet, were able to perform aggressive void warfare.

The battle on the Shattered Halo between the Void Lions and Night Lords was a devastating blow for the traitorous get of the Night Haunter, as they were not expecting the Void Lions fleet to show up in the middle of the Gudan Sector. In the meeting, Black-Maned Pharoa Duri of the First Tribe and Black-Maned Obalai of the Second Tribe, met Chapter Master Ilyanus Shohet of the Bulls of Retribution, bowing with respect. Ilyanus bade them to rise, and clasps wrists in the manner of a warrior's handshake with both Astartes. Duri introduced the Black-Maned of the Second Tribe to Ilyanus, letting him know that the Void Lions would be assisting them with the Night Lords problem in the sector.

Enemies

 * Night Lords

Notable Quotes
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By:
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Team
In this section i want to say thank you to my helping people and give credit to those who work with me building this chapter.

Before Everything HUGE thanks to Lord Algrim Whitefang and his brother Achillies Prime for giving me a permission on creating my own homebrew chapter in their wiki page.

Writers:

Jonathon David Allison (Jackson the Mortifax) = Best writer since this chapter's beginning.

Support:

Joseph Lawrence Dobbs 4th (Lawrence the Chosen) = For helping come up with names.

General (Inquisitor Vuln of the Void Lions) = For helping me get this chapter at first place and for being my ally.

Daniel (Roland of the Roses) = For helping me with correcting my writing.

Alex Pochatun (TeneBrium38) = For helping me with the name.

Shane (Virtual art designer) = For creating an amazing portrait of Ilyanus Shohet.

Valerius Spero (Creator of Templarii Scientae) = For teaching me how to make and recolor 40k visuals/art.