The Solar Watch, part 7 - Shield Captain Aurelian Valoris Threxian Kallastor.

 

What had once been a cathedral of command and control, tiered cogitator banks, brass-railed balconies, the hanging sigils of the Administratum, was now a hollowed wound of black glass and fused metal. 

The blast had not simply destroyed; it had unmade. Surfaces ran like wax. Stone had flowed. Steel had wept.

Ash drifted in slow, lazy spirals through the airless chamber, disturbed only by the heavy, deliberate tread of auramite boots.

They stood at the centre of it.
Golden figures in a dead place.
The Custodians.

At the forefront, Shield-Captain Aurelian Valoris Threxian Kallastor stood motionless, his guardian spear grounded before him, both hands resting upon its haft. His helm was mag-locked at his waist, his bare head lifted slightly, watching the kneeling figure at the center of their formation.

Around him, his forces held a perimeter without needing to be told. Wardens stood like statues of judgement. Venetarii hovered in silent arcs above the fractured galleries, their wings whispering faintly in the stillness. The Vexilus-Praetor planted the standard into a seam of cracked obsidian, where it stood unmoving, despite the faint, unnatural wind that coiled through the ruin.

And at the heart of it, Prima-Legate Kalimak Augustus Solthnar.

The black-armoured giant was utterly still, knelt with one gauntleted hand pressed flat against the warped floor. The obsidian sheen of his Allarus plate drank the light around him, broken only by veins of molten gold that seemed to pulse faintly beneath its surface. His head was bowed.

Listening. Invisibily Reaching.

The air around him trembled. 

Not to mortal senses. But to those present—those forged to stand in the Emperor’s shadow—it was undeniable. A pressure. A distortion. Like the moment before a storm breaks.

Aurelian watched him, unblinking.
“Report,” the Shield-Captain said at last.

Solthnar did not immediately respond.
When he did, his voice came as a layered thing. One tone was his own—deep, measured, absolute. The other… was not. It echoed beneath the first, like something vast speaking through a narrow channel.

“He lives,” Solthnar said.
A ripple passed through the assembled Custodians. Subtle. Contained. But there.
Aurelian did not move.

“Clarify.”

Solthnar slowly rose to his full height. As he did, the air seemed to ease, like a held breath released.

“Yor’Tar Dawne was present at the moment of detonation,” he said. “At the epicentre.”
His helm turned slightly, as if regarding something only he could see—some imprint left behind in the immaterial.

“He did not die.”

Aurelian’s eyes narrowed, fractionally.
“Impossible.”

"No,” Solthnar replied. “Worse.”
A pause, then the second voice spoke.
“He was taken.”

The word lingered in the ruined chamber like a toxin.
Aurelian’s grip tightened, just enough for the auramite of his gauntlet to creak softly against the haft of his spear.
“Explain.”

Solthnar stepped forward, the heavy tread of his Terminator plate echoing like distant thunder.
“This was not a detonation in the conventional sense,” he said. “It was a breach event. A forced translation point. The destruction you see—” he gestured with one clawed gauntlet to the vitrified expanse around them “—is residue. Displacement. The consequence of something being pulled through.”

“And Dawne?” Aurelian asked.

Solthnar’s gaze lifted.
“Anchored.”
Silence followed.
Cold. Absolute.
“He resisted,” Solthnar continued. “He fought. I can see the imprint of it—the psychic backlash. He wounded whatever reached for him. But in doing so…” He paused.
“He gave it purchase.”

Aurelian took a single step forward.
“Speak plainly, Legate.”

Solthnar met his gaze fully now. There was something in his eyes—not doubt. Not fear.
Recognition.
“Yor’Tar Dawne is no longer within realspace,” he said. “But neither is he lost.”
A beat.
“He has been drawn into the interstice. The space between.”

A murmur of static crackled across the vox-net as several Custodians instinctively tightened their formation.
Aurelian did not react.
“Then he is as good as dead.”

“No,” Solthnar said again, more sharply this time. “He is contested.”
That word landed differently.

Aurelian studied him.
“By what?”

For the first time, Solthnar hesitated.
It was infinitesimal. A fraction of a second. But to the Custodes, it was as loud as a gunshot.
When he answered, the second voice beneath his own seemed to deepen.
“Something that should not be here,” he said. “Something that remembers the Siege.”
The temperature in the chamber seemed to drop, frost crawled along surfaces from around Solthnar's armoured feet..

Aurelian’s expression hardened.
“Then this is a continuation,” he said. “Not an isolated incursion.”

“Yes.”
They stood in silence for a moment, two giants at the edge of comprehension.

Then Aurelian turned away.
“Formations will adjust,” he said, his voice carrying effortlessly across the chamber. “We are not committing full strength to this ruin.”

That drew a reaction.
Solthnar stepped forward, the servos of his armour snarling softly.
“You would withdraw?” he said. There was no disbelief in his tone—only a rising, dangerous intensity. “At the point of convergence?”

“I would refuse the enemy’s design,” Aurelian replied, without turning.

“This is the breach site,” Solthnar pressed. “The anchor point. Every thread leads here.”

“Then it is a lure.”

The two turned to face one another fully now.
Gold and black.
Auramite and obsidian.
Two expressions of the Emperor’s will—aligned in purpose, divergent in method.

“You presume much,” Solthnar said.

“I infer,” Aurelian replied. “From ten thousand years of war.”

“And I know,” Solthnar snapped, a flicker of that other voice bleeding through, “what stirs beyond the veil. This is not a game of positioning, Shield-Captain. This is a wound. You do not ignore a wound.”

“No,” Aurelian said evenly. “You cauterise it.”

A beat.
“Or you allow the infection to draw your hand.”
The words hung between them like drawn blades.
Around them, the Custodians stood utterly still. No one intervened. No one could.
This was not a dispute of rank.
This was doctrine.

Solthnar took another step forward.
“The Ordo Sinister felt this before your augurs stirred,” he said. “We traced the convulsion to this world. The pattern is here.”

“And yet,” Aurelian countered, “the architect is not.”
Silence.
Aurelian inclined his head slightly, just enough to acknowledge the Legate—not as subordinate, but as equal.
“Herath fled Terra to come here,” he said. “Why? To die beneath our blades? No. To complete something.”
His gaze swept the ruined chamber.
“This hive was sacrificed. Deliberately. A signal flare in the immaterium. A declaration.”
He looked back to Solthnar.
“If we commit everything to this corpse of a city, we do precisely what the enemy intends.”

Solthnar said nothing.
But the tension in him shifted.
Minutely.
“What would you propose?” he asked at last.

Aurelian did not hesitate.
“We divide the blade.”
He turned, gesturing with his spear.
“Strike element to descend. Hunt Herath. Confirm the status of Dawne if possible.” His gaze flicked briefly to the Allarus. “They will not fail.”
A slight inclination of helms acknowledged the order.
“Containment force establishes perimeter. Nothing leaves this site. Nothing emerges.”
The Wardens tightened formation, the Vexilus banner snapping once in the unseen wind.

“And you?” Solthnar asked.

Aurelian met his gaze.
“I do not fight where the enemy expects me to.”
A pause.
“I hunt the next breach.”

For a long moment, Solthnar said nothing.
Then, slowly, he inclined his head.
Not submission.
Not agreement.
Acceptance.
“Very well, Shield-Captain Aurelian Valoris Threxian Kallastor,” he said. “We will proceed… your way.”
The second voice whispered beneath the first:
“For now.”

Aurelian gave a single, sharp nod.
“Then we are agreed.”
He turned, his voice rising to command once more.
“Prepare for immediate redeployment. Venetarii—ascend. We take to the upper strata.”

Solthnar paused.
Just for a fraction of a second, as though listening.
A flicker of something—brief, distant, wrong—passed across his senses.
His eyes narrowed.

*****

More Adeptus Custodes....unheard of really.

The Solar Watch reached a milestone recently as i had a week of leave off from work and set down to finish off a few things which have been staring at me part painted*.

We visited Element Games Stockport again and Fraser asked for the army back.

I set too finishing the last bits I needed to, to make the force playable in total.

So, the main focus was Shield Captain Aurelian Valoris Threxian Kallastor.

A Forge World model and a very nice casting at that i must admit.

Once I had gotten into the swing of painting the Solar Watch again, he was very enjoyable to paint and I finished him as the other guys were attempting to play a very ambitious game of Horus Heresy 3rd edition**.

He uses all the techniques I've described through the other posts about the Custodes.

The off-white armour, red and gold detailing, a regal purple cloak to mark him out from his company.

The onnly thing I couldn't do at Element was to add Grass Tufts to the base, but the next time I'm over st Frasers I can do that in less then five minutes.

A close up of his face,  which I was pleased with for how simple it was.

A layer of Palid Wych Flesh and then a wash with Flesh shade and a tiny bit of Earthshade in the deepest recesses like his eyes and mouth.

His hair and the metallic patch on the side of his head was giving me Josh Brolin vibes from Deadpool 2 when he played Cable, if the model would have had a Bionic Eye, I would have painted it a bright yellow to really double down on tbe image.

Finally, before we left Element, I grabbed a few pieces of terrain and organised a couple of army photos, as seen here.

The main bulk of the army with the Shield-Captain, Sword-Champions, Allarus Terminators and a squad of Custodian Guard.

Another small squad of Custodian Guard, a Vexilus-Praetor and a Squad of Custodian Wardens.

And Legate-Prima Solthnar on the far right, contrasting in his Black Armour.

The force isn't quite finished, as there are two more Allarus Terminators and two more Custodian Guard to finish when I next visit.

But the bulk of the remainder, six Ventarii, I still have to work on, so they'll be the focus of the next post on this force.

I also hope to get a few photos of the army without the light bleed from Element Games next time as well.

Until next time, have nice day...

*more varied posts to come soon...I hope.

**I am hoping to take part in a smaller game of 3rd edition HH next time, in a 'learn the rules' type affair.

Once we've done that I'll post my thoughts about it compared to my beloved 1st edition.