JUSTICE ROCK

Before the start of the Great Crusade and the Emperor of Mankind’s Galactic conquest, a small barren planet was nearly driven to the brink of extinction and anarchy. Feuding warlords finally banded together, calling truce to save their home world and brought law and order to those who sought to destroy their lifeblood. They slaughtered thousands who opposed their will and enslaved millions more.

Once order had been restored they began building the first Correctional Facilities and the first Laws were passed. These Correctional Facilities were little more than massive prisons built by the very people that had been enslaved. They numbered in the hundreds and towered over all other edifices. Built to punish those who failed to follow the Law, the prison population swelled in the tens of thousands, while free men lived in fear.

Absolute power of the planet twisted the minds and hearts of the ruling elite. The warlords now in power, they became the judges, juries and executioners. Anyone found guilty of treason or lesser crimes was severely punished. They declared the planet to now be called “ Justice Rock”, a fitting name for a world now ruled by martial law.

The warlords dressed themselves in a puritan manner, plain black attire and jet sheen armor. Their helms fashioned in the shape of grim reaper but void of eyes, as justice knew right without sight. They bore large caliber rifles and carried high powered energy pistols at their side. The population began calling them the “ Black Judges”, walking dealers of twisted retribution, clothed in black. For hundreds of years life was hell on Justice Rock.

The Black Judges, now confident in their righteousness began to pacify the entire system and brought their brand of Law and Order to less willing populations. The mass graves were seen from orbit by traders and smugglers passing through or fleeing from the Black Judges and their armies. Distress signals were sent out and the nearby world of Olympia answered the call.

The Adeptus Astartes of the Iron Warriors Legion demanded that the Black Judges cease all acts of aggression and show fealty to their Lord and Primacrh, Perturabo. The Black Judges scoffed at the notion of an Emperor, blaspheming his name and disregarding the Legions mandate, they continued their madness and cut contact off.

The total lack of reason was the Black Judges undoing.

Perturabo had only recently taken control of his Legion and the heretical violence and arrogance of the Black Judges was the perfect target for the Iron Warriors to show their devotion to their Primacrh and Emperor as well as a way for the new recruits of Olympia to prove their worth.

In a matter of days the Entire Legion mobilized and invaded Justice Rock, hundreds of drop pods and storm birds slammed down onto the planets rugged surface. The Black Army caught off guard they were broken into piecemeal defensive units by the sheer onslaught of the Iron Warriors.

The precision and dogged manner the Iron Warriors fought with left the Black Army retreating to their Correctional Facilities, only to have the Legion demolish them to rubble with massive cannons and siege tanks.

Millions of soldiers loyal to the Black Judges died in the first three days of fighting. The Iron Warriors relentless assault took the Legion to the gates of the Black Judges palace. Perturabo himself led the attack on their fortress, Iron Warriors jump troops dropped from the skies as tactical squads advanced through servitor built trench lines. The walls of the palace shook and moaned as it was bombarded every hour from orbit as well as by ground artillery. The trenches and open killing fields were flooded with the blood of the Black Judges army, bodies piled so high they had no use for sandbags.

Justice Rocks three moons were clouded in smoke when Perturabo mounted his personal Land Raider and gave the order to breach the palace. The Legion stormed forward the sound of a hundred rhinos and Land Raiders shaking the very ground, the sound dwarfing even the most extreme of ordinance explosions.

The Iron Warriors slaughtered all who raised weapons in last defense and those who fled were ripped apart by bolter fire or stampeded by the steel boots of the Space Marines. One by one the strongholds of the Black Judges were cleansed with righteous fury. Until only three Black Judges remained, the three High Marshals.

Perturabo had sent three squads of his newly formed Terminator armored Iron Warriors to apprehend the heretics, only to be cut down by the cunning and lethal Marshals. Pure rage pulsed through the Primarchs head as he exited his command tank and squared off against the last of the Black Judges. Imperil Records state that a Captain Thalza was witness to the wrath of his Primarch.

“A dozen Iron Warriors stood watching in awe as our Lord sidestepped a volley of gunfire and decapitated one of the Black Judges with a single blow from his power mace. Both Judges attacked the Primarch at once, their super charged combat batons not even stunning our mighty Lord. One handed he swung his mace again, swatting one Judge to the floor, his bones and innards pulverized from the impact, Perturabo charged headlong, ramming the final Judge up against a marble effigy, splintering it in two. He raised the heathen by his neck and strangled the life from him in silence, his dark eyes starring coldly as the Black Judges final breathe left his lips in a gasp of blood.”