+ inload: Brother Trimenos +

+ inload: Brother Trimenos +

+ 'Silver-footed' Trimenos (the epithet is untraceable) is another member of the 15th, one of the veterans sent to monitor the Acadmemy of Aelea, one of the newly-founded training centres established on Calth. Ultramarine Evocatii were beginning to be trained at such centres at the outbreak of the Heresy, decentralising the Ultramarines' traditional tactical base away from Macragge and Armatura and to the Principal worlds. Alas, the project was never seen to completion. The terrible losses of the Heresy meant that the far-sighted Akadamios project, championed by a number of Chapter Masters, was an unnecessary – and unaffordable – luxury in the dark years that followed. By the relative peace of M33, the Legions had long been divided into Chapters, and the project was forgotten. +

+ What might have been? The Akadamios project's aim was to expand Astartes from soldiers into pioneers. Without neglecting their martial purpose – and more than ninety-five per cent of their daily time went into rigorous training – the newly-inducted Astartes were shaped with lessons such as natural philosophy, rhetoric, and governance. Experienced Astartes, including specialists from certain other Legions, were cycled in to provide valuable lectures on particular aspects of war-craft. The dark days of the Great Scouring meant openness and learning were in short supply; supplanted by suspicion, grief and vengeance. +

+ Like many others present on Calth during the Atrocity, most records of this legionary have been lost. Nevertheless, it is possible to make some assumptions from this collection of pict-links. For example, it is likely that his plate – an unusually uniform (if battered) set of Mars-pattern Mark II means that he was either a Terran veteran of the so-called 'War-born' (unlikely, given other aspects of his dress) or, more likely, recruited during the 15th during one of their tours nearer a supply line that connected to the galactic core. 

+ Such recruits were drawn from the populace of worlds rendered Compliant by the Ultramarines. Many were orphans or ex-soldiery, keen to see and fight for the new Imperium, and found a home in the Ultramarines. If this is the case, Trimenos would likely have been trained on-ship, and issued equipment from fleet stores rather than direct from the forges of the Five Hundred Worlds. +

+ Trimenos' character is perhaps illuminated a little by the details of this pict-capture – a combat crouch while he reloads his boltgun, a well-secured combat blade at his hip, and a full supply of boltgun ammunition at his waist suggest a dutiful warrior. One exception to the Mars-uniform is shown here – the distinctive crested pauldron, seemingly patterned after Mark III reinforcement and common amongst the 190th Company. Members of the 15th were accustomed to adorning their left pauldron with personal heraldry. It is possible that this is a field-repair (perhaps taken from a luckless casualty), but the lack of Legion symbol on the right-hand pauldron suggests that this suit of plate is all Trimenos' own. Scanty reports suggest that the 15th were undergoing a period of transition prior to their deployment on Calth: the older personalised heraldry was becoming less common amongst line troopers, who more and more appreciated the value of uniformity and the value of the unbroken and indivisible line. +

+ Certainly this philosophy was encouraged by the Akadamios, and it is entirely likely that Captain Teutonos (acting-regent of the Chapter) had ordered any troops delivering lectures to appear in standard uniform plate in order to inculcate this idea upon the impressionable Evocatii to whom they spoke. For this reason, it is impossible to be certain of Trimenos' demeanour – for all we know his preferred armour was elaborate and complex, and he had been forced to substitute it whole for this new version here. The truth will never now be known, but the idea is a valuable one, as it shows just another reason why the Legions showed such variety in uniform and detail. +

+ This final pict-capture neatly shows Trimenos' chest-plate, proudly emblazoned with the Legion symbol in silver mounted on onyx, an unusual honorific which indicates service in a breacher squad. Perhaps the speciality on which he lectured was void-boarding assaults. He was recorded MIA on the fourth day post-Atrocity, and his body was never recovered. It is likely whatever scraps of his body and armour remain lie bleached in one of the innumerable mass graves on Calth's blasted surface even now. +