+ inload: Ultramarine Master of Signal +

+ Upilio Constantine Pullo +


The XIIIth, perhaps more than any other Legion, relies on smoothly interlinking command and control, with orders percolating downwards for swift enactment. Some Ultramarines excel at particular roles – the strategic leadership of the Legion falls to those most able to command; while line sergeants provide staunch tactical direction. +

+ Being equal in ability does not necessitate heterogeneity, of course. While some Officers of Ultramar achieve their rank through skill at arms – we think of Tauro Nichodemus, or the glittering blade of Salvio Fenn – others, like Constantine Pullo, possess some of his gene-father's genius for organisation and administration. +



+ The post of Master of Signal is the official designation for the post known to the Iron Hands and Death Guard as Watchmaster, to the Raven Guard – unofficially at least – as Whisperchief, and to the Ultramarines as Upilio. The role varies slightly, but all who wish to master it must possess an ability to parse, sort and filter a tide of often conflicting information, acting both as filter and codifier of the ebbs and flows not just of battles; but of entire theatres of war. +

+ Owing to their multi-levelled thinking and superlative calculatory abilities, most Signal Officers excel at void warfare, and many are drawn from void-captains and Astartes fleet staff. They are commonly placed in charge of Expeditionary sub-fleets, a responsibility far above most Centurions' duties. +


+ Never the most fearsome in combat, nor the most charismatic, nor yet the most indomitable, Constantine Pullo is nevertheless a terrifying man to make your enemy; as he has the ten thousand arms and ten thousand eyes of the Ultramarines beneath his command to turn against you. +


+ Decked out in artificer-adapted Mark V hybrid (II/IV) plate with inbuilt cognitive-memhancer, arm-mounted augur-board and multi-spectrum vox-beading, Pullo is capable of directing an entire battlefront; as indeed he demonstrated during the Syrinx Annihilation, the closing events of the Hypon campaign, and the Nekuli void-war. In addition to this equipment, he carries an eminently practical boltpistol sidearm and the vitis, the short staff that serves as mark of office, as a visual directional tool when his high-tech equipment fails him or is impractical, and – in extremis – as a bludgeoning weapon. +



+ The Master of Signal is a role that sits at the heart of the Ultramarines' way of war. Serving in the 15th for nearly three decades, Constantine Pullo's experience and knowledge saw him promoted after the Nekuli campaign to a new role with the Evocati, overseeing the training of future Ultramarines on Armatura. This was a role he took on with characteristic seriousness. Redeployed to Calth alongside the final intake of Inductii before the Ghaslakh campaign muster, Pullo was caught alongside the warriors of the newly-created 190th when the Word Bearers attacked. He was lost on the surface prior to the Underworld War; just another of the 160,000 or so Legionary casualties of the Atrocity. +

No comments: