113The idea for writing around the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia came from the Gathering Storm supplements. Book One, aptly titled Fall of Cadia was a major source of inspiration for the story setting. Before anything about Cadia is mentioned, I will briefly touch on the less-important and non-canonical fall of Nemesis Tessera. While Nemesis was in the path of the Chaos warfleets at the onset of the 13th Black Crusade, they did not deal a crushing defeat to the imperial forces stationed there, ending with the Craftworld Eldar generously evacuating a portion of the troops on to their own ships, rather the Inquisitorial fortress there stood firm against repeated assaults from surface and orbital assaults. At this stage of the crusade, the Eldar had not yet approached the Imperium with an offer of a truce. Eldrad Ulthran, a canonical character, had yet to ally with the burgeoning Ynnari, and instead sent Izuru Numerial to open talks with the imperials on Nemesis, sowing the seeds for the eventual truce between the Ynnari and Humanity.
Canonically, no Eldar were involved in the struggle on Cadia's surface or in orbit. The conflict was fought entirely between the Imperium and the Forces of Chaos, with some participation by the Necron Overlord Trazyn. On the whole, the five-week-long invasion depicted in Stars butts heads with canon as it really took Cadia several months from the initial skirmishes in space, to the landings, and the eventual fall of, first Cadia Primus then Cadia Secundus, leading up to the final defence of Kasr Kraf and the fight both on and beneath the Elysion Fields. I streamlined the Fall of Cadia simply for story's sake. Any major events I accounted for on the pages of Stars did occur during canon: the defence of Kraf's curtain wall, the titanic explosion that saw the destruction of Kasr Stark, the push on to the Elysion Fields by Ursarker Creed and The Lord Castellan's Own, the firing of the Pylons, and the planet's destruction by Abaddon ramming the crippled Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity in to Cadia Tertius. The smaller, low-key firefights: the defence of Firebase Rakkassan, the skirmishes the protagonists are caught up in during the retreat to Kraf, and the final showdown against the primary antagonist, for example, are fictional stories laid out on the canon background.
On the whole, I tried to keep as many locations seen, visited, or mentioned by the characters as near to canon as I could. Every Kasr: Kraf, Jark, Luten, Stark, and Hollen are mentioned in Fall of Cadia. The continents: Primus, Secundus, and Tertius are real. The Shrine of Saint Morrican, the Sword of Defiance – the crashed strike cruiser belonging to the Dark Angels – as well as the Gehennis Escarpment, the Kolarak Plains, and Martyr's Rampart are also real. The exact locations of these places are not given in canon, so I made a rough approximation of each's whereabouts, using Kraf as a centre-point and arranging everything else around it. Rakka, as well as the location of the climax of the primary story arc, the inner citadel of Kasr Kraf and the two towers: Tleilax and Arrakis, are fictional.
A fair portion of the characters the protagonists encounter are real or either have their basis in a real-life figure. Ursarker Creed, the indomitable general and Lord Castellan of Cadia, his sergeant major – colour sergeant in canon – Jarran Kell were too important to leave out. True, it was Creed's leadership that Cadia was balancing on, and all of the important decisions regarding strategy, as well as the ace up his sleeve he drew – the concentrated armoured thrust on to the Elysion Fields from the north – were instrumental in allowing countless others to evacuate whilst he sacrificed himself on the fields with the Cadian Eighth (8 Brigade in Stars). Now, aside from Creed there weren't really any other brass that were given the spotlight, making it seem the battles were fought by him and him alone. As General Officer Commanding of all ground forces on Cadia, Creed certainly had no business in taking to the field at all, though he still chose to take up the mantle of brigade commander, leading to his wounding and capture by Trazyn. Major General Alexis Rebbeck, the GOC of 1st Guards Division, later GOC I Corps, took over from Creed and commanded the evacuation effort on the ground. Rebbeck, along with Rear Admiral Oslam Seger, Captain Dalmut Meynell, and Commander Jack Cudden, are based off real-life figures. The officers of the Imperial Navy, with the exception of Admiral Quarren, are fictional, but were necessary in giving the navy actual presence on the ground. About the principal AdMech character Belisarius Cawl, I portrayed him as an innovator, a borderline mad scientist, if you will. In canon he personally never had any interactions with the Eldar with the exception of Sylandri Veilwalker. Andalusia too, is something of an eccentric, though sincere and kindly to her friends. The only Space Marine character given a name is Orven Highfell, who commanded the Space Wolves' Great Company from Kasr Jark. Other chapters are mentioned: The Dark Angels, Black Templars, and Imperial Fists, whose timely arrival in orbit with the Phalanx helped greatly with the fleet actions and the evacuation. As in Flesh, the Marines are not central to the plot, nor is the big picture.
Concerning the Eldar characters, the conflict between Macha – who is Eldrad Ulthran's daughter in canon – and Izuru was invented for the story. Canonically, Macha did seek aid because of the daemonic infiltration of Biel-Tan, her home, though she did not instigate a coup during her father's absence and divert Ulthwé's expeditionary fleet from their original destination of Cadia. Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker and the corsair Avele Swifteye, both minor characters, habit canon as well, though the latter did not perish during the descent to Cadia from the Grace of the Mother. The Emissary of Ynnead, Yvraine, is quite possibly the most important Eldar character, and I felt it necessary to include her, for it was she who extended her hand to the Imperium – in the story it is Eldrad pushing her to do it, as she is reluctant, seeing what happened to the human-sympathetic Izuru – to form an alliance, being instrumental in resurrecting a very important being; one that could lead the Imperium in the future. Yvraine's companions, her bodyguard the Visarch, and the mysterious Yncarne, are also canon.
Inspiration from real-life conflicts was taken in portraying the fight for Cadia, most notably the Battle of France and the retreat by the British, French, and Belgians to Dunkirk during the Second World War. Cadia, a symbol of defiance, and a substitute for France, had held for ten-thousand years, beating back the dozen crusades Abaddon the Despoiler had launched in an attempt to crush the strongpoint. Nobody expected Cadia to fall, as with France at the beginning of the war. For had France not held out for four long years in the previous war? France was in possession of a bigger and better-equipped army than its foe, yet it still fell with alarming swiftness due to the indecisiveness and out-of-touch nature the aged generals were with the concepts of manoeuvre warfare. This was not the case with Cadia, whose astounding leadership from the highest generals to the lowest section commanders was second to none. It was only the plummeting Blackstone Fortress, colliding with Cadia's equator, that saw the very planet break in half. Truly the planet broke before the Guard, the Navy, or the Marines did, for there were isolated units still fighting on the surface even after the last ships had departed.
As with the withdrawal through France to the coast, the retreat undertaken by Larn and his allies is marked by heaving columns of refugees, all off-worlders, for there were technically no civilians on Cadia, heaps of motor transport either bombed or left behind by their owners who were under orders to deny any and all transport to the enemy, and systematic bombings by enemy aircraft that appeared to be in control of the skies. Kraf, as with Dunkirk, is depicted as a bombed-out ruin with soldiers and civilians taking shelter inside unlit cellars, where many were in a state of drunkenness after the mains were disrupted. The airbase, in as sorry a state as the rest of Kraf, was put out of action in a similar manner as the port of Dunkirk was. Orders to prioritise evacuating the able-bodied were in effect. Furthermore, the Cadians, as with the British Army, would take priority over any other unit in getting off. Heavy daylight bombings forced both evacuations to take place mainly at night and, at Kraf, it was only the timely arrival of the Imperial Fists, bringing fresh ships, both military and merchant, that allowed the evacuation to resume in daylight as air cover, which had been non-existent before, now shielded the personnel ships, allowing them to take on passengers without fear of bombing.
As mentioned before, many of the human characters – both canon and non-canon – were inspired by real-life figures. Ursarker Creed, for starters, is a rough caricature of the British bulldog and former PM Winston Churchill, the gruff, charismatic cigar-chomper who was a standing symbol of defiance against tyranny. Alongside Churchill, in Stars, I have likened Creed to General Lord Gort, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force in France during the German invasion in 1940. Gort, though not without flaws, quite possibly saved the BEF by immediately ordering it to withdraw north to the coast, in defiance of orders to attack southwards. Gort was, on 1 June, ordered home, and was replaced by Major General Harold Alexander, the former commander of 1st Division, now GOC of I Corps. It is off Alexander whom I have based Major General Alexis Rebbeck. Both men, fine officers, conducted their operation with coolness and professionalism, and it was as true for Rebbeck as it was for Alexander, both made sure they were among the last to be evacuated, only leaving after making certain that the last troops were off. This leads me on to the three principal naval officers. The first: Rear-Admiral Oslam Seger is based off Amiral Jean Abrial as well as Rear-Admiral William Wake-Walker. Both senior naval officers, the former commanded the French evacuation from Dunkirk – and was not initially informed that the British were evacuating – believing they could maintain a foothold on French soil. The latter, appointed commander of all ships off the coast, was forced to operate from a naval launch after his flagship Keith – Kosper in the story – was destroyed. Commander Jack Cudden is based off Jamie Campbell Clouston, a Canadian who acted as pier-master at Dunkirk, and was tragically killed whilst returning from a conference at the Admiralty in Dover. Cudden's fate mirrors Clouston's, both were killed when their naval launches were attacked mid-trip. Lastly, Captain Dalmut Meynell is a composite of Captain William Tennant, the senior naval officer who commanded the British evacuation at Dunkirk. Both men, staying right until the very end, made sure that all who could be rescued were. Meynell and Tennant were lauded for their successful efforts in rescuing so many.
Unit-wise, most of the formations in Stars are based off real-life regiments, either foreign or in the British Army. The poster-boys and girls for the Imperial Guard: the Cadian Shock Troops I have based off the British Guards formations with a smattering of Israeli Defence Force in there. Think Coldstreams, Grenadiers, Welsh, Irish, and Scots Guards and the somewhat elitist attitude they had over the regular infantry divisions, and the fact that each Cadian had to do a period of service, as citizens do in the IDF. If accents can be applied to Warhammer – where every human speaks Gothic – then the Nerians, survivors of the units that fought on Nemesis, sound Canadian. The Canadians were known as the 'Shock Army of the British Empire', renowned for their ferocity in attack and tenacity in defence. The Atreides Cavalry – Cyrano's unit – had its roots in the Russian Cossack hosts. Cyrano was even named after a certain unit – the Semirechye Host. He held the rank sotnik which was equivalent to a senior lieutenant. Peter and Woulter Leurbach's unit, the Tabor Territorials, was essentially a Home Guard formation made up of men either underage or overage. Both father and son being too young and too old to serve in a proper combat formation. Their khaki uniform took elements from the British Army Battledress worn during and after the Second World War. Uniform of the same cut, albeit rougher, was worn by the 92nd Gellen Highlanders. The section of Highlanders was based off the Black Watch, formerly the Royal Highland Regiment. The unique beret they wore was the Tam-O-Shanter bonnet. The Cyrric Rangers that attacked Rakka took inspiration from the various Belgian and French mercenary groups that operated in the Congo in the 1960s, being well-equipped with small and heavy-calibre weaponry and transported by flatbeds with mounted weapons. Their mish-mash of uniforms was quite common in a merc outfit. The name Voynuk Siphani is a play on words of the Spahis, who were light cavalry recruited by France from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. The Siphanis themselves are closer to colonial troops France fielded during the First World War, possessing blue uniforms with outdated leather webbing. Their lasguns as well were older models.
Along with the units and events, I have based many uniforms, kit, small-arms, armoured fighting vehicles, and aircraft off existing examples, which I will not list in full, for fear of boring you with every single weapon and piece of equipment that was featured in Stars. I urge you to check out the glossary at the end of Flesh if you are interested in reading about some of the weapons and vehicles. Just a minor example, but the autocannon Izuru operated competently whilst defending the perimeter around Kraf was a near-mirror replica of a Solothurn S-18/1000, a 20-millimetre anti-tank rifle built by the Swiss, known for its significant kick-back and extreme weight; 122 pounds loaded to be exact. Another weapon, this one a rifle, was the Arowana also used by Izuru. It is based off a Russian SVD Dragunov with wooden furniture, but chambered for a higher calibre, 9.5-millimetre, and firing from a ten-round magazine. The Gerax rifle, used by Larn and the Gerax Jaegers – themselves based off the German Fallschirmjaeger – was an FG-42 equipped with a ZF-4 scope and loaded with 25 rounds in a custom MG-13 magazine. These are just a few of the small-arms and man-packed weaponry that are featured in Stars.
While many high-profile figures are featured in the story, Stars, as Flesh was before it, is about normal humans – with the exception of the heroine Izuru Numerial – and their attempts to survive the horrors of warfare in the 41st millennium. The protagonist, Larn, as well as his fellow soldiers, is an otherwise normal human, albeit resourceful, learned after surviving his previous battles, and lucky. His story is not over, and will be concluded in the final chapter of the saga: Eating Death.
As ever, I'd like to say a thank you to anybody who favourited, followed, or left their review of Stars. It is immensely appreciated. Any questions you might have on the plot, characters, weapons, battles, or what lies ahead, please don't hesitate to message me.
PhantomStag458