Legiones Astartes Dusk Raiders – Legion Vindicator “Rook’s Revenge”.
It was not uncommon, during the original mustering of the Legions, for wealthy Terran families, city states, or individual settlements, to ‘sponsor’ the manufacture of vehicles by the Martian Mechanicum to equip the Legions. The Deimos Pattern Rhino, ubiquitous during the Great Crusade, served as a platform for many well-known variants and was a favourite for such acts of fealty and generosity. The Vindicator “Rooks Revenge” was originally ‘purchased’ by Albian nobility and gifted to the XIVth Legion. It gained its epithet serving consistently alongside the Bloodshield Breachers of Sergeant Tullus, and a standing joke within the squad concerning the vehicle’s provenance, led to its commander being referred to as the ‘Marcher Baron’. Both these idiosyncrasies were quickly incorporated into its unique livery and iconography.
The ultimate fate of “Rook’s Revenge” is uncertain – Information gleaned from XIVth Legion Blackshields captured during the scouring, suggest that the vehicle became ill-omened when the legion reunited with its primarch, its machine spirit having baulked at the repainting of its livery, causing it to be mothballed in some forgotten Legion bunker, waiting for the eventual return of its true masters...