For a while, everyone thought Commissar Yarrick was dead. Now, we’re finding out exactly what happened to him before his shock return to Armageddon.
Those who remember the last time Orks invaded Armageddon may recall that Ghazghkull Thraka sought to jump-start a new phase of war and set off across the stars, determined to start da Great Waaagh! and find an even better scrap. Yarrick followed in hot pursuit with a force of Black Templars.
The fleet harried the Beast of Armageddon as he moved from sector to sector, constructing a strange device that defied Imperial auguries. Finally, they caught up to Ghazghkull’s horde on the world of Icaria, only to find the planet itself cracking and buckling under the immense power of his insane artifice – a mountain of ramshackle machinery that split the skies with bolts of green lightning.
The apocalyptic forces unleashed upon Icaria left Ghazghkull stranded atop a rocky mesa, surrounded by warring armies. Yarrick made his play – forming up his flotilla of battered vessels, including a single Fenrisian strike cruiser, and plunging into the throat of the Ork fleet. He landed a veteran strike force right on the Beast’s doorstep.
A barrage powerful enough to destroy armies thundered into Ghazghkull and threw up a plume of smoke. The Beast roared, wounded but defiant. A conjuration of stormfrost from the Space Wolves dragged his hulking form down, only to shatter with a sound like a gunshot as Ghazghkull charged.
Yarrick rose to meet his nemesis, swinging his massive claw and catching Ghazghkull square in the chest with its razor-sharp talons. Yet his foe had survived much worse, and the Warlord grabbed the Commissar in his own vice-like grip, crushing bones like dry twigs as he lifted Yarrick to face him.
A titanic headbutt landed, painting the Beast’s face with a plume of crimson. He smashed Yarrick to the ground and raised an ironclad boot, ready to pulp his greatest enemy once and for all, before stopping with a wicked grin. Victorious once again, he withdrew as the planet bucked in its death throes.
Amidst the chaos and scattering Imperial forces, no one saw the black-armoured form of a Fenrisian priest spirit away what remained of the legendary Commissar.
His fleeing forces reported his death, and in time, the Bell of Lost Souls rang out on Terra. But against all the odds, the Old Man of Armageddon had survived. Yarrick lay in the medical bays of a Space Wolves strike cruiser. Though he escaped death once more, he would never be the same – his reconstructed skull forever aching, his broken limbs supported by a cybernetic armature, and his skin unnaturally pallid even for his advanced age.
The skull-helmed priest of the Space Wolves had told him that he was still needed on Armageddon, and so to Armageddon they would go. The only question was whether they would get there in time, or if the Speedwaaagh! of Wazdakka Gutsmek would ravage the planet before Yarrick could even set foot on the cursed world once more.
Find out what happens when the Commissar makes planetfall in Armageddon: The Return of Yarrick, the next expansion for Warhammer 40,000. The book will be available soon, alongside a range of Astra Militarum reinforcements to help Yarrick reclaim the planet from the Ork menace. In the meantime, catch up on the Ork side of the story in the animation Old Bale Eye on Warhammer+.
