Gal Vorbak
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Remember the Possessed Marines? Yeah, meet their much cooler Grandpapas. The Gal Vorbak (meaning The Blessed Sons in Colchison, also called The Unburdened) were an elite formation of Possessed Chaos Space Marine warriors of the Word Bearers during the Horus Heresy.
Overview[edit]
Originating from the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion, they were originally members which had journeyed with Ingethel the Ascended to the newly-settled planet Cadia and the Eye of Terror to discover the Primordial Truth, bringing the revelation back to their Primarch Lorgar.
During their experiences in the Warp-tainted Eye, the members of the Serrated Sons became possessed by Daemons and most would eventually willingly submit to them in exchange for enhancing their already superhuman Astartes powers. The Gal Vorbak's first notable action was fighting against loyalist forces in the Drop Site Massacre, where all the original members got their ass handed to them battling Custodes (and Corax) save for Argel Tal. In the aftermath of the battle, Tal formed a new generation of Gal Vorbak known as the Vakrah Jal.
What differs the Gal Vorbak to their more modern plebs is that the members were able to transform back to their human selves, suggesting a higher level of cooperation between the Space Marine and the Daemon. Why that's the case compared to now, we have no idea. What we do know is that these guys look badass as hell and were much stronger and lethal than their modern descendents.
It should also be noted that they are still around today; possibly reaching rockstar status on Sicarus.
Crunch[edit]
On the Horus Heresy tabletop, the Gal Vorbak are the favoured sons of the legion, so they get Chosen Warriors on top of a Feel No Pain (5+) and Rage (2). Being Toughness five with three wounds per model makes them particularly tanky and immune to Instant Death from S8 and S9 and will keep their FNP damage mitigation saves against such weapons. They also have a base movement speed of 8 also gives them a +1 on their charge rolls, meaning they are a bit quicker than one might expect as well.
They start off with "Boltspitters" which are essentially regular boltguns with a different name, though because the Gal Vorbak are also Relentless they thankfully don't have to sacrifice their ability to charge just by using them. They each also have a single "Tainted Talon" which is pretty much a power sword with Murderous Strike (6+) and is exactly the same as the "Tainted Sword" that the Word Bearers have in their armoury. Yet that means this squad can throw out a ridiculous volume of S5 AP3 attacks on the charge with the small potential of some AP2 Instant Death thrown on top for good measure.