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Hello to all!
Well, Here comes version 1.2 of my chapter's fluff. Enjoy. Any feedback appreciated There are some changes respect to the previous version, like the inclusion of an inquisitor in the force and some changes in the operations performed so far as well as how have they been performed and some more information on other parts as wel as some text edition.
Regards,
Xavi
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CHAPTER BACKGROUND
CHAPTER PERSONALITIES
VETERAN UNITS: The Apocalypse Riders and The Cleansers
CHAPTER RECRUITS & SQUAD ORGANIZATION
CHAPTER ORGANIZATION after the organizational changes
THE FLEET
THE PALMAN EMPIRE
CHAPTER BACKGROUND
I. Glory Days
The chapter was created in the XXVIth founding after some vessels reported a strong Eldar presence in the Farid System, a system that was nominally under the control of the Imperium, even if effective control had never been established there. The plans to colonise it had been pendant for 3 millennia and only one of the planets was inhabited, even if their development level was that of bronze age. The Eldar movements detected in the system made the High Lords of Terra decide to deploy a Space Marine chapter in the system to control those movements and confirm the imperial domain over the system.
Hence, the Fire Purgers were created and 50 years after the first zygotes were prepared the chapter was successfully deployed in Farid VII, the colonized planet that had undergone huge improvements in their facilities under the direction of the Adeptus Mechanicus during that period, even if they were still in a crude technology and social age to create tensions and enhance the battle prowess of the population since they were supposed to be the future recruitment base of the new chapter.
Even if there had been Eldar sightings during those years, no Eldar presence had been detected in the system but for some stones in either of the extreme planets of the system. Superstitious as the imperials are, and given their similarity to the Cadian Monoliths the Adeptus Mecanicus had refused to remove or investigate them in depth, specially after a titan guarding the first expedition appeared destroyed one morning. No one had heard anything during the night. After the chapter was deployed in Farid VII the Adeptus Mechanicus left the system to its new rulers.
The chapter was created using the Crimson Fists geneseed and was a stable one. As a show of respect to the geneseed used and because of his tactical skills Captain Raphael of the 5th Crimson Fists Battle Company was awarded the position of chapter master of the newly formed force. During the tests they performed excellently and they were specially trained in starship combat since they were to control a system more than anything. Given their primary duty, the fleet of the chapter was quite big for a space marine chapter, and included 4 battle barges and 13 cruisers, apart from a plenty of escort vessels and recon ships. Soon the sky around Farid VII became nearly a naval station in its own right and the natives became reverent to their new masters, that had brought stars in the sky for them with their arrival.
Everything went well for 2 years, with no Eldar presence detected in the system. Even better, a large promethium source was detected in Farid VI and the marines were obviously assigned the task to protect it as well while the Adeptus Mechanicus prepared the equipment and human resources to exploit it. During this period the navy of the new chapter reached the full strength that the Lords of Terra wanted to give it and their missions in a sector with a high rate of piracy were remarkable. Of special mention were the Hunter Squadrons of the chapter, that depleted more than one pirate force way larger than them in weaponry and size due to some inventions of the Techmarines of the chapter, including improved boarding and fusion torpedoes. The chapter also engaged itself in a campaign to destroy several ork kingdoms in nearby systems and used that as battle practice for the marines. Everything seemed designed to announce a future of glory for the chapter.
II. Doomsday
Then, in one day it all changed. The truth is that the system was a webway middle step for the eldar. The large stones in each extreme of the system were webway portal links. The system was a real space step between 2 large webway portals created during the golden age of the Eldar. large enough to hold out a craftworld?s army. And this is exactly what appeared through one of the portals.
The Eldar already knew that the marines were there after a small cruiser of them was intercepted by the marines half a year ago and the runes telling the farseers about the danger of having a long time secure route blocked by mon keighs while they had more dire problems, so they assembled their forces and appeared in the system prepared to destroy the invaders of their webway system and get a safe path again
The marines readied their fleet, and a large confrontation began. The battle raged for a day, even if the Eldar had assembled a clearly superior fleet, both in manpower (elfpower) and vessels, basically due to the fact that the marines were at the same time fighting for their lives, protecting their home system and performing the duty they had been primarily assigned to perform, strengthening their resolve beyond any known limits before. But the Eldar were clearly winning the day. After an Eldar cruiser squadron broke the Marine line and blew out the promethium-rich planet of Farid VI. The deflagration whipped out most of the Space Marine fleet, that was still in reserve and destroyed Farid VII, taking out a huge chunk of the planet and making the world change its orbit as well as destroying its biosphere. After that perfectly timed blow the Eldar annihilated the rest of the marine fleet and left the scene, leaving only devastation and death to demonstrate they had been there. A marine chapter had all but been whipped out from their path, obliterated by Asuryan?s Wrath.
III. The Dannomel Survivors
Not all the marines were at their home world when the battle started, though. The 4th and 5th companies, as well as some elements of the 10th company had been fighting in the nearby Dannomel system against the Ork Warlord Kargarr and were unaffected by the devastation unleashed by the Eldar. When the notice of the attack reached them they embarked in their 3 strike cruisers, the Purification Spear and the Fury and sprinted to their home system, but they only found devastation when they reached the home world. Some patrol squadrons, mostly assigned to other companies also joined them there as they had been far away patrolling in search of pirates or in recon missions as well. Of special significance among those was the Vanguard, an other strike cruiser that had been sent to investigate some alien structures discovered in a nearby sector under the leadership of Techmarine Huron, the head techmarine of the chapter. The notice of the Vanguard being active raised the marine spirits somewhat since some important personalities and resources from the chapter?s armoury were on board of the vessel due to the mission it had to undertake. That increased the number of capitol ships in the remaining force to 3, even if the Vanguard was so far away that an appointment was made for a later date in a nearby sector for both forces instead of ordering it to return to the base system. The small forces headed for the Pler Hive World, since the remaining fleet had no long range astropaths to contact Imperial authorities and inform about the terrible events that just happened. They didn?t expect but chapter dissolution after the utter failure of all their Chapter Sacred Missions but they accepted it valiantly none the less. Only 261 marines remained of the original chapter.
In the meantime, Captain Janus of the 5th Company became the temporary leader of the remnants of the chapter after a general vote of the brothers. He had distinguished himself in combat against the Orks in Dannomel and had a broad tactical skill that surpassed that of battlefield tactics, even if the Fleet Master role was given to Brother Valorus, leader of the Purification Spear Strike Cruiser, that had distinguished itself during the previous years in the pirate hunting tactics and sector strategies to wipe them out. The chapter also decided as a whole to change their armour colour from Light blue and grey to black as a sign of penitence and remorse and changed their name to Black Purificators, the ones that need to purify themselves after failing in a sacred mission.
IV. The Battle of Pler; The Emperor?s Glory revealed
When the small force reached Pler they found why their campaign in Dannomel was going so well. An ork blockade was laid on the planet and the astropaths informed about them being unable to penetrate an Ork psychic barrier around the planet; the Ork warboss Kargarr was attacking the planet.
Seeing a way to purify themselves from their past failures the marines readied their small fleet for combat and attacked the enemy capital ship, that given the entrance point in orbit of the marines was in fact the first huge rock they encountered on their path. The assault went very well, and soon the marines were boarding the ork vessel while some hunters and novas were taking care of the incoming ork vessels that were coming to help their flagship.
The risky manoeuvre of the marines ended up going well, and several of the assault teams reached important parts of the ork construction in few minutes, cutting down its defences and allowing the strike cruisers to start a systematic bombardment of the vessel. In the meantime the assault group Death Harvesters, lead by Chaplain Ignitus of the 5th Company (so named because his favourite method to cleanse the heretics was to use a flamer) reached the space hulk?s ?command? centre where they found a huge ork and his bodyguards: Warboss Kargarr himself.
The two groups engaged in a furious battle for several minutes but the numeric superiority of the orks started to take its toll on the marines. But then, Chaplain Ignitus saw what he thought was not possible: the space hulk were they were fighting was in fact an imperial vessel and there was a huge image of the Emperor in the ceiling, even if partially ripped out with holes from the orks, that would have been having fun shooting at it. Chaplain Ignitus thought at least it was a good place to die fighting, under the eyes of the Almighty Emperor of mankind. That way he would be able to judge them all more easily. He was thinking in that way and smiling at the thought when something weird happened and he felt stronger, bigger and more powerful. In fact for the fist time he saw the 3 metre ork general as if he was no more than a child by his side. The face of the Emperor was watching at him, smiling.
Ignitus stopped the slash Kargarr was directing to his throat, dodged his power claw and with a mighty blow of his sacred Croxius Arcanum broke the skull of the ork warboss. The crack echoed all around the room and the combats ended to watch what had happened. Looking at the scene of the black marine with a skull faced helmet, shining with a weird red light over the corpse of their fallen warboss that had a splintered skull was too much for most of the orks and they fled the scene. Those that remained to fight were cut down by the marines that unleashed a storm of fire and bolter bullets on them.
In the meantime, outside the space hulk the marines saw how the enemy vessels were starting to drift, and how some of them had collided unexpectedly, as if they had lost their course. Communication with the assault teams informed about the incredible success of the raid and about the unexpected finding. Fleet commander Valorus ordered the strike cruisers to start to fire against certain parts of the space hulk, opening huge gaps in what looked like a solid structure and revealing the profile of what seemed to be an imperial battleship. They tried not to hit it with the salvos to preserve its structure as intact as possible, but that left the marines more work to do on board since the ship had to be cleansed in close quarters.
The piercing of the ork waagh catalyser caused an other good effect apart from disorganizing the ork fleet: it made the psychic shield generated by the ork waagh energy to thin down. That allowed the Pler system astropaths to send out messages begging for help. Due to the temporal lack of initiative among the orks and some feuds starting among the remaining leaders to see who would be Kargarr?s successor, the orks started to fight among them and were less aggressive against the imperial forces, giving the marines and planetary defence forces a time of relief. In a 4 week time the ground forces of marines and Imperial guard, helped by some reinforcements from the Alga system. Dispersed or destroyed the remaining orks in the sector. Most of them returned to the Dannomel system, that remained an ork stronghold, while others were destroyed by the imperial navy and guard.
V. Days of pain, days of rebirth
The success at freeing the hive world of Pler made the Lords of Terra not better disposed towards the remaining of a chapter that had utterly failed in its main missions, but prevented them from disbanding the chapter ipso facto. They were allowed to survive, but at the price of doing so on their own since no resources were to be provided to them in the following 50 years from those controlled by the Imperium. Considering ammunition, tanks and other facilities (apart from food and manpower) are basically produced in imperial worlds, that was more or less the same as a long decadence until they would die definitively. None the less, they should answer the calls for help of Imperial authorities as if they were a fully supported chapter. But the command of the chapter had things that required their dire need more than long term survival of the chapter.
The cleanse of the orks inside the empire battle ship (that further cleansing of detritus revealed to be a pre-heresy design on which was later based the Despoiler) proved more troublesome. It had to be done at close range, and it proved quite risky in areas like the plasma reactors. A large number of marines got hurt and the lack of Terminator armour proved troublesome in some areas. Luckily most of the war equipment of the orks had already been disembarked and the most fearsome weapons were not aboard for the orks to use against the Adeptus Astartes. But as anyone that has faced them and suvived can tell, orks do not need high tech to blast something apart.
In one of the areas, the hero of the Emperor?s chapel and his squad found a group of orks that were looking at them with eyes injected in blood and a wicked smile. That was not that weird, but the strips of plasma grenades that some gretchins were carrying, were. Three of the orks threw the gretchins towards the marines and then the greenskins opened fire with fusion guns and flamers against them creating a huge deflagration of plasma that killed a big part of the squad and mortally wounded Chaplain Ignitus. The detonation alerted nearby squads that soon were in the scene and took care of the orks swiftly, but the devastation caused among the Death Harvesters had been great. Ignitus and some of his fellows were rapidly brought to the Apothecarion, but life was leaving the chaplain fast. Only one thing could be made.
Each company had been assigned a Dreadnought empty sarcophagus by Chapter Master Raphael a year after the chapter was formed. It was supposed to hold a great hero of each company, so all of them could, in the future, have a living link with their past. None of the companies had yet used it and it was decided that Ignitus would be the first dreadnought of the 5th battle Company. The operation was difficult for the apothecaries, though. They had not the full resources of a fortress monastery or a battle barge to aid them in the operation of entombment and the chaplain was more than once only kept from dying definitively during the process by its own force of will. In the end the operation was successfully fulfilled, though, and the chaplain became the first dreadnought of the 5th company.
The cleanse ended 4 weeks after it started with the final result of 27 dead marines and 62 with wounds worth consideration. That reduced the effective number of marines to 234. Low for any direct battle mission.
VI. The Gloria Imperialis
A thing that seemed to have escaped the Lords of Terra attention when they declared the chapter to be ostracised from the Empire for 50 years (basically because Chapter Master Janus had not told them) was the fact that the old vessel that had appeared under the rubbish of the space hulk happened to be one of the few remnants known to exist of the pre-despoiler/battle barge design created in the Cypra Mundi shipyards prior to the rise of the Emperor to lead humankind to a new age of enlightment. It had not, however, escaped the attention of the Space Marines, and neither the attention of both the Governor of Pler and the Imperial Navy commander from Alga, Admiral Darmek. Both were willing to get a grasp on the powerful battleship, and they started to manoeuvre around Janus to win a new flagship for their systems since the marines were the ones controlling the ship by that time after they had cleansed it from ork infestation. Their greed was their doom as well since they didn?t inform the higher sector navy admiral about the new flagship that had appeared since they wanted to get a hold on it before offering it to the navy to increase their personal prestige. Janus did indeed play with them and once he had discovered the strengths and weaknesses of both characters he allowed the ship to be escorted to Maze, the Pler system navy shipyards. That heavily annoyed the Alga Navy Admiral, but he could do nothing there until the Sector war fleet Commander, and that could take some time to arrive. And at any given moment it was unlikely to detach it from the system where the repairs were being done. The governor of Pler seemed to have won a political battle over the Alga system and Janus gained an enemy in the Navy.
The ship was renamed Gloria Imperialis, since no records were found for it. The marines insisted upon that name as they thought it fitted well the vessel after the battle in the ship?s chapel and the Governor of Pler had no objection about it. Most systems were still operative, even if the mighty behemoth was estimated to had been in the warp during at least 8 millennia. Those systems that weren?t operative were repaired or substituted by new and improved ones. Under the direction of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Chapter?s remaining techmarines the vessel undergone a series of massive changes and upgrades to restore it to full efficiency and battle prowess and to upgrade the few systems that the Imperium had improved since the time of the construction of the battleship. From salvaged wrecks that they towed from the Farid system the marines directed the artisans and technicians in giving the pre-Despoiler battleship some equipment that had never been seen in a regular Imperial Navy vessel. The completely ruined dorsal lances were removed and substituted for a bombardment cannon, the prow launch bays were refitted to accommodate tunderhawks, most systems were automated as well, meaning that a much smaller crew would be needed to operate the Gloria Imperialis and the hull was reinforced ?to improve this great flagship that had returned to the hands of mankind for the future Glory of the Emperor?. The ideas and technical help provided by Techmarine Huron proved instrumental in those improvements and modifications. The Governor of Pler carried a broad smile around every time he visited the docks and had dreams of glory and fame every time he thought about the new addition he was going to give to the sector?s High Command. He would surely promoted after that gift to the Navy. But the Marines had other plans for the flagship.
The battleship undergone some massive changes in its structure to make it sturdier and more suited to the marine naval tactics. Some weaponry was changed, like substituting the ruined dorsal lances for a powerful bombardment cannon and conditioning the prow launch bays to accommodate the marine thunderhawks.
The marines also used the travel to their former home system to recover some relics and worship items they had detected in long range scans to be dwelling there. Some of those were the power fist and the plasma pistol of Chapter Master Raphael as well as the ####### power sword of the captain of the first company of the chapter, sacred items that had been part of the space marine armoury since the times of Rogal Dorn. They had been given to the former Crimson fists chapter by Dorn himself and were greatly revered items for the marines. Their recovery from a the breached and formless hulk that had turned to be the Light Bringer, the former chapter?s flagship did bring an special feeling for the marines. The members of the Brotherhood unit were the ones recovering the sacred items.
VII. The Terra Lords said so
After a year of repairs, the work was completed and the Gloria Imperialis was restored to full battle capability. It was then that the marines told the Governor of Pler that they were going to leave. During that year the chapter had recruited some new neophytes and taken resources from the Pler system (and sector as a whole) as well as reunited with the Vanguard task force. Since that blatantly violated the sentence of the High Lords of Terra, they were only taken resources of all kinds brought to the Gloria Imperialis for repairs. Of course they ?suggested? a lot of that needed war, food, manpower and other stuff to be brought there ?to help in advancing the development of the fleet?. What fleet that was supposed to be they never said.
Given the tremendous amount of resources and ?suggestions? the repairs had dragged from Pler, the governor was quite happy to hear that. But then he noticed that the marines were preparing the Gloria Imperialis as well to leave. Alarmed, he contacted them and the answer of Master Janus was that ?The repairs were done to a non imperial navy ship, so we don?t need to leave it here, and in fact we had effectively controlled this system during our stay, directing all its resources to the repair of our flagship, so we have not broken our orders nor betrayed you. We simply did what is better for the Empire as a whole?. The marines also confiscated an sword squadron that had undergone similar modifications to those suffered by the Gloria Imperialis to improve the vessels as ?payment for the liberation of Pler?. The governor knew his scarce system fleet couldn?t contest with the marine forces (specially when the marines were in the naval station until the very moment they mobilized themselves to leave with speed and efficiency) and that it was too late to ask for navy reinforcements, specially given that the nearest system was Alga and Admiral Darmek wouldn?t be very swift in helping him save his head. An other imperial governor shot himself in the head before punishment reached him.
A thing the marines were not expecting was the arrival of a cruiser wearing inquisitorial markings into the system while the marines were preparing to leave. The vessel contacted the marines and asked for an appointment with the leaders of the force. Obviously the situation of the marines was one that didn?t allow them to refuse the meeting so they accepted and met with Inquisitor Darius, a powerfully-looking individual clad in power armour. He told them that the Inquisition had ?noticed? that they had recovered such an ancient and powerful vessel from the warp and they wanted to be sure it was not infected after its millenary exposure to the warp energies. Since they couldn?t be sure of possible infections unless they were around for some time he was to be with the chapter from that point on. He was also appointed by his superior and mentor, High Inquisitor Yorgos, to make sure they were following the dictates of the Lords of Terra. Most marine leaders frowned in front of those words stating such a flagrant intrusion of the inquisition, specially since they had been already walking the edge of the dictates, but Janus seemed quite content with that, or at least he looked like that. And so, Inquisitor Darius was given some quarters in the Gloria Imperialis and he moved himself to live with the Marines.
The reason Janus was quite content with the information was because he knew Inquisitor Yorgos by reputation and he knew he was quite lax in his law interpretation. He was sure Darius would follow the same behavioural pattern and that he had pointed the fact that his mentor was Yorgos as a hint. Janus thought it would be better not telling the rest of the staff by that time, though. Maybe they would be more dedicated if they saw an inquisitor around and were not aware of its inclinations.
VIII. The Raven?s Flight
Even with the year invested in refitting the chapter and the recruits they were able to take, the Black Purificators were still very low in numbers. That presented a problem to the chapter?s command since they were unable to operate at full efficiency following the sacred Codex Astartes. They were not prepared for that kind of combat doctrine under the present circumstances. The chapter numbers were still below 3 hundred brother marines, and even if they had an impressive fleet for a force of this size and a good mobile base in the form of the Gloria Imperialis, the strength of a true marine chapter is on the battleground, not above it between the stars.
During the year they were stationed in the Pler system, Janus and his fellow commanders delved in the data sheets and tactical treatises they had on board of their ship?s computers and in the libraries of Pler and after an extensive research what they already knew became apparent: the best tactical asset for their current forces would be to use the techniques developed since times of old by the Birds of Death: the Raven Guard.
Corax had been a master tactician during the Horus Heresy and his legacy had been expanded by the successive chapter masters of the Raven Guard and their successor chapters. The Raven Guard had suffered a serious blow in the same way as they did, and hence were also a source of inspiration and example for the brother marines in the chapter. So, during the year they were in Pler and after that time, brother marines undertook a series of exercises to train them in mobile, almost all infantry operations with little or no tank support available to them. Speed was the key to victory. Chaplain Ignitus was a leading role model during the process, always being voluntary to test any new tricks and traps the training program would test on the warriors of the Emperor. The towering black dreadnought was a sight to behold, dropping on the training ground meteor on his specially designed drop pod and unleashing devastating salvo after salvo against the targets around him. Heavy weapons were almost banned from the operational profile of the squads, and even devastator lascannon specialists learned to shot with a flamer and effectively operate as scouts. In fact most of the best sniper rifle users in the chapter were devastator marines, that found the rifle not very different to snip a target with a poisoned needle compared to find a weak spot in a tank with a lascannon. The elements of the 10th company also changed their role since the scouts that originally formed the company had all developed into full fledged marines and could no longer be considered apprentices. So, the 10th company changed its structure to that of a regular marine company, even if the role of training new recruits remained in the company. What happened there is that almost all marines went the other way around, moving towards scout units and flexible forces. Scout armour was reintroduced to most units in the chapter, and each marine now had 2 suits of armour: one suit of power armour and a suit of scout armour, depending on the tactical role it has to perform on the battlefield they would take one or the other. The 3 companies started to develop some kind of specialization inside the force, though; the 4th company did show a preference for fast attack operations, either using drop pods or thunderhawk transports. The 10th company preferred more quiet operations favouring the use of scouts while the 5th company was the more standard company there, developing basically a common tactical approach to the operations. They preferred to operate using coordinated forces from all the elements of the company, not giving a preponderance to any given group.
The remaining chapter did not have a first company but some kind of elite force for the brothers to try to reach was a god option and so the Apocalypse Riders were formed. The Apocalypse riders were to be elite units from each of the 4 specialities in the chapter, tactical, assault, devastator and scout squads. 4 units were chosen for their past merits and upgraded to elite status being awarded the Crux Terminatus by Janus. The Brotherhood, the Death Harvesters, the Taurus Squad and the Night Jackals (the scout training team) were the chosen units to become the Apocalypse Riders.
It was also during this period that the chapter started a campaign of raids against pirate bases and rogue worlds that were not under imperial control. They tended to target planets and systems that were not very well protected or had a strong military since they couldn?t stand a long campaign or face a resolute opposition under their current strength so they played the wolf part in the game, attacking more or less helpless rogue systems. The marines attacked, stormed the enemy using rapid strike vessels and drop pod assaults and went for the heads of the planetary hierarchy instead of engaging in a long attrition battle, favouring swift attacks in urban areas over than engaging the enemy in the open. After that, they took whatever resources they wanted to take and they usually left again. The use of infiltrated agents and inner oppositions groups as local backups was also quite important and a thing only a few chapters had so far been known to use effectively. Low numbers make you think about other routes to take down a problem over plain tactical fire application. Even if they were using those tactics and field information gathered from the local population before appearing around a planet or system to attack it, the marines got a few drawbacks in their assaults, having to leave a system unconquered due to low numbers more than once. Not all the populations were willing to help them nor were all the systems susceptible to a head hunt for the leaders of the area. Those systems were marked as future targets to be cleansed later but the marines had to leave the area without reaching their targets there.
The chapter was able to appoint several nominal imperial governors to some planets as well during those raids, since in some cases they effectively conquered a planet in the raids, staying to pacify the system after they did so. Most of those new governors proved to be short lived ones, though, either because they revealed against the Empire after the marines left the sector or because the native population murdered them in case they happened to be loyal to the Emperor. In some cases, like in the Hammal system, the appointed governors had a great success and the Administratum ended up contacting them to invest them with full imperial powers and start to harvest the tithes from the system. But sadly those cases were the exceptions, not the norm.
The kind of tactical reorganisation the chapter had undertaken proved specially useful in the other main activity of the chapter: interstellar naval assault, where the proficiency of the brother marines with all kind of special weapons and their high mobility proved invaluable. The close range tactics of the chapter meant that special weapons played the same role that heavy weapons play in other chapters, and their stocks and use were steadily raised in the chapter?s armoury. The strategic reorganization they had made marked a great difference in that kind of actions since it mainly consisted in combat in enclosed spaces, be it ship corridors or naval facilities. After a year raiding pirate bases and fleets they had become exactly what their name implied: navy infantry, black and dedicated to cleanse the space from what they found to be wrongdoers.
IX. The Palman Connection
In the fleet battles the marines took part in, the Fury and other vessels were severely damaged. Lacking a real base and given the spreading of their manoeuvre in Pler, the imperial systems usually were not willing to allow them to use their facilities for repairs. So the repairs made to the ships were never very good since port facilities in the conquered world were always poor and never proficient in the kind of resources needed to repair such vessels. Two Nova escorts were disassembled after one of the battles they took part in and used as repair material. They had taken a heavy beating from battery and torpedo fire and since they could not be repaired and the materials they were formed from were what the other damaged ships needed, that was the correct decision to make. That process could not be maintained for long though, since the vessels were few in number and repairs were always a requirement after combat.
After an engagement with some Eldar pirates the Gloria Imperialis took its first serious damage since it was repaired at Pler and the Purification Spear was in dire need of repairs after an Eldar pulsar lance nearly cut it in two. Requests to use imperial bases to repair the chapter?s flagship were rejected and the chapter faced a difficult situation. The only facilities nearby that could repair the vessels to full strength were imperial. Or rogue ones.
It is a well known fact that the Imperium is not the only Empire in the galaxy, and that there are other human political formations even inside the space controlled by the Imperium that owe no allegiance to it and that are an empire on their own. The Palman Empire was one of those smaller empires. It also had a great naval capability, having some of the most powerful docks in the Segmentum, constructed during the Dark Age of technology and still able to produce all sort of cruisers and other vessels at a significant rate. It was near the place where the marines were and that was the last opportunity the chapter had to repair its vessels, so they headed for the sector. It was inside the Maelstrom and very difficult to reach from the imperial side but the marines were in difficult situation so going there was one of their best options.
The Imperium had once attacked the Palman Empire but they retreated after some years of conflict, when the situation reached an stalemate. The Palman Empire was not aggressive towards the Imperium nor was trying to expand, its borders, but the lure of the naval facilities in the sector and the ring of ?new interstellar ship APC models? lured the Imperium into attacking them. The Palman Empire defended itself against the invaders and their ferocity and naval prowess surprised the Empire, that was only able to reach a stalemate after sending loads of reinforcements to the front line. Finally they had enough resources to crush the Empire, but the cost calculus in the form of lost warships advised against it; even if they could conquer a new naval construction facility or two and start the production of new ships for the Imperium (ships that they had already faced in battle and that had proven extremely efficient and endurable) the cost would be too heavy in terms of lost ships. The Segmentum?s fleet would not recover from the loses in decades, even with the new construction facility operating at 100%. Given the non expansionist nature of the Empire and those calculus, the Imperium finally decided to sign a peace treaty with the High Palman, the ruler of the Palman Empire emperor and they retreated from the sector. The loses had been heavy on both sides, but the palmans had more stuff to repair in the end, and fewer resources than the Empire, the whole Empire being like 2 powerful Imperial sectors put together. CHANGE THAT FOR THE PART I DESIGNED AND POSTED IN THE MAILING LISTS. NO WAR WITH THE EMPIRE, EVEN IF HE EMPIREWOULD LIKE TO CONUER THEM
The first sightings of the marine fleet approaching caused a defensive reaction in the Palman Empire, and their fleet was readied for battle since they feared the marines to be the spearhead of an other Imperial attack. When the marines reached the inner palman sector they were met by a fleet vastly bigger than their own. The marines asked for permission to repair their vessels in the system and to get supplies from them as well. Fearing the mission to be an spy or infiltration one, the palman emperor was not very predisposed towards those requests, but the amount of valuable resources the marines were offering to get help finally broke down his reticence and the Adeptus Astartes got permission to enter the system, even if they were to be escorted by war vessels and surrender their weapons before entering the facilities of the Empire in Gedna IV. Having nothing to win refusing the offer, the marines accepted it even if it was a shameful thing to accept. Repairs in their honour could be made later, repairs to the fleet were a dire need.
The Gedna IV shipyards where they were heading were a sight to behold. They were the largest any of the present marines had ever seen, surrounding the whole planet in the Gedna system. Hundreds of vessels surrounded the planet, some docked, some being repaired, some being built up or improved. The traffic was never-ending around the facilities and factories that powered up the whole system. The Gloria Imperialis, the Fury, the Purification Spear, the Vanguard and the other damaged vessels (most of them in fact) were docked in one of the biggest docks and repairs started on them almost immediately. The palman engineers were quite interested both in the marine strike cruisers and in the Gloria Imperialis and the techmarines were interested in the native technology, so in the following weeks ones tested the others trying to get further information on their systems. It was clear from the ships around them that the palman navy was huge and powerful both in ship number and in resources such as skilled and trained manpower, being the main asset of the palman sector for its independence, but also that they lacked in imperial technology in some areas like warp travel, where their engines proved to be way less powerful than those of their imperial counterparts. In that given area of warp travel the palmns looked hesitant to provide information but from hints and plain spying the marines found that the palmans had very few navigators and were unable to muster a very powerful fleet to travel abroad their own sector. That, more than any other factor could explain why they were a non expansionist empire. That, and the chaos and rogue war fleets operating nearby.
X. The Coming of the Great Manipulator
The work on the escorts, the Fury and the Gloria Imperialis had ended and was well advanced in the Purification Spear when the marines got the first notice about combats in the palman border. They had been docked for 3 months doing little more than waiting for the repairs to end (they had no permission to go around spying the empire?s defenses) when ships started to reach Gedna IV with obvious combat sequels. Some were badly damaged, others were simply empty hulls or masses of metal. War was on the borders of the Empire.
Janus asked for a meeting with the High Palman to know what was happening, but the palman bureaucracy did not allow him to see the Emperor. Instead he had to go through a maze of bureaucrats but ended up being able to met with one of the plman emperor?s advisors, the true rulers of the Empire. Janus offered help in the conflict under any circumstance except if the enemy was the Imperium. The advisor smiled. No, it was not the Imperium. He informed Janus that the enemy was an other nearby sector ruled by an old pirate leader that answered to the name of Laurtt that had risen to control the Tula sector. Now he was trying to expand his domains and the palmans had been at war with him for years. One thing had changed there recently, though. Laurtt had allied himself with chaos forces now and those were swinging the conflict to his side. T was rumoured that he had even Chaos and traitor Marines aiding him, concretely elements from the Astral Claws traitor chapter. Chaos forces had been active in the Segmentum lately and finally they had attacked the Palman Empire. He navy was doing well, but any help would be appreciated, even coming from a long time opponent like the Imperium. The enemy of my ally is my enemy, that they would say. And since the cost of the repairs in the Purification Spear and the Silver Hounds Hunter squadron had amounted for way more resources than they originally were supposed to cost, the marines could consider the service in the protection of the Palman Empire as the price for the repairs. Janus agreed. He could see no problems following that treaty with the palman authorities and his brothers had been on the dry dock for a too long time already. A little action would be a good thing there.
The only problem was that the repairs in the Purification Spear were not yet near completeness, so the fleet would lack in one of its best assets. The Palman Empire agreed in allowing the marines to use 2 of their fast cruisers; the Arrow and the Guardian as interception vessels in the assault to compensate for the lack of the Purification Spear in the coming battle. Those two vessels were different from those used by the marines so far, but they were fast (in fact the Arrow was faster than the Purification Spear) and very well armed for their size. In characteristics they were quite similar to strike cruisers, even if they had lances instead of bombardment cannons and their construction method was clearly a Gedna IV APC design, following the Cypra Mundi design patterns. The main difference was the lack of space in the bays to place thunderhawks on them, so native pilots had to take care of the fighter squadrons the ships were carrying.
The Black Purificators joined the war fleet that was being gathered around Gedna IV. Fleet commander Valorus joined the tactical staff and was assigned to the light interception force lead by Marshall Poyer that was appointed to the task of making a flanking attack on the chaos forces after the main battle fleet engaged them. The main worry were the mutations that some ships had brought home, and that had to be purged by flames, not being possible to save the crews from the hands of chaos. Tzeench was upon them.
The main fleet was to be directed by High Marshall Salmerr, a veteran of undoubted experience, but that was starting to get old according to some officials. Master Valorus appreciated the tactical skills of this old man, that prepared a sound strategy of coordination between the forces under his command. The design of the centre force was even sounder than the rest, since it was to be under his direct command. Only one thing worried Valorus: the sub officials. They seemed too enthusiastic or close minded about most tactics exposed to be true in their opinions, and they could make a good plan fail completely since it was sound, but risky. He had not the confidence of the navy officials, though, that considered the marines simply good destruction tools so he was unable to voice his opinions since he would have not been taken into account and the marines probably would have had their freedom of action reduced.
XI. Illusions and Phantoms
The assembled fleet that was about to meet the invaders was a sight to behold. More than eighty vessels, including several battleships way bigger and older than the Gloria Imperialis. It was clear that the palmans did not want a fair battle but to plainly crush any opposition they could face and hence had mustered most of their reserve battle fleet for the battle. As decided by the tactical staff the Black Purificators and their vessels were assigned to the forces of Marshall Poyer, a group of 11 cruisers and 2 battleships as well as some escort squadrons that were about to flank the enemy. All of them were fast vessels or had a reliable warp travel capacity like the Gloria Imperialis. In the start all went well and the fleet deployed according to the plans, placing a good blockade formation around the next jump point that the chaos fleet had to use to advance further into the system from the place they were now, a dead system in the outer borders of the Empire. The flanking force made a further jump and placed itself in a waiting position in a nearby system, prepared to jump once again when the enemy forces had been engaged by the main battle line. After that, they waited.
And chaos arrived. A fleet emerged from the warp just in front of the palman navy. In fact it was way bigger than expected but the palman navy still outnumbered it by a large margin. The engagement began.
The palmans advanced in concordance with the plan of High Marshall Salmerr and at first everything worked well, several enemy support squadrons disappearing under the combined fire of the palman cruisers. Then problems arose when some disguised ships appeared just by the side of the chaos vessels that were being attacked, and more importantly when some palman vessels seemed to switch sides and opened fire on their former brother ships. The flanking force had just appeared and they had to divert their attack not to collide with the entropy process that had just started. The palman communications network went mad with orders and counter orders and the palman front started to cede with the chaos that the revealed chaos vessels were spreading through the line. The marines attacked several ships, causing some major damage in a pair of enemy cruisers, but it was clear that the palman navy was facing an even navy, having lost their clear advantage once the rebellious ships did show their true colours.
Fleet Master Valorus was thinking about a possible solution, his mind racing exploring options, when a brother marine asked to talk with him. The brother was a new one, one that got recruited while the chapter was stationed in the Pler system. He answered to the name of Brother Dariel. He told the fleet master that he didn?t know how, but that the chaos fleet in fact was not there. Only a handful of the ships in the conflict were there, the others being mere illusions or palman ships, attacking each other. It was clearly a case of manipulation by the dark powers. The origin of the damage was in a three ship formation of enemy ships appearing in the screens, but a trio that only careful analysis of the screen could detect.
Valorus was surprised to hear that, but something in the eyes of the young brother made him believe him. Since Marshall Poyer did not listen to him, occupied as he was shouting through the communication network, Valorus ordered the marine ships to detach from the formation and attack the half-invisible ships. Poyer was aware of the fact and shouted a counter order to Valorus ordering the marines to keep the formation, but the marines ignored the palman official and aimed for their own goal. The battery shots against the supposedly empty locations hit something and after a few salvoes a trio of warped ships appeared in the screens. Tzeench was there. Keeping up the attack on the ships, an assault group was prepared aiming for the central ship, that appeared to be the origin of a disruption signal while the batteries started to shot mercilessly to the other two chaos ships in the squadron. Chaplain Marcellus, the Brotherhood and techmarine Huron were about to assault the ship, trying to reach the spirit of the Machine terminal and to deactivate the confusion system using holy relics. Brother Dariel told them how to do it. He simply?knew what had to be done, even if he was completely unaware of how he could know about it. The Death Harvesters also participated in the assault and for the fist time since he joined the force the marines saw Inquisitor Darius clad in full power armour and with a vibrant sword in his hand joining the venture. That didn?t surprise most marines since after all, he was an inquisitor but they felt weirder being joined by a non chapter member in the assault somehow. Only experience would tel them what field was Darius? area of expertise. Brother Dariel joined them as well there since he insisted on it and Janus seemed to be confident in the new brother?s intuition.
The thunderhawk gunships reached the enemy ship almost unopposed since the marine escorts had taken a heavy toll in the ship?s defences and other thunderhawks were taking care of the turrets of the ship, suppressing them. The ship?s structure appeared to be almost undamaged, and seemed to be repairing itself, something scary for someone that was not a brother marine in a sacred mission.
The thunderhawks opened a hole in the ship?s hull, that seemed to grunt when they opened it, and the marines entered a nightmare. The walls of the ship seemed to be alive and littered with silent screaming faces. There was a nightmarish light all around and no one in sight. Just after entering they found a decided resistance carried on by the foul chaos demons of tzeench and the 3 accompanying escort squads for the incursion force were left behind stopping them and allowing the incursion force of the 2 elite squads and leaders to enter the ship?s innermost structure.
Given the distraction provided by the escort squads and other distraction assault groups that had breached in in other parts of the hull the group advanced fast, but carefully. After a while they noticed that they could hear not a single outer communication report and brother Dariel, that had insisted to go with them advised Marcellus and the brotherhood to give a small relic to every one of them to prevent chaos from penetrating their souls. Inquisitor Darius seemed to listen to the comment carefully and to give its approval to the advise as well. They were short in relics, though, and Marcellus and 3 other brothers were left with none. It was after that that the enemy fell upon them. Dozens of chaos demons and spawns attacked the small task force and only the righteous use of the cleansing fire of the blessed bolters and flamers drove the demons back, even if 2 death harvesters and a brotherhood marine laid dead when the attack ended. The casualties were the three brothers that didn?t get a sacred icon, chaplain Marcellus only being saved from lethal damage by his sacred Rosarius. Brother Dariel took a chain sword from one of the fallen Death harvesters and lead the way to the machine spirit. An other attack followed the first one, but this time they were better prepared and the demons were repelled, even if most marines appeared to be heavily mauled once the attackers retreated. Brother Dariel showed a high prowess level in hand to hand for such a young brother and the Death Harvester sergeant made some comments about him being a suitable candidate for an assault squad to Chaplain Marcellus. The marines also started to appreciate Inquisitor Darius? combat ability after he single handedly banished a full Flamer?s of Tzeench squad with might of arms and spirit unleashing the powers of the warp on the demon, banishing them back o where they did belong. After the engagement they had the weird feeling about the ship being discontent towards them for their actions and that the vessel as observing them as they advanced down the corridor. Darius told them that that was probably exactly what was happening. They were in a demon ship,
After some time, they reached the innermost chamber of the ship, and after obliterating the door with melta bombs they entered it. A single, powerful entity was laying there. It was sitting in a chair and observed them. Obviously his beaked face could not smile, but he seemed to be doing so. The machine spirit terminal that Huron had to reach was behind the monster. The demon prince rose to its full height, and the marines opened fire only to find it stopped by the monster?s hand with ease. 3 Death Harvesters tried to escort Huron to the computer terminal while the rest of the force entertained it. To no avail. The monster seemed to laugh while crunching a pair of death harvesters and a brotherhood marine while stopping Huron and his bodyguards with a flame cage that trapped them. Even Marcellus seemed to be having a hard time against the monster, him being barely able to dodge the monster?s claws and causing nigh to no damage on the warp beast. In fact it looked like the demon prince was but playing with them. Only Darius seemed to bother the monster at first but the inquisitor was rapidly dealt by the monster that unleashed a stream of warp energy on Darius. Only hard years of training allowed Darius to resist the might of the attack, but that left him exhausted. The struggle of the monster to beat the inquisitor did open a hole in the monster?s defences, though, a hole that a chain sword took advantage of to cut a clean hole in the daemon?s stomach. Looking down the demon prince saw a regular tactical marine looking at him while keeping the blade firmly stuck in his stomach. The monster rapidly caught the marine and started pressing his power armour, causing a massive crunching noise while ignoring the massive attack the rest of the marines were directing at him. Even the power fists and melta guns seemed ineffective against the monster and none of the marines could understand how a new recruit with a simple chain sword could have wounded the monster. To no avail though. Dariel was about to die under the monster?s fist without the hopeless marines being able to do anything.
The counterattack of the monster never finished, though. Shouting a mental order Darius did direct a flush of warp energy into Dariel?s body and that, in conjunction with the power Dariel was mustering himself despite the pain he was suffering did unleash a psychic scream through the blade the marine was holding and into the monster. There was an slight air vibration and the monster banished in a bang, back into the warp. Dariel fell to the ground and only the strong arm of Marcellus prevented him from hitting the ground. The same happened with Darius. They were seriously injured, but that was more than most marines that had faced a demon prince were able to say.
Fred from the cage and the ship trembling with horror, the marines were able to reach the computer terminal. Huron unfolded the Precision Instruments of Machine Spirit Jamming ? he had been carrying. He rose the relic high into the air and after the appropriate prayer he used the Sacred Thunderhammer of Righteous Destruction and smashed the computer?s CPU to the ground, showing an other time why he was such a famed and skilled techmarine. (NOTE: might change that CPU beating part, but man, it is funny XDDD LMAO) ;-)
With the confusion devise out of service the chaos trick was shown. The palmans has in fact been fighting themselves and illusions, the real chaos fleet being very small. The Palman Empire ships hadn?t switched sides but the ones that started the attacks were not Palman ships but real disguised chaos ships. The demon ship had shrouded real palman empire ships as chaos ships and disrupted their communications so the palmans attacked the palmans and the attacked ships saw the other palman ships shooting at them as chaos ships as well so they returned fire. Once the trick was discovered and all the palman ships could communicate and coordinate themselves again, they saw they had been fighting themselves and that in fact they had destroyed quite some of their own ships. With their resolve strengthened palmans showed no mercy and in a few minutes the last chaos ship was turned into a lifeless hulk or forced to flee back into the warp, even if the palmans boarded every singles ship to make sure it was completely destroyed, setting charges in the reactors and other important parts to completely destroy the tainted ships. The daemon ship where the disruption signal originated could not be found, though. It banished shortly after the marines left it. The Palman Navy records named it The Disguiser given its actions during the battle.
XII. The Warp Touch
After the marines returned to the Gloria Imperialis and the chaos fleet was depleted it was time for an official meeting. The chapter masters met in the bridge of the Gloria Imperialis. It resulted obvious to all of them from the reports that Marcellus and the squads did bring that both Dariel and Inquisitor Darius had the Warp Touch: they were Psychers. While Darius being a psycher and one able to stand a demon prince?s attack didn?t surprise most of them given his past as an inquisitor among Adeptus Astartes, the notice of Dariel being a psycher, and one with quite some potential, having been able to unleash such powerful blast on a Demon Prince with enough power to banish him back to the Warp had more important consequences for the chapter. The problem was that the sole Psycher that the chapter ever had, Librarian Polus, had died in the Farid Massacre so there was none in the chapter able to teach the new psycher how to turn his abilities into a powerful tool in the hands of the Emperor instead of a danger to humankind since none of them had real confidence in Darius yet being as he was an outsider to the chapter eve if he had shown martial prowess and loyalty to the chapter so far. Chaplain Marcellus, usually a clear defender of the Purity of the Mind Doctrine in that case inverted his attitude and was the main defender of the young marine brother. He had been able to control the Warp in a Demon Ship, so he should be allowed to try to keep going since he was obviously a skilled brother. Chaplain Remulus, the new chaplain of the 5th company after Ignitus renouncing the position and Captain Julius defended the opposite position; how could they be sure the demons had not in fact entered the mind of the young brother and were now laying inside him waiting in his body ready to unleash destruction on the chapter at the least expected time when Dariel had recovered from the heavy beating? The correct decision was obviously to prevent possible dangers and kill the possible tainted being immediately. The discussion ended up in a stalemate between the two main options being considered. Him being the hero of the day did not ease the problem for the staff. The decision was left for the future when a navy leader meeting was called by High Marshall Salmerr so Valorus and Janus as well as the captains of the capital ships had to go to the meeting.
In the official meeting there was some heated debate racing around the meeting room in the Star Vault, the fleet?s flagship, when the marines arrived. Some captains and officials were accusing the marines of disregarding the chain of command and hence risking the battle?s success, a battle that they thought they had the upper hand in no matter what was happening with the rebellious ships. Other captains (specially those from the ships that had been shrouded to appear as chaos vessels) were in the opposite end, saying that the rightful action of the Astartes chapter had saved quite some palman navy ships and thousands of palman lives since the palmans were mostly fighting against themselves in what would had been a lost battle whatever had been the result, depleting the fleet. Marshall Poyer was leading those that looked at the marines with disgust and that thought that they should be banned from palman space as fast as possible. High Marshall Salmerr so far had simply sat there, saying nothing. Neither did the marines, preferring to better caught the positions and spot weak points in the enemy discourse before striking. A debate was not different from a front line engagement; know your enemy, spot the weak points in his line and strike there mercilessly until he retreats in pain or is utterly destroyed. Once the enemy discourse had been fully analysed Fleet Master Valorus stood up and started an exposition on how did the battle go from a strategic point of view, specially highlighting the mistakes done by the commanders of the sections of the front that were attacking the actions undertaken by the marines and praising the actions of those that were defending them. His speech specially disregarded Marshall Poyer as a mediocre commander, unable to adapt to changing circumstances and highlighting his lack of personal initiative under new coordinates. Marshal Poyer did a pretty good job at refusing those points and defending his point of view but Valorus did beat him in the end using his clearly improved mind to depict a clearer outcome of the battle and the flow of events. Then High Marshall Salmerr did stand up and spoke. He praised the marines for their action and made clear that in his opinion the battle was won by the actions of the marines. He exposed his own interpretation on how the battle developed and about the final result. After that he upgraded two of the officials in the council for their action during the battle and downgraded Poyer and an other high ranking official, telling them that being the third sons of a powerful palman family would not help them there for their incompetence. They would be lucky if they did retain the rank of ship captain. The marines had won a second battle in one day.
XIII. The Dargos Chapel
The fleet did return to Gedna IV were there were the highest officials of the palman empire to meet them as heroes and they were in the process of going down from the ships when an escort vessel transmitted discouraging news. The chaos fleet they had met was but a distraction. The real objective of the attack was to invade the Dargos and Talomenia systems in the Croviss subsector, one of the most important ones in the palman empire. It was, located in the borders of the Empire and the subsector was both important for the defence of the sector as a whole and as a hive system, containing some of the most important planets for mass production of good in the whole sector. Both systems had defended themselves but it looked like the chaos forces were too much for them and their defences had been depleted. In the case of Talomenia, the better defended system of the 2, it looked like they had suffered a mauling attack by traitor space marines and that was specially serious given the lack of experience of the palmans against such an enemy. Looking an opportunity to get an even position in their relations with the palmans and helping the Imperium at the same time, Inquisitor Darius (that had just recovered from its battle against the demon prince) suggested Chapter Master Janus to offer the marine help to the palmans once again, a comment that Janus fully agreed with. It looked like the inquisitor would in the end have a likely mind towards the marines. So Janus offered their help again in the battles to come and the help was accepted once again, specially after their sound action in the Battle of Illusions that had placed them high in the standards of the palman strategists.
The marines did head for the Dargos and Talomenia systems and were deployed in Gdossa, the capital planet of the sector itself as well after the palmans did clear the path there through the few chaos vessels protecting the planet that were forced to retreat. The forces deployed in Dargos included most of the Eagle 4th company and elements from the other 2 companies while the forces in Talomenia were spearheaded by the 5th battle company, the Unicorn Company and supported by elements from the Eagle and Pegasus companies.
(to be continued....)
Dargos is an agriworld with 3 important cities (400 million people living there or so). Talomnia is a Hive world
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Commanding legions forward while sitting in a nice armchair.
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Smoke launchers, additional armour. Searchlight to find the heretics and fry them with righteous fury. 
