| Brood Brother |
 |
 |
Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:30 am
Posts: 939
Location: University of Essex, Colchester, UK (soon to be Brighton, Sussex, UK)
|
Hiya all,
Well, first of all, hello. I am new to these boards and would like to salute all of you! 
I am a player from Barcelona, Spain and even if I have been playing Fantasy for 12 years or so now I am quite new to the 40k universe, having started to rant about it and collect a SM 40k army (yeah, I'm very original... :/) and a BFG marine force. I try to relate both of my armies as a lot of people I have met do so. This is the fluff (work in progress) I have written for my army so far. Read it or skip it if you find my rant to be boring. LOL 
In any case, I hope you enjoy it.
Health and a lot of sixes,
Xavi.
---------------------------------
I. Glory Days
The chapter was created during 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 so far only one of the planets was inhabited, even if their development level was only at a "bronze age" level. Eldar movement detected in the Farid system made the High Lords of Terra decide to deploy a Space Marine chapter in the system to control those movements and confirm 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 on Farid VII, the colonized planet that had undergone huge facility improvements under the direction of the Adeptus Mechanicus during that period, even if they were still had a crude level of technology and a social culture that created tension and enhanced the battle prowess of the population since they were intended to be the future recruitment base of the new chapter.
Although there had been Eldar sightings during those years, no Eldar presence had been detected in the system except for some odd stones on both of the extreme planets of the system. Superstitious as Imperials tend to be, and given their similarity to the Cadian Monoliths, the Adeptus Mecanicus had refused to remove or investigate them in depth, especially after a Titan guarding the first expedition appeared destroyed one morning. No one had heard anything the night of the Titan's destruction. After the chapter was deployed on 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. During testing, they performed excellently and they were specially trained in starship combat since their primary mission was to control a system. Given their primary duty, the chapter fleet was quite big for a Space Marine chapter, and included 4 battle barges and 10 cruisers, apart from a plenty of escort vessels and recon ships. Soon the sky around Farid VII nearly became 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 nearly two years in the Farid system, with no Eldar presence having been detected in the system. Even better, a large Promethium source was detected on Farid VI and the Marines were assigned the task of protecting it while the Adeptus Mechanicus prepared the equipment and human resources necessary to exploit the Promethium. During this period, the navy of the new chapter reached its' full strength that the Lords of Terra decided to assign it anti-piracy patroels in local pirate-plaugued systems, which they completed remarkably well. Of special mention were the Hunter Squadrons of the chapter, that annihilated several pirate forces larger and more powerful than them in terms of weaponry yields and ship tommage. The Hunter Squadron was able to defeat more powerful enemies because the chapter Techmarines had invented some remarkable ship innovations including improved fusion and boarding 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 a portent designed to announce the future of glory of the chapter.
*
---------------------------------
II. Doomsday
Then, in one day it all changed. The truth is that the system was a webway station for the Eldar. The large stones on each extreme planet of the system were in fact webway portal links. The system was a real space step between two large webway portals created during the Golden Age of the Eldar. The webway portals were large enough to transport a craftworld's army and that is exactly what came streaming through one of the portals!
The Eldar learned of the Marines a half a year ago after a small Eldar scout cruiser was intercepted by the Marines and the Farseer's runes had foretold of the danger of having a long time secure route blocked by "mon keighs" while the Eldar had far more dire needs. So the Eldar assembled their forces and appeared in the system prepared to destroy the "mon keigh" invaders of their webway system.
The Marines readied their fleet, and a large confrontation began. The battle raged for a day, even though the Eldar had clearly assembled a superior fleet, both in manpower (Elfpower) and in term of vessel quantity and quality. However the Marines were fighting for their lives, their home system and performing their primary, which strengthened their resolve beyond known limits. Even so, the Eldar were clearly carrying the day in victory. It wasn't long after when an Eldar cruiser squadron broke the Marine line and savaged the Promethium-rich planet of Farid VI. The deflagration wiped out most of the Space Marine fleet only leaving a small reserve, destroyed Farid VII taking out a huge chunk of the planet changing the planet's orbit and destroying its' biosphere. After a typically Eldar perfectly-timed blow, the Eldar annihilated the rest of the Marine fleet and left a scene of devastation and death behind to demonstrate that the Eldar had been there. Nearly an entire Marine chapter had all but been wiped out. An entire Eldar webway path cleansed by Asuryan's Wrath.
*
---------------------------------
III. The Dannomel Survivors
However, not all the Marines were at their home world when the battle started. 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 the Despoiler and were unaffected by the devastation unleashed on the chapter by the Eldar. When notice of the attack reached them, they embarked a task force of two strike cruisers, the Purification Spear and the Fury and sprinted at top speed to their home system where they found only devastation upon reaching the home world. Some patrol squadrons, mostly assigned to other companies later joined them there as they had been far away patrolling in search if pirates and on recon missions. The small force headed for the Pler Hive World, since the remaining fleet had no long-range Astropaths to contact Imperial authorities and inform them about the terrible events that had just occured. They didn't expect the utter destruction and dissolution of the chapter after the utter failure of the Chapter to perform their 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 chapter's remains after a general vote of the brothers. He had distinguished himself in combat against the Orks in Dannomel and had great tactical battlefield skill, even if the Fleet Master role was given to Brother Valorus, leader of the Purification Spear Strike Cruiser, who had distinguished himself during the previous years hunting pirates and creating grand sector strategies to wipe out the pirate infestation. 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 who needed to purify themselves after failing their Sacred Missions.
*
---------------------------------
IV. The Battle of Pler: The Emperor's Glory Revealed
When the remnants of the Marine force reached the Pler system, they found out why their campaign in Dannomel had been going so well. An Ork blockade was choking the life out of the planet and the Astropaths informed them that an Ork psychic barrier surrounded the planet that they could not send messages through. The Ork warboss Kargarr the Despoiler was besieging the planet.
The Black Purificators saw this Ork siege as a way to purify themselves from their past failures and thus the Marines readied their small fleet for combat and attacked the enemy capital ships. The orbital entrance point was blocked by a huge Ork Hulk and was thus the first target the Marines assaulted. The attack went well, and soon the Marines found themselves boarding Ork vessels while Hunter and Nova ships took care of the reamining Ork vessels that had vectored in to help their flagship.
The Marine's risky manoeuvre went well and several of the assault teams reached important parts of the Ork Hulk within minutes, cutting down its defences and allowing the strike cruisers to start a systematic bombardment of the vessel. In the meantime, the Death Harvesters assault group led by Chaplain Ignaitus of the 5th Company (so named because his favourite method for cleansing heretics was with a massive flame thrower) reached the Space Hulk command centre where they found a massive Ork surrounded by Megaarmor Nobz bodyguards... it was the Warboss Kargarr himself!
The two groups engaged in terrible battle for several neverending minutes when the numeric superiority of the Orks began to take its' toll on the limited numbers of Marines. It was at that moment that Chaplain Marcellus saw what he thought was not possible: the Space Hulk in which they were fighting had, in fact, at one time been an Imperial vessel and there reamined a huge image of the Emperor emblazoned on the ceiling, even if the Emporer's sacred face had been partially ripped from the Ork's target practice. Chaplain Marcellus thought to himself privately that, at the very least, it would be a good place to die, under the eyes of the Almighty Emperor of Mankind.
That way the Almighty Emperor would be able to judge them that much more easily in Valhalla, the warrior heaven of the Adeptus Astartes. As the Chaplain's thoughts wandered and he smiled at his folly, he noticed that something strange was happening and suddenly he felt stronger, more powerful and larger than life. For the first time since the outbreak of the melee he saw the three meter Ork general as if the alien was no more than a child by his side. The face of the Emperor on the ceiling watched Chaplain Marcellus smiling.
An earsplitting second later, Chaplain Ignaitus stopped the power axe slash that Kargarr had directed at his throat, dodged the power claw of the Ork's other arm and with a mighty blow of his Croxius Arcanum broke the skull Kargarr, Warboss of the Orks of Dannomel. The crack echoed throughout the command chamber and for an eerie moments all of the combatants froze to see what had happened. Looking at gruesome scene of a black Marine with a skull-faced helmet covered with Ork entrails and gore and shining with a weird red light over the shattered skull of their Warboss was too much for the remaining Orks and those who weren't cut down fled in retreat. The remaining Ork fighters were viciously cut down by the Marines who seconds later unleashed a hailstorm of bolter fire.
In the meantime, the space battle outside the Hulk was heading towards chaos. Marine vessels watched as Ork ships began to drift erratically and collide with each other. It looked as if the Ork ships had lost their course. Communications from the Marine assault teams jubuliantly informed the Black Purificators fleet of the unexpected and incredible success of the raid. Fleet commander Valorus ordered the strike cruisers to begin bombarding certain parts of the Ork Space Hulk, opening huge gaps in what had previously looked like a solid structure thus revealing the profile of what had once been an Imperial battleship. Care was taken by the gunners' salvoes to preserve the reamining structure in as intact a wreck as possible, but that left more work for the Marine boarders who were cleansing the remaining Orks off of the remains of the former Imperial battleship in vicious close quarters combat. ?
Kargarr the Despoiler's demise ended the piercing wail of the ?Waagh that had catalysed the Orks to launch their attack. It not only disorganized the Ork fleet, but it dropped the Orky psychic shield that had been generated by the Ork Waagh. So little of the psychic shield's energy reamined that the planet's Astropaths were easily able to send out messages for help.
The Ork's temporary lack of initiative due to their leader's loss soon saw feuds starting amongst the remaining Ork Nobz to see who would be Kargarr's successor. As the Orks turned to fighting among themselves, pressure aginst the Pler system fell. Orky offensives and other aggressive actions against the Imperial forces slackened, giving the Marines and planetary defence forces a short respite. Within a four-week period the combined ground forces of the Marines and Imperial Guard, along with some reinforcements from the nearby Alga system, seized the day and declared voctory over Kargarr's Waagh. The Imperial forces triumphanty dispersed or destroyed the remaining Orks in the sector. All of the remaining Orks who could returned to the Dannomel system, which has remained an Ork stronghold to this very day.
*
---------------------------------
V. Days of Pain, Days of Rebirth
The Black Purificators' great success at freeing the hive world of Pler did not more favorably dispose the Lords of Terra towards the remaining Marines of the chapter, who had utterly failed in their main mission to control and protect the Farid system. However, the Black Purificators' great success ?prevented the Lords of Terra from disbanding the chapter ipso facto. They were allowed to survive, but at the price of doing so without Imperial support. No resources were provided to the Black Purificators for the first years after their disgrace at Farid. Considering that nearly all the supplies an adeptus Astartes chapter could need including ammunition, armoured vehicles, and other facilities (apart from food and manpower) are produced on Imperial worlds, the Imperial decree to not resupply the Black Purificators was more or less a death sentence and guarantee that the chapter would die out. None the less, the Black Purificators would still be under obligation to answer distress calls and any other Imperial duty as if the chapter were a fully supported one. But the command of the chapter had things that required their dire need more than long-term survival of the chapter.
The cleansing of the Orks inside the Imperial battle ship (after the cleansing, the ship was revealed to be a Retribution class battleship) proved to be quite troublesome. It had to be done at close ranges inside starship corridors against a determined enemy and it proved to be quite risky in areas such as the plasma reactors and engineering decks. A large number of Marines were wounded and a shortage of Terminator armour proved to be a major lack. Luckily most of the Ork's best weapons had been transfered to other Ork ships and were not available for use against the Marines. But Orks don't need high-tech weapons to express their violent potentials.
In one of the areas of the Retributuion hulk, the hero of the Emperor's chapel and his squad encountered a group of Orks that stared at them with the wickedness of the ages in their eyes and wicked smiles. That was not so weird, in and of itself, but the plasma grenades the Gretchin started tossing most definitely were. Three of the Orks threw Gretchin bundled with suicide vests festooned with plasma grenades towards the advancing Marines and then the Greenskins opened fire with fusion guns and flamers creating a huge plasma explosion that destroyed most of the squad and mortally wounded Chaplain Ignaitus. The detonation alerted nearby Marine squads who were soon at the scene and finshed off the resisting Orks, but the devastation caused to the Death Harvesters Assault squad had been great. Ignaitus and his fellow wounded Marines were quickly brought to the chapter Apothecarion, but the chaplain's life was fading fast. Only one thing could be done...
Each company had been assigned an empty Dreadnought sarcophagus by the Chapter Master years ago after the Fire Purgers chapter was first formed. These sarcophagi were intended to be the final resting places of the great heroes of each company, so that every Marine could, in the future, have a living link to their past. None of the companies had yet used their Dreadnoughts and it was decided that Ignaitus would be the first Marine implanted into a 5th Battle Company Dreadnought. The operation was difficult for the Apothecaries. They no longer had the full resources of a fortress monastery to aid them in the operation and entombment. The only reason the chaplain kept from dying prematurely was through his own force of will. In the end the operation was successful and chaplain Ignaitus became the first dreadnought of the 5th Battle Company.
The cleansing of the Retorubtion hulk ended four weeks after the ship's capture with a final caualty count of twenty-seven dead Marines and sixty-two more with considerable wounds. That left the effective number of Black Purificators Marines at the perilously low number of 234. That was too few Marines for any direct battle mission.
*
---------------------------------
VI. The Gloria Imperialis
Somehow the fact that the Ork Hulk that the Black Purificators was, in fact, a Retiribution class battle ship from the days of yore escaped the notice of the Lord of Terra. They might not have ostracised the chapter for twenty years had they known that fact. A thing that had escaped the Lords of Terra attention when they declared the chapter to be ostracised from the Empire for 20 years. Chapter Master Janus had not told them and it most vertainly had not escaped his attention. He wasn't the only one to have noticed what emerged from the Ork Hulk; both Planetary Governor of Pler and the Imperial Navy commander from Alga, Mariscal Darmek, also saw something promising in the wreck. Both wanted the powerful battleship for their own and they began a series of political manoeuvres around Janus in an effort to win the new flagship for their systems. Janus did indeed play with them and once he had discovered the strengths and weaknesses of both of the characters, he allowed the battleship's wreck to be escorted to Maze, the Pler system naval shipyards. Very little else could have annoyed the Alga Navy Admiral more, but there was little he could do until the Sector War Fleet Commander arrived and could be a considerable wait. The reapirs and refitting and, better put, ressurection of the battleship wreck went by quicker than anyone had expected and wasn't long before shipyard technicians predicted that the new battleship could exit the shipyards at any given moment. The Governor of Pler won a battle, but Chapter Master Janus only found a new enemy in the Imperial Navy.
The ship was christened the Gloria Imperialis since no records had been found to indicate her original name. The Marines insisted upon that name after the pivotal battle in the ship's chapel and, for a change, the Governor of Pler found no reason to object. Most of her systems were operational despite the fact that technicians estimated that the mighty behemoth had been lsot in the warp for no less than four millennia. The systems that had degraded during her loss were repaired or, when possible, substituted with new and improved fittings.
Under the Adeptus Mechanicus' direction, the Chapter's remaining Techmarines put the vessel under a series of massive upgrades and outright changes to restore her to full fighting efficiency and battle prowess. Using equipment salvaged from wrecks towed from the Farid system, the Marines directed their artisans and technicians to give the Retributor equipment never before seen in a regular Imperial Naval vessel. The completely ruined dorsal lances were removed and substituted with a bombardment cannon; the prow lost torpedo tubes and replaced them with launch bays; most systems were automated as well meaning that a much smaller crew could operate the Gloria Imperialis. The hull was extensively reinforced to improve the battleship that had finally returned to mankind for the future Glory of the Emperor.
Techmarine Hurron provided ideas and technical assistence ?that proved to be instrumental in providing the Imperial Navy with a new generation of improvements and modifications. The Governor of Pler carried a broad smile around with him every time he visited the docks and secretly dreamed of glory and fame every time he thought about the new addition he would be giving the sector's High Command. He would surely promoted after a gift of that magnitude to the Navy. But the Marines had other plans for the flagship.
*
---------------------------------
VII. The Terra Lords Said So!
After less than a year of repairs and refits, the Gloria Imperialis was declared to be in a full state of battle readiness. Shortly after the completion of the repairs, the Black Purificators Marines told the Planetary Governor of Pler that they were going to leave. The chapter had spent that year recruiting neophytes and requisitioning resources from the Pler solar system as well as the galactic sector as a whole. Taking resources and neophytes blatantly violated the sentence of the High Lords of Terra and such action is cosnidered treason. Npt only had they taken resources of all kinds but they stocked the Gloria Imperialis, which, of course, suggested that the Marines were planning to also "requisition" the Gloria Imperialis for their own use. All of the needed rations, war materials, personnel and every other imaginable need had been provided for the Gloria Imperialis and when asked by the spaceyard authorities why the Black Purificators had stocked her, they replied that it was for the advanced development of the fleet. What fleet was being advanced and developed was never mentioned.
Given the tremendous amount of resources inested in the repair and refitting of the Gloria Imperialis, the Planetary Governor was quite happy at first to hear of the speedy competion and readiness of the newly recommisioned battleship. But then he noticed that the Marines were preparing the Gloria Imperialis for departure. Alarmed at what appeared to be a possible hijacking in his eyes, he contacted Master Janus forthright whose answer was that the repairs were being done to a non-Imperial Navy ship so there is no need to leave it in the Pler system and due to the fact that the Black Purificators still had Imperial mandate to control the Pler system, Master Janus'es order to direct resources towards the repair of the flagship was perfectly legal and no orders were broken and nor had the Imperium been betrayed. The Black Purificators had simply foolwed tha path that led to greater results for the Imperium as a whole. The Marines also confiscated an Sword squadron that had undergone similar modifications as those performed on the Gloria Imperialis as payment for the liberation of Pler.
After the Marine's final requisition, the new and improved Black Purificators fleet set course to make a warp jump. The Planetary Governor knew his scarce system defence fleet couldn't contest the Marines especially when the Marines were garrisoning the naval station and were already mobilized to depart Pler. He knew that it was too late to request navy reinforcements since the nearest system was Alga and Commander Mariscal Darmek had never been swift to aid him as they were political opponents. Darmek would never save the Planetary Governor's head. Any other Imperial Planetary Governor would have shot himself in the head before the Inqusitors and their inevitable punishment would have reached him. The Governor sat in his lofty offices in a state of indecision as the first of the Black Purificators made the jump out of system.
*
---------------------------------
VIII. The Raven's Flight
Even after investing a year rebuilding the chapter, the Black Purificators were still very close to extinction. New recruits and trustworthy servitors were hard to find and that presented a problem to Chapter Master Janus since the Marines would not be able to operate at full efficiency proscribed by the sacred Codex Astartes. The Black Purificators simply were not prepared for the kind of combat it looked like they would be facing under their present circumstances.
The chapter still couldn't muster more than three-hundred Brother Marines, and even with an impressive fleet and a good mobile base in the form of the Gloria Imperialis battleship, the strength of a Marine chapter has always been counted on the planetary battleground and not above it between the stars.
During the year of the Gloria Imperialis'es refitting, Janus and his fellow Brother Commanders had started to delve among the data sheets and tactical treatises onboard their ship computers and in the libraries of Pler. After extensive research, Janus and his Brother Commandrs learned what they had already thought they was apparent regarding the new mission of the Black Purificators. The best tactics for a small recovering chapter were to adopt the techniques developed by the great chapters of old: 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 Ignaitus 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. 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.
During this time the chapter started a campaign of raids against pirate bases and rogue worlds that were not under imperial control. But they targeted the ones that were not very well protected or had a strong military. They couldn't stand a long campaign or face a resolute opposition under their current situation 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 than engaging the enemy in the open. After that, they took whatever resources they wanted to take and they usually left again. The chapter was able to appoint several nominal imperial governors to some planets as well diuring the 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 caused 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.
To be continued.
---------------------------------
Next Chapter: IX. The Palman Connection, coming soon...
Xavi.
_________________
Commanding legions forward while sitting in a nice armchair.
|
|
?
More or less like a Tanith force, I would say