Chapter 499

[soddinnutter]

It's got BB codes. Can't do them right. Must find better pictures.

Chapter 499

Founding: 8th (Mid M33)

Recruitment

It was decided long ago by First Chapter Master Duncan Mortlock that the three greatest things a Marine should do were Obey the Emperor, Kill the Enemies of the Emperor and Keep Humanity Safe. Two of these required a great pre-disposition towards killing, and an innate ability not to be bothered by killing would be a welcome boon. There was one such population demographic in the records of the Administratium that had such individuals in extreme abundance, and no one would miss their departure from normal society. A decade latter, after almost all the surviving test subjects had to be put down, the project was put on hold. Although condemned murderers were invariably capable of killing they lacked discipline and almost all were so far beyond redemption it was not even humorous, not even by Marine standards. From a batch of near twenty thousand they got three acceptable recruits, and one of them was a bit unhinged.

It was Mayongrather the Chapters first and, as it turned out, last Librarian who supplied the answer to the chapters problems. The people they were recruiting were for the most part beyond redemption and should be killed. But their bodies should be kept.

The next batch were taken from the Prisons of Necromunda. Mayongrather personally inflicted upon these worthless scum the death of self. He killed them, but their bodies kept on going. All that the erased minds contained was the basics of language and body function.

Those few that awoke years later were the new recruits of the chapter. As they had slept the Apothaceries of the Chapter had been performing the alterations to turn them from human to super human. Given the relatively advanced age of the condemned there was a notable increase in the fatality of attempted transformations. But the Imperium has no shortage of condemned meat

Across a hundred worlds across the Glorious Imperium those awaiting execution are dragged screaming and begging for death as they are brought before the Psykers of the 499ers. They know they are soon to die, the chapter makes sure of this. The psyker’s place their hands upon both sides of their head. A scream of pain howls from the mouth of the forsaken as they are murdered inside their own minds, their eyes roll in their sockets and the last thing they see are the carefully blank expressions of their executioner.

This scene is broadcast across the entire planet. If it doesn’t put the fear of God into the populace it sure as hell puts the fear of the 499ers into them.

Because of the nature of their minds when they first awaken the new recruits are effectively all but useless as combatants. On the positive side they learn extremely quickly, a completely empty bucket is very easy to fill. Should said bucket begin to fill with the wrong stuff, heretical stuff, they go to sleep one night and do not wake up.

The marines usually spend the first ten standard years of their new lives learning as much as they possibly can. By the end of their training they should be able enough to join their older brothers in the Unending Crusade. At the end of their training they are free to choose a name for themselves, although many stick with the batch number they were issued with when they were plucked from humanity.

A side effect of this extended training phase is that the secondary Progenoid Gland can be harvested at the Chapters leisure.

This, along with the practice of Demi-Astartes, has led to a quite sizeable stockpile of gene-seeds.

Demi-Astartes

The use of Demi-Astartes can be traced back to the initial experiments on recruiting prisoners. Most of the Potentials had to be terminated for public safety and although the gene-seed could be salvaged most of the time the Chapter was doing this on a near industrial scale and so the loss mounted up.

It was the First Apothecary who suggested the practice. Demi-Astartes had, he claimed, been used during the Great Crusade and before that during the Unification Wars when gene-strains suffered spontaneous mutation or casualties were rather higher than were expected. It was a seldom used practice and almost forgotten but a regular, young, human of good health could carry a single Astartes implant around within their flesh. The Implant needn’t be connected to anything, it just needed the correct environment in which to flourish.

And so Chapter Master Mortlock made it mandatory for all upon his battle barge to carry one of the underdeveloped organs as a sigh of allegiance. It also created a much stronger bond between master and servant and general fondness for humanity on an individual level in the fledgling chapter.

Homeworld

Being tied down to one world out of the millions inhabited by humanity is an anathema to the 499ers. They have to keep going forwards, onwards and never stopping but to war without end. They have much to do, such a terrible muchness. It burns with in them and they must find where the killing needs doing.

Beliefs

Possibly alone of the Chapters Astartes, the 499ers praise the Omnissiah above and beyond that of the mere Emperor. The Omnissiah is viewed not as some patron of machines and mechanisms but as the collective embodiment of the great mechanisms that underpin all of creation. The Emperor is seen as a historical figure, a warlord form ancient Terra that founded the Imperium and conquered worlds from one Edge of the galaxy to the other. But they also venerate many, many others in this manner, albeit to a lesser extent.

Each marine, as they study, develop a personality and much of what they read and experience in those first years of awakening affects that emergent personality.

Cults of hero worship grow around historical figures, patterns of behaviour grow from appreciation of ideologies and strange ways of thinking and doing evolve from the teaching of others. It is a source of never ending tension within the Chapter but has never resulted in anything worse than harsh words and the occasional brawl.

All Marines are aware of their origins. They know that they were born of Death. This has led inevitably to the Death-cult of the chapter. It is universally prevalent and infuses all of the philosophies and beliefs of the rest of the chapter. But it is not what it sounds like.

All Marines know that they will die in the fullness of time as all mortals should, and they take great joy in this fact. It means that then they will be allowed to rest, should they wish. They know that Death is not an ending, they will be transmuted from a mortal into an immortal, Just as the previous inhabitants of their bodies were.

They do not have Chaplains, they are not needed. Their faith is unshakeable, they have seen people dead for centuries restored to the world of the living through the strange magics of the Necromancers.

Should advice upon a subject be needed, an opinion be sought, from one who has ascended through Death then a Necromancer will be found to call out into the Other World and beg a Soul to return. A willing volunteer is needed for this because the Soul will need something to inhabit for the time it is back in the Living World if it is to speak in a way that others can hear.

The skill of the Necromancer and willingness of the guest Soul determines how long a Contact can go on for before the Soul is pushed back into the Other World.

Psykers present detect no distortions of the Warp during these sessions, which is not to say that there aren’t a great many hardened Veterans with big, big guns overseeing the proceedings. Occasionally a Necromancer, usually an apprentice, will pull back a soul that looked like the one they were looking for only to find it to be someone else entirely. Last time this happened they were trying to find Ex-Chapter Master Duncan Mortlock and instead got a casualty from the era of the Unification Wars. It has often been wondered what would happen if a xeno soul was brought back, hence the heavily armed veterans.

Whenever something Deamonic tries anything the volunteer and the necromancer dies very quickly. This doesn’t happen so often anymore. The Deamons are learning.

Organisation

The 499ers have a much deviated and probably unique form of organisation. It started in the ancient days of the chapter when a Marine of good standing could ask for expert assistance with some of the more esoteric problems from people outside of the chapter. It was not uncommon in those half-remembered days for the Chapter to entrust the joy of victory to human Master Strategists. Then the Tech-Marines occasionally asked for assistance from their Mechanicus brothers in the aid of some of the more mysterious system repairs to their Battle-Barge.

Eventually it simply became a matter of convenience to have a staff of specially trained experts around to free the Battle Brothers more time to practice killing things.

In the fullness of time these experts earned the right to take the same oaths of loyalty that the Battle Brothers took. Though in truth they had long ago taken them in their hearts and souls.

Throughout the history of the Chapter the 499ers have fought alongside the Imperial Guard excessively and have come to appreciate the tenacity and bravery of humanity more than any other chapter, save perhaps the Salamanders. During long campaigns it was not uncommon for a Marine to be found leading surviving Guardsmen in battle. Then in the summer of 041M35 Brother 242 of the 2^nd Company became a little too attached to his adopted retinue from the 734^th Slave Regiment of DeKere's World. He offered them the opportunity to travel with him forever more in the Unending Crusade. They leapt at the opportunity. Upon his reunion with the rest of the Chapter he was immediately questioned by his superiors and ordered to dispose of his ‘pets’. He refused. In a normal chapter this would have been a sure way of getting a one-man Penitence Crusade or an opportunity to enjoy servitorhood. But he was seen as a hero by many of his brothers and putting a bullet between his eyes would be a great way to start an in-chapter civil war. He was allowed to keep his Retinue.

It was not long before others copied the example of Brother 242. This quickly led to the end of the Company System for the 499ers and the introduction of the Warband System. Within a decade of the Defiance of Astartes 242, as it was latter known, Battle Brothers were encouraged to recruit their own Retinue of no more than six followers.

The fighting strength of the 499ers on paper appears to be nearly six and a half thousand combatants because of this and has been the source of much Inquisitorial attention as a result.

Combat Doctrine

The 499ers believe in a speedy end to all conflicts in the most efficient way possible. To this end the Sniper Rifle, and not the Bolter, is the most common weapon used by the chapter.

Nothing is considered more fitting for the adversaries of humanity than to die inglorious deaths, never knowing their executioners, not even being awarded the dignity of facing their mortality knowingly. Nothing but a whisper as the aerodynamic sliver of metal passes through the air and a dark round hole neatly punched through the head or heart or throat.

There is one exception to this. The Berserkers. They are used when an ‘impression’ is to be made upon a world, and by the by it is not one soon forgotten. At any one time there can be between forty and seventy of these Beserkers. They are Battle Brothers who have seen too much and fear that they may become monsters in human form, who fear they may become as the previous hosts of their flesh. In the ranks of the Berserker it is possible for them to express their hate ad bloodlust without fear of damnation, and eventually they will die on their feet with weapon in hand. The correct way for an Astartes to die. Screaming madmen armed with Astartes sized Evisorators for preference. They charge into battle screaming with little regard for personal safety or survival or tactics or, to be honest, much intelligence. They are charging into death and simply wish to take as many people with them as they possibly can. They are the Only Marines in the chapter who show much of a preference for wearing Power Armour.

They deploy into battle in one-man drop pods known as Iron Coffins.

Nature of the Retinue

Following the example of Brother 242 the marines of Chapter 499 began to actively seek out those of exceptional talent.

The first Retinue of a Battle Brother will invariably shape his impressionable young mind as much as exposure to the 499ers will shape the minds of the new Retinue.

Given the chapters love of the Sniper Rifle this can be seen as a lovely way of getting around the Imperial Law concerning the number of Brothers in a chapter. This way an Astartes can command seven weapons instead of just the one he is carrying.

This means of making war was best demonstrated when the Chapter had to remove the Traitor Guard Regiment known as the 37^th Blasphemous Prophets Regiment from the Albusus Bridge on the planet Sanctus Lys durning the 10^th Black Crusade. In one moment the enemy held the bridge and in the blink of an eye the entire regiment was dead. Each with a single round hole in a vital organ.

From the point of view of those invited to join the 499ers it is considered an extremely good fortune. They will be given Rejuvanent Drugs, Longevity Therapies, Replacement Organ Grafting and the very best cybernetic replacements and upgrades that they could ever wish for. Given that the 499ers seem to prefer recruiting followers from the Slave Regiments, perhaps out of pity, this opportunity is seen as a divine gift.

Psykerphobia

The 499ers do not have a resentment or hatred or any real fear towards the psykers. They have a caution. Given how much damage a Deamon can cause if walking around in a normal human suit they can only imagine what one could do walking around in a psychic Space Marine. To this end no psyker in the Chapter has ever been offered the gene-seed. Ever. And that’s never likely to change.

Given how psyker’s are necessary, for reformatting people’s brains if nothing else, they still use them. When a psyker wishes to join the chapter, or a child is born in the Chapter fleet with the psy-blessing and lives to the age of 16, they are taken to the heart of the Psyker Halls. The Psyker Halls are an area where the Psykers can work un-restrained. They sing using their minds and it is a haunting song that steals away the sanity of the un-gifted. Then the Soul-Hardening begins.

The exact nature of the rites is unknown to those who have not undergone them. All that is known is that skin of all psyker’s over the age of sixteen is covered in glyphs carved in scars and over those are brandings and over those are tattoos, the ink of which is made of ork blood. The skin is also an unpleasant greyish blueish colour from all the enchanted silver compounds they have consume in their food.

It is unknown exactly which of these marks are meaningful and which are decorative or informative. The need for silver compounds is also for unknown reasons. What is known is the way in which all but the most terrible deamonic entity will cower from them and try in vain to hide. Astropaths claim that they appear to glow slightly and give off the echoes of a song they recognise but cannot quite remember.

The exact meaning of any of these marks is not told to outsiders outside of the Triumvirate Council.

Necromancers

The origin of the Necromancers has become slightly fuzzy over the centuries. They seemed to appear during the latter part of M33 during the infancy of the 499ers. They first made themselves known by following the young Chapter around and making themselves useful. They filed their reports, polished the weapons, swept the floors, helped with the hard spellings when battle reports had to be written.

At some point during the early part of M34 the 499ers became aware of what they were. By this point only Ancient Mayongrather, Chief Librarian, remained from the original members of the chapter and all members of the newly established Triumvirate Council looked to him for guidance. He did not declare them heretic. They brought back his old friend Duncan Mortlock who had died centuries before. The Dead Astartes told him things that no other could possibly know and he told him how proud he was of the chapter that he, Mayongrather, had guided so wisely.

There was much arguing latter by the Council but none would dare go against the will of Ancient Mayongrather.

Trove

The Trove is the reason the Mechanicus both love and hate the 499ers with a passion. Whenever they enter the system of a Forge World, a world with a Mechanicus Enclave or encounter an Explorator Fleet the same irritating and borderline heretical thing happens.

The Sacred Data-banks are plundered. Stealing the secrets of the god-machine. Holy machine codes are copied and a copy is transferred to the unholy Trove of the 499ers.

And to make matters worse. Information is added. A copy of the Trove is left behind in the Sacred Data-Banks.

It seems that if it were up to the Tech-Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods of the 499ers no Mechanicus would have advantage over another.

They are Hated for their sacrilegious plundering of hard won secrets. But they are Loved because every Adept of the Mechanicus is hungry for the secrets of their rivals.

The other factions within the chapter feign ignorance to all of this when they are questioned about it.

Leadership

Unlike the majority of the Chapters Astartes the 499ers operate under a Triumvirate Council. Currently the positions of authority are held by:

Triumvir – Lady of Iron – Jillian Abyssael. (Human, female)

Sub-Triumvir – Mistress of Repairs and Maintenance – Beatrice Smith (Human, female)

Sub-Triumvir – Machine of Equipment Management – Reetheer Muurn (Human, machine)

Sub-Triumvir – Master of Construction and Renovation – Issac (Human, male)

Triumvir - Lord of War – Morgan Grin (Astartes).

Sub-Triumvir – Master of Recruitment and Training – 843/B (Astartes)

Sub-Triumvir – Master of Strategy – Orob Oros (Astartes)

Sub-Triumvir – Master of Discipline – Brass Nayl (Astartes)

Triumvir – Lord of the Fortress – Moldus Ilirik (Human, male)

Sub-Triumvir – Commodore of the Armada – Jonas Petrovich (Human, male)

Sub-Triumvir – Guardian Against the Warp – Solomon Bleak (Human, male)

Sub-Triumvir – Speaker for the Dead – Melrose Spindlekin (Human, female)

Triumvir Jillian Abyssael

Triumvir Morgan Grin

Triumvir Moldus Ilirik

Gene-seed

Genetically they are the children of Lord Gulliman that Lord Gulliman would be the first to disown and never speak of in polite company. But for all their not-quite-heresies they have taken great pains to preserve the purity of their genetic heritage and to this day they show not even the slightest signs of mutation.

Battle Cry

They don’t have one. Most of the 499ers are too busy trying to be quiet and the Berserkers are too busy being insane.

Relics

A Melta-Plasma-Flamer combination weapon known as the Kill It With Fire. It is one of the oldest weapons known to the 499ers. It was given to them by the first Necromancer to join their ranks as a token of unending friendship. It is present at every Listening Ritual, just in case. Given how despite its proximity to burning promethium the Plasma Weapon components have never overheat it is suspected to be something of truly extraordinary craftsmanship that has been altered beyond what is considered sanctioned.

A set of keys. It is said they were once owned by Malcador the Sigillite. They are of a non-euclidean shape. They do not open locks. They open minds. They can close them as well.

An Imperial Army standard issue combat knife once belonging to Ollanius Pius. Taken from a Sorcerer of the Black Legion who had been using it as a Sacrificing Knife.

[spjaco]

Uh, you gonna catch heck with the female marines man. And Space Marines cannot have children so I am not sure what the founders purpose of his third belief was.

 

Sounds like a tough little group otherwise.

[soddinnutter]

@spjaco

 

Keeping the children of the Emperor safe?

 

Bad wording on my part. sorry.

[spjaco]

Not a problem. Maybe I misread it. Getting old, ya know. ;)

[Ace Debonair]

I'd recommend reading the DIY guide at the top of the forum.

That might give you some ideas on how to develop this.

[Myxx]

Kinda seems like outrageousness for its own sake...

[Consul of Scorpions]

Kinda seems like outrageousness for its own sake...

Yeah, I know, I'm loving it.

 

Can't wait to see how freudian (psychology-wise, not perversion-wise) you get with the Necromancers.

 

A few spelling errors and some wonky formating near the Brother 242 section are all the problems I can detect with your article so far.

[soddinnutter]

Kinda seems like outrageousness for its own sake...

 

 

Edited for less outrageousness.

[Myxx]

Very interesting reading, I like it. I would think that the psychic brain blasting might be frowned upon by the =][= though. To hijack your terms, an empty bucket is indeed easy to fill, but sometimes not with what you had intended. It seems like doing this on a massive scale would atract the attention of all sorts of warp-nastiness. And same goes for the seance-like possession by ancestors or advisors. Just cause you called out for Brother 137's spirit doesn't mean that he will be the one in the willing vessel.

 

Just my thoughts.

[Consul of Scorpions]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the OP is describing purely psychological techniques for scouring their recruits of their former self.

[soddinnutter]

Very interesting reading, I like it. I would think that the psychic brain blasting might be frowned upon by the =][= though. To hijack your terms, an empty bucket is indeed easy to fill, but sometimes not with what you had intended. It seems like doing this on a massive scale would atract the attention of all sorts of warp-nastiness. And same goes for the seance-like possession by ancestors or advisors. Just cause you called out for Brother 137's spirit doesn't mean that he will be the one in the willing vessel.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

And good thoughts they are as well.

 

The scrubing of the brain is practiced by the Gray Knights, i think, so they cant frown upon it to much.

 

Have edited from your other points.

[Myxx]

The scrubing of the brain is practiced by the Gray Knights, i think, so they cant frown upon it to much.

 

Perhaps an alliance of sorts with the GK's? With one of there psykers doing/over-seeing the wipes?