IA: Storm Dragons - WIP 0.5

[Augusta]

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Parva Sub Ingenti: Storm Dragons

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Veteran Sergeant L'kelth. Green Collar denotes original member of the training cadre.

“Stubborn as a Dragon” – A common human phrase on Tau subjugated Imperial worlds.

T

he Storm Dragons were originally incepted as Chapter 937, formed during the 26th founding of 738.M41 with the initial goal of holding and stabilising all future conquests by the Imperium of the region of space currently occupied by the Tau Empire. However with the eventual stalling and subsequent withdrawal of the Damocles Crusade to deal with the all-consuming Hive Fleet Behemoth in 742.M41, the fledgling Chapter was left to fend for itself from the continued expansion of the Tau across the Damocles Gulf into Imperial Space.

The training cadre itself was drawn from the stalwart Salamanders Chapter and the world of Noth-Gaard was chosen for its strategic value, sitting in a confluence of many spacelanes however access to the planet surface can be described as haphazard at best. The primary reason why the world was never a vital hub of space travel was because lone giant winged reptilian beasts from the length of three Thunderhawk gunships to the size of Warlord class titans prowl above the cloud shrouded world in search of prey. As such, when the training cadre made planetfall, it was on the peak of the tallest mountain rising barely 400 meters above the clouds and to the chagrin of the cadre, also a nesting site to one of the largest specie’s of winged monstrosities that inhabit their new world.

For a day and a night, the Vanir battled the Lord of all dragon kin, the unmoving heavens shuddering into life for the first time in living memory and fiery lightning streaked down around the base of Mount Draug gouging deep craters that have since become mighty frozen lakes. Many clans from near and far were drawn to the ominous rumblings reverberating from the mountain and raised their gazes up in awed bewilderment. The World Dragon Morgath which for unending generations was our master and also our doom plummeted to the earth with a sword pierced in its eye, cast down broken by the new lords of the sky.

– Lore Master Tilgeth of the Dreai Clan

When the Astartes finally descended from the mountain clad as they were still in the drake cloaks from their homeworld Nocturne, the warriors of the local clans stood waiting calmly before the cadre. Never before had so many clan warriors stood united together in the history of Noth-Gaard and as one kneeled and declared fealty to the Dragons of Storm as their new masters, mistaking them for dragons in human form. Chapter Master N’bel felt the hand of guidance from the Emperor that day for on a world as huge as Jupiter where no human life was to be expected, what greeted him was the potential to build a thriving Chapter. So he solemnly accepted the title that the clans unknowingly bestowed on them, whereby Chapter 937 became known as the Storm Dragons.

However the consequence of the battle with the World Dragon Morgath had left many battle brothers slain, including the Chapter Master who finally succumbed to his wounds on returning to their orbiting strike cruiser. Only the Master of the Forge, B’din, his three apprentices, Apothecary J’kin and 4 battle brothers remain to build the new Chapter. It would take nearly half a century before any sizeable force of Storm Dragons would participate in the wars raging across the segmentum and the Imperium as a whole. And in that time the world of Noth-Gaard lay forgotten.

:confused: The Secret War

Forge Lord B'nin

A talented technological pioneer in the Salamanders (and some say the cause of him and his apprentices eventual 'honourable' inclusion into the training cadre) B'nin had a very inquisitive mind that was often trying to find new ways on improving arms and armour. However over time this led him to seek possible alternatives to the current Mk of wargear which was considered taboo, especially when the Salamanders have close ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Being the only senior officer remaining, left behind on the strike cruiser by direct orders from the Chapter Master, B'nin was nominally in command and his battle brothers didn't disagree. He would assume command until a man worthy enough rise through the ranks. Seeing the long arduous task that lied before the Storm Dragons, B’nin with difficulty choose to break from the standard practice of initiates only accepting one apprentice, forced by circumstances of the ongoing war with the Tau to increase the burden upon each surviving battle brother to be responsible for three. This will eventually affect later combat practice though it was unintentional.

When the Chapter went to war for the first time since its founding, B'nin against all objections joined the initial raider operations on captured Imperial worlds. It was in this crucible of war that he encountered Tau armour and weaponry, marvelling at its obvious technical superiority compared to similar Imperial makes and knew that were the Astartes armed and armoured in such wargear, they would be nigh unstoppable. Many of the newly created battle brothers were of the same mind, having been taught personally by B'nin or by one of his apprentices in the forge when their tenure with the initiates was over.

As Imperial worlds started to fall to the advance of the Tau, the Storm Dragons were not idle in their duties. As battle brothers soon began to swell the ranks, due to the large humanitarian influence from the cadre the clamour for action against the xenos invaders in the Emperor's realm intensified. Distress calls from Imperial worlds cut off from the Imperium were being broadcasted almost daily as the Chapter was being formed and within just half a century since the founding it was decided that the Chapter was to be mobilised. With barely the equivalent of two untested battle companies formed, the Storm Dragons knew that any major engagement would see them annihilated and it was from one of the original cadre whom suggested going to each world with a single squad to rally the local Imperial population and leading a resistance. It was approved after several nights of furious debate and within a month, the strike cruiser Dragon’s Wrath stealthily left low orbit from Noth-Gaard.

The ship warped in on the extreme edges of captured Imperial systems, firing a single drop pod on a flat trajectory to their target world which in the best of cases would arrive in 6-8 weeks. This was to minimize the chance of discovery and extraction would only occur should the mission be compromised or the might of the entire Chapter be needed. Recruitment was still ongoing in Noth-Gaard, with most of the training cadre and half a battle company reluctantly remaining behind as a token defence force for their unfinished fortress monastery on Mount Draug.

Having successfully landed on their target worlds, the squad broke up into 3 man units with the Sergeant taking the remainder to form a command squad. Cautiously making contact with loyal Imperial citizens, they taught them how to make weapons, booby traps, simple communication devices and a myriad of other expertise to make successful guerrilla fighters out of ordinary humans. Led by the Storm Dragons and their hunter instincts from their homeworld, within weeks of their arrival acts of sabotage against military targets kept increasing month by month till it became a day by day occurence after only a year. Security was increased after every attack but led by highly innovative space marines whose bolters have ran out of ammunition long since, they made used of captured Tau weaponry to deadly effect. After 4 years the worlds that have been 'seeded' by the Storm Dragons had a palpable air of righteous discontent, simmering beneath the surface of the false peace imposed by the guns of the Tau Fire caste.

Intercepted Tau communications from their own vox net has shown that the Fire Caste were actively seeking out the agitators however unbeknownst to them more Storm Dragons, newly trained from their homeworld were arriving on the seeded worlds bringing new orders straight from Forge Lord B'nin. On the day of the Emperor's Ascension, the worlds rose up in simultaneous open rebellion, paralysing the Tau’s ability to respond effectively to the crisis. Although the rebellion was successful on several worlds, the Dragons knew that without Imperial support it was doomed to failure so they advised the Imperial Citizenry to go to ground until the Imperium mustered a crusade to drive the foul xenos out. To this day the Imperium has yet to make a concerted effort to reclaim their lost worlds, but the Storm Dragons stubbornly return regularly with growing numbers, the Tau fearing that with each new rebellion that it is becoming harder and harder to contain as more military assets are drawn from across the Tau Sept to deal with an increasingly modernised rebellious force. To the Tau, a storm was brewing of unimaginable proportion.

[size=2; background-image:url(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">Darius barely broke his stride, his new armour absorbing the oncoming fire of the increasingly desperate Tau fire warriors with ease as his clan brothers finally reached the barricade, using the butts of their bolters to smash skulls and limbs into pulp. Through the smoke and Tau screams Darius leapt over and landed on a wounded xeno’s, ending its short foul life while rapidly firing into the retreating Tau gun line, lobbing a grenade with the under barrelled grenade launcher for good measure. All throughout the besieged Tau city, Storm Dragons were putting the fire warriors to the sword with righteous fury, ably supported by the human militia armies trained for generations by the Chapter.

His twin hearts were beating rapidly in excitement, the fulfilment of the Chapter’s vow to the people of this world was very close at hand. The entire might of the Chapter was deployed on this single world, supported by the still true and loyal Imperial citizens who had waited patiently for over a hundred years for deliverance. But with the Imperium beset on all sides, the Storm Dragons could wait no longer; for once the Chapter was at full strength the time for covert actions were over. Today, the Tau saw for the first time who the agitators were who had kept the fires of Imperial loyalty burning and trained the human militia on what was supposed to be a secured Tau world.

Screaming from the sky, a unit of Tau battlesuits fell in amongst the Dragons, firing their plasma rifles with devastating effect and in their wake the body of Sergeant P’andir fell, the top of his skull a ruined mess. Darius roared in grief as he shoulder slammed into the back of the battlesuit causing both of them to tumble before he sat atop the chest of the suit and fired repeatedly into its vision slot. For P’andir, a member of the training cadre and one of the first to have landed on this world decades ago to not see the final liberation from the Tau enraged all the Storm Dragons as news of his death spread through the Chapter like wildfire.

To many he was like a second father and as Darius strode into what was obviously an Earth Caste research center, tracking his bolter sights rapidly through the doorway, he saw a cowering group of Tau scientists in the far corner. Forever to his shame he was about to fire into the civilians when a mechanical arm wrenched the bolter from his hands, Darius whirling around to face the towering form of Forge Lord B’nin.

“Do not lose yourself in your anguish brother for you will dishonour the memory of P’andir”, B’nin intoned mechanically, his voice box shot away a decade ago by the Tau.

Bowing his head at the rebuke, the Forge Lord gazed at him for a silent minute before handing back the weapon to Darius’s grateful hands. Turning to leave he heard the lord speak to the scientists in fluent Tau, “If you want to continue living, your lives are now mine”[/size]

F

rom orbit, the world of Noth-Gaard looks like it is fully enclosed by a sea of unending clouds with an estimated depth of several hundred kilometres. The clouds are actually molten ash constantly spewed up by thousands of volcanoes that litter the surface with the effect being that the world is in the perpetual grip of winter. However the fauna has adapted to this environment, with the Tresirlan being the smallest and more numerous class of dragons feeding off the clouds and in turn being fed off by the more larger dragons. As such the only safe access to the surface is through the heavily defended low orbit spaceport built on the summit of the Storm Dragons fortress monastery on Mount Draug, the highest mountain of the world. Yet accidents still occur as it is not unknown for dragons and even the rarer World dragons to mistake smaller starships as prey, the uncanny keen intelligence of the World dragons being the most successful in incapacitating the vessels.

The human populace follow a nomadic clan lifestyle, living beside magma rivers for warmth and using the heat to melt the ice to provide precious drinking water, only moving when the lava flow changes direction. While the skies are ruled by gigantic dragons, on land the smaller wingless variety, the size of land raiders, provide vital clothes and sustenance for the clans. The world itself is rich in minerals however doesn’t have the manufactoria to mass produce and only recently has participated in trade with the worlds liberated by the Storm Dragons, the most valuable import being live Grox to be raised by the clans. Most dragons no longer hunt men as the clans have off world weapons like las-rifles and also the patronage of a Storm Dragon battle brother living amongst them, following the ancient tradition of Nocturne. However the 1st clan company remains in the Fortress Monastery, improving and manning the defences as construction to envelope the whole Mount Draug in an impenetrable adamantite shell continues at a steady pace.

Recruitment

A

lmost exclusively recruiting from their homeworld of Noth-Gaard, it is not unknown for recruits to be drawn from the worlds where the Storm Dragons have to operate for a considerable length of time, although this is considered rare as the amount of time a clan brother can spend mentoring the child (usually six or seven Terran years old) in the art of the smith is more often than not interrupted by his official combat duties. However before even being considered to be an apprentice, an apothecary will examine the child to see if they would survive the rigors of the implantation process to become a Space marine. Breaking slightly from the ancient Salamanders Chapter tradition, only 3 children aspiring to become Space Marines are apprenticed to a single clan brother, a throwback to the early days of the Storm Dragons when the need to fill the ranks was urgent.

After several years, a Forge Lord and the Forge Smiths then judge the smithing skill of the most able apprentices sent to them, testing their character followed by a rescreening from an apothecary to see if the aspirant is still suitable. Those who pass will receive the first implantations followed by rigorous training and trials mirroring the competition between the Emperor and their Primarch Vulkan in Nocturnean Legend though the culmination is the slaying of one of the dragons that make their nests in one of many towering mountains around Mount Draug. Finally their apprenticeship is completed by studying under a Forge Smith although the incredibly talented in smithing are personally trained by a Forge Lord. All Storm Dragons are expected to be able to repair and maintain their own wargear which allows the Chapter Forge to experiment and improve on existing marks, one of the few forges to consistently reequip their battle brothers as superior wargear is made available.

Initially without a librarian during the Chapter’s formative years, those who showed psychic talent were sent directly to Nocturne, a sacred journey that most Storm Dragons could only dream of visiting the homeworld of their Primarch. However after a hundred years the Storm Dragons now have the ability to train their own Librarians, though it has become a sad tradition where a newly inducted librarian is sent to Nocturne with the remains of rediscovered battles brothers from the initial training cadre that fought the World Dragon Morgath or those that have recently perished in combat. The remains are finally interred within the Vault beneath Mount Deathfire where fallen Salamanders ashes are immolated in lava upon the Pyre-slab, their essence returned to the heart of Nocturne.

Belief

[Augusta]

Hi, Im new to the board. I thought i open my first post with an Index Astartes drop pod to the face :confused:

 

Feel free to shoot it full of bolter rounds etcetc. I wear ceramite plate like all good Astartes so it shouldnt hurt... much. You be surprised at how much 3+ armour saves i fail...

 

And Yea.. i havnt finished it yet. Nor have i come up with a colour scheme. Nor do i have a battlecry. Im making a small army of these when i have the time and back in my own country in a couple of days. Going to try to do a truescale of Mk 16 armour *ahem* disguised as remodeled mk 8s... plz dont tell the Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

Changelogs

0.1 - Added Space marine colour scheme

0.2 - Cleaned the origins section to be more in line of recruitment fluff

0.3 - Added transition story at end of Origins section

0.4 - Added homeworld section

0.5 - Added Recruitment section and did some minor grammar correction throughout article.

[Octavulg]

Isn't Mk16 from the Dornian Heresy?

[Augusta]

It is, But its so shiny that i have got to port it into our side of the parallel universe somehow. So here, it will be designated Mk 8 the *Damocles* Pattern, with suitable cross matchin of armours. So basically its a modified Mk 8... um yea, a very extensively modified Mk8...

[Octavulg]

Oh, OK.

[Ace Debonair]

EDIT: Wah, triple ninja'd.

Blasted triple ninjas!

 

Hi, Im new to the board. I thought i open my first post with an Index Astartes drop pod to the face ^_^

 

Feel free to shoot it full of bolter rounds etcetc. I wear ceramite plate like all good Astartes so it shouldnt hurt... much. You be surprised at how much 3+ armour saves i fail...

 

You'd be astonished how little defence that armour provides against the bowling balls around here. :D

Welcome to the Liber!

 

Odds are, sooner or later, someone's going to utterly annihilate every detail of your chapter down to it's very soul. :P

Don't be alarmed if (read: when) it happens, it's all shooting for the goal of helping you create a truly excellent chapter, developing your concepts and so forth.

 

I'm not going to go quite that far, but here's a few pointers:

 

The training cadre itself was drawn from the stalwart Salamanders Chapter and the world of Nogard was chosen for its strategic value, sitting in a confluence of many spacelanes however access to the planet surface can be described as haphazard at best.

So it wasn't chosen for being the word Dragon written backwards, then? :confused:

 

However the consequence of the battle with the World Dragon had left many battle brothers slain, including the Chapter Master who finally succumbed to his wounds on returning to their orbiting strike cruiser. Only the Master of the Forge, B’din, his three apprentices and 4 battle brothers remain to build the new chapter. It would take nearly half a century before any sizeable force of Storm Dragons would participate in the wars raging across the segmentum and the Imperium as a whole. And in that time the world of Nogard lay forgotten.

 

Popular wisdom in these parts says that if your chapter is reduced to less than a company, it's pretty much going to die out.

I'd strongly reccomend keeping two or three companies alive, just to avoid any complications in your chapter's resurgence.

 

Getting geneseed enough to basically refound your chapter is hardly a commonplace occurence, for one thing.

 

As Imperial worlds started to fall to the advance of the Tau, the Storm Dragons were not idle in their duties. As battle brothers soon began to swell the ranks, due to the large humanitarian influence from the cadre the clamour for action against the xenos invaders in the Emperor's realm intensified. Distress calls from Imperial worlds cut off from the Imperium were being broadcasted almost daily and within just 5 years since the founding it was decided that the chapter was to be mobilised. With only 30 battle brothers, the Storm Dragons knew that any major engagement would see them annihilated and it was from one of the original cadre whom suggested going to each world’s in groups of three to rally the local Imperial population and leading a resistance. It was approved after several nights of furious debate and within a month, the strike cruiser Dragon’s Wrath stealthily left low orbit from Nogard.

 

Wait, what? :RTBBB:

Your chapter's been around for less than five years and is already almost dead?

 

What kind of people did you recruit? :lol:

Also whoever decided that they were going to go on the attack with only thirty marines is demonstrating extreme silliness.

 

Security was increased after every attack but led by highly innovative space marines whose bolters have ran out of ammunition long since, they made used of captured Tau weaponry to deadly effect.

Your average marine is as likely to cut his own hands off as he is to use xeno technology.

Besides, I'm pretty sure space marines can make their own ammo.

 

And Yea.. i havnt finished it yet. Nor have i come up with a colour scheme. Nor do i have a battlecry. Im making a small army of these when i have the time and back in my own country in a couple of days. Going to try to do a truescale of Mk 16 armour *ahem* disguised as remodeled mk 8s... plz dont tell the Adeptus Mechanicus.

As a sort of honourary Techmarine, I'll pretend you didn't say that. ;)

 

I was initially sure this was going to be another 'space marines working for the tau' chapter, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find this does not appear to be the case. Good stuff!

 

All in all, it's a lot better than my first attempt.

Stick at it, adress the issues as they come up, and you could have a pretty neat chapter on yuor hands.

 

Also, if you want help putting a colourscheme together, give me a shout.

I'm sure I can think up something for you. ^_^

[Augusta]

So it wasn't chosen for being the word Dragon written backwards, then? :cuss

 

:P Hey, when most of the cool sounding planets are taken, you gotta work with what ya got. I was sure that alot of people would never work it out :D and btw its pronounced noth-gaard

 

Popular wisdom in these parts says that if your chapter is reduced to less than a company, it's pretty much going to die out.

I'd strongly reccomend keeping two or three companies alive, just to avoid any complications in your chapter's resurgence.

 

Getting geneseed enough to basically refound your chapter is hardly a commonplace occurence, for one thing.

 

I was going for the slow road. You know like the rebuilding of the Crimson Fists. If those guys could rebuild in the middle of a war i want in on that action too. It will also explain the extremely slow progress of the construction of my real life marines...

 

 

Wait, what? :)

Your chapter's been around for less than five years and is already almost dead?

 

What kind of people did you recruit? :mellow:

Also whoever decided that they were going to go on the attack with only thirty marines is demonstrating extreme silliness.

 

But being a space marine doesnt require conscious thought B) Suicidal? Perhaps. But i made sure i popped their first geneseed out before i sent them running along (which sounds horribly wrong in a sick kind of way now that i reread it...). Yeah i will probably need to rework the numbers as i was going by what 8 of the cadre can feasibly train if they followed the same training process as the Salamanders chapter but multiplied by 3. Hence i got marines doing covert work instead of outright battles.

 

In your reckoning, how fast can 8 marines train recruits in 5 yrs?

 

Your average marine is as likely to cut his own hands off as he is to use xeno technology.

Besides, I'm pretty sure space marines can make their own ammo.

 

Yea but im going by the fact that these young poor innocent impressionable marines were influenced by Lord B'nin's view on technology. In real life modeling wise im probably gona modify their bolters to be abit more... tau techy like, with a hint of *smash! kill! me marine!* incorporated somehow.

 

 

As a sort of honourary Techmarine, I'll pretend you didn't say that. ;)

 

I was initially sure this was going to be another 'space marines working for the tau' chapter, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find this does not appear to be the case. Good stuff!

 

All in all, it's a lot better than my first attempt.

Stick at it, adress the issues as they come up, and you could have a pretty neat chapter on yuor hands.

 

Also, if you want help putting a colourscheme together, give me a shout.

I'm sure I can think up something for you. :P

 

Well as much as i like the Tau (guilty of owning an army of them), I have my first love of marines in my wallet so everytime i look at it, reminds me of all the anguish and heartache of totally incomprehensible rules of yesteryears... I mean good feelings.

 

Seriously I also got Iron Hands. I need a brighter colour scheme from all the black... atm im tossing up the idea of white, blue and gold all combined in a hideous perversion of slaneeshi colours. Please take into account i will be modeling a truescale version of a bastardize Mk16, with mk 8 components, and then throwin in all the greenstuff for dragon iconography here and there. I got a mold of dragon wings somewhere to use on the helmets of the Mk16... so yeah it will have some clean lines and alot of things that make a space marine look like he was in a halloween party.

 

Thanks for commenting though. I was pretty sure there were quite abit of bugs to work out.

[Ace Debonair]

Hey, when most of the cool sounding planets are taken, you gotta work with what ya got. I was sure that alot of people would never work it out :D and btw its pronounced noth-gaard

I think it should be written that way as well. Much less obvious. ;)

 

I was going for the slow road. You know like the rebuilding of the Crimson Fists. If those guys could rebuild in the middle of a war i want in on that action too. It will also explain the extremely slow progress of the construction of my real life marines...

They had more than eight marines, though. :P

And it's probably better to think of the CF as the exception rather than the rule.

 

Losing even half of your marines would be a truly devastating situation for any chapter - it'd also pretty much force them to take time out to recover.

 

In your reckoning, how fast can 8 marines train recruits in 5 yrs?

Not fast enough to get anywhere, I'm afraid.

 

You'd be lucky to find the aspirants in the first place, bear in mind. Their home planet's going to have to have a lot of people on for you to recruit from, and searching all the human settlements will take a while. And with such low manpower, the task is doubly hard. Then there's the truly epic amount of training your marines have to put them through, then all the difficult geneseed stuff. And those hard-sought aspirants will die at every step.

 

And if at least one of those eight marines isn't an apothecary, you won't be doing any geneseed implantation, so the point is moot. :lol:

 

On the other hand, if you've got a few hundred marines you can spare bunches of them to specifically go recruiting, ideally from any other nearby worlds too, and more than enough people to teach your recruits the ways of the Storm Dragons. You're also likely to have a good handful of Apothecaries, with the added bonus of having enough marines to go out and fight despicable xeno enemies, allowing your new lads to get some first-hand battle experience.

 

Now, as far as the covert ops stuff:

 

The Raven Guard use that too, traditionally to compensate for lowered numbers.

There's plenty of precedent for you to switch to a covert-ops style approach, and you could also have your chapter rather boldly and defiantly spreading it's forces over several planets. This gives you multiple smaller engagements to deal with, and allowing you to have single-squad forces working with local humans and stuff, if you so choose.

 

Your average marine is as likely to cut his own hands off as he is to use xeno technology.

Besides, I'm pretty sure space marines can make their own ammo.

 

Yea but im going by the fact that these young poor innocent impressionable marines were influenced by Lord B'nin's view on technology. In real life modeling wise im probably gona modify their bolters to be abit more... tau techy like, with a hint of *smash! kill! me marine!* incorporated somehow.

 

Another thing I've noticed to be generally true in 40K:

The easiest way for you to justify Damocles pattern armour/ modified Tau guns/ other unlikely things is to never, ever mention that such things exist. ;)

 

Keeping the models and the story seperate will make writing about this chapter so much easier than entangling them together.

 

Seriously I also got Iron Hands. I need a brighter colour scheme from all the black... atm im tossing up the idea of white, blue and gold all combined in a hideous perversion of slaneeshi colours. Please take into account i will be modeling a truescale version of a bastardize Mk16, with mk 8 components, and then throwin in all the greenstuff for dragon iconography here and there. I got a mold of dragon wings somewhere to use on the helmets of the Mk16... so yeah it will have some clean lines and alot of things that make a space marine look like he was in a halloween party.

 

Thanks for commenting though. I was pretty sure there were quite abit of bugs to work out.

 

EDIT: removed un-needed pics.

[Augusta]

I think it should be written that way as well. Much less obvious. :cuss

Yea after some serious contemplation and some breakfast, i thought that too. So time for some editing.

Not fast enough to get anywhere, I'm afraid.

You'd be lucky to find the aspirants in the first place, bear in mind. Their home planet's going to have to have a lot of people on for you to recruit from, and searching all the human settlements will take a while. And with such low manpower, the task is doubly hard. Then there's the truly epic amount of training your marines have to put them through, then all the difficult geneseed stuff. And those hard-sought aspirants will die at every step.

And if at least one of those eight marines isn't an apothecary, you won't be doing any geneseed implantation, so the point is moot. ;)

On the other hand, if you've got a few hundred marines you can spare bunches of them to specifically go recruiting, ideally from any other nearby worlds too, and more than enough people to teach your recruits the ways of the Storm Dragons. You're also likely to have a good handful of Apothecaries, with the added bonus of having enough marines to go out and fight despicable xeno enemies, allowing your new lads to get some first-hand battle experience.

But i thought the Salamanders approach is a tad more humane. Suitable aspirants are taken on as apprentice blacksmiths basically. And i doubt that the adeptus mechanicus would send the salamanders without suitable amount of genestock to build a chapter. However i see your point. Well the training cadre doesnt have to be large, but i think extending the years before they finally take the field is a good option.

Another thing I've noticed to be generally true in 40K:

The easiest way for you to justify Damocles pattern armour/ modified Tau guns/ other unlikely things is to never, ever mention that such things exist. ;)

Keeping the models and the story seperate will make writing about this chapter so much easier than entangling them together.

Yea, I won't mention that they are actively making use of Tau wargear... just that they are accused of it =p

Something like one of those? ;)

YEah somethign like those. So i knicked some of the good scheme from the left and came up with this? The green neck guard shows that he is part of the training cadre. Hmm not too sure.

[Ace Debonair]

But i thought the Salamanders approach is a tad more humane. Suitable aspirants are taken on as apprentice blacksmiths basically. And i doubt that the adeptus mechanicus would send the salamanders without suitable amount of genestock to build a chapter. However i see your point. Well the training cadre doesnt have to be large, but i think extending the years before they finally take the field is a good option.

 

Well, the Salamanders would have to push their recruits every bit as hard as the rest of the chapters, or the quality of their marines would dwindle over time.

This is just idle conjecture on my part, I know very little about the Salamanders, but it makes sense to me for them to make things as difficult for aspirants as everyone else.

 

Actually, if you have eight marines left, your chapter is a write-off to the AdMech. Seriously. Chapters with less than a company of marines are going to die out. The Crimson Fists managed to pull back from the brink, and they had a couple of companies, as far as I recall.

 

Bear in mind - at the founding, you will have hada full chapter. If they all get wiped out in five years, then the AdMech are likely to go, 'hmm, those geneseeds we used must have been defective' and almost certainly not give out any more.

 

Your chapter loses nothing for having a few hundred marines rather than just a handful, but it gains a lost of credibility. And they can still carry out your original vision of subterfuge and guerrilla warfare, but over a much wider area. ;)

 

 

YEah somethign like those. So i knicked some of the good scheme from the left and came up with this? The green neck guard shows that he is part of the training cadre. Hmm not too sure.

The second scheme you did is pretty good.

I'm also not sure about the green collar, but it would be a novel way of distinguishing the training cadre in the chapter's early years. :D

[Augusta]

Well, the Salamanders would have to push their recruits every bit as hard as the rest of the chapters, or the quality of their marines would dwindle over time.

This is just idle conjecture on my part, I know very little about the Salamanders, but it makes sense to me for them to make things as difficult for aspirants as everyone else.

 

Children aspiring to become Space Marines begin their training at the age of six or seven Terran years as the apprentice to a Space Marine. They spend several years learning the art of the smith, and the most able apprentices are then judged by the Chapter's Apothecaries and Chaplains to see if they are worthy (and capable of surviving the implantation process) to become Space Marines. Their training includes many of the same trials the Emperor and Vulkan competed in according to Nocturnean legend, finally culminating in the hunting and slaying of a massive Salamander on Mount Deathfire.

 

Bear in mind - at the founding, you will have hada full chapter. If they all get wiped out in five years, then the AdMech are likely to go, 'hmm, those geneseeds we used must have been defective' and almost certainly not give out any more.

 

Your chapter loses nothing for having a few hundred marines rather than just a handful, but it gains a lost of credibility. And they can still carry out your original vision of subterfuge and guerrilla warfare, but over a much wider area. :tu:

 

Wait the adeptus mechanicus creates a fully functional chapter on its founding? O_o

 

Doesnt really makes sense unless u mean an entire chapter which is all scouts? Because wearing power armour means that the scouts would have gone through the training and earn the right to wear it. Which can only be provided by the cadre.

 

And it also circumvents the vital selections that the Salamanders uses for their recruits as noted in the statement above.

 

The second scheme you did is pretty good.

I'm also not sure about the green collar, but it would be a novel way of distinguishing the training cadre in the chapter's early years. ;)

 

Yea, all the other models will be painted without it. Its just that, you know marine superstition about not obscuring all the colours of their previous chapter so that u dont insult the armour spirit. Collar seems a good spot to put it. And besides, alot of the cadre wont be around for much longer =D

[Ace Debonair]

Wait the adeptus mechanicus creates a fully functional chapter on its founding? O_o

 

Doesnt really makes sense unless u mean an entire chapter which is all scouts? Because wearing power armour means that the scouts would have gone through the training and earn the right to wear it. Which can only be provided by the cadre.

 

And it also circumvents the vital selections that the Salamanders uses for their recruits as noted in the statement above.

 

I believe so, although I mostly picked that up from others here in the forum.

 

And no, I didn't mean scouts. Although now I think about it, I'm not sure where exactly the first generation of the chapter comes from in terms of homeworld.

Bah, instead of answering your question I've generated some of my own. A fine help I turned out to be, huh? :P

 

Space Marines die - it's a fact of Astartes life, so a chapter will always be looking to collect and train more recruits, if only to easily replace the slain. ;)

[Augusta]

I believe so, although I mostly picked that up from others here in the forum.

 

And no, I didn't mean scouts. Although now I think about it, I'm not sure where exactly the first generation of the chapter comes from in terms of homeworld.

Bah, instead of answering your question I've generated some of my own. A fine help I turned out to be, huh? :lol:

 

Space Marines die - it's a fact of Astartes life, so a chapter will always be looking to collect and train more recruits, if only to easily replace the slain. :D

 

Hmm, I have always assumed that the selection of new recruits was up to the training cadre, who are then given all the gene-stock to start a new chapter from scratch. My understanding is that sure the Adeptus Mechanicus is responsible for maintaining tithed geneseed for new chapters, but i have never heard of them creating actual marines for that is in the domains of the Adeptus Astartes. If the Adeptus Mech was to do it, they would be breaking the powers of seperation... which I think GW did with one of the chapters lol. Can't remember which though.

 

Oh, I have also added a changelog to my second post so its easily seen what i have done to the IA. Not that anyone else will read it since your the only one commenting. But take heart in the fact I have listened to most of your advice ^_^

[NightrawenII]

Hmm, I have always assumed that the selection of new recruits was up to the training cadre, who are then given all the gene-stock to start a new chapter from scratch. My understanding is that sure the Adeptus Mechanicus is responsible for maintaining tithed geneseed for new chapters, but i have never heard of them creating actual marines for that is in the domains of the Adeptus Astartes. If the Adeptus Mech was to do it, they would be breaking the powers of seperation... which I think GW did with one of the chapters lol. Can't remember which though.

Not exactly, everything we have is the blurb about the Cursed Founding. Observe:

More Warships arrived in orbit today and I was privileged enough to be allowed to watch our newest Chapter, the Flame Falcons, boarded the vessels en route to their designated home world of Lethe. To see such fighting men is to have mankind's manifest destiny amongst the stars affirmed. With such enhanced warriors as these fighting for the glory of the Emperor, the [fragment destroyed] of our Imperium is assured.

 

This would indicate that the Chapter is created with *sufficient* numbers and then sent into galaxy.

[Augusta]

By the Emperor! I come back after missing for a week and only 2 marines are blasting holes in my IA :D

 

Well i must be doing something right then lol.

 

Not exactly, everything we have is the blurb about the Cursed Founding. Observe:

More Warships arrived in orbit today and I was privileged enough to be allowed to watch our newest Chapter, the Flame Falcons, boarded the vessels en route to their designated home world of Lethe. To see such fighting men is to have mankind's manifest destiny amongst the stars affirmed. With such enhanced warriors as these fighting for the glory of the Emperor, the [fragment destroyed] of our Imperium is assured.

 

This would indicate that the Chapter is created with *sufficient* numbers and then sent into galaxy.

 

Urgh, but wouldnt the Cursed Founding be an exception as there was alot of tampering done to those geneseed? I remember reading this same excerpt you found from the White Dwarf IA and always found it strange. Doesn't anyone in GW coordinate with their writers and concept designers =/

 

Does any other marine here find it insulting that the Adeptus Mechanicus could claim us as "theirs"? That blurb is so vague that it makes me wonder where the 1st generation of marines are drawn, were they initially trained by the Adeptus Mechanicus, are they all 'scout' rank or already wearing the much prized power armour, and wouldnt this also implied that chapters 'created' by the Adeptus Mechanicus particularly all chapter foundings after the original Loyalist legions broke up, would then show more loyalty to the AM?

 

Makes me want to throttle someone in GW and smack them upside the head with a chainsword.

 

Urgh and I will continue the IA later, need more hibernation.