Loyalist Fallen

[kriscoull7]

I thought this would be the perfect area to get a more public opinion on my persoanl take on some of the loyalist fallen that may still be fighting the good fight against Chaos and the enemies of the emperor.

 

I'm open to all constructive criticism and feed back. This has been a work in progress for me for some time. I do apologise for some of the spelling error's of place names and characters taken from the Horus Heresy books that deal with the I Legion.

 

The Dark Swords formally 361st Tactical/Training Chapter, I Legion Dark Angels

 

The Dark Swords have a long and noble history. Originally the Dark Swords were a knightly order of Caliban. They almost exclusively recruited their members from the youngest sons of the ruling elite of Caliban, the nobles. Those that were not of noble birth were recruited through merit and acts of bravery that imbued the very ideals of what it meant to be a knight of Caliban. Gradually and especially after the formation of The Order, who took aspirants from every walk of life, the elders of the Dark Swords began to accept aspirants who were willing to learn the ways of knighthood.

 

 

The Dark Swords prided themselves on their skill of arms and marksmanship. Many of the knights that made up their ranks went armed with pistol, sword and rifle. Being skilled equally in each discipline. The Dark Swords held annual tournaments inviting the other knightly orders to send their best swordsmen and marksmen to compete and test their skill. It wasn’t until the coming of Luther and the Lion that the Dark Swords began to lose their tourney.

 

 

When The Order approached the Dark Swords for support in their crusade against the Beasts of Caliban, the elders of the order pledged the Dark Swords to the cause. The knights and aspirants rose to the challenge with fiery passion. Spreading themselves thin amongst the numerous forces that The Order commanded, they displayed the ever growing army that marksman ship was just as noble as duelling.

 

 

Gradually over the course of the crusade, the Dark Swords became more like The Order. Even though the Dark Swords were the older more established knightly order, the elders understood that The Order was the future of Caliban and so adjusted their training and recruitment until the only thing that distinguished the Dark Swords from The Order were the colour of their surplices and the order symbol. By the end of the campaign the Dark Sword inner circle petitioned the order to join their forces and pledged them to the Lion’s command. The Dark Swords monastery had become a training facility for The Order.

 

 

This was not the end of the Dark Swords, when the Imperium came to Caliban and the I legion discovered that Lion El Jonson was their Primarch, the young members of The Order that had been recruited from the Dark Swords traditional man pool, were formed into a chapter of their own and sent out to locate the 361st expeditionary force which had elements of the now Dark Angels legion. Their orders were to report to Commander Lucifer the officer commanding, and reinforce as directed. Each Chapter of the Legion was to be allocated an honorific title, Lucifer's was designated the Dark Swords. Named after the chapter keep on Caliban where the majority of the new Calibanite warriors were trained. The list of planets that the newly created Chapter grew with each passing year. The exemplary leadership skills of their commander saw that many planets were brought into the Imperial fold with minimum collateral damage to their infrastructure, much to the chagrin of the company commanders that had been instructed in the Lion’s methodology of warfare. The lessons learned by the Chapter Master before the teachings of The Order were integrated into the strategies set out by the teachings of the Order and each worked to the chapters’ advantage. Gradually the tactics became more like the teachings of the Verbatum, and the original teachings of the Dark Swords themselves. The command staff of the Dark Swords couldn’t believe all the similarities between all the different styles and so began to teach their own way of prosecuting a war.

 

 

After half a century delivering the Emperors light to the Galaxy the Dark Swords however were returned to Caliban to help Luther train more recruits for the Crusade. Their orders came sealed by the Primarchs personal seal and so could not be disobeyed. Many in the Chapter believed they were being punished for not following the more aggressive approach the rest of the Legion had adopted.

 

 

The Chapter returned to Caliban with the other members of the Legion that had picked for the garrison and training corps. To every ones surprise Sar Luther was returned as the commanding officer. When Luther spoke of their duty to the Legion and that they would be rotated back out to the Crusade many believed him and took to their task with enthusiasm. The Dark Swords were divided and half of the original Chapter took up positions within the fortress monastery of Alduhruk, as part of Luther’s training cadre. The rest took up residence of their former order keep, which had fallen into disrepair after the initial muster of the Dark Angels Legion, and started to rebuild it into its former glory. With Luther’s blessing the keep once again saw use as training out post. The landscape surrounding it was marked as training grounds to the Astarte’s and so was off limits to the encroaching Administratum and the process of urbanising the area. This would prove helpful to the Astarte’s stationed there in later years, but the trainees had to be well versed in all sorts of terrain, including death world jungles.

 

 

As the years progressed, the recall order from the crusades never came. Training chapters were raised and left to join the Great Crusade to replace losses on the front line. The Marines that were sent to train them began to become bitter at the glory that they were missing out on. Each report from the frontlines on each new enemy were processed and included in the training regimes. The Dark Swords were no exception. They set to work on modifying the terrain to best suit the harsh conditions that the recruits would have to endure. To aid this Luther and his command staff in Alduhruk petitioned aid from the adepts of Mars. Before they could field some of the modified plants and animals, rumours from the areologies that the dead walked among the living. A force of Veterans led by brother Israfel was sent to investigate. What they found troubled the veterans that were recruited from Caliban. The Great Beasts had returned, despite being exterminated many centuries ago. The Dark Swords were on instant alert. Instead of releasing the modified plants and animals they were exterminated and the expertise of the Mechanicum Adepts was put to use in the forge producing weapons and armour for the Dark Swords stationed in the keep. Lucifer's training from the Iron Warriors Legion came into it's own as the marines under his command set about fortifying the settlements around the keep to prevent the Beast from entering. This was to prove a saving grace later.

 

 

The Dark Swords dispatched forces into the affected areas closest to the chapter keep. Around this time the squads were shadowed by diminutive robed figures. The battles against the re-emerging Beasts becoming hit and run actions until the beast’s strength was determined and a decisive strike felled it. The young member's of the legion soon became skilled veterans with much experience being gained by fighting against the Beasts and laying down their lives to protect the civilian population from the worst of the horrors that they represented. The Librarians of the Legion began research into the Beasts and found that they were the result of a weak barrier between the immaterium and Caliban. This had been further weakened by Terran psykers that had tried to release something large from a prison created by the fabric of the planet itself.

 

 

The Watchers in the Dark were everywhere within the Dark Swords Chapter Keep. The masters of the chapters began to dismiss those of the Chapter that would follow Luther into rebellion, and recruit those that still believed that they were carrying out the Emperor's work. This began to draw attention to the keep. The Lord Cypher, on behalf of Regent Luther, started investigations into the Dark Swords. He met with Chapter Master Lucifer and his lieutenants. Finding that the Chapter was free of any corruption and duplicity Cypher returned to Luther's side content that the Dark Swords were carrying out their duty to the Legion and the people of Caliban.

 

 

When the word came through that Caliban was to secede from the Imperium the Dark Swords took advantage of some of the confusion and started to evacuate civilians from Caliban to neighbouring systems. The Chapter itself stylised itself as an independent Order within the garrison of Caliban. It was now that they coloured their power pack exhausts, hands, feet and abdominal armour the green of Caliban as they chapters going out into the Great Crusade were rumoured to be doing. The red Dark Angels legion symbol became synonymous with the Chapter. Luther heard word that some of the garrison may still be loyal to Lion El Jonson and the Emperor, veteran kill squads were sent out to purge the loyalists. They never came back from Dark Sword keep. The Watchers in the Dark maintained their vigil on the training areas and forewarned the masters of the Dark Swords who in turn laid ambushes and traps for the marines of The Order. The Dark Swords tried to sever ties and for several years they held out until the Legion returned to Caliban after the Horus Heresy. They found themselves under attack from several forces at once.

 

 

When Caliban broke apart the Dark Swords were scattered through out time and space along with the rest of the fallen. Many fell to chaos worship to stay alive but those that were lucky enough to be near a Watcher in the Dark were kept close together and were found easier by the chapter masters. The chapter has had to rebuilt and repair armour from slain enemies whilst they were adrift in the warp and so their armour often have icons of chaos worship emblazoned on them. With every passing year however they are coming more into the Imperium and have began to open negotiations with a Knight World with questionable allegiance to Terra and the Adepts of Mars and so have managed to obtain heavy equipment such as land raiders, predators, rhinos, Thunderhawks and even some Storm Eagles.

 

 

As of yet the Unforgiven have yet to engage the Dark Swords but they will eventually and the Dark Swords will be ready for them. And they will explain that they remained loyal to the Lion despite what they have been told.

[HsojVvad]

Just making a quick comment. I had to stop reading since it was hard for me since it's a big wall of text. It needs to be broken up into more paragraphs with spaces between the paragraphs for an easier read.

 

I like the first few sentences, but as I said, sorry I had to stop reading, just tired, and couldn't continue reading since i had to squint to read.

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

If they were loyalist...why would they have been swept through space and time? and not merely died in the explosion? as far as we are aware, only fallen angels were scattered.

 

If the Forge World was that disloyal and/or independent, then they would probably have an =][= and mechanicum representatives coming to visit. A FW is as valuable a resource as a SM Chapter, if not even more so. Think how hard they come on disloyal/independent chapters...they come harder on a Forge World as those guys are capable of more problems. They have Titans, super-heavies, legions of skitarri not to mention being responsible for almost all higher technological things being built, not merely for military but also agriculture, manufacture and other things. Therefore, an independent FW seems fairly implausible.

 

Another point I would like to raise is that if there was a chapter of fallen hanging around, the DA would meet them in force and destroy them asap. The bigger the collection of fallen, the sooner they locate and crush them. The Unforgiven have chapters all over the galaxy, Enough nets to find out whats happening and enough force to nuetralise the threats. Also, there is no guarantee that all the Astartes would pop out in the same time zone or the same world. They were scattered throughout time and space...this means any time, anywhere.

 

Apart from these, an interesting concept, though, as per the HH books appears that chapters were actually called 'Orders' though this is debatable point based on conflicting sources. Also, it is unlikely they would have used anything other than a number to designate the Chapter, names are a later addition post-Second Founding.

 

I think it needs re-working into a fallen warband numbering around 100 astartes to start with, then go from there. Really, we need to see how they felt about the fall, the loss of Caliban, their belief in the Emperor, why they chose Lion and the Imperium over Luther and his ideal of 'saving' Caliban.

 

I hope my advice helps you :P

[march10k]

Innocence proves nothing. There's no such thing as a "loyalist fallen."

 

To put it another way, leaving the fold of the unforgiven alone would be a hanging offense. Even if they haven't fallen to chaos, fallen would have to be eradicated to avoid the possibility that the imperium finds out that, um, fallen exist. So in practice, "good fallen" would have to be treated the same way as "bad fallen," and any distinction between the two exists only in the mind of the fallen angel in question.

[Bryan Blaire]

I'm in agreement with march10k on this subject. In the minds of the Dark Angels and the Legion Unforgiven, Fallen are Fallen, regardless of their reasons. Fallen have two choices: Torture to Repent and Die or Repent to Die. That's really it. I find it highly doubtful that an entire company of Fallen, much less a whole Chapter, was left intact when the Chaos Storm swallowed them up, much less to keep them intact and spit them all out at approximately the same space in the galaxy and the same time in the time line.

 

It's not to say that the idea isn't interesting, I just don't personally think it would happen that way.

[kriscoull7]

To all.

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

It is a massive wall of text I just tried to read it all myself again. I struggled even though I wrote it.

 

I may have to revise from the chapter theme as was suggested, as I hadn't really considered the implications of the size of a chapter being let loose within the Imperium. Also fair point about the FW how would a Knight World incorporate into the background?

 

I'll try to get a revised and easier to read version on line as soon as I can.

 

Thanks guys

[JaM_TW]

I dont mind reading this all, but plese break up the parts a bit more (i.e. modify your first post and add blank rules between the alineas/parts).

 

Then let us break it down/tear it up, and add advise :).

 

 

Sorry to say I wont read it in it's current state, the B&Cs grey-on-black is hard on the eyes often enough. :lol: