The Knights of Ultramar

[Brother Tholath]

Greetings All,

 

What you see below are my first thoughts to a new Chapter I am creating to ally with my Space Wolves. However, please ignore that for the moment and please give me your thoughts on the IA below!

 

 

Chapter Name: Knights of Ultramar

Founding: 20th Founding

Progenitor Legion: Ultramarines

Known Descendants: None

Homeworld: Musaric

Allegiance: Loyalist

Fortress Monastery: Fortress of Honour

Speciality: Drop Pod Assaults

War Cry: “We are His Knights!”

 

Chapter Badge: (Need some help)

 

Background: The Knights of Ultramar were created in the 20th Founding to help provide protection of the outer edges of Segmentum Ultra. The Knights were one of the few Chapter of that founding to be given Ultramarine geneseed and have 20 Marines of the 3rd Company be the nucleus of the Chapter. As well as the 20 marines, the chapter was given the home world of Musaric with its temperate moon. When the Knights of Ultramar arrived the planet was in a feudal state, only just developing the use of gunpowder bar the Lord Governor and his cadre of loyal troops who kept the rest of the world less tech able to keep control.

Chapter Master Valkarian soon came in to adjust the situation which was when the true threat presented itself. The Lord Governor was actually in the control of Chaos and it seemed as though if the Knights wanted their homeworld they had to prove they deserved it. What happened next was a perfect example of a drop pod assault and was what soon became the Knights of Ultramar tactic in battle.

 

Only 60 battle brothers were part of that assault, with 20 of those being from the Ultramarines, and by the end of it, around half remained with all of them bearing scars of the battle. But the day was won and the homeworld of the Knights of Ultramar was safe and under their protection. However, that wasn’t enough for the Knights, who took the teaching of Gulliman to heart, and so they began to reshape the work as the Codex Astartes dictated and soon the world was on its way to becoming similar to Macaragge. Boys from age 6 are able to begin training in academies across Musaric, and when they reach the age of 12 they are transported up to the moon which is where the Knights claim for their fortress-monastery.

 

Because of the work of the Knights, Musaric is now well on its way to becoming a civilized world with its PDF trained to the highest standard. But even the changes the Knights of Ultramar had made could not protect it from the Tyranids of a splinter from Hive Fleet Behemoth. Several years after the Battle of Macaragge a splinter fleet came into the system and they had to fight once again to keep their homeworld.

 

Every warship in the system was called to defeat Musaric, with calls being sent out for the 2nd and 7th Company’s to return. But they knew even with nearly 200 additional Marines, it may not be enough. Ammunition was stockpiles, defences erected and huge laser turret and missile silos are activated. When the Tyranids came within range of the moon, its weapons opened fire. Dozens of Tyranids were hit and several exploded, but it was not enough. Even when the warships of the Knights and their allies attacked from behind the planet, hundreds of spores were still able to be unleashed on the moon with more were sent onwards towards Musaric itself.

What happened next is still told today to recruits as a tale of perseverance of the Chapter and how they didn’t give up despite the odds. For 7 days the Knights of Ultramar held their ground, stopping the Tyranids from breaching their walls. On the 8th day more than 24 Tyranofex’s arrived at the walls and together were able to breach the walls. The Knights had already taken loses from the attacks before but this was going to either their destruction, or the Tyranids.

Once again, just like on Macaragge, Space Marines fought Tyranids in the halls they had built, but this time it was what they could only call their home. They fought in the tunnels and corridors for a further 2 weeks, blocking corridors with Tyranid dead and collapsing tunnels to kill even more. But it was still a losing battle. Only when the 2 returning company came into orbit did the odds start to swing in their favour.

 

Doing their favoured tactic, the Captains of the 2nd and 7th Company’s found where the Hive Tyrant of the land force was, while the Lord of the Fleet found the location of the one in charge of the Tyranid fleet. And so a new plan was developed and as most of the fleet, including 2 Battle Barges, 4 Strike Cruisers and every remaining ship but Honour of Gulliman. As the dozens of warships smashed into the Tyranid fleet the Honour of Gulliman unleashed its deadly cargo. 40 Drop Pods, half of them filled with Knights of Ultramar fell through the sky, with shots from the Battle Barge’s Bombardment screaming in before they hit, killing huge numbers of the attackers. As the drop pods hit, the Tyrant and its guard headed straight for attack Space Marines, shrugging off the fire from the Marines, staggering once as a multi-melta beam took one of its arms off. Seconds later it impacted into the line killing a dozen marines in a minute. Its guard impacted a split second later, killing even more together. With a mighty battle-cry, Captain Geloes of the 2nd Company charged the beast with his Thunder Hammer striking like a death blow destroying the Tyrant’s head in one fell blow. But as the beast died, it impaled the might Captain with its talons, filling his blood with its toxins.

 

Seeing the brave Captain fall to the beasts, the remaining Knights forced the remaining Guards back or to the floor and protected his body as Apothecary’s tried desperately to either save his life or save enough of him to be entombed in a Dreadnought. However, with the Hive Tyrant dead, the Tyranids became almost mindless beasts, losing all semblance of tactics. Despite this, by the time the battle was finally won, the 2nd and 7th Company’s had taken over 60% loses. Arriving in the Fortress of Honour, the survivors were able to see just how much of a defence had been put up even when the walls had been torn down. They expected no survivors as they walked through the halls, filled with the dead from both sides.

 

It wasn’t until they reached the gates to the Hall of Victory they started to hope for survivors. The sounds of battle could still be heard and the 78 Marines who had survived the battle outside started to run to the battle, the 2 Apothecary’s staying at their slow pace with Captain Geloes. Bursting into the Hall, they saw the last handful of Marines fighting more than 4 score of Tyranid Warriors. Taken from behind the Warriors soon fell to vicious bolter and melta fire. Once the last body had fallen they went to see who had survived.

 

On the floor was the Chapter Master, Lord Helius, bleeding from a wound that had taken a huge chunk of his chest, surrounded by 5 marines from the 1st Company, 7 from the 3rd and amazingly a single scout from the 10th. All were covered in both Tyranid and their brothers blood, all had taken wounds but the Chapter had survived.

Fortunately for the Knights of Ultramar, the changes they had done on Musaric, some 5,000 years ago had been the difference between the survival of its people, and their death. The planet survived, with only a small part of it now corrupted by the Tyranid invasion. The same could not be said for the moon, with hundreds of the smaller creatures escaping after the battle, their instincts causing them to flee.

 

For the past 250 years, the chapter has been replacing the huge loses it took, never changing their stance on recruitment even after their losses. The current Chapter Master still remembers those few weeks facing the Tyranids and knows that it is against them a recruit must test themselves against to earn a right in the Chapter as he himself had to do.

 

Homeworld: Musaric

 

Organisation: Following the huge losses because of the defence of their homeworld, several of the Company Standard are still not flown. However, the Knights of Ultramar follow the teachings of the Codex Astartes as and such each Company is as it dictates. The Knights do differ from the Codex in one way however. While it is not official, since having to start the 1st Company from nothing, having moved those veterans who lived to other more important roles, not a single battle brother of the 1st Company has not been seconded to Death Watch at some point.

As well as this, both the 2nd and 7th Company’s were the first reach full strength, in recognition of their pivotal role in the victory over the Tyranids.

 

1st Company – 24 Battle Brothers

2nd Company – 100 Battle Brothers

3rd Company – 75 Battle Brothers

4th Company – Currently Disbanded

5th Company – Currently Disbanded

6th Company – 90 Battle Brothers

7th Company – 100 Battle Brothers.

8th Company – Currently Disbanded

9th Company – Currently Disbanded

10th Company – 100 Scouts

 

Beliefs: The Knights of Ultramar believe that the Emperor is the greatest human who has ever lived and that one day he will rise off His throne and take the Imperium to a new age of wonder. They also see their Primarch, Gulliman as the greatest thinker of his age and see the Codex Astartes and his wisdom in paper, but don’t follow it as strictly as their father chapter, the Ultramarines.

 

Doctrine: Before the Battle of Musaric, the Knights of Ultramar made great use of Drop Pod Assaults hitting the important centres of the enemy with complete overwhelming force before withdrawing via Thunderhawk Gunships. Scouts were used to ensure the attack had been a success and to provide additional pressure after the main assault.

After the Battle of Musaric, scouts have been used more, providing additional intel for the Captains and leaving homing beacons in the middle of enemy encampments. As well as being on the front line more, Scouts are often tasked with taking out key support elements as the main force assaults.

 

Now this still isn't fully completed as I need to think up a Chapter Badge for them but I am unsure what to pick. But below are my thoughts to the colour scheme.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii258/Ventris/spacemarine1.jpghttp://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii258/Ventris/spacemarine.jpg

 

All thoughts are welcome as we can only learn through our mistakes!

 

Thank you for reading,

 

Brother Tholath