The Tainted Angels (Renegade Chapter)

[Dark En Raul13]

-The Tainted Angels-

 

Founding Chapter: Unidentified, presumed Dark Angels

 

Founding: 13th Founding

 

Known Descendants: None

 

Chapter Master: Samuhel Gabrielis

 

Homeworld: Inquinatum

 

Fortress-Monastery: The Ecclesia Ignis

 

Colours: Grey, Silver and Black

 

Specialty: Siege warfare

 

Strength: Unknown, presumed 3000 military personnel or possibly more, certain records suggest up to 7000

 

Battle Cry: "For our freedom!"

 

Background:

 From the 13th founding and almost certainly of Dark Angels decent, The Tainted Angels have been a curse to Imperial shipping lanes for almost four millennia. The chapter became renegades during the very start of the thirty Sixth millennium after attacking allied imperial vessels carrying out exterminatus on the supposedly innocent Hive World of Lupa II, of which unbeknownst to The Tainted Angels, had been infiltrated and corrupted  and its inhabitants manipulated into worshipping chaos by a renegade chapter know simply as the Immortus.

 

 The Tainted Angels opened fire on the allied ships without warning, obliterating the fleet totally save for a single vessel. When reinforcements arrived to enact vengeance on the traitorous Tainted Angels they came face to face with the hoards of chaos and the freshly corrupt Lupa II, now a twisted daemon world. After being forced to retreat by the numerous chaos forces  the Tainted Angels were deemed Excommunicate Traitoris by the inquisition. The inquisition believed the Tainted Angels had been responsible for the transformation of Lupa II into a Daemon world and had been amongst the chaos vessels found around the corrupt planet.

 

 In truth the Tainted Angels had misunderstood the attempted extermiatus of Lupa II, believing the imperial vessels to be randomly destroying countless billions of people for no apparent reason. After destroying the allied fleet they witnessed numerous chaos vessels arrive around the planet as its surface became corrupt by the warp. Realising their mistake the Tainted Angels fleet fled, fleeing to a fringe planet named Inquinatum. The rest of the chapter fled from their original homeworld and followed the fleet, settling upon the fringe planet as well.

 

 The chapter eventually came into contact with human pirates and renegades seeking refuge from the imperial navy at the turn of the thirty seventh millennium, forming firm alliances with numerous pirates. Within a century the chapter made two even more prosperous alliances. One being with a cursed space marine chapter, declared excommunicae due to the mutations certain members of the chapter suffered and the other being with a band of renegade Adeptus Mechanicus seeking a place to advance technology without the constant restraint and beliefs of the Cult Mechanicus.

 

 The Tainted Angels now operate a huge pirate operation on the very edge of the eastern fringe, situated around the one of the furthest stars on the edge of the fringe. They have been a bane to imperial shipping lanes, tau planets and numerous other races, raiding anything they believe they can overpower. But despite their piratical operations the chapter still fights an ongoing war. Since the fall of Lupa II the Tainted Angels have waged an ongoing war with the renegade chapter known as the Immortus. For centuries the veterans of the Tainted Angels have battled these traitors, and until the end of time they shall continue to battle them.

 

 The Tainted Angels and their large pirate operation deal in all manor of things. They raid ships, planets and eldar craftworlds for all manor of items including weaponry, food, wealth and in many cases they discreetly infiltrate, or full-on raid planets for their populations or gene-seed should it be a chapter world, often selling people as recruits to traitor marines or gene-seed to renegade chapters, traitors and renowned heretics, such as the clone lord Flabius Bile himself. A scientists specimens must come from somewhere... 

 

 The pirates goal is simply to live their lives as they wish and enjoy themselves whilst doing it. They specifically chose piracy over chaos worship for a simple reason. The Imperium is falling apart and barely surviving...they try to subjugate the more prosperous races of the galaxy so that they may not destroy them. The tainted angels see this as wrong and therefore take joy in twisting the thorn repeatedly in the side of the Imperium, watching as the lifeblood of the Imperium slowly drains away. And as chapter master Samuhel once said:

 

"We twist the thorn every day...let us hope one day we shall make it hit an artery and fell this already limping beast"

 

HOMEWORLD:

 Inquinatum is a marsh covered death world, terraformed during the dark age of technology when it was but a barren rock. Its population consists of hardy, resourceful people of whom spend their lives fishing and farming the fertile land, everyday combating the flora and animals of a planet that has evolved in every possible way to kill humans. Inquinatum's surface is covered with large oceans, lakes and marshes, all of which contain animals adapted in numerous ways to destroy all human life.

 

 The planet plays host to many vicious animals, such as the lethal Bile-Gore rhino, the vicious Marshland Fang cat and the mighty Fog-Fire dragon. These beasts dominate the planets surface, Bile-Gore rhino's travelling in huge herds across the planets surface, Marshland Fang cat's travelling in small packs hunting around the more populated human villages and Fog-Fire dragons soaring alone across the huge plains of the planet in search of food, human or not.

 

 Inquinatum has six moons, all but one of which play host to huge pirate space ports of which contain thousands of piratical vessels. Alongside these pirate stronghold moons there is a more renowned structure used as a pirate fortress. Orbiting the red giant star alongside Inquinatum is a deserted, millennia old Craftworld. This Craftworld dates to before the Fall of the Eldar, and seems to have been deserted since that very event. The Craftworld husk now plays host to millions of pirates, mutants, beastmen and others rejected from the Imperium, and all of them are united in their single belief. 

 

 Freedom is only possible without the Imperium.

 

 The sixth moon is a constant battlefield. The sixth moon plays host to a band of renegade veteran Immortus space marines, and has been a constant sight of conflict between the old and bitter enemies. The Immortus were responsible for the excommunication of the Tainted Angels, and until every last one of them is eliminated, they shall continue to pay with their lives. 

 

 Inquinatum is one of the most distant worlds within the eastern fringe. It is on of the furthest planets from the light of the Astronomican and is near impossible to navigate to using warp travel relying on the Astronomican. To combat this problem the Tainted Angels use the same travel technique as the Tau Empire, they make shallow dives into the warp, allowing them to travel in the most distant reaches of space without the need of the Astronomican.

 

 The imperium can barely reach Inquinatum, and the amount of ships needed to put down the sizeable fleet of Tainted Angels and allied vessels would take an eternity to reach the planet. Instead the Imperium has allowed Inquinatum to more or less be safe from imperial intervention. Instead they have let the Tyranid Hive Fleets approaching from the galactic east and the Tau Empire to wage war against the pirates, knowing that even a sizeable pirate empire cannot brave being assaulted by both endless swarms of murderous xenos and xenos fire power.

 

ORGANISATION & COMBAT DOCTRINE:

 The Tainted Angels are organised into numerous companies. These companies all contain numerous vehicles, mostly rhino transports converted into Vindicators and salvaged Land Raiders. Each company contains roughly 200 marines including vehicles and is lead by a single commander orchestrating the entire battle. These marines are trained to specialise in siege tactics and to be especially  brutal in their method of warfare.

 

 Every marine is trained in the basics of close combat during their induction into the chapter, alongside many of their allies, although they're training is more focused on heavy and ranged weaponry. The chapter's scouts are actually veterans of the chapter, who forsake their power armour for more lightweight armour and their bolt pistol for a more powerful sniper rifle. New neophytes are incorporated into tactical squads to learn from example, outfitted with power armour identical to their battle-brothers, the only way they can be identified is by their jet black left shoulder pad.

 

 The legendary 1st company of the Tainted Angels contains only 100 marines. Each one of them is a veteran of the chapter and every last one of them has sworn an oath of vengeance. These veterans are charged with the duty of destroying those who caused the Tainted Angels the humiliation of being declared renegade, they are charged with the duty to hunt down the Immortus, and they must do this until they take their last breath.

 

'Until the Immortus are destroyed we shall not rest, until they're blood stains our flesh we shall not stop, until they're last breath we shall not fall' 

 

BELIEFS:

 The Tainted Angels don't hold any specific beliefs, they live for themselves and intend to simply live the lives they were given. The only belief the chapter holds is that for the races of the galaxy to be truly peaceful and the great galaxy wide war to end the Imperium must be destroyed, or this war shall continue for all of time. They have no hatred of the Xenos, the Daemon, the mutant or the Witch. They embrace the beliefs of all beings and welcome all species and cultures, those who live amongst them may worship who they wish, for whatever reason they wish, and they may do as they wish, so long as it does not endanger their brethren.

 

 The belief the Tainted Angels hold is that xenos technology is superior. They relish the opportunity to 'upgrade' their weaponry with xenos technology, ranging from eldar technology to salvaged necron parts. The chapter is determined to find and utilise the STC technology they believe still lies scattered across the galaxy, and take great delight in attacking Adeptus Mechanicus exploration fleets seeking this technology.

 

 The chapter's only other belief is that the Immortus must pay for causing the Tainted Angels such humiliation. Despite believing that the Immortus caused the prosperous circumstances they now live in the chapter still holds a bitter resentment of the Immortus. They shamed the Tainted Angels and humiliated them, they have insulted the honour of the Tainted Angels. And for this...they shall pay...

 

"Chaos is the same as the Imperium in many ways. Its followers still obey their masters and if they don't they are punished severely. Much like the Imperium. We are different, we do as we please. Samuhel is the man who holds us together as a unified army. He does not try to dictate what we do, he lets us live our lives as we wish. And that is why when he leads us to battle we shall fight with unmatched determination. Because he is not a dictator, unlike both your petty empires." - Commander Yusef Traneil, commander of the Tainted Angels 2nd company

 

So this is the fluff for my very first D.I.Y, I came up with this years ago when I first started 40K. I've adapted it to fit the 6th edition DA codex, thoughts and feedback would be appreciated, any tips to make it better would also be very helpful.

cheers 

[ShasVa]

I love it. A very welcome change from all the grimdark-conformist chapters you see here.

[Firepower]

Interesting concept.  The one detail that kinda irks me is the Alpha Legion bit.  Not that it doesn't make sense, but simply that every time there's an incursion or sneaky force or insurrection in an IA, it's the Alpha Legion running the show.  I'd take it as an opportunity to create a custom made nemesis for the Angels, some group that ends up crossing paths with the Angels long after the event, either as adversaries or unexpected allies.  Perhaps the Chaos chapter could've been intent on turning the Angels all along by some grand scheme.  Who knows, but in any case it would be better than using the old stand by.  In my opinion, anyway.

 

Also, the paragraph on combat technique kinda contradicts the siege warfare bit mentioned prior, i.e. the standard close combat specialization.

[Dark En Raul13]

Interesting concept.  The one detail that kinda irks me is the Alpha Legion bit.  Not that it doesn't make sense, but simply that every time there's an incursion or sneaky force or insurrection in an IA, it's the Alpha Legion running the show.  I'd take it as an opportunity to create a custom made nemesis for the Angels, some group that ends up crossing paths with the Angels long after the event, either as adversaries or unexpected allies.  Perhaps the Chaos chapter could've been intent on turning the Angels all along by some grand scheme.  Who knows, but in any case it would be better than using the old stand by.  In my opinion, anyway.

Hmmm that seems like a much better idea.

i never even considered coming up with a completely new enemy, hmm ill have to get thinking. I know everyone uses the Alpha Legion but i just couldnt think of any other traitor legion or warband that would do anything like that.

[Lysimachus]

Overall, I quite like the idea, pirate Astartes have always appealed to me (see the first link in my Sig).

 

I think the biggest problem for me in terms of what you've written is their numbers. 3,000 Astartes* is a huge deal, especially given the supply/resource problems that any renegade group/Chapter is going to have. 7,000 is, in all honesty, insane. It's more (I think?) than all the Black Templars Crusades put together, a simply vast force in the present Imperium.

 

With renegades not operating out of the relative safety of the EoT/Maelstrom, the bigger you are (and more trouble you cause), the more chance there is that the Imperium is going to decide you need squashing. Which they will then do. With frightening ease.

 

My personal solution was to go smaller, too small for the Imperial war machine to notice (and then hint at how my leader had plans to expand his little empire).

 

 

 

* If this number includes non-Astartes personnel then ignore me, there's no problem here.

[Dark En Raul13]

Overall, I quite like the idea, pirate Astartes have always appealed to me (see the first link in my Sig).

 

I think the biggest problem for me in terms of what you've written is their numbers. 3,000 Astartes* is a huge deal, especially given the supply/resource problems that any renegade group/Chapter is going to have. 7,000 is, in all honesty, insane. It's more (I think?) than all the Black Templars Crusades put together, a simply vast force in the present Imperium.

With renegades not operating out of the relative safety of the EoT/Maelstrom, the bigger you are (and more trouble you cause), the more chance there is that the Imperium is going to decide you need squashing. Which they will then do. With frightening ease.

My personal solution was to go smaller, too small for the Imperial war machine to notice (and then hint at how my leader had plans to expand his little empire).

* If this number includes non-Astartes personnel then ignore me, there's no problem here.

First off, me too, i always loved the idea of pirate astartes.

Secondly i mean that it includes non-astartes personnel as well, I realise I didn't really make it clear that there are not possibly 7,000 renegade astartes (now that would be insane)

I mean that the forces encountered amongst the ranks of the Tainted Angels include the other pirates and renegades i mentioned, such as normal pirates, eldar corsairs, beastmen and mutants of all kinds.

[soddinnutter]

As the 7,000 number now includes the chapter serfs it seems too low.

 

Keep in mind that the fortresses, keeps, recruitment stations and safe houses the chapter maintains will be staffed by them and you could be looking at upwards of 10,000 right there. And thats assuming you buy all your weapons, ammunition, armour, vehicles and other war-gear from a mechanicus enclave. If the chapter is making this itself then the number of skilled serfs on the chapters payroll just goes up another notch. And then you have the people manning the ships.

 

You can cut the numbers down a fair bit if you use servitors and count them as equipment and not people but that doesn't feel right with the whole freedom from the slavers feel you seem to be going for.

 

All in all it looks a fun chapter. A riotous bunch of near-pirates carving out an empire way off the edge of the map having fun and waiting for the Imperium to collapse on itself so they can claim their people to be humanities sole heirs and make the galaxy how it was meant to be.

 

Do they trade with the Rogue Traders and the like?

 

They seem quite tolerant of xenos but how do they feel about the witch?

 

How do they view Chaos?

[Firepower]

As pirates, what are they plundering for?

 

Material gain?  Money would be kind of crass and beneath them, but raw materials might be useful.  This would draw the least attention, I think.

 

Power?  Accumulating ships and other renegade marines like Huron does?  What would they intend to ultimately use it for?  This one may or may not draw a lot of attention.

 

Funsies? Just to be a thorn in the side of the Imperium, a little pocket of trouble that coordinates raids?  If it were this one, they'd attract a lot of attention.

 

One idea that I like- people.  A sort of human cattle trading hub, whether it be valuable crewmen from hijacked ships, slaves, or young and tough males for other traitor marines' implantation purposes.  Of course then you would still have to answer the question of what they're getting in return for their 'goods.'

 

Of course it could be a mix and match of these with varying priority, but bear in mind that Huron is the big daddy boss of pirates, with all the forces and power a Chaos warlord can hope to call on outside of Horus himself, and he still has to hide his base(s).

[Dark En Raul13]

Right I've now updated the Tainted Angels fluff, it should now offer you all some explanations

As pirates, what are they plundering for?

As i mentioned they plunder everything. Weapons, supplies, children (for gene-seed implantation) and other technology

 

As the 7,000 number now includes the chapter serfs it seems too low.

 

Keep in mind that the fortresses, keeps, recruitment stations and safe houses the chapter maintains will be staffed by them and you could be looking at upwards of 10,000 right there. And thats assuming you buy all your weapons, ammunition, armour, vehicles and other war-gear from a mechanicus enclave. If the chapter is making this itself then the number of skilled serfs on the chapters payroll just goes up another notch. And then you have the people manning the ships.

 

You can cut the numbers down a fair bit if you use servitors and count them as equipment and not people but that doesn't feel right with the whole freedom from the slavers feel you seem to be going for.

 

All in all it looks a fun chapter. A riotous bunch of near-pirates carving out an empire way off the edge of the map having fun and waiting for the Imperium to collapse on itself so they can claim their people to be humanities sole heirs and make the galaxy how it was meant to be.

 

Do they trade with the Rogue Traders and the like?

 

They seem quite tolerant of xenos but how do they feel about the witch?

 

How do they view Chaos?

I've now made it clear that 3000 military personnel are recorded, so not chapter serfs, ship crews, servitors and weapon smiths 

 

No they do not trade with Rogue Traders, traitor marines and others who are shunned by the Imperium (i.e xenos) are the only ones they deal with. Rogue Traders are not shunned by the imperium and are not hunted by them, therefore are deemed "not worthy" of the Tainted Angels trade.

 

The witch, mutant, daemon and the heretic are all welcomed by the Tainted Angels. They are very much a "do what you like, just don't get us killed" chapter

 

They view chaos simply as another version of religion. Those who worship chaos choose to worship, therefore they see nothing wrong with it. Although the chapter doesn't openly serve chaos in any way im sure some of the marines would adopt some religious beliefs. Perhaps chaos worship could be amongst them.