Index Astartes: Astral Hounds - 2nd draft

[Dosjetka]

Incomplete draft 1 in spoiler below. 2nd draft started in post #13.

Index Astartes: Marines Astral

Traveling the length and breadth of the galaxy since M35, the Marines Astral have relentlessly hunted down ships belonging to Mankind's enemies, breaching their hulls, exterminating the occupants and claiming whatever spoils that can be salvaged as their own. As such, they have built themselves a fearsome reputation as merciless killers among space-faring renegades and traitors, Ork Freebootaz, Eldar Corsairs and even Imperial fleets.

Origins:

Records of the Marines Astral's founding are inexistent outside of the Chapter archives, but even there information is sparse and broken down due to the age of the referential documents. What little information that can be put together has ascertained is that the Marines Astral were created sometime during the 35th millennium, possibly as part of the 10th Founding, during the dark and troubled times of the Nova Terra Interregnum, when the Imperium was split into two empires, with the Ur-Council dismissing the rule of the Terran High Lords and claiming the Segmentum Pacificus as their own. This, alongside their aforementioned reputation, has been the cause of much distrust from various Imperial factions towards the Chapter.

The records equally confirm that their gene-seed is of the Ultramarine gene-stock, through the Inceptors. This fact has not been officially recognised by either the Inceptors or the Ultramarines themselves, but the close ties that the Marines Astral have with the two Chapters gives credence to the corrupted data.

Home World:

As a Crusade Chapter, the Marines Astral have no designated home world and instead cull potential neophytes from the surviving crews of captured ships or from planets that they have been forced to attack. The recruitment staff go to great lengths to erase any past devotions or deficiencies and ingrain utter loyalty to the Chapter and the Emperor of Mankind into the hearts and minds of each child, leaving no room for any notions of dissent or treachery. The Astartes of the Chapter are devoted to the complete extermination of Humanity's enemies and nothing else.

The Marines Astral do however keep a restrained number of heavily fortified keeps across the galaxy and use these as resupply stations for the traveling fleets, staging points for major campaigns and bastions to deter any potential threats against surrounding planets. These bastions are garrisoned almost exclusively by serfs and it is indeed rare for a Space Marine to set foot in one of these fortresses after they are considered as fully operational. Only neophytes and their instructor-sergeants, along with the Chapter staff needed to oversee the transformation of the aspirants into fully-fledged Astartes, regularly occupy the silent halls of the keeps. The Marines Astral consider their battle-brothers as too precious a resource to waste them on garrisoning static defense points and so keep them among the star-spanning fleets, ready to bring retribution to the space-faring scum of the galaxy.

Beliefs:

Many, if not all, of the Chapter members consider the Ecclesiarchy as a corrupt entity that actively twists the teachings of the Emperor to fulfill their own petty goals. As such, the Marines Astral have their own set of beliefs, each very different to those of the widespread Imperial Cult. First and foremost, the Chaplains teach that the Emperor is the greatest man to ever have lived and that he is to be considered as the unquestionable master of Mankind and the galaxy. It is by his decree that the Space Marines were created and it is his will that the galaxy be purged of all Mankind's foes. This in turn is the sole role of the Astartes and must never be forgotten, never be corrupted by other petty occupations, such as quests for glory and renown or the acquisition of material gains for the sake of accumulating them. The Astartes must use whatever means at their disposal to exterminate Humanity's foes once and for all.

Concerning the Chapter's links with the wider Imperium, ties between the Marine Astral and other Imperial organisations exist, but they are tentative at best and are often eroded due to distrust on both sides. The only body with which the Chapter has stable ties is the Imperial Navy, with which it has mounted many operations, fought many battles and reaped many victories. The Marines consider their relationship with the Navy as inviolable, due to it being born in the fires of battle and blessed with the blood of the Enemy, while the Navy officials who have dealings with the Marines Astral are rightfully fearful of the Chapter and consider it as a pack of raging bloodhounds, clamouring for blood and battle and a risk to their own fleets due to many incidents of collateral damage inflicted by the Astartes fleets.

A number of Navy officials do still maintain ancient ties with the Chapter and are swift to call for their aid when the situation has slipped out of their grasp. However, the Marines Astral have limited fleet assets, manpower and resources and cannot honour each request for aid. Thus, it is the duty of the Chapter Master to analyse each appeal and to decide where his Companies will sail.

Another organisation with which the Marines Astral have relatively stable ties is the Adeptus Mechanicus, though this relationship is bred more out of sheer necessity than mutual understanding between the two parties.

Combat Doctrine:

Due to their preference for void warfare, the Marines Astral have developed a formidable aptitude for boarding actions and close quarters combat in the bellies of broken ships. This has in turn reflected itself upon the contents of their Armoury, which has a healthy stock of breaching charges, boarding shields, suits of void-hardened armour, all manner of close combat weapons and deadly Caestus Assault Rams.

On occasion, the Marines Astral must also set foot upon solid ground to bring death to their foes. In this kind of situation, infantry is deployed via Drop Pod or via Stormraven straight into the teeth of the enemy, while Land Raiders, Predators and Vindicators are dropped in to support the assault troops with the aid of Thunderhawks. Faced with such an aggressive assault, the foe is expected to buckle within a handful of minutes of the first Astartes setting foot on the battlefield. However, due to this specialisation, the Chapter lacks much in the way of Land Speeders, bikes and a number of vehicles that would feature in less specialised Chapters such as Whirlwinds, Rhinos and Razorbacks, which causes complications when the conditions aren't reliable enough for a Drop Pod assault.

Such a situation arose during the Sinsemilian Extermination, where the fluctuating planetary gravity, caused by the detonation of sesmic charges near the core of the planet by a suicide cult, denied the Marines Astral of their favoured method of deployment. It was decided that the strike force elements would arrive onto the surface via Thunderhawk to retrieve the priceless relics and personnel that were trapped within the walls of the Mechanicus forges on the planet, but due to the increasing gravitational instability throwing off the ships' instruments and the furious amount of anti-aircraft fire that was thrown into the heavens even while the planet was falling apart, casualties rose alarmingly fast and a great number of Thunderhawks were lost before the campaign commander called off the assault. While the Chapter was rewarded by the Mechanicus for their bravery and the rescue of a number of senior Magii, they were also keenly aware of the brutal beating they had received due to their own recklessness and eagerness to combat their foes. Many lessons were learned from the campaign and it was a full decade before the Chapter replaced its lost fleet assets, equipment and manpower.

Chapter Organisation:

As a fleet-based fighting force, the Marines Astral are a fragmented force, only coming together on rare occasions and at the sole request of their Chapter Master. Most frequently, the Chapter is spread out across the entire fleet, each battle-group fulfilling the mission it was appointed to complete. These battle-groups most commonly operate at Company strength and accompanied by a Strike Cruiser with escort squadrons. On occasion, smaller strike groups are sent on missions to fulfill very specific goals that a larger force could not accomplish, led by experienced Veteran Sergeants and with troops drawn from the Company's Astartes.

The composition of each Company follows the guidelines set down by the Codex, though the core of each battle-group is made up of one of the four Battle Companies supported by various elements extracted from the remaining Companies. However, due to the traveling nature of the Chapter, neophytes are not grouped into one body but instead are recruited by each battle-group as needed. Due to the strict control that the command staff exert on the number of fully-fledged Astartes active in each strike force, all surplus recruits are sent to the nearest Chapter keep to be assessed by their instructor-sergeants, though no gene-therapy or Astartes organ implantation of any kind is conducted until the neophytes are absorbed into a passing battle-group and their transformation into Space Marines proper needed.

Another quirk of the Marines Astral's organisation is found in the rank names within the Chapter. While each rank that would be found in any other is present within the Chapter, there are subtle differences which distinguish the Marines Astral's specialists from those of brother Chapters. One example is that of the Vigilator, who's function is to act as a spiritual leader among his brothers but also to take up the role of intelligence officer, collecting information pertaining the hunted foe from whatever sources he can gather and by any means necessary, keeping track of their operations, movement, strength, weaknesses and actively keeping his Captain up-to-date with such data.

[More incoming]

Gene-seed:

[incoming]

Battle-cry:

"Hulls will shatter, we shall not!"

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I've thrown this together in the last couple of hours to get building pressure to create an IA off my chest. It's not yet entirely finished and doesn't have much meat on the bones yet, but the character of the Marines Astral is well-defined and set in words (which is a good thing in my mind).

Any C&C is appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

[Prefect Apollyon]

It's better than my first draft. Very believable, no hint of special snowflake.

 

Great start! A lot of the Beliefs section is probably a bit unnecessary, as only the Black Templars (and few other homebrew Chapters) view the Emperor as a God. 

[Beachymike123]

great piece there BBL. if there's only one critique it'll be this - what are the captains' titles? i'm imagining them all having something to do with maritime titles now. 

great article matey. i like it.

[Dosjetka]

Prefect Apollyon: Thanks! I had to go back a few times to eliminate any words/expressions that could be seen as me adding "special snowflakes", so I'm glad that it was worth it in the end As this the first draft, the whole thing is a bit clunky and I do agree that the Beliefs section will have to be redone. However, I'll get the rest of the draft finished and then go back and edit things that need to be removed/changed/added. Thanks for picking up on that though.

leinmann: Cheers mate, glad you like it. I'm still mulling over the rank name I'll be using for Captains, so if you have any suggestions, please do go ahead and post them.

EDIT: I'm really not liking the Chapter name right now and I am struggling to find an alternative. I'd like to keep the "Astral" theme (which I'll use for the Chapter symbol as well, I think) but would like something different than "Marines Astral". Just doesn't sound right. Anyone got any ideas?

[Brother Argent]

I can understand why Marines Astral doesn't sound right.  Essentially you have named your Space Marine Chapter a fancy way of saying Space Marines...  Astral tends to work better as a first part of a name eg. Astral Claws etc.  Whilst Astral suits your theme so does Marines ........ as they are more a naval combat kinda guys.  Let me think it through, maybe I can come up with something....

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Yeah, Marines Astral doesn't scan.  It doesn't really roll of the tongue so much as lurch.

[Dosjetka]

Astral Hounds? Sky Devils?

[Brother Argent]

Astral hounds could work. As ultramarines maybe Astral Legion or Astral wardens. Or maybe even star something. Like star wardens or star spears... hmmm I think Astral sounds better

[Ratboy1664]

Marines celestial? Marines eternal?

[Lysimachus]

I like Astral Hounds, fits nicely with the idea of being fleet based, multiple small ships running the enemy to ground.

 

Come to think of it, if you're vehicle light maybe you could go smaller than Company size battle groups (but obviously more of them) and make more use of Astartes escort craft like the Gladius Frigate?

[Malthe]

Actually I really like Marines Astral. It's very matter-of-factly which suits the character of your chapter perfectly. Also I don't think the pronunciation is all that bad - it sounds sort of brutal, which again suits the chapter quite nicely.

 

Beyond that I think what you've got this far is pretty good. It's a little too light on history to fit my taste and it could really use some flavor text, a la quotes and sidebars. But you'll get to that I'm sure. Got a color scheme yet? 

 

[Donkey Kong]

Hey Ludovic!

 

I'm not very good with names, so I'll be staying out of that bit for the time being.

 

Unless the Chapter is establishing keeps on dead worlds, then I would argue that they do have home worlds of a sort. Personally, I would argue against having them at all. The Chapter could then have families of serfs aboard ships, and children could be born into the chapter in addition to individuals that the chapter rescues from imperial ships, however few and far between that may be.

 

I'm torn arguing one way or another, since it doesn't make sense to me for that latter method to be a primary recruitment method, while I adore the articles like this posted up on The Scythes site.

 

Another benefit of leaving keeps aside means that your chapter now has a larger reason to either ally with the Navy or Mechanicus, having a heavier reliance on ally docks for repairs.

 

I don't see much different between your chapter's beliefs and how I think most chapter view the Emperor. The only particular difference would be the degree of apathy or loathing the chapters hold for the ecclesiarchy. If you choose, I think it could be interesting if the Chapter keeps itself in Segmentum Pacificus and has some kind of loyalty to the territory claimed by the ur-council. If the goal is to create mistrust between the chapter and the rest of the Imperium, that might be an alternative method of doing it. It would also help establish their reputation ("The Best in the West" or whatever you choose) since it's in a more limited space (Although, it doesn't make much sense to me for the reputation to exist past a few sectors at most), and it could help them keep their alliances easier i.e. several Battlefleets instead of the whole navy or a particular forge world or sect of the machine cult instead of the entire adeptus mechanicus.

 

Lastly, I don't think the campaign you have written out is particularly important in defining the chapter's combat doctrine.

 

I don't see anything particularly outlandish about your outline, and I think that you've given yourself plenty of room to expand. On the other hand, it still feels very empty, and even with that in mind I see information that I would consider chaff. It's really too soon to pass any sort of judgment, so I'll just wish you luck and keep an eye on how you work things out.

[Dosjetka]

 

Traveling the length and breadth of the galaxy since M35, the Astral Hounds have relentlessly hunted down ships belonging to Mankind's enemies, breaching their hulls, exterminating the occupants and claiming whatever spoils that can be salvaged as their own. As such, they have built themselves a fearsome reputation as merciless killers among space-faring renegades and traitors, Ork Freebootaz, Eldar Corsairs and even Imperial fleets [note: see attached files ref//M:12cH67/Malchavi Incident, ref//M:74cH66/Doyvo Massacre and ref//M:01cH51/Zaal's Point Incident for examples].

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

ORIGINS~

 

Records concerning the creation of the Chapter are sparse and are considered unreliable at best. What little information that can be gleaned from these ancient texts is that the Astral Hounds were founded from the gene-seed of the Inceptors Chapter [note: Ultramarine 2nd Founding successors] sometime during the 35th millennium, a dark time of misrule and strife, also known as the Nova Terra Interregnum. Again, due to widespread data suppression following an official edict from the High Lords of Terra themselves and enforced by the Holy Inquisition, details pertaining to this great schism are few and far between. However, the Chapter records talk of the Ur-Council of Nova Terra breaking away from the rule of the High Lords, claiming Segmentum Pacificus as the territory of a new empire. The Lords of Terra were swift to strike back with the full might of the Imperium, but the Ur-Council had their own powerful allies and held the agressors in check for a large part of the millennium, successfully countering everything that was thrown at them. However, this was not to last and the Nova Terran empire finally fell, splintering into a multitude of smaller domains ruled over by warlords and petty politicians, only to be swiftly and brutally reclaimed by the advancing armies of the Terran Lords.

 

What role the Chapter had in this conflict is unclear and many scholars doubt that the Astral Hounds were involved in any way because of the Chapter's considerably young age at the time. And yet, some point ink-stained fingers at certain fragments of data that speak of

 

"[a thousand] armour-cladde gyants [...] descendynn [from] their barques lyke a packe of warre-hounds uponne

the menne aynd shyps offe the Haye Lords [...] slaughterynn awle aynd settynn the heavens afyre."

 

They claim that these warriors could indeed be Astartes of the Astral Hounds. Alongside this excerpt, there are a number of rare pict-captures supposedly showing a selection of war-banners hanging in the main halls of the Arsu and the Azizos, the Hounds' twin battle-barges. Almost indiscernable on these images, banners referring to victories at places such as Beijan, Saedeni and Vashingto Prime, all of which can be found in Segmentum Pacificus and all sites of major battles that the Ur-Council's forces won during the Interregnum can be seen. If true, then these facts constitute damning proof that the Chapter sided with, and was perhaps created by, the Ur-Council and, if brought to the attention of the wider Imperium [note: more specifically, the Holy Inquisition], would see the utter destruction of the Astral Hounds by Imperial forces.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

HOME WORLD~

 

The nomadic nature of the Astral Hounds means that they do not posess a home world. Instead, the whole Chapter is contained whithin the hulls of the Hounds' powerful war fleet, comprised of many different ship classes. The largest and by far the most powerful ships in the hands of the Hounds are the twin battle-barges 'Azizos' and 'Arsu', which act as the Chapter's Fortress-Monastery and the core the fleet. The exact provenance of these twin ships is unknown and their design is most definitely non-standard, suggesting that modifications were made upon the original design to improve the vessel's already formidable capabilities. The only individuals outside the Chapter who could perhaps shed light upon the origins of the twin ships are the Magii from the distant Forge World of Galwy [note: Ecubla sector, Segmentum Pacificus], where the Hounds frequently dock their war fleet for repairs and resupply. However, when questioned, the senior Techpriests lapse into an eerie silence and refuse to offer any kind of answer. If pressured, they will summon their servitor bodyguards order the immediate and permanent removal of the offending party from their domains.

When operating outside of the Ecubla sector and its immediate surroundings, the Chapter will make use of various other Mechanicum-owned worlds as resupply points [note: it seems that the Chapter has access to these worlds through their close ties with the Forge World of Galwy and its masters]. Their relationship with a number of other Ultramarine successor Chapters, including the Hounds' own parent Chapter the Inceptors, also allows them access to the domains under their guardianship.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

ORGANISATION~

 

[to be added]

 

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COMBAT DOCTRINE~

 

Due to their preference for void warfare, the Astral Hounds have developed a formidable aptitude for boarding actions and close quarters combat in the dark bellies of shattered ships. This has in turn reflected itself upon the contents of their Armoury, which has a healthy stock of breaching charges, boarding shields, suits of void-hardened armour, all manner of close combat weapons and various kinds of boarding craft.

When the Astral Hounds are required to set foot upon solid ground to bring death to their foes, the main body of Astartes is deployed via Drop Pod straight into the teeth of the enemy, while Land Raiders, Predators and Vindicators are dropped in to support the assault troops with the aid of Thunderhawks. Air superiority is assured thanks to squadrons of Storm Ravens and more common fighter aircraft manned by Chapter serfs. Faced with such an aggressive and sustained assault, the foe is expected to buckle within a handful of minutes of the first Hound setting foot on the battlefield. However, due to this rather extreme specialisation, the Chapter lacks much in the way of jump packs, Land Speeders, bikes and other vehicles that would feature in more flexible Chapters such as Whirlwinds, Rhinos and Razorbacks, which can cause unecessary complications when the conditions are not suited for a Drop Pod assault [note: see attached file ref//M:/12cH95-P3/Sevii Campaign].

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

BELIEFS~

 

[to be added]

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

GENE-SEED~

 

[to be added]

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

BATTLE CRY~

 

[to be added]

 

Went back and modified parts of the original draft with the help of various people's input (thanks to Strike Captain Lysimachus, Malthe and KingHongKong for their contributions). As you may have seen, I have changed the Chapter name to Astral Hounds as it sounds much better and describes them and what they do in only two words (which I find cool). I had more content written but it got deleted, to my great frustration. I'm too tired and pissed off at various things right now to continue writing so I'll get back to this tomorrow, hopefully managing to re-write the Organisation section and fleshing out the remaining three.

 

As soon as I get the coding sorted out, I'll be adding some sidebars (thank you to the person that suggested them), along with some headers too.

 

Cheers,

 

Ludo

 

P.S. An Internet cookie for each every real-world reference spotted in the IA. There are currently six references, with more to come.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Either they served the Ur-Council or they had a very bad couple of centuries.

[Malthe]

I've only given the new draft a quick scan, so I just want to point out a few observations:

First off: I'm not sure having served the Ur-council is really such a big deal. I always figured that numerous chapters did that without a great many consequences. Surely we'd have heard of it if there had been some sort of space marine chapter cull after the Interregnum (actually before 6th ed. I figured the Abyssal Crusade represented such a cull - now I don't know what it is…). It's nice as a bit of flavor text, but I'd save it for a sidebar to make it seem a little less important. 

Sencondly: I like that they have a relationship with the Ad.Mech. and I think the idea of being reliant upon them for ports and repairs is very good. But I don't think you have to make it seem all that dodgy. I think it detracts a little from the sheer 'we-kill-hostile-stuff'-vibe that I got from your first draft.
Frankly I liked the first draft better - I'm sorry, that's never what one likes to hear - and I think you should take care not to let shaddy dealings and intrigue distract you form what you really want from this chapter. Then again if intrigue is what you want go ahead. It's just not the feel I got from the first draft :)


More importantly: When and why did the Astral Hounds (I still like the other name better :P ) develop their preference for void combat? That's the piece of history I want to hear.

Stay on track, mate :)