The Wardens (C. M35)

[Privateer]

Index Astartes

The Wardens

In 345.M35 a small task force of the Silver Skulls chapter attempted to come to the aid of the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel Firmament Rebuked which had transmitted an astropathic distress signal after coming under attack by Ork pirates.

While en route to the last known position of Firmament Rebuked the small fleet encountered a warp-storm of unusual ferocity (the same storm believed to have destroyed the survey ship Eternal Vigilance in orbit over the planet Angelis several systems away). The fleet, led by Captain Nathaniel Xanthus on the strike cruiser Lophius, found themselves ejected from the Empyrean with their warp engines badly damaged and lost on the far fringes of the Galaxy, beyond all but the farthest, dimmest flickering of the Astronomicon.

By luck or by some unknown power's design, they came across the world of Tarkus, a lost colony of Man that regressed to pre-industrial state and was ruled over by a conclave of astronomer-priests who dwelt in the fortress observatory atop the mountain called Hatheg-Kla and claimed access to a mysterious subterranean library at whose heart lay a great and infallible oracle.

Exactly what transpired on Tarkus between the fleet's arrival in orbit and their next contact with the Imperium some six centuries later is unclear, but what is known for certain is that during the contact made between the now-repaired Lophius and an Imperial Navy long-range patrol group such suspicions were aroused in the Navy commander that his report led to the arrival of the forces of the Inquistion, all too eager to identify these marines and test the long-lost Astartes for hints of the taint of the Arch-Enemy.

None could be found, but evidence was found of xeno-tech aboard the Lophius. When questioned on this matter the commander of the Astartes vessel openly admitted to both communicating and trading with xenos, expressing the heretical belief that Mankind would soon find itself assailed by a threat against which even the Imperium of Man could not hope to stand alone and that cooperation with xenos, however distasteful, was the lesser of two very great evils.

This heresy was met with the predictable (indeed, mandated) response and, by the time the metaphorical smoke had cleared, the Astartes had destroyed the Inquisition forces but not in time to prevent a distress signal being sent, warning that an Inquistion force had been destroyed by rogue Astartes.

Now outcasts, forever adrift from their former chapter, and denied a chance directly to warn the Imperium of the dire threat it faces, they now style themselves The Wardens, standing guard over both their strange library and, as they see it, the rest of Mankind.

Further attempts by Imperial forces to locate the Wardens' homeworld have met with no success and shipping bound for more remote colonies in the area continues to be preyed upon by ominous grey vessels bearing the Wardens' wreathed skull emblem.

The Wardens' homeworld of Tarkus is a small rocky planet orbiting a yellow dwarf in the Northeast of the Ultima Segmentum. It is a pleasant enough world, very similar in nature to Holy Terra before the terrible wars that scoured that world's surface before the Emperor's rise to power, having been extensively terraformed by human settlers at some time before the Long Night.

It is sparsely populated and society there remains at a pre-industrial level.

This is not true, however, of several other worlds ruled by the Wardens, in this and neighbouring systems.

Most of these other worlds were colonised by the Wardens themselves but one, known by its inhabitants as Pantang, also bore a human civilisation, in this case somewhat more advanced than that on Tarkus.

Pantang is the Wardens' industrial hub; a harsh, desolate world of extreme tectonic activity and vulcanism, the geothermal forges of its northern polar region are the source of most of the Wardens' manufacturing capacity while the population, both the dwellers in the domed polar cities and the techno-nomads of the great equatorial ash deserts, provide recruits for the Wardens' auxiliary forces.

Lacking the means to recreate much of the more complex equipment available to chapters enjoying the support of the Imperium and, with it the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Wardens have, by necessity, become adept at acquiring what they need from others, essentially turning to piracy.

Boarding actions and close quarter battle are their areas of particular expertise as they conduct lightning raids on industrial or research facilities and seize ships and their cargo with minimal damage to either.

This desire to keep collateral damage to a minimum has led to a preference for precision ranged weaponry and hand-to-hand combat techniques.

The Wardens are organised into four Orders: the Chalice, the Staff, the Wheel and the Sword. A shortage of equipment, geneseed and manpower means that most of these formations march on paper only, but the nominal strength of the chapter is as follows:

The Order of the Chalice includes both the Chapliancy and Apothecarion and is responsible for the biological and idealogical purity of the Chapter. Its field strength consists of two Induction Companies and one Line Company.

The Order of the Staff includes the Librarium and is responsible for training the Chapter's Librarian Prognosticators.

Its field strength consists of two Line Companies and one Specialist Company.

The Order of the Wheel includes the Chapter's Techmarines and is responsible constructing, maintaining and crewing the Chapter's vehicles and heavy weapons. Its field strength consists of one Armoured Company, one Fire Support Company and one Line Company.

The Order of the Sword includes the Chapter Master's own retinue and the Chapter's Assault Companies.

Its field strength consists of two Assault Companies and one specialist Heavy Assault Company.

Newly inducted Aspirants are given carapace armour and assigned to an Induction Company and taught to fight with combat blade and bolt pistol, being paired with a previous Aspirant who has graduated to the level of Neophyte and been granted the use of full power armour.

The next stage of a Neophyte's training is to be assigned to a Line Company, serving in a dedicated Neophyte squad until he shows such mastery of either firearms as to be reassigned to an Initiate squad to fight with a bolter, or of bladed weapons as to be reassigned to an Assault Company.

To be assigned to such a company is considered a great honour, as these are the companies primarily reponsible for the boarding actions so essential to the Wardens' survival.

Those Initiates who show exceptional skill with firearms and other such weapons may find themselves assigned to the Wardens' specialist armoured and heavy weapons company.

Quite apart from the Astartes themselves and unusually for their kind, the Wardens also highly value espionage and diplomacy, deploying agents on many human and alien worlds, both to locate required supplies and to seek out any hint of the 'Threat'.

The Wardens also maintain a sizeable number of auxiliary regiments recruited from planets under their rule.

The Wardens maintain most of the beliefs inherited from the Silver Skulls (including the use of Prognosticators and the taking of heads as trophies) with one, albeit extremely major, difference: they believe that the 'Threat', whose true nature is never revealed to those held in any less than the highest confidence by the Wardens' ruling council, is sufficiently dire as to merit seeking the cooperation of xenos species (most notably the Eldar), putting them at odds with the rest of the Imperium.

The non-Astartes peoples of Tarkus maintain an ancient belief in a distant 'Sky-Father' who would one day come and free them from the predations of the denizens of 'Sansu-Lomar' ('Demon-Star'), the name used by the priests of Hatheg-Kla to describe their neighbouring planet; a forbidding and almost lifeless desert world with no sign of habitation other than a few peculiarly-shaped ruins in the deep desert. These evil creatures were said to emerge whenever the 'Demon-Star' reached a certain position in the heavens and to slaughter or bear away anyone they came across.

The urbanised inhabitants of Pantang worship a pantheon of deities headed by a radiant figure described as 'the Architect of Time' while the nomads practice a kind of ancestor spirit and animal totem worship.

The Chapter's geneseed is primarily standard Ultramarine geneseed, though some of the newer recruits have been implanted with geneseed salvaged from members of other Chapters killed in battle, leading to a small but increasing number of Marines carrying non-standard geneseed.

The Chapter's motto is 'Omne Autem Necessarium': 'Whatever is Necessary'