IA: Leviathans WIP

[Lucernius]

LEVIATHANS

(Leviathanes)
Belived to be a Succession Chapter of the Raven Guard

CHAPTER APPERANCE

CHAPTER COLOR SCHEME
They wear grey power armour with black powerplants, helmets, soft armour and lower leg plates. Their bright turquoise eyes symbolizes the stars where they roam for prey.
The chest is fitted with a bone white winged skull.

CHAPTER BADGE
The Chapter badge is a black coiled serpent trying to swallow a planet on grey shoulder guards.

The other shoulder plate shows the Unit type and the company designation of the marine.

A Leviathan Terminator. This one without any of the Badges, Personal Heraldry or Battle Honours that most have earned in their service for the Chapter.

"A perfectly precise blow can win a war before it truly have begun."

— Chapter Master Abel Sidon, of the Leviathans

CHAPTER DATA

Warcry : In Service, Until Death!
Founding : Suspected to be the 13th Founding (Dark Founding).
Successors of: Claims to be of Raven Guard Gene-Seed. But the Raven Guard have never acknowledged this, keeping the mystery as to their true heritage.

Successor Chapters: Unknown, no open record states any successors from the Leviathan Gene-Seed.
Number: Too little data to establish. May diverge from Codex operational maximal.

Primarch: Records are sealed by the highest of clearances.

Founding Chapter Master: Lost to time, records not found in Terran Archives & Adeptus Mechanicus datastorages.
Current Chapter Master: Ichabod Gamor.
Homeworld: None, chapter are fleetbased, roaming as Nomads.

Allegiance: Imperium of Man.

The Leviathans are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of an unknown Founding that may have belonged to the mysterious 13^th ”Dark Founding”, which occurred sometime between the 35th and 36th Millennia. They claim to be a Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard but does not seem to share the same mutations as found in that Chapter's gene-seed. The details of the Chapter’s Founding are shrouded in mystery, however, the chapters creation have never been accessible to all but the highest ranked individuals. Why that come to be is not known, but speculations are wide from a highly mutating gene-seed to a failed experiment that those involved dont want to be officialy known and even some dare to raise that their gene-seed might be corrupted by chaos. But no Imperial Offices has yet raised any alarms or intresst to any of these accusations, and no known inquisitorial investigation has yet to be launched, so to this day its all speculations. they are even rumoured to have close ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus, working closely with them on several occasions.

The Leviathans take their name from the giant warp monsters that roam the Immaterium. The Leviathans chapter's primary task is to guard a large part of the outer rim of Segmentum Tempestus, in the area called of the Veiled Region were they have travelled far and wide earning a reputation of efficency.

SHORT STORIES

758.M37 Sannadra System, Segmentum Ultima.

'The Prize'

'As i promised Archmagos behold C7D89AY Designated 'The Lustful Abandon'. It took us three centuries to find, the empyrean took it to one system to the next but finally with the knowledge gathered bit by bit the librarians and our telepaths could finaly make sense of the empyrean currents. And plot its next system to show its presence in'. - Abel Sidon Void Lord of the Leviathans said with a matter of fact voice.

'Chapter Master Sidon, the Omnissiahs Will in all. Its a great prize for the Mechanicus and as you promised its delivered. What hordes and riches it carries only the Omnissiah knows for now, but something i tend to find out and it will be my satisfaction to reveal'. Archmagos Vectralix said through his voxspeaker placed where his mouth should have been.

'The Clensing is it at hand, what is the percentiles of each perimeter as we speak Chapter Master' -Archmagos Vectralix.

'Its proceeding as suspected and according to the timeframe set, operation well at hand. A minor obstacle in sector Alpha Terminus, a xeno ship of unknown origins have proved to be of a minor inconvenience, but the route has been sealed and a new path has been calculated around it'.

The hulk has been home to orcs and in Sector Upsilon Magna there has been heavy resistance, sector is ours and the Leviathans are moving further in as we speak'.

'Good, good once the prize is mine and i have all its secrets i shall honour my part of the bargain'. Achmagos Vectralix said in his mechanized voice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

334.M38 Logras System, Segmentum Ultima.

'The Fate of a Fortress World'

The masses had rebelled in the armorys and factorys on the planet, talking about the saviour prophet of Logras, first to fall to the raging mobs were the factory workbosses and the Chief Factorian. But the command would soon realise that the rebellion was much more than that, as the Imperial guard garrisons reinforcing the trenches and fort network soldiers opened fire on what they tought was friendly units this was the starting point of a great bloodbath as it commenced thousands of soldiers fell the first hours not knowing who to trust, garrisons fortified themselves and shot anyone approaching them. Months into the campaing the tide turned against the loyalist pockets as the traitor guards guided by the frontfigure saviour prophet of Logras enmassed and started clearing fort by fort closer to the Imperial Govenors citadel.

'Leave your citadell govenor! And i might spare you the judement of the masses and you can leave with your head still attached to you body! -The Saviour yelled to the governor in the parley both sides had agreed on.

'My Citadel is still standing, and to dislodge me you have to bring down my walls first! Ill never yield to a traitor such as you!' The governor, Marichian the XIV yelled back. 'As i breath the Imperial Banner will ever fly above Logras, give up now or face the consequences of your actions at the Emperors Mercy as a traitor'.

'Hahahaha who's gona judge me? You?' the saviour said with a grin on his face.

As the saviours head erupted in blood and brainmatter when a silent shot blew his head away, a large crack and displacement of air could be felt close to the traitor lines and a smell of burnt ozone as four squads of grey and black terminators with star blue eyes materialised. As the crack still echoed several more officers from the traitor guards fell dead unto the ground shot by unseen assailants hidden on roofs, fortress battlements and in deep shadows.

Comming out of tunnels and gates all over the entrenchments around the citadell even more space marines in the same black and grey with star blue eyes, walked out and started cutting down the traitorguards in advance firepatterns and soon the shocked mob without officers to guide them were in a total disarray and the liberation of Logras had just begun.

'Emperor Protects' The govenor said in a whisper into the air, his call for help had been heard, the telepaths had gotten through to someone...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

335.M38 Logras System, Segmentum Ultima.

'Logras Liberated'

General Kesserlich walked through the fortresses upper chambers onto the balcony overlooking the Citadel courtyard, with his enturage of clercs and officers behind him on his way passing several of the grey clad space marines. At the balcony doors he atlast saw the reason for his visit there, the Chapter Master of the Leviathans. As he walked closer the space marines outside ended their own coversation and looked up at his approach, the other marines present nodded their heads in acknowledge of his arrival.

One of the marines, a Captain of the 3rd Company weren't wearing a helmet nor did the Chapter Master and looking upon them he thought they probably were twin brothers before succeeding the trials of becoming Space Marines becouse with a quick glance he couldnt tell them appart. Thinking on it didn't he also pass a marine in the previous chambers not wearing a helmet either, and did not he also look exactly the same? Could it be that tripplets all managed the hard trials? As the Lord General thoughts wandered away the Chapter Master spoke to him.

'General Kesserlich you honour us with your precense, how can i help?' -Abel Sidon Void Lord of the Leviathans said inclining his head just a little, tact and politics were sometimes needed to win over allies and to complete onces goals.

Brought back to the situation at hand, both from his thoughts and at the chapter Masters clear and calculable voice he replied.

'Chapter Master Sidon, order are soon fully restored on Logras and weren't it for you timely arrival five months ago this world might have been lost and secession might have spread in the entire sub-sector, were lucky you heard the governor Marichian distress signal before the world went dark.' -General Kesserlich said.

'We serve first and foremost, the enemies are multitude we cannot rest. Which brings me to the Leviathans departure from this warzone as the situation dosent need Astartes to round up the pockets of rebellion, your troops got that handled. I will leave it in your capable hands General, as we got other warzones in dire need of our help.' -Void Lord Sion told the General in finality.

CHAPTER HISTORY

"Even as we continously move in the shadowy fringes, we still are loyal sons of our primarch who's gene-seed made us, to our forebearers before us and most importantly the Emperor of Mankind." — Unknown Chapter Master of the Leviathans

CHAPTER BELIEFS

"The end of a war is decided before it even begins, it all comes down to the decisions of its commanders."

— Chapter Master Ichabod Gamor, of the Leviathans

CHAPTER GENE-SEED

"Being an Astartes is so much more than being breed for war, its being superior in all parts of war from planning, deployment and to execution." — Chapter Master Ichabod Gamor, of the Leviathans

The source of the Leviathan gene-seed is up to debate, as all data of the genetic material taken from storage from the Adeptus Mechanicus laboratorium on Mars and Terra are sealed at the express and irreversible order of one of the High Lords of Terra, none other than the Chartist Captains Representative on the Senatorum Imperialis at the time. If this is the case, then it would appear that a High Lord of Terra or more, have a an ulterior motive and reason to hide what gene-stock they used in the founding of the chapter.

But looking on the chapters combat preferences, doctrines and their own insistance that they are from Raven Guard gene-stock, this could share light on the issue. As its similar in many regards, but then the Adeptus Mechanicus have succeeded in subjugate the degeneration in the Raven Guard gene-seed. As the Leviathans dosent share in the same degeneration as their Proginator Chapter.

CHAPTER RECRUITMENT

New neopythes are recruited from many different worlds as the chapter is a roaming fleet, ever since the beginning. The Culling is the name given to the recruitment rite of the Leviathan Chapter by its Space Marines. Traditionaly they undertake twenty selections every five standard years. If the Chapter fails to gather enough worthy Aspirants on one world, they would move on to the next world, and then the next, until they had recruited sufficient Aspirants. At times of need they start the Culling earlier to reinforce their losses as soon they are being able.

Part of the training the recruits need succeed in to become a Leviathan, are to learn to infiltrate a world with guile and social wits as their only weapon, to gain entrance to high level information and bring it back to the Master of Recruits. Completing this they are raised to neopythes, failing in this task will immediately remove them as potential neopythes and becomming an Astartes.

Depending on were in this progress they fail and if they still are alive the failed recruits are first kept as chapter serfs without forcing compliant augmentations, then as they are still schooled by loyal chapter serfs in the art of substerfuge and infiltration techniques the best of them then are used as agents. Sometimes these agent-sefs are placed as human sleeper agents on planets the fleet passes or have helped to liberate to gather information on any dissension and potential betrayals from these worlds. Sometimes these agent-serfs are dropped into warzones with the scouts marines to infiltrate the enemy camps to gather as much information on their enemies as they potentialy can, while the scouts go on in their business. The gathered data and information is then used by the commander before engagements are planned and executed.

CHAPTER ORGANIZATION

"War is so much more than sacrifice, bravery, glory and honour, its perfection in all aspects of war."

— Founding Chapter Master of the Leviathans

The Leviathans is a non-compliant Codex Astartes Chapter. They operate with 10 companies divided into two veteran companies, 5 battle companies and three scout companies, the 8^th, 9^th and the 10^th company. They are belived to deviate from the one thousand astartes rule, but as their fleet often operates in smaller squadrons and are far stretched in the Veiled Region that is hard to judge.

CHAPTER COMBAT DOCTRINE

"To take your enemies by surprise will give you the initiative throughout the whole war."

— Founding Chapter Master of the Leviathans

At a tactical level, the Leviathans favours the use of firearms with a focus on their advance ranged kill patterns and a superiorority in firepower compared to their enemies. Atrition warfare dosent play well in their doctrine they want perfection in planning, deployment and execution to win the day, not taking blow for blow until one side stands victor. To help their battle tactics to fruition they favour the use of obfuscation, infiltration, stealth and mobility above all else to close with the enemies and deploy their units before they even know they are there. In preperation of all this they deploy specialized squads that operates outside of main command, with their own objectives to achieve specific mission and strategical goals. These can be assassinations, sabotages and reconnaissances of the enemy forces but also to get the intellgience needed to complete a battleplan in line of their doctrine. If at all possible then they use this approach in the opening of all of their operations and engagements.

Then as soon as the initial phase ends following up quickly by the rapid deployment of their armour, transportation of their tactical and devastator squads, close air support,and the chapter terminators and the few dreadnaught at the chapters disposal as the main strike force. By doing this they can apply pressure on their enemies, confuses them with feints, hinder them with sabotages and force the enemies to expose their weaknesses. Once those weaknesses are reviled press that advantage and try and end the war in a final strike at the heart of the enemy with as few losses as possible.

CHAPTER NOTABLE CAMPAINGS

CHAPTER FLEET

The few times the Leviathans enters a system enmass the Great White and its escorts is the first to arrive depending on the temperament of the empyrean streams, after that the the Great Blue and the Kraken with their strike cruiser escorts Muraenidae and its sister Batoidea followed finaly with the small space hulk designated the Leviathan with The Rokea and the strike cruiser escorts Eye of the Storm, Typhoon and Hurricane, and the smaller escort-class vessels in the Leviathan fleet.

In most operations the chapter prefer guile and secrecy at first hand, and at some point in the chapters early history a few of the ships have been refitted with some kind of stealth technology, as they seem to be able to disappear and reappear at will. Specualtions are made that they have Reflex Shields installed on most if not all of their void ships.

The ships are all of old patterns heavily modifed beyond the original manifacture, mostly becouse of what seem to be need. Operating far from Imperial controlled space makes each battlewound something that needs to be taken care of on the run. Having a ship like the Orca is a must, salvaging from previous engagements or ship graveyards is a common occurency.

Unclassified Flagship; 'The Leviathan'. Chapter Monastery and Gene-Seed repository.

Closer scans shows this to be a spacehulk of minor size around three dussins ships.

Battle Barge: 'The Kraken'

Battle Barge: 'The Great White'

Battle Barge: 'The Rokea' & 'The Great Blue'

Goliath-Class Forge Ship: 'The Orca'

The Sister Strike Cruisers

Striker Cruisers: 'The Muraenidae' & 'The Batoidea' also the 'The Hurricane', 'The Eye of the Storm' and the 'The Typhoon'

[Knurd]

Are you trying to take up page 1 of the Liber all by your lonesome? 

 

Leaving work now, I'll read this later on at home. Looking forward to a good read.

[Lucernius]

Hahaha yeah might think that but as i have fleshed out the Leviathans more i felt they deserved a spot for their own.

 

Havent had time sitting down to write, but it will come naturaly.

 

So far it has been work the past weekend and the Liber Cluster map editing.

 

Also need to find time to write a bit on the Heralds as Commissar Molotovs feedback was insanly good! :D

[Olis]

If you want to work on multiple IAs I would recommend working on one at a time, or at least put most of your effort into one at a time - that way you won't burn out from taking on too much at once and you won't wear out your welcome with the other Liberites by dominating page one. Not that I'm accusing you of attempting such a thing. ;)

 

You already have a general thread for ideas, so keeping the other IAs there until you are ready to work on the next might be a good way to go about it. 

 

 

Onto the IA: I'll keep the commentary short, specifically the 'unknown' bits to the general details of the Chapter. I would advise filling out those details as best you can as seeing many of them simply labelled as 'unknown' is somewhat boring for a reader. The more details you have there, the more you can build upon later. For example, make them definitely Raven Guard successors. No fuss, no muss. There's flaws and advantages to this, some that I would say you should take on the chin (like the pale skin and black hair). Nail these beginning details down and you will have a good foundation to build upon. :)

 

If you genuinely have a detail that cannot be filled out, then you have to think of a convincing reason why this information is unknown. Was it a calamity that's responsible? Administrative problems? Self-imposed sealing of the data archives? Who knows? You're best off coming up with a theory and then naysaying as best you can. What if the Imperium has duplicates of the records? What do other chapters know of them? Does the story ultimately make sense? 

[Lucernius]

Nice info specialy the unknown part, several nice angles to use. Dont know yet how to angle it i will try writing the Gene-Seed and Beliefs first that will cement the chapters feel. after that we will see. I got something in the pipeline regarding their gene-seed.

 

Most of it will hint upon their true heritage, ie. not raven guard, reason for raven guards as proginators is becouse the chapter utilize stealth technology on some of their ships. Also they favor infiltration and sabotage missions. Get in unseen take out target(s) then depending on what kind of operation things evolve, but they prefere ranged combat above close combat. They also lean heavily on scouts/neopythes and got a few more terminators than the standard codex chapter, but loose out on armor, dreadnaughts and vehicles.

 

Will in my post try to incorporate the dark founding, i dont got anything "special" to go on as of yet, but i got a beginning and thats once the space marine proccess has begun all Leviathans truly become very similar in apperances, more so than other gene deviances of other more well known chapters. Becomming almost to the litteral sences twins or copies if you will it of eachother.

 

 

 

And yeah sorry as i said in another post a little to impulsive! :) But no more posts now i promise! :)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Great White's tail fin should be removed, to clear the dorsal turrets' traverse.

 

Your work looks good so far. The short scenes you wrote, tease us with insights into your Marines' character, and I very much want to see more.

[Lucernius]

Added alot of Favour to my chapter, quotes from Chapter Masters, one more short story and started puzzling together the general feel, theme and traditions of the chapter.

 

Soon for the even harder parts of the IA: beliefs, a good and plausible history and some campaigns.

 

Also removed the shark fin and the octopus from the field of vision of the guns.

 

Took in alot of the advice from my chapter idea post, and the feedback from my heralds DIY tried to put it to good use here. (Will update Heralds to later on with the same thoughts and feedback as soon as im able). So thanks alot for the feedback and C&C. But not fully down yet!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good work, so far. You should double-check it for spelling and grammar, before posting.

[Lucernius]

Good work, so far. You should double-check it for spelling and grammar, before posting.

 

Yeah sometimes the spelling is hard to spot as im not a native speaking from the start! I totaly missed the diffrence of To and Too! :D haha well i gona try and spellcheck the text! I hope the spelling mistakes arent to bad tho! :D I got the beginning of the chapters history in my mind now, just need to get it down into a nice little layout!

 

A teaser: it involves outer rim systems, evil stars, rogue traders and mechanicus expeditions! :D

[Sugarlessllama]

I'm really liking where you are going with this. The chapter symbol is awesome! They have a very predatory feel to them. 

[Achilles_Prime]

Man! Great concept for this chapter!! I've been looking for more info about then when I saw your artwork on Deviant Art!