Doom Reapers

[markham82]

 
 

Chapter name

Doom Reapers. 

Founding

24th 39M in reaction to the 11th Black Crusade as reaction force for  the Segmentum Pacificus.
 

Home World

Currently Haven Prime in the Haven system. The Haven system is placed between the Rifts of Hecaton and the Accursed Demesne reaches towards the Rimward edge of the Halo stars. The Haven system consists of 6 planets all under the control of the Doom Reapers.
 
Haven Prime is a combination of planet types, based on the Ultramarines idea of sustainable development. It has portions of the planet dedicated to agriculture as well as manufacture. A portion of the planet is used as military training grounds, camps and installations. The vast majority of the planet is however given over to housing and governance.
 
Haven 2 and Praedium are agri worlds. The only parts of these planets not used for cultivation is storage, housing, and a few small military camps and installations.
 
Tenebrarum is a manufactory world. The planet has no natural atmosphere but is very rich in certain minerals. Several manufactory complexes with their own artificial atmospheres have been established on this planet and essentially everything the Haven systems need are produced on Tenebrarum. A sizeable portion of the planet is used for military training and exercises for both the Doom Reapers and the PDF.
 
Trux and Saevus are feral worlds. Except for key military instalations the level of technology remains at a very low level. This is done to keep the indigenous people of these planets hardy and warlike. The reason for this is that 60% of the Doom Reapers recruits come from these two planets.    
 

Geneseed

Believed to be Ultramarines  
 

Chapter Origins

Originally fleet based. The chapter operated in the Segmentum Pacificus. Its main task was to act as a fast reaction force, responding to all types of threats ranging from rebellions to xenos invasions. For this reason the Doom Reapers had a massive Fleet consisting of three battle barges, ten strike cruisers and close to thirty frigates
 

Chapter History

The Doom Reapers performed their duties of safeguarding and aiding the Segmentum Pacificus with great success. Several Xenos invasions were defeated and countless rebelions and chaos cultists saw their end at the bolters of the Doom Reapers. There were even some humanitarian missions were planets experienced ecological disasters. In time the Doom Reapers became synonymous with heroism in the Segmentum Pacificus.
 
67095
 
Everything the Doom Reapers achieved came to an end when they received a distress call from the Forge World 67095. The message from the Mechanicum Magi and an Inquisitor read that a massive Ork invasion was taking place. The decision was made that the chapter should employ enforce and after the Strike forces and patrol groups mustered the chapter deployed to 67095.
 
After arriving at the planet the situation was assessed and the chapter realized that the planet had always housed a huge feral Ork population which was now being driven into a WAAAGH!!! by a Freebooterz clan. The decision was made to manipulate the situation  by setting up challengers to the warboss and then weaken both sides from the fringes and eventually deliver a killing blow. The plan worked excellently and after a massive drop pod and aerial assault all Ork leaders were defeated while major Ork settlements where aerially bombarded.
 
Just as the chapter thought victory had been assured, they received a message that all across the planets forges a rebellion led by a group called " The many headed brotherhood" had erupted. After weeks of fighting hit and run battles and falling victim to countless ambushes and cases of sabotage and at terrible cost in man power, the chapter was able to ascertain that the rebellion were led by a sizeable Alpha Legion warband ( 67095 means the 95th planet brought to compliance by the 670th expeditionary force led by Alpharius Omegon himself) . Armed with this knowledge the chapter was able to adapt and started to drive back the rebellion.
 
Eventually the chapter was able to press back the rebellion to its under ground main base were a battle to the death ensued. Just as the chapter thought they had the treasonous rebels and their masters defeated, the earth opened and strange humanoid machines stepped forth unleashing death. In the initial moments it was thought the traitors had unleashed forbidden technology but it soon became clear that these abominations made no distinction between combatants.
 
In the midst of the battle the chapters Master of the Forge recognized something in one of the newly opened fissures that forced him and his retinue forward, a clearly human piece of machinery of very ancient design. A call was made to Chapter Master Marthellus that this technology must be recovered at all cost, even at the cost of the entire chapter. After a brief discussion the message was sent to the remaining chapter to converge around this piece of technology. At this point the chapter had been reduced to a few hundred men. The Chapter Master tasked a promising young sergeant named Johann to lead the Master of the Forge, the last remaining epistolary, the Master of the apothecarion, the chapter Reclusiarch and the artefact of the planet to the chapters battle barge and head towards Terra. For protection he was given 5 terminators, a tactical squad, an assault squad and the last five remaining devastators. The rest of the chapter numbering less than 200 brothers would hold back the machines. It is believed that every brother who stayed behind was slaughtered.
 
As soon as the small force broke out from the underground death pit they were set upon by the forces of the Magi and the Inquisitor. It now became clear that all the events were staged to lead the chapter here and use them to recover the artefact. The young sergeant would prove the Chapter Masters choice right as he lead his men as if he had been the Chapter Master for centuries, completing his dire mission with a minimal loss in life.
 
After the small group broke free of the planet they were declared traitors by the corrupted Inquistor. This status has lasted to this day.
 
It was clear that the group could not complete their mission to take the artefact to Terra because every Imperial institution along the way would fight them. A new course would have to be set and the mission completed at a later stage, the emperor would provide. Johann, now Chapter Master had a vision which could only have come from the emperor, wherein he was told to go to a location in the Halo Stars. When he looked at the star maps there was nothing, but the vision was so strong that he convinced his advisors and men that by going to this place they would be delivered. Having done this he gathered the chapter fleet ( still sizeable) and set of to the Halo Stars.
 
When the chapter eventually arrived at the place of the vision they found that once again Johann had led them true. They had found a planetary system consisting of seven planets. Everything was however not good, the whole system was being oppressed by a psychically enhanced xenos race. The newly named Doom Reapers immediately set to liberating the systems human populations which was used as sport by the xenos known simply as the Souleaters. The xenos race was easily eradicated and after consultation from the Librarius the decision was made to call down Exterminatus on the xenos home planet because of the corruption spread by the xenos. The only casualty of this cleansing was Chapter Master Johann.
 
After the final victory the Doom Reapers set about rebuilding both the newly named Haven system and the Chapter. For almost a hundred years the Doom Reapers would hardly leave the Haven system. While the chapter was doing this they learned about the Halo Stars and realized that this lawless part of the Imperium could benefit from the chapter and it was decided that until an opportunity to complete their mission to Terra presented itself, they would protect the Halo Stars. 
 
 
The nature of the artefact which cost so much to secure remains a tightly held secret.
 

Chapter Beliefs

 
The Doom Reapers belief the emperor sent them to the Halo Stars to conquer and protect this sector. Individual Doom Reapers regularly get visions telling them to go to certain areas. These visions are believed to come from the emperor.
 
In the aftermath of 67095 the 36 remaining Doom Reapers had to change their philosophy of warfare. Where the loss of a brother previously was seen as acceptable and eventually unavoidable, it now became an unthinkable loss. The group developed tactics and ways of thinking ( for example it is not an honour to die for your chapter, it is rather an honour to live) to prevent losses and these ideals remains to this day.
 
Because the Doom Reapers are branded as traitors they are very vigilant about their behaviour and what they allow into their midst . This has had the result that they are very disciplined and have very little mutations in the whole Haven System, the only exceptions being psyker and navigator mutations. Any technology are thoroughly investigated to make sure it is of purely human design before it is allowed to be used.
 
The chapter bears a great shame that it has been unable to complete Chapter Master Marthellus's order to take the technological artefact found on 67095 to Terra. Upon induction every battle brother makes an oath to always look for a way to complete this order.
 
The Doom Reapers have a deep disgust for both the inquisition and the mechanicus because of 67095.

Chapter Organization

 
The Doom Reapers are organized into ten companies. However the companies differ quite a lot in their composition from what is suggested in the Codex Astartes.
 
The chapter master commands the first company and is made up of chapter veterans. The chapter veterans group together to form elite units which will be sent with the battle companies as the mission requires and has access to the chapters best and most venerated wargear and weapons. Chapter veterans are also frequently seconded to battle companies as lieutenants, sergeant at arms, veteran sergeants and less frequently as squad sergeants.
 
There is nine Battle companies and each Battle company has his command squad (captain, chaplain, librarian, apothecary, techmarine, sergeant at arms and two body guards) and four subgroups (platoons, brotherhoods, any suggestions?). This evolved during the time after the destruction of the chapter at 67095 when the chapter only had 36 battle brothers and had to adapt new tactics that had to prevent loss of life but also achieve mission goals. With time these tactics were perfected and led to the battle companies being restructured to include four subgroups per company.
 
As far as is possible a battle company will operate in its entirety, only sending its subgroups to separate theatres of war in an emergency. These subgroups always operate as a group and never alone. For example the tactical squad will never be sent to a different theatre of war than the rest of the subgroup. 
 
Each subgroup(platoons, brotherhoods, any suggestions?) consists of a lieutenant, his 5 man command squad ( a veteran sergeant, an apothecary, a techmarine and two bodyguards) a 10 man tactical squad, a 10 man assault squad and a 5 man devastator squad.
 
Each battle company has its own company veterans. Subgroup lieutenants, the sergeant at arms, veteran sergeants and bodyguards are normally company veterans but squad sergeants can also be company veterans.
 
There is no scout company. Each company gets allocated scouts individually and depending on the battle companies assignment.
 
The Warp Hunters
 
After the Doom Reapers had exterminated the xenos race oppressing the Haven System, they found that the small human population of Praedium had escaped the worst of the predations of the xenos. During the investigation of why this had happened it had become clear that for some reason the people of Praedium had a very high occurrence of the pariah/blank gene. Before the xenos came to the Haven system the custom on Praedium was to let these misshapen children die in the wild. After the arrival of the Souleaters it became clear that these children were "invisible" to the xenos, who hunted the humans by using their psychic senses. After this discovery the previous curse became a blessing. It was also found that of all the planets in the system only Praedium never had a chaos cult.
 
After looking at these facts the great librarian Indagator decided to make a test to see if pariahs could become Space marines. The test were successful and a new unit called the Warp Hunters were established. It  took many decades to develop tactics for the Warp hunters as there were never many of them (the highest number of hunters ever was 11) at a given time, but the biggest problem was getting the normal Doom Reapers to work with the Warp hunters. This changed  after six warp hunters kept most the fourth company alive for a month while their ships warp drive and Geller field broke while in the warp. After this the benefits of the Warp hunters became clear and today companies regularly exercise with the Warp Hunters in order to acclimatise with their brothers side effects.
 
Even though the Warp Hunters are today regarded as valued members of the Doom Reapers, they still keep to themselves and a lot them remains secret. The most obvious of these are the fact that the Warp Hunters always operate in equal numbers. 
 

Battle Doctrine

The Doom Reapers still follow the Codex Astartes allowing them to operate and perform missions as the situation requires.
 
Because the Doom Reapers were fleet bound initially, their preferred combat methods are lightning strikes with overwhelming numbers. The chapter excels  in drop pod and aerial assaults.
 
The chapter always had little in the way of tanks. The ground vehicles of the chapter tended to be transport vehicles and this remains so today because of a lack of materials to build battle tanks. The chapter however has plenty of aircraft ranging for space fighters to ground support flyers.
 
The chapter has adopted an approach where you bring what you need for the job. As an example, if the chapter expects to meet a horde of orks the tactical squad could be equipped with two flamers and a heavy bolter or even a vanguard squad being equipped with a plasma gun if heavily armoured enemies is expected.
 
The chapter only has five suits of terminator armour. The reason for this is that the chapter don't have the material for constructing new suits. The chapter does however have in abundance the material to create Centurion suits. Each company has its own suits and only the newest of battle brothers don't know how to use these suits.

Warcry

Make them bleed!
Illumination!!
Onwards to Terra!!
 

 

Notable Battles

- The War in the Warp.
 
   While on the way  to quell a chaos rebellion on the mining planet of Kaines Abyss, the fourth company's strike cruiser got stranded in the warp after  
   both its warp drive and Geller field broke. Luckily The fourth company had six Warp Hunters with them. After the initial onslaught by warp entities the
   Warp Hunters were able to get most of the fourth company and even a few of the human crew into a cargo hold from where they were able to protect
   them. The Warp Hunters then fought of wave after wave of warp entities for a month while the company's techmarine struggled to fix the Geller field.
 
- The Gold Toof Campaign.
 
  This is the longest running and largest campaign the Doom Reapers chapter have prosecuted since arriving in the Halo Stars. The Gold Toof empire is
  a massive Ork empire located towards the centre of the Halo Stars. Because of its location and size the Orks of this empire have terrorized the Halo
  Stars since its founding. The Doom Reapers have vowed to exterminate this vile threat, and have committed three full battle companies ( 3rd,6th and
  7th) to the task. The Haven PDF has also committed massive numbers in support . The campaign have lasted 11 years and a thousand battles,
  progress has been slow but once a planet has been declared cleansed it stays cleansed. Notably in the last two years there have been no Gold
  Toof raids on Imperial planets in the Halo Stars.
 

Notable Characters

- Company veteran "Gobsmacka" Leonidas. Brother Leonidas was one of the first Doom Reapers to set foot on the Golden Toof empire and he hasn't
   left the system for the duration of the campaign. His heavy flamer and power fist has reaped such a tally that the Golden Tooth Orks fear him as much
   as their own warbosses. Having learned Ork, it has become common place for Leonidas to get involved in shouting matches with warbosses before
   and during pitched battles. 

Colour Scheme and Chapter Badge

Example of typical colour scheme

Example of Chapter Symbol (on shield)

 
The Doom Reapers paint their greaves (that's the lower leg right?), knees, shoulder pauldrons (?), elbows, gloves, a part of their back packs and a large part of their helmet a scab red to indicate the amount of blood (always the enemies blood) they have waded through in the prosecution of their duties. The rest of their armour remains as unpainted and unadorned as possible and polished to a very high sheen. All adornments have some honorary or ranking meaning.
 
Company markings are denoted as per the Codex Astartes.

 
The Chapter Symbol is a golden lightning bolt over a white circle. The golden and white denotes the purity of the chapter. The lightning bolt denotes the Chapters preference for quick decisive strikes. The circle denotes the unity of the chapter.

[markham82]

The Doom Reapers are not only an idea I've had since playing Last Stand (which also got me into the hobby) they are probably the only army I will build (maybe some IG which will be the Haven system PDF). That means everything I do with this chapter, I do as good as I can. I have plenty ideas, so many it will probably be too much. I am willing to let go some of the ideas, as a matter of fact I already have.

 

That's where you come in, as I put my ideas up here I would like you to help me keep within bounds. A lot of my ideas are going to be out there, but I don't want stuff that's wrong, like maybe there was a 21st primarch or female marines (even though their cool).

 

So thanks for taking the time to read and feel free to comment, even if you're not sure if you should. 

[paulJam]

think you have an interesting chapter here. good work.

i know it's a work in progress but a couple of questions:

- "...Warp Hunters always operate in equal numbers." not sure what that means. (even?) is it important and if so why?

i can see nay-sayers, well nay-saying the pariahs in numbers (as your post shows) but i think you've got the makings of a story to make it plausible. As it's a big claim it might need more detail.

- the company seem well equipped (3 barges, 10 strike cruisers etc) why didn't they get tanks?

- i like the idea of lieutenants rank (have used it in one of mine, and groupings under 'lead sergeants' in another, to 'officially' command two+ squads as required).

so as more a point of discussion (was going to ask this of someone else but didn't) do you think they benefit from dividing into specific platoons with the tac/assault/dev divisions?

the reason i ask this is because the idea of the tactical marine is that he's capable and trained to do those other roles as well. so theretically if the mission required it you could (fluff- not crunch-wise) give your tac squad jump-pack and viola for this mission they're assaulty, or heavy or whatever. i'm guesing the idea is to get a scaled company dynamic, but am wondering if this actually limits their potential? dunno, thought i'd ask since you're putting it into practice.

- Brother Leonidas talking smack with the orks

[markham82]

The warp hunters working in pairs is to enhance their ability. I don't have anything to back it or my own justification yet so I thought to hide it in mystery for now, clearly it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. As for the numbers I present as evidence and rest my case with Eisenhorn/ Bequin's Distaff. As an answer for the amount of blanks on Praedium I've thought of adding that there's a genetic mutation in their genes( that messes with the chapters believes) or that the people used selective breeding to create more blanks (this would work if we wanted only blonde children but would it work for creating blanks?)

Maybe I need a better reason than I believe a marine army should consist of marines and not a bunch of vehicles? Machines are for the cog boys.

In the battle doctrine part I mention we bring what we need to win so 31 jump packs isn't out of the question. The vision I have for the platoon is that they fight as one unit defeating everything with overwhelming force. if five marines are enough for the job how well will 31 do. I actually think codex space marines work better if the different type squads work in tandem ( the codex and gladius strike force might even support my thinking)

Leonidas is my favourite mini, I'm going to take new photos of him tomorrow and put them up.

[paulJam]

The warp hunters working in pairs is to enhance their ability. I don't have anything to back it or my own justification yet so I thought to hide it in mystery for now, clearly it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

look forward to your telling indue course.

like i said the more contentious the point, the more people may want justification.... or blood :)

Maybe I need a better reason than I believe a marine army should consist of marines and not a bunch of vehicles?

not really, a preference to infantry is fine.

i just read that they didn't have facilities to get tanks with seemed at odds with their other (high) level of equipment.

they don't want them and don't bother producing or replacing them works too.

overwhelming force. if five marines are enough for the job how well will 31 do. I actually think codex space marines work better if the different type squads work in tandem ( the codex and gladius strike force might even support my thinking)

the main 'difference' seems to be grouping around in a sub-captain command character. I like this as opposed to using librarians or chaplains as they have always seemed more like specialist/elite unit rather than 'tactical leadership' (hq) to me.

any ideas how your will model or mark the lieutenant differently, if at all?

[markham82]

The Warp Hunters really aren't all that contemptuous if you think about it, I've just finished reading Prospero burns and in it Russ tells the main character that the Sisterhood of silence ( which was actually a big influence for the creation of the Warp Hunters and my the eventual Doom Reapers) is an ancient order of blanks. Fair enough they got their recruits from across the galaxy, but still there were plenty of them.

 

I give my sergeants a golden "brow" which is basically a line of gold above the eye. The significance is that they are the lieutenants eyes. The lieutenants gets the golden eyebrow and the "rim" around the mouth grill also gets painted gold. The significance is that they are the captains eyes and mouth. The captains get all that and also the mouth grill gets painted gold because they are the mouth of the Chapter. I got the idea from the command squad in the fifth edition.

[paulJam]

the 'Sisters of Silence' are in 'Flight of the Eisenstein' as well. more proof to your concept.