IA: Void Walkers

[Jape]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/jape/Void%20Walker%202_zpsonrg7w20.jpg

 

Beyond the boundaries of the Eastern Fringe, out where the stars of Imperial systems are nothing but points of light in the endless black, they wander. Brutal, silent and mysterious the Void Walkers guard against threats even the highest servants of the Emperor will never know. Operating from the Abyssal Keep, a five mile long space hulk, the Void Walkers are always on the lookout for threats that linger at the very edges of the galaxy. However whatever the true mission of the chapter is, it remains a mystery to the governors, soldiers and Astartes who occassionally fight alongside them. The Void Walkers are often sighted by Rogue Traders travelling to the very limits of the Astronomicon but have also been reported operating deep within Imperial space. Always travelling as a single force, the Void Walkers will sometimes come to the defence of a backwater colony suffering pirate incursions, while other times intervening in major conflicts only to fall back on completion of some unknown objective.

 

Recorded sightings stretch back to the Age of Apostasy, which some suggest as the origins for the chapter. Several digi-fragments from the period suggest the Void Walkers are in fact the Marines Ardent, a chapter known to have sided with Goge Vandire for unknown reasons before disappearing from Imperial records, presumed destroyed. This theory would explain the apparently unending crusade the Void Walkers are on, their battles unseen and uncelebrated by Humanity. However such penitent action does not explain the apparently strong connections the Void Walkers have with Holy Terra. Time and again the erratic actions of the chapter have triggered calls for censure, only for the issue to be squashed by powerful, unseen forces. Such treatment seems unlikely for a chapter who sided with one of the Imperium's greatest monsters.

 

The Void Walkers have become a more common sight in recent years thanks to the attack on Verana Sector by Hivefleet Samael, a splinter of Hivefleet Kraken. In 992.M41, the Void Walkers made the unprecedented move of contacting the Sector Command, warning them of an impending Tyranid invasion. Though remaining distant the Void Walkers led by their chapter-master Lord Strygos coordinated the Sector's defence with the Astra Militarum and the Iron Scimitars, fellow Space Marines and guardians of the region. The preparations proved critical in blunting the xeno onslaught. Sharing data from previous encounters with Samael, the Void Walkers targetted its weakpoints and were able to draw the Hivefleet into a naval ambush at the Battle of Ciphon in 996.M41, destroying it as a serious threat to the Imperium.

 

However the victory came at great cost. Inquisitor Simone Narnhem, a student of the infamous Kryptmann, ordered Exterminatus on a half dozen systems, three of them inhabited. The Iron Scimitars, believing even to retreat from an Imperial world to be shameful were horrified by Narnhem's tactics. However she was protected by the Void Walkers, to the point of Iron Scimitar frigates facing off against the nova cannons of the Abyssal Keep during the destruction of Gatab Secondus. The controversy reached its peak with the Iron Scimitars cutting all ties with the Ordo Xenos, including the Deathwatch, the chapter's veterans discarding their silver pauldrons in protest of Narnhem's actions. This act proved simply part of a greater backlash against Kryptmann's tactics and on news of his arrest reaching Verana, the Void Walkers presented Narnhem in chains to the Iron Scimitars before discarding their own Deathwatch pauldrons and returning to the darkness.

Beginnings of an IA for the Liber Challenge. These guys are my secondary chapter, basically my ersatz Space Sharks. I'll be providing more detail soon but this is just a taster to show what the Void Walkers are about. C&C welcome.