The Fire Badgers: Fleet Meles

[Captain Mike]

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The Fire Badgers are a non-codex compliant and vastly under-resourced Space Marine chapter who defend the Nebuchanez Reach as punishment for their crimes in the first Tyrannic War. They specialise in void warfare and ship to ship boarding actions, but are best known for their ability to keep going on minimal supplies and maximum (often heretical) improvisation.

 

Formed in the 26th Founding, and initially called the Fire Lions, the chapter’s homeworld of Javan produced recruits which were notoriously difficult to psycho-indoctrinate. The commanders seconded to them from other Space Marine chapters found it hard to gain their respect or instill discipline, even when Javanite officers like Benjan Horn, Edvar Tiech and Varsta Keng were promoted in an effort to prepare the chapter to be self sufficient.

 

It was even considered scrapping the entire chapter, a stark choice given the resources and centuries of work required to form one, but the arrival of Hive Fleet Behemoth intervened. The Fire Lions were sent to aid Macragge, years before a chapter would usually be considered ready for war. This was against the advice of Javanite officers, and one outsider commander from the Aurochs chapter, Brahd Patten. The acting Chapter Master, Balthano of the Genesis Chapter, and his close ally, Chaplain Tsiangi of the Cobalt Raptors, were for the intervention and so the young chapter went to war.

 

Before they arrived, however, the Ultramarines triumphed over Behemoth and the hive fleet splintered in retreat. The chapter found itself dragged into years of small but grinding actions against the splinter fleets, until a number of Tyranid fleets massed at Palum. The war for Palum was eventually won at great cost to the Fire Lions and resulted in the death of Brahd Patten, the one outsider the Fire Lions respected. Patten made Edvar Tiech swear to “kill the bastards” of the hive fleets, who by now were in full retreat.

 

After Palum it was Balthano and Tsiangi who counselled a return to Javan, but deep seated contempt for their stewardship of the new chapter and respect for Patten made the Javanites act against them. Taking the name  “Fire Badgers” in reference to an insult once thrown at them by Chaplain Tsiangi, the Javanite officers mutinied and decided to pursue the fleeing splinter fleet. The mutiny was primarily led by Tiech and Horn, with Tiech personally vowing to throw the heads of every hive tyrant in the fleet on Patten’s grave at Palum.

 

Thus began “The Quest”. The Fire Badgers chased the Shadow in the Warp the splinter fleet produced, sometimes engaging in small fleet skirmishes,  a few times almost trapping the Tyranids on one planet or another for a final confrontation, but for years they never managed for force the great devourer into a corner. Their quest would drain their supplies, forcing them to make deals with traders, scavenge war ravaged worlds, enlist the help of an outcast Adeptus Mechanicus sect and use xenos weapons they plundered from the edges of the Tau Empire. As their numbers dwindled they also had to relax their standards for recruitment, taking recruits well above the recommended age and using brute force indoctrination. Thanks to the work of a small cadre of apothecaries working with the rogue biologus adepts, the chapter also started recruiting women. The initial subjects were total failures, then monsters, until finally the apothecaries achieved a breakthrough with the success of a candidate known as Jhen Shih  and went on to mostly stabilise the procedure. With double the recruiting pool, the chapter started to recover its numbers. Arming this growing force once again took a toll on the chapter, however, leading to extortion of Imperial worlds and finally even bloody raids. This final action proved too much for Benjan Horn, who took his company and left in disgust for Javan.

Edvar Tiech, the original mutineer, took full command of the chapter. As Horn explained the chapter’s situation to Balthano and Tsiangi back on Javan, who relayed this information to the Inquisition, Tiech managed for force the splinter fleet into a battle on the agri world of Ubaras. The splinter fleet too was struggling for supplies, and Ubaras was too tasty a world to bypass. The battle for Ubaras was fierce, as the Fire Badgers and their allies threw all they had at the rampaging Tyranid fleet. Breaking through the hive-ships cordon of the world, Tiech crashed the space hulk Lamentium onto the planet’s surface to establish a beachhead in the swarm. It also ruined Ubaras’s ecosystem and likely killed millions of humans as well. Weeks of near constant war on both the surface and in the void saw the splinter fleet finally destroyed, with Tiech piloting his “Tyrant Slayer” armour through the swarm to personally behead its leaders.

As the Fire Badger’s fleet, broken but victorious, rested at Ubaras the Inquisition finally caught up with them. Tiech surrendered himself willingly, abdicating his command of the chapter. Balthano, however, would not take command back as he knew he could never lead the newly christened Fire Badgers. A trial by Ordo Hereticus, Astartes and Xenos Inquisitors amongst the smoking ruins of Ubaras found Tiech not guilty of heresy, but held the entire chapter responsible for the murder of thousands of Imperial citizens in their raids and unnecessary millions on Ubaras. The Inquisitorial Conclave decided to punish the chapter by sending them to defend the Nebuchanez Reach. All their various tech heresies were supposed to be turned over to a (more officially sanctioned) Adeptus Mechanicus force, but the Fire Badger’s rogue allies had already snuck out of the system with them. The chapter’s small cadre of women were forced to go to ground on Ubaras, only rejoining the chapter year’s later after their own impressive series of adventures.

The Nebuchanez Reach, on the Eastern Fringe, had only recently re-entered the fold of the Imperium. Until then it had been a haven for intergalactic fugitives and pirates. Like the Fire Badgers the worlds of the Nebuchanez Reach were unruly and lawless, as well as being poorly linked to the rest of the Imperium. The Fire Badgers turned to both diplomacy and threats to keep the worlds of the Reach in line, and small beacons of industry and agriculture started to emerge under their protection. The chapter split into five, although sometimes six or seven, self sustaining fleets that patrolled the Reach. Their divergence from the traditional codex organisation was now complete, but it allowed them to maintain a strong presence across the Reach and keep it mostly safe. That was, of course, until the Cicatrix Maledectorum tore the galaxy in two.

More isolated than ever, the Fire Badgers struggled to protect the Nebuchanez Reach from a ever increasing assaults by Orks, Chaos and Necrons from without, and xenos and warp tainted cultist insurrections from within. Against this backdrop of constant war, and the extortion of the Reach’s planets by the chapter to keep its war effort going, anarchy spread without any other foul influence but human greed and desperation.

 

It was at this point when Jhen Shih, having returned to the chapter with the company of Fire Badgers who had gone to ground at Ubaras, took command. After the trial Tiech had refused for there to be any Chapter Master of the Fire Badgers, and whilst Horn thought there should be he was greatly mistrusted amongst the chapter. Necessity won out, however, and at the sixth Conclave of the Fleets Shih was voted in as “Commodore” of all the Fire Badger’s fleets.  Through tactical brilliance she managed to direct the chapter and its allied Imperial Guard forces to stabilise its many war fronts, even start pushing back on a few. And as heads rolled under the blade of her giant battle axe, “The Iron Mandate”, stability returned to the Reach. Edvar Tiech, for his part, made sure that the dissenters in the fleets who could not help but see the irony that the chapter was once again lead by an outsider were brought in line. Unlike Balthano or Tsiangi he respected Shih, and made sure all others did too. Shih rewarded him by returning his Tyrant Slayer armour, having reunited with their Mechanicus outcast allies in her journeys.

As the second century of this new era of the Imperium beckons, the Fire Badgers struggle valiantly in the Nebuchanez Reach. It remains to be seen whether they can scavenge, improvise and otherwise fight their way to victory against their many enemies, or whether the darkness will consume them before the Imperium can send reinforcements can reach them. That is, of course, if they remember them at all.  
 

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*Ahem* Well now that little info dump is out the way, I shall introduce the project! There are some other threads from me about the Fire Badgers on this site (... and if anyone knows how I can get them deleted, let me know...) but I gave both the fluff and the paint scheme a major overhaul over the summer. The fluff above is a quick summary of their story so far, and I hope I've reduced their somewhat aimless "rebel without a cause" attitude and made a more interesting chapter as a result. Hopefully. 

 

Basically the Fire Badgers are my attempt to merge all the various badly painted and broken models I've collected over the past decade with the extensive bitz box I've collected over the same decade to make a heavily kit bashed army where every model is unique. The fluff had to kind of align to allow me to have heavily damaged Space Marines with a variety of unorthodox weapons, and I hope I've achieved that.

 

I made some progress, but then I didn't really like the paint scheme. The new paint scheme is similar to the last, but much dirtier and much more fun to paint. I've never been a fan of highlighting, so this one relies much more on early rust effects, dry brushing and then sponging damage. The result is something I'm a lot more happier with (although I'll be the first to admit it's not exactly high quality...)

 

I have about 60 Space Marines that need to be turned into the line and specialist units of the Fire Badgers (more on their unique units as I make and paint), and my aim is to create part of Fleet Meles, Captain Edvar Tiech's own fleet, as it is at the beginning of M42. I'll also be working on their mortal allies and ad-mech allies as I go along, but for now the focus is on the Fire Badgers themselves.

 

Captain Edvar Tiech (in Tyrant Slayer armour with Rad-cannon and Heavy Ripper)

 

Your first response to the dear captain is probably, and should be, "that is not how one pilots a dreadnought". And you would be 100% correct, that is not how a dreadnought is supposed to be operated. He is not, in fact, mostly dead. There's a reason he's not meant to have it. I also stuck some Tau bits inside to *heavily suggest* how he might be using it more as a suit, but then his body covers them up   . Like a lot of this army, the idea came first (Initially "Blackbeard" in a dreadnought, but I toned down the Blackbeard bit until all the remained was a slight reference to his name. If anything he's more of an Ahab character) and then I worked around that.

 

Gamewise, he counts as Bjorn the Fellhanded with a Helfrost Cannon. I see "Legendary Tenacity" as a good way to represent Tiech's determinator nature, and "Ancient Tacticatian" as funnily enough a way to represent his reliance on improvisation and somewhat madcap tactics. The latter isn't perfecty but hey, he's gotta get his rules somewhere. 

 

Raider Squad I

 

I'll wait until the full squad is done before I get to their individual stories. As the Fire Badgers now recruit from all over the place I tried to keep their names varied. I wrote what weapon they have on their bases because part of me worries people will say they are confused as to what each one of them have, although I try to keep it fairly obvious?

 

And the first lot together;

 

And some work in progress. Some standard bolter guys;

 

 

And a look at something unique in this army; the abundance of specialists. Seen here is a sensor and a vox specialists. Partly this is because teenage me broke a lot of backpacks for Space Marines, but the in-fluff justification is because their armour is usually quite knackered and old, systems like voxes, sensors etc can't be relied upon to work for everyone. So they give members of the squad more powerful and hardier versions to make up for what certain individuals may lack.

 

 

That's it for now. Please C+C, especially on the fluff! I have a habit of going down narrative rabbit holes that don't really produce good results. I've re-read and refined this but there's always room to improve.

And of course, Badger Facts are BACK:

The collective name for badgers is a clan, although the term "cete" has been suggested.

 

 

 

 

[General Strike]

Nice, what weapon is tarvis carrying? As in the bit itself, I see that you wrote on the base what they are.

[Captain Mike]

Both Tarvis and "Huntress" have Ork shootas. They represent poorly built or improvised boltguns made either during the "Quest" or in the Reach.

 

They're actually really fun little guns to paint and try and integrate into models.

[deathspectersgt7]

Cool update.

[Captain Mike]

Update!

 

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The Tiwostre

 

Like all chapters before them who have recruited women into the chapter, such as the famous Fighting Tigers of Veda and the secretive World Serpents, the Fire Badger's apothecaries initially struggled getting the organs and enhancements of the Space Marine to take. To make matters worse, they were experimenting on the move with an ever changing gene-pool, recruiting from multiple planets in the seemingly vain hope they could make it work. Hundreds of corpses of failed candidates were voided into space as the fleet chased the Tyranids. The arrival of rogue Magos Biologus Mishkral helped however, and three years into "The Quest" the apothecaries managed to raise the first cadre of female Fire Badger scouts.

 

At the implantation of the black carapace, however, disaster struck. The process seemed to trigger all the other organs to fail, or go into overdrive. The biscopea in particular encouraged far too much muscle growth, and the neuroglottis swelled and gave the scouts an overwhelming world of sensation. Other organs, both artificial and natural, simply failed. Many died, but the apothecaries managed to stabalise some of the scouts as they thrashed in agony over the coming weeks. To this day Magos Mishkral and the apothecaries whisper, out of ear shot of their more pious brethren, that the timing was too convenient, that perhaps they had discovered some failsafe in the Emperor's designs that was supposed to stop them in their recruiting efforts. Already too desperate and too far into their project to turn back, they kept going. Eventually, with the successful Ascension of Jhen Shih, they managed to refine the process and allow women to become fully fledged Astartes. But there remained the risk that they would become the monsters those first "successes" had been.

 

And what to do with these monsters? The more superstitious Javanite apothecaries saw in them the mighty Tiwostre ("Mother of mothers") of Javan myth; demigoddesses who first colonised Javan in the name of the Thunderhead. Some tribes, those with the closest and most antagonistic relationship with the giant badgers of Javan, thought that the Tiwostre had been the origin of both the humans of Javan and its fierce, stocky prime predator. This saved them from simply being disposed of out of the airlock, and Tiech even instructed that they be put through combat testing. Thus began the first Tiwostre units, who turned out to be terrifyingly effective.

 

Tiwostre lost their ability to speak, and their minds regressed to a more animalistic state to handle overload of senses they receive, but they are not stupid. They understand commands perfectly well, and can be relied upon to follow battle plans unlike some other members of the Fire Badgers. In battle they cross the battle field in great leaps and bounds, taking on both hordes of infantry and the great monster's of humanities enemies with the best weapons the Fire Badgers can give them, or just their sheer brute strength if need be. They also greatly inspire their fellow Fire Badgers, who have elevated them to near mythical status. The most religious of the Fire Badgers hold them to be the reincarnation of the mythical Tiwostre themselves, though the majority are more in awe of their abilities and see them as a tenuous link to their lost home behind the Great Rift.

 

To be Tiwostre is to be constantly on the verge of death. Not only may they be killed in the incredibly risky combat operations they take, but their bodies can fail them at any time. In between battles they are held in stasis, and in a chapter with no actual dreadnoughts the ritual usually given to waking them is instead given to the Tiwostre. Upon awakening they are given pieces of the best armour the chapter has, although rarely are their proportions such that they can accommodate them comfortably, and also pennants of devotion from the chapter. The longer a Tiwostre survives the longer these pennants will be, though most are cut tragically short by war or illness.

 

 

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Aaaaand back. So yeah the Tiwostre were a fun little thought experiment turned convenient Wulfen stand in. They were real fun to make and also helpfully used up a bunch of Ork Storm Boyz I had lying around!

 

Painting wise, the Tiwostre are considered full members of the chapter so the armour will be the standard grey-and-flame with gold highlights. The less Marine-y bits will probably be more bare steel and leather, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

I'll also be reducing their bases. They're supposed to leap and run, not jetpack off random bits of terrain, but the bases worked to give me something to hold onto as I built them.

 

Enjoy!!

 

 

Tiwostre with Thunderhammer and Storm shield, and Dajdya with Great Thrust Axe and auto-frag

 

Helmetless Tiwostre.

Tiwostre leader with counts-as-frost-claws-that-I-haven't-thought-of-a-clever-name-for-yet. Note the two sets of penants to denote longer service.

 

Badger Fact: DNA evidence has revealed the stink badger is not actually a badger, but a member of the skunk family. You'd have thought the smell would have given it away.

[Captain Mike]

Well this update took longer than I expected.

 

Thanks to a convenient bank holiday I've put together about 15 more crew and their bases for the Badgers. The Badgers generally treat squad formation as quite a fluid thing, so I'm not to worried about putting together whole squads and more in just getting the numbers there to mix and match.

 

The bases before I tidied them up and stuck models to them; 

 

 

And the models themselves. 

 

 

Based the Tiwostre, alongside some others

 

 

 

I've also picked up the new Codex: Space Wolves to guide my project. My aim is not to do a 1:1 parallel with every C:SW unit type and character covered, I think that would be too cheesy. To whit, I will definitely not be making Thunderwolf or Wulfen Dreadnought counts as. In addition, the Badgers are supposed to have deviated from the codex as needs demanded, not for predominately ideological or cultural reasons. For instance, the use of Raider squads came from the demands of combat in usually enclosed asteroid mines and ship to ship combat which saw Tactical Squads and Assault Squads often integrating and eventually becoming one type of unit. Rust Badgers, on the other hand, come from the need to recruit less psychological suitable candidates who respond only to more brute force methods of indoctrination (see alien-kill it) which tends to leave them a little axe-crazy. There's no reason in this structure, that I see, for ranks like Sergeant or Lieutenant to be any different so I've kept them mostly the same. 

 

Whilst I have Logan Grimnar, Bjorn and Arjac Rockfist counts-as in mind, it's unlikely many other characters will get their equivalents. I remember counts-as as being quite popular a few years ago, back in 5th edition, but they seem to have fallen out of popularity again? 

 

[Noctem Cultor]

Very unique vibe, interested to see how they progress.

 

-Noctem Cultor

[Captain Mike]

Okay a house move and 6 months later, I'm back on the horse. Now I've just got to remember how to imbed images... 

 

The fluff has gone through quite a few revisions in that time as whilst I was away from paints and models I was considering ideas. I've hopefully pulled some of the more disparate strands of it together, but it's still a work in progress so I'll hold off posting it for now. 

 

However I have got some models done!

 

First, and these were actually finished quite a while ago but I forgot to post them, some more "Tactical" (Grey Hunter) Space Marines. 

 

 

I'm actually considering wiping the names off the bases and trying something printed... the lack of consistency troubles me. 

 

And a new unit, an Assault Squad. Assault Squads in the Fire Badgers are made out of "Twice Burned" warriors, Space Marines who failed their second big test and therefore burned when the mind altering pollen they were supposed to be refining instead catches fire. The result is still a very tough and dangerous warrior, even more vicious than any other Fire Badger, but also one who lacks control and tactical sense. Whilst considered failures they do also have a role to play, leading suicidal charges on jump packs and bikes. 

 

 

And a current whole army shot. 

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your Assault Marines' jump packs look "Orky," i.e., kitbashed. Is that intentional?

[Captain Mike]

Bjorn: Aye that's the idea. I figured that, as somewhat of a scavenging chapter, they wouldn't waste good jump packs on what is essentially a suicidal unit. Especially given they tend to operate in ship-to-ship combat which means you're as likely to skewer yourself on a random piece of pipework as get killed by the enemy. 

 

Actual Jump Packs are reserved for veterans, who know how to use them properly and will have a better survival rate. 

 

Also I just like the orky rocket packs.  

[Brother Lunkhead]

I'm viewing your work for the first time (late to the party as usual)……. very cool Fire Badgers.... what a great name, and fitting given your chapter lore. Your chapter is a very refreshing change from the standard Space Marine template. Keep up the good work.

[Captain Mike]

Thanks Brother Lunkhead.

 

I'm trying to keep them new, rusty and fresh without getting too "Oooh look how special and unique and better my dudes are".

 

Trying to work to have their story be rebellious but for that rebelliousness to have consequences. And explaining why they divert from the Codex Astartes other than "it's cool".

 

Not going to stop me having fun smashing random kits together though

[Captain Mike]

Update time! 

 

Just some Tactical marines and what is likely to be a Devastator (Long Fang) sergeant, although is interchangeable with Tactical squads due to the Badger's lack of use of squad markings. 

 

Start with the Sergeant. Just a bit of lore whilst we're at it; you can see her name is "Rowena", which is a Javanite (actually Anglo-Saxon, which is where I'm basing a lot of their culture off of), but as this army is supposed to represent the Fire Badgers around 80 years after "The Quest" and the Great Rift, she's definitely not Javanite as they only recruited women from M41.996 onwards. As the Fire Badger's became more well known, and more effective, in the Nebuchanez Reach parents started giving their children more Javanite names. Jhen Shih, the Commodore of the Chapter, actively encouraged this. We can therefore deduce that Rowena is probably a fairly new Sgt, with about 40 years experience. No doubt the squad she commands is made up of warriors much older than her. 

 

You can just about see the black pauldron trimming on her left arm. All Sergeants in the chapter have a black trim, although there's not set rule as to what side it has to be (read: I messed up and put a MKIII pauldron on her right shoulder). 

 

 

Some specialists as well.

 

Leax, as you can see, carries a rather heft vox pack. As the Fire Badgers often operate in space ships, or deep in asteroid mining complexes, maintaining lines of communication is often difficult. Suit based vox-receivers and casters often struggle to penetrate the many meters of steel and rock between them and other squads. Leax's vox gives them a chance. 

 

Eadlin carries a sensor set; he seems to prefer multi-spectral visual scanners. With any luck, Eadlin may be able to prevent his squad getting ambushed! (of course he can't really help his squad mates, because I forgot to paint the read-out on the back... d'oh!)

 

And finally Bao. From his name we can tell he was picked up during The Quest from the planet Guang, and was likely a petty street thug before joining the chapter. He carries a small board and parchment with a stylised chapter symbol on it, as well as an hour-glass (a generally agreed upon marking for a Tactical squad, although it's use is not universal).  

 

 

And some line Tactical troops. Wilda is a very new Marine, probably less than 5 years into her service. Her vicious looking saber was picked up during her Ritual of Retrieval. Analyn is older, though as mentioned before can't be more than 40 years in service. When she's not putting her melta-gun to good use, it seems she quite enjoys hitting things with her flail! (I enjoy using Blood for the Blood God wayyy too much). Jia Jing is again likely from Guang, as it's not a name common to the Reach. He's a no-nonsense kind of guy, and his clean chainsaw betrays how he likes to fight at range. 

 

[Captain Mike]

Just a little update. 

 

I've always been fascinated by people making Land Speeders (and other tanks) out of random objects. Deodorants and computer mice seem to be the most popular. 

 

So I found an old dead mouse and some glue sticks and went to town. Champion conversion it ain't, but it was fun (apart from almost burning myself with hot glue). 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work on the computer mouse-turned-Land Speeder. What's that thing on the back? A relic of Old Caliban?

[Captain Mike]

Two gluestick ends and some of the circuit board from inside the mouse.

 

The side skull/vents are from the old cities of death kit.

[apologist]

Fantastic creativity on show here; and I like the grey-and-flames motif of the Badgers. There's a real Oldhammer feel that sets off my nostaglia chip :)

 

I spotted a reference to the Fighting Tigers of Veda, which I remember fondly from back in the day – great website filled with fun theory and stories. It had a similar boundless feel to the 40k galaxy as this. Keep it up!

[Captain Mike]

Apologist,

 

Thanks, I was going for oldhammer! I'm too young to actually be an oldhammer vet but I love the slightly more free, campy aesthetic.

 

The fighting tigers of Veda were my go to chapter when I was taking up the hobby in the mid 00s. The level of creativity that guy had was truly inspiring.