The Sable Hawks.

[Ekim_Trub]

So, after many years of going round in circles, I find myself once again trying to take all my ideas for my Chapter and put them together into a proper article, so all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

THE SABLE HAWKS

 

 

CHAPTER NAME: ................THE SABLE HAWKS.

FOUNDING CHAPTER: ............RAVEN GUARD.
FOUNDING: ....................SECOND.

CHAPTER MASTER: ..............COMMANDER KAITRIN VRAAL.
CHAPTER WORLD: ...............NONE. FLEET BASED.
FORTRESS MONASTERY: ..........THE HUNTER OF SHADOW.

COMBAT DOCTRINE: .............AIR ASSAULT.

CURRENT STRENGTH: ............~300 ASTARTES.

KNOWN DESCENDANTS: ...........NONE.

 

 

"The Sable Hawks stalk the endless night between the worlds in the deepest void, where a thousand threats hide from the light of the Astronomican, among the domains of aliens & monsters forced into exile long ago by the Great Crusade. Domains that are still crying out to be extinguished once & for all.

The true threats to mankind."

 

 

ORIGINS

 

• Formed from the remnants of one of the Raven Guard's nomad-predation fleets dispatched during the Great Crusade.
• Operated on the fringes of the Imperium, & beyond, during the Great Crusade, so never learned of Horus' betrayal and the Drop Site Massacre until a year after it happened. Distance, warp storms and unclear allegiances meant the fleet never made it back the Imperium proper until after the Siege of Terra was over. 
  (Fought a campaign against traitor Mechanicum who were employing heretical fusions of machine and warp-born flesh, & other nightmarish techno-arcana, against a system still loyal to the Imperium.)
• The fleet adopted the moniker of Sable Hawks in honour of an ancient Terran myth that spoke of ominous 'Black Hawks' that would descend upon the enemies of the old tyrants, no matter where they hid.
• The Sable Hawks had not shared the same experiences as their Legion brothers during the Horus Heresy, and as such, found they had become a separate force in their own right. Even so, they served their Primarch, the Ravenlord, Corvus Corax, and the Raven Guard Legion with unflinching loyalty throughout the Great Scouring. 
• After the restructuring of the Legiones Astartes in the wake of the Codex Astartes and the Second Founding, and the subsequent disappearance of Corax into self-imposed exile that followed, the Sable Hawks (now a Chapter in their own right) decided to return to their roots and took their fleet back to the fringes of the Imperium in order to hunt down the enemies of mankind.

​

FLEET

 

• In honour of their nomad-predation fleet heritage, the Sable Hawks have never taken a home world. 
• The true size & strength of their fleet is unknown, but it is centred around their flagship, the Hunter of Shadow, a vast & ancient ship that can trace it's history back to the days of the Great Crusade. The venerable ship is home to several decks of flight bays and a large teleportation array.
• Their original fleet comprised of seven capital vessels and fifteen escort ships. (One Battle Barge and six Strike Cruisers.)

 

COMBAT DOCTRINE

 

• The Chapter specialises in air assault tactics and manoeuvre warfare, launching lightning strikes with gunship-borne infantry squads who bear down on the enemy to unleash a torrent of mid-range fire before redeploying to attack their next target.
• Like the Legion that sired them, the Chapter is skilled in reconnaissance & target identification, and are masters at transitioning from inscrutable watchfulness to rapid attack in the blink of an eye.
• They are the exemplars of stealth, speed and precision. Their battles are usually won by infiltrating into position, studying the enemy & when the time is right, striking from the least anticipated quarter to destroy them. in a torrent of bolter fire. 
  Such is the speed & precision of these attacks, that the foe is often defeated before they can react in any meaningful manner.
• The Sable Hawks have a preference of aerial assault craft, almost to the exclusion of other types of support unit. They deploy a variety of interface fighters, gunships and assault craft in support of their fast moving infantry forces, shunning the slower armoured columns that typify some Chapters.
  These infantry formations rarely seek to hold ground, instead they seek to suppress & circumvent the enemies main strength & defeat him piecemeal.

 

ORGANISATION

 

• Although a Codex Chapter, all the Companies of the Sable Hawks permanently maintain their own Veteran and Recon squads, this enables them to operate more independently for longer periods of time.
• The elite first Company is split into two 'factions'; the Manumit, terminators who specialise in teleport deployment, and the Seketarii, veterans who operate as kill teams and saboteurs. 
• The Chapter has accumulated a multitude of gunships, of varying designs, as you would expect of a Chapter specialised in air assault tactics. However, this has came at the expense of armoured support, with their armoury lacking the usual amount of tanks expected.

 

BELIEFS

 

Not really been able to nail down this section if I am honest, but I have played with the idea of the Chapter feeling guilt at not being able to serve their Primarch & legion better through the Heresy, and as such they are still seeking redemption millennia later. I had also thought about including the notion that with the resurrection of Lord Guilliman, that some of the Sable Hawks now live in the hope that this could lead to the return of the Ravenlord, Corvus Corax, also.

 

"Nothing erases the past.

There is repentance, there is atonement, 

and there is forgiveness.

That is all, but that is enough."
 

 

GENESEED

 

Again, not much to put in this section. They bear the genetic legacy of the XIXth/Raven Guard Legion, so they possess all the traits associated with being a son of Corax, such as the pale skin and dark hair & eyes.

 

BATTLE CRY

 

Not sure I envision any of the Battle Brothers screaming a battle cry as they engage the enemy if I am honest, if anything I expect vocalisation being kept to a minimum and more than likely across a secure vox network.

 

 

.....................................................................................................

 

 

This is the stuff I have went round and round with and have definitely decided to use as the framework to build the Chapter upon, well up until the introduction of the Primaris Astartes. My vision for their inclusion into the Chapter is that they were brought to the Sable Hawks by a small Torchbearer Fleet led by Adeptus Custodes Aquilan Shield Brotherhood that stayed with the Chapter and defended Captain Ehrlen Vaako of the 3rd Company for a few conflicts before leaving as suddenly as they arrived.


As always, all thoughts and critique is appreciated and welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[gripschi]

Nice groundwork.

 

Did they suffer the Problem of the Geneseed too? Or are they excluded due there Operations Outside from the Legion?

 

And why are only 300 left? Recent Battles?

 

Which Part of the Fringes they operate? This would be Important to shape there prefered Enemies.

 

Greets

[Ekim_Trub]

I am not sure about the geneseed problems tbh, not sure if there was issues with it before Corax's experimentation or not.

 

Yeah, with the Galaxy turned upside down in the wake of the Great Rift opening, I imagined the Chapter as being very active as traitor, heretic and Xenos seek to take advantage of the upheaval. Will probably have them bledd themselves heavily against the Orks in order to prevent a smaller Waaagh! joining the ranks of Waaagh! Garaghak that was threatening Deliverance. (If that is still canon?)

 

I was thinking of placing them to the far south of the Galaxy, along the Veiled Region and outer edge of Segmentum Tempestus.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

This is competently done. I presume the Sable Hawks don't suffer from the gene-seed deterioration other Raven Guard successors suffer from, as they were kept far away from the Alpha Legion infiltrators who sabotaged the gene-seed?

 

A battle cry is not just something a Marine shouts to draw attention (and enemy fire) on the battlefield; it states the Chapter's ideals; reminds the Marines what they're fighting for; is useful in the Chaplain's pre-battle prep talks and post-battle commemorations of fallen battle-brothers; and can be used as a signal (see Grimaldus voxing the Black Templars battle cry to let his reserves know when was the right time to launch a drop pod assault, in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Blood and Fire, republished in War for Armageddon: The Omnibus).

 

As millennia have passed since the Heresy, the Chapter should be at full strength (1000 Marines), unless they suffered heavy losses in a RECENT battle, accident (e.g., multiple ships lost in the Warp when Cadia fell, opening the Great Rift) or incident (e.g., the Chapter planet exploded like Krypton); if that's the case, you should list this battle/incident/accident in the Chapter history.

[Ekim_Trub]

I had played with the idea of a call and response style battle cry. Usually called by the Captain/Chaplain/Ranking Officer and responded to by the troops.

 

Something like, "For Corax; For the Emperor".

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I had played with the idea of a call and response style battle cry. Usually called by the Captain/Chaplain/Ranking Officer and responded to by the troops.

 

Something like, "For Corax; For the Emperor".

I want to like this, but those Corax effectively exiled to nomad-predation fleets, were those the Primarch disliked for some reason- see the Carcharodons Astra, whose behavior is very similar to the slavers who ruled Kiavahr- it seems out-of-character for the Sable Hawks to honor the Primarch so. Maybe "For the Emperor of Mankind; For all mankind"?

[Ekim_Trub]

It is my understanding that the XIXth Legion were using the nomad-predation fleets before reuniting with Corax, and afterwards as a sort of pioneer force- they weren't just used by the exiles.