I'm willing to bet you didn't expect to see one of these again any time soon.
Yes, this is another Index Astartes style article, and this one has been produced due to a different circumstance than usual. You see, the previous ones were made in response to criticisms I have made, and also to counter the inevitable "Well, let's see you do better!" arguments thrown my way. However, since most lore related reviews have been fairly positive to middling of late, there has been no reason to make another of these. Instead, a friend decided to offer a challenge, to see if I was up to the task.
His idea was simple: Within a two-hour time limit, I was to plan out, write and detail a full army from the Heresy era. It had to be one of the Blackshields warbands of the time, and was limited to a few specifications:
- The history had to purely cover their founding while offering a good impression of them within a thousand words, and all other sections were limited to three paragraphs.
- The warband had to consist of marines from three legions, and at least two of those had to be of loyalist origins.
- The warband could at no point have any listed characters, figures or leaders, and had to stand out purely thanks to its general ideas.
- They could not be noted in the history section to fight or engage other marines in any way.
- They could not directly learn of the Horus Heresy, or just who was on what side.
- They had to have some form of internal culture, but no direct hierarchy beyond squad leaders.
History:
As with all their kind, the founding of the Stormwrought was one without ceremony or glory. A mongrel company forged in desperation, those who fought under its banner acted out of necessity over true kinship and were bound by pragmatism above all else. Even their very name was selected out of simple necessity, with few holding true to it or taking pride in the label. Like so many astartes of the Blackshields, the Stormwrought were neither crusaders or legionaries, but simply scavengers.
The company's inauspicious founding took place on the world of Brackarin, a dismal rock veiled in perpetual night. Notable only for its potential as a hub for Warp travel, the unenviable duty of garrisoning its population of primitive tribes was given over to the warriors of the Legio IV. A mere forty Iron Warriors were tasked with governing more than twenty thousand humans, and fortifying the world until a more substantial force of Ultramarines could be mustered to relive them. Denied even a Warp capable ship to fully support this venture, the sons of Perurabo approached this with their typical bleak pride in this thankless duty, and waited until they might return to the head of the Great Crusade. As weeks turned into months and word from the greater Imperium dwindled into silence, those there became convinced that humanity's empire had forgotten them. Unbeknownst to the Iron Warriors, it was a symptom of a far greater trouble than mere loss of contact.
The first signs of true discord came from the garrison's sole astropath, who died attempting to pluck his absent eyes from their sockets while screaming of impossible things. No sooner had he been buried, than the heavens were twisted inside-out, filling the skies with impossible shapes and colours no human eye could fully comprehend. Patrols soon found themselves beset by the same creatures they had so freely hunted days before, their bodies remolded into misshapen horrors by some unknown force.
Inexplicable phenomena came to dominate the fortress, as soldiers began to heard echoes with no discernable origin, and repeating vox messages uttered by no human voice. The Iron Warriors held to their posts, ready to repel whatever alien force it heralded, hungry to face a substantial enemy. Yet, nothing came. Time gradually lost its meaning, and what seemed to be days to some became years for others. When the lights of Imperial ships were finally spotted in the night sky, some believed that over a decade had passed since their deployment.
To the Iron Warriors' surprise, they were greeted not by the ships of the Ultramarines, but by a fleet of ghost vessels. Explorator vessels, Rogue Trader ships, and even a single frigate of the White Scars legion hung in orbit, their hulls ruptured and decaying from within. The survivors of each carried with them the same tale of how their ships had been overwhelmed by the unusually turbulent tides of the Immaterium, which had threatened to tear their ship asunder with every jump. Brackarin had not been a harbor of choice, but merely the only Imperial outpost they had been able to reach before their Gellar fields had failed entirely. Some even spoke of xenos creatures which had materialized within the vessel, screaming praises to an unknown god in a language no creature should have been able to voice.
With no way to escape the system, the astartes regrouped and continue to fortify the planet. Using their new reinforcements to further cement their hold on the world, and forcibly conscripting local tribes to serve as serf soldiers, they continued to wait for news of the wider galaxy. Yet as more ships continued to arrive, they were not helmed by mortal crews. Decaying from within and captained by pustule ridden beings clad in the flesh of corpses, these ploughed into the world and disgorged their payloads of shambling creatures. With every falling derelict their numbers swelled, until the humans left no the planet faced a relentless siege against the undead. Bolters were fired until they were spent, blades hammered into their enemies until they were rendered blunt, and the constant combat stripped away heraldry and colours until only tarnished ceramite remained.
When a single Ultramarines cruiser entered orbit, broadcasting its allegiance on all frequencies, it was seen as a signal to withdraw. Abandoning Brackarin to its fate, the survivors raced for the orbiting vessel, and were greeted by a charnel house. Corpses littered the decks, astartes and human alike, and every part of the ship bore signs of intense fighting. Skulking horned creatures stalked its decks, decapitating the fallen and claiming their heads. These were swiftly purged as the vessel was taken, revealing only a scattered handful of Ultramarines who had endured the battle. Each bore the red mark of censorship and had been attempting to join the legion at Calth. Much like the others, they had sought safe harbor from the Warp, but they also brought with them news of a galaxy gone mad. Legion fought legion, the Warp ripped ships apart as if driven by malice, and worlds burned for no reason more than lust for destruction. Scattered astropathic cries spoke of a storm spreading across the Segmentum, and of legions forsaking their oaths to Terra. Some even spoke of warriors who fought alongside the xenos creatures who had assaulted them.
Exhausted from the constant fighting and with bitterness in their hearts, those left soon chose to serve only themselves. For all they knew Terra itself was gone, that their own primarchs had turned against the Emperor and that perhaps the Imperium itself had been lost. With nothing left to them, they would pick clean the bones of battlefields and rebuild their strength, culling those who stood in their way or associated themselves with foul creatures. Alligience no longer held any value to them, merely survival and retribution.
Combat Doctrine:
The essential doctrines of the Stormwrought were simple - Conserve resources, claim materiél and rebuild their strength. Lacking the essential strength and vast armories of a true legion, they placed an emphasis on skirmishing attacks and infantry operations. Often their operations consisted of little more than outright piracy, targeting an essential resource and then claiming it through deception or rapid assaults. This typically focused on the use of anything they had to spare, but a favoured method was landing assault team through the use of powered-down gunships while the cruiser drew the attention of hostile forces.
The Stormwrought favoured engagements where the enemy was distracted or would not be in a position to effectively respond to attacks. It was not uncommon for them to wait until a battle was joined before arriving, claiming their target, and then withdrawing before either side could effectively answer their threat. To accomplish this means, the Blackshields placed an uncommon emphasis on avoiding risk-taking or recklessness. Most actions were closely calculated efforts, each the result of days of observations and preparation after gathering all possible knowledge of their target. Such plans were flexible guidelines, listing multiple objectives tailored to the skills of key figures, but allowing for independent action if squad leaders saw an opportunity to be exploited.
Individual squads typically consist of a multitude of specialists or weapon types. Armed with enough raw firepower and weaponry to counter most direct threats, these units place a far greater emphasis on individual tactical flexibility rather than massed formations. These squads are expected to acquire and maintain their own armories, which has only encouraged battlefield scavenging. The only exception to this rule is the Stormwrought's own Vanguard units - Twin squads of assault veterans armed with boarding shields and power halberds, who serve as a rapid response force to sudden threats or overwhelming defenses.
Beliefs and Traditions:
As is to be expected with most groups founded in the bleak period of the Horus Heresy, the Stormwrought have no true traditions or internal culture. Even their very name was chosen merely as a way to disassociate themselves from their legions, and based upon an ill-humored joke by an unnamed White Scar. They are more noteworthy for their rejection of most past traditions, and governed by an extreme cynicism. While noteworthy for their contempt for the beings later confirmed as daemons, the warband treated every other astartes as a possible traitor, and every declaration of loyalty to the Emperor with suspicion. This earned them few allies, and left the warband isolated during much of the war.
The limited hierarchy of the Stormwrought meant that there was no single leader to govern through force of personality. This was permitted both through the relatively small contingent which made up their number, and the substantial number of specialists within their group. While there were never more than eighty astartes in the warband at any one time, more than twenty of them consisted of Techmarines, Apothecaries, and Warsmiths. This allowed them to rely on a substantial core of experts even when their number was divided during operations, or separated to fulfill their own agendas. The astartes were united both by sense of purpose and desperation, while discipline was instilled through the threat of punishment. If unnecessary losses were taken due to risk-taking or independent action, the leader would be unceremoniously executed by the other squad commanders.
Yet, most curiously of all was the warband's willingness to make use of unenhanced figures to augment their numbers. Many of its founding figures consisted of Mechanicus and Imperial naval personnel, with each being treated as an equal in accordance to their rank. This has typically allowed them to both utilise infiltration through an agent, and call upon the knowledge of other Imperial organisations when striking targets. While they place no more value on human lives than they do enemy astartes, the warband does not look down on others purely for not having undergone gene-seed implantation. They are judged purely by their knowledge, and value to the Stormwrought as a whole.
Resources:
The resources the Stormwrought can call upon are diverse and rarely uniformed, with their armory having been pillaged from countless battlefields. At the time of their founding, their weaponry had been struck blunt and ammunition almost totally spent. This left many seeking to replace their bolters with any intact weapon with a reserve of ammunition. While some still carry bolters, others wield everything from hellguns and Skitarii heavy rifles to xenos cannons in battle. Their armour is equally mismatched, having been patched over time and time again, or refitted for more effective use in long ceaseless campaigns. Furthermore, as high ranking legionaries are targeted during salvaging efforts, most squads carry a remarkably high number of power blades and specialist weapons despite their small numbers.
As they lack the capacity to effectively rearm and refuel tracked armoured vehicles, gunships are a favoured form of fire support and transportation. The Stormwrought have access to six Storm Eagle gunships along with another two Fire Raptors and a small squadron of Lightning interceptors. Keeping these squadrons maintained and combat ready is a constant trial for the warband's various engineers, but they have consistently allowed them to perform astonishing victories in the face of superior odds. A number of other pillaged aircraft litter their hangers, refitted either as large cargo haulers to assist with the theft of equipment, or serve as fireships against prominent targets.
Yet, perhaps the most valuble resource the Stormwrought can call upon is the Eclipse Class Light Cruiser Talsarran. Originally commanded by the Ultramarines legion, it now serves as both a base of operations and the primary fleet unit for the Stormwrought. With their own home having been abandoned, it is essential to the warband's continued existence both due to its transportation capacity and manufacturing facilities. Having undergone extensive modifications, a number of major components have both been added and refitted to the ship. Chief among these is the reinforced Gellar fields, layered with additional power and generators salvaged from other cruisers. Furthermore, it carries the IFF codes of several loyalist and traitor ships alike, permitting them some capacity to evade direct confrontations when required.
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