Ardent Shields

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Ardent Shields
Found around the 20th founding, the Ardent Shields are a relatively new chapter whose founding was based off a need to add more numbers to the Adeptus Astartes in the Armageddon Sector well still abiding by the Codex Astartes. Founded near the end of the 35th millenia by the detachment of Ultramarines who had partook in the minor crusade known as the “Salvation Crusade”. These Astartes would form a much greater form of brotherhood with their Imperial Guard brothers which would come to define their very chapter in the centuries to come.

They would soon be known for their immense sense of duty and skillfulness as the centuries went and their worlds populace began to grow. It was not uncommon for a member of the Ardent Shields to risk their life just to bring back one lost Guardsmen from behind enemy lines, or the war torn battlefield. This would also be a detriment to them as it would increase the chance of that Astartes never coming back, but the ones who did survive learned greatly and quickly. They have grown to be a non-codex Chapter due to the culture that had slowly developed from books found in a ancient tech priest reliquary built around a Golden Age of man computer. This has also led them to butting heads with the inquisition quite a few times.

Chapter History
Refounded around the end of the 35th millenia by a Rogue Trader who was investigating a faint and ancient Imperial distress beacon from a lost sub sector in the Armageddon Sector. The Trader was forced away soon after entering the sub sector by the appearance of a massive Battleship of Imperial design, painted all over with metal welded over holes, clear indications of an Ork looting, as well as it’s many ramshackle escorts, but not before getting a partial scan done, revealing the once Imperial desert planets there. With the chance that the sub sector may be infested with enough Orks to create a WAGH big enough to attack other nearby lightly defended Agricultural worlds or cause major trouble along supply lines, plans for a minor Crusade began to come together.

Nearby Ultramarine and Imperial Guard forces were requested along with two Battle Fleets combining to a total of nearly 100 ships to deal with the situation. When the request was finally met some years later, the minor crusade began to purge the sector of the Orks. The initial attack on the sector went horribly as the reclaimed Imperial Battleship, identified as the ‘Salvation’, seemed to be near indestructible as it rammed though Escorts and Light Cruisers, taking full broadsides from ships, but seeming to take very little. The Ultramarines that were with the fleet came up with the plan to knock it out from the inside using the teleportarium. This attack was successful, killing the Ork captain on the bridge, the ship now floating dead as the tech priests aboard the remaining vessels seemed abuzz, sending the news of this ancient ship to the nearest Forgeworld, detecting one right in the sector, making them even more curious as to what the world was doing here, and what secrets could it hold as the fleet continued with it’s crusade.

When the fleet had originally approached the Forgeworld, the Fleet was met with a automated greeting by a orbital station that was still operational, recognizing the Imperial codes. The station’s weapons were found to be all but non functional due to lack of power through the ship, or ammo reserves having dried up centuries ago. The area around the station made it clear the Ork’s had tried getting aboard many a times, to little effect from the debris of ships around it, clearly having slammed into the void shields. With this new staging ground aboard the station, a new supply line was opened to rage the crusade on the Forgeworld below as tech priests and servitor’s went about the then named station “Resurgence”, fixing broken down system’s and helping to relieve the machine spirit of the stations stress from operating for so long in such a state.

The crusade on the Forgeworld would last nearly 10 years with millions of Guardsmen dying in the battles, fighting Ork’s that numbered in the Hundreds of thousands on the Forgeworld alone, having to request Adepta Sororitas and Titan support to fight off the many things the Orks had created to fight each other having made many Knight class and several Titan class machines along with looted Baneblades, earning the Forgeworld the name of “Annihilation”. The Hive worlds were another story, most building had been left standing, but had clearly seen battle damage, or just lack of maintenance from being left alone with the Orks. During this decade long battle, they Astartes that were deployed grew to respect their Imperial Guard brothers, watching how they would fit on even in the worst of case scenarios.

Far away from any of the city and surrounded by one of the biggest Ork Clanz on the planet sat a bunker miles below the planet’s crust sat a Tech Priest reliquary, filled with ancient books, ranging from warfare tactics to how to bake a double decker cake. They found very little in the way of ancient tech, but what they did find out put the rest of what they had found to shame. A Sword, a Hammer, two Daggers, a Lance, a massive Gun with a sword on the bottom, and a Cannon all were well kept inside of a secured section of the bunker with no signs of any STC’s or anything about them besides some lists detailing some basic’s on the weapon. After 4 more years of fighting, the system had been as cleansed as it could be of the Ork’s, allowing the Imperium to begin to restore the sector to functionality.

The Ultramarines decided that they did not have enough Astartes near the subsector to protect or partac in crusades so they founded a new chapter their, leaving half a company's worth of Astartes. Over the next 6 millenia, they adopted new tactics into their previous ones from the books they had found from ancient times, before even the Golden age. As they learned from those books, they were forced to take up a more jack of all trades role as a Chapter, now going by the name, ‘Ardent Shields’, in honor of the knowledge that they had gained from a ancient war force known as ‘United States Marines Corp’ and ‘Spartans’, adopting a black, brown, and sandy color scheme. They only posse 6 Companies, the 1st Honor Company, 2nd Tactical Company and 3rd Assault Company are almost never at full Company strength due to almost always being head long in nearby crusades and defenses.

Notable Campaigns
M35 - Salvation Crusade This is where the Chapter first began to gain its reputation from it heavy work with Guard forces throughout the whole crusade.

M37 - Operation burning tide During this campaign is where they would slowly begin to develop their disdain and in some cases hatred of Inquisitor's willingness to subject entire planets of people to the end of a ship cannon because the fighting would be too costly and time consuming, at one point, even coming to blows with them when a Inquisitor began to rain Imperial fire onto an Imperial Hive city that was currently undergoing a heretical rebellion with many Imperial Guard and a few of the Chapters brothers still located their. The Chapter Master of the Ardent Shields responded by ramming his Strike Cruiser into the Inquisitors, branding the man a traitor to the Imperium as him and the First Company boarded his ship and took the man prisoner, sending him to be judged by the High Inquisitors for his actions against the Chapter.

M38 - Calidas Campaign This is still the highest number of casualties the Ardent Shields have ever sustained, losing almost 60% of the 1st Company, including the Company Commander and most of their Terminators, 20% of the 3rd and 5th Companies along with their Chapter Master in defense of Forgeworld Annihilation from a incursion from the daemons of Tzeentch as they had hoped in taking this world for their god. The battle for the planet was a massive defense on part of the Ardent Shields due to the high amount of Daemons, the tide only turning from the arrival of a Titan Legion and some nearby Imperial Guard Regiments. This would lead too over a year of fighting before a final climactic battle between Company Commander Kratos and the Greater Daemon leading the invaders which would end in a draw, both Kratos and the Daemon liying defeated. As thanks for their sacrifice and defense of the Forgeworld, the Tech priests gifted them the recently repaired Retribution class Battleship the “Salvation” as it was all they could offer due to the amount of damage the Forge Worlds factories had taken in the conflict.

M41 - Calidas Campaign II Around 3 Millennia after the first Calidas Campaign, another group of warp tainted beings tried their hand at taking the Forge World. This time they would not be fighting Daemon’s, or even traitor Astartes, but traitor's of Mars. This fight against the Dark Mechanicus would only end with the help from a very unlikely source. The Dark Eldar, the Kabal of the Sixth Heart only payment request was for a planet that offered no strategic or resource value of any kind, at least to the Imperium, and some psykers. The Ardent shields agreed, if a little put off about why they would want such things.

Chapter Homeworld
Tesca arctica scriptor protector (Tundra’s Shield) is a desert world where every Hive city is encased in a massive dom to protect against the nearly 300 mile an hour dust storms that will appear. The period between storms can range from a few weeks to a few days. When the storms are not active, there are still many dangers when going out of the dom. Whether it be from the roaming Ork gangs who hide in their underground workshops during the storms. The normal desert worm grow to the size of a Leman Russ and pray on anything smaller than it, the safest place from these is near the massive rocky locations the Hive Cities are built around. The much bigger mother worms can grow from either 500 meter to just under a kilometer long, swallowing low flying aircraft and large convoy vehicles. Right below these rocky locations is a massive water reservoir that spans kilometers in every direction giving the idea the planet may have once been a water world before something happened that turned into into what they see now. The ever changing terrain of the desert makes it hard convoy’s or merchants without ships to get from city to city as it is impossible to tell when an Ork raiding group is about to come leaping over one of the dunes in their buggies before running back to their hidden caves under the sand. The Ardent Shields retain a somewhat indirect rule of the world and its neighbors. They will attend many services and major event such as the celebration of their founding in order to inspire moral among the populace and troops. They will also only make changes if something has affected the efficiency of anything negatively, otherwise they leave it up to the sub sector council which consists of a leader from each of the planets in the sector.

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