Onyx Executioners

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The Onyx Executioners are a foreboding and mysterious fleet-based Chapter, supposedly created during the 23rd Founding, the so-called 'Sentinel Founding', from unknown genetic lineage. Originally known as the Crusaders of Glory, this Chapter garnered a reputation as being a humane and pacivistic Chapter that had a reputation for sparing their enemies instead of outright destroying them, often turning them over for interrogation to agents of the Inquisition. However, their merciful nature would prove to be their undoing. In the early decades of M41, a good portion of the Chapter become wholly corrupted by the malefic powers of the Dark Gods, following the capture of a powerful daemonhost. This caused an internecine conflict between the remaining loyalists and Chaos-corrupted brethren, resulting in a full-blown Chapter civil war.

With the help of both the Inquisition and an order of the Adepta Sororitas, the loyalist faction of the Chapter managed to subdue and utterly destroy their traitorous kin. Following this conflict, the remaining loyalists were subjected to various trials to prove their loyalty and suitability on whether they would be allowed to continue serving the Emperor. They were eventually pardoned and granted the Emperor's forgiveness. To further distance themselves from their treacherous former kin, they changed their heraldry, iconography and Chapter name to the Onyx Executioners.

Chapter History
The Chapter of the Onyx Executioners appeared under unknown circumstances at the time of the 23rd Founding, but they had a different name, style and color. So it was up to 031.M41. At the beginning of their service to the Emperor of Man, the Onyx Executioners were known as the Crusaders of Glory, wearing gray, red and gold colors, and their symbol was a cross resembling the Slavic cross of Ancient Terra. Throughout their history, the Crusaders of Glory have shown themselves to be humane warriors. Very humane - who often could spare the enemy, and naturally did not like the Inquisition, their pacifistic ways sowed the seeds of contention within the ranks of the Crusaders. Nowhere were these feelings of animosity felt than by the bellicose 4th Company ("Infernal Executioners") commander, Yuri Gavrilovski, and the Astartes of his company.

In 030.M41, the destruction of the Crusaders of Glory finally came to fruition, when they were campaign and managed to capture a Chaos daemonhost. However, due to their merciful nature they did not immediately destroy foul creature. The malevolent creature managed to corrupt a good portion of the Chapter to Chaos. Then-commander Yuri took command of those battle-brothers that remained loyal and managed to remain un-corrupted. To distinguish themselves from their fallen kin, Yuri and the loyalist changed their heraldry and Chapter iconography. With the help of the Holy Inquisition and an order of the Adepta Sororitas, the traitor Crusaders were run to ground, surrounded and destroyed wholesale, as the warp storm Malfactus approached. A large portion of the loyalist Crusaders of Glory fell, but in the end, they managed to redeem themselves by executing every traitor. Following this campaign of retribution, the remaining loyalist members of the Chapter were subjected to soul-crushing trials conducted by the Ordo Hereticus to determine whether or not they were still fit to serve the Imperium. They were tested physically, psychologically and spiritually. Fortunately, they were not found wanting, and were redeemed of their traitorous brothers' actions. Pardoned by the Inquisition, the newly redeemed Chapter changed their name to the 'Onyx Executioners'.

Notable Campaigns

 * Burning Cross (030-031.M41) - The civil war of the chapter, where, under the influence of a chaos daemonhost, most of the Crusaders of Glory underwent a curruption of chaos and turned away from the light of the Emperor, and handful of worthy and not affected by chaos curruption battle-brothers stood up against the renegades.


 * Murdering of Star System (162.M41) - An event in which the newly restored сhapter of Onyx Executioners began a battle against the greenskins based in the star system they plundered. In these battles Onyx Executioners suffered few losses, but serious enough to begin to reconsider their tactics of battle. Thus, the Lord Executioner of the 8th company of Onyx Executioners Varriks "The Skull Tacker" presented his plan, which was to destroy the biosphere of the planets. However, on the early High Lord Executioner Yuri refused from him and this was his fatal mistake. The first the High Lord Executioner brought together 50 battle-brothers and went to in its the latest battle, where he all-same having until Warboss of the orks and fell in battle. This news shocked the order. Their great leader died, and a new plan not adopted, then honour guardian of High Lord Executioner, which he left in fortress-monastery with the rest of the Chapter of Onyx Executioners, adopted command of the Chapter and elected plan of the Varriks. They bombarded all planets without exception, but on one they did not touch a separate area where their leader fell. They dropped the 5th company with the new High Lord Executioner Aartiarus "Fire Claw". They ruthlessly exterminated every greenskins, burning every their corpse and here is, began battle a new of High Lord Executioner against killers First Leader, but history starters repeat itself and in duel intervened Lord Executioner Saytarus Erigor, piercing their sword head varboss. But luckily, when they took the body of the first High Lord Executioner, he wasn't completely dead, but he was dying. The apothecaries of the chaper with the iron lords placed him in the sarcophagus of the dreadnought contemptor, saving his life.

Fortress-Monastery
A Fortress-Monastery of the Onyx Executioners was a Space Hulk named "Ashen Cross", which was practically from the very beginning of the existence of the Crusaders of Glory. The Space Hulk himself is a meteor to which about 56 transport and cargo cruisers of the Imperium, nailed by gravity and various space debris. The meteor itself inside was with many tunnels, which Chapter, with the support of they're serfs and honorable servants of Omnissia, was arranged in a place full of holiness, grandeur and honor.

Officer Ranks

 * High Lord Executioner - Chapter Master
 * Lord Executioner - Commander
 * Paladin - Lieutenant

Specialist Ranks

 * Iron Lord - Techmarine
 * Grand Iron Lord - Master of the Forge

Headquarters

 * Inner Circle: High Lord Executioner Skolas, Honor Guard, Chapter Champion, Command Squad
 * Librarium: Chief Librarian, Epistolaries, Codiciers, Lexicaniums, Acolytum, Chapter Serfs
 * Relusiarchy: Reclusiarch, Chapelains, Chapelain Initiates, Chapter Serfs
 * Apothecarion: Chief Apothecary, Apothecaries, Chapter Serfs
 * Armoury: Grand Iron Lord, Iron Lords, Servitors, Chapter Serfs

Companies
''Сompanies in the Chapter are distinguished not by colors, as in most Codex orders, but by special images on the knee pad. The first company has the flame, the second gallows, the third torch, the fourth gelatine, the fifth ritual dagger, the sixth waves of the river, the seventh stakes, the eighth quartered man, the ninth axe.''
 * 1st Veteran-Company "Fire Of Retribution": Lord Executioner, Company Command Squad, Veterans, Venerable Dreadnoughts, Landraiders
 * 2nd Battle-Company "Emperor's Gallows": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Battleline Squads, Close Support Squads, Fire Support Squads, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Landspeeders, Bikes, Dreadnoughts.
 * 3rd Battle-Company "Arsonists": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Battleline Squads, Close Support Squads, Fire Support Squads, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Landspeeders, Bikes, Dreadnoughts.
 * 4th Battle-Company "Lords of Death": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Battleline Squads, Close Support Squads, Fire Support Squads, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Landspeeders, Bikes, Dreadnoughts.
 * 5th Battle-Company "Kins of Fire": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Battleline Squads, Close Support Squads, Fire Support Squads, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Landspeeders, Bikes, Dreadnoughts.
 * 6th Reserve-Company "Drowned Spirits": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Commpany Command Squad, Battleline Squads, Rhinos, Repulsors, Dreadnoughts.
 * 7th Reserve-Company "Skewers of the Spawns": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Fire Support Squads, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Dreadnoughts.
 * 8th Reserve-Company "Holy Quarters": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Close Support Squads, Landspeeders, Bikes, Dreadnoughts.
 * 9th Reserve-Company "Void Axes": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Fire Support Squads, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, Repulsors, Executioners, Dreadnoughts.
 * 10th Scout-Company "Silence Death": Lord Executioner, 2 Paladins, Company Command Squad, Scouts, Vanguard, Landspeeders, bikes.

Chapter Combat Doctrine
The Onyx Executioners are consummate assault masters of fortified positions. Their skills in this matter are such, that they are often compared to the vaunted Imperial Fists and the vile Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. However, they have no patience for prolonged engagement, wishing only to get to grips with the foe so that they can destroy them utterly, anxious to stand against the enemy so that they can get to grips with their enemies and tear them apart in a hail of blood with bolter and blade.

When in the heat of battle, the Onyx Executioners have a difficult time reigning themselves in once they are fully engaged with the enemy, They will not relent until their enemies are utterly crushed and their positions are left as bloody abattoirs. Many scholars speculate this violent behaviour is due to the Onyx Executioners' inherent shame that remains due to the lamentable events of the betrayal and subsequent Chapter civil war. It is this psychological need for retribution that often sees them overcome near impossible odds, emerging victorious time and again, despite overwhelming numbers of the enemy arrayed against them. This behaviour has garnered the Onyx Executioners a dark reputation as being notoriously bellicose in temperament and bloody-handed in the execution of their duties, concerned only with bringing the message of swift and merciless retribution to those who dare to defy the Emperor. It is this apparent psychosis that sees many of their Imperial allies unwilling to work alongside such bloody-handed and ferocious Astartes, despite the Chapter's laudable record of victories. Many more disciplined Imperial military forces and Codex-oriented Chapters consider the methods of the Onyx Executioners both radical and dishonourable, due to their penchant for not sparing anyone, which at times, has unfortunately included large amounts of amounts of collateral damage, resulting in the deaths of innocents.

In void conflict, the Onyx Executioners reign supreme. They excel at fighting in the close confines and narrow corridors of starfaring vessels and Space Hulks, showing their great agility and reaction speed to the maximum, their pistols and melee weapons always at-the-ready, including their hands. Although, these warriors will sometimes make use of flamer weapons to maximise the amount of damage spread by the burning flames of their wrath.

When the Astartes of this Chapter are assigned the task to enact retribution against a recalcitrant world, and there are no allied forces or important civilians populations on the planet, especially if it is a world of little significance to the Imperium, the Onyx Executioners will begin a planetary assault with a massive orbital bombardment. Often, the Chapter makes use of deadly virus bombs that contain pathogens harvested from the acidic fumes of death worlds. When they explode in the planet's atmosphere, they destroy the doomed planet's biosphere, raining down acidic rain that will eat through metal, rockcrete and flesh, reducing most planetary life, whether flora or fauna, to organic sludge of biochemicals and organic gasses. Those caught at the epicentre of the explosion or are located in close proximity, suffer the most grievous effects, suffering from acid burns from which even kiramit armour is rarely saved. After the initial bombardment, the Chapter land amongst its chosen drop zones and begins the systematic eradication of those few survivors that are left, utterly annihilating the weakened foe, until nothing remains.

Chapter Beliefs
Onyx Executioners are convinced that any person who even has thoughts that the Imperium of Mankind is weak, and the Emperor himself will never rise from the Golden throne, should pay for it with his life and executed, like every Xeno-creature. The chapter itself believes in the Emperor as a God of salvation, that it will return in the hour of great need and will slay all the enemies of mankind. To other kinds of faith in Emperor, as in God, spirits or simply his respect they belong quietly and unbiased, for man himself is free on their be loyal Emperor. When the Emperor's son, Primarch of The thirteenth ultramarine Legion, Lord Roboute Guilliman returned and took command of the Imperium, they considered it a great miracle, not knowing exactly how he returned. They believed that this was the first step to the return of the Lord of Mankind. Although they respected the ultramarine Primarch immensely, they regarded his gift as a new generation of Astartes, namely Primaris Astartes, with great distrust, knowing that some of them lived in the time of the Horus Heresy and were in the Traitor Legions. With this problem distrust in the chapter, lest again not split his, the High Lord Executioner himself, his honor guards and Lord Executioner of 5th company Saytarus Erigor voluntarily traveled on procedure rubricon primaris. But unfortunately, the second High Lord Executioner did not survive that, and the new High Lord Executioner was his honor guard Skolas.

Chapter Gene-Seed
The gene-seed of the order has a similar structure to the gene-seeds of the two chapters of the First Founding, the Iron Hands and Salamanders. Despite the similarities, the Iron Hands and Salamanders deny that The Onyx Executioners are their successors. The Onyx Executioners, too, denies these assumptions.

Notable Space Marines

 * Yuri Gavrilovski - First High Lord Executioner (First Chapter Master of the Onyx Executioners, following the events of the betrayal).
 * Aartiarus "Fire Claw" - Second High Lord Executioner
 * Skolas - Third High Lord Executioner
 * Saytarus Erigor - Lord Executioner of the 5th Company.
 * Varriks "The Skull Tacker" - Lord Executioner of the 8th Company.

Chapter Relics

 * Face of Death - The master-crafted mark 4 helmet with brass face plate and forelock.
 * Merciful Mercy - Ancient power axe, which according to some rumors was created during the time of the Unified Wars.
 * Retribution Blade - A power sword that once tasted the flesh of the renegade chapter master of the Crusaders of Glory and belonged to the first High Lord Executioner

Pre-Heresy
Gray, Ruby Red and Gold

Post-Heresy
Black, Olive Drag Green and Brass

Chapter Badge
The symbol of Onyx Executioners is a flame-embraced skull.