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This article, Steel Paragons, was written by CyclingOsprey53. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, Steel Paragons, is currently under active construction. The author, CyclingOsprey53, apologizes for the inconvenience. |
- "In the blood-soaked tapestry of my existence, your empire weaves naught but a single thread of defiance, a pitiful struggle, for I have witnessed civilizations rise and fall like flickering shadows under my legion’s might and brutality. You, mere vermin,are but sparks in the vast darkness, illuding your primitive minds with hopes of even coming close to defeating us. How amusing it is to see these delusions of grandeur, for in the end all organic life crumbles before the crimson harvest of the Novokh Dynasty. Our final battle will soon come and this time your futile resistance shall only make my insatiable hunger for your kind’s annihilation ever greater"
- —Zerahlak the rampager, Destroyer Overlord from the Novokh dynasty
The Steel Paragons are a Loyalist Successor Chapter that was created during the Ultima Founding from the stoic and unforgiving Iron Hands. They are known to partially follow the tenants of the Codex Astartes and, unlike most other Iron Hands successors, do not divide themselves in Clan-Companies and instead act as a single unified chapter while still having their armoury divided between the 10 companies. As inheritors of the gene-legacy of Ferrus Manus, the Steel Paragons are exemplars amongst the Sons of the Gorgon, delivering swift and brutal retribution against those that would dare turn from the light of the Emperor. This new chapter born out of Cawl’s gene-lab has taken a death world named Zeitus found within the Raum system as base of operation, their strategic position within the Imperium Nihilius half of Ultima Segmentum in order to defend the rest of this shadowed region of the cosmos from Xeno threats coming from the galactic east.
Chapter History
The Indomitus Crusade and the Finding of Zeitus
During the tumultuous days of the Indomitus Crusade, the primaris reinforcements emerged from archmagos Cawl’s vaults as a united force, comprised of astartes from all nine original space marine legions working together with many other imperial forces, both trans-human and not, to scour the galaxy clean of heretical and xeno filth. After the larger legion-sized battlegroups started splitting up into torchbearer fleets, an entire minor fleet detached to reach the nearest warp tunnel through the cicatrix maledictum. Only through this dangerous passage could they have a chance at wading through the great rift to reach The Nihilius sector of ultima segmentum, their designated garrison area to protect this shadowed region of the cosmos against the tide of xeno threats coming from the galactic west.
After a perilous travel through the scar across the galaxy, the still unmarked astartes reached their destination sector and began searching for a usable planet within the sector of space they were tasked with protecting. Right as the ship's gellar fields were done cooling while orbiting above a barren planet of endless dunes, a distress signal bearing imperial codes as old as the betrayal of Horus Lupercal reached the fleet coming from the surface, barely readable from how damaged and feeble it was. Within it a request for military aid against an overwhelming foe threatening to devour them all, and while the long range scans saw nothing of notice other than a seemingly impossible thunderstorm, as the planet lacked natural water to begin with, the chapter’s chain of command deemed the saving of this planet an action worthy of the Emperor’s angels.
Led by a great hero of the Indomitus crusade named Acheeridon Xeriis, it was decided that the nascent chapter of the Steel Paragons would fight its first war under their own banner to defend their claim against anything and everyone that may endanger this celestial body and its population. And so the order to make landfall was given out and initiated, the fleet’s techpriests and tech adepts hard at work blessing the entire armoury of the still-colorless chapter should a complete deployment be necessary.
From the grey vessels of the mighty fleet, many smaller drop-ships left their hangars and initiated their descent through the higher atmosphere, the newly put into production Overlord Gunships soaring through the irradiated planet’s atmosphere like birds of prey as they plotted their course towards the strange thunderstorm where the signal originated from. The sleek crafts came closer and closer to the unknown tempest until they began to see a huge structure rise from the horizon, the signal’s ancient nature validated by this construct’s distinctive lack of the gothic shapes found in any modern imperial structure, but as the ground below them quaked as well as the entire strike force’s on-board detection systems flared up and turned completely bright trying to lock onto the mastodontic construct as if an unknown vehicle, they only now realized this city was built upon the shoulders of an ancient giant of steel.
As the landers came into close vicinity, they would have the honor to witness the colossal 6-legged walker the city seemed to be built within and on top take a single step, driving its mechanical foot into the ground with strength only this mountain of iron could muster, the drop-ships now receiving vox hails about their permission to land upon the left upper deck, as the great machine’s 5 separate decks spread for each side from the main hull like interlocking feathers, forming 2 colossal wings of steel, each “feather” rivaling the length of even the largest battleships within the imperial navy. As the great Acheeridon and his command squad left the bays of their Overlord and began discussing with the planetary command structure the threat they so feared, a ravenous swarm of abhorrent insectoids known only as the Golgotha, the newly appointed chapter vowed to eradicate the abominations that crawl in the radioactive ash of this world and secure this planet for the imperium in what would be later known as “The Brood War”.
The Brood War and the creation of Ghosgene
The grueling conflict against the Golgotha hivemind known as “The Brood War” had raged across Zeitus’s irradiated dunes for weeks, each engagement teaching the Steel Paragons more about the various enemy Gene-Strain’s biology and combat patterns. The insectoid swarm, while formidable in their numbers, had been susceptible to the chapter’s disciplined tactics and precise applications of massed tank strikes. Every encounter brought greater understanding of their foe, sharpening the astartes’s strategies and reinforcing their resolve. By the time the combined imperial forces had reached the primary hive in the entire planet, a massive organic labyrinth that stretched tens of kilometers in all directions, with a long dead volcanic crater as gate into the surface, the chapter stood ready for the ultimate confrontation against their new foe.
Chapter Master Acheeridon Xeriis devised a daring assault plan in order to dismantle the hive’s capabilities and strike at it’s brood chambers deep within, capitalizing on the Golgotha's greatest vulnerability: their aversion to heat. The swarm’s hyperactive metabolism burned too hot under the sun, forcing them into a partially-lethargic state during any time spent on the surface when the sun was still high. The attack would begin just before sunrise, with artillery strikes luring the swarm out of their deep tunnels just as the first scorching rays of Zeitus’s twin stars crept across the battlefield, the siege cannons casting a long shadow upon the barren wasteland as the surprised hivemind’s forces began to chitter and crawl out onto the land.
A vital component of the plan required the placement of a targeting beacon within the hive’s outer layers, guiding the fire calculations of the bombardment cannons within the astartes’s fleet. The honor of bringing the beacon to it’s destined target fell to Storm Guard Norvus Grymn, a zealous young officer of the 4th Company. Equipped with a jump pack and accompanied by a handpicked squad of vanguard veterans, Grymn and it’s chosen warriors were drop at high altitude from an overlord gunship and fell upon the hive’s main entrance like birds of prey as they tore all flying insectoids the hive could throw at them. As they made landfall, Norrvus had but a split second to set the beacon in position and jump away, high into the sky for aerial retrieval before a tide of sharp chitin tore him and his squad to a million pieces.
With the needed targeting beacon now in place as more and more of the hive’s defenders poured out, the ships in orbit prepared to fire on Acheeridon’s order. The Steel Paragons and their allied Zeitian defenders met the roiling tide of xenos head-on, bolters and flamers tearing into the swarm while armoured units engaged the Golgotha’s larger Gene-Strains, feeling the insectoid beasts with pin-point accuracy las-cannon and laser destructor fire. The sunlight proved a boon, slowing the creatures enough to give the defenders an edge, but even in their slowed state, the Golgotha Brood Queens led massive counterattacks while controlling the hive beings around themselves, shredding multiple infantry squads and even a few out of position vehicles before being brought down by concentrated fire.
As the combined force of the imperials held the hive’s forces within the area marked for orbital bombardment, a hail of magma bombs coming from the Bringer of Finality, the Steel Paragons’s flagship, struck the ground, hammering the hive with devastating yet precise strikes. Volley after volleyof depth-fused shells punched deep into the hive’s core, the battle barge’s ordnance began causing subterranean explosions that sent blackened ash and molten rock high into the sky, letting this cold volcano roar to life just one more time.
After the last barrage of superheated destruction had left the voidshio’s barrels and struck what was theorized to be the core of the entire hive cluster, the battlefield above-ground fell silent for a moment, the only noise present being the ominous shudder of something else, deep underground. Then, the hive erupted in a geyser of debris and ichor as the Brood Empress, an enormous and grotesque creature the likes of which none had seen, emerged from the depths, her bio-steel alloy armor gleaming under the sunlight as her full size became apparent. With a deafening roar, the Reaver titan sized abomination charged directly toward Acheeridon, crushing defenders and hive organisms alike as well as hurling debris with her immense bulk. The swarm, suddenly revitalized and pushed to extreme activity even under the sun, followed in her wake, acting as her burning sword and shield, their movements perfectly synchronized to her will even as many of her paws started to perish because of the extreme heat.
Recognizing the peril after witnessing the abominable giant split tank hulls in half with each of her colossal claws while lobbing acid-filled gene-strains at far away targets, Acheeridon led the Empress and the rest of the hive toward a pre-designated detonation zone, initially intended for retreat scenarios. Acheeridon ordered the charges to be detonated the moment the silver-skinned beast was within the area, but just as the ground split apart below it, one of the Empress’s tails tore the patch of soil where the chapter master stood out, making them both fall into the deep chasm below while the rest of the hive were now out in the open for the imperial forces to overwhelm and destroy once and for all.
The fall proved fatal for the Empress, her immense weight crushing her body upon impact with the soil after more that two hundred meterd of fall. Acheeridon, though not without suffering damage, managed to slide along the edge of the ravine and land without sharing the same fate the colossal xeno right before him succumbed to. But before he could call for extraction from this deep crevice, his vox filled with unnatural static as from the torn remains of the Empress, two warp-coated mantis claws emerged from within, tearing her thorax apart in a cross shape, almost if to clear a path for whatever being just tore the monster’s thick metallic hide with such ease
From that same cut rose the Apex, a gore-slicked abomination not any taller that Acheeridon himself that resembled humanoid shapes aside from it’s insectoid head and two large mantis claws, each one bathed in purple energy, a never-seen before characteristic within Golgothan biology. Following it’s appearance, the creature then projected its thoughts directly into the chapter master’s mind, a single low gothic word echoing ominously within his senses as it even invaded his sight: Fall
Steeling his resolve, Acheeridon ignored the beast’s command and engaged the Apex in a brutal duel, their clash of claws and blade resonating within the ravine as they traded blows with matched skill and force of will. The Apex’s now apparent psychic prowess and warp-imbued speed more than matched the Chapter Master’s transhuman strength and skill, his relic blade a weapon of power more than blinding speed, while the Golgothan abomination’s twin blades were all but the opposite, striking with such speed that it proved hard to react against even for an astartes as veteran as he was. In this long and bloody duel, both Acheeridon and the Apex suffered grievous wounds before yealding, with the xeno being able to sever Acheeridon’s left arm up to the elbow in a devastating counterattack, and yet he pressed on, determined to vanquish this foe.
As both warriors prepared to unleash their strongest attack, Acheeridon managed to parry one of the Apex’s bladed limbs with what remained of his lost arm, letting the chapter master duck only to impale the alien’s head over the tip of his relic blade with one devastating thrust, severing the creature’s spine from it’s body, now limp as it fell down over the blood-soaked sand under the swordman’s feet. The psychic connection binding the swarm as a single entity was shattered in an instant. The remaining queens, now bereft of any central command organism, turned on each other in a frenzied struggle for dominance over what was left of the once unified hive, the sound of flesh and chitin tearing each other apart taking center stage over the Zeitean rad-wastes, allowing the imperials to both safely retrieve Acheeridon and retreat back to Infinitus. Though the battle was won, the threat of the Golgotha still loomed, their endless numbers and aptitude to quickly replenish their numbers requiring further measures to control.
Studying the Golgotha’s biology, the Steel Paragons’s Biologis tech-priests and Zeitian scientists developed a chemical weapon tailored to the complete destruction of their physiology, it’s esalations being able to melt and seep through any solid armor only to light all biomass in it’s path ablaze in a noxious green pyre. This devastating weapon’s chosen name was “Ghosgene”, the bane of all Gholgota. After having synthesized high amounts of this substance, the gas was delivered via orbitally-launched canisters, drowning the vast majority of the planet’s hive tunnels in an ominous cloud of green death. Over the course of a single week, all biomass within most hives along Infinitus’s endless path was simply reduced to black ash and pools of tar, exterminating nearly half of the remaining Golgotha population upon Zeitus.
With the menace brought by the overgrowth of the Golgotha culled, the Steel Paragons returned to the walking Fortress to a hero’s welcome, for they had ended an existential threat centuries in the making. Celebrations swept across the roads and plazas of Infinitus, celebrations that culminated in the chapter’s pledging to safeguard Zeitus for all eternity from any and all future threats, be them xeno in nature or not. In return, the Steel Paragons secured the right to recruit from the planet’s most promising youth, ensuring their ranks would remain strong to better protect Imperium Nihilius from any alien incursion coming from the galactic east. The Brood War was over, but its scars as well as the lessons it taught would shape the chapter for centuries to come.
Notable Campaigns
The defence of Forgeworld Veondus
Forgeworld Veondus was one of the greatest bastions of mechanicus forces in the eastern halve of imperium nihilus, after the crack in reality known as the cicatrix maledictum shattered the galaxy and left the upper halve of the imperium in the dark. This forgeworld was now bound to face an unprecedented threat as the ominous shadow of a colossal necron tombship, a Cairn-class vessel the necron knew as “Androkhtasiae”,came into the system’s edge only to set direct course over the forgeworld using it’s sub-light propulsion. It’s slow yet unstoppable advance akin to the blade of an executioner entering it’s victim’s sight as madness and terror seeped into the forgeworld’s less stoic population. Even alone the overwhelming strength of the necron vessel was known to the forces of the omnissiah and so an emergency astropathic message was sent out to the neighboring systems and subsectors in search of any help.
Then, from the black void of space came a second message, a response, coming from another imperial force, the space marine chapter known as Steel Paragons. Solar minutes after the astartes’s message came, their entire fleet tore the warp open just above the forgeworld in order to join the forces of the omnissiah in defence against the soulless automatons that prove an existential threat to this archive of knowledge. The commander in charge of this astartes force was a veteran of the indomitus crusade and his name was Acheeridon Xeriis, a renowned swordman and leader as well as a firm believer in the omnissian creed.
The combined forces of the Steel Paragons' fleet, the Veondusan Navy and a strike force belonging to Battlefleet obscurus gathered around the forgeworld as the plan necessary to repel the mechanical invader. With Acheeridon in command of the combined defense fleet, the high-capacity cogitators of the mechanicus-aligned forces simulated hundreds of battle plans only to choose the one that yielded the highest success rate, as logic would dictate. Following the new orders, the entire imperial force would engage the approaching Necron ship at the precise moment it moved close the belt of metallic dust and ice that encircled the forgeworld and unleash all gunfire towards the Necron flagship in an attempt to immediately reduce the enemy's combat capabilities and ship systems before any counterattack could be unleashed, only to push forward at full engine power to overwhelm the apparently alone flagship and whatever weapons might be still online after the tremendous alpha strike.
The air within the imperial fleet’s command decks was still, the fleet had already moved below the detritus ring and within the path their necron adversary would follow only to power down all systems outside of the various targeting arrays necessary to make the perfect shot. This mighty fleet of the imperium was masking itself to look like abandoned husks in the void in order to take their enemy by surprise, all as the clock in Acheeridon’s neural display slowly ticked down to when the trap would be ready to spring shut and lay waste to the soulless automatons. When the moment came, the crescent moon of alien steel fully visible and in the lines of fire of the entire fleet, the order was given.
In an instant, the sea of stars turned into tempest as every ship concentrated all their fire onto the capital ship, lance batteries, macrocannons, and torpedoes streaking through the vacuum and onto the alien battleship’s shielding and hull. In a masterstroke of coordination and luck, the combined first strike managed to cripple the Cairn-class tombship enough to bring it to a halt on the edge of Veondus’s polluted atmosphere and with its most dangerous weaponry too damaged to fire upon the imperials, but after the surprise attack on this seemingly alone ship unusual fluctuations in the space-time matrix were felt around the gleaming giant's hull.
The excitement of a well executed plan quickly turned into horror as moments after the mighty vessel was immobilized, a large escort fleet phased into existence around the wounded tombship. Their sudden appearance being caused by some kind of pocket dimension projected by the cairn class itself shutting down due to sustained damage, this arcane technology having shrouded it’s support elements so utterly that no detection equipment the imperium could ever hope to fashion would have detected them. But as logic still theorized the current plan to be the most likely to succeed, the three imperial fleets accelerated through the ice ring and into close range with the rapidly scrambling necron defenders.
As the two battle fleets tangled in mortal combat, it quickly became apparent how despite the colossal tombship being taken out and the forgeworld’s orbital and surface gun batteries firing away with impunity, the necron technological superiority proved almost too much to overcome as ship after ship was devoured by lightning arcs and star pulses while the three enemy harvester class cruisers took negligible blows from the heaviest of imperial broadsides. As the battle started to unfold for the worst Acheeridon was able to see through the chaos of ship-to-ship combat and notice how the Androkhtasiae was still functional enough to begin self repairing as well as aid it's escort in repairing their own hull as with each minute more and more of the Cairn’s weapon batteries were close to returning back online and laying waste to the already strained imperial forces.
From the command bridge of the battle barge leading the Steel Paragons fleet, the Storm’s Eye, Acheeridon having seen how despite all the efforts and firepower the imperials would pour out towards their foe, it never was enough to stop their rampage, and so he decided to act out of the plan that logic gave out as most optimal. He would instead strike the mastermind leading this overwhelming fleet, this figure found upon the Androkhtasiae’s command pyramid. This daring manouver would be led by him personally as the chapter’s best duelist, all while a second strike team would aim at the space craft’s heart in order to stop it’s apocalyptic weaponry from ever coming back online.
With the order given, the remaining astartes vessel trained their bombardment cannons at a precise area on the Androkhtasiae's hull plating in an attempt to bore through enough armor armor to open the way towards any vital component for the entire first company to teleport towards in an attempt to detonate multiple compact plasma warheads deep within the bowels of the alien vessel. The other strike force would instead deploy more than half of the chapter’s battleline troops and armored support onto the crescent’s outer hull in order to to support the chapter master and eliminate as much of the necron force housed within the ship as possible in order to give Acheeridon the time needed to achieve his desperate goal.
With a breach in the Androkhtasiae’s outer hull secured the two Battle Barges of the chapter began circling the immobile tombship and opened up all their launch bays to let drop ships, grav tanks, drop pods and marines wearing jump packs rain down onto the flagship’s hull, creating a belt of ceramite along the vessel’s upper deck and around the command pyramid where at it’s top the overlord in command of the alien fleet resides. All while at the same time more than half of the first company as well as the Tempestor Prime manage to teleport within the ship itself, beginning their slow and perilous walk to where the warheads shall be placed and made detonate after all the veterans have already teleported away. In merely a minute no less than 600 marines and much of the chapter’s armoury had boarded the mighty battleship.
Battles raged in the cold, lifeless halls of the tombship as the chapter’s finest pressed deeper, inching towards the heart of this metallic monster. These warriors’s tenacity as well as the mastercraft of their armors being being put to the test by the necron Canoptek war machines crawling within the dark and perilous corridors in order to repel the intruders before they reach their final destination, all while on the surface the Necron resistance intensified with each moment. The xeno’s technological might shown in it’s most gruesome form as gauss beams and hyperphase blades tore through the first lines of defence while swarms of scarabs in the millions devoured entire battle tanks in order to replicate themselves even further. Their constant assault would have doomed the entire chapter to a swift and painful end upon the alien vessel, but when the fate of the Steel Paragons seemed to be set, a flash of energy as bright as a star beamed from within the ship’s hull as the first company had detonated the plasma warheads earlier than anticipated as they wouldn’t have managed to reach their objective without being overwhelmed and losing both their lives and the bombs. The sudden release of thermal energy melted enough of the remaining armor on the cairn’s left “blade” to split the vessel in two separate pieces separated by a trench of empty space and superheated necrodermis fragments half a kilometer wide, the crypteks present on board immediately redirecting every single scarab available from both the Androkhtasiae and the nearest escort ships to try and re-establish minimal hull integrity, giving the defensive ring a moment of respite and Acheeridon the time needed to meet the enemy warlord in duel.
Amidst the chaos of both the boarding astartes fighting to the last man and the still-raging void battle in the background, the control pyramid loomed over Acheeridon Xeriis and his ten honor guards, the final gauntlet of enemy resistance within sight. Duel after duel, strike after strike, the Steel Paragons pressed on and began climbing the monumental pyramid as the foes became less in numbers but far greater in combat prowess up until they reached the very top, where only the chapter master alone managed to reach. The ten noble warriors that once accompanied him either laying dead on the pyramid’s steps or still locked in combat with the lesser lords under the rule of the one overlord leading the army. As he tred forward and onto the very top of the monolithic structure, he finally reached his destination: Zerahlak the headtaker, high executioner of the tomb world of abyssax, Overlord of the Novokh Dynasty, was before him to fight. Such an overwhelming foe as well as the fatigue of having slain most of the xeno’s retinue would have proven to be Xeriis’s greatest challenge. The alien commander’s weapon of choice was an alien scythe that glowed the hue of freshly harvested blood, a color it’s beaming eyes also shared as he barreled forward to eliminate the leader of the vermin that infest his vessel, now both warriors locked in a dance of blades, of strikes and parries where only one would come out on top.
While the chapter executed their valiant plan, the rest of the fleet kept fighting tooth and nail against the Androkhtasiae’s escort vessel, the imperial ships having been already halved in number while having permanently destroyed only four of the six raider class escorts, the three alien cruisers instead standing battered but still active and dangerous. Amidst the raging battle a single ship bearing Veondus’s colors, a cruiser named “Longinus Lancea” saw the two halves of the Androkhtasiae already being woven back into one by tendrils of necrodermis coming from the ship’s immense reserve of canoptek scarabs. And so in a desperate move to stop this process the captain decided to ram the larger chunk of the enemy vessel, too damaged to even attempt repairing should it survive the battle, in an attempt to put it on a collision course with the forgeworld’s young moon, Brutis.
The tombship, now a celestial juggernaut hurtling towards the moon, left the still alive Steel Paragons scrambling for evacuation, knowing it will be but a couple of minutes before the enemy ship will make contact with the ground at speeds near half that of light. But amongst them there was one astartes that could not leave and board a gunship to abandon this meteor of alien steel, Acheeridon, his duel with Zerahlak close to it’s climax as the alien warrior proved more than match for the chapter master. But as the impending cataclysm came closer, the greatest champion the chapter has seen and ever will see proved unable to best this Technological nightmare in duel, it’s prowess simply superior in every way thanks to the millions of years of experience during the war against the C’tan, and so Zeralhak made it’s last move and thrusted his voidscythe into Xeriis’s chest, piercing both his hearts and severing his spine. But the moving of it’s necrodermis limbs in order to inflict the final blow created an opening in it’s guard, a split second in lenght, but all the Chapter master needed to counterattack with a thrust of his own, pushing broodbane’s tip with strength that would shatter mountains, but while Zerahlak's Voidscythe impaled the Astartes and mortally wounded him, Acheeridon's greatsword stopped piercing inches before hitting the core component of his foe’s mechanical chest.
Despite the mortal wounds suffered by Acheeridon, his grip on the handle of his flamberge remained solid as steel in order to keep the overlord still and doom it to sink with it’s ship. But with both time and options running out, Zerahlak’s hands left the staff of it’s scythe only to snap the chapter master’s sword in half with a move of it’s elbow, phasing away from reality seconds later and leaving the crippled astartes alone on this meteor of alien metal a handful of seconds away from crashing directly into brutis, but from the hangar of a strike cruiser on the chase a lone stormraven gunship flew out only to hover above the chapter master’s body, his spark about to die out just as the craft’s magna grapple brought him up only to boost away moments before the tomb ship collided with the strenght to reshape entire continents. quakes strong enough to almost shatter the celestial body in half ran across the moon's inner layers as the alien vessel wedged itself deep into the planetoid's surface as well as the Longinus Lancea’s prow fully piercing the alien hull as if an adamantium stake driven in the tombship’s heart, thus ending the mighty vessel once and for all.
While Zerahlak managed to abandon his flagship almost unscathed, he materialized back on one of the two remaining harvester cruisers as the imperials were able to make use of the lack of repair scarabs when the Androkhtasiae redirected them all to itself and sunk all but one escort ship and a single cruiser. Seeing it’s mighty armada in jeopardy, Zerahlak issued a general retreat order, activating the fleet’s inertia-less drives to leave the forgeworld's orbit with only the blood of an astartes Hero taken in the name of the phareon.
The battle was won, The warriors of the Imperium and the of the Omnissiah had defended their realm from the necron menace, their inhuman flagship destroyed so utterly that it's final resting place, the surface of Brutis with the Longinus’s prow still embedded within the Androkhtasiae’s carcass, shall stand for the millenia to come as a monument to humanity's strenght and tenacity. Acheeridon, having been immediatly put into stasis on board of the gunship as he was about to perish, had been then interred within a Dreadnought sarcophagus, a last-ditch effort to preserve the indomitable spirit of the Chapter Master forever more within the sacred hull of a contemptor dreadnought upon which the eternal seal upon the ancient war machine sanctified by the fabricator general himself to honor the hero of Veondus's defence.
The Purging of Divatus Prime
In the eastern fringes of the galaxy, the Hive World of Divatus I laid as an unremarkable inhabited planet so far relatively unblemished by the warp tides of Imperium Nihilus. Despite the dangers of the Imperium Nihilus, it would not be creatures of the warp that would threaten this world, but instead the ravenous hordes of the Tyranids. Hive Fleet Dagon, so long in battle with the Space Marine warriors of Ordo Xenos: the Deathwatch, finally managed to send a splinter fleet away from Jericho's Reach to gain biomass and flank the Imperials, a maneuver the deathwatch had predicted but had no assets available to negate. Divatus I was unlucky enough to be in the path of this hivefleet, and with no timely help possible from the Deathwatch, sent distress calls into the void.
In an unlikely bout of fortune a crusade force of the Faithful Shields chapter led by Knight Torrent of the Third Order was passing close by the system. The plight of the world and the necessity of containing the Tyranid threat was enough that he diverted a large portion of his force, roughly a company of marines, towards the system to stop the tyranids before they gained too much momentum. When they arrived though, they were surprised to find another chapter had answered the call as well. The chapter known as Steel Paragons answered the call to shield Divatus I from alien menace, it's chapter master Lorr Enzariion deploying the forces of the 10th company led by Drasthin Lydriik together with a substantial amount of marines that were part of The Company of Tormented Souls, made up entirely of savage astartes that fell victim to this chapter's grim gene-curse, with the Cemiterium warden known as Norrvus Grymn leading this accursed special force, a dark swordman of unmatched prowess. These fell angels deployed to eradicate the tyranid menace from the crowded spires of Divatus with their noxious arsenal of Ghosgene and radium weaponry.
Both forces landed in the greatest city of the world, which had been turned into a mighty fortress capital. The Faithful Shields would devote their ships to ferrying civilians off world as the Steel Paragons prepared their arms. Much discomfort came from the command of the Faithful Shields at these damned astartes, but with the assurance of their effectiveness by both Enzariion and Grymn, they would withhold any open condemnations. When the splinter fleet finally arrived, it met fierce resistance in the void, but the Imperial fleet was soon forced to retreat, leaving the planet open to invasion.
As the innumerable spores and tyrannocites crashed into the barren wasteland just outside the planetary capital, the first gun batteries together with many armored units belonging to the sons of ferrus begun firing right into the ravenous swarm, thousands of lesser hive beings slaughtered by the unrelenting bombardment, but as effective as this tactic was at repelling the onslaught of xenos, their malicious overlords adapted to better counter the grand fortifications. In just a few solar hours the tide of monsters seemingly disappeared from outside of the city walls, only for far larger beings to appear within the spires from both the sky and tunnels under the ground, turning the battle from a siege into a bloody close quarters engagement across the streets and districts of the city. With the sky cut off civilians were forced into the cramped spires as refuge. These “refuges” became the opposite, and the Faithful Shields found themselves having to wade through crowds to fight tyranid bioforms.
But to the horror of the Faithful Shields, the Steel Paragons' cursed marines completely ignored the lives of the Imperial civilians and even the PDF. Wherever the tyranids appeared, the area would become a spot of intense carnage as the berserk warriors ripped apart and burned xenos and terrified citizens alike as the acidic weaponry of the rampaging astartes and dreadnoughts spared none, and soon entire blocks of the hives were so hazardous to life even the Tyranids avoided them. The pinnacle of this was during a particularly brutal engagement in the eastern sector of the hive, So over-run was it that the Cemiterium warden decided to level it entirely to leave nothing for the enemy, and so 3 micro-nucleic warheads were launched at the spire, wiping everything from the area in a flash of blinding light and scorching heat.
The Faithful Shields were outraged at the extreme measures taken without consulting them, but there was little they could do now as though the Imperials held their ground, it was clear a decisive move had to be made if they were to win. The Hive Tyrant, foul leader of the swarm, was finally located and a hit on the creature was planned by tempestor Lydriik asvolunteered to lead a charge into the tyranids to punch a hole straight into the Hive Tyrant. With heavy fire support from the Faithful Shields forces, Lydriik led a convoy of grav-tanks aboard his newly aquired grav-bike and managed to engage the Hive Tyrant. Using the grav tank’s heavy weaponry and his personal craft’s meltagun blasts to wear down the Tyrant’s psychic shielding and boneswords as to block, Lydriik himself would score the killing blow with his thunder hammer, a blow so powerful it left a permanent mark on the head of the hammer itself as it crashed on the xeno skull with the force of a meteor. With the Tyrant dead, the foul xenos’s coordinated push faltered at the sudden lack of large scale coordination. The Knight Torrent would lead a counter attack to take advantage of their confusion, and the tyranid ground forces were subsequently butchered by the astartes and surviving PDF forces while In the void, the fleets managed much the same as the tyranid splinter fleet was brought low by macrocannon barrages and energy lance strikes, Bringing victory to the imperium and destroying yet another splinter hivefleet of the great devourer
Chapter Homeworld (Work In Progress)
Zeitus (work in progress)
- "The surface is barren and schorched and yet, we ride, for it’s all that we have
The Golgotha are ravenous and without end and yet, we ride, for this planet is rightfully ours
Their hives are unbreachable and full of horrors and yet, we ride, for they house the heart of this evil
We put our lives in the hands of our brothers and yet, we ride, for the star men showed us a way trough the darkness
Trust your guns, protect your brothers and triumphant victory will surely follow"- —War chant sung during the Brood War just before the final attack on the major planetary hive cluster
Infinitus (Work In Progress)
The Aurora Cannon
The Aurora Cannon, the only weapon integrated within Infinitus's main pylon structure, was discovered by the chapter during the Brood War, the conflict between the city’s new defenders, Acheeridon Xeriis and his still unnamed force against the golgothan hives that encroached ever closer to the crawling fortress’s legs. The chapter’s techmarines and mechanicus presence soon began studying the great weapon and it’s functioning for their own schemes, be them to better understand the nature of the walking city or to replicate this ancient technology. Finding out that the cannon's melted down lenses and broken energy nodes, most likely caused by opening fire after millenia spent without maintenance, were in actuality merely a century old compared to the more intact sections of it all was dated to a staggering 25 thousand years old, making it and the walking city itself a derelict yet functional relic of the dark age of technology. This shocking discovery made Infinitus and the planet of Zeitus at large a nexus for technoarcheologists that would pay any price to begin exploring the engine's immense depths, a coincidence that has brough the attention and favour of multiple forgeworlds to this planet and their newest bulwark, making sure to exchange access to Infinitus's un-explored halls in exchange for allegiance and a constant supply of ordnance, equipment and vehicles.
(need to add the one time it fired: was against a colossal meteor the size of ceres that would have broken the entire planet had it landed. The cannon automatically detected this threat and began unfolding and preparing more and more stabilizers and energy banks until it finally fired, unleashing a bolt of light and electricity so dense and powerful that it tore the rainclouds over the walking city apart, letting its inhabitants look up to the stars while being illuminated by both the blinding wave of antimatter aimed towards the meteor and the dense auroras that formed from the charge refracting onto the atmosphere. The meteor was struck with such power that it broke apart and shattered into millions of tiny pieces after a considerable part of its mass was seemingly zapped out of existance. The weapon irreparably broke after firing.)
The Golgotha (Work In Progress)
genestrains
Warrior
Mantis-wasp hybrid (4 legs on thorax with stinger,2 arms in torso), being roughly the height of a firstborn marine, has either mantis talons able to slice trough human limbs like a knife trough butter or heavier pincers with enough crush force to tear space marine armor plating away. If they survive for enough time they will begin to develop short wings, giving them the ability to leap around a dozen of meters in the air and either drop down on the enemy or glide for long distances
Breachers
Warrior variant with thicker armor on the front limbs and head, while the arm weapons are replaced by large spikes that are drentched in rupturer acid, letting them carve trough heavier armor should they ever come in close proximity to it, if they survive for enough time they slowly develop even thicker frontal armor and an smaller bio-sling on their back, giving them the ability to throw smaller rupturers across the battlefield like a grenadier would
Raker
Giant dragonfly (larger than a tank) with a long Vibrotalon scorpion tail that can be either used as a piercing attack when moving slowly or be hardened and let barely reach the ground as the Raker soars at high speed and close to the ground, scything anything that is unlucky enough to end in their path, if they survive for enough time hives of winged liquifiers will take root within the gene-strain’s outer body, only to be dropped at a moment’s notice on the enemy formations, creating a static enemy that continuously lets out acid-filled locusts capable of pestering power armor wearers or even outright kill unarmored humans
Bombardier
Tank-sized insects incapable of flight, Bombardiers instead house within their foldable carapaces a bio-sling capable of lobbing acid filled creatures called rupturers across the dunes of Zeitus. Altough it has a slow rate of fire, muzzle velocity and accuracy especially when firing at longer rangers or a high angle of attack, each rupturer that manages to strike true can melt an entire battletank or shred multiple infantry squad in the living munition’s carapace turned deadly fragments. While boasting a powerful attack, these living pieces of artillery are lacking in defence, as well as being so volatile that striking this beast with a heavy enough weapon will cause the high pressure of acid within the many living ammo stored to all react and blow up in an explosion powerful enough to destroy any other bombardier within proximity. To counter this the more elder and thus veteran can adapt a miniature overmind node within their body, letting them dominate lesser gene-strains to act as shields against incoming ordinance or close range assailants.
Shredders
(Shorter than a human is tall) centipedes that move in groups to quickly swarm large targets or multiple lesser enemies and run into them with their vibroblade horns horn, slashing and piercing anything with enough numbers, they lack a “veteran form” as they are both expendable and extremely numerous
Brood Queen
(as large as a khorne lord of skulls) colossal beetle with twin scorpion tail with an almost humanoid body on it's back (like a centaur) with mantis like appearance and small vestigial butterfly wings on her back that are used to create patterns to either intimidate other brood queens or dominate lesser minds be them golgotha or human
The Brood Empress
unique brood queen being based on a scorpion with 2 pincers, 2 mantis blades and a bio-sling within the creature’s mouth, together with 2 vibrotalon bladed scorpion tails, being even larger (shoulder to shoulder with a warhound titan) and it’s skin having a metallic silver shine from it’s unique bio-armor including a metallo-keratin alloy biologically produced by this unique genestrain, the brood empress has a global range of control over the golgotha, while each brood queen can manage at best 2% of the planet’s surface
The Apex
a unique gene-strain found only once during the final moments of the Brood War, being the pulsing heart of the colossal beast that threatened the entire planet with it’s unlimited influence over the entire golgotha. This vile abomination revealed itself after the Brood Empress was mortally wounded after hours of tenacious conflict across the rad-covered dunes, the final nail in it’s coffin being the fall into a deep ravine that collapsed under the beast’s weight. After both Acheeridon Xeriis and the titanic foe fell down into the bowels of the earth, from the broken carcass of the empress two long mantis claws bathed in bright purple energy tore their way out of the beast’s thorax only to face the lone swordman, it’s body miniscule compared to the corpse it came out off as the creature matched Acheeridon in height, and yet it was apparent that it held alot more potential in it’s body as it moved with great speed and agility to try snd strike down the warrior of the Steel Paragons, their duel a battle of endurance as despite xeriis’s great skill the abberration before him was his equal if not superior, it’s success helped by it’s
Chapter Organisation (work in progress)
(( The Steel Paragons still divide themselves in companies akin to most other chapters, it's just that their most trusted strategy usually takes multiple companies's full armouries to assemble, thus making the steel paragons deploy less strike forces across the galaxy but send multiple companies out of the 10 (and the company of lost souls, where the incindio marines are kept) in each strike force. Deployments of the entire chapter's might are rare but still happen, usually when the foe's annihilation is all but necessary to ensure the defence perimeter they enforce is kept up))
The Chapter remains largely Codex-compliant mostly using the ranks and structures as prescribed within the Codex Astartes. Where the chapter differs is in the way colour and markings are used to denote its squads and ranks as well as the addition of roles relevant to the Company of Lost Souls.
Officer Ranks
- Paragon of the Storm - Chapter master
- Tempestor Prime - First Captain
- Tempestor - Captain
- Stormguard - Lieutenant
- Warden of the Cemiterium - chapter champion and captain of the Company of Tormented Souls
Specialist Ranks
- Master of the Forge
- Techmarine
- Chief Librarian
- Librarian
- Master of Sanctity
- Chaplain
- Chief Apothecary
- Apothecary
- Company Champion
- Chapter Ancient
- Company Ancient
Line Ranks
- Veteran Sergeant
- Veteran
- Sergeant
- Battle-Brother
- Scout Marine
- Neophyte
- Aspirant
Specialist Units & Formations ( work in progress)
Seekers
Seeker squads are the armor-crushing talon that lets the otherwise rigid Steel Paragon formations counter a foe trying to play at their same game. Armed with a more streamlined variant of a Heavy Grav-cannon realized out of both primaris and adeptus mechanicus hardware, these potent weapons and their surprisingly agile carriers sow fear in enemy armoured divisions with each invisible wave of gravitational force let out by their weapon’s glowing barrels. Lesser, unarmored being that are unfortunate enough to be struck by such waves have the luxury of quickly dropping to the ground as their bones and organs are made into dust by the forced weight of their own bodies. For anything that instead tries protecting itself with heavy plates or chitinous frames are instead slowly compressed and made collapse into themselves as if being squeezed in the grasp of the Omnissiah himself, towering machines and abominations made into crumbling wrecks as their weight is multiplied tenfold and used to accelerate their demise at the hands of the Angels of death. The most skilled of users among these formations will learn how to modulate the weapon’s gravitational field to such degree as to accurately shear the outer armor of their intended target clean off, making them an even easier prey for their battlebrothers.
Demolishers
First theorized by Triiaros maal himself after witnessing the efficiency in which terminators equipped with chainfists made quick work of most Necrodermis Constructs encountered in the Adrokhtasiae’s dark halls. Merely a year later the first Demolisher squad was alredy prepared for it’s maiden fight against the Tau and their resilient battle-suits. Equipped with a pair of Chainfists and a composite grenade launcher mounted upon their back that held both krak and arc grenades, where the similar aggressor loadout would instead carry the smaller fragstorm launchers. As one by one the xeno warmachines were cleaved apart or torn open, this innovative formation was then fully taken into consideration by the chapter and prepared to field more squads of astartes bearing this same battlefield role. An alteration of such a loadout was to replace the bulkier grenade launcher for a more compact one only carrying arc grenades, instead using that regained weight to instead mount a Servo-Pyreblaster onto the marine’s back. The addition of this self-aiming flame weapons gave these battlebrothers both a way to scorch their way trough hordes as well as burn out crews of the vehicles that just had their outer armor gouged out by a hailstorm of power-chainblades.
Protectors
Being some of the heaviest infantry formation within the Steel Paragons's arsenal, Protectors are more akin to undersized centurion warsuits rather than the more common Gravis pattern, having been coined into the Tyrannis sub-pattern thanks to it’s incredibly heavy plating and additional servos to sustain all this increased weight being more than enough to equal even terminator-class plating in toughness, not factoring the latter’s field generator that is. Protectors will deploy in squads of up to 6 astartes and be deployed right in the thick of the fight by transport, as the slow movement speed of this pattern is one of it’s few flaws when compared to what instead is gained by an oversized power source, stronger actuators and enough plating to all but ignore enemy firepower that would punch trough most astartes armor. When their designated defence position is reached by the protector squad, large stabilizers anchor each warrior onto the ground while facing the enemy’s own, slowly stabilizing their lascannons or revving up their volley las-fusil while resting the powerful but sluggish weapon on their integrated adamantine shields. Being one of the most successfull attempts at integrated Las-type weapons into it’s frontline troops, the Steel Paragons made use of multiple Las-Fusil firing blocks directly wired to the armor’s own reactor and mounted onto a single rotating body which is then carried to battle akin to an assault cannon, exchanging sheer rate of fire for the ability to lay low large quantities of heavy infantry, monsters and vehicles alike from large distances, noticeably decreasing the amount of pressure the enemy formation will be able to put onto the rest of the defending garrison.
Frost Wardens
(maybe change them not be frost themed as aurora minoris will change)
Frost wardens are the elite honorguard of the chapter, tasked with the revered task of being the Lorr Enzariion’s own fortress. Each one of these esteemed veterans comes from one of the ten companies to represent the chapter’s immutable fealty to the chapter and it’s leader, and after abandoning their origin company the will embrace their new role until their last breath, being ready to sacrifice their whole existance to maintain their master’s wellbeing on the most gruesome of battlefields. Outside of engagements they will be seen at the side of the chapter master wielding ornate power halberds while wearing pure white and platinum colored gravis pattern power armor with only their company numeral in black over their helmet’s forehead, all while a long dark blue mantle with the name of all the battles these honored warriors have taken place etched within the cloak that hangs from their shoulders.
at first sight most would think these grandiose power weapons would be their chosen wargear during field duty, but that could not be further from the truth as as war comes these paladins instead are bound to 10 separate Centurion Warsuits of the chapter master’s own working, each individual warden choosing from all available weaponry within the chapter’s fragmented yet vast armoury, all however keeping both a ranged weapon and a close combat weapon to be effective in all situations be it tides of lesser tyranid bio-forms or shadowing tau constructs as well as being suited to fight at the absolute zero temperatures the chapter master’s main weapon generates upon firing, both their armor and exosuit being hardened to not suffer the peril of such quick temperature drop while keeping full mobility
The Company of Lost Souls
Incindio Ruinators
Those anguished souls assigned to Ultiones Latore and further divided into Ruinator Squads are damned to fight and destroy to their last Breath not for glory, nor duty, for instead they will bring devastation to all only in the name of vengeance, a hatred so deeply ingrained into their souls that it becomes their only truth. The modified Auto-senses within their reinforced helmets override their natural vision, replacing the reality before them with a nightmarish mirage of their own failure: the sight of their battle-brothers lying dead, scattered across the gore-soaked wastes of a shattered battlefield, their armor torn apart by otherworldy claws and teeth as the crimson tone of blood pervades the air itself. In every engagement, they see their fallen kin, their hands outstretched in silent condemnation as they tightly grip the handles of their Ghosgene weaponry, knowing they are but alone in a field of death. Their enemies, however, are percieved as crystal clear—the only things in the Afflicted astarte’s world that still moves, that still breathes, and that is coming to eliminate the last of humanity’s greatest warriors. These once battlebrothers, wracked by grief and guilt beyond human comprehension, are conditioned by their own tampered sight to understand only one thing: Mankind’s enemies must die for what they have done. This calculated psychosis transforms the Ultiones into relentless marauders, ensuring a slow and agonizing end will meet all in their unwavering march towards certain doom, uncaring of even the most grevious of wounds wounds, for in their minds, they are already dead—just as their brothers are. They fight with a singular purpose: to annihilate those who brought them to ruin, even if their suffering is nothing more than an engineered lie.
To aid these accursed souls in their grim extermination of all that stands against them, each astartes in the squad is given a Ghosgene Spewers, a modified pyreblaster able to inundate fortifications and vehicle hulls alike with a thick cloud of Acidic Gas in mere seconds. for each squad however, a weapon specialist will be tasked to carry either a Nerocite-Pattern Spewer Cannon, a devastating but unwieldy modification of the pyrecannon, increasing its maximum nozzle pressure and the capacity of its tanks, the increased weight proving difficult to manage even for a trained devastator marine with heavy duty bionics installed. Should a more long-range armament be more effective instead bring to bear the devastating radium warhead vengor launcher, capable of bathing large areas in harmful radiation from long ranges and even outside the user’s direct line of sight.
Incindio Ravagers
Members of the Exitium Latore embody the purest form of righteous carnage, they are destruction given breath. These warriors that have fallen to the Incindio Ichorys share a similar fate to their bretheren in the Ultiones Latore, their senses and perception of the battlefield being falsified to instigate them into an overwhelming berserk fury. Where the Ultiones see the aftermath of a lost war, the Exitium experience battle in its most agonizing and chaotic form. Their visual feeds depict an endless, unwinnable nightmare, where they soar above a battlefield drenched in the gore of their dying kin, where the void between stars gained incomprehensible form to cut down their closest brothers in terrible, visceral displays. These accursed warriors are thus granted a singular, all-consuming purpose as they come face to face with the darkness: Destroy all, reduce everything in their path to ruin before it can consume them and their brothers in turn. Every engagement becomes a final charge, every battle a slaughter in the name of survival. Another differing point between the two Latores is that where Ultiones astartes will be given the command to externinate the imperium’s foes with gouts of Ghosgene spewers, those that belong in the caste of destruction will instead engage the enemy in savage close combat while bearing powerful melee weapons and potent explosive charges, reaping a heavy toll before their agonizing souls are finally put to rest, not before taking as many of the enemy’s strongest combatants with them as possible.
These vicious close support specialists are equipped with jump packs in order to leap over and beyond any obstacle or fortification the enemy might have layed out, giving them clear path to their foe no matter how far they might be hiding. When these berserk souls reach their hated foe, their loadout consisting of ghosgene spewer pistols and a power spear lets them face anything up to their equal with ease, incinerating entire hordes and impaling the enemy’s elite with brutal thrusts. To instead fell any larger opponent, a single heavy melta bomb is mag locked to each ravager’s power-pack, its release mechanism bound to the astartes’s neural imput. This one-use explosive shell wa specifically designed to be dropped during these grim angels’s rapid descent onto their prey, turning even the mightiest warmachine to burning slag only to turn upon whatever other enemy may have survived the rain of explosives, tracing crimson arcs in the air with their spears as they lose themselves in their agonizing frenzy.
Incindio Ultionis/Exitium dreadnoughts
same as above
In the rare cases where the marine interred within a dreadnought falls to the gene-curse, the result will be entirely dependant on what form of Incindio afflicts the interred marine: in the most common occourance they will develop the exitium variation, the same kind that plagues the ravager squads of the damned company, thus creating a being of pure rage that yearns to bring doom to it’s foes in close range combat, this grim task being complemented by the armament chosen, mostly based around the brutalis subtype, combining the crushing power of the brutalis talons with a pair twin-linked heavy ghosgene spewer mounted on each on the dreadnought’s wrists together with replacing the icarus ironhail stubber with a single skyspear anti air missile.
The other, much rarer form of affliction that could besiege the dreadnought pilot is the ultionis type, more commonly known within the astartes that form ruinator squads, these unique individuals will be tooled out to provide artillery support to the forces of tormented souls as their weapons are loosely inspired upon the ballistus framework but instead replacing the lascannon array with a secondary missile pod that combined with it’s twin is able to fire up to 16 ghosgene airburst missiles, but their most vicious piece of wargear installed upon these agonized walkers remains the 4 Micro-nucleic warheads mounted on top of the hull, each single missile able to turn all lifeforms and enemy war assets within 500 meter radius of ground zero into stray particles, leaving only radioactive fallout and ash for dozens of years, the final say in the destruction of all the imperium’s foes.
Limiting this configuration’s use even more than the rarity for the dreadnought pilot to develop the ultionis type is it’s absolute lack of care for friendly fire, even against non damned astartes, as with the exitiums simply releasing them using a stormraven performing low aerial drop manouvers and letting them charge towards the enemy lines like hunting dogs seeking prey manages to contain the number of friendly combatants being trampled during their mad dash to a minimum, so the very few times an ultionis dreadnought is authorized for deployment a senior techmarine will follow it’s every movement and have manual control on the weapon’s safeties, some even limiting the war engine’s movement speed by purposely weakening the leg servos just to keep it from running away and unloading all munitions on the frontline.
Incindio Apocalypsis Forgebounds
describe what their lenses show
Where the first stage of the Incindio Ichorys brings self loathing and the second stage an inexaustible fury and lack of self-preservation,the third and final stage of the gene-curse brings to the few that reach it the complete and utter destruction of all psyche and reason, or what was left if it since the earlier stage,the afflicted demi-god now nothing more than a agonizing soul bound to a body of scorching bionic limbs and grotesque weapons, these unique individuals are interred and welded shut inside heavily modified centurion warsuits from the very first moment the symptoms of the Apocalypsis show, as any less would put the lives of all human serfs in immediate danger, these cursed prisons being made from those warsuit who’s machine spirit have proven too aggressive for a normal astartes’s mind to dominate, as only these ferocious machine spirits have a chance at surviving the the maniacal rage that assails their eternal host without being reduced to insanity so deep no known ritual of technoarcana would be able to restore it
Their default weapon loadout stripped away and replaced with a Nerocite-pattern Spewer Cannon on each arm, radium warhead rockets within the suit’s chest mounts and a Neurostatic vox amplifier situated in the marine’s helmet, the latter being an augmentation to the vox grill found on all firstborn helmets and it bears similarity to the technology used on the elusive skitarii subtype known as sicaran infiltrators, where every deafening scream and howl of fury or agony is transformed into neurostatic white noise that corrodes both biological senses and detection technology, shattering enemy resolve and outright destroying the mind of any unfortunate enough to stand too close, this experimental and thus volatile piece of wargear together for their overcharged power sources, a necessary modification to sustain the warsuit’s exotic weapons, turning the mercy of death upon these accursed demi-gods into a cataclysmic explosion of green ghosgene flame.
To witness a member of the company of tormented souls as a marine pure of affliction is to witness brutality enough to instigate the first signs of the curse in the marines most struck with grieve, But to witness a Forgebound douse dark green flames over everything in it’s path will bring all but the most strong-willed astartes of marines fully within the accursed battalion the Company of Tormented Souls.
Librarian Psyker Abilities
To further honor their heritage as sons of the gorgon, the of the Steel Paragons are trained to learn the Technomancy discipline, the psychic discipline mainly practiced by their progenitor chapter, with other unique spells and incantations being taught to the most experienced Epistolaries in the chapter:
- Photonic Eruption - As the astartes maintains his concentration upon this manifestation, a crackling yet stable sphere of plasma and lightnings expands from their held together palms, gaining more power and focus the longer it is held in this state. After channeling enough to fully stabilize the immense electrical charge, the psyker will then push his hands towards the sky and release all the stored up energy energy a single massive bolt of lightning that either strikes whatever airborne object is found directly above the user or, should the epistolary have set his psychic senses on a specific target, streak across the sky only to fall down onto the astartes’s center of focus, arcing over most cover and striking with the power of storm itself even at extreme distances. One legendary event where this incantation’s raw power was proven when Chief Librarian Draak Kolgrimm together with a handful of lexicaniums and epistolaries, pinned down by the extreme firepower of a Tau armoured beach head that was about to be reinforced by a Manta Gunship, converged their powers into a single charge more akin to a miniature sun only to after almost two terran minutes. The stored energy was such that upon release all the astartes’s armors in the vicinity as well as any other electronic device suffered a black out, their silence replaced by a deafening thunder that struck the rapidly-descending manta so hard it’s left wing was torn apart while all its systems, propulsion included, grinded to a halt. Unable to reboot the titanic flyer quick enough, it crashed onto it’s very own forces with devastating effect for the xeno aggressors, the culling of the few survivors bringing a swift end to the alien firebase and hold upon the planet’s main continent.
- Might of Infinitus - The practicing Librarian channels psychic power into one of his sabatons as he rises its leg only to drop it with all his strenght, generating a large shockwave upon impact that is followed with the deafening noise of the walking city’s own tread. all beings that can trace their bloodline back to Zeitus comes off unscathed by this blast, instead being reminded of their home’s legendary roar and be pushed to even greater deeds in order to honor their lineage. For all others however, the shockwave that is unleashed is more than enough to toss power armored foes tens of meters in the air and overturn even the heaviest vehicles and monstruosities in close proximity to the user. Even those that have held their ground from this devastating force will find themselves reeling in pain as the accompaning sound of the colossal engine’s stomp will rupture any living being’s eardrums and turn their muscles numb from the vibrations inflicted upon them. This powerful spell is also extremely adapt at breaking a charging enemy formation, leaving the now scattered and disoriented enemies vulnerable to close range gunfire or the chapter’s own melee fighters.
- Chains of Damnation - When a Librarian falls to the Incindio Ichorys, the visions that plague all those that share his fate makes willfully manifesting the warp impossible, their knowledge of arcana being eroded by their eternal affliction, but their innate psychic potential isn’t removed from them outright, and so when the once librarian will be on the verge of death his final incantation will set in, their power armor starting to melt from the internal heat created by the psyker’s manifesting his mental curse within realspace, and from the wounded marine’s forearms 2 large chains as dark as the void between stars will uncoil and become shrouded in green ghosgene flames only to be used as gigantic flails and whips, being able to lash out slaughter enemy infantry with impunity, while larger and heavier targets are coiled and conscricted to death by these ethereal chains. Tough powerful, this last resort burst of power dooms the librarian to a dishonorable and atrocious death as the suffering his soul would have felt a millenia locked within his corrupted body will be felt every second spent in this state. After no more that a couple of minute their Psychic potential will be exhausted and their body will simply fall to the ground as life has finally left it’s scorched vessel, the melted and deformed ceramite of their armor forever fused to the carbonized skin and flesh of the once proud librarian.
Order of Battle
Frost Wardens (Centurion-clad Honour Guards) Chapter Serfs & Servitors | |||||
 Orros Skorrgok Chaplains |
 Uhllkar Kruyyvan Apothecaries |
 Draak Kolgrimm Epistolaries Lexicaniums Acolytes (Neophytes) | |||
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2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Sternguard veteran squads Vanguard veteran squads Terminator squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships
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2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
2 Stormguards Company Champion Command Squad (Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain, Apothecary & Librarian) Battleline squads Fire support squads Close support squads Dreadnoughts Techmarines Transports Battle Tanks Gunships |
10 Jailors Each Jailor leads into battle up to 10 Incindio marines or alternatively an Incindio Redemptor Dreadnought | ||||||
Caste of Vengeance |
Caste of Destruction |
Caste of Cataclism | ||||
 Ultiones Redemptors |
Exitius Redemptors |
Forgebounds | ||||
Combat Doctrine
As rightful sons of the Gorgon, the Steel Paragons pride themselves in their mastery over machines, be them advanced bionics, waves of expendable battle- servitors or mighty war engines. This chapter has over time perfected the martial doctrine of overwhelming ranged firepower , vowing to choke the enemy as well as the battlefield itself in bolter rounds, las blasts and missile salvoes every time a trigger is pulled. However, the chapter’s acclimation to open warfare does not mean more subtle tactics are out of the question, instead only being seen as highly dependant on the current battle’s status and the enemy that is being faced. The passing of the Paragon of the Storm role from Acheeridon to Enzariion further helped the chapter’s doctrine evolve upon this path of ranged warfare, going as far as to reclassify melee combat as an inferior option to the more “efficient” tactics that one could apply with a chapter’s worth of heavy weapons, tanks and gunships.
The Steel Tide
The Steel Tide is an unorthodox manouver made possible by the chapter’s use of vehicles using anti-gravitic technology as well as numerous aircraft types. When the order to attack a planet the chapter’s forces orbit, the voidships will open their grand hangars and let out a packed flock of gunships and grav-tanks, angling their approach to make landfall as close as possible to the enemy position’s most vulnerable side while bombardment cannons continue pummeling the surface below, not allowing even a second of respite as the chapter’s armoured assault falls from the heavens themselves. As the blackend hulls of the Steel Paragons tanks and transports tear trough the atmosphere, wings of gunships and interceptors escort the entire convoy as to deter any airborne enemy from attacking the Steel Paragons’s tanks in their most vulnerable moment. Many fortified positions have met their end like this, being ground to mere dust under the earth-shattering salvos of vehicle firepower or the crushing weight of their treads or repulsor fields.
Tactics of the damned
Like in all other aspects of an astartes’s life, the symptoms of the Incindio Ichorys bring vast changes to the tactics employed by the chapter. Marines that are interred within the Company of Tormented Souls do not follow the tenets of the rest of the chapter, instead being herded into battle trough tampered pic-feeds and alterer vox-links, made to believe that their finest hour is nigh in order to cause as much destruction upon their enemies as possible before doom befalls them. Such simple yet brutal strategy is made even deadlier by the unique weaponry that they employ on the battlefield, scorching all life from the very grounf they fight upon with each esalation of their chemical and radiological armaments.
Chapter Culture and Beliefs (Work In Progress)
Funerary Rites
a more common form of burial is all but impossible upon the heavily radioactive dunes of Zeitus, for the astarte's hallowed body would simply be desecrated or devoured by the Golgotha hives that dominate the ash wastes. Because of this, all those marines that receive the honor of reaching the emperor with their bodies or mind not being completely destroyed, the destiny that awaits their cold body is for it to be cremated in presence of it's most bonded brothers, only for the ashes to be spread from the highest spire upon Infinitus into the constant rain that cloaks the walking city's skies, an inexorable flow of coolant that leads the remains of the transhuman warrior to become one with the monolithic Perpetual Motion engine that powers the great city. Before the cerimonial release of their ashes, menial servitors will enscribe upon the massive barrel of the city's Aurora Cannon, a weapon from the dark ages that dwarfs even most escort voidships in lenght and has been silent for millenia already, the name and the greatest deed of every defunct marine that embraces the emperor without falling to the Incindio Ichorys.
After the rise in power of Lorr Enzariion however, the chapter's most heroic members have since recieved a different treatment, as their bodies are left in the crypt-like halls that surround the Perpetual Motion Engine, their flesh burned off by the background radioactive only to leave the skeletons of mighty champions to circle around the beating heart of the city
Chapter Gene-seed (Work In Progress)
Primarch’s curse - Incindio Ichorys
The Steel Paragons’s gene-seed is derived from the cold and mechanically-attuned Iron Hands and their primarch Ferrus Manus and after many examinations has shown no significant mutations, be them positive or negative, but as they also inherited the legion’s hatred of their flesh that together with the harsh conditions this chapter’s battlebrothers endure both before and after their becoming a fully fledged astartes have formed a dark and noxious gene-curse, now known to the chapter as the “Incindio Ichorys”
Stage 1: lamentations of the survivor
Should doubt find fertile soil in an astartes survivor of great carnage of his battlebrothers, the first true stage of the affliction will begin to set in, their fate now written in stone as there is no turning back from this stage, as well as the rapid worsening of their condition should active prevention or treatment ever be administered, effectively giving every marine’s mind that fell to the Incindio Ichorys an expiration date. This early stage of the curse is characterized by an inescapable sense of guilt and grievance for having let their chapter down and their battle brothers to die when they could have done more to turn the tide of the lost battle, only to be brought into an endless cycle of self-mutilation in the name of recieving additional bionics and thinking it’s not enough, pushing themselves to do more more, to fully embrace the machine and abhor their flesh to numb the mourning that plagues their mind and soul
Stage 2: steel’s strenght turned boiling Ichor
All who fall to the Incindio and don’t lose their lives before their reason is torn asunder from the burning agony felt from each mechanical limb, feeling their past of flesh haunting these bionics and turning their strenght into pain. The marines that enter the second stage of the Incindio are immediatly moved away from their original company and squad, their armor markings and honors removed as their armor is treated to resist the Ghoshene’s corrosive agents, only to be moved to the company of tormented souls and integrated within one of the two castes that the chapter’s Company of the Damned contains. This differentiation is born from the visual illusions that will be used to shape their behaviour in when deployed in battle, all while their standard weaponry is replaced with exotic armaments that by design prove to be as dangerous to the target as they are to the wielder in order to both accelerate their demise and cause as much carnage to the adversary as possible before any Incindio marine or dreadnought reaches final death.
- Ultiones Latore – The Caste of Vengeance:
- Exitium Latore – The Caste of Destruction:
Stage 3: A Blazing Cage for Insanity Made Manifest (wip)
While battle-brothers afflicted by the second stage of the Incindio Ichorystheir usually meet their end in the throes of the battles they are sent towards, there have been a dreadful few individuals that manage to elude death for enough time to transcend past the second stage, plunging into the final and most horrifying abyss of the Steel Paragons’s gene-curse. What emerges from it is no longer a battle-brother nor an individual in any meaningful sense. The afflicted has become a husk of iron sinew and steel muscles, his personality and memories ground to ash under the relentless psychological and biological pressure of the gene-curse. No spark of identity remains—no voice, no thought, no purpose other than devastation. The only echoes left are pain and fire, coursing endlessly through a twisted union of ceramite, flesh, and burning madness.
- Apocalypsis Latore – The Caste of the Apocalypse:
( Another idea, The chapter weaponized this curse even further by modifing the feed of their eye lenses to show anything that moves or lives around them as not yet on fire, with the jailors going around this by both wearing pitch-black facemasks and hoods to hide their face and special signals bound to their armor that notify incindio’s lenses to instead show them as shadows, immaterial around their fallen brethreren as they give out orders made to sound like the marine’s own internal voice, using their impulsiveness to control them. Marines that enter stage 2 also lose all names, ranks and are written into the [insert name for sick prison where all the incindio marines are kept])
(more ideas: the chapter at large does not have any respect for the marines in the company of lost souls, the jailors regard them as living weapons. Upon entering stage 2 the neck progenoid gland is taken away, so that no potential gene-seed is loss from their demise)
Chapter Recruitment (Work In Progress)
After having sworn to protect the people of Zeitus for the rest of time, the Steel Paragons had secured themselves a loyal following and base of operation in the form of the Infinitus. As part of the eternal pledge that the Zeiteans made to the chapter, fresh recruits would be supplied in the form of every firstborn son of the walking city, given to the chapter to become the next generation of aspirants for the chapter to integrate and turn into the Steel Paragons of the future. The vast amounts of eligible candidates that Infinitus hands to the chapter assures that only the best may be selected to the process that will turn them into demi-gods, uncaring of their family’s status or role. Those young men that are instead discarded remain within the military structure of the chapter and the planet as a whole, becoming the backbone of the Zeitean Tempest Brigade. For those few that instead pass the first checks, life turns into constant training and hardship, forging their sense of absolute brotherhood trough live fire tests, descents into Infinitus’s darkest halls and much more. As more and more of the Astartes organs are implanted into them, tests increase in difficulty and lethality, soon enough preparing them to become the eyes and ears of their respective company as scouts. After serving the chapter as forward observers and infiltrators for at least 3 terran years, they will recieve the honor to embark onto the final trial, a deadly pilgrimage across the planet’s rad-scorched wastes that will see them either return to the chapter a true battlebrother or not return at all: The Errant’s Walk.
The errant’s walk
Deathwatch Service
Notable Members (Work In Progress)
- Lorr Enzariion: Current Paragon of the Storm. Wargear: artificer gravis armor, servo arm, heavy power fist with wrist-mounted storm bolter, omnissian axe , "Aurora Minoris". When the chapter deploys it’s armoury as a strike force, the chapter master leads from it's own personal vehicle, a modified Repulsor Executioner called "ares"
- Triiaros Maal: Tempestor Prime. wargear: Modified indomitus terminator armor (shield generator was replaced with an overclocked inceptor jump pack and greaves thrusters, giving the heavy suit of power armor a noticably higher movement speed, agility and force of impact when charging, all while still having an energy field thanks to the Tempestor Prime’s iron halo), heavy thunder hammer “Regicide”, assault bolter.
- Acheeridon Xeriis Ex-Paragon of the Storm and Warden of the Ancients. Wargear: contemptor relic dreadnought (only relic vehicle in the chapter, was found with a Midnight blue coat of paint in the Perpetual motion core within Infinitus’s inner and darkest decks, was repaired and embellished as much as possible in hope of one day inserting a worthy hero within,Xeriis being said hero of legend), Solar Atomiser, twin grav-cannon, cyclone missile launcher, omnissian Grand axe “Undying’s fury”.
((Xeriis has ever since stepped down from the role of Chapter Master (or Paragon of the Storm, as that is it’s official name within the chapter), instead becoming warden of the ancients and all the other dreadnoughts in the chapter. His successor was chosen from the survivors of the first company, as a vast number of terminator veterans were lost in the bowels of the Adrokhtasiae, Zeralkh's Cairn class, after their key mission to teleport in and deploy plasma warheads inside the ship to permanently disable it's scarab swarms and, if the detonation was centered well, completely destroy the ship's central section. That honor fell to 1st Company Lieutenant Lorr Enzariion, that survived the daring operation and accepted the role, as the first captain, Triiaros Maal instead turned down such a promotion out of penance for losing so many brothers under his lead))
- Norrvus Grymn: Warden of the Cemiterium. wargear: tacticus armor, master-crafted jump-pack “wraithwing”, Relic sword “Entropy’s Edge”, master-crafted Ghosgene spewer pistol “Last Sunrise”, reductor pistol
- Drasthin Lydriik: Tempestor of the 10th company. wargear: tacticus armor, Tulpar hellfire pattern gravbike “Ashrunner”, thunderhammer, stormshield, heavy bolt pistol
Chapter Fleet
Battle-Barges
2 battlebarges
- Acheeridon’s Vengeance - flagship
- Bringer of Finality
Strike Cruisers
7 Strike cruisers
- Will of the Omnissiah -
- Forge of hatred -
- Aeternal Sentinel -
- Banisher of Impurity -
- Righteous executioner -
- Nebulous Sword -
- Paladin of humanity -
Escort Crafts
13 Escort vessels
Chapter Relics
- Aurora Minoris - The Aurora Minoris is an exceptional relic weapon within the arsenal of the Steel Paragons, showcasing the nascent chapter’s drive to create ever deadlier weapons to combat the xeno threat. This one-of-a-kind masterpiece is based on the framework of an adeptus mechanicus plasma culverin, but its power soure has been meticulously tuned and modified to instead harness the same directed lightnings used by Infinitus’s Aurora Cannon. it’s doubly blessed Thermoplas Coils brought to their absolute limits as each bolt of positronic energy is charged and directed at the enemy. The following lance of plasma then arcs to its intended target at one thousandth the speed of light, evaporating whatever matter the positron charge hits directly only to burn trough advanced circuitry, nerve tissue and empiric shieldings alike, utilizing the target’s own electric charges against them. Paired with the wielder’s auspex scanners and sensors, the Aurora Minoris’s belligerent machine spirit can quickly identify conductive elements within the target in sight and prepare firing solutions to strike at said components in mere moments as the mightiest of adversaried find their basic functions compromised by the blast’s sheer voltage, rendering them into vulnerable and immobile husks for the chapter master and his bretheren to finish off. The legendary performance that Lorr Enzariion was able to achieve within his own creation is mostly thanks to it’s unique lenses being made out of the Aurora Shard, a gem of incredible propreties born out of the impact between a large meteor containing a vein of Noctilith and the sky-splitting energy output of the Aurora Cannon. This chunk of omegastatic blackstone then fell onto Zeitus’s surface together with the many other fragments of the celestial body hit by the ancient weapon. The power held within said crystal was such that a constant thunderstorm clouded it’s crater.
- Broodbane - The Broodbane was the former chapter master’s personal relic blade, a huge flamberge the lenght of an astartes and as weighty as a common man, which together with Acheeridon’s paramount swordmanship became a weapon of legend during both the indomitus crusade and at the dawn of his chapter’s history. This mastercrafted blade recieved it’s name from it’s key role in the Brood War, where the then-chapter-master was able to masterfully weave trough the Apex’s lunges and strikes, only to bring an end the conflict and the Golgotha’s rule over the rad wastelands of Zeitus by decapitating the misterious foe with a decisive swing from the serpentine blade of Broodbane. Acheeridon would then go on to defend the neighboring mechanicus presence, forgeworld Veondus, from the crimson harvest of the Necron overlord known then as Zeralhak the executioner from utter destruction, and in the final moments of this bloody assault to the necron flagship known as the Androkhtasiae, the two grand generals crossed blades while on the top of the Cairn’s command Pyramid as the titanic vessel began careening into Veondus’s moon, it’s drive system having been irreparably damaged by the combined imperial fleet’s artillery, but while Acheeridon managed to thrust it’s relic blade into the overlord’s chest deep enough to cause an emergency teleportation to a fleeting necron vessel, it didn’t come at a small cost as the ancient machine impaled the great astartes with it’s voidscythe as well as snapping Broodbane in two halves, and so while the blade’s tip and foward section is still lodged deep in the now Destroyer overlord’s chest as memorandum of his first real duel since the great reakawening, the lower section and handle have instead been forever set into the adamantium sarchohagus of it’s past wielder, now interred within a relic dreadnought and in search of his immortal foe to finish their duel once and for all.
- Entropy’s Edge - Carried by the current Warden of the Cemiterium as weapon of office, this master-crafted power weapon takes the shape of a large 2-handed power sword with similar shape to a judiciar’s executioner sword, but what sets this grim artefice apart from any other blade in the chapter is the one of a kind hyperpressurized ghosgene disruption field, giving the swordman who wields such unique blade the ability to turn the elegant blue glow of it’s power field into gruesome dark green flames and fumes by giving the sword the neural command to use ghosgene gas in the modified generator, pushing the thrice-scorched adamantium-plasteel alloy blade to it’s very limit as now each attack can easily cleave trough terminator plate, being particularly apt in disabling physical shields with the weight behind each strike and the blade’s ghosgene fire corroding most known materials from even just a glancing blow. Another notable characteristic of this marvel of ghosgene application is the direct energy weapon known as a “ghosgene ignition laser” incorporated in the large handguard, it’s function similar to the more known Digital Weaponry, although modified to instead fire on command a monecule-thin beam of intense heat for a microsecond, just enough to start a explosive reaction in any amount of gasseous ghosgene from relatively safe distance.
- Wraithwing - the unique jump pack used by the chapter’s current warden of the Cemiterium: Norrvus Grymn, known by the rest of the chapter as Wraithwing is in actuality not one of Grymn’s own craft, instead being based on one of the many prototypes that the Paragon of the Storm created in his never-ending search for perfection in war, recieving this advanced piece of machinery after dimostrating incredible skills in close combat with the more standard jump pack patters. Taking upon the newly put into production primaris jump pack and adding two articulating stabilizer wings with turbo-propellers built within the wing’s profile, which together with the already present jump pack, greave repulsor plates and heel stabilizer jets grant the now in charge warden unparalled speed and agility within the air. The combined thrust generated from all these propulsors being more than enough to achieve true flight for extended periods of time also thanks to the additional pressurized promethium tanks found on the jump pack’s rear that keep this relic fuelled for much longer that most other jump packs. The incredible mobility this pair of wings offers however comes at the cost of limiting the user’s wargear to the bare minimum and forcing the user to forgo all servo arm attachments, these limitations giving the current Warden the idea to pair the superior speed and manouvrability of his predecessor’s wings with an artefice of his own creation, the Entropy’s Edge. Thus, the monstrous speed and agility given by this jump pack has had Norvus develop a new fighting style where the Cemiterium warden would deploy high in the war-torn skies above the battlefield only to dive at an enemy leader with his executioner blade in hand, ready to cleave the foe in one fell swoop, only to ascend again with blinding speed and find yet another prey to eliminate with surgical precision
- Ares - The Chapter master’s very own war steed, a heavily modified Repulsor executioner boasting a double fusion generator core and advanced neural imput thrones for the marine crew, each one chosen from the Chapter’s very best tank aces. This sizable modification to this vehicle’s power source being necessary to provide enough energy to maintain an emanatus forcefield generator, a coveted piece of mechanicus wargear Enzariion was able to obtain trough the exchange of an entire broodqueen strain for the gladiatorial fights of Veondus’s knight house. This upgraded energy source is also tasked with powering two Heavy laser destroyers and a pair of lascannons in a twin-linked mount, turning this hybrid platform into a devastating tank-destroyer capable of piercing the armor of an enemy’s superheavy unit in just a single barrage of it’s laser armament, all while the secondary weapons consisting of auto launchers, fragstorm launchers, a belicatus missile array mounted on the turret’s hatch and 4 separate storm bolter dotted around the reinforced hull turn any lighter targets that dare move foward to close the distance into blood stains across the battlefield, but what truly sets this peculiar repulsor executioner apart from it’s base template are the 10 hunter slayer missile silos housed where the troop bay would be found on a standard repulsor frame, giving the experienced crew the option to either single out important targets inside or outside this tank’s line of sight with machine precision, or to unleash a single cataclysmic salvo of guided missiles capable of shattering entire tank formations or mortally wounding even a god-engine should it’s voidshields be down. All these modifications however completely take up the space that any repulsor would transport marines in, as well as requiring extensive maintenance due to it’s Astreus class repulsor plates not being designed for this specific hull as well as being significantly heavier, this last downside ironically became a boon as this additional mass assures the Ares is always the first tank to make landfall during the chapter’s famous “Steel Tide” manouver.
Chapter Appearance
Chapter Colours
The Steel Paragons’s armor and vehicles are painted mostly a dark shade of midnight blue, with steel colored shoulder trim, chest aquilas and kneepad trim, while a tone of grey covers the faceplate, kneepads and any rifle’s handgrip a marine might hold onto.
to denote squad sergeants the chapter gives the chosen astartes’s helmet a vertical stripe of bronze, while veteran sergeants instead invert the color scheme entirely as the base veteran helmet color is entirely bronze.
the space marines cursed the bear the Incindio Ichorys have their armor stripped of any honor or sign of their past only for the armor itself to recieve a chemical treatment to harden it against the acidic and radioactive substances they come in contact with, their appearance now being that of burnt and blackened steel.
Chapter Badge
The chapter’s badge is a white cog interlocked with a warding rune of ancient time that which according to legends of the past ages of technology was inscribed on the surface of the most dangerous weapons of war and destruction, their fading pallor still found over the few undetonated warheads that scour zeitus’s radioactive surface, hinting at the origin of it’s current state
Relations
Allies
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Ironclad Brotherhood - Less than a true alliance, the young ultima founding chapter of the Steel Paragons looks up to these venerable chapters with reverence, pushing themselves above and beyond to try and equal their brothers in withholding their progenitor’s values and strength forward into the horrors of the 42nd millenium |
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Adeptus Mechanicus - Following the chapter’s victory over the necron fleet that loomed over Forgeworld Veondus and the “gift” they left in the form of a necron flagship crashed into the planet’s moon for the xenarite cults present there to inspect and salvage, the fabricator-general in charge has since forged an open pact of alliance with the newly appointed chapter master Lorr Enzarrion, believing that by doing so it would achieve the safety necessary for the forgeworld’s intricate web of political infighting to continue prospering. Since that decisive battle the Paragon of the Storm and the techpriest orders dedicated to managing the forgeworld’s great colosseum and it’s stock of ferocious beasts have also sealed an under-the-counter deal, with live specimen of the dangerous Golgotha being exchanged for esoteric tech bound to the chapter master’s personal use in perfectioning his craft beyond the technical limitations he would otherwise face. |
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Iron Hands - Unsurprisingly, the Steel Paragons have a very strong sense of reverence to their progenitor chapter, so much so that all the astartes of Zeitus are interred within the chapter using names of Medusan tradition together with teaching the chapter’s librarians most of the incantations within the Technomancy discipline. |
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Deathwatch - Both harbouring deep hatred towards the xeno filth, the two chapters have ended up facing the alien in combat together many times in fact, the swift and deadly kill teams unleashed from the warriors of the long vigil finding the armoured lightning assaults of these sons of manus a perfect distraction to strike at the enemy’s heart unpunished. |
Sworn Enemies
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Necrons (Novokh Dynasty) - After the costly victory over Forgeworld Veondus having caused both the internment of the then-chapter master Acheeridon Xeriis into the chapter’s most holy dreadnought chassis and the loss of a large portion of the combined imperial fleet tasked with defending the sector, this chapter had developed a particular hatred for the undying race of the necrons, and as the overlord that led the novokh harvest fleet has also grown a grudge over those that sank his personal flagship, the Cairn-class tombship known to the xeno tongue as “Androkhtasiae”, later confrontations between the Steel Paragons and the Destroyer cults under Zeralakh’s crimson rule have been both numerous and bloody. |
Notable Quotes
By the Steel Paragons
About the Steel Paragons
Feel free to add your own
Gallery