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This article, Armor Fiends, was written by Wothren. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, Armor Fiends, is currently under active construction. The author, Wothren, apologizes for the inconvenience. |
- "There is no retreat! This is our line, we will hold it!"
- ―Cirus Castell
[The main paragraph goes here.]
Founding[]
After the Horus Heresy it was apparent that Astartes on Astartes combat was a new front that needed to be addressed. During the 35th and 36th Millennium two chapters were created by the High Lords of Terra to combat this threat. The first far less successful chapter, The Siege Wraiths. And the second being the rather successful, if under appreciated, Minotaurs. Both the Minotaurs and The Armor Fiends have the same purpose, but have radically different ways of achieving their goals.
The Armor Fiends are not a full chapter. Instead it became closely allied with an unfinished chapter at its founding, the Whispers. Both served wildly different roles, but complemented each other nicely.
Due to the timing, the chapter was rushed out before the Minotaurs as a stop gap measure. Other chapters, with the Horus Heresy still fresh in mind had experience dealing with Adeptus Astartes, but not much training. The chapters already had a general idea on how to take on other Astartes, but more tools to do so would be needed.
The Armor Fiends was never intended to be a standing force. Instead it was to act as an addition to other forces with the goal to bring an advantage to any chapter facing other Astartes.
Organization[]
Internally, the chapter would a senior. this senior then passes orders down to 4 other chapter seniors. These 5 (10 if you count both halves) further command 50 Astartes that are divided as they are needed for the current mission. If further divisions need to be made, heroes and other Astartes in the chapter who have done noteworthy actions. Further, any vehicles (Tanks, Transports, Dreadnoughts, etc.) are divided up by the council of 20 once objectives have been decided.
However, most of the time during war, The Armor Fiends were under the command of the leaders of the allied forces, who directly commanded the senior Astartes. Still, the chapters gave The Armor Fiends little instructions. Most of the chapters simply did not meddle in the Armor Fiends machines since they produced better results under their own ingenuity.
Combat Doctrine[]
The Armor Fiends is a siege and heavy armor oriented chapter. The chapter follows another around until combat is inevitable or is planned to commence. At this point the chapter splits among old lines. The Whispers act as an add on unit to whatever other force they are with while The Armor Fiends wait in orbit. When a staging area is available the Armor Fiends make landfall and begin assessing threats, manufacturing field modifications,and ammunition resupply. While the Whispers had provided a psychic form of fire support, the Armor Fiends would ensure that any and all valuable vehicles and armor would survive as long as possible on the field.
A secondary objective of The Armor Fiends is vehicle recovery and in combat repairs. Like tech priests, The Armor Fiends hate wasting machinery. A damaged tank is no good during a siege and a destroyed tank is extra armor to be used. It is not uncommon for tank crews, during the few times they are not being shot at, to be pulled over and have the armor of their former battalion members strapped to their weak points.
Chapter Homeworld/Fleet[]
Battle Barge- The Silent Forge
The chapters home and only vessel serves the purposes of transportation and manufacturing. Ideally, tanks and other vehicles could be mass produced on board and supplied to allied forces.
Strike Cruiser- The Siege Wraith
Chapter Gene-Seed[]
The Armor Fiends are based off the Salamanders Gene Seed. They have inherited two traits from this, the value of civilian life and the desire of craftsmanship. The desire to preserve civilian life is often an issue to the chapter. Most members will out right refuse to follow orders if they are asked to attack civilian population centers. But what ruffles feathers the most is that the definition of civilian to The Armor Fiends also extends to Xenos non-combatants.
The Armor Fiends, have a rather helpful defect. Their Mutated Catalepsean Node allows them to stay awake during long sieges with little downside. When the inevitable sleep does come, they must depend on the Whispers and their other Allies for protection until they wake.
Recruitment[]
The Armor Fiends have a few ways to get into the chapter, but this is mostly because they need multiple types of personal.
The first way to join the Armor Fiends is to pass a challenge by combat. Possible recruits will be asked to fight a Armor Fiend astartes. They will most likely fail, but that is expected. The level of failure and their attitude afterward is how they are judged. If the recruit gives up and takes a downward turn in attitude in failure then they are not fit for a siege.
This leads on to the second trial, a trial of mental fortitude. During this phase, recruits who have passed the first trial are put through hell. They will be told they are to wait for the senior officials of the chapter to decide if they are to be accepted into the chapter. They are not told that their very living conditions are to be a new test. First, the recruits will be stationed in a barracks next to a Armored Fiends shooting range. The Armor Fiends will then perform "practice" drills in both day and night shooting. Sometimes, armor and "Xenos" weaponry are used. Even further, the Armor Fiends often reach out to local PDF to give them an opportunity to do some target practice. The sound is not the only issue the recruits have to deal with, sometimes a 'Stray' round will fly harmlessly through the barracks, making sure that the recruits never feel safe.
This is still not the end of the second trial. The recruits will often be told wrong times to go to eat and even more often not enough food would be made for all of the recruits. The recruits will be left alone to divvy up the food among themselves. Those who hog food are seen as unfit to serve in the chapter, as often in sieges, antiquate food and supplies can not be guaranteed and must be shared fairly. On the other hand, recruits who forgo food for others or step up to divide what little can be gotten among the others are looked upon favorably.
After about a month of this sort of treatment the recruits who can still assemble and fire auto-guns competently are considered to have passed, with a few exceptions to those who have obvious issues due to the treatment.
The second way in is by trial of mechanical brilliance. Young aspiring engineers will be taken to a scrap yard and are told to make make shift chest plates that would be able to hold against a full auto gun clip. They are then let loose into the scrap yard. After only an hour they are called back for testing. The recruits will then be asked to wear the make-shift armor and to stand still as a Armor Fiend astartes unloads an auto gun into the chest plate. The ones who have the confidence to dawn the plate and live through the experience are allowed to continue on and are lumped in with the other recruits on the second test. After the second test, these recruits are again picked out and given heavy weapons, armored vehicle and engineering training.
The third, and final way, is rather informal. All though the Armor Fiends served most often with other chapters, sometimes they would serve side by side with Astra Militarum forces. While fighting wars with the Imperial Guard, chapter members would keep their eye out for particularly brave, smart, or skilled guardsmen or tank crews. At the end of the conflict the Seniors of the Armor Fiends would ask for certain guard members as payment. If they were refused the Senior would go straight to the guardsmen themselves and offer a new vocation and to help them 'disappear'.
The guardsmen where to late in life to become astartes, but they were still valid for tank crewing and logistical services. They would do roles close to what they had done under the command of Imperial Guard, but with a higher chance of survival.
Chapter Beliefs[]
Preservation of Life[]
The Armor Fiends carries over quite a bit of personality from their brethren, The Salamanders. The main belief carried over is the prioritization of civilian life, even to the point of their own determent. The Salamanders, however, stop at humans. The Armor Fiends are much more heretical in their definition of civilian. The Armor Fiends consider any non-combatants as civilians. This includes Xenos and Mutants.
This belief has rubbed many the wrong way. A long time ally, the Blood Angels, were rather put off when 'Destroyed' Xenos cities were found not to be so. The Blood Angels fixed this error by removing this city, down to all but the last.
This made the Armor Fiends rather angry to say the least. The Armor Fiends threatened open hostilities with the Blood Angels. This threat turned out not to be an empty one.
Notable Campaigns[]
The Moirae Schism - (Unknown Date 35M) - Right after their founding, the Armor Fiends (and Whispers) found themselves caught in The Moirae Schism. Although originally planning a meeting with the Blood Angels, they were ordered to change course and head for Mars. In stead of allying with astartes as they had been intended to do, they found themselves bolstering the Adeptus Mechanicus during their civil war. This turned out to both be a blessing and a curse as both the Adeptus Mecanicus and the Armor Fiends had a inkling towards machinery but both also had to face masses of traitorous titans. This lead to the creation of the Paladin , an un-complex machine by most standards, but well enough to allow the Armor Fiends to put rather bigger dents into the Renegade Knights.
Reinforcement of the Minotaur- (Unknown Date 38M) - All though most records of this time are lost these days proved as some of the most important to the Armor Fiends. As their allies, the Minotaurs were much more eager to get into melee range of other astartes, the Armor Fiends prefered ranged weaponry. This came to be an issue when the fact that heretic astartes, who had already fought other astartes, had the same guns. Astartes power armor and lighter tanks like the Rhino did not fair well enough for a siege. This inspired the engineers of the Armor Fiends to construct the Hunchback, a bulkier, heavier, and all around more durable version of the Rhino. The Hunchback did still have flaws, the first being its size. The suspension system had been doubled on each side for a total of 4 tracks. This also meant that each side was notably larger than a standard Rhino. This might be fine in open field sieges, but transportation of troops through cities, and the logistics of a larger tank, made the Hunchback a burden in most cases.
The Third War for Armageddon - (941.M41 - 943.M41) - Dropped in late into the war, a small group of Armor Fiends (no more than 15) lead by Cerviel Raziel came to the aid of the Black Templars at the hive city Hellsreach. They were instructed once on the ground to begin preparations for multiple staged defenses that could be abandoned and destroyed at a moments notice. The Armor Fiends directed the civilian population in construction projects. After the walls where breached, records of the event became scattered. The conclusion, however, saw only two Armor Fiends left alive, Cerviel Raziel and a non-astartes member who was promoted to a logistical manager as a reward.
The Mannheim Gap - Later on in The Third War for Armageddon armor fiends reinforcing the Black Templars where called upon by Grimaldus to reinforce the Celestial Lions supposed last charge. The Armor Fiends were not to pleased to be taking part in a charge, but orders are orders. This reluctance soon came to a close when they were informed of the Gargants residing in the gap. The force of Imperial Guard, Black Templars, and the remainders of the Celestial Lions should have been enough so the Armor Fiends saw no issue in using the conflict as a test bed. The Legionnaire and the Cornicen were both developed during the war while on the Silent Forge, but never had the opportunity to make planet fall. This had changed as the orks were on the back foot. 4 of each tank were brought down onto the planet in preparation for the charge. Both tanks proved to be a valuable asset when it came to killing the Gargants.
Notable Armor Fiends[]
- Cerviel Raziel
- Cirus Castell
Appearance[]
(Waiting for painting)