- Location
- Most likely California
[X] Plan Sanguine v2
Oh yeah.Deathwatch sucks. They would propably do less damage to Imperium if they just openly joined Chaos.
Hold on.... wait did you guys use both extra trainer options on this and doubled up on Blademasters and Fortifications and added boarding specialists on a chapter based in a spacehulk station? oh this is going to go well and be a bloody slog for enemies.-[X] Blademasters: The Chapter's Marines have honed their skills with the blade, and are among the finest swordsmen in the Imperium.
-[X] Entrenchment: The Chapter is better at erecting and maintaining fortifications than average.
-[X] Boarding Specialists: The Chapter's Marines are truly masters at boarding voidcraft - even by Space Marine standards.
Good name overall and good chapter creed. wasn't around for the vote itself to look at the other plans but it fits.Name: Eternal Guard
Chapter Colors: Dark Orange with Bronze trim, helmets and fists.
Chapter Symbol: Bronze sword, pointing downwards with two hands holding it, the left blue hand representing Roboute Guilliman, and the right, bronze hand that of Rogal Dorn.
Chapter Creed: "We are the unbreakable shield against the dark!"
-When fighting alongside Ultramarines: "As Dorn commanded, we guard against the dark as one!"
Homeworld: The homeworld of the Eternal Guard is not a singular planet, but instead a massive network of connected space stations known as YT868. The long causeways that connect each of these space stations are of such size that entire Imperator Titans could walk down them and still have room to maneuver, leading to the facility as a whole being considered a true wonder of the Dark Age of Technology.
lets be honest, that Machine Spirit is definitely an AI. most likely.The Central Spirit: The station of YT868 is controlled by an ancient Machine Spirit of immense power, one that was only identified due to the Crusade Fleet that first contacted the station following a specific set of instructions laid forth in advance by the Emperor Himself. This great Machine Spirit has ever since served as the station's guardian, banishing a rogue Abominable Intelligence, effortlessly stopping several Genestealer infiltration attempts via the usage of built in death traps and loyal imperial automatons, and even outright shrugging off multiple attempts to corrupt the station with Scrap Code. The Eternal Guard themselves hold great respect for this Machine Spirit, and though they are not proper members of the Mechanicus, the respect they show to the equipment they are given is enough that even the most stringent member of the Machine God's faith can not help but feel impressed at the care even a Scout Marine of the Eternal Wardens gives to his tools of war.
Serfs: The Eternal Wardens are unique among Chapters in that they do not have dedicated Chapter Serfs. In fact, the bond the Chapter has with the people of YT868 is so close that the station's PDF directly crew the Eternal Guard's ships, and its laborers often volunteer for service within Eternal Guard facilities. In return, the Eternal Guard themselves are often seen aiding in the station's maintenance and many of their Apothecaries can be seen working alongside genetors and mortal medics to ensure the health of the people of the station.
Ohhhhh its a wonder from the Dark Age of technology so of course there would be a Conclave of the Adeptus Mechanicus both to do maintenance and to safeguard it, also makes sense for them to take one of the largest space stations on it. Oh right and the machine spirit of the place would need work and careful touch, with being secretive about it... yah its an AI. Huh, all of the tech priests stationed there are trained as Genetors as well? I wonder if that is a request from the 'Machine spirit' or part of a deal with it and the Mechanicus to care for the people of the station. It would explain as to why the the Tech Priests go that length for the people of the station and why they need the techpriests stationed there trained as Genetors for the sheer workload. It is funny how the Ecclesiarchy sees it as some way to convert people to the machine god and shoots itself in the foot with that and how they see things like this. Still didn't expect the punishment to be that serve but it could be a means to stop any questioning or investigations into why they are doing that.Mechanicum Exis: A large conclave of the Adeptus Mechanicus lives on board YT868, and has control over one of its largest space stations. These Tech Priests are charged with the health of YT868's vast Machine Spirit and their holy duty means they are extremely secretive even by the Mechanicus's standards. However they are also notable in one other area - almost all of the priests within the Mechanicus Exis, regardless of specialisation, are also trained Genetors, and the vast majority of them display a care for the lay people of the station far beyond what anyone would expect of any Tech Priest. This is often justified as being a result of the importance of YT868's crew to the health of the station itself, and by extension it's Spirit, but many among the Ecclesiarchy push the idea that it is some sinister plot to test out a way of converting the people of the Imperium to the Mechanicus's faith over their own. The Mechanicus takes great offense to these assertions, and any Sister of Battle covenant even remotely associated with a priest that dares to imply that these accusations could be even partially true finds itself drastically under equipped in very short order.
The Feast of Blades: Like all Imperial Fists Chapters, the Eternal Guard frequently participate in the legendary Feast of Blades, where the Sons of Dorn gather once every century to compete in the art of swordplay. Due to the Chapter's famous extreme capability with the blade, they often have some of the strongest showings of the Chapters that partake in the Feast, with only the Black Templars coming close to matching the Eternal Guardian's swordsmanship.
Hahaha, you don't say? Still the specializations and training make sense when considering their 'homeworld' and what conditions it would be fighting on space stations and how that translates over to Underhives, Space Hulks, and Starships. And paired with the access to more plasma weapons AND the ship cutter tools they have access too it REALLY means it is HELL fighting against them in those conditions since they fortify what entrances you can find and use and make you bleed for it in both being damn good melee combatants if you try pushing and the fortification there making it a slog fest and nearly suicidal to assault making it a long time to breach even one section. That is paried with the fact they also have Shipcutting tools and boarding specialist training, MEANING they will not be just sitting there behind the fortifications, they know the points and layout of ships, will be moving around while the enemy throws themselves on the chokepoints being contested and cut INTO the walls/floors/etc of the UnderHive, Space Hulks, or ships and will be flanking you to charge into melee range with you.Chapter Layout and Combat: The Eternal Guard are a mostly Codex Compliant Chapter, with a strong focus on close-ranged combat in tight, enclosed spaces - such as underhives, Space Hulks, or even starships. When forced into open combat, the Eternal Guard often resort to the traditional tactics of Imperial Fist Chapters and immediately begin constructing fortifications.
However the methodology of the Eternal Guard fortifications tends to be very different from the kind expected of Imperial Fist successors. Instead of being general purpose defensive structures, Eternal Guard fortresses are built in such a way that the 'path of least resistance' for any given enemy will lead them into tight, close quarters combat, conditions under which a mere handful of Eternal Wardens can hold off several times their numbers in enemies. The other defenses of an Eternal Guard defensive position are often focused around disabling or mitigating a given enemies other ranged capabilities, allowing the Eternal Guard more room to focus on the enemies directly before them and not those providing ranged support.
Yah, humble beginnings of fighting against Pirates, they aren't going to last against Space Marines but the trouble is finding and catching them, once they did though the Eternal Guards no sold that Spacehulk and butchered the Pirates. I bet it WOULD have been costly for other chapters or even Imperial Guard considering its a Space Hulk, but they way this chapter is equipped and trained they biltz through and created their own entrances and bypassed a lot of the planned chokepoints and defenses and mulched through the defenders in melee.Notable Events of the Eternal Guard
-Early on in their history, the Eternal Guard play a vital role in securing the Realm of Ultramar against a vast piracy epidemic, which had sprung up as a result of the Ultramarines and their successor Chapters being forced to commit vast numbers to several critical regions at once. This short lived age of piracy would come to an end when the Eternal Guard would raid the pirate 'city' located on the Space Hulk the Sinister Embrace, killing many pirate leaders and capturing the ships that had been docked at the time.
-A battle with the World Bearers sees the Eternal Guard boarding one of the Traitor Legion's vessels, and crashing it into the Chaos held world below.
-The Eternal Guard were among the many Imperial Fist Successor Chapters who formed the Last Wall in the War of the Beast, where they committed themselves to the void war, managing to board and destroy many of the Ork Overlord's supporting elements. Tragically, 4 entire companies of Eternal Guard were lost in the battle, slaughtered to the last. In the aftermath, the Wardens would be among the many Chapters who donated their finest battle brothers to rebuilding the Imperial Fists themselves.
Hahahaha, yah that's what I'm talking about. Terminator armor combined with the Ship cutters meaning they don't have to travel the snaking paths of a Space Hulk and just go straight for the heart or throat. That is great showing and would make a good book or fight, cutting their way through Hulk there and then just turning it into a flamer to roast the command and the warboss.-The Eternal Guard would defeat WAAAAAGH Kneecappa by boarding the Ork's Space Hulk flagship, using the superheated ship-cutters attached to their terminator armor to carve a path directly to the command center of the Hulk, and then swapping the ship cutters into Flamer mode in order to efficiently roast the entirety of the Hulk's bridge crew alive, killing the Warboss and the rest of the Ork leadership in short order.
-A short but bloody conflict with the Word Bearers sees the latter bogged down in fierce space battle that costs the fallen Marines the element of surprise, altering the Ultramarines to the danger and forcing the traitors into retreat.
-Multiple expeditions into a number of Space Hulks leads to the Eternal Guard recovering the STC's for the 'Bullseye Sniper Implant', 'Payback Counter Artillery Vehicle', and the 'Adamantium Wall Mobile Shield Generator' all of which are returned to the Mechanicus. In gratitude for the return of these holy artifacts, the Priests of Mars unilaterally give the Eternal Wardens priority access to the regained vehicle and implant designs, which would become crucial tools for the Chapter.
.... I JUST went over just how the Chapter fights and what the training and doubling down meant, along with examples of how it would work, their shipcutting tools and how to use them and how they spedrun killing an Ork Warboss by cutting through a Space Hulk and have fortifications that are meant to migrate or disable ranged attacks and ALL of this on the Tau...... The Railgun using, ranged focused Tau. They never stood a stand in melee combat on their own ships. And that shit shows, as the Tau had 13 of their most bloodiest battles in their history with a near Zero percent survivor rate barring the last battle and shows how quick and brutal it was.-Early encounters with the Tau end supremely badly for the young alien species whenever the Eternal Guard get involved, as the latter's shockingly skilled tactics to board Tau ships, and the commensurate utter slaughter of the occupants, lead to 13 of the most bloody battles in the Tau Empire's history - only the last of which had any survivors, the Tau only discovering the results of the first twelves via examining footage from the shattered remains of their fleets. So terrible were these losses, that the Ethereals designated the Chapter with a Flee on Sight order for any ships not acting in defensive capacity. In fact, even in the present time, Imperial Intelligence has learned that the Tau's own intelligence services place keeping track of all Eternal Guard fleet movements as one of their highest priorities, a discovery corroborated both by the Synopticon and the Ordo Xenos.
And that would explain why the Genestealer failed when the 'Machine Spirit' discovered them and I'm guessing due to the threat they posed and way they went about it pissed it off something mighty, enough so it connected to or directed Automatons to deal with them all and was able to identify them in some way. I would say the reaction by the Eternal Guards is warranted and venting their anger on the ones they come across, at the very least it helped manage the problem.-A number of attempted Genestealer infestations of YT868 are discovered and instantly foiled by the will of the station's Machine Spirit and its legions of helpful automatons - all of which possess Machine Spirits themselves, rather any form of abominable intelligence like most Dark Age robots. Incensed by the sheer temerity of the very attempt to defile the people of their home, the Eternal Gaurd would engage in a long campaign against Genestealer cults throughout the Realm of Ultramar.
-While the Eternal Wardens are engaged on the Hive World of Aldamo, Hive Fleet Behemoth strikes, the Shadow In The Warp and sheer shock of the original Tyranid invasion preventing the Ultramarines form giving their cousins any warning of what was coming for them. The battle against the first Major Hive Fleet was long and fierce, with near constant close quarters combat against an endless foe - but against all odds, the Eternal Guard survived. By the end of the titanic clash, a full eight of the Eternal Gaurss ten companies had been wiped out, and with them, despite the Warden's desperate efforts, the entire population of Hive World Aldamo.
- After a long period of recovery, the Eternal Wardens begin a long and focused campaign against the entirety of Ultramar's Genestealer population, intending to slow down any future Tyranid fleets by denying them their method of navigation towards suitable worlds to devour. They would be aided in this campaign by the Tyrannic War Veterans, as well as the Deathwatch and many others seeking to destroy the Tyranid menace.
.... Of course. a Fourth STC and this one they found on the station itself. the Mechanicus must hold this chapter in extremely high regard for recovering four STC patterns. So I'm guessing the Wedeln Pattern Dreadnaught was more a mech or exo-suit meant to perform maintenance or ship repairs in the void turned into a weapon like other things. Only this time with being able to be piloted by baseline humans and makes sense as this Dreadnught Pattern doesn't seem to require the same problems as other patterns as they were built to be operated by humans and not too invasive. I do like they are using them for the original function and doing repairs on the station when needed. Nice lore bit there.Unique Units
-Wedeln Pattern Dreadnoughts: An ancient Dreadnought design, found within an STC that had been discovered on YT868 itself. The Wedeln, unlike other Dreadnought Patterns, is actually extremely capable of handling human occupants, allowing them to operate constantly with no risk of burnout and maintaining a shockingly good quality of life. Due to this wonderous technology, the Dreadnoughts of the Eternal Gaurd are extremely active compared to the norm, and even use the built in welding equipment on their chassis - seemingly once intended to be used for battlefield repairs - to aid the Mechanicus in repairing YT868's hull when they are not engaging in combat with the Imperium's foes.
-Terminator Champions: Elite Terminators, combining the lethality of the shipcutter blades - modified versions of the humble tools able to switch between a swordlike beam of plasma and a Flamer at will - with an almost supernatural skill in swordsmanship. It is said, and often demonstrated, that the Terminator Champions can outfight the Champions of many other chapters in a contest of blades, even while handicapped by the weight and bulk of their heavy Terminator Armor.
-Exis Techmarines: Techmarines trained by the local Mechanicus enclave of Exis, the Exis Techmarines are experts in maintaining, or dismantling, space ships. To aid in this objective, every Exis Techmarine is armed with several mechadendrite mounted ship cutters, as well as as whatever weapons the Techmarine chooses to wield in either their hands or in their Servo Harness.
Holy shit they brought back Breacher Squads? well shit, it makes as to why and their focus on close quarters combat, bet a few fans would love that.-Breacher Squads: A revival of the Breacher Squads from the days of the Legions, brought about due to the Eternal Gaurd's focus on dangerous close quarters combat.
-Overwatch Servitors: Servitors equipped with the 'Bullseye Sniper Implant' and given high powered rifles, the Overwatch Servitor serves to help eliminate priority ranged threats while the bulk of the Chapter fights in melee.
-The Reperator: Based off of the 'Payback Counter Artillery Vehicle', the Reperator is a stealthed vehicle capable of pinpointing an enemy artillery unit, unleashing a furious barrage of enough firepower to destroy all but the most durable of artillery pieces, and than moving back into stealth before the enemy can respond. It seems to have trouble with more 'conventional' bombardment - mostly due to the Pattern's famously flighty Machine-Spirit - but for the artillery light Eternal Gaurd, it is an ideal warmachine.
-The Defiance: Based on the 'Adamantium Wall Mobile Shield Generator', the Defiance is a treaded vehicle that can protect either individual squads or, when overcharged, even entire companies of Eternal Wardens under it's powerful Refractor Fields. However, it requires protection from close in threats, for the Pattern is equipped with nothing more than a pair of heavy bolters as weaponry.
And finally we have diplomacy and relations.... wow not a lot here, though makes sense as this chapter has been.... rather normal all things considered. based in Ultramar and aren't made for a specialized role and holding no special unique pysker powers or getting into Controversies it really would just be limited to the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and... the Black Templars?Diplomacy
-Ultramarines: Though not the adoptive brotherhood the Steel Champions have with the Sons of Dorn, the Eternal Gaurd have a very close bond with the Ultramarines and their successor Chapters, to the point they have even joined in on the Ultramarine's legendary grudge against the Minotaurs as a result.
-Imperial Fists: The Eternal Wardens keep good relations with the Imperial Fists, as well as most of their fellow successor Chapters. Like all Sons of Dorn, they stand ready to engage the Last Wall Protocol - even if it is the hope of all involved that it will never be invoked again
-Black Templars: The Black Templars and Eternal Gaurd share an intense, albeit vaguely friendly, rivalry with one another, due to their shared mastery of swordsmanship. It is known that at the beginning of every Feast of Blades, the representatives of both Chapters ignore all other challengers to seek each other out, to prove themselves the true exemplars in bladed combat.
-Mechanicus: Outside of the Iron Hands and their successors, it is rare to find a Chapter with better relations with the Mechanicus than the Eternal Guard. Indeed, the local Mechanicus Exis on YT868 actually prefer the Eternal Wardens - as do most Genetors, oddly enough.