[Grand Admiral Nemo]

[FONT=&quot]My my, how fast time flies when you are dealing with one crisis after another! 2016 was a very bad time for me. I lost my living situation and was nearly stabbed in the eye, I had to put all my things in storage and was homeless for most of the winter. I'm only now getting back to normal. Because I'm aware that threadomancy is frowned upon in this forum, I've created this new thread, anyone interested in the first version can probably look it up through my profile.

Angels of Infinity[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Chapter: Angels of Infinity[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Origins: The Angels of Infinity are a fairly new chapter, created as part of the 25th Founding. Unlike most chapters which are intended to find a home-world to occupy and only become fleet based after a long and fruitless search the Angels of Infinity were always intended to be a fleet based chapter and draw their recruits from the worlds they pass and fight on, taking boys as old as 7 from among the most disciplined warrior cultures they encounter. Some among the chapter now assert that with the loss of so much of their fleet in the Battle of Thin Blood they should start a search for at least a temporary home-world in order to rebuild their numbers and lay down new hulls for their fleet. Weather the Chapter Master agrees or disagrees with that proposal is something he keeps to himself: but he is known to have feelers out for sectors interested in having a chapter of Space Marines in their vicinity for an extended-but-not-indefinite period and both willing and able to pay for the privilege by devoting significant resources to building new ships...[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Home World: The Chapter Fleet is made up of 1 battle barge and 5 strike cruisers, with 20 assorted escort ships, and a smattering of support vessels, but rarely gathers at full strength. They formerly possessed a second battle barge, the “Infinitem Astera”, and three more strike cruisers, but they were destroyed in the Battle of Thin Blood in the Armageddon system. Their Surviving Battle Barge is called the “Finity's End” and is home to the majority of the chapter. They are seeking to find a way to have more ships built, but so far no luck. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Combat Doctrine: Other than not fielding scouts very often, considering placing half trained marines, (and more importantly their unharvested prognoids,) at risk unacceptable in most situations, the Angels of Infinity are almost wholly codex in their tactics. However off the field, they are abnormally mercenary, encouraging their troops to collect "spoils of war" and demanding payment from any imperial force they involve themselves with for their services in chattels, goods, kine, and the right to screen the local youth for potential initiates. Even their fleet is partially made up of captured ships, with a handful of escorts being ones they took by force in the reconquest of the rogue Baffin Sector and refused to repatriate to the Imperial Navy at the end of the fighting.[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Organization: As might be expected of such a 'young' chapter the Angels of Infinity are strictly codex in their organization, with the exception of each company fielding an “Emperor's Champion” in honor of the Imperial Fists who saved the chapter from destruction during their last major fleet engagement in 861M42 when they were set upon by a far larger Ork force in the Armageddon system. Though they are young they have a large number of Terminator Suits and Dreadnoughts comparatively speaking, (30 of each, though only 16 marines have thus far earned the honor of being placed in a dreadnought,) having been equipped with a goodly number when sent out from Mars and not having irretrievably lost any of them thus far. The Angels of Infinity are understrength compared to a codex chapter after the loss of so many battle brothers in the Battle of Thin Blood but are making up their losses slowly, now numbering 736 full brothers and another 137 initiates. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Gene-Seed: Ultramarine[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Chapter Heraldry: The Angels of Infinity, being a young chapter, had fewer options in their heraldry than once were available, as each chapter must be unique. However, even after 12,000 years and 25 foundings, not all the decent heraldic options were taken, though all the simplest ones have been. They, therefore, have a somewhat odd look, but one that to them is very deeply meaningful. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The majority of their armor is black, a color shunned by most chapters due to being worn by the Black Legion of the Chaos Space Marines, but in their case standing for the void of space. Their helms and gauntlets are gunmetal, to remind them that they are the Emperor's armored right fist and that they must have minds and spirits of iron to do their duty, while the central ridge of each helm is painted in a color showing their rank in the chapter, starting with black representing infrared for initiates and going through the visible spectrum from red to violet as they rise in rank until at last, the chapter master himself, and he alone, is allowed a white stripe for Ultra-Violet rank. Their optics shine orange for the holy fire that fills their soul, and light of the star under which they fought their first battle as an independent chapter. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Their power packs are gray, except the main intakes which are yellow, the same yellow as the Sun of the holy Sol System from which humanity sprang and from which the Emperor sends forth the Astronomican which guides ships through the warp. Their boots are painted brown, brown for the soil of Terra from which humanity arose and the soil of each world on which they fight and humanity thrives, for even in deep space you must keep your feet planted firmly on the ground and your soul grounded to the common soil of the human race from which each battle brother was lifted up and for which they fight. Their shoulder pauldrons are white with an edge color showing the company in which they serve so that their commanders can identify the best uses of each marine at a glance even on chaotic battlefields, while the white center easily shows the chapter's Icons and squad markings. (Some specialists have other colors on their right shoulder pad to make them stand out from the normal marines, such as Apothecaries and Librarians.) To further Identify their company their kneecap covers are done in the same color as the trim of their shoulder guards. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Any Wing or Aquila marking on their armor is done in gold, reminding them of the Golden Throne into which the Emperor was interred, while instances of skulls are marked in several different styles depending on the position in the chapter and number of campaigns they have served in. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Iconography: The Chapter Icon is a black circle with four star bursts in it; yellow at the top for the sun of Sol and The Emperor, which ever must be uppermost in their minds: red at the right for blood and battle, their main duty and action; blue at the left for thought and reason, which while 'sinister' is necessary to do their duty; and white at the bottom for cowardice and surrender, which they must always crush beneath their heel; each included because they are the four most common colors of star which the Angels of Infinity fight under resting in the black void of deep space.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Motto: Faithful Unto Infinity.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Battle-cry: “The Emperor's Power is Infinite!” [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Notable Individuals of the Chapter: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Chapter Master Alfwoine Duneadane: (No Miniature Yet)[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The commander of the chapter is one of the few surviving marines who was sent out from Mars as a novice to train with the Contenders chapter as part of the new funding. During the final days of the bitter and bloody Calimshan Cleansing Alfwoine faced down the plague marine champion who instigated the uprising and killed him, but not before said champion wounded him with an accursed warp weapon which has infected him with an incurable wasting disease. The apothecaries say he cannot be saved without interment in a dreadnought, but he refuses that honor, saying he would rather live and die as a Marine fighting as a flesh and blood warrior than become the re-embryonic pilot of a war machine, and furthermore knows his own mind well enough to be confident that he could never accept stepping down as Chapter Master were he to be so inhumed. Alfwoine is the second chapter master of the Angels of Infinity, the first: his longtime friend Alexander Sur La Mere, having been killed when the Infinitem Astera was destroyed in the Armageddon System over 50 years ago. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Chapter Master was born on Holy Terra to a pit fighter and an apostate battle sister. (She left her order because she fell in love with Alfwhone's father...) He was taken for induction at the age of 7 when his parents were swept up into the Veiled Service. What haunts his sleep, (though he forgets it upon waking,) even nearly 500 years and countless sessions of hypno-doctrination later, is that he once had a baby sister...[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Captain Alexei Alexeivich: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Youngest of the Brother-Captains of the Chapter Alexei is untried in command but will rise to the occasion as best he may. Field-promoted upon the death of his predecessor, Brother-Captain Corem Johann, (A man of deep faith and personal convictions, who many said ought to have become a Chaplain.) and at his predecessor’s dying orders, Alexei is only 70 years old, scarce a full marine, but already more accomplished and talented than most marines will manage before they pass their first centennial.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]On paper Alexei commands the 7nth Company 'Reserve', but with the chapter as critically understaffed as it is following their disastrous attempt to participate in the Armageddon war zone he has found himself on the front line in command of an active battle group.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Captain Alexei carries his personal standard on his back, with a power sword and bolt pistol as his weapons, both of which he is skilled at using. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Alexei was born to a noble family in the Agri World of “Barrier”, but was found to be suitable for implantation as a space marine when he was only 5. He barely remembers his mother and knows nothing of any father except Father Aquarius, the drill abbot of the chapter's recruits. He has always known he was destined for command but didn't expect to be thrust into the role so soon. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Librarian Jonathan Tannhauser: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Inducted from the same system as Alexei and one of his closest companions throughout their training Brother-Librarian Jonathan Tannhauser, better known as Brother Jonah, has served with distinction for the 70 years he has been part of the chapter alongside his friend. The two trust each other implicitly and feel themselves 'brothers' in more of a sense than simply being from the same chapter. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Librarian Jonah's psychic talent is telepathy, and had he not been spotted by one of the chapter's other Librarians when doing their sweep he most likely would be either: possessed; dead, or sanctioned as an Astropath by now. All in all, he feels he has better served the Imperium by becoming a Librarian than any of the other fates that could have befallen him. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Jonah carries a force sword as his primary armament, won in a duel of psychic might against an apostate psyker during the cleansing of Thurmond’s World. He, along with the rest of the librarians, tested the blade extensively and found it untainted by chaos, for all that it had been carried by a traitor to the Imperium, and now wields it proudly as a mark of his prowess. What is known to the Tech-Marines, but not to him, is that the blade was once property of the Omega Marines, for whom it was fabricated, but their chapter ideology supports the concept of ‘spoils of war’ and so they have carefully removed the Omega Marine markings and replaced them with their own as part of the ‘cleansing’ process. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Jonah's parents were simple miners in one of the few mineral-rich zones of 'Barrier' the Tan Peaks Range. When he was inducted he was 6 years old, but already a violent and bellicose boy, with skill at fighting and, had it not been for his latent psychic talent, destined either for the gallows, the Guard, or the Inquisition. Instead, he was tested for potential induction, found suitable, and then sussed out by Brother-Librarian Mycroft Tanner to become a Chapter Librarian. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Though he was a year older than Brother Alexei the two became friends, as there were only a few other boys selected for induction from their world and none of them older than 3. They grew up amidst the preparations for the chapter massing to fight on Armageddon, and cut their teeth as warriors during disastrous “Battle of Thin Blood”, growing into their ranks as officers while the chapter experienced difficulties of rebuilding after that calamitous engagement. That was more than 50 years ago now, and the chapter is approaching full strength once more, at least in terms of Battle-Brothers, but their fleet remains horribly reduced and the young marines all have an immense chip on their shoulders and are much too ready to leap in headlong where they should stand back and/or be cautious, especially when facing Orks. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Venerable Brother Beaumarchais (No miniature Yet):[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Leader of the Dreadnoughts which supports Brother-Captain Alexei's formation is the oldest of the chapter, though that says little considering the chapter is so young. Better Known as 'Brother Beau' Beaumarchais is a venerable and skilled dreadnought pilot and has fought in many of the chapter's greatest engagements. What is not known, except to certain members of the chapter apothecary, tech marines, and the chapter master, is that Brother Beau was the primogenitor of the whole chapter, the very first test subject implanted with the tithed Ultramarine gene-seed which all the members of the chapter now bear the descendants of in their bodies. He should have been disposed of as waste materials after his prognoids were cultured but one of the Magos overseeing the process had become fascinated with him because of his unusual alertness and argued successfully to use him as a test subject for a newly recovered STC package for the dreadnought design he now wears. Though no one but he and a few others know this he has always been with the Chapter. His official cover story is that he is a ‘gift’ from the Ultramarines, a young marine destined for dreadnought hood and sent to Mars in a stasis chest to be so fitted because they lacked an available dreadnought into which he could be so interred. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Beaumarchais is a wise and skilled warrior, but just a touch insane. He has lived his whole life in forced growth tanks or linked into a dreadnought and the sensory deprivation got to him long ago. Hypno-doctrination and his dreadnought body's sensory arrays keep the worst of it in check, but even so, his mind is not wholly there all the time... [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Beaumarchais is typically armed with one power fist with a flamer attachment and one heavy weapon such as Lascannon or Storm Bolter. He is skilled at using all weapons that can be mounted on a dreadnought and prefers to have two Power Fists and two Flamers but understands that the needs of the chapter outweigh his preferences. That said he does 'throw his weight around' when they try to equip him with double ranged weapons instead of giving him at least one "good arm". [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Honorable Brother-Pilot Volta: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thought the chapter has only 16 dreadnoughts to its credit thus far, three have been assigned to work with Brother-Captain Alexei.1qq (Possibly as a counterbalance to his inexperience...) The Second of these is “Brother-Pilot” Volta, as he likes to call himself. Volta was nearly a washout as far as marines go, none of his organs ever took well or easily and required even more constant chem treatments to keep his natural cells from attacking them than is typical. (Though he remained within acceptable limits.) The only reason he didn't "wash out" was that he had a positive GIFT for piloting vehicles and the heart of a champion, though he did not reach the benchmarks for size and strength expected of a marine [/FONT][FONT=&quot]on time[/FONT][FONT=&quot] (he reached them within an acceptable variance, but with each such benchmark grew a little closer to the cutoff dates,) he was your classic dwarf fighter: you underestimated his Adamantium clad WILL at your own peril. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]That would not have been enough eventually, they would most likely have ‘retired’ him to the command of one of the chapter’s escort vessels once his prognoids were harvested, but fate intervened. During the Battle of Rachorkarn Ford on Throven he, only fully implanted scarce the year before, ended up cut off from his squad and went toe-to-toe with the Warboss of the orkish war-band against which they had been instructed to hold the ford. He took a nasty blow to the head and does not remember exactly how he did it, but when the orks began to run in disarray and the rest of his squad found him he was screaming “THE EMPEROR'S POWER IS INFINITE!!!” at the fleeing orks while throwing random chunks of vaguely sharp steel after them from atop a mound of their dead fellows twelve feet high, including, right at the bottom, the Warboss: whilst and at the same time utterly unconcerned that everything below his upper pelvis was missing, (apparently vaporized,) he had a Choppa embedded halfway into the bone of the left side of his skull right through his helmet causing a subdural hematoma, (thus the memory loss,) and his right arm was hanging severed at the elbow connected only by a strip of gristle and skin and what remained of his armor. Few such clear candidates for dreadnought-hood have been seen in the history of the chapter. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Strangely, once implanted into the re-embryonic chamber of a dreadnought all of his organs started to behave exactly the way they were always supposed to, which the chaplains, tech-marines, and apothecaries took as a sign from on high that this had always been his destiny. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]“Brother-Pilot” Volta is not so concerned with the use of a 'good arm' as Beaumarchais is and routinely requests to be kitted with a storm bolter and missile pod as his weapons. He is equally comfortable with las-cannon and Heavy Flamer attachments, or Double Missiles but something went wrong with his mind during the ordeal where he earned interment in a dreadnought, and he cannot use his right arm correctly when it is fitted with a power fist [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]and flamer: it responds to his mental commands sluggishly and jerkily, forcing him to command it to hang limp and basically throw it around like an oversized flail, or hold it stiff and aim with his body to use the flamer. The Tech Marines mostly get around this by giving him a power-fist and flamer for his left arm and heavy weapon on the right. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Dreadnought Jordanian (No miniature Yet): [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]And last, of the three, we come to Brother-Dreadnought Jordanian.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Dreadnought Jordanian was interred in his sarcophagus following the Battle of Thin Blood where he piloted a crippled Thunderhawk Gunship right down the maw of the Orkish Battle-Krooza' which was commanding the rival fleet and touched off the reactor pile of its central power plant. They picked him out of the wreckage two days later, a barely living hunk of meat, and placed him into his dreadnought at once. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Since then he has fought in some of the chapter's more notable campaigns, such as the Calimshan Cleansing, where he was briefly 'married' to Sister Angelica DuLac, pilot of an Adepta Sororitas Penitent Engine, due to local customs forbidding unmarried individuals entering the areas of the cities marked as "Men's"/"Women's" zones if they were not of the appropriate gender. For political reasons and to shore-up faith of the local P.D.F. the Canoness of the Sororitas persuaded the chapter master to have the Marines and Sisters be ‘married’, a crucial step as it turned out, since what at first looked like just one of your typical proletariat insurrections soon proved to be orchestrated by a chaos cult of Nurgle, and the married pairs of Battle Sister and Space Marine had a salutary galvanizing effect on the faith of the local imperial loyalists wherever they went, disrupting the energy of the summoned demons the arch-enemy used as shock troops so severely that they became nigh-ineffectual. For this reason, well before the campaign even ended, every one of the marines was so ‘married’, even those interred in dreadnoughts.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Though the 'marriages' employed by the chapter and their Sororitas allies were strictly political/spiritual in nature, for some reason Jordanian has taken his “wife”’s death hard, among other things striping the copper wires from her 'corpse' and weaving then beating them into two bands that he wears around the housings of his power fists. The tech-helots who monitor him sometimes speak quietly of hearing him almost inaudibly chanting the names of their fallen allies from that dark conflict in the dead of night when he should be in sleep mode, and everyone is gravely concerned for his stability. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother-Apothecary Duane Son-of-Osman: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Duane is an elder among the chapter's Apothecaries, 350 years old and very skilled at his work. He has been assigned to work with the young Brother-Captain as a mentor, having seen first hand the losses suffered by the chapter during the early days when it's commanders were untried and inexperienced thus being able to give good advice about what stratagems NOT to use at least. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Brother Duane is one of the people in on the secret of Beaumarchais' origins and the real reason for him being with the Chapter, which is why the two of them are assigned together, Brother-Apothecary Duane is well versed in the arcane techniques for monitoring Brother Beaumarchais' nutrient and chemical balancing feeds, which help keep the dreadnought sane and stable. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Tech-Marine Second-Class Brother Aristarchus: (No miniature yet.) [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Brother Aristarchus was once considered a ‘problem’ marine. He was overly aggressive, even for a marine, and took a tad too much joy in close combat fighting. This came to a head when he, without orders, challenged an Ork Nob to single combat, punched him in his piggish snout, grabbed his powa-choppa out of his hand, used it to cut off the ork’s other arm, and tossing the choppa away beat the ork to death with its own severed limb. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Since then Brother Aristarchus has been educated in the mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus on the forge world of Ironheart and returned to his chapter a much more somber and calm individual. He rose through the ranks from Tech-Marine Fourth-Class to Second and was assigned as the personal tender to the dreadnought Venerable Brother Beaumarchais, which he maintains reverently. He, of course, does not ONLY tend Brother Beau, he also cares for the Land Raider, other dreadnoughts, and assorted vehicles of the 7th Company, but the elder dreadnought is his main concern. Interestingly, Brother Aristarchus does not know his special charge's secret, because he is a zealot of the Mechanicus religion and Brother Beau fears that he would take offense to the abnormality of him becoming a dreadnought in the first place. That fear is actually groundless, Aristarchus would be honored all the more to work with one who once trod the holy sands of Sacred Mars, but Brother Beau can't be sure of him...

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That's all I've got so far: constructive critique is welcomed and encouraged![/FONT]

 

[Grand Admiral Nemo]

Oh, forgot one character!

Honorable Brother-Champion Justinian Halvor:
Justinian Halvor is the Emperor's Champion for the Angels Of Infinity's 7th Company. Born on the fortress world of Saturnine VI in the Chitons Sector over 300 years ago he is and always has been a man of intense personal honor and extreme devotion to duty, only heightened by his training with the chapter.

Justinian Halvor rose through the ranks of the Chapter for two-and-a-half-centuries before the Battle of Thin Blood, where he distinguished himself by rescuing twelve of his wounded brother Marines and their gear from the clutches of Ork Lootaz. Because of this when the chapter decided that each company would field an "Emperor's Champion" from now on in honor of the Imperial Fists who had saved them from destruction, he was chosen to represent the 7th Company in this role.

Ever since Brother Justinian has been equipped with a Power Sword and Storm Shield like all of the chapters "Emperor's Champions". (Because that was the equipment borne by the Imperial Fists "Emperor's Champion" who led the rescue fleet, and in whose honor the Angels of Infinity adopted the practice.)

Many within the chapter say that it is Honorable Brother-Champion Justinian who should be Captain of the 7th company now, not Brother Alexei: Justinian disagrees. He is proud to bear the mantle of champion of the 7th Company and feels the new-minted Brother-Captain is worthy of the honor that has been bestowed on him. He does acknowledge the new commander of the 7th company is untried and in need of guidance but he also will say "and that guidance, I can provide."

 

[Grand Admiral Nemo]

Also, here's a bit of the chapter's history: (No dates are given because I'm very shaky on the future-history timeline of 40K...)

The Chapter's First War: it was during this period when the chapter numbered exactly 1000 strong and all initiates freshly finished implantation save a double handful of 'advisors' seconded from the Ultramarines and some of their successor chapters, (including, allegedly, Brother-Beaumarchais. Only two other members of the advisory group knew his secret, the first apothecary, Brother Gulik Mavont, an Ultramarine, and the first Tech Marine, Brother Shamloch, a member of the Praetors of Orpheus, both of whom have taken the secret that his battle records et-all with the Praetors of Orpheus were fabricated to their graves during subsequent wars,) that they were sent out to train with the Contenders mentoring chapter.

Their first campaign, (and this foreshadowed things to come,) was against the Orks: disrupting the formation of a minor 'Waaaagh!' building within the realm of the Arch Maniac of Calvera. During this time the chapter served well, but not exceptionally, by SM standards. The entire campaign took place on a single, entirely 'Orkformed' planet, dubbed "Grot-Hurtz" by the orks and only known by various code names by the Imperials.

There were three battles of note that the chapter took part in during the campaign:

The Battle of Moss Lake: this was the first time the chapter would fight as a cohesive whole, despite having lost around 40 battle-brothers to critical wounds requiring extended treatment, (even for a space marine, such as the loss of a leg,) or outright fatality during various skirmishes. The orks were using the lake to manufacture fuel for their Fighta-Bombaz and destroying the facility was considered so vital that the entire chapter was committed to the attack.

The chapter attacked out of the planetary east just after dawn, which the orks hadn't been terribly prepared for and reduced the facilities fortifications at range while the rising sun impaired the defender's vision, then entered the facility itself and set about the grim work of butchering the inhabitants and destroying the facility. All in all the chapter suffered another 50 or so marines out-of-action, a further 20 dead outright, and interred the first marine "of their own" in a Dreadnought. Furthermore, they lost 12 assorted vehicles, including one Land Raider being rendered inoperable for the remainder of the campaign.

The orks by contrast, had the entire facility obliterated, lost the whole garrison of roughly 1000 orks, 200+ assorted vehicles, and another 3000+ Gretchen and snotlings, while, just to add severe insult to injury, they also lost the 'Stompa'-class Gargant under construction in the largest hangar.

The Bungle In The Jungle:
It was just over a year later while advancing on one of the orks' last main encampments, that the chapter was dealt its first major defeat. The 5th 'battle group'* was ambushed by a horde of 5000 orks erupting from hidden and sensor cloaked tunnels. Though they put up a valiant defense they were ultimately slaughtered almost to a man, only the apothecary and one land speeder (burdened down with the boxes of gene-seed bearing prognoids he'd harvested from the fallen,) managing to escape the trap and subsequent pursuit.
*(When out on a campaign the chapter is reorganized from companies to 'battle groups' mixing members of different companies into more flexible units of 100 marines, typically 10 marines from each company if the chapter is at full strength.)

The Battle of Alexander's Vengeance:
In recognition of their burning desire for revenge over the slaughter of the Fifth Battle Group a few months earlier, and to teach them a lesson about why vengeance was not a good motivation for a professional soldier, the Angels of Infinity were given the honor of spearheading the assault on the Orks final significant fortification, the orkish 'Kapital' of 'Great-Grooz'. At this point, the chapter numbered only around 700 'up-and-fighting' battle brothers, but they were determined to achieve a stunning victory. For this one battle, the man everyone already knew would soon be the new Chapter Master, Alexander Sur-La-Mare, ordered that the chapters battle cry was temporarily changed to "For The Fifth And Vengeance!".

The subsequent engagement is still talked about by the participants from the chapter, and their allies, because in five days and nights of bloody butchery, every last orkoid in the 'Kapital' was put to the sword, and on the fifth night the very ground soaked with promethium and burned to prevent regrowth. This is significant because the cleansing of the 100 square kilometers of the 'urban' area was expected to take at least a month...

The Imperium rapidly built a Fortress City on the site of their triumph, (by recycling the orkish scrap metal,) named Castellum Infinitopolis in the young chapter's honor, and 'retired' the vast majority of the surviving Astrum Militarum members who had served in the conquest to 'garrison' service of the new Fortress World, (Christened 'Contendata Trinitatus' in honor of the Contenders under whose auspices the Angels Of Infinity had fought,) except 100 members of each regiment, selected by lottery, who were sent back to their homeworlds with their regimental standards to recruit and train fresh troops...

(Next warzone to come when I get home...)

 

[Grand Admiral Nemo]

The Reconquest of Jessie's Freehold

When the chapter had built to full strength again after that prolonged and bloody learning experience, their next engagement was against a chaos uprising on the world of Jessie's Freehold, and this would be an event that would try their souls, for it was here, in only their second full campaign, that the chapter would suffer its deepest, though not most defining, shame and disgrace.

From the initial landing at the secondary spaceport of Volksburg, (the only one then still held by the loyalists, and which had fighting in the streets even as the Angels made their initial landing,) the campaign was a bitter and bloody slog through wave upon wave of poorly equipped chaos rabble: until they reached St. Johannesburg.

The Battle of St. Johannesburg: having already cut down over a million effectively untrained rebel soldiers equipped with nothing more than flintlocks, small and uncut 'fancy' diamonds embedded in their flesh which were psychically resonant, mild steel breastplates, and mild steel bayonets while suffering only twelve casualties of their own in return and none actually fatal, the Angels of Infinity were rather overconfident when they reached the outskirts of St. Johannesburg. The Brother Captain in charge of the 7th Battlegroup stated proudly that his men and their Imperial Guard allies would replicate the destruction of 'Great-Grooz' and raze the city to the ground in under a week.

When the relief force, at last, reached them two Imperial standard months (73 Terran days total approximately,) and over 37% total casualties later, of the boastful and confident army of nearly a million men and women that began the fighting with the 7th battle group, only 428 loyal guard members were left alive, and not one of their battle brothers could be found: alive or dead.

The garbled and chaotic images and calls for help that had sent the relief force scrambling to try to rescue them were at last explained by those scarred and more-than-half-insane 428 survivors: entering the city had been easy, if bloody: LEAVING AGAIN, had been impossible...

St. Johannesburg had been turned into a classic 'Tar-Baby' trap: the more you fought it, the tighter you got bound up in it, and once you were in at all, there was no way to get yourself free, the suction could only be broken from the outside. Inside the city was a maze and a haunted one at that! Walls that were suddenly floors, doors that didn't open to the same place when you turned around, staircases that would randomly lead to the basement when you went up, or the roof if you went down, windows that showed your darkest nightmares; which exploded like frag grenades if they got the smallest crack, and always straight towards the least protected person: speakers blaring imperial hymns: hymns full of subversive subliminal messages... That had been day 3, once the majority of the army was committed: it got ever so much worse from there. By the end of day 6, each of the survivors had been effectively alone, so unsure of what they were seeing and hearing that they'd just crawled into some hidden rathole and hunkered down. The one thing that had always stayed constant was the solar cycle and the chronometers. Those, for some reason, the city did not mess with: your Chrono would not suddenly run backward, or stop for no reason, or display a time that didn't match the daylight cycle, time was the one thing you could still rely on in that diabolic world of nightmare. Because of this, each of them knew that it had been on day 18 that things slowly started going back to normal, and by day 33 it was just a banal, (even if affiliated with the arch-enemy,) city again. That was when 'The St. Johannesburg Resistance' had begun.

No more than 9 members of any regiment had been left alive and loyal to the God-Emperor by the end of day 33, as far as the survivors knew, but they had started making contact with each other and demanding tests of purity of each other, like reciting the Imperial Lobsinger from memory, then organizing into classic terrorist insurgent cells and ambushing every patrol of chaos worshipers they could in preparation for the day that the Imperium would come to their rescue. They believed that at the start of The St. Johannesburg Resistance there had been 999 of them, when they were at last rescued and the city was taken, only 428 were left. Once the Inquisitorial Quaestors were totally finished debriefing the survivors, there were zero* remaining members of The St. Johannesburg Resistance.
*(Rumors persist to this day that three dozen or so of them were deemed still fit enough for reconditioning and subsequent continued service, (as part of the Inquisition, naturally,) while the rest were not killed outright but instead mind-cleansed and put to further use by the Inquisitorial representatives accompanying the invasion forces, but that could just be propaganda and/or the hopeful blathering of self-deluded fools.)

Over the next year and a half, the invasion began facing ever increasingly well equipped and trained opposition, though that was believed at the time to just be the results of a process of looting after imperial 'setbacks' (losses) and winnowing of the unlucky/incautious among the enemy's ranks. All this was proved false during...

The Fall of Volksburg:
After the complete disappearance of the 7th Battle Group during the first attack on St. Johannesburg, the chapter had operated with more caution, always operating with multiple battle groups together and not entering into urban theaters except defensively, but this was where they were dealt their second bitter blow.

Up to this point, the imperial policy, as is standard practice, had been, wherever possible, to re-take an area mostly intact, especially industrial areas and support structures like water purification plants and hospitals. The acting imperial capital was Volksburg at the time, and three Battlegroups, the 8th, 9th and 10th, had been assigned to area defense, protecting the Angels of Infinity's critically wounded when they were returned to the area to recuperate and be fitted with cybernetic replacement parts.

Late one night during the month of Saturnalia, a small warp rift opened a few thousand miles trailing of the planet and a small-but-significant fleet of chaos warships emerged. In an act known today as The Casmirean Betrayal, the chapter's fleet admiral, Brother Casmirean Vordarrian had arrayed a majority of the chapter fleet providing orbital support on the far side of the planet at the time and belayed the order to reposition to meet the threat claiming it was a trick by the chaos forces who must have learned the chapter battle-cant by ripping it from the mind of a battle brother captured at St. Johannesburg. To this day, no one knows why everyone believed him when, as was only sensible, a new battle-cant system had been established subsequent to the seventh battle group's disappearance and presumed captures. Because of this, the traitors were able to close on the planet unopposed for three hours while the main fleet did nothing, and by the time the fleet began to respond, the Battle later known as The Fall of Volksburg had already begun.

This was the first recorded time that the Angels Of Infinity would face their traitor counterparts in combat, though it would certainly not be the last, and the very notion that there were still members of the traitor legions alive and kicking caught them off guard. Oh, sure, they'd all HEARD that this was true, but to have something described and to see it first hand are very different things. They were unprepared to fight a foe that matched their prowess and ferocity, taking heavy casualties in the first few hours, the only big advantage they possessed being their superior Espirit-de-Corps which kept them fighting when saner soldiers would have retreated. However, the Defenders of Volksburg were outnumbered 200 to 1, and after 12 days of bitter struggle, either had been killed or chosen to withdraw while protecting fleeing civilians.

Of Brother Casmirean Vordarrian's fate, nothing was known for several centuries, save that he and four other space marines donned suits of Terminator armor not long after he finally gave the order to turn and engage the enemy, they then made use of the Teleportarium of the Infinitum Astera, he set the coordinates himself, and somehow caused the machine spirit of the Teleportarium to erase all records of their destination. When their quarters were searched after their disappearance became apparent, a small piece of jewelry was discovered in a hidden compartment in one wall of each cell. They were bracelets made from several of the bizarre psychically resonant 'fancy' raw diamonds found embedded in the flesh of each enemy soldier, save that these were cut, 'brilliant' cut to elongated points, and all eight were different colors embedded equidistantly in a wide gold band: the wrong way around...

The Battle of the Herriot:
With Chapter-Master Alexander Sur-La-Mare taking direct command of the Chapter Fleet, the battle was joined with the chaos fleet in geostationary orbit over Volksburg. The chaos forces tried to 'torpedo herd' the space marine attack group but the Chapter Master re-uttered an ancient Terran phrase: "Damn the Torpedoes: full speed ahead!" opting to launch wings of Thunderhawks to intercept the torpedos in order to deny the enemy their objective of forcing the fleet to change course.

When at last the Space Marine war-fleet closed with the vessels of the Arch-Enemy the true thrust of Chapter Master Alexander's plan became apparent: every able-bodied Space Marine that could be retrieved from the surface, had been, and they made full use of them staging boarding actions against the enemy. The rival fleet, by contrast, had sent almost every one of their traitor marine detachment down to the surface, and the Angels of Infinity made short work of the crews of mortal cultists left aboard. This space battle is known as "The Battle of the Herriot" because of the flagship of the Traitor forces, a heavily modified Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser which was the only ship on which they found chaos space marines, and even there only a handful of the elite command staff. The ship, whose original name has been erased from history, was re-christened the 'Herriot' and sold to one of the Rogue Trader's involved in the reconquest of Jessie's Freehold in exchange for a pledge to have their colony worlds manufacture, store, transport, and supply on-demand a billion standard bolt rounds for the chapter annually at-cost for the next 250 years...

All in all this battle cost the chapter one strike cruiser mauled to the point of requiring a significant refit, three Gladius-class frigates hulked, two Hunter-class Destroyers mauled badly enough to demand a full refit, an entire squadron of Cobra-class destroyers sucked into the warp unexpectedly and presumed lost with all hands, and some significant damage to the Finity's End. On the more personal level, 17 space marines died in the boarding actions, 31 were severely wounded, and thousands of chapter serfs/armsmen gave their lives or were crippled/maimed in the fighting.

The chaos forces, by contrast, suffered total annihilation and/or capture of their space forces.


The Year of Proving:
With their space fleet lost the Chaos Space Marines, now Identifies as members of the Alpha Legion, abandoned Volksburg and disappeared into the dense forests and incredibly extensive and interconnected cavern systems of Jessie's Claim. For the next year, the Chaos forces would harry the Imperials from these areas while the Angel's of Infinity, Inquisitorial troops, Astrum Militarum, and the handful of surviving loyalist P.D.F. would hunt for them and occasionally manage to actually force a battle. Their cultist troops held the city for two months while the Angel's of Infinity regrouped and healed their wounded brothers, but the city was retaken shortly after they rejoined the fighting. No decisive battles occurred during this time, though a small number of Chaos Space Marines were caught out and killed.


The Rescue of the 7th:
At the end of the Year of Proving the Reconquest Army gained reliable intelligence on where the surviving captives taken by the chaos forces from the 7th Battle Group were being held, and the Angels of Infinity responded to it in force. The complex was deep inside an unexplored section of the caves and the Angels of Infinity knew they had to proceed both swiftly and decisively, yet also cautiously, or their captive brothers would be killed or relocated somewhere else. Utilizing their best scouts and saboteurs they infiltrated the caves and assassinated several Chaos Space Marine guards, then donned their hateful armor and entered the facility. Through cunning and guile, they disabled all of the base's cogitator systems: whereupon the entire chapter attacked via drop pod landings and Thunderhawk transports, storming the base and slaughtering every cultist and Alpha Legionary they found therein.

Of the battle brothers lost at St. Johannesburg, 42 were recovered alive, if badly mentally destabilized by their ordeal, and a further 33 sets of harvested and stored prognoids were retrieved. Of the rest of the 98 members of the 7th Battlegroup who entered St. Johannesburg two-and-a-half years before, there was no sign, but records from the cogitators of the base indicated that they had been killed over the intervening time while being tortured. The chapter mourned their loss but returned to the fighting immediately.

The chapter suffered only 12 casualties in the process of accomplishing this, and of those only 4 were outright fatalities, each one at the hands of a member of the Alpha Legion.

The Alpha Legion Forces lost 20 Legionaries and 200 or so cultists, plus the capture and decommissioning of a major command center.

Only one more decisive battle was to occur in the Reconquest: the Siege of St. Ethelburg.

Five more years of bitter games of cat-and-mouse occurred against the Alpha Legion and Chaos Cultist forces, slowly whittling their numbers and destroying their supplies till at last the enemy was forced back to their last stronghold of St. Ethelburg. Rather than enter the city this time the imperial forces decided to reduce it, except its shrines, temples, and chapels, which would be used as staging bases to rebuild. This process took 12 days of hard fighting, at the end of which the surviving enemies were holed up in the central cathedral, which they had desecrated with chaos iconography, chains made of human bones, and the like. After a consultation of the Emperor's Tarot, the decision was made to try to take the cathedral mostly intact, so the Angels of Infinity entered through a hidden tunnel in the catacombs and stormed the building in their hundreds while Asepta Sororitas Seraphim entered through the attics. The fighting was heavy and hot, but, in spite of a force of 50 Chaos Space Marines and almost 1000 cultists being encountered, the cathedral was taken with only some minor structural damage that was easily repaired.

However, the chapter was to learn a dark and terrible secret that day. Among the Chaos Space Marines encountered, were ten of the missing members of the 7th Battlegroup who had been believed dead! One of them, they managed to capture. A deep scan of his mind by a Librarian revealed to them that more than 90% of the 'dead' marines were actually ALIVE: but turned to Chaos! He and the others had stayed behind while the others escaped via a portal to the Webway somewhere on the planet: because that was what reading the 'loom of fate' revealed would bring them greater glory in the eyes of the Dark Gods and set them on the road to Daemonhood. For over 300 years, the chapter would eternally bear this stain upon their honor: "The Daemon Forty". The Inquisition of course knew, but they agreed that the chapter as a whole was not damned and forsaken, and shared a small secret of their own: of all the chapters in the Imperium, only one that had existed for more than a century had never had at least one battle brother fall to the blandishments of the Dark Gods, (though they would not say which,) and in most cases they had not the cause of being systematically tortured for years before they broke.

(Whew, finally done!)