Background and Origin: The Huntsmen began their history as a 5th Founding successor chapter of the Dark Angels, known at the time as the Angels Imperious. They were consumed with the belief that their bloodline had failed their glorious father, the Emperor, with their absence during the battle for Terra during the height of Heresy. The Angels Imperious therefore swore that never again would Terra be without the protection of Space Marines from the Dark Angels lineage. Granted settlement on the feudal world of Parador VI, in a system just outside Segmentum Solar, the Angels Imperious established a reputation not as a particularly aggressive or glorious chapter, but as firm and steady allies. Fellow Space Marines, Imperial Guard regiments, Astropath stations and Inquisitors operating near Parador did so with the comforting knowledge that, if they called for help, a Strike Cruiser brimming with the gloss black armored Angels Imperious would be dispatched as swiftly as possible. This rigid adherence to their obligation to their fellow Imperial soldiers drove a divide between the Angels Imperious and many of the Dark Angel successor chapters, and indeed the founding chapter itself. Unwilling to be drawn into prolonged campaigns, the chapter refused to participate in several major attempts to capture Fallen marines conducted by the Unforgiven, preferring to stand in unyielding vigilance should those who turned from the Emperor's grace ever attempt to once again strike Terra. This doctrine was to soon change however, with the Fall of Parador. In the opening stages of a war that has long since passed into the history of the Imperium, one of dozens that always follow in the wake of a Black Crusade, the strength of the Angels Imperious was broken. Responding to a frantic distress signal from a nearby Guard garrison, describing the encirclement and entrapment of the regiment, plus a contingent of Dark Angels marines, |
LEGIO INFITIALES VENIA |
THE HUNTSMEN By Eric Lofgren |
This article has been published with the kind permission of Eric Lofgren. Planetary image created by Shadow Guard |
beset by every manner of demon, heretic and cultist. Setting out to reinforce the beleaguered Imperial post, nearly half the chapter, and the vast majority of its fleet strength set out for what was believed to be the pivotal, defining battle of the war. Leaving behind most of their vehicles and tanks, firm in the belief that in a defensive fight, marines on the ground would be far more valuable, the Angels arrived expecting to find a battle of cataclysmic proportions. Instead, they found a massacred Astropath station, a nearly abandoned world, and a series of bloody, intense ambushes conducted by guardsmen turned traitor by the lure of power, and led by a small cadre of mysterious, veteran marines. Realizing they had been drawn out, and having left Parador exposed, Grand Master Amaeon, First of His Name, ordered a full retreat, bringing what was left of his expeditionary force home at full speed. When the fleet arrived, they found their world in ruin. Renegade naval and pirate ships, led by the same Fallen they had fought previously, had hammered the planets sparse orbital defenses, and the weight of their firepower made mockery of the few ships left behind to guard the world. The traitor fleet having secured the system, Festeruin, the so-called Warherald of Nurgle, delivered to the world a vast array of plagues, dispensing pestilence filled bombs from his Grand Cruiser hovering far above the world's few cities. The Marine garrison, unable to withstand the effects of such unholy disease, was forced to withdraw to the armored walls of their monastery, lest they be utterly wiped out. Local guard regiments and ordinary citizens, driven mad by plague and seeing their supposed guardians abandon them to Nurgle's mercy, flew into a disease driven rage, attempting to storm the monastery fortress to find shelter from the Plaguestorm raging above them. At first, these attempts were feeble, and were repulsed by a few determined volleys of bolter fire, but soon the appearance of Plague Marines, and even a handful of Death Guard terminators strengthened their attacks. Finding his Chapter besieged, Amaeon ordered the fleet to fight through the traitor blockade long enough to evacuate as many surviving marines as possible. To his surprise however, as the Imperial fleet advanced, the Fallen withdrew, disappearing into the unthinkable vastness of the Warp, their havoc already wrought upon the servants of the Emperor. Although no longer threatened by an enemy fleet, the great press of plague-maddened traitors was beginning to make progress. The great fortress gatehouse had been breached, and many of the vehicle hangers and machine shops lining the inner wall had been overrun, along with the Techmarines defending them. Much of the Seventh Company had been lost as well, having been dispatched in an attempt to retake the gates and halt the collapse of the fortress. Although they died well, each amassing a great heap of traitor dead before they were dragged down, they could not stand against the living tide of unthinking, unfeeling attackers, given strength by seemingly invincible daemons summoned from the warp, who fed on the panic and pain of the mob surrounding them. Only the inner courtyard, crowded with wounded Marines, was left when Amaeon's Thunderhawk touched down. Arraigning for as many of his fellow brothers as possible to be saved, as well as the few serfs who had been lucky enough to be inside the monastery when the gates closed, Amaeon prepared to lead his personal guard of Terminators in a final holding action. Supported by a two Dreadnaughts that had withdrawn before the hanger had been overrun, they held the courtyard gates for over an hour, as gunship after gunship of marines were evacuated. Finally, surrounded by his dead comrades, and the ruined hulks of the Dreadnaughts, Amaeon and his remaining guards were overwhelmed and torn apart by their frenzied former subjects. The survivors crowded in the Chapter's cruisers, and looked down upon the desolation of their world. The very ground was warped by the plagues that rampaged across its surface, plant, animal and man alike being twisted into foul, unnatural abominations, the oceans turning stagnant and festering, rivers choked with plague victims. For three days the orbiting fleet rained fire down upon the world they had once called home, cleansing it of the taint of Chaos, but in the end, rendering it an uninhabitable husk. Incensed by the loss of their home world, and the deception and trickery that had been at the battle's heart, the surviving Marines vowed to patrol the star lanes in their great fleet until each and every traitor behind the destruction of their world, was dead or captured. The "Eternal Hunt" as they called their quest extends beyond that of the Dark Angels. Foremost, of course, is the capture of those of their bloodline who caused this betrayal, but the boarding of a few renegade ships yielded great rosters of fleet personnel. They vowed not rest until every last traitor sailor, marine and armsman was dead. Remaking their armor heraldry, one half of their armor deep green of their once-world, the other the stark white of both purity and mourning, their symbol that of a defiant white stag, the chapter took on a new name: The Huntsmen. To replenish their numbers, the Huntsmen turned to the ranks of the Navy, and the major fleet worlds, they had once cooperated with so readily. Snapping up promising young recruits, and occasionally the son of a noble, military minded Imperial family, the Huntsmen induct them into the Chapter before the eyes of the Imperium may mark these young sailors for greatness or death from a Commissar's pistol. They also recruit a disproportionate number of psychic recruits, to maintain the strength of their 2nd Company, and to provide their large fleet with the librarians and others who might aid in the Eternal Hunt. They also adopted the curious habit of naming themselves, and new members, after marines that had fallen at Parador, keeping their memory and their vows of vengeance alive. |
Home World: After the destruction of Parador, the Huntsmen became a fleet-based chapter, and their ships are of critical importance to their continued pursuit of their quarry. They field not only the traditional Space Marine warships, but also captured prize vessels not yet corrupted by the ruinous powers, as well as a few heavily modified Navy ships, given as payment for Huntsman assistance. The bulk of the Chapter is stationed on the battle barge Shield of the Righteous, a tremendous ship capable of not only holding its own in battle, but also containing the necessary facilities for space-based repair of its escort fleet, geneseed implantation, and other day-to-day activities. The 2nd Company, along with a small escort of experienced marines drawn from other companies, all of the Huntsmen's prisoners and the Chapter's vast records, are housed in a unique, spherical shaped ship, Echoes of Parador. As large as many space stations, it is said the design came to Chief Librarian Ganelon in a vision, and orbits an otherwise lifeless world within Segmentum Solar, hidden within a dust cloud. Battle Cry: The Hunt has found you; there is nowhere to run! |
