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Yet another YOURSELF thread (don't tell me that you don't love them!) this one is the first and only one for the holy warriors of the Skitarii. I am really unsure about how to write fluff for the Skitarii, and that's why I'm being lazy and leaving it to whomever wants to write some cool fluff for fun!

Disclaimer: this is once again another form of Smudge's idea, which I thank him greatly for.

The Skitarii come from the space stations of Graia, and that's really the only thing that is set in stone, so no Mars rubbish.

The Skitarii up for sale are: Vanguard Alpha 1: Carbine, Arkhan's Divinator, 2 plasma Calivers. Verviedi.
Vanguard Alpha 2: Arc pistol, 2 Arc rifles, Verviedi
Vanguard Alpha 3: Carbines Sgt_Smudge.
Vanguard Alpha 4: Carbines. bocatt.
Vanguard Alpha 5: Carbines. Otto Weston
Ranger Alpha 1: Galvanic Rifle, 2 Arquebuses. Verviedi.

Infiltrator Alpha 1: Digital weapons, taser goad and Flechette blaster. Verviedi.

Dragoon 1: Tazer lance.Verviedi.

Ballistarii 1: Autocannons Verviedi.
Ballistarii 2: same
Onager Dunewalker: Icarus array, or Neutron laser (magnetized/undecided)Verviedi.
Kastelan Robots: TW Phosphor blasters, shoulder phosphor, Datasmith.

Any fluff for this beautiful guys would be greatly appreciated, and all of them are unnamed so name them at will, but they have to use the Skitarii system of naming, if you need help on that then I've started a thread on their name in the background section of DakkaDakka.
Thanks for reading, and fire at will!

I am thoroughly astonished at how well this idea of letting others write your fluff has caught on, and I'm glad people are getting involved!
I'm far less adept on Skitarii lore than I'd care to admit, but I'd love to write something for Vanguard Alpha 3, and I'll leave the more well equipped units for AdMech nuts (and bolts!)

Sold! To the amazing Sgt_Smudge! Have fun writing the fluff and go nuts!

I wrote something for a generic Skitarii Vanguard Alpha, that you could use here. It might lay some background for the others to start with. Opens up the rest of the roles to elaborate and explore the characters and their choice of weapons and also whether they agree with or disagree with the current assignment.

You can just attribute it to Vanguard Alpha 4

Where is this story that you wrote for the Alpha?

Vanguard Alpha 1-
Telphar-Gamma-49 achieved the rank of Vanguard Alpha after being the last member of his battle maniple left alive after a Eldar pirate attack on the station of Graia Secundus. He was discovered by a Skitarii relief force, buried under the remains of several Eldar aspect warriors and a large wraith-construct designated "Wraithblade" by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Collegia Biologis.

Since then, he has been up-augmented a total of 13 times, to repair battlefield damage and to implant ceremonial ranking augmetics. He is currently 55% augmetic, and is stationed indefinitely on the Mechanicus vessel Akasha's Light.

Thank you very much Verviedi, for making the fluff for the warlord of my 600pts force! I've always had a disdain for the Eldar anyway, and i might even have an Eldar heirloom somewhere on him to show his past.

I just retro edited it into my post. I just wanted to make sure it was okay before I hijacked one of your dudes

I really like it and the extent of detail you have put into it! Thank you so much, and thanks for the awesome codec recording of 01-Jeysk.

Decay wrote:
I really like it and the extent of detail you have put into it! Thank you so much, and thanks for the awesome codec recording of 01-Jeysk.

By the way... Should I use the latest Skitarii naming system or the canonical naming system?
Canonically, all non-priest Mechanicus personnel are designated by Name-Greek Letter-Number, but the annoying new system has them as Number-Name.
If you're using the new system, just designate my guys as 103-Lux, and 49-Telphar.
Vanguard Alpha 2-

Lux-Epsilon-103 was the last Skitarius produced by the Aeolus Lab Complex on Graia before it's destruction in the event that ravaged the surface. His squad fought a rearguard action to allow a high-ranking Magos to escape from the facility with a STC printout detailing a more efficient respirator design.
During this rearguard action, most of his squad was destroyed by a heavily armored skimmer-tank, leaving only Lux-Epsilon-103 and two other Skitarii to protect the Magos. Undaunted, Lux-Epsilon-103 picked up the Arc Pistol of a fallen researcher, and destroyed the tank with one shot, allowing the Magos to escape.
In honor of this, he is fitted with a prototype arc-projector implanted in his forearm that increases charge time of his Arc Pistol by 26%.

I would like to take Vanguard Alpha 5 but I will brush up on my Skitarii lore before I put fingers to keyboard.

I find the new system of naming them annoying as well, now that I've found out how the old one works, it just makes more sense. Anyway, thanks for writing the story for Lux-Epsilon-103!

Ironstrider 1-

The Ironstrider Engine Wrath of Cogs is an oddity. One of the original Ironstrider engines, and one gifted to Graia by Fabricator General Kane. One of the only Ironstrider Engines ever to have been manually stopped and restarted, Wrath of Cogs has not lost any of it's heroic vigor.
It's current rider, Cydric-Epsilon-17, a recipient of the Iron Cog for sawing a renegade Terminator in half with a sustained burst from his Radium Carbine, was assigned to Wrath of Cogs after a tether between two of Graia's orbital stations was shattered by a D-Cannon blast. Both the pilot servitor and it's former driver were killed, and the Wrath of Cogs was sucked into space, still attempting to move forward.

It was recovered and reconsecrated a year later, still in perfect working condition.

Is this the Dragoon? I assume it is from the vanguard who got promoted, but you called him the gunner of the Ironstrider. I'm just being stupid most likely.

Yep, it's the Dragoon. I have no idea what I was thinking there.

Thanks again Verviedi, Wrath of Cogs is sehr awesome!

Ironstrider B-Tari 1

The Ironstrider Engine Metal Eternal is the 375th Ironstrider Engine produced on the space station of Graia Tertiarus. Intended to fight the Eldar are raiders attacking Graia, Metal Eternal marched off the end of the production line fighting.
Instead of being destroyed by the withering rain of Eldar skimmer fire, the Metal Eternal ran rampant through the lightly armored skimmers. Even without a dedicated gunner, the Metal Eternal's vicious machine spirit was unerringly accurate, and destroyed two Eldar Falcon grav-tanks.
Metal Eternal is now manned by Sybon-Mu-57, a former Ranger who was awarded the Iron Cog for causing the fatal explosion of several Eldar Wave Serpent transports with his Plasma Caliver. Although the Plasma Caliver [DATA SEQUESTERED] was left to be fused to the Metal Eternal indefinitely.

Wow, Verviedi you are really giving everything a story at a quick rate. I thank you very much for all the time you're putting in to this thread. Just a question, you say that a plasma caliver is fused to Metal Eternal, where would it go? Or why would it be there anyway?

Nope. The Skitarius is fused to the Metal Eternal.

The Mechanicus censored the part that said the Caliver exploded, and enough of the poor Skitarius was left that they could fuse him. I thought it'd make a nice little bit of grimdark

So does that mean for the model is should find a way to cut off the limbs and parts of the Ranger and somehow fit wires that go from him into the machine?

If you want to
Just be careful. Those limbs are terrible to work with.

Also, post pics of these guys when you're done with them? I am looking forward to seeing what you can do!

I'm not great at conversion work, but are there any ideas you want to see on one of the Alphas or Ballistarii? I've already made Alpha 2 and the Dragoon.

Alpha 2 - Maybe a little greeble sticking out of the arm to represent an Arc Charger?

Metal Eternal - Cables connecting the pilot to the machine, missing limbs, ect...

I've already made and painted Alpha 2 and painted him, I just need to find a suitable part of machines to make his arc charger, it would have to be fairly small to fit upon his arm.

And instead of holding onto the gun for Metal Eternal, he could be fused forever to the gun, using wires and other stuff.

Sounds good!
I'd like to see a pic when you're done with Lux and Metal Eternal

Thanks for accepting my ideas! I'll write some moar now.

The Crab-
Onager Dunecrawler

The Onager Dunecrawler Manifold Destiny is one the most recent model of Dunecrawlers to walk out of Graia's forge-ships. Equipped with a newly-rediscovered adaptive weapons system, the Manifold Destiny is easily capable of changing which weapons it carries before battle.

The current pilot of Manifold Destiny, Sydriss-Beta-06, has survived for an almost unprecedented 3 years immersed in a Dunecrawler's pilot-vat. Known for her resilience in combat, due to surviving an Eldar ambush and several seconds of hard vacuum during a patrol action on the stations of Graia, Sydriss-Beta-06 is expected to survive longer than any other Graian Skitarius placed in a Dunecrawler pilot-vat.

Her gunner, Issec-Gamma-88, is the recent replacement of the Manifold Destiny's previous gunner, who was shot in the head by an Eldar sniper rifle during an action to prevent an orbital tether from collapsing to the surface of Graia. Issec-Gamma-88, although being a recent addition to Graia's Skitarii cohorts, is already gaining a record for accuracy and almost suicidal calm in battle.

Cadmus was born on a Space Station Manufactorum in the system of Graia and so he was born into a life of servitude to the Omnissiah and his agents.
After scanning his genecode at birth, he was set aside and trained to eventually join the stoic ranks of Graia's Skitarii regiments as a Vanguard Warrior. Each year, along with thousands of others in his 'batch', he was implanted and augmented in operating theatres rivaling the size of an Imperial Frigate.

Upon his 14th year of age, Cadmus and his batch marched into the operating theatres for the last time to receive their final upgrades before becoming Skitarii Vanguards. This operation carries the highest failure rate due to the nature of the procedure: implanting and augmenting the brain itself and it was not uncommon for a batch to suffer up to 15% casualties from this alone. It was considered a quality assurance phase, for the Omnissiah himself would choose which batches were worthy and which were not. The less failures a batch contained, the more blessed it was.

Cadmus had entered the operating theatre, Cadmus-Psi-5833 left it. His batch had only suffered 2 failures out of 6000, a 0.0033% failure rate. That was unheard of in the history of Graia's Skitarii and so his batch was considered as especially blessed by the hand of the Omnissiah. His batch, now revered as the elite of the Vanguard units, was split up and distributed by squad to only the most deserving of Skitarii regiments. When tech-priests or other servants of the Omnissiah gazed upon them and noticed their blessed failure rate, they reported feeling something they had never felt before and that couldn't be described by their implants or augmentations; a tingling along their spines which they attributed to the Omnissiah's approval of these holy Vanguards.

Cadmus-Psi-5833, in command of a squad from his batch, looked upon them and felt an emotion he would later investigate and call pride. Their armour, fresh from the forges and as of yet unmarred by the taint of war, gleamed brightly in the harsh glow of strip-lights above them. They were on their way to join an honoured Skitarii regiment and he knew already that they would not fail in any task assigned to them, for they were the chosen Vanguards of the Omnissiah himself.

Thank you very much Otto Weston. it's very difficult for me to think of ways to make my Skitarii seems special, but this thread is really helping me out and making me feel great! I've added my Ranger Alpha to the list if anyone wants to choose him.

I am running out of Skitarii! Should I add lore about not just the units, but about the attack forces and Graia ships etc?