Gitsplitta wrote:Thank you c34.... smarmy.... but it did the trick!


Scoutmaster Sergeant Darius Stone of the Mantis Warriors
(Telion Equivalent)

Darius Stone is old… how old is a matter of much speculation amongst the new recruits he guides, encourages and bludgeons into being worthy of assuming the role of full Space Marines, but it is certain he is the oldest living Mantis Warrior not encased within dreadnought armor. He was old before the rebellion of the Badab War, back when the Mantis Warriors fought side-by-side with the Ulramarines on Speculis 7 near the Tannhauser Gate during the Crux Campaign. He was old when he was granted special permission by Marneus Calgar himself to train and learn from Sergeant Telion. As the scoutmaster for the Mantis Warriors it was his duty to learn everything he could from Telion. Telion had perfected his role of master scout and trainer in service to the Ultramarines. With Telion's guidance Stone learned new skills, and used them to improve the training of the new Mantis Warrior recruits... then to his everlasting shame, saw them used in defiance of the Emperor during the Badab War.

During the "Dark Times" of the crusade, the scouts all eventually matriculated forwards into the body of chapter as full marines. With no new recruits, Stone was assigned to the Sternguard and served well until the chapter was recalled by the Inquisition. Though Stone relished his time with the esteemed cadre’ of veterans, many of whom he trained and served with on that fabled campaign… he longed for the challenge of molding young recruits into Space Marines once again. When the recall order came, no man in the chapter was happier than Stone.

Darius Stone has never been more important to the Chapter than he is at this moment. The Mantis Warriors were closer to extinction than anyone is willing to admit, and the future of the Chapter has been put squarely into his hands as Scoutmaster. His detachment, nicknamed the “Stone Cold Killers” now makes up the bulk of the Mantis Warrior tactical array, and is typically fielded in 3 squads. Stone himself takes command of a large sniper unit while the two other units are split into combat squads, ½ snipers, ½ close-assault mounted in Land Speeder Storms. All recruits take part in all aspects of warfare, so when they accept their responsibilities as full battle-brothers they can be assigned as needed and ensure the survival of the Mantis Warriors. But Stone IS old... and is known by his fellow marines not by the traditional term "battle brother", but by the term "battle father"... to signify the fact that most of the surviving members of the Chapter were trained by his hand, and his lessons in no small part, kept them alive during the Dark Times.

(Edited to fix some confusing phrasing... & a bit of added content)

Gitsplitta wrote:

Well, today I got a bunch of bits for the scouts (can someone please explain to me how I could buy enough bodies, heads and weapons for 20 scouts... and not buy a single pair of legs for them??).