Fresh-Faced New User
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Hi all,
New-ish member here. I've been drafting up some fluff for my Customer Chapter 'The Screaming Eagles'. I was wondering if you would be able to have a read and let me know your C&C's.
The only thing I've not decided yet is how the old Chapter Master died - feel free to suggest something here.
It is the first time I've written anything like this, so any steers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Have a good day!
Clarkey
INQUISITION FILE: 1.852.987.M41
Chapter 794: THE SCREAMING EAGLES
The Screaming Eagles are a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, established during the Second Founding using Raven Guard Gene-seed. Taking the most risk-taking and daredevil of the Legion, they founded their Fortress Monastery upon a little known world, which they reportedly named after their first Chapter Master, Titan Vultur.
No-one have yet verified its exact location or true name.
It has also been said, that none but the Screaming Eagles Chapter Master himself been graved with the presence of their Primarch. The Chapter have only ever had direct contact with the Raven Guard’s Chapter Master, Kayvaan Shrike, on occasion sent on his Primarch’s behalf. This lack of contact with the Primarch drives the brothers that make up the Screaming Eagles to perform to their upmost best in the hope that the news of their victories and displays of superlative skill and effectiveness on the battlefield reaches Corus Corax, so one day he might bless them with his presence.
COMBAT DOCTRIN
Taking after their founding Legion, they rely heavily on ambush tactics. Scouts report the location they can do most damage, and then the Drop Pod Assault and Jump Pack and close combat terminators insertions hits like the hammer of the Emperor himself. However, as the nature of warfare is changing, the Eagles are having to adapt in order to maintain the competitive edge over their enemy. This has meant a new training programme in which the adoption of Primaris marines are thought to be filling the ranks of the Screaming Eagles in the near future.
The current makeup of the Eagles is unknown at this time, and there is a reliance from the advancement in technologies from the wider Imperium armouries that is helping change the landscape of the chapter. Leaked details from those armouries provide some estimates in to what their current ranks look like. Only their foes know how they rage warfare on behalf of the Emperor, in this new age of warfare.
Until that point in time comes, historical records give an indication of their methods. It has been said however, that they continued to fights they have always done. With swiftness, effectiveness and sheer fury.
Unlike the tactics from the Legion in which they are born from, they do not assault one spot at a time, committing a small part of their force, Drop Pods will target multiple command points at once, crippling an entire campaign force within a few brutal hours. Doing this means a risk of incredibly high losses should the ambushes fail, but also guarantees the maximum amount of damage. When in alliance with other forces, the Screaming Eagles will often commit their entire battle force to multiple attacks, for their concern is not for ensuring their own survival, but the enemies extermination by whatever means necessary. By committing their reserves, even if the battle goes ill for them, their allies can move in for a swift deathblow.
APPEARANCE & ORGANISATION
The infamous bleached bone colour of the Eagles armour is known throughout the universe, however they are often mistaken for the Death Wing. This mistake is soon realised when their foes experience how hard the Eagles hit in their attack.
Derived to blend in with the soft sandstone in which their planet is made up from. It has been said the largest city on the planet was 100x greater, architecturally than that of Rome, the mythological wonder of the distant and ancient Terra. Blue, Red and gold are incorporated into the armour as a marine works up to the higher echelons of the order.
The Chapter Master adorns a golden jet pack to show his worthiness as a worrier and leader of men. This great figure of a man can be seen with his battle colours and purity seals from a mile off when in the heat of battle. As a Chapter Master he certainly doesn’t distance himself from the bloodshed, something that he prides himself on. His position on the battlefield can often become a rallying point once the battle has been won, or if things start to go awry. The Eagles order is not built up of noblemen who are simply born into their role. No, an Eagle earns his place, within the Chapter, and so those who are at the top are those who have literally fought the hardest for it.
Although they follow the Codex Astartes relatively closely, all of their squads are highly trained in the uses of Jump Packs, and their armouries contain enough drop pods for the entire Chapter, to reflect their preferred fighting style.
The only modification in their entire armoury are special hypersonic whistles attached to the retro-thrusters of the drop pods... the shriek they produce in the final seconds of descent strikes fear in the hearts of their unfortunate victims, and has given the Screaming Eagles their name. It has been said that if the enemy were lucky enough to escape the ensuing slaughter, his head would be ringing for weeks after, due to the sheer noise that these modifications made.
This sonic warfare tactic employed by the Eagles gave their marines an advantage over the disorientated foe even before a toe had touched the surface.
Each Company operates pretty much as separate entities, answering only to their Captain, and only them to their Chapter Master. The separate Battle Companies operate their own fleets, each independent of the other. Reserve Companies are often seen to work in conjunction with the Battle Companies, providing additional squads as and when required. The First and Tenth Companies are completely scattered, sending individual squads to work with the other Companies as they are requested.
The various companies have been involved in almost every major campaign since the Second Founding. Although they do not enjoy working in concert with other forces, they will often exchange information, and strike mutually agreed targets. After each campaign conclusion they leave without a word, leaving their allies to reap the benefits or to repay the losses as is needed. The Screaming Eagles, it is said, are a reluctant ally, but an ally nonetheless.
HISTORY
The Screaming Eagles, after founding their Fortress Monastery during the Second Founding, have appeared numerous times in the Imperial records, although rarely working in conjunction with other forces. Or, if they do, they do not appear in the records of the campaigns.
Their first confirmed campaign was on the world of Skoleta, where several Traitor Guard regiments too foolish to fall back to the Eye of Terror were annihilated to the last man within two hours of the Screaming Eagles planetfall.
Since then, their reputation for brutal and swift justice has continued for ten milennia. During the Purges of Maxos, a reign of terror from the forward scouts drove the Orks into their jungle fortresses, where every last Ork was killed in the first hails of bolter fire and grenades as the drop pod doors opened. Thus has their pride grown and their reputation accumulated over the millennia. Each daring raid has paid off, each risk has come good. Except one...
During the Third War of Armageddon, as the green hordes were forced into a stalemate, the Screaming Eagles were asked to instigate a number of daring raids deep in the jungles to try to cut off the supply routes. Due to the massive importance of this mission, The Screaming Eagles resolved to deploy all of their Battle Companies, and their entire First and Tenth Companies besides. The Chapter Master himself would lead the raid on the largest supply depot, along with his Honour Guard.
The Scouts of the Tenth Company were inserted under the cover of darkness, and immediately things started going awry.
Of the 20 squads of scouts that were deployed, 8 never reported to their designated reconnaissance points. The one squad that managed to send an garbled emergency broadcast was brutally cut off before any intelligible words could come.
Despite this, the then Chapter Master, Titan Vultur, was determined to fulfil his duty. A mere twenty minutes after the last required information was gathered, a full 40 drop pods were sent spiralling towards the ground, and another 20 Assault Squads fell from Thunderhawks upon their targets.
Only six Marines would ever return from the surface of the planet.
What Titan Vultur could not have known was the presence of Snikrot, the jungle terror of Armageddon. Through silent hunting, and the slaughter of forty Astartes Scouts, he had discovered the intent of The Screaming Eagles through the recorded messages on the vox-casters. Conveying this message to Ghazghkull, the Orks were aware of their plans…
They were ready for them.
The drop pods were fired out of descent through volleys of cannon fire and anti-aircraft guns, many not even sounding the legendary screams of their retro-thrusters. Those that reached the ground were soon overwhelmed and either captured or slain. Even the Chapter Master, despite the blood of countless scores of greenskins upon his lightning claws, was captured, and brought before the Prophet of the Waaagh! to be personally executed. There was one part however, that Ghazghkull could not have known…
Titan Vultur, although embodying the famed daredevil spirit of his Chapter, was not entirely reckless. In a rare moment of caution and worry, he had assigned one of his own Honour Guard, Titus Aquila, to accompany one Assault Squad to drop upon the location of the last emergency message left by Scout Squad Delta. They dropped at the same time as the others, and on discovering the bodies of their brethren quickly worked out what must have happened.
Titus had known that their Chapters only hope in this would be surprise. Now he knew that they no longer had that advantage, all would be lost. Refusing to mourn for his comrades until revenge was served, but still contemplating his predicament, he resolved to lead his men out of the jungle onto the plains, and there to the front lines of his allies, some seven hundred mile journey.
The road was long, and hard, and littered with the failed ambushes of his Chapter. He arrived too late to be of any service to his brothers, but he did carve their memory upon the greenskin's minds. Even now those Orks in the jungles hold him in fear and hate.
Within the jungles, their steps were haunted not just by the legendary Kommandos of Snikrot's mentoring, but also by the myriad of poisonous creatures and biting plants. Astartes are renowned for their hardiness, but even they cannot stand for long against multiple venomous stings or bites. Often, the squad would extract some of the poison for use in their bolt pistols, but this was a rare bonus. When you are hunted by some thousand Orks, you do not wish to stay long in one place with a disabled gun, carrying out a fiddly and potentially dangerous procedure.
Upon the plains after, the Orks had free use of their vehicles, and often would attempt to overtake the squad who ran across the plain. Titus ordered the squad to only use the jump packs at dire need, but too often they would be forced into jumping away from an advancing horde, or jumping onto a lone warbuggy venturing too close for comfort.
Through the journey, he and his squad were whittled down from eleven to just six marines. They mourned for these fallen, but did not shrink from pilfering the equipment of their comrades where possible, for even they of The Screaming Eagles can not risk to be trapped deep behind enemy lines with little fuel or ammunition.
Often in their journey, they would be forced to eat the most inedible of foods, even for an Astartes. To eat an Ork is unpleasant to anyone, and despite the value of absorbing some of the Orks knowledge of tactics and plans hunting them, this was little comfort to Leo and his squad, now the sole survivors of near seven hundred Marines.
The journey took many days and it was a full two months before they emerged in sight of the Imperial lines. Their allies, having not heard of them for this time had considered them lost, and were still mourning for their lost Brothers. And yet in the midst of their morning, six of those who had fallen walked among them once more.
These six marines were lauded as heroes among the many heroes of Armageddon, and their tales were matters of legend among the numerous acts of valour sprang from the conflict. They mourned the loss of seven hundred Astartes, but the six that survived had proven to all that valour and purpose are as important as skill and weaponry.
Titus Aquila was placed as the Chapter Master of the Screaming Eagles, and the five companions of his, he raised to be his own Honour Guard.
Despite the many offers of recompense and honour, Titus ordered the Chapter to retreat to their Fortress-Monastery, to build back the Chapters force, and to inscribe each and every name of their fallen battle-brothers into the Chapter's Book Of Vengeance.
Recently, Companies of The Screaming Eagles have been seen once again operating in campaigns. They appear to have leant from the past mistakes, and have now adopted a more cautious tactical approach, although they are as daredevil as ever upon the battlefield.
And now, their hatred of all Greenskins seems to burn like a blazing torch, and woe betide any who cross their path to making the Orks pay the debt of blood for their comrades...
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