THE STEEL GUARDIANS

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The first version of this was written over 20 years ago, when Horus was simply "the finest military commander that the Imperium had produced" – the Primarchs were still a couple of years away. I have done some modifications to try to keep up with the 40k Canon, but inevitably it may no longer feel like it fits properly. It also conflicts with some current ideas on what is clichéd – but please remember, I wrote it before those clichés existed.

History

The Steel Guardians Chapter of the space marines have the longest traditions of any chapter, are officially part of the Third Founding, but have Chapter records going back to the Second founding! To explain these apparent contradictions, we must start by looking far into the past, to the early days of space flight, when mankind were still limited to a single world. The exact details have been lost over the millennia, but what is clear is that a group of fanatics, appalled at corruption in high places, and laws that protected the criminals rather than their victims, joined together in a secret brotherhood to take action. The cult called themselves "The Guardians of Man", and set themselves the task of removing those they considered to be damaging human society. As men went to the stars the Guardians went with them, in the never-ending struggle to make the universe fit for decent people. In the 30th millennium, when it became clear that the Emperor offered the greatest hope for mankind, the cult threw their support behind him, fighting as a sort of "rogue trader" group in some of the side actions of the First Crusade.

The cult petitioned the Emperor to establish them as a Legion of the Adeptus Astartes. It seems that the exact nature of the Space Marines and their relationship to the Primarchs was not widely known at the time; and the Guardians presumably thought that it would be possible to just do some implants, and issue powered armour. The Emperor ignored their plea. Their loyalty was, in any case, questionable – they saw the Emperor as a means to their ends, rather than the other way round. Over the years, however, this attitude changed, and during the Horus rebellion Guardians again fought, unacknowledged by the Emperor, against the rebel forces.

A second strand to the history of the Guardians began at this time. When the traitor chapters defected to Horus, not all of the marines in them were prepared to abandon the Emperor and a few managed to escape from their erstwhile battle-brothers and attached themselves to any loyal units they could find (including the Guardians). Lodges of the Guardians cult, which now included some of these loyalist marines, came together from all over the galaxy to form an entire regiment. They fought against a force of rebel Titans and marines in a side action on Cygnatus Five. Hopelessly out-gunned, the Guardians were cut to ribbons, but succeeded in delaying the rebel forces long enough for loyal Imperial troops to arrive and defeat the rebels. The Emperor acknowledged the Guardian's value in this action, and when, after the defeat of Horus, the pitifully few survivors again petitioned him to allow them to pass their traditions and rituals on to a new Chapter of marines, he authorised an "experiment".

A new Chapter was to be set up and the Guardian's cult, and the loyal elements from the traitor legions, would be allowed to train the new marines, and pass on their traditions. There were pitifully few of these trainers, and it took much longer to set up the new Chapter than would subsequently be the case. The whole thing was carefully monitored by the High Lords, and they provided specialists who took on the role, later filled by medics, of controlling the gene-seed. The loyalists from each traitor legion trained up the marines of a separate company (so each company was in effect a mini-chapter). The Emperor had referred to these loyal individuals as "flowers among the weeds of treachery", so the experiment was given the code name of “The Emperor’s Gardeners”.

Each of the Companies were to use a different uniform colour in a bright “flower” colour. These often reflected the colour used by the pre-heresy legion, but only in a way that was not obvious to outsiders – any clear reference to the traitor legions would have been anathema to other Astartes. The new army called themselves "The Steel Guardians", but the Chapter was not included on any list of chapters at that time. The Steel Guardians saw this as a requirement to prove themselves worthy (and free from the taint of Chaos), and fought valiantly in many battles over several centuries. They were only finally acknowledged as a Chapter at the time of the Third Founding. In celebration of this recognition they modified their uniform to be mainly steel, with the company colours limited to the greaves, gauntlets and helm.

Experience with the Steel Guardians obviously contributed to the Imperium's ability to create new Chapters (not done since the First Founding by the Emperor himself). However, it is not clear whether this was the full extent of the "experiment", or whether there were other objectives. The source or sources of their gene seed was never divulged to the Chapter, but when they were permitted their own medics they decided to keep the gene seed from each Company separate, and this may be why the Companies have maintained differences in their battle techniques over the millennia…

Organisation

Each of the companies has its own special traditions derived from the pre-Heresy traditions of one of the traitor legions. Each company is a battle company, with Tactical, Assault and Devastator squads and even Scouts permanently attached to them. They also differ from the Codex in that each has its own Terminator squad. The first squad (10 marines) forms two terminator battle squads - one is led by a normal sergeant, the other by the Company Sergeant Major (same stats as a normal sergeant). In order to avoid giving precedence to any company, they are not numbered, but referred to only by name.

Base World

The Commander of the Guardians is also the Lord of Floribundia - their base world.

Floribundia is an ancient world. All seismic activity has stopped, as has tectonic plate movement. When the Guardians first came erosion had left the planet with bare rock and shallow silted seas. The once mighty mountains (caused by the shrinking of the surface with the final cooling of the core) had been worn down to a few areas of hills. After millennia of effort, the land surface of the world is now covered with a carpet of flowers. Most of the soil is only a few inches thick, and cannot support growing crops, so it is a vast garden. Each of the Companies has its monastery in one of the groups of hills, and the soil there has been deepened so that the brothers can grow fresh fruit and vegetables. There are even special deep pockets of earth to allow trees and shrubs.

It seems probable that the gardening of Floribundia was initially part of the cover story for The Emperor’s Gardeners; but the Guardians have embraced it and incorporated it into their ethos. The brothers work in the gardens when not at war, as the Chapter believes that the peace and tranquillity of the monastery gardens is a metaphor for the way the galaxy could be if the forces of chaos were defeated. Their short periods of working close to nature refresh them, and strengthen their resolve to fight for peace.

There are twelve hilly areas on the planet. Each of the nine Companies has one, there is one which is used as the headquarters for the Chapter, the most rugged one (used for training recruits) is allocated to the Scout Company, and the twelfth has a space port and is used as a showpiece. It also has a Lodge (company-strength) of the Adepta Sororitas, but this is a closely guarded secret. Although the continent-wide carpets of flowers of Floribundia are renowned, and have appeared many times in the media, only a few outsiders have been allowed to see them in real life. The location of Floribundia is a secret known only to the Chapter's navigators, and all visitors have to come on Chapter vessels.

Battlecry, Nicknames, Tactics, etc

Several of the Guardians battlecries are reflections of their time when code-named The Emperor’s Gardeners:

"Cut down the weeds" "They are grass before our blades" "Weed out the impure" "Cut out the disease"

They also jokingly call each other "gardener" (although this is usually reserved for veterans who have spent at least one period of R&R on Floribundia).

There is no native population on the Steel Guardian's base world, so the Chapter has to recruit elsewhere. When the Chapter frees a world from invasion by chaos or xenos, there are usually a large number of youngsters who are eager to join the marines. The Chapter usually prefers those who have actually shown initiative by getting their hands on weapons with which to oppose the invaders. These are often those who have also lost their parents in the conflict. Thus the Steel Guardians often use the code name "The Orphans" to refer to themselves – although this may also reflect the fact that they do not know for sure who was/were their Primarch(s).

During the period when they were not recognised as a chapter, the observers sent by the Adeptus Terra would frequently watch battles from armoured vehicles behind the marines' line. This may have influenced the Steel Guardians' distaste for "hiding in tanks". They prefer infantry tactics without Rhinos etc; although drop pods and land speeders are quite acceptable. They even have some elderly jetbikes (which hover so close to the ground that they perform the same as motor bikes).

The Steel Guardians have a "helmets compulsory" rule on the battlefield. The marines have fought alongside their commanders for decades, often centuries, and don't need to see their faces to respond to their exhortations (and anyway they will hear them better through the comms system). They see the love of going bare-headed, for instance by the Ultramarines, as "showing off". As is their love of loin-cloths ("girly skirts") – although these are acceptable when part of the treasured suits of pre-heresy armour worn by some captains and other heroes. Cloaks for senior officers are also accepted because they make the wearer more visible on the battlefield.