Storm Hammers

Storm Hammers
A hammer flanked by two lightning bolts
Battle Cry	"Strike like lightning itself!"
Number	Unknown
Successor Chapters	Unknown
Primarch	Engerand
Homeworld	Lostregia
Specialty	Overwhelming assault and firepower
Allegiance	Loyalist
Colours

This page is a work in progress, part of the Imperium Asunder project, a fan remake of the warhammer 40 000 history.

Homeworld

Lostregia, decades after the terraforming failure.

In ages past, during what is called the Dark Age of Technology, Lostregia was an experimental colony: a world where cutting-edge terraforming was used to turn a hellscape into paradise. By the time of the 31st Millenium, such terraforming had been fatally undone, reverting Lostregia to a world of cataclysmic weather: great storms which could last for days and set the sky on fire and clouds of toxic gas which could melt the flesh from a man's bone. Deadly radiation storms were commonplace, horrific weather which could drive a man insane as his brain melted or horrifically mutate him. In spite of these conditions, life exist on Lostregia's surface. Life which has adapted to feed off the radiations. Terrifying mutants, called Glowfiends, haunt the surface: rendered near-immortal by their symbiosis with radiation which also drove them mad. The human survivors, descendants of these early colonist, live in great fortresses which exist both above and below ground and are shielded from the deadly environment. Organized in a feudal system, these fortress battle for supremacy and limited resources.

History

Engerand's Arrival on Lostregia

Engerand arrived on Lostregia on a completely average day. The sky was clear (as clear as it can be on Lostregia, in any case) and the storms were predicted to return only the next day. Radiation levels were low and the serfs had left their shielded home to collect the strange, deformed fruits which grew on the surface which would then be purified and reduced into a sticky paste. The miners had left for the mountains to dig new tunnels and extract more minerals, some of them strange and exotic, unique to the planet. All seemed normal until something suddenly impacted the side of the mountain. Miners were first to arrive and found a child within the crater. This child was taken in by a miner family and quickly grew. Soon he was a young boy of great strength and endurance who took to the ways of the workers on this strange alien world: work hard, work fast and complete your work before the next storm. Soon he drew the attention of the lord of his fortress, Bellognatus, who wanted the boy for himself. Taken from his foster family, the young Primarch joined the knightly caste which served the lord of the fortress and was taught in the ways of war, where previously he had been but a worker.

Unfortunately for his people, Bellognatus was a dead man walking: years before, during a campaign against another lord, he had been caught in a deadly radiation storm. While the man had survived (in part thanks to some cybernetic life support systems), he had contracted a strange incurable condition which slowly degraded his sanity. As the years passed he grew more and more unstable and belligerent, sending the Primarch and his fellow knights on brutal campaigns of pillaging and conquest. The people suffered under an unjust, mad ruler and so Engerand began fomenting a rebellion amongst the people. He traveled deep into the mine tunnels to recover some of the rare minerals, fighting underground mutants. When he came back, he forged nine hammers which he gifted to his champions; these mighty weapons could easily crush the metallic armor which the knights were clad in. When Engerand finally confronted the now-reclusive Bellognatus, he discovered the man had begun degenerating into a Glowfiend. The knights, outraged of serving a mutant, turned on their lord and installed Engerand as their new ruler. In time, the Primarch would mount a campaign of conquest to join the disparate fortress and unite the humans of Lostregia.

Arrival of the Emperor

It is said that during stormy days, when lightning would tear the surface asunder, Engerand was filled with some strange emotion he could not properly understand or convey: a mixture of fear, anticipation and longing. During one said storm, for reasons he could not explain, Engerand left the safety of his fortress and climbed to the peak of a mountain, guided by some strange visions he could not quite explain. From the storm emerged a massive ship, far larger than any of these surface aircrafts kept in the museums of Lostregia. From the craft emerged the Master of Mankind, the Emperor. Flled with a sense of awe and purpose he never felt before, Engerand knelt at the feets of the Emperor and swore fealty to him in an instant. The Primarch was given command of the Legion crafted from his genes, which he renamed the Storm Hammers, for they were now named after these nine weapons Engerand had gifted to his champions. Now each warrior would be reborn, crafted into a mighty weapon like how the Primarch had once crafted these crude hammers. Because of their symbolic importance to the people of Lostregia, the nine hammers were gifted to the Adeptus Mechanicus so they could be reforged into suitable weapons for the Astartes to wield.

Primarch

Relationships

• The Emperor: Engerand and the Emperor had a complicated relationship. While the Primarch recognized the Emperor as his father and a man worthy of respect, in private the two were known to heavily disagree on various matters due to the Emperor's strange and unreadable nature and a tendency to always speak about how things would be revealed 'in due time'. In turn, the Emperor was quick to chastise Engerand for his impulsivity and recklessness in battle. Up until his death, Engerand remained loyal to the Emperor's vision of the galaxy yet cautious about it. In time, he had come to believe (perhaps rightly so) that that Emperor was ultimately an imperfect being, much like he and every human could be and that they should always strive to be greater and never fall into the complacency of self-assured perfection and righteousness.

Gene-seed

Originally mostly-pure, the Storm Hammers gene-seed is generally understood to be an unfortunately degraded one due to the Legion's aggressive recruitment policies combined with the radioactive surface of their main recruitment world. All implants are accounted for except the Omophagea and each decade, the Legion apothecaries complain about 'quirks' and 'minor mutations' in the gene-seed. It has been noted that in marines native of their original world, the Preomnor, Melanchromic Organ and Oolitic Kidney are unusually active. Some speculate these organs are over-stimulated by the highly toxic environment of Lostregia.

It is commonly accepted that Gene-Seed not only carry physical traits but also mental traits as well and this is no different for the Storm Hammers, even if some of the more iconoclastic members of the Legion simple argue that it's simply the influence from the recruitment pool and the values instilled by the Legion itself and not a genetic trait. Storm Hammers tend toward being sometimes seen as 'twitchy' and 'impulsive' by the other Legions, never able to rest properly if they consider that their work isn't done. These negative traits, at their worst, make them brash, paranoid and prone to critical errors of judgment, somethings the Legion has been known to try to correct within its ranks.

Tactics

Combat Doctrine

The Storm Hammers, like their namesake, are a blunt instrument. They do not engage their foes - they crash into their foes, repeatedly, as hard as (post)humanly possible. Favouring shock tactics and heavy infantry, the combat doctrine of the Storm Hammers is modeled around the delivery of its most powerful force multipliers into contact with the enemy, and doing so with as much speed and as few causalities as possible. Fast, inexpensive troop transports are commonplace, designed purely to get the Legion's renowned heavy infantry into the fight and get out. The foes of the Storm Hammers can expect to see a solid wall of onrushing Terminator armour emerging from such vehicles, providing a spearhead of adamantium-laced plasteel behind which the less durable rank and file of the Legion advance.

Equipment

Unsurprisingly, the signature weapon of the Storm Hammers is the trusty Thunder Hammer. Capable of sending disorientating shockwaves of percussive force through the ranks of their foes, the weapon is perfectly suited to the Legion's straightforward shock-assault tactics. Besides the Thunder Hammer, however, Engerands sons utilize a number of specialized armaments designed to inflict maximum carnage at close range.

• Arc Weaponry: Arc Mauls, Arc Rifles, and heavier variants are all commonplace among the Storm Hammers, their voltaic capabilities proving invaluable in disabling war machines and bringing down exceptionally tough targets.
• Maelstrom Generators: Only ever activated once its user is wading through the ranks of his foes, the Maelstrom Generator is a bulky modification to standard Terminator armour. Generating a field of ionizing particles, the device transforms the air around the Terminator into a flashing micro-storm, lashing at those around him with tendrils of incandescent lightning. Exceptionally draining, these devices can only be utilized for a short while, but they grant those Marines entrusted with them an invaluable advantage.
• Voltaic Coil Projectors: Large, bulky devices appearing almost like a weaponized radio tower, the Coil Projector is a devastating weapon when unleashed upon the unprepared, sending streams of electrical energy arcing from one warm body to the next.
• Tempest Hammers: Heavy, two-handed variants of the Thunder Hammer design, the Tempest Hammer utilizes voltaic coil technology to deliver not only a tremendous burst of pressure upon impact, but also jettison bolts of searing lightning that leap between unprotected bystanders, often paralyzing scores of enemies with a single blow.
• Thunderstrike Cannons: Broad, conical firearms generally affixed to dreadnought armour or heavy tanks, the Thunderstrike Cannon is a devastating sonic weapon, designed not only to pulp flesh and shatter steel with a burst of sonic distortion, but disorientate and deafen nearby foes, making for a disorganized and ultimately futile response to the Legion's advancing infantry vanguard.

Characters

Faulk Druger, "The Bear", 2nd Chapter Champion of the Storm Hammer Legion

Faulk Druger is akin to a tempest, if a tempest were eight-and-a-half feet tall and carried a warhammer which could split open a land raider. His moniker "the bear" stems not only from his appearance, both his size and his grizzled mutton chops, but also from his temperance. Druger is brash, quick to insult and cajole, and seems to take great pleasure from getting a duel out of anyone he sized up as suitably worthy, whether it be by formal challenge or heat-of-the-moment coaxing. On the other hand, he is quick to forgive, fast with a joke, and a more loyal and steadfast companion could not be found amongst the entire host of the Emperor's Astartes. Besides his impetuous nature he is also recognizable by his weapon of choice. While the other champions fought with the traditional style of shield and hammer, Druger disregarded a shield and fought with a great two-handed maul. He brought his weapon to the legion artificers to have it fitted with a longer handle and an even stronger powerfield generator, famously stating "What need do I have for a shield if I strike down my foes before they can strike me?"

The last sighting of Champion Faulk Druger was at the Tratior's Tournament, where he was witnessed combating at least a score of Silver Spear, Judgement Bringer, and Iron Heart marines in close combat before the melee was bathed in artillery fire and onlookers lost sight of the indigo-clad giant amidst showers of rock and other debris. Although his hammer was recovered, there was no sign of the champion. Without watertight evidence, the tattered remains of the Storm Hammer's 2nd chapter refused to accept their beloved champion could have found his end by means of "something so paltry as an artillery round", they said, and their confidence infected the rest of the legion. To this day, Faulk Druger is not honored along with the legion's dead, nor his he recounted amongst the names of marines whose remains were never found but are considered irrevocably lost. The Bear has become a sort of folk hero to the legion and its splinters, and a common excuse for tardiness amongst initiates is that they "were simply having a chat with Druger". The champion's weapon, which came to be called the Dusk Hammer, holds a special place in the Storm Hammer's relic hall. It is only uninterred when battle is joined with those traitorous brothers who turned their backs to the Emperor, and when it is extracted it is with many prayers honoring friends gone but not forgotten.

>"Know this, Champion. In days of yore it was named the Dusk Hammer not in somber remembrance for the one who once wielded it. It is so called because those who cross you while you wield this mighty weapon have seen their end of days!" >-Chapter Master Nenderel Augusta Oresv, 607.M37