Burning Blades

THE FLAMES OF WRATH

The Burning Blades, however troubled their history may have been, have been known for their acts of extreme heroism, never backing down from impossible odds. Originally cast aside by the High Lords of Terra, they were eventually re-sanctified, in the utmost secrecy. To other Chapters, the Burning Blades are just another Chapter. Created during the First Founding, the Burning Blades operated in isolation from other Chapters. Even though they were isolated, and were running at under-optimal strength, their conquests were in no way inferior to those from other Legions. They had a very unique genetic quirk, either taking extreme joy in blasting the enemy with heavy weaponry, assailing them with bullets from their holy Bolter, or close combat weaponry. There is no middle, and their skills in close combat are exemplary. Once reunited with their Primarch, only known by the codename ‘Blaze’ the fires of spirits within the Astartes burned ever brighter. Taught in the ways of an ancient combat style taught to ‘Blaze’ on his homeworld, the close combat prowess of the Burning Blades increased two-fold.

‘Blaze’ was a resolute person, unyielding in his tasks, his spiritual and physical resilience inspiring the Battle-Brothers. His return sparked a new era for the Astartes. As ‘Blaze’ brought with him the cultures taught to him on his homeworld, the Burning Blades became ever more aggressive in their battles, and the fighting style that ‘Blaze’ brought with him was taught to all Sergeants and Veterans. It specialised in dual-wielding, with special fighting techniques that further enhanced the deadliness of a duel-wielding Burning Blade.

Unfortunately, before the Horus Heresy, another legion, their name lost, betrayed and attacked the Burning Blades. Pledging themselves to Khorne, the Traitors, known only as the Bloodied Shards, were the product of hubris. Believing themselves to be far superior to other Space Marines, they refused to bow down the Emperor, instead raising banners and acting rituals to please their dark god. The Burning Blades quickly responded, dispatching vast strike forces in an attempt to stop the Traitors. After massive, horrifying battles, the Traitors were forced to flee, but at a dear cost to the Burning Blades. It is unknown exactly what happened on the fateful battle at Aevis, but of the 15000 Astartes sent to the battle, less than 2000 boarded the flagship, Undying Flame, and their beloved Primarch was no where to be seen. Strangely, many weapons, Evaryn, and the shards of Xenosious, were recovered over many years after the battle.

FRACTURED LEGION Records indicate that after they received the message to retreat from the battle, the survivors fell back to their flagship, Undying Flame. The Traitors, realising that their prey would escape from their dark grip, initially bombarded the planet’s surface, not caring whether or not their own brothers were slain. When the Burning Blades boarded their ship, they opened fire with all of their guns, severely damaging it. They were unable to find a stable path through the Warp, and in a bid to escape, attempted to do a Warp jump regardless of where it would take them. This would prove a dreadful choice for them. Tired, wounded, undermanned, and with over half their ammunition depleted, they were horrified to find themselves trapped within the Warp. For half a century, the remaining Astartes had to fight for their lives, constantly fighting off daemons. They suffered horrific casualties at the hands of the servants of the Dark Gods. They removed their old iconography, and replaced it with the fire tear. It was said that while the Blaze watched his sons get slaughtered, he shed a single, flaming tear, and told his sons with him, that should they mourn the death of their comrades, that they show it by painting the fire tear over their old Chapter symbol. The only members that were permitted to keep the old icon was his Heaven Guard, of which only 3 would survive the trials to come. Time is not a concrete concept in the Warp, and with their communication systems offline, they were unable to receive news about the Siege of Terra, or the Horus Heresy at large. Due to this, they also fought battles against the other Traitor Legions. Once they returned to real-space, the survivors numbered under 800. They returned shortly after the Second Founding, and although the High Lords were suspicious of their origins, they were allowed to be secretly re-sanctified. Their founding was recorded as Second Founding, and their parent Chapter was the Ultramarines. Compiler Atreax notes that 23 Ultramarines Successor Chapters, they most were failed to be named. This discrepancy allowed the broken legion to reform, and pass as just another Chapter, unseen, and untroubled by outsiders. The Chapter would wait nearly half a century before it was able to engage in company-strength battles. Many engagements within the warp would also help the Burning Blades in their initial battles. While in the warp, they would attempt to make planet fall, then start to tend to their broken ship, while attempting to repair any of their equipment, and trying to gain a psychic connection with Terra. The planet fall strike would be comprised of mass drop-pod landings, accompanied by jump pack equipped battle-brothers. Once down, they would be confined to attempting to hold the area, rather than go on offensive attacks on the opposition. It would not be long before the foreign activity would draw the attention of daemons, and many attacks were launched against the Astartes. Many losses ensued, and they would retreat, leave the planet, and attempt to keep searching. Failure after failure at attempting to contact Terra led the Burning Blades, seeing their destruction as inevitable, to launch a crusade on every daemon world they came across. Only the purest of heart were chosen for this heart, even after extensive examination by the Chaplain and a Librarian, every Astartes were to be constantly examined for any Chaotic taint, before and after the engagement. Whether it was by sheer willpower on their behalf, or the Will of the Emperor, no Astartes was ever found to have a Chaotic taint, which was praised as a miracle.

TROUBLED PAST Once the Astartes returned to real-space, they were eventually hit with the realisation that with their Primarch lost, their numbers depleted, failure to find new recruits and train them in the cultures of the Chapter would spell doom for them. Fortunately, for being extended combat for so long, they had a vast number of Veterans, and extremely experienced Captains. New recruits were to be trained by the best the Chapter could provide. However, most of their equipment was worn and damaged, and their ammunition storages were all but depleted, due to their extended period crusading in the Warp. For quite some time, bolt ammunition was rationed scarcely, and bladed weapons became ever more common. Techmarines became an increasingly rare sight in battle, as nearly all the Techmarines were pre-occupied attempting to repair all the broken equipment. Damaged tanks would have to wait periods of time before being serviced, and properly manned and maintained vehicles became rarer. To counter-act this, they would send larger numbers of aspirants to train with the Mechanicus, which had a strain on their battle capacity. After a full century, all the equipment in the Chapter was at combat-ready standards, and the companies were receiving a steady influx of battle-ready Astartes. This was not to say, however, that they were proud of their situation. They had failed to see the signs of corruption in their fellow Legion, had failed to warn the Imperium about the possibility of Astartes being corrupted, and one of the biggest blows, lost their Primarch. Eventually, all the brothers in the Chapter had removed their old icon, and replaced it with the fire tear, to show their mourning. What hurt them even more was to see all the corrupted Astartes during their time in the Warp. They knew of the other Legions, even though they did not of them, and to see their old iconography defaced and defiled, replaced with sick symbols of Chaos, further strengthened their hatred of the Ruinous Powers. Librarians would wake with horrible hallucinations of the Siege of Terra, even though they were not present, the psychic signal would still reverberate within the psychic world.