Scary Marines

"Scary Marines"

The SCARY MARINES, or to use a more accurate name, the Children of Istvaan are very scary.

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Chapter History

37th Millennium after the reign of blood, the Children of Istvaan were created as a prevention measure alongside the Ordo Hereticus

Chapter Progenitor

Night Lords

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TL;DR

What is "known" in the Imperium.

A juvenile name for a strange terror that serves the Emperor's best interest, the "Scary Marines" are also known by a number of other titles, "Spooky Marines," "Istvaan's Children," "Those that Lie Between," and a number of others. For the purposes of clarity, I shall refer to them by the title that the Ezariel Symposiums settled upon, "Legio Vereor."

They appear to serve the Emperor's purposes, conflicted reports have them in fact working for the Ordo Hereticus, though again with the inaccurate nature of information I have to draw upon, this is uncertain; though, with their capabilities and apparent lack of organization I doubt this.

In any case, the Legio Vereor are capable of doing extraordinary feats, moving across continents within seconds without trace, transportation, perhaps without even engaging in any action, having an aura of fear one would associate with Culexus, and an apparent invulnerability- though this may be propaganda.

I regret I have nothing else to give in this report gentlemen, that is not speculation- Though, due to their apparent power when being unobserved, we might refer to the tome "Liber Schrodinger"{DECLARED HERETICUS FOR SLAANESHI TAINT} for information on the observable creatures, though, again, for all we know they could be a mass hallucination, or some form of joke.

Scary Marines will often take over duties in the civilian populace.

The mailman, who has delivered irregularly to your door for the past seven years is suddenly replaced with the looming, chilling figure of the marine. He thrusts the letters at you, until you accept them, before going on to the next house.

The indulgent, decadent governor awakes, not to his mercenary house guard, but to the silent and chilling figure of the Scary Marines. After he stops panicking, they take him to breakfast, make him get cleaned up and proper, and forcibly sit him at his desk and stare at him until he gets back to the work of running his planet and around a week later the planet becomes incredibly efficient under the changed governor.....who doesn't go out of his palace.

Off and on, in short flashes, as you walk to your place on the factory line, you could have SWORN you had seen eight feet of power armor, hunched over a boilerplate, carefully welding it shut- no wait, it's just Frank. It was always Frank. Had to be. Right?

The Chapter:

Befitting the rumors of their origin linked to the once loyal Night Lords, the chapter that more often than not finds itself due with the simple title of "Scary Marines" rely on tactics focused on breaking the enemy morale. However, unlike the treacherous Night Lords of Chaos, the "Scary Marines" rely on raw psychological warfare which in itself is rather "harmless", but with continued pressure can win the battle for them before it is even started.

The greatest weapon of all is the simple Fear of The Unknown. The fear of things that stray from the daily norm, the fear of shapeless things that move in the dark, the fear of an impending invisible doom. Man or Xenos, this simple truth holds strong. Where their Night Lord "brethren" use savagery, violence, torture, and other horrors, the "Scary Marines" use their own questionable presence within reach as their greatest weapon of slowly degrading enemy morale.

The "Scary Marines" are known and reviled for their tendency to employ the great ability to appear and disappear soundlessly. Many stories tell of screams arising in the middle of the night and a single witness finding one of their number slain, circled by great armored men seemingly sculpted out of the shadows themselves, and when the witness tries to get help, these men are gone. Leaving no dropped weapons, no evidence of struggle, and not even a body. Only a puddle of blood, and perhaps a single bootprint.

No place is safe, no place is private, and no defense is strong enough, and when this simple fact has settled itself in the minds of those stricken heretics and xenos, the Marines come forth en masse, coming out of homes and hidden alleyways, as if from the shadows themselves.

Whispered rumours have them to be a loyalist splinter of the Night Lords, though no evidence has ever arisen to support this.

Practices:

The Scary Marines favor a variety of very simple yet very disconcerting methods of instilling a great air of discomfort and a direct feeling of being constantly watched on those targeted by them. Be it through the use of those few strong librarians their chapter holds, their near-legendary scouts, or just their own skill at stealth, the following are among the standard "tricks" the Scary Marines commonly employ:

-An "important" or otherwise well protected target finds upon waking from rest that every door in its dwelling are unlocked and open, and its favored weapon has been placed atop its chest.

-A low-to-mid level target wakes with a knife or other melee instrument in its hand, and drenched with blood. Should the blood be tested, it will be identified as the target's own.

-Several targets disappear from their locales, yet there are no signs of struggle nor signs of forced extraction. In fact, all the doors/windows are locked from the inside.

-The power to the city/district of the city suddenly go out, and upon reactivation, the bodies of several previously missing citizens are found in a very open or otherwise hard to reach place.

-Military/Civilian transmissions are suddenly cut short, and several scenes of dozens of ominous Scary Marines standing in the city's town square, outside guard sentries, atop important government buildings, and suchlike are shown.

Although the Scary Marines are known quite wide and far for their various and seemingly impossible methods of completely wearing down on the enemy's every little will to fight, the Marines themselves are the subject of the most tales. It is a hard and daunting task to separate what is real, what is paranoid fantasy, and what is outright propaganda the Marines themselves instill in the populace, but among the countless stories of shadow-limbed monsters dragging "innocents" off to part unknown, there are a few that always remain the same to those who have witnessed them and lived long enough for interrogation:

-The "Scary Marines" are uniformly covered completely in deepest black. Be it Marine, Scout, Librarian, or even the few Chaplains some insist on that they have witnessed, their armor and clothing are so dark that most swear that all they see are humanoid shadows with evil glowing eyes. Some even go so far as to claim that even light directed right at the Marines is just outright _devoured_ in their black forms...

-The Marines are always silent and only come in complete darkness. Be it through some unknown technology or through vast and repetitive use of psyker abilities, every single member of the Scary Marines are completely and utterly silent. No words, no rustle of armor, no loud bangs of weaponry being fired, or even the sound of shots being deflected off their armor when shot at.

-The Scary Marines are most commonly attributed with having some form of invulnerability or some outright level of immaterialness, due to the fact that these near 9 foot tall armored men make no sounds as they pass, and few can claim that they have directly seen one of the Marines fall. However, this is commonly attributed to the Scary Marines own efforts to establish an air of helplessness, and is most likely propaganda fabricated by themselves.

-Their most documented ability, however, is how they instill raw terror upon their first true appearance. After weeks or even months of constant barrages to their chosen targets mental health, the Marines step forth from within the enemy's own ranks, soundless as ever, and with their glowing eyes focused on all enemies in sight. Most of the time, this last move is enough to quell any attempt at resistance, but when the enemy still lusts for battle, the call to battle is sounded. This is the one time any sound is made by the Scary Marines, and it is said that when you hear the Chaplain's scream and see his white-skulled face, all hope is truly lost.

More Writefaggotry: The Eldar of only Thirty Five Thousand years nods to his superior, before beginning.

"It was several months ago, on one of the worlds we were looking at for material harvesting for a side project. We didn't want to excavate over a period of time due to time constraints, and wished to do it in perhaps three years. Such a short time for our project...a..anyway. Six months in is when we saw one. We were at a drilling site, when we heard the scream of a young one. We thought it was impossible, and ran towards the sound. We found an Engineer, his fist jammed into his mouth...and tearing out his own neck. It was horrifying, the flesh under his nails visible as a finger was poking out. We checked him for bodily fluids to see if anything did this mentality wise. He was drained of everything. Blood, spittle, bile, even organ moisture! It was as if someone drained him and preserved him perfectly, just to show us he could.."

The Eldar shuddered once again, before looking back up. "The attacks continued. Gaelran was the second victim. Found impaled hip to hip...then chest to shoulder. They bent him to impale him twice, and..and...Then snapped his neck, trying to jam the back of his skull through, and it looks like we had hurried and interrupted them, because a palm print was still fresh on his horrified face. It was truly horrifying."

"Then the mass body piles. No one disappeared, just many, many bodies appeared for little reason. Many were of our own, some Ork, some Tau, even those terrans were along the bottom. I swear there were a few skulls of another creature I for the life of me, still cannot identify. It looked to be..well, stretched. Like clay in a crafter's hands. No one was willing to do work without expressed permission."

He wipes his brow carefully with a gesture, eyes looking downcast. "We then saw them. For the first time, we saw them as they were. Marines. Dozens, maybe hundreds. They all wore armor like the night sky, staring at us with glowing red eyes. It was something like a nightmare, appearing without hesitation, and aiming at us. Quickly, retaliation was given. But none of them fell. Or even flinched. They just all kept their weapons directed at someone. Then we heard a loud gust blow, as a single sound was made. It was one of our own screaming."

"He seemed to realize something none of us realized before it was too late. Any marine with line of sight of him, aimed directly at him. No noise. No flashes. Just the sound of his body fall, and they all vanished. As if they were never there!"

"We hurriedly removed all of our supplies, and made plans for departure. No one else died, and they did not do any more...'offerings' or 'visits', but we knew they were there. Watching. Somehow so..so...."

His words fail as his eyes open wide, his elegant face pales to almost a chalk white. He slowly and shakily points towards his superiors, who look behind them. There, stands a nine foot space marine, his armor so black, that few seem hesitant to even look at it due to it's color. A flash of light is seen, and the Eldar recounting the story falls back dead, a bolt round through his chest. As the superiors scramble to distance themselves and bear weapons, he simply backs up, and vanishes. No trace is found on the craftworld of any terran activity.

Are said to but have yet to appear in War of Talavan.