Cerulean Destroyers

Cerulean Destroyers
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Battle Cry	"Die ashamed."
Number	Unknown.
Founding	24th Founding (M38)
Successors of	Ultramarines
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Val Kiever
Primarch	Roboute Guilliman
Homeworld	None
Strength	Five companies.
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Teal and brass with silver details.

Founded after a Strategic Prognostication during the 38th Millennium. The Cerulean Destroyers were the original intended wardens of the Encarmine Sector before it came under attack from the savage piratical Eldar. In the first year of conflict, the unprepared and outnumbered Astartes suffered extremely heavy losses, which were later bolstered by reinforcements of the Astral Barons and then-loyalist Sable Specters chapters. While this tragedy has gifted the Destroyers with a sense of heightened humility and taught them to think creatively, the chapter now single-mindedly focuses its efforts on reclaiming its past glory and driving its fellow Astartes from the sector it views as its own responsibility.

Heraldry

The Cerulean Destroyers wear power armor of dark, metallic teal, and apply the same livery to their vehicles. The shoulder guards are brass, while the helmets and backpacks are left as unpainted ceramite. The chapter displays company markings on the right shoulder and squad markings on the left kneepad. Tactical designations such as Assault and Devastator icons are not applied to power armor. The chapter’s icon is a hooked eagle’s claw.

Tactics and Organization

The Cerulean Destroyers follow the Codex Astartes, and so are arranged into ten companies. The first company is a dedicated Veteran Company comprised of Terminators, and Sternguard and Vanguard Veterans, while the tenth company consists of scouts. The second through fifth companies serve as tactical battle companies and the sixth through ninth act as auxiliary reserves. Unfortunately, due to losses sustained the majority of the original battle Companies no longer remain intact, leaving the Reserve and Scout Companies to muster their forces. For this reason, these companies are larger than normal as they are the only companies still recruiting, the Scout Company is abnormally large due to the sheer influx of new recruits being hastily processed and armed for active service. The relaxed employment of the Codex Astartes, rather than rigid adherence displayed by their parent chapter, has endeared the Cerulean Destroyers to other chapters who similarly disavow the codex such as successors of the Dark Angels and Iron Hands. Despite this, relations between the Cerulean Destroyers and the other chapters present in the Encarmine Sector are strained due to the Destroyers’ belief that these allies are in fact intruders and braggarts who seek to undermine their charges from their safekeeping. Additionally, the Ultramarines hold their Cerulean successors in poor content for their bastardization of the Codex and for the flawed zygotes present in their gene-seed. Cerulean Destroyers do not possess functioning melanchromic organs.

The Cerulean Destroyers despise the Eldar above all of the other Imperium’s foes, viewing them as harbingers of shame and a constant source of reminder of their past failings. As such, while the Cerulean Destroyers adhere to the doctrines of their parent Ultramarines in the form of the Codex Astartes, their chapter armories have been specifically resupplied with the intention of optimizing the chapter for combat against the torturous Eldar raiders. Armored transport vehicles such as Rhinos, Razorbacks, and Land Raiders are used to protect the chapter’s few remaining squads, for the Dark Eldar have little in the ways of anti-tank weaponry with regard to their foot soldiers. These tanks are generally outfitted with weapons capable of disabling rapid Eldar transports, leaving the xenos heathens at a static disadvantage while the Destroyers employ their superior strength at close combat.

The Cerulean Destroyers specialize in armored assaults, and so their chapter comprises a large number of Razorbacks, Whirlwinds, Predators, Vindicators, and Land Raiders. The Land Raider Prometheus, developed by Ultramarine Captain Cato Sicarius in the Ultramarines’ own battles against the Dark Eldar, are much more common than the more standard Land Raider STCs within the ranks of the Cerulean Destroyers. In addition, a new experimental pattern of Land Raider designated the Land Raider Tarantulus is currently being designed by the chapter’s Techmarines aboard the chapter fleet. The Tarantulus, optimized for targeting fast-moving Eldar flyers, featured a hull-mounted Skyspear missile launcher and two sponson-mounted Icarus storm cannons. With these weapons, the tank acts as a mobile anti-aircraft emplacement.

Beliefs

The Cerulean Destroyers view their past errors as an unforgivable failure in the service of the Emperor, and so mortify and flagellate themselves so as to regain grace in the eyes of the Master of Mankind. Death is viewed as a form of gratuitous vindication by the battle-brothers of the chapter, who no longer fear dying with their duty undone. To them, their duty has already been failed, and now the only respite that may be found is to be had butchering the foes of mankind for its own sake. Rapid action and lightning strikes are favored over long protracted plans and tactical stratagems, aided by armored assaults.