Void riders

Void Riders
Unknown
Battle Cry	Unclear - likely mindless shouting/laughing/screaming
Number	Unknown
Founding	21st Founding
Successors of	Unclear, possibly Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, Night Lords or World Eaters
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	None
Primarch	unknown
Homeworld	The Battlebarge, To Journey's End
Strength	~1000 full astartes, many hundreds of scouts, initiates and auxiliary personell
Specialty	Rapid deployment/ Refusing meaningful communication/ not really helping
Allegiance	Imperial/Inquisition/perhaps unwittingly Khorne
Colours	Gunmetal, with black pauldrons. Veterans are indicated by bone white helmets, and or gold trim on pauldrons

"We're all dying, so we're best to die young, pretty and soaked in bodily fluids."

– Unknown Veteran, shortly before dying at the ripe old age of 61

"Oh, for shits sake."

– Lufgt Huron, upon seeing the Void Riders coming to his aid during the Badab War

"Oh, for shits sake."

– Tyberos, upon seeing the Void Riders coming to his aid during the Badab War

"Oh, beim Wille der Scheiße."

– Commander Zoller, of the Krieg's 88th Seige Army, upon learning that the Void Riders were coming to his aid during Vraks

The Void Riders were created during the so called 'Cursed' 21st Founding, intended to serve near the Maelstrom, combating piracy, Daemons, insurrectionists and whatever else needed to be brutally killed in the name of the Emperor. While their genetic origin isn't exactly clear, there is some evidence that they are descendent from The Blood Angels, due to a significant Gene-Seed flaw similar to that of the Blood Angels, however this could just be a result of the alleged curse.

The flaw with the Void Riders is that they have incredibly short life spans for space marines, living on average between 50 and 100 years, before dying a painful agonizing death resulting from sudden organ failure. The exact organ failure differs for each marine, some experiencing early onset issues and living with a slowly failing body for many decades, losing limbs, eyesight or other senses over time, while others will just suddenly begin vomiting blood, experience sudden skeletal failure, internal haemorrhaging, or just having four simultaneous heart attacks out of the blue.

In battle, the ever looming presence of death only encourages the Void Riders to fight more zealously, ferociously, and recklessly, as they hope to avoid a mundane death, and earn their death on the Battlefield.

Structure

As inconvenient as their reality may seem, this 'flaw' has resulted in an extremely unique, if unorthodox culture and modus operandi for the chapter. First and foremost of which is the fact that they have no actual officers or chapter masters within their chapter. This is due to the simple grim reality that given their short life spans, they simply don't have time to appoint or structure a dedicated leadership from among the ranks. The closest they have to an officer cadre is a fairy large number of chaplains, who themselves are constantly tutoring and leading noviciate scouts to fill the role of the chaplaincy when the current members inevitably expire. More experienced or venerated battle brothers will at times be looked to for leadership or guidance on the field of battle, even acting as ad hoc field commanders, but there is no formal recognition. Their lack of traditional leadership also means they eschew the standard organizational structure of other chapters; as opposed to companies they are divided into Battle Groups, which can wildly fluctuate in number, going as low as around 50 full fledged astartes, while sometimes growing as large as nearly 200 per group. Each Battlebrother will also take a novitiate scout under his wing as his personal ward to train, ensuring that when he eventually dies, someone will carry on his fight, donning his armor and wielding his weapons. Some battlebrothers will take multiple wards, passing his legacy onto the most experienced, and so on. While there are no inter-chapter rivalries between Battle Groups, their structure and training method fosters strong fraternal, almost familial ties within.

Because of their rapidly approaching expiration dates, the Chapter has far fewer dreadnoughts than most, as not even the advanced life support systems within their sarcophagus can prolong the life of a Void Riders, meaning saving a marine only to have him crap out in a time or place that would leave your extremely valuable, powerful and revered weapon undefended and surrounded by enemies is often frowned upon and thus avoided. Because of this, they take an entirely different approach to the internment of one of their Brothers in one of these mighty machines. As opposed to waiting for a marine to fall in battle, they simply take promising initiates and force them into the thing regardless of their individual opinion on the matter.

The actual administrative leadership of the chapter is entirely in the hands of the Inquisition. While the Inquisition generally doesn't trust anyone, especially genetically flawed space marines, who mostly hang out in and around the Warp, operating well outside of the Codex Astartes living a life of almost unending and unorganized battle, (and they don't trust the Void Riders any more than they do any other chapter), it is a rare circumstance that an inquisitorial representative is given an inside look of a Chapter, let alone Handed an entire chapter to command without question.

Almost immediately after discovering their curse, and then determining that it meant they had to Rip and Tear as much as possible in the short time they had, The Void Riders collectively agreed that their skills were best put to use murdering people, meaning they needed to find new leadership, and who better to have a thousand murderous super soldiers looking to blindly follow absurd orders than everyones favourite sociopathic G-men?

Combat Doctrine

The Void Riders specialize in rapid deployment assaults, aiming to move as quickly as possible into close range, and then murder everything and everyone that isn't clearly labeled as a friendly with whatever they have at their disposal. This "tactic" primarily means two things; 1) their primary forces are bike squads, jump pack squads, or crusade squads, and 2) they forgo the use of heavy weapons and tanks. That is not to say that they forgo the use of heavier units all together though; a few centurions or a dreadnaught kitted out properly, crammed into a drop pod and thrown into the centre of an enemy strong point is one of their favourite methods of attack. Keeping with their zealous combat preferences, as well as the fanatical beliefs of their inquisitorial overlords, the Void Riders also make excessive use of flame weapons of all types.

A rarity on the battlefield for most factions, Librarians and psykers are even less common among the ranks of the Void Riders. This isn't due to some distrust of them, nor is it due to their scorning of magical abilities as a cowards weapon. It is only due to the fact that it takes a very long time for a psyker to truly master his power, and it can take many life times for a space marine Librarian to effectively use his. While the Void Riders have, at times, used Librarians in battle, because of the fact most of them don't live as an Astartes for more than a century, none of them have ever become that powerful or remarkable, and are seen as little more than a particularly volatile close combat unit, that may or may not explode in warpflame, taking everything nearby down with it.

The few times they field dreadnoughts in combat, the almost exclusively use Ironclad patterns, kitted out for close combat, and laden with heavy explosives so that when it inevitably goes down, it will not be captured by the enemy.

This effect can actually be achieved IRL on the table top with a clever "counts as" rule; when your ironclad goes down, yell BOOM!!!11!1!! as loud as possible, throw your die at your opponents face and flip the fucking table.

Genetics

As previously stated, it is strongly believed that the Void Riders are descendants of the Blood Angels, due mostly to the flaw within their gene-seed, and it's remote similarity to that of the Blood Angels. This belief is further confirmed by the similar core combat doctrines of the two chapters; rapid jump pack assaults. However, there are, according to some, other possible progenitors for the chapter, other than the Blood Angels. Based almost solely off of their strange organizational structure, training methods and their connection with the Inquisition and their zealous, almost, psychotic hatred of anything they deem to be a traitor (or alien, or mutant, or just alive and slightly disagreeable), some hold the belief that the Void Riders are successors of the Black Templars. This theory is reinforced by the near complete lack of psykers among their ranks, though, this is more due to a lack of access, as opposed to a militant hatred.

However, the Void Riders insane methods, reckless abandon, and willful neglect of making any attempt to find out how they might actually help a campaign, as opposed to just make it more noisy and chaotic leads many people, indeed, even those who are among the Inquisition commanding the chapter, believe that the Void Riders are somehow connected to one of the Traitor Legions. The two strongest contenders are either the World Eaters or the Night Lords, as both legions were/are known to avoid the use of psykers, prefer tactics that favour fast paced and extremely violent combat, and revel in blood shed. This opinion, though rarely put forth, is in actuality widely believed by many different Chapters, Ordos and people within the Imperium, and the men and women who actually control the Void Riders are constantly on the look out for any sign of heretical or traitorous behaviour.

The Void Riders themselves however, put virtually zero thought or care into who exactly they are descendant from, and remain happily ignorant of all of the different theories held about them by their so called allies. As long as they are continually pointed in the direction of war, they remain happy, and as far as anyone else can see, loyal.

Daily Rituals

04:00 - The Void Riders runners rise from sleep.

04:15 - Morning Roll Call. The Void Riders assemble for their first roll call of the day, to ensure that nobody has died, or fallen apart during sleep.

04:30 - Morning Disposal. The Void Riders inquisitorial serfs and various invalids collect the geneseed from any 'expired' members, and dispose of their remains in the ships furnaces.

05:00 - Morning Meal. Meals are prepared by the Inquisitorial serfs and Chapters invalids, and are quickly consumed.

05:15 - Morning Firing Rites. The Astartes use captured slaves or any brothers who have been completely lost to insanity or cowardice as targets.

06:30 - Tactical Preparations - The Chapters battle leaders and Inquisitorial rulers awake from slumber, eat, and begin determining where to invade/attack/general fuck around next.

06:30 - Battle Practice - Morning firing rites done, the Astartes spar with each other.

12:00 - Mid Day roll call. After Battle Practice another roll call is done, and any expired Astartes are routinely disposed of again.

12:30 - Religious Indoctrination - The Inquisitorial priests assemble the chapter for Religious and Spiritual study, as well as ensuring that no seeds of Chaotic influence have been sowed.

12:30 - 'Internment' - During the Religious studies, the Chapters tech priests and serfs assemble any Astartes who have either lost their sanity, or are otherwise unskilled in combat, and inter them in crude suicide Dreadnoughts for use in the next battle.

17:00 - Evening Meal. Meals are once again prepared and consumed.

17:30 - Evening Battle Practice. Astartes spar with one another one last time.

18:00 - Evening Equipment Inspection. Astartes power armor and weapons are inspected.

18:30 - Evening Firing Rites. Astartes perform the night time firing rituals to sooth the Boltguns Machine Spirits.

19:00 - Evening Roll Call. Expired Marines are once again disposed of. Any lost to insanity are set apart for the next days deliberation.

19:30 - Evening Rest Period. The Astartes are drugged to sleep by the Inquisitorial overlords.

Significant Engagements

The Badab War

It was inevitable, given their position at the Maelstrom, that the Void Riders would be involved in the Badab war. However, unbeknownst to almost everyone, including most of the Void Riders themselves, they actually fought on both sides of the conflict, and for a brief period, did so at one time. As the war was escalating a small Battle Group that was already operating around Badab answered Hurons call to war, still believing him to be a loyalist. Eventually, once the party got properly going, the rest of the chapter showed up, under orders from their inquisitorial lords to lay waste to anything that looked even slightly reminiscent of a traitor. Without much thought beyond that, the chapter made planet fall, and found themselves beset on all sides by blood soaked space marines murdering one another. To them, this was basically the dream, so they just began hacking, shooting and generally killing everyone around them, including the other Void Riders who had been there since the beginning, and by this point were so battle frenzied and covered in blood and bolter holes that they weren't immediately recognized by their brethren. It especially didn't help the fact that the Commanders on board "To Journey's End", their battlebarge neglected to open up lines of communication with anyone until near the end of the war when the damage was done.

Luckily, they were able to avoid reprisals from the forces that be, partly because they were almost entirely unheard of, partly because the Void Riders that had actually fought on the side of Huron were all very much dead, and partly because the Inquisitorial leaders of the chapter acted as if they had just swooped in at the last minute to haul the Void Riders off for a few hundred years of redemption and chastising. In reality, they just disappeared back into obscurity and were promptly forgotten about.

The Damocles Gulf Crusade

Being a fleet based chapter it was only natural that the Void Riders would end up in the Gulf. All in all, it was a relatively boring experience for them, as hacking 4 foot tall, blue space communists apart with chainswords really stops being fun after the first couple hundred or so.

They did enjoy the killy bits at the end when the Tyranids showed up though.

The Siege of Vraks

When the Void Riders caught wind of what was happening on Vraks, they thought it sounded like the place to be, and so they set off to kill a bunch of renegades (not that they knew or cared who exactly they would be killing). When they arrived they made a rapid descent via drop pods, right into the heart of enemy defence lines, and promptly began jubilantly clearing trenches, bunkers, foxholes, civilian homesteads, laboror-populated factories, and basically anything else harbouring something with a pulse. Despite the fact that they invaded relatively unmolsested, and had little difficulty with the enemy resistance, their efforts were ultimately useless. For one, the actual Imperial field commanders had no idea that the Void Riders had shown up at all, until very late in the game. Secondly, just like they had at almost every other battle, the chapter neglected to open lines of communications, and lastly, even though they were completely decimating the enemy, destroying artillery installations, shield generators and entire trenchworks, none of this destruction was in any way concentrated to any specific area, making it counter-intuitive to the Kriegers battle plan, and most of their fighting was on the opposite side of the Hive city's defenses. Not that any of this was of concern to the Void Riders, as they just saw this as a holiday.

In Summary

If the Lamenters can be thought of as This Guy, then the Void Riders are That Guy. Loud, boisterous, obnoxious and belligerent, they'll show up to your party, take little notice of what you're playing, say "Fuck you, I'm my own DM", and not only ignore your rules, but run their own little made up campaign inside of the one you're running, regardless of how it will fuck everything up for everyone else at the table. Also, they'll get cheeto dust on everything, just in the form of blood and viscera.

Gallery

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  Battlegroup 'Leader'/Veteran