Steel Confessors
| Steel Confessors | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Battle Cry | "Destroy the Weak!" | |
| Founding | Twenty-Second Founding (unofficially, later ratified by edict) | |
| Successors of | Iron Hands | |
| Chapter Master | Protonus | |
| Primarch | Ferrus Manus | |
| Homeworld | Kracsis IV (Destroyed), Kalevala | |
| Strength | Unknown, presumed half-strength | |
| Allegiance | Imperium of Man, Adeptus Mechanicus | |
| Colours | Steel with bone pauldrons and poleyns with dark green trim | |
The Steel Confessors are a painfully-ignored loyalist Space Marine Chapter that have a pretty awesome background. Though they were featured in the 2005 Games Day Golden Demon event, there is surprisingly little lore on them, even though the little bit we have is pure awesome.
Created in secret by the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Steel Confessors are the successors of the Iron Hands (another badass chapter everyone seems to forget) but were created with the intent to be loyal to the Mechanicum over the Imperium. Long story short, the Inquisition found out and was not happy, the Tech Priests lost their RoboCop Army and now the Steel Confessors serve as a regular Space Marine chapter, but with very close ties to the Admech. Fluff wise, GW ignoring these guys kinda makes sense because they were made by the Tech Priests to have a singular fighting force to protect forge worlds, but now GW kinda made those with the Skitarii/Admech armies, so... Yeah.
However, none of that shit stops them from existing, and even fits in pretty well, since even with their own personal army of Tin Technophiles the Mechanicum would want the technology to make (not to mention the emotionless, near unkillable soldiers) and train Space Marines. There's a pretty cool Index Astartes thing on them [1], but other than that not too much out there. But on second thought, that might interest Tech-Priestfag players, so maybe we should just forget about it...
Homeworld[edit | edit source]
Setting up shop in a new system after the Inquisition blammed their original homeworld, the Steel Confessors are allowed to replenish their geneseed and recruit from Kalevala in exchange for pledging their service to the protection of the manufactorum. In addition, the planet hosts a Psychic Choir, a sort of local amplification device for the Astronomicon. Surprise surprise, one day a Tyranid fleet shows up.
Defense of Kalevala[edit | edit source]
Elements of Hive Fleet Leviathan surround the system and basically just rush to the planet, giving the planet little time to shore up a defense. The Steel Confessors decide the best offense is a good defense and set their entire chapter in defensive positions in and around the manufactorum. They did have a couple of advantages though, to begin with, their Fortress-Monastery is situated inside the manufactorum, allowing them ready access to their entire armory and, being that it's a fucking manufactorum, they can replace material losses with near impunity.
That Psychic Choir, as well, though it likely drew the tyranids to begin with, did provide a major advantage for the Steel Confessors: Navigation. The amplification, though weakened and with limited range, allowed for fleets to glimpse past the shadow of the warp and continue travel.
The Tyranids smack into the planet, like moths to fire, and began rushing towards the manufactorum. Realizing that just sitting in foxholes while Tyranids are everywhere is a bad idea, they split their forces into two groups: Tacticals and Devastators form moving firing lines that cut down with controlled, coordinated bursts (aiming to kill synapse creatures) and then Assault and Vanguard Veteran squads launch an immediate counter-attack to wipe out what's left. Land Speeders were grouped up into squadrons, used to bolster any gaps in the line and carry supplies to units. This strategy allowed the Confessors to kill and disrupt the Tyranids despite being outnumbered, and kept their own casualties low.
In the end, reinforcements arrived but since the Steel Confessors don't have plot armor, they were shattered. Two companies were destroyed outright, their First Company and most of the remaining were left with forty percent marines remaining.