Warhawks
11th founding chapter
Battle-cry: "Death comes for you!"
Look to your battle gear and it will protect you
We guard it with our lives
Your armor is your soul and your souls dedication its armor
The soul of a warrior is the shield of humanity
Honor the craft of death
Only the Emperor is higher in our devotion
Honor the battle gear of the dead
We ask only to serve
Founded in the early 33rd millennium, the Warhawks were created from the Ultramarine First Founding Chapter. They were one of the twenty unnamed Chapters created to defend and protect the area of space known as the Maelstrom. Since their Founding, the Warhawks have done much more than guard a warp-storm. They proved themselves during the Second Tyrannic War, and fought with honor during Abaddon's Thirteenth Black Crusade. However, during that titanic conflict, a portion of the Warhawks broke from the Chapter and joined the foul forces of Chaos.
After the two companies of the Chapter went renegade, the rest of the Warhawks entered into years of ritual cleansing and crusading. After two decades of this punishment, the Inquisition investigated the remnants of the Chapter and deemed them pure of spirit and body. Since that time, the Warhawks have devoted their fighting style to represent their efforts to purify all.
The combat techniques of the Warhawks Chapter vastly differ from the Codex Astartes that the Ultramarines obsess about. Rather than carry a heavy weapon, the tactical squads of the Warhawks carry a second close-quarter weapon, such as a second plasma-gun, flamer or melta-gun. To compensate for this lack of long-range support, the Warhawks rely on Predators and Dreadnoughts equipped with lascannons. Due to this amount of armor, the Chapter has close ties with the Priesthood of the Machine-God, but does not trust the older tech-priests, believing they had lost their humanity.
Also, the Chapter is lead differently than the Ultramarines from whence it was Founded. Rather than having a Chapter Master in charge of the Chapter, the Warhawks are lead by a Council of Captains, Chaplains, and Librarians, who are chosen by their peers to sit on the council, as well as the Chief Tech-Marine and the Master Apothecary. This is so the full force of a Space Marine Chapter and its support fleet do not fall under the command of a sole person. That way if one member of the Council falls under the sway of the Chaos powers, the whole Chapter is not swept up in their heresy.
The Chapter is comprised of six Battle-Companies, and two reserve companies. The Chapter's First Company is not a Veteran Company, but is a standard Battle-Company. Also, the Warhawks companies are larger than a Codex Company, about one-hundred and fifty Space Marines and support, rather than one-hundred. Each company is fairly independent, except for, of course, the Council, and are bound together with ancient blood-oaths and honor-debts.
Each company is based on either a Battle-Barge or a Strike Cruiser, with the reserve companies being based on the Warhawks gigantic Fortresses-Monastery, the Swooping Flame. The Chapter's main Library is there, as well as the Chapter's more important relics, the Chief Forge, and the Main Apothecary. Each company keeps its own relics, Library, forge, and apothecary on their own ships.
One of the Chapters dark days was the battle of Hell's Gate. The second and fourth companies were deployed on the Greta Minor to aide in putting down a heretical revolt. However, the heretical forces summoned hundreds of daemons with massed sacrifices. The men of the companies fought back to back for hours until a pair of Thunderhawks braved the unnatural storm the daemons had brought with them and evacuated the survivors. It will take an estimated seventy-five years to bring the two companies back to full strength, even with reinforcements from the two reserve companies. The two Thunderhawk pilots now have a memorial to honor their bravery in the Main chapel on the Swooping Flame.
A mere two years after this tragedy, the 1st Company lost almost fifty percent of their forces at the Lange Fields Massacre. The 1st Company had been deployed to help a struggling campaign against the orks of the Red Moon. At Lange Fields, a major agri-world on the Eastern Fringe, the 1st Company clashed against the massed forces of these orks. In three days of almost constant fighting, 75 Space Marines were killed, including the Company Captain, Captain Koresh. On the third day, as the survivors were being overrun, the 2nd Company attacked via drop-pods and completely wiped out the orks. The new Captain, Mepesto, was a survivor of the Battle of Hell Gate.
With Tyranid attacks on the rise, the 1st, 2nd and 4th Companies are being very cautious. With so many Space Marines dead, they can ill afford the huge causalities that are usually associated with any Tyranid attack.