Brutalizers

"They will take what they want, your precious artifacts, your worlds, your lives... It matters not, by the time my masters decide... you will be in no position to argue."

- A captured mercenary of the Brutalizers confesses to an Ecclisarchal team moments before the invasion of the Jull System

The Brutalizers are a dark and greatly feared band of renegade Astartes that have marauded the Imperiums space lanes ever since their excomunication during the Nova Terra Interregnum. They are a brutal band of self serving killers, caring only for their own survival and wealth. Though they have not fallen to the temptations to Chaos (more out of their own arrogance than anything else) and allow no taint of muation within their own ranks, they have fought alongside the minions of the Archenemy for paltry coin and weapons. However, they have also aided various other powerful and unscrupulous men who call themselves loyal to the Emperor for enough coin as well.

History
The Brutalizers were once (reluctantly) hailed as great warriors of the Imperium, and their fall from grace has been greatly documented by Imperial Scholars as a prime pattern that 'damned' Chapters fall into piror to their betrayle of all they were created to defend.

3rd Founding
The orgin of the Brutalizers has long been lost to time, but are strongly believed to have orignated from the Imperial Fists, as the sole gene-seed deficancy the Chapter has is the lack of a Sus-an Membrain. They were considered brutal and overtly cold at their inception if the records are to be believed, and their reputation as ruthless conqurers became quickly semented with the Chapters early assaults on the edges of Ultima Segmentum.

Wars of Subjgation
The Brutalizers were responsible for the reclimation of various worlds that were overlooked during the Scouring, worlds on the edges of the Imperiums borders or inaccessable due to astral phenomina. This mellinia long time of crusading was known as the Wars of Subjgation. It was at this time that the Brutalizers would forever be a known as a dark and sinister Chapter, even as their loyalty to the Emperor was iron clad. They butchered entire populations almost daily, tore asunder entire civilizations that would not willingly return to Imperial rule. Soon their fellow Space Marines began to hold the Brutalizers with some contempt, espeically as the tales of black and blue clad Space Marines gunning down both innocent and corrupted civilians alike began to circulate. The Brutalizers, in turn, considered themeselves above the rest of their fellow Space Marines, for their unmitigated success in bringing hundreds of worlds into compliance singlehandedly and that they were waging wars that needed to be fought, not chacing battles of glory or repentance.

Bull Crusades
When the athisitic Order of the Red Arrow rose up against the Imperium, in a vain attempt to dethrone the newly officalized Imperial Cult, it was the Brutalizers who crushed their rebellion alongside the fanatical Fraternis Templars. Their actions were cruel in the extreme, from the mass killings of supposed heretics and the devastation of various worlds, but at the time the religous fervor of the crusade allowed the High Lords and Inquisition to overlook such actions. (even though the Brutalizers were some of the most vocal believers in the Emperor's mortality)

Seige of Oxis
Oxis, now a Dark Mechanicus forge world located at the edge of the Segmentum Ultima, was assailed by the forces of Chaos in M34. The Brutalizers, along with forces of the Imperial Fists and Lords Exemplar, aided the local mechanicus forces in resisting the Black Legion and the infamous Legio Destructor Traitor Titan Legion. Of the Space Marine forces, few earned the Mechanicus' admoration than the Brutalizers, who's cold logic and brutal efficancy, as well as their respect for the Mechanicus' traditons and beliefes, ensured that they and the Adepts of Oxis would become fast allies. Following the Imperial victory over the tratiors, the Brutalizers stayed behind to aid with subsiquent purges of corrupted populations and eventually the world became the main muster site and secondary base of operations for the Chapter. The Adepts of Oxis in turn had the loyalty of one of the most feared Astartes Chapters in the Imeprium, and they certainly used this to their politcial advantage. In the end Oxis would follow the Chapter into damnation, as the Adepts of Oxis had begun to resent the Imperium that considered their Forgeworld a 'Backwater' that did far more research than production.

Tactics
The Brutalizers are masterful and beyond pitless warriors, utilizing large numbers of heavy weapons squads, Centurion battle groups, and elite Terminator armored "Brute Squads" to mercilessly crush the enemy benith a hail of bolterfire and chainblades. Their skill in the art of navel warfare makes them fearsome pirates, capable of overwhelming enemy fleets with trademark speed and brutality. Boarding actions are what won the Chapter much renown in their days as loyal servents of the Emperor, and now in their lifelong careers as self serving pirates, their skills have earned them a chilling reputation for effortlessly gunning down ship crews who dare stand in their way.

The Brutalizers, unlike warp touched traitors or other, more vengful renegades, prefer to pick their battles wisely. They rarely attack well armed or fortified targets, perfering to prey on refugee or merchant ships, as well as the occassional Imperial Fleet limping back from a recent campagin. To this end, the Brutalizers have a sizeable armada, and vast numbers of hired guns, slave warriors, and murder servators to call upon to soak up the casualties while they move in for the kill. Also, as oppsed to many fractured Warbands or thinly spread Loyalist Chapters, the Brutalizers never seperaite into smaller raiding bodies, remaining together so that they may quickly overcome any obsticals in their raids.

The Brutalizers seem devoid of the need for personal battle that other Space Marines, be they traitor or loyalist, long for. They would sooner blast apart and enemy fortress from orbit than bother deploying forces to seige it, and will send their slaves to their deaths in open combat rather than join battle themselves. Some have accused them of being cowards, but the Brutalizers simply see it as fighting smarter, rather than harder, and continue to take any advantage presented, regardless of their enemies foolish ideals of honor and glory.

The Brutalizers are fanatical about the purity of their Chapters Gene-Seed, and thus they maintain a much larger than normal Apthothicarion, with one Biotech (the Chapters uniqe combination of Apthicary and Techmarine) to every squad of Brutalizers.

Wargear
The Brutalizers pention for heavy weapons is well noted, as is their proficancy in the cramped corridors of warships. Their weaponary refelcts their brutal efficancy and merciless drive to crush all those who dare oppose them:

Oxis Pattern Mourningstar
The iconic weapon of the Brutalizers, so much so that a depiction of the Mourningstar is the Chapters emblem, the Oxis Pattern Mourningstar is a powerful and savage chainflail. The Mourningstar represents the personality of its masters well, imposing, ruthless, unrelenting, and above all, devastating in battle. The Mourningstar comes in two models, the larger and more powerful twohanded version, and the much more common, onehanded version. The Mourningstar's chainblade covered head can deliver grusome wounds and its heavily reheinforced teeth are pratcically fracture proof, making it highly effective against both heavily armored and lightly armored enemies alike. The Mourningstar's head is attatched to the grip via a retractable adamantium chain, which allows the weapon to be used as a flail and maul respectively, depending on the range of engagement.

The Mourningstar is practically ubiquitus within the ranks of the Brutalizers, with nearly every Battle-Brother having the onehanded model as his personal melee weapon.