Retributionists

~

"Silence is the fate of all things. Let those who oppose us learn this."

-Ronan Burrick, 2nd Chapter Master of the Retributionists

The Retributionists are a loyal space marine chapter. Created during the Third Founding, the Retributionists were originally known as the Alabaster Fists and were primarily formed to aid in securing supply routes for allied chapters during crusades. After an ambush was carried out against the chapter by chaos forces and almost all of the chapter was lost, the Alabaster Fists renamed themselves the Retributionists, and vowed to repay the slaughter of their brethren tenfold.

Founding and the Ambush
The Retributionists were founded during the Third Founding, and were derived from the Imperial Fists. Originally known as the Alabaster Fists, the Retributionists were gifted a battlebarge, the Whisper of Eternity, and a mission: aid the Crimson Fists in the Brokia System and sustain their supply route. While en route to their Crimson Fist brethren, the chapter was ambushed by a small warband of the Emperor's Children. Taken off-guard and by surprise, the Whisper of Eternity was rammed and boarded, initially dealing severe casualties to Alabaster Fists.

With the death of the first Chapter Master, Vick Thanden, the chapter seemed doomed to be a short lived farce; however, a hero arose. Just a sergeant at the time, Ronan Burrick rallied his company and made a bloody path toward the main deck of the barge. After a long and terrible fight, the warband was pushed off and forced to retreat.

With only three companies left intact, their mission was deemed impossible, as with so few numbers they could not be of much help in securing extremely dangerous routes for their brothers in the Crimson Fists. Broken and disshoveled, Ronan came to the aid of the morale of the chapter once more. After speaking to his brethren in such an uplifting manner, he was deemed by his brothers the new Chapter Master, and his first action was to call for a moment of silence, now still held even today by some of the chapter. Along with this, he renamed the chapter the Retributionists, and together with his brothers vowed to strike down every chaotic heretic they came in contact with.

Finding the Homeworld
After the regrouping and calming of the chapter, Ronan made contact with the Crimson Fists, explaining the ordeal and status of his chapter. With recommendations to stave off the mission and recollect themselves, Ronan abided and led his chapter to the nearby system of Maless, an untouched, forgotten system. There, the Retributionists landed on Maless Prime, which they renamed Confession, and from there on the system itself was renamed the Confession System. Upon Confession they built their mighty Fortress-Monastery, the Silent Hall, and they began to rebuild, calling for the granting of planets to recruit from, and started their path.

Veteran Company
Complying with the Codex Astartes, the Retributionists Veteran Company is comprised of two main groups:
 * Terminators- Though the minor component of the Veteran Company, the terminators of the Retributionists are as honoured as they are armoured.
 * Veterans- The bulk of the Veteran 1st Company is comprised of just that, Veterans. These battle-hardened warriors, most of which still remember the haunting atrocities of the Battlebarge Ambush, are adorned with the dried blood of their enemies. These experienced brothers also hold the high honour of being allowed to burn torture in supreme cruelty the chaos forces they encounter and entangle.

Battle Companies
The 2nd through 5th companies of the Retributionists stand as the main force during their expeditions and missions. Each company is specialized in all forms of warfare, with each company having its respective strengths, and all companies together sharing their strength and hatred for and against Chaos.
 * 2nd, 3rd, and 4th- These three companies share a similar suite of deployment methods and strategies. All three prefer foot and ground, as are all of the Retributionists, but these companies hold the responsibility of representing the bulk of the chapter's strategical maneuvering. Being equipped with plenty of vehicular aid, these companies present themselves as the most mobile as well. Differences arise in the specialties of each company. The 2nd boasts the most most  with upfront action, and specializes in assault squad combat. The 3rd calls upon their skill in close quarters fighting as well, but prefers more projectile methods rather than the chainsword. Lastly, the 4th holds to a strict doctrine of vehicular combat, mastering the art of hit and run tactics against enemy strong-points, and breaking through with masses of heavy support when called upon.
 * 5th- The 5th Company differs from the previous in the sense that they specialize in drop pod assaults, being utilized in strategic assaults, and they work most closely with the 2nd Company in this aspect. Due to their deployment method, they form the most level-headed and balanced fighting preference in the sense that they do not prefer hand-to-hand over projectile or vise-versa.

Reserve Companies
The 6th through the 9th companies represent the most crucial faction of the Retributionists: reinforcements. The Retributionists specialize in breaking Chaos strong-points, which demands heavy aid at times from reserve companies in order to maintain morale and structure on the battlefield.
 * 6th- This reserve company is made up of vehicular specialists. All vehicle warrants on the battlefield are put through this company.
 * 7th and 8th- These two companies hold the bulk of tactical and assault reinforcement personnel and are called upon the most in the field when such aid is needed.
 * 9th- The 9th Company makes up the special tactics force. They are called upon when immediate aid is required. Differing from their fellow reserve companies, the 9th specialize in thunderhawk deployments rather than foot and vehicular. This is the source of their speed and tactical essence.

Scout Company

 * Scouts- The 10th Company, made up of scouts, is essential in Retributionist tactics, as they hold the responsibility of relaying accurate information of chaos positions and undertakings. Due to the dangerous nature of this responsibility, the scouts of the Retributionists are in many ways more hardened than others, as they must undertake the hardest silence as they spy on the enemy.

Landscape and Weather
Confession, the homeworld of the Retributionists, is a cold, windy world. A large, rocky planet, Confession's surface is dominated by roaring pine forests and large semi-ice-covered lakes. The occasional mountain chain and grooved hills is evident, and the cloudless blue sky is ruled by a gruelingly bright sun. Along with the chill of the cloudless sky and the bare warmth of the sun is the severe winds that wrap the world in a chilled grasp. Few settlements can bare the conditions of the planet, and those that do are deemed worthy of recruiting from by the Retributionists, though these cases are rare, and the majority of the planet is untouched by civilization.

Fortress-Monastery; the Silent Hall
On their homeworld of Confession, the Retributionists' Fortress-Monastery, the Silent Hall, stands among the towering pines as a half stone, half metallic behemoth of architecture. Around the Silent Hall there is a ring of nodes and landing pads, along with several shrines to the chapter's glory and most honoured members. Inside, among the still and pristine atmosphere of the Hall, a pin could drop and be heard, as while within the Hall, as the name suggests, all are silent, though this is occasionally broken during times when the voice is truly needed to communicate.

The Silent Hall is broken into several sections, ten of which are home to the relics and shrine-rooms of the ten companies while there are many others, including some dedicated to the Apothecarium of the chapter for their works and privacy, and others dedicated strictly to the House Guard and their Warden.

Aesthetics-wise, the Hall is a gleaming white with black and deep-red fixtures and tinted windows.

Battle Tendencies
While the Retributionists hold some of the same stone-faced and humourless nature of their First Founding Legion, the Imperial Fists, they also have a tendency to prefer eye-to-eye combat rather than impersonal transgressions. Man-to-man combat is honoured heavily within the chapter, especially when facing the forces of chaos, in which many of the brothers of the Chapter wreak unimaginable cruelty and vengeance upon their foes.

Along with this, the Retributionists, most of them, hold, to a certain degree, a level of silence when carrying out battle maneuvers. This is due to the "Pledge of Silence" many take, some still holding it from the time of the Battlebarge Ambush. Occasionally, the silence on the battlefield is broken by a battlecry, but that battlecry is rarely ever vocally responded to. Instead, most battlecries foreshadow a massive offensive in certain positions.

Personalities
The Retributionists are quite "to the point" on most things, with the exception of victory over chaos forces they come into contact with, and the inevitable desecration and destruction of chaos structures and so on. Other than this, most brothers of the chapter exhibit the stone-faced and humourless nature of their Primarch and First Founding Legion.

Relationships
Most other chapters find it hard to form any bond or even gain any closeness with the Retributionists, due to the chapter's level of silence and, subsequently, their secretive nature due to that. Also, the severe and extreme cruelty the Retributionists show toward their enemies when these foes are of chaotic nature alienates many more level-headed chapters.

The exception to this is the Excorsists, that have come to rely on the Retributionists time and time again as allies and close friends. These two chapters have formed tight-knit bonds not only due to their specialties, but due to their outlook on Chaos and the twisted horrors they have all witnessed.

Major Chapter Figures

 * Ronan Burrick- 2nd Chapter Master of the Retributionists, most honoured and venerated member of the chapter; regrouped the morale and sense of pride in the chapter during the atrocity of the Battlebarge Ambush, sacrificed himself as part of the "Glorious Four" to save the 3rd, 4th, and 9th Companies from total anihilation along with Brailen of the 1st Company, and Captains Germain and Tackus of the 3rd and 4th Companies during the Incursion on Scarcaea.
 * Brailen- Chaplain of the 1st Company; he sacrificed himself as part of the "Glorious Four" to save the 3rd, 4th, and 9th Companies from total anihilation during the Incursion on Scarcaea.
 * Alec Ilexia- 3rd and current Chapter Master of the Retributionists; rallied the chapter's contingents on Scarcaea to allow a successful evacuation of the planet while the "Glorious Four" sacrificed themselves to plant a world-killer bomb.
 * Deregan Pynor- Lord Apothecary of the chapter since its founding; creator of the "Vengeance Seeker" drug that allows for the chapter's near-dead to be fueled with one final rage of hatred and energy against their foes on the battlefield.

Fleet

 * Whisper of Eternity (Battlebarge)
 * Germain's Ash (Battlebarge)
 * Ronan's Deliverance (Battlebarge)
 * Spear of Confession (Strike Cruiser)
 * Wrathful Silence (Strike Cruiser)
 * Dorn's Retribution (Strike Cruiser)

Relics and Wargear

 * The Messiad- a tome containing the names of those that died during the Battlebarge Ambush
 * Hailfist- Ronan Burrick's power-fist, currently held by Chapter Master Alec Ilexia

Campaigns

 * The Incursion on Scarcaea- A disastrous campaign held as a trap by the Black Legion to ensnare the Retributionists and anihilate as many of them as possible; this trap failed thanks to the efforts of the "Glorious Four"

Quotes
"''Be it an eternity of suffering or a day, we will make the forces of chaos squeal beneath our feet as we crush them into the dust beneath the glory of the Imperium and its Emperor." ''

               -Alec Ilexia, Chapter Master of the Retributionists

''"Fallen in combat may we be, but the fallen shall rise again in hatred and anger. They shall rain down upon the enemy swiftly and silently and destroy them in cruel aspiration and vengeance. They will repay the twisted heretics for their slaughter of our brothers tenfold, and will soak the worlds we churn with their corrupted blood before we burn the world to a cinder to wash it of its taint!" ''

              -Deregan Pynor, Lord Apothecary of the Retributionists

"These Retributionists, a bloody debt do they come for, a bloody debt indeed. I almost pity those twisted fools."

             -Pedro Kantor, Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists, upon seeing the corpses of chaos space marines                        left behind by the Retributionists

"Never before have I seen such desecrated desecrators like the ones tortured and killed by the Retributionists. Limbs torn from the body and stuck upon pyres to slowly burn; faces torn off and stomped upon before being thrown at the feet of effigies of the Emperor; heeps of bodies burned en masse as these silent astartes watch with vengeful hatred. Such sights...you must imagine what terrible things this chapter must have went through to feel so hateful, surely not some small deed, in any case; and of course, these sights were all before the planet was toasted to a fine cinder."

- Drakthen Grym