The Star Phantoms is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of the 23rd Founding created in the early 38th Millennium from an unknown origin.

It took part in the final days of the Badab War and the final assault upon the Astral Claws' homeworld of Badab Primaris, helping bring the war to a successful conclusion.

Created during the so-called "Sentinel" Founding, the Star Phantoms was one of several Chapters whose mission was to take and hold various xenos-contested regions on the very borders of the Emperor's domains. Many of the Chapter's earliest campaigns were waged against now-extinct xenos monstrosities, and the Star Phantoms frequently operated on their own and far from the support of other Imperial institutions.

This situation is often cited as the main reason for the Chapter's somewhat isolationist outlook, though others have advanced the notion that the cause is rooted in the Star Phantoms' genetic heritage.

Some Imperial savants suspect that the Star Phantoms were created from the gene-seed of the Dark Angels, which, if true, would be unusual, not only because the Astartes of the Chapter do not suffer from any known mutations, but because the Dark Angels' gene stock is rarely utilised by the Mechanicus for new Foundings.

The Dark Angels themselves deny the lineage, while the Star Phantoms regard any such enquiries as impertinent.

The Star Phantoms display a peculiarly idiosyncratic Chapter cult. The Chapter's rites and traditions focus on death and martyrdom, the fallen being revered over and above the living. Symbols of death and mourning are used as Chapter iconography, the Chapter symbol itself featuring a sand-timer surmounted by two death's heads.

This trait extends to a generalised disregard for the living that has often manifested in excessive collateral damage amongst populations the Chapter has been tasked with purging of insurrectionist elements, and even amongst allied units.

In battle, the Star Phantoms utilise overwhelming firepower in order to crush their enemy utterly. Unlike many other Chapters, they hold no particular method of war as inherently favourable or honourable.

They make extensive use of Drop Pod assaults, supported by a greater than usual reliance on Drop Pod-delivered ordnance such as the Deathstorm Launcher, and favoured personal weapons are always those able to deliver the most impressive and destructive firepower.

In nature, Battle-Brothers of the Star Phantoms are often solemn and invariably shun contact with those outside of their Chapter. Their Chapter cult teaches that life is transient and only the manner of a warrior's death holds any meaning.

While they may be somewhat cold, the Star Phantoms truly hold no compulsions about dying, so long as they know they will be grieved by their comrades according to their beliefs.

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Chapter History

The Star Phantoms Chapter is an Astartes Chapter with a shrouded and sometimes troubled history. The Star Phantoms' victories, though many, have largely remained unsung and unremembered. For much of their past they have been left to operate alone at the edge of the Imperium breeding in them an isolationist streak that has seldom embraced outside command.

These changes of fate have led to the Star Phantoms clashing with Imperial authorities and fellow Astartes on numerous occasions, and they have gained a shadowed reputation for themselves with other Imperial commanders.

The origins of the Star Phantoms lie in the 23rd Founding of the early 38th Millennium, known in some sources as the "Sentinel" Founding as it was created to aid the Imperium's defences in numerous ill-starred and vulnerable areas of the galaxy.

Their exact origins and primogenitor Chapter remained mysterious even during their creation, as did the backgrounds of many of the Chapters of this Founding.

Death of Haakoneth

In 101.M40, the Chapter's forces were recalled to defend its endangered homeworld of Haakoneth from sustained Ork attack by the warring Freeboota Klanz from the Edge Void. Assault waves, larger than any seen before, invaded the Haakoneth System.

The Greenskins' attack was unusually frenzied, as the Ork attackers hurtled themselves headlong at Haakoneth itself taking immediate losses. Ork warships were shot down in the hundreds, and whole clusters of attacking Roks were boarded and blasted apart without ever making landfall in a running battle that lasted sixty solar days, littering the star system with wreckage in a firestorm of ordnance that threatened to exhaust the planet's considerable stockpile.

Sensing imminent victory, the Star Phantoms soon faced the true nature of the oncoming threat as it materialised. A vast temporal Warp rift surged like a deadly rip-tide towards the star system from the outer void, and at its vanguard came the horror of a massive Hrud migration trapped within the rift's event horizon.

It was this time-rip that the Ork forces had been driven before in flight, and that now engulfed the Haakoneth System, causing its sun to flare balefully. The rift all but cut off the system from the rest of the galaxy with its surrounding vortex of spatial turbulence, and help, even if it had been available was utterly out of reach.

Immediately the Star Phantoms mounted a valiant defence of their homeworld from the oncoming storm, but it became swiftly apparent their cause was lost as reality itself began to buckle around them. As misshapen forms of the Hrud invaded their world, their presence distorted time and space, causing the very earth of Haakoneth to splinter and roil with quakes and tremors at the creatures' passing.

The Chapter's losses were heavy, and none could doubt only oblivion awaited the survivors if they stayed. Chapter Master Omadon Tiresias ordered his remaining brethren to gather such relics as they could and flee, rather than face certain destruction at the hands of an enemy they could not fight.

It is rumoured that not all the remaining brethren obeyed, preferring to stand and perish with their world. The Chapter's last remaining Battle Barge, the Memento Mori, carrying with it the Chapter's corpus of Techmarines, led the ragged remains of their once proud fleet's escape from the rift-vortex lashing the star system.

Many of the Star Phantom's ships were destroyed in the desperate flight as Haakoneth, caught in the storm's eye, shattered behind them, and Tiresias himself was blinded when a rogue time-eddy speared the Momento Mori command deck.

Little more than a third of the Chapter's strength would survive the destruction of their home system, and as a consequence of Haakoneth's destruction, the Star Phantoms would spend many standard years slowly rebuilding their forces and would remain a fleet-based Chapter right up until the Badab War.

From the tragic destruction of their homeworld, the Star Phantoms earned the dubious distinction of only a handful of Chapters in the Imperium's known history to face a full-scale Hrud migration alone and survive.

The Star Phantoms became a fleet-based Chapter after the loss of Haakoneth, slowly rebuilding their strength and participating in numerous conflicts and interventions across the Segmentum Obscurus. The Chapter quickly earned a merciless reputation for indiscriminate use of firepower and the infliction of collateral damage. This reputation was further cemented when the Chapter took part in the Macharian Crusade from 392-399.M41.

It was in the aftermath of this famous Crusade that the Star Phantoms' darkest hour came during the Badab War. Although the Chapter suffered terrible losses in the final apocalyptic engagement of that conflict in 912.M41, the Star Phantoms' success was honoured by the granting of overlordship over the now ruined worlds of the Badab Sector by the Imperial Inquisitor-Legate of the Badab Crusade, and the Chapter chose the ice-moon of Jahga in the Archean System upon which to found its new fortress-monastery.

Notable Campaigns

Chapter Homeworld

The Star Phantoms' initial deployment as a Chapter was to the Shrine World of Haakoneth on the edge of the ravaged Sakkara Sector where they fortified one of the planet's mountainous mausoleum-complexes to serve as their base of operations and fortress-monastery. From this bastion they sallied forth against the numerous foul xenoforms that plagued the region.

The Star Phantoms' Neophyte recruits were drawn from the technologically regressive barbaric remnant-populations of the surrounding systems, and their first tasks were to guard against the numerous horrors that plagued that fallen seat of the Imperium's power.

Since the Hrud assault, the entire Sakkara Sector and the Chapter's former homeworld of Haakoneth have been lost to the outer void for more than a millennium as a result of the Hrud infestation ensconced within a temporal Warp rift that destroyed that world, but these dark beginnings appear to have left an indelible mark on the soul of the Chapter that has remained to the present.

The Star Phantoms became a fleet-based Chapter after the loss of Haakoneth, slowly rebuilding their strength and participating in numerous conflicts and interventions across the Segmentum Obscurus. Followin the Badab War, the Chapter has placed it new fortress-monastery upon the ice moon of Jahga in the Archean System of the Badab Sector.

Fortress-Monastery

After the successful conclusion of the Badab War, the Star Phantoms landed their ancient Battle Barge Memento Mori on the frigid surface of Jahga.

Land-locked on the surface of the planet by the massive glaciers and never-ending formations of ice, the Memento Mori became the foundation upon which the Star Phantoms built their new fortress-monastery.

Chapter Organisation

The Star Phantoms broadly conform to the standard patterns laid down in the Codex Astartes, with some considerable slant given in its deployment and production towards the preferred use of "first strike" and drop assault weapons and war materiel, as well as exotic additions to the recognised tenets that tie in with their own unique beliefs.

The Chapter has a preference for using heavy firepower to slaughter its enemies, closing to assault only when it is most tactically expedient to do so. For the Star Phantoms no one mode of combat holds any inherent glory or value over another, all that matters instead is that death is dealt to the enemy. Thanks in part to the extensive and diverse Chapter armoury, the tactical doctrines of the Star Phantoms favour Space Marine-carried portable heavy weapons to supply this combat firepower at close range.

Both Plasma Weapons and Melta Weapons are fielded in comparably large numbers in the Star Phantom's ranks, with the Chapter deploying a pattern of three Devastator Squads per standard Battle Company, rather than the Codex Astartes-approved number of two as is the norm.

This doctrine of close range firepower is also carried through by the Star Phantom's command structure, with combi-weapons, again favouring the incorporation of melta and plasma designs, produced in significant numbers by the Chapter's Techmarines and often carried into battle by its officers and Veteran Sergeants as a symbol of rank.

In addition the Star Phantoms maintain a sizable core force of Vindicators and Land Raiders for use in armoured spearhead attacks, and manufacture and employ large numbers of Deathstorm Drop Pods in a fire support role for planetary assaults.

Deathwatch Service

In nature, Battle-Brothers of the Star Phantoms are often solemn and invariably shun contact with those outside of their Chapter. While they do contribute brethren to the Long Watch, Star Phantoms serving in the Kill-teams of the Deathwatch often stand somewhat apart from their fellows.

Their Chapter cult teaches that life is transient and only the manner of a warrior's death holds any meaning. While they may be somewhat cold, the Star Phantoms truly hold no compunctions about dying, so long as they know they will be properly grieved by their brethren in line with the devotions required by their Mortuary Cult.

Chapter Combat Doctrine

Following the destruction of their homeworld of Haakoneth in 120.M40, the Star Phantoms became a fleet-based Chapter. During this period, the Chapter came to further specialise in fleet combat and mass assault operations from near orbit.

A favoured tactic of the Chapter is the coordinated use of large numbers of Drop Pods of varying types and classes, including weapons-platform types such as the Deathstorm as a key part of their strategies.

It was during these years after the loss of their homeworld that the Chapter earned a merciless reputation for the indiscriminate use of firepower, often inflicting wanton collateral damage on their targets during civil insurrections.

Chapter Beliefs

The existence of indigenous and often unique cult belief systems, martial philosophies and variations on the Cult Imperialis within the Adeptus Astartes is far from uncommon. The so-called "Mortuary Cult" of the Star Phantoms is of a more extreme variety, and embraces the divinity of the God-Emperor of Mankind as "Imperator Mortifex" -- judge of the souls of the dead and the keeper of martyrs.

Accordingly, the brethren of the Chapter see themselves as divinely ordained killers; Angels of Death in the truest sense. Grim solemnity accompanies their proceedings at all times and they care little for the individual glory of the warrior, but are instead consumed by the task of bringing death to those that defy the Emperor's will or seek to thwart His holy purpose.

True to Imperial dogma, they hold as a central tenet of their beliefs "that only in death does duty end," and while they give little leeway or respite to the living, they deeply honour those who fall in the Emperor's service and hold the many martyrs of the Imperium and the dead of their Chapter with extreme reverence.

As a part of their practices the Star Phantoms have been observed to hold many strange and elaborate funerary customs, and it is commonplace for Battle-Brothers of the Chapter to maintain a personal reliquary containing votive items such as the ashes of fallen comrades as a talisman, and are also apt to use the ground dust of their enemies' bones compounded as lapping powder for their armour.

The keepers and high priests of these cult practices are the Star Phantoms Chaplains. Each company and detachment has its own attached Mortuary Chaplain to administer its rites, with a separate chantry of four Reclusiarchs and a Master of Sanctity maintained as a key part of the Chapter's command structure.

Chapter Gene-Seed

It is unknown which gene-seed was used during the Founding of the Star Phantoms. Some sources have since hinted that they utilised Dark Angels genetic material, although this has been vehemently denied by the Dark Angels themselves, and the Star Phantoms consider such queries, even via official channels, as inherently presumptuous and cause for offence.

Likely this speculation is simply based on some observed similarity in livery, iconography and trappings, which along with the inherent introversion of character has given birth to a likely unfounded assumption by certain scholars of the Adeptus Terra and Deparmento Stratagos.

Notable Star Phantoms

Chapter Master Omadon Tiresias - Omadon Tiresias was the Master of the Star Phantoms who ordered the evacuation of his Chapter during the destruction of their homeworld of Haakoneth due to a massive Hrud migration. When the planet was engulfed in a massive Warp vortex of spatial turbulence, Tiresias was blinded by a rogue time-eddy that speared the command deck of his starship, the Battle Barge Memento Mori .

- Omadon Tiresias was the Master of the Star Phantoms who ordered the evacuation of his Chapter during the destruction of their homeworld of Haakoneth due to a massive Hrud migration. When the planet was engulfed in a massive Warp vortex of spatial turbulence, Tiresias was blinded by a rogue time-eddy that speared the command deck of his starship, the Battle Barge . Captain Calphax - Captain of the 5 th Battle Company at the time of the Karthargo Crusade and the Scourging of Kerrack.

- Captain of the 5 Battle Company at the time of the Karthargo Crusade and the Scourging of Kerrack. Captain Zhrukal Androcles, "Siegebreaker" - A grim and relentless warrior, Zhrukal Androcles was the Captain of the Star Phantoms 9 th Devastator reserve company during the Badab War. During the final assault on Huron's capital known as the Palace of Thorns, Captain Androcles led a detachment to breach the catacombs of the Tyrant's palace, and as luck would have it, they ran into Lufgt Huron; and his bodyguard endeavouring to make their escape. The swift and bloody battle that followed wiped out the entire Star Phantoms detachment, but not before the dying Androcles managed to unleash a melta-blast at point blank range into the Tyrant of Badab, dealing him a mortal blow.

- A grim and relentless warrior, Zhrukal Androcles was the Captain of the Star Phantoms 9 Devastator reserve company during the Badab War. During the final assault on Huron's capital known as the Palace of Thorns, Captain Androcles led a detachment to breach the catacombs of the Tyrant's palace, and as luck would have it, they ran into Lufgt Huron; and his bodyguard endeavouring to make their escape. The swift and bloody battle that followed wiped out the entire Star Phantoms detachment, but not before the dying Androcles managed to unleash a melta-blast at point blank range into the Tyrant of Badab, dealing him a mortal blow. Mercur - Brother Mercur joined the eternal hosts of the Emperor of Mankind very much in the manner he had served humanity, and entirely according to the beliefs of the Star Phantoms Chapter. Mercur's parent Chapter holds that life is transient and the manner of a warrior's death is all. Thus, Brother Mercur died protecting his fellow Battle-Brothers whilst in service to the Deathwatch, defending Watch Fortress Erioch's main portal against overwhelming odds. The doctrines of the Star Phantoms demand that the fallen are honoured above the living, and no warrior was held to have truly served until he had passed on. Thus, the name of Brother Mercur resounds through the ages by way of the life-bonded attendants dispatched by the Star Phantoms to sing the Hours at his chantry chapel. Though all of the Fifteen of Midael are duly honoured, the continuous chant emanating from the chapel dedicated to Brother Mercur ensures that his memory lives on. It is said that the custodian Chapter Serfs the Star Phantoms have dispatched to attend this duty are under instructions never to cease their sonorous chanting, even in the most drastic of circumstances. This assertion was borne out several centuries later, when they continued with their duties even as death and anarchy threatened to engulf Erioch.

Chapter Fleet

The Star Phantoms' Chapter fleet had once been a large and proud void force, but was reduced by nearly two-thirds during the conflict to defend their original homeworld that became known as the Death of Haakoneth in 101.M40. By the time of the Badab War, almost two thousand standard years later, the Chapter had made some headway in rebuilding its fleet, though it still remained but a pale shadow of its pre-Haakoneth strength.

Memento Mori (Battle Barge) - The Star Phantoms' most venerable and proud flagship that led the ragged remains of the Star Phantoms' fleet's escape from the destruction of their homeworld of Haakoneth due to a large Hrud migration. Later, it played a vital role during the closing days of the Badab War during the final assault on Badab Primaris. After the successful conclusion of the war, the Star Phantoms chose the ice moon of Jahga and landed the ancient Battle Barge on its surface. Land-locked on the surface of the planet by the massive glaciers and never-ending formations of ice, the Memento Mori became the foundation upon which the Star Phantoms built their new fortress-monastery.

- The Star Phantoms' most venerable and proud flagship that led the ragged remains of the Star Phantoms' fleet's escape from the destruction of their homeworld of Haakoneth due to a large Hrud migration. Later, it played a vital role during the closing days of the Badab War during the final assault on Badab Primaris. After the successful conclusion of the war, the Star Phantoms chose the ice moon of Jahga and landed the ancient Battle Barge on its surface. Land-locked on the surface of the planet by the massive glaciers and never-ending formations of ice, the became the foundation upon which the Star Phantoms built their new fortress-monastery. Pale Wrath (Battle Barge) - A proud Battle Barge that served alongside the Memento Mori during the final assault on Badab Primaris in the closing days of the Badab War.

- A proud Battle Barge that served alongside the during the final assault on Badab Primaris in the closing days of the Badab War. Fires of Salvation (Strike Cruiser) - The Fires of Salvation was the Strike Cruiser allotted to the 5 th Battle Company during the Karthago Crusade and the Scourging of Kerrack.

- The was the Strike Cruiser allotted to the 5 Battle Company during the Karthago Crusade and the Scourging of Kerrack. Spectre of Fear (Strike Cruiser) - The Spectre of Fear was one of the proudest Strike Cruisers in the Star Phantoms' Chapter fleet.

Chapter Appearance

Chapter Colours

The Star Phantoms' primarily wear white Power Armour. Symbols for squad-type are black and are located on the right shoulder plate and the Chapter icon is worn on the left shoulder plate.

The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest plate is light yellow and the eye lenses on the helms are red.

The black squad specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support or Veteran -- is located on the right shoulder plate, but is sometimes located on the right knee plate. There seems to be no set standard as to how these markings are displayed.

The display is left up to the individual Battle-Brother's personal preference. A black Low Gothic numeral is stenciled on the inside of the shoulder plate, to the right of the squad specialty symbol, indicating squad number.

The colour of the left knee plate indicates company number.

Chapter Badge

The Star Phantoms' Chapter badge is a stylised black hour glass, with a twin pair of skulls reflecting one another forming the body of the hour glass.

This symbolism is consistent with the mortuary beliefs of the Star Phantoms Chapter.

Canon Conflict

Despite the fact that Imperial records list the Star Phantoms as having been part of the 23rd Founding in the 38th Millennium, the Star Phantoms are also recorded to have fought alongside the Flesh Tearers in the cleansing of the Sakkara System, less than one hundred years after the end of the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium.

The discrepancy remains unexplained.

Sources

Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet)

(Limited Release Booklet) Cities of Death

Deathwatch: Honour the Chapter (RPG), pp. 117-118

(RPG), pp. 117-118 Deathwatch: The Emperor's Chosen (RPG), pg. 54

(RPG), pg. 54 Imperial Armour Volume Two (Second Edition) - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes , pg. 52

(Second Edition) - , pg. 52 Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two , pp. 44, 47-49, 53, 55, 132, 134-135, 155-156, 180

, pp. 44, 47-49, 53, 55, 132, 134-135, 155-156, 180 Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & The Damned , pg. 25

, pg. 25 Imperial Armour Aeronautica , pp. 76-84

, pp. 76-84 Legends of the Space Marines (Anthology), "The Trial of the Mantis Warriors" by C.S. Goto

(Anthology), "The Trial of the Mantis Warriors" by C.S. Goto Warhammer 40,000: Compendium , "The Badab War", pp. 33-35

, "The Badab War", pp. 33-35 White Dwarf 101 (US), "Index Astartes: From The Imperial History Archive - The Badab War: The uniforms and history of the Badab Uprising" (1988) by Rick Priestley, pp. 71-73

101 (US), "Index Astartes: From The Imperial History Archive - The Badab War: The uniforms and history of the Badab Uprising" (1988) by Rick Priestley, pp. 71-73 Flesh of Cretacia (Novella) by Andy Smillie