Aurora Chapter

The Aurora Chapter is a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines that is a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Ultramarines. The Armoury of the Chapter boasts more Predators and Land Raiders than any three other Loyalist Space Marine Chapters combined and they are thus specialised in armoured assaults. Their name has become a byword for armoured assault across the Ultima Segmentum of the Imperium of Man that serves as their primary area of operations.

Chapter History
The origins of the Aurora Chapter can be traced back to the Great Crusade over ten millennia earlier when they were still a part of the Ultramarines Legion, then known as the XIIIth Legion, before their reunification with their Primarch Roboute Guilliman. The warrior brotherhood of the XIIIth had also, only in the decades after their initial raising on Terra, begun to display its achievements visually. But rather than take on a particular livery and iconography as a whole, individual companies who had come to prominence in a particularly important Compliance operation or campaign took on additions to their core Legion livery --- which maintained the post-Unification storm grey and gunmetal they had worn since Sedna -- to commemorate their greatest achievements. The principally armoured formations of the XIIIth helped halt an Ork advance on the ash plains of Cypra Mundi, and in doing so had saved a city of millions from a savage death, afterwards commemorated the battle by mirroring on their right pauldron the emerald light of the blazing aurora borealis that had riven the skies under which they had fought. Such honours were claimed as the Legion's strength made visible.

Following the end of the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman was responsible for the restructuring of the Imperium's military forces. The vast Space Marine Legions would be broken down into numerous, smaller existing formations, known as a Chapter. When the Second Founding of the Space Marines was decreed seven years after the death of Horus and the end of his Heresy, most of the old Loyalist Legions divided into fewer than 5 Successor Chapters, but the Ultramarines were divided many times. The existing armoured formations of the Ultramarines became a part of the newly founded "Aurora" Chapter.

Since that bygone era, the Aurora Chapter has always been known as the undisputed masters of armoured assault. They boast more Land Raiders and Predators than many other Space Marine Chapters. Ever since their creation, in the Second Founding, they have preferred massed spearheads led by heavily armoured main battle tanks, earning them renown throughout the Ultima Segmentum. The Aurora Chapter's homeworld, Firestorm, harbours vast industrial complexes, which together are large enough to rival the manufacturing output of several Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds. Countless millions of indentured menials work the munitorums night and day to feed the mighty guns of the Aurora Chapter's tank companies, ensuring that their weapons need never fall silent. Heeding the summons of Ultramarines Chapter Marneus Calgar, the Aurora Chapter recently deployed on the Zeist Campaign in support of the Ultramarines against the emergent Tau Empire.

Notable Campaigns

 * Armoured Assault on Grylos (282.M36) - The massed armoured spearheads of the Aurora Chapter break the Ork invasion of Grylos.
 * Goru Heresy (650.M41) - When a Chaos-inspired nihilo-cult usurps power in the Goru System, the Aurora Chapter executes a lightning campaign that decapitates the heretics' inner circle and restores order to the region within ten days of their deployment. There is scant cause for celebration however, as the Chapter Master, Lord Herak Nhuson, is killed when the heretic leader unleashes a Warp fuelled psi-vortex as a dying act of spite.
 * Redemption Rebellion (744.M41) - In 744.M41, after joining forces to defeat the Alpha Legion warband responsible for the Redemption Rebellion, the Aurora Chapter and the Knights of the Raven swore a bitter feud against each other, each blaming the other for their grievous losses. This conflict was only ended by the intervention of Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar himself.
 * The Zeist Campaign (999.M41) - The Aurora Chapter heeded the call of the Ultramarines' Lord Macragge, Marneus Calgar, in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy to take part in the Zeist Campaign against the Tau Empire in 999.M41. The Aurora Chapter provided armoured support in the form of Predators to help spearhead the assault on the Tau-occupied world of Augura. This world served as a staging point for the Tau forces during their Third Sphere Expansion campaign into Imperial space. But due to the overwhelming force provided by a combined task force assault of close to a dozen Space Marine Chapters, the Tau were forced to withdraw to protect more secure territory within their own borders. Unfortunately, though the Space Marines had won the war and stopped the Tau's seizure of human territory, it was not possible to sanction a retaliatory thrust into Tau-held space as the individual Space Marine forces were required elsewhere in the galaxy to hold the line against the Forces of Chaos during the height of the 13th Black Crusade.

Controversy Over Founding Date
Sources have conflicted concerning the date of this Chapter's Founding; while some claim the Aurora Chapter to be one of the Ultramarines' Second Founding Chapters, others place the date of their foundation as much later.

Chapter Combat Doctrine
The Aurora Chapter's Astartes are known to be the undisputed masters of the armoured assault, and the Chapter boasts more Land Raiders and Predators than any other Chapter (or indeed, several Chapters combined). Their preferred method of battle is therefore, unsurprisingly, a massed attack led by heavily armoured Space Marine tanks, a strategy that has earned them renown throughout the Ultima Segmentum and beyond.

Chapter Relics

 * Remembrance - Remembrance is a master-crafted Astartes Thunder Hammer. Though the members of the Deathwatch are sworn to set aside their ties to their Chapter during the service in the Long Vigil, they remain Space Marines, forever Battle-Brothers of the Adeptus Astartes. When the Aurora Chapter lost a task force in the Jericho Reach to unknown xenos foes during the Reach's Age of Shadow, it was the Deathwatch who rescued the survivors and returned the gene-seed of the fallen. Among the losses was a venerable Land Raider tank, ruined beyond repair. The Forge Master of Watch Fortress Erioch at the time took it upon himself to forge its main axle anew as a mighty Thunder Hammer, so that the noble machine could avenge its destruction. Those who have wielded the weapon in battle swear it strikes with the force of a tank bearing down on its foe.

Chapter Colors
The Aurora Chapter's Power Armour is painted dark green, with trim in the Chapter's various company colours as prescribed by the Codex Astartes. The white coloured squad specialty symbol (Tactical, Assault, Devastator, or Veteran) is indicated on the right shoulder guard, with the squad number stenciled in black in the centre of it.

Chapter Badge
The Chapter's badge is a black, lower case Greek letter Alpha inside a white, twelve-pointed star.

Gallery
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