Carcharodons

The Carcharodons are a Loyalist Space Marines Chapter of unknown Founding and origin who participated in the latter stages of the Badab War. They are a fleet-based Chapter. The Carcharodons may actually be the same Chapter as the Space Sharks; the term Carcharodons may simply be an alternate name for that unit of Astartes.

Chapter History
The Carcharodons are a mysterious and enigmatic Chapter, having forged for themselves a dark and bloody legend in the minds of those that survived the conflict known as the Badab War. Returning from the black void of space beyond the farthest reaches of the galaxy as strangers to both friend and foe alike, the Carcharodons sided with the Loyalists against those that would would challenge the Imperium of the divine Emperor.

The exact origins of this infamous Chapter are hard to pinpoint in Imperial archives as the Carcharodons have left no records of their activities in recent history. They simply feature nowhere within the open record, and likewise the Chapter has no officially recorded battle honors. Furthermore, this Chapter is oft misidentified with other less-known Chapters operating with similar nomenclatures and symbology (i.e. 'Void Reapers', 'Blood Sharks', ect.). However, sealed and secured records within the Ordos of the Inquisition may shed some light as to the true origins of this Chapter. The oldest of these ancient treatises on the wars of the Imperium of Man may be found within the pages of the Mythos Angelica Mortis written by the savant-scribes of the Secretariat Militum of Terra late in the 35th Millennium. References are made in this oft vague and incomplete work to a Space Marine Chapter identified as the Carcharodon Astra. They were dispatched into the "...outer darkness...upon an endless voyage...to ravage the foes of Mankind." This text stems from a far older work, now lost, dating back to the unknown era that surrounds the Astropath Wars of the late 32nd and the early 33rd Millennia. This is a time now shrouded in myth and allegory, and its true nature has been purged from Imperial history so thoroughly that less is known of it than of the Horus Heresy or the Great Crusade. Other records give this Chapter variations in name or title, such as the Space Sharks, but all the accounts are consistent on certain similarities of iconography and operation, and in their description of the Carcharodons' bestial but calculated savagery in combat. To this Chapter was afforded the sacred and unending duty to travel the interstellar night beyond the Imperium's borders to locate and destroy the enemies of Mankind before they could penetrate Imperial space.

Notable Campaigns
Given the largely unknown history of this Chapter, accounts of their activities can only be constructed from recorded historical incidents and fragmentary records that are believed to have involved the Carcharodons on balance of evidence.


 * Badab War - (910.M41 - 912.M41) - Arriving without warning in 910.M41 the Carcharodons's sudden appearance of their fleet caused alarm for both the Loyalists and Secessionist forces. Upon their arrival, their commander Tyberos presented the Inquisitor Legate in charge of prosecuting the Badab conflict with Notices Patent provided to the Chapter affirming its rights and titles issued by several High Lords and Inquisitors now long dead.  Tyberos even submitted himself for psychic probing and gene-sampling.  The Inquisitor Legate vouched for the Carcharodons.  Lord Commander Culln of the Red Scorpions and supreme commander of the Loyalist forces, accepted the Carcharodons into his line of battle, although he was still wary of their loyalties and their deviations from the Codex in their long voyage.  The Carcharodons were initially deployed to the Endymion Cluster after their return to Imperial space, home to the Mantis Warriors Chapter, rather than to the Badab Sector. They systematically annihilated worlds known to have harboured the Mantis Warriors to force that Chapter to come to their aid, a strategy that spared the Carcharodons from having to pursue them to worlds where their foes held the advantage of support and local knowledge. In the final battle of the Badab War, on the world of Badab itself, the Carcharodons sabotaged the ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors which powered the hives and fed the hungry planetary defence batteries with energy. This resulted in a planetary tectonic upheaval, with entire hive sectors collapsing into yawning chasms that opened up in the ground beneath them, replaced by seas of molten lava.

Chapter Organisation
The Carcharodons conform roughly to the tactical and squad doctrines laid down in the Codex Astartes, but show, at least to outside observation, considerable deviation from its command structure and company arrangements. In some instances it appears that they have abandoned wholesale the approved symbology and insignia of the Codex in favour of personal and often highly totemic markings. Only a few intelligible accounts of the Carcharodons exist that tell of the Chapter's very disciplined pattern of order of deployment and fighting, despite the supposition from casual observers that they are barbarous Chapter in nature. Their tactical deployments and use of shock-assault tactics is highly reminiscent of the Black Templars, although these two Chapters are diametrically opposed in character, they both tend to have a similar overriding desire to close with the enemy and shatter their foes in bloody personal combat.

Each Company operates similar to a Codex Battle Company, but is augmented with an attached auxiliary force of Scouts and spearheaded by dedicated Terminator veterans who serve as personal bodyguards to the Company's commanding Captain. There appears to be no reserve companies, but it is suspected that not all of the Carcharodon's companies conform to the same pattern of organisation.

The Chapter also includes both Chaplains and Librarians, although the forces observed during the Badab War seemed low in number of Apothecaries and Techmarines in their ranks. Though these last two cadres may have been held in reserves in the Chapter's fleet, which is not uncommon with Fleet Chapters who spend large periods in isolation. This structure puts the effective strength of each Chapter's company at around one hundred to one hundred and twenty Initiates and twenty-to-thirty neophyte Scouts, although the exact size and disposition of the Carcharodons Chapter as a whole remains unknown.


 * Equipment - During the Badab War the Charcarodons Chapter demonstrated a number of highly distinctive traits and trappings that set them apart from their brethren fighting on both sides of the war. Their equipment was observed to be of ancient provenance.  Much of their arms, vehicles and wargear and other equipment were of designs and patterns that covered the span of the Imperium's breadth and history.  Examples include such ancient patterns as the Phobos R/017 bolt gun and the use of Mark V 'Heresy' pattern power armour predominating.  The Chapter also seemed to possess a considerable contingent of Terminator armour suits, of which many example appeared to be heavily modified or augmented in unorthodox ways to keep them combat worthy.

Chapter Combat Doctrine
Tactically, during the Badab War, the Carcharodons operated almost exclusively as a rapid-strike force, disdaining any kind of protracted engagement whenever possible, preferring to approach their targets either with extreme speed or by stealth, which allowed them to strike with the element of surprise on their side whenever possible. In combat they endeavoured to close ground with their enemies swiftly and do battle either in hand-to-hand combat or unleash their ranged firepower at near point-blank range. For this reason each Carcharodons Space Marine, regardless of whether they were part of the Chapter's Devastator Squads or its dedicated Assault Marines units, was observed to carry a plethora of bayonets, blades and chain weapons in addition to their normal armaments so that they were always able to engage in vicious and bloody melee combat.

Notable Carcharodons

 * Tyberos, "The Red Wake" - Tyberos was the Chapter Master of the Carcharodons during their unlooked-for and savage intervention in the Badab War. He often lead his brethren Terminators of the 1st Company in bloody assault after bloody assault, carving a path of mangled corpses through the rebel forces of the Badab campaign.

Chapter Fleet
The Carcharodons fleet, though extensive, is inconsistent in makeup. Within its line of battle are numerous examples of either very ancient, salvaged or extensively repaired vessels.


 * Notable Ships, Nicor - 'Battle Barge '-The Carcharodons' notorious flagship and mobile fortress-monastery. This ancient battle barge is based on a Charibdys class grand cruiser, a vessel class rarely seen since the early days of the Great Crusade.


 * Fleet-based Pattern of Deployment - Many fleet-based Space Marine Chapters use the conventional Crusade Chapter pattern (which consciously imitate the example of the Space Marine Legions of old). Instead the Carcharodons follow the rarer, so-called 'Nomad-Predation' pattern. This is used exclusively by Chapters operating for long durations beyond the Imperium's borders, acting as self-contained forces which operate without recourse to the Imperium for support at all. These types of fleets voyage without end, pausing only to attack target that are within their means to destroy without threatening their own viability as an effective fighting force.

Chapter Appearance

 * Physical Traits - In appearance the battle-brothers of the Carcharodons display a greyish-pale, almost pallor, with their more venerable members possessing liquid-like black eyes without a visible iris or sclera. Aside from these physical marks, there is no common type of physiognomy or genotype among them, likely pointing to a very widely recruited base stock.  Gene-seed samples taken from the Chapter has proven to be untainted although subject to some long-term degradation, and possessed of several markers found in the uncommon Raven Guard bloodline, a mutation of which may have resulted in their unusual physical appearance and be the basis of some of their traits.

Chapter Colours
The Carcharodon Chapter colours are primarily grey. In many instances the more conventional emblems of the Imperium are found alongside idiosyncratic markings, often abstract or depictive images and tokens concerning fanged maws, death's heads, oceanic predators and bloody wounds.

Chapter Badge
The Carcharodons' Chapter badge is a Great White Shark.