The Dark Hands is a Loyalist Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marines Chapter of unknown Founding and origin.
Chapter History[]
Notable Campaigns[]
- Aschen War (307.M40) - The Aschen War was a series of brushfire revolts and incursions that erupted across the Aschen Sub-sector in 300.M40, after a bloody cult-inspired revolt on the Cardinal World of Dimmamar exposed how overstretched Imperial control over the surrounding region had become. Slowly stripped of much of its defences over the course of several generations to provide for the needs of other pressing conflicts nearby, this border region was ill-equipped to stave off catastrophe when it came. The Imperial counter-invasion was led by the combined forces of two Space Marine Chapters -- the Dark Hands and the Exorcists, backed by the Necromundan 54th and 60th Imperial Guard Rifles and the Battle Sisters of the Order of the Valorous Heart. The Exorcists quickly realised that one of the keys to victory would be locating and destroying the single dark master of many names that lurked behind the divergent Chaos cults in the region, a daemonic creature that on Dimmamar was known as the Horned God. The Exorcists finally cornered the Daemon Prince in the maze-like pre-human ruins of the Dead World of Belphago. The Exorcists with the aid of a hastily composed Ordo Malleus strike team managed to banish the vile Daemon Prince back to the Immaterium, though fully a third of the Exorcists Chapter had perished. But with this victory the tide of the war was now in the Imperium's favour, and within a year, the sub-sector was brought back under Imperial control.
- The Cleansing of Cinchare (844.M41) - A massive Hrud infestation on the Imperial Mining World of Cinchare was defeated by Terminators drawn from the 1st Company of the Dark Hands with support from the Imperial Guard's 39th Cadian "Xenobane" Regiment of the Cadian Shock Troops. The combat was fought in the close, shadowy confines of the myriad mining tunnels that snaked through the planet's crust like a rat's nest. Imperial forces successfully rid several worlds in the Chinchare System of the xenos Hrud, halting what was later determined by Ordo Xenos investigators as the beginning of a potentially devastating entropic infestation.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colours[]
The Dark Hands primarily wear dull mint-green Power Armour. Their gauntlets and knee plates are black. The black squad specialty symbol -- Tactical, Assault, Devastator or Veteran -- is indicated on the right shoulder plate. A white Gothic numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol, indicates squad number. The colour of the Aquila or Imperialis on the chest plate indicates company number in accordance with the Codex -- i.e. White (1st Company), Yellow (2nd Company), Red (3rd Company), etc.
Chapter Badge[]
The Dark Hands' Chapter badge is a stylised outstretched black, armoured hand facing the viewer as if in a halt gesture, on a field of dull mint-green.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet), pg. 31
- Insignium Astartes: The Uniforms and Regalia of the Space Marines (2002) by Merrett, Alan
- Imperial Armour Volume Two - Space Marines and the Forces of the Inquisition, pp. 30, 138, 150, 160
- Imperial Armour Volume Two, Second Edition - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pg. 21
- Imeprial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 126