For Holy Terra Because space is scary

RPC – Yeomen Vigilant

Third place, which will be getting the 10-man Tactical Squad:
Submitted by David:

The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter is a second founding chapter of the Imperial Fists. Their homeworld, Selentine, is on the Eastern fringe. Their Fortress Monastery is in a desert garden, and is called Dark Eden.  Those that come out of Dark Eden are outwardly straightforward, but always seem to have a hint of thought just out of reach.

Organization:

Yeoman initiates are chosen almost at random from an outside observer. The recruiters call it “Pruning the garden of humanity.” Because of an overactive Catalepsen Node, all of the Chapter have recurring vivid dreams. These dreams shape the Chapter’s decisions, and movements on a whole. Whenever a Yeoman suffers déjà vu when looking at a recruit, that recruit is accepted even if he does not pass trial. Each of these recruits, while taking longer to train, will be able to vivid dream almost immediately.  Recruits are instructed by full initiates, often those with leadership value that have yet to make squad sergeant.

Chaplains make up the true leadership of the Yeoman Vigilant, as they are the interpreters of dreams and the guides of the Chapter. They, like in other Chapters, guide the spiritual heart, but they also guide the individual spirits of their wards. Chaplains guide scout sergeants, asking them to pay close attention to the dreams of the squad, making them become meticulous in their attention to detail both before and after their impants. Once the scouts become full-fledged Yeomen, they go directly to the chaplains of their company when their sergeant is unable to discern the meaning of the most recent vivid dream anomaly.

Librarians in the Yeoman Vigilant Chapter are kept apart from their battle brothers as soon as they are discovered, as a psyker a librarian can be known to influence the dreams of other battle brothers. The Chaplains of the company will make sure to separate the known psyker as soon as they can, so that the dreams of the company will not be influenced by a single yeoman.

Those that excel in leadership quickly go from Tactical sergeant to Veteran sergeant, and then into the Brotherhood (who have access to Terminator armour).  Those in the Brotherhood can continue to lead their previous squad, or work as a brotherhood squad.

Before battle, any Yeoman may lead the litany of battle, if they feel so called. If that is well received,  the chaplains will bestow litanies and prayer books on the chosen yeoman, and will fight with him in battle.  If they find him lacking, they have him continue his studies. If he’s found worthy, they bestow upon him black armour, and he will begin to be tutored directly by a senior chaplain for battle.

Colors:

The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter’s colors are red, tan, and black, each significant to a battle-brother’s life and training.  As the chaplains teach, when a scout is chosen, he knows of the material plane, as the embodiment of reality; signified by tan, or sand coloring. And as the acolyte reaches scout level, he is bestowed blood red armour;  for embodiment of self, knowledge of the body. When a scout is confirmed as a full battle-brother, he will receive black shoulderpads, showing that he has begun to learn the embodiment of death. As a brother fights more and more, he will be bestowed black armour plates, until he’s accepted into the brotherhood, who wear all black, or the Chaplains, who wear black except for their white skull mask, noting the embodiment of the spirit.

The Marine pictured is a full battle-brother with at least twenty full scale missions completed.

Tactics:

The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter adheres to the codex astartes as a book of guidelines, and will adapt their tactics as they see fit guided by their dreams. More often than not, they will be in the right place at the right time for a counter charge, or show up to foil an enemy spearhead, with direction of the Chaplains, and they would be considered lucky if it did not continue to happen over and over again. Moderation in battle is something the chaplains teach early on, so the Yeoman do not have large numbers of either assault marines or devastators, they rely instead on the tactical marines.

Notable Members:

Chaplain Father Matthias is the oldest Space marine in the Yeoman Vigilant, who fought on Terra as an Imperial Fist before the Second Founding. His upper armour is white, noting his understanding of the embodiment of the spirit.  He does not often lead as he is venerable for even a space marine, his skin feeling more like stone than leather. He is not one to be crossed, and the source of wisdom for the entire chapter. When he leads, it is because he’s dreamt of the battle, and will override the chapter master’s decisions. He is noted as a prophet, and will call a council of chaplains for study and scrutiny of certain details of the Chapter’s dreams.

Ezekiel Toredor is the current Chapter Master for the Yeoman Vigilant Chapter,  a recent addition after the previous chapter master, Argus Ulsus, led the spearhead assault against the Tyranid hiveship and ordered the battle barge entangled with it to self-destruct, lopping off the head of the Tyranid advance, and giving Imperial forces long enough to send reinforcements from  navy shipyards in adjacent systems.  Ezekiel is a competent leader who, while young for a Chapter Master, has charisma not seen in a Space Marine captain in quite some time.  Whenever he meets an outside force commander, they cannot help but like him. This has helped when showing up seemingly randomly in the galaxy, to fight off a force that they did not even detect.  He often wears brotherhood Terminator armour and wields a massive power mace.

Notable Campaigns:

Ork Invasion of Terminus Prima:  1^st, 4^th, and 8^th companies deployed, Terminus Prima Held, Ork Waaagh continues to the galactic south.

Assault on Dark Eden: The Purged launch a lightning assault onto the fortress monastery, Chaplain Father Matthias and those under his command held the gates for twelve hours before reinforcements from nearby battle cruisers lifted the tide,  3^rd company, 5^th company completely lost.

Defense of Gratis Minor: 2^nd company lands in system randomly a full week before tyranid hive ships appear in system.  Tyranid fleet repelled, lost Cruisers “Dark Sword” and “Solomon’s Redemption.” Battle barge “Edenborn” badly damaged.

Crushing of Zarathian resistance:  The campaign was only classified as a campaign after investigation. Not so much a series of battles, but a one-sided  slaughter, tactical squads waded through ill-equipped, ill-trained resistance fighters, the inquisition later found the ritual site and plans for unleashing a daemon horde that was stopped by the 4^th company.  The 4^th company after questioned was ignorant of any of the plans laid in Zarathia.

And the WIP (already primed and basecoated!):