Shadow Runners

The Shadow Runners are organized as a typical Codex-Compliant astartes chapter in the 42nd millennium. They are headed by the current Chapter Master Dane Konraq. The chapter is divided into 10 companies, each headed by a captain.

The Shadow Runners are tasked with the defense of the Tenebrae system and other nearby colonies. Their most common enemy in the region are Ork warbands and Chaos pirates and raiders throughout the Gothic Sector. The Shadow Runners are well known for their unique methods of warfare which includes both large amounts of infiltrating stealth units and massed heavy infantry to create a hammer and anvil tactic that has lead to many a triumphant victory.

Being almost entirely manned by Primaris Marines after the centuries long war against the Ork menace left then with less than 200 living Battle-Brothers, the Shadow Runners have little technology and equipment associated with firstborn astartes. Precious few Terminator warplate is left, with no functioning Centurion armor or Land Speeders left in service. Several Rhinos and Rhino-based vehicles remain in service, almost exclusively with the 8th company. What the Shadow Runners do have, however, is a supply of newer Primaris vehicles including Gladiator variants, Land Raiders, Repulsors and Impulsors as well as a large supply of Phobos and Gravis armor. Shadow Runner tactics favor stealth, infiltration and lightning raids coupled with devastating show of force tactics from heavily armored infantry, typically Gravis armored squads usuing heavy weapons amd rapidly advancing Aggressor squads to overwhelm opposition that has already been weakened by forward elements. This coupled with their slightly lower numbers means that their ratio of Phobos and Gravis marines is much higher than the average chapter, leaving a much smaller than average ratio of standard Mark-X Tacitus armor than typical. A strong core of Aggressor and Inceptor Gravis armored squads forms the backbone of what the Shadow Runners call their Enforcer Teams; teams that are often used to storm enemy emolacements and formation that have been weakened by forward Phobos marines. The combination of experienced stealth teams and well supplied and equally capable heavy armor teams have proved a combination that has overwhelmed countless enemies of the Imperium.   In space the Shadow Runners have rebuilt their fleet with transfered ships built by Roboute Guilliman and the Mechanicus. They boast a flagship Battle Barge, 3 Astartes Strike Cruisers and 8 smaller escort vessels.

The Shadow Runners were founded due to the need to seed more chapters to secure the Gothic sector from further Ork and Chaos incursions. The first companies touched down on the moon TK-01 and established a functioning base. Shortly after the bulk of the fledgling chapter arrived they were tasked with helping pacify the troublesome wildlife and local population on the moon's planet of Kharban. Along side elements from the Imperial Fists chapter the virgin chapter cut its teeth fighting back the ferocious nocturnal predators on the dark world and pacifying the "wilders" that had built several sledgling cities on the surface, carving out huge swaths of territory on which colonies and eventually hive-cities would be built. This cleansing was essential not only to build a foundation of knowledge and teamwork amongst the unbattle-tested Shadow Runners, but also to solidfy the future of the chapter with a sizeable population to recruit from and a place for the Munitorum to build foundries to arm and supply by the fledgling chapter. After several years of pacifying Kharban the Shadow Runners helped build the sprawling colonies on Kharban and the moon TK-01 that became known as the Shadow Hold where large mining operations sprang up to harvest the raw material needed for the Munitorum forges on the homeworld. Kharban became a productive manufacturing world in less than a century. The Shadow Runners then spent the next few centuries pacifying other planets in nearby systems to widen their sphere of influence and recolonize worlds that had been lost to the Imperium since the Heresy. In their centuries long conquest the Shadow Runners fought, and defeated, heretics and cultists, a small Xenos civilization and an Ork stronghold on Japristo Secundus and effectively isolated the Orks to a small continent where the daily war against the Xenos still rage while the rest of the world was turned into a sprawling Ag-world.   In the millenia since their founding the Shadow Runners have been sent to deal with many of the calamities that have befallen the Gothic sector including Ork Waaaghs, Eldar incursions and Chaos raids. Notable engagements involving the Shadow Runners include the Ork Waaagh in the Cyclops Cluster and several companies taking place in the Gothic War fighting against warrants of Chaos led by Abbadon the Despoiler.   Eventually, about three desaces before the Fall of Cadia, an Ork Waaaagh appearing from the galactic north hurled itself at Japristo Secundus in an effort to attone for the loss of the previous Ork Waaagh and to fulfill the Ork need for violence against the combined forces of Japristo PDF, Astra Militarum regiments and the Shadow Runners who were continuing to wage perpetual war on the small continent of Fellin. This Waaagh attracted attention from Astra Militarum high command as well as several other Astartes chapters nearby, but reinforcements were slow to arrive and typically came piecemeal. The Shadow Runner and Japristo PDF were forced to evade and leave the system, only to return periodically in lightning raiding attacks to destroy or damage as many of the ramshackle Ork voidships as possible before slipping back into the Warp to flee. As such the greens kind had nearly limitless access to deploy across the surface of Japristo Secundus.   In response to the situation the bulk of the Shadow Runners chapter, a full seven companies (including the vaunted 1st Company Enforcers) were deployed to the surface of Japristo. The piecemeal landing of the Orks while initially sowing chaos among the lightly defended agricultural continents, eventually allowed the reinforcing Shadow Runner companies to destroy entire warbands of Orks while they were isolated from the main Waaagh on Fellin. The combined Imperial forces on Fellin were forced to retreat and then Chapter Master Luce Pallus consolidated his forces onto rhe largest continent; Ishto. Great fortifications were erected across the continent and the stage was set nearly 2 years after the start of the new war. The two fleets in orbit had largely destroyed each other, Imperial reinforcements were light due to the lose of production on the Ag-world which was now seen as not worth the cost of a great investment of men and materials. Though several Astartes chapters would continue to rotate in companies of Battle-Brothers to assist in the eternal struggle between the Shadow Runners, Japristo PDF and the now diminished but consolidated greenskins. Thus set in an over a century long war of attrition. The battle of Japristo, now nearly 110 years long, culminated in the destruction of the planet via Exterminatus by command of Luce Pallus when the Orks constructed a new fleet of void abominations to bombard the fortress city of Kallisto, the impromptu capital of Imperial forces on Ishto.   The Exterminatus, carried out by Virus Bombing, killed untold millions of greenskins, but also nearly a million Imperials that could not escape. This act temporarily crippled the ground forces of the greenskins, but their fleet was still entirely too powerful to be directly challenged. The handful of Imperial ships in the sector continued to fight a guerilla war in the stars to attempt to harry and delay the Orks as long as possible.   The Shadow Runners desperately attempted to seek help from whatever Imperial forces they could find in the wake of the Great Rift. It took 2 years but eventually contact was made with the Imperial Fists chapter. It took another several years. during which the Orks had made their way to the Tenebrae system and besieged Kharban itself, but an Imperial rescue fleet finally did arrive. With ships from 3 different space marine chapters, including the Imperial Fists and Blood Spears, as well as over 100 Imperial Navy warships finally made their way into the Tenebrae system. By now Luce Pallus and nearly a thousand Shadow Runners had perished since the new Waaagh, leaving less than 400 marines alive and with the Shadow Hold destroyed they had no way to create more marines. In the ensuing void battle, despite heavy losses, the Imperial Fleet was able to completely destroy the Ork voidships and stop the devastating orbital bombardment of Kharban as well preventing any more Ork reinforcements or Rok showers. The badly wounded fleet then left the system after a brief bombardment of greenskin concentrations. Thus the forces of the Orks and the remnants of several PDF forces and the Shadow Runners were locked once again in perpetual combat for nearly a decade before a splinter fleet from the Indomitus Crusade arrived. They had been notified of the Shadow Runners' predicament via the Blood Spears, a blood Angels successor chapter. The Indomitus splinter fleet ravaged Ork strongholds from orbit before unleashing a terrifying ground invasion that wrapped up the remaining Ork forces in a matter of months.   After the Orks were wiped from the planet the few remaining Shadow Runners, less than 200 now, were greeted with the gifts of Primaris Marines, fully painted in their colors and clad in new Phobos and Gravis armor, a sterling new fleet of advanced warships and a rebuilt Shadow Hold complete with all the facilities to create new Primaris Marines to ensure the survival of their chapter for generations to come.

The territory of the Shadow Runners spans several systems clustered around the Tenebrae system which houses their homeworld of Kharban. The moon of their homeworld, previously known as TK-01, now called Shadow Hold serves as their main base of operations as well as a logistics hub for their network of companies across the Gothic Sector. At current they control 7 inhabited planets and moons, as well as several space stations asteroid bases throughout their sphere of influence. While Kharban was selected by the Imperium to be their homeworld, the Shadow Runners forcibly took the planet from its previous inhabitants known as "wilders" several hundred thousand humans who were seperated from the Imperium in the Heresy and who refused to bend knee when the Emperor's Angels fell from the heavens to claim their world.

The Shadow Runners, like all Space Marine chapters are essentially their own elite military force. With just over a dozen warships including the flagship Battle Barge the Unyeilding Blade, three Strike Cruisers and a handful of escort frigates and cruisers. As well they have generally just above 800 full Battle Brothers split unevenly across their 10 companies. The 1st and 2nd companies, which consist largely of heavily armored Gravis marines, are usually well manned, as are the 10th Scout company and 7th, 8th and 9th Phobos companies. The 3rd through the 6th companies, which contain the battle-line elements, tend to be lower staffed due to the chapter's preference for infiltration and heavy weapons teams.   The two most notorious methods of warfare by the Shadow Runners is the widespread use of Infiltration and Incursor teams, coupled with Eliminators and Reivers to sow maximum anarchy and destruction deep within enemy lines. This generally precedes their second tactic, which is a frontal charge by Land Raider and Gladiator armored platoons, disgorging squads of heavily armed and armored Gravis marines supported by the Gladiators. Typically once the battle begins lighter Impulsor and Repulsor will begin ferrying battle-line marines from the central companies to secure flanks, plug any gaps in the line and secure territory and vital objectives or terrain features, thus freeing up the main assault force to keep pressure on the enemy.

The Shadow Runners established their homeworld with several Hive Cities where the Munitorum could (and did) build foundries and large sprawling factories to build the weapons, armor, vehicles and munitions needed to keep a Space Marine chapter fighting, no small task when considering a standard company of usually less than 100 marines can easily exhaust several thousand individual weapons and several million bolter rounds in a campaign. The Shadow Runners also created a dedicated ag-world on Japristo Secundus, allowing the planet to export vast quantities of foodstuffs not only to the rest of the Shadow Runner's territory, but also export to the wider Imperium. Hundred of millions of acres were farmed en masse on the planet ironically at the exact same time a perpetual war against the Orks was being fought on one of the small continents. However, since the Japristo Waaagh and the destruction of most of Kharban, the Shadow Hold and the complete loss of Japristo Secundus, the Shadow Runners have been diversifying their logistics and infrastructure across other planets. Even with massive rebuilding efforts on Kharban, the scorched earth tactics required to cleanse the world of Ork infestation left much of the surface uninhabitable, and thus the 3 new Hive Cities being built are mostly subterranean. Several of the asteroid colonies have also been expanded to include weapons and munitions manufactorums to help spread the manufacturing base across the breadth of Shadow Runner controlled space. The last 2 planets untouched by the Waaagh have had their terraforming projects massively overhauled by decree of Rotboute Guilliman himself, and both will become primarily agricultural worlds centuries ahead of schedule.

Before the devastating Japristo Waaagh that claimed not only the Ag-world of Japristo Secundus but also several other Imperial Worlds, the Shadow Runner controlled systems were largely export based as far as economic ties with the wider Imperium. Japrsito Secundus exported nearly 30% of its yield to the Imperium, and several of the Munitorum foundries on Kharban exported weapons and munitions out of the system. Since the devastating campaign the Tenebrae and surrounding systems have been forced to rely on imported food and munitions, as well as massive stores of donated weapons and equipment from the Indomitus Crusade. While extensive rebuilding efforts are under way, the Shadow Runners are still decades or even centuries away from the productivity and independence they knew before the Great Rift.