The Pyre - Chaos Renegade Marines Fluff

[Perturabo]

The Pyre

It's not remembered when the Pyre was created but it's known as one of the few chapters to have been descended from the Salamanders, one of the original chapters created by the God-Emperor. Having been trained by the Salamanders themselves, the Pyre was devoted adherents to the Promethean cult and created great works of art and weaponry. Their weapons and equipment were the envy of other chapters of space marines.

The Pyre is now the greatest shame of the Salamanders. It's not known exactly how or why the Pyre turned traitor. It's thought to be a combination of things, one is their dangerous custom of taking weapons of fallen enemies as trophies; another is their belief in the Promethean cult. It's quite possible that their beliefs were corrupted in some way and turned them traitor against the Imperium. The first time they showed there new alliance was during the Arctis Gulf schisim where they destroyed the hive city Unbrigia. Granted, the genestealer cultists were well entrenched and it would have taken months of hard fighting to re-take it, but it was still worth keeping it intact and producing the goods the rest of the sector needed. When confronted by the Lord Commander of the Crusade as to why they did what they did, their chapter master killed the Lord Commander, crushing his skull with one hand. The chapter then as a whole turned on the Crusade army. The Pyre fleet was vastly outnumbered though and had to eventually flee.

Their current location is well known. After the battle with the Arctis Gulf Schisim, the Pyre fled to the former forge world known as Hephaestus IV. Hephaestus IV is in the Noctus Sector, which has been under the control of the great enemy for the last 300 years until the warp storm that protected it died enough for a crusade to be brought to bear upon it. The Pyre has repaired and added to their armory. It's been evidenced since then that they have also added some of the human chaos followers to their ranks. Hephaestus IV is deep in the Noctus Sector and it will take some time before the crusade can strike on it. Even so, the Pyre has spread it's ranks throughout the sector to fight against the crusaders instead of staying in one place.

The Pyre still shows their Salamander origins in some ways. They are still great artisans and they still have a preference for short-range flame and melta weapons. But now they have enlarged the scale of their weapons by producing many tanks and other twisted creations. They prefer short ranged fire-fights backed up by armor. They have also reinforced their fighting by using cultists and renegade Mechanicus. It's also confirmed that they are using xenos weapons and technology.