Daughters of Daer’dd

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The **Daughters of Daer'dd** are an Auxilia force oathed and bonded to the Iron Bears Space Marine Legion.

## Background

### Description

The mortal armies of the Excertus Imperialis were a wildly varied collection of forces, as disparate in strength and discipline as they were in number and culture. In a few instances these bodies intersected with the auxiliary forces tied directly to a Legion Astartes, leading to the formation of armies such as the Strelian Novadeka and the Madrigal Rakurai. The Daughters of Daer’dd were one such army, bound uncommonly close to the Legion they served - in their case, the mighty Iron Bears. Drawn from across the realm of Tricendia, they fought in lockstep with the VI Legion from the first decade of Daer’dd’s leadership, and when he was murdered, they were hardly any less determined to bring ruin to the Insurrectionists.

### The Bear's Amazons

The Daughters of Daer’dd were born of the wars that created the Three Fires, and the fierce loyalty they kindled in both Daer’dd and the soldiers who aided his rise to power. Perhaps in an echo of the Knight Houses which ruled much of Huron, Xephyr and Accer Ferrus, the armies that fought over the shattered territory counted many women among their ranks.

Unity with Terra brought the opportunity for the men who served Daer’dd to undergo Ascension and many took it, braving the dangers of late implantation to continue fighting with the Primarch. To the women in his armies, no such choice was available, and the Daughters of Daer’dd were his answer. Comprising the finest female soldiers of the Three Fires, they were equipped to accompany the Iron Bears into battle. Power armour was designed for them, albeit of a kind less sophisticated and durable than that worn by the Astartes, and weapons to match.

The result was an army comparable to the renowned Solar Auxilia in its power, albeit one meant to be integrated into Iron Bears’ own order of battle instead of an independent force. Indeed, companies of Daughters were formally counted as part of Legion clans and wartribes, as were standard regiments raised from Tricendia and its Knight Households. In all but the most lethal of warzones they fought but one step behind their “brothers”, proud to face the same hazards.

The Daughters shared in the early trials of the reborn VIth Legion, carving out the remainder of the realm Daer’dd had envisaged and destroying the last armies that contested his rule. In this they were sternly tested, for in the outer wastes Daer’dd’s most stubborn adversaries had made their homes on airless worlds and Dark Age void constructs. Here they built forbidding lairs and raised abominable armies, shackling animal minds to war machines among their many other crimes. Tens of thousands of Daughters gave their lives in the struggle; Daer’dd himself noted “the wars we have fought supply the final proof, as if any were needed, that no amount of arms and armour will permit a mortal to achieve what a Space Marine might.” Nonetheless the Daughters had acquitted themselves admirably, earning a place among the front rank of Mankind’s mortal armies.

That worthiness would be demonstrated time and again as the VIth's wartribes fought their way across the Galaxy and carved out a litany of honours. While ever in their shadow, the Daughters nonetheless earned a reputation that rivalled Icarion’s Rakurai and the most elite of Kozja’s regiments. On Aureus their smaller stature enabled them to play a key role in the extermination of the Orkish invaders, rooting out gretchin in the catacombs surrounding the Iron Citadel. So too were they instrumental in purging the Craftworld of Melanaath, rotated companies fighting against deranged Eldar all through the five murderous days of battle. Where a for was plainly too dangerous for them to engage head-on, the Daughters would be positioned among the ranks of the Tricendian Auxilia, stiffening their resolve and adding their superior firepower to the gun line.

The VIth Legion gave few lasting garrisons to the worlds it conquered, merely waiting for the machinery of true Compliance to establish itself before moving on. Consequently the Daughters served almost entirely with active expeditionary fleets or within Tricendia itself. Those who continued their service past the typical quarter-century would be granted anti-agarics and medicae treatments, giving them an impressive longevity and their veteran units a truly formidable breadth and depth of military experience.

But just as they had shared in the glories of the VIth Legion, so too did the Daughters of Daer’dd share their trials. Over one hundred and fifty thousand Daughters were killed over Kataii and in its aftermath, scattered across the dangerous roads back to Loyalist territory. They were recorded as martyrs by their brothers and sisters, losses to be avenged upon the Insurrectionists tenfold.

## Strategic Organisation

As noted above, the Daughters of Daer’dd were as much a part of the VIth Legion as his sons, and their structures ran along almost identical lines. Squads formed clan-companies and thence entire clans, grouped under the aegis of a Grand Wartribe. A senior officer, known as the Chief Valkyra, held a seat on the Wartribe’s council. While the position of Lord Chief was always held by an Astartes, instances are recorded of a Valkyra assuming temporary command when the Lord Chief was killed or otherwise indisposed.

The composition of their companies differed to a degree from the Bears’, as their lesser strength and endurance makes fielding units such as breachers largely untenable. Manufacturing Tactical Dreadnought Armour scaled for them was deemed an inefficient use of resources, the lack of the Black Carapace meaning that they would be severely hampered by its bulk.

The backbone of the Daughters’ companies were analogous to Solar Auxilia sections and Space Marine tactical squads, consisting of twenty soldiers armed with lasrifles and bolters. These were aided by heavy support squads of two types; Carnyxa squads armed with missile launchers, heavy bolters and lascannons for long-range combat, and \_\_\_, who wielded flamer, melta and graviton weapons to deliver devastating attacks at close quarters.

## Personal Arms

The patterns of power armour utilised by the Daughters have become iconic in their own right. Offering protection commensurate with Solar-pattern void armour, they also boost the wearer’s strength considerably. However, without the Black Carapace of the Astartes, the armour’s movements follow the wearer’s rather than accompanying them. Consequently the armour’s weight may not seriously hinder the wearer, but nor does it allow them to move as if unencumbered, as a Legionary might.

The influence of the armour can be seen in the favoured armaments of the Daughters. Possessing a smaller proportion of energy weapons than the Solar Auxilia and Rakurai, they instead exploited the strength their warplate conferred to wield bolt weapons. The only mortal force to wield bolters in large numbers, the Daughters required a high degree of technical training to ensure their proper maintenance. Besides these, the ubiquitous lasrifle was a mainstay of the Daughters’ infantry squads, particularly hellguns fed by the power packs of their armour.

The Daughters did retain respectable stores of plasma, melta and grav weaponry, using these against vehicles and large creatures able to endure massed bolter and las-fire. They also possessed limited numbers of volkite weapons, even acquiring them in small numbers from the forges of Oamura. Grav weapons were far more common, a dividend of the Demiurge’s client status in Tricendia.

In other modes of combat, the influence of Tricendia is clear. Army regiments serving alongside the VIth Legion often remarked with surprise upon the Daughters’ readiness, when necessary, to close with a foe, wielding blades and combat shields. Prudence typically dictated that they keep back and support the Bears with ranged fire, but when the chance came to fight face to face, the Daughters would gladly seize it. Officers were known to wield power weapons, often of especially high quality, but typically scorned the Terran Charnabal Sabre as effete. In any case, axes vied with swords for popularity among the Daughters, and in the rank and file chainblades were commonplace.

## Tactical Support

The Daughters benefited from extensive Knight and Titan support, as well as access to the mighty arsenals of Tricendia which produced for them an impressive range of vehicles. Daer’dd and his lieutenants drew on both Astartes and Auxilia formations, with the result that Rhinos, Land Raiders and Dracosan transports featured in their line of battle.

The Arvus Lighter he disdained however, given its relative paucity of armour, and the Daughters lacked the implants that made drop-pod descents viable for a Space Marine. Consequently the Storm Eagle and Thunderhawk became the mainstay of their descent operations, with the various patterns of Stormbird reserved for the Astartes. These were used extensively in ship-to-ship actions along with Shark-pattern Boarding Rams, allowing the Daughters to abet the Bears in voidwar.