Grey Knights

“I am the Hammer. I am the Sword. I am the Gauntlet. I am the Bane of foes and the woe of the treacherous. I am the End.”
–Grey Knight Prayer
The Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter are amongst the most highly specialized of the Adeptus Astartes, designed to specifically defend the Imperium against the threat of Chaos. The Grey Knights are permanently attached to Ordo Malleus and their Chapter Master is rumored to be a member of the Inner Conclave of the Inquisition. No ordinary warriors, Grey Knights are chosen from amongst the most fearsome and savage feral cultures, each one an emergent psyker who has undergone arduous tests of faith, strength, endurance and courage that would break all but the strongest.
Grey Knights fight in baroque, heavily ornamented suits of armor, carrying mighty sigil-encrusted swords and halberds. These warriors alone can stand before the might of a Greater Daemon with any hope of banishing it back to the warp from whence it came. The millennia the Grey Knights have spent in battle against the forces of Chaos has furnished them with blasphemous knowledge, painstaking pieced together by the Inquisitors of Ordo Malleus. Each warrior carries a copy of the sacred Liber Daemonica, the holy battle rites of the Chapter, in a ceramite case on his breastplate, and it is this which most symbolises a Grey Knight’s most potent weapon; an unshakable faith in the Divine Emperor of Mankind.
==Grey Knights in the Calixis Sector==
The Grey Knights are no strangers to the Calixis Sector and more
than once since its founding they have hunted daemonic prey
within its borders. With its proximity to both the Eye of Terror
and the Halo Stars it is little wonder that the sector has spawned
so many heretical cults and potent denizens of the Warp, not
to mention the Tyrant Star, whose very presence remains a
constant and lingering interest to the Inquisition. While the Grey
Knight's presence in the sector is not great, nor permanent, the
very fact that they are present at this time is significant given the
many tens of thousands of sub-sectors in the Imperium and the
relatively minute numbers of the Chapter. All of this speaks of
the importance of the sector to the Ordo Malleus.
There have been numerous major confrontations between
Warp creatures and the Inquisition during the history of the
sector, and several of these have escalated to such a catastrophic
level that it required the attention of the Grey Knights. Perhaps
the most well-known of these (at least within Titan’s halls) was
the Chapter’s confrontation with an avatar of the Arch-Daemon
Balphomael. The great beast is the focus of a heretical malefic
cult known as the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness. As
a result of a series of failed investigations by the Inquisition
and an elaborate game of misdirection, a cult of Balphomael
was allowed to thrive and multiply on the world of Landunder,
festering in the shadows while the Imperium looked the
other way. Only when Balphomael manifested, consuming
thousands of innocent souls in his bloody transition into reality,
was the danger realized. It was the quick arrival of the Grey
Knights and the purge of an entire continent was the situation
contained and the daemon’s physical form destroyed. The Grey
Knights have long memories and though they vanquished
the daemon’s avatar they know it still endures, lurking in the
shadows of the Warp and waiting to once again manifest to
wreak its vengeance. Then, the Grey Knights will finish what
they began.
==The Spinward Threat==
In more recent times yet another great threat has arisen which
demands the attention of the Inquisition and the Grey Knights.
A powerful Warp entity is close to breaking the veil between the
Materium and the Immaterium. Known as the Lord of Misrule,
this greater daemon has only recently come to the full attention
of the Inquisition, though its history stretches back centuries
in myth and rumor. A number of horrific and destructive
incursions have been blamed on this daemon’s manipulations,
and all sources seem to indicate that its larger plans are just
beginning to come to fruition. To combat this threat Titan has
dispatched the Strike Cruiser Righteous Dawn and a cadre of
Grey Knights under the command of Justicar Maligante. From
their swift and heavily armed vessel they have been acting
on Ordo Malleus intelligence and striking ‘hot spots’ across
the sector, especially along the Periphery. Able to traverse the
sector in record time, the Righteous Dawn hunts for the daemon’s
trail and tirelessly works to contain incursions triggered in its
wake. Maligante was chosen especially for this task as he has
been declared the nemesis of the Lord of Misrule, a duty given
to him by the mandate of the Grand Master. Thus, Maligante
is driven to hunt down the daemon and vanquish it for the
glory of the God-Emperor and the honor of his Chapter. This
single-minded focus has more than once placed him at odds
with members of the Calixian Conclave and brought him into
the center of conflict between multiple Inquisitors.
==Righteous Dawn==
While the Adeptus Astartes (and by extension the Grey Knights)
sometimes employ the services of the Imperial Navy, they also
maintain their own fleets of vessels. For a Space Marine Chapter
this will often consist of several monolithic Battle Barges, many
smaller and more agile Strike Cruisers, and various supporting
escorts giving them the power to engage in significant space
battles or even full-fledged planetary invasions. The Grey
Knights, however, tend to favor smaller and faster ships better
suited to the nature of their missions, which often call for small
but rapid responses, and their own fleets (based in Broadsword
Station above Titan) contain reliable Strike Cruisers, as well as
many other voidships suited to the task. These are some of the
most advanced craft in the entire galaxy, and are always ready
to deliver Grey Knights wherever needed.
The Righteous Dawn is one such vessel, roughly equal in size to
an Imperial Dauntless Light Cruiser but with the firepower and
speed to take on ships much larger than itself. It functions as a
staging point for the Grey Knights and carries enough equipment
and weaponry to sustain them for years away from Titan. Much
like the Grey Knights themselves, the Righteous Dawn is also
designed for a single purpose: the combating of Warp-spawn. As
such, it is heavily warded against daemonic assault, equipped with
potent devices for measuring the strength of the barrier between
Materium and Immaterium, and comes fitted with warded cells to
hold daemonic captives.