The Storm Raptors

The Storm Raptors are one of the original First Founding Chapters of the Imperial Marines and was originally the VIIth Imperial Marine Legion.
Named for a Yerkirii avian seen by many Viharii'byanite cultures as the herald of fate and messenger of death, the Storm Raptors have served the Emperor faithfully throughout the glories of the Terran Unification Wars, and Great Crusade and beyond.
From its earliest days, the warriors of the VIIth Legion were known as cunning and patient hunters, adept at biding their time until the moment to strike was at hand.
When the Legion was united with its Luminarch -- Anikanov Zakharik, the Storm Lord, the Deliverer, theirs was a form of warfare exemplifying speed, stealth and precision which was codified into their doctrine, and under the ivory-skinned, shadow-eyed and sable-haired Luminarch, the VIIth Legion carved its name in the annals of the Great Crusade.
The Storm Raptors's homeworld is the planet called Yerkirii, the desolate but inhabitable frost moon of the Forge Planet Viharii'byan. The Storm Raptors's fortress-monastery on Yerkirii is known as the Imperial Shade Palace.
The Storm Raptors are known for their cool-headed, even intellectual temperament, their superb infiltration skills and skill at furious close-quarters engagements. The Storm Raptors are the masters of unseen and guerrilla warfare, only engaging in frontal assaults when no other option presents itself.
The Storm Raptors are also rightly feared for the potent units of Assault Marines they field, who use a pair of Lightning Claws instead of the usual heavy Ark Pistol and Chainsword.
== Origins and History ==
=== The Shadowed Talon of the Imperium ===
Looking back upon the calamitous age through which Mankind has endured, few can claim to know but a fraction of the Emperor's vision for the galaxy. Some hold that each of the great Imperial Marine Legions was created with a specific role in mind, and certainly this assertion is born out of the deeds and demeanor of many.
The Imperial Harbingers were in so many ways the Emperor's loyal praetorians and champions, while The Avenging Shields, His dutiful, resplendent hosts. To the VIIth Legion, would fall the role of the Emperor's hidden talon, vengeful sentinels against recidivists and harrowers of those who would sooner flee than bend knee before their new master.
Drawing on the demeanour of the techno-savages from which it recruited, the proto-Legion quickly demonstrated its skill at reconnaissance and target identification, and it ability to transition from inscrutable watchfulness to rapid attack in the blink of an eye.
Its Legionaries waged war by infiltrating into position, studying their enemy and, when the time was right, striking from the least anticipated quarter and slaying the foe outright in a bloody, yet brief assault.
Confronted with the coming of the Emperor, some of the enemies of Unification foolishly decided to stand and fight, to deny His manifest destiny. That was until the moment that the VIIth revealed themselves as the gun already raised to the target's temple without him ever seeing his would-be assassin's approach.
In the face of such infiltration, most enemies capitulated. Never given to wanton cruelty, the Emperor's emissaries would avail the target of His impending doom and offer them the choice -- kneel or die. Most chose to serve but many refused, and so the VIIth Legion would be unleashed.
Emerging from the shadows, they would attack without warning, their methods enabling them to engage with forces far more numerous than themselves. Bereft of leadership after a campaign of targeted assassination, most enemy armies fell apart in short order.
When they did not, the VIIth Legion withdrew back into the shadows, but not in retreat. Rather, they attacked again from yet another quarter, bleeding their enemy dry and denying him any chance to counterattack, regroup or take the initiative.
How many battles were won in this shadow manner throughout the last years of the Terran Unification Wars cannot be known for certain, for so often the VIIth Legion's hand remained hidden even after the battle was won. Only much later, after the VIIth Legion united with its Luminarch, would it course forth into the light, but even then the Storm Raptors shunned laurels and rarely courted adulation.
The similarities between the Storm Raptors known to later histories of the Great Crusade and the VIIth Legion before its unification with Anikanov are clear, but much of the tale remains untold. It is known that the Emperor recruited the first Legionaries of the VIIth Legion from a number of Old Earth's regions, the majority drawn from the Yn'Golic tribes of the Asiatic Dustfields.
These savage yet technologically adept warrior people made constant war upon one another and against the neighboring and much larger Yndonesic Block with relentless fury, battling ceaselessly for possession of scant natural resources.
Once brought to heel by the Emperor and His Thunder Warriors, the tribes were forced to render up their firstborn sons to the Emperor's gene-forges, and upon their ascension to the nascent Legiones Astartes, these same sons were then used to ensure and enforce the continued Imperial Compliance of their fractious kin.
The Yn'Golic warriors proved well-suited to the Emperor's vision, though some observed their propensity for cruelty when ordered to attack as well as a disdainful attitude to those they considered weak. The culture of the Yn'Golic people demanded that a vanquished enemy be watched over with a cold, all-seeing eye and any hint of recidivism crushed utterly lest the subjugated rise up in strength against the victor.
The VIIth Legion inherited this mindset and when coupled with the heritage of the Legiones Astartes, it became one of its most distinctive characteristics.
=== The Unification Wars ===
One of the earliest Unification campaigns in which the VIIth Legion participated was the conquest of the Central Asiatic region, much of which was ruled by the tyrant Kalagann of Ursh. Few detailed accounts survive, but it is known that the VIIth Legion played their part in it in a manner that would serve as an operational template until the time it was united with its Luminarch.
After an initial phase in which key targets and weak elements in the armies of Ursh were identified, the VIIth Legion insinuated itself throughout the region, small battle groups taking up positions from which to strike when the order was given.
When the attack came, it was rapid, overwhelming and conducted with cold, ruthless efficiency. Kalagann's warlords were struck down and the VIIth Legion herded their defeated armies into a vast prison camp at the heart of the blasted Central Asiatic region.
It is said that Kalagann employed all manner of psyker-wrought weapons during that campaign and that the nascent VIIth Legion bore the brunt of many of the worst. Certainly, many veterans of that age were touched by a darkness from which they never recovered, some going on to sacrifice their lives in battle in suicidal charges while others became the solitary formation of the Legion Moritats.
Having earned itself many battle honours during the Unification of Old Earth, the VIIth Legion was committed to operations within the Sol System. When the Emperor's hosts encountered the xenos presence holding sway over many void settlements of the Jovian Range, the VIIth Legion was tasked with scouring the moon of Lysithea.
If records of previous battles are incomplete, those relating to this one are near non-existent. Whatever occurred on that tiny satellite, the xenos were annihilated and victory claimed, but only at the cost of the settlers' lives as well as large numbers of the VIIth Legion's own.
Many of the veterans of the Scouring of Lysithea were recalled from service by the masters of the Emperor's gene-forges, never to be returned to their Legion. What horrors they endured, or perhaps enacted, cannot even be guessed at, and certainly no similar instance of Legionaries being withdrawn from service in such a manner is recorded.
For decades, many of those who had served in this battle bore upon their armour the ancient Jovian rune, surmounted by the numeral VII as a reminder of their victory and their loss. During the closing years of the Great Crusade, the symbol was only ever seen adorning the metal skin of the Storm Raptors's Dreadnoughts, amongst their number Shade-Captain Vholtaris, who was instrumental in the defeat of the xenos plaguing the Jovian Range.
It was due to the injuries he sustained in that final battle that he was interred within the armoured sarcophagus of a mighty Furibundus Pattern Dreadnought, and served for many more decades before his true death upon the killing grounds before Gate Forty-Two.
=== In the Shadow of Wolves ===
The VIIth Legion was created in the latter stages of the Unification Wars, but it would be almost two standard centuries before it was united with its Luminarch. Conversely, the Luna Wolves Legion was united with its sire -- Horus -- very early on.
It was not unusual in those early campaigns for the VIIth Legion to fight alongside the Luna Wolves, he who would one day bear the mantle of Imperial Warmaster coming to value the skills of the sons of the Dustfields immensely, and the two Legions served well together, their nature complimentary.
When the Luna Wolves launched their sudden and overwhelming assaults, the VIIth Legion were already in position, blocking off lines of retreat and cutting down any foe who attempted to escape. Those few able to break through the lines were hunted down relentlessly and captives were rounded up to be watched over by the brooding Legionaries until declared in Imperial Compliance.
Its warriors' capacity to switch from cold, impassive scrutiny to swift, brutal action soon made the Legion the subject of dread amongst those who would deny Unity.
When Horus led his Legion in the opening campaigns of the Great Crusade, he often requested that the VIIth Legion serve alongside his Luna Wolves. In those earliest days, many worlds rejected enlightenment and refused Imperial Compliance, and so the blade of the VIIth Legion was there to strike, descending unseen almost before ordered to do so.
Others accepted their place in the new galactic order with grace and wisdom, and so the blade was withdrawn, its presence not even noted. In time, Horus came to value the VIIth Legion greatly. While the ranks of the Luna Wolves swelled with recruits from Cthonia, the VIIth Legion remained comparatively small.
Some observed that Horus treated the VIIth Legion like a Chapter of his own Legion rather than one with its own identity and destiny to forge. While the Luna Wolves developed their own culture, a product of its early Terran heritage, meshed with the savage gang culture of Cthonia, the VIIth Legion remained close to their Terran roots, their demeanour not deviating far from that of the savage Yn'Golic tribes.
Their armour remained grey, although Legionaries were observed to apply war paint made of Asiatic dust to their faces on the eve of battle. This, among other traditions, gave rise to the Luna Wolves bestowing several titles upon the VIIth Legion, the most common of which were the "Pale Nomads" and the "Dust Clad".
Aside from their tribal markings, the appearance of the VIIth Legion was notable in other ways. Under the effects of the VIIth Legion's gene-seed, some found their skin growing unnaturally pale while in a few their already dark hair turned black as midnight.
In small numbers, their eyes turned entirely black, lending them a fearsome aspect which suited their inscrutable, watchful mien. Only later, with the coming of the Legion's Luminarch, would the full impact of the features become known and take hold throughout its warriors.
=== The Luminarch Anikanov ===
Anikanov like the rest of His brethren had been separated from the Emperor while still in a vulnerable embryonic state, whilst within the gene-laboratory beneath the Imperial Palace by unknown forces. The infant Luminarch's gestation chamber was emptied and his essence flung through the Void hundreds of lightyears across the galaxy. Anikanov like his brethren had been spiritually inseminated into a Mortal Mother, and was eventually born in a lightless chamber far beneath the surface of a barren moon called Yerkirii, the desolated but inhabitable moon of the planet Viharii'byan.
At this time, Viharii'byan was a technologically advanced Forge World, providing its city-sized manufactoriums with minerals extracted from the non-atmospheric moon by legions of mine slaves. His Mother Bazarova Zakharik, was one of these slaves. One tasked with mining deep under the moon's surface. She would be sent a vision of the gestalt Luminarch. But before she could leave the underground tunnels, she and her mining team would be trapped in a tunnel collapse in which half her mining team would be killed.
To some, the appearance of the miners days later and within minutes of the young Luminarch having attained consciousness after his birth, speaks of greater powers at work. Whatever the truth, the Luminarch and his Mother were rescued by the slaves and kept hidden from the mine's cruel overseers. Where under the iron watch of heavily armed guards, the enslaved inhabitants of Yerkirii, who had included criminals, political opponents and workers who had failed to meet their quotas, had long provided the rulers of Viharii'byan with a free and unlimited source of manpower.
As with many of the Luminarchs, Anikanov would mature in a preternaturally short span of time, the unknown phenomenon serving to confirm the slaves' belief that he represented a great gift to their people. It was they who named him, using their word for "savior" or "deliverer" in anticipation of future deeds.
Born with a wealth of knowledge already imprinted into his mind, the young Luminarch nonetheless had much to learn from his adoptive family. Many of the prisoners had been radicals condemned for holding views contrary to the interests of the guilds that ruled Viharii'byan, the planet about which Yerkirii orbited, notions of justice and human dignity that had no place in their brutal regime. Anikanov swore to his mother and his protectors that he would liberate them from their cruel existence.
Fortunately for Anikanov and the Imperium at large, the young Luminarch's mentors counselled caution against overt signs of defiance or precipitous quests for vengeance. From these brave, and wise men and women, he learned to bide his time and to observe his foes, to use his superhuman, genehanced faculties to plan far ahead towards the day he would lead the uprising and overthrow the hated slave lords of Viharii'byan. It was during this time that Anikanov came to learn something of the abilities he had been born with.
Moving from one step ahead of the cold-hearted and bloody-handed wardens, he was never discovered. Even when directly in the line of sight of an enemy, by willing an observer not to see him, he somehow avoided detection. At length, Anikanov could utilize this uncanny ability to go where no other slave in the prison could, moving about unseen beneath the cruel gaze of the guards. There were limits to this ability, as Anikanov discovered to his cost; Auspex arrays and sensors and other artificial methods of detection remained able to perceive him. It appeared to be the mind of the observer that was somehow tricked into disregarding the Demi-Gods presence should he have willed it.
As Anikanov would reach maturity, so too would the rule of the guilds begin to draw to an end, though the overseers would not know of it until it was too late to avert their doom, and deny their empowered enemy its prize. Anikanov would lead a masterfully conceived campaign that quickly bled the prison authorities dry, taking small cells of freedom fighters on a range of missions, some to steal weapons, and others ammunition, while more to sabotage key systems so that they would fail at the moment of his strategic choosing. Eventually, that moment came and Anikanov would lead the slave uprising that would cast off the shackles of centuries of oppression. In a necessarily bloody battle, Anikanov and his fellow freedom fighters took over the prison moon. The bloodshed left was great, for not all of the slave-prisoners had been imprisoned for their radical ideals; many had been convicted killers and worse. The Luminarch was forced by necessity to utilize their fighting abilities and overlook their previous crimes, on condition they never repeat them after their bondage was cast off.
=== The Rediscovery of The Storm Lord ===
In yet another convergence of great events, it was in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of the prison moon Yerkirii and the opening salvos of the atomic bombardment of Viharii'byan that a Crusader Fleet spearheaded by the damaged VIth Legion Throneship would arrive limping to Viharii'byan attempting to ask for aid from the Human-settled planet. Unlike events surrounding other Luminarchal rediscoveries, neither the Emperor nor a fellow Luminarch arrived to meet The Storm King, only his Gene-sons would know that he was found.
While it is widely known by Imperial scholars that the Current Master of the VIth Legion along with the Legions ancients and the rediscovered Luminarch spoke for long hours aboard the Throneship, what passed between them remains a matter of conjecture. Whatever the truth, one thing is known to have passed between the reunited Father and Sons that night. The VIth Legion would leave Anikanov to complete his mission and to defeat the tech guilds of Viharii'byan. Only later would he be ready to assume command of the Legion. It was as if in leaving Anikanov to liberate Viharii'byan on his own, the VIth was ensuring the Luminarch learned and assimilated the most vital lessons of war. His sons would leave Him to complete his task using only those weapons he had at hand. Those weapons turned out to be a stockpile of atomic barrages and mining charges the masters of Viharii'byan had secreted on Yerkirii, believing them safe from the multitudes they ruled over. In their hubris the guilds never imagined that the slave-miners might one day cast off their shackles and claim those weapons as their own.
Even as the guilds sought to launch a counterattack against the massively outnumbered freedom fighters, Anikanov knew the terrible order he had to give. Using the steep gravity well that tethered Viharii'byan and its moon, the Luminarch committed to a full-scale atomic bombardment of the atmospherically enclosed manufactorum cities below, each surrounded by the dangers of Yerkirii’s atmos, the violent lightning storms, and intense acid rains.
Even as the atomic fires blossomed on the face of Viharii'byan, Anikanov demonstrated that by slaying thousands, millions would be saved. This, some would later claim, was the lesson the Legions ancients meant for their Father to learn, and one that would temper his nature against the numerous challenges few but the Luminarchs of the Imperial Legions can fully comprehend. Their greatest cities decimated, the Viharii'byanite guilds had no option but to capitulate to the will freed slaves. Viharii'byan was defeated and left conquered and Yerkirii was liberated. The Luminarch had been confronted that most terrible lesson of war - oft times, the innocent must suffer for the sake of all. It was a truth the Imperium had knew well, and one that humanity as a whole would experience on an unprecedented scale within a single standard century.
Soon the Imperial Tech Guilds active at the time stepped in to retake control over their ancient colony world and the planet was rebuilt to the benefit of the Imperium while the black towers which had once housed the Viharii'byanite garrison of Yerkirii was rebuilt and became the Imperial Shade Palace, the fortress-monastery of the Storm Raptor Legion.
=== Great Crusade ===
==== Under the Hawk Lords Banner ====
By the time the Storm Lord took command of his Legion, the Great Crusade had already been almost a Terran century old. Anikanov was quick to impose the style of war he had perfected on Yerkirii over that which had come to define the VIth Legion, melding stealth and guile with vigilance and swiftness. It was during these early years that much of the native demeanor of the old VIth Legion was quenched in the frigid discipline of Yerkirii.
The Legion had so often served in oppression, repression and occupation forces that Anikanov saw in some of the Veteran Terranborn of his VIth Legion something akin to the slave guilds of Yerkirii. Several of the Legion's highest-ranking officers had been displaced or reassigned to non-command petty officer roles.
Under the Luminarchs guidance, distilled into a series of battle-mantras, the Storm Raptors developed their skills to unseen preternatural levels. Anikanov is even known to have bested Mikha'el Theophylact and Lucifer Morningstar, his brother-Luminarchs had been notorious in testing strategium-simulacra, making use of several unconventional troop types his brother-Luminarchs had never before truly faced, including the forerunners of the soon to be Tacto'morii. Anikanov had bested his brothers three times in this manner, and once the Patriarchs of the Ist and IInd Legions heeded the lesson and adjusted their battle tactics, the Shade Lord would never beat his brothers again.
During its restructuring, the VIth Legion commissioned several innovations from the forges of Jupiter and Terra, all of them cunningly wrought to further its mastery of the arts of stealth and speed. As the Thunderbird gunship entered widespread Imperial service, the Storm Raptors secured for themselves a variant known as the Wraith-hawk, sporting all manner of technologies that made it invisible to all but the most sensitive of augurs.
In addition, the Legion gained access to the Windspitter, an open airframe flyer constructed using gravitic impeller technology and capable of dropping 20 Legionaries into a war zone in utter silence and with practically no chance of detection. Such technology was created not by the Terran Artificers nor any of the Forge Worlds, or even the later Tech-Guilds of Mars, but by those master Viharii'byanite artificers who formerly served within the oppressive tech guilds.
Utilizing strands of machine lore unknown to the mainstream of the Imperiums Artifice Guilds, the Viharii'byanite guild artificers created all manner of systems at the behest of the Storm Raptors and in time the Legion's Technocist Angelus were inducted into these mysteries, although it has been speculated that the Viharii'byans may have been declared outcast by the jealous lords of The Terran Artifice Guilds, and their precursor ancients of Mars, were it not for the patronage of so dignified a body as an Imperial Marine Legion and the Luminarch Anikanov.
As the Great Crusade ground ever onwards, Viharii'byan assumed its position in the God Emperor's Imperium of worlds. While its output was not equal to that of a fully-fledged Forge World, with the begrudging aid of the Terran Tech-Guilds and the Technoclurgy of Mars, its forges and manufactorums produced and exported vast quantities of materiel as well as a number of the more specialized machines and weapons required by the Storm Raptors Legion.
The guild artificers attempted to retain their closest secrets from the Tech Guilds with some small measure of success, and clung on to their independence from Jupiter. Having remained self-sufficient throughout the lonely Long Dark, Viharii'byan remained unwilling to cede its secrets to outsiders, the only authority it recognized being that of the Storm Raptors.
== Legion Appearance ==
=== Legion Colors ===
main body and legs black and dark grays
upper limbs light grays and white
=== Legion Badge ===
A white Hawk skull held within a broken ring of gold,
== Notable Quotes ==
=== By the Legion ===
=== About the Legion ===
Category:Imperium
Category:Imperial Legions