Windstrider Pattern Terminator Armour

The Tempest Reavers have always had a unique relationship with Terminator, or Tactical Dreadnought, Armour, typical Astartes Legion assault doctrines have always emphasised the place and prevalence of such heavily protected wargear as a necessity; Terminator Astartes were expected to be at the very tip of the assault and to be able to weather the heavy fusillades of fire poured down upon them in a measured advance whilst destroying all in their wake. Yet for the XIth Legion, such a slow, methodical and cautious way of war was not appealing to even the most staunchly rigid Terran son.

Cataphractii Armour was shunned in popular use throughout the Legion, with the only users of such wargear being Far’salika P’ok’atrey Terminator Stewards and Ezekel Wel’kiln - both of whom are relegated to strictly defensive purposes in the overall structure of the Legion. Tartaros Armour, on the other hand, received an extremely positive welcoming by the Legion. The advanced sensor suites, servo motors and with agility and dexterity no longer limited by the Armour itself, it was an extremely popular success during initial field trials and the eventual mass rollout. Yet, Tartaros Pattern Armour was, for all of its successes and praises, extremely costly to manufacture, maintain and produce in large quantities; qualities all attributable mainly due to the advanced components involved in the Armour’s manufacture.  The new Indomitus Armour’s received little fanfare or attention by the Legion, with the design featuring a compromise between the two other Patterns, being deemed as still lacking in the vital areas of speed and dexterity that the Legion’s Doctrinae demanded. Thus, was the Indomitus consigned to the Legion Reserve Armouries until making a resurgence that shall be noted later on.

With vital experience in hand from the experiences with these Patterns of Terminator Armour, the Tempest Reavers in late 980.M30 would commission their allies on the Forge World of Gryphonne IV, along with any other Forge Domain interested in the Project or a beneficial pact with the well-renown and vaunted XIth Legion, to create a new Pattern of Terminator Armour - one tooled as closely as possible to the requirements of the XIth and using the Tartaros Pattern as a base from which to create it from. In terms of the wider scope of Terminator Armour and its manufacture, this Project, often called the Windstrider Project, was a minor addition onto the largely successful history of the Armour that was far too limited in deployment to make as much of an impact as it could have. The first orders were placed in 997.M30 and testing began a year later as the Tempest Reavers began their initial evaluations of the Armour and underwent trials concurrently with the Escaton Power Claw, leading to successful attempts to integrate the two new wargear designs. Reception was by far extremely positive, although not as durable as Tartaros in certain areas and lacking the far more advanced shield emitter systems in favour of rudimentary ones, the **Windstrider**, as the Pattern was christened, was the perfect suit to meet the needs of the XIth Legion and was immediately slated for mass production during and after the Vanishing.

Although visually similar to the Tartaros, the new Pattern featured simplified joint actuators, fibre bundles and the enhanced servos present in Tartaros whilst also often omitting many advanced features present in Tartaros so long as the mobility and dexterity was not compromised by their omission, featuring comparatively cheaper costs of manufacture and maintenance and a revised armour layout and composition; many areas, such as the upper arms, thighs and rear of the chest, feature a segmented armour layout not too akin to that featured in Mark II Power Armour and Cataphractii, this is due to the recognition that these areas received far less fire and thus could be stripped of heavier armour plating to cut down on servo-stresses. In addition, in keeping with a seeming Legion tradition, the torso armour has received additional armour plates - albeit these are thin and often disposable ad-hoc armour - designed to fit into mounted hardpoints upon the torso, allowing for relative flexibility in the arrangement of the additional armour. Helmets, although variance is noted with startling frequency due to the nature of Farsalan Pattern Helms, often features an enhanced vox-grille/vox-mitter, intended for demoralising effect and rallying cries.

However, it must also be noted that, much like Mark V Enforcer Armour, there are two distinct variants of Windstrider Armour. A Production Type, and a Field-Repair Type. Field-Repair Windstrider is a term applied to any and all Terminator Armour units that feature field modifications, mixing of Patterns and artificer components for the latter purpose. The qualifier for these suits falling under the moniker is the use of a pre-existing Windstrider or Tartaros Pattern suit as the base model for modification. They are often seen using Indomitus Pattern parts as the replacements, the reasons being speculative in nature but the oft used explanation is one that the Indomitus Pattern is simply the most common source of spare parts the Tempest Reavers have on hand to use. More rarely are Cataphractii parts used, but these are often used to improve protection in anticipation of extremely heavy combat or environments in which the normal armour would simply not suffice and no complete suits of Cataphractii are available. Most armour changes are often to the torso or pauldron areas, with some also being used for limb parts. Another key feature of the ad-hoc collection of suits is that they also feature heavy use of Molecular Bonding Spikes and redesigned chest areas, often attempts to improve durability by forcing the Armour’s plates to be held together more effectively in the former case and the latter either for personal heraldry or improved protectiveness.

By the end of the Halcyon Age, the vast majority of Tempest Reavers Terminator formations were equipped with Windstrider Armour, with Tartaros being reserved for more prestigious and accomplished units. Perhaps the users most synonymous with Windstrider Armour are the Da’zhon Fel’val, the Thunder Heralds. The premier Terminator assault troops of the Legion and some of the most savage yet disciplined combatants in the Legion’s line formations. Whilst most, if not all, Tempest Reavers Terminator units will have at one point used the Field-Repair Type, it is famed for its use by the units of the Fel’sain Dal’ykus, and far more infamously and darkly by the Scouring Hawks. Owing to a combination of a lack of resupply and heavy and extensive combat operations, the circumstances which often lead to the appointment of a Fel’sain Dal’ykus are often the same circumstances which will lead to the creation of the Field-Repair Type.