Navar Hef - Raptor: With the gene-seed now deemed safe enough to begin mass-implantation, the creation of the Raptors could begin in earnest. However the medical facilities of Ravendelve limited each new generation of Raptors to only 100 warriors. The Raven Guard's Master of Apothecaries Vicente Sixx and his acolyte Magos Orlandriaz vainly tried to convince Corax to transfer the gene-seed to the Ravenspire, but the Lord of Ravens flatly refused them. Rebuilding the fighting strength of his Legion was still his highest objective, yet the Raptors were still a little-understood and untested weapon. Corax required a test of the Raptors' mettle before allowing production of both gene-seed and Legionaries to be stepped up, and so, these first hundreds would do. To ensure that selection was entirely random, the Raven Guard -- as on many previous cases -- reverted to luck. Each of the Aspirants would draw a token, a hexagonal nut to determine their future. White meant that they would not be selected for the current generation of Raptors, whilst a black nut would mean that the recruit would undergo gene-seed implantation.Commander Branne and Sergeant Nestil were put in charge of the selection program and ordered the recruits to assemble in Ravendelve's training hall and to form a line. Hef was unlucky though as he only earned himself a place at the end of the line. By the time the line had advanced so far as to allow him to see the little box were the nuts would be drawn, all 100 black nuts had been drawn, leaving Hef with nothing but excitement and frustration; an additional energy he used to fuel his efforts in training. Both already augmented Raptors and Aspirants trained in the confined space of Ravendelve, interaction was inevitable. Hef burned to become like his former comrades, longed to train with Bolter and heavy weapons -- the weapons of a true warrior of the Astartes -- rather than the simple machine guns he and his yet-human comrades were issued with. As the first three hundred Raptors soon departed Ravendelve for a training mission, the elimination of a listening station of the Word Bearers Legion, Hef still awaited his turn for implantation, but his long wait was soon to be over.A few weeks later, Navar Hef and his remaining comrades were finally taken to the Apothecarium to begin their transcendence into warriors of the Legiones Astartes. With his patience and efforts finally being rewarded, it was an eager Navar Hef that subjected himself to the treatment devised by Sixx and Orlandriaz. In a few short days, the youth had been replaced by a towering, muscular super-human, a warrior even deadlier than the regular Legionary. Much to Hef's pleasure, he and his squad brothers saw almost immediate action as Ravendelve was attacked by unknown elements. Stepping virtually from the Apothecarium onto a battlefield, Hef relished in his new abilities: strength, speed and discipline, firing a Bolter at the enemies of the Raven Guard and finally wearing the much coveted Mark VI "Corvus" pattern Power Armour that had become the new standard equipment for the Raptors.Under Sergeant Cald, Hef's squad was assigned a Rhino APC and formed Ravendelve's rapid respond force which soon found itself tasked with pursuing the illusive enemy, whose main assault had been thrown back thanks to Ravendelve's static defenses. In truth, the attack posed no true threat, whatsoever, to Ravendelve, but the enemy still needed to be eradicated. Retreating in the ever thickening noxious fog clouds, harried by the Raptors-squads in Rhinos, the enemy was as good as dead when the unthinkable happened: in the confusion of battle, one of the Raptors was brought down. Not by enemy fire, although that enemy, now identified as Kiavahrian guilders, indeed possessed weapons capable of slaying Legionaries, but by an unknown pain. Hef could only look on in horror as his fellow Raptor's body, now laying on the ground, was shaken by violent spasms, sending his bolter flying, and obviously in a great amount of pain. Hef remarked that the squad's vox was now filled with painful grunts and moans, and at that moment he saw his neighbour falling down on his knees when he too felt it -- a tightness in the chest and a flaming agony that locked his limbs in place which brought him to his knees -- and a burning pain that quickly crept up his spine. Hef's squad was not the only one concerned, for all over the battlefield most of the Raptor-squads had been simultaneously brought low. Faced with this unforeseeable turn of event, Sergeant Cald did the only sensible thing to do -- he ordered a retreat. Hefting the fallen Hef personally onto his shoulders, he brought the stricken Raptor back into the Rhino, but the ever-stubborn Hef insisted on walking the last few metres, stumbling more than walking and letting himself fall into the Rhino's passenger compartment. Those members that still were able to stand, gathered the Raptors and brought them back to the armoured personnel carrier, which quickly departed.Confused and disorientated, Hef could only stare on as his brothers transformed before his very eyes. One of his closest brothers, Devallia, was frantically trying to take off his helmet, but it refused to disengage properly. As the seals finally broke down, Hef stared into inhuman, blood-shot eyes. The pupils had retracted in little black pinpricks and his skin was quickly blackening, though veins and arteries still dimly pulsed beneath it. Devallia cried out in agony, his mouth ravaged by a second row of sharpened teeth that were now ravaging his gums, blood mixed with corrosive saliva uncontrollably dripping from his mouth onto his armour and the Rhino's deck. As Hef turned to his petrified sergeant he remarked that his own hand had also changed, long claws having broken from the fingertips of his gauntlets. Gripping the hand of his sergeant, Hef endured the ride home as best as he could, his body wracked by transformation.