Deathwatch - Structure of a Watch Fortress: The Deathwatch's bases of operation are spread thinly across the galaxy, and neither their commanders nor even the Inquisition know of them all. In the darkness that permeates the galaxy in the Era Indomitus, each is a blazing watchfire set to illuminate the abhorrent xenos, and a node of a reticulated shield that spreads over the Imperium. Every Deathwatch fortress and station forms an unsleeping network, ever alert to alien existence.By necessity, the Deathwatch maintain a great many assets in every segmentum. The Chapter's primary stations are their watch fortresses, the majority of which are an orbiting void station rather than an emplaced planetary bastion. Their locations are kept absent from Imperial records, and many exist above inhabited Human planets unaware of their silent guardians.The largest watch fortress is Talasa Prime -- not a single station, but an entire world gifted in perpetuity to the Deathwatch by the Ultramarines Chapter from the Realm of Ultramar in the Segmentum Ultima. Talasa Prime was long the primary training station for the Deathwatch, but since the emergence of the Great Rift, the influx of battle-brothers from those regions of space beyond the light of the Astronomican now designated the Imperium Nihilus has all but stopped.Rumours suggest the watch fortresses of Praefex Venatoris and Fort Excalibris now share responsibility for this duty in the Imperium Nihilus. Each Deathwatch outpost maintains training facilities, but many operate primarily as listening posts or rearming and coordination hubs.Some watch fortresses are relatively  young, having been founded mere standard centuries ago to monitor a specific threat. Others are ancient, the proud standards in their Sanctums Bellicos embroidered with electrotapestral lists of thousands of actions. Every modest notation is a battle or clandestine operation that saved billions of lives, whether from xenos blades or from the excoriations of the Imperium after suspected contamination.Every watch fortress is a sovereign domain, standing sentinel over an appointed area of the Emperor's realm. Each may be responsible for a number of outlying watch stations, but many of these smaller bases are just as independent of higher authority. Though separated by gulfs of space, the hierarchical structure of most watch fortresses are identical. Ultimate responsibility is vested in a watch commander -- one who has fought with the Deathwatch for Terran centuries. Usually this will be a watch master or in rarer cases a highly-experienced watch captain.Supporting the watch commander are the members of his strategium, which includes Deathwatch Librarians, Deathwatch Apothecaries, Deathwatch Chaplains and Deathwatch Dreadnoughts, whilst his Deathwatch Techmarines are entrusted with rule of the Armoury, and his watch captains and watch lieutenants with providing strategic and tactical counsel as well as the leadership for four largely independent kill-teams, which together comprise one "Watch Company."The specialist officers common to almost all Adeptus Astartes Chapters maintain duties in the Deathwatch similar to those they performed in their former brotherhoods. Thus, Deathwatch Techmarines are entrusted with the watch fortress' vehicles and wargear, overseeing legions of servitors and maintaining the integrity of the Chapter's specialist equipment and war engines. They also use their esoteric training in the arcane machine lore of the Priesthood of Mars to assess the capabilities of xenos vehicles and the effects of alien weaponry upon Deathwatch power armour.Within their own spheres of expertise, Deathwatch Apothecaries, Librarians, Chaplains and others preserve the purity of a watch fortress' battle-brothers, maintaining vigilance for the taint of the alien -- whether this be the biological, the empyric or even the spiritual.Each Watch Company -- typically five in number within each watch fortress -- is headed by a watch captain and his two subordinate watch lieutenants. He and his warriors are identified by markings in black and red that are unique to their Watch Company and commonly applied to armoured poleyns or greaves. Most Watch Companies are smaller than their Codex Astartes-presribed equivalents, usually comprising no more than fifty Space Marines divided into 4 or 5 kill-teams and often far fewer. The martial prowess, xenophobic zeal and specialist weaponry they carry, however, mean that these Deathwatch Veterans are the equal of any entire Space Marine company.Though the greater structure of a watch fortress is traditionally kept sacrosanct, the kill-teams of a Watch Company under the command of a watch captain are flexible in the extreme, capable of rapidly adapting from one mission to the next. In times of war against a transparent threat, some may be specialised towards combating a particular breed or even rank of xenos.This may result in battle-brothers moving from one kill-team to another. It is rare for kill-teams to be kept cohesive for long, though there are those whose histories have spanned the centuries, forming bonds of brotherhood so strong they are counted amongst the foremost assets of the Chapter.While some missions call on kill-teams to form squads that correspond to Codex Astartes-approved designations, just as often they prepare unique kill-teams optimised to perform particular goals. These teams are made up of warriors equipped to deal with a wide range of enemies and mission types. Some are chosen for their versatility when facing unknown foes, while others are assembled with exacting duties in mind.Though the greater structure of a watch fortress is traditionally kept sacrosanct, the kill-teams under a watch captain are flexible in the extreme. In times of war against a transparent threat, some may be specialised towards combating a particular breed or even rank of xenos. This may result in battle-brothers moving from one kill-team to another, or may lead to entire kill-teams of the same type of specialists, such as Aggressors or Bikers, being fielded. It is rare for kill-teams to be kept cohesive for long, though there are those whose histories have spanned the Terran centuries such as Kill-team Cassius, forming bonds of brotherhood so strong they are counted amongst the foremost assets of the Chapter.No two kill-teams are ever the same. One may comprise Deathwatch Veterans wearing a mix of Tactical Dreadnought Armour and Mark VIII Errant Power Armour. Another fighting on the same mission may include some battle-brothers firing from the hip as they sprint to the next fire point, accompanied by others riding Assault Bikes and yet more powering skyward as they ignite Jump Packs. Even if the fusion of weapons, armour and wargear is identical, the complement of battle-brothers bearing them each bring a subtly different blend of skills and experience to the mission.The deployment of even a single Deathwatch kill-team is the unleashing of a powerful group of transhuman warriors, each a hero of their parent Chapter, fighting together to pool their specialist expertise. Few that face them live. Their presence in a war zone -- for those Imperial servants actually aware of it -- means the suspicion by the Inquisition of a gravely serious xenos threat and a thanks is offered to the Emperor for their vigilance. To authorise the deployment of an entire strike force or Watch Company of such warriors is to acknowledge an apocalyptic alien danger to Humanity.Each kill-team is normally commanded by a Deathwatch Veteran with the rank of sergeant, usually originally earned with their parent Chapter, after whom the kill-team takes its name. However, whenever one of a watch fortress' command staff takes leadership of one of its kill-teams, the name is changed accordingly -- for example, when led by Deathwatch Epistolary Galius, Kill-team Tidaeus, named for Sergeant Tidaeus, would become Kill-team Galius for the duration of that mission.All kill-teams can adopt more specialist configurations at the behest of its leader, but when the nature of the enemy is unknown, it is common for Firstborn kill-teams to adopt Aquila tactics, a wide-spectrum offensive pattern capable of adapting to overcome any obstacle, or to serve as a Fortis Kill-team, which is the most effective and adaptable of the Primaris Marine-only kill-teams which have become common in the Era Indomitus.At the time of the Ghosar Quintus Anomaly, the team led by famed Ultramarines Chaplain Ortan Cassius was arranged in this pattern -- its formal designation was Aquila Kill-team Cassius.Watch Fortress StructureStrategiumWatch CommanderArmouryLibrariansChaplainsDreadnoughtsWatch CommanderThe senior-ranking Adeptus Astartes officers within the Deathwatch who serve as the commander of a Deathwatch watch fortress or other Deathwatch headquarters installation. Their role is equivalent to that of a Chapter Master of a Space Marine Chapter, save that there are many of them scattered across the galaxy in the myriad watch fortresses of the Deathwatch. 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/25/DW_Aquila.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928191242" class="image"><img alt="DW Aquila" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/25/DW_Aquila.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20160928191242" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="150" height="47" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="DW Aquila.png" data-image-key="DW_Aquila.png" data-relevant="0" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/25/DW_Aquila.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20160928191242" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 Corvus BlackstarsTransport VehiclesLand RaidersWatch CompaniesWatch Company PrimusWatch Company SecundusWatch Company TertiusWatch Captain 2 Watch LieutenantsKill-teamKill-teamKill-teamKill-team 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Primus.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928190554" class="image"><img alt="WC Primus" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Primus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190554" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="112" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="WC Primus.png" data-image-key="WC_Primus.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Primus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190554" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 Watch Captain 2 Watch LieutenantsKill-teamKill-teamKill-teamKill-team 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/3/3f/WC_Secundus.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928190621" class="image"><img alt="WC Secundus" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/3/3f/WC_Secundus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190621" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="113" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="WC Secundus.png" data-image-key="WC_Secundus.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/3/3f/WC_Secundus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190621" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 Watch Captain2 Watch LieutenantsKill-teamKill-teamKill-teamKill-team 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Tertius.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928190638" class="image"><img alt="WC Tertius" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Tertius.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190638" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="113" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="WC Tertius.png" data-image-key="WC_Tertius.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Tertius.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190638" /></a>Watch Company QuartusWatch Company QuintusWatch Captain2 Watch LieutenantsKill-teamKill-teamKill-teamKill-team 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/4/4c/WC_Quartus.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928190659" class="image"><img alt="WC Quartus" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/4/4c/WC_Quartus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190659" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="111" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="WC Quartus.png" data-image-key="WC_Quartus.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/4/4c/WC_Quartus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190659" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 Watch Captain2 Watch LieutenantsKill-teamKill-teamKill-teamKill-team 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Quintus.png/revision/latest?cb=20160928190714" class="image"><img alt="WC Quintus" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Quintus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190714" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="111" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="WC Quintus.png" data-image-key="WC_Quintus.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9c/WC_Quintus.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20160928190714" /></a>