Raptors - Early History: The Raptors are a Successor Chapter of the Second Founding. The Raptors are descendants of a handful of scions of the Raven Guard Legion who were created as a new Chapter after the dark days of the Horus Heresy.Apocryphal legend suggests that the Raptors were originally drawn from a company of new initiates training on the Raven Guard homeworld of Deliverance at the time of the infamous Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V that nearly wiped out the Raven Guard Legion, allowing only Primarch Corvus Corax and several thousand of his Astartes to survive.These initiates were also spared some of the darker events involving rampant mutation that befell their Legion as the Raven Guard attempted to rebuild itself too quickly under Corax's direction.In the Heresy's aftermath, this Raven Guard company went on to serve with distinction against the remnants of the forces of Chaos and was later granted the honour of full Chapter status after the Imperial Regent Roboute Guilliman's reforms of the Space Marine Legions and the use of the Codex Astartes was imposed on the Legions, breaking them up into smaller Chapters.Fragmentary evidence suggests that the fledgling Raptors Chapter began its service as a fleet-based Chapter in the middle of the 31st Millennium, engaging in the pursuit of the scattered Traitor Legions during the Great Scouring that followed the end of the Heresy.Several standard centuries later, the Raptors were granted a world on the edge of the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus, joining numerous other Chapters to share the responsibility as guardians against Chaos incursions from that great Warp rift into Imperial space.All signs suggest that the Chapter served capably in fulfilling its responsibilities for many Terran millennia. However, the Chapter's history is then obscured by the passage of the ages, as its first homeworld (whose name is now lost) was believed to have been destroyed during one of Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades, likely the 4th Black Crusade or 5th Black Crusade.The disaster occurred in either the 34th or the 36th Millennium. With their homeworld's destruction, all of the Chapter's early trophies, records, and much of its most valuable and ancient wargear were all annihilated.In the 37th Millennium, Imperial records indicate that the entire Raptors Chapter was listed among those of the Adeptus Astartes who had gone missing and were presumed killed in action. All signs indicate that the Raptors maintained this status for more than two standard millennia.The cause behind this disappearance is unclear, and lost to the ages. It was not until the Caberiad Wars of the early 39th Millennium that the Raptors resumed their status as a full-strength Space Marine Chapter.Their actions during the intervening standard millennia are unclear. The Chapter may have been rebuilding from a substantial loss, or it might have spent this time fighting in, and escaping from, the terrors of the Warp.Regardless, at this point one key element of the Raptors' most recent incarnation became clear. During the Caberiad Wars, the Raptors had access to an ample supply line. References from other Imperial sources indicate that they have once more taken a homeworld and re-established a fortress-monastery they refer to only as "Prime."The Raptors currently operate from a world variously named Numina, Ra or Badwater from deep within the dense stellar drifts of the Sutters Spiral Nebula on the northern border of the Segmentum Solar. However, none of the battle-brothers have disclosed the name or precise location of their homeworld, even to members of the Adeptus Administratum.The Raptors pride themselves on extreme zeal for the Emperor of Mankind, but "their reckless disregard for the Codex Astartes is legendary," according to Captain Ardias of the Ultramarines.