Power Armour - Mark VI Corvus Power Armour: This classic power armour variant can be traced back to the time of the Horus Heresy during which it was developed as a proper replacement for the Mark IV Maximus armour by the ancient Mechanicum and is still commonly used even in contemporary Space Marine Chapters of the 41st Millennium. It is characterised by the beak-like muzzle on the helmet and an auto-reactive shoulder plate covered with molecular bonding studs on the left shoulder of the armour.The Mark VI suit, much like the Mark V, was intended to be extremely easy to repair and maintain by Space Marine Legions engaged in the constant warfare of the Heresy. It was built with dual technology circuits that allowed the easy replacement of rare or sophisticated parts with more common or basic alternatives with no degeneration in protection or performance. It also included new fail-safes such as duplicate power cabling in which the external power cables on the torso were backed up by failsafe circuits built into the armour. All other cabling was hidden beneath ceramite armour plates, including newer and much heavier leg greaves.The left shoulder plate, which usually took the brunt of enemy fire, retained the molecular bonding studs found on the Mark V variant so as to be more easily replaceable.The Mark VI pattern of power armour is the lightest form of the technology and has gained a reputation among Space Marine Techmarines as having the smoothest fit between its moving parts, despite the complete interchangeability with the Mark VII pattern of armour. This small difference means that Mark VI suits are often fitted with Jump Packs and used by Assault Marines, even if they still use a Mark VII helmet.The finalised pattern of the Mark VI armour was named Corvus Armour in honour of the Raven Guard Legion's Primarch Corvus Corax. It looked little different from the Mark IV armour many of them already wore, but upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences in panel shape and bonding, the thicker material of the flexible joints, the solid greaves covering the knees. Most obvious was the bolt-reinforced left shoulder plate and the helmet design.It did not escape the notice of the Raven Guard Legionaries that the conical faceplate design had a distinctive avian look to it, its beaked countenance looking the part of hunting birds of prey.This new mark of armour was Artificer-made and the first sets were shipped to the Raven Guard Legion ahead of all the other Loyalist Legions during the Horus Heresy, in recognition of not only their role in the technology's development process, but of the valiant sacrifice made by the XIXth Legion during the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V, and their resolute determination to rebuild their shattered Legion to rejoin the fight against Horus the Arch-betrayer.With full production not yet begun on Mars and in the absence of reliable Legion supply lines, the ancient Mechanicum had designated all non-standard or stop-gap designs of power armour as the Mark V "Heresy" Pattern. Many of the improvisations made by the Raven Guard's armourium after the massacre were passed on to other Legions in the absence of replacement parts for the Mark IV suit.The Mark VI was first deployed during a two-standard-year engagement in the Great Crusade through a sector of space claimed by the remnants of the broken Aeldari race known as the Scalland Campaign. The Scalland Campaign was to serve as the original field test for the first thousand sets of prototype power armour that would later come to be designated as Mark VI; though at the time it bore the provisional designation Mark V since the later Mark V Heresy Pattern was a response to battlefield conditions.Small numbers of the Mark V armour had already been submitted to the Iron Warriors and Salamanders Legions, and both had expressed reservations about the lack of heavy plating when compared to earlier marks, pushing for the Mark V to be revised for a heavy assault role. It was deemed that a mass combat trial was required to determine the effectiveness of the original design before potentially abandoning it. Internal politics within the various Legion commands saw this honour bestowed upon the Raven Guard, depleted in number after the bloody fighting in the Aukum-Sothos Cluster.Speculation at the time suggests that a faction amongst the primarchs and Legion commanders, led by Perturabo, intended this assignment to an under-strength Legion to be the death-knell of the Mark VI armour, leading to its replacement by a sturdier design. If this was so then the plan was to backfire spectacularly, for the Raven Guard performed admirably on the verdant Aeldari seed worlds of the Scalland Sector, utilising the advanced auto-senses and agility of the new armour to hound the Aeldari in a series of strike-and-fade attacks that decimated their already battered military forces.Such was the success of the fighting in the sector, which eventually saw the expulsion of the Aeldari and the Imperium claim its rich worlds, that not only was the Mark VI armour approved for final deployment, but the majority of the improvements suggested by the Raven Guard were adopted.The new armour, later dubbed "Corvus" Pattern Power Armour in honour of the Raven Guard, was placed into full-scale production only a few solar months before the outbreak of Horus' rebellion against the Emperor, re-designated as Mark VI from Mark V by the Mechanicum to account for the inclusion of the many stop-gap field modifications and repairs into the Legiones Astartes order of battle.By the time of the Siege of Terra, the Mark VI was the most numerous pattern in service. The Loyalist Legions defending the Imperial Palace had whole chapters equipped with Mark VI armour. However, the Hereteks of the Dark Mechanicum hacked the data vaults of those Tech-priests still loyal to the Emperor to provide the designs to Horus and his forces. With countless Forge Worlds under the control of the Warmaster, production of Mark VI armour continued apace, and the Emperor's Children in particular used it en masse during the Siege of Terra. The predominance of the Corvus Pattern armour would continue well into the campaigns of the Great Scouring and into the present age.In the real world, the beak or muzzle of this mark of power armour led fans to nickname this variant "womble armour" or "beakie armour", and a dictionary of the Orkish language in the 2nd Edition Ork Codex referred to Space Marines as "beakies."This armour represents the style of the first Space Marine models released by Games Workshop in the 1980s and did not get its official canon Mark VI designation until after models with the Mark VII styling were released.