LASC 19 - Grey Ravens

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

I originally created this chapter for submission for the Liber Cluster but it sort of fell by the wayside. I'm moderately pleased with how far it got though, so I thought I'd go ahead and submit it for LASC.

Grey Ravens

* GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR) – Raven Guard
* FOUNDING – Ultima
* CHAPTER MASTER – Nirsori Coloeus
* HOME WORLD/BASE OF OPERATIONS – Plegolis, Subsector Colvin

* OBSERVED STRATEGIC TENDENCIES – Zero-G Warfare, Boarding Actions, Ambush Tactics
* BATTLE CRY – None
* CURRENT STRENGTH – 1000
* KNOWN DESCENDANTS – None

Origin

One of only a handful of Ultima Founding Chapters created from the geneseed of the Raven Guard, the Grey Ravens are newly assigned to the Liber Cluster. They bring with them the proud heritage of Corvus Corax and the famed Raven Guard aptitude for stealth and precision strikes, but utilize their skills in an unconventional style of warfare. Trained in their specialised way of warfare by elements of the Raven Guard 3^rd and 4^th companies, the Grey Ravens have assimilated the art of the ambush and learned to apply it to zero-G and shipboard combat.

Homeworld

The Grey Ravens recruit from the hive world of Plegolis, a densely populated planet of sprawling manufactora and cramped hab-towers in the Colvin subsector of the Liber Cluster. Their Chapter Fortress, the Mororium, is a large and heavily fortified orbiting station from which the Grey Ravens descend to Plegolis to retrieve the brightest and strongest of the hive citizens for service with the Chapter. Already used to tight quarters and hazardous environments, the Grey Ravens have found the youth of Plegolis a more than satisfactory resource for recruitment. The strong work ethic, physical resiliency, and mental agility found among the hab-clans have been explored by the Chapter’s Apothecaries who have discovered an underlying high quality genome among the inhabitants of Plegolis, suggesting minimal genetic disruption and no evidence of significant hereditary mutation. Thus, the genetic and environmental factors of Plegolis have combined to forge excellent subjects for ascension.

Combat Doctrine

Although able to muster a fighting force for any kind of operation, the Grey Ravens are specialists in non-planetary warfare. Using stealth, misdirection, and surprise assault, the Grey Ravens have developed an uncanny proficiency in fighting aboard starships, void installations, and space hulks. Typically called upon to retake captured Imperial warships or to prevent the invasion of orbital facilities, Grey Ravens forces deploy directly onto hulls from nearby strike craft and blast their way in through hatches. Reivers, deployed by the Grey Ravens as infiltrators and saboteurs, quietly infiltrate bridges and enginariums to decapitate enemy leadership and disable critical power systems.

The Grey Ravens make use of fewer land vehicles than other Chapters, preferring instead to maintain a larger-than-normal complement of void-capable craft their own variant of the Stormraven known as the Voidraven. Expanded for greater transport capacity, systems adjusted to allow the transport of Mark X armoured Primaris Astartes, it’s power plant and engines modified with heat-shielding and exhaust baffles, and armed with forward mounted melta-charges, the Voidraven has been designed to approach targets stealthily before blasting open docking bays and access hatches to disgorge it’s boarding parties into the most vulnerable areas of enemy vessels. Following on from the stealthy approach of the Voidravens come waves Overlords - larger void-capable landing craft which ferry up to 40 more battle brothers onto the target to secure the landing zones and to capture secondary objectives.

Of equal importance to their way of war are the specialised abilities of the Chapter’s Techmarines. Trained by the adepts of Mars in the ways of vox-capture, data manipulation, and information sabotage, every assault is accompanied by a Techmarine charged with disrupting enemy communications, feeding incorrect data to sensoria, or decrypting vox and pict traffic. In this way, the Grey Ravens are able to mount direct and precise strikes while keeping their enemies off balance or incapable of mounting a co-ordinated response.

Organisation

The Grey Ravens take a pragmatic and thoughtful approach to the Codex Astartes. Though the Chapter leadership recognizes the benefits of following the tenets within, and the updates made over the millennia since it was written, they are aware that the Liber Cluster, and the wider Imperium itself, have changed substantially in recent times. Accordingly the Codex is viewed within the Chapter as a set of guidelines, and the Grey Ravens ensure that their adherence to the Codex is not so strict that is prevents adaptability or restricts their ability to react to new situations.

Beliefs

The beliefs of the Grey Ravens centre on the Emperor and their Primarch as guiding stars within the dark void. With the power of the Astronomican providing a clear example, the Grey Ravens believe that dead warriors provide light and direction within the blackness of space. The Chapter’s doctrine stems from the native belief system of Plegolis, adapted by the Ecclesiarchy to teach that the stars are the light of the Emperor watching over the people of the planet. Chaplains lead ceremonies from the outer hull of the Mororium or from the open landing bays of the Chapter’s voidcraft in order to receive the guiding light of the stars. The Librarius studies the patterns of the stars for omens and portents, and are constantly on the lookout for the appearance of newer and brighter stars which may represent their lost Primarch.

Recent activity

In one of their first significant engagements in the Liber Cluster, elements of the Grey Ravens' 4th company were able to retake the Imperial Navy Lunar-class cruiser Heraldus Rex from the hitherto unidentified heretic Astartes warband which had captured the vessel some 22 standard days previously. A force of Reivers let by Lieutenant Carak infiltrated the bridge and eliminated the warband's leadership element, preventing any co-ordinated defence of the ship and allowing other Grey Ravens forces to retake the vessel with only 37% of the human crew lost.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're off to a good start.

 

Nitpicking:

The image posted is of a Marine in Mark VIII power armor, but as you stated the Chapter is of the Ultima Founding, the image should be of a PRIMARIS Marine in Mark X.

The Grey Ravens make use of fewer land vehicles than other Chapters, preferring instead to maintain a larger-than-normal complement of void-capable craft their own variant of the Stormraven known as the Voidraven. Expanded for greater transport capacity, it’s power plant and engines modified with heat-shielding and exhaust baffles, and armed with forward mounted melta-charges, the Voidraven has been designed to approach targets stealthily before blasting open docking bays and access hatches to disgorge it’s boarding parties into the most vulnerable areas of enemy vessels.

This shows good imagination, but as the Chapter is of the Primaris-only Ultima Founding, you should specify the Voidraven was also modified to accommodate Primaris Marines. I'm admittedly disappointed it wasn't designed to smash through docking bay doors, like the Caestus assault ram; though I concede it would be EXTREMELY difficult to make a flyer REPEATEDLY survive such attacks.

[Archivist Thaddeus Kryptem]

I really like this so far, I'd be interested to know a little more about their culture. 

 

Do they reflect a typical Hive Worlder culture? Or are they more shamanistic and tribal like  the astrological mysticism? maybe a blend of the two? It would be useful info should I be required to paint one of them stage two for how they look.

 

And can I just say Infiltrating Ambush Void Warfare Specialists is an awesome specialisation 

 

Oh and I've had another thought, what makes the Voidraven better suited to this task than the Overlord? I imagine it's smaller profile makes it better for stealthy insertion but you might have other ideas.

[Ace Debonair]

So far so good, I'd say!

 

My one tiny, minor nitpick is the part in Combat Doctrine that says about the Reivers taking out leadership. It mentions doing so on the bridges of ships, which is fine, but also taking out leaders in the engine rooms - which isn't really where you'd expect leaders to hang out... unless I'm showing my ignorance of void warfare again.

 

My suggested fix, in any case, is simply to add the words "and capacity to make an escape" to the end of the sentence that ends "decapitate enemy leadership".

 

 

I'll also admit I'm having trouble working out what their primary armour colour is - my eyes can't quite determine if I'm looking at plain light grey, very pale blue or very pale green.

That's purely down to my faulty visuals rather than a mistake on your end, of course!  But regardless, I'm curious to know which colour you've chosen.

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

@Bjorn Firewalker

 

That’s a fair nitpick, but I don’t think the Primaris painter existed when I did the initial work for the Grey Ravens so I had to mock up the colours on a Mk VII suit. I’ll do a set of Mk X when I get the time. Good point on the Voidraven - I neglected to account for the no-Primaris issue with the older vehicles. It’s designed as a stealth assault vehicle, and to be more reusable than the Caestus.

 

@Inquisitor Van Horn

 

I hadn’t really thought much about Plegolis’ culture. In my head it’s one of those hive worlds that’s crammed with faceless citizen workers hammering out something generic for the Imperium. I’ll have to have a think about their culture and how it influences the Grey Ravens.

I hadn’t considered the Overlord because I hadn’t heard of it until your post! Looking at it now, it probably would be used as a second line assault vehicle once a beachhead has been established by Voidraven-borne troops.

 

@Ace Debonair

 

In my head, the enginarium is full of senior Mechanicus personnel keeping the heart of a ship beating - kill them and stuff stops working.

Primary colour is pale grey, something like Administratum Grey.

 

Thanks for all your input, it’s given me plenty to work on.

[Ace Debonair]

In my head, the enginarium is full of senior Mechanicus personnel keeping the heart of a ship beating - kill them and stuff stops working.

Primary colour is pale grey, something like Administratum Grey.

That makes sense.

 Still, it might be worth adding a line about disabling the enemy's engines anyway - that sounds like the sort of tactic the Grey Ravens would employ to cripple enemy fleets or pin slippery foes in place.

 

Main colour looks good.

I really do have to get my eyes tested again one of these days!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I hadn’t considered the Overlord because I hadn’t heard of it until your post! Looking at it now, it probably would be used as a second line assault vehicle once a beachhead has been established by Voidraven-borne troops.

The Overlord is MASSIVE. According to its Lexicanum article, which cites the novel Dark Imperium as a source:

An Overlord can transport up to forty Space Marines. During the Battle of Ardium, an Overlord transported one early-pattern Space Marine and thirty-nine Primaris Space Marines, some of which were wearing Mk X Gravis Armour.

A Stormraven variant (Transport Capacity of 12, likely reduced to account for a Primaris Marine's larger size) can still be of great use to your Chapter.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

OBSERVED STRATEGIC TENDENCIES – Zero-G Warfare, Boarding Actions, Ambush Tactics

The Grey Ravens recruit from the hive world of Plegolis, a densely populated planet of sprawling manufactora and cramped hab-towers in the Colvin subsector of the Liber Cluster.

How about having Plegolis be an industrial world, like Armageddon, which specializes in manufacturing suspensors (small anti-gravity devices), as used in Tempestus Scion grav-chutes and Infernus heavy bolters? Plegolis citizens enjoy sports in which the athletes wear flip belt counterparts to simulate zero-gravity. The Chapter planet's culture can thus influence the Grey Ravens to specialize in zero-G fighting.

[Brother Lunkhead]

Good solid start Brother Your chapter heraldry is nicely subtle.... I like that.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your chapter heraldry is nicely subtle.... I like that.

It looks like the emblem of a superhero- from the GOOD STUFF made in the 1980s and 1990s, not the politically correct nonsense seen now- maybe forming part of the superhero's mask/visor.

[Archivist Thaddeus Kryptem]

 

I hadn’t considered the Overlord because I hadn’t heard of it until your post! Looking at it now, it probably would be used as a second line assault vehicle once a beachhead has been established by Voidraven-borne troops.

The Overlord is MASSIVE. According to its Lexicanum article, which cites the novel Dark Imperium as a source:

An Overlord can transport up to forty Space Marines. During the Battle of Ardium, an Overlord transported one early-pattern Space Marine and thirty-nine Primaris Space Marines, some of which were wearing Mk X Gravis Armour.

A Stormraven variant (Transport Capacity of 12, likely reduced to account for a Primaris Marine's larger size) can still be of great use to your Chapter.

 

 

I agree with all the above, a variant stormraven would likely be almost undetectable in large scale naval combat, but the Overlord is essentially a standardised Stormbird, so a larger Thunderhawk which are often utilised as fighter craft in void combat by Astartes, so will likely still be used heavily by the Grey Ravens so may be worth mentioning their use might still be worth noting  and compared to the sheer scale of Naval combat are still positively tiny when dealing with Capital ships.

[Aothaine]

Really good job here! Space Combat specialists! I love it! :D 

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

 

 

I hadn’t considered the Overlord because I hadn’t heard of it until your post! Looking at it now, it probably would be used as a second line assault vehicle once a beachhead has been established by Voidraven-borne troops.

The Overlord is MASSIVE. According to its Lexicanum article, which cites the novel Dark Imperium as a source:

An Overlord can transport up to forty Space Marines. During the Battle of Ardium, an Overlord transported one early-pattern Space Marine and thirty-nine Primaris Space Marines, some of which were wearing Mk X Gravis Armour.

A Stormraven variant (Transport Capacity of 12, likely reduced to account for a Primaris Marine's larger size) can still be of great use to your Chapter.

 

 

I agree with all the above, a variant stormraven would likely be almost undetectable in large scale naval combat, but the Overlord is essentially a standardised Stormbird, so a larger Thunderhawk which are often utilised as fighter craft in void combat by Astartes, so will likely still be used heavily by the Grey Ravens so may be worth mentioning their use might still be worth noting  and compared to the sheer scale of Naval combat are still positively tiny when dealing with Capital ships.

 

 

I shall add Overlords to the Grey Ravens' armoury, probably as a standard re-usable boarding craft alongside the more specialised and stealth-focused Voidraven.

 

I've updated the original post to include some of the really helpful points made so far, but I'm still having thoughts about the culture of Plegolis. I'm open to further ideas!

[Watcher]

Looks great so far! They exemplify Raven Guard very well.

As for a battlecry...."You'll float too" ?