STRIKE FORCE AERON By Chris Ward |
SECOND COMPANY STRIKE FORCES |
These images have been reproduced with the kind permission of Chris Ward. |
Ravenwing Bike Squadron 2, Zakkiel Squad Zakkiel, armed with their ancient plasma guns have proven invaluable against the Thousand Sons. Where bolter shells bounce of the Sons, plasma burns right through them, sending their twisted souls into the warp. Also with the amount of clashes against the Death Guard increasing, the plasma guns again come in most useful, the bloated bodies of the Death Guard are also no match for the Emperor's fire. Sergeant Zakkiel earned his rank after Delios, when his previous sergeant fell against the orks, Zakkiel actually dismounted from his bike to rush over to his sergeant's aid. He was too late to save the sergeant, and the orks had destroyed his bike during his attempt, so offering up a quick prayer for his sergeant, Zakkiel mounted Graphius' bike to carry on the fight, which he still rides today, honouring the brave spirit of the previous owner. |
Ravenwing Bike Squadron 3, Idrael Squad Idrael have used their melta guns to tally an impressive number of vehicle kills, often flanking the enemy positions to attack from the rear where enemy armour are at their most vulnerable. The squad earned the honour of being the first Dark Angel unit to locate and destroy a Goliath cannon battery, a new type of ordinance weapon being employed by the Thousand Sons for long range bombardment. These cannons had been taking a huge toll on imperial forces and were supposedly highly mobile, never having been sighted before by imperial forces. Thus the task of destroying the guns fell to the Ravenwing, and after two days of searching Idrael's squad, accompanied by Fairfield and his attack bike, located a battery, massive barrels spitting death on the distant imperial lines. Crewed by scores of cultists, the squad had to cut their way through them before their short ranged melta weapons could silence the guns. |
Ravenwing Bike Squadron 5, Lamach Veteran Sergeant Lamach was a sergeant on Delios, and had command of a full squad of Ravenwing bikers. The squad was on perimeter patrol when the ork horde attacked, and was the first unit to engage the orks. The Ork Warlord Makaar drove his battlewagon towards the squad, and he and his bodyguard of mega-armoured nobs engaged Lamach's squad. The fighting was as bloody as it was quick, the Ravenwing bikers could not match the powerful orks, and could not escape due to the numberless orks around them. One by one Lamach's squad were ripped apart by power claws until it was only Lamach, and Makaar was heading straight for him. Lamach desperately sped his bike towards the towering ork, who pulled his power claw back for a deadly swipe, but with seconds before contact Lamach pulled on his brakes and swung his bike around, catching the warlord square on its massive chin, sending it reeling. Lamach was able to escape to horde and survived Delios, and was giving a powersword for his actions on the planet. |
Veteran Riffial leads the two-speeder squadron with Jakar commanding the second speeder. Armed with Heavy Bolters and Assault cannons, they can devastate all but the most heavily armoured infantry, as was shown on Delios when the squadron mowed down literally hundreds of the greenskins. |
Tariel is known for his desire to push his landspeeder to its very limits, flying higher and faster then even other Ravenwing drivers would pursue. Tariel's favourite tactic is to speed down form the skies over enemy positions, often with the sun behind them, and strafing the enemy lines in devastating attack runs before speeding away, jinking to avoid return fire. Bayl and his gunner Yurriel are veterans of the Ravenwing and have been teamed together from the start of their service in the 2nd. Over the years of fighting together they have become finely attuned to each other's instincts, and as such are the best speeder team the Ravenwing has seen for a very long time. Bayl and Yurriel rarely talk with each other, having spent the last fifty years working and training together there is little that needs to be said. |
Fairfield was famous twenty years ago for being the finest attack bike driver in the company, and his reputation has only improved since, especially when he was part of the force that first engaged and destroyed the Goliath cannons. Fairfield is conscious of his reputation and is always eager to |
Ravenwing Landspeeder Bayl |
Landspeeder Squadron 2, Riffial |
Ravenwing Landspeeder 3, Tariel |
Ravenwing Attack Bike 3, Fairfield |
Attack Bike 4, Surim |
perform some daring feat to increase his fame, and not many gunners are willing to ride with him because of this. Fairfield favours hunting down enemy armour, and among his tally of destroyed vehicles are two chaos landraiders, although his gunner was killed in the battle against the second landraider and Fairfield lost most of his left leg. Surim's stance towards battle is quite opposite to Fairfield's, where Fairfield seeks out the biggest enemy tank to destroy, Surim prefers to direct his multi melta against heavily armoured traitors, especially the Terminators of the traitor legions. Surim's hatred falls upon the chaos veterans for they were given huge power at their hands and they choose to use it against humanity rather than to protect it. Surim will go out of his way in order to target traitor Terminators, and due to this difference between the two attack bike drivers they don't function well as a squad, as Grand Master Ward discovered the only time they were paired together. |
