Index Astartes: Void Reavers
Chapter Motto
We stand against the dark
Chapter Origins
The Void Reavers are a Dark Angels Successor Chapter of ancient but unknown founding. They are active along the northwestern frontiers of Imperium, often found coming to the defense of isolated worlds and outposts along the boarder with the Halo Stars. Some scholars claim the Void Reavers operate in the tradition of nearly forgotten orders of roving knights from Caliban-that-was. These knights-errant patrolled the most remote corners of that world, protecting settlements too small or far-flung to support their own knightly orders. Unknown to all but other Unforgiven is the Void Reavers’ secret mandate to scour these remote regions for any Fallen that may be hiding there, or attempting to flee the Imperium for refuge beyond.
The Void Reavers have no known homeworld, but like many Unforgiven chapters recruit from a variety of worlds. They have established a number of small, hidden keeps and fortresses on many of these worlds that they use to train, repair, and resupply at. The Void Reavers also maintain a large starbase hidden within an asteroid field in the Marcosan depths, which serves as their de facto chapter fortress. The existence of this starbase is the Void Reavers' most closely guarded secret, known of outside the chapter by only a handful of individuals such as the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels.
The Void Reavers appear to have a close connection to the Guardians of the Covenant, although the exact nature of their relationship is known only to a select number of the uppermost echelons of the Unforgiven. Like the Guardians of the Covenant, they have long-standing alliances with a number of forge worlds in Segmenta Pacificus and Obscura. This relationship includes certain factions of Stygies VIII, with whom they will sometimes trade archeotech recovered from the frontier to ensure they remain well-supplied with fresh arms and armor.
The chapter was brought to brink of extinction after the emergence of the Great Rift, with a majority of its strength active in what became the Imperium Nihilus. More than 700 battle-brothers were lost in the aftermath, selling their lives dearly in dozens of desperate sieges and last stands as they strove to shield isolated worlds from the unending torrent of Chaos unleashed by the fall of Cadia. The survivors answered Azrael’s summons to the emergency council of all Unforgiven following the Darkmor Massacre, and the Void Reavers were brought back to full strength through an infusion of Primaris marines after the Primarch’s Summit. Like many Unforgiven chapters, the Void Reavers were wary of these new marines and did not integrate them into their first two companies, or chapter leadership. However, with the knowledge of the Calgarian rites and nearly a century of recruiting, training, and indoctrinating new Primaris battle-brothers, the previously unthinkable may yet come to pass.
Organization
The Void Reavers are organized similar to other Unforgiven chapters. Their first company, the Fellwing, is comprised of veterans always fielded in Terminator armor, while their second company, the Wraithwing, is comprised purely of Marines mounted on bikes or Land Speeders, with a select few piloting atmospheric fighters. Also like the Dark Angels, the Void Reavers’ commanders and elite are members of a secret inner circle, the Gloaming Blade, who know the true nature of the chapter’s hunt for the Fallen.
Combat Doctrine
The Void Reavers’ combat doctrines do not deviate strongly from other Unforgiven chapters. They are keenly aware of often operating far from reinforcement and resupply, and have a strong preference for careful planning and tactics over wild charges and other “heroic” behavior. Like the Guardians of the Covenant, their choice of engagements and conduct on the battlefield typically shows more regard for the common citizens of the Imperium than many other chapters. But they will often take the most promising youths from their sites of victory as new recruits, such that their arrival is sometimes seen afterwards as a rather mixed blessing. And in those cases where members of the Fallen are discovered, they can be as ruthless as any other Unforgiven chapter in eliminating evidence and witnesses.
Beliefs
The Void Reavers place a particular emphasis on their duty as defenders of humanity, standing as a bulwark against the dark so that the Imperium may realize its true destiny of unchallenged control of the galaxy. They therefore have a particular hate for traitors and heretics, those members of humanity who turn their back on the Imperium and undermine it from within. To those many battle-brothers who are not of the Fellwing or Wraithwing, there is no greater enemy then the Heretic Astartes, traitors to both humanity and their oaths to the Imperium. But the greatest fury of the Void Reavers is held by those of the Gloaming Blade who know of the Fallen, for they betrayed their Legion and Primarch when they were needed most.
Notable Campaigns
832.M36 The Void Reavers battle barge Specter of Justice answers a distress call from the frontier world of Chulbrek. It arrives to find most of the population slaughtered, their bodies being harvested by horrifying biomechanical constructs. They soon discover the constructs’ masters, tall hooded figures in ragged robes that feast upon the dead and are impervious to all but their heaviest weapons. The Void Reavers quickly fall back to the Specter of Justice and declare Exterminatus on the planet. Those few survivors of Chulbrek they are able to rescue are either taken as initiates, or given positions as serfs within the vessel crew. However, most have been so damaged by the horrors they witnessed that they are remade into servitors within a standard year.
009.M41 The ork-infested space hulk Deceit of Hate carrying the horde of Warboss Gutkrusha is detected heading towards the shrineworld of Vesta VI. A combined force drawn from the Void Reavers and Blood Guard chapters launch a daring strike as it enters the Vesta system, led by members of their Terminator-armored first companies. The combined forces battle through the depths to place hidden targeting beacons at critical junctures throughout the hulk, then quickly teleport out as their Chapter fleets open fire. Precision strikes enabled by the beacons slice the space hulk apart, and the debris falls safely into the system’s binary suns. While the Ork forces are greatly weakened, Gutkrusha and many others are able to escape before the fragments are incinerated, leading to an extended campaign across the system to purge the survivors. The campaign culminates in a month-long battle that sees Gutkrusha dead and much of Vesta VI’s capital city leveled.
119.M42 A Void Reavers strike force drawn largely from its 4th company, and led by their Grand Master of Librarians, searches the void west of the Eye of Terror for a rumored stable passage through the Great Rift. They engage in a series of running battles with the traitors and hereteks of the Unbound Brethren warband as they contest control of various dead worlds found to hold Blackstone pylons. Upon discovery of a number of Fallen within the Unbound Brethren, a sizeable reinforcement fleet rushes to join them, lead by the Chapter Master himself.
Brother Risual and Brother-sergeant Besros, formerly of the Void Reavers 4th company, 4th squad (c. M41). Both are among the few survivors of the events following the appearance of the Great Rift, and now serve in the 4th company veteran squad.
Edited by Galloway, 28 March 2020 - 05:53 PM.
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