A Ravenwing Darkshroud unleashing the Shroud of Angels
The Ravenwing Darkshroud is a variant of the Dark Angels' own Land Speeder Vengeance and is used only by the Dark Angels' 2nd Company, the Ravenwing, and the similar formations of their Unforgiven Successor Chapters. The Land Speeder Vengeance's standard Plasma Storm Battery has been replaced with an ancient relic, an Icon of Old Caliban known as a Stone Guardian or one of the Ten Brothers of The Order that once stood within the fortress-monastery of The Order on the Dark Angels' lost homeworld of Caliban. The Darkshroud then channels the arcane energies of the ancient relic and projects a field of impenetrable darkness known as the Shroud of Angels, swathing the Dark Angels' forces in a gloom that can swallow even the most potent of incoming enemy ranged attacks and protect the Unforgiven from harm. Those who have witnessed it at close range and felt its murky pall, and lived to tell of it, are disturbed forever more.
History
A Ravenwing Darkshroud
The Ravenwing Darkshroud is perhaps one of the strangest archaic relics deployed on the field of battle by the Chapters of the Unforgiven. The Darkshroud is a powerful icon of the Chapter and the Dark Angels will protect it with their lives. This archeotech vehicle consists of a Land Speeder Vengeance mounted with an ancient stone statue known as a Stone Guardian, an Icon of Old Caliban, or one of the Ten Brothers of The Order. Ten such idols currently exist within the Chapter's Armoury. These statues were some of the few barren remnants found amongst the ruins of the Tower of Angels following the destruction of Caliban at the end of the Horus Heresy and they were exposed to powerful Warp energies during the catastrophe that tore that world apart. Locked in stasis displays deep in the Reclusiam of The Rock for years, it was not until the desperation of the Vendetta Campaign that the Dark Angels at last felt compelled to unleash their arcane power upon the battlefield. Each statue was mounted upon the chassis of a Land Speeder Vengeance, with great cables siphoning off its strange energy and amplifying it, and a power field of unknown quality which ripples outwards from these grim reliquaries and absorbs most forms of electromagnetic energy.
In battle, the Darkshroud is used in support of the elite 2nd Company, the Ravenwing, as its otherworldly veil serves to partially obscure and protect the company's Assault Bikes and other light vehicles as they streak towards the foe. Even the blazing beam of a Lascannon can be swallowed within the Darkshroud's gloaming field of eldritch power, dissipating harmlessly while the Ravenwing speed onwards. With a Darkshroud as a foreboding escort, units of Ravenwing Black Knights and a Ravenwing Attack Squadron can rev their engines and hurtle straight into an enemy gun line with impunity, protected from the foe's firepower as if by the Emperor's own blessing.
Armament
The Ravenwing Darkshroud is armed with a Heavy Bolter that can be replaced by the Chapter's Techmarines with an Assault Cannon to further maximise the vehicle's firepower. Its primary weapon, of course, is the Stone Guardian that produces the vehicle's arcane cloak of protective darkness, which is known as the Shroud of Angels. How the relic produces this effect, or what technology is involved, remains unknown at this time.
Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications
The Adeptus Mechanicus has not yet publicly released the technical specifications of the Ravenwing Dark Shroud. Like much of the Dark Angels and other Unforgiven Chapters' vehicles, the Darkshroud's presence is likely not known to many in the Imperium, due to their secretive and secluded nature. Releasing such technical specifications of their Chapter's vehicles could very well reveal the Dark Angels' hoarding of sacred Standard Template Construct databases, which they have repeatedly denied having in their possession.
Also See
Sources
- Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pp. 5, 49, 83, 102
- Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 173
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