A Death Guard Grave Warden Terminator in modified Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour armed with a Power Fist and an integrated Death Cloud chemical projector, its distinctive discharge stacks visible on the bearer's back
A Grave Warden Terminator Squad was a specialised formation primarily utilised by the Death Guard Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Originally employed as an informal name for the variously armed battalions of Death Guard Terminators of First Captain Calas Typhon's company carried into battle aboard the unique Battleship Terminus Est, the term "Grave Wardens" also eventually became synonymous both within the Death Guard Legion and beyond it for the Alchemical Weapons-equipped Terminators unique to the Death Guard. Alone among the Legiones Astartes, the Death Guard made free and frequent use of Alchemical Weapons, such as the crawling horror of Phosphex, inimically lethal Cullgene gas and flesh-eating Vasgotox fluid, as a matter of course, and outfitted specialised units in modified patterns of Tactical Dreadnought Armour to disperse it accordingly. Where the Grave Warden Terminator Squads walked, they brought lingering, ugly death to whatever and whoever crossed their paths, and as the Death Guard were unleashed on the Imperium of Man in the wake of the Warmaster Horus' betrayal of the Emperor of Mankind, weapons which had previously only been used against the foulest and most resilient forms of alien life were turned upon humanity instead. As a result, the Death Guard's tally of murder and atrocity grew world by world. It is unknown if the current Death Guard Traitor Legion still utilises this specialised formation in the late 41st Millennium.
Composition
- 4-5 Grave Warden Terminators
- 1 Chem-Master (Squad Leader)
Wargear
- Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour - The Cataphractii Pattern of Terminator Armour was originally a prototype for the later patterns of Terminator Armour that were employed by the Space Marine Legions and the warriors of the Legio Custodes throughout the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Grave Warden cadres utilised Terminator Armour that was modified with the distinctive technological adaptations that enabled them to operate in extremes of bio-alchemical warfare.
- Assault Grenade Launcher - A robust, if short ranged, belt-fed weapon, the Assault Grenade Launcher carried by the Grave Wardens was a modified pattern designed primarily for mounting on the vehicles of the Imperial Army. It carried two kinds of ammunition: one was a standard shaped-charge Krak shell and the other a toxic warhead which unleashed a burst of highly lethal chemical agents and concentrated acid vapour on detonation.
- Krak Grenades - A type of explosive device used by the military forces of the Imperium of Man. Krak Grenades use a shaped explosive charge capable of punching holes in armoured targets such as vehicles or bunkers, and its charge can even rip armour plating apart. Typically they are attached directly onto vehicles or fortifications with magnetic, adhesive or physical clamps, maximising their effect on the target.
- Toxin Grenades - This grenade was a form of personal chemical weapon that unleashed a burst of highly lethal chemical agents and concentrated acid vapour upon detonation.
- Power Fist - This iconic Astartes weapon is essentially an over-sized armoured gauntlet that generates an energy field around it that disrupts the bonds between the molecules of any solid matter it touches.
- Death Cloud - The modified Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour of the Grave Wardens carried in-built alchemical containment and projection units, allowing the Terminator to shroud himself in a murderous fog of toxins and direct-focused jets of lethally poisonous vapours.
Sources
- The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 227
- The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 154
- Forge World - Death Guard Grave Warden Terminators
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