Wikia

The Stormraven Gunship is a relatively recent addition to the armouries of the Adeptus Astartes. The Stormraven is an highly versatile multi-role aircraft and can act simultaneously as a gunship, dropship, and strike aircraft. The Stormraven is smaller than the larger and more common Thunderhawk gunship that has been used by the Adeptus Astartes since the Great Crusade, and thanks to its array of vectored thrusters the Stormraven is also much more agile while in flight. The Stromraven's impressive speed and maneuverability, when used in conjunction with the superhumanly precise skills and reaction times of its Space Marine crew, allows the craft to effortlessly evade enemy interceptor fire and maneuver at full thrust through the cluttered spires of a Hive City or through the mega-fauna of a jungle-covered Death World. The Stormraven is capable of carrying up to twelve Power Armoured Space Marines in its armoured troop hold, and is even capable of carrying up to six Assault Marines, although their Jump Packs take up half of the interior room. The aircraft can also transport an Astartes Dreadnought by way of external grapples. Many times if a Stormraven is destroyed while in-transit, the Dreadnought is capable of surviving and later being recovered by the Chapter's Techmarines. It is currently unknown if the Stormraven is capable of transporting Terminators.

History

The origins of the Stormraven are unknown to the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, although it is whispered that its Standard Template Construct (STC) data file was found by a Techmarine of the Blood Angels Chapter in the early 41st Millennium, located in a long-forgotten Mechanicum archive on Mars. There also exists equal evidence of the Stormraven having been in the service of the Grey Knights Chapter of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus even earlier than that. While the Imperium's cliquish and labyrinthine bureaucracy has no official records explaining the emergence of the Stormraven, there does exist records that show that the Stormraven was first used by the Grey Knights and Blood Angels Chapters, and was not supposed to enter broader use until it had proved its worth within these Chapters and satisfied the Adeptus Mechanicus with its performance. However, in such dire times as those of the late 41st Millennium, the Adeptus Astartes need every weapon they can find, sanctioned or not, and many Space Marine Chapters now field several Stormravens alongside their other aircraft.

Armament

The Stormraven is unusually heavily armed and armoured for an aircraft of its size, its firepower easily matching or exceeding even the most potent Imperial main battle tanks. The Stormraven has many times been referenced to as a flying Land Raider. The Stormraven is armed with a set of hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters, a Servitor-controlled, dorsal turret-mounted set of twin-linked Assault Cannons, and wing hardpoints capable of carrying up to four anti-armour Stormstrike Missiles . The aircraft can further enhance its firepower by being outfitted with side sponson-mounted Hurricane Bolters. The Stormraven can replace its hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters with either a set of twin-linked Multi-Meltas or a single Typhoon Missile Launcher. The craft's dorsal turret-mounted weapons can be replaced with either a set of twin-linked Plasma Cannons or a pair of twin-linked Lascannons. Stormravens belonging to the Blood Angels Chapter replace their Stormstrike Missiles with their own Bloodstrike Missiles, and similarly the Grey Knights replace them with with their own Mindstrike Missiles. All Stormraven gunships are equipped with armoured ceramite plating and can be further upgraded with a searchlight, extra armour plating, and a locator beacon. The Stormravens employed by the Grey Knights Chapter all make use of the unique system of Aegis armour plating which enhances the craft's protection against the psychic assaults of daemons and other Warp entities by inscribing protective litanies and sacred unguents of the Imperial Creed directly into the aircraft's surface. Grey Knight Stormravens may be further enhanced with Warp Stabilisation Fields, Truesilver Armour plating, a Teleport Homer, and their Heavy Bolters may be loaded with Psybolt Ammunition.