The angels of the night
Chapter Name: The Angels of the night, also known as the Nightangels
Strategies Employed: Nightfight, infiltrating, not often use tanks, if they do most commonly Whirlwinds and sometimes Land Raider Crusaders. Dreadnaughts deployed in drop pods also used.
Favoured Weapons: Sniper rifles, heavy weapons, Chainsword and bolt pistol
Current Leader: Zadakiel, Supreme Grand Master of the Angels of the Nights.
Chapter Colours: During the time of Rebirth, the chapter changed many of their ways and appearance. The colour of their armour was changed from different shades of green to mainly black (from the Ravenwing), red (to remind of the blood that was spilt in their past) and grey (origin unknown). The shoulder pads have remained dark green to show their heritage in the Dark Angels.
The Angels of the Night is a successor chapter of the Dark Angels and has adapted many of their ways, beliefs and have the same technology. Exactly when and why the chapter was founded is unknown, but it should have been sometime around the early 39th millennium. The chapter itself has thorough records dating back to 843.M39 when they started using Hebron Minor as home base. Outside archives however barely have any records about them.
The chapter is the most fanatic of the Dark Angels and their successors about hunting down the fallen. The chaplains of the chapter endlessly uphold the word of the Emperor and at the slightest rumour of heresy the rally an attack against them. Legends among the Angels of the Nights tell that the chapter once was glorious, but as they grew more fanatic about catching the fallen and risked more and more they also lost more and more. This resulted in the chapters nigh extinction. In 843.M39 they changed home world to Hebron Minor, one of three moons circling Piscina IV, to regain strength. During this time of rebirth the chapter developed close ties to the Ravenwing and adapted some of their ways. This resulted in the Angels of the Night becoming a more scouting chapter instead of the offensive tactics they used before. After a whole century when the chapter no longer was threatened by extinction they started to fully function again and took up the offensive tactics once more. Despite their offensive attitude, Terminators are rarely fielded, mainly due to lack of equipment since many died before the time of rebirth.
Battles of the Angels of the Night
During the time of which the chapter was reborn, it was under command of Chapter Master Malachai. A man who stood over 9 feet tall, battle scarred from numerous campaigns and who could defeat the enemy even as the troops were deployed. In 921.M39, the chapter received a distress call which originated from the planet of Arx, a planet of strategical importance in the war against Chaos. Malachai rallied the entire weakened chapter to aid whatever troubled marines on Arx. This was a tough decision for Malachai to make, since the mission might drain the chapter of the powers it had left, but it would be worth it if they were successful and thwarted the plans of chaos. After leaving the moon that had become their new home, they sent after the Ravenwing to assist them, the Ravenwing however was occupied fighting off the Eldar. Unknowing that no assistance would arrive, Malachai’s forces soon after arrived in orbit around Arx. They scanned the surface and soon found that it was no ordinary marines in trouble, but the marines of the Ordo Malleus. The Grey Knights, led by Grand Master Lucutus, had been tasked to research daemonic activity on the planet. On arrival the grey knights had been taken completely off guard and found themselves heavily outnumbered by renegades and daemons. They had successfully retreated to the tombs of an ancient cathedral, where they could defend themselves for a limited time. Realising the seriousness of the situation, Malachai immediately launched an attack on the chaos worshippers near the ruins to relief the Grey Knights. The fury of the Angels of the Night knew no bounds. The only time a marine’s bolter stopped firing was to reload and fire another devastating round. Just as Lucutus had been the Renegades had now been taken off guard, but not for long. Suddenly, the leader of the chaos horde emerged from the crowd and rallied the Renegades. The Angels had to restrain themselves not to charge on him there and then. Instead, Malachai ordered them to form a ring around the ruin and everyone armed with sniper rifles be placed on high grounds in the ruin. Seconds later the renegades were upon them. The Angels held their ground and beat off any renegade unfortunate enough to come in their way. Malachai himself had his eyes on the possessed leader of the renegades and cursed the fact that he was not within range of his blade, but he comforted himself with killing those that were. It seemed as the Renegades were breaking through in the west, and the Angels being beaten back. Suddenly, Lucutus and his Grey Knights emerged from the tombs and with Nemesis weapons held high they assaulted the gap that the Angels had formed on purpose. Stunned by the sudden change in roles and the appearance of the grey knights the renegades started to hesitate. At that very moment Malachai received a message from his ships and he put up a giant grin on his face. He gave up a scream that echoed over the entire battlefield and even further.
“CHAAAAARGE”.
It did not even take a millisecond for his marines to obey the order and as they did the sky turned dark with inquisitionships and the ground filled with the feared Grey Knight Terminators. Inquisitor Lord Luthor deGuis was among the first to appear on the battlefield and he immediately attacked the possessed leader of the renegades with chants, but was hindered as the leader summoned forth more daemons. Malachai, however had also faught his way forth and just as the leader showed his true face, a greater daemon of Khorne, he fired his bolter at him and did not stop until his head was completely blown off. With this, the battle ended as those renegades not yet dead fled. Luthor deGuis was greatly impressed and thankful to the Angels for their doings and made sure that their efforts were to be held forward to the Inquisition. Lucutus on his side showed his gratitude by giving his psycannon to the Angels to be carried by the Chapter Master as a symbol of that day.
In 372.M40, the angels 3rd and part of the 9th company were occupied in the Naogeddon sector to assault on the Necrons rumoured to be there. Led by the company commander Gabriel the two companies surfaced. It was a dead and eerie world they had landed on, with no sign of life anywhere. Gabriel ordered the 9th to set up a safe zone and the 3rd to scout the area for lifesigns. He also sent out Arvus ships to get an aerial view of the area around them. The ships as well as the 3rd returned some hours later without anything else than dead terrain to report. Day turned to night and Gabriel decided that the best course of action was to take up defensive positions and ordered everyone with sniper rifles to gain altitude. Devastator Squads armed with plasmacannons took up positions covering plains and all tactical squads positioned behind cover. The marines moved silently to their places, but they were not alone.
In cover of the night the metal bodies of the Necron had awakened and moved forth. The first sign the marines received that they had been discovered was a terrifying scream from the west. After that, the Necrons came swarming from everywhere. Where it seconds before had been silent as the grave, the air was filled with the sound of bolter shots and screams. Gabriel ordered his marines to fall back and regroup. The angels formed a line with their backs covered by a cliff were snipers had set up before. Gabriel sent after dreadnaughts to be deployed via drop pods and soon after reinforcements arrived. Strengthened by this, the Angels began to advance on the Necron horde. The Angels attacked for all what they were worth and many Necrons fell to the ground with limbs cut off. As the night passed the fight raged on and even though the Angels slew countless machines, many more stood before them. Gabriel sent for more reinforcements from his ships and sent out calls for help throughout the sector. As dawn came so did a response of aid, it is rumoured that when Gabriel heard that it would come from the Space Wolves, he smashed a pair of Immortals to pieces with his bare hands. The Angels held their ground and fought off any and every attempt made by the Necrons to assault on them. Some hours later, the ships in orbit reported that they had made contact with the Space Wolves’ ships and that they would be there by nightfall. At this point, the Angels had fought all night and half day but they were still heavily outnumbered and it was not certain that they would still alive by that time. Gabriel knew this and pushed his marines to the limit an ordered any man capable of holding a weapon to join the battle. Sgt Crucius led one of the scout squads that made landfall at this time and he immediately joined the other sniper squads placed on the cliff. As he gazed down on the horde of rusty machine men below him, he could not believe what he saw. There must have been several hundred of them. He loaded his rifle and took sight. If he was to die that day, he would do so after taking as many as he could with him. The Angels began to give after to the horde and many angels fell in a few hours. As promised, by nightfall the air started to roar of the sound of thunderhawks filled with space wolves 4th company. The Angels thunderhawks joined in to make bomb runs in support to the Space Wolves deployment. As soon as the two rivals were on the same battlefield they began to exchange evil eyes, but they both knew that more important things stood before them. The joined forces of the space wolves 4th, the Angels 3rd and 9th eventually drove the enemy back to the darkness it came from. After the battle, Gabriel prepared himself for the usual battle between Dark Angels chapter commanders and the Space Wolves’ chapter commanders. The leader of the Space Wolves, Wolf Lord Svein Greyback stepped forth, he too prepared to fight. In a matter of seconds the two giants were upon each other. They each tried to get hold of the other and fists flew through the air. Still tired by the outdrawn fight, Gabriel was the underdog, and Greyback had the upper hand. In a swift move, Gabriel threw Greyback over his shoulder, but Greyback stood up and the fight was on again. Greyback won the fight when Gabriel opened up his back to him. Humiliated that he had needed help from the Space Wolves and even more that he had lost to one, Gabriel swore that he would never be taken by surprise in the dark again. When he returned to Hebron Minor, he immediately started training his marines for nightfight and the Angels of the Night is still a chapter that does very well in the dark.
The Angels has through the millennia captured several Fallen, some with more sins than others. One of those however, the Angels are especially proud to have in their cells. The capturing of Lucius the Blasphemous was the greatest challenge the 1st company had ever faced. In 587.M40 the Angels received word that the planet of Chiros was to be attacked due to suspected heretic activities. The Angels reacted quickly and sent their 1st company to the planet to deal with eventual heretics. Upon arrival, the Angels made contact with the Imperial Fists that already lay in orbit and requested that they may take this mission. As the Imperial Fists responded, the Angels already made landfall straight into the village where the heretics was to be situated. The first angels to arrive set up a defence zone and the ones coming after immediately scouted the area for heretics and to gain information. As the entire chapter had surfaced, Chapter Master Artemus received word that no heretics were to be found anywhere. Knowing that the information had come from a reliable source, Artemus sent his best scouts to thoroughly check the area. Artemus himself stayed put in the village along with his command squad and two tactical squads. Half an hour later, a fog searched its way into the village, and in cover of this, heretics were able to surround the marines left in the village. The heretics opened fire upon the marines who, due to their excessive training in the dark, were able to quickly locate their enemy and eradicate them. The fog then disappeared as if it had never existed. The Angels had suffered casualties though, two marines had died and three had been seriously injured. As Artemus made sure there were no more enemies near them, he received a message from the ship in orbit saying that a single ship had left the planet heading for the eye of terror. Artemus realised that that must have been Lucius trying to escape. There was no time to regroup, so he and his command squad mounted a thunderhawk to take them to Artemus’ flagship in orbit. He then gave command over the marines on the planet to his trusted sergeant Zaul-Re to exterminate all heretics on the planet. The flagship then left orbit to follow the enemy ship and with its superior engines, it had soon cached up. Artemus ordered the ship to open fire on Lucius’ ship which became heavily damaged and crash-landed on a deserted planet. Artemus and his command squad landed close to the wreckage of Lucius’ ship and moved closer, fingers on their triggers. To their disappointment and surprise, Lucius had survived the crash and escaped. Artemus and his squad decided to hunt Lucius down and give him what he deserved. Experts in the art of tracking and tracing, the elite marines quickly found Lucius’ tracks and the hunt was on.
What Artemus did not know was that they were the hunted. The marines had walked their way into the jungle for roughly an hour when the tracks disappeared into thin air. Smelling a trap, Artemus screamed to his marines to take cover, but too late. Half the squad died instantly, and the rest was more or less injured. The marines, now in cover, waited for their foe to take another salvo at them and thereby reveal his position, but nothing happened. Artemus concentrated as hard as he could, but still he heard nothing more than his own heartbeats. He signalled to his squad to keep down and crawl to a rock nearby for better cover. When they were there he decided to take the risk and climb up a tree so he could get a glimpse of the surroundings. He was shocked to see what he saw. In a valley some clicks to the south, a city had emerged. But it was no ordinary city; its walls were covered with unholy drawings and in the centre of the city, a great obelisk towered to the sky. Artemus felt sick as he climbed down the tree and nearly puked. His brethren saw this and did not dare ask what he had seen. Artemus thought for a while and then tried to make contact with his flagship. The jungle made reception weak and the radio was weak. A crack heard and all the marines grabbed their boltpistols and took cover. All was quiet. Then all hell broke loose. Shots were fired everywhere and daemons emerged from the jungle. The marines felt that this was to be their last stand, but it would not come cheap for the heretics. Seconds later Artemus’ radio gave up a sound. It was Sergeant Zaul-Re who had entered the atmosphere in his thunderhawk along with a dozen others. Artemus said to his brothers that reinforcements had arrived and that they were saved. The sky soared with the sound of thunderhawks and the marines ran to them covered by Zaul-Re’s marines. As the thunderhawks took off Artemus told them about the city in the valley and they immediately turned around and headed to it. With nearly all soldiers out in the jungle, the city was easy to take. Artemus grabbed his powersword and headed for the obelisk where he had seen Lucius from his thunderhawk. As he approached, Lucius turned around and swung his sword against Artemus. Filled with rage, Artemus blocked the attack and bagan a series of swift skrikes against the fallen marine overwhelmed, Lucius could do nothing but back away and in no time, the battle was over. The Angels then left the planet and bombed it from orbit then sent a message to the Inquisition.
this is my idea of the NightAngels colours:
http://bolterandchainsword.com/wargear.php?bpe=911F1F&bpj=000000&bp=6E6363&bpc=911F1F&hdt=000000&hdm=911F1F&hdl=6E6363&ey=000000&er=000000&pi=000000&nk=000000&ch=000000&eg=6E6363&sk=6E6363&abs=911F1F&bt=6E6363&cod=911F1F&ull=000000&lk=911F1F&lll=000000&lft=6E6363&url=000000&rk=911F1F&lrl=000000&rft=6E6363&slt=6E6363&sli=0E5208&srt=6E6363&sri=0E5208&ula=000000&lel=911F1F&lla=000000&lw=6E6363&lh=911F1F&ura=000000&rel=911F1F&rla=000000&rw=6E6363&rh=911F1F&bg=FFFFFF&rb=6E6363&gr=000000&grid=TRUE
