Heldrake

Lore & history

High above the smoke-choked battlefields of the forty-first millennium, a metallic, bat-winged silhouette stoops out of the storm clouds with a shriek that curdles blood across every vox-channel. The Heldrake is a predatory flying Daemon Engine of the Heretic Astartes—a grotesque fusion of an ancient Space Marine fighter-interceptor, living daemon-flesh, and a bound warp-entity hammered together in the hell-forges of the Dark Mechanicum and Vashtorr the Arkifane.

Unlike a loyalist Stormtalon or Astra Militarum Valkyrie, a Heldrake is no longer a mere machine steered by a pilot's hands. Deep inside the armoured chest cavity of the mechanical dragon, the original Chaos Space Marine fighter pilot still exists—curled into a foetal ball, his limbs atrophied and his nervous system fused directly into the Daemon Engine's burning core. Stripped of control over the beast that grew around his cockpit, the entombed pilot can only scream through the Heldrake's external vox-amplifiers as the predatory Daemon spirit takes over the hunt.

Driven by an instinctive hatred of all other winged creatures, Heldrakes prowl the upper atmosphere in packs, plunging down out of the sun to slam belly-first into Imperial Marauders, Valkyries and Stormravens, ripping their wings and tails off with taloned hind-limbs before banking low over the trenches to incinerate infantry in torrents of soul-burning Balefire.

Design, mechanism & battlefield effect

A Heldrake's chassis combines swept, segmented brass-and-ceramite wings powered by pulsing daemonic muscle-cables with a roaring rear warp-flame turbine engine. Because the beast is sustained as much by the currents of the Immaterium and its own bound Daemon spirit as by aerodynamic lift, it can fold its razor-edged wings to dive at supersonic speeds, then flare them open in an instant to hover and thrash like a grounded wyvern in the middle of an infantry formation.

Its primary anti-aircraft weapon is its own monstrous body: during a ' Meteoric Descent,' the Heldrake slams its underside and barbed hind-talons directly into an enemy aircraft at terminal velocity, shearing through cockpit canopies and jet intakes with adamantium claws before the target's pilot even knows it is under attack.

Mounted directly inside the hinged, fanged jaws of its serpentine neck is either a Baleflamer or a Hades Autocannon, fed by internal warp-reactors and ammunition hoppers that regenerate slowly as the Daemon Engine gorges on slaughter.

Patterns, variants & doctrine

Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions configure the Heldrake's maw with one of two devastating primary weapons. The Baleflamer is the most feared by ground troops: it projects pressurized gouts of mutating, multicoloured warp-fire that flows through the vision slits of bunkers and cooks Space Marines alive inside their ceramite armour from both the outside and the inside simultaneously.

The second configuration mounts a four-barrelled rotary Hades Autocannon inside the dragon's throat, spitting a blistering hail of high-calibre, piston-driven shells capable of chewing through light tanks and sawing enemy gunships in half in mid-air. Alongside the Heldrake, Chaos air-fleets also deploy the sleeker Hellblade fighter and the heavy Hell Talon fighter-bomber forged on the Dark Mechanicum world of Xana II.

Notable patterns & relic examples

• Baleflamer Configuration: Breathes gouts of soul-consuming warp-flame from the Heldrake's jaws to incinerate infantry in cover and melt power armour.
• Hades Autocannon Configuration: Mounts a rotary four-barrelled autocannon in the dragon's throat for anti-tank and air-superiority hunting.
• Meteoric Descent Vector Strike: The Heldrake's signature diving ambush, ripping enemy aircraft apart in mid-air with its winged claws.
• Hellblade & Hell Talon Kin: Dark Mechanicum void-and-atmospheric Chaos fighters that hunt alongside Heldrake packs.

Wielded & Fielded By

Characters (4)

• 
  Abaddon the Despoiler · Warmaster of Chaos, Lord of the Black Legion
• 
  Haarken Worldclaimer · Herald of the Apocalypse
• 
  Ahzek Ahriman · Exiled Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons
• 
  Tzeentch · Chaos God of Change, Sorcery and Ambition; the Changer of the Ways

Related weapons & vehicles

ChainaxePlague Knife & BaleswordSonic Blaster & BlastmasterBlade of the LaerDrach'nyenSilence (Plague Scythe)

Primary Faction

Heretic Astartes (Chaos Space Marines)