Stormraven Gunship

Lore & history

Smaller and far more agile in atmospheric dogfights than the venerable Thunderhawk Gunship, the Stormraven Gunship is the premier tactical air-assault transport of the Adeptus Astartes. For centuries before its widespread adoption across Codex-compliant Chapters, the Stormraven's STC data-scrolls were closely guarded and fielded almost exclusively by two brotherhoods whose doctrines demanded rapid, pinpoint aerial insertion: the Blood Angels of Baal and the daemon-hunting Grey Knights of Titan.

To the Blood Angels, the Stormraven is the winged chariot of their shock assaults, screaming down through flak-filled skies on vectored thrusters to drop Death Company warriors or Sanguinary Guard directly onto an enemy citadel while a Furioso or Librarian Dreadnought unhooks from the rear magna-grapple and crashes straight into the fray. To the Grey Knights, whose small Strike Squads and Paladins must respond to Daemonic incursions before a warp rift can widen, the silvered Stormraven is both a rapid insertion craft and a flying reliquary shielded by psychic wards.

In the closing decades of the forty-first millennium, the Adeptus Mechanicus sanctioned the Stormraven pattern for the wider Adeptus Astartes, where it frequently flies at the heart of a 'Storm Wing' flanked by two escorting Stormtalon Gunships.

Design, mechanism & battlefield effect

The Stormraven is an orbital-capable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) armoured gunship powered by twin high-output vectored-thrust jet turbines mounted in rotating wing nacelles, supplemented by ventral maneuvering jets along the belly. By pivoting its thruster nozzles instantaneously in mid-flight, a Techmarine pilot can transition the bulky, ceramite-plated craft from a supersonic dive into a dead-stop hover just metres above a rooftop—a feat known as 'skimming the turmoil.'

What sets the Stormraven apart from every other atmospheric craft of its size is its dual transport capability. Inside the forward armoured cabin, up to twelve power-armoured Space Marines (or six Terminators or Centurions) ride behind a front hydraulic assault ramp and two side doors, allowing them to charge directly out of the nose as the gunship touches down. Simultaneously, a heavy rear magna-grapple clamp suspended beneath the tail boom can lock onto and carry a full-sized Space Marine Dreadnought into battle.

Above the cockpit sits a manned dorsal servitor-or-Techmarine turret mounting heavy twin weapons, while the nose, wing-pylons and side-hurricane sponsons bristle with missiles and cannons.

Patterns, variants & doctrine

A Stormraven's modular weapon bays can be configured for tank-hunting, air superiority or infantry annihilation. The dorsal turret mounts either Twin Assault Cannons, Twin Heavy Plasma Cannons or a Twin Lascannon, while the nose bay houses a Twin Heavy Bolter, a Twin Multi-Melta or a Typhoon Missile Launcher. Up to four Bloodstrike or Stormstrike Missiles hang beneath the wings alongside optional Hurricane Bolter side-sponsons.

The Grey Knights' pattern replaces the standard Bloodstrike missiles with telepathically guided Mindstrike Missiles loaded with psi-Charged warheads that detonate catastrophic psychic feedback inside enemy psykers and Daemons, while the Dark Angels developed the closely related Dark Talon and Nephilim Jetfighter aircraft for their Ravenwing hunt.

Notable patterns & relic examples

• Blood Angels Assault Pattern: Carries Death Company or Assault Terminators in the forward bay and a Furioso Dreadnought in the rear tail-grapple.
• Grey Knights Titan Pattern: Protected by Aegis wards and armed with psi-reactive Mindstrike Missiles to purge Daemons and rogue psykers.
• The Storm Wing Formation: A Stormraven Gunship escorted by two Stormtalon Gunships to punch through contested airspace and deliver a vanguard strike.
• Hurricane Bolter Sponson Configuration: Adds six twin-linked bolters along the fuselage flanks to clear infantry from hot landing zones.

Wielded & Fielded By

Characters (8)

• 
  Mephiston · Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels, Lord of Death
• 
  Astorath the Grim · High Chaplain of the Blood Angels, Redeemer of the Lost
• 
  Kaldor Draigo · Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights
• 
  Sanguinius · Primarch of the Blood Angels, the Great Angel
• 
  Corax · Primarch of the Raven Guard, the Deliverer
• 
  Commander Dante · Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, Regent of Imperium Nihilus
• 
  Gabriel Seth · Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers
• 
  Kayvaan Shrike · Former Master of Shadows (Chapter Master) of the Raven Guard

Related weapons & vehicles

ChainswordPower FistPower SwordThunder HammerBolter & Bolt RifleMeltagun & Multi-MeltaPlasma Gun & Plasma IncineratorStorm Bolter

Primary Faction

Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters)