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Terminatorzy

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" The left shoulder plate of a suit of Terminator Armour always carries the large solid stone icon known as the Crux Terminatus. This doubles as a tactical symbol and as a revered honour badge. Each Crux is reputed to have bound within its core a tiny fragment of the battle armour worn by the Emperor during His epic duel with Horus the Arch-traitor ten thousand years ago. The design of this ancient badge can vary considerably, even within a single unit or Chapter. Sergeants' and officers' Crux tend to be more elaborate and finely detailed than those worn by normal battle-brothers, but all are venerated equally. To lose even a single Crux in battle is to betray the Emperor's trust and bring great shame down on the entire Chapter."

- A treatise on Tactical Dreadnought Armour

Terminators are Space Marine Veterans who have earned the right to wear Tactical Dreadnought Armour, better known as Terminator Armour. They are their Chapter's greatest infantry assets, each essentially serving as a walking tank.

Tactical Dreadnought Armour combines the technological developments of power armour with the sealed environmental suits designed for starship crews that work in highly unstable or corrosive environments such as inside the high pressure casings of Plasma Reactor shields. It can even withstand the colossal impact of high speed orbital micro debris.

Terminators are always members of the elite 1 st Company of a Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapter.

Every Space Marine Chapter maintains a number of suits of revered Tactical Dreadnought Armour. Terminator suits are the pinnacle of armoured protection available to a Space Marine. Each is all but impervious to small arms fire and can even withstand the merciless onslaught of anti-tank weaponry or the titanic pressures of teleportation through the Warp.

Terminator Armour, created just before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, is incredibly rare. Space Marines hold it a great honour to be permitted to wear such a suit in battle, and it is only to members of the Chapter's elite 1st Company who have earned the status of Veterans that this honour is granted.

It requires rigorous standard years of extra training to fight in Terminator Armour. Each warrior so armoured is expected to act as an example to the rest of his brethren by fighting in the most difficult of missions and performing beyond even the lofty standards of the Adeptus Astartes.

Terminators are near-invincible, unstoppable and never yield. Terminators combine centuries of experience as Astartes with some of the best armour and weapons in the Imperium. Terminators often spearhead the Space Marines' attacks, blowing apart the enemy at range, before getting in close and crushing them in a final, ruthless assault.

In the Era Indomitus of the 41st Millennium, both Firstborn and Primaris Marines can serve as Terminators. Not even Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl was able to improve upon the ancient and sacred Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour. Any Space Marine Veteran can earn the right to don a suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, so veterans of the Tyrannic Wars and the Indomitus Crusade alike are clad in these suits of revered ceramite.

GameSpot Expert Reviews

Space Marine power armour has a long and glorious history, its origins dating back to the long-forgotten Age of Technology before the Emperor of Mankind's Unification of Terra.

Nothing is now known of this time, but it is speculated that suits of powered armour were worn by the techno-barbarians that fought alongside the Emperor as He battled to bring Terra under His rule in the 30th Millennium. Over time, these suits were refined and improved, becoming the earliest incarnations of fully enclosed power armour.

The preparations for the Great Crusade included the re-equipping of the Space Marine Legions with a far more sophisticated suit of power armour that Imperial historians have dubbed Mark II "Crusade" or "Crusader" Pattern Power Armour. Alongside these developments, the Emperor initiated a program to develop a new suit of power armour that would provide even greater protection than that offered by the standard marks of power armour for Space Marines.

Anecdotal evidence of the adaptability and willingness to embrace this new weapon of warfare can be found in the Primarch Horus' vocal backing of the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project that was undertaken by the ancient Mechanicum of Mars, with the result that his XVIth Legion, the Luna Wolves, was one of the first and most widely equipped with the early prototypes of Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and stood at the forefront of the development of tactics for its use in starship and planetary assaults.

The standard suit of Mark II Crusader Power Armour provided excellent protection against small arms fire but not against heavier weapons, while the massive cybernetic Astartes combat walkers known as Dreadnoughts were unable to operate in certain environments, such as dense urban landscapes and heavily forested terrain, due to their sheer size and bulk.

Some had expected that Tactical Dreadnought Armour could replace power armour outright, although it soon became apparent that Space Marines encased within Tactical Dreadnought Armour were at a disadvantage in battle, since the warriors using the armour would be quickly outmaneuvered by more lightly-armoured forces, and because they could not be transported in standard Space Marine armoured vehicles like Rhinos.

Movement is made possible through the complex synthetic fiber-bundle muscles of the armour, which allow a properly-trained Astartes warrior to fight with deadly strength and skill in cramped, close-quarter conditions, where this armour excels at providing protection and resiliency.

A squad of warriors in Terminator Armour can be "networked" together to share visual and tactical data, although to limit confusion this is rarely done; networking is used in special circumstances such as combat operations aboard a space hulk where the Terminator Squad is often separated among different corridors trying to cordon off a Genestealer attack.

Tactical Dreadnought Armour is incredibly rare -- any given Space Marine Chapter would be lucky to possess a hundred suits, which would be enough to fully equip the Chapter's 1st Company. New suits of Indomitus Terminator Armour can be manufactured by the Adeptus Mechanicus, but although the Mechanicus possesses the knowledge and skill, they can only be produced at an extremely slow rate.

Newly-formed Space Marine Chapters often have difficulty obtaining large numbers of suits of this armour, especially because older, more prestigious Chapters have greater priority.

Each suit of Terminator Armour bears the Crux Terminatus on its left shoulder plate. This is a great honour amongst the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, as each Crux Terminatus symbol is said to have been made using fragments from the Emperor's personal armour worn during His final battle against Horus on the Arch-traitor's battle barge Vengeful Spirit at the climax of the Siege of Terra.

Some Space Marines who have earned the right to wear Terminator Armour choose to stay in their regular Space Marine power armour, due to its advantages in maneuverability, but they are allowed to wear the Crux Terminatus on their shoulder as an honour badge and a symbol of their place amongst the elite Veterans of the 1st Company.

The design of this ancient badge can vary considerably, even within a single unit or Chapter. Sergeants' and officers' Crux tend to be more elaborate and finely detailed than those worn by normal battle-brothers, but all are venerated equally.

To lose even a single Crux in battle is to betray the Emperor's trust and bring great shame down on the entire Chapter.

Terminator Squad

Because of the rarity of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, only the members of the Veteran 1st Company of a Chapter may wear such a suit as serve as part of a Terminator Squad, though Force Commanders, Chaplains and Librarians may also equip such armour.

These Space Marines are the best of the best, each one a hero in his own right. They must be deployed in carefully-planned situations where the armour's inherent toughness and destructive weapons can be unleashed to wreak havoc upon the enemy.

Squads of Terminators are most often employed during spacecraft boarding actions, and although the Terminators' armaments can be modified for longer-range combats, it is brutal assault for which Terminator Armour was made.

Because of their bulk and slow speed, various methods have been developed to make the greatest use of these warriors. Primary amongst these is to deploy the Terminators straight into the thick of battle via short-range teleportation through the Warp. Although inaccurate and potentially dangerous, it is often the best way to ensure that Terminators get into combat quickly.

Nonetheless, teleportation is an ancient, barely understood technology that involves close contact with the Warp, and many Space Marine Chapters rightly distrust it.

Terminator Assault Squad

These fearsome squads are most often employed in boarding actions or where the fighting is sure to be close and bloody, such as breaching enemy fortifications or combats through urban battle zones.

In such cramped environs, where a foe cannot mass his firepower or line up his heaviest weapons, there are few foes that can withstand the brutal onslaught of a unit of Assault Terminators.

The combination of nigh-impenetrable armour and powerful melee weaponry makes for a shock force that can slice through all opposition. Many wars have been won by the sudden arrival of these deadly fighters.

Terminators are able to carry a variety of weapons into combat. The synthetic fiber-bundle muscles of Tactical Dreadnought Armour allow Astartes to carry much heavier loads than even their mighty physiques can manage and so heavy support weapons can be carried with ease.

As their armour enables them to withstand heavy firepower, Terminators often operate in the front lines, closer to the enemy than most Space Marines in power armour, and so much of their weaponry is specialised for medium to close range engagements.

Assault Cannons have a high rate of fire and excellent infantry and light-vehicle armour penetration at medium to close range; Terminators are the only infantry in the Imperium of Man that are able to carry these large and heavy weapons. Heavy Flamers can destroy Genestealers and burn out groups of enemy units in a single searing blast before the Terminators charge in.

The Cyclone Missile Launcher is unique to Terminators, being the only truly long-range weapon in their arsenal, and it is the only Terminator weapon specifically intended for open battlefield use (it cannot be used in space hulks or during starship boarding operations); it can unleash a volley of Frag or Krak Missiles for anti-infantry or anti-vehicle use.

The weapon is a twin six-cell launcher mounted on top of the Tactical Dreadnought Armour, so the Astartes can also retain the use of the standard Storm Bolter. In addition, a special targeting sensor is built into the armour, thus allowing the user to accurately fire the Cyclone Missiles while simultaneously firing the Storm Bolter.

Having no ranged weapons, Assault Terminators outfitted with these close combat weapons need to get close to the enemy as fast as possible, so they are usually transported by Land Raiders or teleported directly into the enemy's battle lines.

Unit Composition

Terminator Squad

Terminator Assault Squad

Cataphractii Terminator Squad

Tartaros Terminator Squad

Terminator Squad

Assault Terminator Squad

Cataphractii Terminator Squad

Tartaros Terminator Squad

Notable Terminator Formations

Pre-Heresy Formations

Alpha Legion Lernaean

A designation utilised by the Alpha Legion, derived from ancient Terran myth, was the "Lernaean". This cognomen appears to have been given to the XX th Legion's most expert shock assault troops, particularly to dedicated Terminator companies and, in some instances, Legion Breacher Siege Squads and Dreadnoughts.

In particular, battle recordings of certain Lernaean Terminator units mark them as being equipped with advanced teleportation assault capacity and specialised heavy weaponry, such as compact Conversion Beam weapons and phase-field generator gear.

The foremost task of the Lernaean was to swiftly isolate and destroy the most powerful enemy frontline troops and any potent battlefield assets a foe possessed, and to do so in such an emphatic and bloody manner that not only was a potential threat to the Alpha Legion's attack eroded, but the psychological shock of their attack would further damage enemy morale.

Such was the calculated cruelty and cold brutality employed by the Lernaean Terminators that their reputation quickly spread beyond the Alpha Legion itself.

Death Guard Deathshroud

The Deathshroud were the elite Space Marines of the Death Guard Legion who served as the Primarch Mortarion's mute Honour Guard during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.

Great secrecy surrounded this elite cadre. Their numbers were chosen from amongst the ranks of the Death Guard Legion and each member was singled out and personally selected by their Primarch for the bravery and valour they had displayed in combat.

Once chosen, the selected Battle-Brother would foreswear his former life as a common rank-and-file Astartes of the XIV th Legion, and would swear binding oaths of secrecy as a new member of the secretive Deathshroud. Each member of the Deathshroud would be listed as killed in action to allay any suspicions as to their true identity, and they would forever conceal their faces behind heavy enclosed helmets, masks or hoods.

It was the Deathshroud's sacred duty to never stray more than forty-nine paces from Mortarion. Two Deathshroud guardians customarily escorted the Primarch at any given time, though there may have been more hidden in the shadows.

These stoic warriors' presence was quite intimidating as when not in motion they would stand uniformly at attention, still as statues. But in battle they were equally frightening, for whatever the odds, they always moved inexorably towards their target, as unerring as the automated killing machines employed by the Legio Cybernetica.

Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard

The Phoenix Guard was the elite unit of Space Marines from the Emperor's Children Legion who served as the Primarch Fulgrim's Honour Guard during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The members of the Phoenix Guard followed their beloved Phoenician wherever he went as part of their duties, even when he was travelling within the relative safety of the starships of the Imperial Army and the vessels of the other Space Marine Legions.

During the battle to conquer the xenos world of Laeran, the Phoenix Guard took part in the final extermination of the serpentine Laer species. The entire unit was slain on the world of Tarsus in the Perdus Region of the galaxy after Fulgrim, already under the influence of Chaos through the Laer Daemonsword he had captured on Laeran, took offence at the Aeldari Farseer Eldrad Ulthran's warning about Horus' corruption by Chaos, and proceeded to open fire on the Farseer and his troops from Craftworld Ulthwe.

A new Phoenix Guard was then recruited. They accompanied Fulgrim during both his fateful meeting with Horus where he finally embraced Chaos, and in his abortive attempt to recruit Ferrus Manus to the Traitors' cause aboard Ferrus' own flagship, where they successfully slaughtered the Morlocks Terminators who served as Ferrus' own bodyguard unit.

Iron Hands Morlocks

The Morlocks were the Veteran Space Marine Battle-Brothers of the Iron Hands Legion who served as Primarch Ferrus Manus' personal Honour Guard. These elite Veterans of the Iron Hands' 1 st Company of the Avernii Clan were so-named for the fearsome visage they presented like the vengeful predators of the same name that howled across the frozen tundras of their Legion homeworld of Medusa.

The Morlocks were the deadliest and most experienced warriors of the X th Legion, and whatever force was arrayed against these black-coloured Terminators could not hope to survive their wrath. The Morlocks were the bloody tip of the spear that drove hard into the vitals of the X th Legion's foes.

During the Dropsite Massacre of Istvaan V, the Morlock Terminators, led by The Gorgon, formed the centre of the Loyalists' assault as the Primarch of the X th Legion sought out his fallen brother Fulgrim. When the forces of the Emperor's Children and the Morlocks came together in a riot of bloodshed and death, the Morlocks' superior armour and experience gave them an advantage over the rank and file Astartes of the Emperor's Children, but they were greatly outnumbered.

Surrounded on all sides by Traitors after the second wave had revealed their treachery, in the midst of cries of pain and roaring savage glee, the Morlocks of Ferrus Manus were slain to a man. It is unknown whether the Morlocks were reconstituted by the Iron Hands Chapter after the events of the Horus Heresy.

Iron Warriors Tyrant Siege Terminators

Tyrant Siege Terminator squads were an elite formation utilised exclusively by the Iron Warriors Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras during the 30th and 31st Millennia. The vanguard of any Iron Warriors siege breakers formation, these warriors were clad in thick Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and armed with deadly carapace-mounted Cyclone Missile Launchers.

Recruited from amongst the most battle-hardened Iron Warriors, Tyrant Siege Terminators were expected to brave the most ferocious enemy fire without regard for their own survival -- even more so than others of their grim brotherhood, they understood the mathematics of war and were ever ready to make a sacrifice in blood to secure victory.

Most often these veteran warriors were found among the ranks of the Stor-Bezashk, the elite siege masters of the IV th Legion, and deployed to other Grand Battalions as needed to support siege and assault actions. Tyrant Siege Terminators were often at the forefront of the most cataclysmic battles of the Great Crusade.

Night Lords Atramentar

The Atramentar were the elite Terminator-armoured unit of Battle-Brothers from the VIII th Legion's formidable 1 st Company led by the infamous First Captain Sevatar. This elite cadre's numbers were chosen from amongst the standard ranks of the Night Lords Legion from Astartes who had been singled out and personally selected by their Primarch Konrad Curze , the Night Haunter, for their ferocity and cruelty.

The 1 st Company had largely dissolved mostly because its Astartes felt that no one could live up the dark reputation of their former First Captain, who died during the Siege of Terra. The Atramentar served no other leader after Sevatar died; he had made them into what they were, a brotherhood that could not be broken any other way.

In the same way, the members of the VIII th Legion would serve no single Captain after their Primarch died. It was not their way, just as most of the Traitor Legions fragmented into hundreds of different warbands.

Allegiance to Chaos ultimately always bred division and fractious internecine conflict no matter how powerful its worshipers proved to be.

Raven Guard Deliverers & Shadow Wardens

Despite the favour shown to the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project by Horus himself, who acted as patron to the XIX th Legion in the absence of their Primarch, many of the warriors of the then-unnamed Raven Guard Legion were ill-disposed towards the slow and bulky Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour.

Some did adopt its use, mainly those Chapters of the XIX th Legion who had long served in the shadow of the Luna Wolves siege and heavy assault companies, becoming adept at close range and shock assaults from both mutual support and teleport deployment.

The Legionaries of the XIX th Legion came to refer to these detachments as "Deliverers." In the wake of Corvus Corax's return, the Deliverers were rarely called upon by the Primarch.

Most were assigned to distant Great Crusade fleets and those who remained at Corax's side became the avatars of his carefully controlled anger, loosed only when an enemy proved itself worthy of utter destruction.

When he was their leader during the slave uprisings on Lycaeus, Corax's peers insisted he be watched over by a bodyguard lest the slave overlords or some other rogue element attempt to assassinate him. While he resented this, Corax allowed it, as much for his followers' peace of mind as for his own safety.

Having joined his Legion, the bodyguard followed, being formed into an Honour Guard of Terminator elite, known informally as the "Shadow Wardens." It was said that they were ever present, though often unseen when their Primarch went to war, and that none could avoid their gaze.

Indeed, only one individual was ever able to do so, and that was Corax himself, giving credence to the stories that Corax was able to slip his own shadow should he choose to do so.

Sons of Horus Justaerin

The Justaerin were one of two distinct sub-formations within the elite 1 st Company of the Luna Wolves and later the Sons of Horus Legion. Led by the Legion's First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon, the Justaerin were the pride of the XVI th Legion, sporting their signature black armour, which denoted their specialisation in harrowing actions, shock assaults and strategic decapitation strikes.

Tasked with forming the "point of the spear" for the XVI th Legion, they went where the fighting was thickest, their attack directed usually at destroying the heart of an opposing target or conducting a decapitation strike on an enemy force.

Early proponents of the use of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, many Justaerin entered combat as Terminators, relying on the resilience this gave them to smash aside any resistance and close in for the kill.

Ultramarines Fulmentarus

Fulmentarus Terminator Strike Squads were an elite heavy support formation of Terminators that was utilised exclusively by the Ultramarines Legion during the late 30th and early 31st Millennium. The Fulmentarus Terminator Strike Squads could be seen as one of the many examples of the genius of the XIII th Legion's Primarch Roboute Guilliman.

The warriors of the Fulmentarus are equipped with Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour, enhanced to carry an array of targeting systems that made it possible for each to combine their fire in a highly coordinated fashion.

When combined with a heavy weapons system such as a Reaper Autocannon, or the Cyclone Missile Launcher first uitilised by the Tyrant Siege Terminators, these sensors made the Fulmentarus a fearsome heavy assault unit and one that, were it not for the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, might one day have entered service across the Legiones Astartes.

Thousand Sons Sekhmet

The Scarab Occult were all members of the elite 1 st Fellowship, under the command of 1 st Fellowship Captain Ahzek Ahriman. These proud and extremely devoted warriors were both combat veterans and highly-ranked members of the psychic mastery cult system of the Thousand Sons. None of the Sekhmet were below the Cult grade of Philosophus, the final Cult rank a warrior could hold before facing the Dominus Liminus.

Each warrior was able to mentally transcend their physical and emotional weaknesses; achieving a form of emotional purity that resulted in warriors who were both fearless and willing to follow orders immediately and unquestioningly. This extraordinary level of discipline was commented on by some of the other Primarchs who witnessed the Sekhmet in action during the Great Crusade.

Leman Russ, the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves Legion, showed disdain for what he perceived as the Sekhmet's perceived "lack" of fighting spirit and espirit d'corps due to their taciturn natures.

The Sekhmet's status following the Thousand Sons Legion's transformation into a Chaotic Traitor Legion devoted to Tzeentch and the enactment of the Rubric of Ahriman is unknown.

White Scars Keshig

The Keshig were the personal Honour Guard of Primarch Jaghatai Khan and his subordinate commanders of the White Scars Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.

The Keshig were an elite cadre of warriors made up of the most veteran and skilled Legionaries to be found in the V th Legion who all served as the Legion's elite Terminators.

The Keshig was once described as "a whole phalanx of giants in bone-white Terminator plate."

World Eaters Devourers & Red Butchers

The Devourers were the premier cadre within the World Eaters Legion that served as a dedicated bodyguard unit for their Primarch Angron during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millenniums. In battle the Devourers fought encased in Terminator Armour and carried the most savage weapons the XII th Legion possessed.

This warrior band had only twelve members, and access to its ranks was only attained by defeating another Devourer in single combat to the death or, should one of its number fall in battle against an enemy, a successor was selected by a contest open to all of the Astartes in the World Eaters Legion, only one of whom would survive.

Once considered a great honour, over time a position within this cadre was barely acknowledged by the Primarch, as the neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails slowly ravaged Angron's mind, eroded his mental stability and slowly damaged his capacity to reason.

Over a standard century after Angron's return to his Legion, by the time of the Horus Heresy, the Devourers constantly lurked behind their lord, their Primarch hardly sparing them a glance. To be one of Angron's bodyguards was no longer considered an honour within the XII th Legion, despite how fiercely the World Eaters' champions had fought for it in those first, optimistic years.

Angron ignored them no matter where they went, never once fighting alongside them in battle. Armoured in their bulky Terminator battle-plate, they never managed to keep up with their liege lord, and they were as prone to losing control to their own Butcher's Nails cortical implants as any other World Eater, meaning any hope of them fighting as an organised unit was a forlorn hope at best.

These warriors, who had spent an entire Terran century learning to swallow their pride, pretended that they were not actually ignored by the Primarch they were supposed to protect.

The Red Butchers were a specialised shock-assault unit of the World Eaters during the Horus Heresy. These ferocious warriors were the precursor of the Khornate Berserkers of the later Age of the Imperium. The psycho-sugery inflicted upon the Red Butchers by the so-called Butcher's Nails cybernetic implants hammered into their skulls and the awakening Chaos taint within the World Eaters Legion combined to create a superhuman killing machine without reason or restraint.

The Red Butchers were controlled only through the use of brutal shock implants and the prison of their specially constructed Terminator Armour into which they had been fused by the XIIth Legion's Techmarines.

In between battles the Red Butchers were hung in chains in the holds of the World Eaters' warships, foaming and screaming in impotent rage, until such time that they were released once again against the Loyalist forces of the Imperium or upon the innocent.

Post-Heresy Terminator Formations

Dark Angels Deathwing

The Deathwing is the elite 1 st Company of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter. While most other Chapters allow their 1 st Company squads to take to the field in a variety of configurations as befits the tactical situation, the entire 1 st Company of the Dark Angels Chapter consists of dedicated squads of Terminator Armour-clad Veterans.

This specialty formation is also found amongst those Space Marine Chapters who are Successors of the original , which are collectively known as the Unforgiven. The Deathwing's mission takes precedence over all others, even though they may be called upon to fight a wide range of foes.

Members of the Deathwing are indoctrinated into the outermost tiers of the Unforgiven's Inner Circle, and party to the some of the terrible secrets surrounding the existence and nature of the Fallen.

Some members of the Deathwing may know the identity of those they fight, while others are unaware they were once loyal Dark Angels, but all members of the Dark Angels 1 st Company, and indeed the 1 st Company of every Unforgiven Chapter, know that the Fallen are the vilest of Heretics and must be persecuted above all others.

Salamanders Firedrakes

The Firedrakes are those elite Astartes of the Salamanders Chapter's 1 st Company, chosen not simply for their martial skill, but also because of their mental resilience, discipline and self-sacrifice. Created during the Great Crusade by their Primarch Vulkan, the Firedrakes were so-named for the greatest of the salamander saurids said to originate beneath the stones of Mount Deathfire.

They were the finest and most experienced warriors of the XVIII th Legion. To be afforded this exalted status, mere skill-at-arms was not enough alone, and the warrior would have to have been proven of faultless bravery and just as importantly, faultless self-control.

Through their tenacity, sheer determination and extraordinary valour, some of these elite warriors managed to survive the slaughter committed against them by the Traitor Legions.

These surviving Firedrake Legionaries would live to fight on for the remainder of the Horus Heresy, and help to hunt down the remnants of the Traitor Legions following their defeat after the Siege of Terra during the subsequent Great Scouring.

Following the sundering of the Space Marine Legions into smaller autonomous units known as Chapters, and the subsequent Second Founding, the Firedrakes also managed to survive, for Vulkan made certain that their legacy was maintained.

Space Wolves Wolf Guard

The Wolf Guard are the most elite Veterans of the Space Wolves Chapter, comparable in rank to a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter's Sternguard Veterans. They are the bravest warriors of each of the Chapter's Great Companies, hand-selected by their Great Company's Wolf Lord to serve as his chosen protectors and the vanguard of his forces.

Within the Space Wolves Chapter, battlefield promotion is extremely common, for Wolf Lords are men of conviction and instinct. There is no specific criteria for elevation to the ranks of the Wolf Guard. The surest way is to save the life of a Wolf Lord in the heat of battle.

Each Battle-Brother that serves in this elite unit has earned their place by some exceptional feat of arms that marked them out amongst their brethren, for a Wolf Guard is chosen based on his heroic deeds, rather than his age or time served with the Chapter. Therefore, the Wolf Guard maintains a mix of hot-blooded young warriors and stalwart veterans amongst its ranks.

It is the sacred duty of the Wolf Guard to be the sword and shield of their lord. These chosen brethren are favoured by their Wolf Lord with the best weapons he has at his disposal -- antique weapons of immense potency and ornate artefacts of ancient origin. Few can stand before these heroic warriors, equipped as they are with the best wargear in the company's Armoury, making them virtually unstoppable in close combat.

Each Wolf Guard is expected to fight in the style at which he excels, for their lord cares little for their former roles in their former packs.

Few can turn down the lure and raw power afforded by a rare and powerful suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, and so a Wolf Lord is often accompanied into battle by a brotherhood of hulking, nigh-indestructible champions, each ready to dispense his own particular brand of death and, if necessary, give their life for their lord.

Deathwatch Terminators

A Deathwatch 1st Company Veteran is one of the most heroic, brave and trusted Battle-Brothers in the entirety of the Deathwatch, having proved his mettle in hundreds of conflicts from squad-level raids to full-blown Imperial Crusades.

Entrusted with many precious mysteries hidden from other Battle-Brothers, and holy artefacts of incomparable value, these Veteran warriors bear the honour of the Deathwatch before all others, guiding their junior Battle-Brothers in times of doubt and confusion.

1 st Company Veterans found in the ranks of the Deathwatch are expert warriors who have come to perform their Vigil and have brought their considerable prowess to the service of the Long Watch.

More rarely, a Space Marine wins such renown within the Deathwatch that he is accorded the rank and privileges of a 1 st Company Veteran in recognition of his zeal and purity during his Vigil. When the Battle-Brother returns to his Chapter, it is rare for his Chapter Master not to acknowledge this honour, inducting him into the 1 st Company, or that Chapter's equivalent, at the first opportunity.

Chapter legends are littered with examples of a handful of 1 st Company Veterans expunging a stain on the Chapter's honour despite the risks, or selflessly sacrificing themselves in the cause of victory. Most importantly, only 1 st Company Veterans can take on the role of serving as Terminators.

Grey Knights Terminators

As there is no doctrinal restriction on the types and numbers of weapons carried, it is rare for two Grey Knights Terminator Squads to bear exactly the same weapons combination -- the Grey Knights have always favoured brutal efficiency over organisational mandate. Some prefer the crushing force of a Nemesis Daemon Hammer, others the flurry of attacks granted by a matched pair of Nemesis Falchions.

Complementing this fearsome close quarter armament, each Terminator will also carry a Storm Bolter, typically mounted upon his left vambrace, thus leaving his left hand free for a double-handed grip on his Force Weapon, or to access the supply of grenades belted at his waist.

Grey Knights Terminator Squads rarely operate a standard line of battle, for it seems that the Grey Knights are always outnumbered by their daemonic foes. Thus, they must concentrate their attacks, picking their targets individually for full effect.

As a result, Grey Knights Terminators often choose to teleport straight into the heart of battle, the better to catch the foe unaware in a storm of firepower and vengeful blades. Indeed, sometimes the only warning that an enemy will receive is the momentary flash of light and stink of ozone that precedes a teleport beam -- by which time it is far, far too late.

Game History

Terminators were first introduced to the Warhammer 40,000 universe during the late 1980's, via the miniature boardgame . The Terminators were pitted against Genestealers aboard a Space Hulk.

The cover art for the 1st and 2nd editions of the game displayed Blood Angels Terminators; a Dark Angels Deathwing Terminator was shown in the expansion pack.

Deathwing Terminators also featured in the cover art for the earlier game Tyranid Attack, where they were shown battling Tyranid Warriors and Termagants, but the game miniatures themselves were Space Marine Scouts.

Popular demand eventually caused Games Workshop to provide Terminators for the main Warhammer 40,000 tabletop war game, and a set of rules was published in White Dwarf 109.

Although the potency of a Terminator Squad has been toned down since then, they are still considered a formidable part of any Space Marine army. At the time, the shoulder armour of the Terminators was bulkier and there were checkerboard patterns on their Storm Bolters and Assault Cannons.

The Terminator model was revamped during the mid-1990's and again in 2004, but the current design is still very similar to the previous one. Releases during the 2nd Edition of Warhammer 40,000 included a generic ( Ultramarines or Blood Angels) plastic box set of a 5-man Terminator Squad, consisting of three Terminators with the regular Storm Bolter and Powerfists, one with a Heavy Flamer and a Powerfist, and the Sergeant with Storm Bolter and Power Sword.

There was also the Dark Angels Deathwing metal box set (replaced one Power Fist with a Chainfist, and also had Deathwing ornaments), and the Space Wolves Wolf Guard metal box set (replaced two Power Fists with Chainfists, replaced one Storm Bolter with an Assault Cannon, and also had Wolf Guard ornaments).

There were also metal blister packs for individual Terminators as well, not only for specialised weapons (Lightning Claw, Thunder Hammer, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist, Assault Cannon) or Chapter-themed weapons (Deathwing, Wolf Guard), but also for generic Terminators (duplicating the plastic models).

In the 3rd through 5th Editions of Warhammer 40,000, Terminators were released as five-man plastic boxed sets which were not specific to any Chapter, with some minor changes from the previous version. There was either the standard squad (containing extra parts for the Assault Cannon, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Heavy Flamer, and Chainfist) or assault squad (contains enough parts to equip Terminators with either all claws or all hammer/shield).

Deathwing and Wolf Guard Terminators were no longer sold in most stores though they were still available from the online store. However, the Dark Angels Veterans box set and the Black Templars Upgrade pack both contained plastic replacement parts for Terminators to make them Chapter-specific.

Forge World also sold a line of Conversion Sets (usually just a set of resin shoulder plates, but sometimes entire torsos) for several different Chapters.

Chapter Approved 2001: Second Book of the Astronomican, "Crux Terminatus" & "Cult Terminators", pp. 55, 58-59

Citadel Journal 36, "Talons of Death: New Wargear", pp. 64-71

Citadel Journal 45, "Space Marine Archive: Terminators", pp. 10-15

Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 81, 158, 159

Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), "Chaos Space Marine Terminators" & "Terminator Weapons", pp. 30, 73

Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), "Chaos Terminators", pg. 10

Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), "Chaos Terminators" & "Armour", pg. 28, 86

Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 63

Codex: Space Marines (3rd Edition), pg. 8

Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition), pp. 25, 31

Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pg. 64

Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 90, 172

Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 79, 129-132

Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pg. 61

Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter (RPG), pp. 71, 134

Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 164

Imperial Armour - The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal, pp. 70, 196

Planetstrike (5th Edition), pg. 13

Index Astartes IV, "Deep Strike - Tactical Dreadnought Armour"

The Horus Heresy: Collected Visions (Artbook), pp. 33, 45, 52, 61-62, 65, 67, 78, 111-112, 138, 176, 189, 229, 235, 239-240, 243, 262-263, 274-275, 303, 352, 367

The Horus Heresy Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 70, 196

The Horus Heresy Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 49, 53, 57, 61, 75, 77, 102, 123, 144, 228, 232, 249

The Horus Heresy Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 70-71, 92, 97, 119, 144, 252, 261

The Horus Heresy Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 148, 154

Warhammer 40,000 Compendium (2nd Edition), pp. 11-18

Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), pg. 68

Warhammer 40,000: Index Astartes - Tactical Dreadnought Armour (Digital Edition)

White Dwarf 109 (US), "Terminator Squads", pp. 32-33

White Dwarf 112 (US), "Terminator: Space Marine Tactical Dreadnought Armour", pp. 11-20

White Dwarf 113 (US), "Space Hulk: 1st Ed. Preview", pp. 34-39

White Dwarf 114 (US), "Grey Knight Terminator Squads" & "Cyclone; Terminator Missile Launcher", pp. 11-15

White Dwarf 115 (US), "Command Units: Space Hulk 1st Ed.", pp. 20-31

White Dwarf 117 (US), "Close Assault: Terminator Close Combat Weapons", pp. 65-69

White Dwarf 121 (US), "Traitor Terminators: Part 1 - Chaos Terminators", pp. 27-33

White Dwarf 122 (US), "Traitor Terminators: Part 2 - Chaos Terminators", pp. 26-35

White Dwarf 134 (US), "Space Crusade: Terminators", pp. 4-11

White Dwarf 142 (US), "Questions and Answers: Aegis Suit", pp. 12-19

White Dwarf 158 (US), "Return to Kalidus: Campaign for The Wolf Guard, Space Wolf Terminators", pp. 30-35

White Dwarf 161 (US), "Deathwing Terminators", pp. 4-7

White Dwarf 181 (US), "Space Marine Terminators: Tactical Dreadnought Armour", pp. 37-39

White Dwarf 303 (US), "Index Astartes: Deep Strike", "Crux Terminatus" & "Rise of the Marinies", pp. 18-23, 24-29, 30-35

White Dwarf 304 (AUS), "Rise of the Marines: A Brief History of Terminators", "Deep Strike"

White Dwarf 304 (US), "Rise of the Terminators"

White Dwarf 305 (UK), "Crux Terminatus"

Horus Rising (Novel) by Dan Abnett, pg. 161

Forge World - Death Guard Deathshroud Terminators

Forge World - Tartaros Pattern Terminator Armour

Forge World - Iron Hands Legion Gorgon Terminators

Forge World Salamanders Legion Firedrakes

Forge World - Sons of Horus Justaerin Terminators

Forge World - World Eaters Legion Red Butchers

Warhammer Community - A Mindblowing New Edition of Warhammer 40,000 is Coming

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The left shoulder plate of a suit of Terminator Armour always carries the large solid stone icon known as the Crux Terminatus. This doubles as a tactical symbol and as a revered honour badge.