The Deathwatch: The Alien Hunters

Across the Imperium of Man, countless alien races press against humanity's borders, and someone must always stand ready to meet them. That duty falls to the Deathwatch: a brotherhood of black-armoured Space Marines gathered from Chapters across the galaxy, united by one grim purpose, to hunt, study, and destroy the xenos wherever it threatens Mankind.

The Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos

The Deathwatch does not act alone but serves as the fighting arm of the Ordo Xenos, the branch of the Inquisition tasked with watching over alien threats. When an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos needs warriors to storm a xenos lair or scour an infestation, it is the Deathwatch they call upon.

This makes the Deathwatch a scalpel rather than a hammer. They are seldom deployed to win great pitched battles. Instead they strike at the vital points: a Genestealer brood before it can spread, an alien warlord before he can rally his hordes, a piece of xenos technology too dangerous to leave in enemy hands. Theirs is the work of precision, secrecy, and hard-won specialist knowledge.

Drawn From Many Chapters

What makes the Deathwatch unique among Space Marines is that its warriors are not raised within it. Instead, established Chapters across the Imperium send their finest veterans to serve for a time, lending their skill and experience to the alien-hunters. A single squad might contain brothers from a dozen different lineages, each with his own traditions and ways of war.

When a Marine joins the Deathwatch, his armour is repainted black, and the badge of his home Chapter is moved to his right shoulder while his left bears the silver Deathwatch insignia. In this way he carries both identities at once, a proud son of his own Chapter and a member of the wider watch that transcends them all. That fusing of many traditions into one force is the Deathwatch's greatest strength.

The Long Vigil

Service in the Deathwatch is known as the Long Vigil, and it is a solemn undertaking. A Marine seconded to the watch swears an oath to set aside the concerns of his Chapter and devote himself entirely to the war against the xenos, for however long that service is required of him.

For some, the Vigil lasts a set span before they return to their brothers, carrying back everything they have learned. For others it becomes a lifelong calling, and they remain with the Deathwatch until death. Either way the Vigil marks a warrior forever. Those who go home are changed by what they have witnessed, and those who stay become the living memory of the watch, their experience passed to each new generation of hunters.

Kill Teams

The signature formation of the Deathwatch is the Kill Team, a small squad assembled specifically for the mission at hand. Rather than fielding large, uniform units, the Deathwatch hand-picks a handful of specialists whose particular skills best suit the enemy they are about to face.

Against a swarm of lesser creatures, a Kill Team might favour heavy weapons and cleansing flame; against a single monstrous foe, it might gather the deadliest close-combat specialists to be found. This flexibility lets a mere handful of warriors accomplish what would ordinarily demand a small army, striking fast, achieving the objective, and vanishing before the enemy can respond in force.

Watch Fortresses

The Deathwatch keeps its vigil from strongholds scattered throughout the Imperium, known as Watch Fortresses, supported by smaller outposts called Watch Stations positioned near regions of heavy xenos activity. From these bastions the watch observes alien movements, gathers intelligence, and launches its strikes.

These fortresses are also great libraries of forbidden knowledge. Over the millennia the Deathwatch has amassed a vast understanding of the galaxy's alien species: their anatomies, their weaknesses, their weapons and ways of war. This hoarded lore is a weapon in its own right, for the Deathwatch fights best when it knows its prey intimately, and few in the galaxy know the xenos half so well.

Weapons for Every Foe

To face an endless variety of enemies, the Deathwatch fields an armoury unlike any other. Their most prized tools are specialist bolt rounds, each tailored to a different kind of prey: rounds that burn out from within, rounds that punch through the toughest hide, rounds that detonate amid swarming foes. A single Marine can switch his ammunition to suit whatever horror appears before him.

Beyond their famous special-issue ammunition, the Deathwatch wields exotic blades, shields, and heavy weapons gathered and crafted across long centuries of alien-hunting. Every piece is chosen for the same reason: to give a small band of warriors the means to kill things far larger, stranger, and more numerous than themselves. In the war against the xenos, preparation is everything, and no force in the Imperium prepares like the Deathwatch.