Not every duty of the Adeptus Custodes is served best by the slow, unbreakable advance of a golden phalanx. For those tasks that demand speed and sudden reach, there are the Venatari, Custodians who have forsaken the earthbound tread of their brothers for gravitic thrusters that carry them soaring above the battlefield. From the heights they choose their prey with a hunter's patience, then fall upon it like stooping raptors, faster than any foe can react.
The Venatari are armed for the swift and surgical kill. Many bear the Venatari lance, a long energised weapon that spits the enemy at the moment of the charge and lays open armour with a single thrust, while others carry the kinetic destroyer, a ranged weapon that hurls hyper-dense slugs to punch through the toughest hide. Each also bears the tarsus buckler, a compact shield that turns aside blows and can be driven into a foe's face with bone-shattering force.
In the doctrine of the Ten Thousand, the Venatari are loosed against the enemy's vital organs, its commanders, its war-engines and its strongpoints, striking with such speed that the foe is undone before it grasps what has befallen it. They seize contested ground, run down fleeing quarry and open the killing blow for the heavier elements of the host. To face them is to learn that even the sky offers no refuge from the Emperor's chosen.
Order of battle
