The Deathwing is the First Company of the Dark Angels, an entire company composed solely of veterans who go to war clad in the finest Tactical Dreadnought Armour. Their bone-white plate sets them apart from the deep green of their brothers, and Chapter legend holds that this colour was first adopted as a death-oath. A band of these warriors is said to have returned to the feral world of their birth only to find its people enslaved beneath a Genestealer brood, and they painted their armour the colour of bleached bone to swear that they would purge the infestation utterly or die in the attempt.
Every member of the Deathwing is inducted into the Inner Circle, for their armour and their teleportation strike doctrine make them the ideal instrument for the hunt for the Fallen. A squad may translate directly from the decks of the Rock into the midst of the enemy, materialising amid a crackle of tortured air to unleash storm bolters, assault cannons and cyclone missile launchers before falling upon survivors with power fists, chainfists and thunder hammers.
Stubborn beyond the measure of ordinary men, the Deathwing hold ground that lesser warriors would abandon and press attacks that would break other companies. When the Dark Angels must confront a horror too terrible for line brethren, or when a Fallen must be taken before he can speak of what he knows, it is the silent, bone-armoured veterans of the First Company who answer the summons.
Order of battle
