No image is more bound to the Ninth Legion than the Legion Assault Squad descending on wide-spread wings, chainswords screaming, to fall upon an enemy like the wrath of heaven itself. The Blood Angels raised the winged jump assault to an art no other Legion could match, mounting sculpted pinions upon their packs so that a squad in flight resembled nothing so much as a host of avenging angels. They are the pure expression of the Legion's soul, swift and beautiful and lethal, and the moment of their impact is the moment a Blood Angels battle is won or lost. It is also the moment the Red Thirst rises highest, for there is a terrible joy in the killing that follows a descent, and a squad that lingers too long in the slaughter can lose itself entirely. Sanguinius trained his sons to strike, break, and climb again before that joy could master them.
Order of battle
