Ravenwing

The Ravenwing is the name of the 2nd Company of the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines and is also usually used as the name for the 2nd Company of all of the Dark Angels' Successor Chapters, who are collectively known as the Unforgiven. The Ravenwing Company is a highly specialised unit that is intended to make use of mobility and speed to defeat the enemy rather than heavy firepower. Originally the Ravenwing was the portion of the Dark Angels Chapter and the Unforgiven Chapters that was tasked with hunting down the remaining Fallen Angels, the Dark Angels who turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy and betrayed both the Emperor and the Dark Angels' Primarch Lion El'Jonson.

History
The Ravenwing originated as the heavy cavalry unit of the feudal knightly group known as the Order on the Dark Angels' homeworld of Caliban before the Great Crusade which hunted the potent Chaos-mutated beasts that terrorised the deep forests of that feudal world. This cavalry unit of the Order wore black plate armour with distinctive winged helms and was skilled in battle that its members could survive the deep forests of Caliban alone.

Only the Company's senior officers are aware of the Ravenwing's primary role of hunting down and capturing the Fallen Angels of the Dark Angels Legion of old. The member of the 2nd Company are therefore, granted only limited knowledge to some of the secrets of the Dark Angels, more so than their fellow companies, but far less than the elite 1st Company of Deathwing and the Chapter's Inner Circle. Those Battle-Brothers selected for service to the 2nd Company must not only possess an affinity with fast attack vehicles, they must also possess exceptional mental fortitude even for an Astartes. Only the most stoic of individuals are chosen for this singular honour to join the ranks of the Ravenwing, for those that they hunt are traitors and debased heretics who seek to undermine their faith in the Lion. For this reason the members of Ravenwing are constantly monitored by the Chapter's Chaplains for any signs of spiritual turmoil or corruption that could be caused by contact with these malignant heretics.

The 2nd Company is led by the current Master of the Ravenwing Company is the Dark Angels Captain Sammael. He has led this elite Company into battle for over a century, inheriting his current role from the previous Master of the Ravenwing, Gideon, as he lay dying. He succeeded Gideon as the Master of Ravenwing, a decision later ratified with the unanimous assent of the Company and Grand Masters. Sammael is privileged to ride into battle on one of the last known examples of an Imperial Jetbike, a lost piece of Imperial anti-gravitic technology dating back to the time of the Great Crusade. This nigh extinct technology is highly prized, the likes of which may never be seen again in the service to the Imperium.

Organisation
Like the Deathwing, the Ravenwing does not conform to the ideal of Space Marine Chapter organisation as laid out in the Codex Astartes, though the rest of the Dark Angels and the other Unforgiven Chapters' companies generally are Codex Astartes-compliant. The Ravenwing Company is mostly composed of Bike Squads and squadrons of assault Land Speeders, these vehicles are then divided into two groups, one serves as an attack squadron and the other as fire support.

Hunt for the Fallen
When a member of the Dark Angels or of the other Unforgiven Chapters receives the honour of being promoted into the Ravenwing Company, they learn the secret truth of the Chapter. The Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson was betrayed at the end of the Horus Heresy by his second-in-command Luther, who slew the Lion in single combat on the Dark Angels' lost homeworld of Caliban before he and those other Dark Angels who had been corrupted by Chaos were transported into the Warp by the will of the Ruinous Powers. These Traitor Marines are known today as the Fallen Angels, and the Dark Angels and all of their Unforgiven kin are sworn to bring every one of the Fallen to repentance or death before they can receive the Emperor's forgiveness. The Ravenwing Company was originally created to serve as highly mobile hunters in the pursuit of the Fallen Angels and this is still their most important, if highly secret role within all of the Unforgiven Chapters.

Company Colours
The company does not use the same dark green colour scheme for their armour and vehicles as the rest of the Chapter, much like their counterparts in the Deathwing Company, though unlike the Dark Angels' Terminators who wear bone-white, the Ravenwing's members wear the original deep black Power Armour colour used by the Dark Angels Legion during the Great Crusade before the Horus Heresy.