"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the daemon, I shall fear nothing. For I am what the daemon fears."
- — Grand Master Mandulis
A Grey Knights Terminator stands astride a fallen Ork
A Grey Knights Terminator is a superlative warrior whose status as an elite amongst the elite forms the heart of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter's forces. These warriors pursue the endless war against the daemons of Chaos. Armoured in superior suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, they face the vile horrors of the Warp, always outnumbered by the baying foe.
Role[]
Terminator Squads form the heart of a Space Marine Chapter's forces, for most Chapters maintain a number of suits of the revered and rightly feared Terminator Armour. Terminator suits are the pinnacle of armoured protection available to a Space Marine. Each is all but impervious to small arms fire and can even withstand the merciless onslaught of tank-busting Krak Missiles. Terminator Armour is exceedingly rare amongst the forces of the Adeptus Astartes. Space Marines hold it a great honour to be permitted to wear such a suit in battle, and it is only members of the Chapter's elite 1st Company to whom this honour is normally granted in Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters. The Grey Knights, however, can muster enough Tactical Dreadnought Armour to outfit almost their entire Chapter. Yet formidable though the armour is, the warrior within is far more remarkable. To pursue the endless war against the Daemons of Chaos takes more than a mere Space Marine. It takes a Grey Knight -- an altogether more superlative warrior, who is as far above other Space Marines as the Astartes are above the common run of Mankind.
Grey Knights Terminator armed with wrist-mounted Storm Bolter and Nemesis Force Sword
A Grey Knights Terminator's primary armament is a Nemesis Force Weapon of some kind, selected from the Chapter's Armoury according to the skills and preferences of its wielder. As there is no doctrinal restriction on the types and numbers of weapons carried, it is rare for two Terminator Squads to bear exactly the same weapons combination -- the Grey Knights have always favoured brutal efficiency over organisational mandate. Some prefer the crushing force of a Nemesis Daemon Hammer, others the flurry of attacks granted by a matched pair of Nemesis Falchions. Complementing this fearsome close quarter armament, each Terminator will also carry a Storm Bolter, typically mounted upon his left vambrace, thus leaving his left hand free for a double-handed grip on his Force Weapon, or to access the supply of grenades belted at his waist. Terminator Squads rarely operate a standard line of battle, for it seems that the Grey Knights are always outnumbered by their daemonic foes. Thus, they must concentrate their attacks, picking their targets individually for full effect. As a result, Terminators often choose to teleport straight into the heart of battle, the better to catch the foe unaware in a storm of firepower and vengeful blades. Indeed, sometimes the only warning that an enemy will receive is the momentary flash of light and stink of ozone that precedes a teleport beam -- by which time it is far, far too late.
Wargear[]
A Grey Knight Terminator armed with a Nemesis Force Halberd
- Aegis Terminator Armour
- Wrist-Mounted Storm Bolter
- Nemesis Force Weapons
- Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
- Psyk-Out Grenades
- Liber Daemonica - The Liber Daemonica is an enduring symbol of the Grey Knight's devotion to his mission, and contains the cardinal tenets of lore culled from the dark knowledge caged within the Sanctum Sanctorum's walls. Every Grey Knight carries a copy of the Liber Daemonica in a Ceramite case on his breastplate. These gnarled tomes contain the Chapter's rites of battle and detail the traditional duties of every Grey Knights' rank. The books themselves are also potent psychic talismans in their own right, with pages illuminated in silver and bound to a spine carved from the thigh bone of a martyred saint.
Psychic Powers[]
- Hammerhand - Focusing the raging power of their minds, Grey Knights can augment their already prodigious might. Even unarmed, such a warrior can crush flesh and bone in close combat -- given blade or warhammer there is little limit to what they can slay.
- Holocaust - Units of Grey Knights Terminators are able to make use of the Holocaust psychic power as a whole. A group of Grey Knights can harness their collective psychic powers to manifest this ability as long as the entire group remains focused on the manifestation. If successful, a Grey Knight Terminator can incinerate opponents at close range using this power. It is a manifestation of the hate the Grey Knights feel for the daemonic, and is completely capable of burning a daemon's physical body to ash. This power is especially terrifying because whatever is destroyed by the Holocaust power dies in the Warp as well, its spirit extinguished like a candle. It can burn the souls of mortals to nothing and can banish daemons as if they were but a bad dream. This power is a lesser version of the extraordinary final burst of psychic power used by the Emperor of Mankind Himself to snuff out the soul of Horus in the Warp at the end of the Horus Heresy during the final battle on Horus' Battle Barge, the Vengeful Spirit.
Sources[]
- Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 27
- Grey Knights (Novel) by Ben Counter