Navar Hef

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Navar Hef was a well-known warrior and officer of the Raven Guard Legion during the early 31^st Millennium. Born and raised on Deliverance, Hef had already been selected as one of the XIX^th Legion’s aspirants before Corvus Corax shipped out to confront his traitorous brother, Horus Lupercal, in the distant Istvaan System. Following the terrible losses sustained in the Drop Site Massacre and the ninety-days struggle for survival of the remnants of the Raven Guards their Primarch placed high expectations in Hef and his fellow aspirants.They, and others like him were to form a new breed of Legiones Astartes, a distinct command known as the Raptor contingent. Unfortunately, unknown to the Legion's highest authorities and Apothecarion, the new improved genetic materiel that had been implanted into Hef had been tampered with by agents of the Alpha Legion, which caused Hef to suffer from severe mutations. As one of the first to suffer from this genetic deviation -- which would quickly become the hallmark of the Raptors -- Hef quickly became a figurehead for those of his brothers afflicted in the same way as he had been. This quickly led Hef to being forwarded to act as second-in-command of the entire Raptor contingent under the esteemed Commander Branne Nev.

History

Little is known about Navar Hef before his induction as one of the Legion's many aspirants, except for the fact that he was born on Deliverance, the Raven Guard's home-moon orbiting the Forge World of Kiavahr. Although the exact date remains unknown, Hef's career was bound to have begun a few short years before the dramatic events of the Dropsite Massacre, as he had not yet been granted all of the necessary augmentations to fully turn him into a Space Marine by the time the surviving Legionaries returned from Istvaan V. Having lost more than 75,000 Legionaries in the Drop Site Massacre, the XIX^th Legion's might had effectively been broken. Upon leaving the black sands of Istvaan V, the Raven Guard's Primarch, Corvus Corax, had forever after, turned his gaze upon rebuilding his shattered Legion. One of his first orders was to immediately begin the implantation progress for the current generation of aspirants and turn them into fully fledged Legiones Astartes. Hef's fate however was quite different.

When Corvus Corax finally returned to Deliverance, it was not directly from Istvaan, but from sacred Terra, where he had been granted by the Emperor the keys to quickly rebuilding the Raven Guard Legion -- the genetic knowledge of the Primarch-project. Thanks to these secrets, the Raven Guard's Chief Apothecary, Vincente Sixx, and a high representative of the Mechanicum engineered an improved version of the XIX^th Legion's gene-seed, one that would allow the Raven Guard to turn nearly every young male, however physically weak, into one of the Emperor's Angels of Death. Where this process had previously taken many years of surgical improvements and nearly a decade of training, this transformation would now take mere days. This could potentially change the entire balance of the conflict ahead, and Hef's brothers and himself had been selected to become the first generation of the new-founded Raptors.

In stark contrast to previous generations of Raven Guards, the foundation of the Raptors contingent was a venture of utmost secrecy. Most notoriously the Raptors were not created within the high walls of the Ravenspire, but within the underground bunkers of the isolated Ravendelve complex, a training facility of the XIX^th Legion in the inhospitable rad-wastes of Kiavahr. As the gene-seed gradually was declared safe for implementation, the first recruits became Legionaries. With only a limited amount of the improved gene-seed available, a first human test was conducted on ten randomly chosen Aspirants. Unfortunately, Hef was not to be amongst them. In every aspects, the Raptors were superior to the Legiones Astartes -- several of the vital organs that had to be surgically implanted in previous generations of Space Marines would now grow naturally -- the only element still needing surgery being the Black Carapace. One of the greatest benefits of the improved gene-seed was the accelerated growth of the subject, which turned an Aspirant into a Legionary in about a hundred hours, Terran standard, where the previous process had taken many years.

Even the precious Progenoid Glands which held the Legion's future benefitted from this accelerated growth, but this was only of secondary importance as the Primarch-data allowed Sixx and Orlandriaz to grow progenoid glands from scratch. This would then allow for the Raven Guard to fully bypass the Raptors' training as Scouts and directly field them as fully battle-ready Legionaries. However, all these boons also came with a price. The accelerated growth put the aspirants bodies under enormous stress -- while physical weakness posed no more problems -- the effects of the gene-seed and the accelerated cell-gestation emphasized naturally-present conditions and malformations. The Raven Guard lost one of its earliest Raptors to a microscopic heart defect, causing his immediate death. The nine surviving Legionaries quickly became known as the First Nine and they marked a new step in the evolution of the Legiones Astartes.

Raptor

With the gene-seed now deemed safe enough to begin mass-implantation, the creation of the Raptors could begin in earnest. However the medical facilities of Ravendelve limited each new generation of Raptors to only 100 warriors. The Raven Guard's Master of Apothecaries Vincente Sixx and his acolyte Magos Orlandriaz vainly tried to convince Corax to transfer the gene-seed to the Ravenspire, but the Lord of Ravens flatly refused them. Rebuilding the fighting strength of his Legion was still his highest objective, yet the Raptors were still a little-understood and untested weapon. Corax required a test of the Raptors' mettle before allowing production of both gene-seed and Legionaries to be stepped up, and so, these first hundreds would do. To ensure that selection was entirely random, the Raven Guard -- as on many previous cases -- reverted to luck. Each of the Aspirants would draw a token, a hexagonal nut to determine their future. White meant that they would not be selected for the current generation of Raptors, whilst a black nut would mean that the recruit would undergo gene-seed implantation.

Commander Branne and Sergeant Nestil were put in charge of the selection program and ordered the recruits to assemble in Ravendelve's training hall and to form a line. Hef was unlucky though as he only earned himself a place at the end of the line. By the time the line had advanced so far as to allow him to see the little box were the nuts would be drawn, all 100 black nuts had been drawn, leaving Hef with nothing but excitement and frustration; an additional energy he used to fuel his efforts in training. Both already augmented Raptors and Aspirants trained in the confined space of Ravendelve, interaction was inevitable. Hef burned to become like his former comrades, longed to train with Bolter and heavy weapons -- the weapons of a true warrior of the Astartes -- rather than the simple machine guns he and his yet-human comrades were issued with. As the first three hundred Raptors soon departed Ravendelve for a training mission, the elimination of a listening station of the Word Bearers Legion, Hef still awaited his turn for implantation, but his long wait was soon to be over.

A few weeks later, Navar Hef and his remaining comrades were finally taken to the Apothecarium to begin their transcendence into warriors of the Legiones Astartes. With his patience and efforts finally being rewarded, it was an eager Navar Hef that subjected himself to the treatment devised by Sixx and Orliandraz. In a few short days, the youth had been replaced by a towering, muscular super-human, a warrior even deadlier than the regular Legionary. Much to Hef's pleasure, he and his squad brothers saw almost immediate action as Ravendelve was attacked by unknown elements. Stepping virtually from the Apothecarium onto a battlefield, Hef relished in his new abilities: strength, speed and discipline, firing a Bolter at the enemies of the Raven Guard and finally wearing the much coveted Mark VI "Corvus" pattern Power Armour that had become the new standard equipment for the Raptors.

Under Sergeant Cald, Hef's squad was assigned a Rhino APC and formed Ravendelve's rapid respond force which soon found itself tasked with pursuing the illusive enemy, whose main assault had been thrown back thanks to Ravendelve's static defenses. In truth, the attack posed no true threat, whatsoever, to Ravendelve, but the enemy still needed to be eradicated. Retreating in the ever thickening noxious fog clouds, harried by the Raptors-squads in Rhinos, the enemy was as good as dead when the unthinkable happened: in the confusion of battle, one of the Raptors was brought down. Not by enemy fire, although that enemy, now identified as Kiavahrian guilders, indeed possessed weapons capable of slaying Legionaries, but by an unknown pain. Hef could only look on in horror as his fellow Raptor's body, now laying on the ground, was shaken by violent spasms, sending his bolter flying, and obviously in a great amount of pain. Hef remarked that the squad's vox was now filled with painful grunts and moans, and at that moment he saw his neighbour falling down on his knees when he too felt it -- a tightness in the chest and a flaming agony that locked his limbs in place which brought him to his knees -- and a burning pain that quickly crept up his spine. Hef's squad was not the only one concerned, for all over the battlefield most of the Raptor-squads had been simultaneously brought low. Faced with this unforeseeable turn of event, Sergeant Cald did the only sensible thing to do -- he ordered a retreat. Hefting the fallen Hef personally onto his shoulders, he brought the stricken Raptor back into the Rhino, but the ever-stubborn Hef insisted on walking the last few metres, stumbling more than walking and letting himself fall into the Rhino's passenger compartment. Those members that still were able to stand, gathered the Raptors and brought them back to the armoured personnel carrier, which quickly departed.

Confused and disorientated, Hef could only stare on as his brothers transformed before his very eyes. One of his closest brothers, Devallia, was frantically trying to take off his helmet, but it refused to disengage properly. As the seals finally broke down, Hef stared into inhuman, blood-shot eyes. The pupils had retracted in little black pinpricks and his skin was quickly blackening, though veins and arteries still dimly pulsed beneath it. Devallia cried out in agony, his mouth ravaged by a second row of sharpened teeth that were now ravaging his gums, blood mixed with corrosive saliva uncontrollably dripping from his mouth onto his armour and the Rhino's deck. As Hef turned to his petrified sergeant he remarked that his own hand had also changed, long claws having broken from the fingertips of his gauntlets. Gripping the hand of his sergeant, Hef endured the ride home as best as he could, his body wracked by transformation.

Aberration

It quickly became very obvious that apart from the first 500 recruits, every Raptor had suffered from this genetic deviation. Those concerned were now assembled in Ravendelve's subterranean levels. Those too far gone, required incarceration. Fortunately, Ravendelve's deepest levels contained cages where prior tests of the Primarch-gene-seed had been conducted on animals. Despite their new condition, most of the Raptors were still masters of themselves and thus needed no special precautions, yet the Raven Guard insisted on keeping the Raptors in seclusion. Officially, every effort was made to revert the changes, and despite Corvus Corax personal involvement, most Raptors realized it was but an empty promise. Sixx and Orliandraz suspected a sudden manifestation of non-human genes that had laid dormant in the gene-seed, and thus far no one suspected that the gene-seed had been tampered with. Despite Hef's claws, his mutations were far less severe than those of others, even the vestigial tail that had grown from his spine and that had been surgically removed by Vincente Sixx had been somewhat common amongst this new gallery of monsters the later generations of Raptors had become.

With more than a thousand Raptors now unoperational, Legionaries from the Talons were ferried down from Ravenspire to secure and guard the compound. This proved to be a wise decision as within the week Ravendelve was attacked by secessionnist elements.

Attack on Ravendelve

The first sign of enemy activity was a long-ranged bombardment of the Magnus Casei, an Imperator-class Titan of the Legio Vindictus which had been standing guard over Kiavahr for several centuries. As Ravendelve’s macro-cannons towers engaged in the artillery duel with their gigantic foe, an armoured column of Guildsmen, escorted by four Warhound-class Scout Titan approached the curtain wall of the facility and began blasting at it. Divided between the need to repell the Magnus Casei and scare off the more agile Scout Titans, the defence turrets were soon overwhelmed. The curtain wall still held when the enemy strikes from within : a Thunderhawk bearing the colours of the Raven Guard which had just deivered its complement of reinforcements veered off his course and attacked Ravendelve’s gatehouse, killing many Legionaries and allowing infiltrated Alpha Legion Legionnaries that had been maskarading as Raven Guards since Istvaan V to take the gatehouse and open it. With the complex effectively breached, the Alpha Legion and their allies could now make their move for their true objective : the Primarch-gene-seed and data they had previously corrupted.

Despite the dire situation the Raptors were not called upon to aid in the defense of Ravendelve. Disciplined, they remained within their cells, knowing that some kind of fighting was going on from the sounds that penetrated into their quarters, but with no one to turn to or in charge they simply sat idle. Despite the presence of both Commander Solaro and Agapito, none of them had taken charge of Ravendelve’s defence, it came dow to Chief Apothecary Vincente Sixx to organise the defence of the gene-seed vault. Acting upon direct orders from Corax, Sixx began the lock-down procedure of the Apothecarion and gene-seed vault but with no one to turn to resolved himself to personnally make the short trip to the next armoury to fetch the necessary demolition charges should circumstances dictate him to ensure the destruction of the gene-seed. Sixx was immensely relieved when upon reaching the elevator that would take him directly to the armoury he encountered Commander Solaro, flanked by a squad of Raven Guard Legionaries, a relief that quickly turned to shock when the Commander stabbed him through the chest with his Power Sword.

This would then mark the beginning of the Raptor’s involvement, as the grieviously wounded Vincente Sixx - left unguarded by the Traitors - managed to crawl to he next cell, Hef’s cell and tasked the Raptors to protect the gene-seed. To help them in their task, the Chief Apothecary relinquished his personal sidearm, a simple Bolt Pistol, but most importantly his own gene-imprinted masterkey that would allow the Raptors to arm themselves. Quickly releasing their comrades and splitting up into squads, the Raptors joined the fight for Ravendelve. Unarmoured they were not quite so resistant as a true Legiones Astartes, but their mutations had imbued many of them with superior pain thresholds and regenerative abilities which meant that even unarmoured the mutated Raptors could survive a direct hit form a Bolt, as the Alpha Legion was soon to find out. Outnumbering the enemy, the Raptors stormed the Apothecarion, where the Alpha Legionnaires in disguise were planting demolition charges in order to destroy the XIX^th Legion gene-seed. A furious firefight erupted in the subterran levels of Ravendelve, but eventually the leader of the Alpha Legion, the infiltrator maskarading as Commander Solaro sarificied his troops in an attempt to reach the landing pads.

Having already brought down more than half a dozen Traitors, the Raptors charged the two survivors and butchered them, thus securing the Apothecarion. Several of the Raptors had died in the fighting and Hef himself had taken a Bolt to the chest and been severely wounded. As Corax himself arrived with reinforcements from Deliverance and a relief column of Mechanicum troops attacked the Guilders that were still laying siege to Ravendelve, the battle definately turned into the Raven Guard’s favour. Realizing his Legion had been infiltrated, Corax put his trust into those whose loyalty could not be questionned : the warriors of the Adeptus Custodes and the Raptors. Ordering his own Legionaries to stand down and submit to full genetical testing, the security of Ravendelve fell to the Raptors - both mutated and pure - which uncovered and even had to slay several of the Alpha Legion’s infiltrators that tried to escape now that their discovery was assured. Nef however did not participate in this effort as his wounds were being treated in the Apothecarion. Corax himself came to visit him and lauded the Raptor’s sense of duty and quick reaction-time. The Ravenlord further confirmed that even in their present condition, the Raptors were of the Raven Guard and that they would be inducted into the Legion and counted amongst its battle-brothers. The Raptors, both those genetically pure and those heavily mutated, would take to the field as warriors of the Legiones Astartes of the XIX^th Legion; they would be Raven Guard.

Leader of Monsters

Given his bravado and successful actions in the defense of Ravendelve, Navar Hef was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and placed in charge of one of the new Raptors’ squad. Their superior regenerative abilities allowed Nef and all those wounded on Kiavahr to have regained their strength and thus to participate in the Siege of the Perfect Fortress against the Emperor’s Children on Narsis. Hef and his squad were part of the drop-pod counter-assault which hit the III^rd Legion’s counter-attack which had pushed back the Raven Guard’s allies from the Therion Cohorts under Sub-Caesari Valerius. Nef and his squad where at the tip of the assault, fighting within eyesight of their Primarch. It is kown that during this first engagement, Navar Hef’s mutation still permitted him to carry and use a Bolter, an ability he would eventually loose as his claws continued to grow.

With the Raven Guard permantly assaulting Traitor-held worlds, the Raptors and Nef saw much action in the following years. The XIX^th Legion took to their old motto ’strike, fade away and strike again’ to haress those that were loyal to the Warmaster, leaving local forces or their allies to garrisson the reconquered worlds but ever moving on. Nef quickly rose to prominence amongst the Raptors, his command necessitating him to refrain the Raptors’ natural agressivity, which made him a far more competent leader that his brutish and bestial physique may suggest. Such was Hef’s value to the Legion that he quickly rose to become Commander Branne’s second-in-command. By the time the Legion fought the so-called Day of Vengeance-campaign, as the liberation of the prison-world of Carandiru would be known, Navar Hef was known as Commander Branne’s right hand and had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. During this particular campaign, Branne and his Raptors were tasked with the capture of a heavily fortified enclave named Nazdrexes, a peculiar complex where half the fortifications were not directed outwards to repel attackers, but inwards to keep whatever or whomever might be imprisoned there secured. Correctly assuming that these high value prisoners may make powerful additions to the civilian uprisings manifesting themselves all over the planet, the Raptors lead the assault and where succesful in overhelming the complex defences without casusalties, yet they were unprepared for what awaited them there. Nazdrexes was not only a prison-compound, but also a diabolic laboratory of the well-known traitor Apothecary Fabius Bile from the III^rd Legion. Locked in underground holding cells, vile experiments had been conducted on captured loyalist Legionaries or those Traitors that had fallen in disgrace : towering monstrosities of flesh, muscle and bones, claws and fangs or other stranger and more exotic appendages. Hef and Branne personnally led the Raptors into the complex. To the heavily mutated Raptors it must have seemed as looking into a mirror or a possible future that may still await them. The similarities between the Raptors and thes aberrations were indeed so many that those Loyalists testsubjects that had thus far survived unharmed mistook their liberators for these degenerated monsters and opened fire on them.

These survivors were being led by one of the XIX^th Legion own missing warriors, namely Techmarine Napenna who had been captured in the Dropsite Massacre. Having been absent from the Legion since then he could have no knowledge of the Raptors and their condition. Infuriated by being refeared and mistaken for a ’subhuman’, Hef nearly started a duel with one of the survivors, but held his temper in check. With the complex secured and Carandiru liberated, Corax ordered the Raptors to purge the facilities of theses failed experiments, requesting the task be done by those Raptors similarly afflicted. Despite Commander Branne’s protests, the orders were carried out, the clear-limbed Raptors watching in dire intent as their brothers descended into the subterranean levels to kill the monsters created there. Officially there was no favoritism within the Raven Guard, and as Nazdrexes had been the Raptor’s assigned target, it was only right that this task should be done by those committed to do it - and yet the Primarch’s judgement seemed excessively harsh on the Raptors.

Sources

• Deliverance Lost (Novel) by Gav Thorpe
• Corax: Soulforge (Novella) by Gav Thorpe
• Ravenlord (Novella) by Gav Thorpe
• Raptor (Audio Book) by Gav Thorpe