"They come for your souls, I've seen it. They've come to feed on your souls..."
- —Oelle Blackwinter, Primaris Psyker
A Razorwing Jetfighter, also simply called a Razorwing, is a lightning-fast Drukhari ground attack aircraft that unleashes widespread slaughter and disruption with flurries of morbidly diverse Razorwing Missiles specifically designed to be used in a ground support role.
Kabal archons call in Razorwing strikes to fracture the "lesser species"'s attempts at organised resistance, and their speed-addicted pilots also indulge in hunting down lumbering enemy tanks and alien monstrosities with their heavy cannons.
The Razorwing is named after the winged, predatory lifeform of the Syros Sub-sector's Death Worlds much admired by the Drukhari. It is of a similar design to the Nightwing fighter utilised by the Craftworld Aeldari.
Role[]
Through the vortex-torn mists of each Drukhari raid into realspace from the Webway come the twin contrails of Razorwing Jetfighters, alien aircraft so fast that their fusillades of missile fire can hit home just at the instant the air is rent by a thunderous sonic boom.
Even the most conceited Drukhari archon knows that the armoured vehicles of the "lesser species" of the galaxy, though cumbersome and primitive, are still potentially dangerous. An airborne Drukhari raid that is intercepted by well-directed artillery fire can often find itself repelled with disastrous losses.
To ensure that the enemy cannot call upon such support, the Drukhari employ Razorwing Jetfighters to sow destruction and panic in the midst of the foe. No prey is fast enough to outpace these ground attack fighter craft, for each of their consummately-skilled pilots was once a member of the Reaver elite, and to them fighting at breakneck speed is second nature.
In silhouette, Razorwing Jetfighters appear like jagged, double-edged blades, their crescent wings and sword-sharp curves conveying their lethal power. Imperial commanders often mistake Razorwings for the Nightwing interceptor fighters of the Asuryani, for they bear the signature grace of all Aeldari aircraft, and carve through the skies at a similarly blistering pace.
However, the pilots of Razorwing Jetfighters specialise not in aerial interception but in the wholesale slaughter of ground targets. Veterans of the Dark City of Commorragh's death races, they have earned enough wealth to escape the arenas forever, and now seek to maim and destroy everything they can find without risking their own skins. The pilot of a Razorwing likes little more than roaring through an inferno of their own creation whilst mowing down the panicked survivors scurrying below.
Razorwing Jetfighters boast an array of diabolically effective missiles. When a squadron of Razorwings looses a salvo it often appears as if the ground is being raked by monstrous invisible talons. Most surgically efficient of all is the dreaded Monoscythe Missile, remotely steered by the Razorwings' pilots into the thick of the foe. The secret to their terrifying reputation is in their warheads; when detonated, they emit not a conventional blast but one that is constrained to a specific plane by complex, built-in power shields.
A great horizontal sheet of force explodes outward at a certain height from the warhead, decapitating or even cutting in half everyone caught in the blast zone. Such a clinical multiple kill is very satisfying to the Razorwing's pilot, for all Drukhari appreciate a well-administered death.
Wargear[]
- Twin-linked Splinter Rifles (Nose-mounted)
- 2 Dark Lances (Wing-mounted)
- 2 Disintegrator Cannons (Wing-mounted, as replacement for 2 Dark Lances)
- Splinter Cannon (Nose-mounted, as replacement for twin-linked Splinter Rifles)
- 4 Razorwing Missiles of any of the following types:
- Monoscythe Missile - The Monoscythe Missile is an anti-infantry missile designed to release a wave of directed energy at head-height upon detonation in its area of effect, decapitating nearby foes.
- Necrotoxin Missile - A Necrotoxin Missile is an anti-infantry munition filled with deadly neurotoxins. When it detonates it unleashes shards of toxic shrapnel, killing and pinning the enemy in place as their central nervous systems dissolve under the effect of these chemical weapons.
- Shatterfield Missile - A Shatterfield Missile possesses two, separate detonation chambers which explode one after the other. The first detonation of the missile sucks away all thermal energy in its area of effect, transforming the targeted foe into frozen statues covered in ice. The second detonation sends out a powerful force that shatters the now-brittle flesh and/or armour of the enemy into frozen shards.
- Night Shield
Sources[]
- Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pp. 46-47, 93
- Codex: Drukhari (9th Edition), pg. 112
- Games Workshop Website - Razorwing Jetfighter