The Stormhawk Assault Gunship or simply the Stormhawk was a large assault craft used by the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. The Stormhawk was deployed alongside the Stormbird super-heavy dedicated attack landers that the Space Marine Legions used as their primary means of deploying forces into combat as well as air support and general planetary transport for the majority of the Great Crusade.
The Stormhawk was an advanced pattern of void-capable aircraft. The two pilots' cockpit control consoles featured, among other capabilities, vector diagrams and tri-dimensional contour maps of the surrounding terrain during atmospheric flight, while pulsing cables connected the Techmarine pilots directly to the avionics package, allowing them to fly the craft purely with their instruments.
The rear of the Stormhawk featured a spacious hold with rows of vertical restraint harnesses to hold infantry in place during flight, heavy equipment storage and a large assault ramp.
Notable Stormhawks[]
- Scarab Prime - Scarab Prime was the personal transport of Ahzek Ahriman, Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Scarab Prime was one of several heavily modified Stormhawks used by the Thousand Sons' Corvidae Cult. These craft allowed Primarch Magnus the Red to better direct his forces during battle, such as at the Pacification of the Ark Reach Cluster. The interior space of Scarab Prime was usually reserved for infantry and heavy equipment and it was often filled with banks of surveyor gear and crystalline receptors. Heavy cabling snaked across the floors of the aircraft and into the elevated chair that was used by Ahriman. Ahriman and other Thousand Sons Corvidae Cult Librarians acted as the eyes of Magnus the Red, feeding him psychic data about enemy movements before they even happened and instantly sending warnings directly to him, who in turn would directly tell the pilots of the Thousand Sons' assault transports and landers when to take evasive action, all within an instant. This tactic drastically reduced the number of Imperial aircraft lost during airborne assaults on heavily-defended positions. The Scarab Prime was last recorded delivering Magnus the Red, Ahriman and Mahavastu Kallimakus to the surface of Nikaea.
- Ankhu Anen - The Ankhu Anen was another heavily modifed Stormhawk used by the Thousand Sons Corvidae Cult. The Ankhu Anen, alongside the Scarab Prime, both took part in the Pacification of the Ark Reach Cluster.
Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications[]
The Adeptus Mechanicus technical specifications for this ancient spacecraft are unknown.
Trivia[]
The Stormhawk Assault Gunship shares its name with the Stormhawk Interceptor, an Adeptus Astartes single-pilot interceptor used in the 41st Millennium.
Sources[]
- A Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeill, Chs. 12, 18