Watch fortress

"Every watch fortress is a light in the darkness, a blazing watchfire that drives back the shadows in which the xenos lurks. Without their illumination, the Emperor's worlds would be swallowed up one-by-one, bound into shrouds of endless night stitched close by alien claws."

—Inquisitor Ishmael, excerpt from A Treatise on the Shield that Slays

Watch Fortress Erioch of the Deathwatch located in the Jericho Reach.

A watch fortress is a fortified Imperial installation that serves as a fortress, archive, garrison, command station and training facility to support the operations of Deathwatch Chapter kill-teams in a particular region of the galaxy.

A watch fortress differs from a watch station in that while watch fortresses are large complexes and relatively rare, watch stations are far more numerous and smaller, less potent Deathwatch facilities. A watch commander, who usually holds the rank of watch master, is placed in command of the fortress and is the absolute master of all of the kill-teams located there.

Such places can take a great many forms; some are mighty deep space void stations and star forts, while others are imposing, fortified keeps maintained on a planet's surface. Some are impenetrable installations many kilometres below ground, while others still are hollowed-out asteroids bristling with weaponry and protected from prying eyes by arcane cloaking systems.

Role

The watch commander of a watch fortress often coordinates the monitoring of a hundred different threats to his region of space; or his attentions might be focused exclusively on one single, overriding concern towards which all of his efforts are turned and which the watch fortress was built to confront.

The watch commander is assisted in his duties by a cadre of specialists, some of whom are Adeptus Astartes, such as Techmarines, Apothecaries and the likes, while many more are the equivalent of Chapter serfs. Some are specialists seconded from the staff of one or more Inquisitors, while the greatest number are mono-task servitors.

The location of known Deathwatch watch fortresses across the galaxy in the Era Indomitus after the formation of the Great Rift in ca. 999.M41.

Amongst the most important members of the watch fortress' staff are the astropaths, several of whom are always present in any fortress. At all times, at least one astropath is locked in an armoured saviour-chamber (sometimes referred to as the "ebon coffin") with its own life-support system, which is isolated from that of the fortress.

In the event of the facility being overrun, it is intended that this astropath will survive long enough to transmit an astrotelepathic message to the nearest Inquisitorial bastion or Space Marine homeworld.

Getting such a message out is far more important than the astropath's survival of course, and many have committed suicide rather than fall into enemy hands, once reasonably certain their message has been received.

That being said, one astropath in the service of the Inquisition is known to have survived for six solar months within his saviour-chamber, while hideous Drugh slithered around the fortress and rasped ineffectually at the chamber's armoured hatch. By the time the fortress was retaken, the poor soul was quite insane, and put out of his misery soon after.

The number of kill-teams stationed in any given watch fortress varies enormously. Some are home to only a handful of battle-brothers, while others host several dozen kill-teams.

Despite the small number of Astartes warriors stationed on even the largest watch fortress, it would be suicide for an enemy to attempt an attack on one, even if its location could be determined.

Each bristles with weaponry, much of it controlled by hard-wired servitors or fired remotely by the watch commander's staff. Some are even said to be protected by great cannons and banks of missiles controlled by autonomous Machine Spirits (artificial intelligences).

At the heart of each fortress is to be found a sealed vault, containing the most sensitive and valuable of assets. It is said that some of these vaults are encased within stasis fields; that time stands still within and even the most ancient and crumbling parchments can be preserved.

The order of battle of a typical Deathwatch watch fortress.

Other vaults are said to be encased within quantum-displacement fields, so that they are not actually located in the watch fortress at all, but exist out of phase with it and the rest of realspace so that even should the fortress be destroyed the contents at its heart will survive.

Exactly what is kept within these vaults depends upon the mission of the fortress and the threats it guards against. Some contain vast libraries of forbidden texts, knowledge so terrible they may only be consulted when the very fate of Humanity itself hangs in the balance.

Alien artefacts of unknown or devastating potency might also be sealed within the vault, affording the scholars of the Ordo Xenos the opportunity to study them whilst they are kept out of the hands of those who would use them for the detriment of Mankind.

Some watch fortresses even maintain a stock of the most exotic of weapons, which are kept safe in the vault and only brought forth in the most dire of situations.

Here are found the warheads of the Cyclonic Torpedoes used to enact Exterminatus upon a world. Some weapons are unique and so potentially devastating they may never be disturbed, the singular relics of the Dark Age of Technology.

This includes such artefacts as the anti-baryon detonator held in a watch fortress at the heart of the Ghoul Stars, and the super-massive "starbane" vortex cascade generator secreted within the eon-locked Ormand Repository near the Ring of Fire. Aside from these sealed stocks of weaponry, each fortress contains vast stores of more conventional arms and ammunition.

Sufficient stores to last for Terran centuries without re-supply are held in the watch fortresses, as well as all of the heavy equipment normally utilised by the Space Marines such as artillery and vehicles. Many of the weapons are venerated relics, crafted by long-dead master-artisans whose names have become legendary amongst the Space Marines.

Order of battle of Watch Fortress Talasa Prime in the Era Indomitus. Talasa Prime, the archetypal training world for the Deathwatch in the Ultima Segmentum, maintains an Aquila pattern watch fortress in addition to dozens of attendant watch stations. It has a wide variety of kill-teams, each tested against those xenos races that would encroach upon Ultramar's borders. Overall command is entrusted to Watch Master Mordelai, a humourless and extremely efficient proponent of the Malleus war doctrine, who has the long-standing trust of Chapter Master Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines himself.

The larger of the watch fortresses are home to all manner of training facilities. In vast domes, unique environments can be recreated in which the battle-brothers can perfect their battle drill and rehearse their missions.

Some of these domes have been stocked with alien life forms, such as Death World flora and fauna, in order to create the most realistic training conditions possible. It has even been known for captured aliens to be set loose in the training domes, to be hunted down by the kill-teams in deadly, live-fire mission simulation exercises.

Although no resource is spared the kill-teams, it is usual that each battle-brother lives an austere existence in the watch fortress. It is common for each to maintain a personal shrine, at which he undertakes the devotions and rites particular to his own parent Chapter.

A battle-brother seconded from the Ultramarines Chapter, for example, might maintain a simple chapel dedicated to Primarch Roboute Guilliman, while one drawn from the Mortifactors Chapter might keep vigil before the flensed skulls of a hundred slain enemies.

When not engaged upon a mission or a training exercise, and not meditating at his own chapel, the Space Marine may rest in a cell which is seldom more than a bare, stone-walled chamber. Space Marines require little sleep however, and most of the their time is spent either in battle, or preparing for it.

In addition to the watch commander, watch captains, and the kill-teams, a great many, though not all, watch fortresses are host to an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. It is the role of this individual to communicate the strategies of the Inquisition and to coordinate them with the missions of the Deathwatch.

The Inquisitor is more of an ambassador than an overseer, and has no direct control over the watch commander or his Astartes. Rather, he provides a link between the two organisations, ensuring that the ancient pact between the two bodies remains in place, for the defence of all Humanity.

Notable Watch Fortresses

Icons of the various Deathwatch watch fortresses; such icons are often worn by Deathwatch Space Marines and placed on their Dreadnoughts and other vehicles.

• Balefortress - Located in the Thresnia Sector, the Balefortress is perhaps the last Imperial bulwark left that can stop WAAAGH! Nakkaslash from capsizing the sector.

• Castilos Nullifact (Fort Nullifact) - This watch fortress is located in the northern Segmentum Ultima where its Astartes watch for the rise of the long-slumbering Necron dynasties. Forces from this watch fortress once assaulted a seemingly undefended Jokaero star-frame, only to be met by a fleet's worth of firepower. During the Era Indomitus, far-ranging patrols from Castilos Nullifact found evidence of a mobile Genestealer Cult travelling between fringe worlds aboard a fleet of voidships and posing as Rogue Traders. They set off on the trail of the so-called Bringers of Enraptured Joy, and fought several battles against the monstrously corrupted settlements the xenos-worshippers had seeded in their wake.

• Damaroth - The Damaroth is a watch fortress that takes the form of a vast artificial ring constructed around a glowing moon. It is the centre of Deathwatch operations in the Centaurus Arm of the Segmentum Ultima. The artificial structure was not built by Human hands, and in fact predates the Imperium. No trace of the beings that made it has been found. One of six identical structures set among the star-studded darkness of the void, each ring was appropriated by the Deathwatch and its Ordo Xenos allies as a watch fortress and the centre of Deathwatch operations in the Centaurus Arm. Inside, the Damaroth holds ship hangars the equivalent of the Imperial Navy Segmentum Fortress at Kar Duniash, housing voidships ranging from Cobra-class destroyers to Overlord-class battlecruisers and training facilities emulating multiple combat scenarios against several alien races. Housing almost a hundred Deathwatch Space Marines of varying rank and specialisation, Damaroth launches a hundred knives against the darkness. And yet, it still may not prove enough.

• Doombreak - Doombreak is a watch fortress located on the border between the Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Tempestus.

• Eye of Damocles - The Eye of Damocles is a vast watch fortress that monitors the borders between Imperial space and that of the usurper T'au Empire in the Damocles Gulf of the Eastern Fringe. Its kill-teams specialise in vertical assault. Dominatus Kill-teams will often strike from Corvus Blackstars to turn one-sided firefights into bloody melees.

• Eye of Octos - The Eye of Octos is a watch fortress that is located within the Ultima Segmentum's Octarius Sector and it lies close to the Ork Empire of Octarius. In the Era Indomitus, a splinter of Hive Fleet Leviathan broke off from the on-going Octarius War and invaded the nearby Pankallis Sub-sector. Pankallis' Imperial worlds called for aid and the Eye of Octos' current watch commander, Akrep Xie, led the fortress' forces there to aid them.

• Fort Ajax - After a string of punitive strikes from Craftworld Biel-Tan against the Garravissima Sub-sector proved impossible to stop, the Deathwatch of Fort Ajax gave up the chase. Taking every Flamer weapon they could muster, they instead descended to the Maiden World of Yddylia at the height of summer and -- in conjunction with a firestorm barrage -- set swathes of the world aflame. The Exodites of the planet fought hard to repel them, but the Deathwatch stayed one step ahead. Drawn by the psychic distress calls of their backwater kindred, Biel-Tan appeared in the night sky. Within a solar week, the Autarch of Biel-Tan was killed by a Kraken Bolt to the head.

• Fort Excalibris - This watch fortress is located in the Segmentum Obscurus. In the 41st Millennium, its kill-teams were stretched to the breaking point as they dealt with multiple ongoing xenos threats. This included the Drukhari redoubling their attacks around the Crucible of Tales, the push of the Necrons of Icnarus towards the Gothic Sector, and the Hrud infestations discovered throughout the Kuypax Reach. Fort Excalibris was home to Watch Captain Barradan, who served as its watch commander, one of the few Primaris Space Marines to have risen to that rank in the Era Indomitus. He has already distinguished himself in many battles with xenos forces. Barradan is one of the few Primaris Space Marines to have risen to that rank so far in the Era Indomitus. He has already distinguished himself in many battles with xenos forces. Such promotions have proved strategically beneficial, for with their intrinsic understanding of Primaris infantry forces and Repulsor tanks, these watch captains have helped to fully integrate these weapons into the Deathwatch's arsenal. Since the birth of the Great Rift at the start of the Era Indomitus, however, the influx of new Space Marines seconded to the Deathwatch from the Imperium Nihilus has all but stopped at Talasa Prime and the other major watch fortresses in the Imperium Sanctus. Rumours suggest the watch fortresses of Praefex Venatoris and Fort Excalibris now share the primary responsibility for training those Deathwatch members that are active in the blighted realm of the Dark Imperium.

• Fort Nexus - Fort Nexus is a watch fortress located in the Ultima Segmentum.

• Fort Obsidus - This watch fortress is located in the Segmentum Solar. It is currently commanded by Watch Master Astoren Korr. Following the admittance of Primaris Marines into the Deathwatch in the Era Indomitus, he has proven especially adept in the deployment of Repulsor battle tanks. This skill has led to the defeat of the Speed Kults of WAAAGH! Wazdakka, as well as several other recent Ork attacks.

• Fortress Omega - Fortress Omega, also called Fort Omega, or just "Omega," is a watch fortress that was assaulted by Aeldari Corsairs in the 32nd Millennium who sought a rune-carved Aeldari artefact called the "Doomsday Sphere" kept within the fortress' null chamber. The corsairs found only Venator Kill-teams within the fortress, who promptly ambushed the aliens. Hundreds of the xenos raiders died before the last of the corsairs reached the chamber. The sphere did not actually exist; it was in fact a myth spread by Human mercenaries working for Black Shields to lure the xenos into the open.

• Fort Prescience - In the 32nd Millennium, this watch fortress in the Segmentum Tempestus saved the worlds of the Shantoria System when its kill-teams destroyed a band of Harlequins whose trickery and raids nearly caused the system to erupt in a civil war. Millennia later, the fortress has found particular success in its battle against Hive Fleet Leviathan by combining Primaris Marine Reivers from the Raven Guard, Hawk Lords and Lamenters Chapters into a single force and using them as dedicated synapse-beast hunters.

• Fort Pykman - Fort Pykman is located in the Ghoul Stars, northeast of the Segmentum Ultima beyond the Eastern Fringe in the Imperium Nihilus. The Ghoul Stars harbour many hidden threats to Humanity, from the emergent Barghesi to the awakening Necron dynasties. The kill-teams of Fort Pykman favour Malleus tactics; they stand ready to demolish ancient sites should there be even a flicker of suspicion they are linked to Tomb Worlds or alien world nests. The current watch commander of Fort Pykman is Watch Master Utorian Denash. Danash claims his constant vigilance against the Imperium's xenos foes shall never end.

• Fort Starshield - Fort Starshield was a Deathwatch starfort that was located in the Kadus Sector and was commanded by Watch Master Valesnus in the aftermath of the Great Rift's creation in the Era Indomitus. However, the starfort was destroyed by the Ork WAAAGH! of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka in the Era Indomitus, whose Greenskin hordes also killed all of the Deathwatch Astartes who dwelt within it.

• Fort Volossia - The Deathwatch forces stationed on Fort Volossia were overrun by the undying legions of the Necron Overlord Zhanatar.

• Furor Shield - This watch fortress oversees the Octarius Sector, and its Astartes are ready to stand against whoever prevails in the Octarius War between the Orks of the sector's Ork Empire of Octarius and the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan.

• Haltmoat - This watch fortress in the Segmentum Obscurus is currently commanded by Watch Commander Vilnus. When the watch fortress began receiving numerous reports of voidships disappearing near the Tiamet System, Vilnus sent a kill-team, led by Watch Sergeant Gjunheim, to investigate the system held by Hive Fleet Tiamet. Though the kill-team was able to infiltrate the system they soon met with disaster and were killed on the Jungle World of Ziaphoria. The kill-team's ship returned to the watch fortress, but it bore a final vox transmission by Gjunheim that warned of a nightmare biomechanical structure built by the Tyranids that they had discovered. The watch sergeant reported that it spanned an entire continent on Ziaphoria and when the Astartes approached it, the structure pulsed and sent out a tsunami of psychic energy. This pulse caused the death of the kill-team's Librarian, which alerted the hive fleet to their presence. The kill-team was subsequently torn apart by the Tyranids. Once Vilnus finished the message, he transmitted it to the Ordo Xenos and it eventually reached the ears of the excommunicated Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman. The former Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos travelled to Watch Fortress Haltmoat and Vilnus agreed to meet with him. As they talked, Kryptman shared his own grim theories regarding the purpose of the unknown Tyranid structure on Ziaphoria and Hive Fleet Tiamet, and together the two began to formulate a plan to utterly obliterate whatever the Hive Mind was planning.

• Keep Extremis - Keep Extremis is a watch fortress located in the Segmentum Obscurus. To the galactic north of Fenris, Hrud overran the Shrine World of Damhal. Drawn to the rich veins of crystallised time in the world's many stasis-crypts, the chronophagic xenos wreaked havoc. Those regiments of Mordian Iron Guard deployed to fight them become wizened ancients within solar hours, and even a strike force of the Sons of Medusa was lost, overwhelmed by the xenos' entropic projections. Two full Deathwatch Watch Companies from the watch fortress Keep Extremis joined the fight. They were accompanied by a mighty spearhead of no less than eight Deathwatch Dreadnoughts. It was these ancients who lead the final strike upon the Hrud world warren, enduring the creatures' parasitic temporal aura long enough to slaughter their leaders and collapse their tunnels. Recovered from the field of victory, the Dreadnoughts were found to be rusted, inert, silent. Inside their sarcophagi, their biological remains were gone, reduced to nothing but dust by the time stolen from them by the Hrud.

• Indomitus Point - Indomitus Point is a watch fortress located in the Segmentum Ultima. In the Era Indomitus, in the wake of the Ultimaris Decree providing the Primaris Marines to the Deathwatch, many watch captains prefer to field Hellblasters as Roboute Guilliman intended, lacing small squads of them in amongst more varied kill-teams to provide reliable close-range fire support. Indeed, the watch fortresses of Doombreak, Furor Shield and Indomitus Point have taken to using Hellblasters much like lighter, more manoeuvrable Devastator Squads in order to deal with the hulking Tyranid and Greenskin monstrosities they face.

• Mortguard - Mortguard is a watch fortress that is located in the northern Ultima Segmentum in the Imperium Nihilus. Its Watch Companies are commanded by Watch Master Agathon. The Deathwatch forces of Morthguard were major participants in the Chalnath Expanse Campaign that was a four-sided conflict that erupted in the Chalnath Expanse in the Era Indomitus between the forces of the Imperium, the T'au Empire's Fifth Sphere Expansion, various Genestealer Cults and an Ork WAAAGH!.

• Null Breach - Null Breach is a watch fortress located in the Segmentum Solar. Its kill-teams have assaulted the Ork World of Calverna several times. During one of these incursions, Watch Captain Daxis was killed when he was crushed by a rampaging Squiggoth. He was avenged when the Intercessor Lyone, who single-handily killed the massive creature with pinpoint fire. Lyone had made quite the reputation for himself while fighting the Orks, and avenging Daxis' death earned the Primaris Marine his predecessor's rank of watch captain. Even before his ascent, Lyone had become fearfully known to the Orks as "Da Black Butcha," while his own battle-brothers began to call him "Orksbane." Lyone has excelled in the role of watch captain since earning the rank.

• Onyx Patrol - The Onyx Patrol is a mobile watch fortress of the Deathwatch. Essentially a fleet of Adeptus Astartes warships, hence the name, the Onyx Patrol constantly searches for nomadic Aeldari craftworlds. It most frequently operates in the Segmentum Solar. Since its inception, Craftworld Aeldari sightings in the core sectors of the Imperium have become much more rare.

• Praefex Venatoris - This watch fortress keeps watch over a string of Webway portals used by the Drukhari in the Segmentum Obscurus. Its Astartes are always on high alert, seeking to save the Human worlds of Syracia Thrive from alien piracy and enslavement. Since the birth of the Great Rift at the start of the Era Indomitus, however, the influx of new Space Marines seconded to the Deathwatch from the Imperium Nihilus has all but stopped at Talasa Prime and the other major watch fortresses in the Imperium Sanctus. Rumours suggest the watch fortresses of Praefex Venatoris and Fort Excalibris now share the primary responsibility for training those Deathwatch members that are active in the blighted realm of the Dark Imperium.

• Ramugan - The watch fortress called Ramugan is close to an Inquisition sub-station which is also known as Ramugan. Both are located near the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus.

• Sentinel IX - Sentinel IX was the watch fortress from which the Iron Hands Deathwatch brother Ennox Sorrlock operated. Sorrlock is a merciless, pragmatic killing machine known for his cold, calculating logic. He suffered horrific wounds to his flesh after a Drukhari attack, and his right eye and left leg have been replaced by bionic replacements. Ennox Sorrlock took part in the purging of a Genestealer Cult on Ghosar Quintus in the 41st Millennium as part of Kill-team Cassius under the command of Chaplain Ortan Cassius that marked the first confirmed Imperial interaction with that Tyranid menace.

• Talasa Prime - Talasa Prime is an Imperial Fortress World on the Eastern Fringes of the Ultima Segmentum in the Realm of Ultramar controlled by the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. Talasa Prime is home to a large Inquisitorial fortress most notable for housing the watch fortress that essentially serves as the headquarters of the Deathwatch. Talasa Prime, the archetypal training world for the Deathwatch, maintains an Aquila pattern watch fortress in addition to dozens of attendant watch stations. It has a wide variety of kill-teams, each tested against those xenos races that would encroach upon Ultramar's borders. Overall command of the watch fortress as watch commander is entrusted to Watch Master Mordelai, a humourless and extremely efficient proponent of the Malleus war doctrine, who has the long-standing trust of Chapter Master Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines himself. Like most watch fortresses, Talasa Prime maintains five Watch Companies, numbered Primus to Quintus, comprised of four kill-teams of varying types each. It was at Talasa Prime that the Deathwatch, under the direction of Mordelai, first integrated the Primaris Space Marines into its kill-teams, by creating the first Fortis Kill-teams. Later, Mordelai refined his ideas, and also created the Primaris Indomitor and Spectrus Kill-teams to better make use of the single-armament squads used by Primaris Marine forces. Since the birth of the Great Rift at the start of the Era Indomitus, however, the influx of new Space Marines seconded to the Deathwatch from the Imperium Nihilus has all but stopped. Rumours suggest the watch fortresses of Praefex Venatoris and Fort Excalibris now share the responsibility for training those Deathwatch members that are active in the blighted realm of the Dark Imperium.

• Watch Fortress Erioch - Watch Fortress Erioch is a massive Ramilies-class starfort that serves as the headquarters for the Deathwatch operating in the Jericho Reach. It is constructed around an ancient and enigmatic vault of secrets known as the Omega Vault.

• Watcher Keep - Watcher Keep is a primary watch fortress located on the border between the Segmentum Pacificus and Segmentum Tempestus. It is currently commanded by Watch Master Vaedrian Shenol. In the wake of the Great Rift's creation, Shenol has seen an increase in the number of xenophiles within the Imperium. These are Humans who feel that since xenos are also threatened by the forces of Chaos, the Imperium should fight alongside them against their shared foe. The watch master considers these people to be Heretics who would foolishly have Humanity put its trust in inhuman monsters that would gladly betray Mankind at the first chance. Shenol has declared that there can be no tolerance, no compromise, and no peace with aliens -- only war and the Imperium's endless purgation of the xenos threat.

• Zarabek - Zarabek was a watch fortress that was also the location of the last stand of the Muhlari, a xenos species exterminated by the Deathwatch in a series of actions culminating in the Purgation of Zarabek. The Deathwatch burnt Zarabek clean, slaying the Muhlari's den mothers and destroying their sacellum of knowledge. Crushing all their data crystals, mixing them with the powdered ash of their people and firing them into the heart of a star, the Muhlari were consigned forever to the Book of Extinctions. Zarabek is now the domain of Watch Captain Ska Mordentodt, a Deathwatch Black Shield of an unknown parent Chapter, who launches his kill-teams against Hrud migrations, Necron Tomb Worlds, Xenarch raids, Malgreth sightings and Genestealer infestations. Zarabek proved to be both strong and well-hidden, a perfect location for a new watch fortress, so it was cleansed of its xenos taint and taken over by the Deathwatch.

Sources

• The Alien Hunters (Short Story) by Andy Chambers
• Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "The Heraldry of the Honoured," "Watch Fortresses of the Imperium," "The Vigil of Aeons," "Watch Fortress Talasa Prime," "Knights of the Long Vigil," "The Structure of the Shield"
• Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (8th Edition), pp. 5, 16-17, 22-25, 27, 30, 34, 40, 49
• Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition), pg. 38
• Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 307-309
• Deathwatch (Novel) by Steve Parker, Act 1: The Call, Ch. 12, pp. 50-51
• Deathwatch: Deadhenge (Short Story) by Justin D. Hill
• War Zone Octarius - Book 1: Rising Tide (9th Edition), pp. 10, 30
• Warrior Coven (Novel) by C.S. Goto, Ch. 2
• White Dwarf 109 (2016), "Kill Team Cassius"
• White Dwarf 466, "Flashpoint: Blood and Snow," pp. 22-23