This has proven an invaluable tactic against fast-moving xenos hosts ever since, be they capricious Eldar, Ork Kults of Speed, or even the outriders of a Necron metaphalanx. Equipped with comprehensive data concerning their targets, the Kill-team filled the air with so much firepower that the Khan's nimble foes were torn from the sky. When the enemy struck back by surrounding them, the Khan brought in the rest of his Kill-team. Frustrated by the Eldar's ability to evade the Emperor's vengeance, Jaaghen Khan requisitioned bikes for his combat squad and led his enemies on long running battles where they perfected the art of leading their fire. Venator tactics were perfected after fighting the all-female pirates of the Dark Eldar Wych Cult Sybilla. By concentrating on the tightly-packed throng of Orks at the fore, Squad Veridium aimed each detonation to cause maximum collateral damage, sowing the field with dismembered corpses that slowed those elements behind. Codified as Furor tactics, their techniques involved the delivery of explosive firepower across a wide frontage. For example, the methods Squad Veridium used to eradicate the remnants of the Beast's Greenskin armies in the 32nd Millennium are still in widespread use. Some Kill-teams accomplish such unalloyed success against their chosen foes that their methods are taught in every watch fortress. In the process, some necessarily become specialised in the persecution of a particular type of enemy. They have stymied alien invasions, cleansed infested space-fleets, and even hunted the denizens of hostile planets to extinction. Over the course of the Imperium's history, the Deathwatch's Kill-teams have worked miraculous feats of arms. It is just as well, for if even a single Deathwatch vessel misses its mark, it could spell disaster - with that failure, a swathe of Imperial space could be ceded to the alien, never to be recovered. So it is that the Deathwatch slip through the sea of stars like stilettos cutting through silk - silent and swift until the time comes to stab at the heart of a xenos empire. The Navigators that steer them are amongst the best in the Imperium, as are the Astropaths that provide the psychic link back to their base of operations. These magnificent warships operate out of the watch fortresses, using their Warp-engines to ply the cursed tides of the Empyrean in order to reach their target as swiftly as possible. Kill-teams are borne to their allocated war zones by onyx-hulled Strike Cruisers. Over time, however, these instances of conflict lead to long-standing respect or even firm friendship. Long-standing rivalries between Chapters do sometimes sour these relationships, at least initially - headstrong Space Wolves may clash with dour Dark Angels in an echo of their Primarchs' famous rivalry, and a tactician from the Hammers of Dorn may endlessly debate the finer points of the Codex Astartes with his Ultramarines equivalent. In matters of how best to launch a close assault, a Sternguard Veteran of the Imperial Fists will likely yield to the advice of a Vanguard Veteran from the Blood Angels Chapter, whereas in the defence of a bastion complex, it will almost certainly be the other way around. With different Chapters having long-standing specialisations, it is easy enough to identify who will have the most relevant insights in a given circumstance. It is common for a veteran sergeant to seek his men's advice as often as the other way around, and in many cases act more as an arbiter than as a traditional commander.ĭeathwatch officers will invariably choose the members of their Kill-team in order to draw on as much relevant experience as possible. With a gamut of hard-won wisdom much in evidence, the Battle-Brothers of each Kill-team come to rely upon one another's expertise they have little option, for they may spend many standard years out of contact with their watch fortress.
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Once a Kill-team has fought together long enough to share the full extent of this knowledge, it will often be disbanded, its members assembled into different Kill-teams to learn anew.
Where one member of a Kill-team may not have encountered a specific breed of alien, another will have met that creature in battle and defeated it, or one roughly analogous to it.
In this diversity and fund of experience lies great strength. The Battle-Brothers of the Deathwatch are exceptional individuals taken from Chapters across the galaxy. The team's leader will delve long into these records before each mission, for his choices can be the difference between victory and death. The archives of the Deathwatch detail every member's history, the oaths he has sworn, his areas of expertise, the alien races he has engaged and any quirks or flaws he may have.