Skills9

IMPLACABLE ADVANCE

The dead do not falter and do not slow. A fighter with this skill ignores the effects of difficult and dangerous terrain, and is never slowed while moving toward the nearest enemy — no rubble, no hazard, no broken ground checks its march. Further, it may declare a Charge in the same activation it has Run, closing the gap in a single relentless surge. This is the tread of a warband that has already died once: it comes on at a steady, unstoppable pace, and nothing underfoot will turn it aside.

SEARING HATRED

The Legion reserves a special loathing for a foe already faltering. Once per battle, when this fighter makes a ranged attack against a target that is Broken or Pinned, that attack gains +1 Damage — the hatred of the dead falling hardest on those who have lost their nerve or been driven to ground. It is a single, deliberate stroke: the moment a wavering enemy is punished for its weakness, and the Legion makes certain it does not rise to waver again.

WRATHFUL VENGEANCE

The fall of a brother stokes the dead to fury. When a friendly Damned fighter within 6" of this fighter is taken Out of Action, this fighter gains +1 Attack until the end of its next activation, the loss answered in redoubled violence. There is no grief in it, only wrath: the Legion does not mourn its dead, for its dead rarely stay down — it simply strikes back the harder for having watched one fall.

Bolter Discipline. The battle-brother's mastery of the bolt weapon, drilled until firing is as sure as breathing. When this fighter makes a Shoot action with a bolt weapon against a target within half that weapon's long range, the shot rings out a second time, granting one extra shot. Discipline rewards patience: the brother who lets the foe close to killing range rather than loosing at distance is answered with a heavier volley. In the massed-fire phase of the battle it turns a firing line of Marines into a wall of detonating rounds.

Combat Squads. The doctrine of dividing and redeploying, so no brother is ever caught out of the fight for long. Once per battle, this fighter may break free: if he is Pinned or engaged in combat, he is freed from that state and immediately makes a free Move. It is the strike force's refusal to be fixed in place — a squad peeling away from a stalled engagement to strike where it is needed, turning a brother the enemy thought pinned down into one already gone.

Oath of Moment. A brother swears a battlefield oath to see one foe dead above all others, and the whole strike force bends its aim to fulfil it. When this fighter uses the skill, mark a single enemy fighter. Until that mark is slain or the battle ends, friendly fighters re-roll a failed Hit roll against it, and re-roll 1s when rolling to Wound it. It is the Chapter turning its discipline to a single purpose — a champion, a beast, a warlord singled out and hunted down by every gun and blade in the force at once.

Rites of Battle. The quiet authority of a leader whose brethren fight the better for his presence. While this fighter is on the field, any friendly fighter beginning an activation within 6" of him may re-roll a single failed Hit roll during that activation. There is no fury to it and no flourish — only the steadying certainty of a command well kept, the strike force fighting with the precision of warriors who trust the brother beside them. An aura that makes a good position deadly and a firing line relentless.

Tactical Infiltration. The strike force's gift for being where the enemy least expects it. When the battle begins, this fighter may set up by Infiltrate — placed more than 6" from any enemy and out of their line of sight — or instead make a free move before the first round. Either way, a brother who does so may not charge in the opening round; the advantage gained is position, not an instant kill. It is the Chapter arriving on its own terms, seizing the ground that decides the fight before a shot is fired.

Teleport Assault. The prerogative of the Terminator-armoured elite, who strike from the warp itself into the heart of the foe. A fighter in Terminator plate may be held in reserve rather than deployed. From the second round on, he teleports in by Deep Strike, set up more than 6" from any enemy — and unlike a brother who infiltrates, he may charge in the very round he arrives. It is the hammer-blow of the Adeptus Astartes: armour that shrugs off return fire, arriving without warning exactly where the enemy line is weakest, and falling upon it at once.