| rdfs:comment | - During the Wars of Apostasy circa 378.M36, the Fire Hawks Chapter was still young. They bravely joined the stand made by the Imperial Fists, Black Templars and Soul Drinkers Chapters, along with the Martian Tech Guard against the corruption and enormities of the megalomaniacal High Lord Goge Vandire. The Fire Hawks went on to fight valiantly in many major battles against the Apostate forces of the insane Vandire. Their defiance was paid for with the loss of their first homeworld, Zhoros, to mass thermal bombing by a Frateris Templar fleet loyal to Vandire. Refusing to relent in their opposition to the Apostates, the Fire Hawks helped play a key role in Vandire's overthrow, taking part in the attack on Terra which finally unseated the mad High Lord. Left in tatters, the Fire Hawks' diligenc
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| abstract | - During the Wars of Apostasy circa 378.M36, the Fire Hawks Chapter was still young. They bravely joined the stand made by the Imperial Fists, Black Templars and Soul Drinkers Chapters, along with the Martian Tech Guard against the corruption and enormities of the megalomaniacal High Lord Goge Vandire. The Fire Hawks went on to fight valiantly in many major battles against the Apostate forces of the insane Vandire. Their defiance was paid for with the loss of their first homeworld, Zhoros, to mass thermal bombing by a Frateris Templar fleet loyal to Vandire. Refusing to relent in their opposition to the Apostates, the Fire Hawks helped play a key role in Vandire's overthrow, taking part in the attack on Terra which finally unseated the mad High Lord. Left in tatters, the Fire Hawks' diligence and valour was not in vain, as it is believed that it was at this time they received command of the Raptorus Rex as a gift from the hand of the reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor himself. The Raptorus Rex was a truly immense and ancient vessel, believed to be pre-Imperial in origin and constructed some time during the Dark Age of Technology and to have participated in the campaigns of the Great Crusade. Like the Imperial Fists' Phalanx, the Raptorous Rex was a legend long before its involvement in the infamous conflict known as the Badab War in 904.M41. The powerful mobile Star Fortress served as the Fire Hawks primary base of operations throughout that campaign. The massive space station possessed more firepower than an entire squadron of Imperial Cruisers and could devastate the surface of any world within only minutes of its arrival in orbit. The Raptorus Rex's most dreadful reputation was as a destroyer of worlds, its hull studded with scores of orbital bomb racks enabling it to seed a planet's atmosphere with clusters of hideous thermic bombs. But its greatest power lay in the sheer durability lent to it by its size and ancient design, which allowed it to shrug off the heaviest fire all but unscathed and smash aside defence lines and attacking fleets with arrogant power.
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