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The secret of both the Stalker and the Hunter’s effectiveness lies not in the construction of their guns and missiles; these tools of destruction having long been within the grasp of the Techmarines and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Rather, it is their ability to track and engage fast moving aerial targets that comes from the surgically altered brains and neural interfaces of their servitor operators. Since the time of the Space Marine Legions, the armies of the Imperium have employed weapons capable of knocking out ground attack aircraft, from the multi-barrelled Hydra to the Whirlwind Hyperios. Even individual soldiers have access to flakk missiles, giving them the chance of taking down a flyer. What all of these weapons lack are the blessed targeting systems of the Hunter and Stalker. The hard-wired brains of the servitors, combined with the reflexes and combat experience of the Space Marine crews, make these tanks far more deadly than weapons that merely hurl shells and shot into the sky alone.

The servitors must be specially chosen, their brains possessed of a mental agility in life that is then repurposed in near-death. These withered gunners are often chosen from failed Chapter initiates should they be too damaged to become Serfs, either those crippled during their training or that have rejected the sacred implanting processes. Chapter serfs can also find a place as a target-servitor, if they show promise and serve well, earning the right to accompany the Chapter into war. In both cases, the brain, and as much of the head and torso of the initiate as possible, will be salvaged so that he might serve the Chapter in another way. Techmarines will then spend long hours suturing the servitor into the tank, or encasing it into a skyspear missile. Where possible, the servitor’s limbs are used to operate controls and weapons, but most importantly their brain is linked into the augur arrays of either missile or cannon. The process is not always successful and many servitors may die before one merges with the tank’s machine spirit, creating a deadly symbiotic relationship.

Augmented by the servitors’ brains, the Hunter and Stalker are both able to carve their way through enemy defences, whether they are the crude chemical counter-measures of an Ork Dakkajet or the sophisticated electronic bafflers of a Tau Sun Shark Bomber. It is perhaps the spark of faith and duty that endures within the withered brain of the servitor which drives the weapon on, causing a skyspear missile to unflaggingly track an enemy aircraft no matter how the pilot twists and turns, or the storm cannon to track its target unerringly, striking at its weak points.

The value of a Stalker servitor conclave cannot be measured as one might measure the worth of a bolter or lascannon. To a Space Marine Chapter, a worthy Stalker tank and its crew are a revered and precious relic, honoured for their glorious history and every foe they have sent flaming to the earth. Over long centuries of war and countless battles, Stalker and Hunter tanks will develop their own personalities as the memories and faint psyches of the servitors bleed into their machine spirits. The tanks will begin to display almost human emotion; flying into a rage of firepower and death against hated foes or suffering from a plague of mysterious technical problems if neglected by their company. The Space Marine crew of a Hunter or Stalker learn to placate the spirit of their tank with solemn praise and deep respect, lest it fail them in battle. The cold, dead eyes of the servitor conclave might seem empty and vacant, though the battle-brothers know living souls lurk behind those lifeless orbs.

Groups of Stalker and Hunter tanks will also form a bond, their machine spirits and servitors displaying a shadowy reflection of a Space Marine’s own sense of duty to his brothers. A Stalker might specifically single out enemies that target tanks from its armoured company, even against the directions of its Space Marine crew, its guns taking bloody vengeance upon the aggressor.

Based upon the ubiquitous Rhino STC, the Stalker incorporates additional armour and a twin Icarus storm cannon array. With a high sustained rate of fire and the guidance of the servitor conclave, a Stalker can track multiple targets through the sky, each of its cannons filling the air with deadly shells. Unlike the Rhino APC upon which it based, the Stalker’s main compartment is given over to augur-cradles for its two servitor gunners and racks of ammo bins connected to the cannon array by snaking mag-feeds. Where most tanks carry dozens of shells for their main guns the Stalker carries thousands, so that it might keep up constant unrelenting fire into the sky.

Major Space Marine deployments usually include the use of Stalkers, the anti-aircraft tanks protecting orbital beachheads and covering armoured advances. Even a single Stalker can bring down a squadron of enemy fliers, while several in close support are able to send up an almost impenetrable curtain of fire.

The Stalker incorporates heavier armour than a Rhino, space that would be required for transport given over to thickened ceramite plates and reactive shielding. Much of this additional armour is placed above the crew compartment and around the servitor conclave, giving it additional protection from aerial assault. The shell around the servitors is sealed from the outside, and thrice-blessed by the Chapter’s Techmarines before battle. A Stalker can suffer a direct hit to its ammo store from a superheated round or plasma bolt and detonate in a fireball of twisted metal and shrapnel, but the servitor conclave will survive. The Space Marine Chapter can then extract the servitors and implant them into a new tank, their duty not yet done.

Stalkers incorporate stabiliser jacks, which extend from the edges of its hull, steadying it for sustained fire. Once a good firing position is found the crew will ‘plant’ the tank using the jacks, allowing it to maintain a steady aim amid the kick of the storm cannons and cascade of shells. They are also useful when fighting on broken battlefields, or in low-gravity environments, where finding a level platform for the tank is impossible. The crew will use the jacks to lock the tank onto any surface that is available, be it the twisted hull of a ship, the rubble choked slope of a ruined hive or even the gnarled and twisted vegetation of a cursed xenos swamp. When the tank needs to move rapidly the jacks carry explosive drill-tips, a keyed rune from the crew blasting the vehicle free and throwing the jacks back into the hull with a dull crack.

Stalkers are not only used against flying targets, but at times are also pressed into service against earth-bound foes. Their fearsome rate of fire combined with heavy explosive shells goes some way to make up for the limitations of targeting enemies on the ground. Even without the accuracy of a Predator tank or Devastator Squad, a Stalker can suppress enemies of the Chapter, its indiscriminate stream of fire blowing ragged chunks from their cover and forcing them to cower from the hammering boom of its guns.

Every Stalker tank is a prized part of its Space Marine Chapter, a venerated weapon with a long and glorious history. Every campaign and conflict see the shell of the tank battered and repaired; and the crew of battle-brothers will inevitably change, but the machine spirit and servitor conclave endure. In time, the withered minds of the servitors will develop their own quirks, as will the machine spirit; favouring certain foes, displaying ghost-like memories of past combat and raging against the enemies of the Imperium.

Sky-Scythe
The Ultramarines Stalker Sky-Scythe is a rare relic from the earliest days of Mankind’s ascendency, one of the precious few tanks of its kind to survive since before the rise of the Imperium. It is rumoured that some of the tactica in the Codex Astartes is based directly on the Sky-Scythe, the detailed illuminations in the earliest copies of the codex bearing a striking likeness to the tank. Sky-Scythe proved its name during the Battle for Macragge when it accounted for scores of Harpies and Gargoyles, even ripping apart the wings of a vast Harridan and sending it spiralling to the ground.

Xenosbane
The Black Templars Stalker Xenosbane is unique in that its servitors were Chapter serfs that died in battle during the Ajaxian Crusade against the Broken-worlds Waaagh! Their bodies preserved and their brains kept alive by bio-fluidic immersion, they were blessed with the honour of fusion into a servitor conclave. It was not until Xenosbanefirst met Orks in battle that a spark of hatred awoke in the servitors. Fighting against the stabiliser jacks, Xenosbane raged against the Orks, its precise fire ripping their smoking, coughing engines of war from the sky. Such was their frenzy that the storm cannons would track crippled Dakka Jets as they fell from the air, pumping shells into their ragged fuselages even as they burst into flaming scrap.

Deathless Saint of Days
During the siege of Kaenis V, the Imperial Fist Stalker Deathless Saint of Days held the Chapter’s forward trenches alone for twelve hours. A counter-attack by Alpha Legion Traitor Space Marines from the ruined conveyer tunnels had broken into the loyalists’ communication trenches. Its crew dead and its tracks ripped apart, the enemy ignored the Stalker until it stirred to terrible, vengeful life. At point-black range, Deathless Saint of Days practically annihilated a Traitor Marine squad, turning its storm cannons on the tunnel openings and forcing the survivors into retreat. When the Imperial Fists reclaimed their trenches they discovered the Stalker still covering the corpse-choked tunnel entrance, its smoking guns pointed into the dark.

Spite of Prometheus
The Salamanders are well known for their scorn of armies that favour airborne vehicles. The Stalker Spite of Prometheus embodies this disdain, and its servitor conclave targets fliers with a methodical hatred. The Salamander battle-brothers who crew the Stalker speak of how this was not always so, the servitors seeming as vacant and deathless as any of their kind when fused into the heart of the tank. Over time, exposed to the Salamanders’ open contempt for sky-borne foes, a change came upon the servitors. They would fire unbidden, pre-empting the commands of their crew, and always give an enemy another burst even when they were already downed. This hatred has grown and evolved until now the tank shudders with eagerness upon hearing the whine of enemy jets, its cannons raking the horizon, hungry for fresh kills.

The Hunter is a variant of the Stalker, using the same chassis and fulfilling a similar battlefield role. Whereas the Stalker is armed with twin Icarus storm cannons, the Hunter carries a single skyspear missile launcher. Far more deadly against a single target than the storm cannons of a Stalker, the skyspear missile is capable of bringing down almost any flyer known to the Imperium. The true danger of the missile, however, comes not from its armour piercing warhead but its unerring guidance system. Each missile houses the brain and spinal column of a savant-servitor, a blessed servant of the Chapter that has given his life so that he might guide the missile’s righteous anger.

Hunters are usually only deployed if the Space Marine Chapter expects to face heavy flyers or concentrated air assault. The hail of shells from a Stalker is usually enough to keep most enemy aircraft at bay, though when getting a kill is an absolute priority the Hunters are brought forward. However, each skyspear missile is a sacred relic in its own right, and the Techmarines of the Chapter do not sacrifice them lightly, trading each one for an enemy heavy aircraft. Indeed, the brainstem and cranium of a dedicated savant-servitor is the most vital part of the missile, the neural crown feeding his faithful thoughts directly into its augurs. Thus the more pious the savant-servitor, and the more dedicated his mind to the task of seeking out the enemies of the Emperor, the better the chance the missile will strike home.

A single Hunter can prove the bane of large enemy aircraft. From Tau Barracudas to Eldar Vampire Raiders, a single missile is usually all it takes to knock one from the sky. Beasts and Daemons are equally vulnerable to the skyspear, a missile able to blow a flaming hole through the heart of a Bloodthirster or winged Hive Tyrant. These are the high value, high threat targets its crew seek out, honouring the savant-servitor and giving it an end worthy of zealous furore.

The Hunter also employs more mundane high explosive missiles so that it might preserve its skyspear savant-servitors for worthy targets. Against ground targets the tanks can lay down a salvo of missile fire turning a wide area into a firestorm in seconds. Though it lacks the sophisticated and sacred technology of the skyspear savant, each missile is more than capable of smashing its way through enemy armour and roasting the crew within.

The ammo store of the Hunter is divided into the skyspear savant missiles, each one encased in its own munitorum shrine-case, awaiting the moment it will be released into the foe, and clips of explosive ordnance. Each clip holds three missiles, and an auto loader is able to draw them from the racks and feed them into the launcher in a single smooth motion. Each of these three missiles bears a psalm of vengeance inscribed in red wax by one of the Chapter’s Techmarines, its hate-filled words a curse upon the enemy it strives to destroy. When the burst of missiles is fired, the wax melts into streaming crimson and the curse is given life.

The Hunter has a glorious history even in the relatively short time it has served within the armies of the Adeptus Astartes. In the millennia since the rediscovery of its STC, the Hunter has made millions of confirmed kills, bringing down a myriad of enemy flyers against every major enemy of the Imperium. These renowned feats are not attributed to the tank alone, but to the individual skyspear savant-servitors. A savant that relentlessly seeks out its target and scatters it flaming across the sky has earned his place as a hero of the Imperium.

Javelin of Faith
The Black Templar Hunter Javelin of Faith earned its name as a Daemon killer. On the verdant agri world of Sharlor, the Black Templars vanquished the Penumbral Cult, executing its arch-heretic in a public display and burning his profane works. No sooner had the heretic’s head been hewn from his body than a Lord of Change tore its way out of his bleeding neck stump, shaking gore from its incandescent feathers. Taking to the sky, the Daemon unleashed a maelstrom of psychic fire upon the Space Marines. Then, from out of the coiling smoke of the witchfire, a skyspear missile launched by the Javelin of Faith impaled the Greater Daemon, tearing it apart in an explosion that left only a shimmer of blue flame upon the wind.

Righteous Fist
The White Scars value mobile warfare, their companies always in motion, encircling and enveloping their foes. The Hunter Righteous Fist has been used extensively in this kind of combat, its crew firing bursts of missiles on the move, overwhelming their enemy with a wall of fire and shrapnel. Skyspear savant missiles are ideal for this kind of rapid deployment, the crew sending the weapon skyward then gunning their tank back to high speed, confident that it will find its target. In its most famous kill the Righteous Fist fired a skyspear savant missile from the open vault door of a heavy lander in mid-flight, knocking a Helldrake from the sky before it could descend upon the transport aircraft.

Dorn’s Hammer
Like the Stalker, the Hunter can play a role within the drawn out engagements of siege warfare. The Imperial Fists in particular have found ways to use the Hunter beyond its envisioned design, using the heavy ordnance of the skyspear launcher and the skyspear savant missiles to break down fortifications. Dorn’s Hammer was used during the destruction of the Magenta Citadel and its cursed xenos cult, the Sons of the Void. The Hunter was pressed into service as artillery, lobbing ordnance over the citadel’s high walls, while the skyspear savant missiles targeted the cultist observers and their ghost-ships, invisible to almost all weapons but easy targets for the savants.

Lance of Fire
Skyspear savant missiles have an extremely long range, their promethium reserves mixed with holy oils to make them burn hotter but slower. The Iron Hands Hunter Lance of Fire is renowned for its distance kills with the skyspear, taking full advantage of the extraordinary range of its missiles. In the war on Medusa against Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade, the Lance of Fire has proven itself worthy of the name Hunter, blunting numerous Chaos Space Marine attacks. The first the enemy knows of its attentions is when one of their squadron is blow to pieces by a direct hit, peppering its companions with flaming wreckage and the smoking remains of its crew. The Iron Hands have made their own special modifications on the Lance of Fire, awakening in it ancient protocols and stirring its machine spirit to greater awareness. The result is an uncanny accuracy and an impressive tally of enemy aircraft kills.