The Prognosticators of the Grey Knights detect a coming Warp
breach in the Endasch subsector. Upon Endasch itself, rival
Ork warlords have spilt rivers of gore so copious they are at
risk of creating a rift to the Blood God’s own realm. Unable to
reach Endasch in time, the Grey Knights send an astropathic
pulse to the Deathwatch. A dozen Kill Teams reach Endasch,
slaying one of the Ork warlords and his retinue using only
thunder hammers, power mauls and fists. Bludgeoning the
enemy to death with crushing weapons proves no mean feat,
and it costs the Kill Teams a full half of their number. Yet by
limiting the blood spilt, the Deathwatch prevent the Warp
breach from ever happening. The surviving Ork warlord leads a
greenskin crusade out of the subsector. A week later, augur
beacons trace the Ork crusade into the Eye of Terror, and the
matter is considered resolved.

Whilst on a destabilisation raid to the war-torn Empire of
Octaria, the Kill Teams of the Eye of Octos witness a Mekaniak
invention that disrupts the synaptic control linking Tyranid
organisms. Appearing much like a crown of electricity, it is
used by the self-appointed King Mek Baddkrasha to break
swarm after swarm. The Kill Teams wait for the two xenos
armies to decimate each other before diving in, their Furor
teams cutting through to Baddkrasha before escaping with his
decapitated head – crown and all – for further study.

With Commander Farsight and his subordinates joining the war
for Agrellan, the Deathwatch make an opportunistic attack on
the Farsight Enclaves. They cause untold damage on the
Enclaves’ command structure before Commander Farsight
returns, vengeance foremost on his mind.

The Deathwatch are the most vigilant defenders the Imperium
has to guard its borders. They operate from remote stations
known as watch fortresses, each absent from Imperial records,
as to the Deathwatch, obfuscation is another moat with which
to keep their castles strong.
Each space-borne watch fortress is a sovereign domain ruled
by its Watch Commander. On his authority, entire sectors are
put to the torch without question. These strikes are so effective
that the grand crusades of attrition which typify Humanity’s
approach to war are made unnecessary – many growing
threats are contained and expunged before the wider Imperium
is even aware of them.
Each Deathwatch stronghold operates under a shroud of
secrecy, standing as a hidden sentinel over a select area of the
Imperium’s dominion. Some are space-borne fortresses that
monitor a specific threat – Castilos Nullifact watches for the rise
of the long-slumbering Necron dynasties in the north of Ultima
Segmentum, whereas Fort Pykman monitors the Ghoul Stars
and the horrors that lie beyond. Others instead keep watch
over a specific area in which aliens have been sighted in great
measure. There are those watch stations which house a
garrison of only a handful of battle-brothers, whilst the largest
of fortresses play host to entire Watch Companies. Regardless
of size, these space stations bristle with weaponry – islands of
sanity and strength in the midst of the endless sea of stars.

The stations of the Deathwatch are many, and neither the
Inquisition nor the Watch Commanders themselves know of
them all. Some are only a few centuries old, formed in
response to emergent xenos threats. Others have legends that
span millennia, their oaths of vigilance and ancient heraldry
borne upon proud standards in their Sanctum Bellicos.
Talasa Prime is the capital training world of the Deathwatch –
not just a space station, but a whole planet sited in the realm
of Macragge. The lords of Talasa’s Deathwatch keep their own
counsel, though their wars against the Tyranid hive fleets and
the Tau race have proved critical.
The Praefex Venatoris keep watch over a string of alien portals
used by the Commorrite Eldar in Segmentum Obscurus. Their
forces are constantly on hair-trigger alert, for they must move
fast if they are to save the teeming human worlds of Syracia
Thrive from alien piracy.
The Onyx Patrol is not a watch station so much as a fleet, for
its quarry is the nomadic Craftworld Eldar. Its web of
informants crosses Segmentum Solar, and its Warp drives are
kept hot. Since the patrol’s inception, Eldar sightings in the core
sectors have become rare indeed.

The Ghoul Stars harbour hidden threats, from the emergent
Barghesi to the awakening Necron dynasties. Fort Pykman
favours Malleus tactics; it stands ready to demolish ancient sites
should there be even a flicker of suspicion they are linked to
tomb worlds or alien worldnests.
Furor Shield monitors the Ork-held Octarius sub-sector, into
which Kryptman of the Ordo Xenos misdirected a tendril of
Hive Fleet Leviathan. Both Tyranids and Orks adapt under
duress – when the victor of this ever-escalating war emerges,
the Shield stands ready to slay them.
The Eye of Damocles is a vast watch fortress that monitors the
borders between Imperial space and that of the usurper Tau
Empire. Its Kill Teams specialise in vertical assault. Dominatus
teams will often strike from Corvus Blackstars to turn one-
sided firefights into bloody melees.

Watch Masters are the foremost xenos hunters in the galaxy.
They are counted as heroes even amongst the highest echelons
of the Adeptus Astartes, for these men have tested their mettle
against a hundred species of aliens and emerged triumphant.
They have such intense charisma and ability that within the
Deathwatch their every word is law. They do not win such
respect through rousing rhetoric and generous gestures – they
are typically curt of speech and fierce of temperament, and
they do not suffer fools gladly. Their mission is to ensure the
survival of the human race, and it not one they take lightly.
No less a body than the High Lords of Terra has been known
to seek their counsel – for in the business of laying low the
alien, the Watch Masters are without equal.
Though they theoretically return to their original Chapter once
their duties are discharged, Watch Masters usually prove so
vital they are never allowed to leave their post. All too often
the Watch Master will shoulder his duties alone, seeking the
solace of pure thought in long periods of introspection and
solitude. Yet his actions send ripples throughout history, and
almost always for the betterment of the Imperium.
The Watch Masters hold a position of such trust and authority
they have access even to the archives of the Inquisition. Even
merciless Lord Inquisitors treat these men with a degree of
deference, for of all the Imperium’s defenders, the Ordo Xenos
know best how grave a burden the Watch Masters bear. On a
strategic level, the Watch Masters work ceaselessly to outwit
and outmanoeuvre the warlords of the alien races, to stymie
invasions before they occur, to bring ascendant dynasties to
their knees, and to wipe out parasitic species that would
otherwise infest great swathes of Imperial space. It speaks to
their quality that they can actually achieve such goals in
practice. Knowledge is power, after all, and they use it well.
When the Watch Masters take the field, their centuries of
experience are focussed to a deadly point, a weapon specifically
made for the task of slaying xenos bioforms. Wisdom is far
from their only tool. They go to war girded in the finest
Imperial war-tech, the artefacts they bear so precious they
would make a Tech-Magos weep oily tears of envy. Just as the
hero of an ancient people was once given the keys to his city,
the Watch Master is given the key to Humanity’s domain –
the clavis, a wrist-worn repository of machine spirits from the
Dark Age of Technology that can open any door, and in
theory, take control of any Imperial machine. Watch Masters
are clad in precious masterpieces of the artificer’s art – each a
formidable and ornate suit of armour which incorporates an
iron halo, a device which projects around its wearer a field of
protective energy. They carry the fabled guardian spear,
symbolic of their role of sentinel. This is a sign of great trust,
for it is the same weapon borne by the Emperor’s personal
warrior elite, the Custodian Guard, yet modified to fire the
signature shells of the Deathwatch. When a Watch Master joins
the fight on the front line, he cuts down his foes with a cold
precision that leaves monsters and tyrants slain in his wake.