Ravenwing
The Ravenwing is the name used by Dark Angels and their successor chapters for their Second Company. While the Second Companies of Codex Astartes-compliant chapters are "Battle Companies" nominally consisting of six Tactical Squads, two Assault Squads and two Devastator Squads, instead the Ravenwing specializes in using bikes, Land Speeders and aircraft.
Company Composition: i.e: ALL the Bikes
Way back in the darkness of 3e, the Dark Angels' traditional battle companies could include "normal" bikes of their own just like every other chapter (as an alternative way of deploying assault marines) though it seemed that as time went on, every single biker and land speeder pilot in the chapter and all of its successors got promoted into the Ravenwing (or equivalent) and by 6e the Dark Angels lost count of how many members the second company actually has in it (assumed to be more than 100) but that's what you get when you steal a chapters worth of bikes and cram them into one company.
In terms of skill; Ravenwing compete with White Scars for the best bikers in the Imperium. Whilst the White Scars probably win out as an entire chapter dedicated to mounted combat rather than just one company and have better tabletop rules representing the average bike-riding individual. However, the Ravenwing's elite Black Knights are just superior in every way and have plasma-wielding bikes, rending pick-axes and stolen Grey Knight rad or stasis grenade launchers, and their leader: Sammael has an endless supply of the "last" jetbike in the Imperium, kitted out with a plasma cannon.
Ravenwing Attack (Bikes and Land Speeders as one unit) and Support Squads (up to five speeders rather than the traditional three) may be seconded to a detachment of Dark Angels, or they may deploy as an army in their own right. On the tabletop, this is represented by Sammael's (Master of the Ravenwing) ability to take Ravenwing Attack Squads as Troops as well as Fast Attack.
Ravenwing also have access to pimped out Land Speeder variants not seen anywhere else: The (shitty) Land Speeder Vengeance which has a Large Blast plasma array and a tendency to glance itself to death, and the ever useful Darkshroud which has bits of Caliban modded onto it which blanket friendlies with darkness (hence the name).
Aircraft
In traditional codex chapters, the pilots of space marine aircraft are techmarines. Amongst the Unforgiven chapters however, all of the pilots of the Dark Angels aircraft are members of the second company instead. Unfortunately the supposed benefits of doing this are dubiously represented on the tabletop, since both of the Dark Angels aircraft are inferior to codex aircraft and the distinction between Ravenwing fighter aces vs Techmarine pilots are only detailed in the Crusade of Fire supplement which many people may not own. Giving them different (arguably inferior) abilities and kamikaze maneuvers.
By contrast; in the Deathwatch (RPG), dedicated ravenwing pilots are at a slight advantage over nearly all other chapters pilots (including White Scars) with the ability to use evasive action more freely than others.
Role & Induction
The Ravenwing, like the Deathwing, is tasked with hunting the Fallen Angels, though the Ravenwing know far less about their targets; as far as they know, the Fallen are simply heretics who happen to bear a grudge against the Dark Angels, and enjoy spreading lies about the Chapter's history. When the Inner Circle expects to encounter lots of Fallen, they may deploy the Ravenwing and Deathwing together: the Ravenwing chase down the heretics, and then use their locator beacons to call down the Terminators.
They got fluffed up considerably in the aptly named "Ravenwing" novel by Gav Thorpe. The members are inducted from the most curious space marines: in fact the protagonist of the story is simply transferred over for asking the seemingly innocent question of "how did the Lion die?". Therefore clearly his ultimate fate is not a matter for casual discussion within the chapter so most of the common variety "green" Dark Angels obviously just accept what they are told off hand and don't bother thinking about it too deeply.
Rather than an outright lie for an answer, the members of the Ravenwing are inducted through several circles within the company itself, gradually coming to the truth of the fallen as they prove themselves more and more worthy, either that or the Ravenwing is a dumping ground for initiates who need closer observation.
The Ravenwing itself is part of the mechanism that keeps the secret of the Fallen from within the chapter itself, racing ahead of the rest of the army and making certain that nobody gets exposed to certain truths that the Chaplains don't want to get out. Which is partially an unfortunate thing, as members of the Dark Angels will never be promoted to the higher ranks unless they can be trusted with the truth, so some Dark Angels may be stuck in green armour no matter how competent they are, and might not quite realise why they aren't being "promoted".
Eventually, when members of the Ravenwing become promoted to the rank of Black Knight they become privy to the truth of the Fallen and what they represent, if perhaps not the entire truth of the betrayal of Luther. Whilst those from the company who have direct contact with the Fallen are shuffled off to the Deathwing instead, acknowledging that it is not strictly a promotion to be proud of; rather it is now an additional burden they must bear.
Gallery
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Hell is coming at you fast!
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The last jetbike in the imperium... if it weren't a different pattern from Heresy-era Imperial jetbikes and it didn't appear thousands of years after the Horus Heresy...
