Angels of Pestilence

The Angels of Pestilence, are a chaos space marine warband drawn from the Death Guard traitor legion and dedicated to the plague god Nurgle. Formed by the infamous chaos apothecary Siktar, the Angels of Pestilence are believed to be one of the larger Death Guard warbands in existence. The warband is widely feared throughout the Imperium and beyond for its mastery of biological warfare and performance of live experiments on captives - including humans, xenos and other followers of chaos. Their obsession with these foul arts has turned the Plague Marines of this warband into opportunistic predatory psychopaths who seek only to gain more bodies ripe for new experimentation. Their reputation is such that even members of their own legion find them absolutely repulsive.

A Fate Worse than Death
Based in subterranean laboratories beneath the surface of the daemon world Mortaguard, the Angels of Pestilence wage an unending quest for genetic fodder. These creatures of plague and pestilence are dedicated body and soul to the blessings of grandfather Nurgle. In particular his role as master of the cycle of life. Although the warband's purpose seems noble - to save the human race from certain destruction through acceptance of nurgle - 10,000 years of chaos corruption have turned these once stoic warriors into sociopaths driven to find more bodies for experimentation. Their goal is to understand human morphology in order to craft new and more resilient generations of mankind. Those found to be ideal genetic stock are either implanted with gene seed to become Plague Marines or join the warband as "human" auxiliaries and serfs. Those that are not so lucky are dismembered and crafted into "creations" used as cannon fodder in the warbands destructive raids. The unused parts float to Mortaguard's surface. After 10,000 years of constant dismemberment the surface now writhes with undead dismembered bodies that retain a low sentience. The warband crafts some of the most devastating biological weapons in existence and are adept at the art of producing new plague marines in a prolific manner. These traits have made them highly sought after by ambitious chaos lords, who seek to use their power for their own means. In return the Angels receive more captives and gene seed. However, this is a massive risk - the Angels are just as likely to turn on their allies and harvest their bodies. In battle the Angels rely on a combination of monstrous creatures, speed and tough plague marines. They make heavy use of biker squads, drop pods and human soldiers to get their plague marines into position to maximize their destructive capabilities. The warband lacks heavy firepower and armor and is incapable of long protracted conflicts.

Pre-Heresy
The Angels of Pestilence can trace their origins back to a feral world whose name has been lost to history and a young man who later become the warbands feared leader, Siktar. Born on a backward planet with a name that is unknown today, Siktar's early childhood was racked with sadness and despair. His mother died of childbirth. He was raised by his father alongside three brothers and a sister in a bleak landscape. He learned from an early age of the horrors of the galaxy around him. As a young boy he watched as his older brother succumbed to a pox. Sitting there by his brother's death bead he prayed for a cure, but none came. At the age of twelve his father died in a local dispute. Orphaned the young man was taken as an apprentice to the village healer. Siktar considered it his duty to find a cure and soon showed himself as a masterful student excelling in the arts of healing. However, he could not save all of those he treated from death.

Siktar's fate was decided on the day the angels of death came to his planet. The Death Guard, the sons of Mortarion, had arrived to bring the world under Imperial compliance. Although legion had exclusively been recruiting from Barbarus, heavy casualties had forced the legion to take new recruits from the worlds they conquered. Siktar, though a young boy, was already the village's healer and the legion was in desperate need of a new apothecary. Although reluctant at first, Siktar was initiated into the legion. His first decade within the Death Guard was one of coldness and despair. Most of the legionaries looked at the new a recruit as a mud blood, since he was not from Barbarus. In these years the young apothecary found solace in the arts of space marine genetics, in particular perfecting the Death Guard's gene seed. He soon found that he excelled at such craft and his skill was eventually recognized by the first captain of the Death Guard, Calas Typhon. Under the legendary warrior's wing, the apothecary gained the respect of his fellow astartes. He forgot his old name, for that man was now dead, and he would forever be known as "Siktar", which translates in his home language as "he who tricks death". Siktar climbed the ranks becoming the legion's First Apothecary and a figure of legend amongst the Apothecarium. While Typhus was feared by the members of the XIV legion as a stern warrior, Siktar was loved for his selfless dedication to the well being of his brothers at arms.

The Heresy
As the great crusade raged, the Death Guard fought on, but the legion's reckless tactics had caused it to suffer horrendous casualties. In response to this Siktar was given a quest: to prefect the Death Guard's gene seed. Siktar did this, but even as new generations of astartes came out better and tougher than the last, the Legion continued to take mass casualties. It was his feeling of concern for the well being of his fellow astartes that drove him into darkness. One day, Siktar watched in horror as one of his fellow apothecaries died from wounds in a recent campaign and was racked with self guilt by his failure to save him. Every night since then he suffered horrible dreams of his dead brother, succumbing to the plague that had taken his life, and in him he saw the faces of his battle brothers. These drove him to the brink of insanity.

One fateful day, Calas Typhon pulled the apothecary aside, telling him that there was another way to save his brothers, a way that was more effective than any that was given by the Emperor: chaos. He become a regular member of the warrior lodges and soon found renewed zeal in his new found faith. In secret he began to corrupt his fellow apothecaries into their dark service and began heretical experiments on the legions gene seed. Eventually this led him to work with another legendary apothecary: Fabius Bile. Together they worked on enhancing the gene seed of their respective legions. This partnership would last through the ages, but the clone lord and the blighted would be cursed with a rivalry that exists to the present day, that varies between close cooperation to all out war.

In the aftermath of the Istvaan campaign, his ambition grew, gone were the days of the concerned doctor as he was consumed by the belief that only through accepting chaos could humanity survive. In particular, he found loyalty to the chaos god of plague, pestilence and decay: Nurgle. Once again he fell into the schemes of Calas Typhon, who told him of a way to perfect the Death Guard's gene seed forever: acceptance of Nurgle. On their way to Terra for the final battle between Horus and the Emperor, Typhon slew the navigators. Siktar helped to persuade his fellow legionaries that the situation was fine and that Typhon would guide the fleet to safety - only to betray his own brothers into their final damnation. As the legion transformed, Siktar watched first in horror at what he had allowed to happen but that horror turned to satisfaction, as his brothers arose as undead plague marines - the unstoppable chosen of the plague lord. Rejoicing the apothecary soon grew in size, his body rotting away for all eternity. Fungus grew from his white armor and four antler-like horns grew into a crown. The blighted was born.

Eye of Terror
In the aftermath of the battle of Terra, the traitor legions retreated into the eye of terror. While the other legions limped on, the Death Guard marched in an organized fashion - devastating many worlds. The Legion settled on the Plague Planet from which it launches raids to the present day. But not all of the plague marines followed their Primarch and the legion slowly fractured. Typhon, now Typhus, was the first to set out on his own. He formed the infamous Plague fleets. Siktar followed him at first but tensions began to rise. Siktar felt just as responsible for the legion's "salvation" as Typhus and bitter resentment between the two followed. While Typhus wished to wage unending war on the realm of man, Siktar sought to further improve upon the blessings that grandfather nurgle had bestowed on the legion. The transformation of his legion did not make him complacent, it only made him more ambitious. He believed it was his duty to not only perfect the genetics of the plague marines but mankind as a whole. Taking with him a cabal of the legion's apothecaries and heretical scientists, Siktar struck out on his own with a small party of ships to the northeastern edge of the eye and far away from the plague planet. There they settled on a dark swampy crone world, naming it Mortaguard or "death's fortress". The Angels of Pestilence were born.

Mortaguard
From the swamps of Mortaguard, the Angels of Pestilence began their quest to "perfect" the human race in the image of their lord. Using his skills as an apothecary Siktar began to construct new plague marines, but due to the tainted nature of their gene-seed this became harder as time went by. The Angles struggled, as only 1 in 300 new initiates survived the process and the warband suffered more casualties than it could replenish. Thus the warband began to hire themselves as mercenaries in return for gene-seed and more slaves. The Angels began a massive program of selective breeding of captives in order to find new recruits, and many others became foot soldiers. Still many of these slaves were unwilling to serve their new master, and the cells soon became vastly over populated with prisoners. The blighted brooded while trying to create new plague marines. Eventually, Siktar came to the conclusion that in order to find the answer, he would need to unlock the secrets of the human body. So the Angels began experimenting on captives. As more fell victim to the plague marines research, secrets were unlocked. At first, the experiments yielded tougher, more resilient cultists troops, then new biological weaponry capable of both being devastating on the battlefield and highly contagious. Those found to be genetically inferior were dismembered and stitched together with other parts to create monstrous constructs, dubbed by the ordo malleus as "creations". The remains were left to rot as an offering to father Nurgle. After centuries of raids and experimentation, the world's surface became a living miasma of left over body parts -undead and writhing for all eternity. This eventually forced the Angels to move their base underground.

The Virus
While the Angels of Pestilence became increasingly isolated, Siktar maintained close ties with one prominent chaos lord: Fabius Bile. For years the clone lord had shared some of his secrets, and eventually through close cooperation, they had managed to make the Death Guard gene seed slightly more usable in return for some knowledge behind the Angels devastating biological weapons. However, the clone lord never gave away too much information and the warband had become increasingly reliant on Bile and raids on other space marine gene stock to replenish their numbers. But one fateful turn of events would see the Angels rise from an obscure off shoot, into one of the most prolific warbands haunting the Imperium to this day. One of Bile's scientists, an ex-imperial geneticist named Abulard from the heresy era, had run afoul of Bile. Knowing he would most certainly be murdered, he fled off world. Eventually he was captured, but not by Bile's enhanced warriors. For years Bile believed him to be dead and gave up the search.

Abulard's pleas had been heard by none other the plague father himself, who sent his transport crashing into Mortaguard's writhing surface. With the secrets of Fabius' knowledge of crafting chaos space marines from corrupted gene seed, Siktar and Abulard, nicknamed the "Abnormal", would spend the next decade building a new army of plague marines. This led to the construction of a baleful organism, the Plague marine virus. Although not contagious and only applicable through injection, the virus allowed for the corrupted gene-seed to grow safely inside of the initiate's body, turning him either into a plague marine or a monstrous chaos spawn with super human strength. Although not nearly as efficient as untainted gene-seed, it proved to be far more effective than the standard means of implanting corrupt gene seed into the initiate. Soon the struggling warband soared in numbers, becoming more numerous than when it started. This spectacular growth did not go unnoticed and as the 33rd millennium began, the eye of terror stood on the brink of a colossal war that would pit the two former colleagues against one another.

The Rage of the Clone Lord
As news of the Angels exploits reached far and wide, it became no secret that something was awry. Fabius Bile was at first surprised that Siktar had not come to him seeking his mastery, but that surprise soon turned to rage with confronted with the irrefutable evidence: he had been cheated by his former client and Abulard had been giving his secrets to Siktar. The clone lord prepared for war. But the Angels were ready. The first strike came when the Angels launched a surprise attack on Bile's laboratories on the crone world Xixorus, leaving the world as a rotten husk crawling with dismembered undead corpses and plague bearers. But Bile struck back devastating the Angles in a titanic space battle that destroyed two thirds of the Angels plague marines and most of their fleet. Forced into retreat, the sons of Siktar seemed to be all but doomed. But the war was far from over and the nightmare had just begun.

The Surface Moves
While all seemed lost, Siktar had one last trick up his sleeve. Retreating to their subterranean laboratories, the the Angels waited for the Clone lord to appear. For Bile did not only want to destroy the Angels of Pestilence, he wanted their total annihilation. Bile gathered most of his enhance warriors and an armada of over 20 different warbands from elements of most of the traitor legions and renegade chapters, given the promise of gene seed by Bile himself. Finding a few scattered hulks, the fleet easily destroyed them and began a lengthy bombardment. Then the traitors descended from the skies to the surface of the daemon world. But Nurgle had plans for Siktar and none of the other gods were willing to give favor to Bile. When the host made landfall they at first charged in anticipation, only to find no enemies in sight.

Then they began to feel a tug. The tug quickly turned into a pull and before they knew it the traitors were struggling for their lives. Some managed to fight their way back to their ships. Others were not so lucky. To their horror they soon found that Mortaguard's surface was made entirely of dismembered corpses eternally moving and they were pulling the marines down with them. Battle cries turned to bellows of rage, as the traitors struggled but soon those bellows became pleas for help and finally screams. First in shock, then in terror as they were pulled down. Unable to move but still feel, the marines watched as men dressed in dirty white gear and wearing gas masks, wielded surgeons tools to dismember their bodies and harvest their gene-seed. The remaining marines, confused and disoriented, were finished off by the "creations" and elite plague marines.

Present
In the aftermath of the massacre of Mortaguard, the Angles of Pestilence became one of the eye of terror's greatest success stories. With their combined knowledge, Siktar the Blighted and Abulard the Abnormal have perfected the art of genetic modification, through mass experimentation and the plague marine virus. Although the virus has a low success rate, the sheer amount of captives and native born serf descendants have allowed the warband to produce plague marines on a scale rivaling some of the most powerful chaos lords. Although the virus is incapable of being spread, there are foul rumors that the Angels continue to perfect their deadly weapon. Should the day come that the virus does become infectious, it could result in a disaster unseen in the history of the galaxy.

The success of the virus has allowed Siktar to focus on his goal of saving the human race. The Angels go about doing this through massive raids in order to gain more captives for their experiments. It is rumored that some fanatical worshipers of Nurgle have even volunteered themselves to be the next on slab.

The Angels have appeared countless times to hamper the efforts of the Imperium of Man. It is rumored that they were involved in the "cursed" 21st founding and the events that lead to the Abyssal Crusade. They have been seen fighting alongside Black Crusades, Typhus's Plague fleets and even the Dark Eldar Haemonculi. The warband is widely sought after by powerful warlords for their mastery at biological warfare and their devastating Plague marines. The Angels often times hire themselves out as mercenaries in return for more bodies for experimentation. But only a fool trusts the Angels, they are just as likely to harvest their allies for their experiments when given the chance. Only the strongest of chaos lords can afford to buy their services without fear of meeting this fate. This is not done out of some scheming attempt for more power like the followers of Tzeentch. 10,000 years in the eye of terror has rotted away more than just the Angels' bodies. An Angel of Pestilence is little more than an opportunistic hunter, preying on the weak and waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Siktar, Master of the Angels of Pestilence
At the warband's heart lies its leader, Siktar the Blighted. Rising from an outcast in his own legion to a mighty chaos lord, the fate of the Angels and their master are one. Siktar has lead the warband from his laboratory since the founding of Mortaguard, 10,000 years ago. Born on a planet lost to the annals of history, the footprint of the Blighted haunts the Imperium and by extension the galaxy to this very day. His rule over the Angels is absolute, with its members referring to him as their "father", most of them being a direct result of his own experiments. Since his final corruption on the voyage to Terra, he has convinced himself that he is the living embodiment of Nurgle himself and that it is his mission to lead humanity to a golden age in acceptance of the one true god of humanity and by extension himself. The once noble healer has shape shifted into a seething pit of madness, who justifies his actions in the name of natural selection and saving human race. The pain and destruction caused by this debased killer does not resonate to him, because in Siktar's mind his victims are little more than animals, to be weeded out so that the strong may live. To him his experiments are for the greater good, even as the surface of his world-where the dismembered bodies of his victims crawl for eternity-stand testament to the horror he has unleashed upon the galaxy. While Siktar claims to save humanity, the people he claims to save mean nothing to him as individuals. Even his "children", the Angels of Pestilence, are only extensions of himself. Even if he cares about their well being it is only because they are his own constructs and a testament to his own power.

As the 41st millennium draws to a close, Siktar stands at a crossroads. His research has unlocked more arcane knowledge. The virus he and his minions have birthed is making great strides of late. Now the galaxy holds its breath, for the nights grow cold and the stars fade into darkness. Some say a great catastrophe looms for all mankind, one that might change it forever. To Siktar the future is set in stone, and the cycle of life will continue. The strong survive, the weak perish and the Blighted will reign supreme, the living extension of his god's will.

Siktar wears Mk III Terminator armor, with original Death Guard colors mired in filth and fungus of many different colors. Four distinctive horns protrude out of the side of his helmet, forming a crown of sorts. He wields a wooden medical staff with three living eyes with his right hand and a specialized chain-fist with a reductor and narthecium, common tools used by space marine Apothecaries with his left arm.

Abulard the Abnormal
Born three decades before the Horus Heresy, Abulard the Abnormal was the son of two geneticists who had worked in the Emperor's secret laboratories on Luna. Abulard excelled at the arts of genetics and was given the great honor of been sent to work alongside the legendary Apothecary Fabius Bile. The geneticist proved his worth to the Clone Lord, becoming one of his trusted acolytes. Abulard followed his master into heresy and beyond, learning from his dark arts and perfecting the craft of space marine genetics, in particular the creation of chaos space marines from corrupted gene seed. Eventually however, Bile began to view Abulard as a liability, feeling that he held too much information. The Clone Lord started to murder his former colleagues and acolytes to prevent his secrets from reaching the wider forces of chaos, and fearing a similar fate, Abulard fled. Despite being pursued by Bile's enhanced warriors and mercenaries, promised handsome rewards by the clone lord himself, by divine providence, his ship came crashing down into Mortaguard's surface. Accepting Nurgle as his god and Siktar as his master, Abulard carried Bile's secrets with him and with it has been working in tandem with his new master ever since. With their combined knowledge of biology, genetics and plague, the two crafted the plague marine virus, allowing the corrupted Death Guard gene seed to be injected into the host's body. While most will become spawn, a lucky few will become full fledged Plague Marines, capable of spreading the rot of Nurgle further into the galaxy.

Abulard is known as the commonly as the Abnormal, for his habit of storytelling while conducting experiments on the living and his horrifically disfigured face. Although not a true space marine, he has none the less received genetic enhancements through gene-seed therapy and drugs. While on the battlefield, he wears a modified, dirty white suit of MK III power armor commonly worn by Death Guard astartes, but is more commonly dressed in garb similar to that of Imperial Medicae personnel, although covered in blood and filth. This would imply that he still has the ability to remove his armor unlike most plague marines. He is described as a pale gaunt figure, with deep cuts along his cheeks and eye-brows with parasitic worms eternally crawling through his scars.

Allies
Due to their psychopathic tendencies and their usual status as mercenaries, the Angels of Pestilence have no true allies in the traditional sense. The closest thing they have are their fellow Death Guard legionaries. Despite their many differences, the Angels still view their gene cousins as brothers and will join them in crusades to ravage the Imperium.

Typhus, Herald of Nurgle
Despite their split, it seems that the two champions of Nurgle have a close relationship and managed to put their differences aside of late. The Angels were sighted in Typhus's plague fleets during the onset of the 13th Black Crusade and fought alongside the Herald of Nurgle during the Gothic War. The Ordo Malleus believes that the relationship is purely mutual: Siktar has been providing Typhus with some of his secrets in return for access to some of Typhus's most devastating plagues. Whatever the case, their relationship is one that has been a thorn in the side of the forces of the God Emperor for quite some time.

The Tainted
Another Nurglelite warband with close connections to the Angels of Pestilence is the Tainted. They have been seen fighting alongside each other during multiple different campaigns. They both use very similar tactics, relying on large numbers of chaos spawn.

Lords of Decay
The Angels of Pestilence and the Lords of Decay maintain a steady, if uneasy alliance. While the larger Lords of Decay do not trust the Angels of Pestilence, both are part of the Death Guard legion and worshipers of Nurgle. They undertook joint operations during the 12th Black Crusade and played an important part of Typhus's Plague Fleets at the start of the 13th Black Crusade. The Lords of Decay are also believed to be one of the Angels many clients that receive support in creating new Plague Marines.

Associates
Other than the followers of Tzeentch, the Angels of Pestilence will sell their services out to the highest bidder, in the form of captives and gene seed. They are just as likely to be seen fighting alongside Noise Marines of the Emperor's Children as well as World Eaters berserkers. They have even contracted their services to the depraved Dark Eldar and other minor xenos races.

Night Lords
Despite their differences, the Angels have been known to associate themselves with the sons of Konrad Curze, although they have not always been on good terms. Since there are many different Night Lord warbands, it is not easy to distinguish their relationship from the many different factions. However, judging by the amount of times seen fighting alongside each other it can be safely assumed that the Angels maintain close ties to most Night Lord warbands. However, both the Angels and the Night Lords seem to be incapable of long term alliances due to their predatory natures. There have been many occasions where after the fight, the warbands turn on each other to fulfill their own depraved urges.

Fabius Bile
While Fabius Bile nearly destroyed Siktar and the Angles of Pestilence during their war 8,000 years ago, the relations between these two mad scientists seemed to have warmed of late, but their animosity towards one another has not abated. They have fought multiple wars over the eons, and while not at full out war today, they continue to wage a cold war of sorts. Their agents often times work against one another to thwart each other's plans. Never the less, the two have put aside their differences plenty of times throughout the ages. They are rumored to have collaborated in sabotaging the 21st "Cursed Founding" and were seen fighting side by side in the desecration of Kyron IV during the early 41st millennium.

Alpha Legion
During their many campaigns against the Imperium, the factions of the Alpha Legion have made use of the Angel's services many times. They were observed fighting with the Alpha Legion during the Battle for the hive world Taramathoris, which ended in a chaotic victory, where the Alpha Legion warlord ascended to daemon hood. They have also been contracted as mercenaries by the sons of Alpharius during the 4th Quadrant Rebellion, the Achilius Crusade and more recently the Night of a Thousand Rebellions in Segmentum Pacificus. Still, they have come to blows over multiple different campaigns.

Dark Angels
While any loyal servant of His Holiness despises the Angels of Pestilence, one chapter in particular is the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven successors. The root of this hatred can be traced back to a legendary story about one of the Fallen. Apparently, a fallen Angel by the name of Zachariah Markeaus, had fled to an peaceful isolated world, and went into hiding disguised as a villager. Over time, he forgot his role as an astartes and lived a peaceful life in the village, according to more scrupulous accounts even raising a family. Eventually however, the Dark Angels caught on, and massacred all the villagers, taking Zachariah as prisoner. But on their way to the Rock to make the fallen repent, the Dark Angel's strike force was ambushed and never returned. Although not confirmed by the Inquisition, rumor has it that the Angels of Pestilence led by Siktar himself intercepted the fleet, killing the Dark Angels but sparing the Zachariah and his being kept as a prisoner to this day, deep beneath the surface of Mortaguard. The Unforgiven have since sworn vengence, and many servants of Siktar have met their ends in the vaults of the Dark Angle's fortress monastery, the Rock.

Followers of Tzeentch
The followers of Tzeentch and Nurgle have never been on good terms, and the Angels are no different than all of Nurgle's worshipers in this respect. Such is their hatred, that the Angels will refuse to sell their services to any Tzeentchian lord, whether it be Ahriman's Prodigal Sons or Magnus the Red and his cabal of sorcerers. Outside of the Imperium, they are the Angel's favorite targets. Still, being the pragmatists they are, there are rare occasions where the two might work for a common goal, but this will always end with the two sides turning on each other.

The Purge
Although they both follow the plague god, the Purge and the Angels of Pestilence have hated each other since the Purge's inception. Their hatred comes from diverging beliefs and can be seen in the difference between Plague cults and Death cults. While the Purge seek to destroy all life so the galaxy can be reborn, the Angels seek to sort out the weak from the strong, so they can reshape humanity in their god's image. Their rivalry is not just ideological, the warbands have fought each other in grueling wars of attrition that have resulted in massive casualties on both sides, with neither side coming out on top. The bloodshed has only dissipated because Mortarion threatened both warbands with attack if they didn't cease the fighting. Still clashes are a common sight throughout the Eye of Terror.

Tactics
With thousands of plague marines, millions of diseased cultists and hordes of monstrous constructs, the Angels of Pestilence are a formidable fighting force. But they are not warriors. They are scientists and explorers. Madmen who seek to unlock the secrets of the human race in order to save it. They do not fight for conquest. Their tactics are meant to test their new weapons while moving their plague marines into the right place to maximize their destructive capabilities as well as minimize their own casualties.

These opportunistic plague marines prefer to attack weaker positions, using their beasts, biological weapons and lesser cultists to distract the main force. Whether fighting as mercenaries or launching their own raids, the Angel's attack begins long before the first wave. Certain captives-called carriers-are mind wiped and infected with a dormant form of a select disease and then released off world to find a suitable target or to the world of their employers choice. Most of them do not make it, but those that do have no idea what they are a part of. These have a tracking device, allowing the Angels to zoom in on their target. The carriers spreads the disease, insuring that the world is weaken before the actual attack. When conditions are right, the Angels launch their first wave, usually made of cultist operatives, who rile the populace into revolt and spread the disease further. This only weakens the defenses. When Angel's fleet arrives, they send their beasts to cause havoc, while pelting the enemy with biological weapons, before sending the third wave of insurgents that engage in guerrilla warfare. Only when the enemy has been severely weakened and the time is right do the Angels strike, making use of dread claws, thunder hawk gunships, transport ships and plague marine bikers strike at the enemy quickly. Specialized gangs of cultists travel behind corralling prisoners into large transports.

In battle, the Angels make heavy use of their "creations" to cause confusion, soak up enemy gun fire and cut a path into the enemy lines. Their cultist are meant to chorale these beasts, infiltrate enemy lines to spread disease and add to their marines fire power. Genetically modified bands are usually seen fighting directly alongside their plague marine counterparts during assaults in order to better overrun enemy positions. Biological weapons are used to cause confusion, panic and to destroy large portions of enemy troops at a time. Their weapons are devastatingly effective and have been compared to the chemical weapons used by the Purge. But while the Purge's weapons are meant to kill, the Angel's weapons are meant to demoralize, mutate and incapacitate the enemy, so their still living bodies can be transported back to Mortaguard for further research.

Beliefs
While Nurgle has many different followers, many disagree on the best way to venerate him. Some like the Apostles of Contagion follow him because of the "gift" of eternal life through the zombie plague. Others like the Purge seek to give the "gift" of death so that the galaxy can be reborn a new. But to the Angels of Pestilence, Nurgle is a god of nature and science, who guards the cycle of life. Nurgle's plagues weed out the weak, so that stronger generations might repopulate what remains. Nurgle is not a god of stagnancy but a god rebirth and natural selection. It is these beliefs that have driven the warband to commit unspeakable acts.

The Angels do not fight the Long War like other chaos space marines do. They view the Imperium as ignorant, backward and uncivilized, incapable of leading humanity to greatness. But they view other followers of chaos with scorn as well. The followers of chaos undivided are cowardly and arrogant, incapable advancement. The worshipers of the other gods are weak and impulsive, truly incapable of nothing but slaughter and self destruction. They even despise some of the other worshipers of Nurgle, in particular the Purge, seeing them as single minded buffoons who reject science in favor of their own despair and self loathing. To them, Nurgle is the only path for the survival and domination of the human race over all the galaxy.

The Angels also have a fierce belief in human supremacy. They believe that all other alien races are inferior and will be washed away under the tide of the new man, enlightened by the plague father. In particular the Angels hate the Tau, for their atheism and the craft world Eldar, for their superstition and arrogance. However they are known to work with other xenos races on occasion, particularly the Dark Eldar, who share the Angel's artistic talent in crafting new creatures of horror made from the flesh of their captives.