“Rejoice, for you have been chosen! Are we not magnanimous?”

With the discovery of the kett exaltation facility on Voeld, it is obvious in hindsight how much of their military doctrine is centered around feeding this endless demand for new captives to convert, from their rules of engagement to warship design to the divide-and-conquer strategies employed against the species they encounter. Thus, while any kett unit can be expected to secure prisoners over the course of their duties, it is no surprise that the invaders have leveraged their genetic engineering prowess towards the development of elite troops made exclusively for this purpose. These “Chasteners”, as intercepted transmissions refer to them, represent not only a notable threat on the battlefield, but demonstrate the obsessive lengths the kett are willing to go to in the name of exaltation.

Physically, Chasteners are distinguishable from other kett by their second pair of arms, as well as the elaborate, angular bone crests sweeping back from the skull. Autopsies conducted by Initiative xenobiologists reveal an olfactory system more akin to Earth’s bloodhounds than a sentient being, with over 150 million individual receptors letting a Chastener detect and identify minute scents from kilometres away. Its long, almost disproportionate limbs are hollow in structure yet remarkably durable, like a bird’s wings, while the biological cloaking ability exalted from challyrions enables each Chastener to redeploy around the battlefield swiftly and stealthily.

Finally, as with the kett’s Ascendant commanders, exalted angaran genetics give Chasteners the ability to manipulate electrostatic energy, though in a far different manner than the former. Should any foe be so unfortunate as to be caught in the grip of a Chastener, glands located in its lower arms will deliver an electrostatic shock powerful enough to disrupt hardsuit functions and overwhelm the central nervous system, leaving its victim utterly helpless and ready for capture. Though Chasteners in the field usually wield a Silhesh plasma SMG and Carfalon blade in their primary arms for more lethal attacks, it is this neuroparalytic shock that poses the greatest threat, and keeping them at a distance is an absolute necessity.

Though the base species from which Chasteners are exalted remains unknown, the genetic markers present suggest that, even by the standards of exaltation, creating a Chastener is a costly and time-consuming process. In most cases, kett genetic enhancements are distributed in much the same way as a military from the Milky Way would offer promotion; for example, a Chosen who proves himself on the battlefield and is deemed worthy of greater power and responsibility will receive the modifications necessary to become an Anointed. In contrast, Chasteners are bespoke creations, those assigned to join their number becoming so in the initial exaltation process. This, combined with the extensive augmentations, means their numbers are limited; indeed, before the Battle of Meridian, Chasteners were never seen outside of specialist hunter-capture units (and related horror stories from the Angaran Resistance).

Like so much, this has changed at the command of the Primus. As the kett have abandoned their studies of Remnant technology for a strategy of mass abductions and larger-scale attacks, Chasteners have been increasingly deployed as part of mainline combat units, using the chaos of battle and their adaptive camouflage to get within striking distance. Though made fragile by their lack of kinetic barriers or heavy armour, even a single Chastener slipping into a defensive position or gunline can result in the sort of disruption and panic not even a charging Fiend could produce, and APEX personnel are strongly advised to maintain a state of heightened awareness should a Chastener’s presence be reported in the AO.