Rogue Trader (Andy hoare novels) re-analysis thread

[Connor MacLeod]

Admittedly I was not planning on redoing them, but I figured 'what the hell' since I'd already covered Savage Scars. They were old and could use updating like the rest, after all. So here we are.

Second time around is interesting. THey're more aggravating in some ways, but I think I can appreciate certian things about them now that I'm past the dislike for the sheer tau wank and my general loathing of all things Arcadius. For one thing, the books are heavily devoid of anything seriously grimdark. I dont know why but these just dont feel all that horrible or awful to me. The tau vs Imperial comparisons can still be grating of course, but thre's very little atual grimdark I can point to.

Plus, it is also one of those few novels with a hefty dose of space warfare, although its presented in a very atypical (bizarre) context compared ot other novels like Execution Hour, BFG, etc.

All in all Andy Hoare seems to fall into the same pattern as Swallow or Counter. When its good you like him (and he can write good - I enjoyed 13th Black Crusade and Savage Scars, and Hunt for Voldorius was passable) but when its bad.. its painful. And it sometimes seems you can get both in the same book. I could say one positive thing to come out of this is that I think it laid the groundwork (in part) for the Rogue Trader RPG, which is a tremendously great source IMHO (my favorite really.)

Since I've already covered the series I won't waste time. Two major updates of three parts apiece to cover all the books. I won't be revisiting Savage Scars, since that was a recent one as well; the thread for that can be found Here if you want to read it.

So, we go back to Rogue STar, where it all started. The Arcadius at their nadir, seeking to make that big score and restore their fortunes. In the process of which they stumble across a myriad of bizarre plots and conflicts which seem to lead back to a new, mysterious race who is making inroads in Imperial territory. Prelude to the Damocles Gulf and the beginning of the fantastic Tau-Imperial relations we've come to so enjoy. For the reader's edification (and my own embarassment at how silly some of my ideas may have been) I provide the original thread the here.

And with thta, on to part one:

*****

Page 8

Where once a deck crew of dozens had attended to their stations in the crew pit, now half of Lucian's crew were hard-wired servitors, each mumbling an impenetra­ble catechism of the Machine-God. Vacant-eyed and drooling, each monitored a single aspect of the vessel's running. Vessels such as the Oceanid relied on their like, for many tasks were beyond the abilities of a man to per­form. Yet, over the years, the availability and quality of competent crewmen had diminished to such an extent that Lucian was forced to rely on servitors. Though essen­tial in many roles, the hideous machine-corpse custodians were no substitute for a man when it came to obeying orders in a crisis. Each knew only its allotted pur­pose, and would remain tethered uncaring to its station even were it to burst into flames.

Lucian prefers real men to servitors, which is similar to the view of the Navy. Personally I'd say it depends on whether one prefers performance in a particular task (which a servitor is superior at) or a more generalist worker (which a normal person, especially a cybernetically augmented one, can perform.) It's not really an either/or thing, unless prejudices are involved.

Page 9

A servitor, its eye sockets replaced by data ports from which bundles of cable snaked and writhed, bobbed its head once in response. Half its cranium was replaced by cybernetic implants, the right side of its brain, associated with creativity and emotion, having been cut away, deemed unnecessary by its creators.

I wonder if all servitors have the right half of their brains removed, or if this is just a preference by the AdMech (or whoever creates them.) It might be an advantage for the mono-task types, but not for the higher task. Of course its not like 'servitor' is of just one classificaiton or style.

Page 9-10

"All engines to idle. Fore thrusters to best speed. Thirty-second burn on my mark."
Lucian's words were relayed through the deck crew to the entire ship. Within seconds, the omnipresent rumble of the Oceanid's engines changed pitch, deepening to a subsonic drone as sweating engineering crews nursed them to idle.
..
A mournful siren pealed throughout the vessel, echo­ing down dark and dingy companionways. The mighty banks of retro thrusters mounted either side of the armoured prow coughed into life. The titanic force of the deceleration caused Lucian's head to pitch forward. Raldi barely won his fight to remain standing.
"Station nine! Why aren't the compensators on line?"

The servitor at station nine, the position responsible for monitoring the Oceanid's gravitic generators, opened its mouth and squealed a response in garbled machine lan­guage. The engine pitch deepened and the bridge lights flickered before Lucian felt the gravity field fluctuate, compensating for the deceleration.

Gravity generators in this novel seem distinct from the grav compensators.

Second, the Oceanid's retro thrusters owuld seem to be within human limits, which would be consistent with the FFG RPG. Of course we know from certain novels (like First Heretic) that retros are not necesarily as powerful (or as large) as the rear thrusters. The exact relationship is up for debate, but we know more powerful ships exist (The manuevring thrusters of the Blood Angels battle barge from the duology, for example.)

There's also the fact it depends on the ship's design, role, and quality. While I wouldn't jump to the conclusion all starships can pull thousands of gees it's kind of a case by case basis. Despite what the ARcadius think/believe, they may jus thave a shitty starship. It's certainly implied not to be as big as other vessels... Another possibility is that it's a refleection on engine performance, we know at least one is in shitty shape, and the general idea is Arcadius are down on their luck as far as crew and maintenance goes, so it is quite likely that the ship does not immediately build its engines up to full power instantly. Like many things in the Imperium it may depend on design and tradeoffs (and even tech levels available.) Thus it could be a deliberate design limitatation or tradeoff, or it may simply be a conditional one brought on by the Arcadius fortunes. Regardless of interpretation it is not a massive contradiction.

One interesting idea based on 'Scourge the Heretic' by Sandy Mitchell is that Imperial AG is not 'constant', but it may experience fluctuations or 'flickers.' this could just be a more severe example of that case, particularily given the Oceanid's currently-decrepit state. Alternately, its quite possible that acceleration does not ramp to full power instantly in this case (or indeed, in any Imperial starship.) That does have implications for acceleration and manuverability, but it's not unreasonable to expect engine performance to 'ramp up' like that over a period of time. Indeed, STar of Damocles suggests this latter aspect strongly, as a White Scars starship takes some seconds to reach full engine output, so that is certainly internally consistent.

And like the example in shadow point it may just be this is an aspect of retro and manuvering thrusters, and not one for main thrusters.


Page 10-11

That both vessels had evidently arrived simultaneously was testament to the skills of their Navigators, for time within the warp bore little or no relation to that within the phys­ical universe. Every mariner, from the most veteran of ships' masters to the lowliest rating, was well versed in the tales of ships setting out, to arrive at their destination mere weeks later yet having aged decades. Other tales told of vessels that had arrived many centuries late, having spent mere days within the warp, while others still told of vessels arriving before having even set out.

The fact that time in realspace could pass much faster than it does in the warp we knew of (voyages in warp taking days, whilst weeks pass in realspace) you don't often hear of the reverse. It can be an advantage in some ways (Boros Gate for example) but also aging decades in the warp for a short journey in realspace is not good either (although who knows, given the 'human fuel' aspect of the Imperium some might deem that an advantage.) And of course the occasional 'arrive at destination before you leave' bit. It's another one of those weird factors about the warp that makes travel not so much slow as unpredictable either way - time and space in the warp are mutable, and can have an impact on the journey, nevermind the issues of navigating/finding your place relative to realspace and the various 'weather' aspects of the warp - currents, tides, storms, etc.)

Page 11-12

A moment's delay hinted at the still vast distance between the ships, before Korvane's voice broke through the static.
...
There was a pause as the transmission beamed across a million kilometres of space, and then the simple reply..

The two Arcadius ships seemed to get within a million km of each other... although Korvane's ship the Rosetta, is maybe a bit closer. Gives an idea of the separation fleets can expect on warp translation, which is a good one. Still it can show why emerging insystem is a bad thing too.. a million km radius is a large volume of space, even in a star system.

Page 12-13

For millennia, the Arcadius Dynasty, of which Lucian was the latest scion, had penetrated the darkness of the Eastern Rim. His ancestor, the great Lord Arcadius Maxim Gerrit, had earned the favour of none other than the High Lords of the Administratum.
..
It was well known that the charter was intended to remove the Lord Arcadius from the circles of power that orbited the High Lords of Terra, lest his successes afford him ambitions incompati­ble with those of the Administratum, but Maxim was ever a pragmatic man, and established a dynasty that would flourish for the next three thousand years.

Going by timelines and such this would have been the period of the 'age of redemption', just before the Waning. I suspect a bit of revisionism is going on, given what we actually see of the Arcadius and vs what is likely to happen with Warrants of Trade, although I can hardly claim to be unbiased (I never cared for Lucius even with my relaxed attitudes.) Lucius tends to be a bit... grandiose sounding when it comes to himself, his dynasty, and his status, and I actually suspect people just wanted him out of the way so he wasn't a nuisance But as I said, I am not unbiased.

Page 13

The dynasty had hit hard times. Its traditional area of operation beyond the eastern spiral arm had rapidly become untenable. Lucian was in the business of trading, of exploitation, yet where once virgin worlds awaited his vessels, only barren, lifeless planets were to be found. Something was out there, feeding on regions that the Arcadius Dynasty depended upon for its very future.

Given what we know with Savage Scars, I'm betting this is supposed to forshadow the Tyranids.

Page 14

He was tall at over six feet, powerfully built and heavy set. His face showed age, but few ever guessed his years. As was ever the case with those who spent a lifetime traversing the space lanes, Lucian counted two ages. His objective age, that counted by the ever-constant universe was somediing approaching half a millennia. His subjective age, the years he actually noted the passing of, was one fifth that. Still, he appeared no older than half a century, for despite the downturn in his fortunes, he had access to surgical treatments about which the common subjects of the Imperium could only dream. Regular juvenat courses held back the years and maintained strength, ensuring that he would guide his dynasty through another century at least, so long as the Arcadius survived the next decade.

Lucius comments on his ages. He has the 'objective' - the 'actual' age relative to the universe (accounting for rejuv and warp dilation), which is 500 years (meaning that for every year spent in the warp ~5 years was spent in realspace, approximately) . His subjective age (relative to himself) of 100, which reflects the time that has passed since he was born. And his biologicla age, which is about 50, due to rejuv. He expects to live at least another century more even with his reduced fortunes, which is interesting (meshes with the Ravenor stuff where wealthy but non-noble people could make at least 200 years of age.)

Page 16

. The second weapon was of unknown man­ufacture, a pistol-sized device of pure crystal. Violet and blue lights danced within as he hefted it. He knew not who or what had constructed die bizarre weapon, but on many occasions had had cause to thank their skill. The weapon unleashed a blinding ray that interfered with its target's brain functions, reducing him to a gib­bering imbecile in seconds..

xenos neural disruptor. Whether it has shown up in other sources or not I dont know.

Page 17

He then slid onto his fingers a series of rings, each a cunningly wrought, miniature laser weapon. With luck, such weapons would not be required, but few authori­ties in the galaxy, short of an Inquisitor Lord or Space Marine Chapter Master, would presume to demand a rogue trader divest himself of his arms.

Digital lasers. Also more Arcadius arrogance, implying himself to be equal to a Chapter Master or Inquisitor Lord at least in terms of respect. He tells a slightly different story later on, which just shows how much politics plays a role as far as power goes (and the perception of power) in the Imperium. I will admit that the novels cover these aspects of 40K pretty well.

Page 17

The rogue trader flotilla slid through banks of pale green stellar dust, flashes of lightning illuminating them from deep within. Such regions were the stuff of space mariners' superstitions, for they awoke primal notions, the fear of the unknown, and of 'things' lurk­ing in the mist. The vessels navigated by dead reckoning alone, for their augur banks were useless amidst the thick cloud. It was all too easy to become jittery, reflected Lucian, for the surveyor reported all manner of weird returns. Ghostlights they were often called, for they would appear solid and real one moment, only to fade to nothing the next.

Communications too, were troublesome in such a region. Where the cloud thinned, short range, line of sight transmission was possible, but psychic communi­cation was by far more efficient, except that the vessel's telepath was near incapacitated at present: burnt-out, Lucian suspected.

I can't decide whether this is trying to duplicate sci fi myths, or just 'space weather' analogues or something. Knowing 40K, nebulas could fuck things up (either through self fufilling warp prophecy belief crap, or because its magically enchanted in some way) Either way, space fog.

Page 18

"Helm, on my mark, all engines to ten percent, new heading thirty to starboard. Comms, give me a channel to my fleet."
..
"'Do as I say, both of you. On my signal, Korvane, power up and come about to forty-five degrees to starboard. Brielle, maintain your current speed and come about to forty-five to your port. Do you both understand?"
...
The compensators cut in an instant late, as the Oceanid decelerated. Raldi simultaneously veered the ship to star­board. The surveyor tracked the Rosetta as she increased her speed, crossing the Fairlight's bow with the four raiders in pursuit.

Evasive manuvers against raiders. AGain the compensator kicks in slow.

Page 19

Below decks, the mighty weapons bank locked onto its target: the fast-moving raider closing in on the position the Rosetta had occupied minutes before. The master of the smaller vessel evidently saw his coming fate, but a moment too late. The battery erupted in blinding fire, launching huge, high-explosive projectiles across the gulf of space.

Lucian watched on the surveyor screen as the raider pitched to starboard, a last desperate attempt to avoid the Oceanid's wrath. It failed, as Lucian had seen it would. The salvo struck the smaller vessel amidships, robbing it of forward momentum with such violence that it split into two, its entire prow tumbling forwards whilst its drive section sheered off at forty-five degrees. Even at this distance, the spectacle was impressive, as the plasma core at the heart of the engine cluster went criti­cal, creating a second sun for a moment.

minutes apparently have occured in the escorts manuvers, and apparently the raiders are unable to halt their momentum in time to avoid the gunfire (I'd guess it takes far faster to hit) and they strike with enough force to 'stop its forward momentum' which is saying something since they strike sideways. Of course whether that's impact alone or explosive effects (or both) we can't really say despite my earlier assessment.

A ship with 5 gees of acceleration and taking 2-3 minutes to slow down or change course would cover 7260 some 363 km (at 2 minutes) to 815 km (3 min) in straight line from a standing start (or would take that long to come to a stop. Anything beyond that (4-5 minutes) is going to be a good 1500-2000 km. Velocity however will only be between 6 and 15 km/s though, but for a 1-2 km escort type we're probably talking 1/3 to 1/15th of a second to score a direct hit (faster to hit directly amidships) Given a probable hundreds or thousands of km/s distance its safe to say the projectiles are moving many times faster than the ship (high hundreds to low thousands at least.)

Also the temperature suggests engines run at stellar-level temps or luminosity, which says something abou ttheir velocity potentials (EG fusion torch range.)

Page 20

..three raider frigates, probably up-gunned, certainly up-armoured, and therefore slower and less manoeuvrable than would ordinarily be the case; and his own vessels: a heavy cruiser and two light cruisers. Under normal circumstances, his small flotilla would have little to fear, but all three of the rogue trader vessels were running at reduced capacity, the sad result of the dynasty's deteriorating fortunes.

Assessment of force dispositions. Interesting for the fact it implies there is a tradoeff between firepower and durability and speed/agility for a ship of a given size. Which makes sense but it actually indicates that there may be a fair level of 'customization' of ship designs depending on the performance you want and the tradeoffs you're willing to except. We've seen this in FFG with certain frigate designs (some trading weapons range and mobility for firepower and durability, like strike frigates.)

Also Lucian supposedly has a heavy cruiser and two light cruisers. In RT terms this owuld suggest he's fairly powerful (or was), but this depends on the actual size rather than the class. the Rogue Trader RPGs tended to under-scale warships in the first two novels so Lucian (at best) may have a cruiser more towards the lower end of the range (eg a few km.)

Also his ships are clearly running at (far?) less than peak capacity, so the ship performance would reflect this.

Page 20-21

"On my signal, power down to ten per cent, and burn port retros at full for fifteen."
..
The Oceanid shuddered violently as the portside retro thrusters ignited, forestalling the vessel's forward motion and slowly bringing her to starboard. The first of the raiders passed, overtaking Lucian's cruiser before its own captain had time to react. Lucian knew that it would have to enter a long, wide arc in order to circle back: it was out of the fight for some time at least.

The second raider did react to the Oceanid's ungainly manoeuvre, but its captain had evidently misread Lucian's intentions. Rather than compensating for the course change with a similar move, this raider veered to port, the master fearing perhaps that the heavy cruiser sought to entrap him as she had his erstwhile compa­triot.

Evasive manuvers. Gives a rough idea of what a full power manuvering turn can achieve for manuverability (15 sec burn or so.. I'd guess at least.. 20-30 degree turn?)

Page 21

Station six was manned not by a servitor, but by a man, though the rat­ing sported so many cybernetic implants that the external difference was minimal. Lucian reasoned that the shields were generally only needed in an emer­gency, and had learned through bitter experience that an Emperor-fearing man reacted to orders far better than a servitor under such circumstances, benefiting as he did from a sense of self-preservation that the servitor lacked.

Heavily augmented human to near servitor status. Again the line blurs, and again Lucian's prejudices.

Page 21

Lucian wasted no time in mourning the press-ganged scum that toiled in the depths of his vessel. Most would have been executed long ago had not their sentences been commuted to his service.

At least they're only using condemned prisoners....

Page 22

Lucian activated the holograph, focusing on an area of space only a few thousand kilometres ahead. He saw what he was looking for.

"Helm, we're coming up on Chasmata's outer defence platform. At five hundred, yaw thirty so she passes us to port at around fifty."

A shudder travelled up the length of the vessel, as the raider dogging her stern unleashed a second volley.
..
As the Oceanid ploughed on, the defence platform came into view off the port bow. Though not much larger than the rogue trader vessel, the platform bristled with weaponry, from lance batteries to torpedo tubes. The comms servitor had evidendy succeeded in trans­mitting the correct signal. Had it not, those batteries of fearsome destruction would have been opening fire on the Oceanid.

Instead, they opened fire on the raider. The captain of the raiding frigate was so intent upon his prey that he could not have seen his death approaching. It came quickly, in the form of a mighty broadside, macro can­non shells obliterating the smaller vessel in the blink of an eye.

Lucian glanced down at the surveyor to see the rapidly fading debris field spread across the screen.

Outer defence platform and docking/orbital station. Stated to be the same size as a heavy cruiser (which in FFG terms would suggest 3-5 km across at least, but probably far more massive and heavily armed.) The odd thing is it's apparently not visible at a few thousand km, unless that's very loosely termed (something that big shoudl be easily visible at such short ranges. Hell it shoudl be distant at tens of thosuands of km, but again scale is weird in this book.)

The range implied is also a bit odd, because it implies an upper limit frange of a few thousand km for ship guns, period, even though this contradicts virtually every other space going battle we know of. We might reconcile the platform firing as simply being a warning shot (only firing at point blank range.) which fits with what is stated later.

The macro cannon shells engage at roughly 500 km at LEAST, and take 'a blink of an eye' to reach the target. I'd guess the ship is at least a few hundred km behind the Oceanid at least, so call it between 500-1000 km at least. This source suggetss .2 seconds for an eyeblink, whilst this suggests between .1 and .4 seconds and this suggests .3 to .4 seconds. Thats roughly human reaction time and it may depend on factors (as noted) - some sources hinted at 'reflex' blinks as low as .1 and .15 seconds, so between .1 and .4 seems to fit well with around .2-.25 seconds average (around the limit for human reaction time IIRC)

For 500 km or so range we're talking 1250-and 5000 km/s for the shells to destroy the target in the blink of an eye.. greater if we're factoring in distance between ship and taget (2500-10,000 km/s by my guess at the ranges) Either way it points again to thousands of km/s projectile velocities, which fits nicely with the bulk of the observed data we have on such (and comparisons with slower ordnance weapons like torpedoes, etc.) Given the way ranges are understated in these books we might even treat it as a lower limit.

Page 23

. Lucian had awaited the customary picket escort any rogue trader would expect from the port authorities of such a world..
..
Not only was the absence of an escort notable, but Lucian's practiced eye took in every detail of the dock and its environs. All six docking limbs were devoid of craft. No freighters, no system defence boats, no tankers, troop trans­ports or ships of any type were tethered to the station's multiple docking points. No service craft or tugs went about the endless maintenance tasks any other station would demand. No shuttles transported goods and pas­sengers back and forth between the dock and the surface.

This far out on the borders of the Imperium's space, Lucian would have expected some degree of neglect, but not so much, he reflected with growing unease...

Lucian expects an escort from insystem picket vessels adn finds the complete lack of pickets (or other system ships of any kind) disquieting and unusual, even for the Eastern Fringe.

Page 28

..the harbour master of the Mundus Chasmata Orbital - the space station through which all traffic to and from the world's surface had to pass.
..
"Our system monitor boat is currently, er, out of sys­tem. That you recklessly drew your attacker onto the defence platform's guns is not my responsibility. That platform has not been required to fire its weapons in three centuries, sir. The expended ordnance will be replenished at your expense"

Single system defence ship 'out system' does that mean its out on the fringes (and why would it be out there?) or is it warp capable? And why only one damn boat?

On the other front, the station is the docking and transit point for all traffic to and form the surface - apparently it doesn't make the same use of ground based starports that some planets do. And an explanation for the ludicrously short weapons ranges...

Page 30

The descent from orbit took only thirty minutes, and soon the shuttle was screaming through the night skies of Mundus Chasmata.

Apparently onyl a single shuttle too, that takes 30 minutes to reach the surfac. Depending on distance (2000-35000 km lets assume for an earthlike planet) we're talking between 1 km/s and ~20 km/s average velocity, and maybe a couple gees tops sustained thrust.

Page 31

The world's population was just over the one billion mark, a figure consistent with many sim­ilar worlds. Lucian had visited agri-worlds farmed by machines whose human populations were counted in the hundreds, and hive worlds where billions crowded into kilometres-high spires.
...
The system's location at the borders of human space put it at risk of alien predation, and this far out it could count little on aid arriving in time to save it in the event of attack. Aside from the irregular visits of lone Imperial Navy vessels on long-ranged patrol, Mundus Chasmata could look only to itself for defence. One in ten adults were therefore required to serve in the world's Planetary Defence Force, an institution that had, on four recorded occasions in the last three centuries provided troops for the Imperial Guard.

Size of the planet. Implies a PDF of roughly 100 million (potential, how many are active serving and how much militia we don't know), but it implies this might be similar for other worlds on the fringe of such scope. Also billion-strong worlds don't seem unusual in the Imperium, but the scope running from 'hundreds' (which suggests extreme automation for agri worlds) to billions in a hive (not unheard of again, Eg Necromunda) is indeed quite 'diverse'.

Oddly one wonders why there are no stronger fleet presence, since the evidence above would suggest the space based assets would be more extensive for a world of this size and the level of ground militarization (and lack of access to Imperial forces.)

Page 31

Mundus Chasmata vied with its neighbour Arris Epsilon, located at the opposite extreme of die Timbra subsector, for what little trade the region would support. The plan­ets of this lonely area were, by necessity it appeared, largely self-sufficient. They had little contact widi the Imperium, and little to offer it in terms of resources.

'lack of contact' seems more common out on the very fringes (close to Tau space, at least) than closer in. given we're on the eastern fringe of Segmentum ultima (which is twice as large as any other segmentum in the Imperium) this isolation is bound to be even more pronounced, which suggests the fringe worlds of other Segemntum are probably not nearly so isolated.

It also points to a strong correlation between location in the imperium and the level of independence/interdependency. The closer to the Imperium you are (and civilisation) the more inter-dependent and (probably) specialized planets are (EG hive, or forge.) whilst further out they are more self sufficient by necessity. That doesn't mean planets are totally dependent or totally self sufificient though, it can trade off.

Also an identification of the subsector region these events in the novel largely take place in.

Page 31-32

Luneberg family, headed by the present Imperial Com­mander, Culpepper Luneberg the Twenty-ninth, lording over their world as a private fiefdom. Indeed, so long as they paid the Imperium its tithes once in every genera­tion, that was exactly what it was.

Between the aformentioned isolation/lack of contact with the Imperium and the infrequent tithes, this puts an interesting spin on the 'size' of the Imperium, pointing to cases where there are worlds that may be 'forgotten' or infrequently visited - only nominally part of the Imperium, whislt other worlds (like Armageddon) which are more important willbe more closely entwined with the Imperium at large.

Again this is an interesting look at what qualifies, in Imperial terms, as a 'minor' planet.

Page 32

Atop the tallest buildings nested mighty defence laser batteries, although it took Lucian only a moment to decide that they were inert and neglected

building mounted defence lasers.

Page 33-34

These were, no doubt, the household guard, for their sturdy carapace armour, probably imported at great expense, marked them above the common Planetary Defence Force con­scripts. Tall, white feathers were attached to the helm of each, and reflective visors cov­ered any hint of facial expression. The troopers bore long-barrelled rifles; a glance at the stock revealed to Lucian a power pack of unfamiliar manufacture, although he judged the weapons to be some form of cer­emonial hunting rifle.

Carapace seems rare for PDF, at least out on the fringe of things, and needs to be imported. I'm guessing the rifles are lasweapons.

Page 35

The actual skulls of the most favoured of the Imperium's servants, these were preserved after death and implanted with all manner of machine devices, in order for the previous owner to go on serving his master long after his passing. A rudimentary machine spirit guided each, causing it to hover at shoulder height upon tiny anti-grav generators.
..
Another sported a large, mechanical eye that clicked and whirred as its lenses adjusted, hovering right at Lucian's shoulder and evidently recording or examining him for some unknowable purpose. Another had attached to it a set of miniature, crab-like pincers, with which it dived to grab tiny, perhaps imagined, impediments to the group's progress, whilst the last appeared to sniff at the rogue traders through its bony cavity of a nose.

Servo skulls.

Page 37

Unlike the teeming billions of Imperial sub­jects crowding the million and more domains of the Emperor's rale, rogue traders had cause to escape the worlds of their birth and go forth to visit others. Most worlds in the Imperium were largely self-sufficient, or at most inter-dependent with others in the immediate region.

'million or more' worlds, most of which are mostly self sufficient, or interdependent in local regions (sectors or subsectors.) This suggests the bulk of the worlds int he imperium either fit into a more general 'civilised' category (or rather civilised with some overlap in other areas, since Imperial worlds can fall into one category, eg Industiral and mining, or mining and agricultural, or hive and mining or hive and industiral.) rather than the specialized sorts (Armageddon/Necromunda scale hives, true forge worlds, etc. which require raw materials and food and even population influx from other worlds to sustain themselves and maintain production.) Though to be fair, even such worlds tend to have at least a little ability to sustain itself (through recycling and extreme conservation measures - they just can't do that indefinitely and still need external supply at some point.)

An interesting point is that this sort of setup would not include worlds that offer little or no value - which would include many colonies, outposts, and feral/feudal worlds (at least in the short term.) One imagines these might be protectorates/preserves for future development/exploitation (save the ocassional feral/feudal world that might have something of value, like Icanthos or Attila, although such worlds tend to be better developed and more numerous than other such.)

Page 37

It was only the most privileged who would ever leave his world, unless he was conscripted into the Imperial Guard and sent to fight some far-away war, never to return home again.

What about pilgrimmages? Or commercial traffic? The wealthy seem to rarely leave their planets due to risks of the warp, and so often use lesser agents. Although some wealthy may go off on vacations. And there is that whole 'void born' populace, or those conscripted into the Navy, as well as the Guard. Again this selective 'rationalization' seems largely designed to make Lucian feel special, since he tries to argue these are the only exceptions ot leaving the world - unless you're a Rogue trader. This speaks to the limits of his knowledge (which he doesn't admit to, it would seem), or his capacity for self-deception.

Page 43-44

..Luneberg had come into a supply of ancient technological artefacts predating the Imperium. Known as archeotech, Lucian knew, as only a man of his station could, that such items were the remnants of the first wave of human colonisation of the galaxy, leftovers from a golden age long lost to the men of the forty-first millennium, and valuable beyond measure or imagination, even his.

Archeotech.

Page 44

It was in total contravention of the laws of the Imperium of course, but Lucian was a rogue trader, and to all intents and purposes above such constraints. On many occasions that an Arcadius had conquered a new world, certain items of 'specialist' interest had found their way back to the Imperium. Many and varied were those who would pay extremely well for pre-Imperium or xenos artefacts, ranging from the arcane researchers of the Adeptus Mechanicus to the highborn dilettantes for their private collections.

Lucian thinks rogue traders are 'technically' above the laws of the Imperium. I imagine Inquisitors, ARbites, and such would suggest otherwise, but there are certain perks they get as 'Peers' that allow them greater latitude. And their ability to go beyond the Imperium's borders makes them all powerful.. as long as they remain outside those borders. FFG does a good job of explaining the differences in power between Rogue Traders, Inquisitors, etc.

Also we see the AdMech interested in xenos tech. Again.

Page 46

Lucian reclined in his command throne as he studied the star maps of the surrounding region of space. The flotilla had exited the warp, its Navigators maintaining formation with such skill that within half a day, all three vessels were inbound to the world upon which they were to obtain Luneberg's archeotech - Sigma Q-77.

This either means it took roughly half a day to reach the system from Chasmata, or it took that time to travel through and reach (roughly) insystem. Or that time to reach the inside of the system.

If it took less than half a day to reach the next system (10-20 LY at least in under 6-12 hours, depending on if we talk about 'day/night' day or a 24-hour day.) we'd be talking 7000-15000c roughly. Depending on whether this is 'in warm' or 'in realspace' time it could be 1/5 the above speed.

Page 47

The Q-77 system lay upon the very shores of an area of space referred to as the Damocles Gulf. Fifty thousand light years from Sacred Terra, the region had barely been surveyed, even ten thousand years into the Age of the Imperium. Many systems along the outer edge of the eastern spiral arm were isolated and inward-looking, wracked with self-interest and paranoia, as fearful of attracting the notice of the Administratum - the Imperium's impossibly vast bureaucracy - as they were of hostile alien attention.

This is.. interesting.. since the Imperium is supposed to be on the far edge of the galaxy, and the tau (and Damocles gulf) are close to the other fringe.. only '50,000 LY' separating them? The milky way is more than twice that size! Then again that tends to be fairly consistent with most depictions (EG Tyran being 60K LY from Terra.)

As an aside, the passage following this is lucian saying this insular and isolated attitude is perfectly suited to planet bound types, and that they shouldn't travel in space. But Rogue traders had a Emperor-given right - no a DUTY - to travel through space, explore, be dynamic, and claim/conquer/scheme in the Emperor/Imperium's name.. and for profit. Again this is not inconsistent with Rogue Trader mentality at all, but in this series the constant REMINDERS that THE ARCADIUS ARE GREAT ROGUE TRADRES just gets tiring and pompous-sounding, and this is why I find it so hard to like them, especially given so many aspects they tend to ignore. Again out of universe this is 'author point of view' differng amidst authors, but that explanation won't fly in an in universe conext, and thus Lucian comes across as being more than a little self-centered and bombastic and pompous.

Page 47

The archives of the Arcadius were full to overflowing with accounts of contact with creatures the like of which the preachers of the Imperial Creed denounced as utter blasphemies. Yet Lucian's ancestors had always returned triumphant from such encounters, their cargo holds groaning with booty. Some had conquered through war, others through trade. To the Arcadius, each was but one side of the same coin.

Again this is very much in line with rogue Trader mentality. The Rogue Traders really represent a way around Imperial dogma and xenophobia, a way both pragmetic yet a bit hypocritical - the Imperium relies on the xenophobia as one pillar of maintaining that military/siege mindset, and yet they also depend some degree on interactions and even alliances with those same creatures.

Page 48

The stellar cluster that contained Luneberg's world, as well as the domains of several dozen other Imperial Commanders bordered the gulf on its coreward side. Then, to the galactic east, noth­ing, for light years - not even the most insignificant of nebulae.

I gather they refer to the subsector involved, which gives an idea of the number of settled worlds there.

Page 49

Though not as vast as a Navy ship, the Oceanid had once been home to several thousand souls, but the soulless automatons that were servitors served increasingly more and more functions, and the numbers of honest, flesh and blood men in his service decreased in direct proportion. Human crew car­ried out many more; crew press-ganged upon a number of worlds, of which the Arcadius held the ancestral rite to take its cut of the varied flotsam and jetsam that washed up there. As Lucian approached his destination, he was given cause to curse the fate that had filled his beloved ship with men such as these.

Another testament to the declining fortunes of the Arcadius.. criminals and servitors. This actually suggests that having such people in ships is atypical and more a sign of desperation or need, rather than desire. Whether this applies ot naval warships is up for debate, but FFG would suggest this is so at least in some sectors.

Also the Rogue Traders like Arcadius have a right to 'tithe' planets, not unlike the Guard, Administratum, Ministorum, etc. ITs really funny how greedy the various adepta are to get their slice of the pie - but that can go a long way to explaining why some planets are also utter shitholes. The Imperium is rather parasitic in that fashion.

Also Lucian notes his ship is not as large as a 'true' naval cruiser (or heavy cruiser) - at least I assume thats what he means by Navy Ship. Given the scalings in this novel and the implications above, it could very well mean his ships are smaller htna escorts, which only reinforces the exaggerated sense of self importance Lucian has.

Or it may just refer to two different 'classes' of vessels, navy cruisers run on a different scale/clasisifcation system to what Lucian's ships do. Either way he had svereal thousand crew (plus however many servitors normally.

Page 49-50

Approaching the shuttle bay amidships, Lucian turned first to enter the battery - that part of the vessel set aside to store the many thousands of tonnes of highly destruc­tive ordnance used by its mighty weapons. The battery was situated in the very heart of the Oceanid. It was sur­rounded by many metres of adamantium, the strongest, most resilient material known to man. Lucian's father had frequently regaled him with the story that should the Oceanid be destroyed, her battery would survive intact, to drift endlessly in space until devoured by a void beast, or ensnared by the inexorable pull of a black hole.
...
Lucian entered the battery. Within, vast racks of ord­nance receded several hundred metres down the very spine of the ship, darkness swallowing all but the closest. Clunking servitors, three times larger than those serving on the bridge, prowled the rows; only their heads and upper torso betrayed a human origin, for pistons and power couplings had replaced much of their bodies, enabling them to heft the mighty shells onto waiting gurneys.

Lucian enters 'the battery'. Its at least several hundred meters to a side I'd guess 200-300 meteres, and the prow, gundecks and the engiens take up at least that same amount, pointing to a 500 m long ship at least, and possibly ove ra km or more long.

The battery is, naturally, isolated form the rest of the ship, protected by 'metres thick' of what I presume to be armor. This is in addition to the hull and its own armour, and the prow, which tells you about how the interior of 40K ships might be designed, compartmentalization-wise. This would contribute to their apparent durability despite taking hits and even having the hull breached - if key components like the armory have extra protection the ship can still function even if the hull is breached.

It also has dedicated servitors to help load and gurneys to haul the weapons along to where they need to go. rather than people with chains.

It also contains 'many thousands' of tonnes of ordnance, which could refer to maximum or current capacity. It doesn't also reflect the aformentioned differnece in size of the 'heavy cruiser' from naval ships, nor the possibility that the ordnance 'numbers' reflect the ARcadius' reduced situation (as we learn later they can't even afford torpedoes for the bulk of the series.) It doesn't even specify whether we mean 'more than a thousand but fewer than ten thousand, or fewer than tens of thosuands., or fewer than a million.)

For various reasons reading too much into this probably is not worth much, but even then its open to inteprretation (unless you're obsessed with 'cornerstone' style debating, then you'll probably take this as literally as you might latch onto the outlandishly short ranges in this novel and the small ship sizes and such.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2


Page 51

Several suits were lightweight, designed for sit­uations when a degree of protection could be sacrificed in exchange for additional mobility. Others were heavy and cumbersome, rivalling the Terminator armour worn by the elite of the Adeptus Astartes, so heavy were their armoured plates.

Wide range of arcadius armour. I assume it measn they have something comparable to Terminator, rather than actual terminator armour (something only Astartes or a high end Inquisitor would have.) It's probably some sort of bulky analogue type, probably something like the old exo armor. IT does at least suggest its possible to duplicate Terminator armour's protective qualities if nothing else

Page 52

The story told of an ancestor who had fallen in battle, against the eldar if he recalled correctly; but this ancient Arcadius had not died, though his wounds were indeed grievous. According to the tale, the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus had borne him away, to attend to him in their machine temple, to min­ister to his body and, they had promised, make him one with the Omnissiah - the Machine-God.
...
...the retainers were astounded when a hulking machine, twice the height of a man, emerged from the temple, its metal skin painted deep red and gold.
...
His broken body was forever encased within a dreadnought, an honour usually reserved exclusively for the mightiest of Space Marines. Lucian's ancestor had led his dynasty for many decades to come. He had forged his place in the history of the Imperium, leading many more conquests against the benighted worlds of the eastern rim.

Uh.. yeah. I'm certain the AdMehc just HAD a dreadnought body lying around waiting for nothing than some rogue trader to be stuck into. Its not like the Astartes couldn't use one, or the AdMech might use it for their own purposes... or an Inquisitor might use it...

In actuality, I suspect that, like with the Terminator armour, we're takling about some sort of 'analogue' which is similar to but not the same as. Maybe they wired him into a Sentinel or something and told him it was a Dreadnought. Either way, its stories like this that further reinforce that idea that Lucian is a credulous, pompous ass. In my opinion at least.

Page 52

With his pistols at his belt, and his armour fully pow­ered up, Lucian felt a familiar strength return to him. The armour was too heavy for a normal man to bear, relying instead on a complex array of fibre bundles to move its weight in response to its wearer's movements.

Power armour.

PAge 53

A pair of heavy servitors and a power lifter plodded heavy-footed around the ship, loading external fuel tanks and cargo pods. The rear portion of the shuttle consisted of a modular component that could be swapped out, depending upon the nature of the shuttle's mission. This component was configured to transport Lucian him­self and a small amount of cargo, and it awaited him in its lowered position, its open front accessible below the blunt prow and swept wings of the ship.

Modluar shuttle.. has a reactor but fuelled by extenral tanks as well.

Page 54

Although compensated for by the shuttle's systems, the violence of the drop was notable. Lucian could feel the heat building up, his power armour's own mechanisms fighting to counter it.

Lucian's power armour has some sort of temperature regulation. Not that it is that effective without a helmet.

Page 55

He was cut off as the shuttle lurched upwards, only to plummet what felt to Lucian like several kilometres in the span of mere seconds. This was shaping up to be a rough drop, thought Lucian, per­haps as rough as the Kalpurnican Interface. He gritted his teem against a second lurch, and a further plunge that exceeded even the first.

would guess tens of gees possible acceleration, which is interesting for a shuttle. And would imply it hs some sort of artificial gravity.

Page 59-60

Lucian had never seen its like, for it appeared unnat­ural in physiology. A lumpy and misshaped body, a metre in diameter, sat at the centre of at least a dozen long, multi-jointed legs, each ending in a cluster of razor-sharp talons. A clutch of eyes scanned the scene before it, each focusing on a different target.
..
Lucian fired, a ball of blinding plasma erupting from his pistol, to strike the flaming, squealing beast. The plasma bolt struck the creature's torso, causing it to explode in an eruption of smoking gore and razor-sharp limbs.

Wonder if its an alien of the planet, or a Tyranid? either way its a metre in diameter, and blows apart like hit by a grenade. Call it at least a couple MJ, depending on how much is thermal and mechanical. Causing third degree burns alone ought to involve at least 400-500 kj at least.

Page 61-62

The crate floated up half a metre, to hover at waist height. Lucian concealed his surprise, for anti-gravitic technology was rare within the Imperium, and generally confined to small applications such as those generators found within servo-skulls or to far larger uses in starship construction. Lucian had never seen it manifested in such a utilitarian manner as to raise a simple cargo crate.

Nor can I, although I've known lots of cases of suspensors and similar being used for antigrav tech. Or antigrav machines (servitors or automatons) used to haul things (Warped Stars). And hell we know of countless sources of antigrav used for vehicles (flyers, jetbike analogues, etc) to use for hairdo. Again Lucian is amazingly limited in his knowledge of what may exist.

Page 65

Although her father had not remarked upon it, for his own unknowable reasons, she had immediately taken the tall figure for something other than human. That wasn't to say, however, that it was entirely alien, for humanity was a truly diverse species, with stabilised mutant strains common, particularly far from the Imperium's centres of power.

Technically they'd be called abhumans, but it does depend on people's prejudices. In any case, it does suggest mutation/abhumanity is fairly widespread, esp out on the eastern fringe. Lots of potential for different kinds of abhumans (especially of the squattish or ratish variety!)

Page 68

Her pilot turned in greeting as she appeared behind him, his hard-wired cybernetics restricting the movement to his neck and upper torso.
..
Brielle had trouble reading old Goanna at the best of times, for, over the decades he had served the Arcadius, he had become increasingly at one with his vessel, and had been fitted with ever more cybernetic interfaces and ports, allowing him to commune more closely with its machine spirit.
...
Several years back, he had requested he be allowed to take permanent station at the shuttle's con­trols, and Brielle had granted him his wish. Since then, he had led the existence of a servitor, yet he was no lobotomised, mind-scrubbed mono-tasker.

Another human servitor type, this time tied into a shuttle.

Page 69

The shuttle moved forwards again, and the Fairlight loomed out of the gloom. Smaller than the Oceanid by a quarter of a length, the vessel was a clas­sic of the Bakkan shipwrights' art, her prow long and elegant and her swept fins affording her the aspect of a sleek, predatory sea creature.

The fairlight. 75% the length of the Oceanid.

Page 69

Much like the Oceanid, the Fairlight ran at a reduced crew level, the bulk of her ratings drawn from press-ganged scum given the choice between execution and service. Specialised servi­tors, who were greatly valued for their specific expertise, carried out much of the work, but Brielle shared her father's view that the family had become too reliant upon them. Only a fraction of the Fairlight's crew was made up of free men, and these formed the officer cadre aboard ship.

Again commentary on naval crewing requirements.

Page 73-74

They were masters of an extra­ordinary gift, in that they could see into the warp, reading its currents, and thereby guide a vessel safely through it.

Such a gift came at a price, however, for it was rooted in the genes, and therefore subject to the vagaries of breeding. In order to keep their blood lines clean, and their abilities intact, the Navigator families were forced to control their breeding, selecting matches between Navigator clans that would result in 'pure' offspring. Even with such selective controls in place, the Navigators were shockingly prone to mutation, an affliction that, Bridle had gleaned, was wont to worsen with age. The most powerful of Navigators enjoyed a prodigious lifes­pan, but many grew increasingly mutated as their years advanced. Brielle had discovered that when this occurred, a Navigator who remained in service would retire to his chamber, hiding himself away from all but his peers, with whom he had scant contact, to serve in isolation.
..
Sagis's clan, the Locarno, had entered into partnership with the Arcadius before the dynasty had received its Charter of Trade, and the details of the affiliation were unknown to Brielle, although she suspected that her father knew the truth of it. She had guessed that old Sagis had become too mutated to leave his blister, although he had served with the skill and dedication for which his clan were renowned, despite this.

Evidently even mutant Navigators may - at least up to some point - be used to pilot starships. I'd guess if you can tolerate the FILTHY MUTANTS the benefit is decent navigators, as one of the few things that hasn't seemed to decline for Lucian's family is the skill of their navigators

Page 74

Transient conditions in the warp had been favourable for most of the journey to Mundus Chas-mata, but had worsened die closer to the Damocles Gulf they had travelled. Sagis described the region as perme­ated with a tangible stain, an after-image of great spiritual turmoil and upheaval. The gulf itself was an area Sagis counselled vehemently against attempting to cross, for warp conditions were such that any vessel attempting to do so might be pulled violently off-course, or lost entirely to the raging tides of the empyrean.

Seems rather interesting that this sort of 'disturbance' would offer the tau isolation and protection - indeed this sort of disturbance would make invasion of the tau empire rather difficult. (lucky tau!)
Another possibility is that this is a symptom of the arrival of the Tyranids.

page 75

"We'll ren­dezvous at the prearranged point in Luneberg's system. My Navigator informs me it's a twenty-day voyage, sub­jective, although he tells me that he and Sagis both have concerns about the tides in the warp, so I want forma­tion kept as tight as possible."

20 days subjective, meaning 20 days from the perspective of the warp. If we hold the ratio from before as constant, it means 100 days would pass in realspace. We're talking tens or hundreds of times c. Either things got slower coming back, or the earlier 'half a day' wasn't warp speed.

Page 76-77

..moving to a safe distance from which she would commence her dive into the warp. Such a manoeuvre was inherently danger­ous, and in populated systems was subject to a plethora of ordinances, each designed to minimise the impact of any mishap on nearby vessels, or even worlds. Brielle had heard all manner of grisly tales of catastrophic warp drive malfunction, and had even witnessed the after­math of one, at the world of Radina V. There, a bulk carrier had mistimed its translation, sheering off the gravity pull of Radina V's third moon. The carrier was caught in a slingshot as it dived in to the warp, pulled in too many dimensions by forces impossible to compre­hend. The vessel had broken up, and been smeared across space in a debris field that engulfed the moon and part of Radina itself with fallout. It wasn't the sort of fall­out that could be scrubbed by decontamination teams. It was spiritual fallout, the residue of the three thousand souls lost in the disaster, and it afflicted the minds of every man, woman and child upon the moon's surface, and several hundred thousand more upon Radina V. They were driven insane within hours, their souls touched by the warp as it leaked through the three thou­sand tiny warp portals created at the instant of the carrier's destruction.

The rogue traders had delivered an Ordo Hereticus strike force to Radina V, and Brielle had watched from orbit as the Emperor's mercy had been delivered to hun­dreds of thousands of afflicted subjects. An entire continent had been burned clean of the unclean stain of the warp, those driven beyond the limit of sanity by its touch delivered by cleansing flame.

Radina V was found to be the fault of the carrier's mas­ter, who had ordered the vessel to enter the warp too close to the world's gravity well...

Dangers of in-system warp translation, which basically sums up as 'gravity fucks with the warp portal, leading ot destruction that seems to destroy or wreck the fabric of the warp-realspace barrier (each soul is a portal, it seems to become a 'tear' in the warp on death.) which is not a trivial problem, and if it happens you want it as far from the planet as you can. Indeed, even having it in-system can risk problems with changing orbits, so outside the system would be important.

Also somehow 'continent burning'.

Page 77-78

As the Oceanid accelerated away, Brielle knew that her father would be making his vessel ready for translation to the warp, while the Oceanid's Navigator entered a deep trance, in which he would guide the ves­sel through the unpredictable Sea of Souls. The Oceanid now far beyond visible range, Brielle watched as Kor-vane's vessel manoeuvred onto a similar heading, a course designed to ensure all three vessels remained in as coherent a formation within the warp as was possible.
...
Moving at incredible velocity, the Oceanid began her dive. The screens erupted in activity, the machine devices attempting to describe that which should not even be possible. Brielle saw that the Oceanid's Geller Field was raised, creating a delicate bubble of real space around her, within which she would find shelter from the raging energies of the warp. Just before the Oceanid passed beyond the furthest extent of the Fairlight's augurs, Brielle caught the dazzling explosion of metaphysical energies as the ship dived into the warp. Each warp drive and each Navigator interacted with the warp in a unique manner, meaning that no two dives were identical. The sight, rendered across half a dozen pict-slates in as many different forms, was something quite beautiful, and quite terrible to behold. The Oceanid's passing forcibly ripped a gash in the intangible fabric of the universe, bleeding the raw stuff of the warp, for an instant. Yet, even as questing tentacles of something unreal seeped forth, the scar was healed, the laws of the universe reasserting themselves once more.

A moment later, a familiar wave of sickness passed over Brielle and was gone: the spiritual wake of the Oceanid's warp jump.

An interesting warp jump, given the pre-warp acceleration, but I can think of two possible reasons. The first being that a very small (or brief) warp portal gets opened, and the ship needs a high speed to transit through before ti closes. Alternately, the ship needs a high speed to travel in the warp, not unlike in the honorverse (the faster your speed in the Warp - the faster your effective speed in realspace.) I imagine they might save some time ramping up to a higher velocity prior to translation.

Page 77

She noted how the Oceanid's number three drive bled wispy clouds of superheated plasma through its emergency venting, a symptom of the neglect of the fleet's vessels brought about by the dynasty's misfortunes.

Again, these are not greatly maintained ships.

Page 79-80

She reclined in her command throne as she felt the deep growl of the Fairlight's warp drive steadily build.
..
As her forward velocity increased exponentially, the air pressure on the bridge rose and a violent shaking set in. Brielle saw from a nearby pict that the Rosetta had completed her dive, and quickly scanned the surrounding area one last time.
..
The order to dive perched on her lips, Brielle stalled. Despite the screen's jarring vibrations, she could make out a huge return less than forty thousand kilometres off the Fairlight's port bow. She punched a comm channel, connecting her straight through to her Navigator.
..
She forced down a rising sense of panic, praying that her Navigator had not yet fully entered his trance, but realising that they were inexorably committed to the warp jump. The Navigator's reply scrolled across a data-slate.

++I see it ma'am. I shall attempt to compensate for its mass and proximity. The Emperor protect us all++

Brielle's mind raced. The other ship had emerged from nowhere, and she could read that its gravitic signature was well in excess of its class. Her breath caught in her throat as she realised with a start that it was clearly alien in origin. It did not appear to be intent upon any hostile action, but its mere appearance at such a crucial point in the Fairlight's jump had put Brielle's ship in incredible danger. She saw that she had but one option. She must trust to her Navigator's skill, for to pull out of the dive might tear her ship apart.-

Bet its a tau ship. Its possible their gravitic drives make them particularily nasty for warp transit. It is interesting that nearby starships can apparently present a grave risk, although whether as a collision hazard for a ship making a 'dive' or if the gravitic signature fucks

Also, note the detection of the 'gravitic signature'


Page 82

"I've consulted Adept Baru. He informs me that condi­tions became rough immediately following our translation, but he felt confident that Sagis and the ves­sel he navigated had come to no harm."
Ваru had actually said more than that, but Lucian was far from keen to repeat his words. The Navigator had stated that, had the Fairlight come to harm within the warp, he would have known immediately. The beasts that dwell within the Sea of Souls would have howled with such desire at the prospect of devouring a Naviga­tor that every one of his kind in the sector would have felt their brother's soul-death.
"

Navigators know when another of their number is killed in the warp.

Page 84-85

Brielle simmered as she hefted a long rifle. It was something approaching two metres in length, but was almost too easy to lift. Its business end housed a metallic sphere that rotated in three dimensions, allowing, Brielle guessed, for its smooth handling. She braced the weapon at her shoulder, marvelling at the way its bulk rotated around the gyroscopic sphere, and closed one eye. As she drew a bead on a non-existent target, a small box rose from the body of the weapon. She started, pulling her head sharply away, but saw that the box housed some form of sighting device. She placed her eye to it, cautiously peering through. On the tiny screen within, blocky alien text flowed around a central crosshair, picking out all manner of objects within the hold.

Brielle could not read the text, but she knew such a weapon far surpassed the vast majority of those of human manufacture. Granted, those such as the mighty Adeptus Astartes had access to equivalent technologies, but what might Luneberg want with them? She could draw only one conclusion. Luneberg meant to make war - but on whom?

Tau rifle. Noted to be comparable to an Astartes weapon (technology wise at least) but we don't really know what this really means (firepower, scope, recoil compensation or what.) The scope and gyroscope are interesting at least. It's also interesting that this is one of the few cases of the tau providing weapons tech to other races (rather than just ammo).

Page 86

According to his father, Abad had risked much to raise an army, entirely at his own expense, with which to take back the dozen worlds of the cluster from the yoke of ork enslavement. He had purchased scores of troop transports to carry his newly risen armies, and hired on innumerable auxiliary vessels and crews to ser­vice his conquest fleet.

Private vessels being hired (auxiliary? Support?) and purchasing military transports. SUPER RARE AND IRREPLACABLE WARSHIPS.

Page 105

She saw no signs of law enforcement, which on most of the Imperium's more populous worlds was conspicuous, and proactive in keeping the subjects in line. Here, the enforcers were conspicuous by their absence. Was the populace so well behaved as to make enforcement unnecessary? She doubted that, for she knew that rebellion and heresy lay just below the surface on every world of the Imperium. Not a single world, least of all sacred Terra itself, was untouched by war, and most such conflicts were internal in nature, even when triggered by external factors.

There is ONLY WAR!

Page 105

v While they conquered the stars and com­manded vast private fleets and armies, they did so ultimately for the benefit of mankind as a whole. They could only bring the rule of law to the stars if they knew that rale would be upheld once established. To Brielle and her kind, the law was something that applied to oth­ers, but it was vital nonetheless.

No, this isn't the least bit Self-serving.

Page 108

Like those in Luneberg's throne room, these were free-floating, supported by some manner of artificial, anti-gravity generator. She studied one, her interest piqued, for such technology was comparatively rare on most worlds of the Imperium, and she had certainly never seen it utilised for mere street lighting. A couple dressed in mer­chants' finery walked beneath the floating light, and Brielle watched as it followed after them at a short dis­tance, before they entered the pool of light cast by another.

I repeat my previous comments regardng the Imperium and antigrav.

Page 128

The empire of the self-tided ork warlord, the Arch-arsonist of Charadon, was located on the western extreme of Ultima Segmentum, over thirty thousand light years away. Many other ork domains offered far greater, though less impressively named, threats

Distance of this region from Charadon. This is a little.. interesting given where Rynn's World is.

Page 128-129

" What, may I ask, is the state of the Navy's operation in the Timbra sub, and the whole Ring?"
..
Lucian knew that the Ring was the local name for a group of stars at the heart of the Borealis Cluster, the appendage of the great Eastern Spiral arm in which Mundus Chasmata was located. The high colonel, Luneberg's chief military advisor, was asking him for infor­mation regarding Naval operations in the area surrounding his own world.
...
"The last Navy ves­sel we encountered was the battleship Lord Cathek, three days out of Al Adhara, and she was heading for the Kleist colony."
..
The high colonel was truly isolated if he genuinely had no knowledge of Al Adhara, the largest Naval way point for three sectors.
..
"Given a good run at the eastern tail, seven. If not, the next best route adds up to nigh on ten, if you're pre­pared to risk the Straits of Kephus.

Naval operations hinted at at the subsector level, although omst of it being a 'test' means it may not be wholly reliable. Although we know at least one battleship can occur per subsector (like in the Gothic war short stories), and 7-10 LY between systems fits with the Ravenor/Eisenhorn stuff (maps) and the FFG material.

Page 130

The high colonel nodded to the guard standing on the right, and he silently sub-vocalised into the communicator mounted at his throat.

Throat comms and subvocalising.

PAge 136

"I am a rogue trader, as you say, and you are indeed cor­rect in that the power vested in me by the High Lords of Terra grants me certain... advantages. That does not put me outside of the power of the Inquisition however. One in my position must tread a fine line. Fortunately, we often do so beyond the sight of those who might object."

This has alot of truth to it, but its still kind of amusing how this represents a 180 from Lucian's earlier comments about how great Rogue Traders are.

PAge 138-139

"A trade war with whom?"
..
"My line has ruled this world, this system, and indeed three other nearby, uninhabited, sys­tems, for longer than the archives record."
..
" Our neighbours have long sought to enforce their own laws, seeking to dom­inate what little trade exists in this region and extend their own power. The Administratum can do little or nothing to stop this. Were another world to launch an actual assault upon Mundus Chasmata, it is likely Terra would not hear of it for decades or even centuries. The Navy has other foes to battle; so long as it was quick and clean, and tithes were uninterrupted, no one would care, or comment. Or even notice"

Comments on local inter-planetary conflicts between worlds and the Imperium's view on it, at least out on the Eastern fringe. That implies some means of transporting troops and such across the warp as well as defending against system ships (either by hiring or building their own warp capable vessels.) The fact that the Commander of Chasmata seems to rule three other systems implies taht, although it depends on whether or not they have reason to travel there (resources?) or if they mean 'planetary' rathe rthan solar systems.

Page 146-147

She considered the hundreds of crew serving upon the Fairlight, the thousands serving under her father in the flotilla as a whole. Many were the scions of families indentured to the Arcadius generations previously; others were press-ganged at those ports where the dynasty was granted the right to recruit. Still more were even less willing, convicted of petty crimes, death sentences commuted to service aboard Navy or merchant vessels. Others were servitors, lobotomised creatures, part man, mostly machine, and despite being consecrated by the officers of the Creed, and highly val­ued, unthinking things of cold flesh. What if, she wondered, as she avoided a pile of stinking rubbish on the ground, what if all those hundreds and thousands of men, women and machines were offered the choice of whether or not they would serve?

Comment on the implied scope of the crew on the light cruiser, as well as the Arcadius fleet as a whole. Implies more of an escort sized vessel than anything.

Page 156-157

A high-pitched whine filled the corridor, followed an instant later by the screaming report of an energy weapon discharging at close quarters - another of her father's hidden, digital weapons, she guessed. The roiling bolt raced the length of the corridor, its light blinding in the enclosed space, before slamming into the guard's left shoulder.

The man's shoulder disintegrated, leaving nothing to attach his left arm to his body. The catastrophic wound was cauterised before the blackened arm flopped to the floor, to be followed a moment later by the rest of the guard.

Digital weapon disintegrate's guy's shoulder, cauterizes the wound, and leaves the arm blackened. Going by scalding/boiling/cauterizing temps we're probably tlaking many hundreds of kj easily. By other methods (flash burns) you might get tens of kilojoules (tens of cm per side front and back of shoulder, plus arm and probably other parts of the torso, as well as flaying the flesh from the shoulder.) Probably double digit kj to 'disintegrate' soldier and shatter bone to sever arm like that.

The question is though.. what weapon does it? We know he had digital lasers, but this doesn't actually look like a laser. Plasma weapon maybe, since we already had it noted Lucian had a nonlethal digital weapon (neural disruptor?)

Page 160-161

The port bow thrusters coughed into life, their power staggering as they laboured to move the vast bulk of the cruiser. For what seemed an age the Rosetta wallowed, unmoving despite the vast energies unleashed. Then, inexorably, the scene outside the viewing port shifted, the docking arm receding as the Rosetta slid gracefully to starboard. Once moving, her speed increased..

That would at least suggest the manuevering thrusters are far less than a hundred gees, possibly as low as single digit.

Page 161

Before the officer could finish his report, a blinding flash filled the forward viewing port. Korvane held his breath, but the impact he expected did not materialise.
..
The Master of Ordnance bent over his console, his hands working a multitude of dials and levers, his screens filled with scrolling gibberish. "The cogitators can't identify sir. It was extremely high powered, but left no etheric wake."

Tau weapons leave no etheric wake, whathever the fuck that is. Presumably Imperial weapons do.

Page 162

This time Korvane glanced across at his screens as the surge spiked, reams of machine code language scream­ing indecipherable warnings.
A second flash, but this time accompanied by the unmistakable sensation of the Rosetta's shields absorbing an impact. The bridge lights flickered and dimmed as every last kilojoule of available power was diverted to the screaming shield generators.

They do register a power spike before firing. also 'every last kilojoule' to shield generators diverted very rapidly.

Page 162

. What by the Emperor, had the orbital just fired at them? Whatever type of weapon it was, it had, a quick scan of the cogitator screens told him, stripped the Rosetta's shield arrays to less than half of their capacity.
..
The shield arrays were severely damaged; he doubted they could take a second impact.

Effect of Tau mass drivers on the Rosetta's shields

Page 162

"The cogitators observed the second discharge in full. They have formu­lated an analysis. The weapon fired some form of hyper-velocity projectile. It was solid, not energy based. Our shields absorbed its force, but are not configured to convert such high-velocity particle impacts.
Korvane's mind raced. He knew nothing of such weapons, for the majority of human vessels used either high explosive projectiles or energy-based laser weapons. He knew the other space faring races fielded a wide range of exotic weapon types, but with the exception of those of the eldar such weapons were rarely of undue threat."

The Arcadius crews did not recognize a mass driver weapon, despite all the examples we know of of Imperial ships having and using them. Hell, we know from BFG that the Imperium had capital railguns, nevermind other novels. apparently to the Arcadius the Imperium only ever uses two weapons (nevermind fusion/melta beams, missiles, or plasma weapons!) Again the staggeringly limited knowledge of the Arcadius is blindingly evident.

In any case, void shields are stated to 'not be configured' to handle high velocity particle impacts, which is interesting again given that whole 'other sources' thing (what would you call macro cannon? I'm not sure I want to know here.) If anything we knwo voids are poorly suited to handling LOW velocity projectiles.. which are called ordnance.

Maybe it means void shields are customizable to optimize for different kinds of attacks (or at least, the kind the Arcadius have can.) I wonder what they mean by 'convert'. though?

Also all the tau mass drivers seen on Luneberg's ships (station or fleet) or the tau ships are explicitly 'hypervelocity' which says something about Imperial ship durability, given the nature of hypervelocity impacts in general (EG explosive) but they don't explode on impact with Imperial targets (at least not that I can see in these cases.) Then again given the numbers in this book I wouldnt be surprised if 'hyper velocity' meant they moved at a few km/s tops (as fast as tau man portable railguns, I might add.)

Page 163

Korvane scanned the coordinates scrolling across his screens. They indicated the destination as the nearest inhabited system, Arris Epsilon. They gave an outbound jump point only two astronomical units out.

two AU to nearest jump point. WE know nothing about times, but if the 'half a day' estimate from before was applied to this (and we treated this as a 'standar'd jump distance for our purposes.. we'd be talking a good 60-70 gravities and a max speed on the order of 4.5% of lightspeed.

Page 164

Cataclysmic energies played across the Oceanid's dying shields, secondary fires raging across her port as atmos­phere bled into space. Korvane stood from his command throne and crossed to another viewing port, from which he could make out the epic confrontation unfolding only a few hundred metres distant.

Korvane is watching a battle between an orbital platform and the Oceanid happening.. a few hundred metres from his position. Seriously? This makes the Stackpole X-wing novels look like modern aircraft warfare. The funny thing about this is he wsa all fired up to get out of range of the defense platform's guns! I guess we're supposed to believe their max range is measured in kilometres. Sadly, this may be serious, givne what we see later.

Page 167

"'Sir, we're being hailed."
..
"The Oceanid?"
...
"I cannot tell, sir."
...
"Why can't you tell, lieutenant?"
..
"Sir, the comms systems appear to have sustained some damage. We have crews working on getting them fully operational. We have short-ranged hailing, but lit­tle else"

Apparnetly, they need comms to be able to figure out who is hailing them. What, do they need to ask directly? I thought this was why starships carried sensors and transponders and stuff?

Also I hesitate to wonder what 'short range' comms would entail. a hundred metres or less?

Page 170

The adept had been able to speak to him only briefly, but had commu­nicated to him the enormity of what had transpired during the jump.
..
The Rosetta, Mykelo had croaked through parched lips, had been struck a glancing blow by... something... in the warp. He knew not what, but likened the event to a small boat cast adrift upon a raging ocean, only to be caught by the passing of a mighty leviathan. The... leviathan... might have been entirely ignorant as the tiny vessel was dashed by its fins, caught in its wake, swept across the ocean, and cast up on unknown shores.
It was only thanks to the skill of Adept Mykelo that, so Korvane gathered, the Rosetta had escaped the thing's embrace, the Navigator dumping the vessel back into real space. By some bizarre chance, perhaps because they were, literally, caught up on the leviathan's back, they had emerged on the outskirts of the system for which they had been making.

While it could be some random spacewhale, I'm guessing this is supposed to be more foreshadowing of Tyranid invasion, which I guess is supposed to mean the 'Nids use the warp still at this point, at least for some things.

Page 179

The warp drive continued its screaming, the terrible, soul-wrenching sound audible even on the Oceanid's bridge, hundreds of metres fore of the drive section. Lucian knew it indicated that something had come very close to going incredibly wrong whilst they were within the warp, but knew better than to dwell on what disaster might have been close to befalling his vessel.

Oceanid ran into the (probable) Nid too. Also the Oceanid's bridge is 'hundreds' of metres ahead of the drive section. Given the placement of bridges on most Imperial (or Chaos) starships and the probable size of the drive section itself we could conclude the Oceanid is at least several km across. Which is small by Naval cruiser standards, but not exactly tiny (and would mesh with the idea of Oceanid being 'smaller than Naval cruisers.')

Page 180

"We're within point five A.U.s of the marker, sir."

within Half an AU of the warp marker (the beacon/jump point) I'd gather Tens of millions of km is.. quite a divergence. Again small wonder they consider insystem jumps risky.

Page 180

. He was relieved in the extreme that the Oceanid was in more or less the correct position; she was where she should be. Next, he needed to ascertain that his vessel was when she should be. The warp was capable of play­ing some extreme and cruel tricks with relative time, particularly when conditions within it were rough.
The rating bent over his station, feverishly working the dials and levers, before turning back to Lucian. "Astro-graphicus indicates we have arrived ahead of schedule sir. Transient conditions within the warp, I would sur­mise."
"Early?" Doubt gripped Lucian's heart. "How early?"
"Only point zero five sir, we're-"
"Good," interrupted Lucian. It was a fact that the warp did odd things to time and space and his ilk had to live with that. The consequences of some particularly extreme distortions however were scarcely worth consid­ering.

Warp based time dilation. Seems that they arrived earlier rather than later this time.

Page 183

The man was ancient, having served a long series of vessels for many decades. He was long past his prime, in Lucian's opinion, and he rarely called upon his services unless it was vital. He had resolved to seek a replacement when he was able, but the guild had thus far been unwilling to retire Master Karisan. Lucian suspected that they wanted the ancient telepath out of way, and it would take a substantial disbursement to change their minds. It was just one more unwelcome reminder of the failing power of the dynasty.

Another old Astropath, and a strong indication that Lucian's belief in his own family's position is not shared by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.

Page 185-186

The temperature fell still further, a thin skein of ice creeping across the viewing port, obscuring the view of space beyond. Karisan groaned, opening his mouth a number of times, as if attempting, but unable to speak.

Then he burst out, "They are there!" The telepath's head rolled back to its normal position, and he looked straight at Lucian through empty eye sockets. "They are not where you feared my master, or at least, your son is not."

"Explain."

"The warp is calm now, but it was wracked as we crossed it. The Rosetta is certainly not within the empyrean, of that I am certain, although I cannot speak so surely of the Fairlight. I sense that the Rosetta is nearer, in real space, in the here and now. I shall seek her out."

Karisan sank into his trance once more, much quicker this time.

An Astorpath can, by means we can't be sure of, track or locate (through the warp, across multipe light years) the other two ships of Lucian's children. Whether he's fixating on the, or on their astropaths or navigators, we don't know.. but its a form of detection, I suppose.

The fact the astropath could do this while Lucian was sitting there (seconds or minutes at most)

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 3

Page 186-187

"Many voices... my brothers. The ether is alive with them!"
..
"Alive with the Song of the Ever-Choir, my master. It's quite beautiful. I have not heard it sung so eloquently in many years, and never at all this far out on the Rim"
..
"Astropathic messages my master! The ether is alive with them. "
...
"From whom?"
'From everyone, my master!"
...
Lucian was prepared to strike the astropath, despite the severe censure from the guild that such an act would earn him when it was discovered. "What are they saying Karisan? Tell me this and I shall leave you to add your voice to your fellows."
...
"The voices belong to my brother and sister astropaths, my master, and the song they sing is of such beauty because they all sing the same mes­sage. Every astropath for ten, twenty, thirty light years sings the same message."
..
"They sing words of freedom!"

Lucian sat back, rocked to his core by the news. They sang of freedom - a relative notion in the Imperium of Man, he knew, and invariably one much closer to heresy, recidivism or revolt. Every world within anything up to thirty light years, that might be dozens, scores even of civilised systems, each with a population of many mil­lions. How? Who could have instigated such a thing? More to the point, he realised, who could have coordinated it? The logistics of the treachery were truly staggering, the pos­sibilities stretching out before Lucian as he struggled to imagine them.

Lucian's astropath is listening in on subsector-wide (or greater) commuincation between planets via astropath, the opening steps of them declaring secession from the Imperium. This speaks to some very fast propogation speeds (again seconds or minutes - Lucian is still sitting here listening to this, nevermind that Lucian's astropaths intends to join in) between worlds and astropaths, over tens of light years we're talking hundreds of thousands or millions of c communications speed easily, if not more (it could be argued as effectively realtime.)

Also we get an indicator of the scope of the subsector or so - dozens of worlds within 10-20 or evne a thirdty light year (radius?) being civilised and inhabited (and Imperial.) That fits with hundreds of worlds in a sector, at least (assuming between 6-8 subsectors per sector.)

Page 189

"All steady sir. She's displacing less titan ten per cent. Not a bad turn for an old girl"
..
Lucian allowed himself a slight grin at the operations chiefs obvious affection for the Oceanid. He shared his appraisal that the old vessel was maintaining herself well. She had not been required to run on such a low level of operation for years, decades even, Lucian realised, and her continued existence may now rely on her being able to do so.

This gives a more direct indicator that the Oceanid is frequently running at a fraction of its power (one tenth maybe?), which could suggest other things (like acceleration) might be much higher than displayed in the book.

Page 190

Karisan had reported that dozens of systems for light years around were declaring their independence from the Imperium of Man.

Again dozens of worlds rebelling. Thats a big chunk of Territory by tau standards.

Page 191

"You see the Mark Ills of Five Corps?"
..
"Nine entire brigades, a thousand battlee tanks: the pride of the Arris Defence Force!"

nine brigades = 1000 tanks. in PDF terms at least. Ther'es probably at leats 5 corps which probably are similaritly equipped.

Page 192

"the First Hussars, in their new vehicles no less"
..
"Chimeras?" he asked, easily recognising the ubiquitous personnel carrier, utilised by security forces, Planetary Defence units and the Imperial Guard the galaxy over. In fact, several dozen languished in the Rosetta's hold, adorned in the deep red and burnished gold livery of the Arcadius, but unused for several decades.
...
"Chimeras, yes, most certainly, but of a pattern I doubt you will have encountered before."
...
"This pattern is drawn from a rarely used template, one that only we of Arris Epsilon may utilise. I am told that their power cores are entirely unique, in that they are motivated not by fossil fuel, but by some manner of cold atomic reaction."
..
As a rogue trader, he knew that such a thing was indeed rare, and much sought after across the Imperium. Technology, he knew, was a dark art more akin to archaeology, and it was unusual for a new device to be uncovered and utilised. If Droon's people had access to some unex-ploited technological resource, then the possibilities for trade and exploitation were potentially staggering.

Arris Epsilon Chimeras running on a 'cold atomic' (cold fusion?) reaction. This is.. interesting for several reasons. For one thing despite the implication of being totally unique, we've known in the Munitorum manual, 2nd edition IG codex, etc. of nuclear powered (or something like it) Chimeras and other tanks, so this is hardly unprecedented. Indeed if this 'pattern' and template existed solely here, it would without a doubt have been licensesed from some nearby forge world, which means other places (the forge world itself at least) would be capable of producing it. And the AdMech are not likely to let some tirvial little planet out on the fringe hold onto a vital bit of technology that they themselves don't have (got a monopoly to maintain, after all.)

The alternate explanation is.. the tau provided them a powerplant they adapted to their Chimeras. They do say it is a 'recent' design, and Korvane's comments about 'recently unveiled' tech have merit (see my previous comments re: Admech.) And it fits with the general theme of what has been going on with the tau. On the other hand they say that Arris Epsilon was bribed by military aid, not technology, although its possible this tech was part of the bargain too (but they don't have xenos weapons...) There is also the not so minor fact that there is no mention of it coming from the tau....

Also implied commonality of the Chimera, although this again is 'subject' to the same level of scrutiny we apply to other Arcadius knowledge

Page 194-195

Each one, he realised, had been fought against the forces of Mundus Chasmata...
..
"Epsilon and Mundus Chasmata have been locked in ongoing disputes for centuries, mil­lennia perhaps .."

Two planets on the fringe fighting a long-running, war between their two systems. That implies acceess (prior to the tau coming along) of travelling from one system to another to wage war, transports at least if not warships. Whether they are owned, hired, or what we don't know.

Page 195

"...this region has long been settled by mankind, but has never attained the status of those sec­tors closer to the centres of power. The Timbra Subsector, and the entire Borealis Ring lie at the furthest extent of Ultima Segmentum. We look to the Segment Fortress at Kar Duniash for aid in times of strife.."

I'd guess the Borealis Ring might be the sector, and the Timbra Subsector part of that region. Maybe the 'dozens of systems' is for the whole sector? We know of sectors getting that small, especially out on the fringes.

Page 196

"...many, many gen­erations past, my own ancestors and those of Luneberg entered into a partnership. They formed the core of a trade consortium that they intended would in time grow to encompass all the worlds of the subsector, and even­tually, they hoped, bring prosperity to the entire Eastern Rim.."

Subsector wide economic consortium, with aims for 'eastern fringe' wide connections.

Page 204

But his mother, Emperor bless her shrivelled soul, had, thanks to countless rejuve courses, lived two centuries already, and appeared likely to live for another two at least.

Korvane's mother is probably going to live to be at least 400 years old, probably more. Given that she apparently is/was still fertile (unless they did some in-vitro or something else to have Korvane) her biological age must be much lower than Lucian's.

Page 210-211

The Oceanid had shadowed the alien vessels as they closed on Arris Epsilon, Lucian ordering the distance kept to a maximum lest their prey detect their presence.
..
"One hundred kilometres."
...
Lucian leaned forwards still more, intent upon the for­mation of the alien vessels. He looked for any sign that they might have detected the Oceanid's presence, any sign at all that he might have revealed his hand too soon.

Still, the alien vessels wallowed in orbit, more interested, Lucian guessed, in what was going on down below than what was coming at them from behind. He'd never fall for such a trick, Lucian thought, not since that privateer attack at Krysla VII, at least.

...
"Seventy-five"
..
The range counter on the holograph counted down, and there was still no response from the alien fleet.
"Fifty kilometres."
...
"Full power to secondary arrays."

The red lighting dimmed for a moment as the secondary communications array bled off the power it needed to go from cold to fully ready in mere seconds. Lucian kept his eyes on the holograph, knowing that the aliens would pick up the power surge at any moment.
...
...the green holographic icons rep­resenting the alien vessels suddenly shifted, breaking formation as Lucian had known they would.
...
"Twenty-five."

So yeah. The Tau let the Oceanid get within 25-50 km (100 km!) before noticing someone is there. What's more, they're more likely to pick up power diverted to secondary comm arrays rather than the emissions of an Imperial starship (we might assume Lucian is running silent, but I'm not sure I'd credit this novel with that..)

As amusing as it might be to laugh at the tau, the simple fact is this is one example (of several soon to follow) that the range numbers in this novel (at least) are fucked up and bizarre and far more of an outlier compared to other sources. They aren't even consistent with themselves.

That said, it does imply possibly a few km/s closing speed on the tau. As long as they didn't start out from the edge of the system, this isn't unusual (although how the Oceanid got into the system, got close and decelerated without being noticed... best not to wonder too much. We're supposed to believe the tau cannot possibly detect a ship 100 km away, after all.)

Page 211-212

Lucian stepped from his command throne, towards the forward viewing port. The distance between the Oceanid and the alien vessels was too great to afford visual recogni­tion, but Lucian looked towards the area of space where he knew the aliens' position lay as he replied.
..
The helmsman mouthed 'twenty-five' back at him.

At their current speed, Lucian would expect the alien vessels to be visible in the next few minutes.
..
As the range shortened, the seven vessels took on more detail, the Oceanid's cogitation banks providing details of size, mass and approximate power levels. The minutes passed, Lucian absorbing the data presented in the read­outs. He looked to make an estimate of the alien vessels' capabilities relative to the Oceanid's, but the cogitators simply could not discern enough data, never having encountered this race, or their vessels, before.

"Coming up on ten kilometres"

I spoke too soon. 'minutes' to cross a mere 15 km distance (25 to 10 km), which is at te most charitable a mere 125 m/s velocity for starships. Except.. the Tau were supposed to be beyond visual range.. at 25 km. Now, we don't have any certainty yet about tau designs and shit, but its pretty safe to say they have ships as big as anything in the Imperium inventory (meaning at least a few km long). And they should be getting visible in hundreds or thousands of km distance, not tens. Tens of km is going to be fucking TOO DAMN CLOSE range.

Again this is just more proof of how messed up most of the numbers can be. It's probably better just to ignore the ranges implied and inset the usual ones we know from other sources (EG Execution Hour, BFG, etc.)

Page 213

It was large, Lucian saw, of greater length than his own vessel, that much was immediately evident. It took the form of a long, central spine with a large drive section at the rear. Part way along the spine were mounted large, square structures, looking to Lucian like some form of modular cargo space, and at the fore a large prow featured what appeared to be a command tower bristling with antennae. Of most interest to Lucian were the long, rectan­gular barrelled weapons protruding from mountings just below the curved prow. These he had seen before.

Although few, Lucian judged these weapons capable of inflicting severe damage upon his vessel. In his judgement, the Oceanid could certainly take on several of these alien ships at once, and provided she got a good broadside on them could, in all likelihood, put them out of the fight. What Lucian took for cargo bays appeared to have been fit­ted at the expense of heavier or more numerous weapons batteries, and he guessed that other, up-gunned configura­tions existed.

Although larger than a manmade cruiser, Lucian judged these vessels of equivalent capability.

Lucian's estimate of tau vessels. Dangerous weapons (unsurprising), and larger than his heavy cruiser (for whatever that is worth...) but still able to take them on. They have fewer weapons mounts (prow on) than the Imperium, though.

I should note that being larger than an Imperium cruiser only reinforces the whole 'beyond visual range at tens of kilometers' lunacy.

Page 216

The Oceanid was once more filled with the mighty roar of the cannons' discharge. This time, Lucian watched the other ship as the broadside slammed into its rear section. A hand­ful of the projectiles exploded prematurely as they were swallowed in the superheated wake of the vessel's vast engines, but the majority struck the superstructure, smash­ing through the metres-thick armoured engine casings and exploding deep within.

For a moment, the two vessels continued to glide past one another, the Oceanid having crossed the T and carried on past. Then, as Lucian watched, the alien ship's drive sec­tion was rent asunder as a mighty split appeared along its length, blinding white, atomic fire lancing out of the crack. A second later the entire drive section came away from the spine connecting it to the bulk of the vessel, jettisoned, Lucian judged, by the ship's captain in a last ditch effort to save his crew.

The effort was wasted, though, for the damage to the drive section was such that it entered a critical chain reac­tion before it could entirely separate, disappearing as it was swallowed in a rapidly expanding ball of the purest, most blinding white light.

Considering they're probably less than a kilometre away from the freaking starship, they ought to score direct hits! Tau drive sections have 'metres thick' armour and are extremely volatile, which explains why they can jettison the drive section as an emergency measure. note the 'atomic' bit, but that doesn tneccesaril mean nayhting.

Also macro shells are 'penetrate and detonate' type here too.

A 'handful' of projectiles miss, but the majority strike, that suggests the Oceanid has at least dozens of guns, probablty. at least a dozen!

Page 217

Despite the power of its primary weapons batteries, its class was evidently incapable of withstand­ing a couple of good broadsides.

Lucian's estimat eof tau ship durability.

Page 218

The Oceanid lined up its prey, the gulf between the two vessels closing rapidly. At ten kilometres, the alien ship opened fire, its forward weapons flashing as they threw hyper-velocity projectiles across the void.

The first volley went wide, thanks to the fact that the Oceanid was prow on to the other ship, but mere seconds later it unleashed a second, this one far more accurate, and deadly.

Lucian felt the Oceanid stagger beneath him as the enemy weapons hit home, blasting great chunks out of her armoured prow. The bridge was plunged into almost total darkness, lit only by the strobe of a third volley fired by the closing ship.

This volley struck the port superstructure a glancing blow, an entire fin tearing itself free of the hull and spinning crazily into space. A series of secondary explosions sounded through the deck, and Lucian judged that these were the forward conversion plants. We can survive without them, he told himself, if we can survive this.

Yes, the tau ship misses the first time, at 10 km, firing on a ship that probably is still travelling at less than a few hundred m/s (at BEST). Also note the refire rate of seconds. It's implied that the Oceanid has a similar refire rate as wlel.

Page 218-219

"Helm! Full retros, ten second burn. Cut mains to fifty per cent." Lucian ordered, as the distance between the two ves­sels passed the one kilometre mark. He knew he would get only one salvo in against this enemy, and even that might be bought at too high a price.
..
The Oceanid shuddered once more, the retro fhrusters struggling to arrest her forward momentum. As the bridge lights sputtered back to life, Lucian saw from the read-outs that the alien vessel's second volley had damaged one of the thrusters, and felt his ship veering to port under the uneven thrust.
..
The range was not so great, and the angle, nowhere near as good as the broadside on the first alien nonetheless, the volley was a good one. The mighty cannon spat death across the void, macro-shells cross­ing the gulf between the two vessels in seconds. The alien vessel had been preparing a fourth shot when the Oceanid's broadside hit, its forward batteries caught in the process of turning to track and acquire their target.

Half of the broadside merely glanced, or missed the target entirely, but the other half struck home. The alien vessel's shields were smashed asunder, barely registering on Lucian's read-outs. The macro-shells impacted at an apparently weak point between two of the modules slung under the ship's spine, dislodging a protruding section of superstructure, which crashed into the forward of the modules. As Lucian watched, the module exploded violently, secondary explosions blossoming forwards to engulf the lower portion of the vessel's prow. At the last, the three remaining mod­ules ejected, spinning off into space as the crippled vessel disengaged, evidently seeking to put as much space between itself and the Oceanid as possible, in as short a time as it could.

Okay, less than a kilometre now, and the Oceanid misses with half its salvo even though the damn ship can't even be turning. Hell 10 seconds retro burn at maybe 1 gee suggests less than 100 m/s velocitY! The tau ship is probably not moving much faster so.. what the hell? Even more it takes 'seconds' for the shells to cross that distance (before the Tau can finish prepping a fourth salvo). That's SUBSONIC shells. In space. That's slower than what WW2 battleships and cruisers could manage, nevermind the range!

Again its probably better to ingore things. point blank range probably here, which is likely thousands of km/s (6,000 km was point blank as per Chapter's Due, for example) or maybe tens of thousands of km. Propogation rate was implied to be on the order of seconds (and not many either given that the salvo could launch and hit before the tua could ready their fourth salvo, which we know could take mere seconds to prepare.) At the WORST we're talking high hundreds of km/s probably, but more probably again thousands of km/s (or greater) That actually fits better with the scope and scale of combat than all this 'less than a kilometre and we still miss' crap.

Page 220-221

A fleet of capital ships, all Imperial in design, was closing in on the Oceanid's position. Lucian immediately saw from their heading that they were far from friendly. In fact, he knew immediately who they belonged to.
..
He studied the nature and deployment of Luneberg's ves­sels. Although still some distance away, he judged that they were not large ships, most about the size of an escort. Two, however, were of greater mass, Lucian estimating them equivalent to light cruiser scale. Ordinarily, the Oceanid, being equivalent to a heavy cruiser would have little trou­ble seeing them off, but in her current condition, and with the aliens in the fight too, he was not quite so confident.

An Imperial commander has his own warp-capable fleet. Or at least, he has access to such starships, which includes 2 light cruisers. The fact Lucian is not surprised suggests that this is far from uncommon (but as I've constantly noted, Lucian's judgement on these things always needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt. Even the stuff like this which I might like.)

Page 221

"Shields to full, main drives to full; all secondary systems to stand by."
...
Lucian watched the read-outs and dials as they reported the Oceanid's main drives building to full power. The shields too were drawing as much power as their mighty generatoria could provide, the myriad of non-critical sys­tems across the vessel powering down for the duration.
..
Lucian leant back in his command throne, gripping the arms as he felt the Oceanid's drives reach the peak of their potential output.

Oceanid's thrusters and (probably) shields take time to reach peak performance (output). It's also a bit peculiar that the Oceanid can run its engines AND shields at full capacity off its reactor output. This suggests that one system (or both) runs on batteries/capacitors in conjunction with the reactor (That is system performance exceeds maximum reactor output, but only as long as the power reserves hold out) or that one (or both) systems operate at less than maximum reactor output. A third possiblity is a combination of both: one runs on a reserve power system (shields) and the other operates at less than full reactor power (engines.) There would be surplus power, but that might be used to power up weapons, shields or whateve rother systems might need it (or devoted to topping off power reserves for both or either system.)


PAge 222

The range reduced still further, and in no time at all the Oceanid was bearing in on Luneberg's fleet. The enemy vessels fully within visual range, Lucian saw that the smaller vessels were, as he had estimated, escorts. They were of a class he had only rarely seen, being more common amongst system and subsector reserve fleets of the southern reaches. They were old by any accounting, and ill-suited to even the smallest of fleet actions. They were better suited to convoy duties, where they would art as a reasonable deterrent to opportunistic raiders, who would be unlikely to risk even a single salvo from their prow torpedoes.

Ships are entering 'visual range' now, which we know means in this book. We also get a hint of where the Imperial Commander got his vessels - either a 'system' or 'subsector' reserve fleet, which sounds like a subsector/system version of the sector/segmentum mothball reserves they keep for old warships. I gather shit too unimportant (or escrots at least) to dedicated to the sector reserves probably get stuck away elsewhere. I'm sure most (all) subsectors have a reserve, but I'd bet not every system has one (important systems probably do.)

Again Lucian's thoughts on this (and his lack of surprice at the Commander having ships) suggests this is not uncommon. It also suggests there might be subsector (or even system level!) battlefleets of some kind. A third possibility is that these reflect the 'battlegroup' detachments at subsector and system level as we know from the BFG novels (Macharius and its squadron at stranivar prior ot the outbreak of the Gothic war, for example. Most of those were in drydock/mothballs recall.)

It's also quite likely they are short ranged warp vessels, as I doubt the commander has access to navigators (meaning he has to rely on calculated warp jumps rather than piloted warp jumps.)
The fact they are used for convoy duty more than anything makes sense, esp if they escort chartist and similar vessles (They can be pulled out of reserve and manned as needed, and then put back when finished.) I should note this is one of those sources that lead me to bleieve there were non-Navigator warp vessels in the Navy (or in local fleets, if not both) that wuld be used for these duties.

Page 223

Lucian knew that only the Rosetta carried such a weapon, the arsenals of the other two rogue trader vessels having years ago exhausted the last of their stocks and their replacement unlikely in the current situa­tion. A single torpedo might cost as much as a light cruiser, and so Lucian had placed his son under the strictest instruc­tions only to fire their last one under his direct orders. It had become something of an irony that the most valuable heirloom his son possessed was a weapon he dared not use.

Really? Torpedoes are more valuable than starships? Someone should tell Leoten Semper, given the profligacy that he (and indeed, the Navy) uses them with. Maybe they cost more than Lucian's cruisers only?

Page 223

The sight of Luneberg's flagship filled the portside viewers. She was so close that Lucian could read the vessel's name painted in fifty foot tall letters along her prow. The Borealis Defensor, Lucian read, judging the title typical of the ego of its master.

As the Oceanid completed her manoeuvre, Luneberg's fleet was scattered, its constituent vessels spread over an area of space up to twenty kilometres across, and each on an entirely different heading

spread of the imperial forces, as well as an implication about the size of Luneberg's light cruiser. Assuming all letters are capital and 14 letters we're talking between 25-50 feet long on the prow, which means that the name alone is 350-700 feet long (107-214 m long for the prow alone.) Given the length of a prow vs other light cruisers, I'd guess between 500-1200 m long 'light cruiser' which is almost certianly an underestimate.

Page 224

He watched on the flickering holograph as the Chas-matan fleet attempted, in vain, to knot itself into something resembling order. If only he had been travelling at a speed at which he could have unleashed a broadside. As much as he would have savoured the opportunity to damage Luneberg's flagship, that had not been the objective of his manoeuvre.

This is a curious statement, as it implies that ship velocity is a prime component for broadside fire (at least as a damage/penetration component.) That would make some sense, especially given some of the novels where you have really high velocities built up in passing 'broadside' engagements before spending long time in between to make wide turns and set up for another pass. That is, however, only one kind of ship to ship combat, and this would be more believable if the ship velocities weren't as pathetic as the ranges (subsonic ship and shell velocities and single/double digit km ranges, where ships can still miss.)

Of course this wuld be more.. interesting.. in cases like the relativistic combat in Sabbat Martyr or Salvation's REach.

page 224

Lucian reached forwards and turned a dial on the plinth of the holograph, the static-filled, grainy projection above it blurring, before regaining focus, having zoomed out several dozen kilometres.

'several dozen kilometres' and they aren't even being shot at.

Page 225

"Father," Korvane's voice came back, made distorted and tinny by interference on the channel. "I am inbound to the Rosetta, e.t.a. ten minutes."

This timeframe becomes important (for hilarious reasons) shortly.

Page 225-226

"No, Father." cut in Korvane, Lucian realising instantly that something must be severely amiss for his son to speak in such a manner. "We are involved."

..
"We are involved. The Rosetta arrived unexpectedly early at Arris Epsilon, Father, and in your absence I made contact with Imperial Commander Zachary Droon."
..
"I told him of Luneberg's treacherous actions at the talks, and Droon told me of the ongoing conflict between the two worlds."

"It's just a bush war, Korvane, nothing we need get involved with."

"Yes, Father, but he asked me for help, and he offered to pay quite a considerable-"

"You've signed us over to some border princeling?" Lucian felt his gorge rise, and fought to keep his temper in check despite the fact that he was quite sure he knew what his son's answer would be.

"I have pledged Droon our aid in ending the war against Luneberg."

Lucian stood, anger flaring within him. "You may not have noticed, Korvane, but it appears that Luneberg has the same idea." Why the hell couldn't Korvane have kept out of it? he thought, trying, despite himself, not to condemn his son for his actions.

"Aye, Father, so I see, but I have negotiated a highly favourable deal, one that will recoup the losses incurred thus far. With the aid of the tau we will-"

"The aliens, I take it?" Lucian interrupted his son.

"Yes, the aliens. I had no choice, but the deal may recoup our losses."

Lucian knew Korvane referred to the collapsed deal with Luneberg, as if that was the fault of anyone other than the mad Imperial Commander. He sighed, knowing that his son was, if nothing else, an expert in such matters, and would have the deal sewn up so tight that he would have little choice other than to honour it.

Ah that Arcadius ROGUE TRADER genius at work. Lucican is now enmeshed in a massive inter-system conflict due to the actions of his own son (without Lucian's consent or awareness.) And this comes after Brielle, his genius daughter, interferes with the actions of the Other Imperial commander and ruins that deal (leading to the Arcadius having to flee the planet to save their own lives. Good job Brielle.) This sort of bullshit really makes it hard to believe the Arcadius are anything but a joke, because it is an oingoing occurance (not to mention the little private war between the Arcadius Siblings that Lucius is unaware of or dismisses.) On top of that, Lucian just spent time blasting the fuck out of the tau (who are technically 'allied' with Korvane...)

And this is far from the last time shit like this hpapens.

Oh and the war between Chasmata and Arris Epsilon is called a 'brush war' - not unlike the stuff in Badab before it got all Space Marine-y and Huron defied Terra.

Page 227-228

The Fairlight burst out of the Immaterium, Brielle immediately scanning the surrounding space for signs of her father or her stepbrother. She found them straight away, as she had expected to do, but she was somewhat shocked to see two entire fleets of vessels, apparently clos­ing in on one another, as well.
...
The Oceanid and the Rosetta, her father's vessel closing fast on her stepbrother's, which appeared at anchor. One hundred and ten kilometres from their position, two fleets. One human, Luneberg's, she knew, and one not.
..
"Rosetta and Fairlight are to con­verge on my position and follow my orders to the letter. You will not deviate from the course I give you, and you will not fire upon any targets until I order you to do so.
..
"Father," she replied. "I am perfectly-"
"Do I make myself completely dear?"

The Fairlight emerges from the Warp, immediately detects the situation going on, and is within easy (realtime) comms range of Lucian and Korvane. Oh and the enemy forces (both the Imperial and tau) are a mere 110 km away and completely ignore Korvane and Lucian. And this isn't even the climax of the silliness yet.

It also means Brielle emerged from the warp less than a million km away. Which, if you recall Savage Scar,s was supposed to be something only high end Inquisitorial vessels can do. Indeed emerging so close tends to be catastrophic (cf Rynn's World.)

Page 229

Some one hundred kilometres to the Oceanid's fore, two of the groups of icons danced, reams of data scrolling next to each.

Again 100 km away, and this is not threatening in the least.

Page 229-230

Lucian sneered as he regarded its arrangement, one cruiser and a dozen or so smaller escorts clustered around the vessel that he knew to be Imperial Commander Culpepper Luneberg's flagship.

The scope of the local imperial forces. If we assume these are subsector forces, and note there are tens of thousands (or more) of subsectors in the Imperium, thats at least 280,000 ships, all of light cruiser or escort size and devoted to subsector reserves.

Page 230

The Oceanid was a capable heavy cruiser, despite the dam­age she had suffered in recent engagements. Ten kilometres to the Oceanid's port side lay the Rosetta, the cruiser captained by Lucian's son, Korvane, who, only minutes before, had returned by shuttle from the sur­face of the world below. Inbound on their position, a mere fifteen kilometres distant, was the third and last of Lucian's fleet, the cruiser, Fairlight, captained by his daughter, Brielle.

Remember that Korvane was 10 minutes away (and having returned minutes before) to his ship, and Brielle had just emerged out of the warp. Well this means far less than an hour (quite porbably only 10-15 minutes or so) and she closed the distance. If the ship were 300,000 km away I'm easilly betting on tens of gees. Hell even at a full hour we're talking at least a good 5 gee steady burn and its probably far less than an hour. velocity would average around tens or hundreds of km/s though. AT sevreal million km, we're talking in excess of 100 gees and 800-1000 km/s velocity on average.

See what I was saying about numbers being all over in this one?

Page 233

"We find ourselves on the same side as these aliens, the tau as Korvane calls them. Now," Lucian continued speaking so as to forestall his son's inevitable interjec­tion, "this could prove troublesome, given that not a couple of hours ago I personally sent several thousand of them to the depths of the seven hells. Despite that, I did so for entirely plausible reasons, but I feel that the remaining vessels may not share our newfound friendship. "

Lucian obliterated a bunch of them several hours ago. That is ab it better, but still puts some hefty limits on acceleration and velocity. Even allowing for 3 million km in 2 hours (for example) we're talking tens of gees and 400-600 km/s velocity. If it were 1-2 AU away we're talking a good 600-700 gees, 8-10% of c for 1 AU, and 1500-2000 gees and .2-.25c for 2 AU in a few hours or so. Again gotta love those numbers.

Page 234-235

..as the three rogue trader vessles were closing on their target, a point in space just over three hundred kilometres ahead of Luneberg's fleet.
..
He sat back and studied the holograph, for Luneberg's fleet was too far distant to see with the naked eye.
..
One, two, three, he counted the minutes, looking for any sign of a change in course.

He saw it. Luneberg's flagship began a long slow turn, intended, Lucian saw instantly, to intersect his current position, which it would do in something approaching tne minutes.
...
He looked to the range counter on the holograph, seeing that it was rapidly counting down to the point of, what he knew was no return. In only a few minutes, the tau fleet would be within visual range.

Lucian felt an itch on the back of his neck and looked ot the projection, seeing that Luneberg's fleet had completed its arc and was now pursuing the rogue trader shps, maintaining a range of eighty kilometres and closing.
...
Lucian let out a exultant whoop as the Oceanid and her attending ships swept acorss the fore of the tau vessels' formation. He watched, as they came into visual range, his gaze fixed on their prow-mounted turrets, which turned wildly, seeking to acquire the Oceanid in their sights. They failed; as lucian had ganbled they would, the three rogue trader cruisers passing out of the most deadly portion of the alien's field of fire before a single shot could be fired.

10 minutes to cross some 220 km or so which is a mere 366 m/s.. and the tau vessels cannot track and fire at ships moving so fast. now mesh this with ships being hundreds of km away (at best) and not being in visual range (despite in all prboability being multi km ships) - now try to juggle all this with all the other previous data without making your head explode.

Page 236

He had, she saw, gam­bled that Luneberg's vessels were outfitted with weapons provided to them by the tau, as the orbital station at Mundus Chasmata had been. Furthermore, he had sur­mised, again correctly, that the tau weapons would not fire upon their own, leaving Luneberg's vessels suddenly helpless at the crucial point in their confrontation.
..
Lucian watched from the starboard viewing port as explosions blossomed across the lengths of Luneberg's two cruisers. He had seen that the Borialis Defensor was equipped with xenos-supplied weapons when he had passed her earlier, and realised instantly that these were the same, high velocity projectile weapons that had been unleashed against him by the Chasmatan orbital. He had gambled upon their not firing on their own, but something else entirely was occurring here. A dozen points of rapidly expanding orange studded the length of both enemy vessels, the exact locations, he knew, of the alien weaponry.

Imperial light cruiser had at least a dozen tau mass drivers, but the tau are not so stupid as to sell people weapons that might be used against themselves, and seem to have gone to the further step of putting a self destruct on board the capital ship ones. Interesting that they were so willing to sell capital ship weaponry to begin with, though.

Page 237

Neither vessel had even the slightest chance of escape, however, for they were firmly trapped within the aliens' most deadly fire arc. The multiple, prow-mounted turrets on each of the five vessels turned as one, tracking the nameless cruiser as she attempted in vain to pull away. The muzzle of each spat blue fire, the hyper-velocity pro­jectiles propelled across space in the blink of an eye.

Lucian just drew the Chasmatan fleet into range of the Tau guns, (optimum range for imperial guns it was noted) and the tau had just come into visual range. We're probably talking thousands of km, or maybe hundreds, but either way it points to a velocity of thousands (or tens of thousands) of km/s velocity for the mass drivers (unless you go with the crazy 'ten km or less' numbers, in which case we're talking tens or hundreds of km/s, making these weapons as fast as torpedoes.)
given the earlier clarification of 'blink of an eye'.

Page 240-241

Korvane watched in mute fascination as armoured blast doors opened along the tau vessel's flanks. Silhou­etted against the pure, blue light that shone forth from within were rows upon rows of armoured figures.

As the distance between the two vessels closed to less than five hundred metres, the figures leapt into sudden movement, blue jets at their backs and ankles bursting into life and propelling them into space.
..
As the figures closed, he could see that they were some form of heavily armed and armoured suit, evidently built for extra-vehicular activity. What he could see were essentially torsos occupying the suits' cen­tral masses; small, head-like blocks perched atop them. The arms were great clamps, intended, he saw immedi­ately, to attach themselves to any available structure, and hang on while the two great weapons mounted under each clamp burned through any but the most resistant hull. Upon the suits' backs were mounted complex manoeuvring jets, smaller clusters of which were also visible at the ankles and shoulders. He had never before seen their like, and two great waves were heading straight for his bridge.

Tau EV battlesuits, presumably for boarding operations here. Tau spacetroopers basically.

Also note again the ludicrously short ranges.



Page 242

"Listen to me carefully Kaerk. What is the status of the torpedo?"
..
"It's in tube one sir, as it always is. "
..
"'Do you have fire control?"
"Last thing the chief did sir, before he... was awaken the torpedo's spirit.."
..
"Listen Kaerk, I want you to launch the torpedo, on a ten second fuse. "

Torpedo launched in ten second fuse. Note that they kept the only Arcadius torpedo in their inventory, their (supposedly) most vlauable possession, loaded inside the lauch tube all the time. deactivated admittedly, but given the number of cases where torpedoes detonate in the tubes from a lucky hit (EG the Rennie BFG novels) or their general volatility (same source) this seems like a less than stellar idea.

Note he's also launghing their most valuable possession to get rid of tau boarders. He never considers comming his dad, or abandoning ship., Nope lets use a hammer to smash ants. Yet more Arcadius Brilliance at work The suits manage to travel pretty fast across the area tens or a hundred m/s average velocity, which for a suit actually isn't bad.

Page 243-244

The last torpedo in the Arcadius fleet ploughed through the dense formation of tau attackers, sending them scat­tering in every direction. Korvane barked the laughter of the insane, the laughter of those who know they have won, even as they welcome death. He locked his gaze with the single lens of the tau suit as it cut through the armoured glass, great gobbets of superheated, liquid material splashing across the metal deck of the bridge.
...
"Four." He saw manoeuvring jets flaring into life across the flank of the tau ship, less than half a kilometre dis­tant.
..
"Three." The suits turned, to race for their mother ship. He knew they would never make it
..
The torpedo detonated, scouring the space between the Rosetta and the tau vessel, burning the surface of Kor-vane's vessel, instantly vaporising every last one of the tau battlesuits, raking the Rosetta with the cleansing fires of oblivion.

The torpedo detonates 'vaporizing' the tau suits. I've done the calc once (see old thread) but I'll cover it inb rief. Assuming at least broadside size and iron, we're talking tens of gj to vaporize (which fits roughly with the analysis of suit resilience from STar of Damolces here, although that probably means the numbers would be higher given the duration they resisted engine thrust) Assuming it detonates midway betwene the ships (or closer to the tau one) we're talking between 250-500 m distance with double digit GW (or triple digit, or terawatts) per square metre resilience. Given that range we could be talking 1-10 Megaton yield for the torpedo (at 250 m and with iron-vape calcs) whilst the ones based on the 'star of Damocles' analysis would lean more to double-triple digit MJ (hundreds of GW/several TW per sq m resilience.) I would note that if the distance ups to closer to 500 m, the yield goes between ten and 100 MT (iron vape) to upwards of hundreds of megatons/several gigatons yield for the SoD resiliences.

Now, as nice as all that is, it makes a number of assumptions that are probably up for dispute, not to mention it assumes it behaves like a nuke (which is going to be hard to reconcile with the space shockwave. Odds are we're dealing with a palsma weapon) but it does give a rough benchmark. torps being at least megaton range should not be terribly objectionable, given that the Imperium has tactical bombardment weapons that are well into the megaton range, never mind anti ship weapons (hell, titan-killer weapons get into the megaton range..)

Assuming the Rosetta were as large as Tobias Maxilla's Essene in the bow (700-700m or so) and ignore the flanks, both the tau and Imperial ship might be subjected to some single/double digit MT over the fronts.. with the Imperial prow and the narrow profile it might explain its survivability, esp if the torpedo detonated closer to the tau ship than the Imperial one.

Another bit in all this: The torpedo had a 10 second fuse, menaing it had 5-10 seconds to get into range to detonate, meaning the thing was traveling at (best) at 100 m/s, and more like a few tens of m/s. FAST TORPEDOES.

Page 244

A searing, white light erupted to the fore of the Rosetta, Lucian throwing his arm across his face before the viewer even reacted by dimming automatically. Caudously, he lowered his arm, and saw the remnants of a detonation of stunning magnitude, roiling energies spreading out in a searing bow wave.

The Rosetta was scoured by the explosion, the mighty vessel propelled away by the blast wave and spinning slowly clear. The tau vessel too was caught in the explo­sion, its entire starboard side erupting in secondary explosions as it was pushed by gargantuan energies across space. Lucian watched as the tau vessel spun clean through its four sister ships, each veering desperately to avoid it. At the last, the tau vessel collided with the Bore­alis Defensor, the two ships grinding inexorable together, twisting and melding together to form a terrible amalga­mation of human and tau starship. Incredibly, neither vessel exploded outright, although plasma fires danced crazily across the surface of both, welding them together for all time, making a blackened tomb for thousands of men and aliens even as they perished within.

Effects of the explosion. Whilst I can't actually calc it for sure, the magic space blast wave manages to propel the starship into another one from some distance off. Even at the ridiculous idstances this novel acts at that's insane for a mere explosion.

Page 246

...collision-warning sirens screaming into deafening life across the Oceanid's bridge.
..
"It's the Fairlight, sir." Raldi replied through gritted teeth as he wrestled with the Oceanid's helm. "She's crossing our starboard bow."

Lucian turned to see that the sight of the Fairlight coming alongside, entirely filled the starboard viewing port. He turned, looking to the holograph, to see that the alien fleet was veering off.
Thanks to Brielle's untimely and inexplicable manoeuvre, the aliens had escaped the wrath of the Oceanid's broadside. Lucian fumed. His daughter might have thought she was aiding him, but she had cost him the potential opportunity to catch the entire alien fleet in one, devastating volley.
She would have some explaining to do, once he had seen that his son was safe.
...
"One good turn deserves another, eh Naal?" she said, crossing her legs across the arm of the throne.
"Indeed, my lady." the man replied. "My masters will have much for which to repay you."

Remember what I said after we discover Korvane made a deal with the tau after Lucian had attacked them and Brielle had fucked up the Arcadius deal with Luneberg? Well I told you it wasn't finished. Brielle decides to engage in a little behind the scenes plotting of her own by covertly 'aiding' the tau for reward, which sets up things for her eventual defection (which barely happens before she decides she can go back ot the Imperium BECAUSE SHE'S A ROGUE TRADER. This is the sort of genius that lead to Brielle deciding it was a great idea to plunder a Necron tomb in 'Fear the Alien', btw...) So yeah, more sibling rivalry infighting getting in the way of Arcadius Business dealings, but the real fucked up bit is that Lucian seems to act completely and utterly oblivious to this. No, he figures Brielle was trying to help him - which is why she just happened to park her starship right in between the tau and his ship and let them run away.

Again I find it really hard to believe these people are MASTERFULLY CUNNING rogue traders when the intriguing and infighting going on occurs on the level you might find in the Soul drinkers novels - which is to say its hard to believe. to be fair the non-Arcadius stuff is generally more believable, but you really have that Soul Drinkers thing going on with the Arcadius, and that makes it hard to like them, or find them credible as the 'great house' they proclaim to be. It really makes it more appropriate as a sort of indirect parody. And to be honest thsi actually isnt so bad, it really adds to the 'lighter' tone and atmosphere and even the silliness of the series, compared to soul drinkers (hard to pull off 'silly' with SPACE MARINES, except maybe Space Wolves and even then that only works cuz of Bill King and MIGHTY HAEGR)

So, unlike the Soul Drinkers, while I find the Arcadius to be fairly inept fools, and can be pompous, it kind of fits the theme better than it did for soul drinkers. Its hard to dislike them as long as you keep that 'parody' angle going, although I suspect it was unintentional.

Anyhow, this general bumbling about and cluelessness will continue into the second, and (even a bit, at least with brielle) in the third novel, although it does seem to improve. Rogue Star is certainly the worst offender in this regard, and the worst of it was Brielle. (although Brielle has more character than Korvane, IMHO.)

Page 250-251

"...my astropath has been monitoring the declarations of inde­pendence issued by every world in this region. You have been fooled, Droon: the tau were not fighting for your cause - they were fighting to stir the likes of you to rebel­lion. I can guarantee you that every other Imperial Commander on every other world in die Timbra Subsector and beyond has been approached, in one way or another, by these aliens' agents. Evidently, most have fallen to the temptations offered to them. In Luneberg's case it was exotic goods - his world was crawling widi them - and weapons with which to equip his vessels. In your case it was mercenary service."
..
"My astropath has picked up a new voice," Lucian con­tinued. "The Imperium, Droon, has already heard of the situation out here."

This way of doing things is entirely consistent with the tau methodology of diplomacy, subversion or even sabotage in preference to direct military action, and they are quite good at it, as the ability to trigger simultaneous revolt in dozens of worlds (a whole subsector or more) demonstrates. That said there is a bit of 'less than altruistic' bullshit attached to this when you think about it. For example they played on the Arris Epsilon/Chasmata conflict to their own benefit, which lead to massive losses of life and material (even going so far as to offer mercenary service and to arm the other faction - how many times did they repeat that?) - this is consistent with their 'for the greater good' analogy even as it makes the tau far less of 'nice guys' for all the manipulation and bloodshed they cause just to gain more territory. Again this isn't saying the tau are suddenly mustache twirling villains, but some of the tau fanboys need to realize that the whole 'the whole tau Empire is snowy white goodness and nothing else' crap is long over, and they've diversified. some are good, some are assholes, some fall in between, and some may fall into other categories. It happens.

Also the Imperium is already aware of events, which perhaps makes for one of those 'rapid' responses, indeed given this is the ass end of the Imperium, knowledge about it is damn surprising.

Page 251

Following her manoeuvre: the manoeuvre that had allowed the tau fleet to escape, he had threatened to ship her off to take control of a grox-lard processing plant on Chogoris in which he owned a controlling interest.

apparently Chogoris has.. mercantile interests.. at least iwth the Arcadius. If he can establish ties with and commercial interests on an Astartes owned feral world... well I do have to admit that's pretty damn impressive.

Page 252

"Not only has every world for twenty light years announced its secession from the Imperium of Man."
..
"Almost every such world has announced its joining of a new..." he paused. "...empire."

Again 20-40 light year range as to the new (current) tau conquests. you have to wonder why they never capitalized on the astrotelepathy (did they not survive or did they refuse to cooperat eand kill themselves, or what?)

Page 252

"The forces of these aliens are even now flooding the entire region - everywhere to the galactic east of the Damocles Gulf. The secessionists are announcing, to all who will hear them, their joining of this alien empire: this tau empire."

considering we're talking dozens of worlds, this makes for a large scale mobilization of the tau.. if we assume the estimated forces were equal to what was on Taros for each planet.. we're talking.. easily tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops at least, scores if not hundreds of warships, and god knows how many transports and support/technical/diplomatic forces (probably many times the military forces)

Page 252-253

"but, I have been monitoring the distant voices of the Imperium."

"What of them?" Lucian asked, sensing that life in the Timbra subsector was about to get very interesting indeed.

"A crusade!" The astropath's voice cracked as he yelped with something resembling religious ecstasy. Lucian had never before seen the old man so animated.

"A crusade is being preached even now my master. Car­dinal Gurney preaches war against the tau. He denounces their lies and already, others have pledged aid or service to him."
..
"the fleet, of course, and Brimlock musters even now. Five regiments and more."
"Five regiments of Guard have no hope of-"
...
"Inquisitor Grand of the Ordo Xenos! The Astartes! The Iron Hands! The Emperor's Scythes. Even." and here the astropath leaned towards Lucian, "the White Scars."

This suggests the DGC forces amassed in a relatively short time just after the tau started moving in - days or weeks after, indeed, which again makes this a very rapid response by Imperial standards, although being a local one is not surprising. It also makes this far more of an intelligent response than Taros.

That said, its interesting that the White Scars and Iron Hands are coming in, given the former are over by the Maelstrom (and the Salamanders) some thousands of LY away, and the latter are way over by the Eye of Terror, which makes you wonder just how far the astropath is monitoring if you can pull Astartes in from halfway across the galaxy. Tens or hundreds of light years at least, and in a fairly short response time (minutes or hours or days?)

[Connor MacLeod]

Well finishing off this min-re-redo with Star of Damocles. The 'beginning' of the Damocles Gulf crusade, although the crusade per se never really does kick off in any official fashion, and much of this novel is not spent in battle so much as spent in traveling to fight the tau. Which is about as boring as it sounds honestly. It is and feels a bit like a filler book, setting things up for Savage Scars (which was iwthout doubt the best of the three novels) but it actually does improve on the first book in some ways (not the Space battles) by having us exposed to less of the ARcadius. We also meet the actual enemies of the series who aren't the tau, but Inquisitor Grand and Cardinal Gurney.

So really the book tends to sit in the middle between Rogue Star and Savage Scars for quality, which is fitting for the middle book, but its still nothing special. Although the lack of the 'grimdark' atmosphere is somewhat nicer than I remember.

Two posts to update, and then I'm done with this series and on to more interesting stuff. I'm actually tempted to start the Rogue Trader RPG stuff now and parallel that with Dark Heresy: thoughts?

Oh and the old thread is here, for reference.



Part 1
Page 8

The holograph, a priceless example of nigh extinct technology, projected a three dimensional image into the air, a grainy, flickering representation of the space around the Oceanid. Lucian's vessel was at the centre of the image, and a shoal of other icons formed behind him, each representing another starship.

As I noted last time, its in keeping with Lucian's arrogance that he assumes something he owns is priceless and near lost technology when we know for everyone else it is commonplace. This might reflect the general 'backward'-ness and less advanced technology hinted at in Fire Warrior, though.

Page 8-9

Lucian glanced out of the viewing port as his helmsman spoke, catching sight of a distant point of light speeding ahead. The Nomad was a frigate, far smaller than Lucian's heavy cruiser, but being a Space Marine vessel it was far more deadly than the average ship of her displacement.
..
The speck of light that was the Nomad sped off towards the rapidly enlarging globe that filled a large portion of the viewing port.
...
The Rosetta sat at three kilometres astern, a rogue trader cruiser captained by his son, Korvane, and another two kilometres further on, the cruiser Fairlight, commanded by his daughter, Brielle.

The Arcadius flotilla, and the Nomad, the frigate of Sarik of the White Scars. Note how distant it is implied to be, as well as the usual 'Strike cruisers are more powerful than their size suggests' specialization (speed, toughnes and firepower at the expense of versatility, endurance, and sometimes range.)

Page 9

Dozens of other vessels were spread out across an area of space spanning fifty kilometres port and astern. Battle-cruisers, cruisers and escorts arrowed towards a single point in high orbit around Sy'l'Kell, while half a dozen smaller vessels, frigates of a class similar to the Nomad, formed up with Sarik's vessel, more Space Marine frigates, each carrying a deadly cargo of the Emperor's finest.

The Damocles Gulf fleet. At least two battlecruisers, one battleship, various cruisers/heavy cruisers, and a bunch of escorts. Plus half a dozen Space Marine frigates.

Page 10

He looked instead to the flickering holograph, the device, or more accurately, the sub-space sensor banks that fed it, evidently beginning to suffer from the same interference plaguing the communications systems. Amid the grainy, imprecise projection, he finally saw the target. Looking up, through the wide viewing port now entirely filled by the globe of Sy'l'Kell, Lucian could just make out a tiny, blue pinprick of light.

Either the target (or the strike cruiser) is a tiny pinprick of light. Also, sub-space sensor banks feeding the holo display. disregarding the 'sub space' pseudo-trek bit, we know from the novel that subspace (and etheric) is hinted at being warp activity, so this suggests he's tracking shit.. on warp sensors. Try figuring that one out!

To be fair its not impossible, given the probability that a fair bit of the Imperium's shit is warp-tech, and that we dont know whether they are active or passive, it's quite likely that they can track objects passively by some sort of psychic or warp-tech based signature. Or maybe they make sensors out of psyker brains, it's been suggested before.

Page 11-12

Only the Nomad was ahead of Lucian's vessel, the small frigate all but lost against the lurid glow of the planet's oceans far below.
..
The main pict-slate at the centre of its console lit up with a representation of the gravimetrics readings of the area of space around the Oceanid.
..
There, in the lee of the target, into which his vessel's active sensors could not reach, there was a ripple in the fabric of the void, a signature he had seen before.

Again an indication of how far away the frigate is compared to Oceanid, and 'gravimetric' sensors in play. Apparently passive, but pick up on gravitic signatures of specific targets (or osmething passing for gravity, anyhow.) Can detect things that can't be picked up by active (LOS) sensors.

Page 12-13

"Sarik, divert all power to your port shield, now."
..
..the holograph showed that the Nomad was rapidly bleeding power from its main drives while its shield was being raised.
..
An instant later, and the viewing port was filled with a great, blinding flash of purest white light. Having closed his eyes by reflex, it took a moment for Lucian's vision to clear. Nevertheless, flickering nerve lights rendered him almost blind.
..
His vision clearing, Lucian looked to the holograph. The projectile had struck the Nomad amidships, half way down her port bow. Looking up, Lucian saw from where the projectile had been fired, as a long silhouette glided into view against the turquoise oceans of Sy'l'Kell

Tau open fire, projectile takes an 'instant' from firing to strike (if the range is thousands to tens of thousands of km... the velocity would correspond to that range.) Also full power from the drives being diverted into a particular shield arc. Again that suggests shield capacities tend to far exceed typical reactor outputs.

Page 13

"Ordnance, prepare a broadside."
..
The target, towards which the stricken Space Marine frigate still sped, was now visible. A mighty space station, shaped like some giant mushroom, blue lights twinkling up and down its stalk, wallowed at the centre of the viewing port, its bulk black against the lurid seas of the planet around which it orbited. A vessel emerged from behind that station; the same vessel that had come so close to destroying, in a single shot, a frigate of the White Scars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.
...
"Enemy vessel powering up for another shot at the Nomad.."
..
"Ordnance? Open fire!"
...
"I have no firing solution. We'll…"
"I said open fire damn you!"
...
The Oceanid shuddered as the port weapons batteries unleashed a fearsome barrage towards the tau vessel. Lacking a solid firing solution for the war spirits of the super-heavy munitions to follow, the majority of the shells went wide, their fuses detonating them at random across the space between the two ships.

If Lucian had meant to destroy the tau ship he would have waited, but had he done that, the Nomad would now be smeared across a hundred square kilometres of local space. The tau vessel aborted its shot against the Space Marine frigate, its blunt nose coming around to face the greater threat presented by the Oceanid.
..
As the explosions cleared, the greasy black smoke left in their wake almost entirely obscured the other vessel. Lucian judged that the distance between the two ships would level at an impossibly close five hundred metres before they parted once more. Five hundred metres, he mused, remembering just how deadly another tau vessel had almost proved at such a close range in a previous engagement.

Oceanid's gunnery prepares and fires a broadside before the Tau can finish preparing for a shot (which we know for its prow mass drivers, means a matter of seconds.') This probably suggests a second or less propogation for the Oceanid's own shells, which could (given usual sane weapons ranges) mean thousands/tens of thousands crossed in a couple of seconds tops. Howver in this case we're noted to be in single digit km (or less, hundreds of metres) range, which means that we'd be lucky if the shells are slightly supersonic. And then there's the whole 'visual' thing, we get more of that supposedly 'outside visual range' (suggesting hundreds if not thousands of km for a vessel approximately a mile long) bit not long ago and now we're less than a kilometre away as if by magic.. Again scalings are pretty crazy in this book when it comes to space battles.

In any case, we also learn that the Oceanid's broadsides (macro cannons?) of 'super heavy' munitions are guided projectiles. Assuming the Oceanid has not changed its broadsides (unlikely) this means that it either started out with guided macro shells in the first novel, or it acquired them somehow between the last book and this one - and the most probable source was either a local planet (meaning they're available out in the remote areas of the Imperium.) or from the Navy. What's more, these are apparently CHEAPER than a fucking torpedo (since I dont think they replaced the one Korvane used up in Rogue STar. Guess the Navy doesn't have those!)

That said they're not self guided, they apparently rely on telementry or sensor-targeting data (guidance) from the ship's own systems for ideal accuracy, which apparently means it takes time to 'lock on'.

Page 14-15

"Ordnance, I want a focused lance battery strike on the module aft of the central transverse"
...
At seven hundred metres, Lucian could make out the details of the flanks of the tau vessel, though he could not fathom the meaning of the many symbols or icons applied to its surface.

...
"Fire pattern set."
...
..the sweating crews in the lance batteries atop the Oceanid would be toiling at the traversing mechanisms of their turrets, cursing crew chiefs threatening them with eternal damnation should they falter in their work. At six hundred metres, the drifting smoke and debris of the broadside cleared enough for Lucian to pick out the point against which he had ordered the lance strike. At five hundred and fifty metres, he saw it clearly, and so did the ordnance officer, who communicated a series of final adjustments to the turret crews. A horizontal line of clear blue light appeared at the centre of the module, gaining in height as it was revealed to be an armoured blast door opening upwards. A row of armoured figures was framed against the blue light, the like of which Lucian had seen before, from a distance, the last time he had fought the tau.

Okay, so the Oceanid has a lance battery (at least multiple turrets) now. Where was this in the last novel? One possibility is that it was poorly maintained/inactive, or he simpyl didn't have enough crew to man it. But even so we're treated ot the lunacy of a lance weapon being used.. at 500 metres. Apparently that's the max range on the weapon in this book. Make up your own excuses as to why.

And if that weren't enough, Lucian's almighty lance turret is turned by muscle power, which I'm pretty sure is.. nigh impossible, since most naval ship lances tend to be fuck off huge turrets tens or hundreds of metres across, (bigger than titans!) and probably mass more too. Maybe they're REAAALLY tiny lances.. although I'm pretty sure those are just laser cannon.

Oh and again, Tau boarding actions. I'm pretty sure that some source or another specified they didn't do boarding actions.

Page 15

The officer depressed the control stud that passed the fire order to the lance turrets. An instant later the lance batteries spat a searing beam of condensed atomic fire at the tau vessel, parting the smoky clouds, spearing the open bay, vaporising the armoured figures, and passing clean out of the other side of the module, accompanied by a rapidly expanding cone of fire and debris.

The lance fires, and involves 'condensed atomic fire' which could mean EM radiation or particle beams of some kind, or even both. Or maybe its a melta lance. Either way the power armoured suits get vaporized and the vessel is cored.

Page 16

He had expected the enemy to close even further in order to make full use of the extra-vehicular armoured suits, as they had done against Korvane's vessel in the last battle.

Because the tau are well known to persist in trying tactics that don't work, right?

PAge 16

Even as Lucian watched, the wound punched in the tau ship by his lance strike slid past, almost filling the entire viewing port.

He judged the hole to be at least twenty metres in diameter, and as it passed across the dead centre of the port, he was afforded a view right through the enemy vessel, to open space beyond.

20 m diameter hole cored straight trhough ship. Assuming at least 500-1000m across, and a 250 kg*m^3 average density and it was melted, we're talking tens, maybe hundreds of TJ.

Page 17

A shoal of miniscule white objects, each propelled by a small, blue jet, was swarming across the gap between the two ships. So these were the cause of the fire control failure, Lucian realised. They were some kind of decoy, each, judging by their movements, possessed of some manner of machine intelligence, their density and erratic course confounding any effort to get a target lock on their mother ship.

"I can't get a solution at this range, my lord," the ordnance officer reported. "Whatever those things are, each one has an etheric signature far in excess of its size. All together like that, at such close range…"

Tau sensor jamming drones.

Page 18

"I suggest you continue on your course on momentum only, and shunt all available power to your aft shields."

Again zero power to engine, all power to shields in one direction. 40K ships can, like Star Wars ships, devote full shield power to specific arcs, it seems, and in fairly short issue (seconds or minutes at worst)

Page 19

He looked to the holograph and saw that the alien space station lay three and a half thousand metres off the starboard bow.

Oh dear SO FAR AWAY.

PAge 19-20

Lucian stared at the holograph as the helmsman carried out his orders, feeling the enormous gravitational forces exerting themselves on his ship as it changed course sharply. The banks of mighty retro thrasters mounted along the length of the port side coughed into life as power was cut from the main drives, the Oceanid entering a manoeuvre that would see her slingshot right around the alien space station.
..
Lucian closed his eyes against the bright discharge of the tau's ultra-high velocity projectile weapon, his vision turning red for an instant, despite the fact that his eyes were closed tight. An instant later the viewing port dimmed automatically, once again, its simple spirit too slow to respond to the flash.
..
"The enemy fired her port weapon, sir. Nomad's shields took the worst of it, but I think her projectors took some feedback. Second shot any moment…"

The tau vessel fired a second time, and Lucian was thankful that the viewing port was still dimmed. Despite this, he saw the tau space station etched in stark silhouette, for the Oceanid was now on its far side with the tau ship on the other.
..
"Nomad struck again, sir. Port weapon again. Her shields are almost gone. I don't think she'll survive a third shot."
...
He'd seen the damage Space Marine warships could take, and was prepared to gamble that the Nomad would hold together. He had no choice, for his vessel would not complete its manoeuvre for several more, long, potentially painful minutes.

The Oceanid is (slowly) navigating around the station, which I guess is at least a few km acorss (2-5 km) and at a distance of 3.5 km... so the diameter coverd is 9-12 km. With a cirfumeference of 28-38 km. In 'several' minutes to turn around that we're talking an alimghty 233-316 m/s at BEST. Whereas if we went by BFG numbers for ship speed, they'd be around that station in seconds, evne if the damn thing was 50+ km across (might take a few minutes if the ship was travelling at only a few km/s steadily and it was over 100+ km across though!)

Page 20
[quoe]which was careening towards the space station by way of momentum alone, every last portion of energy devoted to maintaining its rapidly failing rear shields.[/quote]

Again all powr (including engines) diverted to shields

Page 20

"Your untargeted broadside, Mister Batista. Evidently, something struck."

As the Oceanid closed on the tau vessel, a great gash upon its blunt, armoured prow became clearly visible. The position, Lucian knew from prior experience against tau cruisers, of its forward weapon turret.

Some of the shells had struck on that untargeted broadside, doing (impact?) damage.

Page 21-22

"Sarik, power up your main drives right now!"

An instant later Lucian saw that his transmission had got through. The Nomad's drives flared into life, crimson fire belching from them. The swarm of tau decoys was almost upon the Nomad when her drives spat into life, and they were incinerated in an instant, seared to ash and scattered into the void in a matter of seconds.

There, where the decoys had been clustered most densely, Lucian saw what he had guessed would be revealed: more of the tau armoured suits. Each was equipped with fusion weapons capable of ripping a crippled vessel to glowing pieces, and they had sought to approach the wounded frigate under the cover of the decoys. Now, the suits battled against the steadily increasing wash of the Nomad's drives. Armoured plating, the likes of which Lucian had rarely seen, kept them going, even though the unprotected decoys had lasted mere seconds. The fire of the frigate's drives was so bright that Lucian was barely able to see.

Nevertheless he watched the bulking forms as they blackened, their metal skins melting and running off in great billowing streams of vaporised armour. He watched as each suit took on the aspect of a comet rapidly shedding its mass.

At last, the armoured suits were blasted to their constituent atoms as the Nomad's drives reached full output, the Space Marine frigate powering inexorably towards the space station, its ultimate target.

TAu drones, and space armour vaporised in seconds worth of engine exhaust form Space Marine cruiser. ASsuming a quarter gee initial accel (~2.5 m/s^2) and a 6 million tonne frigate (About 1/4-1/5 my old estimate) and a more conservative exhaust velocity of 1000 km/s (rather than 30% of c! Which translates to 15 tonnes of mass expended each second) we get 'only' 7.5e15 watts of power. If we up that to 25 m/s^2 accel we get 7.5e16watts. Assuming a 700x700m engine block the engine emits some 15-16 GW per square metre given a 2-3m tall, 1 m wide battlesuit, its absorbing between 30-50 GW each second, and lasts for several seconds, meaning it can take triple digit GJ at least to melt, then vape the suits. If at 2.5 M/s we assume the ship starts moving noticably at oh.. 250 m/s (about 1/6th its ship lenght) we figure on 100 seconds.. a minute or more of exhaust seems likely. While a higher accel means the ship moves faster sooner (10 s rather than 100) the energy figures would go up by at least an OOM (more if exhaust velocity rather than propellant mass increased.), so the energy input is probably quite a bit higher.

Again other things to note, the 'fusion' weapons could be beam weapons, but I'd guess mines or bombs make more sense for 'crippled' vessles unless they were boarding or if they had some sort of magic super lightsabers to cut starships in half - who knows maybe they do! The other thing to note of course is the absence of shielding - why wouldnt they shield the suits? Then again maybe they are and thats why they resist so well.. hard to say.

As I noted in the last book, the incident with the White Scars ship and its engines taking time to reach full power is also helpful to explain apparent inconsistencies in acceleration due to 'fluctuating' or lagging Inertial damping (as happens to the Oceanid quite frequently in the series.)

Page 23

The face was narrow and noseless, with a small, lipless mouth, and was dominated by large, black, almond-shaped eyes. The skin was a blue-grey, and there was a slit in the centre of the forehead, an organ for which Lucian could see no obvious function. The alien was not tall, its stocky body certainly no taller than that of a man of average height.

Tau. I wonder what the slit does? The 'greater good' organ?

Page 28

The Space Marines were the Imperium's terror troops. Their mission was to strike at the very heart of the Imperium's enemies, to rip that still-beating heart out, without mercy or delay, and in so doing to slay the enemy utterly, that none might rise in his place ever again.

Truth in advertising, although to put it less bluntly, they're psychological warfare troops. They instill positive traits in their allies, and negative ones in their enemies (one hopes.) Everything else is really secondary to that aspect.

PAg 30

A hard, battle-worn man from the death world of Catachan, Gauge had been appointed the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard regiments assigned to the crusade. Lucian considered him a sound choice, and had liked the taciturn old veteran the instant they had met, mere weeks after the pronouncement of the crusade.

It's been 'weeks' since the last novel ended, which puts a rather firm upper limit on the effective mobilization/response time of the DGC to the tau invasion threat in the subsector. Its not a massive force of course, but still a significant one (19+ regiments?)

Page 31

Admiral Jellaqua appeared to be in his early fifties, but must have been far older given his rank as commander of the Imperial Navy vessels assigned to the Damocles Gulf crusade.

I'd guess he controls battlefleet detachments from whatever sector Gurney drew his forces from (we learn later it was a single sector's resources amassed for this crusade.)

Page 32

Jaakho was the fleet's most senior member of the Cult Mechanicus, the brotherhood of the Machine God, disciples and prophets of the innermost mysteries of technomancy and psience.

It fell to the Magos to direct the crusade in its encounters with the technologies of the foe, to identify what might be exploited, and to combat that which must be resisted and destroyed. Lucian saw in Jaakho's position a potential ally, for the tech-priest's stance must surely be the opposite of the cardinals. Where Gurney preached that the tau and all their works must be ground to dust, reviled as unholy anathema, the Magos might look to exploit or to study new technologies discovered along the way.

the role of the AdMech troops in this crusade. PSIENCE! Also, they want alien tech to study, which prboably isnt a shock given Jaakho is a Explorator (and they're more progressive/radical than most.)

Page 33

As each grew older, and more powerful, he was afflicted with terrible mutations, often causing him to retire from public view and devote himself entirely to his task from the lonely sanctuary of his navigation blister. Sedicae was quite unique in Lucian's experience, for his curse had not caused him to retire, though some would prefer that it had. Sedicae's skin was disturbingly translucent, his blood vessels, muscles, bone and pulsing organs plainly visible.

Navigator cpaabilities grow with age, as do the mutations. And despite the mutation, some still serve onboard ships.

Page 34

Skissor was tasked with the political governance of the crusade, of overseeing the installation of new planetary governments, and of coordinating the crusade's efforts with the strategic concerns of the entire Ultima Segmentum.

Administratum role of the Praefect Maximus in the crusade

Page 34

The task of organising the crusade's logistics, of ensuring its supplies of ammunition, fuel, foodstuffs and a thousand other items would never ran out, fell to the logistician-general. He was, Lucian believed, the worst possible crossbreed of autocrat and accountant, politician and statistician, warmonger and profiteer. Lucian's dislike of such men was bred into his line since the time of Maxim Gerrit, the ancient ancestor upon whose legacy the entire Arcadius dynasty was built.

One way to interpret this is that Lucian dislikes the Munitorum offiical because he's a bureaucrat, but another (and more liekly given my reading of the series) is that Lucian sees him as competition (autocrat, politician, warmonger and profiteer could apply to the Arcadius as well!)

In any case it shows the.. less favorable side of the Munitorum rather well - the corruption and bureacrracy and political bS.

Page 35-36

"Though I have encountered many and various civilised xenos races, I have yet to discover one that is not of more value to us alive than dead."
..
He saw that Jellaqua and Gauge agreed with his position; the tau should not be wiped out indiscriminately, but should be conquered for the benefit of the Imperium of Man.

Lucian's position on this matter was the product of his unique upbringing. As a rule, humanity was jealous of the galaxy's other races, for most were dire threats to the continued existence of the human race, and besides, felt that theirs was the right to rule the galaxy and not man's. Rogue traders, however, were unusual in that it was their duty to go out in to the dark places beyond human controlled space and to exploit what they encountered. In some cases this meant trading with alien races rather than destroying them outright. Rogue traders often held the view that not all xenos should be exterminated on first contact, a view at odds with the teachings of the Imperial Creed, the dogma the cardinal held as sacrosanct.

the 'competitive' aspect to Lucian's 'rogue Trader' view on matters has alot of truth to it - hell the Tau are proof of that- but it is driven by pragmatism and personal reasons (Profit) as anything else. they can be of use to trade and exploit, and the military types can see 'honour' in conquering an enemy (advancement and glory and all that.) Honestly the entire crusade is political - Lucian's side of the table wants to exploit the tau for their own ends, while Gurney and the othres merely want to eradicate them (exploiting that for different ends, more political and ideological power as well as plain ol xenophobia.) It really highlights the political aspects of the series, and the Imperium as a whole. Its one of the things I like about the novels, and it almost makes the Arcadius Rogue Trader crap tolerable sometimes.

Also I like the 'sanctioned Xenos' idea (to borrow a term from FFG) that not all alien races might be eradicated because they might serve some purpose for the Imperium (assuming they don't challenge the Imperium.) That often forms the basis of the alliances they form with the Eldar, Orks, Tau, and even the Necrons (yes the Necrons. They have more character now and the old star vampire crap has been modified. live with it)

page 37

A mighty explosion sounded a second later, the heat of the melta charge he had just planted evident even through his armour and from behind cover.
..
Through the enhanced vision granted him by the systems in his helmet, he saw that the armoured door had been reduced to glowing slag by the miniature nuclear charge he had placed against it, providing a way in to the tau command centre.

Bunker door melted by melta charge, described as a 'miniature nuclear' charge. ASsuming a 2 m tall, 1m wide door 10 cm thick made of iron (1.5 tonnes mass) it requires 1.9 GJ at least to melt.

Page 37-38

Another whine passed dangerously close, but still the war spirit in Sarik's armour could not identify the position of the firer.
..
Burning scrap was scattered across the floor, the remains of a flat, dome-shaped machine with twin weapons mounted beneath. Sarik saw instantly why his suit's war spirit had been unable to detect an enemy.

"Squad, disengage target acquisition. Use your own senses, not those of your armour."
..
..others spoke words of command that would render their armour's targeting systems dormant until revived. "The enemy are using thinking machines to fight us, and they barely show up on autosenses."

Tau drones don't show up on autosenses targeting systems.

Page 39-40

"I could simply order the world below us virus bombed. Believe me, I would do so."
..
"How do you come to have such devices?"
..
A virus bomb, an example of high technology proscribed by ancient decree and available only to the very highest of authorities was just the type of thing to gain a reaction from such as he.

Gurney has access to (and can issue) exterminatus decree, probably through Grand's own authority. Also virus bombs described.

Page 42

"I do not offer you my surrender. I offer you my friendship and that of all the tau. You must join us, or we must fight."

Tau offering the hand of friendship.. to a Space Marine. To me, that really shows both the optimism and naivete of the tau, along with the arrogant self assurance that their way is the best way and they'll make you see it, whether you want to or not. You can join, or you can be made to join. They'lll do it the nicest way they can manage of course, with the least possible bloodshed and damage, but either way they're making the choice for you.

Page 46

...high-velocity impacts cratered and buckled his power armour.
..
Sarik offered a brief but heartfelt thanks to the Emperor that the ceramite armour was proof against the alien weaponry, for now at least.

Tau ranged weapon (burst cannon?) fails to penetrate Sarik's armour. Another case where a tau is using an obvious projectile weapon.

Page 47

..the pilot attempting to draw a bead on the Space Marine even as his suit disintegrated, blue bolts streaming from the rapidly spinning barrels of the suit's primary weapon system.

That at least is a burst cannon. I wonder if maybe it has ammo selector modes (it can fire solid slugs or pulse ammo.)

Page 52

Each was surrounded by a dirty halo where a round fired from a Space Marine's bolter had entered the wall and exploded an instant later. The weapon was intended for use against lightlyarmoured enemies of flesh and blood, upon which the effect of the exploding bolt was quite lethal.

Bolt round intended targets.

Page 53

The cardinal had held the crusade's reins, and had launched a series of courts of assize, putting to death hundreds of the liberated colonists whom he had accused of welcoming the recently departed aliens with open arms. The scenes of torture and execution had been etched into Brielle's memory, her hatred for the likes of the cardinal multiplying a thousandfold that day.

Establishing Grand and Gurney are dicks. To be honest, it tends to make Brielle more likable too, although she's got plenty of other cases to make her less likable we'll find.

Page 59

He lifted his hands and placed them on either side of the apparatus behind the tau's head, lowering the crown of needles and probes. The wires writhing at Grand's wrists snaked out of his voluminous sleeves, each linking up, and melding to a tiny port on the device.
..
Brielle watched as Inquisitor Grand used some form of witchery. He was tearing into the prisoner's psyche, using the wires to bridge the gulf between human and xenos.

Apparently Grand needs technological help to read Tau minds, which is interesting givne Inquisitor Oriel in Kill Team, but eh.

Also this is supposed to be a 'moment of truth' thing for Brielle, she's confronted with the ugly side of the Imperium - the xenophobia, the brutality, the torturing of (otherwise) innocent prisoners simply because they aren't human. It shows Grand and Gurney's cruelty and sadism, and shows that Brielle is not like that. Brielle's role (intended role, at least) in this book is to be the free-spirit, the idealist, the radical, the progressive thinker of the Rogue Trader dynasty. Lucian is the eldar and patriarch and generally gung ho adventurer, Korvane is the politicial and pragmatic one (And generally a humorless twit), while Brielle is spirited and fiery and passionate. As we learn, she is the one to embrace the tau doctrine, seeing the potential for something better in it.

Unfortunately, this concept does not get developed as fully as it could, because the 'what's in it for me' angle that follows from Brielle and her sibling rivalry with Korvane (and her own Daddy issues, I suspect) tned to get in the way, and as a character she can't seem to stick to one agenda or another. She leaves the Imperium, joins the tau, then abandons the tau when that doesn't suit her, which really undermines the impact of all this revulsion and horror at Grand and Gurney being assholes.

Page 66

"My command stands at eight capital vessels and nine escort squadrons" the admiral stated, his tone matter of fact, but professional pride glinting in his eyes. "In addition, I have three deep space support echelons in place, each with the capacity to carry the fleet to the other side of the galaxy and back."

Lucian allowed himself a small grin. He saw the truth through Jellaqua's boast. He knew that the admiral had put in place a formidable auxiliary fleet, a vast force of long-range tankers, freighters, service vessels and transports. It was an impressive achievement, and the admiral had Lucian's genuine admiration.

Scope of the naval (military and non) forces involved in the Crusade. 8 capital ships seems a bit small given the fact other sources state twelve, but that may or may not include the Arcadius in it. Whether or not it includes the Space Marines is another story. The escorts get quantified later.

Of more intrest is the 'support' element, which seems to greatly extend their operational range and logistical capability, which makes sense given how fa rout from the Imperium they are. It also shows they have more sense than the Taros campaign did, but that goes wihtout saying. I wonder if the service vessels include any manufacturing capability?

Anyhow, even if the Admiral's boast is hyperbole, I imagine it reflects an extended operations endurance of years, perhaps decades.

Page 66

"The Regent Lakshimbal has undergone a significant refit of her port drive section following the damage sustained during the Sy'l'Kell action. By bringing forward her major centennial service, we have significantly improved her combat potential."

Imperial starships seem to undergo refit and servicing (maintenance?) every hundred years or so if I am interpreting 'centenniel' right. Which would seem to include upgrades (improved combat potential?)

Page 66-67

"...the Duchess Mclntyre has a full complement following the mutinies she suffered at Garrus. The new crew is veteran and trustworthy and unlike the last lot...
...
..to the fate of the several thousand mutineers...
..
..one that would give pause to any more such plots lurking within the fleet's enlisted ranks.

That tends to suggest the Navy forces (the ones here at least) aren't made up much of pressganged scum, I think.

PAge 67-68

"The planetary assault operation is still ongoing. Our forces, spearheaded by the Scythes of the Emperor have made contact with a number of xenos troop types that we have not encountered before. It appears this race makes extensive use of anti-grav technology, manifested in heavy armour and jump infantry. Casualties amongst the Guard are running at twelve per cent, with a commensurate drop in combat effectiveness. Casualties amongst Astartes units are at less than five per cent, with no drop in effectiveness."

The Space Marine showed no emotion as he spoke of the first encounters with the tau armoured units, which had cost the crusade forces dear. The price had been paid in the blood and machines of the 17th Brimlock Dragoons, and Lucian had seen the pict captures of the Imperial Guard tank columns being ambushed by the fast moving tau vehicles. He knew that only the timely intervention of the crusade's army reserve units had averted the massacre of the entire regiment and a humiliating defeat at the hands of the aliens.

"Having secured the primary drop zone, Sergeant Sarik affected the capture of the tau high command facility. We believe the enemy's command and control capabilities are rendered entirely ineffectual. The 9th Brimlock Fusiliers are supporting a general advance on objectives 23 delta through 67 gamma. I expect all resistance to have collapsed within twelve hours."

The Crusade's initial ground forays against the tau. Unsurprisingly the Guard gets mauled more than the Astartes (which always seems to be the way these things go) but given this is the very first encounter and surprise will be rampant, its understandable. And mere 12% casualties, even for tanks, is rather light by Guard standards. Taking out their command and control probably played a huge role here, but the implied mobility and response time of the reserves probably helped too. Again this is nothing like Taros.

Page 70

Brielle paused, momentarily paralysed by the weight of her actions. She was faced, as she had been so many times before, with awful duplicity. She knew that the crusade had embarked upon an evil folly of epic proportion, its course set upon the destruction of a culture it had no knowledge of. She, however, did have some knowledge of the tau, and was rapidly coming to the conclusion that they offered far more even than life as a rogue trader held for her. Yet, she was born and raised a scion of a mighty dynasty, and loath to throw away millennia of prosperity, and the status that came with it.

You know, these actions would carry alot more weight if they emphasized her reaction to the 'evils' of the crusade, and if we knew she would stick to them better. But knowing she's reluctant to give up her status and wealth, and her emphasis on 'what's in it for her' kind of distort things. This just reinforces the same shit that plagued the first book - she acts the way she thinks best is first, and to hell with everything else (putting her rivalry with Korvane before the good of the family, which both she and Korvane consistently did in the first novel.)

On the other hand, its hard to just change one's life and habits at the drop of the hat, and when faced with an unpalatable truth (EG the true face of the tau) going back is hard.. but.. again it comes down to how Brielle is characterized, and it just doesn't feel.. right. Brielle has alot of potential nad she's better developed and more likable than Korvane, but it doesn't really seem to get exploited properly or go anywhere.

Page 71

..the Guard provosts or munitorum bully-boys who maintained order on the station.

Guard provosts and munitorum troops. Probably reflect 'second line' forces.

PAge 77

It showed two munitorum guards, both female, both tall and broad, and both armed with shock mauls and protected by the heavy, interlocking plate of carapace armour.

munitorum guards.


Page 83-84

"You are a strong one, aren't you?"
..
"You can feel me, can't you?"
...
"You think you can resist me do you, girl?" the inquisitor growled as he regained his balance. "What little power you might have is insufficient. Now, you are mine."

I take this to mean Brielle is at least a low level psyker (a wyrd?)

Page 84-85

..she lifted her arm and with a single flick of her thumb activated the tiny, one-shot flamer she wore in the guise of a ring. A cone of chemical fire erupted from the weapon, leaping the two metres between Brielle and the inquisitor, engulfing him instantly. The inquisitor's robes caught fire,..

Digital flamer used on Grand. His clothes catch fire.

Page 88-90

The area below the gallery from which Lucian and Korvane observed was a vast, spheroid chamber, dominated in the centre by a mighty column from floor to ceiling that resembled nothing less than a vast stalactite grown so huge it had merged with the stalagmites below. Pipes and valves dominated the column's every surface, clouds of steam and other exhaust gases venting from spitting valves, rivulets of run-off pouring down its flanks to pool in great steaming, oily lakes across the deck.
..
Of all the practicalities of void faring, replenishing the warp drives had always been the task he loathed the most. It was quite unlike the taking on of the fuel required by the Oceanid's myriad plasma generators, although thankfully, it was only rarely required.
..
A droning canticle emanated from the airlock, as a number of figures emerged from the mist. Soon, a column was snaking its way across the service deck, a funereal procession, the mourners carrying upon their shoulders great lead caskets glittering with etheric frost. Those figures were, even to Lucian who had seen some horrific sights in his time, disturbing in the extreme.

Each wore long robes of woven, gunmetal grey metallic thread, and thick, lead gloves upon his hands. The robes were dotted with valves, to which long, pulsing cables were attached, each coiling behind the bearer to disappear into the airlock behind.

The head of each bearer was bared, but his eyes, ears, nose and mouth were fitted with the same valves that covered his body. Forcing himself to look closer, Lucian could see that the bearers' hands, though protected by the thick mitts, gave off an oily smoke, as did the side of the face of each bearer that was closest to the casket he shouldered. Small, humanoid creatures walked at the side of each bearer, vat-grown cyber-constracts, mono-tasked to the whims of their masters.
...
The contents of each coffin-shaped casket was evidently hazardous in the extreme, for Lucian could see, even from the gallery on which he and Korvane stood, the flesh of each bearer slowly cooking, sloughing from his face to reveal muscle and bone beneath.

As the procession wound its course across the curved deck below, Lucian watched the tech-adepts of his own crew as they worked upon the many dials and levers mounted around the base of the great column at the centre of the chamber. Lucian knew that the tech-priests would have prepared long and hard for their task, for it was the most perilous operation a vessel could undertake, including, Lucian mused, actual combat. The consequences of a mishap were scarcely worth considering, and would cost Lucian and his crew far more than their ship and their lives.

The procession neared the column, and Lucian could see that the body of each bearer was beginning to disintegrate as time wore on, the pulsing of the hundreds of cables snaking behind growing more rapid as, Lucian presumed, some alchemical concoction that prolonged life was fed to them.
...
The scene became even more ghastly as the first of the caskets neared the column. It's bearers visibly staggered beneath what must have been a terrible weight to bear. Singed matter trailed behind the bearers, great chunks of burnt flesh having detached from their limbs as they walked, only the ministrations of the horrific machinery keeping them animated as their bodies, quite literally, fell apart. The small attendants gathered the burnt remains into heavy chests carried between some of their number.

At the last, the bearers of the lead casket lifted their burden high upon arms almost bare of flesh. The casket was pushed forward into a gaping socket in the side of the column, the door of which swung wide as the Oceanid's tech-priests pulled levers and voiced their prayers to the Machine God. With one, final heave, the bearers pushed their casket into the waiting maw, the frost encrusting it vaporising in a cloud of mist as it was slid home. With a crash, the door swung shut. The bearers collapsed, each lead robe almost entirely empty. With an obscene, sucking noise, the cables attached to the remains of each corpse tightened, before snaking back to the airlock, the small attendant gathering up the remains of each bearer, before turning
back for the airlock.
..
..the first of the caskets was safely received. Many more would be delivered over the next hours, but he had little desire to watch the scene he had just witnessed repeated over and over again..

Warp drive replenishment. Just what is being replenished we don't know. On one hand it apparently is radioactive (or very energetic) given the progressive cooking the bearers are subjected to, yet on the other.. it could be something more exotic. Part of me thinks that what they're doing is sticking coffins full of.. prepared - for lack of a better word - psykrs into the warp drive. Something like they do with the astronomican. It wouldn't surprise me at all to leanr that Imperial warp drives are powered by psykers in some way - that whole 'mortal fuel' thing. Although how the radiation and disintegration of the bearers fits in, I dont know.

Oh and the life preserving alchemy, and the vat grown constructs.

Pag e91

"Well, Craven's Landing provided some veteran crews, not surprising considering the trouble the port's had with the chartists."

Chartist captains?

Page 94

"He was burned, eighty per cent of his body. It was a deliberate attack, in the detention block, as he attended to his prisoners."

Gurney has burns to 80% of his entire body. Assuming 10,000 sq cm per side, (20,000) we're talking 16,000 sq cm. Now second to third degree burns.. lets call it 30 j per sq cm to 125 j per sq cm (recalling that his clothing instantly ignited) we get between 480 kj and 2 MJ for the burning. We know from rogue Trader and other FFG sources that a digital flamer has one shot, and a ring weighs 100 grams. 10% of which (in theory) is ammo, which means no more than 1/10th to 1/100th (no less?) of that mass is fuel. That means between 5 MJ per kg to 200 MJ per kg.. which is quite a bit really.

Page 99

The heavy cruiser stretched below, hundreds of metres fore and aft, from her armoured prow section to the clustered drives astern.

Suggests the ship is at least 400-600 m long, to several km long. I'd bet more towards the far end.

Page 99

Further out still, Lucian could see the various ships of the fleet: a dozen capital vessels, most of equivalent displacement to the Oceanid, some even heavier, some smaller. The Blade of Woe, Admiral Jellaqua's flagship, lay at anchor three kilometres to the port.

Most of the crusade fleet apparently is of cruiser or heavy cruiser or greater. Alternately, this might suggest a navy light cruiser or cruiser is equal to Lucian's own heavy cruiser - the first novel noted his ship was smaller than a naval equivalent after all.

Page 99

Each squadron consisted of three, sometimes four, vessels, whose role was to intercept any enemy attempting to close on one of the battle cruisers, and each captain knew that his ship and crew were entirely expendable so long as his task was done and his charge protected.

3-4 escorts per squadorn is 27-36 escorts total (9 squadrons IIRC) 35-48 warships in the crusade fleet, not including the 6-7 Astartes vessels. Also escorts are 'expendable' which suggests they're more eaisly (And more quickly) built than capittal ships, which is unsurprising.

Page 103

His vessel performed as she should, despite her age and the rough treatment to which generations of the Arcadius had subjected her.

Again Lucian's ship is old, and not in the best of shape, and this probably is not the 'older is better' sort of old - the ship is not horrible but its a bit down on its luck. either way it suggests the performance of the ship may not reflect totally on other starships (not massively different per se, but there's still plenty of wiggle room.

Page 104-105

"The sub-etheric vanes are detecting a localised field of some sort. There's some disturbance to station keeping, but again,nothing I can't compensate for."
..
"Station nine," Lucian said, addressing the servitor at the gravimetrics station, "perform a primary scan as per Mister Raldi's parameters."
...
"Astrographics," Lucian continued.

"Yes, sir," the officer at station ten replied.

"Patch your readings through to the holo."

The holo-plinth on the bridge deck before Lucian's command throne came to life, a green, spheroid representation of local space projected in three dimensions. The Oceanid sat at the dead centre of the projection, and the entire scene was shot through with gently waving tendrils of what appeared to be some gaseous liquid form.

Lucian looked to the bridge viewing ports on either side, but saw no such phenomenon. Evidently the weird, twisting forms were entirely invisible to the naked eye, though the Oceanid's various augurs could detect them, and Raldi could feel their effects upon the helm.

Reams of data scrolled across the projection, and across the pict screens surrounding the command throne. The Oceanid's logister banks sought to identify the source of the phenomenon, comparing the readings flooding across the screens to records held within the huge crystal memory-stacks. Lucian watched, seeing that the logisters would fail to identify the effect.

Turning a dial upon the command throne's arm, Lucian expanded the view of local space, the symbol representing the Oceanid at the centre shrinking as the view zoomed out. He saw, as he had hoped to, a number of augur returns, all within a quarter of a million kilometres, and all holding station.

A fun bit of sensor stuff. the 'sub etheric' stuff gets mentioned later, and tied to the warp (or some alternate dimension.) Indeed, sub-space, and 'sub-etheric' get used interchangably along this part of the book, so much so I think they mean the same thing ('etheric' being another term for space.) Whether they are measuring the same thing, or different things (Eg space and ether being treated the same or different, who knows.) we have some 'different' phenomnea being measured or tied in, and quite possibly FTL (like the GG novels alot of things happen that seem to be far more realitme than I believe, although all the odditites with range and distance numbers make it far from conclusive. )

The oddity that we get talked about is some weird 'gasoues liquid' nonsense which I gather to be more weird 'space weather' type stuff. Again I blame the warp.

Also its interesting the 'gravimetric's sensors apparently are tired into station nine, which was also responsible for the compensators (for acceleration) and presumably AG in general. I guess that guy (or servitor) controls the grav scanners too.

And the Oceanid has 'crystal stack' data storage medium.

And the fleet (what there is of it) have all emerged from the warp within nearly 1 light second of each other, which apparently by standards of warp emergence is quite good (it beats the half AU emergence variance from last time!)

[Connor MacLeod]

Page 105

Hours later, the Oceanid was within communications range of the fleet, and Lucian stood at the centre of his bridge, a cluster of pict screens arrayed around him.

Wait, what? It took hours to get within 'communications range?' ARGH!

Fortunately this may be a bit easier to explain, given that comms intereference seems common in the DG region, and seems to be getting worse, so 'effective' range could be far shorter. 'hours' can be explained by needs to make preparations, get everyone settled out from the warp emergence and systems stabilized, and generally get under way. It does NOT, however, neccesarily mean it took hours for the fleet to get close to each other and that is absolute ranges, which is how IIRC I intiially interpreted it.

PAge 106-107

"and it's not just the local sub-etheric. It's the immaterium itself."
..
"You are correct, Gerrit." Lucian scanned the slates, seeing that it was Captain Ebrahim of the Ajax that had spoken. He had not met the man in person, though he had heard that Ebrahim was a well-regarded officer of the line. "My Navigator was afflicted by some form of convulsion as we exited the warp. We very nearly didn't make it out."

Again, the subspace/sub-etheric stuff is appaerntly tied to the warp in some manner.

Page 109

It was one of the massive, loated troop transports, each of which carried an entire regiment of Imperial Guard and sufficient supplies to keep it fighting for years if necessary. The transport's captain had immediately reported widespread lack of discipline amongst the troopers of the 12th Brimlock Light Infantry.

This would imply each regiment has its own transport (with needed supplies) assigned, which is rathre low unless these are high number regiments (10K+) Whicht hey may or may not be. Or they may be mechanised/armoured and thus need more room for vehicles. Or maybe these are just very very small transports (escort sized or smaller?)

Anyhow for 19 regiments that would imply 19 transports for troops (And their supplies), although it again depends on troop numbers. given a 2-10 thousand 'average' size the numbers would range from 38,000 to 190,000 or so. So probably tens or hundreds of thousands of troops or therabouts. Not a 'huge' crusade by Imperial standards, but a significant force to throw against the tau, esp if it has significant armour/vehicle components attached (as implied in the third novel.)

Also one of the Brimlock regiments.

Page 109

..had insisted he shuttle over to put the unrest down in person, but had been persuaded against the idea by Lucian, who had convinced the old veteranof the danger presented by the anomalous sub-space disturbances when no other ship's master had succeeded in doing so.

More 'subspace' stuff. anomalies!

Page 110

The astropath shuffled forward into Lucian's view. He was shocked at the man's appearance. Karaldi had, in Lucian's opinion, been burned out years ago, and he had considered petitioning the guild for a replacement when the opportunity presented itself.

Somehow, that opportunity had never arrived, and against his better judgement he had come to like the old eccentric.

This is another.. interesting quote. Mainly because the 'burned out astropath' in the last book was named Karisan. The description above is virtually identical for Karisan in the last book too, so I suspect (out of universe) this was a flub on Andy Hoare's part (He forgot the name.) In universe.. either the astropath had a sudden name change, or Lucian tried to get him replaced.. and the AStra Telepathica foisted another old, burnt out astropath on him with poor personal grooming. Which in its way is hilarious inappropriate because it fits in with the whole 'Lucian Gerrit of Clan Arcadius having a higher opinion of himself than the rest of the Imperium does' - I could see Gerrit getting shafted by the Telepathica in that way because of who he is and how he acts. Kinda like the whole 'hololith' thing.

Page 110-112

”We commune, but in doing so we hear not only the minds of our peers, but of others, or echoes of others. Forgive me, for I cannot easily describe the sensation to a…”
...
“Our minds, my lord, when we join in astropathic communion, we become entranced, distracted, as if called away from afar. It's as if our song, our astropathic choir, is subtly, but sweetly, corrupted. A note, a timbre, not of any astropath, joins our song, interweaving with our minds. It is so sweet that none will reject it, though we know we should sever the communion at the slightest outside interference.”
...
If Karaldi was telling him that some entity was working its way into the minds of the astropaths…

“Oh no, my lord! Never that!” Karaldi blurted, evidently having picked up on Lucian's surface thoughts. Lucian let it go, for now.
...
“No, my lord, it is not some dark thing from the immaterium that whispers to the astropath. It is of this universe, of this place.” Karaldi gestured around him, suggesting that the phenomenon he described was specific to this region, to the Damocles Gulf.
...
“'It is all around us, in the ether, in the warp, in the weave of space itself. But it emanates from somewhere within the Gulf, of that we are certain.”
..
“So, the… effect… is likely to increase the deeper the fleet penetrates the Gulf?”
...
“Not openly, my lord, though I believe we all share an understanding of the nature of the disturbance. Some of my peers know that to commune is dangerous, but cannot help but do so. Others, I sense, long for the crossing to continue, so that they might close with the source. They crave it, my lord, yet know it might harm them.”

Astropathic disturbances in/around the DG region. Originally I had speculated that, as part of the implication here, that it was something unique to the region. Given the ‘hints’ that some outside agency (the Eldar, Necron, or even now it seems the Imperium) are ‘aiding’ or protecting the tau, this might make some sense. Creating some sort of disturbance that messes with warp travel and astropathic communication can make the deployment, supply, and communication/coordination of Imperial forces in this region nigh impossible, which is going to be a HUGE asset to the tau on the defense. Indeed it helps to free them from defensive concerns (assuming it encircles them) and allows them to focus more on attack and mobility, which is where their doctrine really excels (if they have to abandon Imperial planets, so what? Their core systems are still intact and unassailed, they can try again.)

Mind you, in the long term as resources are expended they would eventually run into probelms, and once they have expanded significantly beyond the DGC region, the need to ‘hold’ that territory they took would become more vital as their people became more established outside that region. Of course their ether Drive has problems here as well unless they find a workaround (and several possibilities exist there) but they also need some means of efficient communications to a certain point (at least, if they intend to conquer the galaxy they do.)

The other possibility, and I actually consider this more likely, is that this is the Shadow in the Warp starting to affect them from a distance. We know the Tyranids come into the picture toward the end of the series, breaking off the DGC for obvious reasons, and there are plenty of hints dropped that the Tyranids are indeed playing around in the background - scouting elements or advanced forces, perhaps. And we know that the shadow in the Warp can mess with both astrotelepathy and warp travel...

Page 112

Something called to the astropaths as they communicated, adding its psychic signal to their own, even as the Navigators reported disturbances within the warp, ship's crews were restive and sub-space was riven with abnormal and unidentifiable fields. Furthermore, the astropaths in some way craved the interference, perhaps being drawn by its call.

again subspace anomalies and weird forcefields, which seem to be detectable to the Imperial sensors and tied (in some way) to the problems as well.

Page 116-117

Once again, slowly undulating tendrils waved across the sphere, invisible to human eyes, but all too apparent to his vessel's augurs.
...
Lucian watched with growing impatience as three, non-critical functions were almost entirely stripped of power to boost the augurs as they scanned the local region. The three-dimensional holographic map now displayed a region several hundred thousand kilometres across, though great swathes of it were left blank as the Oceanid's mighty augur banks were pushed further and further out.
...
“He walked around the globe of light, and pointed to a dimly glowing sensor return right at its edge. 'Full
power on these coordinates.”
...
The officer worked his console once more, and three-quarters of the holographic projection lapsed into an indistinct blur as power was bled from three arrays and shunted into the remaining one. The quadrant grew in relative size as the augurs scanned it, the return becoming more distinct all the while.
..
“Boost output to maximum.”
...
Once more, the projection zeroed in on a single region, the return that was the Ajax shifting to the centre of the globe whilst the region beyond her became the object of the augur's attentions. A second return resolved itself, but Lucian could see, had already guessed, that this was no starship.
..
“And I'm picking up what must be false returns too, either that or there're a whole lot of dead vessels out there. It's as if there're a hundred other ships out there one moment, and none the next.”

Again sensor stuff.. ‘hundreds of thousands of km’ isnt so bad.. and it seems that as they narrow down the scans they can boost power (at least a factor of four, if not more) extending range and sensitivity. Means active sensors, I’m pretty sure.

Also more of the general fuckery of the region

Page 118-119

Lucian stood at the forward viewing port, leaning against the brass bulkhead. The Ajax would come into view any moment.
..
“Range to target, Mister Raldi, now.”
..
“Range? Um… three kilometres, sir.”
...
“Check your readings, Raldi. I have no visual.”
..
Lucian watched for a moment as the helmsman adjusted myriad dials and knobs around the helm, turning his attention back to the view outside. This far from a star, visual ranges were extremely short, but a capital vessel was generally lit up like a…

You know, as much as I’m tempted to say ‘not again!’ this is actually better than previous examples because a.) Lucian seems to be expecting to see something at this range, and realises something is wrong and b.) the fucked up anomaly crap in this region explains it nicely. So, I’ll give it a pass.

Page 119

”All stop!”
...
Raldi heaved on the mighty lever beside the helm, bracing his legs for a better purchase on the steel deck. Lucian felt the Oceanid's main drives die as their titanic output was routed through emergency vents in their flanks. The force of that alone squeezed the drives in towards each other, causing the vessel's vast metal skeleton to shriek in sudden anguish. An instant later and the banks of retro thrasters at the Oceanid's prow coughed into life, their force forestalling the vessel's forward motion with a titanic juddering.

Fighting to remain upright, Lucian called, “Bow arcs, full beam ahead.”

Looking once more to the view out front, Lucian was forced to shield his eyes when two great, white beams of light stabbed forward through the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he watched as the two beams began a wide sweep from port to starboard, crossing each other in the middle before resuming their quest of the all-enveloping darkness.

First off.. headlights in space. Whether that has value or not I dont know.

That said, the Oceanid has an ‘emergency brake’ it seems, although it puts tremendous strain on the ship and can kill thrust in a very short time. Although the context implies they’re not going very fast (TEN METRES per second tops, given the whole ‘fighting to remain upright’ bit and the compesnator issues.) Best we cna do is say that Lucian is trying to be very cautious but evne at 3 km/s and 10 m/s velocity he shouldnt have been worried about an immediate crash. Fuck, given the distances he’d have to travel (hundreds of thousands of km/s) you’d think he’d travel at at least single double digit km/s if not faster. Its not like they have hours to dick around.. but I guess we have to chalk that up to caution.

I’m also tempted to say that the compensators were online and this was simply ‘less than perfect’ damping (its an old ship operating at less than perfect performance) so we might say its higher than a single gee - at least a couple gee if not a few tens of gees (or a few hundred!) given the probable speed they should be going at and the almost collision (they seem to be right on top of Ajax by the time they stop.)

Hell if they were constantly accelerating and then bled off main drive in a sudden emergency, there’s a strong argument of the retros being EVEN MORE powerful than the main drives in this instance (The main drives providing steady thrust suddenly cut out and then the retros suddnely cutting in in seconds or less to halt forward momentum..)

ARGH! crazy.

Page 120

But he could not do so, for the sub-space augurs warned that the ongoing disturbance in the fabric of the void made even the short hop to the Ajax too risky..

subspace augurs.

PAge 120-121

The crew chiefs reported a growing number of infractions, each of which was met with increasingly harsh punishment. Drunken brawls and petty thefts amongst the conscripted ranks were to be expected, but of late the nature of the crimes had escalated, culminating in a number of serious assaults upon low ranked officers. Lucian had ordered the chiefs to impose the very harshest of penalties, for he knew that it was only a matter of time before some rabble rouser got a mob together and went on the rampage. That had not occurred on the Oceanid in over a decade...
...
But behind the ill discipline was quite understandable superstition. Lucian had no doubt that the Damocles Gulf was permeated with a tangible air of… something he could not quite put his finger on. It was a menace, but not in the sense of that experienced near the Eye of Terror. This was more a sensation of something… alien… permeating the very fabric of space, as if the region were not actually meant to exist at all.

The galaxy was home to many zones where the laws of conventional physics broke down, or offered scant explanation for the phenomena at play within them, regions such as the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, where the very stuff of the immaterium leaked into the material universe through great seeping wounds many hundreds of light years across. Others were similar in nature, yet nowhere near as threatening, such as the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath. Other features, such as the Wheel of Fire or Hangman's Void were entirely unexplainable, yet had become familiar, for want of a better word, hazards of spacefaring.

Lucian likens the evnets in the Damocles Gulf to being like a more ‘alien’ and less ‘chaotic’ warp/realspace interface, in some ways. That tends to reinforce the ‘other hand influencing matters and protecting the tau’ idea, but I would note that its possible the Tyranids could do weird shit like this to the warp too. Hell, the Shadow in the Warp has been known to make fear and anger grow among organic beings afflicted by it.

Page 121

He glowered at the slowly revolving holograph, his gaze moving from the pair of icons that represented the Oceanid and the Ajax, to the dark shadow beyond. It could only be a small, rogue planet, yet it appeared entirely impenetrable to the Oceanid's augurs. The body barely even registered with the ship's scanners, but its presence seemed to cast a dour shadow, even though it was invisible to the naked eye, entirely swallowed by the interstellar darkness of the Damocles Gulf.

Some sort of weird planetoid thing.

Page 130-131

The Imperial Guard trooper, for it was obvious the strange figures were from one of Gauge's regiments being transported on the Rosetta...
...
The vast, central cargo areas of the Rosetta had been turned over to a number of Imperial Guard units, amounting, so General Gauge had informed him, to something in the region of five thousand combatants and a similar number of support personnel.

Implies the size of one of the IG regiments in the DGC. Using this as a benchmark that means ~95,000 troops. Of course that depends on whether this is an infantry regiment, armour, mechanised, or a mixed bag. I imagine the armour and mechanised might be smaller than infantry.

Also the ‘similar number of support personnel’ means the Rosetta is carrying some 10,000, plus its own complement. not bad for a light cruiser that isn’t a dedicated troop transport.

It suggests also that the troop transports numbers I estimated were too much (some transported on cruisers.), but that those transports can carry far more than 10,000 troops (15-20K maybe?) So some ‘regiments’ are probably far larger.

Assuming each capital ship and the other two Arcadius ships are carrying an equal number of troops (5000 or so, plus 5K support) we’re talking at least 60K troops.

That would also mean 7K troop transports, which if we assume 7-10 thousand troops means 49-70K extra troops. This means 109-130 thousand troops.

Again its not a precise estimate, but as an order of magnitude benchmark, it works.

PAge 134-135

He withdraw his hand from his pocket, and opened it slowly. A small vial of clear liquid lay in his heavily scarred palm. The man in the enginarium had claimed that it was a potent analgesic, one that could reverse pain and transform it into something approaching pleasure.
...
Though each had lessened his outward scarring, they had in turn heaped upon him a concomitant pain deep within. At first he had taken standard pain killing drugs, then he had progressed to more potent metaopi-oids. Though he refused to fully acknowledge the fact, even to himself, he had developed a taste for the drugs, a taste far in excess of their medical efficacy.

As master of his vessel, not one of the medicae staff had dared refuse him access to the metaopioids. Yet, in time and with prolonged and ever-increasing use, the drugs' effects had reduced and the pain had slowly returned, this time far worse then ever before. He had been driven into the depths of his vessel, to the company of the lowest of the low amongst the pressganged murderers and rapists, to seek out a source of pain killing drugs. He had found one, discovering to his great distaste that the vast majority of the engine crew were addicted to the stuff.
...
The new substance, referred to by the crew who used it as ''d-sense'', had given back to Korvane some of the life he had enjoyed before. The pain went away each time he took the substance, and it did not even begin to return for days at a stretch. He hated it, yet, he knew, he needed the d-sense to function, for now at least.

And so it continues. Korvane again is sowing the seeds of fucking things up for the Arcadius, and indeed doing so under the Great Lucian’s nose. While I am so tempted to twit him for this and his great Rogue Trader senses not picking up on his own son’s drug addiction (because he is that clueless) it does kind of make sense - Korvane is trained to hide things, and he’s master of his own ship (different loyalties of the crew I suspect, at least in the short term.), and Lucian is.. a bit distracted. And they can’t exactly meet in person either.

But still like with Brielle, this is osmething that could have been handled a bit better, since this represents (basically) Korvane’s character development in the novel, and the stuff that comes before makes it very, very hard not to use this to make fun of the Arcadius in general and Lucian in particular. Although I’m trying.

I will say that compared to the last novel, things aren’t quite as fucked up...

Page 138

The flight deck was several hundred metres wide, its hard pan surface pitted and scarred by the passage of many small vessels over the centuries.

Size of the flight deck. We dont know where its oriented, sadly, so it may be broadside or head on. If it is parallel to the ship (facing fore or aft, or even down) we migth figure the Rosetta is at least 200-300m across, which would point again to a 1000-1.5 km starship.

Page 145

Well, I'm told we're only half a dozen astronomical units from a stellar body of some kind. I can only imagine…'

"How?" Korvane interrupted. "How did we come to exit the warp so near to such a body?"

Apparently, Korvane considers 'half a dozen' AU to be quite near to a stellar body as far as warp emergence distances are.. thats about 900 million km. OF course in the last novel they did a 2 AU entry so...

I wonder if entry/exits can differ in that respect..

Page 153

What effects, both physical and spiritual, those energies might be exerting upon the hundreds of thousands of crusaders none could tell.

The crusade forces comprise hundreds of thousands. This probably is not all military personal, I'd say more than half are nonmilitary or associated.

Page 153

The bay was so large that its ceiling was lost to darkness, and even the outer hull doors were shrouded in distant shadow, several hundred metres away. The hold was virtually empty, the goods that the Oceanid transported kept in the many secondary holds, or held in deeper storage in the stasis chambers. Lucian fully intended the hold to be entirely filled on the return however, whether with trade goods or with booty.

Size of the Oceanid's cargo bays. It also has stasis capacity.

Page 159

"the Imperium, as encountered by my people, appears to us fractured and disparate. It is spread across a wide area of space, so I am informed, yet each small group of worlds is almost entirely cut off from the greater community, or at least cut off from it for long stretches."

She nodded that he should continue, for his words were true, even if he appeared more than a little ignorant of the Imperium's size.

Tau view of the Imperium. Which is true.. sort of. It really depends on your location for one thing. The closet to terra (and the densest regions of population) the less likely to be 'cut off' you are. However, given the eastern fringes and much of Segmentum Ultima, it is hardly surprising the tau might get this impression.

Page 159

"You enjoy mastery of many technologies still unknown to us. Yet, you have little understanding of the elementary forces at work in the universe. Instead of seeking such understanding, you indulge in needless ceremony and superstition, believing the cosmos populated by creatures that, in fact, exist only in your nightmares."

Again sort of true. There is certainly a bunch of that in the AdMehc, but its not wholly that way or another. It's that 'variability' of humanity thing again - something I suspect the unifid tau Empire cannot understand. The tau are all very much about order, whereas humanity is fundamentally chaotic, but they do do some acutal science stuff, just with a magical element to it (due to the warp, no doubt.)

The bit about daemons is... quite appropriate and it just shows how naive the tau are. They don't believe daemons or chaos gods are real.. like we saw in Fire Warrior. That's.. a big problem.

It is kinda suprirsing and nice they actually admit there are things that the Imperium is still better at (technologically) than the tau are. Indeed the main advantage of the t au is their unity and standardization (at least when it comes to equipping and training tau troops.)


Page 159

"When you make contact with other races, you rarely open any form of dialogue with them. Instead, the human race sees enemies in every corner of the galaxy.'"

Pretty much true.

Page 160

"There exists among the ranks of humanity, however," Por'el went on, "those who do not share this view. Others such as I have established links with a number of planetary rulers, each of whom appeared quite content to have dealings with us, even though such a thing was proscribed by their own laws."

"Those rulers," Brielle interjected, "have been replaced."

"Of that I have no doubt," Por'el replied, "but the seed has been planted, for you are here, now, are you not?"

That is.. pretty cold. I mean think about it. They form these alliances with people, who end up being abandoned and killed by their original government for their betrayal.. but the tau are basically shrugging their shoulders, content that the initial contacts have been made and their doctrine will spread. Again its pretty cold, but it also makes alot of sense from the POV of the 'greater good'. The individual (even an Imperial Commander) is not really all that important in the greater scheme of things, so their loss (or even the losses of whole planets) may be regrttable, but ultimately unimportant so long as the doctrine spreads. This isn't 'evil' or 'nasty' or anything (like you might ascribe to human motivations) its more a matter of necessity. The fact it may be done with the best of intentions in mind is what makes it horrible.

Page 165

But this was not ship-to-ship combat. This was something that every spacefarer dreaded far more than the clean death afforded when one's body was spat into the cold void or incinerated by plasma bolts as powerful as suns.

POWERFUL AS SUNS. I can already feel the outrage at LITERAL INTERPRETATION. But again it's fairly open ended in much the same ways the one in Exeuction Hour, Dark Creed, or 13th Legion (or any similar source) has. This is more explicit than others, (referring to power) but it doesn't tell us what kind of ship's weapons, whether it ssingle bolts, a battery, or an entire broadside, nor does it say what kind of star. Again in isolation its not something too useful, but in context with a vast majority of other sources it helps to establish the overall framework.

Besides its not like a case for gigaton or TT firepower would rely SOLELY on quotes like these. Relying on cornerstone-type debates is madness

But to be fair another 'potential' inteprretation imght be that the weapon is as powerful as some sort of nuclear weapon, which could still suggest at least kt/MT range for a plasma bolt(s). Or even gigaton (space hulk nukes ahoy!)

Page 167

The weapon spat its payload of incandescent plasma straight into the creature's head, at point blank range.

The creature's head disintegrated as the plasma bolt passed through it to strike a conduit mounted overhead.

Assuming 400-1000 J per cubic cm to flay/incinerate we're talking hundreds of kj, possibly thousands.

Page 171

The creature was trapped on the loading deck for the forward torpedo tubes. There were no torpedoes in the area however, for the fortunes of the Arcadius clan had been so dire this last century as to preclude their replenishment.

He can afford guided macrocannon shells, but not torpedoes.

Page 172-174

The effect was immediate. The air in the chamber charged, the hairs on Lucian's body standing up, accompanied by a distinctly unpleasant sensation of something crawling over his body.
...

Peering gingerly through the porthole, he could make out only a small area of the bay, for the illumination was inactive, yet he caught an actinic flash to one side, followed an instant later by a great arcing bolt of energy that crossed the deck at the speed of light, grounding itself in the centre of the chamber in an explosive shower of sparks.

"Reactor bleed at optimum, my lord," the tech-priest announced, monitoring his dials intently. "Output shall remain constant until you order core flow resumed, but I advise against maintaining the output at the expense of primary systems."
..
Another flash, and another arc, and a great whining went up from beyond the bulkhead door. The conduits that would have charged a plasma torpedo were discharging their raw power into the chamber. Lucian could tell that the system was straining to maintain the output that was even now scouring the bay with lashing arcs of raw power.
...
"We cannot keep up the output indefinitely."
..
"Can you increase the core bleed?"
..
"I can, my lord, but to do so I must control the bleed manually."
...
He knew that entrusting the core reactor flow to the tech-priest was incredibly risky, for the function was normally controlled by a hundred different, triple redundant cogitators. He scarcely believed a single, human mind could perform such a task, but he knew that the tech-priest would not have made the suggestion were it not true. The servants of the mechanicus might be taciturn and unimaginative, but such traits were, in times such as these, a benefit.

They're basically trying to burn the daemon away by shooting huge amounts of electricity drawn from the reactor at it. Originally I guessed that 'charging' meant it was powering or charging the torpedo with plasma (explosive) from the reactor's own fuel supply, but now I suspect it means more like electronics and other systems. Charging some ost of battey before launch (that powers the electronics controlling the warhead, guidance systems, and engines) would make more sense, especially from the output standpoint. I'd have a hard time believing they were dumping megatons or gigatons of energy into that compartment

We also get indication of the automated systems controlling reactor output and power transfer, hinting at the true level of automation Imperial starships still require - at least for the vital systems. Not everything can be done by guys hauling on chains. Hell most of it probably can't.


PAge 174-175

Around it danced a cage of arcing power, crawling up and down its body. That body blackened and blistered before Lucian's eyes, the skin slowly vaporising even as Lucian looked on, horrified, but knowing he must witness the creature's death.
..
"It draws yet more power from the infernal planes."
...
The body it wore should have been vaporised in an instant as soon as the reactor bleed was turned upon it, yet somehow, it was keeping the body together.

The reactor output (That would feed into charging the torpedoes) is in the high megawatt/low gigawatt (at least) range, and yet the daemon can easily resist the vast majority of that power doing little or no harm - at least when it can tap directly into the warp like that.

It's also worthwhile noting that Lucian's torpedo bay is not getting blasted apart by the sheer amount of electrical energy being blasted out into that enviroment, either. That doesn't even factor in the output increases either!.

Page 176

"I am soulbound, my master," Karaldi whispered. "It cannot hurt me. Not the bit that counts, at least."
..
"The soulbinding, in which I received but a portion of the Emperor's infinite grace, warded me against the likes of this beast. Though it cost me my sight, I gained far more than I can tell you, my master.'"

The astropath explains soul binding. THat he's so confident that it will protect him is interesting, given how we've known astropaths to be taken/consumed (phyiscally and psychically) by warp entities even with the binding. It makes me wonder just how much of the strength of the soul binding might depend on the individual as much as the Emperor - their own psychic power, their faith, or perhaps both.

Page 183

An area of space entirely new to him was arrayed beyond the centimetres-thick armoured glass.

By ship standard,s thats a DAMN thin viewport (contrast with the Macharius)

Page 184-185

The region was dominated by vast gaseous nebulae, clouds of stellar matter dozens of light years across. The entire region was cast in the hazy blue light that emanated from deep within the formations. Even though they were many light years distant, Lucian could discern churning energies deep at the heart of each cloud. It was as if the very act of creation were being played out within the nebulae. Lucian felt something he had not experienced for many years, something akin to wonder.
..
The first part of Barn's report, concerning the Gulf, made for unsettling reading. If Lucian's experience had been traumatic, his Navigator's had been truly horrific. For long weeks, the Master Navigator had guided the Oceanid through the raging torrents of the warp, assailed all the while by forces the like of which none of his kind had ever encountered. The more Lucian read the report, the more respect he had for the man. Brau said that the Gulf was quite unlike any other place in the galaxy. It was as if the Gulf was some barrier or boundary placed, entirely deliberately, to keep intruders from penetrating the region in which the Tau Empire lay. Beyond it, amongst the blue nebulae, lay something even more incredible.

The blue clouds of the region were, according to Brau, not entirely natural in their origins. Even to the naked eye they churned with stellar forces, yet to Baru's third eye, that organ the Navigators uncovered only when traversing the tides of the warp, they boiled with forces both physical and spiritual, both natural and positively unnatural.

A description of the Damocles Gulf region. It is dozens of Ly across, possibly an indicator of how far the ship had to travel in a matter of weeks (hundreds or thousands of c.) Even more it tends to strongly reinforce that idea of 'outside interferenece' protecting the tau from the Imperium (or anyone with warp drive, like Orks.) and the idea that the tau's evolution as a race was directed at some greater, yet mysterious goal and to shape/facilitat etheir growth and dynamic crap and shit I guess.

Whethe this is the Eldar manipulation, or someone else, we don't know. I would say that the Eldar would make more sense, given the sort of psychic/warp manipulations this would require, as well as some of the connectons betwene tua and eldar (codex, novel, etc.)

Page 185

Baru's description of the region they had entered hinged on one word. It was, according to the veteran navigator, a ''young'' region, as if time was turned back or the fabric of space cleansed of the passing of aeons. It was as if the region was a place out of time, still existing in the pristine state that would once have applied to the entire galaxy. It was charged with potential, as if the void just waited upon some wondrous event, as if it in fact existed purely to facilitate that event.

Yes, even the region of space the Tau occpuy is FAR more dynamic than the Imperium's old, worn out and decaying space.

Page 194-195

The heading Korvane had prepared was scribed across the projection as the council watched, warp time differentials labelled at each waypoint. He's wasted no time, Lucian thought, seeing that the course led towards a system that Lucian would have chosen were he proposing the course of action, and not his son.
...
"You will need a strong recon element."
..
"I would not be averse to detaching a deep space reconnaissance wing to your son's command. I believe the 344th will suffice"

The Crusade forces are dispatching a 'deep space reconnaissance wing' to scout out a nearby tau system. Which It ake to mean tha tthe recon/scout ships are warp capable.

Page 197

The Tau shuttle touched down with a barely perceptible jolt. Brielle looked across the small passenger bay at Naal, who nodded back at her. She touched the clasp holding the acceleration harness across her body.
..
Brielle stood from the acceleration couch..

Tau shuttles don't seem to have acceleration compensation, or at least not fully fleged such. Whether this is because it does not need such, or they don't have it for such small craft we don't know. Given the tau's use of drones and similar (and some of the AG toys they gave to Chasmata - antigravity lighting, for example, and antigrav crates) it seems unlikely they wouldn't have the capability in some degree.

Page 197-199

"but don't forget, Brielle, that the tau do not mount grandiose ceremonies for the glorification of individuals. They may do so for the benefit of all, but this is not such an occasion"
...
"The tau are in, many ways a straightforward people, they shun affectation and pretence and are entirely selfless in the pursuit of the Greater Good.".
...
"But there are some things they entrust only to friends."
...
"no one is "in charge around here."
...
"The tau practice a form of collective government. It's complex, but you'll come to see that it works."
...
"Various individuals may attain preeminence, enjoying great influence for a stretch, but they always accede to others when appropriate. Therefore, no one individual has total control, and he who may do so best exercises his influence while he may."
..
"You'll come to realise, Brielle, that the tau display a distinct lack of ego. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, it all makes sense."

Naal's comments on the tau way of governing and their attitudes are pretty spot on, and it goes to explain some of the fundamental differences between human and tau. At its most basic, the tau (usually/generally) have no individual ego, or desire for glorification, ro such like that. As a society they are devoted to and focused on the collective approach, the 'Greater good.' That gives them a great deal of their sense of unity and cooperation and their ability to do things the Imperium cannot. The Imperium, however, is very much on ego and glorification and the individual. Which can have it sown benefits, sort of, but it also tends to feed alot of the conflict, misery, corruption, greed and other problems afflicting and holding back the Imperium. But to someone from an 'Imperial' (or American!) POV what the tau do probably does look quite horrific and unnatural and even 'evil' - its a very human (tribal) attitude to respond to or treat things that are different or unusual in that manner.

This also isn't to say the tau are all mindless and alike and have no personality (like 'nids.() Rather they are more like Orks or Space Marines.. they have personalities, but are shaped/conditioned by their enviroment and culture in such a way that is fundamentally alien and differnet from that of the vast bulk of humanity.) and likewise, their standard/ethics and goals can all differ, which leads to some of the more odd reactions (like forced sterilization being horrific. Which it sort of is, but this isn't a wholly bad thing either, esp from the tau POV. It means the tau will not be burdened with anything like an Imperial Hive world or face overpopulation problems, for one thing.)

That said the idea that 'no one' is in charge is pretty hilarious. Naal must not know about the Ethereals, or if he does he's keeping quiet for now, or he really does not grasp their impact/importance on tau society. That said I would note that the Ethereals are no more prone to ego than the rest of the tau, but they are clearly an example of how that 'equality' is not quite so universal as might be believed.

It also is a testament to tau optimism (or naivete) that they believe they can easily co-opt humanity into the Greater good and have then behave like tau. Good luck there, is all I can say.

Page 201-202

After a while, the walkways converged at a structure even taller than the rest. Brielle halted as it came into view, taking the opportunity to marvel in its construction. It must have been a thousand metres tall, and it rose in sweeping lines to a sail-like peak. Small clusters of what appeared to be sensor or communications gear were connected to its spine, and a great, gleaming spike pierced the sky at its very top, dancing blue lights chasing up and down its length.

Then, Brielle saw that small, floating machines were moving up and around the structure. She knew them straight away for the drones that the tau utilised at every level of their society, though these were far larger than the small utility drones she had witnessed onboard the tau vessel that had brought her to this world. The drones took the form of a flat, armoured disc, about a metre in diameter. Beneath the disc was a small sensor block, with its unblinking machine eye, and beside that, what was obviously a weapon of some sort. As she studied the drones, one detached itself from its orbit of the building, and approached her and Naal on a long, graceful arc through the air that brought it, hovering, before her.

...
She knew that the tau utilised highly developed machine intelligences, but to see one close up was something else entirely. The teachings of the Imperial Creed warned against such things, and those admonitions had been drilled into her from a very early age.

Tau sturctural engineering and drone workforce usages.

It's also a bit hilarious to see Brielle's reaction, given that the Imperial Creed's own hypocrisy (I mean fuck its not like cogitator sor servo skulls are THAT different, whatever Imperial bias suggests.)

Page 203-204

"you have arrived at Dal'yth not a moment too soon. Even now, the human fleet closes on this system."
...
So soon? Brielle had assumed the tau vessel on which she had crossed the Damocles Gulf would have arrived a long way ahead of the crusade, affording her some time to turn the situation to her advantage and find some way of averting the disaster that would ensue if Gurney's plan was enacted.

The DGC fleet and the tau made roughly the same time through the Gulf it seems, although the tau probably had far less of a rough time of it due to ether drives, vs warp drive.

This again highligths teh whole 'LUCKY TAU' thing, as well as the massive, massive defensive advantage this repreesnts. It makes it much harder (albeit not impossible) for anyone who relies on Warp Drive (Orks and humans especially) to get through the Gulf in anything like cohesion or speed, and the risk of losses is bound to be much greater. When you couple this with the region of space they are in (SEgmentum ultima, out on the fringe, where Capabilities and resources differ from what they re towards the Core systems) as well as the inevitable problems the astronomican faces (and its general weakness out on the Eastern fringe) it can explain the Imperium's dififculties in wiping out the tau - as amassing, deploying and sustaining a massive force in that region through the Gulf would be quite difficult. Doing so in the face of a Tyranid assault at the same time is probably even more problematic. The tau, of course, have no problems passing through so they can attack at will.

The tyranids are of course another story, as are the Dark Eldar, given the webway probably isnt as afflicted (same with necrons) and the 'Nids have access to non-warp FTL...

Page 209

It felt both liberating and frustrating to be in command, not of a mighty cruiser with thousands of crew, but of a scout wing of four vessels, each with only a few dozen crew.

The scout craft are rather small then for warp capable vessels.. probably not a whole lot larger than a STarhawk bomber or suchlike.

Page 209-210

Korvane felt an immediate change in the pitch of the scout vessel's drives as the pilot altered course, bringing the small ship's nose down towards the distant surface. Almost immediately, a series of small tremors passed through the vessel. Korvane looked to a pict-slate over the pilot's station, and saw from the readings scrolling across its blue screen that they had hit the outer edges of a very thin atmospheric envelope. A second series of shudders jolted the scout vessel, and Korvane checked that his harness was properly secured.
..
Now, he sat not aboard a might cruiser able to take fearsome punishment from other vessels, but in a tiny scouting vessel that could take none, relying instead upon stealth and guile to survive.

The relative fragility and the atmospheric ability of the scout craft tend to reinforce their 'small' craft sizes rather than being small capital ships


Page 211

Korvane was forced back into the acceleration couch as the gravitational forces at work on the vessel mounted. Even as he felt he might pass out, the pilot brought the vessel out of the dive..

They don't seem to have fully-compensating AG either.

Page 213-214

"'Four, belay that, five fast moving class fives, range… three kilometres and closing."
..
"I want a short burst transmission ready the instant we get clear." Even as he spoke, Korvane tapped his report into his command terminal, sealed it with his personal cipher and shunted it on to the comms operator's station.
..
"Contacts closing at seven fifty kilometres per hour!"

Tau contacts intercept.. upper limit on ewapons range and an estimate on speed. Also they're using comms to relay the information. does this mean they acutally didn't warp to another star system and are in the same system the fleet is in? Then why bother with all the stealth measures? A fleet dropping out of the warp is not exactly stealthy, even on the edge of the system!

Alternatley, perhaps the squadron was dropped off by some sort of carrier vessel of some type (not a full fledged carrier of course) and they proceeded insystem on their own

Page 214

An instant later, what was obviously a high velocity missile streaked past upon a billowing contrail, before veering off and disappearing from view.
..
Korvane looked to his tracking screen, and saw that the missile was indeed beginning a wide arc that would bring it back on to the scout vessel's tail.

Tau fighter craft (or whatever they are) are armed iwth air ot air missiles. And they have good tracking ability.

Page 218

The Blade of Woe, Admiral Jellaqua's four thousand year old Retribution-class battleship lay mere kilometres to the Oceanid's prow. Several kilometres long, the vessel was slab sided and sharp-prowed, and bristled with weapons turrets and sensor arrays.

The blade of Woe. It goes withouts aying that 'several kilmoetres long' will not possibly mean 2-3 km

Page 218-219

..the Niobe, an Overlord-class battlecruiser...
...
A pair of cruisers, the Gothic-class Lord Cedalion, and the Duchess Mclntyre...
...
The Lunar-class cruiser the Honour of Damlass, and her consort, the Dauntless-class cruiser Regent Lakshimbal...

..
Lucian knew that his stern was covered by the Centaur, a newly commissioned Lunar-class cruiser..

Plus the Rogue Trader flotilla, space marine vessels, and the 9 escort squadrons makes up the DGC fleet. Plus the Ajax, which I don't remember being clarified.

Page 222

Though they maintained an appropriate formality and discipline, he saw in the eyes of each a heartfelt respect and affection for the admiral, a genuine love of their master and commander. Such a thing was rare indeed in a Navy that relied as much on indentured or outright press-ganged labour as it did on the noble lines from which these officers were drawn..

Not so rare. Parol, Ravensburg, Quarren, RAth, or any Admiral who has served in trying times and needed to demand great things of his people could qualify. Alot of it depends on the view of the Imperial Navy as a whole and that varies. This tends to suggest that pressganging is rare, that the Navy prefers to rely on 'naval fammiles' which I suppose the indentured ones are - void born crews who are Navy borna nd bred and probably choose to serve and are proud of it, rather than conscripts. (Conscripts are what the Guard uses!)

Page 225

His only concern, which he had expressed to Jellaqua at the crusade's outset, was the fleet's comparative lack of attack craft. It could not be helped, the admiral had responded, explaining how the only carriers within three sectors were laid up for major refits, or otherwise engaged in long-range patrols.

DGC's lack of aircraft. A rather hefty drawback, all told.

Page 227

"receiving a signal from 103rd Squadron."

It took only a second for Lucian to locate 103rd on the holograph. The two Sword-class frigates were running seventy-five thousand kilometres ahead of the fleet's spear tip.
..
The screen showed the sensor returns gathered by the leading frigate of 103rd Squadron. Less than a thousand kilometres to the frigate's fore was a large, solid return that was all too familiar to Lucian.

Ranges and distances stuff. Sigh.

Page 231

The next hour felt like an impossible span of time to Lucian. He watched the holograph as the fleet closed on the tau station..

An hour to reach the station. To corss 75,000 km or so in that time means an average velocity of 20 km/s, although a one gee burn could trim off a fair bit of that in time I think.


Page 231-232

As the spear tip of the fleet passed the five hundred kilometre mark, Lucian saw the energy spike he had anticipated. He looked to the holograph, and spat a colourful blasphemy when he saw which of the fleet's vessels was to the fore.
..
Coming to the viewing port, Lucian watched as the distant speck of light that he knew to be the Nomad altered its course sharply to starboard. A second later, a brief, blue light flashed for an instant and was gone, its source invisible at this range.
..
Lucian braced himself against the bulkhead, though he knew that Oceanid was unlikely to be the target of the second shot.

A second wink of blue light appeared in the darkness up ahead. An instant later, a bright spark appeared as the ultra high velocity projectile struck its target.

Well, by the standards of these novels a 500 km engagement range is actually pretty good. Implied velocity of at least hundreds of km/s for projectile velocity.

Page 233

Lucian felt the gravity fluctuate as the vessel was subjected to the forces put into play by the change of heading. His head was forced back into the command throne for an instant, and he looked to station nine, one of the few manned by a servitor.

"Grav, I want those compensators online, or so help me I'll…"

Once again, grav systems going down, fluctuating, or just not up at all.

Page 234

..Lucian sought out the configurations he had observed in his previous encounters.

He did not find them. At his previous battles against the tau, he had faced huge, lumbering starships with modular bays underslung beneath a central spine. He had come to discern that these bays might be swapped out for weapons, cargo or carrier duties, but that was not what he was seeing here. Instead of the comparatively vulnerable configuration encounter before, these vessels were smaller, yet evidently intended to carry out a far more aggressive role in ship-to-ship combat. Instead of a single weapons battery mounted to the fore, these bore multiple batteries. Lucian's professional eye saw immediately how the interlocking field of fire of each battery might combine with devastating effect.

The tau have brought more effective warships to bear.

Page 235

Drive three had been a concern for several years, but had never failed him when actually needed. He had delayed an overhaul, knowing that the Arcadius could ill-afford such an extravagant expense, and had intended to attend to the matter after the crusade had sufficiently lined his pockets.

Bad luck. And the Oceanid is yet again far from a top of the line design or in best of shape.

Page 235

He knew from bitter experience that the hyper velocity projectile weapons utilised by such vessels would outrange anything a Dauntless carried.

Tau weapons outrange Imperial ships. apparently this means laser weapons too.

Page 235

He knew the ship's master would be channelling every available reserve into the shields, for he would not be able to return fire until the tau vessels were within range of his forward lance batteries.

More mention of power/energy reserves.

Page 236

An instant later, and the attack struck the Regent square across the frontal shield arc, unleashing a blinding explosion as the shields converted the attack to energy and bled it off into space.
...
This time, Lucian saw several of the tau vessel's weapons batteries open fire, and he realised that the first attack had been nothing more than a ranging shot. The Regent was struck a glancing blow across her armoured prow, and it was immediately evident that the shields had not absorbed the full force of the projectiles. A mighty wound was gauged along the starboard flank of the Regent's prow, raging fires bursting forth and roiling black clouds billowing out into space.

Light cruiser shields have trouble absorbing full tau barrage. Note the projectiles being 'converted' toe neergy, which if literally means matter energy conversion, while if less literally its converted to plasma by the shields.

Page 238

Blue flashes marked the discharge of its hyper velocity weapons, each propelling an indiscernibly small, but impossibly dense projectile across space. Accelerated to an unbelievable speed, the projectile penetrated the Regent's shields, unleashing a blinding storm of arc lightning.

Tau projectiles again

Page 241

All except the Oceanid's cogitator.

"Let's see how good you really are, Mister Ruuben!"
..
No sane man would attempt what he had just ordered.
..
The Oceanid was for the moment running with no form of guidance or regulation from the massive cogitator banks secreted in her heart. Lucian knew that she could not survive for long without them, and neither could Mister Ruuben control the helm in anything other than a cursory fashion.

The Oceanid, like all Imperial starships, needs computer assistance to successfully operate and cannot survive in battle without it


Page 241-242

The man appeared at least as much a machine as one of the servitors who had crewed Lucian's bridge until so recently, a cluster of data cables writhing around me back of his shaven head to interface directly with the Oceanid's cogitation matrix.
..
"I am communing with the custodians."

Lucian knew that Davriel referred to the… creatures that maintained the Oceanid's huge crystal datastacks. Each had once been a tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who had, upon transcending the mental frailties of the organic body into which he was born, merged his consciousness with the Omnissiah, shedding his physical form to attain apotheosis with the Machine God. What was left behind once the tech-priest had merged his knowledge and experience with that of all his predecessors was a soulless husk. The Machine Cult used them to tend such cogitators as controlled the functions of the Oceanid. Davriel's station communicated with them.

Cogitator custodians and the bridge officer in contact with them. Are they a kind of servitor? Does this mean the consciouness/spirits of the techpriests whose bodies they belonged to joined with the ship, or is that just a fancy way to say they died?

Page 243

He had no course data, and no holograph to consult..

No cogitators apparently means no sensor array either.

Page 243-244

"I don't expect miracles, but I want to pass that tau bastard at point blank. I'm going to make them hurt."
..
"How about two thousand?"
..
"Give me two thousand metres, Mister Ruuben, and we'll have them stone dead."
...
Less than eleven kilometres, he judged, give or take a couple of metres.

We're back to the stupendously.. short ranges again!

Page 243

"Sub systems reawakening, sir. I'm prioritising helm, fire control and shields."
..
"Helm function returning!"

Fire control and shields are computer controlled too, as well as helm (obviously)

Page 244

If he raised shields before restoring fire control, the Oceanid would survive anything the tau vessel might throw at her as she passed, but with the cogitators offline and unable to provide accurate fire control, that pass might be in vain. He could order a broadside without the aid of fire control, but even at two thousand metres, an impossibly close range at which to engage another vessel in ship-to-ship combat, he could not count on making his shots count. Unless…

"Mister Ruuben," Lucian said, "I need five hundred metres."

Dead God.. 500 m AGAIN. Also, fire control and shiuelds are computer controlled, and apparently they NEED that control for accurate fire... at 2 km. Bear in mind we're talking ships that travel at hundreds of metres (tops) and are multiple kms long.. *bangs head against desk repeatedly*

Page 247

At such short range, the impact came almost instantaneously, yet to Lucian's enormous relief the newly raised shields held, the incredible energy of the projectiles being translated into raging energies that roiled out into space, but which caused no harm to the Oceanid.

Projectiles transformed into 'energy' again.

Page 253

"As I said, the fourth body is a major world, as populous and as well defended as any sector capital. And it's not the only one. By the comms traffic we intercepted, this entire region is swarming with activity. Father, these tau are not some insignificant little race limited to one or two systems. There are millions of them, spread across the whole cluster. Whatever you faced here today is only the smallest part of their forces."

Implied scope of Tau forces. Being as big/populous/well defended tells us what a major Tau world would represent in Imperial terms, which probably means billions of people (but probably not more than 13 billion - recall Kill Team.)