Aside from a few oddities with things like plasma (explained later) there's tons to whet one's appetite and draw them on into the story. I almost regret having read this, as I couldn't wait to see the next one (and I bemoan having to wait even longer for the third installment.)
As an aside there are two interesting returning characters, which only serve to bolster the story. The first is Guardsmen Hawke from Storm of Iron - the only survivor of the Hydra Cordatus assault - and the Cadian 71st from the 40K comic 'Fire and Honour' which was written by McNeill. They are (naturally) my favorite characters
We of course also get Space Marines in the form of the Black Templars too, which is pretty cool because these guys are decently written. No Uriel Ventris, but they're better than Honsou by a mile.Unlike my previous works I won't be slugging this out all at once. Its a pretty huge update all told so I will probably break it up into chunks. Maybe 4-5, although I may post larger ones if my mood suits me.
Anyhow, here's the first update:
Page 13-14
Prelude to the book. Its intersting, if we take it literal, for anumber of ways. Its 'reactor' is implied to be a 'thousand caged stars' - which may have implications of power generation depending on how you chose to interpret it (it could be a thousand reactors, for example, each of some sort of stellar-scale power, although what kind of star is up for debate as always. I expect this to be contested of course...) And an implied crew of a million or so (although the breakdown is not specifid.)Great void-born city of metal and stone, marvel of wonders never to be known again. You live in the depths of space, your sheet steel skin cold and unyielding. You are a living thing, a creature whose bones are adamantium, whose molten heart is that of a thousand caged stars. Oil is your sweat and the devotion of a million souls your succour. Creatures of flesh and blood empower you from within. They work the myriad wonders that drive your organs, feed your hunger and hurl you through the trackless wilderness between the stars.
..
No grim ship of war are you, no lowly workhorse yoked to dull purpose.
You are Ark Mechanicus.
You are Speranza.
You are the bringer of hope in this hopeless age.
This is the Ark Mechanicus (Battleship scale, from BFG) Speranza, the core of this book. It is interesting becuase this is, by 40K standards, more of an ' upbeat' intro compared to the usual.. there's more emphasis on knowledge and exploration (more 'age of sail high adventure) than there is on superstition and ignorance. The mention of hope is only the icing on the cake, really, but its a nice prelude into the story itself and its atmosphere.
Page 14
This seems to be a throwback reference to much earlier fluff, involving the whole 'Men of Gold/men of Iron/Men of Stone' thing from 3rd edition and subsidariy fluff from that era (Ancient History by Andy Chambers, Dan Abnett's First and Only, etc.) What exactly the 'Men of Gold' were has long been up for conjecture (as well as the Men of Stone/Men of Iron) although robots/AI are the most common accepted definition of the last. Cyborgs (or proto-AdMech) may be a possible candidate for #2 (partly because of the bent towards technology, and partly by hints of being 'less than fully human' and less warp tasty in Ancinet History.) Whether the 'Men of Gold' were humanity itself from the Dark/Golden age of tech or a subset of humanity (some sort of 'enlightened race', heck maybe its the perpetuals!) is up for debate, although this novel's context seems to imply its Golden Age humanity.That which was once encoded in the very bones of the ancient Men of Gold has been lost, perhaps forever. But perhaps not. Much has been forgotten that will never again be remembered, and the hidden corners of this dying galaxy have secrets left to whisper. Those with eyes to see and the will to search may find scraps of what the titans who shaped the galaxy to their every desire left in the ruins of their doom
Page 15
Man I'm not even beginning the actual story and I like this book more. Graham McNeill established in Mechanicum that he can write fantastic AdMech characters, and this story promises more of that. It also demonstrates yet again that it is possible to adhere to certain key ideas in 40K without enslaving the story to silly absolutes. We have here the 'quest for knowledge' aspect of the AdMech played up as a hopeful, positive, defiant angle to play down the comparison with how fall humanity has fallen since its height, and the knowledge it has lost. Its the sort of interpretation that still allows for the spirit of 'superstition and ignorance' to exist in some facet, without really beating you over the head with it in a LOL SPACE FEUDALISM' way. I mean fuck, its not like modern humanity has exorcised itself of superstitions, myth, or general irrationality either - its simply a matter of degree (well tht and the fact that magic is real there.We plunged from a Golden Age of technology and reason into an Age of Darkness from which there is little hope of escape. Forget the promise of progress, they say. Forget the glories of the past. Cling to what little light remains and be satisfied with its feeble illumination.
The Adeptus Mechanicus rejects that paradigm.
We are crusaders in the darkness, ever seeking out that which will bring back the light of science and understanding. That is at the heart of what we have lost, the capacity to understand and question, the vision to determine what we do not know and seek out answers.
We have become enslaved by dogma, ritual and blind superstitions that place fetters on our ability to even know there are questions to be asked.
I will ask those questions.
I will not be enslaved.
I am Archmagos Lexell Kotov, and I will reclaim what was lost.
) Anyhow, this is what makes McNeill (and Abnett, and ADB, and Sandy Mitchell and other authors) Stand out amongst the Black Library crowd - they're willing to play aroudn with and experiment with the setting, even at the risk of annoying the fandom (which they do sometimes. Thats even more amusing really.)
Page 19
Sublight craft of various types carrying cargo to resupply orbiting fleets. The funny thing is that it implies the sublight ships are in fact much larger than the Renard, itself (we learn) 3 km long. So we get even SUBLIGHT craft (military and mercantile) vessels as big or bigger than that. Which is hilarious and awesome in many ways.Low-orbit traffic above Joura was lousy with ships jostling for space. Queues of lifter-boats, heavy-duty bulk tenders and system monitors held station in the wash of augur-fogging electromagnetics and engine flare from the heavier vessels as system pilots manoeuvred them into position for refuelling, re-arming and supply.
..
The Renard was a ship of respectable tonnage, but compared to the working vessels hauling their monstrously fat bodies between Joura and the fleets competing for docking space like squealing cudbear litters fighting for prime position at the teat, she was little more than an insignificant speck.
Page 19
Renard is the ship of a Rogue Trader who operates within the segmentum PAcificus, which seems to be the location of this story. As yet it isn't explicitly stated, but it is sure as hell hinted at in a great many ways... though Magos Pavelka called such labours a waste of her servitors’ resources, not even an adept of the Martian Priesthood would gainsay a rogue trader with a Letter of Marque stamped with Segmentum Pacificus accreditation.
Page 20
First officer and starship 'pilot' has an inertial harness. This may reflect the fact that some novels indicate that 40K inertial damping is not 100% perfect, and does not immediately kick in to counter gees (there can be a slight delay, esp with sudden manoeuvres) - which would make the harness sensible. Although not exactly stnadard issue, as plenty of starships we've seen have people walking about decks unrestrained... Emil Nader, the Renard’s first officer, seated in a contoured inertial-harness to Roboute’s left as he kept them within their assigned approach corridor with deft touches of manoeuvring jets. Pavelka could bring them in with an electromagnetic tether, but Roboute liked to give Emil a bit of freedom in the upper atmosphere.
..
All vessels ahead of us are tethered; as we will need to be before we enter the Speranza’s gravity envelope. There will be no error margin.
Also mention of EM tethers, which seem to be some 40K equivalent of tractor beams or forcefield towing cables. Largely seem designed for guidance, although how they exactly work (do they exert force on the object, or just 'link up' with the ship and help guide it in?) we don't know.
Page 21
The captain (and presumably others of the crew, or at least the command staff) are linked into the ship and have acess to visual (retinally displayed) data, as well as control via those MIUs one assumes....Roboute brought the current shipboard operations up onto the inner surfaces of his retina. A mass of gold-cored cables trailed from the base of his neck to the command throne upon which he sat, feeding him real-time data from the various active bridge stations. Trajectories, approach vectors, fuel consumption and closure speeds scrolled past, together with noospheric identity tags for the hundreds of vessels in orbit.
Everything was looking good, though a number of the engineering systems were running closer to capacity than he’d like. Roboute opened a vox-link to the engineering spaces, almost two kilometres behind him.
The bridge is also ~2 km from engineering.
Also hundreds of ships in orbit. Not as huge as the numbers implied by the Ravenor novels, but still impressive since we know those are all warp capable vessels in all probability.
PAge 21-22
First off, the 'enginseer' seems to be quite a character. Nominally it seems she's apart of the AdMech, but in alot of ways she doesn't behave like a typical techpriest.. reminding me more of the 'laity' they maintain.. or the enginseer/techpriest from the Cain novel 'Death or Glory', who was similarily unconventional/quirky. Indeed, the context implies she originates form the Guard, but received some 'training' in the mysteries of the Admech - sort of the Guard version of a techmarine. Is this something unique to certain elements of the Cadian military (pacts or something) or what?"Of course I am," came the voice of Kayrn Sylkwood, the Renard’s enginseer. "I perform six hundred and four system checks every minute."
...
Kayrn Sylkwood was ex-Guard, a veteran enginseer of the Cadian campaigns. She’d been mustered out of the regiment after taking one too many shots to the head on Nemesis Tessera during the last spasm of invasion from the Dreaded Eye.
Either way its something as fun and refreshing as the techpriest from the Cain novel was, and I approve wholeheartedly. Again McNeill plays with the setting's ideas in a manner that always can be interesting even if I don't always like them.
Also, our enginseer maintains 600+ system checks per minute, which is basically 10 per second,. which givesa n indicatio nfo her multitasking abilities (She's augmented to have reactions of a tenth of a second or so, which is not unheard of in 40K as I've noted before.)
Pgae 22
Again the size of the Rogue Tradre vessel.. a 3 km ship. Interestingly, it seems to be designed more as a 'chartist' type vessel, making local subsector/sectgor runs more akin to Tobias MAxilia's Essene. That's at least the idea I getDespite any slight running concerns about the engines, the Renard was a ship like no other Roboute had known. She was fast, nimble (as far as a three-kilometre vessel could be) and carried enough cargo to make running her profitable on local-system runs. Even the odd sector run wasn’t beyond her capabilities, but Roboute never liked stretching her that far. She hadn’t let him down in the fifteen years he’d captained her, and that kind of respect had to be earned.
: Funny enough the hsip is implied to have a navigator, which makes its implied short range rather odd. It SHOULD be capable of larger jumps, anyhow. Maybe it was a loaner? Page 22
Gotta love this. Promethium tender is a risk at 2000 km if she explodes. Atomic rockets notes that a 100-1000 kj at around a microsecond could cause impulsive shock damage to a normal hull (over a microsecond) At 2000 km this translates into a 2-20 gigaton yield (at least) for the explosion. A 3 km ship absorbs 350-3500 GJ at that range. The hilarious thing is... Even if we assume a 30 megaton (by FFG standards) ship and its 100% fuel, the 'tanker' would at least carry around 140-150 MJ of fuel per kg, which makes ti AT LEAST as good as hydrogen. If its more... well you get the idea. Of course as we know Promethium seems to be usable as everything from a chemical reactant to nuclear fuel of some kind so... its a matter of interpretation, as always."Promethium tender coming in below and behind us"
..
"She’s burning hotter than I’d like, and it’s closing on an elliptical course."
..
"How close is she?"
"Two thousand kilometres, but her apogee will put her within fifteen hundred if we don’t course correct."
..
"Two thousand, fifteen hundred, what does it matter? If she goes up, all we’ll see is the flash before we’re incinerated. Conserve fuel and stay on course."
Roboute wasn’t worried about the danger of collision – even the closest ships had gulfs of hundreds of kilometres between them – what worried the ship masters of each fleet was the threat of delay to their departure schedules.
If we play raound with the Essene example (ship able to put up with tens of megawatts per square metre) and say between 20-200 MW, the 'yield' goes up by a factor of 100-1000x easily, meaning at least tens or hundreds of gigajoules per kg, putting it more towards 'nuclear' type fuels (nuclear reactions, nuclear isomers, or something similar.)
Also hints of the distances separating ships typically.. hundreds or thousands of km isn't a concern. It does suggest fractions of lightspeed (at least close to a planet) aren't orders of the day. Probably more like single/double digit km/s.
Page 22
Well our Rogue Trader buddy at leats seems to be multi-sector, so his ship does have more range than your typical chartist/non Navigator vessel it implies. Also the Speranza, the Ark Mechanicus vessel of the book, is the biggest thing he's seen. Granted one Rogue Trader's view is hardly comprehensive, but it still suggests the fuckuge shisp we get from the HH era (phalanx scale, or the furious abyss, or the 60+ km mass conveyors) are comparatively rare. and probably mostly in AdMech or Inquisitor handsEven Roboute had to admit to being mightily impressed with this ship. He’d flown the length and breadth of more than one sector, but he had yet to see anything to match this for sheer scale and grandeur.
Page 24
hundreds of ships makign daily transits between either lwo orbit or ground or the fleets in high orbit, and the scale of the transits. Also mention of 'credit streams' indicating monetary stuffages.Hundreds of fleet tenders were making daily trips back and forth from the loading platforms, fat and groaning with weapons, ammo, food, fuel, spare uniforms, engine parts, machine parts, surgical supplies, millions of gallons of refined fluids for lubrication, drinking, anointing and who knew what else. It was hard, dangerous work, but it was work, and no man of Joura could afford to pass up a steady, reliable credit-stream.
Page 24
Gene bulked ogryn (genetic engineering? implants) and augmetics. One of tha spects of this novel is that augmetic quality is rated by 'generation' or degree. Abrehem we learn has 'tertiary', which I gather is third generation, and pretty good quality. Fifth generation here, by contrast, is low grade stuff (probably akin to the stuff you might see in the Guard, or underhives, or such.)With a gene-bulked and partially augmented ogryn nearby, it was a poor fight to pick. Abrehem had seen the creature take off a man’s head with the merest twist of its wrist...
...
The filters in his eyes read the scrubbed ident-codes on the augmetics applied to the ogryn’s arms and cranium.
Backstreet, fifth-gen knock-offs. Crude and cheap, but effective.
Page 26
Guard issue knife. We dont know if its a regular edge or monomol, but even as hyperbole it would suggest the knife is exceedingly sharp. This incidentally is Hawke from 'Storm of Iron' a more welcome and memorable character insert than Hawke ever was. Its impleid this novel takes place sometime around the 13th Black Crusade, perhaps before.. its not very clear here however.The man slapped Ismael’s hand away and before anyone could stop him, he had a knife at the overseer’s throat. It glinted dully in the low light. Abrehem scanned the serial number on the blade: 250371, Guard-issue, carbon steel and a killing edge that could cut deeper than a fusion-weld in the right hands.
Page 27
Seems to be dedicated to naval service, meaning they probably are Armsman or naval crews of some kind, despite seeming more akin to Arbites (including the vehicles.) It may be they are part of the navy, or the ymay be a cooperative venture between the Arbites (or local enforcers) and the navy to acquire crews for starships. They're well equipped in either case - carapace, automatic shotguns, and cyber-mastiffs. Helmets are full face with vox amplifiers.... metal shutter doors throughout the bar crashed open and a chorus of vox-amplified voices blared inside. Sodium-tinged light flooded through the doors and from his vantage point on the floor, Abrehem saw strobing spotlights mounted on the backs of giant vehicles. Black-armoured figures poured into the bar, clubbing men to the ground with vicious blows from shock mauls and the butts of automatic shotguns. Metal-skinned hounds on chain-leashes barked with augmetic anger, their polished steel fangs bared.
..
.. the sight of the impressment teams as they dragged men out to the rumbling confinement vehicles.
Page 27
40K version of 'less than lethal', which is still quite lethal given the denting of even thin metal. Also the carapace armour again. Note that the flashbang like visual (but not the audio) is dampened by Abrehem's 3rd gen augmetics.Concussion sirens brayed and blinding light strobed through the bar, all designed to stun and disorientate. Abrehem’s ocular cutoffs screened him from the worst of the light, but the horns were still deafening. Men encased in black leather and gleaming carapace armour with bronze, faceless helmets swept through the bar like soldiers clearing a room. Abrehem saw Ismael shot in the back by a soft round and slammed into a metal wall with the force of the impact.
..
..a flurry of soft rounds battered the container wall next to his head. From the deformation of the sheet steel, Abrehem didn’t reckon those ‘soft’ rounds were particularly soft.
PAge 28
Mesh AND carapace implied. That's protection.Mesh-gauntleted hands hauled him upright ..
Page 28
"exosomatic augmetics" near as I can tell from web searches, refers to sensory organs or stuff to otherwise pick up external stimuli (the skin, the senses, etc.) and 'bonded' means bound to AdMech service, at least in this context it would seem. We also learn more about the quality and 'generation'; of augmetics and their origin. Third generation and above are rare (and probably stolen) amongst 'common' workers - you need connections or status (as in ties to the AdMech, or perhaps workign for aristocracy) to get them. They can be (at least via the AdMech) inherited, though, and it seems they can be retained even in other service. Gotta love inheritance laws in the Imperium. MAybe the Augmetics are hard to recalibrate or reuse at that quality (or the kinds he has, at least.)His legs were still weak, but he was able to stand as a clicking bio-optic was shone in his eyes and overloaded his filters.
"Exosomatic augmetics," said a voice, surprise evident even muffled by a vox-grille.
"Tertiary grade," said another. "We can pull a full bio-ident and service history off them."
"Got it. Loader-technician Abrehem Locke, assigned to Lifter Rig Savickas."
"A lifter-tech with tertiary grade augmetics? Got to be black market."
"Or stolen."
"They’re not stolen," gasped Abrehem as his filters recalibrated. Three men in glossy black armour stood before him. Two held him upright. Another consulted a data-slate. "They were my father’s."
"He was bonded?"
We also learn that Gen-3 augmetics are perhps some of the most ready form of id available, and that data can be easily retrieved via dataslate. Whether downloaded remotely, or carried within the slate itself (which must mean millions or even billions of names and data files) we don't know, but its impressive either way.
Page 29
McNeill like Abnett keeps to 40K naval traditions in some ways, in this case shovelling fuel"We’ve been collared and we’re on our way to the bowels of a starship to shovel fuel, haul ammunition crates or some other shitty detail until we’re dead or crippled."
Like I said, playing around with the setting without totally remaining fixated on silly and boring absolutes is the best way to handle a universe like 40K, and McNeill is well aware of that (even if some fans aren't.) Page 31
Destination of the current Explorator fleet. Again it implies they're in Segmentum Pacificus, but its not flat out stated, so there's room to interpret. The Halo Scar is in the southern part of Segmentum PAcificus, which is supposedly close to where they are.A pair of intricate four-dimensional maps of the southern reaches of Segmentum Pacificus hung suspended above the hololith projector. The Renard’s crew quarters did not possess such technology, so Magos Cartographae Vitali Tychon had brought one from his observatory on Quatria.
..
..amid the shimmering representation of the southern stars, a blighted, ugly wound burned at the edge of known space like a raw lasburn.
The Halo Scar, a benighted region of hostile space that swallowed ships and defeated every attempt to penetrate its void-dark emptiness.
Also portable hololith projectors.
Page 31
Processing speed of system data by Magos via noospherics. There is LOTS of noospherics in this novel. And haptics. and all that fun stuff.Noospheric tags flickered and died like sparks as Tychon’s multiple eyes scrolled through a hundred star systems a second.
Page 32
Our character here is a AdMech, but a astronomer of sorts. galactic cartography. and the Halo Scar is an oddity in that the region is fucked up for some reason, with stars 'burning' through hundreds of thousands of years of life in mere centuries (500 to be exact.)He knew every speck of light and every hazed nebula on the first map, for he had compiled it himself, a little over five centuries ago.
..
Yet to Tychon the second map might as well have represented the mutant wolf stars that leered in the tortured space around the Maelstrom. The second map’s structure was an agglomeration of thousands upon thousands of compiled celestial measurements from all across the segmentum, crude by comparison to the subtleties of his own measurements, but sufficiently accurate to cause him concern.
Clicking mechanical fingers, ten on each hand, spun the globe of stars and systems, zooming in with haptic familiarity. Tychon read the various wavelength spectra, pulse intervals and radiation outputs of stars that had aged hundreds of thousands of years, in celestial terms, overnight.
Also 10 haptic mechanical fingers on each hand for manipulating data, which may help expalin the enhanced informational capabilities. It's also interesting that he has collated (acquired) and is analyzing a segmentum's worth of data - thousands (more likely hundreds of thousands or more) stars being analyzed and recorded.
Page 32
Vat grown organs again. Cloning exists in some form, to limited degrees, at least of bodies (for servitors and the like) and replacement parts (in som cases.) although full out replicae is another matter (as JAmes Swallow's stuff implies, although 'Red and Black' indicates that in recent years this may have changed somewhat.)Though his vocal chords had long since atrophied, Linya had insisted he replace them with vat-grown replacements.
Page 33
Both Linya and Vitali Tychon are characters who again echo the Mechanicus sentiment McNeill built up in Mechanicum and continues here, as well as his willingmess to play around with the setting (yet again. You coudl do a drinking game to my mentioning this.) I already like them for sheer quirkiness factor and the fact they blatantly stand out amongst the more conservative AdMech withotu being mad scientist Radical lunatics. It shows the wide diversity of thought (and politicking) that rules the AdMech the same way it rules the Imperium, and that variability is both their greatest weakness and the source of their strentgh (again a factor true of much of the Imperium.)A great deal of Linya’s internal biological architecture had been upgraded over the years, but she stubbornly clung to her original human form and the archaic ways of her forebears.
..
Linya’s refusal to follow convention was a source of irritation to her fellow tech-priests, and a source of great pleasure to Vitali.
Page 33
Again the Halo scar represents the same sort of accelerated stellar acvitivty mentione before.. orders of magnitude faster than it should be."Yes, stellar geography is an inconstant thing, but the changes you and I have both seen should have taken hundreds of thousands of years at least, not a few centuries."
Page 34
More on AdMech politics and a bit of background for the story. Its basically a 'high adventure/expeditionary' thing, more akin to a rogue trader than a conventional techpriest. Of course, Explorators are NOT conventional, but its nice to know that poltiical power and resources matter even to the 'logical' admech."The archmagos himself requested my presence."
"Over the objections of the Martian Conclave."
..
He didn’t know why Lexell Kotov had exercised his precious veto, for the archmagos was not known as an adept given to gestures of emotional indulgence.
..
"Perhaps the loss of his forge world fiefs has granted Kotov a measure of humility"
..
"His forge worlds were wiped out and even you must have heard the rumours about the petitions being made to the Fabricator General calling for Kotov’s Martian holdings to be seized. He knows he can’t get any of the more powerful magi to support him, and he needs a great success to re-establish his power base on Mars. Leading this expedition in search of Telok’s fleet is Kotov’s last chance to salvage his reputation. It’s his only hope of staving off the threats to his remaining forges."
Archmagos seem to be one of the high-tier players in the Imperium's (and AdMech's) politics, implying they operate across whole segmentae and on Mars (and perhaps Terra) itself. And capable of wielding considerable power in the 'conclave' if we go by the mention of veto. Apparnetly despite being political and having a council running things, they are still largely independent of one another and their authority (At least the Archmagos are.)
We also learn that Archmagos (at least) hold the political and material power.. owning territory (whole forge worlds it seems) which are also tied to that power. Depending on how many Archmagos there are, how they are distributed (and whether or not there are unaligned forges) this could result in quite a bit of AdMech owned territory.
Page 35
Magos with both great hearing AND a sense of humor. useful traits. Useful detection ability."How did you know it was me?"
"Stride length, weight to decibel ratio of your footfalls," answered Vitali. "Not to mention that irritating tune you insist on whistling as you walk."
Page 35
Navy vessels in high orbit, but far enough away (thousands or tens of thousands fo km away) to be little more than dots. Also mass conveyors for hauling the Guard troops, much bigger than cruisers.Roboute watched the Navy battleships cruising serenely at high orbit, little more than bright moving dots that winked and gleamed in the light of the distant sun. More aggressive cruisers wove patrol circuits around bloated mass-conveyors ready to transport the freshly-raised Guard regiments from the world below to the ever-expanding crusade in the Pergamus Sector.
Page 35
The Ark Mechanicus is vastly bigger than the mass conveyors. Which could mean 10-12 km (or more) by FFG terms, whereas if we go by A Thousand Sons, those could be in excess of 60 km, meaning the Speranza is something akin to the Furious Abyss classes.The scale of the mass-conveyors was extraordinary, vast leviathans whose length and beam were impossible to comprehend as being able to move, let alone traverse the immense gulfs of space between star systems. Yet even they were overwhelmed by the gargantuan scale of the Speranza.
PAge 35
Tithe massings in Ultramar are more extensive. Interestingly, this suggests Ultramar unofficially (or officially) has ties or controls more than just 8 systems, many times that number in fact. And also larger numbers of ships amassing in such 'conjunctions' thousands, probably."You should see the conjunctions of Ultramar, those are gatherings like no other. Imagine a dozen worlds contributing to a muster. There’s so many ships in orbit that you could strap on an environment suit and stroll around the orbital equator without having to void walk, you’d just step from hull to hull."
Page 36
More on the Speranza.. its implied to be 'continent' scale and 'planetoid' which echoes back the hugetastic sizes in the HH novels. What 'size' means is up for debate (nevermind how big a continent or planetoid) but it can bew huge mass even as an apprxoimate.Roboute had heard of the vessels known as Ark Mechanicus, but had dismissed tales of their continent-sized cityscapes and planetoid bulk as exaggerations, embellished legends or outright lies.
..
A passing battleship that Roboute recognised as a Dominator-class vessel sailed below the Speranza, and its length was more than eclipsed by the beam of the Ark Mechanicus.
..
Function, not form or glorification, was the guiding light of the ancient Mechanicus shipwrights. The colossal vessel had little symmetry...
More concrete is the fact that the length of a Dominator class 'battleship' is far shorter than the width of the Speranza. If 'battleship' is figurative and its a dominator class cruiser, we might figure 5 km long, which means that the Dominator's beam is considerably more than 5 km (6 km?) If we figure a 5:1 length to width ratio, that means the ship is maybe at least 25-30 km long, at a minimum. 'Dominator' class battleships were from Space Fleet, and likened to Emperor class battleships. WE might infer, thus, that it coudl be anywhere from 6-10+ km long, at least. That would mean that the Speranza could be 30-50+ km long, and even then that's a minimum. Either way its at least many tens of km long and many kilometres across at least.
Also the Admech favor function over form.
Page 36
The Speranza is basically in most respects a mobile forge (world). Labs and reesarch facilities, industry and mining, etc. Engines mass as much as most starships (single double digit megatons by FFG stats) and multi km wide 'individual' void shields.The Speranza was all infrastructure and industry, a hive’s worth of manufactories, refineries, crackling power plants and kilometre upon kilometre of laboratories, testing ranges, chemical vats and gene-bays arranged in as efficient a way as the ancient plans for its construction had allowed. Its engines were larger than most starships’ full mass, its individual void generators and Geller arrays large enough to shroud a frigate by themselves.
Page 37
Assuming 2 days, 12 hours walking each day, and a 1/3 to 1/2 metre per second pace, we're talking between 30-40 km for the ship at least, although that does assume straight line (and its unlikely) Still it would suggest (roughly) the ship is tens of km long again."It’ll take us days to get from the embarkation deck to the bridge."
"Perhaps they have internal teleporters," suggested Roboute.
"Don’t joke,’ said Adara.
"I’m not," said Roboute. "Seriously, I’m not. How else would anyone get about a vessel that size?"
Also mention of internal teleporters, which is suggestive that such tech is unusual, but not unheard of on starships (Hearkening back to BFG eras of teleporters on starships.)
Page 37
The Rogue Trader's starship."The Renard’s a classic Triplex-Phall 99 Intrepid class, with Konor-sanctioned upgrades to her shield arrays. "
PAge 37
Titan transports. Implied to be huge but we can't say how big they are, since the Speranza is hardly the best benchmark (everything around Joura is tiny compared to it.)..pointing to a number of high-sided craft bathed in the light of the Jouran moon, ungainly vessels shaped like space-faring Capitol Imperialis. They rose into a cavernous hold on one of the rear embarkation blisters, and though each was surely enormous, even they were dwarfed by the Speranza.
Page 37
Starship pilot cognitive arrays. Seems that many members of the Rogue Trader's ship crew are augmetically enhanced in one way or another, and cognition enhancement probably helps in piloting and processing data...massaging the side of his head where the binaric screeching had overloaded a number of his implanted cognitive arrays.
Page 38
Honestly, while the ship is huge.. I'm not sure its huge enough to generate a natural gratiy field that mucks about with starships. Likely its an indicator of the size/power of the grav plates of the ship (Which we know can extend some distance from the ship)Roboute was about to answer when the hull shook and a groaning rumble travelled the length of Renard’s structure as they passed into the graviton envelope of the Ark Mechanicus. So colossal was the Speranza’s mass and density that it created a distorted gravity field equivalent to that of an unstable moon. To fly through such volatile space without an electromagnetic tether would be highly dangerous, though that hadn’t stopped Emil from wanting to try.
Roboute watched the cavernous hold of the Speranza growing wider with every passing second as they juddered through the graviton interference. His heart rate was increasing with every kilometre they travelled, pulled in like struggling prey caught on a lure.
Also mention of EM tethers again.
Page 41
Th bonded servants are treated/fed better compared to other novels (the nutrient paste has flavour for one thing, and they get shots for another. Contrast this with Relentless and its 'drugged breadbowl porridge') also subdermal implants for owneship. Indentured servitude seems to be teh accepted portrayal of slavery in the Imperium - whislt release is certainly possible (once debt is paid) it is vague/manipulated enough to ensure virtual servitude, somethign that has been historically exploited throughout history in many ways.Shipped with unseemly haste from one hard metal box to another, fed syrupy sugar-rich nutrient paste and forcibly injected with anti-ague shots, their lives had become long stretches of frustration followed by sharp bouts of terrifying activity.
Each collared individual was branded with a sub-dermal fealty identifier, which, according to the booming pronouncements that brayed regularly from the vox-grilles high on the containment facility’s steel walls, marked them as indentured bondsmen of Archmagos Lexell Kotov, impressed to serve aboard the Speranza until such time as their debt to the Imperium was repaid.
"That means never," reflected Hawke sourly when Abrehem asked what that meant.
Page 43
The third-gen augmetics again can read the noosphere, which is quite useful here.Eventually they’d been loaded into the berth of a rumbling craft, and noospheric tags drifting up through the indentured men’s containers like coloured smoke told Abrehem they were aboard a sub-orbital trans-lifter designated Joura XV/UM33. Bulk carriers designed to go up and down on a fixed path, such craft were monstrously inefficient to run and prone to numerous delays if the pilot missed his narrow approach window.
Also sub orbital lifters. I imgine the 'fixed path' and 'approach windows' reflect the lower end tier ( a more 'hard sci fi') type of starship - chem engines, importance of orbital mechanics and limited delta-vee, etc. Probably not torch ships, in other words. I actually like that really, because it blends alot of 'styles' of fiction and applies them in interesting ways, as well as maintaining that 'variable tech base' theme of 40K.
Page 43
The tertiary augmetics mentioned before are apparently VERY subtle ones, implanted benath the surface and only visible if deliberatley shown.Leaning in, Abrehem tapped his cheek just below his eye and pulled the skin down a fraction, exposing the steel rim of his augmetic eye.
Page 45
Skitarii. Not sure if they just have EM/shock guns, or if its some weird death ray hellgun weapon. Also note the face mounted targeting augmetics.Awaiting them at the base of the crew ramp was a detachment of dangerous looking men in vitreous black armour with heavy-gauge rifles held across their broad chests. Coiling power lines linked the tesla-chambers of their weapons with heavy backpacks that thrummed with electrical power, and each warrior’s face was an impassive mix of square jaws, uncaring eyes and plastek implants feeding them tactical information. Each breastplate was machine-stamped with the image of a skull and lightning bolt. A clan emblem or guild symbol?
..
He marched towards the magos, and his practised eye caught the skitarii warriors tensing, their targeting augmetics following his every movement.
Page 45
The opposite of gene-bulking. Basically the AdMech can genetically manipulate the sizes/heights of living beings to suit its purposes. Whether this is just with people it grows or it can be done to anyone we dont know, but the ogryn suggests at least the latter.A number of gene-dwarfed lackeys swathed in vulcanised rubber smocks and red-tinted goggles attended to the pulsing tubes that distributed the fluid around his system.
Page 45
Which seems likely to suggest high anchor and high orbit are the same thing, thus 'anchor' refers to orbit (or rather position at a particular orbit)"Situational update: Archmagos Kotov was detained by important fleet matters pertaining to our imminent break from high anchor"
Page 48
More on Skitarii origins. These are less feral, and originate from the Guard (only with more enhancements.) Implied to be only topped by Space Marines.They’d all heard the stories of the mortal footsoldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus, former Guardsmen enhanced with all manner of implants, both physical and mental, to render them into remorseless killers and zealous protectors of the holy artefacts of their tech-priest masters. Little better than feral wildmen, they were said to decorate their armour with the skin of those they had slain and collect trophy racks of enemy warriors’ skulls.
..
They looked like pitiless, highly disciplined warriors against whom only a Space Marine might hope to prevail. Arranged in ordered ranks like robots, there was very little of these warriors that could be described as feral.
PAge 49
A little (amusing) speech and response, from Hawke. Also we learn that the Speranza's engines burn 'hotter than stars', suggesting a temp of millions of degrees."Every one of you is now bonded to the Priesthood of Mars and your service will allow the great machines of this vessel to function. By your exertions will the great engines burn hotter than stars. By your blood will the ship’s wheels and gears be greased. By the strength in your bones will the mighty pistons empower its great heart and its fists of light. Your lives now serve the Omnissiah."
"As far as inspiring speeches go, I’ve heard better," said Hawke...
Page 50
Secutor onboard ship and its implied capabilities and height. Metre taller than Hawke, too, suggesting he's taller than many marines at that.Augmented with mechanical prosthetics, muscle enhancers and numerous weapon implants, the warrior was as hulking as the Space Marines were said to be. He carried a long polearm, its top surmounted by a serrated blade and its base fitted with a clawed energy pod the purpose of which eluded Abrehem, but which was no doubt intended to cause harm.
..
This was no skitarii chieftain, this was a tech-priest, but one unlike any Abrehem had seen before.
..
Abrehem recognised high-end implants, sophisticated targeting mechanisms, threat analysers and combat vector-metrics. He’d only ever heard of quality like that on high-ranking Mechanicus adepts.
The man’s head twitched in Abrehem’s direction, no doubt reading the passive emanations of his own augmetics.
..
.. the warrior-magos leaned down over Hawke, easily a metre taller than him. His lip curled in a sneer as he read his biometric data from the fealty brand.
..
"I am Dahan, Secutor of the Skitarii Guilds aboard the Speranza."
Page 50
Implying there are maybe a Thousand Skitarii troops on board. Which seems rather small, or this may just be the Secutor's own contingent."I destroy troublemakers like you without effort, and I have a thousand men who would happily do it for me.
Page 53
The Cadian 71st, a Cadian regiment depicted in the 40K comic 'Fire and Honour' and written by Graham McNeill (with events in the novel alluded to here.) Seems to be an armoured formation but its nature and composition is still pretty vague, but it has ten companies, which suggests a couple thousand men possibly. Plus 100 vehicles of unknown type (so far.)..Captain Blayne Hawkins watched the loading operations of the 71st Cadian (detached formation) with exasperation. His soldiers had transferred from warzone to warzone often enough that the movement of an entire regiment was something the support corps could usually manage with a degree of finesse. Moving ten companies should have been child’s play.
..
Nearly a hundred armoured vehicles were snarled in the embarkation deck,..
Page 54
Size of the Speranza again.He was used to the scale of Navy bulk handlers, but the Speranza was many times greater than any vessel he or his men had berthed in.
Page 54
Meaning its probably DAoT grade. Older is better.This ship was old, older than the ships of the Navy, which had already sailed for thousands of years. Colonel Anders had hinted that the vessel’s keel had been laid down before the ancient crusade to reunite the fragmented worlds of Men, but where he’d learned that particular nugget, he hadn’t elaborated.
Page 54-55
Hints of the Cadian 71st composition. Hellhounds, Russes of various types (including a vague 'destroyer' type, with sponsons) Salamanders, and Chimeras.Hawkins rose to his full height as Rae appeared from behind an idling Chimera,...
...
Hawkins swore, carefully negotiating the narrow paths between trapped Leman Russ battle tanks, idling Salamanders and the regiment’s signature Hellhound tanks.
..
He ducked under the sponson mount of Kasr’s Fist, a Leman Russ Destroyer with numerous kill markings etched into its pockmarked hull. Still painted in the urban camouflage of Baktar III’s ruined industrial wastelands, its rightmost lascannon was wedged tightly against the hull of Creed’s Pride and a number of the rivets holding it in place had buckled against the pressure.
Also lascannon sponson and rivets.
Page 55
Whether this is unique to Cadians or IG standard we dont know, but it probably is useful.As a major, Callins was technically Hawkins’s superior, but Cadian fighting ranks often assumed seniority while on active service.
Page 56
Inertial compensation. Its probably important in that loaded properly, the stuff inside the ship moves around less, and thus the compensators need to exert less force to keep it in place."A Mechanicus vessel has to be loaded in a specific mass-distribution pattern to ensure optimal inertial compensation efficiency."
Page 56
Cadian practice vs AdMech 'efficiency'."But if you load our heavies on first, it’s going to slow our disembarkation. The heavies go in last so the big guns come out first. Basic rule of warfare, that is"
Page 57
Which suggests the Cadian 71st Regimental composition is alot more varied and 'combined arms' than typically implied - tank, flamer, and infantry components as well as s upport elements."You have my assurance that you will have the full co-operation of every Cadian footslogger, tanker, flame-whip and ditch-digger under my command in all matters."
Page 57
Cadian 71st Vehicles.Hellhounds, Leman Russ, Sentinels and a host of other vehicles roared past on their way to their assigned berths.
Page 62
Black Sword. Given how heavy chainswrods and other weapons have been implied to be, we're probably talking tens of kilograms easily for the sword.Varda drew the sword, its eternally sharp blade utterly black and etched along its length with filigreed lettering in the curling gothic script of the Imperium. Its blade was long and heavy beyond the means of any mortal soldier to bear, the handle long enough to allow it to be wielded by one or two hands.
Page 62
Mag levs need inertial compnesation to protect occupants, suggesting accels in excess of 10+ gees, possibly tens or hundred of gees. This again als reinforces the idea that this ship is truly fuckhuge.The mag-lev was a frictionless transit system that ran a convoluted circuit around the interior spaces of the Speranza like a network of blood vessels around a living being. Silvered linear induction rails sparked with e-mag pulses, the car running through the spaces between bulkheads at dizzying speeds that made Roboute’s heart race. Only an inertial dampening field within the compartment kept them from being crushed by the awesome g-force.
Page 63
The Speranza has internal and external teleporters, echoing my previous sentiments."The Speranza is fitted with numerous teleport chambers" said Blaylock. "Intended for both external and internal use, though to use them to travel within the bounds of the ship is considered wasteful and only ever employed in emergencies."
Page 63
Speranza's interior and capabilities. The capacitors are interesting, as it implies considerable long-term storage capability. Assuming a million souls and given the implications here we could figure several gigawatts of 'use' average. which works out to several petajoules total storage. Not bad for capacitors, especially as a backup measure.They’d already passed fog-belching refineries, chemical silos, flame-lit Machine temples, skitarii barracks, laboratory decks, training arenas, vast power plants with skyscraper-sized generators that spat coils of azure lightning, and building-sized structures that Magos Blaylock informed them were voltaic capacitors capable of running the vessel’s mechanical functions for a month.
Page 63
More MEchanicus miracles. Hab block (hundreds of metres long) construction engines that can build cities (individually!) and level hives in half tha ttime. Solar collectors (more backup power.)A towering vehicle hangar was filled with numerous gargantuan cathedrals of industry mounted on track units the size of hab-blocks, construction engines that could raise a city in under a day and demolition machinery capable of levelling a moderately-sized hive in half that. Folded solar collectors filled bay after bay, concertinaed like corrugated fields of black glass entwined with intricate gear mechanisms and looping arcs of insulated power relays.
One hangar was so vast it took them several seconds to traverse its length, but in that time, Roboute and his crew caught a glimpse of the mightiest war-engines of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Page 63
Warlord capabilities, including the typical 'waste cities' bit.One engine with squared shoulders and legs like hab-towers – a Warlord – dwarfed the others, the armoured segments of its grey and gold carapace shifting like time-lapsed continental plates as it took thunderous steps towards its transit cradle. Such a machine could conquer worlds single-handedly, it could lay waste to cities and entire armies.
Page 64
metres-thck bulkheads.The Titans were soon lost to sight as the mag-lev passed through a metres-thick bulkhead..
Page 64
The 71st Cadian again. This time it has superheavies and AFVs (plural) as well as tanks. Very combined arms.An embarkation deck swarmed with armoured vehicles, caught in what looked like an almighty snarl-up. Super-heavies were locked in with main battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles and lurching walkers that stopped and started as space opened up for them to move.
Page 65
Heh. Cadians are ranked as highly as Titans by this"Cadians, eh?" said Adara with an appreciative nod. "We’re travelling in esteemed company."
"Titans? Cadians? Makes me wonder what this Kotov is expecting to find beyond the Halo Scar,"
Page 65-66
Noospherics used in starships as a means of conveying identity and information, but also part of 'runnign silent'"Their vessel, a modified rapid strike cruiser, designed for smaller expeditionary forces."
..
"The Black Templars have chosen to keep their vessel noospherically dark"
Page 67
A 'bigger' rhino. This is interesting because its indicative of a vehicle style/template/pattern, but built to larger dimensions. Given how variable some dimensions can be (such as, oh, titans) this could be a useful indicator of why. Also explain how baneblades go from 1000 tons to just 300 tonsThe third was a bulky armoured vehicle based on the ubiquitous Rhino chassis, but modified to be larger and bristing with weapon mounts, strange antennae and numerous blister pods of unknown function. The augmented Rhino’s hull was emblazoned with the same skull-and-lightning-bolt symbol that was stamped onto the skitarii’s breastplates.
Page 68
The Rogue Trader captain and his first mate can read the noosphere, but only with the assistance of the starship's systems.Pavelka shot him a puzzled glance, before remembering that neither Roboute nor Emil could discern noospheric data streams when disconnected from the Renard’s data engines.
Page 68
AdMech 'disciplines' black hole chemistry, 'monomolecular' engineering are interesting, as well as the biomechanical cognisance (cogitators?) in a quantitative sense but in another.. it really plays up that more positive 'quest for knowledge' angle so prevalent in this book. We're not beaten over the head with the joke 'LOL TECHPRIESTS R IGNORANTZ' stuff to the exclusion of all else.. they're being shown as the guardians of lost and even dangerous technologies, which they try to recover for their faith and for humanity. It's much more interesting and powerful than unintentinoally hilarious grimdark."The air is alive with knowledge," she said. "It’s all around us, streams of invention and cascades of sacred algebraic construction. History, quantum biology, galactic physics, black hole chemistry, monomolecular engineering, fractal algorithms, bio-mechanical cognisance... You could spend a dozen lifetimes and you’d only ever know a fraction of what’s contained here."
Page 70
Size of the logistics force for Titans. Five titans, in this case means thousands of people and hundreds of people.Thousands of chanting tech-priests and robed acolytes surrounded her, together with enormous fuel tenders, ammunition haulers and the hundreds of vehicles required to keep the God-Machines in the field.
Page 70
Interesting because it suggests that, at least in sufficient numbers, even infantry can be a threat to titans. We know conventional ground vehicles in sufficient numbers (company or regiment size) can threaten a Titan if they get under the shields, and presumably the same for infantry (one example might even be Dark Apostle.) It might not be cost effective, but it can be done.Despise infantry if you must. Crush them underfoot, by all means. But do not ignore them. Battlefields are littered with the wreckage of Titans whose crews ignored infantry.
Luth knew from bitter experience how easy it was to forget that these scurrying creatures could hurt him. His armoured pelt still bore the scars of the acids, bilious venoms and digestive juices of the tyranid swarms that had almost brought him to ruin amid the night-shrouded ice forests of Beta Fortanis. Lupa Capitalina rumbled beneath him, and he angrily shook off the memory as he felt its displeasure. No one liked to be reminded of their defeats, least of all a Warlord Titan of Legio Sirius.
Page 70
inertial cradles, for holding Titans in place. One imagines this ties in with the earlier assessment about 'inertial compensation' efficiencies.Ten inertia-cradles occupied the far wall of the deck, enormous restraints that would couple the Legio’s engines to the Speranza on the long journey between the stars, too many for the remaining engines of Sirius. That more than half of the cradles would remain empty was a knife in Luth’s guts.
Page 72
Titan machine spirits demonstrating more initiative and self-awareness than I can recall in some time (unless they overwhelm the princeps, like in Helsreach.) Almost like its partially automated. Parallels could be made with starships as well."I’m getting heat build in the plasma destructor again," noted Moderati Koskinen. "Looks like the Capitalina wasn’t too happy with Moonsorrow either."
..
Luth had felt the heat build, but ignored it, knowing it was simply the Capitalina’s anger that caused the temperature increase. He felt the soothing balm of coolant bathe his fist..
..
"The destructor’s heat-exchange coils have always been temperamental"
..
" that gun’s spirit has always been over-eager to be loosed."
Luth felt the Capitalina’s ire build at the disparaging tone in the tech-priest’s voice. Hyrdrith felt it too, and hurriedly added, "Though I admit its rapid rate of recharge more than makes up for that."
