Page 165
The Manifold describedThe Manifold was the hard-plug equivalent of the noosphere, an immersive and interactive sensory space through which a princeps comprehended his engine and realised his environment. Orfuls settled back and let the Manifold flood him properly for the first time since plugging, until it felt as though it was seeping in behind his eyes and soaking into his brain.
Page 167
Titan auspex and its translation intot he Manifold. The Princeps can refine or narrow down the data he focuses on, with motion, thermal and mass (?) sensors seeming to be the most important."Auspex alive."
...
Data plots began to slide and drift across Orfuls’s Manifold vision. Data, almost an overload of data, bombarded him visually and acoustically. Using his sub-links, he intuitively blanked off the clutter, and refined the auspex feed down to the four essential combat principals: heat, motion, mass and code activity.
Spoor.
The Manifold field cleaned up rapidly. Data streams eroded and vanished. The core essentials remained fixed and bright in the middle of his field of vision.
Page 167
Not sure if the pack is all Warhounds or if it contains battle titans (I suspect the former though) and its not certain if this implies that the point Titan is within the weapons range (coverage) of the others (but that is logical) but its still relaying data back to them."Begin data streaming"
..
..a coloured pattern started to blink in the lower left-hand periphery of Orfuls’s view. Morbius Sire had begun transmitting its inload directly back to the rest of the pack, ten kilometres behind them, in a continuous, live feed.
Page 168
Implied wArhound sensor ranges, at least against large scale thermal sources.Orfuls expanded his view to three-sixty, taking in the monolithic bulk of Orestes Principal one-fifty-six point three-five kilometres behind him, the delicate peak of Mount Sigilite one-twenty-six point two-four kilometres to the south, and the heat-bleed of Argentum Hive eighty point two-two kilometres ahead. There was a lot of fire smoke coming from Argentum.
Page 168-169
commentary on the habitation of part of Orestes. Sort of a pre-hive state and the various organs of civilian life. Eventually it will become a hive, and then a hive cluster (super-hive). They use maglev for commuting (public transit makes more sense than individual vehicles.)The population of Jeromihah, little more than an authorised shanty town at best, worked the vast refineries at Shalter and Gox. Maglevs had been laid to allow the workforce to commute. Templums had been constructed, scholams, commercias. In ages to come, Jeromihah would become a hive and then it would join Orestes Principal and Argentum Hive together. Then all three would meld into a true super-hive spread.
Page 169
The Munitorum (do they mean Administratum? Or does the Munitorum handle civilian data in warzones?) keeps track of the civilian population in great (census taking) detail it seems.Via the Manifold, Orfuls was privy to a Munitorum inload that listed every hab, every registered identity, every family no longer living in the demolished dwellings.
Everywhere he looked, he could read the names of workers, their wives and children, people who would never return, families that hadn’t made it out alive, the dead, the missing, the unidentified
"Cancel population census manifest."
On another hand its a nice little tidbit driving home that war isn't really glorious but horrible. Pitiful as life in the Imperium is, they had a relatively peaceful, productive life, and Chaos has taken that away from them. Taken that peace of mind and security, and for many taken away loved ones. Reminding me again why I like Dan Abnett as a 'war' writer.
PAge 171
Thermal sensor range against Reaver Titan fby a Warhound."Boost the auspex"
..
Hard return. The bastard was big. Three thousand and six hundred metres away to the east, an engine was in motion. It was betrayed by its heat signature, the wash of its weapons and its metallic bulk.
Page 172
PDF artillery company and its composition. Does fuck all against a Reaver.Orfuls was hearing the transmissions of an armoured artillery company, Pride Eighty-Eight: Thunderers, Bombards and Manticores, the crews screaming at each other for a target solution...
Page 173-174
They acquired target from 3.6 km or so out, and then directed the targeting solution shortly after making full stride (20 sconds or so) to the plasma blastgun. Implying that the warhound weapons are at least 3-4 km roughly.The target pipper suddenly chimed, fixed on the source of heat and light.
...
The Warhound took off, moving from idle to sprint in less than twenty seconds.
.
Orfuls channelled the solution to his right hand.
<target now fixed.>
Page 174
The Reaver, twice the mass and height of a Warhound. In the ovel two plasma blastgun volleys take down the Reaver, although its condition prior to this we don't know.Orfuls accessed the pre-set target. Throne, it was a big, ugly beast, twice the height and mass of Morbius Sire.
PAge 178
Imperial commanders command and control on Orestes, at least insofar as the military component of it goes, as well as the sources (orbital and ground based.)Given the orbitals, the PDF arrays and the military data-feeds, the governor’s command and control networks would have no trouble maintaining an ongoing assessment of the fighting.
Page 179
Some sort of superheavy. Possibly a Leviathan or a variant of such.The executor’s transport was a giant armoured crawler. Sonne, the famulous, had mentioned the vehicle’s pattern name and type at some point, but Etta had forgotten the details. Five decks and an observation bridge rode on three pairs of heavy-gauge treads, protected by a ceramite reinforced hull and void shields.
Page 180-181
Approximate height of the superheavy in question.The observation bridge was a blister of armoured glass at the prow of the crawler. Ten metres above ground..
Page 182
Mechanicus escorts for the crawler, and its defensive armmentsThe executor’s crawler led a van of fifty similar vehicles, most of them ammunition carriers, some of them troop transports. Light armour and weapon platforms scooted along beside them, and flocks of Vultures and Valkyries droned overhead in close escort. Crusius’s transport alone had eight Hydra platforms and six skitarii quick-guns slaved to it, their raised weapons constantly circling and switch-targeting any potential threat.
Page 183
Invicta Skitarii again.Hosts of the skitarii marched with them, rowdy and alarming. To Etta Severin, the skitarii seemed the polar opposite of the Guard or the PDF. They were gaudy, bestial, loud and brutish. They chomped for war, and uttered terrifying group yells of testosterone-fuelled antipathy. They were also non-uniform. She had never seen such a hybrid mix of feathers, furs, inbuilt weapons, claws, augmetics, engineering fangs, plumes, body armour, decorations and jewels.
Page 183
the current strength of Legio Invicta has at least fifteen Warlord class Battle Titans.She counted fifteen Warlords of Invicta..
Page 188
Warlord under Archenemy bombardment. Voids holding.Faero abruptly came under simultaneous fire from seven ground positions in the streets ahead. Flak and hard cannon flashed off its armour.
"Voids to full!"
Flights of shrieking rockets spat in over the rooftops and burst in sheets of flame across the shields. Heavy cannonfire ruptured walls and timber frames in its eagerness to greet them. Several of the densely-packed buildings ahead of them disintegrated as the shuddering barrage robbed them of all integrity.
...
The enemy brought up heavier shelling to target Faero. Ranged shot, from modified Bombards and Earthshakers, rained down across the court and the slaughtersheds.
..
Falling shells detonated in the sub-streets and alleys behind the Titan, gouging out deep craters and exposing foetid cellars.
..
The steady impact of the shell-fall was so heavy that Faero rocked back on its heels slightly.
"Voids holding!"
Page 188
Turbolaser fire from a Warlord levels 'block-row' which may suggest it leveled an entire block in a single (but sustained) volley.Kung responded aggressively, blitzing turbo fire from his left limb. Traversing, he levelled an entire block-row with the turbo,
Page 189
Princeps multitasking and again data sharing, as well as target recognition (which is mentioned to swithc the vulcans from one target to the next as fast as the sensor operator provides them.) Frankly the multitasking is damned impressive for an augmented meatbag.Any heat spot showing up amongst the cold, dark stone of the immediate vicinity, any blurt of scrapcode snatched from the ether, became viable spoor.
...
<Exload situation, Faero!> Bohrman was demanding over the Manifold link.
Already doing twenty things at once effortlessly, Kung data-squirted the tactical picture in response.
PAge 190-191
Again indication of the level of firepower that the Warlord titan is enduring from Chaos gunnery, although its not exactly easy to calc."icarian Faero is undamaged at this time, and has made kills on nine ground targets."
"Ten,"
...
"Princeps Kung is currently tagging forty-eight sources of ordnance or heavy weapons fire."
...
"He’s taking fire from forty-eight sources?"
"His shields are holding, mamzel."
Page 191-192
two battle servitiors 'vaporised' by lasfire, although without knowing their mass or composition its hard to calc exactly. Megajoule range at least certainly, since they seem quite large and heavily armed to even be a remote irritation ot a warlord (much less for one to kick a battle servitor.)About a dozen weaponised servitors, heavy-frame models..
..
He lowered the declination of the turbo laser and raked the roadway around the Titan’s feet, swivelling the engine at the waist to increase the cone of fire. The harassing servitors suffered for their daring. Two vapourised. Another three took such severe damage that their carriages were flung aside in pieces.
..
.Kung turned one powerful stride into a crude kick that caught one of the servitors head-on and sent it crashing and bouncing down the street.
Page 193
Warlord sensors again.Kung’s sensori was still patiently tagging every piece of spoor the auspex registered: scrapcode, motor noise, exhaust heat, motion tremor.
..
The wounded structures of the subsid were not sparing the enemy units: the stone and rockcrete walls neither hid them from Faero’s gaze nor protected them from its reach.
Page 193
Results of the battle. The Titan has taken nine minutes worth of sustained bombardment as noted before (rockets, ordnance, and the like with voids never even flickering from scores of gun platforms, it wipes out 34 inr return and levels five blocks in that same time with its weapons.. and the levelling could be argued to be a mere side effect and definitely not a result of sustained firepower.The engagement had lasted nine minutes. In that time, Sicarian Faero had levelled five blocks of Old Silo and made thirty-four kills.
Page 193
Dangers to a Princeps due to MIU. One of the jobs of the Moderati obviously is to keep an eye (and guard against) such dangers to the Princeps.Daross, his moderati, kept a careful watch on the vital monitor. At this pitch of battle, it was not unknown for a princeps to stroke out, suffer a grand mal, or snap his sanity completely and become lost in the screaming maelstrom of the MIU.
Page 195
An unfortunate side effect of MIU links, it seems. The princeps can feel/receive what the Titan does.Kung winced as the shot struck his voids at the abdominal rectus, flaring out a shower of energy dissipation. The voids held, but an angry psychostigmatic welt appeared on the flesh of Kung’s washboard stomach.
Page 195
Sustained fire on a single point/void can overload the shieldsCunning and deliberate, Nekromant Invidiosa was purposefully retargeting the wound, trying to pop the shields.
Page 195
Warlord carapace mounted missile launcher.the starboard carapace mount woke and armed. The mount was a box-form launcher, which Faero carried on its broad right shoulder like a hod. It carried a payload of five missiles.
Page 196
Titan missile launches. Its hard to say exactly what this means, convnetional warheads normally don't have EMP, but it may speak more to the way the warhead operates than yield specifically (especially given what we know the AdMech is capable of.) EMP ought to suggest at least its either a specialized anti-shield round of some kind, or its something other than high explosive (not neccesarily nuclear yield, but it could be generated like a nuclear weapon. Say a compact pure-fusion warhead, or a melta explosive, or even a plasma missile.)Kung launched his first missile.
..
The detonation was considerable. Electromagnetic pulse-shock scrambled the Manifold for a second.
...
..the enemy Warlord had rocked backwards, stumbling. It was still intact, but its frontal voids were writhing and crackling with overload.
Another missile hits it, seemingly weakening the shields and forcing the Warlord to retreat, but evidently not buckling them.
Page 203
A PDF transport truck, and a second Centaur, from the watch station mentioned before. Given this was a 'secondary/tertiary' PDF force by Varco's estimate, it probably gives us an idea of teh equipment such forces have (again having any vehicles is frankly impressive, especially Centaurs.)A burned-out PDF transport truck
..
Other burned remains were fused into the payload area,..
...
A PDF Centaur lay nose-down in the gulley..
..
The Centaur hadn’t burned. The quad launcher it had been towing had been dragged into the ditch behind it..
Page 205
Fuel quantity in the tanks"The tanks are at least half full"
Page 205
A hint about the quad launcher's shell weights. Its a mortar (thudd gun maybe?) call it tens of kilos apiece each at the very least, at least as much as a Basilisk shell (and perhaps twice that) by my guess.He checked the munitions boxes. There were half a dozen, each one nesting four hefty mortar shells for the quad. Working together, Varco reckoned he and Sagen could lift and carry one of the boxes.
...
They improvised a sling out of their jackets, and spent twenty minutes hoisting four shells, one at a time, up into the side of the ditch, with Varco leaning out over the rim and Sagen lifting from below
Page 209
Hint about the weight of the fuel carried in two jerry cans. I'm lazy so I'm gonna guess each holds maybe 10-20 litres of fuel, which ought to correspond to 'heav'y and needing the yoke (and two guys) to haul them back.The Centaur had two medium-sized jerry cans lashed behind its left sponson.
..
"The cans will be heavy once they’re full. We can use this as a yoke"
Page 210-211
3 trips to be exact, two full and one carrying one and a half cans. This covers the first two trips, as well as a discussion of the fuel quality and the 'multi-fuel' engines of the Centaur. Again like all Imperial Guard machinery, its optimized for versatility and redundancy rather than performance, and given tertiary pdf the fuel isn't that good either. Hell, its amazing they HAVE vehicles at all."We’re going to have to drain fuel out of that wreck."
..
"..it’ll take several trips."
...
They reappeared, trudging under the weight of the two cans swinging from the yoke between them.
..
They siphoned the cans into the Centaur’s tanks. It was noxious, multi-fuel fluid: a crude, dirty mixture of recycled chemicals and oils that the goat-like constitutions of the tractors were built to work on. A Centaur’s vulcanor eight plant could pretty much run on anything, and the PDF hadn’t been issued with clean, quality fuel.
...
Trask and Sagen made the next run.
With two runs thats between 40-80 litres if ym previous assumption about can capacity holds, so far.
Another point to mention is that they loaded 7 guys into the Centaur, plus the extra equipment. which does correspond to the driver, gunner and 5 passengers.
Page 212
Like I said, three tripsBy the time Trask and Sagen returned with the second fuel load,..
..
"One more load, and that’ll probably be your lot."
Page 214
Lower limit on the range of the 'modular' auspex.On the auspex screen, a shape had begun to move in their direction from the east.
"How far away?"
"Three kilometres maximum."
PAge 215
Last trip and as I said. That probably means 15-30 more litres for a total of 55-110 litres representing approximately half the fuel capacity of the Centaur. Even if it gets only 1 km per litre thats a good for a hundred, two hundred km easily, and most sources suggest much better fuel milage.Hekton and Trask returned with a can and a half of fuel. Sagen emptied it into the Centaur’s tanks.
Page 215
Techpriest's internal battery will recharge off motion and sunlight/heat. Its worth noting he was powering the auspex for several hours off that same battery (3 trips at maybe 50 minutes each plus another half hour or so is about 3 hours) Even assuming he is only powering it at a few watts or tens of watts thats double or triple digit kj for the battery, which is damn impressive, especially given its apparent recharge capacity. Quite possibly more, given power outupt of a human body is 100 watts or so easily and much of that is waste heat, (say 50-80%) we'd be talking 540-864 kj for the internal battery.Koder gently withdrew his mechadendrites from the auspex and its screen went dark. He looked pale and unsteady.
...
"Drained," Koder replied. "A little movement and sunlight will boost my bio-electrical response."
Also mechadendrites can transfer electricty/power to devices.
PAge 218
Multi-fuel can run off cooking oil too. good if you happen to have a fast food restraunt nearby I suppose. The particularily interesting thing is that they suggested adding the cooking oil to the already existing (low grade) fuel in the tanks, suggesting that you can actually combine several kinds of fuel into a multi-fuel engine's tank and it will still function (to some degree, at least.) Talk about versatility... two small drums of cooking oil,..
...
"We could pour the cooking oil into the tanks" Hekton suggested. "Multi-fuel?"
Page 231
I guess the bullpup Tertiary PDF lasgun is a carbine tooCally broke away from the girl and unshipped her carbine.
Page 237
Warlord salvo levels a street block. The people mentioned are perhaps 50-200 metres away - those are the only distances mentioned and not much more is provided. Again not exactly nuclear yields but still impressive. And to be fair, the Warlord is fighting a pair of warhounds, so its not as if it has to go all out either. Figure 4 weapons (2 carapace, 2 arm).. we dont know the exact types so lets assume 100-1000 shots basically in that single discharge. If its a 200x200 metre block and no overlap you're talking 40-400 square metres, which might translate to each shot affecting somewhere between 8 and 24 meters in diameter. What that means.. I have no real idea to work beyond. If we're talking something like DPICM we might figure roughly grenade level yields, which would be about a quarter ton to a ton of TNT total, for example, on the low end. Googling around 155mm shells have a blast radius of around 100 metres and can make 30 metre deep craters.. a couple 155mms could maybe do that same levle of damage.The Warlord stoically walked into the bothersome onslaught.
Then it returned fire.
The entire street block around the little crossroads came apart in a blizzard of explosions and sub-munition detonations. The dwellings, by-yards and alley paths where Activated Twenty-Six had taken cover crumpled and disintegrated as the Warlord’s guns demolished them. Cally and Golla were blown clean off their feet.
Of course without knowing the weapons and the effects its hard to judge. Energy weapons (and how they work) can affect that greatly too.
Page 245
Secrecy and ignorance, ALWAYS THE BEST WAY."I had assumed your bold idea to open the sequestered coils might have yielded something."
...
"an unimaginable morass of virtually garbled material. I had no idea of the corruption or the antiquity of the old records. It is like being handed a small net and asked to dredge an entire ocean for a single pearl that may or may not be there."
I guess there can be drawbacks to all that data if they don't keep access to it.Page 249
Warlord fights eight days and only now is nearly out of ammo and in need of repair and resupply.He had been eight days in the field since his last resupply, moving from skirmish to skirmish and enduring two long engine duels that had hurt him gravely, even though he had ended both as the victor.
Page 249-250
The side effects of eight days of uninterrupted combat, no time for even sleep. The interetsing thing is the 'glands' they have to help keep them active and awake as well as the stuff the Titan provides. Again speaking to limits on Titan operations.No one had slept since the last reload halt at Gynex eight days before. Their bodies, like the amniotic fluid in his casket and bloodstream, were drowning in toxins and the waste by-products of the stimms, mood elevators and anti-fatigue boosters they had been forced to ingest from the engine’s clinical bio-support, or gland from their modified bodies.
They were sick, all of them: his steersman, his sensori, his moderati, his servitors. They were chemically poisoned, awash with concentrations of synthetic hormones, their reflexes, attention rates and perceptive faculties dulled and distorted to dangerous levels by the demands of over-extended consciousness. Lustig knew his tech-priest was experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations, and Lustig kept suffering hypnic jerks as he teetered on the brink of involuntary slumber. His body was covered in psychostigmatic sores. He felt nauseous, zombified, his acuity stretched into a hideous state of awareness where nothing registered as real any more. He was so tired, he’d given up maintaining the execution log.
PAge 256
Range of Titan guns in this context... two fire sources, both at a distance of at least two kilometres. Ignix was being bracketed by long-range bombardment from a brace of enemy engines.
..
<Engine, engine, 2.7 kilometres, bearing 1106 kappa nine.>
PAge 256-257
Chaos Skitarii forces again....they came under secondary fire across their forwards starboard quarter. It was a mix of field artillery, rocket-propelled munitions and medium laser, and it rattled them hard.
..
Weaponised servitors, and the guntraks and cannon-carriages of enemy skitarii, were advancing on them through the sub-streets of Undergox Edge to their right, lobbing shells and spitting las as they came.
Page 259
two second burst from a Mega bolter. Hard to calc, but damn impressive even if they simply blow apart rather than literally vaporize.Gentrian aimed and triggered the mega-bolter, raking the rooftops to their port side. The burst was brief, but the destruction formidable. Servitors, skitarii and roof sections vaporised in a withering row of blasts.
Page 261
3-4 seconds of mega bolter fire involves thousands of rounds, suggesting mid to high hundreds of rounds per second, and strips the shields. 4 seconds more does severe damage but does not destroy a Warhound."Princeps, we have eight seconds of fire remaining."
..
Gentrian opened fire. The mega-bolter screamed as it blitzed a super-rapid stream of shells at the oncoming engine. Thousands of small, individual explosions peppered the Warhound’s snout and hull. It recoiled, staggering under the sustained fire. Its shields seemed to shred, and slivers of metal stripped off its painted red plate, revealing bright silver gashes of exposed metal.
Five seconds remaining, 4, 3, 2, 1…
The autoloaders completed their count. The bolter fell silent.
Page 268-269
Invicta Skitarii.. bionically enhanced, genetically engineered and bred,He had once been told that no infantry combat, not even the Guard or the vaunted Astartes, could match a skitarii versus skitarii war for frenzy and fury. Bionically enhanced, augmetically accelerated, the onslaught was berserk and savage on both sides.
..
Gearhart privately believed that Lau was simply addicted to the adrenal high of close combat. After all, Lau, like every skitarii, had been drawn from genic programmes that deliberately developed traits of aggression and strength.
Page 269
Implied that a lasweapon 'cremates' an enemy skitarii, which probably only refers to the organic portions, so its hard to guess at (no knowing of duration, output, or percentage of body cremated) except its probably somewhere in the megajoule range but less than gigajoule. Its also probably a powerful hellgun analogue (hot shot?) as he's an officer, and probably set for heat ray effects (more energy intensive)His integrated weapon limb flared, cremating the death-masked enemies hurling themselves at him. His left hand swung its axe-bill, lopping off heads and severing limbs. Blood and floodstream fluid spattered him. Where his swinging axe and stinging lasgun failed, Lau used his surgically inset canines and modified jaw to bite out throats.
Page 269-270
skitarii can be gland warriors as well.. Glanded hormones had propelled him into a stimm-fuelled rage, but the strategic centre of his brain, delicately modified to remain intensely calm and focused, even in the pitch of battle, maintained a progressive assessment of the field.
Page 270
Effect of enemy wepaon, hard to say what kind except its probably a pure thermal energy weapon, high KJ ot low MJ perhaps.A huscarl to his left toppled backwards, his head fused and burning.
Page 271
Skitarii combat vehicles. note the datalinking.Lau’s cataphractii were waiting for them with three-dozen sentient gun platforms, twenty mobile batteries and eighteen modified Malcador-pattern tanks, all dressed in the livery of the Legio Invicta and all aligned to target solutions on the arterial. As the enemy skitarii came into view, Dorentine, the gun magos, squirted Lau for permission to fire.
Lau considered the noospheric data carefully as he continued to murder his way across the silo yard
Page 275-276
Skitarii vs Titan crew gunbattle. The shotgun is interesting for one, particularily its effects (not unlike a bolter, just not as explosive, more like flechette or fragmentation), as is the effects of the lasfire. We dont know what explodes the head though. Oh and the splitner shell (some sort of fragmentation weapon again.) The lasbolts are probably double digit kj at least like I estimated before - not much different from last time, really.The sensori’s head exploded, showering the cockpit lights with blood and brain matter. The sensori toppled forwards across the main consoles. Gentrian turned to see spiked, bestial skitarii emerging from the hatch at the top of the spinal shaft.
With a cry of horror, the steersman raised his carbine, but he never got to use it. The first skitarii through the hatch shot him as casually as it had shot the sensori. A metal splinter-shell tore out the steersman’s hip and another exploded his throat. He thumped sideways against a bulkhead and sagged, eyes wide, trying to speak as he bled out through his ragged neck.
Gentrian blasted the skitarii. The shotgun load was a wad of fine filament wire and ceramite shot, and it splattered the skitarii across the rear bulkhead of the cockpit. Gentrian pumped the slide of his shotgun and blasted again. A second skitarii exploded from the waist up in a shower of meat, bone and metal.
The third skitarii, rising from the collar of the spinal shaft hatchway, fired its integral lasweapon. The first bolt punctured Gentrian’s torso and came out through his back, cauterising its passage. The second bolt blew the plugs out of his neck.
Page 278
Orestes forge seems to be more progressive in that they use more digital and less written stuff, which kind of runs contrary to alot of the more propoganda laden fluff (think Ben Counter for example.)"It was in the archives, one of many artefacts stored in the sequestration vaults. Egan brought it to me. Much of the component data stored in the old stacks is contained in antique forms, as the Analyticae is discovering to its frustration. Books, printed sheets, handwritten–"
..
"Handwritten records. They were different ages, Enhort. The Mechanicus was once more concerned with knowledge than with the method of its transmission. When we came to Orestes, we brought treasures with us – palimpsests and old hand-copied volumes, manuscripts, voice recordings, objects our forebears thought would be of value. We locked them away in sterile vaults. When this war is done with, executor, I will have all the non-digital archives annotated and transferred for open use in a current format. Knowledge is power, Enhort. How often do we say that? How often do we also forget what we already know?"
PAge 279
I think its a very good sentiment, and it plays well on alot of the grimdark 'propoganda' fluff in a new and different way. Giving the AdMech a reason to be backward and secretive, or suppressing knowledge like that (even amongst themselves) makes more sense and is a more human response than merely 'ignorant supersittious techno-magi barely understand shit!' I mean its human to want to forget or ignore the past, or things we find unpleasant or shameful. I think many authors forget that often such 'reasons' provide a good contrast to the 'dark' side of 40K and you need that contrast for it to have any impact. Simply saying IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION does nothing, it has to be shown, not told."That in ten thousand years, we have forgotten more than we can remember. That knowledge may be power, but a dogmatic faith in accepted data is a form of ignorance. There is always something more to know. Ignorance has no limits, memories are filtered by time, forgetting is a sin. Knowledge is the only thing that ever has a definable boundary. Have I shocked you?"
...
"We are so sure of ourselves, aren’t we? The knowledge of the Mechanicus towers over all other species and creeds, even the inscrutable eldar, I believe. We can refine the cosmos into its tiniest parts, atom and cell, electron and molecule, and manipulate them. The Deus Mechanicus has gifted us the power to understand these vital mechanisms. Proud of our art, we have become complacent. We forget to remember. I believe, that there is always more to know than is known."
Page 286
Space TV and VCR. its little touches, little luxuries like that, that I like. Having TV or vcr (recorder) does not mean you're still not a slave or a serf.A small pict-player sat on his workbench, its projection paused. Zember had back-recorded the footage from the public feeds and stalled various frames to copy the colouration and detail of the famous engines.
The interesting thing about this is that its the wind up toymaker again (who made the clockwork titans) and he's profiting handsomly off the war fever selling titan figurine/toys to 'loyal' buyers, and its an interesting glimpse into just how people can gain (or lose) from a war in so many different ways - emotionally, politically, personally, or economically. The book is indeed made up of the planetary war being represented through the eyes of lots of different individuals, both in good and bad ways.
Page 304
Titans have heat exchangers.Columns of dirty black smoke spewed lazily from the ruptured heat exchangers on the rear of its hull.
Page 309
Its an interesting analogy, don't you think? Princeps in their Amniotic casks are not unlike a baby inside a mother's womb, it seems. Or there are at least enough obvious parallels that a midwife can save said Princep's life. Kinda interesting really, in a perverse, different way, but it make ssense too."He’s being born"
..
She pumped the man’s chest firmly, forcing the amniotic fluid out of his lungs. There was a great deal of it. Cally helped to wipe it away, and clear it out of the man’s mouth. Golla grinned at her. "Usually, a good slap on the arse is all that’s needed," she said. She leaned in, pressed her mouth against the man’s lips and began to exhale air into his lungs. She alternated this with the pumping motion against the ribs.
..
"Babies usually pick the idea up faster."
Page 313-314
Mechanicus menial with simple data plug connects into the ports on a Princeps."I’m still waiting to be certified for general modification. I have a simple data-plug and inload port. "
..
He finally selected one on the princeps’s left shoulder.
..
Robor connected his data-drite to the shoulder plug.
Page 317
The wonders of STC. I doubt its techpriest approved, but you can (illicitly) modify lasweapon powerpacks to feed a (brief) charge to power a portable vox. The laspistol power pack is clearly vastly more powerful than the vox power cells.Amongst the junk of one of the shelves was a battered field voxcaster, an old PDF-issue unit.
..
"Its power cells are dead."
..
"You could spike it"... "We used to do that sometimes when we couldn’t afford fresh cells."
...
"You take the dead cells and mate them with the power clip off a sidearm. Laspistol is best. Not for long, mind ’cos the cells blow if there’s too much charge. Blow right up in your sweet face. And yours, Reiss."
...
"How many times can you do that?"
..
"Oh, it’s a one-shot deal. Energy exchange like that pretty much screws the cells to shit, but you get enough juice for a short transmission or two."
..
"Does a spiked cell hold its charge?"
...
Fiersteen shook his head.
We can also get an idea of laspistol powerpack capacity from this, since a power pack is supposed to be at least comparable, if not better (although not an efficient transfer proces) We dont know the exact pattern of vox, but we know the one from Storm of Iron (and the Munitorum manual) has a kg battery and lasts 10-20 hours, which gives us two ways of establishing that.
There's also real life analogues we coudl draw on:
This page shows all kinds of militay radio batteries. Weights seem to range form a quarter kilo to slightly over a kilo depending on battery type. Going by Wikipedia those batteries seem to have capacities ranging from 100-200 kj per kg which woudl suggest high double digit to low triple digit kj for the batteries on the vox depending on type and mass. I'm leaning more towards 'low triple digits' given the SoI/MM vox.
Then there is by endurance. this link suggests 4 watts power usage for a radio system, while this provides outputs of 1-15 watts depending on reference (output is not neccesairly input, but its a ncie lwoer limit.) If we go with the 4 watt one as a benchmark in 10-20 hours the battery would have between 144-288 kj total, so again we might say high double to low triple digit kj, probably closer to triple digit.
For an average lets say between 50-300 kj for a laspistol pack. At 20-80 shots per pack (Depending on source) you get 1.7-2.5 kj (for the double digit.. 80 doesnt work too well obviously for mid to high double digits
) whilst 300 is between 10-15 kj for 20-30 shots, and 3.8 kj for 80 shots. Storm of iron specifies that a 'max output' laspistol has 3-4 shots in it which is 12-17 kj to 75-100 kj on the high end. FFG's stuff for variable settings is 2-4x at higher settings (which means at 2x setting laspitols have 3.4-5 kj to 20-30 kj, and about 10-15 shots, and at 4x they have 6.8-10 kj and 40-60 kj per shot, and 'only' 5-8 shots.) Page 319
Again an interesitng parallel between a tanked princeps and a baby in a womb. Puts some interesting context on the Princeps/Titan relationship, in a way. A perverse sort of way, which makes the parallel of a warmaking machine to a life-giving process deliciously obscene, in my mind."Patent foramen ovale"
..
"I’ve heard gynecaes talk about that," said Golla. "It’s a hole. A hole in the heart, in a baby’s heart."
"It’s a small hole in the wall between the upper chambers of the heart," said Robor. "In the womb, a patent foramen ovale is a natural short circuit that allows a developing child’s circulation to bypass the lungs, because the lungs are unexpanded and full of amniotic fluid. It is a pre-natal cardiac function artificially re-set in all princeps who are modified for casket operation."
We also learn that Robor, the guy with the data plug who jacked into the princep's shoulder port, was able to communicate with the Princeps, although he was in considerable pain doing so (sharing hte Princeps own pain, likely.. we're talking a sort of mind-impulse unit linkage.)
Page 322
Analyticae at work, providing data to the military forces to exploit against the enemy as they analyze and sort records.Adept Sinan’s breakthrough, hours before, had been the loose end of the thread. It had allowed Feist’s teams to focus and interlink specific eras of the vast archive, specifying code-type, operation, origin and date. Once they’d found one Mechanicum manifest, they knew what to look for.
..
For all twenty-two [Chaos Titans], the Analyticae could provide detailed Mechanicum listing for the original spec, fittings and performance character, records that had not been studied in ten thousand years.
..
He had sixteen of his best code-lingual adepts improvising new, shortcut code versions to accelerate the transliteration of particularly obscure or archaic data forms. He had twenty-eight adepts subbing the translated data blocks down into concise rapid-blurt blocks, so that any princeps in the field could inload and access target data as fast as possible. He had forty multi-limb augmented adepts, who had transferred in from the forge fabricatories, all master craftsmen with extremely high multi-motor function skills, and he had put them to work speed-sorting solid data, such as manuscripts and scrolls. Anything digital was being translated and compared. Anything printed was being optically recognised, converted and reformatted.
Page 327
Orestes defenses in vairous forms. They have void defenses, batteires (hydras later identified) lasers and ground attack craft.The western bulwark was by far the stoutest and thickest part of the Assembly Yard defences. It was amply supplied with heavy batteries, laser grids and void shielding. The rock was a curtain ninety metres thick, and the cliff face was virtually unscalable by climbing forces. Still, the enemy persisted, despite several airstrikes by the hive’s ground-attack fliers.
Page 329
Gearhard's career and estimated life.. he's at least 337 years old, probably closer to 350 years or more. Doesnt look to be on his last legs either.Pietor Gearhart was an ancient being, by any human standards. His body was sixty-eight per cent bionic, and the rest of the flesh was heavily regrafted. He had been bonded to the mind impulse unit of Invictus Antagonistes for three hundred and thirteen years sidereal, and princeps maximus of the legio for two hundred and eighty-three. Prior to his princepture, he had been moderati on the Augustus Terminatus for eighteen years under Lucius Karing, and prior to that, famulous to the cantankerous engine-master Ervin Hekate for six, aboard the indomitable Imperius Dictatio.
Page 329-331
First the technical aspect: (Warlord) Titans have an implied sensor/deteciton range of 1000 km, and an implied ability to (with unknown weapons and duration, although presumably short) 'demolish cities'.There was only one thing Gearhart feared, and that was the final submergence of his humanity.
The gradual loss and replacement of his physicality he could tolerate.
...
Flesh and bone withered and decayed under such circumstances, no matter how thorough the biological maintenance.
A slow decomposition was to be expected, and few princeps feared it. What was there to regret about the loss of motor function or muscle density in a foot or a hand when you could make the earth quake with your stride, see for a thousand kilometres, and demolish cities with a cursory flick of your mind?
...
No, what Gearhart feared was the loss of his personality. He knew that it would come, eventually. As the body atrophied, the mind increasingly withdrew into the dense matrix of the MIU and personality was debraded.
Gearhart had begun to fight back against the inexorable slide by trying to retain his sense of self. He had attempted to establish a human relationship with his crew and his fellow princeps...
...
A muffling darkness had begun to swallow the peripheries of his mind, in recent years, as if the outer, human, layers of Pietor Gearhart were rusting away: rusting away, or no longer needed.
Gearhart hated the shadow of encroaching darkness. He didn’t want to become lost in it. He didn’t want to die, or at least cease to be Pietor Gearhart, alone.
Now the other, and most relevant part is Gearhard demonstrates one of the nastier side effects of a Mind impulse link with the titan - the loss of personality and individuality as the link to the machine takes over. Its not the first time we've seen such (Helsreach comes to mind) but its an omnipresent danger and not a trivial one. It really shows there are two sides to the Titans - on one hand its addicting and quite a rush givne the way it works, but on another it can cost you things in the long run.. your physical life, your mind, your humanity. Its not all good.
Page 334
Capabilities and firepower of Reaver titans, again not quite 'city destorying' but 3 of them with their missiles demolishing 'small towns' is still impressive.Gearhart could manifoldly see all three Reavers, marching in, hot white against the dull blue wash of the subsid.
..
All three of them had fat, multi-loader missile pods on their backs, and two of them had additional missile packs slung as limb mounts. The combined onslaught would have levelled most small towns. Missile after missile, burning darts of fire, whipped in out of the subsid darkness and punched into the Yard’s walls and raised voids. Boiling, billowing hurricanes of combustion belched back from the shields and wall surfaces.
Page 335-336
Fruits of the 'identification' of enemy titans in the analyticae. and the ability to target weak points in shields for maximum effect."Alterkate was reported as showing a shield misalignment around the lower motivators. She used to be literally weak at the knees, a bad shield seam. Moderati Bernal, I’m blurting you detail for target solution."
..
<Phantom Magnus confirmed as Titanus Briarus at inception/launch. Pre-Heresy Mars-pattern Reaver. Briarus originally displayed a shield point weakness along her carapace at the following squirted vectors.>
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"Target solution on the second engine, my princeps."
Page 337
Results of the weak points. Again it seems that voids can have 'weak spots' to exploit if you know where to hit.Gearhart’s destructor penetrated the suspected shield weakness along Pugnus Alterkate’s knee-line. Compromised, its shields began to cycle and attempted to re-cohere, but the savage shots had already knee-capped the vile machine.
..
Simultaneously, Invictus Antagonistes’s plasma blasts found the specific ancient weakness on the shoulder of Titanus Briarus. It was a small thing, a mild defect, point zero-zero-one of a discrepancy, atomically speaking. The Mechanicum had always been very precise.[
..
The port side of Titanus Briarus... ..blew out in a shower of debris and super-heated gas.
Also a reference to mechanicum engineering tolerances and scale as far as defects go.
