40K Deathwatch novel analysis thread

[Connor MacLeod]

This is for the Goto Deathwatch novels. It will also be for any potentially future Deathwatch novels not tied to any other series (If there are one. Ones in "Space Marine Battles" probably won't count as that will go into a separate SMB thread) I ws tempted just to specify this as Gotos but I suspect most DW novels will go under here (just as the Dow thread will be for all DoW novels) Which means I'll probably be periodically resurrecting this thread or something. If they let me (they havent seemed to mind so far)


First up: Warrior Brood. I actually liked this novel, and inasmuch as Goto HAS a good novel, it is this one. It is less because of the technical detials (which are pretty part for Goto, or mayn 40K authors really, since few of them ever get the details right even in codexes. If there even is a right.) but

Page 7

CHAPTER ONE: MANTIS WARRIORS
[THREE DAYS REMAINING]

The timeframe is important. keep in mind for later.

Page 7

...Shaidan glimpsed a sudden flash of orange light and snapped his head round to face it. On the horizon, across a sea of seething arachnid bodies, a shaft of flame lanced into the dark sky, incinerating a brood of flapping gargoyles that screeched helplessly into its path. A fraction of a second passed before the engine core detonated and the barely visible Mantis Vindicator exploded into a burst of destruction, sending concentric shockwaves of flame rippling through the dark ocean of insectile tyranids. A moment later, a sleet of molten, alien flesh rained down on the command squad, sizzling with heat and toxins.

Not sure what is incinerating the Gargoyles, possibly a flamer, possibly the Vindciator (some sort of lasweapon maybE) who knows. Its a Goto novel.


Page 8

With an imperceptible nod of his head, Shaidan sent a jet of blue light dancing along his staff, bursting the hormagaunt’s head into shards of alien bone and freeing his blade.

Librirain double-bladed Staff-thingy explodes hormagaunt skull.

Page 10

A cloud of gargoyles pestered Hoenir’s Terminators from the sky, but they were little threat to the ancient armour of Mantis Terminators.

Oh but I guess Vindciators are threatened.

Page 10

Veteran Marine Balder was encamped on the roof of the bunker with his trusted heavy bolter, relentlessly loosing hellfire shells into the cloud of flying creatures. On impact, the shells exploded into tiny stars in the night sky, sending fragments of deadly shrapnel splintering into the brood. Balder’s fellow veterans were in formation around him, discharging volleys of lasfire from their multilasers, providing support for Hoenir’s squad.

Hellfire shells. At least that got roughly right, even if there's no mention of the mutagenic acide thingy.

Oh yes and man portable multilasers. We know how Goto loves those and people love him for including them. Personally I dont mind, because 40K never did have enough man portable automatic laser weapons for my taste.. (lasgun then lascannon, with nothing in between. Its like the stubber thing all over again.)

Page 10

Circling over the heads of Ruinus’s squad like glorious green and gold avenging angels were the Assault Marines of Sergeant Soron, their jump packs blazing with fire against the encroaching darkness.

Like I'll note in dawn of War, Goto loves to have assault marines flying about, rather than hopping around.

Page 11

...Shaidan cracked his force staff into the rockcrete at his feet, sending a javelin of power forking through the humid air and smashing into a six-legged, viciously taloned creature leaping towards Chaplain Aegir. The hormagaunt seemed to disintegrate as it flew and the chaplain turned just in time to have his ornate death-mask splattered with charred fragments of the alien.

Shaidan blows apart another 'gaunt with.. lightning I guess. Megajoule range.


Page 11

The sky itself was crying with toxins and the air was thick with microscopic parasites eating into the Mantis Warriors’ lungs: the planet was beginning to be consumed by the tyranid hive.

Tyranid biowarfare naturally extends to the microscopic level and putting toxins and parasites into the air to attack organic defenders. It can even penetrate the Space Marine filters, eventually.

Page 12

Gargoyles fell from the sky like insects, shot through with gaping holes where lascannon fire had ruined them, or deformed into molten lumps were the squad’s multi-meltas had cooked them.

Meltas and lascannon vs Gargoyles. Meltas at least are double digit MJ for Gargoyles I'm pretty sure.


Page 14

Sure enough, there, in a tiny circular clearing in the midst of the advancing horde, was a bulky, giant quadruped with a hideous deformity protruding from its back. Every minute or so the massive beast convulsed, lurching backwards as the immense muscle spasm fired a spore out of the growth on its back.

Magnir surveyed the distance between his squad and the biovore-cannon to the south. It was about two hundred metres, thick with a seething mass of tyranids.

Biovores can bombard targets from 200 metres.


Page 16

The impact of the spore-mine shook the bunker, and Audin planted his feet against the
Shockwave as it rippled through the rockcrete, never once breaking the rhythm of his fire. The smell of toxins and vaporised rock mean­dered through the clouds of smoke, easing between the lashing talons and swooping claws of the incessant gaunts. In the background, filtered through his Lyman's ear implant, Audin could hear the thud and whistle of another spore mine on its way.
'Incoming!'he yelled.

The fleshy spore bounced into a slide as it hit the roof of the bunker, skidding across the ichor-slicked surface as though it were on ice. Its tail thrashed viciously, trying to find a crack or protrusion on which to anchor itself. Audin launched himself into a roll, taking his weight on his shoulder before spinning back onto his feet, boltgun coughing. The rest of his squad parted to let the mine slide between them, never taking their eyes from the swarm of incoming tyranids that threatened to overrun their bunker, never relenting in their barrage of bolter shells, flames and bursts of melta.

Shaidan saw the danger first, but it was already too late. The spore slid desperately past the front line of veteran Marines, who hardly seemed to notice it or its flicking and snaking tail. In the heart of the squad, banner held proudly and defiandy to the heavens, Lodur stood immovably, his melta-gun hissing with power.

"Audin - Lodur!" yelled Shaidan over the tumult, direct­ing his captain to the threat.

The Mantis Warriors' captain spun on his heel, seeing the danger just as the call reached his ears. Lodur himself glanced down at his feet just in time to see the impact of Audin's bolter shells punch the spore off course as it slid towards him, pushing it off to the side. The head of the spore seemed to buck in indignation as it slipped off the far side of the bunker, its tail lashing and twisting in a desperate attempt to find a hold. Suddenly, a tendril darted out of its tip, flicking itself around Lodur's ankle and constricting until his armoured boots started to buckle. With an anchor point at last, the spore caught its fall and started to pull itself back onto the roof of the bunker.

Spore mine detonations.

Page 17

With a sudden explosion of power, his staff spasmed in his hands as it spun. The flare cleared a radius around him in all directions, incinerating gaunts and sending their charred remains scattering into a wide fountain. In the fraction of a second of clarity that this provided him, Shaidan stooped to the ground and snatched up the remains of the Mantis Warriors' standard, thrusting it into the air with a flourish.

360 degree cremation (or just severe burning) a buttload of megajooolz either way - dozens of gaunts (each massing several time smore than a normal person) getting either reduced to ash or badly burnt. Possibly even gigajoolz, which is ttypical of the Lbirarian power levels in a Goto novel. He likes Multi Lazors and Librarians.


Page 18-19

At the summit of the mound, surrounded by a faintly glowing purple aura that seemed to deflect even the most focussed volleys from the storm bolters, slivered three ungodly serpents. Their heads were monstrously disproportionate to their snaking bodies, and they were pulsing with energy.
..
Shaidan recognised the new creatures at once: zoanthropes - tyranid sorcerers.

The three monstrous worms were oscillating slowly, gradually synchronising with each other, bringing their energy fields into resonance. Then, with a blinding flash, another javelin of warp energy speared out across the night sky.
...

With a thunderous crack, Aegir’s armour suddenly exploded outwards, sending shards of adamantium darting into the line of veteran Marines around him. The Crozius fell to the ground as the chaplain’s body simply blinked out of existence, sucked through the breach in reality into the unspeakable realm, where daemons salivated in anticipation of his soul.

The Zoanthropes appear, and 3 of them can create a D-cannon like warp rift. Impromptu vortex weapon.

PAge 22

Heavy bolters and multi-lasers spat fragments of death into the surrounding swarm with precise discipline and astounding effectiveness.

More multi-lazor support weapons.

Page 23 - Hellfire shells being used by both terminators and heavy bolters.


Page 25

Fifteen metres.

"Nerthus, now!"

The lascannon erupted, sending a blast smashing into the abdomen of the tyranid warrior as it leapt through the final distance between them. The force held the beast immobile in the air for a fraction of a second, arresting its momentum, before it crashed to the ground a couple of metres in front of the line of Marines. As one, the Dev­astators raked their fire across the fallen beast, spraying it with hellfire shells, lasfire and chemical flame. The swarm of smaller creatures seemed to sense the pain of this great beast and a piercing scream spewed out of the tide - its talons and claws lashing with renewed ferocity.
...
But the tyranid warrior wasn’t finished yet.

Tyranid warrior gets stopped in midair (all one thousand kilos or so of it) by lascannon blast, but it survives, tehn gets mauled by Devastaotrs and still manages to surivive.

Page 25

The Mantis Warrior sergeant punched the blade through the petrified bone that protected the creature's vital organs, and then he smashed the knife straight through with the weight of the boltgun in his other hand. With the barrel jammed into the cavity, Ruinus clicked the weapon onto automatic and pulled the trig­ger, kicking himself away from the thrashing warrior beast as he did so.

The gun spent dozens of hellfire rounds into the inte­rior of the creature, each shattering and exploding into myriad splinters, lacerating the beast's internal organs and liquefying it from within. For a second the giant war­rior remained on its feet, shuddering with the staccato of explosions in its body.

Dozens of hellfire shells from a Terminator storm bolter in seconds - which finally manages to finish off the Warrior (I think it sthe same warrior at least.) Implied rof of dozens of bolts per second or so.

Page 27

The bursts of energy were growing more and more frequent until the heads of the beasts snapped round in unison, focussing their gazes on one of the Terminators and releasing an awesome beam of crackling purple. It punched into the chest of the ancient
armour, lifting the Marine off his feet and throwing him clear of the defensive pocket. He landed with a thump, crushing dozens of gaunts under his huge weight. Shaidan watched the flight of the Marine, and then horror crept over him as he saw the head of a termagant burst out of the huge cavity blown from the Terminator’s chest by the warp-beam.

Even Zoanthropes can't totally fuck over a Terminator with their warp attacks.

Page 27

From the top of the staff, a pulse of energy lanced over the heads of the enemy creatures, smashing against the psychic shield of the zoanthropes. On impact, there was a huge explosion of uncontrolled warp energy, instantly incinerating a radius of tyranid creatures and pluming into a dome in the sky.

Zoanthropes vs Shaidan. lesser tyranids incinerated in the aftermath.

Page 28

Lumbering into the breach in the line before them, crushing the smaller creatures under the weight of each of its ponderous steps, came a huge beast. It towered over its brethren, and ignored them utterly. It stood on its hind legs, twice as tall as a Terminator, and, in place of forelimbs, there were two giant scythe-like talons, easily longer than a man. Its head protruded forward, with an immense jaw shimmering with jagged teeth. From a bizarre growth sticking out of its abdomen protruded an ornate, bony barrel.

Carnifex. Implied to be 8 or os metres tall

Page 29-30

The strange bony barrel in the creature’s chest started to shake and then, with a scream from the beast itself, a clutch of tiny fragments fired out, like shotgun pellets. The beast kept wailing as thousands of the tiny pods were scattered into the air in front of the
blazing Terminators
..
But then, as though triggered by some silent signal, the pods exploded into life, sending barbed vines and hooked tendrils spreading and growing in all directions at once.
The rapidly expanding web sent feelers running over the armour of the Terminator squad, where tiny hooks penetrated the joins in their armoured plates, anchoring the strangler-vines and dragging the web towards the Marines.

Strangler vine shotgun attack!


PAge 32

...Hoenir ducked his head towards the monster and activated the cyclone missile launcher on his back.

In a flurry of power, the missiles seared over his head, punching deeply into the flesh of the carnifex. They bur­rowed their way deep inside, like giant maggots, before detonating. With an immense convulsion, the massive creature exploded outwards, sending chunks of sizzling flesh raining into the swarm. A huge fire ball erupted from the heart of the beast, blasting outwards in a wide radius, incinerating dozens of broods of tyranids and reducing the barbed tendrils to ashes, cleansing the dead bodies of the Terminators.

Cyclone missile blows apart a carnifiex, incinerate dozens of tyranid broods (hundreds of nids at least some of hwich are going to be hundreds of kilos each) and cremating the trangler vine. Without a doubt double or tirple digit GJ at least for the entire payload.

Page 33

The Thunderhawk was already descending, its weapons batteries alight with lasfire, ploughing great troughs into the tyranid swarm that surrounded the command bunker on all
sides.

- Mantis Warrior thunderhawks make heavy use of laser weapons (multilasers and lascannon presumably)

Page 37

CHAPTER TWO: I
[TWO DAYS REMAINING]

Timeframe again.

Page 37

From the view-stations on the Vanishing Star Comman­der Kastor could see the battle for Herodian IV unfolding. His command ship, a bristling Gothic-class cruiser, was positioned in a mid-distant orbit, monitor­ing the engagement. Even from this distance, the massive lance arrays were providing formidable covering fire for the Imperial battlegroup. Nonetheless, a number of the junior officers on the command deck clenched their teeth with frustration, wanting to be closer to the action. Under their breaths they whispered curses at their cow­ardly commander. But Kastor was no coward.

'Concentrate all fire on the largest ship - the Razor-fiend cruiser on the port side of the Extreme Prejudice,' commanded Kastor.

Lance arrays firing from "mid distant orbit".

Page 38

The Razorfiend was a lethal battle cruiser, heavily armed and immensely armoured. Two massive pincers protruded from its prow, tipped with cannons and it was releasing a continuous venom stream against the shields of the Extreme Prejudice, where the port
batteries were retaliating with a tirade of lasfire. The confrontation was a standoff, effectively locking the Dictator-class cruiser out of the main battle and rendering it vulnerable to boarding actions from the flurry of brood drones that swam in shoals around
the Imperial fleet.

Squadrons of Fury interceptors were flooding out of the landing bays of the Extreme Prejudice, desperately trying to repel the tyranid boarding action before it could really gather any momentum. Clouds of Escort Drone organisms were being spewed out of the Razorfiend craft to meet this new threat, engaging the Furies two to one.

- Extreme Prejudice, Dicatator class cruiser. Armed with laser batteries as well as the lances. RAzorfiend is shooting poison at the shields, which is not blocking shields. I suppose hypervleocity liquid jets are damaging somehow.

Page 38

The lance array of the Vanishing Star reached full charge with a resounding whine.
'Fire all beams,’ commanded Kastor.

The lance of energy pushed its way through the cloud of Escort Drones and chaff-spores, detonating the mines and bleeding energy as it cut its path towards the Razor­fiend organism. It punched into the starboard pincer of the tyranid vessel, sending ripples of explosions along its length. After a couple of pregnant seconds, the pincer buckled and then exploded from within, sending the Razorfiend vessel spinning out of control.

The Extreme Prejudice saw its chance and opened up with its torpedo banks, sending a wave of missiles plunging into the wounded monster, where they sunk into the cara­pace armour before exploding with unforgiving ferocity. Gushes of organic tissue oozed out of the wound, spilling into the vacuum of space.

The Razorfiend spun under the impact, spiralling back towards the bulk of the tyranid fleet that held a low orbit around Herodian IV. As it closed with the horde, its spin slowed and it brought itself around to face the Imperial battlegroup once again - its grievous wound already sealed over with grotesque scar tissue and its single pin­cer pointing menacingly back at the Extreme Prejudice, where its Drones and Brood Ships persisted in their dog­fights.

Lance fire penetrates spore shield protecting the Razorfiend and strikes one of the pincers for several seconds. torpedoes follow up, penetate the hull, then detonate inside the hull. By the time it has recovered (seconds, minutes?) it has completely healed at least the external signs of the damage

Incidentally, its implid heavily that the battles against the Tyranids occured over the course of many hours, although it had to be less than a day (Chapter one opens by saying three days remains. By the start of Chapter 2, which includes this quote, we're down to two days.)


Page 39

The Razorfiend spun under the impact, spiralling back towards the bulk of the tyranid fleet that held a low orbit around Herodian IV.
..
"If we close, we move into range of the Hive Ship’s fire."

Tyranid fleet in low orbit.. and the VAnishing Star seems to be out of their range at "mid orbit"

Page 39

They must not sustain any damage before then. If he didn't know better, Kastor would have thought that the penetrating attack by the Razorfiend was designed to fail, in an attempt to draw the Vanishing Star into the melee prematurely. He had heard of tyranids throwing thousands of their smaller organisms into impenetrable barrages of Imperial cannon fire just to exhaust the batteries before launching their assault, but he had never heard of the mindless animals launching sacrificial raids with prize vessels like the Razorfiend.

Sacrificial attacks with Cruiser scale Nids is considered unnusual.

PAge 40

Just breaking the horizon of Herodian IV, silhou­etted against a burst of eclipsed starlight and misted behind the flecks of battle in the foreground, he could see the ugly bulk of the Hive Ship. It was already in low orbit, skimming the atmosphere of the planet with its belly, sucking the planet dry of nutrients and releasing storms of toxins, spores and creatures into the air. It was only a matter of days now, perhaps hours, before the planet would be completely consumed.

Hive ship skimming the atmosphere, sucking it up and replacing it with Nid biowarfare.


PAge 40-41

The ship had not appeared on any of the Vanishing Star’s scopes and it had slipped into the landing bay uninvited - virtually unnoticed. For some reason, the gun-servitors in the hanger space would not activate and the batteries encased in the mouth of the bay had not even twitched as the vessel had eased past them.

- small inquisitorial shuttle/gunboat enters the bay of an Imperial cruiser without beint noticed or detected, implying strongly some sort of cloaking/stealth device. Note the security serivtors in the bay for defense.


Page 44

He had seen Space Marines before, even before he had rendezvoused with the Mantis Warriors’ strike cruiser, Penitent Quest, earlier that day.

Vanishing star rendezvoused with the mantis Warrior sTrike cruiser earlier in the day. Implied travel time between edge of system and planet as within a day.

PAge 46

The Deathwatch team had paused on the Inquisition battleship Veiled Salvation, en route to the frontier of Segmentum Obscurus, where there were reports of a large tyranid swarm
massing.

- Inquisitorial Battleship "Veiled Salvation" Whether built specifically for them or stolen from someone's battlefleet we don't know.

Page 46

...the Deathwatch team were on their way to the Herodian warpgate...
...

The appearance of a tyranid sub-splinter so far within Segmentum Obscurus was perplexing. It was not clear whether this small force was a vanguard for the larger swarm massing on the frontier, or whether it was actu­ally a small, independent hive. What was clear, however, was that its presence so close to the warp-gate had made the immaterium in the region too unstable to sustain traffic to the frontier. For as long as the sub-splinter remained in the Herodian system, the gate would have to be closed, which would mean that it would take months to get reinforcements and supplies to the fron­tier by other routes. By that time, the frontier war might already be over.

A splinter of a splinter, but still enought o fuck with warp traffic in the reason, forcing closing of a warp gate. Means a delay of months (EG warp gates are a faster shortcut, much like the webway)

Page 48

"Thank you, Commander Kastor. Your concern is appreciated. We have just heard that our company's bat­tle barge, the Endless Redemption, is entering the Herodian system. So we are waiting for its superior facilities before engaging in any serious technical work on the wounded,"

"That is excellent news, captain. Would I be correct to assume that the Endless Redemption is equipped with planetary bombardment cannons and the Exterminatus array?"

"Yes, commander," answered Audin. "The Endless Redemption is fully equipped in that regard. It is, however, under strength when it comes to Marines. The Redemption is home to two companies - my own, the Second, as well as the Fourth Company."

Mantis Warriors battlebarge, like Blood Ravens BB', carrry two companies. IT has bombardment cannon and exertminatus array, which is considered significant. Implies not all ships may be equipped in that way (but may use virus bombs and cyclonics in substitue.)

Also the BAttle Barge is just entering the system. It takes less than two days to arrive at the planet.

Page 49

"Well said," replied Kalypsia with mock admiration, "but my instructions are clear on this point. The war will be won, but it will be won without the annihilation of a complete planet. The Imperium has moved beyond the barbarism of the Exterminatus, gentlemen. This is a more civilised day. Herodian IV will be saved, not destroyed. Besides, more important than the planet is the Herodian warp-gate and there is no telling what effect the destruction of the planet would have on the warp signatures in this region - we may well ruin the gate through such clumsy measures,"

For an Inquisitor with a silly name, we have to at least admire an Inquisitor forward-thinking (if radical) enough to consider Exterminatus a Bad Idea and uncivilised (even if sometimes neccesary.)

Of course she offers practical reasons in that the planet's death will fuck wit hthe warp, may also damage the gate. Anyhow, I'll give Goto credit for that, and this is one of the reasons I like this novel despite the silly names and multi lasers and whatnot.


Page 51

With so many targets, the automatic laser batteries of the Extreme Prejudice were firing frantically, but their hit efficiency was low. They traced Drones through the void, only to be distracted by the flight path of an orbiting asteroid, then caught again by another flock of
attackers.

"automatic laser batteries", which seem to be largely point defence, or possibly dual purpose. We dont know. Probably servitor controlled.


Page 52

Great ripples of explosions convulsed through the spore-field as proximity mines detonated. In some places, giant tendrils were fired out of the mines, weaving into massive, barbed webs that enwrapped Furies three at a time - packaging them into cocoons in which they were slowly consumed by toxins.

Space-based version of the strangler vine used against Furies. Not among the most absurd of Tyranid attacks I've seen (claws, for example, which is hardly Goto's fault.)


Page 52

Sure enough, a great shoal of Drones had been unleashed against the rear lines of Furies, presumably manufactured in the depths of the Hive Ship
itself.

Unsurprisingly the ship is manufacturing its own drones.

Page 53

A searing beam flashed past the formation, cutting into the spore-field and causing thousands of mines to deto­nate, leaving a temporary tunnel carved into the roiling cloud. Without pausing to see where the beam had come from, Gordus charged into the opening with his guns blazing - Storm Squadron hot on his heels.

The Sword of Contrition was decelerating rapidly to engagement speed, having blasted its way in from the outer reaches of the Herodian system, accelerating all the way. Captain Krelian had expected to find the tyranid swarm attacking the outermost planets and then working its way in towards the more heavily populated inner worlds - as precedent suggested. Finding nothing in the outer reaches, Krelian had left the Endless Redemption unescorted and used the speed of the Fourth Company's Mantis strike cruiser to get to Herodian IV ahead of it. The battle barge would roll up in another day or so.

Arrival of another Strike cruiser, and a single lance taking out thousands of mines in the spore field defense.

Chapter three says "38 hours remaining", so this implies that it took under half a day for the Strike cruiser to arrive. LEss than two days for the battle barge itself. 30-300 gees for the strike cruiser (1-10 AU distance, 12 hours) 2-20 gees acceleration for the battle barge minimum (2 days and 1-20 AU - at 1.5 days it would be twice that.


Page 54

"In this case, it seems that the swarm has come straight to Herodian IV, neglecting the string of planets out to Herodian XII, some of which support small colonies of life."

There are other colonies in the system, albeit small ones.

Page 55

"My calculations suggest that we have, at most, two days in which to destroy the swarm. After that time the planet will be completely consumed and lost to us forever. This must not be allowed to happen. If the planet falls, so too falls the Herodian warp-gate. If the warp-gate is not reopened, the Obscurus frontier will be lost. Two days, gentlemen."

Reiterating the two days timeframe, and again suggesting that the accerlation values for Mantis Warriors ship sis probably conservative.

Page 56

"One of the key lessons learnt by Captain Bannon’s Deathwatch squad during the Tarsis Ultra campaign against the tyranids-"
...
Octavius had been called up to the Deathwatch from the Fists
just after Bannon’s death and he had made it his mission to be worthy of the mantel passed down from this fallen hero.

[/quote][/quote]

This novel takes place after Warriors of Ultramar, although how long after we don't know. Some decades maybe.

[Kuja]

Ahhhh Deathwatch. Deathwatch, Deathwatch, Deathwatch.

Yet another of CS Goto's novel series utterly ruined by a complete crapout at the 11th hour. A real shame, too. I enjoyed Warrior Brood, and Warrior Coven was...okay. Largely inoffensive, as I remember. But good god, as I've said before, that man cannot end a novel on a decent note, even if it makes no flipping sense to end it on a downer.

[Connor MacLeod]

yeah, the ending was a disappointment. He seems to have real trouble both with details, character names, and endings. Still compared to Eldar prophecy this is fucking shakespeare. I blame the introduction of the Eldar. My main beef about Goto is: He should never have been allowed to write Eldar. People complain about the stupid piddly shit but never focus on things about how he's obsessed with the Eldar, and he is. EG Eldar prophecy which I will complain about til the end of time. Remove the Eldar from his works and they might be alot better.

Warrior Coven was the worst of the two DW novels though, and more than just the ending (Its still better than Eldar Prophecy.) The main problem was that I basically read it as ELDAR GRIMDARK - it was an excuse to basically go RAR SPACE MARINE on the Dark Eldar, and for more Eldar to get brutally murdered to no purpose. And for Eldrad to be a complete asshole.

i prefer the Gav Thorpe Eldar novels vastly.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2 of Warrior Brood. and introducing THE NUCLEAR PLASMA GRENADE OF DOOM. MUAHAHAHA.




Page 59

CHAPTER THREE: DESERT
[38 HOURS REMAINING]

Like i said 38 hours remaining at the start of Chapter 3

Page 59

Kalypsia into the crackling vox unit. It hissed and cackled with interference as she waited for a response - the distance was great so there was a slight delay. Not for the first time, she cursed the tyranid swarm's warp shadow; it disrupted all psychic traffic in the area and made astropathic communication almost impossible. Hence, even the Inquisition had to rely on these crude voice-transmission devices. They were slow, cumbersome, and ugly - none of which were qualities that Kalypsia appreciated

Not as bad as what we see in Dawn of War ascension (this happens in the same system with warp interference) but it still implies something on the order of "greater than lightspeed" communications with a slight delay, although admittedly we don't quite know WHERE the warp gate is, except it probably isn't close to the planet, especially since they would normally favour using astropathic communication to talk.

Page 65-66

The planet was changing, as the xenos Hive Ship pumped the atmosphere full of strange alien enzymes designed to accelerate the growth of all organic com­pounds on the surface and also to provide essential nutrients for the tyranid swarm that swam over the planet's crust. Everything would grow to the point of sat­uration, and then it would lapse into a fecund decay. Specialised organisms would consume the carrion, using it as energy to fuel pupation and transformation into big­ger, more powerful organisms. Meanwhile, the rest of the swarm would harvest every last molecule of nutrition and the Hive Ship would suck vast amounts of bio-mass out of the atmosphere to replenish its energy reserves. The tyranid - the Great Devourer. If there was enough rich material on the planet, the Hive Ship might even calve, giving birth to more ships for the tyranid fleet. If things got this far, then there would be no going back for Herodian IV.

More on Tyranid biowarfare and the stripping of the atmosphere. Curiously interesting is how its implied the biomass consumed is used as "fuel" to power the creation of new forms and the ships themselves, rather than as raw maerial for construction. Which in turn suggests 'Nid ships run purely on chemical energy, at least as far as reproduciton and biology go.

Page 72

‘Tyranocide, mission check,' stuttered a broken signal into Ashok's vox bead. He pressed his hand to his ear, try­ing to improve the signal. Perhaps the impact had unbalanced the implant? More likely, the tyranid hive mind was spilling into real space and disturbing commu­nications. Ashok could remember how his Death Company had lost communication on Hegelian IX and there the swarm had already been broken by the Angels Sanguine.

Vox bead implant, and the hive mind disrupting normal communications.

Page 77

"Yes, very wrong. Inquisitor, what kind of tyranid organism hunts under the ground?"
"None that I am aware of, captain. However, as you know, a number of the tyranid genus are mutable. There may well be a new form here on Herodian IV, adapted for hunting in the desert. What did it look like?"
...
"It had two extended fore-talons, perhaps two metres long. There were four other limbs, which appeared to end in webbed claws, with which it scooped at the sand. When it ducked back below the ground, it exposed a long tail. It appeared to be scaled in yellow."

..

"It sounds like some kind of lictor," concluded Kalypsia. "They are a predator species. Hunters. Extremely adaptable to hostile environments."
"Mantis stalkers," said Octavius, giving them their most common name. "I have seen them before - although never like this. They exude a pheromone trail that draws the rest of the swarm after them."

One of a myriad of Tyranid forms that hunt undeground.

Page 78

Neleus was the first to react, charging forward with his storm bolter a blaze of shells. By the time he launched himself bodily at the lictor, it was already a shredded, ruined mess of cracked scales and decimated tissue. The rest of the squad opened up. Neleus smashed into it, driving his power fist straight through its thorax with all the violence of vengeance, sending a shower of xenos life-blood splattering into the absorbent sand."

Lictor vs Terminator.

Page 79

Kalypsia was straight up onto her feet, her bolt pistol drawn in one hand and a crackling force whip burst into life in the other.
..

Holstering the pistol, she took the whip in both hands and lashed out with it on full extension. It snapped through the dusty air with a
crack of lightning that raked across the sea of protruding talons, slicing them apart in a series of small explosions.

Yep that's right. A force whip.

Page 79

The rumbling horizon was drawing closer, as the swarm descended on the old Mantis Warrior Vindicator tank, which had been completely ruined by a huge explo­sion at some point in the recent past. The armoured plates on one side had survived the blast, so presumably it had been hit by some kind of cannon on the other side, flipping it into its present position; the armoured plates now acted as a reinforced floor and the Deathwatch team were bunched together on top of it, repelling the borders.

Tank hit by some kind of cannon explosion and flipped onto its side. It's rather hard to picture how the intact side ended faceup but eh. Maybe it flipped several times

Page 80

Grasping one talon in the formidable grip of his power fist, Neleus dragged the lictor creature out of the sand and held it momentarily, dangling from its own fore-talon. Then, with a swift movement, he crushed the talon in his fist and launched the hapless creature in the air with a swing of his immense arm, riddling it with hellfire shells as it flew. By the time it landed back in the sea of its own kind, the creature was little more than a shredded husk.

Terminator hefts up and throws a lictor. That's lifting - and tossing - a 1 ton creature one handed before you pulverize it with your gun.

Page 81

"Well said, chaplain," agreed Octavius as he cast his bolt gun aside and drew his ornate, two-handed force sword from its holster on his back. The blade was a memento of a previous campaign against the Biel-Tan eldar and it cackled with unspeakable energies as bizarre
alien runes swam along its length like quick-silver.

- Death Watch Kill Team leader uses trophy Eldar force Sword as weapon.

Page 81
[quoute]
"Fire the lascannons on either side of their position. They need support,"

Searing lances of power fired out from the nose of the Thunderhawk, punching great craters into the sand around the Deathwatch team, showering them with debris.

From their altitude, they could see a hooded figure leap from the Vindicator, surrounded by a halo of blue light. It fought its way into one of the craters left by the lascannon fire and started to engage the tyranids at close range, carrying the fight to them rather than waiting for it to be brought to him. He was surrounded by fire and energy.

In his right arm was a force staff of some kind, spinning in a frenzy of warp-energy, spitting bolts of blue into the enveloping swarm. His left arm seemed to be coated in coruscating pulses of power and great javelins of light rushed from his fingertips, incinerating swathes of hormagaunts as they leapt for him, lashing their claws.[/quote]

Super psyker Shadain to the rescue again, up to and including the "incinerating large groups of hormagaunts" yet again.


PAge 82

"Zoanthropes!" she called over her shoulder. "Psykers," she added as an explanation. "Three of them will be too much for your librarian."

3 Tyranid Zoanthorpes are considered to be too much for a Space Marine Librarian to hand.


Page 83

The falling Marine flicked out his arms just as he was about to hit the ground, forming a cross in the air. And he stopped, just hanging there in the air, making no mark in the sand below his feet, his emerald power-armour gleaming in the hazy desert sun.

Shaidan jumps out of the thunderhawk at an indeterminate height, and (without a grav chute or jump pack that I can tell) free falls to the ground, stopping himself probably with his powers at the last moment.

several tens of gees worth of deceleration easily - 50.000-100,000 kg*m/s worth of momentum or so too.


Page 83-84

A cry made Neleus and Korpheus turn back to the stern of the vehicle, where they saw Kulac, their battle-brother from the Space Wolves, encased in a terrible orb of purpling fire.
His weapons had been scattered to the ground, and he was held in an agonising sphere about ten metres above the ground. Broec was there in an instant, pushing his Crozius into the energy field and scanning the sea of tyranids for the source of its power.
The orb of warp-energy shattered with the touch of the chaplain’s holy staff of office, sending the Marine slumping to the ground.

Spacec MArine (Deathwatch) Chaplain can use his Crozius Arcanum to disrupt/block/dispel Tyranid warp attacks. Goto likes to give Chaplains some psychic ability, apparently.


Page 85

A flare of purple fire dragged Octavius's attention back to his librarian. Ashok and the mysterious new Marine were now fighting in the same crater, repelling the board­ers with incredible ferocity and skill. Huge blasts of psychic power were jetting out from both figures, and each wielded their force-staffs with formidable prowess. The Mantis Warrior was pressing into the faces of the creatures in the front line, slashing his bladed staff into the sea of claws and whirling it into a frenzied sphere of crackling energy. Ashok stood in the centre of the crater, unleashing a constant tirade of lightning from his fingers and from his staff, holding the tyranid swarm at bay. Great piles of incinerated corpses lined the rim of the crater.

The crater is large neough that a fair number (multiple ranks) of tyranid can surround a pair of Space Marine Librarians, each of whom has enough room to fight with force staves unencumbered. How long it took to incinerate.. we don't know

It does suggest "incinerate" in this case means severely burn rather than cremate, so all the calcs should probably be single/double digit Megawatts (severla MW per gaunt/nid/whatever.)


Page 86

..Shaidan held his staff vertically against his body and a flickering blue fire enveloped his form. Jets of venom spurted out of the swarm from nearby hissing patheti­cally against the fire; a hormagaunt launched itself towards him but ricocheted impotently off the energy field.
With an explosion of power that sent shock waves through the swarm, the Mantis Warrior slowly pushed up into the air, dripping blue flames down into the seething mass below his feet.

Super Psyker Rocket Booster Activate! Yes Shaidan can fly.

Page 87

CHAPTER FOUR: VEILS OF SALVATION
[29 HOURS REMAINING]

29 hours left.

Page 88

Ashok’s voice was low and barely audible, his black eyes gazing at Kalypsia featurelessly. "’It
was almost as though they somehow had knowledge of Deathwatch protocols, inquisitor.
That was the natural site for us to pick. It was relatively clean, and, according to you,
proximal to the position of the hive tyrant. If I were a tyranid, that is where I would have laid
a trap."

Oh dear. However could that be?


Page 92

It was only a few days ago that it had all begun.

The voice had been broken and cracked, shrouded in the hiss of static as the weak signal broke the silence of the Endless Redemption's vox-array
..
Deploying the Second Company into the rapid sttike cruiser, Penitent Quest, Audin had set off for Herodian IV at once. The Endless Redemption had been prowling the outer reaches of the galaxy for nearly a hundred years...
...
When the Penitent Quest blasted into the Herodian sys­tem, the fourth planet was already under attack. Its atmosphere was a rain of spores, and the surface was speckled with newly hatched organisms. The air was beginning to fill up with toxins and bio-modifiers that increased the temperature and humidity on the surface. Acidic rain peppered the already sparse vegetation on the planet, melting it into bubbling pools of raw bio-mass for consumption by the growing swarm.

Managing to cross an unknown distance through the warp and travel through the system in a matter of a couple of days. I'd guess a warp speed of at LEAST a few thousands or tens of thousands of c if they came from outside the sector. Probably far beyond the Obscurus fronteir (if they were even in that region)

Page 100

He seemed equally cheerful about the fact that pirates and raiders would sometimes coast through the system looking for prey around the gate, but that not a single raid had been launched against the battleship in the whole time that it had been there, despite the fact that it was the only permanent Imperial facility in the sector. Agustius had smarted at the use of the word ’’permanent’’, but had noted with some satisfaction that the reputation of the Inquisition was enough to deter would-be attackers, even out here in the forgotten reaches of the Segmentum.

There are no other "permanant" Inquisitorial assets in this sector.

Page 101

At first, the high lords of the Thorian sanctum had striven to pull the youthful Agustius over into the Ordo Malleus. Such things were not unheard of, especially in the case of such an exceptional and pure young talent. The Ordo Malleus has great influence within the Inquisition, charged as it is with policing the Eye of Terror and with combating the emergence of warp-taint anywhere in the galaxy. But Agustius had stood firm - his calling was in the Ordo Xenos, fighting the foul aliens in their myriad forms - and the Thorian lords had finally conceded that he might be of use where he was. In truth, their sect was particularly weak in the Ordo Xenos, where it seemed widely accepted that alien technology could and should be used in the fight against the aliens, if possible. Indeed, for some Ordo Xenos inquisitors, the exalted alien hunters, the fabled Death-watch, seemed to be merely artefact collectors, charged with the location and retrieval of alien technology for future use by the Inquisition in its ongoing wars against the xenos.

The Thorian faction of the Inquisition and the Ordo Xenos.

Page 107

CHAPTER FIVE: SUICIDE
[23 HOURS REMAINING]
..

"About twenty hours, I imagine," said Kastor, enjoying the inquisitor’s discomfort.
"Twenty-three." corrected Kalypsia, still able to appear officious and fierce, even now.
"Very well, twenty-three."

23 hours left.

PAge 109

Turning the Fury in a tight arc, she brought the gun-sights round to bear on a bunch of Drones that came swooping out of the spores above her. Punching her right hand into a fist, she clenched the trigger and a burst of energy jabbed out of her fighter, piercing the group of tyranids and incinerating two of them completely.

Fury lasgun incinerates a pair of Drones. No idea how large drones are, but if they massed similarily to e Fury we might be talking burning severral tens or hundreds of tonnes of fighter - double digit, even triple digit GJs at least, easily.

Page 111

The smaller fighters were gradually being picked off by the marauding Drones, which the Hive Ship seemed to be able to spew out in endless numbers, as it sucked the required nutrients directly out of the atmosphere of Herodian IV.

the spawning drones are being created directly from maaterials sucked off the planet.

Page 111

For a moment, Krelian wondered when that push would come - he could certainly use a blast or two from the Star’s lance arrays about now. It seemed a little strange to him that the Star had been kept so far out of the theatre and yet still remained within drop-distance of the doomed planet’s surface.

Lance range (against the Tyranids) is far shorter than "Drop range" whatever that is.

PAge 112

The medicae-hall stretched for thousands of metres across the stern of the Vanishing Star. It was truly massive, with room for perhaps half a million beds, designed to attend to the medical needs of a fleet or an invasion force. The ceiling was unusually low, giving the space a vague sense of distortion, as though it had been squashed or stretched out horizontally.

the "STar" is configured for medical purposes, having enough beds for half a million, enough to "attend to the needs of a fleet or invasion force" The cruiser itself is probably longer than 2-3 km, given the needs for engines and the front section of the ship (maybe 4 km or so?) It also suggests how truly massive crew complements onboard ship could possibly be

Page 112-113

A medi-servitor shuffled up to the inquisitor, looking anxious and harried. "Can I help you, inquisitor?" it asked.

...

"As you wish." answered the servitor, turning to lead Kalypsia through the cluttered aisles of the great hall. "You should be aware, inquisitor," continued the servitor, "that most of the survivors are heavily traumatised. Nearly all of them are suffering from extreme shock, and large numbers appear to have completely lost their minds after exposure to the hive mind on the planet's surface."

A talking servitor, seemingly self aware. Amazing how common some of those become in some novels

Page 114

The servitor rushed along through the aisles without looking back over its shoulder,
threading its way easily between the abandoned obstacles in its path.

- the Servitor from the prior page is referred to as an "it". This tends to make it rather hard to believe it's just talking about a human servant, unless this brand of servitor is somewhere between the mind-wiped monotask types we often see and a full out cyborg. Then again we've seen this in other novels (like Ravenor.)

Page 117

“Techmarine Dasein discovered traces of eldar DNA, which is highly unusual in tyranid swarm organisms. It has been hypothesised before that the zoanthropes utilised eldar material to boost their psychic potency, but it is unheard of for the gaunts to share this generic makeup,”

A bit of interesting fluff about Genetic makeup of 'nids.

Page 121

CHAPTER SIX: WOODEN DESKS
[19 HOURS REMAINING]

19 hours to go!

Page 125

He praised the Emperor for their timely arrival - the nearest Deathwatch fortress being several days away and even further with the warp-gate closed.

They're a long way away in other words. Presumably next sector over at least.

Page 129

The squad was arranged in a rough circle, wrapped round the main lance in the nose of the Purgation, toiling to cut it free. Thorns and barbs were dug deeply into the array, preventing it from firing and the lashes of the tendrils bound the barrel into immobility, so there was no hope of aiming the thing, even if it could be made to fire.

Forward mounted lances in a sword class frigate (Firestorms are the ones with the forward mounted lances.) Interesting to note it isnt a totally fixed axis spinal mount, since it is being immobilized.

Page 131

and a massive burst of power surge d out of the frontal lance of the Purgation, smashing into the Razorfiend at close range.

Meanwhile, the twin venom streams from the Razor­fiend coalesced and poured against the vulnerable nose of the Purgation, seeping through into the lance array and eating away its heat shielding. The bridge was com­pletely consumed, melted utterly from the frigate before any of its personnel even had the chance to scream. Then the lance overheated and its power core detonated, blowing the Purgation into tiny pieces and scattering its vicious shrapnel into the shoals of Drones that swam through the surrounding space like schools of fish in the ocean.

The Purgation's lance aray has its own dedicated power core.

Page 132

There was an executive order from the Promethus subsector of the Ordo Xenos, confirming that the temporarily requisitioned battleship, the Veiled Salvation, should be kept permanently within striking distance of Herodian IV.

Not sure what "striking distance" means, exactly. We learn here thought that the Salvation is a temporary assignment to the Inquisition, although "Temporary" hcan obviously mean years.

Page 135

Looking out of the view screens in the Perfect Incision, Kalypsia could see the space battle unfolding on the other side of the planet. The pictures were relayed to her by a network of devices that Kastor had deployed into strategic orbits at various points around the planet. This way they could monitor events and keep clear of them at the same time.

She watched the Mantis Warrior cruiser, Sword of Con­trition, abandon its shielding position in front of the Imperial frigate. She saw the Purgation's lance burst the Razorfiend into a violent death-throw and then watched the brilliant fireball that was once the Purgation gradually fade into nothingness.

Orbital satellites or drones deployed to monitor the space (and presumably ground) battles.


Page 137

CHAPTER SEVEN: DEATHWIND
[14 HOURS REMAINING]

14 hours.

Page 140-141

Kalypsia just stared at the fourteen tonne, adamantium teardrop held in its harness in the deck of the pod launch bay of the Vanishing Star. As far as she could see, it was simply a hollow lump of metal with retro-burners grafted onto its surface in haphazard places. Here and there, Kalypsia could see the barrels of boltguns protruding from the shell, but they appeared to be fixed in place, without any range of movement - they looked as though they had simply been welded onto the shell as after­thoughts. The pod was about six metres in diameter and perhaps eight in height, although it was difficult to judge precisely because it was half inset into a custom pit in the deck. The launch bay held about fifty of these drop-pods, each sunk into the deck like giant armoured eggs in a cardboard crate.

A Navy cruiser armed with a drop pod


Page 141

"Given your choice of insertion point this time, there is no way that a vehicle the size of a hawk would make it to the ground, and there is even less of a chance that we would survive without a drop-ship’s armour if we had to free-fall a hundred metres as we did last time."

Implies that a Space Marine could not survive a 100 metre free fall, although it is quite possible they refer to do so with the Inquisitor alive.


Page 142

If that meant strapping the inquisitor into a drop-pod and smashing her into the ground at several times the speed of sound, then so be it.

I'm not sure how fast "several times the speed of sound" comes out to be, but it implies they slow down from hypervelocity to supersonic in a fairly short period of time (say 6-8 km/s to 700-800 m/s.)

Page 142

Because of the speeds and impacts involved, drop-pods were usually only used by Space
Marines, but this time the inquisitor would have to take her chances with her team;

Thereby hinting that the accelerations involved might kill her.

Page 143

Whilst drop-pods could usually carry up to five Marines, Neleus and
Soron required a specially modified unit that could accommodate the bulk of Terminator
armour and Soron’s jump-pack. They more than filled a pod on their own.

Some drop pods can carry more than 5 marines.

Page 144

The heat gauge on her weapons’ systems had maxed out nearly ten minutes, but the lasguns were still firing, and that was good enough for her.

fury lascannons (lasguns) seem to have a rather large saftey margin whenit comes to overheating.

Page 146

As soon as the pod broke through the stratosphere, Kalypsia heard the report and chatter of the boltguns that Korpheus had fixed to the shell. There were no portals or view screens in the pod, so she couldn't see what the makeshift defences were shooting at and she was shocked to realise that there were tyranid creatures so high up in the atmosphere. In truth, even if there had been a view screen for her to use, there would have been no way that she could have moved her head to check it - the murderous negative G-forces kept her rigid in her harness, teetering on the edge of consciousness.

With her eyes bulging in their sockets, she chanced a glance around the interior of the pod.
Octavius was seated quietly next to her, studying her features carefully. He looked concerned, and then nodded faintly when she looked at him before turning his attention back to his helmet, which was sitting in his lap.

Implies a fairly high acceleration/deceleration going on, although the Space Marines are taking it in stride.

Page 149

A second Deathwatch drop-pod came screaming through the cloud layer, its makeshift bolter guns flaring with fire as its bulk splat­tered through the flapping gargoyles. After a fraction of a second, its retro-burners fired and its flight jolted, slow­ing fractionally but not enough to prevent a meteoric impact. The pod smashed into the sea of tyranids like an asteroid striking an ocean. The impact shook the ground, liquefying hundreds of tyranids in the explosion of heat and sending the mutilated xenos fluids fountaining into the air.
There was a brief moment of calm as the pod settled into the sand, but then the tyranid swarm recovered and flooded down into the impact crater, scraping and claw­ing at the adamantium shell.

Drop pod impact.


Page 150

This was one of the two unmanned Deathwind pods that Korpheus had prepared. He had fitted one with autocannons and the other with frag-missile launchers. They would simply blaze away indiscriminately until they ran out of ammunition - but in the mean time they would certainly help to thin out this swarm

Deathwind pods - one with autocannon, one with a missile launcher.

Page 150

In rapid succession, two more pods splashed down into the swarming sea. From the first streaked flurries of missiles, arcing out over the braying gaunts and exploding them into fountains of shredded mush.

Effects of the frag missiles.

PAge 152

The three Furies screamed across the body of the Extreme Prejudice, with Collia's nose just ahead of the other two, strafing their guns along the tentacles that enwrapped the cruiser below them, powering towards the sealed launch bays. As the range closed, Gordus flicked the switches that activated his missile bays; a cho­rus of warnings echoed around the cockpit and a pulsing red light started to flash on his control panel. He just laughed - every time he pulled a lever in that decrepit bird something threatened to fall off. This was not the time for automatic caution.

Furies have missile bays.

Page 153

The lascannon batteries that ran around the perimeter of the bays, like venomous fangs, spluttered and spat lasfire in random patterns in front of them, but the angles were all wrong and they could not be turned all the way back into the bay mouths that they were supposed to defend. The cruiser’s defences had been designed with a full-on assault in mind, not with the creeping menace of tyranid tentacles and foul, toxic, xenos liana.

Dedicated laser batteries providing defence around the docking bays, particularily against assault.


Page 153

Collia found the angle first and Gordus watched the mis­siles streak out of the banks on both sides of her Fury, leaving spiralling trails as they homed in on the alien foliage ahead of them.

After a few hypersonic seconds, the missiles punched into the xenos web, detonating instantly and sending huge plumes of flame spraying out of the impacts. A second later, another flurry of missiles slammed home, loosed from the fighter on the other side of Collia.

Even from this distance, and even through the smeary mess of his viewer, Gordus could see that the missiles had not broken through. The vines had thinned, burnt and recoiled from the impacts, but the bays were still effectively sealed.
..
He snapped his head back to the other side, craning his neck to see the missile bays that ran along the length of the portside stabilisers. Even through the muck he could see the flames dancing around the warheads. Evidently, his warning sirens had been right this time.

“A few hypersonic seconds” gives a minimum range for the Fury missiles of 3-6 km, not including the time to accelerate up to that speed. Assuming 10 seconds they would accelerate at a mere 18 gees (which is lsower than real life Air to air missiles!) and maybe take some 9 km or so to reach top speed,

Page 156

‘I’ll take care of them,’ said Ashok calmly, incinerating a brood of termagants with a javelin of power from his hand and thrusting his staff through the throat of another.

burning a group of Termagants with a single bolt. Multiple MWs of power.

Page 159

A few seconds later, high up in the sky, as the cloud of gargoyles gathered around the harridan-slayer, Soron undipped his last weapon, a plasma-grenade, from his belt and thumbed its detonator. The air convulsed into a sphere of superheated energy, exploding outwards and incinerating all organic matter within a hundred metre radius, leaving a miniature star hanging in the air where the Mantis Warrior had just been.

200 metre fireball more or less, although it is probably not a naturally occuring plasma fireball.

Assuming at least a 500 K temperature for the air to "burn" the Nids (200 K temp change, in other words) and a 200 m diameter fireball of superhated air - 1 terajoule easily, and probably more like several TJ (or kilotons) for that effect- especially if we assume it was a nuclear fireball, or if we assume a more interesting temperature (like say several thousand K). Even if i'm off by several ordres of magnitdue (EG its 'only' single or double digit GJ lOL) this is immesenyl destructive.

What is even MORE hilarious is how the FFG Material consider plasma grenades to basically be plasma ammo packs designed to blow up (or the capital ship version in torpedoes, where the plasma reactor acts as a warhead contributing to destruction.) This could be construed as a (broad) indicator of the powerpack capacity for plasma weapons. I mean hell even taking this as as broadly order of magnitude we should be seeing plasma weapons packing gigajoules of energy (which is consistent with performance in other novels.. so how's that for consistency!)

I can't wait to see the outrage among some this calc is likely to generate however

[Ahriman238]

No outrage for the doom-grenade. Yet.

There are many types of Servitors, some have more complex programming then others. The one from before is unusual in how self-directed it seems to be, but that could be just a result of someone spending a lot to get the sort of quality a Magos would expect in his personal servitor.

I am not at all suprised to learn terminators can lift 1 ton objects singlehandedly.

Shaidan gets a lot less tolerance from me, just for how over the top his USE of his powers is. I don't even have a problem with a powerful psyker being able to TK his own weight plus armor, it's more that he uses his powers to do everything.

[Simon_Jester]

This sounds particularly dangerous in 40k, where the more you use psi powers, the more hostile attention you can draw...

[Connor MacLeod]

Last update for Warrior Brood. Next time we start Warrior Coven.


Page 161

CHAPTER EIGHT: CATACOMBS
[10 HOURS REMAINING]

10 hours left

Page 167

The ancient force sword flashed through the darkness, leaving a trail of shimmering energy in its wake, and then it stopped dead, poised less than a millimetre from the neck of Korpheus as the Techmarine froze on the point of springing out of the passageway.

Goto seems to have a thing for Space Marines using Eldar swords. Also I’m not sure that even Eldar force weapons would operate without a psyker powering them. Maybe it has a spirit stone embedded in it or something.


Page 168

“The hive cannot disrupt conventional technologies, only psychic communication,” snapped
Kalypsia curtly.

..

“This hive is different. I don’t know how it does it, but it can block our communications. Perhaps its psychic shadow works on
the communication centres in our brains, or perhaps it simply has control over some kind of blocking technology.”

- again its noted and claimed that the Tyranids have some means of interfering with communications (either psychically blocking the communications centers in the brains, or blocking teh comms tech itself), even though the Inquisitor denis this.

Page 172

Then he reached down to his belt and undipped a chain of krak-grenades in one hand and a chain of frag-grenades in the other. Running his fingers along the lengths of each chain, he primed them all at once.
...

...as he launched the grenades into the seething chamber of charging raveners. There was a faint clink and clatter as they hit the ground, and then a colossal explosion as they detonated, filling the chamber with flames and monomolecular shrapnel-fragments. The concussion wave blew outwards from the centre of the room, blasting plumes of fire and heat down each of the feeder passages, chasing at the heels of the storming Neleus.
...
But then Ruinus’s discarded bolter reached critical temperature and its remaining shells detonated randomly, spraying the chamber with a fury of explosive shells, riddling the already lacerated and melting raveners with lashes of lethal ballistics.

Monomoecular shrapnel fragments (even from, it seems the krak grenades) go figure.


Page 178

He stepped in, closing the distance, before smashing his fist into its face and then springing around behind it. He clung his arms around its head and let out a war-cry that the others had never heard before. A visible convulsion of power pulsed through his body
and burst out of his arms, exploding the creature’s head and its upper body into a hissing rain of molten flesh.

Ashok vs Zoanthrope.

Page 183

CHAPTER NINE: REVELATIONS
[6 HOURS REMAINING]

6 hours.

Page 183

She flicked her lascannons back onto manual and
started to pick off the straggling tentacles that reached back towards the Prejudice.

Lascannons apparently can fire on automatic or manual control.

Page 184

They were overheated and rapidly losing charge, but she had already exhausted all the missiles, so they were all she had left.

Lascannons on the fighter run on a fixed battery, it seems.

Page 184

Another chain of explosions followed, strafing through the now free floating vines and incinerating them in bursts of superheated plasma.

As the web fell away, the huge form of a Space Marine strike cruiser roared through the space beneath her, its gun batteries blazing in every direction at once, vaporising broods of drone ships and spore mines. Its main frontal cannons were focussed on the withered and
rained weeds that fell away from the immense battleship above them.

One of the weapons on the space marine vessels uses plasma as part of its weapon ins ome way.

Page 186

“...and then effectively shielded the facility from any outside interest by positioning his battle ship within striking distance of the system. It looks as though he has been using the Herodian warp gate to bring research materials from all over the galaxy.”

Rather interesting that it implies the warp gate has access "all over the galaxy".

Page 188

“It is difficult to say, my lord, since these actions are not technically illegal. The Ordo Xenos is not proscribed from exploiting alien technology for the benefit of the Imperium. We must presume that Parthon’s weapons programme aims to produce a weapon for the use of the
Inquisition.”

The Ordo Xenos seems to always be more radical tjhan other organizations.


Page 188-189

“In an attempt to protect his pet research project on this planet, Parthon is jeopardising the lives of an Imperial Navy battle group and a company of Space Marines, not to mention the lives of my Deathwatch kill-team and the integrity of the Herodian warp-gate. The correct response to this tyranid assault should simply have been an aerial bombardment - something that Commander Kastor would have been all too pleased to perform. It would have been over by now. ”

Fairly typical Inquisitorial behaviour, but its interesting to note that the correct response in dealing with the Nids on a planet is orbital (or aerial, via fighter) bombardment.


Page 193

“What news, my beautiful Slyrian?” asked Agustius, reaching out and cupping her synthskincovered cheek in his hand.

- Death Cultists apparently have access to Synskin/Synthskin outfits that ASsassins wear. Possibly due to Inquisitorial authority.

Page 197

The servitor was lying on its face in the corridor with a pool of blood puddling out under its face. There was a single entry wound in the back of its head; it had clearly been shot by a skilled marksman.
..
The death cultist crouched down and dropped a fin­gertip into the bullet hole, feeling the warmth inside the servitor's head as the brain tissue cloyed against the synthskin membrane that coated her body. A trickle of corrosive chemicals also soaked into the synthetic skin, and Slyrian withdrew her finger as the metallic taste began to seep into her mouth, carried through the capil­lary action of her membranous armour. Whoever was on Agustius's gunship had toxin tipped ammunition; this killer certainly meant business.

The synskin apparently can "taste" fro the cultist. Ew.


Page 197-198

“Ordo Xenos?” asked Agustius from the safety of his oval viewing station...

...

“Yes, the bullets are tipped with tyranid bio-plasma toxins..”
...
Agustius had heard of experiments to use alien ichor to poison the tips of projectiles and he had assumed that such technologies would appeal to radicals like Parthon...

Excpet that I'm pretty sure Hellfire shells are based on something similar or such.


Page 199

Down in the corridor, she could see the faint reports of needle guns from an area of cover behind some container-caskets. Opposite the caskets were the blast-doors themselves and three guards were standing in front of them loosing volleys of laser shells from their
standard-issue laspistols. The shots were pinging harmlessly off the crates...
..
Needle guns were not very effective in a fire-fight, and it looked as though the guards might eventually overpower their assailants..

Needle guns.

Also notice the laspistol shots pinging off crates!

Page 199

...she pulled an elaborate short sword from a holster on her back. The blade was made out of a rare, black alloy that was utterly non-reflective....

I'm pretty sure black, non reflective blades are not high tech.

Page 199

The would-be assassins must have taken up those positions in the cover of the containers in order to dispense with the guards silently - picking each one off with a needle of venom from their precision weapons.
...

...if they couldn’t even shoot three human sentries standing twenty
metres away from them..

The needle weapon is a venom one. 20 metre or so range.

Page 200

Instead, he heard a rattle of shots from one of his comrades and then a brief, aborted scream. A fraction of a second later, he felt the toxic needles from his partner’s momentary frenzy riddle his own body, fizzing into his blood stream and perforating his abdomen. As he collapsed to the ground in convulsions of agony....

Effect of the needle rounds.

Page 201

CHAPTER TEN: TYRANOCIDE
[4 HOURS REMAINING]

4 hours to go.

Page 207

“...it seems likely that Grendal’s living tissues have been drained by the machine and somehow converted into psychic resonances. It is conceivable that the tyranids of this splinter hive have been able to exploit these signatures in order to assimilate an understanding of our protocols and procedures. As we are all aware, this hive seems unusually potent in psychic terms - perhaps because of the assimilation of eldar DNA on its way here.
..
“Are you suggesting that the hive mind has been able to assimilate this inquisitor’s knowledge of the strategies of the Ordo Xenos, the Deathwatch and even the Codex Astartes?”

And we get the explanation of how the Tyranids learn Inquisitorial/Deathwatch and even Space Marine tactics. And boy, do they use them!

Page 212-213

..Shaidan had been taught how to enter a battlehaze.
It was not the blood thirsty mist of a berserker, but rather a state of mind that actually contracted the Marine’s perception of time.

..
Maetrus, who had later founded the order of the Praying Mantidae itself, had been the first to discover that for some reason the Chapter’s gene-seed was incompatible with the proper functioning of the preomnor implant that all Space Marines receive as part of their initial, surgical transformation into a Marine. The result was that certain frames of mind could actually trigger neurochemical changes in a fully developed Mantis Warrior. The key mindset was an attitude of deepest devotion and penitence.

If a Mantis Warrior were to fall or force himself into such a frame of mind, the preomnor organ would transmute it into a potent neurotoxic-chemical that would actually alter the Marine's perception of space and time in such a way that it permitted him to obliterate his consciousness of all things outside of his field of perception and thus per­ceive the immediate reality in an incredibly concentrated and efficient manner. The most obvious use of this state of mind was to assist the Mantis Warrior in focussing his will to do the service of the Emperor - the efficiency of his per­ception acted to increase his strength and the speed of his reflexes, almost to the extent that the Marine would appear to have a mild sense of precognition. It was a reward for the most pious - and piety with devotion marked the Praying Mantidea out above all others.

The process had a terrible side-effect on the Marine in question - his perception would never return to normal and he would be trapped in a narrow world of tunnel vision until he died. He would become useless to the Chapter in all but his close combative functions, and each Company of the Mantis Warriors had a special squad of Mantis Religiosa, filled with Marines who had sacrificed their will to the devotional imperatives of their purified wills and thus sacrificed their very identities for the greater glory of the Emperor. Maetrus himself was rumoured to have fallen into this state in the last great battle of the Badab Wars; when the Astral Claws had been broken and their forces were fleeing, Maetrus had plunged after them into the Eye of Terror with single-minded determination, never to be seen or heard from again.

In practice, hardly any of the Mantis Warriors would ever approach this state of mind, but all the Praying Mantidae were subjecteded to a special hypnotherapy that enabled them to feel the humiliation and despera­tion of their Chapter in the most acute way. In cases of extreme need, when death in battle was a virtual cer­tainty or the Chapter's redemption was at stake, the Marine could lapse into this battle-haze and be certain that his duty would be fulfilled. Soron and Ruinus were both trained in this unique skill for the penitent and the desperate.

I refuse to use this name or say it outside of the quote. It's a silly name, it still stays a silly name. Although I like the idea for the Mantis Warriors. I hate the name.

Page 216

The Mantis Warrior was moving with incredible speed and precision and the captain found himself recollecting the first time that he had seen the librarian in battle - when he had free fallen out of a Thunderhawk into the braying swarm of tyranids to assist the extraction of his Deathwatch team.

Impyling Shaidan has used it more than once, although I'm not sure.

Page 218

He had never seen such a huge tyranid before - it towered over the two Marines, dwarfing them utterly and riddling their minds with javelins of fear.
The chaplain could feel the insidious effects of the tyrant’s psychic presence, drilling and lashing against the edges of his consciousness. It chattered and shrieked directly into his
mind, pushing him towards insanity. The psychic assault battered him from within, while the terrifying visage of the beast itself assailed him from without.

Tyranid using psychic fear assault.

Page 220

Then, with a burst of fury from its eyes, it spat a gout of warp fire into the chaplain’s face.

Shaidan was just in time, vaulting up from the ground and severing the sinews of the beast’s grip around Broec. The chaplain tumbled out of his binds and crashed to the ground. Staring up from where he lay, he saw the flames of warp energy engulf the Mantis Warrior, throwing him back against the wall, where he slumped down to the ground next to Broec.

Warp fire attack.

Page 223

CHAPTER ELEVEN: ALIEN EYES
[3 HOURS REMAINING]

3 more hours!

Page 224

The evidence against hid old friend was severe, despite the fact that he had done everything he could to keep his machinations within the parameters of Imperial law. In fact, the problem was not even with what he had done; no matter how distasteful Agustius may have found the research project on Herodian IV, it was not technically illegal. The problem was rooted in the way in which the radical inquisitor had sought to protect his pet project. The problem was the cost that he was willing to pay to keep his ambitions alive.

Everything that has been done to protect it is apparently illegal for an Inquisitor to do - DO NOT WASTE RESOURCES! But I guess if he'd used Exterminatus it woudl be okay

Then again this is Puritan vs Radical. wouldn't surprise me if the righteous indignation were justa tool to deal with another radical.

Page 228

“The swarm will be disoriented for a while, but its communal synapses will eventually reroute. It will find another creature to act as its coordination node. The hive tyrant is key, but it is not irreplaceable - this is the strength of the tryanid’s organic organisation.”

They can either evolve, adapt or deploy another synapse creature, in other words.

Page 229

The little cell-like room overlooked the principal landing bay of the Veiled Salvation and it was cloaked in darkness. The ceiling-high windows were armoured and reinforced with an invisible energy field, but they provided an unbroken view of everything that happened in
the space below.

- The Veiled Salvation, a battleship requisitioned into Imeprial service, has armoured windows that are further protected by an invisible energy shield.

Page 229

Human eyes are such fragile things, and he did not care for such weaknesses. He was better off without them; his psychic powers more than compensated for such physical iniquities and they had no need for light.

Like an astropath, some other psykers can see without human eyes.


Page 230

Just after he had started the Herodian project he had made contact with the eldar of the Iyanden craftworld. They had been even more devastated by the tyranids of Hive Fleet Kraken than had the Imperium on Ichar IV. The swarm had overrun the gigantic space-borne city and destroyed thousands upon thousands of its warriors.

Implies the Eldar losses against Kraken were worse than the Imperium’s at Ichar IV. Considering Ichar IV was a Hive world, we could be talking hundreds of thousands, even millions.

Page 231

It was then that Parthon realised that the Iyanden eldar and the Ordo Xenos had a common purpose on the fringes of Ultima Segmentum: the eradication of the tyranid menace. And he offered them a ’’deal’’. In return for some eldar technology, which Parthon would use to fashion a weapon that would rid both the Imperium and the Iyanden eldar of the tyranid threat, Parthon would agree not to tell the Imperial Navy where the weakened Iyanden craftworld was hiding.

Nice to know the Eldar will tech share if the circumstances are right.

Page 231

In addition to various pieces of a psychic amplification array, which Parthon gave to Grendal on Herodian IV, the artisans of the Iyanden craftworld had also gifted Parthon with a new pair of eyes. The artisans had honed their craft on the production of Wraiths, and the eyes were vastly superior to anything natural or artificial produced by humanity.

Eldar augmetics?

Page 233-234

“But the two appear to have formed some kind of symbiotic unity, so I would guess that killing Grendal will have an adverse effect on the machine.”
..
“The device contains a mixture of tyranid genetic material
and eldar technology, captain.”
..
“The tyranid material forms an organic bond with the occupant, assimilating him into the structure of the machine and affecting a symbiotic union. Meanwhile, the amplifier array that was borrowed from the Iyanden eldar forms a concomitant union with the user’s mind, boosting his psychic potency to incredible levels.”
...
“It sends out a disruptive signal into the depths of the hive mind, confusing the swarm and attacking the synaptic nodes using their own relay system. It assaults the hive from within,
captain.”

We find out how the machine/weapon works.

Page 238

He had always known that the recovery of alien artefacts for analysis by the Ordo Xenos was one of the roles of the Deathwatch, but Octavius had never liked it. It was a grey area in the ethical composition of the elite force and it was not something of which many Chapters of Space Marines would approve.

Octavius, loyal as he is, is a puritan at heart.

Page 240

If the Grendal-weapon was really a conduit into the hive mind and if it was partially constructed out of tyranid organic parts, wasn’t it possible that the device was like a glaring psychic beacon, calling the swarm to the Herodian system, just as the vanguard genestealer organisms called the hive to suitable worlds? After all, this was its first appearance in this sector and it had gone straight for Herodian IV.

Probably! Rather like Genestealers actually.

Page 243

Neleus thundered into the compartment and opened up with his storm bolter, blasting a hail of hellfire shells into the floating monstrosity, riddling Kalypsia’s body with lethal flecks of metal.

Hellfire rounds throwing out metal shrapnel rather than crystal.

Page 243-244

Then he flicked a grenade into Kalypsia’s lap and punched the release for the main prow doors.
...
After a second, Audin thumbed the remote detonator and the
Kalypsia-device erupted into a blue plasma star, pristine and radiant like the light of the Astronomicon itself.

Another plasma grenade.


Page 246

But his chest plates had been shattered by the warp blast from Kalypsia, and medicated bandages had been strapped around his abdomen to treat the blistering burns.
Although his enhanced metabolism was working overtime to heal the wounds, they were still painful and awkward.

Warp blast inflicting burns, which the AStartes metabolism is healing slowly.

Page 249

“Talking of which - Captain Audin, I assume that your battle barge, the Endless Redemption, is equipped with planetary bombardment cannons and an Exterminatus array?”

“Yes, my lord.” answered Audin simply.

“Then you will use it on Herodian IV - it is time to kill the planet.”

And CS Goto kills yet another planet.


PAge 250-251

The huge warheads spilt fire out of their thrusters as they powered towards Herodian IV, where the roiling black clouds of the tyranid swarm still coursed and swirled over the surface. In the outer atmosphere, the gigantic mass of the Hive Ship was consumed in flames, as an intense and continuous stream of lance fire pressed into its chitinous shell, feeding the blazes with a colossal energy flow. The ugly monstrosity was falling into the atmosphere, and sheets of fire flooded the skies over half the planet.

After only a few seconds, the warheads pierced the stratosphere and screamed down towards the planet's surface. Some of them detonated in the air, exploding into vast sprays of viral rain that bloomed and blos­somed into lethal weather systems, hailing biochemical death into the seas of xenos organisms on the surface below. Others blasted down into the ground, punching out great craters and exploding into superheated thermal shock waves that radiated out around the planet, incin­erating vast swathes of organic matter.

From the viewing station of the Endless Redemption, Herodian IV looked completely transformed. When the Mantis Warriors had arrived, they had seen a planet over­run by the tyranid swarm, and they had watched its oily black shadow swim and writhe across the orange deserts. Now the black oceans where being rapidly consumed and vaporised by spreading plumes of burning orange, and obscured under coagulating layers of dirty clouds.

[/quote]

rocket propelled munitions from the "exterminatus array", along with lance shells. Looks to be a combination of virus bombs and cyclonics.

It is earlier noted that the Mantis Warrior battle barge is out fited with "bombardment cannons and an exterminatus array" - whether this means we're seeing a thorough extermination via multiple methods or not is up for debate, I suppose.

[Connor MacLeod]

Now we're up to warrior coven. This is Imperium-Eldar-Dark Eldar love triangle stuff, and basically answers the question "what would happen if Eldrad traded a Deathwatch team and some eldar to the DArk Eldar fro some ulterior plan?" Basically everyone gets fucked. Hard. It's far less enjoyable a novel, and I attirbute it again to Goto's Eldar fetish. WE get a buttload of Eldar mutilation for dark Eldar pleasure, and Deathwatch basically mauling the Dark Eldar (plus a pointless Death for the Deathwatch captain) mixed in with more over the top psyker madness and Mantis Warrior love. First a commissar mauling the DE, then Deathwatch. They have the Avatar's luck.

Bonus points for a mythological story about an eldar-human child, which is throwback to first edition rules as well as the fanfiction dreams of some writers as I understand it.

Part 1


Page 8

At an unspoken and invisible signal, the two wyches snapped into stillness and then dropped to their knees, bowing their heads towards the warp field that they had just created in the bowels of the vast Ulthwe craftworld. The rippling field started to pulse with waves, scattering droplets of darklight over the kneeling figures. The waves rose and gathered momentum, crashing into
interference patterns that sizzled with unspeakable power.

Dark Eldar wraithgate, or some sort of sorcery-inspired portal, formed inside Ulthwe Craftworld.

Page 10

As tiny shuriken shards of toxic pain bit into her back she grinned, running the tip of her tongue around the glistening points of her upper teeth.

Toxic shuriken ammo.

Page 14

..a black Wave Serpent drew out of the tree-line behind him, hovering a metre above the earth, its
twin linked shuriken catapults and cannons sizzling with constant fire.

Wave Serpant floating a metre off the ground.


Page 14-15
[quuote]
From the tank's roof, Truqui trained his eyes on the darklings, ,letting his reaper launcher twitch and scan automatically with his line of sight. He knew that the guns of the Wave Serpent would not be precise enough from this range, but he was an exarch of the Dark Reapers and he lived for moments like this. Squinting his eyes in momentary concentration, Truqu i released a volley of rockets from his weapon, targeted into a small, empty clearing in the trees in the distance. There was nothing there.

Whether by divination of calculation, the reaper rockets arrived at exactly the moment when a Dark Eldar Reaver streaked into the clearing. The warheads punched into the exhaust tubes and protruded out the back of the jetbike, shattering the rear of the engine block and detonating inside the energy core. The Reaver was wracked with explosions along the line of the ehxaust, and then it erupted into a sudden fireball as the engine caught, incinerating the bike and the rider instantly.[/quote]

Dark Reaper gun outranging Wave Serpant weapons, implied to possibly be predictive or precognitively guided.



Page 20

There was a murmur of assent from the others. It was unthinkable to believe that incidents of this magnitude would have gone unnoticed by the Seer Council. The mighty Eldrad Ulthran himself should have seen them on the horizon from a distance of several millennia.

Yes. Ulthwe is so confident in their precog they find it IMPOSSIBLE to think they could miss something. They're PERFECT I tell you, PERFECT!

More proof Ulthwe are the Ultramarines of the Eldar world.

Also note that they find it possible for Eldrad to precog millenia ahead of time.


Page 20

The grand council chamber of Ulthwe was located in an elaborate dome, high up amongst the peaks and towers that rose gloriously out of the top of the massive craftworld. IT was shrouded in a cloud of sha'iel, which made the dome pulse in and out of mateiral existence- only member sof hte council itself could be guaranteed to find the chamber in phase when they approached its ancient bone doors. Other visitors might pass through the legendary doorway and find nothing but void on the other side of it. For the uninitiated or uninvited, the doors to the Seer council were literally a gateway into the tortured void of the warp itself.

Even thought he dark eldar incursions were happening in the very bowels of the craftworld, countless thousands of metres bleow them, the seers ain the grand hall could hear every shuriken burst and feel every shudder of sha'iel releasedin the various combats that raged.

Craftworld thousands of metres thick, at least. Also this "Grand Council Chamber" is partly submerged in the warp, like the webway. It must be very well shielded, given how reluctant the Eldar are to be near anything resembling the warp (even on a starship)

Page 22

The council chamber of Ulthwe was more than accustomed to this kind of heated debate, as the seers argued and railed about their divergent interpretations of visions, and, over the millennia, the tortuous energies exuded from the eldar seers had gradually seeped into the
structure of the chamber itself. Every few thousand years, the hall had to be ritually purified by Eldrad Ulthran himself in order to prevent it from exerting its own violence on the council of seers that met within its hallowed walls.

Wraithbone can absorb the psychic emanations of nearby Eldar over time, and can project it back onto occupants of the room.

Page 29

The yellow teeth dug through Shariele's psychoplastic armour, but as they touched his skin they sizzled and vaporised instantly.

Like a potent venom, the thrill of Shariele's touch spread rapidly through the bodies of hte two beasts, transforming each into a stinking cloud of vaporised warp-energy. In less than a second, the clouds lost their shape and all evidencec of the warp beasts vanished form the material realm.

two warp beasts "vaporized" by contact with a Eldar Warlock.


Page 32

In the fraction of a moment that it took her to consider turning back, the ruined Reaver was wracked with heavy fire from the Wave Serpent's cannons, transofrming it into an explosive fireball that incinerated all organic matter within a ten-metre radius.

Not clear whether the fireball is from the firepower of the Wave Serpant or of the Reaver exploding. IT's alot of energy either way (assuming a 200K increase in temp) - hundreds of megajoules, perhaps several gigajoules depending on exact temp.


Page 34

It had been there for centuries, since its inception. In truth, the existence of the coven lay at the foundations of the rationale for the substation's very existence. What could possibly have convinced the three services to co-operate on the development and maintenance of a station so close to the Eye of Terror? The expense of such a facility was astronomical, and the psychic shielding required to keep the residents sane was absurd. It was the worst possible place for a base of operations. It was the most troublesome possible location. Only together could the Inquisitorial services sustain the station.

After Ramugan had been built, people stopped wondering about its rationale. Existence has its own weight. People accept things once they exist, once they have invested in them. So it was with Ramugan: the substation was created to service the Coven of Isha, but as time passed and the coven was never activated, everyone forgot about it and it passed into legend. Legends are quickly forgotten or buried in the vaults of massive libraries with infinite aisles of books and numberless pages of documents. Soon, nobody can remember them at all.

The Inqisition collarborated and built a facilitiy in a highly dangerous place close to the Eye, for whatever reason the Coven needed. Such is the nature of the Inquisition.

"psychic shielding" must mean its own inbuild GEllar fields.

Page 35-36

For most junior Xenos inquisitors, a posting to Ramugan seemed like a nightmare assignment. It was now well-known as an Ordo Malleus stronghold, and for good reason. Its
proximity to the Eye of Terror meant that the station could serve as an early warning post if anything started to spill out of the maelstrom. More than once it had been used as a base of operations for the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines. And it suited the secrecy of the coven to allow the local subsector of the Ordo Malleus to invest Ramugan with its own identity.
..

In service and in faith, Glorina Caesurian, Inquisitor Lord, Ordo Hereticus, Ramugan subsector.

It seems to also serve as a subsector base for the Inquisition.


Page 43

The mystics that lined the main chamber were specially selected from all three arms of the Inquisition and subjected to egregious cycles of hypnotherapy by each of the services. Their minds were carefully picked apart by interrogators and explicators, who worked to ensure that the psychic potentials of the mystics remained potent but that their capacity to innovate or create the impulse to employ those abilities for themselves was entirely eradicated. By the time they were permitted to enter the Chambers of Conference, they were little more than psychic menials, producing a constant atmosphere of purity and calm, effectively blocking out the various formidable psychic powers of some of the inquisitor lords themselves.

Or, in other words, psychic servitors!


Page 48

The small, circular chamber occupied an unusual space within the substructure of the Ramugan station. It would have been impossible to mark on a schematic, since it was not entirely present in the material realm. In the forgotten past, when the station had first been constructed, Farseer Eldrad Ultrhan of the Ulthwe craftworld had supplied the chamber for the coven himself, presumably foreseeing that its secrecy would be important in the years to come. Now, the wraithbone chamber teetered on the edge of material reality, almost entirely enveloped by the tortruous and incomprehensible currents of the warp, from which it was protected by the mysterious eldar materials and craftsman ship.

The Coven has its own Warp-submerged chamber for its own purposes. This suggests it is not a technology beyond Ulthwe to create or empoy.

Page 49

Indeed, the records of past coven-keepers, hidden away in a small librarium that was kept out of sight and out of reality by being dipped into the otherworldinness of the warp...

And a library too, similarily shielded.

Page 49-50

It was only his direct experience of the sanctum and the librarium that reassured him of the coven's continued existence: there was simply no other explanation for the secret presence of the largest wraithbone construction in the Imperium, nor for the existence of a force shielded tentacle that prodded out from Ramugan into the webway, attached to a little librarium that was filled with the scribblings of generations of inquisitor lords.

Just keeping these things secret from the rest of the Inquisition was a terrible heresy, although secreting away xenos technology for reasons of research was part of the raison d'etre of the Ordo Xenos. It was an open secret, although even that was frowned on by some of the more puritanical inquisitors. There were even members of the Ordo Xenos who did not approve of attempting to make use of alien technology at all. The late Lord Agustius, for example, had been so adverse to all types of technology that he had even refused to accept bionic implants in his crippled legs, preferring instead to trundle about in his wheelchair.

Thankfully, inquisitors of Agustius's persuasion were rather rarer in the Ordo Xenos than in the other arms of the Inquisition - the Thorian Puritans, for example, had very few members amongst the alien hunters. It was difficult, after all, to reconcile the need to hunt the alien without simultaneously developing an appreciation for their technologies.

Commentary on the purpose of the Ordo Xenos and their "research" into technology. We also learn the Coven has a link to the Webway of their own.


Page 50

Particularly eldar technology, mused Vargas as he gazed around the wraithbone chamber once again. It never ceased to amaze him. He was sure that the Adeptus Mechanicus would risk a small war to appropriate this chamber, just to take it apart and see what made it tick.

Probably.

Page 61-62

The Shining Spears were an entirely different matter, as Dhrykna knew well. They were a tiny and elite presence on only a few craftworlds, including Ulthwe, but they were universally prized as the embodiment of Kaela Mensha Khaine's spear, which struck with the power and speed of lightning. There was nothing dubious or dark about the Shining Path. It was a glittering exemplar of the warrior way, and its jetbike mounted warriors were well suited to the internal security needs of Ulthwe.

That doesn't sound arrogant, nope, not at all.

Page 64

The Marines of the Deathwatch were united by the strongest and most powerful of vows to the Emperor and His Inquisition, and they recognised that their battle-brothers were being honoured equally with themselves, but they were also fiercely loyal to their home Chapters and deeply suspicious of all outsiders.

Being seconded into the Deathwatch was one of the most profound challenges that a Space Marine could face. It not only meant that he would be dispatched on the most dangerous of missions to hunt down the alien menace - in many ways that was the simplest aspect of the position - but he would also have to resolve deep rooted and fundamental psychological tensions between his joint loyalties to the Emperor's will as interpreted by his Chapter and the interpretation espoused by the Ordo Xenos. Added to the mix would be the multifarious interpretations of the other Chapters, and the occasionally radical departures made by specific, idiosyncratic inquisitors.

More often than not, these differing world-views fell into a rough harmony; after all, they were all servants of the Undying Emperor. But from time to time the world-views would diverge or clash, and then a Marine was left to resolve the crisis in his own conscience. Joining the Deathwatch may be the greatest honour that could be afforded a Space Marine, but it was also the greatest challenge to his body and soul: victory and defeat, loyalty and heresy could become muddled together or fragmented into myriad aspects. More than any other assignment that a Marine might be asked to take, a secondment to the Deathwatch was a test of his character: duty before all else, but what happens when the meaning of duty is suddenly thrown into question by competing visions?

Commentary about a stint in the Deathwatch and the implications therein for a Space Marine - one of the chief issues of course is the conflicts that inevitably arise with service in the Deathwatch and with Inquisitors who, it seems, are among some of the most radical in the Imperium.


Page 67

There was a second Assault Marine - a Black Consul - whose grizzly features and cluster of service studs betrayed decades of service.

The Black Consuls, as I recall were wiped out some time in the middle of the 41st millenium, although precisely when I don't remember. This would suggest that "Warrior coven" and "Warrior Brood take place before that time, however we know from Warrior Brood that the Imperium is well aware of and fighting the 'Nids.... ugh. (remember that Agustius is already dead by now.)

One possibility, of course, is that the Black Consul is actually a survivor of the Chapter's demise (there are bound to be some of them still around somewhere) and he remained in the Deathwatch after losing his Chapter.

Page 87

"As you are aware, this craftworld, indeed our very species, cannot afford to lose any more of its own. Worse than this, stolen souls cast into the currents of sha'iel will serve to lead the minions of the Great Enemy - Slaanesh - to our doorstep. We may presume that this explains the current, unusual discharge from the Eye."

Don't the Eldar usually refer to Slaanesh as "She who Thirsts?"

Page 88

In the vicinity of the Eye, even the relatively predictable spaceways of mundane reality were treacherous. The warp could rip through the fabric of space and suck a ship back into the clutches of salivating daemons. Pockets of violent energy could erupt like massive proximity mines, exploding and showering passing vessels with fragments of concentrated Chaos; and space itself seemed to warp and shift, twisting the space lanes and bending the light of the stars themselves.

Dangers of navigation (realspace or Warpspace) in and around the Eye of Terror, up to and including spatial distrotions and distorted light.

Page 90

The wounds on his neck and head, which had been inflicted on the Black Consul during his captivity, had been healed perfectly by the eldar before they returned him, but the Ordo Xenos had reopened them all to make sure that nothing had been left inside the sergeant's skull. The metal plates that now covered Pelias's neck were testament to the inability of the Inquisition's surgeons to match the skill of the eldar. As for the details of what the eldar had done to him to inflict the wounds in the first place, not even the skills of Inquisitor Lord Guerilian had been able to extract them. However, the official mission report contained reference to an intelligence leak in the Deathwatch team as one of the factors that contributed to the failure of the mission. Pelias was not named in the report, but Octavius suspected that the eldar had been inside the sergeant's mind.

Probably. THey're good at things like that. And unsurprising that even the Inquisition can't match the eldar for the skill of healing (although knowing about Eldar Magic Crystal Healing from Path of the Warrior, all they likely did was just encourage Pelias' own body to speed up its healing and act more effiicently.)

Page 92

"He is here. He is alert to our presence, captain," reported Atreus, the Blood Ravens librarian, striding into the control room alongside the other two to look out into the red-misted starscape ahead.

Octavius nodded a greeting, but Ashok did not take his eyes from the screen.

"Who is here?" asked the captain, addressing Atreus.

"Ulthran," replied Ashok without turning. "The eldar witch lord."

"His mind fills this quadrant. It is like a giant sensor web stretched out from Ulthwe itself. He knows that we are approaching," continued Atreus nodding and searching the myriad stars for some sign of the massive craftworld." continued Atreus nodding and searching the myriad stars for some sign of the massive craftworld. "It must be here," he insisted.

"We should be able to see it."

First, unsurprising Goto would stick a Blood Raven into his story.

Second we learn that Eldrad, a Farseer, can extend his mind out ins ome sort of psychic, FTL sensor "network" that can detect people and/or things in and around Ulthwe. In alot of ways it is not suprrising. we learn in "Path of the Seer" that Seers and Farseers read what they call the "skein" and it too acts much like a sort of FTL sensor "network" allowing them to predict and act in realtime psychically - the skein being made up of precognitive imagery, as well as various psychic impressions, ripples, whatnot that may be left in and around the warp (emotions, thoughts, etc.)

Page 92-93

Octavius nodded, realising before the team had even reached Ulthwe why Lord Seishon had insisted on the presence of two librarians on this mission. "It is probably on the other side of that large, dim star," he suggested, pointing at the light that he had been considering with Ashok. The colour-shift affected by the mist made it look like a red giant - a supermassive star on the
verge of death.

There was a moment of silence.

"That's not a star," said Ashok in a slow whisper.

"That's Ulthwe," agreed Atreus.

I think this was a hamfisted effort at a Death STar parody, but it implies ulthwe is as large as a star. probably not really, just an illusion or something.

Page 94

It was a small temple, especially compared with the massive temple complex of the Dark Reapers, which was based thousands of metres above in the upper reaches of Ulthwe, where it complemented the atmosphere of the craftworld with its sinister blacks and dull, bone whites.

Again kilometers "thickness" to Ulthwe.

Page 97-98

Her heart ached for the eternal embrace of the ancient armour, in which writhed the souls of all the previous exarchs of that exalted temple, each absorbed into the spirit stone of the very first exarch of the Shining Spears on Ulthwe, the radiant Prothenulh, whose name would always be in the mind of any exarch who donned his armour.

which Echoes what we learn in "Path of the Warrior"

Page 105

Horror sank slowly into the soul of the Archon Lord as he realised that his reign had finally been brought to a close. He looked down at his own chest and watched the intricate web of monomolecular cuts and slices that laced his body gradually expand as blood started to seep out of them. He watched his sword splash and clatter to the ground, his severed arms still clutching its hilt.

Dark Eldar, unsurprisingly use monomolecular blades.

Page 106

A different klaxon sounded, breaking through the dull, monotonous whine of the warp sensors' continuous warning with a sharp, pulsing screech. "Proximity warning?" asked Atreus, dragging his eyes away from the magnified image of the immense, distant craftworld. He was still struggling to believe that a space vessel of that magnitude could really exist; knowing it in theory was no preparation for seeing it in reality. From a distance, it could easily be mistaken for a planet or even a star.

"No," replied Octavius, turning away from the screen and striding towards one of the nearby control consoles. As he approached, the serf instantly rose out of the chair and backed away from the monitor, making space for the Deathwatch captain without needing to receive an order. "This is a range warning. We don't have company yet, but it's on its way."

"Ulthwe?" asked Atreus, his voice sceptical.

"No," replied Ashok, without having moved or even turned from his position at the main screen. "Something else."

"He's right," said Octavius, staring into the green images that flickered across the terminal monitor. "Small and fast, heading out of the Eye itself. Their signatures are inconstant, as though the ships themselves keep falling out of phase."

"Shadowfields?" queried Atreus. He had never come across a dark eldar Corsair before, but he had done his research. In common with his brother librarians from the Blood Ravens, he never went into battle without a thorough knowledge of his potential foes.

The deceptive device, codified as a shadowfield by Blood Ravens researchers, enabled the Corsair to pass in and out of sensor arrays with impunity. Sometimes, if used in combination with a mimic engine, even causing the escort ships to register on monitors as friendlies.

- the Lance of Darkness mounts Warp sensors which apparently can pick up the craftworld (which is also described as planet sized, whcih is somewhat more believable.) The signautres detect Dark Eldar craft coming out of the Eye of Terror. Whether they detected some sort of warp drive signtuer or emergence, or perhaps a webway emergence, or perhaps even some psychic machinery on teh ship or whatever.. who knows.

Also mention of shadowfields and ships going "out of phase."


Page 110

In addition, the sudden and unconfirmed appearance of dark eldar Corsairs in the system made the picture look even more complicated.

Again implies ftl "warp" sensors rapidly detected the Dark Eldar entering the system from quite a distance off.


PAge `110

Looking up at the giant viewscreen, Octavius marvelled at the scale and elegance of the massive craftworld as the Lance of Darkness drew closer to it, dwarfed like a fleck of dust next to a moon. The craftworld was as large as a planet, but beautiful like a work of artistry, more graceful than anything in nature.

Again Craftworld as big as a planet. Wha tkind of planet we dont know.

Page 128

The walls curved gently into a sweeping circle, with the runic panels arranged in a precise configuration, designed to focus the energy flows of sha'iel into the very centre
of the room. The architecture concentrated the warp and permitted Lelith to open a portal into the immaterium with little more than a thought. A secondary feature of the careful design was that it also permitted certain entities of the warp to manifest themselves in the chamber, at least in vaporous forms and only for a brief time.

Warp-friendly archictecture, both protective and facilitating usage.

Page 133

The Lance of Darkness was not a large vessel by the standards of the Adeptus Astartes or the Imperial Navy. Nova-class frigates were made for speed. It was as mucha gunboat as an assault craft, whcih was partly why the Imperial Navy was so keen to see fewer of them in the arsenals of the Space Marines; the balance of power between the services was a precarious thing.

However, its unusual range of abilities made it the ideal gunship for the Deathwatch, and the Ramugan Ordo Xenos maintained two such vessels in permanent readiness. Compared to a strike cruiser, the frigates seemed tiny, but they packed more than enough firepower to punch a squad of Deathwatch Marines deep into enemy space.

Even though it was not a large vessel, the Lance of Darkness was still far too large to be held inside a station dock. Like its bigger cousins, it utilised smaller craft to shuttle personnel back and forth to other vessels or to the surfaces of planets, and it contained two Thunderhawk gunships for exactly such purposes.

Nova class Frigate described.

Page 134

Inside, was revealed a cavernous space, big enough to hold a moon or small planet.

impyling that Ulthwe istself is bigger than a "moon or small planet" - hundreds or thousands of km in diameter, amybe?

Page 135

There were dozens of ships harboured in that cavernous space, perhaps hundreds. And they were not all the tiny, rapid-strike fighters that he might have expected to see docked interanlly. There were larger vessels too, ships much bigger than the Lance of Darkness[/i, sleek and beautiful in ways that the Imperium could neither understand nor hope to imitate. Straining his eyes into the distance, and taxing his memory for the unusual class names, Octavius thought that he could see Aurora and Solaris cruisers in dry dock. Even further way, s far that he found it hard to believe that he was perceiving the distance correctly, Octavius thought he caught a glimpse of a Void Stalker battleship - such vessels had only rarely been enountered by the Imperial Navy and never with favourable results for the Imperium. It was like an entire fleet, waiting to be born out into the cold void of space.

"dozens or hundreds" vessels, although many implied to be mere fighters.

Page 135

"The great space dock of Calmainoc., It does not literally exist within the confines of Ulthwe. The bay doors open into a kind of warp portal, hardwired into the structure of the craftworld itself
. The portal is indistinguishable and inseperable from the main doors. THe harouber, however, could be anywhere in the galaxy, even beyond it. Only the ways in and out are in Ulthwe, which is effectively the same as having it here all the time.."

Ulthwe seems to have its own shipyard somewhere lese in the galaxy, connected to the Craftworld nad the yard by webway portals of some kind.


Page 138

She never ceased to marvel at the way those bridges reached literally light years from the edge of the dock to the airlocks of the berthed vessels, ,yet they may appear to be only a hundred meters long. Even the wraithsmiths of Ulthwe had lost the techniques required to reconstruct such incredible devices, bridges that actually spanned the galaxy via a specially contained glitch in the webway. Even repairs taxed the limits of their skills - so far had the eldar fallen.

The mon-keigh vessel might really be drawing to a standstill around a distant star, but it was also dropping its landing ramp down onto the bridge in the very heartt of Ulthwe.

..
Fifty confident strides from the edge of the jetty to the flank of the Lance of Darkness may mask an incalculably large distance.

Magical webway bridghe thingies, which are for the Eldar lost technology much as webways are.


Page 143

For a moment he caught himself wondering at the technology - what kind of material could reach seamlessly through the warp as though it were simply stretched across a docking bay?

This, he supposed, must be wraithbone, drawn out of the warp itself. He had seen small pieces of it before, of course, but he had never thought that entire architectural structures might be constructed out of it. Glancing down at his feet, he wondered what would happen to him when he crossed the invisible boundary between the distant docking space and the interior of the craftworld.

Wraithbone mentioned and described


Page 150

Up ahead, around a couple more corners, Dhrykna knew that the Black Guaridans would have activated Ghreivan's Gate, one of several hundred such porttals that were strewen throughout the immense structure of the craftworld. It was an access point into the intraicate lattice of warp-routes that the original architects of Ulthwe had hardwired into the infrastructure, permitting those who understood the complexities of its function to travel almost instananeously between different parts of the vessel.

It was another example of a technology that the wraithsmiths of Ulthwe could no longer duplicate. They knew enough to utilise the functions of the matrix, but not enough to expand it into newly constructed areas of the craftworld. Dhrykna had heard that passing through these internal portals actually immersed travellers in the infiniteness of the Ulthwe spirit pool - the infinity circuit itself.

webway/warp portals linking the interior of Ultwwe to different parts of it, and yet more Eldar losttech. And apparently linked to the infinitcy circuit in some way.

Page 151
[ quote]
To her consdierable irritation,she realized that hte crude, roaring mon-keigh bikes were keeping pace.[/quote]

Space Marine bikes keeping pace with Eldar jetbikes.

Page 157

"These gunships, were they large enough to be detected by the Malleus sensor arrays?"

"I doubt it, Vargas - the distance is too great. In any case, as you must know, the Lance of Darkness had to time its run in counterphase with the sensor sweep, otherwise we would have had Lord Aurelius storming in here before they had even got out of this system. Anything they encountered on that route would be invisible to us, I hope."

Implied FTL warp-sensors of some kind able to detect ships at great distance (since its doubtful Ultwhe is even remotely in the same system as the station.

Page 165-168

It contained the last, garbled words of an old inquisitor lord of the Ordo Xenos.
He had confessed to everything. He even confessed to a range of heresies that the interrogators had known nothing about. Before the end, he had also confessed to being a tau elemental and having fathered a half-breed child with an eldar female.

The standard wisdom was, of course, that Inquisitor Lord Herod would have confessed to anything. It seemed an undeniable fact that the poor man had gone insane.

...

Intermingled in amongst the references to hybrid children and heroic stands against the ancient necron threat, Perceptia thought that Herod had mentioned something specific, something that she suspected was not in the children's story. Something that he had added to the story from his own experience. Something that might even constitute a genuine confession.

...

"…After she had given birth to my son, she left me. It was terrible, I… there was nothing I could do, you understand? Nothing. She was more beautiful than I could stand, she was… Have you ever seen? By the stars…"
"What happened after your son was born?"
"She took him back! She flashed like a star and vanished back into the Circuitrine nebula…"
Pulling a little pocket-sized book out of her pocket and dropping it onto the desk next to the confession, she pressed its wrinkled pages flat and started to leaf through it. It was a copy of the Legend of Hourian, the story of an ill-fated inquisitor who had fallen in love with an eldar princess. Perceptia read out loud from the last page: 'After the terrible and beautiful child was born - an unholy creature of exquisite form - the princess cradled him in her arms, with her eyes full of tears. She looked up at Hourian for a fraction of a moment, her sadness written deeply in her eyes, and then she vanished, blinking out of existence like a dying star.

Though he searched for years without end, Hourian never saw her again.

The hilarious bit is that this is technically canon if we include 1st edition rogue trader stuff. There was a half eldar Astropath serving with the Ultramarines. Although I believe Xenology firmly cemented that the Eldar biology was too divergent from humanity to allow them to breed. Its one fo those early "fantasy in space" concepts that was weeded out of 40K eventually, much like the Squats were.

Page 170

The Imperial Fists captain looked out through the clearing smoke and saw the eyes staring back at him from the perimeter of the zone. These were the local residents who had come to see what had happened and, sure enough, they did not look like warriors. Their builds were even more slight than those of the eldar fighters, and they had no armour and no weapons.

Implied Eldar noncombatants. Whilst technically true that they aren't Aspect Warriors, the fact that all Eldar can serve as Guardians kind of makes the fact they aren't warriors wrong. although I doubt OVcatius knows this.

Page 176

He watched the Iron Father carefully and realised for the first time that only his head and right arm were still organically human. The rest had been replaced by mechanical limbs, organs and appendages, in the manner of the veteran Iron Hands techmarines. Sulphus must be old beyond his years - perhaps he had even trained with the tech-priests of Mars, wondered Luthar.

Considering he's a TEchmarine, he has to have trained at Mars. It's part of their requirement.


Page 179

Like an angel of fire amongst them, Kruidan hovered on the flames from his jump pack, spraying the flittering aliens with bolter shells and lashing out with his chainsword whenever any of them strayed close enough for him to reach. But the slippery foes were fleet, too fast and manoeuvrable to be brought down by a single Marine, no matter how furious his assault.

Streams of shells ripped up through the hall in support, ricocheting off pillars and riddling the heights with explosive fragments until the aliens could find no haven from the onslaught.

Yet again, Assault Marines can fly, rather than merely jump.

Page 181

The hall was transformed into a deathtrap, with projectiles pinging rapidly between the innumerable pillars, with bolter shells exploding into shrapnel, and great sheets of psychic fire interweaving the carnage.

Bolter shells tossing out shrapnel.

Page 194

The warlock was tall, as tall as most Marines, and his presence was tinged with a kind of gravity that even Octavius found impressive. But the alien's build was slight to the point of being slender. The Imperial Fist realised that the impression was probably false, and that he shouldn't judge the aliens by human standards, but it seemed to him that he could snap the sinister creature in two with his gauntlets. Apart from a number of obvious anatomical differences, the warlock's build was not dissimilar from that of the shimmering, white female.

A rather Tall Eldar Warlock

Page 196

AS his mind cleared, he heard voicees. They spoke in a tongue he could not understand and only partly through vocalised words. Many of the tones and nuancees seemed to seep through waves of psychic resonance,, as though words were spoken simultaneously through oral and psychic projections. In a moment of clarify, ,Ashok relaized tha the language of these eldar made no distinction between audio and psychic noise - both were natural parts of the tongue.

As noted before, Eldar langauge seems to be partly psychic.

Page 203

This was a complicated position for the Deathwatch captain, and he could see it even if the Black Consul sergeant could not. In the back of his mind, Octavius realised that this was why the Imperial Fists rather than the Ultramarines were the backbone of Adeptus Astartes diplomacy

I wonder how this feels in light of the current edition of Ultramarine loving in the various codexes goes.

Page 213-214

It was not clear whether Seye Multinus was a mutant or whether he was simply the victim of an accidental genetic defect. If viewed from a certain angle, his head looked quite normal, although perhaps his face might appear oddly proportioned. However, such an impression could only be achieved from a very specific angle. For everyone else, it was clear that Seye actually had two faces. One of them was on the front of his head, in the normal place. The other appeared to have been grafted onto the side of his head, with the ear of the first face prominent on the cheek of the second. In fact, the curator had two heads, but they had grown together as one in a slightly unusual shape. There was only one brain at work behind those dual visages, although it was a most unusual brain indeed.

In the distant past, his condition may have been called craniopagus parasiticus, but that was not something commonly seen in the Imperium any more - if it could ever have been said to be common. This was not due to medical advances, but rather due to fear - babies born with obvious physical defects were often killed at birth, in case the defect was a sign of daemonic taint. Harbouring and caring for such a child might be interpreted as heresy, and the child itself would likely be considered an abomination. Death was a release for everyone concerned.

Hah hah. Grimdark.


Page 218

Sure enough, the cloud of red mist that had been gradually seeping out of the Eye of Terror, like an osmosis of Chaos power, had grown significantly. Not only had its reach extended deeply into the Circuitrine system, but its density had grown too. Even with the amplifier arrays and the image enhancement protocols at little more than casual settings, the well trained eye would have been
able to pick out the telltale distortions of light from the local stars. And there were no eyes better trained than those of Inquisitor

More long range detection, possibly (probably) FTL, unless its like remote viewing from some servitor probe or something.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2.. and I'm free of this shit. Next I move on to inflict soul drinkers on you!


Page 226

He had added notes to his records about the kinds of responses that could be expected from different spectator species when he performed different operations in front of them. The humans were the most interesting - they were so easily shocked, so easily moved to fits of panic, fear or nausea. They would cry out almost as though they were being operated on themselves. The lightlings were more resilient; their threshold was much higher, but once it was reached they would howl and cry with a passion unmatched by any other species. It was a real art to bring lightling prisoners to such a level of orgiastic and voyeuristic agony. As for the orks - they never responded to anything, unless it was done directly to them. It was as though they had no capacity for empathy whatsoever. An audience of orks was no fun at all.

Dark Eldar victim preferences.


Page 230

Whoever had inserted them had known what they were doing. They had found all of the pain-nodes that were accessible on a human body without removing the Marine's armour. Presumably they had also found the nerve chain that Marines were conditioned to be able to shut down in cases of extreme pain to permit them to continue functioning. This was specialised knowledge of the kind prized by the apothecaries of the Adeptus Astartes, and Ashok's mind flew into a spin trying to think who else might have acquired it, and how.

Dark Eldar know Space Marine bodies.

Page 243

As they watched the diminishing image, ,waves of shivers passed through the bodies of the Space Marines, as though the Lancec of Darkness itself were passing through successive boundaries of icy energy. At first, Octavius thought that his mind was simply releasing the tension that it had stored whilst aboard the monstrous alien vessel, but then he remembered the similar feelings that had wracked the frigate as it had approached the craftworld.

Atreus nodded, as though reading the captain's mind. Some kind of psychic sensor array, captain. We are clearin its reach now.

"If there is such an array." Began Octavius, his suspicious mind juggling the information without turning away form the screen "How can the dark eldar raiders approach the craftworld undetected?"

Their psychic technology is far superior to yours, human. The icy, unfamiliar thoughts made Octavius turn. They hurt his head and pushed his mind in unnatural directions. Their presecne is much more subtle; they are little more than shadows in the darkness.
..

"Then how do you detect them?" Octavius made no attempt to approach the alien, and he kept his voice low, forcing the warlock to approach in order to hear him.
There are ways that you would not understand.

Another psychic, FTL sensor array.


Page 247

The Corsairs rolled and flashed around the Lance of Darkness, flickering in and out of visibility as though falling in and out of phase with the material realm itself. Their shadowfields clicked on and off intermittently, as though the flurries of sparkling fir ethat spat ouf ot fhe gun arrays interfered iwth the mimic engines.

Dark Eldar defenses.

Page 247

The gun bays around the perimieter of hte frigate resounded with fire, coughing out explosive warheads and slicing through the detritus with lances of lasfire. The gun-servitors were working overtime, tracking the rapid adn constantly shifting trajectories of the dark eldar coursaris and rattling out fire into their wakes.

Even the control deck rocked under the fury of their frigate's defensive actions, as each and evey gun turret semeed to fire simultaneously but in a diffrent direction. The kinetic release from the massive recoils of the heavy cannons sent shock waves pulsing through the infrastructure of the frigate.

The Nova Class Frigate's serivtpr-controlled gunnery. REcoil from the guns has a noticalbe effect on the structure of the ship. Assuming a 10 million ton frigate (1e10 kg), and a 5e3 kg (5 ton) shell), velocity would be 2,000 km/s. Of course this is for a single shot, and there should be a broadside (several dozen), It may be that the deck is shaken/pushed in different directions slightly (say at half a gree ), only countered by the fackt all guns are firing in different directions (countering the recoil of other guns, albeit imperfectly.) The ship's mass could be alot larger than the rogue Trader stuff. Maybe the frigate only tosses out shells that mass a few tons (that would work too). Velocity *could* go down, but remember that torpedoes travel at hundreds of km/s quite easily, and most shells aren't guided and need to be able to quickly cross thousands/ tens of thousands of km to get close to a target (you can't take minutes to do that.) Ther'es also the fact at least some of the broadside guns are lasers, which will offset the gun rcoil issues somewhat.

Actually that's a rather interesting point. If the LASERS are throwing out recoil too.. 1e10x3e8 = 3e18 J of energy per turret (or conservatively, broadside). Ha ha. Hilarity.


Page 248

The Ordo Xenos in some sectors still insisted that the serfs should be drawn directly from their own internal bureaucracies or should be seconded from the Imperial Navy, believing that service under the Deathwatch required special capacities that only the Inquisition itself could instil. However, many facilities, including the Watchtower Fortress of Ramugan itself, acknowledged that the serfs best suited for service under a kill-team were those who were already well-drilled in the strategies of the Codex Astartes and who had served under Space Marines before.

Just as the great Watchtower would enlist and train the very best Marines from throughout the Adeptus Astartes, so a separate and almost forgotten administration scoured the Chapters for talented serfs, recruiting them, training them, and then utilizing them for limited periods of secondment, before returning them to their original service vessels to fulfil their pledges to the relevant Chapters. It would be simply disastrous to entrust the transport of the Imperium's finest Space Marines to a second-rate crew of serfs and servitors, and the relationship was also beneficial for the separate Chapters that contributed their personnel, since the
serfs would return much more experienced and capable than when they left.

Inquisitorial recruitment practices.


Page 251

The fleeing Corsairs ducked and bobbed, weaving their way between and around the asteroids.

Behind them, the Lance of Darkness roared with determination, its forward batteries spraying fire almost indiscriminately, exploding asteroids into scattering fragments and making life difficult for the remaining dark eldar pilots.

Implies the Lance may be blasting apart asteroids roughly similar in size to the Corsaris, but not definite. Besides, pulverizing asteorids a few tens or hundreds of m in diameter only requires GJ/TJ level energies anyhow.

Page 252

Immediately, and without waiting for an order, the forward guns coughed a volley of rockets into the heat trail of the alien vessels. Two of them struck home, charging up behind the flickering corsairs and punching into their exhaust rigs, detonating their engine cores in fantastical explosions of ligh t.

Not sure if they are rockets or torpedoes.. they are heat seeking in either case.

Page 252

"Bring us up behind that asteroid and cut propulsion. We are going to wait for that corsair to break cover. When it does so, let it clear visible range but track it on the long-range scanners. We need to know where it goes, but we do not need it to watch us following it."

Self explanatory.

Page 253

They [eldar] had refused to take seats during the pursuit, and it seemed probable that they were not used to the rough gravitational shifts that such manoeuvres could generate in an Astartes frigate. Eldar vessels were equipped with gravitational stabilisers that nullified all the effects of such movement sand were the envy of the Imperial Navy.

Implying Imperial starships don't have inertial dampers. OR if they do, they don't fully nullify the effects. we know they can pull accelerations far above what normal humans can tolerate, and we've known of "inertial damping" technology that does it, so the obvious answer is "Eldar IDs are far superior", which isn't really a surprise.

Page 254

The sensors showed a spray of debris sattering out into space, and the warp sensors flashed to acknowledge a momentary rupture in real space, presuambly caused by the destruction of the corsair's engine core.

Warp sensors again.

Page 264

As the Lance of Darkness powered out of the web-way portal and pushed through the chaotic, swirling fog, the warp intrusion alarms sounded continuously on the control deck, filling the ancient vessel with steadily flashing red light and an ululating siren.

The ship's machine-spirit could sense the insidious violations that licked at its armoured plates, and its concern about the lack of a navigator onboard was evident. The vessel was not equipped for warp travel, and the vaporous mist of warp energy through which it passed confused its sensors. However, its warp shields held, because it was not submerged in the maelstrom of the warp, it was merely ploughing through the dense, eddying space of the Eye of Terror, like an icebreaker. The boundaries between material and immaterial space in this zone were permeable; droplets and shards flickered in and out of existence in each realm, struggling against their natures to survive in unnatural and alien dimensions. It was a field of perpetual death and life, a chaotic miasma of swirling vapours and intoxicating energies.

- the Lancee is not equipped for warp travel (has no navigtor, for example) but it does have warp shields - presumably this is considered protection due to the vessel's operation within close proximity to the warp.

It is odd, though that it is stated that the cruiser has no navigator or is not warp-capable. A Space Marine vessel is not much use unless it can travel and transport its forces. Perhaps it has limited (short range?) travel, either via computer navigation or astropathic navigation. Moreover, how did it get to Ulthwe?

Page 269

As a Mantidae, he was accustomed to enduring ritual and ceremonial hardhsips, including a kind of psychic torture that formed part of hte initiation ceremony into the elite group. The Praying Mantidae operated much like a kill-team, dipping in and out of the Eye of Terror in small squads, persecuting the heretical Astral Claws wherever they were detected. Hence, the minds of the Mantidae had to resist evey kind of violation and temptation, else they would go insane or, worse, they might turn against htemselves. The mantis Warriors lived in perpetual fear of self-betrayal.

Part of their attempts at redemption I bleieve.

Did I mention I hate the name Goto came up for this faction of the Matnis Warriors?

Page 271

Even though Octavius's Thunderhawk had dropped down through the mire of clouds in the lead, Kruidan's gunship crunched down onto the cold, cracked rock of Hesperax first. The Mantis Warrior was well experienced in making such drops, and he knew the importance of getting down to the ground quickly; there was more at stake than the simple paranoia of the Adeptus Astartes, who all craved the feel of solid ground beneath their feet. Once he had entered the cover of the thick, swirling clouds, Kruidan had opened up the gunship's engines and roared almost vertically down to the ground, where he had suddenly leveled up and fired the stabilisers to soften the impact. It was the closest mimicry of a drop-pod that a Thunderhawk could manage, but it had the distinct advantage that a Thunderhawk could extract the Marines later on; alone on the surface of a cursed, Emperor-forsaken planet in the Eye of Terror, neither a Mantidae nor a Deathwatch Marine could expect back-up to arrive in a hurry, so drop-pods were usually out of the question.

Implying a Thunderhawk approached drop pod like performance, posisbly including velocity. we know of Thunderhawks going hypersonic or near-hypersonic anyhow.

Page 271-272

As he scanned the scene, Kruidan could see no movement either within or outside the perimeter. He had hoped that the speed of his descent would have made the Thunderhawk difficult for any ground based sensors to detect it, or at least to differentiate between it and a meteor; from the look of the planet's surface, meteor strikes were not an uncommon occurrence on Hesperax.

Again the implication that the Thunderhawk achieved close to Drop-Pod like performance (at least far higher than the Imperial Armour listed stats.)

Page 272

In any event it was the best that he could do, although he was concerned that Captain Octavius had dismissed his approach as unneccesarily rash and at variance with the teachings of the Codex: A Thunderhawk was not a drop pod.

Looking up, Kruidan could see the faint glow of the Captains gunship, still engulfed in the dark, vaporous clouds as it descened to towards the landing zone at a more orthodox speed and angle. Its engine flared with power and the roar was faintly audible already.

Codex-approved speed limits, although the vehicles are capable of performing outside that envelope. Very much like the way Salamanders and Leman Russes (and Rhinos and Predators, in the case of the stuff the White Scars use) can be modified to move faster than their "orthodox" speeds.) Probably means we should take the IA values as "codex approved" maximums (I had this once suggested to me by Thanatos, the supermod on SB when he first pointed this quote out to me.)



Page 274

The splinter projectiles were clattering into his armour form all directions at once.

Kruidan, the Matnis Warrior's power armor is resistant to massed splinter rifle fire.

Page 275

Roaring over the sound of his jump pack, Kruidan squeezesd the triggers on both outstretched grenade launchers, holding them in as the weapons convulsed over and over agian, releasing dozens of grenades in two wide, concentric spirals aorund the perimeter of the crater. The parabolas were shallow and the first grenades impacted in less than a second, divided by 180 degrees around the pit. Explosions strafed around the rim as the rest of the grenades hit the ground and deontated, forming a wide ring of fire and icy shrapnel. The dark eldar scattered back away from the crater's edge, leaping and darting out of range of the detonations like metal fragments being repelled by an electro-magnet.

As his grenade launchers whirred and clicked empty.

Our Mantis Warrior assault marrine is carrying grenade launchers, spitting out dozens of grenades (impacting in less than a second at whatever height he's at) in a short period of time.

Page 277

There was not a chain or a lock in the Imperium that could restrain a Space Marine in full combat armour, but these shackles were made of a mateiral that they had never seen before - they appeared to be made out of the darkness itself.

DArk Eldar version of Wraithbone?

Page 278

Pelias roared, thrashing against the shackles and smashing his fists back against the wall. Like the others, he could feel the jagged arcs of agony lancing through his nervous system when he moved. But, unlike the others, he had felt this pain before. The Biel-Tan had used similar nerve-pins to immobilise him when they had taken him captive. Not even the ministrations of Inquisitor Lord Guerilian had managed to remove the physical memory, and every piercing streak of pain brought back flashes of torture from his past. It was as though the pins had been pushed home in exactly the same places, sliding in between the plates of his
armour and penetrating critical points in his nerves.

Are we surprised that Biel Tan uses similar methods to the Dark Eldar in dealing with captivesf rom the so called "Lesser Races"?

Page 278

After he had run out of ammunition above the crater, something had hit his jump pack and blown it off his back. He had free fallen to the ground and smacked into the spiked, ice hard rocks. There was a massive wound on his back where his armour had been melted by the explosion of fuel, his skin was riddled with shrapnel anda long, jagged stone spike had been jammed through his shoulder.

Damage Kruidan takes in his fall. He is severely wounded, but his healing is assisted by the Dark Eldar and he survives. It does indicate what an Astartes can take without immediately dying.

Page 279

Next to him was the slender figure of Shariele, with pulsing warp tainted stakes driven through his hands and feet. Sizzling streams of toxic blood hissed into pools on the ground beneath his stigmatic wounds, and his de-masked head was slumped forward onto his stretched chest.

unneeded Christ imagery, even though the Warlock is an obvious sacirfice. And again Eldar have toxic blood in Goto's world.

Page 282

This was not a situation to which a Space Marine was accustomed. His mind raced through the possibilities: how could their captors have known how to immobilise them so perfectly? The required knowledge of a Space Marine's physiology was beyond many of the Space Marines themselves - perhaps only the Apothecaries would really know all the specific nerve nodes. Yet, somehow, these aliens had mastered the knowledge perfectly.

I'm pretty sure this isnt the first time they've captured or experimented on Marines. OF the Imperial or Chaos variety.

Page 285

"Yes, captain. I think so. His wounds are healing rapidly - much faster than I would expect to see on a Marine who has lost so much blood. As you know, the Larraman's organ relies on blood flow to manufacture scar tissue."

Some more on Marine Healing speed.

Page 292

Without pausing to consider his action, Shariele raised his wounded hands and threw a jagged flash of lightning up towards the platform. As the power coursed through his ruptured flesh, he roared in pain, filling his intent with agony and hatred for the darklings and the seers that had betrayed him. He poured his fury through his bleeding hands, feeling them burn and the skin melt as he screamed his rage.

..

She merely held up a hand, as though casually signalling that the streaks of sha'iel that were arcing towards her should stop their advance. Spontaneously, the warlock's joust of power ruptured and splintered, shattering into shards that scattered themselves harmlessly against the sheer wall beneath the queen's podium.

I guess having intact hands is rather important to channelling the warp for wahtever reason, since bare skn normally doesnt take injury like that.

The Wych Queen also manages to ward off a Walrock's attack.

Page 292

Whatever the haemonculi had driven through his flesh to hang him on the wall had interfered with his ability to focus energy into his fingertips. Instead his power bled over his
own skin, intermingling with the blood that still streamed over his wrists.

Possibly another explanation why warp attacks inflict physical damage as well.


Page 295

They moved slowly and cumbersomely, as though their own muscles were resisting the motion. Most of the nerve-pins had been removed, but a few remained in strategic points, making movement arduous and reactions slow. Octavius tried to turn and glower at the dark eldar behind him, but his head swam nauseatingly, as though he had been drugged; it would be a rare drug indeed that could flummox the auto-immune system of a Space Marine.

I guess Dark Eldar did their research even better than the pain manipulation indicates.

Page 297

It had been so long since he had felt real, unadulterated pain like this, and part of him thrilled at the parts of his mind that had been re-awakened.

Like all the Adeptus Astartes, he had not always been a Marine, but since making the ascension his pain receptors had been kept strictly under check, partly by implants, partly by hypnotherapy, but mostly by raw willpower.

Note that Octavius is actually rather suprrised ot feel real pain at this point, so pain seems largely an abastraction to a Space Marine (rather odd, given that the Ian Banks versions of the Imperial Fists place a high value on pain - a facet which carried over into both Index Astartes and subsqeuent Fists novels like Sons of Dorn.)


Page 303

But now they had a realspectacle: a warlock of Ulthwe locked in the jaws of a warp beast, pumping out such quantitites of barely controlled power that it would surely incinerate them both.

Define incineration at your own lesiure.

Page 304-305

As the light dimmed and faded, a stark and charred image began to appear in its heart. IT was little more than a disfigured and incoherent lump no teh ground where once Shariele and the beast had wrestled their last. It was not moving, and it was almost impossible to distinguish the shapes of two separate beings. The explosion of warp power had melted their flesh and their souls instantaneously, melding them into the picture of ruination.

Darting through the stunned silence, Dhrykna dived towards the faintly glowing remains of what she thought would be the last Ulthwe eldar that she would ever see. As she hit the ground, she rolled, flipping back up onto one knee at the side of what might once have been Shariele's head.
..
Scanning the charred remains, she realised that his waystone was also ruined,
which meant that his soul was lost to Ulthwe forever - but it also meant that the darkling wych queen could not offer it as a sacrifice to the minions of the Satin Throne.
..

The shock of the explosive light lasted only a matter of seconds...

...

Jamming her hand into the sickly, viscous, and burnt remains..

Remains of the Warlock. Badly burnt, but not reduced to ash. Rather amusing that his soul is "lost" but the shining Spear isn't horrified - normally losing the Eldar spirit to the warp means Slaanesh gets it anyway.

Page 308

"The coven would provide Ulthwe with a squadron of Adeptus Astartes at exactly the time that the darklings began to demand the souls of warriors for their daemonic patrons. Instead of sacrificing its own warriors, Ulthwe could send us and then slip away through the webway."

Hah hah that silly Ultwe . Not as brutal as Armageddon of course, but still pretty dickish. Except they are sacrificing their own warriors too.

Also Craftworlds can apparently traverse the webway.


Page 309

"What about the other Ulthwe captives? We saw the raiders taking prisoners on their sorties."
Sulphus was still suspicious, unwilling to be convinced so easily.

"Expendable, weak souls," replied Ashok. "They were merely bait to lure us here and to activate the coven. They were not enough to satisfy the darklings, and not significant enough for their loss to concern Ulthwe."

Throughout the book there has to be maybe a dozen or more such captives having been taken all told, maybe several dozen, and such are not "significant" a loss to Ulthwe.

The idea that Eldrad would deliberately sacrifice Eldar lives on the surface seems rather contradictory with how he's portrayed in other fluff (He'll sacrifice millions of other lives to save a single Eldar one... which suggests he has a high value on their lives). On the other hand, that Eldrad is a ruthless SoB when it comes to his own ends is perfectly consistent with this. If he seriously thought his precog offered him no other option, he might very well decide to callously sacrifice even Eldar lives if it meant the greater whole of Ulthwe (and quite possibly the rest of the Eldar race) survived.



Page 310-311

A small, bright burst of light suddenly flared in the middle-distance, and Seishon fancied that he could discern the suggestion of a frigate powering its way towards the Circuitrine nebula. He couldn't really see that far. The only detail that he could discern without activating the image amplifiers was the burst of fire from the vessel's engines. But his imagination was running away from him. In his mind's eye he could see every detail of the Grey Knights' ship as it roared through the thick, soupy space on the edge of Ramugan's Reach, ploughing through the warp seepage that curdled together with the vacuum of real, material space.

More possibly implied FTL detection of some kind, although it seesm to be visual detection here. Maybe they use psykers to scry clairvoyance across that distance. It would be within their capabilities.

Page 311

On the deck of the speeding Titanicus Rex, the fastest and most venerable of the Grey Knights' fleet currently birthed at Ramugan, Seishon could imagine the heroic and magnificent figure of Captain Mordia, standing with pride and resolve cut across his angular features. He would be making all possible haste towards the warp cloud that had begun to reach its vaporous tendrils into the outlying systems around the Circuitrine nebula, his will bent on uncovering and destroying the merest hint of a daemonic threat to the Imperium.

Again implying ftl stuff.

Page 312

The inquisitor lord had always been highly strung, but the events of the last day or two had stretched his already frayed nerves to breaking point.

only a day or two has passed for all the events around here.

Page 327-328

The young seer hit the ground hard, snapping her left leg in two places and crumpling into a bleeding heap. As she looked back up the sheer wall at the side of the arena with the jeering cries of the assembled darklings coruscating in her ears, she saw the magnificent, ceremonial robes of Bhurolyn fluttering on the lip of Lelith's platform, transforming him into the image of a massive,
flightless bird.

...

Xhelkisor could imagine the expression on the old eldar's face, his eyes bulging with panic as he realised that the council had betrayed him and that he was about to fall dozens of storeys into a darkling fighting pit.

but not die.

Page 328-329

There was a kind of cold solace in the realisation that her life was not being discarded meaninglessly, even though it was being discarded by the Seer Council of Ulthwe. She had watched Shariele of the Undercouncil incinerate himself in the flames of his own power, and she had not felt even a twinge of pity. She had known that his death was necessary for the good of Ulthwe and she had known that he would have given his life willingly if only he had been asked....

...

As Bhurolyn slammed into the ground next to her, throwing up a cloud of dust and blood, Xhelkisor considered how much better it would have been had someone actually asked them to perform this duty - but then, the council of Ulthran was never so straightforward. Deceit was part of the Eldar Way.

Not EVERY Eldar of course, but at least of ulthwe.

Page 331

With that, Bhurolyn punched forward and sent a javelin of power crackling through the arena. It slammed into the massive, slowly opening doors and blew them apart, shattering them instantly and sending shards of metal and masonry flying around the amphitheatre like hail caught in a hurricane.

Even a seer can muster alot of rbute firepower if he needs to.

Page 333

Without a word, Dhrykna darted forward, her now scarred and battle damaged white armour still glinting like a fleck of sullied innocence in the enshrouding darkness. She leapt into the air, clasping her hands around the head of one of the darkling guards in front of her as she twisted and spun over into the arena; she landed crisply in front of it, facing back to where its face should have been, but she held its now detached head clutched in her hands.

Eldar Aspect Warrior strong enough to rip the head off a Dark Eldar.


Page 342

The Titanicus Rex was a sleek and elegant example of the best engineering that the Imperium could muster and it appeared massive from the outside. It was, however, smaller than a strike cruiser, but far larger than a normal rapid strike vessel. If appearances were not deceptive, it should have contained at least half a company of Marines with full support equipment. In fact, the venerable vessel was a dedicated gunship with only a single squad of marines ensconced within, distributed throughout the vessel's decks and control centers. The greatest portion of the hull was occupied by gun batteries and relays; where there might have been stations for personnel, there were ammunition dumps and massive purification wards and the rear third of the frigate was taken up by a monumental engine, the likes of which would never be seen on a craft of a similar size anywhere else in the sector. The Rex was one of the finest strike vessels to have emerged from the great docks of Titan in the Emperor's very own solar system.

A Grey Knights vessel, some sort of Strike cruiser/STrike vessel hybrid, mostly engine and guns which means that it is more heavily automated (servitor-ized?) than even a Space Marine vessel. Shows what optimization is possible for Imperial starships, at any rate.


Page 350

As he watched, a huge mechanical monstrosity emerged slowly out of the darkness beyond the gates. It was vaguely pyramidal, but with spikes, tusks and jagged angles sucking out of it like the spines of a warp beast. The protrusions were decorated with skulls and dismembered limbs, and coated in thick, bloody ichor.

From each of the two corners at the front, long pincers extended on slender mechanical arms; they reached and quested before the bizarre construction as it gently hovered forward out of the darkness and into the arena. Cut into the front of the assembly, between the two bladed arms, was a snarling metallic mouth, which gnashed and chewed continuously, venting plumes of noxious smoke each time the heavy jaws snapped shut. And from the rear of the hideous structure rose a terrible, arching talon, like the sting of a scorpion; it lashed forward, punching into the ground at Octavius's feet as he leapt clear for a second time.

Known as a Talos construct, makes me tink the Dark Eldar ripped off Chaos Space Marines Defiler.

Page 356

The distinct hum of energy started to pulse through the metallic structure, as though being drawn into its thrashing limbs. Then, after a couple of seconds, the pincers and sdng erupted with fire, spraying wild volleys of fiery projectiles around the arena.

Talos thingy has projectile weapons. We know they are projectile weapons because later on ammunition is recovered from the thing and these are the only guns it ever shows.


Page 357

The Mantis Warrior spiralled through the air, flipping end over end as the incredible momentum threw him thirty metres and smashed him agianst the remnants of the gladiatrix gates. He slid down the wall into a heap against the floor before pulling himself back to his feet, leaning his weight against hte buckle dand bent glaive that he still held tightly in his hands.

This does not kill him.

Page 358

Their armour was cracked and chipped, ,and their hands ran red with blood, but they parried and punched at the darkling warriors with the fury of pride and righteousness. The hilts of daggers and swords protruded from their abdomens and limbs, wher ethe gladiatrixes had penetrated their defences and sturck home with their blades. But the Marines fought on undaunted and uncowed, their superhuman bodies able to function effectively despite the egregious wounds and the terrible pain.

They were outnumbered nearly four to one, but they stood back to back and showed the dark eldar what it meant to be part of a Deathwatch kill team.

Because Deathwatch Marines are badass, and these are just fucking Dark Eldar. and they lost to fucking Guardsmen. So why not to Space Marines.

Page 361

Over the last several thousand years, she had done battle with the eldar of various craftworlds and even with the Ulthwe themselves from time to time, but she had only rarely come across warriors from the Shining Aspect.

Dark Eldar wych lived several thousand years at least.

Page 363

Pain lanced across her back as the psycho-toxic poisons from Lelith's blade started to infiltrate her nervous system. She could already feel the muscles in her back beginning to spasm and stiffen as the poison started to eat them away.

Dark Eldar poison blade and the effect it has (speed and capability-wise)

Page 369

Punching his fist through the armour on her chest, Ashok wrenched out a handful of psycho-plastic and flesh, and then he sprang to his feet.

Librarian fist > Shining Spear Aspect Warrior Armour (at least of a Dead aspect warrior.) And just for context he's recovering the spirit stone.

Page 371-372

"It is a nodal chamber," answered Ashok matter-of-factly, as he strode from one pool to the next, peering into each carefully as he went.
..

"It is a kind of navigation point," explained Ashok, seemingly oblivious to the accusatory tone in the chaplain's voice. "Each of these pools is an access point to a form of transportation network. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I would guess that it is analogous to the eldar webway. These pools are portals that can transport us instantaneously to various linked points."

The Dark Eldar have their own version of the webway, it seems.

Page 373

Atreus said nothing for a long moment, as he considered his brother-librarian's words. "What makes you think that the dark eldar technology is the same as that used on Ulthwe?" It was a practical question, and it suggested that Atreus was convinced by the rest of the story.
"It is not identical, Atreus, but it is similar enough. The technology of these systems is ancient beyond reckoning, and Inquisitor Lord Seishon is confident that both species of alien developed it at the same time, possibly at a time when they lived in cooperation with each other."

Eldar/DE tech is "not identical, but simillar" Except that Dark Eldar don't seem to use Wraithbone at all.


Page 376

Nonetheless, as the Titanicus Rex ploughed onward through the gathering warp mist, Mordia's eyes kept flicking back to the warp density readings on one of the terminals. The display had been showing a gradually ascending line for the last hour, reflecting the increasing permeability of reality outside. This meant one of two things to Mordia: either the Eye had shifted orientation and he was now taking his gunship deeper and deeper into it, or there was something massive and powerful lurking in the immaterium struggling to break through into material space - something growing stronger all the time, and just teetering on the very edge of
the necessary power.

Sensors measuring warp density readings.

PAge 392

"Ashok" repeated Atreus as he parried a flashing blade and then pressed his other palm against the sneering face of a thrusting wych. A burst of power exploded from his hand and incinerated the dark eldar's head..

Blood Ravens librarian. Either a cremated or badly burned head. Megajoule or kilojoule respectively.

Page 395

The viewscreen flickered, rapidly as the image switched and then magnified, bringign the tumbling shape of a moon-sized asteroid into focus. Threads f warp mist had been pulled into orbit around the spinning rock, as though drawn in by its trace gravity, forming ruddy, ,red rings around its axis.
..

As the huge asteroid rolled over, a shimmering energy field swung into view. It was anchored to the rock by a series of metallic
fixtures around the horizon, and it appeared to be stretched over a massive cavity that had been excavated from the interior of the asteroid. The surface of the energy field rippled like a colossal lake, and Mordia could see the suggestion of images swimming in
its depths.

"Distance?" he asked, his voicee betraying no signs of the tension that had suddenly lurhced into his mind.

"two thousand metres and closing, captain. We will be upon it in a matter of seconds."
"What will be its orientation when we reach it?"
"The energy field will be on the dark side, captain, but only briefly."
"Very good. Hold the present course and alert the gunners that the asteroid shoult not be fired upon until I give the word. Ensure that they are ready, we may have to act quickly."

The Strike cruiser is moving at a mere hundreds of metres per second, ready to fire on a "moon zied" asteroid.

PAge 396

"Hold here, ready the forward torpedoes."

After a few seconds, the edge of the energy field emerged over the horizon at the top of the screen. It was shimmering with reflected light, and the screen hazed for a moment as the imaging relays struggled to cope with the sudden contrast. By the time the picture on the screen had returned to crispness, the shimmering pool of energy was already dominadng the image.
In the ripple obscured depths of the lake of energy, Mordia could just about make out the shape of a space craft. Its outline was vague and malformed, as though it was little more than a ghost, but it looked distinctly like an Imperial vessel.

"Enhance that quadrant. Hold off with the torpedoes," barked the Grey Knight, the tension finally showing in his voice. If there really was an Astartes frigate through that gate, he could hardly destroy it without finding out what it was and what it was doing there.

Intersting they can peer into the portal and witness what is in tehre.

Page 397

"Pull us back! Get us clear of this portal before that thing rips out of there!"
It was too late. The warp gate erupted suddenly, vomiting sheets of warp power which crashed out over the Titanicus Rex, throwing it back through the asteroid field like a sailing ship onto rocks.

For the first time, the control deck of the Grey Knights frigate lurched into turmoil. The serfs were thrown from their terminals and scattered over the floor as the ship listed and pitched. Even Mordia had to check his footing as he struggled to maintain his view of the screen.

Outside, the crashing tide of the warp broke against the hull of the Rex and then a frigate roared out of the portal with its engines pouring fire out in its wake.

The Lance of Darkness escapes.

Page 409

"Can I also assume that you placed our beacon into the infinity circuit of Ulthwe when you ''vanished'' from the team?"

Heh. Sneaky Inquisition bastards.

[Connor MacLeod]

Decided I would resurrect the old Deathwatch thread to post the 'Talon squad' stuff. Basically Steve Parker, whom if you read my stuff you know I have a real hardon for as one of the more unsung heroes of 40K writing, got a chance to write about Talon squad from the Anthology short stories, and apparently is setting up for some sort of series, or trilogy or whatever. Either way, he wrote about the Deathwatch. And as much as Goto's stuff was good I think Parker is just leagues better.

The novel focuses on Talon Squad, but it takes the usual 'Space Marine' approach of writing as a sort of 'introduction' to the concept: we learn who they are, why they operate, and a great deal about how they operate. We go through the Deathwatch 'initiates' and learn how they become what they are. What really sets this apart from other 'intro' books like this is that the Death Watch are very unorthodox for a group of Space Marines - far more so than even the FFG RPG implies. They aren't like the Grey Knights or Sorotias, who have ancient connections and ties to draw on.. they have to be more political, more clever, and more 'outside the box' in the way they operate and achieve their ends. In many ways Deathwatch recruitment echoes many aspects of the Guard - the Deathwatch takes disparate recruits from diffrent chapters (instead of different planets) who have their own backgrounds and traditions and prejudices (and hatreds) and tries its utmost to reforge them into something they can use. They have to make their recruits unlearn alot of the shit they carry with them into their secondment, and often force them to think/act outside the boundaries of the Chapter comfort zone.

This menas that only those most independent or mentally flexible Space Marines (at least relative to their chapters) can make the grade, and it also means that these are the sorts of Space Marines you'll see who have unusual quirks or characters that set them apart from the usuals. Not unlike the Wolfblade. And that is a big part of the novel's strengths - it can draw on the individual rivalries and conflicts that exist amongst individuals of chapters, as well as the peculiar quirks and traits that set those seconded to the Deathwatch apart from their Chapter brothers. It gives Space Marines - usually hard to develop this way - a means for Space Marines to move beyond the predictable stereotypes.

The novel also has alot of background threads going on not related ot the Death Watch. Inquisitorial shenanigans, prophecies tied to the Death Spectres and the Exorcists, and a number of other sideplots that keep the story interesting. I found the book hard to get into, but I'm eagerly hoping for a sequel soon.

Anyhow, three updates (smaller ones)

This is part 1


Page 8

Solarian didn't need to look up. Prox-alerts on his retinal display told him it was there.

Proximity sensors in Deathwathc armour.,




Page 17

'Secondary and tertiary power units have kicked in for the air scrubbers, waste reclamation, emergency lighting, shipboard communcations, system resource monitors and door controls on all levels. No primary systems whatsoever."

Starships systems not tied to primary power I gather. Whether secondary and tertiary powre is some sort of stored power, or a reactor of some kind we don't know. I also don't knwo what a 'system resource monitor' is. Probably not tied into the satellite network in the system though if its functioning (unless the sats are all dead too.)




Page 18-19

"Your ship's primary systems have been disabled on the authority of His Majesty's Holy Inquisition. This is a Centaurus level override. Do not attempt to circumvent it. You cannot. Do nothing. Say nothing. All systems will be restored in due course. Until then, know that we are watching you. That is all."

The Inquisition has the capability to shut down (sub stellar, but probably other) Imperial navy starships if it chooses. Rather a useful ability all told - preventing bettrayal, covering your tracks, etc. Assuming, of course, its available to all Inquisitors equally, that its is something occuring across evey region and not local practice, etc.





Page 19

"I've got a crew of four hundred listed men here, and we're floating in space at the absolute mercy of anyone or anything that shows up. I've been charged with protecting that bloody rock out there, all the Imperial resources on it, not to mention about three million people."

Scope of Defence monitor (as we learn later) captain's repsonsibilities and his crew. I dont know yet if its a planet or a moon or what, but its a sizable population, even if its just two defence boats.




Page 21

Commanding a system defence ship, even all the way out here on the fringe, had always given him a sense of power, of importance. Four hundred trained men and women under his command. Forward weapons batteries that could level a city in minutes or cut through a battleship three times the Ventria's size.

Ventria is the name of the ship in question, under the command of the Navy. I believe previous sources have confirmed the Navy (for various puposes) runs system defence/sublight warships for various purposes (defending the territories, stations, etc it controls, as well as in situational reasons (local defense I gather in certain regions, star forts towed to war zones, quarantine zones, etc.) . It does make a certain amount of sense - static boats are a good way to free up the warp capable naval assets for other duties, after all, and those are comparatively more limited, and the removal of warp engines (and generally other requirements for long range, independent operation) free up lots of space to devote to specialized defense (and as we know with vessels like strike cruisers and such, its quite possible to punch above your weight in a smaller package given certain compromises.)
As far as defence ship/monitor goes it has firepower that is equal to a ship three times its 'size' which may mean mass, length, volume or whatever, but it shows they can punch above their weight (not unlike coastal defence battleships of the world wars.) We dont know what the 'forward weapons batteries' are, but usually for defence monitors or similar sized vessels (Escorts) they are fixed-axis, prow mounted lances (we confirm this likely later) so it probably reflects the prow armament alone (and if its lances its not necesarily the strongest weapon either (Although defence monitor weapons batteries CAN face forward, they arne't exclusively forward mounting) Rogue Trader: Hostile acquistions has a Defence monitor that has two dorsal mounts and a single prow mount, with the lance prow mounted and the macro cannon dorsal.
It also depends on the size of the city and the method of destruction, but it could mean at least megaton range roughly over however long it fires. (this would correspond to FFG's rogue trader rpg defining that a single broadside can destroy a city obviously as well, but its just an estimate since we dont know what kind of ship in the FFG anyhow.) Its obviously not a hard and fast limit given the interpretations either. Of course what calc isn't up for 'interpretation' upwards or downwards one way or another?





Page 21

A Centaurus-level override, the voice had said. Did that mean the override codes had been pre-written into the ship's systems? The Ventria was a vessel of His Holy Majesty's Imperial Navy; it didn't seem possible. But if the overrides had been broadcast from an external source, a ship somewhere in-system, why hadn't the long-range auspex arrays picked it up? They had full-scan capabilities right out to the system's edge and beyond.

Again the Inquisition (at least the local guys) have the ability to override the function of Imperial starships. Also said starships - sub stellar at that, have detection capability in the light hours (probably.)
And further note these aren't just local PDF forces, but local defence forces under Navy control.





Page 23

"I've worked system defence for a dozen other worlds, captain..."

Meaning that its not unusual for the Imperial Navy to maintain a sizable sub-stellar fleet for defensive purposes that it can rotate about at will - either to defend quarantine zones or enforce blockades, defend recently set up mobilization/departure points (hexathredrals in Firsta nd Only for example.) so on and so forth. Sort of like the way Ramilies Star Forts can be towed about as needed.





Page 24

.. Ormond Greeve,s a low-ranking weapons tech assigned to one of the aft-plasma batteries.."

System defense ship has aft batteries, plasma at that.




Page 25

This place, after all, and evereything in it, was mere psychic projection. The figures, too, were projections only, in truth seated many light years away from each other, brought together by the life-sapping toil of the psychic choirs under their ocmmand. Nothing here was real save the words they shared and the wills behind them. Here in this mutual mindscape, no other could intrude without detection. No other could hear their words, for they were spoken in secrecy. And that was well.
"Fruition?" asked the other.
"Four years for a ten per cent conversion, givne the reported gestation times. Nineteen years absolute if the magos's projections prove accurate. Monitors are in place, naturally but if there are timeline problems..."
"You have the new assets you need. The Watch Commander may grudge it, but he will not refuse. The new accord bears your personal seal as arranged. The Deathwatch knows what it gains. You have other assets in place, of course."

"Some of my best, and I'm positioning others now."
"Nothing to which you are too attached, I hope."
"You taught me better than that."
A nod, acknowledging the compliment. "You do me credit as ever. May it always be so. If Project Blackseed bears fruit, your most fervent hope may be that much closer to reality."
"Or it may not. In either case your continued support-"
"Mutually beneficial, my old friend, as I've assured you before."

Two Inquisitors, seemingly influential ones, having a realtime conversation across multiple (but unspecified) light years. Vaguely speaking I'd guess its within the same sector/subsector of space, or on two separate solar systems. If nearby like the Eisenhorn example we might figure 10 LY or so (5-20 LY as a range) and as I said effectively realtime (lag in seconds if that, given the interruption.) Lets say the range is at least 5 LY, but may be across a full sector (200 LY). That translates to a range of around 158 million light seconds to 6.3 billion LS, so given a matter of seconds timeframe we coudl figure anywhere from tens of millions of c (or a few million if we stretch the definition to nearly a minute delay between messages) to billions of c. That said, this is for high-tier inquieistors, with a full astropathic choir (bleeding out their lives) backing them, so its not necesarily 'standard' astropathic communcation either, but it shows what its capable of nonetheless and complements other scenes like Eisenhorn, Bleeding Chalice, etc.




Page 28

S.I. STandard Imperial: a single year of one thousand days in the official Imperial calendar.

This is... a bit unusual, since as I understood it the 40K timeframe was dated by 'year fractions', which wasn't 1000 days, but parts of days (roughly 8 hours apiece.) Otherwise if each regular year was 3 terran years or something, the whole millenium thing would be thrown off. IT wouldn't be 40,000 years into our future, it would be 120,000 years inot our future. That doesn't mean it COULDN'T work that way, or one such interpretation, I just don't think its the one intended.




Page 30

He had been eight S.I - almost twenty-two Terran years - and he had lain dead for one hour, eleven minutes and twent-eight seconds.

Again 1 year Imperial is 3 terran years, supposedly. And again I dont think that quite works out.

In chapter Lore for the Death Spectres, only those who have died in battle may be reborn again, so aspirants are given a poison which puts them into coma/death (cast into the warp to fend off its predators) to be reborn. The second time is to become a Battle Brother if they survive and return, or something. They also do it for other reasons (in Karras case, being accepted into the Librarius., where he stayed there for some 27.3 TErran hours. Whether they do it for other branches - EG Chaplains, we don't know.)




Page 36

He often watched the young women pass by. That's why he was certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that some of their pregnancies had lasted less than three months.

Genestealers probably, although it isn't stated, giving a gestation period for hybrids.



Page 38

..but Athio Cordatus, the Mesazar, Master of the Librarius, had a certain heavy solidity that Karras had yet ot develop. It was a hard, powerful thickness common to Space Marines who survived the wars of five centuries or more.

It seems that at least in some chapters attaining 500 years or more induces a change to make Space MArines even largera nd MORE bulky. I imagine this may be some effort to explain the model/artwork 'chunkiness' (cue space marine size diagram, although I've never believed 'average human' was athletically muscular and that basketball players were particularily bulky, but meh.) It also hints at the Death Spectres living to past 500 potentially.



Page 44

It is the Throne of Glass from which no First Spectre ever rises alive. It is both the Chapter's greatest burden and its greatest gift. Without it, all hope of the Great Resurrection is lost. Ah, what a price we pay for faith.
..
..a custom thousands of years old, beginning with Coracaedus the Founder who, dirven by a vision from the Emperor Himself, had brought his Death Spectres ot Occludus.
The vision had shown him exactly where to delve. He had found the great dome - the Temple of Voices - sitting silent, patient, in a vast cavern many kilometres below ground. Within the dome, he found the ancient secret it had kept hidden since before the dawn of the Imperium.

One of the big aspects of the novel is alot of prophecy-related stuff to Lyandro Karras and the Death Spectres, including some Great Ressurection, some Glass Throne which has some bizarre GEoM like analogies for the Death Spectres chapter master (bound to the throne, suffering, energies leeched away to some nefarious purpose, etc.) We arne't sure if its human or xenos tech, or what.




Page 45

Not so the figure that now led the Chapter from his life-leeching throne. There in the depths sat a withered thing, muscled atrophied, bone structure starkly visible beneath skin that was gradually turning black.
..
His body was undergoing slow petrification. In due coures, he would turn completely to stone. The Shariax did this, but the power it offered in return, a power unknown anywhere else in all the worlds of man, amde such suffering a dark necessity. The Chapter could not fufil its destiny without it.
...
But in Lyandro Karras, the caluclations, the breeding, the manipulation; it has all come together at last. The sacrifice of the Chapter Masters will not be in vain.
Whatever visions or words the First Spectre had shared with KArras were a matter for those two alone.
..
He would, no doubt, be summoned below after his khajar left for space. The Megir would share anything he needed to know then.

More on the Death Spectres prophecies and such. Its interesting that Karras is a product of prescience, manipulation and eugenics, and alot of math and shit. Again all very mysterious, vague, and prophetic. Its acutally rather good to me, because it leaves you wondering/wanting to learn more. Now hope that there is a sequel.
Its also interesting to wonder what kidn of power the Shariax/Glass throne thingy offers that sacrifice is needed. IT hints at prophecy of some kind, although thats not definite and open to interpretation (EG if the guy sitting on the throne is a psyker. OR it may amplify psychic powers for all we know. Its hard to say since at this point we know so little.)




Page 45-46

Cordatus dared not explain the depths of the Chapter's hopes to Karras. At least, not directly or in any great detail. The sharing of that knowledge would alter the very future it suggested. But there were other methods to steer him along the critical path. Cordatus had seeded several prime futures with a series of psychic messages, each intended to corral Karras in the necessary direction. The act of placing them had taken Coradtus beyond the previous limits of his capabilities.
..
As Cordatus has scored his messages in the surface of time to come..

An interesting ability. Basically sort of like burying a 'time capsule' or mailing/leaving some sort of letter/physical data behind at some pre-arranged point to be read later on . Except your inscribing it on the warp. Totally possible, we know time and space are malleable in the warp, and the echoes of messages/thoughts/etc. resonate through all time and space and shit, so why not leave future 'mail' to someone.
Prescience plays a big role in this story too.




Page 47

Cordatus was glad he was here for this. His combat dutied in the Cape of Lost Hope - the stellar tip of the local spiral arm - had ended only weeks ago with the detestable dark eldar beaten back at last, though they would return in due course.

The closest I can estimate (using the 5th edition rulebook map) is maybe some 10-20K ly (where the 'stars' noticbly diminish on the map) It could be further if the 'tip' is within the segmentum (perhaps several times as further) but since its an order of magnitude calc anyhow it should be accounted for. Figure 2-3 weeks at most for travel time (by this timeframe) we're talking 170,000-260,000c at least for straight line, non stop travel, with 340,000-520,000c for 20K LY. Overall, broadly indicative (Again) of hundreds of thousands of c travel times on average, at least for Space Marines. Of course given that Occludus, the Death Spectre's homeworld, is well outside Imperial space (and probably beyond the reliable limits of the Astronomican) this is damn impressive regardless. Hell, even if 'weeks' actually means 'months' or even 'years' we're still talking tens of thousands of c easily, which given the conditions is still phenomenal.




Page 49

In its metal pincers it held a weapon, long and slender, of such history and power that it had a soul of its own - and not a mere machine-spirit to be coaxed into operation with oils and litanies, but a soul that burned as bright as any man's.
..
This weapon, he knew, had once been laid at the feet of the Golden Throne on Terra. The founder, to whom it had once belonged, had placed it before the Emperor just seconds before receiving his vision.
..
"Arquemann is sensitive to the thoughts of fhose who wiled it..."
..
Karras felt the sword's spirit probing his own, learning his signature, even.. could it be.. evaluating him?

Karras gets a relic force weapon that seemingly has some sort of sentience/awareness, not unlike Eldar witchblades or (perhaps) daemon weapons. The nature and reason WHY is up for debate - it could be 'possessed' or have a spirit 'bound' to it but in a non-daemonic way (similar to the way Eldar waystones can be implanted in things to give them life/awareness.) Perhaps the sword has some bio-organic elements of a psyker (brain/nerves/etc.) implanted into it, not unlike a machine spirit (hence the comparison.) Or, it may simply be some sort of quasi-'miracle' resulting from faith (imbuing it with a semblance of awareness.)
Either way the sword is joined to the wielder, which may confer some benefits (amplified abilities?) although this is unstated.




Page 50

"Decline cryostasis on your journey to the Watch fortress." Cordatus advised him. "spend those weeks training with the blade. There will be time for oyu and Arquemann to bond properly on the journey through the warp."

Implied 'weeks' of travel to the watch fortress, at least within the warp.




Page 53

"Just don't waste it on re-processed grox burgers frm the stand. I want real food tonight."

grox burgers. I've heard there was an obscure reference to this in some early 1st edition-era source (supposedly the rulebook was meant to carry this but that's untrue) but I've never seen it and can't confirm it. Better than corpse starch by a mile, and that isn't even 'real food' by 40K standards on this world.




Page 54-55

...revealing a powerful field cogitator and a burst comms unit within.
..
He hunched forward to bring his optical implant in line with the unit's scan-lens. The machine spent a moment acquiring him before a pencil-thin beam of red light formed a bridge between them. This was the data-stream, and Ordimas committed all the day's relevant observations to it. Smells, sights, sounds, even those elements that only his subconscious had noted; everything was trasnferred to the machine's crystal matrix memory drive.
It took less than a minute.
..
"Save entry and transmit" he told the machine.
Entry saved. Beginning transmission...
Several minutes passed.
Transmission sent.

Honestly I'm not quire sure how you calc this. Memories are not exactly quantifiable, after all. The best I can do is think of two ways. One, we know the Brain has a storage capacity of 2.5 Petabytes as per here. If we average that over a 100 year timeframe that works out to some 793 kilobytes per second of 'storage.' So one day's observation would be some 68 gigabytes stored, and transmitting it to the cogitator from Ordimas would be a bit over a gigabyte per second or so. Which is alot, and consistent with other examples (CF Crusade for Armageddon transfer rates.)
That said.. this assumes that the human brain actually uses up all that space in its lifetime. Whilst I can't get actual figures for real life about storage, we know in 40K this isn't an issue. Humans can live centuries and still not store up the brain, so I could be off by orders of magnitude here, easily. STill that still results in high kb/low mb per second transmission, which is hardly slow (especially for the compactness of the augmetic.)
It also takes several minutes to transmit the signal (and receive it, I gather) although what all is involved there we don't know, but long range wireless communication is within the same order of magntiude as Ordimas' augmetic.
Another way to look at it is to compare it so real life video/audio. A half hour or so TV show can roughly be 100-200 megabytes or so as I recall, depending on various factors (quality, amongst them.) so if we figure that as a baseline we could figure Ordimas stored 5-10 gigabytes in a day which works out to some 80-160 megabytes per second transmitted. Again treating it as a *rough* order of magnitude (or two) we could guess at high kb/s or low mb/s transfer rates.
And the funny thing is, I still think its possible I could be off. This is just a very murky thing to deal with, moreso than I initially believed, but I think its still indicative of a impressive capability for all the context and such.






Page 56

And how they hated each other for all their religious and genetic differences. Both were Imperial loyalists, of course. They worshipped the Emperor as the Ecclesiarchy demanded of them. But the writings of their patron saints were, in places, at great odds. The Daysiders mined provium, darksilver and carzum - all of which were used in the Gellar field projectors so important to warp transit. They toiled beneath the heat-blistered rock of the baking sunward hemisphere. The Nightsiders, on the other hand, worked far beneath the deep-frozen surface of the void-facing hemipshere where no sunlight ever reached the ground. They searched for veins of soledite and margonite, both of which were found only on a scattered two-dozen or so imperial worlds. Ordimas didn't know what these materials were used for. Very few did.

Importance of this world. Oddly its also mentioned as being a backwater, largely tapped out and unimportant, even though its evidently a source of rare materials. Anyhow, we get more hints about material usages for gellar fields and such and other stuff.
We also learn (later) that the night side populace at least were imported from elsewhere en-masse. This may be the source of 'genetic' differences, and almost certainly is of the religious ones (unsurprisingly, the Ecclesiarchy can be in conflict with itself as much as it is with others.) The nature of the genetic differences, however, remain unstated but it indicates that 'pure-strain' by 40K standards is likely a very broad definition indeed (these aren't abhumans insofar as we are told, nor are they mutants, but they are still genetically different from each other.)




Page 64

Ordimas marked him well: a little shy of two metres tall, notably broad and deep-chested like so many of the Nightsiders.

More two metre tall humans in 40K. Whether this is normal or not depends on how you interpret the placement of that comma (whether 'like so many nightsiders' means just the 'deep and broad chested', or includes the height.) Even if the height is remarkable, it probably is not THAT unremarkable by all indications (less than a foot maybe)




Page 68-69

The drug shot into him.
...
..the drug, acting on Ordimas's unique genetics, started to take its intended effect. Ordimas felt his joints loosen.
..
His bones became less rigid. Normal breathing became difficult. He forced himself to relax and take shorter, shallower breaths, establishing a rhythm he knew would work best from past experience.

..
Mustering all the strength his now flaccid muscles had left, he shifted his head over ot the arm of the dead miner and took a tiny bite of his flesh. He didn't need much; just some tissue, some blood, a little hair.
...
The changes in his body took a new direction almost at once, guided not just by the intake of genetic material but by his eidetic imprint of how the man had looked when alive. He closed his eyes, holding that image of Mykal in vivid detail...
..
Fifty-eight minutes later, two near-identical bodies lay on the kitchen floor of that dirty corner hab; two men of thick muscle and bearded face.

Our Inquisitorial Agent is identified as a mutant with shapechanging abilities. This seems ALOT like poymorphine, but it isn't as we learn, and we know polymorphine does not require special genetics (At least near as I can tell, although it works better with women) just special training, but they could be related. Polymorphine (usually) does not require genetic samples either.
The interesting/odd thing is the way that the mutant (who is notably short and deformed compared to his victim) apparently can mimic the guy's bulk. either he's much heavier than he weighs, he can mimic volume but not neccesarily mass, or he conjures the mass up from somewhere through the drug. Note that I am NOT much in favour of the last ones, as that would be very difficult to explain, even if we handwave it as 'magic' (which we know in 40K can sometimes be a legitimate excuse. I still prefer not to invoke it arbitrarily however.)




Page 71

..slipping form the warp so close to Imperial planetary defneces that, within hours, the Naval Defence Monitors were overwhelmed and obliterated.
..
Imperial Guard regiments garrisoning the city had dug in to offer every bit of resistance they oculd muster. Via both astropathic and deep space relay communications, they had sent out a desperate call for aid.
It was by chance that the Imperial Fists Second Company were in the subsector. They were two days out. Those two days almost ended the fight. The Guard regiments were little more than tattered remnants when the Fists arrived.

2 days of warp travle within a subsector (including in-system travel it seems) If we figure 1 day to travel to the system, and 1 day to travel insystem (1 AU distance for insystem travle, 10-100 LY for warp travel) we get between 3,600 and 36,500c implied travel time thereabouts (Thousands to tens of thousands of c roughly) and a sustained 7-8 gee accel and 3-4 thousand km/s top travel speed. Obviously if the distance were greater (10+ AU for example) the acceleration and speed are greater (10-11% of c top speed, and ~70-80 gees or so. It could be fudged either way, but the longer taken in one speeds up travel in the other, and I doubt it will differ from these calcs by much 2 days of warp travel with a few hours of accel would be tens or hundreds of gee accel and 3-4% of c top speed, and would only halve the warp travel times. Conversely, 2 days of insystem travel with a few hours of warp transit would be ~1800 km/s top speed and 2 gees of constant accel, but travel time for warp would be tens or hundreds of thousands of c at least.
Also note hours to overwhelm space defenses, the mention of Imperial Guard regiment garrisons (multiple), and the ues of astropathic and 'deep space relay' to communicate for help. I'm not sure if this means the 'deep space relays' are meant to be some sort of non-astropathic FTL signal (but still coudl be psychic) or if its lightspeed comms, but it could be argued either way from what little we know.




Page 72

He was unusually short for a Space Marine. In the militia, there were standard humans - mundanes, some of the brothers called them -who cast as long a shadow as he did. Few cast a shadow as wide, however, for what Voss lacked in height he more than compensated for in hard, grainy muscle.
..
..Voss had become prone to voluntary sessions of extreme physical training. His muscles swelled beyond their already significant gene-boosted mass. His armour had to be adjusted by the Chapters' tech-servitors. Then it had to be adjusted again, and again. Finally, he had been told - no, commanded! - to grow no thicker. His strength and power had outstripped those around him, but concerns had arisen about his mobility in the field.
..
..from that moment, trained only to maintain what he had.

Voss is one of the cool things for this novel, as he throws back echoes of quirkiness we had with Haegr and the Space Wolf novels or Pasanius from the Smurfs novels: high strength, exceptional bulk, extremely modified armour toa adapt said bulk. We have what is, by Space Marine standards, a midget or dwarf (but an obscenely strong one at that.) which is just kinda cool because it shows the author is willing to play with the conventions in interesting ways for story purposes. Of course 'short' by Space Marine standards (whose heights can, depending on source and inclination vary from 2 to even 3 metres tall) could still mean a good 6 feet or so by human standards, and it is certainly implied he isn't short by 'normal' human standards.
We also learn an interesting quirk about space marine genetics - or at least Imperial fist genetics - they can VERY Much bulk themselves out if they choose to - but this necessitates a tradeoff between strength and mobility, and this is considered undesirable by Space Marine standards. Why this is (and how common it is) we don't know, but like the 'space marines get bulkier as they age) we could figure this is an offhand attempt at reconciling the chunky model/picture images (Again drawing to midn that image I mentioned last time.) Heck we've heard of slender space marines too (mentiond in this novel, and in the Salamanders novels) so we could figure Space Marines might be made to 'trade off' strength and weight between bulky and slender as circumstances (or inclination) require. Or it may just be a matter of preference (some may prefer speed over power by inclination alone.)




Page 73-75

Before him, not three hundred metres away and scuttling forward fast, was a multi-legged metal monstrosity.
...
He painted the Defiler's hull dead-centre with his weapons' targeting laser.
..
He pressed the firing stud and let fly.

Imperial Fist missile launcher, implied range (against defiler, via laser targeting) 300 m or so.




Page 81

By way of answer, Ordimas moved close behind her. He looped a powerufl arm round her neck, locked his grip on his opposite shoulder, and quickly, quietly, choked her to death. She barely struggled. Ultimately, she had known deep down her death was at hand. Her last thought was one of self-contempt; how could she have even remotely believed in a happy ending? When had life ever granted her a boon?.

The man is presented by Parker very much as an Inquisitorial agent. Neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between as a result of his duty. He tries to do good where he can, but often is required to do horrible things. Its mentioned before he likes to take on an 'apprentice' as part of his role/guise on a planet, and often tries to better their lives by the time he leaves. And yet, he's here having to kill an ostensibly innocent woman because she knows too much and he can't risk letting her life. Worse, she's pregnant. Much like with Sandy Mitchell's 'Dark HEresy' novels we are presented with agents who must often weigh their conscience against duty, often with uncomfortable or unpleasant compromises. I find this to be much more interesting than the typical grimdark approach, because it means these are actual people who must reconcile or rationalize their beliefs with their actions and may even have to struggle with those choices. It makes for more complex characters and generally better storytelling, and it again shows why I value Steve Parker as a writer, whethr its of Space Marines, Guardsmen, or whatever.
This is also notably grimdark by his standards, but it is appropriately so. To have hope provided, then abruptly taken away, in a life so often seemingly full of disappointments and betrayals.. the abuse... its appropriate and sad for the bleak contrasts and that disappointed hope rather than just unceasing HUMANITY IS DOOMED.





Page 83-84

Two hours ago, Karras had felt it. The pressure had eased. The voices died to a whisper, then to nothing at all. The rage and hate that had pricked the air inside the Adonai since it had entered the warp had finally ebbed away.
...
They had been fixed on him for weeks as the ship sailed the tides of the immaterium.
...
..the voice of Captain Paninus Orelsia rang out, tinny and riddled with low static.
..
"Our destination is now in visual range. If you'll meet me in the forward observation gallery, upper deck, I thought we might view it together."
..
"I shall be there in ten minutes, if you'd care to meet me."

Again 'weeks' of warp travel (in warp at least) to the Inquisition fortress from Occludus. We don't QUITE know where it is yet but we'll get to that shortly.




Page 84

Not exactly the right stuff to maintain a hard-training Space Marine but it would be back to nutrient-dense amino-porridge and triglyceride gel soon enough.

Space Marine dietary requirements. Nutrients seem obvious, but the others (to my limited understanding at least) suggest Space MArine special dietary requirements are needed to build up and maintain their unusual physical and mental capabilities which goes hand in hand with the monitoring and such mentioned elsewhere. Which in turn (again) suggests Space Marine performance needs to be 'optimized' for best results, and that failure to monitor such could lead to degraded performance (not failure mind, but without the monitoring and special requirements being met they can be 'weaker' tahn they otherwise woudl be.)




Page 85-87

Damaroth, Centre of Deathwatch operations in the Centarus Arm of the Ultima Segmentum.
The actual coordinates of Damaroth were classified at the very highest level, known only to those pledged to a lifetime of service. The Space Marines seconded here only temporarily were never told exactly where here was. They were brought on Deathwatch ships and they departed on Deathwatch ships.
...
A ring! a vast artificial ring around a glowing moon.
The ring sturcture was black on the nightward side, its shape a curving shadow against the bakcdrop of the gas cloud.
...
The outer surface seemed smooth but for the telltale shadows of huge communications pylons and the kilometre-wide dishes of the advanced auspex arrays.
..
That's not possible. Not at this side.
...
"About three-and-a-half thousand kilometres in diameter," said Orelsi "With a circumference of some eleven thousand."
..
"We didn't build that," he murmured. "Not human hands."
Orelsi shook his head. "Not the basic structure, no. We don't know who or what built it. We know its old. According to Mechanicus paleotechs, its older than any other artificial structure in the Imperium."
..
"There are six ring-and-moon arrangements like this one - six that we know of so far - each sitting somewhere on the dark, empty rimward edges of the galaxy. With the approval and copperation of the High Lords of Terra and the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos, Deathwatch High Command commissioned Watch fortresses to be estalbished on all of them once proper research was completed.
..
The facilities you see down there on the inner surface are all Imperial in origin. Impressive in their own right, I'd say. Gravity is a solid one-gree throughout, with a fully breathable atmoshere. The magnetosphere and ozone layer are generated by Mechanicus faiclities at the moon's poles, everything maintained as close to Terran standards."

It also has four docking facilities at compass points. A rather lengthy passage, but we learn several key points. One, the Deathwatch has a number of facilities like this, similar to the way the Blackstone Fortresses in BFG in the Gothic sector had been borrowed and inhabited. They seem to be huge, alien built ringworld-type structures, and they seem to form a major component of Deathwatch operations in various parts along the periphery of the Imperium (whether its just in this segmentum or across multiple segmentae isn't explicit, but its implied the latter, although not neccesarily scattered uniformly.) This one, at least, seems to be a regional center for training and operations, albeit much more extensive than the implied Jericho Reach ones in Deathwatch.
We also learn that as far as macroscopic projects go, the Imperium (at least as far as the Deathwatch captain and Karras are aware, which is hardly comprehensive, but can hardly be discounted either) is not capable of engineering on this scale. At least, not anymore (or at this point in time) Apart from diameter and circumference, and rough guesses about other dimensions we really can't say how big it is or how much materials are used (or what kind), but if we assume density of water and that its 10 km 'thick' as a ring and that said ring is 10-50 km 'wide' we'd figure it may be somewhere in the e18 kg range. How this meshes up with things like continental plates mentioned elsewhere or similar (and if such can be constructed) we dont know, but it probably provides a rough estimate on Imperial engineering limitations in some form, unless my estimates of dimensions are off by quite a bit.
Lastly, we learn the headquarters is situated within the 'CEntaurus arm' (which probably means 'Scutum-centaurus arm') and also Ultima segmentum. Which doens't tell us preciesly 'where' along that arm in that region it is, but it suggests its more than halfway across the segmenum, more towards the southern edge of Ultima (near the Tau Empire and Ultramar, in other words) which by map estimates (and knowledge of the approximate distance of the Astronomican) we're talking a good 50-70 thousand LY travelled.. and that still assumes straight line travel. At the very least we're talking some 860,000c (50K LY in 3 weeks) to 1.8 million c (70K LY in 2 weeks) which should work again as an approximate OoM estimate - hundreds of thousands to millions of c, in other words - call it high hundreds of thousands to several million c roughly.
Which is VERY fast by warp standards, yes, but there are several considerations. First, this is 'in warp' travel, and we dont know if this corresponds to speed out of warp. Wtihout knowing the time dilation elements (other than the fact less than a year occurs, in novel roughly as everything encompasing the novel involves the operation 'blackseed', culminating with Talon Squad's deployment) its hard to be precise, but we do know that the other 'warp travel' indicators are, as far as we know, fairly fast and involve low 'time dilation.' And in any even, going by known time dilation (around a factor of 4-6 depending on source, IIRC) its still well within hundreds of thousands of c at least.) The other, and more important, qualifier to this though is that this is for Deathwatch vessels, and their knowledge/technology is generally superior to even other Space Marine chapters (And certainly better than the Navy as a rule.) Maybe not as good as AdMech, Inquisition, Assasinorum, or Grey Knighs, but still damn faster than usual.




Page 87

"I've seen everything from Cobra-class destroyers like this one to Overlord-class battlecruisers, all belonging to the Holy Inquisition, the Adeptus Mechanicus, or to the Watch itself. As far as the Watchs' own fleet goes, I've no idea of its exact strength. At any given time, most of its ships are deployed to conflict zones or sent to serve at various Watch stations.."

The vessel travelling from Occludus to Damaroth was a Deathwatch Cobra class, giving us an indicator of the scope and classes of vessels available to them, the AdMech, the Inquisition, and such. We dont know how big the Deathwatch fleet is, but it likely encompasses hundreds, if not thousands of vessels, given the scope of their operations and guessing off just the number of vessels in this base and assuming similar dispostion elsewhere (and that being conservative, since most of the ships are supposed to be deployed, suggesting less than half or a third is actually 'at base' at any one time.) How that breaks down is another story, but given their emphasis on speed, stealth and 'small scale' operations it would be likely they focus on escorts and small cruisers rather than battleships. This woudl also make sense if they're dispatching at least one vessel to most of the sectors in the Imperium (of which there are thousands.)





Page 88

Karras could have probed further. With a flexing of his power, he could have ripped the man's entire knowledge, his every living memory, from his mind. Such a thing was within his abilities if the subject was otherwise unprepared and undefended.
..
Besides, a mind-rip had other consequences; some subjects went mad, others dropped dead on the spot.

Karras contemplates extensive stripping of information and memory from the mind of an unprepared/undefended human, and the consequences. This is more 'active' (in more ways that one) sorts of detection, in contrast to the passive detection of stray thoughts and such. Probably has uses more in interrogation than in routine use, though, given the consequences (or a particularily ruthless Inquisitor, Commisar, whatever.)




Page 88-89

..the massive constructs bristled with weapon batteries all along the length, everything form torpedo and missile tubes to las and plasma cannons of immense size, arranged so as to provide defensive fire in every conceivable direction.
..
The Watch, as Captain Orelsi called it, must surely have incredible wealth and resources behind it - more even than a First Founding Chapter. There were key-worlds throughout the Imperium which could hardly boast static defences of this magnitude. No doubt the facility had mobile defences too..

Karras speculates the Deathwatch has far more resources and wealth than a single chapter, even a first founding. Unsurprising again, given the scope of their operations. This suggests several itneresting things. They're more wealthy and powerful than even the Smurfs (in terms of territory, fleets, assets, etc.) and quite possibly even larger than implications of the Black Templars (over six thousands estimated marines, and quite likely many more ships than typical for a crusading fleet.) Certainly bigger than, say, the Space Wolves. It also suggests that Damaroth is perhaps as well defended or better than a number of key worlds in the Imperium - certainly at least Chapter home worlds (like the Fang, Ultramar, Baal, etc.) and quite possibly as good as places like Cadia, Segmentum headquarters of various kinds, etc. Probably NOT as good as Terra, though. Mobile defenses are unknown, however.



Page 91

He counted over forty ships of varying size, none much smaller than the Adonai. Around each craft, maintenance drones weaved a slow, shifting dance..
..
Flying servitor drones swarmed out to meet the craft and assist it in coming to rest.

Note the flying servitor drones for docking and maintenance purposes, and at least 40 starships (plus Karras's conveyance) all of escort size or greater. Again if this corresponded roughly to the complenet on all six ring worlds, we're talking at least 246 starships, and given that 'most' of the Deathwatch fleet is dispatched 'all over the galaxy' that would mean it could be several times greater. On the other hand, we dont know if these are all Watch ships. They may be (as noted before) Watch, Inquisition, and AdMech vessels, too.



Page 110

Ordimas' thoughts returned unbidden to Mira. He searched his feelings for guilt, and was glad to find none. He knew the type well enough. She'd only have found herself another abuser... and she would have talked. Eventually, people always did. Granting her a quick, painless death, that had been a mercy. Or was he merely justifying his actions? How many had he killed in his lifetime?

Again, Ordimas demonstrates very much the nature of an Inquisitor's acolyte. Human as they are, they cannot afford much in the way of pity or compassion if they are to discharge their duties (whatever that costs them, personally.) Its actually interesting, because Ordimas as a character (and as long as his tragic story lasts) is rather well developed. He is a mutant, in Inquisitorial service, defending people who otherwise would scorn and shun him (He even says so later to the Interrogator he meets.) But his Inquisitorial service also means he is far wealthier than the vast majority of that same humanity. He also reflects that he has little serious faith in the Emperor, again as a result of his life and the things he has endured. And yet, he habitually (when allowed) picks an appretnice to teach puppeteering to, and uplift from poverty and hopefully into a better life. More than that, he seeks vengeance for his current apprentice's abuse - displaying far more consideration and wellbeing than he could show for Mira (the pregnant woman he killed.)
Between his self-awareness of his actions (and the possible awarness he tries to create justification for them to salve his own guilt) and his feelings towards his apprentice, we get a wonderful balance of 'good and bad' that makes Ordimas a complex, gray sort of character that is not easily categorized. Which is very much, appropriate for 40K, as 40K has tried (Traditionally) to eschew simplistic 'good/evil' concepts. The Imperium itself is characterized by great deeds and great brutality in equal measure, and can produce heroes and villains and do wonderful and terrible things, because they are focused more on order and survival (and conquest) in an otherwise harsh galaxy. Good and evil is for those who can afford such luxuries (althoguh that isnt to say such choices AREN'T important, either.. its just that for your average person in the Imperium, choices are dictated by things far more than just a simple good/bad dynamic.)
Ultimately, Ordimas is a ruthless killer, a spy.. but he is not defined solely by those activities, and there is more to him, and his life than that. Which is in my eyes what makes him an interesting character in this story.




Page 112

Ordimas could clearly see in the dark thanks to his opticom aug sitting in his right eye socket.
..
..it suddenly became clear that these guards could see just as well. Someone had augged them, too? Who? That kind of upgrade was well beyond the reach of some backwater Civitas precicnt. Who had supplied the augs?

Comments on night vision augmetics and their availability. It implies that more prestigous judicial/enforcer/military organizations might get them in some degree, but they are rare (by Ordimas' perceptions) in backwaters.




Page 113

He had hacked the local Civitas cogitator mainframe a number of times over the last year on the orders of His lordship.

40K version of a computer network, this for police/military use.





Page 117

"You'll gain much from training without [psychic powers.] You'll rediscover what its like to fight with only physical strength. Before your deployment, the warp-field suppressor will be fully removed."

Deathwatch Librarians have their psychic powers suppressed by some sort of augmetic/attachment. The nature and origin of the devices is not known (possibly xenos) but their use characterizes for the reader just how unusual the Deathwatch is by Space Marine standards (a common theme through this book we find, and in the FFG Deathwatch material as a rule.) The nature of their enemy, the activities they need to engage in, and their organizational makeup/means of recruitment dictate these unusual steps, but their results are unmistakable. In this case, the suppressor is needed mainly for reasons of secrecy. AS we noted earlier, Karras has the ability to rip hwole memories and knowledge straight from a person's mind, and many Librarians have similar abilties. To an organization based on secrecy (and with ties to the Inquisition) secrecy is paramount and until training and indoctrination can be conducted, precautions to preserve said security must be undertaken.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2


Page 117-118

"A tracking device with a neural interrupt. That's how we keep order here, enforce the boundaries and such. There is much in the archives here at Damaroth that is classified at the highest levels, information of a nature that, if leaked, could detsabilise the treaties and accords that hold the Imperium together. The Deathwatch is ancient, Karras, and the scrolls and datacores collected here record countless things best forgotten."
To this, a more bullish Space MArine might have simply said, Destroy them!
Not so a Librarian. Not Lyandro Karras. To a Librarian, knowledge was its own justification, and as vital to victory as a keen blade and a loaded bolter.
Those who stick their heads in the sand find only the darkness of ignorance. Shy not from the horror and shame of the past. The hardest memories teach the strongest lessons.
...
"The implant will shut off muscle control should you try to breach a restricted area. You'll drop, as limp as an empty sack, until a Watch sergeant issues the override command. Likewise if a fight gets a little too intense. We can't have Space Wolves and Dark Angels killing each other."

Further elaboration on the Deathwatch's security measures beyond the suppressor, why they they undertake it, and a reflction fo just how unusual they are as an organziation of Space Marines. It isn't just fancy armour and sneakiness that make the Deathwatch distinct - the Deathwatch represents a wholly distinct way of thinking and acting from the usual Space Marine approach, and that difference offers a fundamentally interesting way to explore and expand on Space Marines in new and different ways. Indeed, those distinctions are fascinating - the Deathwatch faces the problems of drawing its recruits from different chapters, many of whom have different ways of thinking and behaving, many of whom may even have rivalries and hatreds of one another. That creates obstacles that require unusual answers, and the ability to adapt is perhaps yet another indication of how Deathwatch can 'stand out' from your usual Space Marines - they must learn new ways, learn to get past rivalries and grievances, and develop bonds as strong as those to their Chapter in order to function within that organization. In alot of ways, its akin to the way the Imperial Guard recruits and operates, if a bit more standardized.
It is also perhaps Karras' training that makes him aware of this. A Librarian's gifts and training must rely upon knowlege, and thus give them a different perspective on such matters compared to a more straightforward (and uncomplicated) Space Marine, as the quote above indicates. On the other hand the Deathwatch also embodies the same belief that 'knowledge is dangerous and must be kept from the masses', but not with good reason, as some knowledge of what the Deathwatch knows or does could undermine the Imperum. That fact itself is also interesting as it shows the myriad (and even contradictory) ways the Imperium functions - it is in some ways amazingly resilient, and yet in others amazingly fragile, and knowledge can be one way in which it is fragile. This also reflects another key 'theme' of 40K - how knowledge is regarded (And the different ways it is regarded, such as between the indoctrinated common civilian or soldier, and the high level Inquisitor, Magos, or Rogue Trader.) Knowledge is a double edged sword, and the Imperium must constantly walk a path between 'too much' knowledge and 'too little' in order to survive, because too much of one or the other can be catastrophic for it.





Page 119

"Among my own, my power was considered great. I needed no psychic hood. On the battlefield, I burned my foes to ash with the white fire of the soul."

Implies Karras as a librarian, unaided could cremate people. Whether literal or not in this case we don't know.



Page 123

"Could we not have refused the Ordo's request?"
..
"...the new accord takes priority. It will prove its value in time. We may lose another kill-team to those crows, but the Deathwatch as a whole - not just sector-wide, but throughout the Imperium- is gaining a vital source of new blood at a critical time. We both know the importance of that strength now."

Deathwatch and politics. They are allied with but not quite subordinate to the Ordo Xenos and Inquisition - more allies with common cause and bonds of obligation/accord (like most of the Imperuim, they're held together by mutual/common intrest and treaties and such.) It even reflects the same sort of 'horse trading' in politics so typical to the Imperium - the Deathwatch trades its key asset - Kill Teams, to the Inquisition in order to gain things it needs to succeed and flourish. They wouldn't think of it in those terms, of course, but thats what it boils down to.
It is interesting to know what this 'vital source of new blood' is. It remains as yet unspecified, but it makes you wonder if they are getting new chapters created just for them, or something.




PAge 125

The walls and floor of the large chamber were flat and smooth, almost glassy - a telltale sign that they had been fashioned with energy tools.

Suggesting energy 'tools' might operate primarily as thermal weapons (lascutters and melta torches and such) although it may simply reflect the nature of cutting. To be fair its not exactly 'explicit' in what kind of energy tool it is, either.




Page 127

He couldn't hold Mykal's shape forever, though another dose of cyanomorphide would extend it...
..
Cyanomorphide - a 'nucleocode' drug also known as Shift which, in combination with ingested samples of genetic material, allows certain mutants to mimic the physical form of others.

As noted before ORdimas' little shapechange drug is not polymorphine, but something similar. WE also learn that despite what Ordimas believes, he is not unique, and the Inquisition seems to have access to a drug (And other mutants like him) that allows them to take advantage of this. Probably quite useful as Callidus Assassins and polymorphine don't exactly grow on trees.



Page 132

The training was so different, so precise. Karras hadn't felt like this since his days as a Scout. There were similarities, of course: the endless hours of sensorium review and neuro-reactive simulation overseen by Lochaine and the rest of the Watch Librarius; the live-fire range practice and close combat drills, designed with the physiology of alien opponents in mind.

Again highlighting how different Deathwatch training (and thus Deathwatch marines) are from usual. The allusion to scouts is interesting, as in many ways Deathwatch marines do operate alot like scouts. The emphasis on stealth and mobility, on covert action, and even assassination (Sniper rifles, anyone) all are similarities, although the Deathwatch place even more of an emphasis on that, wheras for Scouts its more an introductory level of training.(and one sometimees forgotten, save perhaps by those Marines who act as sergeants and trainers for scouts.)



Page 133

"For the most part, its the smoke-and-clear on the final room. Without enhanced vision modes or any kind of real-time tactical data-feed, our coordination is suffering. We're still adapting to thsi kind of rooftop insertion, and operating without power armour is causing the team to overcompensate. We're rushing things, so our timings are all over the place."

Normal features of normal space marine power armour - Astartes are used to 'enhanced vision' modes (probably low light, and seeing through smoke), and datafeeds to provide additional data. Its interesting too because it shows that as much as power armour and such are seen as advantages (and this is discussed later in the book), they also create dependencies because Space Marines get so used to fighting with their iconic tools. Its an interesting way to think, and in that respect it shows again how the Deathwatch thinks differently. And it also makes sense that so much of Deathwatch training emphasizes fighting out of the armour as in it, both to push for greater performance, as well as acclimating them to such a condition (I don't doubt the Deathwatch can deploy marines in situation where they may not have access to or use power armour because of its drawbacks. Even Deathwatch tech can only go so far in making it silent.)



Page 133

How fast had he adjusted to Deathwatch methodology? Fast-roping, rooftop insertions, window entries; in general, Space Marine warfare was waged without the need for such subtle things. Brutal and direct was standard. The Adeptus Astartes marched proudly out to sow death among man's foes. They didn't sneak in through windows with silenced weapons. Such work was for assassins.
Assassins and Deathwatch operatives, apparently.
A kill-team was a precision-tool, called upon to handle anti-xenos operations that other forces simply could not - the exact words of the Watch Commander at the induction ceremony. Well, what better way to cirpple an enemy force than eliminate its leadership?

Karras speculates on the Deathwatch means of operation and Kill Teams again. Very much 'special-ops'-y and alot sneakier and more subtle. Its actually kind of amusing, as compared to the Guard's sledgehammer, the Space MArines are considered a scalpel, and yet compared to the Deathwatch, Space marines are about as subtle as a hammer (which is, relatively speaking, accurate.) Ultimately its all a matter of degree, rather than absolutes.
IT also reflects that whole 'different way of thinking' again, as the whole notion of being 'assassins' is distasteful to more 'traditional' marines, and yet that is a key part of Space MArine scout operations in many ways! Nevermind that some Chapters like the Raven Guard have something in common with the Deathwatch in the way they act and fight. Zeed (the Raven Guard member of Talon squad) must fit in well.




Page 145

Three slab-muscled figures in black fatigues dropped at speed, controlling their descent with gloved hands only. Slung across their backs were boltguns, slightly smaller and more compact than those they were used to. Cinched aruond their waist and chest, they wore combat webbing stocked with grenades and other tactical equipment.

Deathwatch boltguns apparently are more compact and smaller than normal. This makes you wonder if perhaps Space Marine bolters are deliberately made huge and chunky for some reason. Could it be that makes them more intimidating, or does it make them more effective as impromptu weapons (bludgeons) in close quarters? Given Marines, it could work either way.




Page 145

..all five operatives pulled a small pistol-like dvice form a holster in their webbing, pressed the muzzle to the permacrete lip at the edge of the roof and pulled the trigger. There was a crumping sound and five little coughs of dust. Each figure pulled on his pistol and a length of black polyfibre cable started to unspool from inside the grip. With a brief tug to check each line was secure, the five stepped onto the permacrete lip, turned, and droppped backwards from the edges of the roof.

Deathwatch version of rappelling.




Page 146

..Solarion took a small canister with a long, tubular nozzle, then stuck his head out to check there were no hostiles on the other side of the panes of transparent plastek. Seeing none, he stepped to the centre, lifted the canister, and began to spray a large, irregular outline - bigger than himself - directly onto the glassy surface. Corrosive black foam began to bubble as it ate away at the window's molecular bonds.

sort of a chemical glass cutter, I gather. Kinda neat if a bit confusing in operation.



Page 146

SpACE, thought Karras, sweeping the room.
The watch sergeants had drummed it into them since the beginning of day two.
Spacing, Angles, Corners, Exits.

Rule of thumb for room clearing. They seem to get taught alot of rules and acronyms like that, as this isnt the only time they mention such. Again very special forces-y.





Page 147

Karras's bolter coughed quietly and the tall, slender alien crumpled, then flickered with greenish static, blurred into lower resolution and disappeared altogether. In the wall behind where it had stood, a small black crater bled thin wisps of smoke. A hololithic projector in the ceiling above buzzed briefly, its indicator light changing from green to red.

Deathwatch training is pretty sophisticated by Imperium standards, making extensive use of holographic targets and such.
Also silenced weapons.



Page 148

These rounds didn't detonate as bolter-rounds usually did. They were practice bolts, nicknamed clippers - low-velocity, non-explosive slugs of the type used in kill-block training as standard.

Space marine training rounds. As noted in the previous quote, these are still capable of making holes in things, so whilst training rounds its doubtful they are nonlethal. I wonder if they could even qualify as 'less lethal.' - at least to normal people.




Page 151

"The Dark Eldar use powerful toxins. Some of them are beyond even the Purifier's abilities."
..
The Purifier - phase 14 implant more properly known as the oolitic kidney, which purges toxins form a Space Marine's body.

DE, unsurprisingly, can override space marine anti-poison defenses.




Page 160

"Use the building's shadow. I've remotely disabled the appropriate lumes."

Inquisitorial agent can remotely disable lighting and wiring somehow. Useful trick, and probably a result of exploiting humanity's preference for STC tech.





Page 160

The implanted vox-comms augmentation she shared with her two aides was working as intended for now. She'd test it from inside the rendezvous sturcture to verify non-LoS capabilit. She didn't hold out much hope, however. Chiaro's rare metals were known to cause problems with small-scale, non-shielded communications devices.

comms implants. Seems that you can't shield them (even with good quality ones) Against all conditions and keep them compact implants. Tradeoffs, and all that.





Page 163

..the transgressor was incarcerated in a Penance Box - essentially a coffin - of height and width barely greater than his own. Locked in and fitted with a heavy psychostim helm, he was forced to endure sensorium feeds in which ihs brothers from his own Chapter faced off against overwhelming enemy forces. These feeds had been recorded during real wars in days long past, and the penitent Space Marine sentenced to endure them now was helpless to do anything as he saw and felt those around him - his blood, his kin - cut to pieces by enemy fire or torn to red tatters by claw and fang. It was a terrible punishment, for it struck at the very heart of those who received it.
Brotherhood: Was there anything more important to a Space Marine? One fought for the Emperor, true. But one died for one's brothers.

Yet another hint of the obstacles Deathwatch training must seek to overcome, as well as what sets them apart mentally from other marines. I rather thought this was neat because of how clever it was - who knows the best way to torment a marine but another Marine? It also provides that same sort of 'negative reinforcement' that works so well with marines - play nice, or you get to endure the shit you hate the most. I think ti also plays on those same 'oaths and obligations' tying the Deathwatch to individual chapters - forces a Marine to think of honour and duty (to the Deathwatch) in ways that honour to their Chapters does not.
also, psychostim helmets providing sensorium feeds.




Page 164

No Chapter in all Imperial space boasted such fine training faiclities, but then no Chapter placed such singular emphasis on covert anti-xenos operations. Stormraven drops, special weapons and equipment training, fast-roping, stealth infiltration, asset recovery, assasination - all this and much more, the new arrivals studied and practised over and over until it came as natural to them as breathing.
..
This was a war fought not face to bloodied face on the battlefield, where superior force and top-down strategy won the day, but behind the lines,from the shadows, sudden and brief and scalpel-precise.

More differences between Deathwatch and normal Space Marine training and activities.




Page 164-165

The Deathwatch Librarius had at its disposal an incredible archieve of sensorium recordings taken from human-xenos conflicts across the Imperium. Some of these dated back to the very earliest days of the Deathwatch, back to when the Impeirum was still groggily pushing itself to its feet after the treachery of Horus and his faithless cohorts..
..
The sensorium records - the very same resource used for punishment - provided a level of education that was unmatched. Seated in stone chairs with psychostim helms on their heads, Karras and the others would relive hellish battles through the senses of Space Marines long gone.
..
They were observers only, but the bloodshed that unfolded all around them was heart-stoppingly vivid - the sights, the smells, the sounds, everything.
..
The Ultramarine had been bitten in half at the waist and swallowed in two twitching pieces. Throne alone new how anyone had recovered his helmet and the data crystal it contained.

More on 'sensorium' records, this time as teaching tools. Again it reflects the quality of Deathwatch training, perhaps a notch above even the hypno-indoctrination type stuff. ITs also interesting to note that Space Marine armour records not just visual and audio data, but pretty much all the sensory data - not suprrising though, given that autosenses in Space Marine gear is meant to simulate those things without exposing the Marine to potential dangers - and if they can simulate that, they probably can record it. And at that, record it on a crystal medium (implying, perhaps, something more optical rather than electronic. Alot of the computer tech in this novel seems to use optical/lasers rather than more conventional shit.)
It also seems that such technologies (the psychostim and sensory data) is connected to the Librarius in some way, suggesting perhaps a warp-based element in some fashion.
This training is also rather clever in anothre way, since it plays that 'psychology' card important to forming bonds between the Deathwatch. In this case, it exposes the recruits to the actions (in various ways) of other Chapters, creating respect and admiration for other chapters bravery, which in turn undermines alot of those feelings of distrust, hate, and rivalry that may plague certain Chapters ( as well as any personal dislike that may arise between specific members. As in the novel with Karras and Solarion.)




Page 166

The sessions became hated, for they represented all that was worst about defeat: the loss of great heroes, the helplesslness, the defeat, anger and guilt.
Despite all this distress, Karras quickly came ot see the value of these feeds. No one could deny the effects. Seeing how each xenos breed fought first-hand was absolutely invaluable.
..
Something else happened that was, perhaps, more significant still.
Despite their differences, the Space Marines started to come together.

Again highlighting the differences in Deathwatch training, and just how clever/sneaky those people are. The Deathwatch is truly used to thinking in multi-faceted terms.
I think this is actually what makes them, to me, more interestign than say the Gray Knights, much more distinctive, as their nature, means of operating, and ways of sustaining themsevles are quite different from Space Marines in myraid ways, whereas the key thing separating the GK from other Marines is that they are psychic and fight daemons (And thus get more specialer tech and shit.) but are still basically a 'Chapter' for all intentes and purposes. The Deathwatch is nothing like that, and it shows, but are no less effective for those differences.




Page 176

She stopped two metres from him, noting that he held a compact auotpistol levelled at her heart. AT tis range, depending on the type of rounds he was using, even one shot might lethally pierce the armour mesh woven into her clothes.

Clothing incorporating an armour mesh weave. Not sure what the kind of ammo that would pierce is, or the quality/sophistication of gear we're talking, but its interesting. AT a rough guess we're probably talking at least level IIA/II protection (By modner body armour standards), perhaps as high as IIIA.




Page 177

..Asset 16 leaned towards her unitl their opticoms were aligned. A bridge of laser light appeared between them, lens-to-lens, and the transfer began.

Varlan absorbed it all. She could not consciously process everything as it entered her brain - there was far too much data travelling at speed into the area of her memory assigned to such work - a storage partition, as she thought of it. - but, turning a part of her attention to the dataflow, she managed to catch a significant amount.
The transfer lasted eight seconds, the longest she'd ever experienced, and she hadn't been prepared for the nature of the content. The things Sixteen had seen, had done...

Transfer again. We get its roughly a day or so perhaps, at least a few hours, so if we figure a day its the same estimate between 5-70 gigabytes. If we figure its a few hours you might figure its at least 400-800 MB to maybe 5-6 gigabytes. So we might figure tens or hundreds of megabytes transferred between the two in a few seconds.. but again this is still under that prior 'orders of magnitude' estimate, so we might only have tens or hundrds of kilobytes. but that's still impressive, given the nature and compactness of the tech too.





Page 184

Another cycle involved sprinting through kilometres of gas-filled tunnels wearing a hundred kilos of addiitonal weight in the form of old-fashioned, unpowered plate armour.

Deathwatch training involves moving and wearing in 'plate' (carapace?) that masses a hundred kilos. Probably not stealthy, but it suggests power armour weighs considerably more (since they can move fairly fast for long distances/periods of time, under adverse conditions) - at least several hundred kilos if not more. It probably is heavier than carapace, but indicates too that if they must do without power armour they can still wear quite considerable amounts of plate protection without severely compromising their ability to move (or fight.)





Page 185

.. Watch sergeants Kulle and Coteaz. The latter was a veteran Deathwatch squad leader, originally of the Crimson Fists Chapter, who had famously slain an Ork warboss that outweighed him six-to-one at close quarters using only a standard-issue combat blade.

Not to be mistaken with 'Cortez' in Rynns world, although I made that mistake before double checking. Weighing 6x more than a space marine probably means he weighs at least 10-12x more than a normal person, close to a ton in mass, more prboably more. Of course it is a warboss and those do tend to be bigger than usual, but its still impressive as a feat all around.
It also suggests warbosses (or Orks) that huge can be more dangerous than most Space Marines, which says something.



PAge 187

Voss was by far the shortest Space Marine Karras had ever laid eyes on, but his muscular bulk went a step beyond compensation. His arms, his shoulders, his chest; every muscle group on his squad frame rippled with thick, hard mass. Back on Occludus, it would not have been tolerated. Such muscularity often came at a price of agility and speed.
..
..Karras had seen Voss hodling up a mechanical arm he had somehow ripped right out of the training pillar.
..
It was a feat that should only have been possible in power armour. Omni had used his bare hands.

Voss again and an indication of his strength. He is, easily, as strong as an armoured marine outside of armour. Which means at least tens ot times (possibly as much as a hundred ) times stronger than a normal human, and many times greater than that inside it.
And gain mention that Space MArines, for all their bulkiness, balance strength with mobility ideally.




Page 198

Psytropene - a memory-wiping drug often employed by the Inquisition. A 1cc dose wipes approximately forty minutes of memory in average humans. The memories can never be recovered, even by psychic means.

drugs for wiping memory so effectively that they can't be recovered even by psykers. More fancy Inquisition toys.




Page 200

He was like many minor nobles given governorships on the edges of the Imperium, desperate for recognition in whatever form it came and equally desperate to prove himself worthy of greater station in life..

Suggesting this world is on the fringes of the Imperum, consistent with the Naval captain's assessment later.





Page 206

When mankind wsa young, still numbering less than a trillion, people had doubted the evidence before them, doubted that a few could see paths into the future or start a fire with but a thought. The confluence of genetic factors that allowed the birth of the witchblooded was still all too rare. But humans had proliferated, had spread across th stars, the race exploding and expanding. And with the growth of their number came a burgeoning of that evidence.

The interesting thing in the context of this passage is, it could be interpreted to suggest that the population isn't DAoT humanity as a whole (which is obviously trillions, just as obviously the Imperium encompasses more than trillions now) but rather humanity on earth PRIOR to the expansion of humanity. It also indicates (as we know) psyker pwoers were rare and unheard of prior to then and only became more widespread/common AFTER said proliferation (which we know, of course, contributed to the age of strife.) If so, this suggests Terra's population is over a trillion now, which would hardly be surprising, since it is basically THE hive world of hive worlds, and even other worlds like Aerius (Ragnar's Claw) and Necromunda have certainly been hinted to be at or above a trillion.




Page 214

..several Viper LAVs could push deep into the mines unhindered.
...
LAV - Light Armoured Vehicle.

local military vehicle.



Page 215

The powered thermasuit the enforcers had lent her kept her body at a steady temperature, but that too bothered her.

Powered thermasuit. Presumably similar to the one Mykal had prior to Ordimas killing him and taking his identity, which is akin to the 'survival suits' mentioned in the FFG materials.




Page 216-217

Lieutentant Borges had posted guards on the LAVs by now and had organised his platoon-strength force to move out - forty men minus the guards he'd posted, all in las-proof plate with heavy riot-guns locked and loaded.
..
Behind them came the rest of the force, all in combat helmets and carapace armour.
..
'Signs of a struggle here.' he said at last over the vox-net.

Civitas (enforcers and perhaps military) wearing carapace that is 'las-proof' and carrying riot guns. Also have vox, but no NVG.




Page 218-219

"Your people don't need any light," Borges said to Varlan..
..
"A little," she told him, "but not much." She did not tell him that she, too, boasted low-light vision capability, though hers, unlike the night-vision of the twins, was monocular, provided as it was by her opticom.
..
"My people have the highest level of training and the very best military grade augs, lieutentant."

military grade NVG augmetics. Again the backwater civitas don't have access to anything like that and make do with flashlights.




Page 220

Varlan fingered the grip of the ornate plasma pistol holstered on her right thigh. On her left, her golden sabre hung, a deadly vibrablade so valuable and steeped in old glory she often felt unworthy of it.

Interrogator's weapons. The vibrablade is the intersting one, as this is the third mention of 'vibro blades' in 40K that I remember (at least for novels) - the other two being Necropolis and Eye of Terror. Vibro weapons have been tied to chain weapons vaguely by some sources, which I suppose is as good a retcon for why chainswords exist (EG Tona criid's chain knife in the Ghosts novels in Necropolis and Honour Guard.) Its as good a rationalization as any




Page 221

"I don't see how anyone could live in them, though. No power to them now. The tech-priests used to use geothermal transfer sinks to power them, but when the shift-stations were abaondoned, they removed the fusion-cells."

geothermal powreplants that.. have fusion cells of some kind. We dont know what fusion means, but its hardly the first time we've had 'hybrid' power generation technologies like this (either atomic or fusion tied with geothermal. LOL) maybe its like that one planet in the HH short stories that had fuel that could undergo a 'naturally occuring' fusion reaction, or maybe its supposed to hint at theories the Earth's core is like some sort of nuclear reactor see here. Heck maybe thats how geothermal plants blow up planets





Page 225

Had he not been burdened with his suppression implant, Karras could have employed his gifts to guide him, cloak him, divert the kroot hunting parties, even to eliminate his target.

Again, Karras's capabilities as a Librarian.




Page 225

Even the Watch sergeant in command of the exercise -one Brother Bastide of the Sable Swords, a combat-proven hard-reconnaissance specialist himself - watched with thin-lipped disbelief as Solarion struck targets that ought to have been well out of range. That he had done so using the fin-stabilised, gas-propelled Stalker stealth rounds - something he had never used before, and whose density, balance, and aerodynamic qualities he was thus unused to- proved him beyond a mere natural. He was, at least in terms of his specialisation, a legitimate prodigy.

Comment on use of Deathwatch bolter ammo (in practicve operations) the nature of stalker rounds, and Solarion as a sniper prodigy. Given that Sniper bolters in 'Daemon World' had an estimated half a km effective range, we could speculate Solarion is hitting targets well beyond that range, which suggests the 'typical' effective range and the lethal range are two different things, which we know is the case with energy weapons (plasma guns from Priests of Mars, and lasweapons from various novels like the Cain and Ghosts series.)




Page 226

Shape, shine, shadow and silhouette. The four 'S's. All must be eliminated lest one give one's position away.

More Deathwatch training acronyms. This time stealth related.




PAge 229-230

"Those aren't Guard-issue lasguns. They're using modded mining lasers and las-cutters. Most of them look like miners too. Some are dressed like enforcers. Those have riot-guns."
..
A bright beam of las-fire flashed towards him, and the bodyguard pulled his head back just in time. The beam struck the ground, vapourising ice and cutting a deep furrow in the stone below.

Lascutters and mining lasers likened to Guard issue weapons (guard weapons possibly being as good or batter). Seems to be a sustained cutting beam (or welding beam) which is consistnet with lascutter operation (1-2 cm per second 'cut' by FFG standards, although IA suggests it could be up to 10x that or more depending on assumptions.) I dont think I can guess more beyond that, but if we assumed it vaporized around 2 cm diameter hole in the ice, maybe a cm deep we're talking 9 kj at least. IF we assume it melted a similar volume in stone that might triple the output, but we dont know what it did to the stone so that's just a guess (and even if it did melt, thats not the most efficient means to do it anyhow. But it would be consistent with the implications of 'energy tools' before and its a tool repurposed as a weapon anyhow, its not going to be as efficient.)




Page 230

Both of the twins had drawn hellpistols from their shoulder holsters. Varlan had powered up her plasma pistol.

weapons used by Interrogator's aides/bodyguards.



Page 231

Oroga swerved towards the figure and launched a blistering right hook. His augmetic arm jolted just before impact, igniting a small propellant charge that made his metal fist jack forwards like a piston. The sound was like a riot-gun discharging. The impact took the shadow's head clean off its shoulders.

Sort of like the super-punch capability of armoured trooper suits from VOTOMs, IIRC. Rather neat really since its basically a poor man's powerfist without the bulkiness.



Page 232

Myrda's pistol blew a melon-sized hole in the torso of the first before anyone else had even registered it. Varlan herself got the other - the powerful blast of her plasma pistol atomising all but the booted feet of her would-be attacker.

Obviously this isn't a most reliable estimate of 'size', but if we figure anywhere from canteloupe to honeydew we're probably talking 10-20 cm diameter (probably not watermelon if the torso is intact.) with probably lethal depth. call it maybe single/double digit kj, depending on what all is being punched through




Page 233

Caradine adjusted his aim and pulled the trigger.
..
Borges howled in agony and collapsed to the cold cavern floor.
..
His left leg, she saw, had been blown off at the knee. The sharp smeell of his blood mixed with burned cordite.

Enforcer/Civitas riot gun in action. Whether it penetrated carapace or not we don't know.




PAge 236-237

Powerful figures flooded from the black alleyways on either side, casting off canvas robes to reveal grotesquely mishappen humanoid forms. Each was at least two metres tall, their flesh strangely ribbed and wet-looking. Oroga had a brief glance of body armour made of some kind of organic resin, but then the giants were on him.

Genestealer hybrids. Again the fact that two metre tall xenos mutations could hide and not be spotted simply due to being huge points (along with Mykal) to the fact freakishly tall people (by our standards) aren't uncommon on this planet (or in many parts of the Imperium, for that matter.) If the heights were extremely abnormal such beings (like Mykal) would stand out.



Page 249-250

"Its not unknown for planetary governors to visit subsector neighbors in the interests of securing defence or trade agreements and the like. And I can backdate the official papers. I'm thinking either Melnos or Purdell, both of which have day-night cycles."
..
"Melnos is the nearest of the two, m'lord," said Sul. "Temperate, if a tad under-populated. Its mostly given over to automated agriculture, but the capital should entertain you - the City of Duma. And the Imperial Zoological Gardens are a sight to behold if reports read true."

That two planets (within a subsector) can form defense agreements with each other suggests they have some means of transporting that military aid from one location to another. WE dont know if it means just PDF forces (being used as private armies) or if it includes space forces, but it could, pointing again to the fact PDF forces may possess starships with (limited, short range) warp capability. It may even be that they form the nucleus of subsector naval defenses, leaving the Navy to focus on the sector as a whole and key locations.
This also corroborates the ability of planetary governors being able to wage war on each other as 'private' brushfire wars.
Also an agri world with 'automated agriculture' And a zoological garden





Page 254-255

In time, he would go to the Master's lair, there to cast his kills into the digestion pools. The bodies would be broken down, semi-digested into pungent organic sludge. Their matter would be remade, recast into lethal alien forms to serve a higher, purer purpose.

The planet is infested iwth genestealers, but they seem to be rather unusual genestealers at that, as they have digestion pools that they use to feed the growth and creation of new 'stealer' forms. So in many ways the genestealres in this book blend elements of the 'traditional' stealer with elements of the Tyranids, esp early fluff Tyranids in many ways.




Page 256-257

Melnos wasn't far , and it was in the general direction he had been planning to take.
..
A week's warp transit. A quick shuttle drop. Then off to Syclonis in the Gates of VArl for a resupply.

The Gates of Varl are somewhere in the imddle of Segmentum Ultima, going by 4th edition and FFG maps. If the planet in the story is on the edge, that's some distance possibly to cover, after Melnos. Although he is a rogue trader.
If we figure 10-20 LY in a week (or subsector level at most call it 100 LY) we're talking a few hundred to a few thousand c average travle speed, which is typical for 'inter-sector' speeds.




PAge 257-258

"Captain, forgive the intrusion, but I'm getting orders from both the GDC and the Naval defence monitors to turn the shuttle around and head back to port. THey.. They're telling me the palnet has just been placed under quarantine, sir."
..
"GDC have us locked, sir, and both of the Navy boats are on intercept headings. IF we don't turn back, they say they'll have no choice but to fire on us."
..
"How far are we to the Macedon, captain?" asked the aide.
..
Just a little over three minutes, according to the fligth cogitator.
..
The Naval defence ships were sixteen minutes away. Any missile launched from groundside would take approximately six minutes to reach them. How long it would actually take GDC personnel to prepare a launch was anyone's guess. In all the years men had occupied Chiaro, they had never once been forced to defend the planet. The few missile bases that existed were under-funded, undermanned and poorly maintained.
Sannra wouldn't have gambled much on their not being able to muster a few ground-to-orbit missiles, but Sul seemed ready to play those odds.

Without knowing the location of the monitors we really can't figure out how far away they are and how long to get in range. The groundside missiles in six minutes depends on the context - is it for a ship in orbit or a ship moving, and the distance covered. Unless its targeting a ship already in motion and had been accelerting at high accels or some minutes at single digit gees or hundreds of gees for some time and moving it probably is much further away, as simply escaping the atmosphere requires at least a velocity probably on the order of 8-12 km/s at least (escape velocity) Its also unlikely that the missiles would exhaust their thrust simply getting to orbit as there is no way such missiles could chace a target eithre, so we'd be talking much further away If at mid or geostationary orbit (20-40,000 km) we'd have between 50-112 km/s average velocity. Call it at least tens of km/s by this incident implied, at least.




Page 262-263

"Sir," called out the chief auspex operator. "Those navy boats are only seven minutes out. They're calling again for us to power down. And I now have three missile contacts approaching. The closest is six minutes off our port side."
"Engines? asked Dozois
His helmsman looked up. "Engines at sixty-two per cent, captain. We might outrun the missiles, or we could trust to the point-defence turrets to knock them out, but if those Navy ships have forward lance batteries-"
..
"Warp engines?" asked Dozois, cutting the helmsman off.
"At full now, sir. But the Navigator needs another four minutes of focus before we can breach."
..
It was just as Sael had said. HE might outrun the missiles or gun them down. He might even make warp before the Navy ships could open fire.
..
..he drew a finger across a dial on the monitor, setting the warp engines, which were already at full charge, to overload.
..
"All hands," he called out. 'brace for warp translation in five, four, three two one-"

This is.. an interesting passage. The ship must have been accelerating for some six minutes as the Navy boats are seven minutes (instead of 16) including the 3 minutes for the ship to dock... but they're already close to the warp transit? That seems unlikely, as we know from 'Rynn's World' that warp translations at 120,000 km or less are considered suicidal (and unthinkable, as that is how the Orks outmaneuvered the Crimson fists) Likewise, 2.3 million km is 'safe' for Inquisiton vessels. The closest we might argue (him being a rogue trader) might be 20-30 million km.
The ship apparently gets close to the warp transit point before the monitors reach it (And before the msisiles do) so we might figure 10-15 minutes top to reach the transit point before they even have a chance of escaping into the warp (another 4 minutes for the Navigator to focus). If we ignore what I said and figure 120,000 km the missile velocity is 333 km/s and hundreds of gees from a standing start acceleration. Final accel is probably much greater. The starship would be 60 gees at least and a top speed of 240 km/s. At millions of km we're talking hundreds, if not thousands of km for that timeframe. At several million km the missile ranges would be at least thousands of km/s, and many tens of thousands at several tens of millions of km.
IF we flip it around and figure based on torpedo/weapons ranges (call it 300,000-400,000 km to 1,000,000 km for ordnance) its 800-1100 km/s for missile velocity, whilst a million km is some 2780 km/s.
It also implies that at 62% power the defence monitors can outrun the ship which suggests max accel might be almost 5 gees possibly... if we were going by the FFG numbers. But those don't really work here given above, so we'd figure the accelerations are at least 50% greater by this estimate. Overal lthe ship accel calcs will be weird no matter WHAT we assume, so there ya go The missiles obviously aren't as problematic as they fit within known/possible velocities for both battery fire (which can be missiles) or ordnance (which may also be missiles.)
Oddly it can 'outrun' the missiles, so it probably means the missiles will run out of fuel before reaching the ship if the ship accelerates, but it can't outrun the defence monitors (at least not before getting into range.) We could figure orbital launch missiles carry at least 6 minutes worth of fuel - or at least these do.




Page 263

Higgan Dozois - in the eyes of many, a worthless, lecherous, drug-dealing rogue - saved the lives of sixty-four million people, the entire population of the planet Melnos.

the 'minor' agri world that is 'under populated' slightly and has mostly automated agriculture.. still has a population of over 64 million. REminds me of that small 'planet' in the Cain short story Fight or Flight.

[Connor MacLeod]

Last part

Page 264

At first, the Space Marines revelled anew in the upgrades and alterationst hat had been made to their wargear. The Watch's Techmarines and enginseers were almost unrivalled in what they could achieve. Enhanced tactical data-feeds and real time automapping, vastly superior low-light vision modes that needed only the slightest luminance to render everything in crystal clarity, soud-suppressive joint and actuator coatings to muffle excess armour noise by almost ninety per cent; the list went on.
The greatest marvel, perhaps, was the layer of tiny photo-reactive cells coating every visible surface of their plate. With an operative's power armour running quiet, stealth systems fully engaged, those cells would absorb and mimic the reflected light, colours and patterns of their surroundings, allowing the wearer to blend into the backgorund like a chameleon. The effect wasn't perfect, especially when in motion, but it was impressive all the same.

Upgraded Deathwatch-grade armour and its neat toys. The photo-reactive camo probably is a form of cameleoline, which we know can be incorporated into armour. It also incorporates 'stealth mode' functions including sound suppression for joints. That said its only effetive when the Power armour operates in a lower level mode (running quiet) since the powerplant's noise and thermal/EM would probably give it away otherwise. IIRC the Raven Guard has many elements of this in their own armour as well, although I'm betting the Deathwatch's are better.
Also enhanced tac feeds and automapping in rael time, which seems to be distinct compared to the 'regular mentions' before. Also the extent of their Night-vision capability, but apparently no IR (or at least none mentioned.)



Page 265

"There has never been a kill team without conflicts of personality, Lyandro. That is the reality we have all had to face at some time or another. Our Chapters of origin mark us deeply. They make us who we are. They make us different to those we serve beside when we don the black. It is a difference that should be celebrated, not disdained. It is that difference which makes a Deathwatch team unique, able to handle any crisis, to use the element of surprise, and to employ the unexpected. Though you will doubt it at first, you and your kill-team brothers will complement each other well."

Again emphasizing just waht the Deathwatch training must overcome and deal with in order to succeed and forge effective operatives. I think the attitude this reflects is a good one, because it emphasizes, yet, again ways in which Space MArines as characters can be explored or diversified without losing the essential aspects of them, which is hardly a bad thing.




Page 266

The Inquisition are even more secretive than we are, if you can believe that. The kill-teams already under his command - yes, there are others - know him by his callsign, Sigma."

That at least 3 or more killteams (simultaneously) can be assigned to a single Inquisitor - even if this is a rarity, points to the Deathwatch organization across the whole of the Imperium being quite numerically large - many times larger than any single Chapter certainly.. possibly as large as the old Legions in total size. Certainly to operate evne in small numbers across thousands of sectors would require tens if not hundreds of thousands of marines, potentially. Even a fraction of that though would certainly be huge, and correspodn to what has been hinted at elsewhere WRT the Deathwatch.



PAge 268
[quyote]..the hulking, angular form of a Dreadnought took two floor-shuddering steps forwards, exhausts venting promethium fumes, engine rumbling..[/quote]
Despit their focus on secrecy and all their tech, there is NOTHING they can do to stealth a Dreadnought. Much less one running on an Internal combustion engine




Page 273

At the tail end of this missile was a pod. It opened like a black flower, spreading steel petals to form a communications relay dish. In the centre of the dish, an antenna emerged, a tiny blue light blinking at its tip. Lower on the pod, a hatch opened, and a small floating object emerged, teh size of a human head, trailing a length of thin silvery cable, a communications-hard line.

Vox relay connected by hardline to servo skull, launched by Stormraven. PRobably for stealth purposes, but the damn thing must be carrying a shit ton of hard-line that must be pretty damn durable at that.





Page 274

At the back of the second Stormraven, winches began to whine, spooling out thick, high-tensile, advanced polymer cables. Something big and improbably blocky was lowered into the mouth of the shaft.
...
Magna-grapples disengaged with a clunk. Cables whipped back up into their reels at speed.

Fast roping a Dreadnought. Needs some really strong cables at that




Page 275

Five gun-servitors rolled out in a line, chest-embedded readouts lighting their grisly faces from below in red. They were ugly things - half machine, half corpse; mind-wiped undead slaves kept alive, so to speak, by nutrifluids and electrical subsystems. Their human arms had been removed at the shoulder, replaced with heavy weaponry fed by the ammo drums riding high on their steel-plated backs. At their waists, their flesh gave way to a chassis with tank-treads in miniature. They chugged and rumbled quietly, and twin trails of greasy exhaust smoke issued from the pipes at their rear. Augmetics sat in place of facial features, their original eyes, nose, lips and tongue having long ago rotted to nothing.
For all their crude appearance, and despite being unable to think beyond basic targeting and threat assessment, they offered solid support in a firefight. They made convenient ammo mules, too.
And they were expendable.

Deathwatch backup apart fromthe Dreadnought - gun servitors and their advantages/disadvatnages. THese seem to be more of the 'dead reanimated corpse' types, kept alive by technology (and preservatives) wheras others may just be mind wiped, heavily augmetic cyborgs. Again the nature and kinds of servitors are diverse (As is the degree of how icky they are. lol)
Like the dreadnought, the tanked gun servitors are promethium powered. These likely also qualify as monotask, meaning they are unimaginative and pretty crude, but carrying alot of firepower (and impromptu packmules for extra ammo and such.)




Page 277

.his helm optics whirring as they struggled to apply low-light mode to such utter dark. Even a little starlight would have been enough; his upgraded visor technology could have worked with it to make the chamber as bright as a cloudy day, at least to his gene-boosted eyes. But no light reached the bottom of the Inorin vent shaft at all.

More on Deathwatch low light modes.



Page 277

The rest of the squad gripped bolters that were far from standard, boasting a triple-rail system which allowed for the addition of tactical attachments. On this particular mission, that meant a side-mounted flashlight - now put to use - a small laser range-finder, and an under-barrel grenade launcher, the special rounds for which were stored on the ammunition belts around the Space Marines' plate-armoured waists. Together with the mounted magnoscope on top of the bolter and a shorter barrel length more suited to Deathwatch operations, the gun almost looked like a different weapon to the one most Space Marines were used to, but in every important way, it was essentially the same.

Deathwatch 'special forces' bolters incorporate those fancy rail systems for adjustment of attachments. Also with scope and shortened barrel.




Page 279

Via the skull's instruments, Sigma could hear all, see all, record all, even take action if need be. To all intents and purposes, that yellowed, floating mish-mash of brain, bone, and ancient tech was Sigma, though the inquisitor's actual physical body remained safely in orbit aboard the Saint Nevarre.

Sigma, the Inquisitor running the operation. Note this particular servo skull actually seems to have a brain in it, meaning that there isn't much room inside the skull fora ctual tech (including the antigrav) - so it must be very compact at that.




Page 280

Six weeks. Six weeks aboard the Saint Nevarre with no sign of the man who had brought the kill-team together. And now they were in the Ienvo system on their way to the site of their first operation..

Six weeks from Damaroth to the Ienvo system, which we know is roughly 'somewhere' on the eastern fringes of the Imperium, quite likely within some proximity to the Gates of Varl. That could mean thousands, or tens of thousands of LY, depending on exactly where you place them around the Spiral arm. AT the very least its hundreds of LY away (another sector or so) but its unlikely to be so close. A few thousand c at a bare minimum, possibly tens or hundreds of thousand of c at the other end.




Page 285

Alot about the situation on board the Saint Nevarre had bothered him. The top six dekcs were permanantly Gellar-shielded, meaning any astral projection of his consciousness could not breach their walls.
..
Karras knew the inquisitor resided on those decks, along with the ship's Navigator and astropaths, but only because he sensed them nowhere else on the ship.

Gellar shielding blocking psychic detection and astral projection from a librarian, but may not hamper astropaths (can't hamper a navigator as they have to be able to function in the warp whilse Gellar fields are active.) But those same fields do obscrue them from Librarian detection all the same.




PAge 288

"I will now key your tracking systems to the relevant locatrix. This will reveal the position of the primary objective, but not the path to it. Therea re no records of the natural tunnels beyond the mines. Nevertheless, we will continue to grid-reference six-delta-six-one, visible on your retinal displays. From there, I will initiate a special mapping procedure.
..
Karras blink-clicked inside his helm until the retinal display showed him a three-dimensional representation of the known extents of the Nightside Underworks. Blink-clicking a few more times isolated the section of the mine they currently occupied. Their present location was a glowing green dot. The waypoint in quesiton was a blinking white one. The quickest route from here ot there was also highlighted...

The deathwatch automapping function - able to home in and focus on a long-distance locator beacon, display waypoitns and routes, etc. Makes it sound and feel like a freaking video game (FIRE WARRIOR comes to mind lol.)




Page 290

Back on Damaroth, Marnus Lochaine had questioned him about his psychic training on Occludus, seemingly surprised that Karras was unable to scry for prime futures.
..
"I was not blessed with strong prescience like some of my borthers. Since I had little raw talent for it, it was decided early on that my energies woudl be put to better use on other more combative arts."
..
"Or perhaps you were not taught to see the future because there are things in it which some do not want you to see."

precog training of any kind seems to be, by implication here, common amongst Librarians, at least to some degree. Karras having none seems to be considered unusual, which again points to his special status mentioned so often throughout the novel by the Death Spectres, the Deathwatch, and the Inquisitors. It also suggests the extreme level of specialization we encounter in BEn Counter's novels is more an exception rather than the rule - Librarians seem to focus on several abilities.




Page 299-300

Without the suppression, this time self-regulated, of Karras's ethereal presence, the enemy leader would sense him in an instant and send his lethal children out en masse to rip them apart. A true seer, however, with genuine prescient ability, could have perceived months, even years ago, that the kill-team would be coming this way. If this cave-in was a response to such a vision then, for all the psychic damping, the pentagrammic wards tattooed on their flesh, the photo-reactive cells on their black armour and the low-light discipline they employed, Talon Squad might well have been compromised already.

Advantages and problems of stealth operations in a galaxy with precognition. The interesting thing is really the scope of time it can operate against for a 'true' seer. This is probably more by Imperail than Eldar standards though, as operating 'years' ahead of time is trivial for seers/farseers who often operate decades or even millenia in advance of events.



Page 311-312

"Eldar! I've seen enough runes like that in my time!"
..
"A disappointing but predictable response from a warrior of the Adeptus Astartes, but not one I had expected from you Talon Four [Imperial Fist Voss]. I had thought your affinity with technology would have taught you the value of looking beyond the source. Put your distaste aside in the name of expedience. This device is our only hope of mapping the tunnels beyond this point and selecting a route to the primary objective."
.
"The Ordo has secured a number of hexagraphes over the millenia, and we have spent significant time and resources in their study. Our understanding is, if not complete, at least practical and applicable."

hexagraphes. We learn their function later, but it again reflects key differences between the Inquisition and Deathwatch. Despite all their similarities, teh differences in Deathwatch training compared to normal Space Marines.. they are still Astartes and certain things hold true. AFter all, the Deathwatch is designed to combat aliens, so its not really sensible for them to try to be more like them




Page 313

He realized Zeed was struggling against his own ceramite shell. His greatest asset had been turned against him at the speed of thought.
"Armour lock," said Sigma coldly. "Consider it an insurance policy against just such folly as this. Should any of you act to compromise the mission, I can and will disable you."

This guy is paranoid, but it again shows differences between the Ordo Xenos and Deathwatch despite the pacts. The Inquisitor can even lock out Deathwatch armour from its user. (which could be a pretty big danger if an enemy can hack the suit too, for that matter.)



Page 316

"It will absorb the energy and utilise it. "
..
"Once the energy is sufficient, the device will detonate. The moment it does, you need to throw a psychic shield around yourself and the others, and that includes the servitors. You must protect them from the device's detonation."
..
"From the moment of detonation, a psychic backwash will begin. It will be similar to receiving information via clairvoyance. Of all present, you alone will be able to process the data. Only you will be able to discern it fully, to understand it."
..
"..you must drop your barrier and open yourself to the psychic resonance. It is only the initial detonation that is dangerous to the others."
..
"The resonance will imprint directly on your awareness not only a clear knowledge of the terrain ahead, but the density of life forms and any concentrations of psychic strength."

Karras basically dumps his psychic power into the hexagraphe, which triggers the detonation once a certain criticla mass is reached. Sort of a super-psychic automap powerup, with life sensor and psychic sensors attached. Likened to clairvoyance, which gives us an idea of what those sorts of psychic detection can accomplish normally.



Page 317

Centering his awareness in his lower abdomen, he unleashed a level of energy now that could have ripped a gunship from the sky or could hav etorn a tank to pieces.

Implied scope of Karras' psyhic (offensive) powers. We dont knwo what kind of gunship mind, but it means a multi-ton vehicle either way.



Page 331-332

From cracks nad craters in the cavern floor, puddles of glowing magma bubbled and churned. Narrow streams of molten rock ebbed from gaps in the walls.
..
Much of what seemed stable might only be the cooled skin of an old bubble, mere millimetres thick. To step on it and break through it might be to plunge one's leg into boiling magma. Even Space Marine power armour would succumb if submerged for a few seconds too long in a substance of such incredible heat.

'bubbling' magma can burn through power armour in seconds. We dont know how hot that is (Except it seems to flow pretty fast) but it sinteresting as a limit nonetheless.



Page 332

Solarion drew his long, serrated combat knife...
..
..probing the ground before him with the point of the sixty-centimetre blade.

Space Marine combat knife with a 2 foot long blade. Only half (or two thirds) the size of your average Tanith warknife




PAge 337

He raised his bolter and put a single round in the forehead of each Their heads snapped backwards, exploding as the bolts detonated within.

Genestealers headsploded.




Page 338

Brass bolt-casings surrounded the feet of the Space Marines..

Bolters having casings. Again.



Page 347

Voss stepped over the body at his feet, jammed his pistol into the genestealer's mouth, and blew out the back of its head.

Blowing out back of genestealer head with bolt round. Partial headsplosion.. the back part.




Page 351-352

Women! Dozens of them. They have become a part of the nest, incorporated into it by their captors. Such a gruesome fate.
Karras wanted to turn away, sickened and infuriated.
more than half of the women were fixed to the strange organic walls of the chamber by a mix of dark chitin plates and thick strands of a sticky substance like some kind of tough mucus. The others were half enclosed in equally digusting organic mounds dotted about the cavern floor. Pools of pungent yellow-brown liquid bubbled and steamed near them. Ropes of semi-translucent flesh fed or withdrew fluids from their bodies, snaking into their noses and mouths. GRatefully, Karras saw that the women's lower bodies were fully encased, though grossly distended bellies were exposed to the hot, humid air. He had no doubt there were similar organic catheters beneath the chitin, responsible for Throne-knew-what. Those bellies were so stretched by the xenos organisms growing within that the skin had become as translucent as the looping coils of strange umbilici. In some, the Death Spectre could see jostling clusters of embryonic aliens vying with each other for the most comfortable positions. The women playing host to these slithering forms wept and whimpered in an agony that pierced their mindless stupor.
..
Rauth moved forwards, mag-locking his bolter and drawing his combat blade. "We should not let them suffer like this."
Karras halted him with a hand on his right pauldron, palm pressed to the horned-skull icon there. "Agreed, and we shall end their misery, but we have a mission to complete, and our brothers are fighting for their lives so we can do just that."

The Genestealer cult's birthing dens. In alot of ways this reminds me more of early edition Tyranid fluff (Space MArine novel, advanced space crusade/Tyranid attack, etc. and a bit reminiscnet of Dead Sky Black Son and Honsou's Evil Plan (although undoubtably more efficient.) Its horrific yet somehow appropriate to those early Nids. Also what I gather to be the digestion pools 'feeding' them the resources to grow those 'nids.
I also rather like Rauth and Karras' reaction to seeing this, as it shows more consideratio nand outrage for the suffering of 'mere' humans than one expects from any Space Marine. But Steve Parker is always good at that kinda stuff.




Page 352-353

She was pregnant like the others, her belly stretched taut with early signs of the chitinous armour which the creature within was already forming. It would emerge ready to protect itself.
That emergence would be no quiet, slithering escape, either. It would rip and tear its way out, bursting forth in a tide of its dying host's blood. Not one of these women would survive the birthing process. The creatures, when ready, would erupt through their flesh, then turn on their mothers and feed on them until nothing was left, not even the teeth, hair and bones.
..
So it went, the tyranid life cycle. It was a thing of absolute simplicity..
..
All her nutrients were being leeched away by the alien insider her.

More of the Tyranid birthing process. Despite the digestion pools there seems to be a distinctly parasitical - up to and including devouring the host. Gruesome.



Page 355

"There is not enough time to kill them that way. We will move to the exit and use our grenade launchers. Inferno rounds. We will burn everything to ash."
So they did, and granted them all the Emperor's mercy.

Inferno rounds in unknonw numbers can evidently reduce 'dozens' of women to ash, although whether by their own fuels, or combusting the organic matter as well we don't know. Even figuring 24 50 kg women and ignoring the tyranid matter.. figure at least 3 gigajoules. If we figure 90% of that is the munitions, thats 300 MJ at leats. Even allowing for 200 inferno shells for both marines thats 1.5 MJ per shell.



Page 360

..the other towered over him, at least three metres tall, and that while standing hunched over. It was a thing of nightmare: of heavy, ropey muscle that oculd pull limbs from torsos with sickening ease; of a super-dense armoured exoskeleton that standard bolts oculdn't hope ot even chip; of four long arms - two with curving claws like scythes and two with taloned hands - that could rip and shred even the heaviest armour plating as if it were mere tinfoil.

Broodlord and its size/capabilities. And quite bolter resistant, unlike normal genestealers.



Page 361

Karras knew better than to think a mere bolter-round would get anywhere near this creature or its hybrid aide. The air around them both shimmered with more than just the heat of the chamber.
They were shielded agianst attack..

Broodlord and Magus can generate bolter-proof psychic shields.



Page 367

The broodlord hissed with rage and threw up a protective screen of its own, against which the magma crashed and surged but could not penetrate.
The magus, on the other hand was too slow to shield himself, still reeling form the pain of his smashed ribs and his blackened, withered arm. He screamed as the molten rock rolled over him, and thrashed wildly in unspeakable pain as it closed over his head and destroyed all trace of him.
Karras saw all this happen in the space of a heartbeat, but he didn't wait around any longer than that. His shield could not be maintained for more than a matter of seconds, not against such constant heat and force.

Limitations of magus and Broodlord psychic shields, although the Broodlord is unsurprisingly powerful. It seems to be powerful enough to incinerate a human body in a short period of time, which gives us a good idea of what the Broodlord and Karras are both standing up against, at least in terms of holding back thermal energy if not the mass (hundreds, if not thousands of kilos of rock at least in all probability.)
Also the Broodlord and Magus are confirmed as being capable of generating independent psychic defences.



Page 369

Voss had turned to punish their pursuers with righteous, cleansing flame. In the tunnel confines, the lethal blast of blazing promethium was inescapable. Scores of the hideous wretches collapsed in withering heat, leaving little but charred husks and ash. Others- those at the farthest extent of the weapon's effective range - screamed and thrashed in agony like wild marionettes, their muscle tissue bubbling and burning as the fire licked at them.

Genestealers again, although quite likely a mix of purestrain and hybrids, cremated by flamers at least partially. Again thats 200-700 MJ per nid at least maybe at least, To be fair we dont know how much fuel he's expending per blast either, but with scores we're talking tens of gigajoules total, nevermind the others who simply get 'burned' and ignited at range even allowing for Voss to carry a ton of promethium fuel total (and he was using it in a single blast) we're talking an insane amount of energy per kg (40 MJ per kg) meaning the flamers are insanely efficient, they can (somehow) easily combust/consume organic matter to help feed the blaze... or both. more likely both, given he probably isn't using more than a fraction of his total supply in a single blast.





Page 376

..loosed a burst at the broodlord. Zeed saw at once what he meant. The triple-round burst detonated before ever striking the beast, such was the powerful protection of the psychic shell it was projecting around itself.

Broodlord psychic defenses stopping a 3 roudn bolter burst, although the kind of ammo isnt specified. May be stalker round, may be normal.



Page 376

Rauth turned his muzzle towards a knot of genestealers breaking from the far tunnel and pressed the thumb-stud on his under-barrel grenade launcher. There was a dull whomping sound. Half a second later, the high-explosive round struck dead centre, blowing the tyranids apart. Peices of them rained down on the surface of the lake below.

Power of astartes underbarrel grenade launcher. Blowing at least two genestealers apart with a single grenade, whic itself is pretty impressive given how masive and durable genestealers are (300 kilos as per IA4, which is a good 4-5x heavier than your typical human) At the very least thats at least equal to a good 8-10 normal grenades, although part of that can easily be due to the differences in size between astartes and human weaponry (bigger weapons for astartes means more explosives in grenades.) although some of that is still going to be 'better explosive', which may be normal or due to Deathwatch status. Impressive either way.



Page 377

Karras's retinal display told him exactly where all the explosives were. His helm's spectormeter and tracking subsystems had pin-pointed their location by concentrations of scent molecules. The display marked them with small red reticules.

Quality of Deathwatch sensors in Karras' armour, and its 'autotargeting' functions.




Page 378

The creature, more physically powerful than any Space Marine, began hauling its heavily armoured body upwards.

Broodlord again. Considering the thing must be many times heaveir than a Genestealer (pehaps as much as a Lictor or Warrior), this is damn impressive, especialyl given previous damage it must have suffered. Implied to be stronger than a space marine, suggesting again many tens of times (hundreds?) than a normal person.




PAge 384

..only to meet the wrath of Voss's flamer. At this range, the weapon was savagely effective, spweing fiery death, cutting a burning swathe through literally hundreds of the foe. but it couldn't last.

Voss's flamer again, a single burst literally 'burning' hundreds if we figure 1-2 MJ per nid we're talking hundreds of MJ. Not quite cremation levle, but still pretty nasty.


Page 386-387

The cavern filled with great bolts of lightning. The air shook. Dying creatures screamed as their life force was ripped away from them, their bodies hewn to pieces.
..
It was so bright back there, his helm's optics struggled to compensate. But he thought he saw hundreds of writhing forms suspended in the air while a figure clad in raging, blinding flame threw great spears of deadly energy out in all directions. Everything those spears of light touched burst into swirls of ash.

Karras telekinetically lifting hundreds of stealers and hybrids (hundreds of kilos apiece, probably) and cremating at least some with individaul bursts of firepower, tearing apart or lifestealing others. Given how big stealers (and hybrids) probably are we're talking about simultaneously lifting tens of tons easily, whislt cremating a genestaler would be easily thousands of megajoules at least, if not even more. Even if its a hybrid its still at least hundreds of MJ per bolt.
We learn later that they'd missed the deadline by only minutes, so that sets a rough timeframe of the event (because fighting the tyranids was what pushed them over the limit. And whilst this is impressive, we must note we learn shortly Karras may have been aided in this (implied by a daemon, but its possible his sword aided vai its connection) so this should be taken as more of an upper limit than anything.




Page 390-391

"There's the city, Cholixe, eighty-three kilometres west of here," Voss replied. "If it comes down to it, we can make for there. They have a small space port and a subsector comms array."

I wonder whether 'subsector comms array' means an astropath relay, or might be something else. Its certainly not the first time an author injected some sort of non-astropathic FTL comm (or sensor) into fluff, although that does not mean it isn't psychic. It coudl be, as I ofte note, some sort of psychic servitor like used in the purported AdMech Transmat links. Or even just a psychci brain in a machine.




PAge 392

There were literally hundreds of them, but finding bodies which had not been pulped beyond recognition by the Lamenter's power fist or burned to cinders by his flamer was far from easy. For the most part, Chyron's attackers were, in physical form at least, men like any other. The majority wore miner's overalls and orange thermasuits. Others yet wore the dark uniform and body armour of Civitas enforcers. But there were others, too, and these last were not so much like men. They were taller, boasted larger frames, and those frames were twisted with xenos corruption. Some had extra limbs. Others had sharp triangular teeth peeking out from within their slack mouths.
..
"Quite a body count," said Voss.

GEnestealer hybrids by and large, destroyed by the Deathwatch Dreadnought via powerfist and flamer. Powerfist implies roughly grenade level devastation, whilst the flamer suggests outright cremation of at least some bodies. Without knowing how much fuel was used and how many bodies we can't say much otherwise, but its still impressive (normal flamethrowers don't cremate as a rule, at least not casually.)



Page 396

"They'll burn this place out," continued Zeed, tuggint he line to make sure he was secure. "the mines are almost dry now anyway. It must be why they chose this planet. They won't wait long once we're gone. They can't afford the truth getting out. No one else is getting off this rock. Not after us."
"Exterminatus." murmured Karras to himself. The word carried a chill all of its own. A whole world purged of life. Extreme, but what other recourse was there, he supposed, when the civilian population was infected with genestealer taint? It could be rooted out no other way, and it was far too dangerous to risk the chance, even remote, that it might get off-world somehow.

Exterminatus mentioned. ITs interesting that genestealers are confirmed here to be a valid justification for delivering exterminatus, which is interesting in context of prior comments (like Denzard's Hammer, which involved kinetic impact of billions of tonns, equivalent to 100,000 nuke/nuke analogues, which again suggests we can infer gigaton range warheads of SOME kind exist, even if just for killing planets.)



Page 405

"You will tell that treacherous Exorcist cur, Darrion Rauth, that I have forgotten neither him nor his debt. You will tell him this: I will not be denied. What is owed me shall be paid in full. I, Hepaxammmon, Prince of Sorrows, will not be denied!"

Given the fluff associated with the Exorcists (Daemonic possession therapy) and their similarities to the Illuminati of 2nd edition (possessed who survived possession and had daemon removed.) This is actually rather ominous, as it makes you wonder if Rauth was unique in that 'debt' or is it part and parcel of the Exorcists. Of course we also need to know what the debt is and why, but given what we already know and what ths hints, its pretty ominous. I do have to say this first novel is a good setup for what is to come - it lays the foundations, sets up lots of mysteries, and leaves you wondering and wanting to know more about the stuff we aren't told - what are the hidden Inquisitor's plans for Talon squad? How does Karras fit into all this, and why is Rauth there? And so on and so forth.
I really hope Parker gets a chance to write another novel in this series because it was a good start.




Page 409

Cordatus' spirit was not here. This was a construct in every sense, placed along this timeline somewhere in the past in the hope that Karras would live long enough, and make the right choices necessary, to discover it.
..
"Your brothers and I at Logopol continue to scry with all the power at our disposal, Lyandro. Even the Megir has turned some of his power towards your prime futures. Som much is still hidden, but what we have seen thus far gives us great hope - the first real hope the Chapter has had in millenia. The CAdash is real. The Great Resurrection is closer than ever. I never dared to imagine it might come in our lifetime."

We finally witness one of those 'calling cards' left by Cordatus for Karras along the time/space continnuum of the warp. Its an interesting way to sidestep the usual problems of warp communication, as if you know ahead of time the need to send a message and where to send it, you can pre-send it and have it arrive when needed (approximately.) which is rather useful, I think. How easy/difficult it is to do we don't know, nor do we know the problms/potentials for failure, but it could also risk interception or reading (by denziens of the warp, other psykers.) the same way astrotelepathy is vulnerable. This also makes you wonder if the Chapter Master - the Megir - is a psyker/former Librarian, or if the divinatory powers come from the Glass Throne.




Page 411

"But, if we can get him back to Damaroth quickly, he should be able to return to operational status. The apothecarion there boasts cellular-regeneration facilities beyond anything else in the Imperium."
"Ah. The captured eldar machines."

Deathwatch regenerative tech is the best, but because of captured Xenos machines. That said, its implied that the Imperium still has cellular-regeneration tech of some kind, which may be some sort of limited 'cloning/vat growing' capability we know they already possess.




Page 412

"Her stasis pod will be transferred to your frigate as instructed. We expect to reach the transfer coordinates in three weeks."

If we learn about anything in future novels this might come in handy.





Page 412

"And Chiaro?"
"I will authorise the usual action myself later today. The Watch Council at Talasa Prime will back it. The naval defence monitors will remain to enforce the quarantine for now, but a kill-ship will arrive within the week. Nothing will remain."

Talasa prime is, by the 2nd edition Tyranid Codex, located close to the south-western side of Ultramar, on the fringes of Segmentum Ultima, and is home/headquarters (at least by other sources) to the Deathwatch, which may be what is meant by Watch Council.
The question is, of course - does the ship dispatch from Talasa prime (or perhaps from elsewhere, like Damaroth) or does it dispatch from some other, nearer location? It could go either way. If it means the former, thats fast warp travel. If the latter, it means coordination with elements (from the Iqnuisitor's location to and from Talasa Prime, and to the closer location) within that week, which means (yet again) some pretty damn fast astropathic communication. If it is travelling thousands or tens of thousands of LY, we're talking easily hundreds o thousands/millions of c for the Kill ship, but again thats hardly surprising if the Deathwatch can move that fast.

[Connor MacLeod]

Last update for the massive infodump, Death Watch anthology called Xenos hunters. Some stories are repeats, but most are to my knowledge 'new' (or at least, new to me and/or I don't remember.) Rather liked it all told, and not just because we had Steve PArker's Talon Squad (which I love. Can't wait for the next book.)

3 part update, but they're small parts

Part 1

Page 9

Gauntleted fingers rimed with dried blood, the black ceramite chipped from hand-to-hand combat, twisted a dial on the magnoculars.
..
A slew of data came through the scopes. The myopic visual of a white, trackless desert was augmented by a scrolling commentary describing wind speed and directionality, mineral composition, temperature and atmospherics in truncated rune-script. The most salient piece of intel was revealed in the hazy image return, however.

Deathwatch Magnoculars



Page 13

"None of us, not even you, Captain Polino, could have anticipated what we found in that nest, their immunity to the nerve toxin."
..
"But soon the truth here will be exposed and end the Imperium’s treaty with the tau by unleashing the wrath of the Inquisition."
..
War with the tau had been ongoing for months with no sign of inroads on either side. Negotiation was sought, but certain interested parties within the Inquisition were keen to avoid that. A single kill-team was dispatched to eliminate the bulk of the alien’s forces, a faction of avian mercenaries designated krootis aviana by Imperial taxonomers, through the utilisation of an Ordo Xenos nerve toxin that would remove them as a threat. Without their mercenary horde, the tau would be unable to match the Imperium on a war footing. That the nerve toxin had proven less than efficacious grated on the Brazen Minotaur, even if its failure did mean he and his comrades had unearthed a greater threat in their midst.
..
"We should have broken into that council session and executed every single one of those grey-fleshed dung-eaters."
"The Imperial officers would have resisted us," said Zaeus.
"They would have been next before my guns."

Another in an endless series of tau-Imperial negotiations it would seem. The two powers seem to spend as much time fighting over a negotiating table as they do a battlefield, but it does show that they will, if circumstnaces require, negotiate with aliens.



Page 14

Vortan shrugged, engaging the suspensors on his heavy bolter that allowed him to move as fast as the others in his kill-team, even whilst encumbered.

Load-bearing benefits of suspensors.



Page 14

It was tough to get a reading with so much environmental interference. The retinal lenses of all the helmeted Space Marines were fraught with static, and ghosted with false returns and feedback.
Heat signatures were non-existent and visual confirmation of landmarks, geography or enemies was reduced to almost point-blank. The data stream through scopes or retinal feed was scrambled, useless. But the Brazen Minotaur possessed much better auspex than his brothers, and could cut through the fog of static easily. He sub-vocalised the coordinates of the rendezvous point relative to their position and ex-loaded them to Vortan’s lens display.

Sensory (liteary in some cases - as in autosenses/artificial senses - visual, auditory, etc.) capabilities of Deathwatch helmets, and apparently the Brazen Minotaur - a techmarine - at least has a built in auspex. Also the ability to transmit that data to other Deathwatch members of the Kill Team.



Page 15

Ar’gan was already moving low with his combat-blade drawn. It was acid-edged, fashioned to slice through hardened xenos-chitin like air.

'acid-edged' combat blade of some kind. Presumably Deathwatch issue, and designed to optimize performance against organic xenos.



Page 17

Gore spewed across the Brazen Minotaur’s battle-plate, scoring the metal and acid-burning it down to raw grey. Through his bionic, he performed a split-second analysis.
"High concentrations of sulphuric and hydrochloric acid," he related to the data-corder in his helmet. "Trace elements of alkali, potential hydrogen levels fourteen or greater. Extremely corrosive, and inconsistent with the bio-strains in-loaded to kill-team mission brief."
This he catalogued whilst bringing down another stingwing with a snap shot from his bolter. The designation came from the xenos datacore identified: tau. Countless others filled the hard-wired cogitator arrays of the Iron Fortress watch station where Zaeus and his comrades were currently barracked. Interrogating the data from the mission brief and cross-referencing it with previous engagements, he noticed an inter-species correlation with a second organism class.
Tyrannic.
The xeno-form, ‘stingwing’, was a mutated strain corrupted by genetic hybridisation. It could explain why the nerve toxin failed, and why the kill-team were running for their lives.

Oh my a number of interesting details to comment on. First, the Deathwatch Techmarine is able to analyze stingwing toxin/acid in a split second. Secondly, in roughly comparable time, he's able to analyze stored Deathwatch data and cross reference it with other data to figure out that the stingwings have been infected with Tyranid genetics (or more likely, genestealers or something similar.) The tyranid genetics also seem to give them resilience to Imperial chemical/biological weapons they wouldn't normally have.

Next, do the tau actually KNOW that their alien auxiliaries have been comrpomised by tyranids? Was it an accidental infestation they are currently unaware of (They can't be totally unaware of what a 'genestealer' is - even the tau aren't THAT naive) or is this something they deliberately engineered? Did the Kroot/Vespid engineer this and the tau tolerate it? Again it seems unlikely, but it can be hard to say with the tau what might be justified in 'the greater good.'


Page 23

Brother Carfax was dead. Slumped over the command console, the glacis of the gunship shattered by several dozen bullet holes, the Angel Vermillion had been trying to take off when the snipers ventilated him.

Kroot weapons, presumably the sniper rifles wit pulse ammo, can penetrate Deathwatch armor.



Page 27-29

"How far’s the bastion?" he asked, tweaking the focus. "Or should I ask how long do we need to hold them for?"
"Taking into account the return journey, one hundred and thirty-seven minutes."
...
"It’s crude but will provide much greater land speed across the desert." He was squatting on the hard metal frame of a track bed, two wide slatted belts of vulcanised rubber grinding either side, providing locomotion. The Techmarine’s haptic implants were connected to the simple motor engine that had once been slaved to the cyborganic body of a servitor. Through them, he controlled the vehicle’s speed and directionality.
It had taken him approximately four minutes to affect the modification, engage the machine-spirit and drive from the gunship’s hold.
"I have a revised estimate for my return," said Zaeus. ‘Eighty-eight minutes."

A space marine - presumably running long distance, can make at least 60 km/hr (wolf's honour) but we know CSM can move as fast or faster than even a Centaur carrier (Emperor's Mercy), and Talos the Night Lord could make nearly 100 km/hr running (Void Stalker). The servitor track can move faster than that - making at least 93 km/hr to upwards of 150 kph. Quite impressive, really. Even if I'm exaggerating Space Marine speeds, we know they're vastly faster than a human, so 35-40 kph should be a good lower limit, and the speed estimates above would be off by no more than half what I estimated (45-75 kph easily, which is still fast for a freaking servitor track)



Page 29-30

Creatures were spilling into the gorge, a mutant soup of alien limbs, chitinous appendages and snapping mandible claws. They were krootis aviana but they were also something else, something altogether more abhorrent.
..
Natural armour was not one of the kroot’s usual traits but these creatures wore a sheath of chitin over their bodies that provided some protection. Others had additional limbs that ended in scything talons. Some were malformed facially, possessing glands not unlike gills through which they could project flesh barbs or trailing hooks.

Kroot seem to have been 'hybridized' as well.



Page 30

n one sheath he carried a Nocturnean drake-sabre, fashioned from sa’hrk teeth honed to a monomolecular edge, and in the other a Kravian fire-axe. The heavy bladed weapon was a rare specimen of the Kravian machine-cult, a faction of xeno-artificers with obscure ties to the jokaero.

Salamander close combat weapons - monomolecular serrated-edge saber, and a fire axe of some kind (flaming axe?) Not sure who the Kravians are, a offshoot of the AdMech who like inventor-monkeys?



Page 30-31

... the Salamander engaged the cannon’s fully automatic fire mode, yanking back the alternator slide and lighting up the muzzle with a roar of star fire.
Swathes of the kroot died, malformed carapace yielding to the aggressive fury of the high-calibre shells. Organs were pulped, limbs ripped off and bodies transformed into visceral mist. A clutch made it through the barrage, wounded but determined. Ar’gan wedged the trigger down and leapt over the barricade. He took a solid slug to the left shoulder; it scored his guard but left no lasting damage. A second hit mashed against his breastplate, blunted by adamantium.

effect of autocannon on the Kroot-hybrids. Also, Kroot sniper doesn't do so well against salamander armour, it seems.


Page 36-37

Carfax, so full of choler, his blood always up, had seemed ill-suited as a pilot; the quiet depths of Ar’gan hid a deadly bladesman; Vortan, the bitter and moribund priest, who cradled a heavy bolter like a favoured pet; Polino, the Fist, was as rigid as any son of Dorn but a strong captain; but Festaron, gifted as a field medic, was more open than any Star Phantom Zaeus had known or heard of. Their cultures and ways of war were strange, even anathema to the son of Tauron at first. Giving up the black lion pelt had been hard during that time, but the bond with his new-found brothers made it a worthy sacrifice. Respect and synchronicity had grown between them, and their differences became as boons that strengthened and united rather than weakened the group.

One of the ongoing and persistant themes of the Deathwatch, particularily the RPG and Steve Parker's novels, is that idea of Space Marines forging a brotherhood despite coming from disparate and even antagonistic backgrounds. This story does that as did the Parker 'Talon squad' stories.. heck we have a Salamander and MArine Malevolent fighting as a team. Vortan (the MM) is actually somewhat likable even, at least by the end.


Page 38

The gun nests sat in a pair of watchtowers that flanked an open gate. A quick biometric analysis suggested they were unmanned but could be auto-slaved.
..
The cannons were still, not even auto-tracking.

Automated defense guns.. like tarantulas perhaps.



Page 40

In such a large installation, it was possible the warriors who had sent the message were deeper in its confines. It was also possible that a single Space Marine acted as its garrison as warden. Such postings were not uncommon.

Space Marines may serve in single-man garrisons. That actually makes some sense as we've seen similar. Watching over Chapter interests, etc.


Page 40

Zaeus’s bionic eye added little to that analysis. There were no heat traces, biological or otherwise..

Techmarine bionic eye can distinguish between organic and inorganic heat traces.


Page 40

Already, he could feel his enhanced physiology priming him for the eventuality of close combat, fuelling his body, heightening his senses and reactions, incrementally increasing his strength and adrenaline levels with every step. For now, Zaeus kept himself in check.

Space Marines need to be 'primed' for close combat mode. That may tell us something about differences in capabilities perhaps - they don't achieve 'peak' performance immediately, and need time to achieve it.


Page 41

Much of the desert was overrun by the kroot-hybrids.
...
From his research of the kroot carnivore, Zaeus knew they were a race that had the ability to absorb the traits and characteristics of creatures through ingestion of biological matter. He balked at what species of xenos would evolve through a fusion of kroot and tyranid.

Krootnids!



Page 48

..Ar’gan saw the Marine Malevolent braced on the roof of the gunship. He carried an autocannon, one hand on the grip at the top of the stock, holding it like a scythe; the other on its trigger. He dampened the recoil by jamming the butt into his stomach. His armour’s servos did the rest, steadying his aim.

Space Marine firing an autocannon. Presumably recoil greater than heavy bolter, but still not enough to knock him over, physically, even without the suspensor. Servos help to control recoil as does the bracing (benefit of power armor.)



Page 51-54

Missile strikes provided a different tone to the war chorus, dense fooms of exhalation ending in a crescendo of earth-trembling impacts and flame.
...
The larger beasts mewled like cattle as their bodies were ripped apart by incendiaries.
..
Ar’gan detected the harsh clank of weapons on empty, the impotent clack of vented rocket tubes.
..
Most were on tracks, but some stomped forwards on piston-like legs or tottered on reverse-jointed stilts. Others still were not like men at all, but merely automated weapon platforms slaved to the Techmarine’s will. They were servitors, dozens of them, armed with stubbers and autolaunchers, heavy bolters and shot cannons. Zaeus had found his reinforcements; he had recruited an entire force of dead-eyed cybernetics to his will.
...
"I thought they were hostile but most were simply dying out. I accessed the doctrina programming of the functional ones, inloaded some new imperatives and led them here"
..
"It was slightly more complicated than that. But now the protocol I gave them is complete they will revert to their default settings and return to dormancy inside the bastion."

Single techmarine able to direct/command dozens of combat servitors of various types and armaments, including missile/rocket launchers. Interestingly the 'doctrina programming' stuff reminds me of how battle robots used to operate in the early editions of 40K./



Page 54-55

"This world dies, brother. I have already contacted Inquisitor Vaskiel and provided my report. I am certain her response will be Exterminatus."
..
Zaeus saluted them as they faded into the storm.
It would rise higher and swallow the entire world in cyclonic death, a million souls consigned to the grave so a trillion more would live on. Then the Deathwatch would come to their worlds too, Zaeus had seen it happen countless times before, and the same thing would repeat.
..
This world had only hours left to it, but there were thousands more in need of purgation.

Cyclonic-delivered exterminatus destroys a world in hours. We also dont know what the million/trillion thing refers to, as it could be 'trillion' in a vague reference to the total population of the Imperium, or it may be a sector/subsector reference for all we know.



Page 59

Twelve black-clad storm troopers were seated back there, strapped in tightly. They were elite soldiers, trained from childhood to serve the Ordo Xenos. Their bodies had been enhanced, making them bigger, stronger and faster than regular humans. Nevertheless, they were dwarfed by Cassiel and the other two members of his kill-team.

Deathwatch storm troopers, trained from birth and 'enhanced' - although whether genetically, augmetically, or a combination of both, we don't know. Maybe its a reference to the genetic enhancement stuff from Dawn of War (The minor biological modifications they supposedly get.) but who knows (we dont really know what THOSE enhancements are either, aside from being a speed boost.) And there was that Cadian aide in Gunheads as well.



Page 62

Var’myr assessed the skull’s findings, reading from the auspex built into his left forearm. The entire arm was bionic from the shoulder down.
"The scan is clear," he said. He snapped the data-screen back into his vambrace, and the armoured plate clicked into place around it like a shell. "There is nothing living within a hundred kilometres, nor any heat signature or radiation. This is a dead world."

Scanning range and capabilities of Deathwathc Servo-skull/bionic arm I gather. Whether 100 kilometres is radius or diameter we don't know, but it can detect thermal (biological and otherwise, and presumably other life signs) as well as radiation.



Page 64

Var’myr sent his servo-skull down into the crack, red beams of light from its sensors scanning and documenting.
"Seismic activity opened this crack twelve days ago," said Var’myr, tapping his data-slate. "The whole area is unstable. There are… seventeen active volcanic rifts within an eighty-kilometre radius of this location."
"How deep is it?" said Cassiel.
"Nine metres, here," said Var’myr, reading the output upon his forearm screen. "Deeper… much deeper further along."

More of the sensory deteciton capabilities of the bionic/skull combo. The radius implied here would suggest the sensory scan above was also radius (100 km radius, that is.)


Page 68-69

"A weapon of some kind, but not one made by any human hand. Who knows how long it’s been down here. Can you get a reading on it?"
"No," said Var’myr, fingers sliding through the data relaying across his forearm-mounted auspex. "This glacier is more than one hundred and fifty thousand years old, however."
...
"Even if it was buried at the centre of this moon, the Adeptus Mechanicus would come looking for it again, now they know it is here. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves. We have to destroy it."
..
"We have to destroy it," Cassiel said. "We cannot trust the Mechanicus to leave this undisturbed."

Mechanicus obsession with xenos (specifically Necron) tech again. And the same auspex from before can measure the age of a glacier, it seems.


Page 72

Cassiel’s bolt pistol barked. Two shots struck the target, one in the back, one at the base of the neck. Those detonations should have ripped the creature – man? – to pieces, but they did not. Its flesh was torn, exposing dark metal bones.

Impyling a pair of Space-Marine grade bolt pistol rounds would blow apart a normal-sized human. Or at least, blasted apart the upper torso. This also implies each bolt round in tissue would have an explosive effect roughly equal to maybe 15-20 cm in radius easily (more than sufficient for headsplosion)


Page 74-76

He forced the creature’s head back and sent a bolt from his pistol up into its metallic brainpan. He released his hold on it, and it flopped to the ground, broken, its skull a ruin of twisted metal.
..
It was the one that he had just put down: its ruptured skull was reknitting itself, flowing like liquid silver back into its original form.
..
"They are self-repairing. Their fallen rise again."
..
More of the creatures were appearing, and those that fell simply rejoined the savage attack moments later, their mortal injuries repaired.
...
Tanaka joined him, walking steadily backwards, his heavy bolter coughing death. Each controlled burst of fire smashed the enemy backwards, and Cassiel saw metal limbs shorn from bodies, yet even that damage was repaired.

Resilience and regenerative capabilities of Necron Flayers, even against bolter/heavy bolter fire.



Page 76

Before he could raise his weapon, a kraken bolt struck it from the side and its skull disintegrated into shards of metal. Cassiel looked up to see Var’myr staring down his smoking bolter from his position up at the curved black obelisk.

Kraken rounds work fine though, it seems.


Page 77

A towering being stood behind the fallen Mortifactor. It was as different from the hunched, flesh-wearing creatures as night was to day. Tall and broad-shouldered, it would have loomed over even Cassiel and the tallest of his Chapter brothers. Its skeletal limbs were a gleaming silver and it was decked in heavy plates of black obsidian. It carried a three-metre halberd ending in a humming blade of pure energy.

Lychguard, probably.



Page 80

.. the White Scar planted his feet wide and brought his heavy bolter around to bear, the built-in suspensors steadying his aim. Squeezing and holding the trigger, he unleashed a blazing torrent of fire. It was virtually a solid stream of large-calibre bolts he sent roaring across the ice cavern, and the sound was deafening.
Tanaka’s onslaught tore across the enemy, but their advance did not slow. The shield bearers at their fore tightened their formation, shields interlocking as the heavy bolter fire hammered into them. The shimmering barrier flashed brightly as each heavy bolter round struck, absorbing their energy, creating a flickering strobe as shot after shot rained upon them. Each shot rebounded off this seemingly impenetrable wall, hurled away with the same velocity as it was delivered. Heavy bolter rounds ricocheted across the ice cavern, filling the air.
One round skimmed just over the rim of one of the shields and took one of the foes in the head. The resultant detonation demolished its skull, and it fell heavily. Its brethren gave it no mind, simply stepping over the body to continue their relentless march. A moment later, it rose again.
The necrons altered the angle of their shields, and the warriors of the Ordo Xenos suddenly found Tanaka’s stream of bolter fire being redirected back at them.
Cassiel was struck in the shoulder, half spinning him, and other rounds screamed by him, missing by scant centimetres.
He turned his head instinctively, registering an incoming bolt a fraction of a second before it took him between the eyes. It still struck a glancing blow, and the resulting detonation ruined his vision in a haze of grainy static, and kicked his neck to one side.
He tore his helmet off. The whole left hemisphere was a mess of torn metal and fractured ceramite, and his left eye lens was shattered. He could feel blood trickling down his temple. He cast the ruined helm aside.
The head of one of the storm troopers disappeared in a red mist, and another was torn bodily in two as a stream of fire cut through his midsection.

Heavy bolter fire vs Lychguard shields and weapons. Like the Flayers, they can recover rapidly even from head destruction. Their shields can also redirect bolter fire with minimal loss of velocity.. and even return the fire (accurately!) back on the enemy. Space Marine armour does not fare quite so well, even against glancing shots, and storm troopers get massacred by them.



Page 87

Something vast, dark and brutish moved across the pinpricked curtain of space, blotting out the diamond lights of the constellations behind it as if swallowing them whole. It was the size of a city block, and its bulbous eyes, like those of a great blind fish, glowed with a green and baleful light.

Ork starship 'size of a city block' keep this in mind for later.



Page 92

From the shadows inside the doorway, there was a soft coughing sound.
Zazog’s skull disintegrated in a haze of blood and bone chips. His headless corpse crashed backwards onto the carpet of junk.

Single, silenced bolt round headsplodes Ork. Even the explosion is silent. Which is impressive. Perhaps high mass fragmentation/tumbling rounds. would a subsonic 'explosive' to fragment the round contribute? I dunno. It may be this is what the mercury-cores on the stalker rounds do, for example (break open/fragment the round more eaisly for this 'explosive' effect, that is.)


Page 94

Brother Rauth of the Exorcists Chapter gunned down the last of the fleeing gretchin as it dashed for the exit. The creature stumbled as a single silenced bolt punched into its back. Half a second later, a flesh-muffled detonation ripped it apart.

'ripped apart' may mean simply tearing it in half (which is still a big hole) or blasting it to pieces, either way its putting probably what amounts to a good 30-40 cm diameter hole in the body, at least, severing the spine, etc.



Page 96

"I managed to pull some old cargo manifests from the ship’s memory core. Not much else, though. Apparently, this ship used to be a civilian heavy-transport, Magellann class, built on Stygies. It was called The Pegasus."

Vessel you recall is the 'size of a city block' and is a looted human ship. That probably menas its at least half a km long, and more probably a kilometre or two long, which gives us an idea of what 'city block' size means. It does fit roughly with the 'hab/hive block' definition from Salamanders, though.



Page 97

To the Space Marines, however, everything remained clear as day. Their Mark VII helmets, like everything else in their arsenal, had been heavily modified by the Inquisition’s finest artificers. They boasted a composite low-light/thermal vision mode that was superior to anything else Karras had ever used.

Astartes helemts all have low light/thermal modes, they just differ in quality between 'normal' and 'deathwatch' types.


Page 100

"Talon Alpha, get ready to receive those schematics. Transmitting now."
Karras willed his consciousness back into his body, and his glowing third eye sealed itself, leaving only the barest trace of a scar. Using conventional sight, he consulted his helmet’s heads-up display and watched the last few per cent of the schematics file being downloaded. When it was finished, he called it up with a thought, and the helmet projected it as a shimmering green image cast directly onto his left retina.

We don't know how big the schematis are, but we coudl figure on hundreds of kilobytes, if not megabytes, of data being transmitted in seconds, and also in secrecy (The Orks never pick it up.) Which is kind of imrpessive, given this is to Space Marine power armour.


Page 102

Rauth seemed to have no warp signature whatsoever. He simply didn’t register at all. Even his armour, even his bolter for Throne’s sake, resonated more than he did. And it was an anomaly that Rauth was singularly unwilling to discuss.

Inanimate objects can 'resonate' with the Warp, albeit slightly. This probably reflects living beings own signatures/interactions 'permeating' inanimate matter, sort of a psychic 'stain' or 'signature' left behind with contact/use of things. This would explain certain actions like psychometry too (picking up the residual 'emanations' of such contact signatures.)

It also gives an indirect way of potentially detecting inanimate objects psychically, as a sort of psychic (FTL) 'sensor.' I suppose. 'Paint' it with a warp signature, and then pick up said signature, or pick up whatever such emanations may exist, passively.


Page 104-105

The kill-team hurried forward, emerging from the blackness of the corridor into a towering square shaft. It was hundreds of metres high, its metal walls stained with age and rust and all kinds of spillage. Thick pipes ran across the walls at all angles, many of them venting steam or dripping icy coolant. There were broken staircases and rusting gantries at regular intervals, each of which led to gaping doorways. And, in the middle of the left-side wall, an open elevator shaft ran almost to the top.

Indicating the ship is at least 'hundreds' of metres wide/tall, and probably at least a good 800-1000m long, as I noted before. City block size



Page 109

Rauth plunged into open space, nothing below him but two hundred metres of freefall and a lethally hard landing.

again 200 m at least for the looted ship, and also 200 m is a 'lethal' fall in normal gravity for Space Marine.


Page 110

Karras moved past him, stepping over the broad gap then stopping at Solarion’s side. On the landing ahead, he saw two ork bodies leaking copious amounts of fluid from severe head wounds.

Implying either that the bolt roudns do not always blow apart heads, or that they are using different kind of ammo that produces sizable wound cavities that still leave th head more or less intact. It could be either way


Page 112

number of the orks, however, were equipped with goggles, not to mention weapons and armour far above typical greenskin standards. Karras had fought such fiends before. They were the greenskin equivalent of commando squads, far more cunning and deadly than the usual muscle-minded oafs. Their red night-vision lenses glowed like daemons’ eyes as they pressed closer and closer, keeping to cover as much as possible.
..
A smokescreen would be useless. If the ork goggles were operating on thermal signatures, they would see right through it.

Ork Kommandos with NVG. Which they presumably copied from humans, suggesting that non-Astartes humans do use Night vision gear Potentially thermal as well presumably like preysense stuff. Odd they don't have blind grenades, but maybe they didn't anticipate commandos aboard ship or the supplies didn't have them. Or, it may just be that even Space MArine's cant' carry everything as if they were some first person shooter action hero.


Page 115

"According to naval intelligence reports, there is a large fighter bay on the ship’s starboard side. Significant fuel dumps. Give Solarion your explosives. I want him to knock out that fighter bay while you and Rauth proceed to the bridge."

A civilan transport with a 'fighter' bay. Presumably it means a small craft bay or it may be this civilian craft was modified for carrier duty (part of convoy escort/proteciton, perhaps?) - it wouldn't be the first time a civilian ship was modified for combat roles by the Imperium.



Page 120

Karras was wrong in that. Rauth knew well enough that the target couldn’t have sensed him. Nothing psychic could. It was a side effect of the unspeakable horrors he had endured during his Chapter’s selection and training programmes—programmes that had taught him to hate all psykers and the terrible daemons their powers sometimes loosed into the galaxy.
....
Who better than an Exorcist to watch over one such as Karras? Even the mighty Grey Knights, from whose seed Rauth’s Chapter had been born, could hardly have been more suited to the task.

Exorcists descend from GK Geneseed, supposedly. Which probably means they don't come directly frm any Primarch. We also know from the Armageddon website that they apparently underwent daemonic possession therapy (possessed then exorcised) as part of the creation of their abilities, a throwback to the whole 'Illuminati' bit (including that survival is not always guaranteed during exorcism.) I imagine some people will argue over this, as they do with BL adds to the fluff in ways like this, but eh.. no canon!



Page 122-124

He was breathing hard, and rivulets of red blood ran from grape-sized holes in the armour of his torso and left upper arm. If he could only stop, the wounds would quickly seal themselves, but there was no time for that.
..
A shell from an ork pistol ricocheted from the platform and smacked against his breastplate. The shot wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate ceramite, not like the heavy-stubber shells he had taken at close range, but it got his attention.

Ork firearms. Whilst it was a pain in the ass to track down grape sizes that I could cite there was this which suggetss anywhere from between 16mm-27mm so we can say roughly between 2/3 of an inch and an inch, which we know reaches to the high end of 'known' heavy stubber calibers (overlapping traditional 'autocannon' calibers in real life, which may explain the 'shells' bit.) It would also explain why they penetrated power armor.




Page 129-130

Darrion Rauth was not dead. The searing impact of the ork warlord’s psychic blast would have killed a lesser man on contact, ripping his soul from his body and leaving it a lifeless hunk of meat. But Rauth was no lesser man. The secret rites of his Chapter, and the suffering he had endured to earn his place in it, had proofed him against such a fate. Also, though a number of his bones were broken, his superhuman physiology was already about the business of reknitting them, making them whole and strong again. The internal bleeding would stop soon, too.

Exorcist resilience against psychic and physical attack.


Page 133

Rauth saw all too clearly that his moment had come, as he had known it must, sooner or later, but he couldn’t relish it. There was no joy to be had here. Psyker or not, Lyandro Karras was a Space Marine, a son of the Emperor just as he was himself, and he had saved Rauth’s life.
But you must do it for him, Rauth told himself. You must do it to save his soul.
Out of respect, Rauth took off his helmet so that he might bear witness to the Death Spectre’s final moments with his own naked eyes. Grimacing, he raised the barrel of his bolter to Karras’s temple and began reciting the words of the Mortis Morgatii Praetovo. It was an ancient rite from long before the Great Crusade, forgotten by all save the Exorcists and the Grey Knights. If it worked, it would send Karras’s spiritual essence beyond the reach of the warp’s ravenous fiends, but it could not save his life.

I always thought this was an interesting bit for the short story, playing again (once more) into that 'band of brothers' aspect of the deathwatch. Rauth clearly has abhorrence for psykers and the daemonic (as he mentions earlier) and he has difficulty accepting Karras due to his background, but this isn't complete/utter irrational hatred, he has (to him) legit reasons (and this being 40K, they are somewhat legit. Daemons and the warp aren't to fuck around with) -he still respects Karras and takes no joy in killing someone he can still see as a fellow Space Marine, reflecting an interesting bit of 'point of view' speculation. It will be interesting to see how their interactions develop in the next Deathwatch novel, given some of what Karras learned in the first book.


Page 141

Karras drew his own bolt pistol from its holster and joined the firefight, wielding one in each hand. Orks fell before him with gaping exit wounds in their heads.

Bolt pistol leaving big holes in Ork heads, but not blowing them apart.

Page 151

For the sake and safety of the Imperium, he had staged pre-emptive strikes on eldar pirates, set drahken hatchlings aflame, and ripped the cybernetic limbs from dozens of jorgall. He had faced off against entire platoons of tallerian dog-soldiers. He had been shot with vespid neutron blasters, burned by hrud fusils, and nearly crippled by a chuffian armed with one of their trademark power mauls.

Aliens the Deathwatch has fought. Note the Tarellian Dog soldier reference, for a bit of past history reference-wise.


Page 152

Carbrey, on the other hand, had christened it Rackinruin, after a mythological void whale said to prowl the segmentum his Chapter called home. Unlike other greenskin spacecraft, Rackinruin was able to attain speeds so fantastic as to propel it through the warp. It was covered with ablative amour and shrugged off damage that would have gutted other ships. It had cut a swath across half the galaxy, performing devastating hit-and-run attacks on one forge-world after another.

Except speed normally isn't a requirement for actually accessing the warp. It might speed warp travel through the warp (in some cases at least) but it won't facilitate the access (except, in a very faint sort of way, allowing faster entry in. Maybe.) More likely this is some oddity of the Ork belief interacting with the weird technology (eg how they 'perceive' entering the warp - go so FASTA that you outrace light, or something. Orks could pull that off, if they believed hard enough.)



Page 152-153

"We’ll nay be teleportin’ then"
..
"Too many variables."
...
Whatever kind of engine was powering Rackinruin generated a magnetic field so intense that it had caused tons of rock to stick to its sides. It might also scatter their atoms across the void if they tried to materialise near it.

strong magnetic fields apparently can mess with teleporters (or at least certain kinds of teleporter.)



Page 153

Chestirad’s moon was titanic and contained vast deposits of ferrite-236.

Ferrite-236. some sort of weird isotope thingy thta is probably ferrous and thus magnetic, given the context of the story.


Page 154

"We go in through the engine bell."
..
"Are you mad? They are moving at full thrust. Their plasma trail would disintegrate us before we even got near them."
"I’ve given this no little amount of thought," Archelaos said. "I believe the heat shielding on the torpedo will hold."

Heat shielding of a Deathwathc boarding torpedo can provide short term protection against full power exhaust of vessel of unknown size. Kind of hard toe stimate, beyond that, since even in direct contact the torpedo would only be absorbing a fraction of the energy (but it would still be alot)



Page 156

The boarding torpedo was a windowless, narrow tube. The forefront was occupied by a pilot servitor: the emaciated upper half of a heretic whose punishment was to serve the Ordo Xenos even unto a fiery, crushing death. Behind that five alcoves were recessed into each wall. Jerrell, Launo, and Carbrey each backed into one. Restraints automatically sprung around their feet, waist and shoulders.
..
Then, the torpedo rocketed forwards with an intensity that would have liquefied the bones of a normal man. The numbers in their displays began to race towards zero, counting off the time until they smashed through Rackinruin’s armoured skin.

boarding torpedo, space marine, and servitor survive human-killing accelerations. We're probably talking at least 50 gees, probably in excess of 100, given we know Space Marines can easily endure that from 'Black Tide.' Presumably other torpedoes (or attack craft) could achieve similar accelerations.


Page 159

Launo turned down the closest corridor, steadied himself, and let the assault cannon roar. Orks flew apart, dismembered. Archelaos and Carbrey each positioned themselves in a doorway, and emptied the clips of their storm bolters into the rushing throng. The muzzle flashes were blinding in the dank light. Discarded casings piled around their feet.

Storm bolters, assault cannon, or both producing casings. Also assault cannon tearing apart orks with unknonw number of shots.



Page 160

...Archelaos and Carbrey as they released the safety locks on the melta bomb each was carrying. They set them for the shortest possible delay, dropped them to the floor, and then backed into the lift.
..
The bombs the Space Marines had left behind were designed primarily to penetrate thick armoured targets with a concentrated burst of thermal energy. When they detonated seconds later, their power was such that they literally set fire to the air. The orks’ flesh was blacked into ash even as their lungs combusted. The walls, floor and ceiling glowed red-hot and liquefied in several places. A roiling, orange fireball raced up the shaft and washed around them.
They paid it no heed.

Meltabombs (a pair) cremate multiple orks as secondary effects as well. We dont knwo exactly how many Orks, except they vastly outnumbered the Deathwatch (4 of them) and that they filled the corridor. Figure at least a couple dozen (4-6 Orks per Deathwatch dude) means about a dozen Orks cremated each.. double or triple digit GJ for the meltabombs at least, althoguh we don't know the size/'caliber' of melta bomb.. they can be variable in size after all. But as noted since they are directional that means less than half the energy was devoted to cremation (a fifth? a sxith? We know Casaba howitzers presumably direct 85% of their energy in one direction, for example.)



Page 161

Reacting instinctually, the burly orks moved to close the distance between themselves and the Space Marines. They fired their oversized pistols as they went. Jerrell exited the lift first holding his shield before him. Huge, heavy bullets slammed into it and fragmented. A lucky shot shattered part of his helmet and he noted with cold detachment that he was now blind in his left eye.

Again Ork-scale pistols, despite heavy bullets, do very little against power armor.



Page 167-168

The orks snapped awake and turned to face the Space Marines. One of them, larger and more heavily plated than the rest, gave a bellow. Then they began trundling forwards simultaneously, unleashing a torrent of oversized shells.
Jerrell lifted his shield reflexively. Even so, he felt a massive impact in his right knee. Another tore clean through his right shoulder.
Launo stood his ground, answering back with his assault cannon. When he blew the midsection out of one of the augmented orks, wires and mechanical parts spilled forth where blood and guts should have been. The monstrosity fell over dead. When the greenskins fired at him again, chunks of his Terminator armour spalled inwards, puncturing his organs. He spat blood, went to one knee and fell to the floor.
..
Archelaos’s breathing came in shallow, rapid gasps. His armour was filled with ragged, fist-wide bullet holes.

Effects of cybork guns of uknknown calibere against Terminator armor. They'd be quite powerful all the same. Especially if they make holes that big in terminator armor.



Page 170

Chestirad and its moon were no longer hanging there, replaced instead by a distant star. Ten planets orbited around it. The fourth one was highlighted. Hundreds of bright dots, other starships, were scattered nearby. He knew this beleaguered system. It was home to one of the largest concentrations of orks in the known galaxy; the focal point in three full-scale wars between the Imperium and the greenskins.
"Armageddon, Archelaos."

The state of Armageddon, at least in space. Also not the focal poitn of three wars against Orks. Two against Orks and one (secret) one against Chaos. An understandable mistake, though. Hundreds of ships (ork and Imperial) still around the planet.




Page 171-172

This level of the station was a fuel depot, where enormous stirring mechanisms churned the vats of starship fuel to keep it from separating and congealing.

Fuel for what kind of starships we don't know/ Could be chem engines for certain kinds of starships, or maybe DIESEL FUSION. Its not like we haven't seen Imperial starships mentioend to be run on promethium (in various solid, gaseous, and liquid forms) before.


Page 172

In those seconds half a dozen men were dead, pinpoint shots blasting heads from shoulders or ripping holes through torsos.

Effects of bolt pistols.


Page 172

Brother Helian was first up – half a metre taller than some of the other Imperial Fists, his armour had been altered to fit his frame and even Gruz looked small compared to him.

If we assume he's teh usual 2-2.5 m he would be 2.5-3m, which means he reflects the 'larger' end of the Space Marine spectrum, like Pasanius from the Smurfs novels.


Page 173

Chrysius spun around to see three peons taking up firing positions behind a bank of machinery. They had solid projectile guns of simple but effective design, perhaps even capable of putting a hole in power armour at close enough range. Chrysius did not intend to find out.

It is possible to have man-portable rifles (carried by a single 'normal' person, in this case chaos cultists) that migth be able to, somehow, penetrate space Marine armor.


Page 173-174

Chrysius barely even had to look to fire in the opposite direction, into the last peon, leaving three holes in his chest so huge that his upper body flopped away, the centre of the torso completely gone.

3 bolt rounds to completely bisect torso. Assuming 30-40 cm across and no overlap we'd be talking mabbe 10-15 cm diameter holes. Slightly larger for some overlap (say 15-20cm)



Page 180-181

The edge of night passed across the surface of Euklid IV. The gas giant’s upper atmosphere was, in daytime, a mass of firestorms. As night passed the flames became dark, replaced with a grey-black caul of ash speckled with islands of glowing embers.
People had lived here once – humans, citizens of the Imperium, living on the dozens of space stations orbiting the planet. Now whoever lived here could not be described as people at all.
..
Kholedei looked out through the viewing port. Once this station had been a beautiful place, where the citizens could gather and reflect on the majesty of Euklid IV. Now the place was decaying, the walls spotted with rust and damp, the port smeared with condensation. "This was an intellectual colony," said Kholedei. "Artists, philosophers. Perhaps their meditations uncovered or woke something. A moral threat. Perhaps the Iron Warriors want it. Perhaps they built a science station of enough sophistication to make it valuable to the enemy."

Orbital colony that was for something other than making weapons or oppressing people. Artists and philsophers? UNCANONICAL! I still like it. Generally its just a science station but it shows that not everything is AdMech-dogma dominated, grimdark-in-ignorance-and-superstition, 'there is only war' silliness.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2

Page 186

..Weaponsmith Gurlagorg had been one of the first Iron Warriors ever to break the greatest taboo of the Space Marines. This Iron Warrior, a commander of his Legion, had taken an Imperial Fist prisoner at a long-ago battle, cut open his body and removed the gene-seed organs. The gene-seed, the organ that regulated all the many augmentations of a Space Marine’s body, without which he could simply not exist.

Apparently he did this before Fabius Bile and his failed experiments from Angel exterminatus (EG Honsou and others.) Or at least this is what the Fists believe, anyhow.

WE also get an explanation perhaps why gene-seed is left inside recruit - it is not just what creates the implants, it regulats and controls them. It could be that only some recruits are able to have their progenoids removed at some point, whilst others for whatever reason must keep it implanted until their death to control/regulate the enhancements.



Page 194

Chrysius vaulted up onto the top and saw another Iron Warrior, this one with both hands altered with mutation and bionics into multi-barrelled bolters. It was spraying out the firepower of four or five Imperial Fists, filling the air with burning chains of shrapnel.

Multi-barrel bolters equal to an entire half-squad/fireteam of Space Marines. Also shrapnel. That would suggest each bolter has several times the ROF of a normal bolter.


Page 194

One shot caught Chrysius full in the leg and he felt the bones and gristle of his knee blown apart into a bloody-petalled flower of torn skin.

Bolt round to knee. Does not completely blow apart limb, but makes support and walking difficult, so its not fully intact.



Page 194

A massive volley of fire ripped into Myrdos, laying his ribcage open in a bloody mass. One of his arms was blown clean off and another shot punched through his eyepiece, splitting the back of his head open and spilling his brains across the black stone of the altar.

Effect of gatlign bolters above on another Imperial Fist.


Page 195

In the moment that gave him, Chrysius loosed off half his pistol’s magazine, and the top of the cage was shredded in a burst of silver shrapnel.

Assuming between 8-15 shots, we get a rate of fire between 4-8 rounds per second.



PAge 196

The rest of his bolter’s magazine was blasted point-blank into the feasting genestealer’s head, shattering its alien skull and leaving it slumped in its cell...

Bolt pistol (bolter?) half mag to blow apart Genestealer skull.



PAge 196

A red glow was ahead of him, and he recognised the heat and colour of molten ceramite. In the forges of the Phalanx it was melted down to create new armour plates.

Molten ceramite glows red. Assuming somethign similar to Lava it would be between 800-1000C (1070-1270K) Metal temperature by color would be slightly less anywhere from 770K to 1060K implied. Although temp doesnt tell us much without specific heat and the other properites (heat of fusion and such.)



Page 198

Hestion blocked the blow with his weapon but in a flash of light the axe’s power field discharged and the chainblade was ripped apart. Loose metal teeth spattered against Chrysius, embedding themselves in his armour like tiny daggers.

Power-axe powerfield destroys Space Marine chainsword


Page 199

The last round of bolter ammo went into the back of the Iron Warrior’s head. It blew the back of the traitor’s skull apart, throwing brain and skull against the fallen barricade.

Yet another bolter headsplosion.



Page 200-201

The Weaponsmith was three-quarters the height of a human, half the height of a Space Marine. It was roughly humanoid, though its limbs were too long for its body and its oversized feet had multi-jointed prehensile toes. Its hands had similarly long fingers, so dextrous they curved back on themselves like snakes. It was covered in red-brown fur. Its face was flat, almost simian, with an underdeveloped nose and wide mouth. It wore no clothing but had a pair of welding goggles clamped to its face and a bandolier of tools strung across its chest.
The anvil beside it was covered in tools and components. As Chrysius watched, it assembled a few into another creation, a spinning armature like a clockwork toy for the amusement of a child. The Weaponsmith let the device fall whereupon it took flight, catching the updraft of hot air from the forge and flitting towards the ceiling like an insect. The Weaponsmith watched it with curiosity, paying no attention to Chrysius at all.

Yep, they don't say anything, but its a Jokaero.
Assuming a 2.5m tall Space Marine, we'd figure on roughly a 1.6-1.7m tall 'normal' human. Which in turn suggests the earlier 'bigger' space marine was closer to 3 m tall.


Page 202

"The kraken rounds my kill-team use can punch through even the ceramite of a Space Marine’s armour," said Kholedei. "Including yours, Brother Chrysius. Though you may not be familiar with the brain stem grafts of the Scimitar Guard, be assured that Brother Shen here can shoot you dead before your finger has finished pulling the trigger. "

Kraken rounds are guaranteed penetration of Astartes power armour (at close range at least) and some Chapters seem to have genetic modifications that make them faster (reaction wise) than other Marines.


Page 202-203

"his creature is of a species possessing a rare technological skill. The Iron Warriors were using it to manufacture wargear for them. It might reasonably be called a weaponsmith. That is what we were here to find."
..
"And this xenos is a powerful asset to the Inquisition. Even among its own kind, it is a genius. It is responsible for arming whole Black Crusades and now that skill will be used for the good of the Imperium. You may not understand all that we have achieved here, but if you have ever trusted me, trust that it is a greater victory than killing a hundred Gurlagorgs."

The Imperium - the Inquisition at least - is not shy bout using Jokaero to its own benefit.


PAge 202-203

"You knew we would believe it was Gurlagorg we were hunting, and you let my squad sacrifice themselves to kill him!"
..
Chrysius slumped and let his pistol drop. "We were brothers, Kholedei. At Hive Mandibus you pulled Gruz from the rubble of that blast, and you debated with Vryskus for hours! They were your brothers! You were my brother! You knew we would die for the chance to kill Gurlagorg and you let us believe it anyway."
"The Iron Warriors were trying to get this alien off the station," said Kholedei. "We had to take this position as quickly as we could. That meant spurring the Imperial Fists on to storm this place with all haste, more than combat doctrine would allow. We told you no lies and we fought as sternly as any of you, and for the same end."

simply put, Deathwatch used the Imperial Fists to delay the IW and retrieve the monkey, which the Fists see as a betrayal. Even worse it's by one considered a brother/friend, which clearly has wounded Chrysius deeply. The story is an interesting point of view telling of how the Deathwatch can be seen outside the organization by other Chapters. Its ties to the Inquisition and its unorthodox approach make it seem cold, ruthless and even untrustworthy - whereas from internally (like the Deathwatch novel) we've seen that the difficult missions and roles they must fufil require Space Marines who do not think or conform to the usual role/idea of an Astartes, and even then they have to be broken and reforged to be suitable to the Deathwatch's needs.

It also highlights just how different honor, duty, and necessity can be subjective for the Imperium. What is believed by the Fists is not neccesariyl held by other Chapters or organizations, and one person's 'greater good' is another's betrayal. That is also a part of the Deathwatch and its diversity, albeit one of the less pleasant ones.

I think its a very interesting scene for how it takes the Space Marine outside the context of simple absolutes and battles and forces him to confront things that are intricate, complex, or even contradictory. And it makes you pity him, because he's not a horrible person, nor is the one who is 'betraying' him. And it is not easy to decide who is 'right' and who is 'wrong' in this case - because the assessment of worth/value is always relative (what is worthy sacrifice to one is not to another.)


Page 211

Judging from the scale of the buildings, the Fastness covered thousands of square kilometres. The meaning of the tower and the height of the walls registered.

Prison size, keep this noted for later.


Page 212

"Furthermore, it is the will of the Inquisition that Discidia and its resources be preserved intact, not turned to so much glass and cinder by a large-scale war."

Implying that even conventional Imperial warfare can, on a sufficietnly large scale or lenght of time, be world-devastating. We've seen examples of that to certain extents (like Vraks) but I think it shows just how devastating 40K warfare can potentially be.



Page 212-213

Centuries earlier, the Vorago Fastness had been built with room for a near-infinite prison population. Larger than any one city on the planet, it had been conceived as a means of political control at least as much as a dumping ground for the criminal element. Discidia had the highest incarceration rate of any world in the Maeror subsector. It also had the lowest crime rate. Justice there was rudimentary to the point of being meaningless: any infraction, or even the mere perception of one, resulted in the accused being thrown into Vorago and forgotten. The abysmally short life expectancy in the prison hive kept the population density to merely hellish, rather than impossible.

Prison hive, larger than any one city, but presumably not two. So we might figure at least 1000-2000 square km for the 'average' hive city.



Page 213-214

Faced with such a surplus of space, the wise and benevolent regents of Discidia did the only logical thing: they imported prisoners. They let it be known to all neighbouring systems that here was a location where undesirables of whatever description could be sent and held for a suitable remuneration. And so, for generations had come a flood of inconvenient heirs, rivals and political malcontents, men and women who, for one reason or another, could not simply be assassinated, or whose continued existence was more profitable than their deaths. Those were the prisoners over whom an actual watch was kept, to make sure that they stayed alive for as long as was useful. Over time, the Vorago Fastness had become a profitable enterprise, feeding the wealth of Discidia’s growing leisure class, and financing its exploding prison bureaucracy.
But the prison was a source of riches not only for what it held, but also for what it exported. It was built – by design – over many of the planet’s richest deposits of benthamite. The stone was hard and smooth as marble, yet had the gloss and shine of obsidian. In its pure state it was as translucent as glass, but when other minerals were introduced it took on colours of extraordinary richness and hue. Its beauty and strength made it highly sought after for the construction of monuments. Very little struck awe into the heart of the masses with quite the same power as the sight of a sunset filtered through the beyond-royal blues and reds of a benthamite triumphal arch. And very little gladdened the hearts of Discidia’s nobility quite like the quarrying of one of the subsector’s most valuable resources by slave labour.

You have to admire the capitalistic inventiveness of the planet when it comes to this shit. They get paid by other planets to house prisoners, they get free slave labor and a low crime rate from their policies, AND they get further benefits from the export of the valuable mineral. Very capitalistic and very Imperium-esque.



Page 218

Teiras examined the bolter shell before inserting it into the magazine. The kraken penetrator round came to a solid adamantium tip. It was a thing of beauty.
..
Along with the specialised shells, the bolters were Mark IVs with range finders, and the grenades were haywire variants. The weapons were impressive, but they were also, Dagover explained, best guesses. The hope was that the kraken rounds would tear through the enemy’s armour, and that the grenades would disrupt the creatures’ eldritch energy. The hope, not the certainty.

Kraken rounds and haywire grenade as anti-Necron weapons. Note how ti seems that in this novel the Deathwatch make tons of use of Krakens.
Also they seem not to be just adamantium core, but adamantium tipped.



Page 219

" You will be fighting a foe who seems to be composed of nothing but armour. What would incapacitate a man or an ork is a mere inconvenience to a necron."

Advantages of Necron over organic enemy.



Page 220-221

The walls and floor vibrated with the white-noise hum of the turbines. Here, power for the entire city was produced. Dagover was about to steal all of it for a few crucial seconds.
In an open space before the turbines was the teleporter that had been brought down from the Iudex Ferox. It was ancient. There was an artisanal touch to the ornate pylons that surrounded the pad, in the brass keys of the bulky cogitator, and in the inlaid mosaic of runes on the pad itself. This was a relic. A survivor, Teiras suspected, from the Dark Age of Technology. One of the treasures that the Inquisition held for its own particular use.
...
"Given enough information and power, this teleporter has a flawless precision of beam."

Portable, DAoT inquisition teleporter. Uses a few seconds of hive city power output and extensive data for most precise beam.



Page 222

he kraken rounds punched into the necrons, some going all the way through to the wall behind.

Penetration capability of Kraken round against Necron and wall of unknown size and composition.



Page 223

..Kneeling on the torso, he snapped out a bone-blade and plunged it into the necron’s neck. With a vicious thrust, he severed the thing’s head, and yet its hands reached up, seeking to pull off his helmet. Exterminate. He brought a fist down, pulverising the skull. There was a spine-grating electronic wail of agony. Then it cut off, and the necron was gone.

Decapitation does not stop Necrons, but pulverizing the skull does.




Page 224

..he flooded the interior with ignited promethium, bathing the group of necrons within with purging fire. The warriors did not feel pain, and they advanced into the control room, but the flame corroded their bodies. Their legs collapsed within a few steps. The Space Marines crushed the flailing skeletons beneath their boots and watched the bodies vanish in a flare of sickly green.

Heavy flamer effective against Necron.




PAge 225

Kyral threw a haywire grenade at the end of the platform, catching the necrons in its disruption field. It did not paralyse them, but their movements became jerky and their guns would not fire. The ghouls marched forwards out of the field. They were even more ghastly as they twitched.
..
But the few seconds that the grenade bought were enough..

Effect of Haywire grenades on Necrons.



Page 228

Teiras leaned over the rear of their cart, bone-blade out. He hacked at the link between carts. Iron parted before adamantium.

Adamantium signiifncalty stronger and able to cut iron (rather a adamntium sheathed bone blade of the Black Dragon.)



Page 231

The necrons sought out the Space Marines through a process of brutal elimination. They simply killed everything in sight. Their gauss beams played over the prisoners, flaying them to the bone in agonising instants. The street erupted with a cascade of fragmented screams and violently shed flesh. The necrons swept the beams back and forth, slicing away the supports of the surrounding structures. The patchwork city collapsed in their wake, stone and blood spilling with a roar to close the street behind the marching abominations.

Necron weaponry effects


Page 231

Teiras looked through his bolter’s range finder. He zeroed in on the skull of the leading necron. It was one of the larger ghouls. Invisible beams bounced between the scope and the target, and the precise distance to the xenos appeared as a readout in the sight. Teiras adjusted his aim and fired. He held the gun steady as he pumped a stream of penetrator rounds into the necron’s skull. It was like sniping with a bolter. The head disintegrated. The necron phased out in mid-step.

Kraken rounds obliterate head, and the effect of the bolter rangefinder. Demolishing head, again, phases out necrons.



PAge 237-238

He pulled out a melta bomb.
Teiras did the same. The canyon was very narrow, only a few dozen metres wide. The necrons were bunched close together. The invitation was impossible to ignore.
..
Then the bombs landed, and there was a different light. This was the light of the Emperor, beyond molten, silver-white as blindness. It swallowed the necrons and their glow of the plague. There was a satisfying unity to the death shrieks. The one-eyed necron was caught at the outer edge of the bombs’ radius of effect. Its lower half was liquefied by the heat. Its staff exploded, disintegrating its right arm. It dragged itself forwards a few metres before phasing out, and Teiras was sure he saw hatred in the fading glow of its eye.

Omnidirectional-blast meltabombs vs Necrons. If we figure 24-36 m across and zero overlap for blast effects, that would be 12-18 m diameter per bomb. I'd figure at least for a fireball between half a GJ and several GJ. IF we figure melting point of iron (call it 2000K) and temperature of air would probably be at least a few hundred MJ at least.



PAge 239

The weapon crouched in the middle of the floor. It was fifteen metres long, and two thirds of that comprised a monstrous barrel wide enough to take metre-thick shells – if indeed those were what it fired. Teiras couldn’t begin to guess whether it was a projectile or energy weapon. Its body was articulated, and it rested on four insect-like legs.

suppoedly the weapon is a doomsday wepaon (or from a race known for doomsday technology) but whether or not it is here, we dont know.



PAge 243

It was midway down the enormous barrel, shaped as if for a handheld weapon, but on a cannon the size of a major artillery piece. Teiras wrapped both arms around the firing mechanism.

The aformentioned doomsday gun is the size of a 'major' Imperial artillery piece. Given metre thick shells, we're talking some kind of 'bigger than 18" battleship gun. A freaking macro cannon, in all probability, or closer to the schwerer-gustav railway guns (although a shorter barrel). Probably super-heavy artillery.


Page 244

Teiras felt a moment of astonishment at the depths of Dagover’s game. A Flame Falcon. The most cursed Chapter of the Cursed Founding, the most ill-fated of the Black Dragons’ cousins. Declared Excommunicate by the Inquisition, they had, Teiras had always believed, been exterminated, and yet here was one, no doubt existing at the pleasure of Dagover.

They're not dead yet! But another sign of how murky this whole Inqisitorial business is. I kinda like knowing that even 'exterminated' chapters might still exist in some form.



Page 247

"And the prison population has flooded into Carcera Lucrosus. We have effectively unleashed a civil war on Discidia."
Dagover nodded. "Would you say that the existing political order on Discidia was worth preserving?"
"No."
"So the wealth of the planet has been preserved, and a regime that was unworthy of the Emperor’s light has fallen."
...
"You and I agree that the Lord Governor and his cronies were corrupt, but they kept well within the letter of Imperial law. They paid their tithes. They violated no edicts. And their political friends were many. I could not act directly."
..
"Creative destruction is necessary for the salvation of the Imperium, Black Dragon"

Turns out the Inquisitor who assembled a gorup of quasi-toelrated space Marine chapters (sons of Anateus, Flesh Tearer, Black Dragon and a Relictor. and a Flame Falcon (we discover later) is a Radical Recongregator. Wants to recover Xenos tech (and block the efforts of an Amalathian adversary) and disrupt the social order on Discidia. Again we see how the Deathwatch deals in gray areas whereas Space Marines often prefer black and white truths... who is rigth and who is wrong, and whose 'truth' is the right one is often a matter of perspective, and even the normally 'absolute' attitudes of Space MArines must bend to this truth. I liked the contrasts in this story - the apperance of the Inquisitor vs his amalathain, the fact that the oppression and greed of the world contrasts with the goals of the 'Radical', and so on.
We also discover that Cannoness Sethano, from 'Death of Antagonis' made an appearance (this is a prequel) and is apparently a friend of or Recongregator. Again that really muddies stuff more.


Page 251-252

The genetor’s scalp was threadbare and his cantankerous mask of a face gnarled and ancient. Kryptman spied the faces of liver-spotted cherubim peeking out from miniature hoods in the ample folds of Vandrasarc’s robes. It was these homunculi familiars, growing from the arch-genetor’s own flesh, which kept Vandrasarc alive, assuming for him some of the cancers and dilapidations of his extreme old age.

One of a myriad ways the AdMech finds to extend its lifespans.


Page 254-255

"The Gorgus failed to deliver its promethium shipment, because the research outpost on Tyran had been destroyed. The ocean world itself has suffered a catastrophic event. Every microbe of life – floral and faunal – has been wiped from the face of the planet, including the benthic and atmospheric medium. The Gorgus found a dead world. A sterile ball of rock. My own investigations on the devastated planet revealed a data-codex secreted deep below the outpost by explorator personnel. It detailed not only a pattern of other dead worlds on the Eastern Fringe, presaging the progress of an extragalactic invasion fleet, but also the outpost’s record of Tyran’s own alien invasion. It seems that these spores were instrumental in bringing a new and previously undocumented xenos species down to the surface – an organic drop-pod, if you will."

Kryptmann discussing his discovery of the destruction of all ilfe on Tyran. The 'benthic' and 'atmospheric' regions refer to the total removal of all life and water/atmosphere (including from those mediums) from the planet. Totally sterile, in other words.

Also referencing Mycetic spores and its drop pod functions.



Page 255

"Permission to simulate aerodynamic heating, inquisitor?"
...
Two hydraulic servo-arms extended from their wall-anchors to present the scorched nozzles of mounted flamer appendages. Fat tanks of promethium percolated at the servo-arm’s base as the pilots were ignited. Under the deft control of the magos’s tendril mechadendrites, the pit appendages bathed the mycetic spore in chemical fire.

flamers can, i a short period, simulate atmospheric reentry parameters



Page 256

"The first thing that always strikes me about the tyranid is the efficiency of their design and economy of their purpose. They waste nothing, not even energy. It is my belief that the creatures, demonstrated to be so hyperactively hostile in the data recovered from the Tyran Primus outpost, remain in a dormant state until primed. Heat generated by rapid descent through a planetary atmosphere might act as a trig–"

Kryptmann's comments on the 'efficiency' of the Tyranid.



Page 256-257

Tentacles erupted from the scabbed pod and whipped their sinewy lengths around the flamer-equipped servo-arms. Orm attempted to retract the arms but the spore had entwined its barbed tendrils through their gears, pistons and fluid lines. The remote appendages groaned as the cogs in their motorised joints fought and slipped. If anything, the spore’s grotesque appendages seemed to be winning the tug of war.
..
he pod suddenly relaxed its grip, allowing the servo-arms to lurch back towards the wall. As they did, the ripper hooks on the tentacles slipped through both the fuel and hydraulic lines, spilling promethium and fluid onto the pit floor and turning the weaponised appendages into shuddering, sputtering wrecks. The tendrils writhed and coiled across the metal floor about the pod, sampling the featureless decking before being steadily retracted into the disgusting blob.

Detection and defensive systems of drop pods, it seems. Later the same tentacles drag living prey into the pod to feed the occupants and awaken them (or feed them.)


Page 260-261

Criss-crossed slashes started to blotch the pod’s fleshy dermis, while the blob itself seemed to shrivel and contract like a piece of giant fruit rotting at speed. The spore husk rocked this way and that. Something was fighting within. Fighting to be free.
..
Without warning, scraps of carapace, sinew and flaccid flesh were sprayed in every direction by an internal jolt. Like a lurid blur, a succession of vicious organisms launched from the pod’s remains at the mother grox – spindly, chitinous horrors, visited one after another upon the beast of burden and latching onto its hide.
..
"The tyranids are a highly economical species. Nothing is wasted. Everything is biologically reinvested and reassigned. The spore has delivered its payload and has been sacrificed to fuel the hostilities of a vanguard xenoform – a sub-species I recognised from the Tyran Primus data-codex, although the tyranids seem to be immeasurably varied and in a state of constant hyper-evolution. This particular genus I have designated Gaunti and this sub-genus Gaunti gladius."

More comments and hormagaunt emerge from the 'drop pod' in an explosive manner. The drop pod also seems to sacirfice itself to fuel the occupants into awakening. Admittedly I have to wonder how this is 'economical' unless they have some sort of 'fuel' that both spore and gaunts use to run off of and they simply siphon it directly, because feeding in a more carnivorous manner is, generally speaking, relatively inefficient (energy is always lost in the process.)



Page 263

"From observing the attack on the second prey specimen, we can confirm that each strike – although appearing mindless – is in fact precisely targeted. All major organs required for life have been punctured or ruptured, with the exception of the rather primitive brain. Predator specimens are now attempting to ingest tissue and complex proteins to drive their demanding metabolism."

Hive Fleet Behemoth's Gaunts could feed on living beings. This is different from other kinds which lacked even the digestive system (more specialization as direct combat roles) suggesting several kinds of Gaunts exist.. ones deployed exclusively and optimized for short term combat (as in planetary invasions) and more adaptable/survival-oriented 'infiltrator' variants which have the ability to subsist off living matter it finds onplanet. Both may or may not have the reproductive function mentioned earlier (or they may be able to vary the design even further in that regard.)

Also, depsite being essentially animal, they are clever enough to target precise weak points - known or suspected. How they KNOW they are weak points is up to debate - do they discern it psychically or by other means of detection, are they already aware of this life form and 'store' the information for future use (or are provided it as 'training'), or was it educated guess/conjecture?


Page 262-265

"The information from the data-codex was suggestive of a single driving consciousness directing the invading tyranid swarm. Reports seemed to indicate that certain larger monstrosities – acting as a form of cellular node – prompted the lesser creatures to attack in disciplined patterns and powerful concentrations. Without these synaptic nodes, localised swarms were less effective and prone to discombobulation."
..
"Gaunti gladius operates on the individual instinct to hunt and kill, although brood methodology dictates that this instinct yields greater dividends when employed in large numbers. The data-codex suggests that under certain circumstances, individuals might cooperate or even “strategise”. Presumably, this effect is further enhanced at the level of a full swarm in the presence of the larger synaptic relay organisms."

Comments on the 'Synapse creature' element of the Tyranids, as well as even without it, they can still operate with a measure of effectiveness even when resorting to 'pre-programmed' behavioural patterns (the ability to cooperate or strategise.) In other sources we've even seen that Gaunts apart from the hive mind can evolve/adapt to become bigger, more powerful, or even a sort of psychic creature (synapse creature?) on their own. So there clearly is an interesting level of redundancy built into Tyranids.


Page 263-264

"Reports show that the Gaunti alone has been engineered to deploy both ranged and close combat armament. This includes symbiotic ballistic weaponry that launches live, parasitic organisms. Conversely, a typical Gaunti gladius – if such a thing exists – favours the simplicity of face-to-face killing with razor-edged claws. More than a match for plasfibre, carapace or even power armour. Add to this the powerful bounding motion and flesh-tearing jaws and you have a lethal xenos predator."

Variations between close combat and ranged gaunt variants. No mention of gargoyles tho. Also mention of effectiveness of Hromaguant claws against even carapace and powered armour.


Page 266

With a brief flash, the automaton weapon fired its foremost barrel upon the restrained monstrosity. A las-bolt ricocheted off the shell-like carapace, prompting the gaunt to hiss its displeasure. The servo-arm descended to almost point-blank range and fired again, resulting in a small explosion of burned chitin and a squeal from the tyranid creature. The servo-arm retreated above the beast to reveal that the second shot had barely penetrated the creature’s organic armour plating.
"Having already detailed the construct’s devastating physical capabilities, it seems ranged combat is our best option against these xenos beasts," Kryptman extrapolated. "By far the most common weapons available in the Imperium are las-based in their technology, but as we can see, strikes in the nineteen to twenty-two megathule range struggle to penetrate the fused, chitinous plates sported by many bio-constructs. Even successful penetrative blasts would be fortunate to hit an essential organ in Gaunti gladius’s sparse physiology."

Lasfire against Tyranids. Note that even point blank, the las-shots (typical estimated lasgun range it seems) does not penetrate very easily. The effects are distinctly explosive rather than thermal. It doesn't mean it can't penetrate gaunt carapace, its just unlikely to do so. Small reason they mention aiming for the soft/flexible bits (although those are tough as well, being comparable to flak as per the 3rd edition 'Nid codex.)

But even if it does penetrate.. the layout of the internal organs of the Gaunt make it hard to hit vital targets, and apparently for lasguns (These lasguns at least) shot location matters a great deal (EG they don't make huge, messy holes.) Not all lasguns suffer to this degree, of course, but it is a limitation.

Hellguns and hotshot rounds - more 'megathulage' would be more powerful and probably more likely to penetrate. Max power shots probably do as well (depending on effiviency vs power consumption.) This does again tie back to 'what is a megathule' We know from Legion of the Damned that they seem to have somethign to do with electricity and cahrge, and a 6 megathule would be enough to electroshock a Space Marine would probably be either close to human max (400 V or so) or several times greater (200-900V) and a LAsgun's 'voltage' in such cases would be greater (634-2850V)

We don't know amperage, and this may actually vary quite a bit depending on setting (higher power settings may do more damage due to different amperage but it could be differences in efficiency. 19 megathules as per the munitorum manual was the optimum balance between lethality and energy efficiency, after all.) Handheld plasma cutters get into anywhere from 10-50 amps, for example, which with the stated 'outputs' would yield anywhere from 6.3 Kw to 143kw depending on the exact mix of amp/watts you went with. a few 'kilowatts' may seem rather low, but remember that most assault rifles don't fire on full auto, they fire on semi auto or burst fire, which is at most a few bullets a second. And a lasgun typically has only a 3-4 shot/second output per the uplifting primer, and for a pulse laser that can be quite powerful. But if we went with say 40-50 amps it would easily be within 'full auto' firepower range for modern assault rifles (in terms of KE at least) and quite a bit higher on the far end (hundreds of kilowatts) which would be a decidedly nastly lasweapon. Amperage can go much higher (80, 100, 200 or even 300 amps I've seen googling) but depending on voltage that could produce numbers more in line with my 'older' calcs. 100 amps at even 600 volts would be 60 kw, whilst at 2850 kv and 300 amps we'd get some 850 kw, or nearly the energy content of a stick of dynamite (some kinds) or a hand grenade. Again not impossible, but far higher than I typically assume except maybe for heat rays (which these weapons can also be. Lasweapons don't conform to a single type/style aftera ll.)



Page 266-267

As Kryptman spoke, the weapon-arm cycled to present one of the chunkier barrels in the attachment. The targeter guided the automaton in on the snapping beast’s other shoulder.
"More effective is the 0.998 calibre boltgun. Standard issue within the Adeptus Astartes, although rarely employed elsewhere within the Imperial military. Observe."
The attachment on the servo-arm blazed away, chugging mass-reactive shells at the creature. They impacted and shredded the gaunt’s talon arm from its body almost as an afterthought; the scything blade-limb clattered to the deck as the alien obscenity screeched in instinctual fury rather than pain. Its shoulder was nothing more than a ruined stump of spurting gristle.
"Beyond the greater penetrative and overall stopping power of bolt weaponry, the large bore explosive ammunition has the advantage of being able to amputate – and therefore neutralise – the tyranids’ integral weaponry. Recent advances in the development of bolt ammunition have led to variants that prove even more effective against such engineered breeds."
..
"Hellfire rounds, in which the uranium core of a standard shell has been replaced with a mutagenic acid found to be effective against certain xenos species."

Reference to the .998 caliber bolter shells. There's been argument over whether this was a typo over a specific pattern/model rather than caliber, and it isn't the first time I remember this cropping up but... well it just means bolters can range from as low as .50 cal to up to nearly 1.0 cal Presumably heavy bolters have similar variance (from perhaps .75 to 1.5-2.0 cal, or up to 40-50mm heavy bolter shells?)

Also, bolt fire unsurpisingly is better than lasweapons against 'Nids. The advantages lie apparenlty not just in more raw power (kinetic and explosive) as opposed to the lasfire, but also the ability to cause wide-area damage - amputate limbs more reliably, etc. Makes bigger holes, in other words.

Lastly note the heretical reference to 'recent advances' in ammuition and the mention of bolter shells with a 'uranium core' (as mentioned in some other sources like storm of iron) whilst others mention a dense metallic core (metallic hydrogen/deuterium perhaps) Given that Kraken rounds supposedly have a denser core, this may again point to adamantium (in at least some versions) being as dense or denser than uranium, or perhaps having other properties more desirable as a penetrator.) Although using uranium as a dense penetrator core is less effective than tungsten or tungsten-carbide because of uranium's pyrophoric and 'self-sharpening' properties. Covering it up just removes the self-sharpening bit, at least.



Page 267

The targeter brought the boltgun attachment in above the creature’s spitting maw, and it fired once, blowing the monster’s ugly head from its carapaced shoulders.
"Kill-shots with standard mass-reactives should therefore be restricted to the cranial casing."

Obligatory bolter head-splosion.



Page 268

"We have tested a wide range of state-diverse toxins, Adeptus Mechanicus-engineered poisons and over one hundred naturally occurring venoms. Almost all have demonstrated little or no effect on the tyranid corpus-chemistry."

'Nids are highly posion resistant to most of what Kryptman used on them


Page 268

The effect on the creature was instantaneous – it began to tremble within its restraints but the tremors soon turned to spastic jerking. Venting steam from its cracked dermis, chunks of the beast dropped to the floor, its macabre organics disintegrating into both gaseous and liquefied residue that splattered to the pit floor in a sludge-pool of wasted flesh.
"The only real success we have enjoyed was with the introduction of the Inquisition’s own biological weapons. This is a weakened derivative of the Life-Eater virus, typically deployed during a planetary Exterminatus order – a tactic that even the holy ordos do not employ lightly. Not even the xenos can withstand the Life-Eater."

Life Eater effects. We do know later on (in BFG) that at least their starships adapted to and became resistant to virus weapons (at least of certain kinds) so its not a guaranteed thing in all cases, and we know later codexes mentioend certain resilience to 'certain' forms of Exterminatus which may also reference life-eater resilience.

Also note how the virus bomb is referenced as 'The inquisition's own biological weapons' - either they have their own life eater versions (and what other virus bombs outside the inquisiton are used are different/less potent') or they are the only one allowed to use life eater/virus bombs in general (which seems harder to reconcile as I'm sure we've seen non-Inquisitors use them, even if just Space MArines.)



Page 269

"with the complete specimen recovered for further analysis, documentation and testing. The creature has demonstrated... a considerable resilience to shock and biological commitment to its genetically-engineered purpose. The chitin-carapace and skeletal structures stand up well to conventional blades, necessitating the use of chain- and power-tools." The inquisitor grinned. "The close combat equivalents of these tools would be expected to stand the best chance of wounding tyranid constructs at close quarters on the battlefield."

Even gaunts carapace have resistance to close combat weapons that aren't chainswords and powerweapons.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 3

PAge 270

"One final surprise was the discovery of a birthing tract," Kryptman noted with a mixture of technical enthusiasm and despair. A bionic appendage holding an open stasis casket rose to display a collection of fleshy, vein-threaded sphericles. "This means that the predator subjects are able to reproduce independently once they have made planetfall, replacing expected losses and fortifying the vanguard swarm. We shall endeavour to raise these specimens to adulthood under laboratorium conditions in order to facilitate further testing."

The reproductive function.. or at least birthing. It doesn't mean (neccesarily) that they can engage in an endless cycle of reproduction.. it just may mean they carry the capacity to 'breed' at least once on the ground or 'plant' creatures who can be born to replace losses. Or it may even be variable, its not as if the Tyranids don't vary such functions according ot their need (long term infiltrators may be able to reproduce multiple times over long periods to amass populations, whilst short term infiltators may only 'birth' once and short-term close combat forms may do away with this function entirely.)



Page 277

...: a dozen gue’la janissaries equipped with flak-plate and pulse carbines. They were all Imperial deserters, lured from the enemy by the promise of better rations rather than ideology, and despite the trappings of our civilisation they remained barbarians.

Ah, to the tau most non-tau are 'barbaric'. And yes this involves tau. Note they use pulse carbines, but seem to use possibly Imperial-designed flak armor, although it may be Tau design (who says they don' t use a kind of Flak?)



Page 282

There was no obvious access mechanism, but Xanti’s data drone detected a biometric scanner embedded in the bulkhead.
"For the gue’la it is a sophisticated system," the autaku murmured, his face lost in the dancing holograms projected by his drone. The small saucer-like machine hovered by the hatch, interfacing the mechanism with its datalaser and mapping it into territory its master could negotiate.

given the tau being only familiar with Ultima Segmentum, unfmailiar with the Inquisition by and large, and other stuff, thsi doesn't really say much. Fire Warrior mentions Ultima Segmentum as being the least sophisticated and most backward of the Segmentae, and the fringes tend to be even more rural than the inner worlds on top of that.



Page 284

Shrouded in heavy crimson robes, the mummified cadaver looked more machine than man. Its face was an angular bronze mask studded with sensors, seemingly riveted to the skull. A pistol was clutched in a bionic claw, the barrel shoved through the broken grille of its mouth. Its cranium had ruptured into a crown of splintered bones and circuitry.

AdMech blow sits own mechanical brains out, literally. Wonder what the pistol was.



Page 288

The fallen warrior was almost buried beneath a mound of mutants, but there was no mistaking his stature. Alive, he would have been almost twice my height and countless times my weight. Could it really be?
"Space marines."
..
My breath caught as she confirmed my suspicion. I had studied accounts and pictures of the Imperium’s elite warriors, but they had seemed a distant, almost mythical peril. They were the stuff of nightmares, bio-engineered giants bred to be utterly merciless in the service of their dead Emperor. It was rumoured that a hundred of these monsters could conquer a world.

Space Marines are as mythic to the tau as to the Imperium in some ways. Also, note the size/mass difference implied between an Astartes and water caste. Must be a damn short caste member here (1.25m?



Page 290-291

"A White Scar," said Jhi’kaara, pointing out the crimson flash on the white pad. "They fought honourably on Dal’yth."
"There were Space Marines on Dal’yth?" I was appalled by the idea of the Imperium penetrating so deep into tau space.
"They almost took Dal’yth, waterkin." She chuckled dryly. "Among your caste some truths are left unspoken lest they wither your faint hearts.’ Despite her words there was no malice in her voice. We had achieved an understanding of sorts, she and I. Of more concern was the possibility that my own caste had lied to me. Was that really possible? Remembering the ancient manipulator O’Seishin, I found little comfort."

The Crusade almost took over the planet, had Tyranids and Kryptmann not interefered. This does not mean the Crusade would have crushed the Empire (too small really.. a few millions of men and a dozen ships is not enough... you need something more on the scale of the Sabbat Worlds or Jericho Reach crusades.) but it could have done serious harm regardless.

We also get mention of how the tau use propoganda and sometimes keep secrets just like the Imperials. Its not the first time we've seen that (keeping secrets about the reality of Titans, for example, in Fire Warrior) and it makes a certain sort of sense.. keep morale high, don't discourage your people, trust in the Greater good and all that.. but its still lies and propoganda. The entire story seems to focus on just how the Greater Good is perhaps not as great and shiny as many tau believe it is, and points that there are some tau who don't wholly drink the kool-aid, same way there are Imperials who don't. Its very reminiscient of the whole 'Imperial Truth' subplots in the Horus Heresy novels, and its always interesting to see stuff like this discussing the flaws and realities of 40K factional ideologies.



Page 292

"They are Yhe’mokushi, beasts of the Silent Hunger," Jhi’kaara said. The reference meant nothing to me and the others looked equally mystified. She nodded, unsurprised. "A predatory species the Tau Empire has only recently encountered. These differ from the bioforms depicted in our orientation sessions, but diversity is in their nature. They are living weapons that can steal form as well as substance, becoming whatever suits their purpose."
"And they are hostile to the Tau Empire?" Xanti asked uneasily.
"They are hostile to all life save their own. Like locusts they exist only to consume and multiply, leaving nothing but dust and shadows in their wake. It is said the Imperium has suffered greatly from their depredations."
..
We were silent. Here was another ugly truth hidden in the name of the Greater Good. Over the last few months my certainties had eroded away, revealing deception, obsession and horror. What else had been kept from me?

More secrets, it would seem, kept from the bulk of the tau. Also I'm not sure if they reference just Genestealers or Tyranids in general here, but its ominous either way.



Page 298

The round struck the hybrid mid-leap, throwing it to the ground in a writhing heap. Before it could right itself a third shot sheared through its skull. A kill, but it had cost her precious time.

Pulse rifle vs genestealer hybrid, I assume. Headsplosion, maybe?



Page 298

Before I could shout a warning, her gun drone swooped from the shadows and lanced her aggressor with its twin-linked guns, almost tearing it in two. Whirling round, the saucer sped towards another hybrid, spitting fire, but the beast danced about in ragged avian bursts, bounding between the floor and the walls as it charged. At the last moment it rolled low and sprung up beneath the saucer, latching on to its rim. The drone spun about, firing furiously as it tried to dislodge its attacker, but the beast was too strong. I imagined the machine’s primitive logic core assessing probabilities and weighing up options. It found its answer within seconds and self-destructed, incinerating the hybrid from the waist up.

Gun drones can do impromput self destruct, 'incinerating' the torso of a hybrid.



Page 300

Dimly I saw Jhi’kaara vault from the tier above. She raised her rifle to her shoulder and advanced on the abomination, firing as she came. She didn’t stop until it was a charred ruin.

Assuming half a full clip (25 shots) because she fires on another corpse later, and assume about 3rd-4th degree burns on both sides of body(1-8 MJ) that would be between 40-320 kj per shot.


Page 301

Then by unspoken consent we fed the Iron Hand, gathering the janissaries’ weapons and power packs and offering them up to his ravenous mechadendrite. Our ritual was without sense for the enemy of our enemy was destroyed, leaving only the enemy, yet we never hesitated.
..
"The Flesh – betrays," he said, though he had no lips, "but the Machine – is faithful."
I saw his doom then. His body had succumbed to its wounds, but his depleted augmetics had endured, cradling his consciousness as life slipped away. Half-corpse, half-machine he had stood frozen in this chamber for untold decades, burning with impotent rage as his dead flesh was consumed. Denied sleep or the deeper oblivion of death, he had watched as corruption blossomed within and without. I saw him descending into madness, then clawing his way back in the hope of redemption… then falling again. How often had that cycle repeated? And where did it stand now?

Iron Hand augmetics may actually have a useful aspect for once. Basically his felsh is all gone/infected, but he is still sane/functional because of the sheer degree of augmetics he has. And as long as he has power provided to him, he can 're-awaken' and function. Sort of an immortality of sorts, which you'd imagine any AdMech or other augmetic being might provide.
Of course it probably isn't truly immortal, but how long they can last in this form is interesting to speculate.




Page 306

Those coming in brought slaves, servitors, heavy machinery and fuel. Saezar didn’t know what those leaving carried. The magos who had hired him had left him in no doubt that curiosity would lead to the termination of more than his contract. Saezar was smart enough to believe it. He and his staff kept their heads down and did their jobs. In another few years, the tech-priests would be done here. They had told him as much. He would go back to Jacero then, maybe buy a farm with the money he’d have saved, enjoy air that didn’t kill you on the first lungful.

An interesting bit about inter-galactic employment. you can be hired for long-term shifts (contract work, I suppose) and then returned home as part of the contract. Assuming its not all a secret plan where killing you to protet the secret is part of the plan, of course.



Page 311

The man had met them on the mag-rail platform at Orga Station, introducing himself as Magos Iapetus Borgovda, the most senior adept on the planet and a xeno-heirographologist specialising in the writings and history of the Exodites, offshoot cultures of the eldar race.

The AdMech maintains its own experts in languages, at least foreign/xenos languages. Given that the only other potential source might be the Dialogus of the Ecclesiarchy, I can hardly surprise them for wanting their own experts.



Page 313

Around them, straight-backed skitarii troopers stood to attention with lasguns and hellguns clutched diagonally across their chests.

Wonder why they carry both? Possible reasons may include the fact since 5th edition that the games (both the main and FFG's RPGs) have had hellguns/hot shot lasguns be considerably shorter ranged than regular lasguns, so they may incorporate a mix to balance range and firepower.



Page 317

The object was almost entirely revealed now, a vast sarcophagus, oval in shape, twenty-three metres long on its vertical axis, sixteen metres on the horizontal.

Size of the 'object'. This will become important shortly.



Page 321

It was as tall as a Warhound Titan, and, from the look of it, almost as well armoured. Complex mouthparts split open like the bony, razor-lined petals of some strange, lethal flower. Its bizarre jaws dripped with corrosive fluids. This beast, this nightmare leviathan pulled from the belly of the earth, shivered and threw back its gargantuan head.

The creature contained within the object. A Tyranid construct (as we learn later) the size of a Warhound titan, but not a bio-titan or similar. The question becomes how big a 'warhound' we are talking about. Above, the dimensions were 23 and 16 meters ovoid, so it could be one of those two. Alternately the FW titan scaling for a warhound is 14 m. Alot if it depends on which dimensions we're talking about being 'height' as well as the thickness of the ovoid. 14-16m seems to be a likely range, though.


Page 323

"A trygon, Scholar? A mawloc?"
"No, Omni," replied Karras. "Same genus, I think, but something we haven’t seen before."

Tyranid creature kin to Trygon/Mawlocs (The diggers/burrowers basically) but vastly larger I gather, and never before seen (Variant or otherwise?) A burrowing biotitan, perhaps?

In any case the exodites apparently couldn't kill it, so they locked it up in some sort of magic egg or something and then buried it, setting a beacon to warn other eldar in case someone was stupid enough to try to wake it up (EG AdMech humans.)



Page 323

Solarion’s boltgun, a superbly-crafted weapon, its like unseen in the armouries of any Adeptus Astartes Chapter but the Deathwatch, was best employed from a distance.

Basically a high end Deathwatch-grade sniper-pattern boltgun. This probably means its something akin to a stalker pattern. Bear this in mind for later.


Page 326-327

The sergeant’s eyes were blank, lifeless things, like those of a doll. Had the Adeptus Mechanicus surgically removed so much of the man’s humanity? There was no fear there, certainly, but Karras sensed little else, either. Whether that was because of the surgeries or because the beacon was still drowning him in wave after invisible wave of pounding psychic pressure, he could not say.

Probably did. We've seen plenty of AdMech soldiery, including Skitarii/tech guard variations which seemed to behave like this because they had many basic human impulses like fear or doubt (or even initiaitve) purged.


Page 328

All around him, the winds of Menatar howled and tugged, trying to pull him into a deadly eighty metre drop. The dust on those winds cut visibility by twenty per cent, but Solarion had hit targets the size of an Imperial ducat at three kilometres. He knew he could pull off a perfect shot in far worse conditions than these.

Solarions sniper boltgun can accurately hit a coin sized target out to 3 km. Which is quite impressive - on the magnitude of the Iron Warrior boltgun from 'Siege of Castellax' (point target and ricochet trick shots at 2.5 km) In fact it may point to accuracy as much as bolter quality (both cases quite possibly marksmen with high quality, master-crafted boltguns) but it does not neccesarily mean regular boltguns are massively shorter ranged, either. WE know, for example, that lasguns were 2 km or so in Siege of Castellax as well, and we know from the Deathwatch RPG that Stalker pattern have twice the range of the Godwyn pattern (And over six and a half times the range of a bolt pistol, which we know can have ranges of 300-500 m as per angels of Darkness and is consistent with above) which suggests boltguns have 'typical' ranges between 1-1.5 km.

The precision/accuracy against such a narrow target at those range is not only impressive for the range itself, but also the accuracy - the shot must be mostly flat which implies considerably high velocity (in excess of mach 4, likely) and probably much faster than the boltgun in Siege of castellax (given that the upper body of a human is a muhc larger target than a coin is.) Solarion's boltgun may, in fact, fire some kind of hypersonic round (whihc is not unheard of for bolt weapons, but it is unusual, requiring exceptional propulsion.) but we must also remember that Solarion is an exceptionally gifted sniper as well.



Page 348

If it were taken from its setting, this artificial satellite would seem large to a man. To a man it would appear as a gnarled tower of steel and brass at the centre of vast spreading sails of silver mesh, like the overgrown stamen at the centre of an unnatural flower.
..
Few men would ever see this lonely artefact as it kept its silent vigil down the years. Inside it dwelt only clicking cogitators and thrumming data-stacks. The tireless machine-spirits meticulously marked off the span of centuries as they watched for signs their masters would wish to know of. The tower was called Watch Station Elkin and served the organization known as the Deathwatch.

Deathwatch monitoring station, totally unmanned. Also with sublight sensors. Endures for centuries.



Page 348-349

Relays opened and closed with a rapid chatter analogous to excitement at the first brush of distant energies.
..
Moments passed as a faint ethereal breeze caressed the far-flung sensor nets of the Watch Station. Weeks or months away in realspace, events had occurred that only now had crossed the intervening distance to reach the artificial eyes and ears of the Station. The spreading ripples betrayed much to the watching machine-spirits. Their brass-bound cogs and gears ground the information into powder, reconstituted it, and sieved it back through data-stacks filled with information on every known contact signature, human or alien. A match was quickly found, one that was disappointingly mundane.
+ Contact identified. Analysis confirmed: Warp egress signature of Imperial Pilgrim-class transport vessel verified. Location: Teramus system. 38AU from star, 68 degrees above plane of the ecliptic. +
Lenses locked onto the origin point of the warp signature picked out tell-tale twinkles of light, ones racing far ahead of all tertiary emissions. The clattering cogitators suddenly sped up to fever pitch.
+ High energy discharges detected. Spectral output gradient indicates xenos-specific origins. +
+ Cogitators II through IV assigned to verify. Processing… Contact confirmed. Cogitators V through XXII activated for cross-correlation. +
+ Institute automated blessing protocols. +
+ “Blessed be the Omnissiah, blessed be his coming and going, blessed be his servants, blessed be their instruments. Grant us the wisdom of His clarity this day.” +
+ Automated blessing confirmed. Cogitators V through XXII now active. Begin analysis. +
+ Confirmed. Data-stack inquiry confirms weapon signatures most closely match eldar lance parameters. Logged as high probability xenos contact. Activate all remaining idle cogitators. Institute automated celebratory catechism. +
+ “Praise be to the Machine-God, through Him our purpose is found.” +

Various points. First off hilarity at the 'automated blessing protocols' and 'automated celebratroy catehcism' apparently you CAN automate that shit. Secondly, the Warp egress of a transport 38 AU out from the star of a system, giving an idea of warp translation points (for freighters) nearly 6 billion km out (which is consistnet with some sources, of course.)

The other significant point is the signals themselves being received. Its clearly slow moving - taking weeks/months to arrive (Far after the actual event) meaning this is either purely sublight or very slow FTL signal (FTL signals slow enough to still take time to arrive.) It's not clear really - they detect a warp signature and 'discharges' of weapons (Dark Eldar weapons which are weird) as well as able to identify from those 'signals' which race ahead of the 'tertiary' signals (Described below.) These 'signals' whatever they are give them information about the class of the vessel and in conjunction with other data allow plotting of emergence point and locale. As well as the weapons fire. The nature of the 'light' or signals is up for debate, however.

It does also demonstrate that Imperial sensors have passive detection ranges (for Deathwatch grade stuff at least) of light-weeks/months for certain events.


Page 349-351

The full attention of the Watch Station was now bent on the distant Teramus system. Weeks or months ago, alien-built weapons had been fired in a system that should have no xenos within a hundred light years. Perhaps once in half a century, Watch Station Elkin might detect such an event and such was precisely the purpose for which it was constructed. Slower ripples of energy were arriving now, laggardly waves of electro-magnetism and tardy infrared that betrayed the complexities of the unfolding drama. Each nugget of information was dissected with infinite care and precision; all was logged and recorded by the watching machine-spirits in an ecstasy of purpose.
+ Tertiary contacts detected. Engine trace analysis indicates estimated twelve plus unidentified system vessels on intercept course with primary contact.+
+ Broadband high power transmission detected. Imperial standard gamma level encryption. Origin point: Pilgrim-class vessel. Recording.+
..
+ Voice print confirmed human origin. Conjecture: Captain of Penitent Wanderer. Speech patterns indicate heightened stress levels. Conjecture: Under attack. +
The doomed pleas of the long-dead captain were taken and preserved in crystal and silicon for later examination, assigned with a low priority. Charters and logs were cross-examined to confirm the existence of the Penitent Wanderer. Its five-hundred year history of hauling pilgrims and convicts between Dhumres and Vertus Magna were appended to the growing report as a minor footnote.
+ Confirmed. Additional low power transmissions detected. Unknown sub-Alpha level encryption. Cogitators II through IV assigned to breaking encryption. +
+ Unfocused plasma dispersal detected. Conjecture: Drive loss on Pilgrim-class vessel designated Penitent Wanderer. +
+ Confirmed. Alpha level encryption defeated. Signal content as follows: +
...
+ Voice print confirmed human origin. Conjecture: Leader of system ships. Speech patterns indicate non-dispersed non-militaristic command structure. Conjecture: Pirate. +
+ Subsequent transmission source from Penitent Wanderer detected. Confirmed low power broad band signal. +
..
+ Subsequent transmissions terminated at source. Naval data cross-reference confirms pirate activity reported around Teramus system. Penitent Wanderer logged as overdue, believed total loss. Situation unresolved. +

More clarification of the long-range detection event. repettion of 'weeks/months' delay for signal passage, but we get more clarification about signal nature, more specifically they're EM radiation of various types. This means the intiial signals (warp signature, etc.) were effectively FTL, but the implied low delay (EG its not taking years vs weeks/months for the FTL stuff to arrive, it seems) that its not significantly faster (single digit c maybe, and probably lower) so it is not siginficantly better than regulra EM for various uses (if it can be uesd that way.)
The detonation of the plasma reactors seem to arrive last of all (slower than the warp/Eldar weapon signatures and slower than EM as well.)

WE also get a further approximation of the scope of 'observation' of the platform and the frequency ofa lien activity within that region (a couple times each century, in a 50-100 LY radius, roughly sector scale.) Which.. d oes not really point to GALAXY OF WAR, does it?

The Watch station is also able to, via automation, crack pirate codes and monitor broadcasts, which depsite the slow access is still a useful tool. They can also make significant inferences from data (nature of threat, state of mind/emotional state of individuals, etc.) More reference to 'silicon and crystal' for our 'machien spirits' which do not sound in the least bit organic. At least as used by Deathwatch. All viox signals seem to use some sort of encryption as well, even civilian stuff.


Page 352

The dispassionate crystal eyes of Watch Station Elkin observed the dying moments of the Penitent Wanderer as the pirates closed in on their prey. The lightning-flicker of xenos weaponry had died away and nothing now remained to excite the interest of their masters, but the machine-spirits faithfully continued recording every detail of the month-old attack. The Penitent Wanderer was boarded, gutted and left drifting in the void. The pirate ships vanished back into the slowly tumbling corona of rock around Teramus’s star and beyond the reach of the Watch Station’s most sensitive detectors.
A report was filed and flagged in the data-stacks alongside hundreds of other incidents. With their work complete, the cogitators subsided into endless slow matriculations once more. In a year, a decade, or a century, their masters would come for the know-ledge accumulated by the Watch Station and decide whether to act upon this particular report.

'month' or months? It might suggest closer to weeks than months as far as distance and such goes. The interesting part, of course, is that this reflects two things: The detection/informational networks of the Imperium across the galaxy (for detecting and recording threats in various forms) as well as giving a reason why some responses are delayed. Sublight sensors are slower and less responsible (especially in this approach, secretive as it is) compared to potentially 'ftl/warp' based methods (Scrying and divination and similar) but they provide comparatively more data and reliablity, and enable far greater coverage (there are bound to be more automated platforms than psykers.)

Thus on top of various other factors (bureaucracy, information processing and who processes it, politics, etc.) the origin of the data detection can probably influence response times to potential threats.


PAge 353

Zarabek became a Watch Fortress, like and unlike a hundred other hidden places scattered across the galaxy and used by the alien-hunting Deathwatch to keep vigil.

Implying there are over a hundred Watch Fortresses throughout the galaxy. Even if they had just a few squads per Watch Fortress, the Deathwatch would have a bare minimum of thousands of recruits (and that doesn't include those at watch stations, onboard starships, in training, or dispatched on duties throughout the Imperium.

If we assumed Erioch from the FFG RPG was a 'standard' and they tpyically house 'a few score' Deathwatch troops but no more than 200 (equal to the 'several dozen kill teams' mentioned in that same book) we could get between 4,000 and 20,000 estimated Deathwatch troops on the Watch fortresses alone. Likewise, it implied around a dozen or more craft at least in the Deathwatch armourmy, which would be 1200 ships at least.
If we took the forty or so vessels mentioned in Steve Parker's 'Deathwatch' novel they'd have maybe at least 4000 vessels of varying sorts.

we learn later there are at least a score of marines present at that fortress, and that means at least 2000.



Page 355

"A great many things fall within the remit of the Deathwatch," Mordentodt replied grimly. "Hrud migrations, necrontyr tomb-sites, xenarch raids, malgreth sightings, genestealer infestations and more, much more, fall within the remit of this single fortress and the handful of battle-brothers your Chapter Masters permit to stand vigil here."
"In truth, a hundred battle companies would be insufficient for the task. The xenos swarm and multiply beyond the Emperor’s Light in such numbers. Where would you have me pluck the brothers needed to chase these pirates into their holes? What should remain unwatched while some of you indulge yourselves in the pursuit of glory?"

Which may say something about the Scale of the Deathwatch operations. One way to take it is that (at least to the Watch Captain's knowledge) the Deathwatch have fewer than 10,000 members. On the other, we might figure it implies they have far more, because they are able to (barely) keep watch over every task. It still falls within the estimated range above either way, its just a different shading of that range depending on how you interpret it.

Also mention of various alien races they deal with, presumably less than minor ones (they don't mention the tau, after all). Xenarch are rarely mentioned.


Page 357

"With respect, watch captain, even the finest savants of the Adeptus Mechanicus have struggled to maintain eldar artefacts in operative condition. For mere pirates to use and continue to use these weapons, they must be getting help from somewhere or someone – and I believe that is what is truly significant about this matter."

It would be interesting to speculate why- is it because it is too advanced, or is it because of the nature fo the materials (wraithbone being psychically fabricated) and the operation (psychically operated, usually. Although we know eldar weapons have been obtained by Chaos and delivered to criminal organizations before.)



Page 359

Now brass cages filled with racks of armaments enclosed the sacellum where libraries of data crystals said to encompass the whole length and breadth of the known universe had been stored. The far end of the cavernous halls was the realm of the Forgemaster. These glowed with ruddy light and rang with a cacophonous hammering where a thousand servitors worked beneath the Forgemaster’s direction, churning out munitions for the Deathwatch’s endless war against the xenos in all its forms. Everything was made here, from the humblest bolt shell to hundred-metre long cyclonic torpedoes built for the ruin of worlds.

apparently this is their forge where they build ammo and weapons. It involves huge libraries (info on the weapons ot build and how to build them) which is again crystal data storage tech stuffs. Also cyclonic torpedoes are 100m long, which presumably is cruiser scale, but not vastly huger than torpedoes (not shocking since we know even destroyers can deliver them from their torpedo tubes.

Page 360

Courlanth found Thucyid in another cage methodically slotting oversized bolt-rounds into the flexible belt feed of his cherished heavy bolter Iolanth. The heavy bolter stood over half as tall as a Space Marine, a huge slab of metal an ordinary man could scarcely lift, let alone fire, unaided.

Heavy bolter maybe 1-1.5 m long, and probably in exess of 40-50 kg in weight (100 or more maybe?) REcoil lethal to humans, suggesting it probably is more akin to an autocannon or greater in terms of recoil. This is even apart from the rocket-propelled aspect.


Page 362

"What shells are you loading for her?"
"Three-to-one mix of mass-reactive to Inferno in this belt, mass-reactive and metal storm in another, all Inferno in a third, Kraken penetrator rounds in a fourth. It’s hard to know what we’ll need so I’ve found it’s best to prepare for all eventualities."

Heavy bolter ammo loadouts. What's interesting is how you can vary it like that in terms of the mix. Makes you wonder if they might for standard bolters too, or if its strictly for heavy bolters and support weapons. heck, given the apparent rarity of some of those rounds, they may only be able to do this prolifically because the Deathwatch's status and resources.



Page 363-364

The command bridge of the Xenos Purgatio was a cold, cramped, angular space filled with low bulkheads, struts and stanchions that was designed for solidity more than comfort. The ship’s Lochos was a gaunt thrall wrapped in a cloak of trailing cables that connected his cranium directly to the ship’s primary systems. Ranged around the walls, dozens of niches held more thrall-servitors, each connected to their respective stations. The air was thick with machine-cant as the Lochos guided the kilometres-long vessel out of its docking berth in Zarabek’s lower reaches and set it on a course away from the citadel.
...
A strike cruiser was capable of carrying a whole company of a hundred Space Marines across the stars and delivering them into the heart of battle via Thunderhawk gunship, drop pod and teleportarium. It had enough firepower to defeat any vessel of its own size, and enough speed to outrun anything greater. The strike cruiser also carried Exterminatus-class weapons that could devastate a world from orbit and expunge all life from it if such were deemed necessary. This vast, world-destroying ship and its thousands of thrall crew members were now theoretically under Courlanth’s direct and absolute control, a somewhat dizzying prospect for a mere sergeant like him.
Fortunately, its Lochos – a servant of the Deathwatch permanently bonded to the machine-spirits of his vessel – had centuries of experience to draw upon.

Deathwatch Strike cruiser and its capabilities. It seems to be heavily automated, relying on a cyborgized crew as well as extensive servitors (moreso than usual for Space Marine ships) its 'kilometres' long (however many that is.) and it is of course planet-killing by carrying 'exterminatus' class weapons - meaning it has variable settings, payloads, etc. It also means its extermiantus level firepower may not reflect firepower in other cases (EG ship to ship battle) Ship pilot is also 'bound' to machine spirit of ship, not unlike a Titan. Which we've see with lots of ship captains.

Oddly this strike cruiser is only firepower enough (outside exterminatus) to defeat stuff 'its own size', when others can sometimes beat larger stuff (EG the arbites strike cruiser from Execution Hour.)



Page 365

"Does anyone live there at all?" asked Thucyid. "Aside from heretics and pirates I mean – are there no outposts or astropath stations?"
"There used to be mines in the asteroid belts," said Felbaine, "but they were abandoned centuries ago. There’s really no reason for ships to go to Teramus at all."
..
"Our course is laid in, a task easily done because Teramus is within what you might call a calm channel through warp space. To either side of it lie areas of more tumultuous flux, so a course through Teramus is frequently used. On the passage between Dhumres and Vertus Magna, most Navigators need to translate into the real at Teramus in order to check their bearings or they risk straying into the aforementioned tumult and becoming lost"
..
"While Teramus itself is of no consequence, it lies on a route of importance."
"Dhumres and Vertus Magna support a combined population of over ninety billion souls," Felbaine added. "Any disruption to their trade and shipping will cause immense privation and eventually disorder."

The advantages and weak points of warp routes and how it affects teh 'value' of worlds. It does also explain piracy and the importances of patrolling, as not every system with valuable warp routes (or along such routes) will be inhabited. Although it implies they do try to have at least outposts (for security) or astropathic stations (ducts, to facilitate travel as described in BFG blue book, and communication.)

It also highlights one of the key weaknessses of the interdependent nature of the Imperium and these warp routes (which we've seen in many sources) Piracy or wolfpack raiding can harm multiple worlds. Its intereting that there are 90 billion between those two.. we odnt know how important they are or their nature, but if we took that as a 'standard' population for the millionw orld Imperium 45 billion apiece that would be 45 quadrillion people. Not impossible by other estimates, but it would imply most Imperial worlds are literally an order of magnitude denser population wise than Earth is, or 'minor hive world' level (EG same magnitude as the Scarus Sector worlds)


Page 369

Courlanth felt the gravity fluctuate slightly as the strike cruiser changed course, its gigatonnage of mass shivering as it manoeuvred on limited power. As his view steadied he saw more gleams coming into sight on the holo-view.

Strike cruiser being billion tons or more (giga- tonnage) rather than the mere tens of millions as per FFG RPG. As to 'why' this is is up for debate. One possibility is simply error - either this or the FFG stuff is wrong, and it could go one way or another. The FFG stuff has its share of errors (as I've discussed) but many sources actually do echo it more than they do stuff like this. Second possibility may be the 'mass lightening' mentioned in Eye of Terror (which has been aired before here and elsewhere as an explanation not only between mass disparities but also acceleration differences.) and that may be the case, although how widespread and whether mass lightening cna be used in this way is not explicitly stated. THe third possibility is my theory about starship and naval classification. As I have belaboured in the past, classes like 'cruiser' or 'battleship' or 'destroyer' may be dictated less strictly by size and more by 'what they do'. EG Cruisers are long range independent operators with multi-role capabilities, battleships are specialist combat warships, etc. Size will be a determinant up to a point, but the actual sizes will occupy ranges with some overlap... eg the smallest battleships may be the same size or smaller than the largest cruisers/battlecruisers, for example. This is likely a tradeoff based role.. the bigger a ship is the more powerful/tougher it is, but the harder it is to maintain/replace (in terms of construction time, cost, and resources) as well as how many you can have. This can lead to some dramatic differences in size (battleships being anywhere from 5-20+km) and could equally lead to dramatic differences in tonnage, as well. There may be others, but that is just what occurs OTOH.

Also if we figure 1 billion ton cruiser - a strike cruiser being (depending on source) same tonnage as a Dauntless or an actual cruiser, you get it being between 35-50x larger in mass than the FFG stats, which may be used in various ways (EG the difference in acceleration via 'mass lightening') If we figure it could pull between 2 and 2000 gees accel (roughly the range of accel performances by various stats) and an exhaust velocity of 20,000 km/s (as per Rogue Trader and other stats linking plasma weapons to reactors) you'd get roughly e20-e23 W sustained output from engines at least.



PAge 370

Cross-hairs sprang into place within the holo-view, indicating an island-sized asteroid that at first glance appeared little different from its fellows. Deep cracks were visible in its surface, wide enough and long enough to swallow the Xenos Purgatio whole.

Asteroid base, described as 'island size'



Page 371-372

...Felbaine opened the casket. Inside were five palm-sized, finger-thick discs embossed with a design of skull against a cross.
"Teleport homers," Felbaine said. "Devices that allow the Xenos Purgatio to lock its teleportarium onto their unique signatures over a considerable distance and through all kinds of interference. With these we can theoretically be recalled to the ship at any time."

Deathwatch issue teleport homers and their uses. They get welded ontot he armor.



Page 378

Courlanth now had a clear view of a dozen system ships berthed untidily around it. The smallest was no more than a dozen metres in length while the largest was more than a hundred. The ships had the appearance of a selection of haulers and luggers that had been converted for more nefarious activities.

Scales and sizes of system ships. Basically not much more than 'attack craft' or shuttles/transports launched by starships really.



Page 385

Gottrand’s chainsword crashed down through the gore-slicked bubble-hood of the last pirate, its contra-rotating teeth flinging out twin sprays of blood and bone as it chewed through to the spine.

Contra-rotating chainsword blades. Igather it probably has two separate sets of teeth that move in opposing directions to tear/cut into tissues from opposite directions (improving the ability to cut through stuff presumably without getting jammed/clogged.



Page 392

Even now, cold tactical logic would have dictated that the prisoners and even the pirates were of secondary importance to the real goal – that of rooting out the alien. Some in the Deathwatch would sacrifice a million innocents to achieve such a goal without blinking an eye.
But tactical logic could not make it acceptable for Courlanth to sit still and witness aliens torturing and murdering humans at will. He knew the kill-team felt the same way and that only his command had held them back so far. They must act now, even when the logical choice was to wait. Honour demanded it.

Again I always like it when Space Marines aren't assholes but actually act like heroic, honorable defenders of humanity.



Page 392

Felbaine readied a thick-bodied plasma gun, checking its temperamental coolant rings before setting it to maximal power.

Plasma gun, maximal power.



PAge 393

Thucyid’s heavy bolter roared instantly to life, the staccato beat of its fist-sized shells an accompaniment to all that followed.

fist sized heavy bolter shells. Whateve rcontext that means.


Page 398

His chainsword flashed down on the leering, dome-shaped head of the fiend as it leaned in to bite him. Churning monomolecular teeth snarled and spat as they tore their way through the monster’s iron-hard cranium before pulping the grey matter inside to slurry.

Monomolecular chainsword teeth.



Page 399

Courlanth began before a barrage of shots swept across them. Hypervelocity needles rang off their armour in a scatter of ceramite chips and plasteel fragments.

Hypervelocity splinter fire. Does not penetrate Space Marine armor, but it does cause some chipping/fragmenting of the exterior, so one imagines it might eventually chew through.




Page 400-401

The kill-team had failed and now the Exterminatus weapons on the strike cruiser must be unleashed to obliterate the pirate’s nest once and for all. Something dark, terrible and corrupt had taken root in the Teramus system and Courlanth felt shame that it was beyond his strength to overcome it.

They intend to use their exterminatus weapons (whatever they are) to destroy the pirate base, which as you recall is the 'island sized' asteroid that had cracks an entire strike cruiser could comfortably hide inside. This counts as using cyclonics in space against targets, albeit one still not moving (they may not be particularily agile as torpedoes go.)



Page 403-404

The sergeant looked up to see figures in black Terminator armour towering above him, the twin flames of their storm bolters stabbing relentlessly as they cut a swath through the shocked eldar. The silver skull of the Deathwatch gleamed on every shoulder.
..
"Remember this day, brothers, teleport homers work better to summon aid than retreat."
...
"You used us as bait," Courlanth said. He could not keep the bitterness from his words.
"I saved your lives," Mordentodt reminded him, "and many others besides by locating the gate. One less hole for the eldar to creep in through and the universe becomes a better place."
"But why not tell us we had help to call upon at need? Maxillus is dead and Felbaine crippled!"
"The alien has a thousand times a thousand ways to glean such knowledge from you; what chance then of them leading us straight to their most secret places? They had to believe you defeated, just as you had to believe yourselves defeated." Mordentodt shrugged. "You volunteered for the mission without any such promises – if I have lied to you it is by giving you help you had no right to expect."
"So this is the way of the Deathwatch – secrets within our own ranks – never knowing why or when we may be sacrificed to further some other design?"
"This is the way of the Deathwatch," Mordentodt agreed.

Another of those 'poitn of view' things that set the Deathwatch apart from Regular Space Marines. It's also rather interesting in context of the earlier view where these same Marines couldn't just stand by and let innocents be slaughtered. Now they are outraged that they were 'used/sacrificed.' Even though they are, for the most part, simply weapons and tools ot be used (and sacrificed) like that for a greater cause. You would think this wouldn't bug them, but Space Marines are human and they don't always think logically despite being 'weapons'. They're not mindless, after all.

All the same, it shows that 'right' and 'wrong' are subjective when it comes to the gray morality of the 40K galaxy.


Page 405

Amongst the tangled flora of Phirus its lithe form was rendered as nothing more than a shadow, the pigmentation of its carapaced hide blending with the reddish hues of the undergrowth. Its alien metabolism slowed, concealing it from all but the most sophisticated of auspex scanners, yet its muscle and sinew remained coiled in rpeparation for that perfect, opportune whip-crack lunge.

Lictor. AGain its not only visually camouflaged, but if its still its lowered metabolism can make it harder to detect by auspex. This suggests its low IR may only be when 'hiding' or staying still (ability to quickly dipose of such heat?) but it may be much more detectable when moving/active, relatively speakin.