Soul Drinkers Series Analysis Thread

[Aaron MkII]

Oh I forgot about him...

Still the Soul Drinkers are pretty high on the list of fucking stupid.

[Black Admiral]

Really Conner, you should be analyzing what damage you've done to your brain reading what is probably the worst depiction of SM's.

Err? When did C.S. Goto creep into this thread?

C.S. Goto is not the antichrist, and his SM writing isn't particularly bad; Warrior Coven is actually tolerable when it's "Deathwatch Kill-Team wrecks the dark eldar's shit". The Soul Drinkers are vastly worse, being both enormous idiots and smug, pontificating bastards, the worst of whom (Sarpedon) just won't shut up. Although, granted, inability to shut up is pretty far down on Sarpedon's charge sheet (I think the events of Crimson Tears are at the top, since the entire Soul Drinkers plot-line in there is a result of Sarpedon, essentially, throwing a massive temper tantrum - and, at the end of it, bottling doing what he inserted himself into the story to do like the big pussy he is).

[Connor MacLeod]

Well folks, after the comparatively higher quality story in Bleeding Chalice (of course compared ot the First Book anything would be better.) we take a nosedive with Crimson Tears. It's not the WORST (that won't happen til Chapter War) but the plus side is that after we get through this and Chapter War, we're actually past the worst in the series. It really is interesting how the series fluctuates... we start out low in Soul Drinker, we go up pretty high in Bleeding Chalice. Then it starts a downward plunge in Crimson Tears, hits bottom in Chapter war, then shoots back up to its highest point (probably) in Hellforged. It then dips down some and holds steady at Phalanx.

The Premise of Crimson Tears is somewhat similar to Bleeding Chalice: The Imperium is caught up in a war to retake its territory from the enemy. This time, Dark Eldar and a single planet, which means this is mostly an Imperial Guard novel. We also get our first view of non-Soul Drinker Space Marines, the Crimson Fists. The good parts are the non-Space Marine stuff. The Space Marine stuff is horrid. We meet Captain Reinez, whose battle cry throughout this series can be summed up as MY STANNNNDAARRRDD and leads to very gollum-like murderous OCD behaviour (minus the craven.)

And of course there is Sarpedon, who is in the process of hunting down renegade Soul Drinkers hwo have fallen to Chaos (again) without Sarpedon realizing it (again.) In the process he and Reinez have an unofficial competition to see who can fuck up the Imperial Guard's objectives more, which of course leads to a heaping dose of grimdark and widespread destruction (What the Soul Drinkers do best.) Also we get Sarpedon making deals with Dark Eldar, even if its part of his grander 'plot' to defeat the enemy and achieve his goals (which don't include saving the planet.)

We also meet Eumenes, who seems sane and even likable in this book but takes a rapid turn into 'cartoon supervillain' territory in Chapter War. One of the things that actually makes Chapter War worse than this one is Eumenes, but its also mainly Sarpedon in contrast with everything that has come before.

General Xarius is the big saving grace here, in that Xarius is a genuinely likable character, and quite a sympathetic one given the task he is given and the problems he is made to cope with (notably Reinez and Sarps.) He's also a bit prejudiced against the Astartes but given Reinez its hard to blame him. He is also the bitch of the entire piece, and will not once catch a lucky break. GRIMDARK.

Anyhow, judge for yourself. By the way if the numbering scheme confuses you, I should note the first three books were from the soul drinkers omnibus rather than individual novels. Hence the numbering.

Page 499

Sathis could see the Rough Riders scattered up the sides of the valley through which his force was travelling, men from the 97th Urgrathi Lancers, whose supposedly obsolete methods of cavalry warfare made them excellently suited to scouting out unknown terri­tory.

Rough Rider cavalry described as "obsolete" warfare to Sathis (Guard commander), but that they are good scouts. Make of it what you will.


Page 500

Sathis tried to imagine what was so damned important about this planet. The truth was hidden somewhere in segmentum-level eco­nomics. Entymion IV was a major agri-world and if the crop here failed it would have a knock-on effect across scores of other worlds. But a failure was a distinct possibility because the planet had fallen silent - completely silent, both to long-range astropathic communica­tions and short-range vox and radio transmissions.

- failure of an Agri-world would severely impact the food resources of scores of other worlds, giving an idea of "segmentum level economics" (although I suspect the effects are more immediate at the sector level. It would only reach segmentum level with significant worlds - places like Armageddon.)

- additionally, vox signals are noted to be separate and distinct from radio signals (the agri world is mentioned not to have responded to any short ranged vox and radio transmissions.)


Page 500

To do it he had the Steel Hammer detachment of the 2nd Seleucaian Defence Force, a formation of Chimera APCs teeming with almost a thousand battle-toughened and well-disciplined Guardsmen assisted by an artillery and anti-tank section, and enough bloody-mindedness to get them through anything. The Urgrathi cavalry were his scout force, and he was supported by tanks from the Jaxus Prime Siege Regiment. It was a fine force, compact and highly mobile. It was fortunate the right troops had been available, because the force had been assembled in a damned hurry by Guard standards.

A mechanized infantry group (in chimaeras) supported by artillery and anti-tank sections, as well as cavalry units for scouting and tanks from a Siege regiment were described as a "compact and highly mobile" force. And not a trench in sight. This force was deployed as a response to the aformeentioned agri-world's silence and troubles, so this is more or less the first response force. Yet again we see that the Imperium starts small, usually with something simple (but more or less mobile) and then escalets into the larger (yet more static) forms of warfare.

This isn't an inherent force really (as in all one regiment) but rather forces and detachments combined from various other regiments of varying types and put together for this particular mission.


Page 501

Three months before Sathis's force landed, all communication had been lost with Entymion IV.

Long-range communication, which was transmitted by psychic astropaths through the warp, died out without warning. Astropaths described a sudden dark blanket of silence falling, often in mid-sen­tence, which remained resolutely impervious to any attempt to penetrate it.
....

Greater attention was paid when in-system communications dropped out as well, rendering the planet both deaf and dumb. Entymion's star was likewise prone to electrical disturbances and short-range comms had failed before, but a total silence was something new.

The Administratum, wary of losing whole agri-crops as transport ships could not organise landings on the planet, sent in a team to find out what was going on. The twelve-man surveyor team, which included an Arbites liaison to ensure punishment for whoever was to blame, entered the atmosphere of Entymion IV and was never heard of again.

The possibilities of rebellion, natural disaster or self-imposed quar­antine had been raised and hopefully ignored. The Administratum could not risk ignoring them any longer. If Entymion IV stayed silent then billions of credits worth of food would never be harvested and delivered. Every scenario they created suggested resulting famines in the nearby worlds that relied on Entymion IV for sustenance. The Entymion Expeditionary Force was assembled rapidly and Colonel Sathis was given overall command, with orders to land on the planet, make his way to the capital Gravenhold, and bring back the news that all was well.

A number of ineresting details form the following passage:

- Astorpathic transmissions (at least over short distances) out of system are fast enoughthat they ct off suddenly in "mid sentence" while in contact with other astropaths. I suppose it may just mean the messages die off in the middle but that doesn't quite seem to fit the context, so it seems likely this suggests realtime or near-realtime "outsystem" ransmission of messages.

- the tithe of the planet (food crop) is worth "billlions of credits" to the Adminstratum, and is important to lots of worlds (Scores) nearby. Which givesy ou a hint of the economic side of things We dont know the exact worth of a credit from here, but if it was worth a throne gelt, thatmight tell us soething about this world and other worlds (tithes) and economy in general.. at least in conservative terms (and give hints at the annual/seasonal economic draw the Imperium pulls in from this one planet, and probably other agri and civilized planets on a low end basis.) If a credit is equal to a throne, then we're talking perhaps quadrillions of credits annually, if not more in food alone.

- The "EXpeditionary force" was assembled and deployed to the planet in less than three months.. probably far less (weeks or less?) given all the stuff that happend already.

Page 502

A force like a huge invisible hand slammed Sathis so hard against the side of the Salamander that his head cracked back and forth and he felt sure he would pass out.

The salamander came to a rest on its side, gouging a deep furrow of earth as it slid to a halt.

- The Salamander is probalby on an incline (teh enemy vehicle are above firing down on them, but the attacker was a Dark Eldar fighter) We dont know what hit it, but it was enough to knock the Salamander (and its passengers) violently aside, and the Salamander (for whatever reason) is intact.

Page 504

Sathis grabbed on tight to the elaborate tack that kept Thasool strapped to the back of the heavy, muscular charger. Thasool dug his heels in and the charger, bulkier and surlier than a Terran standard horse, shot forward, slaloming between the bolts of falling fire.

The Rough Rider calvary mounts seem bulkier than Earth horses. Wehther this is because of augmetics, chemical enhancement or god knows what.. *shrugs* Go figure.

Page 504

A charger galloped by with a headless rider. Thasool charged on past a tangled knot of bodies, three or four men who had been caught by the same energy bolt and burned into a red-black mass in an instant. A horse lay sheared clean open by las-fire, shredded entrails smoking.

Las-fire of unknown origin and quantity shredded one of the aforementioend horses, enough to spill entrails.

Also energy bolt (Dark Eldar weapon probably a heavy weapon) badly burnt 3-4 men - low megajoule range, unless we assome some weird technobabbly dark matter efect or something - which is quite possible.


Page 505

"Company wheel twelve left!" bellowed Thasool. "Close and give them the blade!" Sathis realised Thasool was giving orders through his unit's vox-net, trying to bring the scattered Rough Riders together so they could use the speed and strength of their charges to batter back at the enemy.

Rough Riders seem to have their own individiual voxes.

Page 506

Further back the sound of quad autocannons thudded through the air as the Hydra anti-aircraft tank began to fill the sky with shrapnel.

Hydras part of the expeditionary force.

Page 506

A pinpoint of blackness in the centre of the disturbance flooded open like a dead pupil.
The first attacker out of the portal wore glossy purple-black armour with a bone-white face mask, wicked green eyes shining with malevo­lence, the plates of the armour swept into sharpened curves. Taloned gauntlets held a halberd with a blade that shone and rippled, shifting between one reality and the next. More followed, each one with a speed that, when coupled with the heavy armour and savage hacking weapons, made them as inhuman as the most horribly misshapen alien.

Dark Eldar waygate portals.

Page 507

The second Guard squad turned and fired instinctively. Las-bolts fizzed and burst against armour. More enemies were coming through the portal, these ones wearing lighter armour and carrying shard-firing rifles.

More Dark Eldar troops.. the first troops seem resistant to lasfire.


Pages 509

"Lasgun!" shouted Sathis, and someone handed him a well-used Triplex pattern lasgun, its barrel still hot from firing.

- Mention of a triplex pattern lasgun, as depicted in the Inquisitor core rules. lasguns get hot from repeated use. Assuming a 10K increase in temperature, iron composition and a 4 kg lasgun, we're talking 24 kj or so. If we assume the lasgun fired off only half a clip of ammo from a 60 shot clip thats 800 joules per shot. Assuming the lasgun were fairly efficient 80-90% efficient, this might mean 4-8 kilojoules per shot. This is all conjecture of course, but it is interesting nonetheless and lasfire in that range would be capable of causing mayn of the effects we know of.

Page 510

More por­tals were opening up, irregular splotches of blackness like spatters of dark ink laid across reality.
More bodies poured out in a torrent. The eldar elites had jumped down in a regular practised formation, like grav-chuters dropping from a transport plane. This was a rabble, herded into the portal some­where else to be thrust unceremoniously out into battle. They were armed with knives, clubs, iron bars and the occasional low-powered laspistol some civilians owned. There were straps buckled over their eyes and their cheeks were slit so their mouths were wide red flapping grimaces.
And they were not eldar. They were human.

Low powered civiialn pistols in the hands of mutilated humans, Dark Eldar slaves. Also Eldar forces behavinglike grave chute jumpers. And of course more portals.

Page 510

Fire!' shouted Aeokas, but he needn't have bothered. Lasgun shots spattered out in a fan, punching red holes through the mass.

They were getting closer. Sathis pulled the lasgun's trigger and the gas kick from the power converter was familiar; he could imagine the rectangular bruise below his shoulder in the morning. Not that there would be a morning.

The enemy were getting closer. Sathis could see their pale, malnour­ished bodies, the rags they wore around their waists, the scars and crude self-made tattoos on their naked torsos. Another las-volley chewed through them but those behind were climbing over the dead so that they rose up like a wave about to break.

The triplex pattern lasgun has a noticable recoil 'kick' from gas being emitted from a "power converter" - which I take to refer to the component that converts the elecrticity into a las shot. Why the gas is needed isn't specificed, but it could be either coolant (which would explain the need to expel it) or it may be that the laser is some sort of gas or chemical laser. Hard to say. In any case this sort of mechanism or effect is not unheard of (lasweapons in Ghostmaker had similar) and could help explain cases why lasweapons have obvious recoil. Obviously lasguns that recoil would not be as accurate as those that don't, but it could be a tradeoff - powerful lasweapons may require extra cooling that cannot be handled in any otehr way (and the tradeoff being the need to eject the coolant, with recoil, and the fact the weapon relies on a finite quantity to remain functional, which increases its maintenace and logistical issues.)

Lasgun shots spread out in a fan (from a single gun or multiple guns we aren't told) but rather than burning or exploding they just seem to drill holes straight through.

Page 510

Sathis flicked the lasgun selector stud to full-auto, knowing that it didn't really matter if the power pack ran out now.

This triplex pattern, unlike the Inquisitor/Game fluff version, has a full-auto setting as well as single shot. Moreover, it is implied that even on full auto, the man firing expects to die before the power pack goes dry.

It's mentioned twice that their lifespans were measured in "seconds", but tis may be an approximation nothing more, still it suggests the power pack would be drained in a matter of seconds. Other novels have certainly hinted such (the cain novels have lasguns like that many times.) If a 50-60 shot pack is drained in say, 4-5 seconds, we get between 10-15 shots per second.

PAge 511

But no alien could win against the Imperium. Trillions of citizens, billions of soldiers, thousands of Forge-worlds pumping out tanks and guns and spaceships

"thousands of forge worlds" that produce spaceships and other stuff. "Trillions" of citizens, and "billions" of soldiers. We know the number of soliders (and population can be considerably biggeR) so we might just take those as approximations and only the ratios are vlalid (EG 1 soldier per every 1000 or so citizens so with quadrillions of people there are trillions of soldiers. Hell soldiers odes not neccearily mean just the Guard, either.)

Page 511

He sprayed a fan of las-fire that knocked two or three more off the Chimaera

A fan of las fire, comprising at least 2-3 bolts, but probably several times more than that at least (unless all his shots hit)


Page 511

Why not some fat sweating hive world where the xenos could herd millions of underhivers through their portals without anyone even noticing? Why here? Why Entymion IV?

"millions" of underhivers could be kidnapped and barely missed on a Hive world.

Page 513

If you could see past the mundane backdrop of the galaxy and tune in to the lights that everyone carried around in their minds, then you would see a million shining beacons of humanity. Most were virtually static, milling around in cities on tight endless circuits from homes to manufactoria and back again. A few ranged over their worlds, aristocrats or lawkeepers, criminals or wanderers.

Some orbited planets in smug­glers' scows or planetary defence platforms, and some zipped between worlds on spacecraft - they were the soldiers, the messen­gers, the adepts, the Imperium's lifeblood pumping through the arteries of space.

This particular system, Diomedes Tertiam, was well-populated so the task would be difficult. There were about twenty-three billion inhabitants spread across two hive worlds and a multitude of colonies and off-world stations. How was it possible to sort one life-light out from all these?

System with 2 hive worlds and a bunch of colonies and off world stations, total population 23 billion. I take it "hive world" is used in the same context of, sa, Dark HEresy, rater than 3rd edition.

What is also being described here is worth noting, basically astropathic detection/scrying, attempting to locate one person out of the multitudes of living humans in the Imperium (million or so worlds, at least by their perceptions, ofr whatever that is worth, since it would suggest they are successfully, compeltely scrying the whole of the Imperium, and if they could do that then so much about the Imeprium wouldn't exactly remain unknown, would it?) And they are detecting by the warp souls/connections/presences basically. They do seem to be able to tell much about them it owuld seem.

In any case, the "they" are Soul Drinkers librarians, as we learn.



Page 513-515

One of the hive worlds sported the psychic scars of sudden, inhuman violence. All hives were shaded with the mental crimson of bloodshed but that was like a dull glow..

But one hive was different. Bright slashes of carnage were still writ­ten across the upper spires of one particular hive, throbbing with the shock that had yet to wear off, seeded with the residue of death and watered with intense white fear that ran like foul water down the lev­els of the hive.

..
. A prison-world, the sinkhole for the most dangerous criminals that the Diomedes Tertiam could produce. Beneath the upper levels were empty spaces in the pattern, larger cells with no prisoners. The life-lights present on those levels flickered with pain or throbbed dully with desperation. Glowing splashes of death were overpowered by the ice-cold rime of suffering.

Interrogation cells. Highest security. And one of them was full of bright lives, milling around as they made preparations.

..

They were preparing to receive one life-light that could never again leave the pattern of the prison world. It would grow dim and die there.

The view pulled out again. The object of their scrutiny would not be there, but the knowledge of the prison world helped pin it down. Seen from a distance, the system had patterns of its own. Some lives -smugglers, fleeing criminals, deep system patrols - moved seemingly at random around the planets and their star, but most followed fairly regular routes between the worlds. Thin arteries picked out by the psy­chic echo of those who plied them, the standard routes were relatively safe and well-patrolled. That meant the highest chance of getting their prisoner back if he escaped. That meant he would be there, some­where.

The collective scouring intelligence lined up the violence-marked hive and the prison world, and found a thread that connected them -a short, straight, direct route with few travellers but plenty of static waypoints where monitoring stations were marked out by the lives of those who kept watch.

...

The secure route the system authorities used to transport their prisoners. It was probably watched over by the Adeptus Arbites, watching out for treachery or incompetence. Perhaps some of those hard, bright, disciplined points of light were the life-echoes of the Arbites officers, stern and upright, giving leadership to the Imperium's policing.
...
Together the watchers peered down closer at the inter-system route between the hive and the prison planet. The prison planet, they noticed, was small and its grav­ity would be low. That way the prisoners' muscles would be wasted and stringy after a year or so, making it more difficult to escape if they got onto a ship or made it as a far as a standard-gravity world. It was an old trick, and it worked. It probably wouldn't work on the prisoner they were surely transporting at that moment, though. There would be no choice but to restrain him permanently, and kill him when they were done with him.

More of our long distance psychic scrying of the system in question. Note of teh details they can discern psychically, particularily the emotional and aura-like stuff (violence, suffering, etc.)

Page 515-516

One ship was small, holding barely a dozen life-lights. It was the crew that gave the first clue.
They were afraid. Fear was a strange thing that made a soul stronger and weaker at the same time, and you couldn't hide the stain it left on your soul. A thin, reedy flicker hovered at the heart of their minds, fluttering away behind everything they did. They were afraid because they knew their ship could be scuttled at any moment if their prisoner looked like he could escape; their lives were not valuable enough to be spared if it looked like they might lose their cargo. They were afraid, too, that they would do something wrong in the long, complicated dance of red tape that surrounded the transport of a prisoner like this. Adepts from a dozen organisations would have to be notified, and each would have to ratify some part of the process. Maybe even the Inquisition would be involved, demanding one of their observers be present, perhaps even insisting on conducting some inter­rogations of their own.

..

A hard red-white point of boiling hate, so sharp and stark it looked like it had been nailed into the backdrop of space. A bullet wound of madness. The depths of primal emotion had bubbled up to the surface and swallowed the conscious mind. It was unmistakable. Even from this distance, even with only the psychic residue to go by, there could be no doubt. This was their man. The violence on the hive had been of such intensity that only several men like this could be responsible. Most of them had escaped to ply their carnage in some other system, but something extraordinary had happened at Diomedes Tertiam - one of them had been captured. Probably at great cost, he had been sub­dued, restrained, processed through many layers of bureaucracy, and assigned a grim drawn-out death of interrogation on the prison world. It was extraordinary, one in a million. But it had happened. And it was the chance the watchers were looking for.

The hating soul writhed in its restraints. At its heart it was a paradox - everyone was, but the paradox here was stark and obvious. It was boiling over with hatred, the uncontrolled outpourings of a broken and degraded mind. But all that was doubly dangerous because it was bound in the iron-hard bands of discipline - that same discipline that bound the soul of every Space Marine.

More of our psychic scrying, the reading of emotions and even ( it seems) of thoughts on some level, although knowledge of procedures and such in the Imperium no doubt helps here.

Also Space Marine souls are distinctive from nomral human souls.

Page 516

The certainty was enough to break the contact. The Diomedes Tertiam system snapped back, the billions of life-lights whirling away into the distance as Sarpedon's perception pulled back from the psychic land­scape.

The swirling blackness dissipated and Sarpedon was back in the chamber on the Brokenback.
...
Each Librarian did things differently. Gresk's power tuned into the metabolisms of his fellow Marines, quickening their reactions and movements to make them more effective fighting machines. Tyrendian's psychic power was raw and unchannelled - he hurled lightning bolts across the battlefield. Sarpedon, meanwhile, was a telepath who could transmit but not receive, and so he sent hallucinations and unwanted primal emotions straight into the minds of his enemies. And just as they differed on the battlefield, so the three used their own tech­niques and skills when it came to the meditation.
..
Gresk shuddered and leaned forward over the table. He had focused his power inwardly, forcing his mind into ever-faster cycles of activity until he had projected his perception out into space and into the Diomedes Tertiam system.

3 Libriarans had been cooperating to do the scrying - projected perception/meditation, Each Librarian seems to have the ability but to manifest it in their own way. This suggests that Librarians (or at least, Soul Drinker Librarians) may have a numbe rof basic/innate skills shared by all, and some special ones unique to them.

Page 517

The meditative session had lasted several hours and, even without his power armour, he had become stiff and aching.

Several hours of scrying/projection,m presumably in another system.

Page 518

Sarpedon activated the vox-bead in his throat with an unconscious impulse. "Lygris?"
"Commander?" Techmarine Lygris's voice crackled through the vox.
'"We've got a location. A transporrt heading for the prison planet in the Diomedes Tertiam system.
GEt some sensors on it and put us on our way. I'll need intercept plans."
"Understood. Boarding torpedoes?"
"No, it's a well-policed route. They could be shot down. Use one of our Imperial ships. We'll send in the scouts."

Comments on putting sensors on the transport they scried. Possible FTL sensors, in other words.

Page 519

"The people of the Imperium have to live with a corrupt regime that would see them dying before it admitted it was wrong." replied Sarpe­don. "They don't deserve Tellos butchering his way through them as well. He's our problem and I intend to see that we solve it."

At least Sarpedon is willing to admit his mistakes.



Page 521

Xarius appropriated all the available Guard units for several sectors around and had, in a little under two months, assembled a force that most commanders would need years to pull together.

The time to amass and assemble his army group to take to Entymion IV, which presumably includes pulling them in from "several sectors around" (I assume this means 400-500 LY out.) FTL speed implied for that is at least thousands if not tens of thousands of c, minimum (certainly less than months to travel, since you have to send out the call, the troops have to be located, mustred, loaded, etc.) He's a good general, so he can pull it off much faster tham most commanders (by at least an order of magnitude, in fact.) Probably includes getting the Marines and Naval troops too, but it may not.



Page 521

The entire Seleucaian Fourth Division, more that seventy thousand men, demanded that Xarius take them to Entymion IV to avenge the dead of their brother regiment. Xarius also brought the regiment with which he once served, the elite heavy infantry of the Fomux Lix 'Fire Drakes'. The sector battlefleet was less rapid to answer the call but still seconded a cruiser, the Resolve, and escort squadrons along with a fleet of transports to get Xarius's army to the Entymion system and maintain a blockade to keep the rot on Entymion IV from spreading.
...
He knew he needed an edge before he would send a hundred thousand Imperial lives into the teeth of that kind of war.

Xarius assembles the "Seleucaian Fourth division", more than 70,000 troops, the Fornux Lix 'Fire Drakes' - elite heavy infantry (also mechanized.). The NAvy seconded a cruiser and escort squadrons (but was slower to respond than the Guard.) plus fleet transports - all to get Xarius' forcees to the planet and to maintain a blockade/quarantine around the planet.

HE also requested (and received) support of the Crimson Fists.


Page 523

Three squads of Crimson Fists held the chapel: Reinez's own command squad, Althaz's Tactical squad, and the Devastator squad of Sergeant Caltax. The Crimson Fists were the lynchpin of the first Imperial drive on Gravenhold - the heavy infantry of the Fire Drakes Guard regiment would enter the city through the south-eastern gate, and the Crimsdn Fists had to keep that gate open at all cost.

Crimson Fist forces present. The Fire drakes are Heavy infantry. The Space Marine forces p[resent are as always the speartip.

Page 524

As if on cue, alert-runes flashed on Reinez's retinal display.

alerts on a retinal display.

Page 524

The Fire Drakes were making their move even now. Chimera APCs, a handful of support tanks, and hundreds of men were marching across the city's threshold, relying on the Fists to support them.

- the Fire Drakes have "support tanks" as well as Chimaeras. No idea what the s upport tanks are.


Page 525

The world snapped into slow motion, a result of the combat-hormones now pumping through Reinez' body.

...

The storm of bolter fire tore one Traitor Marine to shreds and ripped the arm off a second.

....

Reinez's senses were working faster than his body and he fought the inertia of his limbs to draw the heavy thunder hammer from its scabbard on his back and charge through his squad into the fray.

one Marine amputated by bolter fire and another torn apart. Also Space MArines either have innate hormones or combat drugs that slow down perceptions during combat.

Page 528

Down this avenue were advancing the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes, hundreds of men moving warily in their body armour and gas-helms, between rumbling Chimera APCs and Hellhound support tanks.

- The Fornux Lix have "gas helms" in addition to their body armour. I assume that means full face helmets with gas masks. The support tanks are described as Hellhounds.


Page 531

Eighty per cent of the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes made it out of the south­eastern gate, falling back in good order. They regrouped and by nightfall had counterattacked with armour and Hellhound flame sup­port tanks, fighting bitterly through the lower floors of the closest tower blocks until they had a foothold just inside Gravenhold.

- Again the Fire Drakes are mentioned to have Hellhound "support tanks" as well as "armour" - which may mean Chimaeras or other vehicles.

Page 531

Captain Reinez survived. While the Crimson Fists' Apothecary tended to him, he demanded a high-level astropath from Lord General Xarius and got it. He sent an astropathic message to the Crimson Fists' Chap­ter Master on the Chapter fleet several sectors away, and informed him that the Soul Drinkers were in Gravenhold.

Astropathic message from "high level astropath" sent "several sectors" away (again at least a good 400-500 LY)


Page 533

The weapons were mostly the expected mix of lasguns and autoweapons looted from the Planetary Defence Force supplies, with a few hunting rifles and other aristocratic pieces thrown in. But there were some of apparently xenos design, too - some kind of rifle made of irregularly-shaped material like hardened black glass, that fired streams of razor-sharp crystal shards. A stubby bulbous weapon that looked somehow organic, which shot bolts of blackness that burned through armour. Some of the rebels had glossy black armour plates, like segments of beetles' carapaces, fused with their skin.

The armaments opposing the Guard forces, including some apparently supplied by DArk Eldar (for wahtever reason.)

Page 534

Veyna was one of the many worlds that had been forgotten for thousands of years, cut off by the Age of Strife and bypassed by the Great Crusade, only to be redis­covered in the second half of the forty-first millennium.

There were hundreds of worlds like Veyna. Most of them never even had names. Isolated and backwards, feudal or blackpowder-level worlds, gradually drawn back into the fold by the ravenous Imperium that considered itself to own every community of humans in the Galaxy - including those they hadn't discovered yet. Normally Veyna would be given an Imperial designation and perhaps a handful of hardy activists from the Missionaria Galaxia to convert the heathens, and then left alone aside from the occasional tithe demands from the Administratum. The Imperium would add a handful of new citizens to the immense population labouring and fighting under the aegis of the Emperor, and the people of Veyna would have been granted theoreti­cal protection against the many ravening forces that might creep across the galaxy to consume them.

Imperial "colonization" and acquisition of a new world. All this tends to make it sound rather minor and unimportant compared to major worlds like Armageddon or Necromunda or the major Guard tithe worlds. Again it suggests the Imperium may have countless worlds not "officially" part of the million world/system roster.

Page 534-535

It was cheaper to ship pure liquid nitrogen from Veyna's polar lakes than to manufacture it, and so Veyna's only natural resource was quickly claimed by the Adeptus Mechanicus for the factoria on its forge-worlds.

The only habitable land was earmarked for the great processing plants and spaceport that the Mechanicus would need to take their harvest from Veyna. The natives were displaced, offered one-way pas­sage to the closest forge-world where they would live short but productive lives in the lightless workshops and factory floors. Slow death in the name of the Emperor beckoned them, and they were assured by the missionaries that they would do better to die young for the Lord of Mankind than to die old heretics.

Most believed them and the civilisation of Veyna disappeared overnight, herded into the bellies of Mechanicus cargo ships. Many sur­vived the trip only to die in industrial accidents or simply get so ground down by the unrelenting toil until it was difficult to tell the living from the dead.
...

Within thirty years of the first shipment the polar lakes were drained and the Adeptus Mechanicus withdrew from Veyna.

Admech can ship off the entire population of a planet (although we dont know how big it is.. thousands? Hundreds of thousands, millions? in short order. The planet is stripped in 30 years of its "polar lakes" - implies significant moving of resources, if those "lakes" were evne a fraction of the mass of an ocean or something.

Page 535-536

Now he had an enhanced metabolism and augmented organs so new he still ached from the operations to implant them, and wore a carapace of padded semi-powered armour. Cold couldn't kill him anymore.

...

Eumenes' enhanced vision picked out details from teh darkness.

...

"Squad Eumenes down," voxed Eumenes, the feel of the vox-bead still unfamiliar in his throat. He had been trained with all this equipment over and over again but it was still relatively recently that he had taken up all the equipment and augmentations of the Space Marine he would one day become.

Eumenes, one of the scouts and the new generation of "freethinking" Soul Drinkers, and also destined to be one of Sarpedon's bigger fuckups. You'll learn to hate him NEARLY as much as Sarpedon in Chapter War. He doesn't last long thankfully, which is one thing that makes him better than Sarpy.

In this case we learn as a scout he has some organs, some resilience, and is equipped with vox beads and "semi powered" carapace armour. Powered in what weay we dont know (akin to Lucuius Worna's armor?) but definitely differnet from other Scouts in othe rChapter sin some notable ways, methinks.

Page 536

Eumenes had memorised the likely layout of the transport ship. Each ship was different but the transport was built around a plan that meant the differences would be minor.

not sure this applies to all kinds of ships, but it seems variations are "minor."


PAge 536

Selepus was on point, his monomolecular fighting knife in his hand and his bolt pistol bolstered.

- monomolecular fighting knife.

Page 537

Nisryus closed his eyes. His precognitive powers were immature, but he was strong enough to use them without risk of corruption. His eyes were too old for his face, surrounded by crow's feet, and they wrinkled up as he concentrated.
"He'll think we're enemies." said Nisryus. "To him, everyone's an enemy."
"And the crew?"
Nisryus shook his head. "I can't see them. His presence blocks them all out."

Nisryus, one of the scouts, has precognitive powers. They allow him to guess at (or know) the intentions of others (presumably by reading how they may react or by reading the various probabilities or some such.) Also, apparently strong emotion can block the ability of Nisyrus to "read" the future or intentions in some cases. In this case, of a ship's crew, because of the proximity of a Chaos Tainted space marine (another soul drinker - are you surprised?)


Page 537

From what Sarpedon had said, the strength of the captive's emotions had broadcast his location to the Librarium from several systems away. It was a miracle Nisryus could see anything at all.

Again strong emotions seem to be messing with the precognitive abilities of the scout. This suggests in some way that the manner in which he is reading the "future" is tied into thoughts and/or emotions (or at least, his ability to read the warp clearly is affected by such things.)

Also we learn that the Librarian Trio was psychically monitoring the psycho Soul Drinker from several systems away. This also means the Brokenback's sensors were able to track/detect the ship from that distance. This does not, of coures, mean that the Imperium itself has FTL sensors, since the Brokenback has a shit-ton of xenos tech in it.



Page 538

Before Eumenes's time, when the Soul Drinkers still fought under the Imperial banner, the Great Harvest was held every decade to bring new recruits into the Chapter. Since the Chapter had been fleet-based, the Great Harvest saw them visiting scores of planets over the course of a year, picking a handful of the best and youngest warriors and running them through a brutal meat grinder of a selection process. Those the Chaplains selected as suitable were given endless psycho-doctrination sessions, surgical implants and enhancements, and intensive combat drills. They lived as novices, attending upon the Marines to forge respect for the soldiers they would one day become.

As silly as the Soul Drinkers are in most cases, I have to say their recruitment practices are probably more sensible than many other Chapters given the difficulties in the Astartes creation process. The process also seems to echo the Black Templars a bit.

On the negative side, Sarpedon decided that recruiting radicals from the Imperium was a good idea. I wonder how likely it is he's going to find teenage radicals in the age range you typically need for Astartes. Or did he decide to make the odds of his Chapter even less likely by trying to pull what Gabriel did with Ckrius in the DoW novels? (Yes MORE MUTATION!)

Page 539

The adept himself had seen some of the ship's crew lying with slit throats. He had seen one of the invaders - quick, shaven-headed and wearing heavy purple armour that didn't slow him down one bit, firing rapidly with a bolt pistol and blowing a menial's torso apart.

- rapid-fire with a bolt pistol (space marine scout) blows a man's torso apart.

Page 539

One armsman, an excellent shot who had sniped tharrbeasts for sport on the ash wastes of Diomedes Tertiam, scanned for targets, pulling back the hood of his pressure suit to get an unobstructed view through the sights of his long-las. The other armsman stuck close to the adept and racked the slide on his shotgun.

- an ship's (naval?) armsman using a long-las and as a marksman. The other, of course, is using a shotgun (pump action apparently.) Counter seems to equip marksmen randomly with long las for some reason (which is odd since in the previous novel he had snipers using autoguns.

Page 540

That was when the adept burst into flames.

Scamander's blood ran cold. It always did when he used the power the Emperor had given him. It took all the fire in his soul and siphoned it out into the outside world where it took the form of leaping flames that appeared as if from nowhere. But it had to come from somewhere -somewhere inside Scamander, in the depth of betrayal he had suffered. The Emperor had looked out from his Golden Throne and granted Sca­mander pyrokinetic powers with which to scourge the Emperor's enemies, and yet the Imperium had condemned Scamander, that same Imperium that claimed to do the Emperor's work.

Bright orange flame blossomed. A man screamed as his clothing suddenly caught fire. Scamander forced the fire out of himself, feeling a psychic cold like a spiral of ice coiling down through him. He played the fire across the other targets, too, a pair of armed crewmen. One of them had seen Scamander and had been preparing to shoot, but that only made the psychic path between him and Scamander shorter. The sniper spasmed as fire boiled up from inside his lungs -he flailed and toppled over the gantry rail, falling to the floor far below.

Scamander let the fire fall. His frozen breath glittered as he exhaled, crystals of ice were hard slivers in his mouth. He couldn't use his power for long periods of time yet, and would have to train long and hard to become living artillery on a par with Tyrendian.

Scamander the pyro. What's interesting/pecuiliar about his ability is that he can't just generate his attacks from thin air (the way Tyrendin can just make lighting appear) - he has to draw at least some of his own body heat, which his psychic abilities amplify into his pyrokinetic attacks. This is rather odd, since I am sure we'e seen other cases of pyrokinesis in 40K that don't involve this, and its a rather hefty drawback methinks.

I wonder if this is the ben counter way of explaining the exertion of certain psychic abilities or something. It could also be this simply reflects his junior status. For all we know Tyrendin has to draw on electrical impulses from his body, but his training and experience give him a much greater efficiency in tapping it (he can use less and cause greater effects with it)

Page 541

The captive was two and a half metres high.

usual Space Marine height.

Page 542

But it was still a shock when the scattered reports of renegade Marines from across the Imperium, filtered through the many cogitators on the Brokenback, had indicated that Tellos was not just alive but possessed of a mindless lust for destruction.

yet another interesting indicator of the Soul Drinkers space hulk having some sort of peculiar FTL detection/scanning ability - this time tied into signals it seems (astropathic? Vox?)

Page 542

Nisyrus held out a hand, gingerly probing the emo­tion that saturated the cargo bay. Those emotions echoed backwards as well as forwards, giving Nisryus limited precognitive powers - here, they were strong enough to hint at the mental landscape hidden within the Marine's madness.

Seems like Nisysus is reading the reflections of thoughts and emotions that affect the warp, rather than reading them from the mind. Whether this is normal for 40K telepathy or not, I dont know. Given some cases of reading tau or influencing them (Black Tide, Kill Team, etc.) I'd guess it isn't and this is largely a function of Nisyus' psyker specialization. Doesn't mean others couldn't do it I suppose.

Page 546

Lothas lunged forward and punched the power field, sending out a red flash and a spray of orange sparks. The field was configured to administer a neural shock on contact buth Lothar's enhaned metabolism shrugged it off, he hardly seemed to notice.

Power fields that administer neural shocks. I'd guess its something like what a shock or power maul might do.

Page 547 -

The cell was located in the belly of an Imperial battleship, an old mark that had seen service well before the Gothic War.
...
Dozens of brig cells led off on each side - a ship this sizemight have had twenty thousand crew, with its own criminals, police force, and prison.

20K crew on a battleship again. Note its own "police force" which I gather to be either NavSeec, or more likely the Armsmen.

Page 547

Sarpedon thought about the immense size of the Imperium and the difficulty of finding out what one word meant amongst those thousands of worlds and trillions of people.

"thousands of worlds" and "trillions of people" - this is almost without doubt an underestimate again.

Page 547

Solun had been a specialist in information. The mem-banks implanted in his armour had given him a formidable capacity for processing infor­mation.

Techmarine info specialist.

Page 548

"This is Wing Epsilon out of the Resolve, reporting on G-Day plus seven." The voice was weary, vox-echoed from some flight officer who had badly needed sleep after a long, hard sortie. "Seven Marauder fighter-bombers with three Thunderbolts flying cover approached Gravenhold from the south-east and broached enemy airspace in good order. Anti-aircraft fire was sporadic until within one point five kilo­metres of the target, when flak-batteries of the same pattern assigned to the Entymion IV PDF opened fire. Thunderbolt Epsilon-Red suffered minor flak damage. Marauder Epsilon-Green suffered the loss of the starboard waist gun and two crew casualties."

Flak batteries engage the Imperial fighters at 1.5 km or so, but with minimal effect. No indication if these are hydra batteries, but it is interesting that this range echoes the range of Hydras as per Honour Guard.


Page 549

Gunners sat in cradle-seats, suspended almost upside-down, thick cables running from their skulls into machine-spirit ports. The Baneblade's enginseer stood at the command pulpit, the thin metal tines that had replaced his fingers working on the keyslate in front of him as he adjusted the tank's systems and typed binary prayers to the Machine God. Xarius' flag-commander Hasdrubal was near the Baneblade's brutal sloping prow, watching the pict-screens that formed the eyes of the super-heavy tank.
...
Servitors hung in two rows, massive bronze-cased arms conttrasting with their grey dead flesh. They were still now, but when the Baneblade was in combat they would haul the massive shells into the breach of the tank's forward gun. Up in the turret, perched on top of the Baneblade, more gunners and loader-servitors waited for the next time Xarius ordered the tank to move.
..
...the makeshift mortars that the enemy sometimes fired from the eastern wall could not penetrate the Baneblade's massively thick armour.

Xarius is using a Baneblade as a command vehicle. The interior of the vehicle is rather interesting, especially in their function as autoloaders (which makes sense considering how fucking huge the shells probably are. The thing also has screens/viewers, and machine spirts and other stuff that require a dedicated techrpriest.



Page 549

Xarius would have to take every stone of the city the hard way. After the initial thrusts on the city had been repulsed, he had asked for reinforcements and got them: fighter and bomber wings from the naval cruiser Resolve, the reserve elements of the For-nux Lix Fire Drakes, and the Algorathi Janissaries to reinforce the Seleucaians in the west of the city. But they weren't enough to break into the city and crack open the hard core of rebel resistance. Armoured thrusts were surrounded and cut off, infantry assaults charged only into empty buildings while their flanks and rear eche­lons were swamped by cultists. The Naval bombing runs were supposed to have reduced the enemy strongholds to rabble, but they had found it hard to pin down the enemy, even when warpcraft was not ripping the minds out of their crews.

- The DE appear to be using some sort of psychic infleunce or mind control to screw with the pilots as well - a tactic not unheard of by Chaos factions against Imperial pilots, I might add (Similar was shown up in another Ben Counter novel, Battle for the Abyss.)

Initial assaults have been respulsed, defenders still hold the territory (including armoured assaults)

Page 550

Amongst them was an old archaeological intelligence report that suggested Gravenhold's supposedly solid outer walls were actually honeycombed with thousands of cramped tunnels. The same report had conjectured that Gravenhold was built on the site of several pre-imperial settlements. Emperor only knew what was lying under the streets, and how the enemy was using it to avoid the Naval and artillery strikes that should have pounded them into submission.

Possible reason why firepower isn't winning. And before you ask "Why don't they vaporize the city" -they could, except that they probably fear dumping megatons or kilotons of firepower in would demolish what they're supposed to recapture. Of course, depending on how long and how extensive the artillery nad heavy weapons fire goes on, that might happen anyhow, but I wouldn't put it past the Administratum to decide "no orbital bombardment ew want the planet intact so sacrifice huge numbers and conventionla firepower to do it." Kinda like how nuclear reactors are bad but coal and gasoline is good. )

Page 550-551

Xarius grunted in annoyance and switched on the tactical holomat, which unfolded from a brass-cased console like a metallic flower. The old machine shuddered and a flickering three-dimensional map of Gravenhold appeared in the air. Xarius oriented it so it was lying on one
edge and he could see the whole plan of the city. He noted the arena, sur­rounded by the southern hovels and stubbornly still standing after the destruction of Squadron Epsilon. Enemy contacts were sinister yellow tri­angles, covering the industrial and administration sectors. Massive swathes of the north and centre of the city hadn't even been touched by Imperial forces, and the map was infuriatingly featureless in those areas.

Xarius spotted the new development straight away. "What are these?" he said, pointing to a cluster of dark blue squares that had appeared just outside the south-eastern gate, forming an island in the Fire Drakes' rear­ward supply areas.
"That's the thing, sir," said Hasdrubal with a smile. "They're Thunder-hawks."

The baneblade has a three dimensional tactical map of the city. The map also displays the dispostions and situation of friendly and enemy contacts and other key data, it would seem. Including the arrival of Thunderhawks.

[Simon_Jester]

Just a random note: use of cavalry alongside mechanized units recalls World War II for me- the Soviets did that, sometimes, because they didn't have enough motorized transport to put entire armies on it. Marching infantry has a very fixed and limited rate of advance that no amount of physical exercise and conditioning will really improve. If you want to go faster than that and there aren't enough trucks (let alone APCs) to go around... well, that's when Stalin started raising cavalry regiments.

[Connor MacLeod]

AAAND... two updates for Crimson tears. Might as well plow through this and Chapter War as fast as we can, get the pain over with, and begin pulling out of the depths of Soul Drinkerage.


Page 553

The servo-assisted brace encasing his wounded foot whirred to compensate, reminding him that in the moment of retribution he had been found wanting.

..

The second company, a flexible battle-company with a hundred Marines and enough firepower and expertise to equal ten times that number of Guardsmen, represented an enormous slice of the Chapter's fighting strength.

- Reinez believes that a company of AStartes, with armour/vehicle support, had more than ehough expertise and firepower to equal "ten times that number of Guardsmen". Also a servio-asissted brace for his busted arm.


Page 553

The Seleucaian reinforcements had included, at Lord General Xarius's specific request, a great deal of armour. Demolisher siege tanks for turning Gravenhold's picturesque architecture to rubble, Basilisks and Griffons to shell anything that looked suspicious, Hellhound infantry support tanks to fill streets and alleyways with burning promethium. Xarius's battle plans called for plenty of tanks, even hard-bitten, heretics thought twice about fighting on when faced with las-proof armoured hulls and saw their comrades crushed beneath rumbling tracks. But while a soldier could scavenge food and ammo from the battlefield, and even fight on with a bayonet if it suited the Emperor's will, a tank could not drive on unsupported.

Xarius is going for an armor-heavy strategy. Rather amazing he got all that, since Armour is supposed to be so valuable.

PAge 554

The coming drive into Gravenhold needed fuel and ammunition. It needed spare parts. The most valuable part of the force's Naval compo­nent wasn't the Resolve or its Marauder fighter-bomber squadrons, it was the dozens of supply ships. Fuel landers disgorged bellies full of promethium into hungry tanks, armoury shuttles dropped off loads of Griffon shells and lascannon batteries. Xarius knew, as all the best com­manders did, that an army starved of support was just a herd of helpless men at the mercy of the Emperor's enemies.

Most of the craft made landfall at the Imperial-held spaceport, where the rearward elements of the Seleucaians and the newly-arrived Algorathi Janissaries bullied Officio Munitoram adepts over who got which crates of ammunition, rations and medical supplies. A few landed to service the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes, although that particular regiment was known for its self-sufficiency and ability to do with men what most regiments had to do with tanks. Some wounded officers left on the sup­port craft, heading up to the medical suites up on the Resolve where the conflict had yet to reach, although most wounded men had to make do with the casualty posts manned by regimental medics and Sisters Hos­pitaller.

The logistics of the invasion force, deployed from orbit. As long as they hold the spaceport and the enemy can't get anti-air weapons in range (or fighters) this probably works. Also reserves deployed (as well as another regiment, who we shortly will discover is utterly useless.)

Also the ships in orbit provide medical facilities, including Hospitallers. Lastly, the Fire Drakes seem to be implied to be a pretty damn fearsome regiment, known for self sufficiency and.. whatever the tank bit is supposed to mean. Good at assault and breaking the enemy, I guess.

Page 554

...two fuel transports went off-course and veered eastwards, away from the space­port and over the stony mass of Gravenhold. It wasn't the first time -some transports had been lost to the warpcraft that had so confounded the Marauder squadrons, others to old-fashioned malfunctions or human errors as there were in every war.

No one, including Lord General Xarius, thought much of it. The Offi­cio Munitorum factored in such losses: a few aircraft, a tanker full of promethium, a spacecraft that was mass-produced on a dozen forge-worlds. No great loss.

The loss of two fuel transports (air to ground types) is considered part of the price of conducting war. Apparently it is a spacecraft mass produced "on a dozen forge worlds."

This is also pretty hilarious given how it flies in the face of that whole Munitorum "technology is more important than life" schtick. Xarius must have lucked out and gotten some decent Munitorum dudes for once.

Also mention of the psychic EW crap that messes with the air assualts.

Page 555

The lander was only just wide enough for the avenue.
...
The lander's stubby wing scraped down a building, knocking down chunks of masonry and splitting the columns that held up a carved pediment. The ship's proximity alarm made an annoying pinging noise as the landing gear descended automatically, crushing a wrought iron streetlight.

The lander settled uncomfortably on the paved surface of the avenue.

A rough idea of the size and mass of the lander.. wide enough for a road, but not heavy enough to crack pavement. (or whatever passes for 40K pavement)

Page 555

As a Techmarine, Varuk was a specialist in machine-lore, and to his trained eyes the landers were both ugly, inefficient things. Watching the ammo carrier shifting its ponderous bulk onto its landing gear reminded Varak of the high risk Sarpedon had taken -trusting the better part of the whole Chapter to these crude machines that might have been shot out of the sky, or simply crashed through mechanical failure, at any moment.

Soul Drinkers techmarine isn't impressed with the Munitorum standard vehicle, both fo which are apparently massive enough to carry alarge chunk of the remaining Chapter (hundreds of marines, probably.)


Page 556

Varak checked the dataslate mounted on the back of his wrist as the clamp on the end of his servo-arm rotated away to be replaced by a bundle of sensor tines.

He waited a few moments as the screen of the dataslate swirled with interference.
"Nothing," he said at length. "But it might be these buildings."

Using Data slate and sensor connections (I imagine), the Techmarine checks his location against.. whatever. A map probably.

Page 557

The building had presumably once been a meeting-hall or council chamber where Gravenhold's ruling class had negotiated over control of the trillions of credits' worth of agricultural produce that Entymion IV exported.

They export "trillions" of credits, which I suspect is not representative of just the Tithe (but may be) but the tithe plus whatever is commercially sold. I dont know if the exact ratios would hold, but if the tithes of food are 10% of the total much like with men and tanks then we're probably talking hundreds of billions of credits. I asume we're talking annual export, since crops typically don't last decades or centuries (at least not in an edible fashion)

PAge 559-560

"The thing about Space Marines, Threlnan, is that they're all brain­washed psychopaths."
...
"I'm glad they're here, certainly." continued Xarius. "The Crimson Fists were an essential part of the battle plan. But you see, now the first bat­tles have been fought I'd rather have a few more decent men who can be counted on to follow orders and run away like proper soldiers"

....

"Marines are good for morale." said Threlnan.

"Hah! That they are, as long as they're fighting on the same side. Don't look at me like that, Threlnan, I know what they're like. The Dark Angels were supposed to spearhead our assault on the Dragon Archipelago on Balhaut, and when the order came down they were nowhere to be seen. Off fighting their own little war, never mind the men dying in the surf to win a beach the Marines should have taken. Never mind the rest of us lesser men."

"No, when they do what they're told they're the best, I know that. But just because we've suddenly got a company of Crimson Fists doesn't mean they'll fight where I tell them. They should be helping the Fire Drakes get a decent foothold in the south but I can't even contact the Fists' commander. They've got some private war here, Threlnan, and you're a fool if you're hoping it will coincide with ours."

...

"Soldiers? I hardly think they fit that description. Do you know how they make them, Threlnan? No, of course you don't. They find some barbaric planet where children fight before they can walk, and they hunt down the most bloodthirsty killers. They recruit them when they're twelve, thirteen, fourteen, with all that hate and that arrogance, just at the age when you think you're bulletproof and nothing can kill you. Then they keep them like that, give them a gun and some armour, and point them at the nearest enemy. They're not soldiers, colonel, they're maniacs. They won't answer to anyone save their own kind. And have you seen how they fight? They find the closest enemy and try to cut them up with swords." Xarius shook his head. '"Madness. Just madness. Just so there can be something to carve on the cathedrals and put in chil­dren's stories. Now I've got a hundred of them just waiting to bend all my battle-plans out of shape."

They walked for a few moments. Xarius watched the troops going about the real business of war: tending to the wounded, keeping the tanks running, distributing rations and ammunition. "At least with sol­diers," he mused almost to himself, "you know they'll fight until they break and then run away or hide in a fox-hole. You know when it'll hap­pen so you can pull them out before they break. You know when they think they're safe they'll go off drinking and whoring, you know they'll brew rotgut and steal rations and gamble and get into knife-fights. You can plan for those things, Threlnan. Space Marines you can't plan for."

- Clearly, Xarius dislikes Space Marines. Although to be accurate it could be said that Xarius generally laments the problems created by their autonomy and attitudes. This is not without merit, since some Chapters can be downright arrogant and dickish when it comes to other arms of the Imperium. But that is not true of all Chapters, or even Astartes within a givne chapter. We have plenty of examples of Astartes cooperating with and working well with the other military arms of the Imperium. Still, it represents an interesting insight into how an outsider might view the Astartes not blinded by awe or fervor. It also has to be said that Xarius has some hefty prejudice where the Astartes are concerned - especially that last paragraph - he acts like they aren't really human. And despite what he says, the things he says an Astartes does not do and normal men do is not normally an asset, even if it does make them predictable. Predictabilit yitself is not nececesarily an asset.

And I will grant the preference for close combat (or in some Marines an obsession even) has some merit as well. I mean look at the Black Templars. And to be fair to Xarius, Reinez acts like a complete and total ass, even before the Soul Drinkers arrived, and only got worse after (Think of the Dark Angels when they think one of the Fallen is around. Yeah, that bad.) But Reinez actively sabotages Xarius' efforts to take the planet simply to pursue his private little vendetta. Xarius will fail, and it is because of Reinez AND Sarpedon both. For the Emperor, indeed.

Out of universe, it probably could be noted this is more Ben Counter's attitude, given how he has been prone to depict Space Marines (but not always the case. He seems oddly inconsistent in that regard.) Another interesting detail is the implication that Xarius was on Balhaut, which if it is the same as in the Ghosts novels, may be in the Sabbat Worlds. Does this mean the books took place in and around that time? How old is Xarius? Did he serve with Slaydo, like Gaunt and others did?

Page 559

The two were walking through the spaceport, where the maintenance sheds and docking clamps were overrun with supply yards, machine pools and endless dark green tents in which the Seleucaians snatched a few hours of sleep before being rotated back into the city. One of the landing pads had been appropriated by the Algorathi Janissaries and several units of them, in their archaic uniforms with bullion and epaulettes, were drilling on the cracked concrete surface. The Janissaries were a museum piece, their previous duties had involved the pacifica­tion of backwards worlds and they still fought as if forming a square and fixing bayonets could win a battle.

The Algorathi Jannissaries. Basically they seem to be a Napoleonic-style regiment. On one hand while this obviously fits in with the silliness of 40K (it's not quite as bad as "feral guardsmen" being employed) it isn't nearly as bad as people tend to depict it based on the Codexes. Much like with the Rough Riders, the idea of bayonet charges and squares and shit are - at least by Xarius' lights - outdated and useless tactics, and the Janissaries are little more than rear echelon forces, conscripts, or probably expendable (if he were inclined that way, that is. Which he isn't.)

That isn't to say each and every guard officer thinks exactly like him. Hell I'm not even sure if this is meant to represent the standard - the implication is there, but it doesn't neccesarily follow. But it does show the sort of variable (even conflicting) philosohpies that can occur in the Imperium in these ways. And at least it pokes holes in the idea that the Guard's ONLY way of winning wars is bayonet charges.


Page 561

"We can do this without the Marines," said Threlnan. "An armoured thrust will puncture the heart of this city. Move up artillery and pound whatever's in front, then do it again. Keep going until we've driven them onto the Fire Drakes."
Xarius sighed. "I know. Armour, and lots of it. Followed up by plenty of poor dead boys. How long until the artillery train is down?"
"Departmento Munitorum says it'll be available within forty-eight hours. They're loading the landers now. Medusas and Basilisks, plenty of mobile firepower."

Discussion of the tactics once again. And once again note Xarius isn't happy about losing men, however neccessary it is. He's perhaps the most likeable figure in the book, which makes what happens to him make me dislike Sarpedon even more (nevermind the pointless grimdark.) Indeed it probably is what ruins what would otherwise be a decent novel for me.

"mobile firepower" - which I guess means the artillery at least, if not the tanks. How mobile and in what context, of course.. I'll leave others to debate. But the acknowledgement of mobility exists, at least.

Page 561

Emperor alone knew what they would find, but Xarius knew he had the galaxy's ultimate weapon - tens of thousands of soldiers, none of whom the Imperium would greatly miss. What did they matter when there were trillions without number under the aegis of the Imperium? Xarius looked at them, fresh-faced near-recruits and scarred veterans alike. None of them deserved to die in Gravenhold, but a lot of them would. They were the fuel that kept the Imperium going, of course - without their sacrifice the Empire of Man would fall to ravening aliens, heresy, and worse. But that he should be the one to condemn them all! Him, one man out of all those trillions to have the deaths of so many laid at his door!

That was why he was a lord general, of course. Few men could under­stand the burden of command. Fewer still could handle it. That was what separated a Guardsman from a Space Marine; the Marines didn't understand death. To them it was nothing, just a stage in universal jus­tice delivering heroes to the Emperor's side and heretics to the many hells of the Imperial Creed. But Xarius knew that death was the end. He was facing his own death and he felt the impending deaths of his men as keenly as his own. When you died, you turned to dust, and no mat­ter what the preachers said the Emperor never noticed.

For the Emperor, he thought. In the hope that He might one day do something for them.
For the Emperor, they would all die.

Your obligatory "human fuel" grimdarkery. Again, this proves to be one of the few saving graces in this novel. It's fun to contrast Sarpedon and Reinez with this guy - Xarius comes out as the most likeable character (by my lights) and Sarpedon is a bumbling fool (fucking up despite his desire to fix his errors regaruding the Chaos-descended soul drinkers) and Reinez is an ass (coopting the dickery of the Dark Angels and kicking it up a notch.)

Also a bit of Xarius anti-Marine tirade. take it as you will.

Oh, and "trillions" of soldiers. again. Ben counter it seems predicted fifth edition.


Page 562-563

Instead, they had reached the comms post of the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes.
..

"Twenty minutes," replied Elthanion. He was something of a rarity, a genuine assault veteran who had both the tenacity to survive up-close combat and the level-headedness to become a worthwhile officer. He was the front-line commander for the Fire Drakes, with Colonel Savennian a figurehead and administrator. Elthanion's bionic eye and mouthful of broken teeth told Reinez everything he needed to know about the man.

Reinez meets the Fire Drakes. Prepare for fuckery. Also a comms transmission's long rnage vox was picked up by the Fire Drakes. Some sort of integrated comm network, I suppose?


Page 563

Reinez glanced through the body of the transcript. The pilot had evi­dently been terrified. As a Space Marine, Reinez was always vaguely mystified to see a man's fear laid out before him. To think that the threat of physical harm should drive a man to babbling near-incoher­ence - it reminded Reinez of why the Imperium needed the Space Marines. They were the Emperor's chosen, and they knew no fear. But the dead pilot had at least been lucid enough for Reinez's purposes.

Reinez contemplates fear and provides a competing viewpoint to Xarius.


Page 563

Reinez crumpled up the transcript. "I need Colonel Savennian to give me command of his fastest and hardest-hitting elements. Your Armoured Fists units. Your veterans. Assault specialists. Tanks."

Lieutenant Elthanion paused. No doubt he was thinking about the thrust the Crimson Fists and Fire Drakes would have to make into Gravenhold., further than they had gone before into the city's most important district where the enemy no doubt held sway. But he was also thinking about the chapels he had worshipped in with their statues of Astartes heroes, the stories the preachers had taught him of the Space Marines who won the Imperium for Mankind and put normal men to shame. He was thinking about the legends he had read, and of how he might be a part of one of them.

And.. REinez fucks over Xarius royally. Really, given the logic laid out, why would he turn down a space marine? They are heavily propogandized after all. But it isn't his fault, its Reinez's totally.

Also the Fire Drakes have tanks and armoured fist units.. so they are at least partly, if not mostly or wholly, mechanized.

Page 563

Reinez held his hand out to shake, Elthanion took it, and Reinez had to make a conscious effort not to crush the man's hand with his instinctive strength.

How nice of him not to crush hsi hand after manipulating him into disobeying the chain of command. See why I'm more sympathetic to Xarius? Also, Space Marines can consciously control their strength it seems, to quite a degree.

Page 564

Elthanion saluted, turned on a heel and strode off. He would keep his word. Secretly, somewhere deep inside him, he had longed to fight alongside the Emperor's chosen. Reinez had seen it before. He knew that Lord General Xarius would not allow his Guardsmen to be diverted into the Crimson Fists' war - but Xarius wasn't there, and he didn't know. Gravenhold was damned and for Reinez the only thing worth fighting for on Entymion IV was the destruction of the Soul Drinkers. If he had to spend the lives of every Guardsman here to achieve that goal, he would do it.
If the Guardsmen could understand what it meant to be a Space Marine - the traditions and principles they were protecting, then they would gladly lay down their lives.

So yeah, Reinez has knowingly manipulated the Fire Drakes officer into disobedience for personal reasons. Reinez is a dick.

In his defense Sarpedon has some blame and Reinez didn't start out this bad, but the poitn stands. He's also managing to take down the whole planet and the Imperial forces on it, with him, all because he can't put his personal pride/honor (or that of his Chapter) above duty - or at least put that honour in perspective. Somehow, I can't see Pedro Kantor thanking Reinez for losing the Imperium a whole planet just to get some short bus Space Marines - especially given the fallout that will ensue because of this crap.



Page 564

Scout-Novice Nisryus could feel them all around. He knew a second before when they would show themselves and so only he had seen them clearly - xenos, probably eldar, wearing close-fitting elegant armour and lurking on the rooftops or between the columns of nearby buildings. They were silent and almost invisible, and Nisryus guessed at several dozen of them moving just out of sight, both alien and human, able to melt into the city apparently at will.

Nisyrus in precog mode again.


Page 565

Eldar. That made things more complicated. The eldar were deceitful, untrustworthy and arrogant in the extreme. The Imperium had stopped short of a campaign of genocide against them because the eldar were an ancient race and knew secrets about the galaxy that the Imperium wanted to know - and the eldar were as implacable foes of Chaos as the Imperium itself claimed to be. But they were still aliens, heathens and pirates. Sarpedon had fought them before and he remembered a species who would gladly lead a billion humans to their deaths to save one of their own.

supposed reasons why the Imperium lets the Eldar live. I suspect it is not nearly so benevolent, because they've tried to wipe out craft worlds before and failed. Though their mutual alliance against chaos is true, and that is definitely one reason to keep them around.

Page 565

"They're approaching," voxed Eumenes, peering through his magnoculars at the plume of dust and smoke to the south-east. Small arms fire was spattering, tiny flashes of auto- and las-weapons through the smoke. "Looks like armour and troop carriers."

The Fire drakes seem to use autoweapons alongside lasweapons.


Page 566

The Rhinos carrying his strike force thundered alongside Chimeras and Leman Russ tanks sten­cilled with the insignia of the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes, the monstrous roar of their engines punctuated by gunfire streaking in from the buildings on either side of the broad avenue. The towering buildings of the adminis­tration district had given way to marble and white stone, carved friezes and statues, monuments and columns. The enemy had been caught cold by Reinez's bold gambit, and the force he had assembled: eleven Rhino and Razorback APCs, several Vindicator and Predator support tanks and the Fornux Lix armour of a dozen Chimera-mounted squads and half as many Leman Russes and Hydra flak-tanks were driving at prodigious speed through Gravenhold. Reinez could see the indistinct figures of enemy troopers in the windows and on the rooftops, firing at the vehi­cles as they roared past. The Fire Drakes had lost two Chimera squads to rocket launchers and small arms, and one Crimson Fists' Predator was stranded, crippled beneath the south-east gate.

- the Fire Drakes have Leman Russ tanks and Hydra flak batteries. Apparently the 'Russes and Hydras can keep up with the Space Marine armoured vehicles and chimaeras, whether this is full speed or not is up for debate.

The Fire Drakes armoued/mobile forces Reinez demanded are depicted... fourteen or so Chimeras (about a company or so's worth) and a half dozen tanks and Hydras (several squadrons worth.) Whether this is all or only part, I have no clue.


Page 568

A Chimera in the colours of the Fornux Lix regiment slewed to a halt outside the chamber mercantile's ruined front doors. Guardsmen in heavy flakweave body armour were piling out of the back.

- the Fire Drakes wear "heavy flakweave" body armour. Not sure if this means rigid or flexible armor, or a cobmination of both.

Page 569

"The Guard are trying to flank us." said Eumenes, lining up a bolt pistol shot and firing. His first went wide, his second blew the leg off a Fire Drake toting a grenade launcher. The Guardsmen were swarming all over the place, jumping from the Chimeras to take up cover beneath the thick columns and ornate statues that lined the front of the build­ings. Las-fire was streaking up at the scouts, tearing chunks out of the lip of marble sheltering them.

Fire Drakes vs scouts.

Page 569

Scamander dived into cover beside Eumenes. He took a deep breath and held out his hands over the edge, the spaces between his fingers glowing with licks of flame. There was a flicker of heat in the air and suddenly a rush of fire blazed down indiscriminately, pouring like liq­uid over the Fire Drakes massed below.

Scamander grimaced as his mental energy poured out through his mind. He let out a long juddering breath that was white with frost crys­tals as all the heat bled out of his body, and was multiplied by his psychic focus to turn the valley into a blazing orange furnace.
Men were screaming. An officer was shouting for calm, firing warn­ing shots. Ammunition from a grenade launcher cooked off in a deafening crescendo of explosions. Flesh sizzled and popped.
..

There was nothing to burn in there now Scamander's psychic fire had been withdrawn and only bodies were blazing. Eumenes landed well enough to snap off a shot that took off the officer's hand, Selepus dropped straight as a dagger behind the officer, stabbing his combat knife through the man's neck and turning to plunge it into the chest of the Guardsman behind him. Nisryus followed, then Thersites and Tydeus. Tydeus fired a round from his grenade launcher, filling the least charred end of the alley with smoke and shrapnel, throwing two Fire Drakes out onto the street. Scamander was last, landing badly, his body limp with exhaustion. He would recover in a few moments, but for those few moments he was vulnerable.

- Once more Scamander, apparently cannot create heat from raw warp power. He needs to siphon it off his own body (which is then amplified by his psyker abilities into fire.) Not exactly the cremation feats some Librarians can pull off, but he's still a novice too.


Page 572

Graevus saw a Crimson Fist in lighter blue armour, a high aegis col­lar obscuring his helmeted head, his armour inscribed with protective sigils. A Crimson Fists' Librarian.

The Fists' Librarian raised a hand and dark ripples flowed from his fingers. They punched through the air in writhing darts and Graevus saw them swirling around Tyrendian, forming tendrils of shadow that tried to snare his arms and drag him down, envelop his head and blind him. Blue-white power flickered around Tyrendian's hands and with a blast of electricity the shadows were suddenly shredded.

Graevus was caught in the middle of a psychic duel. It meant he was in an even more dangerous place than before, but he couldn't worry about it now.

Librarian fight!

Page 572

Graevus, back-to-back with Kelvor, held his power axe like a quarterstaff and blocked a chainblade strike. He took a bolt
pistol shot to the chest, his internal breastplate of fused ribs cracking, compressed gas spraying from his armour's ruptured exhaust.

Graevus' armoris breached but not his body's naturally augmented toughness. STrangely the bolt does not detonate.

Page 578

A huge drive into the city, masses of infantry and armour, moving forward according to intricate patterns to bring massed firepower against every intersection and likely strong-point. Other plans were backups, describing how forces were to react to bottlenecks or bypass potentially fortified strongpoints.

They relied, of course, on Imperial forces rolling in from both direc­tions, splitting the enemy forces. That meant the Fire Drakes had to play their part, winning the whole administrative sector and then the governmental quarter culminating in the senate-house itself. It was a goal they could not achieve if they were storming about the city get­ting killed in some private war.

"It leaves all this a mess" replied Xarius. "The Departmento Munitorum say they can't get us any more Guard units. If we lose the Fire Drakes then we don't have a battle plan. We just let this city bleed our forces dry until they pull us out."

Xarius' plan. The Fire Draks heavy infantry is key to Xarius' scheme, which makes Reinez an even bigger dick.

Page 578

"No one could care less about the city, Threlnan. The reason we haven't hit it from orbit is that an orbital strike would have levelled the city and left the enemy intact. They're underneath it, hiding. There are sewers and ruins and Throne knows what down there. We'd just be giving them a ruined city to hide inside. Our men are not dying just because someone admires Gravenhold's architecture, colonel, they are dying because that's the only way we can get this planet back. I would thank you to remember that."

Xarius explains why they havnet destroyed the city. apparently they're below ground deeply enough (or the underground shit is tough enough) to withstand any (sane) bombardment the ship would launch, and they want the planet intact.

Page 578

"The auspex crews on the Resolve are picking up activity near the senate-house. Plenty of it, too. It's lighting up all the sensors."

- Xarius' baneblade command cneter has comm links with the orbiting Naval cruiser and is receiving orbital auspex data.

Page 579

e hadn't received all the implants of a full Marine but his eyesight was still considerably augmented. It cut through the smoke so his scouts were shooting at Guardsmen who couldn't fire back.
...
A unit of Guardsmen, veterans with melta guns and plasma weapons, was moving rapidly around the pool of burning promethium to pin down the scouts.

..

The flame lashed out like a whip, wrapping around three of the vet­erans and setting their fatigues ablaze. They fell to the ground, rolling in an attempt to put the flames out but Scamander concentrated on them instead, making the flames grow until the superheated air scalded their lungs and stopped their screams.

- a veteran "unit" of the fire Drakes equipped with plasma guns and melta guns is mentioned, and
Scamander (the pyrokinetic) can manipulate/augment already-existing fires for his purposes. It seems he can rely on any heat source - his body is just the most convenient.

Page 580

But he was a telepath that could only transmit, not receive -he made up for this flaw with raw power, and the intensity of the images which he forced into the unwilling minds of his enemies.

Sarpedon's "limitation" - other than being a total clown, that is.


Page 582

The Fire Drakes were protected by respira­tors and as they recovered they kept up their las-fire, sending scarlet streaks of laser through the dust, but it wasn't enough to slow the Soul Drinkers down now.

Fire drakes have respirators.


Page 584

The unarmoured humans - the Imperial Guard, whose billions of soldiers marched to their deaths to maintain some hopeless vision of humanity's future - and the blue-armoured soldiers fought together.

- "billions" of Guardsman mentioend here, by a Dark eldar. Given what we know, a definite under-estimate if taken literally.

Page 585

Brother Falcar, who had fought under Sergeant Hastis before Hastis's death on Septiam Torus, dived in front of Iktinos, taking the full blast of a plasma gun shot that was meant for the Chaplain. Falcar was thrown off the grand staircase, a smoking hole ripped through his torso.

- Soul Drinker takes the full blast of a plasma gun shot, thrown off a staircase with a smoking hole "ripped through his torso. No flamethrower this time.

Page 586-587

His two bolt pistol shots rang off ceramite and the Fist ignored them, stabbing out with an inhumanly quick lunge of his chainsword. Thersites didn't realise he had been struck until he hit the ground, a huge wet ragged hole where his chest had been.

Selepus leapt at the Fist from behind, his knife stabbing down at the neck join of the Fist's armour. The Fist turned, caught Selepus by the throat and threw him hard against a half-toppled column.
Nisryus crashed against the Fist's leg, knocking the huge Marine down onto one knee. Eumenes dived out from cover, lashing out with a kick to the faceplate of the Marine's helmet to knock him onto his back. Eumenes was suddenly on top of the Marine, his bolt pistol jammed into one eyepiece, pumping shell after shell, point-blank. Splinters of shell casing and ceramite spat up at Eumenes, cutting hot weals across his face as the faceplate split and the Marine thrashed as he died.

Soul Drinkers scouts don't seem to be even close to the match of a single Marine. And it takes multiple shots to even crack the helmt.

Page 591-592

Lord General Xarius watched the holomat projection grimly. Those few who came to know him well soon understood that it was a bad sign for him to be silent, and he didn't say a word as the previous three hours were played out on the holographic map projected into the heart of his Baneblade. The super-heavy tank was hull down in the very shadow of the western wall, ready to grind along behind the Seleucaians behind the advance, that advance had, of course, been postponed until Xarius had regained control of all the forces that were supposed to be fighting for him.
...

The holograph was zoomed in on a portion of Gravenhold to the east - the governmental sector, centred around the grand senate-house that stood on the shore of the River Graven. It was covered in scores of blink­ing icons, dark blue for the Crimson Fists, light blue for the Fornux Lix Fire Drakes, red for the enemy.

Xarius shook he head and wound back the projection, zipping through the last three hours of combat in reverse. It still didn't make sense. It had all happened, certainly - but it couldn't have. It shouldn't have.

The recording was back at the beginning. Xarius watched it unfold again - the blue column of icons snaked from the south-eastern gate towards the governmental district - Elthanion had rounded up the cream of the Fire Drakes' armour, Leman Russ main battle tanks and Demolisher seige variants, even Hellhound flame tanks, to support the Chimeras full of troops. The Crimson Fists had brought their own armour - Space Marines were far too proud to be anything but self-suf­ficient - mostly their Rhino APCs and some support tanks.

Red blips flickered where the long-range sensors on the Resolve had spotted enemy fire streaking towards the convoy. The convoy was mounting a classically stupid drive, completely unsupported, relying on speed to get through unscathed and without any apparent concern about getting surrounded or, indeed, getting back to the south-eastern gate again. Some tanks were destroyed or crippled, their icons dim, their passengers and crew probably picked off by isolated pockets of Gravenholders.

Then the convoy reached the governmental district itself. What fol­lowed, even in the clinical holo-display, was a murderously brutal close firefight. Xarius could only assume that the Traitor Marines that the Fists had encountered in the first moves into Gravenhold were holed up in strength, because suddenly the red icons of the enemy were a tight knot of resistance and the light blue of the Guardsmen were dying in their dozens. It was savage. Xarius had seen this kind of fight before, and sometimes found himself too close to them.

Xarius reviews the Fist-created debacle from the recordings of his baneblade. Also it seems the Fire Drakes armor and vechilces weren't all they had, just the best portion of it. Xarius isn't impressed weith Reinez's tactics either, although his observation suggests they must have been moving close to or at their top speeds. Also the portion we saw with REinez couldn't possibly have been all of it since they made no mention of Demolishers or Hellhounds, and we know the Fire Drakes lose over a thousand troops.


Page 593

Guardsmen were frantically reciting prayers from the Uplifting Primer that every Guardsman was issued with, in the hope of keeping enemy sorcery out of their minds. Fire teams were shooting at one another, either through psychic domination or sheer panic. The Crimson Fists were putting out massive volleys of bolter fire and falling back to their APCs, leaving the Guardsmen to extricate themselves. Xarius saw and heard more than a thousand Guardsmen die in the first few minutes....

...

Xarius didn't need anything more to imagine what was going on in those streets - the Resolve would probably send him pict-steals of the streets in the morning but he could see, in his mind's eye, the charred bodies and paving sticky with blood.

The Fire Drakes lose a thousand Guardsmen (at least) as Chaos sorcery takes hold, despite the upliftig primer prayers which are meant (supposedly) to offer protection. Reinez and his bunch back out completely, reinforcing his "dick" title.

Also the cruiser in orbit again is sending data, this time in the form of pictures.

Page 593

In his younger days, Xarius would have chased the image away with a good shot of something alcoholic and spicy. He would have pretended that a lord general did not see the men under his command as men at all, but as numbers, weapons, statistics to be stacked and sacrificed until they added up to a victory. But he did not believe that any more. The Imperium was built on death, and it was his job to feel every single one of those deaths in the hope that he could win a victory that did not cost the very lives it was supposed to save. He wasn't a soldier. He was the opposite.

He was fighting a war of his own, to keep the suffering from swallowing up what humanity the Imperium had left. It was a war he would one day lose, but that didn't mean he should stop fighting.

Wearily, Xarius flicked off the holomat and felt the claustrophobic interior of the Baneblade looming down on him.

See why I am sympathetic towards Xarius, despite the massive grimdark in this statement? He's saddled with an unwinnable cause because he's between several groups of massive, selfish dicks... and he will catch blame for it in the end.

Page 595-596

It was a tide of corruption. It was an endless nightmare of broken minds, men and women robbed of their souls, reduced from humans into a near-mindless horde. The sorcerers were worse - magicians, rogue psychics, witches who sailed above the churning crowds of Gravenhold's unfortunate citizens and directed them like choirmasters. They wore flapping robes of emerald and black, or foetid wrappings of piecemeal leather that dripped bile as they flew.

Runes of power were scorched into the air as they cast their spells, sometimes so bright they were burned into the walls. Their orders, transmitted by thought or magic, rippled through the enemy like waves, drawing the teeming army one way or another. Drifts of bodies built up beneath the windows of Guard-held buildings until the enemy could clamber over their own dead and into the lower floors. Guards­men were dragged out into the streets and torn apart, tanks were mobbed until their tracks were clogged solid with bone and gore and the Gravenholders pried the hatches open. Guardsmen blew them­selves up with demo charges rather than die at these hands - others were mentally dominated by the sorcerers as if for sport, shooting their comrades or jumping out of top-floor windows.

Sarpedon is of course watching and doing nothing, and Reinez is more annoyed by the loss of honour he suffered than the losses of guardsmen. Meanwhile the Dark Eldar have poured out a new attack in the form of a massively psychic assault. Grimdark!


Page 598

Nisryus walked up to the body and held a hand over it, letting the sen­sations of its death flow into him.
'
....
"This isn't a human mind" said Nisryus, his eyes closed. Eumenes saw he was trembling slightly and there were dark lines around his eyes, the marks of psychic fatigue. "It's xenos. The people weren't just dominated. Someone... someone tore out their souls and put something else in there."

- Nisyrus' precognitive powers can 'read' the sensations of someone's death, and allow him to determine what happened to them (to the extent of having their souls ripped out, knowing its Xenos, etc.)


Page 603

In the courtyard beyond, an expanse of crystalline lawn surrounding the palace's inner keep, hundreds of eldar stood as if to attention. They wore black glossy armour and carried weapons varying from the crys­talline rifles to long barbed whips to curved, serrated swords that gleamed with venom. Behind the front rows of warriors were more heav­ily-armoured eldar with full helmets, thicker and more elaborate armour, and massive halberds with energy blades. There were dark shimmering forms slinking along the battlements above them, more mandrakes no doubt, along with more eldar warriors this time carrying heavier weapons: long-barrelled guns made of something gleaming and black, multi-barrelled versions of their crystalline rifles, and stranger-shaped weapons besides.

The eldar were raiders and bandits, rarely mustering in any number, striking in small coordinated bands. It was rare to see so many in one place, let alone in the presence of Imperial troops. The eldar were silent as they stood to attention, eerie and intimidating. There was little doubt how much killing power this army possessed, and the numbers assem­bled probably counted for only a fraction of their full strength in Gravenhold.

DE forces. It's worth noting that the DE appare to have an entire castle/fortress buried belowground on this planet, and had established the place for some time.

Page 605

Colonel Savennian had, at least, answered the summons when Xarius had sent it out. More importantly, he had brought Lieutenant Elthanion with him on the Aquila-pattern shuttle that zipped from the south-western gate to the eastern spaceport, giving the city and its baleful influences a very wide birth. Along with Colonel Threlnan of the Seleucaians, Colonel Vinmayer of the Algorathi Janissaries and Consul Kelchenko, who effectively commanded the 4th Carvelnan Royal Artillery, Savennian completed the complement of command­ing officers under Lord General Xarius.

Xarius summons his subordinates post debacle.

Page 606

The huge circular landing hub in front of him was full of artillery tanks. Basilisks with long-range Earthshaker cannon stabbing upwards, Griffon mortar tanks with elaborate hull-mounted cranes to load their wide-mouthed mortars. Medusas with huge forward-firing guns to crack open bunkers and gun emplacements. Even two Deathstrike mis­sile launchers, devastating strategic weapons which launched vortex warheads - they only got one shot, but by the Emperor they could make it count. The air around them was shimmering with the down-draft of another lander, carrying a pair of Basilisks in its skeletal hull as it descended. Crewmen were scrambling all over the tanks, loading fuel and ammo, finding their favoured machines, checking gunsights and steering.

"This is the 4th Carvelnan Royal Artillery, gentlemen." continued Xar­ius. "Courtesy of the consul here."

Consul Kelchenko, a fat man in the deep blue uniform of the Departmento Munitorum, nodded smugly. Kelchenko's tiny corner of the Departmento Munitorum was responsible for deploying, fuelling and arming the Carvelnan Royal Artillery, which meant that he was effec­tively the unit's commanding officer even though he hailed not from the Guard but from the Administratum.

Xarius' artillery force, which includes two Deathstrikes with VORTEX warheads (how rare are they, again?) Griffon Mortar tanks have elaborate "hull mounted cranes" to load their mortars, and there is a drop ship transporter specifically designed for deploying vehicles.

Also we have an Adminstiratum jerk running a Guard regiment of artillery in the name of the Munitorum, who are responsible for all those important vehicles. *head explodes*

Page 606

The holodisplay flicked on. Images of the first few hours of campaign flickered past, eerily silent pict-steals of the murderous fighting around the industrial mills and the south-eastern gate.

- pict steals have been taken (video recordings) of the engagements over hours, for recon/analysis purposes. We know there is orbital data being provided, but the question then becomes is anything being recorded on teh ground.

Page 607

Tactical arrows were appearing as Threlnan spoke, mark­ing out the various paths the Seleucaian units would take. It would be a gruelling, building-by-building grind as the Guardsmen cleared sharpshooters from the towering mills and warehouses.

Close quarters, in-building fighting.

Page 607-608

His heavy dark grey body armour was dulled with grime from engine smoke and spotted with more than a little blood. "Recon has suggested a large body of enemy light infantry between the governmental district and the south-east gate." said Elthanion.

"So we noticed." said Xarius, but choked back the instinct to say more.

"The Fire Drakes are at about sixty per cent full strength." continued Elthanion, ignoring the insult.

Enemy icons swarmed around the gov­ernmental district, barring the path of the unit icons representing the depleted Fire Drakes. "We lost a lot of armour. But we're planning an infantry drive with full artillery support from the start. We'll pound them against the River Graven, then meet up with the Seleucaians to cross the river. Long, hard assaults are what the Fire Drakes do best. The enemy has the numbers but not the quality, we'll break them and chase them into the river."

Xarius eyed the plans. They were straightforward enough, but the advance from the south-east gate would have had twice the momentum had the Fire Drakes' armour not been so badly mauled haring after the Traitor Marines. Xarius's plan was to have the Seleucaians and the Fire Drakes meet in the centre of the city's southern half, then turn north­wards to cross the Graven en masse and surge into the north of the city. The north, with its sprawling noble estates and adepts' quarters, had seen barely any combat and it was anyone's guess as to what might be in there. It was hoped that victory in the south would cripple the enemy hold and leave the north vulnerable, and the colonels' contributions so far seemed adequate. But there was still too much the Imperials didn't know. Xarius wished very dearly that Gravenhold really could be destroyed from orbit, but he knew better than anyone that this battle would be won the old-fashioned way.

More details on the Fire Drakes. They seem tob e assault specialised, fully mechanised, and they lost over half their force (sixty percent) in the assault. Or at least the porton they have. This implies they had at least 2000 men, dozens of chimeras, tanks andother platforms.

Xarius also isn't very happy with the plan, now that everything else beforehand has fucked up, and is going at it "the old fashioned way" - which I take to mean bloody and costly (rather than charging bayonets, which is what the Janissaries do.)

Page 608

Vinmayer wasn't the source of the problem with the Algorathi Janis­saries. He was just a symptom. The Janissaries had, for more than three hundred years, served as a garrison on a feudal world where forming a square against nomadic cavalry or swatting aside spear-armed peasants with parade-ground volley fire was enough to do the Emperor's will. Vinmayer wore a fine powder blue uniform with breeches, shako, gold bullion in neat rows across his chest, a dress sword scabbarded at his waist and only a pearl-handled duelling laspistol holstered on one hip to suggest he belonged in the forty-first millennium.

More on the Jannissaries and how outdated and pirmitve their tactics were. This tends to suggest that while raising "primitive" forces is unavoidable in the Guard (due to inconsistent logistics and limited abilities to control or dictate it) "primtiive" units like the Jannissaries may be used primarily to garrison less important worlds. Or maybe as cnanon fodder. They certainly seem to be less important/useful than the bulk of the guard forces, anyhow.

Page 608

The arrows on the holo now showed where the Algorathi units, hope­fully furnished with some Chimeras and a few grim war stories about what real battles were like, would advance into the wilderness left behind by the Seleucaian thrust. Their job was to form a barrier against the most obvious counterattacks, from enemies driven into the extreme south of the city's slums where they might reform at the southern wall and drive into the Seleucaian rear.

They had some spare chimeras lying around to lend to the Algorathi - whether they are fully mechanised or not isnt known,b ut I'm betting not. Guess how well they do?

Page 609

Kelchenko looked disappointed as the assembled officers broke off to return to their men. Doubtless he had hoped since childhood that one day he would meet one of the armoured heroes of the Imperium. The Marines had that effect. Used right they were a powerful psycho­logical force.

Xarius hoped the Fists would play along. The invasion needed all the help it could get. The Seleucaians were competent and numerous and the Fire Drakes were quality troops, even the Algorathi Janissaries has their uses, but the Crimson Fists could form a cutting edge that Xarius knew could make the difference.

But the Crimson Fists wouldn't listen to him, he knew it. In their own way they were as lost to him as the Traitor Marines they were so eager to kill.

Xarius begins to suspect just how utterly fucked he is. And the two seeds of that fuckery are presented now. And we get more ruminations on his view of Marines.

Page 610

The mandrakes were silent killers who could probably sneak up on even a Marine in the gloomy depths of the palace. The incubi, as the prince's heavily armoured elites were known, were the equal of an Assault Marine in close combat, and no one knew what other secrets the xenos might unleash at the first opportunity.

[/quote]

Sarpie's assessment of the Dark Eldar troops.

[Connor MacLeod]

And the last part of Crimson Tears. And now we descend once more to the depths (where we stareted the series, really) with.. Chapter War. Also known as 'Sarpedon's stupdiity' mark 2' wherein he is the direct cause of yet ANOTHER Chapter Civil War becuase he's too fucking stupid to know what he's doing.

At least the world actually is saved at the end unlike Crimson Tears, although its a descendent of the SPIRITUAL LIEGE who does that.

Page 612

"...the Imperium will eventually tire of the insult and send enough Guardsmen to drive you out. Or simply send a battlefleet to irradiate the planet."

" The people of Gravenhold are just mindless slaves now, but when my haemonculi are finished they will be able to act and think for themselves, with my will imprinted on their minds. I and my court will dissolve away" Karhedros swallowed the last dregs of his wine. He dropped his glass, and a slave darted forward to catch it before it landed on the deeply carpeted floor. "They will lose their world. It will be reduced to a lifeless ball of rock by their own weapons."

"So you will leave Entymion IV and watch the Imperium destroy it themselves."

A battlefleet can irradiate, render lifeless, or otherwise destroy a planet by their own weapons (much as suggested in Armada.) and the Dark Eldar want to make the Imperium do that.

Page 613

Sarpedon sat back on his haunches. His skin wouldn't stop crawling. Sarpedon had fought all manner of monsters but rarely had he come across a creature who inflicted suffering purely for its own sake. It was a religion for Karhedros, and murder and torture were rituals to the She-Who-Thirsts deity Karhedros had hinted at.

Ugh. Sarpedon doesn't fucking know who Slaanesh is?? And he's a fucking LIBRARIAN! SENIOR LIBRARIAN! I mean fuck, Tellos knows who the Blood God is, but Sarpedon doesnt know any of this? First he's duped by Tzeentch, then he doesn't recognize Slaanesh. These fuckers deserve obliteration./

Page 613

"And the human sorcerers you brought here" said Sarpedon. "Do they share this dream?"
Karhedros shook his head. "Their gods are cruel and brutish. Have you heard them pray? They beg for insanity, so they will have the strength to commit ugliness. I need them to control the Gravenholders. Magic does not come easy to my kind and we do not wish to attract the attention of the warp with our recklessness. This is just another crusade for the sorcerers. I give them the chance to fight in the name of their gods.."

One would infer that there are no Slaaneshi worshippers here, which seems a bit odd given what we learn later, especially since Slaanesh can be considered a human god.

Page 614

"The truth is,Lord Sarpedon, your arrival is most fortunate. The Imperials intend to launch a major operation. They were reinforced by artillery and are massing men on both sides of the city."

"A rolling advance. Artillery and men." Sarpedon nodded. "Typical Guard. Old-fashioned and costly, but it'll work."

"Exactly. There is a chance they might be able to actually win this city if we are not prepared. But that won't happen if my warriors and your Marines hold them up long enough."

It should be noted this is perhaps the second or third option Xarius decided to do, and the fourth Imperial action in trying to retake the planet. And all due to the interference of both Soul Drinkers and Crimson Fists in his plans. and Sarpedon is going to fuck it up yet again. and again. Working with the Dark Eldar despite his protestations of hating it (and the fact others hate it too. No wonder he faced a second revolution in the Chapter in the next book.) All for the Emperor, of course! This is also skewed by the fact the DE are lying.

Still no trenches or bayonet charges though, and its nice to know it would have worked, if not for grimdark.

Page 616

"So I'll let you into a secret." Luko leaned closer. "I hate it. Fighting is what animals do. It's the most base and ugly thing a human being can stoop to. But you don't chose whether to fight or not in this galaxy. If it's not the Imperium it's the dark gods, or it's the xenos, or it's your own battle-brothers. So I make out that I enjoy it, and most of the time I manage to convince myself as well as the men I'm leading. 1 can live the lie as long as it's keeping me alive. But take me out of that and make me look at it from the outside, like now, and 1 hate it."

I have to admit. Despite the fact he willingly follows Sarpedon, I like Luko despite the fact he is perhaps the most un-Space Marine like Space MArine I have ever met (eg the whole "not likign to fight.") I wonder how his indoctirnation failed.

Page 616

The Emperor's Tarot was an ancient tradition but Space Marine Librarians didn't use it very often, they rarely possessed the precognitive skills required to make the most of the Tarot. It was said the Emperor himself spoke through the cards, if only the user lis­tened hard enough.

The Tarot and precognition. This is a bit odd since I recall a fair bit of fluff from the codexes and stuff noting how Librarians use precog to divine the flow of battle and aid their fellow Marines.

And as far as we know the Emperor does speak through the Tarot. It is perhaps one of the few ways he has to communicate still.

Page 619

Lord General Xarius, theoretically safe in the belly of the super-heavy tank, watched the destruction unfold through the pict-recorders on the outside of the tank that sent images to the many screens surrounding him.

Xarius's command Baneblade has external cameras.

Page 620

Las-fire sparked on one pict-screen and Xarius turned to see Gravenholders pinned down in a ruined factory workshop, swapping fire with Seleucaian infantry until a Leman Russ Demolisher blew the whole building apart with a shell from its siege cannon.

Demolisher blows apart a factory. Also Xarius is apparently observing his forces in various parts of the assault remotely, or something. As we learn below, he gets it from tohre vehicles.

Page 620 -

Xarious switched to a feed from one of the forward units, the Sentinel-mounted pict-stealer shuddering as the walker lurched forward firing sprasys of crimson fire from its multi-laser. Without sound it was an eerie sight.

Xarius' baneblade is receiving pict stealer transmissions from Sentinels in the field. Useful.

Page 621

Threlnan's voice crackled back over the command vox-net - he was with a forward command post, huddled down in a Salamander as his guard of Leman Russ tanks thundered away to keep counter-attacking Gravenholders away from him. "Its sketchy, sir, but we've got some steady reports coming in from the latter waves. We're getting a decent picture."

"Good,. Send it."

"Understood. I'll give it to you as a burst transmission."

More transmission of data, probably visual as well.


Page 621

Above him the ammo-servitors hung from the ceiling, jointed metal arms poised to lug shells into the breeches of the Baneblade's massive guns. Xarious knew the tank's three auto-targeting heavy bolters would be more useufl here than the big guns - a stream of fire, targeted by the tank's ancient machine-spirit, would shred any Gravenholders who got close. He doubed the tank's main armaments, the immense mega-battle cannon and the squat-barreled demolisher that jutted from teh slope of the front armour would eve be fired on Entymion IV.

the autoloading servitors in action, though we dont know which cannon is being loaded. The baneblade also has autotargeting weapons linked to the machine spirit.

Page 624

Highmistress Saretha, Most Chosen Scion of the Lord of Unspeak­able Pleasures, though her name be unworthy in the mouths of slaves. You are here as appointed?"

So there are Slaaneshi here.

Page 626

"I've got a shot" said Sergeant Kelvor. He was lying on his front, bolter pointed down through the hole in the inside of the Gravenhold's mas­sive wall, the crosshairs of the scope hovering over the throat of a careless Guardsman officer who was pausing to consult a map without taking cover first.

Non scout Soul Drinkers sniper.

Page 630

The Algorathi Janis­saries wore ridiculous powder blue fatigues with silver brocade. This soldier, like the rest of them, had managed to keep his uniform clean for about thirty seconds and it was now a shade of muddy blue-grey with dirt ground in around the ankles and cuffs. The Algorathi Janis­saries, the scouts had quickly ascertained, might have been fine for garrisoning some backwater world but were in over their heads in Gravenhold. It was why the Guard were using them for patrolling rather than fighting, but even so, booby-traps and occasional knots of Gravenholders had started to take their toll.

More of the joke regiment known as the Algorathi Janissaries. Note they keep them stuck on rear echelon stuff, patrol duty and such. They're only good for patrol and such, nothign else.

Page 631

He and Varuk were on the first floor of the medicae station, in one of the surgical theatres where devo­tional scripts were carved into walls painted just the right shade of dark green to hide the blood. The station was covered with carved prayers, devotional graffiti, tiny makeshift shrines and piles of offerings to the Emperor and his many saints, both patients and the medicae staff they relied on tended to be religious types. The theatre contained a large polished metal operating slab, an autosurgeon with several folded metallic arms like the legs of a dead spider, and a couple of large tanks of anaesthetic gas. Gravenhold's elite were well cared for in airy, spa­cious hospitals dotted around the north of the city, but when the city had been normally populated this medicae station would have been heaving with the sick from the slums and those mangled by the cease­less machinery of the industrial district.

The Gravenhold medical center. At least for the lesser ones.

Page 632

"On Mars they teach you about logic." said Varuk. "I've been trying to think how any of this is logical, but none of it is."

Mars teaches. About logic. Oh well.

Page 633

The filthy water in the conduit was chest-high but Saretha was held well above it by her cultists, who would rather die a hundred deaths than allow indignity to touch the skin of their mistress. They loved her, every one of them. And love, like every emotion, created ripples in the warp where her lord Slaanesh lived. The love her cultists had for her was so strong that it created a billowing tide of emotion in the warp, enough for Slaanesh himself to notice it and give His blessing to Saretha. It was why she had been gifted with sorcery, a subtle magic that wormed its way into the minds of men and women and convinced them that they had loved her all along.

More Slaaneshi cultists and sorcery.

Page 634

The sentries manned mounted heavy bolters to send chains of massive-cal­ibre fire through the horde of cultists, but they just kept on coming, howling with joy as their bodies were blown wide open. The stitches in their lips were torn open as they were finally permitted to scream their pleasure to the sky.

Heavy bolters do not do much against Slaaneshi, no matter how much it eviscerates them.

Page 635

A fire-team of Guardsmen was gathering in the rafters above her, ready to launch volleys of fire down on the cultist mob. Saretha spot­ted them and, picking a moment of the most extreme pleasure from her memory, hurled it out of her mind at the insolent unbelievers. With the spell still on her lips those memories surged into the Guardsmen's minds. Unprepared for a vision of such pure Chaos, they spasmed vio­lently as their nervous systems overloaded. Bones cracked as their muscles contracted violently, organs ruptured, and they were granted one true glimpse of the Dark Prince's power before they died.

More Slaaneshi sorcery.

Page 635-636

Krydel's squad was in front, stalking carefully through the decaying network of cells beneath the arena. The cells had once held the worst of Gravenhold's small but persistent underclass, captured and sen­tenced to fight for their lives for the entertainment of the workers in the slums. There were also larger cells, stained black-brown with blood, where wild creatures had been held for the prisoners to fight.

Crime and punishment on Gravenhold.

page 637

A firing squad of Guardsmen sent a sheet of las-fire into them [first ranks of cultists], cutting them to shreds, but the gap closed in a second and before the Guard had time to take aim again the cultists were amongst them.

First volley of squad fire from guardsmen "cut apart" multiple cultists at close range. Sadly not very calable since we dont know how many shots and the effects - large numbers of kj range shots, for example, could do that.

Page 641

"What are your co-ordinates?"
"Transmitting them now..."' For a few moments the vox was lost in sta­tic but Kelchenko heard the piercing tones as the officer's co-ordinates were sent in a burst of information over the vox-net.

Coordinates transmitted in non verbal fashion over vox to the artillery dudes.

Page 641

Kelchenko looked down the line of artillery pieces he had drawn up just inside Gravenhold's eastern wall - Griffons, Basilisks, even a couple of Hydra anti-aircraft pieces should the Gravenholders prove to have air power at their disposal. The artillery tanks were all blasting away, throw­ing shells into the city in front of the Guard advance to keep the Gravenholders on their toes.

But the combined power of every artillery piece in the city couldn't match the weapon Kelchenko had in mind for the Marines.

Kelchenko switched to a heavily encrypted vox-channel.
"Standing by, sir." came the reply, crisp and clear.
"Good. Stand by for co-ordinates."
"Co-ordinates received."
"Good. Go to code black."
"Sir, we have had no confirmation from Lord Commander Xarius. Are you sure..."
"Quite sure, crewman. Code black and prepare for launch."
There was a long pause. Then-
"Launch locked."
"Good. Go to code red. Deathstrike away."
The vox howled with a sudden vibration. "Deathstrike away."
Kelchenko looked up to see the glittering crescent described by the Deathstrike missile as it streaked over the city towards the heart of the battleline.

- a Deathstrike missiel's Vortex weapon is more powerful than the combined power of every artillery piece in the city (the artillery regiment, in other words.) It should be noted the Deahtstrike launcher DOES receive targeting coordinates/data from elsewhere, as I just noticed.

Also Xarius fuckery has now been executed.

Page 642

But Reinez wasn't prepared to hunt the Soul Drinkers on a battlefield he knew nothing about, and so he had instructed the Techmarine that accompanied Chaplain Inhuaca to set up a link into the vox-net. The Crimson Fists were monitoring all the command channels used by the officers of the Imperial Guard in Gravenhold, including the encrypted channel that Paclo had just lis­tened in on.

Fists eavesdropping on the Guard vox net.

Page 647

Two explosions within seconds, like punctuation marks in the battle. The force shook down crumbling hovels in the slums and crystal chandeliers in the mansions to the north. The Resolve saw them both from orbit, sudden plumes of destruction amongst the warfare.
The explosion in the centre of the arena sent a shaft of fire a hundred metres into the air, showering the surrounding area with cultists and Guardsmen's bodies. The massive stonework of the arena was fatally fractured and half of it collapsed, the column of fire followed up by a roaring cloud of dust as the masonry crashed down.

The second explosion was a bolt of purest blackness that streaked into the heart of the slum district, blooming into a dark sphere that swallowed up the medicae station and three surrounding blocks of ruined tenements. The silent, hungry void consumed anything it rolled over, and where its furthest extent it reached it left men, buildings, and tanks sliced neatly apart.

The vortex missile that had hit hte medicae station was normally mounted on the Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus Legions. It was the only example of vortex technology the Imperium could reliably replicate in any numbers and even then its use was rare. The vortex it created was a chained pocket of no-space, a miniature black hole, an anomoly of physics that suckeda nything it touched into the annihilation of the warp. It even sucked in the morning daylight, casting premature dusk over Gravenhold's slums.

The arena floor sunk thirty metres, the cells and training rooms flat­tened. What remained of the Imperial Guard camp was dragged into the churning mess of pulverised earth and broken bodies, and now lay at the bottom of a huge ragged pit blasted by the detonation of the ammunition dump.
The cistern beneath the arena floor, once used to flood the arena for mock water battles, had been used by the Guard to store promethium tank fuel. It had gone up along with the ammunition and the result was a massive crater where the arena floor had once been, surrounded by a few tottering columns of seating like teeth in a broken jaw.

And.. the Deathstrikes hit. And we taste VORTEX WARHEADS.

Page 651

"Nothing wrong with it when he called the codes in, was there? Worked perfectly well when he decided to start throwing vortex mis­siles at my battlefield. You don't deploy ordnance like that without the commander's say-so, even Consul bloody Kelchenko knows that. I'm doing him the undue courtesy of assuming he's not just showing off, which means that something spooked him and that's the kind of thing a commander needs to know about. "

Xarius comments on the usage of Deathstrikes, especially with Vortex warheads.

Page 653

The vortex pulse had turned Luko's world into a nightmare of torn metal, a black and swirling madness with a razor-edged wind tearing through it. The world collapsed in on itself, sucked into a black mael­strom that bore down on him and his Marines like a dark sun dawning above them.
The warp-stain rippled at the edges of his mind. As he fell he heard daemons cackling, He saw their tiny, baleful eyes through the dark­ness. He felt the winds of the immaterium battering against him, and glimpsed the psychic thunderheads of emotion that towered in the warp.
He hit the ground and the warp let go of him to be replaced with a ringing concussion. The world was now full of pain, sparks and white noise.
There was dark reddish stone, smooth with age, beneath him. Walls of the same stone rose around him, soaring up into domes and minarets, decorated with bands of brass and sculptures of strange, stylised faces.
It was one of Gravenhold's previous incarnations, a dark temple-city, this part of which had survived intact beneath a sky of rusting metal. Luko pulled himself up to his knees and glanced behind him.
An immense sphere had been bitten out of the undercity, extending from the surface down to the temple-city. It was a perfect spherical space, cutting through towers and minarets, its sides striped with the various layers of Gravenhold it had sliced through. Where there had once been thousands of tons of metal and stone, now there was just a giant echoing space. A shaft of grimy grey light reached down from where the sphere met the surface.
The space was beginning to collapse under its own weight. Debris was tumbling down, the start of a landslide.

More Vortex fuckery and the underground of the city.

Page 654

"Tell me that wasn't a vortex detonation."
"Either it was a Deathstrike missile or a Titan." replied Luko. "I like to think we'd have noticed a Titan, though."

Titans can carry Deathstrikes, of course.

Page 655

The Algorathi Janissaries, the scouts had quickly realised, relied on their officers. The Janissaries were an aristocratic regiment at heart, drawn from a world where class and privilege were reflected in their ranks. The masses followed society's leaders, in battle as they did on Algorath itself. Eumenes had never been to the planet of course, never even heard of it before except as the homeworld of the men his scouts were hiding amongst, but he felt he knew the place all the same. There was little question that one class led and the rest followed, it was more Imperial than the Imperium itself.

It also bred men who had a fundamental battlefield weakness. Take out the officers, and their ability to fight was significantly diminished. They could still shoot straight but anything more complicated than sit­ting tight and keeping their heads down was beyond them.

More on the dumb ol' Jannisaries.

Page 659

Varuk straggled through the Assault Marines and took a closer look. "Not cryogenics." he said. His servo-arm reached up and a tiny drill whirred at its tip, boring through the side of a cylinder. A threadlike probe spooled out into the liquid, then withdrew. "Something chemi­cal. Metabolic deadeners, preservatives, conductive saturates. This body was alive until we came along, just."


"Is this Imperial tech?"

"It's not Adeptus Mechanicus. This is advanced, if it was them there would be prayers and incense everywhere. There might be private industries which could make this, but... welll, they've got no business being on Gravenhold at the best of times. And this needs maintenance to keep all these bodies alive.

cryotech. There apparently is a difference between AdMech and "human" tech too.

Page 660

The Resolve was all but blinded. Communications to the surface were gone. The few spotter-ships out over Gravenhold wheeled in confusion, flitting between bearings and altitudes, trying to find pockets of clear air where they could send and receive. The clever ones gave up and returned to the Resolve, hoping to make a visual landing in the cruiser's fighter bays. The rest flew around until their fuel ran out and they had to ditch. Some made it into the abandoned agri-wastes outside the city, but most crashed into the war-torn streets themselves. Captain Caislenn-Har on the Resolve itself powered up all weapons and put all crew on full alert, more to reassure the crew that they were doing some­thing positive than for any practical reason. All the ship could do was maintain visual contact with the city and try to pick out what was going on from aerial pict-steals.

What had never been a particularly glorious campaign for the Imperial Navy became a maddening stalemate, with even intra-orbital communications cut off so the supply ships and escorts that surrounded the Resolve were equally deaf and dumb.

Chaos strikes the navy too.

Page 661

"Die on your knees or send me back to Dorn!" yelled Librarian Tyrendian, and the catacomb tunnel was lit bright acid white by the claws of lightning that leapt from his hand. A dozen creatures were blown apart, sallow grey flesh and thin blood plastered over the ancient tomb-niches and worn inscriptions that covered the walls.

- a dozen humanoid chaos cultists are blasted apart by Librarian psyker lightning.

Page 663

Librairian Tyrendian was the last. With a glance back he sent out a bolt of blue-white lightning that plunged into the advancing horde, slicing them open in a gigantic wound, reducing a dozen subhumans to charred skin and scalding steam.

Megajoule range firepower, at least.

Page 664

A hundred of Karhedros's incubi, the heavily-armoured eldar elites who had cost him a great payment of souls and sacrifice to acquire, stood at permanent attention outside the throne room.

As I remember Incubi are mercs, explaining this statement.

Page 666-668

The city was a focal point for misery, not a constant, relentless back­ground but sudden bursts of violence that razed one city and built another on the ruins. The pulses of hate were more powerful than weak-minded humanity could ever understand. Reality was weakened around Gravenhold, shot through with cracks mat bled pure emotion from the boiling psychic ocean of the warp. It was one of the reasons Karhedros had chosen the planet, it was closer to She-Who-Thirsts than most of realspace.
...

A new Commorragh. Karhedros carried on living, which meant She-Who-Thirsts approved.
The first part of the spell was complete. The warp portal had opened. Now all that remained was for the sacrifice to be completed, and the suffering it created would flood into die portal. Soon it would swallow up the whole planet and the new Commorragh would be born.

The plan for the planet.

Page 671

"There are a thousand battles like this being fought right now, Threlnan, literally a thousand all over the Imperium, most of them bigger and more complicated."

Literally a "thousand battles" even of greater than planetary scale are a drop in the bucket to the Imperium.

Page 671

"Hells, they'll probably send me to Mars and replace my innards so I can live another century or two, just to pay them off for what happened here."

Non juvenat means of life extension.

Page 672

Xarius looked up at the Seleucaian Guardsmen. "Scope and Mars-pat­tern stock, please, if you have one."
"You heard him." said Threlnan. "Get to it." The colonel took out his own sidearm, a rugged laspistol with a hotshot pack sticking out of the cell slot.

..

Someone handed him a lasgun. It had a scope but only a wire Rhyza-pattern stock. It was good enough, he supposed.

- Xarius asks for a lasgun with a scope and Mars pattern stock (But gets a lasgun with a scope and a wire Rhyza-pattern stock.) Threlnan (colonel) has a laspistol with a hotshot pack.
I guess lasguns are as mix and match as an other Imperial technology.

Page 677

The Seleucaians had cov­ered the roads approaching the docks with scores of firing positions and volleys of las-fire and heavy weapons cut the first ranks of the enemy to shreds. Thousands died in a few minutes, the already dark sky becoming as black as night as las-smoke and debris blotted out what light remained.

Again lasfire cutting the enemy "to shreds" - supposedly in their thousands, and in the first few minutes. How many lasguns, we dont know.

Page 678

They heard the final prayers of men who might have hours left before their las-cells ran out, but who would definitely die no matter what.

Lasgun cells (in totality lasting "hours") Assuming a rate of fire between "sustained" and "semi auto" as per the M16 (12-15 rnds/min and 45-60 rnds/min respectively). I believe as a counter the M1 Garand had a rOF of like one shot every 2-4 seconds (not including changing the magazine) For 2 hours, thats 120 minutes, at least 1500-2000 rounds minimum for 12-15 rnd/min, 4x thta number for the other number. We dont know if it is for single packs of several, but either way we're talking hundreds if not thousands of shots per power pack easily, especially if you consider that a.) they probably are firing alot faster since they're under fucking attack even if they don't spray full uato, they've likely used up at least some ammo already, etc.

Page 681

The navigation helm was wrought into the form of a massive cathe­dral organ, its processing stacks shaped like the pipes and the control console of a long keyboard with hundreds of keys. Data-servitors shaped like gilded cherubs clung to the sides of the organ, whispering strings of co-ordinates to one another. The navigation officer, sitting in the position of an organist, turned sharply at Caislenn-Har's approach, the officer was pure naval academy product, starched collar and all.

Ben Counter's penchant for "interesting" ship interior design.

Page 68w

The bridge of the Resolve was fitted out in the highest Imperial style, like a baroque nightmare of cathedrals and graveyards crammed onto the banks of an artificial lake fifty metres across. It was onto the surface of this lake that the information from the ship's sensors were broadcast - but now, with most of the comms still down, the surface was just a rippling mask of static. The twin organs of the navigation helm and the communications hub stood on opposite banks of the lake, while behind it a giant tomb complete with guardian statues housed the ship's bridge cogitator. A construction of gold and silver slabs cut into the shapes of stylised clouds hung from the ceiling overhead, on top of which was Master of Ordnance Crinn bent over his readouts and con­trols.
Banks of cogitator stations lined the walls where petty officers and flight controllers sat, their faces lit eerily green by the data streaming past meir eyes. The ship's tech-priest complement were housed in a crown-shaped structure that jutted from the back wall of the cogitator-tomb, constantly rotating like the cog symbol of the Mechanicus itself. The priest currently on duty was enthroned surrounded by silver-plated angels, thick ribbed datafeeds snaking from beneath his robes as they fed information on the ship's systems into his mind.

More of the odd interior design of an Imperial starship, courtesy of Ben counter.

Page 682

The captain himself should have been long dead from multiple and raven­ous cancers, but instead the Imperial Navy had fitted him out with so many rebreathers and blood purifiers that he waddled obesely every­where surrounded by fumes from his artificial lungs.

Imperial Navy Medical plans. I'd say I'd be better off like Erwin Ramas or something.

Page 683

"I recognise this." came Master of Ordnance Crinn's voice over the bridge vox. "We got some anomalous readings just before the comms
went down. Looks like quantum radiation. Probably a vortex detona­tion."

- "quantum radiation" is detected by the orbiting Naval cruiser's scanners, and identified as probably a vortex detonation. Make of it what you will.

Page 684

"Well... most disruptive weapons would have inflicted massive phys­ical damage too and, well, I think we'd notice if that had happened."

"Indeed."

"And without any nebula clouds or quasars nearby it's not likely to be stellar phenomena, unless Entymion's star had just exploded. Aside from massive technical failure on our part the only remaining options are very unlikely. Sir."

"Entertain me, ensign."

"Well, there was one thing."

"What?"

"Magic."

- most Imperial disruptor weapons (thse that take out systems, comms or sensors) also inflict physical damage as well. I take it these are like the disruptor macrocannon shells from Battlefleet Koronus. not sure what to make of "star exploding" in context to interference of a ship.

PAge 687-688

The magic hit the fueller ship Sacred Truth full amidships and sliced it in two. Its enormous fuel cells were breached and exploded, their death a speck of white light in the dark column. Purple lightning arced off the remains of the forward half, incinerating its five hundred-strong crew who were immersed in a torrent of pure madness before they died. Supply ships and landers were scattered by the force of the eruption, spinning out of control into outer orbit or into the deadly gravitational pull of the Entymion system's sun.

And if things couldn't get worse for the Imperium., the warp fuckery the Dark Eldar had planned goes off as the portal opens. And like in Bleeding Chalice, it REALY fucks around with things.

Page 689

Fear. Shame. Hate. These memories bubbled up from the minds of every human in the city, feeding on the magic now infusing the city. Most men choked them back down, forced them into the depths of their minds where they belonged. For a few they were the last straw and yet more of the soldiers in Gravenhold went insane.

At the very centre of the black column, like the eye of a hurricane, was the true product of Karhedros's spell. It was a tiny window through real­ity that looked directly into the endless psychic landscape of the warp, and it was growing.

....

With an open warp portal on its surface Entymion IV would soon be suffused with warp energies and would sink out of real space into the warp in its entirety. A whole world, deliv­ered intact to She-Who-Thirsts.

A human mind would just revel in the knowledge that it would rule a planet where it could mould the continents and populate the continents with subjects drawn from the endless menagerie of the warp. But Karhe­dros had something more than a human mind. He could understand the cosmic consequences of his actions. He would be a new power in the warp, a creature that had crossed the boundaries between one real­ity and the next. Whole threads of destiny, so beloved of eldar who cowered away from She-Who-Thirsts, would be snapped. The future his­tory of the galaxy would end and new fates would come into play.

A new Commorragh, no longer hiding from the eyes of the craftworld eldar but a proud beacon shining upon the whole of the warp, illumi­nating every corner of its reality with the purity of its cruelty and the magnificence of its ruler. No one knew where such an abomination would end. The balance between the warp and realspace could be shat­tered, one could bleed into the other, and eventually reality as it was known would change into something new. Karhedros didn't know what form any of it might take, but he could feel the savage delight rising in him that he would have been the author of it all.

Karhedros looked over at the haemonculi standing around the portal. Their already twisted faces were contorted with pain. The portal was using the power of their memories to remain stable. They hadn't expected Karhedros would use them that way when they had agreed to join his mission to Entymion IV, but then their minds were too small to understand the true consequence of what Karhedros was doing. They were the torturers of eldar society, each and every one had memories of the most horrendous torments. Many, having experimented on them­selves, offered a unique concoction of suffering and cruelty perfect for Karhedros's needs.

- the Dark Eldar/Chaos forces on Gravenhold intend to drop the planet into the warp. The Dark Eldar lord is using his minions to keep the portal open, as well as tapping into the war and shit going on on the planet. The manipulations possible for a warp-imbued planet are.. interesting.

Also it seems that most of the soldiers (so far) Have resisted the madness.

Page 697

The chamber mercantile's basements were laid open by an artillery strike, the crater gouging down two floors.

Effect of an artillery stirke of unknonw type.

Page 698

"Put your back into it! Throne of Earth, I'm one hundred and seven­teen and I'm not ready to give in yet!" Lord Commander Xarius ignored the pain in his joints and heaved another sandbag onto the barricade. Slave-soldiers had scrabbled up the barrier as they swarmed through the ruined buildings that bordered one side of the position, now the sandbag wall was soggy with their blood and the dead lay three deep just beyond it. The smell was appalling, many of the Seleucaian Guardsmen were wearing their rebreather masks.

- Xarius comments he's one hundred and seventeen years old here (and still reasonably physically fit, although with understandable aches and stiffness and whatnot due to old age.) Earlier on page 671 he notes that if the AM replaced his organs with augmentic/prosthetics he could probably live another century or two. The Seleucaians have masks as well.

Page 700

Threlnan held up the melta-gun he was carrying. "Besides, it's been a while since I toted one of these. Brings back memories."
...
"We held that valley until the Navy sent a flyer down to pick us up; I must have gone through a dozen of these power packs before the end."

A dozne powerpacks for a meltagun carried, I guess? Or at least on hand. This suggests it's not the "pyrum-petrol" flamethrower type meltas since those dont run on power packs.


Page 701

The smell hit him. Musk, heavy and thick, a cloying invisible mist of pheromones. He felt his head swimming and his muscles relaxing, his fingers demanding they be allowed to uncurl from around the trigger of his lasgun. His legs wavered. His eyelids drooped. Did he really need to carry on breathing? Wouldn't it be simpler to lie back and let this beautiful, lethal creature cut him apart?
"Rebreathers!" he gasped, and pulled his own mask out of its belt pouch to pull it over his head. There was a commotion on the line as other men did the same. For some it was too late as they stumbled back, eyes rolling, blind with confusion.
"Medics! Get them out of here!" shouted one of the sergeants. Xarius got the rebreather over his head in time to see more of the creatures advancing, their skins shimmering strangely as if they were just out of phase widi the physical world.

- Guard-issue rebreathers can filter out/keep out the musk/pheremones of certain daemonic creatures (something that can intoxicate/incapacitate/cloud the minds of humans - a form of warp magic.)

Page 702

The Seleucaians, like Xarius, had been taught the simple prayers common to seminaries and chapels throughout the Imperium. Now, suddenly, those words started to actu­ally mean something.

Xarius was leading the prayer, aware of how old and frail he must have sounded calling on the grace of the Emperor as creatures like nothing the Seleucaians had ever seen before moved lethally towards the line. But the prayer was a weapon, it was a shield for their souls, and without it many of them would already have gone mad or died in horror as the pure evil of the daemons's substance made contact with their minds.

- the religious rituals and prayers taught to them by the Ministorum is employed her as a defencee against the more subtle (mental/soul-based) magicks of the daemons - apparently their faith in the Emperor CAN protect them to some degree against corruption/harm from non-physicla chaos attacks.

Page 702

Las-shots whipped out, slicing through the ruins. Daemonic flesh was seared to ribbons and reformed, leaving new deformities on the daemons as they charged. A couple were knocked down, their flesh dissolving as their hold on reaility was broken. But the rest, maybe twenty daemonic cavalry - slamemd home into the barricade.

Daemons vs lasfire. Again it seems to both burn and blast apart, although not massively (in the "head exploding" sense.

Page 702

One of the beasts leapt the barricade right over his head. He leat a dozen shots fly on full-auto, searing the mount's underbelly but it landed intact.

I'd guess 6-12 shots, depending on how long to jump it (not more than a few seconds, certianly.)

Page 703

Another handful of Guardsmen turned their fire on the beast, Xarius lending his firepower to theirs as they speared the daemon with dozens of las-shots. Wet bluish clots of flehs spattered out of the spasming daemon's body as it came apart, its mount slumping to its knees as it melted in a pall of stinking vapour.

"dozens" of las shots basically disintegrate a daemon (but not neccesarily the mount) Single or double digit kj at the very least, of course.

Page 703

The melta-gun in his free hand was thrumming as its core came back to critical mass.

I guess meltaguns can overload too.

Page 705

Threlnan fired again and the daemon's midriff was vaporised.

Meltagun again . Double digit MJ at least against a human like target.

Page 705-706

The Mega-battle cannon mounted on the Baneblade was the biggest gun in Gravenhold save for the single remaining Deathstrike launcher. The explosion was so loud it wasn't a sound at all but a wall of force that threw Xarius the rest of the way into the watchtower. One chimaera was shunted sideways by the shockwave, slamming into the watchtower. Men were thrown to the ground. A daemon's body shattered against the doorframe, , spraying shimmering gore everywhere. The heat came next, singeing uniforms and hair, blistering paint, howling over everything. Choking dust and smoke billowed like a sandstorm.

Xarius turned over painfully, every joint a throbbing nugget of pain. He was lying just inside the watchtower. As his senses swam back he saw the huge crater where the rained buildings had been, now just a massive bowl filled with rubble and splintered wood. Fragments of shell casing were stabbed into the rockcrete, glowing hot. Bodies and parts of bodies were cast around, just more ruins.

Xarius guessed that half the dameons were gone, vaporized in the blast.

Vaporized literally or figuratively, I don't know Probably not literally (or not totally so) given the body parts. Shockwave of firing is enough to knock Chimera sideways (although not to harm it.) The shell has both thermal and blast effects, and possibly shrapnel. Although what this signifies (chemical, metla, etc.) I don't know.

It also implies that the Mega battle cannon is more powerful than all the other artillery platforms save the Deathstrike (more powerful than a basilisks and Medusas and probably the Demolishers too.. whicha re fucking big, powerful guns.) Recoil wise we must be talking about at least 40-60,000 kg*m/s worth of momentum, and probably more. It doesnt significantly move the vehicle, so it does suggest it would be far less than, say, a battleship gun, but maybe on par with an 8" gun or so, give or take a few inches. The fact the shells need multiple servitor autoloaders suggests they are far more massive too (many times more so than a nromal shell.)

Page 709

Most of Gravenhold was ruined but the area around the old medicae station was absolute desolation. The scouts took cover in shell craters or behind slabs of ground that had been lifted up by the vortex impact. The area had been carpeted by shellfire on the orders of the Crimson Fists, and a greater weight of death had fallen on this section of the slums than on any other. The bleak heart of Gravenhold was laid open, raw and bleeding to the dark sky. The bodies were unrecognis­able twists of carbonised flesh. The abandoned tanks were melted heaps of slag. Palls of smoke bled from gouges right down through the layers of Gravenhold's history, and in places the strata of the city could be seen. At long last Gravenhold was displaying its tormented history to anyone who looked.

REsults of conventional artillery bombardmetn on parts of the city.

Page 710

Not that there were many to see it. The Imperial Guard had mostly been smart enough to get the hell out before the Deathstrike hit. The Gravenholders had died in greater numbers, thrown into charred heaps by the force of the vortex blast. The smell of cooked meat mingled with the smoke and ash.

The scouts were approaching the vortex crater itself. Eumenes had heard it was bad but he had never seen destruction on this scale from a single weapon. A shockwave had levelled two blocks in every direc­tion and over the crater itself still hung a dense cloud of dust, the remains of pulverised hovels. More permanent structures were just lonely blackened skeletons. As the air thickened and visibility dropped the bodies became fresher, Gravenholders and then slave-warriors with massive wounds from large-calibre guns or close combat weapons. The blood oozing from their wounds mingled with the dust to form a greyish-red gunk that pooled beneath the tangled heaps of bodies.

- the Vortex blast had "cooked and charred" flesh of the cultist troops, levelling two "blocks" and burning/blackening shit. This is all likely side effects of the "sucking shit into the warp" bit as warp portals can release energy.

Page 712

Eumenes could all but see the landscape painted with life and death, the places he could hide and the places where a Tactical Marine could see him and direct a volley of pinpoint bolter fire to leave him a steaming bloody mess.

- Eumenes notes here that a Tactical Marine could direct a pinpoint volley of bolter fire at him and leave him a "steaming bloody mess" How much bolter fire we dont know sadly.

Page 712

Eumenes saw Selepus well before the first Crimson Fist did. Even then it was no more than a shadow on a shadow, a faint suggestion of movement blurring behind the Marine as he scanned for targets. It was the knife that let Eumenes know what was coming. Selepus's combat knife, flashing in that familiar arc towards the Marine's throat where even power armour couldn't save him.

The Fist was as quick as the silver slash of the knife. Faster.
An elbow connected and suddenly Selepus was visible, as if the dark­ness was lifted off him and he was shockingly obvious, reeling back with his knife still in his hand but a spray of blood spurting from his nose.
Eumenes's grip on his bolt pistol tightened. He was a damn good shot but he couldn't take down a Crimson Fist on his own at this range, even if the shot hit home he would draw a punishing weight of fire before he managed to squeeze off a second shot.
The Fist and the scout were grappling. Selepus was stabbing up at the Marine, seeking the few gaps afforded by the power armour. The Fist was lunging down with the butt of his boltgun, looking to crack open Selepus's skull, smash his jaw, cave in his ribcage.

More Fists vs Soul Drinkers scouts.

Page 714

Eumenes threw himself to the ground and rolled, flames licking over him, grabbing at his armour, sending searing red tongues over the skin of one cheek and hand. He had hit the ground hard but he kept firing, a spray of shots smacking up into chunks of broken masonry or whistling wide.
The Fist knew his target was dead. He must have seen Eumenes's body picked out by the glare of the flame. He knew that Eumenes was just a scout, outgunned and outnumbered, one of the hated Soul Drinkers ready to die a screaming mess of charred flesh and bones.

Flamer weapon can reduce Eumenes (in principle) to charred flesh and bones (probably sloughing off the skin, something like boiled alive.) Impressive if not quite up to the level of incineration

Page 715

He scrambled half-crouched through the shadows, knowing that any second a bolter shell could blow his thigh open and leave him writhing in pain, shatter his spine and paral­yse him for those last few seconds, blow out the back of his head and kill him before he hit the ground...

Effects of bolt round.

Page 715

He could feel the paths of their bolter shells before they fired them, spearing through him and bursting in the ground beneath, blowing him into bloody chunks. He knew how it would feel, the red wash of pain followed by nothingness.

Either a fire team (3 bolters or so) or a squad (7-10 bolters)


Page 717

The massed batteries of the 4th Carvelnan Royal Artillery could shatter city blocks from miles away but they could not defend themselves from the hit-and-run tactics of the xenos raiders, especially when the attacks were interspersed with waves of blood-mad slave warriors.

The combined artillery of the group (maybe 200 guns or so, not including Deathstrikes) can "shatter city blocks (say 200x200 meter square). Maybe a 14 meter diameter crater on average, assuming no overlap.That would mesh well with "STorm of Iron" as far as basilisks go, anyhow.

Page 719

This was the site of the Carvelnan Royal Artillery's last reason for existing - the sec­ond Deathstrike launcher, this one armed with a multiple warhead with scores of cluster bombs designed to reduce whole infantry divi­sions to body-strewn wastelands.

...
The Deathstrike broke up above the north of the city, the individual war­heads falling in a brilliant curtain of light.

It was the last valiant display of the doomed 4th Carvelnan Royal Artillery, a final act of destructive beauty in the face of crashing defeat. The warheads plummeted into the villas of Gravenhold's elite, smashing through the roofs of estates and miniature palaces already warped by the magic of the warp portal. A few detonated around the column of black magic still pouring up into the sky - some shot into the column itself and became white streaks of fire, spitting up into space. Clusters of explosive blossomed into huge blooms of flame, sending tidal waves of fire through the streets. A few wayward slave-warriors were incinerated. The daemons had mostly moved southwards to the killing fields of the slums and administrative district, and only a few discorporated in the inferno. Eldar casualties were nil.

- Deathstrike missile launcher with a mIRV warhead carrying scores of cluste rbombs, designed to destroy whole divisions The clusters incinerated "a few wayward cultists." Probably barrage bombs.

Page 727

. Astropaths were almost all blind, a result, it was said, of the ritual on Terra itself where they were con­verted from powerful but uncontrolled psykers into powerful telepathic ducts. From the walls of the cell led cables and wires that plugged into Torquen's scalp like the strings of a puppet, monitoring his brainwaves. Torquen was the ship's main instrument of commu­nication, because only telepathic messages could reach across the immense interstellar gulf.

Ships astropath.


Page 727

The servitor turned another page and Torquen's fingers slid automatically over the writing. The writing was not raised; Torquen could feel the ink on the paper, reading the devo­tional texts as he had been trained to do, keeping his mind pure.

AStropathic senses can "read" ink on paper.

Page 728

"Very well. Who is the target?"
Caislenn-Har shmgged. "The nearest world with a sizeable popula­tion. Somewhere relatively important."

"That is unusual. There is normally at least some particular individ­ual or organisation to be contacted."

Contact procedures for AStropaths - it seems general transmissions are less common than focused/directd ones.


Page 730

Brother Octetes got one blast off from his meltagun, vaporising the arm of a renegade before Tellos was on him.

- meltagun blast vaporizes the arm of a renegade Soul Drinker. Probably in armor. single or double digit MJ maybe.

Page 732

Eldar warriors streamed from the doors to be cut down or blown apart by missile launchers and heavy bolters.

- Eldar warriors (heavy?) blown apart by missiles launchers or heavy bolters.


Page 733

Eldar reinforcements lay dead, delicate bodies burst open by bolter fire. Jetbikes burned. Power armour turned aside crystal shards fired by eldar snipers from the palace windows, and the Marine's reply was heavy weapons fire.

bolters maul dark Eldar, while shard weapons do very little.


Page 734

The inner doors opened and the eldar that charged out were heavily-armoured, wielding halberds with powered blades that sliced through the armour of the first Crimson Fists to face them. Reinez was in the front rank and caught a blade on the haft of his thunder hammer, feel­ing strength he had thought beyond the eldar forcing the blade closer to his face. He dropped back a step, pivoted on one heel and brought the hammer smashing up into the face of the eldar - he saw the eldar's face-mask, featureless except for its shining green eyepieces, crumple as the hammer's head shattered the side of its helmet and he threw the eldar aside.

Xenos elites. He had fought their kind before, Aspect Warriors who embodied one particular facet of the eldar way of war. These were dif­ferent, stronger and more heavily armoured. Reinez swept out again, found his thunder hammer parried and a volley of laser stings slicing into his chest armour from a helmet-mounted projector. A white flash
of pain stabbed into the wound but Reinez choked it back, kicking out and smashing the knee of the warrior who had stung him. He brought his hammer up and smacked the pommel of the handle into the eldar's forehead, knocking it to me ground. He swung the hammer again at the eldar's head, presented to him like a target in the Chapter training rooms. The eldar was decapitated neatly, another's arm being broken by the hammer's upswing.

Reinez vs Incubi. Likened to aspect warriors.

Page 735

The eldar could evidently see well in the dark but a Space Marine's augmentations lent him even keener sight, cutting through the gloom.

Eldar have night vision, I guess. Whether its natural or from their suits we dont know.


Page 736

The corridors and anterooms opened up into an immense vaulted reception chamber. A pair of vast studded doors dominated one wall, where the palace opened up into a lower cavern. A second pair of doors, smaller and of veined green stone, were set into the opposite wall. Though not a psyker, Reinez could still feel the power behind them, the aching swell of dark magic billowing up from the depths of some dark soul.
"There." he said. "Meltagun."
Brother Olcama ran forward with his meltagun as the rest of the squad took their places by the doors, ready to sweep into the room and pump bolter fire into whatever they saw.
...
Olcama opened fire. White hot gobs of molten stone spattered [from a small stone doorway and set of doors] as the meltagun's beam bored through the stone The walls creaked. The door shuddered as the heat forced its molecules apart and then, with a sound like a caged thunderclap it burst open.
Shards of razor-sharp stone span everywhere.

Meltagun melts through a door. sounds alot like a micorwave gun. Assuming a 2x1 metre door 10 cm thick and made of stone it would be melting 400 or so kg. Call it 400-800 MJ, over an unknown but short period of time.

Page 740

He pulled back his arm and threw Karhedros into the air with all the strength of his enhanced muscles. As the eldar fell back down he drew back the hammer and swung double-handed. The hammer slammed into Karhedros's midriff as he fell and Reinez smacked him halfway across the room, Karhedros yelling a final curse in the tongue of the eldar as he tumbled in a slow arc into the portal.

This almost makes up for Reinez being a blind asshole, because the Dark Eldar are always bigger assholes.

Page 744

Eumenes looked up from the scope at Nisryus, kneeling with his back to the rest of the scouts. "Nisryus. Can you tell who will win?"
Nisiyus looked round. "No. They must be too far away."

His precog is apparently limited by range as well as emotion.

Page 748

Thirteen days after the Brokenback jumped into the warp and the Crimson Fists withdrew from the system, Inquisitor Ahenobarbus of the Ordo Hereticus arrived with his personal warfleet and declared the planet Entymion IV to be Diabolis Extremis. The warp portal had by then collapsed and taken most of the centre of Gravenhold with it, forming a massive wound in reality that bled daemons and raw energy into the planet's atmosphere. A plume of warp-stuff jutted from the planet like a solar flare and monstrous creatures ran wild through the ruins of the city and forests beyond. Entymion IV was ter­minally ill, and only one sentence was appropriate.
..

He sat on the reclinium couch and watched as the cyclonic torpedoes soared away from Ahenobarbus's gun cruisers, on their way to deliver the Emperor's judgement on the dying world

- An Inquisitor arrives and has his own personal warfleet. His "gun cruisers" launch cyclonic torpedoes towarss Gravenhold, ending the massive fuckery.

Page 748

Ahenobarbus thought for a moment, resting his chin on gilded knuckles. "Your crime has been adjudged incompetence in the seven­teenth degree, for which the punishment is execution. It has been deemed appropriate by the Orders of the Emperor's Holy Inquisition that this sentence be commuted to eternal service, particulars to be decided."
"Penal legions? Death world garrison?"
"Those possibilities are being discussed. Amongst others."

Xarius lives, and his fate is decided.. possibly penal legions or "Death world Garrison" which seems almost as bad.

Page 750

He saw the first torpedo streak down through the black clouds and spear into the ground just outside Gravenhold. The shockwave shook the whole city as the torpedo bored its way through the planet's crust. Lava fountained up as it penetrated the mantle and the pressure was released on an endless torrent of magma surging up from beneath the crust.

A hot red plume whipped up into the air. It was blood, thought Tel­los. The blood of a planet. More blood for the Blood God, because everything, eventually, was blood.
Thirty seconds later the warhead detonated, timed to go up at the same time as the other torpedoes which had speared the planet all over its surface. The detonation forced the planet's radioactive core into critical mass and the nuclear fire that resulted flash-burned the surface of Entymion IV away.

The bodies burned. The cities burned. Tellos burned, letting the pain wash over him, beccome a part of hm, searing away the altered flesh and leaving only his bare soul burning. He had seen this, too. He had seen how his weak bod ywould be stripped away to prepare it for something stronger, ,something that would bring the dead of empires to the throne of the Blood God.

[/quote][/quote]

Cyclonic torpedo destroys the planet. rather odd the planet semeed to have some sort of fissile core that could magically, spontaneously undergo fission. Unless it was one of those matter-to-energy conversion cyclonics, which is also possible.

It's also rather curious how the explosion at the core would leave the planet intact, but manage to trigger a massive firestorm (possibly boiling off the atmosphere.) But this isn't nearly as crazy as Goto's Exterminatus in the second DoW book.

[The Yosemite Bear]

anyone read Phylanxz yet, (New soul drinkers novel)

[Lost Soal]

Ugh. Sarpedon doesn't fucking know who Slaanesh is?? And he's a fucking LIBRARIAN! SENIOR LIBRARIAN! I mean fuck, Tellos knows who the Blood God is, but Sarpedon doesnt know any of this? First he's duped by Tzeentch, then he doesn't recognize Slaanesh. These fuckers deserve obliteration./

Sorry but I actually have to defend Sarpedon here, I'll do penance later. Slaanesh is know as She-Who-Thirsts ONLY to the Eldar because of their link to his/her creation. This is a link they will not talk about, which even the Inquisition does not know about and the name Slaanesh is one which the Eldar rarely if ever actually use. Given this its hardly unreasonable for Sarpedon to not make the connection between She-Who-Thirsts and the God of Pleasure which is how everyone else refers to him/her.

I feel dirty now. Damn you

[Ahriman238]

WRT Xarius' exasperation at Space Marines the truly excellent fanfic the Misfits shows the other side of that at one point. Space Marines whoe are driven half-mad by Guard officers who flatly refuse to take orders or advice from 'mere' Captains (or, Emperor forbid, Sergeants) never mind that a Space Marine Captain probably has an order of magnitude more experience than a Guard colonel.

Check out the story sometime when you have time to kill, it's better than half the official fluff.

[Connor MacLeod]

Sorry but I actually have to defend Sarpedon here, I'll do penance later. Slaanesh is know as She-Who-Thirsts ONLY to the Eldar because of their link to his/her creation. This is a link they will not talk about, which even the Inquisition does not know about and the name Slaanesh is one which the Eldar rarely if ever actually use. Given this its hardly unreasonable for Sarpedon to not make the connection between She-Who-Thirsts and the God of Pleasure which is how everyone else refers to him/her.

I feel dirty now. Damn you

Yeah that's possible and I should have considered it, but really at this point I don't trust Sarpedon to recognize a daemon if it walked in saying 'Hi I'm a minion of the Chaos Gods and that makes me your mortal enemy.' I mean fuck Sarps literally did not realize things were wrong until the very end of the series and didnt even begin to start doubting himself til Hellforged. Perceptive the guy is not.

****

Anyhow, Chapter War. This actually isn't a 'wholly' bad novel.. it should technically be on the same level as Crimson Tears because the events, the stupidity, and the way the Soul Drinkers intereference acutally hinders the war effort to protect the planet are the same as CT. Hell the fact it doesn't have Reinez, does not end the same way as CT should push it above but... oh boy. What really prevents it from being as worse as or better than CT is that the entire book is basically THE SECOND SOUL DRINKERS CIVIL WAR. What's more, its a civil war that shocks and amazes Sarpedon, despite the fact it was his own policies and leadership that lead to it, and hypocrisy is rather rife through the entire novel. We have Crazy Eumenes (our Reinez stand in), Asshole Space Marines in the Howling Griffons (who stand in for the Crimson Fists, except they're competent.) and Orks. Lots and lots of Orks (who are actually more competent than the Soul Drinkers.)

Another annoying fact is that this begins with a sub plot that actually is supposed to be the arc leading to the culmination of the series - or at least the events leading to it. Not unlike Harry Potter, the actual events pushing towards the climax start in the middle of the books, so you actually have two separate 'sets' of Soul Drinkers stories (almost like they could pack them into two separate trilogies! Ironic isn't it?) This is part of the problem of the series, as you think they would have started developing the arc much sooner, rather than midway through the series. Admittedly things never get as worse as they do in Chapter War, but they don't exactly reach heights either. In fact, the only connections between the previous books and latter ones are a series of cameos - people like Aescarion and the Howling Griffons and such who get introduced later on (and there are 'spoilers' in some of these, hence me not mentioning them. And spoilers in quotes because its not really that much of a surprise. More like 'WTF where did they come from?')

Oh and one of those cameos in this book leads to the death of one of the few DECENT Characters in the series. For me, that also warrants knocking huge points off of it.

Chapter War for me really just shows that the series has kinda been flailing around up to this point, and its now getting its feet under itself. Rather than building on the good start we had in Bleeding Chalice, it flailed about wildly, fell into the basement with Crimson Tears, and will not find the stairs out again until Hellforged. And when we get out we find the whole house has been mysteriously wrecked in the process and we're not quite sure how that happened because that wasn't what we were expecting. Its nto a good analogy, but then again its never been really hard to pin this series down. We'll see in Hellforged where the potential of the series lay - the true potential - had the execution been handled differently, but it's actually more of a cruel twist because of it coming so late in the story. And Phalanx fills in more of the details sort of, but that really was a mixed bag.

Oh and I will be covering Daenyathos, despite the fact Daenyathos is a story with MASSIVE SPOILERS in it, and it really ruins any sort of culmination of the series. Indeed it tends to bring the series down so much that it belongs in its own separate category. Whether that is because it needs to be segregated to protect what is good in this series or simply because it stands alone for whatever reasons.. I dont know.

So this one will be a quick update now. Two double posts, albeit smaller somewhat than the others. Part 2 will finish up, and we'll plow onwards to Hellforged. Might as well get the pain over with quick, right?

*****




Page 8

"Sloppy this year," said Count Luchosin Falken, whose uniform was so ornate it looked like his ample frame was swathed in hundreds of clashing flags. In a way it was, for he had to symbolise all the regiments of the Warders.

- one of the Count Falkens wears a uniform with "hundreds" of clashing flags, ,symbolizing the regiments of WarderS (PDF) which helps give us an idea of PDF numbers for the world in question.


Page 8-9

Far away from the jungles that sur­rounded Palatium and covered the continent of Nevermourn, there were towering hives with bil­lions of citizens who lived and died beneath their churning factories.
...
Nevermourn, a con­tinent of magnificent natural beauty, was a miracle. It was far more fashionable to denounce it as dull and crude, but it filled Lord Sovelin's heart with pride.

Billions of people in hives, yet the damn place is still eminently habitable with "natural beauty". Its rather obvious this hive world isn't like the 5th depiction of a radioactive, polluted shithole. It's not even quite like the Abnett version of hive worlds (like Thraican Primaris) - we're talking more like the "hive world = civilized world" analogue, here. How a world like this got into the story rather than some industrial shithole like Necromunda I can't say, but I'm sure it was a mistake.

On a more serious note, it probably qualifies as a 'civilised' world in other classifications, or at most the FFG definition of a hive world (which tends to confuse hive and civilised sometimes.)

Page 10

He was carrying a field vox-unit.
..
"It is a communication from Fleet Admiral Thalak."
..
Sovelin waved over the officer. The man was sweating and it wasn't just from the heat. He wore the uniform of the Mechanised Cavalry.

Field voxes with orbital reach (without relays I suspect) and the pdf have mechanized forces.

Page 12

The helm was set into a large spherical room with its walls covered in monitors, its officers slumped in grav-couches with their faces covered by the heavy interface units through which they communicated with the other ships of Battlefleet Scaephan. Several of the monitors had blown out, like blinded eyes, and the others showed images from throughout the battlefleet's moorings around the orbital station Ollanius XIV.

More of the Ben counter brand starship weirdness. although it still doesn't hold a candle to the stuff in Dark Adeptus. This must represent also either a detachment from the sector battlefleet, or the sector headquarters of the battlefleet - which isn't unusual given that hive and forge worlds are ofen used as headqaurters for local fleet bases (given their size/importance and usual technical sophistication compared to other places.)



Page 13

The Skystrider was a grand cruiser, the largest and most powerful ship in Battlefleet Scaephan. Without it, the battlefleet's power to oppose an invasion was cut in half.

- the largest/most powerful ship in Battlefleet Scaephan was a grand cruiser, and it cut the fleet's firepower in half. There are at least two other cruisers in this 'battlefleet", though.

Again one has to wonder if this is the whole battlefleet, or a detachment or what. If it is a battlefleet, its not a typical one, since it has no actual battleships and that is, to my knowledge, rare given what we know. It's not impossible, and one could certainly argue that the majority of battlefleets have no battleships, but it is infrequent enough that I can't remember other obvious examples (Battlefleet Koronous isn't offiical so doesn't count.)

I'm more inclined to think Ben Counter messed up - he seems to be very odd in how he treats fleet designations (mentionoing sub-battlefleets for example.) so we might treat it as being like BFK - just an unofficial name.

Page 14

The Imperial creed had many hells, although some priests argued they were all one and the same, but one of them definitely looked like this.

Given the pack-rat like nature of the Imperial creed when it comes to religious beliefs, the size of the Imperium, and the tendency of their missionaries to use any sort of psychological lever to get a foot in the door (so to speak) this is hardly surprising.

Page 16

An ork bellowed and the creatures bearing down on Thalak parted for one of their number, easily twice the height of a man and hugely muscled. Its face was so deeply scarred it was barely a face at all but in the midst of the ugliness, there was a glim­mer of intelligence and malice in its eyes far more terrifying than a hundred ignorant killers.

Our enemy this novel, a nameless Ork Warlord. He is, IMHO more sympathetic and likable than Sarpedon, and quite a bit more intelligent and a superior leader to boot. "Twice the height of a man" suggests he is maybe 3-4 meters tall.

Page 16

Its other arm was artificial, a bionic so crude it looked like it could have been powered by steam.

Orks love their steam technology. I imagine they would build sluggas and shootas by steam if they could figure it out. Or steam-powered artillery. I'm pretty sure their power armour is steam powered too.

Page 17

The first blast hit the Processional Quarter square on, throwing broken bodies and severed limbs into the air, a hundred men blown to bits in a split sec­ond and dozens more sliced apart by shards of shrapnel.
..

The second blast hit the Aristarchial Pavilion. Lord Globus was vaporised.Lady Akania was beheaded by a shard of missile casing and tumbled down onto the square. Counts and barons were shredded. Lords and ladies were thrown broken against the front of the Herald's Chapel and the Lord Magister's Basilica.

It was an orbital artillery strike. Guns high up in orbit above Vanqualis threw explosive shells down at Palatium.

Orbital artillery strike from the Orks. Could be worse. At least they aren't dropping Roks on-

Page 19

The dust began to settle. The outline of the rock itself could be seen. It wasn't just a rock - its under­side had been heavily plated with slabs of metal to help it survive the impact and it was studded with crude engines that had directed its fall.

-Nevermind.

Note that this particular ork Rok has had armor added to help survive reentry, telling us some Ork Roks may not just be shielded/force field protected but also armored. This also confirms that the Ork Leader is vastly more intelligent (and competent) than Sarpedon.

Page 24

The warlord was big­ger than any of them, twice as tall as most, its great gnarled head thrust brutally from between his shoulders and its huge jaw scowling around the for­est of broken tusks. Its skin was as dark and gnarled as the bark on an ancient tree, and its eyes, even sunk deep into its bestial skull, burned with an intelligence and drive the other orks lacked.

Again the Warlord is twice as tall as most Orks., which suggests most of these Orks are about man sized (although bear in mind their hunched postures must be acocunted for. In fact if he stood up straight its quite possible this Warlord would be bigger)


PAge 25

His other arm was a contraption of metal and steam that spurted hot gouts of vapour as he moved, and ended in a great three-fingered claw large enough to rip the turret off a tank. The machinery encasing his ribcage and his spine was a rusted lad­der of metal chunks that hissed black lubricant as he moved. Thick green cords of muscle had grown around his mechanical parts, loosening and con­tracting as he moved. To have survived the replacement of half his torso with such crude replacements suggested a level of toughness abnor­mal even for an ork.

A comment on the strength and durability of said Ork. Considering its been said some Orks can survive having their heads cut off, and we've known at least one Ork in the Armageddon novels to survive what amounts to a nuclear detonation, that isn't surprising.

Page 25

The warlord darted forward with speed far too great for something of his size, and seized the van­dalising ork with his natural hand. His fingers closed around the ork's muscular throat and lifted the creature off the ground. The warlord shifted the ork to his mechanical hand and threw it across the temple. Its body slammed into the far wall leaving a crumbling dent in the stone, and slumped to the floor unconscious.

Said ork is also capable of lifting another ork singlehanded with his natural hand and flingting him across a temple (at least 4-6 meters easily, given his height.) Given ork masses can range anywhere in the hundreds of kilos range (say 200-400 kilos) the dude ought to be eaisly as strong as a regular Marine.

It also demonstrates that he has far superior personnel management skills than Spider boy. No internal civil war for him, no sirree.

Page 28

Some of the orks were specialists in the warlord's army, sought out and won from their own warlords in fighting pit duels or all-out battles. There were orkish veterans in massive suits of powered armour, heavy and brutal as walking tanks. A squad of expert infiltrators, faces smeared black with camouflage, moved with silence and economy unbecoming of the more raucous ork warriors - these were the scouts and assassins whose natural habitat was a jungle war zone. Masked slavers with barbed whips lashed forwards squabbling crowds of slave crea­tures, who would be herded in front of the warlord's main force to absorb bullets and set off mines. Other ships were lowering down rickety, tempera­mental war machines and tanks, with slaves
scrabbling all over them to tighten screws and oil joints.

Ork "specialists" described and their selection processes. Basically these are Nobz, Meganobz, Mega-armoured orks in genral (cyborks?) and Kommandos. Oh and Runtherders or whatever they're calld. As we know from other sources Ork specialists tend to "grow" from birth in response to the gestalt/psychic consicousness of the Orkoid race, depending on needs and situations. (That is if they need infiltrators they'll grow infiltrators.) It's not as fast or versatile as the tyranid approach, but it does have similarities.

Meks and Doks are yet another example of specialist too.



Page 29

Beyond those jungles was the sea, and beyond that the coast of Herograve, the polluted rocky wasteland with its teeming cities and billions of humans.

"bililons" of humans again. And I guess this world has at least some pollution. (Then again so does Earth.)


Page 31

From the black slabs of metal that made up the juvenat throne snaked sev­eral thick cables that fitted into the rear of the jewel-studded bodice of her dress. Several children, dressed in the same crimson coattails as the cham­berlain, stepped out from the shadows behind the juvenat throne, some holding the hem of her long skirts off the floor, others gathering the cables as they slid from the throne so they did not become tangled as the countess walked regally towards one of the tall arched windows that ringed the chamber.

The shadows behind the throne could not hide their blue-grey skin and hollow black eyes, nor the way they walked hunched or on all fours like ani­mals. The wives of House Falken dutifully produced many children, not all of whom survived their childhood, and it was from those lost sons and daughters that the countess's hem-bearers were cre­ated. The serviyor technology leased to House Falken by the Adeptus Mechanicus was complex and flawed, so the half-living children fell well short of the cherubic ideal.

A "juvenat throne" perhaps one of the most convoluted and unwieldy juvenat processes I've seen in 40K. Also making servitors out of dead children. Creepy. But thats what you get for leasing shitty technology from the AdMech I guess - feral servitors.

The leasing bit is interesting, since technology and science are the tools by which the AdMech maintains power. Leasing/contracting has been mentioned before on other Hives (Necropolis and house Chass) and it represents an interesting way (aside from politics anc explorarotrs and conquest) that the AdMech can obtain capital and resources they need for their own ends. Not to mention keep their strangehold on technology in a very MPAA/RIAA-like manner.

As I've said before, I suspect the AdMech "religion" is at least like a cult hoax to excuse their technological monopoly. Not that I'm saying noone believes in it (many clearly do, even higher ups.) but this (and other bits) show far more than just religion at play. (Besides considering at least some of the higher ups in the Admech who have lived ages are also probably insane, the religion angle probably dovetails nicely with that.)

Page 31

The chamber was at the pinnacle of one of Herograve's hives and from it could be seen the vast slope of the city, studded with lights against the night's darkness, sweeping down towards the polluted plains that surrounded the city. In the far distance could be seen another mountain of scattered lights, smudged through the polluted air - a neighbouring city, one of the several that studded the continent of Herograve. Billions of Vanqualians lived within those cities, and in a few hours they would start to learn that their ruling class was all but destroyed and aliens had invaded Nevermourn.

Hives are in LOS of one another (which could mean any thing depending on the size/shape of the hive). Also billions of inhabitatns, yet again.


Page 32

In the sky above, just visible through the layers of smoke from the hive factories, were the tiny specks
of light reflected from the undersides of the orbital defence network. Thousands of turbolasers and mis­siles speckled the sky above Herograve's cities, protecting them from bombardment. Vanqualis did not have the resources to protect its entire orbit in such a way, and so had chosen to spare its cities from enemy bombardment. That was the reason that orks were not raining down on the hive cities, but that would be little comfort to the survivors of Palatium who had seen their loved ones butchered in the streets on distant Nevermourn.

Orbital defenses mentioned comrpising "thousands" of guns and launchers. Whether that is individual guns, or individual platforms we aren't told. The orbital defenses keep the Orks from bombarding the planets directly.

Also they decided to concentrate them rather than spread them out to cover all their cities, which apparently is why the Orks bombarded the shit out of them.

Page 32

"We are isolated here, far from the worlds of Imperial dominion, but it is only the Imperium that can help us. Now is not the time to be proud. We will beg if we must."

This is an interesting quote for the implications it gives about this planet's relation ot the Imperium, depending on how we interpret it. WE know it is an Imperial world - it clearly has astrotelepaths, liscened technology from the AdMech, and the ability ot call on aid from the Imperial militray. It also had a battlefleet (of sorts.) At the same time the ruler says she is "far from Imperial dominion." which is not very clear.

One obvious interpretation is that she's basically saying she's far out on the ass end of nowhere, likely on the Eastern Fringe or something, whereas the bulk of the imperium and humanity is concentrated on the western part. Alternately, and this is certainly supported by hints and statements in other novels, the FFG books, etc. - she is saying her world is not directly controlled/administered or otherwise influenced by the Imperium - either due to relative unimportance, distance, etc. It is not an "Imperial world" per se and outside of that, which echoes my previously-stated beliefs that there are "Imperial proper" worlds and "Imperial allied" worlds." in the same way the GE has member worlds and protectorates.

A third option is that she is somehow far out on the edge of the Imperium and more or less beyond the astronomican, which is considered the "edge" of the Imperium for most parts. However this would indeed mean she is out on the Eastern Fringe (which isnt surprising, since the first three books were in Ultima Segmentum as well.)


Page 33

The countess was well over two hundred years old, thanks to the efforts of the house physicians and the constant attentions of the juvenat throne.

- Countess of Vanqualis (now leader with death of her husband) has been alive for 200 years due to efforts of doctors and her juvenat throne (which she is connected to by cables, and provide her with age-retarding chemicals.) Like I said, its probably the most cumbersome means of life extension I've seen, and probably shows how "minor" this world is (contrast with a major one like Armageddon or Necromunda.)

Page 33

She had seen upheavals and unexpected deaths, conflicts with the governors of the Scaephan sector and crises where the hive cities were starved of food or water.
...
And now, for the first time in its history, Vanqualis would have to beg for help from the Imperium, that distant power to whom House Falken had paid the tithes of its cities' riches in return for sovereignty over their world. The orks had their foothold on Nevermourn now, and there was no doubt where they would head next. With Nevermourn infested Herograve would follow, with its cities and its teem­ing billions.

Once again, the world is part of the Imperium, part of a sector, but it does not have much direct contact or control from the Imperium. IT seems to even have minimal Imperial organizations on it (Adminsitratum, Arbites - no garrisons, etc.) It just basically sends in its tithes, and goes about its business. Which tends to suggest its a client/allied type world of the "second" type I outlined above. Although this doesn't rule out it being fuckoff huge distances away (or other possibilities.)

Also implies the main hive itself may have billions, but the context is a bit murkey here again, so it may refer to just the cities in the area (it isn't the WHOLE population of the planet, at least.)

Also the fact that this is the first time they need help from the Imperium underscores how relatively peaceful things must have been for this planet - no major or serious attacks, no serious or crippling raids, etc. for centruies if not millenia. I suspect this is the caes for many if not most of the worlds in the Imperium - given the sheer scope of the galaxy and such every planet is bound to have been attacekd at least once in the Imperium's lifetime, but that does not mean such attacks are common or frequent. It varies, but persistant warzones are comparatively rare, I'd imagine.

Page 34

The book was an atlas, presented to her by one of the hive universities in return for some state function she had performed half a century ago.

The planet has its own universities. Give Counter credit - he does introduce some interesting twists like this when he's not piling on the grimdark for story purposes.

Page 34

One of the children turned a handle that reeled her cables back in as she returned to the throne. She sat down, feeling the juvenat liquids flow­ing through her veins again, holding back the effects of ageing on her bones and organs.

She has to remain connected to her throne via cables, which require hand-cranking to lengthen or shorten.

This does kinda get me thinking though, if she is continually having such drugs and shit pumped into her body - perhaps this process, despite being so unwieldy, is actually more effective (at least for what is avialable to nobles and planetary commanders and shit.) A tradeoff between mobility and efficiency is certainly possible.

Also it tends to echo the whole "golden throne" thing which preserves the Emperor. Go figure. I wonder if this is delibareate symbolism - if so its hilarious (Sarpedon manages to fuck over the Emepror-analogue in this book, even if it is a woman.)

Page 36

Iktinos, like any Space Marine, was huge, not much shy of three metres tall in his armour, but even so it was with humility and reverence that he passed over the threshold into the temple itself.

- The Soul Drinkers Chaplain "like Any space Marine", was 3 metres tall.

Page 37

A Space Marine's strength was awesome. Iktinos planted one foot on the stone and hauled a large rectangular slab of stone from teh water. With a bang that echoed off the rocks of hte cave beyond the slab slammed onto the platform, splintering the marble beneath.

A coffin (with a bas relief) hauled out by Iktinos. Considering its big enough to hold a person we're probably talking at least 1.5 m long, 20 cm "tall and 30 cm "wide. The thing has to way hundreds, if not thousands of kg.

Page 39

"You know I can't do that. I've told you, why won't you listen? It's... every one of us does it differently. It has to be directed at you, you have to know the codes... With me it's dreams, and at the best of times..."

Comments refer to astrotelepathy.. from the lips of an astropath, and show that like Navigators, each AStropath perceives the Warp and his or her talent in their own ways.

the manner in which a Astropath or Navigator envisions their power also seems to have an impact on their abilities and power. Some are better than others (we saw this in the 2nd Inquisition War onvel, so this is hardly new.)

Page 40

Dushan had been a world of mutilations. Deep scars across its continents, great ravines splitting its cities apart. Volcanic and tortured. Herds of slaves mined the perfect, flawless gems, forged in the fury of the planet's mantle, for use in precision equip­ment like cogitators and spaceship sensors.

- mention of "flawless crystals" mined from a volcnaic world for use in cogitators and sensors ("precision equipment") hints heavily at photonic-based (ie lidar and optical computer) nature. Then again considering all the magic crystal technology the have for various sources this isnt really a big shock.


Page 41-42

Astropaths sent and received psychic messages, the only means of sending infor­mation across the Imperium's immense interstellar distances, and every one had a different method of doing so. Croivas did so through dreams, receiving the complex symbolic messages while asleep and rebuilding them according to astropathic codes when awake. It was while he had slept in the coffin, sealed underwater, that fragments of communica­tions from across the Imperium had flickered through his mind.

Cadia was at war. It was the lynchpin of Imperial defences around the Eye of Terror but now its com­mander Ursurkar Creed had demanded assistance from all who could render it to fight off the hordes of traitors and abominations spewing from the Eye. Dramatic news, to be sure, but Iktinos demanded that Croivas move on.

Aliens, of a type never encountered before by the Imperium, had carved out an empire for themselves on the southern fringe, among worlds evacuated or wracked by the century's wars against the tyranids. To Iktinos, such things were irrelevant. The millions of citizens begging for deliverance meant nothing. Less than nothing - they were a distraction. Or would have been, to someone without Iktinos's superhuman dedication.

Skeletal mechanical creatures were slowly infest­ing a cluster of stars close to the galactic core in the Ultima Segmentum. An entire empire had seceded from the heartland of the Imperium, along the west­ern spiral arm of the galaxy, and the call had gone out for the upstarts to be crushed. Religious schisms had plunged the planets near holy Gathalamor into war, and the diocese of Gathalamor itself was beg­ging for assistance in keeping the conflict from its sacred shores.

No use. None of it. Iktinos pressed Croivas harder, but Croivas was falling apart. His lips were bloody from the effort of speaking and the cacophony of symbols forcing their way through his mind was dri­ving him insane. Iktinos did not care, and demanded that Croivas continue.
Daemons summoned to the streets of a world iso­lated by warp storms. Greenskins flooding through the jungles of a planet deep in the Segmentum Tem-pestus. Mutants rioting, burning the crops of agri-worlds and threatening hive planets with star­vation. Fleets of xenos pirates preying on pilgrim ships, devouring the very souls of their captives.

- the tme of this novel is around that of the 13th Black Crusade, and the attack on CAdia by Abbadon. Rather interesting considering some of the earlier statements made.

Also there is mention of Tau occupation of Imperial worlds during the Crusade, as well as Necron infestations in a "cluster of stars". (not said outright as either tau or necron, but the implication is there, particularily in the latter case as they are described as "skeletal mechanical creatures")

We also get more details about the workings of astrotelepathy. The interesting thing here is how Itkinos has secretly acquired a telepath (from some random location) and is using him to monitor transmissions across the Imperium - while he sleeps no less. This suggests that there are signals crossing the galaxy (thousands if not tens of thousands of light years) in a matter of hours or day.
We're talking millions of times c transmission times, even if we take weeks or months. And more probably in context its tens or hundreds of millions of c, at a bare minimum.

Also interesting is that this ability echoes the one of Draco's second astropath in Harlequin - in turn it suggests (Despite what Draco thought) that this ability was ont unique. Indeed it can't be all that rare, since Iktinos clearly expected this sort of talent in order to find what he was looking for - how the hell could he hope to find it if it were say, a one in a million ability?

Page 43

Alien gods demanding worshippers, plagues of insanity and heresy, a hundred thousand wars burning across a million worlds..

At the time of the Black crusade (999.M41) there are around 100K wars going on, meaning less than 1 world in 10 is suffering some sort of significant problem. That's nasty, but its hardly a GALAXY IN WARRRRR either.

Page 47

The slim-faced, quietly spoken Raek was the best shot in the Chapter - as good, some said, as the late Captain Dreo.

Dreo was a Soul Drinker from the first novel, who didnt survive to the second. This quote is mainly interesting in context of later ones, given some of Raek's stated abilities (Before and after becoming a Soul Drinker.) and that Raek's sniper abilities are not neccesarily uncommon.

Page 47

For the last several months Karraidin's novices had been earn­ing their place in the Chapter, intervening to fight the Emperor's enemies around the scattered worlds of the largely desolate Segmentum Tempestus.

This implies several months have passed at least since the last novel. Possibly no more than several years since Bleeding chalice as I recall, and they've moved from Ultima to Tempestus, so I guess this rules out the idea that our Hive world is way off on the absolute ass end of nowhere, since the 'ass end' of Tempestus is nowhere near as remote as the 'ass end' of Ultima. The Brokenback has made it maybe halfway across the Imperium, to the full breadth of hte Imperium (Depending on how oyu interpret it and the exact course and route) - we're talking a transit speed of many hundreds of thousands of c. Now this is for a Space hulk so applying it to other vessels is tricky, but we do know the AdMech were able to track it IIRC in Hellforged.

It also means Iktinos has been getting messages from literally half a galaxy away in either way (fringes of Ultima where the Tau are, and from aroudn the eye of TError) so we're talking a good 50-60 K LY range - millions of c as absolute, bare ass min for astropathic messages in this case - Iktinos' astropath has gotten many many messages over that time - dozens if not hundreds indeed.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2

Page 48

"The Eye of Terror has opened and Abaddon has returned, it is said. More and more of the Imperium's military are diverted to countering the tyranid fleets. The underbelly is exposed and the Imperium is too corrupt to defend itself. We are sworn to do the Emperor's work, and that work is being neglected in the galaxy's hidden and isolated places."

Again this takes place around the 13th Black Crusade, and as we know from other novels, much of the Imperial military is converging on that locale. This has the unfortunate consequence of making other areas less vital (such as, for example, Taros.)


Page 49

"The Brokenback picks up many signals from across the galaxy." said Iktinos. "We are far from the Imper­ial heartland but nevertheless there is chatter, transmitted from ship to ship. I have been sifting through it to find some indication of the Emperor's work remaining undone."

"And I take it you have found somewhere?"

"I have, Lord Sarpedon. The Obsidian system, in the Scaephan Sector, to the galactic south of the Veiled Region. The planet Vanqualis has been invaded by the greenskin scourge. The people there have begged for assistance from the Imperium but as you well know, the Imperial wheel is slow to turn and the orks will surely devastate their world"

Iktinos seems to be attirbuting the "signal recpetion" to the space hulk rather than his astropath, which suggests the ship can somehow emulate astrotelepathic abilities to some degree (FTL comms and sensors) which isnt the first time this has been implied.

Also, the Veiled Regions, according to the 5th ed map, are on the ass-end of Segmentum Tempestus. If the Soul drinkers are there, they must be really far away from the rest of the galaxy.

Page 49

"They are people of an independent spirit." said Iktinos. "They have resisted the Imperial yoke and remained true to their own traditions. They have survived for a long time alone, and we may find adherents to our cause there. Certainly there are many billions of Emperor-fearing citizens who will perish without help."

Again this seems to suggest the world is subordinate to the Imperium without being officially controlled or influenced by it to some degree. If we believe Iktinos that is.

Page 50

"We are lacking in fuel and ordnance. The Brokenback cannot go on forever, and neither can we. The Obsidian system has a refinery world, Tyrancos, from which we can take what we please."

Yes, the soul drinkers are becoming heroic mercenaries now. For the Emperor. This is actually the least objectional problem in this book.

Also a refinery world for plasma fuels or some other fuel (With Ben Counter who the fuck knows what he thinks it is, other than it is weird shit. Though to be fair he's hardly the first or only author to play fast and loose with 'plasma' either.) to refuel the starship.

Page 51

"Iktinos, assist me in finding out whatever we can about Vanqualis and its predicament. Lygris, prepare the warp route. We must be ready for..."

Again suggesting fairly short term communications between the planet and such.


PAge 52

"The underbelly is exposed. You said so yourselves. We strike while we can. Break it down. The Adepta, the bastions of tyranny. Ophelia VII or Gathalamor. Imagine if we struck at Holy Terra itself, blotted out the Astronomican! This tyranny would collapse around us! We could help rebuild the human race from the ashes! That would be the Emperor's work."

"Eumenes, this is madness!" shouted Sarpedon. "If the Imperium fell the human race would follow. Destroying it is not the way to deliver its people"

"If what I say is madness, Sarpedon, then a great many of us are infected with that same madness. Do not think I am alone. And we could do it, Sarpedon! Think about it. The Imperium has been on the brink for thousands of years. We are the best soldiers in the galaxy, and we know what the Imperial vermin fear. We could bring it all down, if we only made the choice!"

- Sarpedon, for all his ranting about the evils of the Imperium, openly admits here that merely destroying the Imperium would do more harm than good (without it, the human race would fall "soon after".) This represents I think something of a 180 from what he intended early on, and the fact he's opposing Eumenes. Sarpedon vs Eumenos will be one of the more unintentinoally hilarious subplots of this novel, both because of what has come before and what follows from those decisions.

You also have to wonder what Sarpedon's long range plans actually were. For all his preaching about the evils of the Imperium - how the hell was he intending to fix it without destroying the Imperium in the process? The stuff that is wrong with the Imperium is pretty much entwined by now with the Imperium, and I'm not even sure the second coming of the Emperor could fix thta without a civil war. Then again this presumes Sarpedon actually thought ahead, which is questionable given his record up to this point.

Page 57

Suddenly he was face to face with Eumenes. Eumenes had the knife at his throat, Sarpedon grip­ping his wrist to keep the weapon from breaking his skin. He was looking right into the youth's eyes and what he saw there was not the emotion of a Space Marine. Eumenes might have been implanted with the organs that turned a man into a Space Marine, and he might be wearing the power armour so emblematic of the Astartes warriors - but Eumenes was not a Space Marine. Not in the way that the old Chapter understood it. Sarpedon had not understood what he was doing when he began the harvest anew and made Eumenes into the man fighting him now.

Bravo, Sarpedon! Remember Sarpedon was the one preaching how he wants the Soul Drinkers to be a freethinking chapter. He was the one in charge when they decided to recruit radicals and revolutionaries and rebels, and turn them into Space Marines. And now he gets pissed off because one of his recruits isn't thinking the way he wants them to.. Seriously, what the fuck did he expect would happen?

It gets even more hilarious when you consider that Sarpedon and Eumenes fight for control fo the Chapter which leads to yet ANOTHER civil war in the Soul Drinkers. Yes, this is the great Chapter war, and Sarpedon brought it on himself without realizing it ahead of time. This is the same sort of foresight that carries him to the ends of the series, plowing straight through any wall in his path.

Page 61

Fulgorin hesitated for a moment. He was an aris­tocrat, someone used to being respected, and he made a natural officer. But he still believed that the men of the 901st were human beings in the eyes of the Imperium.
..
If Fulgo­rin had ever been an Imperial Guard officer then he was an old-fashioned one who led from the front, taking his place among his men with his lasgun and bayonet.

Ben Counter at least presents us with some halfway decent Guard leaders, and of penal regiments no less. Still doesnt make up for the insanity in this book. Particularily since many of the decent characters never last while Sarpedon continues to live (and live.. and live..)

Page 62

The Wraithspire Palace, which the troops were defending, speared up from those jungles like a hand reaching for Vanqualis's turquoise sky. Wrought from the mightiest of the jungle's great-wood trees, enormously enlarged and moulded by some forgotten bioscientific technique, the Wraith­spire Palace was the most spectacular man-made sight on Nevermourn.

Probable Imperial bioscience technology, although whether it is lost tech (probably is) or not is not known.


Page 65

It was immense, maybe fifteen metres high, cov­ered in shaggy matted hair. It was a four-legged creature with enormous tusks and a vast maw so crammed with teeth it couldn't close it. Violent red eyes flared with pain and anger, for on a platform precariously lashed to its back were scores of smaller greenskins goading it forward with spears. Its front legs ended in huge shovelling claws that lashed around it as it reared up, carving gouges from the ground and throwing orks aside.

- Orks deploy a 15 meter tall (angry) warbeast they fight from the back of. Probably a squiggoth. Maybe an Orkeosaur.

PAge 66

A missile streaked into it and blew a boulder-sized chunk of flesh from its shoulder, igniting the matted hair, but the damage was superficial and it would only make the beast angrier.

Surprisingly enough the definition of a boulder gives a lower limit definition of 10", so the crater is probably at least that wide. Figure at least several grenades worth of damage, although size, depth and nature of the grenade aren't known so this is at most a lower limit and it is probably higher.

Page 67

The beast was one thing, but the sheer number of the orks was the real deciding factor - hundreds were already among the 901st, duelling in point-blank firefights or leaping among the troops, cleavers ris­ing and falling. He could see men dying amid the carnage and clouds of fire and debris, here one with his torso blown apart by ork gunfire, there a man dismembered and held high by his orkish killer like a gory standard for the other aliens to rally around.

- ork gunfire blowing a man's torso apart. Considering the size of the Ork slugs and Orks penchant for firing lots of shots, this isnt surprising.

Page 67

The warlord was substantially larger than any other greenskin - Varr understood that orks tended to grow larger and stronger as they achieved battlefield successes and that the biggest of them were invari­ably the leaders, creating a cycle that resulted in truly immense killing machines leading the orkish hordes. But the warlord wasn't a hollering, battle-lusting killer like the other orks now rampaging through the palace grounds - he moved with grim determination, stalking through his own lines, observing the flow of the battle in much the same way as Varr himself was doing.

Ork Warlord described again, along with mention of their abillity to grow and evolve through battle.

Page 69 -

Last blasts bored through gnarled green flesh. Heads were struck from bodies, torsos were blown open by bursts of gunfire.

I'm not sure whose weapons are doing what exactly, but it all sounds damn impressive. Pity we dont know more to calc from.

Page 69

Varr caught it on his own sword but his blade shattered under the ork's assault and Varr was on his back, rolling under what seemed to be a tonne of writhing orkish muscle.

- an ork's mass is implied heavily to mass around a tonne or so here. Jamming the busted end of the sword in tehb ack of its head kills it, though.

Page 69

Varr rolled the stinking body off him in time to be almost blinded by a plasma blast fired by Shenshao into the face of an ork following up to kill Varr on the ground.

The ork's charred body toppled into the mud and Morn grabbed Varr's collar, dragging him free as las-fire sprayed over their position, fending off the charging greenskins.

Plasma blast. Figuring 3rd degree burns and accounting for Ork bulk, we're talking single digit MJs at the least.

Page 70

An ork flamethrower incinerated a trooper standing just a few metres away, sending him tumbling to the floor, spreading guttering flame along the churned turf.

Not literal cremation, so probably high kj/low MJ depending on burn severity.

Page 71

Palace guards carried her aloft on a palanquin, her attendant children skulking along beneath the platform carrying the various elements of the juvenat equipment, which invigorated her ancient body when she was forced to travel outside the security of her pinnacle chambers. The children had the customary strange, feral look in their eyes and they hissed at the crowds, snapping at the ankles of the palace guards carrying their mistress as if jealous of them

- portable juvenat equipment for the countess.

Page 71

All over the city they were out in the streets, clogging all the hive's thoroughfares in their billions, silently praying for deliverance. This was the way of Van-qualis's commoners - stoicism and acceptance, their sorrow always silent, their fate always accepted. Tragedy was kept within.

"Billions" of commononers in the hive city. Depending on how many hives there are we could be getting high billions/low tens of billions of people.

Page 72-73

The senior archivist hurried from among the towering data-stacks that filled the Basilica's main dome. His long, aged face bobbed above the data-slate that had replaced his hands, constantly spooling out a stream of printed parchment. He bowed as best he could, his nib-tipped fingers scribbling information down as he spoke.
...
Behind him a gag­gle of other archivists, some of them even more aged and bent with their hands and faces replaced with writing or sorting devices, hurried around the data-stacks. Above them, the black-clad soldiers of the Archive Regiment walked the tops of the stacks, their carbines ready to defend the precious historical infor­mation. With war and chaos looming, every institution on Herograve was on high alert.

Wacky library augmetics, oh Ben Counter you goof! I suppose they might be useful but they would make other things (like eating, sleeping or doing other tasks not devoted to your work) difficult.

And we're presented with a Library that has its own military force. What's even more interesting is the implication that other organs of the government have similar forces. So what are the Sanitation Department troopers like, I wonder? Sewer fighters?

Page 73

The archivist led the countess between the stacks, the children scurrying behind carrying the long trail­ing hem of her dress and the juvenat units connected to her by cables through the back of her bodice.

More of the bulky, unwieldgy juvenat tech.

Page 73

The data-stacks were crammed with thin black sheets of crystal, the medium on which the com­moner authorities of Herograve's cities recorded their histories and decisions. House Falken, however, used the more reliable and traditional method of illumi­nated tomes, created by house retainers whose lives were spent recording the words and needs of Van­qualis's nobles. These tomes were contained deep within the refrigerated heart of the basilica, where the cold created a layer of freezing vapour underfoot and the shelves glowered with endless lines of heavy books, some of them many hundreds of years old.

The book that Countess Ismenissa sought was in a void-safe in a small clearing among the stacks, held aloft by a pair of winged steel cherubs

Typical 40K. The common but "practical" use fancy ass magic crystal computer tech, but the nobles are too good for that. Nope they write on good ol pen and paper. And then freeze the books. I'm not even sure if that would be a good idea or not (moisture content and all that.) I mean they don't even have stasis fields here? This is a pretty low tech, poor ass hive world.

Page 74

She ran a finger over the reader on the top of the safe, wincing as the tiny laser pulse drew a drop of blood from her finger. The micro-cogitator inside whirred for a moment, trying to unravel the countess's genetic code from the jumble of age-reversing drugs in her system.

40K security lock.

Page 76

"Understood," said the astropath, shivering in the cold. "But you are as aware as I am that our art can­not be precise. The call for help I sent out two months ago was only received by a few, and only the 901st Legion was close enough to act. To reach a specific recipient, in addition, requires a great deal of power and skill, and the most precise symbolic discipline on both ends."

More details on the mechanics of astrotelepathy. This confirms it is possible to send out "focused/directed" messages as well as more broad/general ones. The latter seems to be more difficult for some reason - perhaps having to deal with locating something specific amidst a large group.

Page 81-82

"Not the Guard exactly." replied Lygris, his voice transmitted from theBrokenback in orbit over Nevermourn. "There are a couple of troop transports in deep system space, staying out of the way.
...

Penal Legions rarely lasted long enough to amass a regimental history - they were sent into the
teeth of vicious conflicts and were considered fortunate if they existed in any form afterwards. "This is the Imperial response?"

"Looks like all of it." said Lygris. "There isn't much in the way of military build-up here. Vanqualis is lucky to have what has turned up."

Sarpedon looked down at the motley collection of killers and criminals, united only by their mud-spattered dark green uniforms and their collective failure to serve the Imperium.

"They're here to die." said Sarpedon, more to himself than to Lygris. "This is their punishment."

Lygris and Sarpedon discuss the 901st and Penal Legions in generla. The context implies they're not "Proper" Imperial guard, which I guess puts them in more of an auxiliary role, given their expendability.

And while Penal Legions are expected to die for their Emperor as atonement, its pretty fucking arrogant of Sarpedon to assume that's all they're here for. There's a fucking Black Crusade on which is drawing the bulk of attention, he knows that (Lygris even comments on how lucky Vanqualis was to get them) and we learn earlier that the 901st was the only force in range. Add to that the tau expansion, necron arisings, Hive Fleet Leviathan and the various splinter fleets... what the fuck did Sarpedon expect? Battlefleet Solar deployed to stop a single Ork invasion? Abandoning Cadia to come here just to satisfy Sarpedon's own prejudices?

Remember also that this is the guy who lead a civil war in the making to this planet, and whose own chapter is fucking up the rescue effort. AGAIN.

Page 84

Part of him registered the flamethrower-wielding ork who fell, its face blasted open by VArr's pistol,

I'm not sure if Varr's laspistol is just blowing the face open to the bone, blowing the head/skull apart or what, but it sounds impressive and probably would take at least kilojoules or so to achieve.

Page 85

The Thunderhawks were hovering over the battlefield and firing streams of fire into it, blasting one side raw and bloody, and Varr could glimpse broken bones jutting up through the mass of gory muscle.

Thunderhawks make better anti-Squiggoth platforms than missile launchers, for obvious reasons.

Page 86

Fifteen hundred sinners had done the Emperor's work for the first time in their lives, by dying. That left about five thousand in the 901st and Van-qualian Warder artillery.

This means there were at least 6500 troops in the 901st. Probably more, considering that it is mentioned in the book they've been on planet for over two weeks, and they had to have taken more losses in that time. Also, given two transports in orbit, I'd bet at least high thousnads/low tens of thousands.

Page 87

"This planet has been alone for centuries. The only outsiders we ever saw were Administratum collectors come to take away our tithes. Is it any surprise we ended up blind to the outside?"

This tends to confirm the idea that VAnqualis represents Imperial worlds who are of secondary status/importance, minor compared to worlds like Armageddon or Necromunda. They aren't directly influenced or administered by the Adeptus Terra, they just pay a protection fee of some kind and are largely left alone.

Page 90

"That's how the greenskins fight. Always more of them. The Guards­men used to say they grew out of the ground, just to spite us."

Once again we see incredulity for the "spore theory" of Ork development, despite the fact many other sources have treated this as factual.

Page 90

"In total, just under five thousand men plus some armour. The jungle won't make supply any easier but I can keep them going for long enough."

The 901st have some "armour" as well as troops. It's rather interesting that an expendable penal legion can have armor, plasma weapons, grenade and missile launchers, and yet you still hear about how rare and precious and important technology is and how humans can be wasted but tech can't. This, along with the general existence of any siege regiment you could name (but especially the Krieg) tend to put a lie to that. It's true that certain pieces of tech are rare and vaulable and should be recovered at all costs, but the idea that it applies to every single lasgun or lasgun powerpack is just Munitorum bureacratic bullshit.

Page 94

The warlord stepped out into the open. Las-burns, like charred craters in his skin, still smouldered. Sil­ver glinted where a bayonet had broken off unnoticed in his shoulder. His mechanical parts were slathered in greasy mud and gore, steaming with the heat of the engines built into his chest.

Lasgun shots burned "charred craters" in the skin. I expect probably more akin to steam explosions with severe burning around the edges, but without knowing the exact size/depth we can't estimate it. Probably at least a few cm deep/across, but that wouldnt require more than a few kj per shot for iether cratering or charring. Bigger holes would also mean deeper penetration (a fist sized hole might penetrate 5cm and require at least double digit kj to pull off) This also doesn't account for hwo stupidly tough and durable the warlord probably is, both because of his size, and age, and fighting ability. They've already commented on his unnatural endurance as it is.

Page 96

He had been on the planet for more than sixty days and nights, and it was only the force of his will that had kept the horde together while the main bulk of it was deposited in the jungle.

Two months or so have passed since the Orks arrived on planet.

Page 101

The final planet in the Obsidian system was Tyrancos, another gas giant, orbited by a few refineries and processing plants built in an attempt to draw some wealth from the titanic blue-green mass of the planet. Beyond Tyran­cos there was just Ollanius XIV, the monitoring station that had seen the Battlefleet Scaephan anni­hilated at dock by the first ork attacks.

The other habitable (or anything approaching habitable) planets in teh system. Fuel and mining mostly it seems, although they mention the Monitoring station, which I suspect is a reference to Ollanius Pius. We also get the "Battlefleet Scaephan" bit again, which further tends to suggest that Vanqualis is a sector/subsector headquarters for that fleet.

One also wonders how the Orks got close without the monitoring station noticing them.

Page 102

"A lot of our sensors were salvaged when we scuttled the old fleet, which is why the Brokenback can decode them."

Recalling that the Brokenback's sensors allowed them to scan FTL and were implied to be able to pick up FTL signals, this does suggest it is quite possible that the Soul Drinkers ships (and thus other Imperial ships, at least what the Space Marines have) could do likewise.

Page 105

Cap­tain Luko himself stood by a portable communications unit, its viewscreen folded out. General Varr sat beside him on a fallen tree trunk.

portable comm unit with viewscreen. Implies visual as well as audio transmission capability.

Page 109

"I fought through the Eye of Terror with the Kar Duniash Heavy Lancers and never saw a single Space Marine.For every one of you there might be a million of us. Why are the Soul Drinkers here?"

Taken as an order ofm agntidue estimate rather than an absolute, this implies hundreds of billions if not trillions ofIG troops, given approximately a million Marines or so. We know based on 5th edition that there are trillions easily.

Also Kar Duniash is the Ultima Segmentum naval base. If it raises guard regiments it is both inhabited, and probably not a forge world.

Page 111

"We will not drop out of warp until we are in-system" said Mercaeno.

"Within the Obsidian system?" Thaddeus cocked an eyebrow. "It'll be infested with Ork ships."

It never ceases to amaze me that despite the canon stating dropping out of warp inside a system is dangerous, you still get authors who make statmeents about it happening. I suppose we might rationalize it somehow, like being a smaller than earth ilke star, a more advanced warp drive or a particularily skilled Navigator...

And yes that is Inquisitor Thaddeus from Bleeding Chalice. He is the other reason (the first being the 901st's officers) this book is not total shit, at least presently.

Just so we're also clear, the Chapter in question in this book are the Howling Griffons, an Ultramarines descended chapter. They act like the self-important assholes the same way REinez and the Crimson fists did in the last book, only in the sense of Guilliman worship. Back then I was annoyed by Counter's portrayal, but it really meshes well with the mentality of 5th edition Ultramarines, surprisingly enough. Predictably this means they care less about the planet than their own honor, even though this is (yet again) a planet they are supposed to be saving.

Page 118

Raek and Iktinos were on one of the many asteroids orbiting Tyrancos, on which refiner­ies had been built to create useful fuels out of the gases piped up from Tyrancos itself.

Given that earlier they mention the Brokenback needing fuel (and what happens in Hellforged) I would assume this is a plasma fuel refinery.

PAge 118

Even through the faceplate of the voidsuit worn over his scout armour, he could taste the environment.

If he needs a voidsuit, Raek's scout marine armour is not fully enclosed like normal powered armour.

Page 118-119

The asteroid had been fitted with the spines to draw in gases from Tyrancos's upper atmosphere, which could then be refined into fuel or materials. The spine was corroded - not msted, but crumbling and pitted from the stark solar radiation and the biting of particle winds whipping up from Tyrancos.

"fuel OR materials?" What sort of materials? The only other thing besides fuel they mention needing is ordnance, is that the kind of "materials?" Or are we talking about some bizarre replicator like stuff? In terms of context and what we know the Imperium can do I'd think its probably ordnance of some kind, rather than assuming the refinery has magic replicator-style tech.

Page 123

An ork fell, a hole bored through his torso by a long-las shot. Snipers' targeting beams flickered through the dense foliage. Another shot coughed through the leaves and blew the side off an ork's head.

Long las fire. One shot seems ot overpenetrate the hell through an Ork torso (30-40 cm at least?) and the other blows off the side of an Ork's head. THey also seem to have some sort of red dot sight or some scope with a visible beam (like Larkin's long las in the early Ghosts novels.) Whehter or not they're using hotshots I dont know.

Anyhow, assuming a half metre hole, 2-3 cm wide drilled through the Ork ought to require at least several tens of kj. If its drilling a hole through CW-beam style, an order of magnitude higher.
Blowing part of an ork's head off (how much we don't know) probably requires at least that much, perhaps triple digit kj. The really interesting thing is that "blowing the side off a head" and drilling through would require the laser to behave differently (fewer, individually more powerful pulses in the former, and a larger number of lower energy pulses in the latter.)

Of course its also possible that was a bolter and not a long-las.


Page 124

With a scream of escaping steam and the crunch of gears, a lurching machine of metal three times the height of a man tore out through the trees. One arm spat gunfire through the jungle, sending the Astartes of Squad Graevus and Squad Luko throwing themselves to the sloping ground of the valley. On its other hand was mounted a screeching circular saw, slicing through a tree trunk as it slashed towards the near­est Soul Drinker and sending the trunk crashing down through the canopy.

aj
- ork war machine (dreadnought?) 3x the height of a man

PAge 125

Already the bolters of his tactical squad were blow­ing charred holes in the side of the war machine.

- bolters blowing "charred holes" in the side of the war machine - it either means they're blasting into the flesh or they're penetrating and blowing blackened holes in the metal.

Page 126

His arm jarred as the blades met metal but he forced them further down, the power field rupturing metal like a normal weapon tore flesh.

Indication of the effect of power field vs metal.

PAge 127

In its hand was a bundle of explosive sticks tied together with a detonator at the top.
...
Graevus hit the ground behind the ork and grabbed it with his free hand. His jump pack gunned into life and he soared up towards the canopy above, crazed ork in his hand. With tremen­dous strength he hurled the insane greenskin towards the ragged line of orks charging up the slope, following Graevus's assault squad. The ork slammed into his fellow greenskins and exploded, blowing apart a dozen aliens, throwing sundered limbs and spinning shards of wood through the jungle.

- ork bomb blows aparrt half a dozen greenskins. Seems like a fairly big bomb, but blowing apart a dozen orks can easily be equal to several dozen people - maybe a dozen normal grenade's worth at least. Also assault marine can lift up an Ork one handed, and carry them (the jump pack can also carry the weight easily

Page 129

Lasgun fire opened up in a crimson storm. Three hundred troopers of the 901st, stationed at the top of the valley slope, fired as one. Lasers scoured bark from trees and leaves from branches. The orks in the front rank were shreddded, bodies riddled with scorching holes, limbs sheared from bodies.

Effects of lasfire, including shearing limbs from bodies. Presumably the holes penetrate at least halfway in (20-30 cm inside) and a couple cm diemter (aspect ratio as discussed by Luke Campbell here. As for shearing limbs off.. Orks mass several times greater than a normal human (say 12-15 cm arm as opposed to 8-10 for a normal human) - depending on tissue composition and such you might figure mid tens to high tens of kj at least. Triple digit is not impossible for a sufficently large/tough arm. Scarring/charring the tissue should require several tens of kj at least as well (assuming severe, third degree or fourth degree burns - remember that las shots burnt charred craters in the Warboss earlier.)

Somethng less efficient, like superheated/rapid boiling to create a steam explosion, might require something more on the order of several hundreds kilojoules.

[Black Admiral]

Page 50

"We are lacking in fuel and ordnance. The Brokenback cannot go on forever, and neither can we. The Obsidian system has a refinery world, Tyrancos, from which we can take what we please."

Yes, the soul drinkers are becoming heroic mercenaries now. For the Emperor. This is actually the least objectional problem in this book.

Heroic thieves, actually. They're not going to be paid with the fuel/ordnance, they're just going to steal it.

[Lost Soal]

She has to remain connected to her throne via cables, which require hand-cranking to lengthen or shorten.

This does kinda get me thinking though, if she is continually having such drugs and shit pumped into her body - perhaps this process, despite being so unwieldy, is actually more effective (at least for what is avialable to nobles and planetary commanders and shit.) A tradeoff between mobility and efficiency is certainly possible.

Hardly surprising really since its already been shown numerous times, just giver her the rank of Admiral and place her throne on a ships bridge and you have a common trade-off, centuries of life in exchange for decreased mobility and continued service. Granted Juvenant has never been specifically mentioned in those cases but its a pretty safe bet they're getting such drugs pumped into their systems along with other nutrients to keep them alive.

[Lord Revan]

Btw correct me if I'm wrong but aren't chapter colors off the Soul Drinkers purple with gold trim, if so it's kind of ironic seeing what other space marine organization used those colors and used to have the same condencending "hollier then you" attitude
Spoiler

Purple with gold trim was the pre-herecy colors of the Emperor's Children legion and we all know how they ended up

[The Yosemite Bear]

yes, yes, reminds me what do you call a female fanatic of Khore, who'se set on avenging all the "Evils that MEN do"? Spoiler

A KINDLY one of course

[Zinegata]

You actually call her Larana Utorian, Avatar of Khorne, and you run the hell away from her because she's wearing power armor and wields a really big axe.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2 of Chapter war (in two parts). I hadn't meant to delaty quite so much but.. eh. I'll finish this up. Then we get Hellforged and Daenaythos in a single update. Then one update for Phalanx. So within a couple weeks we'll have Soul Drinkers done. I aim to have Vraks done soon (I'm growing tired of it, so I may start update-spamming that as well despite the conversation) and then put 8-11 into one single update thread. I REALLY want IA done so I can move onto other stuff, although the conversation has been enlightening in many ways. There's just so much stuff to cover.

Part 1 of Chapter War



Page 129

Silvery bursts of shrapnel exploded among the orks from his grenade launcher. A heavy bolter thudded shots into the orks and gradually the horde was masked by smoke and shrapnel, a veil of superheated earrth and vaporized blood.

The grenade launcher is known to be part of the Guard legion present, so I would bet this is form that. Whether the heavy bolter is I dont know, but it wouldnt surprise me.

Page 132

The Space Marine had precognitive powers and one day, perhaps, he would be able to tell the future - an exceptionally rare talent - and very dangerous in every respect.
Nisryus's studies with the Chapter's other Librarians had been slow as his power was unusual and risky to use, but he could still see eddies of time and space that let him react quicker than the laws of physics allowed.

Nisyrus' precog described again. It migth be rare and dangerous in soul drinkers, but most Librarians in other books hsow some measure of precog (divination at least.) Nisyrus is only different in his seems to be perpetually active and easily tapped.


Page 133

Scamander moved up to a cell door set into the wall of the corridor. The door was a massive slab of age-blackened steel solid enough to have held firm for thousands of years. Scamander put one hand against it, the gauntlet blistered and blackened. The metal under Scamander's hand hissed and began to glow cherry-red. His face hardened and faint flames licked from his eyes - the armour down his other side was becoming frosted, crystals of ice forming where water dripped on it from the ceiling. The heat created by Scamander had to be drawn from some­where and he took it from his own body, so that his flesh and armour became deathly cold as the metal softened and parted beneath his touch.

- Scamander's pyrokinetic power damages/heats/melts the armour he wears. (rather stupid, really.) Hole is big enough for Eumenes to climb through. Probably megajoule range, although it depends on thickness, and I dont think he totally melts it - he pushes/deforms the softened material out of the way.


Page 135

"Open fire, Lygris!" yelled Sarpedon, throwing another ork off the cliff.
"Yes, commander," replied Lygris from orbit. "The guns are hot. Fire's coming in a few minutes."

- orbitla bombardment from Soul Drinker's space hulk (identified earlier as ordannce) will be "coming" in a few minutes. not sure whether that is propogation time or time to prepare to fire or what.

Page 137

Sarpedon's staff was carved from very rare psy­choactive wood, and it served to conduct the massive reserved of psychic power he could call upon. When he focused his mind and drove the staff home, the discharge of power would rip the target apart and blast its soul from its body. Sarpe­don focused like that now, driving every drop of power from the depths of his mind into a white-hot spike driven towards the warlord's burning bestial soul.

But the warlord's willpower was stronger than anything Sarpedon had ever felt and his power splintered against its soul.

- Sarpedon's force staff can rip a target apart when he focuses his psychic power through it. But his power does fuck all against the Warlord. I suspect this is partly because of the WAAAGH power shielding him, as he is a focal point for that, but I like to think its because he's really the protagonist and he's going to beat the shit ouf ot Sarpedon.

Page 143

Panicking, Sovelin wrenched his laspistol from its holster and unloaded it at point-blank range into the greenskin's abdomen. The creature spasmed on top of him, grunting its foul breath into his face, and for a moment Sovelin was sure it would chew his face off with that huge scarred maw.

Then the ork slumped down and breathed out a long death rattle. Hands reached down to haul it off Sovelin - two of the Vanqualians dragged it away and Sovelin saw the huge wounds he had blown in its stomach. He had probably severed its spine. Sovelin had never killed anything, certainly not up close, before.

- laspistol blows "huge wounds" in an ork's stomach (a couple seconds tops, as the Ork was charging and shortly collapsed on the man), and severed its spine. We're probably talking at least 5-6 cm diameter, and a good 20 cm penetration at least. Lack of blood as well suggests some severe burning/charring. to reach that deep and sever the spinal cord would probably need at least double digit kj, especially when you factor in the burning.


Page 151-152

He was almost finished when a column of red-white fire lanced down from the sky and incinerated his artillery. The handset still in his hand, scalding air batter­ing against him, Sovelin Falken watched open-mouthed in horror as a pillar of coruscating laser blasted his Vanqualian Warders into dust and melted the mortar and autocannon pieces into sprays of white-hot liquid metal.

Pulses of laser blew a deep crater in the ground and ignited the leaves of the trees ringing the clearing. The skin on Sovelin's face blistered in the heat and he was barely able to drag himself behind the tree, tongues of flame licking past him.

Sarpedon's Soul Drinkers doiing what they do best, inflicting massive carnage and devastation to their surroundings and generally fucking things up for the innnocent people in the Imperium.

Also autocannon artillery, and stuff getting melted and shit.

Page 154

As if in reply to that thought, a lance of fire bored down through the sky behind him. Sarpedon turned in time to see the flash as the Vanqualian artillery was vaporised and flame rippled through the treetops. The shockwave almost knocked Sarpedon off the edge of the cliff and the nearby Soul Drinkers, who had been holding the cliff edge as Sarpedon batded the war­lord, dived to the ground to take cover. The laser pulsed and rings of flame washed off the impact site, shredding the surrounded trees into flurries of burn­ing leaves.

- Sarpedon notes the Vanqualian artillery was "Vaporised" Take it as you will but I'd call it at least a GJ range bombardment if not more. THANK YOU SOUL DRINKERS!

Rather, this is the opening moves of Eumenes' revolt. And things aren't even close to being finished yet.

Page 154

His voice was cut short by a volley of gunfire that slammed into the back of his enormous Terminator armour. Karraidin turned and fired back into the trees behind him with his storm bolter, rattling off a fear­some spray of fire. The replying fire didn't let up, and more and more shots smacked into Karraidin's armour, slamming deep scars into the ceramite plates, thudding into the thick armour encasing his torso.

Hot on the heels of the orbital bombardment, Karraidin, one of their few (and to my knowledge only) Terminators gets attacked by Rebels. Gotta love Sarpedon's gift for fucking himself and everyone else up like this. What's more, some of Sarpedon's "old guard" Chapter like the Apothecary and one of his fellow Librarians side with Eumenes!

Page 155

A bright flash of plasma burst from the trees and hit Karraidin square in the abdomen The superheated liquid ate through his abdominal plate and pushed Karraidin backwards, his armouerd boots digging into the rock beneath him. But Karraidin did not fall - with awesome strength he held his ground, and when the flare of the plasma burst died down there was a great crater melted in the armour covering his stomach. Amidt he metallic stink of vaporised metal, Sarpedon could smell cooked flesh.

Fire battered into Karraidin, so heavy it tore chunks out of his shoulder pad and greave. Kar­raidin took a step forward, defying the enemies firing at him, the captain's form almost lost amid the explosive impacts that tore into him. Sarpedon could not help him now - if he left cover he would be shredded too. He could only watch as Karraidin carried on firing even as burning loops of entrails began to hang from the massive plasma wound in his stomach.

Supersoaker plasma gun takes down the Terminator.

Page 156

Sarpedon had to watch as Karraidin literally fell apart before his eyes. Fire tore through one shoulder pad and Karraidin's arm came apart. Sparks flew as his bionic leg was shattered and buckled beneath him. The ammunition left in his storm bolter burst and took his other arm with it. He was still bellow­ing his defiance as he toppled backwards, the massive blocky form of his Terminator armour falling as slowly as one of the greatwood trees that rose around him.

Combination gunfire plus plasma weapon bring down the Terminator. And yet another of the few decent soul Drinker characters bites it because of Sarpedon's incompetence.

Page 165

"We were stationed near the Agrippina system and we fought... I don't know what we fought. I can't describe them. Daemons, I suppose."

"In the days before we split from the Imperium." said Sarpedon, "we saw it often. When the Imperial Guard fought against the servants of the Dark Pow­ers, the Imperium would decide that they might have seen too much."

"They wanted them dead." continued Varr. "Exe­cuted. The Inquisition ordered me to lead them into the middle of the desert where they would be bombed from orbit. They would be wiped out because they had not broken and fled like everyone else, they had fought and gone face to face with the Great Enemy. So I led my men into the mountains instead, into the caves, where the bombs wouldn't find them."

"And for that, you were condemned. That sounds like the Inquisition I know."

"Hah! More than just that, commander. The Inquisition had to send a regiment of stormtroopers down to that world to kill us. We gave them a hell of a fight. Months, it took them, up there in the mountains, to kill us all. It cost them a good few lives to take me alive. That's what sent me to the Penal Legions. That's why they didn't just shoot me on the spot. I humiliated them, so they wanted to humiliate me in return."

Varr discussing the grimdark reasons he's leading a penal legion. I love how Sarpedon generalizes about the Inquisition even though he's met others who aren't like that (EG Thaddeus.)

Page 167

The gun-servitors were old, and that meant they were good - they were fast and accurate, their targeting cogitators far more agile than those of the lumbering tech-constructs Raek had fought on the Brokenback's training decks.

Another case of "older is better".

Page 170

Raek brought up the rifle and against any other target he would have sent a shot right through the spine or the back of the head. But Iktinos wore artificer power armour, and only a shot through one of the critical weak spots - the eyepiece, the tiny spot over the throat, the joint under the arm where a shot from the right angle would pierce both hearts - would produce the guaranteed kill Raek needed.

Scout sniper weapon has difficulty penetrating artificer armor.


Page 170

The only thing he really remembered from his childhood was the bak­ing heat of the desert sun as he lay on the hot sands for days, the scope of his hunting rifle scanning the horizon for that one shot. He had been the best hunter on that planet even before the Imperial Guard had arrived to take away the many mutants of his tribe, and his family and friends, and he had learned the kill-spots that would take down a guardsman. He had learned quickly how even a dis­ciplined soldier will take risks to save his fellow trooper when that trooper has a bullet in the gut or a shot through the knee. And he learned to recog­nise when only a headshot would do.

Raek remembering the good old days. Note he was a skilled marksman with a sniper rifle - scanning the horizon would imply multi-km ranges.

Also IG taking away a tribe's "mutants" (for why we don't know - are they abhumans? Does this mean Sarpedon is inducting mutants into the chapter? Again??)


Page 171

Even when his people were gone, the adolescent Raek had survived to kill again. They had sent whole squads, whole platoons after him, and they had never got him. It had been Iktinos who had heard the tales of the invisible killer, and gone out into the desert to find him. The fact that Iktinos was now his target meant nothing at all to RAek, no more than the Guardsman whom Raek had murdered from kilometres away over the sand dunes.

More on Raek's skills, particularily the kills from "kilometres away". Above implies he was taking rather difficult yet precise hits (headshots, or knee shots, etc.) - this would be Larkin-level skill, which in turn suggests his abilities, whilst not common, are not exactly unique in the Imperium or the IG.

Also it would have to be a damn powerful rifle to kill accurately from km away - like bolt action .50 caliber powerful, or someting on that order. Dark Heresy also suggests hunting rifles have the same range as long-las, and long las are 50% longer ranged than regular lasgun.


Page 178-179

"It is not. Guilliman never gave ground to the enemy. He never threw away the lives of Imperial citizens."
...
"You talk out of turn," said Mercaeno sharply. "Guilliman would sacrifice a billion lives if it would save a billion and one. You know that as well as I do."
...
"Darion, there is no need for offence. The inquisitor here does not understand honour as we do. To him, honour con­sists of succeeding in his mission no matter who must break their oaths or fail in their duty, so long as this exalted agent of the Inquisition succeeds"
..
"No greenskin vermin can threaten our victory! You know as well as I do that fighting on Nevermourn is a waste of battle-brothers' lives. No man worthy of the Inquisition would be so foolish. Why are you here, Thaddeus? You care nothing for Vanqualis or its people. What do you seek on Nevermourn?"

Thaddeus and the Howling Griffons discuss Guilliman and whether or not he was an asshole. The proud, arrogant and asshole Griffons think he would approve of their plan (basically using the planet's population as bait or even a sacrifice to wipe out the Greenskins, because fufilling their oaths the way they see it matters more to them than saving lives.) and Thaddeus says they're wrong. This is why I like Thaddeus, and why the Griffons are such assholes. It also shows one of the more annoying aspects of the Soul Drinkers series - Counter seems unwilling to write anyone but the Soul Drinkers as a sympathetic Space Marine, and he doesnt even do a good job with that. So the other ones look even worse by comparison. And all the normal people suffer as a result.

Of course, as I noted before, this sort of Guilliman-oriented pomposity fits right in with their 5th edition depiction, so its not hard to believe the Griffons are right.

Page 180

"Inquisitor Thaddeus, it is clear to me that your mission here does not coincide with ours. Your authority has little foundation here. You are very far away from your colleagues and among us you are just a man. I had hoped that we had come to understand one another, but it seems that you cannot change. Be grateful that I have not yet ejected you from the fleet."

More on the limits of Inquisitorial authority and politics. An Inquisitor on his own does not have any power over Marines who have the ability to kill him off and chalk his death up to an accident.

Page 181

It was the laser sight in a sniper rifle, typically used by the best shots among the Chapter's scouts

Laser sight on Scout sniper rifles.

Page 186

"Send a detachment of house troops," she said, "with gas grenades and water cannon. Disperse the crowds in the street and start clearing the square."

PDF troops basicaly used as law enforcement. What does Vanqualis not even have enforcers? No arbites?

Page 189

Every child of Herograve was taught of the Black Chalice - fairytale monsters from the planet's blackest past, monsters from beyond reality of whom the vilest of heretics and cultists were but mere shadows. Preachers used the Bearers of the Black Chalice as allegories for evil and corruption, and mothers told their children fanciful stories of how all evil on Vanqualis flowed from it.

The countess knew, and most commoners suspected, that the Chalice had its foundation in reality, some horrendous trauma that had wounded Vanqualis so deeply that the stories of the Black Chalice and its bearers had never ceased to be told.

The Vanqualians now think the Soul Drinkers are the Black Chalice. Which in turn means, the Soul Drinker's reputation precedes itself. And the comedy writes itself, because this is hilariously appropriate given Sarpedon's record, even if there is likely a misunderstanding.

Page 192

It was ugly. No sane general would have accepted it. But Sarpedon was not a general of the Imperial Guard, who had to cope with the weaknesses and indiscipline of their men. He was a Space Marine, and so were those under his command. Tactical insanity, the willingness to fight battles that no commander of lesser men would contemplate, was the weapon of choice for the Space Marines.

Sarpedon basically confirms Xarius' assessment of Space Marines with this sentence, while at the same time saying that no IG general would do the sort of shit Space Marines do. In context this is basically the usual "scream and charge the enemy from range" sorts of tactics you usually see ascribed to the guard.

Then again you have to admit, if Sarpedon thinks insanity is an asset, that would go a long way to explaining his actions up to this point.

Page 194

Brother Phokris died, his helmet blown wide open even as he pressed the firing stud on his missile launcher. Brother Wrackath fell to the ground by Sarpedon's side, his leg sheared off by heavy bolter fire.

Traitor bolter fire vs Loyalist Soul Drinkers. Remind me again why insanity is an asset to these people?

Page 201

That was all it would take - one word. Gresk was a master of the Quickening, a psychic power that enhanced the metabolism of his allies so they moved with incredible speed and grace. In such a battle, the power could turn the tide.

Gresk like other Marines of the Soul Drinkers has a single useful power.

Page 201-202

"My task here was to hold you in place. To keep you at the walls, to give you ground as long as I slowed you down long enough. There will be no more battle."
..
Sarpedon realised why they were there. The canopy of the jungle petered out just before the fortress walls - the Soul Drinkers were open to the grey-green dawn sky.
"The Brokenback," said Iktinos beside him.
"Fall back! All units!" ordered Sarpedon. "Retreat!"
..
The first lance strike hammered down, shearing deep into the ground where Sarpedon had stood. Superheated air slammed into Sarpedon like a wall and he barely kept his footing as the ground
shuddered and split. Another strike, bright as a second sun, hit home and Sarpedon saw a body flying, half-chewed away by the immense power of the laser bolt.

The bombardment was ripping down all around them, awesome in its power. Had the Soul Drinkers been advancing on the gates, they would have been annihilated completely. Many of them still died, torn apart by the columns of laser that burst into being in front of the fortress gates.

Sarpedon is outsmarted by Eumenes. Again. Remember that a few pages ago Sarpedon said insanity was an asset? I guess this says alot about Sarpedon and Eumenes (the latter of which who is batshit insane.)


Page 204

"For the oath and the word! For the honour that men fear! Howling Griffons, what say you to the oath sworn by your brothers long dead?"

"Honour them!" cried the men, ranked up by company and squad, their officer out in front of them leading them. And in front of them all was Mercaeno, voice as proud and rousing as a preacher's.

"Even though it may cost your life?" bellowed Mercaeno, challenging as much as encouraging. The wordless roar of approval that came back at him was answer enough.

"Though your soul be rent and your bodies bro­ken? Shall you honour this oath, Howling Griffons, inheritors of Guilliman?"

The roar again, louder, more insistent. The fer­vour of the Howling Griffons to honour the Chapter's ancient oaths bordered on mania. The fire inside them flashed in their eyes. It was only the merciless discipline of the Adeptus Astartes that kept them from rioting, from expressing that power within them in random violence.
...
It would take down the oaths made by the battle-brothers of the Howling Griffons as they made them to Cap­tain Darion, as was the tradition among the Howling Griffons. Their oaths were sacred, and to return to the Chapter without having fulfilled them brought great shame. Howling Griffons had stayed away from their Chapter for years, even decades, seeking ways to fulfil oaths they had made before battle. Some of them were still out there in the galaxy, questing until they settled their matter of honour, or until they died.

- Howling Griffons obsess about their oaths and tie their honor (or shame) up in the fufillment of (or failure to fuffill) them. This, of course, makes them total dicks to everyone else, because their honour and oaths mean more to them than anythign else. Yet another one-dimensional Space Marine Chapter in a Soul Drinkers novel.

Page 206

For a moment Thaddeus looked like he would draw a weapon from beneath the flakweave panels of his coat, and accept Mercaeno's challenge.

This suggests Thaddeus' coat has rigid inserts like SAPI/ESAPI plates in modern body armor - I guess "flakweave" in this context is rigid. Its possible flakweave is rigid in general, since this isn't the first example either.

Page 209

His voice echoed strangely in the cave, where he had made the Soul Drinkers' temporary command post. He spoke into his vox-unit and the signal was poor, for it had to be transmitted from the Brokenback in orbit to the surface.
..
His voice was severely distorted by the ancient vox equipment he was using and the interference from Vanqualis's atmosphere.

- Sarpedon's vox unit can (barely) reach the Brokenback (or rather, Techmarine Lygris inside it) in low orbit around the planet - thats a range of hundreds of km.


Page 214

He knew that the ship had a secondary shut­tle bay and that the complex circuitry in his Inquisitorial seal would probably open it and let him take a shuttle down to Vanqualis. He was an inquisitor, and the best of his kind planned for when everything went wrong.

Thaddeus is confident that his rosette could hack Space Marine computers.

Page 214

"None of us dispute the Inquisitorial mandate. But here, you are just a man, and you are alone. Power does not stem from the Inquisitorial seal you carry with you. It comes from this." Rhelnon patted the barrel of the bolter he held across his chest. "You are trying to escape, which means you oppose the will of the Howling Griffons. Therefore, you are our enemy. As you are a guest here, Lord Mercaeno has permitted for you to be captured rather than killed. This is not an offer the Howling Griffons regularly make to their enemies."

I hate to say it, but the Griffon is right. At least they don't try to kill him outright.

PAge 218

Thaddeus flicked a selector stud on the weapon and a single round clicked into the chamber. IT was the last of his archeotech rounds, very old, very valuable bullets crammed with circuitry too old to be replicated. Once he had loaded his whole gun with them, back when he had the backing of his fellow inquisitors.

...

The bullet zipped wide again but then its ancient technology kicked in and it flitted around in a wide arc, arrowing back towards Rhelnon.

Rhelnon threw himself to one side but too late, the bullet smacked into his armour, boring deep inside. He yelled in anger and pain as his right arm was shredded, the bullet ricocheting around inside his armour like an angry trapped insect.

Remember these from Bleeding Chalice? He supposedly had run out by the end of the book, but I guess he had others left (or enough favors and contacts to obtain a few more.) Seem rather effective against Astartes armor, but like all lost tech they can't be replicated (so yeah lets use them up as much as we can!)

His statements also imply he is something of a renegade or radical now, since he apparently no longer has backing of other Inquisitors. (again the whole politics/power thing.)

Page 219

Thaddeus ducked down, the tough flakweave of his coat deflecting shrapnel and knife-sharp shards of obsidian.

Showing why they call it "flakweave"

Page 219 -

Thaddeus fired more shots, emptying the mundane rounds from his autopistol. Rhelnon was in the open now and shots thudded into his greaves and abdomen, but they did little more than kick sparks from the Howling Griffon's armour.

REgular autopistol rounds, of course, do fuck all to Space Marine armor.

Page 219

Thaddeus dropped the gun and pulled out an ornate hilt form inside his coat. From the hilt extended a shimmering blade, warping the air around it with a strang energgy field.

They don't call it such here, but I think its a C'tan phase blade. Or something alot like it.

Page 220

The blade in Thaddeus' hand split into dozens of fluttering shards, like a swarm of lethal butterflies. Rhelnon reared up as monomolecular shards sheared through the ceramite plates of his armour, scored deep red lines across his face and punched right through his back.

Rhelnon roared like a wounded animal, slashing wildly at his foe. Thaddeus rolled away as the sword shards flittered around Relnon, opening up dozens of wounds. One by one the force in teh shards died and they fell to the floor. The last of them spiraling around Rhelnon until he batted them away Thad­deus used the time they bought him to roll out from beneath Rhelnon's assault and take cover three tombs away.

Neat trick.

Page 223

the Hilt of Thaddeus' sword was reforming, the shards liquefying and flowing across the floor like quicksilver, but Thaddeus knew the same trtick wouldn't work twice. He had found the sword in the hands of a xeno-cult on the galaxy's eastern fringe.

..

He deactivated the blade and holstered the hilt.

Again it seems to be like a phase blade, although the "splitting up into self propelled shards" is a different trick than what I remember.


Page 223

Light flared around him, almost blinding. THe conversion field he wore could absorb a couple of bolter shots, maybe three or four if its power coils, hidden in the archeotech amulet beneath Thaddeus' clothes, held out. THh armour field was another relic of the days when he oudl still count on the supporrt of his fellow Inquisitors, and again, he had known that one day he would rely on it to keep him alive for a few seconds longer.

Thaddeus' conversion field can stop a hanful of bolter rounds.

Page 223

Thaddeus reached inside for the small coin-shaped device clipped innocuously to his belt. He flicked it out, depressing the charging stud with his thumb. The grenade hit the statue above Thaddeus, and just as the conversion field generator shattered with the strain of absorbing Thaddeus's gunfire, it exploded.

The grenade's detonation tore the statue of the Librarian apart, throwing stone shrapnel into the face of Brother Rhelnon as he bore down on Thad­deus. Rhelnon's charge never hit home and he fell to the floor beside Thaddeus, his bolter clattering across the stone tiles.

The light from the conversion field died down, Thaddeus's eyes adjusting from the glare. He looked down at Rhelnon, who was convulsing and gargling as one hand reached helplessly for the bolter.
The stone force sword from the Librarian statue had impaled Rhelnon through the chest. Thaddeus knew with one glance that the stone blade had cut through his lungs and the ruination of his internal organs was enough to fell even a Space Marine.

- Thaddues pulls out a small coin shaped explosive device, powerful enough to blast a large statue apart at the base and send it toppling into a Marine.

Page 238

In the cities of Hero-grave were millions - billions - of humans, terrified and primed for butchery.

Millions/billions in the city's hives.

Page 240

Darion held up a data-slate on which glowed a topographical map of the jungle. "The last readings placed the Space Marine force seven kilometres from here," he said, indicating a bright blip on the map. "If we approach from the east they'll have heavy terrain at their backs, swamp and river."

Data slate mapping function.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2. I forgot to mention.. I'm also throwing out the Iron Warriors and Word Bearers stuff after NL because I'm in final phases before I start covering FFG stuff. I'll also be starting up the HH stuff (which will be a long term, long running single thread, or series of single threads since its an arc.) and Space Marine battles (another single, long running thread.) SMB isn't huge and since they seem intent on cramming more Space Marine crap down readers throats I'll be trying to get through that as fast as possible. Ideally I want to get into the FFG and HH stuff as well as Space Wolf, RAvenor, and Ultramarines.


Page 129

A few of the 901st's shots fell short but Space Marine power armour was among the best in the galaxy and lasguns, appallingly deadly against exposed flesh, could do little more than scorch the paint from the Soul Drinkers.

Lasguns here are noted specifically to be more effective against flesh than power armor - this really isn't surprising, but it also suggests that lasguns can be optimized in various ways for certain kinds of targets. This would, for example, reflect that the laser frequencies are tuned to be better against flesh than agianst metal or ceramic. Or, it may reflect the fact the laser is to blow big holes in a body and burn flesh, but it lacks penetration (think of a shotgun.)

Also its not surprising that Sarpedon has already turned against the Penal Legion he was fighting againts not long ago, especially since he mislead them from the outset.
Part 2 of Chapter War.. and the novel is over.

Page 241

Landers, rectangular and much larger than the comet-like drop pods, were making landfall a short distance away...
...
The landers in the jungle did not carry Howling Griffons. They opened to reveal the armoured hulls of vehicles in the Chapter's livery, embossed with the heraldic symbol of the rampant griffon that adorned the shoulder pad of every Howling Griffon. Engines gunned and the Chapter's tanks were disgorged from the massive landers. Rhino APCs, Predator tanks, and Mercaeno's command Land Raider rolled out, with more coming down behind them.

Space Marine vehicle carriers.

Page 242

Mercaeno was last inside, surrounded by the many tactical readouts showing data from the other squads. He read off the readiness runes pro­jected onto one pict-screen - the whole force had deployed and mounted up in a few minutes, with a speed and efficiency that no normal commander could hope for.

Inside of Mercaeno's Land Raider. Incidetnally the Strike cruiser was carrying 3 whole companies, which is unusual since most stirke cruisers only carry a company or so.

PAge 244

There were fellow inquisitors out there in the galaxy who would gladly kill Thaddeus if they got the chance, as well as numerous members of the Ecclesiarchy and half the Adeptus Mechanicus. Few of them, however, could compare to Lord Mercaeno.

The pilot-cogitator did most of the work flying the shuttle, leaving Thaddeus to watch the sensor data from the Cerulean Claw.
...
The shuttle had access to the data gathered by the Cerulean Claw in orbit - the crew had shut off the shuttle's access as soon as they realised it was missing, of course, but Thaddeus still had some old inquisitor's tricks up his sleeve. The Inquisitorial seal, which had opened the door to the shuttle bay, also had a code-cracking circuit that, for a few minutes at least, opened a back door into the shut­tle's cogitator and let him see what the Howling Griffons were seeing. It wouldn't last for long, but then probably neither would Thaddeus.

- Thaddeus' beliefs about his seal are basically confirmed, up to and including getting tactical feeds of the strike cruiser's sensors. We also get mention that there are tons of people out to kill him, which sort of confirms his radical status. What is he doing here? Bet you can guess.

Page 255

The axe that had slain Periclitor was heavy in Lord Mercaeno's hand, as if the magnitude of that deed weighed it down. Its head was covered in the scroll­work of the psychic circuit that ran through the weapon, focusing Mercaeno's psychic ability so tightly that he could wrench the very soul from an enemy it struck.

Mercaeno's force axe.

Page 255-256

Mercaeno looked up at the pict-screen on which was the transmission from Thol's Predator. Among the grainy darkness of the charred forest he could see pur­ple-black armour like the carapaces of a host of beedes - power armour, Space Marines skulking in the dark­ness.

Pict feed transmitted from a Predator to Mercaeno's Land RAider.

Page 258

Heavy bolter rounds blew the track off a Predator so it carved a crescent gouge in the earth as it slewed round, more shots ham­mering against it and blasting the paint off one side.

Heavy bolter vs Predator tank.

Page 259

One or two never left the vehicle, their heads battered into bloodied flowers of torn ceramite by bolter shots, and another clattered to the ground with one arm and shoulder blown off by a plasma gun blast.

Effects of bolter and plasma guns on the Griffons.

Page 261 -262

A few of the more martially minded and experienced inquisitors were the equal of a Space Marine in combat, and a handful of them were sub­stantially tougher even than an Astartes. But Thaddeus was not one of them.

Its interesting to speculate whether this is due to power armor, fancy tricks, or some sort of surgical/genetic augmentation. Or perhaps even spychic power.


Page 262

Mercaeno, with a Space Marine's enhanced vision and a psyker's insight, had picked out the skulking Thaddeus from the shadows. Thaddeus cursed himself for thinking he could hide.

Mercaeno had used his senses and night vision to spot Thaddeus.

Page 263

Without even willing it, Thaddeus was firing, the autopistol shots smacking into Mercaeno's breast­plate in miniature starbursts.

Once more Thaddeus' autopistol is utterly useless.

Page 263-264

The blade hit ceramite just below Mercaeno's arm, and its tip sheared through his power armour with unnatural ease. Thaddeus willed the blade into action and as it slid through muscle and bone the blade fragmented, dozens of steel shards flying loose to shred Mercaeno's flesh. Like great steel insects, they burst from the armour of Mercaeno's chest and right arm, flitting through the air hungry for blood.

Mercaeno roared. Thaddeus twisted the blade and felt ceramite fragmenting under it. The pain and destruction wrought by the blade would have felled anyone, even most Astartes. But Lord Mercaeno's hand had taken the head of Periclitor, and he had seen every kind of combat on every type of battle­field. He had suffered worse and been victorious.

Thaddeus' phase blade trick again. The weapon seems to be thoguth activated, and while it does nasty damage, apparently Mercaeno is used to enduring worse abuse.

Page 264

His hand reached up to clamp the magnetic grenade to the back of Mercaeno's armour. If Thaddeus was to die, he could at least help the Soul Drinkers escape
destruction and find their true enemy, by killing the Howling Griffons' commander.

Guessing its a Krak grenade. And yes, Thaddeus is here to help his former adversaries the Soul Drinkers. Yes, I was going What the Fuck as well. And it outraged me to see a decnet character yet again having to die so Sarpedon could continue on. But what's grating here is that Thaddeus really serves no purpose I can see, he's just a Deus Ex Machina for some reason for Sarpedon - and not evne very useful in that regar.d So all around pointless as a subplot.

Page 275

"Then I take it, Lord Mercaeno, that you are assuming command of the Imperial forces on Van­qualis?"
"That is correct." said Mercaeno. "And with our combined forces we will butcher the Bearers of the Black Chalice here and now. "
..
"And that is where we will destroy the Black Chal­ice. My men are approaching from the east. You will take the 901st and block the western edge of the marshes. The traitors will be trapped."

"Abandoning our positions here will give the orks free rein." said Varr. "They could get to the coast in three days unopposed."

"General Varr." said Mercaeno gravely, "my Chapter swore to defend Vanqualis a long time ago. When we learned of the greenskins that infested it, I took my Chapter to cleanse these jungles of the xenos. But the Howling Griffons also knew that one day the Black Chalice would return, and until they are destroyed there is room for no other concerns. I despise the xenos as much as you do, Varr - the more so, for I have fought their kind in every corner of the galaxy. But believe me when I say that I would rather every single Vanqualian dies to orkish hands than a lone bearer of the Black Chalice escapes these jungles alive. Do not think to question me, Varr, nor even to guess at what drives us. We will stop at noth­ing to fulfil the oaths our Chapter has sworn. Nothing."

Mercaeno proves to be the assholish reincarnation of Reinez. YEs, its baiscally the same thing. Space Marine Chapter acts like dicks coming to help, then abandons that task to pursue what they perceive as more important duty, and everyone else can go to hell. Any assets around are to be used to pursue their personal purpose, no matter who has to suffer.

In other words, Ben Counter seems to think all Space Marines are Dark Angels, more or less.

Page 276-277

"Penal Legions," said Borganor with some distaste. "The worst of the worst. Scum not fit to seek the Emperor's redemption."

"Scum indeed." said Mercaeno. "But the greenskins will have weeded out the weaker-willed.

Among those men will be the hardest-bitten of killers. And it barely matters if the 901st stand and fight or run like dogs, Borganor. All they need to do is slow the Black Chalice down. As soon as we get to grips with the enemy, the Black Chalice will be destroyed. Whether the 901st survive to fight alongside us is irrelevant."

"Then they shall serve some purpose in death," said Borganor. "Far more than they ever did in life."

Yet more proof the Griffons in this novel are assholes.


Page 281 -

"Commander," voxed Sergeant Salk from up ahead. Salk's squad included a number of tough field veterans and Sarpedon had found himself using them as forward scouts more and more often.

"We've got contacts up ahead. Half a kilometre from us."
"Howling Griffons?"
"No. It looks like the 901st."
"All units, halt," ordered Sarpedon.

Possible implication of engagement range, or soon to be engagement range.

Page 282-283

Sarpedon saw movement on the far shore. Chimera troop carriers, rugged APCs used throughout the Imperial Guard, rode up over the tangles of roots on the bank and tipped down into the swamp. Ripples rode through the filthy swamp water ahead of them as they forged forwards.

I guess this is the 901st's armour.

PAge 283- 284

"They're moving to engage," said Sarpedon. "Soul drinkers! Advance as line!"

Behind Sarpedon, the Soul Drinkers moved for­ward in a long, forbidding line, each Space Marine an anchor keeping the line taut and relentless. Sarpe­don joined them, scuttling down from the tree back into the water. The Chimeras of the 901st were slow­ing down in the sucking mud and one foundered in the shadow of the orkish wreck. Its top hatch swung open and the men inside vaulted out. The water was chest-high to an unaugmented human and they struggled to keep their footing in the swamp.

One of them shouted. The Soul Drinkers had been spotted. Hundreds of men were in the water now, lasguns ready, a few heavy weapons and plasma guns shouldered ready to fight.

It could be because they are brave, though Sarpe­don, that they come forward to fight us. Or it could be that they do not believe they will get off this planet, and they are just looking for a good fight before it is over.

Sarpedon could see the lead Chimera, a command vehicle trailing a cluster of antennae and mounted with vox-casters. The command unit inside were clambering out, and they were just hitting the water when the firing began.

"Advance!" Sarpedon heard - it was Captain Luko, jogging through the swamp, leading a chevron of Soul Drinkers through the spattering of las-fire. The 901st were sending out ranging shots, or perhaps hoping to break up the advance. Space Marine armour was all but proof against isolated las-fire, and it took far more to rattle the Soul Drinkers. As the first bolters rang out, Sarpedon put his head down and ran for the command Chimera.

- A short time after spotting the Guardsmen, the Soul Drinkers advance and attack. Both guardsmen and Spacec marines exhchange fire. Call it around 500 meters or so, which is well within the capability of both weapons.

Again note the vehicles and plasma weapons - these are well equipped penal troopers being expended and punished.

Page 284

Ahead of Sarpedon, the 901st's command Chimaera rocked as a plasma blast bored through its side and flames billowed out from the top hatch

Plasma gun blast penetrates command chimera's armour.

Page 287

"How long before we can hit the warp?"
"A day at least." replied Tydeus.
...
Many of the Brokenback's component ships had functional warp engines, which had been connected together so they could move the whole hulk into the warp.
...
"Lygris has been sabotaging the connections between the plasma generators and the warp coils. They can be fixed but it all takes time. It won't stop us, but it will slow us down"
...
"We will jump into the warp as soon as the engines are ready."

- Eumenes (the psycho) intends to jump to warp as soon as the damage Lygris has inflicted on the Brokenback's warp drive. By the given estimations that will take a day. Given that the hulk is still orbiting around the planet, this seems to imply the Brokenback can jump into the warp while still in-sysetm. The alterante interpreation, though, is that it takes the hulk less than a day to reach the edge of the system before entering the Warp.



Page 296-297

"And the accuracy is exceptional. An orbital bom­bardment would normally carpet this valley at random. The Black Chalice must have some very ancient technology at its disposal to fire so close to their own forces with such confidence."
"Take care, Captain Darion, not to admire the ways of the enemy." said Mercaeno bitterly. "Nor to ascribe him a capacity for destruction beyond our own. We are the Emperor's soldiers. This is nothing com­pared to the strength granted us by our Emperor."

One Griffon thinks the Brokenback's bombardment accuracy is unusual, Mercaeno disagrees, although that sound more out of fanatacism or anger than rationality.


Page 297

"Full scans. Risk the Claw if you have to get close enough."
"We have already begun." said Scarlphan. "I'm sending it to your slate now, Lord Librarian."
Mercaeno took a data-slate out from the wargear hanging at the waist of his armour. Its screen lit up, showing a diagram of the enemy ship

- The Griffons carry data-slates that can send/receive sensor/map data from their strike cruiser in orbit.

Page 308

The portable juvenat units, newer and less efficient than those in her pinnacle chambers, filled the back of the pas­senger deck and emitted occasional spurts of freezing white vapour.

The countess' juvenat units are newer, smaller but less efficient. than the stuff in her chambers. I'm guessing there is a definite size/efficiency thing going on, which explains the cumbersome setup.


Page 315

The ship shot up into the sky, the force of the acceleration pressing down on Sarpedon. In a little over an hour they would be back on the Brokenback, and Sarpedon had no doubt about the battle he would have to fight there.

The Brokenback ought to still be in low orbit. So therefore from ground to orbit taking an hour..

Page 317

The greenskins built their ramshackle fleet on the shore of Nevermourn, and the first casualties of ork fire were inflicted on Herograve as orkish catapults flung explosive shells across the sea. They were barely a footnote to the scale of carnage that would erupt as the greenskins made it into the teeming cities.

Orkish naval warfare, something rarely seen in 40K.

Page 320

"Sharks in the void!" came a voice over the vox-casters, transmitted from the bridge of the Brokenback. Sarpedon recognised it as belonging to Tydeus, one of Eumenes's scout squad. "Thirty plus, heading straight for us!"
"How long?" voxed Eumenes.
"Twenty minutes, maybe less."

- it will take twenty minutes for the drop pods launcehd from the Howling Griffon strike cruiser to reach the Brokenback. Assuming they move between 20 and 200 km/s (torpedo speeds from execution hour, and Boarding torpedo speeds from Iron hands) would suggest a range between 24,000 and 240,000 km. It also suggests an operational duration of torpedoes for 20 minutes or so.

Page 321-322

Towards this monstrosity sped the shoal of Impe­rial attack boats, huge drills grinding beneath the eagles emblazoned across their prows. More than thirty of them skipped off the uppermost reaches of Vanqualis's atmosphere, undersides glowing, as ranging shots from the Brokenback's weapons spat between them.

The Brokenback's main armaments, the torpedo tubes and orbital barrage guns of its component warships, had too long a minimum range to deal with the relatively tiny attack craft, so power was switched to the defensive turrets. More and more opened up as the assault boats approached and sud­denly a hail of fire was streaming from the hulk, thick as rain. Forward shields flared and fell as sprays of laser bolts hit the lead craft. The first one to be destroyed exploded in a blossom of white nuclear flame, the fire snuffed out a moment later in the vacuum leaving a sad tangle of charred wreckage and bodies.

Another fell, and another. But the surviving assault boats streaked on through the fire, passing into the shadow cast over them by the hulk drifting in front of Obsidian's harsh diamond sun.

The Brokenback's main armemnents are identified as torpedo tubes and orbital barrage guns (bombardment cannon?) - it is also noted that they have "too long a minimal range" to deal with the tiny attack craft. Given what I mentioned before, this suggsts the defense guns have a range of at least thousands if not tens (or hundreds!) of thousands of km in this context. To be fair I suspect its closer to tens of thousands, since hundreds of thousand sof km is long range for most anti ship weapons and they should be able to blast at the torpedoes. Hell I doubt tens of thousands of km would be minimum range, so I'nm thinking its more in line with thousands of km.

mention of "nuclear flame" as one of the drop pods is destroyed by point defense laser fire, and they're shielded apparently.

Page 323

Enormous orbital guns, huge and rusted immobile like ancient monuments to war, loomed several storeys high in the semi-darkness.
...

...the direction of the huge orbital lasers mounted at the far end of the deck.
..

Eumenes and his Space Marines were level with the first of the truly vast laser cannons, the huge generator chamber slanting upwards towards the high ceiling of the gun deck. It had needed a hun­dred crewmen to fire it when the Macharia Victrix had first gone to war, turning the huge wheels to aim the laser or hosing down the generator chamber to keep it from glowing red-hot and melting with the heat of the las-pulse building within.

Orbital guns "several storeys" high - 6-7 metres or so. They all seem to be laser weapons, and I'm guessing they might be a bombardment weapon (hence the "orbital" bit, suggesting the battleship might have been some dedicated orbital bombardment platform. It was aimed manually and hosed down (with what? Coolant? Water?) to keep cool, although without knowing efficiencies and other details we can't really extrapolate, except that it would eventually melt from the laser power building within. "las-pulse" implies the weapon was perhaps a "blaster" type - designed for mecahnical/explosive effects rather than just burning/melting.


Page 323-324

Eumenes aimed down the twin barrels of his artificer-crafted storm bolter. He had found the weapon in the Chapter's armoury deep inside the Brokenback - presumably it was being kept to reward a Soul Drinker for a promotion to captain or for some great deed of heroism....

Non-terminator Storm bolter.

Page 325

Lord Mercaeno had loaded the entire 901st Penal Legion into the assault boats on the Cerulean Claw and sent them to assault the far side of the space hulk.

Because he's an ass. Oh yes, Sarpedon killed Varr, because he's also an ass, and Mercaeno is using the rest for his own agenda, because being a Space Marine in a Soul Drinkers novel means you're usually an asshole.

Page 327

The Claw had allowed its orbit to decay rapidly after releasing the 901st on their assault boats, and slipped into Vanqualis's upper atmosphere like a shark below the waters. Its journey through the storm clouds had been short but dangerous. Mer­caeno had judged those risks to be justified if it meant a chance to close distance with the Broken-back. The Cerulean Claw emerged from Vanqualis's atmosphere directly below the Brokenback, twisting gracefully to bring the upper surface of the Howling Griffons ship's hull towards the lower surfaces of the hulk.

The Brokenback's guns had been given enough time to fire on the assault boats in which the 901st had been sent hurtling towards the hulk. But with the distance now so narrow, few of them could draw a bead on the assault torpedoes and gunships that launched from the Cerulean Claw...
...
The turrets on the Claw and the Brokenback swapped fire and guns were stripped from the lower hull of the hulk. Mercaeno's orders had been to get the assault ships onto the hulk at all costs, even if that meant risking the Cerulean Claw itself. With short-range fire blazing from the Claw, the turrets had to split their fire between the huge shape of the Claw and the host of glittering assault craft streaking towards it.

- the Griffons strike cruiser, after launching the drop pods, skimmed the upper atmosphere of the planet to come up and under the Brokenback. Given that the Brokenback was still in low orbit, and the Strike cruiser is in te upper atmosphere, we must be talking a few hundred to a few thousand km range. I would imagine the inability of the guns to track and fire is due in part to the short time (certainly less than a minute, prboably a matter of seconds at most) to locate, track and fire - usually point defense guns have much longer to track and predict. It still says something about engagement ranges of the weapons (hundreds ot thousands of km still) as very short range, and thousands to (maybe) a few tens of thousands (against the Penal troops.)

The two Space MArine vessels are also trading fire via turrets at this range.. interesting they're using turrets rather than broadside guns. either both ships have no broadside guns in range (or in the case of the Claw, none at all) or they aren't going for kill shots (which might explain the "short rnage fire" statement.. Still, knowing that turreted anti-ship weapons can suppelment or replace broadside weapons is nice to know.

PAge 328

"They're hitting the underside of the ship," said Lygris. "That's what the bridge says. They've proba­bly scanned us and want to head for the warp engines."

"They're going to blow the whole damned hulk up," said Sarpedon.

"It's what I'd do," said Lygris. "If I was in their posi­tion. Standard space hulk engagement tactic, straight out of the Codex Astartes."

- blowing the warp engines of a ship (or space hulk) to destroy it is standard proceudre for Astartes.

Page 329

"Mercaeno's sacrificed the 901st to make sure he only has to fight half of us at once. Codex Astartes again, but with some imagination behind it."

- sacrificing "expendable" lesser troops (like Penal Legions as a diversion to "divide and conquer" is also Astartes procedure, supposedly. I'm not sure whether to remind people of what Thaddeus said about Guilliman or make "Spiritual Liege" jokes in line with the mentality of the Griffons.

Page 331

The storm bolter chattered in his hands and bodies came apart in front of him, chanting, screaming voices all around.

Storm bolter blowing bodies apart.

Page 332

Another surge charged forward. Eumenes fired and another trooper fell to his knees, chest blown wide open, to be trampled beneath the feet of the men behind him.

Again storm bolter blows the chest open on a penal trooper.

Page 336

Mercaeno consulted the portable auspex scanner he held. It had been set to locate an area with great power and heat signa­tures, which the scanners on the Claw had determined were the main generators for the hulk's warp engines.

Thermal/IR auspex.

Page 342-343

It was the Black Ships that took them there. Of the countless millions of psykers who had been taken away on a Black Ship, only the slightest fraction ever survived, trained to survive the threat of possession and madness that was the bane of every psyker. The others were held in cells wound about with anti-psychic wards, their spacebound dungeons places of fear and pain. Many of them knew that once they reached their destination, they would never return. Others remained ignorant, often from feral worlds that had barely any understanding of the great empire in the sky, and were driven mad by the terror of the Black Ships. Many tried to mutiny, but the mind-wiped troops of the Inquisition and the psychic interrogators of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica rarely failed to put down such uprisings with brutality extreme even by the standards of the Imperium.

Knowledge of the existence of the Black Ships was proscribed among Imperial citizens. Only senior adepts knew anything but whispered legends about them, and then they rarely had any idea of what went on inside their sleek black hulls, or which planet the Black Ships would visit next. No one, not even the inquisitors who served grim tours of duty on the Black Ships, knew what happened to the hordes of psykers herded off when the ships reached Terra. All they knew was that there were thousands of Black Ships out there, making long, terrible voyages to Terra and back, bringing the vast harvest of psychic humans to the very heart of the Imperium. Each Black Ship was deeply scarred with thousands of years of psychic pain, the agony of fear and the torments of the endless testing. Many inmates died on board the Black Ships and never left, their souls imprinted on the scarred walls. Oth­ers poured their hatred and fear into the substance of the Black Ships so that part of them would always survive, echoing through the Black Ships forever.

There are "thousands" of Black ships allegedly (becuase other sources say exact numbers aren't known) and apparently "countless millions" can be taken away on a black ship (although exact numbers have varied. 20K was a good haul in Draco for example.) That suggests anywhere from tens of millions to billions of psykers per haul (which I believe is either annually or by generation, depending on source.)

They also seem to be so bleak and grimdark because of the psychic imprint that countless psykers hauled through them must leave (their emotional stress and terror and unceratinty nd shit.) knowing the warp like I do, this is probably self-reinforcing (psykers will feel the residual emotions of allthose past psykers, which works them up, which leaves their own impressions... an endless cycle.) One would think they'd purge such imprints, since that much psychic residue is bound to be dangerous all its own (the effect it has on the barriers between the warp and realspace.) but apparently not. Maybe they can't do it without losing the ships or the tech behind the,

Page 346

This was why Sarpedon had chosen the Herald of Desolation to make his stand. The psychic imprint left on it by the Black Ship's inmates amplified Sarpedon's own capabilities. Here, the Hell could rise higher than anywhere else.

Yes, Sarpedon is now using the psychic torment and suffering of countless other psykers to boost his own psychic abilities. Indeed, this is what the Emperor wants.


Page 360

Once, Periclitor had been a Space Marine of the accursed Traitor Legions, a mortal champion of the Dark Gods. But the blood he shed in the name of Chaos formed a great lake in the warp, and so pleased were the gods that they granted him dae-monhood. An enormous cannon, an engorged and twisted bolt gun, was leaned against the throne - it dripped with tears from the captive daemons that screamed from inside its ammunition magazine.

- Ben Counter once again demonstrates his fetish for having Chaos troops use daemon firing guns. I suppose it could be worse though. It could be a Slaaneshi daemon prince and have the daemons shoot out of other places....

Yes and crying daemons.

Page 363

With a final effort Sarpedon forced all his power out of the staff in a wave of crackling destruction.

Daemons disintegrated. Lopsided mouths lolled stupidly as the bodies around them were shredded to ash. Sarpedon slammed wave after wave of psy­chic anger into the sea of bodies around him, blasting a clearing amid the clawing limbs and writhing flesh.

Sarpedon gasped for breath, his psychic power momentarily spent. He was standing in a crater lined with charred, misshapen bodies on the black marble of the mountainside. Sarpedon pulled the staff out of the stone and looked back up at the temple.

Sarpedon's super secret Area-attack psyker move.

Page 366

Mercaeno himself had said just how powerful he was. Sarpedon didn't have any finesse to his power, but he didn't need it, not now that Mercaeno had done all the hard work of creating a world around them.

..

Mercaeno lost his grip on his world and suddenly it was Sarpedon's.

Sarpedon somehow manages to take control of the psychically-generated illusion-world from Mercaeno.


Page 371

The trench had been dug for Imperial Guardsmen who were all a good head and shoulders shorter than a Space Marine, and Sarpedon had to crouch down on his haunches to keep his head out of the gunfire.

Trenches and guardsmen "head and shoulders" shorter than Space Marines.

Page 378

The blade of the Soulspear passed through the back of Mercaeno's head and came out through his mouth. Flesh and blood hissed as the vortex field annihilated the matter it touched. Sarpedon looked up, almost mesmerised, as Eumenes slowly brought the blade up, bit by bit bisecting Lord Mercaeno's head.

Soulspear vs flesh. Seems like quite often it comes down to Sarpedon playing Darth Maul in these books.

Page 386-387

There were hundreds of craft, barely seaworthy, built from the trees of Nevermourn's jungles and crammed with uncountable numbers of greenskins.

...

The first ship, an enormous splintering hulk, rode up high on the crest of a wave and crashed onto the cruel rocks before the line. Its hull broke apart, sod­den wood tearing with the impact, and the ship disgorged ten thousand screaming greenskin slaves onto the shore.
..
Boats made of lashed timbers cut from Never­mourn's jungles crashed into the rocks, orks leaping from their prows - many of the vessels had sunk on the journey and left countless greenskins sinking to the sea floor, but three-quarters of the horde had made it and that was more than enough.

The great Ork naval fleet.



Page 403

The twin blades arced past him, close enough for the Soulspear's blade of har­nessed vortex to score a furrow down his breastplate. He could feel the whispers of the warp as the weapon passed by him, for the Soulspear's blades were gateways to the warp, caged wounds in realspace.

Soulspear again. And basically this is Eumenes and Sarpedon again. Sarpedon goes back on his promise to Eumenes and basically stages a counter-revolution to put down the rebel that he created. I'll grant him this much at least, he learned from his fuckups and became a better person from it. Indeed, in Hellforged, he'll actually be less of an ass than he was before.

And while he fucked up the planet Vanqualis pretty bad, it is still intact, its population has not been butchered or given to Chaos, and with Mercaeno dead the Griffons act like decent Space Marines and purge the greenskins before they can slaughter the populace (rather than obsessing over the Soul Drinkers.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Well we're into the home stretch! Now we move onto Hellforged. This is, hands down, the BEST Soul drinkers novel. Virtually no Soul Drinkers stupidity. Sarpedon actually is tolerable if not likable, there is a distinct threat and the Soul Drinkers act basically like the heroic renegades they were intended to be. It's really a shame that the series only found its feet this late into the series, because its almost over. Had the series been written like this novel from early on, it could have been the same as Grey Knights. With hellforged you can also get sort of an idea of what Ben Counter might have intended for the series as well, and this sort of 'intended view' carries over into Phalanx as well.

One of the things I've come to consider about the soul Drinkers is that Ben Counter might have been better served using some other 'renegade' Chapter rather than making his own. For example, the Relictors would have served in this role ideally and they probably wouldn't have suffered nearly from the inconsistencies that plague Soul Drinkers. AFter all, its not as if Ben Counter CAN'T write good Space Marine characters, he just can't pull this series off by writing about the Soul drinkers it seems. There is a difference.

The summary of Hellforged is pretty straighforward. The Soul Drinkers run into the AdMech, get chased into the Veiled Regions, have to find fuel and supplies if they are to continue. They run across a unclaimed (By the Imperium) Human world being attacked by the Necrons, which they rush to aid in return for supplies (although also to help humans. Difference between previous case and this is that the rationalizations are better handled. Like with Bleeding Chalice, necessity and principle go hand in hand and it works.) What's notable about this novel (aside from a Ben Counter take on Necrons, which should be.. interesting to see people react to.) is that this is perhaps a 'prelude' of the so called 'Newcrons' that came across with the advent of 5th edition (particularily the codex.) Certainly alot of the stuff we get in here and witness seems to foreshadow what we have with the necrons now.

as I have been doing lately, Hellforged will be covered in two updates. simple reason being, I want to get done with it and move onto Horus Heresy. I've decided that HH will start after Soul Drinkers, so within a few more updates we should be done (I'll probably do Phalanx and DAenyathos as single updates, because they really can be treated as such)

Anyhow, on to Hellforged.

Page 11

His core temperature was well above the human maximum, his sensors told him, but such things had ceased to matter to him now that he had abandoned most of the weaknesses of the flesh. The hand with which he held the xenos artefact was bionic, as were his legs and most of his organs. His face was rebuilt from synthetic flesh, given a cruel, noble caste. His brain was original. That could never be replaced. The rest of him had been almost completely dispensed with.

AdMech Augmetics.
Page 14

Some speculated that the vacuum had become somehow denser, dragging in matter from all around. Others suggested that some great cosmic event had occurred there, a supernova or the collision of two super-dense stars that had started a chain reaction of collapse and rebirth still reverberating through the area. Certainly, it had been a momentous event indeed, because the warp was thick and sluggish there, the beacon of the Astronomican like a night sky's moon reflected in stagnant water.
...
Navigation, on the few times it had been tried, was dangerous and haphazard even by the lethal standards of space travel, and settlements within the Veiled Region were prohibited by Imperial law.

The primary danger within the Veiled Region, however, was isolation. Astropathic communications were difficult, and became more so the further a ship went. Eventually, psychic communication was blocked entirely, the warp resembling a sucking mire or endless doldrums where an astropath's mental voice echoed back only silence.

Description of the Veiled Regions. The interesting thing is how the turbulence of the warp seems to echo the nebula like, increased esnity conditions in this region. It also reminds me of the rogue trader novel depictions of the Damocles Gulf region (and its hazards)

Page 16

Her robed form concealed a torso taken up with the power cells for the rotator laser cannon that had replaced her left arm, and one eye was a complicated multi-spectrum targeting array.

Rotator laser cannon. alternately called a multilaser (MULTILAZORS) and a lascannon.

Page 19

The command altar of the bridge was on top of a shallow pyramid rising from the labyrinthine library, kilometres of bookshelves winding in a complicated pattern that filled the bridge. Thousands of books and data-slates, loaded with accumulated space-faring wisdom and the philosophy of the Cult Mechanicus, loaded the shelves and stood in piles at every intersection.

The ship's navigation crew, tech-priests in their red, cog-toothed robes, stood poring over stellar maps inked on parchment, plotting courses with compasses and quill pens. Dark grottoes among the bookshelf caves hid communications and sensorium helms. The ordnance crew had a room of glass-fronted cases holding rare and sacred tomes of naval battle-lore. They did their bloody work with abaci on large map-tables scattered with markers representing the ship and the area around it. The bridge had few direct readouts of the area around the ship, such as a viewscreen or tactical orrery, because the crew of the Antithesis solved most problems through abstract mathematics and geometry rather than through the sensory guesswork that governed lesser craft.

Bridge of an Explorator ship, Ben counter style. not really as bad compared to some of his depictions (Wait til Dark Adeptus.)

Pag e20

After ten thousands years questing, only a fraction of the Imperium had been properly
explored and catalogued. It was a sacred task that, like humanity's many other battles, would never end, and yet required the dedication of its servants to the exclusion of all else.

Right, because the Imperium spends all that time on nothing but WAR!. Thousands of Wars in an Imperium of Milions of worlds.. oh wait.

Page 21

The Antithesis was a cruiser-class vessel, not quite the equal of one of the Imperium's ancient mighty battleships, but a swift and well-crewed ship with enough Martian-forged armaments to punch above her weight. Her sister ship, the Constant, was slower and less manoeuvrable, but much more heavily gunned, and sported an enormous nova cannon on her prow that could blow an enemy cruiser dean in two.

The Constant was under the command of Magos Hepsebah who trusted no one but herself to operate the nova cannon.

Other ships in the fleet. Note the nova cannon - yet another variant of nova cannons.

Page 21

Several armed explorator ships of the Asdepian Squadron flew a picket around the two cruisers. They were smaller craft, but they were hardy, built for exploring harsh regions and for resisting the worst excesses of stellar radiation and micrometeorite impacts. They made for capable escort craft, tough enough to weather enemy fire and nimble enough to outfox slower enemies.

Picket and escort ships, specialized for Explorator duties.

Page 22

...the Ferrous, an armed factory ship that wallowed obesely through space, dragging an enormous processing and storage section behind it, plumes of plasma fire bursting through the vents down its spine as it turned its cargo of harvested ore and chemicals into fuel for the rest of the fleet. Magos Vionel, the commander of the Ferrous, was as much a part of the ship as its chemical tanks and fusion chambers were.

The Explorator's factory ship. Implies its a goliath class factory ship, and seems to be referencing the old space fleet fluff where plasma fuel is made from ore and chemical and other shit. Note the "chemical tanks" and "fusion chambers" - whether they are part of the fuel-making process or not I have no clue.

Page 22

The final element of the fleet, and by far the largest, was the swarm of smaller explorator ships, armed merchantmen, tech-guard transports, cargo containers and single-squadron fighter platforms collectively known as the Fleet Minor. They flew around the larger ships in a silver cloud, serving as flying laboratories, scouts, storage space and fighter response.

I guess these represent attack-craft scale stuff, although some of that stuff sounds big enough to be starships in their own right. Not sure if they're warp capable or not.

Page 23

It was huge, though, far bigger than any ships of the Mechanicus fleet. No ship of the Imperium, even a titanic battleship of the Battlefleet Solar, had ever been built that big. There were only two possible identities for such a contact.

yes, that's the Brokenback, and its bigger than any battleship the Imperium has made or currently has. We don't quite know how big the Brokenback is, except it has alot of battleships and cruisers and other alien vessels welded into it. Given the sizes for battleships we've seen, its well larger than 10-15 km.

Page 26

"We uncovered a stock of torpedoes on one of the cruiser sections." said Lygris. "Very old. High explosive, armour piercing heads. Better than anything the Imperial Navy has. They'll be in the tubes within an hour."

An hour to load torpedoes. I'm not sure what is supposed to be special about "high explosive, armour piercing warheads" since that basically describes a goo dmany regular torpedoes - unless its the method they penetrate and explode. And of course, older is ALWAYs better!

I'm left wonder if these re the seeker shells they mention below,

Page 27

The enemy ship was a conglomeration of fused spacecraft the size of a city. Every element was deformed andmerged with the craft next to it, and its every curve and rupture bore the hallmarks of the warp. It had been born there, in the abyss of the immaterium, from hundreds of ships that had become lost in the warp and gravitated towards this foul lump of tortured metal.

"city" sized? The thing is bigger than battleships but we dont know how big. considering some 40K battleships have gotten to 60+ km this could say there are some big cities (like, you know, hive cities.) Ah, context, context, context.

Page 29

A Space Hulk was more than a material threat. It was an object of religious hatred for the Mechanicus. There were few techheresies as grave as xenos ships being melded with Imperial craft. Those Imperial ships had been sacred once, their machinespirits ancient things before whom tech-priests knelt and begged for counsel. They were vessels of the Omnissiah's wisdom as well as the Emperor's might, god-machines that represented the human race's greatest achievements in conquering the galaxy.

And at the same time they love Space Hulks for the purposes of scavenging them. Hell that was something going on in bleeding chalice for crying out loud.

PAge 29

The Fleet Minor broke out of formation and thrust forwards, thousands of engines flaring like fireflies. Countermeasures were launched, bursting in silver fireworks, throwing sensor-baffling filaments everywhere.

Impiles thousands of "Fleet minor" craft. also note the countermeasures.. Ben counter uses these farily often in his books (like Gray Knights)

Page 30

Electronic warfare ships followed them in towards the enemy, electromagnetic fields crackling between them to form blind spots where the fighters would be safe until they began their attack runs

EW ships - apparently that's eithre some sort of jamming field or stealth field or something.

Page 30

Most of the automated loaders had been reactivated by Lygris's efforts, but plenty of the enormous broadside guns still had to be loaded manually. The Soul Drinkers saluted Sarpedon as he arrived. Sergeant Salk was at the nearest gun, directing his squad to haul the chains, dragging a tank-sized shell into the gun's enormous breech. It was one of a dozen along the steel canyon of an Imperial ship, the Intolerant, one of the largest warships in the Brokenback's construction.

Automated loaders on an Imperial warship, although they still need/have manual loading mechanisms it seems (backups I suppose.) And they load tank sized shells into the gun, one of a dozen guns on the deck it seems (how many decks there are we don't know.) Also you only need one or two soul Drinkers to load those shells (although Sarpedon helps.)


Page 31

...the Soul Drinker crouching at the top of the gun's housing, peering through the targeting reticle that let him see the scene outside the ship.

The gunnery systems. Whether this is manual targeting, or the only targeting they have we don't know - although its interesting that in the previous novels guns could be fired from the bridge of the brokenback.

PAge 36-37

...seeker shells, relics of an earlier age of technology, erupted from the enormous broadside guns, spiralling on columns of fire through the void. Armed with their own cogitators they sought out targets of opportunity, and drove into the cloud of smaller ships in the vanguard of the Mechanicus fleet. Blossoms of atomic fire erupted and imploded darkly in the vacuum, leaving silvery sprays of wreckage.

On the gun deck of the Intolerant, Sarpedon watched them on a grainy pict screen hooked up to the gun's own simple sensors. At this distance, the enemy cruisers were visible as silver darts illuminated by light reflected off the surrounding nebulae, and the smaller craft as sprinkled points of light. Many of them were gone in those first few moments, homed in on by the seeker shells, and blasted into burning dust.

Seeker shells, some sort of self propelled rounds and cogitators that are self guided, and pack atomic warheads. Intresting that they are considered "lost-tech" given that Lucian Arcadius in the Rogue Trader novels could get them pretty easily even when he wasn't in power, nevermind the rogue trader RPG. It's possible it's the quality of the seeker system or the propultion system that make them lost-tech, or perhaps the warhead of the shells, rathre than the mere fact they are guided. I also wonder if these re supposed to be those "armour piercing high explosive" ancient tech torpesodes mentioned above.

We also get an expanded idea of the sensor/targeting system on the gun I imagine, it at least has sensors anda visual display so. Also they must be hundreds if not thousands of km away, probably tens of thousands given some of those ships would be large (cruisers if not battleship scale - eg the forge ship) The shells also home in in a "few moments" suggesting projectile velocities on the order of hundreds if not thousands of km (or more if the range is greater.) probably more towards thousands, since we know torpedoes are hundreds of km/s easily and they bypass shields.

Page 37

Twenty guns, most of them automated and the rest operated by the Soul Drinkers, roared in unison. Loading cranes swung into action, and the Soul Drinkers began to reload their guns..

Twenty guns, some automated. The rest manually loaded.

Page 38

Most Imperial Navy craft would have needed to get much closer to strike, but the targeting systems of the Adeptus Mechanicus were superior, and their ordnance streaked into the gun deck of the
Intolerant.

This implies that the combat range was indeed longer than typical for the Navy - on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of km easily, which suggests the projectile velocity for the soul drinkers rounds I stated should have been greater.

Page 39

Sarpedon was in the maintenance decks for the ammunition systems, narrow walkways and corridors slung across steel chasms between the shell hoppers. The loading systems' massive conveyor belts and cranes were clanking along overhead and below, feeding ammunition to the guns that still worked.

The loading system. Really there's nothing too fancy to this, its just a scaled up version of the loading system for some tank and artillery weapons (like the Devastator in some configurations). hell baneblades can have autoloading (Crimson Tears) -they just use servitors to do it. Servitor controlled and fed guns certainly isn't impossible either.


Page 41

Magos Hepsebah aimed the nova cannon. She had designed it and overseen its fitting to the chassis of the Constant, turning it from a vessel of the line into a ship-killer. The barrel was so large it gave the cruiser a lopsided look as if it should topple off balance and tumble through space helplessly, but the cruiser's thrusters kept its enormous mass still as Hepsebah lined up her shot. No single kill shot could be taken against a space hulk. It was a welded mass of dozens of ships, and any one of them might house the bridge, or the ordnance hangars, or the reactors.

It's a custom-designed nova cannon, so that probably explains the differences. Note her description seems to imply a direct hit with the ewapon.

Page 42

Hepsebah ordered the firing chamber menials to drag the two enormous hemispheres of radioactive metal together. Hundreds of men hauled on chains, their muscles burning under their skin in the heat of the firing chamber, their taskmaster barking rhythmic orders to keep the hemispheres swinging. The hemispheres clashed, rang like a great deep bell, and released a massive wave of power funnelled by electromagnetic fields into the accelerator formed by the cannon's barrel. The force of it hit the enormous nova projectile, accelerating it down the barrel at impossible speeds.

The nova cannon fired, and, for a fraction of a second, the Constant and the hulk were connected by a bridge of burning light.

The firing mechanism for this nova cannon quite obviously differs from other ones. One would think that "hemisphres of radioactive metal" might imply a fission reaction., but that's pretty silly since I dont know of any fission reaction that works that way (cf gun type fission reaction - menials cannot equal the performance of high explosive.) nevremind that the mass doesn't blow up, or vaporize the crewers. Clearly its some sort of magic fission-like reaction powering a nova weapon.

Performance wise, it fires a projectile of unknonw size (but presumably quite large, given how bizareely huge the gun itself was on a freaking cruiser) at at least thousands if not tens of thousands of km/s (depending on range.) Also, unlike the nova cannon we're most used to this relise on some sort of weird EM field channeled power (Charged particles) which somehow propels the weapon.


Page 42

...the reactor array of the Blessed Obedience, the enormous industrial ship containing many of the plasma reactors that Lygris had got back on-line to make the space hulk warp-capable. The reactor chamber was enormous, close to a kilometre long, criss-crossed with catwalks that gave access to the titanic cylindrical forms of the reactors. The Blessed Obedience had carried a dozen such reactors in some previous life as a space-faring refinery, each one powerful enough to fuel a spaceship for decades. Every one of the cylinders contained a vessel full of superheated plasma, locked in a constant reaction that pumped power into the hulk's warp arrays. They were crowned with spider-like arrays of steel struts, supporting the cables and pipes that provided the reactors with fuel and coolant, and drew off their massive outputs of power.

Briokenback's reactor complex, seemingly devoted to power genration. It seems to be based off some sort of refinery/indsutrial ship that carried enough fuel for "decades" per reactor.

This is interesting considering last novel they were running short on fuel. They apparently plundered the planet of supplies and ordnance then, meaning most if nto all of this power came from Vanqualis own refineries. WTF were they doing with that much fuel, anyhow.

Also the plasma reactors are cylindrical, and is full of "superheated plasma" undergoing "constant reaction."

Each reactor must be pretty compact, if you can pack a dozen of them into a chamber less than a km long (and probably less than in other dimensions - no more than half that I bet))

Page 54

..it was a part of an Imperial Navy craft, a command ship that had no doubt once served as the nerve centre of a mighty battlefleet. Its captain may have been in command of the most destructive force in the Imperial arsenal - a fleet of battleships that could level cities with their guns - but he still needed somewhere he could be away from the babble of command.

It being a garden. Amazing what can be found or stuck inside a 40K navy starship, isn't it?

Also a "fleet of battleships" who can "level cities with thier guns" which is supposed to be the most destructive thing in the Imperial arsenal (Except for Nova cannons, cyclonic torpedoes, etc.) This is definitely on par with the "Gray Knights orbital strike" quote though.

Page 56

"The last broadsides from the Mechanicus destroyed much of the fuel we took on
board at Nevermourn. With the reactors that remain intact and the fuel we have, I can make two more warp jumps. Three would probably kill the reactors entirely. We need more fuel or we will be permanently becalmed."

"Where can we get it?"
"There are enough working refinery units on board to turn anything from crude oil upwards into fuel. Any civilised world could provide something I could use."

We get confirmation that the last planet they defiled had literally a shit ton of fuel. Also warp jumps apparently consume alot of fuel, if multiple reactors intact would provide only enough power for a few jumps - those ships were supposed to carry "decades" worth of power at normal operation - EACH. Assuming one gigawatt of constaint power draw for a ship, each reactor would carry around 150 MEgatons worth of energy, which means a warp jump to propel the brokenback would consume at LEAST that much energy. (Odds ar, once you consider engine movement and such, the power requirements probably go up quite a bit more than a gigawatt.)

Page 60

In high orbit over the planet, space rippled and burst, spilling the necrotic substance of the region's morbid empyrean like gore from an infected wound. The Brokenback limped out, still trailing tangles of vented plasma and debris.

Brokenback, like many ships seemingly in a Soul Drinkers novel, manage to drop out of the warp practically on top of a planet without trouble (contrast this with Orks dropping out within half a light second of a planet, losing a huge portion of their fleet, in Rynn's World.) Probably some xenos crap in the ship allowing them to do it, but I can't help but wonder what sort of potential warp corruption Sarpedon may inflict on them with such a close emergence point too.


Page 62

Sarpedon let his mind reach out. As a psyker, he had enormous power but little finesse, and he could not read minds or extend his senses like some other Librarians of the Astartes. He was still sensitive enough to notice powerful psykers or the chatter of a million minds packed together, though, and, even to his mind, the city was silent.

Again we see that despite having one MAJOR talent, Soul Drinkers librarians have a host of minro sorts of sensory abilities that allow them to do things (like the meditation of Crimson Tears). Here, Sarpedon can, in a broad fashion, sense the minds of large numbers of people - but apparently he lacks any precision or sensitivity in this detection (like the Hell, his power is very blunt, brute force, and unsubtle and impossible to control. Much like Sarpedon himself.)

PAge 67

Pallas stamped on it and began blasting at the floor around him. The explosive bolter blasts shattered two or three scarabs each

Necron scarabs destroyed by bolter fire.

Page 67

Brother Vorn, who carried Squad Luko's flamer, stepped forwards from the doors, and hosed the area in front of him with liquid flame. The scarabs caught in the flame convulsed as whatever tiny electronics controlling them were melted by the heat.

Astartes flamer powerful enough to melt scarabs. Of course, with living metal, this may not be literal "melting." Its hard to say with Necrons.

Page 72

Many of them seemed to have been dissolved away as if by acid, layers of their bodies exposed by some force that eroded skin and bone.

Gauss weaponry to Sarpedon resembles acid. I hope Counter isn't going to say Necron gauss weapons fire super acid the way plasma guns are flame throwers.

Page 84

The nova cannon on the prow of the Constant was wreathed in coils of superheated gas as it charged. The emerging xenos ship seemed aware of the threat, rotating rapidly with main engines flaring to push it out of the weapon's path.

Chunks of jettisoned surface clattered off it as its bulk shifted sideways, but it was too large for quick or subtle manoeuvres.

The nova cannon fired. The Constant's engines fired to compensate for the immense recoil. The projectile was hurled from the barrel, streaking towards the alien ship on a column of burning light.

The shot slammed into the upper hull of the crescent ship. The energy of the blast flashed so bright the craft was like a second sun, the nova cannon's power discharging in every direction at once.

Every direction save into the craft. When the glare died down, the crescent ship was intact; its upper surface was scorched and studded with fires, but it didn't look like it had suffered any serious damage.

Our Magos-designed specialty nova cannon again. Once again it fires a projectile and, like other nova cannon it seems like you have to fire engines to counter the recoil. The shell is an explosive type.

Necron ship, of course takes fuck all damage from this. What's more is that it's a direct hit, so we're talking KE on top of whatever payload it had. (I vaguely recall someting "atomic")

Page 84

The discharge of power was enormous. The Imperial Navy didn't have energy
weapons that could compare to those opening up on the xenos craft.

Pge 87

It was the size of a battleship. Larger. It was raging with power. It was the most awesome and terrible sight that Voar had ever
seen. His logic circuits were at capacity, forcing his mind to contain what he was seeing and not be rendered dumbstruck by it.

Another necron warship.

Page 87

The Antithesis lurched, its gravity swinging out of kilter as the warp engines accelerated it through the bounds of reality. The Constant followed it, Hepsebah reluctantly turning away from its target even as the nova cannon recharged. The orphaned ships of the Asclepian Squadron, then the Ferrous and the Defence, forced their way through black rents in real space. The Fleet Minor, those spared the fire of the first enemy ship, shifted into the warp behind them. A few stragglers were left behind, thrown out ofthe wake of the larger ships.

The Warp engines seem to literally accelerate a starsip into the warp - we knew they could provide propulsive forces (at least against the tides of the warp) but its rather new to me that they can actually pull the ship into the warp as well. Not only that, but its possible to open warp portals big enough and long enough for other ships (like the rest of the explorator fleet, which seems to include ships that aren't normally warp capable) to enter the warp as well. An interesting ability, and I wonder if its another "neat trick" the Admech (or this magos) keeps for himself.

Also the Magos-designed nova cannon apparently has a prolonged recharge rate.

Page 91

The Asclepian Gamma had been rather more than nine hundred years old, a fine craft built according to principles that were slowly being lost by the shipwrights of the Mechanicus. The squadron was flying one short for the first time in its history. Its machine-spirit had been bright and aggressive, and it made for a tightly run, efficient ship. Now, it was gone forever. A great tragedy had occurred with the loss of that spirit, for such a thing could never be replaced.

More of the "AdMech losing shipbuilding principles over the time" because of grimdark. Also mention of a self aware machine spirit which apparently contributed greatly to the running of the ship.

Page 100

"It's a tank!" shouted one of the sisters standing guard at a window that had been hurriedly fortified with sandbags. "It's the size of the chapel!"
...
An enormous black shape, a slab of darkness with a halo of green lightning crackling around it, could just be seen through the gaps in the half-built walls. It was still far away, but it already loomed larger than the cathedral. It was enormous.

Necron vehicle of some kind, seems to be a superheavy.. and its not a monolith.

Page 100

It was a multi-melta, a twinbarrelled weapon almost as big as Orpheia herself, connected to her backpack by an armoured hose.

SoB trooper using a multimelta.

Page 100

The Sisters Retributor at the window were silhouetted in the fury of the firepower they poured towards the shape. A heavy bolter hammered. Rockets streamed, sending plumes of exhaust shooting back into the cathedral. Orpheia's multimelta charged for a moment before firing a tremendous beam of red-white heat that seemed to sear reality itself.

All of which does fuck-all to the Necrons. Becaues Necrons slaughter Sisters of Battle, get it?

Page 102-103

One side of her face was raw and bloody. It looked like the skin of her face had been stripped away, layer by layer, right down to the bone.
...
Sisters were already taking up firing positions among the stones. Many of them were bloody and wounded, chunks of their armour stripped away.
...
The younger woman slumped against the headstone. Her novice's robes were on fire, flaming green. Her eyes were wide with shock and pain. Her face distorted as layers of robe, and then skin, lifted off the side of her face and shoulder. Red, wet muscle gleamed beneath, and men bone, as she was flayed away by the tongues of green flame. She screamed, the sound lost in static, and rolled onto the ground out of frame.

Ben Counter seems to treat alot of energy weapons like flamethrowers. I guess this is sort of better than acid, but I'm pretty sure the Necron's weaponry went way beyond flamethrowers and acid guns.

Page 118

Squad Graevus riddled the alien machine with bolt pistol fire. It jerked as the bolts impacted it, blasting off an arm, a leg, battering its head into a lopsided mess. It clattered to the ground, turned hazy, and vanished.

Necron Flayer I believe, given the preference for sharp bladed thingies.

Page 119

Sarpedon snapped off a bolter shot and blew the leg off one. Squad Luko's fire cut down several more, throwing shards of gory metal against the palace walls.

When the machines died, they disappeared. They didn't dissolve away or crumble to dust. They just faded away, and were gone.

Bolter fire against Necrons. I have to say these Necrons don't seem all that fearsome or durable. Out of universe I suspect it's authorial fiat given that thees are the HEROIC SOUL DRINKERS, but its also quite possible we've just run into a band of Short Bus Necrons. I've heard of other groups (like on that one planet where 'Crons are used for target practice because they're little more than automatons.)

Page 121

Sarpedon fired his bolter, blowing holes in a couple of torsos. The other machines, the ones with guns, were in range. When they fired, green flames played across the walls of the tower, and stonework was stripped away as if being dissolved. The alien weapons did not just burn or shatter, they spirited away the matter of the target, boring through it layer by layer.

Despite the weird wording of it, Counter has gauss weapons behaving like normal here.

PAge 123

Fallen robots got to their feet again, wounds closed over with liquid metal.
...
"..to take them apart!"
...
"Destroy them completely before they repair"

Ah, this is more like it. I wonder if perhaps some of the necrons just werne't operating at full capacity or something? I suppose its possible the dumber necrons are less capable overall than others (maybe they 'forget' certain abilities or functions?)

Page 125

The wrecked machines around Sarpedon's feet were dissolving away, too. The survivors and the destroyed were being teleported away.
...
It took only a few moments for the machines to disappear. Even the scraps of broken machinery were gone, leaving the Soul Drinkers standing alone on a patch of torn earth.

The Necron's "we'll be back" teleport away capability. It doesnt seem to be an instantaneous thing, at least not here.

Page 132-133

"It could be unexploded munitions."
..

"Or one of the Fleet Minor."
...
The object had to be a hundred metres long and perhaps twenty wide, a massive cylinder of black metal inlaid with panels of silver. Its surface was torn from its entry into the ship, but it was still clear that it was not of Imperial design. Where was the tarnish of a hundred years lying in an ammunition hopper, the binary prayers stencilled on the casings? It had a sheen that suggested materials beyond Imperial construction.

Implication that some sort of munition would be 20m wide, 100m long (torpedo of some kind? nova cannon shell?) or that a "fleet minor" (some sort of attack craft scale object, in other words) would be of simialr size. Again 40K "fighters" (which is part of fleet minor, remember) can be as large as some other universe' starships.

Page 136

The ship's machine-spirit had long been considered a curmudgeonly, silent entity that cared nothing for human beings and kept itself to itself. While many ancient ships manifested sophisticated machine-spirits, not all of them were willing to communicate, and these were generally left alone. Magos Vionel, however, knew that this approach was folly. Instead of assuming that a machine-spirit should become more human to allow for it to interface with its crew, he took it upon himself to become more like the Ferrous. He transmitted his personality into the information architecture of the factory ship through the interfaces, and forced his human mind into the shape of the machine-spirit's world.

Yet again Machine spirits seem to be literal, tangible things, rather than some bizarre concept (like with lasguns and bolters) where starships are concerned. It has a personality, and seems to interact with at least the Magos captains in the crew. Much like with Titans and Princeps, with the captains of other starships (Erwin Ramas in the BFG novels) or the senior Magos onboard (like in Relentless), and so on.

There is also an apparently symbiotic relationship between said machine spirit and those it interacts with - one can be shaped by the other to varying degrees, depending on who is more dominant (or who allows what.) This again is alot like other vehicles (like Ttians)

Page 138

The Ferrous had a complement of tech-guard and trained menials in case of hostile boarders, who were, at that moment, grabbing their flak armour and lasguns and heading through the ill-maintained mazes of the ship's outer decks to meet the sources of the alert.

Tech guard and menials for repelling boarders, using flak and lasguns.

Page 139

The first he saw of them was a flicker of green fire at the edge of his vision, up among the steel rafters of the machining section. A menial working at the forge reared up in sudden pain and shock. A huge chunk, like a round bite mark, had been torn from his back as if by invisible jaws. One arm was gone, too, flayed down to bloody bones.

Flayer seems to only dissolve part of the body, rather than spreading out to consume the entire thing in a fraction of a second like some other ones do.

Page 140

Vionel ran up the steps towards the conveyor belt even as blasts ripped chunks out of the floor behind him. Cores of metal were drilled out of the deck and flayed to atoms. The few menials with guns returned fire, and flayer blasts fell among them, shredding limbs and flashing away skulls.

Again these flayer weapons seem unusually focused. Does this offer some benefit? Greater range or penetration?

Page 141

Tech-guard were emerging from entrances beside the forge, in rust-red body armour with mirrored visors, carrying lasguns hooked up to their backpacks.

Tech Guard gear. I'm assuming those are either high powered/hotshot lasguns, or hellguns (same thing really), given the backpack sourc,e although that isn't guaranteed.

Page 141

The surviving warriors advanced or got to their feet, their broken bodies re-forming from liquid metal. Others, shattered beyond repair, disappeared from beneath the wreckage. Even torn limbs and fragments of crushed skull vanished.

Necron healing or the vanishing feature. The interesting thing is how it seems to take everything specifically necron away. That suggests that the teleportation may be a field effect (generated by what, we dont know) but it seems tuned rather precisely to necron material (it doesnt take chunks out of the surroundings. It may teleport living beings with it, but I can't recall any examples offhand.)

Page 141-142

Blasts from necron weapons hammered against the machinery with a crackling hiss, as if the metal were evaporating. Vionel stomped through the ruined conveyor into cover, but it was rapidly disappearing. Menials died, chunks of their bodies stripped away. Others were still returning fire, and a warrior fell, chest blown open. One of the tech-guard stood clear of the wreckage to send a rapid-fire volley into the necrons, but he fell, too, his body armour and half his torso stripped clean away.

More of the oddly focused Necron fire, and one case where tech guard fire seems to blow apart a Necron torso. Assuming armor steel, and depending on how big a hole you figure, the damage could be half a megajoule to a megajoule (for 4-6 cm diameter hole) to several MJ easily for smething sveral times bigger. That said, the odd nature of living metal tends to make this difficult to calc (as we learn later) in such a matter and we dont know how many shots (I assumed a single shot in my calcs). The only thing we can really pull from this is that the lasweapon in however many shots emulated a bolter.

Page 143-144

The warriors were still approaching, relentless, their advance slowed by the remaining tech-guard falling back before them and sending las-blasts scoring deep melting furrows across their carapaces.

Yeah, see thats probably one reason why you shouldn't read alot into my previous calc, since her ethey're just "depe melting" furrrows, which are also hard to calc (how deep? and is the necrodermis deforming or actually melting - as we learn later necrodermis is weird shit.)

Page 144

..his lasgun torn from his hands by a necron, who then jabbed
the curved bayonet on its gun into the man's gut. The sergeant blew off the alien's arm in response..

Lasgun blows an arm off a Necron. Again performance wise alot similar to a bolter.

Page 145

Las-fire was not enough to puncture necron armour on its own, but the weight of it was overwhelming. Twenty bolts might bounce off a necron's carapace, leaving a molten red welt, but the twenty-first might hit a vulnerable spot, or melt a little to far and destroy a critical component. Necrons on broken limbs were easy targets, while others were shot through gaps in their carapaces and fell as they advanced. The tech-guard formed up behind Vionel in a firing line, joined by the survivors of the first squad. One of the tech-guard brought a melta gun to bear, and its superheated beam melted through torsos and metallic skulls.

Further confirmation about my calc being iffy, for one thing you seem to require mass fire from those lasweapons to penetrate, but on the other hand they seem to be purely thermal weapons rathr than explosive "blasters", which actually would amp up the energy requirements. For example, assuming a 5 cm deep, 10x10cm area of necron chest melted, assuming iron, we'd be talking 4-5 MJ at least. divided by 21 lasgun shots thats maybe 240 kj apiece. Assuming a 20x20x10cm area we're talking more than 30 kilos, 36 MJ and 1.7 MJ per shot. They dump out alot of energy per shot, but they're not the most efficient of lasweapons (if they do any explosive effect its going to be due to rapid vaporizaion/boiling effects.) As I said before though, there is a rather significant problem with how the calc goes, givne the behaviour of living metal discussed later, so the calc probably isn't valid.

Then again its quite possible living metal is highly resistant to blaster style attacks, so maybe you have to melt through them. We know that meltaguns and plasma weapons are highly effective, but they shrugged off those multi-gigawatt pulsedlaser fences in Deus Ex Mechanicus.

Page 147

Banks of datacrystal, which represented the ship's archives, were rotting, or burning to ash in green flames.

Datacrystal. Turning ot ash. From necron "fire". About the only thing that could make this worse is if there were cogs or a hand crank or the thing was firing daemons.

Page 150

...the necrons had made it into the processing section, too, into the mass of chemical tanks and fractioning towers that the Ferrous dragged behind it.

"Open all the catalyst chambers and inundate with fuel!"

Potentially chemical plasma fuel. insert your own joke/interpretation/cornerstone declaration here.

PAge 152

The Ferrous's processing section exploded. The fleet's fuel reserve went up in one titanic ball of orange flame, as bright, for a split-second, as a sun. Nuclear fires tore the factory ship apart, consuming its entire length and ripping the steel of its hull into atoms.

Chemical plasma fuels.. that cause nuclear reactions. That glow orange. Just nod and move along.

Page 160

Psykers were more at risk from the occasional influence of the warp during travel. Sarpedon,
being unable to receive telepathy, did not suffer much, but Tyrendian's mind was a little more sensitive, and Scamander, of course, was still learning to control his talents.

Psykers more vulnerable to the warp than normal people.

Page 163

"How did you prevent it from phasing out?'"

"I assume it was the damage I caused to it."

Necrons if they suffer sufficient (or unlucky) damage cannot phase out - at least, these models don't.

Page 164

He picked up the head. The plain black circuit boards in its skull glinted through the wound in its face.

Necrons seem to have circuit boards in them, at least these do. I'm starting to wonder if these are somehow low quality knockoffs or something. Or as I said before, the Necron equivalent of the Short Bus Squadron. The more I read the more limited and low-quality these 'Crons come across compared to other examples. Then again since they're up against the Soul Drinkers, I imagine some sort of authorial-decreed nerfing is in order.

At least they don't reqire punch cards inserted inside to give them orders, or a hand crank to recharge or something.

Page 165

"What news is there of the Soul Drinkers?" voxed Voar to the ship's tactical helm.

"We're still tracking them," replied one of the many tech-priests who were now taking shifts in monitoring the space surrounding the fleet. "Their last warp jump was off-course from our calculations."

"Where are they heading?"

"A system towards the nebula centre."

"Inhabited?"

"It's possible."

"Follow them."

Ability to track and plot/follow the course of the Soul Drinkers through the warp. Again more fancy AdMech tricks that the rest of the Imperium seems either not to have, or have restricted to certian cases.

Page 166

..Raevenia was blue-green, glittering and beautiful. Planets like that got rarer every year in the Imperium, as more were settled by billions of pilgrims and refugees, polluted, stripped bare, or turned into smouldering warzones.

Page 169-170

The Necron fleet tore the heart out of a star.

It was an old star, fat and red, a lumbering giant that stood as a relic of a time before the clouds of the Veiled Region had gathered.

The star darkened, and then collapsed, throwing off outer layers in ripples of radiation millions of miles across. Its remaining substance compacted and heated up, and, for a few final hours, it burned as bright as it had in its youth, spitting violent solar flares and atomic storms in its death throes. Then that energy, too, was sucked out into the void, and the star shrank into a smouldering clump of ashes, burning away the last vestiges of its power.

The star's power fuelled the fleet's alien technologies. The ships hurtled at impossible interstellar speeds, space-time folding through fields of exotic energy, showers of particles that physics determined could not exist streaking across the Veiled Region.

The last echoes of the star's power rippled out as the fleet arrived at its destination. The cold radioactive dust was thrown aside as the necron necropolis ship tore through it, power crackling off its talons. The rest of the fleet shifted into place beside it, the star's stolen power arcing between them and the necropolis ship. Time and space seemed to complain at the violation that had brought the necrons there, shimmering ripples washing out at the speed of light, echoing off the barren worlds around the dead star.

Tombs, sealed before mankind had evolved, split open, and the lords of the host emerged, hot coils of power burning the patina of millennia from their bodies. They raised their staves, and unliving eyes turned on them. Scarabs swarmed everywhere, fixing the systems that time had undone. Information flickered between the command nodes of the host, between the lords and their master, down to the individual warriors. War machines awoke, too, enormous vehicles like hovering monuments to death, fighter craft folded up in their vertical launch decks like colonies of bats.

Once again Necrons demonstrate the ability to demolish a star and/or drain it of power to power their own forces/build up their own fleet/feed the local C'tan. I'm not saying they suck away all the energy or its 100% effiicent, but even if they suck off a trillionth of a star's total energy content.. that's a fucking lot of energy. I mean this is equivalent insanity to the mass/energy consumption of Tyranoforming.

Page 171

Voar's plucked a medical laser and power scalpel from their rack on the autosurgeon, a miniature field of disruptive energy flickering around the scalpel blade.

surgical powerweapon. In a way, it makes some sense actually.

Page 172

He concentrated on the machine and slowly slit the necron's torso open, heating the alloy with the laser so that it could be slit open by the scalpel.

The vaporised metal did not smell right. It did not glow and deform in the way righteous metal should. Voar had to choke back the sense of disgust.

See what I was saying about the problems in calcing necrons?

PAge 178

They were armed with rifles and machine guns, solid projectile weapons behind Imperial technology, but not by much.

I guess Imperial guns are supposed to be more advanced (somehow) than other chem propelled slugthrowers. How or why we don' tquite know. It could be referring ot their ability to fir caseless shot or weird ammos, or it may be in the propellant or materials (is it more efficient?) Or maybe they're just more durable and reliable.

Ravenian technology is a bit behind "Imperial standard" as we know it (compared to say, Vanqualis in the last book) but not that far behind. Weapons wise they have at least automatic rifles, machine guns and submachine guns, so they seme to be at least late WW1 if not WW2 tech.


Page 180

"Two hundred and fifty! What difference can you make to us? The Undying are upon us. They will care nothing for your presence unless each of your men is worth a thousand of mine."
"They are." said Sarpedon levelly.

Sarpedon alleges each Soul drinker is worth 1000 normal Ravenian soldiers. Unless they are dramatically below Guard/PdF standard (possible but debatable), or somehow the FIGHT FOR FREEDOM grants them a massive psychic multiplier, this is bullshit, given that Rogal Dorn himself had only given then a 10:1 ratio.

Page 183

"They were hiding in Raevenia's rings." said Lygris.
"The rings?" asked Feynin.
"They're made of chunks of ice and rock. A ship could easily hide in them."
"But they'd have to be stone cold to avoid any sensors. If it's the Mechanicus then they—"
"It's not the Mechanicus." said Lygris, leafing through printouts. "It's the machines. Here, the energy spikes are well out of any Imperial engine's tolerance. That's alien tech."

I suspect this is more a testament to the magical stealth properties and weird technological nature of Necron STarships.

Page 197

A lance of emerald light leapt from the hillside and skinned him alive in a split second. His flesh was pared off him, layer by layer, leaving the front half of his body a wet red mess stripped down to the skeleton. He toppled from his saddle, and his horse, a good chunk of its flank stripped away too, galloped wild in pain.

Necron Destroyer this time. Still seems underpowered, considering Necron Destroyers can core a Land Raider in their own codex. Maybe its variable settings.

[Connor MacLeod]

The rest of Hellforged.


PAge 198

It fired again, and this time the beam punched right through the horse of one of the cavalrymen. The
horse fell, dead before it hit the ground, and pinned the rider's leg under it.

Again suspiciously focusd necron beams.

Page 198-199

..those behind snapping off rifle shots. A warrior fell, face ruined. After a moment, it stood up again, falling back into step.

The first riders clashed with the warriors. Blue light burst where the power blades of their lances made contact, the energy fields tearing through metal. Automatic fire rattled into the Undying, and cascades of bullet casings rained down around the horses' hooves. An Undying warrior was carried up into the air, impaled on a lance, green fire bleeding from its chest. Others were trampled under hooves. A power sabre lashed out and cut a machine's head from its shoulders.

Green fire flashed. Men and horses fell, stripped to the bone so quickly that their bodies took a moment to start bleeding.

powerfielded lances and automatic weapons fire (from rifles apparently.. its at least a cavalry weapon of some kind.) Power weapons and sheer mass of horses seems to do rather well against them And gauss fire pretty much lacerate horses, although they dont totally disintegrate.

Page 199

A hundred Undying stepped in eerily perfect formation from the trees, grinning skulls reflecting the glowing power fields of the cavalry's lances. Bullets rained down into them, but fallen Undying simply stood again, and, those that did not, disappeared, replaced a moment later by another metallic warrior striding into the open.

The ranks of Undying opened fire as one. The cavalry disappeared in a mess of flayed flesh and bone. Horses, stripped in half, screamed out their final breaths as organs spilled out onto the bloody ground. Men died before they hit the ground, insides scooped out, reduced to fluttering scraps of skin and uniform.

Gunfire seems to kill some Necrons, but most of them pretty much flay the troopers. I gues sif they have range and order they can slaughter them in large numbers and properly flay them/

Page 202

Tens of the thousands of Undying made it through the Raevenian fire from the walls.
...
The crossfire that met them was terrific, thousands of Raevenian rifles and machine guns opening up as one. The first ranks of Undying were shredded beyond even their capacity to self-repair, but the Undying did not care about
losses.

More rifles and machine guns, again seeming to do some nasty damage to necrons.


Page 202-203

It was shaped like a titanic metal-shod beetle, pulling itself along on its belly with thousands of legs that writhed along its sides.

Its head was a huge maw, ringed with steel teeth, with power glowing in its throat. Scarabs crawled all over its surface, and behind its long segmented tail it left a deep furrow in the ground as it drove forwards, flanked by the march of the Undying.

The machine's enormous bulk pushed down one of the gatehouses, and tonnes of rubble were sucked into its maw. The useless matter was siphoned off and spewed from vents along its sides as clouds of choking dust.

Anothr Necron, non monolith superheavy. Don't think we've seen this in the game.

Page 204

A man dragged himself along the street, his leg a bloody length of sinew and bone. Another held in the
wet heaving mass of his chest, gasping for breath and bracing his gun one-handed for a few more shots.

More gauss fire, i think.

Page 212

The Axe of Mercaeno was a force weapon, tuned in to the wielder's psychic power so that he could focus it into the blade and tear the soul right out of an enemy. The Undying had no souls to destroy, so Sarpedon had to rely on pure strength to drive the axe through them.

Sarpedon's Looted Force Weapon. Oddly without any psychic connection the axe seems to have no other useful power,.

Page 214

Sarpedon paused to take aim, and blew one of its legs off with a bolter shot. Bolter fire from inside the building threw another off the wall.

Bolter > flayed one.

Page 214

Sarpedon could see the main bulk of the harvester now. It was immense, like a gigantic beetle with a carapace of bullet-scarred metal. It was bigger even than an Imperial super-heavy tank. Power glowed green beneath its overlapping armour plates.

Our superheavy scarab/beelte thingy again.

Page 215-216

Tyrendian was still on the roof behind him, shattering an Undying warrior with a well-aimed lightning bolt. Scamander knelt on the hull and put both his hands on one of the armour plates. His gauntlets glowed, and, as they drew heat from the rest of him, ice crystallised on his backpack and the armour of his legs.

The armour plate glowed as Scamander poured psychic heat into it. The edges and the areas beneath his palms began to run molten. Scamander pulled, and the plate came away, the half-melted metal stretching like sinews. Lygris and Scamander grabbed it, too, and between them they pulled it clear and threw it aside.

The hole Scamander had opened up was big enough for a couple of Soul Drinkers to enter. The cross-section of the hull was riddled with glowing green filaments, humming with the power they channelled around the machine.

Librarian artillery vs Necrons. Again melting is not really calable.

Page 221

The Mechanicus fleet was down three major ships and a few dozen of the Fleet Minor.
...
..without the factory ship, the Mechanicus fleet lacked the capacity to
refine fuel and produce spare parts in an emergency. With every auxiliary ship that died, the fleet became a little blinder to the space around it.

The factory was able to produce spare parts, suggesting the Mechanicus ships had no innate production capability. Also it seems like a good deal of their escort/attack craft fleet served to provide sensory capaiblity, suggesting some pretty hefty datalinking.

Page 222

Crystavayne picked up the map the tech-priest had been working on. The locations and paths of the fleet's ships were plotted out many hours in advance, and notes on possible enemy movements were scrawled in every available space.
...
The machine-spirit of the Antithesis was working on it, too, as evidenced by the metres of printout being carried by menials.

Because the Imperium is so primitive and retro, they don't use display screens they print everything out on paper. Get it?

Also the predictive abilities of the fleet... apparently they can (or think they can) predict or plot events many hours in the future, for some reason. Mechanical/technologicla divination? Or bullshit? You decide.

Page 223

Then he added the necron ships. They were faster and more agile than their size suggested, but the cruisers moved in a stilted, repetitive pattern, turning on exact axes and in unchanging increments of degrees. The biggest necron ship was slower and lumbering, with the huge turning sphere required to bring its main weapons to bear. The second part of the necron fleet, the one that had emerged from behind the planet's moon, was faster, capable of sudden manoeuvres beyond any Imperial ship, but they were predictable, and in any mathematical system that predictability could only lead to one conclusion.

Necron ship capabilitles. They not only seem to have a firepower and durability advnatage, but the smaller craft have speed.

Apparently their "predictive" stuff is mathematical or statistiical.


Page 226

The Undying bent backwards as its spine glowed dull red, and then bright cherry. The heat spread to its chest and neck, and then to its skull. Enormous heat glowed inside its head, and its skull split down the middle, exposing the circuitry of its xenos mind.

Tyrendian glanced back to see Scamander behind him, his armour caked in ice crystals, and his breath misting white. His gauntlets were glowing hot and hissing.

More psyker attacks on Necrons. Still not gonna bother calcing it, though it proably would be osmething in megajoules if it were legit and if it were anything like iron. Also note the necron circuitry.

Page 231

Salk himself cracked an Undying in the jaw with the butt of
his bolter, jabbed the barrel into the alien's midriff, and blew its spine out of its back with a burst of fire.

Bolter blows out necron's "spine". Sinc3e the only thing resembling a spine connects the upper and lower bits of a Necron I can only assume this means he bisected it.

PAge 232

Sarpedon noticed the crystal. The previously flawless surface was mottled and dull, as if some disease had taken control of it and spread milky stains like cataracts across its surface. Whatever Lygris had done, the war machine had suffered.

Lygris has hacked into and fucked over the Necron contruct. I'm not quit esure what to think about this, really. I like Lygris, but I'm a bit surprised he could pull this off.

Page 233

Wires shorted around Scamander as the rear wall melted.
..
Tyrendian turned to the half-melted wall, and hurled the bolt right into it. The flash was so powerful that even a Space Marine's augmented eyes were blinded for a split second. When vision returned,
the wall was gone, the melted mass blown outwards by the force of the lightning. Through it could be seen the dust-choked gloom of the streets outside.

Tyrendian and Scamander working togethre blast Astartes sized hole through wall of the Beelte superheavy.

PAge 248

The guns of the Antithesis were firing, counter-measures probably, sprays of chaff and electromagnetic pulse munitions to throw the xenos sensors off as they targeted the Mechanicus ships. If the xenos used sensors the Imperium understood, of course… if they needed to see the Mechanicus at all.

Gun launched countermeasures, chaff and EMP weapons. They aren't sure if this will work on Necron ships.

Page 249

The necron's limbs had been broken apart into the many hundreds of struts and servo units that drove them, and lay in neat piles beside the torso. The torso had been carefully carved up, and split open to reveal the circuitry and components clustered around the power unit that still glowed faintly green. The warrior's head had been removed and placed to one side, but it was still connected to the torso by the articulated cable that served it like a spinal cord.

Voar was close. He knew it. The necron's technology was a puzzle, completely unlike anything Imperial or even pre-Imperial that he had ever seen. It had required him to releam some of the most basic principles of science, of sacred cause and effect. It was unholy, for it breached the basic tenets of the Omnissiah's logic, but it was fascinating.

Voar the Magos is studyin gthe Necron again of course to learn how to defeat it. Rather interetsing in that he is one of the few Magos we have ever encountered who isnt interested in studying or recovering necron tech.. he seems to actually find it an abomination. Contrast this with Caves of Ice, or Black Tide, or hell even what we learn in Mechanicum about the Mechanicus and the Noctis Labyrinth. I'm not sure whether his horror here is at having to "relearn basic priniciples of science" or if he thinks the Necron stuff is an abomination of this, but I'm guessing the latter. Also interesting in how he seems to suggest he (and by extent other adMehc) acutally know and practice science rather than just a debased form of it.

We also see some of the internal composition of these necrons - again more circuitry, articulated bits.. nothing much resembling the weird liquid metal stuff. given the "basic principles of science" stuff, it also suggests he had some (basic) measure of understanding of the Necron tech - quite possibly due to the ominous hints that Imperial tech has some necron-based connection to it (Again Mechanicum)

Page 249-250

He plugged the other end of the wire into one of the laboratory machines. It was a highly sensitive scanner that could pick out all manner of exotic frequencies and radiation types. It was perhaps three thousand years old, which was how Voar knew it could be relied upon.

Voar carefully watched the readout dials on the machine's brass casing as he cycled through frequencies.

The necrons had to be connected to something, some central source of control or power, to account for their abilities and behaviour. When they phased out, they had to go somewhere. Their power units were not generators at all, but capacitors, taking energy from elsewhere and storing it. That power had to come from somewhere.

Old stuff is best again, but also intresting both in there seem to be odd/exotic "frequencies and radiation types" that the Imperium knows about.. and they're able to identify the Necrons using it. also the Necrons seem to utilize some sort of ftl remote control and/or power transmission system, since the Necron here is running off capacitors and not a reactor.

Page 253

"The necron warriors are acting on remote orders. They are only semi-autonomous, and the commands must come from elsewhere."

"They need a signal to give them coordinates so they can teleport out when deactivated, too. My studies have suggested that both functions originate at the same location."
...
"It's barely perceptible. Either this unit is too damaged to pick it up properly or their technology
is far more sensitive than ours. It is a miracle we can hear it at all."

The Mechanicus can pick up Necron signals. Sort of. And this has to be a FTL signal too, on top of that, since its basically realtime. Which means the Imperium (or the Admehc part of it at least) has long had the ability to detect/recognize other forms of fTL communication, track them, etc. This suggests they may know of, or perhaps even have, some non-astropathic means of detection and communication, but if they do it is extremely limited (EG not very useful beyond systems.)

This owuld however help explain some oddities of communication in 40K (EG cases of obvious FTL communication where the Imperium coudl not possibly be using anything astropath or astropath-like, like in Dawn of War Ascension, or one of the old 40K anthology short stories, or the Iron Snakes Warning Signal in Brothers of the Snake.) I liken it to the gravitic FTL pulses of the honorverse, I suppose - FTL, but not enough to elimiate lag issues and limiting it to in-system ranges.


Page 267-268

The Defence carried several containers of highly volatile chemicals. Usually kept in separate lead-cased chambers, they had been piled up in barrels just behind the plasma vessel of one of the ship's reactors, an experimental power source that provided great efficiency in return for considerable volatility. Magos Devwyn, commanding the Defence in Crystavayne's absence, had reasoned that the reactor would explode under enemy fire soon enough anyway.

When the burning prow of the Defence was pointed at the closest cruiser, Devwyn gave the order. It was relayed to a team of menials that had volunteered to stay on the ship and command the servitors, who were now set on fire and sent striding into the chemical stockpile.

The chemicals detonated, creating a vortex of exotic particles that obliterated the engine section of the Defence. Its stern disappeared in a shining white cloud of vaporised metal. The reactor went critical, its core bombarded with particles. Its mass was converted instantly into energy. The structure of the
Defence held just long enough to send the energy mass along the length of the ship as it converted into pure yellow-white light and fire.

The Defence fired like an enormous cannon, almost its entire mass, including the volunteer menials and even Magos Devwyn, converted into energy. The bolt of power streaked across the void and speared the necron cruiser at the base of one of its crescent wings. The wing was sheared off, and chain reactions rippled along the remnants of the alien ship, spraying bursts of shrapnel from its hull like steel volcanoes.

The second necron cruiser's engines flared, and it tore itself out of a firing position to avoid the titanic chunks of wreckage spinning out of its dying sister ship. Strange technologies, chunks of glowing green crystal, the bodies of broken necron warriors and sprays of liquid silver poured out of the damaged cruiser's wounds. The lights studding the surface winked out, and the ship drifted dead away from the field of debris marking the site of the Defence's sacrifice.

Oh dear. This quote can be potentially hilarious, or potentially awesome because it his hilarious and insanely powerful and is liekly to cause an uproar with the context I draw from it. Where to begin...

First we have an a bunc hof barrels of highly volatile chemicals. Chemicals that release magic particle radiation when set on fire. Second we have an experimetal reactor near the magic chemicals. Said reactor is near the engines, and is more efficient but correspondingly more volatile.. and runs on plasma fuel. This suggests there might be a trade off in effectiveness and volatility with plasma reactors.

Anyhow, when the magic chemicals go off, the reactor overloads from the exotic magic particles, and ends up converting itself totally into energy. Now our experimental (probable) plasma-fuelled reactor is a matter-energy conversion process, which echoes other cases of plasma tech doing weird matter energy conversion. Part of the ship vaporizes, but enough stays intact so that most of its mass (really almost of it) was converted into energy and fired cannon like at the necron vessel - while this speaks impressively of hull durability, I'd also believe in some hefty force field magic involved to direct it like that. Anyhow, it converts to energy (with part of the mass resisting, even if briefly) said process, and directing it at the Necron. It echoes the destruction of St Josemane's hope (anotehr plasma reactor overload) which may lend credence to this.

The vessel is cruiser, sized, so we might be talking millions if not tens of millions of tons of mass.. converted to energy... billions of megatons, much of which it seems striking the Necron ship, and managing to kill it. (cue outrage about how I am misinterpreting quote, how the scene is clear hyperbole, etc.) That's probably the more literal interpretation, but lets say it is hyperbole. Lets say rather than "energy" it means it converted it to plasma (the two sometimes are used synonymously in 40K) and the magic plasma reactor convereted the ship to plasma, which was then fired as a beam at the ship like some sort of gigantic casaba howitzer shaped charge - given cruiser masses and the probable plasma temps we'd have to be talking hundreds of megatons if not gigatons (if not tens or hundreds of gigatons!) of energy still - so that would still be impressive in 40K terms.

Now the Magos weapons on these ships iddnt do much to necron starships to be fair, not eve the oversized nova cannon. But on the other hand cases where Necrons fought Imperials (when Necron ships approached Mars, or the Necron fights in the DoW novels) they managed to hurt and destroy them, esp Space MArine ships, so it's fair to assume (coupled with the limited resilience of the hull per above) that Imperial ship firepower (and durability) would be within an order of magntidue of those Necron ships, at least.

Page 271

Crystavayne took out the neuro-sword he carried scabbarded under his robes. Most tech-priests and magi were armed, and Crystavayne's weapon of choice was a blade of shiny black crystal inlaid with silver circuitry.

"I made this myself," said Crystavayne, "to make sure I would never be helpless should the quest for understanding become a battle. It will do me little good against an enemy without a nervous system."

Neural sword weapon. reminds me of the neural blades the Dark Angels have.


Page 271

It was a miniature melta weapon, its grip moulded around its fuel cell.
..
It was an inferno pistol, and was probably the single most valuable weapon on the Antithesis, including
the ship's guns.

Yet another inferno gun. Inquisitor Shen had one in Bleeding Chalice you may recall.

PAge 282-283

Her full complement of menials and tech-guard went down with her, because they were needed to work the fusion chamber. The nova cannon fired until the end, the final blast barely aimed, in the hope that the projectile would nick a necron ship and send waves of fissile material pulsing through the enemy's corridors and engine rooms.

The necron mother ship took advantage of the Constant's sudden lack of mobility. It turned its main gun on the cruiser, even as it absorbed a nova cannon blast that stripped away one of the spurs reaching from its central spire. The mother ship rotated majestically until its gun was in line, and then it fired, a lance of green-white power splitting the Constant through her prow and tearing all the way through her stern. For a moment, the Mechanicus cruiser was impaled. Then the force of the mother ship's gun shredded what remained of her interior structure, and boiled away the hull into burning wisps of metallic gas.

Our last glimpse of the Magos-designed nova cannon. Hilariously the "radioactive metals" were supposed to be some sort of fusion process, giving us yet another magical fusion reaction (along with that naturally occuring thermonuclear crap on that planet in Age of Darkness, melta/fusion weaponry in general, etc...) And its a gun firing shells that release "fissile" material on impact, adding to the hilarity and impracticaility/insanity of the weapon. I wonder if Ben got them mixed around - some sort of magic fission reaction-powered propulsion to throw some magic fusion reaction warhead. Oh well.

Note that this time the nova cannon manages to do some (minor) damage to the Ncron mothership..

Page 284

The cruiser spiralled away from the heart of the battle, releasing every form of countermeasure it had: short-fuse torpedoes, electromagnetic chaff, burning fuel and even heaps of refuse from spent shell casings to the bodies of its dead, to fool the necron guns for a few moments longer.

More on Mechanicus countermeasures, which basically seems to involve throwing EM distorting and thermal "flare" type stuff. oR anything they can throw out really to get in the way I guess.

Page 284

The mother ship sent its cruisers ahead of it, folding space-time to follow the Antithesis. One of them, wounded by a lucky blast from the Constant, broke apart as it accelerated, some critical system giving way and causing the cruiser to split in two and implode.

First: Necron FTL seems to be some sort of spatial distortion "fold-space" drive, although it involves some sort of accleeration as well. Second, the Nova-cannon armed "constant" actually had done damage to a Necron Cruiser. So I guess they're not totally immune.

Page 286

She carried a repeating strikelock rifle, a finely crafted weapon with three rotating barrels and a miniature generator in the hilt.

I dont know if its a projectile weapon or an energy weapon. I'm guessing projectile, if its a rifle, a "strikelock" and it has rotating barrels. Some sort of EM or other non-chem propelled firing mechanism, I guess.

Page 287

Troops ran from the command tower to snap fire at the shapes they saw moving among the flames and molten metal. A halfmelted Undying clambered out of the flames, and its head was blown open by a well-placed round. Another was cut apart as it walked out of the fire, destroyed before it could raise its gun. Metal corpses dissolved away into nothing.

More fire-melted Necrons. Another case where gunshot damages a 'Cron, this time blowing its head apart, although if they were melting or had absorbed alot of thermal energy the head may be "softened" so more vulnerable to gunfire.

Page 289-290

Selaaca, it seemed, was hollow. Its core had been bored out and vented into titanic clouds of rock dust that orbited the planet in long trails of micrometeorites. And yet it had retained its mass, a fact so impossible that many of the ship's cogitators refused to accept it and spat it out in hails of punch-cards and spools of torn printout. Its interior was a lattice of steel and stranger metals, supporting continent-sized structures that pulsed with as much energy as the system's sun, caged and compressed into exotic radiation that the cogitators didn't recognise. Craft, tiny pinpricks of power, flitted over the surface and through close orbit. There was power everywhere, running through the planet's empty core, scribing glowing lines on the surface, even bleeding out into the toxic remnants of the atmosphere.

The surface was a ruin. The cities of Selaaca had been destroyed, scorched or uprooted, or pounded flat. Here and there, the monuments to the heart of the Selaacan Empire remained: the arms of a harbour wall enclosing a graveyard of sunken battleships; a great fortress in the heart of a desert, walled in by necron defences and left to starve; dozens of villages, untouched but devoid of life as they mouldered away in the hearts of forests.

Enormous wounds cut through the greatest cities. They led into the planet's interior, shattered buildings and shredded layers of history giving way to immense metallic avenues and conduits of power.
These wounds were ringed by necron facilities, landing pads and barracks, and sheets of metal, the size of islands, where gleaming necron warriors emerged to march.

Our Tomb world of the novel, notable for basically occupying what seems to be almost the entire inside of the planet (which was hollowd out to accomodate it) with enough necron mass (or tech to simulate mass) for none to notice. Power source in world outputting energy equivalent ot the system's sun (although I dont remember what the sun is, so.. In any case I can't wait for the screams of how I am misinterpreting this too..) Note that this is the second tomb world I can recall seeing wher the Necrons are deeply and extensively embedded, which explains why they intended to blast the shit out of the planet in caves of ice (despite the allegations of certain other.. parties. )

Also note the punch card computers. Clearly older is better! Or maybe they're crytsal punchcards.


Page 291

"The spacecraft seem to be transport and industrial ships," said Voar, "or the necron equivalents. The surface structures are probably power generator and capacitor facilities. The interior is opaque to our sensors, but a great deal of power is being consumed there."

Necrons have their own analogues to Imperial facilities and craft. Wonder what they need stellar scale power for.

Page 293

"A regiment of tech-guard. Seven hundred and thirty-three men. The tech-priest officer corps of the Antithesis, myself and the magi of my fleet."

The AdMech forces still available. A tech guard "regiment" seems to be less than a thousand men, or that may just be what is left of the regiment.

Page 295

The Soul Drinkers on the muster deck of the Antithesis cut a frightening enough sight that even the tech-guard units, many of whom had emotional dampening surgery, looked at them with fear.

Make your own joke here.

Page 296

..Hepsebah with extra power packs implanted into her back to fuel her lascannon.

From now on its a lascannon.

Page 298

At the centre of those systems, the point at which every node connected, something vast and powerful stirred. It had slept for longer than most biological creatures could imagine. It, too, had been biological once, but that was so long ago that the memory of that time, if it could be said to possess memories in the human sense, was just a slice of information filed away among trillions of other statistics in the crystal-filled planetary core that made up its brain.

It could not move or think for long, only enough for a few key systems to warm up and a handful of milliseconds more to concoct the stream of electrons that made up its orders. The necron empire it ruled was so efficiently constructed that it need give only that single order and its will would be transmitted to every individual necron that could play a part in making it a reality.

This is the big bad boss (and Sarpedon's nemesis) of the book. Rather intereting I thought in that it was portrayed as some sort of super-computer like intelligence rather than some high-end, fancy Necron Lord construct with a freaky name. It makes me wonder how pervasive this interpretation imght be (or if Counter borrowed it from something else) for the Necrons. I dont remember enough about Apocalypse and its view on Necrons to say either way.

Also it seems to be able to micromanage (fast and efficiently) every unit in its sphere of influence, making them extensions of itself - puppets or avatars.

Page 301

The Antithesis shuddered to a halt. Its artificial gravity had been stressed to breaking point to absorb the lethal deceleration that would have turned any living thing inside it to paste.

Inertial damping.

PAge 303

..the first unit of tech-guard. They were assault specialists with grenade launchers and
plasma weapons, looking almost as inhuman as the magi with their gas masks and the heavy ribbed cables connecting their weapons to sensor packs plugged into their spines.

TEch guard "assault specialists"

Page 304

The Soul Drinkers piled out of the Antithesis, firing as they ran. Necrons fell, skulls blasted open.

bolters 'sploding Necron skulls.

Page 305

Streaks of crimson light empted from Hepsebah's lascannon, the barrels spinning as raw energy pulsed from the power cells mounted on her back. The walls of a nearby building disintegrated, and charred robotic limbs clattered to the ground among the
debris.

Yes, now its a multi-barreled, rapid fire lascannon.

Page 305

He saw one Soul Drinker falling, leg sheared off by a blast that tore up into his abdomen. Another was being dragged along by his battle-brothers, one arm stripped away to bloody
bone. Pallas was supporting another who had lost a part of his leg, blood pumping from the wound in his greave.

Necron Guass fire vs Soul Drinkers.

Page 311

A vehicle was crashing through the trees. At least, a vehicle was the best description that Iktinos could think of. It was a steep pyramid, several storeys high, carried along on a crackling bed of energy that scorched the grass beneath it. A huge green crystal was embedded in its pinnacle, from which arcs of power were playing down the sheer black sides. Around it were the barrels of four energy weapons, dripping with the energy barely contained in their glowing capacitors. One side of the monolith slid open, revealing a liquid black pool suspended impossibly vertical, rippling with energy.

The monlilths appear.

Page 320

The Hell took form. It was life, infinite, seething life, an avalanche of fecundity. A steaming spectral jungle unfolded, thousands of predatory eyes glinting. Every surface was covered in ravenous life. Insects swarmed in dark masses in every corner. Vines split the ancient stone of the tombs. They wrapped around the legs of the ornate necron, bursting into flower or seed. Slimy limbs reached up from the swampy floor and tried to drag the necron down.

It had a soul. Or at least, it used to. It had once been alive, and it still remembered some of what that meant.

It still retained some of the personality of whatever damned creatures had become the necrons. That was all the Hell needed to take a hold.

This I find rather hilarious. Necrons have no connection to the warp per se, they have no souls. It was explicitly stated they have no souls, and Sarpedon's Looted Force Axe could not do a thing to them psychically because they had no souls. But his SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE POWER can.

And what are the Necrons afraid of? LIFE. I'm absolutely speechless at this point.


Page 322

Raevenian guns opened up in such numbers...
...

Undying fell. Some were shredded beyond self-repair, smashed into shards of metal that phased out before they hit the ground. One of the lords, the tall, regal Undying with ornate carapaces, held up an onyx sphere that pulsed with black light, and the fallen Undying around him clambered to their feet, even scattered shreds of metal flowing back together like quicksilver to re-form into warriors.

More gunfire fucking over the Necrons it seems, although not permanantly.

Page 323

...the Raevenians had set up most of their heavy weapons: machine-gun nests, missile launchers and vicious mortar-like devices, which fired clouds of razor wire that turned the approaches into near-impossible terrain. The Undying warriors were slowed down by the wire that draped over them like silver spiders' webs, catching limbs and gun barrels. They tore their way through it with metallic hands, but they could only advance at a crawl, and the guns battered into them.

They have artillery, missile launchers and mortars.. thats quite a bit more than WW1 tech I'd think. Especially the Eldar monowire-like attack weapons.

Page 329

Lascannon fire from Magos Hepsebah streaked around them, but a shimmering energy field leapt up and dissipated the torrent of crimson energy.
..

One of the tech-guard behind him handed Voar a metal sphere, with a transparent section revealing
twin hemispheres of metal wrapped in wire. Voar ran his hand over the activation panel and the device hummed to life. He threw it like a grenade past the columns of the tomb behind which he was sheltering. It rolled along the ground between the two necron lords, and burst, throwing out a shower of white sparks: electromagnetic chaff, similar to the counter-measures used by the Mechanicus spacecraft, but crafted to interfere with the wavelengths that Voar had detected coming from the destroyed necron in his lab.

EM/ECM weapons fucking with the Necrons, the fruits of Voar's research. Interesting both for the fact the exotic FTL radiation the Necrons communicate and are powered by seems EM based in some manner (some sort of fold-space transmission maybe? Or perhaps the systems themseles are EM and thus vunlerable to it) but also the fact we have a Magos doing research, and developing a countermeasure to a specififc alien threat on the fly (R&D HERESY!)

I'll give this to Ben Counter - you can find alot of stuff to get annoyed with, but he also gives you quite a few things that are damn neat in his books which seems to balance it out.

Also Magos lascannon seems to be stopped by some sort of necron shielding system.

Page 329-330

Fire poured into the two xenos. Plasma bursts crashed against their power fields, spitting globs of liquid flame everywhere.

Two tech-guard hauled a multimelta into place beside the tomb, one slamming a fuel bottle into its side as the other opened fire. The power field around one of the necrons overloaded with a white flash. The lord was plated in pitted rose gold, its skull covered in deep scrollwork and its hands in silver blades. Each palm was fitted with a crystal from which it fired bolts of green fire, but, in its blinded state, it was shooting at random.

The multimelta recharged and the tech-guard hammered fire at the shieldless lord again, the air rippling as pure heat radiation thrummed from the weapon. The necron's torso melted and shifted, revealing layers of circuitry beneath. The lord stumbled back, molten metal dribbling from its wounds.

Voar moved with rapid precision past the tomb and into range of the stricken necron. His manipulator units slithered from his shoulder, striking like snakes to implant their metal hooks in the necron's molten chest. Voar accessed his internal capacitor, and delivered a massive blast of power into the xenos machine, tailored to the exact frequency that would shatter its circuitry.

The necron lord's torso burst open, throwing chunks of metal ribs and spine. The remnants of the necron clattered to the floor. Its wounds covered over with quicksilver as it began to self-repair. Voar stood over it, snapping a manipulator into each of its eye sockets. He forced the remaining charge into it, and its skull exploded.

The second necron lord was similarly confused by the interference from device Gamma.

Necron Lord, apparently the source (or reason) for the shielding. Givesa n indication of durability, but we also see more of Voar's specialized anti-necron weaponry and tactics, which is damn cool.

Oh and more flamethrower plasma.

PAge 341

One of them knelt down beside the dead soldier and slit his back open with its blades,
removing bones and organs with inhuman speed and accuracy. Another opened the body bag and began doing the same to the dead soldier inside. A neat pile of organs and bones was piled up beside the bodies, arranged as precisely as the pieces of a machine. In less than two minutes, the soldier the corpse had killed was hollowed out, and the Undying pulled its still-clothed hide into it, fitting its limbs and torso inside. It pulled the dead man's face over its skull. The third Undying finished its dissection and did the same. The soldier it wore had been killed by a blast that tore away one side of his chest, its bloody metal ribs visible through the wound.

Flayers taking on the appearance (or at least the skin) of dead humans - rather devious, Terminator like tactic. Also probably fodder for Sisters of Battle/Gray Knights jokes.

Page 348

A labyrinth of machinery led off as far as he could see: enormous engines, half-formed as if in the process of melting into slag; forges churning out necron warriors and scarabs; forests of captives, nothing more than skeletons wrapped in tendrils of bleeding muscle; grand tombs, their sarcophagi lying open, waiting to receive lords yet to be built; an immense spire of glowing steel with warships suckling power from it; oceans of inky black information, infested with hunter-programs that writhed and darted like translucent sharks; ziggurats of pure carbon, and monoliths of obsidian.

The inside of the tomb world.. necorn warrior repair/fabrication, even building new necron LORDS it seems... and starships apparently drawing power from somewhere (do they run on capacitors too?)

Not sure what the captives are for.

PAge 351

There was more gunfire as more troops burst in. A Flayed One fell, skull blown open.

gunfire blows open Flayed One skull.

Page 352

Another soldier backed against the door, and yelled as he fired on full-auto, emptying his gun's magazine at the Flayed Ones entering the room. The gun's movement clicked on an empty chamber...

Submachineg un or rifle, either way its got a full-auto capability.

Page 354

"Move!" shouted Kavins, spraying fire from his sub-machine gun at the hole.
Bullets flew in every direction. One soldier was caught by a stray round. A Flayed One dragged itself out of the hole and was shot to pieces.

Submachine gun, it manages to fuck over a Flayed one.


Page 355

Hundreds of soldiers had flocked to hold the walls to the south, and heavy weapons thumped as they sent anti-tank shells and missiles into the Undying advancing through the smouldering remains of the forest's edge.

Anti-tank shells, missiles, etc.

Page 362

One of them was shredded to atoms by another fat eruption of green fire, but two more grabbed Voar by his shoulders and dragged him clear, spraying las-fire at the necron destroyer that had fired on them.

Voar's auto-senses rapidly took stock. His legs, simple but sturdy motivator units, had been completely destroyed, one flayed off at the knee, the other fused and useless.

Gauss fire from a Destroyer.. kills one Tech Guard and damages Voar.

Page 364

The machine shifted out of phase with reality again, turning transparent, and the axe slipped through the apparition harmlessly. One of its limbs solidified, and stabbed a bundle of knives and injectors at Sarpedon. He was a fraction of a second quicker than the machine anticipated, and grabbed the limb with his free hand. He drew back his arm and hurled the necron at the wall, but, just in time, it shifted again and passed right through it.

Rather neat Necron trick, phasing in and out randomly and in parts to fight.

PAge 365

One of the ghosts had been destroyed, phasing out a moment too late to avoid the volley of bolter fire that slammed into it. It lay half-shifted, flickering like an image on a faulty pict screen, back blown open and spilling ghostly circuitry across the floor. Another had been skewered through the head by a chainblade, and had fallen like a metal puppet with its strings cut. The others were faster, materialising to strike, and then becoming ghosts again faster than the Soul Drinkers could target them.

More necron circuitry, and bolter fire blowing its back out. Most seem faster than the Soul Drinkers though, although this may b with the advantage of surprise.

Page 366

It was the only word he got out before the necron ghost behind him shimmered into reality and speared him through the back with both sets of blades. Injectors pumped to fill him with acids that would eat him away from the inside, and blades vibrated to slice easily through his bones and organs.

Necron weapons not only are insanely sharp and possibly emitting a disruption field (like claws can) but they can inject acids and are vibroweapons.

Page 366-367

The device split open. A glowing orange-white core was revealed, and it pulsed, flaring up to fill the labyrinth intersection with painful light.

The light died down, Sarpedon's auto-senses fighting to adjust. A necron above him shuddered as if its image was obscured by static, and suddenly it was real. Its skull split apart as its jaws opened, wrenching a tear across its face like a ragged grin, and it screamed.
...
Forced to stay in physical form by the Mechanicus device, they were little more than target practice for the Soul Drinkers.

Voar's got another device to fuck with the phasing defense of these Necron. Yet again Imperial technology manages to prevail.

Page 370

Green fire rippled along the walls. Men fell, half their bodies flayed away. Some stood and defied for a few seconds more, yelling their anger and firing their weapons even as their bodies were flayed away into gnawed skeletons.

The cracks in the gate deepened into molten-edged furrows. A huge section of the gates fell inwards, slamming into the ground with a sound that deafened men. The Space Marines' auto-senses protected them.
...
The monolith, the size of a building, loomed over them, suspended a metre above the ground on a shimmering field of energy.

Two more glided behind it.

Necron gauss weaponry seem to be getting more powerful. And they seem to be gaining thermal damage effects. Not the first time someone had them with such, but its notable that when 5th editions wung around necron weapons diversified and got some more 'brute force' effects added to them.

Page 371

It was an enormous beating heart of grey flesh the size of a tank, a biomechanical mass surrounded by a tangled nest of cabling and wires, power conduits that dripped pure energy and chunks of alien machinery in glossy black slabs.

A conveyor system sent mechanical arms rattling overhead on tracks. They carried human bodies, captive Raevenians, and dropped them into vats of black metal from which ran thin cables glowing bright with their life force. The cables ran into the heart, and every time it took a revolting, fleshy beat the cables shone brighter and another body fell.

I can't tell if the thing is supposed to be processing them, eating them, or what. Is this to feed to a C'tan or a Lord or what? are they preparing them as animating forces for the Necron units they build, or do they serve some other purpose?

Page 374

The necron overlord that emerged from the storm was three times Sarpedon's height. Its skull hung low in its chest, its shoulders huge slabs of curved steel. Its torso was a sarcophagus, an ornate casket shaped like a scarab, inset with a fat black gem of datacrystal. Its arms were long enough to touch the ground, but its hands were, in spite of their great size, somehow elegant, the fingers like articulated knives.

Instead of legs, it had a hovering motivator unit like one of the floating necrons. Unlike them, its abdomen was equipped with dozens of limbs, like the legs of a centipede, wriggling underneath it as if searching for something to grab.

It held a scythe, wrought in twisted gold, as ornate as the average necron warrior was plain. Green flame rippled up the blade, matching the flame in the overlord's eye sockets.

Its skull was so long and gaunt that it lost any similarity to a human form. It had no mouth, as if the horizontal slit in a necron skull had been judged surplus to requirements. It was just a long, teardrop-shaped mask of metal, its eyes the only hint of the human form about it.

The big bad Necron Lord.

Page 383

Sarpedon turned every drop of strength inside, and unleashed the Hell.

Light and life filled the biomechanical chamber. A sun burned overhead, a thousands suns, their brilliant light in every colour of the spectrum. Life boiled like a churning sea underfoot, swarms of insects, coils of vines and soaring trees, an endless landscape of life rolling out on a seething carpet. The light was burning, the raw anger of the stars fuelling a terrible mass of relentless life that boiled over and rose in a flood of limbs and organs.

The overlord reeled. Everything the necrons despised, everything that still held some meaning in what was left of its soul, flooded its alien senses.

Once more, Necrons are afraid of life and nature.

Page 388

He had seen the ruined body of the necron overlord, and had known that it was not over. A creature like that would not place the future of its existence in the fallible hands of a single physical vessel. The overlord that Sarpedon had fought was just a weapon, a machine under the creature's control. Its mind was something else entirely.

Sarpedon is smart enough here to realize that the thing he fought was just a tool of the actual Lord.. the controlling intelligence.

Page 392

Sometimes, an Astartes could stay dead for a long time without a heartbeat, far longer than a normal man, and survive, sitting bolt upright and sputtering back to life with a new reason to seek revenge.

Space Marines can stay clinically dead a long time I guess. Or maybe this is referencing the sus-an membrane.

Page 393

The whole Undying army was milling aimlessly, its individual warriors reverting to crude placeholder programs that had them patrolling at random, firing ill-coordinated blasts up at
the walls.

Apparently without their controlling super-intelligence these Necron are of the dumb, unimaginative and robotic variety, which may explain why they seem to be so easily killed.

Page 399-400

As if in reply to his words, a blue-white lance of energy tore down from Selaaca's sky, and speared the Antithesis amidships. The sound was appalling, a shriek of superheated air ripping through the city. The ground shuddered, and ruins tumbled, bringing down necron structures, and revealing the raw stone of the fallen city through the wounds that opened up.
...
Chain reactions ripped through the hull of the Antithesis. The ship was hundreds of metres long, and, though double that length lay between it and the Soul Drinkers, the ground beneath them shook like an earthquake. Fissures opened up in the ruins, sending the remnants of Selaacan buildings and necron structures alike falling into the networks of tombs and warrior forges below.
...
Over the course of several minutes and hundreds of explosions, the Antithesis was utterly torn apart.
The final chain of detonations blew off its prow, and molten metal flowed from its severed neck in a red-black torrent, like thick gore from a massive wound. The ground below it sagged with the heat billowing out of the wreck, and, as it dissolved away, the huge charred hull sections began to sink.
...
Only one force could do that to the wreck of the Antithesis. It had been an orbital strike, from a spacecraft flying high above them.
...

"That was a lance strike. Imperium tech."

Lances are strictly identifiable as Imperial tech. Destroys the rest of the crashed Admech starship with the Soul Drinkres "double the length" of the hundreds of metres long ship away and apparently penetrating deep (But to an unknonw depth) below the ground. The ship seems to go up in intenral detonations. I dont remember if the ship was fully intact or not.

Incidentlaly its the Imperial fists coming to capture the soul drinkers. what follows is a scene where Lysander totally kicks Sarpedon's ass, an ass kicking which has perhaps been a long time coming to spider-boy.

Page 405

"As soon as I learned that we faced the Soul Drinkers, I contacted their fleet, which helped secure our journey to the Veiled Region. The path we forged through the Veiled Region was theirs to follow."

The Fists tracked the AdMech through the Veiled Regions.

[Connor MacLeod]

And now we get Daenyathos. This one hasn't been released yet (I suspect if they release a 'second' Soul Drinker omnibus we'll get it) but I was lucky to know someone I could borrow it from. This is a sort of 'prequel' to the story, detailing the origins of Daenyathos, the spiritual 'heart' of the Soul Drinkers and all they supposedly are and do (and why they do it.) Frankly, given what we learn, this makes sense (in that 'short bus, how fucking stupid can these guys be' context, but stilla kind of sense.) It chronicles the events from his epiphany to his disappearance and the rumours of his return (which happens in Phalanx.) The story also acts as a bit of spoiler and sets down some groundwork for what happens in Phalanx (not very well, but still..) from Daenyatho's POV. The first half is interesting, because you have an interesting (to me at least) method of multiple-exterminatus and before that the Soul Drinkers participating on the assault on Vandire's palace (which is actually more interesting.) It sort of goes downhill from there though, at least as far as I thought.

It's a single update. I plan on finishing up with Phalanx by the end of the week, but I figured I'd pop this out separately, rather than slam it all out at once. It will actually be the shortest update I've done in a long, long time.

Page 7
`

..the Eccleisarchal Palace was an ill-starred palce that day.
...
..straddling a whole continent of ancient Terra...
...
The Ecclesiarchal Palace stretched from one horizon to the other. Only the Imperial Palace, on the other side of the planet, was bigger. Huge swathes of Terra's surface were taken up by the two edifices.

Size of the Ecclesiarchal palace on Terra.
Page 10

THe Imperial Guard had failed. They had failed because they were men. Men ran away, men faltered, men fell back. Astartes did not. That was the difference. A man might have put on power armour - he might even have hefted the boltgun or the chainsword an Astartes wielded. But he would still be a man. He would still lose this battle. an Astartes would win.

While Astartes are indeed indivisually superior in all respects to a normal person (and generally superior to specialists where certain indivduals might exceed one or more traits) the IG has its own share of Fanatics - Krieg, the Commissars, etc.
Page 14

On one hand was mounted a lasblaster, a rapid-firing, short ranged laser weapon.
...
His image was shimmering as if through a heat haze. Daenyathos knew this was the effect of the energy shield that surrounded him, generated by a device grafted onto his spine.
He was one of the Frateris, the army of the Ecclesiarchy.

One of the Reign of Blood era Frateris. Rather formidable, not unlike what a really good Skitarii can pull off I imagine, although forcefields can have their own drawbacks (ineffective against melee or slow moving attacks, they give off a signature, and as an active defense they can malfunction, fail or be overloaded and deprive you totally of defense.)
I'd guess the lasblaster is some of Laser machine gun tpe.
Page 15

The Frateris' teeth were each illuminated, caved with tiny devotional images which flashed...
...
His eyelids too. Lettering spiralled up the inside of his nostrils and into his ears.

That's some pretty detailed tattooing.

Page 15-16

The energy shield was powerful protection against ranged fire. That was why the gate towers had continued to crawl with Frateris no matter how much fire the Imperial Guard had poured into them. But once an enemy got inside the shield, got face to face, it was uesless.

Again the known limitations of shields.
Page 16

..plunged a combat knife into the back of another Frateris. The monomolecular blade's tip appeared in the centre of the Frateris' chest, sawing through his sternum.

Astartes mono knife. This particular one is perhaps a good 25-30 cm long just for the blade alone. A bit small as Astartes knives go
Page 16

A body fell from two floors up, one arm blown clean off by Daggeran's heavy bolter.
Yelt pulled off his helmet, one side of which had been blown apart by laser fire. He had a grin on his scorched face.

blowing half the helmet off is hard to calc, but assuming fairly severe burns (2nd or 3rd degree) over half an Astartes face (20-30 j per sq cm, and 20x10 cm are affected) we're looking at at least 4-6 kj.. With blowing the helmet off (which I suspect is where the majority of the energy went) we're probably looking at several tens of kj at least. The problem, though, is we don't know what kind of lasfire did it, so more than this is hard to analyze.
Heavy bolter amputates normal person's arm.
Page 16

The Frateris were fanatics. Their purpose was to die for the Emperor - they were grossly misguided, pledged to a maniac, and they had to die. All of them. They would not give up.

Unlike the Guard, who are 'just men and run'. I mean, its not like the IG ever has regiments of fanatical mindless zealots who will die for their Emperor, is it?

Page 19

Pains were taken to ensure the imperioal Gurad did not witness this ritual. A Guardsmen was morally simplistic, and could not be trusted to see the blood rites of the Adeptus Astartes and not come to a wayward conclusion.

Is this irony for the Soul Drinkers to make this pronouncement? yes, I think it is. How dare they think cannibalism might be wrong! (although if they're hive worlders they're probably used to a form of it lol.)

Page 19

After recruitment, the Frateris were first broken down, their humanity and personality stripped away, and then they were built back up again with the Imperial Creed the whole of their consciousness. When they closed their eyes, they saw Goge Vandire. When they opened them, they saw enemies that Vandire desired dead.

Probably some form of psycho-conditioning/surgery, which may explain the fanatacism.
Page 24

..as he strirred the corpse rations. They were a grim stew of protein and nutrients. THe Guardsmen took delight in propogating the story that they were really made of corpses.

Given what we know of dietary habits on Hive Worlds (or at least the really large, populous ones), this is not entirely far fetched. However we know from the Ghosts novels that eating people seems to be frowned on, although this might be a sector or segmentum level policy difference (or even just restricted to the SWC. That's one thing that's hard to say.

Page 24

"Why do they say the things they do? What is it that makes you stand apart.
...
"I am not scared." said Fidelion. "I am not gripped by the fear that makes men do stupid things. I do not forget that fleeing from them is usually more dangerous than standing to fight. And I remember why I am fighting. THere are powers greater than I who have sent me to kill in the Emperor's wars. I have faith my fighting will do His will. I take comfort in prayer and in the fact that my lasgun hasn't burned out on me yet. I suppose that is all."
"And normal men are not like this."
"Alas," said Fidelion. "They are not."

Fidelion is some bad ass vet guardsman who seems to be regarded as a hero-figure by the other troopers, and DAenyathos is curious why. THe above is his answer, although I don't quite know if he's saying normal guardsmen or normal men are different from him. We do know there are guard types who can reflect much of what he is saying, so this may reflect the experiences or 'veteran' status of a regiment. Or it may just be an outlier.
Page 25

The Imperial Guard were essential in this, for while an Astartes was avluable, a Guardsmen who fell would rarely be missed. They were perfect for the suicidal charges against fortifications which kept the Frateris and Brides occupied until the Astartes could break them.

IG troops being used as a 'distraction' to allow the AStartes to break through the palace to get at Vandire. Example either of how extreme the situation is and how good the defenses are (And given what we saw, like the Frateris, they might be that good) ir it may just be pointless grimdark highlighting the political and tactical stupidity of some IG commanders (or whoever is commanding. This could be Techpriest or Astartes stupidity, although I'd lean more towards the former given their attitudes towards people and machines and such.)
Page 28

The purpose of this carnage was not to kill any Brides of the Emperor. In cover, heavily armoured as they were, the las-fire that fell amongst them would be lucky to fell a handful. Instead, the Guardsmen were there as a diversion within a diversion. While the Brides were shooting at them, they were not shooting at the AStartes. Bloody mathematics ran through Daneyathos' mind, and he saw it would work.

Basically human wave tactics.. waves of Guardsmen after guardsmen sent in to keep the weapons fire of the Daughters occupied while the Astartes strike. One hopes they're at least using penal legionnaires for this, but knowing Counter we're probably getting hordes of specialist and highly elite light infantry pressed into human wave charges. They also mention thousands getting cut down in minutes, and that there are so many bodies they can be used as cover. The IG at its Best and thematically appropriate.
Page 29

He could see the Brides now - they wore power armour, too, but they were not augmented like an Astartes and they were physically smaller.

Proto-sisters about to get slaughtered. Note they have power armour.

Page 31

Archangelsk, being a gas giant, was a difficult world to kill.
The principles behind its destruction were well theorised but had never been tested. It was rarely feasible to spend the resources of the Exterminatus in a mere experiment, to see if it would work. The Inquisition had been compelled to wait until a suitably forlorn world came to light before this form of Exterminatus could receive its first deployment.

Exterminatus, unsurprisingly, is tailored to the tpye of world meant to be destroyed as well as various other factors, which can mean that it can vary in power or level of destruction without much surprise.
wHat is interesting is that, what with all the 'techno heresy' BS usually spouted about the scientific method and such, that they make theories for Exterminatus to be tested when possible - EG THE HORRID RESEARCH! Of course this is the Inquisition and not the ADMech, but still....
Also I suspect the 'resources' talked about might refer omre to the loss of a world rather than just the resources expended, but it is reasonable to consider EXterminatus a 'high end' employment of military firepower (and resources like energy and materiel. This can in turn mean that 'typical' firepower is generlaly less than what Exterminatus can output, but how much we don't know, and it can vary according to the type anyhow.)

Page 31

The doom of Archangelsk took the form of several enormous spheres, loaded up into the belly of an AStartes Strike cruiser like eggs in the belly of a spacebound monster. Each one contained tow parts of an antimatter compound that, the tech-priests insisted, when combined would annihilate one another to create a complete void in which neither space nor time existed. These voids would exist only for a tiny fraction of a second, too small for all but the most ancient cogitators to measure. Almost instantly, reality would collapse around each void, and it was this collapse, the shocking implosion, that would sound the death knell for Archangelsk.
The implosion, when triggered near the centre of Archangelsk's mass near its rocky core, would send shcokwaves through the gas giant, strong enough to throw off the outer layers of gas. These layers were composed of toxic gases locked in endless electrical storms, in which were suspended billions of chunks of rock, ice, captured space debris and other detritus. The outer layers would roar outwards in a terrible toxic storm which would then engulf the nineteen moons of Archangelsk. Seven of those moons were inhabited, three of them heavily...

Our "gas Giant' exterminatus. Sounds basically like they're using M/A-M reaction to blow off a great deal of the atmopshere at high velocity to decimate the planet with some sort of CME/solar flare like effect. Intresting if true, and potentially energetic given this isn't likely to be horribly efficient and there are nineteen moons that will get hit - indeed the big thing about this is that unless it's directed (and it might) it could be an omnidirectional blast, meaning only a fraction of the actual release hits the target.
Limiting all the impressive-sounding implications is the fact that the worlds in questions are moons and implied to be hive worlds. They probably have at least something approximating earthlike gravity (I've never heard of hive worlds having built in AG, but its possible or they may not have AG in some.. hive worlds can be quite diverse.) but it may not have a habitable atmosphere and enviroment - or even have an atmosphere/enviroment at all. Depending on the kind of hive world and its enviromental conditions it could take a little or alot of energy to purge (a handful of self contained cities on a dead/hazarodus world is easier to wipe out than a underground hive city) There's also the rather goofy way everything is phrased (antimatter compounds, the emphasis on vaccuum creation which creates an explosion, etc.) which could scream 'technobabble' but the more plausible explanation is that this is one of those actual cases the AdMech either doesnt know what its talking about or is deliberately obfuscating the issue for whatever reason (they dont want people understanding SCIENCE! after all.) That means the 'compound' refers to the annihilation reaction itself, and the voids refer to the annihilation of matter in the vicinity.)
Possibility three is that the M/AM reaction is powering some technobabble weapon effect which is pulling this off - eg seismic charge like forcefield shockwaves.)
The cogitator calculation speed might provide some interesting limits on Imperial computer tech. I know fusion/fission reactions can operate on microsecond timescales (possibly less) but I dont know if matter/antimatter reactions are faster, but its possible to reacn nanosecond timescales I suppose depending on intepretations.

Page 32

Its first members were the scholars of Archangelsk's universeities who, without the oversight of a permanant Adeptus Mechanicus presence, had begun experimenting in matters they should have shunned. One onf them - none now claimed to know who- discovered a grave secret, a hidden truth about beings that lived in the winds of the gas giant. This, it turned out, was a metaphor to describe the beings that livedin the warp...

Basically they're talking to daemons because they hadn't had a techpriest around to keep them from experimenting. It makes a certain sort of perverse sense, but It's sitll pretty grimdark.
Page 32

And die they would, their bodies stripped to the bone by the razor-sharp wind that would streak through their cities, their home eroded to scarred stumps where once-mighty hives had stood. Archangelsk had been a cetre of great wisdom and learning.
..
Before the Exterminatus could be launched, the orbital defence platforms in Archangelsk's upper atmosphere had to be captured...

To be fair, the planet had become a Chaos hellhole as we learn. Millions sacrificed, daemons summoned, etc.. so purging the place is really the only option, and the people are probably better off dead than Chaos playthings.
Also the confrimation that this is a hive world of some kind - one that seems dedicated to learning - it has universities and such. Destruction of knowledge by the Imperium seems to be as big a theme for Counter as daemon-firing weaponry is.

Page 35

The claw arrowed down at him and Daenyathos swatted at it with his power blade, using the force of the discharging power field to shunt himself aside.

This seems to be a power sword that works more akin to a powerfist or thunder hammer or simipar 'impact' weapon.
Page 35

He fired off half a magzine from his bolt pistol, certain he could see craniums bursting through the haze.

Obligatory bolter head-exploding.
Page 36

The melta-bomb detonated. A sphere of intense heat swelled inside the daemon's throats. Bone scorched and flesh bubbled. Flaming heads fell like burning fruit from a tree.

A rare omnidirectional melta warhead. Hilariously this was meant for anti-vehicle use.

Page 39

The Soul Drinkers mustered around Garn's position, among the great plasma turbines that kept the station aloft.

I guess some 40K turbines run by plasma (given the craziness of plasma in how it works, this is hardly surprising.) OR it might be a plasma engine.
Page 40

It was rare that a Soul Drinker was permanantly mained rather than killed, and to a degree that could not be remedied with bionics.
..
Otherwise [if not in a Dreadnought] they would be relegated to life as a Master of Serfs, monoitoring and commanding the Chapters' unaugmented servants.

It seems that Spcae Marines are meant to be so tough that crippling and killing them are virtually synonymous. And those who do get crippled end up on permanant administrative duty. I suspect other positions can be found for such (aboard the fleet, as well as other positions overseeing the Chapter.) Such jobs, like being Chapter Master, are as important as fighting, but most battle brothers are too uncomplicated to think in those terms.
Page 45

He noticed for the first time the deep lines of age around Kayeda's eyes and the tubes that snaked up from his armour under the skin of his neck - juvenat treatment...
...
As an inquisitor, he could demand the best and rarest medicla treatments to extend his life. Was he a hundred? Three hundred? Older?

Comment on juvenat and life extending technologies in the Imperium.
Page 47

Deep in the planet's core the gases became denser and hotter, sometimes sending billows of glowing yellow gas into the upper layers. Those were the fires the Exterminatus would ignite to kill the planet.

'igniting' either suggests its a chemical reaction being triggered, or it is referring to matter-antimatter annihlation. either could be argued (its not the first time weird shit like this happens in 40K) but evidence later suggests it might be more akin to the latter one.

Page 48

Slivers of light, the Exterminatus warheads, streaked form the station's weapons ports. THey seemed to catch fire as they entered the denser layers of the atmosphere, the heat of their speed igniting the gases. There were six of them, and they left a trail like the marks of a clawed hand as they hurtled towards the planet's interior.
..
"In fifteen minutes this place will be bathed in nuclear fire,"

15 minutes to reach the core of a Gas giant from orbit. assuming a Saturn-sized Gas Giant (60,000 km) is a 67 km/s average velocity, although burrowing through the atmosphere is bound to slow the planet down. This is a lower limit since we dont know the actual distances involved - hundreds of km/s is possible.
We also dont know what kinds of warheads or such these are, how big, or anything like that. But it is interesting that they can fire off antimatter payloads from weapons stations regardless of the kind of weapon.
The reference to nuclear fire puts the earlier 'ignite' context into perspective - that we're talking more a 'nuclear' reactio than a chemical one - and a matter-antimatter annihilation would be a sort of nuclear reaction.

Page 49

The fires in the planet's core reached a critical mass and roared outwards, blasting off the outer layers of the atmosphere. Daenyathos watched as a close-up of one moon as the razor-sharp winds swept across it, burning and lethal. The light-speckled darkness of a city was turned grey and formless, like diseased skin flaking away, eroded to nothing in minutes. The brown oceans boiled away, leaving dark scars. The crust of the moon eroded and bright crackles spread across the surface as the magma beneath broke through. Mlten rivers burst up where millions had lived a few minutes before. Chunks of the crust lifted away, thrown spinning on the scorching gales. The moon's shape distorted as it spun off its axis and began to break apart.
The picture was repeated across the moons of Archangelsk. The population was reduced to zero, the last few survivors perhaps perishing as underground bunkers collapsed or were breached by magma.

The effects of the Exterminatus payload. I can think of alot of ways to calc it, but some of them are less concrete than others.
The simplest is assuming the 1e8-1e9 megaton timeframe for mass extinction per moon. With 19 moons thats billions or tens of billions of megatons of energy released at a minimum, and probably more than that if they aren't focusing the blasts on the planets. This assumes a sizable, halfway habitable planet, of course.
We could try to geuss at the KE released by the atmopshere blasting outwards. It implies 'a few minutes' of propogation, tens or hundreds of km/s at least. ASsuming density similar to earth's atmosphere and the first km or so thickness of a saturn-sized planet's atmosphere was blasted away we're talking 5e19 kg, for an approximate KE anywhere form e27 J (for tens of km/s) to e30+ J (for several hundred km/s) This is alot higher than the first one, but it suffers from teh same problem of we don't know how quite accurate it is. It's not exactly a lower or upper limit, but probably closer to the latter than former.
Method three is the oceans boiling away. Assuming an earthlike planet we're talking e27 to e29 joules, depending on if they merely vaporize or are blasted off the planet. This is also a bit problematic in that the moons may not be habitable. I dont think they oculd be *too* small - not to have magma and a crust, and earthlike gravity (for people to inhabit) as well as oceans, but this really isn't a topic I'm authoritative enough on to be certain about. Also the crust is being blasted away (we dont know how much, but that is fairly telling on its own, especially if the magma is bursting up - I'd guess that the firepower is roughly of a similar magnitude to ocean boiling.)
The last one is the moons getting knocked out of their orbits and started to get broken up by the blasts. We dont know if its DS like or if they're just pulverizing it partly or wholly, but the impact strong ennough to knock a moon out of orbit is not going to be trivial KE wise even with a small moon. Again the similar parameters for the moon above (eg habitable in some fashion) could imply significant KE (assuming 2 km/s velocity imparted to a moon the same size as Earth's moon - in the e22 kg range - we're talking something on the order of e28 J. If it were (for the sake of the argument) a smaller moon like Deimos and Phobos - unlikely but not impossible, we're talking e15-16 kg and 'only' a KE imparted of e21-e22 J. Again these aren't either lower or upper limits, but I'd imagine that given planetary disruption is occuring the vleocity imparted is considerable (close to or greater than the escape velocity of the moon in question.)
Bear in mind as well that for All cases each case may be repeated nearly a score of times (one for each moon), or it may only represent a small fration of the overall energy released (for an omnidirectional blast.)
Overall we have strong indicators for yet another kind of very large, powerful and brute force exterminatus technique, and one that is very impressive. It isn't directly applicalbe to ship to ship firepower, but the quantity of resources expended, both in terms of mass and energy, to transport and deploy the payload. at the very least we're talking at the bare minimum millions, and more probably billions if not trillions of tons of antimatter (nevermind the containment and detonation mechanisms, guidances systems, etc.) which is impressive for the ability to convey such quantities (much less in a warship! meaning its a very compact, dense fuel supply) as well as the energy expended in transporting it across the warp, across the system, and launched at the plnaet. Assuming the 67 km/s velocity above and a mere 2 million tons we're talking a sustained output of 4.5e18 J of KE for launching the payload. Carrying it across the system (depending on velocity) is at least of that magnitude, and probably considerably greater (hundreds or thousands of km/s) Billions of tons is going to be 1000x more powerful, trillions even moreso.. and this does have implications for ship to ship firepower at least (both in the transport and the launching by the orbital defense platforms weapons ports.) We're quite easily in the Gt/TT per sec range for either firepower or propulsion, which is damned impressive.
It also shwos that in addition to nuclear (fission and fusion) and plasma/melta warheads as well as other exotics, they have antimatter payloads available. They may not be commonplace or easily replicated, but they exist and can be used. (We of course know they use them as antimatter bombs for destroying hulks, as well as in rarer examples like bolter rounds.)


Page 55

"You sought to commune with the machine-spirit of the Schintillating Death, to master it and bring its intellect into the Emperor's service."

Implies a certain intelligence/awareness of the ship's machine spirit.

Page 56

"Each Aspirant", said Reclusiarch Gorosius, "must submit himself to the trial of the Scintillating Death."

A starship lost in the warp, returned, and haunted by the ghosts of Soul Drinkers, and it remains part and parcel of the teachings and rites of passage of the Chapter. Small wonder they eaisly fell to mutation and rebellion, wouldn't you think?.

Page 66

Some said the Great Crusade, when the Emperor had conquered the galaxy to unite its human worlds as the Imperium, had never ended, either, and that it was still being fought by the Imperial Guard and Navy every day.

They've also said the Heresy is still ongoing But that the Great Crusade is an ongoing idea isn't a new one - Astelan suggested that in Angels of Darkness.
Page 70

A whole city had been marched into a darkened valley to hear the worlds of the prophet Ascenian, and then had their minds torn away and crammed into the skulls of half a dozen specially selected psyker children. The resulting creatures were psychic nightmares, their destructive powers vastly amplified and unleashed at random by the thousands of conflicting minds boiling inside each one.

This has interesting parallels in that you have 'thousands' of normal people (A city's worth) contributing to and enhancing the psychic potential of a psyker - not unlike many warp related feats and creatures (Daemons/Gods, manifestations of faith or the Ork WAAGH effect, Astropathic choirs, etc.
Page 70

He was a moral threat now, a threat that could corrupt others by his mere presence.

Definition of a moral threat.
Page 70

Then the Imperial Tarot was read by a hundred astropaths, all contacted in desperation by the subsector governors whose planets had suffered at AScenian's hands.

AStropathic divination on a large scale. It prboably is done to create a more complete picture as well as to test reliability - in this case it hints at a destintation where the moral threat could be found. Also subsector governors.
Page 78

Among the abandoned settlement's buildings were thunderfire Cannons and Skyhammer mortars, crewed by Chapter serfs under the direction of the Techmarines. They were being loaded and calibrated, their stabilising feet already bolted to the soft earth with metla spikes.

Interesting in that we have astartes actually using mortars.
Page 80

"What concerns me is the light in which the Imperium's other citizens are cast." said Gorosius. "You describe them as cattle."
...
"Their [citizens of the Imperium] role is to be herded and led by their betters, so their exploitation may make the existence of the Imperium possible."
..
"But what concerns me is the exceptions you make. The Astartes are included, as are a few of humanity's more exalted specimens. This is as it should be, but there are some exceptions not made. The High Lords of TErra, when they form the Senatorum Imperialis, are surely above the common man."
...
"If the lords of mankind are cattle, and cattle are to be led, then waht can be said of those who are led by them. Do not we answer, when the Lords of Terra call forth a Great Crusade, or declare an enemy of humanity to be eradicated? We may not heed every word of the Adeptus Terra, but do our objectives and those of the Impeirum's rulers not broadly coincide? And yet we cannot be cattle too, for we are Astartes, the shephreds of humanity."

The "philosophy" of the Catechisms Martial. Remember that the Soul Drinkers turned to Chaos because of this, and its marked by the sort of arrogance that got the Soul Drinkers into trouble to begin with.

Page 81

"That conclusion is, the Soul Drinkers should not obey Terra at all. They should exist outside Imperial authority. Indeed, given the roles ascribed to the Astartes and to the masses of the Imperium, it would seem becoming renegades from the Imperium is a natural and inevitable step for the Soul Drinkers."

So the seeds of heresy have been planted long ago. Its rather interesting they reach this conclusion when it's pretty much a fact that the Astartes are only allies and not under the command of the ADeptus Terra, so why this should be such a revelation to the Soul Drinkers (aside from them being blinkered) is puzzling. And they retain that independence without being renegades. Again it kinda highlights the fucked up attitude of the Soul Drinkers.
Page 92

The Talon of Mars had started out as an Adeptus Mechanicus explorator ship, a highly advanced and ancient craft that sought out new warp routes. On one of its expeditions it had dropped into the warp and not returned for three thousand years.

Admech explorator ships that serve to map and navigate the warp, after a fashion.
Page 100

"In the vats of your Apothecarion I imagine it must have been crafted. Even the Magi Biologis of the Mechanicus would struggle to emulate such craftsmanship. "

Apparnet origin of the gene-seed.. some sort of 'vat grown' technique it seems.. although I'm not sure it's cloning. And unsurprisingly the AdMech would be hard pressed to duplicate it (although they might match its capabilities in other ways.)

Page 106

"The Emperor created the primarchs,' began Daenyathos, 'in His own image. But they were not enough to conquer the galaxy on their own. There were twenty primarchs, but two of them the others despised."
...
"The Primarchs," said Daenyathos, "killed these two, and cut them up into thousands of pieces. Each piece was implanted in a warrior, and it transformed them into the first Space Marines. Whenever one of us falls, our battle-brothers will risk their lives to reclaim the body, for the gene-seed we carry is the same that was taken from the Emperor's murderd sons."

Daenyathos speaking of the 'origins' of the gene-seed. It has the obvious taste of myth/legend, and it kind of unlikely (The Emperor had created Space Marines prior to the rediscovery of the other Primarchs.) but its a rather interesting take on the fate of the two missing Primarchs (although it doesnt explain the Legions.)
Of course this assumes it's true. Daenyathos could be deliberately lying ot

[The Yosemite Bear]

So should I purchase the new Soul Drinker's book with intent to pulish in this thread? (basic blub is Soul Drinkers are on trial for previous books and Necrons show up)

[Connor MacLeod]

And now, at last, we reach the end of the long journey of the Soul Drinkers series, Phalanx. And it was certainly an odd trip, to say the least. How is the book as a cap to the series? Well, its better than the first novel, but it isn't as good as the high points in the series (like Hellforged.) Its disappionting in a number of ways but the ending is good enough to finish off the series. In that respect its alot like Daemon world - its a slog to get to the end, but the ending itself is good enough in its own strange way if you don't look too closely.

Another obvious fact is that you get more glimpses of what Counter perhaps intended and where he had been going with the Soul Drinkers. There are definite nuggets of intention throughout the book and the idea, I think, was a good one. Had Counter managed to pull this off the way he had Gray Knights or Hammer of Daemons, it could have been decent. But I'm not sure he pulled it off completely, and I want to chalk that up to consistency - the books tended to be all over the place as far as direction and intent, and the characterizations of the Soul Drinkers (esp Sarpy) felt like they changed from book to book.

I've really got this impression that had this not been a Space Marine novel - perhaps been more of an Inquisitorial or Sisters of Battle book - it might have been a whole lot better. The entire series was at its best when it was not dealing directly with the Soul Drinkers, and had those points been muted and much of the soul drinkers stuff (at least in the earlier books) occured 'offscreen' - the series could have been a whole lot better. As it is...

I will note that Counter did have some cleare themes in the book (about Space Marines, about Chaos, about what the Imperium itself is) and these are not bad themes to discuss.
I will also note that some of the saving graces in the book were Aescarion and what he did with some of the Space Marines. I absolutely love Varnica and the Doom Eagles. Best depiction of them ever, and he manages to come across with a truly quirky, unique MArine character who has an almost 'detective' feel about him. Think about that. Space Marine detectives. Doesn't that have some potential to it?

Anyhow, the final verdict of Phalanx is 'I didn't hate it' which for the Soul Drinkers series as a whole is a victory in itself, as I anticipated something much worse. Feel free to offer your own insights into the series, the finale, and such.

Page 7-8

Its like had never been built before, and would never be built again. The secrets of its construction dated from before the foundation of the Imperium of Man, its immense golden form crafted by engineers dead long before the Emperor first united Holy Terra.

The hull of the ship was many kilometres long, triangular in cross-section with its upper surface bristling with weapons and sensorium domes. Two wings swept back from the hull, trailing directional vanes like long gilded feathers. Every surface was clad in solid armour plating and every angle was covered by more torpedo tubes and lance batteries than any Imperial battleship could muster.

Countless smaller craft, repair craft and unmanned Scouts, orbited like supplicants jostling for attention, and the wake of the titanic engines seemed to churn the void itself with the force of its plasma fire.

The fist symbol emblazoned on the prow was taller than the length of most Imperial spacecraft, proudly claiming that the ship belonged to the Imperial Fists Chapter, one of the most storied Space Marine Chapters in the history of the Imperium.
...
This was the Phalanx. Bigger than any ship in the Imperial Navy, it was a mobile battle station the size of a city that dwarfed any Space Marine Chapter’s mightiest battle-barge. It might have been the most powerful engine of destruction in the Imperium.

The Phalanx described. It's interesting that counter decided to echo Abnett's view that Phalanx had been built in the Great Crusade era rather than Dark Age of Technology (as the Index Astartes entries hinted.) Given that, it must have been built in a few centuries (or decades more likely). It must also be vastly in excess of 60-80 km long (the Mass Conveyors from Thousand Sons) since its larger than even Furious Abyss. This might very well be the 40K equivalent of the Death STar, in fact.

Also note the 'unmanned scout' craft.

Page 9

The functionary, a shaven-headed, drab man in a dark yellow uniform, activated a few controls on his side of the wall and the Pain Glove apparatus shuddered as power flowed into it.

Brother Kaiyon hung in the Pain Glove.
...
The Pain Glove itself resembled some strange mollusc, a lumpy, phlegmy membrane that covered Kaiyon from neck to ankle. It writhed against his skin, as if trying to ascertain
the shape of its captive by touch.
...
"So ready a hand at the tormentor’s tools would be a sin in any but one of your responsibilities."

For some reason I find odd that Counter has ths Fists using the pain glove for torture/interrogation. It may have been intended as that (or even mentioned as such somewhere) but in the Fists case they use it as a tool of teaching and meditation (a throwback to Ian Watson days, which is not a bad thing IMHO even if it adds an edge of sadomasochism to the Fists.)

In Counter's defence the Deathwathc 'First Founding' book (at least) mentions it as a device both to teach and punish inf ractions, but I don't think that quite encompasses 'enhanced interrogation' technqiues despite being perfect for that. I mean, the device to the Fists is a tool for making a better Fist - using it to gain information somehow.. trivializes that, and the Fists like most Space Marines tend to regard the legacies of their Primarchs with quasi-religious fervor. So using it for such a basic thing is.. odd.

On the other hand the Soul Drinkers are believed to be descended from Dorn, so maybe that permits exceptions. *shrugs*'

Page 10

The Castellan’s armour was crenellated like the battlements of a castle around its collar and the edges of its shoulder pads, and the vents around his torso echoed tall pointed windows or arrow slits. He looked like a walking fortress, even the greaves around his shins resembling the buttresses of two towers on which he walked. His face was branded with a grid pattern – a portcullis, a forbidding entrance to the fortification he represented.

I let this stand on its own merit. While its a bit silly, I have to admit I find it.. appropriate. Its another Ian Watson type throwback (a weirdness of the sort where you have a Chaplain consuming sins and then crapping them out like in Space Marine)

PAge 13-16

We are traitors and heretics. We are mutants. Should truth have any value in itself then it will do us no good, for these things are true. My own mutations are so grotesque that I wonder if there will be anything thought of me at all....
...
A Space Marine did not succumb to self-pity, no matter how true his failure seemed to him. He would lie to himself if that was what it took.
...
"I trust," said Sarpedon, "your captive is a wretched as you hoped."

"Bitterness becomes not an Astartes," replied Lysander. "I take no joy in the fall of another Space Marine. I have come not to gloat, if that is how low you think of me.
I have come to give you the chance to confess."

"Confess?" said Sarpedon. "With no thumbscrews? With my skin still on my frame?"

"Do not play games," snapped Lysander.
...
The Fists knew the Soul Drinkers were mutants – one glance at Sarpedon was enough to tell them that. The Fists had collected evidence of the Soul Drinkers’ deeds, including many that had pitted them against the forces of the Imperium from which the Soul Drinkers had rebelled. He could think of nothing more damaging than any of that.

I do have to say that this entire passage (which is a discussion between Sarps and Lysander) is interesting for the duality shown and the reasons given why. We get both the Sarpedon of Hellforged that we've seen glimpses of at times, who is almost decent, and then the pompous, overbearing Sarpedon who is utterly convinced of his own rectitude despite the ample evidences to the contrary. He seems aware of that and that all the bluster and bravado is just a show - or even self deception, because that's how he sees Space Marines. Whether he is right or wrong, or how this reflects on him and the Soul Drinkers, is up for debate, but it at least offers a measure of consistency. It's kind of a shame that this sort of consistency couldn't have bene maintained better throughout the series, because it would have been less confusing that way.

I also like how it contrasts Lysander smacking down Sarps for his ego, which is well deserved.



Page 15-17

"‘I have heard of your Pain Glove," said Sarpedon.

"Then you know it is a part of the initiations every Imperial Fists has undergone. I myself have been subject to it. It served no more than to shake Brother Kaiyon out of the fugue the flock have fallen into since their incarceration here. He is insane, Sarpedon. He spoke through madness, not pain, and that madness was not our doing."
...
But what had happened to the flock? They were the Soul Drinkers whose officers had died in the gradual erosion of the Chapter’s strength, and who had turned to Chaplain Iktinos for leadership. They had become intense and inspired under Iktinos, but insane? Sarpedon did not know what to make of it.

So it turns out that Iktinos' flock are all insane. And Sarpedon was completely ignorant of the fact and doesn't know what to make of it. Are we surprised?


Page 18

Through the open rear ramp the grey landscape rippled through ruined cities and expanses of tarnished metal, obsidian pillars rising from deep valleys choked with pollution and the shores of black, dead seas lapping against shores scattered with collapsed buildings.

The human presence on Selaaca was now no more than scars, the ruined crust of a long-dead organ. The necrons had built over it, vast sheets of metal, pyramids, tomb complexes and patterns of obelisks which had no discernible purpose other than to mark Selaaca as a planet that belonged to them.
..
..a range of hills studded with obelisks and pylons, as if metallic tendrils had forced their way out of the ground to escape the bleak gravity of Selaaca. Patterns of silver like metal roads spiralled around the peaks and valleys, and sparks of power still spat between a few of the pylons.

A Necron-infested world.

Page 22-25

The Mantle of Wrath had two missions over Selaaca. The first was to deliver the Scout squad to follow up the Castellan’s intelligence. The other was to begin the destruction of the Soul Drinkers.

The Mantle was one of the better-armed ships in the Imperial Fists fleet, but for this mission its torpedo bays had been stripped out and replaced with high-yield charges normally used for orbital demolitions. The Mantle did not have long to wait in orbit over Selaaca before its target drifted into view, its massive bulk darkening the glare of Selaaca’s sun.
...
The Brokenback was as huge and ugly a space hulk as any had seen, hundreds of smaller ships welded into a single lumbering mass by the tides of the warp. Imperial warships ten thousand years old jostled with xenos ships, vast cargo freighters and masses of twisted metal that bore no resemblance to anything that had ever crossed the void.
...

Thousands of crew on the Mantle prepared the torpedo arrays as the strike cruiser manoeuvred into position. Damage control crews were called to battle stations, for while the Brokenback was unmanned no one could be sure of what automated defences the hulk might have. As the Mantle approached firing position, the Imperial Fists officers and the unaugmented crewmen waited for the space hulk to leap into life and rain destruction from a dozen warships onto the Mantle of Wrath.
...
The hulk’s weapons stayed silent. A spread of torpedoes glittered against the void as they launched from the Mantle, leaving ripples of silvery fire in their wake. Defensive turrets, which would normally have shot down every one of the torpedoes, stayed silent as the first spread impacted into the space hulk amidships.

Bright explosions blossomed against the void, flashes of energy robbed of power an instant later by the vacuum. Shattered chunks of hulls floated outwards in clouds of debris, leaving open wounds of torn metal in the side of the Brokenback.

The space hulk was too big for a single volley, even of the high-yield demolition charges, to destroy. The Mantle of Wrath pumped out wave after wave of torpedoes. One volley blew an Imperial warship free of the space hulk’s mass and the ship span away from its parent, trailing coils of burning plasma and revealing the twisted steel honeycomb inside. Ruined orbital yachts and xenos fighter craft tumbled out of the rents opened up in the hull.

Moment by moment, the whole Brokenback came apart. Selaaca’s gravity drew the fragments down and the whole hulk rotated. The volley had opened up a weak point in the depths of the hulk’s mass and an enormous section of the stern bent away from it, dragged down towards the greyish disc of Selaaca.

The Brokenback could not resist orbital decay any work to keep it in orbit, failed as plasma reactors collapsed and power systems were severed. Over the course of the next few hours the stern of the hulk was scoured by the upper atmosphere and broke away entirely, followed by millions of chunks of debris raining down onto the planet.

Like a dying whale the rest of the Brokenback lolled over and fell into the gravity well of Selaaca, gathering speed as it fell, its lower edges glowing cherry-red, then white, with
friction.

The Brokenback disappeared into Selaaca’s cloudy sky. Most of it, the Mantle’s augurs divined, would come down in one of Selaaca’s stagnant oceans, the rest scattered over a coastline.

The death of the Brokenback. Calcing it in some way should be possible - if it were a Nickle Iron Asteroid tens of km in diameter it might take gigatons to shatter (cratering) but that's problematic since it assumes a solid asteroid, and the exact composition isn' tuniform in any case (and we dont know the exact size.) Nor is it inert, and we dont know what kinds of defenses (if any) might be in play (its got alien ships in it, remember.) It does seem unliekly that the reactors contributed to destruction (for one thing they were nearly dead by the time of Hellforged) but there's still potentially ordnance onboard.

In any case the ship isn't completely shattered by the salvo and it crashes onto the planet once knocked out of orbit. About the only thing we can say is that the bombardment occured across orbital distances, the Brokenback's weapons (including point defense) might have had a potentail range of thousands or tens of thousands of km, and that's it.

Page 28

Rogal Dorn’s diamond eyes flashed red. A pencil-thin beam glittered across the chamber. Sergeant Borakis fell, twin holes bored through his skull by the pulse of laser.

Rogal dorn laser eyebeams of doom. Whether they have any bearing on lasguns we can't say but the damage they do and the diameter was interesting at least.

Page 28-29

The panels of the triptych slid aside, each revealing the veiny flesh of a gun-servitor supporting double-barrelled autoguns.
...
The autoguns opened up, the gunfire filling the chamber to bursting. Kalliax almost made it to the hole leading to the tunnel. His armour almost held for the extra second he needed. Bursts of torn ceramite, then blood and meat, spattered from his back as bullets hit home. Kalliax fell to the floor as a shot blew his thigh open, revealing a wet red mess tangled around his shattered femur. Kalliax dropped Borakis’s body and returned fire with his bolt pistol. His face and upper chest disappeared in a cloud of red.

Fists scout falling to autogun fire from several combat servitors.

Page 43-44

"The mutations," said the Apothecary, "are implicit throughout. The subject's musculo-skeletal strength is at the top end of Astartes maximum. I doubt there is any
man-mountain of a Space Wolf who can match him. Material mutations begin with the thickened lumbar spine and the pelvis."
...
"And what a pelvis!"
...

"I have no doubt the strengthening properties of its shape shall make it a classic of its kind. I shall have it preserved and gilded, I think, and keep it here among my most prized samples. Perhaps the Mechanicus shipwrights can use it to develop some new form of docking clamp."

Discussion of Sarpy's biology. He's at the top of Astartes strength limits as noted, which means that his own performance can be treated as upper limits (although whether or not I noted them I don't remember.) It doesn't mean Astartes normally obtain those limits, just that they exist. It also reflects that Space Wolves are perhaps noted for being stronger than most other Astartes, possibly due to the wolf thingy inside them.

Also his pelvis is apparently a model for inspiration and innovation, and the Apothecary at least thinks the AdMech might actually design something off it. Interesting, assuming it isn't a joke. Although I don't think I ever wanted to hear someone talk about Sarpy's pelvis.

Page 47

"You are a traitor," said the Apothecary. He had his plasma pistol levelled at Sarpedon's head. "The dignity we give you in trying you before true and loyal Space Marines is more than you deserve."
...
"'But try me for what?" demanded Sarpedon.
...
"How many enemies of man have fallen to the Soul Drinkers? How many catastrophes have we averted?"
...
"And how many Space Marines have fallen to you?" retorted the Apothecary. "Our brethren in the Crimson Fists and the Howling Griffons could attest to that. If you had lost as many of your own to an enemy as mankind has to you, you would not hesitate to seek that enemy's death!"
...
"If you had seen," he said, "what we had seen, then you would cross the galaxy to join us, though a legion of your own stand in your way."

Annnd.. we're back to Short Bus Sarpedon. He just can't seem to admit he was wrong, no matter what it causes. Is it a small wonder these people can be manipulated or fooled so easily? They're fucking stubborn to the point of abject blindness, and Sarpedon even admitted this earlier - takes pride in it it seems. that's just one of those disjointed, jarring things about the Soul drinkers that makes it hard to take them seriously or treat them as tragic whent hey spend entire books trying to convince themselves they're something they're not, even when evidence to the contrary stares them in the face.

Page 60-61

Lysander took from a compartment in his armour a tube of black metal, as long as a normal man's forearm. Its surface was knurled into a grip and on one end it had a
small control surface with indented sensors.
..
"This is the Soulspear," said Voar flatly
...
"As seized at the Lakonia Star Fort," said Lysander. "The seed of the conflict between the Priesthood of Mars and the Soul Drinkers."
...
"I understand that it is to be considered your property. It was taken from you by the Soul Drinkers, and as heretics they have no right to it. Therefore its possession defaults to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Specifically, you."
...
"... you are not happy about this situation."

"The Soulspear is a relic of our primarch," replied Lysander. "Rogal Dorn himself found and re-engineered it. By rights it should belong to one of the successors of Dorn's Legion, the Imperial Fists or one of our brother Chapters. I have no shame in that belief. Any son of Dorn would say the same. But my Chapter Master has no wish to see another rift between the Adeptus Astartes and the Mechanicus, and I must bow to his decision."

Pugh and Lysander show a greater awareness and understanding of politics than Sarpedon himself ever did, and its a massive plus on their side that they can put aside pride and ego for the sakeof politics and unity, however much it hurts them to do it. Even moreso given that the AdMech were blatant assholes in snatching it to begin with and they might have every justification in keeping it.

As we learn shortly it was also a bribe to get the Admech to behave during the trial, so again showing that the Fists are perhaps better than both the Soul Drinkers and AdMech.

Page 61-62

Lysander touched a finger to one of the control surfaces and a tiny laser pulse punched a microscopic hole through the ceramite of his gauntlet's finger joint. Twin blades of pure blackness shot out of each end of the cylinder. The air sighed as it was cut apart by the voids of the blades.

"Vortex blades," said Lysander. "A vortex field bound by Throne knows what technology from before the Age of Imperium. Activated by a gene-lock keyed to the genetic signature of Rogal Dorn. This was wielded by Dorn's own hand, archmagos. A man of whom no Fabricator General can claim to be the equal. The saviour of the Emperor Himself at the height of the Heresy. The greatest soldier this galaxy has ever seen, and I say the greatest man, too. Remember that, whatever you choose to do with this relic. Fail to show Dorn's own handiwork the proper respect and the Imperial Fists just might choose to risk a new rift after all."

The Soulspear in action, a bit of Rogal Dorn love (wonder what Matt Ward and the Smurfs think of that?) and a warning to the AdMech. The Fists clearly haven't forgotten their own assholishness in this years long fiasco. CAn't say I blame them.

page 68-69

"Daenyathos has returned!" said the Dreadnought.
..
Daenyathos was alive! In truth, in the depths of his soul, Luko had always known he was not truly dead. The promise of his return seemed written into everything the legendary philosopher-soldier had passed down to his Chapter, as if the Catechisms Martial had woven into it a prophecy that he would walk among them once more.
..
"What did you do, Daenyathos?" shouted Pallas again..
...
"How have you fallen into their hands, the same as us? Have you come here to face justice?"

Daenyathos returns. The Apothecary seems to be the only one who finds it ominous, as he should (having read Daenyathos so do I)

Page 69

More than three hundred Astartes gathered in the Observatory of Dornian Majesty. Most Imperial battlezones never saw such a concentration of Space Marines..

3 companies worth of Space Marines is an unusual concentration of force.


Page 71

Siege-Captain Daviks of the Silver Skulls wore the reinforced armour of a Devastator, built to accommodate the extra weight and heft of a heavy weapon, and his retinue counted among them his Company Champion carrying an obsidian sword and a shield faced with a mirror to deflect laser fire in combat.

Silver Skulls here seem to be more siege types than the prognistocator-given types we saw in the Silver Skulls book. Ben Counter going his own way again, perhaps?

Page 74-77

Reinez had been the captain of the Crimson Fists 2nd Company during the battles with the xenos eldar on Entymion IV. The Soul Drinkers had taken the company standard in combat. Reinez was not a captain any more, and his trappings were those of a penitent, one who wandered seeking redemption outside his Chapter.
...
"You took my standard. You allied with the xenos. You left my brothers dead in the streets of Gravenhold."

"I fought the xenos," replied Sarpedon levelly. "My conflict with you was sparked by your own hatred, not my brothers’ wish to kill yours."

"You lie!" bellowed Reinez. "The life of the xenos leader was taken by my hand! But it was not enough. None of it was enough. The standard of the Second was taken by heretics. I travelled the galaxy looking for an enemy worthy of killing me, so I could die for my failings on Entymion IV. I could not find it. I turned my back on my Chapter and sought death for my sins, but the galaxy would not give it to me."
...
"The charges I bring," said Reinez, "are the treacherous slaying of the servants of the Emperor, rebellion from the Emperor’s light, and heresy by aiding the enemies of the Imperium of Man."

Reinez recounts his grievances and Sarps tailors reality to suit his view again. It's kinda an interesting contrast between the two since both seem so justified yet are deluding themselves massively. Reinez obsessing over the insult done to his company and Chapter, the loss of his standard and men (he mentions the standard more) and obsessinvg over revenge. He's pretty much deranged to the point of single mindedness quite obviously.

and Sarps continues to willingly delude himself by trying to pretend he was doing something good on Gravenhold, rather than pursuing his own agenda to the exclusion of all else and damn the consequences (sound familiar, Reinez?)

The true hypocrisy in this is that neither of them actually bother to acknowledge the fact they fucked up Xarius' war, got huge numbers of poor Guardsmen killed, all becaues of their own petty obsessions and pride. In fact its very tempting to say (based on the Crimson Fists we learn about from 'One Hate' and 'Rynn's World') that Reinez was kicked out because of how badly Reinez fucked up the war rather than simply losing a standard or getting his own men killed. You could imagine Pedro Kantor of the other depictions doing that. And given how lunatic and irraitonal Reinez is, his view on things would be untrustworthy in any case.

Page 76

"Your role is to accuse, not to execute. It is to prosecute alone that you have been permitted to board the Phalanx, in spite of the deep shame with which your own Chapter beholds you."

Reineiz loses his shit and tries to kill Sarps, and Lysander gets in the way. Pugh justifiably shoots the litlte shit down for exceeding his authority. Its again tempting to think he's aware of how Reinez acted and that he really got kicked uot ofr being an obsessive asshole.

Page 82-83

"Many of you have experienced unpleasant episodes at the hands of the Holy Ordos. I am a symbol of the Inquisition, and casting me down would be to strike a blow against every Inquisitor who ever claimed his jurisdiction included the Adeptus Astartes."
...
"Why am I not dead? I am satisfied that it is not through fear that you refrain from killing me. A Space Marine knows no fear, and in any case, the fulfilling of a blood oath takes far
higher priority than the possibility of being lynched or prosecuted by your fellow Astartes. And as I have said, I myself am scarcely capable of defending myself against any one of you. So what is it that keeps me alive? What strange gravity stays your hands? The answer is power. I have power, and it is a force so irresistible, so immovable, that even Space Marines must make way for it sometimes. I say this not to tempt you into action, I hasten to say, but to show you that it is matters of power that determine so much of the decisions we make whether we understand that or not."
...
"This trial is about power. It is about who holds it, to which power one bows, and the natural order of the Imperium as it is created by the power its members wield. I say to you that the principal crime of the Soul Drinkers is the flouting of that natural order of power. You have refrained from violence against me because of the place I hold in that order. Sarpedon and his brothers would not. They act outside that order. Their actions denigrate and damage it. But it is this order that holds the Imperium together, that maintains the existence of the Imperium and the species of man. Without it, all is chaos. This is the crime for which I condemn the Soul Drinkers, and thus do I demand to fall upon them a punishment that not only removes them from this universe, but proclaims the horror of their deaths as the consequence for railing against the order the Emperor Himself put in place.

Lord Inquisitor Kolgo from Bleeding Chalice. I rather liked his commentary becuase of its honesty. A good chunk of the Soul drinkers stories can be considered an examination of what the Imperium is. I don't always agree with Counter's depiction, and sometimes consider it needlessly grimdark, but it is one of the aspects (the other being Chaos) which Counter explored in the Gray Knights novels as well. And 'power' - or rather, politics, in the Imperium is something he's always been able to convey well.

Again if Counter could have maintained this aspect of the series, or perhaps focused on this more than the Space Marine shit, the Soul drinkers novels might have been better.

Page 86

"In a tomb beneath the ground we found a place that the Soul Drinkers had built there."

Sarpedon listened, but his mind wanted to rebel. He had never heard of any Soul Drinker travelling to Selaaca before he had gone there to face the necrons. The planet was not mentioned in the Chapter archives. It could not be a coincidence that of all the millions of planets in the Imperium, he should stumble upon one where some forgotten brothers had built a tomb thousands of years ago.

Again Sarp's seems shocked that things might be other than he believed. I'm actually willing to give him a pass on this one, since he really had no way of knowing beforehand. But you would think by this time, given what he's been told (Iktinos being the one to direct them in their movements, the insanity of flock, etc.) he would start get an inkling that something odd was going on. That will change shortly though, so he's not completely dense. He learns Daenyathos is alive, and he figures out Iktinos was manipulating them.

Also millions of worlds in the Imperium.

Page 95-96

When not called upon to attend some critical battlezone, it was disasters that attracted the Doom Eagles. Some Chapters sought out ancient secrets, others lost comrades, others the most dangerous sectors of the galaxy to test their martial prowess. The Doom Eagles sought out catastrophe.
..
Here was not only a mystery, but a scale of horror that made it worth solving.

the Doom Eagles. Far better a depiction than many others I've seen of them. It will be expanded upon shortly.

Page 99-100

The Red Night.
It was a wave of madness. Or, it was a disease that caused violent hallucinations. Or, it was a mental attack perpetrated by cunning xenos. Or, it was the natural consequence of Imperial society’s repression of human nature. Or, it was the influence of the warp seeping into real space.

The Red Night caused everyone in the afflicted city to tear one another apart. The urge to do so came over them instantly. Most such disturbances led to an exodus of refugees fleeing the carnage, as the madness spread along some social vector. The Red Night, however, worked instantly. No word escaped the city, and so no one could intervene until the lack of communication forced an investigation and the first horrified reports came back of the scale of the death.

...
In time, the Red Night would evolve completely into legend. Every voidborn shiphand would know someone who knew someone who had lost a friend to it. Collected tales of the Red Night would fill half-throne chapbooks. Melodramas and tragedies would be written about it. Street-corner madmen would rave about the Red Night coming the next day, or the next week, or the next year, to take up all the sinners in its bloody embrace.

Varnica would not let that happen. The truth about the Red Night would be uncovered before all hope of its discovery disappeared among the legends. Too often the Imperium caused the truth to atrophy, replaced by fear and madness. It was Varnica’s duty, among the many a Space Marine had to the Emperor, to scrape back as much of the truth as he could from the hungry maw of history. Each time the Red Night had struck, he had got a little closer to that truth, something he felt rather than understood...
...
Varnica would discover the truth behind the Red Night, or he would not leave this city.

I rather liked this part of the story for the 'murder-mystery' aspect of it, and the emphasis the Doom Eagles put on investigating horrors and finding the truth. They're not just about RAR WAR. And its better than hte 'let large numbers of children go willingly into dangerous situations and then take the most emo of them.' approach to the Doom Eagles.

I also like Varnica as a character. I wish Counter would write about him rather than Sarps.

Page 106

Varnica sighed. He did not like having to use the full range of his talents. He had always felt that a psyker should properly be something subtle, an intelligence weapon, reading or remaking minds, perhaps astrally projecting to make the perfect spy. His own talents had taken a form that he found ugly in the extreme. Still, duties were duties, and he had the best way of getting through the door that would not risk destroying evidence beyond.

He clenched his right fist and thought of anger. The lines of the room seemed to warp around his fist, as if it was encased in a lens that distorted anything seen through it. Reality did not like it when he did this, and he had to fight it.

Black and purple rippled around the gauntlet. Sparks crackled across the segments of armour around his fingers. The region of deviant gravity Varnica willed into being bowed and seethed as he drew back the fist that now disobeyed the laws of force and energy.

Varnica punched the door clean off his mountings. The whole room seemed to shudder, its dimensions flickering slightly out of balance as Varnica’s psychic power discharged in a thrust of force. The metal door clanged into the room beyond.
...
Varnica’s was referred to as the Hammerhand, a crude but effective power that typically augmented the Librarian’s capacity for hand-to-hand combat.

The Hammerhand. Its kind of amusing Varnicus is a person of more 'refined' thought but has a blatantly brute force power like that. He also liked it called 'the Emperor's Key' cuz he used it to open the door.

I'd guess its the psychic equivalent of a powerfist because thats how he uses it.

PAge 114-115

Kephilaes raised his quill and sketched a symbol in the air. The same symbol appeared scored into the chest of Brother Kouras of Novas’s squad, the channel cut deep down through the armour in the flesh of the Adeptus Astartes’s chest and abdomen. Kouras slumped to one knee and toppled forwards into the blood.
...
...Kephilaes drew another symbol into the second Adeptus Astartes’s face, the faceplate of his helmet sliced into pieces and revealing the red wetness of the scored meat inside.
...
Kephilaes drew a letter that hung in the air in lines of burning red, a complex sigil that formed a shield against which the bolter fire burst harmlessly.
...
Kephilaes laughed and whooped as he scrawled in the air with abandon. Squad Novas dived for what little cover they could find as deep burning letters appeared sunk into the blood-spattered stone behind them. The letters were in an unfamiliar alphabet but somehow they made an appalling sense as Varnica glanced behind him.

A chaos cultist using language as a weapon. awarp language of sorts in fact. apparently the Red Night was just to get blood to use as ink for writing whatever the hell he wrote, which seemed to be prophecies perhaps amongst other things.

Also Varnica can use his Hammerhand in a more sustained manner to gouge handholds or footholds in stone for climbing - again a more sustained, power-fist like application rather than raw explosive force.

Page 117

Now Varnica sat among the archives of the Chapter Librarium, surrounded by freshly inked tomes filled with the profane writings of Gunther Kephilaes. Some Chapters would have destroyed the writing on the walls, and compelled any Space Marine who had seen them to cleanse himself with fire or denial until their corruption was gone. But the Doom Eagles were not like those other Chapters. They wanted to understand.

Again the Doom Eagles seem massively better than the Soul Drinkers. It turns out the heretic was under Abraxes, and that he was writing a prohpecy bout some calamity, which seemed to involve the Soul drinkers (who were identified as being tools of Abraxes.)

Page 119

"It took a Chapter of Adeptus Astartes," read Varnica, "and it found in them a fatal flaw. It was their pride. That same sin we all commit, brother. Our pride, our weakness. And it turned this Chapter into an instrument of its will, through trickery compelling them to do its bidding while they thought they were doing the Emperor’s work."

A retelling of events from Soul Drinker. 'it' being the Daemon Prince Abraxes. The thing about this is.. its sort of what was intended in that book but as I discussed in soul Drinker thats not how it comes across, because the Soul Drinkers have to be literally dense as rock to have fallen the way they did.

This really stands as a testament ot the 'intention vs reality' aspect of the Soul Drinkers. The way its presented here actually makes sense, and had it come off that way in Soul Drinker, it would have stood up to scrutiny. Pride is an understandable flaw and the Soul Drinkers were certainly proud.. but the manner of their 'descent' was just plain silly. Believing that mutations are 'blessings', and that the 'architect of fate' was really the Emperor... it could have just been handled far better and more subtly in order to be believable.

Page 128

She was a full head shorter than a Space Marine for she was not augmented like them.

Aescarion must be damn tall.. since most Space MArines are a good 2-2.5 M tall we're talking 1.8-2.2 M tall.

Page 128-129

" As straitlaced as they come. It must be a comfort to be in the presence of Space Marines who jump when Terra demands it."

"But I have nothing but admiration for the Imperial Fists, it is true. I find a little of my faith in humanity restored."

"I have faith in humanity as well, Sister. It is not the people of the Imperium I have ever had a problem with. It is the structures by which the Imperium maintains itself, clinging to existence through blood and cruelty. I have seen them over and over. And you have too, Sister Aescarion. Worlds condemned to misery or death. Freedom and rebellion given the same names and crushed beneath the mass of the shiploads of captives sent to Terra to–"

"Enough! Do not speak of such things."

"And pretend, instead, that they never existed?"

Aescarion and Sarpedon bantering. I can't say I really like this passage, because it seems Aescarion is simply a mouthpiece to make Sarpedon's position look better and it just feels.. forced. It doesn't feel like the Aescarion of the shot story - the one who was able to not only bring a Astartes back to the Emperor, but use him to strike a blow against Chaos. That isn't the closeminded sort of individual thta we're seeing here, because Sarpedon needs someone to represent his parody of the Imperium. Poor Asescarion.

[Connor MacLeod]

Last post.. the mighty conclusion to Phalanx!


Page 130

"No! Accept them as necessary for the survival of the human race, and turn our minds instead to the glory of our survival! That is how the Sororitas are taught."
...
"The human race is in its death throes! It inflicts miseries upon its people to protect them from its enemies, and yet it is those miseries that bring such enemies into being! Why do so many desperate people turn from the Emperor’s light and make pacts with the Dark Powers? Why do they cry out to be delivered and so walk right into xenos hands? The Imperium inflicts these wounds upon itself. It is nothing more than the slow death of mankind."

More Sarps vs Aescarion. Again its kind of staggering how selective Sarp's memory can get. Does he think that if the Imperium vanished that people would magically stop being human? That they would be less influenced by the warp, or aliens, or try to rebel? Humans, especially 40K humans, are full of both good and bad points, and they manifest in the warp, and this would happen regardless. And the warp magnifies some of those traits (the negative ones) and creates what amounts to an endless cycle. The warp is about chaos, after all, and humanity is good at feeding that chaos.

Now, the Imperium is hardly the BEST empire out there, and its got a shit-ton of flaws in it and even Sarps has a point about some of its problems being self-inflicted in various ways (It is a human empire, after all.) But it is also one of the few bastions of order out there, and one of the few things fighting to hold back Chaos. For Sarps to abstract all the problmes of humanity into 'Its the Imperium's fault' is pretty damn dumb.

More to the point, its contradictory. Recall that on a number of occasions (including in his little conflict with Eumenes in Chapter War) Sarpedon does the opposite of what he is doing here. Again self deception seems to be a recurring trait in this guy, unless reality smacks him hard in the face.

Page 131-133

"But Thaddeus knew none of this on Stratix Luminae. Why not kill you then when he could?"

"‘Perhaps," replied Sarpedon, "he knew we were right?"

Aescarion lost her cool for a second. She slammed the palm of her hand into the cell door. "You dare!" she hissed. "He would never have thrown in his lot with your kind. Thaddeus was a good man. The best of men."

"But you want me to tell you that he was not corrupted. That hardly suggests you have great confidence in the man."
...
"And you have misgivings too. Otherwise you would not have sought me out here. How many lashes would a Sororitas receive for conversing with a known heretic? And yet you come to my cell looking for answers. You see it too, just like Thaddeus did. Something about this trial is wrong and you know it. Daenyathos’s return, here of all places, is no coincidence."

"There is no coincidence. You came to the Veiled Region to seek him out. You and he both are puppets of that thing Abraxes that Varnica spoke of."

"Well, sister, if you have made up your mind about everything already there hardly seems a need to question me at all."

Again I don't really care for this passage. It tries to hard to make Sarps look good (self deception) and tries using Aescarion in a way that doesn't really suit her to do it. The funny part is that Aescarion is actually pretty much spot on here and Sarps doesn't want to see it, even though he admits something odd is going on.

Page 132-133

Aescarion shook her head. "Part of me wishes to know what must have to happen to an Adeptus Astartes before he can turn from the Emperor’s light. But I fear that such knowledge itself has the power to corrupt. I should have let you keep your silence, traitor. I hope this trial ends before you can do any more damage."

Um, wait, what? This is the same Aescarion who willingly and openly sought out a corrupted Astartes Champion of Nurgle, engaged him in debate, and brought him back to the Emperor through her words and example alone. Not only that, she convinced him to be a willing martyr to destroy the daemonic taint he originally served! Facing, understanding, and conquering that sort of threat is well above and beyond Spider-Boy her on so many levels it boggles the mind. So why does she suddenly turn all closeminded? Even Sarpedon notes she's unusual for a Sororitas in speaking with him.

Gah, this is why the Soul Drinkers series is so frustrating. It can't make up its mind how things are going to be from one moment to the next. CONSISTENCY, dammit!
At least when Aescarion goes into action towards the end of the book she's the badass she's always been, so it sort of makes up for this.


Page 170-171

N’Kalo watched as a flock of merchant and cargo ships drifted up from the cloud cover, a shower of silvery sparks. On those ships was the Imperial population of Molikor,
among them the Parliamentarian leaders.Those leaders had, less than three days ago, received an ivory scroll case containing orders to evacuate their planet on pain of destruction. Those orders were signed with a single ‘I’, which gave them an authority within the Imperium second only to the word of the God-Emperor Himself.

Inside the scroll case had also been a string of rosarius beads. It was a traditional message. If you defy these orders, they implied, then use these beads to pray, for prayer is your only hope of deliverance.

Ominous, yet amusing. I like it. Also they manage to transport the entire population off with ships. What's more is that its implied the ships are owned by the planet, rather than being provided by someone else (you either leave or y ou get torched, and it works either way for the Inquisition.) They quarantine rather than destroy the planet though.

Page 172-173

The Parliamentarians who had sought to exploit the pit would be tried, questioned and probably executed for dabbling so willingly in matters of the warp.
..
The Soul Drinkers did not have faith, not in the Imperium. Perhaps that was understandable, thought N’Kalo. He had seen the same things they had, the same brutality and the spiteful randomness of how the fortunes of the Imperium were parcelled out. He had not strayed beyond the Imperial line – he had informed the Inquisition of the threat on Molikor, after all – but he was forced to wonder, considering the recent events there in his cell, whether he would have to have seen many more injustices to end up renegades like the Soul Drinkers.
...
"I wanted to thank you for doing the right thing by Molikor and the Eshkeen. You could have followed the Imperial line, but you did not. That takes something beyond mere bravery.’"
...
"But I am glad that I was not the instrument of injustice and so I should pay thanks to you, for showing me all the paths I might take."

Iron Knights 'story' basically had the Astartes being brought in under false premises to clear out people who were in the way of greedy assholes in charge of the planet. The Soul Drinkers prevented them, exposed the treachery, and sheltered the noble tribsemen from the greedy assholes. The Iron Knights then smack down the greedy assholes via Inquisition. I have to admit that Sarps actually came off better in this bit - definitely not an asshole.

tHe whole 'Imperial Line' thing is stupid though because the Space Marines are technically independent of the Imperium, and they're free to act however they want, so doing what they did was not really heretical or renegade.

PAge 178

"I am saying that Rogal Dorn is not your primarch"
...
"I cannot say who is. The Sanguinary Priests have yet to complete their discourses on the matter. But Dorn’s gene-seed is among the most stable and recognisable of all those among the Adeptus Astartes, and there can be no doubt that the Soul Drinkers do not possess it."

DA-DA-DUM! And Sarps loses his shit over this.

Page 183-184

"..no one has yet understood why you turned the Soul Drinkers renegade. Was it Abraxes? Did your rebellion start with corruption?"
...
The Imperium is a wicked place, captain. How many citizens live free of fear and misery? I doubt you could name a single one. It is built on cruelty and malice. And in punishing its people and committing the evils it says are necessary, it gives a breeding ground to those enemies it claims to be fighting. The armies of Chaos do not materialise from thin air. They are made up of those who were once citizens of that same Imperium, but who were corrupted first by its horrors. That is what leaves them susceptible to the whispers of the dark gods. Were the Emperor able to walk among us still, He would look on what mankind has created in horror and seek to tear it down. The Imperium is not the last bastion against the enemy. It is the enemy."
..
"Abraxes used us, that is true," replied Sarpedon. "He took our anger at the Imperium and used it to manipulate us into destroying his enemies. But that anger was there before he got his claws into us, and we killed Abraxes for what he did. I am not proud of how blind he once made us. It was his touch that gave me these mutations, and I was ignorant of what they truly meant until Abraxes was gone. But he did not teach us to despise the Imperium. We managed that on our own."

Sarps blaming the Imperium again. Once more the way he acts as if Chaos somehow gains its power over humanity simply because of the Imperium is staggering. And the way he simultaneously writes off Abraxes as well as admitting what happened is pretty hilarious, becuase that's not what I recall. Again had this been written differently it wouldn't come off as Sarps trying to change reality to suit his own viewpoint. I mean fuck if you listened to him everything prior ot the Imperium of modern times was sweetness and light or something and humanity itself was not the problem.

Page 194

He was in a tech lab, with benches heavy with verispex equipment and banks of datamedium racked on the walls. It was where Techmarines and their assistant crewmen would conduct experiments on captured tech, or craft the delicate mechanisms of bespoke weapons and armour. The walls were inlaid with bronze geometric designs and a cogitator stood against one wall like an altar, its brass case covered in candles that had half-burned away.

GASP! the Imperial Fists Techmarines do experimentation. HERESY!

PAge 197

The liquid explosive with which Brother Sennon had replaced his blood ignited, and incinerated him in an instant. The door to Daenyathos’s cell was ripped off its mountings. The Imperial Fists accompanying Sennon were blown off their feet and hurled down the corridor of the Atoning Halls, their armoured weight crushing the rack that stood at the intersection.

Imperium can make living bombs, it seems, by replacing blood with something else. call it about 10 pints of blood in the body.. or about 4-5 litres (kg) Blowing apart a human sized target like that (nevermind with the force to blast a door off) might require at least 8 MJ (flash burns for flaying flesh.. basically assuming he exploded and burnt badly.) If he acutally cremated we're talking hundreds or evne thousands of MJ. He probably had less than half his body replaced by blood, so we're talking 2 kg or so, which makes it equal ot TNT (At least). likely more, although to what extent we don't know, but less than full cremation.

Page 203

"We are a long line of those who have been tasked with making this day happen," continued Gyranar. "The Black Chalice, the Silver Grail, and countless others, have all followed the same path, one that would ensure they crossed paths with the Soul Drinkers so they could help destiny become reality."

This part at least makes sense. Tzeetnch is good about placing cults and such who can influence or contorl matters this way. Seems like Tzeentchy had enough gall to get an entire Chapter of cultists made for his purpose. In theory.

Page 206

"I hate it," said Luko. "Fighting. Bloodshed. I have come to hate it. I have lied about this for a long time, Sergeant Salk, but there hardly seems much point now."

"I can barely believe you are saying these things, captain."

"I know. I disgust myself too, sometimes."

"No, captain," said Salk. "You don’t understand. You hate war, but you fight it because you know you must. There is nothing to disgust in that. Sometimes I take pride, or even pleasure, in it, and I take that and carry it with me to bring me through the worst of it. But without that, I do not know how I could fight. You are braver than I, Captain
Luko."

Again Luko is perhaps the best Soul Drinker in the whole series. He's so much not like Sarpedon I dont even know where to begin. The idea of a Space Marine who actually hates war is an interesting and distinctly different idea - a quirky sort of abberation that ranks up there with Space Marine Biff and Haegr the Mountain. It creates an interesting sort of character development and a quirky difference that can make for an interesting, unique Space Marine character. If he has any flaw it's that he's following Sarps.


Page 220-221

"He [Space Marine] is told that he is far more from the moment he is accepted into his Chapter, when he is little more than a child. His earlier memories may not even survive his training. He may conceive in his own mind of no time but one where he was superior to any human being. What might result from a mind so forged?’"

"He has no doubt and no fear," replied Varnica. "Such alteration of a man’s mind is necessary to create the warriors the Imperium needs. I see it as a sacrifice we make. We give up the men we might have become to instead serve as Adeptus Astartes."
...
"It is true that what we do to our minds to make us Space Marines is as necessary as teaching us to shoot. But what sin is locked in to us through such treatment?"

"Brutality?" said Varnica. "Many times Space Marines have gone too far in punishing the Emperor’s enemies, and ordinary men and woman have suffered as a result."
..
"Brutality is a necessity," said Gethsemar. "A few thousand dead here and there mean nothing compared to the millions spared through the intimidation of our foes that our potential for brutality allows."

"It is pride," replied Gethsemar. "A Space Marine does not just think he is superior to the ordinary citizens of the Imperium. He thinks, whether his conscious mind accepts it or not, that he is superior to other Space Marines, too. We all have our way of doing things, do we not? Would we all resist any attempt to change us, though violence may be the only route doing so can take? So prideful we are that Space Marines will never stop killing Space Marines. For every Horus Heresy or Badab War, there are a thousand blood duels and trials of honour brought about by our inability to back down. That is the real enemy we face here. The Soul Drinkers were turned from the Imperium by pride. It is pride that motivates us in destroying them, for all we talk of justice. Pride is the enemy. Pride will kill us."

Pride, Brutality and the Space Marines. It's an interesting poitn of view, which is similar to what the Gray Knights books explore. Again had this theme been emphasied the Soul drinkers novels might have been diffrent. As it is, it tends to reinforce just what idiots most of them (esp Sarpy) are. Esp the Badab reference and pride, becuase there are a good many parallels between Sarpedon and Huron in that regard.

Page 222

"The Doom Eagles seek out the worst atrocities the galaxy commits because we want to put things right. It will not happen in any of our lifetimes, but it will happen, and it is the Space Marines who will do it whether we are too prideful for our own good or not."

A Space Marine Optimist. Another reason for me to like Varnica.

Page 232-233

The Predator’s Eye was seen in divinations and séances across the Imperium. It was Rogal Dorn who stood up and swore to close it. The Chapters which venerated him all sent their own champions to assist, and in orbit around the blighted star were fought many of the most terrible and costly battles of the Scouring.
...

He was a Primarch, and in him flowed the blood of the Emperor. He plunged a fist into the pupil of the Predator’s Eye, and the eye, blinded, closed in agony.

Rogal Dorn’s surviving battle-brothers included a number of Space Marine Librarians, and for three days without rest they enacted a ritual to seal the eye shut. Dorn led their chanting and finally a sigil of power, born of his own valorous spirit, was branded against the shut eye to keep it closed.

Dorn did not possess enough battle-brothers to destroy the Predator’s Eye permanently. His Librarians were exhausted and many had not survived the ritual.
...
The Predator’s Eye would have to be opened before it was destroyed, and so Dorn placed a condition on the ward that sealed it so that only his own blood could open it.

It was mentioned that he would intend to return to finish the job, but events in the galaxy prevented this. Interesting in this that it ascribes psychic/sorcerous powers (or is that miraculous)_ to Dorn, but there's a definite element of.. mythology to it. At the same time there might be an element of truth to it. I also wonder if, perhaps, its meant to convey that Dorn's spirit is perhpas guiding events, in opposition to Tzeentch and his minions.

Page 234

Ice crusted around the table and the floor around him as the heat energy bled into him to be concentrated and forced out by the psychic reactor that churned in his mind.
..
Scamander breathed out a tremendous gout of flame that washed over and through the first Howling Griffons. Some were thrown off their feet by the wall of superheated air that slammed into them. Others were caught full in the blast, ceramite melting in the supernaturally intense heat, armour plates exploding. Three or four fell as the nervefibre bundles in their armour were incinerated, robbing them of movement as the joints melted and fused.

Scamander, a Libriarian. He seems to have grown more powerful.

Page 240

A Soul Drinker fell beside him, a plasma pistol wound bored right through him in a charred tunnel.

Plasma pistol wound. Non flamethrower, non cremation.

Page 242

The battle-brother he had brought with him had been shot in the thigh, hit by a lascannon blast. The leg was hanging on solely through the tangled strips of torn ceramite that remained of his leg armour.

Lascannon blast slices through leg/thigh of Soul Drinker. Piercing but non-explodey. Maybe cutting.

Page 250-251

Whatever agenda Daenyathos had, and whether the Soul Drinkers were heretics or blameless, Daenyathos and Iktinos had revealed themselves to constitute a moral threat...
..
"A Space Marine is not created to be caged. And you desire revenge. You would call it duty or justice, but it is ultimately death you wish on me for orchestrating your defeat and capture. This, again, is natural. A Space Marine is a vengeful creature. But do you see now, helpless as you are, what a pitiful animal you truly are? Freedom and vengeance –
what do these things mean, when compared to the matters that shape the galaxy? How much does your existence mean?"
...
"Though the galaxy may burn and humanity collapse, I must fulfil my duty regardless. And so I call myself a Space Marine."

"That is the response of a weak mind"
...
"You choose to ignore the matters that affect the galaxy, and shrink your mind down to one battle after another, one petty victory over some xenos or renegade, and tell yourself that such is the totality of your potential. I chose instead to abandon the duties that restrict me, and rise to become one of those very factors that mould the galaxy at their whim. It is a choice I made. Yours is a mind too small to make it. The Soul Drinkers were like you, and I had to make that choice for them. Were they wise enough to understand, they would have thanked me."

Man, and I thought Sarps was a pompous and deluded ass. He's got nothing on Daenyathos, but it seems we found the origins of the traditions Sarpy follows...

again the 'what is a Space Marine' theme rears up.

PAge 253

"The Soul Drinkers do not have it, though it suited me for them to continue believing they did."

The Soul Drinkers were tricked into believing they were Dorn descended to lure one of Dorn's lineage to the warp gate so it could be opened. apparently all by Daenyathos, who is saying this.

Page 259

Eight autoguns hammered out a curtain of fire. Iktinos ran into the storm, faceplate of his helmet tucked behind one shoulder guard as he charged. The armour was chewed away as if by accelerated decay, the skull-faced shoulder guard stripped down through ceramite layers, then down to the bundles of cables and nerve fibres that controlled it.

Iktinos slammed into the servitors.

Four gun servitors erode Iktinos' armour in a short span of time (seconds)

Page 263

In truth, the origin of the Soulspear, like the rest of the Soul Drinkers history, was as murky as anything else in Imperial annals. The Soulspear was gene-activated and would only respond to someone with a Soul Drinker’s genetic code, so whoever had created or found the artefact, it had not been Rogal Dorn. The Soulspear, like the rest of the universe, was a lie.

And yet as we saw before, the Spear activated when Lysander held it. And the Soul Drinkers do not have Dorn DNA, so it apparently is at least coded to Astartes genetics in some way.

PAge 275

"A spaceship as huge and deadly as any the Imperium has ever fielded. And now it is a spaceship with a warp portal. I have stolen the Predator’s Eye from the star Kravamesh and embedded it in the Phalanx."

Daenyathos summoned a horde of daemons, opened a warp portal, and stuck it on Phalanx. A mobile warp gate. And apparently.. revenge or hatred motivates this.

Page 279

Ahead, a jumble of deck sections formed a series of slopes, hills and valleys, each section on hydraulics which could move them into a new topography to create a constantly changing battlefield. It was here that Imperial Fists recruits were put through days-long battle simulations, waves of target-servitors and the shifting landscape combining to create a test as much mental as it was physical.

Fists Training room.

Page 284

Iktinos had taken them in and Sarpedon had been grateful that the Chaplain was willing to give them spiritual leadership. But Iktinos had been warping them, finding their sense of loss and turning it into something else, a devotion to the chaplain alone that meant they followed him instead of Sarpedon. The chapter master had been confronted with many results of his failures as a leader, but none of them had struck him as sharply as the sight of the Flock did then, moving with murderous intent across the town square to batter Salk’s squad into oblivion.

Kinda echoes what happened in Chapter War, doesn't it? Sarpy really isn't helping his track record here.

PAge 287

The Phalanx had been designed – whenever it had been designed, before the Age of Imperium – to survive. Any hostiles who boarded the immense ship might find themselves trapped in the tight, winding corridors of the engineering and maintenance areas just beneath the hull’s skin, separated from the ship’s more vulnerable areas by hundreds of automated bulkhead doors and whole sections of outer deck that could be vented into hard vacuum with the press of a control stud.

Inernal design of Phalanx.


Page 306

There were fifty metres between the two Soul Drinkers as they faced one another down a row of fighter craft. Each craft was enormous, bigger than the Thunderhawk Gunships of the Space Marines, with blunt-nosed, brutal shapes that made no concession to the aerodynamics irrelevant in the void.

Size of Imperial space fighters - bigger than Thunderhawks.

Page 311

"For what purpose has he enslaved us?"

...
"For the galaxy’s good."
...
"What is it that you have railed against for so long? The galaxy’s cruelty? The Imperium’s tyranny? Daenyathos saw it six thousand years before it ever occurred to you. He is not just going to batter his Chapter to pieces fighting against it. He is going to cure it."
...
"What other cure is there for all mankind’s ills?" said Iktinos. "Blood and death. Pain and fear. Only through this can the path of the human race be made straight."

Something some more extreme radical inquisitors have believed nad tried.

Page 329

Since there had been intelligent minds to contemplate it, the Plague God had existed, turning vulnerable minds to corruption and evil through the fear of what it could do to their flesh.

Implies that the Chaos Gods have always existed as long as sentience. Which is possible, although not in any 'aware' form.

Page 334-335

some had speculated on just how much power Tyrendian could gather. If collateral damage and his own survival were no issue, it was guessed by the Librarium that their bioelectric weapon could detonate himself with massive force, as great a force of raw destruction as a whole artillery strike. They had never been sure, and never sought to find out, for Tyrendian was too valuable a weapon of war to risk him finding out how much power he could concentrate within himself.

Now, the question had been answered. Tyrendian could gather inside himself enough electric power to destroy a greater daemon of the warp. He had detonated inside the daemon’s belly with such force that all that remained, tottering above Luko, was a thick and gristly spine on which was still mounted the ragged remnants of the greater
daemon’s skull.

Assuming a 5-10 m tall Great Unclean one, and about 2-5 m across we might get between 40-200 MJ, which is for a given facing. Assuming its several times greater we get Tyrendian going all out being equal to double/triplie digit MJ at least, possibly higher. That would be roughly consistent with an arty strike, depending on how you defined it (kind and number of shells, etc.)

Page 336

There was no sign of Tyrendian. Quite probably he had been vaporised by the force of the power he unleashed. There would be nothing to bury.

If we take that literally, and 150-200 kg, we might figure between 300-500 MJ or somewhere.

Page 346

Some Librarians of the Old Chapter had specialised in peeling apart another’s consciousness, diving down and extracting secrets the subject himself did not know. Others read minds on a vast scale, divining troop movements from an opposing army as fast as their orders spread. Sarpedon had only been able to transmit, albeit at the tremendous telepathic volume that manifested as the Hell. Nevertheless he had sometimes caught echoes of the strongest emotions, an aspect of the sixth sense that all psykers possessed in some degree.

Librarian abilities.

Page 360

"Pausanias was a dark seed."
...
"But there was a darkness in him. A pride. He sought the greatest glory in battle, and battle-brothers died for his failings."
...
"..when his charge against a gunline, seeking to capture the standard of the enemy, cost the life of his squad’s sergeant, he was banished to the Atoning Halls for his paucity of spirit. Fate had decided that Pausanias should be a lesson to us, lord inquisitor. He was destined to be a parable of warning to future novices, a disgrace as a Space Marine to be mourned and despised. But Pausanias was not resigned to accepting that fate. He scourged away his pride in the Atoning Halls. He returned lower than the novices, lower than our crew. He worked in the engines of the Phalanx, until the Chapter welcomed him back into its ranks. He died a Chaplain, a spiritual guardian of our battle-brothers, because he had fought that fate which had bound him so tightly and fought to live beyond it."

A rather nicer story than I've been used to seeing in a Soul Drinkers novel. If the Fists seek to emualte that they're better than many Marines.

Page 362

"The scorpion beast, the battering ram and the catapult are clearest to us from here. A burrowing worm of steel lies coiled and slumbering out of our view, with a contraption of brass and skulls that I suspect will house the spirit of a greater daemon and a beast of flesh knitted together, as if predators of the warp had been butchered and their carcasses divided to be formed into one single monstrosity."

Daemon engines.

Page 364

"Some enemies resist traditional interrogation techniques," said Prexus. "Psykers amongst them. The Panpsychicon was built to rid them of their mental barriers."

"It is a machine," said Sister Aescarion, "for grinding down men’s souls? The Inquisition makes use of such things, but with varying success. And never have I seen one on such a scale."

Psychic enhanced interrogation tools. How they exactly work isn't specified but it involves magic crystals of all sorts of colors, lots of pretty lights, and manacles.

Page 367

They struggled along the gore-filled trenches holding their guts in, laser burns all over their bodies..

Interesting, although since its a vision we dont know if it literally is how lasweapons do damage and what factors were inovlved (how many shots, how badly burnt, etc.) - Luko at least belives its plausible, and assuming 50-100 j per sq cm (third degree burns at least) we're probably talking 500-1000 kilojoules per body. and we know lasguns can be used as wide-beam flamethrowers (Legion, a few of the HH short story anthologies, etc.)

Page 370

His head lolled, revealing the massive exit wound in the back of the skull. Prexus’s brains were spread up the wall behind him, thrown across the mosaic in the characteristic pattern of a bolter wound.

Bolter wound in Astartes head. Presumably sans helmet.

Page 373-374 Spoiler

"I know why you are here. You will take the Phalanx across the galaxy and disgorge Abraxes’s armies everywhere you go."

"That is true," said Daenyathos. "But did he tell you why?"
...
"‘It is simple, Sarpedon"....
...
"The galaxy is corrupt. Its people are damned and its rulers are cruel. This is the same conclusion as yours, is it not? The Imperium is a dark and savage place, a breeding ground for the desperation that gives the forces of the warp the chance to do their wickedness in our universe. It is through suffering that the Imperium will be remade. Great suffering, on a scale beyond the imaginings of lesser minds. Thanks to the plan crafted by me and executed by many, including you, Abraxes and the Phalanx will combine to spread such suffering that the Imperium will be remade stronger and more just."

"And you will rule it?" said Sarpedon.

"Of course."... "‘Who else could?"

And this, ladies and gentleman, is the culmination of the Soul Drinkers series. What six books have been leading up to. Our master plotter, who is combining cartoonish supervillainry with Underpants Gnome Business Strategy. Daemons + ? = PROFIT.

In a more serious vein, it really is a bit strange as a strategy. For one thing how does he intend to control the daemons if they have their own warp portal? Is he going to threaten to close it? How can he fight against all four Chaos Gods even if he is a freaking Dreadnought? And even then, how is unleashing daemons on the galaxy going to save the Imperium from suffering by remaking it? Didn't Horus have this idea? ISn't this what every Istvaanian and/or Recongregator thinks to accomplish? And I don't think most of them even intend to use daemons to do it.

His plans are so poorly thought out, moronic, and prone to backfire that you have to wonder if he's not being mind controlled by Chaos (or just flat out insane at this point.) In a way you can see how the Soul Drinkers could have been fooled by Abraxas the first time around if this guy was their guiding force. I should also point out much of this echoes Sarpy's previous conversation with Eumenes, who wanted to destroy the Imperium and take it over. Whether or not this is foreshadowing or what, I don't know.

And yet, that could be the point. It could be we're supposed to see Daenyathos as so deluded, so Chaos-warped and corrupted, so utterly, utterly insane by now that this plot DOES seem sane to him, and he seriously believes (or has been lead to believe - Chaos might have tricked him the same way its tricked the Soul Drinkers before) everything he says. Chaos could and has done that, and people can be that stupid and deluded.. so maybe its meant to be moronic. At least it works better than Abraxas' plan with the Soul Drinkers did last time..

Anyways, despite my complaints about the ludicrous strategy and the questionable 'buildup' to this point, I will say that the last fifty pages or so work as an ending. I'm not sure it makes up for all the crap leading up to it or earns Sarps any atonement, but we're getting the Sarpedon I think Counter intended all along, more along the lines of hellforged, and at this point that's good enough for me.

I should also note that the entire thing (which I only included the relevant part of) reads alot like a B-grade supervillain plot, including the 'you realize I have to stop you" and "It pains me to have to kill you Sarpedon but I can't let you interefere".

On the plus side, there is a certain irony in Sarpedon fighting to defend the Imperium he admits he hates (Both he and Daenyathos comment on it) but this is Sarpedon at his best - he's putting his own egotism and his deluded beliefs aside and acting like he damn ewell should have been acting from the start.

Page 388

Varnica rolled back, shrapnel pinging off his armour. Reinez stood over him.

Reinez is working with Chaos. Geesh, I swear he's competing with Sarpedon and Daenyathos to see who can be more of a delusional dick. MY STANDARD! No wonder Kantor kicked him out.

(Hell he's acting worse than the Howling Griffons, and they're fucking Smurf descendants. Excuse me 'Scions of Gulliman'.)


Page 406-407

"Even if your path could redeem the Imperium, how can it be walked when you yourself could not walk it?"

"Because I was a fool," replied Sarpedon. "I did not see that Daenyathos was pulling the strings. I walked into the role he had prepared for me, and I almost played it to the end. But you have seen my failings. You know the pitfalls. And when you fail, those who follow you will learn from you, too. And we are the only ones who can begin it. We, the Space Marines, we have the closest thing this Imperium has to freedom."

Without getting too much into what is actually said, I have to say... I'm mildly surprised that he actually admits he was wrong. A bit too late in my taste, and his 'justifications' don't quite mesh up with what happened throughout the series, but it works well as an ending. It also kinda shows where Counter intended to go with things, I think. Had things been handled better (EG the Soul drinker's turn to Chaos, Eumenes and his group, Daenyathos having a better plan.) this would have been better suited. Sarps just comes off as seeming even more pompous for all thoes statements and speeches we were subjected to, and his own attitudes despite the ample examples of him massively failing. I know this should be tragic and poignant as a moment of admission for him, but it just really comes across as a 'no duh' sort of thing and that takes away from it.

In any case this leaves on something of a surprisingly upbeat note - Sarps decides he and the Soul Drinkers work best as symbols and lessons rather than revolutionaries, asks that they not be forgotten, and that if one person present is convinced by his words then it was not in vain.. so on and so on. Like I said, it could be worse.


Overall Soul Drinkers ends up being the mixed bag it always was. Strong in some ways (non-Astartes Characters mostly), weak in alot of others (Soul Drinkers as a whole) that could have been a whole lot better than it was. I really can't help but think this would have worked out far better as an Inquisition story, with an Inquisitor (Thaddeus perhaps) rather than Sarps and the Soul Drinkers, which leads to a Quixos-like confrontation at the end and a character who falls down the path of RAdicalism only to be brought up short before he truly dives off the precipice. Think of a cross between Inquisition War and Eisenhorn. I really feel like the story would have been better off had it been conducted in something other than a Space Marine novel.