Space Marine Battles series thread

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2
Page 184

Pain and endurance were their genetic heritage and through the spilling of blood, Demetrius Katafalque had taught them that spiritual communion with the primarch could be achieved. In the cold remove achieved by Excoriators during the hot agony of purgation, Rogal Dorn had answers for each of them. Kersh had seen Excoriators punish themselves as such before. He had done so, cloaked in the shame of losing the Chapter Stigmartyr and failure to protect his Chapter Master. It led to a dark place. The long journey from Samarquand had taught him that his flesh had a greater purpose in Dorn’s eyes; that beyond the spiritual unity of the Mantle lay only a labyrinth of needless suffering in which to lose oneself forever.

The Excoriator view on Pain.

Page 188

" The material inside the urn is formulated from a by-product of the Emperor’s metabolism, if you believe that. The dust particles are impregnated with negative psychic energy, so I’m told. For all I know there could be bread crumbs inside, but for the fact that the Palatine and her Sisters were almost on the verge of charging down the hermitage door to recover it and the effect exposure has had on Melmoch here."

The stuff used in psyk-out grenades.

Page 190

"We are Excoriators," Kersh seethed. "Attrition fighters. Our gene-kindred fought before the walls of the Imperial Palace. We are not heralds and harbingers. We are Excoriators and this is the Imperium beneath our feet. We stand our ground and we fight, whatever the odds. As though this were the palace itself. I have failed my Chapter Master. I will not fail my Emperor."

Well you can say Kersh won't abandon a planet (or his duty) simply for the sake of convenience. Stop making me like you, dammit. You started off like a jerk.

Page 213

Slipping his combat shotgun from its holster on the bike subframe, Omar worked the pump action. The weapon was a work of squat inelegance. From the brute curves of its stock, through the angularity of its breech and barrel and the yawning darkness of its muzzle, the shotgun was a monster. Bringing the stock to his shoulder, the Scout brought the weapon up to face the oncoming horde.
The first wretched specimen, a gaunt-faced fosser, simply vanished in the path of the blast – turning into a bloody smear on the darkness. This did not dissuade a feral vestal, who surged past the gruel before Omar took her legs out from beneath her with a second shot. A hearsier lost his head to the shotgun, followed by three further cemetery worlders cut to ribbons by fat pellets of scattershot.

Scout combat shotgun. Seems to have Astartes like boltgun damage effects on the targets.

page 214

The Scout replied with bolt-rounds to the head as one by one, along the line of the prone and fallen, he split skulls and blew off faces.

bolt fire. Like I said..

Page 215

The neophyte thought about voxing for assistance. One of his brother Scouts could not be more than an hour’s ride away.

Implies a vox range of tens if not a hundred or more km distance.
Page 226

"Their Navigator is dead," Kersh informed the Apothecary. "He inexplicably started bleeding from his mouth, his ears and his eyes. The ship’s surgeon tried his best but the Navigator could not be saved."
"The Angelica Mortis could make short-range jumps."

Mention of short ranged warp jumps without a navigator.

Page 230-231

"Without delay I want you to begin extraction rites and harvest mature progenoid glands from all Excoriators with at least ten years’ service to the Chapter."
...
"We are facing an enemy infamous for its intolerance of survivors."
"You prepare for our failure," Squad Whip Joachim accused.
"We are attrition fighters. We battle with the best but prepare for the worst. If we are faced with failure – and by Katafalque’s blood, I hope that we are not – then we should meet our doom knowing that our legacy lives on through the genetic heritage we bequeath. We do this in the best interests of the Chapter and not ourselves. I do not ask this of you, Dorn does – so that the Imperium’s future, as well as its present, might be secure."

Agian, its possible to extract geneseed from the marine before they actually die. It could be that those who have it extracted after death were not 'matured' enough to have it removed before then unless neccessary. Or maybe the 10 year (or so) maturation process is simply an ideal delay - provides maximum benefit (whatever that is) to the gene-seed replication or increases the odds of success or whatever.
On the other hand, one reason why extraction is not always done may be purely symbolic - as we see above removing it is taken as a sign of certain failure, os there may be psychological reasons why it is not removed.
Page 246

" You leave with this company’s legacy in five hours, Apothecary."

Page 252

"You wish me to send an astrotelepathic message?"
...
"Yes. Several. Can you do that?"
...
"We need to appraise the Vanaheim Cordon of our status" Kersh said, "and the Terran-bound trajectory of the Keeler Comet. Their contingents must hold station. We cannot afford the Cholercaust to slip by into Segmentum Solar."
...
"Long range, narrow-band requests for reinforcement to the Viper Legion on Hellionii Reticuli," the corpus-captain instructed. "The Novamarines at Belis Quora and the Angels Eradicant stationed at Port Kreel." Melmoch went to interrupt but Kersh had more for him. "And a subsector, wide-band appeal for assistance. There were rumours the White Consuls were moving out of the Ephesia Nebula. We could get lucky."

Astrotelepathyic messages sent outside a subsector (tens of LY) and within a subsector (up to tens of LY). Both in wide band and 'narrow' transmissions - apparently the latter have longer range.
This also apparently is done within five hours, suggesting transmission speeds (despite the interference from the asteroid and the incoming Khornate horde) of hundreds of thousands of c at least.

Page 259

Each of the impact craters was strewn with remains and coffin fragments. At the centre of each lay a single casket. They were untouched by the crash and steaming quietly in the night. Some were all but buried, while others lay across the bottoms of the craters. Climbing down into a hot trench, Omar inspected the fourth such object he had encountered. Unlike the flimsy stasis caskets used in the Certusian burial services, it was tall, broad and baroque. It stuck upright out of the ground at the bottom of the crater and was crafted from some dark, adamantine alloy. It was decorated with fretwork and ornamental art; Omar could make out some kind of bird, embroiled in flame.
Working his way around the object – which despite being surrounded by glowing, razed earth, was strangely cool to the touch..

Legion of the Damned Drop pods,or the closest equivalent. Apparently made of adamantine, and capable of easiyl surviving atmospheric reentry intact - hell, they survive reentry and crater the ground and the artwork isn't even mussed up.

Page 261

.. it presented an assaulting enemy with a tiring and time-consuming climb, hopefully giving the Charnel Guard and their recent recruits opportunity to riddle their attackers with las-bolts.
...
The demolitions would then collapse the runs after use, preventing enemy troops following and forcing them to embark on another las-slashing climb..

Apparently the lasfusils are some osrt of sustained beam 'cutting' weapon, if we believed this, despite being single shot

Page 261

Some had been armed with auxiliary lasfusils from the defence force armouries, while others had to contend with scuffed and dusty remnants from storage – autoguns and stub-service carbines. Rough emplacements boasted heavy stubbers, battered incinerator units, mortars and the occasional autocannon.

Guns available to the defense force. The implication is that the las-weapons are more effective than the autoguns and the stub carbines.

Page 262

The dour Guardsmen were dressed in dusty black flak, swathed in sable cloaks and aiming their single-shot lasfusils over the rubble palisade.
...
...he should have been modulating the beam-focus on his lasfusil.

Lasfusils are single shot. They also have a 'beam focus' - although whether that is meant to adjust the weapon's focal point for range or ability to focus the beam, or if it allows it to vary the aperture of the bursts (EG widebeam 'flamethrower' effects vs narrower explosive pulses.) we don't know.

Page 262

As she turned back he saw the powerpack, looped cable and chunky las-pistol attached to the belt of her robes.

Heavy laspistol with powerpack connection. Sort of like having a belt-fed machien gun, I suppose.
Page 263

The thousands not employed in such service were gathered in the cramped cloisters, quads and plazas about the Memorial Mausoleum, holding a candlelight vigil with Pontifex Oliphant and creating a prayer cordon around the resting place of Umberto II. The Memorial Mausoleum’s vault – where the ancient remains of the former High Lord of Terra and Ecclesiarch resided – was deep enough, it was said, to survive an apocalyptic strike by an asteroid. It was there, the safest place on the planet, that Kersh had intended Oliphant to hide.

Deep facility able to survive a apocalyptic asteorid impact (mass extinction? Probably) giving one an idea of what sort of planet-scale damage such belowground facilities can survive.

Page 263

Oliphant had undone the corpus-captain’s hard work with the Sister, however, insisting that he share the same fate as his people. Kersh had been angry at first, but had been secretly impressed with the cripple; he had never observed such concern in a priest or planetary governor before.

Another of those odd moments when the Scourge reflects on the humans he defends.
Page 265

Corpus-Commander Bartimeus, in his last vox-transmission from the departing Angelica Mortis, confirmed the Cholercaust’s approach from the system’s edge.

Range of Strike cruiser sensors, and confirmation that it has left.

Page 269

Holding the chunky laspistol in both hands like a carbine, cable trailing to the humming powerpack on her belt, the absterge lanced the downed entity with automatic las-fire.

Powerpack laspistol carbine-like, and has automatic fire mode.

Page 271

The corpus-captain thought of Oren, the moody serf proving himself behind the stock of the heavy weapon, feverishly twisting the autocannon’s length this way and that on its squat tripod..

Tripod mounted autocannon.
Page 274

It was not enough to save them from the monomolecular fury of Kersh’s chainsword..

Monomolecular (Teeth?) in a chainsword.

Page 281

We fought for twenty hours straight..

Length of battle against Chaos spawn.

Page 282-283

...I must accept responsibility for the failure of almost everyone else. I ask too much of the cemetery world’s common humanity.
...
History records the accomplishments of all-too-ordinary men: the war for Armageddon, the Euphrassic Massacres and the numerous Black Crusade honours of battle-hardened Cadians. Our species can be strong and our spirit beyond measure.
...
But for every Imperial citizen who has ever held their ground in the face of the xenos invader, the heretical traitor or Chaos marauder, a thousand have fled. It is in the fear and dread of those thousand that the Imperium’s doom is written.
...

The Imperium’s strength is its weakness. The existence of demigods turns common men into bystanders. They catch a glimpse of the divine and consider themselves beyond the calculus of fate. The Emperor’s Angels will save them. They are witnesses to the clash of good and evil in the galaxy, failing to recognise that it is upon their collective shoulders that the destiny of an empire resides.
For all my gene-bred superiority and Angel’s arrogance, I find it hard to blame them. I am more than human and yet, on the dark fringes of my understanding – lapping against the bedrock of my warrior heritage, my training and experience – I feel it too. The vertiginous, ice-water plunge of fear, simple and pure.
...
How common humanity manages to steel itself for such a storm of chemistry and emotion is an everyday miracle in itself. That most fly when I need them to fight is regrettable. Unlike Skase and Joachim, spitting their curses and bawling remonstration at fear-wrought statues of Certusian cowardice, I cannot find it in myself to hate these mortals. My sacrifice is my own. I do it for the Emperor and not for them. In truth, I feel nothing for their survival. We share nothing like a brotherly bond – although amongst the Fifth that too has been sadly lacking.

Ah, there's the Scourge I remember. Although to be fair, alot of what he says about the Imperium has merit. I think thats one of the odd things I like about this book. Kersh is cynical and pessimistic, yet he also is fair and honest. He expects the weaknesses of lesser humans but does not condemn them for it. I can't really hate the guy even though he's not exactly the 'noble defender of humanity' that we get with say, Uriel Ventris. But that he does his duty and defends those he has no faith in because that is his duty.. it does earn respect.
He also seems quite.. pragmatic and even atheist in his views. He doesn't really seem to.. believe in anything. Not the Emperor. Not individual humans... but he's not negative or bleak about it either.

Page 284-285

" It looks like the Sisters opened fire on the crowd."
...
I stop and consider Palatine Sapphira. It would be hard to imagine the stoic Sister succumbing to the frenzy and torching Certusians for sport.
..
...hundreds upon hundreds of wild-eyed Certusians were running uphill towards the spiritual safety of the Memorial Mausoleum..
...
With the gall-fever firmly taken root, the cemetery worlders would have torn into the thousands at prayer about the walls of the great Mausoleum, some deserters still with weapons in hand.
Faced with unreasoning mobs of murderers – men intent on slaughtering all, even their own friends and families – I can imagine that Palatine Sapphira had little choice but to order her flamer-wielding Sisters to torch the rabid interlopers.

This is perhaps one of the most optimistic assessments of the Sororitas in a Rob Sanders novel thus far, which sounds more like the Sisters we know about.

Page 286

"The Apotheon confirms the first of the armada’s vessels breaching the asteroid field and entering the system core."
..
"At present speed the advance vessels should reach Certus-Minor in a little under eight hours standard."
...
I imagine the lonely defence monitor holding station above the cemetery world with her tiny engines, the reinforced shielding of her bulbous Voss prow, her grim batteries of fat cannon and the underslung length of her powerful lance quad, nestling beneath the vessel’s armoured keel.

Defence monitor and its armaments, including the quad lance. Note as well the 8 hour timeframe.. with the earlier time assessment it takes ~28 hours for the Chaos fleet to reach the planet from the edge of the system. At 1 AU we're talking 6 gees constant accel (decel) and a max velocity of around 1.1% c At billions of km distance we're talking 65-70 gees and 10-11% of c for the approaching fleet.

Page 295

Kersh nodded to a Sister of Battle in full armour and hefting the bulk of a heavy flamer. He couldn’t help wondering what havoc the scorched nozzles of the weapon might wreak on the city perimeter. Beyond, Kersh began to get an idea. The plaza was stained with soot. Smoke drifted from blast marks, and macabre cages of incinerated bodies decorated the blackened stone where the roasted bones of tightly-packed mobs had melted and warped into giant works of demented art.
...
..Kersh found Pontifex Oliphant hobbling between the still smouldering remains, administering last rites to the dead. Several soot-smeared labourers with picks and saws had the unenviable duty of separating the merged forms while stone-faced vestals carried coffins across the plaza and tried their best to fit the twisted skeletons inside.

Effects of sororitas flame (and melta?) weapons on hundreds (or thousands?) of human bodies.

Page 307

The armada’s shape and organisation was merely a result of the fastest vessels, and most fervid, engine-overloading captains, streaking out in front, while the swarm of fat freighters, berserker-laden giga-tankers, renegade Guard transports and Traitor Astartes vessels formed a miasma of frustration, hatred and rage behind. About the fleet swarmed sub-light gunships, brigs, tugs and small system ships, each carrying their own blood-crazed crews and killers.

Cholercaust fleet. note the sublight gunships and system ships, and the giga-tankers.
Page 309-310

At Midshipman Randt’s relaying of the order the starboard battery began a ragged, punishing barrage. Laser blasts thundered down the lengths of Chaos raiders and slaughtermen.

Monitor broadside weapons? Lasers.

Page 311

They were buried, the stasis-field generators on their sarcophagi deactivated and removed, and the dead allowed to rot in peace – as cemetery world custom dictated.

The stasis field gnerators are removable and portable.

Page 318-319

Abstraction given form through word and order, followed by the rapid shift of men’s hearts. Even Angels, who need to be led no less. Loyalty. Pride. Trust. Action. Before your eyes, command becomes reality.
...
That’s what it is to lead, to dip the toe of one’s boot into the calm, crystal waters of possibility, but to march on as you find yourself up to your helmet in the raging torrent of your brothers’ blood.
...
Out there, amongst the past chaos of battle, are the cemetery worlders. Those it is clear I am here to protect. The duty I was bred to perform. A little of the Emperor’s burden taken on my shoulders.
...
Thousands of cemetery worlders, ordered to bury their Certusian kin alive. The brief spark of mortal existence, burning brightly under the ground, where blood-soaked minds would not think to look for them.
...
That is why we must fight. Fight and survive. The Blood God’s disciples have come here to battle, and we will give them one. In doing so we shall take their eyes off the prize – their intended slaughter of innocents and through this the sundering of this world. We fight to win, but if we lose, I want to go to my death knowing that our enemy will leave sated and swiftly move on.
...
" The cemetery worlders will live and the Imperium shall know it. The continued beating of mortal hearts shall give other worlds hope. They shall know that the Cholercaust can be beaten. It will put fire in their bellies and belief in their hearts. Perhaps we will not stop the Blood Crusade here. Perhaps we will not survive. But if we fail, we do so in the hope that others – both mortal and immortal – will succeed. Let that be our legacy."

Kersh's plan to save his charges and trick the Cholerchaust. I have to say that despite it being a gamble, its a worthy gamble. Sacrificing their lives to save innocents against Chaos, what more can a Space Marine ask for?
Page 320

"The pontifex told me of your plan," the Sister reveals. "A kindness on your own part, corpus-captain – if a macabre one. My Sisters thought your interest in the Certusians lay only in feeding them as fodder to the enemy."
"I’m happy to disappoint them."
"The vault door is thick and crafted from adamantium. It should resist all but the most determined assault. I have garrisoned the vault with a squad of my Sisters, under a trustworthy subordinate. I offer myself and the rest of my mission in defence of the city, where the holy work of the God-Emperor might be done."
I hold out my gauntlet and take her own.
"You are most welcome, Sister," I tell her. "We are honoured to share the burden with you."

Well that was unexpected. A nice surprise nonetheless.
Page 326

The Regna-Rouge. The Anarchan Razorbacks. The Hellion Dawn. The Krugarian Turncoats. The blade-venerate Gornan Venals. The Attilan Traitor 32nd. The Frater Vulgariate. The Necromundan ‘Crazy’ Eights. Clan Gamibal of the feared Vessorine Janissaries. The Deathfest. The Bloodsaken

Necromudan regiment, a reference to earlier fluff from 2nd edition or so. And the Vessorine of course are from Esienhorn. They also mention others like the Volscani (from 13th Black Crusade.) and even Dragon Warriors CSM (from I think Nick Kyme's stuff.)
Page 327

The bolters of the Sisters of Battle and his brother-Excoriators joined the barrage of las-bolts and lesser weaponry from the battlement, which in turn competed with the dissonant thunder of heavy stubber and autocannon gun emplacements. The collective force of such a release annihilated the remaining rows of cannon-fodder Certusians and knocked the advancing mobs of cultist killers from their feet.
...
They too met their end in a torso-punching, head-blasting, limb-shearing broadside of bolts, bullets, light and devastation.

Implied firepower of bolters, bullets, lasfire and other weapons. At least single or double digit kj probably.

Page 334

he Scourge favoured these with the Thunderhawk’s remaining wrath. With 1.00 calibre mercy, the Scourge ended their torment and that of their followers.

Heavy bolter calibre.
Page 335

There was a flash from the side of the first Angel’s head. He fell to one side and struck the gunship’s wing before falling and sitting in the grave dust. Half of his head had been burned out by a precision sniper shot. About the Scourge were the corpses of killers and cultists that Kersh couldn’t remember slaying. They too had the telltale head craters of Adeptus Astartes marksmanship. Up in the towers and steeples of the cemetery world city, a member of Squad Contritus had the Scourge in his sights and was watching his corpus-captain’s back.

Scout Laser sniper rifles. Headshots on Space Marines (several times more destructive than human headshots, even with only half the head blown away.) At least double, maybe triple digit kj, dependingo n mechanism (blaster style effect or 400 j sq cm flaying)
Page 342

Omar heard the whoosh of Scout Kush’s sniper rifle as the weapon spat out another skull-emptying bolt.
...
..drawing the sniper fire down on a warband of helmless screamers from the renegade Brazen Guard..
...
Kush had rested the sniper rifle’s long barrel against a balistraria pillar and plugged incessantly away, his eye to the magnoscope and a neat pile of powerpacks stacked beside his knee.
...
..the Scout ejected another spent pack and slipped another into the rifle’s breech from the pile.

Scout sniper rifle... seems like it might be still blowing apart human and astartes scale heads, but it is also a single shot (hot shot?) round.

Page 354

Through Segmentum Solar and the core systems; right up to an unsuspecting Ancient Terra. Unsuspecting, because none know what I know now. They will underestimate the Keeler Comet and its strange ability to turn a population against itself, creating reinforcement for an army as yet unarrived. What they will see as an astral body – a returning visitor – I know as a gateway to Chaos. They will not call for reinforcement, as others have failed to do, until far too late.
...
With a cultist army – even with an Adeptus Astartes contingent – we might have stood a chance. The Blood God sends us monsters, daemonic entities against which our weapons know limitation.

The Dangers inherent in a chaos invasion.. or at least a properly Chaotic one.,

Page 356

Bolt-rounds don’t stop them. Grenades don’t stop them. They push on fearlessly through our bottlenecks and gauntlets, stepping through the mangled corpses of their Traitor brethren to get to us. Each maniac Angel sustains the grievous wounds of two of his loyalist kind. They hear nothing but pain and see nothing but victims. They feel… nothing.

Durability of (Space Marine) Khornate berserkers.
Page 357

Crackling energy suddenly leaps across the open space of the cloistrium. The searing soul lightning had passed through the bodies of several slave-soldiers crowding a side-alley. The mortals explode on contact, their torsos detonating in a fine shower of blood-spittle. The silver arc of warp-drawn power slams into the lesser daemon, as it huddles over the Sister of Battle, and throws it into the far wall. It struggles, thrashes and claws against the stream of power until it too is vaporised in an explosive gore-cloud of red mist.
..
Melmoch isn’t smiling. He looks tired and drawn – his eyes sunken and his talent a burden. He carries his force scythe in both hands, discharging another soul-scalding burst of energy at the daemons picking over the remains of the dead Adepta Sororitas

Librairan blasting apart multiple Berserkers (human at leats, if not Astartes) with warp lightning.. high kj to low MJ at least per body, depending on paramters.
Page 364-365

..Punisher rolled out on its rugged tracks. The Thunderfire cannon’s quad-barrelled muzzles smoked with the demolishing blast, and the targeting reticula mounted on its back blazed with the life of its machine-spirit through the billowing dust cloud.
..
Dancred had attached a caterpillar flatbed trailer to the itinerant cannon to aid self-loading and assigned Punisher its own part of the battlement to defend. Unconcerned by fleeing cemetery worlders, dying Guardsmen and the horror of otherworldly threats, the machine prioritised enemy targets according to a simple equation based upon size and closing distance.
...
Dancred had provided the cannon’s machine-spirit with modus-contingencia, including an inner-city ‘hunt and destroy’ protocol, should the battlement be overrun in the initial assault.
..
s the Cholercaust swamped battlements all over the city, including the one upon which the cannon was unsuspectingly stationed, Punisher fell to its ‘hunt and destroy’ duties in the small, sloped streets and alleyways of the cemetery world city.
As the dust cleared, fresh targets presented themselves in profusion. Heretics. Daemonic entities. Enemy Adeptus Astartes. The completion of a cold equation prompted Punisher’s quad-barrel to start cycling and its trailer feed system to begin loading the rotating breeches. A large etherform attempting to enter the cloistrium received Punisher’s initial attention. The creature received an explosive shell in the face as well as several follow-up shots that momentarily drove it back to a less threatening range.
...
The cannon targeted the foundations of a nearby building in order to economically stall the advance of multiple heretic signatures.
...
....burying the heretics in an avalanche of stone as well as temporarily blocking off the entry point, which the Thunderfire cannon’s machine-spirit had swiftly designated as tactically significant.
The enemy Adeptus Astartes closed with the cannon, but Punisher detected only small arms and close-quarter weaponry. The Thunderfire cannon sent a rhythmic barrage at the advancing contingent, blasting power-armoured bodies apart and around the confines of the cloistrium. The assault defied the machine-spirit’s calculations.
..
Discounting the gesture as non-threatening, and confirming plate markings as those belonging to Excoriators company command, the cannon decided to hold its current station and carry out the spiritual necessities of its ‘hunt and destroy’ protocol.

Autonomous thunderfire cannon Punisher charges to the rescue.. and starts offf by shooting a daemon in the face. It gives an interesting insight into some of the 'cybernetic' assistance Marines might have access to, and the firepower of Thunderfire cannons in general - especially since this one gun is basically fending off the entire advance singlehandedly.
Page 367

..two members of the Naval security team on the door. It seemed ridiculous now as the two flak-armoured figures backed from the thunder building on the bulkhead with their lascarbines clutched to their sides.

NavSec, using lasweapons onboard.
Page 368-369

. A colossal vessel. Larger than anything Heiss had witnessed over Ultrageddon, Cypra Mundi or Port Maw. Everyone on the bridge stared, and for a moment the horror that awaited them behind the bulkhead was forgotten.
..
"Dimensions…"
The midshipman had already checked. "Estimated six hundred and seventy cubic kilometres."
Heiss shook her head. It was bigger than the Keeler Comet, bigger than Certus-Minor’s dwarf moons.
...
Void steeples and etherspires reached up from great halls, cathedrex and monasterial superstructures all nestled between sensoria, the elongated barrels of long-range lances, nova cannon and squat plasma cannonades. The magnificent weaponry, as well as the gargantuan Scartix engine coils upon which the structures and emplacements sat, was long lost to the Imperium. Cutting the behemoth in four were solar wings of burnished adamantium, giving the vessel the bold and unusual design of two Imperial aquilas – one slotted within the other. Four armoured wings. Four engine coil talons. A monasterial body of supra-Gothic splendour. Four sculpted heads of aquiline majesty, between which the vast craft hid a far larger weapon, the yawning mouth of an enormous torpedo launch tube.
...
"Looks like an Adeptus Astartes vessel. A monastery or star fortress."

Remember the superhuge vessel the Excoriator's navigator had tracked earlier in the book? This seems to be it, and its a fortress monastery. More specifically, the Fortress monastery of the Legion of the Damend - formerly the Fire Hawks, who had the Raptorus Rex.
Size wise, assuming its dimensions are all roughly equal (if its a freaking aquila ship it probably is roughly) we're talking 8-9 km to a side at least Call it E14-15 kg at least. The interesting thing is that its implied they used to be able to build Fortress monasteries (or vessels of similar scale, or star forts) like this, and they may not even be that unusual/rare (which runs contrary to Imperial Armour, but fuck them.)
The armament is also interesting, for the sheer numbe rof nova cannons and the fuckoff huge torpedo tubes if nothing else. Oh and the Scartix coils are from the Slaughte rClass cruiser - supposedly give ships greater speed.
It also explains not only how they get about, but that there's an awful fucking lot of them still.
Page 369-370

"I have a power signature," the midshipman called. "It’s arming torpedoes."
...
The dark orbits of the colossal structures were vents for the great torpedo tube running between them, and they flared brightly as the spectral gleam of a warhead erupted from the star fortress’s primary weapon.
..
..she watched an illusion sear into reality and that reality rocket into the side of the Keeler Comet.
...
The Keeler Comet, which had been traversing the galaxy for aeons and had last passed through the Imperium ten thousand years before, exploded. The flash of the torpedo’s impact picked out the irregular shape of the Ruinous object before the destructive force of detonation ripped through the body, wracking it to its frozen core and smashing it into a billion astral splinters. Within moments the comet was no longer there, just the bloody reminder of its void-smearing tail.

Single super torpedo smashes apart the Keeler comet. If we knew how big the comet was we might get an idea, but other than it is smaller than the fortress monastery and implications its bigger than a 'dwarf moon' we dont know much.
Page 374-375

The darkness of a shadowy alcove that become a silhouette in the street smoke. The silhouette that became armoured detail. The revenant that became reality at the Traitor’s back. Umbragg never saw the rachidian horror of bone-moulded plate or the auric flame that danced off the ceramite’s bitter, black surface. He never saw the rent faceplate of the damned legionnaire appear over his brain-speckled shoulder, nor the burn of unnatural life glowing within the skull-socket of the being within. All the berserker heard was the nasty chatter of teeth before the cursed edge of the legionnaire’s short sword slid across the World Eater’s armoured neck. Passing through the plate like an apparition, the blade assumed its lethality within, its keen edge – honed to eternity – slicing through the World Eater’s brazen flesh and cutting his throat to the bone.

Apparently the great resilience and lethality of the Legion can be traced to their ability to baisclaly 'phase' in and out of reality, not unlike Necron Wraiths.. one moment their weapons (or bodies) are immaterial, then they can go solid to do damage. Great way to bypass defenses and attacks.

Page 378-379

.. ghostly apparitions stalked the armoured brutes, taking them one by one – infuriating their dwindling number further and making them ever easier to slaughter.
...
..unloading his bolt pistol’s entire magazine into an advancing, flame-swathed revenant and having his horned skull cleaved in two.
..
..adamantium-toothed weapons passing clean through the warrior shades. Slave-soldiers, foaming at the mouth, found the Bloodstorm corpses gutted and piled at the centre of the square.
...
..a clutch of ghostly grenades were waiting for the mechanical monstrosity. The grenades might have burned with a phantasmal glow but the armour-cracking explosions that issued from them felt very real to the Traitor Techmarine, as his body and workings were blown across the boulevard.
...
Charred cultist survivors reported sightings of silent warriors in sable armour who corralled the Chaos lord and his sadists with flamers before cremating the crush.
...
..daemonkin instinctively giving the empyreal intruders a wide berth..

And the Legion slaughters the Cholercaust. Its rather interesting that they show up at this point, and that daemons avoid them (suggesting they are death to many daemons.)
Part of me wonders why they waited so long. Was there some tactical/strategic purpose? Were they waiting for the khornates to commit fully to the ground assault before attacking (sacrificing the defenders as a neccessary lure? Kersh's idea seems to believe that.) or was there some mystical reason? Were they drawn here by the sacrifice of the Imperial defenders to halt Chaos, analogues to the way daemons of Chaos can be drawn by conflict/bloodshed/ritual/death/etc?
We dont really know much HOW they get drawn to conflicts like this, although much of the novel. It's strongly implied that the Legion was working behind the scenes, guiding Kersh in his various actions, suggesting they be more proactive than reactive, although other sources certainly suggest they'r emore reactive.
Page 387-388

"...manoeuvre your lance into position for an orbital strike in exactly fifteen minutes’ time."
...
"I am ordering you to destroy the Memorial Mausoleum."
"And a good part of the city."
...
"There is nobody left in the city."

Defnece monitor being orderd to bombard the city.
Page 388

..a heavy bolter in the other. Without his gauntlets he could only just get his thick fingers through the carryholds of the Sisters’ weaponry. The chief whip humped a pyrum-petrol fuel pack and had draped his battered shoulder plates with bandoliers of grenades and 1.00 calibre ammunition.

Melta and heavy bolter ammo.

Page 388

"What about the people in the vault?"
"The vault’s deep and the door’s thick. It will hold. If it could survive a meteorite impact, it’ll weather an orbital bombardment. Just."
"You can’t stop the Cholercaust with a single lance strike."

Lance strike compared to a meteorite strike. It's worth noting that the earlier quote likened the vault to surviving an 'apocalyptic' asteroid impact. Meteorite is a bit different, so we might have somethign btween megaton to gigaton. Megaton range would be consistent with destroying the city, depending on how big a city we're talking about. On the other hand we're also probably not talking quite continent or even planet level of destruction, since that WOULD stop the Cholercaust with a single strike. and probably kill everyone else in the process.

PAge 400-401

Standing in the road were a trio of damned legionnaires, their bolters aimed straight at the advancing Kersh. As the ghastly Angels blazed coldly away, Kersh brought up his arm instinctively. Unmolested by the immaterial rounds, the Excoriator brought down his arm, only for it to jump back up as he rode straight through the line of revenants. Holding on to the screeching bike, the Scourge cast a glance behind him to see the accursed crusaders melt into nothing, revealing the bolt-blasted carcass of the daemon dead on the cobbles.
...
Out in the wastes, the hulking greater daemon that had terrorised the Excoriator earlier stood impaled on a shard of ice which had fallen and speared the bloodthirster into the ground.
...
. A World Eater ran towards the road from a smashed chapel, his brass bolt pistols blazing – until a damned legionnaire stepped out from behind a blackened altar and gunned the Chaos Space Marine down from behind, ethereal bolts searing into his pack, through his warped body and out of his chestplate.

the Legion in action again. Its notable that once more the Legion seems to be guiding Kersh and protecting him. They clearly inspired his idea to save the people, and they want at least one person (him) to survive.

Page 401

A colossal stream of energy struck the city. For a moment, time seemed to stop. The ground seemed to shift below the wheels of Kersh’s bike. As darkness returned, buildings were blasted apart by a ring of concentric destruction spreading throughout the cemetery world city.
...
Obsequa City lay behind him, a devastated mess of flaming wreckage and settling dust. The magnificent dome of the Umberto II Memorial Mausoleum was now a mountain of masonry. Many of the city centre cathedrals and temples had been wiped from the face of the cemetery world, but a good part of the city remained, albeit as a firestorm wracked ruin. Torched and shattered disciples of the Blood God who refused to give up the fight wandered the night with their murderous instincts still intact, even if their bodies were roasted and smashed. Damned legionnaires, incorporeal and impassive, hunted down such degenerate specimens without mercy, finishing what the lance strike had begun. The revenants had been unaffected by the city-levelling, star-hot beam of energy, with even those Angels directly below the orbital strike going about their vengeance oblivious to the destruction wrought around them.

The single 'city levelling' lance strike. Not much if any melting, seems to be considerable blast effects, although since its a laser rather than a nuke its not nearly as efficient. We're also hampered by not really knowing the size of the city, except its like a mini hive, and it builds vertically more than horizontally. We might figure on signle or double digit MT for nuclear-like effects (city bustiny nukes are on that scale IIRC)
An asteroid impact is a differnet story, and about the only quantifiable thing we know is that a meteorite impact/apocalyptic asteroid would not dent the mausoleum underground, but would 'just barely' resist the lance strike. Assuming a ~100 m or so diameter asteorida t 20 km/s as per the impact calculator perameters we might figure thre are several tens to several hundreds of megatons, but thats just an estimate. It's not exactly 'apocalyptic' though, but then again maybe we shouldn't read too much into that.
At the very least, a single (monitor) lance strike is probably in the megaton range.


Page 410-411 Spoiler

Slowly, the Scourge’s ceramite fingertips reached for the sculpted stone of the grave marker. The stone was inscribed with a name: Erzsebet Dorota Catallus. At its heart, like the thousands of gravestones surrounding them across the necroplex, was a small bell. Quast frowned, assuming the instrument to be part of some Ecclesiarchy ritual or cemetery world custom. With an effort-trembling fingertip, Kersh prodded the bell, sending out a tinny chime across the steaming burial grounds. He did this a second and a third time until suddenly, and surprisingly, the bell began to ring of its own accord.
Quast and the Santiarch looked at one another. About them, bells started ringing everywhere, each of the gravestones peeling with chimes of urgency and insistence. The approbator moved in closer to examine the grave marker. He saw the openings for air supply and the wire running from the bell and down into the earth. He turned back to Balshazar.
"The dead are rising, Santiarch. Miracles indeed."
..
"Dig teams report knocking from beneath the ruins of the Memorial Mausoleum. The new pontifex has begged assistance from the ordo and the Adeptus Astartes in excavating the survivors and the relic-remains of Umberto II."
...
As the chorus of bells rang across the killing fields, the approbator’s eyes settled on an object, half buried in the bloody earth. Picking it up and wiping it off, Quast discovered a crystalline wafer bearing a name and illustration. He had seen astropaths use such cards to divine possible futures – a tarot card. On the bottom of the wafer it stated Deus Imperator and pictured their corpse-lord, sat on his Golden Throne, amongst ancient apparatus of gold, steel and brass.
...
Looking down, the approbator saw another tarot wafer, and another – both amongst the carnage, sitting on the earth of newly dug graves. Burial plots all about were marked with the cards and each bore the holy image of the God-Emperor. Quast shook his head. He had seen Guardsmen drop playing cards on enemy dead as a signature of their success – a practice of certain regiments – but never wafers deposited on the living; on battle survivors.

So we have the Legion totally demolishing the Khornate rampage, saving Kersh, and preserving much of the innocent populace (women and children) of the cemetary world. Which is impressive, but I think it also ultimately served a greater role. Consider the various aspects:
Kersh up to this point has been both cynical and generally without faith. We also have a running theme pertaining to miracles. Up to this point in the book, Kersh has believed that his self-appointed task was a doomed one. But he manages to succeed due to, what seems to be, a miracle.

It is fair to say that hope and miracles, and indeed faith in humanity was a recurring theme in this story. Kersh, who is an honorable, dedicated warrior who sees his duty to defend humanity, but really has no faith in humanity's ability to rise above its more basic nature. And yet he's constantly presented with examples of that happening, culminating in what seems to be, for all intents and purposes, divine intervention. Hell, look at what those little tarot cards are - they're basically a smbol all their own.. the Legion's calling card and (for me, at least) a symbol that even amdist the grimdark of 40K, Miracles can and do happen.

I do like these kinds of stories.. the horror and devastation you wade through - the horror of having innocent men and women slaughtered for the needs of another, soldiers and even simple men dying to preserve their homes and families (and children who will never see those fathers again..) is horrible. And yet there is still some hope, somethihg positive, coming out of that darkness.

[PainRack]

There are two progenoid glands inside a Space Marine. One is harvested after 5 years and is routinely done so during the Initates. The second...... Well, the Apothecary seems to routinely harvest the second during combat operations, even though there really isn't any fluff reason why it couldn't be harvested after remainding ten years in the Space Marine.

Official reason is some crazy genetic memory thing.. the thorax progenoid actually somehow absorbs and carries a portion of the skills and experience of the Space Marine that had it, which is why the lineage of a warrior has some significance.

Other than that, I'd surmise it possibly still has a role in the maintenance of all the other implants and genetic modifications even after puberty. Thus, it's only removed when the Astartes no longer needs it (imminent death).

Doesn't really destroy the reasoning, although I thought this reasoning was fan fluff, and the official bits was more about a mystic link between a warrior legacy living on.

We do know that the health of the organ requires it to be used/matured in an Astartes body. So, a superior warrior would had "better" organs, maybe a multi-lung that has better capacity to deliver oxygen or some such and through artificial selection, organs grown from such gamete would bear such superior characteristics. Maybe even some form of Lamarackian evolution, where what happens in life has an effects on the gamete itself.


We know that there is some limit to the geneseed ability to have new organs cultured from it, based on the fact that a Chapter can't rely on their existing geneseed stock to rebuild losses. We also do know that a geneseed can't be a one on one basis, as many fans assumed back in the nineties, because not all neophytes who receive organ implantation survive the training process long enough for geneseed to be recovered. Ditto to the Deathwatch Rites of Battle fluff, which give us estimated time of recovery from 50% losses and etc for a chapter, which suggests that an established Marine Chapter must have significant reserves of geneseed.

There is actually nothing in the WD to suggest that the progenoid gland, the "geneseed" is what triggers the transformation of a recipient into a space marine, but rather, the slow and steady implantation of every single organ in and as of itself, along with the training, hormonal/chemical and even mental training required to develop the abilities from these new organs(barring the Blood Angels of course).

The organs themselves are described as releasing germ cells, which are stored in the progenoid gland. Thus, using normal biology rules, we can simply just assume that it is what its saying, that they're eggs similar to how every woman has a limited supply of eggs in their ovaries. The difference is that the geneseed collects more germ cells over the years, released by the other organs. And we can make a logical induction that this will extend the subsequent number of organs which could be cultured from the geneseed when harvested.

Thus, longer lived geneseed would provide a greater bounty of gamete for future culturing into other organs.

[Cykeisme]

I plan to drill through the bone and insert a hypodermic lightning rod into the brain.

The character has a straight face, but the author is no doubt grinning as he writes this.

This is why I love 40k

[Connor MacLeod]

Another SMB update: Architect of Fate. This one is both a SmB novel AND an anthology, which for me means I get the worst of both worlds. And it has Ben Counter. Such is life.

That said, much of the book is not really that bad. Ben Counter's story is actually quite fun and enjoyable (Imperial Fists story) and we get a White Consuls story (a bit grimdark) and a few others. We also get another Sarah Cawkwell short story (this time not Silver Skulls, but a new pair of chapters) which is interesting for the premise and the Chapters involved (two Chapters cooperating closely.) The book is basically four short stories, tied together by the common theme of a Tzeentchian greater daemon knonw as the Architect of Fate. The way in which the Architect manifests in the story differs some hunt him, others may just have encountered him, etc. but there is a common theme of that there. It's an interesting idea, but the execution is (as often the case with 40K novels) debatable. It's definitely not one of the better SMB novels in my opinion.

So, two posts for one update. Here we go with part 1


Page 16

The ship, which had been ripping through the warp for several hours since the receipt of the initial message, was not travelling smoothly..

Page 20

"Estimates put our time of arrival at less than three hours.."

Five hour total transit time. ASsuming a 10 LY transit time between star systems, we're talking some tens of thousands of c (around 15-17 thousand c at least)

Page 22

For now, the Blood Swords and the Star Dragons travelled the wastes of space together. For centuries prior to their deployment here, they had frequently joined forces when a given situation demanded it. The proximity of their home worlds had given them great reason to remain cordial and closely allied. In the wake of the act of shame that had seen the Blood Swords torn from their home world, the Star Dragons had been there to support them. There had been no question of debt or honour. It merely was.
This reciprocal loyalty engendered a rare sense of genuine fraternity between the two that more commonly was confined to battle-brothers of the same Chapter. There was a pooling of similar traditions and history, and this gave rise to friendships that spanned across the two Chapters. Above and beyond this, both the Star Dragons and the Blood Swords fielded stalwart warriors with an eye for tactics that made them a terrifying force to be reckoned with when they took the field of battle together.

Two Chapters, ostensibly it seems part of the garrison around the Eye, with close bonds and cooperation, this seems rare, but its a nice touch on the whole Astartes theme.

page 54-55

..Korydon fired his bolter at the creature that had subsumed his brother and rapidly blink-clicked through to his own squad’s health readings. Arion’s reading was wavering between solid green and a blinking amber.
...
Korydon felt the impact of the shell on his armour before it exploded, defacing the aquila that decorated his chest. The sergeant stumbled under the impact and received a second shot that scarred the Chapter badge on his shoulder and sent ceramite chips spinning in all directions. Another shell whistled through his field of vision and glanced off his helmet. His head jarred backwards with a crack and he raised his bolter to fire back.

Bolter taking multiple hits, although with some damage.

Page 56

"Daemons have abilities we can only guess at and we are deep within the realm of a powerful entity. We believe that they can create…" He paused, attempting to draw the picture in a simple manner. It was, strangely for him, not an act of condescension, but simply because the Ordo Malleus themselves had never been able to accurately describe such activity. "They can create pockets in the immaterium. Places that exist outside of our awareness that allow them to move unhindered, unseen, until they desire otherwise. Perhaps the sergeant has been pulled into such a trap."

Daemonic abilities. Probably related ot their ability to amnipualte the mutagentic nature of the warp or create (temporary) mater out of thin air.

Page 58-59

The breastplate of his power armour was compromised from the bolter rounds it had withstood. Part of it had crumpled inwards, the buckled ceramite pressing against his fused ribcage. He had taken a hit to the side of the helm, much of which had been destroyed in the process and which had led to the facial injury that had put the blood into his mouth.
His retinal feed was completely broken. Not a single rune was visible and yet despite its uselessness, he could not bring himself to remove his helmet. He felt, although he could not eloquently vocalise the thought, that to expose himself fully to the air of the Accursed Eternity would be an open invitation to the denizens of the warp.

Damage Korydon suffered from bolter fire.

Page 63

His body felt hot, feverish as his implants kicked in to speed his healing and, despite its damage, his power armour infused his bloodstream with fresh stimms, alleviating the pain.
After a few moments, he loaded a fresh magazine into his bolter and loosened his combat blade in its scabbard. Allowing himself to move at a pace which would grant his physiology a chance to heal his wounds, he continued onwards in the direction of the bridge.

Apparnetly, despite being somewhat magically created supersoldiers with only a tacit nod towards actual limitations, Astartes have to obey thermodynamics to some small degree (EG the harder they work the hotter their bodies run.)

Page 63

The ground beneath the Adeptus Astartes was littered with the spent casings of bolter shells and their weapons were trained on the daemonic entity.

Bolt shell casings

Page 70

Since Korydon, like all Adeptus Astartes, rarely required what was termed as ‘True Sleep’, his experiences of dreaming were extremely limited. His mind was so filled with endless reams of texts on xenos biology or weapon maintenance that simple dreams had no place in his resting thoughts. As such, it was easy enough to assume that that was what was happening to him. Simple enough, and strangely comforting. Being able to write off his situation as a dream was actually helping his focus

Interesting that implies astartes having dreams when actually asleep is not unusual, which is different from the experiences of (for example) the Salamanders in Kyme's novels.

Page 72

The tungsten teeth of his blade whirred into life at his touch and he brought the weapon down in a cross-stroke across its right shoulder.

tungsten chainsword teeth.

Page 73-74

Korydon had no time to avoid the bolter shell as it thundered into the ceramite of his armour. The unexpected attack knocked him from his feet, sending him flying several metres backwards. In its already weakened state, it would not take much more to render his battle-gear entirely useless and it was this thought, more than any other that got him back to his feet again.
His breath came in a ragged, wet rasp now; the damage he had sustained to his ribcage was considerable and he intuitively knew that he had a punctured lung. His enhanced physiology was compensating, but it was at a cost to the rest of his strength. Still it wasn’t enough to stop him from hurling himself with full force into his attacker.

More limits to Astartes armour and physiology.

Page 80

Iakodos did not believe in ghosts. They had featured heavily in the tales of his childhood – a distant memory now – but his time in service to the Golden Throne had taught him that spirits and ghosts were not real. Daemons and creatures from the warp, they were tangible things that could be put down with bolter and chainsword or, at the very least, the right words from those trained to deal with them. But ghosts?

Interesting how ghosts are a fiction, but not warp creatures. Is there really a differnece, or is this just personal semantics?

Page 95

"It was their presence which awoke my consciousness. I’ve been alone on this accursed ship for an eternity. But their minds… were sharp. They were delicious. And their imaginations! They expected bleeding walls, creatures of the warp, and I was all too glad to oblige."
A sickening knot tightened in Iakodos’s gut as he realised that it had been their very thoughts which had brought about the demise of Third Scale and the deaths of the Blood Swords. He fervently hoped that Evander was heeding his order.

A nice reminder of why the warp can be dangeorus, at least for those attuned to it.

Page 101

Spent shell casings hit the floor like rain as bolters spat out one round after another.

More bolter shell casings.

PAge 132

The remaining Traitor Marine turns his gun on the Librarian but the left side of his helmet evaporates before he can pull the trigger, leaving a smouldering pulp of ruptured armour and charred brains.
He drops to the floor with a whistling gurgle.
Sergeant Halser steps over him and fires a second shot into his mouth grille. Then another. He keeps firing until the traitor’s head is nothing but a bloody stain on the rock.

Bolt round only partly blows apart Astartes head, although being helmeted probably helps explain it. Multiple shots (more than 3 but fewer than the entire clip) to destroy the head. OF main note is the thermal charring suggesting at least a partially thermal effect to the bolt round.

Page 134

"The Relictors are scavengers. They’re famed for it. They’re vile magpies, always peering beneath stones that ought to be left unturned. Everyone knows they’re just a step away from heresy, but Inquisitor Mortmain must have allowed them one last chance to explore the planet for some reason."
...
"The Zeuxis Scriptorium is particularly infamous. The priests in charge had similar interests to the Relictors, interests that most reputable people would consider heretical. It has been lost for centuries, but the Relictors have a knack of unearthing things."

Navigator talks about Relictors. This must be just before they were decladred Renegade. The interesting thing about this and this story is that they're not quite as 'bad guy' depicted in this story as they are in other ones.

Page 135-136

He places his fingers beneath the peak of his cap, resting them on a swelling in the middle of his forehead. Then he whispers an incantation under his breath and, after a few minutes, his breathing begins to quicken and beads of sweat appear on his face. Numb pain spreads from his forehead and he moans softly. Images tumble through his mind. He sees engines: vast, oil-black behemoths, thundering and belching far below him in the belly of the Domitus. Then he sees miles of featureless hab blocks, housing legions of crewmen and priests and whole regiments of Guardsmen.
...
The minds of the Adeptus Astartes are unmistakable. He removes his fingers from his forehead, pulls his cap back into place and finally exhales. ‘"ust a few kilometres away."

The Domitus battleship is at least 2-3 km across.. and this is probably a dramatic under estimate, since its including only the 'miles' of hab blocks, nevermind the guns, the prow, or the engines.

Page 142

They have not travelled far when shots ring out again. The squad vanishes silently into the storm. Sergeant Halser drops behind a trunk of rock.
..
"Bolter fire. The shots went wide. They are holed up in some kind of building. Half a kilometre east. It might be a tower but I can’t be–"

Range of bolter fire, and approximate velocity (probably supersonic, at least.)

Page 155

The man stiffens and lets out a hoarse croak as a smouldering hole appears in his chest. Blood fountains from his nose and he slumps back in the sergeant’s arms.
...
..owering his laspistol and withdrawing his optical cables back into his hood.

Laspistol. Thermal damage, but also apparently cuases significant intenral bleeding. How it does that I'm not quite sure. Assuming a 2 cm diameter hole, at least 10 cm deep and 50 j per sq cm we'd be talking 1500 J for burns along the channel, but thats just a guess.

Page 156-158

"This is our last chance, Comus, don’t you understand? Mortmain is our only friend and our enemies are legion. We have to convince them all. We have to show them that our willingness to learn is not heresy, but the Imperium’s last hope. We have the courage to go where the other Chapters will not. We are the only ones who–"
..
"If we return empty handed we are dead anyway. You remember Captain Asamon’s orders: find a weapon powerful enough to cleanse every world in the system. Only if the Inquisition sees our true potential will we have any hope of redemption. If we return now, with nothing, the Relictors are doomed. Every last one of us.’ He clutches his hands together as though praying. ‘But if we can show the strength of our faith, show them that we can wield even the most powerful artefacts, they will have to accept us once more as true servants of the Emperor."
...
"By the Throne, Comus, can’t you see? Maybe we are doomed, but at least we might end our days covered in glory. At least we might put an end to whatever monster is plaguing this wretched planet. And perhaps…" A trace of smile appears on his face. "Perhaps we could find something that truly makes the trip worthwhile."
...
They do not deserve to die in Mortmain’s firestorm, but he knows Halser is right: they are doomed anyway. For decades now, the Inquisition has been working towards their destruction. Perhaps this would be a more fitting end: death in battle, at the hands of the Imperium’s foes, rather than excommunication and disgrace at the hands of a shadowy cabal. He looks back at the sergeant and falls quiet, unsure what to say. All the options seem black. Then he looks into Halser’s eyes and sees how fiercely they are burning. If they have any hope at all, he decides, it is here – in the fury of Sergeant Halser.

An interesting commentary on the fate and situation of the Relictors. Given this context it sounds more like what happened to the Celestial Lions or similar Chapters who come into conflict with the Inquisition - more politics than them actually being heretics. That isn't to say that some of what they were accused of had merit, but it also means you have to be careful of what you believe - politics, especially Inquisitorial politics, are deceptive and dangerous.
It's also a different telling in that it presents more of a 'grey area' - putting the Relictors in a favourable light suggests they were perhaps forced to thier heresy by circumstance rather than by deliberate heresy. You can just imagine a cabal of puritanical fucks pulling this sort of shit because 'OMFG LEARNING' goes on.

There's also a bit of an irony there in that having the situation forced on them, Chaos can exploit that fact to make it true as well - possibly without even the RElictors realizing it. That is one of the unfortunate risks learning and education has in 40K - you have to be careful because if you learn too much.. you literally can damn yourself.

It's also funny in that this sounds pretty much like the Soul Drinkers, only in a not-retarded way.

Page 157

A network of throbbing veins spreads across Halser’s face and he hisses through gritted teeth.

you see this ALOT from Halser in this story. I keep picturing Halser as more of an Angry Marine rather than a Relictor. The dude is literally on the edge of rage for the entire book.

Page 164-165

he night sights attached to his men’s guns send flickering red lines across the vaulted masonry, creating an unnerving sense of movement.
...
The baron gives a vague nod and starts to reply, but his words are lost beneath the whining screech of las-fire.
The two officers turn to find that the corridor has erupted with crackling energy as the soldiers fire wildly into the darkness.
...
The shots continue for a few more seconds, until the baron manages to make himself heard.
...
"And what if it was one of our own sentries?" asks the baron, rising to his feet and peering into the dark.
The soldier’s mouth flaps wordlessly as he fails to think of a suitable answer.
"Perhaps you should go and see what you’ve been incinerating?"

Lasgun fire form an unknown number of troops 'incinerate' a target. Possibly as big as a squad since they can all fit in a starship's corridor and fire down it, but we really don't know how long (other than it didn't seem to drain the powerpack) and what kind of target and how many troops. Or what 'incineration' means (badly burnt, or cremated?) If 10 troopers draining their packs, and we just assume 'badly burnt' (call ti between 100-1000 J per sq cm) for a human body we're talking 1-10 MJ in 600 shots. That would be between 1700 and 17000 J per bolt. It's not even a precise calc for the reasons I stated (EG we don't know much) but probably more of an estimate - albeit an ordre of magnitude one at best.

More telling really is that the lasweapons are thermal in nature in this story.

They also have NVG scopes on their rifles. Of course since they're Navigator private troops sophisticated gear is not really surprising.

Page 166

His voice is now a scream and before his men have a chance to respond, he begins firing his laspistol at the nightmarish vision.
Gunfire throws back the darkness for a second time, as the soldiers unleash a desperate volley of las-fire at the approaching colossus. The light is dazzling. It is impossible to see anything clearly so the soldiers fire blind, screaming as they register the full horror of what they have seen. The onslaught continues for several minutes, until finally the baron calls a halt.

Laspistols and lasrifles give off a seemingly continous barrage of fire for 'several minutes' - again apparently without draining the pack. given several shots a second easily, we're talking at least 200+ shots for the pistols alone, twice that for the rifles, and this could (depending on fire rate) go into thousands of shots (especially for the rifles.) Of course if that were true my earlier 'estimates' from incineration go out the window, but they were never precise either soo..

Page 175

Behind him the Domitus is being devoured.
The battleship screams along with its crew as a monster tears into its brittle flesh.

The Flagship is a battleship.

Page 175

The ceiling disappears into cavernous darkness, only interrupted by the occasional winged saint, peering down sadly at the crowds flooding into one of the Domitus’s launch bays.
As he joins the terrified throng, Captain Thayer sees he was not the first to think of abandoning the doomed battleship. Thousands of desperate souls are clawing over each other in an attempt to reach the hulking rows of frigates and cruisers.

The 'battleship's launch bays have 'frigates and cruisers' rather than fighters. Rather a throwback to Space Fleet's sublight parasites than actual fighters, but we know some 40K 'fighters' can be as large as small warships/escorts too so its not a big shock or inconsistency.

Page 187

Mortmain gives no reply as he slams the door shut. He turns, aims his laspistol at the lock and fires repeatedly, turning the mechanism into a molten lump. Then he stands there in silence, staring at the door as the officer watches him anxiously.

laspistol fire melting a lock. Again assuming he empties the battery (20-30 shots) and if we're talking a 5 cm diameter, 2 cm thick 'lock' made of iron (and 50% empty space) we get ~185 KJ at least to melt the lock. That's about 6-9 kj per shot, roughly. If the lock were 10 cm diameter, and several inches thick (6 cm) and solid iron we'd be talking upwards of 2.2 MJ (call it 1-2 MJ) and 70-100 kj (or 35-50 kj) per shot to melt through. Calling it double digit kj as likely seems reasonable, although we should remember this is for a mostly or purely thermal 'heat ray' type weapon, with little or no mechanical blast damage effects. Not the most efficient of lasweapons by some standards.

Page 188

"I do not think we should write off an Imperial battleship quite so easily, Inquisitor Mortmain."

Again Domitus is a battleship.

Page 188-189

"We will have to begin sooner than I thought." He grabs the captain by the arm and drags him back to his chair. "Give the order to drop into orbit. Alert the rest of the fleet. We must prepare the missiles for launch."
...
"It is making its way towards us, but it wants more than just our souls. I believe it will attempt to stop the Exterminatus"

A fleet to execute an Exterminatus on the whole planet.

Page 189

"We left warp space weeks ago. "

Weeks to reach the planet implied, although we dont really know that they made for the planet straight away, or how long they spent in orbit. That's still rather low transit speed.. hundreds or thousands of km at best (hundreds of million to billionso f km distance travelled, depending on warp point emergence.)

Page 211

As he reaches a shattered door he pauses, listening to what he hopes is the sound of vast, thermonuclear weapons powering up.

Apparnetly the Exterminatus weaponsa re thermonuclear payloads. It's also implied in the novel that the missiles are more powerful than the conventional guns in the fleet, although whether this is in an absolute or relative (EG context mattering - like they didn't have enough time to use conventional firepower.) sense we don't know. Nor do we really know the true scope of devastation, except that it involves creating planet killing firestorms.

Page 217

Mortmain continues to laugh even as his innards spill to the floor. The chamber is shaking more violently than ever as the Domitus’s weapons silos finally launch their missiles at Ilissus.
...
Far below, the planet’s surface flashes red, then purple, then a beautiful opalescent white as it begins to die.

Well the 'thermonuclear' weapons in reaction. I'm not sure what thermonuclear weapons create purple, but.. if we assume its nukes, and assume 100 vessels firing 100 missiles each, and a 1 billion megton threshold.. each missile is 100 gigatons. It goes without saying that this isn't a precise figure, although assuming an entire battlefleet (or larger) is here and they're firing torpedo sized munitions is rather generous. If there were 1000 ships (or 1000 missiles) we'd still be in the 1-10 gigaton range, and this assumes the firepower figure for mass extinction isn't higher. (It could be lower, but the odds of ensuring mass extinction go donw, not up with yields. It's also unlikely that it is a purely subsurface event, as there are vaults belowground housing valuable scripts and artefacts that will be destroyed in the bombardment - which was the point of the Relictors on the ground prior to Exterminatus, in fact.)

Of course it does assume that this is a nuke, rather than something exotic, or a melta bomb or other related soo..

Implies projectile speeds of tens or hundreds of km/s, depending on orbit and exact time, which is consitent with torpedo velocities.

Page 220

"He’s going to unfetter us." Comus’s pain is clear to Halser, even over the vox. "Whatever he’s doing, it’s going to unhinge time."
...
"‘Ilissus is heading towards some kind of time loop. Maybe even the whole sector. Whoever this prophet is, you need to stop him."

Another spyker type fucking with time and space on a grand scale. Although here its implied that they had artifacts/technologies left behind for the Emperor to trigger it, so its not exactly unaided help. He has total control over the weather and other aspects of the planet. Spoiler

the psyker is a navigator btw

Page 232

The ship was a relic of a previous age, pitted and scarred by the millennia, as gnarled and vicious as the Iron Warriors who rode in it. It was more than a machine or a weapon – it was cruel and self-aware like an animal trained to attack.

Iron warriors warship is 'self aware'. This is not exactly unusual nowadays, indeed as this story shows a good many ocnstructs from Titans to star fortresses can have some sort of AI-like 'intelligence' governing it (a literal interpretation of "machine spirit") - the actual level of intelligence depends on the ship and technology level, of course.

Indeed its quite true to consider many starships to be 'steeds' or 'mounts' rather than actual vehicles, with all the implications of maintenance and care thereof.

Page 235

Castellan Lepidus had earned his role in command of the Bastion Inviolate with several episodes of intense violence levelled against the Chapter’s foes. His armour was in the form of a fortress, the ceramite collar worked into ornate battlements and his greaves buttressed like foundations. It was hung with trophies of the enemies whose lives he had taken – ears from a greenskin warlord, delicate wraithbone trinkets from a farseer of the eldar, teeth and vertebrae from a host of malformed aliens.

apparnetly the 'castellan' getup we saw in Phalanx seems to be some sort of official regalia for 'Castellans', although not all take it to the degree Phalanx's did.

Page 235-236

Deep in the heart of the star fort, infernally hot and lit by the winking green lights that studded the menhirs of black datamedium, Techmarine Korgon waited for the machine-spirit of the Bastion Inviolate to unfurl. The intelligence was encoded in the millions of sheets of datamedium, untold trillions of calculations in every fraction of a second weaving together to create a sentience as old as the Imperium. Forged in the age before the Emperor had united humanity, the Bastion Inviolate had accumulated more battle-wisdom than a whole Chapter of Space Marines could boast.

From a well lined with black crystal a swarm of flickering motes rose, glowing blue and green. They coalesced into a shape that could have represented something alive, perhaps a serpent squirming in knots or a colony of polyps. Or it could have been an expression of something mathematical, a fractal constantly splitting and turning in on itself.
...
Its synthesised voice filled the datacore of the Bastion Inviolate. The spirit was known to be curt and crude, constantly angry about something.
...
"Filth-licking dogs!" spat the machine-spirit. "Would that I had hands to wring their necks! Would that I had bowels that I might void them on their corpses!"

The machine spirit of the Bastion Inviolate. Clearly the star fort's intelligence is capable of conversation, has a (coarse yet amusing - there are a good many insults it hurls) personality, and is wholly (or nearly so) artificial in nature. Which is interesting consideirng the whole 'no AI' thing the Imperium is supposed to uphold. I gather they (and the AdMech) have a very flexible definition of 'AI' (EG anything not made by or controlled by the Imperium, specifically the AdMech.) Hell for all we know the fact the Imperium DOES use AI's is not common knowledge - hlel we could always invoke the whole 'ignorance' angle if need be

Also note some hints at capabilities.. trillions of calcs in a fraction of a second, millions of 'datamedium' (EG crystal shit) sheets, and 10K years of knowledge. and lots of Fractals.

Page 236

"The Ferrous Malice is a Castigation-class grand cruiser"
...
"My wisdom?" snapped the machine-spirit. "Wisdom counts for nothing against such a foe! No, it is hatred that will count! Rage! They stew in their filth and imagine our heads on spikes. But I’ll split their hull open with my lance fire and turn them into frozen mist! My servitors will string their entrails on my battlements! Whatever foetid data festers in their systems, I’ll delete it zero by one and scrape that ship bare! Long ago the Ferrous Malice opened its machine-spirit up to traitors and daemons! Whatever’s left, I’ll kill. You’ll be lucky if there are any Iron Warriors left on whom to practise your aim."

More of the Bastion's delightful personality, as well as the classificaiton of the Iron Warriors starships. Also note it can control servitors..

Page 237-238

"I can taste them. I can smell their filth! Filling the radio spectrum with their ordure! Flooding the data network with seething rot! Techmarine, this is no physical assault! I am… I am besieged!"
...
"Witchcraft!" spat the machine-spirit. "Daemon-magic! Flee this place, Techmarine! Flee! These rancid frag-holes, these rot-belching vermin, they have undone me! Ten thousand years, an entire age of Imperium, and now by these cowards I am undone!"
...
The whole datacore shook. Shards of black crystal fell as the stacks of datamedium fractured.
...
The daemon-coils snagged around his feet and arms but he broke them, breaking into a run as he headed for the exit that would take him into the maintenance sections of the Bastion Inviolate. A hand half composed of greenish light and half seething darkness grabbed the dataprobe on the end of the Techmarine’s servo-arm and wrenched it towards one of the datamedium stacks. The probe stabbed into the black crystal and the servo-arm glowed bright as a torrent of data stormed through it.
...
"Techmarine!" yelled the machine-spirit. "My brother!"

The Machine spirit gets.. I dunno. Possessed, magically hacked, whatever. Its not exactly scrap code but more of a data-demon virus thingy. Chaos hacking at its finest, and echoes the shit that happenes in 'Dark Adeptus' really with the Castigation Titan.
Also the Machine Spirit was able to emote and form bonds.

Page 241

The tactical orrery, clad in brass and inscribed with the cogs and stylised enginework of the Adeptus Mechanicus, shuddered as the Siege tore through the veil between the warp and reality. For a split-second the architecture of the orrery shifted; impossible angles ghosted across its architecture as reality protested at the intrusion. Then the moment was over and the Siege was back in reality.

The holo-display winked out and was replaced, the ship’s immediate vicinity being picked out in light. The Endeavour of Will was surrounded by flickering icons representing its small garrison of Imperial Fists. A star a handful of light hours away, with dead moonlets and a band of asteroids. Long-defunct explorator platforms.

There was no Bastion Inviolate.

Return to realspace jump. a 'few light hours away'. about 2.16 to 3.25 billion km away. Presumably this is the closest they can emerge in proximity to the Eye of Terror.

Also explorator platforms, but no Fist.

Page 241

Daemon virus, the last message had said. In the arcane code of the astropath, it had flickered across from one star fort to the other at the speed of thought. Witchcraft. Moral threat. We are undone

Like I said, Daemon hacking.

Page 242

Hestion pulled himself through a hatch into a vast, cold vault. The arched ceiling high above was obscured with freezing mist, and the polished metal of the walls was caked in ice. The vault housed a roughly spherical mass of archeotech, a biomechanical mass woven together from dozens of human forms, swathed in cabling and steel casings. The machine-spirit of the Endeavour of Will was housed here, the rhythms of a hundred human bodies regulating its functions and a hundred human brains containing the architecture of its mind. Just as the servitors that maintained the star fort’s systems were built around the bodies of deceased crew, so this machine was composed of the bodies of the various tech-adepts and magi who had maintained it over the millennia. Their final honour had been to join the machine-spirit, their own minds mingled with it, their own wisdom added to the vast knowledge fillings its memory banks.

Machine Spirit of the Endeavour of Will. Unlike the Bastion, it is more heavily organic like we learn to expect from imperial 'machine spirits' and is a gestalt of different personalities and beings. One presumes that as older 'components' wear out, the bodies of new techpriests are added to the gestalt to replace them.

It is of similar age to the Bastion despite being more organic, and presumably has similar levle of capabilities (which isn't impossible - from many novels like Hammer and Anvil and many of the Admech-oriented novels we know implants can operate at nano second or faster scales.)

Overall it reflects the different approachs and variation in technology (even the same broad tech base, like machine spirit computers) the Imperium can and will take.

Note there is a third type, which is a bit of a hybrid between the two, seen with robots and such in the HH novels. They basically duplicate organic brains, cogitation functions, etc. in quasi-organic or inorganic materials rather than using just meat.

Page 242'

"The last communication from the Bastion Inviolate spoke of witchcraft. Of a tech-virus, born of daemon magic."
"Then the Bastion is lost," said the Endeavour of Will. "I felt an emptiness in the realm of information, and I feared my friend was gone. For ten thousand years we have been brothers, forged in the same age, fighting alongside one another in the age that followed. So does time rob us even of that which cannot die."

The Endeavour has a personality like the Bastion, although not quite as abrasive. Likewise it is capable of forming bonds and expressing emotion. And again Bastion is lost to 'daemon virus'.

PAge 243-245

Hestion took one of the thickest books and his servo-arm unfolded down over his shoulder, the manipulator at its tip unlocking the clasp holding the book’s cover closed. Hestion flipped rapidly through the pages and found the ritual he was looking for.

The pages were covered in blocks of zeroes and ones, separated by complicated algebra. Hestion ran his finger down the page, the bionics behind his eyes whirring as they parsed the phrases of machine-code and sent them to the logic circuits in the back of his skull.

"Omnissiah," read Hestion. "You whose knowledge builds a fortress of understanding in the realm of information. You whose domain is everything forged and wrought. The dark powers look upon your servant with jealousy. Protect him and snatch his sacred knowledge back from the jaws of sin."

The mouths of the many bodies opened. The machine-spirit inside coordinated their vocal cords to create a harmony of machine-code, a white noise of clicking and buzzing that echoed Hestion’s words in a language that an unaltered human mind could not comprehend
..
Hestion’s servo-arm reconfigured and seared a complicated pentagrammic symbol on the floor of the vault with a cutting laser. The steel of the floor seethed and bubbled around it, and not just with heat.

The shadows were darkening. The bodies of the machine-spirit’s casing were ageing rapidly, skin turning grey and flaking away, muscle and organ sinking into skeletal hollows. Faces decayed into bare teeth and black eye sockets.
"Omnissiah, grant us your aid!" shouted Hestion. "Delete not this ancient soul! Permit not this corruption!"

Crackles of red lightning played across the high ceiling forming blood-coloured fingers along the columns and walls. Distant voices chanted and gabbled, competing with Hestion’s lone voice. One section of the wall bowed in and split, becoming the lids of a huge bloodshot eye that rolled madly. Hestion yelled and threw a handful of pure carbon into the circle, and the eye withdrew.
....
Hestion looked around him. Corruption was flooding through the vault. Eyes were opening above him. The circle, the focus for his ritual, was distorting, new symbols appearing among the sigils of protection and warding.

Yeah its that whole 'religious' thing to protect against the evil daemon hacking virus. We can laugh at it because on one level it is silly, that whole 'technology treated like religion/magic' thing the AdMech have always been part of. And yet that's not the whole story, because there is a serious side to it. We know that daemons and chaos can warp/mutate/corrupt things, both organic and inorganic. Look at scrapcode, or the obliterator virus. fuck, look at what happened to the Bastion in this very same story. The idea that oyu need 'spiritual' protection as well as tangible against a myraid of Chaos 'tech' attacks has a very tangible, real basis, and in that context all the 'omnissiah' rituals and crap can take on a legitimate importance as well. Hell, as we can see it actually DOES work - such is the way of the Warp.

Page 245

It was a grand cruiser, its shape well-known by the tactical histories accessed from the valley of datamedium in which the machine-spirit kept its immense reserves of knowledge.
...
"Flee!" said Hestion. "Move your spirit to your datamedium vault! Abandon this place!"

"I cannot," replied the Endeavour of Will, synthesised voice distorted. "It will follow me. There all my knowledge is vulnerable."
"They will not follow you," said Hestion. "I swear. I cannot hold it back here. I will not lose you. Flee, Endeavour of Will! Let this fight be mine!"
"Then Emperor’s speed upon you, Techmarine," said the Endeavour of Will. "What you have done for me will never be deleted."

The Machine spirit can apparently abandon its organic component and reside entirely in its inroganic one, although this reduces its capabilities greatly (it loses control over much of the Fort.)

Page 248-249

Its lack of apparent mobility was irrelevant given its role – its shadow form, the shape it took when shifted into the realm of information, was the form it used to do all its damage. It was the techno-virus that had destroyed the Bastion Inviolate, just as it was the insectoid horror that lurked inside the Ferrous Malice like a parasite in a hollowed-out organ.

Data daemon/techno virus. sounds like its something similar to the Obliterator thing.

Page 249

"But… to me was promised the spirit of the star forts!" Velthinar’s voice, issued from several sets of mouthparts, sounded like several chittering, sibilant voices clamouring at once.
"And you promised that you would cripple their machine-spirits and deliver them to us!" snapped Shon’tu. Velthinar’s flesh rippled as it recoiled a little. "You will devour the Bastion Inviolate. That you have earned. But you did not deliver on your side of the bargain where the Endeavour of Will is concerned. The Iron Warriors will do with that star fort as we wish."

Like in 'Dark Adeptus' we learn that inorganic as well as organic 'machine spirits' can have souls/presences in the warp that can be corrupted. Or like the Iron Men from First and Only, really.

Page 252

In its tactical orrery, Chrystis and the ship’s battle-cartographers used holographic void-maps and rulers and compasses alike to build up an arsenal of manoeuvres the Siege could execute depending on the actions of their enemy. On the Ferrous Malice far less natural things, crewmen possessed with daemons of cunning and corrupted machine-spirits, were doing the same.
Naval battle proceeded at its own pace, as if time meant something different when it came to ship-to-ship murder in the void. Torpedoes and broadside shells proceeded not at the speed of gunfire, but lazily, spiralling through space to intersect with the likely locations of the enemy. It was war in which geometry and helmsmanship counted for more than aggression and fearlessness, cold-blooded and removed compared to the thunder of face-to-face battle.

Space Battles, ben Counter style.

Page 253

The Ferrous Malice was the larger ship, a grand cruiser of a design long forgotten by the shipyards of the Imperial Navy, and it sported more firepower covering every angle of attack. But the Siege of Malebruk was a Space Marine strike cruiser, with far greater agility and a quick-witted machine-spirit that calculated thousands of attack solutions every moment at the same time as fending off the virus attacks from the mind of Velthinar Silverspine. The two spiralled around one another, the Chaos vessel in one moment seeming lumbering and slow, and in the next making the strike cruiser seem massively outgunned and outclassed.

Strike cruiser vs grand cruiser, in armament and mobility. Also note that the Machine Spirit of the strike cruiser is capable of 'thousands' of attack solutions a moment (which I preusme means it makes multiple calculations per attack solution each moment.) and it does this with only part of its awareness (defending itself against data daemon infiltration.) Indeed it illustrats my earlier points about the 'AI' angle of the Imperium - starships ar emore self aware and are important to the functioning of ships (which corroborates the Rogue Trader RPG stuff.) and the crews are largely their for support and maintenance or to provide guidance. Again more like a 'steed in that respect than a vehicle.

Page 253

In a plume of purple black flame, alchemical rockets flared along the spine of the Ferrous Malice and slowed it down suddenly, twisting it into a reverse manoeuvre far beyond any Imperial-built ships of its size. At the same time its prow split open, revealing folds and tendons of vulnerable muscle, already torn and bleeding from the opening fire. From this biomechanical mass emerged the snout of a nova cannon. Few Imperial shipyards could forge such a weapon now, and none knew the secrets of creating the nuclear flame that now flared around the barrel as the weapon charged.

Alchemical rockets giving extra speed (via magic probably) and nova cannon. Again like the hellforged Nova cannon its a weird one, apparently more beam weapon than projectile weapon. And naturally its 'super rare' technology, despite shit-tons of starships having them. What's interesting is the implication of an 'obliterator-virus' like generation for the weapon. which is not really surprising except in scale of application.

Page 253

The crew of the Siege of Malebruk responded to this unexpected change in the battlefield by turning every effort towards evasion. The machine-spirit charted a crazed, jinking path that wrapped itself around the Ferrous Malice, too far for defensive turrets to open up against the strike cruiser but too close for the nova cannon to be brought to bear.

Machine spirit assists in gunnery as well as navigation.. it apparently creates strategies or counters, and the crew responds or excutes it.

Page 254

The Ferrous Malice had no machine-spirit. In place of an artificial intelligence roosted a host of data-daemons, insubstantial warp creatures that flocked to serve their master, Velthinar. They squabbled and fought faster than the speed of thought and, through the sheer bedlam that went through their inhuman minds, wove battle plans that no enemy could predict. Their pronouncements were passed on to the crew and the strange unwholesome creatures that writhed through the oil sumps of the engine decks. The insane command structure of the ship, with the Iron Warriors overseeing multiple castes of mind-slaves, possessees, daemons and mutants, should never have permitted anything so complicated as a warship to function – but the Ferrous Malice was a construct of Chaos, transformed into a voidbound asylum by millennia in the warp, and by some incomprehensible process all the madness produced a ship that could think and act faster than should have been possible for its size.

Chaos analogue to 'Machine spirits'. Note that the Machine Spirit is also treated as analogous to an AI

Page 254

Then the hull peeled away of its own accord. Coils of muscle unravelled, whipping across the closing gap between the two ships and wrapping around the extremities of the Siege of Malebruk. The tentacles reeled in the strike cruiser, even as armoured beaks, like the mouthparts of some sea-dwelling kraken, emerged from the ruination of torn flesh and metal inside the Ferrous Malice.
..
The machine-spirit of the Siege of Malebruk had not factored in this turn of events. The ship had nothing to fight off the grand cruiser’s predations. Up close it had its defensive turret fire, which was designed to shoot down approaching torpedoes and bombers, and would have scarcely any impact on the mass of the Ferrous Malice. It had the option to board, but aside from the few spare crewmen it could arm it had only the single command squad who had accompanied Captain Lysander to the star fort. The Ferrous Malice, meanwhile, was guaranteed to be brimming with mutants, psychopaths and worse.

The Malice takes a page out of the Tyranid approach to starship combat. Also again, the Machine spirit contributes in plotting tactics against the opposing ship.

[Connor MacLeod]

And.. Part 2

Page 262

Each Obliterator had once been an Iron Warrior, just like Shon’tu or Mhul himself. But the fates had seen fit to infect them with a warp-born tech-virus that had melded their flesh and armour into one, and turned them into machines of Chaos.
The Obliterators were twice the size of a Space Marine, and crashed through the statuary towards the high ground of the sarcophagus. Their limbs, wrapped in clubbing masses of muscle, opened up into dozens of orifices from which emerged gun barrels and chainblades. Each one was a walking arsenal, containing within him the firepower of a whole squad of Space Marines.
...
Lysander knew of the Obliterators – he had fought them – and he knew well how deadly they could be. There was nothing in the Imperial Fists’ armoury that could kill as swiftly, man for man, as those infected by the tech-virus.

Obliterators. Note their size, and capabilities, as well as the method of creation - as I said 'tech virus' seems to cover daemon hacking as well as the more physical mutating types.

Page 269-271

Shon’tu could see, through the billowing dust and smoke, the side of the sarcophagus blasted open. The grinning skull of Ionis, resting on a bed of golden silks now tattered and blackened, rolled onto its side as if fixing Shon’tu with its eye sockets. Super-cooled air misted and rolled from the ruptured sarcophagus.
One of the Choir was loping through the ruins, falling behind his fellow possessed. He slipped to one knee, faceplate breaking open into a tangle of gnarled mandibles like a fist opening and closing. The possessed’s body convulsed and a yawning mouth opened up in its chest, a fat purple tongue lolling out and coughing out stringy red gore.
The Iron Warrior’s joints were eroding, some corrosive substance finding purchase in the joints of the armour. One of his arms fell off, crumbling bone and flaking muscle pouring from the exposed socket. The ceramite was becoming pitted and discoloured, the exposed flesh drying and flaking off as if ageing centuries in a few moments. The possessed toppled to the ground and came apart, armour cracking like dropped pottery.
"Virus attack!"
...
One of the Obliterators had been caught in the invisible tide. The virus leaking from the ruptured sarcophagus had infected the thick bands of muscle wrapping around its deformed armour. The muscles contracted, the armour plates warping and splitting under the pressure, spiny growths bursting from exposed flesh. Malformed gun barrels cycled, lumps of fused ammunition thunking to the floor. The Obliterator’s face burst into a clutch of eyeballs, each one swelling and bursting to dribble red-white gore down the torn armour. It took a long few moments to die, its body deforming until it was turned almost completely inside out, metallic organs split into fans of bloody steel and loops of articulated entrails clattering around its feet.
The warning systems built into Shon’tu’s cranial augmentations were sending pulses of alert hormones through him, and setting off microscopic klaxons and strobes in his ears and eyes. Every bio-alert was going off, his armour detecting the presence of pathogens, his augmetic organs fending off the voracious strains of virus which mutated into new forms with every moment.
Shon’tu made it to the rear of the tomb. Twin blast doors had descended, cutting off the Tomb of Ionis and turning it into a biological containment zone. Shon’tu ripped through the first door with his power claw, punching through the front and ripping the door off its mountings. The second lasted no longer, and he was through, the cavernous outer hull voids reaching ahead of him. Steelwatcher Mhul and the remaining possessed had made it through too, and Shon’tu could feel the impacts of the Obliterators stomping behind him.
The virus incubated in Ionis’s ancient corpse was voracious enough to kill a Space Marine, but not a warsmith of the Iron Warriors. Most of the Iron Warriors of Shon’tu’s own unit, veterans with multiple augmetics and enhanced physiologies, had also made it, their altered immune systems rapidly adapting to the virus’s assaults. Most of the possessed were gone, left behind among the ruined statuary to writhe and deform as they died.
Shon’tu cast a glance back towards the Tomb of Ionis, now a smoking ruin blanketed in an invisible layer of bio-predator

Imperial Fists have a nice trap ready, from a virus bomb. Nasty biowarfare effects.

Page 272

"Ionis had lain here for thousands of years," said Vaynce. "So few knew what his sarcophagus really contained. A stroke of cunning, do you not think? To contain a sample of such a dangerous bio-predator within the body of the last man it killed, and disguise it as his resting place? How many men and women who served here knew it was beneath their feet? I would imagine it was sealed there so it could be recovered and employed as a weapon by the Imperial Fists. Perhaps that purpose was forgotten. In any case, it will not be fulfilled now."
"Ionis decreed with his last breaths that he be used as such a weapon," replied Lysander.
"Some would call it a violation," said Vaynce, "of the venerated dead."
"Then let them say it," said Lysander. "I have answers for them."

It was a deliberate trap. And gott alove Lysander

Page 273-275

He took a book from beneath the pile of parchment in front of him and opened it. Its pages were crammed with symbols, some pictures of animals or objects, others completely abstract. Each had a meaning that changed with its proximity to other symbols, forming an infinitely complicated language of symbols that those strange, blessed individuals known as astropaths had to master before they could serve the Imperium. Vaynce ran his fingers along the page, reading the symbols through the feel of the ink on the paper.
..
Captain Lysander dictated his message to Astropath Vaynce. He kept it succinct, leaving out all but that which was necessary, knowing that an astropath’s art became more difficult, the message more prone to mistranslation at the other end, the longer it was.
Vaynce did not flinch as he heard it. One hand flicked through the book with a speed born of decades of practice, the other scratching down symbols on a strip of parchment that unrolled from a tiny motorised reel. He used a quill and reddish ink.
When Lysander was done, Vaynce lit a stick of incense and took a fingertip of ash, smearing it in a circular symbol onto the floor in front of him. He spat into the circle, mumbled a prayer, and wiped off the ash and spittle with his sleeve. The ritual done with, he rolled up the parchment into a tight tube and sealed it with a blob of wax and the ring that hung on a chain around his neck.
...
Lysander told him the identity of the recipient. Vaynce scrawled a corresponding symbol on the outside of the rolled parchment, then climbed unsteadily to his feet. He tottered over to one of the bird cages, opened the door, and took out a bird with blue and red plumage that glittered under the light of the belfry’s glow-globes. The bird sat calmly on Vaynce’s finger, tiny black eyes flitting from Lysander to the astropath, making no effort to fly away.
"We all have our ways," said Vaynce. "Every one of us is different. Some make sculptures, some paint pictures. Some even make music. But in the end we are the same. Whatever we create, we must destroy."
...
"It is the trauma of destruction," said Vaynce, "that gives it form in the warp. To see our creations die gives us the focus to do what we must."
A grid of needle-thin lasers glittered into existence, strung between the bells like a driftnet. The tiny bird flew through the grid and disappeared in a flash of flame.
Vaynce closed his eyes. The embroidery around his eyes glowed and the empty sockets smouldered beneath them. Flickers of blue-white power played around Vaynce’s skull, earthing through his fingers to the belfry floor.
Lysander, though he possessed no psychic ability, could feel the fabric of reality shifting, as if a wrinkle was being pulled out or the galaxy had moved along some infinitely distant fault line.
Vaynce coughed and his shoulders slumped. Smoke coiled off him.
"It is done," he said.
"Was it received?"
"Impossible to tell," replied Vaynce. "It would be futile, I believe, to expect a confirmation, given the recipient."

A rather.. interesting take on astrotelepathy. Not that I'm saying it doesn't have some truth, I just don't think its nearly that absolute because we have lots of examples from authors who don't involve the 'destruction' aspect. I'd say that for some kinds of messages (or across certain distances) the sacrificial/ritualistic aspect can contribute to the sending of messages - sacrifice as a means of boosting power is well established in 40K after all, this is just a variation of that.

Also we get confirmation that length/duration/compelxity of a message can affect the reliability/accuracy of transmissions. And the whole 'symbolic' side - whether that is part of the process (like in McNeill books) or whether its some sort of code/cipher we don't know.

Also there seems to be the implication of a very short propogation rate, if Lysander could have expected a message receipt whilst still standing there.. seconds or minutes, tops. Even over fairly short distances (a few LY) we are probably talking hundreds of thousands, and more probably millions of c at least.

Also it just has one of those weird.. 40Kish ways things can be done... its just.. weird. That has that going for it

PAge 275
[qutoe]Lysander levelled his storm bolter at the back of Vaynce’s head. The selector was set to single shot – even so, it would be massive overkill.
...
The report of the storm bolter shot echoed around the belfry, ringing off the bells overhead. Vaynce’s headless body slumped onto its front, the astropath’s skull vaporised by the bolter shell’s detonation.[/quote]
Single storm bolt round 'vaporizses' astropath's head.

Page 275

"If there was another way," he said, "I would take it."
"I have always known that it would end this way," replied Vaynce, his voice unwavering. "Some of us can see… echoes, of what might be. I saw this place many times before I was assigned to this star fort. I knew that I would die here. Whatever form our duty takes, we must welcome it, must we not? We must give thanks that we know what must be done."

Lysander showing he's not a total asshole, as well as astropathic foretelling.. at least in hints.

Page 284

The Dancers at the Precipice did not perceive reality at all. Existing partially in the warp, their senses strained to reach across the veil to real space. It was the warp’s reflection they saw, the emotional echoes of structures in reality. The corridors and hangars of the Endeavour of Will were seen in the shades of old emotions left there. All areas of the star fort were veneered in a thin layer of fear, as suffered by the unaugmented crew in times of battle. Pain was scattered, like blood spatter, around old battle damage scars, and it pooled in glowing stains around triage stations and the way leading to the apothecarion.
Arrogance and a sense of iron-bound duty glowed around the command areas where the Imperial Fists were most often found, details picked out in anger and flavoured with the lust for battle secretly held by so many Space Marines, and acknowledged by only a few. The airlocks, where the dead were traditionally sent on their final voyage, were steeped in sorrow and regret. Trace elements of happiness, even pinpoints of ecstasy in hidden secret places among the star fort’s architecture, were swamped by the grim emotions of war, those stains that lasted the longest and brought out every passageway and compartment as the Dancers scampered through them.

Daemon senses. makes me think Astrotelepathic senses work that way too.

Page 289

Cultists among the shipping lanes of the Imperium diverted passenger liners and pilgrim hulks into the dead, uninhabited space around Malodrax.

Passenger liners and pilgrim vessels.

Page 300-301

One of the Obliterators took a step back and reeled as if struck. His face split open and cycled through various calibres of gun barrels, melding from one to the other from the flesh and steel inside its skull. Finally something other than a weapon emerged – a nest of tendrils, fleshy and red, that probed in front of them accompanied by a wet hissing sound. The tendrils found the crystalline datamedium and wrapped around it, slithering across its surface to find a way in.

The Obliterators were created when an Iron Warrior, already as much machine as Space Marine, became host to a tech-virus. The virus itself had its origin in the warp. Perhaps it was a gift from one of the dark gods that reigned there, or was a curse on the Traitor Legions. Perhaps it was a natural predator (as natural as anything could be in the warp), or it was a daemon itself, one that existed entirely in information form. Whatever its reason for being, it took the substance of a Space Marine and turned it into a biomechanical weapon, every muscle and bone adapted to form part of the hundreds of weapon systems an
Obliterator could form from his mutating body. And the tech-virus had another property even more dangerous than its capacity to turn flesh into a weapon. It was infectious, and could be transmitted.

The tendrils wormed their way under the surface of the datamedium. The crystal became blotchy and discoloured as the virus found a new place to live and thrive, forming mottled blooms like bacteria on a Petri dish.

The air was filled with the sound of grinding metal as the whole defence laser shuddered. It rotated in its mountings, the building-sized laser barrel turning towards the main structure of the Endeavour of Will. Flakes of rust fell like a dark rain around Steelwatcher Mhul, and loose components clattered to the deck around him. The Obliterators extracted themselves from the tangle of metal as it churned with the movement. The one who had infected the gun stumbled out of the wreckage as its face reformed into the scowl it always carried, one eye narrow and hateful, the other replaced with a gun barrel.

Obliterator infection and the nature of the technov irus.

Page 302-303

Behind Shon’tu’s position the titanic defence laser was powering up, the energy coils along its length glowing at first a dull burnt orange, then blue, then white, as enormous amounts of power were pooled. The barrel completed its traverse to point straight at the centre of the star fort. Safety circuits that would normally prevent the laser from being aimed at the star fort itself had been burned out by the Obliterator virus, while the control circuits destroyed by the initial attack on the machine-spirit had been repaired.
...
The laser fired, and it seemed that the void itself was torn open, a gash through reality that opened up to an ocean of burning light. The augmetic vision of the Iron Warriors kept them from being blinded. The heat and magnetic shielding of the star fort’s structure kept them from being incinerated and irradiated. For that split second, a lance of energy hotter than a star transfixed the star fort like an arrow through the heart.
When the glare died, the star fort was laid open, a massive wound revealing the tangled steel entrails surrounding the machine-spirit core and the command decks.

Defence laser fires on the station.

Page 307-308

The stacks themselves formed rows of columns reaching up to the ceiling, like the pipes of an infernally complicated pipe organ taking up the entirety of the huge chamber. The stacks of black crystal were banded with gold and brass, and thick bundles of cables hung down between them like the viny foliage of a jungle. Freezing mist clung to the floor, generated by the coolant flowing through the pipes that criss-crossed the floor, and the air was as chill.
In those stacks of black crystal cylinders resided vast amounts of information, more than a planet’s worth of human minds could contain: all the memories, wisdom and personality that made up the machine-spirit of the Endeavour of Will.

A planet's worth could technically mean as few as a thousand to billions/trillions of people. According to this a single human brain could potentially store 2.5 petabytes of info. So we could be talking anywhere from thousands of petabytes to billions/trillions.
While context doens't actually indicate such, if we were talking about general performance (rpocessing and other performance, this might be useful for comparison.

Page 312-313

Lysander gave the order, a thought that triggered a sequence of commands in the machine-spirit. They in turn triggered more, the effect spreading out like ripples in a pond or the multiplication of an epidemic. Torrents of information were retrieved and released, centuries of battle-lore, millions of hours of battleground data, endless waterfalls of stellar cartography, earthquakes of raw mathematics coursing through every remaining stack of datamedium.

Another indicator of the Endeavour of Will's memory capacity. Assuming an 'hour' of storage was around one TV show (which could be at least a few hundred MB worth for good wuality, within an order of magnitude) we're taling hundreds of millions, even billions of megabytes of visual data at least.

Page 316-317

Lysander and his squad heard Shon’tu’s words as they pursued the Iron Warriors through the arterial corridor leading towards the defence spur.
...
"Warsmith!" yelled Lysander in reply. "I hear only the words of one fleeing for his life! I hear the squeals of a coward! Stand forward and face me, as you were so eager to a few moments ago! Or do the Iron Warriors do all their fighting with words?"
...
"See, Lysander!" yelled Shon’tu. "See the herald of your deaths! Every move you made, I had a counter! For every thrust, I had a feint! Our victory was decided before the first shot was fired, Imperial Fist!"
...
"And I know what you took from there, too. What you still carry. It is what drives you to kill me, Lysander. It will be the death of every battle-brother who ever stands at your side And it will not let you go until you have killed everything you fight for!"
"II didn’t fight you here to defeat you," said Lysander as the jaw ground closed. "I fought you here to bring out Velthinar."
The faintest trace of confusion passed over Shon’tu’s face. Then the Dreadclaw was closed and in a hiss of steam the clamps holding it in place disengaged.

Nice to know Honsou isn't alone amongst the Iron Warriors when it comes to pompous statements, pyrrhic 'victory', exaggerated sense of importance and ability, and generally fucking things up for the Legion. Oh and the ability to run away fast.

Page 319

"My god will shred your soul!" spat the daemon.
"I have no soul," came the reply. "I was a machine. Now I am a disease. You did this to me."
"Serve Him!" countered Velthinar. "Untold power will be yours!"

The Bastion doesn't seem to think he has a soul, although the daemon believes otherwise.

Page 321

"The loss of a billion minds’ worth of battle-lore."

Not sure if this refers to the losses of the Endeavour or the Bastion, but the difference may be minor since sits implied their capacity wsa similar ('a planet's worth of minds', remember.) This would be about a billion petabytes capacity.

Page 327-328

Two hundred and thirty million people had died here. He blink-clicked away the questing runes; this world was dead, and it had died at its protector’s hand.
It was called Kataris, an agri-world of processing cities and endless plains of crops, ripening under a bright sun. It had died in less time than it took that sun to circle the sky.
...
And a single word of execution had answered that message: Exterminatus. The death sentence of a world and all who lived on it. Kataris had pleaded for aid and been answered by death falling from the tortured sky. For a moment the wide plains of ruin had been still, the sound of thunder settling with the dust. Then the inferno came, rushing across the world from horizon to horizon, consuming the tainted air in a roar like the war-cries shouted at the end of time.
..
They had arrived many days after the ships of the Inquisition execution force had departed.

Exterminatus of Kataris, 12 hour timeframe, reduced everything to ashes (high termperature sterilization/global firestorms, from multiple Inquisitional ships. Method isn't known either. Even assuming 100 ships over the 12 hour timeframe an average firepower of 200-250 MT/s would result, although again that depends on the exact means.

Page 329

The world he stood on was only the latest to be subject to a daemonic incursion. World after world had fallen in this crescent of stars that edged the Eye of Terror. Thousands of millions had died as the Inquisition attempted to contain the incursion.

The story takes place aorund the time of the 13th Black Crusade.

Page 331

The Aethon was a battle-barge, a vessel for making war amongst the stars. It could carry three hundred Adeptus Astartes, their vehicles and tools of war. When it had left Sabatine it had been close to its full strength, but three decades of war in the margins of the Eye of Terror had demanded its price.
..
Silence filled the ship, its crew reduced to servitors, and its systems to the bare essentials necessary to serve the remaining White Consuls.

Battle barge scope. Apparently the entire ship can be run on servitors.

Page 332

"We are White Consuls, Primogenitors of Guilliman. We shepherd and guard mankind. That is what we were created for. That is our duty to our Chapter."

Nice to know the White consul ideals from Dark Creed are still in force.

Page 333

The Aethon cut towards the bronze-hulled space station, its auspex nodes filling the void around it with overlapping folds of sensor fields. It was over eight kilometres long, a blunt barb of off-white armour and macro weaponry folded in crackling void shields.

Size of the Battle BArge

Page 333

Claros station looked a great wheel turning in starlight. Its armour gleamed as if forged from polished bronze. Five wings extended spoke-like from the station’s central hub, each resembling the transept of a cathedral and over two kilometres long. Buttresses and towers tangled the station’s surface, light glinting from the faces of vast statues that gazed out on the void with blank eyes. At its centre a tower extended above the central hub, its domed tip a mass of antennae masts. A thick collar of stone ringed the base of the tower, its surface blistered with shield generators and gargoyles the size of hab blocks.

an Astropathic relay 'fortress' or station. 2 km long wings.

Page 334

He was a haruspex, trained in his Chapter’s tradition as a diviner of meaning in visions and omens. To an oracle there was no such thing as blind chance. The arrival of the signal and his vision were linked. Fate was pulling him to this place, he was sure.

Haruspex defined.

Page 335

"Hail in the name of the Emperor." The man’s voice trembled in the cold air. Behind the man the kneeling ranks echoed the words.
Cyrus bowed his head briefly; he disliked such moments. To most people of the Imperium the Space Marines were a breed apart: terrifying beings of protection and destruction made at the dawn of history by an Emperor they called a god. Such crawling deference was to be expected, but to Cyrus it ignored the reason for his existence: to protect these people and the realm of which they were a part.

This alone guarantees I like Cyrus.

Page 336

She was a primaris psyker, a battle psyker and occult savant who might be his equal or superior in power.

Primaris Psykers are equal to (or greater) in power compared to Librarians.

PAge 338

Astropaths often possessed psychic senses that allowed them to see the world through a veil of telepathic resonance. But if it were not for his empty eye sockets, Cyrus would have said that the old man could see perfectly.

Astrpathic sight.

Page 339

"Librarians are versed in the basics of astropathic transmission; had you not considered the possibility of temporal distortion?"
...
Astropathic messages passed through the warp, and were subject to that realm’s inconsistent flow of time. A message might arrive millennia after it was sent, or be broken into incomprehensible pieces, or even arrive before it was sent. The message might be a plea from a future waiting just beyond the horizon of the present.

Astropathic time dilation problems. Also Librairans learn the 'basics' of Astrotelepathic transmission. That suggests while they know something of the art, they might not be as skilled at it as an Astropath is. Generalist vs speicalist, in other words.

Page 340

"This is a relay station: a hundred of my kind sifting the void for messages, absorbing them and echoing them on far beyond the reach of the original sender. We do not hear the messages that pass through us, any more than a pipe drinks the water that passes through it"
...
"No, I am simply concerned with the flow of messages, not their content. If anyone knows it will be Hekate. She must have thought it unnecessary to tell me. She is our chief watchdog, our “Savant Immaterium”. An honourable position, though she loathes the fact that a primaris must sit here and look after us less gifted souls."

The purpose of the astropathic relay. Interesting that they can send messages without knowing the contents, I wonder if that has something to dow ith the compertmentalization and selective erasure of some astropathic minds. Or it oculd jsut be certain kinds of astropaths specialized for relay.
Also a single Primaris Psyker to ride herd on all the astropaths.

Page 340-341

In his old regiment he had been a platoon officer, though after a few decades he had known that he would never rise any higher. One day the regiment had been shipped to the Cadian Gate. He had been in transit from a garrison duty on a backwater mining world and missed the redeployment. There was nowhere for him to go, so they had sent him to join the Helicon Guard.
The Helicon Guard was a regiment of veterans pulled together from units that had suffered such high casualties that they were no longer viable as a combat force. Recruits took its ochre and red fatigues and bronze battle armour when they joined, casting off their former allegiances. Most were from regiments raised in systems around the Eye: hard people from hives or population sinks on worlds where you could look up and see the Eye glaring back out of the night sky.

Helican Guard, the garrison of the relay station. I assume the intent bethind the Helican guard is that of 'amalgamated' regiments, where two (or more) depleted regiments are combined to form a new regiment. The main difference here is that this seems to be treated as something of a formal organization rather than an ad-hoc arrangement (the way, for example, the Cain Valhallan regiments were amalgamated, or the way the Ghosts were after Necropolis and His Last Command.)

Further reinforcing the idea is that they not only have a name, but also wear the same uniform. I wonder if its just bronze faced, or actually made of bronze.

Page 342

They turned into a wide passage which ran around the inside of the kilometre-wide central hub of the station. Walls of verdigris bronze arched up to a central spine hung with glow-globes clasped in eagle claw fittings. This was the largest and greatest of the central passages. Any part of the station could be reached from its circle.

2 km wings, plus 1 km central station. This means its approximate diameter is 4-5 km across.

Page 344

Administratum Ciphers hurried past, muttering mnemonic rhyme as they carried information from one part of the station to another. Hooded adepts talked in small groups, their mouths hidden by wide grey hoods. Menials in drab grey carried stacks of brass data sceptres, the tattooed marks of their service bright on their shaved heads.

Messnegers.

Page 345-346

This place exists for the hundred astropaths that sit at its centre, ...
...
The astropathic chamber was a place of whispers. A circular bowl over five hundred paces wide, it sides rose in tiers of grey stone seats to a domed ceiling of black glass. Green-robed astropaths sat on every tier. There were hundreds of them, their minds open to the immaterium like nets cast into the currents of a deep ocean. Gathered in these numbers they could send messages over vast distances. They were a choir of minds acting in concert, but each reacted to their task differently. Some mumbled strings of words, or twitched as if stirring in a fitful dream. Others sat as still as statues, chests hardly moving as they breathed. The air was heavy, filled with the smell of sweat, incense and the static tang of psychic power. Ether-sensors hung from the ceiling above, feeling the flow of power within the chamber, alert for anything abnormal. Even psykers soul-bound to the Emperor were a risk when gathered together in large numbers. Out in the shadow tides of the warp such a gathering shone bright to the predators that swarmed there. The sensors were there to warn of any dangerous levels of psychic activity.

The relay station astropaths. One moment there are a hundred, thne there are hundreds. It could be there are a hundred 'primary' astorpaths, then hundreds of lesser, weaker (or burnt out) astorpaths providing support to bolster the strength of the primary, message relaying astropaths (like in Blind.)

Also mention of ether sensors for detecting warp activity.

Page 349

"An evacuation?" A tremor of fear edged his voice. "Your ship can hold many. We could–"
"No." Cyrus cut the old man off. "It could carry some, but what of the rest, Colophon? What of those we left behind?"

Its implied that the (nearly empty) BAttle Barge could carry many of the station's population, but not the majority. Considering battle barges are virtual battlecruiser/battleships, this could mean tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people easily, which means the station must carry many times that number. Given its size that isnt surprising.

Page 352

The pillar was a Geller field generator. The field it projected was a product of techno-arcana of the powerful kind. Normally used to shield ships as they passed through the warp, here it existed to shield the station from daemonic assault.
Phobos disliked Hekate but knew that she spoke truth. Besides his brothers, there were Rihat’s regiment of Helicon Guard, batteries of macro cannons trained on the void, and layers of void shields that could keep a battlefleet at bay. But, as Hekate had pointed out, they were not facing a battlefleet. She was a primaris psyker, a savant immaterium who knew secrets that Phobos would never learn. She had shared her thoughts with them over the past hours, and each comment was as accurate as it was barbed. Her latest observation was no less so. The Geller field was the station’s true defence.
The field would envelop the central section of the station, closing it off from daemonic assault. There would be sections that would be unshielded, flaws in the invisible wall where a daemon could pass through. These would be the points where flesh and bone would have to stand against the enemy. Should the daemons force a way inside the field envelope then there would be slaughter. Phobos thought of the thousands of non-military personnel crammed into chambers of the central hub, running prayer beads through their fingers, muttering implorations to the Emperor to protect them from their fears.

Geller fields used as anti warp/daemon defenses. Makes alot of sense really, and it makes you wonder if other facilities, planets, or starships might use geller fields to defend against chaos or warp attacks similarily. It would make sense.

Also the defenses of the relay station are able to stand up to a battlefleet.

Page 354

The world had given up its witches, but it had ultimately made no difference. A clutch of uncontrollably powerful alpha plus psykers had been born there a decade later. The Imperium had burned the world from orbit, reducing it to cinders. Far away in his cell on Sabatine, Cyrus had woken with the taste of ash in his mouth.

Alpha psykers can be another justification for Exterminatus.

Page 355

Claros station shook with the metal-voiced fury of cannon fire. Beams of energy and lines of shells streamed across the black expanse. They struck the oncoming tide and sliced through it like claws raking through fat. Chunks of solidifying matter cooked to charred fragments. Explosions scooped holes in ethereal flesh. Vast mouths opened in the cloud’s surface crying out in silent pain. And the guns kept firing. Auto loaders rammed macro shells into smoking breeches. Las-capacitors shrieked as they built up charge, and plasma generators boiled with overheating ferocity.

The armament of the relay station opens ifre. Note the laser and plasma generators. And the AUTOLOADERS for the cannon. I'm sure that's supposed to be thematically inappropriate somehow. I mean, all naval cannon are supposed to be loaded by hand in 40K!.

Page 365

Private first class Ramiel straightened up from his crouched position and flexed his shoulders under his bronze-plated armour

Guess the armour is only brozne plated.

Page 374-375

Outside the station the macro cannon and lances of the Aethon began to rotate. Plasma flushed into reactors and energy wells, the fury of suns snarling in its shackles.
...
The beams of energy from the Aethon hit the fourth wing of the station a third of the way down its length. The lance strike cut the section from station like a limb from a corpse. The rest of the station shuddered as if in pain. Venting molten debris and burning air, the wing fell away taking the four lost White Consuls to their ancestors. An instant later macro cannon shells hit the severed section and it became a brief blaze of light smeared against the black void.

The weapons of the Battle-barge. FURY OF SUNS. This could of course be taken literally or figuratively, since 'fury' is not precise (it could be a reference to firepower, or as some will no doubt suggest, nuclear level power or something.) Frankly, I'm going to take it literally. FURY OF SUNS.

Of course, in context it doesnt say what kind of sun either, so there's still plrenty of room for interpretation. I mean really, that a battle barge should be capable of megaton range outputs is not terribly surprising - any starship can manage that for TACTICAL bombardments, nevermind capital ship combat.
Plus I can onyl imagine the people it will infuriate that I dare take such things literally.

Page 380

The warp found the genatorium chamber in the seconds after the field failed. Blackened cylinders the height of hab blocks filled its floor. Each was a low-yield plasma generator that fed power to the station’s central hub. The machines had functioned for millennia, beating with a steady pulse, holding at their hearts the power of suns.

Oh dear. MORE SUNS. And this time its not fury. its POWER. of SUNS. Oh boy am I going to take this literally. For ALL its worth! Even more thats a LOW YIELD plasma generator, although it doesnt specify whether its for one reactor or for all. (unless we opt for the 'less literal' approach and it just means its fusion. I know some people still hold to this belief that plasma reactors are fusion reactors....)

And of course we dont knwo what kinds of stars. Also bear in mind the station was noted to be the equivalent of a battlefleet as far as weapons and defenses go, so even if we do take it literally, we'd be talking about the stations firepower equating that of a whole battlefleet, which could be as low as e20-e21 watts (for the smallest stars.) Considering that battlefleets can range from scores to hundreds of starships of all kinds (or even thousands) it can mean a wide range of comparison even at a 'face value' comparison

Of course this is also why we don't rely on singular CORNERSTONES to dictate capabilities.

Page 382

" I am showing massive internal damage data from the secondary plasma generator cluster."

those were 'secondary' plasma generators I guess. There are otehrs on the station, showing a level of redundancy that is interesting. (also that whole stars thing! LOL)

Page 387

"Lord Cyrus," Rihat’s voice crackled through the vox. Cyrus looked around to see the colonel commander striding forwards flanked by lines of bronze-armoured figures in black-visored helms. Red smears and soot covered Rihat’s face. His right arm hung loose at his side, the sleeve wet and dark. But there was a defiant look in his eye..

The chief commander of the Helican Guard seems to have helmet vox (micro beads). They also seem to have something approaching full body battle armour. Of course if they're vets, this should not be surprising, should it? Especially on a freaking space station.

Page 389-390

"By the power and grace of the God-Emperor of Mankind, and the authority and majesty of His Holy Inquisition, judgement is proclaimed on this place and on all souls within its bounds."
...
Cyrus staggered as a wave of psychic energy hit. It was the bow wave of a fleet punching back from the warp into reality with hammer-blow force.
...
"All are judged lost and the hammer will so fall. Exterminatus is here declared. "

The Inquisition appears and declares Exterminatus on the station. Apparently it doesn't apply to just planets

Also they're sending a telepathic message through the warp seconds/minutes ahead of their own arrival in realspace (nevermind from the edge of the system) and its a tangible verbal message rather than a symbolic one. At the very least thats going to be at hundred sif not thousands of c, and probably much faster (tens of thousands times lightspeed or more, depending on how quickly the ships can transit through the warp.)

Page 390

There were nine ships. Five destroyers rode on bright cones of fire ahead of their greater sisters. Behind the destroyers were two Adeptus Astartes strike cruisers, their crenellated hulls coloured and marked with the deep sea blue of the Star Dragons. Beside them the spear-sleek hull of a Dauntless-class cruiser sliced through the void. At the centre of them all was a vast craft of black metal, its hull capped with towers, its prow a golden point of swept eagle wings. At its birth it had been named for a hero of a lost past; reconsecrated in the service of the Inquisition it bore a name more suited to its task. The Sixth Hammer was an executioner, a slayer of worlds. One day it might return to the fleet from which it had been drawn, but at that moment it served the will of the man who watched Claros station grow nearer from its bridge.

The Inquisitorial execution fleet. I wonder if this is the same one that wiped out Kataris.

Page 392

Cyrus kept his distance from the old man, walking a slow circle around Colophon’s green-robed form. The single targeting rune in his helmet display was an unresolved amber, pulsing over the old man.

targeting display in Cyrus helmet. IIRC he's wearing termie armour though so.. not really a surprise

Page 392

"How could it be sent when we were cut off as soon as the attack began? I am not as adept as you at astropathic transmission, but I touched the warp and felt that we were isolated as you said."

Cyrus confirms that he (at least) is not as skilled at astrotelepathy as a astropath, or at least a senior one.

Page 401

The strike cruisers were the first to fire. Linear accelerators mounted along their spines spoke with one voice. Explosions blossomed off the station’s void shields, splashing against domes of energy that shimmered as they collapsed. On the strike cruisers’ flank the spear shape of the light cruiser turned on its axis, presenting a flank of macro batteries to the station. Bolts of plasma and explosive shells the size of battle tanks streaked across the void.
On board the smaller destroyers officers waited until the station’s shield envelope was on the edge of failing. As the blasts rippled over the last layers of shielding they launched torpedoes. Each carried a melta warhead. They were not intended to destroy but to cripple and burn. For the final killing blow they had other more exotic weapons to unleash.
..
..Lord Xerxes watched as the perfectly timed torpedo volley struck the station at the instant the last void shield collapsed.

Bombardment of the station. Bombardment cannon, braodside guns (tank sized shells again.) and torpedoes. Note that they time the torpedo launchers to hit as the shields go down, which suggests the station's voids would have stopped them had they not been knocked down first.

Page 405

The circling ships of the execution fleet silenced their guns for an instant, pausing before the last blow fell. A narrow spread of torpedoes spat from the prow of The Sixth Hammer. Black darts running on bright trails, they carried the most esoteric and dangerous of payloads. As they struck the heart of the station the vortex mechanisms created a rippling chain of holes through reality. Black centred spirals opened in an overlapping cyclone that pulled the station into oblivion.

The largest ship (The Sixth Hammer) launches its killing blow in the form of Vortex torpedoes. ASsuming a total of six torpedoes, each one would have to have a radius of several km itself to completely engulf the station.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

It's been a while. Apologies.

Battle of the Fang, continued

Chapter Four

Page 71

In the servitor pit below him, a dozen hardwired automata laboured at their stations. On the gantries above, six kaerls were strapped into restraint harnesses until the atmosphere was cleared and gravity generators could compensate properly.

The Nauro's bridge crew. The gravity generators appear not to work inside the atmosphere, suggesting that their effectiveness is affected by proximity to a gravity well.

Page 76-77

Kjolborn tried to take in the situation. Seven minutes ago there had been signals picked up on the long-range scanners. Two minutes after that the signals had turned into battleships. Either there was a serious problem with the augur array, or a fleet had come out of the Warp staggeringly close to Fenris' gravity well. There had been no warning, no Warp wakes detected, and no time to do anything other than power up the weapons batteries and prepare to return fire. As it had turned out, that response had been pitifully insufficient.
A wall of ships had swarmed at them at full speed, sending arcs of energy tearing into the linked networks of orbital platforms. Several guns had gone down almost immediately, taken out by the massed volume of fire, their Void shields overloaded and cracked apart in a blaze of released energy.
The defenders' counter-attack had been sporadic, with no time to coordinate proper firing solutions. In the wake of the initial assault, enemy fighters had spun out of the shadow of the larger ships, screaming into range and strafing the surviving elements of the defensive grid. It had all been too fast, too overwhelming. Now the outer network was in flames, burning and falling into the upper atmosphere, and what was left was going to do little more than slow the bulk of the fleet closing in on it.

The stations' sensors detected the Thousand Sons' warships two minutes before they could be positively identified. Also, it needed five minutes or less to ready weapons for firing, though this was not enough time to calculate firing solutions. The Thousand Sons also used fighters for mopping up.

Page 79

Eye-watering flourescent beams leapt across the gap, slamming into the frigate a hundred kilometres distant and breaking open the shell of void shielding. Massive, silent explosions rippled along port-ventral galleries of the vessel as the lethal energy cut through the hull-plates and ripped them aside. The ship stopped turning and began to spin down into an aimless death-spiral.

The station's firepower was enough to one-shot a frigate. The range of 100km seems a little short compared to other sources, but this is some time after the ships had entered firing range.

Page 80

Vreborn wheeled around to face Kjolborn, suddenly animated.
'The saviour pods,' she said.
'You're not going to get to them in time, huskaerl.'
If the lights had been up, Kjolborn would have seen her look of injured scorn.
'They're projectiles.'
Kjolborn realised what she had in mind then, and shrugged. 'If you can spin it, do it.'
The gunships, wedge-nosed sapphire Thunderhawks, raced into position, battle-cannons primed to fire. Kjolborn watched them come, wishing he'd had the time to get drunk before taking his seat. Just because he didn't fear death didn't mean he liked the idea.

That's the Space Wolves for you. As a minor point, Vreborn manages to hit one of the Thunderhawks with the escape pods before the station blows up.

Page 82-83

Greyloc froze for a second.
The Thousand Sons! Ironhelm, what have you done? You were the prey for this trap.
He shook his head to clear it and looked at the tactical hololiths. For a moment, even he, a veteran of a hundred void engagements, was taken aback. The invasion fleet was huge. Around the fifty-four points of light indicating capital vessels, hundreds of smaller signals swarmed and harried. The red lights indicating defensive assets were beleagured. Even as he watched, three of them guttered out.
'How did they get in so close?' he demanded, feeling frustrated anger suddenly rise up within him. 'Where was the warning?'
There was a distant rumble across the walls of the Chamber as the Fang's defensive batteries opened up, sending salvos of ship-killer missiles hurtling into the void.

The Thousands Sons fleet numbers again. 54 'capital' ships and hundreds of smaller warships. Also, the Fang's aerospace defences include ship-killer missiles capable of reaching at least into orbit.

Page 88

The Hould was the beating heart of the Aett. The thousands of mortal warriors, craftsmen, technicians, and labourers who maintained the massive citadels lived out their entire lives there. They rarely left the Fang unless taken out of it by troop transports; the air was thin even for natives at that altitude. Their skin was as pale as the ice that covered the upper slopes, and they were all Fenris-born, of the stock that still roamed across the ice fields below Asaheim and provided the recruits for the Sky Warriors. Their breed had been taken into the vast halls of the Aett when the first chambers had been hollowed out, and all could trace their lineages back over thirty generations or more. Only some - the kaerls - were kept at arms at all times, but all knew how to wield a blade and fire a skjoldtar, the heavy, armour piercing projectile weapon favoured by the Aettguard. They were children of a death world, and from the youngest infant to the oldest crone they knew the art of killing.

A little on the Aettguard. They've been a part of the Space Wolves since the Legion was founded, and the population actually resides inside the Fang. Some of the usual about Death Worlders all being fighters. We also have something on the Skjoldtar, which could be anything between an autogun and a bolter.

[Lonestar]

Have you read Wrath of Iron yet? Man. There is nothign likable, at all, about the Iron Hands. They are just a collection of massive assholes who even the AM thinks there is something wrong with.

[Connor MacLeod]

Have you read Wrath of Iron yet? Man. There is nothign likable, at all, about the Iron Hands. They are just a collection of massive assholes who even the AM thinks there is something wrong with.

You should read Jonathan Green's Iron Hands novel if you want to see 'assholes'.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through, so far its more enjoyable for me than Battle of the Fang was. Part of it I think is because despite the fact the IH are massive dicks, it's set up in such a way as being deliberate irony. They're supposed to be SUPER BAD STRONG because they dispose of their 'weak' organic side, but they're weakened by sacrificing their humanity (as the intro text from Ferrus points out.)

It reminds me of the Iron Hands short story from 'The Primarchs' really.. lots of similarities even if it isn't as upbeat.

Best thing so far showing up? Harakoni Warhawks. bout damn time they had an appearance, even if it was to get massacred.

[Lonestar]

Aren't they basically AirCav?

"QUICKLY, INTO THE THOUSANDS OF ADA GUNS"

[Connor MacLeod]

Yeah they're just Elysians By Another Name (that Imperial Armour hasn't defiled) Oh and they wear CArapace, which actually kinda makes sense.

Besides, they just look so damn Cool

I wish they'd have done a Harakoni Warhawk novel. Preferrably ADB or Steve PArker writing it.

[Black Admiral]

Have you read Wrath of Iron yet? Man. There is nothign likable, at all, about the Iron Hands. They are just a collection of massive assholes who even the AM thinks there is something wrong with.

That's the point, though - with the Wrath of Iron take on the Iron Hands, there is something wrong with them. Their obsession with augmetics/"The Flesh Is Weak!" is a psychosis Ferrus Manus tried to cure them of (thanks a fucking bunch Fulgrim you utter wanker), and it's severely fucked them up.

[Elessar]

Have you read Wrath of Iron yet? Man. There is nothign likable, at all, about the Iron Hands. They are just a collection of massive assholes who even the AM thinks there is something wrong with.

I never saw it this way, primarily because Spoiler

they had information about the actual threat that was in the main hive. They were right. They needed to do everything the hard way, throw Titans and Imperial Guard away as fodder to protect themselves, because at the end of the day only Space Marines could face down the threat and save the world.

So in summary... they sucked at communication. But at least they weren't being dicks for the sake of being dicks. I reference AM and their actions in all Necron-scenarios, oh, and Storm of Iron.

[PainRack]

I'm a tad confused by Helsreach. I... got the impression from somewhere that Helbrecht brought 4 crusades to Armaggadeon, which seems to be supported by the fact that there were 4 commanders there. But there were over 900 Black Templars assembled there, shouldn't this be proof conclusive to the Imperium that the Templars are massively overstrength?

Also, does the subsector there literally refer to the entire subsector or just Armaggadeon alone? 1.5 million Guardsmen, assuming pure teeth sounds quite small for the Imperium, and is definitely too small if its for the entire subsector.. Although if the bulk of the Steel Legions are equivalent to Saren 3 thousand men, 1.5 million probably should fit the assembled OOB given.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

With your permission, I continue.

Battle of the Fang, Chapter Five

Page 104

'They 'll bring the troop carriers down out of range of the guns and come at us overland.'
Sturmhjart looked at him questioningly.
'They have control of space - why not bombard form there?'
Wyrmblade cracked a crooked smile.
'Stick to your charms, priest. The shields over the Aett were built to last a siege from fleets four times as big. The witches don't have that firepower, not since we crippled them on Prospero.'
'In any case,' said Greyloc quietly, 'they have not come to hurl death from afar. They want to take this place, to desecrate it.'
'I sense nothing,' muttered Sturmhjart. He looked from Wyrmblade to Greyloc with doubt etched on his face. 'I sense nothing at all.'
The Wolf Priest shrugged. 'They are masters of the Wyrd.'
'They know nothing of the Wyrd!" blurted the Rune Priest.
'And yet they can blind you, and all your acolytes. Something powerful is protecting them.'
None of them said the name out loud.

Every time I read about a Space Wolf smiling, I keep thinking of the post-TNG Klingons.

Well, we've got some basic orbital assault strategy here, with the Thousand Sons sending down their transports from orbits outside the engagement envelope of the Fang's defences. We also have a vague figure for what the Fang's defences can handle, namely four times the Thousand Sons' fleet. If we take the 54x capital ship figure literally, then the Fang can handle over two hundred heavy warships and hundreds, maybe thousands of escorts. Wyrmblade mentions that the shields were 'built', which can imply that he referred to the physical protection rather than Void shields. Then again, he might have been referring to the generators.

The relationship between Wyrd and the Warp has come up again. Sturmhjart insists that they are different (as the Space Wolves did in 'A Thousand Sons'), whereas Greyloc implies that they are one and the same. The Space Wolves' conceit may be coming home to roost.

Page 107-8

He looked back at the captain. The man was nothing like a Prosperine warrior. He was short, wiry, with hard, pale skin. All of his comrades were the same. They had been taken from high-altitude worlds and conditioned for extreme cold, and when they went into action they'd be wearing heavy plate armour, masks, and rebreathers, not breastplates of burnished gold and crimson. Fenris was not a place that rewarded elegance in war.

The Thousand Sons have been preparing quite carefully. They recruited and trained their soldiers for cold weather, and have equipped them for heavy combat in such conditions. The mention of masks and rebreathers suggests that the armour suits will be fully enclosed, which is no bad thing in extreme cold. Combined with the mention of plate armour, this could be carapace armour.

Page 108

'Forgive me. These things were not long ago, at least as I see it.'

The captain waited patiently. They all did, these new mortals. A thousand cults, on a hundred worlds of the proud Imperium, now drawn together to create the Last Host, the bringers of revenge. They'd been taught that the Thousand Sons sorcerers were gods, heralds of a new dawn of learning and enlightenment amid the darkening shadows of ignorance and blind faith.
We were, once. We really were.

Aphael's getting maudlin again, telling the Herumon's captain about Prospero. I have to say, by Astartes standards he seems fairly nice, or at least courteous. We have further confirmation here, if it were needed, of the Warp creating a time dilation effect.

There is more evidence of the Thousand Sons having a substantial cult network, from which it drew its recruits. Their teachings derive from their pre-Heresy ideology, but can be associated with Tzeentch. Beyond this, there is no clear evidence that the Thousand Sons are Tzeentch worshippers as such. As I see it, they don't so much worship Tzeentch as are merely stuck with him.

Page 108-9

The captain signalled his regret with hesitation.
'It made the jump-point before we were able to run it down, lord. But it will be destroyed before it reaches Gangava, as the fates will it.
Aphael raised a quizical eyebrow.
'The Illusion of Certainty had a squad of Rubricae on board, led by Lord Fuerza.'
'This matters how?'
'The Dog vessel's shields were down as it passed through the wreckage. For a microsecond, I am informed, there was transporter activity.'
'You're certain of this?'
'No, lord. The augur records are incomplete. But Lord Fuerza is a skilled master of the technology.'

An interesting fellow this captain. He's loyal enough to admit failure, in a situation that would stereotypically result in him suffering a most unpleasant death. He is also well-informed enough to tell his boss about the wider situation. The Thousand Sons seem to encourage professionalism and information-sharing among their mortal followers.

Teleportation is not possible through raised Void Shields, or so this implies. We have a figure of one microsecond for a teleportation of anything between one and a full squad of Rubric marines, possibly with Fuerza accompanying. This is by a 'skilled master' of teleporters.

P-110

Gingerly, fingers moving slowly, he ran his hand up to the nape of his neck, feeling around the tender flesh where the collar of his armour rubbed against skin.
It was getting worse. There were spines there, and the beginnings of some curls of soft matter.
Feathers. Sweet Magnus. Feathers.

It gets them in the end, that Warp stuff.

'I loathe you,' he hissed suddenly, curling his bronzed lip at the realspace viewers where Fenris hung, cold and inviolate. 'This is what you have forced us to become. This is what you have made us.'

'You will seek to purge your own corruption, and you will fail,' he breathed. 'We will prevent you. We will leave you crippled, as we are. We wil leave you broken, as we are. And when the Time of Ending comes, as it must do, you will be weak and alone in the face of the Annihilator.'
He bowed hius head then, wondering, just for a moment, where his fury was really directed.
'As we are,' he breathed, weakly.

A couple of important points here. There is an implication regarding the Thousand Sons' true intentions, but this won't become important until later. The other is the Time of Ending, in which all will fall to the 'Primordial Annihilator' mentioned in the Horus Heresy books. This ties in to the Eldar prophecy of Rhana Dandra, and the fate the Cabal recruited the Alpha Legion to prevent. All in all, the Thousand Sons appear to be trying to do unto the Space Wolves what was done unto them.

Page 111

In a fortress of wonders, the Fangthane had an awe-inspiring quality all its own. Its walls soared high up into the dark, hundreds of metres, curving gently toward a roof lost in penumbral gloom. The entire populace of the Hould, hundreds of thousands of souls, could assemble in its cavernous space, filling the frozen chamber floor with the warm breath of humanity.

The Fangthane is a chamber hundreds of metres tall. It is capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people. This is the approximate population of the Hould.

Page 112

A 'Riven' numbers five hundred Kaerls.

Page 117

As the Hall descended into roars and bellows of untamed aggression, and the pinions of war descended over the Fang, Morek Karekborn looked on the image of the Wolf King and felt his faith blaze like a comet in the empty skies.
This is what they cannot understand, he realised, thinking of the faithless who came to despoil the Aett in their folly and madness. We will die for the Sky Warriors, for they show us what we can become. Against this certainty, they can having nothing. Nothing.

The thoughts of Morek. His devotion to the Space Wolves is based on the idea that they represent human potential. To him, they represent all that humans might achieve. He also has a tendency to regard the Space Wolves as invincible, a conceit that will come back to haunt him later.

Part II: Waking the Dead

Chapter 6

Page 121-122

Twelve hours after the destruction of the orbital defences, fire came to Asaheim.

The Thousand Sons warships Alexandretta and Phosis T'Kar assumed geostationary orbit one hundred kilometres above the Fang and prepared their payloads for dispersal. The two ships had minimal crew - fewer than two thousand each - and virtually no void war armaments. THey'd been shielded from the battle by a dozen frigates and kept away from harm by ships more suited to close combat. In form, they resembled huge cylinders on a vertical axis wedged through the clinging superstructure of a conventional warship. Everything on board those ships was designed to feed those cylinders, to keep them supplied with huge amounts of promethium and heavy plasma-derivatives they needed to operate.

The Thousand Sons bring up their heavy hitters, referred-to as 'Planet Scourers.' 100km is quite a low orbit, considering Sputnik's perigee was 223km. Here, we have a 2000 figure for a skeleton crew. Also, plasma weapons seem to require a physical substance of some kind as fuel. These ships are described as being capable of 'levelling cities and razing continents'.

Chain lightning leapt across the empty gulf between the cylinder walls, cracking against adamantium bulwarks and breaking out into the void. Generators geared up, pumping energy into enormous converters and channelling it through to the devastation engines.
The escorts withdrew, opening up a gap of several hundred kilometres. The entire fleet kept its distance, like a crowd of frighened prey huddling out of range of the hunter.
From his observation cell aboard the Herumon, Temekh watched the accumulation of titanic energies gain pace. The gathering of power was heady, and he could sense the bulging, raging torment locked within the weapons as the limits of containment were reached.

The process of charging the weapons creates chain lightning. The other ships keep a distance of several hundred kilometres, implying that in the event of a tragic accident the danger zone could reach that far. It is also implied that Temekh can sense the growing power via his Psychic abilities.

Page 123

Even as he finished speaking, the planet-scourers reached their firing level.
Massive, snaking columns of gold-silver energy thundered down to the target below, twisting and blazing as they sliced through the atmosphere and slammed into the continental shelf. The torrent kept up steadily, a seamless rain of millions of millions of plasma projectiles, melded into two pillars of withering, draining power and focussed on the apex of the mountain ranges below.

I'm not at all sure how this works. Then again this is 40k, so any attempt to figure it out would probably make my brain melt. The plasma is referred-to later as 'hyper-energised', which could be taken to mean that it's some kind of gigantic particle weapon rather than the overcomplicated flamethrower a 'plasma' weapon would realistically be.

Page 123-4

Freija Karekborn's squad consists of six Kaerls.

Page 124

There were powerful shields across the gaping launch bay, both to protect from bombardment and to retain a breathable environment so high up. One moment, the sky outside was the dark blue of the short Fenrisian dusk; the next, it blazed with a seething kaleidescope of colours, the result of a torrent of hyper-energised plasma hitting the surface of Void shields and going crazy.

The Void shields are described as having a distinct surface, suggesting a fairly conventional sci-fi energy shield as opposed to something that transfers objects that strike it into the Warp. Then again, the surface may be a 'trip wire' that lets the system know where the offending object is. Of course, anything non-physical like plasma or laser is going to interact differently to physical impactors.

Page 126

'Our shields are fed by thermal reactors buried down,' he said, half talking to himself. 'This will do no more than stress the voids, but we won't be able to send any ship-killers up through it.'

The thermal reactors could be a reference to the 'geothermal spikes' mentioned in some older fluff. There are two possible meanings to his latter statement. One is that firing missiles requires dropping or opening the shields to let them through; the other is that the plasma bombardment would simply destroy any missiles they tried to send up.

Page 129

So, forty-eight hours after the destruction of the orbital platforms, they came in spiralling columns, darkening the skies with their numbers, Heavy, lumbering drop-ships disembarked from the holds of the troop carriers above and thundered down to the embarkation points, guarded by wings of gunships and shadowed by the void-to-surface batteries of the warships in orbit. One after another, the bronze and sapphire vessels broke into the atmosphere, streaking trails of fire as they plummeted.

Some more planetary invasion methodology. The Thousand Sons were able to deploy within 48 hours of achieving orbital superiority. The troop carriers then descend, but use drop-ships to land their cargoes rather than descend to the surface themselves. This implies that void-capable ships tend to require specialized spaceport facilities to land and take off from a planet, and fits other fluff. During this process, they are protected by aircraft and warships orbitting overhead. The mention of coming down in spirals is curious, though it may be in order to bleed off their re-entry speed. The term 'void-to-surface batteries' implies that warships may carry specialized weapons for planetary bombardments.

The response of the Space Wolves has been to deploy their ground forces to the landing sites, with a view to disrupting the landings as best they can.

Page 130

Assault-captain Skyt Hemloq kept a sweaty grip on his lasrifle. Despite his armour and environment body-glove, the air was terrifyingly cold. That didn't stop him sweating.

Skyt isn't entirely comfortable in his cold-weather gear, but it seems to be keeping him alive.

Even modified through his rebreathers and boosted with oxygen-mix from his backpack, it was thin and caustic. Perhaps it was the alt-clim drugs still swimming though his bloodstream

His equipment includes an air supply. He was also administered drugs to help deal with the climate.

Page 132

Even as he watched, another company of troops disembarked, some of them with heavier weapons in tow. A cumbersome lascannon was unloaded, flanked by a dozen gunnery crew, ready for deployment at the site edges. In time, portable void shield generators and proper anti-aircraft defences would be deployed.

The lascannons used by the Spireguard require a crew of twelve, which is quite a bit more than those used by the Imperial Guard. Portable shield generators are also mentioned.

More to come.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Battle of the Fang, Chapter Seven

Page 146

There had been four Rubricae with him in the Warp bubble, but only one had made it intact. Two must have been lost in the jump, ripped apart by the capricious currents of the Ocean. A third had materialised within a heavy adamantium strut, and black metal rods impaled the soulless creature fast. Flickers of warp residue ran across its broken breastplate, still trying to knit the form of the Thousand Sons warrior back together.
It was hopeless. A Rubricae was one of the toughest mobile structures in the galaxy, immune to pain and despair, able to keep operating even after massive structural damage, but being fused with the hull of a loyalist interceptor had destroyed the integrity of the Traitor Marine's armour-shell. As Fuerza watche, too weak to intervene, the pale light in the broken Rubricae's helm guttered and died.

Teleportation is a dangerous business, but we knew that.

Rubric marines are implied to be capable of self-repair, which makes some sense in light of their supposed resilience. This ability seems to be Warp-based.

Page 147

Fuerza felt a profound sadness, an echo of psychic pain within his physical agony.
So few. Now one fewer.

Fuerza seems to actually care about the Rubricae.

Not for the first time, Fuerza wondered what kind of attenuated existence the Rubricae had. Did they see the runes running across their helm-displays like he did? Did speech register with them as it did with mortal men?
Impossible to tell. Ahriman, curse his black name, had made them as cold and unfeeling as the graven images of Neiumas Tertius.

Fuerza wonders to what extent the Rubricae retain any kind of identity or sapience. The Ebook 'All is Dust' by John French implies that they do retain a degree of self-awareness.

Page 149

For three days, the landings in the mountains of Asaheim continued. For three days, the hunting packs disrupted and burned them, launching attack after attack across the ice.

The process of landing has taken three days thus far, and the Space Wolves are fighting them every step of the way. The paragraph goes on to mention Long Fangs shooting down drop ships.

The Thousand Sons established enduring positions at nine points in the mountain ranges around the Fang, landing ever more men and materiel, gradually construting the strangehold from which the main assault whould be launched.
As dawn broke over the Fang on the fourth day, the fortress was ringed with fire. Oily black columns, generated by promethium spills that would burn even on the ice, formed a vast, kilometres-wide circle across the mountain chain. The leaguer was closing, forged by the sacrifice of thousands of invading soldiers, each one of their deaths buying space for another drop-ship to land, another lascannon to be unloaded, another tank to rumble down the embarkation ramps.

The Thousand Sons encircling the Fang. Interesting that they have nine strongpoints, as the number nine has particular meaning for the Thousand Sons, as established in 'A Thousand Sons.'

Page 150

'The first rank of drop-ships were to keep us busy. They've landed heavy carriers further out. Traitor Marine squads now march with the mortals.'

The Thousand Sons' strategy in this case is to sacrifice Spireguard to keep the Space Wolves occupied while they make their landings.

In amphibious invasions as well, one of the major issues is how to keep the defenders away from your landing zones until your forces are shore in sufficient numbers. The only ways to do this are misdirection, overwhelming firepower, and/or sending in forward units to hold the enemy off by any means necessary. Misdirection isn't really going to work in this case, since there's only one possible objective, and if the Space Wolves have done their staff work they'll know where the most likely landing sites are. An orbital bombardment should be possible (with the Planet Scourers keeping the Fang's space defences bottled up), but might not be worthwhile. After all, the bombardment would only be helpful if it caught the Space Wolves in the open, but they didn't move out from the Fang until they saw the dropships coming down.

Page 152

Rossek's squad had assaulted six dropsites during the night, destroying all of them utterly before moving on. In four days his ten Grey Hunters had yet to take a casualty despite slaughtering huge numbers of enemy troops. Only gradually had the truth become apparent. The first wave of landings have been fodder - poorly trained and badly equipped conscripts sent to absorb the fury of the Wolves while the real soldiers were landed further out.

Further detail on this aspect. The Thousand Sons used low-quality troops as meat shields.

Page 153

At the far end of the valley, only a few hundred metres distant, the enemy was making its advance.
Two tanks were grinding their way towards Rossek's position, guarding a phalanx of marching troops in their wake. The incoming fire was heavy and accurate, shattering the boulders in front of them and sending shards spinning into the air. The vehicles had an unusual pattern. Leman Russ chassis, by the look of them, with autocannons and heavy bolters. They looked like the Chapter's own Exterminators. Infantry killers.

The Spireguard come equipped with Leman Russ Exterminators. Their shooting is described as accurate, implying a degree of competence.

A huge boulder cracked open several metres to Rossek's right, blasted apart by a long range mortar. Heavy bolter fire from the tanks ran along the valley floor in rows, creeping ever closer to the Wolves' position.

Also mortar support. Rossek is unharmed despite a mortar round blasting a rock apart a few metres away, though the rock itself may have absorbed much of the force. Some of the rocks are described as being the size of Rhino APCs. The heavy bolter fire comes across as suppressive fire.

Rossek checked his helm locator, watching as his troops took up optimal positions.
'Now,' he snarled.
The Grey Hunters on the flanks broke cover and raced towards the enemy lines, sweeping across the broken terrain like bolting konungur. They moved incredibly quickly, bounding with assurance across the treacherous landscape. Their boltguns opened up, slamming into the flanks of the swaying tanks and exploding across the front ranks of the infantry beyond.

Rossek watched as the tank-mounted heavy bolters swivelled to meet the flank threats, holding for the few seconds needed to draw fire from the front aspect, then clenched his fist tight.

Grey Hunters can cover a distance of several hundred metres at great speed, faster than the heavy bolters can swivel round to meet them.

Page 156

The Heq'el Mahdi dropsite had grown from a few hundred square metres to over a kilometre, a miniature city draped across the ice-bound highlands. It had anti-aircraft batteries, void shield generators, prefabricated assault walls and hastily-dug trenches around the perimeter. Over two thousand Spireguard had been landed and more were disembarking every hour. Among them strode squads of Rubricae, each accompanied by a sorcerer and shadowed by a hundred more mortal troops. Prosperine tanks and mobile artillery ground their way though the grey patches of lingering snowm their engines labouring and letting loose gouts of black smoke in the extreme conditions. Heq'el Mahdi housed a formidable army in its own right, but it was only one of nine secured dropsites. The scale of Aphael's ambition had never been more apparent.
We will never be able to do this again. On this strike, everything depends.

A fully kitted-out dropsite. Another mention of portable void shield generators. Tanks and mobile artillery are mentioned, the latter possibly being Basilisks.

Page 157

The Raptora sorceror lord reached his destination. A Spireguard commander, wearing the heavy armour, full facemask, and tactical battle-helm that had been denied to the first landers, approached and saluted.

The second wave of Spireguard are somewhat better-equipped than the first wave.

Page 158

The passenger ramp descended, touching gently on the slushy filth beneath it. Lord Aphael strode down it casually, flanked by six towering Terminator Rubricae.

Rubricae come in Terminator armour also.

Page 159

'That is why the Rubricae go to war,' Aphael replied. 'Thanks to our Lord's deception, there can be no more than a hundred Dogs left in their lair. We bring six hundred of our silent brothers. We have two million mortal troops against a few thousand. What numbers would make you more content, brother?

The faction of the Thousand Sons that remained with Magnus included six hundred Rubricae.

Page 160

A massive structure lumbered out of the shadow of the loading bay. It stood twice as tall as the Rubricae around it, a mobile mountain of curved metal. Its head was placed directly in the centre of its vast barrel chest, surrounded by tracery of bronze. Outsized arms hefted a cannon on one side and a gigantic mining drill on the other...It had no soul. Even the Rubricae had more presence in the warp.
Hett gazed at it in shocked surprise.
"Cataphracts,' he breathed, seeing another follow the first down from the open hold. 'I thought they'd all been-'
'Destroyed? Not all. These are the last.'

The Thousand Sons have brought the last of their Cataphract-class battle robots. These have been modified with drills in order to dig their way into the Fang (according to Aphael). They are twice the size of an Astartes, and have no Warp presence of any kind.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well I finished Wrath of Iron and its as Lonestar said earlier, they're 'massive assholes.' But that's pretty much part of the plot. From the get go it's a story about how the Iron Hands, supposedly SUPAR BADASS SPACE MARINES are really weak despite the fact all this enhancement and shit makes them strong (physically at least.) In the end, its the 'strong' Iron hands who fail, whose hidden flaws lead to the near-failure of this venture, and its only the 'frail' humans the Iron Hands cower in fear of (and 'weak' organic power of the warp) that ultimately saves the day. They're such dicks, so weak that even the bad guys and AdMech (as Lonestar noted again) - both notorious dicks in and of themselves, go 'whoa you're too much even for me.'

So what this story really is is a Space Marine 'tragedy', which means that despite the Space Marines being colossal dicks throughout the book (which is incredibly annoying, as you'll notice me rant throughout) it's also wholly appropriate to the story despite all the shit that comes down because of the Iron Hands weaknesses. Chris Wraight does more or less demonstrate how its possible to write Space Marines other than being superhuman badass killmachines and without playing up on how great and impressive they are, and I think he does a pretty good job. In a way you can almost pity them for their own self-dehumanization and the way that they simply cannot help it, esp given that it may not acutally be Ferrus Manus' true intention.

I also like to think of this as being a contrast between the Iron Hands short story in 'The Primarchs' as alot of the ideas between that novel and this one tend to cross over, even if the short story was more upbeat than this one is. Still, I enjoyed the novel quite a bit more than Battle of the Fang (which may just go to show how biased towards the Wolves I am )

Since I'm more or less caught up with SMB and this probably won't take too long, I'll break it up into two updates, but only post the first one here.


Page 7-8

The hands are strong, to be sure, and have created great things for us all....
...
They forget that the silver on my arms comes from a beast that I vanquished. It is the mark of a great evil that I ended, and yet it persists within me. It is alien, artificial; an uneasy corollary to the superlative physical frame given to me by my father.
The problem is not one of surgery, for I have no doubt my father’s chirurgeons could remake me entirely if he gave them the command. No, I will not remove the silver from my flesh because I have learned to depend on it.
...
Already my Legion’s warriors replace their shield hands with metal in my honour, and so they too are learning to doubt the natural strength of their bodies. They must be weaned off this practice before it becomes a mania for them. Hatred of what is natural, of what is human, is the first and greatest of the corruptions.
....
I will turn them away from the gifts of the machine...
...
Already I see the madness that path leads to, and so I shall excise the silver from my hands. In doing so I shall weaken myself and my sons, but nonetheless it must be done.

An interesting intro attributed to Ferrus Manus, mainly because of the hands. On one hand it strongly points to the 'Xenos' origins of those silver hands, which for awhile now would strongly point to 'living metal' infecting them (not unlike Pasanius' mechanical arm) for some reason.. which might mean a C'tan (or nowadays, a C'tan shard.) or perhaps some sort of high-tier Necron construct. It's not definite of course, but 'evil, alient, artificial' certainly sounds Necron, doesn't it?)

Also mentality wise, Ferrus didn't like the trend of his Chapter towards the whole 'Flesh is weak, mechanical is better' Admech manner of thinking, which echoes ideas from the short story in 'The Primarchs'. That doesn't mean they'd be any less intolerant of weakness, mind, its just that flesh would not intrinsically be weak. Hell, Ferrus calls himself weak because of his reliance on 'technology' rather than his own power, which means that his own Chapter is (in his own view) paradoxically weak for its own zealous disdain for its organic heritage. Kind of a tragedy since he never got to change his Chapter due to the Heresy and his death, in that respect.

It also means Gdolkin is probably the most Heretical Iron Hand in existence from the Primarch's POV, which is strangely satisfying for me

Page 9

Captain Ulens Arela of the 12th Shardenus Imperial Guard Levy looked at the data flickering down his augur display...
...
One word – Territo – emerged again and again. That was, presumably, what the invaders were calling themselves. Other statistics lodged in his mind, mostly deployment patterns and landing vectors for the first wave.
They hadn’t bothered with much encryption, so Arela’s cogitative support had managed to crack a good deal of the traffic flitting around in low orbit. None of it reassured him, and most of it pointed to a swift and certain outcome.

A surprisingly large, well equipped bunker (with sensors, defenses and troops) and mention of the Imperial guard forces manning said bunker having a 'computer support' branch that hacked the other side's (weak) encryption to find out data from the orbital fleet above, as well as the sensors seemingly providing some external/oribtal data. How utterly World War 1

Page 10
[quote...the three hundred men crouched in Bunker F45 gave no indication that they expected any. They could all hear the thud and crack of orbital munitions detonating, and they could all feel the tremble in the earth as the city’s defensive grids opened up. All across the ash plains of the Helat, they knew that millions of men, bunched together in similar bunkers and blast-trenches...[/quote]

Scope of the outside defenses, as well as a full company inside the bunker whilst orbital bombardment goes on outside. I hope those blast trenches are far away.

Page 10

...he couldn’t see the heavy outlines of the troop landers as they slowly descended through the atmosphere. He couldn’t see the paths of the tracer rockets as they streaked down to cover their descent, though he could feel the impacts where they hit close to the bunker. He couldn’t see the enemy gunships as they spiralled down between the larger ships, strafing along the attack corridors and knocking out fixed artillery positions.

Drop assault in progress. I'd guess the tracer rockets are from orbital bombardment and not the transports thsemelves. also some sort of gunship, although whether those are actual fighters providing support, or something like Vultures/valkyries deployed from orbit, or what we don't know.

Page 11

Arela didn’t detect the launch of the one craft among the many hundreds making planetfall...
...
By then the invaders’ assault craft had descended and were disgorging atmospheric flyers like bloated insects ejecting their teeming young. Far above them, capital ships maintained static positions in high orbit and provided a hammering rain of supporting fire.

Mention of hundreds of drop ships. The drop ships seem to be launching their own air support (fighters? more gunships?) as well as the gunships escorting the drop. Also the starships providing orbital support are dropping their shots from high orbit, raher than low (tens of thousands rather than hundreds/thousands.)

Page 11

.. an angular, heavy-set gunship in black livery – made its way planetwards, ducking and spiralling though the orgy of explosions and las-fire. Its course was erratic, programmed to evade targeting locks faster than they could be imposed.
...
Only when the gunship came within five kilometres of F45 did its trajectory pick up on the augur’s warning matrices. A line of red runes blinked into life.
...
...the echo of three hundred visors snapping into place ran

Thunderhawk (probably) evading gunfire from an implied range greater than 5 km or so. Sensor range of at least 5 km thoug for the bunker sensors, which also provide warnings.

Also the Shardenus Imperial Guard have visors on their helmets.

Page 11-12

The bunker, like all the rest overlooking the Helat, had been built to a simple design. A central hexagonal chamber, no more than three metres high and roughly thirty metres across, had been sunk into the dense igneous rock of the Helat’s surface. Two-metre-thick layers of reinforced rockcrete enveloped the chamber, reinforced with bands of adamantium binding. On four sides of the bunker, narrow slits in the rockcrete had been bored at shoulder height, allowing the men inside a clear fire-arc over the ash plains to the east.
....
..men who lined up along the four firing walls, slotting their lasguns into the apertures..

Design of the bunker. 30 m across and hexogonal (which means the 30m probably applies in both horizontal dimnesions) and 3 m high, with 2 m thick reinforced walls. Also seems to be self contained - I'd gather the firing apertures are something like the way some APCs/IFVs have gun ports you can fire guns out of without leaving the carrier and without compromising its self-sealed nature (against chem and bio warfare and such.)

There are also mention of extensive underground tunnels leading between the bunkers to the city, although they're wired to blow (for obvious reasons)

Page 12-13

Arela, seated on a swivelling steel chair in the centre of the bunker, oversaw their movements with satisfaction. Pict screens surrounded him, mounted on a lattice of metal struts.
"Primary target inbound sector 5-6," said Arela calmly, watching the data on his augur refresh. "Keep an eye on your sensoria – we’ll get more of them soon."
The floor vibrated as surface-to-air batteries cracked into life above the bunker. Arela switched to an external pict-feed and watched trails of ship-killer rockets stream up into the sky.
...
Then it lifted off again, thrusting powerfully back into the air amid a buffet of sensor-confusing static before the rocket launchers could get a decent fix.

Bunkre's sensor/command station for Arela, apparently he's not the only one with sensors either (at least some of the other troops in it do, possibly they all have their own screens tied into the sensors), and apparently there are also defensive batteires situated nearby/above the bunker - surface to air must mean 'ship' refers to dropships and deploying craft (unless 'air' means orbit.) possibly just really big anti-aircraft guns. They can at least target the thunderhawk anyhow.

Unsurprisingly, we also learned (although I didn't quote it) that the sensors can pick up Space Marines in Terminator armour.

Page 14

A second later, a rain of heavy impacts broke out across the leading edge of the rockcrete shielding. Huge blocks splintered, buckled and broke open, spinning into clouds of destruction as a maelstrom of projectiles hit the shielding and detonated.
..
A huge explosion rocked the chamber. Men flew back from the firing slits, careening through the air as an entire section of shielding blew inwards. The air filled with the noise of screams, the shudder of more munitions going off and thick blooms of powdered rockcrete.
...
Through the gap came a monster, nearly three metres high and encased in night-black power armour.

I'm frankly not sure what blows a hole in the wall. It's implied to be some sort of Terminator heavy weapon at least thats what I'm gathering from the explosions and rain of impacts, and it mentions one of the Terminator suits getting within a few metres of the bunker wall before that happens. What kind of weapon though, we don't know. A chainfist or powerfist might do this as well.

Terminators are 3 m tall, which means a 3 m diameter (roughly) hole is blasted in a wall 2 m thick, whatever the weapon. To put this in perspective, a couple of kilos of TNT could easily put a crater a few metres in diameter (including depth) in rock. So whether its a power fist, sustained bolter fire, assault cannon, or missile launcher.. well you get the idea.

Page 15

Arela saw most of them torn clean in half as projectiles punched clean through them before exploding like grenades.

Bolter rounds.


Page 19

The skin of the fruit broke open across her tongue. Receptors lining her prosthetic tongue fed a data report containing material she had no interest in – acidic content, hazard breakdown, nutritional value – all of which she ignored. It did, however, taste pleasant.

Augmetic tongue, and what seems to be a hedonist Techpriest. Which just kinda screams 'Radical' at you, or at least one who is diverged from the norm of the AdMech, but I hardly have a problem with that.


Page 20

Ys blinked a report of the current Imperial deployment into the noosphere, fed directly from the ship’s war-data collation facility.
<The Contqual subsector is still contested,> she canted. <Rauth’s strategeos are confident of bringing the suppression to completion during your tour. Orentas and Valon capitulated during the last standard month, freeing up resources for the final assault on Shardenus.>

The AdMech are collecting and analyzing data on the war effort - apparently across the subsector. Interesting.

Also battle is occuring across an entire subsector.


Page 21

<The Iron Hands are an interesting subject for psychological study, and Rauth conforms to type. Do not expect flexibility. He is careful with his objectives but careless with his assets.>
..
<He will never stop. Once set on his course, he will neither deviate nor slacken. I do not believe this to be a trait unique to him; I believe it to be a characteristic of the entire Chapter. A result, perhaps, of over-reliance on augmetics.>
..
<Though, in my limited experience, that sounds like most Chapters.>

Princeps and Magos talk about the Iron Hands, which sounds pretty accurate as they've been depicted. I found it amusing the Princeps considered them 'typical' of Marine Chapters in general though. Also reference to how they don't give a damn what others think.


Page 22

There would be much work ahead of them both before the Praxes formation would be ready for deployment, and bringing five Titan war engines and nine mechanised skitarii battalions to theatre amounted to a significant logistical headache.

AdMech forces on planet. Five titans and 9 Skitarri battalions (all mecanised.) Which seems to be a significant logistical issue for the AdMech... even though they've transported bigger forces before. I wonder how big a battalion is? 500? 1000? Sometimes a battalion is just another way to say 'company' and sometimes its a small regiment depending on sources.


Page 22

<Rauth has overall command of the Territo battlegroup and also leads a full clan of Iron Hands.>
Clan?>

<Chapter-specific designation, analogous to a Codex company: 136 Space Marines and 23,451 mortal auxiliaries deployed on five vessels including the strike cruiser Kalach. Four other clans are engaged throughout the subsector on other suppression missions, though from what I can gather they engage in little communication with one another.

The size of the Iron Hands forces, including naval assets. If this is 'standard' for a Clan company, even roughly, the Iron Hands would not neccesarily confirm strictly to the Codex Astartes, given they have something like 10 Clans, and each Clan is more akin to how the Space Wolves operate - virtually independently functioning from one another (although unlike the centralized Fang-based training of the Space wolves, who then get assigned to individual GReat companies, even the Iron Hands training is handled independently by each Company.) Anyhow, that might imply far more than 1000 MArines possible in the Chapter, but since recruitment and training is handled separately its likely that the clan companies are even more variable than normal companies (doctrine, inclination, recruitment/training rates and successes, etc.)

It would also imply some fifty starships or thereaboutes, although exact numbers depend on whether or not they have battle barges (and whether all companies do.) I'd figure they all at least have strike cruisers and some escrots though.

The real curiosity are the auxiliaries. Like the Wolves in Battle of the Fang (and possibly the Ultramar Defence Auxilia or the Rynnsguard from Rynn's World), it seems to imply that the Iron Hands have 'auxilia' foirmations, although this may also be referring to the serfs as well (I mainly reacted to the auxilia we saw later on.) We've long known that the Chapter Serfs can sometimes act as combat troops of course (esp shipboard serfS) but they usually were not numerous enough or specifically designated as being actual troops, whereas here it seems like they could be contributed militarily (why they werent' is.. another story. Remember Space Marine ships can operate on as few as a couple hundred or so serfs, yet with 5 ships thats an average or 4-5 thousand per ship!)

Page 22

<The Guard contingent is led by Lord General Raji Nethata. As we speak he is in the process of landing 127,000 troops, mostly drawn from the 126th Ferik Tactical. He also has command of two battalions of Harakoni drop-troops and seven battalions of heavy armour, plus the usual Naval support. I have uploaded the details to the core.>

<What do we know of Nethata?>

<A long service record, marked with seven distinguished commendations. Seventeen engagements are recorded with Martian involvement, and the tech-priests registered no complaints. Aside: I find myself admiring his mettle. He stood up to Rauth on several occasions during pre-deployment, and that is, I suspect, not easy for an unimproved human to do.>

IG forces on the planet. Note that they're outnumbered by the defenders by a minimum of 15-20 to one, and they're also hampered by the fact they're the defenders. Unless there are more troops en-route this is.. interesting, given the tactics nad such in this novel (And the implied attrition.)

Also a novel featuring the Harakoni Warhawks. About fucking time. I always wanted to see them because I thought they sounded so damn cool from the older IG codexes. Pity they're sole purpose here is to get massacred, but beggars can't be choosers.

Page 23

<Nethata appears to display concern for his men. He does not like seeing them used as expendable adjuncts to Rauth’s enthusiasm.>

Nice to know the IG General at least cares about his troops.

Page 24

New structures were already being built among the wreckage. Massive constructor vehicles had been landed – mobile gantries, corkscrew-nosed excavators and earthmovers with segmented tracks and swaying extractor claws. Pits were dug, power plants installed, medicae facilities erected, blast walls lowered, artillery points established. Constant streams of atmospheric landers descended from the orbital carriers bringing munitions, stores and troops with them. Among the columns of lifters wheeled the attack craft of the Imperial Navy – blunt-nosed Marauder bombers trailing with gouts of smog, Lightning fighter escorts screaming along in tight formations, Vulture gunships lurking over construction sites with their fuselage lights blinking in the gloom.

Imperial ground fortification construction and deployment of forces once the ground had been taken. Seems like its occured in a very short period of time as well.

Note as well the extensive air support.

Page 24

Planetfall had been achieved with acceptable losses, mostly due to the fire unleashed by Navy destroyers from orbit as well as clinical strikes launched by Iron Hands tactical squads.

Bombardment support from high orbit provided by Navy destroyers. Instead of low orbit, that is.

Page 24

The spire cluster of Shardenus Prime was void-shielded, ringed with artillery-studded walls and stuffed with millions of defenders. That fortress was the principal target, the nexus of the entire campaign, the linchpin upon which the fate of a dozen worlds and billions of lives rested.

Hive defenses. Note the void shields and 'millions' of defenders. Again the IG forces are fucking outnumbered massively, although with tens of thousands of Skitarii and Iron Hands forces apiece the odds are somewhat better. Heck if the Skitarii battalions are pretty large (close to 1000) they might be a significant contribution force-wise. Although that would mean they're only outnumbered by a small margin rather than an enormous one ( and that still assumes only a few million troops)

Also implied scale of the subsector - billions of people and a dozen worlds. hundreds of trillions, quadrillions of people in the Imperium easily.

Page 24-25

He knew that millions of men and women lodged there, rammed into hab-units like rats stuck in a sewer. He knew that they worked fourteen-hour days in humming, clanging manufactoria, churning out lines of munitions and machine parts. He knew that they retired after those periods, exhausted, for scant rest in tiny rooms that stank of stale urine and were illuminated by flickering, insect-choked lumen-bars.
Above all, he knew that the core activities of humanity – eating, sleeping, making love, laughing, dreaming – were only fitfully remembered in there. Those people lived a half-existence of stress and drudgery, sustained in life only by the Imperium’s endless, ravenous need to keep them on their feet long enough to produce more raw material for the galaxy-wide war machine.

Such souls had ceased to be individuals worthy of pity or consideration. They were components – ingredients – in the eternal feast, a feast upon which mightier forces gorged themselves.

Nethata knew all that. He’d seen the same acts played out across a hundred worlds, all wreathed in smog like Shardenus, all home to nothing more than toil and despair.

Gotta love the living conditions of the hive and industrial worlds of the Imperium, don't ya? Although ONLY 14 hour workdays is probably better outright slavery (but not by much). Considering they only have a 21 hour day that means.. 7 hours to relax (such as they may) and sleep. Kinda like people IRL having to work 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet, I guess, only more Grimdark. Still it could be worse. I think the 'retarded' version was like 20+ hour workdays and a few hours to sleep or something equally silly.

Page 27-28

"I do. The men we kill on this world believe, fervently, that they are fighting for the Emperor."
"Yes, I’ve seen the same reports," said Heriat.
...
"This world is governed by powers who wish the ruin of humanity," he said. "My psykers froth at the mouth and warn me of horrors growing in those spires, and even I can feel it."
..
"It takes time to corrupt a world," he said. "And do not fool yourself – how many of our men understand why they fight? They follow orders. They believe what we tell them. I make sure of it."
...
"I do not like that," he said. "The death of heretics brings me joy; the death of the ignorant does not."
"I have agents in the hives, already working," said Heriat. "If we can persuade them, they will rise up and join us; if not, we will kill them. In either case, their souls will be saved."

Neshata has his own psykers which tell him something bad is happening (eg Chaos) but the actual people they're fighting are loyal (but misguided). Talk about intel.

Also the Commissars conduct some propoganda and insurrection measures to gain the aid of loyalists in the Hive. Again better than the 'go in, slaughter everyone and let the God Emperor sort them out' grimdark mentality you'd expect.

On the other hand, this is yet another obvious downside to the 'ignorance and obedience to authority' angle of the Imperium - if someone (like Chaos) can coopt that same leadership it's easier to control a given populace. The only saving grace is humanity's refusal to conform. Of course that lack of conformity also benefits Chaos as well...

Page 29

Like everything else on the Helat, they were prefabricated units – created in the forges of void-going starships and lifted down to the surface by a procession of landers. The buildings were unlike the ferrocrete bunkers of the Imperial Guard...

...Though each structure had stood in place for less than a local diurnal cycle, they looked as if they had been there forever. Ash blew against the heavy foundations and slipped over the molecule-smooth outer finish.

Iron Hands gorund facility. Note the mention of prefabrication - this probably suggests the base being constructed on the ground for the Guard is probably prefab as well.

Also 'molecule smooth' outer finish, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Page 30

..all over three metres tall and clad in the gigantic curves of Terminator armour.

Height of Terminators

Page 33-34

”He objects to the pace of the assault. He advocated alternative tactics, vocally, in our strategic briefings.”
...
"These here, the Prime cluster, constitute the governing centre of the planet. Many others exist across the northern continent. They process the planet’s food and weapon stockpiles. He wanted to attack them first, to starve Shardenus Prime of supplies and wait for it to weaken."
...
"Time. I cannot wait for the principal hives to grow hungry."
..
"The hives can be taken by direct assault"
...
"We have the weapons, the numbers, for this?"
"We do."
...
"I see why Nethata objects," he said. "His forces will be ravaged."
...
"The forces we have encountered thus far are deluded but not mutated. As we progress, that will change. "

Rauth is basically indicating Chaos corruption of the Hive's leadership, and something nefarious being planned, hence the extreme losses and need for speed. Apparnetly he fears som esort of Chaos ritual. Which, despite the attrition, is a valid reason for trading lives for time. LAst thing you wnat is a daemon world popping up, which is also why Rauth mentions in this discussion why onl ythe Librarian might be able to fight at the core of the resistance (EG things of the Warp.)

Again they also have the numbers and equipment to take a void shielded hive of millions of defenders, with around 130,000 guardsmen, plus tens of thousands of Iron Hands auxilia and skitarri, a hundred or so Space Marines, five titans, and all the armour and vehicles along with that. Oh and the naval air support. As I said that's... damn impressive even if they take huge losses in the process.

That said, I don't blame Neshata for wanting to employ alternative tactics, and it makes sense given what he knows. The problem throughout this book is that the Iron Hands know more than they let on, and it creates massive problems.

Page 37

Valien pulled the synthskin clear of his inner wrist, exposing his locator. Schematics of the Capitolis hive complex spun into hololithic detail in front of him, glowing softly in the dim light. He got his bearings quickly.

Death Cult Assassin gear. I suspect 'synthskin' is supposed to be 'synskin'

Pae 38-39

Valien flicked his arm out, revealing the palm-sized needle gun. He shot the woman cleanly through the joint between her helmet and neck-guard. Her visor sprayed with blood and she went down messily, choking and gasping. Before her escorts had time to react he fired again, sending needles into their unprotected faces. They toppled on top of one another, leaking blood in thin streams from tiny puncture wounds.
..
The tiny muzzles of his needle gun slipped back into his gauntlet.

Assassin's needlegun and effects. Seems to be gauntlet-mounted.

PAge 40

She didn’t have a scheduled slot in the hygiene station for another two days, and even then she knew she wouldn’t be able to scrub it all off – it would take more than five minutes of standing under a lukewarm trickle of recycled water with a handful of foamy dermacleanse to scour the filth of the hive from her flesh.

The fact they get baths at all is amazing.

Page 40

...the holovids on the communal picts, in which manicured speakers from the information departments delivered exhortations to the workers to improve faltering production rates.

Public Televions I suppose. I wonder if there's a 40K version of Mr Roger's neighborhood?

Page 43

.. were a mix of social strands that would never have been tolerated in less straitened times: Guard officers, machinists, gangers, medicae, hive officials, transit operatives, all shoved cheek-by-jowl and in constant fear of discovery.

Khadi, however, seemed to have a personal grudge against anyone not raised in the grime-swilling depths of the lower levels with the gang-tattoos and limb deformities to prove it

This makes the fact that gangers (underhivers or low hivers basically) get baths at all frankly amazing, since the previous mention to hygiene stations was Khadi, meaning a underhiver-type.

Page 44

He’d recognised her qualities immediately – the fierce, semi-savage expression that spoke of well-deep resolve, her physical toughness, her clear vision of what needed to be done. Khadi would have made a fine Guard recruit if things had been different.

Qualtiies of hive-born Guard material. I should note that this is pretty hilarious, given that hivers
(underhivers, ganger types) tend to be as independent minded as some Death worlds or feral worlds, and that they make good (ideal) mateiral for the Guard is pretty hilarious, given that the Munitourm favors unthinking conformity and selfless self-sacrifice for said Munitourm (as exemplified by the Meat Droids of Krieg, who are ironically abused and dehumanised.)

Page 45

Valien. A codename, presumably, one that changed with every assignment. He served under the Commissariat, so he said, and was an assassin. Not a Temple assassin, but from a death cult...

One of those 'agents' spoken of. Only the Commissariat would think of using an Assassin as a a spokesperson.

Page 46

"The whole Contqual subsector is in rebellion, and has been in rebellion for a long time. Even now the armies of the Immortal Emperor are spread out across whole star systems to combat the contagion. As you sit here listening to me, millions of men are fighting across a hundred battlefields. "

Again subsector-wide battle involving millions, but its implied a hundred battlefields. If we assume each battlefield is similar to Shardenus, we're probably tlaking more like tens of millions. Although 'battlefield' may not mean a single planet (in fact, probably does not, given the aforementioned dozen worlds.)

Page 49-50

With a squeeze of his ring finger he shot a miniscule dose of tranquilox into his bloodstream.
...
They felt tense, despite the tranquilox. He was having to gland more of it every day and the reliance had begun to bother him.

Some sort of gland that can inject drugs, like Gland warriors in some respects it seems.

Page 52-53

...five gigantic mass conveyors...
...
Five vast engines threw immense quantities of promethium-blaze into the atmosphere...
...
The skull and cog insignia of the Adeptus Mechanicus was engraved into the sides of each one – ten metres in diameter...
...
The ship was nearly twice as tall as it was deep and wide. Almost all of its bulk seemed to be taken up with a single immense load-bay.

The forward-facing flank of the ship was wreathed in steam. Despite that, two words could be made out across its surface, graven in High Gothic letters five metres high.

"Legio Astorum."

Size of AdMech Titan 'mass conveyor' lander. Roughly twice as long as it is tall/wide. 5 metre letters (Legio Astorum) suggests its maybe 40-60 meters wide (about the size of a Warlord depending on your source) and therefore maybe 80-120 meters long.

Page 53

Two gigantic treads were revealed at ground level, each one many metres across and clad in thick blast armour

Warlord titan feet.

Page 54

Nethata knew that the god-machine would not take a single step for several hours; not while the machine-spirit within was sluggish from the orbital drop. Days might pass before it would be ready to deploy on the battlefront.

Deployment time on Warlord Titan.

Page 55

Guardsmen were reassured by the presence of Titans. Unlike Space Marines, whose actions seemed to have little to do with their safety or protection, Titans were always visible, looming over the battlefield ready to unleash a hurricane of destructive hellfire at the enemy.

An interesting statement, since we've got plenty of novels where Space Marines serve an inspirational role.

PAge 56

Like all members of the Chapter, his left hand had long been replaced with a mechanical facsimile, and it was likely most of his internal organs were either vat-grown substitutes or full-metal analogues.

Clone organs.


Page 57-58

The Gorgas had once been a thriving industrial zone, jammed with overspill manufactoria from the main hive cluster. Morvox remembered absorbing the tactical data while aboard the Kalach with the rest of the clave: 2.3 million inhabitants (estimate); 87 per cent employed in heavy/mid-heavy industry; 12 per cent military levy; prodigious, if irregular, production quotas; minimal protective establishment.
...
Once Territo’s Navy blockade had commenced the fire from orbit had been relentless. With no voids to speak of, the Gorgas had been turned, within hours, into a havoc of burning metal and exploding incendiaries.

An orbital barrage of such magnitude left little behind it but dust.
...
Metal struts lay in twisted, skeletal piles across the pitted earth. A few walls remained in place, though most had been blasted apart...
...
...the ruins of a standard-pattern Ecclesiarchy chapel.
...
...the wreckage, had been a collection of old hab-units. The blocks must have once been six, maybe seven, storeys; now they were little more than indeterminate heaps of debris with the occasional steel doorframe poking up from the ruin.

Devastaiton infliced by hours long bombardment of unshielded industrial zone of unknown size by unknown weapons from an unknown number of Naval destroyers. 2.3 million casualties at least, but it doesn't look too nasty. I'd guess some sort of airbursting warheads (lack of obvious cratering, and minimal indication of thermal effects.) and probably low yield weapons (low nuclear at best, or possibly even conventional). Considering they bombed the place from high orbit (suggesting high accuracy and more than likely a purpose-built orbitla bombardment vessel) and they want to take the planet, this is not surprising.

Also 12% of the industiral zone population militia, which suggests a 1 in 8 (or 9) recruitment rate for that.

Page 58

Like all the bunkers dotted across the Gorgas, the structure was hexagonal and low-profile. Morvox knew the basic pattern from experience: a central chamber within, containing anything up to a hundred troops....

Another bunker like the earlier one.

Page 59

A las-beam snapped out from Gergiz’s position, as wide as a man’s arm, and cracked into the bunker’s left side.

Lascannon blast. Implied diameter of 8-10 cm.

Page 62

Their heavy boots crunched through flak-jackets, armour plates and bones..

The PDF/Guard defenders wear both armor plate of some kind (rigid flakplates or carapace) and flak.

Page 62

Khatir paused for a second. Morvox could see the tell-tale flicker of his lens-mounted augurs as they ran a scan of the space beyond the closed doors.

The inside of the bunker has intenral defensive scanners.

Page 64

Cables hung from the ceiling, fizzing angrily and throwing bizarre flickers of light across the space. Cogitator banks, destroyed by the missile blast, vomited showers of sparks across the floor as their machine-spirits dissipated. A series of pict screens around the edge of the room showed nothing but static.

The bunker has more pict screens and cogitators as well.

Page 69

They called it sky sickness. Khadi suffered from it, and hated it.

Another case where Hive Worlders have agoraphobia.

Page 70-71

It housed massive batteries of defensive weaponry – lascannons, plasma cannons, heavy bolters, missile launchers. At the heart of it all were six volcano cannons, truly gigantic las-weapons designed for the express purpose of taking down super-heavy targets.

Shardenus Prime possessed many such defence towers, all spaced out along the hundreds of kilometres of perimeter wall, fully manned and bristling with ordnance.

Hive defenses. Not necesarily anti-orbital stuff, but its designed to take down some truly big shit on the ground all the same. And there's apparently 'hundreds' of kilometers of wall, suggesting the hive itslef is a good 60-70 km in diameter (assuming a circular hive, at least.)


Page 71

"Valien’s got us breathing gear," said Marivo. "He’s got us environment suits, weapons, auspexes, the lot. It’s not that far."
...
"Rebreathers? They’ll clog before we get halfway. That’s why they built the transit tubes. It’s why they insulate the hives."

Fancy shit for a Death Cultist to be giving to insurrectionists. I'd imagine the Guard has access to at least similar stuff. Also apparently the breathing gear isn't good enough to put up with the hive world's atmospheric enviroment. Whether this says somethign about the quality of the gear, or the severity of the weather we don't know.

Page 73-74

The itch, he called it – that nagging, persistent desire to strip away the weakness of organic matter and replace it with mechanical components.
...
Was that a bad thing? Was it not simply the logical outcome of everything his Chapter believed in?
...
You embrace your corrupted flesh, he mused, looking at the eyeless slab of cold meat on the table. We shun it. Which of us, I wonder, has the worse affliction?

A brief allusion to the mania the Iron hands have for cybernetic augmentation because of their perceptions of the weakness of the flesh. And again: are they truly 'strong' for sacrificing their organic, human parts in order to become more cybernetic? An interesting side part of this is that Telach, the Librarian, mentions that the Iron Fathers have the 'luxury' to be singleminded and mentally inflexible. The Libarians and their connection to the warp do not permit them such illusions.

Page 76

"We must prevent the Guard storming the remaining Gorgas bunkers – prepare kill-teams from Raukaan to eliminate any that still exist."
...
"We cannot shield them from this – once the mortals are inside the Capitolis they will see horror in plenty."
"By which time it will be too late to retreat." said Rauth. "I do not want them losing their nerve before the walls are taken."

This basically boils down to that whole 'flesh is weak' obsession they have. They're afraid (hah) that the Guard is so weak they'll run in terror once they see the HORRIBLE MUTANTS. Because it's totally not as if the Imperium hasn't spent years (decades) indoctrinating its people about how horrible mutation is and how they should hate and fear and destroy it. The Iron Hand's bias extends to a distrust of and disregard for their comrades, and probably plays no small part in Rauth not giving a damn about the losses he will incur in his haste to take the facility.

This also creates some significant blind spots in the Iron Hands. Because they think the bunkers are now hosting mutants, they divert from assisting the IG attack (whilst refusing to delay the assault) so that they can go cleanse the bunkers and keep the IG from finding out about the horrible mutants. Meaning the Guard takes even more losses trying to assault the city than they would if the Iron Hands were there. Of course we learn there is more going on with the Iron Hands than they tell the IG.

Page 77

He wore the uniform of a Shardenus arbitrator, one of the many thousands charged with maintaining order in the bulk of the cavernous hive structure.

Thousands of Arbitrators (Enforcers?) in the Hive.

Page 77

Some of the filtration towers were vulnerable, and he’d fed the coordinates of those he knew about to Heriat. If they could somehow be destroyed, then the incoming rush of toxic gases from the wasteland zones would kill more of the defenders than lasguns would.

The 'agents' inside acting as provacateurs are also feeding them vital information as far as weak points to hit. Again focusing on attacking things that might defeat the enemy easier.

Page 77

Valien withdrew a tube from under his suit and took a frugal sip of nutrient-rich liquid. He felt the familiar cocktail of relaxants, restoratives and clarifiers swim into his blood.

Some sort of liquid food supply with some useful drugs/chemicals in it. I wonder if its a Death Cult special or something more common to the Imperial forces behind enemy lines.

PAge 78-79

He’d needed better direction back then, a channel through which to apply his boundless thirst for secret suffering.

Talica had given that to him. Talica had taught him the mysteries of the divine, and Talica had snatched him away from the futility of indulgent violence.

After that he’d killed for a higher purpose...

This provides an interesting insight into why Death Cults might be tolerated. It provides perhaps one of the few ways a psychopath or other mass-murdering lunatic might be turned towards productive ends for the benefit of the Imperium (or one of its various adepta.) Which is both interesting.. and horrifying in the way. Not unlike Penal Legionnaires, they take something that woudl otherwise be horrible and destructive to Imperail society and turn it into something useful. And yet.. still horrifying that they use such tools, because Valien (here) also mentions that the indoctrination is not perfect and the psychopath may return to their old ways.

I wonder if a parallel to the 'Dexter' novels or TV series might be appropriate. (It's okay to kill, as long as you kill for the good guys.)


Page 80-81

"Shunted into your system – study them and signal back if anything’s unclear."
...
He turned the communicator over and flicked a switch. His tasking scrolled across a holographic field in front of him, spelling in out in precise, military-format detail what Nethata expected of him

Some sort of data transmission I guess transmitted from the IG headquarters to the Death Cultist's
communicator.


Page 84

Nethata drew in a deep breath, looking like he was considering objecting further, just as he had done over the choice of landing sites, over the timetable of the advance, over the tactics of frontal assault rather than siege.

More evidence of the Iron Hands being dicks.


Page 88-89

He shifted focus, slotting more explicitly into the pseudo-visual world of the Manifold. The Titan’s own perceptions merged with his, folding into an amalgam of real-world visual stimuli and overlaid battle-data.
...
Lopi held his left hand up before his face, watching as the real flesh, as insubstantial as an x-ray, passed through the miasma of targeting information, engine-health feedback and other sundry aspects of his host’s mechanical life.

Titan sensors and the mind impulse derived imagery the princeps sees.

Page 90

Even before the weapons had been charged and loaded he felt the potential for extraordinary violence vibrate from every rivet and bulkhead.

Titans have rivets.


Page 91

Down on the plain, a single tread lifted, trailing ash behind it as it rose into the air. The movement was stiff, arthritic, as hundreds of tonnes of adamantium and steel were propelled upwards in the stately simulacrum of a human foot moving.

Weight of the foot of a Warlord.


Page 92

He would have been more comfortable wearing a rebreather but had eschewed such visible signs of weakness: the men needed to know that their commissars were suffering alongside them.

A commissar playing the 'symbolic' role rather than 'executioner' role. Rather more impressive if you ask me.

Page 92-93

Since the first landings, the Guard’s Helat base of operations had grown into a sprawling city in its own right. Barracks and hangars had sprung up in every direction. Defence towers dotted the landscape, each crowned with a knot of multi-barrelled AA weapons. A perimeter fence had gone up, crested with razor-wire and interrupted at thirty-metre intervals with infantry-shredding auto-cannon stations.
Seven separate airfields operated throughout Shardenus’s twenty-one-hour diurnal cycle.

Base facilities, also mention of the 21 hour planetary cycle. Remember those 14 hour work shifts..?


Page 93

Shardenus Prime had stood for several thousand years and seen off several significant threats in that time, so the architects of its defences had had plenty of time to learn their business.

Implied cycle of attacks, implies centuries of relative peace between major attacks. Again GALAXY AT WAR... sometimes, and in some places.

Page 93

They stood in ranks four deep, wearing the armour that would take them into combat. The pilots wore standard black fatigues with open-faced helmets and minimal blast-protection. The drop-troops had been kitted out in full carapace armour. Their helmets were ungainly from rebreathers and armoured lens-arrays, and they carried heavy grav-chutes on their backs.

Harakoni warhawks in full gear. Note the 'lens arrays' which could mean goggles or something more sophisticated (like the sensor display visors the Elysians have).

I also have to note the Warhawks having Carapace armour rather than flak makes a hell of alot more sense than what the Elysians pack.

Page 94

His voice rang out across the apron, transmitted by tiny augmenter relays in his suit collar, and the troops complied instantly.

Commissar's version of a bullhorn, I guess.


Page 95-96

Heriat allowed his voice to rise; to strengthen, to encourage. He was capable of fearsome levels of intimidation when the occasion demanded it, but this was not one of those times.
...
"Harakonari an tellika refala!"

The last sentence was in Konndar, the dominant dialect on Harakon. Heriat wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, but had been assured by his ethnographic staff in the Commissariat that it was suitably rousing.

Something to do with loyal spouses at home.

"Tellika refala!" they roared with real enthusiasm.
...
"What I just said."

"Sir?"

"It didn’t mean what I thought it did, did it?"

Aikino smiled.

"I doubt it. Do you want to know what you told them?"

Yet another case where the Commissars show they're far more than just Executioners. Indeed, it goes a long way towards demonstrating this is perhaps the less important of their duties. Having a department of the Commissariat dedicated to researching a culture for important bits for said Commissars to use in motivating troops is not something you would need to do if you intended to rule simply through fear, is it? It reinforces that 'psychology' aspect of the Commissar, even if it is just a form of manipulation.

Also I'd love to know what is actually being alluded to in the Commisar's phraes, but I really didn't get the joke if there was one - I either lack the context or I'm just not understanding it right *shrugs*


Page 96

. His breathing echoed noisily in his enclosed helmet, made worse by the filtration apparatus lodged below the visor. The armour Valien had sourced was cumbersome, made clumsier by its extra blast-cladding and stringent environment filters.

The rebels inside the city got some very neat gear as we discover. Apparently the armour has extra.. armoruing. And fully enclosed armour/helmets at that.

Page 97

"Keep close!" he hissed again over the vox.

A quick look over his shoulder confirmed what he’d suspected: some of his men were managing their heavy las-packs well and running well..

Again more neat toys for the rebels. Backpack power sources for lasguns, and personal helmet comms. The guard in this novel must be at least as well equipped in some degree if the rebels are. I wonder if its regular Guard gear, or storm trooper gear, or what? The Commissariat is clearly providing it, so it must come from their own supply lines/access...

Page 100

Marivo ran his auspex over the tower’s foundations, searching for the trace signal left at the required position.

The Rebels have auspex as well. Valien really equipped them well.

Page 103

He grabbed the shaft of his lasgun while he ran and hefted it clumsily, struggling not to trip over the trailing cables to the power-pack on his back.

Again power backpack for lasweapon, rather than clips



Page 103

The interior of the tower enveloped him. He was plunged into darkness, and it took a few moments for his helmet to compensate.

That would seem to imply that the Rebels helmets have some sort of low light/night vision function as well, although its noted they still need lamps/luminators to see too.


Page 104-105

Ahead of him were the generators – five massive machines over ten metres tall and cased in pitted bronze cages. The red glow came from the coils within them, throbbing angrily with the energies needed to power the heavy weapons above.

Defence tower power generators, for cannon, rocket/missiles, lascannon and plasma weapons.


Page 105

.. firing one-handed up at the gantry.

He managed to get a single shot away before a whole torrent of las-beams burst towards him. He felt one impact sharply on his shoulder guard, and he flew backwards through the air, landing with a crack on the ferrocrete of the floor.

Lasgun fired one handed, and las shot hits shoulder armour (rigid plate) and is seemingly stopped, although it transmits considerable momentum I'd gather (either enough to knock him off balance and fall down, or enough to physically push him down.)


Page 106

.. a shot to pierce his shoulder, lancing through the gap between his torso plate and shoulder guard and tearing clean through muscle. He cried out, crashing into the doorframe as his body spasmed in pain.

Las shot seems to sever muscles in the shoulder. Calcing will be reserved for further data later on.


Page 107-109

The Gorgas Maleon rose up on the horizon, studded with still-burning wreckage. Beyond that, dark and immense against a blurred horizon, were the artificial mountains of Shardenus Prime.
...
"Watch yourself," she said. "Incoming."

By then the Valkyries had reached their full attack velocity. Moving in concert, the waves of gunships thundered over the pitted landscape of the Gorgas, sweeping in long, broken lines.
...
The terrain up ahead of them broke into sudden, silent fire. Hard neon lights flared out from the perimeter walls of the hive, joined a fraction afterwards by the crack and bang of their discharge. Las-beams flickered past, lancing between the racing Valkyries like spears of starlight.
..
Soon the Valkyrie was barely skimming the tops of the Gorgas ruins, weaving around the taller debris as it roared into range. The other pilots did the same, and their craft hurtled along at near ground-level.
...
The barrage of fire from the hive ahead was intensifying.
..
A stream of tracer rounds found its target...
...
Las-beams and plasma bolts danced out at him...

Harakoni forces make their assault and come under defensive fire from the towers. Laser, plasma and solid projectile (tracers here but also rockets later) open fire at them, although I suspect the energy weapons (and possibly rockets) engage further out. Based on the Map for WoI and the estimated size of the Gorgas relative to Shardenus (my previosu estimate based on the walls) I'd estimate point defense ranges of at least many kilometers for all the weapons, perhaps several tens of km for the energy weapons (engaging shortly on the outer edge of the Gorgas, and backed up by low level flying and both the Hive and Gorgas appearing over horizon.)


Page 110

His rocket-launchers finally acquired a target, and he loosed them both, watching as they streaked off towards the walls. Then he opened fire with the multilaser mounted on the hull.

Valkyrie has guided rockets, I guess.


Page 110-111

Nethata leaned over the circular tabletop, staring intently at the hololithic projections shimmering in front of him.
..
"Orders to increase pace relayed to Galamoth commanders," reported a steel-faced servitor on the other side of the hololith table. "Dispatch received: They are hampered by terrain."
..
.. watching as the signals from another half-dozen Valkyries blinked out of existence.

Hololithic table giving battle information (visual and audio) and the relaying of orders from the General.


Page 111

he felt the heat of bolts as they crackled into the space he’d just occupied...

Passage of lasfire has noticable heat from some distance away. Unfortunately without knowing distances involved and amount of air heated we can't really estimate much beyond this. We do know near-miss lasfire can cause burns (Eg Rebel Winter)


Page 112-113

..the wound in his shoulder flared up with agonising pain. It was all he could do to stay conscious.
...
.. feeling his arm go numb.
...
.. his useless arm slap painfully against his side..
...
His shoulder felt like a wet hunk of semi-cooked meat ..
..
His wounded shoulder throbbed agonisingly, and he felt blood slip down the inside of his armour.

The aformentioned lasshot that severed muscles in the shoulder also inflicts severe pain and some apparent burning (second degree maybe?). Arm is crippled, and the wound is not completely cauterized (if at all) given the bleeding. The bone is quite obviously not severed, either, even if the muslces were torn in the blast. It seems to be a shallow, wide wound torn in the body. assuming 5-10 cm radius we might figure between 30 and 250 sq cm affected. For 'flaying' 400 J per sq sm over that area we get between 12 and 100 kj. Double digit kj seems like a likely bet, although as I noted the bolt sucks penetration-wise since the bone is largely intact.

Alternately it might just be a highly thermal weapon with little or no mechanical damage involved (or purely as a side effect, such as the expansion effects of sudden vaporization) it might be an order of magnitude or greater than the mre 'mechanical' dmaage implied if the thermal effects are mor eprevalent. Naturally it also depends on the actual area affected,so the actual yield could be greater (or less) than I estimate as well.


Page 112

..now his visor was cracked and his armour compromised.

Rebel armour provided by commissariat spy was self contained as well as having rigid plates and some sort of low light mode.


Page 114

The perimeter wall of the hive raced towards them. It curved high up into the air – two hundred metres tall and dwarfed only by the colossal spires beyond it.

Height of the hive walls.

[Bedlam]

Page 95-96

Quote:

Heriat allowed his voice to rise; to strengthen, to encourage. He was capable of fearsome levels of intimidation when the occasion demanded it, but this was not one of those times.
...
"Harakonari an tellika refala!"

The last sentence was in Konndar, the dominant dialect on Harakon. Heriat wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, but had been assured by his ethnographic staff in the Commissariat that it was suitably rousing.

Something to do with loyal spouses at home.

"Tellika refala!" they roared with real enthusiasm.
...
"What I just said."

"Sir?"

"It didn’t mean what I thought it did, did it?"

Aikino smiled.

"I doubt it. Do you want to know what you told them?"


Yet another case where the Commissars show they're far more than just Executioners. Indeed, it goes a long way towards demonstrating this is perhaps the less important of their duties. Having a department of the Commissariat dedicated to researching a culture for important bits for said Commissars to use in motivating troops is not something you would need to do if you intended to rule simply through fear, is it? It reinforces that 'psychology' aspect of the Commissar, even if it is just a form of manipulation.

Also I'd love to know what is actually being alluded to in the Commisar's phraes, but I really didn't get the joke if there was one - I either lack the context or I'm just not understanding it right *shrugs*


I can't say I understand it either but based on the loyal spouses part I think he might have told them they're going to get laid after the battle, could be considered 'suitably rousing'

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Yet another case where the Commissars show they're far more than just Executioners. Indeed, it goes a long way towards demonstrating this is perhaps the less important of their duties. Having a department of the Commissariat dedicated to researching a culture for important bits for said Commissars to use in motivating troops is not something you would need to do if you intended to rule simply through fear, is it? It reinforces that 'psychology' aspect of the Commissar, even if it is just a form of manipulation.

Based on real-life precedent, a commissar's role could easily include morale and public relations.

Battle of the Fang, Chapter 8

Page 164

Rubricae carry crystal-bladed power swords in addition to their bolters.

Page 165

Rossek saw Scarjaw bound across the rocks to his right, hurling himself against two Rubric Marines, his black pelts streaming behind him. The Grey Hunter slowed and froze, locked in an impossible, half-completed lunge.
The rest of the pack succumbed, first dragging as if wading through crude oil, then grinding to a halt.
Rossek whirled round, aghast, before feeling the heaviness pull on his own limbs.
'Fight it, brothers!' he bellowed, sensing the taint of maleficarum, tasting the unholy stench of sorcery as it sank into his limbs. The runes on his armour blazed red, flaring in defiance against the incoming waves of corruption. His vision wavered, going cloudy at the edges as if mists had rolled across the valley floor with unnatural suddenness. 'Fight it!'

The Thousand Sons using some kind of Psychic power, most likely slowing down Time. Interestingly Rossak's armour can detect it happening.

Page 179

The room was nine metres in diameter, and perfectly circular, its walls polished to a mirror sheen. Even Temekh's eyes, attuned to imperfection in all its forms, could see no flaw on its surface, the result of decades of labour by his neophytes before they'd even been told about the mission to Fenris. The floor was similarly smooth and reflective. The ceiling, some twenty metres distant, was decorated extensively. Zodiacal figures and the five Platonic Solids were picked out in lines of gold and amethyst, all arranged around the central device of the eye.
The Eye. When did that become our emblem? Did any of us think about what it says, what it means?

Ahmuz Temekh's chamber aboard the Herumon. The purpose it serves seems to require its surfaces to be perfectly smooth. We also have an implication that the attack on Fenris was many decades in the planning and preparation at least.

Temekh looked upwards with his psi-sight, scrutinizing the design. The images, though rendered beautifully, were not mere decoration - they were placed precisely at certain points in relation to the centre of the chamber, points determined by the harmonics they induced within the aether and the resonances that created.
It was sometimes assumed by practicae and other neophytes that the immaterium and materium had no precise relationship, and that what happened in one was only imperfectly mirror in the other. That wasn't true, despite how hazy those relations could appear to the uninitiated. The causal links were more constant and more concrete than any existing purely in the physical realm, thought it took a lifetime of study to see how the infinite elements of the sundered universes harmonised with one another. Even master sorcerers needed symbols in order to make sense of those deep meanings; images were a part of that, as were names.

A little on the relationship between the Warp and the Material universe.

Page 181

The universe had learned over the aeons to resist the imposition of pure psychic essence. The Materium had a soul of its own - this, too, was not widely known - a generalised ability to defer incursions from the other side of the veil. If it had not, then the power of the daemonic would long since have run riot across the mortal galaxy.
In order to do what his master wished, that power had to be neutralised, to be gently, carefully prised apart. Ahriman had once called it singing the universe to sleep. It was an apt description.

Ahmuz's interpretation of why the Warp can only manifest in the physical universe under certain conditions.

Chapter 9

Page 184

The Gate itself, wide enough for a hundred men to walk through abreast, had been sanctified by the Rune Priests and painted with fresh signs of aversion. The colossal structure of admantium, granite and ceramite bristled with linked boltgun turrets, rocket launchers, and static plasma cannons. The firepower collected there was vast, the kind of arsenal more suited to a battle cruiser group than a land-bound citadel.

The Sunrising Gate of the Fang.

Page 185

Greyloc claims that the Thousand Sons have been planning the attack for centuries. Sturmhjart once again insists that their psychic powers have nothing to do with the Wyrd.

Page 194

The assault on the Fang begins on the eighth day since the Thousand Sons arrived.

Page 195

The host assembled by the invaders, revealed in the glare of the late noon sun, was beyond anything he'd seen marching under a Traitor's banner. The Great Scouring had devasted the Legions of the Betrayers, and Magnus' own troops had been thinned out during the inferno on Prospero. In the intervening centuries, they had clearly been busy.

Greyloc believes that the Traitor Legions took heavy losses after the Horus Heresy.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Battle of the Fang, continued

Chapter 10

Page 224

Even as they bled and scrambled for cover, the witches were learning a lesson, the same lesson that had been learned by every Rune Priest since the Allfather had brought the way of the Wyrd to the frozen Death World.
Sturmhjart knew it. He had known it for centuries, and took delight in making it as clear as the ice itself to those who dared defy him.
We do not defend Fenris. Fenris defends us. The world, the people, are one. We share a soul, a soul of hatred, and now it comes to you, dark on the wings of the storm.
Learn it well, for soon this truth will kill you.

Sturmhjart has used his powers to unleash a storm on the attackers, strong enough to throw aircraft to the ground and generally wreak havoc. He is still absolutely convinced that the Wyrd is not the same as the Warp. The mention of the Emperor bringing the Wyrd disciplines to Fenris suggests that he may have invented them as a relatively safe way of drawing on psychic power. I also wonder if Fenris might not actually possess some sort of self-awareness, similar to an Eldar Maiden world.

Chapter 11

Page 235

+What progress, brother?+ Aphael sent, knowing the inquiry would irritate Temekh, hundreds of kilometres above in the Herumon.

The Herumon is orbiting at an altitude of several hundred kilometres.

Page 241

The boom of the detonations ran along the ground, shaking the roots of the mountains, shivering veins of rock that ran kilometres down. Gate-breakers, vast engines of destruction, settled into their firing formation. Single gun-barrels, mounted on immense armoured tracks, two hundred metres long, dark as the shadows of the Underfang and streaked with the smoking patina of war. They'd been hauled into position under the barrage of the lesser artillery and were now unleashed.
Each engine was a piece of tech-sorcery in itself, a fusion of forbidden devices and proscribed mechanics from across a dozen lost worlds.

The Thousand Sons bring up their Gate-breakers. They seem to be artillery pieces made from weird-tech.

Page 242

They fired. They all kept firing. The detonations were tremendous, scattering the ranks of troops around them, scrambling auspex readings, overloading auditory feeds, atomising the very air as huge neon-yellow beams of energy lanced to their targets. The explosions of impact were like tidal-waves - huge thundering walls of rippling flame that sluiced down the already tortured flanks of the Fang.

The effects of the Gate-breakers.

Page 243

Their only purpose was to break the portals of the Fang, to disintegrate the protection over Russ's fortress and render it as broken as the scoured wastelands of Prospero. Thousands had died to create them, their souls welded into the structures to bind the infernal powers within. The Legion had exhausted itself on them, poured every resource it still had into them, knowing full well that they would be used only once.
They were statements, those devices.
We will ruin ourselves, starve ourselves, cripple our future viability and leave ourselves destitute, all so long as we can destroy the gates that bar your citadel.

The Gate-breakers are at least partially Warp-based. And in case it wasn't obvious, the Thousand Sons are really out for blood this time.

Page 246

It shrugged off skjoldtar fire as if it were a hail of pebbles. The Traitor Marine moved incredibly quickly for one of its huge size, hurling barricades against the wall and pumping bolt-rounds into the exposed troops before whirling round to smash apart more flimsy pieces of cover.
...
Blackwing pushed his barricade aside and launched a stream of bolts directly at the Rubric Marine. It evaded some of them, swaying back with astonishing agility.

Astartes Power Armour can handle skjoldtar fire. Also, Rubricae aren't as slow and clumsy as some portrayals would suggest.

Page 247

The Rubricae's armour is Mark IV.

Page 249

The Rubric marine stood immobile three metres away, locked in a half-completed stride forwards. The sorcerer had crumpled to the floor, his robes burning with lurid flames and his armour prized open, The flesh within was...horrible.
'Do not look yet,' came a familiar voice.
Ignoring the advice, Blackwing craned his head round to see where it had come from.
Neiman was there, rebinding his Warp-eye. The Navigator looked shaky, and his face was pale.
'I came to get you,' he said, furiously. 'And thank the bloody Emperor I did, you stupid bastard.'

Neiman the Navigator pulls Blackwing's fat out of the fire. His warp-eye has managed to take out a Rubric marine and a sorcerer, albeit slightly foxed. The description of him being 'shaky' and 'pale' implies that he was cranking up the power.

Page 250

Greyloc's helm can process and prioritize 'thousands' of life signs.

Page 261

Twelve dreadnoughts are awakened. Based on the severity of the situation, this is likely all that was available.

Chapter 13

Page 276

The journey from Fenris to Gangava takes the Space Wolves' fleet 21 days.

Page 278

'Why so passive? This I will never understand.'
'It was the same on Prospero,' said Ironhelm calmly. 'He trusts in sorcery to protect him, that we'll be daunted by a few spells. It is inconcievable to him that anything, even the Rout, could threaten him in a citadel of his own making.'

Ironhelm is under the impression that Magnus the Red used sorcery to protect his forces on Prospero. He uses this as the explanation for Magnus' apparent lack of resistance. The truth will turn out to be very different. I'm not sure whether this makes Ironhelm overconfident, or whether he's making a reasonable assumption based on available evidence.

Page 291

Their landfall was directly to the east of void shield fringes, a hundred-kilometre slog away from the heavily defended part of the city.
The fleet Tacticae had estimated that hundreds of thousands of troops, possibly millions if the civilians had all been armed, were hunkered down behind extensive fortifications and protected by gun emplacements. Augurs had picked up the movement of mobile artillery pieces moving through the streets in convoy, clogging choke-points and blocking passage along the main highways. Whatever forces Magnus had been assembling were clearly well-armed and ready for action, despite their lack of orbital cover.

Part of the Space Wolves force will be landing around 100km from their objective. We also have some estimates as to what they will be up against. Their strategy (mentioned further down the page) is to bog the Space Wolves down by sheer weight of numbers.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Battle of the Fang, continued

Page 312

It feels like being alive, and yet not alive. When something touches my armour, I sense it more closely than I could when a living warrior. My eyesight is sharper, my hearing more acute, my muscles more powerful for being plasfibre and ceramite. Everything is more immediate. And yet...
Freija looked at the Dreadnought's face-plate. The slit in the armour was dark, an opaque well into the ruined corpse within. Though there were no visual signals, no possibility of facial expression, she could feel his misery as acutely as if he'd been weeping. For an instant, she caught the image of a Blood Claw racing across the wind-blasted ice, his blades whirling, long hair streaming, caught up in the feral joy of his calling.
It will never be like that again.
'I'm sorr-'
Enough questions. There is work to be done.

Some insights into life as a Dreadnought from Aldr, including that he possesses something approximating to a sense of touch. There is also a strong implication that he doesn't like being a Dreadnought one little bit, and it's hard to blame him.

Chapter 15

Page 315

The battle for Gangava has gone on for four local days.

Page 323

Rockfalls in tunnels are described as having been 'cemented closed' with melta blasts.

Chapter 16

Page 333

80% of the Nauro's interior is on fire. Blackwing considers the ship unsalvageable by this point.

Part IV to come.

[Connor MacLeod]

After a lengthy delay, part two of Wrath of Iron: The Dickening! two part update

PArt 1

***


Page 116

He held the Valkyrie in a shaky hover at twenty-five metres..
..
...Aikino go first, kicking away from the Valkyrie and plummeting rapidly.His grav-chute kicked in only a couple of metres from the wall-top, cushioning him before he hit it.

25 m drop, grav chutes kick in a few metres above ground. Not a big drop, but still probably dangerous enough to warrant grav chute use.


Page 117

..Makda found a burst of extra power, and the ship lurched forwards..
..
When it finally collided with the leading edge of the Melamar Primus spire it drove a deep rent through layers of rockcrete, carving open protective armour plates and exposing two levels of a hab-complex to the corrosive elements.
The shell of its fuselage burst into flame...

Valkyrie crashes into hive spire at high (but unspecified) velocity, breaching the armoured wall. Detonation clearly not included.


Page 118-119

Aikino switched his vox to a brigade-wide channel.
"All Harakoni on wall sections."

Harakoni all have helmet comms. And can return orders (done so later)


Page 119

The big guns were still aimed outwards, hurling massive amounts of las-fire, rockets and heavy bolter rounds..

Defence tower weaponry again.


Page 121

Nethata gripped the edge of the tactical display table, watching the myriad shifting points of light suspended over its surface. Everything was in motion, overlapping with plotted attack vectors and support lines.
..
...watching the location marker [of a breach in the wall] blink on the walls..
...
Tactical feeds estimated up to a thousand Harakoni Warhawks had been deposited along the parapets.

More data provided by the hololithic displays


Page 122

Space Marines would have been able to punch holes in the perimeter far more effectively than mortal drop troops. They were tougher, faster, cannier, and they didn’t panic.

More or less true. They're tougher and able to fight better (and are more psychologically intimidating) although the Harakoni are hardly cowards or panicking in their assault. And they have better gear. Although I'd be hard pressed to believe a thunderhawk could fight its way through that defensive fire either.


Page 122

.. the tactical pict screens.

pict relays, apparently.


PAge 122

The presence of the Commissar-General had its usual effect on the regular officers – to a man, they stiffened a fraction, instantly looking warier. All of them, Nethata included, knew the powers of the Commissariat during combat operations.

Commissar general (dual rank again), and one that knows the value of subtle displays of power, rather than blatantly intimidating and threatening execution. Also implied that Commissariat powers only exist within the boundaries of actual combat.


Page 123

..locator markers from the Harakoni forces installed on the walls blinked out.

hololith again. Harakoni troops have beacons of some kind that show their positions on display (possibly vox troopers or the officers.)


Page 124

"Air support." he rasped into the vox.

Harakoni are tied into their air support as well as trooper voxes.


Page 124

The man squatted beside him, his helmet dented from where a glancing las-beam had nearly taken his head clean off.

Harakoni carapace helmet can deflect gunfire that would decapitate/headsplode a person. At least single/double digit kj, and implied that the carapace can withstand more than that (unsurprisingly.)


Page 125

All across the contested section of the parapet, grenades from other units soared out from clusters of cover.
..
Defenders staggered out from their positions, their armour cracked or ripped away by the frag blasts. The Warhawks picked them off expertly..

Warhawks coordinated grenade assault, implies Shardeni armour provided at least some protection against the frag, if the soldiers needed to be finished off.


Page 126

He felt the heat of las-beams lancing just above his back..

More lasbeams emitting heat. I'd guess its heating up the air surrounding the weapon.


Page 126

...he rolled to one side and opened fire. Cries and grunts of agony rose up from the troops in front of him, and half a dozen went down under the las-fire.

Implies 6 shots per burst/or second at least from Harakoni lasrifles. Clearly, unlike the implied Elysian weapons, they aren't semi auto.


PAge 127

..he saw troop carriers bearing Shardenus insignia land on the parapet, unloading more men and materiel.
..
A squadron of Shardenus garrison heavy lifters, escorted by wings of stub-winged flyers, was heading towards their position. Aikino took a look at the lead craft. It was big enough for at least two hundred troops...

The Shardenus troopers have some impressive gear - air support, and substantial (company scale) airlift capability.


Page 127

Aikino checked the charge on his lasgun. Enough for a dozen or so more shots before a recharge..

I'm not sure if this is the power pack charge, or if its intenral charge in the lasrifle itself. early fluff (2nd edition like Wargear) had implied that lasrifles have their own (limited) internal power supply, and this might be that.


Page 128

The sky across the western horizon suddenly lit up, far more brightly and more intensely than the sky above the parapets. Something very, very big had just gone off on the far side of the hive cluster, many kilometres away..
..
Aikino looked carefully, letting his helmet visor do the work of filtering and magnification. Even with such aids, he couldn’t make much out.

Harakoni helmets (at least for the officers) have some visual filtering (glare/flash protection) and magnification capability, with implied multi-km range. Again they're very well kitted.


Page 129

The beleaguered Harakoni drop-troops defended the areas...
...the Ferik tactical brigades were struggling to make much headway. Heavy munitions were dragged up into position only to be destroyed by the defence towers on the walls.
...
None of the commanders were looking at those signals. All of them were looking at a whole array of light-points that had just appeared on the opposite side of the hive cluster, moving fast.
..
"No information, lord," said Vilese eventually, inclining his head to listen to an incoming datafeed from the long-range augur crews.

Yet more 'tactical hololith' details recorded and shown, and indications of the origins of at least some of the data (long range sensor data fed into the tactical hololith.)

What happens here is the Iron Hands show up, having sacrificed the IG (HArakoni and the rest) as a diversion to allow them to strike at the moment they chose, which they are doing now. And they didn't tell the IG they were doing this, which means that the IRon Hands once again prove what colossal dicks they are.


Page 137

The three squads of Raukaan were outnumbered many times over by the massed ranks of mortal defenders. Rows of armour-piercing lascannons had been installed at the rear of the chamber. In sufficient volume, even the humble lasguns carried by the individual troopers could cause damage. The preternatural agility and prowess of each Space Marine was needed just to prevent them being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of incoming fire.
...
..a lascannon beam crash into the plate armour of Brother Malloch. The warrior was hurled from the ground in a fountain of cracked ceramite and blood, smashed backwards and dragged along the floor.

I'd guess a subjective hundreds (thousands) of lasguns could put down 30 marines if they didn't dodge. Also the lascannon seems rather under-powered given in toher sources they tend to explode/vaporize the upper bodies of armoured marines when hit.


Page 143

Troop movements were visible in almost every direction – columns of armoured vehicles, Sentinel formations, squadrons of flyers taking off for the front.

The IG here have far better mobility options than Taros or Vraks demonstrated.


Page 145-146

"I am concerned about the way this war is being fought." he said. "We lost thousands of men establishing a temporary breach in the walls, in my view with no justifiable cause. Guard losses are one thing – I’m capable of arguing the case for my own men..."
..
"He is blind to considerations of caution, of bloodshed, of waste. All he cares about is speed – the need to break the spires as soon as possible. If he has a sound tactical reason for that, then he hasn’t chosen to share it with me."

One of the (few) upsides in this novel is how utterly non-dickish the IG and Mechanicus guys are. This is yet another IG officer who is a nice guy and cares about his troops, rather than the Draveres of the universe who go CANNON FODDER ALL THE WAY. And it's not like he's adverse to taking huge losses if the situation warrants it, but he doesn't see a reason (because of the Iron Hands' inability to be open with their allies.)


Page 147

"The body of a Space Marine is the most perfect human form ever created," she said. "Even our skitarii, given every augmetic aid known to us, do not compare to it in power and facility. You can imagine what degree of mental trauma would be required for a human to give up such a gift, to mutilate himself and replace his priceless gene-forged heritage with mechanical parts."

I'm not sure I'd call Astartes 'perfect' in an all around sense. They're good as far as organic killing machines go (perfect? Not sure about that) but they're good for much else but war and fighting - which was intentional on the part of the Emperor I believe. That doesn't mean that the Mechanicus lady's point here is wrong, though, the whole idea of this story is that the Iron Hands fetish for mechanical augmentation is a dehumanising character flaw, not a source of strength like they believe.


Page 148-149

"We take ordinary bodies and make them better." she admitted. "We do so because we desire to improve on what we were born with. The Iron Hands cannot make their bodies better, since they are already perfect. Nevertheless, still they amputate their limbs in favour of metal parts and aspire to the state of machine-hood. Why? Because they fear their flesh, lord general. They look at it in the mirror of their minds and they see something loathsome. It is difficult to understand such an impulse, since, as I said, we can have no insight into what they see when they stand before the mirror."
...
"‘There is a myth, a rumour, still repeated on Mars, that their Lord Primarch knew of this weakness and wished to purge it. I have seen scrolls, purported to be written in the hand of Manus, that state the matter clearly. Who knows if such things are genuine? Even if he intended it, he died long before he could accomplish it. And so we have the present situation: the Iron Hands no longer place trust in their gene-wrought perfection."
...
" They do not see the universe in the way that you do. When you advocate courses of action that seem prudent – to slow the pace of the attack, to conserve strength, to protect your exposed flanks – they see only weakness. It reminds of them of their own weakness, and so they recoil from it."
...
"They only respect strength."
...
"They understand sacrifice, duty and resolve. Nothing else."

AdMech vs Iron Hands, and further elaboration on the 'flaw' of the Chapter. This really is the driving point of the whole story, and it's also what forgives the otherwise horrible grimdark this story is full of. We aren't supposed to look on the Iron Hands and see SUPAR SPACE MARINE ASSKICKING, we're suppsoed to see a bunch of inhuman killing machines with no regard or ability to relate to those around them, and who view other people merely as resources to be expended efficiently. It drives home the idea that these Space Marines are deeply, tragically flawed, and it provides one of those rare 'good' ways to write both Space Marines AND Grimdark.

Mind you, I still utterly loathe the Grimdark and the Iron Hands in this book, but the fact it (and the Astartes) in this book aren't glorified makes it tolerable. Hell, it having a purpose makes it far better in this regard than Iron Hands (and the contrast between this and the Primarchs Short story I mentioned before play into this idea nicely.)

We also get refrence to that 'document' I quoted at the very start of the book, and its questionable past. Apparently the AdMech know that Manus is dead. If we give the ideas in the Iron Hands novel any credence, does this mean that at least some of the Iron Hands still beleive he is alive? did they refuse to believe he is dead, or do only some believe that? It wouldn't be terribly surprising to find out they refused to believe he died - yet another psychological blind spot or flaw.


Page 150-151

..a black bodyglove woven with lightweight armour panels. His bulbous head was enclosed in a sheer layer of sensor-repelling synthskin, and his eyes were protected by an environment-reactive visor.

The Death Cultist Commissariat agent's gear. Synthskin (in thise iteration) has sensor-blocking properties. Also armoured bodyglove.


Page 151

Vertigo. With all the neurosurgery I’ve had, you’d have thought they could have fixed that one thing.
..
Even with the use of retinal-mounted chronos and locators it was all too easy to lose one’s sense of where one was.

Our Death cultist has some interesting implants and has had surgery of some kind to alter his body. Is this part of his commissariat agent training, or from his Death Cult days?


Page 153

He narrowed his right eye, and felt the auto-enhancement filters in his cornea do their work. His view zoomed in, overlaying cartographic data sequestered alongside his mission orders.
...
Valien swept his gaze over to them, recording the pict-sequence in his earlobe-mounted buffer for transmission into the grid.

More death cultist/agent enhancements, reminisicent of Mersadie Oliton from the HH novels, only with a less swollen skull. Useful also for intel purposes (which goes to show what sorts of intel assets the Commissariat/Munitorum might employ if they choose to.)

Page 153

They were well-equipped, with thick plated armour and what looked like non-standard-issue lasguns.
..
They wore full-face masks with rebreathers attached..

PDF gear. I assume Carapace and some more powerful sort of lasgun.


page 154

He saw a variety of a standard Imperial heavy armour – Leman Russ tanks, Malcador mobile fortresses, Chimera troop carriers, Medusa fire support platforms.
..
Estimate: >12,000 infantry; 8 armoured brigades; 2 engineering brigades. Observed heavy weapons squads, infiltrators, sniper units.
..
Transmit to all field commanders within zone of operations. Originator: Valien TDC, Ferik special attachment.

Malcadors called 'mobile fortresses' rather than pieces of shit. Not surprising that a PDF force might have them given their crap nature. Also the disposition of forces and some of the specializations (infiltrtors and snipers as well)
Also interesting that our Death Cultist dude seems to be attached to the IG regiments, he may not be standard use but it's sitll interesting.


Page 159

"Maybe something about your damn Guard training got to me. Leave no man behind – isn’t that what you say?"

But but.. CANNON FODDER! Of course it could be 'local guard' in context ofthis story, which means 'PDF' in other novels, rather than Guard doctrine as a whole, but it does fit in with how the IG general in this novel acts too. He might also just be a local raising that was never picked up before the crap broke out.


Page 163-164

The gate housing reared up over three hundred metres into the sky...
...
The gate was open. Colossal doors, each fifteen metres thick and nearly two hundred high..

Shardenus city gatehouse and gates. 300 m tall gatehouse, 200 m tall, 15 m thick doors to complement the 200 m tall walls.


Page 164

A Warlord Titan in motion was a curious mix of grace and awkwardness. Gravitic stabilisers locked in the lower leg segments struggled heroically to limit the damage done by the machine’s unimaginably heavy tread, but still the earth beneath its feet was annihilated with each movement.

Use of antigrav to offset the ground pressure problems of a Titan, I suppose. Some sort of suspensor like 'mass reducing' effect?


Page 165

Immediately ahead of them was a wide open area known as the Maw, a kilometres-wide expanse of empty parade grounds, low-profile manufactoria and disused generatoria.

The Maw.


Page 168

The lesser spire of Melamar Secundus loomed along the right flank, burning just as furiously as its sister. Large sections of its protective outer armour had been stripped away, as if whole gunships had been flown directly into it.

Oh, the Irony. I guess it confirms the resilience though.


Page 168-169

In the narrow gap between the two Melamar spires, several groups of traitor armour had taken up position and were hurling shells into a sector of Melamar Primus that flagged up on the grid as occupied by loyalist forces. Lopi picked out a whole line of Basilisks recoiling as their payloads were unleashed.
..
..watching through the Manifold as the ground targets came within range.
...
The tanks ahead must have detected the incoming Titan group, but they hadn’t made any detectable move to withdraw. Perhaps they underestimated the range of the Warlord’s cannons.

Basilisk tanks between the two hives. Note the implied recoil of the guns (hard to calc, but not trivial) and also implicaton that the Titans weapons ranges are far greater than at least battle cannon (2-3 km)


Page 168

Lopi felt the shells slot into the barrel of his arm-mounted quake cannon..

Quake cannon.


Page 169

The Warlord’s massive quake cannon erupted.
..
Vindicta’s chassis swayed back, reeling from the enormous force unleashed. A stream of dirty black smoke twisted away from the firing arm...
...
The round crashed into the enemy position, burying the lines of tanks in a storm of fire and earth.
...
A ragged blast-wave radiated out from the epicentre, tearing through what remained of the forces on the ground and flattening everything in its path.

Effect of single Quake cannon shell.. hard to calc, but probably alot more devastating than single Earthshaker round. Subjectively does not seem to be super-nuclear though, either.


Page 170

Across the devastation of the Maw, already scoured into patches of molten metal by the predations of the Iron Hands, the god-machines of Legio Astorum strode into the inferno,..

the enemy armour is still between the two hives, and the Titans are still within the vicinity of the MAw. at the very least I'd guess a 5-10 km range between the two based on the accompanying maps (scaled off the estimated dimensions of hte Hive and the size of the maw itself)) and quite possibly several tens of km (which would be consistent with the 20 or so km ranges estimated in other Titan sources for titan weapons ranges) but probably not much more than that... Sharden us is not much more than 60-70 km in diameter, recall, and by the map they are by no means firing over more than half the width of the hive, if even that.


Page 170-171

The younger the warriors were, the brighter their light burned. The veterans of the Chapter, those like Khatir and Rauth, only shone dimly in the dark, like the afterglow of a lumen after the power has been cut.
...
Perhaps only the Chapter’s Librarius really understood the price the Iron Hands paid for their physical enhancement.
...
What would happen if, by some miracle of bioengineering, the very last fragments of organic matter were stripped from his metal skeleton? Would he register at all on Telach’s map of souls, or would he slip into nothingness, lost in the background coldness of the material universe?

More lamenting about the Iron hands flaw, and the fact that a psyker apparently has trouble picking up on dead, inert (inorganic) matter.


Page 174

He saw gunships sweep into contact, stuffed with troops or loaded with cluster bombs.

IG Gunships I think.


Page 174-175

+Reinforcements continue to move from the Capitolis,+
...
+Numerous fixed artillery points,+ sent Telach, sweeping up the length of the tunnels and observing carefully. +Defence lines established every five hundred metres. I see trench construction, deployment of heavy weapons groups.+
...
+Supplies still arriving,+ he sent, watching the unloading of a whole series of tracked artillery pieces from the cavernous interior of a land train.

Librarian doing an 'out of body experience' thing to gather recon on enemy dispositions and activities. The Librairan can clearly 'see' in reality, as well as the souls of the mortal defenders (and their state of corruption.) so clearly detecting 'souls' is not the only means of psychic detection.


Page 181

Nethata was an Imperial commander, used to having the final say over the lives of millions of men and thousands of companies.

Scope of an Imperial General's responsibilities


Page 182-183

Nethata looked past him, out through the narrow viewfinder ahead. A brace of dirty pict screens hung down from the low ceiling, each giving more grainy detail of the world outside.
...
He saw the signals on the auspex indicating the presence of a huge number of heavy tanks in convoy behind Malevolentia, all fully armed, fully fuelled and fully crewed. In their wake came support vehicles, troop carriers, mobile artillery.
...
"You have new coordinates, commander." he said, leaning over to consult the principal logic engine before inputting them.

Internal command and control systems of Neshata's Baneblade, keeping track of hte progress of his forces (and other allied forces) conducting the war. Includes auspex, cogitator, and a hololithic display and various pict screens,


Page 185

Rauth’s helm visor zoomed in on it automatically, drawn by the gesture.
..
Rauth’s armour sensors picked up his life-signal pulsing weakly.
...
..etting his helm’s augmenters pick out the man’s outline in the flickering gloom.

Iron Hands helmet systems: magnification, low light, and lifeform sensors.


Page 186

Rauth saw the enormous chasm in the mortal soldier’s chest where a las-beam had punched through. He saw snapped ribs sticking up from a pulpy mass of charred muscle. He saw organs trembling within, glossy where the intermittent light flashed across them.
...
Blood was already clotting....

Laswound, single shot (or a sustained burst of pulses comprising a single, sustained beam) The relevant details are: that the ribs are sticking out (implying sternum or at least that width was destroyed across chest, so at leats 5 cm diamter wound), and its deep enough to be mortal but not severely damaging the organs underneath (5-10 cm penetration, but probably not deeper.) It's also badly burnt, but not cauterized because he can still bleed.

Assuming a 'blaster' style laser (but with shitty penetration, so few pulses but large pulse duration for each) we might get tens of kj I got about 10-16 kj to crack bone 5 cm wide and ~3 cm deep (not including the damage to tisuse) that assumes a single pulse (equals a beam) If a raking beam 'cuts' across the sternum you might get 5-10 pulses of around 250 j each making a 1-2 cm diameter hole 'across' the sternum) Probably needs to be a few times that to actually penetrate depth wise, but it wouldn be less energy than a single pulse, obviously.

From the flash burn POV, assume the 5 cm wide, 5-10 cm deep 'hole' and you get a possible surface area of 80-160 sq cm. Assuming somehwere between 50 and 100 j per sq cm (roughly) we're talking 4-16 kj for the burns alone if we assume a channnel of burnt flesh as per above. If its simply 5-10 cm across the front single digit kj would probably suffice.
This doesn't include armour, and its more an approximation, but high single digit kj at least, if not many tens of kj, is likely.

On the other end of the spectrum.. if we assume boiling or 3rd degree scalding wounds (100-300 kj per kg roughly, can cover some cauterization as well) over a 5-10 cm wide/deep wound, we're talking between 100 and 800 grams or so affected, which is anywhere from 10-30 kj to 80-240 kj roughly as far as thermal effects go (assuming whole volume burned/boiled/whatever.)
10 cm could cover a 'massive' hole, yet it oculd be bigger. If we went with 20x20 cm (but still only 5-10 cm deep) and somehwere between 100-400 J per sq cm for burns we'd be talking 40-160 kj. Heating a whole volume owuld be 1.6-3.2 kg for flesh and could be easily 150 kj at least, up to 900-1000 kj.

Alot depends on the exact mechanisms and operation of the lasweapon in this case, and as we know from many sources they can operate in a wide variety of ways (mechanical vs thermal damage, or a mix of both, explosive, cutting, piercing, burning, flamethrower, etc.) and it's those parameters which generally define which exact calcs might be in play (thermal damage requiring more energy than mechanical, for example. Which may be an advantage or a drawback depending on how one looks at it and the desired impact. Lasguns are nothing if not versatile.)

Page 191

The rocket hit Vindicta just below the neck-joint.
...
It came in fast, curving slightly as guidance cogitators locked on, and exploded in a riot of colour and noise across the forward voids. For a second, all views were replaced with a fuzzy hail of static. Vindicta staggered backwards, reeling from the detonation.
...
"Frontal voids down," reported Yemos. "I need a few moments..."
...
..struggling to retain traction as the Warlord’s massive drive systems absorbed the blast-wave of the rocket.

Missile hit of some kind takes down Warlord Shields. They identify the rocket as a hunter-killer, so not sure if its the same sort of HK missiles that vehicles use, or an upscaled version (or if HK is just the term for any guided anti-vehicle rocket.) Seems to be omnidirectional rather than shaped charge as well, given the recoil issues.

Page 192-193

Heavy projectiles hammered into the sides of the hive spire ahead, scything through the outer armour and ripping it into a hail of torn-up ferrocrete.
..
The gatling blaster cut a swathe across the hive walls, tearing through whole hoppers of ammunition in seconds. Lopi felt fresh loops being shunted up through the auto-loader systems and slamming into place.

Gatling blaster in action. Note that like the crashing Valkyrie, it can punch through the surface of the hive. Either Hives are alot weaker than I remember or this is a very fragile place.


Page 197

Morvox heard the las-discharge first, and blink-clicked an audio copy into his helm’s scratch buffer.
...
Fierez’s helm was distorted by a bulbous mass under the left cheek: an inbuilt long-range auspex..

Iron Hand augmentations - built in auspex and audio copying. It's also mentioned that the Iron Hands replace even their Space Marine organs and phyisology with implants if they can (replacement of the Lymans ear with an augmetic variant is mentioned)


Page 198

Morvox ran a basic check on the audio recording, filtering the faint sounds through his suit’s cogitators and digesting the results.

Power armour cogitators.


Page 199

...Fierez, shunting a schematic of the chamber layout ahead into the clave’s internal grid.

They also have some sort of data sharing, as the Auspex dude can overlay a map onto everyone's helmet displays.


Page 205

Once, perhaps, he would have found such dedication to duty admirable. He had served with mortals before, and had witnessed great heroism as well as abject wretchedness. Back then, he had felt that heroism required some kind of reward, some kind of encouragement. In a darkening galaxy, the mass of humanity needed support as well as censure. To abandon them, to use them for some greater purpose; that had seemed careless at the least, callous at the worst.
Morvox found he could no longer summon up such thoughts

There is an correlation between the age of a Iron HAnd and the level of assholishness present.


Page 205

Malevolentia had been kitted out with high-gain scanner equipment, giving him an overview of the entire warzone. He and Heriat pored over it, studying flickering motes on rotating hololiths, plotting ingress routes, marking weaknesses in the ever-extending supply lines.

Neshata's Baneblade again and its fancy gear. I will note that its implied this is not neccesarily 'standard' to Baneblades, but may be either personal request or simply a command variant. We've seen Imperial Guard officers who have similar (Xarius from Crimson Tears, for example.)


Page 206

he Adeptus Astartes was a separate branch of the Imperial military machine, a vast, sprawling force of trillions that encompassed a million worlds and battlefields. The Guard did not answer to them, and they did not answer to the Guard. Only convention and expedience made Rauth the overall commander of the Shardenus operation; the vast majority of Territo’s resources owed their direct allegiance to Nethata.

Scope of the Imperial Guard, as 5th edition told us: TRILLIONS rather than billions. Also the relationship between the Guard and other forces - (EG its very political, and in this situation it creates more problems than answers)


Page 206-208

He could see his forces, company by company, forcing their way north alongside the burning flanks of Melamar Primus.
...
Beyond that, out of range of all useful sensor readings, was the Capitolis, the ultimate target.
...
Nethata maintained concentration on the tactical display. His forces had spread out, company by company, hammering the enemy back, clearing the way for the assault on Axis. Ahead of them, twenty kilometres distant, the two Warlord Titans were bludgeoning spire-based targets with vicious abandon.

More of the Baneblade's tactical displays and the source of the data. Also implied auspex range of 20 km.


Page 208-209

Nethata looked up. He didn’t like hearing disapproval from his advisor. They had been through too much together for that.
...
"I understand why you’re doing this. Think, though, how far you can take this, and all for pride."
...
"Examine yourself," said Heriat. "Please."

Reasonable Commissar! Heriat is basically reining in Neshata, who is sleep deprived and less than pleased with Rauth being the complete asshole he is, so is trying to be a voice of reason to counter what he sees as Neshata's pride interfering with his duty. The Basic context is that Heriat knows Neshata and Rauth are at odds with one another, and since Neshata is the only one he can reason with (and has authority over) he's trying to do exactly that.
Again it's nice to see that the Commissars in this novel are more reasonable than the Iron Fucks.


Page 209

Deployment runes from the Ferik brigades under Rauth’s supervision clustered at the same location, deep underground.
..
He should have queried it earlier, back when the first signals began registering.

Again tactical display showing the disposition of Neshata's own troops.


Page 216-217

He knew what was happening. Khatir’s voice, laced with subtle neuro-markers, would be stirring them. Their tired limbs would be feeling lighter. Their slack jaws would be tightening, as would the grip on their lasguns.
Morvox was hardly immune to the affect.
...
The men were roused. Khatir’s neuro-oratory was doing its work.

It seems that the Iron Hand's Iron Fathers (who serve the dual role of Chaplains and Techmarine) have some sort of weird techno-voice magic powrs at their disposal that can inspire/enhance both Marine and mortal troops alike. I wonder if this is true of any sort of 'inspirational' figure, or if its unique to just the Iron Hands?


Page 220

Others wielded a bizarre array of alternative weapons – heavy multi-barrelled projectile guns,..

Mutants have access to assault cannon/gatling guns too. Wonder if they were looted from existing armouries, or if they had to custom-make them.


Page 221

A brief space opened up before him, and he took the opportunity to make a long-range shot, taking the head off a lascannon operator working nearly fifty metres distant.

Bolter shot.

Page 222-223

They didn’t register as targets on Morvox’s helm display – just patches of distortion that his instruments couldn’t track.
His real eyes could see them, though.
..
Their temporary physical form could be harmed but their essence could never be destroyed, no more than the thoughts and desires that gave birth to them could be destroyed.
...
Whether traitor or loyalist, the effects were much the same – delirium, screaming, dislocated laughter, paralysis, uncontrollable spasms.

Daemons. First point, the mechanical 'senses' cannot see them easily (distortion/jamming of some kind) but real eyes can (sort of, they can be tricked too as we learn.)

We also get the usual mention of 'their bodies can be destroyed but they can't be killed, as well as the physical impediemnt they can inflict on mortals. In this context, they seem to be describing Daemonettes.


Page 225

..the grav-trains had once plied their ceaseless rotary journeys,..

Grav tech used in trains, although whether its antigrav or magnetics is a good question.


Page 226

Bolter rounds thudded in constant streams, drowning out the whisper-quiet discharge of the thousands of lasguns.

Lasguns are considerably quieter than bolters (or other slugthrowers, one imagines.)


Page 226

For a few scant seconds, the daemons danced their way through the hurricane of projectiles, weaving around the lines of fire with staggering agility and poise.

Daemons dodge bolter fire. Whether they dodge the bullets, or just out-react the dudes firing is not stated.

Page 229

The daemon evaded the bolts, flickering between them like a broken vid-pict image.

Again evasion of bolter fire.


Page 231

He withdrew his needle gun and switched the poisonous nerve agents in the syringes for paralysis inducers.

Needler 'variable yield' settings.


Page 232

The dark was almost total. His false-vision retina compensated, fleshing out the detail of his surroundings in lurid brightness.

I gather 'false-vision' means some sort of NVG appartus.

Page 232

The mortal’s head was bare and he wore no night-vision visor. That made him practically blind..

That he expects people MIGHT have night vision gear in this hive tends to hint they're not that unique.

Page 233

The man wore Administratum robes...
...
...he had once been relatively handsome, with the smooth and hairless skin that only came with expensive rejuve treatments.
...
..perhaps aristocratic blood, or he’d just fancied looking like someone born to a high station.

Adminsitratum official whose titlle is 'Master of Ledgers, class tertius', can afford life-extension treatment.


Page 234

Valien adjusted his needle gun, and a fresh syringe slid out from the firing mechanism.
..
"You now have loquazine in your system," he said. "You will feel a compulsion to talk; do not fight it. "

Imperial Truth drugs, delivered by needler.


Page 235

"For a while, none of us noticed. We knew the governor’s staff had changed. Someone new had arrived – what was his name? But it was all so, so… routine."
..
"You were lazy," Valien said. "Corruption was among you for months, spreading from world to world, and you chose not to see it. You turned your faces away."

A good example of how the Imperial's 'approach' to controlling the population and Chaos can backfire horrifically. Nobody questions, so if Chaos infiltrates a position of authority they can more easily control the same organs designed to protect it against Chaos corruption.

Page 236-237

Kilag moved fast. He should have been incapable of it, but still he moved.
..
Valien nearly let himself be caught.
...
Valien shrank back, too slow to prevent Kilag’s hands gripping him around the neck.
...
The adept’s strength was astonishing – he should hardly have been able to move, let alone wrestle with a trained killer of Valien’s calibre.
...
So strong! How is it possible?
..
What has been done to him? How is he so fast?

Another problem with Chaos - through mutation, unusual drugs, or general disregard for own safety and limits (madness, aforementione ddrugs, etc.) Chaos troops can be significantly more dangeorus or harder to kill than regular troops.


Page 238

He drew a knife from a sheath on his thigh and struck out, flicking the blade back and forth across Kilag’s neck.
The man’s face was smiling even as his decapitated head hit the ground. Kilag’s eyes stayed glowing for a few moments, dwindling like embers in the shadows. Then they died out..

Death Cultist either is strong enough to decapitate a human in two strokes with a knife, or the knife is mono-edged to cut through the head.


Page 241

..keeping an eye on Vindicta’s weapon status as it created more carnage at ground level. Lopi remained dimly aware of the fruits of their actions through the feedback mechanisms in the Manifold – crushed vehicle carcasses, demolished wall sections, torched bunkers full of cremated, half-mutated defenders.

Warlord Titan weapons effects. Of note are the bunkers full of 'cremated' mutants - the weapons can cremate the troops inside the bunkers after they penetrate them. Given the size of the bunkers mentioned earlier (300 or more) we're talking quite probably double or triple digit GJ at LEAST. Of course it odesn't tell us over what duration, but presumably its fairly short.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2 and the end!

Page 241

The lines indicating Rauth’s progress were faint, and trailed off at the edge of auspex range.

Rauth is invading the underground of the hives, and the Warlords are in the Hives by now, suggests Auspex range is perhaps the same as the range of the Hive.


Page 242

Nethata lifted his head from the short-range auspex display.

Baneblade has short range auspex which ties into the command functions for Neshata.


Page 243

Heriat looked at Nethata carefully. He’d always admired the man’s flexibility, his willingness to change course when the circumstances demanded it. That was something that he himself found difficult – a commi-ssar’s training cultivated a rigid mindset, one more suited to following a restricted set of commands to the letter.
Heriat had long been aware of the limitations of that way of thinking, even as he’d worked hard to purge the emotions from his psyche that endangered it. It was one reason why he’d never sought a command position in the regular military – he knew that he’d have run an army in the way he ran the Commissariat, something that would never have brought the results that Nethata’s imaginative, instinctive command had done.
Heriat, by contrast, would have followed Rauth’s orders completely.
..
If Nethata had been any other man, Heriat would have overruled him long ago.
..
Nethata was not any other man, and that was all that kept things together.

Again we see that while Heriat is no pushover Commissar, he's far from the fanatical (lunatic) 'shoot them in the head to motivate by fear' Commissar that gets played up in the grimdark crap. He's reasonable, flexible, and patient. This is how I most often see a Commissar acting - the threat of execution works better than the actual example, and one who pays attention to something more than his own narrow viewpoints without compromising his own integrity.

It's also interesting how the Commissar and IG officer complement each other - the dedication of the commissar and the resourefulness/flexibility of the IG General (which in and of itself is commendable, yet another IG officer who isn't a Zapp Branigan.)


Page 243-245

"Our tanks have already destroyed the outer defences, and I can deploy troop carriers within the hour. All standard procedure tells me I am doing the right thing. Tunnels or not, Rauth will regret pushing on to the centre before taking out the periphery."
..
"This is Imperial Guard doctrine.."
...
"That is what we are bound to obey. It is what you are bound to enforce."
"You have a creative interpretation of my job."
...
Nethata glanced down at the tactical displays, showing the progress his tank divisions were making against the Axis hives. Heriat studied the same data, and saw how carefully executed the advance had been. Nethata had used his resources skilfully, opening up a separate flank and damaging the enemy’s power to encircle.
He remembered his words about pride, and regretted them. Nethata had acted within the spirit of the Guard’s doctrine, if not the letter, and the battlefront leading to the Capitolis looked far healthier than it had done only hours previously.

Commentary on IG tactics/doctrine. Note that it does not emphasize pointless grinding attrition (that's what Rauth is going after.) - especially given that its a hundred thousand or so guardsmen vs millions of enemy. Also interesting is the 'spirit' vs the 'letter' of Guard doctrine - an indicator perhaps of what makes a good officer vs a adequate (or poor) one. Given Heriat's attitude and view of Neshata, it's a safe bet that is indeed the case (at least in this region.)


Page 246

Nethata turned to the cogitator array before him. His fingers moved expertly across the brass-lined input columns, each one of which controlled the movements of whole tank formations.
..
"..you could arrange a hololith-feed to Princeps Lopi?"

Cogitator again, which seems less a 'general purpose' computer than something specifically designed for command and control of the armoured forces (but even then its an interesting way to control your troops)
Also hololith communications.


PAge 247

The daemon was fast, far faster than Morvox. It was strong, too, and commanded subtle magicks of deception and disruption. The creature moved in a haze of misdirection..

Daemonic EW. Given the cotnext, it seems likely that the aforementioned 'bolter dodging' was by out-reacting the Astartes firing (plus using magic to hamper targeting).


Page 249

..., rocking around his centre of gravity and letting his thousands of augmetic implants do their work.
...
Servos in his upper thigh primed, storing energy for the burst to come. A series of adrenal adjusters below his rib-cage activated, matched by spike-nodes implanted under the skin of his neck.

Iron hands augmentations. Thousands seems alot, also the enhancements seem to be heavily combat-oriented.

Page 250

His genhanced frame burst forwards, suddenly shifting into blinding, explosive speed. A nanosecond later his bionics did their work, powering up and boosting his response further.

delay between organic and augmetics is in the nanosecond range, which is pretty tiny.


Page 251

..he voxed to the command channel, isolating Khatir’s comm-signal. The Iron Father was fighting nearly three hundred metres away.

Range of Iron Hands gox (lower limit at least)
It's worth noting that fighting the daemons, we start to see all the Iron Hands (except perhaps the Iron Father.. Rauth, the Librarian Telach, the squad leaders like Morvox..) are all struggling to maintain that assholish stoicism that is Iron Hands ideal. They keep having that pesky human side interfering, confronted with the costs of their haste and their actions, the thousands (tens of thousands) that are dying, etc. It's another of those nice touches in this story. The Iron Hands and Rauth are still assholes, but they're not the unrepetnat sort of assholes like Gdolkin. There is still human parts of them and a possibility of redemption. It's a nice contrast to the views of others (EG Neshata for Rauth)


Page 258-259

Their immolated bodies slammed hard against the reeling voids, sending shockwaves running across the energised surface.
...
It dived right into the shield-matter, snapping with lightning-laced talons. It was destroyed, blasted into atoms by the voids.

Daemons are ramming the shields of a Warhound Titan. They need to batter it down before getting at the creature, but it's also curious that the voids seem to be acting like semi-phyiscal barriers (ripples/shockwves, and shield matter are curious properties.) Clearly in this case these aren't the 'warp voids' in other sources.


Page 259

Then the ammo-counter clicked empty on the mega-bolter. At the same time, the inferno cannon reached critical temperature, and guttered out. For a few precious seconds, the wall of reactive shells and flame gave way.
..
He felt the ammo-belts feed into the mega-bolter’s chambers with a thick clunk.

Implied reload/cooling time on Warhound weapons.


Page 266-267

"They’ve got the Warhounds. They’re tearing up the tanks."
...
Munition booms, fuel-cell detonations...

That would imply the Imperial tanks are run by fuel cells.


PAge 268

..daemons never died. Their fragile physical forms could be shattered, banishing their essence....
...
So it was that the daemons opened themselves to risk so casually.

Basically Daemons can out attirtion almost anyone because they can be banished, but not killed. This means that against some enemies (like Space Marines) they can trade the loss of large numbers of them just to take out one Marine.


Page 272

The myriad systems in his psychically-charged armour activated.

Librarian seems to have some osrt of psychic-related systems in his armour, either for regulating, boosting, or channelling or whatever.


Page 272

.. He could feel his remaining flesh cauterising, curling away from the augmetics that riddled it. He could feel his hearts burst messily...
...
The sensations were illusions – visions of what would come should he fail to control the torrent of otherworldly flame ..

Librarians can suffer illusory pain of the failure of control, which cannot be a nice distraction.


Page 281

Automated defence turrets swung into position, extending their barrels and activating a shimmering level of void shields twenty metres above the ebony walls of the facility.
Nearly as soon as the defensive measures had taken effect, the systems shut down. The gun barrels slumped into dormancy. The void shields rippled away, leaving the landing stages exposed and unprotected.

The autocannon defenses of the Iron Hands base seem to have their own, individual void shield generators, as well as the distances at which they operate from the base/guns (20 m, which is quite a distance.)
In context, this is the Mechancius shutting down the defenses, once agian showing the superiority of their technological capabilities relative to everyone else. It's also an indicator of just how pissed at Rauth the Magos currently is.


Page 282

Siirt’s own internal systems, including a hard-plugged auspex array that was finer than that possessed by most non-military starships, gave him better information than all of them put together.
...
First, that the lander had come down from high orbit...
...
,,,the instruments on board the Iron Hands capital ship were a match for almost anything else in the Imperium....

Info on Iron Hands sensor systems on starships and for individuals, and possibly range (high orbit for individual sensors, possibly? Although that my be plugged into the bases' sensors too.)


Page 283

The clan’s seven Dreadnoughts in hibernation aboard the Kalach would take days to summon, as they had never been intended for on-world deployment. The command complex was full of Medusan auxiliaria, many of whom had bio-enhancements and augmetics on a parallel with skitarii
...
.. the two squads of thralls he’d requested fell in behind him. They were all dressed in matt-black carapace armour with blank visors and angular shoulder guards. Each trooper carried a heavy-gauge lasgun and had steel augmetic traces littered across their battle-plate.
They were all Medusan, all battle-hardened, and all heavily altered by the tech-chirurgeons.

Rauth's other forces. They have 7 dreadnoughts (which is ALOT for a single company.. most have half that IIRC and in earlier fluff there were only 8 dreadnought bodies total in the Iron Hands armoury. Clearly they've gained more in recent times or Rauth's clan was just REALLY fortunate.) Also their deployment time when not intended for planet side combat.
Also, like the Space Wolves in Wraight's Battle of the Fang (as well as Ultramar's Defence Auxilia and the Crimson Fist Rynnsguard) we see that the Iron Hands have their own group of mortal troops that actually are troops rather than seeming to be heavily armed serfs. I suppose they might still be just armed serfs, but they sound like distinct troops (auxilia). Although they're less PDF-like in this case, and more Skitarii like what with their weapons and augmentations and such.
I'm guessing 'heavy gauge' is a reference to bore diameter, meaning its probably very large/thick or perhaps just wide (another widebeam lasgun type.) OR it may just mean a very heavy lasgun in general.


Page 287

How much did the Mechanicus know of Medusan machine-protocols?

Probably far more than anyone else, again reflecting their position of supreme authority with virtually all stuff technological. It's likely only the Inquisition can normally hope ot match them in general.
I should also note that at this point, the MAgos is EXTREMELY pissed off at Rauth for not giving any details on what happened to the Titans he took with him, although this changes eventually towards anger at others. One of the interesting aspects of this book is how the Mechanicus fits into the Guard/IRon Hand paradigm: they sort of straddle the two extremes, and act as the mediating force in this case, as well as being the example to show the flaws of both the 'human' Guard General (Neshata's pride, which naturally leads to his downfall as we'll see) and Rauth's own character flaws (which even he and the other Iron Hands recognize evne if they try ignoring them.) The AdMech come out of this book literally being the best faction involved, because they tried to do what the Iron Hands didn't (mediate and advise the Guard, even if Neshata didn't pick up the hints) whilst yet still doing what is ultimately neccessary at the end (fighting to purge the daemonic threat.)

Page 289
[quoe]he had little idea how much organic matter remained, locked away in pockets within his giant mechanical skeleton. A brain, perhaps some spinal matter, progenoids; not much else.[/quote]
Rauth reflecting on his makeup. Can it be said he is still a 'Space Marine' if most of his organic body has been replaced with mechanical?
Page 297

..the Axis spires still raged with untamed fires. Immense gashes had been cut into the flanks of the conurbations, glowing with fringes of magma-hot metal.

Presumably the metal of the hives is not molten if the hive spire is still intact, despite being 'magma-hot' which can say something about Imperial mateiral properties. Of course magma 'typically' is around 700-1400c, and extreme cases can be as cool as 600 or as hot as 1600. Even hotter if we extended the definition to include the extremes of the EArth's mantle (many thousands of degrees easily.)


Page 298

Nethata looked upon the vista on Malevolentia’s bank of pict screens, rotating the angles slowly, marking the destruction...
..
.. position runes and scrolling databursts recorded the deployment of the assets under the Guard’s control.
...
"The final groups have reported in," said Heriat eventually, concentrating on the screens in front of him.

One data transmitted is losses and squadron integrity. Again showing the command and control systems of the General's baneblade - its more than just sensor and auditory data, at least some of those vehicles are sharing data transmissions and beacons.


Page 298-299

This is the way to wage a war. Careful, judicial, logical.
"We will move again soon,"
...
"Refuelling and supply are already under way."
..
Taking account of the mobile artillery pieces, the heavy armour and the rapid-reaction troop contingents, he had sole possession of an army in its own right. He was weak in air support since the debacle of the first attack runs...

Again IG way of waging war in this novel, seems very mobile and not very static. At least for the vehicle component of the force (the pure infantry, if there were any, either is wiped out already or is getting wiped out in the assault on the tunnels.)
The interesting thing is even the implication of air support (one assumes he refers to the Vultures/Valkyries he had, like the Harakoni, early in the conflict) which again seems not to be rare, at least in Neshata's experience. And in context with the previous quote, it implies its 'Guard' assets, rather than just naval forces (which woudl include fighters and bombers if one thought about it.)


Page 306

They are what we live to protect. They are the Imperium. I am going mad.

Morvox has one more moment of non-assholishness before the Iron Father comes along and grinds it out in a sheer dose of assholery. Again between Rauth's own doubts (earrlier Telach mentions Rauth does not actually 'despise' the humans, which makes sense given their fear of weakness in themselves or others it can be easy to mistake that for hate.) the Librarian and Morvox we get at least faint.. hope.. that the Iron Hands are not totally and utterly irredeemable. Don't get me wrong, they're still colossal assholes and remain such through the book for their actions and their inability to trust, but its nice that there is a different 'side' to things rather than just one dimensional assholishness for Grimdark sake (again Gdolkin.)
Indeed, this passage again underscores how the idea behind the whole 'Iron Hand vs Mortal' aspect and how the two relate (theory and practice.)

Page 319

A gasp of pure horror burst out of his lungs, overriding all his psycho-conditioning and neural training.

Death cultist psycho conditioning and 'neural training' - in this case to suppress fear, although it fails in the face of the daemonic.


Page 322

The entire campaign had been arranged around the union of forces – the numerous mortals to soak up the bulk of the enemy’s rage, freeing the Iron Hands to strike out at the real danger, the spirits of the arch-enemy that no unmodified human could take on.
"What does he think, that we made our choices for no reason?"
..
"Does he think we do not suffer? Does he think that we do not absorb our share of pain?"

Unsurprisingly the Iron Father declares Neshata 'weak', which only highlights the sheer irony of this rant. Had he been forthcoming about the true danger present in the hives, just MAYBE he wouldn't be facing this problem with his allies.

Page 323

Auspex data started to flood into his tactical systems – target runes, comm-signal ranges, psychic concentration nodes, power build-ups.

Iron Warrior power armour systems.


Page 326

A squadron of Leman Russ battle tanks powered up their engines and lurched forwards, all twelve of them...

Size of Leman Russ squadron.
Page 327

His escort struggled to keep up with him, weighed down by their sealed environment suits and heavy weaponry..
..
A lone Ferik watch officer, swathed in an orange chem-suit..

The IG forces, or t least the officers and their own escorts, have some sort of hazmat suit.


Page 328-329

Heriat’s life was as full of certainties as other men’s were not. Nethata evidently didn’t view his actions as treasonous. A casual glance at the Guard conduct manuals or the precepts of the Adeptus Terra would have corrected that impression. Rauth was the senior commander on Shardenus; short of an order from the Imperial authorities themselves, all loyalist forces on the planet were bound to follow his orders. It didn’t matter whether those orders were wise or foolish, enlightened or despotic. That was the nature of commands; you followed them.
The Imperium was nothing without discipline. Everything else – loyalty, fervour, duty, friendship, devotion – it was all nothing without the iron fist of control. Humanity, as the Commissariat knew well, was a wayward species. It had to be protected from itself. When it wavered, it had to be corrected. When it doubted, it had to be conditioned. When it faltered, it had to be punished.

This bit really gets to me, because the Commissar is revealed to ultimately be human (which he sees as weak) just because of his friendship with the officer he is supposed to be watching over. Heriat ultimately does what Neshata refuses to.
We also get the Commissariat view of humanity, which is hardly surprising - humanity needing 'guidance' is even true to a point, but like in many things the Imperium tends to go overboard...
It also highlights the difference between Neshata, the Guard officer, and Heriat, the Commissar. The former lives in grey areas where the lines of authority betwene Astartes, Guard, and other components (navy, titans, etc.) is not clear or absolute, but to Heriat the Iron Hands are the leaders, which may reflect the propoganda aspects of the Space Marines.


Page 329

Position runes danced across the command console’s forward sensor array. Heriat looked at them carefully. Nearly half of the companies under Nethata’s command had broken rank and followed his orders.

The Baneblade's hololith display again can track IG units. The vehicles at least.


Page 330

A perfectly certain man would not have handled things the way he had done. A perfectly certain man would have carried out the ultimate sanction – he would have killed Nethata at the first sign of treachery and taken over command from the very beginning.
The fact that he hadn’t done so was evidence of failure.
...
Heriat couldn’t have killed Nethata. Not since the transplant that had saved his life after the action on Goetes IX, staving off the ravages of early-stage skietica and keeping him alive for another fifty years. The price Nethata had paid for that donation, made in a filthy battlefield medicae station under constant fire, had been high – for all the miracles of the chirurgeons’ art, he had been condemned to spend the rest of his life addicted to a cocktail of high-strength glanded narcotics to compensate for what he had given up.
Perhaps all that adrenaquil and tranquilox had begun to affect Nethata’s judgement at last – it would not have been the first time. If so, then Heriat’s sickness had been the cause of Nethata’s sickness, and applying the final sanction would have made his actions even more wretched than they already were

Again a Commissar can be human again, and we learn just why the two are friends and why Heriat could not kill him. Its kinda funny because if we looked at it from the Iron Hand perspective of the book, this is just more proof of how weak 'flesh' is, and to Rauth would justify his actions. On the other hand, it makes Heriat seem more a person and less a parody, which is something I like alot, and it makes his death through carrying out Rauths' assholish orders even more significant. And despite that 'human' weakness, he shows the Iron Hands that humans can be as strong as they are (which half a dozen pages later, we find even Rauth is willing to admit.)
It's also just driving home again how big an ass Raut his for keeping his secrets out of fear of 'human weakness'. Had he been forthcoming Heriat and Neshata wouldn't have had this breach.

Page 331

Picked out in grainy detail on the pict screens, the summit of the Capitolis spire was being ripped apart. Auspex data started to flood into his tactical systems – target runes, comm-signal ranges, power build-ups.

Baneblade sensor and C&C systems again.


Page 332

He didn’t see the secondary incendiaries in the cluster ignite, sparking the inferno that would reduce the entire governor’s complex to rubble and crack open the powerful shields that protected the Capitolis from sensor probes and psychic attack.

Psychic 'sensing' and shielding designed to block against it (some sort of tangible, physical shielding.)


Page 332

the devastating explosive core that every Talica operative had implanted in their chest cavity, had the capability to achieve that goal. Only that device had retained the power to blow open the walls of the Capitolis and expose the horror within.

Suicide charge can decimate the spire, apparently. Given what we learn later its probably a nuke or nuke like device.

Page 336

"Remaining Galamoth and Ferik armoured divisions..."

The Ferik tactical regiments have thier armoured components it seems.


Page 336

"So there is mettle in humanity yet,"

Wow, Rauth actually complimenting those weak organics, in some sort of backhanded way. Of course he's still an asshole.


Page 339

A Space Marine in full battle-plate was a huge object weighing many tonnes..

Yeah, no. Maybe in Terminator armour.


Page 344

The Capitolis’s cannons were huge – as large as those that had been mounted on the outer perimeter – and each direct hit utterly destroyed its target. Heriat saw one group of three Basilisks taken out by a single shot, blasted to fragments of metal by the enormous fireball created on impact.
..
..the two Warlord Titans, the only things big enough to take on the spire’s enormous guns as equals..

Wall mounted defense guns seem to be of the same magnitude as a Titan, judging by this. Also can create a fireball wide enough to consome 3 Basilisk tanks (10-15 m diameter fireball, perhaps?) I'd guess at least triple digit MJ for the fireball at least.


Page 345

Scores of runes scrolled across the remainder, feeding him screeds of data on positions, fire-rates, damage taken and units lost.

Command Baneblade's systems again. Again it suggests considerable data-sharing between (at least) the vehicles in the IG force.


Page 347

The Librarian had been wreathed in a corona of ice-white fire...
...
Anything that got close to him, mutant or daemonic, exploded in tatters of charred flesh.

Single digit MJ at least to explode human sized targets.


Page 349-350

Heriat had been right. Nethata had always known, in his soul, that his actions had been folly. The Imperium never tolerated dissent. Its very being lay in the absence of dissent, the lack of mercy, the dispassionate application of discipline.

It's true Neshata's stubbornness was his own downfall, but its really, REALLY hard to blame him. Rauth is still ultimately to blame (even if his actions are justified in the end) simply because his paranoia and distrust hampered the force and created these divisions. This is not unlike what happened in 'Crimson Tears' when that asshole Reinez likewise fucked up the force. That's really one of the many tragedies in this story. Basically lots suffer because of how fucked up the Iron Fists are, and the ones suffering most are the Iron Fists themselves.


Page 351

Nethata sat in the chassis of one of the few tanks left to him, commandeered from its Galamoth commander ...
...
Nethata checked the readings on his auspex again. The screen was filthy with ash.
..
Nethata put the auspex down.

Tank auspex. Not sure if its something he carried into the tank, or if it was issued to the tank itself. Could be either way.


Page 354

He’d reported for duty and picked up recycled weapons and armour components. The visor he’d been given had been much better than the one he’d used before..

Recycled/recovered IG/PDF weapons and armour components (the latter I suspect are flak plates and the like, or helmets/visors.) Suggests the modularity of IG gear.


Page 356

He’d always been a good marksman. He’d been proud of that, back when his life had consisted of training drills and off-world exercises.

Shardenus guardsmen had conducted 'off world' exercises. Whether in the same system or different, we don't know.

Page 377

Their bionics made them stronger again, bolstering the momentum of every blow and speeding up their reactions by precious nanoseconds.

Apparently nanoseconds are important to Marines, and an indicator of how fast the augmetics respond to the impulses of the body.


Page 383

Nethata twisted around in his seat, squinting into his auspex and trying to make sense of the readings that flooded across the tiny screen.
If he’d been in Malevolentia he’d have had a whole bank of pict readouts to look at. He’d have had dedicated comms units, and tactical overlays, and everything else a field commander needed to coordinate a massed armour advance.
...
Nethata had watched it all unfold on a tiny, grainy vid-feed all the while, powerless to intervene.

Again Neshata is in a tnak and has auspex, and it seems to be a less advanced version of what he had in his Bnaeblade. Also video feed routed to the tank (or the auspex) from some oehter source.


Page 383-384

It had taken a terrific amount of punishment before it had succumbed. Its armour was the best in the formation, and had absorbed a number of direct hits before the end.
..
.. as the final beams of light had shot out, piercing the super-heavy’s armour plate and striking at the engines within. The end had not been quick – more shots had been needed to ignite the fuel tanks that finally brought the machine to a flaming, shuddering stop.
The tank’s heavy bolters had kept firing the whole time. The engines had stayed running, pushing it ever closer to the semi-ruined walls of the Capitolis. Before he eventually died, Heriat had done more damage to his targets than the next ten units combined.

Durability of Baneblade tank. remember it was implied that the Wall guns are on the same magnitude as titan weapons, which tells you just how tough superheavy tanks might be.


Page 384-385

He turned his attention back to the auspex readings. Even from the limited data he had, he could see that the remainder of the loyalist armour was destined for Heriat’s fate.
..
. three new readings appeared on the extreme edge of his auspex range. One of the signals was very strange, like nothing he’d ever seen before. The other two were more familiar – Warlord Titans, heading towards the Capitolis at speed.
..
..Nethata put the auspex down..

Neshata's 'limited' auspex provides enough data for him to figure out the state of the forces Heriat lead against the hive. Also implied range, which might be some portion of the 20 km mentioned earlier.


Page 385

"Full reverse, and then follow the coordinates I give you."
..
" I don’t care who drives this thing, but one way or the other I will rendezvous with those machines."

Neshata's IG tank is able to match and exceed the speed of a warlord titan.


Page 387

They couldn’t hurt it by mechanical means – if the thing had been susceptible to such damage then it would have been destroyed when the atomic had gone off.
Only one power had the capacity to destroy the rift – the human mind, born out of a mortal cranium, locked in a skull of bone and steeped in psychic power.

Again the dEath cultist's suicide charge seems to be atomic in nature, whatever that means.
Also the whole 'only mortal psychic power can destroy a daemon' is hilarious, given that these are the augmetic-obsessed Iron Hands. FLESH IS WEAK!


Page 395

There were some in the Imperium who might have recognised that face. Some lords of the Ordo Malleus might have identified the features of one who had been First Captain of the III Legion, who had fought alongside gods in the age of wonder when the Imperium was forged..

Implied that some hard data from the Heresy era may still exist in modern times, at least amongst the Malleus.


Page 396

His three mechanical heart-analogues, each one placed in a different location within his armour and protected by multiple layers of adamantium binding, still beat firmly.

Rauth's 'hearts'. I have to admit this probably is an improvement on the Astartes stuff.


Page 400

"I told you that to warn you, and you should have heeded it. The strength of the Iron Hands is far beyond your strength; you could never have stood against them, and you were foolish to attempt it. Lopi was also a fool, and he has paid the price. The Warlords will walk on the Capitolis, and I will aid Commander Rauth in his cleansing of it. Perhaps, in that small way, we will recover a portion of honour. "

The Magos berates Neshata for his intransigence. honestly, I found it a bit odd thta the Magos was pissed at Rauth for sacrificing the Warhounds in his push for speed, but now is pissed because the Titans and IG units had held back from supporting hte Iron Hands. I can only imagine that learning the truth of the danger lead to this change of heart (and to be blunt even Neshata joins in once he finds out about the daemons) but it just underscores how big an asshole Rauth is for not sharing this information sooner.


Page 402

Nethata knew then that Rauth had been right. Something had been waiting for them in the Capitolis. The Iron Hands had been prepared to sacrifice everything they had to destroy it, and they had succeeded. They had been prepared to make the calculations he hadn’t.

Yes, Rauth was right to push faster into the hive, but that doesn't completely exonerate him for being a fucking paranoid and secretive asshole. The internal divisions and conflict that resulted and Neshata's disgrace stem entirely from Neshata refusing to collaborate with the other arms of the Imperial military, and being in command was no excuse. It's hard to imagine another 'first founding' Chapter doing this (Except maybe Sicarius, but he's almost as big an asshole as the Iron Hands sometimes.)


Page 402

None of those would now be remembered – scholiasts would painstakingly amend the records, substituting the names of more suitable commanders. The only world left next to his name would be this one: Shardenus.

We again witnes sthe well known capacity of the Imperium to rewrite its own history to suit its purposes, even in the face of defeat. Again Neshata's fate is tragic and can be blamed on the Iron Hands being assholes.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Battle of the Fang, Part IV - 'The Crimson King'

Chapter 17

Page 373

With a single word, the kine-barrier suddenly hurtled forwards, sweeping across the chamber and transmuting into a wall of consuming electricity. Lighting flared out and snaked into the shadows, tearing up stone and blating it open. The surge of energy slammed into the fixed guns, knocking them from their positions in a series of thumping detonations.

Aphael's psychic powers in action.

Page 390

'How does it feel?' asked Temekh, emboldened by the humour his master seemed to be in.
'To wear physical form again? Different to the last time I did so. I will never be truly flesh and bone again. But it is good nonetheless.' The Primarch raised a giant hand and flexed the fingers, one by one. 'Very good.'

Magnus the Red has arrived. While I don't think that he had become a Greater Daemon as such, his manifestation is nevertheless different to when he had a physical body. Difficult to know what to make of this.

Page 391

Magnus lost his smile.
'I no longer think of them as animals, Ahmuz, though I once did. I now think of them as the purest of us all. Incorruptible. Single-minded. The perfection of my father's vision.'
Temekh looked up at his Primarch, taken aback.
'You admire them.'
'Admire them? Of course I do. They are unique. And even in an infinite universe, that quality is rarer than you might suppose.'

An insight into Magnus' mindset. It would appear that he has let go of his hatred of the Space Wolves, at least to some extent. It raises a question as to what he has in mind for them, and what his true motive is.

'If that is so, lord, then why are we pursuing this war? The others - the Raptora, the Pyrae - they prosecute it for vengeance, to inflict the hurt that they inflicted on us. I cannot share that sentiment. It seems...unworthy of us. We are better than that.'
Magnus walked up to the sorcerer-lord and placed a heavy hand on Temekh's shoulder.
'We are,' he said. 'We are much better than that. Let the drive for vengeance motivate the others - it will make them fight harder. This battle is about far more than the settling of scores.'
'We fight to prevent a possible future. A future that, even now, gestates within the mountain below us. If we succeed, the hurt we will inflict on the Wolves of Fenris will rival what they did to us. If we fail, then all we have accomplished since our arrival on the Planet of Sorcerers will be as nothing.'

The plot thickens. It would seem that hurting the Space Wolves is indeed one of his main motivations, but it does not sit well with what he said a moment earlier. It is even stranger in light of what he said on Gangava.

Page 397-399

Did you know how angry that made me, that you never said why?

I think you knew. You knew that I would hate this. You knew every moment would be torture for me.

And that, after all, makes me believe you kept the truth from me for a reason.

This anger, this betrayal. It keeps me alive.

I loved you as none of your sons loved you. You knew that.

You knew I would hate you. You, who left me to this fate. I would have pierced the veils of reality with you, marched with you to destiny, stood beside you against the enemy you knew was waiting.

And I know what you were doing. You birthed this hate in me, as potent as the love I still cannot shake.

For hate is the most powerful drive in the universe, and you needed to give me such power that the Wolves would never be without a defender.

Bjorn the Fell-Handed's thoughts as he fights. He hates being a dreadnought, and a part of him hates Leman Russ for subjecting him to that fate, and for leaving him behind. He has concluded that this was done deliberately, so he would be strong enough to protect the Space Wolves. I don't know whether to call that forward-thinking or unbelievably cruel. All in all, if this story is anything to go by then Astartes dreadnoughts (or at least those of the Space Wolves) are enduring a pretty miserable existence. It shows the madness displayed by Chaos dreadnoughts in a whole new light.

Page 401

Fenrisian rivens had no equivalent of the Imperial Guard Commissars. They weren't needed. The very idea of trying to evade combat in order to achieve some short-lived safety was as alien to the death-world's psyche as charity.

Apparently, the kaerls will never run from a battle no matter what.

Page 403

Aphael had continued to suffer from the flesh-change. Combat was only a partial release. In its absence, he'd become erratic, prone to violent mood swings, incapable of making decisions calmly. He knew it was happening. As if observing himself from afar, he could see his mental processes disintegrating with every passing hour.
And now, a new presence had started to press on him, crowding out what control he still possessed. Something conscious was stirring, deep within his own mind. A sentience not his own had taken root within his thoughts and was gradually accruing more strength. Even as his body rebelled against him, his mind had begun to slip away too.
Once the inevitability of his destruction became clear, Aphael had passed through the familiar response pattern. Disbelief. Rage. Misery. Now he'd ended up in a dull kind of acceptance. There was nothing he could do to fight the process. Already his body and armour were intimately fused together, such that he knew he'd never be able to remove it. The only task remaining was to carry out his duties for as long as he could.
I will see the Dogs burn. After that, do whatever you wish with me. But I will not pass into oblivion until our retribution is complete. I will not.
Such bravado he knew was pointless. The Changer of the Ways was not a power to be threatened or cajoled. And yet, the words brought a grain of comfort to him. He was still capable of defiance, at least verbally.

Aphael's fate grows ever darker. His body is mutating, and it sounds a lot like he's been possessed as well. If so, it implies that in some cases it takes a while for a daemon to get full control once it's inside a host. For himself, Aphael seems to have given up on life, being driven on only by his desire for revenge.
An interesting point there about the role of Tzeentch. This pretty much confirms my suspicion since 'A Thousand Sons' that the Thousand Sons weren't willing or enthusiastic Tzeentch-worshippers. Rather this implies that they are in his power in some way, and thus doomed.

So simple. A child could have made something similar. Yet the raw power bleeding from the symbols clamped down on his sorcery like a fist locked over a mouth. The Rune Priests, for all their clumsy misunderstanding of the Warp, were adept at manipulating its signs. Somehow, as untutored and ignorant as they were, they had learned how to focus the parallel energies of the aether through the use of names, symbols, and gestures. Created in such numbers, the wards of the Fang acted as a powerful dampner of sorcerous energy, such that summoning even the mildest of magicks was difficult and dangerous.

Some insight into the Fenrisian Wyrd. In light of what was said in 'Know no Fear', that the power of Chaos is based on symbolism, Aphael's conclusion makes a lot of sense. It's enough to make one wonder just how far the Space Wolves are from the Chaos-worshippers they so despise.

There's a brief sequence in which some Fenrisian children attack Aphael and his Rubricae with frag-grenades before escaping into the tunnels. This wasn't as silly or annoying as it might have been, as they don't succeed in doing any actual damage. But they do make Aphael even angrier than he already is.

The chapter ends with a sequence in which Wyrmblade starts to tell Morek Karekborn the truth about his project. Morek finds that the faith he once had in the Space Wolves, or rather his image of them, has been lost for good. Ironically, he concludes that his daughter Freija was right about them, just as she comes to understand his reverence for them. Wyrmblade decides to punish Morek for walking in on him by revealing the whole truth.

What you witnessed is called the Tempering. It will change the face of the Chapter forever. Listen, and I will explain how it will destroy and remake all that you have ever been taught to hold sacred.

Chapter 19

Page 418

For every Legion he created, there was a purpose. Some were blessed with the power to build, or the skill to administer, or the capacity for stealth. Our gift was different. We were made to destroy. Our whole being is destruction. Such was the will of the Allfather. He made us not to construct empires, but to murder them. We were bred to perform the tasks that no other Legion could, to fight with such extravagance that even our brother warrriors would shrink from treachery in the knowledge of what we, the Rout, would do to them.

Wyrmblade tells Morek the ultimate truth of the Space Wolves. They were created to be a ravening engine of destruction, capable of destroying anything up to and including another Space Marine Legion. In that respect, they don't seem much different from the World Eaters.

Page 420

Wyrmblade paused. There was an edge of distaste in his words.
'This is what had has become important. Not prowess. Not danger. Stability. Reliability. Fidelity. Without these things, no Chapter lives to exert influence. Successors - these are what our brothers aspire to create, to ensure that warriors of their temper flourish and endure, and to exclude those forged from different metal.
' And do you suppose, Morek Karekborn, that the Vlka Fenryka have followed this path? Have we let ourselves be divided into successor Chapters as the Ultramarines, the Angels, or the Fists have done?'
'No' said Morek confidently. 'We are different.'
Wyrmblade shook his head.
'Not that different. We had a successor: the Wolf Brothers, led by Beor Arjac Grimmaesson. They were to have been as numerous as we were, and as powerful. They were gifted a home world, Kaeriol, a planet of ice and fire, just as Fenris is. They had half our fleet, half our armouries, half our Priests. They were to have been the first of many, a whole line of descendant Fenrisian Chapters - the Sons of Russ, capable of carving our a star empire the size of Ultramar. That was the vision, to be powerful enough to encircle the Eye of Terror completely, to prevent the Traitors from daring to leave it ever again. Thus, it was hoped, we would fulfill our destiny and find a new purpose in the Age of the Imperium.'

Now things are starting to get interesting. The Space Wolves feel left out in the Imperium as it is, and perhaps bear jealousy towards those Legions that were able to create successor chapters. Their plan was to find a purpose, and perhaps to prove their worth, by creating their very own Ultramar, but for the purpose of keeping the Eye of Terror contained. Needless to say, things did not go to plan.

Page 421

'What happened to them? The Wolf Brothers?
'They are gone.'
'Destroyed?'
'Not all. Some may yet live, though their wyrd is unknown. They were disbanded, scattered to the six points of the compass.'
'Why?'
Wyrmblade drew in a deep, grating breath.
'For the same reason that there can be no further successors to the Rout. The Wolf within. We are too dangerous to be copied. The heritage that makes us powerful also makes us unstable. The Brothers, located far from Fenris, fell quickly into the state of beasts. So it must be with any attempt to splice new growth from the gene-seed of Russ.'
Wyrmblade bowed his head. But then his eyes flashed in the dark, catching a stray flicker of light from the fire.
'Until now.'

There are two ways I can interpret the Space Wolves' problem. One is that there is something special about Fenris that keeps the Space Wolves somewhat stable, while the other is that the Gene-seed used to create the Wolf Brothers is not a direct copy, but a splicing with some other material. Something about the Canis Helix means that every attempt to do this goes horribly wrong, and I have a vague impression that the Emperor wanted it that way.
On the face of it, Magnus' intention is obviously to prevent the Space Wolves from creating their cordon around the Eye. But that doesn't sit entirely well with all the other things he said. I've had the idea bouncing around in my head that Magnus is, in a manner of speaking, trying to prevent a greater calamity. If the Space Wolves were to create successors en-masse, and they went the way of the Wolf Brothers, then the consequences for the Imperium would be dire. For want of clear evidence, either interpretation works.

More to come.

[Connor MacLeod]

And we revisit SMB with... Siege of CAstellax. I have a few of these to throw out and might as well get them current. Its another Iron Warriors story, which means its actually 'Chaos Space Marine Battles', but meh. IW vs Orks, and I was rooting for the Orks the whole time. The Iron Warriors are still bastards of the Honosu theme, and it seems like the story deliberately pokes fun at their self proclaimed 'greatness' in every word. The thing is chalk full of irony and grimdark, which is the good part of it. Lots of technical fluffy bits too.

Two part update.

Page 7

I-Day Minus 15

Important later on, just want to note the start of the story as 15 days prior ot the Ork invasion.


Page 13

Impex V, outermost of the vagabond moons of the Castellax system. For an interplanetary tanker like the Stardrinker, it took two weeks to make the voyage, take on cargo and return. Two weeks of unrelieved monotony and boredom. Impex V to Castellax. Castellax to Impex V. Back and forth, week in and week out.

A week to travel for the fregither of unkonown size, and a week back to cross the system. Again important to note for later.


Page 14

If not for its vast mineral resources, the Imperium would have bypassed the planet. But Castellax was rich in promethium and heavy metals, so the Imperium had established a colony on the world to exploit the planet’s wealth.
..
After seizing control of the planet, they had instituted a policy of savage exploitation that made the Imperium’s industry pale by comparison. Such rampant ravaging of the planet had not been without its consequences. The seas were drained to feed the factories and strip mines, the water table under the planet’s surface was hopelessly corrupted by industrial waste. After a century of occupation by the Iron Warriors, there wasn’t a spoonful of freestanding water left on Castellax that wasn’t nine-parts toxic sludge.
The Iron Warriors had been forced to look elsewhere to feed Castellax’s thirst. In the frozen outer
moon of Impex V, they found their solution. Orbital stations were brought to surround the moon, each station deploying hundreds of small barges which would fly down to harvest the ice. A fleet of tankers like the Stardrinker would then collect it, ferrying the huge frozen blocks back to Castellax, a continuous chain of supply to keep the fires of industry burning.

Castellax had been an Imperial world (mining and it seems industrial) prior to the conquest by the Iron Warriors. They havne't used up the natural resources yet (either on planet or in the system) but they've pretty well used up all the natural water. Assuming an earthlike planet (1e21 kg or so of water) we're talking over 1e16 tons used annually simply for industry. I dont know of a benchmark to apply that to, but it sounds insane.
Assuming that is accurate to within an order of magnitude (EG the planet has maybe e20-e21 kg of water total) that means the transport 'fleet' must carry in a year that much ice in total. Per week for the fleet it would mean e13-14 tons is transported (on average) from the moon to the planet. Assuming the moon has a rather low escape velocity (Say a few km/s) we're talking total energy expenditure to lift it into orbit somewhere in the e22-e24 range depending on the exact 'velocity' you figure. Hauling it across the system is probably equally energy intensive. Beyond that we can't say miuch (since we dont know hwo many ships are in the fleet.. dozens perhaps, hundreds possibly, and each would probably be carrying billions if not trillions of tons of mass.


Page 17-18

The jacket had belonged to the deputy governor of Galar IX, right up until five seconds before Bodras blew his head off.
..
Bodras tapped the holster of his laspistol...

Assuming that isn't hyperbole (And it might be) a laspistol can potentially (partly or completely) explode a head. something we've known from other sources, but its worth noting just in case. One more would never hurt


Page 17-18

"We’ve picked up no sign of the Stardrinker."
..
"All we’ve been able to get is a bunch of noise. It’s across all frequencies. Probably solar interference."
...
"We’re sixty-four AU from the sun! Any solar activity that could interfere with us here would also burn Castellax to a cinder."
...
"Captain, we’re detecting a vapour cloud one hundred kilometres starboard.."
...
"It could be water vapour. The tanker might have had an accident."

We learn the frigate sent out to investigate the Star Drinker's disappearance is 64 AU out from the star, meaning its about 63 AU from the planet. which works out to a distance of about 9.5 billion km. Given we know that the freighter must have covered that distance within a week, we're talking a sustained accel of at least 10-11 gees and a max velocity somewhere on the order of 10% of the speed of light (and 5% of c for average velocity)
That's not all either. given the e13-14 tons of water transported weekly we'd be talking a total potential energy expenditure (mass and velocity) of at least somewhere in the e30-e31 joule range for that entire week.. assuming my assumptions and figures hold accurate. Heck, even if its merely an 'order of magnitude' figure we're still talking a literal fuckload of energy even if the actual value was hundredth, a thousandth, or hell even a millionth of what I estimated - even over a whole week. Especially when you consider the actual energy expended would be greater given the thrust to achieve said velocity (at least an order of magnitude or more.) Heck, even then you'd likely need very efficient engines with very high exhaust velocity (unless you're ejecting billions of tons of exhaust each second) to make this remotely plausible.)
Of course this DOES ignore the whole 'mass lightening' thing too, so there is always that possibility (assuming it actually cheats or shortcuts the mass issue in some way either..)


PAge 18-21

"Asteroid" the officer replied. "High metal content."
...
An asteroid loaded with metal ore...
..
It had been born in the cauldron of an angry cosmos, a slab of rock and metal seventy kilo-metres in diameter, a fledgling planet that had never found its place and so had been cast into the emptiness between galaxies.
...
The rok was vast enough to exert its own gravitational pull on the ship, dragging her slowly towards it...

Gotta love it. The orks turned a fucking 70 km wide metal and rock asteroid into a fucking starship. Now granted they dont seem to be able to control it perfectly, but still. assuming rock composition and 99.9% empty space and a roughly spherical asteroid, it would mass some 415 billion tons.. If it were 'merely' 99% empty space we're talking on the order of a trillion tons. And thats still assuming only rock composition, and not factoring in all the stuff the Orks must have added (engines, weapons, defenses, etc.)


Page 21

I-Day Minus 14

14 days to invasion at this point. Between this and the previous I-day number, we can figure it took the orks between 14-15 days to reach Castellax from the aforementioned 63 au distance. If the ship had been operating from a stop, it would require a constant 2-3 gee burn and a 4.5%c top speed (2-3% of c average speed). This is not even remotely certain however, since we dont know the initial velocity of the Rok coming in system and its entirely possible it built up much of the avergae speed beforehand. Then again, it also requires time to slow down (barring some sort of forcefield trick) so the acceleration could still apply. given a starship mass on the order of hundreds of billions or trillions of tons, even a few gee acceleration is.. damn impressive. We're talking something that is a fair chunk of the mass of a Death Star, after all, implying energies on the order of e23-e24 watts (assuming an exhaust velocity somewhere on the order of 1e8 m/s)
Even if my accel figures are drastically off (always possible, I'm not perfect after all!) we're still talking a total energy expenditure on the order of e28-e29 joules over that fourteen-fifteen day period, which is certainly NOT trivial either. Either way those horribly HUGE yields


Page 22

Cyclopean engines, their exhausts a hundred metres wide, projected from the rok’s sides, spitting streams of atomic fire as the orks inside the asteroid struggled to direct its trajectory, to exert some measure of control upon the elemental force they had attempted to enslave.
It was a futile effort. The best the orks could do was cause the rok to revolve, to spin on its axis as it hurtled through the void.

The aforementioned hugenormous Ork Rok's engines. Atomic rather than the dreaded fossil fuel. To be fair they dont seem to have much control over it, although whether this could include a few gees (or means less) is up for debate. That's one reason I hedged my bets WRT calcs. Admittedly those calcs didn't involve mass lightening either, although we've never had proof the Orks use that at all.


Page 22-23

The Vulture reeled as another broadside smashed into her. The ship’s artificial gravity struggled to compensate for the rolling vessel, creating a wild confusion of forces upon the bridge. Bodras watched as one of his bodyguards hurtled forwards, then was grabbed and dragged by a malfunctioning inertia dampener. The screaming man smashed into the wall as though he’d been fired from a torpedo tube, his ribcage collapsing as the dampener tried to pull his body through the bulkhead.
...
The dead had been unceremoniously dumped onto the walkway where the inertia dampener grabbed hold of them.
..
"There is a hull breach aft, exposing three decks to vacuum. The gravity generators can’t compensate, so we’re vacillating between a seven and ten degree list."

Pirate frigate, mentioned in the text as af ormer Imperial starship, has inertial dampers. What's more, the impact of Ork broadsides on the frigate is violent enough to throw people about with enough force to kill/pulverize, implying perhaps in excess of ten gees or more (although 'if more' that could be in less than a second) Although not everyone has this issue so it may not be nearly that fast eithr, but its still an interesting comment on the sheer momentum imparted by Ork cannon fire (although the type isn't exactly known either.) If the ship's engines have to compensate for that in any short timeframe, we might be looking at the ship expending at least high megatons to low gigatons every second (bout equivlaent to the mass/acceleration figures from FFG's Rogue TRader RPG) though.



Page 23-24

"Alpha and Beta batteries have been obliterated by direct hits. Gamma battery is still firing..."
...
"Only one macro-cannon still operational."
..
"Last macro-cannon has gone silent!"
"Delta battery reports two plasma batteries have overheated!"

Frigate armament seems kinda trivial, although 'battery' as we know is fairly open ended. It could mean a few guns or lots of them. We know the frigate has at least 4 batteries, with eat least two or three guns apiece (plasma and macro cannon), although whether thats four per side or four total (or wherever they're mounted, possibly dorsal and broadside mounts) we don't quite know.


Page 24

That would be those filthy missiles the rok had fired into them. The moment they had struck, the crew had breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they were duds. Then the electronic pulses had started, gradually increasing in scope and intensity. Somehow the missiles were both absorbing and projecting energy. The effect was like a massive haywire grenade, shorting out machinery close to the point of impact and utterly severing the lines of communication passing through that part of the ship.

Orks use EMP missiles to disable Imperial starship communications, although the ship still seems to be able to fight and manuver. Probably says something about an Imperial starship's ability to resist EMP or similar attacks (like Star Wars Ion cannons, which cause electrical disruption.)


Page 28

"The orks struck from the fringe of the system, in the vicinity of Impex V. The high proportion of asteroids in that sector has always been a detriment to our sensors."The admiral gestured and brought the image of an old Imperial frigate into view. "Our initial response, a single system patrol sentry, was overwhelmed by the intruders."

Just in case if we needed further confirmation that the Orks had fought the raider ship mentioned above (and thus also interecepted the freighter given the mention of Impex V) on the edges of the system, we have that here.


Page 29

"The second wave consists of five Infidel-class raiders and seven system-defence destroyers. "
..
As he touched the lights, each was revealed as another vessel in the Castellax fleet. In all, there were fifty-nine ships in the second line Nostraz had established.

An indication of the scope of Third Grand Company (or rather its remnants?) naval and system defence forces. The system defense ships are destroyer/frigate grade it seems. Including the destroyed frigate, that makes seveenty two starships composed of both capital and escort vessels. Including at least one battleship.


Page 30

"Our sensors can’t give us proper intelligence for that sector, and there is too much psychic disturbance in the area for the Navigators on our ships to provide us with anything useful."

Mention of the use of Navigators as some sort of psychic detection device upon the Ork forces, much as other novels and the FFG Rogue TRader stuff has implied.


Page 31

The old pirate’s brow knitted with dismay, disturbing the nest of cables implanted into his forehead that hardwired his mind with the cogitators of his battleship. He could feel his vessel’s agitation pulsing through the wires, like a hound smelling blood.
..
Since defecting after the Badab War, the battleship’s lust for violence had only grown. Vortsk sometimes wondered if her time in the Eye of Terror had endowed his ship with a consciousness of her own.

Human battleship captain has direct linkage to the 'machien spirit' of his ship, which seemingly is sentinet/aware, although its also implied this may reflect it being tainted if not daemonic. Still its not the first time behaviour of this sort has been applied to starship machine spirits or starship captains have had an intimate connection to the ship they commanded.

Page 31

. The armoured, tomb-like pod was ringed with flickering displays, cycling through views of every deck on the battleship. Vortsk ignored these and the thousands of relays transmitting views of the Requiem’s exterior hull. What interested him were the long-range observium reports..

Inidcation of the displays/optical sensors/cameras the battleship has.


Page 31-32

The rok was still active, but now it served as just another warship in an armada that dwarfed the combined might of the entire Castellax fleet. If the data from the raiders was to be trusted, the aliens had infiltrated the system with three hundred vessels of destroyer-size or greater, including two monstrosities boasting a mass approaching that of an Oberon-class battleship.
There were other ork vessels operating deep in the system.
...
Small splinters of the armada were attacking the remote mining outposts scattered through the planetoids at the fringe of the system, while a hulking kill kroozer had been closing upon the Impex V station...

Size of the Ork armada. Not quite 'Third Armageddon' scale, but still pretty damn big.


Page 32

There were only a half-dozen escorts with the ork battleship, none of them larger than a frigate. Even allowing for the ork propensity to pile ridiculous amounts of armament onto their ships, the human battle line had them outgunned twenty to one.

The (IIRC) 59 ship armada has a half dozen ork escorts and a battleship outguned by a factor of twenty. I imagine with extrapolatoin we could try to figure out individual ratios, but I'm honestly too lazy to make a guess. Roughly speaking on average each ship must have several times the firepower of the ork ships on average. Which is not terribly surpising given that like with the Tyranids, Orks typically rely on numerical superiority to equalize against the Imperium in space.


Page 35-36

The ugly ships were almost all engine except for the immense mass of armour piled up about their prows.
Ram ships!
..
Target Omega wasn’t a battleship at all. It was an assault carrier!
..
he ram ships, impossibly fast with their oversized engines, were smashing into the human vessels almost before their crews were aware they were being attacked. The ork craft charged straight into the fleet, breaching hulls with their armoured prows. More than the actual damage they inflicted, it was the confusion they wrought upon the fleet.
...
The battleship shuddered as one of the rampaging ork ram ships slammed into her side.
The drag of the ork ship would compromise her manoeuvrability, too much so for her to escape the spiralling wreckage of Target Omega.

Ork battleship turns out to be a big carrier for Ork ramships of some kind . Assuming they'r ethe Brute ramships (meaning it smore like the old Space fleet sublight 'parasite' destroyers that attached to larger capital ships for transit) they're probably inflicting some fairly hefty damage (As outlined in BFG and Rogue Trader's battlefleet Koronus - multimegaton starships at hundreds or thousands of m/s at least.) The fleet seems to be taking hits wihout being destroyed.. indeed the battleship takes one ramship without being utterly crippled, which shows some hefty resilience against collison.


Page 37

"An armada that size might have a billion howling greenskins."

An armada of two battleships, one super Rok, and hundreds of escort scale (or larger) ships equates to roughly a billion orks.


Page 37

Sergeant Ipos was the only member of the inner-circle who had been created with hybrid gene-seed, a necessity for a Legion whose own genetic material was rife with corruption and mutation.

The Iron Warriors steal the gene-seed of other Legions/chapters to supplement their own corrupted Geneseed. The side effect of which is that there is a osrt of 'caste system' based on purity not unlike that the Dark Eldar have. We saw this with Honsou and the Iron warriors in Storm of Iron as well, but it seems this is not unique.


Page 37

"We shouldn’t expect a concentrated attack by the orks for several hours, perhaps even days."

Timeframe before the Ork invasion. sveral days would imply perhaps this 12-13 days after the Orks have appeared.


Page 39

"We might manage food for the slaves.."
...
"Synthetics will last out for the better part of a year and can be supplemented, but water will be a problem. The only extra water supplies we can tap into are those at the embryo farms and that will deprive us of our next generation of workers. Unless we go out and collect our own on a large scale."

The Iron warriors feed their slaves on 'synthetic' foods. We dont yet know what that means but we'll learn later. Also rather than relying normally or routinely on raiding, they seem to use artificial birthing techniques to create their own servants, although the time involved is not specified.


Page 40

"The fleet will disengage and withdraw to the far side of the sun"
..
"That will put Castellax between them and the ork armada."
..
"With the orks caught up in the planetary fortifications, we can recall the fleet and have it engage the ships the xenos leave in orbit."

This means they cover at least an AU or two in a matter of hours or several days. Several days would be 2-4 gees and .006-.011c, whilst several hours would be over 1200 gees and closer to .14c top speed. Call it tens or hundreds of gees, probably.


Page 43

Five centuries of zealous service to the Omnissiah had replaced most of his decayed flesh with bionics. Bundled in a heavy robe of vat-grown synthfibre..

Augmetic enhancement can provide at least 5 or more centruies of life to a TEchpriest, with no indication this is the limit of lifespan. Of course we know of Techrpiests lasting 700 years or more, hell thousands of years on augmetics.


Page 45

The Iron Warriors wanted to transform Castellax into a forge world to feed the war machine of their infamous Legion. To do that, they required more than billions of simple slaves. They needed specialists, men who understood the arcane sciences of manufacturing and design, processing and refinement.

The AdMech of Castellax had been kept for their knowledge of science and 'design' and other technical skills. Also castellax had a population in the billions.


Page 46

The floating ‘Steel Blood’, Oriax’s ghoulish imitation of servo-skulls flitted throughout Vorago, watching everything and everyone.
...
Servitors, both those crafted in the Fabricator’s workshops and those scavenged from the conquest of Castellax, were often fitted with transmitters that fed intelligence directly to Oriax’s stronghold in the sub-catacombs of the Iron Bastion.

Iron Warrior equivalent of servo skulls, servitors, and the like. All seem to be surveillance devices.


Page 47

..Taofang pulled the protective lenses back across his eyes and turned his gaze from the sky to the men around him. There were over five hundred of them, janissaries of the Scorpion Brigade, each man fitted out in the corrosion-resistant duster and ore-scuttle helmet of their regiment.
..
"Three minutes of exposure to the air and the pollution will begin to deteriorate your vision. Half an hour, and you would be as good as blind. "

Protective gear of Castellaxes human troops/defence forces. Given the hazards of the enviorment (pollution anr corrosion) to unprotected skin, its quite likely they have almost complete body protection and some measure of sealing against that atmosphere.


Page 47

The janissaries had seen him use his laspistol too many times to need the consequences explained to them. It was a custom weapon, plunder from some forge world, calibrated to fire a wider, more powerful beam than a standard pattern weapon. The charred wounds it left behind were big enough to put a man’s fist through.

An interesting, and powerful laspistol. Another example of those 'broad burn' or 'wide beam' lasweapons that have cropped up any number of times in the HH series from Legion onwards, and which may help explain both the 'heat ray' aspect of a number of lasweapons as well as the severe burning/cauterization damage alongside putting craters/holes in targets.
Assuming we're talking a 10 cm diameter 'crater' we're talking nearly 80 sq cm at least. Assuming 3rd degree burns at least we're talking at a bare minimum 4 kj just to burn it. Of course the inner surface is not flat but probably curves, which for 'fist sized' is probably closer 200-300 sq cm, which translates to 10-15 kj for third degree burns. If we assume 'flaying' burns for either, its at least 32 kj, to 80-120 kj.
Assuming a single 20 kj pulse, 5mm spot size and 10 microsecond delay between pulses for a Luke Campbell style 'blaster' laser, we're looking at a 9 cm diameter hole, which is roughly fist sized and corresponds with above. On the other hand, if the hole is burnt 'through' the head (put a man's fist through'), you could get away with 10-12 6-7 kilojoule pulses at the same parameters above, which would put a 9-10 cm hole through the head roughkly for around 70-80 kj total. Which again fits with the double digit range, and could probably also cause flash burns depending on how you fconfigured the weapon. Mind you, this is probably still conservative since a 'broad beam' won't be ideally focused.. probably closer to the flash burn effect.
And of course if it were pure heat ray and we assume it caused 3rd degree scals or boiled (100-268 kj per kg roughly) and a fist sized bit of flesh you could expect between 80-200 kj of damage.
Overall, tens to hundreds of kilojoules for the laspistol is likely, although it is probably a fairly high end laspistol model (sort of liek a magnum, or the lieutenant's pistol from Imperial Glory.) Lasgun is bound to be comparable roughly, though. If not better.

Page 50

Nehring reached to his holster and drew his pistol. The colonel spun around, firing the weapon into the face of the closest unarmed janissary. The soldier didn’t even have time to scream, simply dropping to the flagstones, a smouldering crater where his forehead should have been.

This might point to flash burns being closer to 125 j to 400 j per sq cm, rather than mere third degree burns. Again calcs probably fit closer to what I estimated above, double or triple digit kj, although it probably doesn't come even close to burning a fist sized hole compleetely through the head.

Page 51

Among the last men to leave the plaza, he’d been in too much of a hurry when he’d raced past the ammunition boxes. Instead of three energy cells for his lasgun, he had three clips of bullets for an autogun.
..
As it stood, Taofang had twenty shots from the energy cell already inside his weapon.

The pdf lasgun has only twenty shots in its power pack apparently. Whilst its possible the pack was not at full chage, they were expecting to head into battle and hadn't engaged the enemy yet, so there is strong probability that they were fully charged. In which case it means either the weapons were quite powerful (like a hotshot pack, or the lucious-pattern lasgun the Kriegers use.) or it is crappier than an Imperial lasgun in some ways (eg ammo capacity, which for an Imperial lasgun can be at least 40 to as many as hundreds of shots per pack.
Also, interesting that apparently (At least as far as the PDF are concerned) bullet mags seem to be visibly identical to lasgun powerpacks, suggesting similar dimensions. Assuming its a rechargable pack (1-1.5 kj per cubic cm, and dimensions of an M-16 mag (around 12 cm tall, 2 cm wide, 6-7 cm long) were talking around 150-260 kj for the pack. A loaded M-16 pack weighs something on the order of .45 kg, so if we assume its a sodium sulfur battery its 540 kj per kg (going by my FFG stats) which is 243 kj. At 20 shots that works otu to between 7.5 and 12 (or 13) kj per shot.


Page 52

Taofang’s truck had pulled up halfway along the sloped ramp leading to the factory’s transport node, a monorail connecting it to Dirgas’s main railway. A quick glance showed him that a half-dozen other trucks were likewise positioned around the transport node...
...
...there were about two hundred janissaries being deployed.
...
Closer at hand, however, was the sinister bulk of an armoured transport quite unlike the crude trucks employed by the janissaries. It was a box-like vehicle, its hull fashioned from plates of reinforced plasteel...

The PDF forces have their own trucks for transport, making them motorised. 7 truck sand ~200 troops implies a carrying capacity of 25-30 troopers apiece.


Page 52-53

Heavy slugs continued to slam into the floor, pulverising the dead bodies of the ambushed janissaries. A confusion of other shots plastered the same area, displaying a crazed variety of calibres and ammunition types. The helmet of one of the corpses melted under the glowing discharge of a low-intensity plasma weapon, the skull inside smoking as the man’s hair caught fire.

Inidcation of Ork firepower, both in terms of its raw power and its variability in calibre/weight and velocity.

Also plasma weapon which ignites hair, 125 j per sq cm and a 20x20 cm area is at least double to triple digit kj. Assuming a 2 kg helmet like Guardsmen helmets and made of iron, we'r etalking 14-15 MJ to melt for Ork plasma weapon.


Page 53

. A machete bigger than Taofang’s arm was thrust through the alien’s belt..

Size of Ork blade.


Page 53-54

Taofang hadn’t heard so much as a peep from the gigantic surface-to-orbit defence cannons, guns so immense their recoil felt like an earth tremor...

Implied power of robital guns.


Page 54

The rattle of renewed gunfire slammed against the sides of the trucks, some of the shots of such strength that they ripped clean through the vehicles and into the men cowering behind them. Screams of agony echoed through the factory as injured janissaries writhed on the ground, clutching at the bleeding stumps of arms and legs or trying to push splintered ribs into the wet meat of mangled chests.

Again Ork firepower in action, capable of penetrating through vehicles to kill people on other side, amputate limbs, etc. Implies very powerful handgun analogue (magnum or better)


Page 54

Las-beams sizzled up at the monsters, searing ugly scars into their flesh and scouring their primitive vests of chain and scrap metal.
..
He could see now the effect his shots had on the alien. A half-dozen black splotches on its leathery green skin, a nice cluster of fresh scars to go with the confusion of old wounds already marring the alien’s hide. Staring down the sight of his lasgun, Taofang could see the ork staring back at him, its face pulling back in a leer of amusement as it brought its weapon to bear.

Effect of lasgun fire. Seems to burn holes in targets, mostly thermal damage. Not terribly effective as half a dozne shots get pumped into this ork with little effect.


Page 54-55

..the greenskin was bowled backwards by the meaty impact of an explosive round. Bone and sinew burst from the alien’s body as the shell detonated against its shoulder. Uttering a shriek that was half snarl and half howl, the ork struggled to spin around and face its attacker. Even as it made the effort, a second explosive shell tore deep into its chest, detonating an instant later. Ripped almost in two by the explosion..

Space Marine bolter round. Bolters, unsurprisingly, are more effective.

Page 56-57

... he charged the closest gantry, firing at the skulking ork crouched at the top of the stairs. He saw his shots burn into the alien’s flesh, saw one of his las-bolts melt the tinted visor of the alien’s helmet and sear into the beady eye behind it.
...
...he continued to shoot the wounded brute, burning fresh holes into its leathery flesh.
...
Taofang stared incredulously at his lasgun, noting with some confusion the blinking red light of the depleted energy cell.
...
The ork he had been shooting wasn’t dead, its hideous physiology preserving it through the fusillade. Wounded, bleeding, several of its bones broken in its fall..

Ork takes 14 shots this time, and a fall (breaking bones) but is still not put down. One lasround burns an eye, single or double digit kj depending on mechanism, maybe.


Page 59

Massed among the wreckage was a horde of greenskinned aliens, their hulking bodies draped in ragged armour and tattered rags, their fists wrapped about a crazed assemblage of weaponry, from crude stub guns to complex meltas and everything between.

Ork weaponry again, except this time they also have meltas.


Page 60

It was teleportation, that most mysterious and esoteric of human technology, but on a scale so vast that even the most crazed tech-priest would balk at the possibility. Taofang had heard stories of boarding parties of five or six Adeptus Astartes appearing inside a raider during an engagement against the Imperium, but this went far beyond. The orks had teleported thousands of their loathsome breed from orbit to the surface of Castellax.
...
Many orks had been fused into pieces of the factory, their bodies melted into gantries and pillars. Hundreds of orks at the very fringe of the teleportation’s effect had only partially reformed...

Ork use of teleportation, only on a mass scale (not unlike Armageddon) it carries high risk and casualties, but Orks care nothing of that, only the effectiveness of the weapon (in this case transporting fuckloads of Orks inside the defenses of the city.) Its also implied human teleportation is far less in scope, only able to transport a realtively small handful of troops at a time.


Page 62

"Pull out and flatten the city from the sky," Over-Captain Vallax declared, slamming his fist against the table. "Let the orks taste a few hundred megatons of vengeance from our bombers. That will make them think twice before using their teleporters again."
...
" All bombing Dirgas will do is destroy valuable infrastructure and material. By my calculations, losing the city will reduce overall production by fifteen per cent. We will have a hard time meeting our tithe to Medrengard if we turn the city into a cinder."

Several hundred megatons of ordnance to basically demolish a city via bombing. We dont know how many bombers, and context is prone to argument (although the context implies a very short period of time, given they intend to deny the city to the Orks via teleporter) and we know the Orks employed 'hundreds' of fighters nad bombers at this time (and the Iron Warrior air forces had a hard time keeping up) so it would certainly imply kilotons to megatons of firepower for a single (or small number) of strikes. But even assuming we're talking thousands of craft and thousands of bombing runs to completely flatten the city with these hundreds of megatons, we're still talking many hundreds or thousands of tons of firepower per bombing run per bomber, which as good as (and probably better) than any modern craft payload wise short of employing nukes (and maybe FAE)
Perhaps even more interesting, is the implications this might have for various and myraid 'city destroying' references in 40K, both for titans and starships. For titans (ove ra period of hours as indicated by other sources) it might indicate kiloton range firepower, whilst for starships (single salvo, as per FFG's Rogue trader RPG) we're talking hundreds of megatons probably. I suspect some may argue about this interpretation, but this is, to my knowledge, the only quantified instance of city destruction in 40K as of yet.

Page 67

Mag-clamps built into their boots and designed to thwart the vacuum of space kept each of them firmly fixed to the plasteel deck.

Plasteel apparently is ferrous according to this Or has a ferrous element to it.

Page 68

Since the orks’ first assault on Castellax the relentless alien attacks had choked the stratosphere with a cloud of debris and chaff, effectively cutting the planet off from the network of observation satellites orbiting it. As a result, the Iron Warriors had been forced to rely upon fly-bys and ground-based intelligence stations to follow enemy movement and deployment.

Iron Warriors rely on orbital as well as aerial and ground surveillance for information. Given its hinted that the absence of the satellites makes the air forces 'half blind' ithe orbital bits may be significantly more important than ground/aerial surveillance.


Page 68-69

The Castellax Air Cohort had been thrown into complete panic by the sudden descent of several hundred ork craft which had been orbiting the planet. Like a meteor storm, the armada was hurtling towards Vorago. Before the sub-orbital defences could be brought to bear against the invaders, the vanguard of the aliens was already over the city.
...
In their ferocious, headlong plunge from orbit, the orks had abandoned any pretensions of caution. Hundreds of their ramshackle craft must have found the descent too much for their air frames, cracking apart as they dived towards the city.
Yet even in death, the orks served the greater cause of their Waaagh! Each broken craft became a shower of shrapnel, hurtling at the city with a velocity that could shatter plasteel. They smashed into Vorago with the fury of an orbital bombardment, shaking the city to its foundations.

Orks deploying 'hundrds' of attack craft from orbit, which overwhelms the Castellax air forces. Its quite interesting how they drop down from orbit to strike, implying a very abrupt, high velocity (reentry speed) assault on the Castellax air force in a very short period of time. Imperial forces have done likewise (in the Gav Thorpe Marauder/Raptors short stories from Inferno and Let the Galaxy Burn.)
Also the Ork craft striking down at presumably reentry speeds considered equivalent to orbital bombardment in some manner Assuming 2-8 km/s and a 200 ton craft we're talking between 400 GJ and 6.4 TJ over an unspecified timeframe, although thats also per craft and it may mean the combined 'collisions' are equal to such (and there may be scores or hundreds of such.)
Also mention of sub-orbital (anti aircraft) defenses, implying ranges of tens or hundreds of km perhaps.


Page 69

Rhodaan partitioned his concentration, letting only a fragment of his attention rest upon the Cohort vox reports.

Space Marine (or Iron Warrior) brain multitasking abilities.


Page 70

Huge, fat-bodied bombers, their exhausts belching thick streams of smog and diesel fumes, lumbered over the city, disgorging tons of ordnance with reckless abandon. Scrap-metal fighters raced along the ferrocrete canyons, training their crude slug-throwers on anything that moved.
More troubling were the bulky transports. Looking like big boxes of pig-iron fitted with wings and a mad array of guns, they rumbled across the sky.
..
A moment later, a ten-metre section of the aircraft’s hull was sent hurtling away, kicked loose by the mob of frenzied orks within.

Ork fighters and bombers and troop transports. The fact they have aerial troop carriers of any kind is insanely impressive. Impilied to be many tens of metres in length (or longer than 10m wide, depending on interpetation.)


Page 71

One of the men cried out as a lucky shot from an ork bolter ripped half of his torso away.

Effect of Ork bolter.


Page 77

Despite being blasted by three shotguns, the greenskin still had fight in it...
...
When the weapon was spent, the ork threw its weapon at the oven the closest overseer had taken shelter behind, then threw one of its boots when the pistol failed to hit a target. The wounded brute was groping about looking for something else to throw when another fusillade from the shotguns smashed into it, nearly ripping its head from its shoulders.

Again ork durability agaist shotguns. They're tough to put down.


Page 77

Slugs and shells smashed into the machinery the guards were using as cover. The projectiles with lower velocity glanced from the sides of the obstacles, but there was no consistency among the alien armaments and several rounds tore through the machinery as though it were made of paper. Human screams rose from behind the cover as one by one the guards were torn to ribbons by the high-calibre ork weaponry.

Again the variable nature of Ork projectile weaponry. Some is low velocity, and some is high velocity, armor piercing and punches right through machinery (cover) with lethal (and messy/explosive) effect.


Page 78

.. the ork reached to its belt and dragged out an immense knife, a weapon with a blade bigger than Yuxiang’s forearm. The greenskin stabbed one of its fat fingers against an activation stud and the teeth along the edge of the knife began to churn back and forth

A.. chain.. knife, I guess? The back and forth movement is a bit odd.. more like a vibro blade in that manner I think.


Page 78-79

...a single shot exploded from just over the slave’s head. The ork staggered, the knife dropping from its numbed hand. Smoke rose from the hole in its forehead, its beady red eyes crossed as though trying to look at the wound between them. A second later, the explosive round detonated, blasting the helmet from the greenskin’s head and sending most of its brains and part of its skull spurting across the floor.

More 'bolters are uber' headsplosion stuff. Rather long delay for detonation.


Page 80

...pointed his bolt pistol at its head. Where the ork had missed, Rhodaan’s aim proved more accurate, exploding the brute’s skull with a single shot.

More Space Marine bolt headsplosion.


Page 83

The swept-back intrusion-bomber represented the latest word in Castellax design templates, a vicious fusion of human engineering and xenos technology. Capable of incredible atmospheric speeds, the Spineripper had earned its name for its uncompromising manoeuvrability, far in excess of what the human body could safely endure. Even competent pilots like Xiaowang, with years of hypno-conditioning and training behind them, had to be vigilant lest the aircraft get out of control.

Castellax Xenos-tech hybrid bombers. Implied acceleraton (or at least turning rate) far in excess of human limits (suggesting greater than 9-10 gees, possibly in doubel digit gees.) although since they can't endure it, and they evidently don't have any sort of gravity compensation onboard, it seems kinda useless


Page 83-84

A blossom of flame and smoke rose from the hab-pen, an incandescent mushroom of atomised stone and vaporised metal that spiralled into the greasy sky. Somewhere within that pillar of devastation, the ashes of six thousand slaves reached towards the heavens before sinking back into the rubble of their bombed-out cage.
...
"Hab-blocks six and seven now eliminated" a quivering voice reported over the squadron comms channel.
...
There were twelve Spinerippers in his command and he wasn’t certain which man made the report.

Bombing run evidently cremating 6000 people as well as obliterating the hab block (pen) several TJ at least, possibly several kilotons (which ironically corresponds fairly well to the 'city demolishing' implications from before. )
Also size of a bomber squadron. (probably aeronautica rather than starfighter, though.)


Page 85

Since the onset of the siege, the people of Castellax had been subsisting from an even lower quality protein sludge than normal. The loss of the orbital algae swamps had reduced their rations to a noxious mix of synthetics and protein supplements. At best, the villainous paste lacked any semblance of taste. At worst, it was like trying to eat sand after a silica rain.

More on Castellax Cuisine, mention again of synthetics, but also this time protein stuffage.


Page 85

Another blossom of fire boiled upwards as the last of the Spinerippers released its payload. The visor of Xiaowang’s helmet darkened as the bright blast burned across the sky.

Helmet darkens against blast. Also another probable hab block obliterated probably by a single bomber. And again implication that a single bomber load probably inflicted the devastation from before.


Page 86-87

Xiaowang’s head snapped around, his eyes darting to the proximity display.
..
When it came to ork aircraft, there was no pattern. Every plane was as different from the next as one alkali crystal from another. Until each example was actually engaged there was no way to gauge its speed or manoeuvrability. Or its armament.
...
He looked back at the proximity-slate. It was peppered with a confusion of little specks.
...
Whatever air detection devices the orks had, it wasn’t very good.
...
Xiaowang could see rooftops swarming with orks, every one of them armed with a gun of some kind and firing wildly into the sky.

The bomber has sensors/detection display, which can locate both craft and ground targets (including individual orks) and the Orks apparently have their own air detection. Oh and Ork aircraft are as variable performance as their firearms and ground vehicles


Page 88

On the ground below, an ork rocket battery belched a salvo of twenty warheads into the sky.
...
Xiaowang stabbed his thumb against a rune on the control panel, releasing a bundle of metallic chaff to misdirect the rockets. He felt his body go cold when they ignored the bait, shifting course to match his own. Whatever machine-spirit the orks had pounded into their weapons to guide them, it was too primitive to change targets once it was unleashed.

Ork anti-air rocket artillery. Guided rockets at that, although too primitive to be diverted by countermeasures (which the bombers also have.)


Page 89-90

Rhodaan’s voice was an alchemy of pride and bitterness.
...
...he knew the Legion’s thirst for revenge would never be quenched and so he was doomed to die without honour. The moment the Legion’s flesh-rippers had claimed him, he had become one of the damned. They had given him strength and power beyond anything a mere mortal could possess, but in return they had taken everything.
...
He could see their chainaxes tearing through the sealed door of the hab-unit, shredding the furniture that had been piled behind it to strengthen the barrier. He could hear the death agonies of his parents and sister as the slavers butchered them before his eyes. The Iron Warrior felt no kinship to these people now. The only feeling that stirred within him was disgust at the sloppy tactics displayed by the flesh-rippers.

This is actually one of the few 'thmeatically' interesting passages in the story, as it sort of highlights the essential 'emptiness' of the Iron Warrior space marines in the story. They go on and on about how they're superior and how utter trash their human slaves are, but this passage really highlights how really futile their existence is. The Iron Warriors of the Heresy rebelled out of bitterness over being Garrison troops and the "Iron Warriors on Castellax.. are playing the role of Garrison troops over an industrial world in their keeping, sending tithes of material and munitions to their Legion's homeworld. For all their protestations of superiority, its the humans who show greater diversity and passion than their Astartes Masters. The Iron Warriors in this story are, really.. dull and pathetic and really pitiable. and I suspect that may be intentional.
This particular passage is of interest because its one of those rare cases where a Space Marine reflects on his past and considers that for all that superhuman killitude he gained, he also lost important things. Indeed, Rhodaan seems to be bitter and angry at his Legion over that loss, considering him cursed. Its a very rare sort of contemplation you get from either loyalist OR Chaos Space Marines, or an admission that their creation carries drawbacks as well as advantages. Sometimes you get this int he idea that Loyalist Space MArines sacrifice their humanity to become superhuman defenders, but that's about it. Kind of a pity really, because 'sacrifice of humanity' and 'loss of childhood' in these fundamentally child-warriors are perhaps some of the best ways to write interesting space marines (Its an approach that worked quite well with Spartans in the Halo novels, IMHO, and there's no reason it couldn't be applied to Astartes.)
Its also a bit tragic that his memories of his family were not taken or obliterated, but they cause no real emotion in him.. yet another thing stolen from him and replaced only with empty pride and anger and bitterness.. the legacy of the IRon Warriors in fact.


Page 95

Uhlan was a half-breed, his gene-seed cobbled together from the plundered glands of butchered enemies.
..
He was a pure Iron Warrior and the temerity of a half-breed like Uhlan disgusted him. Such creatures were a necessary evil to maintain the ranks of the Legion and allow them to prosecute the Long War, but for such abominations to think they were equals was absurd!

Once again the Iron Warriors seem to have a hierarchy of 'pure' strain Iron Warriors and 'halfbreeds' whose geneseed is a composite of whatever they can steal from enemies (not unlike the REd Corsairs.) It indicates that Gene seed is, to a degree, interchangable amidst the various Legions/Chapters. It leads to intersting speculation as to what side effects this might have, as we know every Legion had its own quirks (And even some Chapters for that matter.) related to their geneseed which may not mix well.
It's also kind of amusing that they play these powre games with purity, given that by now the 'pure' Iron Warriors must be in a tremendous minority within the Legion as a whole. ATtrition is a bitch, and one of these days you can expect that the halfbreeds will inherit the Legion as a whole. But the conflict this seemingly creates does the Legion no favors, as we soon learn.


Page 100-101

.. it had been the humans who were on the attack, striking out in mechanised columns to harass the advance elements of the alien invaders.
...
The stated objective of Colonel Nehring’s ‘reconnaissance in force’ had been to disrupt the alien advance, to prevent them from establishing advance camps further along the line. A series of lightning raids against the xenos march which would blunt the thrust of their attack and force the orks to withdraw and dig-in.
...
The orks were always more numerous than expected; their absurd vehicles, knocked together from seemingly random jumbles of scrap, outgunned anything the janissaries had. It was easy enough to surprise the aliens and throw them into confusion, but the janissaries quickly discovered that a confused ork didn’t break and run. A confused ork just started shooting at the closest target and didn’t stop until it ran out of ammunition.
Hit and run quickly became the watchwords. The soldiers would strike from the shelter of a spoil heap or ash dune, assault the flanks of the ork column, then fade away before the xenos could muster an effective response. It was the strategy of harassment, not victory, dealing little real damage to the orks

Back to the 'Flesh' forces, the merely human slaves and soliders of Castellax. WE learn that unlike their masters, they do not seem totally fixated on siege and trench warfare. Indeed they are surprisingly mobile and well equipped, having mechanised as well as motorised forces (and later we learn, armour) and they seem well versed in fighting on the move. Unfortunately the Orks numbers and variable 'quality' strike again, blunting the effectiveness of this tactic and forcing the humans into hit and run (Again mobile, but not very direct.)


Page 102-103

A bandolier of ‘hot-las’ cartridges straddled the swell of the soldier’s breast, locking into a second ammo belt which circled a slender waist. The ugly snout of a suppressed lasrifle jutted over one shoulder,...

I gather 'hot las' means 'hot shot' cartridges, although whether they are of the single or multi-shot inteprretation we don't know. I'd guess single if its a 'catridge rather than a power cell. Also the lasrifle is unlikely to be a long las, given its never actually called that (and called a lasrifle instead.) We know that some lasguns can be modified to be supprresed in that fashion from Rogue Trader: Hostile Acquisitions (although trading off penetration/power and even range for this privilege depending ont he mods) Given its supposed to be an 'illicit' modification in either case per Hostile Acquisitions, it would fit what we see surprisingly well.


Page 104-105

Her finger slowly pulled the trigger. A soft glow erupted from the weapon as the concentrated energy beam sped away, most of the flash and sound consumed by the dampener fastened to the lasrifle’s muzzle. Somewhere, in the dust-choked gloom of Gamma Five’s streets, the deadly charge struck its target.
..
...he pressed his cheek against the warm barrel and squinted down the scope. The filters built into the device cut through the confusion of smoke and dust, the magnification revealing a clear view of the street. Sprawled at the end of the lane, its forehead burned clear through, was the hideous bulk of a massive ork.

The woman (later described multiple times as a sniper) has a fairly sophisitcated scope on her lasrilfe that can see through dust and smoke. Once again we see that the 'suppressed' lasweapon seems to be less 'visible' and quieter than a regular lasweapon (although that doesnt neccesarily say much..)
Also lasround once more burns holes in stuff rather than exploding it.


Page 108

If there was one thing the False Emperor had done correctly, it was to engineer something better than mankind. His mistake was failing to recognise that what he had created were not guardians of mankind but their replacement.

Yes, the Iron Warriors see themselves as the next evolutionary step. Except for those pesky halfbreeds they need of course. Only the pure will endure!


Page 110

.. Captain Rhodaan swung around, the snarling mouth of his plasma pistol thrust towards Spyder’s hideous face. A blaze of brilliant light, the sizzle of super-heated power-coils, the stench of vaporised flesh, and the mutant’s headless body collapsed.

Plasma weapon headsplosion. Actual vaporization would be 10 MJ or so, but its its merely 'sploding' it might be much much less. double or triple digit kj.


Page 115-116

The sound of las-beams and autoguns suddenly echoed from the distance. Again, Vallax smiled. The Flesh had started their diversion. The janissaries were positioned in a tank ditch a kilometre behind Squad Vidarna’s pits. They had been quickly assembled and dispatched from a nearby settlement. They lacked the numbers or equipment to seriously threaten the tanks, but the orks wouldn’t care about that.

suggesting autogun/lasgun ranges of about a kilometre. The targets are Ork vehicles (buggies, transports, bikes, etc.)


Page 116

...the Raptors exploded from their pits, the mighty thrusters of their jump packs launching them hundreds of metres into the sky. As they reached the apex of their leap, the Iron Warriors stared down at the tanks far below.

Height of a raptor jump pack leap.


Page 121

Vindictively, he fired his lasgun at the monster. The ork braked hard, preventing the shot from striking its head. Instead, the energy beam struck the warbike’s forks, melting through the scrap-metal pipe. The damaged fork snapped, causing the bike to jerk to the left...

Lasbolt strikes the fork of Ork cycle. Given Orks are bigger, the cycles are probably bigger, but the forks are also quite obviously not solid (they have suspension roles IIRC) Figure a 2-3 cm hole and maybe 1-2 cm through.. call it 16 to 63 grams roughly and iron composition.. 19.2 to 75.6 kj roughly per shot, and purely thermal.


Page 123

"We are losing air superiority in our own skies to a bunch of slack-brained xenos trash!"
...
"As it stands, my squadrons are being taxed to their limit just trying to keep the xenos away from the Witch Wall and maintain control on this side of the Mare Ossius."

Again the Orks seem to be able to match (and outnumber somewhat) the Air forces of Castellax.


Page 124

He had caught an entire tank army upon the plains of Boresh, annihilating it in a merciless campaign of saturation bombing.
...
..he’d been tricked by the Imperial commander, gulled into destroying a phoney formation – civilian vehicles dressed to look like tanks and artillery. While he was bombing the fake army, the real armour was slipping away to surprise the Iron Warriors ground forces encircling the planetary capital.

The 'superior' Iron Warriors. HAH. This just shows why I think the Iron Warriors are meant to be something of a hypocrtical joke in the story, all this profession of how great and advanced they are, and they don't act any morew reliably than humans, mainly because of their own arrogance.


Page 127

Stretching across half a continent, marking the shoreline of a dead ocean, the black mass of the Witch Wall was a synthetic scar upon the face of Castellax, so immense as to be visible from orbit whenever the planet’s pollution levels dropped to sub-toxic levels. A megalithic mass of stone, ferrocrete and plasteel half a kilometre high, the fortress was a monstrosity of guns and assault batteries. Divided every few hundred metres into fortified segments, fed by a network of subterranean railways, workshops, arsenals and troop-kennels, the wall was a world unto itself. Locked within its dungeons, generations of slaves laboured in the darkness to provide ammunition for its guns, to produce synthetic food for its garrison, to supply energy to its generators. Imprisoned within containment-crypts, their bodies immersed in preservative salt-baths, their brains wired into thrall-engines, hundreds of psykers sent their mental screams wailing through the battlements, a psychic clamour to confound the witchery of any enemy.

The Grand Iron Warrior defensive wall. ULTIMATE SIEGE WARFARE. All tha tsaid its a pretty impressive feat.. some hundreds or thousands of km across, half a km tall. Assuming its even just a few hundred metres across, and 90% empty we'd be talking billions of tons worth of stone (more like tens or hundreds probably!) and they had to build it within a century or less (probably much less.)
The production facilities (and food growth) as well as the psyker defenses are also kinda neat.


Page 128

Weak, fragile men.
...
This was the foundation the False Emperor had imagined he could build his Imperium upon. It would be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic.

And yet they still haven't managed to topple that Imperium yet, after 10,000 years of trying.


Page 129

Gripping the man’s insect-like rebreather, Gamgin pulled the mask away, exposing the soldier’s pale flesh to the toxic dust. At once, the skin began to blister.
..
The Iron Warrior dropped the quivering wretch, leaving him to bleed out as the poisons burned away his lungs.

More indication of what the gas masks and other protections are guarding the Castellaxians against.


Page 130

... shells being loaded or the creak of elevators bringing up missiles from the underground arsenals. The thrum of hundreds of lascannon and plasma batteries cycling over to full charge..

Wall defenses.


Page 130-131

That swarm of ork planes and gyrocopters had struck with the fury of a tempest,...
...
Hundreds had been burned from the skies and still there seemed no end to the alien flyers.
...
The orks had simply overwhelmed each position, sacrificing dozens of their planes to knock out a single lascannon or missile battery.

[/quote]
Indication again of the scope of the Orkish airforce.. hundreds quite easily, and that a drop in the bucket. The implied number of vehicles lost to suppress each gun (potentially hundreds) suggests upwards of thousands.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2



Page 132

Now that the first mine had been struck, the proximity sensors attached to the rest had been activated.
..
Simply coming within five metres of them was enough.

Proximity mines.


Page 132

..the wall’s heavy guns roared into violent life, hurling tons of explosive across the desert to slam into the oncoming xenos. Tanks were shattered by four-ton shells, their hulls shredded like parchment...

Iron Warriors wall artillery. Definiteyl greater than battleship scale, we're probably talking 'schwerer gustav' scale given the mass of the shells.


Page 132

Now the alien vanguard was near enough to the wall that the janissaries began opening up with their lasguns and autocannon.

Given the height of the wall, we're talking at least half a kilometer or more.. probably much more. Comparison to autocannon might suggest they're similar in range to autocannon.


Page 132

.. the buried chainwire that leapt up from the sand as the vibrations of the alien machines activated their sensors. He saw ork bikers hit the snarling stretches of wire, their bodies torn into gory cubes by the whirling blades. Dozens of orks hit the wire, cut to ribbons in a burst of blood and gristle..

Dear god. Chainwire. Actual. Chainsaw...wire. How incredibly over the top given they're nowhere near the walls


Page 132

Protein-pastes packed with stimulants were dispensed..

'More castellax cuisine.. now with even more drugs!


Page 134

..the janissaries dug into the barrels of ash with long leaden ladles and cast the shimmering poison into the wind. The corrosive chemical would bond with the toxic dust swirling up from the dry ocean bed. A few moments after being cast into the breeze, it would create an acidic cloud capable of chewing through flesh. The orks might be hardy enough to breathe the polluted fumes of Castellax’s atmosphere, but they wouldn’t shrug off the Daemon’s Breath.
...
..Gamgin could see the acid corroding their flesh, scorching and blistering as it gnawed its way through the leathery skin.
..
..he ordered the men on the wall to fire down into the afflicted aliens.

It just wouldnt be trench warfare iwthout the chemical weaponry, would it? Again half a km range at least for lasguns.


Page 136

A kilometre away, he could see a great smouldering crater pitting the face of the Witch Wall.
An instant later, the wall was rattled by a second impact, an entire stronghold collapsing in an explosion of ferrocrete and plasteel. Gamgin’s mind whirled at the impossible devastation, something he would expect only from a battleship or the largest Titans.
...
In size, they bore no kinship to any tank or train he had ever seen. They were more like Imperial strike cruisers mounted on carriages, trundling down the railway with sluggish yet inexorable momentum. Gaping in the face of each of the mobile battlefortresses was a mammoth cannon, the sort of thing that would be more properly used to pummel a planet into submission from high orbit.

Well the Orks certainly don't shirk on size or firepower, do they? strike cruiser suggests millions of tons and kilometres long, easily. The gun is suggested to be starship scale (or large titan, although by some sources they overlap.) Its uncertain whether battleship is literal or figureative.. if it means literal that means only battleships carry guns equivalent to what the largest (Eg Imperator) titans wield, which seems.. a bit odd, but not impossible I suppose depending on the calibre and arrangement (although I dont think you can use this to argue titans packing gigaton firepower.)
Firepower isn't clearly defined either (except for the fact that its highly unlikely its hurling gigatons at the wall) It seems like its putting holes smaller in diameter than the wall itself, which doesn't really tell us much.
Oh and guns bombarding planets from high orbit, as opposed to low orbit


Page 137

Only that facet of his brain assigned to reciting binary orisons to confuse the sentinel-implants hidden within his own body was not devoted to the ritual of praise
..
With their senses partitioned by automated cogitators or replaced entirely by cybernetic mechanisms..
..
If the absence of even one of them were to be noticed, if anyone were lax in his orisons or failed to lose a trailing Steel Blood…

Techpriest stuffs. It seems the weird religious crap does serve a legit purposes here, although it could be code/programming with a funny name rather than techno-magical crap. Also techpriest implants.


Page 142

"The heretic Ipos has mobilised nearly a million slaves"
..
"Already the first of the munitions have been disassembled and removed from the city."
..
"It is a sacrilege to defile such holy armaments"
...
"Never do we take more than can be concealed. From each of the ten, we take only what will not be noticed. Though it is a profanation of the sacred template, we have bypassed fail-safes and redundancies to ensure the mechanisms remain functional."
..
He could only trust that the machine-spirits of the offended ordnance would forgive him for what he had done.

The 'ordnance' in question will be discussed later. This is mainly to establish some facts for that later date.


Page 143

Rhodaan was certain the janissaries fought under some delusion of heroism and accomplishment. Such phantasms were a part of Gamgin’s relentless training pogroms, things which became a part of the slave-soldier’s psyche. They were always there, lurking in the subconscious, waiting to be exploited.
...
For all their frailty and weakness, men clung to the belief that their lives had value. If it would make them fight harder, Rhodaan was willing to allow them their little fantasy.

Psychological conditioning (read: brainwashing) of Castellax's troops. I wonder how much like Imperial Guard training this might be?
Its also a bit hilarious how they consider a human's willingness to fight harder for a cause or for life.. I mean thats kinda like a Space Marine's dedication, except for the fact its not brainwashed/encoded into them, its a choice.. and the fact humans are frail and will still do this is all the more impressive (whereas a Space Marine is made for that.) Again the parallels and the ironies here are just so ludicrous.


Page 146

Dozens of pict screens displayed various views of Aboro, scores of cogitators rumbled and chattered as they analyzed the reports streaming in from the vox-casters.

Command center assessing battlefield data.


Page 147

He waved an armoured hand at the pict screens. "The Steel Blood maintain their vigil. The orks have ignored thirty-seven per cent of them, leaving many of them transmitting well behind enemy lines." The Space Marine’s face twisted in a derisive sneer. "Simple brutes, incapable of appreciating the value of intelligence!" He pointed to one of the pict screens, his finger stabbing at the broadcast image as though thrusting a sword into it.

Iron warriors value intel, use chaos servo skull analogues to do recon.


Page 147-148

Bigger than a strike cruiser, the immense vehicle straddled the railway, exploiting the mag-plates to aid its propulsion. The mammoth barrel of an orbital cannon jutted from the front of the machine’s hull. It had been such weapons which had broken the Witch Wall and pulverised the Charybdis Line. With a range of several hundred kilometres..

The doomforts again. bigger than strike cruisers now. Also with a orbial gun that has a range of hundreds of km. Remember this was also a weapon comparabel to the one on 'largest titans', implying titans COULD have similar range, although unless it was fucking tall (unlikely unless we go with the literal 'kilometres tall' titans), using indirect fire or a high elevation it wouldnt do much.


Page 149

Mankind was the prey of such forces, only a Space Marine had the force of will to resist and restrain such power. Chaos was a power to be harnessed by those with the strength and vision to use it.

Iron Warriors are dumb enough to think they can control Chaos. That could go a long way to explaining Honsou.


Page 150

Rhodaan could almost hear the ground whining in protest as the prodigious weight of the machine pressed down upon it. That the mag-plates could afford any kind of support to such a monstrosity was grim testament to the genius of the Iron Warriors’ engineering.

Iron Warrior maglev plates are durable enough to support a strike cruiser-sized vehicle.


Page 151

He could hear the battle cry repeated by the other Raptors as they flew after him.
It took only the blink of an eye to clear the gritty smog of dust and wreckage. One instant, Rhodaan’s vision was consumed by a grey oblivion. The next he was hundreds of metres above the burning streets of Aboro..

Chaos tainted jump pack (and the other Raptor packs) carry them hundreds of metres into the air in a matter of seconds (or less.)


Page 152

Rhodaan spread his demi-organic wings and dived upon the yawning mouth of the main gun, its bore a full ten metres wide...

Size of the muzzle of the main (orbital) gun thingy


PAge 153

Uzraal found himself in the arming chamber of the immense gun, shells bigger than railway cars stacked and piled throughout the mammoth room.

Mass of the shells. Honestly I havent been able to find some exact masses on rail cars in general (for one thing it varies according to what kind of car - does it carry cargo or people, etc.) and it ifts volume I haven't quite found the dimensions (and even then we know the bore diameter.
If we use this page as a benchmark we might figure mass is several tens of tons at least, and dimensions (at least height) go for 3-5 m tall on the low end, with length being several times the width (3-4x maybe). That should be accurate to within an OOM or less.
Given the several hundred km range and the fact it probably requires at least sveral km/s velocity to achieve that we're probably talking 60 GJ per shell for KE and 6e7 kg*m/s momentum.


Page 154

Even as it swung around to follow Baelfegor’s flight, the mekboy’s head evaporated in a sizzling mess of steam. Rhodaan scowled at his overheated plasma pistol, hoping the sensitive power coils hadn’t been compromised from over-use.

Plasma pistol again *probably* vaporizing a head. high kj to low MJ once again probably, with the inference being actual evaporation (at least in part.)


Page 155

He lost no time climbing back into the barrel, or engaging the thrusters of his jump pack once inside. The confined space magnified the force of the engines, shooting him from the cannon with a velocity that would have shattered the bones of a mere human. Even as a legionary, the experience tested his endurance almost to the limit. He could feel blood vessels burst, the softer tissues of ear and nose tearing as he thundered out into the sky.

An indication of the accelerations and forces a Raptor can endure, at least in power armor. Obviously they're considerably greater than what normal humans can endure.


Page 158

. He needed more than that to atone for his failure at the Witch Wall. Like the alien warlord, there was revenge to be satisfied. Only destruction of the battlefortress would bring that satisfaction.

They need to destroy the battle fortress.


Page 161

A beam of sizzling energy leapt from the laspistol, searing across the command car.
..
He had aimed at Gamgin’s unprotected face, and his aim had been true. But he hadn’t factored the superhuman reflexes of a Space Marine into his shot. Instead of burning a hole in the Iron Warrior’s forehead, the las-beam had seared across the giant’s cheek, exposing the gums and teeth beneath the skin. The maimed flesh contorted in a sneer.

Laspistol 'burns away' part of a Space Marine's cheek,at least with enough width to expose teeth and gums.. which suggests a 4-5 cm width and perhaps 10 cm 'long'. Given 40-50 sq cm and at least 3rd degree burns (50 j per sq cm) we're talking 2-2.5 kj minimum. IF we take 'burn away' to mean something closer to 4th degree (Which will flay flesh away via steam explosion) at 400 j per sq cm we're talking between 15-20 kj.
This would also tend to suggest the 'area of effect' of lasfire is a bit bigger than finger-wide, which can be important for calcs, since it would mean many times the energy input to make the bigger hole (for example the 5-10 kj pulse making a ~2 cm diameter, ~50 cm 'deep' wound would require 4-5x the energy to make a ~4 cm wide hole, and the dpeth would be 50% greater.. meaning something like 20-50 KJ 'shots', not including any effects from burns and such.

Page 161

The janissary captain shrieked as the explosive round struck him in his gut, detonating with an impact that split his body in two. The screaming torso struck the wall and slid to the floor.

Bolt round bisects a human body, probably means a torso-wide hole (or thereabouts) in the body, which suggests perhaps close to several tens of grams of TNT equivalent (certainly no less than several grams)


Page 161-162

Gamgin marched to the armoured door of the carriage. It took six men to lock the massive doors in place. The Iron Warrior’s effort was made even harder by the fact that he was trying to open the doors against the velocity of a speeding train, bypassing locks and safeguards set in place by a dozen security cogitators. Sweat dripped down his forehead, his muscles burned with strain, the servo-motors in his armour groaned in protest, threatening to seize up and freeze his limbs in place.
..
With the scream of broken metal, the armoured door swung open, slamming against the side of the train before it was torn away completely by its own weight.

Iron Warrior rips loose (whilst still on hinges) armoured door that takes six men to hold close, and electronic locking.


Page 162

..he optics of his helm cycling through different magnifications a..

Helmet optics.

Page 165

Gamgin drove the muzzle of his pistol under the brute’s chin and exploded its skull.

Bolt pistol headsplosion.


Page 166-168

..Rhodaan and his squad had a perfect view when a ten kilometre-wide section of desert suddenly vanished. One instant they could see Gamgin’s troop train speeding down the tracks, flanked on all sides by a numberless swarm of ork buggies and battlewagons, the gigantic bulk of the battlefortress lumbering several kilometres behind. The next instant, that vista was obliterated in a burst of fiery annihilation. It seemed as though a talon of fire had reached up from the flaming core of Castellax to visit a vengeful judgement upon the puny creatures who capered about its surface. For hundreds of kilometres, the desert became a mass of dust and debris, smashed flat by the holocaust’s murderous might.
The shock wave of that blast sent earthquakes coursing through the continent, gouging new faults in the substrata of Castellax. Air currents shifted wildly, sending storms raging across the planet as its desiccated atmosphere tried to adjust to the sudden vacuum from the hole that had burned clear to its stratosphere. A wall of dust and sand three kilometres high spilled across the desert, smothering entire outposts lying in their path.
The gunship pitched and rolled, its crew fighting wildly to maintain control.
..
One surface-to-orbit missile had caused such carnage. Unable to employ the weapons against the ork ships circling Castellax due to the debris field, Sergeant Ipos had proposed a different use for the ordnance. Detaching the mammoth warheads from the missiles, thousands of slaves had buried them across the desert in a ring of annihilation that no force could defy. Seeking to redeem himself for failing to hold the Witch Wall, Captain Gamgin had offered to goad an entire ork army within range of the trap...

Some sort of space weapon detonated on teh surface to take out huge chunk of ork armada, including the 'space ship on the ground' battlefortress. We can tell its highly unlikely to be teratons given lack of secondary effects (widespread devastation, affects of atmosphere, persistant fireball, etc.) but its hard to actually calc it for any number of reasons:
First off, the detials involved are a tad vague 'ten kilometre section' may just mean part of it blasted, or it may be the fireball (or fireballs, see submunitions below), or whatever. The 'hundreds of kilometres' part blastwave
Then there is the quake. continental scale quakes might imply considerably greater devastation, magnitude 6-8 based on here at least depending on how you define it, and quite possibly more, meaning somewhere in the megaton to gigaton range. And there is the hole made in the stratosphere, implying the effects of the explosion could extend as much as 10 (or more) km above the surface. With the 10 km diameter 'area' effected you might figure its a fireball, and that would be hundreds of megatons to gigatons possibly (which would mesh with the stratosphere thing.. if it were a fireblal.) Problem is.. what if its a directd yield? Something like a casaba howitzer or nuclear shaped charge (or a melta blast) would blast a hole straight up.. and that wouldnt require the huge yields a conventional fireball would. Of course there's also the quake and blast wave, and if it were shaped that would imply those effects are secondary and less devatsating than the main effect. Indeed getting widespread shockwaves like that requires pretty big yields (gigatons) assuming it was a conventional explosion and a single blast. But that plays into the next issue with the calc:
The submunitions aspect is another complication, especially taking in comments both preceding and following this statement. Its implied that it may be a single missile (and all its submunitions) detonating in one case, but in another it may just be one of several submunitions being detonated (with others implied to be left behind.) We also don't quite know how many submunitions there are in absolute terms, although the map for the novel suggests at least 6, and preceding evidence implied perhaps up to 10. The submunitions angle also complicats any effort with the 10 km and 'fireball' aspect given that a large number of smaller detonations could be described, create the widespread devastation with individually smaller yields. It wouldn't solve everything (like the hole in the stratosphere) but if again they were shaped charges that might cover that.
There is also the fact they apparently took out a 5 km long 'fortress' with the blast(s), although whether that defines the fireball (or numbers of fireballs) or what we dont know, but its not trivial given the thing is bigger (and probably more powerufl) than a Titan.. more like an Ork version of an Ordinatus.
We also don't know what kind of 'space' weapon it is. I'm not aying its a point defense missile, but it could be a broadside weapon, or it may actually be a torpedo of some kind. That does matter since it could be one fo those 'lower yield in large numbers' sorts of weapons they sometimes use.
I think its safe tos ay that the missile, whatever it is, is at least megaton range (given the quakes and the 'battlefortress' destruction), possbily gigaton range, but we can't really say beyond certain vague things, and it doesn't give any precise absolutes WRT space firepower.
Either way its still damn impressive.

Page 168-169

Their solution to the threat of more buried warheads had been at once brilliant and simple.
..
Once the orks were across the pit, they would be within the ring of warheads Ipos had buried. By deploying the traps in a manner that would maximise their breadth, the Iron Warriors had thought to construct a wall of death far beyond the environs of their stronghold.
...
There had been many strange colours and clouds in the skies since the detonation of the orbital warhead. The explosion had thrown clouds of dust and debris into the atmosphere, elements ripped from deep within the planet’s strata.

Again the complications for the aforementioned calc. The above implies that there may have been more warheads buried, or it may mean that the Orks simply think there are more buried. It also suggests significant cratering (deep into the crust) and significant dust loading, which again may imply fairly significant yields, although I'm at a bit of a loss to accuratley define how big is big


Page 171

Reluctantly, they brought the iron links into contact with the manacle locked around their left wrist. As the chain made contact, an automated clasp clicked open and closed about the striated edge of the manacle.

Yep, automated manacles. To chain together the slaves you use to run your industry and fight your wars. There's a bit of irony there, somewhere.


Page 173

"The full supply of Flesh available, the current population of Vorago. Fifty million."

Population of the capital of Castellax.


Page 173-174

"It will take years to cultivate a new workforce from the embryo vaults!" he cried. "Even when the orks are forced from Castellax, it will take us decades to resume production. We will fall behind in our tithe to Medrengard!"
Andraaz scowled at the angry Skylord. "Medrengard will not investigate our shipments for much longer than that," he declared. "Warp travel being what it is. By the time it becomes an immediate concern, my raider fleets will have collected fresh slaves for my factories."

years/decades of possible travel/communication time between Castellax and Medrengard (in the eye). WE don't know where Castellax is, however, so this doesnt tell us much.
Also again, the sources of population on planet.. grown or enslaved.


Page 177

.. the optics in his helm shifting through visual frequencies in an effort to pierce the clouds of toxic ash. It was an effort beyond even the artifices of pre-Heresy engineering.
..
"The impurities in the ash are confounding the optic filters," Rhodaan said. "They don’t present a unified visual frequency for exclusion."

Heresy era optics can't see through the toxic ash-storms of Castellax. We dont know the composition, and we dont know exactly whether 'Heresy era' means its better than what the Imperium has (cuz its old) or its worse (because its old.) either.


Page 182

He felt it was better for all concerned if the Iron Warrior remained shackled. Even Merihem would be slowed down by a few tons of titanium lashed about his limbs.

Supposedly a few tons of metal around an Obliterator's arms will hamper him. As we learn, it doesn't (he breaks free and can still move despite it, albeit with some effort.)


Page 182

Framed in the doorway was a gigantic shape, a figure of colossal proportions, immense beyond even the standards of the Space Marines. Three metres tall, at least half as wide across its hunched shoulders, the dark shape all but filled the entrance to the crypt.

Obliterators are bigger than normal Marines.


Page 185

..one of his own soldiers, horrified to see their only hope of retreat destroyed, exploded the officer’s skull with a burst from his shotgun.

Shotgun explodes head. Presumably, since the guards were also armed with lasguns, lasguns might be of comparable power.


Page 188

Haywire grenades were designed to disrupt energy transmissions, to shut down the electrical circulation within any machine, even one infested with the techno-organic Obliterator virus.

Effect of Haywire grenades. Effective against an Obliterator virus, or at least they were. SEe below


Page 189-190

The Obliterator’s body had partially absorbed the first set of bombs, allowing him to understand their mechanism and the frequency by which they were armed. The sonic projection detonated the bombs the Raptors held, felling both of them as the servo-motors inside their power armour shorted out.
...
"I have insulated myself, bundled my core within living flesh. So much for your disruptors!"

As I said, Obliterator was vulnerable to EMP at some point, but countermeasures exist (as well as the ability to analyze the attacks and devise said countermeasures.) So while they technically can afflict them, they're not a guaranteed win, and not more than once.


Page 190

His arm bulged into a ring of autocannon muzzles.

Gatling..autocannon. Funky obliterators.


Page 194

Distinct amid the sprawl of machines, tents, trenches and bivouacs, the grotesque bulk of the battlefortress towered. The second of the immense behemoths that had broken through the Witch Wall, the gargantuan machine formed the core of the ork encampment. An effort by the Air Cohort to bomb the thing had proven futile, only two planes had escaped from the murderous anti-air fire concentrated around the fortress. A Deathstrike missile had been launched from the Iron Bastion itself, but the weapon had detonated without effect against the crackling void fields protecting the battlefortress.

A second Ork battlefortress. The interesting thing is tha tthe Air Cohort tries to bomb the fuck out of the thing to no avail. What's more they lob a deathstrike at it. These two facts again hint at the potential firepower the thing can put up against (and the yield of the aforementioned space missile), given what we know from earlier sources that the Air Cohort bombardments are capable of, and what Deathstrikes are capable of.


Page 195

Vicious ork aircraft flew into the sky, not the handfuls that had been so easily dispatched before, but in their hundreds, entire squadrons of bombers and fighters, whole wings of box-like gunships and transports.

Scope of Ork air forces implied, again.


Page 196

..he ork troops didn’t even wait for the gunships to descend to the parapets. Firing their weapons as they fell, the brutes dropped the four metres between gunship and wall. Their powerful bodies absorbed the shock of the impact, for the most part. Even those who suffered injury clung to a stubborn urge to fight.

Ork durability... again.


Page 197

..Kuantai was matching words to actions, firing a long-barrelled stub pistol..

Weapon. May be important later, but I'll define it now. also variable barrel lenghts on firearms


Page 198

..brandishing a huge axe with an electrified blade.

Ork lightning axe!


Page 198

The janissary fired shot after shot into the charging ork, but the las-beams failed to strike any of the alien’s vitals, or else the beast was too stupid to recognise its injuries.

Location is important with lasfire (or at least certain kinds) when it comes to injury.


Page 198

Before the monster could strike again, its face was split by a crimson beam of light. The ork blinked in confusion, stumbled back. It dropped the axe and jabbed a fat finger into the smouldering hole in its forehead. There was a confused look on its face as it probed the wound. A glob of greasy material hung from its finger as it withdrew. The ork sniffed curiously at the stuff, then, finally acknowledging that it should be dead, slammed against the side of the embrasure.

Sniper weapon again. Single or maybe double digit kj again, depending on size of hole. ORk fingers are probably thicker than human (since Orks are bigger than human) so we might be looking at 3 or more cm diameter wounds. Given Execution Hour's hints at Ork skull thickness.. assuming an inch or so thick, and a 3-4 cm wound, the pulse energy needed to penetrate bone for a single pulse would be at least 5-10 kj for slightly less than an inch of penetrateion (just under 2 cm to be exact). Depending on exact bone thickness you might even require several pulses to punch through.
Oddly while the 'greasy material' - probably the brain, does not seem burnt, the wound is not bleeding. Hilariously, I wonder if this means that the Ork killed itself by gouging at its own brain


Page 198

Each of the orks was the equal of three men when it came to raw muscle and strength, and the weapons they carried were similarly powerful. While the humans fired their las-beams into the monsters, charring their armour or sometimes scorching their leathery flesh, the high-calibre rounds flying from the ork’s boltguns and stubbers were chewing chunks from the barricade. Only the slovenly aim of the charging aliens gave the humans any chance at all.

Orks vs humans, implied difference in strength and possibly in power of firearms (or at least, of the recoil of said firearms, which is roughly greater.) This latter bit could be intresting, as it may give an indicator of just how powerful lasweapons are, or how powerufl ork ewapons are, depending on who you use as the basis. For example, figuring the Orks use bolters and heavy stubbers (close to Astartes scale) you could figure lasrifles are about 1/3 the firepower.
That said its not exactly hte most precise of comparisons, so too much probably should not be read into it as far as firepower goes.


Page 199

Kuantai brought his pistol against the beast’s skull and blew its brains out.

Long barreled stub pistol purportedly blows out ork's skull (or brains). Assuming thats not metaphorical. Probably single digit kj at least, which suggests high calibre, magnum grade weapon. Given he's an officer, its not terribly surprising if he has a powreful handgun.


Page 210-211

. Instead of removing toxins from the air, the generator was now pumping them into it, a vicious cocktail of proticide that would bond with its victims on a molecular level, rendering the protons within the atoms unstable. Death would be almost instant and within an hour, even the evidence of a corpse would be obliterated as the body reduced itself to a sort of protean goo.
..
Against a normal human, the poison was invariably lethal, but the holy Adeptus Astartes and their fallen kin were a different matter. Proticide had proven incapable of defiling the enhanced genetics of a Space Marine, the advanced healing and regenerative properties of their cells nullifying the poison almost instantaneously. The best that exposure could inflict on an Iron Warrior would be a sensation of nausea. Even that was something of a triumph for the unknown geneseer who had created the poison.

An interesting poison (gene-engineered? Virus?) that is distributed via atmosphere generator modified for the purpose (the versatility of Imperial Tech - anything can be made into a weapon!) Naturally does fuck all against Space Marines, although its implied it might be effective against Orks.


Page 216

The discharge of missile launchers and cannon, the chatter of flak guns and plasma batteries. The orks had noticed the raiders flying towards them across the desert.
...
"Distance to target."
...
"Fi-five kilometres..."

Ork anti-air weapons engaging a shuttle/dropship from five kilometres out.


Page 217

He had read the reports detailing the Obliterator’s performance in the ork attack on the perimeter wall. Merihem had single-handedly held a three-kilometre section, accounting for some five hundred xenos casualties.

Which either implies the Obliterator can move amazingly fast (unliikely) or it gives an estimated range of what guns it might have (likely)


PAge 217

"Two kilometres, lord captain," the serf-slave announced. The assault boat shuddered violently as a flak shell exploded against the fuselage,

Ork AA scores direct hit at 2 km.


Page 219

Even the Iron Bastion was victimized, the megalithic tower’s void shields crackling with a spectral glow as xenos ordnance detonated against the force field.

Iron wArriors structure has voids.


Page 224

From stem to stern, the battlefortress was nearly five kilometres long, its tallest towers and communication masts reaching at least a kilometre into the sky.

Dimensions of the Battlefortress


Page 224

Still, there was always the possibility of some xenos having the wit to take advantage of a human-crafted targeter system. Certain elements within the ork horde had displayed a propensity for aping human strategy and armament.

Which might imply some non-Astartes humans have targeters.

Page 224

hodaan reached to his belt, thumbing small coin-like discs from the grenade dispenser. Touching their surface, he powered the tiny bombs into action..

Micro grenades. These ones being smoke bombs.

Page 226-227

His plasma pistol blazed in his hand as he fired into the ork gunners, the super-heated gas melting through organ and bone with the ferocity of an enraged sun.
...
..Rhodaan fired his pistol at an ork huddled behind one of the flak guns, spraying the alien’s face with molten metal as the shot scorched along the creature’s cover. The injured ork hopped away, one paw covering its melted face..
..
The alien’s momentum kept its body plunging towards the Iron Warrior even after a ball of plasma evaporated most of its head.

Plasma pistol again. Probably megajoule range somehow, although melting flesh isn't easily quantified, so that mostly leaves the headsplosion.

Page 227

One after another, the other members of his squad reported to him across the vox. Rhodaan fitted each of their positions to the map he was drawing inside his brain. The cogitator inside his data-slate would perform the same function, but he knew no machine could ever match the mentality of a legionary. Cogitators could provide logistics and summations but they did not possess a Space Marine’s experience or the intuition born from the cauldron of war.

comment on dataslate and cogitators and info dumps.

Page 228

" This machine is based on the deckplan of a Dictator-class cruiser."

Given its size, the fortress probably is a cruiser converted to ground use for all we know.

Page 228-229

..he pressed the barrel of his plasma pistol against its forehead, using the white-hot heat of the gun itself to burn a hole through the ork’s head.
..
.struggling to remove the heated gun barrel searing through its skull.

Plasma pistol barrel after prolonged firing can 'sear through' Ork skull. And kill it.

Page 232-233

Some of these orks exhibited their advanced mentality through use of specialised tactics, others were potent psykers who tapped into the gestalt consciousness of their breed to manifest hideous exhibitions of witchery. The mekboyz were another example of the same aberrancy, cobbling together machines and weapons of astounding capability from nothing but scraps and oddments.

comment on Ork diversity. Note that the Psychic power from orks comes from their 'gestalt' which migth just be another way of saying 'God'

Page 233-234

Rhodaan thumbed the intensity setting on his plasma pistol to its highest node..
..
At its highest intensity, Rhodaan had used his weapon to burn through the hatches of a battleship. However thick the ork’s armour, he knew it would make short work of the metal plates and quickly incinerate the alien inside.
...
It would take the weapon nearly a minute to build another charge in its power coil.

Plasma pistol has variable settings. On max intensity it could 'incinerat'e the ork (single or double digit MJ, to gigajoules for actula cremation) but required a minute recharge.

Page 238

Before the amazed eyes of the other Iron Warriors, the weapon began to disintegrate under Merihem’s touch, its every particle being absorbed back into the monster’s body. In less than a minute, the combi-weapon was gone. A few seconds later, something very much like it was taking shape on the Obliterator’s forearm.

Obliterator assimilates an Ork combi weapon and learns to form it himself.

PAge 242

The fiendish reality was that the lords of Castellax viewed their human slaves as nothing but cattle and, like cattle, they thought nothing of harvesting their flesh. A staple of the rations being issued to the defenders of Vorago, the tubes of protein-paste were created from the bodies of their own dead!
..
These weren’t bodies piled around him but slabs of meat destined to be rendered down into core nutrients and proteins, dissolved into shapeless mush to be injected into foil tubes and issued to millions of starving wretches!

This might be more horrifying if... the Imperium wasn't prone to doing similar shit for Hive worlds and such (can you say, 'Corpse Starch?' Indeed, if it weren't for some of the nastier problems with cannibalism (medical and cultural) it might not be a *bad* idea - not unlike the 'recycling of body water' or 'shit steaks' you sometimes hear about. But this being the Iron Warriors, I find it unlikely they take such measures (hell sometimes I doubt the Imperium would.. small wonder Hive worlders might be fucking nuts.)
As an aside this seems to be a 'turning point' for the human charcaters in the novel. The whole 'soylent green' thing seems to be the last straw and pushes them into rebellion against their overlords. Which just furthers that whole 'human vs Iron Warrior' contrast. The Humans despite being fearful and 'weak' can still muster the passion and rage to resist and defy, futile as it may be. While the 'superior' Marines have nothing but hollow feelings of futiliy, backstabbing and distrust, and unwarranted senses of superiority.


Page 253

He only had a good view of one of them, a big black hole burned through his forehead.

Lasfire again. note the lack of bleeding.


Page 257

His plasma pistol was dangerously close to overheating after fending off incessant waves of orks for the past two hours. It was becoming dangerously unpredictable.

Plasma pistol requires two hours (at least SPace Marine models) to become unreliable. Of course if we go by older fluff, Heresy era plasma weapons were alot less reliable than modern examples. But that was before the whole 'gets hot' rule became de facto.


Page 258

The tabulation icon in his helmet registered two hundred and forty-seven confirmations and another twenty-three probables.

The Iron Warrior has Kharn's kill counter too!


Page 259

Rhodaan thumbed a grenade from his belt. Three more and then he would be empty.
..
The thin grenade sailed from the Space Marine’s hand..

The gerenade dispensers again. Thin implies they are probably the coin shaped, which I think facilitates throwing (like a small frisbee.) These ones are also explosive


Page 261

..stared at the little discs the Raptor had dropped on the ground at its feet. A heartbeat later the incendiary grenades detonated, engulfing the ork in flame.
Screaming, its flesh cooking beneath its skin..

Incendiary disk grenades. Dispenser again.


Page 266

The xenos are building another battlefortress, bigger than anything we have yet seen.

Considering the other one was 5 km long and strike cruiser sized (tens of megatons), this means the Orks can amass more than that amountof material, probably in a matter of a few months given the timeframe in teh novel.

Page 274

It was said that Oriax never completely lobotomised the subjects of the conversion process, that he left just enough self-awareness in the flesh-drones for them to experience the full horror of their new existence while their mechanical programming made it impossible for them to escape it.

Apparently suggesting that not all servitors have to be mindless fleshbags, but this is generally the preferred option (possibly because it makes them easier to use, or the use of dead bodies.) Of course we know from many sources that the line between cyborg and servitor is not that great, and there's all those talking (or sentient) servitors so...

Page 279

"Each wall possesses thirteen facets, adorned with special psycho-reactive alloys found only within the Eye of Terror"
..
At the base of each facet, arrayed like the spokes of a wheel, were thirteen naked things chained to stout pillars. "The pillars are of wraithbone plundered from the vanquished craftworld of X’amot,"
...
At the centre of the chamber, its surface etched in cabalistic symbols and framed with a ring of psi-circuitry, was a great disc of bloodwood. The black hue of the disc gave evidence that the timber had recently been fed, soaking up the spirit-energy of its victims. For such a mass of bloodwood, Oriax must have had at least a hundred ‘donors’.
...
"You’ve recreated the Daemonculum"

Basically a giant daemonic teleporter powered on blood sacrifice and daemons rather than a reactor.

Page 286

"he appetite of a daemon is never sated. They are manifestations of the warp, the void made manifest, shaped by the thoughts and beliefs of physical beings. It is wrong to think of them as actual beings in their own right, they are simply shadows cobbled together from ideas and fears. Without a material mind to give them form, they cannot take shape. They exist simply as energy, flowing through the immaterium. Yet, in our ignorance we cast our minds back to the blackness of superstition and call these entities daemons and invest into them all that is conjured by such a name. Are they daemons because of what they are, or are they daemons because that is what our prejudice and fear have made them?"

Comment on daemon sand the warp and the idea/emotion based nature of the Warp. Again the Warp is not inherently good or evil, its simply a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs of living things - the evil it causes is simply a reflection of the evil of living beings, including the daemons. Its one of the more interesting (but rarely explored) facets of 40K, really.


Page 287

Five hundred metres below the surface, however, it was a very different story. Vast tunnels, a spider web of corridors and catacombs, were thronged with tractors and trolleys, push-carts and sledges, virtually every kind of vehicle that could be scrounged and scavenged.

Processing facility 500 metres belowground over Castellax city.


Page 289-290

"The chemicals in that lake will reduce a human body down to its constituent proteins within ten minutes."
...
"Only the enamel from the teeth won’t be reduced."
...
Through a narrow grate, a stream of green mush exuded onto another conveyor belt. Gangs of labourers stood to either side of the grate, removing at regular intervals a series of metal filter screens. The three rebels could see the white paste clogging the screens as they were removed, the only part of the human body that refused to be ‘processed’.
...
"That sludge you see," Yuxiang said, nodding to the mush leaving the pipe, "will be further filtered, immersed in bio-secretions, amphetamines and adrenal-extracts. Everything a fighting man needs to maintain his alertness and aggression. Then it will be injected into tubes, ready to be distributed to the defenders of Vorago as protein-paste. Organic supplement for the synthetic diet."

The 'protein paste' recycled from the dead, in detail. My comments remain fundamentally unchanged from before. Unsurprisingly the Iron warriors also seem to dope it with drugs (How CHAOSY.)

Page 293

Uhlan’s pistol suddenly roared, the report echoing across the manufactory. Gretchin burst beneath his shots, their weedy bodies blasted into gory pulp by the bolt-shells.

bolt shells that explode gretchin. Of course not knowing how big tese gretchin ar, this might not neccesarily be as impressive as 'headsplosions' or 'blowing apart human torsos'. Still worth noting though, since it certianly can't be any worse.

Page 298

As he turned, a bright beam of crimson light slashed through his head, searing through helmet and skull alike.
..
Before he could fire, however, the janissary was lying on the floor of the tunnel, an ugly hole burned through his stomach.
Taofang stared down at the wounded man, smoke rising from the hole where he had fired his hidden weapon through the plastic shroud of his duster.

Lasfire burned a hole through bodies rather than exploding, no evident bleeding.

Page 300

The janissary was over two thousand metres away, darting from side to side to avoid the attacking ork planes. It was absurd to believe anyone, even one of the Iron Warriors themselves, could hit a moving target at such range.
A moment later, the situation was made even more dire. Seeming to stir from his panic, the soldier glanced about wildly, looking for a bunker to dart into. He found one, only a dozen metres away. Spinning around, the janissary raced towards the fortification.
In that brief moment as he turned, the janissary doomed himself. Mingzhou could read his intention as clearly as Taofang, she could see the refugee’s objective. Aiming along the route he must take, the sniper pulled the trigger of her lasrifle. A beam of red light stabbed out, whisking into the janissary. The soldier didn’t even cry out, he simply crumpled to the ground

Implied range of Mingzhou, the sniper's lasrifle. As I've noted before, it may or may not be a longlas, as it is not identified as such, and this may or may not be a hotshot (or if it is its a low quality hotshot compared ot the shit larkin's rifle can do) but it gives us a good idea of acccurate, lethal range of a lasweapon, given that the marksman can actually hit the target.
And even if it is a long las range, its not the longest (Larkin can make lethal hits at 3-4 km occasionally) and a lasgun could be expected to make at least 1-1.5 km based on the above (which meshes with the 900 m lascarbine range from HH Legion, and we know Tau pulse rifles are comparable in range to long las and have a 2 km range as well.)
It also suggests that lethality is not neccesarily the issue with lasgun range so much as the ability of the user to aim and shoot.


Page 301

..a crimson beam from Mingzhou’s lasrifle punched a smouldering hole through the lieutenant’s forehead.

Yet again, burning holes.

Page 302

The sizzle of lasguns hissed through the air as the rebels burst from the anteroom.
..
Tech-adepts crumpled at their stations, their archaic robes scorched by las-bolts; engineers wilted to the floor, their overalls stained with their life’s blood..

One of the few implications that lasweapons in this novel cause blood.

Page 302

A las-bolt tore into the floating skull, sending it careening across the room to smash itself against the thick ferrocrete wall.

Interesting. either the bolt has enough momentum on its own (through explsoive vaoporization, probably) to send the skull flying like that, or there is a sort of quasi-frictionless (or mass reducing!) quality to suspensors that makes things far easier to push/propel. The latter seems more likely than the former, given the 'mass reducing' bit for suspensors from A Thousand Sons, as well as the fact we don't see these lasweapons as being especially explosive or super-high energy (at least not enough to explosively propel a servo skull like that.)

Page 303-304

As the officer started to rise, the sizzle-crack of a lasgun rasped through the room. Nehring cried out in agony, sprawling to the floor as the smoking wreckage of his knee failed under his weight.
...
..aiming his lasgun downwards, sending another bolt sizzling through the back of Nehring’s hand.

Lasbolt takes out/destroys a knee (but without severing the limb, suggesting it may shatter the bone) and drills a hole through the hand. Again, no bleeding. CAusing severe burns over the knee (10x10 cm area) is at least 5 kj, and doing so on the back (or over the knee) would probably require several times more energy (10-20 kj maybe) Shattering the bone coudl be done with a few kj I think, and it doesnt need to be complete shattering to be crippling.


Page 307

It was a big brute...
..
The weapon it carried was a massive automatic stubber, so massive that even a Space Marine would have thought twice before trying to fire it from the hip the way this monster was. That the ork could do so and maintain some rude semblance of accuracy was more a testament to its brawn than the mental agility required to compensate for the weapon’s recoil.

Ork stubber/shoota. Probably a Nob at least, maybe some other ork 'officer' analogue.


Page 335

Stompas were gigantic ork war machines, somewhere between the hulking dreadnoughts and the Titan-like gargants in size. It was fortunate that the aliens hadn’t been able to construct any of the city-crushing gargants, but the presence of the smaller stompas was still a crisis in the making.

Gargants vs stomas


PAge 341

Many of the intricate mechanisms built inside the suit – neural connectors, protein injectors, servo-motors, air purifiers, synth-muscles..

Internal systems of power armor. The food supply and air purifiers are the interesting ones to me, since it impacts their ability to sustain themselves in said armor.


Page 345

"He’s over twenty-five hundred metres away." she assured them. "Someone with the best lasrifle on Castellax couldn’t pick off a target from that range. We have to get out of here before he can close the distance."
As she spoke, Algol raised his arm, the graceless bulk of a bolter clenched in his fist. Without pause or hesitation, the Space Marine fired. From the other side of the tractor, Deacon screamed and fell, his chest ripped to splinters by the bolter’s explosive shell.
"Get on and keep down!" Yuxiang shouted to Taofang and Mingzhou, throwing the tractor into reverse. It had barely started to move before Algol fired again, the legionary’s shots smashing into the engine block.

Implied upper limit on lasrifles, at least the Castellax version. We also know its not an absolute given that long las can reach out to 3-4 km - which may mean this is just a lasgun instead of a long las.
What's more, the bolter range is hilariously 2.5 km in the hands of an Astartes, and the shots take a fairly hsort time to propogate - a few seocnds at most, suggesting perhaps anywhere from Mach 2 to mach 4 easily, and possibly hypersonic bolt rounds (that would actually be more likely as it would mean they could hit before people could dodge/react, which is definitely in the implication above.) What makes this especially hilarious is that the comment about lasrifles not being able to reach that range is contradicted by a great many other sources where lasgun ranges are basically identical to boltguns, which means this is either a specialist boltweapon (possible but unproven) or the Castellax lasweapons suck


Page 345

Mingzhou dropped down to the ground, rolling under the carriage of the tractor, aiming her lasrifle at the distant Space Marine. As she squinted down the sight, she cursed. "No one can shoot like that," she swore, pulling back the trigger and sending a crimson beam of light flashing down the tunnel. Hundreds of metres from its target, the beam faded into nothingness.

We get further clarification on the upper limit of lasweapons, as the beam fades out hundreds of metres away (2.3 km, but longer than 2km because we know they're already lethal out to that range.)
I'm interested in well as the nature of the 'fade out'. The obvious implication is that lasbolts lose energy with range, but I'm not sure they'd stay solid/coherent through the vast majority of their passage and then spontaneously lose them, if the beam was consistently losing energy (which is implied by a number of fluff passages) It could hint at peculiar dissipation characteristics (maybe the beam 'decay's all at once after a specified time, sort of like how blaster bolts are meant to 'decay') or it may be that instead of 'losing' energy (say to the atmosphere) its a focus issue (The beam spreading out in the atmosphere, thus reducing its penetration/depth of damage. Given that we know some lasweapons can actually stay coherent shooting through metres of water, that may be a more likely explanation.


Page 346

"He can’t hit me under here unless he gets close! And when he does, I’ll put a hotshot through his skull!"
...
Instead of closing upon her and coming within range of the sniper’s rifle, the Iron Warrior had fired his shot into the floor several metres in front of the tractor, deflecting his shot so that it arced beneath the vehicle and struck the woman hidden there.

Iron Warrior proves how GREAT they are by bouncing a shot off the ground at over 2 km away. Also we get mention of the sniper having hotshots, suggesting that the weapon range may be influenced by that (more powerful shots may shoot further) or may be indication that it is a longlas.

Page 351

..vaporised its chest with a blast of plasma.

Ork chest vaporized/exploded by plasma. High kj to high MJ, depending on if figurative and literla vaporization, and how much area/volume vaporized (For example, 50 KG of torso literally vaporized would be a couple hundred MJ, while if we figure it simply 'exploded' in the sense of 'flash burns flaying the flesh from bone' 400 j per sq cm overa 30x30 sq cm area is 360 kj.)


Page 355

"Brother Gomorie. Thrown clear. I am two kilometres from your position, lord captain."

Iron Warrior comm rang eof at least 2 km.


Page 361

Vengefully, Yuxiang drove the plasteel stake into Algol’s throat, worrying it around in the wound until all the Larraman cells in his body couldn’t stop the bleeding. As Algol’s blood tried to seal the wound with scar tissue, Yuxiang’s vicious attentions tore them open again.
Bit by bit, the Skintaker was bleeding out. It was a slow, humiliating death. The sort of death Algol had revelled in bestowing.
The irony of his own destruction only made Algol’s humiliation more complete.

It's possible to make a Space Marine bleed out if you can undo the Larraman healing with repeated injury. Since most Space Marines will probably be fighting/killing you at the same time, this is not easy. Algol, being immobilized by debris, cannot fight back.
It goes without saying that this ends the 'humans vs Space Marines' tangent of this novel really, and kind of in a fitting way. The humans are brutalized and ill treated by the Space Marines, and the nascent rebellion never got off the ground, this guy's allies are dead.. But he can take at least one of them and gain vengeance in some form.


Page 371

A weird flash of green light strobed through the Iron Bastion as the Raptors ran down the tower’s stairs. It was an after effect of munitions striking the void shields.
...
Rhodaan could tell by the rich jade hue that the force field could withstand much more than the aliens were firing at it. Perhaps if the orks concentrated their fire they could bring the shields down, but such restraint was going to be hard for their warlord...
..
The Iron Warriors had several hours to do what they needed to do before the shields were reduced to even three quarters of their present strength.

coloration of void shields tells strength and concentration of barrage, and the two facts seemingly enable the Iron Warrior to approximate how much time it will take the Orks to reduce the defenses.
Also concentrated fire can be more effective than dispersed fire at penetrating voids.

Page 385

The ork’s massive paws tightened about the heft of the power axe he carried, the promethium generator fastened to the weapon’s shaft belching black smoke as it strove to maintain its energy field.

Promethium powered power axe.

Page 405-406

Several of the Iron Warriors’ deep-space observation satellites had escaped the orks, being too small to attract their attention...
...
A few months after the fall of Vorago, the orks had hastily assembled their fleet midway between Castellax and its sun.
...
One instant the ork fleet was there, the next a hundred of their biggest ships were gone, as though they had simply winked out of existence. Sensors detected warp energies, but without the telltale signature of a warp gate, allowing that one could have been opened so deep within a planetary system. Moreover, there were a few dozen wrecks floating about that hadn’t quite made the transition with Biglug’s ships.

Deep space satellites with warp sensors, Orks making transition (somehow, implied to be the aformentioned daemon transporter even though we witnessed it being demolished by Ork kommandos in the previous chapter..) at maybe half an AU or so from the system star (closer to the star than the planet, anyhow.) albeit not without cost.