In the midst of the story we also have a Cadian Hero who has to face fools within his own command structure, an ambitions (and dangerous) Commissar out for his head, and politics hampering the efforts of the Guard forces on the planet, as well as his own past. Notable for having not just interesting Guard characters, but an interesting psyker and a rare likable Techpriest.
Overall its a good story and good characters, especially in the Astartes-human relations (in a limited way) but it lacks alot of the complexity and 'different-ness' his latter books have when he's delving into CSMs. It reminds me much more of Helsreach in that regard, except where that was Marine-centric view this one is more Guard-centric.
As this is one of the larger novel updates, I'll be splitting it into three parts.
Part 1
Page 7
In predictable 40K fashion (and one reason why noone thought much of the huge deaths that are attributed to the plague) is that many sick people come to the Shrineworld for faith healing. And then to compound matters, once the plague was discovered, they still didn't spread the alarm because 'faith would prevail.' Yep that whole 'ignorance and superstition' thing is working juuust fine.This was a world that saw ten million new pilgrims each month - it was no stranger to off-worlders making planetfall only to die soon after.
The shrineworld of Kathur, named for the saint himself, was a beacon of faith and hope for the people of Scarus Sector.
That said it does show (and give an indication of the magnitude) of Space travel to this one particular planet, at least at the subsector/sector level if nothing else, which isn't bad by Imperium standards. That's an implied 20% of the planet's total population each month anyhow.
Also the shrineworld is in the Scarus sector.
Page 8-9
Number of astropaths on the shrineworld, which is approximate as hinted at in other sources going all the way back to Rogue Trader (at least for most major worlds.) Some worlds (like Stalinvast in the Inquisition War novels) had only a single astropath, or a handful.Several hundred psykers worldwide screamed their pleas into the warp, begging for assistance. Imperial forces in the sector responded to the cries for aid in impressive time: Scarus was forever the Archenemy's ripest target...
...
Fleets of ships powered up their engines and broke into the warp...
Some forces (At least naval elements) respond quite rapidly to distress calls within the sector, indicating naval warships are substantially faster at travelling and responding than naval (troop) transports are, at least at the subsector/sector level. Given that most warships can carry at least a regiment or two (or far more, if we go by the 'tens of thousands' of crews in FFG Imperial starships) of infantry, its quite possible the navy could deploy an 'initial' defensive force to bolster planets in such an emergency or to deploy a vanguard. Given that this is in the midst of the 13th Black Crusade, it probably was not done here because regiments were not available at the time.
Page 9
Scope of the plague of unbelief. Kathur however is considered to be far 'behind' the battle lines, although later on also says it's within the same sector as Cadia (although its clearly not based on the 5th edition map)Even now, the plague wracked dozens of worlds across Segmentum Obscuras...
...
The other infected worlds stood on the rim of the Warmaster's Black Crusade. Kathur, however, was far from the Great Eye...
Page 10
high orbit blockade of the planet, amassed over the course of 'several days'. W hether this refers to the response time from across the sector to arrive in orbit, or just to amass the blockade within the system, we dont know.,... [Adeptus Terra officials] ordered the planet cut off from the Imperium at the first signs of the Curse of Unbelief. Assembled in the heavens above the doomed world, a mighty fleet coalesced over the course of several days.
..
On the command decks of Imperial Navy vessels stationed in high orbit..
Page 13
Effect of chaos incursion on psykers and human crews in orbit around planet. On the ground it has to be even worse, but this can clearly prove to create problems for maintaining blockades or anything like that. It also represents a potent psychological weapon for Chaos to employ against its enemies. Other examples of this being used include the invasions by the Word Bearers in Dark Apostle and Dark Creed.Chaos emanations wreathed the planet, eroding all reliability in astropathic contact and paining all psychically-gifted souls aboard the blockade fleet vessels. The ships' Navigators and all present inquisitors had a lifetime of training to resist such invasive psychic agony, but they still suffered. The touch of Chaos infected many of those without psychic talents: incidents of homicide and apostasy broke out aboard the destroyer vessels.
Page 13
Crew of a Cobra destroyer.. rather low compared to the thousand plus (or tens of thousands) implied in other novels really. May reflect a large servitor crew, or possibly skeleton crews - again the Black Crusade is going on and naval crews have to be in short supply. It still shows that Naval ships run far bigger crews than they actually need to operate (at least at minimal levels.)..the Cobra destroyer Terra's Spite was lost when the unrest within the ship's bowels led to explosions in the enginarium. Three hundred souls lost..
Page 13
Countering the chaos effects on the planet requires a higher orbit (suggesting the psychic emanations afflicting crews and psykers may degrade with distance) as well as minimizing exposure by rotating crews.The inquisitors ordered the blockade into a higher orbit after the shipboard purges were complete.
..
..the planet was deemed a moral threat to the Naval crews. Small clusters of destroyers orbited the planet in shifts, then broke away to allow others their turn.
Page 14
Talk of using orbital bombardment and/or exterminatus to destroy the threat. There are a number of interesting implications from this:With the blockade in place, there was talk of Exterminatus, of bombarding the world from space in the name of the Emperor. Such discussion was quickly quenched. Orbital bombardment would not be sanctioned: the damage to the planet's precious architecture, as well as the loss of so many relics, would be the gravest sin. To use virus bombs would destroy all hope of resettlement for months to come, without guaranteeing the final deaths of the plague victims. To use cyclonic torpedoes would ravage the planet on the tectonic level - blasphemy beyond belief.
So Kathur was allowed to die.
One, va difference between methods of destruction. Virus bombing is more 'temporary' - you can eventually re-inhabit the planet. Whereas cyclonic is far more (permanantly?) devastating and affects the planet on a deeper level.
Two, it implies that Orbital bombardment can also constitute a form of exterminatus, unless one interprets the tow as being separate (although context seems to imply it qualifies as exterminatus as well. Although in this context, the devastation wreaked is far less than that a virus bomb or cyclonic attack does.)
Lastly, irrespective of whether orbital bombardment is part of exterminatus or separate, we have the authorities deciding to deal with the matter through orbital attack to resolve the threat rather than land troops. It is only political constraints (the concern over Ministorum property) that prevents this outcome from being pursued. Politics screws up alot of things for the military in this novel.
I should note that the Ecclesiarchy blocking attempts to wipe out the planet are rather foolish, since its quite obvious the place becomes heavily tainted iwth chaos, nevermind the plague zombies. How the fuck do they expect to reclaim everything, much less expect the Chaos forces to leave shit intact?
Page 15
Again implication that Kathur is in Scarus, and with the orbital assautl option out of the equation, they switch to plans of ground attack, which (unsurprisingly) takes weeks to pull off, which presumably means planning, preparation and deployment (at least of the spearhead, not the main force.)Preparations were made on worlds elsewhere in Scarus Sector. The talk of outbreaks, quarantines and blockades became plans for invasion. Weeks passed before these preparations bore fruit..
Page 16
'months' passing between the arrival of the invasion spearhead and the deaths of the population. Also the population of the planet being 50 million, which is interesting given the 10 million a month visiting rate....the months-dead population sensed the presence of the Emperor's servants...
..
The voices of fifty million dead men, women and children rose..
Page 18
8 regiments are listed one mechanised, one armoured, and the rest seemingly infantry form the spearhead, so presumably the main force is larger, and only a few weeks behind.The main force of the Reclamation is due to arrive in several weeks.
..
The 25th Kiridian Irregulars are to be commended for their valiant defence last week...
Page 22
Cadian sentinels have sensors of some kind, although 'primitive' does not bode well for their quality. The sensors can also display the locations of the other members of the squadron.Vertain sat in his Sentinel's creaking cockpit seat, monitoring the walker's primitive scanner displays...
...
Vertain looked at his auspex display again, checking where the rest of his patrol group was.
I'd estimate there's 4-5 sentinels in the squadron, although its not quite clear.
Page 23
Implied range of Sentinel vox back to base, and mention of the use of orbital surveillance to support the ground effort.The only half-reliable vox-channel Vertain had been able to use through Kathur's interference was a route back to main headquarters. Main headquarters was three dozen kilometres...
...
..even if they couldn't already tell from orbital surveillance.
Page 23
Cadians draw pay."I'll bet a year's pay this bastard isn't Cadian."
Page 27
Again Sentinel auspex, and sentinels showing up on said auspex due to beacons.It took a glance at the scanner display to see Greer's placement beacon flashing.
Page 28
'handful of months' into the 13th Black Crusade at least, and a curious mention that Kathur is in the same sector as Cadia being implied.. even though it was also said to be in Scarus, adn we know Cadia isn't in the Scarus sector. Perhaps they meant 'half a segmentum away'Kasr Partain had been one of the first fortress-cities to fall on Cadia, only a handful of months before.
..
And they should be back there fighting for it, not wandering like rats in this city of the dead, half a sector away.
Page 29
I'm guessing the 'reports' reflect the win/loss percentages from the actual worldwide campaign way back when. The Cadians consider this a victory for Chaos and a loss for the Imperium (or at least the Cadians)Captain Parmenion Thade hadn't been home in three months, except in his nightmares.
The reports from Cadia still listed over sixty per cent of the planet in the hands of the Archenemy, but the numbers were almost meaningless. The statistics were cold and uncomfortable, but nowhere near as raw and real as his memories.
..
The Thirteenth Black Crusade. For the first time in ten thousand years of defeat, a Warmaster of Chaos walked the soil of Cadia. The Archenemy finally had its first real victory, and the Cadians their first real defeat.
Also it took no more than 3 months for Thade and the 88th to arrive at the planet from Cadia, which is probably a rather generous upper limit considering they seem to have psent a fair time on the planet (at least a week, more probably several at a minimum.) Going by the 5th edition rules map, Cadia (going aorund the eye) to Scarus is perhaps a good 20-30 thousand LY trip at least, so we're talking 80,000-120,000c travel speed average.. at least over that distance. Probably faster, since it assumes zero delays from CAdia to Scarus.
Page 30
Battlefleet Scarus is participating in the defense of Cadia, as well as indications of the defenses of the Kasr cities (which unsurprisingly include void shields.Cathedral-like vessels of Battlefleet Scarus ringed the world, filling the night sky with their anger as they fired upon the Chaos fleet pouring towards the planet. Every city on the surface was a bastion of gun emplacements and void shield generators. Every citizen had trained to fire a lasrifle from their pre-teen childhoods. The planet itself resisted the attack.
Page 30
Apparently evacuation procedures form a big part of Cadian training (even the civilian/militia stuff) and they don't expect civilians to fight unless absolutely neccessary (else why bother evacuating them and letting the Shock troops and Interior Guard do the bulk of the fighting?)By the time Kasr Vallock was lost to the flames of invasion, the populace was already underground. Regiments of the Cadian Shock and the Interior Guard guided the fleeing citizens into the tunnels beneath the city, engaged in a fighting retreat as the legions of the Archenemy flooded into the tunnels in pursuit.
..
Already, the evacuation tunnels were shaking, raining dirt on the fleeing defenders. They were far from the evacuation carriers that would take them to another Kasr.
That they have enough transport ot evacuate the city's populace also says something about their access to vehicles (and thus potential for mobility, at least on-planet.)
Page 31
Helmet mounted lamps/lights.The only light now came from the narrow flashlights fixed to the sides of the soldiers' blast helmets.
Page 32-33
Traitor marine purportedly a metre taller than a normal man. May or may not indicate mutation, or perhaps a result of some non-standard armour? Or he might just have been a really really tall Marine in life...the foe that would take Thade's right hand towered a metre and more above its lesser minions.
..
The Traitor Astartes fired once as it advanced, barely pausing to aim, unleashing the shot that stole Thade's right arm from the elbow.
..
Through the agony of his bolt-destroyed forearm..
Also astartes bolt round amputates arm. Either Thade is really lucky, or that was one of those inconsistently 'non high explosive' bolt rounds - the ones that either flatten or fragment on impact, or it overpenetrated the hell before detonating some distance away (because some bolt rounds will kill even with proximity after all.)
Page 34
The water didn't help much. The chemical compounds used to purify fluid rations left a coppery aftertaste on his tongue. Even knowing all the water was purified aboard the ships in orbit didn't help morale. The Guard were fighting on a tomb world. The last thing they needed was water that tasted like blood.
Water purification for the Invasion force. doing it in orbit on ship probably makes sense... nevermind the physical pollution of the water, I doubt they want anyone drinking water that may be tainted with warp shit.. they don't need more plague zombies.
Page 36
Thade's body armour includes not just a chest plate (mentioned a number of times later) but apparently a flak jacket to buckle on. Of course maybe the chest plate is the flak jacket, but I dont really see a chest plate and pauldrons comprising an actual 'jacket', do you?Thade smiled as he fastened the last buckle on his flak armour jacket, and strapped on his weapon belt.
Page 37
Size of Thade's company, which we learn later comprises fully a third of the regiment.Captain Thade's squads of the Cadian 88th, a full three hundred men and thirty support vehicles..
Page 39
The 88th's cadian forces wear black armour, rather than the gray/green we often see in pictures. Urban camouflage maybe?Thade focused, rolling his shoulders in his matt-black flak armour..
..
It was almost an hour since he'd woken...
Page 41
I found this noteworthy for sheer absurdity and as example of how utterly (stupidly) schizophrenic the Imperium can be in tackling things. Holy world falls to chaos, becomes horribly tainted (which by that self same Imperial creed means that the people on that planet weren't strong/faithful enough, as the Cadians note) and yet they get special dispensation/treatment (as does Ministorum property) because of politics and the general wanting ot suck up to the fucking priests. Like I noted before, politics finds a great many ways to hamstring and otherwise fuck up the invasion efforts for the most silly reasons possible. But this is not inconsistent with Imperial faith, no sirree! the Church is always right!"but you know where the orders came from. These people were Imperial citizens, Corrun. Pilgrims. Priests."
"I heard the stories, Cap. They were faithless. 'Only the faithless will fall to this plague', isn't that what we've been told a thousand times?"
..
He believed as Corrun did. The faithless had fallen. They deserved this fate. To hell with a mandate for "clean kills at all times" and "preserving the plague-slain to be redeemed in consecrated incineration".
But Kathur Reclamation protocol stressed respect for the victims of the Curse of Unbelief. The lord general was keen to foster political allies within the Ecclesiarchy by retaking this world as cleanly and carefully as possible. The emphasis on respecting the tainted dead was just one more petty protocol in a long list that Thade hated to think about since he'd made planetfall. Destroying the dead wasn't enough. They had to be put down with grace, gathered by Guardsmen with a hundred better things to do, and ritually burned in the reactivated funerary cremation facilities.
Now my outrage at the violated LOGIC aside, it does make sense in other ways (political and human.) In a universe where the warp exists, the religious CAN have a tangible effect, and the corruption/destruction of holy artifacts could have unintended side effects (patterns and symbolism playing on the warp, as it can.) And its not as if the Imperial Guard can operate in a total vaccuum - its dependent upon the goodwill and assistance of many other arms of the Imperium - the AdMech, the Ministorum, etc. and so it has to play the politics game to maintain even a semblance of effectiveness. It sucks, its silly, but thats how humans can be, even in situations where they should be thinking beyond their own narrow priorities and short term goals, and in THAT respect it makes a sort of sense.
Page 42
Captain's micro-bead vox and its features.Thade's vox-bead pulsed in his ear. The captain tapped the earpiece, activating the fingernail-sized receiver strapped to his throat. As he spoke, it picked up the vibrations from his larynx and filtered out background noise.
Page 43
frequency shifting because their comms have been compromised."Janden," he nodded to his vox-operator. "Change command frequency and share the new wavelength with the other squads. The current one is compromised."
..The vox-officer leaned down to where his bulky backpack was secured by his seat, and made the necessary adjustments to his communication gear.
"Done, sir."
Page 44-45
Sentinel armament, anti-vehicle, but only slightly antipersonnel. 3 shells blow apart at least 2 (or more) priests. At least worth severl grenades worth of damage if they're hi-explosive at all.They were scouts, and the Sentinels were armed for taking shots at armoured infantry and light tanks. The high-calibre rounds from the walkers' autocannons were tearing holes in the crowds of plague-slain, but they were next to useless against such a horde.
..
A swarm of corpses dressed as monks flew apart in a grey-red cloud as three auto-cannon rounds hit home.
Page 47
recall that Thade's forces are 300 strong. So apparently if there are 'only' 15 squads.. that means each squad would have 20 men (and 2 chimeras per squad).. which seems odd.. The sergeants from all fifteen squads ringed him, every man standing ankle-deep in the dead.
Page 48
threat classifications. Zombies are third class, PDF remnant Chaos forces are second class. Traitor Astartes are first class, as we learn." Six, maybe seven hundred Remnant," he said, referring to Kathurite PDF traitors. "Double the number of plague-slain."
"Seven hundred secondary-class threats, and fifteen hundred third-class,"
Page 51
Thade's bolt pistol headsplodes zombie. Also note the breastplate deflecting bone shrapnel.The bolt shell hammered into the corpse's head and exploded within the brain, wetting the Imperial Guard captain with more chunks of decaying matter. A flying shard of skull hit his breastplate with enough force to leave a scratch.
Page 54-55
Yet again we learn shrine worlds are just the Imperium's version of theme/amusement parks.. basically tourist traps.The squad moved through a series of smaller chambers, each one a mosaic-rich tribute to Saint Kathur's deeds, paid for by hundreds of generations of pilgrims.
Page 55
Again chaos disturbances seem to have an adverse effect on Imperial psykers. Note as well they'v espent 'weeks' on planet. Again that would reduce the aformentioned transit times from Cadia to Scarus by at least 2-3 weeks...Kathur was wreathed thick in warp disruption, and the psychic toll on the Imperial Guard's telepaths was immense. Five had died of embolisms in the weeks since planetfall, one of heart rupture, and a further two had fallen under possession by nameless horrors born of the warp.
Page 56
Vox officer seems to have a dataslate which has maps of their target locales."Janden, what chambers are ahead?"
The vox-officer consulted his data-slate, tapping a few buttons.
Page 61
Age of training for lasguns, and mention of an 'officers armory' which has better equipment. I wonder if its something like the regimental armory that the Valhallans drew carapace and hellguns from (on Amberley's ordrs) in For the Emperor.You didn't train every day of your life from the age of six and miss too often. The second lieutenant had been firing the same rifle for thirty years, and while most junior officers withdrew more advanced arms from the officers' arsenal upon achieving promotion, Darrick liked to stick with what he knew best.
Page 62
Yet another silly limitation imposed by politics on the military objectives on Kathur. Which is going to be fairly pointless because we can rely on Chaos not to refrain from damaging the architecture and relics and suchnot.Along with heavy bolters and other support weapons of any significance, it was hard to justify taking grenades into a monastery when Kathur Reclamation objectives clearly stated the architecture of the shrineworld was to remain "undamaged by reckless interference".
Page 62
PDF traitor (Remnant) Las shot. Clearly not 'sploding' heads (at least not ocmpletely) in this instance. Cadian lasguns in the second post seem to inflict at least partial bleeding, so they aren't cauterizing.When the soldier next to him fell back with hole in his head..
..
..That one would take a while to die, thrashing around on the marble floor and turning his blue uniform red.
Page 62
Lieutnenant's Vox, apparnetly with subvocalizing capabilities like Thade's. Also stone walls interfere with the cadian's vox.Darrick tapped the little pearl-like vox-unit in his ear.
...
Range on the micro-bead vox was awful at best, especially when the stone walls played all hell with the signals, but Darrick pressed the throat mic against his skin and trusted his luck.
Page 63
damage inflicted by heavy bolters.. 15-20 cm diameter holes blasted in marble (probably) suggests some fairly extreme firepower.... heavy bolters hammering out their high-calibre rage. Explosive shells from these smashed into the white marble walls and detonated, leaving head-sized chunks of stone blasted free.
Page 66
The Cadian 88th have more than just chest armor, they have shin/leg armour as well.. which isnt surprising because the picture on the front of the cover shows them with lower leg protection as well as upper body...Janden didn't realise the dull throb in his leg was because one of the plague-dead had wrenched off his shin armour and was devouring his right calf.
Page 66
Again lasfire in this novel doesn't seem do do much slicing, burning, or exploding of body parts, but it does punch holes in people and things.A storm of covering las-fire flashed over his head.
When it was done, the five plague-slain were holed and twitching on the ground, going nowhere.
Page 68
chainsword 'teeth' again monomol. Which just means 'sharp' in sci fi speak.The teeth, each sharpened to a monomolecular edge,..
Page 71
Valkyrie armament. The Cadian 88th has at least one squad of Kasrkin and a Valkyrie. Whether they have more or not is unknown, but we learn more of composition later.Its downswept wings carried racks of air-to-surface missiles the pilots could never fire, and the twin autocannons on the gunship's cheeks remained silent even as the Valkyrie flew over tertiary threat targets already beginning to flood the streets cleared by the Guard earlier in the day. The cannons' silence was not to save ammunition or, as in the case of the rockets, to prevent damage to the planet's sacred architecture. At this speed, there was simply no way the pilots could expect to hit anything.
Also note again that the Guard forces deployed to the planet have been restricted in the weaponry and firepower they can employ to preserve the architecture and shit. More pointless hamstringing.
Page 74
Osirion's servitors are voice and remote controlled (or signum at least.)"Curious," he said in a murmur of vox-speakers. The servitor next to him turned slowly, unsure if it had misheard an order. Osiron tapped a button on the signum attached to his belt, hanging down his thigh like a metal pouch decorated with a hundred keys to press. The servitor cancelled its attention cycle...
Page 75
Gives some idea on medium and short auspex range for Valkyries, at least under current conditiosn. Assuming top speed for a Valkyrie (1100 kph) which is logical given that Cruor is responding to an emergency. Figure medium is about two minutes out, while close is half a minute to a minute and a half. That's 36 km for medium range, and 9 to 27 km for 'close'."His Holy Blade. Two minutes until arrival," the pilot said.
...
"Pilot, report auspex performance as you enter standard close-range scanning distance relative to our position."
..
Osiron waited patiently for the pilot to check his instruments. "Standard distortion at medium range, sir. Reaching close range in twenty seconds."
Osiron timed the estimate against the ticking of his own heart-engine. Twenty-three seconds passed.
"Auspex is... clear. Minimal interference."
This also represents an approximate range for Osiron's comms, although this does not necesarily mean anything for the rest of the regiment (AdMech generally having better tech than the Guard.)
Page 76
Plasma gun against fire-resistant doors. Hard to calc precisely, but some things can be derived. It doesn't blow the door apart or burn it up, but it does seem to be more of the 'explode' than 'cremate' type of energy weapon. It has enough momentum to rip doors off hinges and knock them in, though. And the doors are big/wide enough that more than an entire squad can line up inside, so they're at least several metres tall each and the several metres wide in total.The double doors were steel-shod Kathurite oak and had stood for three thousand years; consistently blessed, reinforced, redecorated and restored over the centuries. They were built in the same style as most of Kathur's savagely overdone architecture, but practicality was in their construction, too. In the event of a fire, these doors would seal closed and allow those within the preparation chambers to survive up to nine hours protected from the flames.
The ornate doors exploded inwards under the force of the plasma blast. With twin crashes, they flew off their hinges and clattered to the red carpet blanketing the floor. Eleven men stood in the torn opening, rifles and pistols raised. It was the third set of such doors Zailen had opened with his plasma gun. White steam, hot enough to scald flesh, hissed from the weapon's focusing ring in an angry gush.
Page 80
Which is interesting, given how many pictures and other artwork depict Cadian lasguns with straight magazines. The sickle ones seem to be either a higher output or higher ammo capacity type.Deft fingers ejected his rifle's spent power pack. The sickle-shaped magazine fell into his free hand,
Page 81-82
Interesting feature. The Cadian Lt has a camera attached to his helmet, and the ability to transmit images to at least other vehicles in the regiment. It's not wholly unprecedented.. botht he ealrier IG codexes and Forge World's Cadian line seen here all show. Funny enough the Cadians here have some sort of eyepiece that slides over their helmets - some sort of visual display, perhaps? Anyhow, its all not unprecedented and very sophisticated and ungrimdark and all that."On approach, Alliance. Cruor requests pict detail of deployment."
..
..he focused the lens of the picter attached to the side of his helmet, and took a peek - no longer than a heartbeat - long enough to take a single pict of the wall of Remnant forces across the circular chorus chamber. All the while, he swore. Darrick ducked again just as a lasbolt burned the stone black an inch from his eye.
..
...clicking "Send" on the helmet picter. "Can you see that?"
"Quite a party in there. Patching it through to Cruor now."
...
He looked up, taking a pict of the stained glass dome. It was the only point of entry unless the Valkyrie was going to drop Cruor through the hole blown in the wall. That was unlikely. Darrick clicked "Send" a second time, transmitting the pict of the pristine dome.
"See that second pict? I'm not seeing much deployment here."
Page 81-82
Bolter round seems to have an area of effect of 3 m or less, I suppose, although the pew might be muting the blast somewhat.The pew shook as a massive chunk of its front detonated under the full force of a direct heavy bolter round only three metres away.
Page 82
Cadian marksmanship at close range (less than 100m, possibly a few tens of metres). apparently even injury is no excuse.They used the momentary distraction to break cover, twelve rifles firing. Twenty-two Remnant soldiers went down, hit in the first or second volley. Two shots went wide. Taan laughed as he ducked back into cover.
"I saw that, Kallo! Are you sure your mother had violet eyes?" He knew Kallo had been hit in the shoulder and it was ruining his aim, but still... "Two misses! The captain will hear about this!"
Kallo offered no excuse. Taan called out the Litany of Forgiveness with a wicked grin. "Sweet God-Emperor, forgive Your servant Kallo his sins. Remember he is just a man!"
I also like this because it shows ADB's true talent as a writer. He's not writing the Cadians as caricatures (EG they're all grim humorless, inflexible defenders.) They're actually people with personalities and differences. And yet they're still hardcore, stoic defenders despite those personalities. Its a nice 'differences even within a broad category' approach that both retains the core 'traits' from the fluff, yet still can suspend disbelief by the execution. This also goes with the application of the uplifting primer litanies in this book. They're not always taken seriously in some cases, but they're still ingrained enough into their minds that they may do them by rote.
Page 83
Lasgun vs hellgun as the Kasrkin take charge. While the lasfire for either is not blowing apart things, the igniting clothing is interesting. Whilst we dont know the exact diameter.. Its at least single digit kj just for iginition (125 j per sq cm, and at leats a 2-3 cm diameter beam), and probably more like dobule, perhaps even triple (10-cm diameter area ignited is nearly 10 kj, whilst a 30-40 cm diameter area - the whole torso basically - would be close to or over 100 kj.) IT's just an approximation from side effect, but it does show that the hellguns (if not the lasguns) inflict burns of some kind.On maximum power, standard issue lasguns constructed on the Cadian armoury world of Kantrael fired a finger-thin red beam of superheated laser energy. The blasts roaring from the ten rifles in the falling men's gloved hands were headache-purple with a blinding white core. Several of the Remnant hit by the las-fire burst into flames as their clothes caught light. They dropped to the ground, already dead, their clothes aflame.
We also learn that lasgun beams (visually) are finger-wide (at leats a cm or two diameter, although if this is the actual beam or just the visual part we don't know. Eitehr way the wound is probably about that wide at least) and mention of variable setting (at least two) on Cadian lasrifles.
Page 84
Hellpistols have backpack power sources, and variable output.His hellpistol, connected to a humming backpack via thick cable feeds, purred as he lowered the setting and holstered it.
Page 84
Cadians don't run, supposely, although they do here. Its another one of those variations on the usual grimdark 'paradigm' shit - clearly (at least with a non-idiot captain) the Cadians will run - they may not LIKE doing so, and its against their nature - but they'll do it."Thade's pulling us back. We're running."
"We don't run."
"We're running. Captain's orders."
..
But he was right. The Cadian Shock didn't run. It was a point of pride, and had been for ten thousand years. The Lists of Remembrance were filled with hundreds of regiments that had been destroyed rather than flee before the Archenemy.
"We never run," Jevrian said again.
"No? We ran two months ago," Taan said softly. "We ran on Cadia."
Jevrian had no response to that.
also note that a mentality sort of thing plays here. Cadia is a world under constant threat from the Eye, and when you consider that retreat never really is an option. Especially given how attached Cadians are to their home. So that sort of stubbornness makes sense. It also doesn't explain the WHY of running in some cases -are they fighting to protect someone else's escape? Fighting to keep an enemy from taking some vital resource? What? Juts because 'not running' is part of their culture or mindset does not mean they automatically fight for even the most trivial of reasons (which isn't to say it DOESN'T happen either, even with Cadians. Grimdark and all that.)
Also 2 months since the 88th have been on Cadia, which means more like 2 months to reach this planet, at most. With the 20-30 K LY distance from before, we're looking at 120-180 thousand c travel times now.
Page 85
Once again, the Cadian 'never retreat' mentality is more a mindset rather than a policy, and at least some Cadian officers are not so taken with it they don't think. That 'variation within a broad category' thing at work again.It stuck uncomfortably in many throats, but none of the officers argued with the captain's appraisal of the situation.
"If we stay here, we die. If we die, we fail to meet our objectives anyway. The Janus 6th is finished. Our orders were to reinforce them, or hold this monastery if the Janusians fell. Our numbers make that an impossibility now we've come face to face with the reality. Immediate fallback to the Chimeras."
Page 85-86
Effects of psychic powers. Dropping it few degrees within a few m (say 3x3x3m area) would be at least worth some tens or hundreds of kilojoules. Exactly WHY the temp drop occurs is up for debate - is the psyker drawing on surrounding energy, is it merely a side effect of tapping the warp (some sort of warp based 'conservation' law in effect? If you draw energy form the warp a given amount of eneergy from realspace is lost?) - interesting to consider.A hand gloved in the same grey leather reached out, fingers splayed, towards the great doors. The temperature dropped a few degrees. The Cadians' breath steamed from their lips.
...
Seth did it. The double doors roared from their hinges in a howl of psychic wind. The soldiers felt ice crystals tinkling on their armour as the gust blew back to them.
Either way it seems to be enough to blow the doors off their mountings.
Page 88
Cadians meet a 'Primary threat' which as before is a Chaos Space Marine. Predictaably lasguns do fuck all against the armour (its a SPACE MARINE of course and therefore inherently better) while its bolter easily fucks up any trooper it shoots. On the other hand, while they don't breach the armor it does manage to fuck up some systems (like targeting) - which I suppose is a sort of 'soft kill' effect.The imposing figure on the other side of the horde, some hundred metres from the Cadians, raised a scab-encrusted bolter.
Thade's men were firing in a relentless barrage before the doors even crashed to rest, but the towering figure's voice was a wet burble rising horribly over the stuttering cracks of las-fire. A single bang from the creature's bolter ended Etan's life, as the round detonated within the trooper's chest.
..
" Contact, contact, contact! Primary threat sighted!"
...
The Traitor Astartes stalked through the shambling crowd...
...
Its bolter barked over and over, but its aim was thrown off by the Cadian lasbolts smacking into its ornate helm. The rounds glanced aside doing no real damage, but they interfered with the archaic targeting systems in the creature's helmet displays.
I have to wonder if the Kathur protocols are affecting the settings of the lasweapons as well - eg the whole 'not damage shit any more than neccesary' or 'kill people neatly' crap means their lasweapons are suffering? Unstated, but certainly possible.
Page 92
Size of the 88th. The interesting thing is with 3 companies of 300 men each.. that means there is 100 left over not part of those three companies. Who they are is up for debate. Command staff perhaps, or perhaps the Grenadiers, or other support elements (The psykers, Enginseers, etc.)The thousand-strong Cadian regiment, of which Thade commanded a full third, was camped with the main bulk of Guard forces in the colossal plateau chosen for the initial landings.
As regiments go, its also one of the smaller ones in fluff (considering Cadians tend to be 4000-8000 or so depending on source.) but its not surprising. Many armoured fist/mechanised regiments tend to be smaller than infantry ones, although this is one of the smaller mechanised formations to my memory (usually several thousand. Even the Cadians have had larger mechanised formations, like in the IA books)
Page 92-93
implies the Cadians have been on planet for less than a week. More like 7 weeks of transit than 2 months, although that may still be generous. 149,000-223,000c approximately.Tens of thousands of Guard soldiers had made the initial planetfall. Over half of them were still coming and going around the grounded troop landers that now served as Reclamation headquarters. A hundred thousand tents and hastily-erected communal buildings spread out from the clustered landers like a refugee city.
And this was just the spearhead. The forward force, sent to establish an Imperial presence. The main bulk of the Reclamation forces were still in warp transit.
The aerial view was breathtaking. Seth had seen it from a Valkyrie only a week before.
Also the size of the initial landing of the Reclamation (not the main force) is tens of thousands.. althought his might be clsoer to 100,000 given the number of tents implied. The reclamation force is even bigger so this isn't a trivial undertaking.
Page 93-94
Differences among the Reclamation regiments. The notable thing (to me at least) is that every force has their own landers - so there's plenty to move troops about (unlike Taros.. GRIMDARK)The landers of the Vednikan 12th Rifles had made planetfall first, and they sat now in tidy formation, their massive hulls casting shadows on the grey tents below.
..
..in typical Kiridian militia style, resembled exactly what it was: a rushed camp set up almost at random as squads spilled from their landers and pitched their tents wherever they chose.
...
The Hadris Rift 40th Armoured showed no such disorganisation. Ordered rows of tents stood in ranks a little way from the tank garages. Orbital landers had brought down the structures almost whole, leaving enginseers and servitors to reinforce the buildings with armour plating against the ashy wind.
..
The camp of the 3rd Skarran Rangers was Guard standard. Billets and tents in an ordered spread around the few landers that remained, with regimental leaders stationed in the smaller staff tents away from the troops. Unlike the Kiridians, the Skarrans had left ample room for supply dropships in their formation, while the Irregulars were forced to land their supplies a kilometre from their camp and drive the crates in on cargo loaders and lifter Sentinels.
Also the landers are of quite diverse types. Some seem to be smaller (for the infantry regiments) while the armour forces have huge landers which also seem to double as garages and vehicle storage. They also seem to double as the storage space for their supplies and such, which makes some sense (and makes the resupply potentially more mobile.. but this being the Guard or all I doubt we'd see that much.)
The other interesting bit is the Hadris Rift armoured forces, which not only have lander storage for their vehicels (garages), but also bring down entire buildings whole from orbit. We've seen such mentioned in planetstrike (drop bastions, I think they were?) and also in the novel 'Imperial Glory' with the Brimlock.
The Irrgeulars also have their own supply and transport vehicles as far as supplies go, although they may also have been part of the lander's complement.
We don't know whether they actually 'own' the landers, or if these are mrely on secondment. The context would imply the former, but fluff as far as 'policy' goes would imply the latter (navy generally owning all aircraft.) Although with all things in 40K the lines can blur, and its easy for a secondment to become effectively permanant due to various factors, so the distinction is perhaps irrelevant.
Page 94-95
The Cadian camp. The Lander can hold at least 100 Chimeras. It isn't clear whether they have one lander (capable of transporting the whole regiment), or one lander that they have to transport in thirds, or if they may have three landers. I suspect the former but the second option is more likely. Again note the dual use (vehicle transport and maintenance.)..A single lander punctuated the ordered ranks of tents - a behemoth of a craft with its swollen hold capable of holding over a hundred Chimeras. Patches of grass were quickly slabbed over with rockcrete for efficient supply drop landing sites. Each of the 88th's three divisions were separated by a short distance, with the soldiers' tents in rows near central communal mess buildings and officer barracks - the latter of which were landed from the troop ships in a matter similar to the garages of the Hadris Rift 40th. The Cadians used their great lander, Unyielding Defiance, as a fully-equipped garage for their vehicles.
Page 99
This novel is taking place 3 years after the start of the 13th Black crusade, which we know takes place in 999.M41, which means this story is taking place some time after M42. Guess the Imperium is still around, at least in the short termIndeed, he'd only drawn the Despoiler once in his life before this moment, in the weeks before the invasion of Cadia, three years before.
Inversed... A rival for the Despoiler? Someone destined to stand against the Archenemy's machinations? Seth's fingertips hovered above the card. The clarity of the prophecy was clouded, ruined by his own unfamiliarity with the card he'd drawn.
Page 100
To read the Emperor's Tarot was to open oneself to the warp, and caution was not a virtue to be discarded on a whim. This reading was already devastatingly potent, which lent credence to its import and accuracy.
...
He could feel his own life ticking away in time to his body's natural cycle, and felt the unnatural acceleration, the degeneration of his cells, from exerting his psychic strength day after day.
Page 102
While his rank and wage entitled him to partake of the youth-renewing juvenat drug process along with the accompanying surgery, Fineas Maggrig had chosen not to indulge. He believed in a man living out his natural span in service to the Emperor, and those who "stole days" were wasting time in life when they could be beside the Emperor's throne in the afterlife.
Unshakeable faith made him a preferential candidate to lead this theatre...
Page 103
Another point to note about the passages on this page is it discusses Thade's award of Ward of Cadia medal he wears on his helmet. He's ashamed of it and the attention it draws (feeling undeserving of it) but to others its a symbol of the hero he is.Thade was smart enough not to judge the new lord general too harshly - he'd earned those medals for a reason, after all - but the captain was Cadian enough to secretly chafe at the thought of following the man's orders. The lord general had spent his entire career leading Guardsmen safely from the back.
It wasn't the Cadian way. With the Great Eye staring eternally down at their world, Cadian doctrine favoured the bold: those men and women who stood on the front lines, seeing the enemy with their own eyes and ordering their allies into battle with their own raised voices.
Page 104
Thade has a metal hand, but it would have synthetic flesh grown over it to look real. Not unlike the augmetics given to Lexandro in the Inquisiton War/Space Marine novel...turning the silver skull-and-gate medal over in his newly-implanted bionic hand. The implant was so fresh it didn't even have synthetic skin grafted over it yet
Page 105
Cadian culture seems to be very much different from the American POV, despite the implited levels of militancy and armament and shit. For one thing Cadians are much more EVIL SOCIALIST and less focused on the individual (unuspririsng, given their location and the threats they face. Hard to be a selfish fuck when your entire planet and life is at risk every day.) So that largely means Cadian notions of wealth and mateiral possesions tend to be either practical and/or military in nature - a very pragmatic viewpoint.What kind of soldier wore rings like that, anyway? Thade and Osiron shared a momentary glance, thinking the same thoughts. The rocks on the Overseer's knuckles could bring in enough coin to keep the 88th refuelled for a month.
Jewellery was another ostentation Cadians had little love for. When every scrap of metal on your home world went to the forge factories to be made into weaponry and almost all personal wealth was tied into military gear and property, displaying one's wealth in flamboyant displays seemed wasteful and decadent. It was often said of the Cadians that they as a people had no eye for beauty.
Thade had no idea if that was true or not. He found beauty in many things: alien landscapes, the weather patterns in the heavens of other worlds, slender women with dark hair... But self-awareness was one of his strengths. He knew he had no capacity to understand what was supposed to be attractive about wearing one's wealth in such a pointless display.
And yet that doesn't mean the Cadians don't have personalities,or feelings. As Thade notes he can find beauty in things, and as with Darrick we see Cadians can have humour. The difference is that those things tend to reflect their culture and planet. And like many things in the Imperium, those differences can be quite dramatic (such as Thade's view vs that of Osiron.)
If we knew for sure how many rings (and how expensive) we could probably get an estimate on fuelling costs for a 150 vehicles of a CAdian regiment. Just at a rough guess (in real life money terms) we might figure at least thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, and in RL gas terms (call it 5 USD per gallon) we'd be easily talking many thousands or tens of thousands of gallons of fuel - hundreds of gallons per vehicle. Assuming 12 hours of driving a day for that month we're talking about half a gallon to a gallon used per hour (and at off road speeds we're easily talking a good 15-20 kph speed at least) and stronly suggestive of a high degree of fuel efficiency.
Now, bear in mind the above makes quite a few assumptions which can skew the results, but it certainly fits with what we knwo from other sources (The MPG for a Leman Russ Demolisher in Inferno Magazine, a 3 day/1500 km range for a Leman Russ without refuelling from Defixio, etc.)
Page 107
Thade is aware of his own biases enough to try and keep them from affecting him, which we might reasonably expect to be a Cadian quality. What I like in this scene is both how it reflects the problems that can arise in the IG from the multitude of backgrounds and cultures that encompass its ranks (Both soldiers AND officers), and it reflects ADB being able to write decent, complex characters rather than one-note caricatures (even his 'stupid officer' stereotype can have redeeming qualities and be something other than a complete moron due to plot demand.)Thade detested this petty conversational thrusting and parrying. It wasn't in his blood to argue with an officer like this, but then again, he wasn't used to serving under such a pathetic excuse for a lord general.
No, that wasn't quite true. Maggrig wasn't pathetic. This was what Osiron was warning against. Don't disrespect the lord general purely for his variant approach to command. In arrogance, lay self-deception.
PAge 108
Thade and Osiron have a little.. difference of opinon - regarding proper usage and tactics of the 88th. Again, despite what some claim, the IG is quite aware of the benefits and value of mobility in warfare (even if they aren't all DYNAMIC like the tau.) and they will use it if they can. But the real problem lies in that 'differences' thing again - lack of a coherent, unified background or method of training and recruitment in the IG means that such conflicts can and do happen, and thus a Mechanised regiment can be used in siege warfare, or some other 'non-standard' arrangement (like the Ghosts being put into siege/trench warfare situations.)"If the lord general of the Reclamation deems it necessary to send a fraction of my regiment into an engagement that the assigned campaign tacticians argued against, then so be it. If the lord general appoints a mechanised infantry company to lock itself within a siege situation, then I'll do all I can to make sure those orders are carried out. But I've been fighting the Archenemy since my recruitment into the Cadian Youth legion at fourteen years of age. Every single man in a Cadian uniform was raised to assemble and fire a standard-issue lasgun before he could read and write. If the 88th falls back, it's because in the considered opinion of every veteran officer among our number, we had to fall back."
Also apparently some measure of education (reading and writing at least) is common amongst Cadians.
Page 109
I guess Thade's command squad was able to down the CSM, evidently without any losses either. And despite the fact it suggest sonly las- and bolt- fire killed it (eventually), it is worth recalling that Thade's weapons specialist was a plasma gunner, and that may factor in even if it wasn't explicitly mentioned... through images of the Death Guard Astartes confronted by Thade's squad. The final three picts showed the hulking creature dead, its armour blackened from las-fire and cracked open from bolt rounds.
Page 109
Sentinel weapons can kill cSM."We killed another three Death Guard as we fought off the Remnant and made ready to withdraw," Vertain added. "Confirmed kills, verified by the gun cameras of Dead Man's Hand."
Page 110
Again despite being the story's 'idiot leader' archetype, Maggrig demonstrates a number of redeeming qualities to show he isn't a complete stereotypical officer asshole. Also again, Cadians do have a sense of humor.For all his faults, the lord general had a wonderful collection of blades and pistols. The captain doubted they'd been used even once by Maggrig personally, but what surprised him was the fact each piece of the displayed collection was an admirable and apparently fully-functional weapon.
...
This one aspect of the lord general was the only facet Thade warmed to in his commander's personality. Of course, the Cadians had been joking for weeks the only way Maggrig could have acquired real weapons was to pilfer them from the corpses of men his orders had killed.
Page 113
Apparently its not unusual for Cadian regiments to be without a commissar. Which may reflect their utter reliability as well as the fact they don't need to be reined in like the Meat Droids of Krieg."I can recite the Cadian code of law that allows any officer above the rank of lieutenant to take additional training with regards to being qualified to deal with, and execute if necessary, a sanctioned psyker. I have that training, as does every lieutenant in my command."
"All the same, this is my Reclamation and I will take no chances by relying on some Cadian loophole. You are to be appointed a commissar immediately."
..
"The 88th hasn't had a commissar in over seventeen years."
This is yet again a reflection of the 'differences' in the structure and command styles of the Guard. Thade serves in lieu of a Commissar's duties in at least some respects, and this would (I imagine) be considered acceptable and normal from a Cadian perspective. And yet, Maggrig views things differently (although it could be him just playing games too.)
It is interesting too that Thade thought Cadian 'laws' might have some impact on Maggrig off Cadia. Something to do with Sector/Segmentum politics or the standings of Cadian regiments relative to others, perhaps?
Page 103
This implies a matter of weeks between this conflict and Thade's departure from Cadia. To be fair, 'handful of weeks' could imply well over a month - and probably does, since we know elsewhere that at least 2 (or three) months are mentioned. So this is more an upper limit than anything (and a generous one, if we go with 2-3 weeks.) rather than a precise qualification.When he'd been awarded it only a handful of weeks before for his command in the Black Crusade, the captain had wanted to hide it away in his personal belongings.
Page 115-116
119 year old Inquisitor looking 30. At least a 3-4 year passing for every year he ages. Probably conservative, since Caius would not have gotten juvenat from birth. More likely in mid-to-late teens or early twenties, meaning the actual ratio may be several times greater.Inquisitor Bastian Caius was one hundred and nineteen years old.
...
While Caius was over a hundred, he looked thirty. Juvenat processes were the privilege of the Imperium's wealthiest and most valuable servants, and the inquisitor considered himself a member of both categories.
Page 116-117
While the linkage between the psycannon and the eye is interesting, as is the sensory capabilities (including the warp sensor that translates into a visual representation), what really strikes me is how the Inquisitor's augmetic differs from Thade's own (the one to be covered with Synthskin). Clearly, appearance of an augmetic is not an indicator of wealth or importance, but may actually reflect either capability or aesthetics. In this case, Caius' augmetic may be so obvious because it serves some benefit tied to his Inquisitorial duties (indimidation or some other psychological value) or utility (packing in all those useful features) precludes it being a subtle augmetic. Or it may even be that to Caius (or his mentor) such things didn't matter.Caius's left eye was an ugly augmetic, a blood-red lens fixed in a steel focusing ring surgically grafted to his face in a restructured eye socket of chrome. The implant had been costly (for the old crone always rewarded her worthy apprentices as befitted their dutiful service) but as with many bionics, the mechanical eye was all business and no artistry. The lens could detect the most subtle movement in its field of vision, even a man's breathing, and relay it instantly to Caius's shoulder-mounted psycannon, forming a fast and flawless targeting system.
A further enhancement took the form of an attached aura-scrye scanner, forming a secondary red lens eye projecting from a bronze and steel implant attached to the inquisitor's temple. With his sight linked between these two false eyes and his natural vision, Caius could literally see psychic emissions, translated into his second lens as an angry heat-flare surrounding the psyker responsible.
) Note that depending on how much blast and melting goes on, the effects could be more significant (and the fact it survived even moreso.)
