JediNeophyte wrote:
I'll have the quotes up in awhile.
Alright.
Of the nine Space Marine Legions that turned to Chaos and followed Horus, one was named the Emperor's Children. Unlike the Sons of Horus, they decided to keep that name out of spite for the last 10 millenia. Mandragore is a member of said Traitor Legion.
Okay, that explains that.
Fanatical loyalty can be very important when dealing with Chaos, as it generally renders the potential target immune to more subtle direct manipulation (though like anything, the Chaos Gods find ways to work this to their advantage).
Well,. how would it work with say, stormtroopers? According to the official reports, they cannot be bribed, seduced, or blackmailed - they're totally, f anatically devoted to the Empire (much in the same way the Clonetroopers were devoted to the Jedi, I imagine.)
I could probably cite examples if neccessary showing this.
And Space Marines' protection from Chaos is decidedly minimal, fully half of them turned traitor in the Heresy. Only the real upper echelons of the Imperium have any true protection, like the Inquisition, the Grey Knights, Officio Assassinorum, etc.
I see. Well, as I mentioned, there are the stormtroopers (at least) - and therea re indications that there are parts of the Navy fanatically loyal to him (Remember that Grand Admiral I mentioned? When he heard about Palpatine's death, he committed suicide by plunging his ship into the heart of a sun.) There are also dark Jedi (such as the one who guarded Palpy's Yacht.) who are also fanatically loyal to him.
I suppose if worse comes to worse, Palpy just starts making stormtrooper versions of naval officers and whatnot (They should be able to do so - the clonetroopers had vehicle and fighter operators - and I think capital ship ones too.)
Loyalty to Palpatine and the Empire appears to have been a very central aspect of the New Order - indeed, indications suggest Palpatine is worshiped as something of a demigod in at least some circles according to Publius, who is perhaps one of the most authoritative sources on Palpatine and the Empire (most of the information being on his domuspublica site.)
again, if neccesary I think I can pull examples when I go dig into the essay.
Right. Though Marines are pretty diverse as well, particularly the more rational Chapters like the Raven Guard.
I figured that.
How did we arrive here anyways? The Marines will be on the defensive protecting the Palace, not charging headlong across open ground.
True, but I dont think it matters much one way or another. If the empire definitely has a range advantage on the infantry scale, what good does it do them to sit in place and let the Empire pepper them from beyond their effective range? If anything that tactic seems to work more in the Empire's favor. Remember that the Space Marines are without a doubt going to be more effective the closer they get to the stormies (individual Space Marine > Individual Stormtrooper.)
As has been mentioned, portable void shields are sometimes employed to protect a small installation or whatever. (Guns of Tanith).
Well, in the case of shielding, I was talking of the empire deploying shields to protect its troops against enemy artillery and cannon fire, since stormy armor isn't going to cut it on its own.
Against AT-ATs, the Imperium has Titans, but I'm not an expert on those. Looks like the main vehicles are being hammered out right now, and there are also "superheavies", sort of equivalent to behemoths like the German Maus (the Baneblade carries two friggin main guns, each more powerful than a Russ's).
Not sure if the Empire has any exact equivalents, but orbital bombardment probably would make short work of it (hell, we know from
Rebel Stand that gunnery in such cases is good enough that they can decimate ground forces surrounding a friendly base without harming any of the friendlies within a kilometer of said base (in fact, the defenders can watch their enemies get slaughtered.)
The Viper sounds like it could pose a rather nasty threat. Does its shields provide equal protection from "energy" weapons as well as physical ones? A good half of the Guards' weaponry fires solid projectiles (autocannons, missile launchers, battlecannons, etc, not to mention bolt weapons).
STronger agianst energy than momentum, yeah. A bunch of massive creatures created by Sith Alchemy (the Chrysalis beasts) were unleashed to decimate them, and since they only had brute strength and no energy wepaons.. they crushed them pretty handily.)
On the other hand, considering they seem to be designed to shrug off the momentum of most conventional wepaons fire (remember that At-Ats have kiloton range firepower, which suggests some fairly hefty momentum) it might take a direct hit by say, a battleship-grrade round to do much of anything.
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