Page 7
- Catachan fang - half a metre of "steel".
Page 11
- Imperial Guard rations (again) shown to be the "bowlful of grey slop", at least on bases/in facilities. Implied to be a fairly standard issue, even though we know of cases where Guardsman were issued other food.
Page 32
- Ogryn picking men up (other guardsmen) two at a time and slamming them together to knock them out.
Page 46
Comment on the differences of training and recruitment regimes of different planets in the Imperium.Lorenzo regarded Braxton with a newly sympathetic gaze. It occured to him that he was only obeying orders like anyone - and that, in his own milieu, he was probably an able fighter.
But, like most Guardsmen, he would have been conscripted at the age of sixteen or seventeen, already an adult.
By contrast, the Catachans are taught knife fighting/defensive techniques before they could walk. By age 8, CAtachan children "are expected to be able to tame a wild grox, a harsh lesson that some did not survive, but such was the nature of life on a deathworld. You could be forged in its jungle heat, or you could wither and die in it."
Page 54
Initially I thought this might imply some instane accuracy on the part of the CAtachans (targeting figner long insects), but they're almost certainly a cloud of the buggers, and thus a few hits are insured. Managing not to hit their own comrade in the process is nonetheless imrpessive I imagine.Each [insect] was the length of one of Lorenzo's fingers, with hairy black bodies and gossamer wings.
....
Lorenzo brought up his lasgun, squinting along his sights until he knew he could fire without hitting Muldoon. His las-fire fried several insects, as did simultaneous shots from Greiss, Woods and Donovits. But there were too many of them. The cloud seemed hardly to have lessened in size.
Page 56
Note the implied symmetry of the flower, as it will be useful in determining the size later.
... a delicate red flower sprouting from the trunk of a tree. It had eight perfectly-formed petals, and it was quite the most beautiful thing Lorzneo had seen on this world so far.
Page 57
Greiss could also hold the petal/flower head in his hands, giving us an idea on dimensions.'but watch one of these things doesn't grab your ankle. It might just hold you still long enough for something bigger to come along.
Page 70
Lasgun can "blow off" a Catachan's foot. That's probably hundreds of kilojoules or a few megajoules, depending on where in the foot it hits and how much of it is blasted/cauterized.They didn't quite have the strength, so instead they piled their weght on top of it [lasgun], forcing its barrel until he couldn't pull the trigger for fear of blowing off his own foot.
Page 90
"Fried" a lizard with his las weapon. Not sure what fry means or the size of the lizard (boiling perhaps.) Again probably a high kilojoule/low megajoule range output.A pair of yellow lizard eyes blinked at Lorenzo from under a flowering plant. He fried their owner with a las-round, just to test that ihs gun wasn't clogged.
Page 104
- one of those snapper/gripper flowers clamps down on a Catachan's ankle.
Page 106
- Lasgun fire incinerating the red [gripper] flower heads. It's hard to exactly measure the dimensions of such a weapon, but if it's roughly foot or palm sized (given its symmetry and the fact the petals can grip firmly around the foot, it does imply its around a foot in diamter and probably fairly thick.) this suggests at least one or two megajoules, if for no other reason that jungle plants will have alot of water, and incinerating them (or setting them on fire) will mean boiling off much of that moisture first.
It also tells us that lasguns can incinerate things (at least on the right settings), but their ability to vaporize would also suggest this ability (theenergy to vaporize the water in a human body is roughly consistent to the energy needed to incinerate its flesh.) Partial cremation can also be expected to occur from the cauterisation inflicted by lasguns (especailly at higher temps or outputs.)
Page 106 - The Catachans seize the gripper plants by the red petals, holding the "mouths" closed so they can cut them off hte stems.
Page 106
- Again mention of red flowers being blasted to "a cinder." Lasguns will not only vaporize organic matter, but also cremate it on the right settngs.
Page 145
- Catachan lasgun fire penetrates through two orks. Depending where it hits and the dimensions of the Orks, this can be half a meter to a meter of flesh (lengthwise) vaporized.
Assuming a one inch diameter for the beam, this can mean a quarter kilo to a kilo of flesh (well water really) vaporized, nevermind the cauterization. That's around half a megajoule to a megajoule minimum (probably closer to 1-2 MJ with cauterisation factored in.)
Page 147
- the flash from [the close-passage of] a las-bolt firing temporarily blinds an Ork (about a second or so).
PAge 154
Ork battlewagons are referred to/considered to be tanks.It was the ork equivalent of a tank - a battlewagon, they called it - manned by a greenskin mob.
Page 170
- one of the Catachans had taken severe injuries (shattered spine) and could not be saved by Imperium medicae, even if he was airlifted back to their base. Apparently augmentics for spinal enhancement/replacement are not common enough to be available on this planet (possibly ot other guardsmen.) By contrast, Eisenhorn I believe has had his nervous system/spinal column repaired after a fashion.
Page 174
- ork "bomb" trap had incinerated the commissar. That implies a couple gigajoules.
Page 174
- Catachans intended to build a fire to "properly" recharge their laspacks. In the meantime they strugn them together as bandoliers to allow them to be recahregd by the sun. (Solar cells are evidently built into catachan powerpacks.) No idea of duration of recharge for either method or size of the fire.
Page 178
- Catachan flamer incinerating the flesh off of an (undead) Ork corpse. Bones look largely untouched, however. Given probable Ork masses given in other sources (several hundred kilos to half a ton) and efficiency, this could be hundreds of megajoules to a few gigajoules. Probably not instanntaneous though, flamers take several seconds at least usually.
PAge 179
- four las-shots from a Catachan lasgun almost completely sever through the kneecap/knee of an Ork corpse (another undead one.) number of shots may be due to size of target and the fact its animate/moving.
Page 181
- Catachan Devil claw - over a metre long, hollow blade half-filled with mercury.
Page 189
Again four shots to penetrate Ork bone, indicative of how tough they are (skeletally at least)He had aimed for the [ork's] knee again; it took four shots to penetrate through to the bone, and then the oncoming creature collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and disappeared below the surface.
Page 190
Given the prior performance before, this probably means the catachans fired two las-shots a piece (at least). "burn through" implies incineration.Storm switched targets, and Lorenzo joined him; their shots converged on the back of the second zombie's knee and burnt through it in seconds.
Page 208
Penetrating several gretchin implies total width of .5-.6 meters, and at least 500-600 kilojoules of energy to vaporize through (under the assumptions above for penetrating two orks.)Myers las-bolts struck the stunted creatures [gretchin] unnerignly, ,often finding the best angles from which to penetrate two or three of them.
Page 208
Assuming they "boil" the brain (happens in "Draco" and implied in the uplifting primer.) Brain mass is roughly 1/3 that of the head mass (which is 8% body mass, or roughly 2.6%), or at least 5 kilograms (piossibly twice that. Orks are not exactly geniuses, but they aren't stupid - just very straightforward.) Boiling would require at least a megajoule. Cauterization (which is also likely) means several megajoules.One of Greiss' las-bolts passed through the ork's thick skull and fried its brain.
Page 230
Indication that regualr orks can't handle space marines (as books like Angels of Darkness and Chapter War indicate) but the Warbosses can match them.Some warbosses had been known to go toe to toe with Space Marines.
Page 242
The legendary Catachan stood just a few metres away, but Lorenzo could barely make him out against the grerens and browns of his background. He recognized his dead, whitte eyes, though, and his deep voice, empty of emotion.
...
He [Marbo] left without a footstep or rustle, seeming to melt into the jungle without moving at all. For a moment, Lorenzo fought the discomfiting feeling that he hadn't moved, that he was still there, ,watching with his white eyes.
This is purely conjectural on my part, but given the eyes and Marbo's apparently preternatural talents, I'm guessing the guy is a psyker of some kind. Or possibly a form of mutant, He's not a "normal" human, though.
.
