Soul Drinkers Series Analysis Thread

[Connor MacLeod]

And here we are. After a long, long wait we come to the series that is Soul drinkers. Perhaps one of the more inconsistent showings in a 40K novel I have ever met. The DAwn of War novels are different because they are on the whole consistently average and low expectations mean that high points don't have to be all that high, plus there is Goto's general reputation amongst 40Kers to further colour the series (far more than deserved really... Eldar Prophecy was far worse.) It has more in common with Ian Watson's inqusition war. There's the nugget of a good idea here, and you see the hints. And when it's on track it can be quite good, but on the whole it falls short of the promise and can actually fail because of the execution. It's really a mixed bag.. there's some good stuff and some truly abyssmal stuff in the series, and there is an amazing amount of consistency in how that manifests.

The really curiosu thing about Soul Drinkers is.. while I dont' consider Ben Counter a great writer, he's not a horrible one either. He's written some fun stuff, and he should be tagged to write some Sisters of Battle stories (Wait til we get to Bleeding Chalice) and his Gray Knights stuff is generally good.. but for whatever reason, he just missed the mark with the Soul Drinkers. It is so bad I am not entirely sure that this was not meant as intentional parody. IF it had.. it would have been good at showing some Imperial hypocrisy... but it reads as quite serious, and some of the book suffer becaues of it. Whatever Counter intended, the fact of the series is some good with plenty of bad, and that tends to bring the whole series down as a whole.

The main bad thing about the series is the Soul Drinkers themselves. We're supposed to believe they are a renegade Chapter who have these high minded ideals and rebelled from the Imperium for the best of reasons... but that self analysis doesn't hold up. Instead we get a bunch of spoiled, egotistical, and generally gullible MArines who gallivant about the galaxy trying to do good and end up causing massive destruction along the way. It isn't consistently so - at times (and especially in Hellforged) you can really see what it may be that the Soul Drinkers were meant to be. But having to slog through 4 novels to reach that point is pretty bad. Sarpedon is especially at fault for this, and I will explain my reasons for saying that as we go along. Some Soul Drinkers are pretty cool (I like Luko, for example), but on the whole they are not a very good Chapter.

So what is good about the series? When things mesh right and the Soul Drinkers aren't pontificating, the series works. We see it in Bleeding Chalice and Hellforged, and there are bits of it in the more average novels. The Non-Astartes stuff is pretty good - Counter writes some decent human characters (Xarius from Crimson Tears, Aescarion who is from a short story is always good, and Thaddeus is a great Inquisitorial character.) but ultimately the Space MArine portions of the story tend to drag down and ruin what potential there is, and lead to massive amounts of unintentional grimdark comedy.

I havent read the chapters that make up Phalanx yet, and I dont know when I will (I know it comes out this year), so for now it will be the five novels and Daenyathos (I managed to snag that and dig through it.. horrible as it was.)

So enough bantering. Without further adieu, we get to soul Drinker! Bear in mind that many of the first few novels are pretty detailed and lengthy because of my replies, so this probably will take more than 2-3 posts unless I want to drown people in text. I'm planning 4-5 updates for the first novel.


Page 16

The pod juddered as it encountered the first wisps of Lakonia's atmosphere, but the thirty battle-brothers - two tactical and one assault squad strapped into grav-ram seats, resplen­dent in their dark purple power armour and with weapons gleaming - did not allow their reverie to waver.

Corvus assault pod carrying 30 Space Marines

Page 16

He activated a rune on the retinal-projected display and his aegis hood thrummed into life. Handed down the line of senior Librarians of the Soul Drinkers, its lost technology warmed up to protect Sarpedon as he led his brother Space Marines into Chapter history.

Of course it's Lost Technology. That makes it more grimdark.

Page 18

There was silence all around, save for the hum of the power plant in his armour's backpack and the almost-real sound of his brothers' minds, washing back and forth like a tide as they snapped through the orientation/comprehension routines that had been implanted on their minds during psycho-doctrination.

What kind of powerplant isn't specified, of course. But it's clearly not a battery.

Page 19

Sarpedon contracted a throat muscle to broaden the fre­quency of his vox-bead.

A sort of subvocal control, I suppose.


Page 21

Sarpedon pulled a holoslate from a waist pouch and flicked it on. A sketchy green image of the corridors immedi­ately surrounding his position flickered above the slate, with lines of data circling it. The star fort was based on a very old orbital defence platform, and the platform's schematics had been supplied in case any of the assault pods hit a section of the original platform.
..

Sarpedon's fingers, dextrous even within the gauntlet of purple ceramite, touched runes along the holoslate's side and the corridor system was divided into blocks of colour, mark­ing the different routes out of their position. Crosshairs centred on a point that flashed red, indicating the conver­gence of the three routes two hundred metres further into the fort. Barring enemy concentrations elsewhere, their immedi­ate objective was the primary environmental shaft head, a grainy green curve at the edge of the display. Once taken, it gave the Marines an option for a larger thrust into the oxygen pumps and recycling turbines, and then through the mid-level habs into the armoured core that surrounded primary objec­tive two. A messenger rune flickered on his retinal display, indicating the docking seal had achieved integrity.

- holoslate/holoplate used by the Company commander is capable of receiving auspex data from fellow marines (in this case relaying the information of enemy positions.) As well as mapping functions.

Page 21

"Squads, be aware, mutations include enhanced sensory organs. Some of those things might see as well as you. "

Some mutants have night vision equal to Space Marines.


Page 21

A flash of the holoplate showed Luko's auspex data .

More auspex transmission


Page 22 - plasma weapons use "liquid" plasma - evidently Counter thought of them mroe like flamethrowers (or doesn't know what plasma is. Not exactly a first in 40K)

Page 22

There must have been a thousand of them in there, crowds of baying mutants behind their makeshift defences. Their leaders - those with the most horrific mutations, some with massive chitinous talons or vast muscle growth - had either communicators or slits at their throats that indicated crude vox-bead implants. This was an organized foe.

Vox implants in the mutants.

Page 22
[quiote]
It took Sarpedon half a second to appreciate the situation and decide on his plan of action. The enemy had over­whelming strength and the Soul Drinkers had to neutralise the threat before a proper line of defence could form. There­fore they would attack the enemy's prime weaknesses relentlessly until they broke.
[/quote]

Sarpy assesses the situation in half a second. Not exactly on par with others I've read (like Ragnar.) but meh.

Page 23

Givrillian's squad flowed around him and he heard the plasma gun belch a wave of ultraheated liquid into the enemy flank, skin crackling, limbs melting.

Told ya. Plasma supersoakers, as White Rabbit calls it.

Page 23-24

What did they fear? They would fear authority, power, and punishment. That was enough. He shifted the grip on his bolter so he had a hand free to draw the arunwood force staff from its leather scabbard. Its eagle-icon tip glowed as its thaumocapacitor core flooded with psychic energy. He con­centrated, forming the images in his mind, piling them up behind a mental dam that would burst and send them flood­ing out into reality. He removed his helmet and set it on a clasp at his waist, taking a breath of the air - greasy, sour, recycled.

He stepped out into the battlezone. Givrillian's squad had torn the first rank of mutants apart, and they were now crouched in firepoints slick with deviant blood as return fire sheeted over their heads. Mutant gangs were scuttling and slithering through the debris, moving to outflank and sur­round them. Tellos had the beast-mutant on its knees, one horn gone, huge blade chipped and scarred by the assault sergeant's lightning-quick chainsword parries.
..


The Hell began.
The closest mutants, at least two hundred strong, were thirty metres away, firefighting with Givrillian's Marines. Their firing stopped as they stared around them as tall shrouded figures rose from the floor, carrying swords of jus­tice and great gleaming scythes to reap the guilty. Some bolted, to see hands clawing from the shadows, hungry for sinners to crush.
Bat-winged things swooped down at them and the mutants ran screaming, knowing their doom had come to punish their corruption at last. They heard a deep, sonorous laugh­ter boom from somewhere high above, mocking their attempts to flee. The waves of fire broke as the mutants fled back through their own ranks, sowing disruption amongst their own for a few fatal seconds.
Sarpedon leapt the barricade with the nearest of Givril­lian's Marines and stormed across to the mutant strongpoint. Most of the enemy still gawped at the apparitions boiling out of the darkness. A swing of his force staff clove through the closest two at shoulder height - he could feel their feeble life-forces driven out of their bodies even as the staff tore through their upper bodies with a flash of discharging energy. The burst of psychic power knocked three more off their feet and they landed hard, weapons dropped.
The Hell. A weapon subtle but devastating, striking at the minds of his enemies while his brother Marines struck their bodies. In the swift storming actions that the Soul Drinkers had made their own, it bought the seconds essential to press home the assault. It worked up-close, in the guts of the fight, where a Soul Drinker delighted to serve his Emperor.
Three of Givrillian's Marines, more than used to Sarpedon's conjurations after years of training and live exercises, pointed bolter muzzles over the mutants' makeshift barri­cade and pumped shells into the fallen, blasting fist-sized holes in torsos. Several more Space Marines knelt to draw beads on the hordes of mutants thrown into confusion by the sudden collapse of their front line. Shots barked out, bod­ies dropped.

- Forcee staves use "thaumocapacitor cores" - which I would gather act as some sort of storage device for psychic energy, allowing it to be built up and unleashed in a single, massive burst (which is what a capcitor does.)

Sarpedon is a transmitting psyker - he can send out thoughts/images/illusions to minds, ,but he has virtuallyo ability to receive (read minds) or other ability. He's implied to be extraordinarily powerful, but the "Hell" (essentially, the ability to create lifelike illusions of his enemy's worst fears to demoralize and terrify them) is his only real ability, aside from psychically augmenting the blows of his Force staff.

Soul Drinkers bolters punching "fist sized holes" in torsos, as opposed to other cases of damage/wound size (head sized or even blowing torsos apart.)

Page 24

A tentacle flailed as its owner fell. Something with skeletal wings jutting from its back was flipped into a somersault as a shell blew its upper chest apart.

See. Although I suppose a fist sized hole might qualify there too. Or even just a head sized.

Page 25 -

Sarpedon nodded, and consulted the holoslate on the speediest route to the sphere. As the other Soul Drinker units thrust deeper into the star fort their hand-held auspex scanners were piping information about the enviroment to one another, so each leader had a gradually sharpening picture of the star fort's interior. The holoslate display now showed a wider slice of the star fort and several paths through the tangle of corridors and ducts were tagged as potential assault routes towards primary objective two.

Intelligence on the objective was slim. Its most likely loca­tion was a shell, an armoured sphere suspended in the heart of the station, two kilometres from their position. The star fort had once been an orbital defence platform, and the shell had protected its command centre - barely large enough for one man, the Van Skorvolds were probably using it as an emergency shelter.

More data transmission capacity. Intel on the go.

Page 27

His great­-grandfather had purchased the star fort orbital defence platform at a discount from Lakonia's cash-starved Planetary Defence Force, and proceeded to sink most of the Van Skor­vold family coffers into converting it to a hub for mercantile activity in the Geryon sub-sector. Succeeding generations gradually added to the star fort as the manner of business the Van Skorvold family conducted became more and more spe­cialised. Eventually, there was only cargo of one type flooding through its cargo ducts and docking complexes.

Human traffic. For all the lofty technological heights of the Adeptus Mechanicus and vast engineered muscle of the battlefleets, it was human sweat and suffering that fuelled the Imperium. The Van Skorvolds had long known this, and the star fort was perfectly placed to capitalize on it. From the sav­age meat-grinder crusades to the galactic east came great influxes of refugees, deserters and captured rebels. From the hive-hells of Stratix, the benighted worlds of the Diemos cluster and a dozen other pits of suffering and outrage came a steady stream of prisoners - heretics, killers, secessionists, condemned to grim fates by Imperial law.

Carried in prison ships and castigation transports, these unfortunates and malefactors arrived at the Van Skorvold star fort. Their prison ships would be docked and the human cargo marched through the ducts to other waiting ships. There were dark red forge world ships destined for the servi­tor manufactoria of the Mechanicus, where the cargo would be mindwiped and converted into living machines. There were Departmento Munitorium craft under orders to find fresh meat for the penal legions being bled dry in a hundred different warzones. There were towering battleships of the Imperial Navy, eager to take on new lowlives for the gun gangs and engine shifts to replace crew who were at the end of their short lifespans.
And for every pair of shackled feet that shuffled onto such craft, the Van Skorvolds would take their cut. Business was good - in an ever-shifting galaxy human toil was one of the few commodities that was always much sought after.

- "slavery" (the official kind, not the more subtle kind the vast majority of the Imperium works under be it Administratum, IG conscription, etc.) is generally a legal trade, since the Imperium makes heavy use of human labour in its efforts (manufacturing and troops mainly.) Apparently, though, the kinds of people who are enslaves are mainly "refugees, deserters, and caputred rebels", though they also describe them as prisoners - "heretics, killers, secessionists, condemned to grim fate by Imperial law." It seems, therefore, that only those who have violated Imperial law in some manner may be officially "enslaved" in such a fashion (to serve various purposes such as penal legions, but others might be turne dinto servitors as well.)

Also we get a PDF selling off surplus military equipment to the civilians. Which probably results in the sorts of things where you get hive gangs as heavily armed as any real life military force.

Page 28

Pirate craft and private launches had been sighted sneaking guiltily around the Lakonia system. The star fort's human traf­fic was conducted under the strict condition that all prisoners were to be sold on only to Imperial authorities; allowing pri­vate concerns to purchase such a valuable commodity from under the noses of the Imperium was not to be tolerated.

And there was worse. Mutants, they said, who were barred from leaving their home world, were bought and sold, and the cream skimmed off to serve the Van Skorvolds as body­guards and work-teams. There were even tales of strange alien craft, intercepted and wrecked by the sub-sector patrols, whose holds were full of newly-acquired human slaves. Cor­responding gossip pointed darkly to the collection of rare and unlicensed artefacts maintained by the Van Skorvolds deep in the heart of the star fort. Trinkets paid by alien slavers in return for a supply of broken-willed humans? It was pos­sible. And that possibility was enough to warrant action.

- Sale of human slaves to aliens is forbidden. Mutants, also, are barred from leaving their worlds by Imperial law.

page 28

There were even tales of strange alien craft, intercepted buy sub-sector patrols, whose holds were full of newly-acquired human slaves.

"sub sector patrols" - whether this is a battlegroup component of the larger battlefleet, or some "local" forces, we aren't told. May even be a combination.

Page 28

Matters pertaining to the star fort fell under the jurisdiction of the Administratum, and they were concerned with keeping it that way. The Van Skorvolds had been immensely success­ful, but the persistence of the rumours surrounding them was considered enough to constitute proof of guilt. The accusa­tions of corruption and misconduct indicated that the control of the prisoner-trade lay in the hands of those who broke the Imperial law, and so it was deemed necessary that the Administratum should take control of the star fort and its business.

The Van Skorvold siblings were not so understanding. Repeated demands for capitulation went unanswered. It was decided that force was the only answer, but that an Arbites or, Terra forbid, an Inquisitorial purge would do untold damage to an essential and profitable trade. The flow of workers and raw servitor materials was too important to interrupt.

Oh nice. The Adminstratum is involved in legalized slavery. All hail the grimdark.

Page 29

Consul Senioris Chloure of the Administratum could see little evidence of the carnage within the star fort through the viewscreen that took up most of the curved front wall of the Diligent's bridge. Magnified inset panels appeared in the cor­ners to pick out something the cogitators decided was interesting - plumes of escaping air and squat ribbed cylin­ders of large ship-to-ship assault pods emblazoned with the golden chalice symbol of the Soul Drinkers Chapter.

The bridge of this starship doesn't appear to have windows, but rather an automated viewscreen duplicating that role (contrast with other novels like the Rennie BFG ones.)

Page 30

Space Marines. Chloure had spent decades in service to the Imperium and yet he had never seen one, confined as he was in the drudgery and isolation of the Administratum. Grown men talked of them like children talk of heroes - they could tear men apart with their bare hands, see in the dark, take las-blasts to the chest without flinching, wore armour that bullets bounced off. They were three metres tall. They never failed

- according to "stories" space marines are 3 meters tall (possibly in armour?) This may be exceessive in many cases, but some Marines no doubt can reach this size (most are 7-8 feet tall) or it may be hyperbole.

Page 30

Chloure looked down from the observation pulpit to see Khobotov, archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, enter flanked by an honour guard of shield-servitors, another gold-plated microservitor scurrying in front paying out a long sea-green strip of carpet for the magos to walk on. Three or four of those damned sensor-technomats droned in the air on hummingbird wings, trailing wires like cranefly legs - Chloure hated them, their chubby infant bodies and glazed cherubic faces. They were sinister in the extreme and he felt sure Khobotov affected them to inflict uneasiness on who­ever had to meet him.

We meet the Mechanicus Assholes who are to blame for inflicting all the subsequent events upon us. Note the microservitors, the technomats, etc. And the shield servitors, whatever the fuck those are.

Page 30-31

Tiny motorized sub-servitors held the cables in silver jaws and whirred around, keeping the cables from snagging on the rivets and consoles jutting from the deck of the Diligent's bridge. This caused the cables to slither like long artificial snakes, which was another thing that struck Chloure as gravely unpleasant.

More tiny servitors.

Page 32

Archmagos Khobotov swept around and led his unliving entourage off the bridge, doubtless towards the command crew shuttle bay where he would return to the 674-XU28. The rust-red Mechanicus craft was designated as an armed research vessel, but it was a damn sight bigger and more dangerous than it sounded. Within the hold was a regiment of tech-guard, although it looked like there was room for a lot more.

- The Adeptus Mechanicus vessel 674-XU28 was identified as an "armed reseacrch vessel", and carried at least one regiment of Tech Guard (but arguably looked like it could carry more.) IT was also believed to be more dangerous than it appeared.

Page 32

Stationed on the cruiser Hydranye Ко there was a below-strength regiment from Stratix, the 37th, most of them mother-killing gang-scum who joined up for no better reason than that it would get them the hell off Stratix. The second cruiser, the Deacon Byzantine, contained elements of the Diomedes 14th Bonebreakers and, owing to an administra­tive error, a strike force of assault and siege tanks from the Oristia IV Armoured Brigade. The Diligent itself contained a regiment of Rough Riders from the plains of Morisha, deeply unhappy at being separated from their horses who were win­tering several systems away.

Three cruisers, not of the highest quality but recently refit­ted and with well-drilled crews. It wasn't much compared to the immense battlefleets that scoured the void in times of cru­sade or invasion, but it had been all Chloure could muster through string-pulling and favour-calling in a short period of time. He

Naval ships are directly carrying Guard forces this time itself, which is not unheard of. makes you wonder why the Navy doesn't do so more often, though. Also this Administratum asshole Chloure could pull strings to get hold of Navy and IG for essentially personal reasons. I wonder what sorts of catastrophies went unanswered as a result of this.

Page 32

Three hundred. Smaller Marine forces had conquered star systems. Of course, officially their presence here was fortu­itous and Chloure didn't have the authority over them that he did over the battlefleet.

- supposedly, "star systems" had been conquered by less than 300 Space marines. Clearly exaggeration. We get this alot in the Soul Drinkers novels, especially from the Soul Drinkers themselves.


Page 33 - some mutants can be 2x taller than normal humans.

page 35

Mutant strong points dotted the square-sectioned maglev tun­nel, but the energy weapons to the fore had cracked open gun emplacements and grenades had blown apart huddling bands of mutants. Some had communicators, and the Space Marines on point had reported a screeching female voice yelling orders through the headsets.

More mutant-held comms. Note grenades in unknown quantity "blowing apart" unknown numbers of mutants.

page 37

Sarpedon was a transmitting telepath, not a receiver - a rare talent, and one that was of little use in dragging thoughts out of a man's mind during interrogation. But Sarpedon sus­pected he would not need such trickery here in any case.

- According to Sarpedon, transmitting telepaths are rare. Which makes me wonder what the hell Astropaths are supposed to be. Nevermind Codiciers or other psykers who can simulate that capability even if on a lesser scale.

Page 39

The thing in her hand was a heavy ring, chunky gold with a thin silver dagger jutting from it. "Digital weapon. Xenos, lord."

A needier. The child had a digi-needler

- a melee "digital weapon" - uses some sort of long dagger/needle to inject poison. Apparently its of xenos manufacture, too. Not only does it have to be insanely large, it can't even shoot decently.

Page 43

The cogs began to grind and an expectant juddering sound came from the large power conduit running around the edges of the room and into the root of the machine's conical projector. Such was the energy required by the machine that the conduit was to pump plasma into it directly from the Mechanicus craft's engine reactors. Once the coupling system was warmed up, the machine itself could be activated.

The servitors formed a line, then a triangle, then a square, with perfect geometry, as they had been programmed. This machine was old and could not be replicated with the current expertise of the Mechanicus, and so the Omnissiah's favour had to be sought before using it. Geometric shapes and meaningful numbers were pleasing to Him, for He loved the abstractness of logic above all things, and it was right that His pleasure be sought before using His most hallowed devices.

..

he servitors stepped swiftly into a hexagon, then an octagon as the machine charged up. Faint gold and silver shimmers flickered along the superconductor circuits, and the coils deep inside the cone began to thrum. It was these coils, it was believed, that generated the shield against the warp.

..


Khobotov made a gesture of command and servitor hands three decks below slammed the plasma seals open, sending torrents of energised plasma coursing through the conduit. It was newer, this technology, far less refined than the machine itself, and there were alarming howls and rumblings as the plasma surged on. Drips of plasma oozed from overstressed joints in the conduit and landed hissing on the deck. But the power coupling held and delivered its payload into the heart of the machine.
The sound was a song - a beautiful harmony of coruscat­ing power. The machine was alive.
Khobotov turned and walked towards the ramjet elevator that would take him to the crew muster deck. It was time to fetch the Machine God's servants-at-arms and prepare them for His purpose.
The teleporter was ready. By the end of this day the Omnis­siah's masterpiece would be one step closer to revelation.

- the AM ship is equipped with a teleporter. Apparently its warp-based, because it requires some sort of "shield" be generated to protect against passage through it (a Gellar field, presumably.)

Its implied on page 42 that the teleporter could not be replicated by the Current AM knowledge. It is not sure whether they refer to this particular kind of teleporter (which has a range of at least ~70,000 km given later statements) or whether it refers to teleporters in general.

Also, there is plasma oozing from "overstressed joints" in conduits. Normal plasma, it goes without saying, does not behave like this.

Page 47

Due to the Soul Drinkers' gene-seed the omophagea, the organ implanted in every novice during his conversion to a Space Marine, was different to that of most other Chapters. Its purpose was to absorb racial memories and psycho-genetic traces from ingested organic matter - allowing the Marine to gain intelligence on how to use the enemy's weapons, into their beliefs and morale, sometimes even bat­tle plans and troop locations. The Soul Drinkers' omophagea was overactive compared to those of other Marines, deliver­ing an experience both more intense and less precise. It was one of the cornerstones of the Soul Drinkers' beliefs that they could experience the thoughts and feelings of their enemies and come out sane and uncorrupted, furnished as much with disdain for their inhumanity as with knowledge of their behaviour.

And it had served well here. Sarpedon had felt the mutant's uncleanliness, the sin inherent in its existence. Huge and mighty it had been, but without duty or purpose. It believed in nothing and survived only for the sake of existing. They were better off dead - he and his Marines had done them a favour this day by sending so many of them to the inky black­ness of death.

A particular mutation of the Space Marine's gene-seed. Note that this never really plays much of a role in subsequent novels, which I consider kind of funny since its the basis of their whole Chapter name.

Page 49

The Marines waited for Sarpedon's lead. He stepped through the massive brushed metal vault door and into the room, his psychically sensitive mind fairly humming with the cold, sharp resonances of rarity and high technology. He felt uncomfortable - there was too much unknown here, too much forbidden. He decided that much of this would be taken to the flamer as soon as they were done, and that Luko would be castigated for suggesting the Chapter sully itself with xenos tech and forbidden devices, even in jest. They were no experts in archeotech, and they had no way of knowing what was dangerous. Better destroy it all than risk impurity.

- Sarpedon's "psychically sensitive" mind is able to detect "cold, sharp resonances" of rarity and high technology from Xenos/archeotech devices near him. This tends to suggest that the techs in question are highly warp-based in nature (possibly like a good extent of the technology in 40K. Save, the NEcrons and perhaps the Tau. Of course since Mechanicum, we've known Imperial tech would be at least partly inspired on Necron designs as well so..)



Page 51

But he bowed to his fellow primarchs, and his Marines became a multitude of Chapters, one retaining the name of the Imperial Fists, the others taking on new names and her­aldry, ready to forge new paths into Imperial history.

Crimson Fists. Black Templars... Soul Drinkers.

To each of them was given a symbol of their sacred pur­pose, gifted by Dorn himself so they would remember that his spirit was with them always, that his glory was theirs also. The Soul Drinkers, formed from the fleet-based shock attack elements of his legion, received the Soulspear. Dorn himself had found it on a dark and lonely world during the Great Crusade - with it he had speared great warp-beasts and from it had hung his banner on a hundred worlds reconquered in the Emperor's name.

Such a tale was taught to the recruits brought in by the Chaplains before they were put through the savage meat grinder of selection, so they would have some inkling of the ideals for which they were suffering.

Sarpedon had been taught it himself, as had all the Marines under his command. He had come through the fire and the agony of selection and training, received the Space Marine's new organs and psycho-doctrination. Through it all, the Soulspear had been a symbol to hold on to - and for his generation, something more: a reason for vengeance, a cata­lyst for the sacred hatred that served a Marine so well in the fires of battle.

For the Soulspear had been lost for a thousand years, since the Soul Drinkers' flagship Sanctifier had been lost on a warp jump. Now it had been found in the collection of a degener­ate who had no comprehension of its true significance. With their commander dying, it was Sarpedon who would bring it back to his Chapter's embrace.

- the Soul Drinkers Chapter had been formed from the "fleet based shock attack elements' of Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fist's legion This evidently is the explanation for their specialization in boarding actions and space-based combat. Also the origins of the Soulspear, possibly hinting that Rogal Dorn was Darth Maul in a past life.

I personally tend ot think of the Soul Drinker's as Dorn's Short Bus Squadron, but that's me.

Page 52

The Soulspear was as long as a man's forearm, gloss black, and inlaid with intricate circuitry that shifted and changed before the eye. There were smooth indentations where fingers far larger than a normal man's would fit, each one with a laser-needle surrounded by a ring of gene-sensitive psychoplastic.

Imperial psychoplastics, probably rare, archeotech level shit, but it does show they at least knew about it and how ot create it.

Page 53

He shook the darkness out of his head and tried to get his bearings - he was down on the floor, half-lying on his back with Zaen beneath him. He heard confusion welling up around him as his inner ear recovered from the massive Shockwave of noise that had washed over him.

A bomb? That would be just like the Van Skorvolds. But the Tech-Marines had swept the place. It was possible but unlikely. What, then?

His vision returned and the dimness sharpened before him. Then light, bright and sudden. He hauled himself further upright and saw he had been thrown halfway back up the cor­ridor - the cages were smashed and any alien creatures still alive were scampering about in confusion. He could hear the pinking of breaking glass as Marines picked themselves up from the glass-strewn floor of the first chamber, where they had been blasted back through the display cases.

There were figures moving ahead. Dark, cloaked, a dozen of them crowding the Soulspear room. Rust-red with hooded faces.

Not a bomb then... a teleporter - but how? Teleporter technology was rare in the extreme, and the Soul Drinkers' own such devices had not worked for centuries. Not only that, but this was a small, precise target in the heart of a large and complex space station.

- Warp basted teleportations are accompanied by a massive shockwave at the point of emergence, capable of blacking out even a Space Marine if close enough to the entry point, that can be mistaken for a bomb. They are also capable of smashing animal cages open. Those that teleport in are unaffected. Not all the teleportees arrive intact though, so there is some risk of death in using it.

Sarpedon considers teleporter technology to be extremely rare, and the Soul Drinker's own teleporters had not worked for centuries. Why the Techmarines could not repair it, I don't know, because many other Chapters seem to still have functioning telporters. Maybe this is just further proof of how incredibly retarded the Soul Drinkers are.

Page 53

The nearest figure turned. Blank augmetic lenses met his gaze. A wide ribbed cable snaked from a dead-skinned mouth, ferromandibles spreading out from the upper chest and neck like insect legs. Around the hood's edge was embroidered the cog-toothed motif of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and a black-panelled heavy bolter jutted from one sleeve.
Siege engineers. Mechanicus elite. They must have been sta­tioned with the Mechanicus ship in the battlefleet, which had not seen fit to tell Chloure's intelligence of its teleporter array.

..

The engineer's heavy bolter whirred level, pointing at Sarpedon's chest. Twelve others had survived the teleporter jump and as one they took aim with lascannon, multi-meltas, and stranger weapons besides, all fitted to hardpoints wired into their bodies. If they fired, Sarpedon and the Marines around him would be shredded.

- "Siege engineers" and Mechanicus elite. Have arms replaced with a heavy bolters, lascannon, multimeltas, and other strange weapons all wired into their bodies and fitted to hardpoints. Twelve such engineers have enough firepower to waste Space Marines. No clue as to how many, at least 2 or three squads, possibly more. They're considered "Mechanicus Elite" - presumably they're the equivalent of Skitarii and combat servitors and the like.

And so we end part 1 at the point where the Soul Drinkers and the Mechanicus have their lil fracas... next up.. BETRAYAL of the hilarious kind.

[Lost Soal]

Oh goody, you've started on this now. You've also read more of this series than I have, should I feel sorry for you?

Anyway lets go into the parts of this which really annoyed me, first psykers.
Counter and Swallow both bring too much current game mechanics into their writing whereby they claim librarians only have one power they can use. Swallow is actually worse since he goes with the codex nonsense of having all Blood Angel Librarians, except Mephiston, only capable of casting Quickening.

Next is Counters habit of repetition and escalation, whereby he finds something he likes then decides to replicate it but has to make it bigger in some way. For this its the deamon bullets which he liked so much he did a mechanical version of them in the next book, but since that wasn't good enough specified that each individual round cost more than a starship.

Also, what sounds like a funny little "fuck you" to me, not one of the Heresy novels even hints at the existence of this Soulspear. I also like the hypocrisy of destroying any artifact they don't know about when the soulspear itself was simply found somewhere.

[Connor MacLeod]

Lost Soal pretty much hit on all the high points distinguishing the Soul Drinkers novels, although I'm generally more tolerant of Swallow (I didnt lik ethe first two blood angels novels much, but the latter stuff has kinda grown on me. and his non BA stuff isn't too bad.)

Anyhow, part 2 of Soul Drinkers. The Mechanicus act like dicks (as usual) and the Soul Drinkers decide to dick right back. I know that the first thing I'd think of doing when one of the other Adepta crosses me is to declare war on it and attack them. I'm sure that totally won't result in open warfare will it? Right?

Things start going downhill from this point. fast We also witness the beginning of the Soul Drinker tradition of massive collateral damage to Imperial property whislt in the act of exercising their freethinking natures.


Page 54

For a depressing moment he thought he was back in the Administratum habitat on the agri-world he had served for fifteen years, and that he would have to drag himself through another mindless day reviewing pro­duction quotas from the continent-sized grox farm that formed the planet's reason for existing.

Chloure's origins and insight into some forms of Agri-world operation.

Page 55

Chloure wondered if he [Navigator] had seen the anomaly with his genestrain's warp-eye before the ship's sensors.

...

"We picked up this little curio twenty minutes ago," He pointed at the anomaly above them. "It's not on the visual spectrum but the warp-reactive layer lights it up like a firework."

"What is it?"

"A rift." It was te Navigator who answered

..

"It's localized, not big enough for a ship. It is also centered on the craft of our Mechanicus allies.'

The Imperial Navy cruiser detects the teleporter array rift. It evidently isn't in the visual spectrum, though Chloure can see it through the transparent dome of the sensorium (which is apparently multilayered with filtration to protect against the warp. This must be the "warp-reactive layer" the Captain refers to.) Interesting look at warp sensors and related shit like this.


Page 56

"DiGoryan here and I were discussing the same thing. We thought it might be a subspace propulsion rig at first, those solid-state numbers they had docked at Hydraphur a few years back."

"But that, of course, would cause infra-quantum fluctuations far beyond the range of what we are currently acquiring." Said the Navigator, DiGoryan, folding his long, intricate fingers into a steeple below his chin.

..

"WE believed it was a psychoportive weapons system powering up," continued DiGoryan, "But, of course, the astropaths have detected nothing that might suggest such a thing."

"Then we realised," said Vekk conversationally, "It was a teleporter. The Mechanicus have brought a teleporter along with them."

I dont know what a "subspace propulsion rig" is, but it seems to hve some connections ot the warp. (much like as implied by Andy Hoare in the Rogue trader novels.) Then we get mention of a 'psychoportive weapons system' - basically a teleporting weapon. Something like the old Titan warp missiles (which resurfaced in the Horus heresy novels as well.) or possibly a teleporter used as a weapon or warhead launcher (Planetstrike). They don't seem to be rare or impossible, although that hardly makes them commonplace either.

Also: it apparently takes some authority to acquire a teleporter, even in the Mechanicus.

Page 57

The second kind of operation was far rarer, and a far more serious undertaking. Sometimes in the thousands of wars the Imperium might be fighting at any one time, there was an objective so vital that it had to be achieved at any cost.

An estimated "thousands" of wars going on at any one time in the Imperium. Truly, it is a galaxy at WAR! (except for all those places it isn't, where there is simply propoganda and the motions of war, which more than liekly support all those other places that ARE at war, or get stockpiled by the Munitorum/Adminstratum, coopted for politicla/selfish reasons, etc.) Anyways WAR!

Page 63

Vekk, seeing the tech-guard, had silently summoned a squad from the Diligent's naval security battalion, who were silently filing onto the bridge.

A battlecruiser has a "battalion" of Naval Security. Not sure if this is the armsmen specifically, or if like Abnett they may be treated as a separate, more elite unit (analogous to IG Storm troopers)

Page 64

The Soulspear is currently on board a high-speed heavy shuttle within warp route 26-Epsilon-Superior.
...

Koden Tertius was a forge world, a planet owned and run by the Adeptus Mechanicus as a centre of manufacture and research. Specifically, Koden Tertius was half a galaxy away and famed for the robustness of the war engines it supplied to the Imperial armies of the Segmentum Obscura. It was also the name stencilled on the side of the 674-XU28 and from which Khobotov's tech-guards were recruited. Archmagos Khobotov was sending the Soulspear to his home world.

- the MEchanicus used a "high speed heavy shuttle" to transport the soulspear through the warp. It's implied in the novel that the soulspear was transferred in only a matter of months (5 months tops) from the original site to the Forge world.

Given the "half a galaxy away" bit here, and implicatons elsewhere, we're talking many tens of thousands of light yeard separation crossed in about 5 months or less. Assuming 50K LY and 4 months (1/3 of a year) we're talking 150,000c.


Page 66

The Architect of Fate - the Emperor, it seemed. Aspects of the Divine Emperor were worshipped all over the Imperium, where He might be the god of the seasons on a primal agri-world or the Chooser of Warriors in a gang-infested underhive. Such things were tolerated by the Adeptus Ministorium as long as they acknowledged the primacy of the Imperial cult. To Sarpedon, such fragmentation showed the inability of lesser men to comprehend the true majesty of the Emperor and His primarchs. But this man did not seem at all feeble-minded.

..

You are the Architect's chosen, Lord Sarpe­don. I have seen you when He places His visions in my mind. Anything you ask shall be delivered as far as we are able.

Yes. The Soul Drinkers are that stupid. They mistook Tzeentch for the Emperor, and its not really even that clever a ruse. And this is probably the least stupid thing Sarpedon and his band have done (Wait til you see the SEcond Chapter War.)

Page 66

Most of the other Soul Drinkers were prepping and manning the many macrolaser emplacements and missile clusters that were still operational, and Sarpedon wanted to ensure that routes through the station were open and secure for redeployments.

The PDF surplus star fort had its own weapons intact still, including "macrolasers" (macrocannon lasers?) and missile batteries.

Page 68

The Adeptus Mechanicus ship 674-XU28 was just under one thousand years old. Every hundred years to the day it was refitted in the dockyards of Koden Tertius with the latest rediscovered and re-engineered archeotech and machine-spirit augmentations. A fighting force was maintained on the craft of tech-guard, siege engineers and other, more exotic forces, that needed constant upgrading and replacement of parts if it was to operate at full potential.
For some time this work had been done under the supervi­sion of Archmagos Khobotov, for he was three hundred years old.

..

Apart from the tech-guard units, the 674-XU28 was crewed entirely by servitors and tech-priests whose industriousness and knowledge-obsession reached Khobotov's exacting stan­dards. Between them the Mechanicus magi that crewed the ship had barely enough flesh on their bodies for a single man - the rest was augmentation and improvement.

- Our Asshole Admech starship and crew. Aside from that, its crew is solely tech priests and servitors (unlike the AM mass conveyance in First and Only, which had Naval crews.)

Page 68

In the massive crypto-mechanical entrails of the ship, in the corridors of gleaming glass where the ancient machine-spirit dwelt and amongst the forests of rail driver cannon and sensorium tines, the map of human knowledge was rebuilt.

- no idea if this is a weapon, though.

Page 71-72

The Geryon-class [orbital artillery piece] was conceived from the start to take advantage of this [disruption and confusion of enemy, either delaying an enemy or covering a retreat] with the rapid and forceful deployment of electromagnetic and magna-frag weaponry alongside conventional munitions.

It was an ordinatus-level macro-artillery piece, a huge cannon that lobbed disruption shells through the depths of space to detonate in the midst of attacking spacecraf. When mounted on an orbital platform it was the size of a small spacecraft itself. However, the Geryon-class sadly lacked any edge in conventional engagements compared to similarly sized, less specialized pieces. Its use gradually declined with the increased tendency of commanders to simply blast their way out of uncertain situations and concern themselves with niceties only after the enemy was drifting and ablaze.

It seemed that Archmagos Khobotov, however, had some fondness for the Geryon-class. Because that was what had detached itself from the 674-XU28 and was now descending into geostationary orbit several thousand kilometres from the star fort, riding on a standard artillery platform as big as a medium-sized island.

It's a giant EMP gun, in other words. I wonder why the fuck they couldn't just mount it on the starship, rather than deploying it separately (which makes it hard to, you know, manuver.) I suppose things had to be made easier for the Soul Drinkers so they could board. I dont think this is even an ordinatus-scale weapon, it sounds far more common.

Also "island size" artillery platforms seem to be some sort of standard. Somewhere.

PAge 72

Their ships were was on the other side of Lakonia, and would never survive an engagement with the sub-battlefleet and the Ordinatus. Extraction was simply not possible - that, of course, was the plan the Administratum and Mechanicus had doubtless concocted, to trap the Soul Drinkers like rats and butcher them from afar.

- according to Sarpedon three cruisers also evidently represent a "sub-battlefleet." This may be a battlegroup detachment from a sector battlefleet, or it may represent some other formation (the subsector equivalent of a a sector battlefleet or system level PDF.)

Page 73

The Soul Drinkers were the best men of the Imperium, and yet the Administra­tum and Mechanicus had first stolen from them, then dared to threaten violence to keep their prize. What could they be thinking? Didn't they know what the Soul Drinkers were, what they stood for?

Was the Imperium truly the instrument of the Emperor's will, when it was peopled by such lesser men? When the bat­tleships and fighting men were wielded in the Emperor's name, to humiliate those who most closely followed the Emperor's plan? Sarpedon had long known there was cor­ruption and indolence in the very fabric of the Imperium, but rarely had he seen it so starkly illustrated, and never had it put his life and those of his battle-brothers at such immedi­ate risk.
When the Geryon-class ordinatus cannon spoke, the Soul Drinkers could be lost, all so the Administratum and Mechanicus could save face. It couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. But how would Sarpedon find a way out? They were effectively trapped on the star fort with a massive orbital artillery piece bearing down on them and several thousand Imperial Guard waiting in the bellies of the battlefleet.

There was little doubt that Consul Senioris Chloure and Archmagos Khobotov intended to do violence to the Soul Drinkers if they did not relinquish the star fort, Soul Drinkers would not back down, not while Sarpedon still breathed.

Would they have to die, to prove that they would not accept an insult unanswered? Was that as petty as stealing the Soulspear and refusing to return it? That was not the issue here. The Soul Drinkers were the superiors of anyone the bat­tlefleet might boast. They expected to be treated like the elite that they were.

If the Soul Drinkers had to die to show the galaxy how seri­ously they took the martial honour that made them what they were, then so be it.

Yet there was hope. Not because he had hit upon a plan, but because a Space Marine is a stranger to despair. There would be a way, even if it would only let them face death as warriors. The legends were true - Marines never failed, even in death.

Frankly this attitude reminds me alot of Astelan from Angels of Darkness except.. more arrogant and more stupid. Not only do they let themselves be gulled EASILY by the Lord of Change, but their arrogance (which outstrips even the Black Templars or Dark Angels, in this context) keeps them on a disastrous course simply because Sarpie thinks he's right. Not neccesarily an unusual trait among Space Marines, especially the more zealous ones, but as we see this becomes a oft-repeated pattern in the Soul Drinkers novels, and a rather disastrous one at that.

Pompous asshole, thy name is Soul Drinker. (Mind you I like some of them. Luko isn't too bad, for example.)

Also to quote Mollari: " Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you."

Page 74

But like every Tech-Marine he had been appraised during novicehood as possessing a certain skill with all manner of technology, and had been thoroughly schooled in myriad branches of combat tech. He therefore knew a thing or two about attack craft.

"Hammerblade-class," he was saying, mostly to himself. "And Scalptakers. Throne of Earth, these should be in a museum..."

...

And all around stood the craft. Some were hulks of rust, others had been stripped of anything that could be pried off the fuselage. But there were plenty that looked intact - sleek and noble compared to the blunt killing weapons of more recent times, with ribbed superstructures and swept-forward wings tipped with lascannon. The Hammerblade boasted a great underslung plasma blastgun while another variant bristling with close-quarter megabolter turrets was a Scalptaker-class superiority fighter. THese marks had been flagged as obsolete more than a thousand years before...

...

there were other variants too - a bloated nearspace refuelling craft, a fighter-bomber with a single-shell payload bolted to its back. Great chains of ammunition were racked at intervals across the deck, and the noses of warning-marked missiles poked up from pods below decks. Ships, fuel, ammunition...

Hey, remember where it is often said that older technology is always better, more powerful, more advanced?

These are all small craft onboard the star fort, by the way, probably also sold off by the PDF (hey I guess if you're rich enough you can buy any military hardware.) They carry missile and what appear to be low grade titan weapons (megabolters, plasma blastguns, etc.) And these are obsolete craft, mind you. On the othe rhand they're much prettier looking than modern designs.

Page 76

"We can take about one hundred and twenty Marines if we strip out most of the weapons systems."
"We'll have about a hundred, spread out across the craft, so don't skimp on the firepower. And select pilots if you haven't done so already."

The fighters are big enought hey can carry Space Marines and their gear.



Page 77

The regiment's proper name was a twelve-digit string of letters and symbols that indicated its size, composition and base camp location on board the 674-XU28

Tech Guard, like Krieg, seem to be mostly nameless (at least in this case) and have alphanumeric codes identifying them. Quite large ones, although not as large as the Krieg.

It might imply large numbers of Tech Guard, and it would be tempting to assume so, but I really know nothing about such coding and why they may be so big (error protection for example, security, etc.)

Page 77-78

He had his grenade launcher, entrusted to him as a child when the neurojacks were first sunk into the back of his skull and he was upgraded to a member of the tech-guard. He had learned its exact rate of fire down to tenths of a second, and the range at which the electromagnetic pulses and photon glare would be effective. He knew that at that particular angle he could lob a haywire grenade over two partitions on the Geryon platform's muster deck and drop it right down the throat of an attackler. It had been stripped and repaired so often that none of the original components remained, it was the same because it was bound by the weapon's spirit, to which Kiv spoke thrice-daily as the Rites of Maintenance decreed. He knew the shadowy figure of archmagos Khobotov had a similar affinity with the unimaginably vast and complex ship itself, which must have given him a deep and holy under­standing of the ordered universe the magi laboured to create.

Tech guard weaponry and implants. Better than guard standard, naturally.


PAge 78-79

Colonel-priest Klayden's voice was artifi­cially amplified so every Sixer on the muster deck woke from their reveries. 'Action stations, dogs, action!' The klaxons started up a second later - Klayden's rank allowed him access to the simpler levels of the ship's own machine-spirit, and he was able to anticipate the more important decisions it made. A whole Sixer battalion had transferred to the ordinatus platform before it had been launched. Every one of them was suddenly up and aware, throwing open ammo trunks and pulling on their quilted flak-armour.

It was something akin to righteous determination with which the tech-guard and the other forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus would take up arms and strive to win the fight, so that the supreme logic they built could be preserved and the disordered tide of battle turned back. Kiv shrugged himself into the heavy flak-tabard and strapped up the knee-high boots that would protect his feet and legs from the backwash of haywire chaff released from the disruptive grenades he could fire. He hefted the cylindri­cal metal bulk of the grenade launcher that was as familiar to him as another limb.

- the TEch Guard grenade soldier wears a heavy flak "tabard", as well as knee-high boots that would protect his fet and legs from the backwash of haywire grenades. What, no carapace? I'm disappointed.

Page 79

He drew the jack-lines from the targeting array and pushed them into the sockets of his skull, feeling the orientation of the launcher through his own sense of balance, the barrel temperature through his skin, the ammo count through the fullness of his stomach.

More Tech-Guard weapons stuff-ness.

Page 79

The other tech-guard of Kiv's unit hurried past bearing melta-guns, plasma rifles and hellguns. Each one would ful­fil a particular role in the fight, where the confusion of Kiv's haywires, destruction of the energy weapons and precision of the hellguns would combine to form an efficient combat machine.
There was fear. But it was a good fear, like a diagnostic rite, running through his mind and checking for flaws of cow­ardice. There were none. He had been a Sixer all his life, and Sixers never died. They just broke down.

Other Tech Guard weapons., Like many more advanced or elite regiments (or veterans/storm troopers) they seem to be special/heavy weapons heavy.


Page 81

The Geryon ordinatus platform was a silver diamond against the star field, bright with light reflected from the planet Lakonia. Sarpedon watched it growing closer through the age-grimed glass of the porthole, the Hammerblade fighter-bomber juddering around him as the Chapter serf-pilot flew Sarpedon's Marines towards their objective.

Sarpedon's craft held eight other Space Marines under Sergeant Givrillian. There were eleven other craft like it, Hammerblades and Scalptakers, speeding in scattered forma­tion towards the Geryon platform.

...

"Taking fire!" crackled a serf-pilot's voice over the vox – Sarpedon glanced at the holomat set up in the centre of the Hammerblade's cargo bay...
..

"Magnalaser turret fire." replied the serf-pilot, voice warped by sudden static. Sarpedon peered through the thick porthole glass and saw ruby-red lines of laser flashing out from the platform, lancing past the silver glimmers that were the Soul Drinkers' makeshift assault craft.

- the Soul Drinkers in their fighters take fire from the Ordinatus platform while it is still a "silver diamond" against the starfield, which ought to imply tens if not hundreds of km effective range. (we know earlier the platform was "several thousand kilometers away", giving us a rough idea of point defense range.

The fighters are all carrying around 9 Space marines, plus the crew (at least a pilot), functioning as makeshift assault craft.



Page 85

"Auspex is not transmitting," said Givrillian from some­where in the darkness. "Interference."

- A Marine here notices that the auspex is not transmitting due to interference. Given that page 84 mentions the idea that the AM will probbly jam their vox nets (and that the next page mentions problems with receiving vox transmissions), this is probably due to the jamming.

Page 86

Suddenly a plasma blast, a great bolt of white-hot liquid fire, vomited from the feed with a brash roar, drenching the flamer troops and dissolving one in an instant. The reek of burning metal swept over Kiv, and his launcher racked a grenade to echo his revulsion.
..

The second tech-guard had lost half his body, dripping skeleton's arm fragmenting, ribs burned clean. He had caught sight of the attackers just as the plasma gun opened up.

- a plasma blast "dissolves" one Tech-guard, and destrroys half the body of another (fragmenting the arm down to a skeleton, burning the ribs "clean.) Yep, more flamethrower crap.

Page 87

Kiv knew he was their one hope - his haywire grenades could remove the Marines' advantage of armour and auto-senses. He would shout and his launcher would shout with him, sending electromagnetic waves billowing up into the Marines, shorting their senses, locking the joints of their armour. Tech-guards were dying, one decapitated as a round punched into his throat and blew his head clean off. Rounds snicked through the edges of Kiv's flak-tabard and cracked around his ears as shrapnel spun and gunsmoke coiled in the air.

Tech guard vs Soul Drinkers.

Page 88

Nikros, the single Marine who remained of Squad Phodel, along with Apothecary Daiogan who had also survived the crash, somehow managed to find a way into the platform's secondary magazine chambers and set krak grenades to destroy the caches of macrocannon ammunition. Then their luck ran out, however. Pinned down by a siege engineer unit, Daiogan died under a hail of heavy bolter shells and Nikros was severely wounded.

Then the magazines went up, incinerating Nikros along with everyone and everything within a two hundred-metre radius, taking a huge chunk like a bite mark out of the plat­form's surface. Several dozen tech-guard were killed as the local atmosphere depressurised, failing to get their pressure-masks on. When the bulkheads closed and the leak shut down, Nikros and Daiogan had personally accounted for almost three hundred tech-guard.

- Soul drinkers setting off charges in the ammo magazines of the Geryon macrocannon (they call it a macrocannon again) set off the magazines with krak grenades, incinerating everything within "a two hundred metre radius", and blasting a huge hole out of the Ordinatus platform.

Later a "building sized" construct houses the machine spirit.

Page 89 - The Soul Drinkers emerge from lubricant intakes about 150 meters up from the muster deck of the platform, about "halfway up the recoil dampeners that dominated the muster deck."


PAge 91

A few energy bolts lasered down from a hidden position and a Marine was cut nearly in half by a thick crimson melta-beam. Another took a bad-looking abdomen shot from a las-weapon and had to be dragged as the assault squad regrouped before they were surrounded.

- one soul drinker is cut in half by a melta beam, another takes a "bad looking abdomen shot" from a hellgun. Shows that meltaguns are variable focus, like plasma and laser weapons.

Page 92

There were half-a-dozen of them and their skin was covered in swirling designs glowing blue-white so brightly the glare would hurt a normal man's eye. Flashes of lightning burst from their fingers and eyes, and rippled across their bare tor­sos. They were moving so quickly that Vorts's men hadn't had the chance to counter-attack.

Electro-priests. Tellos had never seen a real one - few in number but famously deadly, fanatical dervishes of the machine-cult. He faced them and readied that charge. This was why he had been born.

One was cut down by bolt pistol fire before he got there. Another was speared neatly by a chainblade as he landed. The others were suddenly in the middle of Vorts's squad - a helmet exploded under an electrified hand, a Marine was hurled twenty metres in the flash of energy discharge, trailing smoke from a ruptured chestplate.

Tellos picked out one and drew his assault, parrying blows from bare hands stronger than plasteel. The electro-priest's eyes were silvery and blank. He jerked and spasmed quicker even than a Marine's reflexes would allow. The priest whirled, one hand chopping low and clipping Tellos's knee, and the sergeant barely kept upright as the shock ripped through his leg. He felt the charred muscle and skin soldered to the inside of his armour. This thing would die.

He dodged, sliced, drawing a shower of sparks off the priest's torso. But the priest was still alive and grabbed the chainblade with arcing fingers. The mechanism shattered and teeth flew everywhere like shrapnel. Tellos countered with the knife, aiming for the space between the ribs where a heretic heart dared to beat, but the priest's other hand grabbed his wrist with inhuman reactions.

The power sliced through him. He couldn't get his hand away, the grip was too strong, like a magnet. He tried to slam the wrecked chainsword into the priest's face but it caught his other hand and the circuit was completed, power coursing free through him for a split-second before with one final effort he wrenched himself free.

Tellos landed heavily on his back and spotted the priest falling, recovering, standing again. Smoke coiled from the chainblade wounds. Tellos noticed that from somewhere it had picked up two purple gauntlets.

Then he looked to see if he still held his knife, and saw the charred stumps of his wrists. His hands. It had his hands.

Remember these guys? Electro-priests who are fanatical melee fighters implanted with conductive circuitry and capable of generating highly destrructive electrical impulses.

They can easily breach armor to cause severe burns and melt internals, and they can do melee unarmed due to augmentation (which initself are all impressive.)

Page 93

He let the Hell boil up from the mound of corpses beneath his feet, and flood down from the shadows of the platform's superstructure high above. It was the screams of the dying changing to howls of bloodlust, the reek of brimstone and blood. Insane loops of colour coursed through the air and deathly stains of rust spread from the hands of great shadowy spectres of corrosion.

The tech-guard ran but the electro-priests just convulsed in confusion and anger, too far gone to flee but unable to fight on with sounds and smells and images of disorder surround­ing them. The battered remainder of Vorts's squad took one down at chainsword length, sparks flying as the chain-teeth bored through its skin and into its hyperactive organs.

Sarpedon went deeper. Groans of breaking machinery, like ice caps in thaw, rocked the muster deck, and the half-glimpsed shadows of falling cogs and masonry plummeted through the darkness.

The Hell. Librarians in the Soul Drinkers novels are treated like vidoe game characters in that they all have a unique "special attack" type thing only they can do. And this is Sarpedon's. Get used to it.

Page 96

The Geryon yawned before him, huge and dark. Lygris scrabbled faster through the pale crystalline thought struc­tures he had made to depict the mem-bank files, tore through the endless loops of cables that were control interfaces, bat­tered down the plasteel doors his mind made from the hardwired barriers. He sank imaginary fingers into the hard metal of the command program, forcing it to yield beneath his hands, feeling the vast machinery as great thrumming shapes against his skin. He felt immense ammo-haulers and forced them to move, slamming disruptor shells the size of tanks into the breech. The coolants, the recoil compensators, the propellant tanks - he rammed them all into position.

- the Geryon platform's disruptor shells are the "size of tanks" Remember, it was described as a macro cannon, again, and macro cannon weaponry often is described as being the size of a tank (or bigger.)

PAge 97

The Geryon class had several classes of ammunition. One was a single titanic shell that had an immense starburst area, which would create an instant zone of interdiction through which attack craft and even lighter cruisers would be unable to travel.

Another contained a half-dozen void charges, which would spread electromagnetic chaff and pulse waves in all directions and create the equivalent of stellar minefields across a wide area.

Still another contained over a hundred disruption canisters, which would rain interference over an entire battlefleet, causing a temporary sensor-blackhout. It was one of these that belched from the huge metal throat of the Geryon and burst just orbitwards of Chloure's sub-battlefleet.

One canister struck the underside of the Hydranye Ko and its momentum barged it through a full seven decks before it exploded, sendingrivers of chaff-filaments rushing through corridors and pooling in cargo holds.

Geryon ammo.

Page 97

The Deacon was quicker to respond to the sudden attack, firing several fragmentation torpedoes into the mass of inter­ference discharge. The warheads malfunctioned as soon as they entered the electromagnetic fields and detonated piece­meal, adding more wreckage to the mess.

- Fragmentation torpedoes deployed from a cruiser. Not sure if it's point defense or countermeasure or what. Seems a rather pointless use of torpedoes, unless Counter is confusing torpedoes with broadside missiles (he might be.)


PAge 97

Only the 674-XU28 was relatively unaffected, positioning itself to have a clear shot at the star fort and using its own jamming systems to counter the disruptive electromagnetic waves. Unfortunately, its primary armament was currently under Soul Drinker control several thousand kilometres distant, and it had little more than defensive turret fire to boast in the way of firepower.

The AdMech ship has its own jamming systems, and it remains sevreal thousand km away.

Page 99

The real effect of the Geryon shell had been to prevent co-operation between the three cruisers of the sub-battle-fleet. Between them they could have taken on the strike cruisers, which were probably light on weaponry to make room for attack craft bays. But one-on-one, the Hydranye Ко wouldn't have stood much of a chance even in full working order.

- the Soul Drinker strike cruisers were thought by Naval officers to be lightly armed due to their fitting of attack craft (thunderhawk) bays and assault pods, and 3 cruisers could take them on. One on one, howver, they wouldn't have stood a chance even in full working order.

also note the sub-battlefleet reference again.

PAge 100

The Gundog and the Unendingly Just swept in from the other side of Lakonia's orbit, where they had hung in the planet's sensor-shadow while the star fort and, later, the platform had been won. Their engines, overcharged for speed, were tagged as a larger-than-cruiser signal by the sensors of the closest ship, the Hydranye Ко.

The Ко made no move to intercept as they swept over the battlefleet, through fire arcs that would have destroyed even the tough Marine strike cruisers had the battlefleet been able to see them. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus craft tried to stop them, offering token turret blasts from its macrocannon bat­teries. The dark purple paint on the Gundog's hull was slightly scorched, nothing more.

The strike cruisers were ran by serf-crews under the com­mand of small Soul Drinker retinues who knew when to let their charges make the decisions and when to rein them in. Both ships had been refitted extensively for close-order maneuver and they tumbled elegantly towards the top of the platform, which was still wreathed in propellant wash from the Geryon's firing. Few of the defensive turrets were still functioning - the close-range lance batteries and light torpedo waves ensured that none continued to do so.

The Unendingly Just launched a wave of twenty Thunder-hawks towards the docking emplacement that Graevus had assaulted less than an hour before. Marines were already gathering amongst the docking clamps and refuelling junc­tions, holding the landing sites against attack.

- the 674-XU28 has macrocannon batteries as well as rail driver cannon (or are those the macrocannon?) and magnalasers. They don't do any damage to the Strike cruisers, though, which may be becuase of the previously mentioned "light" nature of its armament.

The Strike Cruisers seem to be armed with "close range lance batteries" and "light torpedo' volleys.

Page 101

Even Chloure could tell that the star fort was already tilting alarmingly towards the pale orb of Lakonia. The gravitic sta­bilisers, Manis informed him, had been the first to go. Probably melta-charges, but again bundles of standard grenades would do the trick if you knew what to look for.

- the Star fort's gravitic stabilizers had been taken out (forcing the fort to tumble) - it was thought melta-charges did it, but "bundles" of standard grenades could do the trick too (Krak probably.) Some sort of orbital antigrav.

Page 102

Finally he was reduced to a fine ash and scattered over Lakonia's rolling green countryside along with several million tons of flaming wreckage.[/quiote]

- the star fort massed "several million" tons, at least. Small for a fort, considering the (under-sized) nature of escorts an cruisers in Rogue Trader.

[Kuja]

The really curiosu thing about Soul Drinkers is.. while I dont' consider Ben Counter a great writer, he's not a horrible one either. He's written some fun stuff, and he should be tagged to write some Sisters of Battle stories (Wait til we get to Bleeding Chalice) and his Gray Knights stuff is generally good.. but for whatever reason, he just missed the mark with the Soul Drinkers. It is so bad I am not entirely sure that this was not meant as intentional parody. IF it had.. it would have been good at showing some Imperial hypocrisy... but it reads as quite serious, and some of the book suffer becaues of it. Whatever Counter intended, the fact of the series is some good with plenty of bad, and that tends to bring the whole series down as a whole.

What's that comparison Chuck made for one of the Voyager episodes?

"It's like a 10-layer wedding cake made out of shit. It's impressive, certainly, and it may even be art....but that doesn't change the fact that it's made of shit."

I think the major problem with the Soul Drinkers series was that Ben Counter started with a premise and a main character that were both incredibly flawed and, at times it seemed like even he didn't know where he ultimately wanted to go with it - the Soul Drinkers waffled back and forth between being anti-Imperium, pro-Chaos, pro-humanity, etc. And as noted, at times they could be incredibly, extraordinarily dumb, which made for a deeply flawed series.

[Connor MacLeod]

Yeah. Although I'd say the analogy is a layered cake alternating between shit and some halfway decent instant cake. I mean when the Soul Drinkers series comes together, it actually isn't that bad. As I said Bleeding Chalice and Hellforged are actually pretty good. This is balanced out by Soul Drinker and Chapter War. Crimson Tears kinda straddles a halfway point, It has some good characters - I like the IG portion of the book - but the Space Marine/DE portion absolutely sucks. It tends to edge more towards bad but not totally so.

I'm curious to see how Phalanx turns out, given that Daenyathos had some pretty silly implications in it.

As a whole, Counter did a whole lot better with Gray Knights than he did with the Soul Drinkers. I'm tempted to go back and read the intro to the Omnibus to see what he claism he was going after for them.

[Ahriman238]

...

Isn't the Architect of Fate the most common euphemism for Tzeentch?

TRIBAL SHAMAN: You, Sarpedon, are the Chosen of the Blood God! You shall drown this world in a river of blood, and bring many skulls to his throne!

SARPEDON: Heh, heh, these foolish primitives and their silly superstitions and alternate names for the Emperor. C'mon guys, it's just the Emperor he's talking about. We may be renegades but at least we aren't....

Guys?

[Black Admiral]

The thing that most annoys me about Sarpedon isn't his phenomenal dunderheadedness - although that's certainly irritating - it's the fact that the smug, pontificating bastard wibbles on about how he's Doing The Right Thing and fighting for a noble cause - and then constantly chooses the course of action that's going to kill more of the people the Astartes are supposed to be defending. And he never gets called out on this.

The only person more annoying than him in the whole series is Eumenes (you'll meet him when Connor gets up to Crimson Tears - damn that book for its abuse of the Crimson Fists), and that's because, for everything else he's done, Sarpedon hasn't shanked a Hero of the Imperium (the Howling Griffons' Chief Librarian, Mercaeno) in a manner as pathetic as the beating up of Grand Master Azrael in IA5.

[Connor MacLeod]

Sarpedon and by extension many of the Soul Drinkers, IMHO share the same problems that the TNG episode 'Outrageous Okona' did, which Chuck pointed out rather accurately and can mainly be summed up as 'all talk, no action' much of the time. Sarpedon in particular seems to make alot of claims but actions prove otherwise. At least when Sarpedon is honest you can start to like or respect him (which is why novels like Bleeding Chalice and Hellforged work.

Soul drinkers doesn't because the means in which they become estranged from the Imperium are frankly retarded and unbelievable (as the whole 'architect of fate' thing illustrates.) Compare the HH novels and the depiction of the various traitor legions 'falling' (like Fulgrim, Thousand Sons, etc.) There is consistency and a sense of progression along the path that makes a kind of sense when you reach the endpoint - something the soul drinkers lack in this first novel and make them out to be colossal idiots. Especially when everyone else (including their own fucking Chapter Master) can see the lunacy but not them.

Chapter War is its own brand of stupidity because a.) The soul Drinkers prove they've learned no lessons and b.) Deserve to die in a Darwinian sense because what happened in the novel was easily preventable if you had at least minimally functioning brains.

The only person more annoying than him in the whole series is Eumenes (you'll meet him when Connor gets up to Crimson Tears - damn that book for its abuse of the Crimson Fists), and that's because, for everything else he's done, Sarpedon hasn't shanked a Hero of the Imperium (the Howling Griffons' Chief Librarian, Mercaeno) in a manner as pathetic as the beating up of Grand Master Azrael in IA5.

Eumenes was only a complete ass in Chapter War, and that's almost a completely different guy than the one in Crimson TEars (he was almost likable there.) The Non-Sarpedon character who drags down the third novel was Captain Reinez of the Crimson Fists, who competes with Sarpedon to see whose dickery can fuck up the ground campaign more. I can't begin to imagine how Pedro Kantor (the guy based on 'One Hate' and 'Rynn's World' would have let this guy anywhere near a leadership position, much less reinforced him. I can only imagine he was having a hangover from a ambassador's visit to the Space Wolves or something.)

[Black Admiral]

Well, true, Reinez is a colossal arse who drags down the Crimson Fists simply by existing - I can only conclude that after CT Kantor had finally had enough of him and sent him on the quest for the left-handed thunder hammer - but at least he has some redeeming features, like a bit of a clue when it comes to tactics (more of one than Uriel Ventris c. Nightbringer had anyway - Reinez at least remembers his heavy weapons dudes exist). And even in Crimson Tears Eumenes is displaying a similar habit of smug pontification to Sarpedon, which makes me rather less inclined to think of him charitably.

[Connor MacLeod]

Reinez has some sense of Space Marine Tactics yes, but that's as far as it goes, since he'll cheerfully fuck over any of his allies (the allies who he is honour bound to help) simply because he wants to chase off on private ventures. That's Dark Angels level dickery right there, and that is something I doubt Ventris would ever have done. I mean fuck, how many times did the Imperial expedition against the Dark Eldar outright fail becuase of Reinez in that battle?

Eumenes was arrogant, but no more or less so than any other Soul Drinker really, and at that point he was still eclipsed by Sarpedon. The 'fucking asshole' Eumenes was pure Chapter War and even made Sarpedon look decent (although Sarpedon can still outdo anyone in sheer incompetence.) I mean fuck, Chapter War Eumenes is right at 'Cartoon Supervillain' level - I half expected him to twirl a mustache and go 'accursed mountebank' anytime one of his diabolical plans failed.

[Connor MacLeod]

Next update for soul Drinkers - I'm pretty much running updates by mood at this point, rather than doing mass updates (which takes forever, unless I have time)

Anyhow, now that Sarpedon has pissed off the Navy and the AdMech, he now sets his sights on the Inquisition. Yes, he's THAT CONFIDENT of the rightness of his cause and the cause of FREEDOM! To be fair, I dont think you can blame him for not submitting to the Inquisition, as Astartes have been known to do this.

Page 100

The Gundog and the Unendingly Just had been fleeing for six months, the last five of which had been spent hidden in the depths of the Cerberian Field.
...
It was a grim situation. Fuel was low and supplies were more so.

Fuel/resource supply after 6 months, including 1 month of active flight. That would fit roughly with FFG estimated endurance, barring special modificaiton.


Page 107

He saw something moving some way off, across the wide space of the librarium, edging through the archway leading in from a side-chapel. The figure's raw muscles were twined around chunks of stained metal, twin glowing lenses jutted from a stripped-down head of sinew and bone. A drum-fed autogun was held in one hand, and a twin-bladed halberd in the other. It trailed bunches of wires and servos whined as it moved.

A combat servitor. As a novice, like any Soul Drinker, Pal­las had despatched scores of the things with boltgun, chainsword, knife, bare hands, and all manner of weaponry he might use or find on the battlefield. They were designed to die hard, giving almost as good as they got - novices who failed combat assessments did not, by definition, survive.

Soul Drinke rcombat servitor, used only for training.

Page 107

The servitor's halberd lashed out - it didn't have a power blade, of course, but that blue crackle of an energy field meant it was a shock weapon that would lock muscles and addle minds before the weapon's wicked point found its mark.

Shock weaponry.

Page 110

If Vekk hadn't suddenly decided to go all dashing and effi­cient they would never have picked up the warp-trail of the two strike cruisers. There would have been no astropathic communication with the sub-sector admiralty and the sub-battlefleet would not have swollen with every light year to become a mighty flotilla of the Emperor's Navy. The Hydranye Ко had stayed at Lakonia for repairs but there were now cruis­ers, escort squadrons, several fighter-bomber wings, a Departmento Munitorum hospital ship and innumerable support craft swarming around a stationary position outside the Cerberian Field. They had even been joined by the Peni­tent's Wrath, a Ragnarok-class that had seen better days but was nevertheless an immense capital ship bristling with more destruction than Chloure could comprehend.

- mention of the "sub-sector" Admiralty and a "sub-sector" fleet. Also mention of the Penitent's Wrath, a "Ragnarok-class" captial ship. They don't say whether or not it is a battleship or not, but we know its at least larger and far more powerful than a cruiser. Events still seem to be occuring at the sub-sector scale. Also note that they tracked the stirke cruisers through the warp.


Page 111

"There may be others. It is being suggested that the arrival of further attack-configured craft would make a conventional attack feasible. A Golgotha-class factory ship has been requested, to be refitted for clearing a path through the field."

- Golgotha class factory ship mentioned, being refitted for asteroid sweeping.

Page 112

"But the Emperor, the Architect of Fate, has seen these things and acted upon them. Has the true abuse of the Imperium been made clear to your eyes? Have the self-serving apostates not shown their hand by tarnishing the name of the Soul Drinkers and moved to do violence upon them? For though we are few and the enemies of the Emperor surround us even now, we know that knowledge of the Architect's true plans are a sounder weapon than the mightiest fleet of starships."

Again: Tzeentch isn't above perverting Emperor worship to his ends, and the Soul Drinkers are morons for falling for it.

Page 114

Tech-priest Sasia Koraloth looked out on this scene through a porthole in the side of her laboratory annexe. She knew that one day she would not think the darkness and fires of her forge world so ugly - such minor aesthetic distractions would be far beneath her when she was so occupied with the mas­terful logic that was the tool and creation of the Machine God.

Gradually she would be augmented and improved until there was so little of her original body left that her mind could become detached from the outside world and contem­plate only the mechanics of reality.

Techpriest augmentation.

Page 115

The painstaking reverse engineering of trinkets brought by explorator parties took up all her time, as witnessed by the rows of disassembled and polished components on the work benches of her lab. But she had not thought she had discovered anything worthy of note, or that her diligence and dedication had been seen by any of her superiors.

The data-mat set into the skin on the back of her left hand flashed up the location of Route Cobalt. She left her dingy lab and hurried through rock-walled streets populated by servitors of all sizes and functions, their only common link the presence of recycled human tissues to form their nervous and muscular systems. There was the occasional tech-priest too - recent initiates like herself and more venerable magi, some with small crowds of apprentices in tow.

- mention of the AM "reverse engineering" tech found and recovered by Explorator parties. Which was supposed to be heretical as I recall, but like most things in the Admech that varies with who is doing it and the time of the week.

Also mention of servitors of all sizes and f unctions, their only commonality the fact they use recycled tissues for their nervous and muscular systems.

Page 116

It was a cylinder, the surface of which gleamed with intri­cate golden circuitry, and which had what looked like impossibly miniaturised gene-encoders set into the hand­grip. A small enough thing, but her experience with pre-Imperial technology told her it was something much more than it seemed. She could feel the power of its com­plexity flowing through her hands as she touched it.

..

"It is known as the Soulspear. There was considerable trou­ble involved in its acquisition. I will expect your preliminary data-sermon within the year."

The soulspear again.

Page 117

Commander Caeon was already dragging his great armoured body over the lip of the nearest gate house, spraying bolter shells into the alien defenders below as energy bolts melted the stone around him.

energy bolts (unknown type) merely melting stone.

Page 117

Kallis had pointed towards an emplace­ment built into the stone where once a defensive lascannon or launcher had stood, but which was now being used by a half-dozen slender-faced aliens to fire a monstrous energy weapon into the backs of the Soul Drinkers ahead.

Vixu had led them in, flamer gouting, Sarpedon behind working up the energy for the Hell. Some within the Chap­ter's librarium could have cracked open the emplacement with telekenesis or psychopyretics, but Sarpedon's way was to crack open the minds of its crew.

Other Librairan abilities in the Soul Drinkers. Some are TK'ers and others are flame dudes (like Scamander, who we meet later.)



Page 118

It was no good. Sarpedon didn't care - gone was the war­rior's rage at the enemy's deceit that had sent him wading into their midst, pumping bolter shells into their unarmoured bodies, cracking necks and splitting open heads within jewel-eyed masks.

A bolter blast caught the closest in the stomach and almost blew it in two - its grace dissolved instantly as it flopped to the ground.

Bolter round almost blows an Eldar in two.

Page 121

The security troops at the rear of the bridge stomped into the alert formation as several emergency tech-teams, lower-grade tech-priests and attendant servitors bristling with servo-tools, scuttled out of maintenance alcoves and began prying the panels off comm-consoles.

"They've hijacked our vox-casters and transmission net­work." said Talaya tonelessly. "Interdiction and exploitation patterns."

..

The vox-casters screamed and Chloure tried to cover his ears, too late. He imagined the same sound screeching through every caster on every ship of the fleet, but fleet comms were still out and he couldn't be sure.

"Helm control lost." said Talaya just before the lights went out completely.

Starship hacking, Inquisitorial grade.

Page 121

The ship appeared on screen. And what a ship it was. A bright swell in space, wrping the light passing through it so the stars were drawn into long white sparks. The few sensorium traces that Chloure could understand implied the Diligent didn't believe there was anything there at all.

Inquisitorial stealth/cloaking.


Page 122

The image on the viewscreen swam as layers of sensor-shielding puffed away from the newcomer ship in layers of shimmering light. Below them was revealed dark, slick metal, beaten into sensor-deflecting triangular plates, with shinyy black viewports lik eslitted eyes and sharp blades of proejctor weapons satbbing forward from its sleek bat-shape. The twin engine cowlings flared out behind it like fans of steel feath­ers, and from its sleek belly tiny gunmetal flakes broke off and sprang to life - drone-ships, tiny blue engines flaring as they formed a shimmering necklace of guard ships around their parent.

The Inquisitorial ship also has "drone ships" it deploys (fighters, it seems.) Also the sensor shielding.

Page 126

At the centre of the phalanx was a man in armour of brass, the barrel chest and gauntlets of his armour imposingly huge. His face was incongruously youthful, sleek-featured and dark-skinned. There was a sword slung at his back with an immense blade, nearly a metre and a half long and half a metre wide, surely too large by far for anyone to wield?
...
The man's armour gave him almost the bulk of a Space Marine. The sword at his back still seemed impossibly huge - Sarpedon looked over the man's body and saw there was nowhere another weapon could be concealed.

- a one and a half meter long sword, half a meter wide (blade only) too heavy for a normal man to wield, uses gravitic suspensors to lighten it enmough to "lift with a finger" - its mass is still such that it amkes it hard to wield, however. It is also sharp and heavy enough to penetrate Space Marine armour. Suspensor tech, which is a strong indicator that it doesn't reduce mass at all (and suspensors are the only known style of "mass reducing" tech we've seen in the Imperium, giving us essentailly the only clear idea how that shit might work. If it is even commonly used technology, which is debatable.)

Page 126

K'Shuk drew the sword. It seemed impossibly light in his gauntleted hand and Sarpedon's enhanced hearing picked out the faint hum of tiny gravitic motors as the immense blade swung over the interrogator's shoulder. Suspensor units, one in the pommel, one at the tip of the blade. The sword would be light enough to lift with a finger, but utterly unbalanced and so difficult to use that most martial treatises considered such weapons to be useless in combat.
..

K'Shuk span again and this time the sword hit home, the massive broad blade carving up into Sarpedon's abdomen. Red pain stabbed up from the wound, but Sarpedon knew he would survive, knew he would go on fighting.

The suspensor sword again, with the details clarified and showing how it doesnt literally reduce mass via suspensor, but simply provides some sort of forcefield support/assistance.

Page 127

Gradually, as Sarpedon met K'Shuk's blows, he saw the fun­damentals of the suspensor-blade art. On an upward cut the blade could take flight thanks to its anti-grav units and spiral out of the wielder's hands, so K'Shuk's upward swings were limited. It was difficult to change the direction of the blade suddenly, so every sequence of attacks had to be made up of strikes mat flowed into one another - it was fast and no doubt pretty to watch, but it cut down K'Shuk's options. The inter­rogator compensated with speed, but Sarpedon was fast, too.

Sarpedon reminded himself that though he had never fought anyone like K'Shuk, the reverse was also true. K'Shuk had probably killed hundreds of skilled opponents, heathen aliens and warp-strengthened heretics, but he had never faced anything as deadly as an angry Space Marine comman­der fighting for his honour.

Combat with the suspensor blade.

Page 128

The suspensor blade escaped his grasp and fluttered like a leaf to the floor where, with delicate slowness, the monomolecular blade sunk up to half its length in the flagstones.

It also has momentum and a monomol blade, but can be slowed down (eventually)


page 129

Twin Shockwaves burst at the nearest edge of the cloud, sending the tiny orange specks tumbling out of the way. The daggers flew into the space created as the obstacles closed again behind them, just as several blue squares pulled up suddenly as the field knitted itself back together around the Soul Drinkers' cruisers.

"Gravitics torpedoes?" asked Inquisitor Tsouras.

"WE do not believe so," replied Senior Tactician Talaya, pausing the holo display. "We suspect the torpedoes the Soul Drinkers used were improvised. Probably assault torpedoes loaded with munitions - the blast would spread in all directions.

explosions big enough to scatter a very densely-packed asteroid field large enough to allow two strike cruisers to pass (and not dense enough to normally allow it.) Mentio nof gravitic torpedoes too. Alot of this sounds like seismic charges.


Page 130

"There is no debate, tactician. The Marines had to blast their way in without gravitic warheads. We do not have to suf­fer that hardship. My ship carries more than enough gravitic weaponry for our present purpose. In any case, having seen the quality of leadership here I shall be taking command of the operation personally. Every captain on this fleet will have every available assault wing fully bombed up and ready to launch. Perhaps you can claw back some semblance of dig­nity by refraining from screwing it up this time."

Gravitic weaponry, again.

Page 131

Once a world was tainted by unchecked heresy you could cover every square metre in smouldering craters a man's height deep, and still there would be some dark-thinking traitor ready to poison what was left. Inquisitor Tsouras knew this because he had tried it himself.

I guess this means tht there's a difference between true exterminatus level destruction (which can, in a manner of speaking, extinguish heresy/chaos/xenos taint) but simply covering a planet in craters (neat trick doing that in the ocean, unless we assume he's not including the oceans) won't do it.

Page 131

He stood, drawing himself up to his full augmented three metre height. All of it, the skeletal elongations, the bronze ram's head shoulder pads, the thick studded leather cloak and tabard and the blank yellow-grey eyes, had been affected solely to intimidate weaklings like these. They were simple, cosmetic augmentations, far from the complex bionics that the Mechanicus were rumoured to have developed - but they seemed to work. Only Tactical Officer Talaya seemed unper­turbed, from which Tsouras concluded she was a rather more stupid woman than her codex-quoting speech suggested.

Inquisitorial-grade augmentation, I suppose/

Page 131

He had to ensure the gravitational warheads were loaded and primed. THey were delicate and ancient technology, not to be trifled with.

Yep, isn't that always the way?

Page 132

The first bomber wing launched from the flight decks of the Penitent's Wrath. It was not anticipated that there would be any interceptors to oppose them, but they went with full fighter escorts anyway, just to be sure.

They were followed by dozens of other swarms, from AVengers and Praetorians with their bellies swollen with bombs, to control craft trailing salvoes of semi-smart torpedoes, to the delta-winged gloss-black nightmares that swept from the flight bays of the Inquisitorial ship itself.

The flight assets of the Lakonia Persecution had not been accurately totalled, and the number of fighters and bombers launched was uncertain. Estimates made it a thousand, give or take.

The fleet strike via attack craft. WE aren't told how many ships are present, but probably several dozen (including escorts) eaisly. Which implies at least scores, perhaps a few hundred, craft per ship average, depending on craft breakdown.

Page 132

'
The first waves, though they did not know it, were to test the density of the Cerberian Field. Their engines clogged with micrometeorites and their hulls were punctured by ice frag­ments or buckled by the gravitational forces of superdense ferrous asteroids. The fleet logisticians under Tsouras's orders used the data of their death throes to calculate where best to strike.

Grimdark. Note the "superdense ferrous asteroids" with unusually strong gravity. This follows along the lines of the "weird space weather shit" common in the BFG and Rogue Tradre games. The best logic I can come up for this is to blame it on the warp infecting or influecning realspace phenomena

Page 132

- the Inquisitorial ship launches the gravitic torpedoes

Page 132

The torpedoes' size indicated their age, ,for they were ancient indeed, to the degree that the secrets of their manufacture had long since been lost.

...

Slowly, with the nearest bomber wings banking wildly to avoid them, the shoal of impossibly valuable torpedoes detonated and the edge of the Cerberian Field began to collapse. Ripples of electromagnetic power drew the tumbling rocks closer and closer in a gravitational trap. Clumps of asteroids dragged into the epicentres in turn drawing in more matter until a chain reaction had begun, the field contracting into single lumps of rock.

More warheads exploded further in and the effect travelled deeper, melting a path towards the Soul Drinkers' position in the heart of the asterid field. Attack craft followed in their wake, and many had to sight their target visually as their nav cogitators broke down amidst all the interference. To them, the Gundog and the Unendingly Just were barely visible, picked out by the sharp-eyed as twin patterns of silver against dark purple against black. They were both on all-stop so there were no engine flare to lock onto - the bombers would haveto get in close and do things the old fashioned way.

More lost tech, and the effects seem to behave more like reverse-seizmic charges. What their purpose is.. I have no fucking clue.

[Connor MacLeod]

Next to last update for the Soul Drinkers novel.. we are reaching that thrilling climax. In this installment we see: More stupidity from Sarpedon as he defies his Chapter Master and leads his chapter into civil war.. FOR FREEDOM! Because he's so convinced the architect of Fate is really the Emperor... oh boy is he going to be fooled by Tzeentch!

The AdMech take their plundered booty back to a forge world, starting to research and dissect (GASP!) the soulspear, where we learn it must have been fabricated by the Great Primarch Darf Mawl. Oh and we get introduced to the Brokenback (which for some reason always makes me think of the movie Brokeback mountain - I dont know if it's a good movie or not but it has to be insulted to be free-associated with the Soul Drinkers in any way shape or form.) which is a xenos-tainted, Chaos gifted space hulk full of alien and corrupted Imperial tech - JUST the kind of transportation an Emperor-fearing Space Marine Chapter set on freedom and doing the Emperor's Work would want.

Really things start getting more ludicrous, but we haven't hit the ludicrous climax yet.


Page 134

It was the signature of a warp route, the entry/exit point of a rare and relatively stable path through warp space. It was pulsing with the energy of a large volume of shipping hurtling through it. This was unusual because all the charts said there was no warp route there.
..

Six hundred years ago they closed warp route 391-C after something woke up inside it and ate a transport convoy. They lost about three hundred thousand souls. Their astropaths tried to get a signal out but all was left were a few echoes. Walls of flesh, they said. Walls of flesh closing in.

Warp gate/tunnel thingy. , used for shipping purposes until something in the warp devastated it.


Page 136

Every display showed the same thing - a ship, yet to be identified - had emerged from warp route 391-C insanely close to the edge of the Cerberian Field, and charged into the waves of fighters heading for the Soul Drinkers position. Close-range ordnance and turret fire had torn through several bomber wings before they had the chance to break and scat­ter. Now the forward wings were trapped in the field, enclosed in the tunnel of rock created by the gravitic war­heads, with a swift and well-armed ship blocking their path. Tsouras could hear the weapons battery-fire scything through them as they died. The attacking ship was huge - bigger than the Penitent's Wrath itself. It was fast, too, and loaded with close-range weaponry. Its pilots must be maniacs and its gun­ners trained to the point of inhumanity.

Point defence capability against small craft.

Page 136

"Now, I assume you are here to tell me the identity of our newcomer."

"They're jamming us, lord inquisitor, and most effectively. But... welll.. the visuals are very sketchy, but our tactical officers have hazarded a guess.

Space Marines can jam communications, apparently even the Inquisitor-grade shit.

Page 137

The Carnivore was followed by the Sanctifier's Son and the Heavenblade, both smaller but still deadlier than any ship of the battlefleet. The Heavenblade swept out towards the battle-fleet, which was hastily organizing a defensive line. Out of position and with attack wings already out, there was noth­ing they could do to prevent the Heavenblade closing. It drove an arrow-straight course towards the Deacon Byzantine, ignor­ing the nova cannon shot from the heart of the battlefleet that almost clipped it to starboard.

The Son launched a fighter wave of its own and the tract of void where the battlefleet's assault waves were regrouping became a seething cauldron of combat. The Son itself dived in, taking bomber hits all over, swatting fighters aside like insects.

Soul Drinkers fleet assets.

Page 138

The entire lower decks must have been filled with nonoxidising fuel, the kind that didn't have to react with air to burn.

Interesting. I haven't heard about this existing in real life, but it may or may even be hypothetical. Whatever the case, the Imperium seems to have something like it.

Page 139

The battle barge Carnivore, along with the strike cruisers Heavenblade and Sanctifter's Son, were more than enough. But they were joined by more - the interceptor cruiser Animosity scattered the battlefleet's flank merely by driving forward with its lance arrays charged. The carrier-fitted battle barge Mare Infernum, meanwhile, sported so many assault boat docks that they covered it like scales - the prospect of the ship launching a boarding action was so truly ghastly that the battlefleet fell into general retreat, Tsouras be damned. With the flaming wreck of the Heavenblade in their midst and the highest-quality ships now bearing down on them, the ships of the battlefleet were in utter disarray.

Only the Deacon Byzantine held its nerve, refusing to follow the rout though it was alone and effectively surrounded - as if it knew the new fleet had no intention of attacking it.
It was the Mare Infernum that fell back to escort the Unend­ingly Just from the Cerberian Field, battered but unbowed. Sarpedon watched from the porthole in his cell as the battle barge's near-inconceivable bulk gradually slid past against a backdrop of debris. The Gundog would be limping alongside me battle-scarred Sanctifier's Son - the first bomber wings had blown two of the main engines clean off the Gundog, but it was a tough cruiser and it would make it with help.

- the Soul Drinkers have at least two battle barges and five strike cruisers (though one was lost as a Fire ship.) Incidentally, one has lance batteries and was also identified as an "interceptor cruiser".

Page 141

He knew they were far to the galactic north-east, past the Qisto'Rol system and the warp storm they called the Emperor's Wrath, on the indistinct boundary where Imperial space gave way to the Halo Zone. But he knew this only from his memory, for there was no frame of reference in sight.

...

It was a dark sector. Nebula clouds that could swallow whole systems formed a featureless backdrop through which only the brightest stars could shine. It was abandoned and quiet, and it could take decades for anyone to find the Soul Drinkers here. It had been marked by the Chapter millennia ago as somewhere they could lie low in case of emergency. An emergency such as this.
Closer was the Soul Drinkers' fleet, the size of a sector armada, formed almost entirely of lightning assault craft -some pregnant with pods and boarding torpedoes, others weighed down with lances and nova cannons. The Leuctra was hanging in the blackness beside them, and on the other side was the Carnivore still bearing the scars of the Cerberian Field.

- the Soul Drinker's naval assets are the size of a sector armada and has naval grade hardware. God the navy must hate them.

Implied locale may have been in Segmentum Solar or further south, since their original locale was "half a galaxy away" from the forge world in quesiton, which was in Segmentum Obscuras.

PAge 142

The rest of the fleet could be seen glittering further out. A silver diamond was the immense training platform on which novices and Marines made practice drops and dummy assaults, live ammunition and hard vacuum combining to force combat discipline into the brothers. The strike cruisers looked like a shoal of fish in the distance - amongst them would be the Gundog and the Unendingly Just, undergoing flame-cleansing by the servitor purge-teams in case Sarpedon's Marines had brought the stain of corruption back with them. Furthest away yet huge and bright, was the Glory. Immense: half as big again as a standard battle barge.

- Battle Barge Glory - half again as large as a "standard Battle barge"

Page 143

The probe withdrew and began knitting Tellos's skin back together. But the blades of the tiny manipulators kept slip­ping through the altered tissue and the join was left ragged. Slowly, the ripped skin began to flow together, as if melting, until there was no trace left of a wound.
"The other battle-brothers are the same." Pallas was saying. "There is no obvious cause for those who are changing. Your­self included. You haven't eaten for weeks now - there should be some degradation in energy levels or muscle mass. But here's nothing."
"I feel stronger."
'It's hard for us to judge.'
"I mean psychically. I felt it on the Geryon platform. The Hell has never gone that deep, Pallas. It has served us well, but never that well. Yser says it is strength born of faith, now we have seen the truth. The Architect's blessing."
Tellos stirred on the slab. The anesthetics couldn't even keep him under for an hour at a time - as if something had woken inside him that straggled and fought any attempt to make him lose control. Sarpedon had forbidden him to be imprisoned, as he had committed no crime, and it was all Pallas could do to keep track of the assault sergeant. Several attempts had been made to take the twin blades Tellos had jammed into the stumps of his wrists, but he had always found new ones. It was eventually decided that it was best to leave them as they were.

Yet more proof of Sarpedon's utter stupidity. They're Space Marines, who just fought mutants (and must be well versed in the dangers of chaos and mutation) and yet they think that what is happening to them is a blessign from the Emperor. I mean its possible they might think they're like psykers or Navigators, or perhaps abhumans (which are all 'tolerated' mutations), but the would not consider this a good thing, even so. This is one of the more grating and frustrating things about the novels, because it runs contrary to what we know and what makes internal sense in 40K, and it just ruins the integrity of the story for me.

Page 144

A servitor shuffled along the long gallery that led to Gor­goleon's chambers, past the carvings of his early heroics. "The shuttle approaches." it said in it's the thin, feeble voice. The servitor had once been a Chapter serf, who had become too aged and decrepit to be of further use and had been rebuilt as Gorgoleon's personal valet. Gorgoleon took pains to make the menials in his presence especially wretched.

"Convey permission to board the Glory. Have Sarpedon leave his escort squad in the shuttle bay and send him to my presence immediately. Ensure he is not rested or fed."

"Yes, Lord Gorgoleon." lisped the wizened servitor, and limped off across the gilded tiles of the chamber.

Another talking servitor.

Page 146

"Several months ago I received a communication from Inquisitor Tsouras on behalf of the lords of the Ordo Hereticus."

Which implies it took them less than two months to get away from the Inquisiotirla taskforce. going with the "half a galaxy away" bit again, we might figure some tens of thousands to several hundred thousand c once more, although this is less clear (Thus far.) Tens of thosuands of c would seem likely at least.

Page 150

All except Dorn. For the Emperor was wise and just, and outwitted the dark forces to make one of His sons the true model of perfection He had intended. Though Marines car­rying the gene-seed of other primarchs would die rather than admit it, Dorn was the best of them all. He did not crave power, only justice. He fought not with savagery or malice, only with honour. His legion excelled in all things - doughty defence, merciless attack, cunning stealth and everything in between, skills which existed to this day in the many Chap­ters formed from the Imperial Fists.
Yes, Dorn was the best man who had ever lived save the Divine Emperor himself - by following only Dorn's example, the Soul Drinkers could ensure that they, too, would be noth­ing but the best. At the heart of the Chapter was Dorn, his words and deeds burning as bright as they had when he was alive. Matters of the greatest gravity were conducted before the gaze of Dorn, who watched from his halls of judgment in the afterlife, so he might see how his sons followed his example of justice and righteousness in everything they did.
And so it was that the Chapter Master and the traitor met in the Cathedral of Dorn in the heart of the battleship Glory, to settle the Chapter's greatest crisis in the only way they saw fit.

More Soul Drinker arrogance on display.

Page 151

One hand was massive and pendulous with the power fist he wore - the fist had a built-in power field which, when switched on, would let the Chapter Master punch through walls and tear through tanks, and certainly dismember Sarpe­don with one good shot. The field could be flicked on and off at Gorgoleon's whim, leaving his hand dextrous one second, destructive the next.

Soul Drinker power fist.

Page 152

A Marine could think the world into slow-motion and see the next blow before it was struck - and so Sarpedon caught Gorgoleon's follow-up strike on his forearm, felt the ceramite buckle under the Chapter Master's strength, stepped sideways and brought his force staff up to parry the power fist uppercut. The power field and force-circuit clashed and a great shower of sparks erupted, pushing both men onto the back foot.

MArines have built in slow motion features.

Page 153

... the serfs and novices could see what happened to traitors, even as the Marines of Sarpedon's three companies were put to the sword.

Sarpedon's idiots comprise roughly 1/3 of the Chapter.. so you can't really say the whole Chapter itself was at fault.

Page 154

Both were bruised and bleeding. Neither would ever give up. Gorgoleon's fist would be death if it got a good hit in - but Sarpedon's force staff could punch through even Gor­goleon's artificer armour if the Librarian timed his mind's focus with the blow.

Self explanatory.

PAge 159

The risks of travelling the shifting ways of the empyrean were offset by the vast distances that could be travelled in a matter of hours, so that ships which sailed the warp for a few days could make several years' worth of distance in real space. But inevitably, when ships departed the safety of reality and ploughed the waves of the warp, some did not return.

- "a few days travel" in the warp covered several light years (several years worth of distance) in realspace. A few hundred c at best taken literally, although the fact that "matter of hours" is implied suggests it might involve a greater distance. (traveling from system to system "in a matter of hours" would cross 10 ly. say 6 hours would be 14,600c)

Page 160

This particular part of the hulk was Imperial, as witnessed by the aquila and devo­tional texts on the bulkheads. It had been an Imperial Guard hospital ship, with wards running its whole length and a huge quarantine and decontamination sector in the stern. It was also in a sensor-shadow, a part of the hulk which had been veiled from the fleet's intensive life-sign scans. Which meant it had to be searched the old-fashioned way.

Sarpedon rounded a corner and looked down from the ceiling at the ward. It was perhaps a kilometre and a half long. Centuries ago the rows of beds and equipment stations had been lit by unforgiving strip lights, but now the lights were dim and the beds were mouldering. Shadows gathered too dense for even Sarpedon's eyes to pierce.

- Imperial Guard hospital ship. At least 1.5 km long. Not owned by the guard, just used for the guard, probably. might be munitorum owned.

Page 165

" And it should not be for­gotten what we have here in the Brokenback. We may have lost a fleet, but we have gained one of the largest space hulks ever taken intact. There must be thirty plasma reactors in the structure. The warp drive potential alone is astonishing."

one of the largest space hulks. also potential for warp drive seems to be tied more to size and power than anythign else, which, given what we know about how warp drives are used in the warp, does make sense.

PAge 167

The machine-spirit was the prize here. It was held in a ceramo-plastic core just behind the bridge - a room-filling sphere of circuitry, its surface studded with valves and slots for punch cards. Initial inspection had suggested it was something beyond the scope of the Mechanicus to create from scratch, and if it could be made to work it might pro­vide a means to control primary systems all over the Brokenback.

brokenback's machine spirit. punch cards in the counterverse 40k are high tech. get used to seeing shit like this alot.

Page 168-169

Sarpedon scuttled over the dissolving body of the serf and into the machine-spirit room, Lygris at his shoulder. The circuitry sphere was half-open, one hemisphere peeled aside. Inside, like the heart of a rotting fruit, was a pit of green-black corruption bubbling with heat and malevo­lence, spitting gobbets of corrosion and exuding a wave of toxic air.
..
The rear of the sphere was mostly intact, but the plates of its surface were beginning to work loose and green-brown rivulets of ichor were running from the card-slots. By the Emperor, he could feel it, the waves of hatred, the sheer mal­ice of the thing. There was no intelligence here that could have been able to create an emotion - and yet it hated still, as if it was nothing but a receptacle for that hate.

He drove the force staff through the circuitry skin and into the thing's heart. He felt the semi-liquid machinery shredded by the staffs head, but the thing's hatred did not die.

..

The arunwood squirmed in his grasp as it was repelled by the wrongness of the thing in the machine-spirit core. Sarpedon strode up the wall and onto the ceiling, dragging a long gouge in the core's surface through which bilious filth poured.

Lygris ducked to one side as a tongue of acidic gore spat out at him, lashing deep into the opposite wall with a hiss. The Tech-Marine rolled as he landed, crushing the sorry remains of the final serf-labourer before he came to his knees and pulled a wire from the back of his neck.

...

Sarpedon yelled, not caring if there was anything left in his lungs, and plunged his staff-wielding hand up to the elbow into the machine-spirit core. Ichor and entrail-like machinery wrapped around his arm and dragged him further in. Sarpe­don twisted the staff head, felt the thing's scream of pain, and knew what he must do.

Sarpedon at war, including the use of his force staff on a corrupted daemon sphere thingy.

Page 172

There had been sixteen separate component craft identified - some were rotted husks, others as clean and pris­tine as the day they sailed off their manufactoria docks. There was a flight of pre-heresy fighter craft fused and welded into a jagged starburst of metal, and an orbital generatorium plat­form that the Tech-Marines were activating and re-routing to power the hulk's myriad warp drives, and a ship-bound Schola Progenium habitat being divided into monastic cells. The hulk was gradually being mapped and adapted - soon, it would be as formidable a fortress-monastery as any Chapter could claim to possess.

more on the brokenback. note an orbital generator platform too, and a schola progenium orbital habitat.

PAge 179

The nave had once held hundreds of torpedoes, racked up ready for loading into the tubes of a blocky, squat warship.

interesting implication that some navy warships carry 'hundreds' of torpedoes, whilst other sources (rennies novels, the rogue trader rpg) suggest scores at best.

Page 181

It was raining on the forge world Koden Tertius, which meant a total lockdown. Triple-layered armaplas shutters slid down over the viewports and doorways, and the sensoria were drawn into smooth white sheaths against the elements. The sulphuric acid rain and nuclear lightning-storms sheeting down outside would kill even the most unfleshed tech-priest in seconds, and every facility on the planet had to be sealed completely. Acid could get in anywhere and eat away essen­tial power feeds, and any metallic contact could channel lethal shocks into the bodies of the laboratories and manufactoria. When the great storms of Koden Tertius were overhead, all manufacturing stopped, and the acolytes of the tech-priesthood withdrew into the habitats deep in the rock to contemplate their devotion to the masterpiece of the Omnissiah.

Back to the asshole admech forge world, and we look at the weather. yay progress, I suppose.

Page 183

"Gelentian," Said Koraloth. "Have you ever seen a vortex grenade explode?"

The coven were silent for a moment. Vortex weapons had not been manufactured for thousands of years - there were theories that they had not been made sincee the mythic days of teh Dark Age of Technology.


"He hasn't" said Tallin. "I have. A vortex missile on an Imperator Titan, back when we supporrted the Guard at Ichar IV. Just one, that was all it took. One of them great big tyranid bio-titans got hit - there was this huge black explosion and then nothing. Nothing where its head had been."

"Seventeen thousand rounds of standard titan battery ammunition to kill one VErmis-class tyranid bio-titan." said Vaien with something approaching awe. "Twelve hellstrike missiles. But only one vortex charge."

Vortex weaponry described, and mention they are lost tech (which seems to vary from source to source or the kind of such weaponry.) also bio-titan resilience.

Page 183

"A vortex grenade or missile creates a one-time reality-break effect, an area of null-space. Anything inside the effect is dislocated from this layer of reality and annihilated. This is all anyone really knows. You will also know that anything as short-lived and uncontrollable as an explosion is of strictly limited use."

vortex weaponry again.

Page 183-184

It had proven remarkably resilient, being composed of alloys and high density ceramo-plastics with properties they could not find on any database. They had managed to pry off some of the outer sections and attach data-thief lines which dangled like bloodless veins from the cylindrical shaft. The tiny apertures on the grip had lit up in red shortly after the study had began and were still winking brightly, as if protest­ing at the invasion.

Soulspear composition.

Page 184

"We thought these were gene-encoders." said Koraloth, indi­cating the lit apertures. "I suspected they were something else. I think now they're measuring not just genetic information but chemical balance, acidity, even temperature."
"And you tried to bypass them?" said Tallin. "Gene-coders are a piece of skrok to short-circuit. Our magos commander had a gene-lock on his liquor cabinet but it never stopped any of us."

"I tried." replied Koraloth. "And it almost worked. But it doesn't like being messed around him. The circuitry structure changes when you so much as look at it. Every route I found around the encoders, the Soulspear closed it. I don't have the cogitator power here to keep one step ahead of it. I had it active for a couple of tenths of a second at most, not long enough for a full reading."

the soul-spear's security systems, for lack of a better term. also an implication it has a measure of self-awareness.

Page 186

The Soulspear generated a vortex field just like a vortex missile or grenade, but it could maintain the integrity of that field instead of just unleashing it like an explosion.

so basically its like an eldar-d cannon, only in blade form.

Page 190

More than one had immolated themselves with mental fire and let the pain block out the probing, to wake up in a synthiflesh incubator with the assembled librar­ium applauding their success.

incubator? some sort of 40k bacta tank, I guess.

Page 190

When not in battle the Librarians acted as an independent advisory body to the Chapter Master, and it was in this capac­ity that Sarpedon had commanded them to build up a picture of the threat that awaited the Chapter on the unnamed planet. There were seventeen Librarians left in the Chapter, not including Sarpedon himself, who had survived the violence the Chapter had done to itself in the past months, and in their days-long meditative sessions they had carefully probed the psychic maelstrom that lay beneath the storm-laden clouds.
It was a nightmare. Aekar had died, his eyes pools of streaming jelly and his organs burst and raptured, when he had peered with the psyker's sixth sense into the boiling mass of madness.

Aftermath of the first Chapter civil war. seventeen libriarans left, and a lower limit on how many Soul drinkers had.

Page 191

The air swirled in the back of the Thunderhawk and Zaen instinctively checked the survivability readouts reflected onto the crystal of his helmet's eyepiece. He could breathe the air but his lungs would have filled up with phlegm and his eyes would have started streaming after half an hour - armour dis­cipline was to be made paramount and helmets were to be worn.

I guess there are some enviroments that even the Space marines can't handle without helmets. Unless you're a Choas Blessed Khornate berserker, in which case you can eve go into vaccuuum shouting BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and be fine.

Page 192

. The engine pitch dropped as the Thunderhawk reached bale-out level, four metres above the ground. Zaen jumped.
They were still travelling at a fair pace when he landed but he had done this many times before, rolling on and coming up on one knee, flamer braced, head jerking as he swept for contacts.

Parachutes are for pussies.

Page 193

Luko slid into cover behind a lip of rock and fired a burst from the bolt pistol worked into the back of his right lightning claw gauntlet.

Geez, if you take dawn of war as valid, then everyone has one of these fucking things. (HA ha calgar) Of course I don't rmemeber Luko having these later on - I think they just became regular lightning claws. So who knows.

Page 194

The blue-white cone of flame ripped through the closest bodies sure as any bullet, rending four or five hapless subhumans into shrivelling, flailing limbs half-glimpsed in the flame wash. Those further away fared even worse, coated in a cloak of burning petrochemical that ate through their skin and left screaming, flaming skeletons spasming as they died.

The closest survivors, many half-aflame, screamed in pain and shock and ran. They took their fellows with them and soon the subhumans opposing Squad Luko were in full rout, Luko himself laying into the closest with his shining claws, the squad's bolters thudding shells into the disintegrating flesh of the fleeing pack. Zaen washed the ground with flame, scouring the few survivors into burning ash, melting the flesh of those who had fallen in their flight.
..
..the squad strode over the sticky, burning remains of the cannibals to where their sergeant stood, the power field around his claws flickering as the residue of muscle and bone burned off. Zaen knelt to the squad's fore, ready to answer another ambush with a burst of burning justice.

..

He checked his flamer tanks. They were still nearly full of fuel - the weapon had barely cleared its throat yet. But he did not need the words of Daenyathos to tell him that soon, he would need every drop.

- Space M arine flamer reduces at least seven humanoids to "flaming skeletons", with the tanks "nearly full" Skeletons are about 20% of body mass IIRc, so assuming 70 kg average thats 490 kg total - 392 kg of flesh roasted, probably mostly cremation. call it 200 kj to 2 mj average per kg of flesh. 78 mj expended (about 2 kg worth of gas at 100% efficiency) and a neglibible draw on the flamer. the higher number tends to up it more towards nearly a gigajoule, especially once inefficiencies are allowed for.

This is one of thoese scenes that convinces me flamers are alot more exotic/magical than just simple flamethrowers. my current theory is that flamer fuel somehow combines its own chemiccal energy with the stored chemical energy in the body to incinerate people (eg fat content, etc.)

Page 196

They were here because they owed the Emperor, the Architect of Fate, for showing them the truth, because He demanded they prove their worthiness to count themselves as His divine warriors. If they had to die, then they would die. The only fear that death held was that they would die without having accomplished their life's work of service to the Emperor - but to die here, for a Marine to give his life facing such a foe for such a reason, was to accomplish more than the longest-lived of the weak-willed Imperial ser­vants could ever hope to achieve

Again we see the Emperor confused with Tzeentch, and the fact the Soul Drinkers are here because they are morons. One has to wonder why they are even bothering with a ground assault, given that they have a heavily armed space hulk that could bombard the planet. Or, failing that why didnt they save some Exterminatus munitions from their Chapter fleet? Didn't they have any?

Of course this is all just part of that CUNNING and SUBTLE plan by that master Tzeentch. He's really sneaky to be able to put one over on Spider boy isn't he?

[Ahriman238]

In fairness, I think every chapter that knows their origin has that kind of "my Primarch could beat up your Primarch" attitude. You can't say the Ultrasmurfs don't think Guilliman was the best thing to happen to the galaxy since Warp Drive.

Also, 4 meters isn't really parachute height for normal humans, I can see Astartes making that drop without issues, unless the Thunderhawk was going really fast or something.

[Connor MacLeod]

And the last of the Soul Drinkers. The Soul Drinker stake on a Nurgle world (for some bizarre reason), we get introduced to Ben Counter's favorite concept of the 'weapon what fires daemons', the AdMEch get their just desserts for theft, and we find out the clever twist of the Soul Drinkers novel.

Page 202

The daemon prince had been blessed by the Plague God with a form most pleasing to those who revered pestilence and decay - he was a sentient disease, a colony of industrious microbes that infected the hosts of his choice and rotted their senses until they belonged completely to him. The eight hun­dred bodies of Ve'Meth, knitted together by the prince's infectious colony-mind, formed the blighted heart of the unnamed world, and the crusade of corruption that would one day soon sweep out from this planet and into the soft underbelly of the universe.

one of the many sentient diseases created by Nurgle. A sort of organic nanowank.

Page 203

Gelentius Vorp felt the maggots in his entrails writhe with pride. To think that the Daemon Prince Ve'Meth himself had chosen him for such a task! He had captained daemon-fuelled plague-galleons into the cosmos to raid the space traffic foolish enough to stray too close, but he had longed to wield a true army in the field against a worthy enemy.

Daemon fuelled galleons. Ugh. Daemons are a vast untapped natural resource in 40K. They can be used as substitues for automation, they can shape charge your nukes, they can serve as ammo and space gasoline.


Page 205

No matter that the augmented musculature and the nerve-fibre bundles of power armour made a Marine a strong swimmer - anyone who ended up in the water would have minutes to live, and that was assuming he could straggle out of his heavier armour sections before he sank like a stone.

I guess space marine armour isnt buoyant in this case

Page 205

Every Marine's internal rebreather implant was already furring up. When they got back to the Brokenback the apothecaries would be on constant duty replacing the pre-lung filters.

Wait, what? gene seed implants need filters? come on.

Page 206

Dreo was a hell of a shot, one of the best in the strike force. He had just brought down a creature that the rest of his squad had hardly been able to see.

assuming uncluttered sightlines, this could mean a kilometre or two easily, given astartes sight in other cases.

Page 206

Zaen peered from the stern of the Ultima into the murk, in the direction that Keldyn was pointing. There was little more than a smudge of darkness deep into the brown-black gloom that rose and fell with the swell of the waves. It was maybe five hundred metres from the Ultima, and closing.
...
"Griv, hit them as soon as they're within range. And aim low."

..


Zaen was very aware his primary weapon, a flamer, would be of no use in a long-range firefight such as one they could expect here.
"Take mine." said Griv, who was loading the rocket launcher. He handed his own bolter to Zaen.
..


Griv shouldered the missile launcher and fired.
The missile streaked over the waves and slammed into the ship, a ball of flame erupting from just above the waterline. It was close enough now to see something pouring out of the hole in the hull, lumpen and semi-liquid.
..

"Sergeant Luko, give me a range." voxed Karraidin.
"We'll be in bolter range in thirty seconds."

- a target is identified as maybe "five huundred meters away" - after some time the deploy a rocket launcher against it (at less than that range, after it is loaded.) Some thirty seconds later, they enter bolter range. This tends to suggest Soul drinker bolters and missile launchers are effective to less than half a kilometer. PRobably alot less (depending on speed, they could cover hundreds of meters)

This seems rather contradictory compared to the ranges implied in other novels (angels of Darkness) - this may have more to do with the type of fighting the Soul Drinkers do - ship to ship and boarding actions mainly, where fighting will be mainly close-quarter. Their bolters could be designed mroe for that role, than for engaging targets at longer ranges.

Then again, just a bit before it hints that Dreo hit something beyond the range of vision, and that implies beyond 500 metres.

Page 206

The rest of Squad Luko was emerging from below decks to join the fire-team on the stern of the Ultima, even as the gen­eral alert runes were beginning to blink on the eyepieces of their helmets. The sergeant had the blades of his power claws folded back and was loading the bolter fixed to the back of his gauntlet.

Alert runes on eyeplates, and luko's bolter again. seems to disappear in later novels though.

Page 208

"Fire!" yelled Zaen and the fire line assembled on the stern opened up as one, their bolters sending a layer of hot shrap­nel shrieking into the enemy ship. Shells tore the deck apart, shredding the splintered wood at waist height, ripping cover apart, felling the masts like rotten oaks. Vaguely humanoid figures jerked and came apart. A great tear opened up in the wall of flies, like a dark cloud blown away by the wind.

Bolter fire.

Page 212

"Fire!" yelled Sergeant Graevus and a hundred bolt pistols erupted. The warriors were better-armoured than they looked, perhaps clad more in infernally tough hides and resistance to pain than in mere iron. Half a dozen fell, torsos pulped by the bullets, and two more were rent open by the blasts of plasma pistols.

more bolter fire, and some plasma weapons to boot.

Page 220

He and his dozen-strong tech-guard unit were clad in heavy rust-red flak-armour and carried high-calibre autogun variants. Khobotov had witnessed the effectiveness of the unit's mass-reactive ammunition in police actions against wayward menials.

- Forge world Tech Guard units equipped with "high calibre autogun variants" that use mass-reactive ammunition. explosive i take this to mean.

PAge 220

A gunshot rang out, sharp and illogical. Not one of Skrill's squad - it was a las weapon, power setting high.
"Shots fired!" voxed Skrill as his men dropped down. "Any­one hit?" Eleven beacon pulses sounded.

- the Tech Guard are fired upon by a las weapon with "setting high" - variable settings (and implying more than two at that.) The Tech-Guard also use implanted beacons to keep track of their locations and status.

Page 221

Another shot, hitting the trooper who had found El'Hirn's corpse and throwing him onto his back. His torso armour fizzed with the heat of the shot, as bursts of auto-fire rattled down from the troopers on the gantries around him. Koraloth fired again from somewhere in the darkness below, hot las-bolts lancing up at the tech-guard.

"Suppression fire!" called Skrill, aiming his own autogun over the gantry railing and spraying fire downwards. "Krik, you alright?"

"Think I took a lung shot, sir." groaned the wounded trooper. Khobotov saw another tech-guard scurrying along the walkway to help him. Skrill's men might be tough, but there was still far too much flesh in them for Khobotov to truly respect them. If he had taken a wound like that he would just have shut down one pneumo-filter and switched to another one. This man would probably die, because the Omnissiah had not touched him with the same metallic blessings.

Vilnin's voice crackled over the vox. "Think I got her, sir. THere's an observation platform about four hundred metres down. I've got someone moving on the infra-red."

"Good." replied Skrill. "Put a bullet through her."

The target is 400 meters from the Tech Guard, and armed with a las-pistol. Said las pistol evidently can hit the tech guard ~400 meters away. The Tech Guard's autoguns can also hit out to that distance, as can the sniper.

Incidentally, the Tech Guard's flak can be penetrated by said las gun from 400 meters away, and inflict a fatal shot ( though not immediately fatal - lung shot, in this case.)

Page 222

Koraloth herself was pale and drawn with fatigue and fear, her tech-priest's robes torn and unclean, the barrel of the laspistol still glowing red in her hand.

She was using a laspistol at 400 metres.

Page 226

The light solidified, and the Engineer of Time stood before her.
He was a thousand storeys tall. His skin was white crystal. His thoughts were magic, and the symbols of that magic were orbiting him in wide circles of sigils, spelling out impossibly complex equations of power.
He held out a hand the size of a city and, with incredible grace, plucked something from her grasp. It was a tiny thing the little girl had been clutching in her woman's fist, and dimly, Sasia remembered that she had wanted the Engineer to take it, and that perhaps now he had it he might be happy.

supersized daemon primarch.

Page 227

The sensors say it's a warp fluctuation, sir. Could be some­thing arriving.'

...

The huge round viewing screen above him flashed and an image was cast onto it, a composite of the region of nearby space taken from the hundreds of sensoria all over the Brokenback. The disturbance was a boiling mass of blue-white against the star field, pulsing like a beating heart and sending out the pulses that shook the space hulk even now.

...

Could it be another ship? Unlikely. But they were orbiting a world saturated with Chaos, and everything about it was unlikely.

Warp sensors again. note that our daemon supersized being is appearing close to the Broken back, which is around the planet.

Page 235

The water was about two metres deep - drowning point for a normal man, but a Space Marine could keep his head above water as he moved.
...
Gunfire stuttered as the members of Squad Karvik held their bolt pistols above the water and fired shells into the body of the thing that had already swallowed one of their number.

- again, Space Marines can wade in 2 meter deep water and still keep their head above water (and probably shoulders, as they're able to lift and fire their bolters and keep them above the water.) implying that Space MArines (or at least soul drinkers) are probably at least 2.3 meters tall (over seven feet.)

Page 236
[qiuote]
The daemons were rotting and deformed but they were quick, with slack muscles unnaturally strong. The ruined face howled and the blade swung at Sarpedon's waist, smashing sideways into the ceramite breastplate and knocking Sarpe­don onto two of his knees. The blow had left the daemon wide open and Sarpedon lunged forward, hooking the staff round the back of its shattered head and pulling it onto the muzzle of the bolter in his other hand, so he could blast its torso apart at point-blank range with half a magazine of bolter shells.
[/quote]

- Sarpedon blows apart a Daemon's torso with half a magazine of bolter rounds.

Vorp saw there was some trick that this enemy had used to throw the daemons into disarray, but Vorp himself was above such things, for Ve'Meth had shielded his mind against trickery.

Chaos champion's mind protected from Sarpedon's Hell.

Page 240

With his free hand he drew his boltgun from its holster and jammed it under its throat. He pulled the trigger and blew a corona of filthy bil­ious blood out of the back of its head.
It wasn't dead. But it was close.
The champion reeled wildly, segments of skull flapping from scraps of skin. Sarpedon lunged into it, knocking it backwards and landing astride of it. He put the rest of the bolter magazine into its chest, blasting the ribcage open and spraying ragged chunks of organs. When the magazine was empty Sarpedon punched down and split the ruined ribcage clean open, plunged his hands into the pulpy mass beneath, tore out leathered lungs and a foul still-beating heart, know­ing that a creature like this was harder to kill than anything he had faced before. But it still bellowed and thrashed beneath him, massive corroded sword swinging wildly even as brackish blood sprayed across the sand.
Sarpedon grasped the champion's ruined head with both hands and ripped it clean off the abomination's shoulders. He cast the hideous head into the black sand, its mandibles still writhing, its glossy eyes glaring.

Sarpedon vs chaos champion.

Page 241

Gelentius Vorp lay there for some time on the black coral sand, trying to force the parasites infesting him to knit together his sundered organs. He could probably survive without his head, or with his chest cavity blasted free of organs, but maybe not with both.
Would the Grandfather help him? Almighty Nurgle blessed His followers with durable bodies that scorned injury - but as he stared up at the sky with his remaining eyes Vorp spec­ulated that perhaps even the Ve'Meth, most powerful vessel of Nurgle, might have trouble saving Vorp now.

Chaos champion again.

Page 244

The host lifted the lid, reached a hand in and removed Arguotha.
It pleased Ve'Meth to savour the memory again of all those centuries ago, when he still had a single mundane body. On his long pilgrimage through the Eye of Terror he had been beset by the Daemon Arguotha, who flew into a rage when he saw the suppurating marks of favour the Plague God had bestowed upon Ve'Meth. The daemon set his thousand off­spring on Ve'Meth but the young champion had faced them all and won, scattering them in combat. Then Arguotha himself attacked, yet Ve'Meth had shown no fear and defeated the daemon. He wrestled it to the ground and intoned the canti­cle of binding, making the daemon his own to do with as he wished. And Ve'Meth had wished to bind the daemon into his favourite weapon.
Arguotha had brooded over the centuries and his anger was marked upon him. His barrel was gnarled and toothed, the metal of his casing twisted into faces that ground their teeth and screamed from time to time. In the magazine slung beneath, the thousand young of Arguotha writhed in captiv­ity, eager to be released.

- A daemon-possessed/bound gun that fires daemonic bullets. Apparently has 1000 rounds.
This is a ben counter favorite.

Page 245

Three Marines fell, large-calibre autocannon rounds punching through their bodies, before the gun crew were cut to pieces and the Soul Drinkers were inside.

- "high calbire" autocannon rounds penetrate Soul Drinker Space MArine armour.

Page 247

A bolter shell. Sarpedon wuld recognize it anywhere - but it was different, a low-velocity mark that had not been issued to Space Marines for thousands of years...

CSM's evidently use older (less effective?) bolter ammo.. Much lower velocity than modern ones. given that they can be subsonic/supersonic as per the first few hh novels, we can guess they're very supersonic now. it also shows that tech again has not stagnated or regressed wholly.

page 249

Its face mask had sharp stained teeth instead of a filter grille, and its bolter muzzle had a fleshy mouth that spat that mark four bolter ammunition across the room.

more csm bolters.

page 251

Ve'Meth was a multitude of bodies - between seven and nine hundred at Sarpedon's first count, standing rigid in square formation. There were men, women, in finery and engineer's overalls, primitive rags and camouflage, some squat and muscular from high-grav environments, some life-spacers with willowy limbs and thin faces. Every one had the same expression of intensity. Every one was looking at him.

More of the Chaos disease daemon thingy.

Page 251

The first bullet buzzed through Brother Nikkos's chest - and then it hit him again and again, whipping through the air in wide looping orbits to punch again and again through the Marine's armour. Nikkos toppled and came apart, armour joints clattering to the floor, slopping his sliced body onto the polished black coral.
Another shot barked from the weapon even as the return fire tore apart the first rank of Ve'Meth's bodies, riddling another Marine. Another, and another, each one singling out a Soul Drinker and piercing him a dozen times before he died.

- the daemon bullets fired are homing bullets (self aware and self propelled) that zip around the target hitting it many times. In other words, teh daemons are guidance systems. We've seen similar in the Inquisition War novels used by CSMs.


Page 253

As one, a hundred of Ve'Meth's bodies fell, bodies punched open by the explosive bolter shells that ripped through them. The front rank emptied their magazines into a sheet of shrapnel that tore into the host bodies. The gun wielder fell and another bent to take up the weapon, to be torn apart in turn.
The front rank paused to change magazines and the rear rank came in flawlessly, keeping up a steady stream of fire that swept across the chamber. By the time the first rank took up the fire again they were pouring bolter shells into the mangled remains of eight hundred bodies, oozing tainted blood onto the black coral.

Bolter fire vs the Chaos daemon-disease's host forms. Note the bit about "shrapnel", and needing to pour some 2 magazines worth into eight hundred bodies.

Page 255

"We picked it up about six hours ago, but it faded out." Lygris was saying. Serf-labourers ran past them, heading for damage control stations. "I doubled the sensorium watch but it seemed just an anomaly. Now it's of a higher magnitude than most of our sensors can measure. We're using Sector Indigo to track it."
"Where is it now?" Sarpedon had come straight from the apothecarion, which was packed with the Soul Drinker wounded. His armour was still crusted with unclean blood.
"Seventeen thousand kilometres at the last count. It's clos­ing, but it's erratic."
"Not natural."
"No."
"Ve'Meth's dead. The planet died with him. I want to know what this thing is before we're within turret range, and it's going to have to be one hell of an explanation to stop me opening fire."

- a Giant unknown object (later to be identified as a several km tall daemon) is seventeen thousand kilometres away (and closing) but is not yet within turret fire of the Space Hulk. since this hulk is known to incorporate a number of Imperial cruisers (as well as Alien) this is probably an upper limit on IoM Naval point defense (for cruisers, at least.)

Page 256

"Half the sensors say it isn't there and the other half say it's a black hole. We're aiming guns by eye but it's a fraction of what this ship's got."

Sarpedon was well aware of the kind of offensive force the Brokenback could muster, wielding as it did the armaments of several cruiser-sized Imperial craft and the arcane weaponry of sinister alien craft.

Page 256

"I am the Architect of Fate." it said in a voice like music. "I am the Engineer of Time. I am Abraxes, Prince of Change, and you are all my children."

Everyone point now and say "Ha ha".

Page 257

It reached down and long, graceful fingers dug into blackened metal. With a rippling of serpen­tine muscles, it ripped the top six decks off the Brokenback.

Feat of strength of Abraxas the Daemon Prince and Faux Emperor.

Page 257

It was several kilometres tall. Wings of light spread out from its back, framing its beautiful face and flowing hair. Its body, muscular yet slim, was clad in a toga of flowing white silk, and arcane symbols glowed in wide circles all around it. Glowing figures were pouring from a disk of light that hung in space behind it - strange-shaped things made of pastel-coloured light and birds with feathers of amethyst.
Sarpedon had to tear his eyes away to see the desolation around him. The roof of the oculus room was gone, along with several decks of the space hulk, exposing a huge raw wound of broken metal to the vacuum of space that cut across countless sector and component ships. Gases vented from ruptured plasma conduits. Fractured capacitor spines flashed as their energy bled into the void.

Appearance of Abraxas, just imagine how Sarpedon must be feeling now.

Page 257-258

"And what am I? I am Abraxes, herald of the Lord of Change. I am your salvation. I am the glory that Yser saw in his dreams, and that turned him into a beacon for you and your battle-brothers. I am the one who granted you visions, Sarpedon, of the foulness I would have you destroy. I gave you this beautiful ship, and see how easily I could destroy it. And I am he who blessed your body and the bodies of your brothers, forged the strength of your mind so the daemons of the warp fled before you."
"I am your prince and you are my subjects, for you have done my will ever since you saw the folly of your Imperium. I am the Architect of Fate, the Engineer of Time. I am the glory and the essence of what the smallest of minds call Chaos."

And.. the Soul Drinkers are morons. Abraxas is also described as a Daemon Prince. Honestly, I know this is supposed to be one massive surprise twist, but any reader half-competent in his 40k lore MUST see this coming from a mile away, and it is really hard to believe that Chaos could so easily fool ANY Space Marine chapter in the manner the Soul Drinkers were. Which is really the problem with the whole Soul Drinker series - the actions don't seem to match the intentions. We're supposed to feel the Soul Drinkers are some noble, well-meaning force of misunderstood rebels, but they really come across as gullible, bumbling and rather pompous fools, and the series itself seems unintentional grimdark comedy. It's possible the concept could be a well executed one, but for whatever reason it just isn't here. As we go through the series the pattern of events displayed in this book will repeat itself, which leaves me, as a reader, shaking my head in bemusement or rage.

Honestly, though, I can't tell if this is deliberate or not on Ben Counter's fault, or what, because he has done pretty well in other depictions (Let the galaxy burn, the grey Knights novels, etc.) and the novels themselves are not horrible as a whole - many of the characters we'll meet in later novels are actually quite likeable and interesting. But the Soul Drinkers themselves, for the most part, are just generally unlikeable, Sarpedon (our protagonist, it seems) in particular. In the end, the Soul Drinkers are perhaps one of the least-sympathetic and least-likeable Space marine Chapters I've run across, and that is saying something. It

Page 258

The Soul Drinkers had performed the will of Chaos. They were as much a part of the armies of the enemy as fhe Traitor Marines they had battled in the fortress of Ve'Meth. They had been pawns in the game of the Dark Gods, soldiers in the army of corruption. That they did not know what they had been doing was irrelevant. No true servant of the Emperor considered ignorance a defence. The Soul Drinkers were Chaos Marines.

At this point "duh" comes to mind. Most readers, I imagine, will have come to this conclusion chapters ago.

Page 261

Sarpedon's fingers tightened around the Soulspear. He found the row of pits in the cylinder's surface, and felt the tiny lasers punch through the skin of his gauntleted fingertips.

Rogal Dorn had resisted breaking up the Imperial Fists legion until he risked being branded a rebel. When forced to relent he had taken great pains to ensure each of me Chapters who bore his gene-seed were held in equal esteem, infused with the belief in independence and nobility that had characterized the Imperial Fists. Why had he done so? Was it just fatherly pride, for the Imperial Fists and their successors were in many ways his sons? Or was there something else?
Rogal Dorn had realised something that was beginning to dawn on Sarpedon, too. And as it did so Abraxes's spell was breaking. Would the other Soul Drinkers realise in time? Per­haps they were already lost to Abraxes. It some ways it didn't really matter any more.
His blood seeped through the pinprick holes in his finger­tips and touched the gene-encoders built into the Soulspear. It was one of the weapon's secrets that it was attuned to the blood of Rogal Dorn, who had first discovered it. Only those whose veins flowed with Dorn's blood - the Imperial Fists or their successor Chapters, like the Soul Drinkers - could wield it. The weapon was hot and thrumming in Sarpedon's hand.

I know this is probably supposed to be some significant parallel, but like many aspects of this story, it just doesn't really play out that way. It's VERY hard to think of Sarpedon as being a modern day Rogal Dorn, or Dorn ever ending up in the same position Sarpedon does, so this actually comes across as somewhat mocking.

I also have a hard time believing this given the Soul Drinkers inconsistent behaviour to fellow Dorn-spawned Chapters: the Crimson Fists in Crimson Tears vs the Imperial Fists in Hellforged.

page 263

Sarpedon hit, jabbing his talons into the glowing skin of Abraxes's chest. Clinging to the daemon prince, burning with magical fire, Sarpedon drove the point of the Soulspear through the skin and into the huge beating blasphemy of Abraxes's heart.

Soulspear + Sarpedon > Daemon Prince. Still doesn't make up for all the shit that got them to this place to begin with.

[Connor MacLeod]

Back to Soul Drinkers. So now that we covered a bad Soul Drinker novel, you'll ask: What is a Good Soul Drinker novel. Well the answer to that is Bleeding Chalice. The premise is pretty simple. The Soul Drinkers have fled the Imperium. Knowledge of them is being eradicated, but one Inquisitor is seeking them out for retribution. Meanwhile the Soul Drinkers are still plagued by their rampant mutation and must seek an answer. And amidst all this is a sector wide conflict the Imperium tries to contain as a new and potentially deadly threat arises.

What makes this a 'good' Soul Drinkers story is that a.) We're not completely beaten over the head with how stupid the Soul Drinkers are (at least far less than in the first book - there's still stupid shit but it doesnt' form a central part of the plot.) b.) We get plenty of non-Soul Drinkers characters who are pretty good, which helps dilute the overall stupidity. c.) Things mostly make some measure of sense, and the Soul Drinkers have a practical goal - saving their asses - and along the way Sarpy manages to do some actual good. Had the first novel been much more like this one (or Hellforged) then the series might have been decent. Not great, but decent - instead of the bipolar lunacy we get.

Also knonw as a good story for showing non-Asshole Sisters of Battle (EG Aescarion from the Short story in Let the Galaxy Burn that had an Ultramarine corrupted to chaos returning to the Emperor and becoming the Emperor's Most Sacred Suicide Bomber.) and showing that Ben Counter should have written Sisters of Battle novels instead of Soul Drinkers.

Anyhow.. the beginning of Bleeding Chalice.

PS: Oh yes, and in a few days or something when I get around to it I may do a small mini-update (Blood Angels and/or Jonathan green again) and then finally put something most might like out: I'm going to cover the Aaron Dembski Bowden Night Lords series, becuase its one of the few Space-Marine centric novels I *like* (and I'm not done with the Space Wolves stuff.. I gotta read the Lightneer ones)

Page 269

Even the captain of the deletions unit felt the sheer importance of the information that filled the librarium. He had lived on Terra all his life, immersed in the endless repetition of the myriad tasks that made up the government of the Imperium. He had done his job since birth, just as his forebears had done, and the shadows beneath Terra comprised his whole world.

Becuase this is 40K, and grimdark shit like this happens. I also find it hilarious, yt oddly appropriate, they have a hereditary position of SWAT/SPec ops like assassins devoted just to eradicating old data. I may not like the Soul drinkers as a rule, but Counter does sometimes provide us with some real gems.

Page 270

No one knew the full layout of the Librarium Terra. Estimates of its size varied, as no one had been to its furthest extents and returned - the dele­tions team had taken three days of forced marching to get this far. But, by the best estimates of the adepts who gave the unit its orders, the objective was close by.

The captain waved his ten-strong unit forwards. They wore black bodysuits with hoods that left only the eyes visible, rebreathers built in to keep aeons of dust out of their lungs. Their gloved hands held narrow-nozzled flamers connected to fuel can­isters on their belts. But the captain carried a silenced autogun with a flaring flash suppressor. They moved quickly and almost silently, each one
covering the other. They had always been members of the same unit, just as the captain had always commanded them. The captain didn't need to actu­ally give them orders - they just did as they had always done, as generations had done in the endless predator's game beneath Terra.

Indication of the extent of the "library" - the archival area where old data is kept (although they have countless other locales anyhow..) as well as a depiction of our heroic Deletions unit and their gear.

Page 270

The captain hurried down the gallery until it opened onto a landing overlooking a tangled knot of bookcases and datastacks. The cases held huge leather-bound volumes, tarnished infoslates, crum­bling scrolls and reams of parchments, crammed onto shelves that had collapsed here and there into drifts of tattered paper. The datastacks, blocks of smooth black crystalline material that could store remarkable amounts of information, ranged from sinister glossy black obelisks to elaborate info-altars covered in filigree decoration and crowned with clusters of statues.

Contents of our massive super-library. Some of it is the grimdark paper stuff, others is more high tech.


Page 270

His face was incredibly wizened and his arms had been replaced with jointed metal armatures that flicked through the book's pages with incredible speed. The scholar could have been a servitor, a mind-wiped automa­ton that was human only in the sense that it was formed from a rebooted human brain. Or it could have been a sentient human, a loyal servant of Terra like the captain himself, acting out some task that was probably redundant and meaningless but which represented the loyalty of everyone on Terra to the immortal God-Emperor.

The captain raised his autogun close to his face and focused on the hairless, tight-skinned skull of the scholar. The autogun coughed once and the scholar's skull crumpled suddenly as if paper-thin. The body slumped and fell, sprawling against the shelf behind it and disappearing beneath a cascade of books.

There were to be no witnesses to a deletion. That was the way it had always been done. Had the scholar been aware of it, he would have understood why he had to die.

Autogun vs skull - not exactly exploding, but that may just be due to caliber and its silenced nature (probably large caliber, meaning it punches wide holesin the target.) It goes without saying a lasgun should be capable of at least similar.

Also the execution of living "witnesses" or people who know is part of the Deletions operation/info purge. Given that in other novels (like Red Fury, Tactica Imperialis, etc.) the Administratum and other organizations have planets, moons, etc. all devoted simply to storing more and more information like this, you could picture an Imperium-wide purging of information about the Soul Drinkers, which includes lots of people dying.

Basically Sarpedon has "heroically" turned agains tthe Imperium due to his own ego and pride in his Chapter and its just due, and as a result countless people have died. Get used to this, it becomes a running theme through the series.

All mockery aside, we do learn the purging is imperfect (the AdMech have data on them, and the Inquisitor in this book still manages to hunt them down) so I suspect that plenty of data on the soul drinkers would exist. Given teh scope of the Imperium, the redundancy of information, and the general incompetence of the highest echelons when it comes to micro-managing, its rather unlikely they could completely purge the Soul Drinkers from the Imperium, at least, not if you dig deep enough.

Page 271

They dropped whatever they were holding and drew their flamers.

They fired plumes of flame into the bookshelves, filling the power-charged air of the Librarium Terra with the stink of flame and smoke. The protective clothing of the team reflected the worst of the heat but the labyrinth was still a furnace, with walls of superheated air billowing between the burning cases.

Because its the Imperium, and they're all primtiive and ignorant and mindless they destroy without thought. GRIMDARK!

Page 271

The captain removed the magazine of his autogun and replaced it with a single round picked from his belt. He aimed at the closest datastack, which was shaped like a three-panelled altarpiece with its mem-crystal worked into heroic images of battle. The gun fired again, with barely a sound, and the explosive round shattered the crystal into a flood of broken black glass.

Wordlessly, with an efficiency born of generations of toil, the deletions unit moved through the whole section of the library burning and shattering any­thing that might hold the information they had been ordered to destroy.

Explosive round for an autogun that destroys a "Datastack" - seems impressive but not really calcable since all we know about its composition is that it is crystal/glass, and that need not be all that durable, especailly against shockwaves.

The really hilarious thing about this? They dont know what might hold information about the Soul Drinkers, so they're basically just destroying shit at random in a locale they think probably holds the data. Which means they may not actually be destroying anything soul drinkers related. It also means they could be destroying importnat, pricesless data. Then again, knowing the Adminstratum they could be destroying decades long surveys on the breeding pattern of Hrud and Ambulls or some long Dead Inquisitor's Daemonette porn.

Page 272

Already, energy suppression drones were hovering in from around every corner, projecting dampener fields that held back the heat of the fires and kept them from spreading. When the team left, the drones would move in and their loverlapping fields would smother the flames - but not before the books and datastacks were reduced to smoke and ash. Centuries of history were lost. Whole planets and military campaigns vanished forever from the Imperial memory. But more importantly by far, the deletion order had been carried out, and all official record of the Soul Drinkers Chapter was erased from the history of Mankind.

And the grimdark results of our heroic Deletions Unit. I have to admit, their methods tend to be rather.. excessive, since they destroy any and all potentail data without actually verifying it (so lots of data could be lost accidentally.)

On the other hand, the Imperium's bureacracy is so large and unwieldy as it is, and they must collect so much useless data already, that it might not make much difference at the local level anyhow. And in any case, its impossible to be 100% accurate (as the Inquisitor of this story proves.) And the Imperium DOES collect alot of data (huge volumes of space are dedicated simply to archiving books and shit.. so much so it can take days to traverse it and you need rebreathers against all the dust and shit in the atmosphere.) and we learn they stockpile it, in triplicate (or more) all throughout the galaxy. So really, this is just pointless, and lots of needless death and desturction. On the other hand it also probably creates jobs and clears space for new information soo...

The quote above refers to the "dampener" fields - interestinb ecause they seem to exhibit the ability to absorb/redirect heat/energy as well as matter. Some sort of powrefield I suspect.

Page 272

Like most of the rest of the Imperium, no one really knew when Koris XXIII-3 had been settled. The grey-green, mostly featureless world had sup­ported continent-spanning grox farms for longer than the Administratum could accurately record. The agri-world supported barely ten thousand souls, but was a subtly critical link in the macro economy of the systems that surrounded it, for grox formed a commodity as vital as guns or tanks or clean water.

Grox were huge, lumbering, reptilian, unsanitary and foul-minded. Crucially, however, they were almost entirely edible, each producing a mound of colourless, tasteless, stringy but nutritionally sound processed meat. Without the grox that were lifted from Koris XXIII-3 in vast-bellied cargo ships every three months, the billions of workers and gangers on the nearby hive worlds would starve, riot, and die. The shipyards of half a segmentum would find their human fuel faltering.
The Administratum knew how important the grox were. They administered the agri-world directly, cir­cumventing tax-dodging governors and grafting private enterprise by keeping their own adepts as the sole power and, indeed, the whole population.

Very little of interest happened on Koris XXIII-3, a situation the adepts of the Administratum had worked hard for. The roaming herds of grox and the small islands of adept habitats went centuries with scant incident, the passing years marked only by the arrival of the huge dark slabs of the cargo ships and the occasional desultory deaths, births and promo­tions amongst the handful of humans.

An Agri world devoted to raising livestock. The Agri world's "content sized farms" basically support "billions" of citizens on a hive world - albeit a rather imortant one apparently tied to shipbuilding. and apparently it has regular shpping devoted to simply providing the food to the Hive World in question. It provides an interesting glimpse into the logistics and economy of what is probably a subsector-level grouping, and how inter-connected it is (contrasted with how individual subsectors or sectors or sometimes even worlds can be separated from the Imperium at large.) Given that the US has some billions of livestock in "production" (sheep, cattle, goats, etc. at leat as far as Wikipedia suggests) and the entire world is basically given over to raising livestock... must be well into the billions. Figure an average of 1500-2000 calories per kg of meat (judging by what floats around on google) Assume an average ewight of 300-400 kg and roughl 60% of that is usable in some manner as food. If there are 10 billion Grox on the planet, we're looking at thousands of trillions of "calories". And this estimated to last over a 3 month supply.. a person needs ~2000 calories a day.. the Hive World in question must be supporting an average population of around 20-
25 billion or so at least.

A more conservative way to look at it is.. over a 3 month period the "billions" need close to 200 thousand calories apiece, meaning that they need something like 400 trillion calories transported from one planet to another. Again assuming 300-400 kg per animal and 60% of that is usable you're looking at maybe 1 billion or so grox needing to be transported. You'd need a good e18-e19 joules over an unknown timeframe simply ot lift that many grox into orbit, although suspensor/antigrav tech or similar could ease this burden some. Even if it were a 1000x off, we're talking about a huge amoung of energy every few months just to haul cattle ioff the planet. Getting it to the edge of the system probably would take hundreds, if not thousands of times more energy. Nevermind energy expended in warp transit. Nevermind seasonal hauling of hundreds of millions, if not billions of tons of animal routinely, and the energy expended annually (back and fourth every 3 months or so.) And this is just for ONE world, mind. JUST for hauling cattle.

This isn't all. Ther'es a possibility they may have to feed or house the cattle during the journey. Looking up online, a cow eats about 2-3% of its body weight in food a day, another said 30-40 pounds.. call it between 10-20 kg, and 5-7 gallons of water (call it 20-30 kg) So maybe 30-50 kg of supplies daily per Grox, which comes out to close to 3-5 tonnes extra per animal. On the other hand they may just slaughter them en route and put the meat in stasis or cold storage. We know of such ships being mentioned and existing in FFG, so this should be taken as more conjectural.. but it does show that the hauling requirements can be considered conservative.

An interesting thing to consider - are they important JUST for the meat, or do the other aspects, milk, bones, skin, etc. matter? I mean Hives have to get their leather and shit from somewhere...

It also shows one of the weak points in the Imperium's structure - destroy the agri world and the Hive world (which has vital industrial value) slowly grinds to a halt.

It is also an example of a world directly controlled by the Adminstratum, as contrasted with one simply held in feudal obligation by an Imperial commander. As I've noted before I suspect "Imperial world" references all those world directly held by some member of the Adeptus Terra (Adminstratum, Munitorum, Ecclesiarchy, the Guard and Navy, etc.) but excluding certain other allied groups (The Astartes and the AdMech, notably.)

Lastly: Grox are reptillian, huge, smelly, unsanitary and crude. They're also "almost entirely edible", though the meat is "colourless, tasteless, tringy but nutritionally sound". Its also apparently a staple for many worlds (Hive, Forge, and the like.) I'm glad that not all Hive worlds rely on recycled huhman meat (or at least if they do its only an emergency/backup supply.)

Page 273

The ship was small and very, very fast, mostly composed of a clus­ter of flaring engines that tapered to a sharp wedge of a cockpit. There were no markings and no ship name, whereas an Administratum ship would bear the stylised alpha of the organisation.

Inquisition ship vs Adminstratum ship. Note it suggests the Adminstratum has its own ships, but we dont know whether they are borrowed from the navy, or if they are ven warp capable.

Page 273

Habitat Epsilon, like every other structure on the planet, was formed of gritty brown rockcrete, pre-moulded and dropped from low orbit. The buildings were ugly and squat, the architecture fea­tureless and windowed with dark reflective glass that kept the glare of the orange evening sun from the offices, workrooms and tiny living quarters. The spaceport was the only feature that made Habitat Epsilon remarkable, a prefabricated circle jutting from the edge of the habitat. There was a small unmanned landing control tower and a few unused maintenance sheds, indicative of how very few ships landed there.

Good old STC construction. It actually doesnt seem that grimdark or annoying, so I'd give Counter points for at least making it normal seeming, which adds to the sense of


Page 273

Feet tramped down the ramp and three squads of battle-sisters marched out. Sol­diers of the Ecclesiarchy, the church of the Emperor and the spiritual backbone of the Imperium, they wore ornate black power armour that clad them from gorget to foot and carried enough firepower in their boltguns and flamers to reduce the habitat to smoking rubble.

The leader of the Battle sisters is one Aescarion, who was a major character in a Ben Counter short story featured in "Let the Galaxy burn." I like his Inquisitor much better, but Aescarion is a likeable enough sort, and unlike other SoB oriented fluff, she actually kicks ass rather than just getting slaughtered (insert your own hat joke here.)


Page 273-274

He was not particularly tall but his consider­able presence was aided by the carapace armour that covered his torso and upper arms and the floor-length blast-coat of brown leather lined with flakweave plates. His face was long and lined, his jaw pronounced and his nose slightly lumpy as if it had been broken and set a few times. His eyes were a curious greyish blue, larger and more expressive than eyes set in that face had a right to be. His black hair was starting to thin. Subtle implants in one temple and behind the ear were for neuro-jacks, simple as far as augmetics went, but far beyond the means of any planet-bound adept. His hands were gloved - one held a data-slate.

- Our buddy Inquisitor Thaddeus's gear and armor. Which he has alot of. Once agian we note that clothing and body armour in 40K can closely overlap (the plates are thin enough and light enough they don't restrict movement or weigh him down in addition ot the carapace, for example.) I suspect "flakweave plates" may refer to the sorts of hard chest plates we see some troopers (like Cadians) use, for example.

Also neuro-jack implants (which he has) are considered simple as far as augmentics go, but also far beyond the means of any "planet bound" adept.

Page 274

"I oversee the planet's second most productive continent. We have five hundred million head of grox in nine..."

That would fit in roughly with my own estimates above, bearing in mind there are several continents, and its unlikely that they strip the entire planet bare of grox in a given season. This easily means billions of grox, and it doesnt specify whether that is the total, or just the usable grox.


Page 274

"I shall need to know your name and office, for the records. We can't have just anyone wander around our facilities. And of course you and your colleagues will need to walk through our disinfectant footbaths. There will be quarantine protocols if you wish to leave the habitat as well, so once I know under whose author­ity you are acting..."

40K version of OSHA and the FDA I guess. At least they try, which is more than I can say for some restraunts I've been in.

Page 276

The office was home to maybe thirty adepts, each at a partitioned workstation. Every wall and surface was covered with paper - statistical printouts, graphs, charts, graphic depictions of the many dis­eases that plagued the common grox, and grim notices reminding the adepts of the ceaseless sacri­fice they were compelled to make for the Imperium. The Administratum tried to foster the same atmos­phere whether it was running a palace or a workhouse - its members dedicated their lives to the work that kept the Imperium running, the unending mundanity of jobs without which the macro economy of the Imperium would collapse.

- ,the Adminstratum is vital to maintaining the "macro economy' of the Imperium - without them, it would collapse. Their methods of maintaining it also seem to resemble something you'd see out of the movie "Office Space' - dull, dreary, mind-numbing - except they also include constant reminders of how important it is to sacrifice for the Emperor. They also make extensive use of charts, graphs, analysis (disease, production, etc) and failry sophisticated computer (cogitator) support. Not bad for "feudalism in space" I suppose, even if most of it is probably useless beyond the local/subsector scale.

Page 277

" planet-hopped for a while. Faked up some references, I talk the talk so there weren't too many questions. I got posted here eventually, and I wasn't intending to go anywhere else. Not many people look on a place like this for a wanted man. At least, I thought so until you turned up."

"You should know, consul, that you don't do anything in the Administratum without someone writing it down. Your paper trail was long and winding but I have associates who could follow it"

Inter-planetary travel (at least within a subsector/sector) on forged IDs. Both travel and forgery are possible. It also suggests (again at least at the subsector level) records and tracking of people between worlds takes place. Given how obsessively security-minded the Imperium is, this makes sense, although it doesn't mean it works as intended.

Page 277

"The very same. It was a legend the search turned up, some poem about how it could level cities and kill daemons and such like, and how they'd lost it."

- according to myth/legend, the Soulspear (artefact of the Soul Drinkers) can supposedly"level cities and kill daemons." It's a story, so it may be pure fiction,but of course given the destructive effects it set off on Koden Tertius (the Hive city from the previous book that Abraxes rose from) and its ability to kill Abraxes, I would suggest there is at least some measure of truth to it (in ability if not in scale. hell just being able to do it doesnt mean it can be done in a controlled manner, and in any event warp weaponry is pretty fucked up to begin with..)

Page 279-280

His co­pilot's seat nestled next to the installed pilot-servitor - once human, its facial features had been replaced with an array of scanning devices. One of its hands was now a set of gold-plated com­passes that scritched out trajectories and geometric shapes on the data-slate jutting from its ribcage. The other hand was hard-wired into the instrument panel of the cockpit, and sent messages from its once-human brain into the ship's cogitators and engine controls.

"Launch." said Thaddeus to the servitor. The rem­nants of its brain recognised the command and the ship lurched as the thrusters on its underside kicked in. The featureless landscape of Koris XXIII-3 yawed and was replaced by the clear bright sky. Suddenly, the ship's primary engines roared, and Thaddeus was thrust into the deep upholstery as the ship tore through the planet's atmosphere.

Thaddeus' servitor pilot. Responds to verbal command.

Page 280

Though a Space Marine Chapter could conquer just about anything, it still consisted of just a thousand men, and the Soul Drinkers probably numbered significantly less. Thaddeus's own staff numbered more and he did not wield the massive household armies of some inquisitor lords.

it seems either 1000 men (or a Chapter sized force, or hundreds of men depending on context) is not particularily large by Inquisitor standards - at least in Thaddeus' region of space. Inquisitor lords are even more bigger (armies suggesting perhaps tens if not hundreds of thousands.) not all of this is warriors or soldiers neccearily, and the quote certainly doesn't specify that.

It still provides an interesting benchmark for the size of the Inquisition as a hole (at least probability wise) tens if not hundreds of thousands of inquisitors, and tens if not hundreds of millions of acolytes/minions.


Page 281

Well over a year later, salvage crews in the far galactic east reported a huge find: a massive grave­yard of ships, some battleship-sized, that had all been destroyed by scuttling.

The investigating Imperial authorities soon ascertained that this was the Soul Drinker's fleet, including the mighty battle barge Glory and a shoal of stirke cruisers and support craft. Of the Soul Drinkers themselves there was no sign. No one knew where they were or how they were travelling but the fact that they had destroyed their own fleet - one of the most powerful independent forces for some sectors around - indicated that they were determined to make life difficult for anyone trying to follow them.

The fleet could have been tracked.

The Soul Drinkers fleet was the most "poweful" for sectors around. This doesn't neccesairly mean it was the most numerous, but it may just suggest it had the most firepower, was the toughest, etc. But number would probably play SOME role in it. This could mean that the local battlefleets are tiny (depending on how big the soul drinkers fleet itself was as a whole) or that the Soul Drinkers had 50+ ships (perhaps even hundreds, depending on the context of battlefleet you adopt.)

the other interesting fact is yet again, the confidence that the Soul Drinkers could be tracked across the galaxy. How, isn't stated, although I suspect it involves astrotelepathy tracking them somehow (something omre than scrying or divination, since they can do that already regardless of their possession of a fleet or not.) One possibility of course lies in the fact that not only does a large fleet leave a large wake in the warp (which can be tracked) but that a large fleet (especially the Space Marines fleets) need hefty logistics to sustain themselves, which means getting resources from somewhere, which in turn means exposing themselves someplace and leaving signs of their presence.

Page 282

Thaddeus knew he would have to kill him. Sarpe­don would have to die before the Chapter could be broken. Thaddeus might be unable to do it himself and might have to call in other inquisitors with their own resources, perhaps agents of the Officio Assassinorum or even the planet-scouring Exterminatus, once he had located the Soul Drinkers and driven them into a corner.

- "Planet scouring Exterminatus" mentioned, but by who isnt.


Page 282

The crescent moon was Thaddeus's own ship, a ribbed gunmetal-grey cylinder with vast particle scoops like the fronds of an anemone sprouting from the bow. These fuelled the four enormous engines just behind them, leaving the rest of the ship to house the bridge, living quarters, cargo holds, machine-spirit chamber, and all the rest of the many places that a spaceship needs to function. Thaddeus' own quarters, and those of his Interrogator, Shen, were armoured sections in the heart tof the ship. The inside of the ship was furnished to Thaddeus's taste- simply and darkly.

The ship was a rare creature, the sort of craft the shipyards of the Imperial Navy couldn't make any more, assembled centuries before from parts millennia old by one of Thaddeus' mentors. It was fast and comfortable, and it only needed a crew of a few dozen, which gave Thaddeus some valued privacy.

Thaddeus's losttech ship. Some takeoff of a Bussard Ramjet I suppose.

Page 283

The Crescent Moon was still orbiting around Koris XXIII-3, and Thaddeus had to give some thought to where he would head next - probably towards the nearest Inquisition fortress or subsector headquar­ters to relate the paltry scraps of information he had found to the Ordo Hereticus. The cluster of agri-worlds was surrounded by a ring of populous hive worlds and manufactoria planets, many of which had their own permanent Inquisitorial presence.

A "sector map" for the sector Thaddeus currently occupies possess a 'cluster of agri-worlds, a "ring of populous hive worlds and manufactoria planets, many of which had their own permanant Inquisitorial presence." That suggets multiple Hive worlds and industrial worlds (which probably includes but is not limited to forge worlds) in the sector... but doesnt include any others (Civilized, feral, feudal, mining, etc.) Rather interesting that they don't mention civilized worlds despite mentioning agri worlds. Maybe they don't have them (or they all turned into proto hives.?)

Indeed it does suggest the hive/manufacturing worlds actually outnumber the hive worlds significantly.


Page 283

The astropathic choir, the half-dozen telepaths who received and trans­mitted messages between Thaddeus and the rest of the Imperium, spoke in unison over the vox, their voices whispering and raspy. "From subsector com­mand Therion, sector Boras Minor, Ultima Segmentum. Ordo Hereticus naval liaison staff report rogue space hulk, possible Adeptus Astartes activity. Report to follow."

Thaddeus has a half dozen strong astropathic quier. The destination/locaton suggests it came from within the subsector.. so at least 10-15 LY or so but less than 100 or so. WE don't know timing yet, although it suggests it might be realtime (or nearly so.) Then again half a dozen Inquisitorial Grade Astropaths...

Also we learn events in this novel are taking place in Ultima Segmentum.

Page 283

For whatever reason they had sus­pected the superhuman warriors of the Adeptus Astartes were involved. It was a thousand to one shot that the Soul Drinkers were the Marines in question (literally, for they said there were a thou­sand Chapters of Marines, though Thaddeus suspected the true number could be anything)

Thaddeus alludes to the fact the actual number of Chapters is only an estimate at best.

Page 284

"The Ordo Xenos was tracking more than seven hundred hulks and suspected hulks at the last count, and they were only the ones they were willing to mention."

Ordo Xenos is tracking at least 700 suspected and knonw hulks at "last count" and willing to mention. We dont know if this is per sector or a given region, per segmentum, or through the Imperium as a whole. My guess is towards region/sector rather than anything. There are LOTS of Space hulks.

Also interesting that, yet again, they can "track" something, from system to system, again probably due to some astropathic stuff.

Page 285

Thaddeus had no flag-captain. He commanded his own ship. Servitors were slaved into most of the consoles so they could relay his commands directly. The platforms of the bridge held only the servitors, Thaddeus and the Pilgrim, Sister Aescarion, and Colonel Vinn of the Hereticus storm troopers.

Thaddeus uses a servitor-controlled ship.

Page 285

Vinn had been mindwiped several times owing to the things he and his men had seen as they fought the Hereticus war against witchery and corruption. He had been forced to learn the ways of fighting several times in the course of his life and the result was a wealth of experience and battle instinct that he did not remember receiving but which made him an
effective leader and an unquestioning Imperial servant.

The Storm trooper colonel, like Baal Frienze, has been mind wiped and had to be reeducated more than once in his life. Rather oddly, he seems to retain at least his own skills/training even if the memories attached to it (the why and how) are gone, which shows interesting limits or the selectivity of this particular process (at least).

Page 285

The regiment, actually a vast body of men dis­persed across uncountable Inquisitorial retinues and fortresses, had been seconded to the Ordo Hereticus for so long that they now had nothing to do with their parent Imperial Guard at all, instead being raised at Hereticus's request and trained in Inquisitorial facilities. Thaddeus had five platoons, over two hundred men, in the Crescent Moon's cargo holds, every one of them rigorously conditioned to face any horror with their assault-patterned lasguns, and perform the most gruesome of tasks at Thaddeus's request.

Like most storm troopers form the Guard, especialyl those on permanent secondment, Vinn's men are basically scattered all over in detachments.

They are described as having "assault pattern lasguns" which is interesting considering they're hellguns later. a particular kind of hellgun (or lasgun) perhaps, showing how the defintiions or classifications blur (its not like Hellguns arne't a kind of lasweapon after all. Unless they're the bullet firing kind of hellguns)

Page 286

Thaddeus ascended the short flight of steps to the command pulpit that overlooked the banks of servitor-manned consoles and monitors. He tapped the subsector code into the glowing lectern display and a line of coordinates flashed up, streaming into the half-minds of the servitors as they in turn input the commands that would have the Crescent Moon's machine-spirit direct the ship through the warp. The ship's lone Navigator, a recluse named Praxas who had not left his cramped quarters in the ship's prow for months on end, would even now be preparing to gaze onto the warp and guide the ship through its treacherous currents.

Thaddeu's ship has its own machine spirit, which presumably are helping to control or direct the servitors.

Page 286

" Now, you should make sure your Sisters are prepared for departure, we will be in the Empyrean for some weeks."

Wherever they are going it will take weeks to get there. Not exactly fast speeds for something within a subsector. hundreds of c probably.

PAge 286

The preparations took little time. Thaddeus val­ued the Crescent Moon partly because the procedures for beginning a major warp journey, which on an Imperial battleship could take days of tech-priest ministrations, could be handled in hours. Soon the massive engines roared and lit the bridge from beneath with the bright orange plasma glow. The flaring particle scoops folded into the cylindrical body of the ship and blue-white bolts of energy arced off the hull. The Crescent Moon drifted out of high orbit and the warp engines fired.

The inhabitants of the agri-world looked up to see a tiny bright star winking suddenly in the sky and then disappear. One of them, Adept Chloure, sighed a prayer of gratitude to the Emperor that the visitors had not taken him with them, and turned back to the never-ending mountain of paperwork.

[/quote]

- the Cresecent moon can be readied for departure on a "major warp journy" in " a matter of hours", whereas it is noted that an Imperial battleship can take 'days of tech-priest ministrations."

The parrticle scoops fold for warp travel. Amusingly, and oddly, Thaddeus' own ship has a warp drive that does not require him to travel to the edge of a planet's system before entering the warp. The Cresecent moon simply breaks high orbit and then jumps into the warp. This is either rather lost tech or unique, or his ship is much further out from the system than has been suggested by the fact they are in orbit, considering that within a light second of a planet is considred dangerous (CF Rynn's World novel) and other Inquisitorial vessels could only emerge some 2 million km out safely (Savage Scars)

High orbit suggests it is beyond 35000 km for an EArthsized planet, but it could be much higher - 100,000+ km.

[Connor MacLeod]

The continuing saga of the soul Drinkers. Next update for Bleeding Chalice. As I said already the last novel will be coming otu soon. I'm honestly not looking forward to it, because I've seen a bit of Daenyathos and I can guess at the ending.. it doesnt impress me. WHAT A TWIST.

Anyhow, this update has more of an Inquisitorial flavor because it deals mostly with Thaddeus.

Page 289

Over Hive Quintus, home to a rapidly decreasing population of almost a billion, it rained greasy ash as the pyres of the dead begin to tower over the looted palaces of the nobles.

One Hive with a population of at least a billion, implied to be much more.

Page 290

But the hundreds of millions who filled Hive Quintus's thousands of layers all wished they had the chance to flee in one of the pitifully few craft that were escaping. Any craft large enough to carry a significant number of people was shot down by orbital defence lasers maintaining the quarantine order against Eumenix - those who escaped did so in a tiny trickle, barely a dent in the massive, doomed population.

Quarantine over the world.. "hundreds of millions fleeting" Not stated whether fleeing ships are warp capable or not.


Page 291

Space Marines were a clear head and shoulders taller than the tallest unaugmented man and Salk easily spotted the Marines of his squad....

- Height of soul drinkers relative to others.


Page 292

A missile streaked down form the closest watchtower and blew a hole in the surging crowd. Salk pushed against the crowd and burst out into the smouldering crater, ringed with blackened bodies, a short sprint from the yawning breach in the wall.

some sort of frag missile, I'd guess. At least several mj of thermal energy, depending on how many bodies are burnt, and assuming 3rd degree or worse burns (blackened suggests that at least, unless thats from smoke or ash or something.) nevermind bodies "around" a crater of some size (which suggests its at least a few mretres in diameter.. which again would at least several grenades worth of explosive I'd expect.)

Page 292

Autogun fire spanged off Salk's shoulder armour and he returned fire, almost blind, as he put his head down and ran across the open ground towards the cover of the rubble in the breach.

Autogun fire fails to penetrate power armor.

Page 292

A spear of white heat ripped up from the open ground behind Salk and the top of the watchtower billowed open, the blast of the plasma impact compressed within the firepoint and incinerating whatever men and munitions were inside.

Space Marine plasma gun. Earlier it was noted the firepoint/tower was mounting a missile launcher and heavy stubber, which implies at least 4-8 men I believe in there (at least 2 per weapon in a Heavy weapon squad IIRC.) Depending on what "incinerate" means we could be lookinga t as little as a few megajoules (just for badly burning them all) to gigajoules (for outright cremation.)


Page 292

Krin, plasma gun shimmer­ing with haze as the heat rose from its charging circuits, stumbled under the impact of autogun fire from the walls but slid into cover beside Nicias.

The weapon in question. Autogun fire makes our Marine hero stumble.

Page 293

Salk nodded at Nicias and Krin, then cast a hand­ful of coin-sized frag grenades past the slab of rubble he lay against. A series of low whumping explosions sounded and Salk scrambled up the slope of rubble towards the firing line through the falling dust kicked up by the grenades.

- The Space Marines posssess/use "coin-sized frag grenades." A nice throwback to earlier fluff.

Page 293

. Shells impacted all around him, a couple registering as flashes of pain as they penetrated the ceramite of his armour. Salk ran through the bursts of pain and leapt into the heart of the firing line.

Indication of autogun/shotgun fire from private military forces (business cartel) piercing the ceramite of a Soul Drinker's powered armor and hitting the body beneath. It should also be noted Soul Drinker space marine armor does not seem quite as durable as other chapters (like the UIltramarines or Dark Angels) as they tend to be penetrated by autogun or lasgun fire in alot of cases (though usually at joints or supposed weak points, or from fire sustained from an undefined but presumably short period of time.) It may be that due to the fact they have been acting independently and without support for some time may have "weakened" the armour somewhat, but again it is odd. More odd is that in other cases (even in this scene) autogun fire ricochets off the armour, ,so I'm likely to guess its just location-based.

In this case, we don't know if sustained fire has weakened the armor to the point where successive shots can now penetrate or not. Body armor is funny that way

Page 293

As Krin's recharged plasma gun burst liquid plasma over the far end of the line, Salk clubbed the stock of his bolter into the first face he saw. Streaked with grime and lined with fatigue, the trooper stared in disbelief at the three-metre killing machine that reared over him even as Salk's gun cracked into the side of his head. Salk pulled the body beneath him, drawing his combat knife and slashing at the trooper behind the first.

Salk's second victim fell, clutching at the deep wound across his torso scored by the monomolecular edge of the knife.

Space Marines have monomolecular edge knife yet again. Also we get Ben Counter's infamous "plasma super soakers" which behave like glorified flamethrowers.

Page 294

Salk pulled a third body off his knife and pumped half a magazine of bolter shells through the breach, showering the threshold of the spaceport with fire. The troopers' officer was trying to rally them into a new firing line on the smooth surface of the space­port itself - Krin vaporised him with a gout of superheated plasma and the Polios troopers broke and ran.

Officer "vaporised" by a plasma weapon. It could be just exploding, but that really doesn't happen much with Counter brand Plasma super soakers. Nevermind above it was "incinerate". Either way single digit to triple digit megajoule depending on your definition (explode to literally reduce to steam) - my gut in this case is more on literal vaporization.

Page 294

The only reply was broken fragments of speech cut up by static. Whichever of them was still alive was swamped by the masses of the crowd so heavily that his vox equipment had been damaged. Since the receiver was implanted in the ear and the trans­mitter in the throat, that meant a fractured skull at least.

- damage to Space marine vox equipment usually means at least fractured skulls for the Marine, because the receivers are implanted in the ear and the transmitter in the throat. I suppose it guarantes you dont lose your comms in battle even if you lose your helmet.


Page 295

Emerald-uniformed troopers manned heavy stubbers and artillery pieces, nervously waiting for the hordes to burst in. There, several hundred metres away, was Salk's immediate objective. An ugly, crouched craft, like a huge metal fly, squatted on one of the launch zones.

Towed artillery pieces and stubbers. Implied to be several hundred metres away, giving na idea of possible encouter ranges.

Page 295

Heavy chains of fire ripped into the ground all around him, one catching him on the greave and almost pitching him onto his face. He spotted Nicias out of the cor­ner of his eye, taking shots to the torso as he tried to shield the prisoner.

- here a Soul Drinker is taking "shots to the torso." from a heavy stubber. Whether it penetrates or deflects we don't know. Greave shot seems to not penetrate., although the impact causes him to trip. Again note the engagement ranges alluded to above - this is as such things go, close range fire.

Page 295

A plasma blast washed over the docking clamp and a couple of the gunners were turned to bursts of ash

Again, Space Marine plasma gun. Again, I have to marvel at the hard-on Ben Counter has for treating plasma as a liquid (or plasma guns as a kind of flamethrower.) but it must be tolerated... on the other hand it makes it somewhat more believable that a plasma weapon is cremating people,a nd again it lends credence to the idea of it as a thermal rather than explosive weapon. Hundreds of megajoules at least, if not several gigajoules for our flamethrower plasma supersoaker.

Page 296

.A quick volley of snapped shots from Salk took one man's head off and knocked another off his feet like a punch to the gut. Karrick kept the rest pinned down and Krin vaporised a handful of troopers trying to bring a missile launcher to bear.

Krin is the plasma gunner. Salk has a bolter. Again vaporising multiple troops - triple digit MJ easily, although to be fair we dont know in this case whether it is single or multiple shots, and it could go either way.

I must note that at this point the guy has expended many many gigajouels worth of energy just for this encounter, and who knows how much before that. THis plasma weapon has to have one hellacious power supply, nevermind a damn good cooling system since it has yet to overheat (or he's just very judicious about firing and maintaining it.) Maybe this has something to do with its flamethrower-like nature - it trades off something other plasma weapons have to achieve this performance. One good possibility is either range, or penetration.

And all that said, it makes it a potentially dangerous weapon if it cooks off, or is destroyed. Then again so are most plasma weapons.

Also bolter shots decpaitating humans. Kinetic or explosive effect, we dont know.

Page 296 - Gunfire of an unknown type again ricochets off armour, but not without tearing gouges out of the ceramite of said SM armour.

Subsector Therion was a near-empty tract of space, notable only for the scattered asteroid fields that yielded rare minerals to the hardy prospectors who mined them. It was these prospectors who first had alerted the Imperial Navy salvage teams to the pres­ence of something strange and truly immense that appeared without warning, as if cast randomly out of the warp.

Therion is the same subsector that the Hive world and agri world Thaddeus was visiting was in, and we learn they also have an active mining community as well (worlds or just orbital mining in the system, we dont know. Could be both.) The Subsector, it sounds, is also not a particularily major or important one, by all accounts.

Page 298

A few bright slivers hovering around the hulk were Imperial Navy salvage craft, which were transmitting their comms signals to the nearby escort cruiser Obedience and then on to the Crescent Moon

- comm (and other) signals from Imperial Navy savlage vessels boarding and epxloring the Soul Drinker's hulk Brokenback - the info is being relayed to a Navy Escort and the Crescent Moon. I bet the Admech is pissed the Navy got there first.

Also an "escort cruiser."

Page 298

From the logs of the first few days of the operation, it seemed seventy-four salvage engineers had boarded the space hulk so far. Thirteen had got out.

Logs of first few days of operation. Also tells us how long Thaddeus has been here.


Page 298

There were parts of it that were still recognisably Imperial warships, aquiline prows jut­ting from the mass of twisted metal. Smaller ships, fighters and escorts, were welded into nightmarish starbursts of jagged steel. Other parts were com­pletely alien, with scythe-shaped hulls or bulbous organic engine pods.

- mention of "smaller ships, fighters and escrots" being part of the Soul Drinker's Space hulk. This implies a certain amount of overlap between the low end of escorts and the high end of fighters. (Makes sense, since we know in Angels of Darkness that shuttles can grow to 300 meters, and of fighters implied to be 100+ meters in length in other novels, not to mention that starfighters are superheavy vehicles routinely in their own right. Also the 500 meter tankers in Caves of Ice and a 1 km long landed freighter in one of the anthologies.)

Page 299

Thaddeus's fingers ran across the controls of the navigation pulpit and several inset images appeared on the viewscreen. They were jerky, low-res transmissions from cameras mounted on the shoulders of salvage team officers, who were now waiting with their men in Navy landing boats attached to entry points on th enear side of hte hulk.

Navy Salvage crews have their own data relaying/pict and audio transmission capability. Rather useful.

Page 299

There was no hope that they could explore anything like the whole mass of the hulk - such a task would take years given its size - so Thaddeus had ordered them into some of the more stable-looking, recognisable areas, like an early-pattern Imperial hospital ship and an escort destroyer from the time of the Gothic War.

- mention of an "escort destroyer" from the time of the Gothic War. Also Imperial hospital ships. (If you havne't figured it out yet this is the Brokenback...)


Page 299

Imperial Navy salvage teams were hard-bitten vet­erans of some of the most dangerous environments deep space could offer. They knew men had died on the hulk, but they were prepared to go that bit fur­ther in than anyone else to make sure their crew got credited with a find that could be spent in the dives of the next port they put into. Armed with shotguns and sheer guts, most of them would be pirates or black marketeers if the Navy hadn't press-ganged them from the hives and frontier worlds. It would be a shame to have to mindwipe them if they found anything they shouldn't know about, but they understood that risk, too.

This would I suspect make them some sort of official organization/troop - like armsmen or Naval Security, rather than simply naval ratings or crewers given weapons..d espite the pressganging. Perhaps they re the naval analgoue to Imperial Navy Veterans.

Also Thaddeus contemplates mindwiping rather than eradication. He already scores points for me for taking the least grimdark solution.

Page 300

The corridors were dark and deserted; the only sounds the footsteps and orders of the salvage crews and the creaking of the hull. Transmissions from the crews informed
Thaddeus that the hulk seemed to be empty and, sinisterly, far too clean. The gravity was working and the atmosphere, most remarkably, scanned as safe on the teams' crude auspexes. The youngest mem­ber of each team was ordered to remove his respirator and the fact that he didn't drop dead meant that there were no airborne toxins.

- Salvage crews have "crude auspexes" that can tell if gravity field devices are working and if the atmosphere is safe, as well as whether if the hulk was "empty" it seems. With the pict viewers and shit that's rather useful. I wonder how much of this might translate to being accessible by a high end, well equipped Guard regiment? We know Cadians can get pict viewers too...

Page 300

The corresponding image showed the bloody remains of several men, blown apart as if by explosives or large-calibre gunfire, spattered around the corridor.

- mention of several men "blown apart" as if by explosives or "large-calibre" gunfire. IIRC they're from gun servitors. Dont remember if they're just big autoguns/stubbers, bolters or autocannon.



Page 301

Thaddeus could make out a man thrown back against a wall, the chest of his dark grey coveralls shredded and sodden with blood. Another man fell backwards, the upper part of his body blown apart.

..

The leader kicked the closest flares down the cor­ridor and waved some of the smoke away. Thaddeus could make out, on the floor, the remains of the servitor - its lower half was a hover unit. Its arms had both been replaced with twin-linked autoguns connected to large cylinder box magazines. Its face was just a jutting mass of sensors. Presumably it would have been difficult to make and would have been set to guard something important - a task it had succeeded in with the first team to come across it.

- from a gun servitor equipped with "twin linked" autoguns with large capacity magazines. That answers my previous question, which shows what really large, powerful, high end autoguns could do. To be fair, t his is with multiple shots soo...

It also probably tells us again what a comparable sort of lasgun could be capable of (what you define "comparable" as is up to you.) Very roughly speaking we're talking about grenade like damage inflicted with a sustained barrage, form autoguns, so probably the same for las weapons. Not really useful as direct evidence in and of itself, but useful supplementary evidence regardless.

Page 301 - signal flares blind the gun servitor left behind by Soul Drinkers.

Page 301

"Auspex?" asked the leader.
"Nothing." came the voice of one of his surviving crewmembers.

Auspex again.



Page 306

The Mechanicus had access to the most advanced of weapons, Korvax saw a form of rapid-firing missile launcher send volleys of frag missiles into the eldar lines, and glimpsed the unmistakable liquid fire of a heavy plasma gun bursting amongst the aliens.

- ADeptus mechanicus Tech guard possess employ a kind of 'rapid-firing missile launcher" - this one in partticular sending volleys of frag missiles at Eldar raiders. They also use heavy plasma guns.

Page 307 - shuriken fire sticks in but does not totally penetrate Soul Drinker armour, save for one that strikes a knee joint and draws blood.

Page 307

The night sky above was clear and cold, and through it streaked a missile from Squad Veiyal, cracking in a flash of fire into the centre of the eldar sword-bearers. Two of them died, blown apart.

- two eldar are blown apartt by a missile launched by a Soul Drinker.

Page 308

The power field around the blade burned away the tis­sue it touched and the corpse slid off the sword with a flick of Korvax's wrist.

- Space Marine's power swrod has a power field that "Burns' the tissue of the Eldar.

PAge 309

A warning icon flashing on his retina told Korvax the pict-recorder on his backpack was dam­aged, and was no longer recording the view over his shoulder for the mission's debriefing.
..

The image winked out to be replaced by static. Thaddeus frowned and tapped the controls on the data-slate, rewinding the recording past the point where the feed cut out. It was the view over the Space Marine commander's shoulder from a recorder on his backpack, showing a screen full of showering earth and sharp white lines of gunfire.

- Space Marine officers carry backpack-mounted pict-recorders on their suits for "after action" reports. Again quite useful feature methinks.


Page 310

"That's a Centauri pattern bolter. The Soul Drinkers' equipment was well up to date when they turned, this file must have been shot a decade ago at least. Before their heresy. We need to find out where this is, have the tech-priests begun forensic scrutiny?"

- Thaddeus is able to identify the age of a transmission by the kind of equipment the Soul drinkers use in it - he notes that they had 'up to date" equipment when they'd rebelled, so this tends to indicate most equipment (space marine weapons, at least) change visually with updated versions. enough to allow for dating, at least.

It also suggests that Space Marine equipment (at least) receives periodic refinements nad upgrades to improve on it. This isnt the first time such has been suggested in these novels (EG Crusade era bolter ammo slower velocity than modern bolter ammo.)

Also techpriest forensics (verispex as I recall.)

Page 310

"Bring the astropathic choir aboard the Brokenback and have them take up their vigil again. I want to hear of any further sightings of the Soul Drinkers, no matter how trivial or unlikely. We may be able to use them to pin down this location. Take some of theObedience's astropaths, too. Use my authority. The Brokenback will be our base of operations until I say otherwise."

Thaddeus is using his Astropaths to monitor (astropathic transmissions, presumably) for signs of the Soul Drinkers in order to track down leads. He uses the Brokenback (currently) as his base. This becomes important shortly.

Page 310

Thaddeus wondered if Shen ever really thought he would be an inquisitor one day In truth, Shen didn't have the patience or imag­ination to hunt down the enemies that threatened mankind from within. Thaddeus knew his own strengths, and Shen didn't come close. He was, however, as fine an interrogator as Thaddeus could wish for - loyal, diligent, and able to summon a deadly streak of violence in a tight spot.

Poor Shen. This suggests thare are perhaps a good many more interrogators than Inquisitors, who are sort of demi-inquisitors who can be dispatched on important tasks that aren't important enough to warrant an Inquisitor's full attention, but may be too important to simply send acolytes or minions on. In other words, Interrogators, while they are potential inquisitors, are really just another tool in the Inquisitor's arsenal.

Page 311

Thaddeus looked once more at the holo image, where purple-armoured giants charged fearlessly into a storm of gunfire. He had never truly under­stood how Space Marines, particularly the assault-oriented Soul Drinkers, could make a tactic of a headlong, suicidal attack and somehow attain victory after victory when mere men would be cut to pieces. It was as if their conditioning and sheer faith carried them through when physics and logic should bring them low.

- Thaddeus here marvels at the ability for Space Marines are able to employ crazy psycho charging tactics, which suggests this is not something normal men do (or at least what Thaddeus expects of normal men) - which of course in theory includes the Guard. This isnt neccesairly universal, of course, but its worth noting that not everyone thinks a bayonet charge is the best solution to a problem, once again.

We see echoes of this in 'Crimson Tears' as well with General Xarius and his view on Marines, and its this and Xarius both (as well as how the Soul Drinkers are written) that sometimes made me wonder if Counter secretly enjoys messing with Space Marines.

[Connor MacLeod]

Soul Drinkers update. This will be the only update 'carried over' from last time at the moment: I'll be startgin up 3 new ones: Back to Imperial Armour with Siege of Vraks and the Krieg meatdroids, Grey Knights (what Ben Counter can do when he writes a good Space Marine novel), and some of the 'Battles' spinoff books (like the Sabbat Worlds Crusade book, the Tactica Imperialis, and the 13th Black Crusade, whcih are basically just 'extras' to republish some old material and add insight into specific things.) I'll get back to Night Lords next time - as I said I'm stretching it out so I can get the third book read and covered and that is no way to predict. I may or may not start shira Calpurnia at some point and just juggle between different ones, and I've been thinking of throwing out some more anthologies in a single book. I'm making progress, but I still want to get alot of this shit out so I can move to FFG and horus heresy stuff and other things.

Anyhow, we go back to Bleeding Chalice, where Sarpedon meets Thaddeus (sort of), the Soul drinkers wreak massive devastation on priceless lost tech, and generally act like Soul Drinkers. We also get an introduction to the villain of the piece, the current situation, and we meet the Sisters of Battle and Sister Aescarion (who is one of the few positive Sorotias characters in BL fiction.)

Page 312

The dome under which the habitat was built had been constructed of electroreactive materials that always created a flawless blue sky overhead no matter what the conditions on the planetoid outside. The atmosphere was perma­nently stabilised at an even summer's day, allowing the impressive alien plants of the gardens to flour­ish. Phrantis Jenassis always made time every day to walk the gardens, until he lost sight of the palace's golden minarets between the spreading boughs of imported alien trees.

House Jenassis was a colony several kilometres across, housed in an atmospheric dome and con­sisting of the palace itself, the grounds with their lakes and greenhouses, a cluster of simple rustic habs for the retainers, and the temple-like complex that housed the Grand Galactarium

Navigator House residence.


Page 312

Phrantis had to negotiate with the Departmento Munitorum to contract Imperial Guardsmen to guard the many scions of House Jenassis on their travels. There were reciprocal arrangements to make that bound Navi­gators to particular individuals or Imperial organisations. New births would have to be regis­tered and Phrantis would have to sign the examiners' reports to confirm that the new bearers of the Navigator gene were free from corruptive mutation.

- the Navigator Houses contract with the Departmento munitorum for Imperial Guard bodyguard/escorts for their Navigators during their travels. Considering that the Munitorum manual depicts the IG as sort of being slaves, this probably makes some sense. especially since the power of the Munitorum as a whole largely comes from the fact they run/control the Guard itself, so bargaining with men is about what they can do.

Also, it reinforces the confederate/feudal nature of the Impeirum - you have alot of separate and disparate organizations working with or fighting against one another, politics and dealmaking is EVERYTHING.


Page 313

The lake was quite deep but their heads still showed above the water, indi­cating they must be a good metre taller than Phrantis himself. Phrantis knew of the Adeptus Astartes - he had occasionally come across those superhuman warriors in his career - and he had no doubt that Space Marines were invading House Jenassis.

- A Navigator (head of a family) notes that Space Marines are able to wade in a lake with their heads still above water, indicating that they were a good metre taller than the Navigator himself was.

Page 314

A warzone, where the Chaos Warlord Teturact was carving out an empire, was only a couple of subsectors from House Jenassis. Phrantis had been assured that the warfleets massing on the border of the war-zone protected House Jenassis from Chaos raiders, but perhaps those raiders had found a way through

The whole Teturact conflict is occuring within a sector, but is still several subsectors away. Also multiple warfleets blockading the sector (or more accurately, patrolling or guarding the routes in and out of the sector, which is nearly the same thing.) It odes show however that it may be possible to slip around blockades (hidden routes, for example.)


Page 316

House Jenassis was located on Kytellion Prime, a planetoid with a superdense core (and hence Earth-standard gravity). Other settlements, undomed and exposed to the planetoid's cruel weather, dotted the barren landscape, mostly isolated trading settlements that had been founded by retainers released from House service. One of them, however, was a mas­sively built compound with walls of sheer ferrocrete and watchtowers on every corner. This was the Kytel-lion Prime Adeptus Arbites precinct, where several squads of Arbites judges and suppression units were responsible for the protection of House Jenassis. Their presence next to the habitat was one of the many ways in which the Navigator House was repaid for its diligent service to the Emperor's fleets.

- mention of a "planetoid with a super-dense core" - that has Earth-standard gravity and seems habitable (albeit harsh and marginally so.) We might get numbers if we knew how big the planetoid was, although if something were say, moon or pluto sized it would be pretty damn dense methinks.

Page 316

The precinct astropath, as per the protocols that had been in place since House Jenassis had come to Kytellion Prime, transmitted the distress call across the ether, alerting the highest authorities that the ancient and holy House Jenassis was violated.

A few scant minutes afterwards, it was answered.

As we shortly discover, the message more than likely comes from Thaddeus, who is in another system with the Brokenback (therion subsector, while this is Kytellion prime) It is within the same sector/subsector, so it can't be too far off either. A few minutes duration for warning and responce, likely offplanet. Assuming another planet or some object around the planet receives it and is oh 10 LY away and it takes 2-3 minutes, we're talking in excess of millions of c propogation time (At least) for the message. This fits roughly with what is hinted at in Xenos, and the difference could be attributed to astropath quality (This isn't a commercial astorpath, its one the ARbites use.)


Page 317

An acknowledgement rune flashed on Sarpe-don's retina. Hastis was a good, solid soldier, and
Sarpedon feared the assaulting squads would need backing up soon.

- signal information is relayed directly onto Space marine retinas (by the helmet, presumably.)

Page 318

Already the map[Galactarium] was solidifying in the air -a star map, the largest and most comprehensive ever constructed. The Imperium was too vast to ever be properly mapped, and no one had ever managed to even catalogue its inhabited worlds. But attempts had been made, and the Galactarium was the closest thing to success the Imperium had. There were few spaces not represented on the immense stellar map now spherically projected around the Galactarium

It was also promptly destroyed by the Great Hero Sarpedon and his Soul Drinkers, rather predictably. See why this is such a GREAT series?

My other question is - why was something so apparently valuable owned solely by a Navigator family, who was only protected by some 100-odd Arbites? Was a backup ever made? If not, why?
It also makes me wonder if other Navigator families have something like this - probably do, since control of FTL navigation and trade are their essential powerbase.



Page 319

Solun drew threadlike cables from the interfaces in his armour and plugged them into the base of the Galactarium. The huge map display was flicker­ing and a new image was ghosting over the starscape.
...

...The night sky above was clear and cold, and through it streaked a missile from Squad Veiyal...
Solun paused the image. The night sky of the planet was transposed over the Galactarium map to form a smeared mess of stars. The Galactarium stars suddenly whirled and Solun's eyes went blank as the mem-plates on his armour filled up with stellar data and his mind was flooded with star maps.

Solun would have to be quick. Sarpedon didn't even know if he could do it. Techmarine Lygris was one of Sarpedon's most trusted companions, and Lygris himself couldn't have done it. He had rec­ommended Solun for the mission instead, knowing the younger Techmarine was an expert in informa­tion and its manipulation. If Solun's mind was unable to cope with the storm of information flooding through it, he would be reduced to a drooling infant in a Marine's body.

A Space Marine Hacker-techmarine, I suppose. What he's basically doing is comparing the star map to images from the video recording the Soul drinkers recorded from their past... attempting to match the star-sky to something in the starmap

Page 319

"We've got a hundred plus, Arbites riot officers with five riot con­trol APCs and light vehicles."

Arbites forces of our little planetoid planet with weather and shit.

PAge 320

Adeptus Arbites officers maintained the laws of the Imperium and were equipped with fearsome anti-personnel weaponry and body armour. They were well drilled and ideologically motivated. They could not just be broken, they had to be thoroughly defeated.

Sarpie's assessment of the Arbites.

Page 320 - mention of a Arbites APC command vehicle, identifiable by the antennae dish revolving on its roof.

Page 320

Sarpedon glanced back into the temple. The Galactarium map was pulsing, closing in on one star system at a time and then wheeling to show a different one. Solun was twitching as information seethed through him. The battle-brothers had to buy him more time.

Hacker-marine is still hacking the galactic map.

PAge 320

Another APC rumbled into sight, this tiem with a breech-loader that would fire a shell large enough to leave even Sarpedon a smouldering crater.

An APC (Chimera/Rhino?) armed with a large, breech loading cannon. Leaving a sarpedon sized crater (a metre or three, depending on dimension) would probably be at least a kilo's worth of TNT, if not several.


PAge 321

"Graevus?" voxed Sarpedon quietly. "Do we have a match?"
"Solun's close," replied the assault sergeant. "He's got a lock on three stars."

Narrowed it down to 3 stars by now. Out of millions/billions in the Imperium/galaxy. Probably in under an hour (minutes tops). How good is this, I don't know.

Page 321

This time, it was not the helmeted judge who appeared but an astropath, one of the powerful telepaths who provided faster-than-light communi­cation across the Imperium. Sarpedon's enhanced sight picked out the man's blind, sunken eye sock­ets and the puckered, prematurely aged skin of his face.

The astropath's voice wavered as he spoke into the vox-caster. It was clear from the artificiality of his tone that the voice he spoke with was not his own.

"Commander Sarpedon." spoke the voice. "Do not end it with such futility. These men are under my authority and will kill you at my order. You and your battle-brothers are under arrest by the author­ity of Inquisitor Thaddeus of the Ordo Hereticus."

Our Inquisitor Buddy shows his hand, using the Astropath to provide realtime (or nearly realtime) communication with Sarpy. Again this is pretty damn impressive transmission time given he's in another system. What's more, it must convey more than voice, since he can speak towards the general direction of the Soul drinkers.

This is also interesting as it's one of those cases of astropathic communcation occuring in verbal or even textual transmissions or communcations - direct transmission of ideas or data, rather than relying on more nebulous symbolic interpretation (As in from Blind, or Outcast Dead, etc.) The differences between the two and why they are differnt aren't known, but I imagine it stems both from the nature of astrotelepathy as well as various tradeoffs.

Page 323

On a hundred worlds he had come to them, and saved them from the ravages of disease. He had taught them not to fight it but to accept the plague, to make it a part of themselves and draw on its power. The agent of their death had, with Teturact's word, become the foundation of their life. To forge worlds, hive planets, and feral worlds he had come and saved them all. And they would follow him to the end of the galaxy. Because of him they were no longer dying but brimming with life, so full of seething vitality that it wept from their pores and seeped from the cracks in their skin.
Teturact had first appeared to them on the Imperial Navy dockyard world of Stratix.

Our nemesis for the novel, teturact, who seems to be a stand in for Nurgle or something (He likes zombies and disease, but doesnt seem to be allied with Chaos Gods per se.) A "hundred worlds" within a sector/subsector region he has spread across (certainly less than the full sector, given the Navigator's prior musings on the conflict. Which probably means at least a hundred worlds, all holding at least some affiliaton with the Imperium, in the given subsector. This includes multiple hive and forge worlds.

Also interesting are the hints here of the relationship betwene Teturact and his "minions" or supplicants - whatever we want to call them. He seems to be connected to them, or drawing upon them (or their suffering) in some fashion, not unlike some daemon or Chaos entities themselves.


Page 324

Teturact ruled an empire a dozen systems across, and he ruled them utterly. His servants carried orders to whole worlds of the faithful, who obeyed as one, without question. The Imperium, who had betrayed and abandoned them, was trying to reclaim their worlds but Teturact, in his awesome wisdom, was calling upon his followers to mire the Imperial armies in planet-wide battlezones and give up their lives for the glory of their saviour. The fleets of warships docked at Stratix had been turned into groups of fast raiders and fireships, breaking up the Imperial Navy spearheads. The Imperial armouries were stripped and used to turn hordes of grateful infected into loyal armies that rose up to slaughter the Imperial Guard that approached their cities. With their deaths, they would keep the empire of Teturact inviolate. There was no better way to die.
The empire included the Stratix system itself, and the forge worlds of Salshan Anterior and Telkrid IX. It encompassed the mineral-rich asteroid fields that circled the blue dwarf star Serpentis Minor. From naval shipyards, to agri-worlds that produced enough to feed those of his followers who still needed to eat, Teturact controlled enough resources and manpower to force the Imperium into a war that could last for centuries. The empire of Teturact was not due to fall for a very long time. The empire of Teturact flickered by on the grand Galactarium, its diseased star systems whirling around the superimposed image from the pict-recording. Gradually individual stars locked in place over the image, until the star map and the night sky recorded over the outpost were identical. Sergeant Graevus ran over to Techmarine Solun, who was reaching feebly for the wires plugged into the back of his head. Graevus unplugged the wires and Solun's eyes flickered back into focus.

We gain the scope of Terturact's little empire. "A hundred worlds" and a "dozen systems", suggesting 8-10 worlds per "system". It ncludes asteroid mining, several forge worlds, etc.
Also we learn that STratix, the hive world this started at, had its own Naval garrison (within the subector I figure) and some Imperial (Guard?) armouries. OH, and implied asteroid mining.

Also of interest is that the Galactarium apparently has up to date info on the conflict and where it has spread out.


Page 325

The first shot was from an Arbites sharpshooter, a cold-blooded killer and a good officer. His sniper-fitted autogun sent a bullet through the right eye of Phrantis Jenassis, blowing the back of the old man's head apart and leaving him a dead weight in Sarpedon's hand.
...

The pintie-mounted weaponry on the APCs sent shots raining down and Sarpedon scuttled to the side just in time to miss a cannon shot that ripped a hole in the ground and nearly blew him clean off his talons. The Arbites were mostly armed with short-ranged shotguns designed to break up riots, but those with longer range used them - sniper fire and shrapnel from grenade rounds spattered off his armour and lacerated the skin of his legs as he dropped the twitching body of Phran­tis Jenassis and ran to the cover of the temple.

- ARbites weaponry.. No executioner rounds, though. Their armmo seems to be flechettes -there's mention of "shotgun shrapnel" on page 326 w hich implies something other than buckshot. Also the sniper autogun blows out the back of a skull (it goes witout saying lasguns of some kind can and have done this, so this is a nice parallel)

Regaardless, the arbites shrapnel (from shotguns and grenades) and autogun fire do precisely dick to Sarpedon's armor.


Page 325

The pintle-mounted weaponry on the APCs sent shots raining down and Sarpedon scuttled to the side just in time to miss a cannon shot that ripped a hole in the ground and nearly blew him clean off his talons.

Pity it missed.

Page 325-326

Gunfire ripped out of the front of the temple and scoured the slope as the Arbites advanced. Their shotguns were useless over open distance but once in the temple they would be ideal for blasting around cover, so the riot details advanced through the bolter fire coming from the two Soul Drinker squads. Sarpedon had given his Marines time to pick their targets, but a cannon shot blew one of Squad Krydel to pieces and volleys of small arms fire from the sharpshooters and APCs soon made it impossible to size up targets at will.

A cannon shot blows one of the Soul drinkers to pieces.

Page 326

If the Arbites judge had any sense he would send officers with grenade launchers onto the roof of the temple to rain frag and krak grenades onto the Soul Drinkers as they fought the Arbites coming in through the front.

Arbites have frag and krak grenades for the launchers.

Page 326

Squads Krydel and Hastis were assembling at the entrance to the courtyard, shotgun shrapnel following them as Hastis stopped his squad, turned them, and began to direct their fire against the Arbites storming in between the column

The aforementioned "shotgun shrapnel" suggesting the shotguns are either using some sort of flechette or grenade/explosive round, rather than buckshot or solid slugs. Oddly, no executioner rounds. Or cyber mastiffs. Pity, things might have ended differently otherwise.

PAge 327

There was a pause as the dust cleared. In the pause Sarpedon could hear the creaking as the
melta-bomb's detonation seared through the machinery of the Galactarium and sent the huge metal construction sagging. The image twisted and flickered, and suddenly the star field was gone, to be replaced with the marble architecture of the temple. Sarpedon quickly scanned the edge of the roof around the opening to the courtyard - no Arbites waited there, but they would appear soon, to keep the Soul Drinkers pinned down while the other officers engaged them through the rubble.

You read that right. Sarpedon has just HEROICALLY destroyed a pricelss artefact of the Imperium, more than likely archeotch and a source of irreplacable information, simply to cover his tracks. FOR THE EMPEROR. Get used to this shit too. We constantly hear him carp about how he's about the Emperor's Business, yet it seems that by his definition the Emperor's business involves generlaly fucking things up for everyone else - up to and including massive amounts of property destruction.

Bear in mind, though, that Sarpedon also turned renegade simply because he got offended and the Admech stole his favorite toy... even going so far as to inciting civil war in his Chapter just to prove how right he is. And he was duped by a Daemon not once, but several times. Sadly, we must get used to this as it will not be the last time shit like this happens.

PAge 328

Arbites were firing into the air. Many were panick­ing - Arbites were ideologically trained to a degree that the best Imperial Guard units could not boast, but few of them had faced daemons. Or, for that matter, a psyker as trained and powerful as Sarpedon.

- ARbites officers are ideologically trained to a degree that Imperial Guardsman cannot boast. Although I suspect Storm Troopers would beg to differ.

Page 328

By the time Squad Graevus reached the front of the temple, well over a hundred Arbites were dead, wounded, or hopelessly scattered. The Soul Drinkers followed the fleeing Arbites out of the temple and into the grounds, knowing there were still enough officers left to regroup and attack again if they were given the chance.

Yes. Slaughtering Imperial troops and destroying valuable property FOR THE EMPEROR!. But there are also clearly more than 100 arbites (far more) suggesting that a "Precint" is perhpas at least 200-300 people, probably alot more.

Page 329

Sarpedon let the lifesign runes for the three-squad force flash onto his retina.

Lifesign monitors for Soul drinkers.


Page 330

Stratix, in the centre like the star in the middle of a system, was a single blood-red ruby the size of a fist. The forge worlds were sapphires, blue as dead lips. The worlds of the front line, where Imperial Guard regiments were pouring into killing grounds swarming with Teturact's followers, were fiery yellow-orange opals. Loyal worlds were diamonds, hard and clear in their devotion to their saviour. There were hundreds of gemstones, each one a major world under Teturact's control, each crammed with souls who owed their lives to him.

Teturact had been dead for several years. His heart was just a knot of dried flesh somewhere in his dusty ribcage. Only his mind was truly alive, pulsing away beneath the tight skin of his skull and behind the rictus face with its horrible dried-out eyeballs. His body, thin and wizened with jaun­diced yellow skin, was animated by will alone - his muscles had long since wasted away. Teturact was, in a very real sense, a being of pure willpower. He dominated those around him directly. Take the simple bovine minds of the brute-mutant bearers -he barely had to think to control them. Others he controlled by manipulating their circumstances until they had no choice but to obey his every wish.

The diseases - and there were many, to keep any one cure from harming his cause - were just a part of it. They were the catalyst. It was the force ofTetu-ract's will that was his real weapon. And that force of will had won him a mighty empire such as the Black Crusades themselves had rarely won.

Many of the worlds on the chart were emeralds, green with potential. They were worlds that had only just begun the traumatic process of bending to Teturact's will. On some, the plague was only just making itself known, spread by Teturact's agents devoted to bringing enlightening disease to gover­nors and hive-scum alike. Others were nearly ripe, and Teturact would soon leave the seat of his power on Stratix to bestow life upon the infected through the sorcery he could wield over disease.

- Teturact has "hundreds" of major worlds in his empire. According to Teturact himself, this constituted a mighty empire the likes of which had rarely been won in a Black Crusade. I wonder what Abbadon would say, if he weren't so busy trying to figure out how to take Cadia, that is.
Again recall that Teturact declares he has taken over a dozen systems, which indicates the Imperium has inhabited/colonized multiple "worlds" in a system.

We also again get an indication of Teturact's power, nature, and will. It's hard to really see him as being a completely independent operator in this, given how closely his methods parallel Nurgle, and I suspect he is a puppet/avatar of the God of Decay. That He and the Soul drinkers come into contact is actually rather relevant and symbolic (intentionally or not), since this is what happened in the first novel (Soul drinkers, as minions of Tzeentch, crushed a Champion and Greater Daemon of Nurgle.) So we could see them yet again foiling a Nurgle plot.

Page 331

Eumenix. A fine world to take, a hive world teem­ing with infected who would rise up and worship him when he promised them release. Such a fine world, indeed, that would greet him as a saviour, and die for him as a god.

Teturact's goals. Again, along with the stuff above, Teturact seems to have become something of a daemon, or a daemon prince - something that is largely will power/spirit animating flesh, and feeding off of/growing stronge rfrom worshippers through the use of plagues (which gives him control.) Again parallels between the Chaos Gods, other racial gods (like the Orks or 'Nids) and the Emperor can be drawn.

Page 331

In her later years she had tracked down and killed the Daemon Prince Parmenides the Vile, and in doing so had acted in a precarious alliance between the Sisters of Battle and the Inquisition.

Another reference to the short story in Let the Galaxy Burn. Any who forget my coverage of it - it was where Aescerion fought an Ultramarine who had turned to the worship of Nurgle, only later to renounce it. (And yes, it was an Ultramarine. I am sure that brings some real glee.)

Page 333 -

His [Shen's] inferno pistol was an exceedingly rare weapon that packed the power of a melta gun into a relatively small pistol, and at short ranges it could core through anything.

Inferno pistol, much like the weapon Commander Dante of the Blood Angels packs. Supposedly "rare" but you get them cropping up here and there quite a bit. Whats even rarer are the digital weapon variants

Page 333

The enemy weren't bandits, because they didn't steal anything. It was as if they pounced on any­thing living just for the novelty of killing something alive. They were the shambling remnants of the underhivers who had been reduced to walking corpses by the plague, and they had dogged the heels of Shen and the Seraphim for whole hellish journey to the underside of Hive Quintus.
In the brief burst of light, Aescarion counted fifty plus of them. The inferno pistol claimed three , scorched to cinders

Although for the purpose of the novel these are suppose to be minions of Teturact, I would point out that plague zombies are not neccesarily a rare occurance on hive worlds (Necromudna is a good example - you even get psykers or wyrds who can raise and control them.)

Anyhow, Shen's inferno pistol cremates 3 bodies. I assume they have relatively low moisture content. Even then it would take many hundreds of megajoules to reduce even emaciated, dessicated corpses to ash.

Page 334

Shen's inferno pistol was recharged and sent out another hissing lance of fire that tore through a dozen scum at once.

I assume it either is overpenetrating like hell, has a widebeam setting, or both. Whether these poor bastards are cremated or not we don't know.

Page 334

The Sereaphim behind Shen blew bodies apart with their twin bolt pistols.

Bolt pistols blowing apart dead corpses in either single shots or barrages.

Page 336

"No life signs." said Sister Mixu, who carried the squad's auspex scanner. "But there's a lot of interference. This place is pretty solidly built."

life-sign auspex. Probably passive, explaining why mass (solidly built structure) can interefere with the signals.

PAge 336

"We should take what information they still hold." said Shen. "At least we'll have some idea of what work they did here and who was involved. They might even have pict-recordings from the sentry guns, so we could see who attacked them."

Pict cams and recordings on sentry guns.

Page 338

The Marine gripped the haft of the axe, pivoted, and flung Aescarion into the brass-cased altarpiece-machine. The casing buckled beneath the impact and components rained down as Aescarion slid to the floor. Telltales flashed on her armour's retinal display and a brief flash of pain dulled to an ache as painkillers flooded her system.
..
As the telltales flashed red on her retina she dragged the blade into the waist of the Soul Drinker.

- Sororitas power armor has warning signals that flash on the Sororitas sister's retinas, again implying a helmet (though we rarely do see them with such.) They also have some sort of chemical injection system that can inject painkillers (and probably other things, like antidoes) into their bloodstream.

PAge 339 -

The Seraphim carried Shen's body down to the turbine floor, where they placed a long-fused krak grenade in his mouth and reduced the corpse to a rain of ash.

A krak grenade small enough to fit into the mouth, yet energetic enough to cremate most if not all of the body in a relatively short period of time. I'm not sure if this is the "proper" Krak grenade (in the sense of a shaped charge, or directed/focused explosive warhead) depicted elsewhere. It either is a mis-identified melta bomb, or it shows that some krak weapons rely on armor penetration techniques that are diffrenet from convenitonal shaped charge/chemical energy weapons. Maybe it discharges a jet of 40K plasma? I also am not certain you could reply on a proper/true shaped charge to actually cremate a body (maybe slice it in half), but this isnt the first time krak grenades have been used as some general omnidirectional blast weapon in a 40K novel. Perhaps Krak grenades have variable 'focus' settings.. they can affect a very narrow area (for greater penetration against heavier targets) or spread out the focus over a wider area (to take ot multiple, less heavily armoured targets) Hell maybe you can tune them to varying effects (a cutting plane as well as a penetrating or general blast effect.)


Either way, it takes hundreds of megajoules, perhaps several gigajoules to cremate a body entirely, and this probably has to be delivered in something approaching a focused manner (but apparently isnt so focused it can't consume the body). It also isn't very explosive, has high penetration of the tissues.

Given all of the above, I would NOT strictly compare this to shaped charges or EFP or anything approaching a RL armor penetrating exploisve - the mechanisms are too diffrent. But it does tell us that heavily armoured objects (like tanks) need alot of energy to penetrate (as if meltaguns and plasma guns didn't tell us this already.) I suspect CE Munitions like hsaped charges would be within an order of magnitude or two of this weapon as well.


Page 339

It had been difficult for Shen to arrange for a naval salvage craft to pick them up from the wastes
outside Hive Quintus - the Officio Medicae had banned all travel and few crews wanted to risk the polluted wastes. Inquisitorial authority had barely cut through the red tape in time to get Shen and the Seraphim onto Eumenix in the first place.

Extents of Inquisitorial authority when it comes to other matters (like a quarantine) - showing that there can even be limits to an Inquisitor.

[Connor MacLeod]

A (delayed) soul drinkers update. In this edition we see Sarpedon destroy more priceless Imperial property, act pompously, and Thaddeus meets the political realities of the Imperium, and how they fuck up the prosecution of something even as simple as a sector-scale conflict.

Page 341-342

The Imperium had quarantined the tortured worlds under Teturact’s rebellion, establishing a firebreak of locked-down star systems. Whole worlds were under house arrest, their fleets grounded, their populations prevented from leaving without permission from the war-zone’s military command and the Officio Medicae.
...
Interstellar traffic was quiet and the space lanes heavily monitored. Travel between systems had to be sanctioned by the Imperial authorities, with no exceptions. But there were always those who tried to make themselves exceptions - smugglers running supplies between quarantined worlds that they would sell for a huge mark-up, deserters escaping from the warzone, and the usual criminals and degenerates who fled from the Imperium during routine times. Most were picked up or destroyed, but some as ever got through.

The quarantine of Terturact's empire for rebelliona nd medical (plague) purposes. Would take alot of ships, but known warp routes would elp this between systems. Despite that smugglers can get through. Note as well the monitoring of spacelanes and the control of space travel. This is how the Imperium ultimately exerts control/restrictions in case someone gets too uppity.

Page 342

It was difficult enough to catch massive cargo ships slipping in and out of the warp
in the quarantined systems. It was next to impossible to see them when they were fighter-sized craft - a fraction the size of the smallest Imperial warp-capable ship.
..
They were alien fighters; their faintly sinister organic lines contained powerful vortex reactors that could push them into and out of the warp. It was dangerous, there was no doubt about it. No one really knew which xenos species had built the fighters, and the handful of captured Navigators who directed the squadron through the warp were, through necessity, not the best. But it was worth it. If they achieved what they set out to do, the risk was worth it.
...
He wasn’t even sure it was a fighter - when Techmarine Lygris had shown Sarpedon the fleet of bizarre craft on one of the Brokenback’s many flight decks, the ships were empty of any ordnance or weapons save those that could be extruded from the ships’ hulls. Instead, Lygris had fitted out the ships with grav-couches so each could carry a payload of Marines. It was an enormous risk, transporting almost the entire Chapter on ships that traversed the warp by means the Techmarines couldn’t begin to understand.
...
..worked the fighter’s instruments by moving their hands through pools of molten metal like strangely-hued quicksilver. The basic readouts had been translated from amorphous alien runes, but most of the information that ran across the irregularly shaped readouts was indecipherable. The ship was almost crushingly non-human - corridors twisted and the mysterious vortex generators were strange organic shapes like seed pods or the shells of sea creatures. The air was only breathable because of the filters and purifiers that pumped oxygen through vents that had once held gases toxic to humans. The inhabitants had evidently been taller but thinner than humans, as the ceilings were high and everything was narrow.

The Soul Drinkers are using xenos fighters based on their 'liberated' mindset. The fighters seem to be quite large for 'fighters' (Big enough that ten of them can carry the entire soul drinkers chapter (700 Soul Drinkers remaining out of 1000 - 70 apiece.) and have rooms and hallways. I'd guess at least tens of metres long, probably more. And they are warp capable.


PAge 347

The flagship itself had once been an Emperor-class battleship, a wedge-prowed slab of a ship that had rained fire on the enemies of the false Emperor. It had been taken to Stratix for refitting and was a stripped-down hulk in the naval dockyards when Teturact saved the planet.
...
It had been refitted with masses of weaponry and shielding devices, replacing the life support systems and accommodation decks that were of no use when the crew needed neither air nor rest.

Teturact's flagship. Emperor-class battleship modified with extra weapons and shields. Shows one of the benefits of a zombie (or servitor) crew.

Page 348

When Teturact’s empire began to spread he had sought out these psykers and
made them the most loyal of all his followers. Through them, his mastery of disease was complete. Their powers could let him raise a plague on a world light years distant - so it had been on Eumenix, where his touch had made the world ripe for conquest even while he was on distant Stratix.

The wizards were from a hundred worlds and they now all wore the filthy robes of Teturact...
...
Each one was a receptacle of immense psychic power, and they were so subjected to
Teturact’s will that they couldn’t even remember what names they had carried before he found them.

Tetruact's minions. He's collceted psykers from a hundred worlds he's controlled and uses them to amplify his power and serve as a 'receptacle' for his will. Not unlike the soul binding of sorcerors to warp creatures or astropaths to the Emperor, or the connection of daemons to their patron God.

Teturact can also extend his power thorugh them over 'light years'

That also means 100 worlds per sector at least.

Page 349

"The warp looks on you with favour, my lord. Seven days more and we will return to real space."
...
The wizards began to chant, a low, atonal drone that filled their air with the sound of a billion plague-flies. The wizard’s body opened up, it was a hideous tentacled maw of miscoloured flesh, with internal organs pulsing. A thousand eyes were set into its innards and they rolled madly, seeing across the warp all the way to the depths of Eumenix.

As the wizards worked their magic, Teturact could see the images the central wizard projected. Endless layers of hive were kneedeep in gore. The dead had risen and were wandering, waiting for a purpose. The view panned across battlefields where factions fought in the vain hope of securing supplies or transport, or just to give voice to their horror through combat
..
For a moment, Teturact could feel the whole planet simultaneously, projected into his mind through the wizards.

7 days out from his destination, and Tetruract can, through and with the aid of his minions, scry the distant location. Impiles multi-LY ranges, which echoes the abilities of the wapr telescopes seen in Eye of Terror (novel), or the reputed scrying abilities of astropaths in the novel blind.

PAge 349

He had seen a hundred worlds reduced to such a state, but it still filled him
with pride.

Teturact's empire encompasses 100 worlds. Sector or subsector level.

Page 350

The Inquisitorial Fortress on Caitaran would, in saner days, have served to coordinate the efforts of the Ordo Hereticus for several sectors around, so the ordo could effectively face threats that spanned worlds and systems. But now it formed the wartime headquarters of the Inquisitorial effort against Teturact, with a quarantined halo around it. It was now the gathering point for information submitted by inquisitors and their agents throughout the war-zone.

An Inquisitorial fortress responsible for adminsitering several surrounding sectors. This may hint at informal/unofficial higher levels of organization between sectors and segmentum in some organization.. or it may reflect that the sectors administered are too small or unimportant to merit a full Inquisitorial presence.

Page 350

Up to three hundred inquisitors and interrogators answered directly to him and his staff, with many more forming a secret network even the Inquisition itself could not unravel.

Many were embedded in the Imperial Guard units sent to claim back disputed worlds; others tried to determine which planets would be the next to fall. Some were even reporting back from worlds that now belonged to Teturact. They sent brief transmissions hinting at unimaginable horror, of the building-sized piles of corpses and plagues that rotted men’s minds. The Ordo Malleus searched for daemons and the taint of Chaos amongst the thousands of reports from across the warzone.

Inquisitorial presnece at the warzone headquarters. Also note that agents 'in the field' have some means to send transmissions back to the headquarters, even from within the warzone (light years away). and 'thousands' of reports implies hundreds/thousands of agents. How the transmissions are sent and in what manner they're communicated from source to destination we dont know.

Page 350

It had been a martial society with kings, lords and barons, one of whom had expended untold fortunes to carve an impregnable palace from the mountains that no army could take. He was right - no invader took its walls, but the Imperium dropped a virus bomb on it when he refused to pay fealty to the explorator units that arrived on Caitaran when the world was on the frontier of Imperial space. The planet fell almost overnight once word spread that the fortress was now protected only by a legion of corpses.

Imperial diplomacy at its finest.

Page 352

The bolt pistol lay on top in its holster.

Thaddeus picked it up - the weapon was so huge Thaddeus could only hold it in two hands, but a Space Marine carried it as a sidearm. It had an ammunition selector and twin magazines, and its casing was chased in gold.

Soul drinke weaponry exhibiting the 'much bigger than mortal' sscaling so prevalent in modern 40K sources. Note the dual magazines and selector as well.

Page 353

"The acid is a weak solution designed only to blind; your man will survive. It is produced by the Betcher’s gland."

In some cases the Betcher's gland creates poisons that melt through metals, or do severe facial damage. Or duplicate/recycle the poisons the Astarts' bodies may have inflicted on them.

Page 355

"Colonel Vinn? Assemble your best infiltrators and scouts, ready for review at the spaceport in half an hour. See what you can do about commandeering us a shuttle for loading into the Crescent, it doesn’t need much range but it will need stealth and assault capabilities."

Shuttle with 'stealth and assault' capabilities.

Page 357

The thick band of stars that marked out the galactic disk was empty for light years ahead, and pilot second class Maesus KinShao knew that without staging posts or spaceports there was little chance of an assault coming from that direction. But it was his duty to be here - he was a servant of the Emperor cocooned in the cockpit of his Scapula-class deep space fighter, a member of a squadron with orders to defend the western frontier of the warzone.
...
The Scapula had a six-man crew - KinShao, a navigator, three weapons officers and an engineer. There were seventy such craft spread out across this section of the frontier, each armed with sophisticated intruder detection sensors and a bellyful of ordnance.

KinShao called up the HUD screen to show an overview of his squadron’s positions. Twenty fighters, each the size of a small cargo ship, hung in space with their sensor fields overlapping so nothing could get through. If any craft tried to escape from the warzone, or to break into it, the craft would be spotted and challenged. If it was remotely suspicious, it would be destroyed with a hail of guided munitions. The Scapulas were some of the most complex and valuable assault craft the sector naval command could muster, and KinShao loved the feeling of the massive metal structure all around with him. For now, though, everything was quiet, and the blazing war a few light hours to the galactic east seemed much further away.

Scapula fighters.. or bombers. Part of an entire squadron comprising oh 20 ships.

not sure what 'small cargo ship' is meant to reflect, but they're quite bigger than other sci fif ighters. Hell I'd guess they're much bigger than 40K 'fighters' atmospheirc or space based like furies. Heavy bomber or torpedo bomber size, if not bigger. The range and such also suggests they're significantly larger than normal, not unlike the 'Faustus' interceptors from First and only (which were 'a hundred paces' long.)

Depending on interpretation, these fighters may be dpeloyed a few light hours from the battle zone (edge of a system) or they may be even further away. The former would make more sense, technically.

Page 358

Korgen had been a weapons man on deep spacers for decades, and had seen firefights at Patroclus Gate and St. Jowens’s Dock that KinShao (though he wouldn’t admit it) never tired hearing about. But he was also full of portentous stories of how crews went mad in deep space, light years from any support craft and with only their fellow crews for company.

Interesting in that it implies the 'deep space' fighters might have considerable long range operational capabilities. It may ven imply they are warp capable, which would suggest they're far bigger than fighters (small warships, more probably.)

either that or they can be dropped off and picked up by warp-capable carriers as needed.

Page 358

"Waist gunners, are you charged?"
"Check," said a voice in one ear from the Scapula’s starboard pulse laser battery. "Check two," said another in the other ear, from the port guns.

The Scapulas have at least two broadside mounted 'pulse laser' batteries.

Page 359

"Fire! Full spread!" yelled KinShao, and the fighter juddered around him like a bucking horse. Korgen sent half the fighter’s missile payload in a glittering stream towards something that looked like red five’s remains on the scanners. But it was moving towards KinShao’s red seven faster than intercept speed.

Then he saw it. Lancing from the velvet black of space: a dart of silver that trailed a spray of stars. It rippled like mercury, shifted shape and widened, and a score of pure white laser bolts spat from the front edge of its glistening wings.

Forward firing missile-torpedo salvoes. Seem to have a BVR operational range, but not greatly so (tens or hundreds of km at least?)

Page 359

The artificial gravity kicked out of kilter and KinShao felt
himself pressed against one side of his restraints.

Scapulas have AG. This tends to further suggest they may be more small warships, but it can also suggest high end Imperial fighters can carry some sort of AG. (as opposed to suspensor equipped flight suits or gear like in double eagle or Warriors of Utlramar)

Page 359

It was a shard of liquid metal with sharp edges that rapidly flowed into one another, reconfiguring the whole fighter. It was probably smaller than the Scapula but its highly reflective liquid surface shone so brightly it seemed to fill KinShao’s sight completely A dark slit towards the ship’s knife-like prow looked in onto the bridge but KinShao couldn’t make out anything inside.

He was almost completely dazzled by the light, and the graceful effect of its delta wings folding in on themselves to become multiple fins rippling along the fighter’s hull.

Soul drinkers xenos fighters again. Note they're much larger than Scapulas, and the Xenos fightersc ould carry nearly a full company of Soul drinkers each and had internal hallways and shit.


Page 360

He jammed his thumb onto the manual fire control and the twin gatlings spattered
gunfire from beneath the Scapula’s nose. They wouldn’t hit and they didn’t have the range, but KinShao had to go down fighting

Gatling.. somethings under the nose of the fighters.

Page 360-361

The craft in front - a deep-space fighter, part of a cordon around one of the
warzone’s quieter frontiers - came apart in a blossom of shimmering debris. Sarpedon’s fighter flew right through the clouds of wreckage; the fighter’s liquid surface absorbing the thousands of impacts.

Karraidin’s ship had gone in first and taken out three of the fighters. Sarpedon’s had just destroyed two more. The deep space fighters seemed unwieldy compared to the Soul Drinkers’ alien fighter fleet, even though the Scapula-class were actually highly sophisticated by Imperial standards. It was a sign of how much the Imperium had stagnated - the development of their technology had slowed to a crawl. Soon it would be at a standstill and its enemies would race past it, conquering and burning.

Sarpedon called up the fleet display. The ten Soul Drinkers’ fighters had got through unscathed and had left the cordon well behind them.

10 Soul Drinkers fighters. Also Sarpedon doing what he does best - destroying Imperial property.

Note the technical evel of the Scapulas and the reflection that the Imperium is 'stagnating' and such. Bear in mind this is Sarpedon's point of view, and he is hardly the most reliable of witnesses.

Page 361

Sarpedon always felt a faint pang of remorse when he was forced to take the lives of Imperial citizens. He had even felt it when Phrantis Jenassis died. The tragedy of the Imperium wasn’t that it provided a breeding ground for the galaxy’s evils - it was that the untold billions of people locked in its authority fought as if it was their only salvation. The people were the Imperium, and if they could only understand the error of that tyranny they could dissolve it overnight and make it into something that could truly eradicate the darkness of Chaos. But they could not. People were too blind to look beyond what surrounded them. Sarpedon himself, and every single Soul Drinker, had once been the most fervent defenders of the Imperium, believing its existence to be part of the Emperor’s great plan to shepherd humanity towards something better.

But in truth the Emperor hated corruption, sin, and Chaos, and all those things were made possible by the Imperium. That was why the Emperor had given the Soul Drinkers a chance of redemption. They answered to no one but him, and Sarpedon knew that he wanted nothing more from them than to fight Chaos wherever they found it. Perhaps the Emperor was dead and was now no
more than an idea - but that idea was still worth fighting for. And fighting was all the Soul Drinkers could do.

Sarpedon waxes pompous. What's funny here is that he almost reverses position in latter novels, particularily when he faces off against Eumenes. I think this was meant to make Sarpedon seem philsoohpical and sympathetic, but it just makes him seem gullible and arrogant. That said it's an interesting perspective.

Page 362

Lord Inquisitor Kolgo was like a giant of a man, wearing the impossibly ornate ceremonial power armour that rivalled the Terminator armour of the Space Marines in size. Gilded angels danced across the barrel-like chest plate of ceramite. A power fist adorned each massive arm, with litanies of faith on the knuckles to symbolise how faith itself destroyed the Emperor’s enemies, not simple raw strength.
..
But the armour was the ceremonial garb of the lord inquisitor of the Stratix sector, and Kolgo could hardly hold audience without it.

Inquisitor Lord in his ceremonial Termiantor-scale armour.

PAge 363

"Teturact has killed billions already, and if we do not maintain our
focus on destroying him the sector may be lost for good."

Teturact has controlled a sector and 'billions' lost already. That does imply he may not totally control the sector. Yet.

Page 363

"But my lord, the Mechanicus must bow to your authority. It is not much that I ask. I regret only that my own authority does not stretch as far as to force the hand of the archmagi. If I could learn what I needed by myself I would have gladly done so, but your word carries far more weight than mine so I must ask that you do this for our mutual good."

Kolgo sighed, as if weary. "Thaddeus, the Mechanicus supply the ordinatus which inquisitors under my remit will use to destroy the targets they identify. The Mechanicus maintain our ships and the weapons we carry. Most importantly, it is their magi biologis who are being used by us to examine all aspects of the plague and the horrors that follow them. This operation requires closer cooperation with the Adeptus Mechanicus than any I have commanded before. When this Inquisitorial command was formed, I had to ensure that cooperation would not fail. Archmagos Ultima Cryol met with me to confirm that we would do all we could to help one another. He promised me the ordinatus, weapons and support we desperately needed. I promised him in return that the forge worlds of Sadlyen Falls XXI, Themiscyra Beta and Salshan Anterior would not fall to Teturact. Salshan Anterior is already gone. We believe its servitor stocks were infected and were scrapped rather than incinerated - they returned to life, rose up and killed every living thing on the planet. This is bad enough, I am having to make concessions I cannot afford just to keep Inquisitorial warships in space. But Themiscyra Beta is showing signs of infection, too. I have flooded the place with inquisitors and their staff, but they cannot find the source of the infection and are having
precious little success in stopping its spread. You understand, Thaddeus, that I simply cannot ask for any more favours from the Mechanicus."

Here we see, as we do in many FFG sources - how politics influences everything in the Imperium. Even the theoreetically limitless power of the Inquisitor must bow to politics. HEre we see the importance of maintaining good relations with the AdMech in order to prosecute a war, and how that means compromises to cater to Mechanicus interests. It also shows how pragmatism can overrule most other considerations - the AdMech due to their position are important to prosecuting the war, so the loss of their territory can have more impact than, say, a feral or feudal or even an agri or some civilised worlds would.

Also note at least 3 Forge worlds within the sector, and that the organic components of servitors can fall to disease (at least warp based disease.)

Page 364

"Eumenix would have fallen under the jurisdiction of the subsector command on Salshan Anterior, which is impossible to access if indeed it even exists any more. The only repository for the information you seek will be the Mechanicus sector command itself, and the archmagos ultima considers the information it contains to be a sacred relic. At the best of times it could take years of politicking to get an inquisitor inside. As you are no doubt aware, these are not the best of times."

Informational repositories at the sector/subsector level, both for the Inquisitors and AdMech. not much redudnancy it seems, and both Inquisitors and Admech seem to have 'sector level' commands the way other organs of the Imperium do (like the Inquisition, Munitorum, etc.)

Page 364

"I appreciate your audience, Lord Kolgo. It has taught me a great deal that I did not expect to
learn."

"I am a politician, Thaddeus. I accepted that role when I took the title of lord inquisitor. It is my task to ensure that the holy orders of the Emperor’s Inquisition are able to do their jobs, and sometimes that requires some reciprocity. I have the authority to have Archmagos Ultima Cryol executed and the Mechanicus command raided for the information you need, but then who would repair the warp engines on our ships? Who would find us a cure for Teturact’s plagues? It is this cooperation that holds the Imperium together, Thaddeus. If you are lucky you will never have to deal with it, but someone must and that someone in this instance is me."

More on politics and the limits it can impose on theoretically unlimited power.

PAge 364-365

She had been born in the hives of Methalor, a dark, hot place where generations lived
out pointless lives in machine shops or sank into the nightmare of the underhive. Sarkia broke out. She had a keen mind and a keener sense of duty. The Imperium needed every single nut and bolt that Methalor produced, but Sarkia could do more for her Emperor. She was quietly religious, intelligent, and terrified of a life of mediocrity. She needed the Adeptus Mechanicus as much as they needed her, and recruits like her.

Sarkia was taken in by the temple of the Machine-God on Methalor and told the first truths about the Omnissiah, the spirit that permeated all machinery whose thoughts were pure logic and whose worship was the gathering of knowledge. She made a competent and useful adept, and by the time she had been transferred to the Stratix sector she was considered a potential techpriest, on the verge of completing her apprenticeship as an adept inferior.

Then she had been given a post on the research outpost on Stratix Luminae, a tiny cold planetoid barely even visible above the dockyards of Stratix itself. The work suited her; it was away from the immense masses of humanity, and from here she could begin to believe that she was a part of something meaningful. In the rarified environment of the labs she could achieve something that would have some impact on the Imperium. She began to touch on the mysteries of the Omnissiah, and the religious power of unadulterated knowledge gained for its own sake.

Origins and career of a AdMech initiate and techpriest. One of the more less-grimdarky, more optimistic elements of the novel.

Page 368-369

His requests for astropathic traffic monitoring had been more and more difficult to implement, even when he brandished the small Inquisitorial symbol that carried the weight of immense authority. The warzone had been divided into military administration zones so the Departmento Munitorum could have a hope of wrestling with the logistics of such an immense operation, and Thaddeus had ordered alerts if astropathic transmissions were made with certain keywords - Astartes, renegade Marines, purple, spider, psychic and dozens of others. But there were several sectors that had not cooperated as Thaddeus had expected.

Imperial monitoring was impossible in areas completely controlled by Teturact, such as the space around Stratix that had been designated target sector primary, so Thaddeus could not expect much reply from the scattered recon ships and Inquisitorial operatives skulking between the plague worlds. But the Septiam-Calliargan sector had replied to Thaddeus’s requests with red tape and misdirection. Aggarendon Nebula sector hadn’t replied at all, yet there was little military activity around the nebula’s scattered mining worlds. Subsector Caitaran, a tiny tract of space but one that included the Inquisition fortress and several Imperial Guard command flotillas, was worst of all: the communications Thaddeus received from the astropathic monitoring stations seemed stilted and contrived, and he had little doubt they were doctored.

Inquisitorial astropathic monitoring at work. Interesting here is that we're actually sending words- messages, rather than more vague/symobolic stuff like in other novels (Outcast Dead, other Graham McNeill novels, or the novel Blind.) Of course letters and words are symbols too, it may simply reflect differences in the method of transmission, the ranges or reliability of the communications in the warp, or the manner in which messages are sent (the numbers or kinds of astropaths used.)

The Munitorum has also divvied up the warzone into administrative regions for logistical purposes - an interesting insight into how they handle such large, sector-scale conflicts.

Also mention of research ships, IG command flotillas and an Inquisitoiral fortress within a subsector. I imaigne the flotillas are Navy vessels adapted/co-opted for IG high command and control throughout the warzone, possibly across multipel regions. Or it might be a rare case of whole starships seconded to high level Imperial Guard control, not unlike Gaunt having a frigate at his disposal.

Also astropathic monitoring stations.


Page 369

Thaddeus’s previous attempts to access historical records from worlds the Soul Drinkers had once fought on had yielded no information at all about the Chapter. The cathedral of heroes on Mortenken’s World, for instance, no longer held the carved stone mural depicting Daenyathos, the Soul Drinkers’ legendary philosopher-soldier who drove the alien hrud from the planet’s holy city. Almost all the Soul Drinkers’ marks since the Cerberian Field had been erased. Only Inquisitorial sources retained any cohesive history of the Soul Drinkers and their glorious history - glorious, at least, until the betrayal at Lakonia and the Chapter’s excommunication. If there were aspects of their history not held in the Inquisition archives on the fortress-worlds in sectors where the Soul Drinkers had fought, then as far as the Imperium was concerned that history never occurred.

Thaddeus had never seen a deletion order in action before. He had heard of them of course, and been a part of some operations where they had been enforced. But he had never been aware of such a stain of ignorance across the Imperium, that burned books and wiped data-slates. Perhaps mind-wipings were being carried out on people who had encountered the Soul Drinkers. Thaddeus, as an inquisitor must, understood the importance of information, and how knowledge could rot the souls of those unable to cope with it.

Renegade Chapters were not unknown - how many children had been told the grim stories of the Horus Heresy, when half the Space Marine Legions were corrupted by the great enemy?

Deletion orders, and how it causes problems of coordination and control between both the Inquisition and the arms of the Imperium itself, as well as the attidues some arms of the Imperium have towards information (and its dissemintation or control.

Of course ti also points out that renegade chapters (like the traitor marines) are known, which seems contradicotry, but this may again reflect the control of information - that is they let loose 'sanitized' versions of the existence of such beings, which may or may not reflect their reality at all. Think of the Uplifting Primer's view on vairous xenos races, especially the Tau-based damocles Gulf edition.

When you think about the massive amount of resources diverted to this effort (even removing frigging statues on some distant world) you have to cry. Resources like that could have been used to toher purposes - like helping to crush Teturact.

Page 370

He didn’t know which sub-ordo of the Inquisition enforced the order. Neither did he know which operatives in astropathic nexus outposts and planetary archives were fuddling communications about proscribed topics. But they were effective, and without the authority of an inquisitor lord Thaddeus felt he could do little to get round them. He was feeding on scraps, and it was getting worse. He only hoped that his last remaining lead - an investigation of Eumenix outpost and the reason they had attacked it - would lead to some breakthrough. Otherwise his investigation would be starved of information until it died.

The Inquisition could be obsessed with blinding one part of itself to the activities of another, and Thaddeus sometimes wondered if it could one day push back the darkness and learn to trust itself. But there were enough dark rumours of Inquisitors who had become dangerous radicals or gone mad in their pursuit of corruption, so perhaps keeping members ignorant was the only way to stop it from rotting inside.

Thaddeus laments the nature of the Inquisition and the way in which it can operate at cross-purposes to one another.

Page

"Colonel Vinn has assembled his men and has them ready for review."

"Good. What do you think of them?"

"They are mostly veterans of reconnaissance formations or counter-insurgency on primitive worlds.
They are skilled and determined soldiers."

Assessment of seconded IG/storm troopers.

Page 372

A thousand inquisitors were working in the warzone on a hundred different missions, and even agents of the Officio Assassinorum were creeping across the stars towards targets in Teturact’s empire. And that included Teturact himself.

Scope of the Inquisitorial efforts in Teturact's sector. They're unlikely to he all 'native' to one particular sector, likely from several sectors around. also note the deployment of assassins.

[Ahriman238]

I'm begining to see why they always called the Soul Drinkers 'Dorn's "special" children' at the relicnews forums. 1000 Inquisitors sounds like an awful lot, even for a Chaos Lord operating on roughly the scale of the Sabbat Crusades.

[Connor MacLeod]

Time to wrap up Bleeding chalice. Two parts, one update. We go on to Crimson Tears (also known as 'Space Marines are irredeemable assholes') next time.

I've gotten and read PHalanx now, which wasnt as bad as I feared but that's not saying much. So we'll be going straight to the end of the series from this point onwards. I'll also be discussing Daenyathos between that and Hellforged, as it plays a part in this.


page 374

Sarpedon snapped out of his reverie and turned to see Apothecary Pallas reading analysis off a data-slate connected to an autosurgeon. The apothecarion set up in the fighter was comprehen­sive but cramped, packed into what had probably once been quarters for the alien crew. The autosur­geon, servitor orderlies and monitoring consoles were crammed in alongside the bulbous organic ripples of silvery metal. Wires and equipment hung from the abnormally high ceiling.

They could set up medical facilities inside the fighters. They must be much larger than a thunderhawk (for example.)

Page 376

The shuttle cockpit was bathed in eerie blue-grey light. It shone on the brass fittings of the servitor-pilot and turned the deep red upholstery a velvet black. The viewscreen swam with swirls of white, blue and grey as the servitor applied a touch of pres­sure to the engines, nudging the shuttle forward. Many of the cockpit's alarm readouts were incon­gruous beads of red on the instrument panels - the shuttle had not originally been designed for these conditions, but Thaddeus knew it would hold together. Colonel Vinn had pulled a few of the right strings with the Guard units seconded to the Caitaran command and acquired an exceptional craft for the mission. The shuttle had been fitted with reactive armour plates that even now were flexing under the abnormal pressure and cold, and the stealth mode of the engine worked on a jet propulsion principle that enabled the shuttle to be propelled underwater.

Or, in this case, liquid hydrogen.

Thaddeus is using his shuttle to infiltrate an AdMech outpost through a sea of liquid hydrogen. Note the reactive armour plates and stealth mode jet engines. I'm not sure if jet engines would even work underwater.

Even more interesting is that the shuttle was pulled from the Guard units.. what kind of shuttle is this, exactly?

PAge 376

"Keep the grenade launchers slung until we get well away from the edge. There'll be dampening fields to prevent the liquid exploding but we'll still have a hell of a bang if it goes off. I don't want us losing anyone to accidents, it's dangerous enough in there."
"Yes, sir. Hellguns only until your order."

More explosive/flame retarding dampening fields. Also grenade launchers may set off liquid hydrogen but hellguns (oddly) wouldn't,


Page 377

Pharos was an asteroid, part of the remains of a world that had been destroyed millions of years before. It hung in a broken necklace around a dead, blood-orange star. Across those asteroids were scat­tered mining colonies and hard-bitten missionary outposts; the system was almost completely forgot­ten.

A thousand years before, the Adeptus Mechanicus had followed their complex fate-equations and tech-priest divinations and arrived at the asteroid chain. They selected the region to be the seat of Stratix sector command, which in an emergency would serve to coordinate Adeptus Mechanicus troops, spacecraft and expertise. But information was most critical of all - the Adeptus Mechanicus was a priesthood, and its religion was knowledge. Information was the stuff of holiness, and the sec­tor command had built a cathedral to learning that would hold all the information generated by the many adepts throughout the sector.

- Adeptus Mechanicus "fate equations" and tech priest "divinations" allowed them to locate a Sector base to allow their storage of vital information from across sectors as well as to coordinate their troops, spacecraft and expertise. I wonder if this has any merit or if its just mumbo jumbo shit. With the Admech, who the hell knows.

Also note space based mining colonies and missionary outposts. These are apparnetly minor enough not to warrant official Imperial notice, however.

Page 378

The delicate datastacks had to be kept cold to ensure their stability and the immutability of the information they contained. A whole ocean of liq­uid hydrogen flooded the lower levels, drowning the underground portion of the cathedral in the impossibly cold depths, fed by giant intakes that opened onto the asteroid's rocky surface. The cap­tive ocean was regularly refilled by Mechanicus tanker craft in the never-ending cycle of holy main­tenance that formed an act of worship for thousands of adepts and menials.

Inside, galleries of data-cubes were arranged above the freezing lake, almost alive with the immense volume of information they contained. A small body of tech-priests was permitted to live inside, sharing the cathedral with the maintenance servitors, bathing in the holiness of so much knowledge. They were adepts blessed for their devo­tion and service to the Machine-God with the opportunity to live out their extended lives in the icy splendour of Pharos.

When circumstances required, Pharos was a repository of vital knowledge that sector command could plumb for the good of the Imperium - the archives of its medical tower were at that moment being combed for solutions to the terrible plagues erupting throughout the Stratix warzone. But only tech-priests understood its real purpose - holy ground, created by the Mechanicus as a monument to the Omnissiah and a model of the Machine-God's ideal universe where immutable knowledge was the only reality.

Inside our sector command archive thingy, place. I suspect this might be an example of the sorts of places mentioned in REd Fury (where information from across the Imperium was archived and stored for redundancy and ease of access.) Quite probably it is.

Page 379

Lieutenant Kindarek reached over and adjusted the seal between Thaddeus's helmet and the neck ring of his hostile environment suit. Normally issued to explorator pioneers or engineers working on ships' hulls, the suit could keep extremes of temperature or noxious atmospheres from harming the occupant. All mem­bers of the recon platoon wore them, their faces appearing subtly warped through the square, trans­parent faceplates and their bulk increased by the thick, spongy dark grey material of the suits.

A useful bit of equipment for playing in liquid hydrogen enviroments, I suppose.


Page 380

The pointmen jumped onto the beach before the ramp was down, the huge boots of the HE suits splashing in the liquid hydrogen at the shore's edge. The photoreactive faceplates darkened in the glare as they panned the barrels of their hellguns over the area.

Our HE suits have photoreactive faceplates. And apparently the Hellguns (and other weapons)Are not adversely affected by extremely cold enviroments (at least, in the short term.)

Page 380

This cylinder of the cathedral was three kilometres across and perhaps ten high, with the lit section a hundred metres high. Access ladders wound their way in double helixes up to the first gallery levels. Columns hung from the distant ceiling, matt-grey so they drunk the abundant light. Between them were webs of glass walkways and platforms, thou­sands of filaments that turned the light flooding from below into a bright shimmering forest. It was like being inside a polished diamond, with a mil­lion faces looking up at the broken light of a new star. Clustered around the pillars and forming star-bursts of light at the intersections of the web were intricate crystalline sculptures in complex geometric shapes, mathematical prayers coded into the angles and faces, each sculpture a crystal information repository holding enough information to fill a hundred cogitator engines.

Further up, the curved walls were hung with ban­ners, rust-red cloth embroidered with binary prayers in gold thread. The brightness gave way to shadows towards the ceiling, incense-stained dark­ness swallowing the cathedral's light where Thaddeus could just make out the control structures looking down on the cathedral, where tech-priests might even now be watching intruders violating the Omnissiah's temple.

The technology of this place was the old kind, the kind they couldn't make any more, salvaged from the forgotten madness of the Dark Age of Technol­ogy and put to a new use in the worship of the Omnissiah. This was a sacred place indeed, where the Adeptus Mechanicus kept technology they could not - some said would not - replicate.\

To Thaddeus, it was beautiful. To Lieutenant Kin-darek and his men it was just another warzone. Kindarek barked an order and the platoons fanned out behind the pointmen, who were rapidly scan­ning the ridges of the metal sandbar. The platoon
dissolved into its component squads, each overlap­ping fields of fire.

the sector base of the AM is made from "old technology" the things they can no longer (or some say won't) build/replicate. Yay for the losttech meme. Also the dimensions of the "cathedral. They will become important - at least I hope they are.

Page 381

Several men carried bundles of equipment slung at their waists or backs - basic interface equipment, guaranteed to survive the intense cold, that would enable the user to jack into a simple information system. Many of the more technically-minded storm troopers had been quickly trained in its use, and Thaddeus himself could perform the vital task if need be.
Kindarek himself had got to the walkways. For a moment he paused and looked towards the troop­ers by the pillar - Thaddeus saw one of them, one of the pointmen with an auspex, mouth a single word as he voxed the lieutenant.

technically minded storm troopers carrying computer interface equipment suited to the cold. Also cold adapted auspex.

Page 382

The lower half of the pillar had broken into more than twenty combat servitors, each three times the bulk of a man, highly advanced and hovering with in-built grav-units. Metallic limbs folded into multilaser barrels and circular diamond-toothed power saws emerged on metallic armatures. In the few sec­onds before the servitors were battle-ready Thaddeus realised they had indeed been observed as soon as they had made it to the shore - the cathe­dral's defences had waited until the storm troopers were spread out between the walkways and the stairwell, vulnerable and out of formation.

combt servitors defending our info catehdral.

Page 382

The frozen air erupted into laser fire, searing red streaks from the overcharged power packs of the hellguns lashing from every trooper able to shoot, multi-lasers pumping volleys of white fire through the bodies of the troopers closest to the pillar.
....
Men were shredded, their blood freezing into a hail of red shrapnel, chunks of flesh shatter­ing against the crystal.
...
Whitehot laser fire slashed through the stairwell and the man directly above Thaddeus was hit, his torso shattering as a laser bolt punched through his chest. White fire screeched through the stairs beneath him and the strucutre came apart, metal steps raining down along with half of the last squad.

Servitor multilaser fire "Shredding" storm troopers, and "Shattering" a storm trooper's torso. Also the hellguns are using "overcharged" power packs.

Page 383

Thaddeus reached out and grabbed the railing as the steps under his feet disappeared. The bulk of the . dead man above buffeted him as it fell, and Thad­deus was dangling one-handed nearly a hundred metres above the lake.

Thaddeus and his men are 100 metres above the lake.

Page 383

Grenade rounds exploded above, sending clouds of shrapnel ripping through the servitors. The damage was minimal but the explosions scrambled their sensors, and one of the insectoid servitors fell wreathed in strange blue flame as a dozen high-powered hellgun shots tore up into its underbelly.
..

Thaddeus drew his autopistol, feeling it click as an executioner round chambered itself in response to his hand around the grip.

- "high pwoered" hellgun shots and grenades used against servitors. The Grenades don't do uch but mess with their sensors but the hellgun fire (at least in combined salvos) does. Also Thaddeus' autopistol is using executioner rounds. It's interesting that they have executioner rounds for autopistols. Even more interesting is that the round auto-loads the moment Thaddeus's hand touches it - seems a bit more than just a autopistol.

Page 384

Telleryev spat a world from his homeworld that Thaddeus assumed was profane, then flicked his hellgun onto full power and sent a bright lance of laser into the body of a servitor drifting ominously over to flank them.

Variable settings on the hellguns. Full power shot takes out a servitor.

Page 384

Thaddeus took aim with his pistol and loosed off three shots, the microcogitators in the rare executioner rounds sending the bullets curving as they flew, punching into the servitor with mechanical accuracy.

....

Like swift metal insects the rounds looped towards their target and shattered the servitor's metal face, sending arcs of electricity spitting from the broken machinery and exposing the biological core of the machine, the part that had once been human.

Executionr rounds in action. They seem rare at least in autopistol form, and they have "microcogitators." Bullets strike hard enough to shatter face (if not head) of a servitor.


Page 384

The other storm trooper swung the barrel of his grenade launcher around and fired a single frag grenade into the servi­tor's belly, ripping it clean open and spilling machine parts and pulped flesh down towards the lake.

The grenade trooper allowed himself a grim smile of triumph as he racked another round into his weapon.

Effect of Grenade launcher on the servitor. Grenade launchers in this case seem multi-shot.

Page 385

Thaddeus slipped a single shell from one of his wasit pouches into the breech of the autopistol. A single heavy shell, it was more expensive than many spaceships and a handful of them had cost Thaddeus a lot of favours. Now, he was immensely grateful he had shown the preseicence to have brought them along.

...

The autopistol barked and a glittering trial followed the bullet. Its armour-piercing tip and micro-guidance systems let it punch repeatedly through the glossy carapace of the servitor before running out of propellant. Its concentrated explosive core detonated in the heart of the servitor and blew it apart in a shower of frozen flesh and shimmering metal.

Adeptus Mechanicus specials, the pinnacle of personal armaments technology.

A specialty round that makes executioner rounds look like musket balls. not quite sure why you want a bullet that would repeatedly smack into your target like that, but its impressive at least. Even more its got some sort of ultra compact, powerful explosive that can blow apart an entire servitor (which would require many tens, if not hundreds of grams of TNT - we're talking somewhere on the order of grenade or high end bolter level damage.) Which also means some pretty impressive, high end explosives technology compared to the modern world, since the bullet probably can't mass more than a few tens of grams tops.

Basically its a bolter round with a guidance system and enough propellant to sustain multiple shots. go figure.

Not sure what "more expensive than spaceships" means either - are we talking warp capable? Sub-stellar? What?

Page 385

Thaddeus nodded at the lieutenant and took the hook-up equipment from a hip pocket of his suit. It was a simple portable cogitator linked to a data-slate by a thick bundle of wires, with various interfaces leading off on yet more wires. Thaddeus fumbled with the device as he crouched by the sculpture feeling the sudden hot flashes of laser blasts passing close by.

He couldn't find an interface. He passed his hands over the clear, angular crystal surface but there was no way in. Would he fail here because he had been stupid enough to assume the Mechanicus would use standard interfaces?

No - there was something, at the base of the crys­tal. A metal panel was bolted to the surface, an ugly flaw in the crystal. A data-thief probe extended from the plate into the body of the crystal and provided a low-tech way in. The data-sculptures were tech­nology from a previous age and the Mechanicus had obviously lacked an equally elegant way of using them - they had been forced to make do with the technology they had, and that was the same technology used across the Imperium.

Our cold weather computer hacking gear things. The computers in question are magic crystal technology it seems, although of a sort that are effectively lost tech (At least to AdMech of this age and region... its not as if the AdMech is willing to share its secrets even with itself neccesarily.) This means they can't replicate it, probably, but they can at least interface with it and make use of it, in some manner anyhow. I wonder if the fact its magic crystal means it is some sort of optical/photonic computer?


Page 386

Thaddeus plugged one wire into the crude inter­face. There was a pause and suddenly the data-slate was full of solid information, dense columns of binary pouring across the screen.
The program loaded onto the cogitator had been almost as expensive in its own way as the bullets in Thaddeus's gun, taken from a tech-heretic that Thaddeus had helped capture back in his interroga­tor days. The Hereticus had ordered that the heretic be left alive so the Inquisition could make use of his skills - the man had escaped and Thaddeus had been a part of the mission that had finally killed him. The program he had given the Inquisition before his escape was a decoder, powerful enough to crunch through the encryption of just about any secure information source but simple enough to fit onto almost any computation device.

Skrin Kavansiel had been the man's name. A mad­man who had turned servitors and industrial machinery into rampaging monsters across half-a-dozen worlds in the Scarus sector, all in the name of the Change God. Thaddeus had shared the kill him­self with two other interrogators on an agri-world near the galactic core. That Kavansiel had been allowed to live the first time had sowed the doubts in Thaddeus that Lord Inquisitor Kolgo had con­firmed - the Inquisition was not the single, focused instrument of the Emperor's justice that he had learned of when he was first groomed as an inter­rogator. Half the time, it might as well be fighting itself.

The cogitator broke the mass of information down into categories and homed in on the records of Adeptus Mechanicus installations and personnel throughout the Stratix sector. There were still tril­lions of scraps of information in there - at least, thought Thaddeus as laser fire spattered around him and short, gargled screams told of troopers dying, the information vaults were all connected.

- the Ordo Hereticus have used (in the past) tech-heretics captured by the Ordo. (In this case it was a Tzeentch heretic who'd programmed servitors and industrial machinery into rampaging monsters across half a dozen worlds. The heretic provided a decoder program that is used here to break into AM cogitators. Sneaky of them, and probably something only a radical would do. (yes, a 'radical' hereticus inquisitor... go figure.)

Also "trillions of scraps of information" - not sure what a scrap is, but even if it was a few bytes apiece we're talking terabytes of information in those vaults.. probably more, and those cogitators are having to sort/filter and download from it in minutes at best.

Page 386

Thaddeus glanced upwards. There were lights now in the darkness at the top of the cylinder, powerful spotlights swinging through the shadows. The lights picked out ropes coiling downwards and figures rappelling down them, troopers in rust-red jump­suits, guns slung on their backs.
"Frag, tech-guard!" said Kindarek.

Half the storm troopers were still pinned down by the servitors. Thaddeus didn't hold out much hope that those who remained could deal with crack tech-guard troops firing on them from above.
He spotted a couple of tech-priests directing the tech-guard, robed and hooded adepts armed with shimmering power axes and exotic weaponry that sent bolts of power burning down at the storm troopers.

Tech guard (SKitarii) appear at the top of the cathedral-cylinder, while Thaddeus and his guys are still close to the bottom. Remember that our cylinder-catehdral are something like 10 kilometres up, so this is suggesting the Tech Guard (at least) are firing their weaponry down at the Storm troopers and Thaddeus for at least a good portion of that distance. It's not clear whether the storm troopers could even hope to fire back, but Thadeus seems to suggest it might be possible.

Page 386

The data-slate began to sort through the information according to the same codewords that Thaddeus had used to filter astropathic traffic - Soul Drinker, purple, Marine, spider, a host of others.

data slate as well as the portable cogitators, all to sort and process the data mentioned.

Page 387

The data now rushing through the uplink device still poured through the cogitator in awesome amounts. Every Mechanicus outpost from the pre­sent day back to the time of the Great Crusade was listed, with staff lists, schematics, work rotas, research reports, accounts, tech-prayers, and all the ephemera of the Mechanicus's immense operation.

Thaddeus keyed in the last command he had -the order to sort the data by the staff list Sister Aescarion had recovered from the outpost on Eumenix. A few hundred names that represented the last hope - maddeningly, everything Thaddeus needed to know was probably streaming past in front of his eyes, he just had to pick it out from the ocean of information.

The datastream thinned. A blinking green light on the frame of the data-slate told Thaddeus that the information was concise enough for the cogitator to hold. Thaddeus pressed a switch and the informa­tion was seared onto the cogitator's memory.

Thaddeus's super storm trooper hackers seem to be able to acquire perhaps thousands of years worth of data from perhaps thousands, perhaps millions of outposts.. in a matter of minutes probably. I'd guess we're talking many kilobytes, perhaps evne megabytes of data per outpost (depending on if its just text or images.) - gigabytes if not terabytes of data in minutes, quite possibly. It's conjecture of course, but it fits with other examples we know of (Conquest of Armageddon for example.) And it would fit with the scale implied above.

Of course even if that is true, it could be that impressive just because its stuff available to inquisitors, so speculating about it any beyond the fact it exists isn't very helpful

Page 387

The shuttle soared upwards shattering its way through walkways as it went. Mounted guns on the half-glimpsed structures above pumped a stream of shells into the shuttle, ripping through the
armour plates and sending sudden, shocking gouts of flame bursting from the engine hous­ings.

The first tech-guard were landing on walkways high above, sending down hails of rapid-firing autogun shots.
...
..two of his men were shot off the walkway by tech-guard fire. Thaddeus blasted twice, three times, and three tech-guard were picked off their rappel lines by ammunition they could only have dreamed of using one day.

The shuttle's engine blew and clouds of vapour bloomed around it. Its rise peaked and it began to fall, just a few metres beneath the levels the tech-guard were now landing on.

The servitor-pilot, working to hardwired proto­cols Thaddeus himself had installed, switched the shuttle's fuel cells into reverse, pumping high-grade prometheum derivative backwards until it flooded through the ignition chambers.

The fuel ignited and incinerated everything in the cockpit and crew compartment in an instant. The servitor-pilot was atomised, metal components melted to gas, flesh disappearing.

The hull of the shuttle failed under the stress of the explosive forces within. With a thunderclap and a flash of flame that turned the crystal cathedral a blazing orange, the shuttle exploded, and boiling flame filled the top half of the cylinder.

The requisitioned shuttle is called out from below the hydrogen and apparently is capable of flight on its engines, shooting straight up into the top of the cathedral before detonating. The Tech guard are apparently using autoguns of some kind, which only makes the implied ranges even more insane. Thaddeus uses his high tech ammo to fire back as well, which implies that it might have similar ranges. I'm still not quite sure what to make of things range wise, and even I admit 10 km seems a bit extreme, but we know at least the Tech guard are up somewhere in the top half, so we might figure they're firing down for at least half the length of the cathedral or so. It's not neccesarly precision fire either, they might be spraying the area (suppression fire, perhaps) but even if so a few km range is impressive for autoguns and for Thaddeus' high tech ammo. It would also correspond (roughly) with the known ranges of other weapons (lasguns.)

also promethium-based "fuel cells".


Page 387

The containment fields, designed to divert the energy of any ignition away from the information vaults above, compressed the heat and Shockwave downwards and outwards. But the hydrogen kept burning as the transport plunged through it and then its plasma drive imploded. Without the containment fields, the whole lake would have burned and turned the cathedral into a column of flame, incinerating everything inside. Instead, the explosion was forced down into the root of the cylinder, where the ferrofibre walls met the rock of Pharos.

- containment fields again "designed to divert the energy of any ignition away from the information vaults.' - the fields channel the forcec of an explosion concentrating and directing it.)

Also the shuttle apparently had a "plasma drive" - either that was the "jet engine" or it was in addition to it. go figure.


Page 391

Septiam Torus was a garden world. Its two main continents were covered in temperate grasslands and deep, lush forests.
..
Soulfire stamens were the source of some of the most potent combat drugs the Imperium issued to its penal legions and more expendable Guard regi­ments, and so Septiam Torus was accorded special status. Its tithes were paid in the soulfire crop alone and the ruling family - descended from the first rogue trader to find the planet and annexe it in the name of the Emperor - was granted perpetual rights over the world.

- mention of soulfire stamens, one of the most potent combat drugs the Imperium issued to its penal legions and "more expendable Guard regiments." I'm not sure what the criteria for "Expendalbe" is (otehr than maybe being a Krieg meat-droid) but it does suggest that some regiments could be considered "less expendable" anyhow.


Page 393

Guardsman Senshini could swear he heard the crunch of bone beneath the tracks of the Leman Russ Executioner...
...

Beyond the main cannon's targeting array Senshini could just pick out the jumble of shapes on the horizon...

Leman Russ Executioner (plasma gun equipped one)... has some sort of targeting array for the main gun.


Page 393

A reg­iment of Elysians had dropped onto the world from Valkyries by grav-chute. They had died almost to the man, finding themselves surrounded by masses of walking corpses where they had expected a handful of rebel private troopers. The Elysian Drop Troop regiments were considered elite formations but no amount of training would make a lasgun shot kill something that was already dead, especially when some of those living dead were former comrades.

The Imperial Guard had pulled out those Elysians they could and had sent in a regiment of more con­ventional ground-pounders, the Jouryan XVII. They besieged Septiam City. The Stratix XXIII, hard-bitten hive ganger conscripts itching for a chance to avenge their dead world, had been sent in to sup­port them once it had become clear that the twenty thousand Jouryans couldn't take Septiam City themselves. The governor's own Gathalamorian Artillery were brought in to soften up the entrenched defenders prior to the inevitable assault.

In total, including the support and supply forma­tions, Army Group Torus numbered just shy of a hundred thousand men.

IG response to the zombiefied garden world. First they send in elite troops in a precision attack, which fails. Then they go for a more conventional response by deploying a 20K regiment, followed by a regiment of close-in hive ganger troops, likely becuase they're used to close quarters fighting (like inside a city.). From there it grew until the response was some 100K troops including the support and supply forces (such as artillery.)


Page 394 -

...he saw troops at the edges of his target viewer, figures hurrying past in the dark grey fatigues of the Jouryan XII. The armour and infantry were to support one another as they closed in on the perimeter, the tanks breaching the walls and the infantry swarm­ing through the gaps. Demolisher siege tanks were rumbling towards knots of shattered trees where they could scrounge some cover as they opened up at long range. Leman Russ tanks would close in, their medium-range guns shattering masonry and throwing defenders from the walls. The Executioners, of which there were only a handful amongst the Jouryans, would have to venture in further so their guns could fill the breaches with liquid fire before the infantry went in.

Armour and infantry assault... the Exeuctioner agan has an odd sort of target viewer. Rather oddly the Demolishers are implied to be longer ranged than the Russes (or whatever they're deploying here.) and even longer ranged than the plasma-gun equipped Executioner. This actually seems the opposite of usuaul - Demolishters are powerful but short ranged (and heavily armored).. hell plasma cannon sponsons have more range than a demolisher cannon (as do lascannon.) Go figure.

Also we get more plasma super soaker flamethrower type guns (Eg the liquid fire). Maybe its a flamethrower tank variant.


Page 394

The Executioner was armed unlike any other Imperial Guard tank. Its Leman Russ-pattern chassis was topped with a massive plasma blastgun, most of the crew compartment crammed with the hot, thrumming plasma coils that fuelled the gun. An Executioner was a rare beast, hardly ever seen out­side the forge worlds where the Adeptus Mechanicus jealously guarded the secrets of their manufacture, and the Jouryan XVII was fortunate indeed to have acquired any at all. It was Senshini's duty to fire the blastgun, and he knew that it would light up the tank to enemy spotters like a firework display.
..
He could be riding a Hellhound, the notorious and often ill-fated flamethrower tanks with external tanks full of promethium, which had to go into the teeth of the enemy to support the infantry with waves of fire.

Executioner described, displayin gin particular its rarity. Interesting that "liquid fire" apparently needs some sort of plasma coil to fuel it. Also interestng that the Jouryans, a hive world regiment, have tanks. It also seems Executioners are considered safer than hellhounds.

Page 394

Tanako, in the cramped driver's compartment below Senshini, swung the steering levers and the tank swerved to the left - Senshini could see through the targeter as the tank crept closer to the hunched Jouryans hurrying over the cratered mud.

- the tanks are moving at the pace of infanrty to keep them close. The Executioner's plasma gun also is equipped with a targeter (the target viewer/array mentioned above.)

Page 395

The Gathalamorian's guns fired heavy, armour-cracking shells to shatter the walls, and high explosive rounds to wreak havoc in the city behind them.

"armour cracking" artillery shells as well as more conveintonal HE. not sure whether they are kinetic AP or some sort of shaped charge( or krak) shell.

Page 395-396

Manticore artillery tanks to the rear of the Jouryans' armour added bright streaks of rockets, like claw marks against the dark sky, and one of the Gathalamorians' Deathstrike launchers sent a fat missile thudding into the city just beyond the wall where it erupted into a blue-white ball of nuclear flame.

Answering fire spattered back from the walls, a dusting of glitter that was distant small arms fire, autoweapons and lasguns.

'Squadron Twelve is giving us a ranging shot," said Kaito through the tank's intercom, his voice puncutated by explosions growing closer.

"Understood, sir."
Squadron Twelve was a few hundred metres to the left, consisting of two Leman Russ tanks with las-cannon sponsons and a Vanquisher tank hunter; the squadron functioning as a nugget of anti-armour firepower in the infantry line.

Senshini swiveled the targeter to get a view of Squadron Six's Vanquisher tank firing a tracer shell towards the walls. It fell just short of the walls in a crimson starburst.

"Squadron Twelve, this is Squadron Six gunner," said Senshini into the tank's primitive field vox unit. "We got that. Make it three hundred metres to blastgun range."

"Squadron Six, this is Squadron Command." came the voice of the artillery's command section, mounted in a Salamander command vehicle a few hundred metres back. "You have the short range, move forward for combined long range firing."

"Yes, sir. Squadron Six out." Kaito flicked off the vox. "Get us closer, Tanako. We need to get into range the same time as the Vanquishers."

there'yre at least 300 metres away (but within autogun range, so probably less than a km or so) so this gives a rough idea of the ranges involved as well as the ranges for the plasma blastgun (or at least the super soaker variant.)

Also note the aritllery has both manticore missiles and Deathstrike launchers. And Leman Russes with lascannon sponsons.

Page 396

The Jouryans in front of them would be in the first wave to hit the walls. Senshini had heard that such a thing was a great honour to many soldiers, but then he had also heard that there were a lot of crazy men in the Guard.

Assessment of the Jouryans and the Hive gangers. note that the tank's gunner considers such an honour to be "crazy".


Page 396

One hundred metres.

Small arms fire was spattering in the mud around the troopers - the Jouryans knew better than try to engage in a fire-fight at this range but one or two still fell, the steel rain cutting them down as they advanced.

100 metres range. Oddly the Jouryans don't seem willing to engage at this range. Quite possibly because they have no cover or stopping in the assault would be considered crazy. Who knows.


Page 396

If this had been a normal city the fleet would have obliterated it from orbit. But previous experience with Teturact's followers had shown that would just have given them a ruined warren of hiding places for the corpses to rise from. It had to be done the old-fashioned way, with troopers on foot bayoneting every one of them, and burning the remains.

The undead zombie dudes could apparently survive orbital bombardment (considering they survived attempts to cremate them earlier prior to this little conflict breaking out, this is no surprise.) and just ends up giving them places to hide. I suppose the only way to really be sure would be to level the entire city so that iw as molten slag or ash, and its possible they may not want to bring quite THAT much firepower to bear - the world seems to have at least some value anyhow.


Page 397

The targeting reticule showed the range in the bottom corner. Senshini knew he was close enough. For a second more he let the Executioner trundle on, bringing a few more metres of wall within the blastgun's reach.

..

The reticule was filled with light, streaming from above and behind as the coils emptied their massive charges through the blastgun barrel. The energy was focused into a compacted bolt of superheated plasma, white-hot and liquid, which was spat with tremendous force towards the wall of column sec­tions in Senshini's sights.

Huge column drums toppled, forming a landslide of carved stone, the sections rolling into the mud at the foot of the wall, kicking up great crescents of filth.

Liquid plasma burst into a torm of lethal droplets, seething through the gaps between the stone. Figures tumbled down the ruined wall, bodies breaking or dissolving as the plasma hit them.
...
The troops to either side sped up, squads holding back to cover the advancing units. Lasgun fire spat­tered up towards the walls and heavy weapon units sent frag missiles and airburst mortars filling the air on the battlements with shrapnel.

More of the assault. The blastgun's targeting sight seems to be more than just a simple telescope or optical scope (it has some sort of rangefinder and lockon combat I guess.) And we see the blastgun fire, which seems to be some sort of compressed bolt of flamethrower fuel that contains better than a nromal flamethrower for whatever reason. Bodies "break or dissolve" in the plasma too.

Troopers are using frag missiles and "airburst mortars" for fragmentation weaponry.

Page 398

Senshini yanked on the vertical lever and the viewpoint swung upwards, framing a precarious section of the wall where several enemies were load­ing shells into a field gun that fired almost point-blank into the Jouryans battling to get a foothold in the rubble below. Senshini took a rang­ing, correcting up a few metres, and fired. The plasma discharged with a roar and the emplace­ment disappeared in a bursting blister of plasma.

Another plasma gun shot.

Page 399

Armour was coming up beside the Executioner, a Demolisher to help crack the wall open further and an Exterminator, twin autocannons barking rapidly as they sent shrapnel bursting amongst the enemy scrambling down the rubble slope. A pair of Chimeras streaked by, tracks kicking up sprays of dirt, and a Valkyrie roared overhead, belly compart­ment full of storm troopers to exploit a full breach further up the wall.

Miore tank variants and various support elements - armoured fist and storm troopers in a Valkyrie. Whehter they are part of a regiment or separate detachments, we don't know.

Page 399

Senshini swung the targeting array down to catch sight of the rear of a Chimera as it drove headlong for the walls, the staff-and-snake symbol of the medical corps stencilled on its rear ramp. A third Chimera with the same markings drove by a moment later, its driver recklessly gunning the engine and crunching through the gears as it rode over the crest of a shell crater.

Medical corps chimeras.. rather interetsing they have them available. Maybe what it is referring to is the trojan variant, which are supposed to be more common?

Also a shell crater smaller than the width of the cheimera (less than 4-5 metres IIRC) A shlel from what we don't know.

Page 399

Heavy-calibre fire spattered from the open hatch. Senshini spotted dark figures tumbling down the
rubble slope. The volume of fire was massive and shocking, ripping into the Septiams on the slopes. It was accurate, too, and Senshini saw Septiam's fall. No lasgun could blow a man apart like that, not even the hellguns of the Guard elites.

Lasguns and hellguns could not "blow a man apart" like a bolter. I'm not sure if it means single shot, or barrages or what. Technically it can be true, but it really depends on your design or variant. At the very least it would suggest that such lasguns are not common (at least in the Guard) - and at least not in this region of space.

Then again this could also just mean lasweapons don't explode people - some authors do treat them as magic heat rays after all. Or maybe it means lasguns would do it differently (needing higher setting and alot more shots - they may do it, but just not as efficiently as a bolter or high explosive rounds. Or maybe they leave more burns.)

Page 401-402

The floor was polished metal with channels leading to a central drain to bleed away unwanted fluids - this alone told Thad­deus he was in a medical facility. The machine by his head was a medical servitor, a biological brain somewhere in its chromed casing telling the arma­tures jutting from its front to scribble Thaddeus's life-signs onto a long strip of parchment that spooled from the machine. Several cylinders were racked on one wall, thin transparent tubes feeding odd-coloured fluid into the gauntlets that covered his hands and wrists. The gauntlets were medical contraptions that kept veins in his hands and wrists open to keep medication flowing into him. The pains he had felt were the occasional probing of neurosensors adhering to his skin, triggering pain receptors intermittently to check his nervous system was still working

Medical servitor and other medical equipment.

Page 402

Kolgo seemed weak and wizened outside his cer­emonial armour. He wore shapeless dark robes like a monk's habit, and the neuro-interfaces were red and raw on the back of his head where his armour was normally connected.

[/quote]

Kolgo seems to have the right kinds of interfaces to connect with armour, which would make him unusual amongst non-astarted armour users.

Page 402

"Kolgo shook his head, almost sadly. 'Our mistake was both underestimating and overestimating you, Thaddeus. Underestimated because we thought that your skills were not yet well developed enough to allow you to pursue the Soul Drinkers as closely as you have. Overestimated because we thought you would be quicker to develop a sense for the conse­quences of your actions. The Inquisitorial remit is theoretically limitless, but Thaddeus, for the Throne's sake - Pharos? After I told you how deli­cate our situation with the Mechanicus was. The damn place only blew seventy-two hours ago and already sub-battlefleet Aggarendon has lost three ships to the withdrawal of tech-priest support. Ordinatus units on Calliargan and Vogel are about to fall silent. The Mechanicus are convinced that Teturact somehow got at Pharos and the tech-guard presence there has been tripled."

Thaddeus' actions have repercussons, though they believe it was Teturact, and have withdrawn support in response (to defend their own assets I guess.) I'm actually torn by that, because on one hand they ought to be justified in having their territory violated and should protect themselves, on the other they're dicks for pulling out and hampering the war effort like this.

Also mention of a "sub-battlefleet.", which has at least 3 ships. I'm not sure if it is a "subsector battlefleet" or a detachment from the sector battlefleet assigned ot a subsector. Probably both.

[Connor MacLeod]

Part 2 and the finish.

Page 403

"We estimate the Soul Drinkers Chapter is between half and three-quarters strength, with no chance of reinforcement. That gives us a maximum of seven hundred and fifty Space Marines with barely a handful of surviving Chapter serfs if the evi­dence from the scuttled fleet is anything to go by. My household's own staff numbers more than three times that. The storm troopers attached directly to my command outnumber the Soul Drinkers tenfold."

The scope of Lord Kolgo's own personal forces. 7500 or so storm troopers, and 2250 housefold staff, or close to 10,000 personnel. If that were average for a single Inquisitor Lord.. we're talking millions of staff and tens of millions of troops just for One Inquisitor Lord per sector, easily.


Page 403

'Space Marines from preachers' sermons can take on entire armies on their own but the truth is rather different. Without the support of other Imperial forces, or hordes of cultists or seccessionists, or legions of daemons, they are alone and vulnerable. There is no point being the head of the spear if there is no haft or driving hand to back you up.

Limitations to the Astartes, and rather important ones. They have fleets and vehicles and all that fun stuff, but they still need access to the logistical tail of the Imperium (or their own chapters, at least) if they are to remain combat viable. Deprived of such (if they go rogue, for example) they can quite probably wither and die unless they take action (such as going pirate.)


Page 404

"I knew you would realise it eventually. It surprised me you didn't get it more quickly The Soul Drinkers are political capital - an enemy with the symbolic power of a renegade Chapter is not to be destroyed lightly. There will be times when the Ordo Hereti­cus must fight its corner against the rest of the Imperium, for the Imperium is almost as likely to harbour enemies as the ranks of the heretic and the alien. When that happens, we need the power of such symbols to prove our worth in the eyes of the lesser-minded of the Emperor's servants. The Soul Drinkers are to be destroyed when it would bring us the most benefit, and when that time comes we will bring more and better minds to bear than yours."

- commentary here relate to the fact that the Ordo Hereticus do not wish to immediately destroy the Soul Drinkers, but rather elimiate them when it suits their purposes and benefits them most -a political weapon. Also mention that the Ordo Hereticus must sometimes fight political battles against the rest of the Imperium. Such is the nature of the Imperium itself, and little is likely to change that.

Page 405

The Gathalamorian artillery had lobbed incendiary charges into the presumed hotspots of defenders - the palace quarter, the sen­ate buildings, the Enforcement Division barracks -and raging firestorms had engulfed the flammable hovels that crowded against the city's once-grand buildings.

Incendiary charges as well as HE and "armour cracking" ones. Seem to be able to create some sort of "firestorm" at least in this case.

Page 405

But the Stratix XXIII had all lived out childhoods in the vicious underhives of their lost homeworld, and were happier fighting with bayonet and guile than out in the open. For many of them it was like coming home, and the Stratix were slowly, savagely, bleeding the Septiams dry, drawing more and more enemies from the south of the city into a meat grinding killing zone. Most of their officers were dead - but they had mostly been outsiders brought in by the Guard to tame the savages, and the Stratix fought this battle better on their own.

Description of the Stratix hive ganger regiment, which seem to look like alot of usual gangers. SEem to be treated as little better than feral world regiments (and in som cases and from some hives, this might actually be warranted, although it depends on the hive world. Armageddon and Necromunda could arguably differ.) and it sounds like they're largely being used as an expendable decoy.


Page 405

Few Jouryans asked what had happened to the crews and medics of Squadron Twenty - all they saw were purple-armoured war­riors a head taller than any Guardsman, who charged ahead with insane speed and seemed almost desperate to come to grips with the enemy face to face.

- The Purple-armoured soul drinkers were a "head taller than any Guardsman."

Page 412

It was a risk. Navigators rarely spoke of what they saw when they led ships through the dreams and nightmares of the warp and there was an unspoken taboo against asking them about it. Thaddeus rea­soned that this meant Kolgo's Navigator had probably never been asked, and that it would be a relief for him to tell someone.

"It... sometimes. At first. We want it to look the same, you see. Everyone knows what space looks like, everyone who has ever seen the night sky. But after the first few moments you have to let it change. You have to begin to see the warp as it truly is. There are no rules to it - half of it is inside your head -but that doesn't make it any less real. Just by look­ing at it, you change it. The Astronomican is the only constant and even then it can flicker and leave you alone. All the things you see when between sleeping and waking, those are real in the warp. There are colours you can't make with light and every now and again, something... looks back at you..."

Navigator speaking about viewing the warp and navigating it.


Page 413

"Starn... isn't the Starn clan related to House Jenassis?"
"We are a sub-clan." replied Starn. "We are proud to be one of the constituent parts of House Jenassis. Few outsiders know much of our Houses, Thad­deus, you must be most learned."

Navigator houses have their clans and sub-clans, meaning they must be larger and far more intricate than we typically believe (esp if they can have separate names.) Then again we know from other novels how byzantine and intricate Navigator families can be.

also knowing something about that shit seems to be a mark of learning, at least from another Navigator.


Page 415

Kolgo couldn't visit anything outrageous on Thaddeus - the Inquisitor Lord had only as much authority as his fellow inquisitors let him have and he needed lesser men to defer to him. Thaddeus could be one of those lesser men, which meant it wasn't in Kolgo's interests to have him imprisoned, killed, or anything else.

More on the sources and limits of the power of Inquisitors and especially Inquisitor Lords - while powerful, they seem to be vulnerable to lesser inquisitors in groups (which seems to be an obvious check and balance.)

Page 416

Sister Aescarion slipped the restraints of the grav-couch and reached up to grab the handrail mounted onto the ceiling of the Valkyrie's passenger compartment. Aescarion had bullied the three Valkyrie aerial transports plus crews out of the rear echelon Jouryan forces, knowing that fifty battle-ready Sisters and the mention of Inquisitorial authority was more than enough to secure anything she might need.

- The Soritas troops under Thaddeus commandeered three Valkyrie transports plus crew from the rear echelons of the Jouryan regiments. we aren't sure whether it's the Kouryans themselves or just their storm troopers who have the Valkyries though. I suppose the distinction is rather minor.

Page 416

One good hit now and the twenty Sisters with her would die in an instant, regardless of training, armour, or even faith. But that was the way war went. Aescarion had taken a vow long ago to wait for death and wel­come it, when the time came. Her battle-sisters felt the same. She had her own Seraphim squad and two more squads, Retributors carrying three heavy flamers led by Sister Aspasia and a ten-strong unit under Sister Supe­rior Rufilla. Two more Valkyries carried similar complements - whether it would be enough to face the Soul Drinkers would be in the hands of the Emperor.
...

"Can they land?" replied Aescarion, the image of a score of valiant dead Sisters flitting through her mind

Aescarion claims alternately to carry 20 sisters (plus her) as well as 4-5 "squads". This possibly means most of those squads are understrenght, although its hard to believ ethat.


Page 418

Shots rang off Aescarion's armour.

Gunfire fails to penetrate Sororitas armour.

Page 418

A sheet of pure white fire tore through the building at head-height, then swung upwards to fill the building above with billowing flame. Burning skeletons fell down from above, and the gunfire was replaced with teh strangled screams fo burning men.

Plasma fire reuces multiple troopers to "burning skeletons" Burning most of the flesh off the bodies would easily require hundreds of megajoules, although the fact they are strangely intact makes these plasma weapons even more flamethrower like, or suggests the people self-ignited somehow.


Page 421

Luko glanced at the auspex scanner he carried, checking the layout of the brig. The Enforcement Division barracks were based on a Standard Tem­plate, the same as thousands of similar buildings on frontier and low-population worlds.

Luke has an auspex to supplement their autosenses. And STC buildings for use on frontier and "low population" (Eg minor) worlds.

Page 421

Karlu Grien was a moral criminal, a tech-heretic, guilty of making forbidden technology. He had been stationed on Septiam Torus to oversee the refining of the Soulfire crop, but what he had seen on Stratix Luminae had driven him to dabble in dark things and the Enforcement Division had locked him up. If he was still down here, he would be in cell 7-F.

Once more Imperial authorities making use of heretics for other ends. Note we have yet another case where the Soul Drinkers practice "ends justify the means" by dealing with a heretic, despite professing to serve the Emperor.

Page 422

He clambered up the front of the roiling mass and tore deep gouges with his front legs, before plunging his force staff and letting all his psychic force rip through it and into the flesh. Skin and muscle boiled away leaving a huge scorched pit beneath Sarpedon, burned deep through layers of melded bodies, sending a shower of ash bursting from the wound.

Sarps fighting a mass of the living dead. Sarps burns/explodes a rather large and messy hole through a large amount of flesh.

Page 423

He pointed at the image gouged into the back wall. "Record this on the auspex."

- Sarpedon orders one of his troopers record an image, giving auspex a visual recording (photographic or otherwise) capacity.

Page 426

The Stratix broke cover from the tangle of minor devotionals and shrines behind the temple, head­ing for the rear wall of the temple grounds. They sported several exotic, salvaged guns - hunting rifles, hellguns, well-worn shotguns with hive ganger kill-marks - alongside their standard issue lasguns, and they wore a patchwork of salvaged, stolen and patched-up fatigues and body armour.

The Stratix seem to have a bit of the Salvar chem-dogs in them, up to and including hunting rifels and hellguns (how the hell they maintain them is anyones guess.)

Page 428

It was the first living Soul Drinker that Aescarion had ever seen, the first glimpse of an enemy her faith required her to fight. More fire lanced from the shel­tered Marine squad and Aescarion heard a scream as one of her Seraphim died, drilled by a bolter round through the abdomen that found a weak spot in her armour and blew out her lower back.

Astartes bolter round penetrates SoB armour via "weak spot" and blows a hole in her back.

Page 429

He pointed towards a quad-mounted autocannon dug in just inside a shattered basilica - it was pounding fire into the Jouryan positions, but it could easily be re-sighted to bring down any ship trying to land on the forum and that was why it had to go.
...

She could see across the forum from where she sheltered, and she quickly scanned the expanse of broken marble for more Marines. She spotted some battling amongst the ruins of a shattered basilica, swarming over an autocannon artillery piece, cutting
through the Septiams defending it.

- "autocannon artillery piece"

Page 430

Sarpedon saw the shimmering diamond of the power axe before he saw the Sister herself. He knew no Septiam, and precious few Guard officers, would ever have a power weapon - the charging figure was a Sister of Battle, a soldier of the Imperial Cult, fanatical and fuelled by pure faith.

Power weapons, accoridng to sarpedon, are rare amongst Guard officers, and no native apparnetly would have them.

Page 431

The axe blade whistled past his face, blistering the skin of one cheek with its power field, as he fell backwards.

Aescarion's power axe radiates heat.


Page 432

Sarpedon fired twice with his bolter, blowing the torso of one Guardsman apart, before impaling another on his force staff as he fell.

Bolter fire versus Guard torso.

Page 432

Without warning there was a titanic flash and a searing wave of heat. Sarpedon saw charging Stratix reduced to ashen skeltons as his own autosenses forced his pupils almost shut against the glare. The blistering wave of energy washed over him, scalding the skin of his legs and peeling the paint from the edges of his armour.

...

For a moment there was silence as the glare on Sarpedon's retinas died to reveal a huge hole blown in the STratix attack, dozens of charred bodies filling a massive scorch mark across the stone.

Plasma gun from an Leman Russ Executioner reduces STratix to "ashy skeletons" -eg burning the flesh from their bodies in an instant and leaving "dozens of charred bodies." At a very minimum" doznes" of badly burned bodies should suggest dozens of megajoules easily, although the "ashy skeletons" suggests triple digit MJ quite easily, and quite probably GJ range. Considering plasma guns just early on int he book were cremating people, this is no surprise that a tank version larger than even a plasma cannon could be as powerful.


Page 433

"Did you see the image we sent you from the auspex?" voxed Sarpedon as the engines kicked in and he strapped himself back into the grav-restraints.

image transmission from auspex.


Page 433

"Looks like a cogitator circuit, something to recall information from a mem-bank. Probably the key for a security system."

"cogitator circuit."

Page 435

The time spent between the stars was time wasted, and even when the warp meant a century's worth of travel took only days those were still days he wouldn't get back.

- mention of "century's worth of travel" in realspace taking mere "days" in the warp. If we assume that is 100 light years in a few days - we're talking maybe 18,000c.

PAge 436

The large viewport looking out onto space was one of the few obvious luxuries - hidden in the room were also a poison-sniffer servitor, an anti-transmission field generator and a small void safe in which Thad­deus could transport sensitive or potentially tainted items.

- "anti transmission field generator" and a void safe and a poison detecting serviotr.

Page 436

Aescarion wore the simple white robes of the Sis­ters - without her armour she seemed half the size, little more than an ageing woman with an unusu­ally proud bearing.

Implies sorotias armour doubles the sisters bulk (if not mass)

Page 437

" I fought Brother Castus and Parmenides the Vile, inquisitor, I was at Saafir and the Scorpion Pass. I know many of the forms of the Enemy, but the Soul Drinkers are the subtlest yet. They are not just animals to be hunted."

Another references to the LtGB short story. Part of me is also insulted Aescarion rates the Soul Drinkers so highly.

Page 438

Thad­deus picked up the decanter that stood on a side table. "I would offer you a glass of devilberry liqueur, Sister, but I would imagine you abstain."

"The human form is the form of the Emperor and to poison it willingly is a sin." said Aescarion.

"We are all sinners, Sister." replied Thaddeus, pour­ing himself a measure.

Aescarion stood, smoothing out her simple robes. "There are some things that it is pointless to lecture on." she said. "Many are the times I have extolled the virtues of abstinence to the laity. Few are the times I have been listened to. In this case it is enough that I follow my vows myself."

"I am glad I do not offend your sensibilities."

"You know as well as I do there are far graver sins you could sink to. Now, I should minister to my Sis­ters, I have not led their prayers for several days."

A bit of a discussion on religion and Sororitas beliefs.

Page 439

It would only be a few more days before the Cres­cent Moon reached the Stratix system, but in the back of his mind Thaddeus knew every intervening moment was wasted.

few days to reach the Stratix system. Assuming between 10-100 Ly (within the subsector) we're talking thousands/tens of thousands of c.

Page 439

Stratix's sun was paler, and anyone who looked at it through the right filters would see sunspots, like black scabs, fes­tering on its surface. So strong was Teturact's influence that it had even infected the star that shone on his homeworld.

The system's blockade was a shoal of rotting ships, launched from Stratix's dockyards and canni­balised from merchant and outpost fleets throughout the system, or brought in from the fleets of worlds conquered in Teturact's name. Squadrons of escorts were fitted to function as fire-ships, rigged to burst like seed pods in huge clouds of space-borne spores that would eat their way through portholes and bulkheads and infect enemy crews. Larger cruisers teemed with crew who needed neither heat nor air to work, making for ships that could only be disabled by complete oblit­eration, while other near-derelict cruisers had massive armour plates welded to their prows so they could act as suicidal ram-ships like giant hypo­dermics loaded with disease. Monitoring stations and orbital defence platforms turned weaponry outwards, cyclonic torpedoes and magnalasers now hard-wired into crewmen whose minds were the only parts of them alive.

Several interesting points. Teturract is powerful enough to fuck with stars, althoguh whether this is deliberate manipulation or just a side effect we don't know. SEcond, and more importantly we see the scope of the defenses around STratix: whole "merchant and outpost fleets" from the system - some are possibly sub-warp, but if others were brought from other systems that suggests some measure of warp capability (and that individual planets have warp capable vessels.) Also squadrons of escorts (as plague-fireships) as well as bigger cruisers (at least 4, if taken literally) some of which act as ram ships. We don't knoe their exact origins, but a safe bet is that they were part o fhte Stratix naval garrison.

And fixed defenses - The interesting part is the "cyclonic torpedoes" used as anti-ship weapons and servitor-crewed guns.


Page 439-440

Stratix itself was a giant gnarled ball of charred blackness, studded with glowing spots like embers where hive-forges still burned. The hives covered almost the entire surface of the planet and were charred with exhaust fumes, and whole swathes of city were obscured by thick streaks of toxic cloud. Here and there low-orbit docks broke the atmos­phere like tarnished metal thorns.

..
Callicrates was rich in the ores that Stratix used in its industries, but the silvery metallic surface was now pockmarked with patches of rust hundreds of kilometres across
...
Stratix Luminae was even colder and whiter than ever. The gas giant of Majoris Crien was covered in swirling storms of sickly browns and purples where once it had been vibrant green, and its many moons were drifting away in erratic orbits as though the giant world was too weak to hold onto them any more. The Three Sisters, the tiny, far-orbit ice worlds of Cygnan, Terrin and Olatinne, were pulling fur­ther and further from the distant sun as if trying to escape from the infection spreading across the sys­tem.

Teturact's effects on the system, and a description of its planets. Not sure if they are all inhabited or not. The influene again seems to fuck with the orbits of various satellites as well.

STratix Luminae is the hive world, and the hives cover "almost the entire surface." The planet also must be a significant industrial world, givne the "hive forges". Hell the fact there are three forge worlds in teh system yet this place seems so important tells you something. It must be positively Armageddon-like in its importance.

Page 441

Teturact let his mind sweep out. With every new world he became stronger, and his consciousness was no longer bound to his wizened body.
..
He felt the fractured pride of the Navigator above the prow, still trying to hold on to the idea of the old naval aristocracy even as his flesh melted off his bones.
...
He could see beyond the ship, past the ripples it left in realspace as it passed out into the void.
...
It was what fuelled him. It was why he had built a war machine out of his empire and engaged Imperial forces in grinding campaigns of attrition that only he could win.

He felt the desperate dimming of Strata's star and the warping of the gravitational web between the worlds - so powerful was the concept of Teturact as a god that it deformed the universe around it.

A glimpse of Teturact's evolving power as his minions grow. Once again we see that a warp entity's power as a "god" is tied to the faith/belief/numbers of his followers, not unlike the Chaos Gods or the Emperor. Also mention again of how his influence is disrupting the star and the
gravity in the system.

Also an inkling of the scale and capability of his detection and perception, which is perhaps more interesting.

Page 441

Teturact had seen extraordinary things and become immune to all of them but this - these bil­lions of souls in pain and rapture, pleading for his touch and singing praises in gratitude, all forming a psychic tide that flowed into Teturact's mind.

But there was something else here, something that wasn't here before. Something pure and untouched by Teturact. Different, yes, shifted sideways from reality - but not diseased.

Teturact focused his will on the intrusion. Tiny and metallic, they were like needles sewing a wound back together, piercing the gauze of suffer­ing and driving deep into system space. There were several tiny craft, faster than any Imperial ships of comparable size.
..
Teturact pulled back from the shoal of bright sliv­ers and let the whole system fill his mind. He could see the trails of near-normality that the ships left behind them and estimated the course they were tak­ing, straight as an arrow into the heart of the system.

More of Teturacts worshippers and power, as well as his powerful perception. In a way he seems like a mini, corporeal (so to speak) emperor.. this gives us some interesting possibilities for parallels of capabilities and such, as well as explaining oddiities (like Euphrati Keeler manifesting powers in the HH series, as we know there is already a rising belief in the Emperor's Divinity, despite his refusal to accept that. Even the Emperor cannot change the fundamental nature of the warp, nor can he deny the ability of humanity as a whole to tap into and use it in that manner.)

This does suggest that the Emperor should have been capable of similar perception/detection capabilities, and tha tother psykers should (if to lesser scales, eg not across whole subsectors but maybe within star systems or parts of systems.) The corpsey Emperor may not be able to quite so much (at least not from Terra, or very far from TErra) but he might be able to extend this through his connections to his various believers and through the s oul binding and other techniques. It certianly does suggest an interesting possibility of the Emperor can keep an eye on the galaxy, anyhow.

Communicating with said galaxy, of course, is another story.

Page 443

A battle-brother's scream ended in a choked-off gur­gle, and in the flash of gunfire Korvax saw him fall, a shining web of silvery filaments billowing over and through him, slicing through armour plates, coiling into armour joints and unravelling to shred the flesh and bone inside.
Korvax got a glimpse of the aliens - they had heavier armour suits than the warriors Korvax had fought at the barricades, with a large carapace over the back and large, thick forearm plates that helped support massive weapons with spinning barrels that wove spirals of bright threads. The eldar aimed and a bolt of filaments shot out, bursting against one ofLivris's Marines and reduc­ing his pistol arm to a mess of loose armour and shredded muscle.
Korvax fired but too late, the eldar had disappeared, winking out of existence with a clap of air rushing into the space he left behind.
"Teleporters!" yelled Korvax as gunfire continued to spatter across the darkened lab floor. A surviving tech-guard screamed as an unseen enemy shredded him with a monofilament burst. Something flitted into view and disappeared, almost catching Sergeant Livris with its lethal web.

Ah, warp spiders.


Page 444

Korvax walked over to the closest tech-guard and hauled him to his feet. The man's face was laced with blood where he had caught the edge of a filament burst and the barrel of his lasgun was warped, overheated from continuous firing.

Lasgun barrel warped from continuous fire.


Page 444

The air stank of some­thing rotting and biological, and his helmet pre-filter was flashing up warning runes to mark the toxins it was keeping out of his system.

Power armour having bio sensors of some kind.

Page 445

Bio-alarms flashed on Korvax's retinal display. Toxins were building up in his blood now. His armour integrity was in the green so it was as if the poisons were sponta­neously appearing in his organs. His oolitic kidney kicked in to filter it out but if it kept increasing...

Teturact's super disease, no doubt.


PAge 451

The room had been set up in one of the ship's fighter decks. Where once hundreds of attack craft had been parked on the wide expanse of rusted metal, now heaps of thou­sands upon thousands of bodies festered. Pasty, desiccated limbs lay across dead faces staring blindly.

- Teturact's flagship, an Emperor-class battleship, can house "hundreds" of attack craft in one of its fighter bays. Depending on how many bays, it may have many hundreds or even thousands of attack craft, total.

The damn crazy part of things is that I recall somewhere a vague indicator of how many bays a Emperor class had, and it was at least 4-6.. but oh well. Either way its at least two, and probably more since its technically a carrier.

Page 452

He took every one of those points of light and snuffed them out one by one, replacing them with the unblinking black pearls of his own mind. The final phase of the ritual was Teturact's own - to make these awakened dead answer solely to his will. They were now no more than his instruments, to be controlled as if they were his own limbs.
...
How could anyone claim Teturact was not a god? He had created an army and controlled them utterly. He was master of billions and billions of worshippers.

Teturact has grown powerful enough (or godlike enough) to take direct control of his servants, treating them as simply extensions of his own body (not unlike a Chaos god with daemons, again.) He also claims to have an army of "billions upon billions" from his twelve systems.


Page 452-453

He commanded that the tombship be taken into low orbit around Stratix Luminae. Then he demanded that the shields be dropped and the hull of the tombship be allowed to disintegrate in the planet's atmosphere. He already knew how the ship would break up, the parts that would land intact and the remaining fighter craft and shuttles that would fly out of the wreckage. He knew which parts would split open and rain down an army on the frozen surface.

its worth noting at this poitn that Teturact orders the void shields lowered so the Emperor class burns up in the atmosphere. While one might be tempted to derive some sort of limits on the durability of an Emperor'-class from this, any attempt will be complicated by the fact that the vessel is knowingly corrupted by Teturact's decaying influence (its been mutated much the way a chaos ship has.) Indeed, it is quite likelyTeturact himself deliberately weakened elements of the ship via his own power so as to control the breakup (and predict which pieces housing his army - he's got a metric fuckload of corpses in the ship that he controls). Indeed, later on, he gloats about his power "destroying" such a ship.

PAge 455

Pustules the size of islands spat plumes of bile out into space. Hull plates oozed out of the superstructure, straining under the ship's corpulent mass. Lance batteries were rusted gun barrels sticking out of orifices ringed with scabs. The engines bled pus and the
entrances to the fighter decks had deformed into lipless drooling orifices that mouthed dumbly and vomited clouds of debris, corpses and filth.

The ship was huge, larger by magnitudes than the Crescent moon. It had to be a full scale battleship - there might have been an Emperor-class under there somewhere.

...

"Battlefleet Stratix had three Emperor-class battle­ships." came a tinny, synthetic voice. "The Ultima Khan was reclassified heretic and reported destroyed at Kolova. The Olympus Mons and the Dutiful are unaccounted for."

Emperor class battleship with lance decks (unusual modification) as well as fighters. Battlefleet Stratix had three such battleships, whihc has to be interesting considering they're likely to have at least som eother battleship types too (retributions if nothing else.)


Page 456

"It doesn't matter what it used to be." said Colonel Vinn unexpectedly. "It's orbit is too low. It'll be breaking up within the hour."

Again mention of the ship breaking up.


Page 457

The ten fighters carried the whole of the remain­ing Soul Drinkers Chapter, down to barely six hundred Marines and a handful of Chapter serfs.

- 10 or so of those alien fighters can carry the entire (600 Soul Drinkers) chapter. Sarps has lost 100-150 marines or so.

Page 458

The scanner signature of the flagship above began to become more indistinct, as if there was some kind of interference covering it. Rapidly the truth became apparent - the ship was coming apart, shedding hull sections like scabbed skin. Whole decks peeled away and began to fall into the atmosphere, bloated hull sections rupturing and spilling clouds of debris. The rearmost fighters began to report near-collisions with chunks of debris streaking down from above. The scanners on the fighters, even though they were advanced xenos tech, were quickly blinded by the mass of signals suddenly pouring into orbit.

The disintegration of Teturact's emperor-Class battleship.


Page 458

Teturact watched his ship rupture and it tasted good. The ship had once been a mighty battleship, carrying enough firepower to raze a city to the ground. Teturact had not only corrupted it until it served him, but had proven he could destroy such a
thing with a thought. A symbol of Imperial might had been captured, deformed, and then destroyed, all because Teturact wished it.

..

He felt the plasma reactors overloading and breaking up, sending Shockwaves through the hull that fractured the stern and sent the engines spi­ralling downwards towards the surface. The tang of escaping fuel plasma was a metallic, chemical taste of Imperial doom.

Already sections of corridor and gun deck were falling, packed with the living dead. Some would not make it to the surface intact but enough would to disgorge an army onto the ground. He reached out with his mind and felt the wizards, held in a near-indestructible plasma conduit, waiting in the belly of the ship to be vomited onto Stratix Lumi-nae. Teturact, as was proper for the master of the dying ship, waited on the bridge. The bulkheads nearby had already failed and hard vacuum had turned the slave-bodies beneath his feet rigid and cold, but Teturact kept himself and his brute-mutant bearers intact with a barely-conscious effort.

- Teturact's gloating about destorying the battleship, comments on it hving the firepower to "raze a city to the ground", and plasma reactors that have some sort of escaping "metallic/chemical" fuel. Go figure.

Also plasma conduits apparently can survive atmospheric retentry and protect the occupants inside (at least from cremation.)


Page 459

The gods were no more than ideas made real in the warp, and Teturact had created ideas of his own - servitude through death, purity and corruption made one, the subju­gation of souls through suffering and deliverance. Those concepts would be coalescing in the warp even now, and when they became strong enough Teturact's mind would be divorced from his body completely and he would join the kingdom he had created in the warp as its god.

Sounds alot like aspiring to daemonhood really. I have to wonder how he seriously thinks simply corrupting a subsector would make him a god, considering that if he rises up he's likely to be crushed and/or coopted by some other Chaos Power (like Nurgle.)

Page 462

Even from the Crescent Moon's landing site the fall­out was clearly visible...

The cargo ramp of the Crescent Moon touched the ground and Colonel Vinn, in the lead APC, gave the order to roll out. The column of vehicles - refitted Chimera transports with reinforced armour and overcharged engines, along with a couple of Sorori-tas Rhino APCs - roared out of the Crescent Moon and onto the surface of Stratix Luminae.

Modified chimeras with added armour and stronger engines for the Storm troopers. Also Thaddeus's ship is small enough to land on planet.


Page 464

Karraidin's power fist ripped through two ene­mies, blasting their rotting bodies apart in showers of spoiled meat and bone. Bolters chattered and chewed through a dozen more as Sergeant Salk blew another apart.

Power fist and bolters vs corpses.

PAge 464

A plasma blast roared overhead and incinerated half a unit of enemies, dressed in the tatters of Naval Security uniforms, emerging from a crashed lander.

They were more intact than most of the enemies Salk had faced so far, the cold hatred still legible on their faces, assault shotguns in their hands. Salk snapped off bolter shots at them then dropped into the cover of a hull section as shotgun fire ripped back at him, filling the air with a storm of shrapnel.

Krin's plasma weapon again. Single digit to triple digit MJ (depends on how big of a unit.) Mention of Naval Security, armed with shrapnel-firing assault shotguns.

Page 465

Heavy bolter shells tore down from the roof and Salk ducked rapidly back into cover, hearing the too-familiar report of shells through ceramite as one of his brothers lost a limb to the large calibre fire tearing through the wreckage.

Heavy bolter fire tears arm off Soul Drinker.


Page 469

She had seen them fight, and by the Omnissiah they were awe­some, a head taller than the tallest normal man, fast and ruthless, deadeye shots and ferocious in hand-to-hand.

- again Space Marines (the soul drinkers) are noted to be a head taller than the tallest man.

Page 470

The adepts had been trying to unlock the human genetic pattern so they could halt, reverse, or create mutations at will - this was one of the things they had made. By the way it moved without enough mus­culature to support itself, Sarkia presumed that it was one of the psychic creations she had heard rumoured darkly by the menial staff.

The AdMech playing mad scientist yet again, it seems. And yes this means they created Teturact.


Page 471

The sky was thick with falling debris, and Sarpedon knew the force had already lost Marines to the wreckage drop­ping from orbit. He could not begin to estimate the numbers of Teturact's army He knew that a battleship could hold upwards of twenty thousand crew, but there was no telling how many cultists and living dead could be crammed into the same space.

- according to Sarpedon, a battleship can hold upwards of 20,000 crew. Presumably this doesn't include its own troop detachments (armsman and Naval secuirty troops) or servitors. Especially considering how ship crew compliments have exploded since Rogue TRader came out./

Page 478

Hellgun blasts took off heads and ripped torsos apart but there were just too many of them.

Storm trooper weapons. Given the earlier assessment about hellguns, I'm guessing this just means they put fairly big holes in Torsos (say head sized holes) but not blowing apart torsos like bolters. They still decapitate/blow heads apart though.

Page 483

Wordlessly, the man took aim and fired. The bullet hummed like an insect as it whipped through the air - Sarpedon ducked it but he could hear it as it zipped back towards him. A guided round, rare and lethal.

Sarpedon's wrist flicked and the Soulspear ct the bullet in half in mid-flight.

Darth Sarpedon and his dual warpsaber in action vs Thaddeus super guided bullets.

Page 485

Cold horror washed through Sarpedon. He could feel the exultation of a god and the billions of minds united in worship. He could see a universe where stars were weeping sores and planets teemed with life like spores of a disease, all singing the name of Teturact. He could feel the Imperium he hated crushed beneath the weight of worship, the minds of its citizens liberated even as their bodies decayed and the armies of the Emperor died in their trillions...

Again Teturact's "billions" of servants..the interesting detail sit he "armies of the Emperor" dying in the trillions, which in turn suggests the Imperium has trillions of troopers to throw around. With 5th edition of course, we know this is quite likely.

PAge 486

A shower of blood and flesh was the head of a brute-mutant disintegrating.

Thaddeus' autopistol. He's out of the homing shells so he's back to regular (exploding) ammo.


PAge 486

Inquisitor Thaddeus felt the kick of the autopistol in his hand and was grateful that he could feel any­thing at all. He had been frozen in place as Teturact had seemed about to tear Sarpedon apart with psychic power, but whatever Sarpedon had done had worked and in the split second Teturact's attention was diverted Thaddeus had taken aim and blown apart the head of the closet brute-mutant.

Thaddeus' autopistol again.

Page 486

"By the edicts of the Conclave of Mount Amalath I claim your life as forfeit and cast your soul to the mercy of the Emperor!"

Thaddeus pumped shells towards Teturact's spindly, momentarily vulnerable body but one of his mutant bearers got in the way and the explosive-tipped shells blew fist-sized lumps of flesh from its hide. Thaddeus had spent the last of his precious tracker-shells on Sarpedon, and seen it swatted out of the air before it hit - he had to rely on old fashioned hand-aiming now.[/quote]

I guess Thaddues is Amalathian, which would make sense considering how reasonable it is. Of course, he pretty much violated that considering how he fucked with the Admech, but still...

Also more explosive auto-pistol bullet goodness.

Page 487

He still had one more weapon. He reached inside his flak-coat and drew out the massive, boxy bolt pistol Aescarion had brought back from Eumenix, its casing decorated with the golden chalice of the Soul Drinkers, half a clip of explosive bolts in its curved magazine. He had to grip it with both hands to take aim.

- Thaddeus has to grip and fire the soul Drinker's bolt pistol with both hands to aim it. Thaddeus's coat is now referred to as a "flak coat"



Page 487

Thaddeus's first shot missed high as the pistol's kick deceived him but the second hit, blowing a mutant's throat out.
..
His trigger finger pressed down and his whole body shook as the bolt pistol juddered, hot cases spilling to Thaddeus' feet.

Thaddeus firing the Soul drinkers bolter. It's worth contrasting this with Xenos, when Eisenhorn is gifted with a bolter by a Librarian. Note as well the pistol ejecting casings. Definitley not gyrojet.

[Terralthra]

Plasma engines are not necessarily antithetical to jet propulsion. Technically, any engine which moves through a fluid and somehow impels fluid out of the rear of the engine, moving the engine + vehicle forward in accordance with Newton's laws is a jet of one form or another. For it to be a jet that intakes either water, liquid hydrogen, or air, and uses "promethium" fuel cells, and exhausts plasma means it's a fiendishly complex device and/or promethium is ridiculously reactive.

It could just be that promethium somehow is burned or reacted to heat any fluid that's moved through the engine as propellant to a plasma state, and the expansion pressure jets the propellant out the rear.

[Lost Soal]

Page 416

One good hit now and the twenty Sisters with her would die in an instant, regardless of training, armour, or even faith. But that was the way war went. Aescarion had taken a vow long ago to wait for death and wel­come it, when the time came. Her battle-sisters felt the same. She had her own Seraphim squad and two more squads, Retributors carrying three heavy flamers led by Sister Aspasia and a ten-strong unit under Sister Supe­rior Rufilla. Two more Valkyries carried similar complements - whether it would be enough to face the Soul Drinkers would be in the hands of the Emperor.
...

"Can they land?" replied Aescarion, the image of a score of valiant dead Sisters flitting through her mind

Aescarion claims alternately to carry 20 sisters (plus her) as well as 4-5 "squads". This possibly means most of those squads are understrenght, although its hard to believ ethat.

3 Squads.
5 Seraphim led by her.
5 Retributors led by Aspasia
10 Sisters led by Rufilla.

[Aaron MkII]

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

[Lancer]

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

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