Despite the Ward-inspired uproar generated by 5th edition and such, the Ultramarines perhaps remain one of the more symbolic Chapters for 40K (although that may have changed with 6th, given its Dark-Angels centric emphasis.) and I suspect Graham McNeill had a big part in that pre-5th. Spanning multiple 'editions' of codexes and rules, the series has evolved in an interesting way over time, yet has also remained consistent in certain other ways. The internal details may change, but certain things remain true (Uriel Ventris is the Noble Defender of humanity, the Ultramarines persevere, Honsou is an ass, etc. Yes, Honsou shows up, I did mention that didn't I?)
McNeill does a fantastic job writing the series and its easy to understand why its popular and why some people may have been drawn to the Ultramarines. Nightbringer and Killing Ground are, in my opinion, the best in the series because they're the rare Space Marine novels that require them to face an enemy they cannot simply blast or chop into submission, and Ventris - as a character - has to deal with difficult choices. Indeed, if these novels (or even if Warriors of Ultramar) were the standard for the series, I could easily rate this above my love of the Ragnar Blackmane Space Wolf novels. This series, however, currently falls into what I consider a certain trend. First you get the 'great' novel - something involving some nebulous, intangible or overwhelming threat that the Space Marines simply cannot beat physically. It involves Ventris and his Company facing something beyond their Codex training (drawing upon the 'teaching' Idaeus gave Uriel in 'Chains of Command') and its generally just interesting, well written, and deeper than you usually get in a Space Marine novel (especially Killing Ground.) Then you have what I consider the 'War' themeed novel. Warriors of Ultramar and Courage and honour. The Company gets deployed to defend a planet against an insidious alien threat. Lots of fighting, the Guard will be involved, and the enemy gets defeated in the end. Not bad, but not as good as the previous novel IMHO. Then we get.. the Honsou novel. I don't know why, but whenever McNeill involves Honsou in something, the quality just seems to drop for me. He's just not a good villain. He comes across as unstable, petulant, childish and just unbelievably cartoonishly supervillain.
It isn't even that Graham can't write Iron Warriors either, though I started out believing this - he started out great with Storm of Iron, and Angel Exterminatus was good too. He just. Can't. Write. Honsou. And so the last novels of a given triad (Dead Sky, Black Sun, and the Chapter's Due.) simpyl fail to live up to their predecessors cuz of Honsou. DSBS is arguably worse than TCD to be fair, and TCD was better than I had feared but it was still... Honsou, and pretty underwhelming for the purported buildup (Nocturne-scale underwhelming, to be blunt.) I'm hoping that the future novels might break this trend, but even if not it will be interesting to see if this will persist (although I'm hoping we avoid Honsou for the near future, despite the fact he has escaped.. yet again. IF there is one thing he is competent at, it is escapign his failures. Or blaming them on others.)
Anyhow, whilst the bulk of the thread will be McNeill's novels, it will cover a few others, like Assault on Black REach (by Nick Kyme, who wrote the aformentioned 'Nocturne.') I also consider Kyme's Sicarius books to be quite good and interesting, but in a different way. Kyme writes Sicarius as being an outwardly GREAT heroic type, but the underlying politics and byplay within the company, and the way the individuals regrd him or evolve themselves within those stories - both in Asasult on Black Reach and its spiritual sequel Fall of Damnos (which I already covered) are interesting in much the same way the Salamanders novels are interesting. Black REach isn't a big novel, so it will be (currently) his only entry for the smurfs. Whether anyone else will get added remains to be seen.
That said, we start with Assault on Black Reach. Thankfully a single update.
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Drop pod assualt on the heels of orbital bombardment. Oh that Sicarius!His close-cropped head reflected the winking operation runes inside the drop pod. The glowing symbols cast light onto the hard metal edges of the vessel interior into which the Space Marines were packed. They also displayed that the drop pod's inertial dampening system was in effect and that their rapid trajectory was being guided by its machine-spirit with unerring precision. Thunder echoed dully from below. Scipio could hear it over the roar of the drop prod's engines as they vented. The low crump of detonating plasma warheads exploding planet-side was a concussive throb to the raucously disgorging thrusters. They were right on the heels of the raining plasma storm, screaming from the sky in a world of deafening noise and flashing fire.
Oh yes, note the pod's mention of inertial dampening (although how it works isn't clear) and machine spirit guidance, even despite the bombardment. We got drop pods like these in the Cain novels as well.
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Likens the drop pod to a comet. Whether this is valid or invalid and how much this comes out to I ain't going to bother commenting on, since it would cause an uproar either wayAs one, his warriors took up the recital and the lone voice of Scipio became a bellow of brothers. They fell fast with all the power of a comet, the prow of their drop pod white-hot and trailing fire as it burst through Black Reach's atmospheric barrier
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I'm not sure if tey're implying plasma warheads, or nuclear warheads, or implying plasma warheads are somehow related to nukes (when most of the time plasma weaponry is more akin ot a flamethrower than a nuke) but it could go either way. Or maybe even imply both being used!As the plasma missiles continued to fall like thermonuclear rain, their titanic impacts vibrating through the drop pod's hull as it started to split, Scipio thought for a moment that they might have to run the gauntlet of the bombardment too. He hoped that Iulus wasn't right and that Sicarius's plan wasn't indeed reckless...
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This is one of the aspects of this novella I like - the Ultramarines, like the Space Wolves, have their own internal factions and infighting, despite being super-genetically engineered killing machines.Like many organisations within the Imperium, the Ultramarines Chapter, despite being a strongly-forged brotherhood, had its factions. It functioned not unlike a republic, with Calgar as its president. In times gone by, Macragge had its battle kings, warrior-monarchs who led and governed its peoples; now it had democracy and solidarity, a republic in many respects with the sergeants within its companies as its senators. At least this was how Scipio interpreted it.
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Black Reach is defined (in some ways) as a mining world."The planet of Black Reach, principle world of the Black Reach sector," Daceus announced. "A mining world, Black Reach has little obvious value to Ultramar yet it is tactically crucial," he explained.
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ha hah "Wymrhole" - a sort of warp tunnel or webway thingy I assume. Note that high concentrations of magnetic ore (although how high we aren't sure) make long range scans all but impossible. Which is a bit silly, since space is 3 dimensional and they should be able to get above or below the field, unless for some reason its perfectly spherical.A roiling mass of warp space, a rift in the layer of reality, was revealed circulating at the fringe of the sector. To Scipio it looked like a baleful eye, ragged and torn, seething with incandescent energy. Despite its pseudo-incorporeal form, it was visible even through the grainy resolution of the holo-capture.
"Jorgund's Eye," Daceus named it. "Through this wyrmhole a massive horde of greenskins has descended on Black Reach. It is unknown to us how such a thing was possible, how the ork could have caught us by surprise.
...
Should their assault prove successful, the aliens will have gained a foothold in such close proximity to Ultramar as to make the Chapter Master nervous. Furthermore, the asteroid belt surrounding the system contains high concentrations of magnetic ore, making long-range augur probes all-but impossible."
This also suggests Black REach and its sector is relatively close to Ultramar.
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Sicarius lays out his little aforementioned "bombard and drop" strategy, mentioning the use of plasma torpedoes. One of Sicarius' detractors makes the obvious objection."We will go in swift and hard, via drop pod assault. Prior to our insertion, the Valin's Revenge will bombard the planet from orbit, launching plasma torpedoes into the greenskin forces. We will come in the wake of the ordnance, like hellhounds on the heels of its fiery wrath."
...
"Launching such an attack directly behind a planetary bombardment - the risks are incredible," said Iulus, unable to keep his discontent in check any longer.
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Black Reach has an IG Garrison, and has hive cities."Black Reach has its own Imperial Guard garrison, the Sable Gunners. They are well stretched across the four continents of the world, marshalling its hive cities and the numerous aqueducts that feed its reservoirs. Strategium indicates that the beleaguered defenders have been fighting the orks for two months, local time."
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Drop pod arrival, combined with the drop pod impact and the deathwind pod, they have a clear field in seconds in the midst of the battle.The doors slammed open seconds later as the vessel opened like a gunmetal bloom, venting steam, its hull still smouldering. The ochre sands of Black Reach had been scorched to glass with the intense heat radiation of the drop pod's arrival. It crunched underfoot as Scipio and his nine Astartes came out, bolters singing.
The drop pod's deathwind missile launcher armaments jolted with explosive recoil, a percussive chorus to the steady throb of bolter fire. A kill-zone of slain orks was forged around the landing site in seconds from the punitive barrage.
It bought a few moments' grace for Scipio to see the cauldron of battle.
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One of Black Reach's hives 8 km across and 10x higher, meaning its one of the more fucking huge (and improbably durable) hives we've seen. I'm pretty sure this reqiures some osrt of super mateiral to stretch that far up into the atmosphere, especially considering the damage the base must have inflicted on it.Ahead of them, some five hundred metres or more, the north wall of Ghospora Hive loomed like a black bulkhead cliff. It was some eight kilometres across and stretched eighty kilometres high into Black Reach's pollutant-laden upper atmosphere. Gunports, bunkers and battle-towers bristling with cannon and long-range sensor arrays hugged the extremities of the hive city like space debris clinging to the hull of a dead star-ship. Smoke billowed from the wrecked defences and fires raged unchecked along partially destroyed sections of the outer bastion wall. It was here at the forefront of the greenskin assault where the Imperial Guard Sable Gunners were making their last stand. Scipio's enhanced vision, cycling through its various filters to ascertain the optimum visual spectrum, and augmented by the technology within his battle helm, detected the heat signatures from several heavy weapon emplacements.
Also Sicarius' helm allows him to observe the events from 500 metres or more away, as well as to pick up the thermal signatures of heavy weapons usage.
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I'm not sure if they refer to the Black REach PDF or the Sable Gunners as the 'native soldiery".The native soldiery of Black Reach were dug in around bunkers and entrenchments crested with razor wire. Even from a distance, Scipio could tell it was a thin line. Officers barked orders down the length of the fracturing wall, charred banners rose and fell. Men died in their droves.
A veritable sea of greenskins surrounded them, stretching for kilometres across and back in a dark mass. The thrashing ocean of aliens lapped at the meagre bulwarks of Ghospora Hive, threatening to overwhelm them. Ramshackle battle tanks and crudely-fashioned trucks festooned with cannon, rockets and other ordnance bounded madly alongside thronging mobs of green-skinned orks, decked in thick battle armour hammered with additional metal plates and daubed in crude glyphs.
We also get a good glimpse of the Ork forces, including what looks like a much more unsuual application of artillery than I remember seeing in an novel.
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Bolt pistol blows apart Ork head. This is several times more impressive than a human head, since Orks are many times more massive than a human, and generally are all around physically tougher (tougher hide, thicker bone, etc.)Scipio's bolt pistol jolted in his armoured grasp, exploding apart an onrushing ork's skull. The beast ran on headless for a few more seconds in a macabre display of tenacity before it slumped and fell.
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Ork fire ricochets off Scipio's armor.Through the carnage, solid shot pranging off his pauldrons and greaves as the orks sought to retaliate against the Astartes' fire superiority, Scipio saw the mob leader.
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Botler rounds knocking orks off their feet by an unknown means (momentum/recoil, or just reflexive pain or whatever.)More greenskins flanked it, some pitched from their feet or staggered by bolter fire as the rest of the Thunderbolts tried to slay them from a distance.
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Implies automatic fire on his bolt pistol, which isnt unusual. Scipio has to have a large magazine though or the pistol has a slow automatic fire. This particular ork, however, isn't bothered by the bolter fire.As they closed, Scipio held his bolt pistol's trigger down. The muzzle-flare lit up the ork's snarling face as a tracery of rounds ripped up its shoulder.
The beast was barely slowed. It shrugged off the wound and smacked Scipio's pistol aside before he could fire again
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Ork vs Space Marine.In his armour, Scipio stood almost two and a half metres tall, yet he was still dwarfed by the huge greenskin. Superhuman muscles flexing with every shred of strength he could muster, Scipio pushed back. The servos in his power armour whined with effort.
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Blowing apart (partly) the skull of a bigger, nastier Ork.Still it fought, and was about to swing its cleaver again when Scipio brought up his bolt pistol, rammed the muzzle in the greenskin's screaming maw and pulled the trigger. The ork's brain pan punched out of the back of its head, amidst a shower of gore and skull fragments, and at last it was dead.
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Dreadnought offense and defense system.Adamantium plate reinforced with fire-retardant ceramite bulked out an immense servo-driven frame, which was over five metres tall. The dreadnought's brutal weapon mounts and ancillary combat systems could be tailored to a particular engagement prior to battlefield deployment.
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Blowing apart an Ork torso with bolt pistol fire, although we arent' told if it is one or several shots. It oculd mean that it is severed by a line of shots.Scipio charged an ork to the ground with his shoulder before dispatching it with his chainsword. His blade still whirring in its cranium, he blasted apart the torso of another with his bolt pistol.
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Ork grenade takes out 3 other grenades, and Scipio's suit can register the increase in temperature. Rather odd that the grenades explode with so much heat like that.The greenskin was biting a grenade between its teeth in some kind of kamikaze attack. As it fell, the grenade exploded taking three of the ork's kin with it. Scipio felt the heat radiation wash against his helmet. Temperature readings spiked for an instant then fell to normal again. He and his squad strode on through the dying firestorm, finding fresh enemy to engage as they killed in the name of the Chapter.
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Whether or not RL flamethrowres can do this? I dunno.Promethium expelled from a flamer at close range was incredibly hot, hot enough to turn the ork razor wire into molten slag.
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Ork Dreadnought, including having autoloaders and targeting devices (or ratether the Ork analogues of such)The ork dreadnought, a five-metre-high monstrosity, was festooned with weapons: a high-calibre cannon was bolted to its hip, a generous ammo feed trailing to the ground from its auto-loader; two long, hydraulic arms ended in a snapping power claw and a rotator-saw respectively. A green targeting eye whirred and clicked along the dreadnought's thin vision-slit, through which Scipio detected the belligerent presence of a greenskin hard-wired into the machine itself.
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Space Marine missile blows off side of an Ork Dreadnought.The rounds tore up the earth next to Scipio's feet, but failed to find a target. A missile streaked overhead in retaliation and blew off the dreadnought's cannon as well as most of its left side. Scipio saw the greenskin pilot through the cracked metal armour of its cockpit. It juddered and shook, the wires poking out of its plated skull sparking and on fire as the neural link to its dying machine was severed.
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This time Ork gunfire penetrates Space Marine armor. Whther it matters whether it is a glancing hit or a direct hit, or if Scipio just has better armor, I don't know.Two of Scipio's battle-brothers went down in a fusillade of high-calibre bullets. The sergeant himself took a shot in the pauldron and felt it bite.
..
Hekor doused the ork fighting machine with promethium from his flamer. The thing caught alight briefly before the fire died and it smashed the Ultramarine aside with its massive arm. Hekor lay prone on the ground, a wide crack in his ceramite plastron oozing blood.
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Iulus's squad is noted as having a melta gun earlier, so that's probably what did the melting. Bolters as a rule are not normally thermal weapons, although thermal/incendiary type ammo may exist.Scipio saw one melted down by Iulus's squad, another blown apart in his peripheral vision with krak grenades by Praxor's Shield Bearers.
It could also have been meltabombs, but usually you only get assault marines carrying those, not tactical marines. And they're more focused detonations. I dont remember if this was a Dreandought or not, but probably, but we dont know how long it took (seconds maybe?)
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Yet again Ork fire of some kind blows through Astartes power armor, but is apparently not fatal. It's possible that this time they're facing Dreadnought fire, and that is why they are suffering worse.The battle-brother fell, a barrage of high-calibre shells tearing up his power armour and laying him flat. Brother Brakkius went to haul him out of harm's way but was picked off by a flame-thrower attachment on the dreadnought's main cannon. Tossed around one-eighty degrees, he collapsed into a smouldering heap.
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Sergeant, minus helmet.The battle din, the sights and smells of the bloodied field washed over Scipio in a wave as he was stripped of his broken helmet and its sophisticated filtration systems. The sensory disorientation was only momentary; his superhuman Astartes physiology compensated at once.
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"Micro stasis fields" showing the papproximate miniaturization of such tech.Reliquaries were mounted on Agnathio's broad machine shoulders, containing the bones of other noble warriors secured in micro-stasis fields.
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None of the Spacce Marines (or at least, Scipio's) died in the assault.Mercifully, they were still at full strength. Garrik and Brakkius had recovered; Largo and Onus, chewed up by the dreadnought's cannon, were also battle-ready, albeit with punctured power armour. Only Hekor staggered, the jagged chest wound having clotted thanks to the Larraman cells in his blood. The organ that generated them was a crucial part of a Space Marine's genetically-enhanced physiology. Without it, Hekor would be dead.
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Bigger, tougher Orks (prboably nobz and meganobz judging by the equipment.) Also mention that the tougher Orks get skin like "flak armour" which suggests they are VASTLY more durable naturally than a regualr human. This tends to put alot of lasgun (and other weapon) calcs involving Orks into an interesting light, doesn't it?The fighting was harder this close to the hive defences. The orks here were a different breed: bigger, with heavier armour; some encased in entirely mechanical suits replete with power claws and mounted heavy weapons. Their skin was darker, almost black, thick and ornery like flak armour. This was Zanzag's mob, his inner circle, his clan.
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Lyman's ear can tune out and moderate artilley noise.The dense crump of the garrison's artillery was deafening and sent violent tremors rippling through the earth with every discharge. Scipio's Lyman's Ear filtered out the noise, regulated it to tolerable levels, and maintained his balance with every resulting shell quake.
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Ork vs Scipio. These tougher (nobz?) are much more resistant to Marine weapons, while their own weapons can eaisly blow apart a Space Marine with sustained fire.Scipio fought one of the scar-faced ork veterans. The beast was huge, clad in thick plate, its muscled arms augmented by a crude array of pneumatic pistons to enhance its strength. A plume of flame spilled out of the ork's arm attachment, which was fended off by Scipio's vambrace before he got close and hacked it off with his chainsword. It waded in with a snapping power claw that the Ultramarine barely dodged. Bolt pistol rounds exploded against its torso, but the smoking armour showed only dents and chipped paint. A second veteran loomed alongside it, and Scipio suddenly felt outmatched.
A fierce storm of promethium sent it reeling as Brother Hekor came up in support. But the greenskin endured, wading through the intense conflagradon before letting rip with some kind of custom cannon mounted on one arm. Fat shells spat from the muzzle like metal rain, and Hekor was torn apart.
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Ork cannon carried by the big power-armoured Orks can tear through Space Marine armour effortlessly.The Ultramarine's power armour was wrecked; it hadn't even slowed the bullets.
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The Orks can customize weapons especially effective against Space MArine armour, and this surprises Scipio. Waaagh effect at work, possibly.The custom weapons fashioned by some inexplicable freak of greenskin science were proving effective, and taking a toll. Power armour, it seemed, was no proof against them. In the last few minutes alone, Scipio had seen three battle-brothers fall to the ork veterans wielding them.
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The Ork Leader is even more frighteningly resilient to bolter fire, although he must have taken some injury if he retreated.The veteran sergeant of his Lions reacted instinctively and threw his bolter to the captain who caught it smoothly and fired one-handed. He roared as the muzzle-flash lit his face; Scipio thought he had never seen a visage so terrifying.
The explosive rounds rippled through the air, arresting Zanzag's frothing tirade as his maw and most of his trunk-like neck were hit. Scipio saw blood spurt, and thick chips of tusk fly, but the beast did not fall. Instead, he retreated, allowing the remnants of his bodyguard to protect him. The other greenskins pressed, too, bullied into becoming flesh-shields for their warlord's escape.
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Black Reach's hive city - population of billions and having lots of industry as well as mining, although having lost much of it to damage.Ghospora Hive was a vast edifice of sprawling industry. Much of that industry was now in ruins, but still the fact and the echo of it remained. Towers surged into the darkness of myriad levels above. Walkways and gantries criss-crossed each other like some infernal metallic lattice.
Habitation blocks and worker tenements clustered together in ranks like bedraggled parade troopers huddling against the rough elements.
Immense hexagonal stacks from the mineral-mining complexes bored into the sublevels vented smoke and gas in thick plumes. Cranes arched over open-topped ore silos like broken fingers. Immense gears, looping cables and lengths of track - constituent parts of the gargantuan mining engine that enabled Black Reach to function, export, trade and to live - pervaded over all. So vast, its population once numbering billions, the hive city was now reduced to a broken remnant of what it had once been. The area immediately beyond the wall had been heavily industrialised and comprised several shattered factorum buildings - boxy structures with a plain, austere appearance.
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Use of a flak jacket to seal up a water pipe as an impromptu fix. does this imply perhaps Flak armor has good internal sealing (possibly indicative of NBC qualities, which we know IG can have) and is waterproof?Brownish stains ran down the wall in one of the comers from a ruptured water pipe that had been bandaged by an old bullet-ridden flak jacket. It was a poor fix, and the sodden piece of Imperial Guard-issue equipment dripped languidly into a murky pool below.
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There are at least 3 Regiments in this Hive, although how many on planet or across the Hive we dont know."'I am Corporal Vormast, commander of the 81st, 23rd and 15th Sable Gunner regiments. Welcome to Ghospora Operational Headquarters."
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Lylith is destroyed. The other two remain. At least 3 hives on the planet, meaning at least 6-9 billion population if the hives are similar. This may just be for one continent though.Vormast bowed curtly at the Space Marine captain's command, seemingly unable to speak for the moment, and shuffled around the edge of the command table to a small panel fused to one side. After pressing a sequence of icons, an expanse of plated glass flickered to life on the table's surface, backlit by sodium bulbs.
Scipio saw Praxor sneer at the crude technology. Iulus, too, appeared unimpressed, likely wondering how Ghospora hadn't already fallen before the Emperor's Angels had arrived on streams of fire from the sky. As the image behind the platen glass resolved, a map of Ghospora Hive and the surrounding area appeared - Sable, the northern continent.
The view was top-down, the landscape expressed in gradients, contour lines and hues of mineral density. Principally it was a mining chart coopted for use as a campaign map. Three hive cities stood out, marked Lylith, Sulphora and, of course, Ghospora itself.
Also we get a map table that the Ultramsurfs regard as "crude" technology by military standards. Considering its menitioned to be a mining chart adapted for military use, this is unsurprising, but it suggests that the MArines normally expect better from Guardsmen if not PDF forces.
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More of Black REach's geography. Implication of sveral hundred km between the hives. The planet, like most hive worlds, seems to be becoming polluted, although how polluted we dont know - certainly not to the scale of Necromunda, in any case.Ghospora's nearest neighbour was Sulphora Hive to the south, a few hundred kilometres distant. The wasteland that lay between them was riddled with artificial valleys, dredging gullies and mountainous sandbanks, all interwoven by a web of black tributaries - Black Reach's polluted, carbon-rich rivers. Many crossed and weaved like livid veins; others sprawled and stretched in thick, dark belts.
..
An expanse of water to the northeast, several thousand kilometres from Ghospora, and fringing the northern continent, was marked the Sable Sea.
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9 more hives, for a total of 12. That means a minimum population of 24 billion, and more probably more, if each is similar to Ghospora. If they are equally all defended this means 24 Guard regiments in the Garrison as well - tens if not hundred of thousands of troops.The greenskins took Cobalt, Kohl and Stygia with almost no warning' the corporal explained, surveying the map with a dull gaze. He scrolled the northern continent east, using a dial - Scipio noticed the human's hand shaking; doubtless from shellshock or some other nervous condition he'd developed over the course of Ghospora's defence - and the other neighbouring continents were revealed on a previously hidden area of the map. Each had three hive cities. All, barring those on Sable, had been sacked by the orks.
"Two months, nine hives," said Iulus, partly to himself, partly to his battle-brothers. "The orks must have struck quickly and precisely. It's not a tactic they're known for."
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Whatever the Ork tech advantage that helped them breach regular Marine armour, terminator armour still resisted."We engaged the greenskin scar-veterans," he said, his stentorian voice echoing loudly. His sheer presence and enormous size made the humans balk. "Our armour proved impervious. The crux terminatus left us unscathed."
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long range antennae feeds from the scouts, implied range of many tens if not hundreds of km."'Your scouts' reports match our own intelligence. The few long-range antenna feeds that remain operational monitored the greenskin horde retreating to here,' - the corporal pointed to the wasteland between Ghospora and its other intact neighbour, Sulphora - 'where the orks have constructed a series of fortresses from the salvage taken from the sacked hives."
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Visual range of combined Astartes eyesight and magnification.Together with his enhanced Astartes eyesight and the magnification offered by the device, Iulus could see many kilometres with crystal clarity.
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Thundefire cannon shown and described.Behind him, Iulus could see the first of the Space Marine support guns grinding into position at empty cannon emplacements on thick, armoured tracks. Unlike most other Astartes artillery, the Thunderfire cannon was designed with static defence in mind. The broad, quadbarrelled guns were pintle-mounted and capable of unleashing a devastating barrage of surface, air or subterranean-adaptive shells. Within the packed ranks of the greenskins they would reap bloody havoc.
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Thunderhawk described. Note the indication that its speed and agility is comaprable to Imperial fighters.The Thunderhawk gunship was a singular vessel. Three powerful motors fuelled by an onboard fusion reactor provided speed and manoeuvrability that would rival most conventional Imperial fighters, and without the need to compromise firepower. This, the gunship had in abundance. Four remote turrets of twin-linked heavy bolters patrolled the front fuselage and wings, slaved to the Space Marine gunner's control panel on the flight deck. A twin-linked lascannon protruded from the prow like a lance to tackle heavy armour. Finally, an immense dorsal-mounted turbo-laser on a fixed turret provided serious destructive potential, backed up by a payload of six Hellstrike missiles.
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Portable hololith map. Remember this is suppposed to be lost technology."Three greenskin forts in ruins," Sicarius said to the assemblage of officers standing around the portable hololith map. A hazy rendition of the surrounding area in three-dimensional form issued from the spherical projector spiked into the ground. All of Sicarius's sergeants that had joined the battle group were present.
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Thunderfire cannons in operation. mention of airbursting capability.Each Thunderfire cannon, meticulously deployed according to Captain Sicarius's precise instructions, rocked back on its tracks with a relentiess, pounding rhythm, the quad barrels spitting out surface detonation shells with unerring regularity.
..
"We could switch to airbursts and drive them from the trees but it would be a waste of munitions, and at extreme range... needlessly punitive."
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Techmarines aren't tehcpriests per se, but for anyone Admech related, this is downright compassionate. And to be honest I like the message that a Space Marine should give a damn about the people they protect, not caring more about their own honour or glory."Perhaps it is because the High Suzerain values your experience in keeping what he has already won. Or perhaps he felt you needed to garner a stronger affinity for the human charges we protect. To me they are little more than instruments, no different to the steel of the walls or the shells in the heavy guns. But as I value this wall and those shells, I value them. You, my brother, do not."
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compassion as defined by Astartes standards, anyhow, but still compassion inasmuch as 40K can allow.Praxor's irritation was obvious. His squad were experienced. They had fought in many Chapter-level campaigns, distinguishing themselves with honour, but they lacked compassion. Iulus did too, but that was due to his pragmatic nature, the way he dissembled flesh and blood into materiel.
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We're not known for sure what kind of munition is doing this, but its likely its either a missile launcher or munitions planted by the scouts. The latter is implied. Of course, what "incinerate" means is up for debate as well.A massive explosion rocked the left flank of the ork horde, deep within their lines. The resulting conflagration spread like a hungry wave, incinerating the orks in an ephemeral flame storm. Sporadic bolter fire ripped into the night in its wake from concealed positions, dull and distant.
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This also tends to make any sort of firepower applied to killing orks, exploding their skulls, etc. damn impressive.Dead greenskin sentries - pilots, mechanics and gretchin slaves amongst them - littered the ground. Most had had their throats slit, though there were some with deep-bore blade wounds to their eyes and ears, or single-shot executions to their head. Experience fighting the greenskins had taught the Astartes that an ork's brain was small and compacted within thick layers of skull. It made such a kill-shot all the more impressive.
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Precision attack by Thunderhawk-delivered Hellstrike, blasts a hole in a hangar wall big enough for Space Marines to pass thorugh (3 meters wide at least). Also has a margin of error from "blind firing" said missile is 25 meters or so."If he's doing what I think he's doing,' remarked Brother Garrik on a closed channel, 'then a missile strike from a gunship firing blind will have a margin of error of plus or minus twenty-five metres."
"Then we had best hope that Brother Haxis flies true, and his gunner is accurate," Scipio replied as the thrum of heavy engines approaching overhead rocked dust motes from the vaulted hangar ceiling. The screech from the Hellstrike missile came a second later. A second after that and the hangar wall was blasted apart.
Debris was still falling when Sicarius was up and sprinting through the gaping hole left by the Gladius's precise attack. Bent rebars jutted like metal bones and the stanchions was crushed and split before the concussive force of the explosion. Ferrocrete lay in chunks; thick dust cascaded like grey rain. Scipio barrelled through it all, he and his squad on the heels on Strabo.
The massive aperture punched through the wall led out into the heart of the greenskin horde. And as Scipio surged through it, killing awestruck orks as he went, he could hear the angered bellowing of Zanzag, and see him clearly in the wagon's tower.
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Sicarius' plasma gun melts armour plate and "sears" torso. Not really calable without knowing how many pleats or how much metal was affected, but the attack was purely thermal. Power weapons also throwing off electricity.Sicarius landed on the edge of the wagon tower, his heavy boots crushing the metal underfoot. Firing off a burst from his plasma pistol, the captain seared his enemy's torso, melting armour plate. Zanzag growled in pain, but shrugged off the blow and swung with his axe. Perched precariously on the tower, Sicarius would have fallen had he not deflected the attack with his power sword. Sparks spat from the blades in an ephemeral electrical storm as they met and parted in seconds.
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Power sword cauterizses, although it doesn't do so immediately - at least not against Orks.Before the greenskin warlord could recover, Sicarius lunged with the Tempest Blade, forcing the power sword through the beast's heaving chest. A gushet of blood spilled out as Sicarius withdrew the weapon before the wound cauterised.
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Scout armour can fit Marines, or at least enough Marine scale scout armour exists to fit them.Upon selecting his battle-brothers, Scipio and the four members of his squad had been instructed to report to the Xiphos at once. There, they had been divested of their power armour and clad in the armoured carapace of the scout company, the former deemed too loud and cumbersome for the covert operation Telion had in mind.
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Bolter with a stock and targeter.Telion kept his eyes on the Blackwallow as he spoke, his stalker-pattern boltgun with its shortened stock and targeter cradled loosely in his lap.
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Tracking device."The tracer beacon is working," said Telion, standing at the edge of the forest. Garrik was alongside him and held up an auspex for the veterans ergeant's perusal. Scipio stood with them both.
"The signal terminates at the cliff face where the river reaches its end," Telion said, after a moment.
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Using the "brain eating" organ to gain knowlege from Orks.A Space Marine's omophagea was situated between the thoracic vertebrae and the stomach wall.
For the more poetically inclined, it was named the Remembrancer, as it allowed Astartes who consumed the flesh and organs of any creature to absorb part of that creature's memory.
Delving into an alien psyche in this way was always dangerous, but gretchin were not possessed with the same unpredictable energy as orks; the experience could be controlled.
Telion's lids flickered, the rapid eye movement beneath an indication that the process of assimilation had begun. A few seconds passed and the master scout's face contorted in a grimace. He bared his teeth, jaw locked in concentration. Images would be flooding his mind, impressions garnered from the gretchin's primitive neural pathways. From this melange of sensations - sight, sound, smell, touch and taste - Telion would build a mental picture, using his advanced Astartes physiology to sift and sort memory strands into cognisance, into meaning.
Scipio and the other Astartes looked on stoically, knowing not to intervene, but to let the process take its course. In spite of that, the tension was still palpable.
Sweat beaded the master scout's forehead. Telion clenched his fists as he continued to probe, to ransack the genetic matter he had ingested, manipulate the chromosomal information implanted there and convert it into something he could use and understand.
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Rhino APC travels for four hours at full speedHis squad, the Immortals, were sitting around their sergeant, secured in their battle-harnesses in the troop hold of a Rhino APC. The bulky, slat-nosed vehicle ground on thick tracks over the shifting Black Reach sands at full throttle. Engines gunned to maximum bellowed through the metal hull, the troop hold rattling vigorously with the resonance. The Space Marines exhibited no distress, having undertaken numerous similar hell-for-leather deployments before.
They had left Ghospora Hive four hours previously and were hurtling at full speed as soon as they'd passed the gate. Once the message that Sulphora was under attack had been conveyed to Captain Sicarius, Iulus and his squad were ordered to the defence of Ghospora's sister hive immediately. Praxor, as the officer in charge and with all the siege deterrents in place, was to remain behind, much to the sergeant's chagrin. It seemed to Iulus that Praxor's views about their captain were changing too.
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Range of Greenskins from the gate, and the range of the Rhinos from the gate."How close are we to the gate, Brother Glavius?" he asked the driver through the Rhino's internal comm-feed.
The response was crackly and fraught with static. Glavius sounded slightly preoccupied.
"Approximately three thousand metres, sir."
"How far are the greenskins from the wall?" Iulus continued, amber strip lights washing his bald pate and limning his armour.
"Approximately two thousand three hundred metres."
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Over two kilometres out, Sulphora loomed like a jagged, black knife rammed into the crust of the planet. The sun was high in an ochre sky and threw harsh red light onto every facing surface, casting it in the hue of blood. Defence lasers and battle cannons emplaced on the walls shrieked and boomed in unison, the tremors reaching the Rhino all the way across the sand plain.
Small-arms fire and heavier support guns rippled along ramparts and atop watch towers.
Though smaller than its neighbour, Sulphora was almost a carbon copy of Ghospora Hive, flash moulded into existence by an unimaginative engineer or mason-artisan, pock-marking Black Reach's surface just like all the others. An immense gate loomed ahead, stark and prosaic. The flat, black slab of buttressed metal was grinding open slowly on immense gears. The Rhino would only need a crack to slip through.
Sulphoura hive is smaller but of an unspeciifed degree. Along with the aformentioend ranges and the "two kilometres out" implies that small arms fire is engging the orks close ot or more than 2 km out, as well as defence laser and battle cannon fire engaging at between 2-2.3 km.
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Thirty secons to cross 800 metres is 26.67 m/s or about 96 kph. Making 4 hours at "top speed" implies they covered around nearly 400 km or so between the two hives, which meshes with the "hundreds of kilometres" learned bfore.The sergeant ducked down again, handing back the magnoculars, and sealed the fire point hatch. "Brother Glavius..." he said into the commfeed once he was back in his battle-harness.
"Eight hundred metres, sir."
Iulus cut the link again, addressed his battle-brothers. "Thirty seconds."
Thirty seconds, he thought. It was going to be tight.
This is considerably faster than the 70 kph or so of IA fame, but we know you can soup up engines for faster speeds.
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Scouts engaging Orks, using subsonic/silenced ammo and knives.The scouts worked through the sentries systematically, neutralising them covertly with blades and silenced rounds. They moved swiftly, like shadows along the narrow passes through the rocks. Only when they reached the very edge of the falls and the last of the sentry points did an ork see them approaching. It was about to alert its kin when it realised they were already dead: one choking on its own blood with a combat blade lodged in its neck, the other face down in the dirt with an oozing head wound.
Telion put a round through its throat at fifty metres, closed and put two more through its head at twenty whilst at a run.
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Bolter fire against Orkoid head.The creature listened intently, shrugged and opened its mouth to speak when its head exploded, spattering the warlord with gore. Zanzag threw the headless gretchin to the ground, roaring to his followers.
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Ork guns do fuck all against Termiantors.The Terminators were engulfed in a veritable storm of bullets but emerged unscathed, shots deflecting off their formidable armour like tin hail. In return, Squad Helios unleashed their storm bolters and cut a swathe through the greenskins. The orks desperately increased their rate of fire but to no avail. By the time they realised their weapons were ineffectual against the thickly armoured Astartes, dozens of greenskins were dead.
Balking at the indestructible warriors, many of the orks began to flee. Some dived into the black lagoon; others ran into the guns of their kin as they tried in vain to save their own miserable lives.
Arcus Helios and his brothers forged ahead, unstoppable.
Sicarius pressed the advantage. With most of the custom cannons eliminated, he signalled a full attack.
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Auto-senses.They had been searching the darkness of the cave system for almost an hour, but as yet their quarry had not been sighted. Orks lay in ambush - those that had managed to elude Arcus Helios's vanguard of Terminators - waiting with blades and guns behind corners and in pitch-black alcoves. The auto-senses of the Astartes alerted them to every danger. Their blood was up, and the greenskins were cut down before they got a chance to move.
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Again power swords seem to be able to cauterize, although only partly here.In the end, willpower proved the deciding factor. Scipio had overtaken Iulus, tearing through the greenskins with brutal efficiency. His fellow sergeant was just behind him when Scipio saw Sicarius cut Zanzag's power claw off at the shoulder. It was a mammoth blow, two-handed, and left the captain open to a counter. But the attack didn't come. Zanzag staggered, dark blood gushing from the ruined stump of the partly cauterised wound.
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Aftermath of the assault, including more plasma torpedo bombardment.The cavern was destroyed. Copious amounts of charges were rigged throughout and threaded along the tunnel complex beyond. Any greenskins that might still have been lurking inside would be buried alive und er tons of rubble. Sicarius even instructed the Valin's Revenge to bombard the site thoroughly with plasma torpedoes in order to be certain. In a strange way, seeing those deadly falling stars, it was as if the campaign had come full circle.
Or maybe they do work like those clark 'Earthlight' beam weapons (hundreds or thousands of km/s? probably!) also note the 'nerve agent' aspect of rthe fumes.
